Alesh Tileus Ialan's page

Secrets of Magic brought us a new, fancy, and very useful spell called Quick Sort.

It seems like a critical spell that should be in every spellcaster repertoire. I vote we need more spells like these! We need Heapsort, Bubble Sort, and Radix sort. This is URGENT!

=========================

On a slightly more serious note, can we please stop having these spells? I'm not even complaining that a better spell could've been added in its place, but just simply NOT having this spell would be improvement, since it just clogs the spell lists for no reason. Especially if you're trying to introduce new people, this type of spells are actually a detriment.

I was reading some of the new feats for the Pathfinder Agents. Two attracted my attention:
Remember Your Training

Watch and Learn

They seem a bit weak, but hey, they do give you a way to use any skill at level as proficiency.

Except there's this sentence in one other feat:
When using a skill untrained, your proficiency bonus is equal to your level instead of 0.

Which other feat, you might ask? Why, it's the Pathfinder Agent Dedication, the prerequisite for taking the two other feats.

At least Remember Your Training gives you a little bit of bonus, treating Failure as Success, but Watch and Learn doesn't even have this little tiny bit.

In a fun reversal, the Backstabber trait on weapons does not stack with Sneak Attack damage.

Meaning weapons that are supposed to be extra good for sneak attacking are not any better than any other weapon. :D Fun

Can Investigators Keen Recollection be used with Lore skills?

You can recall pertinent facts on topics that aren't your specialty. Your proficiency bonus to untrained skill checks to Recall Knowledge is equal to your level instead of +0.

I don't see why not rules wise, but it would be quite powerful: allows you to use Int on all Recall Knowledges and go for relatively easier checks.

Is there a PFS consensus, can I use the Staff to cast the spells while it is Shifted as a different weapon?

What's the final consensus, can I use the Staff to cast the spells while it is Shifted as a different weapon?

APG brings us Animate Rope spell.

There's been 2 points of contention on how it works, and I want to double check how it's going to be ruled in PFS play.

They both relate to the Bind ability of the spell:

The rope attempts to partially bind a creature. Attempt a spell attack roll against the target's Reflex DC. If you succeed, the target takes a –10-foot circumstance penalty to its Speed (–20-foot on a critical success). This ends if the target Escapes against your spell DC or breaks the rope. (A standard adventuring rope has Hardness 2, HP 8, and a Broken Threshold of 4.)

1. How does someone break the rope?

2. When using the Bind ability, where does the creature need to be?

Basically, what is the range:
a. 100 feet, as Range of the spell?
b. same square as any part of the rope?
c. adjacent square as any part of the rope?
d. same square as either end of the rope?
e. adjacent square as either end of the rope?

Rules on using precious materials for armour say:

Suits of armor made of precious materials are more expensive and sometimes grant special effects. You can make leather armor out of dragonhide, wooden armor out of darkwood, and metal armor out of any precious materials except for darkwood.

To my reading, this means:

Dragonhide : any Light, Medium, Heavy armour except Padded
==
Darkwood : no armour
==
Cold Iron / Silver / Orichalcum / Adamantine / Mithral : Chain Shirt, all Medium except Hide, all Heavy

This leaves Studded Leather a bit weirdly out.

Also, to be clear, Plate armour can be made out of Dragonhide? Thus enabling Druids to wear it?

As many regular forum goers will recognise, I'm quite disappointed with approach to Wizards in general, and Transmutation specialization in particular. I am deliberately not going into details what I see as wrong with them, but instead, I just want to ask:

What is the design goal behind them? What are they supposed to do in a party, in the game?

I'm looking at making an Alchemist specialising in Bestial Mutagen (yes, I know it's subpar, leave it be), and I noticed it's a Polymorph effect, not a morph effect.

So that means that you can neither get multiple dice on these attacks (via Handwraps), nor get a Str bonus to damage? Since only circumstance and status bonuses are allowed?

Am I blind, or is there no feature giving Investigators weapon critical effects?

... Still no Transmutation cantrip. Seriously Paizo? It's been a year.

