Just Some General Questions..

[*Gazoo]

I find that character social skills are tricky. I refer to really high Bluff, Intimidate, Diplomacy, Perform.

Even though you-the-player may or may not have any of those skills, you can't simply roll the numbers all the time (even if that is the whole intent of the numbers).

So it can be taxing to have to RP something you may not be in RL, personality. Unlike a combat skill, where you may do the same mechanical combat move every time, it often makes very little sense to use the extreme RP skills too much.

But once in a while it creates a nice effect in RP, to confirm the character's ability or disability. And that adds a little fun.

For example: you can play a diplomatic extreme 100% of the time, but you'll likely only roll your actual skill very few times. And generally people want to see a lot of RP effort up to that point.

But a small investment of skill is never that hard to justify. It's also just as difficult to consistently play something that has zero social skills (No compromise, limited interaction in party discussions, etc.)

Just my thoughts on it. I'm trying to evolve from pure mechanics builder to a better RP, so I'm relatively new to trying to make these particular skills work well.

The only question I'm still have, is what would be considered your everyday average social skill amount. I'm guessing the normal person in society has around 10-15. Thoughts?

P.S. And if your question was concerning NPCs: no, it doesn't have a great impact here. There are a few quests where it might add some variety to the answer, but it gives no real advantage.

[*Sinlinara]

I actually had one rather interesting experience with a character of mine who was skilled in Sleight of Hand that wasn't rolled for intentionally. A scroll was involved, left behind by a quasit who had plane-shifted out. My character, a Tiefling Rogue named Daniss was asked to roll a will save because having fiend blood made her easier to influence, which she succeeded at first. The DM of the event whispered me, telling me that for some reason I was felt a strange urge to take the scroll from the party member who was holding onto it (who presumably had enough of a skill to know that it wasn't good).
I was asked to roll a few more will saves as we were traveling back to town, each one progressively getting harder until my -1 Wisdom mod eventually failed me. At that point the DM rolled my Sleight of Hand for me (which of course I succeeded) and had my character steal the scroll. I went along with it and emoted her reading the scroll after he whispered me again saying I had a desire to read it.

Bad things happened. A balor was summoned. Fun times were not had.

[*Santeri]

Does damage reduction of Pixies stacks with damage reduction of Warlocks and one granted by Fey Skin Feat?

[*Altair]

Damage reduction applies the best only. For example: Altair has DR 5(or 10)/silver from werewolf depending on what shape I take, and currently DR 3/- from his barbarian levels. So if I take 15 damage from a normal short sword, I reduce 5 or 10 points depending on what form, because it's not silver, so the higher number applies. If it's a silvered short sword, it pierces my racial DR, but the Barbarian DR still applies, because it can't be prevented by anything. So in this case, I'd still reduce the damage, but only by the amount my Barbarian levels apply. If I keep taking Barbarian levels, it would theoretically be possible to lessen (or even shed) my weakness to silvered weapons.

[*Mick64]

The only question I'm still have, is what would be considered your everyday average social skill amount. I'm guessing the normal person in society has around 10-15

The average -person- would have maybe something like 2 or 3 (by PnP. Of course DMs might decide differently) because the average person is a level 1-2 commoner / expert (Although maybe not in Sigil....) who just don't have that many point to go around. 10-15 is probably more around what your minor politician (Priest, assistant mayor, political activist, etc) will have.


As for DR, it's best to always assume that, like Energy Resistance, it never stacks, because it doesn't except in a few very corner cases (Most notably, Fey Skin and Warlock DR do stack.)

[*Mick64]

Owl's wisdom won't work because it turns off when you rest, making you lose your spell slots. A +WIS item however, does work.

[*Altair]

Spell circles are restricted by class level. For our example, we'll be using a Wizard. Other classes may have slightly delayed progression, but will function in a similar manner.

Wizards can learn 0th and 1st circle spells at 1st level, and every odd level thereafter (3, 5, 7...) gain knowledge of another circle, up to 9th circle at... 15th? 17th? Something like that. So a 9th level wizard could cast 5th circle spells. Potentially.

This is where things get a bit weird. In addition to caster level, the circle of magic you can use is also restricted by your primary casting stat. INT for our example, WIS for your druid (Or most other divine casters.) So let us take our 9th level Wizard. For our purposes, he has access to 5th circle spells, but his INT is tragically only 13. To cast a spell circle, you need Spell Circle + 10 INT, so for 5th circle, we need 15. Not only can our wizard not cast 5th circle magic, but because of his low INT he's also restricted from casting 4th as well.

To confuse you even further, you can raise the circle of spell you can cast by way of animal blessings, but it has to be granted by an item, because any spell that you would cast would wear off when you rest to memorize new spells. This even applies to spontaneous casters like bards, because they only get the charges they use after resting, not when the statistic improves.

Let's say our Wizard tries to use Fox's Cunning. It would raise his INT, the DC of his spells, and technically give him temporary spell slots, but when he rests to memorize more, it would wear off. Those slots fade away, still empty, without giving our Wizard more spells.

Now let's give him a circlet, imbued with a +4 INT. This time, the item effect won't wear off when he rests since it's a 'permanent' effect, so he would gain the spell slots. However, removing the item, or otherwise having his INT score reduced would cause these 'temporary' spell slots to be lost first. So it's a risky game to play.

[*Swami Monsoon]

Thanks for the clarification.

The character in question is a hybrid (Barb/Shaman/Stormlord) so he won't be casting over level 7 spells most likely. The item should work... I just hope there's nothing else critical that might go in that slot.

[*Altair]

That should be fine. If you can get an item with at least +3 to WIS it will let you cast the 7th circle spells you're shooting for. Though keep in mind that your DC will be rather low, so buff spells may be more effective than fireballs. Also consider Practiced Spellcaster, Spell Focus/Greater Focus, or other ways to raise the DC of specific schools of magic if you do plan to use offensive magic with any regularity. Also a higher primary casting stat will give you more bonus spell slots, so extra points are never wasted.

[*Swami Monsoon]

He's focusing exclusively on buff/healing/utility spells.
The idea was to make a self-sufficient character... although at ECL 13 I'm getting the idea that his soloing days are behind him.