gesalt's page

So with the hellfire dispatch giving us this little beauty:

(flourish) You attempt to subdue a target with an attack and a follow-up grab. Make a melee Strike. If it hits and deals damage, you can attempt an Athletics check to Grapple the creature you hit. If you're wielding a flail or spiked chain, you can ignore Grapple's requirement that you have a hand free, and if you succeed at the Athletics check, you get a critical success instead. Both attacks count toward your multiple attack penalty, but the penalty doesn't increase until after you've made both of them.

grappling is no longer a joke at level 8+. So, what are some obscure ways to make this check more reliable, any special things that exploit restrained specifically, etc? Aside from just layering slow on top with debilitating shot or something to keep an enemy stuck with 1 action.

Exactly what the title sounds like. The item description for holy water describes it as a simple weapon. Can you stock some in a thrower's bandolier?

I already assume that, as a consumables, it's not coming back after being expended.

I guess this can also be the, "Can I apply runes, talismans, poisons, etc to holy water" question as well.

Would a spell that adds strike damage (for example draconic barrage) be affected by Burn It's status bonus and, if so, would the status bonus apply alongside something that adds a status bonus to the strike directly (for example divine smite).

Per the playtest document, Thralls are explicitly non-minion non-summoned creatures. Surely there must be some spells or abilities that allow us to exploit this mass creation of easily hit and killed creatures.

Opportune Backstab states that it triggers off of any "hit" by a melee attack.

1) Does this include melee spell attacks
2) Does this include athletics maneuvers and anything else with the Attack trait

I'd assume the answer is yes to both but never hurts to confirm.

Edit:
2a) if so, can it trigger twice off of something like knockdown/improved knockdown

For example, the new kineticist class has a feat that lets you use a stance impulse with trigger: your turn begins.

One of the stances has the following: at the start of each of your turns...

So my question is, if I activate my stance with a triggered free action at start of turn, is it too late to use the stance's ability, or am I still at the "turn start" step.

I'm curious because I assume you can use multiple abilities that trigger at turn start if you have them even though after the first you're not exactly at turn start anymore. So I'm not sure if that still applies to things that are only possible because of other start of turn abilities in the first place.

Maze states:

When the spell ends, either because the target escaped or the duration ran out, the target returns to the space it occupied when it was banished, or to the nearest space if the original is now filled.

If a snare is placed in the square of a maze'd creature, does that square count as filled for the purposes of maze, or do only creatures and other obstructions/objects that outright prevent entry to the square (for example, a segement of a wall of stone) qualify?

Simple question I hope.

Can you cast from a wand or other item as part of casting contingency?

If so, can you do so if you need to trick the wand in question or does contingency's 10 minute cast time preclude it?

Similarly, if you have a wand of contingency can you trick and use it despite the 10 minute cast time?

Is it possible to invest the ring, blend the slots away and then remove and either reinvest the ring or pass it to someone else while keeping the blended slot

Strictly speaking, we already know you technically wear padded armor under heavy armor.

What I want to know, is if you can invest and wear multiple armors at once to take advantage of extra armor runes or, more pertinently, the new Library Robes in treasure vault.

1) I assume spellhearts work with spellstrike, but is there any reason why they wouldn't?

2) If they do work, are their rider effects applied before or after the strike component of the spellstrike?

Can dispel magic completely shut off any weapon targeted with it (Assuming the counteract is successful obviously), or would it need to suppress the individual runes?

I assume when a spell like Ghostly Weapon applies the effects of the ghost touch rune it does nothing for ranged weapons because of the usage requirement on the rune.

But what about stuff like the Ghostbane Fulu which provides only the benefit of the rune? Does this bypass usage requirements because we are only taking the benefits of the rune?

So from the new rare clockwork reanimator archetype (from alkenstar AP 3) we have this lovely level 12 feat called self destruct. Essentially, when your minion is reduced to 0 hp, you can detonate it for 2*level d6 fire damage in a 30ft radius as a reaction (basic ref, uses higher of class or spell dc). Since it is coming off a construct companion, it'll take a day of downtime to get a new one, but that's probably worth it for two feats (dedication+self destruct).

Now, this will probably get errata because base 24d6 of damage on a low investment ability like this is unlikely to last. But, until that hammer drops I want to know how far we can push it. The obvious starter is final sacrifice as it instantly slays our minion which lets us drop even more d6s of fire in a smaller AoE and, according to the death rules,

When you die, you are reduced to 0 Hit Points if you had a different amount

should be enough to let us also trigger self destruct.

How much more can we stack onto this?

An interesting question I came across.

If a divine caster takes the oracle or sorcerer dedications and then takes the divine access or blessed blood feats to add spells to their spell list, do they become available to the main class since both are the divine spell list or do we wind up with divine (base) and divine (archetype)?