Abyssiensis's page

Shove also can reposition an enemy for a casters area spell

Level 2 has darkness, but you are otherwise correct, it is a relatively limited spell in its capability at low levels. I'm not sure it is the most limited because some of the low level cleric focus spells are worse I think

Particularly what happens when your on a boat or airship and some of the crew dies? How capable does the vehicle remain?

Does anyone know if there is a rule for what happens if you have enough crew for a vehicle, then someone dies and you then don't while your using it. I've looked and I can't find what happens?

It doesn't need to be a witches familiar in the dedication, because the other feats and the dedication state how it works with the familiar, so it should just be a normal familiar with one less than normal which is still a benefit over other dedications?

Level 4 is the earliest you can get guaranteed nonlethal melee strikes for all classes,
there are 3 ways
Gladiator Archetype
Bounty Hunter Archetype
Investigator Archetype

All of these can get you there, also using monk stances, but that is less broadly applicable.

For magic only Wizards and multiclass wizard can do nonlethal spells, and only as a metamagic

That is a shame, Thanks for the help

Can you have multiple free actions off of the same trigger? Because then scouring Rage would become less useful as Mighty Rage lets you use a Rage action for free, and it just seems a shame that a fun feat suddenly collapses in use.

I feel like the best way to deal with the item bonus from drakeheart issue is split it into item and status.

There are also some fun spells like invisibility and silence that aren't verbal. One action harms and heals. Jump. There are more but I can't remember them all.

I played a blaster Storm Druid up to level 8 before they died when my party bit off more than they could chew. But I found that against below level enemies I was absolutely devastating, I was able to defeat more than half an encounter because they failed their saves. I also had an animal companion, but was mostly used as a mount. This is when my character was able to shine.

Most other combats I was not quite so effective but usually kept up with the Fighter and Monk against all but the enemies significantly higher than level +3 to +4.

There were points were poor decisions and a bad spell selection did not feel great. Some of this was poor usage. Trying to blast against a +4 enemy with high reflex saves can be an effort in futility and is something that I would make sure to have a plan to counter in the future. Also in this fight which was not helpful was when they failed their save lighting bolt, I rolled a 5 for damage which is about as bad a physically possible.

In Summary, any time we were against multiple enemies of our level or lower, I was incredibly effective in some cases out damaging the rest of the party combined over the fight. Against above level enemies my spells could struggle causing my animal companion to do more damage than my 4th level spells.

I never quite figured it out but I was looking to find more ways to contribute against higher level enemies. I expected expanding my save targeting would have helped as I was a little too reflex focused.

Thank you that makes it much more useful than I thought it was.

Does Abundant step use your speed before modifiers are added or after?

I've been playing with a fun concept involving a Barbarian Illusionist.
A lot of fun illusion spells are material and somatic only and can therefore be cast while raging. And if you multiclass into sorcerer you don't have to have a hand free to cast any of these spells.

Jump
Invisibility
Silence
Invisibility Sphere
Hypnotic Pattern
Drop Dead
Hallucination
Vibrant Pattern
Scintillating Pattern
Disappearance

And nearly all of these spells have effects that occur regardless of spell DC. As a Base Barbarian multiclassing into Sorc you don't have a lot of spell slots but this list can provide enough utility without having to either pick up moment of clarity or not be a barbarian

And on the grappling front, thrash says add the rage damage but you don't get the increased damage?

But you only get a single large weapon so both can't be large. And it's whether the rage bonus applies to hits with a non-large weapon if you are wielding a large weapon in one hand and a normal weapon in the other

I wasn't trying to avoid clumsy, I was wanting to grab people and thrash them getting the damage bonus while still having an actually weapon to wield.

Or to multiclass range and use some of the 2 weapon feats while still getting the bonus on the other weapon attack with twin takedown.

Hadn't decided the build fully yet

Is this a rules as intended vs Written aspect or do I just not understand how wielding is used in this context?

So the giant Barbarian info says that you only get the bonus rage damage when you are wielding the large weapon, including the specialisation damage increases.

My question is if you are using a one handed large weapon, would the rage Bonus apply to whatever weapon you might use in your off hand?

Depending on the exact details of your Campaign, modern protests and work in safeguarding or improving the natural world provides some decent background options about fighting uncaring or deliberately malicious forces.

Additional conflict can be developed if the reason for natural destruction has some good benefit. E.g Evil Campaign where your character wants to extend wilderness damn the consequences.

The main advantage of a centrally located philosophy is that you can position yourself against most directions.

It does require a world with that aspect built into it though so mileage may vary.

Doesn't the giant barb get significantly higher rage damage than the animal barbarian which would make up for the lowered damage from the weapon, the 8 lower damage I think is mostly made up by the increased rage damage, then the question is whether reach and AoO is better than the increased AC that you get.

For the ancestries question I wouldn't rule out elf as the bonus speed is fun, your con will be a little weaker in the earlier levels but matters less in the long run particularly if the GM allows the flaw re-balancing stuff.

Thank you for that comprehensive response. It was very helpful.

I see the issue with the AC reduction with a non-animal Barbarian base, it's not the end of the world but it is one lower than a normal barbarian in medium armour. Though if I was going with the dragon build I would with a high dex build going into stealth and also using dragon stance. Really lean into the Dragon theme. The 2 actions at the start isn't too big of an issue, and can be assisted by wounded rage and similar feats. Entirely resolves at level 12.

I think I'm going more towards the Monk base for the other 2 options, pick up raging intimidation for the free skill feats and demoralize while raging with the level 4 feat. The set up turn is what it is but I think that it can work alright.

