So I'm seeing a lot of talk about about theorycrafting and that's great, but is there really a push to get some play-by-post playtesting going on? I went over to the play by post forum and I didn't see really where anyone could sign up for it. I know that I'm having a hard time finding some in-person playtests for Starfinder in my local area.
To be clear, my life is a bit hectic right now, so I don't think I could GM (Starting a new job, got some other campaigns I'm running.) But I'd love to get a chance to play something and provide substansive feedback.
Like I said, I tried posting this first over in the play by post forums and didn't see many takers, so maybe we could get recruitment going on over here, and then hop over there for some playtests?
I'd love to try the Stafinder playtest but I haven't found anyone in my local area to do it. I've got a lot going on in my life right now so I can't GM, but I'd love to play and get my feedback into Paizo. But looking around the play by post boards I haven't found anyone advertising for it. Is there somewhere I should go? A recruitment thread started up for it?
Include a Dancer's spear (or something like it) for the soldier. Most soldiers are going to go all in on dex and con for their ranged attacks unless they are close quarters. That's fine. But the quick swap feat REQUIRES them to switch to a two-handed weapon. So it would be nice to see a finesse two handed weapon for the soldier to switch to in case of emergency. Something like the Elven Branched Spear or the Dancer's spear. Yes, I know those exist in Pathfinder, but we don't know the full rules for buying/incorperating Pathfinder items into starfinder (availability, how to build them, how they interact with the 3d printer item . . . forgot the name.) It would be nice to have a 2-handed finesse weapon that a soldier could default to as an emergency item.
Also: 1e Soldier had a magic soldier subclass. Forget the name at the moment. But it was cool. They got some minor supernatural abilties. I really liked it. My first SF1 character was a deeply religious Kasathan warrior. It would be nice to see a subclass that had some sort of magical ability. I know Ereudite warrior is supposed to be the 'smart one' but, I dunno, it'd be nice to see that back.
I'm seeing a lot of soldier hate. A lot of hate. A lot of 'this class is useless and terrible and anyone on the design team should be summarily executed' kind of hate.
Here's how I see it.
Take a soldier with a machine gun or a rotolaser. For their action, without moving, they can hit a bunch of people (against their legendary class DC, +3 from their aiming module, literally the highest DC possible in the game), then because of primary target, get a free shot against one guy at no penalty. Then for their third action they can shoot that guy again for a total of -5 MAP.
So that's:
AoE damage against a bunch of people. Even if they save, that's still 1/2 damage.
Then a shot at no penalty
Then a shot at -5.
Let's reframe this. Lets make the conceit that an enemy will always save against your AoE attacks. They won't. Last week in my Season of Ghosts game, I had some players throw out some fireballs that the enemies could only save against on a die roll of 15+, but let's say that enemies always save for the sake of argument.
And now,
Let's say, instead, you had an inventor. They had a 3 action activity to automatically deal 1/2 weapon damage to an area, then shoot twice for a penalty of -0/-5. People would think that would be a pretty good ability.
People seem to be zeroed in, laser focused on the idea that someone might actually save against their big AoE attack. Even if they do, that's still some damage. I can't tell you the number of times my swashbuckler has missed with their confident finisher, but still taken out an enemy because I did damage on a miss. And yes, a large chunk of the soldier is focused around their AoE attacks but that's not all they can do. Just like you sorcerer can't fireball every enemy, your soldier won't be going AoE crazy every fight.
And, just so we are clear, you do NOT have to use the autofire weapon to do a soldier justice. There are line weapons and burst weapons. They don't get you that third shot, but if your party likes running in front of your machinegun, you can switch to something else.
I haven't played one yet, but I've seen a fair share of let's plays and they seem like they are doing okay. And if they need to be brought up a bit, that's fine. Maybe increase their damage so that they do a bit more damage on a miss, I'd be fine with that. But let's give them a chance instead of "I've heard they were bad, therefore me and my group won't even try them and I'm going to complain about them online."
The solarion ONLY gets to legendary with their Solar weapon at 19? Not their Solar flare? Like, why? They are already delaying legendary until 19 (operatives, gunslingers, and fighters get it at 13) and they are ONLY legendary with their weapon.
Like, maybe I'm not crunching the numbers here, but Soldiers get to legendary in class DCs AND armor, and SOlarians only get to legendary in their one sword? Seems . . . a bit incongrous.
So . . . Hair trigger. Ranged opportunity attack at a range of up to 120 feet.
Is it broken?
I want to hear your thoughts.
I think it is. And if you don't, I want you to picture a scenario.
Let's say your party of level 5 Starfinders gets into a fight with four randos. By some miricle, your mystic goes first. They decided to cast a spell to fireball them. They all shoot you from 100 feet away for (checks average damage) 2d6+5 damage each with high accuracy. That's 8d6+20 damage, with a high chance for one of them to crit you disrupting your spell. Remember, if it is a feat a class can get, then it is fair game for NPCs to get it too. There are plenty of examples of enemy NPCs having abilities that correspond to player feats.
Actually? Y'know what, you don't have to imagine that. Paizo already put that monster out. Have you fought against them? I know me and my group hated it. Try to run away? Get shot. Try to get up into melee? Get shot. Try to shoot them? Get shot. Try to DRAW YOUR WEAPON? Get shot.
And those guys had guns that had to be reloaded after every shot and only had a range of 30 feet. Now imagine a range of 60 feet, and they only have to reload after every 5 shots.
Also, it's just a normal operative feat, so, assuming the operative multiclass follows the standard guideline ANYONE can get this ability at level 5 if they have a dex of +2 or better.
Not only is this busted, it's going to bog down combat. Just imagine EVERYONE shooting EVERY time this happens. Turn starts. Enemy operative tries to move. You shot him? He shoots you back. He shot you back? Your friend decides to shoot him.
I'm trying to police myself. I don't want to just have a knee-jerk reaction to an ability . . . but this one is pretty hard to justify.
I just . . . I love this game, but paizo, if you want some feedback, I don't see this feat ending well for you.
So a lot of people have been complaining that multiple hand are bad because of the hand switching thing.
I came up with a few ideas. First of all, staves. If a Kasatha mystic has a staff of healing in a non-Active hand, don’t they still get the item bonus to all healing spells they cast (can’t cast from the staff, but they can still cast their own healing spells.)
Also, let’s say your Kasatha has a pistol and a shield. Pistol runs out of ammo. Could they then switch hands to the shield and free hand, raise shield, and reload pistol. As far as I can tell, you can’t reload a holstered pistol, but you could probably reload one that is just being held in your (inactive) hand.
So . . . I haven't seen anyone talking about this, so I thought I would.
First of all, I LOVE the flavor of the weapons. In particular the card slinger is hilarious, and I want to use one. I know this is going to sound like a laundry list of things I don't like, but I do really appreciate the time and effort that goes into this playtest. People don't know how long and difficult it can be to write something, but I do, and I want to thank Paizo. But, and here's the thing, I think some weapons need to be rebalanced. They seem all out of wack.
Let's take the Puzzle blade as our base. D8 damage, simple weapons, like the Longspear but instead of reach it has breakdown. Great, fine. I'd argue reach is a little better than breakdown, but it's fine.
Now compare it to the hammer. Hammer is a martial weapons, but can essentially be made simple with the crafting skill. And it has shove, which isn't a great weapon trait. And because it requires two hands, it's just worse than a warhammer, OR the Longsper which (even though they are archaic) should still be available in the setting. Several deities have archaic weapons as their favored weapon.
And some weapons are at the other end of the spectrum. The bone scepter? D10 light martial weapon that bypasses B/P/S resistance by dealing cold or void? (Side note, why is the bone scepter not archaic? It's LITERALLY an enchanted bone. It's not made with UPBs and should be able to accept magic runes.) Sure, the void damage doesn't work on undead or constructs, but the cold damage should still work on MOST of those creatures.
The Dohshko is also kinda bad. I get it, it's a big, unweildy weapon. Sure, fine. But the only upside for it's unweildyness is the parry trait? Like, I get it, Parry trait is great, I love it, but you can't make reactive strikes with it or attack more than 1/round. I'd maybe give it Deadly d6 just to add some more oomph. Make it really tempting for that big hit, y'know? As it stands, its just a worse greataxe with the parry trait (and a greataxe should still be available.)
I'd maybe get rid of the agile trait on the Card slinger and up the damage to d6. As it stands it's kinda worse than the Semi-Auto pistol. Does a d4 instead of a d6, shorter range. Sure it has the breakdown trait, and deadly d6, but that d4 damage really hurts it. Really, the only class that could make use of it is the Operative, and they can't! It's an advanced weapons, so it caps out it's proficiency at your 'simple' weapon proficiency (not, 'simple with guns.') Plus, like having 1/3 the range of the semi-auto pistol is not great, AND it can be hacked.
Also, can we get some more support for the Striker? I'm not asking much, just the equivalent of a short sword so that in melee combat they can do a d6 damage? Maybe the Orc Knuckle-dagger?
Also also, can we get an upgrade or something that increases magazine size? Like, you can buy better batteries as you level up, giving you more shots with powered weapons. Can we get something that increases non-battery magazine size? That was a thing that just happened in the soldier field test. But now, a level 20 operative using an energy pistol has a ton of shots, but one using a Paragon Semi-auto pistol still only has 5?
This is just a list of suggestions for ancestries:
Android:
Add a heritage that gets rid of the Emotionally Unaware downside. Like, an Android constructed to be a tour guide or receptionist. I understand most androids are unaware, but part of the beauty of Starfinder/Pathfinder is anyone can be anything . . . so let us make anything!
Warrior Ancient Android is bad. Everyone is already proficient in simple weapons (Future proofing, I guess), and the martial weapons proficiency doesn't get better over time. Instead grant the Weapon Proficiency General feat. That at least makes it good for spellcasters.
Barathu:
As others have suggested, Barathu land speed likely should be 15ish feet, from Adaptable Limbs
Golarion Survior: I would rework it. It is insanely powerful at early levels (Trained in EVERY archaic weapons, including advanced weapons like the Barricade Buster) but it never gets better. Plus Diehard, a language, and a lore skill. How about instead, you gain familiarity with a single archaic weapon, that is like, a family weapon that is passed down through the generations? Maybe start with one for free, but get rid of the diehard feat?
Kasatha: I could be wrong, but shouldn't Shipborn give you a +1 to saves vs emotion effects? Wouldn't that bring it more in line with other, similar things?
Lashunta: Wait, does Limited Telepathy only let you broadcast? You can't respond (if you don't have telepathy) unless you take a 5th level feat? Why? That really makes it a lot less good than in 1st Ed. And as its the only thing that Lashuntas base get, it kinda sucks. Just make it so you can 'establish a connection' when you use Limited Telepathy, and those you have established a connection with can choose what to send you, you can't read thoughts they don't want you to read.
Also, I see what you did with Lashunta heritages, and it's a creative solution, but it essentially locks you into 3 heritages ever. Why not make the dimorphic (or, I guess, now Trimorphic) part of their base ability, and give them some other heritages instead?
Pahtra: I'd appreciate something that is not an aggressive heritage. I get that Pahtra are predetory cat people, but some cats are nice and like snuggling.
Shirren: No notes, looks good.
Skittermander: Their penalty to will saves seems appropriate, but aren't skittermander supposed to be optimists and fearless? I'd make it so that the penalty doesn't apply to fear affects.
Vesk: No notes, looks good.
Ysoki: Sad that Cheek pouches isn't a base Ysoki ability. It was the most famous thing about them in Starfinder. But I understand.
Borai: Great! No notes! I've been wanting an undead option that still heals with vitality so that it doesn't cause problems in the party.
