r/Pathfinder_RPG

I'm joining a pathfinder group soon and we are starting at level 3. I am planning to play a wizard but am having some trouble with traits, I'm looking at magical lineage and it seems really good but I don't know what spell to choose for it. I'm going for a battlefield control/conjuration wizard. Thanks!

Today's spell is Aggravate Affliction!

What items or class features synergize well with this spell?

Have you ever used this spell? If so, how did it go?

Why is this spell good/bad?

What are some creative uses for this spell?

What's the cheesiest thing you can do with this spell?

If you were to modify this spell, how would you do it?

Does this spell seem like it was meant for PCs or NPCs?

Previous Spell Discussions

If I am a dhampir with the unusual origin feat that gives a bite attack, and the blood drinker feat. Do I need to grapple the target in order to drink their blood?

Prerequisite: Dhampir.

Benefit: Choose one humanoid subtype, such as “goblinoid” (this subtype cannot be “dhampir”). You have acquired a taste for the blood of creatures with this subtype. Whenever you drink fresh blood from such a creature, you gain 5 temporary hit points and a +1 bonus on checks and saves based on Constitution. The effects last 1 hour. If you feed multiple times, you continue to gain hit points to a maximum of 5 temporary hit points for every three Hit Dice you have, but the +1 bonus on Constitution-based skill checks and saving throws does not stack.

Normally, you can only drink blood from an opponent who is helpless, grappled, paralyzed, pinned, unconscious, or similarly disabled. If you have a bite attack, you can drink blood automatically as part of your bite attack; otherwise, you must first cut your target by dealing 1 hit point of damage with a slashing or piercing weapon (though you may feed upon a creature with severe wounds or a bleed effect without cutting it first). Once you cut the target, you can drink from its wound as a standard action. Drinking blood deals 2 points of Constitution damage to the creature you feed upon. The blood must come from a living creature of the specified humanoid subtype. It cannot come from a dead or summoned creature. Feeding on unwilling intelligent creatures is an evil act.

The part we are confused about is the "Normally, you can only drink blood from an opponent who is helpless, grappled, paralyzed, pinned, unconscious, or similarly disabled. If you have a bite attack, you can drink blood automatically as part of your bite attack" part.

I take it as normally the only way you can drink the blood is through these methods, buuuutt if you have a bite attack you can drink the blood automatically.

let me know what you think

Are there any free user friendly resources that would allow me to run a game online? I want to run a game with friends on my discord server and im looking for apps that I could run that don't have a steep learning curve

Hey everyone,

I'm building a human Arcanist with the School Savant archetype for a full 1-20 campaign and I’m stuck between two schools. I want something strong, fun, and that will feel good all the way to level 20.

Option 1 – Admixture Evocation
I would go full blaster, spamming Fireball (and later Chain Lightning, Meteor Swarm, etc.) and using the Admixture powers to freely swap the energy type every cast. I could also grab Magic Trick (Fireball) to add a bunch of extra effects. It looks incredibly strong for AoE damage and solving the classic “everything is immune to fire” problem.

But here’s my worry: it feels like I would end up doing the exact same thing every combat (big damage spell → change element if needed). I’m afraid it might get boring after a while, and I’m also a little concerned it could break the balance of the table because the damage output is just that high.

Option 2 – Teleportation Conjuration
I would lean hard into battlefield control and summoning. I love the idea of using all the extra prepared Conjuration spells, dropping summons to control the field, and using the school’s mobility powers (Shift, Dimensional Steps, full Teleport access) to reposition myself and the party constantly. It feels way more tactical and utility-focused.

I can’t decide which direction to take. Which one would you pick for a long campaign, and why?
If you’ve played either (especially School Savant), I’d love build advice — key exploits, feats, traits, opposition schools, etc. Any tips on making either option feel fresh and powerful all the way to 20 would be amazing.

Thanks in advance!

Basically the title. I started looking into Pathfinder because it let you gain more from your race and heritage as your level increased kinda like Overlord and the various monster protagonist stories. It does that really well, but in terms of classes I feel like I'm missing something with sorcerer. I want to have there be a single main focus in terms of spells, with the character growing in mastery and control of that specialization instead of just strength. Kinda like a focus on improving and better channeling what you got from your heritage higher than your people are normally capable of or becoming a paragon of it. Like a thematic middle ground between Super Saiyan and a second phase of a boss fight, bonus points for body horror.

Hey all,

Our DM has created a world in which there is no arcane magic, and is very medieval. It's fun to have some limits. There are some limits on classes (wizard, sorcerer, summoner not allowed). My last PC in this world was a Cavalier/Inquisitor half elf that was an absolute nuke on his trusted steed, Ser Walter.

