zean's page

Could an Alchemist just prepare a bunch of poisons during their daily prep with Advanced Alchemy, and poison all of their Crossbow Bolts ahead of time? They could then attack people with poisons basically "for free", without having to spend actions mid-combat to apply poison.

With the latest Errata, the Level 1 Mutagenist feature does almost nothing. Here are its 3 mechanical benefits:

1. You start with the formulas for two 1st-level mutagens in your formula book, in addition to your other formulas.

2. You can gain the benefit of any mutagen, even if it wasn’t specifically brewed for you.

3. Whenever your proficiency rank for simple weapons increases, your proficiency rank for unarmed attacks increases to the same rank unless it’s already better.

Number 1 is worth what, 2 gold?

Number 2 doesn't seem to do anything, because the consensus I've gotten from the community is that mutagens no longer key off of a particular target (and I hope we keep it this way, because the idea of trying to pre-brew each mutagen at the start of the day seems awful, not to mention it means finding mutagens as loot would do nothing unless you had a mutagenist).

Number 3 literally does nothing, with the latest errata that Unarmed Attacks count as Simple Weapons for Proficiency.

I have a new player who's playing a Mutagenist in my PF Game. Should I tell them to stop playing the class and play something else? I don't want my new player to feel bad for play a character with a blank class feature.

Can I Ready with the following:

Trigger: A creature makes a melee attack
Effect: Step

or

Trigger: A creature makes a ranged attack
Effect: Stride

or

Trigger: A creature attacks
Effect: Step or Stride

The goal would be the Step/Stride out of range of a melee attack, or Step/Stride out of range or Line of Sight of a ranged attack. Since the creature already made the attack, they still "used" the action, but since I moved out of a valid targeting range, the attack doesn't hit me.

We know that with Attack of Opportunity, the Reaction resolves BEFORE movement if someone attempts to Stride away, and that they still "use" the action, so they can't change their minds afterwards to instead use that action on something else (like Strike or provide a component for a spell).

So does this work? Can I use this to effectively evade attacks, and force opponents to waste actions?

Does this grant Training in Spell Attack Rolls and Spell Save DCs? If not, does this mean that attack cantrips with this feat would have +0 to hit?

Two questions:

- Can I just bring a bunch of small objects (let's say a bag of marbles), drop them as a Free Action on the first round, and just hurl those for the rest of the encounter?
- The spell specifically says Ranged Attack. So this is a Dex Mod attack, with no to-hit scaling? (For example, higher level Bombs will actually have inherent to-hit scaling to make sure they scale to magic item progression it seems.)

So I was reading the Paizo Blog post, Adventure Marches On

And I noticed this

Brutish Shove
Feat 2
Keywords: Fighter, Press
Requirements: You are wielding a two-handed melee weapon.

Effect: Throwing your weight behind your attack, you hit your opponent hard enough to make it stumble back. Make a Strike with a two-handed melee weapon. If you hit a target that is your size or smaller, that creature is flat-footed until the end of your current turn, and you can automatically Shove it, with the same benefits as the Shove action (including the critical success effect, if your Strike was a critical hit). If you move to follow the target, your movement doesn't trigger reactions.

This strike has the following failure effect.
Failure: The target becomes flat-footed until the end of your current turn.

And I was reminded of the D&D 4E Power, Tide of Iron:

Tide of Iron
At-Will
Keywords: Martial, Weapon
Standard Action
Requirement: using a shield
Target: one creature
Attack: Strength vs AC
Flavor Text: After each mighty swing, you bring your shield to bear and use it to push your enemy back.
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier damage, and you push the target 1 square if it is your size, smaller than you, or one size category larger. You can shift into the space that the target occupied.

Increase damage to 2[W] + Strength modifier at 21st level.

Now obviously the maneuvers are still different. Notably:

• - Brutish Shove requires a Two-Hander while Tide of Iron requires a Shield
• - Brutish Shove inflicts the Flat-Footed condition, even on a Failure (but not a Critical Failure).
• - Brutish Shove has the Press trait, meaning it cannot be the first attack you perform on your turn.

I do get what both powers are going for. They essentially take Bull Rush (a Combat Maneuver in PF 1E, a Skill Check in PF 2E, an At-Will Power in D&D 4E, and a Variant Combat Actio in D&D 5E), and then turn it into a Power (or I guess feat, cause everything's a feat in PF 2E now), allowing someone to get both the benefit of doing weapon damage along with pushing someone into a different square.

