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I have a question about the Signature Spell reward that appears on one of my Chronicle sheets. It reads as follows:

Signature Spell: Choose one spell you can cast at the time of receiving this boon; you cast his spell as if you were a caster 2 levels higher when determining duration and level-based variables.

Based on what's written here, does casting as 2 levels higher only apply to the mechanics of the spell, such as range and damage dice, or does it also apply to caster level for purposes of overcoming spell resistance? What spell I choose to apply it to will depend on how this works. Thanks.

According to the druid's animal companion table, a wolf advances to become Large size at 7th level so it seems like it should be possible since it would become an appropriate size.

If not, would it become possible if I took the Undersized Mount feat from the Advanced Class Guide? Or is that feat inapplicable to Cavaliers and Samurai for some reason?

Sorry, I'm just very confused about how mounts work in PFS and what the actual available options are. I just think a wolf would be slightly more cool than a camel or horse. Please advise, and if possible, cite appropriate sources. Thanks.

Can we please update the Improved Unarmed Strike feat so that it includes giving unarmed strikes the "Operative" property? So that Operatives can use the trick attack class feature with them and others can use their DEX for attack rolls with them? It just makes sense and seems like something that was overlooked and unintentional. Thoughts?

For this divine fighting technique, how would crit damage be resolved? It says that you don't apply ability modifier damage on a hit and instead apply that as bleed damage. The only fair thing to do on a crit would seem to be to apply the crit multiplier to the bleed damage. Also, is this bleed damage only for 1 round or continuous until it is healed? Just looking for clarification. Thanks.

Lamashtu's Carving: One of the grisliest divine fighting manuals is Fecundity of Corpses, a harrowing tome that depicts the fighting styles favored by the followers of Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters. In addition to detailing many of the more gruesome rites favored by the Demon Queen, Fecundity of Corpses includes hundreds of techniques recorded in blood by cultists of Lamashtu from across the Inner Sea region. Though no standardized edition of this manual exists because of the cult’s discordant hierarchy, each tome manages to perfectly capture similar techniques for sowing fear and blood in Lamashtu’s name.

Initial Benefit: As a standard action, you can make a single attack with a falchion or a kukri in order to deal bleed damage to the target. When you make this attack, you do not apply your ability modifier (normally Strength, but potentially other modifiers) to the hit point damage dealt by your attack—instead, add an amount of bleed damage equal to this modifier. The bleeding can be stopped by a successful DC 15 Heal check or any amount of magical healing. Bleed damage from this benefit doesn’t stack with itself.

Advanced Prerequisites: Str 13, Dazing Assault, Divine Fighting Technique, Power Attack.

Advanced Benefit: Whenever you hit a bleeding creature with a melee attack using a falchion or a kukri, that creature must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + your base attack bonus) or become staggered for 1 round. Multiple attacks do not cause this condition to stack, and a creature that successfully saves against this staggering effect is immune to this effect for 1 round.

Has there been any kind of update regarding the Divine Fighting Technique feat? It appears in both the Weapon Master's Handbook and Divine Anthology, but each time with slightly different prerequisites. Does the description in Divine Anthology overrule the one in Weapon Master's Handbook since it came out later? Or does the description in Divine Anthology only apply to the divine fighting techniques listed in that book, and the description in Weapon Master's Handbook apply only to the divine fighting techniques in that book? Without further word from Paizo, it seems like the latter ruling seems to be what needs to apply. Thoughts?

Feat Prerequisite in Weapon Master's Handbook: Same alignment as chosen deity.

Feat Prerequisite in Divine Anthology: Must worship a single patron deity that has an established divine fighting technique.

I'm specifically wondering how this would work for a Pathfinder Society character, but this would be good to know in general for Pathfinder games. Anyway, I've taken an interest in the various pit spells from the conjuration school, such as Create Pit, Spiked Pit, and Acid Pit. Normally, this allows for a Reflex save to avoid falling into the pit, but would creatures who have already failed their Reflex saves vs. a tanglefoot bag still get this save? A creature that fails such a save is stuck to the ground in a particular spot so it seems like they wouldn't get a save if a pit spell was cast to appear directly beneath where they happen to be stuck in place.

