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Just because it sounded good, I created a Sarenite character who has the Burning Archipelago as his homeworld. When deciding on a bonus language for their intelligence Ignan was a natural choice. That got me to wondering if Ignan wouldn't be considered a homeworld language for someone from the sun.

The language list in the chapter on races doesn't list a homeworld language for the sun and defines Ignan as the language of inhabitants of the plane of fire. The definition of the sun in the settings chapter indicates that the closest thing to a native population of the sun would consist of creatures from the plane of fire.

Currently, I'm happy listing the intelligence mod. bonus language of the source of their ability to speak Ignan, but if I can get an extra language because Ignan is a homeworld language then that would be acceptable.

Any thoughts on whether Ignan would be a homeworld language in this situation?

Are there any plans on the Starfinder books to be coming out in soft cover format like the 1E Pathfinder did? If so, is there a timeline for the release?

If a creature has a howl attack is it still a standard action to use?

On the one hand, it is described as an attack.
On the other hand, the description doesn't say it takes a standard action and a character is allowed to speak as a free action.

If a PC is allowed to take a knowledge check as a free action, gets 5 questions from the check, and share all of that information with the rest of the party as part of the free action, then an NPC beast should be able to howl as a free action unless otherwise stated. It's how they talk - free action.

I know, it sounds like I'm trying to overwhelm the players - and openly admit that I am. But that's only because they pull their own weasel tricks and try to use time constraints to keep me from sticking to strict rules. Turnabout is fair play.

I am prepping scenario 5-23 and am wondering if there is any errata to go with it.

My main concern is that there is a trap and a secret door marked on the maps that don't appear in any of the room descriptions. The trap effects are alluded to in the text, but perception and disable DCs are not given anywhere. Perception to find the secret door is also not given.

"A magus must study his spellbook each day to prepare his spells. He cannot prepare any spell not recorded in his spellbook except for read magic, which all magi can prepare from memory."

Is this saying that magi get read magic in addition to their normal spells per day? It is a cantrip so would automatically be in a magus' spellbook, so it sounds as if this is something over and above normal spell preparation. Yet it is still referred to as being prepared.

Ultimate Magic page 84 describes this archetype. The gravewalker replaces some of their hexes with the following class features:

Aura of Desecration "At 1st level,... This ability replaces the witch's 1st-level hex."

Bonethrall "At 1st level,...This replaces the witch's hex gained at 4th level." This is mentioned in the errata as well, so I'm assuming that original printings in the book didn't mention that it came at 1st level.

Possess Undead "This replaces the witch's hex gained at 8th level." It does not say at what level the witch gains Possess Undead. There is no errata on it. On the one hand, there is a precedent of a class feature being gained at 1st level but replacing something the witch would normally gain at 4th level. On the other hand being able to magic jar something at 1st level seems over powered.

Does anyone know of a source that tells at which level a gravewalker can start using the Possess Undead ability?

I am building a saurian shaman druid and am working on the animal companion. For most dinosaurs, the starting strength is only 10. I understand that these are medium creatures which is much smaller than most dinosaurs that are statted out and that Paizo doesn't want first level druids to have some killing machine at their beck and call, but comparing this to the strength scores of other medium animal companions it seems like a mistake. Small animal companions like birds and badgers have a 10 strength. Surely a medium dinosaur would be a little bit stronger.

I checked both versions of the errata for the Bestiary and there was no mention of changing a dinosaur animal companion's ability scores in either of them.

Is there another source where such a correction may have been made?

I've been going through the additional resources list for PFS and noticed something in the notes for Inner Sea Gods.

"all of the gods listed in the appendix are legal choices except..." then it lists several groups of gods. According to this list Lamashtu is legal.

But under miscellaneous it states, "all material in chapter 1 and 2 is legal except for pages 92-99."

Pages 92-99 deal with worshippers of Lamashtu.

Is this saying that you can worship Lamashtu but don't get any of the special stuff that pages 92-99 might grant (variant casting, etc.) or is it ruling out worshipping Lamashtu all together?