I want to be clear. I'm not against this. If anything, it makes me more excited to play PF 2E. I really liked D&D 4E.

Regardless, the honest question I have is: how much effect did D&D 4E have on the development of PF 2E?

I'll leave a note of one other, subtler difference between Brutish Shove and Tide of Iron, that I suspect makes it harder to notice that the two have similar design spaces: Brutish Shove has its flavor text baked into the effect line, while Tide of Iron just describes the mechanical effect, and separates out the flavor text into its own line (it's not even included on the D&D 4E wiki, I had to get it from my own D&D 4E PHB). I believe the design goal of doing this is to make Brutish Shove feel like the lines of a book in-universe describing the ability (similar to how many Spells in D&D-like games apart from D&D 4E describe their magical effects). D&D 4E just gives us the mechanical effect in the effect line, and does not evoke the feeling of reading a text of describing a maneuver from within a fantasy universe. It's a subtle difference, but I wonder if it will make people "accept" the maneuver better (along with making everything into Feats, and avoiding the use of the term, "Power").

This is important mainly for PFS legality, which explicitly lists Bloodroot as a legal poison for characters with the Poison Use ability.

There are two versions of Bloodroot, and normally I'd be fine with just taking the later version, but in this case, the conflict is between Core and Ultimate Equipment:

Bloodroot in Core:
Type poison, injury; Save Fortitude DC 12
Onset 1 round; Frequency 1/round for 4 rounds
Effect 1 Con damage and 1 Wis damage; Cure 1 save

Bloodroot in Ultimate Equipment:
Type poison, injury; Save Fortitude DC 12
Onset 1 round; Frequency 1/round for 4 rounds
Effect 1 Con damage and 1 Wis damage and confusion 1 round; Cure 1 save

The Confusion effect is a MASSIVE improvement. Which is the correct version for the purposes of PFS (and just, which is the correct one for PF in general?)

I'm seeing a ton of entries that failed to bold the right words correctly. Should I flag these entries as having broken the rules? How about ones that capitalize a word that obviously shouldn't be capitalized?

I was wanting to know if it was possible to, when upgrading a Magic Weapon, change the types of bonuses you've placed upon the weapon.

For instance, if I upgrade a +2 Longsword, can I turn it into a +1 Holy Longsword? (Holy being a +2 Enhancement.) How about a +1 Flaming Longsword?

This is sort of a morbid question, but I figured I'd ask, anyway.

So there are a few rules in PFS that currently pertain to companions/followers:

-You cannot have more than one animal companion / Eidolon following you, or similar, during a scenario
-Animate Dead wears off between scenarios
-You can buy animals listed in Ultimate Equipment

...

So.

Could one, erm... buy and then kill some animals, then cast Animate Dead, and bring them along for the scenario and use them in combat?

Let's say I buy a Masterwork Weapon with Prestige Points, then upgrade it to a +1 weapon, then I went to sell it.

What happens?

So last night I gave this scenario to some GMs to lead. Having only skimmed this scenario and having gotten to play it, let me give you a piece of advice:

DO NOT SEND ALL THE ENEMIES AGAINST THE PARTY AT ONCE

It can be incredibly tempting, especially for new GMs, to see baddies losing, and just decide to skip to the next wave of baddies and not give the players time to rest.

Our group had the added fun of no DPR charcter (except a Rogue I guess), and so we had to just slog through enemies painfully. We ended up coup-de-graceing the Owlbear while trying to fend off the final boss at the same time. And despite getting 16 Defense Points we still fought more enemies than we should have...

Overall, just be careful with this scenario, and understand that the point of Wave Encounters is more for the thematic elements it creates, rather than trying to overwhelm the party with the final boss plus the midboss plus random enemies from the last three encounters all still attacking.

In the end the GM just called the scenario for us when it was just the final boss and 2 henchmen (he should have had none, but whatever), and none of us had gone to even half our HP, but we had to basically spend about 10 rounds to kill the boss with no real damage output.

I blame this on the poor structuring of the scenario, which doesn't make it clear enough to GMs that mushing all the encounters together is a bad idea.

