Ched Greyfell's page

For a quick and easy, what about just using the automaton from Guns & Gears for a warforged?

This book is one I've been anxious for since PF2 came out. NPC Codex was one of my favorite PF1 books. Excited for this!

They're still called Grippli's, believe it or not.

And I thank you for the opportunity to use that joke again.

Exactly. And while that means we won't be using them in a remastered product, there's nothing preventing you from using them in your home games or swapping them in for creatures in adventures we publish; the rules still work fine (with the exception that remastered qlippoth don't have that lawful weakness, but just ignoring that in a remastered game is fine too.)

See. That's my whole view. I still have 3 bestiaries of great monsters plus the monster core. If a monster got an update (like the ghoul or kobold) I'll use the remastered version. But if there's a qlippoth or some other evil thing I want to use... I've got the book right beside me. I'll just ignore or change things from the OGL like alignment.

I always found the idea of neutrality meaning championing balance being a little silly. Good is winning, so now you must side with evil?
Neutrality always seemed to me to be more of.. you aren't throwing your chips in either way. You're not a bad guy. Just not particularly good either.

I will definitely miss the dark elves. It seems like they could've had villain versions of just about anything. Chaos elves, or corrupted elves. Chaos dwarves. Chaos/corrupted anything.
But, as PF2R is our game. And adventure paths is what my group plays, we'll deal.

I've always rolled once. But I think it'd be amazing to make each player roll their own damage, then roll to save. It'd be like they were rolling for their own doom.

I see it as [increase dying by 1] plus wounded value to get total.
Not [increase dying value by 1 and your wounded value] to get your total.

Pathfinder 2 is a group game. You absolutely can't succeed indefinitely by playing it like D&D or even PF1. You have to work as a team. Debuff (using things like the Demoralize action). Flank. Aid another.
It can't be done like an MMO where you have one guy stand there and tank while his health bar goes up-down-up-down and being chain healed.
Use your actions for things besides 3 attacks.
Trip. Reposition.
PF2 is a robust game with lots of options.

Why are there no real boss mechanics?

This could be an interesting scenario.

Mechanic (Boston accent): "Dat'll be $233.50 for the cah-buratah, and $45 for the windshield wipe-ahs."

Party: "That's highway robbery. We're not paying that!"

Boss Mechanic's eyes glow red as he changes into a demon from the lower planes.

Roll initiative!

I'm running Rise of the Runelords for PF2.
When they got to Runeforge in book 5, my party was very powerful, so I knew I had to make fun challenges that were winnable, but deadly.
When they got to the Ravenous Crypts with the lich necromancer, I borrowed a bit from D&D 4E (though I never actually played it). I gave him several skeletal minions. They hit like level 14, but they had the defense of level 6. They died in around 2 hits. They hit like trucks. And when they died, they exploded bones in a 15 foot radius.
My party said it was one of the most fun fights they'd had.

I had my group find a leather bag with a pair of dice in it. Artifact level magic.
I had a chart. Some things were good. Some things were bad. Some were real good. Some were real bad.
Easiest thing in the world.

My group has a 50in TV in a wooden case with see thru glass. We turn it on its side on a table. Open up the GM version of your VTT. Then run an HDMI from a player version of the VTT to the TV. Make the squares roughly 1in. Turn off line of sight.
Just use fog of war from your GM side.
Put your minis down on the table.

I love this because I can't draw for sh*t. So it lets me use digital maps and real minis, dice, etc.

The campaign backgrounds all give great ideas. From do-gooders to do-badders who got caught and are trying to turn their lives around.

I like my villains to be evil.

My friends and I are gearing up to play Second Darkness. We've had these plans since before the Remaster announcement. It's part of a huge Sekret Projekt that will involve YouTube, Warhammer 40k, live play podcasts for RPGs, and such.
We have no plans to change the drow in our games. Even tho we are excited about the Remaster and plan to embrace it. We will still use any and all creatures we like from books we have purchased up to this point.

But to the spirit of the thread, I think having a bunch of underground elves who fleshwarped each other into demon worshipping weirdos sounds about right. Every campaign needs that.

I really just don't understand the whole policing free archetype thing. It feels weird and controlling, and the mechanical impact isn't even worth the fuss.

If the impact isn't worth the fuss to allow it, then it isn't worth fussing when it isn't allowed.

The system is fantastic. And we're all looking forward to the remaster, and going forward from there.

I don't use it unless the campaign calls for it. I'm not giving my players a free feat just because they saw it in the GMG and now they want it.
I'm actually using it for the first time in my next game. I'm running Skull & Shackles using the current rules. So I made a list of archetypes that fit with a pirate theme that they can choose from.
How did they react in prior games? They asked if they could have a free archetype and I said no. That was the end.

