Adding to my list: Adaros. They could be jawsome.
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* Serpentfolk
The important thing is that there are always potentially exceptions, like Nocticula.
I'm fine with undead being inherently tragic and uncomfortable without being automatically evil. Undead being pollutants in the river of souls can be okay in small amounts, while being a major problem with increased volume. A small amount of undeath now may prevent a larger amount of undeath and other horror in the right hands, even if the math can be questionable. It is ultimately a form of violence in a world where violence is a major focus. Holy weapons still destroy futures and send unholy souls to their damnation early. Any given culture is wise to be wary of it and condemn at least the most typical examples of it, but they should also be wary of all the other forms of violence. Fire is certainly a force of widespread haem if not kept in check. How necromancers deal with souls is the most important question. Indignity isn't nothing, but pales compared to actually harming the soul or spirit.
Honestly I'd love a bunch of new weird cantrips that retain general utility outside of their super weird niches.
I would argue that kobolds are defined more by being small, magically sensitive lizards who have excellent reasons to cozy up to creatures much larger than themselves. That kobolds can choose a feat that gives them benefits for cowardice doesn't mean the species is defined by it - I imagine the kaiju kobolds are much less prone, and I would think the kobokd bureaucracy is defined in most people's minds by paperwork than cowardice, even if they could benefit from the same feats should an oni wander by Goloma are the ancestry I was speaking of. They have an instinct telling them all the other humanoids want to eat them.
Easy enough to depict with a Will penalty and a Fort bonus. Gives a real impact to their impulse-prone minds without preventing them from being wise and perceptive. Throw in an ancestry feat that lets them get a temporary Will boost reflective of them proving themselves better than how others percieve them. We do already have an ancestry defined by being cowards.
I've seen ogres depicted in actual plays where they are certainly still hungry and conflict prone, but where you can still talk them into making better choices. They are depicted as naive and not terribly bright, but they are able to be consistent with guidance from someone they trust and respect and they can make their own moral insights, but not as easily. They still love a good war, but they can accept that war is a sometimes food.
Immunity to damage types gives you some powerful new tactics, especially fire, which is trivial to create and spread.
I could also see a feat for two-handed weapons that, as part of the draw, lets you use Intimidation as a feint-equivalent as you pull out your stupid big maul or whatever. Really just a lot of ways to make it dramatic and cinamatic. That said, a specific focus spell that lets you draw, slow time, dash forward, strike, dash away, and sheath, and then Fist of the North Star happens *after* your turn, would be amazing as a three action activity. We need some kind of "Patient Master" archetype, I think. I could even see Performance being part of it - like being able to fascinate anyone while deuling with them, keeping them from peeling off to other targets.
Sounds an awful lot like a Rogue to me:You spring into combat faster than foes can react. On the first round of combat, if you roll Deception or Stealth for initiative, creatures that haven't acted are off-guard to you.A ranged version of this would also be quite nice, whether for a shuriken to the face or a concealed crossbow, even if it only works once per encounter. When your enemy can't properly defend itself, you take advantage to deal extra damage. If you Strike a creature that has the off-guard condition with an agile or finesse melee weapon, an agile or finesse unarmed attack, a ranged weapon attack, or a ranged unarmed attack, you deal an extra 1d6 precision damage. For a ranged attack with a thrown melee weapon, that weapon must also be agile or finesse. As your rogue level increases, so does the number of damage dice for your sneak attack. Increase the number of dice by one at 5th, 11th, and 17th levels. Gunslinger Ranger Rogue Archetypes Alkenstar Agent*, Butterfly Blade*, Dual-Weapon Warrior*, Eagle Knight*, Red Mantis Assassin*, Rose Warden*, Vigilante* * This archetype offers Quick Draw at a different level than displayed here. You draw your weapon and attack... It would work for a lot of classes. Multiple classes (rogue included) have a reason to take deception. Surprise, the sorceror has a gun! is kind of hilarious, especially for anyone who has seen a certain old animation...
A ranged version of this would also be quite nice, whether for a shuriken to the face or a concealed crossbow, even if it only works once per encounter.
