Im trying to come up with a build that my character is half fire elemental and half dragon. He is trying to be a master at the fire element. To the point he is seeking a wish or a way to make his elemental body spell permanent. Though he also doesn’t know that the stronger he becomes the more his dormant dragon DNA begins to show to the point he grows dragon wings and a tail and so forth ( basically the effects of being a dragon disciple). To the point he becomes a hybrid between an elemental and a dragon disciple.

Settle an argument for me, Reddit...

One of my players has resurrected a slain rust monster as a zombie under her control, and we're disputing whether it would still be able to use the Rust ability despite being a shambling undead abomination.

Argument for: the antennae that it uses for its rust attack are listed as part of its melee arsenal and count as natural weapons, and RAW say that " A zombie retains all the natural weapons, manufactured weapon attacks, and weapon proficiencies of the base creature." The only damage the antennae do is the rust effect, so that effect is one of the creatures natural weapons and would be retained when it becomes a zombie.

Argument against: RAW also say that "A zombie retains none of the base creature’s special attacks." Rust is listed under Special Abilities and has the supernatural descriptor, so it counts as a special attack and would be lost when the creature is zombified.

So: can a rust monster zombie still make things rust, or not? What do you think?

A while ago I asked folks if they wanted to see a continuation of my "5 Tips" series that I'd written for the base classes. I got a resounding yes, with a lot of requests for the Occult classes. And I'm definitely going to make sure I follow that up.

However, I also realized just how many numbered articles I've put together with this format. As such, I've gathered them all together in a single 5 Tips archive page over on Improved Initiative.

Other than races and classes (the two main series I've been adding to over the past year and change), what other aspects would folks like to see? I'm open to suggestions!

So I have not grok'ed the Elemental Body spell. I don't get how it's worded.

It seems like one of two things is the case when you cast the spell:

Option 1: I am still exactly the same base PC, but with a few added effects as noted in the description of the spell.

If this is the case, then if I turn into a fire elemental am I attacking with the sword I was holding before I cast the spell? If I was a medium creature before and I turn into a small elemental then do I suddenly shrink in size? How does the gear I have on me factor into everything? Do I just keep going like the spell wasn't there (attacking with the scimitar I already had as opposed to a slam attack)?

Option 2: I go to the monster manual, look up the stats for whatever elemental I am turning into and those are now my stats except where the spell says otherwise.

This one I don't really get, either. What happens to my gear? Does it absorb into my body and cease to function? What gets to function and what doesn't? What happens to my hit points? Do I use the elemental's or my own? Can I still cast spells? When the spell insists that I add points to stats, do I add them to MY stats or do I add them to the block of stats provided in the elemental entry of the beastiary? Do I get to keep my mental stats? What about saving throws? Feats?

I’m an old school DM, have been tabletop RPGing, wargaming and card gaming for close to 30 years. Moved up from Melb 6 years ago and looking to join a group to run Pathfinder or play. Hoping to play once a month if possible. Lots of RPG experience, I’ve run D&D, AD&D, Cthulhu, L5R, Pendragon, Kult, SLA, and many others. Played even more. My adult son also wants to join in, so any group will get 2 members for the price of one!

Edit: I’m already lvl 5 Edit 2: my character currently

I downloaded a module for fantasy grounds about some gnomes that were extracting crystals to sell it to mages for arcana arts. some leopards were trying to push the gnome out of the mine and there is an elemental imprisoned in the mine.

The thing is that my players are asking details about where we are, the zone or what city is near. I want a common place for this adventure, I am reading but I want some help. I found this map of Golarion https://oznogon.com/golarion/#4/38.09/-4.35

As folks around here have no doubt noticed, I'm in the process of a big, digital move. Taking a bunch of old guides and articles of mine, updating them for newer content, and then getting them up on their new home.

One part of what I'm calling the Great Shuffling are all the character conversion guides I wrote for PF Classic, and one section of them is Badasses of History. The idea when I started that project was to combine a fun history lesson and a PF conversion guide into one, making it a fun and interesting historical piece in addition to getting the mechanics in.

I recently moved over my guides for Harriet Tubman and Doc Holliday, and I'd previously featured figures like Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko on the list.

