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

[Petrukio]

A310. Yes. If any sort of healing cures the dying character of even 1 point of damage, he becomes stable and stops losing hit points. -- Stable Characters and Recovery

[Zhentarim]

A310. Yes. If any sort of healing cures the dying character of even 1 point of damage, he becomes stable and stops losing hit points. -- Stable Characters and Recovery

Q311 Does this include healing from temporary hitpoints, ala the virtue cantrip?

[Cieyrin]

A 311 Granting temporary hit points isn't healing. You will prolong their life, as they'll bleed temp hp first while dying, but you won't stabilize them, either.

[Firest Kathon]

A310: Yes.

If any sort of healing cures the dying character of even 1 point of damage, he becomes stable and stops losing hit points.

Edited to add: Oops, forgot to go to the next page and did not see that the question was already answered

[Xei_Win_Toh]

Q 312: Does a sorcerer (or other spontaneous caster, I guess) who takes levels in a prestige class that increases spellcasting still get to replace spells known at 4th, 6th, etc levels?

[Cieyrin]

A 312 Generally no, that's a benefit of advancing the base class. There may be prestige classes that do but the typical benefits of an increase in spells per day includes new spells known and a higher caster level, not free spells known replacements.

[Psyren]

A312 addendum: while you can't do so for free, you can use the Retraining rules to swap spells known while progressing a PrC.

[Calthropstu]

q313: Retributive symmetry (Envoy of balance ability) is used against dominate monster and both fail save. Do we just sit there looking stupid unable to move?

[Petrukio]

q313: Retributive symmetry (Envoy of balance ability) is used against dominate monster and both fail save. Do we just sit there looking stupid unable to move?

A313: You could do it that way, sure. However, nothing in Dominate (Person) Monster says that you are denied the opportunity to issue an order. So you also BOTH be giving orders to each other telepathically and be forced to obey them. Think of it another way: if A dominates B who has in turn dominated C, A could give an order to B to give an order to C. Now let C = A. Since A can order B and B can order A (C), they can order each other.

Frankly, I'd probably go for the latter, just for plain Rule of Funny.

Another way to look at this is to replace Dominate with Hold. In the same situation, would both people be Held? Both have been hit with what amounts to Hold Monster. Both failed the save. Both are Held.

[Calthropstu]

Q314: Is there a max weight that an elevated floor can hold? I can't imagine that a 10 story tower would survive an elder earth elemental being summoned on top of it, but I can't find any rules saying such.

But I can't imagine "Behold, my glass floor can support the weight of a 60,000 pound mound of rock."

[Psyren]

I'm not aware of any rules for construction/support requirements, nor has a search turned up anything.

[Cieyrin]

That gets into the physics of building structures and their ability to hold weight, is outside the purview of the normal game rules, as I wouldn't say it's a situation that needed ruling. I'd recommend checking structural engineering blogs to answer that question or GM fiat it if it serves the story, as there is no RAW answer to this question.

[OrbanSirgen]

I have been a longtime player of D&D, and I am about to start my first PF campaign as a halfling druid (bat shaman) with the Caretaker alternate racial feature...
Q315A. If I put the ability score bonus from Caretaker into my bat's Int, giving him a 4, that lets him put ranks in any skill and not just the short list of animal companion skills, right?
Q315B. If so, could he put a rank in Linguistics and have him learn a language?

[Petrukio]

A315A: Yes. Animal companions with an Intelligence of 3 or higher can purchase ranks in any skill.

A315B: Yes, but it probably wouldn't be practical. Animal companions don't have the connections to their "owner" that, say, a familiar would have. So, while a bat might be able to understand the language (in whatever limited sense an animal with an Intelligence of 3-4 might be able to), they would not be able to speak it nor would they be able to otherwise communicate to you what little they picked up. Remember that animal companions are trained in terms of tricks (which are detailed in the Handle Animal skill). It's really more of a set of coded phrases or gestures that the companion has been conditioned to respond to, no different than teaching a dog to 'stay,' 'down,' or 'fetch' on command. (And, unsurprisingly, that's three of the tricks that can be taught.)

[OrbanSirgen]

Ok, so no bat speaking Undercommon... Oh well... Lol

[Petrukio]

Ok, so no bat speaking Undercommon... Oh well... Lol

Probably not. Even if they could, a bat has a somewhat limited range of sounds it can normally make. It's body is just not built to speak. Now, a bird like a parrot could probably do it.

What you really want for this kind of thing is a familiar. For one thing, they gain all the same skill ranks you do. So, if you took a rank in Linguistics (Undercommon), your familiar would also understand the language. Even then, you really wouldn't be able to communicate anything except empathic responses before 5th level, when familiars gain the Speak with Master ability.