For psychic magic we are told in Occult Adventures:

"Emotion Components: Emotion components represent a particular emotional state required to cast the spell. A psychic spellcaster marshals her desire in order to focus and release the spell's energy. It is impossible to cast a spell with an emotion component while the spellcaster is under the influence of a non-harmless effect with the emotion or fear descriptors. Even if the effect's emotion matches the necessary emotion to cast the psychic spell, the spellcaster is not in control of her own desires and animal impulses, which is a necessary part of providing an emotion component."

Does "non-harmless" mean causing hp or ability damage or does it account for other effects?

Specifically, I am thinking of the shaken condition (but there are possibly other conditions that may raise the same question). It is described as a fear condition. It gives you penalties, but doesn't do physical damage. Some people would argue that taking penalties is harmful others would argue that it isn't. Would a psychic caster be able to cast spells with the emotion component while shaken?

Can a wand be used to counterspell a spell as it is being cast?

"When using positive energy to heal, affected creatures gain only half the normal amount of healing but also receive a specific beneficial effect. When channeling negative energy to harm, affected creatures take only half the normal damage but take an additional penalty or harmful effect;"

This makes it sound like you roll the channel healing/damage as normal and only apply half of the result.

However, the enhanced channel effect gives the example:

"For example, a 7th-level cleric normally heals 4d6 points of damage with channeled positive energy; with the Nature alternative channeling, that cleric instead heals only half that amount (2d6) when channeling, but heals animals and fey an additional +50% over the unhalved value (4d6 + 50%)."

This makes it sound like you only roll half the number of dice to determine the healing/damage effect of a channel (unless it is an enhanced channel).

If you roll half as many dice, then at 1st and 2nd level do you get 1 die or none? A lot of times, Paizo will default half of 1 to 1, but a lot of times they specify minimum 1 when they tell you to halve an effect based on level.

If it defaults to 1 then variant channeling is actually a more powerful means of channeling for low level clerics. If it rounds down to 0 then would 1st or 2nd level cleric channel the additional benefit of the channel but not the healing/damage (unless the channel is enhanced)?

If something appears in the Advanced Race Guide is it only PFS legal for the race it falls under. Some things specifically make reference to the race (Order of the Paw cavaliers can only be halflings) others are more generic (scentbane incense appears under gnome magic devices, but there is no rational reason why any race shouldn't be able to use it).

More specifically, I am looking at plant companions (listed under elves). Do you have to be an elf to have one or could other races get them?

Reading the CRB equipment section, one would get the impression that only horses, ponies, and riding dogs are considered common mounts.

The cavalier mount class feature states that a small creature can select a wolf as his mount, at fourth level they can select a riding dog. It reads as if wolves are more common mounts than riding dogs.

The Order of the Paw halfling cavaliers must ride either a dog or a wolf - no distinction is made over one being more common than the other.

Basically, I'm creating an Order of the Paw halfling cavalier with a wolf as his mount and want to know if I can buy a normal saddle or have to buy an exotic saddle.

The animal speaker bard archetype has the following class feature:

"Animal Friend: An animal speaker selects a particular kind of animal, such as apes, badgers, bears, boars, cats, snakes, and so on. The bard gains a +4 bonus on Handle Animal checks to influence animals of his chosen kind. Animals of this kind have a starting attitude of at least "indifferent" toward the bard and never attack him unless he attacks them first."

I have an animal speaker who has chosen rats as their animal friend type. Would a rat swarm attack them unprovoked?

Swarm traits say that, "A swarm has the characteristics of its type, except as noted here." So they do count as rats, however it further says, "Swarm Attack: Creatures with the swarm subtype don't make standard melee attacks. Instead, they deal automatic damage to any creature whose space they occupy at the end of their move, with no attack roll needed." So they do automatic damage without an attack roll, but it is still described as an attack. Which part of this takes precedent - that it is automatic damage or that it is described as an attack?

