QuidEst's page

The Shirren Eye Rifle can't glitch. and what are the relative costs of the two?

Assassin Rifle is also analog, and only 20 credits more.

The Space Pirate archetype is "italic and conditional" in a way PF2e is.

Finoan wrote:

It's also kinda debatable whether Fatal or Deadly does more damage at higher levels.

How is this debatable? Assuming the Fatal die is at least as high as the deadly die surely the fatal is always at least as good?

No. If the Fatal die is the same as the Deadly die, Deadly eventually adds two and even three dice instead of the one that Fatal caps at. Normally, Fatal makes up for that by boosting the weapon's base damage dice two steps, but in this case, it's only one step and it's only boosting the base dice to d10, which is what the other weapon normally has.

Shirren-Eye Rifle was pretty similar to Assassin Rifle before the errata, but now it's been dropped a die size and Deadly d12 swapped for Fatal d10. Assassin Rifle had Fatal d12 swapped for Deadly d10, while keeping the damage die. If I wanted to deal d10 damage, I'd just use Assassin Rifle, especially since Deadly adds more dice.

Is Shirren-Eye Rifle meant to be Fatal d12, a crit-fishing sniper rifle that does lower base damage but more on a crit at certain levels? Or is it just a worse weapon?

Is there any idea on which book they will be included in? Perhaps a Book of the Dead Remaster?

They're new classes, so it probably won't be a direct remaster of an existing book. This might be easier to answer on Friday, though, after Paizo Live discusses a new book.

Reminder to wait to buy weapon/armor upgrades until you're one level past the item level. Buying them on-level means being permanently broke.

I generally like to load up on flavorful first and second level permanent magic items as soon as it's feasible, and then you can swap them out for more useful upgrades.

The level 2 Battlecry! items are a good choice, a Cloak of Feline Rest, and a Purifying Spoon. Those mostly aren't ones that make an impact on combat, but they do help a character feel like a proper adventurer.

So...

Back on topic:
I'm also guessing that the book will feature the Remastered versions of Summoner and Magus.

...Also, I want Synergist to stay in 1st edition. We do not need it back.

So long as we get Synthesist, I don't mind if Synergist stays in 1e. Eidolon abilities are much better suited to a player character than familiar abilities.

While the books aren't printed in the US, Paizo just isn't a big enough company to already have warehouses receiving the books in other countries. And, unfortunately, any response they could have had was shot in the foot by their distributor declaring bankruptcy and seizing any stock in their warehouses.

That's still definitely a lot for shipping, and it sucks that they aren't set up to collect the newly established Canadian tariffs yet like the longstanding European VATs, so it's good to let folks know that their local game store is going to be cheaper.

I think it's a little unfair to call it "gross negligence", though. A lot of companies here in the US have been folding because of the tariff impacts. The other RPG company I follow had its staff fired down to a skeleton crew by its parent company and development operations suspended indefinitely.

Oooh, that's great to hear! I was expecting to have months to wait before the next playtest. Very excited to hear it won't be much longer.

Speculation: Last December was the Impossible Playtest, so I'm betting it's new Pathfinder classes to playtest.

Steed Form is a Level 2 feat... but ALL Eidolons are Medium... and you need to wait until Level 8 to get Hulking Size... in order to get your Eidolon as a Large creature.

Why don't ALL Eidolons have Small, Medium and Large version, from the get go?

It's possible to ride a medium creature, and the feat is level 2 for those cases.

I'm reasonably confident that there is not, no. Paizo has not really delved into pre-earthfall. The actual changes were the loss of the land bridge and the creation of the Inner Sea, so you'd just need to take one of the maps and fill in the Inner Sea.

I’ll repeat:

OSWPF2 wrote:

But there is a strange disconnect for those of us - who do not consume social media and diligently peruse the official Paizo website for information - being completely bereft of what is essentially basic information. I’m not sure how your Communications and Marketing strategy is set up, but let me say it is failing me!

I read blogposts. I read threads. All on Paizo’s *official website*. That kinda seems like it should be enough.

