Simple Q&A for Pathfinder 2: Find Harder

[LibraryOgre]

(This is a fairly high procedure thread; please read the entire instructions carefully before posting. Thanks.)

Ever have a simple, straight-forward rules question that you can’t figure out the answer to? Ask it here. No question is too simple. No more worrying about whether your question is “worth” starting a thread. Ask here and receive an answer. You are, of course, welcome to start a thread for your question, and if you think your question is subject to many interpretations or will start a debate, you are encouraged to start a new thread for it.

This thread will serve as a catch-all for simple, discreet questions that can be answered quickly according to the RAW (Rules As Written). This thread is for all simple RAW questions about Pathfinder.

If your question is about D&D 4e, ask here
If your question is about real world weapons and armor ask it here.
If your question is about homebrew rulings start a thread regarding it.
If you are looking for the meaning of an acronym or abbreviation look here.
If you want to find a certain feat or ability, Lists of Stuff and X stat to Y bonus are both useful threads.

The Procedure:

Do:
Label your questions with bold Q#s.
Label your answers with the bold Q# that you are responding to and/or quote the question.
Be sure that your answer is correct before you post it; if you are the least bit uncertain, just let it pass and get the next one.
Try to give your answers in as clear and straightforward terms as possible.
Feel free to quote or link to relevant rules in the SRD, Errata, or FAQ that supports your answer. (You may want to give your answer and then modify it to add support – otherwise someone else may answer while you’re assembling yours.)
Specify if your question is for a system other than Pathfinder (the default for this thread).

Don’t:
Ask Homebrew rules questions here.
Ask trick questions or attempt to “stump the panel,” so to speak.
Answer a question that’s already been recently answered.
Offer contradictions, clarifications, exceptions, or extensions of prior answers unless, in your opinion, the answer give is plainly and completely wrong.
Post to debate the answers given.
Post to carry on other conversations whether tangentially related or wholly unrelated.

Dispute Resolution Procedure:
If you dispute someone’s answer – meaning that they got it wrong in a critical fashion – post your answer and suggest that the original questioner start a thread to discuss it further if they want it hashed out.
If someone disputes your answer, don’t respond. Just wait to see if the original questioner starts a new thread to discuss it.
If your question leads to a disputed answer, start a new thread if you’d like it discussed further.

Here are some sample questions. “Bad” questions just mean they should be asked in their own thread where you can get many answers and opinions. “Good” questions just mean that these are the types of questions that are amenable to a quick straightforward answer (probably).

Sample “Bad” Questions:
How do I play Pathfinder? (Great question, but not for this thread.)
What is a good 10 level TWF build? (Far too broad and requires much opinion)
Which is better GURPS or D&D?

Sample “Good” Questions:
Q.1. Are there any Large for PC races?
Q.2. As a sorcerer/rogue, do I get to add sneak attack damage to my attack spells?
Q.3. What effect would Dispel Magic have on a golem or similar construct?
Q.4. Is there a feat that allows me to get a familiar?

{The first several versions of this thread seemed to run pretty efficiently, but if you have any comments about how this thread could be improved please PM me.}

[Wonton]

Wow, I'm honored to usher in the new thread.

Q 1

If a character fails a Fort save against a disease, is the first instance of ability damage (after the onset period) automatic or is there another Fort save for it?

[rockdeworld]

Wow, I'm honored to usher in the new thread.

Ditto

A1
There is a Fort save.

Save: This gives the type of save necessary to avoid contracting the affliction, as well as the DC of that save. Unless otherwise noted, this is also the save to avoid the affliction's effects once it is contracted, as well as the DC of any caster level checks needed to end the affliction through magic, such as remove curse or neutralize poison.

Onset: Some afflictions have a variable amount of time before they set in. Creatures that come in contact with an affliction with an onset time must make a saving throw immediately. Success means that the affliction is avoided and no further saving throws must be made. Failure means that the creature has contracted the affliction and must begin making additional saves after the onset period has elapsed. The affliction's effect does not occur until after the onset period has elapsed and then only if further saving throws are failed.

