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I'm playing through a modified Strange Aeons campaign, just hit level 7 and am a little stuck on what direction to go from here.

The party is made up of:
-Life Oracle with channel and Life Link (more on this later)
-Some sort of pouncing, multi-attacking amalgam of stuff that has solid AC, with 5 attacks that do decent damage
-Mesmerist (I think?) that can affect undead, heavily focused on enchantments
-Alchemist bomber

Items have been fairly hard to come by (magical or otherwise), but we're starting to gear up a little.

I'm playing a barbarian w/ a fighter dip focused on being tough as hell to take down, while providing some solid offense.

Half-Orc Invulnerable Rager Barbarian 6/Unarmed Fighter 1
Str 21 (19+2 belt)
Dex 12
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 7

Racial Traits: Sacred Tattoo, Shaman's Apprentice (Endurance feat), Pariah, Skilled
Traits: Fate's Favored, Cautious Warrior, Pugnacious

1. Fighter - Power Attack, Improved Unarmed Strike, Crane Style
2. Barbarian
3. Barbarian - Die Hard; Rage Power: Reckless Abandon
4. Barbarian
5. Barbarian - Stalwart; Rage Power: Celestial Totem, Lesser
6. Barbarian
7. Barbarian - ???; Rage Power: ???

Lesser Celestial Totem has been RIDICULOUS along with Life Link. In the last encounter we had, I must have taken around 120 damage (my raging HP is 76), and never dropped to 0.
When fighting defensively, DR at level 7 will be 8/--, or 11/-- vs nonlethal. That's been big so far, especially when I ended up fighting a gibbering mouther and his burly friend solo...but close enough to still have Life Link up.

My main weapon has been a bardiche for the reach.

So, now I'm weighing not only which feats and rage powers to pick up at 7, but also what the plan will be for the coming levels.

Feats I'm considering:
7:
--Combat Reflexes (although I've only had 2 or 3 instances where I could have taken an AoO but didn't have an extra)
--Fortified Armor Training (would try to buy a wand of Make Whole, but would be more excited for this if there was clarification on negating additional crits before it's repaired)
--Resilient Brute
--Raging Vitality
--Extra Rage Power

9:
--Improved Critical
--One of the lvl 7 options
--Lunge

11: Improved Stalwart

13:
--Raging Brutality
--Dazing Assault

Rage Powers I'm considering:
7:
--Superstition (have failed some big saves, and not actually getting friendly spells with any regularity during combat, so the downside hasn't been the issue I thought it would be)
--Savage Dirty Trick (not sure how this would work with a reach weapon)
--Knockback
--Witch Hunter (assuming Extra Rage Power)
--Ghost Rager (assuming ERP; haven't fought many incorporeal, but expect there will be more, and the touch AC bonus may be useful)
--Elemental Rage, Lesser

9:
--Witch Hunter or Ghost Rager
--Elemental Rage
--Clear Mind
--Unexpected Strike

11:
--One of the lvl 9 options
--Eater of Magic
--Spell Sunder

13:
--Come And Get Me

Could use some advice on what to pick from among those, or if there are some choices I'm missing here that would be worthwhile.

Thanks

If a half-orc trades away the ferocity racial trait, is there any way to pick it up again later? I have a horc barbarian that could use Ferocious Tenacity, but gave up ferocity.

Hello all!

In an upcoming campaign I'll be kicking things off with a mystery. I could use some help with what sorts of clues to offer, maybe a couple of additional steps in the solving as well.

Each PC begins with one of the following motivations:
--item of value (monetary, personal, or powerful) stolen from their residence
--item stolen from someone else, and they are either interested in helping, charged with helping (maybe a member of the guard), or hired to help recover the item
--person close to the PC has been murdered during the course of a robbery
--person associated with murder victim has charged them with investigating for one reason or another
--PC is associated in some way with the thieves' guild and is interested in the loot that has been stolen
--PC is associated with a mage's guild and is interested in the loot that has been stolen

--PCs each come across a posting from a local tavern owner calling on people who have been affected by recent burglaries to join him to pool information and hire investigators

Background:
--Kobolds have been burglarizing the city in search of magic items, or books about magic on behalf of another creature interested in such things. They aren't necessarily aware of the value of these items, but they are charged with recovering certain types of things, and leaving anything else (so as to not slow them down).
--Burglaries have been strange: sometimes a seemingly worthless dusty old tome goes missing while the obviously valuable jewelry beside it remains untouched.
--One kobold is transforming into a snake or something similar, slithering up the sewage pipe in the home, transforming back then letting the other kobolds in. Part of their operation involves cleaning up after themselves to hide evidence.
--They are secreting away their booty in a lair they have established in the sewers for a brief period of time (1-2 weeks) before returning to their home lair to present their loot

Opposition:
--Some members of the thieves' guild go to the meeting posing as affected parties in the hopes of getting clues to lead them to the stash.
--A member of the local mage's guild is doing the same in the hopes of tracking down the magical items, and magic histories/treatises to add to their collection.

Plot outline:
--PCs go to tavern to learn what they can, maybe as wronged parties themselves.
--Accompany someone (PC or NPC) back to scene of one of the robberies to look for clues.
--Clues point to new location (see below for locations).
--Clues point to new location with more evidence to be had.
--Clues point to possible location with robbery in progress where the PCs stumble upon the kobolds mid-heist. Some combat ensues, and (ideally) at least one kobold escapes.
--Potential chase scene here.
--If PCs capture a kobold, they can wrest from them some info on where the hideout is.
--If PCs don't capture a kobold, they have enough clues to start looking at the sewers possibly.
--Eventually head to sewers to search out lair.
--Final confrontation where some of the loot is discovered (some apparently is still missing; having been sent along back home when they realized their activities might come to an end).

Locations I'd like to hit:
--Residence burglarized
--Mage's guild location
--Local historian/bookseller who has some books that may get stolen/knows of others around city that are potential targets
--Residence mid-robbery, but not by kobolds--thieves using other robberies as a cover for their activites
--Upscale residence with a private library on the 4th floor; robbery in progress here
--Sewer hideout

Potential clues:
--feces stain on window or door latch
--feces stain across floor somewhere in home leading from bathroom
--list of known magical items or books around the city for PCs to investigate
--NPC who was home during robbery, but kept quiet about that because they were having an affair at the time; overheard kobolds speaking and wrote down what they heard, untranslated
--scales from both a kobold, and a transformed kobold
--evidence of valuables not touched while seemingly worthless items stolen (eventually pointing to pattern of magic items, or magically-related items being the only things going missing)
--hostile head of mage's guild, perhaps let's slip than an attempt was made to steal something from vault, but thwarted
--recollection from NPC of strange sounds coming from downstairs that lead to PCs discovering a cap on sewage line to cut down on smell, which kobolds couldn't open from inside

What I need:
--More clue ideas (ideally 3 per location)
--Additional points of conflict (especially in the beginning). Could just do a bar fight to kick things off, but it feels a little out of place.
--Possible additional locations to hit along the way
--Additional NPCs to help or hinder the PCs (such as guards who deny access, or someone who saw something).

SO, I'm planning on playing an Invulnerable Rager Barbarian with Crane Wing and Stalwart, but wanted to figure out how this all works in actual play.

My understanding:
-At the start of combat, no stance is active, no fighting defensively is active.
-On first turn, can activate Crane Style as a swift action (functionally does nothing until next step).
-When attacking, can then declare fighting defensively as part of the attack.

