halig feax's page

Hello, all.

Been pondering spell usage for an upcoming campaign. Planning to play a Str build magus (Bladebound/Soul Forger). The main apprehension I have about the class is getting stuck using Shocking Grasp forever. As follows: 1st level combat starts... "what do you do?"... "I use Shocking Grasp through my sword"... 18th level combat... "what do you do?"... "rinse and repeat... but intensify."

...Although easy and optimal, it sounds boring to me. Combats are more interesting when there is more variety, by my preference.

The main alternative I've read about is using frostbite, and that leads me (finally) to my question. The spell does nonlethal damage specifically. What has your experience been with that detail? Has it made the spell useless, or made things more interesting?

Any advice on alternatives, or simply on frostbite, would be greatly appreciated.

All the best

Hello, reader!

I'm in process of building a 1st-20th level campaign frontline character for a 3-person party. Thinking a Tiefling Magus. Mixing the magus archetypes of Nature-bonded and Magic Warrior has really intrigued me. While I feel I have a handle on managing AC progression, I'm not so sure about damage progression.

Giving up the arcane pool is pretty big sacrifice for the archetype; and while getting two druid spells is awesome (one at every new spell level from Nature-Bonded and another at 19th level from Magic Warrior), I'm not convinced that spells alone can keep the class damage solvent. To solve that, and make the class a bit more interesting, I was considering a two level dip into the Titan Mauler Barbarian archetype (Jotungrip and a Rage Power). Though the build would lose a druid spell per spell level (ouch), if it had over-sized limbs as a tielfing trait, it could wield large-sized two-handed weapons with one hand. Couple that with a high crit weapon like the nodachi and the enlarge person spell and you've got quite a bit of damage per hit (not to mention a few rounds of rage if it runs out spells or something).

I'm not really to trying to make an all-around-monster, just making sure I don't have beer-goggles for a build that is trash in reality.

Thanks for reading and any advice/insight you're willing to share.

P.S. Also looking at a Soul Forger/Bound Blade, but I'm not fluent with it enough to know its merits over the choice above. I'm not precious with my choice of race or build yet.

Instead of a sorcerer consider going arcanist instead. That way you still have the ability to swap out your spells, and you also get access to exploits.

I totally agree on arcanist. Good chance it's the most versatile arcane spontaneous caster. The problem with that choice have nothing do with mechanics, though. Our group is finishing up a full campaign where I've been playing an arcanist all the way through. The other players and myself don't want to do repeats –as much as I've come to love that class.

You could be a Nature Fang and frontline for the group too.

I like the idea of a druid quite a bit. That would be good for balancing casting attributes for skills as well: Witch–Int, Oracle–Cha, Druid–Wis. Animal companions are so great for soaking damage and blocking movement, so we'll have to consider this.

A lot of really good ideas. This is what I love about magic in Pathfinder, and why I'm so keen on a full caster party. There is always a way around a problem if you can turn creativity into versatility.

Not entirely sure of party dynamic yet, but it seems to be shaking up to:

• Witch (time patron; human/tiefling/or samsaran) ; Might switch up the class for something like an Occultist, or perhaps a Shaman (as suggested by PCScipio).
• Oracle (Life domain; kitsune)
• Undecided, maybe a sorcerer (unknown bloodline; unknown race)

Hello, all!

A party of three, including myself, are considering a full caster party –starting at 1st level and going to 20th level. Could be a really fun dynamic.

As to ability, we'll have an array of spells ranging from divine and arcane, to buff/debuff, and blasting. We should be good on all that. We'll just have to play smart and be creative. That's not the problem. The problem is when magic isn't an option, like a magic immune golem.

If the three of us get surprised by a golem and can't get away, we're screwed. What about some other similar problems of magic not working?

Any advice out there?

Thanks for reading.

Hmm, could you cast it on a siege weapon and as long as the caster was touching the weapon could someone else fire it?

Makes sense, and the verbiage agrees with the mechanics. Just seems a bit odd to make the spell that susceptible to misinterpretation.

That's a good question! If the inquisitor is using the weapon, and since there isn't a size limitation in the spell's wording, it seems like something that could be done.

For context, our inquisitor was wanting to cast this spell on our paladin's weapon.

My party came across an interesting section of wording in this spell which seems to contradict itself:

"With a touch, you cause a glowing rune to appear on a single weapon, granting that weapon the flaming property (and allowing it to cause an extra 1d6 points of fire damage on a successful hit). If you are using the judgment class feature, your weapon gains the flaming burst property instead. The spell functions only for weapons that you wield. If the weapon leaves your hand for any reason, the spell effect ends. The effects of this spell do not stack with any existing flaming or flaming burst weapon property that the target weapon may already possess."

However, the spell has a range of touch and a target of weapon touched.

By the text of the spell, does this mean that the spell is actually personal only?

Thanks for reading, and for any insight.

If the spell isn’t on your list, you need to use Use Magic Device. That’s true for both wands and scrolls. The DC is more or less 27 for the scroll vs. 20 to use the wand, but a scroll is 20 times cheaper. Also depends on what class you are allowed to buy it as; hypercognition is on different lists at different levels, PFS standard is to go as Wizard first, where it’s a 4th with CL 7, but it would be cheaper if you were allowed to buy it from a different class.

That makes sense, UMD-wise. Hypercognition comes out of Occult Adventures, so it's pretty rare to find available for purchase. Perhaps I could teach it to a wizard in a city in exchange for a scroll of it.

Will the DM allow you to craft or commission a custom magic item?

You could make something like the following

Helm of Deep Thought

Aura faint divination; CL 7th; Slot head; Price 1,440 gp; Weight 3 lbs.

