Captain Morgan's page

- Ghosts should be able to punch other ghost

- Dhampir and void healing PCs being immune to something as essential to adventures as ghosts is bad

- Ghosts are like the least evil undead so having them be void energy in its purest form is weird

- It's called SPIRIT damage duh

One of the most devastating combos a boss monster can have is long reach + reactive strike. A large or huge monster can threaten so much space, and so many things trigger RS. My GM once gave reach to a Dullahan and I swear it made the battle three times harder.

But I don't recall seeing any advice on how this impacts a monster's threat level. The monster roadmaps don't really address size and reach at all, nor do I recall mention of shifting damage down for it.

How do y'all factor these things in when you build a monster? I don't give them out often myself because I find reactive strike to already be overused.

I initially thought it did but my friend is arguing otherwise.

I've participated in several wilderness APs and have yet to find a way to make tracking rations fun. It eventually always feels like pointless rolls and bookkeeping, even when it isn't being bypassed through Create Food or Forager. Rations are also so cheap that if your GM is going to track them you can easily have plenty. And it is odd, given how much content focuses on the wilderness. Rangers, druids, primal spells, various monsters, environment rules...

I ran Irongfang Invasion to completion, where the first book had an extensive wilderness survival system for feeding and caring for a group of 30-ish refugees in the woods via "ration points". It wasn't exactly bad, but the players eventually optimized it to the point they had no danger of going hungry, which also reduced the feeling they needed to find a permanent home, a major driving force of the story.

I've run hexploration in book 1 of Quest for the Frozen Flame, which didn't directly suggest tracking rations, but I tried it anyway. Making each PC to subsist every day got old when they spent like 3 consecutive weeks traveling. (I'd also argue this book shouldn't have used hexploration at all.)

I'm playing in Kingmaker, which has a system for cooking meals at camp, and that started off interesting but eventually also became boring.

To an extent this is a problem with the Survival skill as a whole, but most other functions can be rolled every now and then instead of everyday. I recently came up with some "hexploration tactics" to make navigating the wilderness (hopefully) streamlined while still having stakes. Notably absent, however, was anything regarding provisions.

It seems like either you:

1. Spend a silver so you have 10 weeks of rations and are fine.
2. Do they technically optimal but unfun thing of rolling subsist every day to try and save money, feats, or spell slots. But since we are only talking about copper here, you'll probably have more fun skipping said rolls.
3. Handwave food all together.

Maybe part of the problem is Pathfinder does a poor job with lasting consequences. HP is expected to be fully restored after every fight, and even long-lasting conditions just cost a slot or two to remove. The only thing which is hard to get rid of is Fatigued, which removes the ability to engage with any sort of exploration tactics. Things like struggling to find food are better represented by gradual deterioration.

So yeah. Has anyone ever found Subsisting and rations fun in Pathfinder?

I'm building my first thaumaturge for Seasons of Ghost. Tome seems great here, as I understand the game will have lots of downtime activities and opportunity to switch to optimal skills for said activities. It also pairs nicely with the folklore enthusiast background.

I've been trying to decide between wisdom and intelligence as a tertiary stat. Wisdom seems like the right choice cuz perception, but as a book worm intelligence has a lot of appeal. Plus highly specific lores seem like a great use of the Tome for downtime. Also, we have a house rule that allows any mental stat to apply to will saves, so some of the wis pressure is taken off.

But I realized the Tome creates a weird incentive structure for proficiency. You can take skills all the way from untrained to expert/master/legendary. While you can take a trained skill to those higher proficiencies, it feels a little wasteful. How do folks usually decide on their proficiencies with a Tome?

Context: Party has a bard and oracle, so I probably don't need to focus on social skills that much. Players Guide says Religion and Nature are more immediately important than arcana and occultism. There is at least one Additional Lore worth snagging, and I plan to.

I've been agonizing over how to remaster my battle oracle. While there was a mechanically viable option with the champion archetype, after discussing with my group I'm not sure any cause feels appropriate for my character. So I took another look at War Priest.

Variant rules: Free archetype, gradual ability boosts.

This seems like a really silly time to do it, but after talking to some friends about the Guns and Gears remaster I felt inspired.

Captain Morgan's Treatise on the Inventor

The biggest changes are:
1. Grants significantly more modifications to allow deeper customization.

2. Eliminates the armor/construct/weapon innovation. Every inventor gets an exo-suit and any player can mix and match from protective, utility, and weaponry modifications.
The construct companion is now granted by a first level feat, a la the champion, with a single modification. You get an additional construct modification when you take a construct feat.
3. Overdrive now grants its bonuses on a failure (but not a critical failure) until the end of your next turn, a la the Swashbuckler. Improves consistency.

4. The Unstable trait’s flat check now starts at 5 and then goes up by 5 on every unstable action you use. Your second action will be DC 10, your third DC 15, and your fourth DC 20. Rebalancing with the remaster refocus changes in mind.
5. Guns and crossbows work better with the inventor.

I tried to make it obvious where I changed things, and highlighted things which were particularly new in blue. I haven't play tested this or thought through every possible modification interaction, and these are a looooot of changes all at once. Also, I've As such, I expect some may need to be walked back. But I think they at least succeed at my primary goal: far more customization to support the fantasy of innovation.

Oh, and I probably missed some typos. This was like nine hours of continuous writing so I'm bleary eyed.

How does this work? You can obtain ki strike through a couple archetypes, and the spell says you can perform an action you normally might not have access to.

BTW, the monk archetype still gets flurry at level 10 but it has a 1d4 round cool down.

The alchemist dedication specifies your vials don't recover automatically, but I see no such exception written into the investigator. That's a rather significant distinction. Unfettered mutagen use would really vault the class ahead for out of combat mental skill checks, and unlimited insight coffee is quite the damage boost. Plus, having a replenishing bomb supply lets you get some chip damage in when you botch DaS.

From a reddit poster who got his subscriptions PDF already,

Other than Oracle in being buffed in general through cursebound actions and getting 4 spell slots per level (like sorcerer), battle oracle got shafted quite hard.

Oracles in general seem to follow more of a caster design now, with less unique features to set them apart from other classes. Mysteries only provide domains, spells, a curse (which is purely negative), and a cursebound action that other oracles are also able to grab. This means mysteries no longer provide a passive benefit or positive effects through their curse.

This brings us to battle oracle:

Call to arms is now a cursebound action that all oracles can grab as a class feat, battle (and cosmos) oracles simply get it for free.

They lost both medium and heavy armor proficiency (!).

They lost martial weapon proficiency inherently, but their new focus spell is a 1 action spell that gives them proficiency with martial weapons equal to their simple weapon proficiency. It has a duration of 1 sustained up to 1 minute, but it automatically sustains if you hit with a Strike. It does nothing else other than provide martial weapon proficiency.

Edit: they lost all benefits from the curse they had before. No fast healing. No damage bonus. No attack bonus.

Between losing their armor proficiencies and needing to spend an action just to be able to use your martial weapons, as well as forcing you to spend more actions if you miss because of your bad weapon proficiency, battle oracle is just not the same class anymore. I would still say it is buffed overall, but it does not fulfill the same class fantasy as before.