My questions are:
-Is there any way to have FD and CW up in combat before taking first action?
-Is there any way to have FD up before making first attack (say, if moving before that attack, and wanting the benefits for any AoOs incurred on the way)?
-What happens at the start of the next turn? Is FD off until I attack again? Can it be maintained round to round?
-Can FD be declared on a charge?
-Can FD be declared on an AoO (say, if I have Combat Reflexes and make an attack before my first turn)?

Can anyone who has actually played this sort of character speak to how effective the strategies is in actual play?

When a Teleport is foiled, does the affected character end up somewhere randomly inside the 20ft radius area of Conjuration Foil or somewhere randomly in the range of Teleport (100s of square miles)?

So I was looking over the various intimidate themed feats, and got an idea to put the best together quickly and effectively:

Half-orc Slayer
Str 18
Dex 14
Con 13
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 12

Traits: Fate's Favored, Bully
Alternate racial traits: Sacred Tattoo and Pariah (or your flavor of racial ability that replaces only weapon familiarity)

Level 1-7 Slayer, Level 8+ Rogue (Thug, Scout)
1.Power Attack
2. Slayer Talent--Ranger Combat Style (menacing): Intimidating Prowess
3. Hurtful
4. Slayer Talent--Rogue Talent (Combat Trick): Combat Reflexes
5. Pushing Assault
6. Slayer Talent--Ranger Combat Style (menacing): Shatter Defenses
7. Cornugon Smash

Level 3 starts to show merit, as you can Intimidate then attack once, giving up essentially nothing.

Level 6 is when this tactic begins paying off, since that second attack will activate Shatter Defenses, and you're still not giving up too much (Move + Intimidate + free attack vs. iterative attacks if you're already in position).

Level 7 is the big payoff, as that's when you get to Intimidate as part of your first attack in a full attack, triggering Shatter Defenses on the Hurtful attack, allowing your iterative attack to be against flat-footed AC.

Sometimes, you'll have to choose between Studied Target and Hurtful, unless you're already within 5 ft Step range, then you can spend your Move action to Study, leaving your Swift for Hurtful, or Study on the following round.

Added to all this, I'm inclined to use a reach weapon, which, along with Combat Reflexes and Pushing Assault, provides and option for battlefield control as well: choosing between Power Attack damage & Cornugon Smash on AoOs, or Pushing Assault to keep enemies at bay.

If the AoO plan isn't your speed, or you don't like Pushing Assault, these could be swapped out for basically anything else. Skill Focus (Intimidate) isn't a bad idea.

The Rogue levels after you've finished with the Slayer stuff provide a few things:
--more Sneak Attack dice to real make Shatter Defenses valuable
--Sneak Attack on a charge, or after moving (so even your first attack will get SA damage before Cornugon)
--more rounds of Shaken, possibly causing Frightened instead
--add Sickened to the debuffing suite

If I already have a Flaming Sphere up, and cast a Wall of Force, can I direct its movement? I’m not targeting anything and not creating an effect. Can I have it roll in a general direction?

The PCs (level 6) departed from the city in which they had met and performed acts of valor in pursuit of a kobold army, thinking they may be led by a dragon. Eventually, they reached the dragon, but were joined on the way by a team of dwarves who had been told of the players' intentions and set out to aid them. Together, they defeated the dragon.

The leader of the dwarven band is Prince Qhildir, son of the king of the neighboring dwarven kingdon, leader of an elite combat squad. He's a paladin, and is a member of a religious sub-sect devoted to repelling evil, generally, and undead specifically, that one of my PCs also belongs to. He also is wearing the armor made from the father of the dragon they all just killed, and wielding the weapon that slayed him hundreds of years ago.

Several of the members of the dwarven strike force perished in the confrontation with the dragon and his kobold minions.

What I'd like is an adventure that does the following:
-gives the players a chance (and some reasons) to grow attached to the prince, to get to know him, and form a bond
-gives the players a chance to explore some of the dwarven kingdom
-involves some social encounters, and some combat encounters that the prince will join them for

The ultimate goal are for the players to spend some time (a couple of weeks to a month) living and adventuring with the dwarves, and to develop an affinity for them, so that, later, when some problems begin to arise in the dwarven capital, the players will have a genuine interest in wishing to aid their friend.

This can include meeting some interesting NPCs, getting into some tough scrapes (combat, traps, environmental hazards, weather, political intrigue) with the prince and a number of dwarven NPCs (the latter won't be traveling with them).

Regional details:

The dwarven kingdom of Ferrumgaard lies within and around a maintain range to the north of the land the PCs have adventured within. The two kingdoms are on friendly terms after declaring a truce to a war between them waged a few hundred years ago. Dwarves have established settlements of various sizes in the high plains and foothills before the mountains, consisting mostly of low stone buildings with multiple basement levels, while the region's major cities are carved out within the mountains themselves.

There is a trade center at the head of a river that eventually runs by the capital of the southern kingdom, and the major trading port city the players are familiar with. The place exists as a market to sell and trade the goods the dwarves fashion (jewelry, metal- and stonecraft, including both mithral and adamantine items, all of both mundane and magical varieties) and to purchase wares of the varieties that they do not produce (wood, cloth, fur, parchment, etc...). Dwarven farmers also use this as a place to distribute their crops and meats. The entrance lies two days from a small seaport.

Traveling to the seat of the king involves going by foot, or something between a mine cart and a locomotive, from the market city to the capital. Both cities are multi-leveled.

The kingdom is lawfully inclined, and just on the good sign of neutral. The king is a lawful neutral cleric and the society is based largely upon merit, but has a touch of socialism--there are no beggars or homeless, but there are definite gradients in wealth and influence.

On the other side of the mountains are nigh-endless frozen plains...a dangerous place, but somewhere that some dwarves have settled in small numbers. Somewhat to the west, there is a small trollish nation that has largely remained aloof from the goings-on of the dwarves, but has started to expand recently. There may be any number of savage races in or around the mountains (mostly either high up among the peaks, or off to the west) away from the major settlements of the area. Drow may exist somewhere underground nearby.

I'd appreciate any suggestions you may have. Thanks in advance!

Have a game coming up, and have decided to play a Swashbuckler, but am kind of on the fence about exactly what direction I want to take him in. He will be a pirate, hired by Taldor to do some spying/underhanded stuff, it sounds like.

Build stuff:
25 point buy, no stat above 17 AFTER racial modifiers
Character options (traits, feats, etc...) from non-core material have to be flavor-justified (ie, Cornugon Smash would mean I was an ex-Hell Knight probably).

Definitely Dex-based, using a cutlass and Slashing Grace.
Probably going half-orc with Sacred Tattoo and City-Raised, but open to suggestions on this.

Was considering going the Intimidate route with things like Shatter Defenses and Violent Display, but the swift action for the built-in Demoralize attack seems like it will be tough to get reliably, so I was thinking Cornugon Smash, but not sure I really want Power Attack (it's good, but I'd rather keep my to-hit high for Parry, and that would allow me to not put points in Str).

Was thinking about taking 2-4 levels of rogue for trapfinding, sneak attack (seems like a poor trade vs. more levels on Precise Strike and Weapon Training), earlier Evasion, and a bonus feat or talent.

