draxar's page

I'm looking at Kineticist and I'm thinking there's some fun things you could do if you know an enemy's weaknesses. And with generally being tactical (partly inspired by a party that isn't very, and wondering if I can do stuff that'll work within that).

Whilst, sure, it'd be better if that was on someone less focused on the careful use of all your action in a turn, it's probably viable with a bit of effort.

A chunk of this is inspried by Plate in Treasure - being able to make your attacks bypass reduction/trigger weakness and their hitting you potentially sicken is a good start. If your GM lets you get your hand on some uncommon/rare metals ('Alloysmith' background is a plan) then there's extra fun there - breaking through Hardness with Adamantine, or getting extra damage Initiative with Orichalcum, damage with Siccatite (massively GM dependent!)

Wnat other fun things could you do? As you can see, I'm leaning towards Metal, but not sure what other elemets fit the concept. In that element, Scrap Baricade lets you split apart enemies, Hell of 1,000,000 needles lets you immobilise and set up Hazardous Terrain.

What other impulses and elements fit? Obvioussly, wannting to do damagege, but be somewhat a tanky, and geneally mess with enemies - help us isolate and flank them, etc.

And what good ways to reduce the action-cost of the Recall Knowledge rolls? Automatic Knowledge is the obvious one and could work, but at a reduction in what you'll actually identify, and a feat per skill. Pathfinder Agent Archetype + Recognise Threat means you get to identify whenever you go into combat; it and the other Pathfinder agent feats good in a free archetype game.

As the game I'm currently in is quite high level I'm tempted to play a Shisk and take Fountain of Secrets - a free Recall Knowledge every turn. But it'd be good to know other options I might be missing for if I play this lower level (this is a backup concept at the mo).

And what other things would you add to it? As I'm going to have fairly good rating in the different knowledge skills, I'm going to take Trick Magic Items and some wands - the usual Longstrider, but also pocket library for more knowledge about the stuff we meet. And other useful things to buff or aid.

I've a general concept, probably enough to build on, but it's mostly "What cool tricks am I missing?"

So, I'm wanting to make a fairly simple blaster character in a game I'm in, as that's what feels what'll fit the game - I'm retiring my bard as no one can remember what buffs I've given them, and the tactics needed to make Occult spells useful just aren't working.

I can't really be bothered with the book-keeping of summons (despite the fact I can see it's the best option), so I don't want Greater Primal Evolution at 4th level - but I'm stuck with what else to take there

Current feats:
2: Dangerous Sorcery
4: ????
6: Advanced Bloodline
8: Crossblooded Evolution
10: Greater Bloodline
12: Bloodline Focus
14: Signature Spell Expansion

And Ancestry Feats are:

1: Unexpected Shift
5: Energised Font
9: Fortituous Shift
13: Invisible Trickster (Sprite - Adopted Ancestry)

Element is air. Skills are Intimidation, Stealth and Nature. I'm going mostly blasty with a side order of "Whoops, missed me!"

Geomancer Dedication seems a possibilty, for Fatigue when I hit people with fire, etc. But I'm trying to think of anything else and drawing a blank - any suggestions?

You're traversing a long narrow surface. It is not difficult terrain beyond its narrowness. If you're in combat, can you take a 5 foot step?

You're not moving at full speed, so does that mean you're flat footed? Or can you choose to take the +5 DC and 5 foot step at 'full speed', step confidently (if riskily) and not be so open to attack?

Acrobatics

This has been asked before, but a decade ago, so seems worth asking again, in case there's been a ruling, equivalent situation that can be used as useful precedent, or similar.

If something has a Magic Circle against X up - for this argument, we'll say Good, and someone tries to summon one or more Good creature(s) into that space, does it

1) Suceed
2) Spell fizzles
3) "That's an invalid location to target, would you like to pick another?"
4) Summon(s) are hedged out to the nearest available space. (Randomly if multiple available.)

Previous discussion, from 2011: Summoning good creatures into a Magic Circle

I default to 2, at least in the instance of someone who is summoning things a lot, thus actually running into a countermeasure (even if it's not been deployed specifically against them) and it actually having a cost to them seems reasonable. And because I'm a harsh GM.

But it'd be good to know if there are existing rulings around this.

So, at what points is stealth rolled, or rerolled?

It's certainly rolled when you 'start' stealthing. And when you move somewhere that enemies can see (but start and end where they can't).

My group has generally played that the "I run up to them and stab them!!" approach is also usually a stealth roll. I think we might not always have done so if that's exactly what the initial stealthing was for, but generally it's the idea that they do get that chance to spot you as you're bearing down upon them.

I've now got a player who's planning on doing a sniper, and sniping every round. Looking at that, he'll make his initial stealth roll, roll after each time he snipes, but he won't have to roll before the attack. It makes sense because he's doing it from range, but also to not have a ridiculous number of rolls.

Question is, what (if anything) triggers a new stealth roll other than the next snipe attack?

• Obviously, moving to new cover but crossing visible space does.
  
• If new folk appear on the scene and have a chance to see him - do they roll against his existing stealth roll, or a new one? I'd fairly strongly lean towards 'existing' so that it doesn't get silly as 20 clowns get out of a car one by one and each trigger a new roll ;-) and because it's going against his initial hiding.
  
• If someone's actively looking for him (a move action) does that go against the existing roll, or trigger a new roll? The way the Perception skill describes "Notice a creature using Stealth: Opposed by Stealth" to me feels like it's a new opposed roll - but it's not really clear. This is something that will happen less often, and thus I'm less worried about it causing more rolls.
  

There's good rules for large creatures Squeezing if they need to fit into a corridor that's only designed for a medium creature. But what about if on a thin bridge?

6 inches wide is a bit of an effort for a laden medium creature to walk down, but large? Feels quite a bit more of an effort.Yes, larger creatures tend to have lower dex, but the actual reduction is fairly small.

I'm less after "Here's how I'd house rule this..." and more after whether there are any existing rules or guidelines that I've missed?

