Simple RAW for Pathfinder Thread VI: Return of the Red Die

[Lord of Shadows]

Q 132 - What is the base speed of an undead Quickling? Normal speed is 120 but that is a Su ability. Thanks.
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[Psyren]

A132: Though the text of Supernatural Speed (Su) refers to the creature's "incredible speed", this is essentially flavor text as the ability itself does not say it modifies the Quickling's movement at all. The real supernatural part of the ability is that it gains concealment while moving as well as free evasion and uncanny dodge at all times. The 120ft. move speed in the entry is therefore just how fast it moves, i.e. a natural ability. In other words, a Quickling in a dead magic zone will still move 120ft base, but will lose the concealment, evasion, and uncanny dodge that go with that.

[Lord of Shadows]

A132: Though the text of Supernatural Speed (Su) refers to the creature's "incredible speed", this is essentially flavor text as the ability itself does not say it modifies the Quickling's movement at all. The real supernatural part of the ability is that it gains concealment while moving as well as free evasion and uncanny dodge at all times. The 120ft. move speed in the entry is therefore just how fast it moves, i.e. a natural ability. In other words, a Quickling in a dead magic zone will still move 120ft base, but will lose the concealment, evasion, and uncanny dodge that go with that.

What about the speed for an Undead Quickling?

Thanks

[Psyren]

What about the speed for an Undead Quickling?

Thanks

Can you be more specific? Which undead is it specifically? The template you're applying will tell you what (if anything) the base creature loses.

[Lord of Shadows]

Can you be more specific? Which undead is it specifically? The template you're applying will tell you what (if anything) the base creature loses.

Re A 132

Found it... Skeletal creatures retain their base speed, except for flying by wings.

Wow... Undead Skeletal Quickling, speed 120... Look out party.

Thanks!

[heavyfuel]

Q 133

So, I'm a little confused in regards to buffs with a 1 round duration, specifically, I'm talking about the Rajah's "Bolster" Royal Mandate. The text in question:

Bolster: The affected ally gains a morale bonus equal to the rajah’s initiation modifier to their AC or on a saving throw of the rajah’s choice (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will) for one round.

Question is: If a Rajah uses Bolter on himself in round 1 with his standard action, and then tries and fails to disarm a trap on round 2 trigerring the trap, does the Rajah benefit from the bonus to save? Or will the bonus have already elapsed?

[Psyren]

A133: Here's the line you need:

Effects that last a certain number of rounds end just before the same initiative count that they began on.

A 1 round effect that you use will take effect when you use it, and will last through everyone else's turn through the round, then end right before your next turn starts the following round. This means it won't be active for any actions you take during that second turn.

[Lord of Shadows]

Q 134: Does casting haste on undead with the Zombie template remove the staggered condition imposed on it by the template?

Trying to give a Zombie more than 1 attack per round...

Thanks.

[Psyren]

A134: As written no, because the zombie's stagger isn't from slow or anything similar. the spell would let them charge twice their move speed and then attack as a standard action, but they still wouldn't be able to take any full-round actions, including full-attacks.

[Cieyrin]

A 134 addendum To get a zombie to attack more than once in a round, consider Fast zombies, which is an official variant. They have the same creation requirements as normal zombies but (fittingly) also require Haste or Remove Paralysis to create. They are not always staggered.

[Sloanzilla]

A134: Can a summoner cast "enlarge person" on an already-large Eidolon to make it huge?

[Psyren]

A135: Yes - Enlarge Person is on the Summoner spell list, and therefore it can be used on the Eidolon even with the type mismatch due to the Eidolon's "Share Spells" feature.

[grarrrg]

A135 (cont.): Magical size increases don't stack, so you can only do this as long as the Eidolon is normally Large size.
The Large Evolution does stack with Enlarge Person, as the Evolution isn't magical.

[JMS]

Q136: Who is a legal target for your feint? Threatened? with a melee weapon? something else?

