Ask me anything about Pathfinder 1st Edition or D&D 3.5 and I’ll have the answer. When I was in college D&D 3.0 just came out and that’s what I started learning with. Pathfinder 2E or D&D 5E is too newfangled for me.
Slashing Damage: 4d8 ⇒ (5, 5, 2, 3) = 15
Vitalis basic Reflex: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (1) + 17 = 18
Did Vitalis take 30 damage from that? Does his resist slashing 4 apply?
Yes, the resistance should have applied. I have it fixed in my notes and it will be correct when I next post.
So the weakness 5 to fire just cancels out the resistance 5 from Chance’s ring, right?
I want to feed the golden goose innocent hearts, but that would be evil. Sad face.
So the weakness 5 to fire just cancels out the resistance 5 from Chance’s ring, right?
That is correct; your GM is forgetful. It should be properly updated for when I next post.
Ohhh. I missed something that actually changes some stuff with Thatch: Thatch gains standard (not lesser) cover if a Medium creature is in the way.
I’d say that that also applies when Thatch is in Jisara’s (or another ally’s) space, since you’d be actively trying to protect the cat.
Shower Thoughts:
What if they changed the (Cha) stat to (Riz)?
Bards could be Rizzlers and Sorcerers could be Rizzards.
Clerics would then use (Wis) and (Riz). That just rolls off the tongue.
Got a PFS game I need to GM; I’ll get to posting in a couple hours.
Okay, I’m going to ramble for a bit because I feel a bit of communication is in order.
Yeah, I’m gonna have to replace Jisara as soon as this combat is over. I’ve been communicating with their player behind the scenes for a while to try to get an understanding of the nuance of the situation. While they haven’t been communicating with the rest of y’all as much as I would have liked, they have been communicating with me.
I’m not at liberty to disclose everything that’s been going on in their life, but I will say that it’s been a bombardment of really nasty, uncontrollable stuff that made THEIR life extremely difficult. They have not been acting in bad faith whatsoever, so I’ve been accommodating them because I know it’s just a series of bad situations.
Then…they vanished. I haven’t been able to communicate with them at all this past week and…that’s where I have to draw the line. I don’t like having to be the *sshole, but I feel I have no other choice anymore.
And to add on to all of this, I have not been going through great times either. I just graduated college, am still unemployed, have developed sudden onset insomnia, have been having medication issues, need to get a new therapist, need to jump through red tape for a new government caseworker. And to top it all off, I just got news that my gaming group of the past 7 years just lost a player.
So I’m currently in a major inflection point in my life, and it feels like my life is falling apart around me. I still want to play; Pathfinder is a major source of joy in my life and cutting it out would certainly do more harm than good. I’m explaining this because I want to be open about what’s going on and where I’m coming from.
It's a tough decision but I think you are making the right call.
Also, don't sweat being unemployed. You just graduated. It takes time to find a job. I'm sure you'll find something soon.
Side note: in the original 1e AP, Zella was just a wizard with a connection to the harrow. And, like, you cannot show me that picture and expect me to believe that that woman does not PRIMARILY use that bladed scarf in combat! That is NOT the picture of a wizard!
Harrow cards one of my banes.
In the Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign you have to do Harrow readings each chapter, which are such a pain in the ass. And I ran that campaign THREE times.
Now my group convinced me to run Carrion Crown, and what do you know, harrow cards AGAIN! Ugh.
I like harrow cards, it’s just that I’ve yet to see a campaign that legitimately utilizes them (haven’t played Stolen Fates yet). The harrow stuff in Crimson Throne always felt weirdly hamfisted.
I now have to make a very strange request:
Jisara’s player was a player at both this table and my Strange Aeons 2e table, so now I’m kinda in need of a new player in the latter game.
That game in particular is, well…strange (as the title would imply), but the main thing of note is that the party at that table is in need of a healer of some kind. The party’s at about the same spot in the campaign as in this one (currently level 11), but the narrative is a lot easier to explain to a newcomer to THAT table than the nuances needed for a newcomer to THIS table. If anyone’s interested, don’t be afraid to reach out.
Additionally, I already have someone from my Strange Aeons game who said they were willing to jump over to this game once the situation was a lot more convenient.
That's great that you have someone who wants to join us.
I'd consider joining the other game but I don't know if I have the wavelength for it right now.