To end on a positive note, all the spellcasting focused oracle mysteries are absolutely amazing now.

Gained spells are shield, true strike, telekinetic maneuver and weapon storm.

Cursebound 1 is weakness to spells, cursebound 2 is penalty to saves, cursebound 3 and 4 are then more weakness to spells and steeper penalty to saves respectively.

Can Nhimbaloth's gaze be focused on Belcorra outside of the empty vault? I think Belcorra would attack my party one last time before they enter her final battlegrounds. But the party already have their three lenses. Does anything stop them from slapping them on her then and there, triggering the "end scene" with Nhimbaloth eating her on the spot?

Page 111: Crossbow Crackshot feat text updated to the following-

You’re exceptionally skilled with the crossbow. The first time each round that you Interact to reload a crossbow you are wielding, including Interact actions as part of your slinger’s reload and similar effects, you increase the range increment for your next Strike with that weapon by 10 feet and deal 1 additional precision damage per weapon damage die with that Strike. If your crossbow has the backstabber trait and you are attacking an off-guard target, backstabber deals 2 additional precision damage per weapon damage die instead of its normal effects.

1. It lost the language about needing to make the strike by the end of the current round. Does that mean this essentially just empowers your first strike each round (providing you're reloading the same weapon) instead of the janky rotation it had before?

2. Is the backstabber buff only applied when you reload?

3. Does the backstabber buff make the arbalest worth using over the Sukgung or Taw Launcher? (Arbalest is the only crossbow with backstabber, right?)

I've had a lot of feelings about Exploration Mode over the years, including that Detect Magic and Investigate really shouldn't be lumped in with Search, Avoid Notice, and Scout because of how points of interest work. As a GM, I ask players what "exploration tactic" they are using (a term from the PF2e playtest I think should have made it to the final game) and as a player I always tell my GM my tactic. Turns out I was doing it wrong this whole time.

While you're traveling and exploring, tell the GM what you'd generally like to do along the way. If you do nothing more than make steady progress toward your goal, you move at the full travel speeds given in the table.

When you want to do something other than simply travel, you describe what you are attempting to do. It isn't necessary to go into extreme detail, such as “Using my dagger, I nudge the door so I can check for devious traps.” Instead, “I'm searching the area for hazards” is sufficient. The GM finds the best exploration activity to match your description and describes the effects of that activity. Some exploration activities limit how fast you can travel and be effective.

Exploration activities that happen continually as the group explores are meant to be narrative first and foremost, with the player describing to you what they're doing, and then you determining which activity applies and describing any details or alterations for the situation. If a player says, “I'm Avoiding Notice,” add more detail by asking what precautions they're taking or by telling them which passages they think are least guarded. Likewise, if a player says they're looking for traps and keeping their shield raised and covering the group's tracks, ask them which of these they are prioritizing to narrow down the activity.

I haven't fully wrapped my head around what this actually changes, but I still think Investigate and Detect Magic aren't in the right category and are kind of wastes of your exploration tactic when actually moving through a dungeon.

I'm bad at using the DPR calculator, but would like help comparing options. In a few levels my sukgung sniper gunslinger will have a bunch of two action strikes competing with each other. I'd like help figuring out when to use each, or if any are entirely skippable.

Advanced Deed 9th
Vital Shot [two-actions]
Your careful shot against an unsuspecting opponent pierces a vital artery or organ. Make a ranged Strike. If the target is flat-footed, the Strike deals an extra die of weapon damage, and the foe takes persistent bleed damage equal to the amount of precision damage from your One Shot, One Kill.

Can't be skipped. Obvious best use: at the beginning of tough solo encounters, or against a fleeing opponent. Problem: bleed damage won't stack with crossbow crit spec.

Sniper's Aim Feat 6
[two-actions]Concentrate
Prerequisites way of the sniper
You take an extra moment to carefully sync your aim and breathing, then fire a shot with great accuracy. Make a ranged weapon Strike. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to this Strike's attack roll and ignore the target's concealment. If you're using a kickback firearm, you don't take the normal circumstance penalty on this Strike for not having the required Strength score or firing without using a stabilizer.

Super appealing since it raises crit chance and big crits are why I play the class. Obvious best use: when the enemy has concealment. When not to use: crit immune enemies, or when I have an ally Aiding already. (Which doesn't seem to be often in my party.)

Megaton Strike[two-actions] Feat 4
Prerequisites armor, construct, or weapon innovation
You activate gears, explosives, and other hidden mechanisms in your innovation to make a powerful attack. You make a Strike, dealing an extra die of weapon damage. If you're at least 10th level, increase this to two extra dice, and if you're at least 18th level, increase it to three extra dice. The type of Strike you can make depends on your innovation.

Unstable Function You put even more force into the Strike, though you risk stress fractures to your innovation. Add the unstable trait to Megaton Strike. The Strike deals another extra damage die, for a total of two extra dice at 4th level, three at 10th level, and four at 18th level.

Archetype option, very tempting. I'm pretty sure the unstable option will out damage anything else on average, but I'm not about the regular version. But I think the extra dice get multiplied on a crit which is super tempting. (But they don't add extra damage from things like Sniping Duo, right?) This also seems like my best unstable option until Clockwork Celerity.

Elemental Ammunition
Activate [one-action] Interact
When activated, the reservoir of alchemical reagents in elemental ammunition atomizes on impact, dealing persistent acid, cold, electricity, fire, or poison damage to the target and splash damage in addition to the damage the attack normally deals. Each damage type requires a different formula, and the ammunition gains a trait matching the damage type.
(Lesser)The ammunition deals 1 persistent damage and 1 splash damage.
(Moderate)The ammunition deals 2d4 persistent damage and 2 splash damage.

I already have munitions crafter, so I'll have enough rounds of the lesser to use for every shot of the day if I wanted to... Which I generally won't because the damage is piddly for the action cost. Only time to use: when targeting weakness. I could take munitions machinist at 6th or 8th, but the 2d4 doesn't trigger weakness any better than the 1st level versions, and I can't imagine this is worth using over the options above otherwise.

Standard strikes: Seems worth checking whether the standard 2/1/2 single action strike/reload variation compares favorably to the above. I also have a sorcerer friend with haste, which might make regular strikes better.

I have an idea about undead that I'm not 100% sure is supported by Golarion lore. My assumption. There are lots of ways undead can manifest, but as a general rule of thumb, the more disrespect shown to the dead, the higher the chances of an undead spontaneously manifesting. But I'd also assume disrespect is defined through cultural relativism. Some cultures want to be buried, some want to be cremated, some want to be tossed into the ocean, others would want to be left out in the woods for nature and decay to take its course.

Certain scenarios might call for going against cultural norms, like if there's an independent force animating corpses en masse. Some people might assume cremation is the safest way to dispose of corpses, but I imagine that isn't always true. Saranrites seem like they'd be pro-cremation, but if you burn Viking corpses without the boat I assume you'd get Viking ghosts instead of Viking skeletons/zombies/draugher.

