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Well the shopkeeper could have a gaurd dog for his shop. that would then bark and town gaurds start coming I don't think a low level character could take out the whole town gaurd. It also works as a pet.

Alright. I will share these things with him. I obviously just wanted multiple viewpoints so I wouldn't feel like he was acting on my sole advice (since he doesn't seem too keen on it >_>)

Common people are pretty poor compared to adventurers. Normal skilled professionals (soldiers, merchants, etc.) live off something like 10 gold per month. Thus, your GM could easily tell you you find "nothing of value". If he wants to give you something useful you could find mundane stuff, like rope, rations, 10-foot poles, etc. Maybe a masterwork artisan's tool if he's feeling generous.

Okay. What if it's a store or the rich side of town? (Especially at lower levels)

on the second question, if you search something he didn't want you to, he should just tell you see nothing. Or that you find what was actually there. I'm actually kind of confused as to what you are even asking here.

Our DM is new so he isn't experienced yet. What I'm asking is basically this:

Say we're fighting in a situation where there are houses / etc. Say this is in a published campaign (I don't have the book, I haven't looked through it, but my guess is that it says nothing about us searching these houses).

Our Half-Orc decides to kick the wooden door in and search the home for goods. The DM needs help handling this. Does he just give us random stuff?

(Obviously this is either a) during chaos in a town, or b) town guard isn't aware)

If he says we find nothing, and the player keeps searching the homes....well...you see the problem. Surely the people would have some kind of trinket, gem, or gold lying about.

That's just mainly the question.

Sorry for any confusion.

So my DM and I ran into an issue where we didn't know what to do. The Knowledge skills quit honestly seem so jacked up - like they didn't put any effort into the rules behind them. How would a Ranger not be able to identify something that is his favored enemy? I mean it IS his FAVORED enemy....and it does say he can make an untrained check, but don't those cap at 10?

Having said that...my second question is for my DM:

How does he go about telling us what we find if we search a building he doesn't want us to go into? Same with the corpses of our enemies? (Like their pouches)

Damocles Guile wrote:

redpanda wrote:

Saganen Hellheart wrote:

I have both GM'ed the whole campaign and played though it.

Getting darkvision is VERY very very smart.
I would say that the best choises for this AP is:

Wizard, cleric, paladin and ranger.

Quick question...Could it possibly be better to be a Beastmaster Ranger (Human) and use an animal companion as my Scout...and make them have Darkvision?

Edit: I see there are no darkvision companions...but there are blindsense ones at 7th. These however are too large for scouting...

Heh - dip a level of Sunmoner. Customizable scout eidolon with dark vision AND the ability to communicate telepathically.

I was hoping to be able to get an Owl or something and find a way to give them Darkvision...and reduce them. I guess I could look into a Summoner multi-class.

It's just too bad that while looking through your companions' eyes you're considered blinded (50% miss chance).

I would love to role-play a blind ranger who can only see through his birds' eyes (and this bird stays perched on his shoulder, for example).

Oh well!

Edit: See in Darkness is a 9th level Eidolon Evolution...so that's ruled out. I have to decide within 2 hours or so!

Edit: Oh I see where the Eidolon gets Dark Vision now. I have NO idea how I missed that..

I interpret the first sentence as flavor: a description of the mechanical effects that follow. If you look at artistic depictions of depictions of monsters, large creatures are not exactly 10 ft tall, nor are huge creatures exactly 15 ft tall. I'd wager that many huge bipeds approach 20 ft tall. I would say that "doubles in size" is approximate.

True enough...I guess my Ape wouldn't necessarily have to get 50% wider...even though it would make more sense. Thanks I suppose....I'm just wanting to super role-play xD.

redpanda wrote:

Saganen Hellheart wrote:

I have both GM'ed the whole campaign and played though it.

Getting darkvision is VERY very very smart.
I would say that the best choises for this AP is:

Wizard, cleric, paladin and ranger.

Quick question...Could it possibly be better to be a Beastmaster Ranger (Human) and use an animal companion as my Scout...and make them have Darkvision?

Edit: I see there are no darkvision companions...but there are blindsense ones at 7th. These however are too large for scouting...

Heh - dip a level of Sunmoner. Customizable scout eidolon with dark vision AND the ability to communicate telepathically.

I was hoping to be able to get an Owl or something and find a way to give them Darkvision...and reduce them. I guess I could look into a Summoner multi-class.