In a home game, I would probably rule that they wouldn't get a save against the pit spell, but for RAW, how would this work? Thanks.

I'm not sure how these two things interact with one another. Do you pick 9 cards and decide what alignment to be treated as after the spell is cast or do you choose when you use each given bonus? Or does this spell somehow not let you choose? I couldn't find any existing threads on this subject. How should this combination work?

Beyond Morality:

Harrowing:

The Mask from Divination spell from Arcane Anthology has a mask as a focus component. According to the spell, this mask cannot be removed from the target's face by physical force or hidden in any way from creatures that observe the target. Would this prevent the target from also wearing a head slot magic item?

MASK FROM DIVINATION

School divination; Level alchemist 5, bloodrager 4, magus 5, shaman 5, sorcerer/wizard 5, witch 5
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, F (an eyeless mask), M (diamond dust worth 200 gp)
Range touch
Target creature touched
Duration 24 hours
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless, object); Spell Resistance yes (harmless, object)
As part of the action used to cast this spell, you place the mask used as its focus component on the target’s face, after which it adheres tightly to the target for the spell’s duration and cannot be removed by physical force. Despite lacking eyes, this mask does not impair its wearer’s vision in any way. While in effect, this spell functions like nondetection, except it also foils divination spells that attempt to gather information about the creature, even if they don’t target it. In the case of divination spells that would normally reveal the wearer’s presence, such as see invisibility, the spell works but the wearer simply isn’t detected if the caster fails its caster level check. Likewise, scrying attempts that are targeted specifically at the wearer do not work at all if the caster fails its caster level check. In addition, the DCs of all skill checks to learn about the wearer or identify the wearer and its strengths and weaknesses—including Diplomacy checks to gather information, Knowledge checks, and opposed Perception checks against the target’s Disguise checks—increase by 4.
The mask cannot be removed for the duration of the spell, and the fact that the target is wearing the focus mask cannot be hidden in any way from creatures that observe the target.

There's a new arcane discovery in the Magic Tactics Toolbox that allows you to prepare one spell from the list of domain spells for a domain of your deity per day as follows:

Benefit: Select one spell granted by a domain belonging to the god you worship. This spell must be at least 2 levels lower than the highest-level wizard spell you can cast. When you first prepare your spells for the day, you can prepare this spell once, using a spell slot 1 level higher than the spell's actual level. This is cast as a divine spell.

Would taking this arcane discovery add the domain spells of that domain to your class list of spells for purposes of using spell completion and spell trigger items like scrolls and wands? For example, would taking Faith Magic for the Healing Domain allow a wizard to use a Wand of Cure Critical Wounds or a Scroll of Breath of Life?

I just want to make sure I'm doing the math right. A large scythe will cost double the price of a medium scythe (2 x 18gp = 36gp), and you add +3000gp to the cost of an adamantine weapon, so an oversized large adamantine scythe will cost 3036gp total.

It's already considered masterwork for being adamantine so I don't have to pay the 300gp that normally costs. And I believe you only have to add in the +3000gp cost for adamantine once, not twice (which would be +6000gp). Even though it's an oversized weapon, you only double the cost of the base weapon itself.

Is that correct? Also, I'm not aware of any rule barring oversized weapons from being legal in CORE. This will be a hefty purchase so I just want to be sure. Thanks.

The Amulet of the Blooded (Aberrant) can increase the reach of melee touch attacks by 5 feet. The 3rd-level Ectoplasm bloodline power does the same thing. As such, would the two effects complement each other to provide a reach of 15 feet for melee touch attacks? I'm just not sure if the two effects would stack or not. Thanks.

Amulet of the Blooded (Aberrant): This chunk of pitch-black onyx is suspended on a chain of silver. Strange whorls and tentacle-like shapes are etched upon its surface. The wearer gains a 25% chance to negate any critical hit or sneak attack (as the light fortification armor special ability). When making a melee touch attack, the wearer's reach increases by 5 feet. Moderate illusion; CL 9th; Craft Wondrous Item, blur, enlarge person.

