Prethen's page

Thank you!

I just realized I really want Eldritch Archer but need to reshuffle my abilities. Can I do that with that ACP purchase?

Also, I cannot find a full description of that ACP item anywhere!

I love my PF1 Investigator (Empiricist). He seems sooooo much easier to deal with as far as rule complexity than what I'm stumbling into with a PF2 Investigator (Alchemical Sciences) that I'd like to start now. Plus, I plan on giving him the Alchemist dedication to allow him access to Alchemical Bombs abilities.

I see that he has access to 2 sets of formula books. It appears that one is for doing normal crafting and the other I can do quick crafting like during encounters. Do I have to have the Quick Tincture formulas overlap in the formula books? I would guess no. Do I basically start off with 6 formulas that I could craft in Downtime?

On the subject of crafting in Downtime...is it even worthwhile? It seems if I just want to have a bunch of Lesser Alchemist Fires, it's less of a headache and maybe marginally more expensive to just buy them. At what point (level/items) is it worth taking a serious look into using the Downtime Crafting skill? What would you craft?

I've chosen Minor Elixir of Life and Quicksilver Mutagen for my Alchemical Sciences Formulas (intended for Quick Tincture). For my Alchemical Crafting formulas: Lesser Alchemist Fire, Dread Ampoule, Ghost Charge, and Cognitive Mutagen.

When I "whip up" my 4 vials/day, what's the cost?

Also, is it worthwhile to do what I'm thinking of doing and doing the Alchemist Dedication for bombs?

Sorry...I feel quite dumb as I'm trying to figure out an alchemical class which I've never done before but seems like fun. And, thanks in advance for your responses and advice.

For instance, I wanted to be sure the Hireling Manager is sanctioned and okay to use with Hireling boons.

Retraining at lower levels seems to make sense since it's pretty cheap with just some missing downtime. I think Battle Medicine is calling my name!

Deadmanwalking, I think what you said makes sense. I get that I couldn't use it all the time. I just think that in the majority of useful circumstances it will be fine to have that feat alone based on how I read it and what I'm seeing from others.

If I can't physically threaten, then it might be moot for me to trying to intimidate anyway. Most creatures will be able to hear...and, yes, occasionally that might be an issue but not very frequently. So far it seems there's no compelling reason to keep Glare.

Seems like a waste of a feat when one basically overrides the other, almost completely. I could take on another skill feat that would be much more useful.

I get the feeling I need to retrain my way out of Glare and just take on Prowess. I'm guessing there are very limited circumstances where it will not be advantageous to just have Prowess as a melee type.

However, that's not RAW. In fact, neither have a range.

I've taken Intimidating Glare and now that I see I will be able to take the Intimidating Prowess feat, I have to wonder why would I NOT want to train out of the Intimidating Glare feat for something else? It looks like Intimidating Prowess basically overrides the need for the the Glare feat...right? In what circumstances if I'm in battle that I would NOT be able to use physical intimidation? Unless physical intimidation is only meant for when you're in physical contact with an opponent.

The rules state that if you have Versatile Font, you slot Harm OR Heal slots. Does this mean I have to slot how many of each ahead of time for the day's preparation?

thenobledrake wrote:

The only reason to treat any non-permanent effects of spells differently from each other is prior edition baggage.

The PF2 rules for how golems are, or are not, affected by magic are much simpler and thus easy to remember how to use accurately during play.

You say that, but two posts later are quibbling over summons and different types of magic pits.

Clearly it's not that simple and clearly you do think certain non-permanent spell effects should be treated differently.

Agreed. If for some reason a magically created, but real for the moment, pit doesn't work, then neither should anything else magically created that's non-permanent...like a summoned creature. Also, why would anything that had magical enhancements work on the creature...it's magical after all, right?

The pit was created by magic, but it's still a pit. Anyone around the pit can still fall in. It's not an illusion.

I also wonder about the above question about summoned creatures or otherwise magical creatures having zero affect on it if the ruling is that ALL magic fails on it, direct or indirect. I guess if you have a magic sword, you're out of luck.

I would think that indirect things should be able to affect it, but this deserves a ruling. If even indirect things cannot affect it, then the GM has the ultimate TPK machine at his disposal.

If the Golem would have to save for magical Grease...why not a magical pit, too?

Spiked pit? Would they just be able to stand on an open space while everyone else might fall in that stand near it?

