encorus's page

I'm looking for a link to the "Ultimate Magic Playtest—Round 1: Magus PDF". I can't find it on Paizo's website anymore. Does anyone have a link for that or can send it to me by email to encorus@gmail.com? It's a free PDF so no copyright problems here I hope!

Flyby Attack writeup gives me a real headache. I wonder who wrote it. There couldn't have been a worse way of writing this feat's description.

First:

"This creature can make an attack before and after it moves while flying."

Before AND after? So it means a creature with flyby attack can make 2 attacks? And if the first attack is before the move, and the second one is after the move, then it means it cannot make an attack during the move, which I thought is the entire point of the feat.

Second:

"Benefit: When flying, the creature can take a move action and another standard action at any point during the move."

Why does it say "and another standard action"? Why "another"? It hints there was another standard action somewhere. Where?

And finally:

"The creature cannot take a second move action during a round when it makes a flyby attack."

Why is this mentioned exactly? If someone took a standard action and a move action so of course it cannot take another move action, per the standard rules.

That's what the Bestiary says (page 146). But I can't find anything about elves being immune to paralysis. I guess this is another one of the zillion leftovers from previous editions, the copy-paste legacy that plagues the entire Pathfinder line?

This is getting really ridiculous. How long should we wait for an official errata for the bug-ridden Core Rulebook? It's been 8 months now!

Under Shield Proficiency feat (page 133):

When you are using a shield with which you are not proficient, you take the shield’s armor check penalty on attack rolls and on all skill checks that involve moving.

Under Tower Shield Proficiency feat (page 133):

A character using a shield with which he is

not proficient takes the shield’s armor check penalty on attack rolls and on all skill checks that involve moving, including Ride.

First of all, there's an inconsistency as the Tower Shield Proficiency feat entry mentions "including Ride" which the other feat doesn't.

Second, in the summary of feats on page 116 it says next to Tower Shield Proficiency "No penalties on attack rolls when using a tower shield". That's confusing and incorrect, as a Tower Shield still incurs a -2 penalty on attack rolls even when the user is proficient with it. It should say instead (like the 3.5 Player's Handbook): "No armor check penalty on attack rolls".

Third, the information in both feats doesn't really coincide with the entry on Armor Check Penalty in the equipment chapter on page 150:

Armor Check Penalty: Any armor heavier than leather, as well as any shield, hurts a character’s ability to use Dexterity and Strength-based skills. An armor check penalty applies to all Dexterity- and Strength-based skill checks.

The above says Dexterity- and Strength-based skill checks, and not "skill checks that involve moving" (and Ride) as the entries in the feats chapter say. There might sometimes be a difference between the two.

So a summoner can move, then cast summon monster, and still have the summonned monster move and attack (or perform a full-round action) on the very same round? Am I right?

So a wizard casts a charm person on a party member. That means that the party member will not attack the wizard. But:

1. Will he still be able to attack the wizard's friends? Will the charming wizard need to do a Charisma check to convince the charmed person not to attack them?
2. What if the party members tell their charmed friend to attack the charming wizard's friends, or to do the opposite of what the wizard tells him. How would you resolve that?
3. What if the charming wizard tell the charmed person just to leave the area. Would he do that? What if the party members tell him to stay?

When should we expect an updated errata for the Core Rulebook. There are many problems in the book (as reported on these forums), and so far only a very short errata list was released, and that was months ago.

If a priest channels negative energy, is he also damaged by it? If so, that would make the ability to channel negative energy pretty much useless to NPC adversaries of the PCs.

Similarly, if a priest channels positive energy, is he also healed by it?

Table on page 563 notes that if the invisible creature is "Not Moving" the Perception DC to detect it is reduced by 40? I don't get it... Should it just say +0 or not note that entry at all?

Also why does the title of the column say "Perception". Should it be "Perception DC"?

Sorry, but this is just confusing.