We finally got a feat! *CELEBRATES*

*Reads the feat*

*re-reads the feat*

**Form Retention [Feat 8]**

You have trained your mind and body to tolerate polymorph magic for longer periods of time, so long as you prepare for the change appropriately. When preparing a polymorph spell that lasts 1 minute and grants a battle form, you can prepare the spell in a slot 2 levels higher than normal. This doesn't grant any of the normal benefits of heightening a spell, but the spell lasts up to 10 minutes. For example, if you prepared animal form in a 4th-level slot with Form Retention, you would cast a 2nd-level animal form that lasts for up to 10 minutes. If the spell can be Dismissed, that doesn't change.

Uh-huh.

*checks spell list*

So...

First, you can't use the feat until level 11, since Wizard has no Battle Form spells before level 4 spells.
Second, even the writer of the feat doesn't know what they're talking about. Casting Animal Form as a Wizard? Yeah, right.
Third, whyyyyy would you ever do this? Requirement to increase level means it's behind the curve as a fighting spell. Okay, fine. So I guess I'm using it for abilities like flying, swimming, other stuff for encounter use? Really? I mean, wasting a level 6 slot for stuff that's mostly level 2-4 slots, but that lasts only 10 minutes? Do these people play their own game?

But okay, I guess this is some kind of flavour, and they are concerned about power creep.

*reads Form Control*
*reads Extend Spell*

What. The.

Why did you bother writing and printing these words Paizo? Why? Who wrote this feat? Did you even bother checking what's already in the game, much less understanding how this would be used?

*sigh*

Maybe we got a decent spell. Animate Rope used to be real cool...

*reads Animate Rope*

Sooo... Using Mage Hand on some Rope with possibility to do weaker Tanglefoot? As a 1st level slot spell, this fails on so many levels.

The biggest joke is, they could've just made it a Transmutation cantrip.

I guess Paizo writers just hate Transmuter Wizards for some reason?

Investigator has "Devise a Stratagem" ability to roll a dice to be used for a Strike later in the round.
Relevant part of the text: "If you Strike the chosen creature later this round, you must use the result of this roll..."

Can this be used only for "vanilla" Strikes, when the action you are making is "[1 action] Strike", or is it also possible to use them on Strikes made within a different action, such as Power Attack that specifies "Make a melee Strike.".

Will it use "Devise a Stratagem"? I mean, I can see advantages and disadvantages in both interpretations, so I can't really use "less powerful" route.

First of all, let me say I like the approach Pathfinder took to weapon balancing this edition... Up to a point.

What they did is create rules for weapon design:
* single-handed martial weapons start at d8 damage and one trait
* two-handed martial weapons start at d12 damage and one trait
* weapon can be reduced in damage die size to add a trait
* simple weapons start at one lower damage die
* Fatal trait is worth 2 normal traits
* Agile trait cannot be added to two-handed weapons

Note: I'm using trait here to mean combat-related traits, not Uncommon/Monk.

Overall, I like the idea for this approach, but after playing a bit, I feel it is too simplistic.

Why? Well, there is a strict grading to reasons:

1. d4 vs d8 (or d8 vs d12 for two-handed weapons) is okay damage difference early on, but you have to remember magical upgrades now add weapon damage dice instead of a fixed modifier, meaning that Greater Striking Main-gauche is significantly less damaging than a Greater Striking Longsword: 3d4 vs 3d8 is noticeable difference.

2. Most traits are very situation-dependent. Damage is the primary purpose of weapons (at least, most weapons); even if I play a character build to trip enemies, a trip trait on the weapon will be used occasionally, not often.

3. Not all traits are the same. Agile is very powerful in many cases, but Finesse is either critical or completely wasted, while Versatile is mostly useless but sometimes quite handy.

All this means that if I want to play a frontline warrior (Fighter/Barbarian/...), there is a strict subsection of weapons worth exploring. I decided to build a Gnome Barbarian with a Fauchard, leaning into Sweep trait, but honestly, mechanically speaking the drop in damage is not worth it.

There's one additional problem this creates: Dex based builds. They fare the worst; not only do they have to take a Finesse weapons which all have lower damage dice, but unless you are one particular build of Rogue, you don't get the ability damage bonus either - so you have double drop on your damage potential.

Wayfinder boon is noted as Item in the table of all faction boons, but it has the slotless tag in its full text.

Which is it? :)

Can someone please doublecheck my reading of the rules: a character can use a weapon they are not trained in to perform Trip, Disarm, etc and gain the benefits (item bonus, reach, drop weapon on crit fail).

