tearnImale's page

Be a Strix...?

Sure, you could do that- but then you aren't a harpy.

If their arms and wings are the same limbs, can they fly and wield weapons at the same time? How about flying and casting spells with somatic components?

+2 Str, +5 more for carrying capacity and not slowed by encumbrance could lead to a harya who could fly off with a horse in their talons. If this isn't intended you might want to remove one of those elements.

I've added a line where they take a -2 penalty to attack rolls with manufactured weapons while flying, and a feat that can negate it at higher levels. Spells are fine.

Honestly, while unintentional, that's not even the strangest thing possible in Pathfinder. If a player wants to spend their time carrying off a horse while the rest of the party fights, that's fine by me.

I made a race based off of harpies called haryas, which I came to by messing with the Latin word for harpy. I added the archetype to give some life to the race, as well as adding favored class options for the core classes (plus oracle).

Link here.

I just wanted to share and see what other people think of it!

Wow!

I really like what I see. I'm not any good at crunching the numbers to the extent of "breaking" a class, but it looks like a lot of fun.

I'm curious to see how this compares to a wild shape focused Druid, and even more so, to the Shifter. Shifters get at best mixed love on these threads. It seems like your class may be stronger than the shifter, but whether that's because yours is a bit too strong, or Shifters to weak, I can't say. Think they'd be fun to play together.

Funny you mention shifter- I originally made this class after I read shifter for the first time and got really disappointed with it for two reasons- the first was that shifter didn't grant the playstyle and theme I wanted, and the second was that I felt that the class just got shafted with its abilities.

So this is a class that I made a while back, and I've been tweaking it a bit recently. I like the current place it is in at the moment, so I figure this is as good a time as any to get some feedback on it.

The class is based around "putting the monster into the player-" a high hit point total, natural attacks and abilities that are reminiscent of monstrous creatures are what I intend its main draws to be. In addition, there is a focus on adaptability as well as suitability.

Metamorph class.

Mainly, I'm hoping other people can take a swing with my class to "break it," meaning like how a person can build a barbarian that can pounce from across the battlefield or a monk that can grapple a god- in other words, what ridiculous levels can a person make with this? Now, I'm still open to normal feedback, but I do think my class is at a good point.

In addition to feedback, I am also looking to try and make sure abilities are clear as possible- if there is some ability or wording that you are unsure about, please ask me!

For comparison, the regular alchemist's bomb also doesn't allow a reflex for half... to the primary target. And Alchemical Ordinance is basically just the primary target part tacked onto an attack with a firearm.

It is worth noting that the free action to infuse the ammo is taken when the firearm is reloaded. Meaning, if they start combat with a loaded firearm, they are not able to use Alchemical Ordinance until they reload. And if combat ends after they used the action to infuse but didn't fire, they lose that usage.

Huh. Guess alchemists are pretty good (until they run out of bombs).

I may just be reading it wrong, but does the gun chemist's alchemical ordnance not allow a reflex save for half? I know it calls out saving throws for things attached to AO, but I fell as though it implies that there's no save, which is OP in my opinion.

The archetype: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/alchemist/archetypes/paizo-al chemist-archetypes/gun-chemist-alchemist-archetype/

When people are homebrewing classes or archetypes and creating class features they often forget one or more of the details that turn out to be important in actual play:

1) What type of ability is it? Ex, Sp, or Su? (if applicable)
2) What kind of action does it take to activate the ability?
3) How long does the ability last?
4) What, exactly, does the ability do? If it works just like something in the Core Rulebook, reference the CRB text. There's usually no need to duplicate the text and you especially want to avoid rewording already published material as there is too much room for ambiguity and misreading.
5) If this ability breaks an established rule, be sure to include:
-a) acknowledgment that it is intended to break the rule.
-b) clear limits on the extent of exceptions to the rule.
6) Don't use flavor text in abilities.
7) Do all this as succinctly as possible.

That's just the writing guidance; it has no bearing on whether or not the ability is actually a good idea. And even well-established writers and developers sometimes forget to follow all these rules. Freelancers are notoriously bad about using flavor text and making people wonder if the archetype they wrote is actually doing something more than intended. Heck, reviewing my size modification ability above, I see that I forgot to put in "The effect lasts until she changes back."

Feel free to use any of my text you want!

For the ability above...

1) This ability is supernatural.
2) This is difficult to answer- a full-round action is technically correct though. I can't really answer this question without talking about the class in full.
3) See #2.
4/5) Now that you mention it, I think I should put "This functions as enlarge/reduce person" first instead of last.
6) I disagree, though I am of the mind that it should remain in the first sentence.

I think that's pretty clean wording, but you probably want to put the whole class out at some point and let people try to "break" it, especially with dips. There's a reason for that prohibition in the polymorph rules.

Oh, I will at some point; as I mentioned to Sysryke, I'll eventually put it it homebrew under the name "Metamorph."

edit: pretty clean. It presupposes that you apply the polymorph effects after the size change. If your class has some features where you might want to change size while under a polymorph it needs a bit more tweaking for clarity.