Also when it says -20 for in combat or speaking... what counts as "combat"? I mean, if an invisible wizard attacks he loses his invisibility. Does it refer to creatures that can attack and remain invisible?

Assuming there's bright light where the PCs fight a Shadowgarm, and assuming a PC's Dexterity was reduced as a result of the Shadowgarm's Shadow Slime, at what point in the round exactly does the Dexterity penalty lessen by 2?

There are 2 in area C (Carpenter's House).

Then there are 4 in area G3 (Old Crypt) according to the text (and according to the CR which is 5), but in parenthesis it says Wolf Skeletons (2) and not (4), as if there are only 2.

Finally area G10 has 2 of them, but in previous threads I saw people thinking these 2 are part of the 4 in area G3.

It's really unclear to me how many wolves are in total.

I found some mistakes in the battle description:

Page 28 says:
The crossbow deals 2d8 damage on a hit

But page 30 says:
Large heavy crossbow –3 (2d6/19–20)

I believe 2d6 is the correct value.

Page 29 says:

Four of the Hellknights ride on warhorses, while the other six ride on the carriage (one atop manning the crossbow, two on each side clinging to the running boards, and one in front with Shanwen, driving the carriage).

But page 30 says:

During Combat Shanwen clambers up to use the Large crossbow.

So who's using the crossbow?

Also regarding the hellknights clinging to the running boards. What space do they actually occupy? Can they fight while clinging to the boards? At a penalty? Can the PCs attack the one on top of the wagon from below? Does the one at top have cover against melee? What about the rider and the one next to him?

Another question is regarding the maps supplied. It's unclear which side is west and which one is east... any idea?

There's a contradiction in the rules, and they use a wrong term (prohibited instead of opposed).

A wizard can prepare a cantrip from a prohibited school, but it uses up two of his available slots (see below).

and on the same page:

A wizard begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level wizard spells (except those from his prohibited schools, if any; see Arcane Schools)

If so, do you have to get the opposed school cantrips later on from scrolls and scribe them? Or do you actually get all of them, and that's just a leftover from 3.5?

My memory betrays me. Can, for example, a skeleton make 2 attacks (sword/claw or 2 claws) as a standard action? Or does it need a full round for that?

Does the feat Point Blank Shot work with thrown weapons like javelin? I would say yes, but I'm not 100% sure.

The text on page 15 says the sewer tunnels are usually 10' wide, but all the sewer maps show the tunnels as 5' wide, with the sewer channel taking half or more of the square, forcing the PCs to actually squeeze through, which doesn't make sense, and makes combat really hard.

Am I missing something here?

What's the scale of the map of Westcrown? More precisely, I'm interested in the distance between Vizio's and the Safe House (straight line between the two). Thanks!

In what year does CoT take place? I'm new to the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign, so any help would be appreciated.

Arael's feats are written as:

Feats: Alignment Channel, Pick Alignment, Brew Potion, Skill
Focus (Knowledge [local])

What's "Pick Alignment"? I guess that the alignment which refers to Alignment Channel? And if so, shouldn't it be written in brackets after the feat's name? Also, I believe the exact alignment should have been decided by the author SKR. Maybe it's just a placeholder that someone forgot to fill?

The feat doesn't say so under the Special section. I guess the note there about the paladin had the rule on taking the feat multiple time forgotten. All the other Extra X feats have that note in their Special section.

Please, we need an official clarification regarding this. Thanks!

D&D 3.5 has a Spot skill to cover "passive perception, meaning noticing things you are not actively looking for, and a Search skill to cover "active perception" - when you are actively searching an area. Now D&D 4.0 consolidated Spot and Search into a Perception skill but introduced passive and active perception checks. Passive perception check basically means that PCs are constantly "taking 10" on their Perception roll, so the DM can keep their passive perception scores (10 + their skill) and let them know what they see and why they don't.

