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[Harry Baldman]

Most of those are tricky at level one. Also flying is a no-go in cramped tunnels anyway.

You're fighting all that silly nonsense at level 1?

Perhaps not that helpful either, but Glitterdust is a pretty good solution to something that's invisible or stealthed (particularly in a cramped tunnel since its low radius can be a bit of a bummer in open spaces). If the blindness procs, you might also make them unable to teleport!

[Oneir]

Sneak Attack while flat-footed? If you're playing Pathfinder, any form of long term flight will stop that nonsense. You are not considered flat-footed while flying.

...What the heck. Isn't the fluff for being immune to flat-footed usually ninja-master stuff? So birds are just innately hyper-aware?

[Urist Mc Dwarf]

I mean, they'd have to watch out for other birds and stuff. And flying probably requires good balance

[SOLDIER First]

Don't tell me you think it's easy.

[Neonivek]

It seems like a mistake they made while making the flying rules.

The Pathfinder rules for flying are... kind of... broken... Better to just ignore them and use the 3.5 system.

[Jimmy]

If your group is level 1, straight up go buy some guard dogs. 25 gp and a move action Handle Animal check to get it to perform the Guard trick. It has Scent, so it'll warn you if anything is nearby and avoid your group getting ambushed. Then during battle, command it to Attack. Free flanking is godlike at low levels, and it soaks up enemy attacks too.

[scriver]

It seems somebody forgot "flat-footed" isn't being literal.

[Harry Baldman]

It seems somebody forgot "flat-footed" isn't being literal.

I think that's what the wording is there for, it's so an asshole GM can't go like "nuh uh, your feet are totally not moving so you get a sneak attack you flying bastard". What's meant is that you're not flat-footed while actively flying, not while you're all like hovering in place and what have you.

[Draignean]

It seems somebody forgot "flat-footed" isn't being literal.

I think that's what the wording is there for, it's so an asshole GM can't go like "nuh uh, your feet are totally not moving so you get a sneak attack you flying bastard". What's meant is that you're not flat-footed while actively flying, not while you're all like hovering in place and what have you.

Even then, you should still be able to be caught flat footed while in active flight. Birds that hunt birds often dive on them from above while both are on the wing. That should still count as a sneak attack.

Hell, a human flying in an open environment should be easier to sneak attack, not harder. We aren't built to pay attention in 3 dimension simultaneously.

Does pathfinder allow you to be caught flat footed while swimming?

[Oneir]

Does pathfinder allow you to be caught flat footed while swimming?

If it doesn't, that rule didn't make it onto the swim page. The whole of the description from the conditions page honestly makes this more confusing.

A character who has not yet acted during a combat is flat-footed, unable to react normally to the situation. A flat-footed character loses his Dexterity bonus to AC and Combat Maneuver Defense (CMD) (if any) and cannot make attacks of opportunity, unless he has the Combat Reflexes feat or Uncanny Dodge class ability.

Characters with Uncanny Dodge retain their Dexterity bonus to their AC and can make attacks of opportunity before they have acted in the first round of combat.

Like, nothing in that says anything that implies flying would make you flat-footed, right? So the only thing that seems like it would inspire a specific ruling in the fly rules is an asshole DM like Baldman said.

[Jimmy]

I'm hoping we get through the Downtime activities now that my group is back in town and onto some more adventuring soon. We've mostly taken care of loot sale via email, and tonight's table session should finish out all the downtime activities planned for retraining characters and researching and gathering information off screen.

So far I've got five adventure hooks available for the group in this small harbour city:

1. Local merchants offer bounty on the pirate ship Black Tide led by their pirate queen captain L’Atette Sherie on island allied with native halfing barbarian cannibals
2. Ebilet Stickwhistle, an ex-priest of Asmodeus, seeks escort to semi-intelligent demiplane Lexivore to retrieve lost documents, assures plane won’t digest them if they’re quick
3. Law enforcement officer Lieutenant Stena Taft seeks information about an underground smuggling operation specializing in trapped angel souls
4. Harbormaster ‘Tappy’ Tuttle wants assistance investigating recent loss of contact with Sharpwater Lighthouse on an isolated island far out to sea
5. Lady Wainscote seeks to hire group of negotiators to parlay release of her son Groven Wainscote captured by Aboleth during a shipwreck

I'm fairly certain that they'll take the ex-priest up on his offer, since one of the characters is trying to rescue their relatives from slavers who have strong ties to the church of Asmodeus. Still, doesn't hurt to be prepared. Hopefully they actually do something instead of just wander around looking for random encounters.

[Neonivek]

Does pathfinder allow you to be caught flat footed while swimming?

If it doesn't, that rule didn't make it onto the swim page. The whole of the description from the conditions page honestly makes this more confusing.

A character who has not yet acted during a combat is flat-footed, unable to react normally to the situation. A flat-footed character loses his Dexterity bonus to AC and Combat Maneuver Defense (CMD) (if any) and cannot make attacks of opportunity, unless he has the Combat Reflexes feat or Uncanny Dodge class ability.

Characters with Uncanny Dodge retain their Dexterity bonus to their AC and can make attacks of opportunity before they have acted in the first round of combat.

Like, nothing in that says anything that implies flying would make you flat-footed, right? So the only thing that seems like it would inspire a specific ruling in the fly rules is an asshole DM like Baldman said.

It is very likely a typo for multiple reasons (As I said pathfinder flight rules are terrible >_<). It is in a completely random location (A skill section... AND not even in general... a section on how the fly skill is used).

Assuming it isn't just flat out nonsense... it might be from an older set of the rules where you used your CMD to remain in flight against an attack, instead of the fly skill. So it was more that you always get your CMD bonus to resist being knocked out of the air, regardless if you are flat-footed or not.

As said I stick to 3.5 rules and migrate them to Pathfinder if I need them. It gets pretty ridiculous with some creatures' really terrible flight abilities.

Or rather Pathfinder suffers because it is copying 3.5 directly but drastically changed the flight rules (It affects creatures with perfect and clumsy flight the most...)

[Jimmy]

...aaaaaaand we're done! Friday night session is complete, and the winner is...

NOTHING!!!

Seriously, the players didn't go for any of the adventure hooks. Honestly guys, what's hard about this? Someone needs a group of murderhobos to go kill stuff and take their magic things, and you're not fucking interested?!

[Neonivek]

Ehh we are heroes... the adventure comes to us no matter what we do. (I actually had a comic of this... but it would take forever to find it)

[Teneb]

...aaaaaaand we're done! Friday night session is complete, and the winner is...

NOTHING!!!

Seriously, the players didn't go for any of the adventure hooks. Honestly guys, what's hard about this? Someone needs a group of murderhobos to go kill stuff and take their magic things, and you're not fucking interested?!

Players have a tendency to go against what the GM wants. As an example, in my last D&D session, the players, myself included, manage to defeat the overpowered enemy general and his army despite our GM wanting us to be captured as part of his adventure hook. Instead we pretended to surrender and unleashed all our strongest magic point-blank on the general.