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Atronia receives a cloud of pollen straight to the face and can't help but breathe it in.
She feels the strange appeal of the flower, but shakes her head and moves toward the plant purposefully, still fully aware and singing her song. When the plant is within reach, she hacks at it, trying to destroy the corrupted thing.
Atronia decides to follow Tormond toward the undead humanoids, but she stops before reaching her target. "How about a merry tune to give us some strength in this gloomy forest? She starts singing one of her usual combat songs, this one about some creeping, unknown evil force and the glorious knights who fought it to defend their nation.
We had similar problems in our group, although the mummy fight was easy thanks to my dragon totem barbarian with fire damage and our ranger's clever idea of using a torch as a weapon when we noticed the weakness. On top of that, I had not maximized AC and we had no dedicated healer. The closest we had was an alchemist, but that meant using a lot of resonance in order to heal. We could never start a day at full hp and I kept falling to 0hp. The elemental fights, which we tried to skip, but went back to when we realized we could only brute-force the puzzles with almost perfect rolls, were brutal.
Atronia, not too sure of her ability to climb like her fellow adventurers, given the cumbersome armor she wears, looks carefully at the plants around her, trying to avoid ones that have thorns or venom, and to avoid tripping on the roots of plants that grow their roots along the surface.
Sadly, her knowledge of local plants only comes from word-of-mouth, as she as never been in the fangwood, and so she fails to notice one such plants.
The thorns draw blood, but Atronia suffers no more ill effects. She wipes away the blood beading on the scratch and keeps walking through the forest, now aware of the plant she has to watch out for.
Atronia bows with a flourish. "Lady Quiselle, I do not think it would be wise to leave these dragons alone too long. Given time, they will only become bolder and stronger. But do not simply rely on my intuition, as I am a mere human, and young at that. I have a story to tell you, one that is a truth passed down through generations, of what happens when white dragons roam freely." And so she tells them a story of dragons that were only rumors, but soon became more obvious and demanding, their presence becoming more oppressive to the inhabitants of the region.
When she gets to the part describing the havoc the dragons wrecked when they were at the peak of their power, the destruction they brought to all living beings in the area, she makes it sound dark and menacing, like a storm cloud looming in the sky, and she turns towards the king as she describes the gruesome events, giving only enough details to let the true horror of it all be understood and imagined.
She turns to Quiselle again as she ends the story with noble heroes rising to the challenge and driving the dragons away. "So you see, Lady Quiselle, King Vallahk, it is not for bloodlust that we call for action, but for the sake of people and lands worth protecting. It is time to show courage and resolve in front of those who threaten us, and keep our love and compassion for the truly innocent."
Atronia, seeing the immediate threat has been dealt with, but also worried about stragglers getting reinforcements or retaliating later, attempts to follow Covadil through the woods. However, she is obviously not as nimble as him and she keeps getting her things stuck on branches, which makes her progress quite slow.
Atronia keeps advancing. Her gaze is settled on the large kobold on the ground, then shifts toward its comrade with its spear at the ready. Recognizing the threat and not wanting to underestimate the weapon and its wielder, she turns toward her new target at the last second, her sword following in a wide sweep.
Hi all! I just sent an e-mail to GM Chadius, but I figured I'd keep you all in the loop. I haven't been able to access the site for the past week and a half, despite trying multiple times a day. When I finally managed to just now, I wasn't expecting to see so many posts. I have a lot of catching up to do, and I'm currently overwhelmed by work, but I'll try to catch up and post as soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience! If I don't post for some reason, feel free to bot me. Things are generally pretty simple in combat. Atronia walks to the nearest target and hits with her sword. If she has trouble getting to her target or if it looks like a tough fight, she starts her inspired rage to bolster her allies first.
Oh, wow, with the playtest just starting, I had completely forgot about this. Well, I have time. Hello everyone! Player Name: JackieLane
Starting GP: 2172 gp
Total GP and PP costs for any equipment you purchased in this scenario: TBD
I've only have three sign-ups for this at this time. Just wondering if it is because people prefer playing low-tier (in which case I'll adjust), or there's little interest for this scenario (in which case I'll cancel this and perhaps run something else). It looks like you have plenty of people now, but you got that right in my case. I only have level 2 characters, so I can't play higher tier.
