Ayrkire's page

Paizo has my benefit of the doubt. Mark's efforts to answer questions and Jonathan's message above are good enough for me to comfortably wait and see. I'm sure it's stressful for those impacted by this but I'm hopeful Paizo will find a reasonable solution that works for the community if it can be found.

Something like this can easily have a bunch of unforeseen complications and knock-on effects. Glad they are listening and it's understandable they need some time to come up with a solution.

https://paizo.com/products/btq05rel?Starfinder-Second-Edition-Playtest-Delu xe-Adventure-Pack

Sounds like an excellent pack for Foundry and can't wait to get my hands on it. Would have loved to have the pdf's included but I think I can get by without them or will pick them up separately.

When it comes to PF2E I've usually built characters in pathbuilder before creating them in Foundry. Hopefully Hephaistos is updated fairly quickly to assist folks with character creation.

Anyone else looking forward to this?

Yes, this is going to be great. Can't wait to make some characters and try this out.

Annnnnd for those interested, all four Starfinder 2nd Edition playtest scenarios (Shards of the Glass Planet, It Came From the Vast!, Wheel of Monsters*, and Rescue at Shimmerstone Mine*), as well as both playtest adventures (A Cosmic Birthday and Empires Devoured*), will be receiving the same deluxe treatment as our Pathfinder 2nd Edition Adventure Paths in the upcoming Starfinder 2nd Edition Playtest Adventure Pack for Foundry Virtual Tabletop, releasing alongside the playtest on August 1st!

Did I mention that it includes exclusive Starfinder Second Edition digital dice featuring a Captain Concierge hologram that pops up when you roll a natural 20 (until you're so tired of victory that you turn it off)? Yes, I did, right there.

(* provided as a free update when they release this fall, of course)

This is fantastic! I will 100% pick this up for Foundry. As mentioned previously please drop a link when it's ready.

Will the playtest rules and playtest adventures be on Foundry in August? My group enjoys PF2E on Foundry and I'd love to introduce them to the SF universe.

I'd pay good money for a Foundry module for this if it worked as well as the PF2E ones.

It would be amazing if this was converted to 2E and given Foundry support. I understand it's doubtful since they may not have Mecha integration sorted for 2E yet but I can dream.

This AP sounds like a blast. Any indication if this will be getting Foundry support?

Good stuff. I'll be looking for the foundry module when it's available.

I'm really interested to see how this goes. The big one for me and my group is whether SF2E integrates immediately into Foundry. We run our PF2E campaigns in Foundry and the modules Paizo sells are fantastic. I'm hopeful witht eh cross compatibility and same ruleset that SF2E content will have greater Foundry support.

I have a group that is playing online with me through Foundry using the AP Paizo created for Foundry. There are 5 players total. I'll focus mostly on the mechanics of running it, but also any highlights about the story progression as well. I'm inexperienced as a GM so I'll highlight some things I may have done along the way to ask questions about how to improve.

Magus (Laughing shadow)
Inventor (Armour)
Gunslinger x 2 (Sniper and Pistolero)
Alchemist (Chirurgeon)

Session 1: After all the usual fun introductions for characters and receiving their first mission to break into the bank our characters set about the task. They didn't take advantage of any prep work other than to stock up on gear and set out during the day. They asked questions and received some info about the bank and what to expect, and of course how to make their escape.

Encounter 1:

I brought the group to the gold tank reserve and encouraged a recall knowledge on the brokers out front. I left the 2 brokers that were designed for 4 player encounter as I'd rather undertune than overtune for the first encounter. With a successful recall knowledge check one of the pieces of info I gave my players was that the brokers have about a 50 ft range they would chase if they encounter a threat. I was hoping they would get the hint they can pull them away from the bank.

Instead the team decides to walk into the bank and bypass the two brokers. At this point I was a little worried about how the encounters would go now that they were in the bank and I had 5 of the investors prepped for the second encounter. I thought maybe they are just casing the place a bit but I was worried about multiple encounters happening simultaneously. Once inside the group knew they needed to get a key from the bank manager (Dresh). They didn't close the door behind them from the brokers out front when they went in. The group decided to make a scene in the bank with one player feigning being pushed and offended by the other player and demanding to see the bank manager.