Prismeni: I love the flavor of them being able to jump into the drift, but I see it causing a LOT of problems VERY fast. First of all . . . do they need to be in control of the ship to jump it? Can that little ratfolk in the artwork jump THE IDARI into the drift? Against the wishes of the captain? Also, several SF1 scenarios were predicated around needing to get a drift drive, or that your drift drive was broken, and one of these guys just breaks that. Oh no, in an escape pod and have to make emergency landing on a planet? Nope, just jump the escape pod into the drift, and you are back at Absolom station in a day. Scenario over because of one character that you don't have to even roll for.
So, Base Starfinder doesn't have an Adventurer's pack, so I've put one together (camping kit is OKAY, but it doesn't contain everything and not everyone needs a tent). I used the statistics from the playtest where possible, but had to resort to Pathfinder prices when there wasn't an equivalent in the playtest (marked).
Container (as backpack) 1 credit
Sleeping Bag (i.e. Bedroll) 2 credits (from Pathfinder 2)
50 ft Cable 2 credits
1 week of rations 4 Credits (From Pathfinder)
An extra flashlight 1 credit
Survival Kit 1 credit (Thermos+Fire Starter) (Reskinned waterskin and Flint&steel) (From Pathfinder)
Backup Commlink: 7 Credits
Hygine Kit: 2 credits
First of all, I want to say that I'm going to have some critiques. This is not me hating on the system. I love the system, and can't wait to play it. That being said, I do have a few things I noticed. I say this because I want to help the game improve, not to be mean.
Thank you Development Team, I really appreciate all the hard work you've put into this. These are just a few things I noticed. I obviously haven't played it yet.
1) The lashunta heritages, while being a creative solution to how to make them dimorphic, has a problem if you use the optional rule if you trade in your starting attribute for 2 free choices. It basically makes it so all those optional Lashunta have to be unbound. Not sure what the solution is . . . but the way you've set it up also limits you on making future heritages. I might make choosing between being Korasha and Daimiya (or unbound) a core ancestry ability.
2) A lot of stuff is broken with the Operative's 'Striker' subclass. For example, while they start off expert in unarmed attacks (so I assume they are meant to be able to unarmed strike people), none of their stuff works with unarmed strikes (it all requires weapons, and unarmed strikes are NOT weapons, you even say that later in the document). Plus a lot of the feats technically don't work, even though I suspect they are supposed to. For example, Mobile aim says you step or Stride, and then aim WITH YOUR GUN. Striker technically doesn't change that wording.
There are also not a lot of agile Starfinder weapons that are agile. And none are operative with damage above a d4. I'd like to see one or two more options for that, like some sort of short sword equivalent.
Also, while we are on the subject of the Operative. Technically, rules as written, their abilities don't work with things like Profession weapons (Like Card Slinger). If you have the prerequisite skill, your proficiency caps out at your proficiency with simple weapons. The operative only starts with trained, and gets up to master with 'simple weapons.' Also, it is an advanced weapon (your proficiency with it is simple, but TECHNICALLY, it is in the category of Advanced weapons) so, technically, so none of its stuff works with operative class abilities. Not sure if that was intentional,
Also Also about the operative, I'd like some clarification on the Operative. Their ability works with 'any ranged weapon with the analog or tech trait' That seems vague and problematic. Does it work with archaic Pathfinder ranged weapons (that presumably have the archaic and analog traits?) Does it work for weapons that are in the melee category but have the thrown trait? Trust me, while I'd love to buy some shuriken and toss them with my operative to be a straight up Ninja . . . Shuriken don't seem to be 'guns. Seems like you might want to limit it to items that have a 'Magazine' entry. That might make work a bit better, and it would allow you to bring back my favorite weapon, the 'injection Shuriken.'
3) Hair trigger is just broken. Do almost anything? Get shot. Try to move? Get shot. Try to stabalize a downed companion? Get shot. Try to shoot them? Get Shot. Try to cast a spell? Get shot. I know it's broken because it was given to enemies in the Outlaws of Alkenstar AP, and it was broken there, and that was when people had to reload in between each shot. Not having to do that is just redonkulus. It's so good, that every operative will take it. And an option that is so good everyone takes it, is no option at all. So yeah, if an enemy gets that ability, it'll make players's lives terrible. If players get that ability, it will be terrible for GMs. And its so good, it's not really even a choice.
I would reduce the number of things that trigger it.
4) Equipment. Worried about the Bone Scepter being too good. d10 one handed melee weapon that does cold or void damage seems REALLY good. I know the void thing won't work on undead, but a lot of things are susceptible to Cold.
About Equipement-some of the choices seem odd. Like Second skin is almost straight up better than Tempweave, with the exception that it doesn't have an upgrade slot. Are upgrades really worth nearly doubling the price?
Deflecting Field is . . . weird. Like I get it, you install it in a Parry weapon, and then you can shield block while parrying. But it provides a circumstance bonus to AC . . . which is weird because it also requires you to Parry to use it, and Parry provides the same bonus to AC. So the two don't stack. So . . . why have the shield bonus in there? Just include it as a tech item that basically says "When you Parry with this weapon, if you have the shield block feat, you can shield block with it. It has a hardness/hit points of X, and you can upgrade it like it was a shield."
Does limited Telepathy (from a Lashunta, Shirren, or Barathu) work with items that have the 'thought' trait? It says you need 'telepathy' to communicate with them, and limited telepathy requires you two to speak the same language so . . . Rules as written, it doesn't, and nothing in the core rulebook has that ability as far as I can tell. It's an item, not an ally, so a mystic can't include it in group chat . . .
Again, I love this book and I want to see it succeed. I appreciate all the hard work you guys have put into it already. Those are just some initial things I noticed.
So my group just skipped the ENTIRE Battlements/dungeon of book 3. I'm trying to adjudicate this as a GM, doing the best I can, but my party keeps driving so hard off the rails I think they've gone to space.
So I explained the complex/battlements/dungeon thing. The place with Cao Shen and everyone. They see it. I explain that there are townspeople going to and fro. The witch uses her flying talking familiar to scout it out from the air, I give her some info. I say that it's crawling with troops so a frontal assault is probably not a good idea.
They decide that they don't want to go in. They start doing explosive fumes+fireball on the outer gates, and I do the math and they bust a couple of them open. The archers shoot them, but after 12 seconds they retreat and heal up and rinse and repeat. And they keep shouting "All we wanna do is talk to your leader!" Eventually I figure the group is going to send some exorcists out in front of the battlements to prevent all the fireballs, and the party fights a group of 2 exorcists and 2 shrine maidens. They beat them (the sorcerer went down, but the kineticist healed her), and the party manages to save and heal all but one of the combatants and basically say "We aren't spirits, see we healed you. Sorry about your friend, go let us talk to your leader."
So I mean, Cao Shen IS willing to talk to them (they got him up to 4 influence points in the seance) so he comes out with all of the mercenaries, the shrine maidens, and the remaining exorcists, and they shout over a large gap of 30 feet while all the mercs are ready to shoot the PCs because they still think they are ghosts. There is an intense conversation, and they convince Cao Shen to bring out the head lumberjack man.
And I mean, in the book, Cao Shen is willing to let them talk to his boss, so getting his boss to come out and talk under heavy guard isn't the most ridiculous thing in the world to me. And they convince him to give them the bell clacker and leave, and he gives them the warning.
I mean, at one part I (out of character) TOLD the party that if they did what they did that they would skip this massive dungeon, and they all kept doing it. So, not sure what I could have done. But they skipped a huge chunk of money and XP so . . . not sure what to do now. I mean, they did it super humanely. Only like, ONE person died . . . they were even super nice to the villagers. (The very nice witch managed to, through many kind words and diplomacy checks, calm the villagers down and get information from them.) So I don't want to punish them for a creative solution but at the same time, they skipped an entire chapter of the book. Kinda at a loss of what to do.
So, Am I the only one confused about the hazard Stealth bonus? Like, is that the trap's bonus to stealth? Should I roll a d20 and add that bonus and see if the PCs can find it? If so . . . it seems awfully high. And some scenarios expect the players to find and disarm the hazards to complete the mission. Not just face-check them.
Like, I'm running an officially published game right now, I won't say which because spoilers, but in an upcoming section the PCs are expected to find and disarm two hazards that are not obvious. Each round the hazards hurt the PCs in a way that does not give away their presence, and there are other things to do in the round (basically saving civilians.) The stealth bonus on these traps, for a level 7 encounter, is +21! So assuming they take 10, that's a DC 31. A level seven rogue, who's master in perception and has a modest wisdom bonus (say, +1) has a +14. They'd need a 17 or better on the die to spot it. And that's if they even think to look for it. It's a hazard, not a trap, so trapspotter doesn't work, and they likely will think that all the bad stuff happening is just part of the scenario's flavor and won't be looking for a hazard.
And if you are, say, a wizard looking for the hazard? Forget about it, you'd only succeed on a nat 20 because it would bump your failure up to a success.
So I'm just getting around now to watching all the Twitch videos of the panels that were released during PaizoCon, and on the Pathfinder Remaster Panel,they covered a lot about the alchemist (such as a new renewable resource called versatile vials that can be renewed as an exploration activity or something?) However, the one question that wasn't answered in the chat is if Alchemists get up to master proficiency in attacks (simple weapons, throwing bombs, etc.) That seems to be the one thing everyone wants in order to bring alchemists in line with other 'near martials.' The members of the panel ended it by saying that they were going to be doing Q&As for the rest of the con. Anyone know if this was answered? Seems like they might do something about it, since war priests got up to master in weapon attacks.
I remember, quite clearly, years ago that someone somewhere put out a PDF that had a conversion for how to play My little POny in Pathfinder 1e. I am pretty sure it was an April fools joke. I remember seeing the PDF, which looked like excerpts from a Pathfinder 1e sourcebook. I have looked everywhere for this and I cannot find it at all. I could have sworn it was called Ponyfinder because that is just the obvious name.
I am aware of a third party publisher who has made a Pathfinder-compatable campaign using My little ponies with the serial numbers filed off so they aren't sued. That is also called POnyfinder, but I don't think that is what I am looking for. This company seems to have put out several sourcebooks and, like, good for them, but I thought this was a Paizo thing back in like, 2011 maybe? I found some old reddit posts that link to some forums that are now defunct. Also a link to a non-existent WotC thing, which also has a broken link. Way back machine gets me nothing.
Am I crazy? Did I misunderstand?
I promise you I'm not some crazy pony guy, not yet anyway, but I swore this thing existed and wanted to show my other Pathfinder friends because they don't believe me and . . . nothing. I cannot find hide nor hair of it. Did I imagine the whole thing? Anyone know if this PDF still exists?
Ran a couple of combats, two combats at level 5, and two at level 10. The rest of the party were normal (already released) classes.
Here are a few things we noticed:
The Good:
1) The guardian did their job. Never went down (got close, but the cleric healed me). High AC, high fort save, took damage for the wizard.
2) Damage resistance was almost always on. That, plus tough cookie (at level 10) meant I ended up with an effective 215 HP at one point. (Got down to half damage, tough cookie, got healed to near full.)
3) Hampering sweeps is stupid good.
4) Taunt seemed to work as intended . . . if the intent was the enemy ignored the taunt and continued to attack the wizard or whatever, but with a penalty.
The bad:
1) Subclass was useless. In all four fights, it never got used. The offense was so bad that I couldn't hit someone to do the extra damage, and my AC was so high that I didn't get crit. The only time I ever took critical damage was when I was taking it for someone else who was crit, which is not ME being crit, so mitigate harm didn't trigger.
2)So little offense. The poor offense past level 4 is not good. I only hit when attacking orcs that were 3 levels below me. And when I did hit, I did just piddly damage, which means there was not really a reason for the monsters to attack me, even with taunt.
3)Hampering sweeps is super good. At one point I just jammed up 4 enemies who couldn't run away. The GM had to reposition me and wasted a lot of actions before he finally succeeded, in order to get near my allies.
4)The Guardian has only 2 good feats per level. Things like Hampering Sweeps, and shielded taunt, Intercept Energy and shielded attrition. Mobile protection. Group taunt and quick intercept, those are so good that there isn't even a question. Not really a reason to consider anything else. They are so good that they may as well be class features.