I'll have to add a line about that.

Also, this probably belongs in the "homebrew" forum.

I didn't put it in homebrew because I cared about the wording and not the class in this case, although talking about the class was inevitable. Hindsight is 20/20, I suppose.

As for the psudo feature you wrote down, I may steal that third line, as it is clearer than what I have, in my opinion.

An ability that works as enlarge or reduce person but gives you 2 more stat is clear. Once you try stacking with other polymorphs it gets muddled.

That's good that I've made myself clear (for the most part).

The problem is that all polymorph effects change your size. Someone casts beast shape 1 to turn into a leopard. A human changes size from medium to medium, an ogre changes from large to medium, and a gnome changes from small to medium. All gain the same effects of +2str and +2natural armor. So when does your ability work and why?

As I mentioned, my class has abilities it can use that count as polymorph effects but don't change the PC's size. I should've specified that the polymorph abilities from my class don't change the PC's size.

Consider splitting the ability into separate parts, something along the lines of:

1- you can activate this ability to gain the effects of enlarge person or reduce person.
2- While under a polymorph effect, you can increase or decrease your size category by 1 to a maximum of large and a minimum of small. If the effect grants a size bonus to strength or dexterity, increase that bonus by 2 to a maximum of +4.

I like the idea of your second point, but I'd have to think about it for a bit.

I think it works pretty well how you mean it to. It's pretty clear you're building an ability to allow a specific exception to the normal size change and polymorph rules. To make it more clear though, break the fourth sentence into two separate sentences, to make the called out exception distinct.

That's good, I'm glad I was able to express what I wanted more clearly.

Follow up question might be; if you are already under the effects of a non size change polymorph, can you activate this ability? (i.e. medium PC, polymorph to medium wolf, can you now become a large/small wolf?)

Can you activate the ability? Yes, although I imagine that a PC would have the ability active beforehand in most cases.

Depending on what this class is meant to do, a higher level version of the ability that does stack, at least once, with other size changes would also be cool. I'd be interested to see your finished piece.

Way back when I first imagined this class, I did actually have this ability stack with enlarge person, allowing up to a size of huge. However, I later felt that allowing a PC to become huge would give too much power to that PC, with the damage die increases and reach. As for seeing the final piece, I'm glad you've shown an interest! I'll probably put it under the homebrew section sometime with the title "Metamorph Homebrew class."

Recently, I've been revisiting a class I made a while back, and for one of the abilities, I found that I didn't like how I originally worded it- what it does when a player takes it is allow them to change their size by one category in either direction, but I realized that it was too vague- one could argue that it would stack with enlarge person, and I don't want that. Currently, I have the wording as follows:

"Your size changes by one category, adjusting your natural attacks as appropriate. If you grow one size, you gain a +4 size bonus to your strength score while taking a -2 penalty to your dexterity score. If you shrink one size, you gain a +4 size bonus to your dexterity score while taking a -2 penalty to your strength score. Any equipment on you when you change size changes with you and remains the new size until you revert and if you come under the effects of a polymorph spell that doesn’t change your size, you retain the size you have changed to with this ability. This otherwise functions as enlarge or reduce person, respectively. You must be at least 6th level to take this [ability]."

My goal for this ability is as follows:

1) Allows a player to change their size,
2) Doesn't stack with other size changing abilities, but
3) Allows for polymorph effects to use the new size instead of the old one, as the class has several abilities in it that are considered polymorph effects.

For reference of number three, here is how polymorph effects work with size changes from the SRD:

"You can only be affected by one polymorph spell at a time. If a new polymorph spell is cast on you (or you activate a polymorph effect, such as wild shape), you can decide whether or not to allow it to affect you, taking the place of the old spell. In addition, other spells that change your size have no effect on you while you are under the effects of a polymorph spell."

My question is, does what I've made appear to do what I want it to do from your perspective? I understand that sometimes a different perspective other than my own can help my achieve what I want.

You don't get extra attacks when using Whirlwind Attack.

You are misunderstanding my question- if you wanted to make the granted attacks from whirlwind attack with a secondary natural attack, would you make the attacks at your full base attack bonus or at full base minus 5? To go further, if you wanted to make some with a primary attack and others with a secondary, would they still both use full BAB then?

If you used whirlwind attack and wanted to make an attack with a secondary weapon, would you make the attack at your full BAB or at your full BAB-5? I imagine that it'd be the former, as this isn't a full attack action, but I wanted to get some input from others.

For the feat ultimate mercy, how long does it take to use?

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/ultimate-mercy/

Is it a SLA, thus a standard, is it as the spell's description says- just touch- or is it as the spell raise dead, thus one minute?

You can give yourself fast healing via the Crimson Shroud and Golden Body feats, and you can give another creature fast healing with the Resurrectionist feat.

Edit: The Life Boost focus spell can also give a creature fast healing and is probably the lowest level way of getting it.

Not as many as I was hoping existed, but thanks!