Atronia bows to the king and queen. "Thank you for extending your welcome, your majesties. We come seeking help, as my friend may have told you in this beautiful tongue I sadly know nothing of." She turns more directly to the queen and adresses her with a mix of decorum and emotion showing through. "As I'm sure you know, your majesty, there is very little use in dealing diplomatically with white dragons. If they are causing trouble, they are likely already upset or hungry for something and they probably will not back down. With all due respect, as I'm sure you are only trying to consider all possible options and to decide what is best for your people, I think we must fight this threat head on, and we must be decisive in our actions. We can allow no weakness to show in front of these creatures, not even virtue that they could mistake as such. There are enemies against which you must show no mercy if they are to ever understand and stand down. Such are white dragons."
She then turns to the king, adopting a slightly more ominous tone, "As for you, I understand I do not have to convince you that this is a threat that needs to be fought head-on, but I beseech you not to underestimate it. We ask that you help us in any way you can, that we join our forces, because the dragons pose a very real threat. Queen Quiselle is right in worrying about the possible pay-back. Dragons are powerful creatures, and there are many of them. If we underestimate them, and go our separate ways, they may very well crush our group and come here to destroy and enslave your people and all that you protect. We must join forces in the coming battle."
Once she is done talking, Atronia takes a step back and holds a fist to her heart, with a posture that shows her pride and confidence.
As soon as she sees the skeletal threat taken care of, Atronia stops singing. She quickly glances at her companions, worried about their health, but figures she won't be able to help much until this portal is closed and this fog gone. She rushes to the altar and starts chanting things she has heard in stories that are supposed to undo magic or close gates, unsure what it is she needs to say.
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Let's say I'm a Thaumaturge. At level 6, I get the Scroll Esoterica feat, allowing me to create one free scroll of a level 1 spell per day. Let's say I then decide to start wearing Scroll Robes, which have the Inscribed trait. Could I inscribe my free scroll from Scroll Esoterica onto my Scroll Robes?
Otherwise, Swashbucklers would miss out on some potentially thematic shields that won’t work with their buckler class feats.
Welp, just today we learned that the next big Pathfinder 2e class is going to be the Kineticist which will premiere in the Rage of Elements book. We'll be seeing a playtest of the class on Monday August 8th, in which we'll see 4 of the 6 elements that they will be able to use when the Kineticist officially releases. The iconic for this class is still Yoon, who was the iconic for the Kineticist in Pathfinder 1e, although it looks like she's had a training montage or two since then. Now, anyone want to predict what we might be seeing? I'm personally hoping Paizo will find a way to play more with the space of Focus Spells. We saw some experimentation with the system in the new Psychic class, both with that class's playtest & its official release, and I'm guessing there can be more done with that design space.
The Rogue’s Eldritch Trickster racket nets you a multiclass archetype with the Basic/Expert/Master Spellcasting feats, which includes the Psychic. And as far as I can tell, Psychic is probably the best archetype for an Eldritch Trickster to use, for a few reasons: 1.) No verbal components. For a stealthy rogue, no having to do a loud chant is huge. There are still visual elements to spellcasting, but you can’t have it all. 2.) Psychics can use Intelligence or Charisma for their key ability score, opening up a lot of different builds. 3.) several of the conscious minds have Attack Roll spells that you can combine with the magical trickster feat for sneak attack damage. Also, you can amp some of them as well. A stealthy rogue who starts off a battle with an amped Produce Flame or an amped Telekinetic Projectile is going to be laying on a lot of hurt from the word go. So, yeah. There’s my thought: unless your concept really calls for Wizard or Cleric, your Eldritch Trickster Rogue should do some mind pushups. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
So, I'll start by dropping the text of this ability from Archives of Nethys, and will italicize what I want to talk about.