DESCRIPTION

This copper helm is etched with swirling lines that seem to shimmer and shift. The helm must be worn for 24 hours in order to attune its self to the wearer before it can be used. Once the attuned the wearer may use hypercognition as per the spell once per week upon command.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS

Craft Wondrous Item, hypercognition; Cost 720 gp.

The custom magic item is a cool idea, but my GM is a unlikely to allow custom magic item creation (I've tried before with creating weaker items than this).

Why not a scroll instead of wand? You need umd either way.

Scroll is a good option. Just not entirely sure on how the rules work for arcane casters trying to cast arcane spells not on their list. The only rules I've found in the Core Rulebook say that casters with the spell on their list can use the scrolls, unless not high enough level which requires a check. Couldn't find anything else.

Just buy the wand.

Cool.

Playing a RotRL campaign with a party of five, and we're all 8th level. I play a human arcanist. One of our newer members, a samsaran mesmerist, can't recall some of the memories from his past lives. I had an idea of a way to help him remember, but the spell needed to do so is personal only and not on his spell-list --hypercognition.

Is there a way for him to cast a 4th level spell not on his spell-list?

So far the only way I've thought of is to put the spell in a wand. However my character doesn't have Craft Wand, so it would be a protracted strategy: teaching the spell to a person who can craft wands; pay them to craft the wand; the samsaran uses the wand to cast the spell on himself.

Considering the time and money, that's not an attractive strategy because he probably will only need to cast the spell once --and crafting a 4th level wand with 50 charges is absolute overkill for role play.

Thanks for your interest and help.

Ah, the reference is in the the first book of Second Darkness, Shadow in the Sky, on page 16.

These are all really great ideas.

I've been using the mass exchange that 50 coins = lbs, so the Animal Messenger idea seem the cheapest with the least amount of risk. Plus, we have a druid in our party so that makes it easy.

Would Shrink Item work if all the gold were placed in a chest and the spell cast on the chest? I'm unsure if the spell would shrink only the chest, or the chest and the gold. Based on the wording of the spell I would say only the chest, but apparently this tactic was used in Second Darkness somewhere (though I'm not sure where).

However, I am partial to the idea of buying the GM some choice beers for a little bribery.

Currently a player in an AP. Looking to send gold back to the town we've been staying in so they can hire more guards to scout the perimeter of the town -about 10 guards for a certain amount of time.

It would be about 3-5 days of shipping by boat. Looking for a way to send about 1100 gp in a way that significantly reduces risk of theft.

At first I considered using Arcane Lock (my character is an 8th level Arcanist). However, I want those receiving it to be able to open it so that strategy is counterproductive.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

None, I think. It's probably easier to enlarge the paladin with juggernaut's pauldrons or similar, though that wouldn't exactly be inconspicuous.

Yeah. That's kind of what I'm thinking would be the most simple and cheap solution.

What about Polymorph, Greater Polymorph, and/or Polymorph Any Object to transform the Dragon into an animal, then feed him Shrinking Berries to reduce his size?

Good options, thanks.

Can't think of any items, but carry companion is a common spell. The Silver Champion has a weird spell list, but you could cast it for him.

I do really like the options that spell would provide. My PC is becoming more party-centric in his casting as time goes on, so it could be a nice role-play moment as well.

Rift drakes are evil - how is he using him as a paly?

This question is unrelated to the goal of this thread. However, I like it and appreciate the intention of sticking to the rules so I'll answer it. The player who is running the Silver Champion is a first time player and the archetype was his idea after he had delved into the complexity of Pathfinder character progression for the first time. His interpretation was not correct -as is common for first time players- but our GM decided to work with his excitement for the game rather than squashing it. In order to keep balance, however, the GM changed the stats of the drake to prevent it from being OP and continues to put heavy role-play constraints in the player -to be expected for bringing a usually evil drake into town. It's not strict to the rules, it's for the interest and fun of the player.

Who else is in your group?

Carry companion doesn't have to be your own companion.

6th level human acranist (me)

we also had a 5th level human druid, but that player has stepped out of the game due to scheduling.

he could put the enchantment on a tower shield and carry the drake around that way. The shield its self could be dragged around using a floating disk spell.

Great idea. Especially since he's considering changing to medium armor to lessen some of the penalties to his ride checks.

Greeting, all.

Currently playing a RotRL campaign as an arcanist. One of the party is a silver champion paladin with a rift drake as his companion.

I've been looking into ways that he could transport his drake more inconspicuously -such as the hosteling enchantment on his heavy armor. He loves this idea since his drake will emblazon on his full plate every time it enters his armor.

But there is a problem down the road. Once the drake gets to level 15 with him, it will be more than one category size larger than him -too big to work with the enchantment.

My question is this: are there any paizo official magic items that can reduce the size of an animal companion while worn?

Thanks for your time

All very helpful. Thanks, folks.

Rather fond of the cyclic reincarnation option.

*Possible spoilers for Rise of the Runelords*

Hey, all. Looking for some advice/discussion how how to become immortal via non-undead arcane means.

Playing a NG Human/Varisian Arcanist in Rise of the Runelords, and we're only halfway through Book 2. After coming across the failed lich at Misgivings, he's beginning to wonder if there is a way to gain immortality without becoming some sort of undead. He's well read concerning Thassilon, and is wondering how the Runelords could have lived as long as history suggests.

As a player, I'm looking for possible ways that could be fun for role-play on how he can gain immortality without becoming undead -and that don't exceed Paizo official material.

I realized that the Arcane Discovery Immortality is Wizard only, so that's out, and the best I've found is as follows: a demiplane that stops aging, clone spell, and magic jar -so his real body stays in the plane while clones keep going out into the world.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.