The Play's the Thing

Monday, July 8, 2019

Last week, we built a character together, so now let's talk about how the game plays!

Digital artwork: Lush forest, night time. Aged vines and moss wrap around thick tree branches. In the foreground, Harsk, a gruff gnome ranger with long hair and an almost equally long beard, is peering out from behind large, leafy plants. Behind him, Lini - an excited-looking gnome druid, uses her right hand to brush back overgrown greenery from a stone column twice her height and half as wide. She holds a torch in her left hand, which lights the image in dark red. She has partially revealed square-shaped carvings in the side of the column. Behind her - to the right - her snow leopard companion Droogami, looks  to see what she's discovered.

Illustration by Will O'Brien

Exploring

Most of the time when you're adventuring, you're exploring. Whether you're examining a dusty tomb, blazing trails through a dense jungle, or disguising your way into an enemy fortress, exploration is all about discovery. It takes place on a fluid time scale, ranging from roughly 10 minutes to hours, or even days for a long overland expedition. It's dangerous to go alone, especially when you don't know if you'll have an important skill you need to brave the perils of a dungeon, but fortunately you'll be part of a team. If you're an expert or better in a skill, you'll be able to help your allies with that skill while exploring, by coaching your less athletic teammates up the cliffside and spotting the worst of the climb, using hand gestures to sneak your louder allies past the guards at the best moment, and more!

In addition to a handful of exploration actions characters can take while in this game mode, the book also presents a number of skills that can be used while exploring.

Text inset: SKILL EXPLORATION ACTIVITIES. Chapter 4: Skills include numerous additional exploration activities, which are summarized here.  
Borrow an Arcane Spell: You use Arcana to prepare a spell from someone else's spellbook (page 241).
Coerce: You use Intimidation to threaten a creature so it does what you want (page 247).
Cover Tracks: You use Survival to obscure your passing (page 252).
Decipher Writing: You use a suitable skill to understand archaic, esoteric, or obscure texts (page 234).
Gather Information: You use Diplomacy to canvass the area to learn about a specific individual or topic (page 246).
Identify Alchemy: You use Craft and alchemist's tools to identify an alchemical item (page 245).
Identify Magic: Using a variety of skills, you can learn about a magic item, location, or ongoing effect (page 238). 
Impersonate: You use Deception and usually a disguise kit to create a disguise (page 245).
Learn a Spell: You use the skill corresponding to the spell’s tradition to gan access to a new spell (page 238).
Make an Impression: You use Diplomacy to make a good impression on someone (page 246). 
Repair: With a repair kit and the Crafting skill, you fix a damaged item (page 243).
Sense Direction: You use Survival to get a sense of where you are or determine the cardinal directions (page 252).
Squeeze: Using Acrobatics, you squeeze through very tight spaces (page 241).
Track: You use Survival to find and follow creatures’ tracks (page 252).
Treat Wounds: You use Medicine to treat a living creature’s wounds (page 249).

Encounter

When every action matters, your characters enter an encounter, proceeding turn by turn, action by action. These crop up in the middle of exploration, putting your travels on hold so you can deal with an immediate danger or opportunity. Combat encounters are the most typical encounters, taking place on a scale of mere seconds between life and death, but all encounters share a common structure: you roll initiative to determine turn order, then you take turns, performing your actions and determining what happens. In a combat encounter, each turn you get one reaction and three actions you can spend however you want. For instance, on her turn in combat, a sorcerer might spend all three actions to unleash a deadly barrage of magic missiles while a fighter might raise his shield and then use a Sudden Charge to rush an enemy and attack.

It's during encounters that most player characters will bestow conditions upon their foes, or gain a condition as the result of the conflict. To make the wide range of conditions that can come into play easier for new players to learn, we provide a full-page list of them without any of the associated rules. This allows someone to quickly reference what it means to be stunned or stupefied, and tell the difference between being undetected, invisible, or concealed.

