BishopMcQ's page

And as far as I can tell, Nature's Pathway doesn't let other creatures come with you, so if the druid has an animal companion they won't be able to come along. Pet Cache makes an extradimensional space, so the provided method to transport them doesn't work.

This is a similar problem to Familiars for wizards and sorcerers, since many spells call out if another creature is brought it automatically fails.

Okay thank you. I see that Nature's Pathways specifically calls out no extradimensional spaces. (I've never played a primal caster that high or seen that spell used with frequency.)

I didn't think there was anything like that for Teleport.

Is there any interactions between Teleport and a Spacious pouch or other common extradimensional spaces? I understand that having a creature in the bag to bypass teleport limits was nixed and putting a bag in a bag makes one inert, but our GM raised a concern during a session:

Spore War (Book 2, p 7) "spells like nature’s pathway or teleport must be heightened to allow swift travel to and from each other. Note the limitation of carrying extradimensional spaces, however, such as the spacious pouch" the NPC gives to the heroes.

Their reading of the statement was that you cannot teleport with spacious pouches or similar items, but that has never been a things that I've heard of.

Of note, the p33 is only across the line. Inside to inside still works.

p. 34 - The barrier seems to only block things that are active at the time of crossing. The sentence that starts "once on the" clarifies that.

The adventure suggests a time for the entry and exit, then complicates things. Players who want to approach through a different path or timeline just need to adapt to these limits.

I like them from a narrative perspective. Reading through them, I could see a number of stories building up, either as campaigns where they find these magics or in dealing with the outcomes from one.

They won't show up in every story that we tell at the table, but they can show up and create moments to remember.

And yes, the GM can always handwave and custom create something like this. As a framework for a GM to create new Impossible Spells, Paizo is giving guidance and showing that there can be High Level versions and Low Level versions to stretch across the range of stories.

I haven't played an animist yet, but as I read through the Necromancer with the Spirit Grim Fascination, the idea of channeling spirits and drawing the spirits of the recent dead is interesting to me. From a story perspective, having a few spirits that are bound to you and the vestiges of those upon the threshold feels like an interesting place to explore.

My initial thought was a failed hero, duskwalker who is bound to their fallen companions. Continues to see their companions fall over and over as the thralls fall and is trying to balance the scales and finish the quest that they started.

A human (Heritage) rogue, all the skill feats will fall right in and the general feats. You should be able to get 3 dedications in by 18th level. (It obviously goes faster if you add the Free Archetype.)

That would give you all of the options that are skill/general feat based, one of the heritages (undine, ardande, etc), and with Pathfinder, Bellflower, and Marine, you should have a wide array. The Pathfinder also lets you pick up some of their specialties.

I'm not sure how fun the character would be to play, but as a 1-2 episode Mary Sue, they would be able to survive quite a bit and get themselves into just enough trouble to pull the players along with their mischief.

Full Plate comes with the Padded Armor and can keep the runes of the main suit. Many fighters strip off the heavy plates when they take their rest. That lets them performance regular maintenance and repairs. Because it only takes a few minutes, I always assume that the fighter has their armor on when they are on watch.

For an undead character, I would talk to the player about it. There are numerous items and feats that do this that are between level 6 - 11.

As Finoan mentioned, most campaigns don't have frequent mid-rest ambushes. The ability to be in the middle of a social call, and call your armor in actions instead of minutes has its own value. So I think it would depend on the nature of the campaign that is being run, my players, etc.

As a reader of the forums, the occasional usage of Bold and Italics to make a point or draw emphasis is understandable. Repeated use of large fonts and changing the size of the font within the same sentence is jarring and comes across to me, in the same way as raising your voice and puffing out your chest would in face to face communications. It does not help in a clean discourse of the topic.

While there are dedications with generic communications regarding their benefits and limits, I feel that the Summoner Dedication feat is also clear.

You gain an Eidolon and the Manifest Eidolon Activity. It does not give you any of the other activities normally associated with an Eidolon, such as Act Together and Share Senses. This is explained through the Tenuous Connection description.