[Krazzman]

Since I lost track of the old one and couldn't find a ruling on this so far...

Q2:
Can a Cleric help a Sorcerer enchant a Sword with Holy (needing Holy Smite as a Spell) so the DC isn't raised for the Sorcerer? (In the campaign I play in we do it like we could, I'm just curious if this works.)

Q3.a:
The Spellcraft DC to create magic Items is the required Caster Level of that Item + any bonus restrictions (like not meeting requirements). Does this elivate the need to be an Elf to create an Elven Cloak?

Q3.b:
What adjustments to the cost of magic Items are to consider when using my Casterlevel instead of the minimum caster level for an Wondrous Item/Magic Arms or Armor?

[rockdeworld]

A2

Yes.

It is possible for more than one character to cooperate in the creation of an item, with each participant providing one or more of the prerequisites. In some cases, cooperation may even be necessary.

If two or more characters cooperate to create an item, they must agree among themselves who will be considered the creator for the purpose of determinations where the creator's level must be known.

A3a

Assuming you mean Cloak of Elvenkind, yes.

The DC to create a magic item increases by 5 for each prerequisite the caster does not meet. The only exception to this is the requisite item creation feat, which is mandatory. In addition, you cannot create potions, spell-trigger, or spell-completion magic items without meeting its prerequisites.

[Raven777]

Q4 Can I reduce crafting times further by stacking additional +5s to Spellcraft DCs? Example : Item A takes 40 days to craft. I can reduce this to 20 days by taking +5 on the DC. Can I reduce it further to 10 days by stacking another +5? Then to 5 days, then to 3 days, etc?

[Menteith]

Q5

The Beast Rider Cavalier archetype offers unique mounts beyond Horses to the class. There are a few guidelines on what you can select for your mount, however;

"This mount functions as a druid's animal companion, using the beast rider’s level as his effective druid level. The animal chosen as a mount must be large enough to carry the beast rider (Medium or Large for a Small character; Large or Huge for a Medium character)"

A medium rider cannot select any mount which is not, at minimum, Large sized, correct? Here's where it gets troubling;

"At 4th level, a Medium beast rider can also choose an allosaurus, ankylosaurus, arsinoitherium, aurochs, bison, brachiosaurus, elephant, glyptodon, hippopotamus, lion, mastodon, megaloceros, giant snapping turtle, tiger, triceratops, or tyrannosaurus as his mount."

Using the animal companion rules, every single one of these options is Medium sized, and cannot bear a Medium sized rider. Which means that it is not available as a mount. Could someone explain to me how this ability is supposed to work?

[warmachine]

Q 6
Is there any way to get a 1st level Small Summoner PC that can breathe underwater at least 1 hour per day? Ideally all day, without spending cash or needing help from characters not normally controlled by the player.

[Xerinous]

A6:

Yes, pick a small race and be a Synthesist with the Aquatic base form for your Eidolon (from Ultimate Magic). Gives you gills, so you can breath underwater indefinitely, and a 40 ft. swim speed.

[Lycar]

Q7:
While the rules state that you lose your dexterity bonus to your CMD when flat-footed, I do not find any explicit mention whether a successful Feint maneuver does too. It would stand to reason that being denied one's dex-to-AC (and thus also any dodge bonus) would extend to CMD, but the rules appear to be silent on the issue.

[Eldonauran]

A5:

Medium beast riders can choose a camel or horse mount at 1st level...

Horses and Camels start as large creatures, according to the Core rulebook, under animal companions. Page 54. Many medium sized animal companions increase to large size at level 7, becoming available for the medium sized Beast Rider to select. I am sure one of the listed animals may increase to large size, if they have a size increase at level 4.

[Urpriest]

Q8: Does wearing a spiked gauntlet on one hand prevent you from casting spells with that hand? Does using a shield?

[Eldonauran]

A8: No, wearing gauntlets (spiked or otherwise) does not prevent you from casting spells with somatic components.

This metal glove lets you deal lethal d amage rather than nonlethal damage with unarmed strikes. A strike with a gauntlet is otherwise considered an u narmed attack.