The Animal Barbarian build works really well but I don't think it is quite what I'm looking for, though filed for a future character.

I probably should have clarified that this character is starting at level 6 so the slow low level build up is not really an issue.

The point about going animal barbarian is probably valid over any of the others and supplementing that with some of the monk mobility options. The major benefit is the massively increased damage on a hit due to rage and specialization bonuses.

Though an option I just saw is the Giant Barbarian option, thought not sure if it could apply to get major bonuses to stuff like whirling throw and really go in on the grappling taking the bonuses from both monk and Barb.

I want to build a High Strength unarmed martial and like the idea of combining the monk and the barbarian but can't decide which way to do the build.

For the Monk/Barb
I like Monk Mountain Stance as base picking up some Barb Feats E.g No Escape and an instinct ability, they all look good honestly and getting a bit more health.

For the Barb/Monk
Go Dragon Barb and go Monk to get Dragon/Mountain Stance and associated feats as well as flurry of blows and have the lower defenses but rely on the high damage bonuses from Barbarian.

Thoughts on these options?

The Camouflage feat allows the Ranger to solve this problem in Natural terrain. It lets them sneak even when observed.

Do the numbers that you've used for the expected damage use only single attacks or two attacks?

Additionally are they not worthwhile for a no action 2nd to 3rd attack fighter level hit ( I believe the highest damage martial) if the values given use only a single attack?

I think the main benefit of using your own stats is if for some reason you don't want to pick up one of the higher level feats or want a specific ability of one of the lower level forms but still want to be able to hit things.

GameDesignerDM wrote:

graystone wrote:

Abyssiensis wrote:

As wizards get an automatic twelve in int

10 not 12.

Only if you are an Ancestry that has a penalty to Int (which is none as of this moment), or you take a voluntary flaw to it. All Abilities start at 10 - assuming you're using the default method - and Wizards bump Intelligence, so yeah, 12.

You just explained how you can get a 10, hence not "automatic": The default method includes this "Assign any free ability boosts and decide if you are taking any voluntary flaws."

Saying "wizards get an automatic twelve in int" is factually wrong.

Ok, if you take a voluntary flaw you could have 10 int as a wizard, and compared to any class other than alchemist who took the same voluntary flaw you would have a 2 int boost over them and therefore have the extra skill

As wizards get an automatic twelve in int regardless of any other decisions made it could be argued that they start with the exact same number of skills and any investment in int beyond that just adds more

You probably want higher strength than that, several of the wild order feats are gated by strength

I've really liked the critical knowledge failures so far. They have led to some really fun roleplaying opportunities for my group.

Abyssiensis wrote:

Matthew Downie wrote:

Note, though, that 300 archers with +7 to hit fighting an ancient dragon with 37AC would land 15 hits per round. (Exactly the same as if it had 28AC.) There are going to be certain weird tipping points between 'invincible' and 'has to fight extremely cautiously to survive'.

While there is an inflection point I would't think it would be that sharp, Many high power creature have some area affect capability, see breath weapon and fear aura for Dragons, have some degree of resistance to damage reducing anything done by most of those hits or can regenerate damage done.

DR is less common in PF2 though. Demons, for example, went from from having DR to lots of hit points and weaknesses.

Now, a creature could use other abilities to decimate armies while mitigating risks. Fear auras for dragons. A purple worm could pop out from the ground, strike, and pop back under all day. But there will still be these tipping points.

The tipping point is probably unavoidable in any system that wants to have the maths be comprehensible. The tipping point would also be smoothed just by not have identical attacking people just a level range of 1-3 would smooth out the switch a bit, or variation in attack stat.

Note, though, that 300 archers with +7 to hit fighting an ancient dragon with 37AC would land 15 hits per round. (Exactly the same as if it had 28AC.) There are going to be certain weird tipping points between 'invincible' and 'has to fight extremely cautiously to survive'.

While there is an inflection point I would't think it would be that sharp, Many high power creature have some area affect capability, see breath weapon and fear aura for Dragons, have some degree of resistance to damage reducing anything done by most of those hits or can regenerate damage done.

I feel that signature skills somewhat limit the capability of players to feel skilled in areas that don't strictly relate to their class.

A possible way to fix this is to have all skills capable of being raised to legendary, with the existing signature skills being trained for a class, and classes getting a bonus number of trained skills equal to their int modifier. This would still give class a head start in the stuff they are good at while still alllowing for more unusually skilled people, e.g. The Diplomatic Barbarian or The Athletic Wizard.

This would also increase the value of intelligence, and open skills up to more players. I think this might be a good idea, does anyone have any feedback on this concept.

Thank you for your responses.

Particularly possiblecabbage, it makes sense that this method allows for people with sub optimal races for the main stat to be on par, for half of the levels.

One thing I liked about the theoretical slowdown option, where stat progression slows after 20 instead is it resulted in your maxed stats at level 20 being identical, this felt nice thematically, but is probably worse balance wise.

Why do stat increases slow down after you have an 18 in a stat?

Is there a good reason for this and even if does it make sense to have it slow at 18 and not 20?

That should work fine, with the minor caveat that single target effects will likely be difficult to apply as nobody can be more than sensed to you. I believe that the targeting issues that this causes also apply to heals and buffs.

You will also likely be flat footed to attacks.

This is balanced out by the immunity to visual effects.
More effective is the use of any area of effect spells as they suffer no penalty from being unable to see your target.

The familiar would work to point out enemies but you would have to spend an action to get them to point out an enemy.
Though I am not sure I believe there is a degree of assumed sensing with hearing anyway.

The familiar becomes more crucial if you decide to be deaf and blind, with some more Gm fiat likely required.