thomas nelson's page

I should know the answer to this question and have searched for 30 minutes for the answer and can't find it so i'm asking you people.

Does a brawler who does not meet the dexterity requirements of two weapon fighting benefit from brawlers flurry and the other progressions of that class ability?

The Kickstarter for a new edition of Scarred Lands is now live!

Born at the advent of 3e, the Scarred Lands fantasy roleplaying setting returns in not just one, but two new forms! More than a decade after the setting was created, we want to share this classic setting with fans of both Pathfinder and 5th Edition by creating two different versions of the core book.

We want to put this new version of the Scarred Lands into the hands of the thousands of players of the original 3e OGL version, but we also want to introduce new players to this large and detailed world. We hope to accomplish this directly to those backing our project and also by funding an offset press print run of the two versions of the book to sell to game stores.

So far the project is funded and we have hit out first two stretch goals.

So lets say for a moment that Paizo decides that the trophy hunter gets Firearm Proficiency and Gunsmithing, I was playing around with a Switch hitting Ranger that holds a polearm in one hand and a pistol in the other, ready to drop it at any point and hack away with the two hander. In this case I am thinking a ranger of Sheyln with a Glaive-guisarme and a brace of double barreled pistols for ranged shooting. Because the strategy is Shoot, shoot, drop, engage being able to clear guns quickly is not all that necessary.

So using the elite array here is my theoretical build:
Str 15+2 (human)
dex 13
con 10
int 12
wis 14
cha 08

level 1: Improved initiative, Power attack
Level 2: Deadeye deed
level 3: Quick Draw
level 4: +1 str
Level 5: Deadly Aim
Level 6: Gunslinger Initiative
Level 7: Heavy Armor Proficiency
level 8: +1 dex
Level 9: Extra Grit
level 10: Dead Shot

any thoughts?

So I have a character who is built to be one of the world's greatest architects, and will be taking leadership in order to have a clan of followers who are built to have the necessary skills to build the things my character dreams up. But I am stuck on the concept of a Cohort, I am in that rare position of actually being more interested in my followers than my actual Cohort.

What I want in a Cohort is someone who is well equipped to manage and defend my followers while I am busy and who has a class ability that allows them to improve on the skill checks of others while they do extended actions like crafting, profession and perform checks. Actual combat ability is secondary and I do not want or need an actual magic item crafting monkey.

I can cast Crafters Blessing and a Lords Banner of Victory is already going to be a part of any construction site I manage.

Lets say you have a bonded object, and you want it to be a weapon and for whatever reason you want it to be a pepperbox. Is a 3000 gp firearm a legal selection for a bonded object in a game where firearms are allowed?

So I am a player in a game and one of my fellow players refuses to make their character by the rules. The player just keeps doing the goofiest possible thing and has a hissy fit whenever someone points out there is something wrong with their sheet.

I'm frustrated with carrying around this lodestone of a player and could use some help.

Its a simple question that I am sure will not degrade into repetitave arguments for multiple pages.

#1: Not allowed to use Craft: Alchemy to make Meth.

#2: My Alchemist is to keep other players appraised of experiments he is performing on other players.

#3: The Witches familiar is not the "Emergency Food Supply"

#4: The following alignments are banned for any character I play: Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Evil, Lawful good.

#5: Not allowed to use sending spells to Rick Roll People.

#6: Stop calling the dwarven paladin's mount "Mr Baconater".

#7: Gnomes are not "good eating".

#8: There is no spell called "Bigby's middle finger".

#9: The primary purpose of the Alchemist class is not to create "natural male enhancement", that is not where the real gold is.

#10: Not allowed to celebrate the vanquishing of the Big Bad by getting a grill that says "PC life" on it.

#11: Throwing alchemist's fire down a one meter exhaust port will not cause a chain reaction that will destroy the dungeon.

#12: Craft: Alchemy is a privilege, not a right.

#13: Seoni was never a member of a Sorority.

#14: Its Anti Paladin, not bizzaro paladin.

#15: I am not allowed to grow a goatee, commit (more) evil acts, shave the beard and blame it on my evil twin from an alternate dimension.

#16: There is no such thing as magic duct tape.

#17: Paladins do not organize bum fights.

#18: Not allowed to do anything that causes me to giggle for more than five seconds.

#19: The party has no doppelganger Code.

#20: I have to tell the party I am instituting a doppelganger code before instituting one.

#21: Do not taunt the unspeakable ancient evil.

#22: Ewoks are not Chelax's one weakness.

#23: The exterminator will not spray for gnomes.

#24: There is now a two drink limit for gaming.

#25: Two drink limit does not mean first and last.

#26: Drinks must be normal sized.

#27: Using the leadership feat as a source of catapult ammunition is both inefficient and destructive to your leadership score.

#28: Dice roll results are not open to interpretation.

#29: Delivering touch spells is no excuse to grope other player characters.

#30: Asmodeus does not have a really effeminate southern accent.

#31: No converting Rainbow Bright to Pathfinder rules.

#32: Victory dances after killing the big bad guy with a lucky crit are in poor taste.

#33: I do not have to wait for the results of the congressional subcommittee on dice before I roll a skill check.