While I have a few old builds left to re-home (Roosevelt, Washington, Lincoln, etc.), I thought I'd ask folks if there was interest in starting it back up again now that a new hosting location has been found. And if there was interest, do you have any suggestions for figures I should write up?

Some candidates I'd been toying around with included Sir Christopher Lee, as well as some more famous figures like William Wallace, Grace O'Malley, etc. If you have thoughts, please share them!

The summoner is one of those classes that people have really strong opinions about. Either you love them, or you hate them, and there's very few in-between. I personally love them, but I'm very aware that they are not great for players who aren't willing to do bookkeeping, and who aren't interested in a lot of reading.

To that end, I wanted to toss out some advice for those looking to make a good run with this class, while avoiding some of the pitfalls it offers.

#1: Your PC is the Summoner, NOT The Eidolon

This has been my single biggest irritation with summoner PCs I've interacted with, to the point that I made it the first installment on my 5 Tips For Playing Better Summoners list a while back. Your character is the summoner; the eidolon is their class feature. It's a cool class feature, and you should expand on and enjoy it by all means. However, remember that you're piloting two different entities, here, and if you want to get the most out of your game you need them to work together.

Don't just have your summoner standing there gormlessly doing nothing while you focus on the eidolon. They're a team, play them like one.

#2: Summon Responsibly (Make Notecards)

The other big complaint I've seen from people is how players will use the summoning spell-like ability of the class, but then never have something prepared. This eats into time, and slows down everything. So, before you ever come to the table, get a stack of notecards prepared with some beasties on them. Get some minis for them, and keep them near-to-hand for when you need them. That way you can lay out your turn, get your back-up ready to roll, and boom, you did it faster than the fighter resolved their attacks.

The second part of this is to know what the creatures you summon can do, and to have their actions plotted out ahead of time. That way combat doesn't turn into the summoner and their friends, guest-starring the party. Using monsters with buffing abilities, or who can Aid Another on your companions helps a lot, and is a good way to make you very popular.

#3: Have Back-Ups

This is a general piece of advice, but summoners run into it a LOT. Protecting yourself from summoned creatures isn't overly difficult, and there are going to be times when you can't bring your big beastie along for the ride (you were sleeping, you're in a town that wouldn't react well to the presence of an eidolon, etc.). So make sure you have alternative plans in place for when, "I summon X thing," isn't the best strategy.

Whether it's keeping magic items on your person, remembering that you have spells, or just making good old-fashioned skill checks, you have options when you're a summoner beyond calling beasts from the void. Know what those other options are so you can use them when you need them.

#4: The Environment is Not Obligated To Be Kind To Your Eidolon

The sheer number of times I've seen players nearly pitch a fit because they put in all this time and effort to build Godzilla, without checking to see the sort of adventure they were going on, is frustrating. Because if you're going into a campaign that's all about dungeon delving and stealth, and you build a Huge companion whose one trick is a deafening roar, then you have brought the wrong ally to this adventure. Find out what the theme of the game is before you get too focused on your monster, if you want to avoid frustration.

Anyone else have additional advice? Note that, "Don't play a summoner," isn't advice, as it's a valid class and a part of the game.

My sewer-delving players are going to be running into an otyugh in the not-too-distant future, and I'd like to make the encounter a little more interesting than the standard, "ooh, a monster; let's stab it!" variety. According to the Bestiary, otyughs are intelligent and can speak Common, and are known to form alliances in order to obtain the refuse on which they feed, so I figure some sort of extremely disgusting fetch quest could make for a brief interlude, but what I'm not sure about is how best to actually play the role of a scavenging abberation with a fondness for other species' refuse. Anyone have any hints or tips on how to make this filthy abomination a bit more interesting to talk to?

Also, how the hell do you pronounce it?

Hello,

One of my players wants to build a character based on the shingeki no kyojin anime. I couldn't find anything related to it online. Do you have any suggestions on how to build it ?

Thank you in advance

I love bruisers. While I'll play spellcasters, martial PCs are my jam. And one of the things I love to do with them is to assign them a real fighting style. Something that's one part mechanics, one part flavor, and all around functional.