Text Inset: CONDITIONS. These conditions appear often in the game and are defined in detail in the Conditions Appendix on pages 618-623. Here’s a brief summary of each.
Blinded: You’re unable to see.
Broken: This item can’t be used for its normal function until repaired.
Clumsy: You can’t move as easily or gracefully as usual.
Concealed: Fog or similar obscuration makes you difficult to see and target. 
Confused: You attack indiscriminately.
Controlled: Another creature determines your actions.
Dazzled: Everything is concealed to you.
Deafened: You’re unable to hear.
Doomed: With your soul in peril, you are now closer to death.
Drained: Blood loss or something similar has leached your vitality.
Dying: You’re slipping closer to death.
Encumbered: You’re carrying more weight than you can manage.
Enfeebled: Your strength has been sapped away.
Fascinated: You are compelled to focus your attention on something.
Fatigued: Your defenses are lower and you can’t focus while exploring.
Flat-Footed: You’re unable to defend yourself to your full capability.
Fleeing: You must run away.
Friendly: An NPC with this condition has a good attitude toward you.
Frightened: Fear makes you less capable of attacking and defending.
Grabbed:  A creature, object, or magic holds you in place.
Helpful: An NPC with this condition wants to assistantships you.
Hidden: A creature you’re hiding from knows your location but can’t see you.
Hostile: An NPC with this condition wants to harm you.
Immobilized: You can’t move.
Indifferent: An NPC with this condition doesn’t have a strong opinion about you.
Invisible: Creatures can’t see you.
Observed: You’re in plain view.
Paralyzed: Your body is frozen in place.
Persistent Damage: You keep taking damage every round.
Petrified: You’ve been turned to stone.
Prone: You’re lying on the ground and easier to attack.
Quickened: You get an extra action each turn.
Restrained: You’re tied up and can’t move, or a grappling creature has you pinned.
Sickened: You’re sick to your stomach.
Slowed: You lose actions each turn.
Stunned: You can’t use actions.
Stupefied: You can’t access your full mental faculties, and you have trouble casting spells.
Unconscious: You’re asleep or knocked out.
Undetected: A creature you are undetected by doesn’t know where you are.
Unfriendly: An NPC with this condition doesn’t like you.
Unnoticed: A creature is entirely unaware you’re present.
Wounded: You’ve been brought back from the brink of death but haven’t fully recovered.

Downtime

Even heroes sometimes need a break from the incredible stress of an adventuring life! During downtime, you can earn money, craft items, swap out old character choices for different options, or just take a rest and carouse with the locals. You take your downtime when you return to the safety of a town or home base, usually after completing an adventure. While downtime in general flows quickly through days or weeks at a time, depending on the choices you make, new options might open themselves up to you as the GM sprinkles special downtime events into your chosen downtime activity, zooming in temporarily to highlight interesting or unusual occurrences when you're not out on an adventure.

Downtime gets the least amount of space of the three game modes, but it's an incredibly rich design space built into the core of the game that may lead to new innovations over the lifespan of Second Edition (some of which we're already working on). As in Exploration Mode, players can utilize some of their skills for downtime activities.

Text inset: SKILL DOWNTIME ACTIVITIES.
Chapter 4: Skills includes several downtime activities, which are summarized here.
Craft: Using the Crafting skill, you can create items from raw materials (page 244).
Create Forgery: You forge a document (page 251).
Earn Income: You earn money, typically using Crafting, Lore, or Performance (page 236).
Subsist: You find food and shelter in the wilderness or within a settlement (page 240).
Treat Disease: You spend time caring for a diseased creature in the hope of curing that creature (page 248).

Treasure

While many adventurers risk their lives due to heroism or a sense of duty, treasure is a major motivator for others. And let's be honest, even when playing an altruistic PC, it's still a lot of fun to find a cool magic item for your character. In Pathfinder, your characters will find a fairly steady stream of magic items, ranging from simple healing potions to the mighty skyhammer. Some of the more inexpensive items are consumable, meaning they can be used once, like alchemical elixirs you drink, scrolls you read, and special talismans you can attach to your other items. Others, like magic weapons or enchanted clothing and tools, serve you again and again as you adventure. You could wield a storm flash rapier arcing with electricity and wear a dread blindfold to strike fear into your foes! You can also find magic runes you can etch onto weapons and armor to build all kinds of powerful combinations!