As a GM, if you wish to add the Share Senses ability to characters that take the Dedication, you certainly can. As a Player, you should expect what is explicitly written, and to have a conversation with your GM about adding other parts which you interpret as intended but not explicitly given or forbidden. This will prevent conflicts at the table if there is a different interpretation.

Subsequent sections regarding Gear and Lost Actions are not impacted by this explanation.

As a Reaction, it is happening on the monk's turn when they hit someone. Basically makes the next hit very likely, but that will break the unconscious, or the monk moves away and ends their turn and the unconscious ends. But since the creature doesn't fall prone and doesn't drop anything, it basically is a big boost to a 2nd/3rd strike or the ability to move away without triggering reactions.

If the monk has a reaction to hit someone and a second reaction in the same round to trigger the mask, then it becomes a bit more scary.

In most situations, creatures would not be unconscious by the time they start their turn. If I'm missing something, please explain.

From a party composition perspective: If you have multiple folks who can lay out damage, then doing the maneuvers to get bad guys into a better position is worth it. If you are the primary damage dealer and others are going on the buff/debuff side, then I would let them spend the action to set the bad guy up and you focus on the damage.

The general build you laid out is good. Dual-handed assault is good for the action compression - it lets a 2-action (grip and strike) be done as 1-action and still allows you to do all the fun stuff that requires an open-hand. It does have the flourish trait which means you can only do it once each round. So, if you get into a spot where you plan to keep both hands on the sword and just wail on something, it is better for that fight to spend the action to put it on the sword, then you can keep swinging two-handed until you need to let go as a free action.

It sounds like this will be a book a lot of folks like. Is this going to be a full on rule book? Or a lost omen book with some crafting and equipment rules in it?

It is listed in the store. Looks like a Feb 2027 release.

No page count listed that I noticed.

Description
From treasured heirlooms to the wares of a mysterious merchant, items go down in legend with the heroes that carry them. Those hungering blades, rune-carved staves, and bottomless bags of tricks are faithful companions on every step of the journey. Keep your signature items close to enjoy their special gifts, tame the spirits of objects as familiars, or even upgrade your equipment alongside you level-by-level. Intelligent items and artifact archetypes start whole adventures, while new treasures from draconic grafts to mysterious spellhearts are ready to join you along the way.

I think for the groups that want to embrace war games, it will be great. My group will enjoy it for a few fights. Through the whole campaign, I expect to be making a few substitutions. The substitutions and replacements are part of every AP that I've run.

Outside of running games at a convention for organize play, I don't think I have ever run a published adventure 100% verbatim from the scenario/book.

For those that have their copies already, what creatures do we have in the back?

There are 5 new Devils, some Troops, an Aberration, a Fiend, and an elemental.

There were also new Feats for a bunch of classes, including some love for the Kineticist which I was surprised to see.

My book came in yesterday. I skimmed through the capture the major beats of the plot.

As a GM, I'm wondering a bit how much work it will be if I don't want to run all of the troops. Some of my players will go for it, others will be a hard pass.

I'm going to need to read it again more fully, but I was surprised by some of the beats in the final chapter and the Continuing the Adventure.

Maintaining agency to change the world, especially in high level play is important. Putting a bunch of high level characters in a room with someone they don't like and trying to convince them this is only an RP encounter can also be a little tricky if they have bloodshed on their mind.

I haven't really used the Society Scenarios, but when I run an AP after my readthrough, I prep my monsters in my spiral notebook. There are quick stat blocks with the attack, AC, Saves and HPs. If multiples of the creature, then I make boxes for their HP and label them Troll 1, Troll 2, etc. I use little flags or a scrap of paper to mark the pages in my monster book to have the full block if needed. My notebook is also where I track initiative and can pre-roll them, and it lets me write down notes about if they're hiding, are they willing to parlay, and how to use the environment so that I don't have to keep that in my head and can adjust to the antics my players get up to.

There is also an encounter builder at PF2Easy that can be used. It doesn't have every monster though a ton of them are there. This lets you build up encounters and then view them as stat block cards. They are easy to print, and you can also click on the numbers to roll. Some fun options in the functionality if you want to look at it.

Ascalaphus wrote:

IMO for this specific question, the rules have plenty for me to lock-in a 100% answer that the action is interrupted and unable to complete.

