ohako's page

Right. So, I have an unchained eidolon, and I know there is at least a little variance about taking evolutions from Ultimate Magic, buu~uut if hooves were okay with a GM...

horseshoes of sacred silver: These mithral horseshoes are imbued with heavenly power. They grant the holy weapon special ability to the wearer’s hoof attacks, and if the wearer hits an evil-aligned target with both hooves in the same round, the target is staggered for 1 round (Fortitude DC 16 negates). In addition, the wearer gains a +2 sacred bonus on bull rush, drag, and overrun combat maneuvers. If the wearer is a mount and the rider uses the Trample feat, add 2 to the rider’s overrun combat maneuver check. If the wearer uses the trample special ability, increase the trample DC by 2; if the target fails its save against the trample attempt, add the damage from the holy weapon special ability to the trample damage.

1. These are some of the very few horseshoes that do not say you have to wear all four. An eidolon with only two hooves could wear them just fine.

So, hooray to whoever wrote these! They are perfect for a hooved, evil eidolon who wants their feet to count for something.

I'm not talking about armor armor, you know. I know that's against the rules. However...

maiden's helm
guardian gorget
vambraces of defense
inhereitor's gauntlet

This is, what, maybe 1/3 of the way towards full plate? and it's totally okay for a druid to use these without losing their powers? or, a wizard with no arcane spell failure chance? or an eidolon at all?

Also, while I'm here, how come there are no magic greaves or sabatons? Can someone provide an example of one of those I missed?

cat people. When it's 10 million BC and the lizards are running around with empires and ziggurats and what-not: cat people

So, asking why isn't there a cha based druid makes as much sense as asking why isn't there a cha based witch class.

Seducer witch. It’s really crazy, but it does exist.

Hey, now that I think about it, a Fey bloodline sorcerer mashed with a feyspeaker druid would make a non-awful mystic theurge. Neat.

Or, for a twist in the opposite direction, there's the Sylvan Sorcerer. You get a few druid spells, an animal companion, and you cast based on Charisma.

So, there's options, is all I'm saying.

there's a druid archetype for that? The Feyspeaker.

It's kind of okay. I kind of like it for a faerie druid, but it messes with a lot of the base druid bits. Take the Fire domain along with that, and you've got some blasting, some illusion, and a ton of nature-y druid spells. Not too shabby, but not amazing.

a frozen lake, I mean, a really frozen lake, has several feet of ice between you and the water. It's flat, clear (no trees or grass), and very, very white.

Hide a MacGuffin in the middle of a large frozen lake, and assault the players with advanced shadows in the middle of a blizzard. He, he, he...

1st-level magic can be used to perform assault, arson, and seduction. Cast anything, anything at all out in the open, and it should be well and rightly assumed that you're trying to do one of those three things. There's three ways around this problem:

1. Be way more powerful than your opposition. If DBZ dudes could cast spells, nobody's going to arrest them for casting. Good luck with that.
2. Have a bond of trust with the people around you. This is why it's usually okay to trust casting in church by a clergy, or perhaps publicly in a courtroom. One problem: while spellcasting effects manifest, it's not like the results generally do. You can discern lies all day, but if it's your word against theirs, then that gets tricky.
3. Use subtrefuge powers. For the OP, look into one level of the enchanting courtesan prestige class. That'll let you get away with interesting divinations, no problem.

I've got an escaped slave halfling summoner who managed to summon up a demon to murder his master and escape to freedom. Problem is...now she won't go away!

What, you think that if you ask for help from beyond the realms of humanity that only an angel'll show up? Hah! Now let's go kill some more mortals!

Blistering Feint: You gain a +2 bonus on feint checks made while wielding a weapon that deals fire damage. Anytime you successfully feint a creature while using such a weapon, you may deal its fire damage to the enemy.

Okay, 1) can you use this feat with battle poi?

battle poi: This pair of arm-length chains has handles at one end and heavy fuel-soaked torch heads at the other. The weight of the poi is insufficient to deal physical damage, but the burning fuel deals fire damage. If you are proficient in battle poi, you are treated as if you have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat for the purposes of making poi attacks. Poi can be extinguished by spending a full round action smothering them in sand or submerging them in water.

