Simple Q&A by RAW for Pathfinder 4

[Cieyrin]

A 509 Caster Level boosts won't affect things based on class level, they're different metrics. However, one of the options of Amplify Hex will extend the duration of Hexes, as does Cackle for the specified hexes.

[Mehangel]

He can choose feats from his selected combat style, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites. The benefits of the ranger's chosen style feats apply only when he wears light, medium, or no armor. He loses all benefits of his combat style feats when wearing heavy armor. Once a ranger selects a combat style, it cannot be changed.

While wearing light or no armor, you do not need to make Ride skill checks for any task listed in the Ride skill with a DC of 15 or lower. You do not take a –5 penalty for riding a mount bareback. You can make a check using Mounted Combat to negate a hit on your mount twice per round instead of just once.

Q510: If I am a ranger who chooses Trick Riding as his combat style feat, am I able to use the feat while wearing medium armor? I can interpret it as either A) I gain access to the feat even in medium armor, but I cannot benefit from it because Trick Riding restricts its use further; B) I gain access to the feat and can use the feat while in medium armor because as a combat style feat, I dont need to meet any of the the feat's prerequisites (such as wearing light or no armor). I am personally leaning towards A) which is more restrictive, but I would like a RAW interpretation.

[Slithery D]

A510: It's A. Prerequisites of feats are the things you need to be able to select them, not the limitations on their use. For Trick Riding:

Prerequisites: Ride 9 ranks, Mounted Combat.

So you can use this (with light or no armor) even if you don't have Mounted Combat or have fewer than 9 ranks or Ride, but that's it.

[Psyren]

A510 addendum: Basically, the restriction in Trick Riding (you explicitly need light or no armor) is more specific than the general restriction (you can benefit from bonus feats only as long as you wear medium, light or no armor.)

However, mithral can get you around this - it treats your medium armor as light for the purposes of limitations, so if you really want to wear medium armor and still use Trick Riding, just make it out of that (e.g. mithral breastplate.)

[KekPafrany]

Q511

There is the monk's robe :
" If the wearer has levels in monk, her AC and unarmed damage is treated as a monk of five levels higher."

There is the half-orc:
"Brawler: Add 1/4 to the brawler's effective level to determine her unarmed strike damage."

And of course, there is the brawler:
"At 1st level, a brawler counts her total brawler levels as both fighter levels and monk levels for the purpose of qualifying for feats. She also counts as both a fighter and a monk for feats and magic items that have different effects based on whether the character has levels in those classes (such as Stunning Fist and a monk's robe)."

So my question is: if a half-orc brawler use the favoured class option, does it stack with the bonus from the monk's robe, or does only the higher bonus count?

[Psyren]

A511: It stacks. The Brawler's Martial Training ability states:

At 1st level, a brawler counts her total brawler levels as both fighter levels and monk levels for the purpose of qualifying for feats. She also counts as both a fighter and a monk for feats and magic items that have different effects based on whether the character has levels in those classes (such as Stunning Fist and a monk's robe). This ability does not automatically grant feats normally granted to fighters and monks based on class level, namely Stunning Fist.

In other words, for any magic item that has specific effects for monks, you can replace the word "monk" with "brawler" in that item's entry because of this ability. Therefore, when you wear a monk's robe, it says:

When worn, this simple brown robe confers great ability in unarmed combat. If the wearer has levels in {brawler}, her AC and unarmed damage is treated as a {brawler} of five levels higher.

So the FCB boosts your unarmed strike damage, and the {brawler's robe} then adds 5 levels of {brawler} on top of that. So a level 8 brawler in a monk's robe with this FCB will have the unarmed strike damage dice of a level 15 brawler (8 + 2 + 5.)

[killem2]

Q. 512: How do you know if a spell cast on you ends before its duration, strictly because you killed the caster?

[Sir Pippin Boyd]

Q513: An oracle with the nature mystery gains the bonded mount ability. The selection criteria for the mount says:

The creature must be one that you are capable of riding and is suitable as a mount. A medium oracle can select a camel or a horse. This mount function as a druid's animal companion.

My question is this: Does this mean "camel and horse" is the definitive list of mounts that can be chosen, and that all camels and horses chosen must be suitable mounts, or, Does this mean that the oracle can pick any creature* he is capable of riding, for example, a camel or horse?