Text inset: Storm Flash. Item 14+. Electricity. Evocation. Magical. 
Usage: held in 1 hand; bulk 1.
Description: This +2 greater striking shock rapier has a golden blade, and miniature electric arcs flash across its guard while it’s wielded. When out of its sheath under an open sky, the blade causes storm clouds to gather slowly above.
Activate  command, envision;
Frequency: once per day;
Effect: You cast a 60th level lightning bolt (DC 33).
Activate reaction command; Frequency: once per 10 minutes; Trigger: An electricity effect targets you or a creature within 10 feet of you, or has you or a creature within 10 feet of you in its area; Effect: You try to divert the electricity off course, to be absorbed by storm flash. Choose one eligible creature to protect and roll a melee attack roll against the DC of the electricity effect. If you succeed, the chosen creature takes no electricity damage from the triggering effect.
Type: storm flash; Level 14; Price 4000 gp.
Type: greater storm flash; Level 18. Price: 21,000gp.
This is a +3 greater striking shock rapier. When activating the sword to cast lightning bolt, the spell is 8th level. Text inset: Dread Blindfold. Item 17.
Emotion. Enchantment. Fear. Invested. Magical. Mental.
Price: 15,000 gp.
Usage: worn eyepiece.
Bulk: none.
When tied over your eyes, this ragged strip of black linen gives you a +3 item bonus to Intimidation checks and darkvision. You can see through the blindfold, but only using darkvision. 
The first time a particular creatures sees you in a day, it must succeed at a DC 37 Will save or be frightened 1. This is an emotion, fear, and mental effect, and your allies become immune to it after about a week.

Activate command; Frequency: once per minute; 
Trigger: You damage a creature with a Strike; Effect: Your target is gripped by intense fear. This has the effect of a DC 37 phantasmal killer spell, but it is an enchantment instead of an illusion. The creature is then temporarily immune for 24 hours.

Experience Points and Levels

In Pathfinder, you learn from your adventures, both your triumphs and your failures, growing more powerful and gaining fantastic new abilities. We measure that progress with Experience Points (XP), and typically the more impressive and insurmountable the challenge for your character, the more XP you gain for overcoming it. Once you earn a total of 1,000 XP, you reach a new level, opening up new options for your character. Next week we'll go into detail about leveling up!

Three characters sitting on the grass in the shade under an old, very leafy tree. The weather is partially cloudy. Kneeling on the left is Kyra, a cleric, is holding up a glowing idol in both hands and looking at it intently. She is wearing long flowing blue and white garments with gold dotted circular designs.  She is facing away from the group, to the left of the picture. In the center and further back, Lem, a halfling bard, is sitting barefoot, wrapped in a short-sleeved cloak or jacket. He is playing the flute with his eyes closed. On the far right, Ezren the wizard, a human male with long white hair, is studying from two open books floating in front of him. He has one hand on the pages of each book, and his hands are glowing. The book on the left has a glowing circle of glyphs surrounding his hands

Illustration by Matteo Spirito

Mark Seifter
Designer

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Tags: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Pathfinder Second Edition
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Paizo Employee Franchise Manager

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<TOZ> Huzzah! </TOZ>


7 people marked this as a favorite.

Looks good. I can't wait to really put all the exploration rules to the test. I've got a Breath of the Wild-inspired game I'd like to run, and I enjoy even whole sessions of non-combat, just exploring remote locations and ancient ruins, dealing with traps and environmental hazards, and taking in the scenery.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Storm Flash seems pretty neat. The wording on some of those conditions seems pretty vague though.


5 people marked this as a favorite.

Dread Blindfold, so kinda like Nier Automata thing in the eyes? I can dig that.


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Excaliburproxy wrote:
Storm Flash seems pretty neat. The wording on some of those conditions seems pretty vague though.

It looks like just the one page summary; like with skills; the details would be much, much longer; and cover all the effects and levels of each one (e.g. enfeebled 1 and enfeebled 2, etc.)


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Really interesting items and the type of stuff that should exist more.But seems to be really high level stuff.

I wonder if there will be similarly interesting items at the most commonly played levels.


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Kyrone wrote:
Dread Blindfold, so kinda like Nier Automata thing in the eyes? I can dig that.

I love how it has the one week for your allies to become immune thing. So every morning for a week all you allies wake up to the worst morning face ever.


I would like to know how blindfold immunity works. If you are in a party with player A and player B, and are immune to player A's blindfold, if he passes it over to player B does it carry over?

Designer

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Thanks Moreland and Rei for shepherding the blog and grabbing and uploading so many cool clips from the book. As I told you guys, it's way shorter than last time, but hopefully you enjoy!


Hm... so sluggish is gone. I wonder if that means there's no debuff for giant instinct barbarians.


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So the DC of the lightning bolt doesn't increase for the level 18 version. Is that right?

