njharman's page

> I hate this !@#$.......evrybody is loving the game except this one player.

Yeah, regardless of anything else that happened/s I would inform that player that if they are ever a dick again (scream, storm out, etc) he will no longer be welcome.

Disabled is more fun and dramatic than "Dying". Want to extend that range in both directions. I start characters at lvl 3, give max hit points and like that the disabled range stays constant as they level. You may only want it from 0 to neg.

You are disabled when your hit points equal from HD to -Con mod.

A 5th level character with 16 Constitution (+3 Mod) would be disabled from +5 to -3 hit points, dying at -4 through -15 hit points and dead at -16 or less hit points.

Similar for non-lethal and staggered.

What DM Blake said (1 arrow per mover) and ranger has super human reflexes, is highly trained to react quickly (multiple feats). Being able to let loose several arrows even when "surprised" seems reasonable.

The problem is Alignment. Esp for mundane creatures. The pathfinder detect evil tries to mitigate that. "Normal" people don't radiate strong alignment auras.

you can use fighting defnsively without attacking though.

That is called Total Defense.

> I had this vision of say, a young green dragon in a heavily wooded area, attacking from stealth and disappearing into the woods before the party has much chance to react to its presence

If there is sufficient cover, stealth doesn't matter. 100% cover or concealment means it can't be seen. I often rule dense, jungle like foliage provides soft cover after 10' and 100% cover after 30'. So if greenie move around 60', she can spring attack from and to 100% cover. Downside is players will know general area and once they move near enough will be able to see dragon.

The rise and decent of your flight would violate the "directly toward" target requirement of charge.

Some combat maneuvers can (the ones that say can be used "in place of a melee attack") others can not (ones that define that they are an action type, usually standard).

From various places in Ride

> If you direct your war-trained mount to attack in battle

> Your mount acts on your initiative count as you direct it.

That "direct" is referring to using Handle Animal skill to have mount perform one of it's known tricks, e.g. attack.

Control mount means keeping it from bolting/freaking out cause goblins are trying to bite it's ankles. Which is automatic for mounts trained for combat.

Is there something in half-orc or barbarian that gives them natural claws and bite? I couldn't find anything in quick search. Seems very odd. Normaly PC get one unarmed attack (that really sucks).

Also, For medium folks claw should be d4 and bite d6. So d6/d4/d4.

Animal companions. Players often treat them as another PC. They have only animal intelligence, can't (at least normally/at first) understand any type of speech and only perform certain simplistic tricks. I mostly hand wave, but if player is constantly abusing feel free to enforce RAW. Read Handle Animal Skill.

Yes. More generally vs spells that require attack roll.

Wtf are you talking about? CR is increased.

Determining the final CR for a creature with class levels requires careful consideration. While adding a class level to a monster that stacks with its existing abilities and role generally adds 1 to its CR for each level taken, adding classes that do not stack is more complicated.

Table: Monsters with Class Levels gives general guidelines regarding which core classes add directly to a monster's abilities based on its role. Classes that are marked “key” generally add 1 to a creature's CR for each level added. Classes marked with a “—” increase a creature's CR by 1 for every 2 class levels added until the number of levels added are equal to (or exceed) the creature's original CR, at which point they are treated as “key” levels (adding 1 to the creature's CR for each level added). Creatures that fall into multiple roles treat a class as key if either of its roles treat the class as key. Note that levels in NPC classes are never considered key.

> The chameleon can use the 'pull' special ability with every attack not only with the tongue.

That is untrue. From statblock, "Special Attacks tongue, pull (tongue, 5 ft.)"

If Chameleon hits with tongue it can grab, (CM grapple). If successful target is moved adjacent. If grapple check fails, it can attempt (CM pull) to pull it 5' closer. So, it has two chances to get tasty target closer to its bite attack.

> there is no discernible difference between a -4 to hit and a +4 to your opponents ac

In general, it matters due to multiple bonuses not stacking, but only rarely.

Small creatures (or Large targets) get Partial Cover

Partial Cover: If a creature has cover, but more than half the creature is visible, its cover bonus is reduced to a +2 to AC and a +1 bonus on Reflex saving throws. This partial cover is subject to the GM's discretion.