2) If you enchant your poi into a +1 flaming battle poi, does that mean that the damage from your Blistering Feint is now 1d4+1d6+1?

So let's add some more fun to the mix

Ranged Feint: You can feint with a ranged weapon by throwing a thrown weapon or firing one arrow, bolt, bullet, or other piece of ammunition; this feint takes the same action as normal to feint, but depending on your weapon, you might have to reload or draw another weapon afterwards. When you successfully use a ranged feint, you deny that enemy its Dexterity bonus to AC against your ranged attacks as well as your melee attacks for the same duration as normal. If your feints normally deny a foe its Dexterity bonus to AC against attacks other than your own, this applies only against others’ melee attacks.

3) Can you deal fire damage to a target by using Blistering Feint and Ranged Feint with, say, a +1 flaming longbow?

And then there's this one

Equipment Trick (cloak): Distracting Cloak (Stealth 3 ranks): When you attempt a Bluff check to feint, you can use your cape to create a diversion instead of denying your opponent his Dexterity bonus to AC. Compare the result of your Bluff check against the feint DC of each opponent that can see you (DC = 10 + the opponent’s base attack bonus + the opponent’s Wisdom modifier, or 10 + the opponent’s Sense Motive bonus if he is trained in Sense Motive and this bonus is higher). You can attempt a Stealth check to hide from any opponent that you successfully feint against in this manner, even if that opponent is observing you. If you do not have cover or concealment against any of these targets at the start of each of their turns, they automatically spot you at that time.

4) If I feint against every creature that can see me while I'm holding a battle poi, even if I don't deny them Dex to AC, do I still get to deal fire damage as a sort of AoE?:

I thought asking more dumb questions about doing this with rogues and swashbucklers and mesmerists, but I think that's been pretty well beaten into the ground already.

Alright, let's do this again

Mr. Shine, Him Diamond
Human (Ulfen), alignment LN
cave druid 7/unchained monk 1/ulfen guard 3
traits: Gruff Watcher, Surface Stranger
starting abilities
Str 17, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 15, Cha 8
Skills (4 ranks per level, thanks humanity!)
max ranks in Perception and Acrobatics
half ranks in Knowledge (nobility), Knowledge (dungeoneering), Survival, and Sense Motive
+7 hit points from FCB, maaaybe 1 rank of Linguistics for Undercommon
feats/powers
cave druid 1 Spell Focus (conjuration), Augment Summoning
cave druid 2 --
cave druid 3 Sunlight Summons
cave druid 4 -- (+1 Strength)
cave druid 5 Moonlight Summons
cave druid 6 -- (retrain Sunlight Summons and Moonlight Summons to Natural Spell and Shaping Focus)
unchained monk 1 Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Combat Reflexes, Feral Combat Training (slam) (also retrain your other two feats to Dragon Style and Dragon Ferocity) (also buy an opalescent white pyramid ioun stone keyed to slam attacks, and shove it into a wayfinder for Weapon Focus (slam))
ulfen guard 1 guard dedication (Deflect Arrows)
ulfen guard 2 Vital Strike
ulfen guard 3 guard dedication (formal training: Dragon Roar)
cave druid 7 Furious Finish

from the top

1) ulfen guard has a race requirement, which is more or less human, half-elf, or half-orc. I went with human for the bonus feat.
2) For traits, Reactionary and Magical Knack would be more traditional. I happen to like traits that give +1 to init and something extra, and if you're going to kill someone by punching them, missing them because they're invisible or a ghost is more annoying than usual. YMMV
3) Reducing Int for Wis 15 and boosting at 8th is so that you only need a headband of inspired wisdom +2 to grab an extra 4th level spell at 11th, strong jaw plus something else, maybe air walk?
4) high Perception and Acrobatics are required by your prestige class and fighting style, and the others are either prestige (again), or you get a bonus for being a cave druid
5) languages would be Common, Skald, and Druidic. Since you're basically playing a viking from the Hollow Earth, maybe an FCB point towards Undercommon wouldn't hurt.
6) For your first career as a druid, pick whatever feats you like. I just went with a summoning chassis, but whatever really.
7) So now there's 3 tricks on top of a 7d8 natural attack

flurrying with it (via Feral Combat Training), Vital Striking with it (plus Furious Finish), and Dragon Roar for an AoE with it (but only 2/day).