Designer

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It's renamed clumsy.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Awesome magic items. I hope 2e is full of items like that.


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Is it just me, or the activation of the first ability of Storm Flash is censored?


flfontes wrote:
Is it just me, or the activation of the first ability of Storm Flash is censored?

I'm assuming it's 2 actions but it didn't show up in the picture.


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PossibleCabbage wrote:
Hm... so sluggish is gone. I wonder if that means there's no debuff for giant instinct barbarians.
Mark Seifter wrote:
It's renamed clumsy.

Jason reads the instinct ability and then the clumsy condition on Know Direction, starting here.

Titan Mauler wrote:
You can use a weapon built for a Large creature if you are Small or Medium, both normally and when raging. If you're not Small or Medium, you can use a weapon built for a creature one size larger than you. You gain access to one weapon one size larger than you of any type otherwise available at character creation. It has the normal price and bulk for a weapon of its size. When wielding such a weapon in combat, increase your additional damage from rage from 2 to 6. [But you gain Clumsy 1 and can't remove it]
Clumsy wrote:
You take a status penalty equal to the condition value on Dexterity-based checks and DCs, including AC, Reflex saves, and Ranged attacks.

Designer

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MaxAstro wrote:
Awesome magic items. I hope 2e is full of items like that.

Our goal is for items like those to be the norm: the blindfold is the 2e version of a 1e item that would just grant you +15 Intimidate with no other effect or something like that. Even skill boosters should always do more!


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There are some slight typos:

Paralyzed: You body is frozen in place

(You is used instead of your)

Stupefied: Your can't access your full mental faculties

(Your is used instead of you)

It seems like the two words got switched.


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To say the exploration chapter wasn't well received by my old gaming group would be an understatement. I read it and went "yeah, kinda useful to read I guess. I'll be ignoring that in my games".

Will the whole exploration tactics and being forced to use one tactic carry over to the core rules?

Not a big deal if they do. Much like D&D 4th ed's skill challenge rules I'll ignore it 100% except to use as inspiration for adjudicating what to do in certain situations (skill challenges weren't a terrible idea, just terribly executed).


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So we can build magic items by just etching runes into things, but are effects like "it casts lightning bolt" available with bespoke items (it's inherent to the shock rune, perhaps) through means other than "GM fiat"?


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I'm hoping that we get a nice middle ground in the form of "characters attempting to do two things at once suffer a -X penalty on both rolls".

Designer

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PossibleCabbage wrote:
So we can build magic items by just etching runes into things, but are effects like "it casts lightning bolt" available with bespoke items (it's inherent to the shock rune, perhaps) through means other than "GM fiat"?

You can upgrade the fundamentals of a bespoke item, but it has no slots for property runes. In essence, the unique bespoke abilities are in lieu of property runes.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Mark Seifter wrote:
PossibleCabbage wrote:
So we can build magic items by just etching runes into things, but are effects like "it casts lightning bolt" available with bespoke items (it's inherent to the shock rune, perhaps) through means other than "GM fiat"?
You can upgrade the fundamentals of a bespoke item, but it has no slots for property runes. In essence, the unique bespoke abilities are in lieu of property runes.

I think Cabbage meant the other way around - is there a non-fiat way for a player to get "shoots lightning bolts" on a custom crafted weapon?


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John Lynch 106 wrote:

To say the exploration chapter wasn't well received by my old gaming group would be an understatement. I read it and went "yeah, kinda useful to read I guess. I'll be ignoring that in my games".

Will the whole exploration tactics and being forced to use one tactic carry over to the core rules?

Not a big deal if they do. Much like D&D 4th ed's skill challenge rules I'll ignore it 100% except to use as inspiration for adjudicating what to do in certain situations (skill challenges weren't a terrible idea, just terribly executed).

I think I saw someone(Jason?) mentioned that exploration tactics were more of an 'under the hood' mechanic to give the GM a tool to adjudicate what their players were doing based off their described actions and not so much a "Declare your exploration tactic to me!" type mechanic like it seemed to read in the play test.

I think you are spot on when you say you want to use it as inspiration and not inherently a tool to codify every single element of the game.