An attack with a spiked gauntlet is considered an armed attack.

Guantlets effectively make your unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, and spiked guantlets let you threaten an area (ie, armed attack). If you need further clarification, see the locked guantlets which specify that the hand using the guantlet cannot be used to complete somatic components. The addition of the clarification should be sufficient for any arguement.

While the gauntlet is locked, you can't use the hand wearing it for casting spells or employing skills. (You can still cast spells with somatic components, provided that your other hand is free.)

As for shields, only bucklers clearly state you can use your free hand to weild a weapon or complete somatic gestures. The other shields do not contain this information. Light shields specify you can hold items but not wield them

You can cast a spell with somatic components using your shield arm, but you lose the buckler's AC bonus until your next turn.

A heavy shield is so heavy that you can't use your shield hand for anything else.

A light shield's weight lets you carry other items in that hand, although you cannot use weapons with it.

[Urpriest]

Q9:

Suppose a creature with Flyby Attack and grab (a Roc for example) uses Flyby Attack to attack a target, and successfully grabs them. Can the Roc finish its move?

[Cieyrin]

A3b CL is not a price modification for Wondrous Items and Magic Weapons and Armor, it just gets set to whatever your CL is when you create it, provided it's high enough to cast the prerequisite spells.

A4 While a natural progression, the RAW answer is no, as there's only notes for increasing your efficiency once. It could be interpreted as well, from the clause 'He cannot rush the process by working longer each day' that getting 8 hours of work in 4 hours is your daily quota, though that would be a topic for a thread.

A7 As long as you're doing a melee combat maneuver following the feint, the successful feint removes Dex and Dodge to AC, which consequently would affect CMD, given 'Any penalties to a creature's AC also apply to its CMD.' If you can't dodge an attack b/c you're zigging instead of zagging, you shouldn't be any more capable of dodging a tackle.

A9 As long as the Roc can carry its grabbed target aloft, yes.

[Menteith]

A5:



Horses and Camels start as large creatures, according to the Core rulebook, under animal companions. Page 54. Many medium sized animal companions increase to large size at level 7, becoming available for the medium sized Beast Rider to select. I am sure one of the listed animals may increase to large size, if they have a size increase at level 4.

This doesn't answer the question. The first level options, and 7th level options are not related to my question. I'm sorry if I was unclear, and I'll restate it here. Every one of the animal companions offered as Mounts at 4th level are Medium sized when they are offered. By the rules, I cannot take a Medium mount. Thus, I am explicitly allowed to and explicitly not allowed to take the 4th level options when I am 4th level.

Q5 (Restated)
As a 4th level Beast Rider, am I allowed to select a mount from the new options offered at 4th level, and what size will that mount be?

[Occasional Sage]

Q10
When a Magus uses her Arcane Pool to enhance a weapon with the Fragile quality, is that quality temporarily removed?

Q11
Speaking of Fragile, the wording of it is ambiguous. Can Disposable Weapon and Splintering Weapon be used simultaneously to autoconfirm a crit and apply bleed damage, at the cost of taking the weapon directly to destroyed?

[Cieyrin]

A10 Giving a weapon a temporary enhancement bonus does not make it magical, so no, your Fragile weapon is just as vulnerable as before.

A11 There isn't anything in the rules that say what happens when you try to apply Broken to a weapon twice, other than a natural 1 causing it to be destroyed as per Fragile, so the RAW would indicate that once a weapon is Broken, you can't apply Broken a second time via those feats.

[Urpriest]

A9 As long as the Roc can carry its grabbed target aloft, yes.

Q9 Additional:
Does the Roc need to make an additional CMB check in order to do so?

Does the Roc need to take a -20 penalty on its CMB check to accomplish this (the penalty for using grab without itself being considered grappled)?

[Cieyrin]

A9b Doing further research, as this seems to be a common quandary, it looks like you'd have to do the -20 to grapple to grab and head off, as otherwise you restrict yourself with the grapple condition and the movement problems therein. Meaning while your average Roc isn't going to be able to snatch and fly off with an elephant, smaller creatures like horses and people are pretty permissible.

