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It's not a weapon, it's an unarmed attack. Unarmed strikes get str damage. Ranged had nothing to do with it.

... [abridged quote mine]
It gets the full benefits of unarmed proficiencies and handwraps so a monk uses the same things to punch and range. Normally a monk would need monastic weapons for ranged and even then they can't flurry with it but you can flurry with a seedpod.

Oh snap, some HUGE points here, thank you! (Thanks HammerJack as well for the Monk tip.) Definitely glad to be proven wrong in this case.

+Str to damage already has the workings of a viable damage source. Then add in Flurry of Blows for the enhanced action economy, and Handwraps as a relatively cheap and accessible magic item early in the game, and a viable build is born.

Awesome. Was not expecting to get answers that fast, or for them to make it this easy. I will challenge you a bit that –10 speed only on critical hits has much practical value, but as long as Seedpods are viable as my main attack, I'll certainly take it.

Thanks again guys! And if you have any other tidbits to help this bad boy shape up at level 4 or 5, I'm all ears.

How the hell do I justify using them? I think Paizo did this dope idea a huge disservice.

RAW, Seedpods are a ranged unarmed Strike that deals 1d4 bludgeoning damage, and critical hits additionally slow the target by 10 ft. for 1 round.

That's...it? That's all? This Strike doesn't have the Thrown trait to get Str to damage, so 1d4 is all you're ever going to get. The extra effect only applies on a critical hit, and how often does a –10 speed debuff have any kind of impact?

The official entry is missing the range too. Community consensus is 30 ft. based on the Leshy creature in the bestiary, but when asked about it, a Paizo representative said it should probably be 10 ft. If that turns out to be the case, there's no question that this ability has zero value whatsoever.

Why were they so conservative with this idea? I don't need my build to be Seedpods-only (although that's what I set out to do), but I would certainly like them to be USABLE. And in their current form, I don't believe they are.

I don't mean that they are a subpar option. I mean that 1d4 damage per Strike and an impractical critical bonus effect is genuinely a trap option.

Thoughts? Happy to be proven wrong here. And if anyone has found a way to incorporate Seedpods into a proper build, let me hear it!

Interact says that the item you interact with needs to be either stored or unattended.

if the crossbow is in your hands, it's neither, regardless where the monkey is perched.

With GM discretion, this might work, but RAW doesn't support that.

CRB pg. 470 — "You use your hand or hands to manipulate an object or the terrain. You can grab an unattended or stored object, open a door, or produce some similar effect. You might have to attempt a skill check to determine if your Interact action was successful."

The "stored or unattended" clause seems targeted at grabbing new objects—I assume to distinguish Interact from Steal. There are no restrictions on the "manipulate on object" clause specifically, so I see no reason that a creature can't Interact with an object that another (willing) creature is holding. As far as my monkey familiar is concerned, reloading the heavy crossbow while I'm holding it is no different than my character reloading ballistae—I don't need to be actually "holding" the huge siege engine to Interact with it.

1. You effectively can't do 50/50 class splits, and essentially can *only* dip into other classes. I realize this is what a lot of people did in 1e, but for those who weren't min/maxing and actually want to play a mixed character, that option is no longer available.

2. Access to feats is great, but there's 0 access to class abilities. Given you can only go up to level 10 feats, this means that you have access to around 25% of the things as options from the class you dip into (0% abilities, 50% feats).

I think you actually CAN do 50/50 class splits, including class abilities, but people are thinking of it the wrong way.

Class abilities (unlocked just by leveling up) determine the baseline power of your class in gameplay. They allow your class to fill its role. For example, Monks get stronger unarmed attacks, higher speed, and better saves just by leveling up.

On the other hand, class feats are just perks that give you more ways to fulfill your class role. I don't NEED more than 2 or 3 class feats as a Monk to be effective in combat.

Instead, I can spend those class feats multiclassing and unlocking the class abilities of another class. I can MC Rogue, get Surprise Attack immediately, and then get Sneak Attack with one more feat.

By level 4, I already have the near-full sets of class abilities from two classes. In exchange, I lost class feats that would have instead allowed me to specialize in my main class.

And, past level 4, I can now spend the rest of my class feats on either class, as I please. I'm as much a Monk-Rogue or Rogue-Monk as I want to be, but I have the main features of both (though the secondary class is watered down, as it should be...otherwise why ever play that class as a primary?).

This seems like a balanced trade-off to me.

Non-spellcasting, magical-esque abilities are all homogenized as focus powers, which are cast from a pool of focus points. Focus points can be quickly and easily refreshed with a 10-minute rest activity based on your class's flavor (Clerics pray, Monks meditate, etc.), meaning focus powers will be available for most encounters.

I wonder if it was a space/editing thing. Shield appears at the end of the page. The 3 extra lines it takes to list out all of the levels, instead of just writing the shorthand, very nicely squares off the page visually. I can see that as the sort of thing that makes an editor crack a small smile :)

I am a copyeditor, and we absolutely do things like that and smile over them x)