Sneak Attack Critical

Prerequisite: Sneak Attack Class Feature

Benefit: When you successfully confirm a critical hit on an attack which would do sneak attack damage, double the sneak attack damage as well.

Normal: Sneak attack dice are not multiplied on a critical hit.

What do you think about this feat? Is it too weak? Too powerful?

It always just bugged me that I think of Rogues as the sort who'd want to specialize in getting in critical hits (at least flavor-wise), but their actual class abilities just don't lend themselves to that. The primary reason for this, I feel, is that Sneak Attack dice don't double on critical hits.

I was reading the Giant Frog's entry:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/frog/frog-giant

I noticed its "Grab" ability with its tongue.

I looked up "Grab" here:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/universal-monster-rules #TOC-Grab-Ex-

And it seems to be if you attempt to use the body part to grapple an opponent from more than 5 feet away... you take a -20 penalty to the CMB check?

So basically, this frog can never use its tongue to attempt to grapple things that are far away?

Doesn't that sort of ruin the point of the tongue and ability in the first place?

Unless I'm misunderstanding something...

If a GM re-leads a scenario which they have already lead before, and it is a Tier 1-5 scenario, can they apply the Subtier 1-2 credit to a Level 1 character (or Level 2 character, once)?

What needs to happen in a PFS scenario for me to not get XP?

If I beat everything up to the final encounter, does that mean I don't get the XP?

Do I still get to keep the GP and the PP I might have fulfilled and gotten throughout the adventure?

The Overhand Chop ability of the Two-Handed Fighter Archetype says this:

At 3rd level, when a two-handed fighter makes a single attack (with the attack action or a charge) with a two-handed weapon, he adds double his Strength bonus on damage rolls.

This ability replaces Armor Training 1.

From here.

Is there supposed to be an "instead" there? Are they serious that a Fighter with 18 STR holding a Greatsword in both hands attacking gets to add not only 1.5 times his STR modifier to the attack, but then ALSO adds twice his STR modifier on top of that?!

I feel like there should be an "instead" there, but I cannot tell.

This happens strangely frequently.

What do you do when two creatures accidentally end up occupying the same square?

A few ways this can happen:

-You fall into that creature's square from above
-You were unconscious, an ally stood in that square, and then you became conscious and now want to stand up
-A force of some sort pushes you into a square that an ally already occupies

While I know creatures shouldn't occupy the same square, sometimes it just happens. What is the proper RAW thing to do?

I want to know if this sort of thing is allowed. Let's say I had a single Scroll of Dispel Magic that I was carrying around, and then one day, our Party Fighter needed a debuff broken in the midst of battle. I pulled out the scroll, dispelled the debuff, and he thanks me quite sincerely. Can he, at the end of the adventure when we get back to a big city, before chronicle sheets are given it, give me back a scroll of Dispel Magic, and pay for the other one himself?

I understand if this isn't allowed. My own reading of the rules tells me this isn't allowed. Still, I'd like to ask, basically, if it's okay for people to "pay people back equivalently" for something used to their benefit ("I need a potion of Remove Blindness/Deafness" "Oh, you have one? Thank you so much, here is a potion of the same, and I will pay for the cost of the one you gave me in my time of need.")

Regardless of the wisdom of doing so, if I have a Level 6 character, can I apply credit from a Tier 1-5 scenario to that character, after GMing it?

I often hear on these boards that "you should be prepared to fight NPCs with Darkness and Deeper Darkness".

The thing is... I don't know how.

I mean, I guess you could cast Daylight, but if the NPCs just cast Deeper Darkness again, doesn't that counter Daylight?

Also, you can't rely on a scroll of Daylight for obvious reasons.

So how exactly does one fight the darkness?

I need some GMing and Coordinating Advice for when there's a huge gap in player levels.

Currently, in our group, a wide gap of player levels has more or less emerged. This is because some play every weekend, and some, only every other weekend.

Tomorrow, I'm set to lead a Level 2 Fighter, Level 2 Cleric, Level 3 Wizard, and Level 5 Gunslinger.

The Gunslinger is somewhat problematic for the fact that the character is a Striker/High DPR character that hits at a small range and with Gun Training shoots with a Double-Barreled Pistol that does 2d8+DEX Modifier damage... and then can Rapid Reload to shoot again.

I'm just trying to figure out how to go about this (and possibly any scenario selection advice for such a table).