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MaxAstro wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
PossibleCabbage wrote:
So we can build magic items by just etching runes into things, but are effects like "it casts lightning bolt" available with bespoke items (it's inherent to the shock rune, perhaps) through means other than "GM fiat"?
You can upgrade the fundamentals of a bespoke item, but it has no slots for property runes. In essence, the unique bespoke abilities are in lieu of property runes.
I think Cabbage meant the other way around - is there a non-fiat way for a player to get "shoots lightning bolts" on a custom crafted weapon?

Pretty much, like if I want a hammer that shoots lightning or a rapier that casts cone of cold, would I be better off reskinning an existing item like Storm Flash, or do I have the tools to build one from scratch?


I seem to remember in the playtest there was a condition that basically gave you a penalty to everything (enervated? I'm not sure). I think it basically made your proficiencies work as if you were one level lower. Is that gone now? If not, what is it named?

Shadow Lodge

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Mark Moreland wrote:
<TOZ> Huzzah! </TOZ>

I see my work here is done!

Designer

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MaxAstro wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
PossibleCabbage wrote:
So we can build magic items by just etching runes into things, but are effects like "it casts lightning bolt" available with bespoke items (it's inherent to the shock rune, perhaps) through means other than "GM fiat"?
You can upgrade the fundamentals of a bespoke item, but it has no slots for property runes. In essence, the unique bespoke abilities are in lieu of property runes.
I think Cabbage meant the other way around - is there a non-fiat way for a player to get "shoots lightning bolts" on a custom crafted weapon?

It's not any more directly stated than if you wanted the dread blindfold to be like a cloak with scary eyes on it, but it shouldn't be too hard to build it or a different weapon if you like!


So does the lightning bolt from a Greater Stormflash have the same DC as the lightning bolt from a regular Stormflash?

Grand Archive

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Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Note: The activation action for the Lightning Bolt on the rapier should be the "two action" symbol. Confirmed by Mark. The symbol is just missing for some reason.

[EDIT] Luis also confirmed the final PDF has the symbol, so that picture might be from an earlier version.


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Mark Seifter your do a great jobe and want to congruate you and your team to do that great product. I hope a kind of mindbender fullspellcaster class in place of mesmerist of 1 edition. A kind of hybrid of mesmerist and psychic class but 2 version pathfinder.


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Nice! My blind self especially likes the descriptive text on the pictures. I'm also loving the magic items.


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Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

The list of conditions isn't much shorter than in the playtest (1 less if my count is right) but it's been greatly clarified, by removing redundancy and unclear language. Well done.

Examples:
- The playtest had Drained and Enervated, now down to Drained.
- The playtest had Accelerated and Quick, now down to Quickened.
- The playtest had Entangled, Hampered, Slowed and Sluggish. This is now just Clumsy and Slowed.
- The playtest had Asleep and Unconscious, this was simplified to just Unconscious.
- The language used for degrees of concealment (Hidden, Unnoticed, etc) is also more clear than the playtest's (Sensed, Unseen).


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Entangled sounds like it has been turned into Restrained.

So for ability degrades we have Clumsy (Dex), Enfeebled (Str), and Stupified (Int,Wis,Cha). Stupified is so that there only needs to be one condition for any given spellcaster, right?

While I appreciate a lack of direct Con degrader, what sort of thing takes its place? Doomed & Wounded?


citricking wrote:
So the DC of the lightning bolt doesn't increase for the level 18 version. Is that right?
Mechalibur wrote:
So does the lightning bolt from a Greater Stormflash have the same DC as the lightning bolt from a regular Stormflash?

I'm going to echo these two questions, as well. The 6th level Lightning Bolt from the initial Storm Flash has a DC of 33. Is the Greater's 8th level Lightning Bolt also 33 or higher?

Paizo Employee Developer

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Stone Dog wrote:
While I appreciate a lack of direct Con degrader, what sort of thing takes its place? Doomed & Wounded?

Drained is the condition you're looking for here. It grants a penalty to Constitution-based checks and reduces your maximum HP. Doomed and wounded play directly with the dying rules.


Stone Dog wrote:

Entangled sounds like it has been turned into Restrained.

So for ability degrades we have Clumsy (Dex), Enfeebled (Str), and Stupified (Int,Wis,Cha). Stupified is so that there only needs to be one condition for any given spellcaster, right?

While I appreciate a lack of direct Con degrader, what sort of thing takes its place? Doomed & Wounded?

Drained is the constitution one I think.

Edit: I got ninja'd.