From the level 1 iconics:

Lini's spell-like abilities:

"1/day—dancing lights, ghost sound (DC 12), prestidigitation, speak
with animals"

Seoni's Level 1 Spells:

"1st (4/day)—mage armor, magic missile"

In the first case, Lini has four abilities and she can use each of them once per day. In the second case, Seoni knows two first level spells and she can cast them in any combination so long as she doesn't cast more than four a day.

The only difference in the presentation of these is the use of parenthesis - 1/day vs (4/day)

So, I am preparing a low level scenario where a minion type NPC has spell-like abilities:

"3/dayblink, entangle (DC 13), invisibility (self only), pass without
trace, speak with animals"

If this is interpreted as Lini (no parenthesis are used) then this NPC can use each of these abilities 3 times. That seems a bit much for a minion in a low level scenario.

If this is interpreted like Seoni (despite the lack of parenthesis) then this NPC can only use 3 special abilities a day but has a pool of 5 to choose from. A little more believable for the level of play, but seemingly restrictive for the NPC's race (atomie).

Both seem plausible, how does one determine which is to be used?

I was just looking at the various class kits in the Adventure Gear section of Ultimate Equipment and noticed that spontaneous casters don't have spell component pouches listed, but most casters who have to prepare spells do (paladin and ranger don't).

Did they make a change giving all spontaneous casters Eschew Materials like the sorceror gets (it would sort of make sense with the spontanaity of the casting)? Or is this more of a, "casting isn't your main function, so it's not standard equipment" type thing?

I don't use a lot of magical weapons, so I'm not sure if this is a real rule or just a home rule someone used, but I was recently told that different weapon enhancements will give a magical weapon the properties of special materials - e.g. a +2 weapon will act as cold iron against fey and demons.

I looked in all the places I thought it would be obvious that such things would be listed (under special materials, under costs for weapon bonuses, etc)in both the CRB and Ultimate Equipment but couldn't find anything specific. The person who told me about it said that there was a table that told what enhancements did what, but I can't find a table that does this either.

The closest I could find was for individual materials such as mithral weapons will act as silver against lycanthropes, but I'm pretty sure that is not what they were referring to.

Does anyone know where such a list is located?

I've been reading some of the information on the gods of Golarion that is given in the back of the adventure paths and now have to ask, what is the difference between a "cleric" and a "priest"?

The Jade Regent part 2 has a few pages about Shelyn in the back. Among the information given is that, "Shelyn's priests can use summon monster spells to summon the following creatures in addition to the normal creatures listed in the spell," followed by a list of additional creatures.

Earlier, under the heading "A Priest's Roll" it starts with, "Most of Shelyn's clergy are clerics or bards, though she has a few paladins, druids, and rangers of high status in her church." Reading on, there is nothing that specifies that the non-cleric classes are not considered to be priests; there are some places that seem to back up the idea that they can be priests.

Under the heading "New Spells" it states, "All priests treat charm animal as if it were a 2nd-level spell on their class spell list." as if any class can be a priest of Shelyn.

Some of the other gods portrayed in other adventure paths have similar reading, while still others specify that the clergy are clerics, that special spells ans summons lists are specifically for clerics, etc.

So, how does a non-cleric become a priest when a source allows them to? Do they take a rank in profession priest? Do they just declare that they are a priest? Do they have to take a vanity to be a priest?

A few months ago, I overheard someone mention some character build mechanic that would allow a monk to make a flurry of blows with any weapon they were proficient with. For some reason, I think it was a racial feat that allows it, but I can't find it listed in the ARG. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Think animal companions. They are just that - companions, not pets or slaves. A druid or ranger still has to do handle animal checks on their animal companion to get them to do any trick the player hasn't selected for the companion. Many players and GMs forget this fact and treat the animal companion as a secondary character for the player.

Attack, probably the first trick that a druid goves their animal companion. So, rules as written, when the party goes into combat the druid can point and yell attack as a free action and the animal companion does just that. It's one of the animal's tricks and the druid does not need to do a handle animal check. Midway through combat, somebody suggests that the party should keep someone alive in order to interrogate them. The animal companion still has an attack order up. If it doesn't have "down" on its trick list then it will take a handle animal check to get it to stop attacking or you may lose the ability to interrogate anyone. If "down" isn't on its list then the druid will have to push in order to get the animal to stop.

