Simple RAW for Pathfinder Thread V: Golarion Strikes Back

[Psyren]

A387: Telepathy allows "conversation" so it is two-way communication. In addition, familiars gain the ability Speak With Master, which basically boils down to a special language that only the two of you speak, allowing you to openly talk strategy in front of others just fine. As mentioned though, you won't need that if just one of you is telepathic.

[killem2]

Q 388: Advanced Fire Arms, does water/rain stop those from firing or impede them or is that strictly just an early firearm problem?

[Florian]

A 388: It´s more an ammunition than a weapon problem and the rules are keyed to that.

[Cieyrin]

Q 389 Does Lightning Reload work with Dragoon Cartridges?

[Psyren]

A389: Lightning Reload specifically states it works on cartridges so you'd be fine. The line about Fast Musket doesn't apply. (It doesn't mention cartridges, making it less specific.)

[upho]

A 389 Dispute I believe Psyren's reply is ignoring the full text of Lightning Reload and the specific context in which it mentions alchemical cartridges (my emphasis):

"...she can reload a single barrel of a one-handed or two-handed firearm as a swift action once per round. If she has the Rapid Reload feat or is using an alchemical cartridge (or both), she can reload a single barrel of the weapon as a free action each round instead."

First, you cannot reload a single barrel of a Dragoon firearm, only all three at once or none at all. Second, the paragraph mentioning alchemical cartridges refers specifically to options which normally also grant a reload speed reduction, in order to explain those reductions stack with that of Lighting Reload. It does not say it's also compatible with any and all options of the same type, much less with one that doesn't even grant such a speed reduction. And the Dragoon Cartridge doesn't grant a reload speed reduction, even if it happens to be a type of alchemical cartridge, but is instead the sole means to (re)load a Dragoon Pistol besides mage shot, as explained by the Dragoon Pistol and Dragoon Cartridge RAW:

"It can fire only dragoon cartridges or specially modified mage shot."

"...reloading another dragoon cartridge takes a full-round action..."

In conclusion, Lightning Reload's mentioning of "alchemical cartridge" does not exempt it from the Dragoon Cartridge's "abilities like the musket master’s fast musket have no effect"-restriction, and therefore Lightning Reload doesn't have any effect when reloading a Dragoon Pistol.

(That said, I recommend using houserules which remove the Dragoon Cartridge restriction and treat reloading a single Dragoon gun as reloading a "single barrel" in related abilities (like Lighting Reload). If played according to RAW, Dragoon guns are unfortunately very poor options, considering other guns cost less and are much more effective in practice, at least after the first levels.)

[torrasque666]

Q 390: What is the lowest level Death Effect spell, as in one must save or instantly die?

[killem2]

Q391 so if a thasalonian specialist branches off into a Prestige class that advances spell casting since I get extra slots for conjuration at the removal of Illusion and evocation how do I actually pick my spells am I still banned from picking allusion in a evocation and if not does that mean I get my extra conjuration slots

[Calthropstu]

Q 390: What is the lowest level Death Effect spell, as in one must save or instantly die?

A390: Most such abilities from 3.5 were altered to 10dmg per level. Only 2 made it into core, and they are the only "save or die" spells in paizo material. Those spells are wierd and phantasmal killer. Wierd is 9th, killer is 5th.

[grarrrg]

A391 All restrictions of the base class casting also apply to the PrC bonus casting. Bonus slots and restrictions still apply (unless something specifically removes/modifies them).

"gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class"

[Fenryr]

Q392

I buy a medium or heavy armor made of Adamantine. Are the gauntlets adamantine too?

Q393

I buy an Adamantine shield. Does the shield bash counts as Adamantine?

[flamewolf393]

Q394

Does an armor enhancement bonus count towards touch AC, or only normal AC?

[Psyren]

A392: If it comes with gauntlets, yes - not all armors in those categories do. For example, chainmail includes a pair of gauntlets, while breastplate does not. The armor description will tell you whether it comes with gauntlets or not.

A393: Yes.

A394: The enhancement bonus on your armor increases its native armor bonus, but at the end of the day it's still an armor bonus. It will not apply to touch AC.

[Elkad]

Q395: Is there an easy (cheap) way for a Wizard and Witch to swap spells known?


I see some difficult ways, such as.
Both take Scribe Scroll. (expensive, and takes a feat for both)
Kill one another and use Blood Transcription (very expensive, and you lose levels)
Wizard takes Familiar Adept archetype. (blocks other archetypes)

[Psyren]

A395: Actually, only one of them needs Scribe Scroll because they can craft cooperatively, producing scrolls from both lists. Since the Wizard gets it for free, he'd be the logical choice.

As for the cost being high, I'd say not really. It is early on, when 13 gp is a big chunk of your starting wealth and 75 is eating into your 1000 WBL at 2nd level, by the time you hit level 7 and 4th-level scrolls are costing barely 1% of your wealth to scribe, you'll be able to afford making several easily. Basically, your wealth rises much faster than the scribing costs.

There are some other tricks you could try like taking Familiar Adept and then communing with the witch's familiar and taking Scribe Scroll and then retraining it away but honestly, all of that will likely be way more hassle than just sitting down with her to make a few scrolls.