I work in a small purchasing department with one coworker. That coworker retired today and from what I'm hearing, a replacement may be a while away. So I'll probably be doing the work of two for the foreseeable future. I'll have to see how much free time I actually have, if any, before I commit to anything new.
I now have to make a very strange request:
Jisara’s player was a player at both this table and my Strange Aeons 2e table, so now I’m kinda in need of a new player in the latter game.
That game in particular is, well…strange (as the title would imply), but the main thing of note is that the party at that table is in need of a healer of some kind. The party’s at about the same spot in the campaign as in this one (currently level 11), but the narrative is a lot easier to explain to a newcomer to THAT table than the nuances needed for a newcomer to THIS table. If anyone’s interested, don’t be afraid to reach out.
Additionally, I already have someone from my Strange Aeons game who said they were willing to jump over to this game once the situation was a lot more convenient.
Much as I’d love to join a Strange Aeons game, I know for certain that I don’t have the bandwith to add another campaign.
Constructive criticism: In the initiative, can we get a short description (one or two word) for the enemies in addition to the color? Sometimes the combats last a few days and I forget who I'm fighting.
Also, let us know when you get a job, Xavier. I genuinely want to know. Good luck on your search.
Constructive criticism: In the initiative, can we get a short description (one or two word) for the enemies in addition to the color? Sometimes the combats last a few days and I forget who I'm fighting.
Uh…elaborate on this?
Like, I don't want to just call the enemy Yellow. Like is he a cleric, or a soldier, or dottari, etc.. It doesn't even have to be the specific class or monster name, just something to help when I'm trying to describe what I'm attacking.
Like, I don't want to just call the enemy Yellow. Like is he a cleric, or a soldier, or dottari, etc.. It doesn't even have to be the specific class or monster name, just something to help when I'm trying to describe what I'm attacking.
Okay, that’s fair.
Also, let us know when you get a job, Xavier. I genuinely want to know. Good luck on your search.
The short-ish answer is that I kinda…haven’t been looking. The last time I made a genuine effort to do so created diagnosable depression and other stuff, so my executive dysfunction refuses to let me do any of that out of a mental survival instinct.
The long answer is that there’s a government program thing that starts in August that looks like it would help, and in the meantime I’ve been trying to get my Vocational Rehabilitation case transferred to another caseworker at a different location closer to me, because my current one has done literally nothing to help me* in the year that I’ve been working with him. But I apparently need him to okay the case transfer, and he’s so infuriating to communicate with that my executive dysfunction is sabotaging me on THAT front too.
*Needed a summer job last year, ended up doing red tape stuff for 3 months. Asked if he could help me get an internship to help graduate, said that was kinda outside his capabilities (which is real freaking weird). Then I went to a program on-campus for that internship help, found out that in order for them to do ANYTHING they need confirmation from Vocational Rehabilitation (otherwise they, y’know, can’t get paid). Took what must have been at least 2 months for the two of them to actually chat, then my caseworker said there was nothing that could be done since I was looking for an internship rather than a job. THEN he found that there IS something, so the on-campus people finally get approval to help me. By then there’s maybe two-ish weeks before the start of the semester in which I NEEDED the internship, and the options were basically either “get lucky with this one interview I got you” or “work a full-time job for your internship.”
And after all that, I got my damn internship not because I jumped through all those hoops, but because my mom posted about it on Facebook and got a response. And by then it was already a week into the semester, so I had to take that unpaid internship because otherwise I basically wouldn’t be able to graduate at all.
So, yeah. My experience with job hunting has been f*cking abysmal to the point there I can barely will myself to do ANYTHING related to it. And that’s not even adding in the fact that I’m completely new to ACTUALLY working, which means I’m inherently disadvantaged.
I owe everyone an apology. It's been a real hell of a year for me, and that's made it difficult for me to keep to my commitments, but that means I've been letting you all down and I am deeply sorry for that.
Xavier managed to get back in touch with me, and we had a long discussion about the whole situation and whether or not I'd be able/willing to return to the level of activity that is necessary for the game to move forward. I asked for some time to answer, because while I certainly love this character, the game, and playing with the rest of you, I needed to think on whether I could do that, and what I would need to change for it.
I came back with some ideas, and he asked how likely I thought they are to work, to which I had to truthfully say "No idea! But I'll try my best." Or, at least, I'd like to, if y'all are okay with it. We also agreed on a pretty short timeline to see if it works and, if not, that's okay, too.