Eidolons are the same way. They have a link to their summoner but they are not slaves or pets. They are usually more intelligent than animals and therefore more likely to want to do their own thing. They are from another plane and do not necessarily know all the ways and customs of the material plane and they are in a body created by the summoner's mind so aren't necessarily comfortable with their movements (imagine waking up notably taller one morning and how you would have to adjust to it).

The fix would be to have the player select from a list of personality traits or templates to give their eidolon. If they want an eidolon that charges into battle and kills everything then they will have to do a die roll to make it stop (or it starts damaging the location making future perception or survival checks harder or perhaps destroys treasure). If they want a more level-headed eidolon then they have to do some sort of die roll to convince it to join in combat. The eidolon can still be useful, but stops being a second character for the summoner player to run.

The benefits of this?

1 - Players can still build their eidolons. Part of the attraction of the summoner class was getting to be creative with you eidolon build.
2 - New players can play PFS legal eidolons without having to buy an extra book.
3 - Old players can still apply a template to an existing eidolon, so grandfathered in eidolons are brought into line with new eidolons.
4 - Summoner archetypes can be made PFS legal. Now the synthesist isn't just conjuring up a magical battlesuit, but rather is fusing with a creature that has a mind of its own and takes a risk that this creature will hinder him more than help.

Kikko - Kikko armor consists of a clever arrangement of hexagonal plates made from iron and sewn to cloth, granting the wearer greater flexibility than that provided by many armors that afford similar defense. The plates may be left exposed or hidden by a layer of cloth.

Darkleaf - Items not primarily constructed of leather, fur, or hide are not meaningfully affected by being partially made of darkleaf cloth. As such, padded armor, leather armor, studded leather armor, and hide armor can be made out of darkleaf cloth (although other types of armor made of leather or hide might be possible). Because darkleaf cloth remains flexible, it cannot be used to construct rigid items such as shields or metal armors. Armors fashioned from darkleaf cloth are always masterwork items; the masterwork cost is included in the listed prices.

I would assume that a kikko contains more metal than studded leather armour. One of the purposes of a kikko is listed as allowing more fleibility, which is one of the advantages of darkleaf cloth. So, could a kikko be made of darkleaf cloth or not?

Hello,

I'm looking for a game in the English speaking world sometime between mid-September to early October. In short, I'm trying to plan a vacation around at least one session of PFS.

Paizo's events listing is helpful, but doesn't look very complete, so I'm wondering if anyone could share links to their local schedules that I can look through.

Thanks.

My original question was with the Expertise class feature; it replaces Bravery 1, so what happens with future Bravery increases.

Somebody pointed out page 23 of Ultimate Combat where it says, "If an archetype replaces a class feature that is part of a series of improvements or additions to a base ability (such as a fighter’s weapon training or a ranger’s favored enemy), the next time the character would gain that ability, it counts as the lower-level ability that was replaced by the archetype. In effect, all abilities in that series are delayed until the next time the class improves that ability."

This makes perfect sense. In fact, this is how I would have done it if I hadn't gotten an answer - and if it hadn't been for Maneuver Mastery.

Maneuver Mastery replaces Armor Training 1 but, unlike Expertise, Maneuver Mastery, is a series of improvements. The new improvements come into effect at the same levels that the Armor Training improvements would come in.

Rules-as-Written when I take my first Maneuver Mastery improvement I would also get Armor Training 1 (in place of Armor Training 2). All of the sequential improvements that Maneuver Mastery gives were a part of the "This ability replaces armor training 1" statement and future armor training improvements just get scaled down one level as they come up.

This just sounds wrong, which is why I was originally also questioning Expertise and how future Bravery improvements would be affected.

Has there ever been a ruling that all Armor Training improvements are also replaced with the original installment of Maneuver Mastery, or should I level up RAW?