[Urpriest]

Q12

Suppose a creature begins its turn grappling another creature, and is in control of the grapple.

Short of acquiring extra standard actions, is there any way for this creature to make more than one grapple check during its turn? In particular, in 3.5 it was possible to full attack with grapple checks, but in Pathfinder it appears grapple checks in this situation are always standard actions. Is this correct?

[North_Ranger]

Q13

Something that I've been wondering... various creatures in the game have racial damage resistances. Such as demons unless you hit them with cold iron, or devils with silver.

Factor in bane weapons: do these weapons automatically bypass DR, or do they still need to be properly aligned, made of the right material or possess enough +bonuses to bypass DR?

[Cieyrin]

A12 Greater Grapple, in the CRB, allows you to maintain a grapple as a Move, so after you start it you can make a second grapple or you can maintain twice and you only have to succeed at one to maintain for that round.

A13 Banes don't bypass DR against the selected creature any more than any other weapon does. However, note that in the description of Damage Reduction that weapons of a powerful enchantment (+3 or higher) can ignore some DR. Bane raises the effective enhancement bonus of the weapon to at least +3, so you'll auto ignore cold iron and silver DRs when using the proper bane, adamantine at +4 and alignment at +5.

[Occasional Sage]

A11 There isn't anything in the rules that say what happens when you try to apply Broken to a weapon twice, other than a natural 1 causing it to be destroyed as per Fragile, so the RAW would indicate that once a weapon is Broken, you can't apply Broken a second time via those feats.

You're referring to the "destruction on a natural 1" of an already-broken weapon, right?

Reread. Clearly, yes.

[BlackHumor]

Fairly silly theoretical questions, so feel free to give this fairly low priority, but, thought I'd ask:

While we were getting my latest PF campaign together, one of the other players proposed as a joke a "unicorn who picks locks with her horn". I was curious if that could actually work, so I looked at the rules expecting it to be outright silly and turns out there's no obvious RAW reason I could find to toss it out (unicorns have int 11, speak common, and can take class levels). The only thing I could think of would be that a unicorn doesn't actually have opposable thumbs or anything, so:

Q14: Do you have to have opposable thumbs to pick locks? (that is, to make the check at all; even if you're at some kind of crazy penalty I would consider that still "able to pick locks")

and supposing you don't,

Q15: Is there anything else in RAW that would prevent a PC unicorn from picking locks?

[rockdeworld]

A14

No. There is nothing in RAW restricting Disable Device to those with thumbs.

A15

Nope.

[Falling]

Q16

When getting started with Pathfinder, is it better just to get the books, or the box?

[Certified]

Q17

When a Hasted character attacks using Furious Focus does the benefit apply to both the first attack and bonus hasted attack?

[Cieyrin]

A16 That's not exactly what this thread is for but the Beginner Box is a pretty good starting place, though you could be fine with just the core book.

A17 Just the first attack, it doesn't matter that it has the same attack bonus as your first one.

[Raven777]

Q16 When getting started with Pathfinder, is it better just to get the books, or the box?

A16 This is not really the kind of questions this thread covers. This threads is more about rules. Your question's answer will hang more on opinions, and ideally you'll want several people's opinion. I suggest you instead make a new thread entirely about your question, which will allow different people to answer you in more detail.

Personally, I would suggest the Beginner's Box if you and your friends are entirely new to Tabletop RPGs in general. It comes with its own dices, little card miniatures for characters and monsters, a tiled dungeon map, a sample adventure for four players and an abridged rule book that contains all the details necessary to run that adventure and get the characters up to 5th level, like spells, feats, items and monsters. It really is a neat, exciting, well illustrated, newbie friendly little package. On the other hand, if you are already familiar with other similar systems and want to start big immediately, starting out with the Core Rulebook is perfectly fine. Also, do not forget that if you want to "demo" the system at no expense whatsoever, the core rule set is Open Gaming Content and available for free on d20pfsrd.com or paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/.

Hope this helped.

EDIT: Swordsage'd by the Goblin cannon squad.