This leaves you oooone feat short. Fortunately you can cadge Weapon Focus (slam) for 10,250gp and a magic rock that makes no sense (proficiency with slam attacks? okkaaay, whatever...). Unfortunately this means that two of your three extra tricks shut off (plus your ability to speak via a ring of eloquence) in an antimagic field. Fortunately in that case Vital Strike and Furious Finish still do work :)

8) So again with being very short with feats. An ulfen guard can cadge a free combat feat, but only at 3rd level, otherwise I'd just go 2 and 2. The other option there would be to take the scaled fist archetype and get Dragon Style as a bonus monk feat, but then you'd lose the nice Wis spells/Wis AC thing that a druid/monk has got going. And feyspeaker and cave druid don't stack.
9) There are a ton of goodies that an ulfen guard can choose for their guard dedication. I picked Deflect Arrows because I was going to pick that up at monk 2 anyway, and the ulfen guard version has a little bonus thrown in. Maybe a rage power like moment of clarty or swift foot would also be good?

Alrighty! How do like them apples?

I suspect it’s Desna’s Divine Fighting Technique, the one that grants +Cha to attack and damage with a starknife for just one feat at 1st level?

Not allowing it in PFS doesn’t make sense? Really? Would you like it if every Cha-based caster was a Desna worshipper? All paladins are Desnan vengeful bastards?

That feat is sooo good that many many many other options would never get a second glance. Pass.

Your traits can’t stack to give you +3 to init, that’s one thing. I don’t suppose you’re going to grab some sniper goggles late game, are you?

Also with the new Patron groups in Blood of the Coven that gives you an additional Hex at first level The White Haired Witch archetype becomes a lot more fun.

Wow, that is pretty nifty. Grab a hex from your patron, and use that gross blouse to get the cackle hex, and you're in business.

The misfortune hex is pretty cool, but I'm not sure I would trade the ability to cast divine power and righteous might for it (from the Strength patron).

How exactly are you going to get Bob back into the fold again? This seems like not so much a way of getting Bob in as a spy, and more making Bob join the bad guys.

Something tells me that if this is going to work, you're going to have to modify the memory of the Alice clone before you kill it to avoid the whole plan being wrecked by speak with dead.

Unless there's a secret chest spell for brains or something...

I don't know the answer, but I always carry around a gold-plated weapon just in case I run into a DR/gold monster.

funky, there's no rules for copper weapons. You never know...

My least-favorite: the invisiwizard.

a) all their spells are geared towards making themselves safe from everything
b) ranged combat? too risky, what if an enemy ::gasp:: sees me?
c) does this barrel contain the secret to ultimate cosmic power? No? How about this one?

Steve Geddes wrote:

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Rysky wrote:

Except for people who want to play a White-Haired Witch.

I'm at a loss at why you wouldn't take the hex rather than the archetype post clarification.

It may be suboptimal as a PC option, but a DM could still use it to build an unusual adversary.

*nods*

I dunno, I designed a tiefling ex-UMonk 1/WHW 4/Evangelist of Calistria X that I've managed to play in 2 PFS sessions so far. Looks good to me, but yeah Weapon Finesse (and Feral Combat Training) are feat taxes.

I use a house rule where instead of 25 words you get 140 characters. It's an update to the protocol, is all.

cooool language business...

is there any funky money as well? like, copper/silver/gold/crystallized genie tears? solidarii to the drachm?

This is instead of those silly threads about using Perception to see the sun...

Imagine a flat plain, and a clear, bright day. Stealth without invisibility is more or less impossible. ... Or is it?

Could a flying rogue figure out their position with regards to a prospective ground-based target and the sun, and thus use the sun to conceal themselves from their target?

Further, could the rogue get to within 30 ft. of their target, and thus pull off a sneak attack with a ranged weapon? How close can you get to someone via this method and not appreciably shade them?

I just got finished reading The Farthest Shore again, and one thing is obvious, at least in that universe: wizard < dragon

So, that got me thinking: what would be a good class build (martial or caster) be that could do something, by him/her/itself, about a dragon? Like, you know, a big scary one. Offense, defense, special abilities, you name it, please consider it.

I already know how to explore a dungeon. Not really sure what to do if it came to a fight with a dragon, however.