Ectoplasmic Reach (Su): At 3rd level, you can exude small tendrils of ectoplasm that can be used to make melee touch attacks as part of a spell with a range of touch. You can make melee touch attacks as if you had an additional 5 feet of reach. You must have a free hand with which to direct the ectoplasm.

I'm just wondering if there are different rules for this. I know during a regular session, you can scribe spells from other wizards at the same table during the play of a scenario. However, during a special, there are multiple tables with groups of different levels all participating in the same mass event with the results at each table contributing to the overall effort. As such, when participating in a special, can you scribe wizard spells only from another wizard at the same table as you? Or can you scribe from another wizard at any table participating in the same special as you? Thanks.

As one of those players who is running out of scenarios that he can still play, I can appreciate the reasons behind starting CORE. It gives me an additional option when there's nothing regular available that I can still play, but filling out tables with the legal minimum number of tables is still a problem a lot of the time.

Anyway, I had an idea. What do people think about making scenarios replayable with pre-gens all the time? No single character would be able to have the same scenario applied to it more than once, but as long as you're playing with a pre-gen, why not allow a scenario to be played over and over again as long as it gets applied to a character who hasn't benefited from it yet?

And as an extension of this, why not allow any scenario that has been played with a CORE pre-gen be applied to either a CORE or non-CORE character who hasn't had that scenario applied yet, regardless of which version of the scenario had been being played.

As I see it, this would make it so that more people can participate in and either fill out or balance tables more effectively while keeping CORE simple to run for new GMs and allow players more options for advancing new characters in the non-CORE game. Thoughts? Please discuss.

The Eldritch Heritage chain of feats is supposed to give you Sorcerer Bloodline powers as if you were a Sorcerer of your actual level -2. So for example, if you took this feat as a 9th-level Wizard for the Arcane bloodline, you could also gain a familiar with the powers of a 7th-level Wizard through the Sorcerer bloodline. Does that mean your familiar would have its powers calculated as if you were a 16th-level caster? Thoughts?

You're not actually multiclassing, and the ability isn't supposed to grant you access to both a familiar and a bonded object so I can't see any other possible benefit to taking Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) if you belong to a class that already grants familiars.

Does the Burning Gaze spell count as a gaze attack for the purposes of being able to penetrate a Wall of Force? Or is it only the monster special attack and not spells that can penetrate a Wall of Force? What about Eyebite? Just not sure how this works. Thanks.

Just a dumb question about a situation I haven't encountered before. I was playing a 9th-level bard in an encounter with an advanced Wight. Most of my bard powers were useless against something immune to mind-affecting so I decided to use my new Inspire Greatness bardic performance to help buff my melee ally before he got in the Wight's face. Would the temporary hit dice from the Inspire Greatness effect get drained first when encountering level draining effects? There's nothing in the description of the ability to say that it would, but they are supposed to be the equivalent of extra hit dice so it seems like it might. Just looking for clarification, thanks.

This trait is listed as only being applicable to Fighters, but what about Hybrid classes that include Fighter? For example, could a Brawler or Swashbuckler take this trait?

I was thinking about picking up the Delayed Bomb discovery on my alchemist. He has max ranks in Sleight of Hand anyway so I was wondering if it would be possible to use Sleight of Hand to place delayed bombs on enemies while an Invisibility extract was active? It seems to me that it would be possible to do this without negating the Invisibility as long as my Sleight of Hand check beats the target's Perception check to notice. Is this workable, or am I interpreting the rules incorrectly?

Also, is it still possible to use Precise Bombs with Delayed Bombs? There's nothing in the rules against it, but it seems like it shouldn't work since people may have moved around after the bomb has been planted?

Thanks in advance for any clarification you can offer.

EDIT: I recognize that this will probably be less effective than just throwing the bombs although it might be easier to get a successful Sleight of Hand check than a successful touch attack. Not sure. Just think this might be fun for flavor.

I thought there was one, but I can't seem to find it in any of my books. If anyone can help me out, please let me know the name of the item and what book I can find it in. If you know of other types of magic items that do the same thing, please let me know that as well. Thanks in advance.