[kkplx]

Q137

Regarding attacks of opportunity and when to take them.
Let's assume a defender has 10' reach and someone is moving sideways past them. They will enter and leave multiple threatened squares.
For the single move action it takes the creature to cross, there will only ever be a single AoO possible for the defender, that's understood.
But can the defender choose to wait to take that opportunity for a later, "optimal" positioning of the crossing creature as it leaves a different square?
The thinking being that you provoke whenever you leave any threatened square, but the defender can never punish you more than once per move action.
eg. first square it leaves that would provoke is nice (1), but a square later would have it flanked at that moment (3) - can the defender wait for that moment to take the AoO? (D2 in the example is Defender2, who provides flanking)

[Psyren]

A136: Other than the target needing intelligence, no hard restrictions are placed on a feint - however, it only has an effect on targets you attack in melee (barring some other ability) so that is the assumed targeting restriction too.

A137: "You don't have to take an attack of opportunity if you don't want to," so you can definitely wait and pick the most advantageous square. Note that you will only get one AoO even if the target moves out of multiple squares and you have combat reflexes, so choose wisely.

[kkplx]

Q138

Regarding spread/burst/emanation:
Should one assume that the the shape of a spell, breath weapon or similar ability by default follows the association in the pfsrd, or is there another source that defines the default more clearly?
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/Magic/#Burs...rger_Creatures
With this we'd end up with 2+ possibilities for each shape when it isn't explicitly specified

Most spells that affect an area have a particular shape.

A cone-shaped spell shoots away from you in a quarter-circle in the direction you designate. It starts from any corner of your square and widens out as it goes. Most cones are either bursts or emanations (see above), and thus won’t go around corners.

When casting a cylinder-shaped spell, you select the spell’s point of origin. This point is the center of a horizontal circle, and the spell shoots down from the circle, filling a cylinder. A cylinder-shaped spell ignores any obstructions within its area.

A line-shaped spell shoots away from you in a line in the direction you designate. It starts from any corner of your square and extends to the limit of its range or until it strikes a barrier that blocks line of effect. A line-shaped spell affects all creatures in squares through which the line passes.

A sphere-shaped spell expands from its point of origin to fill a spherical area. Spheres may be bursts, emanations, or spreads.

Most spells are nice enough to specify if they are spreads, emanations, etc., but especially dragon's breath weapons fail to do so usually.
This is mainly interesting to see if an ability uses the "spread" type, as it is the only one (except cylinder) that can negate cover.

[TheFamilarRaven]

A138 Spread is a specific case of a burst type spell/ability. Therefore, if it isn't specified as a spread, then it follows that it is not a spread effect. Breath Weapons are defined as

"Some creatures can exhale a cone, line, or cloud of energy or other magical effects" -Pfsrd

Emphasis mine. Only one of these is not clearly defined. And that is cloud. Cloud effects only seem to pop up rarely, and when they do, they are always defined as how far they spread (thus making them a spread effect).

Dragons have the dimensions of their breath weapons specified. (Look here under base statistics for an example.) I have not found one that hasn't specified either cone or line for the dimensions (although one could exist). From your quote "Most cones are either bursts or emanations (see above), and thus won’t go around corners", meaning that if it isn't called out as a spread effect, it is not a spread effect. In the case of emanations, if the effect is instantaneous, it is not an emanation. Emanations must have some sort of duration to be considered as such.

"An emanation spell functions like a burst spell, except that the effect continues to radiate from the point of origin for the duration of the spell. Most emanations are cones or spheres" -Pfsrd

To answer what I believe to be the original question. The definitions that define the default behavior on the PFSRD are sufficient to describe how various area of effect abilities interact with the game world. If a creatures does not follow standard protocol for AoE attacks, then it is probably a misprint.