What ways are there for a player to gain fast healing?

I know that the spell regenerate gives regeneration, which is a better form of fast healing, but that is the only source I know of. Are there any other spells, bonuses, traditions or feats that give it?

If there's something that grants something that is fast healing in every way but name, that would work too.

Let me answer that without reading the rule.

No. There is no way you would add your level twice. That would be broken.

The phrasing could be better. Yes technically you can argue that you add your level if you are trained. But that is something that you already do, its part of the proficiency bonus.

The pathfinder 2 rules assume a level of common sense, like there is no way you will ever be adding the same bonus twice. Which is unfortunate as that is not always so obvious.

I figured that was the case, but I just wanted to check. Thanks!

For the 4th level veil spell, does it have you add your level twice if you are trained in deception?

Relevant sentence:

It allows the target to ignore any circumstance penalties they might take for being disguised as dissimilar creatures, and it gives the targets a +4 status bonus to Deception checks to prevent others from seeing through their disguises, and add their level even if untrained.

If I give a monster the snatch feat, does this give it the +4 to grapple that the grab ability grants?

I see you've continued to work on this since your reddit post. It looks like you've toned down some traits a bit. I'm glad that you're sticking with powerful traits and didn't make them weak like the other redditors were suggesting.

Adept Orphan: This trait looks interesting but it is sort of your traditional tabula rasa kind of trait. I hope this some sort of plot pay-off down the road and is not just some normal orphan trait.

Outsider Initiate: I don't know what normal hell knight dispositions are but indifferent seems harsh. I guess they are a rather cantankerous group though. Storywise I would have the hell knights be more friendly and just leave the dc at indifferent.

Yeah, I wanted to make the traits stand out from your standard "gain a class skill" trait. If I may take a moment to toot my own horn, I feel proud that I've managed to make so many traits that actually all tie into the story I've made at the moment and that don't feel useless. As for others saying I should tone it down, I'm glad I didn't listen either.

Yeah, this one, while the now full +1 CL I'm giving it makes it more in line, still feels meh. While I like the idea of making a single spell per day cost one less metamagic on a transmutation spell as Tacticslion mentioned, I feel that jumps it above the realms of others- after all, it does what flexable magician does but with any other metamagic feat. One thing I though about was boosting enhancement bonuses from transmutation spells you cast on yourself by half, rounded down. As adept orphan orphan is one of the first traits I made, it has one of the most direct connections to the story. Now, this doesn't mean that the other traits are somehow second place in the story, just that this one's is obvious once it is revealed.

I'm using the Order of the Nail as the named hell knight faction, as they are the most appropriate with their mantra being "savagery must be quelled, in the land, home, and mind." Now, from what I've read, hell knights are far from your friendly neighbor- they believe themselves to be right no matter what, and so that's bound to create push back from others, making the knights not like others for ignoring their "right" to do what they want. Under these pretenses, the hell knight's aren't going to be very friendly to others, and even hostile sometimes. Thus, this trait is worth more than it seems.

Sole survivor wakes you from unconsciousness if it brings you to zero HP, but not if it brings you to 1 HP. That's kind of weird.

Hm, you're right. While I never would've ruled it as that, I'll change it to say if it brings you conscious instead of a positive hit point total.

Fair request!

First, though I can read my tone as cautionary upon reread tone is a tricky thing with text and I want to clarify that I like what you’re doing here and it’s cool.

Also, I normally prefer to go in depth but had neither time yesterday nor today to do what I’d like (being relegated to my phone is one of the reasons I made two posts, in fact, instead of just editing), but, stuck on “by memory” instead of looking it up...

Cheerful Chiropa
This explicitly compares to the mythic ability Persuasive Countenance, and was what I was most referencing with mythic. It has stricter requirements than Persuasive Countenance, and it does not grant the +5 to diplomacy if the creature is already friendly, but does grant a +1 and makes the skill a class skill (potentially netting a +4 and ignoring the requirement that a creature be friendly). While I don’t believe there aren’t many charisma-primary classes that don’t have diplomacy, sorcerers can benefit greatly from this, off the top of my head.

Sole Survivor
The actual power of Sole Survivor is that it kicks in when you would fall unconscious. This kind of contingent healing is incredible because it’s just not commonly available in the game: no action, just “save my life” healing that continues. Now, it’s actual efficacy depends on two things: how vicious you (the GM) run the enemies, and whether or not there is follow-through with a player’s allies. Auto-kicking in upon unconscious can save a player from death by bleed, auto-stabilizing them in normal circumstances, and potentially putting them back on their feet immediately. Heck, anyone with ferocity would be phenomenal with this, especially if they also have ranged options: stay conscious even when brought to negatives, stay still and keep fighting, drop, get better, and keep fighting; even more so if that character is a healer themselves. Now, the amount of healing - while substantial for fast healing available to players - is pretty weak, but it’s the ability to no-action auto-stabilize and return to action.