Was thinking maybe 2 levels of Corsair Fighter for free (no Power Attack) Cleave with no AC penalty to boot.

Considering getting a combat maneuver (Dirty Trick makes the most sense I think), but waiting to hear back on whether we will be mostly fighting humanoids.

Looking for any suggestions on where to go with this character.

First off, George, Jon, Mike, Andrew, GET OUT!

Hey folks.

Cutting right to the chase, the Feral Hunter archetype for the new Hunter class in the ACG has caught my eye, and I was wondering if people had formed some opinions and advice on ways to build such a character.

In particular, what order would you take feats in (assuming the standards for a wild shape-focused druid, with some of the caster-druid staples included)?

What would you select for your spells known? Say, at level 2, 5, 10?

What aspects and summons/wildshapes sync up best?

Also, do you feel you lose much by not being able to wildshape into an elemental or plant?

So, when building a half-dragon kobold, do you just take your CR 1/4 kobold, then add half-dragon (+2), but which has a minimum CR of 3, and jump it up to 3?

Or, do you take you CR 1/4, and add some NPC class levels (kobolds are at NPC class level -3), say warrior 3, which brings it to CR 1, then add the adjustment for the template, giving you a CR 3 kobold with 2 extra warrior levels?

Background:

The ultimate goal are for the players to spend some time (a couple of weeks to a month) living and adventuring with the dwarves, and to develop an affinity for them, so that, later, when some problems begin to arise in the dwarven capital, the players will have a genuine interest in wishing to aid their friend.

This can include meeting some interesting NPCs, getting into some tough scrapes (combat, traps, environmental hazards, weather, political intrigue) with the prince and a number of dwarven NPCs (the latter won't be traveling with them).

Regional details:

I'd appreciate any suggestions you may have. Thanks in advance!

Here's what I have so far:

level 5 half-orc Invulnerable Rager barbarian 4/Unarmed fighter 1

Str 20
Dex 15
Con 18
Int 13
Wis 14
Cha 13

I rolled the stats. Yes, they are pretty ridiculous, and if I hadn't already decided that I wanted to play a barbarian, I would have put them toward something more MAD.

Feats: Power Attack, Endurance (racial trait), Die Hard, Improved Unarmed Strike, Crane Style, Stalwart

Rage Powers: Reckless Abandon, Lesser Celestial Totem

I know Beast Totem is amazing, but I wasn't too keen on the claws, and at the time we had 1 healing focused cleric, a defendery/healing paladin, a witch with the healing hex, and a bard, all of whom were happy to heal me mid-combat, and with the beating I had been taking for the first few levels, it seemed worthwhile to get that extra healing.

The goals for this character are to be tough as hell, nigh-unkillable, and to hit things hard.

I'd been considering the following:
7. Superstitious rage power, Ferocious Tenacity (I've got 20 rounds of rage currently).
9. Increased Damage Reduction rage power, not sure what feat (maybe Combat Reflexes, or Extra Rage Power for more DR, or something else entirely)
11. Flesh Wound rage power, Improved Stalwart
13. Come and Get Me rage power, Dazing Assault
15. Witch Hunter rage power, Combat Reflexes
17. Spell Sunder

Other feats I'm considering: Raging Vitality (doesn't seem a necessity with Die Hard and potentially Ferocious Tenacity), Raging Brutality, Cleave, Cornugon Smash, Extra Rage Power.

Other powers I'm considering: more Increased DR, Auspicious Mark, Celestial Totem (having Invisibility Purge for free is nice, but only if the light isn't up all the time), Clear Mind, Eater of Magic, Guarded Life, Knockback, Knockdown, Renewed Vigor (convinced GM a while back to allow this to work as a swift action), Unexpected Strike.

That said, I'm open to suggestions for powers and feats going forward. I'm a little worried about taking Superstitious since, up to this point, I've been receiving a fair amount of in-combat healing and buffing (we also had a sorcerer in the party), although after the long break we've had (several months), I'm not sure if everyone we had before will be returning, so it may not matter.

I know that Ferocious Tenacity is kind of iffy, but in one of the last fights he had, he nearly died twice to a dragon, despite having DR 6/-- AND the paladin's smite evil ability reducing incoming damage by 1/2. Plus, I like the idea of just not dying.

Fighting below 0 HP isn't too much of a hardship otherwise, since I have an item that allows me to ignore the Staggered condition for 5 rounds/day.

Any suggestions, particularly input on what to do regarding feats and rage powers for the next few levels, would be appreciated. Thanks.

So, I have a world that I've been working on for a while, a setting, and have developed quite a bit of it, but I've kind of floundered when it comes to figuring out how my ideas for the place actually manifest in play, and what some of the more subtle effects would be on the world itself, as well as its peoples, and their habits/religions.

The world is actually just a piece of a larger planet that had been shattered long ago. Its surface is roughly square, and not quite flat (it retains the curvature of the larger world it was a piece of), and would appear to be wedge-shaped if you could view it from afar.

The calamity, in addition to shattering the world, left this chunk affixed to tears in the material plane, connecting other planes to it.

To the east, it connects with the Positive Energy Plane.
To the west, the Negative Energy Plane.
To the north, the Elemental Planes of Air and Water.
To the south, the Elemental Plane of Fire.

My thoughts on some of the effects are as follows (somewhat jumbled):
-the conflicting energies of the planes push against each other, causing an ebb and flow to their emanations, as well as eddies of energies around the world
-light and life energy emit from the east, causing more verdant growth, larger, more vital creatures, to reside in that direction, although most "normal" creatures wouldn't be able to survive living too near this edge, as they would be overwhelmed by the life force
-I have entertained the idea that the world does not revolve around a sun, or at least not close enough to be notable, and instead is lit by the Positive Energy Plane; darkness would fall when those energies are rebuffed by the ones emanating from those of the Negative Energy Plane. The far east would be eternal bathed in light, while the far west would forever lie in darkness.
-the western portion of the world would be largely devoid of life, supporting only those few living creatures that can live with, or harness, negative energy, and there would be plenty of undead.
-the northern portion of the world would be frigid thanks to the cold air and water flowing out of those planes it is attached to there.
-the southern portion of the world would be unbearably hot, and without water--the southernmost portions of the world would be compose of a dry and cracked land.
-seasons would shift as the north/south planar energies oppose each other

So, those are the broad strokes of the idea, but how do those effects play out on a smaller scale? On day-to-day life for creatures and people around the world? In how settlements are established? Culture? Customs? Should there be game mechanic effects evident in the world away from the borders?

And do you think the setting is TOO strange to be immersed in as stated (no sun, a weird day/night cycle, an odd cycle to the seasons, etc...)?

So, I've been running a game for about a year now, but it's been developed off of games I've run in the past, and have put a considerable amount of effort into it, both in terms of crafting the campaign (NPCs, encounters, plot), and in building up my own, somewhat unique setting. I'd been working on this just for the games I've run with my friends, but they have, for a while now, been nudging me and insisting that I should work on getting this published.

I'm using the Pathfinder rules set, but it's not set in Golarion, and while some of it could be transplanted somewhere into the Paizo world, not all of it can be, and I'm fairly attached to the setting. The campaign has been E6, but I can convert it to an adventure path that goes from 1-8 with what I have so far, I think, and have material drafted that would probably carry a party on to level 12 or so, although I'm not especially adept at planning encounters and challenges for mid- to high-level characters with a multitude of spellcasting options available to them (the ability to fly, teleport, walk through or remove walls, etc... makes certain types of challenges irrelevant, for example).