It is enough if you want to be informed about everything Paizo is releasing before it comes out.

If you want to get all the information they put out as soon as it's available... yeah, some of that is going to be elsewhere first because there's no one place where everything goes first. The monthly streams do make a point of including some early spoilers, and external publications are more likely to run articles that serve as free Paizo advertising if they get some exclusive info.

As for stuff the site gets first, the paizo.com blogs often give much more info as we get closer to a release, and the store pages usually have some early important unannounced details as well as now including a few pages of previews around the release date.

In any case, someone did a spoiler breakdown on reddit here if you want to read more about the new beginner box, adventure, and AP before it's time for their respective blog posts.

---

On the topic of the new AP direction, I'm excited to see how it plays out in Bastion of Blasphemies! That will probably be the first of the new style I'll be checking out, since I'm afraid I'm one of the folks still a bit burnt out on Cheliax and Andoran from 1e. Folk horror is also very much in my friend group's wheelhouse.

brgoss wrote:

Just watched the youtube upload for this month's Paizo direct, and I'm excited for the Bastions AP coming out.

Has there been a blogpost on this site detailing this “new AP”? If not, then I humbly ask that Paizo makes such announcements here, on their website, rather than elsewhere.

It's not coming out for another ten months or so. I think they like to keep the blogs for things that are a little closer to release, so that people following them don't get overloaded with stuff they can't actually get their hands on anytime soon.

I'm looking for a serious answer.

You already have the answers, though.

- If you just look at the spell, "at least" means you don't need to worry about the negative, and the weakest souls can be stored in anything.
- If you feel you need guidance for how to handle level-scaled costs for creatures below level 1, or you're worried about rules abuse, the ritual rules are a good guideline.

Given what a niche case sealing away such low-level souls is for such a high-level caster, it's neither likely to be addressed nor likely to be a problem.

If you want to make a high-level caster that collects weak souls without affecting the budget, you just talk to the GM when asking for access to the uncommon spell.

So, the practical answer is "Yes, but check with the GM if it ever matters".

Spamotron wrote:

Another oddity is that we were promised a playtest for the Starship Rules in Tech Core which most people predict to also be released at GenCon. Given times to print even if we see it in January they’re cutting that awfully close.

We were told there would be a playtest for the Starship rules, but if I remember correctly, the Starship Rules aren't going to be in Tech Core.

We were told they wanted to do one, which is different than necessarily having the time to pull it off.

For me, it boils down to how I'd rule a player trying to bypass the sense with preparation. Tremorsense, lifesense, precise scent, all of them are things that make it so even being behind an object doesn't do you any good. Specific preparations need to be taken. For vision, there are a lot of solutions- invisibility, darkness, or most common of all, "having cover/concealment". I wouldn't generally let a player take specific precautions against darkvision seeing through darkness to allow hiding in darkness against it, and similarly, I think players of darkvision characters would be annoyed if hobgoblin commandos were able to sneak right up to them in the dark because "they're wearing darkvision-specific camouflage" or something like that.

Plenty of approaches one can take.

If I wanted to make an archmage, I think the main thing I'd want is some way to flex on other casters when it comes to casting. Four things come to mind for me.

1) Spellshapes. This is the least of the bunch, since it's something that plenty of casters do normally. Conceal Spell is really solid here, since the archmage can just be talking casually while casting spells. The Spellshape Mastery capstone feat really sells that fantasy, getting a free-action spellshape on every spell. Unfortunately, Wizard doesn't really have many inherently impressive spellshapes, so you'll probably want to build out an effective combo or something to make it more than a parlor trick.

2) Modifying spells. Spell Trickster and Psychic Dedication both do this. The spell modifications are generally pretty minor and not the sort of thing you can flex as an "archmage". But, being able to split your fireball in two is pretty flashy. This is maybe something to include in a larger archmage kit, rather than a thing they actually brag about.