Anyway, he's taking Skulls and Shackles and converting to this world/setting and bringing in some of the things we did last time that would have affected the world.

So this next mini campaign we'll be pirates. I know there is the obvious choice of swashbuckler, but I was wondering what else people thought would be fun?

I enjoy the 1e customization options, but sometimes combat turns into "I stay in one spot and swing 2 or 3 times", and maybe thats me not knowing the rules

So basically, I'm wondering, what are some ideas to build a character that does more than just attack a bunch of times and is pirate themed? In 1e I've played a war priest (briefly), the above mentioned multiclass, and a barbarian. So open to suggestions.

I also don't know so much about feats and such as there are just so many. I like characters that have options in combat while trying to be effective.

I was playing around with a human fighter that uses nets and tridents because it seemed fun lol .

Anyway, thanks in advance.

Link: Elemental Annihilation Wave

This spell was not in the Remaster. The Knights of Last Call 'All Spells Ranked' series ranked this spell as C Tier. Would you change that ranking, and why?

What items or class features synergize well with this spell?

Have you ever used this spell? If so, how did it go?

Why is this spell good/bad?

What are some creative uses for this spell?

What's the cheesiest thing you can do with this spell?

If you were to modify this spell, how would you do it?

Does this spell seem like it was meant for PCs or NPCs?

Previous spell discussions

Is it possible to build a character that is functional with improvised weapons beyond like lvl 2?

I had the thought of a character who is a mostly normal guy who managed to kill a goblin with a frying pan and has just kept that as his weapon because it worked once and it is multi purpose.

Today's spell is Aggressive Thundercloud!

What items or class features synergize well with this spell?

Have you ever used this spell? If so, how did it go?

Why is this spell good/bad?

What are some creative uses for this spell?

What's the cheesiest thing you can do with this spell?

If you were to modify this spell, how would you do it?

Does this spell seem like it was meant for PCs or NPCs?

Previous Spell Discussions

I was looking for support or some type of "attacking from higher ground" build option. I realized there's pretty much nothing. There's a Strix Fighter archetype , they'll let you jump at people and give you a scaling bonus to hit (upon successful acrobatics check). Doesn't replace weapon training.

Other than that it's just Death From Above and some people say Branch Pounce which isn't really in that field.

Then I found out that "When you attack a creature smaller than your mount that is on foot, you get the +1 bonus on melee attacks for being on higher ground." Over in the combat rules.

Question 1. Does Death from Above essentially just give you a +2 to hit against opponents smaller than your mount?

Question 2. If I'm flying 5 feet off the ground, attacking diagonally downward at a small/medium opponent, do I get the attacking from higher ground bonus?

Question 3. If the answer to question 2 is yes, does that mean I would get a +1 to hit when using Flyby Attack in this manner? Obviously I wouldn't get a charge bonus and can't use Death From Above with Flyby Attack.

Question 4. "A creature smaller than your Mount that is on foot-" does that mean I don't get the +1 bonus against a Sprite hovering 2 feet off the ground while mounted, or against a small creature riding a medium mount? Would I only get it against the mount, not the mounted creature?

I was unhappy with the Core Rulebook starting funds for characters. It seemed that rolling for funds seemed unfair.

I created these house rules to hopefully be more reasonable and fair. Martial classes can start with good non-magical armor and other classes can get some nice starting items.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

Starting Equipment

• Ignore the starting funds for classes.  All characters get the following:
  • The “kit” for their class (such as “wizard’s kit” or “swashbuckler’s kit”).  These typically include a backpack, torches, rations, a bedroll, and some items for a specific class.  
  • Any set of clothing worth 50 gp or less.
  • Select four options, in any combination, from the list below.  All starting items will be normal quality and made from standard materials.  You (or your creature if choosing barding) must be proficient in any weapon, armor, or shield.  You must have the spell on your class spell list if selecting a scroll.  These items can never be sold, but can be given away to PCs or NPCs in-game.  Range weapons come with a standard amount of ammunition (usually 20).
    • armor
    • barding, saddle, tackle, and 5 days of feed
    • melee weapon
    • range weapon
    • shield
    • 1st level scroll (or two 0th-level scrolls)
    • 1st level potion (or two 0th-level potions)
    • Single-use alchemical item
    • A set of tools or a kit such as healer’s kit, disguise kit, artisan’s tools, or thieves tools that cost 50 gp or less.  
    • 25 gp in coins or other items
  • If starting at a higher level, get these items and then apply the standard Wealth By Level to buy additional items.

