Sovereign Dragon

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Remaster Changes (Google Sheet)

And my dream was granted, YEEEEESSSSS!!!


Ah, so between 2~3AM where I live, le sad...


Strange, an effectively empty file...


Well, finally I could order this, as there are no such things as FLGS in my country...

By the way, this (and all sketchy covers for the foreseeable future) will only have a first printing, right?


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Snake Lamias FTW!!! (no, I mean it really)


Two weeks left (for the PDF ATVL). I sincerely keep my fingers crossed for at least this one having as less Day 1 errata as possible...


The PF2 system has its math backbones done well, so...

While the current creature design rules sadly gutted "bottom up"/"simulationist" design to make space for an understandably sane "top down"/"gamist" balance that just WORKS, it should work well with the former provided someone actually spends the time and effort.


Quite the gravitational character, aren't they...


Flesh suits??? Wow...


I always wonder why they never imported the Recharge 5-6 mechanic from the other game, other than lawyer shenanigans.


I wonder if Synesthesia will finally make the ORC jump in this book...


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Yes and no, at least for me.

While PF2(R) in general is a well made gamist RPG system (probably one of the best in existence), the first printing has too much errors for my liking. So I'm biding my order for now...


I guess it was the ickyness of mental attribute penalties (or all attribute penalties in general) that it is deemed to be heavily connected to this thing known as "bio-essentialism", which is often called out as morally wrong...


Can? Yes.

Should? Yes, ideally. Though I do acknowledge handwaving GMs are much more common, because it's easier to run that way.

----

Tis the answer from a kind of person who'd actually run every single off-screen NPC negotiations with proper (albeit secret) Diplomacy rolls...


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Related: T.rex art with pronated wrists always make me cry...


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That was quick. Well, the physical book can wait, hopefully the second printing has less obvious errors...


Huh, what happened? I always thought it worked like,

1) You die if your Dying + Wounded >= 4,

...did it become,

2) You die if your Dying * (1 + Wounded) >= 4,

...really? Am I interpreting this straight???


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Dark_Schneider wrote:
I'd like to be more damage based on character level (like in old games), and other things for heighten, i.e. able to increase (or reduce, grant control with a value) the fireball radius, lightning bolt line to 10', or with scorching ray damage increasing more by level and extra rays when heightened.

Hard disagree, the caster level based automatic scaling is well down the way of the dodo.

As a single example (Level Appropriate Damage), in PF1 mid to high levels,

...when the martials (especially) were struggling with the RAW full attack rules forcing them to choose between appropriate scaling damage (mostly via iterative attacks, which are automatically gimped already with descending accuracy penalties which sadly stayed in PF2) OR their full movement unless they painfully go around somehow to get a pounce equivalent,

...the casters were enjoying free lunch damage scaling via the RAW spellcasting rules on even their weakest spell slots among other scaling things you mentioned, actually doing the martials' niche (damage) better by that alone (plus, the low DCs can be managed by save half damage by default, too).

It, was, ...infuriating, to say the least. Like if somehow somebody in the original SRD's writers had a grudge against weapon users or the like and did some amoral compensation by sabotaging the very combat system.


ikarinokami wrote:
Temperans wrote:
ikarinokami wrote:
Squiggit wrote:
ikarinokami wrote:


making them better would mean casters no longer had any lesser magic options.
Lesser magic options is what cantrips, focus spells, and lower-level slots are for.

that's not really true, there are quite a few focus spells that are extremely powerful.

Lower-level spells slots are not really a lesser option. Slow, Haste, true strike, invisibly, mirror image, Heroism etc, there are tons of spells options that are amazing with "lower" spell slots.

Notice how you only mentioned buff spells with the sole exception of Slow which has a specially good effect on success but not incapacitate.

Damaage effects and incapacitation effects in low spell level slots are out right unusable.

seriously, what would even be the point of playing a martials if low level spells slots could do comparable damage of a martial plus buff, and heal and slow.

Oh, so much this. They did a fabulous job in eliminating the unfair free damage scaling (per "caster level") for lower level slots that used to exist in PF1...


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What can I say, I'm at least quite satisfied with the idea and act of Ceiling Based Class Balancing.

At least ceilings are way less arbitrary than the hazy "average assumptions" they had when the Other Game's 3e was born...


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As long as they don't mess up their own hard made well working system of "power ceiling per Level" balance system, I'm good with any mythic system.


Seems like a legit buff.


3-Body Problem wrote:
(...) (1) Getting rid of class-specific spell lists, (2) tying spell effects to the slot rather than the caster's level, and (3) not allowing "problem-solving" spells to actually bypass problems (...)

