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I'm building a dwarf fighter and want him to specialize in either the Pickaxe (2H weapon) or the Heavy Pick (1H weapon) plus a shield. Both weapons have a 4x crit multiplier, so I want to be critting often.

How should I go about building him?
Any Archetypes to recommend?
What about 2H-weapon vs. sword(pick) and board?

I want to create a character that works as a bounty hunter and has a pack of hunting dogs. At least 1 dog should be an Animal Companion, but 2 or more would be nice. I'll supplement the pack with regular trained dogs, not bonded in any special way.

To accomplish this, there seem to be 2 obvious paths:
1. Cavalier with the Hunter Archetype
2. Ranger with the Beastmaster Archetype

Both allow you to split your animal companion levels between multiple beasts. By using Boon Companion and a few other tricks, this means you can eventually get 2-3 solid Animal Companions.

But which is better?

The cavalier gets an animal at 1st level, so will have more total levels to divide among his animals, but the ranger has bonus feats and favored terrains and all that other good ranger stuff, which might be worth the trade-off. The campaign begins at 5th level and will probably go all the way to 20th.

I'm building a Duergar Druid for a campaign that will take place 90% underground. I need an Animal Companion with Darkvision or Blindsense to find its way around. A Climb speed would also be nice.

What are your suggestions?
Virtually all of the Vermin familiars (slug, centipede, spiders, scorpions, cockroaches, etc.) would work, but they're so rarely used I can't find much info on how to optimize them. Dire Bat and Giant Mantis are also strong contenders.

I'm entering an underdark campaign and want to play some kind of earth-based character. I'm looking at sorcerers, druids, oracles, clerics, witches, etc. Anything that can be based on the element of Earth. What are some of the most interesting options?

Starting a new campaign soon in which I and the other PCs are playing a coven of witches. There will be 3 or 4 players, all Witches, and I'm looking for advice on how we can best work together to overcome some of the inherent weaknesses of a one-class party.

What Archetypes/Patrons/Hexes/etc best complement one another? We'll be using the Coven hex for sure. That one's obvious.

What we don't want to do is try to build a tank witch, healing witch, dps witch, and all those other roles that are found in a normal mixed-class party. What we're after is some unique Witch-specific ways to be powerful and successful, not just ways to make a Witch into another class.

Thanks in advance for your ideas.

I’m building a new Witch character and I want to use the Revenge patron. Because it’s from the Horror Adventures expansion book, it’s not addressed in any of the common Witch Guides. Several of its bonus spells improve your melee attacks or shape change you into a melee attacker. These are the spells:

Revenge: 2nd—magic fang; 4th—slipstream; 6th—rage; 8th—moonstruck; 10th—beast shape III; 12th—vengeful outrage; 14th—phantasmal revenge; 16th—seamantle; 18th—storm of vengeance. Source PZO1135

So my question is, how do I go about building a melee witch? They are not generally front-line fighters. What are your suggestions for feats, archetypes, and other things that would mesh well with this patron?

I'm GMing an upcoming game where one PC will be dueling an old rival in a Trial By Combat. It's a HUGE deal for this one character and has been building for the past 15 levels.

My question is: What should I have the other players do? This fight could very well take the entire evening by itself, and I don't want them to be bored.

- Rescuing him is not an option. He intends to fight this battle and win it fair and square.
- Helping him is not an option. It's 1-on-1 and the PC does not intend to cheat.
- It doesn't make roleplaying sense for them to skip this event and go elsewhere because it's so big and important.

So...suggestions? It doesn't have to be combat, I just want the RL players to have something to do other than watch.

I'm a GM, and one of my PCs is an Orc Ranger. He will soon be returning to his old orc tribe to challenge the Chieftain to 1 v 1 combat for control of the tribe. What should I pick as far as class/feats/fighting style/etc to make the Chieftain a challenging and unique opponent?

The PC is:
- 18th level Ranger/2nd level Cleric/1st level Mammoth Rider
- Two-weapon fighter, wielding a pair of flaming short swords
- Gets 7 attacks per round, from feats and other stuff
- Animal Companion is an Arsinoitherium (neolithic Rhino) grown to size Huge. Will only be allowed in the duel if the Chieftain also has an animal helper of some kind.

The only necessity for the Chieftain is that he should be tough, grizzly, and Orcish in nature. I know rogues and swashbucklers and other flouncy Dex builds make great duelists, but they're just not Orcish enough. Also, the Chieftain is of Evil alignment, so no Paladins. His alignment could be Lawful/Chaotic/Neutral as needed.

Suggestions?

I have a NG priestess in my campaign who died and has been brought back as a Greater Banshee. She has retained her NG alignment and all previous powers, skills, and memories through GM fudging and clever use of a Wish* spell.

*(In my campaigns, a Wish spell can do literally anything, but its wording is also subject to GM interpretation that is often disastrous or counter to what the player intended.)