Now, Pathfinder also consolidated Spot and Search into Perception, but as far as I see didn't introduce any mechanism to handle passive checks to replace Spot. How should you handle that in a game? Let's say the PCs passes through a forest and there's a monster hiding to the side of them, but they are not spending time to actively search. What are their chances to notice them and how would that be handled mechanically?

I'm confused about Partial Cover. The diagram on page 194 seems to be wrong. The line running from Seoni (#4) to the ogre touches the wall, meaning it should be blocked, but it's shown as clear.

Also, let's say a ranger is a few squares (in a straight line) behind an ally who fights a medium monster at melee. Will the monster have cover or partial cover relative to the ranger?

M
A
X
X
R

(M - monster; A - ally; X - empty space; R - ranger)

I'm referring to the goblin patrol (1 goblin scout) sneak attack in the sewers. What is the proper way to run the scenario? How many stealth checks would be involved? One for hiding and then one for sneaking? And will both checks be opposed against those of each of the 4 PCs? If so, the goblin doesn't have really much a chance of succeeding.

Also the stealth check for moving silently will probably be at a penalty as the PCs are on the move and the goblin has to catch out with them. Or won't it?

What would be a good month to start the Council of Thieves campaign in? From some of the descriptions in the module I get the idea that it's summer as it appears that the sun sets late. I wonder if there are any more clues as to what would be the best season or month for the module.

Thanks for any info.

The adventures lists 3 reasons why it's good to split Janiven from the group during the sewer part, but says that Janiven leaves the group only if they insist on resting overnight in the sewers, which is an unlikely event.

I was wondering whether others had Janiven together with the party during this part, and if not, how did you get rid of her :)

In the Player's Guide there's a paragraph cut in the middle:

The following traits

are geared toward your character teaming up with a ragtag
group of adventurers, mercenaries, freed slaves, guards,
and rapscallions under the watchful eye of a man named

What is the continuation?

Also, I wanted to ask, how many traits do players should start with? One or two? And can they choose from the ones in the Traits web enhancement as well?

Thanks!

It wasn't too clear in the book - do you actually get the +1 hp or +1 skill rank for advancing in your favored class at level 1 already, meaning everyone starts the game with an additional hitpoint or skill rank?

Under Elemental Bloodline it lists several spells and then says the following:

*These spells always deal a type of damage determined by your element. In addition, the subtype of these spells changes to match the energy type of your element.

Then one of the bloodline features is this:

Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell that deals energy damage, you can change the type of damage to match the type of your bloodline. This also changes the spell’s type to match the type of your bloodline.

Spell type? Spell subtype? What are those exactly? These terms are not defined anywhere else. What are they exactly and what's the difference between subtype and type, and why some spells have their subtype changed while others have their type changed?

Also which spells deal energy damage? I searched the PDF and didn't find a single spell that says it deals energy damage, making the Bloodline Arcana feature useless.

Table 3-1 (Character Advancement and Level-Dependent Bonuses) has a column titled "Ability Score" and under it "1st" at 4th level, "2nd" at 8th etc. On the same page it says:

Adding a level generally gives you new abilities, additional skill points to spend, more hit points, and possibly an ability score increase or additional feat (see Table 3–1).

And:

Second, apply any ability score increases due to gaining a level.

And that's it. I couldn't find anywhere how to deal with this ability score increase. By how much do ability scores increase in the game and how do one handle it? I know how to handle this in 4E and I think I remember how it worked in 3E, but that was a long time ago.

Another omission? Or have I overlooked something?

I just realized that the Pathfinder RPG core rulebook never explains the very important term line of sight. It uses the term over and over again, all over the book, without any explanation whatsoever! This is a major omission that would probably have all those who are not familiar with 3.5 play the game in a wrong way!

3.5 had a nice diagram explaining it (actually, 3.5 had many more diagrams in its combat chapter, which proved really useful). I guess that Pathfinder was supposed to have a similar diagram, but in the end it wasn't included in the book, leaving this highly important term completely unexplained!