For cheerful chiropa, I think it's fine. I looked at the trickster's ability you mentioned, and they are similar. I think this ability still falls into line with the others, and for the trickster, it feels underwhelming when you can gain other things like a bonus to ALL untrained skills and making people ignore you for other targets.

It kicking in when going down is the point of it, as that's even how the PC would "discover" they had it in terms of RP, as described in the trait description. I didn't think of how ferocity and similar abilities would work with it, so thanks for bringing that to my eyes- I'd rule it that unless they gain some amount of healing from another source, they'd still be staggered and fall unconscious after the one round, even if sole survivor brought them above 0. As for its effectiveness, I won't attack an unconscious PC outside of an extreme circumstance. Now, for the PC themselves using healing on themselves once it activates AND they have ferocity, I'd be fine with that.

Flexible Magician

This one also struck me as a mythic power because I believe there is an arch mage mythic power that expressly let you do exactly that - half your damage converts to a different type of energy damage and it gains the descriptor - but I honestly don’t remember what it’s called or whatnot. I believe there are a few feats that let you do something similar, but they are limited to specific individual elements and are part of a feat chain. I may be conflating with 3.5, though, and as you’ve expressed, this isn’t about what other traits do, but about how powerful they are to each other. As an example, this is strictly superior to Adept Orphan. Gaining a single time increment is not difficult and overcoming SR can be relatively trivial, but being able to get a third level spell with a long range that deals half fire damage and half <acid, cold, or electricity> is not something one can normally do and allows (as an example) a number of possibilities not previously considered.
That said, I see no particular reason to prevent sonic; or possibly force or negative or positive or whatever, for that matter.
As to Adept Orphan: it’s exceptionally odd because it’s hard to figure out who this trait is for. The best fit would be brutal Autocorrect, stop that neutral good orphaned druids but that is an exceptionally specific character build. (Full disclosure, I can’t remember whether wild shape is a transpiration or not: I remember it works like the spell, only it doesn’t, so... sorry! If that doesn’t work, then we’re basically talking a transmitter wizard and a very tightly focus spell selection.)
There is a conversation to be had, here, about the relative power of transmutation vs. the relative power of direct-damage spells (transmutation being superior in most cases, barring dazing spell), but there still feels a relative imbalance in what the two do. Also, ease of play could be impacted by having it be +1 for two things and not others. In the end, I’d either suggest granting it a +1 across the board as someone else suggested, or doing something wackier like allowing it to be affected by metamagic at one level less or somehow allowing for slightly weird or fanciful transmutation elements (like mixing one option from another transmutation possibility or something); I do feel that those are entirely overpowered compared to being able to select your element on the fly, though, so maybe not - literally just off the top of my head. XD.
The requirement that the character be good also feels just arbitrary enough that I’m unsure I’d stick with it, or at least that I’d stick with it there. I can’t come up with a good suggested replacement, right now, but shrug.

I really think a once per day switch of energy damage types is fine, it's like a free use of elemental spell, which is only a +1 metamagic. Now, what I have here isn't EXACTLY elemental spell, but I have been considering making it fully switch energy types.

For adept orphan, I made it a +1 caster level boost, but it wasn't always that. There was a base magic trait already does a +1 CL bonus to transmutation spells, so this, a campaign trait, being weaker isn't right. I do think it could be a bit better, but I'll have to think about it, as the metamagic option you mentioned is cool, but blatantly better than flexible magician. For the requirement of being not evil, it's because it is directly relative to the story tie in to the trait. On the off chance one of my players sees this, I won't say why, but it's for a very good reason- to be fair, you can't know that with just the trait description alone.

Wild born is great and I actually recommend leaving it as is; it’s just that it’s worth noting that it does its thing and you’d be pressed to fit that thing into three full feats (two Fleet feats and a hypothetical “git gud, noob” dark vision feat that is strictly superior to the fetchling or drow racial feat line). (But adding a +1 to climb and swim wouldn’t be out of place, given you suggested “athletics” as benefitting.)

Outsider Initiate feels exceptionally limited, even though you’ve emphasized Hell Knights are a Thing in this, but that may well be simply because I don’t know enough about your setting: no one can see it the way you do in your own head, and it may well be fine. The appearance of this compared to, say, cheerful chiropa is that this is limited and the PC actually gets a say in what happens with the CC (a lawful PC finding little quarrel with the HK, while a rebellious or chaotic PC wouldn’t get their benefits but would fit their character choices). It is powerful, but the focus on Hellknights in particular raises in-character questions (which can be good, but we have nothing to go by) and also seems to imply a stricter limit to RP opportunities. This is not inherently a bad thing and isn’t even necessarily true: this is an outsider’s perspective looking in.

Free Spirited and Failed Reclaimer aren’t bad, but I feel they’re lacking a little... something. I’m not sure. The idea of turning Failed Reclaimer into a Favored Enemy effect is interesting, though I see your point. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.

Finally, law ringer is great, but I’d be super frustrated that, over the course of my character’s career, I’d be prevented from getting it more than once per day. Also in figuring out how it interacts with smite chaos in general. Plus, though powerful, fey are kind of easy to kill and magical beasts tend to be just brutes: outsiders, though, it can be rather useful.