What's wrong with a projectile that's actually physical but thrown by a spell actually hitting and damaging a golem? That seems legit. The projectile itself is not magical, it's just a rock or whatever.

HeroLab Online is actually pretty good and constantly improving. Are there some issues...sure...but it's already fairly solid and only getting better. It already has pointed out the "errors of my ways" on more than one character when I questioned why/how it applied certain stats.

My Paladin took them both. Hey, it's PFS....ya never know.

I was a bit surprised to see that Acid Splash was panned as not being that good of a choice. I agree that it doesn't scale up as quickly as others, however it is a D6, offers splash, and has some persistence, adds D6 every other spell level, and has a decent crit.

I'm not sure what "similar form" means. Can I shift my Greatsword into a Great Club, so I can change the type of weapon damage from slashing to bludgeoning? I'm curious as to what benefits this power has otherwise.

Flier only as far as I know....where does it say it requires darkvision?

One of my newest character builds is a Universalist Wizard with the Familiar Attunement thesis. He will have a tiny owl as his familiar. Is it within the realm of expectation that I can use that familiar to scout ahead and report back to me as to what it sees?

In PFS I would argue having a Cleric in the party is a very good idea. I have played a number of scenarios (as a Cloistered Cleric) and have pretty much rescued the party from at least one TPK and allowed us to keep up and fighting to a good outcome in many other scenarios. In society games you can't count on the party makeup and great character build decisions nor proper preparations for fights where certain resistances/etc can make it extremely challenging for the party.

Is it okay to assume that when a cleric needs a free hand to cast a spell they can safely and quickly remove one hand from their weapon while still holding the weapon? I get that they'd need to take an action to regrip the weapon if they wish to use it.

Where is the rule that force energy doesn’t go through hardness?

I'm hoping that this is an oversight and that the extra damage healed for a 2-action cast should equal the max of the die used.

I put this question out on Discord and the consensus was that since it only has ranged stats the Slingstaff is only meant for ranged. And, if you tried to use it as a melee weapon, it's just an untrained, improvised weapon.

If I'm reading correctly, in PF1, it was both, hence the bit of text that states: "A halfling sling staff can be used as a simple weapon that deals bludgeoning damage equal to that of a club of its size."

Is there a reason why it cannot be used as a simple staff weapon? If so, if the character is trained to use the slingstaff, is he also trained to use it as a simple staff? What damage would it do?

My apologies, but this is a bit more generic of a suggestion than specific items.

I definitely have gone to the index many times and have come up empty handed when looking up various terms I would think should be obvious in a core rulebook index.

I think the index in general needs to be quite comprehensive and error on the side of too many entries than too few. That said, shouldn't virtually every noun and verb that's associated with specifically with core playing in PF2 be in the index? And, yes, I mean that literally, but please note I'm trying to emphasize those words that would be directly associated with PF2.

Again, I apologize for being critical without giving specifics, but I ran into index issues more often than I'd like with the book. It seems that the default was to opt for fewer entries than more.

I'm surprised that no one mentioned how nerfed Smite is now. Unless, I'm missing something obvious, you can only smite starting at 9th level, you can only "attempt" it as a reaction to someone else being attacked right near you, and if you hit you cause a mere handful of hit points of damage per round on a creature that will likely laugh it off due to its level.

I'm assuming it does/can, but I'm not seeing anything specific in the rules as to how this would normally work in play. Armor is always taking a beating right? I can't imagine having to repair it after every single little battle because it took a hit.

By the way, thanks everyone (esp. Fuzzy-Wuzzy) for the great responses!

Rhyst, I actually wonder if #3 is correct. It might be that if the hardness took the damage that there's nothing to record. The next hit starts fresh with it's hardness of 5 so, once again, no damage to you or the shield (i.e. no dents). Maybe this is where a clarification is needed.

Also, to clarify, you can choose whether or not by using the block reaction if the shield will take any of the blow or just you. I guess this means if your okay taking on the full blow, you can save your shield from immediately getting the broken condition. It seems like characters will be spending a lot of time repairing armor and shields!

I would think it would not be heightened immediately at 1st level, right?

Your powers' level is half your level rounded up. Heightened (+1) means that for every 1 level above the minimum the power operates at you get the given improvement. In this case, the minimum power level is 1 and the improvement is +2d4 HP effect, so for a 9th level paladin (power level 5, i.e. 4 above the min) it has its base effect plus 8d4 HP more.