So, let's say that I'm playing a 2nd-level Psychic with the Oscillating Wave Conscious Mind who took the Psi Burst Feat at level 2. Here's the text of Psi Burst, for reference
So we see that Psi Burst has the mindshift trait, which means my psychic can add or subtract energy from it. Let's say I perform a round where my Psychic starts by unleashing their Psyche after casting a cold spell on the last round, and then casts Burning Hands which deals fire damage. So far so good. According to rules of Conservation of Energy, my next granted cantrip or spell has to deal cold damage. Lets say I then use my third action to use Psi Burst. If I choose to add or subtract energy, am I restricted to subtracting energy and making this ability deal cold damage because I cast a fire spell for my last action? And equally important, does doing so mean I am now flipped back to needing to add energy to my next spell, making the next qualifying spell I cast deal fire damage rather than cold?
I'm talking about those feats that Necromancer Wizards, Clerics, and Bones Mystery Oracles can all use without needing archetypes or anything. I think that Undead Bloodline Sorcerers should also be able to pick them up because of lore reasons. It just makes sense to me.
So, the Magus class is pretty neat. It also encourages you to boost your Intelligence score to get the most out of your spells (since Int does boost the damage your spellstrikes do). But, it isn’t strictly necessary. If your Magus is a human, elf, gnome, tengu, or some other ancestry that can get Innate Spells, you could go for Charisma as your spellcasting stat! Neglecting Intelligence would mean your spell slot spells wouldn’t be as strong, but you can also prepare buff and utility spells in those slots, so they wouldn’t be useless by any means. Now, why a Charisma Magus? Well, Charisma is let’s you go ham with social skills. In fact, the Distracting Spellstrike feat lets you make a free feint as a part of a Spellstrike, and more Charisma means a better chance to fake your opponent out. Bon Mot and Demoralize are also nice tricks to have in your back pocket.
So, in addition to introducing several new ancestries and versatile heritages as well as providing options for already-existing ones, the Lost Omens Ancestry Guide also gave us several new weapons associated with the ancestries detailed in the book (as well as some that have yet to be published). So, any of these new weapons inspire any ideas in people? Here are some ideas I had to kick things off: - A Kobold Investigator who uses Fangwire. I know the weapon description describes the weapon as being a garrote wire, but I can't help but imagining a smart little dragon-thing who busts out a shiny wire all around him like he was Walter Dornez from Hellsing. - A Geniekin Dragon-Instinct Barbarian who uses a Wish Blade two-handed.(Probably ifrit & fire dragon, since fire is awesome.) Dragon Barbarians are already channeling elemental energy whenever they rage, so this feels like some good synergy. Maybe see if your GM will let you pick one of the primal dragons to be your draconic forebear. - Suli Ranger wielding a pair of Wish Knives. Use elemental assault to set up a flurry of elemental strikes!
No, seriously, look at the some of the stuff the armor innovation gets you. Increased protection against all kinds of damage, built-in flamethrower (via Explode), and of course a motherkriffing jetpack at level 16. Add a dueling pistol (a martial firearm), a cool helmet, and a badass creed on top of that to finish. Baby goblin sorcerer companion not included.
One of my personal favorite Golarion-specific weapons from Pathfinder 1e was the Totem Spear, the Shoanti weapon-instrument. Since it isn't in 2e yet, here is an approximation of how it might look: Totem Spear
Favored by the Shoanti of the Sklar Quah, totem spears combine deadly weapons with the mournful music of Varisia’s displaced natives. The shovel-like heads of these broad spears are decorated with variously oriented hollows. Supplemental to this weapon is a new weapon property: Performative: You can use this weapon to Perform with the Performance skill as if it were a Handheld Musical Instrument. This adds the weapon’s item bonus to attack rolls as an item bonus to the Performance check.
