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

[Segev]

The scizor is an interesting little weapon. It sparks two questions:

Q183: It is listed as being in the "light blades" weapon group, as well as being in the "one-handed weapon" category. If used with TWF, does it suffer a -2 penalty to hit (for being a light off-hand weapon) or a -4 penalty to hit (for being a one-handed off-hand weapon)?

Q184: Its special rules state that it takes a full-round action to don. Does Quick Draw interact with this? Override it? Get overridden by it?

[Cieyrin]

A 183 The scizore's weapon group has no bearing on its handedness; it's one handed, so wielding it with another one handed weapon would cause a -4 penalty to hit.

A 184 Donning a scizore is much like putting a locked gauntlet on your hand, which is why it takes so long. As it explicitly takes longer than a normal weapon, Quick Draw doesn't work with it at all, as Quick Draw only upgrades a move action draw to a free.

[Segev]

A 183 The scizore's weapon group has no bearing on its handedness; it's one handed, so wielding it with another one handed weapon would cause a -4 penalty to hit.

A 184 Donning a scizore is much like putting a locked gauntlet on your hand, which is why it takes so long. As it explicitly takes longer than a normal weapon, Quick Draw doesn't work with it at all, as Quick Draw only upgrades a move action draw to a free.

Thanks! That's what I thought, but I appreciate the confirmation.

Follow-up:

Q 185: A soulknife can pick up a blade skill (Emulate Melee Weapon) to make his mind blade function in combat as a specific melee weapon, rather than the generic damage-by-size and type-by-choice he normally gets. So he could take the scizor. Would the scizor's donning time override Form Mind Blade's default move action to form the mind-scizor? Or at 5th level, the free action he is allowed to use to pull it out?

[Cieyrin]

A 185 I think RAW that it still forms as a full round action, due to Emulate Weapon Skill saying 'it functions in all ways as the chosen weapon'. The Soulknife's Quick Draw should change it to a free action, though, as it just says 'manifest as a free action,' so that should work fine.

[Chaos Jackal]

Q 186

When crafting an item that has special requirements other than the feat and spells needed, can that special requirement be ignored by increasing the crafting DC by 5, similar to the spell requirements, or is the special requirement necessary like the feat?

For example, can a non-inquisitor craft a bane baldric by increasing the DC of the final check by 5?

[Cieyrin]

A 186 Yes.

[heavyfuel]

Q 187

Are there stats for mercury/quicksilver or some analagous fantasy liquid metal?

I'm asking this in both the 3.5 and PF Q&A because we play "3.PF"

[AvatarVecna]

Q188

Bard’s learn a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, as noted on Table: Bard Spells Known under “Spells Known.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they do not consume any slots and may be used again.

Clerics can prepare a number of orisons, or 0-level spells, each day, as noted on Table: Cleric under “Spells per day.” These spells are treated like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again.

Druids can prepare a number of orisons, or 0-level spells, each day, as noted on Table: Druid under “Spells per Day.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again.

Sorcerers learn a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, as noted on Table: Sorcerer Spells Known under “Spells Known.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they do not consume any slots and may be used again.

Wizards can prepare a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, each day, as noted on Table: Wizard under “Spells per Day.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again. A wizard can prepare a cantrip from an opposition school, but it uses up two of his available slots (see below).

Bards and sorcerers do not have "0th level spell slots" due to not preparing (but rather casting 0th level spells directly from their spells known). Given that, is the bolded/underlined portions of these quotes therefore an inherent quality of the spells themselves rather than the slots they are cast in, and thus metamagic'd cantrips also don't spend slots? Alternatively, if it's ruled to be tied to the slots rather than to the spells themselves (and spontaneous casters effectively have infinite 0th lvl slots that just aren't indicated in the table), then would a mechanic letting you spend 0th lvl slots to fuel it also effectively be infinite?

I imagine there is a quote somewhere about infinite metamagic'd cantrips from a developer, but I've not been able to find one. If such a quote exists either way, it'd be appreciated.

[upho]

A 188 Answered here by Jason Bulmahn:

"If you use a higher level slot, for any reason, be it because it is modified with metamagic, or you just prepared it in a higher slot, it is consumed when cast, just like any other spell. Only when it uses a 0-level slot, it is not consumed."

So basically, a cantrip is no longer a cantrip if you use metamagic to turn it into something higher than a 0th level spell, and would therefore also consume a spontaneous caster's daily slots just like all their spells of 1st level or greater.

[Cieyrin]

A 187 There's a Mercury Barometer, as well as Djezet, which is one of the Skymetals that is liquid at most temperatures. It's in one of the Iron Gods adventure path books.