It's just too bad that while looking through your companions' eyes you're considered blinded (50% miss chance).

I would love to role-play a blind ranger who can only see through his birds' eyes (and this bird stays perched on his shoulder, for example).

Oh well!

Edit: See in Darkness is a 9th level Eidolon Evolution...so that's ruled out. I have to decide within 2 hours or so!

The second sentance of the spell description answers your question:

"This alteration changes the animal's size category to the next largest".

I understand that it does that. My question wasn't about the size when it comes to mechanics, but the size when it comes to battlemats.

It states that "The target animal grows to twice its normal size and eight times its normal weight.".

If large is 10x10/10x5 then how much room is my companion meant to take up? You can't go up a size category / double in size and not change how large you are on the battle-mat. That's just silly..

I have both GM'ed the whole campaign and played though it.

Getting darkvision is VERY very very smart.
I would say that the best choises for this AP is:

Wizard, cleric, paladin and ranger.

Quick question...Could it possibly be better to be a Beastmaster Ranger (Human) and use an animal companion as my Scout...and make them have Darkvision?

Edit: I see there are no darkvision companions...but there are blindsense ones at 7th. These however are too large for scouting...

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/animal-growth

If I use this spell on a Large animal companion...it becomes huge.

It says that it grows in size - doubly so.

Does that mean, since a Large creature is at least 10x10 that it would be 15x15?

I personally never understood why dwarves were given a Scottish accent, seeing they're Nordic. I was researching other accents and was thinking of giving them a Northern English accent (as there's mining in northern England). My friend was considering giving them a Prussian accent as he can do that better.

Though if you think of it, there is one way to get around the "gruff" dwarf. Play a female dwarf. ;)

As for Half-orcs, in the new rules Half-orcs, Half-elves, and Humans have the benefit of gaining a +2 to any one stat, without a minus to other stats. Further, there are feats out there you can take to have a half-orc that appears essentially human. And there are builds for half-orcs in the Advanced Race Guide to customize them further.

Oh, and there's another race out there that has dark vision and is more... solid than the wispy sylphs: Oreads. This is basically a person with elemental heritage along the Earth lines at some point. This may very well be closer to what you're looking for.

Though mostly it seems you don't want to do the gruff dwarf. And you know something? You are the player of said character. You can play your character however you want. If you don't want to play a gruff dwarf? Don't! It's as simple as that.

I can take +2 to a second stat as a Human as an alternate racial trait. I'm leaning more towards Dwarf right now though. I'll check out the other Ranger archetypes.

Edit: I don't like those archetypes. Oh well!

I kind of wish there was a Ranger archetype that took away the animal companion and gave me something else :(. (but only because I just realized my party will have an animal Cleric AND a Druid as well as me)

Thanks to everybody for the posts so far. Let me clarify some things I stated earlier.

I mentioned accents and Dwarves...I was in a hurry but I didn't mean the scottish accent - I meant the gruff...tone I suppose would have been the right way to put it. Whenever I attempt a gruff voice I just fail at being gruff :3.

I'm always belligerent when I play D&D.

Furthermore: I will not play an Elf or a Sylph. I despise Elves. The fact that I have two in my party sickens me. I think about betraying them every minute of every day. My half-orc pal thinks the same way.

Out of character: I don't really like the Sylph or any Elven types of characters.

Also...when I mentioned weapon finesse and the undead...I didn't actually know blunt arrows were a thing...

I get what you mean about the ape not using weapons...Some animals have developed tools for appropriate use...so I can imagine if the ape was around martial combat all of his life, raised by a Ranger defending a community, and the Ranger took it upon himself to attempt to get the Ape to understand that pointy stick = bad for the guy on the other end over years, then it makes sense....but an Ape wouldn't just be like...EUREKA! SWORD IS GOOD!

I digress. I'm not attempting to sway you or anything, just trying to show you that I'm at least thinking of reasons my Ape will be so talented...instead of just, "because magic is why my Ape uses a longsword!" (just an example).

Well not spoiling anything but Sandpoint already has a go to ranger. Talk to your GM about maybe having that as a link to the background of the AP.

The thing about Rangers is that they work best if you concentrate on doing one thing well, two weapons, archery, 2-H weapon that kind of thing. You can do a "switch hitter" style Ranger that does both melee and ranged but that's a bit more complex, best to stick to one style to start with.