I was also thinking about taking the Alignment Channel and Elemental Channel feats. If I take those, does it mean I can choose to either heal/harm elementals or outsiders or would that be dictated by whether I channel positive or negative energy, such that I could only heal with positive energy and only harm with negative energy? Just looking for clarification. Thanks.

One of the prerequisites for this feat is that you have to worship a god of enchantment or lust. Does that mean that any god with the Charm domain qualifies? Or does it specifically refer to an area of concern of lust and/or enchantment? This feat is from Inner Sea Gods.

Blinding Bomb: When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose for it to detonate very brightly. Creatures that take a direct hit from a blinding bomb are blinded for 1 minute unless they succeed at a Fortitude save. Creatures in the splash area that fail their saves against the bomb are dazzled for 1 minute. This is a light effect.

Since this discovery is a light effect, it seems like it should be possible to use it to dispel magical darkness. I think the bomb, a supernatural effect, would be treated as a spell of half the alchemist's level, but I can't seem to find that written anywhere. Can anyone clarify or confirm? And if you could point me out to where the information comes from, that would be great. Thanks.

Do you apply the 10% Master of Trade discount before or after making a determination as to whether your Fame is high enough to purchase a particular item?

For example, if I had a Fame of 22, the rules allow me to purchase a magic item with a maximum gold piece value of 8000 gp from my faction. The normal cost of a +2 mithral breastplate would be 8200 gp, but with the discount, the cost would only be 7380 gp. As such, would having the Master of Trade vanity allow me to purchase this item with a Fame of 22 or not?

I checked the FAQ, but didn't see anything covering this and a search of the messageboards turned up nothing. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Rebuke Spirits (Su)

At 2nd level, the spirit warden gains the ability to channel positive energy as a cleric of her level. Regardless of her alignment, she can only use this ability to harm undead creatures. The spirit warden can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier.

This ability replaces the hex gained at 2nd level.

The wording of this Shaman archetype ability has me confused, specifically the second sentence: "Regardless of her alignment, she can only use this ability to harm undead creatures." Is this just reinforcing that the Spirit Warden can only channel positive energy and not negative energy? Or does it mean that they can only channel positive energy to harm undead and cannot use it to heal living beings? If the latter, then can it still be modified by feats that would allow a cleric to channel energy to harm elementals or evil outsiders, etc.?

Just wondering whether the Heartseeker magic weapon property would allow a character to sneak attack creatures who have concealment. If I'm ignoring the miss chance, then it seems like I should also be ignoring the inability to sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment, especially if my weapon is "being drawn unerringly toward beating hearts," but it's not exactly clear. Thoughts?

HEARTSEEKER

Price +1 bonus; Aura moderate necromancy; CL 7th; Weight —
This special ability can only be placed on melee weapons. A heartseeker weapon is drawn unerringly toward beating hearts. A heartseeker weapon ignores the miss chance for concealment against most living targets, though the attack must still target the proper square. This special ability does not apply against aberrations, oozes, plants, outsiders with the elemental subtype, or any creature specifically noted to lack a heart.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS
Cost +1 bonus
Craft Magic Arms and Armor, death knell

In the Additional Resources for the Inner Sea World Guide, it says that humans begin play knowing all listed languages for their chosen ethnicity as racial languages. Since half-orcs and half-elves are considered humans, does this mean that they also get these ethnic languages from their human half, since they are supposed to be considered humans?

It occurred to me recently that a collapsible plank made of darkwood would only weigh 5 lbs. and could therefore be manipulated into place with a Mage Hand spell. Could be useful for getting across pits or even barring doors shut. The rules for darkwood say that you have to add 10 gp per pound to the cost of a masterwork version of an item, but there are no masterwork collapsible planks. So what would the cost be? Most other masterwork items that aren't weapons or armor seem to default to 100 gp in cost.

This is an item from Ultimate Equipment. Based on my reading of it, this would make any weapon I wield gain the corrosive weapon special ability, including ranged weapons such as bows. And it seems like I'd also be able to make attacks of opportunity with a 1d6 melee touch attack. Is that correct? Seems too good for something that's PFS legal.

Deliquescent Gloves

Price 8,000 gp; Aura moderate conjuration; CL 7th; Weight1 lb.