Also, this kind of situation is likely to happen a lot, as the year goes on and we get days where a high level character and some low level characters all show up together.

I just looked over Frostfur Captives, and I noticed the gold for that scenario says "Tier 3-4", and the gold itself is really really low for a Tier 4-5 scenario. Is there some sort of error?

Can a Tiefling use a Prehensile Tail to wield and use a Wand?

Hello there.

I'd like to have an honest conversation about the damage that guns do versus archers.

I'd like to keep the discussion within this framework. I am of the opinion that if the Fighter Archer becomes strictly worse than another character in doing ranged damage, something may be wrong.

After crunching the numbers, I decided to go with a Fighter (Archer archetype) and the Gunslinger (Musket Master archetype) with a little bit of Cleric/Inquisitor. The reason I went with the Musket Masters is that, while I know that it looks quite possible for dual-handed double-barreled Pistol wielders to do more damage... I actually do not understand how they do what they do (that is to say, the process of dropping a gun, reloading it, recovering it, all for the purpose of dual-wielding seems just very strange and incomprehensible to me.) I am currently reading over the process and trying to understand it, and I will post about it in another thread later.

For now, let's focus on the Double-Barreled Musket, which is far more clear cut in the kind of damage it can do, and the legality of how it does it.

Also, to keep a standardized point of discussion, I have chosen Level 7. The reason for this is that this is half way through the campaign, and I feel, a good place to check up on all the classes in the game, and see how they're performing.

Let's assume the cheesiest Fighter Archer possible. I'm going to assume he took the Dual-Talent Alternate Trait so he got +2 to two attributes of his choice. He puts 20 in STR and 19 in DEX, and then boosts it to 20 at level 4. He dumps INT, WIS, and CHA to 7, and raises CON to 12.

He buys a +1 Composite Longbow, Strength +5, and takes Manyshot, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus, and Weapon Specialization.

I will invest some more of his money in Boots of Speed so he can ensure that he always has Haste cast on himself, as well.

His weapon will do 1d8+14 damage (+5 from STR, +1 from Weapon Enchantment, +4 from Deadly Aim, +1 from Point-Blank Shot, +2 from Weapon Specialization, and +1 from Expert Archer).

His to-hit is +13/+13/+13/+8 (+7 from BAB, +5 from DEX, + 1 from Weapon Enchantment, +1 from Haste, +1 from Expert Archer, +1 from Weapon Focus, +1 from Point Blank Shot, -2 from Rapid Shot, -2 from Deadly Aim), with a Manyshot to add an extra bit of damage in the first attack, assuming you're within close range of your target (very common in PFS, where most battles become close-quarters).

The target AC at Level 7 is 20 (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monsterCreation.html). Thus, he should hit about 70% of the time (decrease that to 45% on the last attack). Overall, this is (4.5+14)*4*.7 + (4.5+14)*.45 = 51.8+8.325 = 60.125 DPR

Next, let's assume the cheesiest Gunslinger Musket Master possible. I'm going to assume he starts with 20 DEX, gets a Belt of Incredible Dexterity +2, Boots of Speed for Haste, and a +1 Double-Barreled Musket.

Also, this Gunslinger is a little clever. At Level 7, he dips into Inquisitor or Cleric to get the Law Domain to make sure he always gets 11 on his rolls. This way, he sidesteps the issue of critically failing on a 1-4.

His weapon will do 1d12+12 damage (+6 from DEX, +4 from Deadly Aim, +1 from Point Blank Shot, +1 from Weapon Enchantment).

His to-hit is +8/+8/+8/+8/+8/+8/+3/+3 (+6 from BAB, +6 from DEX, +1 from Weapon Enchantment, +1 from Point Blank Shot, +1 from Haste, -2 Rapid Shot, -2 Deadly Aim, -4 Double-Barreled Double Shot). We assume the character is within 10 feet of the enemy, which is, again, not uncommon in PFS.

The target AC is 20 at Level 7, but this build aims to resolve against Touch AC, which remains at about 12 across the board (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Agyi5tgUTatCdHFjS05Kb18xVGd2b T Zhak5YaGQtMFE#gid=3). Thus, the Musket Master should hit 80% of the time (it would by 85%, but a 4 critically fails), reduced to 55% of the time on the last two shots. Overall, this is (6.5+12)*6*.8+(6.5+12)*2*.55 = 88.8 + 20.35 = 109.15 DPR.

