ENHenry's page

I've not had many complaints about PF2, so... bear with me... here's my biggest complaint so far. Not even Resonance can possibly affect a character so profoundly.

So, of complaint frequently is the idea that Alchemist Kits are 2 Bulk. This is quite a hefty kit by comparison: Climbing Kits? Repair Kits? Healer Kits? 1 Bulk. Smaller kits like Thieves' Tools? even lighter.

Even a FREAKIN' TEN-FOOT POLE is 1 Bulk! An alchemist Tool Kit is harder to tote around than a Ten Foot Long Wooden Pole.

However, other Devices and kits are even more ridiculously overweight in terms of bulk. A Snare Kit? What if you want a Ranger to have Snares be their "go to" ability? A Snare Kit is 8 BULK. That would encumber all but the 16 STR warrior, and that's with nothing else carried except his skivvies and a hopeful gleam in his eye. He would have to put this on a mount -- no, scratch that. A Snare Kit is as bulky as a six-foot tall person. A mount could, unencumbered, carry the snare kit, or a rider with his gear. Not both.

So let's look at Bulky Musical Instruments. 16 Bulk. OK, a Piano I could see - maybe a portable Harpsichord. But what examples do we see? a set of drums, or a Tuba. That one doesn't bother me as much, but it still stands out as a level of Bulk that will not even grace a mount -- perhaps a wagon.

So, in addition to fixing the poor required Alchemy Kit, perhaps we could do something to make that poor snare kit viable, especially if we WANT the Ranger and other wilderness-types to find it appealing to use.

I re-read the text, and unless I'm missing something, I do not see any prohibitions against players using the Aid action against a DC 15 (the default) to help a puzzle solver with the ring-lock thing in C4. Anything I'm missing here for rules-as-written playtest purposes? Looks like if you have a party of four, they could all work together to get up to a +6 to the Skill check to disable the lock, making it MUCH easier.

If they get the gemes, you're looking at an effectively +5 to +11 to disable each DC25 mechanism.

I could have misunderstood, but I thought Jason B. and Dan T. in the Paizo blog Friday said there was supposed to be a page of Errata coming out today and a link posted to the Playtest download page? Anyone know if it got delayed, or perhaps I misunderstood the date?

Thanks, all!

"This new photo of Ryugu, taken by the spacecraft’s ONC-W1 (Optical Navigation Camera - Wide angle) on June 24, reveals an object that appears to have roughly the shape of an eight-sided die—a game piece that players of “Dungeons and Dragons” are very familiar with. Hayabusa 2 project manager Yuichi Tsuda said it looks like a piece of fluorite, or even an abacus bead..."

The only asteroid that can roll its own damage... :D

https://gizmodo.com/fantastic-new-view-of-ryugu-asteroid-reveals-a-distinct -1827100905

Cool blog, crafting looks very promising

I would like to start a humble request, in honor of the Glass Cannon Podcast being the officially sponsored actual play podcast, and in honor of Skid Maher's phenomenal characterizations on the podcasts, to change the Iconic Alchemist for PF2 to be "Mamalo Blunch."

Thank you. :)

P.S. Keith Slashmaster will still not be a suitable replacement for Valeros. Sorry, Troy.

Twenty-one-two?

Two-one-two?

Chapter 21 Verse 2?

21 Colon 2?

I'm at a bit of a loss.

I have a rules question that's more "Why" than "How." Regarding Undercasting, I understand that it originated in Occult Adventures, but I have to wonder why Paizo chose Undercasting as opposed to the already-open-licensed overcasting as it appears in the Psionics handbook, or the similar implementation in Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed/Evolved open licensed product, or even WotC's open version of overcasting in 5e.

In my mind, just as addition is more intuitive than subtraction, it would seem more intuitive to pick a spell, and have higher versions built into the spell as you level, rather than going through the dance of "pick a spell, then when you level, pick the same spell AGAIN, then pick another spell to replace the spell you just replaced."

Was it that Paizo felt it would be on shaky OGL-ground to use overcasting? Was it a "Not Invented Here" mindset (which I doubt, Paizo's been known to re-use good, simple existing OGC before)? While it works just fine, and I'm not complaining about its serviceability, I'm just curious if someone sees some advantage to Undercasting versus Overcasting that I'm not, or maybe just to get a little of Paizo's thought process on it for someone who might be in the position to know. By comparison, from an elegance standpoint, it just seems to be a bit clunkier than previous similar ways to handle the same thing.

To be honest, there's a couple of places in the Core book where I would have liked to see undercasting pushed even further (Dispel Magic / Greater Dispel, Invisibility / Mass Invisibility, Maybe even roll "Vanish" from Pathfinder in as a 1st level version, etc.) And I'm hoping the trend will continue with future SF releases, since it really adds to the sense of a spell-caster progressing in their pushing of magical effects to new limits as they gain experience.

Hoping someone has clarity on this - in PF, there's the ability to cast a touch spell, THEN move into melee and try to deliver it. Unless i'm missing something, this is no longer possible in Starfinder. If you cast a touch spell, you have to move into melee, THEN deliver it, and if you miss, the spell is used, no second attempt next round via held charge.

Is this correct, or did i miss some wording?