About the only one I can think of is an that an argument could be made that a large creature has to squeeze into medium wide in order to make a try at the thin bridge?

I want to make some adjustments to Jamirah (the Lamia Matriarch Rogue at the Tomb of Chisek) without completely restatting her.

Partly this is because as written she's got an ability that doesn't make sense - she's supposed to use Stand Still to stop people getting inside her longspear reach, but it doesn't work like that! My vague plan there is to have her swap that for something that makes more use of her Intimidate.

But also, to keep the threat up on a reasonably optimised group, and because she did get a reasonable amount of information from her spy in Tephu, so she's had some time to prepare. The simplest way to do preparations seems to me to be to swap some of her spells around - she's done some retraining.

WHAT SHE KNOWS:

She's facing a mostly goodly party. Two heavily armoured types - a Paladin and a Cleric (neither that casting focused). A Arcanist-Occultist (summons - some other casting, but more focused on the summons) and an Alchemist (actually dead and replaced by a Slayer, but she doesn't know that).

SPELLS

Spell-wise, I was thinking that she might go for:

What action is it to fall?
(Asked the angel)

Both in terms of the drop, but also in terms of 'You're flying by some means, but particularly if magical, and you choose to let yourself drop - with the plan to stop at the last moment'. Particularly in the context of a surprise round, where you'd want to drop down from above, and it'd be nice to then be able to do something after dropping.

Ways you might be doing this:

• Magical flight (e.g. Fly)and just 'I let myself drop, then stop at the last moment'
  
• Having magical flight active, and stepping off a convenient platform (with a 5 foot step, a free action) to drop.
  
• Dismounting another flying creature (which is its own thing to do as a free action)
  
• The action 'drop to the ground' (free action).

Fly skill explictly states that fly checks don't require an action, they're reactive, so the 'negate falling damage' doesn't take an action.

What's less clear is the 'drop' - does either the act of 'dropping', or the time taken to drop cost you an action? (And if it's the former, does standing on a platform/cliff/whatever and stepping off as a 5 foot step allow you to, well, sidestep that issue?)

I've got a player who seems to think he should get full effectiveness of Scent through doors unless they're specifically. Or at very least the 'downwind' effect of 15 feet. To me, it feels like an expansion of what the ability allows - there's rules for listening at a door (or even through walls) to hear people, but nothing similar for scent.

I'd let Scent apply as normal through, say, a cell door made of bars, and likely 'downwind' through one with a barred opening, a well made closed door? I might give you 5 feet through it - so you can be aware of someone standing right the other side of it, but not really otherwise.

Has anyone else run into this? I do tend more towards "If it doesn't say you can, then you probably can't." than a more permissive approach, and the player is already playing a paranoid character who slows things down with the number of perception rolls he makes checking for traps (despite having trap spotter), so giving him something more to do that with? I'm not fond of.

One of those unexpected things that popped and lacked an easy answer at the table.

Scary monster is grappling a PC, it's on one side of an open door, players are on another. Players decide they want to run away, so they're discussing closing the door on it.

Especially given it's somewhat tentacley, so it's not just a single hand, but also because it is 'crossing' that space into the the grappled PC's space, and "Move action, I irresistibly break the grapple!" seems a bit easy.

When I said "That'll take some sort of resisted roll!" they decided not to do it, and went for the forever favourite, the Wand of Grease, and did manage to get out.

Doors are a bit 'weird' in general, in that unless you go to some effort, they don't 'take up space' when open so they open all the way, unless you pick which way they open, then you (or I at least) end up treating them all as swinging both ways, so it's not harder to shut some in combat because they're 'in' the other space. But that seems relatively balanced against the 'always a move action to open or close', and thus being unable to move-open-move or ditto shut.

How would you have ruled? What sort of resisted roll would it have been, if that? I was originally thinking straight opposed strength, but I'm now thinking either opposed CMB vs CMB, or 'normal' CMB versus CMD.

Invisible bard is going to be buffing their friends with auditory (oratory) Bardic Performance. I'm aware there's questions/arguments about how detectable/pinpointable they are at the exact moment they're doing that; not wishing to rake that over again.

However what I am curious about is the combination of bardic performance and movement. Does bardic performance involve constant sound, thus rolls to pinpoint them can be made throughout, or can the bard start in place X, call out "Oh friends, you're so great, you're so great they can't def(e)ate! So great!!" and then move?

Meaning enemies know where they were at point X when they said that, but it's then opposed Stealth vs Perception to get where they went from X to Y?

The key thing is whether the bardic performance being maintained is a constant backing track or a regular repetition of that support...

I'm the GM in this instance, so it essentially comes down to my call. But I want to get a sense of if there are any exist rulings, or bits of the rules I've missed which make it clearer.

Hey Paul? In the unlikely event you're reading this, don't ;-) Spoilers! Also applies to anyone else who doesn't want one broad conceptual spoiler for Empty Graves and one specific early encounter one for Half Dead City

Right, now that's out of the way, I want three interesting undead to drop on my party across the events of Empty Graves.

Specifically, the three characters that have already died in this game :D

I don't want them to be hideously nasty or overpowered... it just feels appropriate that when so many undead are rising, and some in fairly specific fashions, for the PCs that died in an early encounter (the Animated Sarcophagus in the first tomb) to do so too.

I also have 'previous' in this; in another game I ran, when players had a 'all bar one' die at a rather higher level, and that one survivor run from the powerful caster baddie in the penultimate book of Rein of Winter, I had those party members come back over the last book in different specific high level undead forms.

Not wanting to be quite so OTT or nasty with it now. But something I can slot in as a 'random' encounter, put somewhere otherwise empty, or add to an existing encounter carefully without breaking things.

Party will be 4th to 6th level, briefly 7th at the end of the book. Something that's not an "Oh gods we're all going to die!" but that's more than a speedbump.

Their previous existences were:

Name: Sekhmet (named for the god whose bloodline flows distantly in her veins)
Race: Half Orc
Classes/levels: Bloodrager 1 (Abyssal refluffed to be Sekmet 'Rage + Leonine' themed)
Vague thoughts: Something with beastial and/or divine elements.