However! We know that this build took the Law Domain for a reason. The Double-Barreled Musket’s main weakness is the chance to critically fail from 1-4 when using Paper Cartridges. For the purposes of this calculation, let’s assume he hits 100% of the time when he does shoot, and 0% during the times he’s using Touch of Law. On average, he’ll “hit” 50% of the time for…

(6.5+12)*8*.5 = 74 DPR.

A little less damage, but it abridges the chance to critically fail.

Overall, it would seem that, given two rounds, a Fighter Archer does about 60.125 DPR and a Gunslinger Musket Master does about 74 DPR. However, the Gunslinger has several disadvantages that I think ultimately shift the balance in favor of the Archer as the more reliable damage dealer. First, the Gunslinger Musket Master has to get within 10 feet of his foe in order to deal damage versus touch AC. On the other hand, it does seem quite possible for him to entirely “snipe” down opponents from further distances by combining the Touch of Law domain with the Gunslinger’s Deadeye ability, spending Grit points to resolve versus Touch AC in a range increment further away. Also, a Gunslinger-Cleric/Inquisitor has the ability to increase his gun’s attack distance by +10 feet, though this requires a Standard Action to cast, which could be a whole Standard Action attacking. Keep in mind that all the turns the Gunslinger-Cleric/Inquisitor attempts to buff himself, the Fighter Archer is continually attacking, consistently, with no need for buffs, with his awesome 120 foot range. The Gunslinger could get a Distance Enchantment on his weapon to increase the range to 20 feet, though if we're playing that game, the Archer will upgrade his weapon to gain Seeking, so it no longer misses against Concealment Miss Chance, a significant advantage.

So do I think Gunslinger Musket Masters are overpowered? No, not really. But feel free to disagree.

For those who would tell me the decision to invest in the Cleric/Inquisitor's Touch of Law ability is silly, I really do feel like it's basically a necessity with this build. Shooting eight times with a 20% critical failure chance with each roll will statistically come back to bite you, hard.

Also, for those feeling somewhat more adventurous, I have a friend who chose to invest in Bit of Luck from the Luck domain instead so he can crit. That works too, but I do feel that some sort of "fudging" mechanic is necessary to make this build consistent.

Hello! A few questions here.

First, if one attempts to fire a Double-Barreled musket twice, "in one attack", does one roll twice, or roll once? It starts off sounding like you need to roll just once, but then it says "-4 to each shot", indicating that you should roll twice.

Regardless, a more important question is this. If one... uhh, side of a Double-Barreled musket misfires, does the whole gun malfunction, or just that side of the gun?

Does Protection From Evil grant complete immunity against fear effects like Cause Fear, or does it fall into the category of stuff like Sleep and Confusion, which apparently Protection from Evil does not grant complete immunity, but just a +2 bonus on the saving throw?

Does Protection From Arrows protect against +1 weapons? +1 weapons are considered magical, I believe, and Protection from Arrows grants DR 10/magic. It seems kind of sad if this spell is negated by characters who have +1 weapons.

I'm a bit confused here, I must admit. Does "Agile Feat" make it so that a Cleric with this domain ability does not have to make the DC 10 Acrobatics check to move through it?

I'm curious about people's general practices. How many of you, as players, keep track of your own encumbrance? As GMs, how many of you enforce Encumbrance rules tightly?

Since Web grapples and no longer Entangles, there's been one weird oversight.

A creature that tries to attempt to cast a spell while grappled must make a Concentration check of DC 10+Grappler's CMB+Spell Level.

But Web doesn't seem to have a CMB, as far as I can tell.

So does that mean a person grappled in Web trying to cast a spell just makes a Concentration check of DC 10 + 0 + Spell Level? Seems kinda weird that web has no CMB.

So I just sort of assumed that during each scenario, everyone could spend PP on whatever they wanted at the start (assuming you start in Absalom from the getgo).

What had never ever occurred to me up till now is that the GM himself, since he is not part of the scenario, cannot actually spend PP (which kind of sucks, since if I started a character at Level 3 with GM credit, he can't just start spending all his PP to catch up in terms of PP spent).

What should I do about that, having spent partial charges on wands purchased with PP? The way I did it was to buy a number of scrolls equal to the charges spent, and then deduct those from my character's wealth. Does that seem just?