 

Is there any particular reason it appears on the list of Rogue Talents, but not the Unchained Rogue's?

I'm going to be GMing our party's next campaign and I thought I'd add a houserule or two just to spice things up, not too many because I don't want to go overboard.

We have a small number we use already but I feel most of those are fairly common (don't track gold weight, don't track nonmagical ammunition, we also recently started using the 'elephant in the room' rules) and I don't plan on changing those.

I was thinking about a houserule that nat 20s can bypass miss chance.

So I'm DMing CotCT (my first campaign where I'm DMing) for my RL-friend group of 5 and they are currently crawling at snail's pace through Scarwall (hiatus occur often and they are pretty thorough which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Anyways overall they are honestly really stacked and one might say quite min-maxxed (25 points; Bloodrager has over 200 HP due to his familiar and dishes out really high damage; Brown-Fur Transmuter additionally doing big transformations on his party mates and exploiting Blood Money; ...). In short they only had very little difficulty in 98% of encounters.

Anyways I can clearly see that some of them are really attached to their characters and especially since it's so far into the campaign I imagine that they would just get more upset on a death. For the first half of the campaign I was honestly a bit fed up since almost every encounter was the equivalent of a wet paper towel and in comparison I'm a guy who's the most intrigued of challenging battles instead of highly optimized ones. I still have the same opinion today but I also have gotten more hesitant to throw something truly life-threatening at them which will just make them mad (even though I personally think that such encounters belong to the coolest).

In Scarwall there's specifically two instances of insta-death moments: the Banshee on the roof-area and the Demilich who also is a chained spirit (thus required). I worked through their stat blocks and generally think that they have the potential to be really cool fights. As you can probably already tell, there's one issue with both of them: both have at least one ability which can just instanly delete your character.

I already have warned the players that in this dungeon there are such encounters which can just instantly throw your character's spirit into the afterlife (not sure if they truly got the memo though or just don't want to comment on that). Anyways I just don't want those encounters to just happen out of the blue so it doesn't look like I'm bullshitting them.

I already thought about implementing a build-up for each of them and hinting that they have such abilities and it would be unwise to go in unprepared even for a steamroller of a party that they are. For example the two DM-PCs from the brotherhood could warn them that past investigations from the air all failed because the roof-spirit's scream lead to most of them dropping into the lake like a sack of potatoes. On the demilich the concept of this enemy basically is surprising a overly uncautious and them facing the consequences. Since the arcanist has extremely high knowledge, he could notice that something's not quite right about that skull. Also I thought of perhaps hiding a single(!) scroll of resurrection somewhere in the dungeon. What would you do? Are you generally more unbothered about (rare) save-or-suck abilities?

TL;DR most of my players are very attached to their characters and I'm highly hesitant to throw extremely deadly enemies at my party even though I personally enjoy such encounters.

Oh boy, so the title is pretty straightforward and it has been weighing quite heavily on me as a DM. The party were all level 3, now level 4 as they’ve reached the conclusion of Burnt Offerings, but I am seriously worried about burning them out from potentially even more deaths later on. The group consists of 3 newer players (1 yr of experience at most for the 3) and 2 more seasoned members (near 6 yrs of experience for both), but it hasn’t gone as smoothly as I expected for them.

Should I lower the difficulty of some encounters going forward? The group really struggled with >!Malfeshnekor on the bottom floor of Thistletop!< having led to 3 out of the 5 party members dying. They also struggled with >!Koruvus in the Catacombs!< before all of this when the group was only 3 party members, 1 of which died in that encounter as well.

Or should I continue to play the content as normal and allow them to adjust + grow over time? I don’t want to make the campaign itself a cakewalk, but I also don’t want to sour everyone’s experience.

In Pathfinder Worldscape Vol 3. Swords of Sorrow, there is a scene where we see Nex has captured a host of gods from the multiverse. Specifically a shot shows 3 such captured gods, those being public domain character Stardust the Super Wizard, the Vampirella character the Conjureress (probably Lilith but there has been other conjuresses), and a 3rd figure that I am thinking is a Golarion deity. My best guest is that it is a rendition of Acavna, but I wanted others' thoughts from those who have the issue to look through.

As the title says: the spell specifies a "harmless animal," and it fits both the character and the environment for him to turn into a regular garden worm. How strict would you be when it comes to movement, senses, and other aspects of the situation? He’s likely going to spend at least two rounds in this form and will attempt to move.

I was thinking a 10 ft burrow speed and tremorsense, but is that too harsh?