You could make a masterwork backpack out of darkleaf cloth. Sure, it's 3/4 as expensive as a handy haversack, but it will help Strength-dumped characters, gosh darnit!

so you're saying modern cows are masterwork.

Okay, so if a cow is 50gp, then a masterwork cow would be, what, 100gp? Ta~da: modern cow.

There's always Bokrug. You can turn into a typical version of...whatever its species is as early as 13th level, oracle or wizard. Elven and aasimar oracles used to be able to do it faster, but, well, you know...errata...

huh. that works. soothsayer's rainment plus a mnemonic vestment plus a scroll of divination. That's not going to let my character light demons on fire with my mind, but it's neat nonetheless.

I like the idea of the pre-asked questions for commune. I've often found that using that spell in a group leads to a whole session being wasted on arguing over which questions to ask.

How about ending at level 6? Think about it: every time you go down a level (in the dungeon), you go up a level in XP?

There's no reason that you need 20 ranks of something to make it worthwhile. Just make the table have really thick rows.

Hey Lyric, you can change your song from 'seven color' to 'decoy'!

The decoy ring is unaffected by any of this craziness. 12,000gp for 2 rounds of unbreakable invisibility _whenever I darn well please_, _plus_ illusionary duplicates.

My slayer/rogue gives obeisance to the Demigod of Retconjuration, and promptly disappears (and sprays illusionary duplicates of himself everywhere).

I don't know the math vs. not the math. Here's my thing on why 'noticing the sun' matters, and why I think in the rules a gelatinous cube falls prone.

Scenario

A traveler on a grassy plain, sunny day. A half-orc rogue, using a potion of fly, a pair of greater sniper's goggles, and a longbow, wants to sneak attack the traveler. How to do so with the tools at hand?

You can't use Stealth, because there's no cover. You can't really surprise the traveler, because let's say he's wary of strangers. The rogue does not have a source of invisibility.

Sub-scenario 1

The traveler looks up at the sun and is instantly blinded. The sun is very hard to miss. The rogue knows this, and flies between the traveler and the sun, and so is always invisible to the traveler. Sure, the rogue's shadow passes across the traveler's eyes, but the traveler is still blind if the rogue is far enough away. Thus, the rogue is a death machine.

Sub-scenario 2

The traveler looks up at the sun and fails to notice it, because of goofy rules involving distance and Perception. Because the traveler cannot see the sun, the only source of light, the traveler is thus sightless. The half-orc gets to within 60 ft. of the traveler and sneak attacks at will.

Either the sun isn't obvious and is therefore not there to protect the traveler, or the sun would blind you if you looked at it (which then provides a source of invisibility for the rogue). Except that 'blinding yourself by looking at the sun' is not listed as a hazard anywhere in the Pathfinder rules.

QED: A gelatinous cube falls prone.

Trying to wrap my head around this new feat and the recent FAQ on spells and casting. Here's the reference material.

Cunning Caster: When casting a spell, you can attempt a Bluff check (opposed by observers' Perception checks) to conceal your actions from onlookers. If the spell requires material components, you take a –4 penalty on the Bluff check.

If the spell requires somatic components, you take a –4 penalty on the Bluff check. If the spell requires verbal components, you take a –4 penalty on the Bluff check. If the spell requires a focus or divine focus, you take a –4 penalty on the Bluff check. If the spell produces an obvious effect (such as a summoned creature or visible spell effect), you take a –4 penalty on the Bluff check, and even if your check is successful, observers still see the spell effect (though they fail to notice that you are responsible for it). All Bluff check penalties are cumulative.

Although this isn’t directly stated in the Core Rulebook, many elements of the game system work assuming that all spells have their own manifestations, regardless of whether or not they also produce an obvious visual effect, like fireball. You can see some examples to give you ideas of how to describe a spell’s manifestation in various pieces of art from Pathfinder products, but ultimately, the choice is up to your group, or perhaps even to the aesthetics of an individual spellcaster, to decide the exact details. Whatever the case, these manifestations are obviously magic of some kind, even to the uninitiated; this prevents spellcasters that use spell-like abilities, psychic magic, and the like from running completely amok against non-spellcasters in a non-combat situation. Special abilities exist (and more are likely to appear in Ultimate Intrigue) that specifically facilitate a spellcaster using chicanery to misdirect people from those manifestations and allow them to go unnoticed, but they will always provide an onlooker some sort of chance to detect the ruse.