I just don't know where I would start for any of this, and I really don't have much experience with other companies/systems/whatever (I've played some of WotC's RPG lines, Pathfinder, Mutants and Masterminds, and Edge of the Empire, and have used a few supplements from Super Genius), so I suppose my questions are as follows:

1. Is it reasonable to get a new setting published, using the Pathfinder rules? That is, does anyone pick up and publish stuff like that (a new setting, attached to an existing rules set)?

2. What's my starting point for getting the ball rolling?

3. Should I be looking to mold the adventure path to an existing campaign setting, rather than bundling them together?

So, after searching around and reading several threads, I understand that the mention of "frightened" in the description of the ability is either a misprint or flavor text, but if a creature fails its save and becomes Shaken, can it then be affected again the next time the dragon activates Frightful Presence, possibly becoming Frightened, and after that Panicked? Or does is it capped at only affecting a creature once?

Also, if a creature fails the save, becomes shaken, and the effect wears off or is removed some time later, can they be affected by the FP again? It seems like the answer to this one is YES, since it the 24 hour immunity is only specified for characters who pass their save.

It makes sense to me that someone scared by a dragon could become more terrified as they're exposed its grandeur and malice some more, and that the initial shock wearing off might not inoculate them against being scared again.

First, George, Rob, Andrew, Jon, Mike...get out of this thread!

Okay, so here's the background: the party has gone into a kobold lair (a city, even) in pursuit of retreating kobold troops that have recently raided the city in which the PCs were based. Their primary goal is to gather some intel--they've heard that there is a dragon governing the kobolds, spurring them to this uncharacteristic militarism. At least one member of the group wants to find and fight the dragon, while most of the rest are mortally terrified of that possibility. They DO have a ritual that they may perform that essentially hides them from being detected by dragons completely (invisibility, plus it masks their scent, etc...). They haven't used it, because it doesn't last long enough for them to make their way through the complex to the dragon, so they're holding that in reserve until they feel the time is right.

What I'm looking to do:

First, I want to give the players time to overhear a conversation among the kobold leadership and the black dragon, and to get into a storehouse of some of the dragon's hoard to investigate some items.

Somewhere in the middle of this, my plan is to have a dwarven attack squad break into the great assembly hall to confront the dragon, giving the players some allies that they may wish to join in fighting the dragon (making it appear doable to some of them anyway).

As I mentioned in the title, this is an E6 campaign, and the players are all level 6 at this point with some "epic" feats under their belts. My intent for the dragon is to make it huge, but to use the stats of a lower CR dragon: basically, I want the imposing grandeur of the enormous creature, but I don't want to throw a CR 14 at them. They don't have to know that it's been scaled down a bit, and, really, this works well enough for my vision of the world-->dragons aren't quite as restricted by the E6 nature of the campaign, but everything has been zeroed in at around that level of heroism, unless it is meant to be something only gods can hope to challenge.

The party consists of a tiefling rogue with Slow Reactions and Pressure Points, a changeling ranger focused on two-claw fighting, a kobold fire damage spec'ed sorcerer (and has a little healing ability, and has natural flight), a samsaran Clouded Vision Spellscar Oracle, a sylph witch (can't recall his focus, but he does have the Flight hex), a human Flowing monk with the whole Crane line, and a human Two-Handed fighter. I'll post stats for the group later when I can find my papers for them, but off the top of my head, I believe the rogue, ranger, monk have ACs in the mid-20s (depending on buffs, stances, landing sneak attack, etc...), while the fighter has an AC of 20 I think. The martial characters have HP ranging from around 50 on the low end to something like 75 or 80 for the fighter. Low saves are at around +5, while high saves are at about +12. The weakest of the casters have an HP of around 30. I think the to-hit for the martial characters is at about +11, and they're hitting for something like 1d6+5 to 1d8+10 twice a round for he most part, while the fighter is swinging for 2d6+14ish with Power Attack.

What I'd like help with:
1. suggestions for ways to entice the players to actually join in the fight with the dragon, other than simply having them see the dwarves in action
2. some suggestions on an appropriate make-up for the fight: ideally, I'd like to have a juvenile or young adult black dragon increased to huge size (perhaps use the base stats from a young black dragon with the other abilities of the juvenile or young adult) supported by some number of kobolds. I'd think some basic kobolds, maybe some warrior 3s, and a kobold cleric or oracle of about level 5 or 6. I think I'm looking at something like a CR 12 encounter, but I don't want to kill (all) of the players. If one dies, that would be okay, as it would help to reinforce their sense of mortality and not being gods among mortals--that's kind of the point of E6 to a degree, isn't it? Plus, I have had one player tell me that he would be totally fine with dying in that fight if it should happen.

3. So, how many dwarves, and of what levels, do you think would be appropriate to balance with the party of 6 or 7 players I have? I'm thinking one dwarf will be level 6 with some epic feats, maybe a paladin, but I'm not sure about the rest.

4. Does my plan for the over-sized dragon seem like it's going to be totally unreasonable? Will adding the high-level kobold divine be too much?

5. The fight will take place on a wide stone dais not quite surrounded by fetid water into which a (clean) waterfall pours. Reaching the dragon's lair requires swimming underwater through a series of tunnels. The room this takes place in is essentially an amphitheater--there are stadium-style benches rising in a semi-circle for kobolds to look down upon the dragon and their shaman.

I'd like some help figuring out tactics for the dragon--I want it to fight smart, not just stand there trading blows. Also, I'd prefer for it to make an aquatic egress when things start looking dire. The players have anticipated having to swim for a while, and obtained some consumables that will allow them to breath underwater for a while, so I'd like to lead them through there for the conclusion of the fight with the dragon. Some dwarves would accompany them.

Ultimately, I want this to be a truly epic and memorable encounter for them, but I don't want to be too hamfisted about pushing them into it--if they REALLY don't want to fight, they won't have to, and I know at least a couple of them REALLY don't want to, but I'd like for them to fight. I want it to be dangerous, and taxing, but I want it to be winnable...with NPC help.

6. Some suggestions for cool treasure to provide them with. I'm already intending to leave some spellbooks, scrolls, and Pages of Spell Knowledge for story reasons, but those will be useful for the group's casters, but I also want to include some nifty items for the other characters in the group. Nothing from the Big 6--I want cool stuff.

7. Suggestions for hazards or traps in the waterway and on the other side in the dragon's lair.

I appreciate all replies and suggestions, thanks!

Just had this idea:

A hydra, where each neck and head are a different color, for each element (fire, ice, lightning, acid, maybe add in light and dark, maybe not), while the body is covered in a scintillating rainbow pattern of scales. Each head gets a breath weapon of its respective type.

The body changes colors, but not super-fast, so that while it is one color, it gains resistance to that element and some additional ability (or abilities).

I'm looking for suggestions on what those additional abilities could be, what should trigger a particular color change (it would be interesting if the creature becomes a puzzle, where players try to figure out how to get it to change to, and stay on, the most beneficial color for their particular party, or even have one character change it to an element the party is strong against, and then another change it to one the party resists well), or anything else that seems relevant, interesting, or important.

So, given this FAQ response regarding 2-handed weapons used in one hand:

Power Attack: If I am using a two-handed weapon with one hand (such as a lance while mounted), do still I get the +50% damage for using a two-handed weapon?