I most likely will leave wild born alone, but the campaign isn't starting for a while. Anything can happen (I'll coincide the STR skill boosts...).

Free spirited is fine to me. A +1 to will and a reroll on a common spell descriptor is more than enough, in my opinion. Failed reclaimer's value goes up once you consider how often each of those types appears- sure, you won't be tripping over them, but you'll see a lot of action with that trait.

To give lawbringinger more than once per day would be too much. As Thunderlord mentions, I've worked with insight on what I've done in the past- he's linked to what it used to be, which was way out of line. Sure, once per day isn't great, but +1 damage, attacks, saves, AND AC is pretty good, not to mention the possibility of a one time damage boost. As for smite chaos, it'd stack. If it seems like a lot to you, I'd disagree as smite chaos alone is enough to melt a creature.

For your other boosts to these that you mention, I think I'll stay away from extra uses as a person levels. The only reason sole survivor is boosted rather than a set amount is because how much a certain amount of HP is worth changes over game time. A +1 at first level is a +1 at tenth level, while 2 HP at first level can save you, but 2 HP at tenth level is ignorable.

Any critique is welcomed, no matter how long.

Cheerful Chiropa

Sole Survivor
Wild born
Flexible magician

All are incredibly powerful, some of which are more powerful than literal mythic abilities and strike me at first blush as more powerful than the others, which are more situational.

Could you be... specific in what you mean? Just being told that something is powerful without any critique doesn't help.

Also, what mythic abilities could these traits possibly be replicating? If these are doing that, I imagine the mythic ability sucks, seeing as how mythic allows you to ignore immunizes and resistances after a certain point.

To me out of all of those, wildborn is way stronger than any of the others.

I disagree- the feat that comes to mind is fleet, and even though my trait is better that taking it twice and then some, when was the last time you heard someone taking fleet? It's not good. Regardless, as I said above, I'm considering a +5 speed increase instead.

Wild Born is certainly better than a feat. It's probably worth about 3 feats.

Obviously, if you're not worried about balancing them against normal traits, that's OK. So let's bump up the disappointing ones:

Adept Orphan: +1 CL for all purposes on Transmutation spells

Failed Reclaimer: just treat that type as a +2 Favoured Enemy

Outsider Initiate: also include Sense Motive, Perception, relevant Knowledge/Lore

Fair on wildborn, in terms of what it replaces, but let's be fair- fleet requires light or no armor. This doesn't. In loo of this, I'm considering a +5 speed increase instead.

Yeah, adept orphan is a bit behind. Especially since I've found a trait that is not a campaign trait that is straight better.

Reconsider what a +2 favored enemy is- +2 to attack, damage, and a group of skills. Even for what I'm going for, that's too much. Not to mention against an entire creature type that's going to have a lot of action. No, for this one, I think it's fine.

Outsider initiate is the weakest, in my opinion. While interaction with hell knights will make this shine (and that'll be happening a lot), I think adding the bonus to a few other skills will be good for it.

If a Caster: Flexible Magician

If a Martial: Lawbringer or Slave Fighter

as mentioned above, all of these seem over powered, Traits are meant to be about half as powerful as a feat. So for example, Slave Fighter gives you up to 3 +1 bonuses, almost no feat and very few traits give you more than 2 +1 bonuses.

Yes, they are powerful, and give some good stuff. But, like I said, I don't care about what anything else gives. Each player gets one- thus, assuming each trait is truly equal in power, there shouldn't be an issue.

Flexible magician is once per day, and, most of the time when you use it, you're not getting around all of the defenses of the creature- only half damage changes.

Lawbringer has a chance to fail completely. Not to mention it doesn't grant innate knowledge of whether or not a creature is chaotic. Sure, you can just tell sometimes, but the theme is chaos AND law- it's not the situation where 75% of enemies are evil.

So I'm making a campaign and have a groups of traits for it that PCs can choose from to give them a pull into the story. I wanted to get some feedback on them, as well as see which ones people might gravitate towards. IMPORTANT: I do not care what other campaign traits do- as each player will gain one of these traits, I want to make them in line with each other, not those other campaigns have.

Wild Hordes: This is the beginning threat that the PCs will be dealing with, and the higher-up baddies of this group are those that tie into the traits that involve them.

Hell Knights: My campaign has a heavy theme on chaos/law rather than good/evil, and thus hell knights are an obvious inclusion. The continent that this will take place on is full of strange and chaotic energies, and thus I have the Order of the Nail as the most prominent order (though every order has some presence, especially if a player wants to be a different order).

Silver Reef: This is the starting city and resting place for PCs in the campaign. Most important NPCs will be/come from here, and threats generally involve threatening this city.

The Forest: This is the region around the settled lands of the setting. Magical beasts, monstrous humanoids and fey are all abounds in these lands, and traveling them is dangerous.