#34: Summon AM BARBARIAN is not a spell.

#35: Gay Marriage did not cause the Worldwound.

#36: While you are allowed to take the Skill Craft: Role Playing games in game, you are not allowed to run role playing games inside the role playing game you are playing.

#37: Suggesting to Shop owners that if they do not pay a "protection fee" there might be a Paladin/anti-paladin battle in their neighborhood is not proper paladiny conduct.

#38: I do not get extra experience for especially witty "your momma" jokes.

#39: Being out of the box is a privilege, not a right.

#40: Not all problems can be solved with fire.

#41: There is no such thing as a magic pogo stick.

#42: There is no such thing as a magic potato gun.

#43: There is no way to tell if you are wearing a thong in full plate armor, so it does not provide a bonus to seduction checks.

#44: Gnomes are not to be referred to as "Golarian mine detectors".

#45: The lower planes are not known for its generous return policy.

#46: A funky cold Medena has no challenge rating.

#47: Wearing a speedo to game will not attract female gamers to our table.

#48: There is no such thing as a magic segway.

#49: Have to get fellow heroes permission before marketing stuffed animals, dolls or biographies in their image.

#50: I do not have a theme song that plays in the background when its my turn.

#51: I cannot trade girl scout cookies for experience.

#52: "Cleanse it with fire" is not a universal all purpose solution.

#53: Not allowed to put a red racing stripe on the group's Wagon and travel around the country as mercenaries righting wrongs.

#54: Like McDonalds, a shirt, shoes and pants are required to game at our table.

#55: It puts the soap on its skin or else it does not game with us again.

#56: There is no feat called Weapon Proficiency: familiar

#57: When Buying Gear for the party I am not allowed to use their funds to buy two things for three times the price.

#58: I do not decide the color scheme for the party.

#59: Paladins do not hold the city hostage or go on strike.

#60: There is no Paladin's Union.

#61: I will wait until I and an independent party have verified that all food stores have been lost or consumed before resorting to cannibalism.

#62: Casting Shatter on the Alchemist is not quickest way to light the campfire.

#63: Catapults are not a means of travel.

#64: Not allowed to make a monkey my familiar just so I can teach it to smoke.

#65: I am only allowed to handle my own rations.

#66: Nobody wants to buy a magic snuggie.

#67: The important NPC is not the one with the big golden exclamation point over his head.

#68: You are not the Bard's agent and you are not entitled to 10% of his WBL.

#69: The spell "fireball" is not also known as "Evoker's Knock".

#70: Potions are not delivered in colonic form.

how many hit points does a pavilion tent have?

So I'm playing a Wizard/Cleric in a Kingmaker campaign and when and If I make it to 7th level I want a group of fawning hangers-on to polish my armor and cook my meals. That said, I totally do not want to undermine the DM or rock the game. My Dm has been excellent and seems to enjoy running the game and I do not want his job to become harder or overshadow the other players. Still its in character for me to have a crowd of kept artists, servants and personal men at arms as well as a sworn sword to do my bidding.

Currently I have a 12 Charisma and the Natural Born Leader trait so my starting leadership score should be at least 9, I should have a castle/fortress/mansion/guild-house by then because its kingmaker and I'll be 7th level and building a city is part of the AP and my character's personal ambition.

For my Cohort I'm thinking a Cavalier of the Order of Lion (possibly standard bearer) to act as my personal attendant/messenger/right hand. I don't want someone to really take up a role in most combats so much as I want a guy I can send to make proclamations, manage projects for me and make me look important. The way I see it The leadership feat gives me a cohort and followers with the standard array of attributes and the clothes on their backs.

My plan is to assume that two thirds of my Followers are Standard Servants/craftsmen and one third is warriors (my men at arms) and healers (adepts with the self sufficient feat).

Also

Father is a Aasimar, mother is a Teifling, what is baby?

Can the spell "Bestow Weapon Proficiency" be used as the prerequiste for making bracers of archery?

Also can bracers of archery be used as the prerequisite for making bracers of archery?

Just wondering, how much time is there in game between Stolen Lands and Rivers Run Red?

So I am 9 sessions into the first part of Kingmaker and I am playing a Wizard/Cleric. Currently the party is all 2nd level and pretty well rounded we have the following:

Cairne Garess = Half Elf Wizard (conjurer - Creation) Cleric (Sheyln)
Segrid = Human Ranger (Sword and board, Skirmisher)
Andraste = Aasimar Paladin (Archer build, Erastil)
Jeremiah Nixon = Teifling Magus (Crossbow monkey)
Carden = Human Inquisitor (Earstil)
Zelata = Aasimar Sorcerer (Flame based blaster, my inspiration for AM SORCERER)

My Character is a Aristocratic tradesman (architect) and patron of the arts who has no real chance of inheriting family title. This has motivated him to join the expedition into the greenbelt in order to be in a position to manipulate the development of settlements and design a truly great city.

About my build:
OK, I did not dump charisma because it is important that my character be a leader and at least somewhat charismatic, so dumping charisma was not really an option, that is also why the character has the natural born leader trait.