Name: Sarema
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Alchemist 1 (Crypt Breaker + Trap Breaker)
Vague thoughts: Something weird that resulted from her reagents mixing with the water that drowned her?

Name: Akhen
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cleric 1 (Pharasma, Healing + Repose Domains)
Vague thoughts: Unsure. Hitty. Likely armoured. Not going for "gave up on faith" as that's s#~@ty to the player.

As a fail-safe in case of rebellion, a mummified creature is subtly marked during the ritual process with a hieroglyph someplace inconspicuous on its body or wrappings that identifies the particular energy type to which it is vulnerable

The mummified creature template describes its targets as having been created as guardians, and having their vulnerability added as a failsafe... but in the flavour of many presentations of them the Mummification is part of their burial, and their undead nature came later, is secondary or a reaction to their tombs being invaded.

So, for the game I'm running, a built in weakness so that their makers can take them down feels a bit weird. Or is there another justification in the description for it that I've missed?

However, I can see the argument that 'throw different magic at it until you get the right one' would be too challenging for players.

So, I'm tempted to change it so that it's more a matter of the bindings, magical use of hieroglyphs, and suchlike hold it together in a certain way that give it lots of benefits, but a weakness that's inherent to the particular 'style' or way that binding was done. (Which can be identified in exactly the same way as normal, as its a function of the sacred/magical hieroglyphs.)

Lastly... the first time the PCs see a mummified creature, it'll be the usual Knowledge roll and the variable weakness will be one of their questions. Will the perception and linguistics rolls take their own actions? (Probably I'd be nice and make them move), or are they 'reflexive'?

I'm quite tempted to make it a Move action, that way it takes place in the combat, if you've got one good spotter, one good linguistics they need to co-ordinate, and making it a move action doesn't mean someone's lost an entire round to do it, but makes it a non-zero cost to find out something useful.

Thoughts?

As a fail-safe in case of rebellion, a mummified creature is subtly marked during the ritual process with a hieroglyph someplace inconspicuous on its body or wrappings that identifies the particular energy type to which it is vulnerable

The mummified creature template describes its targets as having been created as guardians, and having their vulnerability added as a failsafe... but a lot of the mummified creatures in Mummy's Mask it's part of their burial, and their undead nature came later, is secondary.

So a built in weakness so that their makers can take them down feels a bit weird. Or is there another justification for it that I've missed?

I'm tempted to change it so that it's more a matter of the bindings, magical use of hieroglyphs, and suchlike hold it together in a certain way that give it lots of benefits, but a weakness that's inherent to the particular 'style' or way that binding was done. (Which can be identified in exactly the same way as normal, as its a function of the sacred/magical hieroglyphs.)

Lastly... the first time the PCs see a mummified creature, it'll be the usual Knowledge roll and the variable weakness will be one of their questions. Will the perception and linguistics rolls take their own actions? (Probably I'd be nice and make them move), or are they 'reflexive'?

I'm quite tempted to make it a Move action, that way it takes place in the combat, if you've got one good spotter, one good linguistics they need to co-ordinate, and making it a move action doesn't mean someone's lost an entire round to do it, but makes it a non-zero cost to find out something useful.

Thoughts?

So, I make and update the Polymorphamory guide on good forms for shapeshifting. And I'm pretty happy with it. But I'm aware that there are cool forms I'm missing from it.

Part of this will be normal human incompetence; I don't have a Headband of Intellect, so I miss things. However, there's also the issue that I used to build it using the Pathfinder Community spreadsheet, which had all the Bestiaries, all the APs, as well as a few other things like Tome of Horrors*. And that was really useful, as you can filter by type, size, source. Search for specific abilities. Etc, etc.

Unfortunately, sometime around 2014 (IIRC), that stopped updating. I've gone through Beastiaries 5 & 6 more manually, and grabbed'n'added everything useful I could find from there.

But it's just not practical, nor something I'm interested in, to go through every single monster in every AP and Campaign setting book.

So, if you've spotted any good forms I've not got in my guide, let me know. Links to them on d20pfsrd preferred, but just the name'n'why it's so great and I'll google myself.

Don't through any and everything my way - whilst some areas of the guide have quite a few options, I'm trying to always keep it distinct - maybe a couple of options for 'lots of attacks' and 'one big attack' at each level, but not a dozen where it's clear that one has actually better damage dice or other abilities.

* I've generally left the various versions of Tome of Horrors out, as they're third party, even though they often get used in APs. I'm unsure whether in our out is the best for them, so would be open to hearing some thoughts on that.

Am most of the way through the Fey Forms for my Polymorphamory guide, and one thing I'm really a bit unsure of is the enhancement of Spell Likes the form gives. Specifically, it says:

When you cast a spell that the creature has as a spell-like ability, it requires no verbal or somatic components and can’t be countered.

So that means if you're in a Silence AoE, or tied up, you can still do it. Pretty niche. It means you can't be countered, but whilst players might occasionally build to be an effective counterspeller, it's a pretty rare thing for a GM to throw at you.

About the only place where I can see it being useful is using it to cast in armour - having a few spells that you can cast with no spell failure because now they have no Sonomatic components, and then deal with the rest by either having a pretty low spell failure for them, or something like Arcane Armour training, and use those Swift actions for most spells, but not need to for the form's one.

But again, that's pretty niche, and the only form with a noticeable cluster of useful spells for something like that is the Svartalfar and its touch attacks.

So, is there a clever way of using it that I'm missing? Or is it a nice extra, but not really meaningful in picking good forms

Quick check, so I can work out if I need to build it into updating my shapeshifting guide – does Planar Adventures have any new Transmutation (Polymorph) spells?

There was a mention their might be an spell for taking the forms of Outsiders or something similar – just trying to work out if I need to go through all those forms too.