I figured if they were making a yelling scene the brokers from outside would come in as security. I had the brokers demand the players involved in the staged altercation leave and when they refused I had them roll initiative. **It's possible I should have let them engage with the bank manager but it seemed like it might just lead to more risk in the encounters stacking up plus the brokers were within earshot so why wouldn't they become involved in the scene?**

Nobody went down in the fight but I opted to use hog tie a couple times when I maybe could have attacked and dropped one or two of the players. They all engaged and the gunslingers struggled with the damage reduction (rolling 3 for damage and only doing 1 damage in an attack hurts), but the Magus excelled here with the burst damage and did the majority of the heavy lifting to drop the two brokers. 3 players were brought below half health.

I did not have the 5 investors engage as it would have likely been a TPK. So I have them nervously backing off while the players put down the brokers. The players were in need of some healing and opted to drink down their potions rather than spend 10 minutes using medicine. Given the nature of the situation that makes sense but it also leaves them with no potions left for any future encounters of which the book plans for 3 more in the bank.

We run short sessions and ended our first session here. I am thinking I will have the investors engage them when they try to move past into the vault but I'm definitely worried with them having three more encounters to go and feeling the time might be too urgent to spend 10-30 mins using medicine.

Going into the next session I may opt to skip the Brokers in the vault and just run the investors and Dresh as the only remaining encounters in the bank.

I don't think the brand new level 1 team has enough healing to manage so many encounters with such a press for time, even if they had a more conventional healer there's so few spell slots at level 1. I would let my players use medicine to heal up but they don't want to spend so much time while they are trying to get in and out before the authorities arrive (smart, but not how the encounters were designed perhaps?). I don't know how to give the players a sense that they have the time to spare using medicine without it feeling artificial given the situation so I'm hoping if I can reduce the encounters or maybe have a bunch of healing potions in the bank manager's office that would keep things moving. The book doesn't really have any help for what I've run into here, but it doesn't seem unique to our group.

It will be some time before we get to Session 2 as this is not our regular game and more of a side gig (one that allows me to get some experience as a GM and let our regular GM get some playing time in).

Overall the module is beautiful and well made, my only issue is how creative I need to get to avoid a TPK the way it's been written, but maybe I'm doing it wrong?

If there's anyone interested I'll post future sessions. Appreciate any advice as we go along.

Any plans for Starfinder APs?

Thanks Aaaron.

I’ll add my voice to the Starfinder crowd.

As someone that plays on Foundry/discord and relies on pathbuilder for character creation is there something that nexus will do to benefit our groups playstyle?

Will there be token, artwork, or map integration with Foundry if you purchase AP/Bestiaries through nexus or is it just rulebooks?

Hsui wrote:

Yes, I know how to build characters - thank you for the insult

How has any of your skill feat choices had a meaningful impact in game play (excluding of course Battle Medicine) in a published scenario (hint: they haven't).

Answering the question even if I'm not the one questioned: I was surprised how Additional Lore (Plant) proved itself super useful for my PFS Alchemist. She uses it roughly once per level, and in general for an important check, and not at all for its original purpose: Recognizing Plant enemies.

PF2 is definitely more complex when it comes to choice of actions, but it also greatly depends on the character. My Alchemist turns are rarely similar, and I can't know beforehand if I'll use bombs or elixirs or my Animal companion. On the other hand, I've found my Barbarian to be quite boring as it's mostly Stride, Strike, Strike with very few variations. But it's on me: I am the one building my character. If I want a complex character, I can build one. If I want a simple character with a repetitive pattern, I also can build one. The game doesn't force you into one gameplay or the other.

But there's no common point with PF1 where I was always doing exactly the same things over and over again. Even with complex characters, variations were the exceptions as my "routine" was so strong that I needed a massive incentive not to use it.
At least, in PF2, a proper terrain or circumstances can easily push me away from any routine.