Yes.

—Pathfinder Design Team, 05/24/13

Does a bastard sword, wielded in 1-hand gain the +50% Power Attack damage? It is, after all, a 2-handed weapon that just can be used in one hand at the cost of a feat.

I threw a character together to join some friends in their Skull & Shackles game (they were up to the island in The Wormwood Mutiny). The game wasn't straight PF, as we were running gestalt characters, and employing Kolokotroni's magic item replacement system (some Big 6 replacement buffs, such as a +1 attack and damage with a particular weapon--the one I took at 3--and using a Super Genius Archetype overlaid on our character without replacing anything). Still, I felt that I got a good sense of what the Swashbuckler is like.

And I wasn't all that impressed.

My character:
Human Swashbuckler 3/Ninja 3
Str 10
Dex 16
Con 12
Int 13
Wis 14
Cha 16

Feats: Weapon Finesse (moved Swashbuckler Finesse to level 1, and changed it to simply granting the feat), Combat Reflexes, Dervish Dance, and Weapon Focus (Ninja Combat Trick).

Skills: Maxed out Acrobatics, Climb, Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Perception, Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, and dropped a rank into a few more skills.

Equipment: Scimitar (with +1 attack and damage), studded leather armor.

Observations:
-Without the Ninja's 8 skill points/level, I would have felt considerably under-skilled for the type of character I wanted to play as a Swashbuckler.

-Even with a good starting Cha, I constantly felt like I didn't have enough Panache. Of the times I used Opportune Parry, I only bothered also using Riposte once, because ensuring that I had the 1 remaining Panache for Swashbuckler Initiative and Precise Strike was more important. I was rolling poorly (no confirmed crits over all the fights to "complete" the island, despite the 18-20 weapon, though I had a lot of 15-17 rolls, which would have probably been crits after expanding the threat range).

-Opportune Parry really needs to work like Crane Wing and allow you to use the ability on attacks that HIT , rather than having to declare it before an attack is rolled. Of the 8 or 9 times I used the ability, I think 5 or 6 of those attacks would have missed my 17 AC anyway.

-Riposte needs to not cost Panache. Maybe it should trigger automatically if you succeed on OP, or require you to have 1 Panache in reserve, or...I don't know what, but I never felt comfortable using this--if I was at 3 Panache, I didn't want to be stuck at 1 and without the extra layer of defense Opportune Parry offers, even if it felt like a waste most of the time, and if I was at 2 Panache, I didn't want to remove the benefits of having that 1 point in reserve.

-Conversely, just give us more Panache! Tying it to an offensive ability or a skill check means that you're spending the stuff on your own terms, but on a defensive ability, it's a constant weighing of whether it's worth using it or not, whether using it on defense is worth losing the offensive benefits. I don't mind having to make those decisions, but I felt far less restricted with the 4 Ki points I had, than the 3, regenerating Panache, because the Ki didn't need to be kept in reserve for so many different things--I wanted 1 point left for better jumping, but otherwise was really only using it for the additional attack on a full attack.

-I only ever used the further boost on Precise Strike when I was fairly confident that my target was going to die anyway. At 3 Panache, it never felt worthwhile to use that last point for +3 damage to then not have the base 3 damage for my next round's attacks.

-The offensive potential of Swashbuckler is rather underwhelming at level 3. If I hadn't changed Swashbuckler's Finesse I would not have been able to pick up Dervish Dance, and without that, 1d6+4 once a round isn't all that impressive. Can't use Piranha Strike, because I wasn't using a light weapon, and couldn't pick up Power Attack because my ability scores were stretched thin. My other option would have been to drop Dex and boost Str, but then I'm not really playing into the class' archetype, and Power Attacking with a rapier seems weird to me.

(As an aside, it seems inappropriate that you can pick up a feat to add Dex to damage for scimitars, which aren't normally finessable, but cannot do the same for any finesse weapon)

Most of my offense came from Dervish Dance, 2d6 Sneak Attack and an occasional extra attack from Ninja. The Precise Strike "burst" would have been more valuable if I felt like I could use it a little more often. Ditto for Riposte.

-The class feels HEAVILY feat taxed. If you don't pick up Combat Reflexes, you can't use Riposte at all, and have to choose between 1 Parry per round, or one actual attack of opportunity. Then, your damage is rather poor unless you pick up Dervish Dance (and straight-jacketed into using a scimitar), which, by RAW, you can't do without purchasing a mostly redundant Weapon Finesse feat. So, that's basically 3 feats needed just to have the class kind of work.

Maybe grant Combat Reflexes for free, or grant an additional AoO usage at levels X, Y, Z, or disengage Parry from AoOs, and have it just work like a weaker Crane Wing--once per round, when successfully attacked, make an opposed attack roll, etc... In the latter case, having Riposte use an AoO isn't such a burden.

-My saves were TERRIBLE. The only reason I made any of my Fort saves was because I rolled very well on them. Bravery simply does not provide a significant enough bonus to be noteworthy--it's too small a boost vs. fear, and does nothing for any of the myriad of other Will saves that are going to destroy your character. This is true for bother this class and the fighter (although fighters don't need Cha or Int as much as Swashbucklers do). Bravery should be a +2 bonus, increasing by +2 at each iteration since it's a narrow effect.

-I used Derring-Do once to try and Acrobatics through a threatened area of a creature with 15 foot reach, rolled a 2, and failed. The swinginess of the ability has me feeling kind of underwhelmed, but it could be impressive on occasion. The two problems I have with it, though, are A) it's yet another drain on a very important, incredibly limited resource (Panache), and B) you really only want to use it when attempting something difficult that you MUST try. You're rarely or never going to try something in the hopes of Derring-Do putting you over the required DC, unless you know that you're only a point or two shy, because the gamble just isn't worth it.

-The biggest thing I feel the Swashbuckler brought to the gestalt table for my ninja was the full BAB, and that was only a difference of +1 to-hit at that level.

I feel like the Swashbuckler needs this ability to ENABLE them to do some impressive things, not give them a shot at success when they attempt something that probably won't succeed. This should somehow enable or encourage things like swinging from chandeliers, fighting while balanced on a railing, using a chair as a shield, etc... Those are all kind of difficult to encompass with the abstraction of a Deed, but something could be done, I believe.

Ultimately, I feel like the Swashbuckler class is dancing around the presence of the Duelist prestige class, which basically does most of what the Swashbuckler does, but better--it's stronger, more effective, and less convoluted. I think we (the community) would be better served by the team taking the Duelist and expanding it to 20 levels, incorporating some of the abilities from the current Swashbuckler to round things out. Leave the PrC as an option for characters of other classes who want to do the same stuff...an alternative to multiclassing base classes.

Otherwise, we need more Panache, Opportune Parry and Riposte need some cleaning up to make them more usable, Weapon Finesse needs to simply be a granted feat at level 1 (it's really not too front-loaded), something should be done about their saves (maybe give a reroll for a Panache point? or a bonus?), and Derring-Do should be made a little stronger or more reliable, because right now it's more like Derring-Don't-unless-you-really-must-and-have-Panache-to-spare.

I don't mean to be so critical, but as someone who was looking forward to the Swashbuckler (I played a single-classed version of this same character at the start of Skull and Shackles over a year ago using an updated version of the 3.5 Swashbuckler that never had a second session, and really wanted to give that character another chance), I just wasn't at all impressed with it.