The cat would make all movement based checks. Cavalier has to make ride checks to stay in saddle, control mount with knees and under certain circumstances, read Ride Skill. He has to make handle Animal checks to get mount to perform any tricks it knows (such as attack). But in general a rider does not make swim, acrobats, or other move related checks.

Don't forget Ride is affected by Armor Check Penalty of the heavily armored rider. If the cat is doing things like climbing up trees and doing backwards flips you would be warranted in adding and additional -2 (or more) penalty to that check.

Also, I'd count cats as ill-suited as mounts "If you attempt to ride a creature that is ill suited as a mount, you take a –5 penalty on your Ride checks." If cat is not combat trained rider must use move action to make a DC20 check every round to control it.

Stay in Saddle DC5 + above penalties needs to be rolled whenever Cavalier takes damage. I'd also require this when cat uses acrobatics, climb, swim skills.

its all spell damage.

None of it's spell damage. Cause there is no such thing as spell damage. Some of it is Bludgeoning damage, some of it is Fire damage.

Ok, count me as one of the confused now. I always considered a full-round action to take the entirety of your turn, all your move and standard actions. Not just any move and standard action you happen to have. So, a hypothetical ability that granted an extra move action would allow you to take a move, move, standard. But, NOT a move, full-round.

Am I wrong?

Time is a resource. It is valuable. How the players utilize it is up to them. As a DM it is your job to provide players choices and consequences to those choices.

It is fine if party decides to spend 10 minutes after every battle to perfectly heal/buff/etc. But should have consequences (otherwise player choice is meaningless and you aren't playing a game, you are telling a story). For instance; the enemy gets away or worse (from player's perspective) is able to evacuate more of it's treasure, or reinforces the next encounter(s), or attacks preemptively, or random, hungry, treasureless creature sniffs party out,.

Occasionally have an external time pressure; NPC will die soon unless party returns with cure, foe they almost certainly can't defeat is stalking them through the "dungeon" and if they dally overly it will catch them.

To believe that being invisible is somehow more counterable than being merely hidden is incredibly silly.

Invisibility is much weaker than Stealth. It does not conceal sound, vibration, smell, leaving tracks, displacing water, etc. etc.

Is believable to me that I can sense the inviso mouth breather over there but might not be able to detect the silently slinking from shadow to shadow.

Would think smoke adds concealment rather than take it away.

Averting Eyes: The opponent avoids looking at the creature's face, instead looking at its body, watching its shadow, tracking it in a reflective surface, etc. Each round, the opponent has a 50% chance to avoid having to make a saving throw against the gaze attack. The creature with the gaze attack, however, gains concealment against that opponent.

I would (as adjudicating DM) use that [50% chance of avoiding and enemies in area you are trying to not look at gain concealment vs you] as basis of averting eyes. If players say they are closing their eyes they gain blind condition until their next turn.

Delay is not an action a Character takes. It is an action the Player takes. It is a game artifact of initiative, players taking turns separately, etc.

Delay is a meta-game action that does not interact with in-game effects. Delay, delays when the player takes their turn. The character is not idling away the seconds. The character is not actually delaying.

The six second round is abstract. Good initiative doesn't mean you go in the first second, and poor initiative doesn't mean you are moving in the last second. Each character is doing their thing for the full six seconds. EVEN when the player is delaying.

Finally, do you really need someone else to tell you how to handle every single vague situation? DM up and decide how it works in your game. Done. Stop endlessly posting and go play some Pathfinder.

> How would you rule Flying Celestial Gorilla Elbow Drop

I would rule that, flippin awesome!

> It can't take any other actions.

> cannot take any actions

Are not the same limitations. First forces you to take the defined action (flee at top speed) and no others. The other disallows you to take any action. If delay is not an action you can't do it in first case because you are forced to flee at top speed. Can do it in second case. If you believe delay is an action you can't do it in either case.

> This works just like the overrun combat maneuver, but the trampling creature does not need to make a check

Doesn't need to but can. I'd roll just to see if it's 5 over and knocks target prone. That or rule you are knocked prone unless you make save. But, I like things to make sense more than I like them to match RAW.