So now I have a NG undead priestess of a good deity. My question is about Channel Energy:

Can she still channel Positive Energy, even though she's undead? Will it hurt her? Or, does she have to channel Negative Energy now that she's undead, which would heal her but hurt her fellow party members?

I have a player using Cloud Shape, which is mostly the same as Gaseous Form except you're a bigger cloud and can move faster.

He wants to drift into the body of an enemy, then turn himself back to normal shape, thus exploding out of the enemy's body and killing it. Should I allow that?

The text of Gaseous Form specifically says they cannot attack while in that form. So would drifting into an enemy's lungs be considered an attack?

And does it make a difference if the enemy is breathing? A live enemy might just accidentally inhale you, whereas with a non-breathing undead enemy, the cloud would have to force its way down.

If a wizard's arcane bond item is a staff, wand, or weapon, they have to hold it in one hand to cast. Casters also need a free hand to cast spells with somatic components.

Is it possible for these to be the same hand?

If not, is there a feat or something (other than Still Spell) that would allow a wizard to cast while holding their arcane bond item in one hand and something else in the other hand?

Follow-up question: What if the other item is a shield? Can they put their wand/weapon/staff in the shield hand and cast a spell?

Thanks in advance.

Deadhand Style is an unarmed combat style feat with the following power:

Benefit(s): While using this style, if you have at least 1 point in your ki pool, you gain a +2 bonus on saves against fear effects, and the DC of Intimidate checks against you increases by 4. As a swift action, you can spend 1 point from your ki pool to empower your unarmed strikes. Creatures hit with your unarmed strikes must succeed at a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Wisdom modifier) or become shaken for a number of rounds equal to your Wisdom modifier. This is a mind-affecting fear effect.

Copy-pasted that from the PFSRD. Now I have 2 questions:

1) Does the shaken effect stack? Could this be used to make an enemy frightened or panicked?

2) If you use a ki point to "empower your unarmed strikes" how long does that last?

Later feats in the chain (Deadhand Initiate, Deadhand Master) do not cause fear of any type to an opponent.

One of the PCs in my game is a ranger and just acquired a Roc animal companion (the giant birds).

Rocs are size Gargantuan, but when they're animal companions they get no larger than size Large. I'd like to find a way around that, to allow the PC to get a full-sized Roc.

I know the Mammoth Hunter prestige class lets certain land animal companions grow to size Huge, but it can't be applied to rocs.

I could just house-rule it to allow Mammoth Hunter to apply to rocs and adjust the powers, but that's dull and clunky. I'd prefer if there were another way. Something I don't have to house-rule.

Suggestions?

What does it take to knock someone off a wall or the ceiling when they're using Spider Climb? A particular Strength check? Or a combat maneuver of some kind? What are the modifiers?

Also, can someone use Spider Climb to grip more securely to regular ground? If so, what kind of bonuses (if any) would it give their CMD vs. Trip, Bull Rush, Overrun, and other maneuvers?

I have a ranger PC in my game whose animal companion is size Huge, from the Mammoth Hunter prestige class. He also happens to own some Slippers of Spider Climb. He had a couple of questions for me, and I wasn't sure how to answer:

1) Can he use the Slippers to climb up the side of the animal? The creature is an Arsinoitherium (neolithic Rhinoceros) so it's sides are big, flat, broad, with smooth skin. Seems like an ok climbing surface to me, but I don't know.

2) If the Slippers do work against the animal's flesh, then would they give him some kind of bonus to his Ride skill? Because he could hold on tighter, it would be harder to fall off or get knocked off.

Here's the scenario:

A 10th-level caster is using Wall of Fire inside a small, cramped dungeon room. At his level, he can make a wall up to 200ft long. The room is only 35ft wide, but if he lines up the wall just right, it could theoretically extend into a very long hallway, reach its full 200ft potential, and effect a LOT more people. The caster, however, cannot see into that hallway because of his placement in the room. He can see the 35ft stretch across the room that would start this wall, but he can't see into the hallway where the other 265ft of it would spring up.

Does the spell extend into the hallway? To full length?
How does a constricted line of sight effect this spell?

I've read a few guides on Bloodlines and a few guides on Familiars, but have yet to see this question thoroughly addressed. What do you think about the Bloodline Familiars from the Familiar Folio?

Is the benefit of a familiar worthwhile if you lose a bloodline power and get bonus spells one level later?

For which Bloodlines is it a better or worse trade-off?

Has anyone delved into this and written a guide for it?

I've been toying with the concept of a character who has tremendous, nearly unbelievable good luck. The RPing side of this is that he believes himself to be blessed by a Luck deity (but is not necessarily a cleric) and thus feels invincible. Every time he does something foolish and survives anyway, his faith is renewed.

