Simple Q&A Pathfinder (By RAW) I

[killem2]

Originally Posted by Keneth

A401 Neither, critical hit deck overrides normal critical hit rules. When you take a card from the deck and it says normal/double/triple damage, then that's what your critical hit does, your weapon's multiplier is irrelevant (though there are supplementary rules to account for higher multipliers — read the instruction cards). Therefore if your weapon is 1d6, x2 and the card says double damage, you roll 1d6 + 1d6. That's it. It may seem a bit weak at first, especially when you get normal damage, but some of the extra effects are really powerful (high crit range weapons can really be fun here), and it gets especially nasty once the GM starts using the cards.

Since there's more than one way to use the cards, the whole group should discuss the rules beforehand to make sure everyone agrees with them. It's no fun if the scythe-wielding fighter is forced to use a crit card when he just wants to deal massive damage, so you'll want to avoid those kinds of arguments.

Thanks, I am actually the DM of a 3.5 session, and I saw these and was curious. think I will go out and pick them up.

Is it optional? As in, when some one crits can they opt to flip the card or take the damage? I guess as the DM i can make that a choice.

Thanks for clarifying!

[Asha'man]

Q402

How does mounted combat work? First i have a human on a warhorse, second I have a halfling on a wolf. I know they both have to make ride checks but when do they make the checks? Also what decides the DC of the check? Another thing do the rider and the ride have different initiatives or do i roll only one for both. If different who do I follow when moving and attacking? I know the horse doesn't attack but a wolf can, so will both the rider and the wolf attack or one only?

Q403

How does power attack work? I know it takes the weapon strength bonus and turns it into damage but I'm not sure. If I have a strength mod of +4 and the weapon gives a strength bonus of 1.5 do I just add six to my damage? Please clarify.

[Arillius]

Q404: How does combining two weapon fighting and natural attacks work? ex. A character with 2 wing attacks and two weapons, having both multi attack and two weapon fighting. The wings get a -2 for being used in conjunction with weapons. The weapons get a -2 for using two of them. Does the -2 from using two weapons also get added to the penalty for using natural attacks?

[The Glyphstone]

Q405: Can a creature make multiple Overrun attempts in a single move if there are multiple targets between it and its intended square?

405-1: What about Bull Rush?

[Stone Heart]

Originally Posted by SerphIvanXin123

Q403

How does power attack work? I know it takes the weapon strength bonus and turns it into damage but I'm not sure. If I have a strength mod of +4 and the weapon gives a strength bonus of 1.5 do I just add six to my damage? Please clarify.

A403Power attack does not work based off of strength bonus. Using power attack gives you a -1 to hit and a +2 to damage. So you are exchanging accuracy for power. These both increase as your BAB increases at +4, +8, +12, +16, and +20. Each time the penalty goes up by 1 and the damage goes up by 2 (so at +4 you have -2 to hit, +4 to damge. At 8 its -3 to hit, +6 to damage).

Two handed weapons add half the bonus again (an extra 1 point of damage at first, after +4 BAB, extra 2 damage, etc.)

Off hand and secondary natural attacks do the opposite however and take half (so only 1 extra damage at first, then +2 after +4BAB and so on)

[Keneth]

Originally Posted by killem2

Is it optional? As in, when some one crits can they opt to flip the card or take the damage? I guess as the DM i can make that a choice.

That's how we do it, because sometimes you just want some extra damage, instead of debuffing the enemy. There's no point in dealing normal + 1d4 Dex damage if double damage is likely to kill the enemy. If you're the GM then I suggest you give your players a choice. Also, be careful when using the crit deck with monsters, it can make your players rather unhappy. For best effect, if the party isn't that strong, you should only use the critical hit deck with important NPCs and bosses.