Forever and a day ago, I decided to try out a dwarven monk. That sweet Wisdom bonus came in handy, and with some fairly high rolls I had solid stats. The DM wanted to run a kind of pre-industrial game edging into Steampunk territory, and while I could have brought a wandering wuxia fighter in all Kung-Fu style, I opted to do something a little different.

What I made was Falling Stone. A balding, heavily mustached dwarf with thick hands, a heavy cockney accent, and who didn't look all that unusual in how bowler hat and slightly threadbare tweeds. What his opponents didn't realize until it was too late, though, was that this Maneuver Master monk might not hurt them, but that when you're deaf, entangled, and knocked flat on your ass, the fight is over for all intents and purposes.

The inspiration came from reading about Bartitsu, essentially Victorian-era MMA, and the idea was to make someone who could take apart most foes using a combination of disarms, dirty tricks, and trips, taking his attacks of opportunity to deal damage when his foes tried to get back up, or punch him without proficiency. And, generally speaking, it worked like a charm.

He was also the inspiration for The Brotherhood of The Brawl, which was a loose association of bouncers, street fighters, and low-rent knuckle busters that was one part Fight Club, and one part back alley dojo.

All in all, had a blast with him.

But I told you that story to ask this question... what fighting styles have you tried to bring across with your characters, either real world or fantasy? How well did it work, and how did you do it?

So my DM told my group that in late August we will be running a 3 session campaign outside of our current campaign. We have been asked to make a lvl 20 character and 900,000GP for equipment and outfitting. I’ve chosen to go with an Ifrit Flame Elemental Sorcerer. What sorts of items and there cost would you go with for this character?

Playing a noble-born character seems like one of those things a lot of players just need to try out at least once in their gaming careers. However, my experience with these characters has been less than stellar overall, as it seems most players who take on the role will use it as a way to purposefully cause friction, frustrate others, and act like a jerk while using their status to avoid repercussions for their actions.

I saw it so often I slapped together the guide 5 Tips For Playing Better Noble Characters a while back, and judging from the response to that article I'm far from the only person who's run into this issue. So I figured I'd pop in, share one of my more annoying tales, and see if anyone else wanted to get in on the complain train.

Several years back, I decided I wanted to run a fantasy-horror game. My players were generally down, and I got some solid character concepts that I still remember fondly to this day. One of the players, though, was a little more difficult than the others. He was one of those guys who always wants to be a samurai in the historical sense, rather than just taking the class and fitting the mechanics to the game in question.

Being a generous DM who had expected something like this to happen yet again, I asked him to meet me in the middle. If he wanted to be a Japanese-style noble in the section of the world we were playing in, then I asked him to attach himself to a particular elven conclave that gave him the flavor he wanted, and let him keep his katana. He conceded to my request, and I thought we were pretty good to go.

Sadly, I'd forgotten that this particular player often mistook confrontation for character development. So what I ended up with was an elven samurai who constantly talked down to the rest of the party, degraded those of non-elven blood, and refused to participate in any of the lowly tasks and duties of the common born.

That was all bad enough, but anytime I reminded him of his duties to his people, his lands, his family, his oaths, and all that other stuff that came with his character (stuff I'd laid out beforehand and that he agreed he was totally down for), I got that bored eye roll that says without words, "Jeez, why not just stake my fun out on an anthill and watch it bleed to death."

Short version, part of the thrill for this player was using his perceived status as a noble to just be a jerk to the rest of the table.

Another problem this player had, though, was actually making it to game on days we'd agreed to play. Because he didn't want to miss out on XP, though, he asked me to ghost his character whenever he couldn't make it.

That was where I decided to have a bit of fun.

On the days when I was in the driver's seat of this particular elf, he mysteriously grew a luxurious fu manchu, and became one of the party's favorite characters. He used his long years of experience to offer insight on fighting styles, to speak vaguely of ancient myths and legends, and to essentially become team dad. And then the player would return, and his glorious facial hair would vanish, and we'd go back to business as usual.

He didn't last long... if memory serves, he was eaten by an ettercap, and no one wanted to stop running through the spider forest long enough to save him. My version still lives on as an NPC, and I decided to make it that samurai's father.

Anyone else have memorable tales of noble PCs?