If you rule the other direction, that actions can complete, you contradict the text inside Activities that instruct them to be aborted.

And you instantly get nonsense like creature A doing Reactive Strike on a Stride, only for a literal corpse to keep running because "can't act, Prone, Unconscious" is not allowed to interrupt the action.

The keep walking after the strike killed them would mirror action movies of the late 90s early 00s where the slice hits and then the body slips apart a few seconds later.

If you go with the Relic Gift option, looking at the Alara'hai could have a flavorful tie in. They don't have to be the actual ones but could give you a starting point to work from.

I have no problem at all with it being a feat. I have a quibble with it being an exclusively fighter and champion feat. A much better gate would have been something like "trained proficiency in martial weapons".

If your accountant takes the Fighter dedication, that gets the the Martial weapon proficiency. Basic Maneuver - go for something like Reactive Shield because their trainer keeps yelling to get their shield up. Advanced Maneuver Shield Wall.

I could also see an easy House Rule argument for adding Shield Wall to the list of feats for a Bastion since that dedication is all about Shields and they get other Knights of Lastwall options.

As a GM, if you walk into a town like Sandpoint and the party wants to restock on travel supplies, pick up some healing elixirs, and buy a new longsword because the fighter lost the other one due to an unfortunate accident with some harpies along a cliffside, then you can pick up all of that while deciding on which inn to stay at. No downtime really needed.

If you want to sell two dozen dogslicers, a dozen suits of leather armor that look and smell like a goblin lived and died in it, and track down a cold-iron gnome flickmace, that is going to take some time. The day might not be all spent in the buying and selling, but also in cleaning that armor, bargaining with a few goblins on the beach north of town, etc.

I will be happy to roleplay it all out and sprinkle in rumors and plot hooks for the future, or you can say "I'm going to take a day doing this" and then look back at your notebook to start figuring out how much that will net you while the next player tells me what they're doing.

OP - What do you want the high level fox to do?

Be an animal companion? A mount? A stand in for a dire wolf in the goblin armies, but Kitsune-themed?

I think the Daredevil could also be a bit of a Bravo. Though, to be fair, I don't know how many people still think of that word as a noun for a person and not the channel to watch housewives behaving badly.

Desperado would be a good fit for a Daredevil/gunslinger multiclass

Looking at pictures of real world jackals, the coloring appears to be closer to an African black-backed jackal. The image you provided also has more of a fur ridge than jackals generally do, which reminds me a bit of a striped hyena.

Take those ideas, add a touch of Lamashtu and artistic creativity, and you get a nice cryptid style creature that at first glance is familiar but the more you look at it, the creepier it becomes.

From Avi Henriquez on Bluesky Link

Text of link:
Great news from Jim that he said we could share with customers: Folks who own the PDF of the original Pathfinder Dark Archive will be getting the Remastered PDF for free in February!

So it seems cancelling the physical book shouldn’t affect your order. At least, I hope so since I’ve done it. Could do with official clarification of the situation here, rather than on BlueSky, though.

Jim Butler posted in the Paizo Announcements forum

Except of course the Necromancer class doesn't "raise undead". It conjures pseudo-undead out of thin air. It has to do that because actually raising undead would make it highly problematic in a lot of adventuring parties, but the idea that we can't have a "hallowed Necromancer" class archetype...

Some of the history into "necromancy" includes the naming of angels and other beings, to bind the spirits to perform a task. This was later declared heresy, but showed some of the ways that the clergy could perform magic.

The response I got was:
Thank you for reaching out to us. If you wish to not receive the Dark Archive (Remastered) you'll need to skip the order in the Subscription Manager page. Once that happen, you should not be charged for the upcoming subscription item.

--------

I asked a follow up about how Dark Archive (Remaster) differed from Guns and Gears (Remaster) and haven't heard back yet.

Also, Korean comics are call manhwa actually! Korean is my second language!

Good to know. It's a medium that my kids enjoy but I'm not too familiar with. I hope that I didn't offend with the wrong term.

Maya when you say "something impossible" is it more in the vein of Defying Gravity, Korean Manga series, or a more impossible something that we just have to wait and see?