[GiantFlyingHog]

Q396: Do penalties from multiple castings of the same spell, such as bestow curse, stack?

[Cieyrin]

A 396 If they're for different curses, yes. If it's the exact same curse, no.

[Seto]

Q397 : Just double-checking here. The following text is from the SRD about intelligent items.

Any character whose alignment does not correspond to that of the item (except as noted by the asterisks on the table) gains one negative level if he or she so much as picks up the item. Although this negative level never results in actual level loss, it remains as long as the item is in hand and cannot be overcome in any way (including by restoration spells).

I guess by RAW picking up an intelligent item of another alignment should immediately kill a level-1 character, no save? That seems kind of extreme when the negative level can be resolved as easily as "drop the item". But I don't see any explicit exception here to the rule of "gaining negative levels equal or in excess of your HD kills you".

[Psyren]

A397: Yeah, it can kill you if you're that low level. This rule was ported over from 3.5.

Note that Pathfinder did remove the "rises as a wight" portion of dying from negative levels, so you can't wipe out a town overnight by passing around an evil smart-alecky butterknife anymore at least.

[Fenryr]

Q398

Imagine you're inside a Demiplane but you're not aware of it. What happens if you want to Dimension Door to a place you were before entering the Demiplane?

[Psyren]

A398: You mean somewhere outside the demiplane? Dimension Door does not allow for planar travel, so it would fail. This would not waste the spell, because you choose targets/range for a spell before the spell slot is used up. You would basically be trying to choose a range that is outside the maximum range of the spell.

[unseenmage]

Q399
Can a doppelganger become someone missing a limb or facial feature like an eye?

Q400
Can a doppelganger add or remove tattoos or scars?
Can a Hat of Disguise?

Q401
Could a Mimic appear to be a Broken or Timeworn object? A Cobbled object?
Could a Mimic appear as an object burned by fire or melted by acid?

Q402
Could a Mimic display footprints on itself if it were in the form of a rug or floor tile?
Could a Mimic form feet or shoes on its pseudopods and use those to leave footprints?

Can a Mimic appear as a convincing portrait or painting?


EDIT: If the above is too involved for a RAW answer please do drop by the associated thread to give advice and suggestions or to field additional queries. Thanks.

[Psyren]

A399-402: Yes to the Doppelganger stuff, because even the Disguise skill on its own can do all that so it's pretty minor. The Mimic stuff would require GM adjudication.

[Gibblewrett]

Q 403: Does Negative Energy damage objects? Like say a wall?

[Psyren]

A403: Usually no, but not because of the energy itself - any kind of energy can damage an object, it just depends on the delivery mechanism (read: spell.) The issue you'll run into is that the vast majority of negative energy spells only work on creatures (e.g. Inflict X or Harm) so the point is moot.

Once you find one that can hurt objects (I'm actually not sure of any such, but I didn't search exhaustively), then you apply these rules:

Energy Attacks

Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object’s hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects.

The GM adjudication part would come into play if the object interacts with the energy in some obvious or reasonable way (like fire with paper.) Since negative and positive energy generally interact with living and undead creatures, this typically won't apply and thus objects will be highly resistant to them. But your GM could invoke this if the object is very special - say, something where purity is a factor, like a dagger made out of a unicorn horn or an angel-feather cloak, something where you could argue that "corruption" affects it more strongly than most other energy types.

And of course, objects that are also creatures (e.g. intelligent items) or alive (e.g. trees) might be susceptible to some applications of negative energy as well.

[Seto]

Q404. I found myself wondering about spells, lines of sight, lines of effect, etc.

If an intelligent item capable of casting spells is in a bag, and if it can perceive its environment and the creatures in it (as well as telepathically communicate with them), can it cast a spell (say, Suggestion or Dominate) on the creature carrying the bag? What about creatures not touching the object, but within close range?
What about an intelligent item out of the bag, but in a pocket or a shirt, or a scabbard?

Thank you in advance.

[Psyren]

A404: In the bag, no, it can't. Line of effect doesn't care about what you can perceive; you might be able to perceive that there are some creatures behind a closed door (by hearing or smelling them, for example), but the fact remains that the door is in the way and will block your spell. You might even be able to see them (e.g. through a closed window or a windowless forcecage) but unless the spell can penetrate barriers like that then it would similarly be blocked.

The scabbard is less clear because generally, a decent chunk of the item (i.e. the hilt) is sticking out of that. It would depend on how the item typically uses its powers.

[Fenryr]

Q405

Blood Mutation Intensity.

This otherwise functions as—and does not stack with—the Intensified Spell feat.

So, is it a full-round action to apply the ability (like a metamagic feat) and cast the spell for a Sorcerer?

[Psyren]

A405: The ability specifies the needed timing ("whenever you cast") and thus the "otherwise" portion shouldn't apply. In other words, this shouldn't add any additional time beyond what it takes to cast the spell normally.

[Cieyrin]

Q 406 If a Furious Finish is a critical hit, are all damage dice maximized or just the original weapon dice?

(RAI: Furious Finish should probably say weapon dice, not damage dice, as the latter implies precision and weapon special dice also get maximized.)