That is, the Stonelord gains DR/adamantine, while the Stalwart feat grants DR/--, but the feat states that it stacks with DR from class features, without specifying what that DR has to be.

So, do they stack?

I would be inclined to say that you get your Stonelord DR + Stalwart DR against anything that doesn't bypass the former, given the wording of the feat, but I can't think of any example in PF or 3.5 of different DRs stacking.

I'm GMing a game for which I have a player that would like to play an oracle with the Blind curse, but who is actually blind, rather than just very near-sighted.

My questions are as follows:
1) Has anyone had any experience with this, positive or negative, in one of their games?
2) What combination of effects like blindsense, tremorsense, scent, and blindsight (combo of abilities and ranges thereof) seems like it would make the character playable without being overpowered?
3) Are there other abilities that might work?

George, Jon, Rob, any of the rest of you reading this...GO AWAY!

In spoilers here so my players don't glean something before they get out of here.

So, here's my thought: few players seem to use combat maneuvers unless they have the corresponding Improved feat, since provoking an attack of opportunity, possibly failing to succeed on the maneuver (especially since you don't have feat-based bonuses helping you out), and then possibly getting tripped or disarmed yourself is rather punitive, but having players use such maneuvers when they make sense, well, makes sense.

So, my thought is this: rather than provoking an AoO when attempting a maneuver, what if you only provoke if you fail on the attempt (fail to beat their CMD)? If you fail, the results are largely the same: AoO and possible reversal of the action upon yourself, but it makes attempting the trick actually worthwhile at times.

Do you think this would:

--encourage more martial types to attempt maneuvers when they make sense?
--be reasonably balanced?
--slow down the game?
--improve the combat gameplay experience by providing options?

A DM here looking for some ideas for items to give to my players over the course of my game.

A little background on the game and party:
The game is E6, and the characters are currently level 4 or 5, and close to hitting 5 and 6, respectively. There are epic feats available that will grant up to 8th level class abilities, and others that can grant up to 4th level spell slots (but no spells; usable for metamagic), Sudden Metamagic (apply a metamagic to a spell without increasing level once per day, selectable multiple times for other metamagic or additional uses), and feats to get up to 2 level 4 spells usable as 1/day or 2/day spell-like abilities.

I'm using half of Kolokotroni's magic item replacement system: starting at level 3, players can opt to gain a +1 attack and damage bonus with one type of weapon, a +1 bonus with one type of armor or shield, a +1 resistance bonus to saves, or a +1 bonus on attacks and damage with spells as well as on caster level checks (the +1 damage only applies to one die rolled for a spell, so Magic Missile would deal Xd4+X+1, not 1d4+2 for each missile). At level 6, they can upgrade the weapon, armor, or spell selection to +2, add a +1 bonus to natural armor or Dodge AC, or add +2 to a stat. There are epic feats that will allow them to continue selecting these, although they won't be able to get higher than the options available at level 6. Most effects mimic the items they are meant to replace, and thus do not stack with spells that wouldn't stack with those items.

We have a:
-changeling ranger uses 2 claw attacks and with a Lay On Hands ability gained through an archetype
-human Flowing monk with Crane Style and Wing
-human magister (3rd party class--basically a sorcerer that gets a few divine spells) with one of the bloodlines that adds damage to fire spells, and who acts as the party healer (has Cure Light Wounds, Lesser Restoration, and I gave her a magic item that grants Channel Energy as though she were a cleric of her level)
-teifling TWF rogue with a 5 Cha
-human Two-Handed fighter with Power Attack, Cleave, and Cleave Through
-gnome alchemist with Precise Bombs and Explosive Bombs

In particular, I'm looking for items that are nifty: increase versatility, providing more options, without necessarily increasing their power directly.

Also, are there any items that can increase an alchemist's ability to press on through a long day the way a Ring of Sustenance and Pearl/Runestone of Power do for a spellcaster? Are there any items that allow alchemists to make alterations to their bombs the way metamagic rods do?

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

That is, how do you handle NPCs/monsters speaking in a language other than common that only some of the PCs can understand?

Do you make noises that are supposed to be language X, then translate for all to hear?

Do you say, "The Y says in X language: blah blah blah?"

Do you pass notes to the players who can understand the language?

Whisper to them?

Make the others leave the room?

Sometimes letting everyone know out of character is fine, because their knowing is pretty irrelevant, or their ability to separate in-character from out-of-character knowledge is sufficient for the situation, but there are also times when they really SHOULDN'T know, even OoC, because it spoils something.

So how do you handle it?

In particular, the paladin and barbarian.

PF added a bunch of martial feats that are actually worth taking, MUCH better racial feats (especially for barbarians of some races), and there's been an increased emphasis (in my opinion) on feat chains.

The rogue got bonus feats (up to 3, if you want both Weapon Focus and Weapon Finesse), the monk got more bonus feats (10, 14, 18), and some archetypes get a TON, as did the ranger. Even the sorcerer got some bonus feats. Heck, the monk's and ranger's bonus feats lists were significantly expanded upon compared to the feat lists that they had in 3.5 AND they get those feats without meeting prerequisites.

Yet the paladin and babarian didn't get anything in that regard. Yes, everyone got more feats in PF, but that's kind of irrelevant to this point.

1. When you summon as a standard action, does the summon appear and act during your turn, or does it still come in just before your next turn?

2. Can you choose whether you use the feat or not? That is, do you HAVE to cast as a standard action and risk becoming fatigued or exhausted?

So, I'll be starting a wizard at level 1 for a Rise of the Rune Lords campaign.

Not sure if I want to go human or elf (first query for you folks reading this).

Planning on going Conjuration specialist with the Teleportation subschool option, focusing on crowd control and summoning mostly.

Going to be using Kolokotroni's magic item replacement system, which involves (among other things) getting to use one of Super Genius' archetypes without having to replace class features, so I'll be using the Mental Examplar. For the purposes of character build, this will mean that I have an extra bonus feat at level 5, 10, 15, 20.

I was thinking that I would go with a familiar (one of the ones that grant +4 Initiative, or the flying lizard that provides +2), since the only permitted crafting feats are Brew Potion, Craft Wand, and Scribe Scroll (and that includes being able to modify your arcane bonded item). Not sure if I would bother with Improved Familiar down the road or not.

For my feats, I was thinking about taking the following (though I'm not sure what order I'd like to pick them up in):
Spell Focus: Conjuration
Spell Focus: Evocation
Augment Summoning
Superior Summons
Rime Spell (use with Frost Fall, Ice Spears, other stuff down the line)
Spell Specialization (probably more than once)
Greater Spell Specialization
Improved Initiative
Metamagic School Focus (3.5 feat that allows the reduction of a metamagic feat to a spell of a school you are either specialized in or have Spell Focus for by 1, 3/day)

If I go elf, I was thinking:
1. Spell Focus: Conjuration
3. Augment Summoning
5. Spell Focus: Evocation, Rime Spell, Metamagic School Focus
7. Superior Summons
9. Spell Specialization
10. Greater Spell Specialization, metamagic feat

The favored class bonus would get me more uses/day of Shift, which is nice, and I would take the alternate racial trait for +2 on Concentration to cast defensively in place of the weapon proficiencies.