I am going to be running 6-12 "Scions of the Sky Key: On Sharrowsmith's Trail" at Origins this year. I'm trying to get minis and maps sorted out for the games I will be running, and haven't had this scenario sent to me yet (my other scenarios are ones I've already run).

Can anyone tell me which flip-mat/map packs are used for this scenario so that I can see if I have them or if I should look into buying them.?

Thanks

I had a situation where someone with celestial armour was 15 feet underwater and activated the armour's flight ability. Would they have had to swim to the surface in order to fly or would they have been able to use fly to rise to the surface before actually getting airborne?

The armour grants you fly as the spell.
The fly spell just says that the subject can fly.
The fly skill specifies that it allow maneuvers while airborne, but does not grant the ability to fly so using that to say that flying can only be done in the air is iffy.

The rewards aren't adding up in this scenarion like they usually do. For instance: low tier gives 1097 gp in area A2, 866 gp in area A3 and 175 gp in area A6 for a total of 2138 gp. The chronicle sheet gives 4461 gp total for low tier.

The only other places PCs are likely to gain treasure are areas A9 and A11, but neither of these lists a reward (other than the possibility of getting magic items from A9 - the value of which is far more than the missing 2323 gp).

Is this extra loot just a given or should it exist somewhere in the scenario and have to be earned?

I am prepping a scnario in which there is an encounter with a scripted NPC who has followers from the NPC Codex. The leader's stat block is true neutral. The stats that they say to use for her followers are NE and CE depending on the tier being played.

In this particular case all of the followers are at a low enough level that they wouldn't give off an evil aura. But what if there is a scenario out there where one of them would be? IF you are using NPC templates, would their alignment stay as it is in the Codex or would it default to whatever their leader's alignment is?

I will be running a scenario with a potential hag coven in it.

From the rules on coven magic in the Bestiaries:

"All three hags must take a full-round action to take part in this form of cooperative magic."

From the hags' tactics as printed in the scenario:

"Two of the hags fight the PCs in melee while the third uses her coven abilities, such as..." (list example coven abilities) There are still the other coven restrictions such as being within 10 ft of each other listed.

In this case, do I ignore the standard Bestiary rules that require all three hags take a full round action in favour of tactics listed in the scenario that imply that only one needs to take a full round action?

"This spell repairs damaged objects, restoring 1d4 hit points to the object. If the object has the broken condition, this condition is removed if the object is restored to at least half its original hit points. All of the pieces of an object must be present for this spell to function. Magic items can be repaired by this spell, but you must have a caster level equal to or higher than that of the object. Magic items that are destroyed (at 0 hit points or less) can be repaired with this spell, but this spell does not restore their magic abilities. This spell does not affect creatures (including constructs). This spell has no effect on objects that have been warped or otherwise transmuted, but it can still repair damage done to such items."

Would having all the parts present mean you had all the ashes swept up? What if you had ash from other objects mixed in with the ashes of the thing you were trying to restore?

If combat is taking place, can someone cast a spell and not be noticed by the other people involved?

For somatic components you jsut need one hand free. It doesn't have to be a grand arm gesture, so there is no rules reason why a character couldn't try to keep the motions shielded from sight.

Verbal requirements must be in a "strong" voice. Does that mean loud or just clear? The only examples of hindrances to verbal components listed are silence spells and gags, both of which would affect a quiet sound as much as a loud one. A bard's verbal components are part of a performance; some songs are menat to be sung softly rather than loudly.

Why am I asking all this? A specific situation I will be running in the near future makes me question if this is a viable option.

An NPC lures the party to an area with a call for help - the NPC is actually trapped but is more interested in killing the PCs than getting free. The NPC's associates attack, the NPC's morale says that she casts spells throughout the combat. She has the trickery domain. In my mind, she lied to get the PCs there, is intelligent, and has the trickery domain so why wouldn't she continue to act helpless as long as possible while helping her allies. By the time they get to this encounter, the PCs will have reason to believe there is another member of this group who the deceitful NPC can claim has greater invisibility and blame for all these spells that are going off.