So, of the three Hunter's Edges that the Ranger currently has, the Outwit Edge is seen as the "least sexy." It doesn't let you get off a bunch of attacks like the Flurry Edge or make one big attack even bigger like the Precision Edge. Instead it boosts your defenses against your current prey, and gives you a circumstance bonus to Deception checks, Intimidation checks, Stealth checks, and Recall Knowledge checks against your current prey (in addition to the bonus towards Perception and Survival that all rangers get). So, how to we build a Ranger that can use these bonuses to their full advantage? My first thought is that we're definitely going to need an archetype so that our Social Ranger can boost a whole lot of skills that will enable them to take full advantage of all the skills that got boosted, but which archetype is best? And which kind of fighting style would be the best pick for an Outwit Ranger? I'm curious about what others can come up with.
I'll start by noting some synergy with Horrid Wilting. If you target a plant or an enemy made of water with the spell, their saving throw is automatically one degree worse. If you critically hit an enemy with an attack when using Striking Spell, then that enemy's saving throw is automatically one degree worse. Which means, that if you use Striking Spell with Horrid Wilting, and critically hit a water elemental enemy, then if they roll a critical success on their saving throw, they get a failure, and if they roll a success, they get a critical failure.
One of the four playtest Eidolons is a Devotion Phantom, and it seems heavily implied that there are going to be more phantoms with different emotional focuses when Secrets of Magic is released. I personally think it's neat. Summoners and Spiritualists did cover similar mechanical ground in Pathfinder 1e, and tying them both closer together in 2e makes sense to me.
Similar to other 101 threads, hopefully this thread will helpfully inspire ideas for Witch patrons to people interested in playing the witch class. 1 - Owl: A member of the Magic Warriors of the Maga'ambya, Owl (so-called for the owl mask that they wear) is a fairly taciturn teacher who has taken on apprentices who have found limited success with the more traditional ways of teaching arcane and primal magic.
2 - Margenax: Margenax is an ancient brine dragon who has made his home in the frozen seas off the coast of the Realms of the Mammoth Lords. Living within the frozen waters of the North for many years has greatly influenced the primal magic that Margenax wields, and she teaches young witches who she believes will provide stability to her realm or will increase the size of her hoard.
3 - Talmandor: The empyreal lord Talmandor, patron of the nation of Andoran, will send familiars to instruct young witches who support the ideals of the (relatively) young nation. Such witches tend to join one of the factions of the Eagle Knights, with quite a few being members of the Twilight Talons due to that faction's tendencies to operate in the shadows.
4 - Eyes-Full-Of-Wisdom: Eyes-Full-Of-Wisdom is a Yamaraj, one of the most powerful of the psychopomps who work to keep the River of Souls on its rightful course. Occasionally, they will catch glimpses of individuals who will be able to influence this flow, for good or ill. When this happens, Eyes-Full-Of-Wisdom will send one of the lesser psychopomps under their control to guide that individual towards a fate that will send that river on its correct course.
Here are some feats I thought of that I think should help wizards expand their options some based on the various schools of magic.
Your evocation spells are especially dangerous. When you Cast a Spell from your spell slots, if the spell is an evocation spell, deals damage, and doesn’t have a duration, you gain a status bonus to that spell’s damage equal to the spell’s level.
Your studies of the way positive and negative energy interact with each other allows you to temporarily realign your own energies. When you use this ability, you gain the negative healing ability, which means you are harmed by positive damage and healed by negative effects as if you were undead until the start of your next turn. If you already have the negative healing ability, you can instead choose to suppress it and be healed by positive effects and harmed by negative damage until the start of your next turn.
Your mastery of conjuration magic allows you to summon beings that normally only respond to spellcasters of other religions. You can add 1 summon spell that's not on the arcane spell list to your spellbook, and can prepare and cast it from your wizard spell slots as if it was an arcane spell. You must have master rank in the skill of the tradition that the summon spell normally belongs to before you can choose it (Nature if it was on the primal spell list, Occultism if it was on the occult spell list, Religion if it was on the divine spell list).