3) Rituals. The Ritualist archetype and/or some magic item support is good here. Rituals can be a lot stronger and longer-lasting than slotted spells, so an archmage who treats their regular spells as amusing and convenient tricks supplementary to their real magic works pretty well. Flexible Ritualist and familiar cut down on secondary casters, while Assured Ritualist makes sure you aren't taking penalties from relying on a familiar's low modifiers, and Efficient Ritualist is the biggest show of being better at rituals than casual practitioners.

4) Mythic. This is what "archmage" meant in PF1, and while mythic destinies don't actually let you feel like an archmage, the mythic spells and rituals do have a suitably grand feeling to them. Mythic Casting and Mythic Magic let you toss around some unusually high DCs, especially before 15th level. The mythic rituals just double down on the ritual archmage feel.

I don't see any mention of the Astral Plane in the new version, so that's not really relevant anymore. Some of the cheese and issues don't really apply as a result- no infinite search space to worry about, no absurdly unfair advantage with retrieval prisms because of that, etc.

They got rid of Kostchtchie? Why? What lore changes were there, if any?

He was a D&D-made deity that Pathfinder was using, and with pretty minimal changes. While he's certainly got some allusions to Koschei the Deathless, the misogynistic frost giant deity part of it is D&D's work.

Hmmm...did they get rid of the Planar Dragons from 1st edition?

Or did they just remake them?
Like, the Paradise Dragon, Infernal Dragon, Apocalypse Dragon (etc etc)?
Did they get remade or is that coming later?

Delight Dragon is the old Havoc Dragon. Diabolic and Empyreal are connected to Hell and Heaven respectively. Requiem is similar to the old Crypt.

In short, some amount of the divine dragons are tied to the planes that the planar dragons were.

I really enjoy the akashic dragon. Host dragon was what I was most looking forward to from the name, but the end result was... I guess I would say, a little too cartoony compared to what the name conjured up.

Has anyone created an official list on what new Dragon's we've received and have been announced via second edition?

There you go. The Draconic Codex table of contents has them all.

QuidEst wrote:

The hopes I had have been doused by seeing that the upper-level feats are more or less the same. They still have a feat giving them more low-level slots and they still have a feat the removes the refocus improvement's condition that only used focus points to amp. While it's possible we got slot improvements and kept that feat, I'm skeptical. And while I do expect some tweak to the refocus wording, it's still similar enough to work with the existing feat.

If you're referring to the preview images on the store page, I wonder if those are just placeholders from the original, non-remastered version. On one of those pages, they still have alignment noted for various characters. I assume those would be removed as part of the remastering of this book.

Perhaps it's just my copium for also being disappointed when I saw that the high level Psychic feats were exactly the same...

Oh, really? That's good to know. I will readjust back to my previous mild hope, since alignment being gone is a big part of what the remaster needs to do.

The hopes I had have been doused by seeing that the upper-level feats are more or less the same. They still have a feat giving them more low-level slots and they still have a feat the removes the refocus improvement's condition that only used focus points to amp. While it's possible we got slot improvements and kept that feat, I'm skeptical. And while I do expect some tweak to the refocus wording, it's still similar enough to work with the existing feat.

Tridus wrote:

And although Magus it's the worst offender, it's not the only class where Psychic Dedication itself is one of the strongest level 2 feats in the entire game. It's not quite as bas as Exemplar and basically any martial, but it's up there. If you compare Imaginary Weapon to Fire Ray for a Magus to get, Imaginary Weapon is stronger and cheaper. It really shouldn't be both of those.

If the ability to Amp was a second feat, it's...

How is Imaginary Weapon cheaper than Fire Ray? It is indeed better, but they both need two feats to learn. Psychic Dedication only grants you a standard psi cantrip, so you still need Psi Development at 6th level to learn Imaginary Weapon. Same as Oracle Dedication needing to take Domain Acumen at 4th level for Fire Ray.

Psychic Dedication doesn't require an off-stat investment that's costly for Magus, and it gives you your third focus point in those two feats. Same number of feats, though.

I would say that you are absolutely not wrong to nerf only allow a rerolled save once per affliction, As Paizo themselves errated a similar ability to do just that.