While there is no facing in combat, the PCs would, for the most part, have their backs to the trapped NPC while they fight the other NPCs, so it is reasonable that they might not see her cast. I would give them perception checks every time a spell is cast but they would take standard in-combat penalties unless someone specifically says they are going to keep an eye out for the caster rather than fight (sort of a readied action perception check to remove the in-combat penalty).

Someone suggested have them use bluff checks to cast, but if I do that then some player will start metagaming on the first or second sense motive I have them take. With perception checks I can play up the idea that there may be an invisible caster somewhere and stop this, still leaving the players the option to stop trusting the NPC but not giving them an out of character reason to mistrust her. About half the players I run into will role play suspicion even if they horribly fail their sense motive check, so it's an option I would prefer to avoid. [I would love it if Paizo could work in some PFS legal system for GMs to punish metagamers.]

So, back to the original question, would it be feasible for a GM to have an NPC cast stealthily, allowing the PCs perception checks to see who is casting?

"You point your finger and determine the range (distance and height) at which the fireball is to burst. A glowing, pea-sized bead streaks from the pointing digit and, unless it impacts upon a material body or solid barrier prior to attaining the prescribed range, blossoms into the fireball at that point. An early impact results in an early detonation. If you attempt to send the bead through a narrow passage, such as through an arrow slit, you must “hit” the opening with a ranged touch attack, or else the bead strikes the barrier and detonates prematurely."

It sounds as if normal concealment rules don't apply to fireball. When concealment would be an issue the caster just makes a touch attack (AC 5?) on the open space rather than roll a miss chance. Is this correct?

SPOILER ALERT - I am running Beneath the Silver Tarn soon - skip the next paragraph if you have not played/ran it and don't want to know what is happening.

The main purpose of the tarnspawn is to kill people and take their souls back to the tarn. Taking the soul from a dead body is a standard action. It seems reasonable that someone might try Speak With Dead on a corpse and I'm wondering if it would be possible.

END SPOILER

The main question revolves around how long does a body retain its soul after it dies. For those of you who didn't read the spoiler, there is reason to believe that for the purposes of the scenario listed above the soul stays in the body for a brief period of time after death.

The spell Speak With Dead doesn't say anything specific about the soul being present or available. The only caveat to the spell deals with it not working on bodies that have been turned to undead. What happens to the souls of the undead itself is not a clear thing.

Would a soul have to exist or at least be somewhat free (wandering around its afterlife) in order for Speak With Dead to work?

I'm making an animal speaker bard whose performances are anmal imitations. Would that be considered song or oratory?

I have a hurler barbarian who basically stand back and throws heavey weapons at people who aren't expecting it. He has the throw anything feat so he can do this.

The improvised weapons rules say to treat the object as a weapon of similar weight and properties to determine damage, so I have just been using the melee damage for each weapon to determine its improvised range weapon damage.

According to the rules if you throw a melee weapon then you treat it as an improvised ranged weapon. There is no stipulation of improvised weapons being simple, martial or exotic.

So, if I throw and exotic weapon then it becomes an improvised ranged weapon and I take no penalties for it being exotic?

Add half your oracle level to your level when determining the effects of a revelation.

Here's the example I have a question on:

Mighty Pebble (Su): As a standard action, you can charge and throw a pebble (or other stone of similar size) that detonates when it strikes a target as a ranged attack. The pebble has a range increment of 20 feet and has a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage for every four oracle levels you possess. Any creature struck by the pebble takes 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage per two oracle levels you possess (minimum 1d6). Creatures in squares adjacent to the target take half damage, or no damage if they make a Reflex saving throw. If the attack roll misses, treat the pebble as a thrown splash weapon to determine where it lands. You can use this ability once per day, plus one additional time per day at 5th level and every five levels thereafter.

The enhancement bonus to attack and damage are effects of the revelation. The number of damage dice rolled are effects of the revelation. Is the number of times/day it can be used an effect or just a condition?

Also, it gives a reflex save for half damage, but how would one figure the DC for this save? I imagine 10 + cha mod. is a part of it, but does level (or caster level) factor in to it in any way?