Let's say a gestalt mesmerist/druid is trying to get to the naval port at, uh, Os Misely with a couple of wanted protocol androids. He casts a psychic suggestion at a couple of, uh, dormtroopers. He's using Cunning Caster to conceal his spellcasting.

Question #1: According to the FAQ, every spell has an obvious effect (twinkly CGI lights or some such). Does this mean that every use of Cunning Caster starts out with -4 on the Bluff check?

Let's say the dormtroopers are fooled into not knowing where the suggestion came from. However, any troopers that aren't suggested get wise to the fact that somebody cast a spell (because it's obvious). So, either you have to convince all the guards that one of them is a shapeshifting traitor (perhaps you could suggest it to one of them), or if that fails the troopers all pull out their claster rifles and you get to have a thrilling flame blade battle in the parking lot of a hive of scum and villainy.

Question #2: Do I have that right? #2b: Can anyone think of a case where Cunning Caster could be put to any use?

FAQ Friday returns!

FAQ wrote:

What exactly do I identify when I’m using Spellcraft to identify a spell? Is it the components, since spell-like abilities, for instance, don’t have any? If I can only identify components, would that mean that I can’t take an attack of opportunity against someone using a spell-like ability (or spell with no verbal, somatic, or material components) or ready an action to shoot an arrow to disrupt a spell-like ability? If there’s something else, how do I know what it is?

Although this isn’t directly stated in the Core Rulebook, many elements of the game system work assuming that all spells have their own manifestations, regardless of whether or not they also produce an obvious visual effect, like fireball. You can see some examples to give you ideas of how to describe a spell’s manifestation in various pieces of art from Pathfinder products, but ultimately, the choice is up to your group, or perhaps even to the aesthetics of an individual spellcaster, to decide the exact details. Whatever the case, these manifestations are obviously magic of some kind, even to the uninitiated; this prevents spellcasters that use spell-like abilities, psychic magic, and the like from running completely amok against non-spellcasters in a non-combat situation. Special abilities exist (and more are likely to appear in Ultimate Intrigue) that specifically facilitate a spellcaster using chicanery to misdirect people from those manifestations and allow them to go unnoticed, but they will always provide an onlooker some sort of chance to detect the ruse.

Didja miss it?

Neat! Thank you!

question is pretty simple.

Painful Stare: When an attack that deals damage hits the target of a mesmerist's hypnotic stare, the mesmerist can cause the target to take an amount of additional damage equal to 1/2 the mesmerist's class level (minimum 1).

The mesmerist can use this ability as a free action, and can use it even if it isn't his turn. If the mesmerist uses this ability to increase his own damage, the additional damage increases by 1d6 points for every 3 class levels the mesmerist possesses. This damage is precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit. A mesmerist can trigger this ability only once per round, but a single creature can take damage from multiple mesmerists' painful stares in a round.

Say a 3rd level mesmerist is staring really hard at someone, and then sweet-talks a wand into shooting a single magic missile at the guy. Does this count as an attack, and thus the damage of the missile becomes 1d4+1d6+2?

so, to recap

1. some people are waving around the 'you can't covertly cast with metamagic' stick at me. I know this, even if it doesn't seem to make a ton of sense. This is the same as arguing that acid splash should work with the Underhanded rogue talent.

2. Other posters are trying to make my theoretical popsicle shop into some of impenetrable fortress made of 'noyoucantium'. What's the fun of designing a vault no one can break into?

3. Imbicatus says the playtest vigilante (warlock style) can cast covertly.

K. Anyone else want to try answering my original questions? (are my examples wrong, and are there any I'm missing?)

I know this has been done to death, but I'm just trying to make sure about the limits of this whole 'concealed magic' thing. Again.

Let's say someone's opened up a shop that sells sun orchid popsicles, and they go for a million gp each. And let's assume that adventurers are going to try to crack that nut with all sorts of whammy powers, and further let's assume that the shopkeeper isn't some sort of vampire plant robot that can shrug off mind-affecting effects, but is trained in Spellcraft. The shop is well-lit.