Alright, hypothetical character time! Let's say I'm playing a witch with a winter patron, granting me the primal spell list, as well as a cute little familiar. It should also be noted that my with is an ancient elf, who studied a bit of wizardry before meeting a friendly yeti who taught him cool ice magic, and thus has the wizard dedication feat. My elven witch goes on a few adventures, and gets to second level! For his class feat, he decides to take improved familiar. Now that his familiar can take 4 abilities (well, 5 considering we're talking about a witch here, but 4 is the minimum), it can finally reveal the truth: it's been a spellslime the whole time! Now, spellslimes have a neat ability which I'll quote below: Magic Scent Your spellslime familiar gains an imprecise sense with a range of 30 feet that enables it to smell magic of the same tradition as your own. Now we finally get to my question. My witches magical tradition is primal, so we know that this spellslime can smell out primal magic no problem. The question is, does my elven witch's wizard dedication feat, which gives him training in casting arcane spells, give the spellslime the ability to smell arcane magic too?
Okay, let's say I want to be an Eldritch Archer that focuses more on the archery side of things. So I start as a Fighter, and take the following feats: 1.) Point Blank Shot
So, the Eldritch Archer says, "If you already cast spells from spell slots, you learn one additional cantrip from that tradition. If you're a prepared caster, you can prepare this spell in addition to your usual cantrips per day; if you're a spontaneous caster, you add this cantrip to your spell repertoire." My fighter can cast spells from the spell slots he got from Basic Sorcerer Spellcasting, so the cantrip I get is added to the list of cantrips I've gotten from Sorcerer Dedication & Cantrip Expansion. Where I'm kind of confused is with Basic Eldritch Archer spellcasting. It all comes down to whether the spell slots you're getting from this feat count as sorcerer spell slots or not. The Dedication implies that the spells you're getting are all being added to the Sorcerer repertoire the Fighter got from his multiclass feats, but the Spellcasting Archetype rules seem to indicate that the Fighter has a separate "Eldritch Archer" repertoire separate from his "Sorcerer" repertoire the moment he gets Basic Eldritch Archer Spellcasting. At level 10, the Fighter has two level 1 spell slots, two 1st-level spells known, two level 2 spell slots, two 2nd-level spells known, two level 3 spell slots, two level 3 spells known, and two signature spells. The question becomes, are all these combined into one big repertoire, or are the spells he knows from the Sorcerer archetype and the Eldritch Archer archetype in different repertoires? I hope I'm making sense here.
So, the Dragon Disciple archetype is cool, but sadly it doesn't have a lot of great options for the Draconic Barbarians who can access it. This is my attempt to modify the Claws of the Dragon feat to make it a better choice for those barbarians.
[ARCHETYPE]
Your fingernails grow into razor-sharp claws, and scales speckle your fingers, hands, and wrists. When you gain this feat, you can choose to grow Brutal Claws or Cunning Claws. Brutal Claws: Your claws are unarmed attacks that deal 1d10 slashing damage and are in the brawling weapon group. Cunning Claws: Your claws are agile, finesse unarmed attacks that deal 1d6 slashing damage and are in the brawling weapon group. If you’re a draconic sorcerer, when you cast dragon claws, increase the spell’s slashing damage die from d4 to d6 and increase the resistance to 10 at 1st level, 15 at 5th level, and 20 at 9th level.
So, let's say that you want you want to wear full plate, but you don't start proficient with it. Getting there at low levels is easy enough, if you start off as a human. Just have Versatile Heritage or that the General Training feat (or both, if you start out with no armor proficiencies whatsoever). At level 1, that means you can start out wearing medium armor. Nice! But of course, you want the heavy stuff. To get that, you're going to take the Sentinel Dedication feat at level 2, which gets you proficient in Heavy Armor if you are already proficient with light and medium armor (which you already are, of course). Where this gets interesting is when your class boosts your armor proficiency. Normally, characters like wizards and rogues only get to increase their proficiency with the armor that their class gives them. But the Sentinel Dedication helps with that: Whenever you gain a class feature that grants you expert or greater proficiency in any type of armor (but not unarmored defense), you also gain that proficiency in the armor types granted to you by this feat. If you are at least 13th level and you have a class feature that grants you expert proficiency in unarmored defense, you also become an expert in the armor types granted to you by this feat. Bolding by me for emphasis. This means that when your wizard hits 13th level, she's an expert with both unarmed defense (due to her class) and heavy armor (due to this feat), but not with light armor and medium armor (since those were gotten through Armor Proficiency feats and not Sentinel Dedication). It's not really a complaint or anything, I just thought it was kind of interesting how these different elements interacted.