But I also don't want this to be just something between me and him, cause obviously you've all been affected, too.
Hero Points have reset
And yeah, I will admit that I'm probably being a bit too forgiving after a lot of the stuff these past couple months, and I'm also willing to admit that it's for almost entirely selfish reasons (introducing a new player halfway through the campaign is difficult). I just think it would also be unfair to keep this conversation between Jisara and myself.
(And I'm also waiting to see folks' reactions to this before I proceed further)
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I apologize for being offline the last several days. I've been slammed with work deadlines for the last couple of weeks, but the most stressful of them was today and is finally done. I should be in better shape for the rest of June, at least.
As for Jisara: I'd be happy for you to continue, and I hope your circumstances are improving!
Whoops - yes, I meant Chance cast death ward on himself. And weakest save works for the Recall Knowledge question.
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Sorry. I missed the post about Jisara coming back. Welcome back!
For the record: there's a local convention this weekend (starting on Friday), so I make no guarantees about posting between now and Monday.
No worries. Have fun.
Sorry I keep forgetting about that dim light.
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Happy Father’s Day, any father’s out there!
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Forgot you had that! So you’ll reduce damage by an additional 2 (since I was already calculating Unexpected Shift), and give Chance a free Escape.
Yeah. I think this is the first time I actually used it since usually Retributive Strike is the better choice.
Also, I should've mentioned this a while ago, and I kept MEANING to say this: You only get the base benefits of Liberating Step, not the Divine Smite or Exalt benefits of it. It was a weird corner case for something I wrote years ago that I've been meaning to bring up and just kept forgetting.
From Jisara’s player:
“…work has been batsh*t this week and I am having to help someone move across the country this weekend…[I’ll need to be botted] until Tuesday.”
That's fine.
Hero Points have reset
Edrakk administers a healing elixir to Vitalis before running between Chance and Jisara to keep them standing.
Doctor's Visitation has the flourish trait, meaning it can only be done once per turn.
Sorry, all. Work was very hectic right up to the holiday and I’ve been more or less collapsed since. I will post tonight.
For the record, I will be out of town from 7/10 to about 7/15. I will have SOME internet, but not enough to justify posting with any kind of consistency.
Okay. Enjoy your trip.
Human error: Red would’ve been frightened 1 on their turn from Vitalis’s Battle Cry; the -1 wouldn’t have made a difference, so I won’t make a big deal out of it.
Since I'm last in the initiative, I'm going to wait to see what the others do. Since the hallway is narrow, I don't want to move in anyone else's way or in anyone's spell areas.
Hero Points have reset
Okay, today is going to be really busy for me, so I’m not sure if/when I’ll get to posting today.
Also, Jisara’s player has been going through some weird medication stuff that’s been messing with their ability to focus, so I might have to bot them for a bit while they get that sorted out.
Poor Jisara.
Vitalis Will: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (8) + 19 = 27 Failure --> Success (incapacitation)
What does incapacitation mean for Vitalis?
It means it was an incapacitation spell that wasn't high enough rank, so you increase your degree of success by one step. It was a suggestion.
Oh ok. I just didn't know if it affected my actions for the turn.
Alright, Player Core 2 dropped, and with it came some bombshell changes. Once again, here’s a spreadsheet of the changes made during all of the remastering process
So, let’s go one at a time:
Nothing really changed for your build, except maybe some spell stuff; don’t worry about it too much.
Ritualist Dedication now specifies the rank of the rituals you learn from that feat—to be more specific, Chance should know a rank 2, 4, and 6 ritual from that feat (you can obvious choose a lower rank than those). I don’t know if that changes things significantly, but it was worth bringing up.
More noteworthy, though, is what’s in the future. Speedy Rituals is now gone as a separate feat and is instead built into Efficient Rituals once you hit level 14. The level 14 Ritualist feat is now one that lets you reduce the Cost of any ritual by 10% (20% if you crit succeed on the primary check).
I am granting you a full character rebuild. I’m gonna guess you’ll stick with the same general vibe, but I’ll allow you to freely retrain some feats here and there if you want to.
(I’m going to be more open with info because I don’t know if you own the book yet) First off, none of your Hellknight stuff changed.
Your build got surprisingly few changes. The biggest stuff that changed were simply names—you are no longer a “paladin,” you are a “champion of justice,” and you know longer have a “Divine Ally (blade ally),” you have a “Blessing of the Devoted (blessed armament).”