(Note to self: stat up a ghoran vampire who's got a chip on his shoulder against vegetarians)

An enchanter wizard walks in, and casts a Still, Silent charm person. The shopkeeper notices that magic is being used and instantly triggers the laser chainsaws. Right?

A mesmerist walks in, and begins a whammy with hypnotic eye. The shopkeeper doesn't notice, because, no save, the mesmerist can keep the shopkeeper from noticing her use of that power. She then casts charm person, which because of the psychic magic rules doesn't have any verbal or somatic components to begin with. The shopkeeper finally notices that, and pushes the laser chainsaw button. Right?

A patched-up mesmerist walks in, activates her hypnotic eye, and proceeds to try the implant suggestion part of the new occult skill unlock for Diplomacy. She pulls off the ungodly DC in part because of her Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Persuasive, and Voice of the Sibyl feats. Here you go, have a popsicle! Right?

A demon-blooded tiefling abyssal sorcerer walks by, having taken the following feats: Fiend Sight, Fiend Sight, and Silent Spell. She proceeds to cast deeper darkness and silence on herself outside the shop, then she walks in and casts a Silent charm person. Here's a popsicle for you, wherever you are. Right?

A rakshasa-blooded tiefling rakshasa sorcerer walks in and casts charm person straight off, but quickly passes it off to the shopkeeper as detect fraudulent sun orchids or something. You can't be too careful these days, with all these mountebank adventurers running around. How about a popsicle, then. Right?

A bard with the Spellsong feat shows up. During conversation about the weather and the sun orchid crop, he whips out his bongo drums, and proceeds to attract the attention of Shelyn with a divine Perform (percussion) check. The shopkeeper does not notice that a charm person was also being cast. And here's my last popsicle for you. Right?

a) are there any other ways people can think of to cast a spell covertly in any way?
b) do all of these examples function (or not function) as I have described?

Oh hi, Cave Druid calling: when do we get anything at all from turning into an ooze other than its natural attack?

two levels of alchemist dip, that and a feat net you two vestigial arms. you probably only need one, but two looks cooler

the rules say the arms don't give you any more attacks or actions than you already had. so fine. you can TWF with light crossbows no problem, it's just that firing one-handed nets you a -4 to the attack. the extra arms negate the -4 penalty, and help with reloading.

you also get +Dex mutagen, which might be nice, and a few cool extracts, which is also nice. another feat buys you 'explosive missile', something you can use to load alchemist bombs onto crossbow bolts (though it's a standard action, not awesome)

You rang?

A swamp generator and a forest generator (in perl) from 2012, right here

Yes, I have used these. I last used the swamp generator for an encounter in We Be Goblins. They tend to make the terrain look very blotchy and weird. I never got around to making a hill generator. I guess I could try it.

there's some idea of a 'bad touch cleric'? here's a 'bad kick monk'. I came up with this when looking at options for my Merciless Butchery character. It's way easier coming up with nastiness when you don't need to shoehorn in a slayer level somewhere.

race: half-elf (no alternate abilities!)
class: unchained thug rogue 5/unchained monk 5/sorcerer 2 (protean bloodline)
stats Str 8, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 13

feats (and other choices)
1 thug Enforcer, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Weapon Finesse (use a sap for your first 3 levels)
2 thug rogue talent: surprise attack (it's not Improved Initiative, but it'll do)
3 thug Fearless Curiosity (you count as a human)
4 monk Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Deflect Arrows (maybe)
5 monk Mantis Style, Combat Reflexes (again maybe)
6 monk --
7 monk Mantis Wisdom, ki power: ki range (for when throwing a surprise round dart at someone, another option is switching the 2nd level rogue talent minor magic for acid splash)
8 monk style strike: spin kick
9 sorcerer Mantis Torment
10 thug rogue talent: combat trick: Sorcerous Strike
11 thug Dauntless Destiny, skill unlock: Intimidate
12 sorcerer --

1. A bad guy is standing next to you.
2. You full attack the bad guy. Your first attack is for non-lethal damage, is a spin kick, and is also a Stunning Fist attempt.
3. If you hit,
a) you deal sneak attack damage
b) you can reduce the sneak attack damage by 1d6 in order to cause the sickened status
c) you may attempt to demoralize, possibly causing the shakened status (or worse)
d) your opponent must make a saving throw (possibly at a -4 penalty) or be stunned (which sets up the rest of your attacks this round to deal sneak attack damage)
e) and as a swift action, you can coat your opponent in protoplasm, causing the entangled status

In other words, with one kick you can scare, sicken, stun, and slime. That's some kick!