5) Action Economy starved. I often found myself not attacking. Hampering Sweeps+Raise Shield+taunt. And no, I didn't take Shielding taunt because . . . . Hampering sweeps.
Things to consider:
Mitigate harm is super useless, because you have chain armor specialization at level 1. Chain armor+an armored kilt reduces all critical damage. I guess the two stacks as armor specialization isn't resistance so it stacks with other resistance?
Intercept strike is worded unclearly. As written, if you intercept a strike with, say, a hell hound, you intercept the physical damage, but not the energy damage?
Actually, intercept energy and the trigger for intercept strike still hamstring you on stuff. We fought a shadow and my guardian was useless as it did void damage, so . . . that's not fun.
So yeah, problematic. There's definitely something there, but I'd say there's a lot of work to be done. It is certainly better than I thought it would be.
Hey guys, quick question. I seem to recall that Paizo has come out and officially said that they are no longer interested in remaking pathfinder 1 classes in PF2. The last one they did was the kineticist, but other than that . . . they want to focus on new things. That's why there is no 'shaman' class, but now an 'animist.' And why the spiritualist and the summoner were rolled into one.
But my mind may be playing tricks on me. I can't find where Paizo said/wrote that. Does anyone know? I can't remember if it was just a post here on the forums, if it was in a blog, or if it was said on a Livestream. Am I going crazy? Can someone help me out here?
Does anyone know if there is some strange weird corner case rule about leap distance increasing? Like, I know you can't increase a weapon's damage die more than once, and I know the same type of bonuses don't stack (and the same penalties don't stack) but what about other stuff?
Let's take the Crane Stance, which increases your horizontal leap distance by 5 feet.
And Dancing leaf increases it by a further 5 feet.
Does that equal a distance increase of 10? Or do the two not stack?
If I got a speed of 25, then the boots of bounding would increase my speed to 30
a 30' speed gives me a leap of 15. But the boots also increase my leap distance by 5 to 20
Then grab Powerful Leap (Skill Feat), Dancing Leaf (Monk Feat) and Crane stance (Stance Feat) and my leap becomes 35? Is that right, or is there some random rule somewhere that I'm missing?
It's been a while, but I recall you used to be able to reserve 10 Organized play numbers, print them out, and hand them out. I'm going to be doing some Pathfinder demos here this weekend, and I wanted to print some out to hand out, but I can't find the little button anymore. Have they done away with it? Am I blind? I've combed through all the buttons I can find in 'my account' and still can't find it.
Looking through the list of boons for ACP, I didn’t see a collector boon for player core. Friend of mine wanted to get an orc knuckle dagger without having to spend a feat, and I thought that would be easy with ACp, but I can’t find it. Am I blind?
So a while ago they released all the ancestries that will be in howl of the wild, the centaur, Minotaur, etc. Have they released a full list of those ancestries in the Tian Xia Character guide? I know the product page has a few, Samsauran, Tanuki, but are all six revealed yet? I seem to recall Oni was one, but I can't tell if that's just me misremembering.
At level one, Bolan has a zero-resource cost attack that does 2d10 damage. That is enough to one-shot tpk the party.
At level 2, the party faces multiple creatures with aoe DC 21 save attacks that deal 3d6 damage, that’s 6d6 damage on a crit fail which is likely due to how high the saves are, and again, they can spam these abilities because of no resource cost.
Every single attack Kanepo does has the potential to do 4d6+1 damage.
Creatures just straight up immune to reactive strike?
Was this built as an 11-20 and then someone just went through and ‘reduced the numbers.’ By the book without realizing that lower level players have fewer resources to heal and stuff?
Super spoiler question about how willowshore works:
Spoiler:
In the mindscape that is Willowshore, do traders other than Shinzo show up to trade with willowshore? In other words, do. . . ‘Memories’ or traders or psychic simulacra show up to trade with willowshore? If yes, then getting enough food doesn’t seem like a problem. If no, then it seems like a small town of 220 (many of which die in the opening attack), could continue to pay the PCs a bunch of gold for level 10 earn income tasks and spend money at their tea house, I don’t think the town’s (mindscape) coffers run that deep.
Just trying to understand what is going on.
Thought I’d throw out my player’s characters here. Feel free to post your characters (or player’s characters) I’d love to see what variation we have!
Meadow Orchard (agender Leshy wood kineticist): A Leshy associated with the Leshy tea sellers. He’s a south bank traditionalist (having been in willlowshore for a long time. This is despite the fact that he owns and operates a small orchard outside of town on the northbank. He sells complimentary fruits and goat’s milk that pairs nicely with the Leshy’s tea. He realizes the town will die so long as things aren’t fixed, and then. . . who would take care of his goats?
Duye: (Male Nagaji thief rogue). Was found by the halfling ‘thieves guild’ operator Luda, who took him in as a son. He has strong ties to her and is sort of her go-to enforcer. She’s tasked him with getting commerce up and running so she can resume her smuggling business.
Galen (Male Human Monk). Found abandoned by a husband-and-wife pair of elves who were fleeing Avistan over the crown of the world, he is an Avistan human raised by elves. They are rangers, but spent so long on grilling Galen on the ‘basics’ of combat that he became a monk. He lives outside of town with his folks in a large treehouse.
Minji (Female Kitsune Primal witch) A very shy kitsune who lives with her grandmother outside of town. Her grandma is a healer, specializing in holistic, long-term care. She’s too shy to enter her kitsune form in town because she doesn’t want to stand out among the town’s mostly-human populace. Also worships Daikitsu.
Ryoushi (Male Nagaji Ranger). A resident of Willowshore. His parents wanted him to become a cleric of Nalinvati, but he was never very spiritual, and instead joined the Silvermist rangers. He’s an archer.
Saeka (Female Human Primal Sorcerer) A contemporary of Jubei, she was take. In by Anjul, who taught her to control her powers. She maintains a good relationship with the town wizard, though she has been known to go on long trips exploring the land. She was in between trips when the campaign started and now is not only trying to help the town, but also find a way out so she can go on more trips.
So, trying to figure out a rouge throwing dagger build, and I'm not finding much. I know there is the archer/fighter dedication feat parting shot, but that doesn't work with daggers. Any other way for a ranged character to get someone Off-guard so that you can sneak attack them that I'm not thinking of?
So the book recommends that Shinzo’s first visit, he has around ‘a dozen items for sale.* The PCs can later request goods from him, but for his first visit, they can’t because they don’t know he’s coming. I decided to make a list of fun items that are useful to my party, and thought I’d post it here in case it was good for everyone else.
1) 100 GP worth of magical reagents that can be used to scribe scrolls, copy spells into spellbooks, etc.
2) 3 sets of artisans tools, one for building construction, one for blacksmithing, one for leatherworking. If no PC buys one, Granny Hu buys the building set to help the town rebuild.
3) 1 of each of the various common kits, a healer’s kit, a repair kit, etc. he has a clockwork kit that counts as thieves tools.
4) A set of Leaf weave armor, studded leather, Wooden Breastplate, lattice armor, and O-your armor.
5) A Runestone with a +1 potency rune: 38 GP
6) A +1 Shieldbow, 35 GP
7) A +1 dancer’s spear, 35 GP
8) A +1 Longspear, 35 GP
9) A +1 Khakkara, 35 GP
10) A purifying Ladel (32 GP, if no one buys this, Old Matsuki does in order to help the town with their food problems)
11)) A scholarly journal about ghosts, 3GP, note that that this is a level 3 item, but I’m allowing it.
12) Trollbane, A smoking sword, except it is a katana instead of a longsword, 60Gp, note that this is a level 3 item, but I’m allowing it.
In addition he has a spellbook with all first level spells and cantrips in it. He won’t sell it, but wizards can copy spells out of it for the standard fee.
Hgy guys, I'm racking my brain trying to figure out a way to give an elf a bite attack without dipping into an archetype. So far the only thing I can think of is to make them a Nephalim and give them the 'bestial Manifestation' feat . . . which works, but I'd prefer if there was another option. I've looked at at just about everything else. Is there a background that gives a bite attack or something? Anything I'm missing?
One of my PCs is a wood kineticist, and has the impulse that lets him just boom-grow trees. Like any tree . . . and it stays there. So he could presumably just grow acres of apple trees, and then use base kenesis to make them fruit again after all the fruit is picked? Plus, like, also, there's the mission in chapter 3 about needing peach wood, I guess that's solved without any rolls? Man that spell and ability is super overpowered in certain situations.
Put this togeather for my friends after reading the Player's Guide on a long flight. It is essentially a quick-and-dirty guide to where a Local Willowshore resident may have trained. THIS LIST IS NOT EXCLUSIVE. Like I said, quick and dirty. It is essentially a list of NPCs that would be reasonable for every (or most) class to have trained under if they took the Close Ties background (or if they just want to add some flavor to their backstory.)
Let me know if you can think of any more. Like I said, THIS IS NOT EXHAUSTIVE, just some easy ideas.
The following are POSSIBLE pays your character could have been trained in Willowshore. To be clear, you DO NOT have to abide by any of these. Instead, this functions as a TL;DR for the Player's guide for options for characters native to Willowshore to have received their training.
Alchemist: There is one Alchemist/Herbalist in town, You-So Jin, an elf that both tends the local graveyard, and uses the mosses and fungi she finds to make alchemical concoctions. She is more of an herbalist than an alchemist, but it is possible to play an apprentice of hers.
Barbarian: There are no 'official' barbarian clans in the area, but it is certainly possible to be a town guard with anger management problems, or just a local fighter-Malcontent.
Bard: There are no official bard colleges in Willowshore, though there is a playhouse tended to by a kitsune (Kazuma Oono). Other than that, there is a strong tradition of storytelling and music-playing. The Cerulean Teahouse, a fancy-pants teahouse-turned Caterer-Turned bed and breakfast was recently abandoned, perhaps you were employed to find entertainment there and now find yourself out of work?
Cleric: There are several shrines around town to a variety of different deities, as well as two full-on Temples. One, to Pharasma, is known as the Lady of Souls and is run by a Taldan- descended woman named Elizeth Candora. The other, a literal hole in the ground, is to Daikitsu (Agriculture, Craftsmenship, rice, and Kitsune) and is tended by Ba-Ming, Ouh, a 15-year-old girl who was literally saved by divine mandate, and has dedicated herself to Daikitsu to repay the favor. There is also a prominent statue and shrine to Abadar, and a local leader of the industrial district who is a priest of Kofusachi (Abundance, happiness, prosperity) who might take on an apprentice.
Champion: As cleric, above.
Druid: There are no druids mentioned in town, but the wooded area surrounding Willowshore is rife with wildlife, and there may be a Druid Circle or two around there. For nontraditional druids, the is Zataku, a local fishing master who might have a water-based apprentice.
Fighter: There is Zheng Peng, leader of the local imperial barracks and town guard. When Lung Hwa Collapsed, somehow they kept going, providing safety for the town. Otherwise, self-tauht fighters seem like the way to go.
Investigator: Again, Zheng Peng may hire/train detectives to keep the piece. On the reverse side, less scrupulous Investigators may join up with Luda Bama, the local thief and smuggler. A third option may be to be trained by Luo Xi Zhang, the local lawyer for town affairs.
Kineticist: Wood/water kineticists make the most sense, but there are no kineticists in town to train you as far as I can tell.
Magus: Jubei is the only arcane teacher in town. Living in a wizard's tower set up by his Nagaji master (who died a few years back), maybe you and Jubei were contemporaries, or perhaps young Jubei has taken on an apprentice of his own just recently.
Monk: There are no active monasteries in the area, though there is a famous abandoned one, the Tan Sugi monastery. Perhaps you are a traveling monk seeking to revitalize/repair it.
Oracle: See cleric, above (if you need training at all.)
Psychic: While psychics are well respected, there are no psychics or psychic trainers in the area (if you need one.)