War of immortals 2025 Spring errata wrote:

Page 47: Update the One Moment till Glory transcendence of victor’s wreath to more closely match some similar abilities, to have less of a downside in certain situations, and to be less powerful at ending long-term effects outside combat.

“You rally your allies, carrying them from the brink of disaster to the verge of victory. Each ally in your aura can immediately attempt a new saving throw with a +2 status bonus against one ongoing negative effect or condition currently affecting it that required a save. Use the result of the new save to determine the outcome of the effect, unless the new save would have a worse result than the original save, in which case nothing happens. Each ally can gain this benefit against a given effect only once.”

That's an ability with no cooldown, no restrictions on what it can be used on (including things like permanent curses or urgent things like the Dominate spell), that gives a bonus on the save, and that is level 1 instead of 6. I wouldn't really consider it that similar of an ability myself.

Or, put another way, if it's limited to once-per-effect, it would be appropriate for it to affect anything, not just poisons and diseases.

QuidEst wrote:

The "point" of a Kineticist is essentially spending a whole class feat to get something like a spell as essentially a cantrip. If you go nerfing those at-will abilities so that they don't overshadow casting in the few cases where being able to do something at-will actually matters, it's a real bummer.

The ability does essentially guarantee removing a disease before it can progress, so if you need to nerf it, I would consider making its ability to treat a disease once per eight hours (matching the frequency of the Treat Disease activity, but taking a few actions instead of requiring working for eight hours straight). The ten-minute limit is longer than most poisons run, so it's just not relevant there.

Well, if kineticist was only one or primary healer I probably would not be bothered about it's ability to remove deseases with such ease, which overshadow spells. But the main reasoning here is that party has a main healer, and she has spells and invested in medicine. Granted that bard unlike witch or cleric could not swap spells in their repertoir each day, whats the point to have such spells if kineticist can do all the same but better?

Making it once per 8 hours is a good advice, I will consider that approach

I would certainly let the Bard choose to retrain Cleanse Affliction if they don't think they're getting good value out of it anymore, and I'd handwave the usual training costs and time. (Spontaneous casters can freely retrain a spell on level-up anyway, and often forget the option.)

It's worth noting that Torrent in the Blood won't remove the lingering effects of a disease or poison, so if the Bard needs a substitute spell, Restoration, Clear Mind, and Sound Body are all good choices.

However, Cleanse Affliction can guarantee improving the condition of a poison or disease right away, while heightened versions also get a counteract check to remove it entirely. Even if you don't change Torrent in the Blood, Cleanse Affliction is still pulling its weight against poison.

The "point" of a Kineticist is essentially spending a whole class feat to get something like a spell as essentially a cantrip. If you go nerfing those at-will abilities so that they don't overshadow casting in the few cases where being able to do something at-will actually matters, it's a real bummer.

The ability does essentially guarantee removing a disease before it can progress, so if you need to nerf it, I would consider making its ability to treat a disease once per eight hours (matching the frequency of the Treat Disease activity, but taking a few actions instead of requiring working for eight hours straight). The ten-minute limit is longer than most poisons run, so it's just not relevant there.

When you say "apply to critical failures" does this only work for spell attack rolls then? If so that's strong but honestly not the worst thing in the world.

It's to improve your saves against one tradition, with the appropriate setup. Spell attack rolls don't enter the picture.

My takeaway is that Psychic Dedication needs to give Timber Sentinel.

IS there any Dragon Eidolons or is Summoner just dead.

Also is there a sustained force barrage, what is it called!? What Spell Tradition is it!?

We already knew it didn't have any because Summoner isn't remastered yet, right? There's already a dragon eidolon that, when remastered, should work with all the dragons in here, same as Sorcerer, Barbarian, etc.

It's an arcane Summon Dragon for a barrage dragon, I think.

I only got glimpses from Phoebe Bane's stream, but the bog dragons being able to make bog mummies (even if unreliably) is exactly what I wanted from them. The fact that they hoard undead heroes to force them to retell tales of their lives forever? Incredible. Much better hooks than the old black dragon.