*any creature that could be a companion

[Florian]

A512:

This game uses total transparency. You know what happens and you know the conditions. When the magic ends, you know it.

A513:

The base list is restricted to camel and horse. That can be expanded with gm approval if necessary for a campaign (for example, aquatic or naval campaign when camels or horses really don´t fit in, but a riding dolphin does)

[Psyren]

A512 addendum: In this case, you don't know because that doesn't happen - spells last as long as they last, and unless maintaining one requires concentration or some other action from the caster, killing the caster is not going to affect/reduce the duration of anything they have cast.

A513 addendum: Those two are the definitive list only if you're a Medium oracle; Small oracles with this Mystery get other choices.

[afroakuma]

Q514: The Pathfinder siege rules give the hp for buildings of various sizes - Large, Huge, etc. - and suggest that multiple "buildings" can be composited if you need something that doesn't quite fit the mold.

However, what I've been unable to find are definitions for these - what qualifies as a "Large" building vs. "Huge?" Is it just standard combat footprint translation, or are there actual metrics or examples of these somewhere?

[Cieyrin]

A 514 The Walls section of the Structure portion of the Siege rules in Ultimate Combat talk in terms of 5' squares, which would lend credence to that buildings use the same combat footprint as creatures of that size. The CRB talks about typical building in the Urban terrain but gives actual footprints instead of associating a size. If there's another source that doesn't treat buildings in the abstract, I'm not aware of them.

[afroakuma]

C514

Just for reference, this is where I found the thing about building sizes (toward the bottom.)

[Florian]

A 514 Addendum: The standard combat sizes work quite well with the Kingdom rules and let you translate "blocks" to sizes for siege rules. (I.e. Medium = Insignificant structure, like some stuff from downtime rules, Large = 1x1 block, Huge = 1x2 block, Gargantuan = 2x2 block...)

[Benthesquid]

Q515: Ethereal creatures? How do they work.
Q515A: Invisibility: Quoth the SRD- "An ethereal creature is invisible, insubstantial, and capable of moving in any direction, even up or down, albeit at half normal speed." Might I take it that this means that Ethereal creatures can be spotted with See Invisibility?
Q515B: Ghost Touch: Quoth the SRD- An ethereal creature is invisible, insubstantial, and capable of moving in any direction, even up or down, albeit at half normal speed."
Quoth the Ghost Touch Magic Weapon Special Ability "A ghost touch weapon deals damage normally against incorporeal creatures, regardless of its bonus."
By my reading, this suggests that since Ethereal creatures aren't described as Incorporeal, but insubstantial, they can't be hit with Ghost Touch weapons?

[Psyren]

A515: Ethereal is best thought of as "incorporeal plus". You have all the usual properties of incorporeal, but you're actually physically located on an entirely different (though coexistent) plane, which means even fewer things can affect you (and vice-versa.)
A515a: Yes, see invisibility will spot ethereal creatures. Though the EP is a separate plane, it's coexistent (layered on top) and one of the things that crosses over is vision, if magically aided.
A515b: No - while Ghost Touch does affect incorporeal creatures, the problem is that you and your target are on different planes. A ghost, for instance, must manifest (bringing it to this plane, still incorporeal) before your ghost touch sword will harm it.

[Benthesquid]

Q 516 A skeletal champion's CR is equal to a normal skeleton with it's HD +1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like it means that a Skeleton Champion made from a character with eighteen hit dice from classes would be CR 9 (+2 HD from the Skeletal Champion template makes a total of twenty hit dice. A skeleton with twenty hit dice is CR 8, +1 CR from the template), while keeping those classes. Which seems... crazy. Is that crazy?

[Florian]

A 516:

Not too crazy, really. Consider three things:
- Normally, you base it on the standard NPC array, not point buy. Else: +CR
- No equipment included, which lowers the power ceiling of each class. Else: +CR
- The template modifies the base saving throws and those are really bad.

A, let´s say Skeletal Champion Samurai using the base array looks pretty sad, actually. Note that this whole things stops to work when full caster levels are used this way, but see equipment and expensive material components on this.