The luck domain has turned out to be pretty useful, touch of luck is literally a godsend that keeps turning misses into hits and hits into crits, there has literally only not made an attack easier once, I also use it to help craftsmen. I went with defense because the spells where more important than the ability to give people my small bonus to saves.

I went with Creation over vanilla conjuring because making useful doodads you need over tossing acid bolts and it makes more sense for the character.

I'm thinking 3rd level picking up craft misc magic items along with a level of wizard, 7th level is when I pick up Leadership. I am undecided about 5th, I may boost my initiative and lackluster reflex save with the additional traits feat.

So far I have been pretty universally useful with my buffs and battlefield control and skills but I am trying to think about the future.

I'm thinking something like this:
3rd Level Wizard Craft misc magic item
4th Level Wizard +1 int
5th level cleric ?
6th level cleric
7th level Mystic Theurge leadership

any thoughts?

OK, before they became the most disturbingly rules heavy game company possible Alderac (now Crafty Games) had a take on the d20 system that valued skill checks as much as combat rolls, part of the reason for this is that skills checks can result in critical successes. Lucky breaks where skill performance is extraordinary, even supernatural. The mechanics are similar to scoring a critical hit are similar to combat, all skills are considered to have a threat range of 20 unless feats, items, spells or class abilities can increase that threat range. If a skill check results in a critical threat but the total check+skill bonus is not sufficient to succeed at the skill check then the check is not eligible for a critical success. The results of a critical success varies by skill and are as follows:

Acrobatics:
Cross Narrow Surfaces/Uneven Ground: You move at double the speed you were trying to move at up to double your normal speed.
Move Through Threatened Square: You move at double the speed you were trying to move at up to double your normal speed.
Jumping and Falling: You Ignore the last 20 ft of a fall.
Appraise:
You determine the market price and magical nature of all goods in a treasure hoard.
Bluff:
Your opponent is totally fooled. Only a critical success on a sense motive check or absolute proof reveals the truth. Character is immune to truth detecting magic with a caster level lower than his skill ranks + wisdom modifier for the duration of the lie.
Climb:
You move at double the speed you were trying to move at up to double your normal speed.
Craft:
Double progress for one week/day's check.
Diplomacy
Influence Attitude: Target's Attitude immediately becomes non hostile for one hour, any hostile action restores old attitude
Make Request: Any reasonable request is granted, nothing that knowingly puts the target in danger or costs more than character's check result in gold pieces.
Gather Information: Information is gathered in a half hour.
Disable Device:
Check is made in half time.
Disguise:
The Disguise is perfect, only a critical success on a sense motive check reveals it.
Escape Artist:
You escape your bonds in half time, you are unaffected by spells that allow an escape artist check with a caster level lower than your skill ranks in escape artist + your dex
Fly:
For the duration of combat you do not need to make a check to maintain altitude, all wind penalties to fly are halved for you until you touch ground.
Handle Animal:
The animal follows your commands without question so long as they are commands the animal is trained in, training an animal takes half time.
Heal:
First Aid: When stabilizing a dying person the target is immediately restored to 1 hit point.
Long-Term Care: Healing is tripled for one day.
Treat Deadly Wounds: Healing is increased by half.
Treat Poison/Disease: Target may make another save.
Intimidate:
You implant a Kernel of fear in the heart of your foe, intimidate DCs are lowered by 5 for all future interactions with your target.
Knowledge (any):
You know the knowledge as well as any closely related knowledge.
Linguistics:
Create or Detect Forgeries: Only a critical success reveals your forgeries / you identify forgeries and can recognize forgeries by the same forger.
Learn a Language: You can speak and read/write the language without an accent.
Perception:
You automatically win an opposed check when looking for creatures using stealth or hidden items.
Perform:
You double your earnings and gain a +10 to your next perform check in a 10 mile area.
Profession:
Earnings are doubled for that week or perform the task you where attempting particularly well.
Ride:
You ignore terrain penalties for one hour of mounted travel or gain a +4 to your CMB and CMD for the duration of combat so long as you are on a mount.
Sense Motive:
You receive extremely accurate information and automatically win any opposed check when opposing bluff checks.
Sleight of Hand:
Your slight of hand was perfect, it can only be countered by a critical success.
Spellcraft:
Identify Spell Being Cast: You are aware of the spell being cast, any metamagic feats affecting the spell and its target (if its in sight)
Learn Spell from Spellbook: Learning the spell only takes 1 hour.
Crafting Magic Items: Crafting is performed at double speed.
Determine Properties of Magic Item: You are aware of all properties of the target.
Stealth:
You or the object you hid is perfectly hidden and only revealed by a critical success, magic that would reveal you only work if the caster level is higher than your skill ranks + your dexterity. You move while sneaking at double speed, up to your normal speed.
Survival:
You don't need to make another survival check for one full week.
Swim:
you move twice your normal swimming speed for one round.
Use Magic Device:
You gain understanding of the magic item you are using and gain a +10 to future UMD checks with this item.