Am I right?

1. Do the odds of undead spontaneously manifesting (ie without the intervention of a necromancer type) go up if you a corpse isn't respectfully handled?

2. Are respectful funeral rites defined by the deceased's religion?

3. Does burning corpses of people who'd rather not be cremated just change the type of undead which will manifest?

I recently lost my witch, Momma Maggot, who worshipped Mother Vulture. She got mostly eaten by a werewolf but the party recovered her remains. I decided she had a will which specified how she'd like her remains to be completely consumed, ideally partially by those closest to her but otherwise by scavengers and fungus. If the party insists on giving her a "proper burial," the GM and I agree Momma should rise as something nasty. Which brings me to question 4...

4. What would be an appropriate undead for the character above? She had the Starless Shadow patron so a greater shadow seems obvious, but they are kind of boring. I was thinking of a revenant. The werewolf was identified and not in control of himself, so he's basically free and clear as long as appropriate full moon precautions are taken. Seems like having him get attacked in human form would be juicy.

My kobold gunslinger just came back at level 5 after my witch was eaten. We have free archetype and I took Inventor for crafting related reasons. We also found a flaming rune mad early and I'll have it ported onto my trusty Suki.

I'm not sure what to do with my early feats. I was using munitions crafter and quick draw before for a bit of versatility with bombs, but now my Sukgung's damage is too high to even humor that. Many of the feats just don't apply to crossbows. Hit the dirt and cover fire seem bad. Crossbow crackshot is... Technically useful but so boring and annoying to remember.

2nd level options are basically quick draw and fake out. Quick draw was putting in work thanks to over tuned night time random encounters, but now my attack bonus is getting high enough to make fake out tempting even though it doesn't synergize with covered reload. (I'd use the gauntlet bow to bypass the awkward loading, but I'll feel dirty.)

What I really want is to figure out a way to make munitions crafter work, but bomb accuracy is too low and alchemical ammo doesn't seem worth the extra action. Without feats like alchemical shot it just feels super hard to justify. Anyone find a use I'm missing?

I really like what Player Core did in turning verbal components into words of power flavored to the class but with a lot of leeway for players to re-flavor. Since it suggests witch words of power might rhyme, I came up with some for my witch's spells. Thought I'd share, hopefully getting others to come up with some sinister rhymes too. I tried to make the length of phrase proportionate to how many actions/minutes the spell takes.

Need of Vengeance: "Thou shall feel my Needle's Vengeance, for if thou sin this is thy penance."

Patron's Puppet: No rhyme, it is explicitly Silent

Electric Arc: "Lightning lashes, full of sparks, all through this connected arc.

Telekinetic Projectile: "I bend the world with my sheer will, and any object now can kill."

Read Aura: "Now I seek an aura's vessel. Little bauble, are you special? Demonstrate your magic weave so your gifts we may receive. Help me claim my heart's desire, and many legends you'll inspire."

Protect Companion: "Feel my comfort, my poor child, let's mother's warmth hold back the wilds."

Needle Darts: "Killing is the exquisite art, so fine thy mark, my needle darts"

Eat Fire: "That's a spicy meatball."

Illuminate: "Light the Night."

Tame: "Hey little guy, what is your name? You may be wild, but you could be tame."

Void Warp: "I call upon the hungry void, let this life force be destroyed."

Figment: Subtle, no words.

Haunting Hymn: "Say your prayers little one, don't forget my son, to include everyone."

Magic Missile: "Barrage of force and magical missiles, shredding skin like stinging thistle, penetrate your bone and gristle."

Charm: Subtle

Lose the Path: "From here your steps will be in error, exit path and enter terror."

Illusory Object: "Conjured metal, wood, or stone, come to me, protect your own."

Mystic Armor: "Let any who try to act untoward be held at bay by mystic ward."

Sure Strike: "Fortunes favor, guiding light, sting is savored, deadly strike."

Bless: "Feel the pumping in your chest, for your battle shall now be blessed."

Fear: "Low your spirits will be laid, flee your doom and be afraid."

Illusory Disguise: "Now its time to bring a friend, so your story then can end."

Phantom Pain: "In your body, you feel pain. You feel it now, you will a'gain."

Soothe: "Worry not about your wounds, and let my voice improve your mood."

Dispel Magic: "Your enchantments are but a shell, that with my magic I now dispel."

Indivisibility: Subtle

Worm's Repast: "Now we reach your death at last, your fate shall end as Worm's Repast."

Laughing Fit: Brevity's the soul of wit, short and sweet, this laughing fit."

Animus Mine: "Those who trespass in my mind find their death in my design."

Cozy Cabin: "Soon we lay us down to sleep, to be embraced in darkness deep. This is a promise I will keep, so close your eyes and count the sheep. For our comfort while we're dozing, I now conjure a Cabin Cozy."

Slow: "Watch in awe as time congeals, your precious moments it shall steal."

Shadow Projectile: "Double, Double."

Summon Undead: "War drums' march pounds in your head. Bring the noise and wake the dead!" (summons Quiet Riot, a flaming skull.)

Summon fey: "From the dark of Oberon's Wood, I summon fey to whoop you good."

Shroud of Night:"Exit light, enter Night" OR "Feel your eyes begin to cloud, filled to brim with darkness shroud."

While Shroud of Night is a the go-to option to make the familiar concealed, I don't always want to need to use it turn 1 because I have other hexes I may want rolling sooner. Prebuffing blur and invisibility are things, but not reliable. Revealing Light is a thing which can apply to multiple enemies, which is nice. A shadow familiar can almost always roll to Hide, but it is hard to get Independent on it and its stealth bonus isn't great. Imp with its own invisibility is better, but costs even more abilities.

Anyone know how to get relatively permanent concealment on a familiar?

After the 89th night time ambush thanks to Kingmaker's broken random encounter frequency, I'm fed up and my witch is taking cozy cabin when she hits level 5 next session. It should at least slow enemies down enough for people to stand up and grab weapons. But how else can we optimize this hmnee home defense plan?

We will use this map for the species of the cabin, which means two windows in the back wall and a window on each of the side walls, but no windows on the front door wall.

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/104yb0p/cozy_cabin_8x8/

We have a cleric, a sorcerer, and a trident throwing champion in addition to my Starless Shadow witch. Lots of magic to throw at the problem, but no one with Snares sadly.

Current ideas:

Putting Alarm and/or Glyph of Warding (maybe with Fire Ray if the GM lets us undercast focus spells) at the front door.

Sticking s poor quality lock on the inside. Enemies won't be able to pick it so the lock quality doesn't matter.

Possibly boarding over the windows, or hanging curtains over them at least.

Placing Light spells around the perimeter to make it easier to spot attackers. (This should be a bad idea because it makes the cabin easier to spot, but the random encounter rules don't account for that.)

What else can we do?