So, what would the hitpoints and hardness of a Spectral Searchlight be? After being shot at by the Pale Snipers as the party invisibly floated over the ruined monestary, and then illuminated by searchlights as the machinegunners in the two nearest towers joined in, one of my players tried shooting a Searchlight.

He only got one shot off before the weight of fire forced them all to run, but I'm wondering how much damage those things should be able to take. Any suggestions?

Spoilers, so players stay out.

Has anyone run with a PC playing a Gunslinger, firearms focused Fighter, or similar, making use of modern firearms in books 5 & 6?

How balanced are they against everything else? I know the PCs are pretty high level but that point, but modern firearms have better range, less unreliability, go versus touch AC for longer, reload easier… it feels like all the downsides are gone. And the requirement for modern ammo can be dealt with by a spell or enchantment.

Both sides make use of long range in Book 5,and book 6 has less open spaces to do that with, so I suppose that's some balance, but it'd be good to hear others experiences.

Do the Genie/Elemental Fist Styles enhance elemental damage caused by non-Elemental Fist sources?

Text is:

While you are in this style you must use Elemental Fist to deal (element) damage and you gain a bonus on (element) damage rolls equal to your Wisdom bonus.

Guessing RAW maybe, RAI probably not, but wanted a second opinion

So, I'm taking my players through Reign of Winter, currently just finished the Shackled Hut and about to start Maiden, Mother, Crone.

However, I've got a fairly big party. Six players (theoretically seven, but the last hasn't made a game for ages). I was going to up the number of things they were fighting from the start, but at lower levels, there was still a fair bit of threat, most of the players were new to Pathfinder, and there was a while when we were more often playing with four or five players than six, so it didn't seem so necessary.

However, the last few fights - the witch and ice golem outside the hut, the bone golem inside it, plus a few others - have felt much less challenging. With the party versus one or two enemies (and me tending to roll badly on initiative) their numbers means they do a lot of damage between each action of their opposition.

Thus, I'm wanting to nudge the difficulty up a bit. I could apply templates and similar, but I'd rather keep it simpler, and counter their numbers a bit, by increasing the number of things they're fighting. Since the book specifies everything they face, and if it's anything not straight from a book, gives the stats, it's much easier for me to just look up an Ice Troll or Phase Spider to add to a fight, than it is to adjust the stats of an Elder Earth Elemental to make him Advanced.

Given Maiden, Mother, Crone is 7th-9th level, what's a good CR level to add to an encounter to account for the larger player party? So they face a Bebilith and some smaller thing. The Bebilith is still the main attraction, but having two foes splits their firepower, makes it harder for them to flank/surround/prevent.

"Beginning at 3rd level, once per day an arcane trickster can declare one melee or ranged attack she makes to be a sneak attack (the target can be no more than 30 feet distant if the impromptu sneak attack is a ranged attack). The target of an impromptu sneak attack loses any Dexterity bonus to AC, but only against that attack."

Do you only get one hit, or can you do an full attack's worth of sneaks when you use this?

Looking at Form of the Dragon, both in the context of using it myself, but also from the perspective of my Polymorphamory guide. And from the way that it mostly dictates what you get, but doesn't quite fill in all the details, a few questions occur.

1) To what extent do you get the dragon's special rules on its natural attacks? Given the spell doesn't mention Reach, you obviously get the base reach of the dragon size you become. But do you also get the extra five feet reach on the bite attack? Similarly, do you get the dragon's special bonus of 1.5 times Strength on bite.

My instinct is yes, definitely on the reach, as it's a fairly basic part of the creature type, and you've taken that form. And probably on the extra damage, as it is part of the form.

2) When you hit Form of the Dragon 3, what range is your Frightful Presence active at? The default for the ability, 30, or the distance of the Dragon you're pretending to be? The latter option is quite variable, given that the stronger dragons hit Huge as early as Age Category 5 (young adult), and the weaker are still huge at 11 (wyrm). So, a difference of 150 feet to 330. It means you need to specify what age category as well as what size.

Again, though, I lean towards the spell giving that longer range, because all the other polymorph stuff is 'if you get an ability, you get what the creature gets, unless the polymorph spell specifies a lower form of that ability, at which point you get that. Also, it's a level 8 spell, I don't think the capability is overpowered there.

Those are my thoughts, but what do others think?

I'm updating my shapeshifting guide (Polymorphamory), and planning on adding a section on ways to enhance shapeshifting. So, suggestions? Basically, feats, items, and archetypes are what I'm after.

I'm aware of relatively few feats apart from ones that enhance Wild Shape specifically, the Wild armour and the Polymorphic pouch, and a few archetypes - Rageshaper, Brown Fur Transmuter.

Not particularly after builds. 'Feat X and Feat Y combine well to do Z' is handy, but not a "Here's a 1-20 character".

I'm looking at joining a game that'll be running a single module, from level 1-4, and I quite like the idea of playing a Whip-based Magus.

Kensai seems a good idea for the free Exotic Weapon Proficiency, though it does lose me my armour and give me only +1 AC from my intelligence at level 1. OTOH, we're using the 3.5 Defence Bonus rule ( http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm ), so I'll actually be getting the same as I would with an armourless normal Magus, and only 1 less than if I was wearing chainmail.

I'm not going to get the really nice thing for this build until level 2 (delivering shocking grasp/similar through a 15 foot long whip), but what sort of stuff can I usefully do?

I could switch to a normal Magus and take EWP (Whip) as my first feat, gaining a better AC and more spells, though then I lose the free Weapon Focus too, and probably won't be able to pick up Whip Mastery.

So, any suggestions for feats, spells or archetypes? Specifically stuff that works with this game finishing at 4th level (maybe 5th at a stretch). It's not impossible that the game could be extended, but if it is, I won't feel bad for asking to make a minor restat.

Having made a Druid archetype that gives the Druid all of the shapeshifting spells as Wildshape options over the course of the class, I realised that I didn't actually have much idea which forms were good, which ones were bad, which had the handy utility abilities, which were incredibly mobile/fast/had great senses, and so forth.