Let's say I have a Wizard intent on joining Hellknights. I spend my 3 general feats and yay, I can join Order of the Gate. So, I do, take Armiger, then spend some more levels and eventually manage to grab enough Weapon proficiencies to switch to a different Order.

Can this character do it? And how? Is it retraining? What is it?

Let's say I would like to play a Gnome Sorcerer that wears Heavy Armour. Right now, the options are to spend 3 General Feats on it, meaning I would have to wait until level 9 before I can actually wear any of it.

Alternatively, I could take a Champion dedication. But the only interesting thing from that Dedication is the proficiencies, so I would completely ignore the anathema. How would this be handled in PFS? Would there be any negative consequences?

For example, Kukris, Glaives, Temple Sword. They're all Uncommon, but without an Ancestry trait. Is there a way a character can get access to them?

There's some notion of cultural uncommonness, but I don't see anywhere a guide to which cultures gain access to what?

What do Wizards actually do in 2e that other classes don't do as well?

I'm interested to hear what people think.

Fleet Step
vs
Longstrider

Why do these two spells exist, and especially, why are they BOTH in Core Rulebook?
It could clearly have been a single spell where you choose between a weaker effect with longer duration, or a stronger effect but with short duration.

Enlarge gives +2 damage, 10ft reach in exchange for -1AC, -1 Reflex, and a bunch of minor other negatives. I know the bonuses are much more limited this edition, but is this truly worth a level 2 slot?

Illusionary Disguise
Humanoid Form

What's up with Humanoid Form? It's a shorter (10 min vs 1hour) version of Illusionary Disguise that might give some advantage in rare circumstances (somebody is actually touching you)?

Yet it is a full level higher. Why would you ever take it as a general purpose spell?

Ant Haul
vs
Floating Disk

What is the point of having both of these spells in Core rulebook?

They do almost the same thing, except one (Floating Disk) does it way better than the other one except under some rare circumstances.

So, why clutter up Core rulebook with 2 of the same spells?

Note1: This will be a long post. TLDR; is Wizard Transmuters don't have anything unique or interesting, and a lot of their spells are extremely situational, while the better spells are shared with other classes.

Note2: To people who will pop up and say "Just go play PF1 / houserule it", please go away. Your comment is not useful in the least.

Note3: To people who'll be like "why you complaining, no one forcing you to play this game", I like this game. I love what it did for martials, and for most classes except Wizards. It just nerfed Wizards, kept nerfing, and then it additionally nerfed Transmuters just that bit extra.

I am watching Arcane Mark episodes, and I generally am enjoying them very much. I reached episode 37, All About Magic ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mei5RccfACY ), where they briefly discuss some changes to the schools of magic.

In general, I support their rebalancing of magic in general and schools in particular, for example making sure Abjuration has defensive stuff. Conjuration in particular was overburdened and filled with some of the strongest spells.
On the other hand, Transmutation. Now, in PF1, there were some good stuff, and it had A LOT OF SPELLS - but huge majority of those spells were situational silliness. Stuff like "Crafter's Curse" and then a separate "Crafter's Fortune". Get rid of it, sure.

Except... They just plain out made the school uninteresting and underpowered, and then they went further for Wizard Transmuters and made sure they are useless.

First, Physical Boost Focus spell : Not the worst Wizard Focus spell, sure - Divination is just sad - but definitively boring. Not to mention quite situational. This is not a spell I use "every encounter", more like, I'm searching for reasons to use it once a level.

Then, actual spells. First of all, no Transmutation cantrips (and no, Sigil is not worth a cantrip slot. I spent 2 sessions trying to desperately find a way to use it and failed. Why not at least Prestidigitation?!
(Evocation meanwhile has 9!!! Cantrips; literally half the available list).