I'm not promising an AMA because I want to read the book organically, but I'm going to post fun things as I come across them. The first thing that struck me was how little seems to have changed, including art. Then I reached archons. BIBLICALLY ACCURATE ANGLES CONFIRMED. Archons are like what qlippoth used to be to demons-- the original denizens of heaven before the gods showed up with their angelic entourages. Unlike the qlipooth, the archons found common ground with their new neighbors and allied with them for justice. But where angels tend to resemble human forms (fitting, since they are mostly formed from human souls) archons are weird and alien. They never have the right number of heads or eyes. I love them.

Higher level aeons have a weakness to spirit damage.

Angels and archons only seem to deal spirit damage if they wield a weapon with a holy rune. They don't need to deal multiple damage types now because it will effect all PCs equally and the holy trait suffices to trigger weakness.

I can never remember the order of a champion's codes. My 1st printing CRB is too errataed to be trusted, and Archive of Neyths spreads the information across too many pages.

Are there any character generation tools that will lay out the full code when you create a champion, including the proper order of the anathema?

Anyone played a remastered witch yet? I just started one in Kingmaker. Human changeling, Level 4 Starless Shadow, free archetype for Familiar Master, shadow familiar. I took Cackle, Patron's Puppet, and Needle of Vengeance. It's been interesting so far. The familiar has been a really effective tank thanks to the shadow's damage resistance to everything, even without toughness. While it can't take a lot of damage, sending it out ahead of the party tends to bait a lot of damage that might put a party member on the back foot otherwise.

But moving it around plays havoc with my action economy, and it is hard to switch between multiple targets when I need to move my familiar and reapply hexes. Patron's puppet and Cackle help, but I run out of focus points quick with them and they also restrict my other hex actions (which are generally what I'd be using with the action I saved.) Independent will help at level 6, but I'm still a little unsure what I want to do with my focus points long term. I'm pretty reliant on my slots for burst damage right now, so psychic dedication for Ignition or TKP are appealing. But I burning through non-hex focus points will make it harder to activate Familiar of Stalking Night.

I do really like Familiar Conduit even though it further strains my action economy. Being able to zorch stuff from afar is nice for keeping the aggro away from the back line. And I'm thinking of retraining into Caludron just before level 8 because potions of haste are swell.

What have y'all been doing with your witches? How have you been juggling the familiar, hexes, and focus points? What staff y'all rocking?

How do the unique patron familiar abilities interact with the prerequisites for specific familiars? I assumed not at all, but some people say they count so a level 1 witch can take a specific familiar which requires 4 abilities. I'm not sure what happens to the patron ability in that case. This smells wrong to me.

Paizo has confirmed golems are getting gone in the Pathfinder Remaster. See Logan discussing this at 1:26:25 or so, citing they had a bunch of complicated rules. Instead we will get separate constructs which have resistance to damage from spells. We basically already knew this because the the PF1 brass golem was turned into the PF2 brass bastion. The two are direct analogues, except instead of the typical golem magic immunity the bastion has: Resistances physical 15 (except adamantine), spells 15 (except water)

While Logan confirmed there will be other examples of this, like a "stone bulwark," you don't have to wait! You can start remastering golems today, and should definitely consider doing so.

How do I remaster a golem?
Simply find whatever magic the golem was "harmed by" under their golem antimagic ability. Then add damage resistance all spells but that same trait equal to the creature's physical resistance. Then discard golem antimagic. So if we wanted to remaster a glass golem, we would look at these two lines:

Resistances physical 10 (except adamantine or bludgeoning)
Golem Antimagic harmed by sonic (6d6, 2d6 from areas or persistent damage); healed by fire (area 2d6 HP); slowed by cold

And we simply tweak it to read:
Resistances physical 10 (except adamantine or bludgeoning), spells (except sonic)

And you're done! You can apply this to any pre-remaster golem and get something much simpler to run.

Why should I remaster? OGL golems work just fine.
Do they, though? Golem antimagic was an interesting ability, but one that generated a lot of confusing rule questions. Did fundamental weapon runes work on golems? How about weapon property runes, could they trigger the "healed by" or "harmed by" entries? And this has only gotten worse with later classes. Can a Thaumaturge trigger the golem antimagic weakness with Mortal Weakness? What is a kineticist supposed to do if they have the wrong element?

Beyond that, some people found this kind of blanket immunity really unfun. (I liked it, but I can certainly see their case.)

Why didn't Paizo just clarify the rules on golem antimagic?
The most obvious reason is copy right. The broad concept of an animated statue called a golem is extremely widespread, but that specific form of golem antimagic is straight out of D&D. Since Paizo is leaving the OGL, they can kill two birds with one stone by ditching the golem as we know it.

There's also a third bird: The term golem comes from Jewish folklore. I'm not sure how many Jewish folks were offended by this appropriation, and I'm no scholar of the Torah, but as I understand it the golem story is deeply spiritual and often used to represent ideas like man foolishly encroaching upon the territory of God. I'm not sure if the D&D take is offensive, but its certainly trite. Part of the remaster is taking creatures back toward their folklore origins instead of the pop culture versions they evolved into with D&D, and there's probably a take that's not only more respectful but more interesting. (On a similar note, I'm hoping we start getting biblically accurate angels.)

Well, I still like my D&D style golems.
Then keep using them! The great thing about the remaster is most things are cross compatible. Be prepared to deal with problems if your players have kineticists or property runes, but that was always the case.

Thaumaturge says: Choose an implement from the options to which you have access. You begin play with a mundane item of that type, and you gain the initiate benefit for that implement. While an implement is useful to you, it typically has no value if sold. If you acquire a new object of the same general implement type, you can switch your implement to the new object by spending 1 day of downtime with the new item.

My reading is that if you obtain a cool magic item that fits your implement type, you can turn it into your implement. Which has to be true if you're going to use a weapon implement past level 1. But besides the weapon implement, I'm curious what cool items you could utilize. Anyone got ideas? Feel free to break them up into the different implement categories and share for various levels.

I've seen some people misunderstanding the new holy and unholy traits, and I felt a summary/FAQ is in order.

Disclaimer: Without Monster Core and Player Core 2, we lack concrete data for some questions, like how uncommon certain weaknesses will be. But we have pretty good guesses supported by what's published so far.

What are holy and unholy?
The new replacements for good and evil alignments Pathfinder is using to divorce themselves from D&D's intellectual property under the OGL. They are part of the Pathfinder Remaster project, which means not everything relevant has been published yet. The exact definitions are as follows:

What happened to lawful and chaotic?
They no longer exist in the mechanical sense that PCs interact with, though forces of order and chaos still exist in the cosmic/philosophical sense.

Do they work exactly like good and evil did?
Philosophically, pretty much. Mechanically and narratively, they're a bit different, but mostly how they interact with spirit damage. These traits will be much less ubiqitous in the bestiary and are usually reserved to celestials, fiends, undead, and divine agents like clerics and champions. Current indicators are that creatures that had weakness to good damage will now have weakness to holy, and creatures with weakness to evil will now have weakness to unholy.

What is spirit damage?
It replaced alignment damage (chaotic damage, good damage, evil damage, and lawful damage) in many situations. But beyond that, it also covers many situations
where there wasn’t truly a suitable damage type. Spirit damage doesn’t harm creatures that have no spirit, such as constructs. It is an upgrade over alignment damage in that it generally affects almost anything else as opposed to just creatures of opposed alignment.