Feats:
Alertness, Animal Affinity, Athletic, Deceitful, Deft Hands, Magical Aptitude, Persuasive, Prodigy, Self-Sufficient and Stealthy are all considered to be basic skill feats. Basic skill feats in addition to their normal effects increase the threat range of a skill by one. Basic Skill Feats can be further enhanced with the following feats:

Journeyman Skill Mastery
You have worked diligently to improve one of your basic skill feats.
Prerequisites: Any basic skill feat, character level 6
benefit: The bonus and threat range granted by one of your basic skill feats is improved by one.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, each time you take the feat it applies to a new basic skill.

Grandmaster Skill Mastery
Your ability with certain skills is legendary.
Prerequisites: Journeyman Skill Mastery with chosen basic skill feat, character level 12
benefit: The bonus and threat range granted by one of your basic skill feats is improved by one, in addition you no longer need to reroll to conform a critical success when using one of those skills. Finally once per day you may re roll one failed skill check when using one of those skills.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, each time you take the feat it applies to a new basic skill.

Paragon Skill Mastery
you are one of the world's greatest experts in your chosen skill.
Prerequisites: Grandmaster Skill Mastery with chosen basic skill feat, character level 18
benefit: The bonus and threat range granted by one of your basic skill feats is improved by one, three times per day you may re roll one failed skill check when using one of those skills.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, each time you take the feat it applies to a new basic skill.

I have to say as much as I want a suit of armor that protects me from elemental attacks or a headband that boosts my stats my favorite magic items are the neat little slice of life magic items that often don't give a mechanical benefit but are still neat flavor items that help flesh out your character and game world.

This is my favorite:

Expedition Pavilion

Aura faint evocation; CL 5th

Slot none; Price 6,400 gp; Weight 10 lbs.
Description

This ordinary-looking, windowless tent appears to cover only a 10-foot-by-10-foot area, but, inside, it measures a full 30 feet by 30 feet, with a large central area and three small “bedrooms” (separated by curtains) along the back wall. The interior can be lit on command, and can be adjusted from normal darkness as per the spell light. Occupants inside the tent cannot be seen, heard, or smelled by creatures outside.

The temperature inside the expedition pavilion is 70° F if the exterior temperature is between 0° and 100° F. For every degree the exterior temperature is below 0° or above 100°, the interior temperature decreases or increases, respectively, by 1°. The pavilion also provides protection against the elements, such as rain, dust, and sandstorms. The pavilion withstands any wind of less than hurricane force, but a hurricane (75+ mph wind speed) or greater force destroys it. The pavilion can only be set up once per day, requiring 10 minutes to erect or dismantle. The tent cannot be dismantled while foreign objects are still inside, though if the pavilion is destroyed, any creatures and objects inside immediately spill out.
Construction Requirements

Craft Wondrous Item, hide from animals, tiny hut; Cost 3,200 gp

Its a 4 room 900 square foot apartment with free AC, central heating and lights that fits in your backpack! How cool is that? Granted most DM's don't even care if you carry a bedroll but as soon as my theurge is able to build one it will be one of the first magic items I make myself.

what are yours?

Granted Powers: Your faith is your greatest source of protection, and you can use that faith to defend others. In addition, you receive a +1 resistance bonus on saving throws. This bonus increases by 1 for every 5 levels you possess.

OK, note the Italic part, the way I read that if I'm a 1st level cleric/4th level not cleric then I possess 5 levels and my save bonus should be +2, am I reading that right?

So a few weeks ago I found a group interested in running kingmaker on openrpg and we Merrily started exploring the Stolen Lands in hopes of carving out a piece of the river kingdoms to use as our own little fiefdom.

Our Party consists of the following:

A Magus who has some sort of bond with a crossbow
A Archer Paladin of Earstril
A Sword and Board Ranger
A Inquisitor of Earstril
A Sorceress with an unhealthy fixation for fire magic.
And me a Wizard/Cleric of Shelyn

So First session:
we get told we are authorized to enact Brevoy's manifest destiny in the Greenbelt, I'm thrilled with this because as my father's bastard I can't really rise up in my own society but if I kick ass in the Riverlands I will be able to fulfill my life's ambition to design and build a great city.

We head to our contact in the area's fort and after meeting with him get into an altercation with bandits. We kill two thirds of them and assign the remaining few to work off their crimes at Oleg's trading post after rewarding ourselves with everything they had of value, because as we all know the adventurers code clearly states: "You can kill people and take their stuff and its OK".

Once we did that and sold whatever at way too good of a return to Oleg (does he not understand he's the only shop in town and can set prices to whatever?) Oleg and his wife Svetlana get these golden exclamation points over their heads and start popping out quests, we collect a few quests that have me wondering if moon radishes aren't what cocaine comes from in Golarion and divvy up our murder loot.

In our party we divide all treasure up into equal parts +1, and leave the final share becomes the party fund. You see we feel that we are important people, and as important people we should have the clothes, cribs and unimportant hangers on that important people have so we set aside a fund specifically for the purpose of buying things like food, communal gear, pavilion tents, extra mounts, outfits and other silly things that either make us look important or handle the little things we basically don't need but helps us look like we are in charge. I call it the Saint's Row school of management.

