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My DM, who is new to pathfinder but is used to 4th Ed style, and he says that you must announce feats before they apply, ie Blind Fight. But I don't think that is correct,rather I am sure that isn't correct, but I would like the backing of the community to assist in changing his mind. Maybe even give examples, please and thank you.
as far as i know any feat that requires you to announce its use before you use it already state that you must announce it first, most other feats are constant (it is completely useless to point out that some feats need you to announce them for them to work if all feats require that)
More very basic questions:
1. About maps:
a. How are maps (excluding town/city maps) obtained and used in the game?
b. When exactly do I provide them with one?
c. Does it show even the areas they haven't been yet?
d. When would be the situations that I should have them draw their own maps? Is it after every encounter of a dungeon, eventually completing a map of the whole area?
This is something every DM has to decide for himself, and it will probably end up being a group decision how it will work.
I draw (or hand out predrawn) maps when the party either asks for a map, or they are entering a building/area where a map will make it easier for everyone to visualize what is going on.
When I draw maps, I only draw what the party has been through and are able to see from where they are. When I hand out maps, I similarly try to cover up the areas they have no business knowing about yet.
I have considered making one of the players draw their own maps based on my descriptions, but so far I've not done that. Partly because I think that would probably make everything more confusing than not using maps at all, based on the one time I did :)
2. About resting:
a. How do you think a party 2 or 3 adventurers would take a rest in the wilderness and still manage having lookouts? Do you think the rest would take too long?
b. The Heal skill description explains that providing long-term care is done while the party is resting, and is a light activity. Does it mean that the Healer does not rest along with the party, and not regain hit points?
With few adventurers, the party will probably just have to not post lookouts throughout the night if they want to keep their rests to a reasonable time. They'd have to try to find a sheltered area (a cave, for instance) to spend the night safely as opposed to tenting near a campfire as larger groups could do.
While the healer is providing long-term care, he is not resting sufficiently to recover hit points. He'd have to get 8 or more hours of sleep at some point in order to recover hit points naturally.
3. Aside from combat, are there other situations that a GM might forbid taking 10 or 20?
Yes. You can't take 20 on any skill check that has a consequence for failing (since taking 20 simulates doing the check multiple times until you get it right). For instance, you can't take 20 when trying to disable a trap.
More very basic questions:
1. About maps:
a. How are maps (excluding town/city maps) obtained and used in the game?
b. When exactly do I provide them with one?
c. Does it show even the areas they haven't been yet?
d. When would be the situations that I should have them draw their own maps? Is it after every encounter of a dungeon, eventually completing a map of the whole area?
1. About maps.
1a: They aren't required, but if you have a map (or want to draw one) for the region, or to lead to buried treasure, you're free to do so. For towns and cities (I know you excluded them), anything that can help the players visualize where they are and their options is usually a good thing. For actual maps existing in-game that the characters use, they can find them whenever/however as they would find any other item. When you want to give a player something to reference that their character would have, such as a treasure map or a letter, that's called a player handout.1b: When you want to. You may want to give them a general sketch of the town when they first arrive, then as they explore, you can add in details, either verbally or by producing or drawing a more detailed map. For player hand-outs, you give them one when it makes sense for the story. They raided an orc bandit's hoard? He might have a treasure map to treasure he got before, or that he hadn't dug up yet, so if they loot his hoard, they get the map as part of the loot.
1c: That's up to you. You can elect how much information your players have, whether they can see the "whole map" or just reveal sections at a time. For dungeons, if they're adventuring on a map, I'll usually only reveal the parts they can actually see. But for town, basic outline of the town isn't going to hurt unless you need them to not know their way around. For treasure maps (ie player handouts), you don't have to give them a play-by-play of the whole adventure lay-out, most maps would be pretty rough anyway.
1d: Whether they draw their own maps is up to you and up to them. My players hate to slow the game down for on-the-fly drawing, but some players may go for that, especially if a character wants to make a map in-character.
2. About resting:
a. How do you think a party 2 or 3 adventurers would take a rest in the wilderness and still manage having lookouts? Do you think the rest would take too long?
b. The Heal skill description explains that providing long-term care is done while the party is resting, and is a light activity. Does it mean that the Healer does not rest along with the party, and not regain hit points?
2. About resting.
2a: Let the players work out how they rest. They probably won't think of posting a lookout until the first time they get hit by a random encounter. Again, they'll probably develop their own rest strategy if they develop one at all. My players never have, but then I don't roll for random encounters very often. For the most part, aside from rolling a few dice for a random encounter and/or any RP that goes on while they're resting, rest is an abstraction and doesn't take very long in the actual gameplay.2b: I'd be careful about allowing long-term care while your party is out adventuring. That's like acting as a nurse to tend the wounds while a person recovers so it would interfere with resting on the part of the nurse, unless the "nurse" character just rests after the period of care. Unless you're playing a very low magic world, mundane healing will probably be supplanted by magical healing (either from a cleric or from a potion) very quickly so this will probably be a non-issue in the actual game.
3. Aside from combat, are there other situations that a GM might forbid taking 10 or 20?
3: Taking 10 and Taking 20:
Any thing that can't be repeated shouldn't be permitted to take 10 or 20. Taking twenty is like spending enough time to make sure you do it right, but it also means effectively that you do it wrong along the way and it just doesn't matter. Things like disable device checks on traps shouldn't be able to take 10 or 20, since the trap can go off on the first try (and each additional try) so the element of chance should stay in. Anything that is a check for an instant situation shouldn't take 10 or 20 either. A figure darts across an alley and is gone? Characters should roll a Perception check to determine if they saw it, they shouldn't take 10 on the check, because they only had that one chance to notice the darting figure.Make sense? Some of this is just my "from-the-hip" response, so there may be details in the rules I'm omitting.
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As a side note, I still play Neverwinter Nights regularly and would be playing right now if it weren't for the server going offline an hour ago. I first got into RPGs because of Neverwinter Nights as well, but I started with D&D 3.5e, buying FR campaign books before ever buying the core rules.
What everyone else said, except the part about taking 10. Outside of combat, you should almost always allow characters to take 10. It speeds up play and prevents nonsensical failures.
You should, however, be careful about having both sides of an opposed skill check take 10. Doing so leads to 100% failure/success rates when the parties are actually very close in skill and should therefore have about even chances of either one winning.
EX: Ninja has +10 in stealth while Eagle Eyes has +10 in perception. If both roll then there's a 50/50 chance of either succeeding. If Ninja takes 10 (setting the DC) and Eagle Eyes takes 10 then E.E. will always see Ninja, despite the fact that they are actually even in skills.
Either let one side Take 10 and the other roll, or have both sides roll.
Good luck with your game.
Taking 10 is typically done when you're doing something that is basically a routine check. Such as a carpenter making a fence, or an expert horseman riding a horse outside combat. For adventurers, it is often used for perception checks when the party doesn't take extra time or effort to do so, or basic knowledge checks, and so on.
You could say that taking 10 is akin to performing a task in a basic, solid way, without taking any unnecessary risks that could either prove beneficial or detrimental.
Not sure if that helped any; my example-finding skills are eluding me at the moment.
@Are: cute beard, but my horns are bigger. :P