Reclaimers: These are the brave souls who explore the forest, hunt dangerous beasts, search for settleable lands, and, in many cases, removing foliage to make future trips safer.

Chiropa: This is a custom race I've made that I will extend to my players. If you care to see what the race is like, see here.

The traits, with the mechanical aspects bolded-

Adept Orphan: You were raised in an orphanage in Silver Reef since you were a baby, and your caregiver only knew that you were brought to him by a cloaked individual, who disappeared shortly after delivering you. Growing up, you had a rather uneventful childhood, but you found yourself inclined to certain spells. Whenever you cast a transmutation spell, you treat your caster level as one higher for the purposes of duration and overcoming spell resistance. Requirement: You cannot be evil.

Cheerful Chiropa: Unlike others of your kind, you were born in the city of Silver Reef. Despite having only your family as other chiropas, you never felt out of place- in fact, you found you could connect with just about anyone, no matter who they are or where they’re from. This makes any creature you meet with an attitude that isn’t hostile or unfriendly to be treated as one attitude step better than normal. In addition, you gain a +1 trait bonus on diplomacy rolls, and diplomacy is always a class skill for you. Requirement: You must be a chiropa.

Failed Reclaimer: You served Silver Reef as a reclaimer with a group of close companions. One day, you were ambushed while exploring one of the deeper parts of the forest, and only you made it out alive. Since then, you’ve had a grown hatred for the beasts that live in the forest. Choose either fey, magical beast or monstrous humanoids. You gain a +1 trait bonus on attack rolls and a +2 trait bonus on skill checks to identify this creature type. In addition, you may make knowledge checks about them untrained.

Flexible Magician: Magic has been in your family’s blood for as long as any member can remember, but it has been gradually weakening in the last few generations. When it came to you, your father thought that you wouldn’t possess a drop, but you instead impressed him- in fact, even at a young age, you seemed able to change the makeup of your spells on the fly! Once per day before you cast a spell that deals damage with the acid, cold, electricity or fire descriptor, you may change half of the dealt damage to another type (either acid, cold, electricity or fire). The spell gains the descriptor of the second energy type. If you are a spontaneous caster, this does not increase the casting time of the spell.

Free Spirited: You were born into a family who have served at the hell knight fortress Eirstadt since its founding. However, unlike your family, you never agreed with the brutal and unforgiving beliefs that the denizens held, which caused you to receive many a stern talking to or beating. You finally left after news came that your father had to take an early retirement, leaving you to take his place as his eldest child. Unwilling to live that life, you left to make a life without predetermined choices. You gain a +1 trait bonus to will saving throws due to your free nature, and once per day, you may reroll a failed save against a charm, compulsion or enchantment effect. Requirement: You cannot be lawful.

Lawbringer: Your family used to serve the city of Silver Reef as famous reclaimers, until a group of unknown arsonists caused a great fire to ravage your family’s estate, killing everyone in your family except for you. Since then, you have applied yourself to your family’s convictions and kept their memory alive, hoping to bring those who killed them to justice. Once per day as a free action, you may focus your convictions upon a creature. If that creature is chaotic, you gain a +1 trait bonus on attack rolls, damage rolls, saves and AC against that creature. If the targeted creature is also a fey, magical beast or outsider, the trait bonus to damage on the first successful hit against it increases to be equal to your character level. This effect lasts until the creature is dead or you rest. Requirement: You cannot be chaotic.

Outsider Initiate: You never knew you parents, but you were told that they were simple peasants from Silver Reef who met an unfortunate fate. You were raised in Eirstadt, the hell knight fortress, and trained there over the years. You were able to notice that most of the stationed knights wouldn’t talk to you, but on occasions of necessary actions, they never disrespected you. For reasons unknown to you, you were informed that you needed to leave the fortress even though you had been there for as long as you remember. Due to your experience, you gain a +2 trait bonus on charisma related checks to influence hell knights and their associates, and these groups have a starting attitude of indifferent towards you.

Slave Fighter: You were captured by a group of the wild hordes and made a slave to fight others for their entertainment. Something about you stood out to your captors, and they made you fight increasingly unfair opponents, but through luck and skill, you still managed to survive. Eventually, you were rescued by a group of reclaimers who performed an assault against this pack of the horde. Due to your experience, you gain a +1 trait bonus to initiative, and whenever you are flanked, you gain a +1 trait bonus on attack rolls and to AC. Requirement: You cannot be good.

Sole Survivor: Born in the town of New Wood, you lived a difficult life- raids from local monsters, disappearances of townsfolk and the threat of the wild hordes made living day to day both terrifying and uncertain. One day, New Wood was caught unawares after an earthquake by the horde, and you remember being slashed across your chest before falling unconscious. When you next awoke, you found yourself alone, but the wound in your chest was gone. Once per day as a swift action, you may gain fast healing 2 for a number of rounds equal to 1 + half your character level. If you ever fall unconscious due to hit point damage and haven't used this ability yet that day, it automatically activates when your next turn would take place. If this healing brings you to a positive hit point total, your remain unconscious for 1d4 hours or until something wakes you, such as another source of healing.