Grand Archive

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Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Tectorman wrote:
citricking wrote:
So the DC of the lightning bolt doesn't increase for the level 18 version. Is that right?
Mechalibur wrote:
So does the lightning bolt from a Greater Stormflash have the same DC as the lightning bolt from a regular Stormflash?
I'm going to echo these two questions, as well. The 6th level Lightning Bolt from the initial Storm Flash has a DC of 33. Is the Greater's 8th level Lightning Bolt also 33 or higher?

The "caster level" is probably the item level, so I'd say lvl 14 vs 18, so +4, so I'd say DC37


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I cannot overstate how happy I am that parties are Abe to climb or sneak due to teamwork and the awesomeness of someone in their party vs everyone getting a +level to everything. It is just an optics thing, but it does make a big difference.

Liberty's Edge

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Still no Dead condition then
;-p


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I would say it is more than optics shift. It has fairly dramatic effects on what certain party comps can achieve. You can't for example have the expert climb the difficult cliff to get behind the enemy while to untrained party takes the easier but still requiring rolls frontal route. If the level 5 wizard falls into the calm river, some one has to go and get them.

Not to say I dislike the change, it seems a good compromise and let's Expert+ characters feel more important.


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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

A once per minute one action Phantasmal Killer? YEESH. I was worried magic items were going to have either their power or their frequency cut back with resonance gone, but clearly that fear was misplaced.

gwynfrid wrote:

The list of conditions isn't much shorter than in the playtest (1 less if my count is right) but it's been greatly clarified, by removing redundancy and unclear language. Well done.

Examples:
- The playtest had Drained and Enervated, now down to Drained.
- The playtest had Accelerated and Quick, now down to Quickened.
- The playtest had Entangled, Hampered, Slowed and Sluggish. This is now just Clumsy and Slowed.
- The playtest had Asleep and Unconscious, this was simplified to just Unconscious.
- The language used for degrees of concealment (Hidden, Unnoticed, etc) is also more clear than the playtest's (Sensed, Unseen).

Huh, I'm a little bummed we lost Hampered and Accelerated, as those never felt hard to track. In general, the PF2 rulebook seems to be cutting back on the playtest traits and keywords in favor of redundant text that is easier to understand. But I mourn the page count loss these concession cost for new content. Hopefully little things like "basic saving throws" make up for it.

I'm also curious what happened to Enervated. That was a complicated condition, but also a pretty iconic one between the spell and creatures that inflicted it.


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Nice blog! (It's missing some tags though?)


Captain Morgan wrote:
A once per minute one action Phantasmal Killer? YEESH.

That looks like a free action symbol to me.


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Hm. So, is "temporarily immune" the replacement for "bolstered"? If so I approve.

Not sure about the different modes - Exploration in the playtest didn't really work very well with my group, but maybe we were doing it wrong (in my/our defence, the rulebook was almost incomprehensible).

EDIT - still not completely sold on the icons-as-actions (or is it the other way around?) but I think that horse has sailed.


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I don't know. From watching Oblivion Oath, it seems exploration mode — despite the name — is just the same as PF1 between encounters, just with a new name and some new rules of what/when to roll for some specific actions.

Dark Archive

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Very nice lini pic there.


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I wonder what the differences in cause, effect and healing for the big amount of "you can't move" conditions are to justify them.
I mean "grabbed", "immobilized", "paralyzed", "restrained", "petrified" and "stunned" read all similar.
I know there is a big difference between grabbed and petrified - but that's a lot "no movement for you" conditions.

Other than that, if you sort out the thematic collections for "NPC friendlyness", "visibility" and "ability damages", there is only a nice low number of conditions there. That's good.

Dark Archive

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The description for the "dread blindfold" states that a DC 37 Will save has to be made.
The description for the "stormflash" just says that the save DC is 33, but not what kind of save has to be made.

The format of the two items is also different:
The "stormflash" item has it's price given at the bottom, the "dread blindfold" has the price at the top of it's stat block.

I really hope that these inconsistancies are not in the final book.


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These differences might come from the fact, that storm flash is a level 14+ item, that also has a 'greater' level 18 version, while the dread blindfold has no such 'greater' version.

As to the type of save: Storm Flash just casts Lightning Bolt, so I'd guess you have to look up the spell and it's save anyway, as is the case for Phantasmal Killer in the case of the dread blindfold.

Also it seems the pictures aren't from the final version, as evidence by the missing 2 Action symbol in the Storm Flash entry.

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