Second Session:
OK, so we begin our exploration and promptly get attacked by trolls. Because we are primarily are a ranged party and because trolls suck at resisting grease spells we drive one off and kill another, its our first serious combat and we learn a few things that we did not know about our party. We learn that the Sorcerer is a bit of an idiot, she decided to try and bluff the trolls into thinking we are gods, we learned that enlarge person does not really work well for our builds but grease works like a freaking charm and we learned that we really need a healer as while nobody died everyone was reduced to nearly 0 hit points and we had no method of rapidly healing our wounds. The next day, we ran into a bunch of kobolds gorging themselves on heroin err moon radishes, we tried to negotiate with them but they attacked as soon as we started talking. A half dozen Kobold corpses later we filled our pouches with crack radishes and rushed back to the trading post.

Session 3:
Using the Party fund I commissioned a Pavilion with the colors and two headed dragon of Brevoy from Oleg's wife Svetlana, it will not be ready for 4 more weeks in game time, but its going to be pretty badassed when its completed. After dealing with turning in quests a kind priest asked us to look for a temple of Erastil in the forest, we agreed and promptly found it in the second place we looked and was attacked by a bear man who thanked us for killing it. We then found that the water in the temple pool was a potent healing potion with a very small shelf life.

Session 4:
The Paladin and the Sorcerer did not make it to the game and we found a bandit camp, this was the camp of one of the bandit camp's lieutenants (the evil chick with the two axes) and 12 of her meanest friends. We accidentally stumble into the edges of their camp because we don't have much in the way of stealth and immediately get shot at by archers. In the opening volley I am reduced to 0 hit points and think I'm going to sit this one out, but our Magus surrounds us in a mist and another player feeds me a potion and I get back into the fight.

What then proceeds is 11 rounds of the most nail biting, edge clinging exciting battle I have ever been a part of. I am tossing buffs and grease and just being as effective as possible every round, the ranger despite an obvious mutual animosity with the die roller is just kicking ass and the Magus is just shockingly good at filling the air with crossbow bolts and changing the terms of the engagement to our favor. The only sour point of the night is that the lieutenant managed to kill our Inquisitor.

Fortunately for us our GM decided to not penalize us for missing two players and allowed us to raise the inquisitor from the dead by tossing his hacked up corpse into the holy pool at the temple. Erastil be praised!

We leveled and I picked up my first level in Shelyn's faith but I will always have a soft spot for Erastil and his followers.

Session 5
We returned to the trading post after witnessing a genuine miracle in high spirits, we told the cleric where his temple was and of the holy act we had witnessed and collected some cash for killing bandits and I ordered a pavilion with my family's heraldry with my own growing funds. then we decided that the forest was too full of horrors and we should hit the plains for a while, we promptly ran into the hut of an old man who makes the healing potions Oleg sells, he gave us a quest and then we headed east. We found a giant trapdoor spider and I got to try my new cleric powers out. I blessed the party then went behind the party member who was next on initiative and buffed him with touch of luck. The spider bit him and poisoned him and I was able to treat the poison quickly and effectively. Our ranger explored the trapdoor spider's lair and found a corpse with a treasure map and a pendant that is a symbol for the local bandits.

We thanked the quest giver for letting us camp in his yard and then headed east, smack dab into the x of the treasure map. Weird.

The treasure contained some platinum, a ring, some stuff I do not care about and oh my gawd a spellbook!!!

4 spells I did not have before and one I did, in a water damaged spellbook. good on me.

OK, so there are three classes that need spellbooks and without their spellbooks they get pretty boned. So this is a thread about how to protect your book and get the most out of it.

The first bit of wisdom I have learned is you do not want to keep it in your handy haversack or any other extra dimensional space. If it gets burned, pierced or otherwise destroyed your spellbook is unrecoverable. Make whole can turn a pile of ash that used to be a spellbook but there is no method of recovering a item that was thrown into nothingness by being being in a collapsed extra dimensional space.

Second, if you are serious about spellbooks Craft Misc Magic Item because a Blessed Book is just that good. If you can craft your own blessed book the cost of scribing spells goes from between 5 to 90 gold per page to 6 gold, 2 silver and 5 copper per page (or 12 gold, 5 silver/page if you decide not to pay your feat tax). I don't know why the blessed book never made Treantmonk's Guide but it is a game changer for a wizard and turns Craft Misc Magic Item into a 3 or 4 star feat.

For Spellbook strategy I have some ideas. The first is even when you do have your blessed book you want to put your leveling spells into your mundane spellbooks because you are scribing the spells for free and you can always copy them into your blessed book later. Your original spellbooks can then be stuffed somewhere safe in case someone hits your main spellbooks.

Here are a few spells that should end up in your spellbook as a means of protecting your books well protected.

Mending: Allows you to repair damage to your book quickly

Arcane Mark: Allows you to leave a signature on your book and to recover a stolen book using instant summons, all of your spellbooks should have an Arcane mark on it.

Alarm: Probably the best warding you can have on a book is one that tells you when they are being handled by others.

Arcane Lock: books can have locks.

Book Ward: The Duration means that you can cast it on your books before leaving on an adventure and the protection will last

Make Whole: Can be used to recover a destroyed spellbook, Scroll it and keep the scroll somewhere out of danger in case you need to recover your spellbook.