Am I mixing up Power vs Spell levels? The text for a Paladin says: "The spell level of each of your champion powers is equal to half your character level, rounded down, and produces heightened effects (see page 192) for those champion powers that have heightened entries."

I'm still trying to get a basic understanding of a number of rules. One thing I see is that Lay On Hands can be heightened +1. I'm not really sure what that means since a Paladin doesn't appear to have spell slots. Based on the rule of his powers are at a level of 1\2 his level rounded down, it starts off as a level 0 spell I guess. But how do you heighten it?

Prethen wrote:

master_marshmallow wrote:

There's a cleric feat that does it, gotta look there.

Sorry, I'm still missing something. I don't see anywhere in the build for that 1at level paladin where a cleric feat comes into play. I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around all the new PF2 rules so please pardon my ignorance.

I found it. If you take Cleric Dedication, it then allows you to take Basic Dogma which gives you a cleric feat:Emblazon Symbol.

Assuming this is a first level character you can't take that feat. Also the extra human language I believe is only given if it's part of your ethnicity, not that you get to freely choose a new one unless your Int is above 14.

There's a cleric feat that does it, gotta look there.

Sorry, I'm still missing something. I don't see anywhere in the build for that 1at level paladin where a cleric feat comes into play. I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around all the new PF2 rules so please pardon my ignorance.

I must be missing something obvious. Why am I seeing these Paladin builds with Celestial as a free language?

Third attacks (with the -10 penalty) will often require more than a 20 roll. So in this case when a natural 20 is rolled, it is a hit and not a critical hit?

GREAT question!

Also, I'm correct in assuming that every class at any level has the same number of potential attacks...THREE? I'm guessing this works okay due to the very slim chance at lower levels of extra attacks being useful.

I have to admit that I neglected to think about those who do not use Hero Lab. Hero Lab has become somewhat ubiquitous in its use around me and tracking items is a breeze. However, I still stand by what I've requested even if you manually track items.

Yes, you obviously need to track what you buy/sell/use. However, do that however and in whatever format you see as convenient.

I don't like the idea that one day someone would actually want to literally audit every 25GP+ item I've every bought/sold/used and possibly have to figure out how things total to what my sheet says. That would be mind-boggling and a major waste of time.

I'm very meticulous about recording everything I do with my inventory. I believe in playing fair; those are the rules.

Hero Lab actually tracks all of your transactions historically as well. Again, I would hope no one would want to sit there and due a thorough audit.

I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this, but I'll throw this out here anyway...

Please refine how resources are tracked!

It is absolutely pointless and a major pain-in-the-arse to track virtually every little item on a separate sheet. In all the time I've played PFS, no one has looked at any one of the 16 sheets I've dutifully kept up to date. Yes, that might mean I've not been thoroughly audited and from what I understand, such audits are very rare. Beyond that, if a player wants to cheat...they're going to cheat. It's a game and most people understand that.

Please do NOT force players to mindlessly track mundane and cheap magic items. Maybe raise the bar to 1,000 GP or something else.

[Please note this will use 6th level pre-generated characters and is a Special from the end of the 7th season.]

Even the limitless Plane of Air is at risk of eldritch instability, and a cult dedicated to the planes’ integrity has sensed an imminent calamity brewing deep within a primal storm. In this special adventure, the players portray a diverse coalition of elemental guardians that must embark on perilous journey into the maelstrom’s heart and avert a disaster that threatens the Inner Sphere.

Please sign up on WARHORN.

If you need to drop out, please be courteous enough to drop by Withdrawing from the session (as soon as you know) on Warhorn so an Alternate can move up on the play list.

After signing up, please send me the following information at bgoldstein14[at]hotmail[dot]com:
[This will be the character to which your pregen will have its experience applied]
*Player Name 
*Character Name 
*Character Class/Level 
*PFS # 

I was searching all over the place on Paizo here to see if there was some FAQ about this. I guess I didn't think that perhaps Lone Wolf Development may have introduced a bug. Thanks!

Hero Lab states that I the Schooled Inquisitor trait I have for my Investigator is not a valid trait for PFS characters. Since when? Also, is this trait only available from Ultimate Campaign or is it in other sources (and which ones)?

Thank you everyone!

Sorry, but what section of the APG?

Actually, the ARG is the one guide I don't own! So, those options had to come from somewhere else.