For stealthy assassins you probably want a swashbuckler or a magus for their big whammy hits, though a swashbuckler may need to discuss with their GM whether they can get panache while being sneaky.
There is certainly room for mystical warrior archetypes that are different than the magus and compatable with the existing Str and Dex martial classes. Indeed, looking through a summary of The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya, he started as a ronin samurai, dipped into a toad magic multi-class through a more dedicated sage/caster, and then did some sneaky stuff. Basically like Conan the Dabbler but with magic.
I would love a swashbuckler build that was more oriented toward stealth and gadgets. Can easily build any number of action spies that way, like a fantasy James Bond, Batman/Robin, creepy shadow clown, etc., but also fit ninja and assassin tropes. Sneaky tricky tots and flashbang surprises make for great showy fun just as much as ninja flips and swinging from ropes. And with the right build on an awakened duck, well, Let's Get Dangerous.
I really hope the Totum Font on the cover means lots of elemental goodness.
I mean, I can't speak about japanese people because I'm not japanese, but as someone born on latin america every time I see someone that supposedly cares about latino representation are usually white americans that don't know there's other countries in latin america besides Mexico or hispanic people born in the US that call themselves latinos and don't know even 3 words of spanish or tell you more than 2 dishes from their country other than the more popular ones. What I'm trying to say is, there's people that like to get offended by stuff that doesn't belong to them, and there's people that like to appropiate themselves of a culture they barely know because of their ancestry, and I find that more racist than the people that supposedly does tokenism. While there are certainly a good chunk of people who do this, there are a good chunk of people who do not. Personally, I am half French Canadian and got to listen to my fellow Americans making bad cliches about both heritages. I also come from a diverse family from a rough and racially complex area, where being a little tan gets you hassled by police, and being pale enough means you can lie about your heritage to escape it. There is no singular experience that applies to all.
Japanese people have had some very unpleasant experiences in the US over the generations, in ways that are best not detailed here, but overall it's complicated. Japanese people continue to emigrate each year, not just a single moment in history, and experiences vary wildly over time and region, and those experiences that are traumatic are quite real.
+1 that cultural sensitivity for non-spiritual elements is usually felt more keenly by people who are not living in a place where their culture is dominant. It's worth noting that even back in D&D 2E, which had a ninja class in 1995 that was basically a fighter/rogue hybrid, they also had ninja kits and variants for the other classes because it was already understood that ninja were not just one concept. Personally, I am playing a ninja in PFS. They are a fencer swashbuckler with an entertainer background, and aside from being part if the Envoy's Alliance, they are a noh and kabuki actor, where they make full use of their deception and Acrobatic Performer abilities. They are also building toward a spooky nagaji eye powers plus stealth build for target isolation. Sadly, while they do use shuriken, the build can't afford the thrown weapon feat. For the most part, being a ninja colors who they are and how and why they do things, but the only thing I could wish for is more gadgets with scaling DCs (smoke bombs and scaling caltrops, please), and more tools for acting like the pocket stage. Samurai is weird in different ways because it's a social class. I know a samurai. She makes excellent bento, is a master seamstress, plays a mean game of mahjong, and teaches koto and tea ceremony. These definately need to be in the game.
I would love a serpentine versitile heritage so you can have sea sneks, bull sneks, goblin sneks, and snake grass leshy sneks slithering hither and thither.
Given Fresno is home to valley fever I think the PF equivalent is the Mana Wastes. -- Whatever else is doen the pipe, I hope we get some new darklands folks and anything with connections to transitive planes.
We don't even know how different other sapient life would evolve from us, given convergent evolution, so it's an impossible metric. Stories of alien minds predate writing, writers get better at it every generation as we teach each other new ideas, and people within our own society often find each other incromprehensible, even their own siblings. Some people put less effort into making non-humans feel different from humans, and that's all.
For very selfish reasons, I would dearly love for for vishkanya to get a heritage that has intoxicating rather than toxic blood and weak fangs. It would allow them to give some creepy vampire vibes and fits as an aggressive version of the concept origin. Give them a chain that leads to a dose of Stupify venom and you have a great compliment to nagaji gaze powers.