In purchasing the AP subscription, i purchased the first module alone by mistake. Could someone please cancel this order? Thank you in advance!

...and please help me select my next feat. :)

I've been very happy with the way my Elven Zen Archer 4 has been working out lately in a Carrion Crown-inspired horror game i'm playing in. I'm not playing him as a monk, per se, My theme is essentially Legolas, a very "elfy" elf, disdainful of all cultures but elven ones, etc. as a zen archer, my feat path is very laid out for me, but at this point i have some leeway with my level 5 and 7 feats, and thought to ask for some advice. The build is below:

Male Elf Monk (Zen Archer) 4; LN Medium humanoid (elf); Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +12
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 17, flat-footed 15 (+1 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 untyped)
hp 24 (4d8+4)
Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +8; +2 vs. enchantments
Immune sleep
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 40 ft.
Melee unarmed strike +5 (1d8+2)
Ranged +1 adaptive composite longbow +8 (1d8+3/×3)
Special Attacks flurry of blows, ki flurry, ki speed, ki strike, magic, zen archery
Spell-Like Abilities (from envoy trait) (CL 4th; concentration +3)
1/day—comprehend languages, detect magic, detect poison, read magic
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 14, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 22
Feats Deadly Aim, Dodge, Improved Unarmed Strike, Perfect Strike[APG], Point Blank Master[APG], Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow)
Traits ease of faith, rich parents
Skills Acrobatics +9, Climb +6, Craft (bows) +5, Diplomacy +5, Escape Artist +6, Perception +12, Sense Motive +9, Stealth +9; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Common, Elven, Sylvan
SQ weapon familiarity, fast movement, hero points, ki archery, ki defense, ki pool, slow fall, unarmed strike
-–---------------------

So far, hit points are low due to low con, so i thought about toughness, but it seems rather suboptimal. I also thought of arcane strike, but due to most of my ki powers taking a swift also to activate, i might have a conflict there. I wish i had one more BAB so i could take Martial Flexibility at 5th, but it's good enough to wait for 7th. :) i have all the essential feats listed in the various class guides, so i was at a loss what i'm missing feat-wise.

So, i entreat the advice mavens of the forums, what are my best choices for 5th and 7th? Thank you in advance!

I am thinking of pursuing the Evangelist PRC for a follower of the deity Alseta, and should my DM allow it, I'm pretty sure we can come up with the mechanical boons needed by comparison mix/match, but I'm having trouble visualizing an obedience ritual of complexity appropriate to the other rituals given. Does anyone have some suggestions for such a deific obedience ritual?

For that matter, I think it would be a good exercise of fan generated content to come up with ritual flavor for all of the "demi-deities" from Inner Sea Gods, so as to spread ideas for more than just the 20 deities that get the most TLC in golarion. :)

I have a question that I've never thought about, but just realized I might have been doing this wrong for years.

Regarding the various wall spells ( wall of fire, ice, force, iron, etc.) - how should those be placed on a grid? Should they be placed on the grid lines between squares, or should they be placed IN the squares (in other words, taking up space?) The Magic chapter doesn't give clear "wall" area of effect guidance that I can find, and the individual spells dont specify thickness in most cases, only length. (giggity.) Further, googling conversations about wall spells didnt get me much either -- only discussions about how overpowered or underpowered they were.

In particular, wall of fire is the one I'm focused on, as it might come up in a future game, but I was hoping i'd just missed some clear rulings somewhere.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: ok, cant believe i missed the part in wall of fire that mentions "casting it where a person is standing" :o but still wish there was a mention of wall placements explicitly in the magic chapter.

Just as it says... I can't decide between

EH-roo-TAH-kee

or

eh-ROO-tah-KYE

or something else I haven't heard yet.

Anyone else who wants to hazard other words that defy their pronunciation skills, please feel free to add them.

Also, if there is a better consolidated thread already, please feel free to point me to it and I'll ask this one to be closed. I looked before posting, and could not find one.

I looked in the forum before posting, but if this has been covered already in another thread, my apologies.

Let's suppose you're one of those gaming groups (like myself) who no longer use XP awards as written in Pathfinder, and just level up the characters as appropriate to the challenges in the adventure path, section by section. Now, the rewards for successfully engaging in romances, friendships, and rivalries with various NPCs is straight XP awards.

Can my fellow gamers suggest to me some good alternative awards to XP, since we don't use XP? I thought about gifts of gold or magic items, but I don't really want NPCs pulling that out of thin air, especially NPCs travelling with the PCs in the same freakin' caravan.

Another thought was some sort of temporarily or static bonuses, but I'm unsure what would be an appropriate amount.

My final thought was to institute Pathfinder's Hero Point system from APG, and give them hero points as they succeeded at these.

Any other thoughts, fellow gamers? Thank you in advance for suggestions!

--ENHenry

Quick question: I searched cursorily on the forums but did not see this asked:

For both the Dimension Step of a Conjuror, and the Shadow Step of a Shadow Mage (p. 80 PFCR and p. 147 APG), can you use these abilities to step to a location not in line of sight or line of effect? Could a Shadow Mage, for instance, trapped in an underground bunker, shadow step to the surface as long as he knew it was only 20 feet above or so?

Official FAQs are always welcome, but even majority gamer opinion is handy, too. :) Thank you!