Wild Born: You were found alone as a baby deep in the forest by a group of reclaimers and were brought back to Silver Reef. Growing up, you seemed to be more athletic than other children, and you found you preferred the company of animals and working beasts than to that of other people. You gain a +10 bonus to your base land speed, and you gain darkvision out to 30 feet. If you already possess (or later gain) darkvision, increase your existing darkvision by 10 feet instead.

I just gained an ability to be able to complete spell trigger items as a sorcerer of my level (currently 10), and was wondering what would be some good choices. I've already picked up a few scrolls of haste and a wand of heroism, but what else would be a good idea? I should mention I'm a grappler.

I got this ability from a homebrew ability.

Would using unhindering shield negate a kensai's canny defense feature? I believe it would work, although I wanted to get confirmation.

Unhindering Shield
You still gain a buckler’s bonus to AC even if you use your shield hand for some other purpose. When you wield a buckler, your shield hand is considered free for the purposes of casting spells, wielding weapons, and using any other abilities that require you to have a free hand or interact with your shield, such as the swashbuckler’s precise strike deed or the Weapon Finesse feat.
Special: A monk with this feat is not considered to be using a shield for the purposes of his AC bonus, fast movement, or flurry of blows.

Canny Defense Feature
When wearing light or no armor and not using a shield, a [kensai] adds 1 point of Intelligence bonus (if any) per [kensai] class level as a dodge bonus to her Armor Class while wielding [her chosen weapon]. If a [kensai] is caught flat-footed or otherwise denied her Dexterity bonus, she also loses this bonus.

Let's say creature A is grappling creature B, and creature B has the grab ability on its attacks. Creature B attacks creature A and hits, granting a free grapple. Would this free grapple-
a) Grant a grapple check to remove/reverse the grapple,
b) Create a separate instance of grapple, or
c) Fail?

So say there's an invisible creature lurking around, and it possesses the grab ability (If a creature with this special attack hits with the indicated attack, it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity). It then attacks a creature (thus making them flat footed) and hits them.

Would the bonus grapple also be against the hit creature's flat footed CMD, or is it now at a point where the creature is "aware" of its assailant?

Really simple, is there a first-party way to get either ironskin or barkskin as a spell as a sorcerer or wizard?
If neither is possible, what would be a cheap way to one or both at a decent level a game goes on?

I have to say, I've been getting some high quality ideas from everyone here, so good work, everyone!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Y2vWQbRlJ7SUU61tjzXUcEvCZK-wAqCf

Summary:

-Added perform as a class skill
-Added VMC Shifter option at end of document
-Moved Fast Healing to manifestations, renamed to Healing Factor
-Made a new abnormality, Adrenaline
-Made a new manifestation, Defensive Quills
-Changed breath weapon to Destroyer's Maw, adjusted abilities
-Changed pounce to Bestial Shape, adjusted abilities
-Removed quadrupedal trait
-Made alterations to abnormalities
-Grammar fixes

Thanks for all the feedback! I've made some changes, so I'll link the new PDF below for everyone to look at. Major changes summarized:

-Added description for Survivalist class feature
-Overhauled the aspect/morph slot class features to be aspect/manifestations
-Changed around the shifter pool traits
-Made most of the abnormalities more specific
-Added class specific feat descriptions at the end of the document

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xNjgVMjYsGTlCVc-f-_Aj9tJ7Q-rh8NH/view?usp= sharing

Again, feedback would be greatly appreciated!

So I found this class:

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/omdura/

And will be playing it in a homebrew undead themed campaign.

Rules are 25 point buy, no stat dumping, automatic bonus progression +1. I was thinking of starting stats of the following: STR 16, DEX 13, CON 15, INT 10, WIS 10, and CHA 14. This is pre race, as I was thinking either human or aasimar as the race.

What I want to ask is what would be good feats to compliment the character, as well as spell choice. My god is most likely Sarenrae, and his alignment will be either CG or NG. Any input would be great!

NOTE: The Omdura implies that you don't gain your own invocation bonus until lvl 11, thinking that you don't count as your own allies. The DM has ruled that I will not gain my own invocation bonuses till that point.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/omdura/

I found this class just recently and want to play it sometime. The theme of the campaign that this character would be in is undead, so I want to go Sarenrae or a similar deity (I've considered Pharasma, but I'm not liking the idea).

What I want to ask about is spell selection- as a spontaneous caster, I need to select my spells carefully. My role would be largely support (a divine bard, if you will) and so I know a few obvious choices- bless, blessing of fervor and heroism are good (prayer grants a sacred bonus which doesn't stack with two of the invocation bonuses). What I don't know well at all is the inquisitor spell list (other than heroism), what would be good spells for this character to pick off of the inquisitor list, if any?

This may help (this is pre-racial bonus):

16
14
14
10
10
14

Does the bonus from improved/greater grapple apply to someone you have grappled who is trying to break the grapple? If you can provide a link to a primary or official post, please do!