You bring up a good point about character creation. I'm a noob to PF2E and my first character (I'm only on my second character now) was a Barbarian that I got to Lvl 18 (completing an AP adapted from PF1).

Just going by memory of things I did with the barbarian depending on the situation.

Reach - positioning key, especially with AOO and moving away from enemies without reach.

Trip - this was a tactical choice after striking once do I want to trip and trigger an AOO at no MAP and make them waste an action to stand up and perhaps another to get within 5 ft of me.

Demoralize - Often first action before making first attack

Terrifying Howl - Great for mutiple enemies in my area.

Bon Mot - Line up a debuff for my caster, good option for last action depending on my positioning and if my caster is using a Will save spell.

Scare to death - This was amazing when it worked and pretty darn good even when it didn't fully succeed. Didn't overlap with demoralize either.

Come and Get me (I might have the name wrong) - paired well with Vengeful Strike and allowed me to retaliate on strike and get some HP for hits but lowered defense even more. Closest thing to a Taunt if an ally is in trouble.

Swipe - Great 2 action ability when it lined up.

Knockback - Paired well with Brutal Bully and great single action especially with reach to prevent a 5ft step from avoiding AOO at the edge of my reach.

Silencing Strike - replaced normal attack action for certain foes (mooks and equal or lower level casters).

I'm probably missing a couple things like using bracers to increase movement speed, armour had an action to fly, various useful potions, recall knowledge, etc.

I might have had too many options and some were situational but it felt like I had meaningful decisions to make and a third attack was never one of them, often a second attack wasn't either.

I'm a noob though and this may be entirely suboptimal and for all I know maybe no more tactical than 5E (never really played it), but it felt tactical to me and provided lot's for my noob brain to consider on every turn.

Also despite being in the front line raged all AP this character never died (two character deaths all AP).

Puna'chong wrote:

Then maybe this isn't the game for you, because 50-60% odds of success is par for the course in P2e.

Ugh. Maybe you're right.

But it feels as if you still have to heavily optimize in this version-- but rather than being god-tier, optimization makes you decent. If you, say, play a fighter with only a 14 in Str and Dex, then you are pretty bad.

Say what you will about 5e-- believe me, I have issues with that system as well-- but at least I can play a character that doesn't require constant work just so that I can maybe have 50% odds of not getting hit.

I think I just don't like that this system seems to be based around avoiding getting crit, rather than avoiding getting hit.

My fighter fantasy of playing the dashing lightly armored fencer who dances between his foes seems pretty unobtainable when every enemy can casually eviscerate you.

Again, I'm not complaining about getting hit, I just don't like how much effort you have to put into being halfway good at avoiding hits.

I'm not experienced in 5e but from what I've heard there is a different perspective to combat. I believe in 5E you have a certain amount of encounters per day that are meant to wear your resources down by the end of the day. In PF2E conversely you are expected to go into combat at full health because you will get hit more. You also can heal back up with greater ease between combat.

I can see how it might feel more heroic in 5E to rarely get hit and have every individual combat be much less risky for your character. However in 2E combat is much more balanced and you will be hit more, you will be challenged more, and it can feel as if you aren't as heroic.

Personally I really like 2E combat in that it's tactical, it rewards teamwork and smart decision making more than it rewards min/max character building (because it's tuned so you can't break the system and diminish all the encounters).

I played a Barbarian in Hell's Rebels (converted to 2E) and while I got hit more than the ranged characters in the party our team had in combat healing, shield reactions (champion) and I myself took advantage of having reach and trip along with Attack of Opportunity. While I did still rarely go down (only a few times I can think of across 18 levels) the dying and wounded system has safeguards in place to provide opportunities to dust yourself off and get back in the fight. As a front line martial my damage was best in the party which is a fair trade for having to be on the front line.

In the end I think 5E might make for a better RP feeling of being the invincible hero but 2E makes the combat really matter and feel much more satisfying for me personally.