These heavy leather gloves ripple and flows at the wearer's command, reshaping to fit any hand, claw, tentacle, or alien limb. The wearer's melee touch attacks with that hand deal 1d6 points of acid damage. If the wearer uses that hand to wield a weapon or make an attack with an unarmed strike or natural weapon, that attack gains the corrosive weapon special ability.

The wearer's gloved hand is protected from the acid ability of oozes, allowing him to use that hand to attack oozes with unarmed strikes or natural attacks without risk of harm from contact with the ooze. These unarmed strikes and natural attacks never cause an ooze to split.

I was playing a scenario the other night where we were fighting a creature with Greater Invisibility up. I got lucky with an Explosive Bomb and set the creature on fire for a round. While the creature is on fire, does being on fire negate its concealment from Greater Invisibility or maybe reduce it to a 20% miss chance?

We were able to get through the encounter without any party member deaths anyway without having to rule on this, but I'd like to know for future reference.

The Orc Bloodline Power of Giants specifically makes you Large size whereas the Enlarge Person spell increases your size one category so it seems like you should be able to stack the two effects to become Huge. I'm just wondering if maybe they don't stack because they're both size bonuses?

I've never actually seen anyone use a bow while raging so I was wondering whether or not it was actually allowed? The text is not quite clear. I was thinking about trying to go from the new Bloodrager class to Arcane Archer and was wondering whether that was workable with rage. Thanks.

I want to support my local game store, but I also want to make sure I'm getting the latest version with all the errata worked in. I believe it's supposed to be the sixth printing now. Thanks.

I'm considering playing an Urban Ranger in Pathfinder Society, but I'm not sure how the Favored Community archetype class feature would work. Would it refer to specific named towns? Or would it refer to nations? For example, could I pick Absalom as a community? And if you had to choose, what two (or more) communities would you pick? I'm leaning towards Absalom and the Worldwound, if those are applicable choices.

Favored Community (Ex): At 3rd level, the urban ranger forms a bond with a community. While inside the limits of this community, he gains a +2 bonus on initiative checks and Knowledge (local), Perception, Stealth, and Survival skill checks. An urban ranger traveling through his favored community leaves no trail and cannot be tracked (although he may leave a trail if he so desires).

At 8th level, and every five levels thereafter, an urban ranger may select an additional favored community. In addition, at each such interval, the skill bonus and initiative bonus in any one favored community (including the one just selected, if so desired) increases by +2.

For the purposes of this ability, a community is any settlement consisting of 100 or more individuals. The community may be larger than this minimum. Outlying farms, fields, and houses are not considered part of a community. This ability replaces favored terrain.

This staff says it can be used to cast spells using any metamagic feats known by the wielder without increasing the spell's level. Does that mean any spell or only the three spells listed for this staff?

Staff of the Master

Often given as gifts to apprentices upon reaching the rank of master, these staves come in eight different varieties, one for each school of magic. This particular staff is for the school of necromancy. Aside from acting as a +1/+1 quarterstaff, this staff allows use of the following spells:

Ray of enfeeblement (1 charge)
Spectral hand (1 charge)
Vampiric touch (2 charges)

In addition, this staff can be used to cast spells using any metamagic feats known by the wielder without increasing the spell's level. This consumes a number of charges equal to the number of spell levels increased by the feat. No more than one feat can be applied to a spell cast by the wielder in this way. Using the staff for this purpose does not increase the casting time of the spell.

The description in Ultimate Combat only says that it can be used as a whip to do lethal damage (1d4), and the chart lists only Performance as a special property. Does it also gain all the properties of a regular whip, such as 15 foot reach, etc? Or can it only be used against adjacent foes?

Do skill bonuses for skill checks that you are replacing with your Bardic Versatile Performance also apply to your Performance checks?

For example, an Azata bard would have a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks. At 2nd-level bard, he chooses to apply Versatile Performance to his Performance (strings), which allows him to make Performance (strings) checks in place of Bluff and Diplomacy on Bluff and Diplomacy checks, respectively. Would that +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks be added to his Performance (strings) when using it to make a Diplomacy check?