Example:

I have a grapple CMB of +18 and roll to grapple someone with a CMD of 25. I roll a 7 and succeed.

Their turn, they try to break out. My base CMD is 24- would I add the improved and greater grapple to my CMD in this situation?

If a character VMCs into magus, will they be able to take the extra arcana feat (past level 7, that is)? I'd imagine so, as the oracle VMC calls out the extra revelation feat, but I figured I'd check.

If a character VMCs into magus, will they be able to take the extra arcana feat (past level 7, that is)? I'd imagine so, as the oracle VMC calls out the extra revelation feat, but I figured I'd check.

So I'll be playing a slayer, and I had one skill left to put ranks into. Not sure what to put it into, I choose use magic device (took a trait to make it a class skill and get a +1) cause I think it'll be fun. I'm just curious as to what spells would best help me and my party using this.

I'm a player in Strange Aeons as a TWF slayer tank who trips (no spoilers please!), if that helps.

Alright, I think stating my full goal with this character will help:

He will be a Frontline/party buff character who will take use of his channel to weaken enemies.

Out of combat, he will be deceptive and try to further his god's goals (TBD, DM will tell me what Norgober "wants") while still helping his party. He will also take create wondrous item.

As for undead, I don't see him using them very often, but he's not against it.

I don't want to take any archetypes with this character, but if there is a way to gain those boons another way, if be interested.

All the advice so far has been great!

With the rules for custom magic items, I've never felt like the game needed more already made. Really, I felt like they could have made do with a good deal less.

I want magic in my games to actually feel magical, so I try to avoid the "standard issue" magic item idea at all costs. Magic items should be unique. Strange. Wondrous.
A few things I've thrown into my latest games:

the Thunderhead Cloak- boosts AC and saves, grants a bonus to jumping and cold, lightning and sonic resistance.

the Greenshroud- a suit of scales that allows you to transform into a cloud of swirling leaves.

Deadman's Boots- grants a bonus to Stealth, Will saves, cold resistance and the ability to teleport short distances.

Hydrahide Belt- boosts str, con, natural armor and grants immunity to hp bleed.

the Hungry Hatchet- a seeking, returning throwing axe that gains the vicious property when thrown and grants it's wielder Improved Initiative and Quick Draw, but forces the wielder to begin the first round of combat drawing it.

I... Really like all of these. The only thing I have to say is that the hatchet grants quick draw, so drawing it every time isn't an issue.

What magical items do you think should exist that don't?

For example, I think there should be energy immunity cloaks that cost ~60000-75000, but they only are against one element, never more.

How are you reconciling worshiping Norgorber and then switching to worship the Four Horsemen as a Soul Drinker?

It's a pretty big deal, if you ask me. Just wondering what you and your DM have figured out that makes this kosher?

I don't plan on doing that, the maddness alt is just what I want but I realize I can't have it with my current deity.

Alright, for variant channeling, I like the murder alt, but I would deal more damage with the full channel than with the bleed. What I actually want is the madness alt channel, but that doesn't fall under Norgober, so oh well...

As for domains, I'm torn between daemon and murder. My other would be glory (separatist archetype), as it's level eight ability is incredible. I'm not going for death as there will not be synergy there.

I forgot that you could harvest poisons, I'll have to take that cheap route.

Are you sure you want to be a cleric? Warpriest might be a better choice. It really depends on what you want to do with the character. One thing I would suggest is to pick an aspect of Norgorber's faith and build your character around that.

Yes, cleric is what I want, while warpriest would make him mechanically better, I envision him as a cleric.

As for what aspect, he's about deception and lies, backstabbing (and poison if it wasn't so stupidly expensive) that kind of thing (let me get this out of the way, I don't intend on backstabbing my party, I don't play like that). While it would be good to have diplomacy as well (cunning feat looks like a good idea), this is what this character is like.

As for a reach cleric, I only vaguely know how to build one of those and this character is not that.

So I was thinking of making a cleric of Norgober and wanted some advice.

I want to be in more Frontline combat rather than just throw spell DCs at things, so I have the following array:

20 buy, human

16
14
13
10
14
14

I plan on putting ranks into bluff, sense motive and perception.

Any advice would be welcome.

Pretty much all I want to know is when you think of "3rd party" classes, what comes to mind? I'm not really looking for a "x class is op and y sucks," I'm just curious what experiences people have had with third party. If there's a 3P race that jumps out, please feel free to share that as well.

For example, I've had experience with the kobold press battle scion, the vorpal knight and the rite publishing draconic exemplar.

The battle scion I think is just fine, the only thing that I'd say it would need is a personal spell list.

The vorpal knight is a class I so want to use and have players use, but it just gets too much with its soul aspects ability. Even an inexperienced player could outshine a vet using this class.

The draconic exemplar is honestly very cool. It also suffers similarly as the vorpal knight in that it is very good, with six natural attacks being the biggest tribute. Removing the wing attacks/gore helps reign it in, but still.

Thanks for the feedback!