Then, 1st level - we got a whooping 7 spells! YEAH! What do we have?
Ant Haul : weaker, less versatile version of Floating Disk. Sure, there is gonna be that point where having a character carry a bit more is more useful than a Floating Disk, but that's gonna happen 3 times in next 10 years for all people playing Pathfinder. Floating Disk carries 5 Bulk on the side; Ant Haul gives you carrying 3 more bulk (6 if you accept penalties, including to your speed).
Fleet Step and Longstrider : useful, sure, but why are there 2 spells that do almost the same thing?! Why couldn't it have been one spell and you choose lots of speed for short time or little speed for long time?
Jump : errrr... Kinda? If it's really critical? I mean, sure... Eh? Maybe. On third level it's kinda okayish... Maybe.
Magic Weapon : yaaaay, useful spell! I gonna be a buff bot! Also, becomes useless very quickly.
Mending : wheee, we gonna repair ALL the shields... Max bulk L? Ah, damn. Nope. SUPER SITUATIONAL. Former cantrip. Maybe it's like instaheal... Nope, 10 minutes casting time. It's literally like doing a Crafting check, except you can't use it on non-Buckler Shields unless you heighten it to level 2. Just, no.
Pest Form : 1st LEVEL POLYMORPH, WOHOOOOO! Okay, not combat. Slow. Can't climb. Kinda hide... But also super risky. What can I do? Die faster. Yeah, so cool and good.

Okay, lets move to level 2. 7 spells again, cool.
Water Walk and Water Breathing. Sigh. Super situational again, although I guess Water Breathing targets useful number of creatures and kinda lasts okay.
Knock : open the doors. Okay spell, I think a decent approach. But not really something useful all the time, that characters can specialise in.
Enlarge : this is 2nd level now, okay. Gives Reach and +2 damage for -1 AC, Reflex, Ranged to hit... Seriously? Reach and +2 damage to take AC penalty? For a 2nd level spell? Hell no. I know bonuses are more controlled this game, but this is *not* useful enough for a 2nd level spell. Going Huge is kinda okayish since the penalty does not increase, but a 4th level slot... Sorry, no.
Shrink : kinda okayish? I don't know, I have a hard time finding a use for it. No penalties or bonuses, being smaller can be situationally cool to pass somewhere but... eh?
Spider Climb : okay, this is actually useful.
Humanoid Form : seems okay until you realise it gives you same bonus as 1st level Illusionary Disguise except it lasts 1/6th the time. That's right, same bonus, almost the same effect, lasts less, for a level higher slot. Why? Because. And yeah, sure, the fact transformation is physical and not just illusionary may come in handy... Once every 50 sessions (being generous).

Sigh. And it goes like that. I also checked: all Transmutation spells available in Arcane spell list are also available in at least Primal, and occassionaly Occult too (there is only a few not available to Primal, but those are available to Occult). Let me repeat it: there is no Transmutation spells unique to Wizards. None. Not even later level polymorph battle forms - all are shared with Primal. Yet Primal has actually more polymorphs, starting at lower levels.

Speaking of that, at Transmutation has the least number of spells on levels 5+, sharing this number with Necromancy, except its (only) 9th level spell is actually just a "choose lower leveled polymorph spell". It also doesn't give you better bonuses, meaning it is actually useless because of the tightness of the math in this edition. Although at least Monstrosity form heightens to 9th level so I guess that's what you'll be filing that slot.

I mean, seriously, if I want to specialise in Transmutation, I should play a Druid and not a Wizard, because Wizards are just plain BAD at it. Hell, even the advanced Focus Power ends up inferior to the Druids 1st level Focus Wild Morph.

And as for Mark Seifters' comment how "Transmutation will get more spells eventually"... That doesn't help now. If you're not willing to provide spells, why even bother putting it in the Core Rulebook then? Just skip it and add more blasting spells to Evocation, that really seems to be lacking.

Also, Mark Seifter had another comment that really caught me offguard, about Arcane versus other spelllists, how it has more spells... Sure, but every other casting class has something besides their spells. They have better weapon and armour proficiencies, plenty of non-spell list abilities and bonuses. Wizards literally only have their spells. That is their whole class. Everything they get revolves around spells. They are literally locked out of benefiting from a Unconventional Weaponry because they don't have full Simple weapon proficiencies. Not to mention they don't even get a reaction from their class. Not to mention that their advantage over the Arcane Sorcerer is supposedly their flexibility in terms of different spells.

Paizo overnerfed casters in general I would say, but they made Wizards completely without life. Even their Thesis have no connection or impact on their later character development; no feats or abilities that interact with the Thesis choice.

Anyway, there it is. I'm off to play my poor Transmuter and dream of better days.

So I'm running Plaguestone and I was preparing for end of chapter 1. I have several questions; the adventure notes there is a general store with level 1 items and only a few magical items (no alchemical).