I will also say that from a narrative approach (rather than an optimization/combat one), the recall knowledge check also lets me as a GM slip in other information and flesh out the world beyond a series of skill challenges and stat blocks.

One AP has a fight against a Graveknight mounted on an undead dragon --- awesome visual. The RK check gives information about the Graveknight's combat ability, but also that many of the commanders of the Knights of Lastwall rose as Graveknights to serve the Whispering Tyrant after the fall of Vigil. Now there's a hook for the character with a history with the Knights who challenges the graveknight.

This ties across to the other conversation about making fights meaningful - that enemy will live in that player's mind for a long time, the others will think about how cool it was to basically fight the cover art from a heavy metal album.

Adventure Paths are generally overflowing with information and backstories that the GM gets to know all about without a convenient way to share that information to the players unless folks roll some Recall Knowledge checks.

Do you have to roll them to win the fight? No.

Can they add context to turn the fight into a more fleshed out story? Often.

My speculation would be the GenCon release.

Back in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, parties used to "spike the door." They would go to a dungeon room with only one door and nail the door shut to prevent random encounters from entering the room. In the morning they would pull out the nails and resume exploring the dungeon.

Thank you Mathmuse for that. It was a blast from the past, playing in the den at a friend's house.

Based on the GM style of severe encounters, is there downtime built into the campaign? Witches and Ceremonial Knives can align with the wands and staves discussion. The Kineticist is the workhorse caster who can go all day long if downtime and spiking the door are not options.

I'm in a similar situation. Part of me wonders if with the change in the store, whether they are able to link the update without selling new hard cover. I don't know that I need a new $65 book for what are likely to be only minor updates to a book that I enjoy but my players are not much for that aspect/genre.

Mindslaver Mold -- I would start with a Myceloid and add the Weak template.

Cerebric Fungus -- I would start with a Glimmervine and add the Anguished cry and Aroma from the Ghoran manipulator. Then reskin them to be more in line with the fungus. But those would be level appropriate for the scream and aura that the fungus has.

I'm getting strong Green Knight vibes from a fighter with a Draconic Oath to a Vorpal dragon.

From an art standpoint, the despair dragon has a creepy aspect and a crazy look in their eyes, that really speaks to me.

There's also the Quick Repair Skill Feat. At Trained, it becomes 1 minute which lets the character fix their shield and make other quick repairs while the healer sews them back together.

At Master, it can be done in 3 actions. Legendary, 1 Action. So to use the Tank bottlenecked at the door, you could have someone behind them who takes 3 actions to fix the shield if that heavy crit comes through. Is it the best strategy all of the time? No, but a single skill feat is a low entry point, if you already plan on taking Crafting. My Inventor (free Archetype Medic) got really good at playing "fix the leak," whether that was the equipment or the person using it.

Desperate Repair is also a nice "oh crap" spell for if you take a hit that wasn't planned on.

I would love to see a Remaster or errata of the Kineticist to allow it to better interact with some other aspects of the game like the Mythic rules.

Kinetic Activation and Voice of the Elements are functions that I really wish were baked into the class chassis. Having a Class feat that gives you the bonuses to Diplomacy with elementals or ways to use your impulses to shape the spells would provide a design space to build from.

Gain the ability to speak the language of one your elements at first level, and each time you reach a Gate's Threshold you can learn one new language of an element that you use. (So if you go dual gate at 1st level, there is a choice of which language you speak and you get the second one at 5th level)

Thanks for this. I will look at those. The characters are 15th level, so telling them that this will be a Custom level 7 magic item and then they have to go through the steps of finding someone to make it, or reconnecting with the contact that does custom formulae would be an easy narrative element.

How does the character feel about the others? If the others have all fallen and stabilized, it would be easy to threaten them. The commander orders the invisible PC to lay down their weapons or the others will be killed. Lower level enemies move into position and Ready to stab -- Making it clear that they will kill the rest of the party.

Is the one character enough of a team player to negotiate or will he let the others fall? Now the stakes are quite real and fair, with agency. Maybe the one PC could win, but he has to know that everyone else in the party is dead because of his choice.

Mechanically, all of the party is probably between Wounded 1-2, attacks against the unconscious AC are far more likely to Crit putting them straight to Dying 3 or 4, following round a few more stabs for good measure and the others are dead.