We've come across an aea where several zones of forbiddance have been cast and we can't afford to lose the HP discovering where the borders are by blind chance.

Is there any way to mask your alignment so that you won't be affected?

Unseen alignment specifically says that it only protects you from divination (forbiddance is abjuration).

I'm looking at the Death's Touch revelation that an oracle with the bones mystery can take:

"Death's Touch (Su): You can cause terrible wounds to appear on a creature with a melee touch attack. This attack deals 1d6 points of negative energy damage +1 point for every two oracle levels you possess. If used against an undead creature, it heals damage and grants a +2 channel resistance for 1 minute. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier."

It says nothing about a saving throw, but is described as negative energy. Other negative energy tat deals damage, like negative channels and inflict wounds spells give saving rolls for half damage. Would this behave like one of those or not? [RAW says no, but I'm sure there are GMs that would argue it should.]

Adding magical properties (corrossive, flaming, etc.) to weapons does extra damage, "...on a successful hit."

What is considered a hit? Or how does it differentiate from an attack?

A trip CMB is an attack and reason says the weapon used would have to touch the target in some way in order to trip them. So does it "hit" them on a successful CMB roll or not? But it does no damage. The magical effect specifies that it is "extra damage" but adding to zero is mathematically valid.

Along a similar vein, what if someone did a non-lethal attack with a magically enhanced wapon and didn't turn the magic off (they are hoping to knock the target out without killing the target, so they want a little lethal damage along with the non-lethal damage). Would the magic enhancement come out as non-lethal as well (since they declared a non-lethal attack) or would it be extra lethal damage on top of the weapons normal non-lethal damage? Or, option three, is it impossible to do a non-lethal attack if you are activating the magical enhancement of a weapon?

"This special ability can only be placed on melee weapons. A menacing weapon helps allies deal with flanked foes. When the wielder is adjacent to a creature that is being flanked by an ally, the flanking bonus on attack rolls for all flanking allies increases by +2. This ability works even if the wielder is not one of the characters flanking the creature."

Non-reach weapons, you have to be adjacent with a foe to threaten them so it makes sense that a weapon with the menacing ability on it would only work if you were adjacent to the foe you want to use it on.

If the menaceing ability were on a reach weapon then would it only work if you were 10 feet away from the foe? Is there an FAQ or errata that I can't find that makes menacing work on threatened foes instead of adjacent foes?

Improved Whip Mastery allows you to threaten 5 ft beyond your normal reach (a small or medium creature threatens 10 ft away).

Adding throwing to a melee. weapon inreases its range by 10 ft.

If someone added throwing to a whip, could thet threaten 20 ft with IWM? Their normal reach hasn't changed but their weapon's normal range has.

Alternately, what about wearing a glove, gauntlet or cestus that has been made a throwing weapon and wielding the whip in that hand? Now their reach with that had is 15 ft. Would IWM allow them to threaten 20 ft?

"Choose another humanoid race. You count as both human and that race for any effects related to race. For example, if you choose dwarf, you are considered both a human and a dwarf for the purpose of taking traits, feats, how spells and magic items affect you, and so on."

I am assuming that "taking traits" means the traits you can add to your character in from the APG. That is, in the example they give in the feat description, the human wouldn't gain stone cunning and darkvision and the other traits that a dwarf gets just because they are a dwarf (traits that are automatic and not "taken"). Correct?

I'm going to be in Edinburgh, Scotland in the latter half of the month and am wondering if any PFS groups meet there.

I know that the generic answer to this is "check with your GM and if he allows it...," but it's for a PFS character and therefore is not completely up to the GM's whim.

I'm rolling up a random character (because it's the only way I'll ever stop doing the same thing over and over) and came up with a tiefling arcane bomber wizard.

The arcane bomber archetype gives up focused schools in order to use bombs.
The tiefling wizard favoured class option is focused school related.
The alchemist favoured class option is bomb related.

It would make sense that such a character would use the alchemist favoured class option, but nothing in the archetype descriptor allows for this. I couldn't find anything in the FAQ's about this or a similar situation.