A402 You and your mount have separate initiative counts but as long as you are mounted, the mount's initiative count is irrelevant, it always moves (or performs other actions) on your initiative count. To instruct the mount to move, you must make a DC 5 Ride check if you intend to be using both hands (guiding the mount with knees). You make Ride checks when required (i.e. when you want the mount to do something) with the exception of the check required to control a mount with no combat training (such as a wolf that hasn't been trained as a war mount) which is made at the beginning of your turn as a move action. For the required DC of Ride checks and descriptions of different actions see Ride skill. For more information on mounted combat see Combat - Mounted Combat.

A404 To my understanding, the penalties for fighting with two weapons apply only to attacks with your primary hand and off hand. The natural attacks are a completely separate part of the full attack. Do note that you cannot take Multiattack if you only have two wing attacks, the prerequisite for Multiattack is three or more natural attacks (but I'll go ahead and assume you also have claws).

A405 No, I'm pretty sure you can't. Though I do recall there being rules for doing so, but that was probably 3.5 or homebrew. There are, however, some third party feats for Pathfinder that enable such maneuvers (Barreling Overrun, Mass Bull Rush).

[powerdemon]

Q 406
Are there any races besides human that get a bonus feat? Alternate racial features are OK.

[Larpus]

Originally Posted by powerdemon

Q 406
Are there any races besides human that get a bonus feat? Alternate racial features are OK.

A406
None that I've heard of, both officially and 3rd party.

The reason for that is that an extra feat is a really powerful thing to have, with a very hard to measure (if at all possible) exchange rate. That and races tend to, mostly, focus on mechanic variety as opposed to simple "skin" variety.

But if what you want is to do something such as play an elf character but really wants the human racial bonuses, talk with your DM if he allows you to play an "elf-skinned" human (mechanically a human, but for all roleplay aspects, an elf, possibly even having a RP reason behind his mechanics, such as living amidst humans).

[powerdemon]

Skinning is my backup plan. Thanks Larpus.

[Man on Fire]

Q 407

How do you make animal companion/mouth in Pathfinder, specifingly how do you calculate Ability scores for it? Do you roll/point buy as normal and just add bonuses and if so, ho do you calculate them, or do you just write down it's original stats.

[powerdemon]

A 407.
All of the available animal comPanions are listed in the druid class. There are presented with starting statistics. So you just need to adjust their Str/Dex when appropriate, and add 1 point every 4 HD like normal. You do NOT use the bestiary entry for the creature.

[Keneth]

A407+ They also get skills, feats, and hit points as they gain hit dice. More on animal companions can be found here. Mounts function like druid animal companions with a few differences as noted in the ability description here and here.

[RndmNumGen]

Q408: If a character(say Druid) has an Animal Companion, but then takes Eldritch Heritage(Sylvan) to gain an AC at class level -5, does he now have two animal companions?

[Keneth]

A408 Yes, they are different — although mechanically alike — abilities and you can therefore have both. With Boon Companion this might even be worth it, but that's three feats' worth of investment for one animal companion, so it's more flavorful than optimized.

[deuxhero]

Amendment 408
Actually,

The druid's class levels stack with levels of any other classes that are entitled to an animal companion for the purpose of determining the companion's statistics.

So you have one Animal Companion that has an effective Druid level of your actual Druid level PLUS your Sorcerer level (which is Character Level -2) -3.

This however is stupidly cheesy (fighter as a class feature? Try an epic level fighter as a class feature pre-epic) and you are encouraged to use it as Keneth suggests.

(also you can't RAW take wildblooded with EH, though a dev has implied you can).

[Larpus]

Q409
If using the rules for creating custom magic items, can I (assume I have Craft Woundrous Items and the needed spell) make a Hat of Disguise but instead of the normal version (command word) make it into a spell trigger 50 charges item to decrease costs or simply troll the Fighter so he can't use my shiny?

Q409a
Can I rally the price further down by making it also have the 1 charge/day clause (so it has 50 charges total, but I can only spend one per day).

Q409b
Can I instead take the now spell triggered 50 charges item and double its price (reversing the logic used to make an unlimited item into a 50 charges one, unclear if that's how it would work since the given example isn't very good for calculation) so it has unlimited uses, but is still a spell trigger and is still cheaper than the normal version (and I can still troll the Fighter with)?