However, by end of chapter 1, PCs should have 50gp of alchemical ingredients, a at least one, maybe two +1 weapons none of them can use, and a Runestone with Shadow rune (again, none of them can use) to sell off. Will the general store have the required monetary resources to pay it off? Seems unlikely to me. And that's just by the end of first chapter!

I was planning to say that Tamli is taking over the caravan and is willing to buy stuff off them, which should suffice for that part, plus of course the store is willing to barter some stuff for the few magical items they do have. This still leaves PCs with a bunch of money and no way to spend it, aside from taking half a week to craft something if any of them took craft in first place.

However, it raised a different question. Is there anyone in the village who can transfer the runes? Going by the book seems no, but that's a bit unsatisfactory frankly. So I wanted to double-check what you people think how to handle it, if handle it at all.

Do you need to satisfy Rune crafting requirements if all you are doing is transferring the rune from one weapon/armour to another?

Specifically the case I have is a 2nd level party found a +1 weapon none of them uses. Wizard has Crafting skill at Trained, so the question popped up, can they transfer the rune or not to one of the party weapons?

The Wizard has neither Magical Crafting nor Crafting on Expert yet.

Rules are a bit unclear if the requirements apply to transferring or only to creating Runes from scratch.

I have an idea for a cantrip, interested to hear what people think (too strong/too weak, changes, etc).

Wounded Morph
[Cantrip][Transmutation][Morph]
Traditions: arcane
Cast: [reaction][somatic]
Trigger: you take damage from a melee attack
Targets: creature that performed the melee attack
Duration: 1 round

After taking a hit, Wizard morphs the weapon that is hitting them. Creature holding the weapon takes d6 plus your spellcasting ability modifier points of piercing damage. For every further attack they do this round (against any target) they take half the damage again.
Creature makes a basic Fortitude save; on a critical failure they also drop the weapon if possible.

Given all the talk about Attacks of Opportunity (or lack thereof), I would like to mention the Ready action, which basically allows you to make attacks of opportunity with any class. It's a lot more investment (2 actions) and takes your multiple attack penalty, but it is a potential way of stopping an opponent. Also gives you opportunity to grab, shove, or trip someone instead of just whacking them on the head.

I remember hearing somewhere that Lost Omens World Guide has an archetype that is related to masks - can someone who has PDF please confirm/deny?

And if the answer is yes, maybe a spoiler or quick rundown? :) If it's allowed, of course.

Does a Gnome Ranger require Gnome Weapon Familiarity feat to be able to use Kukris or not?

So Pest Form is a 1st level personal polymorph spell. Given that Humanoid Form is a weak version of Illusionary Disguise, it means it's the only polymorph spell available to Transmuters until level 7, so I'm trying to think of any way to use it.

It is not a combat spell, since it makes you weaker and slower.

So, what is it? A scouting spell maybe? With super low land speed and no special speed options, it really doesn't seem appropriate for any kind of long distance or high areas scouting.
It does give you a decent Acrobatics or Stealth (for low levels anyway), but it cripples your Athletics so you can't even really try to climb.
At 10 minutes, you can't even get far.

So I guess, it's a spell if you need to sneak into somewhere on flat ground? Seems awfully situational. Anyone has any better ideas?

Multiclassing into Barbarian gives you the following things (emphasis mine):

You become trained in Athletics; if you were already trained in Athletics, you instead become trained in a skill of your choice. You become trained in barbarian class DC. You can use the Rage action.

Choose an instinct as you would if you were a barbarian. You have that instinct for all purposes and become bound by its anathema, but you don’t gain any of the other abilities it grants.

If you select the Animal instinct, the abilities it gives you is a natural attack. Anathema says (emphasis mine):

Flagrantly disrespecting an animal of your chosen kind is anathema to your instinct, as is using weapons while raging.

Therefore, using the Rage action gives you nothing* because if you use a weapon, you break the anathema. This is until at a later point take the feat that gives you the ability of the Instinct.

There are some exceptions, like Monk, shapeshifting Druid, or Razortooth Goblin.

I've been digging through spells and trying to come with good ideas for Transmuters, but they are exceedingly boring, especially on lower levels. Once Aerial Form comes in they get slightly more interesting, but still quite limited.
And no, being a buff bot for the party doesn't do it for me. I prefer battlefield-control mages, or maybe a transform specialist.