The simple answer is that the rules say the character can't use the alchemist FCO on wizard levels. I'm fine with that. But it also seems like the type of situation (the normal FCO being eliminated by the archetype) where there would be some sore of caveat. Is there, for this situation or any other race/archetype situation that may have had the same effect?

RAW using the weapon finesse feat is optional but if you take the agile maneuvers feat its use is mandatory. This is the way that the two feats are phrased in the CRB. Is there a reason for this?

With weapon finesse you are specifically training to use dex with certain weapons, but still maintain the ability to use str with those weapons. With agile maneuvers you are specifically training to use dex for certain combat maneuvers; why wouldn't you still maintain the ability to use str to do them as well?

One person I asked suggested that it is because there are circumstances where using str in an attack would be more beneficial than using dex, but if you chose dex for CMB then it would never be advantageous to swith to using str, so they just phrased it as a constant dex usage. However, enlarge person drops your dex and raises your str, so there are times when switching to str for CMBs could be a smart thing to do.

Is there any rational argument why taking agile maneuvers as a feat makes its use mandatory?

You get:

+2 strength bonus (+1 to mod)
-2 dexterity penalty (-1 to mod)
-1 to attacks ("due to its increased size")
-1 to AC ("due to its increased size")

All your gear grows (but shrinks if it leaves your possession)

Looking at AC - both dex and size mods drop by 1 giving you a -2 to AC, the spell says that you get a -1. Presumably the extra +1 you would get is because you got a little tougher (sort of a natural armor thing) when you got bigger.

The size modifiers on CMB and CMD are the opposite of AC. Small creatures get +1 to AC/attack but -1 to CMB/CMD. Large creatures get -1 to AC/attack but +1 to CMB/CMD. The changes in dex and strength would cancel each other out on CMD, the size mod would go to +1. Unless the -1 to attack means -1 to BAB then your CMD should actually increase by 1 with enlarge person. Even if a -1 to attack means -1 to BAB, then CMB should increase by 1 (increased size cancels out decreased BAB, increased strenth gives +1).

Is the -1 to attack just a component of the change to attack? -1 for increased size, but +1 for increased strength so no change, in most cases, for melee attacks.

I have a dex based fighter (weapon finesse, combat reflexes, agile maneuvers, etc.) that could completely dominate a room physically if someone cast enlarge person on her, but to figure out how much skill loss she would take I've got to deconstruct how Paizo interprets the effects of enlarge person (is -1 to attack due to increased size something that would translate to +1 CMB, etc.). The dex based feats are optional usage, so it's possible that using strength for attacks when enlarged would be equal to using dex while enlarged, but I'd want to be sure I was applying all the enlargement modifiers correctly before making assumptions.

How does the following look for enlarged characters (all other modifiers being equal):

Melee attacks (str based) - +1 str, -1 size = no change (+1 damage)
Melee attacks (dex based) - -1 dex, -1 size = -2 total (+1 damage)
Ranged attacks - -1 dex, -1 size, = -2 total (possible +1 damage, depending on weapon type)
CMB (str based) - +1 str, +1 size = +2 total
CMB (dex based) - -1 dex, +1 size = no change
AC - -1 (as stated in spell, I'll accept my above explanation on this one without going into to much thought)
Reflex saves - -1 dex = -1 total
Strength based skills - +1 str = +1 total
Dex based skills - -1 dex = -1 total

What resource should I be reading to find the slow and normal module guidelines?

I'm running a module for the first time and am trying to find out the difference between slow and normal. It's obvious from the chronical shhet that you get more gold for doing it normal, but so far as actually running the game is there a difference?

An attack of opportunity is specified as a melee action. Some combat maneuvers (e.g. trip or disarm) specify that they replace melee actions. How is this interpreted?

1 - It replaces a melee action therefor it can be done in any case where a melee action may be done therefor it can be done as an AOO

or

2 - It replaces a melee action therefor it is not a melee action therefor it cannot be done as an AOO?