If I went human, I would either take Improved Initiative at level 1, or bump SF: Evocation down to 1, and bring the level that I grab the rest of my feats down by one. Not thrilled with the favored class bonus here.

So, I suppose my questions are:
Which race do you think I should go with?
What order would you take the feats in?
What metamagic feat would you pick up at level 10? I was thinking Extend, Reach, or Dazing, though the last ends up making Rime kind of unnecessary.
Do you think it's worth taking a familiar if you don't plan to take Improved Familiar, given the restrictions on bonded item usage (basically, go with Wand so I can craft on it, or Ring only for the 1 extra spell per day)?

" A creature that occupies a square from which a spear extends (or that is within 10 feet of the ground below) takes 2d6 points of piercing damage and 2d6 points of cold damage per square—creatures that take up more than one square can be hit by multiple spears if the caster is high enough level."

What does the "or within 10 feet of the ground below" mean here? Within 10 ft. of where the spike comes up? Within 10 ft. of where the spike comes up while underground?

First, George, if you're reading this, GET OUT!

Now that that is out of the way, here's the deal.

A character who wants to attempt to move three cards during his turn can do so by taking a full-round action. That character must overcome both obstacles on the card he is leaving.

I've looked around on the boards a bit, but the few threads on the topic that I found didn't seem to reach a consensus on how this bit worked.

If you have cards A, B, C, and D...

1) If you are on A, and want to use a full-round action to run 3 cards, do you end up on C or D?
2) Do you have to overcome just the 2 obstacles on card A, or the 2 on A and B (possibly also C if D is the card you end up on)?

3) If you have your characters only rolling against 2 obstacles, how do you describe the scene?
3a) Heck, even if you have them doing 2 per card, how do you describe it?
3b) Do they magically hand-over-hand their way down a rope then go back and tightrope walk it?
3c) Do they then somehow skip the intervening obstacles?

4) For those of you that have used the Chase Cards deck, how do you feel about the DCs being printed on the cards for each obstacle?

I've only done one chase in my games with the GMG rules, and just used the example cards in the book, as the chase caught me by surprise. I laid out tiles that represented the cards, and then described the obstacles posed on each "card" trying to convey that one seemed a little easier than the other. For example, "You can see your opponent on a rooftop a few buildings over. Looking around, it seems that you could squeeze between the two buildings in front of you without too much effort, or you could try tightrope walking down that clothesline swaying frantically in the wind." The players then can guess that they can either try to squeeze through a space (Escape Artist) with a low to moderate DC, or can try an Acrobatics check that seems to have a rather high DC, then find out whether they were correct (assuming they roll close to the value).

I'm not set against them knowing the DCs upfront, but I feel like it's a little too game-ist.

5) Do you award XP for your chases?

Scenario:
Party shrouded in fog that grants 20% concealment to all 5 feet away, and 50% to those further away.

Cleric wants to touch his companion adjacent to him with a cure spell.

Is the touch subject to the miss chance?
As DM, I ruled that it was, under the logic that CLW is a touch spell that your target isn't trying to avoid, maybe actively groping toward, which is why you don't roll to-hit, but it still functions like a touch attack otherwise, and the concealment should make it just as hard to touch someone with a cure spell as it would to touch someone with an Inflict spell.

There was a little argument about this at the table, so I'd like to get a sense of the prevailing opinion/actual ruling on this for the eventuality of this occurring again in the future.

The Divine Warrior trait says that you get a bonus to weapon damage when you cast a divine spell that affects weapons. My question is whether using a wand or scroll of same would trigger the effect or not.

By "not stacking" would that mean not working upon the same weapon at all, or the Bless Weapon effect only applying on rolls within the weapon's un-enchanted threat range?

That is, say you cast Bless Weapon on a +1 Keen Scimitar. Does it:
A) Simply have no effect?
B) Automatically confirm criticals rolled on an 18-20, but have no effect on threats rolled on a 15-17?

I've not played in a PFS game before, and was thinking about rolling up a paladin and heading to an event some time in the near future, but I'm not really clear on what is, and isn't, legal. My specific queries:
Oath of Vengeance
Fey Foundling
Greater Mercy
Extra Lay On Hands

What skills would be most useful?
Languages?

George, Jon, anyone else playing in my game, stop reading!

Any and all suggestions and help will be greatly appreciated!

In fiction and real life we see individuals who do not exhibit the physical signs of aging, whether through vigorous activity or practice, or good genetics, but in D&D/PF that's an impossibility. So, I came up with a system that allows for this.

First, start with the standard rules of -1 to all physical scores at middle age, -2 at old age, and -3 at venerable, while the mental stats gain a +1 at each age category.

Then, upon reaching an age category mark, a character may select one or more physical attributes. The selected score(s) do not take the associated aging penalty. Instead, that penalty is assigned to a mental score instead of the standard bonus. You may not select the same mental score more than once per age category.

For example, if you wanted to play a character that remained strong and hearty in middle age, their Str and Con scores would not change, but they would gain a -1 penalty to two of their Int, Wis or Cha scores. That same character, at old age, would again not have their Str and Con change, but would now gain a -2 penalty to two of their Int, Wis or Cha scores (at least one of which would now be at -3). You make these choices each time you gain an age category, and may choose new stats each time.

This represents people maintaining themselves physically, but losing their memory and reasoning skills, descending into dementia, or becoming increasingly crotchety and anti-social.

An alternative would be to have one physical score and one mental score remain unchanged, but to assign twice the associated penalty to all skills that use the chosen mental score. Additionally, if your penalty on Knowledge skills exceeds twice your normal ability modifier in that score (that is, with no non-permanent bonuses), you gain a 25% chance per age category of forgetting a piece of information--you roll a Knowledge check normally, and if you succeed, you then roll a d% and forget what you had on the tip of your tongue. For Wis skills, you go either blind or deaf, and for Cha skills, you lose your voice.

Then, for random NPCs/ages, you could do something like:
roll 1d100 per age category
1-2: Str remains unchanged, Int goes down
3-4: Str remains unchanged, Wis goes down
5-6: Str remains unchanged, Cha goes down
7-12: Same as above, but replace Str with Dex
13-18: Same as above, but replace Str with Con
19-20: Str and Dex remain unchanged, Int and Wis go down
21-22: Str and Dex remain unchanged, but Int and Cha go down
23-24: Str and Dex remain unchanged, but Wis and Cha go down
25-30: Same as above, but Str and Con
31-36: Same as above, but Dex and Con
37-38: Str, Dex and Con remain unchanged, Int, Wis and Cha go down
39-40: Str remains unchanged, Int skills go down
41-76: Same as 3-38, but applying stat penalty to skills
77-00: As normal (Str, Dex, Con go down, Int, Wis, Cha go up)

Ultimately, the penalties start to be crippling, while you aren't gaining bonuses, but it opens up some options for storytelling, like the battle-hardened warrior continuing to fight well into his old age.

"Magic, do as you will. MAGIC, do as you WILL!"

He seems like a sorcerer, perhaps, or a wizard, but the difficulty is that he doesn't really KNOW a lot of what he's casting, or what effect it will have. He'd be similar to the 3.5 Wild Mage I guess, but without the strong basis in known magical abilities. How would you create him as, say, a level 6 character (though I think he's a lower level, despite being able to animate a plant and polymorph another creature)?