Leaving all this aside, there is one way to do this: Get your DM's permission. If you can talk your DM into allowing it, all these problems go away. I know several DMs (myself included) who would at least consider it just for the Rule of Funny.

[upho]

Ok, so no bat speaking Undercommon... Oh well... Lol

Get a circlet of speaking (4,800 gp) for your darling dire bat, and they'll be perfectly able to speak Undercommon if you've given them a bit of Intelligence, not to mention to also activate command word items they can use. As a major bonus if going by the suggestions for animals and item slots, a bat also has the ability to grasp items, which means that if they're able to speak they can also learn to use wands and scrolls (although they'll need UMD skill boost items and spells to do so reliably before higher levels).

[Kaleph]

Q316

Under pathfinder's "fractional base bonuses" variant rule, may I get the one-time +2 bonus to one save through levels in a prestige class?

[Cieyrin]

A 316 Yes.

[Segev]

Q317: Does changing a personal range power to a touch range power also alter the "target: you" to a "target: one creature", for example when using Shared Power?

This has implications both for whether you can use the power on anybody else even with its range changed, and whether you can use the cheap version on Vitalist powers for Collective-sharing. (The more expensive version that turns it into a Network power is obviously necessary for powers not on the Vitalist class list.)

[upho]

A 317 The feat benefit description is rather lacking. As written, it doesn't change what can be the target of your manifestation. But since changing a range of "personal" to "touch" would be pretty useless without also changing the target, I believe it's safe to assume the RAI here is that the feat also allows you to manifest the power as if its target line basically said "target: one willing creature touched".

Similarly, as written the feat arguably doesn't actually change how you may treat the power itself (my emphasis):

"You can manifest a power with a range of personal as if the range was instead touch."

Which means the power still wouldn't qualify for anything which says "when you manifest a power that has a range of touch..." or similar. Personally, I assume this is also just an unintended consequence (perhaps of an unusually nitpicky reading), and the intent is that you can treat the modified power as if it said "range: touch" and "target: one willing creature touched", for all intents and purposes.

[xXAmaroqXx]

Q 318

Pathfinder: Archetypes, Ability Replacements and Multiclassing

I am constructing a Warder 2 / Battle Templar 5 Multiclass character. Additional levels would be cleric, which doesnt matter. Important is that i have 2 levels of warder, no more.

The Warder gains the Aegis Class feature, which reads, among other things:

At 6th level, her aegis’ range increases its effective area, growing to a 20 ft. radius. At 12th level, this increases again to 30 ft..

The Battle Templar gains the Ordained Knight (Ex) Feature, which reads:

Additionally, should the battle templar possess the aegis class feature, the battle templar may add his class level to his warder level to determine the bonus of his aegis class feature.

So far, this seems clear. Hit Warder 2, Battle Templar 4, and the Aegis area grows to 20 ft.



Now, I add to the warder, the Zweihander Sentinel Archetype. This archetype, among other things, adds the following ability:

Defensive Reach (Ex)

At 6th level, the warder has supreme control over his environment and the use of his weapon to defend himself and his allies. When wielding a non-reach two-handed weapon, the warder increases his reach by five feet for use with attacks of opportunity and counters. When wielding a two-handed reach weapon the warder threatens adjacent enemies and may attack them as though he was not wielding a reach weapon.

This ability replaces the aegis class feature’s range increase at 6th level.

Now to the question: How do the Aegis Class Feature, the Ordained Knight and the Defensive Reach interact with the Aegis Class Feature once you hit character level 6? I came up with several reasonable solutions and don't know which one to apply.

Solution 1: The aegis grows, you do not gain Defensive Reach (Ordained Knight continues to aim at Aegis, ignores Defensive Reach replacement since you dont get it)
The aegis scales up to 20ft as normal, Defensive reach gets ignored because Ordained defender only cares about the aegis class feature, nothing else. Since you dont get Defensive reach, you also dont replace the Aegis' range increase as the ability is replaced by actually gaining Defensive Reach, NOT simply by selecting the archetype. Simply said: You replace Class Features for the Archetype as you unlock the Abilities that replace them.

Solution 2: The aegis stays small, you do not gain Defensive Reach (Defensive Reach replaces Aegis growth even before you get it, Ordained Knight targets aegis, but it does nothing)
The aegis does NOT scale, as the Defensive Reach ability blocks this. You replace the scaling at the time you took the archetype, not at the time you get the actual ability. Simply said: You pay ALL replaced Class Features in advance, whether you actually gain any ability from the Archetype in the future does not matter. The reasoning is that IF hypothetically you were to take additional Warder levels in the future and would get to Warder 6, then you WOULD gain the Defensive Reach, which would then have to suddenly reduce the aegis size as you suddenly replace the size increase you got earlier. Again, the fact that you dont plan to go to Warder 6 does not matter. You just lose Ordained Knights Aegis Scaling because you traded away the scaling for the ability you dont get.