Why only generally?
There are some weird edge cases. The brilliant rune has spirit damage it only deals to fiends (but lacks the lack holy trait) and the champion compatibility errata made several feats deal spirit damage only to unholy targets. These are downgrades which may not be intentional. The remaster process has been rushed out of legal necessity and mistakes crept in.

Are holy and unholy new damage types?
Not exactly. They are traits added to other damage types, much like how you'd add the silver trait to piercing damage from a silver dagger. Currently, most damage with holy/unholy are spirit damage or the Strikes of a Champion. But theoretically a spell could deal holy fire or ice damage instead.

How do I know if my damage is holy or unholy?
Sometimes it will be because the spell/item/action has the holy or unholy trait listed, but generally it will be because you have the trait instead and the spell/item/action has the Sanctified trait, which applies your holy or unholy to the effect in question.

How can I get the holy or unholy trait?
Be a cleric or champion of a deity that allows or requires sanctification. (Multiclassing counts.) That's it now, but hopefully we get more options in Player Core 2. Most of the deities who have been remastered so far at least allow their servant to sanctify, and some require it. The witch cannot sanctify without multiclassing, even with a divine patron, and the animist couldn't sanctify during their playtest. (The examplar could with a 1st level feat, though.)

Can I deal holy/unholy damage if I don't sanctify?
It is much harder and will probably be limited to items like high level runes. According to Player Core 1's entry on Cleric spellcasting, "Casting spells with the unholy trait is almost always anathema to deities who don’t allow unholy sanctification, and casting holy spells is likewise anathema to those who don’t allow holy sanctification." Almost leaves some wiggle room that you should discuss with your GM. For example, if your deity wants you to destroy undead, they should probably let you prepare the holy light spell which deals extra damage to undead.

Should I sanctify holy?
If you have the option to sanctify holy, you probably should. Aside from letting you prepare or learn holy spells, you're leaving a lot of damage on the table if you aren't triggering weakness against fiends. I've never played an adventure where I didn't fight fiends, and many campaigns lean on them quite heavily. The only mechanical drawback is you become more vulnerable to certain effects, but right now the only example is the Chilling Darkness spell and unholy rune. Obviously, this could change with future content. There might be ways to detect the holy trait which could hurt your infiltration abilities.

Should I sanctify unholy?
It won't matter in most campaigns because they assume you're the good guys and won't be fighting angels. Even evil campaigns often pitch you against other bad guys. But if celestials are something you'll fight then the same logic applies for sanctifying holy.

What are the best ways to deal spirit damage?
For cantrips, Divine Lance. For spells, Divine Wrath and Divine Immolation are standouts. The former won't hurt your allies and inflicts sickened, which makes even a non-heightened version of the spell appealing if you hit weakness. The latter counts as fire or spirit, whichever is better, and deals persistent damage. Persistent damage with the two most common weakness types is excelelent. Holy Light is also great if you can get Sure Strike, a Shadow Signet ring, or another way to reliably land spell attacks.

For equipment, the best spirit damage is the Astral Rune, which deals 1d6 damage and grants the properties of the ghost touch rune, all for less than the cost of an elemental rune. Unfortunately, it doesn't gain holy or unholy unless a champion wields it, so you'll need the holy or unholy runes for that. But they are very expensive and deal worse damage against non-holy/unholy targets, so I'd only nvest in them if fiends/celestials will pop up a lot.

Why are undead unholy?
Not really sure, but probably so clerics can zorch them real good with the holy light spell. It seems unlikely they will be weak to holy, but until we get some published in GM Core or Adventures after Pathfinder #200 we can't say for sure. Undead represent a perversion on a cosmic level, but it is separate from the war between heaven and hell. There's no holy equivalent to undead like celestials are holy equivalents of demons. Pharasma being neutral in that conflict, not allowing sanctification, and yet being the most notable "kill all undead" advocate on Golarion is weird. I'm also not sure if ghosts that weren't evil before would have the unholy trait now. Their existence is still bad in the cosmic sense even if they are actively helping the heroes in the short term and don't bear any malicious intent.

Can my evil bandit lord be unholy? He's real mean.
Unless he's an agent of an unholy deity, then no. I mean, you can ignore whatever rules and assumptions you want when creating NPCs, but unholy is not the same as evil. Both traits indicate he is a bad dude, but unholy means either your creation inherently tied you to one side in the cosmic conflict, or you joined one side with the approval of a god. Bandits, dragons, aberrations, and so on should not have the trait unless they find religion.

My fighter devoutly worships Sarenrae but does not have feats in cleric or champion. Can he sanctify?
No. Worship alone does not gain you the holy or unholy trait. (You could homebrew otherwise; see suggestions below..)

Can gods have the (un)holy trait?
That seems like a safe assumption though nothing has officially said it. Since gods don't have statblocks I wouldn't hold my breath getting proof of that, but there are creatures with statblocks like Tree Razer who can greant spells but will likely have the unholy trait.

Will my demonic sorcerer have the unholy trait even if they're a good dude?
Unclear until we see stuff from Player Core 2 where the class will be re-published. But I personally would play it that way in the meantime. Though nephelim lack a way to sanctify from their ancestry, so there's a precedent for blood alone not being sufficient.

Can my oracle sanctify?
Again, unclear until Player Core 2. I'd allow it personally, but there's not a consensus in the community.

How do champions work with Sanctification?
Awkwardly. Paizo published some remaster errata to the core rulebook about them, but player core 2 is where we can expect a proper remastering. It's a little clunky, but I blame that partially on the rush and partially on trying to minimize changes to the CRB. The broad ruling is you have to be sanctified to be a champion now.

Will these changes make my PC stronger?
Mostly. Sanctified Clerics are the biggest winners since their spells were buffed and spirit damage now works on formerly neutral creatures. Certain spells which depended on your deity's alignment no longer raise questions about how they interact with characters whose spells don't come from a god, like oracles, sorcerers, and witches. But a strict reading of the RAW before let you still worship a god to change the alignment of those spells, which now doesn't apply. So you get more widely applicable spirit damage but your witch can't trigger weakness anymore.

Champions are odd. They got a significant buff to their chassis from the holy/unholy trait applying to their strikes. Now an otherwise low damage martial can trigger fiend weaknesses from level 1, which is great thematically and mechanically. Unfortunately, many feats which dealt good damage before now deal spirit damage, but only to unholy creatures. Because unholy creatures are less common than evil creatures were, these feats were rendered much worse. Because this isn't how spirit damage generally works for anyone else, I'm inclined to think this wasn't fully intended or considered. But these feats are also less important because you already proc weakness with strikes, so I would probably skip them.

Will champions need to sanctify in Player Core 2?
Unknown, but there's certainly design space opening now that we are ditching alignment. Thematically, I don't see why you'd sanctification to be a champion of Gorum or Pharasma. I also see less reason to pair Lay on Hands and Touch of Corruption strictly to the causes of good and evil instead of a more nuanced choice between the two based on your god. I'm excited to see the final product.