Explosive Runes: its important to note that this spell will probably destroy your spellbook, so you better have a make whole ready.

Secret Page: needed to make a Blessed Book, also a fairly decent ward for your book.

Sepia Snake Sigil: Wards your book without blowing it up, nice.

Shrink Item: Allows you to carry your spellbook in a poison pill ring or a locket, when the cost becomes inconsequential you want this permanent on your spellbook.

Secret Chest: you want to keep your spare spellbooks in one of these, pull them out and put them back every two months or so.

Symbol of Scrying: The only thing better than knowing if your books are being handled is knowing who is handling them.

Treasure Stitching: Another place to keep spare spellbooks.

Permanency: Make your various wards permanent

Hardening: by the time you get this it won't really help much but it still helps.

Instant Summons: Oh you stole my spellbook? Isn't that clever of you. Well I guess there is nothing I can do except get it back in an instant...

Limited Wish: I wish my spellbook that was lost with my bag of holding was returned to me, I wish my rival :fill in the blank: would not think of going after my spellbook, I wish my spellbook had all conjuration spells I can cast inscribed in it.

Any thoughts?

Would an ectoplasmic wall of stone be solid to ethereal creatures?

Ok, so I am thinking about joining an online game and I have decided to run with a character concept: A Magical Architect.

I know, I know some people want to slay dragons and I want to build the magical flying metropolis people go to to hock the hordes of the dragons they have slain. I know, I'm weird, I accept it.

The Build rules are as follows:

My build is to go with a Wizard (conjurer - creation)/Cleric (Shelyn, Luck/Protection-Defense), Mystic Theurge.

Here is the sheet.

I'm thinking feat progression like this:
3rd: Craft Misc magic item
5th: Craft Arms and Armor
7th: Leadership
9th: Warrior Priest or Combat Casting or spell penetration or toughness or extend spell, depends on how the universe has treated me.

Any thoughts?

So I have a tendency to play Mystic Thuerges, I love the versatility, enjoy the challenge and am good enough that I stay pretty useful during my awkward levels that most people don't feel like they are carrying me till 8th level. As we all know, multi classing leaves a familiar stunted and malformed because it tracks with your class level, not your character level and the only way out of that is feat heavy and cumbersome. So I take a bonded object, which many see as painting a target on my back because it leaves me vulnerable to having the focus of much of my magic damaged.

I have been thinking about what makes the best and worst bonded objects and here is what I have come up with:

Worst: Quarterstaves, clubs, crossbows, wands, staves when you are low level

Workable: Rings, Amulets, staves when you are mid to high level

Best: Daggers.

Everything in the worst category is there because they are easily sundered and obvious, the stuff in the middle category is also vulnerable but much easier to keep a hold of but to me the best of all worlds would be a dagger, and heres why:

First off is material, at earliest opportunity you can get a adamantite dagger as your BO, this gives it a hardness of 20 and 3 hit points, it can then be enchanted as you get the feat in regards to your which adds a +2 to hardness and +10 hit points per bonus, adding a +1-+5 is more important than nearly any other enchantment because of its ability to make your focus sunder proof. The reason Dagger outshines clubs, crossbows and quarterstaves is because in addition to being able to be made of adamantite you can get a magical scabbard or sheath to further your objects defense. For this I recommend a scabbard of staunching or a sheath of blade stealth, actually I recommend keeping your bonded object in a sheath of blade stealth and keeping a bejeweled magic dagger on your hip in a scabbard of staunching with your arcane mark prominently on it to bait potential thieves away from your real treasure. Finally the reason a dagger wins out is the Dueling enchantment, which can only be applied to finesse ready weapons, this gives you a +2 to resist disarming and a +4 to Initiative!

One thing to keep in mind is that if you do go bonded object you officially have a spell tax as there are multiple enchantments that you should be putting on your gear as early as possible:

Arcane Mark: Of course you are going to arcane mark it, its your bonded object, just don't forget to arcane mark your other important possessions so it is not obvious what is your bonded object.
Mending: Absolutely vital to repair your Bonded Object
Alarm: This should be made permanent as soon as possible, I recommend the silent alarm.
Magic Aura: Thats not my maguffin that all my casting depends on thats just a mundane (but expertly crafted) knife! Lasts one day per level, a must have.
Arcane Lock: you want a sheath that can peace bind the dagger with a lock or binding of some kind.
Obscure object: mind numbingly circumstantial.
Certain Grip: Makes you immune to disarm, a bit circumstantial but can be handy.
Make Whole: See Mending
Resinous Skin: A defensive spell that also makes it harder for you to be disarmed, nice.
Rune of Durability: Doubles a weapons hit points, permanently.
Shrink Item: A minute or cloth bonded object is much harder to hide, get this permanent as soon as possible.
Symbol of whatever: Of course you want this, make it clear to your DM that you are warding your item not trying to create some BS conditions where the wards effects are triggered by you attacking people with the rune on the object's hitting surface. Make it permanent as soon as possible.
Permanent Image: make your shiny nifty doodad look mundane, make a mundane object look like your shiny nifty doodad.
Treasure Stitching: Circumstantial but sewing your object (and your spare blessed book) into your underwear has its benefits.
Permanency: for the alarm, symbol and shrinking
Hardening: Extra hardness means less sundering.
Instant Summons: get it back after it is stolen.
Limited wish/Wish: all sorts of get my object back/make people who try to take my object suffer goodness.