(1) No strong understanding for this one.

(2) Good riddance. In the last edition, it felt like getting cuckold every time a caster enjoyed free scaling effects (not even limited to damage) sacrificing nothing; while the BAB reliant classes had to sever their leg tendons each turn to even try using their most meaningful damaging only option multiplier, the iterative attacks.

(3) If everyone got to enjoy the Combat as War style with little fear for unfair rulings, not limited to the concept of spells which just "work" when fired off, I might have had the exact same sentiments. But alas, this was one another systematically lopsided area, so Paizo went the easy path and killed the conceptually absolute problem solver spells.


Assuming I'm upholding this license, there's no guessing that I can sell written fiction stories with ORC Licensed game stat blocks and trems in between paragraphs, right?

If so, it is finally finished in stone as an complete upgrade of the old OGL...


Are golems confirmed to keep their weird immunities, anyway?


Why is the title not something like "Player Core Plus"?

Judging from all those concerns for future introductees' confusion on which books contain the PCs' gameplay actions, it would be nice to also indicate that this one contains core "choices" only, not the detailed explanations on how to use always available "buttons" you can press...


No idea if this would work, but the addition of Centaurs might let me play a Lyne..err, a leonine Beastkin Centaur Barbarian...

P.S. Quite a tangent, but is there a "more contemporary imagined Lamia", as in very human like torso up + big constrictor snake waist bottom, that is an actual playable Ancestry? I find it quite difficult to seamlessly call the lion torso'ed Edward Topsell version a "lamia", so...


My (inaccurate) observations tell me that,

1. Life magic is best with Healing, Spirit magic Buffing, Mind magic Debuffing, and Material magic Blasting.
2. For the party's success and survival, defensive (= healing + buffing) magic seems to have more recruit value than offensive (= blasting + debuffing) ones. Although as a standalone character, a mix of both is the best (hence Bard and Druid classes being the mist satisfactory).
3. The Arcane spell list now specializes on Material and Mind magic, all "offensive" and slot cost diminishing values (PF2 Wizard).


LandSwordBear wrote:
(very creative and funny names)

I just coundn't resist a chance at a compliment for those epic punny names...


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Alaryth wrote:
Looking at how people are analyzing the traditional schools, I am beginning to think that the Mage the Ascension sphere division is better.

Was it like Energy, Matter, Life, Mind, Soul, Space, Time, and 2 more? As I never played MtA before, the names should be incorrect... Anyway said classification solely based on WHAT(subject) your magic meddles with is at least way more consistent than D&D-ist spell classifications...


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True, but please let me mourn for the ideology of Simulationism getting bullied everywhere...

Castilliano wrote:


What I'd like to see addressed in PF2 is a sidebar of what's typical, as in how do these stats translate into strength levels (etc) that we understand (especially since Bulk converts so awkwardly into weight).
This isn't just a strength issue because we get low-Int creatures with godlike Wisdom. How does that play out in dialogue or problem-solving.

One of the quirks about +0 as baseline is it feels like a minimum. Duh that mathematically +0 +/-1 is the same as 10 +/-2 leading to +/-1, but studies show numbers like that get processed differently by our feelings. Heck, calling something a penalty vs. a cost has shown a notable effect on our feeling about loss. (This BTW is why I abhor "feat tax" unless it's an actually useless (gateway) feat.)

Thing is both 10/11 & +0 are kinda supposed to be "normal" (so much so the much different Hero System RPGs start there too), but it's hardly baseline when normal citizens deviate so much nowadays. Most any PF2 manual laborer gets a 16 Strength, when that used to represent about 5% of the general population, w/ 18 being rare (except for heroes and their enemies of course.) Enemies at the higher end of human used to be noteworthy (yes, in there'd be an actual notation to give them a bonus).

Agree strongly. Frankly I care less about the old score system being gone, but I'd like to equate "no ability" to a 0(zero), not an arbitrary -5...


At least this ain't some GHOTI(= fish) levels of absurdity...


While mourning for the death of ability scores I realized that what I really didn't like was the number +0 as an "average" value, and an arbitrary -5 as the rock bottom, not 0.


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Most changes are good, but I truly mourn the death of Ability Scores.

It seems like the whole universe is trying to convince me that Simulationism is not cool, not that I'll ever bend though...

----

On monsters, I wish an Asian-esque body-form Dragon to join Monster Core from the very start.


A decimal edition "remaster", I didn't expect something THAT big .O_o;;

Now I go back to wait for the wordings of ORC to be released...