Ranger: There are many farmers and hunters in the area that could have trained a ranger. None are mentioned specifically.
Rogue: Luda Bama runs a successful smuggling operation in Willowshore, with an under-the-table handshake from the town's leader. For less conventional rogues, Zheng Peng runs the local town guard/militia, perhaps a ruffian rogue could be one of them.
Sorcerer: While most sorcerers don't need guidance, for those that do, the playhouse (see bard) might offer help to occult sorcerers, the shrines to divine might help divine sorcerers, Jubei (see magus) for arcane, and Zataku (for primal) are options.
Summoner: There are no summoners that we know of in Willowshore, and they generally don't need training, but if you want someone to help you stumble into discovering your power, see sorcerer, above.
Swashbuckler: See Fighter or Rogue, above.
Thaumaturge: There are no official thaumaturges in town to train you, but the Southshore Traditionalists have plenty of superstitions and folk-wisdom to spread around. Their leader is 'Old Matsuki,' though the game guide suggests you can't be super palsy with him. Perhaps one of his two-dozen family members has taken a liking to you? Or maybe you are part of the family.
Witch: See Sorcerer, above.
Wizard: See Magus, Above.
Inventor: There is one inventor in town, Huo Tian-Zhe, who runs a shop where he makes inventions. Young, Huo came to town thinking he was going to show all the local hicks what's what, only to find out that his inventions were sub-par. He now runs a shop while learning from local craftsman how to make higher-quality gear.
Gunslingers: Gunslingers are not well used, as guns are not in wide use yet in the game. Though you could make a crossbow-centered gunslinger. See the Fighter or the alchemist, depending on how you want to develop your gunslinger.
So I was going through the GM core and I noticed some changes to how precious materials worked. Specifically, Darkwood is now duskwood (fine, no problem). But all the info on how to build darkdood/duskwood armor/weapons is now . . . missing? It used to be that darkwood items were level 8, but a set of darkwood armor was level 12. Now there is no information on making darkwood armor or weapons that I can find. Are they just considered items now? Anyone know what's going on?
Don't get me wrong, I love the Treasure Vault and I love all the cool new ideas it gave us, like the Whipstaff and Bow Staff. But there are a few weapons that actually existed in the real world that we haven't gotten PF replicas of yet. I say stick these in the Player Core 2 if you have room, a lot of them are fantastic and would solve some niches.
1: Throwing-Stick. I know the name is stupid, but this weapon was actually all over Europe and Egypt, as well as North and South America (in addition to Australia). It is a stick with an airfoil and can actually out-distance a javalin IRL. We do have the boomerang, but The throwing-stick is not designed to be returning. A simple weapon that does a d4 damage (throwing only) with a range of maybe 40 feet? That way it's not stepping on the toes of the Javalin or Light hammer, but it's still good to use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfUcGiM_Yk8
2: Sabre, C'mon, man. Just make a rapier that has parry instead of disarm, does slashing instead of piercing, and if you think that's too powerful, reduce its deadly to d6 or maybe even d4. We have the Spiral Rapier, but that thing is garbage compared to the normal rapier, who thought that was a good idea?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR976PhMbDM
3) Chinese Jian. This Straight-sword of Chinese design is actually pretty cool and I'm sorry to see it doesn't get a lot of love in RPGs. The thing is . . . I would probably give it the sames stats as the Aldori Dueling Sword, which we already have? Maybe just say remove the uncommon tag in Tien and treat the two as the same?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCTsU7Ihqyg
4) Pitchfork: So we've all seen those shots where peasants grab their pitchforks and go to town on the monster . . . why do we not have that? Sure we have the trident, but that's a martial weapon. Treasure Vault gave us the Frying pan as both cookware and a weapon, why not have a pitchfork as both farming tool and weapon? Make it a simple weapon, two handed, d8, and give it the forceful trait instead of reach like the longspear. Boom, done.
5) Gastraphetes: This 'super crossbow' is nicknamed the 'belly bow' because you had to lean on it with your stomach to cock it because the draw was so powerful. Since the Arbelest is now a martial weapon in the player core, why not make the Gastrophetes? Just make it a martial, maybe even advanced crossbow that takes 2 actions to reload, but is d12 deadly d12 . . . just make it super strong but also just a pain in the but to reload. I think there is room in the game for that. Also, it's the world's first crossbow . . . fun!
Okay, first of all, I know Player Core 1 isn't officially out yet, but all the commentators online have been talking about it, and there are plenty of previews out there for those who care to look . . . it may not be 'out' out, but it is out.
So I want the thank Paizo for their herculean effort of putting this together in only eleven months give or take. I know that sounds like a long time to us not in the biz, but upending their entire release schedule, designing four whole books, copy-editing two of them, finishing them, getting them printed AND SHIPPED is just quite frankly, insane. It takes something like 2-3 years for Reapermini to make a new batch of minis and that's with proper planning and logistics in the works, I can't imagine doing this was an easy task, so first off, hats off to Paizo, and I want to thank them for their work.
Now, now that I've said that, I just want to make my case for a Swashbuckler overhaul when it comes out next August in Player Core 2. The reason I'm typing this up is because I saw a lot of 'please overhaul warpriest' or 'please overhaul witch,' over the past year, but I'm not seeing a lot of people interested in overhauling the swashbuckler. For some reason, several of the other classes get overhaul requests, but the general consensus of the swashbuckler is "It sucks, just make a fighter and move on." Why does the swashbuckler get no love?
Problems with the swashbuckler that need to be addressed, (IMO)
-1 Panache is a problem. Listen, Panache is a problem here. I love the idea in concept, the idea that you are styling on your enemy, and that gives you the confidence to get more done. The problem here is that it just doesn't work for a couple of reasons
--A) A lot of fights only last 2-3 rounds. So if you spend your first round getting up to someone and getting panache, not only are they going to merc you for the whole of your next round, but that's 1/3 of the fight you aren't participating in.
--B) Getting Panache is dependent on beating enemies in a skill contest. If enemies are immune to your skill (such as intimidate), or just have really high saves, then you don't get panache. There are a lot of fights where my swashbuckler never got panache because I rolled a 13 with maxed out dex and acrobatics and still couldn't trouble through an opponent's square. If you are facing an opponent that is CR +3, you might as well just put up a sign saying 'no panache this fight.'
--C) It basically forces you to take feats that give you panache in alternate ways, such as ONE FOR ALL or AFTER YOU. My swashbucler never gets to 'feel' like a swashbuckler, busting into a room and fencing the bad guys because he HAS to let them go first if I have any chance of generating panache. If something is a 'must take' for the basics of the class to work, it shouldn't be an optional feat, IMO.
-2 They are MAD: Strength, Dex, Con, and often Charisma. Really? That was the same problem the warpriest had, so you got rid of the charisma requirement. Give the Swashbuckler something. I really think they should get the thief rogue's dex-to-damage. If anyone, the swashbuckler deserves it more than the rogue, I would think. In fact, this leads me to:
-3 They are just bad martials. They don't have the accuracy of a fighter, the defensiveness of a champion, or the reduced MAP of a flurry ranger, or the damage output of a rogue. They are just bad. Listen, I love the swashbuckler, but you can literally make a better fencer out of a thaumaturge. They'd do more damage, have better charisma, and have wacky abilities to boot like an ability to heal or a pseudo-reactive strike at level 1.
Listen, a level 1 Fighter, Ranger, or thief rogue putting all their points into strength (or dex for the rogue) does +4 damage base. A typical swashbuckler is going to have something like 14 strength, 18 dex, 14 charisma, so even with panache, they are even with them, and if they loose panache (and can't get it back, like we discussed) then they are just straight up worse.
-4 Skills are a problem. You basically have to skill increase both the swashbuckler's skills (acrobatics and whatever skill they have for generating panache) in order to have any chance of generating panache, which means no, you don't get to up any other skills until, like, level 11. Inspired by Will Turner from pirates of the carribian? Want to be a swordsmith fencer? No, not possible, you have to up your acrobatics and (what is Will, diplomacy?) so kiss the idea of increasing crafting to expert goodbye. If you have to keep the good skills, then at least let the skills auto-increase like they do for the inventor and the thaumaturge.
Okay, so I've said my peace. I just . . . I needed to get it off my chest. I love the swashbuckler, but having played one through Gatewalkers aside a champion, I loose in almost all aspects to the champion. I have worse AC, worse action economy, worse damage most of the time (unless, very rarely, I crit while doing my finishing move) less flexibility in where my skill increases go. I'm so MAD my con isn't as good so I have fewer hit points, can't heal . . . the only thing I have over her is I'm a little bit faster . . . sometimes . . . if I can get panache, and I'm better at acrobatics and perform (she's a battle dancer because nothing is immune to fascinating performance). Oh, I also go after her in inititive stack because I'm forced to use After You just to ensure I have panache and can do 2d6+3 (instead of 2d6+1) against her and her reach polearm with 2d8+4.
Hey guys, I'm trying to make a very specific build for entirely theoretical reasons. Not planning on playing the character, I just need some help to see if I'm missing something.
I'm trying to make a rogue Eldritch trickster that is ranged based. Also the ancestry cannot be human. Also not using the free archetype rules
I know, I know, that's hard to do. If it was easy I wouldn't be asking on the boards.
So far, I've basically got two ideas:
1) Have them drop prone, take cover, hide, then sneak attack. Since you can take cover while prone, that's enough to let you hide (stupidly) so you can fire off your sneak attacks every round. Downside of it giving you a -2 to hit no matter what that I can't seem to get rid of.
2) Eventually at level 10, you get the ability to do it if you go into eldritch trickster dedication, then archer dedication. Problem is that uses up all your class feats and doesn't come online until level 10
It goes:
1)Eldrich trickster racket-let's say wizard dedication
2) Any class feat
4) Basic wizard spellcasting
6) Wizard arcana-Any 1 wizard feat (You now have three wizard feats and can choose a new archetype)
8) Archer Archetype
10) Parting Shot (Two action activity, lets you fire and jump back and the target is flat-footed against the attack)
I considered other builds, like intimidation+Dread Striker, but that requires intimidation checks, and several creatures are immune to it . . .plus it only works 1/enemy/10 minutes so . . . y'know . . . not really reliable or repeatable.
Am I missing something? Is there another option here I'm not seeing?
Okay, so this has bothered me for a long time. Paizo, sit down, we need to have a talk.
Listen Paizo . . . you're doing great. I like a lot of the stuff you do. I'm really excited about starfinder second edition, I'm happy to see Pathfinder 2e out there, I'm a fan of most of the stuff you've been doing. Sure, there's a few things that are rough around the edges. . . aiding another need a bit of fixing . . . I personally think the incapacitate trait is harsh and needs a reworking, but mostly we are okay.
But we gotta talk about you throwing the death effect out there all the time. I don't think you guys realize what throwing the death tag on something means. Y'see, undead and constructs have pretty much blanket immunity to 'death effects' which means, as far as I can tell, anything with the death trait. Now, that works great for things like finger of death. Undead are already dead, finger of death shouldn't work on them. Scare to Death, undead don't have a heartbeat, they can's be scared to death, got it.
But let's look over here at the Assassin's 'Angel of Mercy' Feat. Gives all of your attacks the death trait against the target of your Assassin's Mark. So, if I'm reading the rules right, if your assassin targets an undead for assassination to get that juicy backstabber and deadly trait on their attacks . . . the undead becomes immune to all their weapons trikes. All of them. Look it up, you CAN'T elect to turn angel of death off, so you level up, and suddenly become worse.
But the big problem here, the one I called you in for, is the Kineticist feat "All shall end in flames." Now I get it . . . it can kill people, including the kineticist, and reincarnate them . . . sounds like a death effect. But remember, that now means that it can't hurt undead or constructs now. All shall end in flames? Hardly, apparently if you are undead you can walk through them just fine.