Solution 3: The aegis stays small, you do gain Defensive Reach (Defensive Reach replaces Aegis growth even before you get it, but Ordained Knight now grants Defensive Reach instead)
This reasoning seems a little wonky and is more of a compromise between the two. The aegis does not scale, as Defensive Reach replaces this. Since Ordained Knight counts as your level for the aegis, and the aegis gets replaced, the Ordained Knight sees the replacement and grants that instead. That way, you paid for the archetype in advance, but also still get the ability out of it. The issue here might be that you gain Defensive Focus at class level 6, not when aegis thinks you hit level 6.


Personally I tend towards Solution 1 or 2, it all comes down to the question:
When do you actually lose the class features that are to be replaced by an archetype?
The moment you take the archetype, or the moment you gain an ability that replaces something?

[upho]

A 318 Solution 1 is correct strictly RAW. You're not a 6th level ZS and therefore you don't yet have the defensive reach feature which replaces the 6th level aegis increase. You do have the aegis feature though, so its growth stacks with BT levels as normal. Ordained Knight would've had to mention aegis replacements (such as defensive reach) in order for them to also be included.

That said, I'd certainly allow a PC with at least 6 levels of ZS and BT to get defensive reach instead of the normal aegis increase from Ordained Knight, and I'm sure the authors of PoW would agree that it's perfectly reasonable. So I suggest you talk to your GM if you want defensive reach.

[Hammerfels]

Q319
Is there a way to change the attribute used for a cleric's channel energy from CHA to some other?

[Rynjin]

Q319
Is there a way to change the attribute used for a cleric's channel energy from CHA to some other?

A319: Surprisingly, no. The next best thing I can think of is an Elder Mythos Cultist uses Cha for EVERYTHING instead.

[Draconi Redfir]

Q320: This is technically a question for Starfinder rather then Pathfinder, we just don't have a Starfinder discussion thread anywhere. So feel free to skip this question if you have no answer, just hoping someone might know more about starfinder then me.

I found a feat that gives me darkvision, but if i already have darkvision, i gain the ability to see even in magical darkness. I'm playing a standard human, currently level 5. Other then this feat, do you know of any methods I could use to gain darkvision so i could get that magical-darkness sight?

[Segev]

Q321: Does the feat Power Perfection do anything other than remove the need to expend psionic focus?

Metapsionic feats don't change the power level of the power, nor the manifestation time.

Is there any discussion of this with or errata from DSP? This seems an error in translating Spell Perfection improperly. But maybe I am missing something.

[Calthropstu]

Q321: Does the feat Power Perfection do anything other than remove the need to expend psionic focus?

Metapsionic feats don't change the power level of the power, nor the manifestation time.

Is there any discussion of this with or errata from DSP? This seems an error in translating Spell Perfection improperly. But maybe I am missing something.

Benefit: Pick one power which you have the ability to manifest. Whenever you manifest that power you may apply any one metapsionic feat you have to that power without expending psionic focus or affecting its level or manifesting time, as long as the total power point cost of the power, including the metapsionic feat cost and any augmentation, does not exceed 17 power points. In addition, if you have other feats which allow you to apply a set numerical bonus to any aspect of this power (such as Power Penetration, Psionic Endowment, Weapon Focus (ray), and so on), double the bonus granted by that feat when applied to this power.

A:321 It also doubles the bonus of applicable feats. Your notice is correct. Raw, the level and manifesting time are useless. It is clearly intended to be powerpoint cost, but in a RAW context, that line does nothing.

[Segev]

A:321 It also doubles the bonus of applicable feats. Your notice is correct. Raw, the level and manifesting time are useless. It is clearly intended to be powerpoint cost, but in a RAW context, that line does nothing.

Ah, right, the doubling; I had forgotten that because it wasn't what I was looking at. Thanks for answering my question.

I assume the "no more than 17 pp" thing is about the power not exceeding that as if the metapsionic feat HAD been paid for, but that remains unclear. Especially since the RAW don't have it stop the metapsionic feat from charging more pp (even though it's probably meant to).

[Chaos Jackal]

Q322
If I use the magus' spellstrike ability to deliver a Benthic Spell, would the weapon's enhancement bonus allow the spell's damage to bypass DR? For example, if I wielded a +3 weapon and used a Benthic shocking grasp against a creature with DR/cold iron, would the DR apply to the damage from shocking grasp? My guess is no, but I'd like a second opinion.