In Pathfinder Society, do your faction and region have to match? For example, if you wanted to be part of the Andoran Faction, could you still pick up regional trait from Sargava, such as Citizen of Eleder, such that your character was born and raised in Eleder but later joined the Andoran faction? I can't seem to find anything specific about this.

Note: This is just an example. I'm not actually looking to pick up this trait. Just wondering if the desire for a particular trait will force me to pick up a particular faction at character creation.

Citizen of Eleder: You live and work in Eleder. You gain a +1 trait bonus on all Knowledge (local) and Knowledge (nobility) checks regarding Eleder.

Trying to figure out a relatively inexpensive way to let my Alchemist Detect Magic at-will so that his Spellcraft can actually be useful. Thanks.

Can Use Magic Device be used to store Divine spells in a Ring of Spell Knowledge? Obviously, a 1st-level Divine spell would be treated as a 2nd-level Arcane spell if it works. But would this work? I find myself arguing this both ways. What do other people think?

Was hoping there might be. Seems like something that would be useful to have, but I can't seem to find one. Any help would be appreciated, preferably from a Pathfinder Society legal source. Thanks.

I was looking at this archetype and didn't see anything about any costs for creating these traps. Does the Trapper just create traps for free, limited only by his Wisdom score? What about the magical traps that have a scroll of a particular spell as a component? Are these scrolls consumed when their traps are triggered? If there is text that makes this more clear, please tell me where to find it. Thank you.

This is an example from the Ancestors Mystery. The power says that it provides an armor bonus, not an enhancement bonus to armor or any other wording that might be more clear. Does the bonus provided by this power not stack with actual armor worn? And if so, what's the point of this? Any medium armor will be better than this power and able to be cheaply enhanced with magic faster than the given progression rate.

Spirit Shield (Su): You can call upon the spirits of your ancestors to form a shield around you that blocks incoming attacks and grants you a +4 armor bonus. At 7th level, and every four levels thereafter, this bonus increases by +2. At 13th level, this shield causes arrows, rays, and other ranged attacks requiring an attack roll against you to have a 50% miss chance. You can use this shield for 1 hour per day per oracle level. This duration does not need to be consecutive, but it must be spent in 1-hour increments.

I recently discovered the False Focus feat from Inner Sea Magic. Would having this feat also allow you to add the effects of using Alchemist's Fire as a spell component (and other alchemical components as detailed in Adventurer's Armory) for free?

False Focus

You can use a divine focus to cast arcane spells.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (religion) 1 rank, ability to cast arcane spells.
Benefit: By using a divine focus as part of casting, you can cast any spell with a material component costing the value of that divine focus (maximum 100 gp) or less without needing that component. For example, if you use a silver holy symbol worth 25 gp, you do not have to provide material components for an arcane spell if its components are worth 25 gp or less. The casting of the spell still provokes attacks of opportunity as normal. If the spell requires a material component that costs more than the value of the divine focus, you must have the material component on hand to cast the spell, as normal.
Normal: A divine focus has no effect when used as a component in arcane spells.

I'm looking to create a wizard for play in Pathfinder Society, but I can't find an archetype that I want to play. I've done the Illusion thing before so Shadowcaster is out, and the Primalist is illegal in PFS. Just wondering if I'd missed a decent one out there.

So far, I'm juggling between Elemental, Intensified, Piercing, and Selective Rods. Is there a good item I don't know about besides the Glove of Storing or Handy Haversack for easy storage on these types of items? Maybe one of the Efficient Quiver compartments? I keep thinking there must be some kind of belt or bandolier designed to cover this sort of item.

What book would I find the rules for creating a 12th-level character in? I'm supposed to create a character at 12th-level following Pathfinder Society rules in order to play a specific module, and I'm not sure where to find things like total gp value for treasure, etc. Or if prestige points are applicable and how.

Anyway, if someone could post that information here or let me know what sourcebook or supplement to find it in, it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

My character recently got a +2 Profane Bonus to Intelligence in a Pathfinder Society module. I'm guess that just gives me the stat increase and the bonus spells but not any skill points, but I wanted to check and make sure. It is only a temporary bonus, not permanent, but it will last for 1 year. Just looking for clarification, thanks!