Based on the D&D 5E 2024 feedback, a lot of players are hooked on the idea of summoning "real" monsters, so I think it would be best to add any formulaic summons as a new set of spells or an alternate option for the existing ones.
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Narrow concepts like "pyromancer" are often narrow because of a lack of supportive options that allow a concept to be well-rounded in theme. The fire kineticist is a better example of what can be done, but misses things like fire-powered punches, melting terrain and objects, stoking the internal fires for an exhausting burst of energy, etc. which could allow a more varied set of options. This of course eats up page space and makes it harder to differentiate between builds, but the option go full Hunter X Hunter* with a theme is there, in theory. * An anime that made the guy with bubblegum powers one of the main villains because he used it in all kinds of deadly ways.
Since a summon can stick around for a full minute, its round-to-round abilities have to be diluted compared to an unsustained spell. You might be able to have higher-powered summons with less issue if you had to constantly feed them spell slots.
The masks topic is actually near and dear to me. I have two characters about to start their PFS journey both with masks: An ifrit nagaji swashbuckler and a kholo magus. Swashbuckler can't afford the ifrit smoke vision feat, but can use the goz mask for the same effect. The mask has no DC to worry about AND it scales! I can always use the mask to be a smoke ninja with hypno eyes. Kholo magus has Cha as a dump stat. They're basically a stuttering noble out of combat. In combat, they put on a kitsune mask drop the kimono hiding their bone armor, and start laughing madly. Demon mask would be perfect here to let them be scary despite the dump stat, but only for a few levels
You can always just use a minimum DC. Getting an amazing level 10 item at level 2 only to sell it as vendor trash at level 14... It's too much like WoW or Borderlands for my tastes, though at least without level limits to use. As for masks... characters wearing masks is an extremely popular trope.
It's especially bad for niche things. If I get the Toxic Blood graft because I kept getting bit at level 1-8, but I don't encounter anything that it would affect again until level 16, it's going to feel really bad.
As a player, I'm more than happy to pay the treadmill cost as long as I get to keep doing the thing so I can make doing the thing part of my kit and my story. This also goes for things that don't scale in other ways, like the lifting belt being stuck at +1 athletics - it shouldn't be something that you automatically discard once Sash of Prowess etc. come along because of math and limited slots. Some people may enjoy the episode/comic-style scenario where you bust out a fun gadget during one adventure and it's never seen ever again, but I think it's more typical for people to want to build their characters up into a routine or theme. We have consumables and prescient planner for one-offs already.
Compatability between the systems is a bonus, but SF2 is intended to stand on its own. A pure SF2 experience should feel different than a pure PF2 experience and from a hybrid experience. It will take a bit for the options to be fleshed out; PF2E has quite a few more books to work with.
Kineticists are pretty well designed to break survival scenarios in general. That's part of their fun, but it needs to be considered for any survival game. If you want hardcore mode, you'll need to nerf them or limit their build options (probably to air and fiee).
Session zero, X-Cards, etc. exist for any actual discomfort issues. GM fiat exists for the annoyance issues. Removing the divine element you could easily have things like warriors codes, personal ethos, etc. Certainly I would be distracted an ineffective if I violated one of my personal anethema, like ignoring the suffering of a friend or treating someone as a stereotype instead of an individual. If I were a terrible person, I would similarly kicking myself for failing to take advantage of someone being in a bad situation, like one if them bleeding heart goody goody suckers. It's all fiction in a world no more real than The Land of Oz or Wonderland, so what ultimately matters is the table experience, but I'm happy to use the rules as written.
You could have some kind of ammo miniturizer or something but it does at least require more explanation than "battery gots more juice". On the plus side, solid ammo is less likely to be drained by a monster to power its electro-gamma breath.
All drink, no pay
Clumsy longshanks topple hard
Snatch the treasure, reap the spoils
Burn the doggies, horsies too
Eat a pickle, stab an elf
We really do need more tools for low-impact equipment mods. I want concealable polearms that look like staves until the pointy bits spring up, or whips that look like belts.
The point of a free hand weapon is being able to do multiple things instead of one thing. If you only want to do one thing they aren't going to be for you. For those who like to do multiple things, they save a lot of actions on drawing and stowing weapons.
They make for great side weapons for agile and maneuvers, secondary damage and crit options, etc. Tekko-kage pairs well with rapier, for example, since sword crits grant off-guard which is often easy to get.
There's room for developing essentially a punk metal version offshoot of Hellknights through a civil war that rejects devils but still carries some of the feel, but in a defaced way, in the way that tieflings might acknowledge their heritage while rejecting its ethos. They might even do things like Hack Hell to sabotage it, screw with their records, etc. Hellpunks could be a good time while further exploring the topic area. They could even be reforming devils here and there. Plus the art would be amazing.
If one is to fiddle with prep, you can just say that wizards can prepare additional spells per day per slot, but their actual casting per day is the same. Say I prepare the following list: Fireball
I can cast:
but I cannot cast Fireball
or Fireball
Versatility up, power the same, not stepping on Spontaneous, mostly just makes analysis paralysis worse.