[powerdemon]

Q410
I notice the Bear Druid animal companion does not have the Grab special ability, even though every bear in the Bestiaries do. Is there any way for one to gain that ability?

[Arillius]

Q411 I have found the Alternate Source Spell Metamagic feat, but have been unable to determine if it is allowed in pathfinder games officially. Some say yes since it was from a paizo written dragon magazine, others say no because there's no official say on it. Has there been one recently?

[Rickshaw]

Q412

If someone is flanked by say, a fighter and a ranger. Does a nearby rogue, who is not hidden or anything, with a crossbow or something (15 feet away, shall we say,) get to roll sneak attack?

Basically, is Flanked a status the gives you a -2 AC and weakness to being sneak attacked? or does the Sneak Attacker have to be the one flanking?

[RndmNumGen]

A411: No, Alternate Source Spell is not Pathfinder Official. This goes for everything else that Paizo has put out - it is not official unless it was specifically created for Pathfinder.

[Arillius]

Thank you randomnumber

Q412 This is one question I've had for a long time but only recently needed the answer too. It's about BAB and multiclassing.

Lets say I have a 8th level character, 6 rogue and 2 fighter. The base attack is at +6. Does this mean you get another attack at +1 or must you wait until level 8 rogue or level 6 fighter?

[Keneth]

Originally Posted by deuxhero

Amendment 408
So you have one Animal Companion that has an effective Druid level of your actual Druid level PLUS your Sorcerer level (which is Character Level -2) -3.

Yeeeeeah, no GM is gonna let that fly. Although your druid levels are used to calculate the effective sorcerer levels, they are still druid levels and therefore don't stack with themselves.

A409 Yes.
A409a Yes.
A409b No, you can't "take the spell triggered item" and turn it into something else since the item doesn't exist yet, it's just a plan for what you intend to craft. So it's either spell trigger or use activated.

A410 No, but you can cast Lockjaw on it.

A412 No, you're not flanking it. "Flanked" is not a status, the target never gains a penalty to AC when being flanked. "Flanking" is sort of a status and it gives you a +2 flanking bonus to attacks against the target.

A413 You gain iterative attacks calculated from the total Base Attack Bonus. Rog 6/Ftr 2 has BAB +6 and can make two attacks with the primary hand when performing a full attack.

[Arillius]

Sorry about that. Thank you.

[Arillius]

Q414 Can one, at level 4, combine the Rogue archetype Scouts charge ability and the rogue talent getaway artist? Not to get an extra move, but to charge 30 and then back away 30?

[Keneth]

A414 I'm guessing you mean Scout's Charge and Fast Getaway and the answer is no, you cannot. Charge is a full-round actions and Fast Getaway requires a move action to perform.

[Man on Fire]

Q415

Is there any mechanics to combine throw weapons like alchemist's bombs, Alchemist's Fire or Acid with arrows, like putting them on the top of arrowhead so they can splash once they hit the target?

[Keneth]

A415 There's the Explosive Missile discovery. Other than that, I don't think so.

--
Q416 Is there a way to bind more than 18HD of outsiders using greater planar binding? There's gate, but it functions differently, so it's not what I'm looking for.

[Demon of Death]

Q417
Is there a rule similar to the one in Savage Species, about using three or more hands to gain bonus damage, in Pathfinder?

[Arillius]

Q418 There are two Elk animal companions on the SRD. The Megaloceros or Giant Elk and the Elk. They are the same size, have the same stats and turn into large creatures at the same level. Mechanically, the only differences are their natural attacks and the Giant Elks scent feature. By this rule set, the Giant Elk is, thematically, the same creature and mechanically superior. Is there any reason why someone wouldn't be able to choose the first entry?

[powerdemon]

Q 419
Can a druid who is wildshaped with the Natural spell feat, and the wild speech feat, use a metamagic rod?