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

[kkplx]

Q226

If a creature uses the trample action and has the mobility feat - does it get the bonus AC against the AoO a trampled creature may choose to make?

As a full-round action, a creature with the trample ability can attempt to overrun any creature that is at least one size category Smaller than itself. This works just like the overrun combat maneuver, but the trampling creature does not need to make a check, it merely has to move over opponents in its path. Targets of a trample take an amount of damage equal to the trampling creature’s slam damage + 1-1/2 times its Str modifier. Targets of a trample can make an attack of opportunity, but at a –4 penalty. If targets forgo an attack of opportunity, they can attempt to avoid the trampling creature and receive a Reflex save to take half damage. The save DC against a creature’s trample attack is 10 + 1/2 the creature’s HD + the creature’s Str modifier (the exact DC is given in the creature’s descriptive text). A trampling creature can only deal trampling damage to each target once per round, no matter how many times its movement takes it over a target creature.

[Cieyrin]

A 226 No, Mobility is for AoOs from moving through threatened areas, not for special combat maneuvers, which also often provoke, like Trample.

[Draconi Redfir]

This one might be tricky, but doesn't seem worth making a whole thread about. so just give your best personal opinion i guess?

Q: 227 Say you have a non-caster character who wants to create, control, and in the future add too a Beheaded Swarm. What do you think would be the earliest and most cost-effective way of doing this? Currently best guess is some ranks in "Use magic device" and some wands of Animate Dead and Fly with like, 10 charges each or so.

[Psyren]

A227: Scrolls would be cheaper than wands if lowest cost is your aim. "Earliest" depends entirely on your GM, you could find them at level 1.

[Seto]

Q228: As per Bestiary 2, Serpentfolk with class levels increase some racial abilities (poison DC, SR, etc). As far as I understand, it's an exception to the general rule that racial abilities only increase with racial HD, not class levels. However, a Serpentfolk who gains class levels obtains better SLA (up to Mass Suggestion, a 6th level spell, when it reaches its 9th class-level)... but its caster level seems stuck at 4.
This would mean that a Serpentfolk with 9 class levels is able to cast Mass Suggestion with an insufficient CL to actually cast it (minimum CL for a 6th level Wizard/Sorc spell would be 11), and that it is basically incapable of casting it defensively with its +7 concentration (DC 27), among other things.
I'm leaning towards giving it CL 11, the minimum necessary CL to cast its racial SLA. But is there a RAW solution to this paradox?

[W3bDragon]

Q229: A Magus casts Bladed Dash to move 30 feet. A creature had readied an action to trip the Magus if he comes into threat range. The Magus enters the creature's threat range halfway through the Bladed Dash.

Can the Magus be tripped during the Bladed Dash and does that interrupt the spell?

[Cieyrin]

A 229 Yes and no. Nothing about Bladed Dash negates readied actions but being tripped just means they can't move further from the bonus movement, not that they still don't provoke for the movement or denied their bonus attack with its enhanced attack bonus. They may not be able to get to their intended target to smack (if you had one to begin with) but the creature that tripped the Magus or anyone else within reach is a valid target.

[Firest Kathon]

A228: I would apply the rule from Universal Monster Rules (from Bestiary 1), as there is no caster level specified for the new spell-like abilities:

If no caster level is specified, the caster level is equal to the creature’s Hit Dice.

A Serpentfolk with e.g. 9 levels of fighters would have 14 HD (5 racial, 9 class) and therefor a caster level of 14. It would give the weird situation that by RAW, it has some SLAs with CL 4 (disguise self, ventriloquism, blur, mirror image, suggestion), and some with CL 14 (dominate person, major image, mass suggestion, teleport). Therefor I would also raise the CL of the existing SLAs to its HD.

[ksbsnowowl]

Q230: Can the Festrog use its four-footed run ability during a normal move (i.e. - Move 50 feet to close with a target, then attack once)? Or can it only use this ability when using the Run action (full-round action, and able to run 250 ft in a straight line)?

Speed 30 ft.; four-footed run
...
Four-Footed Run (Ex) A festrog can run on all fours at speed of 50 feet if it doesn’t hold or carry anything in its hands. When running on all fours, it is treated as if it had the Run feat.