More finesse weapons, body augment style weapons, and more themed weapons like the singing spear and singing coil. I want it to be possible to have a cross between the Silverhawks and Josie and the Pussycats.
Personally I'm more of an Ethereal Plane fan, but I'm always interested in transitive planes.
It could be interesting to delve deeper into wizard magic use specifically and how it differs from sorcery or granted magic. Perhaps some sort of effect lingers from having cast spells, instead if simply depleting them.
The classic D&D-inspired wizard is built around the core of collecting spells so they can have the perfect spell for the given scenario as long as they predict the scenario correctly, unless you want to go so far back that they are literally just fantasy artillery with limited ammo. Any version of a wizard that doesn't have to pick and choose spells every day has no particular reason to be called a wizard over any other name. The fact that divine magic used to top out at 7th level instead of 9th was a partial mitigation between sources to balance out the full list access of divibe casters, but this obviously is no longer the case. Given the variety of casters who can use arcane lists and other lists in the same way, the lists should be balanced with each other, and parity should be with the class. Wizarda should lean into the strengths of arcane a bit, but shouldn't automaticallu be the "correct" class for arcane casting over the witch.
Preaumably they somewhat deconstruct the armor and position it as needed, like a gelatin mold full of metal bits trying to move in the path of an incoming attack.
Some folks struggle with making rulings, especially new GMs, so clarity is valuable.
I am of the position that each spell list should be as equal as such things can be, with different strengths and weaknesses, so that they can be treated as equivalent as often as possible. Otherwise, there would need to be special benefits that come with using a lesser source to make up the difference.
D&D 2E's Dark Sun setting had a trader class. Basically a rogue with no backstab but lots of languages, skills, and a fast-talking ability.
There's plenty of room for nuance yet with the Hellknights, but they're clearly starting to falter against the diabolic temptations. This feels *right* given that managing to stay clear of temptation for so many generations makes devils look bad at their jobs. This also opens up room for drama when they discover some pre-Gap information that proves how far they've fallen. Imagine a galaxy-spanning Hellknight civil war! And remember, it's not impossible for fiends to reform...
Kins get plenty of benefit from off-guard and standard bonuses while being able to control the battlefield in absurd ways with little risk. They can create all kinds of control combos and bottlenecks and solve problems in ways that are hard to match. They don't turn into rocket tag but who needs to when you can just seal the enemy in with a barrier and blast them through a murder hole. They can be a *slow* class, but they can turn the battlefield into a tomb.
I really hope this leads toward playable Mythic Monster-like ancestries, especially since some humanoid versions already exist in the lore and monster books. Bonus points of some of them are minimally humanoid.
Two makes sense. Increases the chance someone will buy the book, allows for thematic ties to be explored, gives a better bang for your buck, etc. I would also like more options for existing classes, but there are inherent diminishing returns to these.
Mystical ninja have always been around, but the concept was on top of the standard ninja whose skills were more like magic tricks that felt magical in the moment. Apart from the rogue, a swashbuckler that focuses on stealth, deception, and tools fits the bill nicely; the default tumbling covers the gratuitous ninja flips.
I will be disappointed if there is not a vague Kim Possible allusion somewhere.
It's frequently a carryover from D&D, which has a long history of conflict between description and mechanics, eventually made explicit in 4E. This was a huge problem at tables where spellcaster players would break the game based on extrapolation. For example, Fireball being able to melt soft metals would turn into arguments that if it did so it must have reached a certain temperature which must accomplish a bunch of other things like damaging armor, scorching lungs, etc.I feel like everyone will disagree with me, but I don’t see the issue here. Why shouldn’t a level 20 wizard’s fireball melt someone along with their armor and weapons? I find it so bizarre when fireballs can be used in forests, cities, or tents and damage nothing. It’s so weird. Sure, it’s convenient because it doesn’t burn the loot or key items, but g#~*+~mit, it’s strange. We have durability in items for a reason. It makes everything more powerful and more complex than intended and turns every session into a bunch of arguing for additional power creep. It was a plague of frustration for decades and was a major part of why wizards got nerfed so hard in recent systems.
It's frequently a carryover from D&D, which has a long history of conflict between description and mechanics, eventually made explicit in 4E. This was a huge problem at tables where spellcaster players would break the game based on extrapolation. For example, Fireball being able to melt soft metals would turn into arguments that if it did so it must have reached a certain temperature which must accomplish a bunch of other things like damaging armor, scorching lungs, etc.
Ensuring items scale is the bigger issue. Items that are only useful for a few levels will freuquently be ignored and become noise. Having too many good choices is a good problem, having to find the needles in the haystack is not.
Some magic items could really stand to work on something like a focus pool. Some rune features are thematically wonderful but not worth auch a limited resource. There's a need for some additional system for lesser features or more boosts like ghost touch->astral.