So, I decided to fix that. And whilst looking through it for myself, I thought I might as well make a guide for others too. Here it is:

Polymorphamory - The Love of Changing Form: A guide to shapeshifting

I've gone through all of the spells where you take a specific creatures form, and gain benefits based on the abilities of that form. I've picked out the best combat forms, but also noted forms with other useful abilities. I've used the Monster DB from d20pfsrd site, my thanks to them and to Mike Chopswil, as it made doing this far easier than it would otherwise have been.

If anyone's got any feedback on this it'd be very much appreciated — anything I've missed, any mistakes, and any suggestions for improving it. I've a few thoughts on that myself, which I've stuck at the end of the document, but I'd also appreciate other people's input.

The spell Undead Anatomy gives you three natural attacks (claw/claw/bite). However, it makes no comment on the natural attacks of the creature whose form you are taking. Therefore, RAW, if the creature has any natural attacks you get those in addition to the three the spell gives you.

Am I right on this? And is this balanced? The spell is rather heavily limited by its inability to take the form of templated undead, so the extra attacks could even it out. However, they could also lead to ridiculous numbers of attacks.

One thing Pathfinder lacks is a dedicated shapeshifter. This is an attempt to do such, via an archetype.

The short version is that this archetype gives up Natures Bond and a spell per spell-level a day, gains an extra Wild Shift a day, and all the shapeshifts that it otherwise lacks, and its spontaneous casting becomes of those shapeshifting spells.

The long version is:

------------------------------

Wild Shape(Su)
The Wildshape Master gains Wild Shape ability at 2nd level, rather than 4th. At 2nd level, the character can only use this ability to turn into a small or medium humanoids. This ability functions like the Alter Self spell, except that it otherwise follows the usual changes of the Wild Shape ability (longer duration, shifting being a standard action that doesn't provoke). The character can use this ability an additional time per day at 4th level and every two levels thereafter, for a total of nine times at 18th level. At 20th level, a Wildshape Master can use wild shape at will.

The character gains the usual progression for other forms — small and medium animals at 4th level, large and tiny animals or small elementals at 6th, and so forth.

This ability replaces Nature's Bond, and incorporates the normal Wild Shape ability of the Druid class.

Focused Shapeshifter

The Wildshape Master focuses on shapeshifting to the point that their spellcasting is weaker than a normal Druid's; from 2nd level onwards they can cast one spell less per day of each spell level. In return for this focus, the character learns to shapeshift into forms inaccessible to normal druids.

At 5th level, the Wildshape Master can use wild shape to turn into a small or medium monstrous humanoid, this functions as Monstrous Physique I

At 7th level, the Wildshape Master can use wildshape to turn into a small or medium vermin or a tiny or large monstrous humanoid. This functions as Vermin Shape I or Monstrous Physique II respectively

At 8th level, in addition to the normal Wild Shape ability to turn into Huge or Diminutive animals, the character can also turn into Small and Medium magical beasts (still using the rules for Beast Shape III).

At 9th level, the Wildshape Master can use wildshape to turn into a Tiny or Large vermin or a diminutive or huge monstrous humanoid. This functions as Vermin Shape II or Monstrous Physique III respectively

At 11th level, the Wildshape Master can use wildshape to turn into a Tiny or Large magical beast or a medium chromatic or metallic dragon. This functions as Beast Shape IV or Form of the Dragon I respectively. Additionally, when the Wildshape Master takes the form of a monstrous humanoid, that ability functions as Monstrous Physique IV.

At 13th level, the Wildshape Master can use wildshape to turn into a large chromatic or metallic dragon or a Large humanoid creature of the giant subtype. This functions as Form of the Dragon II or Giant Form I respectively.

At 15th level, the Wildshape Master can use wildshape to turn into a Huge chromatic or metallic dragon or a Huge creature of the giant subtype. This functions as Form of the Dragon III or Giant Form II respectively.

Quick-shift (Su)

Sometimes you don't need a form for an extended period; you just need that one appendage or ability for a few moments. From 3rd level onwards, the Wildshape Master may channel stored spell energy into a quick shift. The character can expend a prepared spell of the appropriate level or higher in order to cast one of the following spells:

Spell level
2nd: Alter Self
3rd: Beast Shape I, Monstrous Physique I
4th: Beast Shape II, Monstrous Physique II, Elemental Body I, Vermin Shape I
5th: Beast Shape III, Monstrous Physique III, Elemental Body II, Vermin Shape II, Plant Shape I
6th: Beast Shape IV, Monstrous Physique IV, Elemental Body III, Plant Shape II, Form of the Dragon I
7th: Elemental Body IV, Plant Shape III, Form of the Dragon II, Giant Form I
8th: Form of the Dragon III, Giant Form II

This ability is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity, but which may be activated when in Wild Shape or otherwise polymorphed. If the character uses this ability whilst wild shaped, the form from this ability replaces their current wild shape form for its duration. However, the duration of the wild shape stays active (and keeps counting down), and if the form-change from this ability ends before the wild shape's duration has expired, the character reassumes their wildshape form.

An example; Marmaduke the Wildshape Master is flying along as a Huge Dragon. However, to get to where he needs to be, he needs to travel through a human-sized 500 yard long tunnel. So, he lands near the entrance, expends a 3rd level spell to turn into a cheetah, quickly moves through the tunnel, then on the other side he dismisses the spell and turns back into a dragon.

This ability replaces Spontaneous Casting.

Shifter's Speech (Ex):
The Wildshape Master learns how to communicate in all forms; at 4th level the character may speak any normal spoken language in any form he takes. Other languages, such as sign language, require him to have appropriate appendages or to otherwise reasonably be able to do whatever is required to communicate in that form.

This ability replaces Resist Nature's Lure.

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So, does it look balanced? It's very focused on shapeshifting, sacrificing a lot of breadth in order to shapeshift better.

In terms of the forms themselves, the only things that seem possibly overpowered are:

— the ability to combine your own equipment with strong forms via Giant Form and possibly the later Monstrous Physiques
— a couple of abilities, when the form lasts hours rather than minutes - regeneration from Giant Form I, and breath weapon every 1d4 rounds from Form of the Dragon III.