I'm converting this monster to D&D 3.5, but want to know the limitations of the ability within Pathfinder to guide my interpretation.

[Psyren]

A230: While it's ambiguous because they confusingly chose to use the word "run" instead of "move" at the beginning of the ability, their "Charging Trip" ability makes the intent clearer - that ability involves an attack and only works if they are charging on all-fours, so they are not restricted to using just the Run action while on all-fours.

[Chaos Jackal]

Q231

If an ability such as Aerial Roll or the swashbuckler's Opportune Parry and Riposte is used against a natural 20, can it succeed?

[Rynjin]

Q231

If an ability such as Aerial Roll or the swashbuckler's Opportune Parry and Riposte is used against a natural 20, can it succeed?

A231: Yes, as per this FAQ.

Natural 20 and Natural 1: On attack rolls and saving throws, a natural 20 is an automatic success and a natural 1 is an automatic failure. But should I treat them differently than other results when deciding if a roll succeeded or failed by 5 or more, when comparing two opposed attack rolls to see which is a higher result, or other similar situations?
No, unless a specific rule tells you otherwise, treat a natural 20 or natural 1 result on an attack roll or saving throw the same as any other result when comparing the total result to other numbers. For example, if a fighter rolls a natural 1 for a total of 31 against the wizard’s AC of 33, the attack misses by 5 or less and destroys one of the wizard’s mirror images.

[Ramza00]

Q232) Did Martial Elixirs ever get published by Dreamscarred Press? They were supposed to be potion like effects that gave you martial maneuvers kind of similar to Martial Scripts from Tome of Battle. I ask for I see them mentioned in the forums but I can't seem to find them anywhere. Did they get playtested and never appeared in a final product?

[W3bDragon]

Q233: Does a Sickened character take a penalty on Concentration checks?

[Elysiume]

A233:
Sickened: "The character takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks."
Concentration: "When you make a concentration check, you roll d20 and add your caster level and the ability score modifier used to determine bonus spells of the same type."
Ability checks: "While a character rarely rolls an ability check (using just an ability score), these scores, and the modifiers they create, affect nearly every aspect of a character’s skills and abilities."

A concentration check clearly isn't an attack roll, weapon damage roll, saving throw, or skill check. If you read that snippet (CRB p. 15) about ability checks as excluding any roll that includes a modifier other than an ability score, then a concentration check is not an ability check. Since it's none of the listed penalized rolls, they don't take a penalty.

[Psyren]

Your question is fundamentally "is concentration an ability check" which as far as I can tell is something that was never definitively answered by the designers despite years of asking.

[Powerdork]

This passage from the Core Rulebook suggests concentration checks and ability checks are, in fact, separate (by having a rule apply to one kind of roll and not the other), and also suggests concentration checks are distinct from caster level checks too (by indicating both together instead of letting reference to one suffice).

Ability Checks and Caster Level Checks: The normal take 10 and take 20 rules apply for ability checks. Neither rule applies to concentration checks or caster level checks.

[Chaos Jackal]

Q234

How does Maximize Spell interact with effects that add additional dice to a spell, like Intensified Spell and crits? I am aware there's been a lot of talk and no definitive answer in the past, but maybe I've missed some more recent FAQ or something...

[Firechanter]

Q235
Bracers of Armor [Armor Bonus] and Magic Vestment [Armor Enhancement] cast on regular robes (armor 0) -- do they stack or not?

And if you find the patience to explain: why/why not? ^^

[Powerdork]

Q234

How does Maximize Spell interact with effects that add additional dice to a spell, like Intensified Spell and crits? I am aware there's been a lot of talk and no definitive answer in the past, but maybe I've missed some more recent FAQ or something...

A 234: Maximize Spell specifies that "variable, numeric effects of a spell" are maximized. The damage roll of a spell is a variable numeric effect, and when you score a threat and confirm a critical hit, you roll damage more than once. Since Maximize Spell obviates the damage roll, it should obviate it multiple times, if you extend the logic.
The specific interaction Maximize Spell mentions, about maximized empowered spells, is a specific rule that your GM might extrapolate to cover additional damage rolls, but that is not the default state of things.