Thanks for the breakdown. Discorporation seemed rather niche but the others seem to have a decent place. Curious to hear thoughts from anyone that's played with it though.

Oh man, Nanocyte is BUFF.

Swarm Strike gives Con to attack AND damage now.

That's awesome, especially early game I would imagine.

Lot's of interesting things in the book but I'm always a sucker for new classes. That and Mech rules!

Yep sign me up for pdf subscriptions if it ever becomes a thing. Until then happy to wait and see how the product turns out then consider picking up PDF's. Any kind of integration of PDF's into Foundry would be particularly interesting to me as well. Happy to pay if it's well integrated into foundry for maps and/or tokens.

TheJokerPlays wrote:

I want this but better

I'm curious what people want out of a digital conversion. What would make it "better"? What would be worth paying for?

I feel like with a computer powering the whole thing, there's definitely potential for "better", but what's the definition of "better" in this case?

For me it was really handy as a new GM using roll20 to get the tokens and items set up with a purchased adventure book. I guess for me it sounds like maps, handouts, and images are already in. Tokens and items would be the next big things for me.

Haven't played around with this yet though so maybe I have it wrong.

I've been meaning to try this out with the Extinction curse AP I got through the latest Humble Bundle.

Very interested and Foundry is absolutely amazing for PF2E.

Either way though, I forgot if I ever actually said my opinion on hypothetical starfinder 2e mechanics wise?

I'm honestly happy with just inclusion of 3 action action economy and skill math being more like in 2e :p And this isn't because I think 1.5 * apl math calculations don't work, but because starfinder definitely follows the "you HAVE to put every skill point into rank if you want it to be useful and even then you need skill focus and item bonuses to keep up" the higher level it goes. Which has both good and bad things to it, but I think its important to get rid of skill rank points overall and the +4 random kit bonuses as well.

Otherwise I'm preeeetty happy with starfinder. I do think starfinder economy doesn't feel satisfying yeah, but I don't think they want to switch to "every laser rifle is generic laser rifle" instead of "multiple tiers of same weapon" style. Like yeah they would probably improve starship combat in hypothetical second edition but I don't really mind it as it is that much.

(though I wouldn't mind 2e crit system getting to starfinder. I definitely want 2e four degrees of spell failure/success to starfinder since starfinder still has some pretty nasty save or die/suck effects that would be evil if used vs pcs.)

All of this and spell heightening for cantrips and more spells would be amazing.

siegfriedliner wrote:

I assume eidilons are still using d8 and d4 agile attacks with no options for weapon traits

Not necessarily. You can choose multiple options for your primary attack.

D8 and you choose one trait out of disarm, nonlethal, shove, or trip.
D6 can be fatal d10, forceful & sweep together, or deadly d8 & finesse together.

As others have mentioned, secondary is always d6 agile & finesse.

How does the functionality work if you take D8 with the trip trait (you automatically pick a trait or still need a feat (unarmed evolution in the playtest at lvl 4)?

Does it use the summoner's athletics or does the Eidolon have their own athletics ability for their own attacks?

Feats to improve things like trip in there? Just curious if it's even worth considering a trait like trip depending on how that interacts with the Eidolon to make it effective or not.

Anything you can share on plans for Starfinder content on Foundry. I bought the 3 Against the Aeon Throne books for roll20 but was planning to switch to Foundry since the pre-prepped content is done.

Would be interested in SFS or APs and more support for Starfinder content in general on Foundry.

I'll second that more foundry content/support would be my preference. I ran the AtAT AP on roll20 because it was purchasable, but I'm looking to move over to Foundry. Would love the amount of mods PF2E has but I'll take what I can get.

I'm excited to check this out.

Here's a Starfinder combat Playlist someone put together on Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2mehNx21xPvKUUpBOLFzIQ?si=d529477ece2f4a0 0

I have a party that just hit level 3 starting book 2 of Against the Aeon Throne. Can they make a squad of 4 ships at level 3? I'm not sure what APL -3 is when they are level 3. I suppose I could always limit it to 3 ships in the squad.

