Min/Max Boards

I had another player telling me just now that anything the works with wildshape won't work with improved wildshape.  It sounds weird to me.  What do you think?

I'm face palming here.  There's a player who insists that she can add the saint template to her already vow of poverty fleshraker (which is loaded with templates).  My advice was to not do this as it's pretty clear you lose the companion as its type changes to outsider.

The player insists there's no clear part in the rules that says an outsider can't be an animal companion.  So who's right? (i'm not the gm, but i'm against this level of cheese)

Another player commented to me the following.

"On a side note, Soft, there's no benefit, RAW, to taking Magical Artisan with either Extraordinary Artisan or Exceptional Artisan: the latter two feats refer to the base price/time to create the item, the former refers to the normal cost to create the item, and despite being worded differently in the feats they are technically the same thing. They don't stack because the both reduce the same number by the same percent; reducing a 1000 GP base price by 25% and then only having to pay 75% of the normal 1000 GP cost doesn't drop the cost down to 500 GP, or even 562.5 GP. Every discussion I've seen on the topic has either ignored the wording completely, or pretended that base price and normal cost are somehow not the same thing (at least when Magical Artisan affects the Exceptional/Extraordinary Artisan feat directly; see my edit below).

For the record, I honestly wish they did stack RAW, if only because creating magic items is a huge pain the ass and takes forever once you hit more than a few thousand GP base price, and squeezing as much reduction in time (if nothing else) out of feats makes it at the very least tolerable for both the crafter and their companions, but short of Joey word-of-godding that they do, RAW, they just don't stack with each other.

ETA: Just to be clear about the above, I'm referring specifically to using the Magical Artisan feat and selecting Extraordinary or Exceptional Artisan as the Item Creation Feat it modifies; the problem goes away if applied to a feat used to craft a specific kind of item (like Craft Wonderous), so long as you apply the MA adjustment first and then the EA adjustment. (This technically isn't possible with MA being applied to EA, because in order for MA to apply at all, you first have to make use of EA, and in that particular case the base price and normal cost are the same; in the case of MA being used separately, the normal cost is reduced, and everything is then calculated from this new base price, which is NOT the case in the former.)"

This looks to be correct to me at least.  I was looking for some feedback stating why they would work together.

http://dsp-d20-srd.wikidot.com/schism

and

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialInitiativeActions.htm

Has come up in a game with a player delaying his "mental" action to act when the NPCs act.  I maintain to the DM that this is an improper use of the power since a "mental action" shouldn't serve to qualify for a delay to begin with.  So, who is right and why?

I maintain that if you were able to delay, the power would have a clause indicating that and the clause would also say the new standard action gained must also fall into the "mental action" restriction.

I'm trying to make a warforged artificer with the following house rules in place:

All pathfinder SRD + 2 traits.  All 3.5 and nonconverted 3.0 (must request dragon mag content).  2 Flaws.  Templates and 32 point buy.

My goal is to provide items at cost to the entire party in exchange for them protecting me.  I want to get the lowest possible creation costs with this build (exp costs have been transfered to gp cost in the game).  Assume I have unlimited time to craft items and am not restricted to 1000gp per day.

I do not wish to outshine the party (mostly tier 3s) in any way (nothing but crafting for them and spending my share on making that more efficient).  I'm gonna be an enabler, like their crack dealer.  Help is appreciated.