So, listen, I understand that some things feel like they should have the death effect, but remember what that means. If you want undead to be immune to the 'complete and utter destruction' thing, add a rider to spells saying 'while undead are immune to the complete destruction portion of this spell, they can still be damaged by it, and destroyed normally as if the impulse did not have the death trait' or something like that.
I love your games man, but please remember to double=check the implication of a trait when you add it to an ability.
I'm going to try and remember to put down what happens here, from our adventures. We stared playing a few weeks ago and meet once very two weeks. Just gonna give a runedown of our group and how we are playing, along with any changes our GM has made.
The Party:
Me: Zarukt Starhammer (Male Dwarf Magus-Twisting Tree): A 200 year old elderly and curmudgeonly dwarf. A member of a branch family of the Runebinder clan. Esoteric Scholar background. He's fancies himself a wizard that 'just knows how to defend himself.' He's come to work with clan Tolarr so that the Runebinders can get more recognition in historical texts. He's tired of historical texts not giving proper credit to the skilled men and women who make the magic items that the heroes of Dwarven society use.
Caitia: (Male Ammarun Thief Rogue) An Ammarun Native of Highhelm who is a skilled dungeon explorer and looking to raise the status of Ammarun in Highhelm. Primarily uses a whipclaw.
(Forget Name) (Female Dwarven Air and Earth Kineticist). A member of clan Tolarr that has been pushed aside despite her prominent kineticist abilities because she isn't as good at history as the rest of the clan.
Delmerick "Pickle" Scrimgeour (Male Dwarven Cleric) Another, younger, member of clan Tolarr who bounces back and forth between worshiping Angvaad or the Dwarven Pantheon as a whole. He got his nickname from an accident with the rod of wonder as a kid that has turned him permanently green and no one has managed to fix it.
So we meet up in a local in and were told that the festival isn't for a few weeks yet, and that we've arrived early. We heard about plenty of rumors going on, and decided to make a little coin while we wait for the Tolarr historical festival to happen. While there were many rumors, the most pressing seemed to be about a missing Kobold trapped in a dangerous dungeon used as a test for the thief's guild. On our way there we found one of Pickle (and the Kineticist's) stupid cousins that had gotten himself trapped trying to climb down some cliffs, and we were unable to help him (My magus hadn't memorized feather fall that day.)
We get to the beginning of the gauntlet and start heading through. We found some traps, and Zarukt discovered a magical dart.
Spoilers about the dart.:
Because of a crit-success identifying the dart, we discovered it was cursed. We were eventually able to find a level 7 Cleric, one of Pickle's higher-ups at the church, and he un-cursed it. We then transferred the rune to Zarukt's staff.
Navigating the dungeon we manage to bypass most of the traps, and took very little damage. We found a suit of shadowed studded leather armor with a hole in it, and we were able to repair it and give it to the rogue. We found the Kobold, and Zarukt (with a nat 19 resulting in an intimidate of 22) managed to convince him that the life of the thieve's guild would get him killed. He then wrote the young lad a letter of recommendation to join clan Runebinder as a magical trap expert, and since that got him a job, he was happy enough.
On the way out, we had a fight where the rogue and cleric went down because of some poor teamwork (we were a new team after all) We managed to heal the cleric, he brought up the rogue, and we exited the gauntlet.
Afterwords we took a few days off to do substitute teaching for rich snobs learning other languages before we got back to work.
Session 2)
Caitian was eager to figure out what happened to their favorite restaurant, but on the way we had heard about some sick crabs, so we went there first (it was on the way.) We found out one of the crabs was infected with leeches as big as a dwarf's arm, and so we barely killed them in time to save the queen crab. We found out they got in though some illegal tunneling and the crab aquaculturalist who owned the crab promised to look into it. Our Earth Kinetisist plugged the whole with base kenisis.
While on our way from the crab habitat to the shut-down restaurant, we encountered some Knights of Lastwall that were being mistreated because some of their number were orcs or half-orcs. We made some medicine checks to heal them and tried to convince the local foundries to sell to them with mixed success. Zarukt promised to come back when he had set up his enchanting shop (i.e. reached level 4 and got the magical crafter feat), and they were grateful.
Then we explored the abandoned restaurant and concluded some ghorran or leshy had misinterpreted the situation and sabotaged the restaurant. The elf owner of the place decided to be done with it and start a new phase of her life, perhaps becoming a seafood chef with the crab meat from the place we had just been to. Got into a fight with some fungal zombies and the kinetisit got crit and went down in one shot, but luckily the cleric brought her back up easily. Otherwise, standard fight.
On our way back to the inn, we stopped by the cloud district because we had heard their 'head of security' was a dragon that was espousing the communist manifesto and then playing pranks. It took a lot of work and convincing, but we convinced the dragon that making his pranks something both parties could enjoy would improve the overall enjoyment of his pranks and make everyone happier. Zarukt suggested, instead of dumping buckets of water on people, using the cantrip "Rousing Splash" as that still dumps water on people, but also has a positive effect, and they were amiable. They still had trouble not laying down caltrops or filling purses with nettles though.
The next day we heard that the big basalisk game was coming up and they were short of players, so we went and tried out. To no one's surprise the Kinetisit was able to power through tryouts without getting tired. She got on the team and then just outlasted the competition, with some help from the rest of the party, allowing the hometown team to win. Zarukt lamented that Basalisk had 'gotten soft' in the past 150 years . . . a lot (He kept failing checks to know about the game and our in-universe explanation was that he was familiar with 'old' Basalisk. "When did they start using PADDING in these helmets?! Dwarves today have gone soft!")
The day after that was the Stickleberry fair, and while no one in the party was crowned stickleberry king or queen (Zarukt's plan for a suit with magical illusory stickleberries backfired spectacularly (nat 1), spraying him with stickleberry juice before he could even make it on stage), we did much better in the pie-eating contest. Again, to the surprise of no one, the kinetisit was a machine and was able to eat stickleberry pies endlessly (TWO crit successes at the pie eating contest) netting us a +1 spear that we gave to the cleric.
Faiths and Philosophies, like the green faith, intrigue me and I'd love to play a devotee of them one day, but how they work is a little questionable. Can you make a cleric of them? According to archives of nethys they don't have favored weapons or domains so . . . I guess I can't? Does anyone know what the official ruling? CAN you be a cleric of a faith/philosophy? If so, how do you determine their domains/favored weapons?
So, one of my old axioms as a DM is 'Give the players what they need, not everything they want.' Before you yell at me, let me explain. By this axiom I mean, give the players all the magical items that they need at their level, but maybe not the exact magical item they want. This is actually easier in PF2 than in PF1. In PF1 there were many builds that required very specific weapons, but this is greatly reduced in PF2. So why not spice things up a bit? There are a bajillion weapons out there, why not throw something to the party other than that +1 striking longsword. So, without further ado, here are is a list of weapons you can hand out as treasure that can spice up your game while still giving the players the numbers they need.
1) Simple melee weapons, non-finesse
a)Frying Pan: This weapon from the treasure vault is not only funny, but is the only deadly simple melee weapon. The small d4 damage isn't great, sure, but the upside is you can walk into any kitchen and have a weapon without taking the improvised weapon penalty
b) Club: The most overlooked of all weapons, this is a D6 one handed simple weapon that you can throw. It's actually pretty good. A cleric who worships Halcamora or Shumunue can grab deadly simplicity and up it to a d8 throwing weapon. Vastly underrated IMHO
c) Longspear: D8, reach, AND it's simple? Your buff witch or sorcerer can stand behind the party tank and poke people from afar while still being relativly protected. Even early fighters can make good use of it as it vastly increases the range of their Reactionary Strike. And as soon as the fighter hits five and becomes master in swords or axes or whatever? Hand it off to the cleric or witch or whatever.
2)Simple melee Weapons-Finesse
a)Nightstick: Another d4 weapon, but this has parry and nonlethal, meaning you can use it in your off hand as a shield most of the time, and if you ever need to knock someone out instead of killing them (which comes up in several games) you have an option.
b)Forked Bipod: Not only can you use this weapon to stabalize your gun, as a single action, you can turn it into an emergency finesse weapon!
c) Throwing Knife: Another vastly underrated weapon, usable in melee or with a thrown range of 20 feet, it's really a solid useful backup weapon, especially if you put returning on it.
3)Simple Ranged Weapons:
a) Air Repeater: One of the best simple weapons in the game. D4 damage is bad, but you can fire it 6 times before needing to reload, and you don't have to spend actions moving to the next barrel. Great weapon.
b)Atlatl: d6 damage, double the range of a Javalin, but you only add half your strength bonus to damage. Great for those low-strength builds who want an emergency ranged weapon.
c) Flintlock Musket: d6 Fatal d10 and it has concussive, which is great because it automatically does bludgeoning or Piercing, whichever is worse for the monster . . . you don't have to choose!
4)Martial Melee Weapons-Not Finesse
a)Kusarigama: This is just a great weapon. Parry, reach, does a d8 . . . plus it has trip for all those trip builds out there. Pretty solid.
b)Leiomano This shark-toothed club is D6, but it is slashing/bludgeoning , one handed, and FATAL d10, which is great for fighter crit-seeking builds.
c)Griffion Cane: This weapon is two-handed d10 meaning you are only one die off from a greataxe or a greatsword using it, and it is a cane so you can usually bring it into fancy parties!
5)Martial melee Weapons-Finesse
a)Dancer's spear: Only does a d6, but it is finesse, reach, and versitile B for all those times you fight ocher jellies. Great for swashbucklers and rogues as soon as the remaster comes out.
b)Dueling Spear: Ditch the reach and upgrade to a d8 reach spear. Piercing/Versitile S gives you more options than the elven curved blade.
c)Flyssa: It's just a straight up improvement on the short sword. All the same stats, but it is in the knife group so crits cause bleed damage instead of . . . like maybe slowed for a single round.
6)Martial Ranged Weapons
a) Bow Staff: This combo weapon is essentially a shortbow that can be converted into a whipstaff (without agile) as a single action and back again. Fantastic! Two weapons and you only have to enchant one!
b)Boomerang: So, d6 damage, 60 ft range, and it returns to you regardless of the result of your attack role. Don't even need a returning Rune!
C) SukGung: So get this, stats of a light crossbow, except for the stupid high 200 ft range, except you can one-hand the sucker, or if you two-hand it, it becomes fatal d12. Congratulations, you can snipe peopel to death from across the battlefield.
Anyway, hope this helps when coming up with treasure to hand out to your party next time they need to find a weapon!
Our group is about to start this game and our GM is not really fond of the forums, so I volunteered to ask for him.
Some of the older APs do not allow for PCs to buy/sell items and don't provide enough magic items so that PCs can keep up with monsters (cough cough Frozen Flame cough cough.) Luckily Automatic Bonus Progression ususally fixes this. Just wondering if anyone has played this AP and if they have found enough magic items (at least fundamental runes/potency + Striking runes) to get your party though, or should our group use Automatic Bonus Progression?
I know the playtest isn't over, but I think enough time has passed that I can give a comprehensive list of things that me and my friends saw, along with the general consensus of the internet and the other forum posters here, to give a pretty good idea of what we want to say about the playtest. If you haven't seen it, Ronald the Rules Lawyer did an entire combat with an all Animist party on youtube and he had some stuff to say. So, given what I've seen everyone say, along with my own thoughts and experiences, here are my hopefully non-knee-jerk-reaction thoughts.
General) Unlike previous playtests, its seems like these classes are just on average way too powerful compared to other classes. I'll go over some issues in general below, but for the most part, vessel spells and Exemplar abilities just blow what other classes can do out of the water. Unless the remaster is going to give other classes a significant power boost (which would be problematic without boosting enemies) than these classes just seem to to come out as S-tier classes.