[W3bDragon]

Q 189

The Boots of Speed state that the wearer can click their heels together to activate Haste for up to 10 rounds. Since the rounds need not be consecutive, what action is it to stop the Haste effect?

[Psyren]

A189: AFB, but if nothing specific is given in the item description, the default action to toggle a magic item is a standard action.

[Cieyrin]

A 189 addendum It's a free action to activate the boots, so it'd be reasonable to be a free action to deactivate. Given its specificity about the rounds not being consecutive, I've often seen at tables where the wearer specifies the duration of activation, often a round at a time, as gameplay-wise your free action to activate the next round doesn't hurt action economy, but that's subject to table variation.

[Lord of Shadows]

Q 190

The spell Ear-Piercing Scream deals "1d6 points of sonic damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d6)," yet it is a 1st level spell. How much damage does a 1st level caster inflict with this spell (there are also other examples)? My guess is half-damage but seeking further guidance.

Thanks.

[Powerdork]

Q 190

The spell Ear-Piercing Scream deals "1d6 points of sonic damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d6)," yet it is a 1st level spell. How much damage does a 1st level caster inflict with this spell (there are also other examples)? My guess is half-damage but seeking further guidance.

Thanks.

A190: When you cast ear-piercing scream, for every two caster levels you provide, you deal 1d6 points of sonic damage. Since you probably don't have 2 caster levels at class level 1st (there are ways to increase the caster level for a spell like this, but you'd need to specialize in it), you don't have a damage die to roll, unless your GM decides otherwise. The FAQ for Ultimate Magic doesn't disagree with this assessment. (Your GM probably should not decide otherwise, since there's a daze built into the spell anyway; the enemy still has to perform a saving throw, and failing or succeeding on that saving throw still matters.)

[heavyfuel]

Q 191

How does Concealment interact with miss chance from something that isn't Concealment (such as an Air Kineticist's Enveloping Winds)?

Roll twice (effectively 36% miss chance), add up (40% miss chance), or no interaction (20% miss chance)?

Edit: I found some old thread about it, but no consensus. Has there been any recent FAQ about it?

[upho]

A 191 There's nothing in the rules which says or implies that the mechanical effects of things (conditions/spells/abilities/whatever) change depending whether no or multiple other different things apply simultaneously. And "miss chance" is the mechanical effect of several different things, including for example total concealment (due to darkness, displacement, invisibility or whatever), Enveloping Winds, blink, calamitous flailing and wind wall. (If all of these would apply simultaneously to one and the same ranged a ranged attack, a hit would demand both a successful attack roll and no less less than 5 miss chance rolls.)

[Psyren]

A191: Seconding upho; while I'll doubt there would be consensus without a specific statement from Paizo (which does not exist by my understanding), "roll for each separate circumstance" (i.e. the multipliclative stack, or 36%) seems the most fitting. The only time I would go with the addition result is if an effect said something like "increase the miss chance from {existing circumstance} by an additional 20%" or something along those lines.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Q192: Could someone explain how Weapon Attunement and enchantments interact in Automatic Bonus Progression? The way I thought it worked was that weapons no longer had numerical bonuses and no longer required one to be enchanted with (for example) Flaming, with attunement providing the expected +1 through +5. But a player pointed out that the actual wording on the page seems to suggest that enchantments "cost" attunement, lowering your bonus from attuning to the enchanted weapon by an equivalent amount, meaning there's no numerical difference difference two characters with Flaming swords even if one is attuned to it and the other isn't. That can't be right, can it?

[upho]

A 192 Your player is correct; you have to "pay" to activate special abilities by spending the enhancement point equivalence from your "attunement pool". However, note that both the armor and weapon special abilities with an enhancement equivalent cost are also cheaper than they normally are in game using ABP, their price only taking the enhancement equivalent costs into account, not the enhancement costs which normally would increase the price of the added special abilities exponentially.

For example, the price of a +1 dueling flaming keen weapon is normally 32,000 gp (+3 enhancement squared x 2,000 gp, + 14,000 gp) higher than a non-magic mwk version of the weapon. Using ABP, a magic weapon doesn't have regular enhancement bonuses since those are dependent on the wielder, not the weapon, and consequently the weapon's price only includes the special ability costs. So in this example, the weapon actually payed for is instead a dueling flaming keen weapon, and it's price is 22,000 gp (+2 enhancement squared x 2,000 gp, + 14,000 gp) higher than a non-magic mwk version of the weapon. A wielder attuned to this weapon always gains the dueling ability, and can reduce the enhancement bonus her attunement grants by up to 2 points, using those points to instead activate the weapon's keen and/or flaming ability.