I noticed at Tier 1-2 and Tier 3-4 of this scenario, the Cleric gets Aura of Madness, an incredibly powerful ability, below Level 8. Surely this is an error. Right?

Since Aasimars and Tieflings are both Outsiders, are they proficient with all Simple and Martial Weapons?

The PRD says, " A wizard can select a spell modified by a metamagic feat to prepare in his school slot, but it uses up a higher-level spell slot."

If I read that correctly, if I, say, choose to apply the "Merfciful" Metamagic Feat (+0) to Magic Missile, it will still count as a Level 2 spell for the purposes of School Specialization Slots?

http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz5c27?Wayang-Spellhunter-and-Magical-Lineage-Tra its

This was asked in the Rules forum and never got fully answered. I'm posting it here in the hopes that someone smart might answer it. For the purposes of Society gameplay, can I choose the same spell twice, with these two traits, and have these traits stack in their effects? (Never reducing the spell to below its original level, but effectively allowing me to get two "free" levels of metamagic on a single spell?)

If I throw Alchemist's Fire into a Web Spell, does it burn 9 squares (1 for the square hit, and 8 squares take Splash Damage), or 1 square of web away? Also, does the fire spread from those squares to engulf the entire web? It seems really weird if one 50 GP item can singlehandly defeat a Level 2 spell.

Can we please raise the cap on what one can buy with Prestige Points? Perhaps with 3 PP, you're able to buy something of 1000 GP, or with 4, you can buy something of 1250 GP?

As it stands, the Martial characters in my group are a bit upset that Casters can use them to buy Level 1 Wands all over the place, while Martials really don't get many useful item purchases with PP.

In light of the recent thread I started asking whether torturing after information was gained was considered an Evil Act (apparently it is) I want to ask the more interesting question then:

Is torturing a creature to get information out of it considered an Evil Act in Pathfinder Society?

I'm just a tad confused about the wording of Sleet Storm. It says it "blocks all sight (even darkvision) within it". Does that mean:

A. No one, regardless of position (outside or inside the Area of Effect) can see things inside of the Area of Effect of Sleet Storm.

B. Those who are within the Area of Effect of Sleet Storm lose their vision, but those outside of the Area of Effect can see those inside of Sleet Storm.

Which one wins? Seriously.

If a Druid spends one turn casting Faerie Fire such that it only effects a single enemy, and then next turn casts Obscuring Mist, does the enemy benefit from Obscuring Mist, or does Faerie Fire override the Mist? Is it different if the enemy is adjacent next to someone, or if a person is more than 5 feet away?

Here's an interesting question.

So the players manage to round up a bad guy (who no doubt was trying to do something evil that would kill many people), and get all the useful information they can out of him or her. After they are done, the more sadistic people in the party take the bad guy out and gleefully torture the enemy to death.

Is this considered an Evil Act? If the enemy was an Evil character, is it not then that the act of punishing the Evil character is considered a Good Act? Or is torture considered an inherent evil?

(Let's leave out the use of torture for procuring information. I'm talking about using torture to exact justice and punishment upon Evil characters.)

I'm of the opinion that this is unquestionably an Evil act, but I am going by my own moral standards. I know morality works differently in the world of Pathfinder/D&D, where morality is more black and white (there are even spells that react to Good and Evil, after all).

(Posted on the Rules Board, but I feel like I actually need to post it here again, because of PFS' ban on Crafting)

How does a Mysterious Stranger Gunslinger fix their gun in battle? This archetype looks really cool, but that seems to be a rather significant drawback (that if you Critically fail just once, your gun is useless for the rest of the battle).

Given that you can't craft, how do you use a Gunsmith's kit to fix their gun at all, come to think of it?

Let's assume a person has lots of Fame Points so accessing the item from their Faction isn't a problem.

If I have a +1 Longsword (which I paid the cost of the Longsword, the Masterwork, and the +1, all to about 2300 GP or so), how much does it cost to turn the Longsword into a +1 Flaming Longsword? If the cost for a +2 weapon is 8000 GP, do I subtract the difference (8000 - 2300) from the cost of the upgrade?

And I guess this is where my actual question is. Does upgrading allow you to pick either +2 OR an enchantment? Or am I only allowed to upgrade to +2?