The Party is traveling across planes frequently and one character would like to keep in contact with an NPC. Sending and similar magic that I've seen all appear limited to the planet.

Is there an item that allows for sending mail across the planes to a consistent location, write in one book and it appears in the other, et cetera? If not, what do you think a reasonable item level or cost would be for that? Postal service in Golarion has generally been handwaved, but there are base line items to work from.

As a GM, I've swallowed a few PCs in my day with Cave Worms. Some strategies they've used:

Air Bubble is great reaction spell that the players learned to keep on hand.

Unfettered Movement as a buff when the recall knowledge says that the monster swallows fighters was also a bonus.

Dual-Handed Assault lets you increase the short sword damage die, Double Slice and similar feats let you add the damage of the strikes together before resistances so I'd say they count as one for the Rupture point.

Also, if a few rounds go by and the party doesn't have the ability to get the fighter out, as the GM, I have had the worm Regurgitate and aim at the wizard or other ranged combatant. This does damage to the target, gets you free, but you take some falling damage and land prone. Then a quick Thrash to keep up the attacks. This gives the party a round to buff before I target someone else to get Swallowed Whole. It's a little bit of failing forward that keeps the pressure on the party.

To touch on the argument on Buying a Scroll + Paying to copy into the spellbook - Nothing says that you have to have a scroll. That is certainly one way to do it, but you can have access to the spell from other means. Academies, pathfinder lodges, adventurer halls can all be places to trade information. As a GM, characters have spent downtime looking for specific spell knowledge to trade. Their adventures have earned them gold and allowed them to find Uncommon spells that can be bartered with or they just strike up conversations and collaborations. Magical Shorthand is great for this.

--------

One change that I do think could make Wizards more Versatile is if they could Drain Bonded Item for either casting a previously prepared spell without a spell slot (current ability) or to cast any spell in their spellbook using a spell slot even if it was not prepared. Being able to do that once a day as a clutch for when you don't have 10 minutes would provide versatility without stepping on the Sorcerer's toes.

I'd +1 the Focus Spells and Magical Schools being so widely varied that some are awesome and some feel like they need a Dev pass to bring in line with the others.

Tertiary thought -- Functionally, what are the differences between a mindscape and a demiplane? Duration is different, size?

A mindscape sits on the edge of the Astral Plane. A demiplane sits on the edge of the Astral or Ethereal planes. It's tricky to get into either one.

Beyond Rule Zero, there is also a specific call out in the book that allows for Mythic Destinies to be high level archetypes for non-Mythic characters. Just remove the Mythic tag and proficiency.

As a GM, that feels like the easiest solution to me. Or just use the non-mythic version for non-mythic characters.

Timmy the Talented can get a cabal of friends together to create a demiplane for use as their secret base. When a Mythic Max the Miracleworker does it, his is bigger. End of problem.

Have you looked at an Obedience Champion? Here is a simple build that I put together to punish the unholy.

(This is by no means an optimized build, it was simply a thought experiment.)

For the GMs, did you make any special player handouts for this AP, specifically book 3? I'm planning on incorporating some of the notes from the openings of each book on the lab tables and library. If I have time over the next few weeks, I'm thinking about trying to do that with some of the points from the sidebar on p 17-18.

Thanks for the clarification.

I have not been able to find any threads on this part of Battle Medicine. Within Battle Medicine, it says "The target is then immune to your Battle Medicine for 1 day."

My understanding has always been that each character gets one Battle Medicine per day, but the "your" in that statement reads that it's not Battle Medicine in general that they are immune to, but rather the Battle Medicine of that specific character.

Could a character therefore, do a quick Battle Medicine on themselves and still have the ability for another character to also Battle Medicine them within the same day?

I would go by the same guidelines as Mythic destiny archetype. While they are intended for Mythic characrs, they can be used as stand-alone high level archetypes. Just remove the Mythic trait, proficiency, and Mythic Points.

From there, if there is a narrative reason for one of those rituals to come into the Campaign, and the characters aren't Mythic, then story wins and it comes into the campaign. If there is a compelling reason to not have it in the campaign, then Rare or Mythic, either way as a GM, I can say "not this time."