I'm amused by your difficulties with a Dwarven accent. I'm assuming you mean a Scottish accent? Well not all Dwarves are Scottish so you could easily play with your own voice. Plus a Dwarf character in Sandpoint would be fine.

Make sure that your GM is happy with your Ape having weapon proficiencies. Not all GM's allow that, I certainly don't.

Stat wise, concentrate on Str if you are a Melee character and Dex if you prefer ranged combat. Don't neglect your Con (at least 12) and put at least 12 in Wisdom so you can cast spells at later levels.

For RotRL your best favoured enemies are Humanoid (Goblinoid), Humanoid (Giant) and Undead. The best favoured terrains are Mountain and Underground.

I didn't know that Sandpoint had a Ranger already. Maybe I could be his side-kick, work with the town-guard, or be his apprentice? I'm not sure yet...Hm..

When I said I wanted to be good at numerous things; I meant skill-wise, not combat-wise. (Perception, Knowledge, Sneaking (Plus Dark Vision for super sneaky scouting), etc). I planned on at least 12 con and at least 12 Wisdom. (I'd like the bonus spells but it isn't worth using my distribution points).

Why do you not allow Apes to take feats such as the weapon proficiencies? Mainly, in Combat...I wanted to ride my companion (probably an Ape due to weapon proficiencies) when I could. (Obviously I would not be able to do this until 7th level when he becomes Large).

I'm going to be an Archer - and the DM (my friend) said as long as I don't break the campaign or make all combat completely trivialized then he'll allow me to build my Ape that way.

So 12Con/12Wis is okay?

I wanted to be an Archer and probably take some form of weapon to use against the undead when I needed to. (I would take the Lucerne but you can't take Weapon Finesse with that)...

I'm not sure if I want to take Mounted Combat at all....I feel like I'd be extremely over-powered if I rode around on my Ape and we were both using weapons..Having said that I only want him as a mount outside of combat if using him in-combat is ridiculous.

(I would feat him for a saddle slot if necessary)..

We are starting the RotR campaign this sunday. Most of us are first timers (I played 3.0 a bit, and 4.0 once).

Having said that - we aren't 100% familiarized with the rules (I haven't been able to adjust to every change from 3.0 to PF yet).

I want to be a Ranger. I'd really like Darkvision...this makes me either a Dwarf or a Half-Orc. I would honestly probably prefer Dwarf over Half-Orc - but only if a Dwarf can be a native of Sand-point. Having said that...ultimately I really can't do a Dwarven accent very well so I would much prefer a more normal sounding race....but Dark-vision is really a must have (I did look at the Infiltrator archetype for the Undead Adaptation of Dark-vision). I'd like to role-play as being a great friend of the town (basically THEIR go-to Ranger).

We are using a 20 pt-buy system for attributes. I'd also like to keep everything above 10 (I'll be OKAY with 8 Charisma, and I'll just play it all like I'm a little gruff)

In this situation what do you think would be a good setup?

I'm not sure of what my stats should really even look like. I'm not too worried about min-maxing but...I'm also not sure what my attributes should go into upon level-up. Strength or Dex?

I wouldn't mind being a Human so I could take the trait to give my Ape 2 more Intelligence (that way he could start taking weapon proficiencies right out of the gate).

Thanks for your time.

Edit: We pretty much have all first party material. Catfolk looks like it would be OK - as long as I don't have to purr or try to talk like a Khajiit.

INT 3 also lets it understand a language so you don't have to use Handle Animal to get it to do things

Oh...well darn! So I could still do Simple -> Martial weapon proficiencies?

I was hoping to get the proficiency for free but oh well :(

I'd love to role-play a ranger with a child-hood friend who slowly evolves and turns into a very talented creature.

Basically...

When I hit level 4, and I get my Ape, can I take Boon Companion and he immediately turns 4?

If so, then, I must ask:

1) Do I go through his individual levels like I do a normal PC?

2) Once he is level 4, can I put his attribute into intelligence, giving him 3 intelligence?

3) If I do number 3, can I give the Ape classes as a fighter? (Jason specifically said in a Q&A that they still remain companions but he didn't say anything about them not getting classes)

4) If I CAN give him the fighter class, would he be an Animal 3/Fighter 1, or would I make him a fighter 4?

5) If none of the above is possible....Any other thoughts?