If you're all out of protoplasm for the day, you're probably not yet out of Stunning Fist charges, and you haven't even touched your ki pool. If you're out of everything, you still get spin kick+sneak attack. Or you can just rock a wand of magic missile.

Any ideas to improve this wonderful mess?

While we avoided making emotional focuses that were very positive in nature (after all, it's typically very strong negative emotions that makes a soul drift toward the Negative Material Plane), we added a dedication emotional as a companion to the zeal aspect helping fill the niche for those desiring to play a spiritualist that didn't entirely dwell within the super-negative spectrum of emotions.

Love finds a way. Even if it has to call itself 'dedication'.

Hi Adam,

There are lots of rules for crafting goodies out of the squicky bits of dragons in the Dragonslayer's Handbook.

a) are there rules in there for crafting goodies out of dragon bones, claws, or teeth?
b) if not, why not? those bits sound like they would be really useful.

GM Wulfson wrote:

I've got a question regarding the Perception DC to identify a potion. Under the Perception skill it reads that the DC is 15+Caster Level, while under the Identifying Magic Items section it states that the DC is 15+spell level. Which one is correct?

It seems counter-intuitive that a character/NPC with absolutely no magical training would have an easier time identifying a potion than someone who, bolstered by magic, would have using the Spellcraft skill to identify it.
I know, as a general rule, text trumps table and if this is the case then I hope that in the not too distant future we can get the Perception skill changed to reflect this. Otherwise you have two different possible DC's from the same sourcebook (the CRB).

I am pretty sure it should be 15 + caster level.

Did you know that when different wizards make the same potion, that they taste exactly the same? Sure, if two wizards took samples of the same potion to try and deconstruct the potion's spell, the resulting spellbooks would be illegibly different. Magic!

1) I was asked to design a temple sword for Sajan. Though his Hora (knuckle - dusters) weren't part of the character description.

Is Sajan's sword one of these?

Nandaka

or is that a coincidence?

hmm, well, maybe there's an 'el-cheapo' way to 'fix Mythic'. I mean, when I think 'mythic', I don't think '800 hp of damage', I think of actual myths.

Like...

Cu Chulainn (or however it's spelled, Welsh is weird), he had this finishing move that was like

1. Sneak your best spear into a river near where a duel is going to happen tomorrow.
2. Have your big fight.
3. When you get to the river, and you're trading sword blows or whatever, kick the spear out of the river at your opponent.
4. Bam, the other guy's armor, shield, and weapon are all broken, and he's covered in hideous wounds.

Or how about Hercules? Have you ever seen an adventuring party (or even just one PC) take out a hydra with, no, not a flaming sword, but rather torches? (I always wondered about that one: how did the torches stick to the hydra? couldn't it just, you know, move its neck stumps away or something?)

The point is this: in myths, heroes do crazy things all the time. What they don't do is fail. Or, say, take a hit from a sword and stay alive. Like, you know, all the kinds of things you do in D&D.

So maybe mythic in WotR should work like this: have the adventurers go through the adventure and dungeons and such mostly normally, except for a few spots where things get 'mythic'. You know, hiding a spear in a river kinds of stuff. I think these mythic bits should employ less D&D mechanics, rather than more, and that the 'combat' should play out like a RPG-style version of 'Once Upon a Time'.

Sort of making it a 'the chosen heroes are in fact the chosen ones' (that is, they win), except when they don't (like dying during a non-mythic segment). That sounds pretty mythic to me.

So, I played some Quests over the weekend using Shardra, the iconic shaman, and ::woof:: is she bad at level 1.

a) Str and Dex of 8
b) Monstrous Insight with only two Knowledge skills, and that boosts her attack from -1 to +1 in any case.
c) Her tuatara has (I think) a +13 Stealth modifier, and more in rocky terrain, but 1) There's no tuatara stat block, and 2) Sending your non-verbal familiar on a scouting mission is terrible anyway. Also Shardra's Stealth check is lousy.
d) Here are her 1st level spells: heightened awareness, obscuring mist, and identify. Someone took pity on her and gave her a scroll of cure light wounds.