[upho]

A138 addendum: The rules don't explicitly state a default for either cone-shaped areas in general or for cone-shaped breath weapons specifically (the related text found on d20pfsrd is an exact copy of the one found in the official PF SRD). However, I believe it's heavily implied by the existing descriptions and RAW for breath weapons and closely related spells that cone-shaped breath weapons and similar are bursts by default, perhaps most notably:

1. A breath weapon is a (Su) special attack with no duration, so a line-shaped breath weapon can only possibly work in the same manner as a burst and cannot be a spread or otherwise ignore line of effect. Nothing in the existing descriptions of breath weapons or any other related rules suggests a line shaped breath weapon differs from a cone shaped one in this regard, while several details suggest they don't.
2. No spell which could reasonably be said to emulate - or otherwise be comparable to - a breath weapon covers an area spread, while basically every spell that could be said to do so has a "line" or "cone-shaped burst" area (such as dragon's breath, fire breath, poison breath or shout).

I'm very certain the major reason no breath weapon rules actually spell out that they're bursts is because the authors believed it to be so darn obvious. And I'm also almost as certain no game ever played has treated breath weapons as spreads, if nothing else because there's plenty of classic D&D and related fantasy art which show warriors protecting themselves against a dragon's breath with a shield.

[Draconi Redfir]

Q139: Concerning the Shadowbard spell, it says it has a range of 25ft+5ft per 2 levels, but the text reads that it follows you and moves as you do. What exactly would this mean in terms of it's placement? Before i noticed the range, i thought it just shared the same square as me and walked as if it were my shadow. Does the spell having a range mean that i could theoretically summon the shadowbard 25ft away to affect allies i don't want to get too close too? If that is the case, would the "follows you" text indicate that it attempts to approach me at all times? or would the "Moves as you move" indicate that me walking north 10ft would cause the shadowbard to walk north 10ft as well, even if we are still 20ft apart?

It doesn't say anything about me being able to direct it's movements, so i'm assuming i can't tell it to just go to a specific point and stand there.

[Psyren]

A139: I'm unable to find any official clarification on it but I read it as follows:

- The range means that you can cause it to appear that distance away from you if you want, rather than in your own square. This is useful if you want to, say, use a visual performance without being visible yourself, or if you want to use a performance (or even two different performances simultaneously) in separate areas of the room.

- "Follows you automatically, moving with you" doesn't mean that the shadowbard keeps trying to close the distance you placed it at - rather, it means that it stays at the range you put it at, but if you move away, it will move to maintain that initial spacing. So if you cast it 20ft. away from you and then move 10ft., it will move 10ft. in the same direction as you to maintain the 20ft. placement. Lacking any ability to direct it, that initial placement would be key to its use.

[Aotrs Commander]

Q140: Regarding the skill feats (e.g. Alertness) where you get the +4 for having ten ranks - does the trained bonus count towards that or not?

[Cieyrin]

A 140 No, the trained bonus for class skills is not included when determining whether Alertness or similar feats give an enhanced effect or not, you simply need 10 ranks in the appropriate skill (Perception or Sense Motive for Alertness to grant +4 to the skill(s) that have 10+ ranks in it, for example.

[Selion]

Q141
Can the arcanotoxin from the eldritch poisoner archetype be used with pitted bullet?

[Psyren]

A141: I would say no; pitted bullets require "standard poisons" and arcanotoxin appears to be a unique ability/creation of the eldritch poisoner. Arcanotoxin even states that discoveries that apply to normal poisons don't work with it, further reinforcing its nonstandard nature.

[HeraldOfExius]

Q142: Can you concentrate on a Permanent Image and control it from any distance, even if you can't actually see it?

[upho]

A142 No, the range is the same as for silent image; long. There's nothing in either spell description to suggest this range limit no longer applies once the spell has been cast.

[kkplx]

Q 143

If you've suffered both nonlethal and lethal damage, and are under the effects of regeneration 1, do you regain both 1 hit point and 1 point of nonlethal damage, or only one of them?
Does this change if you have fast healing 1 instead?

[upho]

A143: All abilities which heal lethal damage also removes an equal amount of nonlethal, including both regeneration and fast healing:

"When a spell or ability cures hit point damage, it also removes an equal amount of nonlethal damage."

[heavyfuel]

Q 144

A double-plated adamantine breastplate provides DR 2 or DR 3?