However, I see almost nothing. We get some buff spells, okay, useful-but-supremely-boring. No meaningful battlefield alteration spells that I can see. First battle form spell is on 4th level (Aerial Form), and we have to wait until 6th level to get the first truly interesting spell I can see, Dragon Form . Even that is very hobbled by the 1 minute duration and fact you can't cast or speak while in that form.

They don't even get unique spells. I checked; there is a single Arcane-only Transmutation spell: Shrink Item. To be fair, I can see some shenanigans with it, but it's complicated and very DM dependent.

Speaking of uniqueness, why is Dragon Form shared with Primal casters? Dragons are very firmly under the Arcane branch only. And Primals already get 3(!) unique <X> Form spells Transmuters don't get.

*sigh*... Anyone got some good suggestions or I'm stuck with homebrewing and hoping to find a generous DM?

So Polymorph general rules say:

If you take on a battle form with a polymorph spell, the special statistics can be adjusted only by circumstance bonuses, status bonuses, and penalties. Unless otherwise noted, the battle form prevents you from casting spells, speaking, and using most manipulate actions that require hands. (If there’s doubt about whether you can use an action, the GM decides.) Your gear is absorbed into you; the constant abilities of your gear still function, but you can’t activate any items.

Note the use of term "battle form". It is not capitalised, which according to page 17 means it is not a special term.

This would mean Humanoid Form prevents you from speaking or casting spells. On the other hand, it does not mention "battle form" in there, unlike say Dragon Form which morphs you into "a Large dragon battle form". It also specifically allows the use of manipulate actions:

While in this form, you gain the dragon trait. You have hands in this battle form and can take manipulate actions. You can Dismiss the spell.

But this still says nothing about speaking (which dragons can normally do) or casting spells (also something they can do normally). So at least that is clear I guess?

======================================================================

On a side note, as a big fan of Transmuters, specifically for polymorph effects on allies and terrain, and not as dispensers of Haste/Slow/Baleful Polymorph. This is yet another blow. Dragon Form was the one spell that looked really fun, even despite the abysmal duration.
Sure, the idea is that character should be mauling the enemy with their new shiny claws and teeth and tail... But what if situation changes and they need to shout a warning or cast a spell? It's just another strike against the viability of Transmuters.

To say I was disappointed by the Physical Boost Focus Power is an understatement. Thinking about it, I came up with following option as replacement. I would welcome any comments on suitable/powerful it is. I tried to base it so that power-level wise it is rough equivalent to Druid's Wild Morph. I've also included a few examples of using it below. Note: the text is longer because I tried to cover all possible questions/misuses. XD

Form Weapon
[Focus 1]
[Uncommon][Wizard][Morph][Transmutation]
Cast: 1 to 3 actions, somatic
Duration: 1 minute

You form a weapon out of whatever matter is available nearby.

You form a one-handed melee weapon that does d4 damage and has a bulk of L. Pick any weapon group and any damage type for the weapon. If you form the weapon out of specific material, weapon stays that material. Treat the weapon as if it is on your class list for purposes of proficiency, expertise, and specialisation.
Alternatively, you can choose to reshape an existing weapon, in which case you maintain the same weapon group and damage type, as well as the same bulk, quality, and runes. Note that weapon loses any traits and damage die resets to d4.

When you finish casting the spell, select the following improvements to the weapon, up to a maximum of 1 morph point per action spent casting:

So I've already complained about the situational nature of Transmutation focus spell (not to be mention it being the boring short-term number booster), as well as the absolutely irresponsible lack of a Transmutation cantrip.

But I'm searching for ways to make Transmuters fun to play. So far, no luck. In fact, what I found is just slap after slap after slap.

We gained a new first level spell, that could be cool (it's not). Pest Form allows you to take a form of a small ground animal. It makes you slower, but tiny. You gain weakness 5 to physical damage, also known as "how to die quickly". Okay, so not a combat spell. Scouting? Maybe, but at 10 minutes with slow speed (10ft!!!)... Again, seems far too dangerous and limited in application.
You can get a Fly speed (20ft) by heightening it to... Level 4. Same level as Fly, Gaseous Form and Aerial Form. Somebody was phoning it in, I see.