A few strategies:
First off, you don't want to fight with your bonded object, ever. Its just asking for trouble, Even if you did make a Gish Mage you want your bonded object to be a less obvious target than the blade you are wielding.

Second off, you want to keep people guessing what your actual bonded Object is, so walking around with a elaborately carved Darkwood Quarterstaff or a jeweled dagger in plain sight is generally a good idea. That way people who don't know you have a chance of trying to take the wrong item.

Third, when you can afford it, try to have a backup handy in case it is broken beyond your ability to fix it.

Edit: Supplementary magic items:
Unguent of timelessness: Cheap and it gives your item a +1 to all saves, apply it to your spellbooks as well.
Sovereign glue; Glue that ring to your finger!
Stone of alarm: not as good as a permanent alarm spell, but useful and cheaper.
Glove of storing: great way to hide your item until you need it.
Scabbard of stanching: makes you resistant to bleed damage, nice but not perfect.
Sheath of bladestealth: makes your bonded dagger invisible, one of the best things you can do for your object.
Thats my thoughts on the bonded object, what do you guys think?

OK so Ultimate Combat basically forced this idea, here we go:

Silk

Harvested from silkworms silk is lighter than traditional linens and stronger than normal cloth and lighter.

Armor made from silk weighs half as much as normal cloth armor and has a 5% lower spell failure rate.

Cost
Cloth items made of silk cost five times what normal cloth items cost.

simple question really, does the DR quilted cloth provide give any real protection to bullets.

OK, each of the new vehicles in UC list a max speed and an acceleration rate but no baseline speeds are listed. How do I factor the daily movement of these things?

So I was fiddling around with some ideas and I came up with this:
3rd level Wizard (conjurer)
3rd level Druid (Menhir Savant) with the Plains domain
Relevant feats: Spell focus: Conjuration, Augment Summoning, Superior Summoning.
Relevant traits: Magical Knack (wizard or druid, it works either way)

So I was fiddling around and came up with this foolishness:
A conjuerer gets a bonus equal to half his level when conjuring monsters to the duration of the summoning spell, and a druid with the plains domain doubles the length of the summoning when the summoned creature is a pony, horse, etc etc etc.

So a caster who is just qualifying for Mystic Theurge can summon 1d3+1 augmented ponies for 14-16 rounds, depending on whether or not he chose to boost the spell level with his Menhir ability.

At 8th level the Theurge can unleash a dread legion of 1d4+2 ponies for 18-20 rounds with a single incantation.

This gets even sillier when you realize feats like Sunlight Summons, Moonlight Summons, Starlight Summons and possibly Nimble Natural Summons can be tacked on (though Nimble Natural Summons only works on summon natures ally) to make your dread pony brigade glow, see all and sheath their dread hooves in silver.

OK, so creatures like ponies are not really all that useful in combat, but you would have allot of them and they would glow with the right feats. Thats cool right?

So I have a character who travels with a colossal yurt (a dome shaped wood framed tent) and I was thinking it would be nice to use the siege engine armoring rules to give it quilted cloth armor and later enchanting the yurts armor (mostly to improve its survivability. How reasonable is this?

don't glare at me like that, we all knew this was coming.

My friend, a paladin of Rovagug has assured me that this is one of the goodest things I could do, especially if I aimed for the sacred flame at the center of the worship center.

Just wondering, I personally think I'm sitting on a gold mine here. Do I need to offer them a cut of the profits? personally I think I can have a long pig franchise going in every major city but minor moral quibbles are troubling me.

So I have a character who is a up and coming noble, he's a neutral good Cleric of Shelyn who has been trying to deal with a banditry problem and I was thinking of putting the bandits we kill in the course of our battles up on crosses on major roads to illustrate the mortality rate of a career in banditry. I'm not looking to crucify living people, just to post some interesting road signs.

If you cast it on cloth or leather is the material still flexible?

So as a hobby I have been studying the Mongolian Empire and was thinking about some of the signature gear the mongols. Most of it (Composite bows, lances, scimitars, maces and whatever the Chinese made for them so they would leave them alone.) is already in the extended rules but there are a few things I'd like some rules for.

First off there is the Mongolian Armor, basically the Mongols used leather and iron to make the equivalent to Studded leather, Scale and splint mail but under the top layer of armor they they wore silk long johns that limited the penetration of piercing weapons. Basically its quilted cloth armor worn under other suits of armor. So I was thinking of a modification of body armor that would cost about 150 gold for the modification and add the damage reduction ability quilted cloth armor has.

The second is Yurts. What is a yurt you may ask? its a felt and wood tent that basically is a mobile home. Simply labeling a Yurt as a Pavilion really does not due the structure justice. Its basically a round house between 8' and 52' in diameter that can be folded up and packed onto a pack animal or a wagon and moved whenever you need it. Basically a well kept yurt is a mobile home, I've been looking at real Yurts and I think the best way to handle them is to assume the dollar price is in silver pieces and use the real world stats for weight.

