3.X Variety of questions

[herrhauptmann]

I've got a bunch of questions regarding pathfinder (a little new to it), and 3.5.



I'm in a pathfinder game playing a gish. DM is only allowing core book and APG at the moment. Besides spending my swift action every round, is there a way for me to ignore/reduce arcane spell failure? Spellsword is not allowed, nor are Twilight and thistledown armors. (Also, I don't want to spend 1 or 2 feats in addition to my swift actions, or still spell)

Want to doublecheck my reading for PF Power Attack. As a character with a BAB of 3, and strength of 18. If I power attack with a 2 handed weapon, I get a -1 attack, and +8 damage (2+ 1.5*str mod)? Do I get normal strength bonus in addition to what I get from power attack? Or is the feat already including all that when it tells me how to change my damage?



To ease the DM duties, I'm going to start my own game, allowing a variety of 3.5, PF, and even a little bit of homebrew. Yay.


One player wants to play a wizard with a puppet familiar. I directed him to homunculus. He wants to do a bunch of things with it, occasionally possess and control it himself (using his spells and skills with his body vacant), and 'share HP.'
I'm thinking of allowing him to use it as a bonded item like pathfinder wizards get (breaking the normal rule of it being an amulet/ring/weapon).
Is there a better way to get him what he wants without resorting to homebrew/houserules? (He actually turned down item familiar because he feels it would put him too far above the others in overall strength)


Regarding the previous question, I'm thinking of removing his Wiz 5 and 10 bonus feats since he's pretty much getting the best of both worlds with familiars and bonded items (scribe scroll is too iconic to lose I think). Perhaps when his homunculus is outside of his reach, it can do the once a day free cast thing, but only for a spell up to 2 levels below his max?


There are a number of feats in PF that share names with 3.5 feats. Some like the PF Power Attack will be ignored in favor of the 3.5 version. But others, like the PF Cleave, I want to keep both that, and the 3.5 Cleave (3.5 cleave looks identical to PF Cleaving finish, which is being ignored in favor of 3.5 cleave)
Does anyone have suggestions for alternate names of the PF feats? I'll need to work through the entire feat list this weekend to determine which PF feats I'll need to rename, and which I'll just ignore in favor of their 3.5 versions. But until then, suggestions would be nice.

Thanks

[sonofzeal]

1) Your DM seems to have gone out of his way to say no to ASF-reducers. My guess is you're out of luck. At least there's Mithral.

2) Normally you'd attack at +7(XdX + 6). You'd Power Attack for +6 (XdX + 9)

3) Let the player find his own rules. Tell him you're flexible on the fluff, but it's his job to find ruiles-legal ways to do what he wants. It's not your responsibility to build his character for him, or enable every random whim he gets. If he wants something homebrewed, ask him to write it up for your approval. You have enough work on your plate anyway.

4) See #3.

5) "Piff Cleave" (short for "P.F. Cleave") sounds simultaneously hilarious and accurate. I'd go with that, just because any thorough renaming with cause more confusion than it's worth.

[deuxhero]

Did PF nerf Mage Armor?

[herrhauptmann]

Did PF nerf Mage Armor?
No, though I did forget it was hour/level. Anyway, without abjurant champion, not willing to just rely mage armor for protection. And it's worse now that we've got dispellers among our enemies.



1) Your DM seems to have gone out of his way to say no to ASF-reducers. My guess is you're out of luck. At least there's Mithral.

2) Normally you'd attack at +7(XdX + 6). You'd Power Attack for +6 (XdX + 9)

3) Let the player find his own rules. Tell him you're flexible on the fluff, but it's his job to find ruiles-legal ways to do what he wants. It's not your responsibility to build his character for him, or enable every random whim he gets. If he wants something homebrewed, ask him to write it up for your approval. You have enough work on your plate anyway.

4) See #3.

5) "Piff Cleave" (short for "P.F. Cleave") sounds simultaneously hilarious and accurate. I'd go with that, just because any thorough renaming with cause more confusion than it's worth.

1)What ASF reducers are there outside of CRB/APG? Maybe if I beg enough... Currently, I got a mithral chain shirt, 10% ASF, though I seem to fizzle my spells 20% of the time.
2)Thanks
3)No way am I building his character. Just trying to come up with something that'll work and make everyone happy.
I trust player in question to not try and sneak something in. But some of the others, I can guarantee they'll ask for Lightning Warrior if given the chance. Better if I'm in on the creation of the homebrew from the start. Also, I'm trying to avoid the situation where they say "You let Bob make up his own stuff, why not mine?"

[deuxhero]

Why won't you let players sacrifice power for flavor? :smallcool:


Can you get acess to greater mage armor?

[herrhauptmann]

Does pathfinder have that spell in the CRB or APG? If not, it'll be a special request, and at that point, I might as well jsut request Luminous Armor (trying to get Abjurant CHamp approved, but DM is undecided)