“Juggernaut” was renamed to “Sacred Body.” Not a big deal, but I do reference those class features occasionally, so I would like your hotbar to use the proper phrase.
You COULD choose to take a different focus spell (shields of the spirit) instead of lay on hands, but you won’t, because that other focus spell requires you to use a shield, which is not your build.
There IS an interesting new champion cause called Grandeur, whose reaction is all about causing revealing light effects, but I’m gonna assume you wanna stick with the subclass that gives you a Strike as part of your reaction, since you’re the primary damage dealer.
Also, Retributive Strike does NOT have the holy trait, which means that the persistent spirit damage you deal from it does NOT deal extra damage because a creature is weak to holy. (This is also true of the other subclasses’ reactions, but I know you probably don’t care about that)
The Retributive-Strike-subclass no longer REQUIRES you to be a goody-two-shoes (“you must be holy”), but I am assuming that you are choosing to stick with having the holy trait because it very much fits with the vibe of Vitalis.
(Assuming you DID take the holy trait:) All of your Strikes are holy, irrelevant of whether or not you have the holy rune on your weapon. This was already a thing when Player Core 1 came out, but I didn’t make a big deal out of it because you were already using the holy rune. I AM making a big deal out of it NOW because…
…Your newly-dubbed blessed armament (the thing that lets you put a weapon rune on your halberd) had some wording removed that makes it so that the bonus rune you get from your class feature DOES apply against the normal property rune limit, which was not the case before. Basically, you have to choose to get rid of devil-bane, holy, or thundering right now. Silver lining, though, is that you can now choose to make your bonus rune fearsome (which was previously only available to evil champions).
The feat you took that lets you put holy on your weapon no longer provides flaming to the list of your bonus runes, but DOES provide astral and brilliant. Additionally, that feat lets you swap out that bonus rune for a different one on that list with a 10-minute activity.
If you want to not take blessed armament for some reason, the animal companion option was replaced with “Blessed Swiftness,” which gives you (or a mount you’re riding) +5 feet of Speed and gives all of your allies a +2 status bonus to their defenses against enemy reactions that was triggered by their movement, as long as they’re in your champion’s aura (see below).
You now have a 15-foot champion’s aura. The aura doesn’t do anything mechanical BY ITSELF beyond a couple of flavor things (“Any follower of your deity within the aura immediately knows you’re a champion of your deity.”). It has two primary purposes:
1)Feats like aura of faith just modify the already-existing aura to have a mechanical benefit, instead of you possibly having 5 different auras that do different things.
2)ALL champions’ reactions have had their wording modified from a static “within 15 feet” to “[if the enemy and ally] are both within your champion’s aura.” This means that if you make your aura bigger, the range of your Retributive Strike increases as well. And I mention this because a a certain garbage feat got powered up to the MAX (see below; note the feat level)
Prerequisites champion’s aura
----------------------------------------------
You focus your divine power to extend your influence and protection. Expand the radius of your champion’s aura to 30 feet until the start of your next turn. At 10th level, the expansion lasts for 1 minute, and at 16th level, it lasts until you Dismiss it.
Additionally, Blade of Justice got cut in favor of a similar feat that was more inclusive to the other subclasses:
Prerequisites champion’s reaction that grants an ally resistance to an enemy’s damage (including the grandeur, justice, liberation, and redemption causes)
Requirements An enemy triggered your champion’s reaction since the end of your last turn.
----------------------------------------------
You call upon divine power and make a weapon or unarmed Strike against the enemy who triggered your champion’s reaction. The Strike deals one extra weapon damage die. If this Strike hits, until the start of your next turn, the target gains weakness equal to half your level to all Strikes made by you and your allies.
Also (assuming you continue to go with the holy Retributive Strike build), your “code of conduct” is replaced with the following edicts and anathema (these are in addition to those of Shelyn):
Edicts Do not knowingly harm innocents or fail to prevent harm to an innocent if your direct intervention could save them, follow the law, respect legitimate authorities or leadership
Anathema Commit murder, take advantage of another, cheat
Just my two cents for how to change your character in the most painless way: swap out Blade of Justice with Blessed Counterstrike, and swap Order Training (it’s very seldom that you use Liberating Step over Retributive Strike) with Expand Aura (because 30-foot Retributive Strike is ridiculous!)