My favorite stuff will probably have to wait until I get the book myself on December 3, but it seems really cool.

Occult only having two phantoms that are... let's say, less likely to inspire characters than what the other traditions have, is a bit of a bummer. Aberration is such a natural fit that Secrets of Magic even discusses the underpinning of why occult tradition summons aberrations in the occult magic section.

I know that a remaster is unlikely to add a lot of new class options, but I'll go ahead and toss it out there anyway.

Hope you're able to get things resolved without too much more trouble!

As someone who didn't really click with the old dragons, I'm one of the folks glad that we're getting a whole bunch of new ones to explore the new space, a little farther afield for what dragons can be. The new occult dragons do a much better job than the old esoteric dragons for me, for example.

But, I also have to acknowledge my place as the person in all my game groups least likely to appreciate the "dragon-shaped dragon with a thematic coat of paint" approach that 1e had.

I just realized I am a Lizardfolk, would I be able to take the ancestry feat Tail Whip to be able to grapple with my tail?

I don't see that feat. Iruxi Armaments doesn't give the tail the grapple trait, which is what it would need to do.

Kholo get a bite with grapple with the Crunch feat, if that's not too much of a change.

Heck yeah, Outcast's Curse mentioned - my favorite horrifying spell in the game! Love the mocking dragon as a potential enemy in evil games. It's a nice break from angels and infighting, and I could see a GM slotting it in as a party nemesis in Blood Lords.

I really appreciate them underselling the total amount so people didn't think we were getting forty new dragons. This way, the reprints feel like an exciting bonus.

But whatever, none of that matters, vizier dragon? I need to see this...

If you want some shorthand, Paizo replaced some alignments with edicts and anathema.

For NPC entries, there's a one-word description instead- where it would once say "Soandso, LN Merchant", it is now "Soandso, Forthright Merchant".

And, in some cases, like for monsters, there isn't a replacement shorthand. The CE dragon with a description of what kind of CE they were is now just a dragon with a description of what kind of dragon they are.

Those seem to be the tools that Paizo is using.

Is it intended to redesign/design the dragons as "more nightmarish" and "outerworldy alien"?

Eh, I'd personally say "more varied" and "more interesting". Some of them are more nightmarish or otherworldly, because the old dragons would never stray far enough from a basic dragon to be scary or alien. But I don't think a Rune Dragon or Fortune Dragon is nightmarish nor otherworldly.

I think Brine Dragon and Coral Dragon makes for a fair comparison. They're both ocean dragons from their respective second monster books.

Brine Dragons are very standard-looking dragons, with the only distinctions being decorative fins and the blueish color. GMing, I don't think the art is going to do much to impress the players with anything about the dragon. I'm going to have to lean into the personality to make them memorable.

Coral Dragons look a lot more like they're built for swimming, with properly webbed feet. They have powerful builds and scary teeth. Their appearance ties in with what their "thing" is. GMing, I think the art is going to do a lot of heavy lifting for me. They're probably going to be memorable even if I drop the ball on their personality.

I personally think having that wider range and venturing further out is what results in some dragons looking like you described, rather than those traits being a goal for all the new designs. But, it could also be something else entirely, like a goal to have "more imposing" dragons.

is this for Starfinder 1e or 2e?

Starfinder 1e.

QuidEst wrote:

JiCi wrote:

Yeah, a dragon for the Planes of Metal and Wood, the Astral and Ethereal Planes and the First World would round up thing nicely; Umbral Dragons are already in the Netherworld and while Forest Dragons are living in the Plane of Wood, they... are Imperial Dragons, not Primal.

I would expect that imperial dragons fall under primal dragons in the new categorization. That seems to fit them better than arcane, divine, or occult.

Is... that the plan?

Is Paizo dropping dragon categories altogether?

I'm out of the loop...

Speculation on my part, and speculation that missed the fact that Imperial Dragons actually use a variety of traditions of magic.