Both seem strong, but I don't think they're overpowered at the levels you get them. Other people's opinions on that would be appreciated. Indeed; I'm after any feedback I can get on this — overall it feels like a character who by the mid-levels has a form for most of the situations you run into, but has given up much in terms of spellcasting and other stuff (animal companion/domain), that that's most of their schtick.

For no readily identifiable reason, the Pathfinder game I'm in has turned into a superhero/villian themed one, at least on the PCs side.

I think it was the person deciding to play a character who's main thing was a shield he threw at people that started it. Then I decided to play a Zen Archer Monk with an Abundant quiver (which currently has trip, entangle, whistler, blunt, and various other arrows in it), and a third player was debating between a Whip user that channels shocking grasp through it (and the whip will likely be shocking or somesuch) and a Synthesis summoner. And our final PC is going to be playing an illusionist wizard with a somewhat Loki-esque bent.

So, for the moment, I'm set. However, my Monk is a little fragile (not much in the way of hitpoints), so I'd quite like a backup character, and one that fits with the theme.

Thus far, the best I've managed is a Barbarian with extra Rage Powers taken via feats, but that's not really working for me.

Can anyone suggest something workable? Game is currently 5th level, but I should hopefully survive a little while as my archer, so builds that require 6th or 7th level are possible. All of the Paizo Pathfinder stuff should be fine, but 3rd party stuff probably won't be. We're fairly optimised in this game — not munchkinning to the point of breaking the game, but we're fairly effective at what we do.

Flexible Grammar: A Words of Power fix

Words of Power, from Ultimate Magic is an interesting system, with a cool concept - flexible casting, putting together your own spells. And there is some interesting flexibility in the system, some real benefits for using it. But overall, it feels considerably weaker than the base casting system, only taking if you're absolutely in love with its flexibility, or want a challenge.

This fix is not going to entirely fix that; to do so would require more utility effects and a rebalancing of some effects. What it should do, however, is make it a bit more powerful, and a noticeable chunk more flexible.

It essentially comes from me getting annoyed at quite a few words being limited to emulating their non-WoP equivalents more than they need to - why is detect magic limited to a cone (and a 10ft one if I want it to remain a cantrip, rather than the 60ft everyone else gets).

The flexibility of word magic should allow me to use it with the Selected target word, letting me look at a specific enemy a bit further away, a reasonable recompense for having a sixth of the range of a 'normal' caster's detect magic. And that's the principle of this fix; loosening target word restrictions where they seem too harsh. I understand that some things need to be single target, but I think most area/multitarget attacks can be any of the areas. Generally I'll be loosening them to anything if I think that'd not cause a problem, occasionally it'll require a boost or extra levels if I think it'd be too powerful otherwise.

At the moment, these are just my initial thoughts; I'm very much after feedback on what seems over/underpowered amongst 'em, though I'll note I'm not trying to totally fix WoP, just make them a bit better.

Stuff I'm especially unsure of, and would appreciate feedback on is in italics.

ACID WORDS

Corrosive Bolt
Boost: This effect word may be used with any target word. Boosting this word this way raises its level by two. If any target word other than Selected is used, the ranged touch attack is replaced by a reflex save for half damage. The initial effect is instantanous - there is no lasting AoE (even if used with the Wall target word), the later damage comes from acid on each individual affected.

Additionally, any target that makes this save does not take any damage from the later round(s) of effect of this spell OR The damage dealt in later rounds is also halved if the targets make their save.

Caustic Cloud
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

COLD WORDS

Winters Wrath
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.
Boost: This effect word may use the 'selected' target word, at which point a small but intense blizzard will stay on the target for the duration, affecting them and anyone in their space.

COMMAND WORDS

Complex Order
Boost: This effect word may use any target word. Boosting this word this way raises its level by three.

Crushing Will
Boost: This effect word may use any target word. Boosting this word this way raises its level by three.

DESTRUCTION WORDS

Rumble
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

Catastrophe
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

DETECTION WORDS

Detect Magic
This effect word may any effect word.

Sense Alignment
This effect word may any effect word.

Sense Thoughts
This effect word may use the Selected, Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

Sense Hidden
This effect word may use the Selected, Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

DISPELLING WORDS

Negation
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

ELECTRICITY WORDS

Ball Lightning:
Boost: This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words. Boosting this word this way raises its level by two OR three.

FEAR WORDS

Spook
Boost: This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words. Boosting this word this way raises its level by one.

Horror
Boost: This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words. Boosting this word this way raises its level by two.

FORCE WORDS

Force Bolt
Boost: This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words. Boosting this word this way raises its level by two. If any target word other than Selected is used, the ranged touch attack is replaced by a reflex save for half damage.

ILLUSION WORDS

Glimmering
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

ILLUMINATION WORDS

Radiance
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

Gloom
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

Sunshine
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

SONIC WORDS

Destructive Vibration
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

WALL WORDS

Apply to all:

This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words. However, its area of effect must be in contact with the ground under the same rules as apply to the Barrier target word. (The height of these effect words is also only 10 foot)

WEATHER WORDS

Fog Bank
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

Wind Blast
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words. For the purposes of knockback, if the Cone or Line target word is used, the knockback is relative to the caster, if the Burst target word is used, it is relative to the centre of the burst, and if the Barrier targe word is used it is relative to the centre of the wall; a creature standing in a 5 foot wide wall has an equal chance of being thrown either direction.

Blizzard
This effect word may use the Barrier, Burst, Cone, or Line target words.

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The one place I'm a bit unsure is with the Wall effect words; whether they need the 'must stay in contact with the ground' rule, and if their AoE should be treated as their 2D shape, 10 foot high.

Another change that may be worth making is removing the need to use a Boost meta word to access the larger AoEs for the Burst, Cone, and Line target words. It does seem a little weak to have your level 9 spell only affecting a 10ft radius/cone unless you use a meta word on it. OTOH, some of the other meta word effects are pretty handy, so that limitation may be needed as a 'tax' on meta words so you don't have too many.