Enlarge is now 2nd level spell. It gives a bit more damage (+2), but otherwise roughly much the same as before. Fixed 5 min duration, but is that truly worth a 2nd level slot?!

Shrink, old Reduce person, is also a 2nd level spell. Now flat out makes you Tiny but without any effects except reach reduced to 0ft. So in a lot of ways, better scouting spell than Pest Form. XD

Okay, moving on.

Let's check Humanoid Form (previously Alter Self), a 2nd level Transmutation (Polymorph) spell. It used to give you a minor Str or Dex bonus, you could adapt slightly your size, and perhaps gain weak bonuses. All of that is gone. It's basically Disguise Self now. Okay. It does make you very good with Deception (essentially giving you Expert to mask yourself as a Humanoid though!
You could go Small size, there's no mechanical difference now, but still. 10 min duration, hey, it lasts a bit.

Aaand then you check Illusory Disguise, a level 1 Illusion spell which does almost exact same thing except you can "only" change your height by 6 inches and 50 pounds, while Humanoid Form gives you a bit more freedom in size part, but otherwise identical (same Deception bonuses).

Only it lasts a full hour. A full hour at one level lower. *sigh*

Slow has been nerfed a bit, perfectly reasonable.

Haste has been nerfed into the ground and made only barely useable for casters, especially when you consider Wizards weapon proficiency problems, okay. I mean, it deserved a nerf but now it is very limited and basically only useable for martials (even there, it is very weak due to -10 to hit on 3rd+ attacks). For casters, Fleet Step at 1st level is almost as good.

Magic Weapon is still here, only a minute duration but sure, works okay. I would expect it has a heightened version, but there is none on Archives of Nethys - can someone confirm please?

Ghost Weapon is still around... 5 minute duration that makes one weapon hit incorporeal creatures. At 3rd level. Will anyone ever use this?

Gaseous Form has been moved to 4th level... Again, I kinda understand like with fly but still feels bad.

Fly is fixed 5 mins at level 4, damn but okay, I understand the reasoning.

Aerial Form is at level 4. Wow, isn't it good we have 3 different flying spells (not counting heightened Pest Form) all on same level. It is also the first combat transformation spell available to us. Okay, this is actually good.

Stoneskin is explicitly described as "The target's skin hardens like stone" and it still isn't Transmutation...

Anyway, you get the idea. Almost all Transmutation spells are also in Occult tradition. None of these spells actually have combat applications - and I don't mean damage. There's no terrain altering spells, there's no combat defences, there's a few buffs, but even most of those are limited in application and sometimes come with disadvantages (Clumsy with Enlarge for example). It's pure sadness.

I just cannot get over the weapon and armour proficiencies problem, specifically, the fact the only way to get even Expert proficiency outside your class is to take Fighter Archetype (there's also Ancestral feats but that's very limited).

It just makes no sense.

For one, even going into Fighter archetype won't get you that much; even investing 2 feats into your Fighter abilities will only get you to be as good with greatsword as you are with a staff without taking any special feats whatsoever - and you can't get any better.
This actually makes Fighter archetype be actually very weak.

Weapon and armour proficiencies also eat up the very limited General Feats and you still don't get to be as good with a club or crossbow - even if your character literally never picked up a club or a crossbow, much less used them continuously.

And finally, there's comparison with taking up caster Archetypes. Sure, you need a bit more feat investment, but you can get up to Master in Spellcasting; and these feats also give you spell slots.

To my eyes, a fix is simple; make the Fighter feat give you Master proficiency instead of Expert (at a later level), and simply make all proficiencies just adding the weapons to your "class list" that upgrade with your class.

This would require changing the advanced weapon feats for Ancestries, but again, they could give you Master or just move all weapons from the list into the proficient group (instead of merely shifting the weapons one category downwards).

NOTE1: For all those that are going to pop up here "you can houserule it", save it. I know I can houserule stuff, but I prefer playing with as little houserules as possible and this feels just bad.

NOTE2: I know this is a lot asking, but it would be great if some of the designers of the game could explain their reasoning for this much restrictiveness and weak sauce of the system.

Errr, can somebody double check in Bestiary, but does a Dragon with level 5 or lower exist? I only see the level 2 Faerie Dragon...

Which is extremely funny if you check Summon Dragon spell on base version. :D