Animist)
Sage vs channeler) Apparition's Possession does very little: There are no mechanics for non-spell rank controls like Harpies/kelpies, plus a lot of creatures get access to control spells super early like vampires and succubi . . . and control spells tend to have the incapacitation trait anyway so if they are at a spell rank below half your level your saves are treated as one better anyway. And while the Free sage feat is super flavorful and I love the idea . . . 90% of the time it is worse than Channeler's stance. You can use Channeler's stance in almost every fight, Apparition Sense is very situational. Combined with the fact that the ability to switch up your primary spirit in battle depending on what the party needs is SUPER useful, and the sage just falls flat.
The fix: Give Sages a special extra ability that only they get when their primary spirit is active (like the Witness to Ancient Battles giving them martial weapon proficiency even when they aren't in their vessel spell). Fix Apparition's possession to work off of enemy Creature level (immune to control effects from creatures up to your character level+3 or +2 or something). Make Channeler's stance just a normal feat anyone can take, and make apparition sense a class feature.
Sustaining Dance: Seems like a MUST pick for a class based on throwing out a lot of sustaining spells. If you meant to make the vessel spells more powerful by making them all sustaining (and thus cutting down your action economy) then remove this feat. If it's meant to be in there as an offset to all the vessel spells, then make it a class feature. Otherwise it is just a 'must pick' feat and basically feels like a feat tax . . . and no one likes a feat tax. It's like how every rogue in existence chooses Gang Up at level 6 . . . it's a no brainier, might as well not even give rogues a level 6 feat.
Groves and Gardens) The Spirit of Groves and Gardens is by far the best healing we've seen in the game. It outstrips just about any other out-of-combat healing, making things like the leaf druid's Goodberry almost laughable. If combined with Channeler's Stance it gets even crazier. It's also good in combat especially if you have a chokepoint so you can prevent the enemies from benefiting from the healing, or if you are fighting undead/constructs. Most other resource-less healing pales in comparison: Lay on Hands, Hymn of Healing, Lesson of Life, Restore the mind . . . all are a pittance compared to this. Plus, most of those are options you have to choose, feats you have to take . . . you can just grab this when needed and on days you don't need to heal, can grab another apparition.
The Fix: Limiting the healing to in combat might cut down the utility of it a bit but . . . it's still really good. Plus a lot of players hate combat-only abilities because it doesn't make sense in story. (See most GMs allowing emotional acceptance psychics to heal out of combat just to handwave out of combat healing). Maybe reduce the healing to 1 HP per spell rank per round? Or 2?
Stalker of Darken Boughs) So the Vessel Spell here is good for doing some recon by resource-less pest form, but I might give it sustained up to 10 min? Animal form and Elemental form are okay but then . . . there's no reason to take this as your primary spirit based like, level 11, because any combat form you assume will just be merced. Oh, and also, spell ranks 2-5 is a pretty big null space where the best combat form they can assume is an animal but they will get wrecked if they try at say, level 8, making this spirit pretty bad for most of your career.
The Fix I assume you will eventually give this apparition more options and better combat forms passed just 2 of them?
Steward of Stone and Fire: Like, best way to do spell damage in the game. Full Stop. Resource-less (well, focus point) AoE damage that effectively scales by a d4 every spell rank (or, technically 2d4 every two spell ranks) only costs an action, you can reposition it when you sustain it, and with sustaining Dance you can move, blast, and still cast a 2-action spell on your turn, and with channeler's stance you do even more damage. I know a lot of people have been complaining that casters are too weak, but having this good spell here just means everyone is just going to play nothing but Animists and no other spellcasting class.
The Fix I honestly don't know on this one. Anyone have any ideas?
Vanguard of Roaring Waters: Unlike a lot of the other vessel spells, this one seems pretty darn tame. To use it's special ability, you have to use up two actions (one to sustain, one to move) and a small bonus to AC and +5 ft move speed are pretty weak compared to near-infinite free healing and throwing out two damaging spells a round.
The Fix Play with the numbers, maybe a straight +2 circumstance bonus to AC (as if you had raised a shield) and +10 ft movement bonus might straighten it out. Then it would be a pretty good combat buff, competing with the witness to ancient battles?
Witness to Ancient Battles: The problem with this one is that your damage isn't going to be competitive really with your spellcasting to justify this one. Either remove the sustain so you can do more attacks, or increase the damage to make up for the fact that your sacrificing action economy. Also, making you proficient in martial weapons ONLY while on in the vessel spell is pretty limiting, as you have to decide weather you spend your hard-earned gold for a better martial weapon that you are only proficient in part of the time, or ignore the partial weapon thing and just grab a simple weapon.
The Fix: Increase the damage boost to make up for the fact that you don't get to start with 18 strength or get higher levels of weapon specialization . . . maybe +1 to hit and +2 to damage, then at 4th +2 to hit +3 to damage, and seven +3 to hit +4 to damage. Also, instead of making you proficient in martial weapons, just make simple weapons increase one step in damage die, so your longspear does d10 damage anyway.
Exemplar:
Base Class: One thing a lot of people have asked for is a side bar or optional rule to remove the 'demigod baggage' from the class in order to make it Non-Rare. I've said this in another thread, but I like the idea of a psychic channeling their energy into their body and weapons instead of spells to do extra stuff . . . or a monk using their ki to infuse their weapons. (If anyone has seen One Piece or HunterxHunter, a lot of this could be flavored as Haki/Reinforcement Nen). I understand that you want these new Demigods to be roaming Golarion in the wake of the War for Immortals, and I don't want to take that away. But a lot of us would like to make our own story about how we got these powers. Seems like there is room for both within this class.
The Fix Like I said, optional rule to make the class non-rare and remove demigod baggage, mechanics don't change.
Base Class pt 2) The Livestream promised the ability to make an unarmored hero, but the game doesn't really allow for that. Even Skin Hard as Horn isn't going to save you from being crit to kingdom come and back if you don't have enough armor.
The Fix Introduce two subclasses, one gets armor (maybe up to medium?) and one gets no armor proficiency but some way to deal with that (perhaps something like the Dragon Disciples Dragon Scales ability. Or like Nagaji Titan Scales but it counts as unarmored?)
Base Class 3) A lot of people have been calling for an unarmed build. Lots of folk heroes were good at unarmed combat, such as Heraclese (killed a nearly indestructible super-lion with his bare hands), and Beowulf (Killed Grendel by ripping off the monster's arm).
The Fix Add a 'weapon' ikon for fist wraps. I know unarmed strikes aren't weapons, but I'm sure you can add some wording in there like "You treat natrual attacks as weapon attacks for the purpose of Weapon Ikon abilties" or something like that.
Skills) The few amount of skills really limits role-playing for a lot of characters. I know you are trying to limit the power of the class by reducing their skills, but what you have done is made the stereotypical combat monster who does not participate in anything other than combat. What are the two skills they are going to choose? Athletics and acrobatics probably, which means during most skill challenges or meeting with the king or whatever they are not going to do anything, because if they open their big mouth they will most likely crit fail the skill check and cost the party. Sure you get a 4th skill at level 3 . . . but that one is chosen for you and by then you've already suffered through 2 whole levels of not doing anything.
The Fix Reduce the power of the class a bit and give them one more starting skill
Ikons) From what I have seen, most players just either put their spark in the weapon Ikon, or shift between the Weapon and Body Ikon, basically using their weapon Ikon's transcendence ability, and then getting their divine spark back to the weapon as soon as possible, never even touching the worn Ikon. This increases damage by a huge amount, and also, I don't think it's what you were looking for.
The Fix Maybe reduce the damage of the weapon's eminence ability to 1 per damage die? Also buff the worn ikon abilities slightly to make them more tempting.
Gleaming Blade)The transendence ability here is just redonculus. It's better than Twin Strike because you can do it with two-handed weapons (and it doesn't require two weapons), it's better than power attack, and you can do it with thrown weapons as long as they are in the Knife Group. And the damage is all spirit damage which bypasses a lot of resistances (basically only constructs are immune as far as I know.)
The Fix Either get rid of the spirit damage thing, or make it work like power attack but all damage is converted to spirit damage or . . . something.
Well, there you go, those are my thoughts as well as the thoughts of those I game with (I hope I did their comments justice) and I hope this feedback is taken in the matter it was intended: as a love letter to paizo saying "Thanks for all your hard work, I know you've had your nose to the grindstone for a long time and might appreciate an outside perspective. here you go."
Just as the title says, are there any apparitions you'd like to see?
I have a few
1)Necromancy has been mentioned a lot. A groves and gardens like apparition that heals undead instead of living creatures seems appropriate.
2)Archmage-Given how many lore skills the Animist gets, it seems like they are supposed to be one of the classes that solves problems with skills, but given their low intelligence, it doesn't work out that way. Giving us an apparition that bumps all recall knowledge checks, and gives us bonuses to monsters we identify (like a thaumaturge) would at least make us feel like we had the ability to call on a scholar's help. Maybe they give a bunch of utility spells like comprehend languages and stuff.
3)Rogue-like. I know we have the infiltrator, but let's be honest, they don't help us do things that a rogue should do, like finding and disarming traps and picking locks. Maybe some sort of trapper apparition that gives out Trap lore and Lock lore? Allowing use to pick locks and disarm traps with our intelligence? Their vessel spell could be some sort of sneak-attack like thing?
The best part of the medium from first edition was to slot them into any party role, and while they wouldn't be as good as the actual class they were fitting in for, they could get the job done. Group didn't have a rogue? Yeah, I can do that, gimmie until tomorrow. Group didn't have a fighter? Could do that too. Group didn't have a wizard? A healer?
Seems like the Animist has the potential to do the same thing . . . be a good enough 'stopgap' for any slot without stealing anyone's thunder. I don't want my animist to out-fighter the fighter, but giving them the ability to wake up at the start of the day and pretend to be a fighter well enough to get the job done would be nice. They kinda already have that option for tank with witness to ancient battles, and healing with groves and gardens, so I'd like to see trap disarming and egghead puzzle-solving.
So my friends and I did a playtest of the classes today, and they asked me to do the big long write up (I hope they intend to do the survey). We played PFS scenario 3-13 (Guardian's Covenant) at level 5 but it wasn't for official PFS credit as we changed some of the rules (like only having three players, and playing up when we shouldn't have)
The party:
Two animists, both channelers, both had similar apparition loadouts (one was the garden/healing one, one was the volcano/damage on, and then one had the soldier and one had the infiltrator)
Our Exemplar was a moody dagger-weilding high strength, high dex character with low charisma. His weapon ikon was a +1 striking returning throwing dagger.
Animist Notes:
-It was suggested that each apparition give something special when it is your primary apparition, other than the ability to into their unique focus spell. Also, some focus spells were way stronger than others. Standing back and activating healing from Groves and Guardans while chucking spells was a favorite; positioning yourself so that your friend could receive healing but enemies couldn't was a popular tactic.
-Both Animists picked up sustaining dance and agreed it was a 'must have' for a class so focused on sustaining animist spells. Seems like it should be a level 4 class feature or something, otherwise, it's no contest . . . everyone almost HAS to take it.
-For the most part, the spellcasting was okay, access to fun spells not normally on the divine list like fireball were great.
-One player wanted to use the soldier to do melee frontlining but found the issue a bit limiting. They'd have to invest in buying a martial weapon (longhammer in this case) but they were only proficient if they channeled the warrior. Even at level 5 with 18 strength he was way behind the melee damage curve, and felt the soldier spirit should give a small damage boost in order to remain competitive. Like an extra damage per damage die or something.
-Both Animists were channelers, and agreed the ability to change primary spirit in combat was WAY better than the sage. Even with the free feat the sage gets, the channeler is fantastic as it lets you react to situations you may not have been prepared for like ambushes.
-Volcano Spirit and the Garden's spirits were by far the most popular. The ability to heal everyone in the party to full after a 11 minutes was fantastic (1 min for the sustained spell, 10 min. to refocus), and the volcano guy could do a lot of damage that barely had any resource cost for a single action a round. Nothing else came close, not even the soldier.