I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that the Investigator's Devise a Stratagem action is one of their coolest features. You get to predict if your attack is going to hit, and get to use your Intelligence to hit on top of that? Very cool. You even get to add some extra damage on top of that with the strategic strike class feature. Of course, there are some restrictions on all that. For one, you're only adding your Intelligence to one single attack in a round. And if you want to do that, you need to be a ranged attack, an agile or finesse melee attack, or a sap (which is already agile, so not sure why it needed to be called out specifically?). The list expands to one-handed clubs with the Takedown Expert feat. There are quite a few different weapons that fall under that category of course, so which is the best for an Investigator who wants to play the whole Sherlock Holmes "play the battle out in my head" schtick to the fullest? Here are my thoughts. You're adding your Intelligence to only a single attack per round, as I said. This means that weapon properties that proc off of two or more attacks per round are not all that useful for you. The traits I can think of right now that fit this definition are agile, backswing, forceful, sweep, and twin. So once we remove all those from the equation, what are we left with? For melee weapons, if you don't want to spend any other feats on weapon proficiency, my opinion is that the best pick is the rapier. It's common, sure, but deadly d8 is mighty fine if you're pretty sure your attack is going to be a crit. In the uncommon corner, the Aldori Dueling Sword has a respectable d8 weapon dice. If you're okay with a smaller weapon dice, you get a bunch of combat maneuver-aiding traits on the scorpion whip, plus reach. The spiked chain gets you both a d8 damage die and combat maneuver traits, though you do have to give up a free hand. As for ranged weapons, you probably want to stick with bows instead of crossbows or slings unless you archetype into Archer or Ranger for running reload, since spending a turn going Devise a Stratagem > Strike > Reload would leave you vulnerable to any enemies who closed the distance with you. Anyway, that's what I think. What are your thoughts?
So, here's kind of an odd question. One of the new Solarian solar manifestations released in the Character Operations Manual, the Solar Flare, "functions as a one-handed uncategorized small arm." Does that functionality allow it to be used to make Pistol Whip melee attacks, as per the Pistol Whip Operative exploit released in the Armory?
So, here’s a question about how Druids can spend their time to regain their Focus Point(s). We’ll stat with the following from the description of the Druidic Order class feature. Order spells are a type of focus spell. It costs 1 Focus Point to cast a focus spell, and you start with a focus pool of 1 Focus Point. You refill your focus pool during your daily preparations, and you can regain 1 Focus Point by spending 10 minutes using the Refocus activity to commune with local nature spirits or otherwise tend to the wilderness in a way befitting your order. So far so good. Let’s now look at the feat Natural Medicine, which human Druids or Druids with the herbalist background can get at Level 1.
“Natural cures,” hm? Interesting. So, would using the natural cures mentioned in this feat that you use while treating wounds also satisfy the “commune with nature spirits or tend to the wilderness” clause that Druids need to refocus?
So, one of the big problems I've seen people mention about the Fighter Multiclass feat is that it isn't a great pickup if you're already trained in Martial Weapons. So I propose the following changes to both Fighter Dedication and Diverse Weapon Expert.
It makes sense to me that those who multiclass into fighter but who are already trained in simple and martial weapons would instead be able to access some of the fighters' ability to use advanced weapons, though of course they'll never be quite as skill as a real fighter. Anyway, what are your thoughts?
I've seen some of the discussion on the other parts of this forum about Rogues and cantrips, which gave me this idea. Eldritch Trickster You were born with a talent for magic, but whatever reason you've never been able to really hone your gifts beyond the basics. Your ability to use magic, however minor, does give you some unique tools that have helped you in your career. Perhaps you use your magic to assist in heists, to defend yourself against dangerous foes, or even con the gullible into believing that you are a mighty mage! Choose one magical tradition (arcane, divine, occult, or primal). You gain two cantrips from that magical tradition's spell list. You can cast those two cantrips as innate spells at will. A cantrip is heightened to a spell level equal to half your level rounded up. You are also trained in the spell DCs associated with your tradition. Your proficiency with those spell DCs increases to expert at 7th level, and master at 15th level. You are trained in one extra skill, depending on which magical tradition you chose. You are trained in Arcana if you picked arcane, Religion if you picked divine, Occultism if you picked occult, and Nature if you picked primal.