[Necroticplague]

Q 517:
How does Scarlet Throne interact with creatures that have more than 2 arms? All of the mention of "off-hand" are singular, so I can't determine if it means ALL the off-hands have to be empty, or if just one of them has to be empty.

[Tuvarkz]

Q 517:
How does Scarlet Throne interact with creatures that have more than 2 arms? All of the mention of "off-hand" are singular, so I can't determine if it means ALL the off-hands have to be empty, or if just one of them has to be empty.

A517
As noted by the DSP developers, you no longer need to be wielding a single weapon only to use ST maneuvers. Only the Scarlet Einhander Stance (That would theoretically requires all your other hands to be empty), and the Scarlet Throne Style (That would require you only use a one-handed weapon and not use any weapons/shields in your other arms) have the restriction.

[137beth]

Q518: If a monster has a (Su) ability which specifically requires concentration (e.g., the Grig's fiddle ability), what is its concentration bonus?

[Tuvarkz]

Q518: If a monster has a (Su) ability which specifically requires concentration (e.g., the Grig's fiddle ability), what is its concentration bonus?

A518
This is not about making a concentration check. As per: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic#TOC-Duration you'd need to just keep expending standard actions to maintain the effect until its maximum duration

[Psyren]

A518: To build on Tuvarkz' answer, the Grig has to maintain the music, but nothing can actually disrupt it unless it chooses to stop (or is physically prevented from taking the standard action to maintain it, e.g. by being killed or knocked out.)

Supernatural Abilities (Su)

These can't be disrupted in combat and generally don't provoke attacks of opportunity. They aren't subject to spell resistance, counterspells, or dispel magic, and don't function in antimagic areas.

[unseenmage]

Q519

Iron Colossus has a SQ called Mythic Creation.
Cannot for the life of me find the ability listed anywhere.
Neither can my friend, who has a vastly superior system master than I.

Any clue what it is, where it is, what it does?

Edit: Same goes for Mythic Resilience. Am so confused.

[Florian]

A519:

They are connected to the Mythic Adventure rules.
To craft a Colossus, the crafter needs the Mythic Crafting feat and a suitable Mythic Rank to craft it.
Mythic Resiliency is something powered by Mythic Points to function.

As a side-node: What source are you using that is so effed up that you can´t find a link to mythic stuff? Especially because you won´t find "Mythic Creation" on the PRD or other Paizo books.

[unseenmage]

A519:

They are connected to the Mythic Adventure rules.
To craft a Colossus, the crafter needs the Mythic Crafting feat and a suitable Mythic Rank to craft it.
Mythic Resiliency is something powered by Mythic Points to function.

As a side-node: What source are you using that is so effed up that you can´t find a link to mythic stuff? Especially because you won´t find "Mythic Creation" on the PRD or other Paizo books.

We searched the PRD, PFSRD, and Archives of Nethys looking for these terms and the only place we found them was in the Collossus monster entries. Any chance you could book+page number or even link where you found the details please?

Edit:
Q520
Additionally, because Mythic Rank is listed down with the prerequisites is there any reason it couldn't be ignores like any other prerequisite when crafting the construct?

[Florian]

Maybe later. "Tatort" is starting in TV in some minute ;)

A520:

According to mythic rules: No.

[Larsen]

A520 : see the colossus subtype.

Mythic Creation (Ex) A colossus can be created only by a creator with a mythic tier or rank equal to or greater than that of the colossus it is attempting to create.
Mythic Resilience (Ex) A colossus can expend one use of mythic power as swift action to double its damage resistance for 1 round.

[unseenmage]

A520 : see the colossus subtype.

Mythic Creation (Ex) A colossus can be created only by a creator with a mythic tier or rank equal to or greater than that of the colossus it is attempting to create.
Mythic Resilience (Ex) A colossus can expend one use of mythic power as swift action to double its damage resistance for 1 round.

Thank You! Completely forgot about Subtype abilities getting listed in SQ line.
Definitely a, "D'oh!", forehead smack moment.

[AvatarVecna]

Q521

If an ability check is called for, and no action type is given for it (ie. "You may make a Str check to free yourself"), what action type does it default to?

A quotation of the rule, if such a rule exists, would be appreciated.