-I'm actually one of those people who's okay with serpentfolk never being playable. Sometimes, having a group that's just bad guys is okay. See MCDM/Draw Steel's war dogs. That said, the Darklands is rife with potential options, like the munavri, ulat-kini, and xulgath, likely among others.While I support more positive snake representation, I would think this could be fulfilled with Nagaji options. What do people want out of serpentfolk, mechanics-wise, you can't get by saying your Nagaji character is really one of them? Story is the bigger part of it, otherwise you could as easily combine nagaji and vishkanya and just add more level 1 choices. Mechanically, sacred nagaji are the only option for constriction, which also makes versatile heritages a barrier, and getting a venomous bite is awkward and excludes also getting constriction. Serpentfolk have more narrative room for the weird, creepy, and animalistic elements. They are prone to mutations, are associated with different magic, sometimes have rattles, and are associated with different environments. Not being connected to a living religion like nagas are, there is also more room for sinister stuff overall.
The presence of AOE shoving options is a factor. While it does require some setup, using Clear the Way in a typical PFS map and smashing at least 3/5 targets into walls is fairly realistic.
Castilliano has the right of it. It's certainly worth being sceptical of, but we do already have tradeoffs like Enlarge giving you clumsy or the whole sleepwalker archetype. Perhaps better for feats or subclass features, though.
I think it would be interesting to explore a daredevil that got bonuses based on debuffs. The worse off they are, the more dangerous they are. Basically expanding on some of the drunken master concepts, but broader.
I think they're going to need to build stunt damage directly into the abilities, otherwise they're going to have to police forced movement abilities across the whole game.
I did some very basic math between a level 8 +1 striking d12 and agile d6, and a level 20 +3 of each, with fire, then ice and shocking runes, and the math is very close at least vs. a 13+ roll needed to hit. d12/d6
Agile actually gets crit on a 20 on the third roll, so they get more critical effects triggering. This obviously ignores other effects. Of course, there are a few ways to get a d8 agile attack, and a bunch of other combos.
I'm hoping someone out there does a math breakdown soon. I find myself leaning into combos like fighter dedication + brutish shove + powerful shove or mauler dedication (butchering axe or spirit thresher) and just about half of their feat choices, like shoving sweep. Once you have rushing stride at level 6 as an initiator you can bring in a lot from dedications, especially those with press feats.A centaur half-orc daredevil can deal 3d12+3d6+33 damage with a Brutish Shove if they have the Practiced Brawn, Punishing Shove, Brutish Shove (ofc), and Powerful Shove feats at 12th level (earliest this build comes online by taking Guardian Ded. at 2nd level, Punishing Shove at 4th, whatever guardian feat at 6th level, Fighter Dedication at 8th level, Brutish Shove at 10th level, and Powerful Shove at 12th level). Its also important to take into account Brutish Shove is going to be a follow-up attack after using Daring Stunt, which would deal 3d6+26 damage, so the overall damage per turn would be 3d12+6d6+59 (avg 99.5) if both succeed. Thanks for that! Best to start with Rushing Stride rather than Daring Stunt in some cases, especially if you had them off guard already somehow, so you can proc runes and crit effects. Speaking of orcs, their ancestry feats all scream nay sing Daredevil, not just the one that gets them butchering axe.
I'm hoping someone out there does a math breakdown soon. I find myself leaning into combos like fighter dedication + brutish shove + powerful shove or mauler dedication (butchering axe or spirit thresher) and just about half of their feat choices, like shoving sweep. Once you have rushing stride at level 6 as an initiator you can bring in a lot from dedications, especially those with press feats.
I'm pretty sure that "prop" is intended to exclude the generic floor tiles of a given adventure, but it would be good for them to clarify. There are a lot of rules lawyer loopholes in the playtest rules that need to be tended to before the release.
At some point you are likely to find yourself trekking through the dunes or flying or swimming so it's going to come up eventually.
If the floor, then perhaps too the ceiling. Though fighting flying creatures remains a struggle.