And yes, this means special abilities with an enhancement equivalent cost are more expensive relative actual enhancement bonuses than in a normal game, and that a character below 19th level can't attune a weapon to provide a higher total enhancement bonus than +5 (including actual enhancement as well as special abilities with enhancement equivalent costs). A character gains 3 "Legendary Gifts" at 19th and 5 additional ones at 20th, and can then choose the "Legendary Weapon" option to increase the maximum total enhancement bonus their attunement may grant, up to the normal +10 limit for a single weapon (max +5 actual enhancement plus max +5 equivalent special abilities).

[Draconi Redfir]

Q:193 Can i dismiss a "Dominate person" spell i cast on someone else?

Had to dominate one of my allies who was being tricked into attacking our other allies. that encounter ended, but i still have 13 days of domination to go. can't think of a way to free the person without ordering them to act normally, or ordering them to tell me something they'd never in a million years tell anyone.

[Psyren]

A193: As written you can't dismiss it early. Your best option is dispelling it (autosucceeding at the check to do so); if you don't have that ability, your next best option is to not concentrate on it so they get a new save every day, and having the party boost that save as much as they can.

You can also try just ordering them to "behave normally" or similar, though your GM might rule that you have to provide more detailed instructions than that.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Q 194
If I have natural claw attacks and take Aspect of the Beast as ranger and choose Claws of the Beast, do I get multiple claw attacks or do they not stack?
Edit: I found the answer in the FAQ. The answer is "no."

[Dr_Dinosaur]

A 192 For example, the price of a +1 dueling flaming keen weapon is normally 32,000 gp (+3 enhancement squared x 2,000 gp, + 14,000 gp) higher than a non-magic mwk version of the weapon. Using ABP, a magic weapon doesn't have regular enhancement bonuses since those are dependent on the wielder, not the weapon, and consequently the weapon's price only includes the special ability costs. So in this example, the weapon actually payed for is instead a dueling flaming keen weapon, and it's price is 22,000 gp (+2 enhancement squared x 2,000 gp, + 14,000 gp) higher than a non-magic mwk version of the weapon. A wielder attuned to this weapon always gains the dueling ability, and can reduce the enhancement bonus her attunement grants by up to 2 points, using those points to instead activate the weapon's keen and/or flaming ability

I'm still confused. How is this actually helpful if you can't have both an enchantment and the numerical bonus the game expects you to have until very high levels? Does this mean that prior to level 4 it's impossible to use weapon enchantments at all even if you get one, since you can't "activate" any of them? Can the same weapon display different abilities for different people when they attune due to being required to choose which enchantments on it to benefit from? Finally, what about the enchants with a flat cost rather than a bonus equivalent?

[Firest Kathon]

A192a If the wielder does not have enough enhancement bonus to "pay" for the enhancement, the enhancement will still work but they will not get an additional numeric enhancement bonus on the weapon. Rule:

If a character doesn’t have enough of an enhancement bonus to afford the special ability (such as a 4th-level character with a vorpal longsword), she can still use the weapon’s power on its own, but the weapon gains no enhancement bonus.

So in the example, the weapon would be a +0 vorpal longsword until at least character level 19 with the legendary gift "Legendary Weapon", when it would become a +1 vorpal longsword (for a total enhancement bonus of +6). So the smarter choice would to attune a different weapon until then, as the vorpal longsword will work just fine without attunement.

A192b Enchantments with a flat cost are not affected and work normally.

[Draconi Redfir]

Q195: If i have a creature with 5 Hit-die and then add on a template that adds 2 hit-die to it, do it's BAB, Saves, and other stats increase as well? or are you only increasing it's health pool?

[Psyren]

Q195: If i have a creature with 5 Hit-die and then add on a template that adds 2 hit-die to it, do it's BAB, Saves, and other stats increase as well? or are you only increasing it's health pool?

A195: In general, all that stuff would increase with it (the specific amount depending on the type of HD that are added.) Can you be more specific about what you're adding to what?

[Draconi Redfir]

the Dire template i suppose would be the closest guess. i'm working on some homebrew templates to affect Animals, but i haven't actually statted out the creatures with them yet. Not sure if increasing their hit-die effectively levels them up or not.

[Psyren]

the Dire template i suppose would be the closest guess. i'm working on some homebrew templates to affect Animals, but i haven't actually statted out the creatures with them yet. Not sure if increasing their hit-die effectively levels them up or not.

It does. As the linked template says: "Recalculate base attack bonus and base saves according to the dire creature’s new Hit Dice total." This is effectively reminder text that adding BAB changes these things; include that line in your homebrew templates and you're set. Remember that every odd increase they get a feat as well.

[hmwd]

Q 196 Can you do channel energy through the sphere created by a Bead of Force?