So, Titan Slinger is a halfling ancestry feat which let's them increase their size of their weapon die when they use a sling against a large or larger creature. Not a bad benefit. Unfortunately, in PF2 the word "sling" could refer to a weapon group or to one specific weapon weapon within that weapon group. So, could a halfling with the Titan Slinger feat apply the feat's benefits to a halfling sling staff, since it is a part of the sling weapon group? Or does it only work with the specific weapon sling, which is a part of the sling weapon group?
Draconic & Demonic specifically) get focus powers at level 1 that grant them natural weapon unarmed attacks. Now, a melee sorcerer build isn't what one usually expects, but it's possible. However, when Sorcerers get a bump in weapon proficiency to Expert at 11th level, that bump only affects simple weapons. Now, there are options for Sorcerers who want to use other weapons to increase their proficiency to do so via multiclassing or ancestry feats, but none of those feats apply to unarmed attacks since those are not technically weapons. This means that if an 11th level Draconic Sorcerer ever finds himself in melee combat, it's better for him to draw a dagger instead of using the claws he can only use because of his bloodline. That feels... unthematic to me. This is why I feel like Sorcerers when sorcerers get Expert proficiency in Simple weapons at 11th level, this increase should also apply to unarmed strikes. Or at least, it should to those Sorcerers whose bloodlines grant them unique natural weapon unarmed strikes.
Let's say that I decide I want to make an elf character who is the scion of a long line of famous wizards. Elf is obviously the ancestry I decide to go for, and I decide that the Seer elf heritage matches my concept. Among other things, Seer elf heritage gives me the ability to cast Detect Magic as an innate cantrip. When I get to the class stage, I decide to pick Sorcerer as my class, and go with the Imperial Bloodline, because it matches my character concept. One of the automatically granted bloodline spells of the Imperial Bloodline is Detect Magic. Uh-oh. Now, there are rules in the book that allow you to train in skills of your choice if two different sources grant you training in the same skill (like say, if you were a Ranger with Hunter background, which both automatically train you in the Survival skill). I'm not seeing any similar rules for redundant cantrip training. Have I missed something here? Because if I haven't, this seems like something that should be addressed at some point.
So, blood hexes are special feats that give you special hex-like abilities printed in the Magic Tactics Toolbox. Said feats are especially effective when used by witches or shamans, as one might expect. The general idea is that they require you to have damaged the enemy before using them. Now, most blood hex feats are not really worth using. There are two, however, which have some effects which I think are pretty strong. They are the following:
Preventing enemies from using any of their spell-like abilities and making it impossible for them to full attack seems pretty strong to me. Am I wrong?
I’m just saying that scenarios like this one sound very entertaining. Bad Guy: What? How was was that fool able to survive my doom laser barrage!? Witchwarper: I superimposed on top of him the version of him from the reality where Sarenrae is secretly his mom, which makes him immune to fire. No big deal.
Among other things in the Alien Archive 2 is details on the half-squirrel, half-fox creatures creatively named Squoxes. There are rules in their entry in the book detailing how to train them, and even a feat that gives PCs extra benefits for having a trained Squox companion. So, what kind of things can a PC do with a Squox companion? Who gets the most benefit from having a little buddy? Is it even adviseable to train a Squox?
Buried at the back of the weapon fusion list in the Armory is the Soulfire infusion, which when attached to a Solarian Weapon Crystal (and, in fact, can only be attached to said Crystals) makes the Solar Weapon that crystal empowers add the Solarian’s Charisma modifier to damage. The fusion itself is level 1, and the armory also includes level 1 weapon crystals, which means that Solarians can now go their entire career adding two ability modifiers to their melee damage rolls. I remember that back when Starfinder was first released, there were several posters who believed that a Solarian would be better served buying an advanced melee weapon rather than using the class-granted solar weapon. With this seal, that’s probably no longer the case.