Magic Trap: For a spell trap or magic device trap, the base CR is 1. The highest-level spell used modifies the CR (see CR Modifiers for Magic Traps).

Average Damage: If a trap (mechanical or magical) does hit point damage, calculate the average damage for a successful hit and round that value to the nearest multiple of 10. If the trap is designed to hit more than one target, multiply this value by 2. If the trap is designed to deal damage over a number of rounds, multiply this value by the number of rounds the trap will be active (or the average number of rounds, if the duration is variable). Use this value to adjust the Challenge Rating of the trap, as indicated on Table: CR Modifiers for Mechanical Traps. Damage from poison does not count toward this value, but extra damage from pit spikes and multiple attacks does.

For a magic trap, only one modifier applies to the CR—either the level of the highest-level spell used in the trap, or the average damage figure, whichever is larger

Personally I think the perception and disarm modifiers from mechanical traps maybe should apply to magical traps. But, not RAW. Base is 1, multiple targets 2x damage CR

1 + (18(3.5)(1.5)/10)(2) = CR19 trap

"The subject of a fly spell can charge but not run" would cause me to lean towards saying no running flight.

The skill check would be 5 + 15 (CL) + 5 (ignoring CL) or DC25. Is that really easy to attain? Any failure is loss of materials. Sounds costly, 50 days and 25,000gp.

Creating a magic weapon has a special prerequisite: The creator's caster level must be at least three times the enhancement bonus of the weapon.

It says "special prerequisite". Which could be interpreted to being not ignorable via +5 check which only mentions "prerequisite".

What Anguish said. Don't try to apply literal "same amount of mist obscuring each of their vision" to the abstract 6 second round, combat or grid systems. Only madness lies in that direction.

Take CR system with grain of salt. The difficulty of encounter depends on many factors not represented in CR. Although if you read entire encounter rules they mention you should adjust for these.

Some players **highly** optimize their characters/play, others not so much. Some combinations of characters/spells/abilities are extremely synergistic, Or devastating vs certain monster types, in certain situations etc.

As you run your group you'll get a feel for their strengths and weaknesses. Give them some encounters that play to their strengths and some that challenge their weaknesses. Keep it varied. It is extremely boring and unsatisfying for every encounter to be same level of difficulty. Some should be walkovers, many easy, several tough, and few (endboss) very hard. It sounds like that's exactly what you had.

Like all companions, you use the companion statblock and add per level adjustments. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/magical-beasts/hippogriff

Hippogriff Companion

Starting Statistics: Size Large; Speed 40 ft., fly 50 ft. (average); AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite 1d6; Ability Scores Str 15, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 9; Special Qualities darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent.

4th-Level Advancement: Speed fly 100 ft. (average); Attack bite 1d6, 2 claws 1d4; Ability Scores Dex +2, Con +2.

The question is, "What happens to that extra Move Action when you instead use a Full-Round Action - an action type that specifically says it uses up all your effort for the round and does not work with any kind of movement other than a 5-ft step?"

It says the "only movement you can take DURING a full-round action". Which clearly does not apply to movement DURING an extra move action.

re "uses up all your effort" is the default rule. The same as "uses up all your effort" that a move+standard or move+move does. If you are granted an extra action, that is clearly an exception to the default rule. Specific trumps general. An extra move action would allow move+full-round, move+move+standard, or move+move+move.

> Immediate actions don't count as a standard, move, or swift action, they occur instantly

Actually Immediate action take time and do use up your "swift action slot"

...consumes a very small amount of time consumes a very small amount of time...

and

Using an immediate action on your turn is the same as using a swift action and counts as your swift action for that turn. You cannot use another immediate action or a swift action until after your next turn if you have used an immediate action when it is not currently your turn (effectively, using an immediate action before your turn is equivalent to using your swift action for the coming turn). You also cannot use an immediate action if you are flat-footed.

> but with a +10 to your roll, that's a 55 % chance of success if you roll a 10 or more. So you'll fail roughly half the time with with a masterwork item,

You are not a master with only +10 Craft. Would not expect you to be able to craft masterwork items.

Learn to google http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-handed_glaive
And to follow the rule of cool. Hint, google that.