In game terms, I would want to emphasize these 3 things in the character:
1. High saving throws.
2. Opportunities to re-roll things, roll twice, or similar.
3. Bonuses to AC other than wearing armor.

What kind of character would this be? What class would you choose, and how would you spec him?

[Edit]: My DM doesn't allow Hybrid classes, Alchemists, or Gunslingers. He says the former are too OP and the latter two aren't fantasy enough - which I more or less agree with.

From the Special Materials entry for dragon hide:

"By selecting only choice scales and bits of hide, an armorsmith can produce one suit of masterwork banded mail for a creature two sizes smaller, one suit of masterwork half-plate for a creature three sizes smaller, or one masterwork breastplate or suit of full plate for a creature four sizes smaller."

My PCs just killed a size Huge dragon. Are you telling me they can only get one breastplate for a Tiny-sized creature from all that hide? Because Tiny is four size categories below Huge. That makes no sense at all. Could someone please explain this to me?

Elephants are Huge creatures in the Bestiary, which makes sense. As Animal Companions, though, they start Medium and grow to Large. Horses are Large. Elephants should be bigger than horses.

How could a druid character go about getting his elephant companion up to size Huge? And I mean permanently, not just temporarily with a spell.

I have a PC who has recently captured an intelligent plant and he would like to domesticate it and train it as a useful companion. The creature in question is called a Thorny. It's the same size and shape as a dog, moves around and acts like a dog, yet it is technically a plant and not an animal. I put a link to it at the bottom, but the important points are here:

- Thorny is a Plant, not an Animal.
- Thornies have Intelligence of 6.
- Thornies cannot speak, but understand the language of Vegepygmy.
- Both Thornies and Vegepygmies are created by Russet Mold.
- The PC in question is a Barbarian, so no chance of an Animal Companion or Familiar.

How should I adjudicate this? Having the creature with him would be fun and really fit his character. He's covered in spikes, much like the Thorny; it's his "thing". Also, he's a great role-player so I really want to be nice and let him have this.

The way I see it I have 3 options, but maybe some of you can suggest others...

1. Do it with Handle Animal skill, just like rearing a wild animal, teaching it tricks, etc. Give him some kind of penalty to the skill check (-4?) because it's a plant instead of an animal...yet, wouldn't the Thorny's higher intelligence make it easier to train? Hard to say. Perhaps I could use Knowledge(Nature) to make the checks instead of Handle Animal? (The PC has points in both skills, but is not extraordinarily good at either)

2. Get the PC to learn the Vegepygmy language. This would require a side-quest where they seek out the vegepygmy and/or some kind of magical item that would enable him to speak that language. Once he's able to talk to the Thorny, it's just a matter of brokering a deal to work together. Int 6 is high enough that the Thorny could be convinced to work with him, rather than being "trained". More like allies than master/pet.

3. Convince the PC to take the Leadership feat at 7th level (he is currently 6th) at which time the Thorny can become his Cohort. Until 7th level is reached he'll have to feed and care for the Thorny, which role-plays out the bonding between them and helps the leader/cohort relationship make sense.

Which do you think is best? Or is there a 4th option I've overlooked? Any insight is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Thorny: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/plants/thorny

I have a PC with a climbing harness and an Immovable Rod. What he wants to do is latch his climbing harness and rope to the rod, jump off a cliff, then activate the rod mid-air and catch himself there, hanging in the harness from the rod.

My questions are:

1) How much fall damage would he incur? The normal amount, or does being caught by the harness reduce it in some way? If so, by how much?

2) What check/roll would be used to determine if the rope/carabiner/whatever slides off one end of the rod? As far as I know, there's nothing on the ends of an immovable rod that would stop them from sliding off. If the PC didn't freeze the rod in place exactly level, he'd slide off one end, wouldn't he? Even if it was level, swinging or other lateral movement could cause it to slide one way or the other.

I've written myself into a problem that, in hindsight, I should have seen coming:

The PCs in my game are all infected with a monster that will consume their souls when they die and burst forth from their bodies to become servants of an evil god. The PCs were originally united by their common goal of finding a cure for this magical parasite.

However, because the bad stuff only happens after they die, they sort of don't care about it anymore. I thought preserving their souls would be enough of a role-playing incentive, but I was wrong. Now they're way off track from the plot and barely giving a second thought to finding this cure.

My current idea is to have this monster inside them manifest in parts, while they're still alive, instead of just all at once when they die. A gradual mutation. Of course there's two possible outcomes with that and neither of them really satisfy me:

1. The mutations make them weak/ugly and I'm considered unfair for inflicting them. The PCs hate me and feel like they're not really in control of their own actions anymore.
2. They end up liking the mutations (Cool! I'm a monster!) and now they'll never want the cure at all.

What should I do?

Can you think of a better way to make this work? Or a different way I could motivate them to start caring about the cure again?

Thanks in advance.