Simple RAW for Pathfinder Thread V: Golarion Strikes Back

[Mongoose19]

What other sources of evolutions did you have in mind?

The figment archtype on my familliar
Evolved familliar feat
And the evolutions provided by Homunculist it's self

My concern was that I would have 2 smaller evolution pools ( one from figment and one from the Homunculist) and then a single point evolution from evolved familliar feat.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Q444
I am looking at a playing a slightly modified version of this centaur, just removing some stats to pare down the RP, but I cannot figure out what "quadruped" does beyond increasing my carrying capacity at a further 50%. Is there anything else?

[grarrrg]

A444
You want to be looking at the Race Builder section.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemasteri...ting-new-races
Carry capacity is actually not affected.
You get a bonus against being Tripped, a move speed boost, and use weapons/armor smaller than your actual size.
You also can't use normal boots.

[ZamielVanWeber]

A 444 con't.
Ah, thank you. Also carrying capacity is affected; it is just listed elsewhere.

[kkplx]

Q 445

Can a ghast gain class levels? (The only example I could find was a 3rd party book providing a ghast with cleric levels - what about RAW?)

[Psyren]

A445: Any monster can gain class levels (with GM approval to play the monster in the first place.) You do this basically be treating the monster's CR as its level, adding class levels to it, and then "buying off" excess CR with bonus levels periodically to give the class features more room to catch up to what an equivalently leveled party would be capable of. The rules for that are found in the Bestiary under Monsters As PCs.

Another route for the GM is to apply a class template to a monster, which is a quick and dirty way to give them class features or spellcasting in line with (though slightly increasing) their CR without having to calculate all of the various details that come with true levels.. These were introduced in Monster Codex. The GM can then advance the monster's HD for a tougher challenge, and the abilities they get from the template will grow alongside them. This method is useful if you want a monster who isn't meant to start from scratch in a given class, and it also keeps many monsters (with a lot of HD or CR themselves) from needing to be epic or near-epic to access the higher level abilities of various classes.

[Zsaber0]

Q446

Can a Paladin use his own Lay on Hands to remove paralysis from himself?

[torrasque666]

Q447: Can a witch with the Hand's Detachment feat select their hand as their Familiar?

[Psyren]

A446: No - while supernatural abilities often have no components, Mercy relies on Lay on Hands, which in turn specifically requires you to touch your target with your (single) free hand. It is thus demonstrably not a "purely mental action" as permitted by the paralyzed condition.

A447: Yes, Witches can benefit from this feat.

[Zsaber0]

A446: No - while supernatural abilities often have no components, Mercy relies on Lay on Hands, which in turn specifically requires you to touch your target with your (single) free hand. It is thus demonstrably not a "purely mental action" as permitted by the paralyzed condition.

Q448

What if an outside force positioned the paladin like an posable doll to have his hand pressed against his own chest or face?

[Psyren]

A448: There isn't really a rule to cover whether you can turn an action purely mental by "pre-performing" the physical parts of it. Your GM will need to make a ruling here.

[lord pringle]

Q 449
Do Incorporeal beings add dex to damage with melee weapons? It says that they use dexterity with melee attacks, but it doesn't say attack rolls.

[Psyren]

A449: No, they don't get Dex to damage unless another ability specifies otherwise. If an ability says "attacks" it generally means the attack roll only - a damage roll is not an attack.

[Calthropstu]

Q450: Can you have sex with mage armor on?
Edit: came up during campaign. I ruled no.

[Psyren]

A450: ...Is this a serious question?

Since it doesn't actually reduce your chances of being touched (unless that touch is incorporeal), I'd say it doesn't interfere.

[Calthropstu]

A450: ...Is this a serious question?

Since it doesn't actually reduce your chances of being touched (unless that touch is incorporeal), I'd say it doesn't interfere.

Unfortunately yes. One pc decided to try to rape an unconcious mage who had mage armor on. I decided that since you must take off normal armor for such activities, you'd need to remove mage armor as well.
Normal armor also doesn't stop touching but needs to obviously be removed.

My tuesday group is a little... weird. I am curious what RAW would be on this. It is (understandably) lacking such detail.

[Psyren]

Mage Armor doesn't add to your CMD, which means it doesn't do anything to help you avoid being grappled, which is the closest analogue I can find to the kind of... "attack" being asked about here.

That is the extent of what I will say on this particular question, as I have considerable reservations about it being a board-appropriate topic.

[Fenryr]

Q451

A Paladin with 12 CON goes to -12 HP. Is it possible to use Hero's Defiance?

The instant before you are reduced to 0 or fewer hit points, ...

I ask 'cause I don't know how to interpret this:

a) At the moment you reach 0, you can heal. Something like slow motion: you go from full HP to a freezing point where you heal, and then resume the damage.
b) Before you reach 0, you can heal. If you are full HP the healing won't be useful at all.

[Psyren]

A451: "The instant before" in the spell text means after the damage is already incoming, since there's a chance it might fail to bring you out of negatives (see the second sentence of the spell.) Thus it's not healing you only when your hit points are still 0+.