One nice thing I noticed in the rune section of the PF2 playtest: weapons with the returning rune etched on them that are thrown as part of a strike return to your hand after the strike is completed, instead of at the end of your turn like in PF1. This means that if you want your Gozreh-worshipping cleric to get full use out of her trident or your tricky rogue to focus on knife-throwing tricks, you don't need to jump through all the hoops present in PF1 that made it almost possible to play a character who likes throwing weapons. So that's neat.
I'll preface this that I like the idea that the main goal of proficiency bonuses is to expand the scope of the kinds of things you can do with skills, and not just add a bunch of +1s. I do, however, feel that Legendary skill feats are not quite legendary enough. Here are some idea for the kind of things I think legendary-proficient characters should be able to do. Titan Feller - You can use Athletics to grapple, shove, or trip enemies of any size without penalty. Paragon of Fear - You can use the Intimidate skill against creatures which would normally be immune to fear like constructs or undead. Hide in Plain Sight - You can stealth anywhere, anytime. Steal Enchantment - You can make a thievery check to steal one ongoing spell effect on an enemy and apply it to yourself instead. I feel like these are the kind of things that Legendary heroes should be able to do with their skills.
So, the only two weapons with the orc racial trait in the playtest are the orc knuckle dagger and the orc necksplitter, both of which fall into the knives weapon group. Most knives deal d4 damage, with the exception of the kukri and these particular weapons, the knuckle dagger rolling d6s and the necksplitter rolling d8s. I just find it kind of interesting, is all.
There are some threads in this forum that focus on what you can’t do in Pathfinder 2. Let’s talk about some of the interesting stuff you CAN. So, here’s one of my favorite interactions. One of the gnome’s level 1 ancestral feats let them get a small animal as a familiar. Familiars have the ability to deliver touch spells. And an interesting quirk of Pathfinders “powers-as-spells” system is that Lay on Hands now counts as a touch spell. So from level 1, you can have a thrush or badger buddy running around and healing your allies while you hold the line.
There's an interesting variety of items that was introduced in the Starfinder Armory: Hybrid Grenades. Hybrid grenades are, quite simply, grenades that produce magical effects when used. You've got grenades that makes walls of force, grenades that create holograms, even grenades that can create robots. And which Soldier fighting style allows you to create a free grenade for almost every fight you're going to be in? That's right, the Bombard Solider! Bombard Soldiers might actually end up being the best summoners in the game, since they can throw a Summoning Grenade (yes, that is an actual thing now) in every fight that they have 10 minutes to prepare for. Which is pretty awesome, I think.
So, when a Vine Leshy PC dies, they explode. Great for the plants all around it, bad for the Leshy's friends who don't have a body which they can use as a focus for Raise Dead or Resurrection. True Resurrection will, of course, work, but that's not really going to be an option for most parties. So, what to do (outside of bringing in a new character)? Well, Vine Leshies are Leshies, as you can tell by the name. And characters can grow leshies using the proper rituals, as outlined in Bestiary 3. And the requirements for the Vine Leshy creation ritual are detailed in Ultimate Wilderness. So, if the PCs want to make their Vine Leshy ally a new body after the old one got trashed, can they do so using the Leshy creation rules that are presented in Bestiary 3 and Ultimate Wilderness? And how much would it cost to do so if they can?
So, there's a paladin thread again. No surprise, but it got me thinking. One thing I've heard people saying is that a Paladin's powers are counterbalanced by the RP aspects of their code of conduct. Shouldn't that also be true of Clerics, who receive arguably greater divine powers that Paladins do? Should Good Clerics, for example, need to follow the custom Paladin codes printed in several player companion supplements (and Evil clerics, likewise, need to follow custom Antipaladin codes)? And should there be more codes for the other deities that a cleric can follow. Should a cleric's code of conduct (mentioned in the Ex-Cleric section of the class) be as detailed as a Paladin's, in other words.
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