Can I homebrew a way for non-clerics/champions to sanctify?
Sure. I've been toying with a ritual similar to atonement that lets a cleric or champion's ally pledge to serve the same deity and become sanctified as long as they do not commit anathema. But this is a pretty significant buff which also eats some of the cleric/champion's lunch. (It's also kind of like giving out the 12th level Aura of Righteousness feat for free.) Clerics got enough other upgrades to where I wouldn't sweat it, but champions didn't. Hence I'd make the ritual require continued support from a "sponsor" sanctified PC, which would make the sponsor feel like they are handing out a powerful buff instead of losing a unique edge.

What spells have the holy trait?
Holy Light and Summon Celestial. Some spells might let you apply holy even without the Sanctified trait on the spell, like Infuse Vitality.

What spells have the unholy trait?
Chilling Darkness, Seize Soul, Create Undead, Summon Fiend

I looked at building a mounted character for the first time in a few years and noticed a bunch of subtle buff between Treasure Vault, Player Core, and GM Core. Under the original core rulebook lances were awkward.

1. You lost reach when riding a large mount.
2. The lance was never the best possible weapon for any given situation because it was an ok weapon in so many different situations. There was no way to leverage all its traits at the same time.
3. Actually switching between those situations required spending extra actions grabbing your shield or gripping the lance two handed on top of the action to mount.

These problems haven't entirely gone away but have gotten much better.

Treasure Vault

War Lance
Trades reach for parry and shove. Parry is a weird trait for a weapon you want to use a shield with, and shove is niche. (Unless you're fighting other riders and can knock them prone.) But you already lost the reach when mounted, and it matters even less with the next thing...

Harnessed Shield

You're a bit below a true two hander weapon for damage, but deadly and jousting get you pretty close. The only thing you really miss out on are specific magical shield options. I think most players will gladly take that trade. But if you don't like it...

Player Core
Updated Jousting Trait now allows you to switch your grip on the weapon as part of the action to mount or unmount. You still need to spend an action to draw a shield, unfortunately, and would still drop your damage dice to d6. But it lets you use specific shields while mounted. I think there might also be some interesting shenanigans with a second lance. I haven't quite figured out if you can apply the jousting damage and horse support benefit to both hits in a Double Slice... But it seems worth exploring.

Folks complain about the fighter and champion dedications offering so little to other martial classes. To an extent, I think that is fine because the later archetype feats offer so much and I don't think either dedication super needs a combat buff. But maybe offering a bit more well rounding could be nice. If you're already trained in the class skill, instead of (or in addition to) giving you an alternate trained skill, what if you got expert in that skill? It feels particularly fitting for the champion where you'd be deepening your relationship with religion or your deity's values.

Not gonna set the world on fire, but rounding out characters a bit feels good to me before they minmax Reactive/Retributive Strike.

Oracles were better than swashbucklers and alchemists pre-remaster, but the oracle has become relatively worse from Player Core 1 in a way only the psychic can match.
They also call for GM adjucation in a way even the champion does not.

- Can oracles sanctify? We ruled yes when we converted at my table, but I don't have a good sense whether oraclesor sorcerers will get that juicy weakness damage. I always thought oracles should be able to deal every alignment damage because their powers explicitly come from deities with conflicting agendas, so I hope they at least get to choose one side of they want it. But I'm afraid they will wind up like witches and animists and lack the choice at all.

-Curse progression does not play nice with the new refocus, but the mechanic is too centralized to simply ignore. My oracle was already level 11, so we opted that you could push past the major curse stage but would get a doom tick. This is more draconian than many would be comfortable with and probably wouldn't work at low levels, but flirting with death is important for my character concept. Even that only really works because I picked up a couple archetype focus spells.

- Their closest comparison class (clerics) got some juicy buffs. In particular, clerics got great news feats. Oracles probably have the fewest class feat choices right now, and while new unique feats would be cool I'd be happy if they just copied a bunch of the cleric feats for oracles.

I'm curious how people are house ruling these pain points in the meantime. Without house ruling, it feels like multiclassing into cleric is a strong choice, though psychic or champion might be better.

They used to deal good damage and still only deal spirit damage to fiends, which screams holy. But it lacks the trait so it won't trigger fiend weaknesses anymore like it used to. It feels like an unintentional omission, as pre-remaster the rune lacked the good trait despite dealing good damage. OTOH, the holy rune itself changed and was arguably nerfed, so perhaps they wanted the holy rune to have a niche.

Your party is traveling through the Darklands to reach a dwarven settlement to complete their quest. They come across a duergar caravan which has been ravaged by aberrations. Your party is strong enough that defeating the monsters is trivial. But you find one survivor. A duergar teenager. Your party is righteous so they obviously won't leave a child to die in the wilderness. But what do you do with this boy? Will the dwarves accept him? Does Droskar already own his soul, or is he young enough to be shown a better path? Would it even be safe for you to bring him to a Duergar settlement? Can you spare the time for the detour? Is it ok to bring him back so he can continue to be raised evil?

We had a lot of fun with this scenario a few years ago, and I kind want to try s variant of it again. But
I'm not sure what ancestries can walk that line of "not biologically evil, but culturally pretty far gone." We know drow are being removed in the remaster and I kinda think Duergar will be too. Can serpent folk be raised good? Do they have kids? Are they cute enough to be endearing?

It doesn't even have to be the Darklands. Goblin babies used to be a thing, but since goblins went core that feels like way less likely. Same for orcs. I guess we have kholo outside of the Mwangi expanse? But I'm not sure bringing a kholo to a human settlement would feel as dicey as bringing a Duergar to a dwarf settlement.

So I ask you all: who will make for the best evil orphans?

Early to mid Pathfinder Adventure Paths had rune problems. Fundamental runes are an essential assumption of the game which AP design doesn't always seem to account for. I haven't read Gatewalkers, Sky King's Tomb, or the other most recent adventures. I'm still running Abomination Vaults and Quest for the Frozen Flame. I'm going to outline some problems, which hopefully have been addressed in newer books. If not, this is a plea for Paizo to consider these factors moving forward.

Rune Transfer Costs: This has always been wonky, and it isn't entirely the fault of APs. It was vague whether it required Magical Crafting until it was errataed. It also costs a full day's labor and 10% of a runes value to transfer it between weapons. But this assumes a player character performs the transfer. What if you need to hire an NPC instead? Nothing specifies the cost, and logically there would be an additional surcharge for a full day's labor on top of the 10% material cost. PFS has a specific rule that lodges have staff who will waive the labor fees, but I've never seen a non-PFS rulebook or adventure address this.

Rune Transfer Availability: I've also never seen an AP specify who you can hire to transfer runes. In a metropolis, it feels safe to assume some unnamed professional can do it. But look at Otari. Multiple products outline every business in town. Some have a detailed breakdown of the services each business offers. I didn't spot rune transfers in any of them. The town blacksmith isn't reliable and his published stats don't even including Crafting. There's a wizard in town, but he runs a book shop. Why would he shut it down to scratch metal for a day?