[jqavins]

Q452: Recursive AoO

I was considering using AoO to use a combat manuver, for example when I'm in combat with someone who pauses to drink a potion, that's the perfect opportunity for a grapple or trip. But then, using a CM provokes an AoO. Does that mean that when I attempt to trip the guy who's drinking a potion he gets an AoO on me? While drinking? It doesn't seem right, but I don't see any explicit rule addressing the situation.

Probably applies to 3.5E as well.

[grarrrg]

A452 As long as the drinker has a Weapon in hand they are entitled to an AoO in response to your Trip/whatever attempt (they could also make an Unarmed attack regardless).
This is (partially) why Improved Trip and friends are pretty much mandatory.

There are sillier interactions in the game after all.

[Calthropstu]

Q453:Are elementals immune to positive/negative energy?
It was pointed out to me that it requires a feat to affect elementals with channels. Does this mean they cannot be healed with cure/harm spells as well?

[Firest Kathon]

A452 addendums:

1. Be aware that a Grapple in Pathfinder requires a Standard action (unlike 3.5), and therefor cannot be used in an AoO.
2. You can only make an AoO unarmed if you have Improved Unarmed Strike (or similar), otherwise you do not threaten.

A453: They are not immune to positive/negative energy, including channeling (emphasis mine):

A good cleric [...] channels positive energy [...] to heal living creatures. An evil cleric [...] channels negative energy and can choose to deal damage to living creatures...

When laying your hand upon a living creature...

A living creature is any creature with a Con score¹, so this includes elements. What has been pointed out to you may be feats like Elemental Channel, which make you channel effect only the chosen elemental subtype, which may be very useful if you do not have the Selective Channeling feat.
Edit:

When laying your hand upon a creature...

So Inflict Light Wounds even works on constructs, only Undead get a different effect.

Q454: Can a cleric which channels positive energy use the feat Elemental Channel to harm outsiders?

¹ I did not find a definition, only a quote by James Jacobs.

[Draconi Redfir]

Q:455: Are there any feats, spells, or items that could potentially increase sonic-damage from spells and the like? Noticing Sonic spells seem to be fairly weak compared to their more elemental counterparts.

[Calthropstu]

A454: Wow, it really isn't clear there is it? The way it is worded, it kind of looks like both positive and negative can be used to harm/heal in that instance. Hooray for bad wording.

But seriously, it kind of looks like the writer took "positive heals, negative harms" for granted. Raw: both can heal/harm. Rai: likely positive heals, negative harms.

A 455: The weakness of sonic damage is intentional as there are decidedly few creatures with sonic resistance.

That being said, there are some sonic damage options that are decent. The alchemist can make sonic bombs at reduced damage that are pretty solid.
Also standard damage boosts apply, so metamagic enhancements such as empower work.

[Kallimakus]

A454 addition: I think that Elemental Channel (and Alignment Channel) are intended to function outside the usual positive/negative energy, i.e. using positive energy to harm elementals seems to be the intended effect of the Feat. This seems to be RAW as well.

[heavyfuel]

Q 456

Is there any way - besides class features and archetypes - to reduce reload time of muskets to a free action or otherwise gain iterative attacks with them?

I'd even be content with reducing it to a move action

[grarrrg]

A456 There are a variety of things that can reload _a_ bullet/round as a Swift/Free. But I assume you want multiple shots each round.

Default reload progression is Full>Standard>Move>Free
Any given 'bonus' moves one step.

A normal Musket starts at Full
Rapid Reload feat is one step (standard)
Alchemical Cartridges is one step (move)
The only other reliable reducer is the Musket Master Gunslinger archetype, which adds the third step (free)

[unseenmage]

Q457a
Can a Mimic become a mundane trap or hazard?
Would it still deal damage?

Q457b
Can a Mimic become a wall with a door in it blocking a hallway? Could characters pass through said door were the mimic large enough and if the mimic allowed them to?

[Cieyrin]

A456 There are a variety of things that can reload _a_ bullet/round as a Swift/Free. But I assume you want multiple shots each round.

Default reload progression is Full>Standard>Move>Free
Any given 'bonus' moves one step.

A normal Musket starts at Full
Rapid Reload feat is one step (standard)
Alchemical Cartridges is one step (move)
The only other reliable reducer is the Musket Master Gunslinger archetype, which adds the third step (free)

Casting Reloading Hands on the musket or adding Shadowshooting to it are also valid methods to getting an additional shot. Shadowshooting makes it a free reload but the bullets are quasi-real, so may not be the best solution if you want to use magic ammo or your target has a good Will save.

Q 458 Can the effects of drugs be ended early? Removing addiction is just an Alleviate Addiction or Remove Disease away, as is removing the ability damage via Lesser Restoration or better but I'm stumped if you can free yourself of the effect early or if you just have to let the effect expire.

Q 458b Does Antiplague or similar bonuses against diseases help resist drug addiction or getting over addiction?