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Hey incredible people of PAIZO... a few party buff questions...
1) Bless, Aid, Protects, Resists... I seem to recall in Pathfinder RPG that characters can only have 3 active buffs at once? Can anyone remind me if this is true?
2) Just as clerics have the ability to trade a spell for a healing spell, can wizards cast a resist fire for example multiple times? It just seems like they should be able to use spell slots to ensure the whole party gets resists, or at least a few more than just 1 person if they have the spell memorized once.
3) Any advice on giving out scrolls or potions in-game as a GM? How often are you all giving out treasures like this? For a long time it seemed myplayers weren't using their precious rounds prior to combat for buffs, and now that they're almost 12th level... their opponents have all kinds of nasty abilities/and attacks.
4) Should an encounter pre-suppose that the party has a buff or two. If not, what impact do you think it has on the CR level or overall encounter level?
5) Are party buffs affected by a beholder, or Hive Mother Beholder's anti-magic aura? Are magic shields with DR10 fire negated in their presence? Other than prismatic ray, what other spells can function in a beholders anti-magic aura? How is this determined?
Thanks everyone!
Pax
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Hey incredible people of PAIZO... a few party buff questions...
1) Bless, Aid, Protects, Resists... I seem to recall in Pathfinder RPG that characters can only have 3 active buffs at once? Can anyone remind me if this is true?
Remember that "buffs" is not a term with any rules meaning, so in a sense there can't be a rule about a maximum number of "buffs". ;) Here's the general rule you need to remember: bonuses (and remember, that word means a numerical increase to a statistic) that have the same type don't stack unless otherwise specified (dodge bonuses are specified to stack, for instance). So if you have two different effects giving PCs a +1 circumstance bonus to attack rolls, only one of them applies. But if you have a circumstance bonus, a morale bonus, a sacred bonus, a competence bonus, and an enhancement bonus, you get all of them.
2) Just as clerics have the ability to trade a spell for a healing spell, can wizards cast a resist fire for example multiple times? It just seems like they should be able to use spell slots to ensure the whole party gets resists, or at least a few more than just 1 person if they have the spell memorized once.
The spontaneous casting of cure spells by clerics is not inherent to the nature of spellcasting. Rather, it's an ability explicitly spelled out among the features of being a cleric. Thus, any character who has no such ability (due to a class feature or other source) can't convert spells in this way.
3) Any advice on giving out scrolls or potions in-game as a GM? How often are you all giving out treasures like this? For a long time it seemed myplayers weren't using their precious rounds prior to combat for buffs, and now that they're almost 12th level... their opponents have all kinds of nasty abilities/and attacks.
4) Should an encounter pre-suppose that the party has a buff or two. If not, what impact do you think it has on the CR level or overall encounter level?
5) Are party buffs affected by a beholder, or Hive Mother Beholder's anti-magic aura? Are magic shields with DR10 fire negated in their presence? Other than prismatic ray, what other spells can function in a beholders anti-magic aura? How is this determined?
Thanks everyone!
Pax
These are a bit outside my expertise, so I'll let someone else field them (if they haven't already - I've probably been ninja'd into oblivion).
Hey incredible people of PAIZO... a few party buff questions...
1) Bless, Aid, Protects, Resists... I seem to recall in Pathfinder RPG that characters can only have 3 active buffs at once? Can anyone remind me if this is true?
As jiggy said, the only limit on buffs it what stacks with what. Also, note that some buffs do not stack with certain magic items. For example, ring of protection and shield of faith both grant deflection bonuses, and thus do not stack.
2) Just as clerics have the ability to trade a spell for a healing spell, can wizards cast a resist fire for example multiple times? It just seems like they should be able to use spell slots to ensure the whole party gets resists, or at least a few more than just 1 person if they have the spell memorized once.
That is an ability specific to clerics, but there are some feats you can get that would allow a wizard to do something similar.
3) Any advice on giving out scrolls or potions in-game as a GM? How often are you all giving out treasures like this? For a long time it seemed myplayers weren't using their precious rounds prior to combat for buffs, and now that they're almost 12th level... their opponents have all kinds of nasty abilities/and attacks.
I generally shoot for about 10% of the loot I give out being expendable items(wands, scrolls, potions, and limited use wonderous items)
4) Should an encounter pre-suppose that the party has a buff or two. If not, what impact do you think it has on the CR level or overall encounter level?
Depends on the encounter. I plan some encounters where the party will be suprised, in those encounters the players will only have long duration buffs. I plan some encounters where the players my even have a round or two to buff up, in which case they will have a lot more buffed in place. I also do encounters where the enemy knows the players are coming, and are buffed to the teeth. These factors fall into the miscelanous adjustments category for encounter design.
5) Are party buffs affected by a beholder, or Hive Mother Beholder's anti-magic aura? Are magic shields with DR10 fire negated in their presence? Other than prismatic ray, what other spells can function in a beholders anti-magic aura? How is this determined?
Thanks everyone!
Pax
Here is a chart for spells, spell like abilities, supernatural abilities, and extrodinary abilities. The chart that tells you basically that ALL spells will cease to function in an anti-magic zone. If there is a specific exception to this rule, it will be called out in the spell itself.
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Ah okay.
Maybe it came from the Alpha 1 or 2, or the beta. I had thought there was a spell effect cap of THREE spells. But based on your replies, there is no cap in the final version of Pathfinder RPG. Thanks.
And, as for the CR thang... methinks party buffs, albeit a non-game term, is probably accounted for in the overall determination of Party Level and monster CR.
Thanks again.
Ah okay.
Maybe it came from the Alpha 1 or 2, or the beta. I had thought there was a spell effect cap of THREE spells. But based on your replies, there is no cap in the final version of Pathfinder RPG. Thanks.
It was from the very first Alpha playtest version.
Ah okay.
Maybe it came from the Alpha 1 or 2, or the beta. I had thought there was a spell effect cap of THREE spells. But based on your replies, there is no cap in the final version of Pathfinder RPG. Thanks.
And, as for the CR thang... methinks party buffs, albeit a non-game term, is probably accounted for in the overall determination of Party Level and monster CR.
It depends on prep time.
I pretty much assume that 1 hour/level and 10 min/level buffs are going to be in play based on the party's level.
But....
There are times I throw a wizard at the party, and he is buffed to the gills with lots of 1 min/level and 1 round/level spells because he knew the players were coming. In those cases, I bump the CR up by one because the enemy had the element of surprise by design. If the encounter is designed so that the players have the element of surprise and are able to spend a couple of round buffing, then I lower the CR some.