I was looking at this as an option for some kobolds, but can't recall if it was a kobold-specific ability/rule. I vaguely feel like it was a multi-uses per day ability, but not unlimited. Maybe a sorcerer bloodline, or cleric domain? Just need someone to point me in the right direction, please.

As a short question for those people who have played with, or theory-craft E6 PF games, how would you feel about an epic feat that grants +1 BAB, and is takeable twice? This would grant full-BAB characters access to stuff that requires +8 BAB, and non-full ones to stuff up to +6 BAB, notably the extra attack that comes at BAB +6.

One thing that really galled me in 3.5, and still does in PF, is that your choice of race typically has only a little impact for the first few levels and then drops off from there. A +2 to a stat, a few +2s to some skills...they tend to mean less and less as you acquire levels, feats, magic items and class abilities. A few racial abilities stick around as being useful, but by and large characters of different races but otherwise identical tend to play and feel almost identically (role-playing aside).

Do any of you feel the same way? Have any of you come up with solutions to this problem?

I know that one of the stated design goals for 4th Edition was to address this problem, though I don't recall it doing a very good job of that during the limited amount of time I spent with that system.

We have race-restricted/targeted feats that are available to further emphasize and define our race selection, but those feats are typically weaker than other feats available at the same levels, often being too narrowly focused on secondary or tertiary concerns, so there is little incentive to pick them over something that more directly and significantly benefits your character.

I was thinking that a possible solution could be to grant special racial bonus feats as you level. These would ONLY be used for feats that have your race as a requirement (ie., Elven Battle Training, which has the prerequisites of BAB +1 and Elf). Obviously, some races would need more feats added to provide a large enough selection to A) present actual decisions for your selections, and B) actually have enough feats available to fill the bonus feat slots). I was thinking that these could occur at level 5 and every 5 levels thereafter (10, 15, 20), or possibly a little more frequently than that.

Thoughts?

I was reminded while reading a thread earlier of how annoying the prerequisites are for many feats. Take Improved Trip for example. You can pick up Combat Expertise via Lore Warden without needing the Int 13 requirement, or can skip both CE and the Int by grabbing IT via Maneuver Master, but then you're still left without the ability to pick up further feats, because each successive feat still requires each of the earlier feats' prerequisites(IT for the Lore Warden; Greater Trip or anything else that requires IT for the Maneuver Master). This seems counter-intuitive.

Obviously, if you're playing PFS you're screwed, but for home games, how do you handle this at your tables? I'd be inclined to allow feats to drop prerequisites for their prerequisites.

To illustrate:
Combat Expertise requires Int 13.

Improved Trip requires Combat Expertise; and no longer needs Int 13--if you got the feat the normal way, and your Int drops below 13, CE turns off, which in turn disables IT, otherwise, you're safe from stat damage disabling your feat chain.

Greater Trip requires Improved Trip; and no longer needs Int 13 or Combat Expertise.

Felling Smash would require Improved Trip and Power Attack; and no longer needs Int 13, Str 13 or Combat Expertise.

If you acquire the feats in the normal way, nothing changes, but if you have special class abilities that let you skirt prerequisites you don't find yourself out of luck down the line when you want to pick up one of the additional feats with a standard feat slot, only to find you can't because it still requires the prerequisites you skipped initially.

1) The language for the ability doesn't specify whether you cast the spell with the expended full-round action, or whether you merely replace one prepared spell with another.

2) Can metamagics be applied to the new spell? Is this dependent upon the answer to #1?

Going to be playing in a pirate-themed game (Skull and Shackles) and am looking to play a character similar to Westley from The Princess Bride: cocky, smooth expert fencer and all-around daring doer. In my case, I feel like mechanical emphasis needs to be made on the fencing skills, as the other stuff comes down to role-playing more than the character build, other than getting skills.

I poked around in the archives a bit for some ideas, conversions, etc...and here's where I am at present:

rolled stats (can be rearranged)
14, 16, 12, 10, 13, 12

Thinking
Str 10
Dex 16 +2 racial (human)
Con 12
Int 14
Wis 12
Cha 13

1. Swashbuckler - Weapon Finesse (B), Dodge, Mobility
(from Tome of Secrets)

We're starting at level 1, so I'm not planning any farther than that, but would probably be looking to pick up some combination of: Crane Riposte, Improved Critical, Step-Up, Following Step, Step-Up and Strike, Spring Attack, Vital Strike, Improved Feint, Improved Disarm

I'm thinking that Crane and Elusive Target will really play up the expert duelist along with the actual Duelist's abilities eventually, by providing several ways to dodge attacks outright.

Not sure what, if any, archetype to pick up with the Fighter levels. I had been looking at Free Hand Fighter, but unless I'm taking Improved Disarm early, that seems rather lackluster. I'd been considering, also, just going 6 fighter into Duelist, but it becomes impossible to fit stuff like Crane Wing in until quite a bit later, due to requiring extra feats like Improved Unarmed Strike. Lore Warden looks interesting as a way to gain a little more skill-based versatility, not to mention free Combat Expertise, which opens up the possibility of taking some maneuvers early (ironically, it would make FHF attractive, if both could be taken).

Am I under-valuing Free Hand Fighter?

Not really sure I want the Monk levels, but they A) help avoid having to spend a feat on IUS, and also skirt the BAB prerequisites of the Crane feats, so I can get to Crane Wing earlyish...actually, looking at the plan above, I hit that at the expected level anyway.

Would you read the Swashbuckler's Evade ability as counting not only as Dodge to qualify for Mobility, but also for Duelist? It only mentions that it counts for qualifying for feats, but not for PrCs, so I assumed, "No."

Not thrilled with the low-looking DPS this has, but like the look of its defensive abilities, and it has a good selection of skills across Monk, Swashbuckler, Duelist and Lore Warden.

It's always seemed rather ridiculous to me that Spring Attack doesn't scale at all with your character's growing abilities and capabilities. We have lots of attacks that are designed to work with movement, like Vital Strike and Cleave, but that don't work with Spring Attack, because the latter only allows for a single attack.

I don't know whether I'd feel that the feat should be called out to specifically work with some other feats and abilities, or whether those feats and abilities should specifically call out that they work with Spring Attack, but one or the other should occur as an errata at some point. A single melee attack (or ranged with Shot On The Run) just isn't significant enough as levels increase to justify the action taken, let alone the 3 feats spent on being able to perform the action.

Certainly, most abilities (not pounce) that can work on a charge should probably function for Spring Attack as well.

Thoughts?

So in 3rd edition there is a monster called a Wood Woad (Monster Manual III I believe) that, among other things, has the ability to step in and out of trees (including teleporting to other trees nearby), as I believe a free action. If the players were jumped by a group of these who were popping in and out of trees and then attacking, how would you treat the wood woads' attacks? Are they treated as being invisible? Does their stepping out of the tree, and being visible at that point, just before attacking remove any such bonuses they might gain? Would you treat the players as flat-footed?

I feel like the ability to disappear from one spot and reappear elsewhere just before attacking should confer some sort of benefit, but I'm not sure what that benefit should be.

I vaguely recall reading somewhere a set of rules (or guidelines) for adding character levels to monsters in a way that doesn't jack up their CR. I skimmed quickly through the GM tools sections of the Core Rulebook, but didn't notice this. Am I making this up? Is it from PFRPG or somewhere else?

Need to beef up some of the critturs I'm using in my game a bit.