Any thoughts?

OK, so lets say I am a cheeky little monkey and I decide to max out Craft: Currency.

Like say a human rogue (heart of the fields, Prodigy, skill focus, for argument's sake a int of 16, and masterwork tools.) I go +3 (class skill) +3 (stat) +1 (skill rank) +1 (heart of the fields racial bonus) +2 (masterwork tools) +5 (prodigy and skill focus feats) for a grand total of +15, so taking ten and jumping up the difficulty of the crafting to 20 (I assume a gold coin is as difficult as an iron pot - dc 10 to create) the rogue can make 50 gold a week, a a cost of 16 gold and 5 silver a week.

So yeah, at first level you can make 402 gold per year, which is nothing to sneeze at.

So I think we can all agree that crafting skills are weird in how they are calculated.

Weapon Training - Martial Trait: You treat one exotic weapon as a martial weapon or treat one martial weapon as a simple weapon or gain proficiency with one with single simple weapon.

I figure since heirloom weapon gives you a bonus plus a masterwork toy plus a proficiency this is a fairly fair trait.

thoughts, comments, unfiltered bile?

TThe lyre is also useful with respect to building. Once a week, its strings can be strummed so as to produce chords that magically construct buildings, mines, tunnels, ditches, etc. The effect produced in 30 minutes of playing is equal to the work of 100 humans laboring for 3 days. Each hour after the first, a character playing the lyre must make a DC 18 Perform (string instruments) check. If it fails, she must stop and cannot play the lyre again for this purpose until a week has passed.

As no modifiers are mentioned I have no choice to assume that this is a 100 people with no skill ranks, masterwork tools, beneficial feats etc. This would be 100 unskilled workers taking 10 on a untrained craft check with a +0 or 1000 gp of production per hour of playing.

Here is where things get hairy, only the most basic items are a DC 10 craft check, which means if you want anything more difficult your magic workers have to take 20, which divides your production by 20 to 50 gp per hour of playing.

Am I reading this correctly?

I need a tragic villain for a game I am running, here are the parameters
Race is human (Skeletal Champion), the idea is that the character in question was a paladin who was defeated by a evil necromancer and turned into a Skeletal Champion.

What I want is a fallen paladin designed to take as much punishment as possible. Mounted combat will not work for this build, the character is still lawful good despite the awful things he has had to do as a slave to a necromancer and his primary weapon should be a Holy avenger (merely a +2 sword in his hands at this point.

25 attribute buy.
19th level
normal equipment for its npc level.

So I am playing around with a build for a Mystic Theurge. The concept behind the character is that he is an passionately obsessed and slightly crazy architect who uses the vast amount of magics at his disposal to accomplish his goal of building the greatest city ever. I've decided to go Human Cleric (Shelyn)/Wizard (Conjurer) as I see the character as a Artist more than a Worker and not entirely lawful (so Torag despite having wonderful domains for such a character is out)and the ability to produce and shape wall of stone spells is vital to this character concept(almost as vital as transmutations like fabricate).

I've gone with the Domains of Luck (because it is profoundly useful in every situation) and Protection with the defense specialization (Because of barkskin mostly) and am comfortable with the cleric side of this equation, the domain abilities stay useful throughout (the deflection less so but its still nice to say "hey, everyone has a +2 Deflection bonus for umm, three rounds.").

The issue I am having is figuring out my wizard abilities, The acid dart power is not really in character or all that useful after the first few levels so I was thinking of the other two alternate conjuration abilities. So which seems more generally useful as an ability: the ability to dimension door 10 feet or the ability to make a 3 pound or less simple object for a minute as a standard action?

Second of all, I am having some trouble deciding between racial abilities. Skilled is very useful and one of the main reasons to take a human but Heart of the Fields (Profession: Architect) is more in character even though its a skill that may get called upon maybe twice in the entire run of a game.

Feats selection, for starters I'm either going extra traits (for magical knack x2) or practiced spellcaster x2, Spell Focus: Conjuration and augment summoning seem like no brainers and Craft Construct and craft misc magic item are basically required to make my magical floating city

Ok, so I am planning on going with a wizard (universal)/cleric (Sarenrae)/mystic theurge build and I ran into something weird.

For the most part, it seems like Domain powers are not very Cleric Level dependent, let me give you an example

I've got the domains of Fire and Healing, both give a benefit at first and fourth level, but neither lists any requirement fr those levels to be cleric levels.

meaning if I make it to 4th level without dying some horrible sharpened piece of metal related death in the interval and I'm a 1st level cleric and a 3rd level wizard I will gain fire resistance 10 and a free +50% bonus to all my cure spells because I am 4th level, not because I am a fourth level cleric...

am I reading that right?

Same goes for the 8th level universalism power btw, though the amount of times I can do it is definitely wizard level dependent.

if anyone in the vicinity is looking for players in the Northern VA/DC Metro area e-mail me at rat_bastard@juno.com

I'm specifically looking for Pathfinder, pretty much any evening but Sundays.