I am granting you a full character rebuild. I’m gonna guess you’ll stick with the same general vibe, but I’ll allow you to freely retrain some feats here and there if you want to.
Let’s start with the easiest thing: the bonus healing from Medic Dedication is explicitly a circumstance bonus. That is ALL that has changed with the medic archetype.
Now for the REAL weeds. Alchemist got completely overhauled. To the point where, when I was reading through it, my first thought was “OHHH, Edrakk’s gonna have FUN!”
The biggest mention: You only need one formula for a type of item; i.e. you don’t need a separate formula for a minor elixir of life and a lesser elixir of life
Crystal shards no longer leave caltrops; it automatically applies the effects of caltrops to the primary target on a hit.
That Powerful Alchemy house rule of mine (that lets you increase the DC of all your infused items, not just Quick Alchemy’d ones)? That is now straight-up RAW. Changes nothing about how you play, but it was worth mentioning.
Your “infused reagents” are now split into two resources: prepared items, and versatile vials.
Prepared items These are how YOU usually use your infused reagents. You get a number of these equal to 4 + Int.; the level 4 Efficient Alchemy increases this to 6+Int. and level 10 Advanced Efficient Alchemy increases this number to 8+Int (10+Int. at level 16)
Versatile Vials These are special “alchemical bombs” that can be used with Quick Alchemy or as a super-basic bomb. You get a number of these equal to 2+Int.; for every 10 minutes you spend in exploration mode, you regain 2 vials up to the above maximum (meaning you regain 2 vials after spending 10 minutes Treating Wounds; you don’t have to dedicate that 10 minutes to finding the vials). You can use Quick Alchemy to create a brand new versatile vial, but you cannot THEN use Quick Alchemy again to turn that vial into a consumable.
There is some discussion about the clause “You can store all your versatile vials within your alchemist’s toolkit, with no increase to its Bulk.” Some argue that because they’re part of your toolkit, they are then subject to the separate clause “This easy access allows you to draw and replace the tools within as part of the action that uses them, rather than needing to Interact to draw them.” The consensus among PFS folks is that that is NOT the case, because it wasn’t explicitly spelled out. Now…I disagree with PFS’s consensus for a number of reasons (most obviously that that reading makes mutagenists “too bad to be true”), so I’m just gonna ignore PFS’s consensus. As long as you are wearing your alchemist’s toolkit (which, as an alchemist, you should always be), you can Interact to draw a versatile vial as part of the same action to Activate it
“Juggernaut” was renamed to “Chemical Hardiness.” Not a big deal, but I do reference those class features occasionally, so I would like your hotbar to use the proper phrase.
Quick Bomber now lets you Quick Alchemy as part of it.
Additives are no longer janky with using them on lower-level items; you can apply one to any item you make with Quick Alchemy (as long as you only do one additive per item).
Healing bombs are now a feat, if you want to lean into the healer side of things a bit.
Completely forget about everything you knew regarding Toxicologist and replace it with this:
Field Benefit (1st) You can apply injury poisons with one action. You straight-up ignore immunity to poison with your infused items (immunity to poison DAMAGE still applies, but see the next sentence). Your poisons deal either poison damage or acid damage, whichever is better for you (as determined by the GM).
Field Vials (1st) Your versatile vials can deal poison damage instead of acid. You can also apply them as an injury poison to your weapon to deal (at this level) 3d6 additional damage.
Field Discovery (5th) You gain poison resistance equal to half your level (which means the Poison Resistance feat is gone).
Advanced Vials (11th) If you apply your versatile vials as an injury poison, the weapon deals (at this level) 3 persistent poison damage.
Greater Field Discovery (13th) You gain this feat for free, except it’s not a reaction, doesn’t have a range limit, and can occur when a foe fails (instead of JUST a crit fail).
Hoo boy. That's a lot to go over. I don't have the book yet, but I'll pick it up soon.
My weekend is packed so I might not get around to rebuilding Vitalis until next week.
Oh also, FYI, Saturday August 24 through Thursday August 29 I will be on vacation in the Bahamas. I probably will not be able to post during that time.
So I think the main immediate changes I'm making are replacing Far Lobber, Perpetual Breadth, and Poison Resistance with Quick Bomber and Efficient/Advanced Efficient Alchemy.
I'll update my prepared infusions in the statblock. Honestly, I'm unsure how particularly these changes will work, but I'm excited!!