So, I guess she's a guidance-bot, and if a GM is kind to the useful party members, a hit point dump.

Why was this made? What was the point of making a 1st-level pregen this subpar? Someone to give Harsk some company?

hi Breq

first, love the username

second, I love this build. very nice.

third, I can see how you get 3 natural attacks (songbird starts with one, and you aspect of the beast for the other two (although I think that feat goes online at level 8, which is your first chance to take a slayer talent)) oh, I see, you don't flurry or anything, you just treat all those as secondary, and use iterative punches for your other three. got it.

fourth, so, does an Iroran paladin have to worship Irori? the ring of seven lovely colors doesn't look like it requires Shelyn worship, but those two are compatible, to a point

(So, you devoted yourself to physical perfection in part by polymorphing into a little birdy?)

Is there a way of getting a songbird familiar glued to this build? Because nothing helps a polymorph build like confusing bad guys as to which bird will kill you...

counts as for what? in UE, the weapon part of a klar is listed as a one-handed slashing weapon.

So, pull the blade part off the skull? Go nuts with a blackblade and Slashing Grace. Stick it back on the skull? You're toast.

Do I have that right?

Oh, here's more fun

Klar:The traditional form of this tribal weapon is a short metal blade bound to the skull of a large horned lizard, but a skilled smith can craft one entirely out of metal. A traditional klar counts as a light wooden shield with armor spikes; a metal klar counts as a light steel shield with armor spikes.

Please tell me what armor spikes are doing on a shield?

1. A klar is a weapon that is also a shield.
2. The weapon part is a one-handed weapon.
3. The shield part is also a spiked shield (which is itself a light weapon), meaning that you could enchant the blade, the spikes, and the shield separately!

Hmmm, you could even TWF with a single klar, without even needing to bother with Thunder and Fang. How neat is that?

A pity you can't stack bladecound with skirnir. Ah well, you can't have everything...I say mix that Conan chocolate and Elric peanut butter and go to town! I dub thee: Conric!

Isn't the ring of invisibility grossly overpriced already anyway?

'Harry, why do you keep shouting 'Obfuscato!' every three minutes? Argus Flich'll hear you for sure!'

I'll take my chances.

Decoy Ring

The ring doesn't say what kind of invisibility you get, and the spell the ring is based on is mislead. For reference, here's the

Ring of Invisibility

which explicitly references the spell invisibility, including its limitations.

So, the question: does a decoy ring give you invisibility per mislead (which in turn references greater invisibility), or regular old 'invisibility, as the spell'?

Here's a question: where is the love?

1. How come there is no oracle mystery of love?
2. How come no spiritualist's phantom's emotional focus is love (a la the movie 'Ghost')?
3. How come there is no witch's patron of Love? (u, I dunno, if Glinda was actually a nice person, maybe that would be her patron?)
4. I have no idea what a 'love bloodline' would look like...so I'm not going to ask that question...

oh hey, whoa whoa, let's not forget the midichlorians here.

Which is the only class that gets access to lightsabers (ie flame blade)? Answer: druids. Therefore, druids = Jedi, and druidic magic = force powers. With that out of the way...

The Druidic language is clearly a biological/metaphorical organism, spread out across millions of hosts spanning all of time and space (ie, the Force). It's a parasite, and transmits itself via the thoughts of so-called 'intelligent' races, in other words: using memes, rather than genes.

So, if you try to 'learn' the Druidic language, what you're really doing is infecting yourself with an all-powerful, eon-spanning mind virus. So, to put it plainly, you get sick.

If the virus/Force likes you, the infection is relatively painless, and after you recover, you gain 1 level of druid and 'learn' Druidic (a so-called 'padawan', unable yet to form your own lightsaber). If it doesn't like you, then you instantly die of old age, and hopefully your corpse goes into the cycle of nature, one day to be consumed by a better druid than you turned out to be.

Using magic to speak and understand Druidic is possible, but downright dangerous to those not naturally in tune with the Force.

I think that druids would write Druidic wherever they felt like it (books, signs carved into trees, graffiti), secure in the knowledge that it frankly keeps itself secret to non-druids.