-Both Animists agreed that there needed to be a boost to the lore skills you get from spirits. As a non-int based class, getting only trained in lore skills is eventually going to fail you, the DCs are just going to outpace what you have. Even at level 5, the bonus to lore skills were +7 or 8, and the DCs were around 20s, meaning you needed to roll a 12-13 to succeed. This problem is only going to get worse at high levels. By the time you are level 17, assuming your int is 10, the average DC is 34, meaning you'd need a 17 on the die to succeed at an AVERAGE check, let alone a difficult one.
-There was some complaint that the auras were indiscriminant. It really hurt the player who wanted to role-play with the infiltrator by giving enemies roll twice take the worst on attack rolls but that would have meant beaing near the Exemplar and hurting his rolls as well. Seems like having a few of the focus spells recognize friends might be good.
IN SUMMERY: Solid class, but some apparitions are way stronger than others. Soldier needs a slight damage boost to make them something other than a joke. Lore Skills need to progress, or else give them some other boost (maybe wisdom based?) Channelers way stronger than sages (especially since the sage ability really doesn't work, I go into that in other posts.)
Some fixes: The volcano and garden apparitions seemed really strong, and were 'auto picks.' Either up the other apparitions or tone down those ones. Maybe at level 10 your apparition's lore skills go to expert, and maybe at 15 master? Buff the sage. Sustaining dance should be a class feature. Buff the soldier. Maybe each apparition could give an 'ancalarry benifit' when it is your primary? Like giving you martial weapon proficiency for the soldier, or the infiltrator making it harder to detect you.
EXEMPLAR
The big issue here with the Exemplar is that they just stupid amounts of damage. Our Exemplar was using a throwing dagger, and his damage was still insane. Using the Gleaming Blade and Throw at the Horizon, he could make two attacks at his highest base attack bonus from 30 feet away doing 2d6+10 damage per hit . . . and it was all spirit damage so it bypassed any resistances or physical damage reduction he had.
So he got into a rotation of Throwing his dagger, doing stupid amounts of damage, then putting his divine spark in his body. Next round he'd use his transencence ability for Gaze as sharp as steel (to give him AoOs), be able to move due to his brave epithet, and then strike twice for 2d6+10 damage . . . some of which was spirit. Next round, Use the transendence ability of Gleaming blade again and start the entire rotation again. He never touched his worn Ikon, never needed to. He was doing as much damage as a giant instinct barbarian without any of the drawbacks like -2 to AC or anathemas . . . oh and also half the time his damage was spirit damage so it bypassed DR.
He did however, have a major problem, and that was he was fairly bad at skills. Limiting his skills to religion +2 was . . . not great and just straight up prevented him from role-playing with the party. He'd start to say something and then the GM would call for a diplomacy check, and all the sudden he's like, Oh, I mean . . . I don't say anything.
In Summery: Does A LOT of damage, even with a substandard weapon, seems to be little to no reason use your worn ikon, low number of skills severely hampers role play.
Fixes: Reduce damage by a bit. Gleaming blade transendence ability needs to be reworked. Maybe include some mechanic that emphasizes switching between Ikons, not just always going back to weapon.
Also, there were calls for abilities to make unarmored and unarmed options for the Exemplar
I was mulling over this exemplar for a while. I had a rough idea in my head, but I needed to sit down and think about it for a while to make it all work with the Exemplar class. I still say the Exemplar needs an unarmored build option. But, for now, here is what I came up with:
Mournful Leishil, Male Elf Exemplar
(From Jinin)
Leishil was born nearly three centuries agao in Jinin. Records from the time are spotty, but by some means or another, Jinin was orphaned at a monastery dedicated to Irori before he was even old enough to walk. Growing up amongst the monks of Irori, Leishil became immersed in their ways, dedicating himself to perfecting swordsmanship as both a form of meditation, and as a way to see the perfection in all things. He journeyed the land for a while, trying to take in all of the lessons he could learn, and trying to understand his own path to perfection so that he could enlighten others like Irori.
Finally, after almost two centuries of study, practice, meditation, and swordplay, Leishil could feel that he was approaching something monumental. Quelling his ego, and taking lessons from those who had come before, Leishil revisited his childhood temple, and began to meditate, sensing that this was the last step on his path to enlightenment.
It is said that Leishil mediated in his room in the temple without moving, eating, or drinking for over a hundred days as his spirit began to surpass his mind and broach enlightenment. For his part, Leishil sat, almost forgetting his body, as he began to untangle cosmic riddles and reach cosmic truths in the deepest states of mediation. He was almost there, he could feel it. His ego, his senses of self, his mortal body was stripping away as he glimpsed the golden radience of true understanding.
Leishil was suddenly jolted awake by the smell of blood and ash. He found himself, back in his body, int he middle of a ritual circle as it was being finished. Before he could react, he saw the several hooded men with unholy symbols of Sifkesh-a cult with which he had once quarreled, finish their ritual. And then-darkness.
Leishil awoke in the burned-out husk of the temple. As he stood, he felt . . . different. He tried to reach for his weapons and armor but found his movements weak, uncoordinated, unskilled. What's worse, he couldn't seem to recall any of the past lessons over the years. Somehow, the Sifkesh ritual had done something to him.
Over the course of the next few months, gradually, Leishil discovered what had happened. The Sifkesh cultists-devoted to their god who wished to undermine all other religions, had heard tell of his eminent rise to enlightenment, and had surmised this would be a great boon to Irori worshipers everywhere, and greatly help his religion. They had done worse than kill him, they had injected doubt into Irori's congregation that enlightenment was possible. In order to undermine Irori, they had somehow done a ritual that obliterated his experiences. He remembered what he had done, but it was as if he was blocked from learning anything from the past, and was forced to re-learn everything. But that small spark, that glimpse of enlightenment he had seen right before the ritual took effect, that could not be erased. That was true divinity, beyond the touch of mortal magic. He still had that spark, though he knew not how to get back to that place again.
And so Leishil took off again. He does not know if he has enough time left on Golarion to re-learn enlightenment, but he knows he must confront the Sifkesh cultists. If he is to achieve enlightenment, he has to stop them from doing the ritual again. He also has to stop them from doing what they have done to anyone else.
As Leishil journeys, he has learned that he can allow others to glimpse just the tiniest hint of enlightenment, and show how that potential was ripped away, which almost never fails to bring a tear to the eye of anyone, earning him the monicker, 'the mournful.'
Mournful Leishil (level 4)
Male Elf Exemplar, Perception (t)+7 (+2 to detect undetected creatures)(+1 if body invested)
Medium Elf Humanoid
AC: 21 (23 vs. ranged attacks if body invested) HP: 54
Speed: 35 (45 when divine spark in sandals)
Fort (e)+10, Ref: +10, Will(e) +9
Background: Wandering Preacher (Irori)
Heritage: Whisper Elf
Ancestry Feat: Elven Weapon Familiarity
Skills: Acrobatics +10, Athletics (e) +10, Religion +7, Survival +7, Irori Lore +6, Sifkesh Lore (e)+8
Str+2 Dex +4 Con+2 Int+0 Wis+1 Chr+0
Class Feats: Vow of Mortal Defiance, Claim Initiate Domain (Guided Introspection),
Class Features: Ikons (Gaze sharp as steel (body), Gleaming Blade (weapon), Thousand League Sandals (worn))
Class DC: 20
Focus Points: 1
Last night while watching the live stream, I came up with this backstory for an animist character. I had to mull it over a bit, and it's changed up a bit, but the core concept is mostly the same. And now I'm going to stat him out because the creator of the Animist said he couldn't wait to see everyone's characters.
Gumant Pactbound
Male Gnome Animist (Channeler)
Generations ago, Gumant's ancestors were found nearly dead on the doorstep of Highhelm, having fled some terrible tragedy lost to time. An unusually kind Dwarven priest of Kols found them and took them into his temple, where he treated them. Gumat's great-great grandfather was so thankful to the priest, and so impressed by the teachings of Kols, that he vowed that he would dedicate his life to serving Kols, and so would at least one of his children, and his children's children, and so on so that the temple would always have a clergy like the Dwarf that saved them.
And so it was. Each Gnome in the family took the family name 'Pactbound' to show devotion to Kols. Generations later, Gumant was raised in this environment, where he constantly was told of the importance of duty, honor, upholding vows, and not shirking family duties. His father had chosen him to be the next child to take on the honor and responsability of being a priest of Kols serving the same temple his great-grandfather had. Young Gumant agreed with most of what was said, but deep in his heart, he disagreed with Kols strict and hard-line attitude, and believed there needed to be room for mercy. Of course, he dare not reveal his thoughts to his parents, whom he was deeply respectful of.
And so when he came of age, he was enrolled in the local Kols Temple. Of course, without utmost faith in Kols, young Gumant never did receive divine spells, because no matter how much he prayed, no matter how much he wanted to uphold family honor and repay all that his parents gave him, he just didn't worship Kols in his heart of hearts. As time went on, it became more and more clear that something was going wrong as all the other supplicants training at the temple graduated to become clerics, and young Gumant never did.
Eventually, Gumant had a mental breakdown, caught between his inability to worship Kols and his duties as a son, he ran into the crypt of the temple and had a complete emotional meltdown, crying, punching the walls, and screaming at the difficulty of it all. That's when he met Druha.
Druha was an apparition, an echo of a Dwarf cleric of The Perplexing Jest, a pantheon of trickster gods. Centuries ago,she had been fed up with a high-and-mighty cleric of Kols, and set out to humble him in his own church to teach him a lesson. Unfortunately, she tripped a security measure and died, and the spirit of the church kept part of her soul bound there as punishment. While Druha does not regret her attempted prank, she does feel that her punishment has been repaid, and wanted out, and so she offered Gumant a deal: she'd teach him how to gain access to her old magic, if he'd let her 'ride in his body' enough to leave the church. Distraught, and in no fit mental state to make sound decisions, Gumant agreed.
Ever since that day, Gumant has had Druha as a constant companion. She's taught him to see other apparitions, whom he can occasionally commune with, but Druha always comes back to the forefront, no matter how much Gumant wants her gone. She is constantly whispering practical joke ideas and poorly thought out plans into his ear at the most inopportune times. At least she was as good as her word and taught him access to divine magic, which has tricked both the clergy and his father into believing he's a cleric of Kols . . . for now. How long the charade can keep up, he does not know.
Edicts: Keep the Perplexing Jest Pantheon happy enough to keep granting him spells, do not allow his practical jokes to go too far. Show mercy to minor transgressions.
Anathema: Disrespect his family or traditions. Let down his family again.
(I've leveled him to 4 just to show some of the abilities I'd grab, no free archetype just to keep things simple.)
Gumant Pactbound
Male Gnome Animist (Channeler), Perception (t)+10
Small Gnome Humanoid
AC: 20 (22 with shield raised) HP: 48
Fort (e)+9, Ref: +7, Will(e) +12
Background: Raised by Belief (Kols)
Heritage: Umbral Gnome
Ancestry Feat: Gnomish Obsession
Skills:Deception (e)+10, Diplomacy+8, Religion+10, Nature +10, Society (from background)+7, Kols Lore (e)+9, Perplexing Jest Lore (e) +9
Str-1 Dex +2 Con+1 Int+1 Wis+4 Chr+2
Class Feats: Embodiment of Balance, Sustaining Dance
Class Features: Apparition's Whirl
Spells: (Cantrips) Detect Magic, Needle Darts
1st) Bless, Helpful Steps
2nd) Blazing Armaments, Heal
Apparitions: Typically-Impostor in Hidden Places (Druha), Custodian of Groves and Gardens, Steward of stone and fire
Equipment: Chain Shirt, +1 striking crossbow, dagger, Adventuring Pack, Religious Text of Kols, Holy symbol of Kols, Holy Test of Perplexing Jest (Hidden in false bottom of backpack)
Apparition's Possession
You relinquish control of your physical body to an apparition,
allowing it to fully unleash its spiritual power at the cost of
your own agency. Until the start of your next turn, you are
immune to control effects and spells that attempt to influence
your actions, such as charm or command, unless its spell rank
is more than half your level. However, the only actions you
can take are to Stride, Strike, Cast an apparition Spell, Cast a
vessel Spell, or use an action that has the apparition trait.