So, one of my backup characters in the Kingmaker game I'm in is an Eldritch Godling. The characters in this game are fairly optimised, and the other two are generally playing melee combatants, so I've been leaning towards the support/utility/blast role.

Having spotted the Eldritch godling, and rather liked the look of it, I've put together one. The vague intention is that eventually he could become/sort of become/be something related to being the patron god of our nation. Given said nation is run by a Dragon Blooded empress, and a cabinet of other level 11 characters, it's a fairly proactive nation, and its ethos can be vaguely described as "Accept each others differences, work together for the good of all, and beat the ever-loving tar out of anyone who messes with us".

With this in mind, I've made a character with a fair bit of damage dealing, a reasonable amount of survivability, and quite a lot of flexibility - I've taken two extra domains, and the godling spell 'Manifest' at two different levels — as well as the Domain powers, this gets me a total of three extra spells at each level, and a pretty wide selection of spells to cast through the Manifest spells (anything of lower level than the Manifest spell I'm using that is Conjuration (Creation), Conjuration (Teleportation), grants or affects movement rates, or has 'harmless' in both the save and SR description).

I had also taken the Godling Talent 'Knack' for the Oracle class, to add three oracle spells to my spells known, but my GM has ruled that's not allowed (as I don't have an Oracle-class spell's known to add them to).

But I've found myself with a couple of feats (one because of taking out Knack, as mentioned above) and a couple of Minor Ascendency choices unchosen, and I'm not really sure what to put in. Metamagic is probably a good idea, but I'm not sure if I want to use both feats on that, and I'm really not sure what to use my Ascendencies for.

So, I'm after some advice. Larger level rewrites are certainly possible if you make a good argument for 'em.

Here's the character sheet:

So, I'm going to be playing a 10th level character in an Pathfinder ongoing Kingmaker campaign a friend is running.

I'm adapting a backup idea from an Eberron Pathfinder game I was in — there it was a Dragon Prophesier Witch, with the powers being understanding and influence relating to the Draconic Prophecy, here it's just going to be a more general fatebinding/twisting thing. He doesn't curse you by pointing at you and wailing, he does it by concentrating, and picking those strands of fate where bad things are more likely to happen to you. Cackling is updating his current calculations. Mechanically, he'll be throwing hex debuffs at enemies, particularly bigger ones, throwing spell and hex buffs at party members, and doing a certain amount of healing.

So far, I've got the following:

Race: Ratfolk (for the favoured class effect of '+5 foot range to a hex with a range greater than touch')

Patron: Portents

Hexes:

1st Evil Eye
2nd Cackle
Extra Hex (3rd) Fortune
4th Misfortune
Extra Hex (5th) Slumber
6th Hobble (Third party; trip attack using Witch level + Int)
8th Entropy (Third party; sunder using Witch level + Int to hit, 2d6+witch level damage)
10th Hoarfrost or Retribution?

Feats:

1st Accursed Hex
3rd Extra Hex
5th Extra Hex
7th ???
9th ???

The main thing I'm after suggestions for is what to do with my last two feats. I'm vaguely considering taking two third party ones; one that adds +1 to all my Hex DCs, and another that lets my familiar use my hexes at reduced effectiveness if I'm not using them (i.e. if I'm casting a spell that round).

But I'm wondering if there's anything else particularly good, interesting or fitting for the concept that anyone can suggest.

I'm also going to be looking at my options for spells and magic items, so any suggests there would also be welcome.

I'm not after a supremely optimised character, I'm just after something that both fits with the concept, but also works as a viable and useful character in the game — wonderfully flavourful but incredibly weak is not what I'm after.

In terms of what's allowable, there's a huge list of things in various spreadsheets, but the general summary of that appears to be 'Most third party stuff as long as it's not stupid'.

So, any suggestions?

Would it be a reasonable trade off for a Synthesist Summoner to be somewhere between two and four levels behind on your Summon Monster SLA in return for being able to mostly (but not 100%) hide their melded eidolon then un-hide it for a full round action or two?

If not, then is there anything else that would be an appropriate trade-off for such an ability?

By being behind on the Summon SLA, I mean getting no ability to use it until level 3-5, at which point you get Summon Monster I, then continuing on with it as if you were however many levels behind, getting the new bit every two levels.

By not 100% hidden, I mean small elements peeking through that the observant can notice, and the knowledgeable can realise the implications of. Probably spot to notice, then knowledge arcana to work out what it means. Possibly either.

The one to two full round actions would look something this, and I'd say they could be disrupted by hitting you, it'd be a concentration check to not fail the thing, and have to do it again.

The reason for this being I'm going to be in a game with a fair bit of urban stuff where my melded form would not be appreciated, so the DM was thinking of some kind of quick change ability. Yes, I could just use my SLA summons instead, but I'm planning on mixing Barbarian levels into it, thus my SLAs will drop behind quickly.

The first two things I thought when I saw the Sythesist Archetype for summoners (summon your eidolon around yourself, then act as it) were some kind of totem warrior calling the power of his totem spirit around him, and Mumm Ra the Everliving.

And what other class fits best with that? Barbarian. Also, from a mechanical point of view, Eidolon attacks + Rage = awesome.

So here's a dual progression class for Summoner and Barbarian, that lets you fuse an outsider with yourself, then get angry and beat stuff up.

Prerequisites:
Knowledge: The Planes 5
Rage
Lesser Spirit Totem (Rage Power)
Fused Eidolon

'cause I know of no way to do a table on these forums, here's the short description of the class: Middle BAB, Good Fort, bad Ref, good Will saves.

1st level: Spirit Rage: Your levels in Vessel of the Totem count as levels of Barbarian for the purpose of how many rounds of rage you have, and for the effect of Rage powers you have. They do not count as barbarian levels for any other purposes such as gaining Damage Resistance or additional rage powers. However, you can only use the additional rounds gained from this class whilst fused with your eidolon.