Size-changing rune plus aim-assisting rune can be quite handy if you have an aura ability, a reach weapon, or want to jam up doorways.
I'd be happy with something like Owlcat's work but for 2E, which is why I backed the Dragon's Demand kickstarter. In the modern area I am most interested in someone developing an engine that can be used for many adventures, like Neverwinter Nights crossed with VTTs. A full jumbo campaign is great, but relies on very strong writing, while a bunch of bite-sized adventures can have hits and misses without much fuss until someone comes up with The Script for a larger-scale romp built on by-then well-tested technology.
Sling is basically an opener or backup weapon in most cases. You don't want to be a dedicated slinger unless they introduce upgrade options. My rogue basically keeps it as a weapon that could be easily bluffed as a decoration that they can tuck away on their person with little effort.
I don't think kin *needs* anything new. For single-element kins there are a non-impulse options to consider which are harder to afford on a mixed build but which are worth exploring to expand on the element. I would love to see more impulses, but would also love to see other feats that go into different directions, like meta feats that allow for building more complex structures with igneogenesis, expanding weapon infusion options, or removing some of the limitations on extended kinesis.
Pulp fantasy before the 90s frequently had swords and guns side by side. He-Man and She-Ra come from this tradition. Harry Potter never brought a shotgun to deal with Voldemort despite living in the modern era. Warhammer is from 1983. Stephen King's The Gunslinger is 1982. The 90s brought us Interview With A Vampire, not guns, except for maybe holding pistols wrong. It's just a genre preference.Yes, but the roots of mainstream Fantasy, you LotR and D&D didn't, nor did many mainstream medieval fantasy settings. There were some in the 80s, even some that were popular, but they mostly failed to grab a foothold in the TTRPG space (Warhammer wasn't an RPG until later). As we moved into the 90s and self-publishing became easier, we started to see a lot more settings bucking the trend of Tolkien-esque fantasy in a way we saw far less of in the 80s. D&D had guns before the 80s even started. Early D&D even had ray guns and UFOs as far back as 1E. Tolkein's work certainly codified fantasy for a lot of people and remains the most popular expression, but the guns have always been there; similarly there have been wizards hanging out with space robots for generations.
Guns are a genre issue, not a realism issue.If you're stuck in the early 80s like a boomer, sure. It's not shocking that most new fantasy worlds, read 90s forward, aren't afraid to bring in guns. Pulp fantasy before the 90s frequently had swords and guns side by side. He-Man and She-Ra come from this tradition. Harry Potter never brought a shotgun to deal with Voldemort despite living in the modern era. Warhammer is from 1983. Stephen King's The Gunslinger is 1982. The 90s brought us Interview With A Vampire, not guns, except for maybe holding pistols wrong. It's just a genre preference. Personally I've been using guns since I was 5 and I was bored of them by 10, but of the guns we have I find the muzzle-loader the most interesting. Indeed my Dad always offers to take me shooting and I tell him I will happily shoot with him if it's with a bow. I follow the same preference in my fantasy purely as a matter if taste.
Guns are a genre issue, not a realism issue.
I generally don't care much for sci-fi and guns, but because I can repurpose SF2E for PF2E I'm willing to give it a shot and already picked up the Galaxy Guide. Worst cae scenario I fuzz the flavor to expand PF2E; I have a bunch of Ethereal-oriented ideas where crazy weird ancestries would fit in just fine.
The trick is doing so without simply making ranged stronger. We don't need power creep.
I could see a two-action ranged feint with a penalty for distance being reasonable. Avoids stepping on melee's toes and could be improved or built upon with feat investment to make it less niche.
I had this issue with 5E not too long ago, but regarding creatures with much less context available outside their monster entries. Paizo generally expands on their material in ways closer to 2E D&D (my highest compliment), but you do have to know where to find it. I'm hopeful that we'll get some Fiendish Codex kinds of books like the upcoming Dragon book for those creatures that are less region-specific.
I imagine the fact that Paizo has major variety within the same ancestries also makes it hard to cram the details in without exploding the pages. Mwangi alone has so many pages on elves I had to take a break and flip through the deities while reading through.
It would probably help to have a variety of orc builds in the same image to better demonstrate what makes them clearly the same ancestry. As a standalone art piece it looks like a departure from other art. Ideally the same artist should draw Ulka along with some existing named orcs so the artist's stylization can be better discerned vs. the actual model concept.
PF2E designs lot of ranged weapons as special purpose weapons rather than constant-use weapons. For the average build, a ranged weapon is a sidearm you use for when something is preventing you from getting into melee, for a first round big whammy, taking advantage of an incredible opening, or for a high value target finisher. A sneak attack with an arbalest is a nice start to an encounter before you close for melee, etc.
Yeah, I just write off non-scaling magic items as a PFS player. So many wonderful items that are only useful for maybe four levels. Eh. I hate losing access to things. Upgrading to a better version, sure, but suddenly divesting myself of a signature feature bugs me. I am biiig on thematics.
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