Too few fundamentals: The most egregious example is Quest for the Frozen Flame. You've got no access to shops in the early game, no downtime to Craft, and no formulas or workshops to craft with. OK, so we gotta scrounge what we can find, seems thematically appropriate. But you don't find a striking rune until like level 6.

Premature properties: I've noticed property runes dropping before fundamentals, but you can't use the former until you have the latter. It's most egregious on armor runes, since +1 armor takes so much longer to become level appropriate than +1 weapons. But I have seen ghost touch rune stones dropped before +1 weapons, too. (Timed so that you have a very low likelihood of walking into an APL+3 ghost fight with magic weapons at all, much less ghost touch.)

Raining Runestones: I'm starting to think you should almost never find runestones outside of a shop. From a narrative perspective, why did the long dead NPC bring a rune into a dangerous environment in a form that you can't use without 8 hours and a workshop when you could, you know, actually use it on a weapon? From a meta perspective, why are you making the players wait to be able to use it? Yes, finding a rune stone saves you 10% to transfer it to your ideal weapon. But that 10% was never really the cost. The cost was spending a full day of downtime (an impossible price in many adventures) and spending feats and skill increases or trying to use non-existent NPC rules.

Bad weapons: This is pretty nitpicky, but it feels weird to find a +1 mace instead of a +1 war hammer. Very few classes with simple weapon proficiency actually want to swing a weapon, much less non-finesse one. But finding a +1 ghost touch mace is still better than finding a ghost touch rune stone.

Shops or downtime? You need to give players one of the two. And if it is just the latter, make sure the players guide says to take Magical Crafting. If you don't have those bases covered, tell people to use ABL or be overly generous with found gear since the party can't sell it.

There are lots of ways GMs can fix these problems, and I'll cover them in a later post. But... They shouldn't have to.

A lot of folks use ABP for this adventure. My players voted by a slim majority not to, but they also don't have anyone with Magical Crafting. (They probably didn't realize they'd need it.) When they found the ghost touch rune at Gleaming Sun Lake, I added a +1 rune as well. I then decided someone in the following could probably do the transfer, and let it happen while the following was on the move to boot.

But if we are handwaving that NPCs can move runes for you and I'm adding extra runes anyway, that kind of undercuts the point. I'm considering alternatives. One I kinda like: use ABP, but on a natural 1 (or general critical failure strike?) your weapon takes its own damage. This would reflect the Following having more primitive, less durable weapon material and would force people to swap weapons if one was broken or destroyed. Property runes (like ghost touch) could maybe be salvaged from a destroyed weapon but would need to be re-etched onto a new one, which takes time.

What do folks think?

Word on the street is PFS has given the Mosquito witch the Resentment's Ongoing Misery familiar ability until a new option is published.

1. Can anyone link to that announcement? I've only seen it second hand.

2. What primal spells are worth using with Ongoing Misery besides Revealing Light and Slow?

3. How does Mosquito stack up against the Resentment? The mosquito cantrip didn't lose the one minute cool down timer, which stings.

My battle oracle will soon have a cash reserve of like 3,750 gp or so. I will already have an optimize melee weapon and staff set up, and own a set of victory plate I think I'll sell to replace. My skills are diplomacy/deception/intimidation and I have a +2 item for deception and a +1 item for the others. I'll be level 11 or 12 when I make these purchases. We have an alchemist who can usually spare me a cheetah and eagle eye elixir, removing the pressure for perception boosters or Lonstrider/Tailwind. I already have boots of bounding and a lot of combat teleport options.

I'm worried I might be overlooking a gem with all the new equipment, but I have some purchases in mind I'm excited for. Would like to know if there are any gems worth using in addition or instead.

Bastion of the Inheritor -- I need +2 armor and a +2 diplomacy item. GM nerfed the perma entrench to only be activatable in combat but buffed the Diplomacy bonus to apply to checks, not just Make an Impression. I think that's worth the speed penalty?

Ash Gown -- +2 intimidation, resit fire 10, and added damage on strides? Plus destroying difficult terrain? Sign me up.

Oracular Crown -- I'm unsure of this one. The self heal is nice, as is the religion bonus, but neither feel necessary. Meanwhile, the free focus point is less necessary with the remaster refocus. We made compatibility rulings that the oracle regains all focus points at once at 11, and instead of becoming overwhelmed when I overmax my curse my doomed condition goes up 1. I have amped guidance and dragon's breath so I can play around this, but I'm not sure how many times I'll need to use a fourth focus point in the same fight.

Shadow Signet -- Really good item, but I'm not sure I have the right spells to use it. Spiritual Armaments and cantrips are all I have for attack rolls and neither is particularly worth using by now.

Exemplar felts like a really appropriate class for this campaign, mechanically and thematically. Unfortunately, I don't want the group I'm running this for to use playtest content because it gets confusing. But I could see Pakano as one, which would feed into his aasimar heritage and overinflated ego. Might rebuild him. Anyone try this?

My group just defeated the stag lord and hit level 4. I was considering Efficient Explorer and other means of boosting the rate we hexplore. But the rest of my party doesn't seem to care. One player doesn't think we need to reconnoiter every hex. Another thinks we do, but can take as long as we want to do. The third just doesn't care. There's a feeling that all it would do is lower the number of camping rolls we make, with an undercurrent of we could just skip those rules in the first place.

Personally, I'm the type to go for a 100% run and be thorough, and I feel like time pressure must be a thing eventually, if only when Kingdom Building enters the picture. But I haven't found that to be the case yet. I'm playing a kobold chef sniper crossbowslinger, and my skill feats are at a bit of premium as the party's crafter.

Does the number of days you can take to hexplore, travel, or whatever ever actually matter? How much did your groups devote towards optimizing that experience?

https://reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/s/PLg8AK5P2P

You ask a question, and on a success the GM gives you the answer. They specifically mention "what is this thing's lowest save" in the book as an example, along with "can this monster he reasoned with" and other stuff.

This basically is how reasonable GMs were already running it based on the Recall Knowledge action. But it clarifies that the creature identification text of the CRB was just answering "what is this creature" and you can ask more specific questions instead.

The shift over to spirit damage is generally a very good one. But it also means that divine casters without a Sanctification option lose a lot of damage when comes to holy/unholy weaknesses. The Exemplar has a 1st level feat for Sanctification. Animist doesn't. And maybe they don't need it... But I think divine sorcerers, summoners. witches, and oracles will. I also hope it isn't a high cost for these classes. It just feels like the remaster is pushing clerics further into being the strongest divine caster and I'm a little bummed because they aren't the most interesting choice.

Fun thought experiment. The PF2 CRB had 12 classes-- the PF1 core classes plus alchemist. Those core classes though were fundamentally rooted in the OGL tradition. Given Pathfinder needs to distance itself from those traditions and that Paizo's class design keeps getting better and better, I don't think I'd want the same core classes to be the core of the new edition. Let's assume they add room for one more class again. Thinking about brand identity, covering a wide range of character concepts, mechanical niches, and complexity for new players... What would be your 13?

1. Fighter. I think we need a beat stick that just works for new players, and I see no reason for the fighter to lose that role.