"They are Imperial Dragons" - Probably still true.
"... not Primal Dragons" - Maybe not true?

Instead of being inherently arcane creatures like they were in PF1, dragons are all tied to one of the four types of magic. So, we have four categories of dragons. The PF1/pre-remaster categories of dragons were just groupings of five dragons. For Imperial Dragons, it happened to be the elemental cycle, something that naturally has five. But there's no reason for there to be exactly five Esoteric Dragons, and there's a solid reason there shouldn't be only five Planar Dragons. That was all because Paizo released sets of five dragons in bestiaries, with each being a category sharing a theme. For the sake of clarity, I'm going to call these "families", since that's what the wiki does.

Post-remaster, we have four permanent categories for all dragons to fall under. Instead of rolling Arcana for all dragons, you roll the appropriate category skill. Instead of getting Arcane spells for all draconic-related magic, you get the related spell list. They are functional categories with mechanical impact and design considerations (Occult Dragons have feet-wings and a compulsion, Arcane Dragons are connected to some sort of magic, etc.).

It doesn't look like we are likely to be getting new dragon families, now that we have the four traditions as categories. (I could immediately be proven wrong in the big dragon book, so we'll see.) There's no reason that the old families can't stick around, and the Imperial Dragons are probably the most lore-important family of dragons, being tied to important parts of Tian Xia and to the elemental cycle.

But, Imperial Dragons do need to fall under some tradition if used in the remaster, to answer questions like "what spell list allows turning into them" and "what skill is best to roll knowledge on them". Using their casting tradition works, and leaves them in an interesting position where they're a draconic family that falls under several different post-remaster categories. If they all need to fall under one, "Primal" because of the elemental cycle ties makes sense, or "Arcane" for its own association with the same thing.

Narratively, I would describe it as slow waves of fear washing out from the dragon. Let's suppose we have a well-hidden invisible halfling sneaking around near a dragon. Every so often, despite their best efforts, they will feel dread creep over them and horrible images of being devoured will shake them. It passes after a few moments, but it isn't long before it's back.

Yeah, a dragon for the Planes of Metal and Wood, the Astral and Ethereal Planes and the First World would round up thing nicely; Umbral Dragons are already in the Netherworld and while Forest Dragons are living in the Plane of Wood, they... are Imperial Dragons, not Primal.

I would expect that imperial dragons fall under primal dragons in the new categorization. That seems to fit them better than arcane, divine, or occult.

It would be impolite to go asking someone about the rules intention for something they wrote more than a decade ago in a different edition. At this point, it is for the GM to decide.

This seems like a great party game to have on hand for nerdy crowds, based on the preview video.

Any chance this book will be getting a remastered version?

Guaranteed, or impossible, depending on your view- this was the first rulebook to use the remastered rules, so it is already "remastered".

I think this book would be the perfect opportunity to showcase some new Devils! I've always been very interested to see Paizo's official take on Wayfinder's Hellforge Devil, Addiction Devil, Physician Devil, Rumor Devil, and Seduction Devil! ^^

Easy thing to check is if there are any shared authors between this and Wayfinder #11 from 2014, since I don't think Paizo would use somebody's fan work without involving them or crediting. It doesn't look like there are any shared authors, so probably not those specific devils.

Got my Monster Core 2 yesterday.

Does anyone know of any plans for Paizo to publish a GM Core 2 book?

No indications of that so far. Everything they needed fit into one book, so getting another GM Core would certainly be surprising.

Honestly this is where the fantasy and reality collide so much (for me) that it's hard to strike the right balance.

In our world, someone using a banner to direct their allies would pretty much be consumed doing that and only that. They wouldn't also be trying to make attacks themselves, their job is to coordinate.

The question becomes, is a Commander that is only using their banner and related abilities to provide bonuses to their allies doing enough that not making attacks makes sense?

Not making strikes yourself is probably fine, as long you are letting your teammates perform extra strikes. So, if your banner is just on your backpack, you should be going and hitting stuff yourself.