Igneogenesis is a daredevil's best friend.
We could use an option that allows for staves and hafted weapons to be used as a prop so you can go full monkey king.
There really needs to be a mechanism for handling larger opponents regardless, like being able to crawl all the way over the dragon to get to the other side even if you can't pile drive them.
Even with a dagger or fist it's maybe 30.5 vs 16.5 with full runes. Certainly ways to make it work, but I feel like it needs a small additional effect to not be highly niche.
Pressing Pummel has some math to consider per character. There are plenty of ways to get a handless maneuver, such as Kholo's Crunch feat, which then open up d12 weapons. Pile on the generic weapon energy runes and strength and it's pretty trivial to get to 4d12+3d6+13 per strike for 49.5 average damage per strike vs. 16.5.
I appreciate the team actively listening to feedback. It's an important driver of the trust needed to invest in the game for the long haul.
I do hope that daredevil and slayer have mounted-friendly options. Daredevil could do some rodeo clown trick rider nonsense, and a mounted slayer could give us a Vampire Hunter D feel.
I'm curious about the daredevil's non-combat utility. Swash has a lot of good synergy with social and thieving skills, but daredevil only really implies athletics and a cruder use of Dex and Cha.
Daredevil seems like the strength swashbuckler, almost an anti-swash with the way they crash about the place. I'm curious about how they'll compare to a gymnast given their damage isn't precision and will probably have a full strength bonus. Also... I have to assume they can swing around big weapons. Also could make for some amazing unarmed attack builds for someone wanting to fight like a ravenous beast without going barbarian. Slayer sounds fiddly, but the sort of thing that allows players to basically adjust their build mid-adventure, which could be a nice feature for folks tired of having a build/enemy mismatch.
The overall takeaway here is that there are no strong patterns to rely on. Kip Up is neither rare nor ubiquitous as a whole, but its usage or lack thereof can be concentrated.
Players with Kip Up are relevant to the critical failure effect of the Trip maneuver.
While shifters have history I'm much more interested in a class that has a static form that allows them to function more like a monster, with as many callbacks to actual monster design as possible. This lets you play directly with existing ideas like grafts, fleshweaving, and mystical bloodlines, without having to shove it sideways into a class with its own features. As the class gimmick you give them a cooldown system to play that plays into ye olde 1d4 round recharge powers. You can then tack on being able to change forms as a subclass or feat tree.
There are certainly builds and team combos where the feats are more useful or less useful. Slam Down blocks the MAP for the trip. It does the most for a two-handed weapon without trip, but also helps with a one-handed weapon - even one with trip alreadt - if you have a free hand. Even for an agile flail with trip you're still saving MAP, though probably breaking even unless you're pretty sure about the strike. Crashing Slam allows for some weird builds to work better, like a finesse fighter who barely dipped a toe into athletics. The damage bump is basically nothing but being able to trip reliably even at level 20 with Strength as a dump stat is pretty nice.
I like slam down because you can play a two-handed weapon user without requiring that you use a weapon with the trip trait. A lot of assumptions about party composition, builds, and purchases here. Certainly may apply about a main class fighter for the higher to-hit option. Crashing Slam is also part of 3 different archetypes. Mauler even makes two-handed martial weapons count as simple. You are not guaranteed any particular status bonuses, and certainly not constant ones. Fortune effects are almost always one-roll wonders. Some builds just will not have a spot for Kip Up. It's possible that, for a traditional fighter on a traditional team it's a bad choice on the balance, but it's not so niche that it needs to leave you with a functional +5 on your third attack to be viable.
Reducing the number of rolls needed lets you use single-use buffs for both effects, like guidance or fortune effects. Plus no chance of tripping yourself. Not everyone has Kip Up. Guidance etc. are always useful unless you have something better, which may still be a one-action use. It's quite possible that your and your party's choices don't make the best use of the feats, but it's easy enough to make use of.
Reducing the number of rolls needed lets you use single-use buffs for both effects, like guidance or fortune effects. Plus no chance of tripping yourself.
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