1st level: Totem Synthesis: Your levels in Vessel of the Totem count as levels of Summoner for the purpose of working out the characteristics, abilities and evolutions of your Fused Eidolon. They do not count for any other purposes such as Shielded Meld , Maker’s Jump or spellcasting (which is covered seperately later). As a side effect of the totemic influence upon the Vessel of the Totem's fused eidolon, he becomes unable to use weapons other than his natural weapons when fused with his eidolon.

Spellcasting: At every even class level, a Vessel of the Totem gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in summoner. He does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained, except for additional spells per day, spells known, and an increased effective level of spellcasting.

Rage-Buff I: At level 3, when a Vessel of the Spirit rages, he may call upon the power of the spirits to empower himself. As a swift action he may cast a single spell upon himself (that he is a valid target for). Also valid are spells that would be cast on his eidolon, such as Rejuvenate Eidolon or Evolution Surge. However, any spells cast in this manner that have a non-Instantaneous duration will end when his current rage ends, or their normal duration ends, whichever comes first. At level 6 he may cast two such spells with one swift action, and at level 9, three.

Spirit Totem: At 4th level the Vessel of the Totem gains the Spirit Totem rage power. At 8th level, they also gain the Greater Spirit Totem power.

Greater Rage At 10th level, the intensity of the Vessel of the Spirit's rage increases. This is identical to the Barbarian class feature of the same name.

***

So, what do people think? It's quite powerful, for the fact you're getting both rage rounds and buffed eidolon, but you're not gaining the various benefits of the Summoner/Eidolon bond (such as +4 shield, +4 save bonus), and only two specific Rage Powers, rather than five of your choice, as well as no Damage resistance and other Barbarian class features.

It could use a couple more abilities to put in the dead levels, but I'm not sure exactly what.

The reason for removing the option to use manufactured weapon is that the Kali and her 8 arms build is already overpowered for Eidolons, and that's without the benefits of a Barbarians weapon proficiencies and rage. Plus it makes the results look more thematically appropriate and awesome.

Rage Buff needs a better name. I'm also not sure if the duration truncation is needed, but then again, I'm worried about the nastiness of getting Bulls Strength + Haste + Something else + Rage all at once, for a free and a swift action. Thus the limitation balances that someone

The class needs a pinacle ability, but I have no idea what that should be.

A friend of mine is running a game using the setting of Eberron, and the rules of Pathfinder. Mostly it's just using Pathfinder stuff, but there are Dragonmarks, Warforged, Eternal Wands, etc. Stuff from Eberron books gets looked at and accepted, rejected or altered as needed.

One of my backup concepts (I'm currently playing a Summoner with the Mark of Shadows) is a Dragonmark Heir based around the idea of getting himself and/or others from A to B – unless you've got someone with Greater Teleport available, you need to have had someone with Teleport actually visit somewhere to have them be able to teleport you there. So, the idea of this character is that he (when he reaches that level) could travel overland to reach the target zone, spend a while there to fix it in his memory, teleport back to wherever the clients are based, then start teleporting people into the target zone.

The big problem I'm running into with the concept is this: What do I do with my first three levels?

First three, 'cause we've shifted Dragonmarks around a bit – You still get the Least at 1st level, but you'd normally be getting the Lesser at 6th level. Oh, wait, no feat at 6th level in Pathfinder. So, shift that down to 5th. Which means that the class Dragonmark Heir then has to be shifted down to starting at 4th level, so it's still better than just taking the feats. This is probably okay balance-wise, as Pathfinder classes are generally more powerful than the non-OP D&D ones.

But I'm still left wondering... what do I do with those first three levels.

I want something that both fits the personality/role of the character (which'll be self sufficient, adventurous, slightly arrogant), but also is mechanically useful. Ranger could work for the whole being at home in the wilderness thing, or Rogue to add some stealth to it, but I'm not sure how well that would mesh with his teleportive powers. But something like Fighter or such could work for the armour, or for feats using my mobility. Sorcerer could get me even more movement spells, Magus could do a nice magic-fighty thing.

I'm probably going to take the Orien specific prestige class once I've finished with Dragonmark Heir, but that's not a definite; I could be persuaded to go a different direction if it made sense.

So, what can people suggest?

Currently the game is at 4th level, when I'd've just started Dragonmark Heir, and have 3 x Dimension Leaps, 2 x Some-other-level-one teleportation or movement spell and 1 x Dimension Door.

So, there are all the different sorcerer bloodlines.

And in Dragon 351 there were rules for being a Dragonmarked Sorcerer, getting all the spells of your mark as extra spells above your normal known limit.

So, in an Eberron Pathfinder game, would a Dragonmarked bloodline for sorcerers be viable, with your mark's spells being at least the starting point for your extra spells.

Upsides: Cool, thematic, probably not overpowered compared to a normal bloodline. An interestingly different way to come up with the spells you gain from the bloodline.

Downside: Different Dragonmarks give you different numbers of spells, of different levels, whereas bloodlines give you one spell of each level from 1 to 9. There are already issues with making Eberron and Pathfinder work, this could make it even more complicated. It may be hard to come up with the bloodline special powers, especially the final one.

But it seems an awesome idea.

The bloodline skill should probably be the one that the Dragomark gives a bonus to. The feats should be a mix of those Dragonmark specific feats that transfer over, and some of the action point boosting ones.

I'm not sure what to do about the spells, possibly add some to some of the lists, or possibly go "It's a feature" and give them better other powers to make up for it.

Other powers... probably raise their caster level/extend all of their Marked spells. Beyond that... nick some stuff from the Dragonmarked book, and see what works.

I know this is very trough at the moment, but I thought I'd throw the idea out while I work on it some more, and see what people think.

For anyone who's interested, here's the numbers on number of spells gained per mark.

I've always been fond of the Shifter class from the Masters of the Wild book, and I've put together a quick conversion of it for Pathfinder.

Is this an appropriate place to post it and get feedback on it, or is this only for discussion of the already released Pathfinder prestige conversions?