If I understand correctly the 3 ships would all have 55 BP at level 3 and HQ would then only be 25% of the 55BP? Doesn't seem like enough to actually make one. Although as long as the encounters are fair for 3 interceptor or fighter ships of 55BP maybe I'll rule of fun a bare bones HQ for them if it can't normally be done.

Open to any suggestions or corrections if I misunderstand it.

Looking forward to checking out the new twitch streams!

There's some podcasts out there that have run dead suns if you want to get a better sense of the content and the time to play. I think Glass Cannon took about 25 hours for book 1 but they are also on the slow side of groups I think. I've listened to about episode 45 and the encounters and story seem enjoyable to me as a listener.

Ok, for those that agree easily destructible shields are a problem, what do you think is the best solution?

Choice A) My current house rules that shields suffer 1 point of HP damage after being pierced. Shields can still be destroyed, but it takes longer for most of them (though a Druid's wooden shields still are quite weak).

Choice B) Those character's with Shield Block are able to block the shield's Hardness in damage once per turn as a reaction. The shield suffers no damage for doing so, but once it blocks damage the character no longer receives his shield bonus to AC until his next round (ie: next time he raises his shield.) You can pretty much ignore the shield's HP and BT except if someone is trying to melt it down or destroy it using downtime. Using this solution effectively gives shield users damage resistance once per round using their reaction.

Choice C) Use choice B above, but turn it into a Saving Throw contest between the attack roll and the attempted Block. The Defender's Shield Block requires a d20 roll to succeed. This could mean "Make a Reflex save vs the attack's roll to hit you in order to interpose your shield in time to prevent some damage".

Crit fail = no damage blocked, shield no longer raised this round
Fail = Block 1/2 the shield's Hardness, shield no longer raised this round
Success = Block the shield's Hardness, shield no longer raised this round
Crit Success = Block the shield's Hardness and you do not lose your Shield bonus against further attacks this round (your shield remains raised).

Choice D) As C above, but instead of a Reflex save, make it some other roll. It could be an attack roll, it could be d20 + level + armored Dex bonus + Unarmored (or best) Armor Proficiency bonus, it could be using your Class DC, or some other suggestion (please describe what you are thinking of if you choose D)

What about if the shield provides DR through hardness that it takes that amount of damage in HP? So a hardness 5 shield could prevent up to 5 damage but the shield will take up to 5 damage to it's HP.

This way you always know it won't take more than it's hardness in damage in a single blow, but it still makes the HP of the shield matter. It is also predictable enough damage where you don't need to know how much damage you are receiving before you choose to use it, but creates some opportunity where a hardness 5 shield with 4 HP left might be a risk you choose to take.

Checking this out on spotify. Thanks for sharing.

Very helpful info, thanks all.

Have they mentioned anything about releasing the pocket book adventure paths for pf2 as well? Seems like a great way to grab all 6 books.

I'm definitely going to grab the pawns I can when they are available as the kids really like the visuals.

Good to know I can access future monster info online. I'm interested to see how well received the battle cards are as I could see that being useful as well.

The spell cards sound handy for the kids too, but that's a hefty investment for all the spell cards.

Forgive the questions but hopefully some more experienced folks can answer. Playing fall of plaguestone with my kids and just the CRB so far and looking for advice on further products.

Do I need the game master guide for just running premade adventures like Fall of plaguestone or adventure paths?

I have the pdf version of the bestiary which came in handy when the FOP book referred to the monsters in it. Will future books like dead gods hand or adventure paths refer to future bestiaries or will they include monster stats for everything not in bestiary 1? I see theres already a second one on the way and there were something like 6 for pf1.

I'd like to pickup the pawns because I have no minis or pawns from previous editions of anything... I see bestiary 1 pawns are out near end of January. Is there a pawns box specific to FOP or other adventure paths that are available?

I'm getting the sense I should have just waited for pawns to come out. Maybe the Age of Ashes pawns will be available by the time we finish FOP.

Thanks all.