Q235
Bracers of Armor [Armor Bonus] and Magic Vestment [Armor Enhancement] cast on regular robes (armor 0) -- do they stack or not?

And if you find the patience to explain: why/why not? ^^

A 235: The bracers of armor provide an armor bonus, and the robes provide another source of an armor bonus; these do not stack, since they're both armor bonuses, and the size of one of those bonuses getting increased doesn't change that. If magic vestment increases the robe's bonus, it has to be higher than the bracers of armor to be meaningful.

[Elvensilver]

Q236: Is the damage of multiple Arcane Missiles summed up before damage reduction?

[Cieyrin]

A 236 Assuming you mean Magic Missile, no, each missile deals with energy resistance individually, not as a single stack of damage. Resistance to Force damage is pretty rare (the Shield spell or effects based on it notwithstanding), so it's generally a non-issue.
For a similar example, if a Sorcerer 7 cast Scorching Ray and we assume they hit a Tiefling with both rays, each ray would have their damage reduced by 5 each because of the Tiefling's Fire Resistance 5.

[Seto]

Q236: Is the damage of multiple Arcane Missiles summed up before damage reduction?

A236 addendum: Damage reduction (DR) does not apply to energy attacks, only to physical damage. A monster with DR5/silver, for example, would be fully affected by each Magic Missile. Energy resistance (fire, cold, etc) is separate, and resistance (Force) is all but unheard of. What does block Magic Missiles is SR (spell resistance, all or nothing for the spell as a whole) or the Shield Spell.

[kkplx]

Q237

Spoiler: Attack of Opportunity Rules

Show

Cover and Attacks of Opportunity
You can’t execute an attack of opportunity against an opponent with cover relative to you.

[...]
Soft Cover
Creatures, even your enemies, can provide you with cover against ranged attacks, giving you a +4 bonus to AC. However, such soft cover provides no bonus on Reflex saves, nor does soft cover allow you to make a Stealth check.

If you have soft cover do you:
a) not provoke attacks of opportunity from an adjacent melee enemy?
b) not provoke attacks of opportunity from non-adjacent, reach using melee enemies?

[Rynjin]

C.) Not provoke from enemies that you have cover against.

Since cover (soft cover especially) is very much based on position, there's no hard and fast rule there. If your cover is provided by a door, as an example, it may provide soft cover from the front, but it provides no cover from the back. In some circumstances it's quite possible that you could provoke from adjacent targets, but not from Reach users, if circumstances are such that the adjacent melee target provides cover to you relative to its own Reach using ally.

[Firest Kathon]

A237 addendum: To elaborate on Ryinjin's answer, you never just "have cover". You only have cover from another creature. As soft cover is provided by other creatures, it's pretty much impossible to have soft cover from an adjacent creature, as the creature providing cover would need to be in between you and the other creature (maybe an animated sheet of metal?). Much more relevant is the reach situation. Consider the following situation of creatures Y(ou), C(over), and E(nemy with reach):

Y C E

C is providing you soft cover from E, meaning you do not provoke attacks of opportunity from E.

[Elysiume]

Q238: Is there a way to diagnose a disease other than, well, Diagnose Disease? The heal skill lets you treat a disease but has no rules for identifying one. Before I houserule stuff, is there some mechanic for this hidden away?

[Cieyrin]

A 238 I think diagnosis is an implied part of the Treat Disease use of the Heal skill, as you wouldn't be able to provide a bonus and the correct care if you didn't figure out what it is. Diagnose Disease provides a bonus to your Treat Disease check, as it circumvents the time you spend checking symptoms to known diseases so you can start treatment immediately.
As far as I can tell there isn't a separate check to just diagnose but it'd be reasonable use of Treat Disease to figure that out.

[Dimers]

Q 239

How much time does it take to scatter caltrops?

[Cieyrin]

A 239 Dropping caltrops most cleanly fits into the Manipulate an Item action, which is usually a move action, according to page 187 of the CRB in the Combat chapter.