So, first of all, it only works on spells, not abilities (like a Harpy's Lure, Kelpie's stuff). Secondly, it only works on spell-casters who are either your level, or below your level (depends on how the math shakes out. A level 11 caster has access to 6th levels pells like dominate, meaning it works on a level 11 animist who isn't level 12 yet). Thirdly, there are a lot of monsters that get access to spells much earlier than their level would indicate, which makes this ability useless against them (Succubus, Vampire Count, Invidiak).
It also runs the opposite problem of, at level 20, there is no way to mess with them because max spell rank is 10, even if Tar Baphon is trying to compel them.
Easy solution: Change it so that you are immune to (yadda yadda) from creatures, traps, haunts, and hazards of up to your level+3. So if you are fighting some big boss who is party level +4, you can still fall victim, otherwise, immune. If you think that is too powerful, knock it down to your level +2.
So I watched the stream last night, and I had one issue with the exemplar as it was described, but I thought I'd wait until I actually had my hands on the playtest before saying anything.
First of all, I like the class. I want to get this out of the way. I appreciate all the hard work that has gone into it, and I understand it must have taken a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I'm not trying to take away from any of that. Good job to Paizo writers, thank you for working hard to give us a fun, flavorful class. There are a few more build options I'd like to see, (the writers promised an unarmored build that doesn't seem to be in the playtest, I'd like to see maybe a feat or body ikon that gives you armor without wearing armor, not just DR of skin like horn) but I assume those will come with the full version.
The one issue I have is both bigger than all that, and also easier to fix. Why is the class so restrictive from a meta standpoint?
So I'm going to start off by saying I understand. This is supposed to be the Heracles class. The Sun Wukong, Kingarou, Maui. I understand the inspiration. I also get that it is supposed to be tied to the big world shake up coming in War of the Immortals. I understand your starting point. But I feel like that is it . . . it's a starting point.
I understand making the demigod class rare. You don't want 42 million new demigods running around Golarion . . . I get it. But it doesn't have to be that way.
The thing is, you have made something more versatile, that, with a bit of reflavoring and no mechanics changes, can be made much more widely available. What if your Exemplar is the equivalent of a Sohei monk from first edition? Someone who has meditated and studied swordplay (or whatever) for years? Instead of a 'divine spark' he focuses his chi/ki/spirit energy into one of his family relics that are attuned to him? Honestly, almost all of the stuff there still works. Any supernatural abilities are use of his ki channeled through his family heirlooms (or whatever). Domain powers? The character is either devoted to a god enough to get domain powers (like an archetyped cleric/champion) or maybe their supreme training and mastery of spiritual energy has given them the equivalent of a domain spell.
It seems like, with a bit of reflavoring, you could turn this into a much more common class, one that wouldn't have the rare tag.
Listen, it seems lately, the paradigm of Pathfinder is to NOT tell players how their class got their powers. How does an animist get their powers? Maybe some are born with it, maybe some train to get it, maybe it is a twist of fate? Same with Kineticists, psychics, summoners, thaumaturges. You don't tell any player HOW those classes gain their abilities, leaving the player free to make up their own story. Maybe you unlocked your psychic potential though intensive study? Maybe others did a ritual to open your kinetic gate, maybe it was some twist of fate that you got an eidolon.
Point is, Paizo has been really good about not limiting storytelling recently, so why backtrack now? I'm NOT asking to get rid of the divine power angle, that is fine, I'm asking you to make it one of several possible options. Maybe an nephelim decides to explore their celestial/fiendish heritage, becoming the martial equivalent of a sorcerer? Maybe someone with psychic potential develops their power differently, empowering their body and items with psychic energy instead of casting spells. Maybe a god needs a moral assistant, not a champion bound by laws and codes, but a devoted follower capable of doing the dirty work. The possibilities this class offers are really quite wide, and I don't see why it is restricted unnecessarily.
Like I said, I get where you are coming from. Got that. Don't want to take that away. Understand the original mission statement. But not only did you come up with a solution that solved that initial slot you wanted to fill, but it also works in a myriad of different ways and I'd just hate to see that potential wasted.
What's my solution? I dunno, maybe add a sidebar in the book explaining that you can reflavor some of the class and make it more widely available. That the War of the Immortals has in fact given rise to these new heroes, but that there is another, harder route to obtaining similar power. That it is rare that the power is just gifted to someone, but that it is possible to earn it.
Just two ending things I want to reiterate. 1) not trying to take a dump on the class, like the concept, like the idea. 2) I understand that this is supposed to be a 'new class' to the world of Golarion. You don't have to take that away. I'm just saying, Golarion doesn't operate (in-universe) as a world of classes. (A.K.A weather you are beaten up by a swashbuckler or a rogue with a rapier doesn't matter to the bad guy beaten up, they were, both times, beaten up by a 'fencer'). These new 'mythic heroes' can still be new to Golarion, whereas the world could have had Sohei monks who just happen to have mechanically similar abilities for a while.
Don't take away our ability to tell stories with our character, add new options.
Since Gencon came out with the information that tehre are two new classes coming out, and that each of them are NOT going to be classes we've seen before, we started talking and trying to think like Paizo. We basically asked ourselves 'What design space needs a new class? What hasn't been covered yet?"
We came to the conclusion that there were a few things that hadn't been covered. There's not a wisdom-based spontaneous caster, and only two wisdom casters in general (druid and cleric) whereas there are a bunch of charisma casters, and four intelligence casters (Wizard, Witch, Magus, and some psychics.) We also came to the conclusion that there isn't a wisdom-based warrior (There are int-based warriors, like Inventor and Investigator, and a charisma warrior in the Thaumaturge). So Wisdom seems like a good stat to key in on. We also like the idea of the partial caster like the magus/summoner, and thought more could be done with that design space.
So this all basically comes together, in my opinion at least, to make a sort of sage-like character, or a mental monk. This class would have some of the old abilities of the monk that they abandoned, like wisdom to AC, but be less MAD than a pathfinder 1e monk, and also focus in on 'ki' spells that used wisdom. This would also allow us to tie in to the psychic more, which kinda seems like an odd duck at the moment, so another class that is kinda-sorta psychic would be great.
How would this class work?
Well, I' haven't built it out, but I think it could borrow elements of the Kineticist, magus, and old 1e monk to do its job. Maybe they could add their wisdom INSTEAD of Dex to AC. Additionally, they could get some special ability (like Elemental Blast) that let them hit with their wisdom. This wouldn't be a Strike, but would be attack (call it something like Insightful Palm or something). They could have a zen-archery like feat that let them attack at range with their wisdom (again, not a strike, a special action). In addition, instead of gaining kineticist impulses, they would gain spellcasting like a summoner.
I think maybe they would have four subclasses, each one giving them access to a different spell list and a few special abilities, based on what they are a sage of. A sage contemplating the mysteries of the universe? Arcane. A sage contemplating the gods? Divine. A sage contemplating nature? Primal. A sage contemplating sense of self? Occult.
It's just a thought, but basically it would kinda fit a bunch of niches where Paizo doens't have a class in that design space yet, and it would also kinda work as a next generation inquisitor, which I know a lot of people like.
Anyway, just a thought. Let me know what you think.
I was looking at the Vampire from pathfinder 2e and now . . . there's only one way to kill them off permenantly? And that's exposure to sunlight? Like, staking them takes them out of commission, but you can't kill them except for sunlight. In 1st ed, there were a couple of ways, like chopping off the head, filling it with something holy (holy water) and saying a prayer, or just stopping the vapor from reaching their coffin. Arguably, rules as written, a coup-de grace would kill them as that just was a save-or-die.
But as far as I can see, in PF2, there's nothing. No spell that 'emulates daylight' for a vampire, no nothing. Even desintigrate doesn't explicitly do it (it says it 'reduces the target to a fine powder, but then, I guess, at that point it's at 0 HP and just forms a dust cloud again.)
Anyone know any other ways to kill a 2nd ed vampire?
Ugh, finally came out with this. Still alpha build (as of this posting) meaning I have a lot of work left to do, but I have the general stuff up.
Couple of things:
1)Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to do a good star rating system. Still looking for one that won't take me forever and a day, so if you are color-blind . . . I'm looking for a fix.
2) Please, give me CONSTRUCTIVE feedback. I'm willing to put stuff in the guide if it works and you think of it (I'll even credit you.) Just. . . let's be civil.
3)I've repeated myself a couple of times throughout the guide because I figure no one is going to read all the pages in one go, and so I repeated the most important parts.
4) I copy-pasted the basic format from my psychic guide, so if you see a reference to psychics, let me know. It should be kineticists.
Anyway: here you go: I'd appreciate some feedback (and yes, I need to finish ranking the class feats and elemental feats and combination feats.)
Full Name
Pumpkin Skullbasher
Race
Goblin
Classes/Levels
Warrior 1
Gender
Female
Size
Small
Age
4
Alignment
CN
Deity
God's? What those? Can we eats it?!
Location
Brinestump Marsh,Licktoad Village
Languages
Goblin
Occupation
Whelp
Strength
15
Dexterity
14
Constitution
14
Intelligence
10
Wisdom
12
Charisma
8
About Duck Pumpkin Skullbasher
A scraggy scrapper amongst the other surviving whelps of the Licktoads latest brood,this female whelp is notorious for farts and belches so foul she can sicken even adults through the bars of the cages and cackling at their reactions. Anything that gets within her reach gets chewed on or smashed into her rock hard head to see if she can break it as she does most things.
Most of the other whelps avoid her or egg her on in her antics,much to her delight. Like biting the ears of bigger gobs, headbutting as a greeting,wrestling another gob to the ground to fart in their faces, or playing 'bloody knuckles' with other gobs skulls.
She was an annoyance to the adults due to being able to chew holes in her cage and trying to climb out of the Nursery Pen along with other whelps she helped on a whim,getting knocked back in to land on her head by keen eyed guards.
She loves competition, fighting, and attention.She's impatient,loud,and hyperactive.Farts,belches,picks her nose and ears. Likes to chew on things like gristle or random things like tree bark or a glass bottle.
Her goal is to be the biggest,baddest,boldest goblin in the Licktoads--be a Hero of the tribe. And known throughout all of the Brinestump Marsh!
Freshly released from her baby cage along with the other whelps,Pumpkin relishes her newfound freedom fiercely. When asked directly by the adults for the first time,she responds with her song.
Pumpkin's Song:
Pumpkin burp an' Pumpkin stinks
Bang the head an' stamps the feets
Pumpkin fance to her own beat!
Smash n' bash
Gnash n' dash
Bite off toes,jam em up nose
Coz Pumpkin be Licktoad!
Pumpkin like to brawl
Gonna burn n maul
Pumpkin shows you ALLS!
No more stuffed in baby cage
Now Pumpkin strut n play
Out here she goings to stay
If you try and shut her up
Pumpkin tear another hole in your butts!!
Stats:
Goblin Brawler 1;
Chaotic Neutral Small
Init: Senses:
DEFENSE
AC: Touch: Flat-Footed:
HP:
Fort: Ref: Will:
OFFENSE
Speed:
Melee:
Ranged:
STATISTICS
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
Base Atk: CMB CMD
Skills: Acrobatics +8; Climb +6; Escape Artist +8; Perception +5;
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Feats: Ankle Biter; Improved Unarmed Strike;
Specials: Brawler's Cunning; Martial Flexibility; Martial Training; Unarmed Strike;
Equipment: Bufo; Kit, fighter's; Poncho;goblin pickles,mice wine,fangfile,broken bottle used as glass knife,jar of bugs for snacking,charcoal for writing graffiti and eyeshadow,bag of sand and broken glass,burlap sack worn as baggy pants she has to pull up constantly,hood made of goblin felt resembling a frog head she can pull back to hang around neck.