PossibleCabbage wrote:
I think it's mostly because "if you hit someone with a clod of dirt, a ball of water, or a blast of air... what kind of damage would that do if not bludgeoning?" Like "Air damage" and "water damage" aren't damage types, but you can hurt someone with air and water.

On that line of logic, shouldn't Fire and Lightning "damage" be merged into a single "heat/searing" damage? They both char the victim, and I don't think the difference is wider than getting crushed in a collapsing building or blown away by a random gale...

Anyway, AFAIK, that's how GURPS handles fire and electric damage types.


For some reason, 3/4 of the European classical elements deals bludgeoning damage instead of their supposed type. This might be one of the reasons why the bludgeoning damage type fares somewhat better than its two siblings...


Well, any discount for myself, be it real or fictional, is appreciated (as long as it has no poison pills secreted)... ;)


Before I get to buy PF2 paper books to make use of the celebratory OpenGaming code, I'd like some insight on what glaring errors exist as of now.

So far, the following books had reprints with much errors fixed:

- Core Rulebook (4th print)
- Advanced Player's Guide (2nd print)
- Bestiary 2 (2nd print)

But what about the other 3? What glaring errors are left untouched in the following books?

- Bestiary
- Bestiary 3
- Gamemastery Guide

I'd like to know quickly, as the shipping costs across the northern Pacific Ocean is awfully high and I'd like them in one package if possible...

----

P.S. Which type is better for keeping and practically using, the Hardcovers, or the Pocket Editions?


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So EN Publishing joins too, good. I like their pseudo-D6 WOIN system quite a lot.

Though why I learn of it here first instead of their main turf (ENWorld) is a mystery...


Swords (jian, dao, etc.) are preferred as protagonists' main arms too in stock wuxia stories, not that different to European stories (so no exotic crooked blade like those "temple swords"). Spears (qiang.. was it?) and other polearms follow.

---

On a bigger tangent, xianxia has crazier power levels compared to ordinary and more down to earth wuxia; to portray the former more faithfully you'll need a bunch of post-20th level gishes duking it out to gain more power (and unnatural extra lifespan boosts) in the world...


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I support firmly a more freely described "risque" content, as such act is a natural part of our lives. (though my biggest reasons are to be refrained in even writing out in this very forum, due to the very reasonable rules on "no RL religion/philosophy/politics"...)


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1) Any True Elixir of Life drastically slows down your aging speed to a practical zero, for about a month.
2) Monks who unlocked the Timeless Body ability DO potentially live forever unaged (until they "ascend to a higher existence" or do something similar).
3) Your soul doesn't get degraded to building blocks for the Outer Planes if you want so, and no harmful repercussions at all.

Those are what I'd immediately change. Others, I might think of in some other free time...


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tagnullde wrote:
(...) Should Paizo Staff read this, the first chapter in the PDF seem to have not the correct font or font-thickness. Looks like everything is written in "bold". It seems to be correct starting wit chapter 2. This was also the case in the 3rd printing.

Seconding this. It is very uncomfortable for my eyes when reading...


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my downloads wrote:

1. Paizo Inc.: Rulebooks

- Core Rulebook
- Bestiary (1)

2. Paizo Inc.: Second Edition Rulebooks

- Bestiary 2
- Gamemastery Guide

3. Paizo Inc.: Hardcovers

- Advanced Player's Guide
- Bestiary 3
- Book of the Dead
- Dark Archive
- Guns & Gears
- Secrets of Magic
- (...and probably many more others)

This is a mess, really. I'd really like them to be sorted out in-house.

...or is the company DB structure quite byzantine enough to have an arduous time fixing this?


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A great move, finally!

I seriously hope ORC freely allows related fanworks of multiple genres, be it novels or pantomimes(snort)...


HumbleGamer wrote:
Regardless the situation, XXXXXXXX fights to the death.

I think I get the joke, but seriously, what does "EC" stand for?


Dokers wrote:
The thing that no one is bringing up is that no skill is based on Con. If you have to pump up two ability scores, and only one helps you with your skills, you are going to be lacking otherwise. Even if you fix the combat part, this still remains.

Heh, you beat me here... ;)

I'd just keep it simple and let Kineticists get their CON to hit with their impulses, as a major compromise for never being able to numerically excel in any printed skills so far, at all. And K-dedications would never benefit from this feature, so a Fighter/Kinny will find it not economical to use impulses instead of their usual choice weapons.


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As my evergoing rant against the awful abundance of bootstrapped bludgeoning damage, they should have had water, air, earth damage types defined from the very start...


I anticipate much to use them for simulating the movers and shakers' stats in any CS I'd run. The PCs and major NPCs, to be precise.

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