2. Ranger Thaumaturge. Both fit the concept of a monster hunter. But interestingly enough, while the Thaumaturge has much more specific flavor it is actually broadly applicable to a larger number of games than the ranger. Eclectic knowledge works just as well in an intrigue campaign as the wilderness.

3.Bard Pyschic. I could go either way on this one, but the psychic wins for brand identity. Not only because it isn't D&D, but because it leans into the occult tradition a little more intuitively than bards. Plus variable casting stats are good for build diversity.

4.Barbarian Magus. This pains me. I love a good barbarian, but mechanically they fit such a similar niche to the fighter. And gishing is something people really want to do. I think it should be built in from the beginning.

5.Sorcerer Summoner. Speaking of things people want from the beginning: a pet that can have a starring role. Summoner is more complicated than I'd like for a core class, but it also just does more to open up the design space than just adding another full caster.

6.Alchemist. This class would need a helluva stream lining compared to what we got in the PF2 CRB, but I think alchemy is important to lean into for the brand.

7. Rogue. This feels uninspired to me, but people like sneaky backstabby scoundrel types in their fantasy games. Kinda stays in for similar reasons as the fighter.

8. Cleric. I'm reaaaally tempted to replace it with the Oracle, but I think it is important to establish the normal way gods give spells before getting into the exceptions. Also, wisdom casting should probably be represented somewhere.

9. Kineticist The blaster specialist hole took too long to fill, and this class just offers such a different experience for magical characters. I'm hoping it is newb friendly, too.

10. Druid. I don't entirely want the druid in here-- I find their concept a little flimsy and their signature mechanics (wild empathy, animal companions) could easily go in an archetype. But I think it is good to have a dedicated caster of each tradition, which just leaves Druid for now.

11. Wizard. Almost replaced them with Witch for a more distinct brand identity, but wizards play too big a role in Golarion. With the new more concrete schools, I expect their presence to be further cemented. (These puns should be a shoe in for the School of Civic Wizardry.) And again, I wanted a caster of each tradition.

12. Monk. Unarmed combat is cool and all, but I mostly just think we need an action movie class to do sick stunts. The only alternative is the swashbuckler and that has too much rogue overlap.

13. Champion. Tanks gotta tank.

Gonna run a game for a three person group, consisting of a maul fighter, unbound step psychic, and thaumaturge. Unless the Thaumaturge goes chalice, the party looks lacking in healing, so I thought a divine witch with life boost might be nice to provide in and out of combat healing with the minimum fuss, and Stoke the Heart is a nice way to let the PCs shine more.

I am feeling inspired by Gytha "Nanny" Ogg from the Discworld series. She's an old rotund woman with only one tooth left, an earthy sense of humor, and a mean ol' Tom Cat named Greebo. She also is a serious drinker (her personal moonshine is so strong you need to use wooden cups as it eats through metal), has a legion of grandchildren, and is an incorrigible flirt. Discworld witches aren't known for their flashy demonstrations of power either, so a support witch works well.

Class is easy. Background is TBD. Deity will probably be Cayden Cailean. Ancestry is tricky and where I need the most help. In the Discworld, she's human, but she is approximately the size and shape of a pathfinder dwarf and I think that personality fits her. Also need to round out her skill feats eventually, though I think she's starting at level 1. This will likely be Abomination Vaults. Cooking related stuff is on brand for her.

Pratchett fans, how would you do it?

Kinda curious how people have been enjoying the hexploration and camping rules. A few thoughts of my own.

--Special meals seem like you can prepare multiple servings of the same meal, but only a single type of meal, with one activity. Given camping activities increase encounter chances, I'm not sure it can be justified for everyone to have a different favorite meal.

--Random encounter checks are really common, and camping activities adding more feels odd. I also can't decide if I should want to avoid the encounters because they are an XP source.

--Time and distance abstraction is odd. Treating the hex as one abstracted whole means you can't Map while you Reconnoiter but you can fully Reconnoiter a square without having traveled it at all.

-- Activities are bottle necked at the Hexploration and Camp Activity phases, while the period for Preparing a Campsite is hard to fill for many PCs.

I have some rewrites I am tinkering with. Will post below.

5he final floor of book 2 features multiple wisps patrolling hallways. But how do they deal with closed doors? They have no limbs to manipulate knobs, and opening doors would ruin their stealth because of the diabolic flickering flames. It seems possible they could squeeze under doors thanks to their spongy body but nothing specifies they have squeezing abilities like some creatures explicitly have.

Anyone try this combo? Devise a Strategem + Calculated Splash + perpetuals seems promising. It lets you use the optimal bomb for your degree of success. Something like Dread Ampoule or Acid Flask on a crit, bottled lightning on a hit, and a perpetual when you're just dealing the splash damage.

The Prince of the Moon seems like an incredibly chill god and a proponent of "live and let live." He allows for a wide range of alignments to reflect that, including NG. However, his anathema includes "inflict harmful mental effects on others as punishment."

Would Glimpse of Redemption count as a harmful mental effect as punishment?

...teleportation circles?

I'm curious whether anyone else's party questioned why they should bother with the teleportation circles. From their perspective, the dungeon hasn't been big enough to necessitate fast travel points, and the circles could be used by Vault denizens to pursue the party or escape and attack Otari.

The in-narrative justification I offered them was that they wouldn't know where the portals went until going through them. It was entirely possible they might open a portal whose other end was active, which would open up an otherwise inaccessible part of the the dungeon. That convinced them to try it, and once they got the first XP award they were of course super motivated to do so. But I still don't entirely get why activating the portals is a relevant enough achievement to award XP.

Got a player who was bitten by a werewolf, but I rolled his fort save as a secret check. But then I realized the curse would probably ping the next time Detect Magic was used, right? It is hard to realize a cursed item is cursed, but a curse on a person would be considered "magic you’re fully NOT aware of" and I don't see anything suggesting it wouldn't register even while still "dormant."

There's a content warning for ableism in the campaign, which I see being a red flag for some of my players. I don't think I've ready anything in book 1 which fit that description, and I'm still reading book 2. I'm curious what the danger zones are. I'd like to be able to answer questions of how it is handled if they arise.

What is the counteract level from Otari's Filth Fever? I had him use Infested Shadow several times as described and two party members failed, including multiple failures for the war priest. When it kicks in he will be going straight to slowed 1, stage 3. Obviously Remove Disease is in order, but... Otari is 9th level, which implies his disease has a counteract level of 5. The party and Vandy can only cast 3rd level spells, which means they'd need a critical success on the check to make it stick. Which at DC 25 means only a natural 20.

Worse yet, the War Priest would be one of the casters, so he'd only get one day before falling into a coma. Even with a druid in the party, they only have 6 chances before bankrupting themselves at the Dawnflower Library.

Should I just use the original source (an otyugh) as the counteract level? A 4th level creature would only 2nd level, which basically ensures success with a 3rd level Remove Disease.

On a related note, the party Thaumaturge got the curse of the werewolf from Jaul and will need to get that removed before the next full moon in 3 weeks. Do curses show up on Detect Magic and what have you?