Drow are some of my favorite villains ever. Removing "alignment" doesn't mean removing good and evil. It just means removing it as a rules system. There's still going to be a lot of evil- otherwise, what are heroes railing against?
And drow were perverted by demons down in the Darklands. I don't see them deciding to start skipping and picking daisies, just because of a divorce from the OGL. They'll just possibly need tweaks to keep them strictly Paizo creatures.
Also, when Roll For Combat mentioned drow, Erik got super gleeful and said there were definitely plans in place.

Ched Greyfell wrote:

I'll miss the name Gripplis, believe it or not.

C'mon folks, this comment deserves all of the favorites.

It's nice to be recognized.

I'll miss the name Gripplis, believe it or not.

Dire wolves came straight out of the fossil record, so they're pretty well public domain these days.

If it's one thing James the dinosaur king Jacobs knows about, it's fossil records.

I, for one, am stoked about this whole thing.
Paizo has proved themselves to be a very cagey opponent (for lack of a better word) in this whole thing.
So what, they change magic missile to magic dart. It still plays the same. It's the same game it was, with some tweaks and improvements. And, more importantly, completely divorced from the OGL. Yes, the OGL had its purpose for a while. But they don't need it anymore.
And, for the people who still like alignment, or a creature they had in the old bestiary, that stuff is still 100% valid. So no one loses here.
This is what happens when you have a company run by & for gamers, rather than by businessmen.

Is Hell going to be called Heck now?

I'm hoping the magic items stay in the GM's book. When Pathfinder released both Player and GM in one book, that put magic items in the "core" book. And when they were in the core book, players started feeling they had a right to them. I like a low magic, high fantasy game. I love to give out fantastic treasure in monster hoards. Not to have players trying to flip thru the book, shopping. So that's my hope!

I'm excited that all this is happening. Hopefully it makes it easier for players to get in, with a smaller book. Go, Paizo!

4) Reliance on technology at the table is a barrier for entry to me

So, you don't want to use free rules by relying on technology. But you also don't want players to have to have books. For the game they're playing.

I'm into it. I see that Chaosium has ready planned a release of their core system to be released under the ORC coming soon. Neat!
Open gaming!

There are a lot of creatures that you can run basically on the fly, using the level charts in the Gamemastery Guide. Keep their cool abilities. And just use the DCs listed in the GMG. For more unique important monsters, actually building them might be wise.
But converting things to PF2 is insanely easy. Give it a shot. There should be no reason to miss out on your cool adventure.

Touch AC existed in the playtest, but they got rid of it and let casters just use their primary attribute to hit with, but alchemist didn't get the same treatment.

Pretty sure I'm gonna start allowing INT to bomb throwing in my home games. I don't feel alchemists should have a hard time smashing a vial against a creature. They're not having to bypass armor or anything.

The only reason I feel like the alchemist should have a high proficiency with throwing bombs isn't a power-gamey "all classes should be balanced" reason, it's from the fact that.. in PF1 they threw bombs against Touch AC. Since there is no Touch AC in PF2, they should have a really good proficiency to reflect that all they're doing is smashing a glass vial against something.
Or, at the very least, let them use their INT instead of DEX.

I signed up for it in the store. Looks like it might be pretty cool, from the description.

There doesn’t need to be an in-setting statement on it since In-setting it never existed in the first place, it’s not-canon.

I mean. It came out in an official publication, in an article about the setting. I didn't just make it up. So, it did exist in the setting.

I like Sarenrae because.. she's a goddess of redemption, to be sure. And she will give evildoers every chance to come back. But once it's clear they can't (or won't) be redeemed, she will burn them to a crisp.

I'm actually excited about the prosthetic limbs.
Due to weird bad luck with a particularly brutal d100 crit chart, I had a barbarian lose both feet; one each in separate gaming sessions.
How do you come back from that? So having prosthetics available is nice.

Representation and inclusion. Not an easy thing to do and get right.

We have Iconics that represent several different sexual orientations.

We have Iconics with physical disabilities - Alahazra who is mostly blind due to the Oracle curse, and Droven who has a prosthetic arm.

Do we have any Iconics with mental disabilities though? Any who are openly Autistic, or suffer with PTSD or Depression? ADHD? Schizophrenia? Anything?

Or is that still too much of a hot topic to try and get representation and inclusion for?

That's not really fair, tho. For one thing, to ask of the people who make an effort to be inclusive why they aren't being more inclusive.

My group is level 16. Coming toward the end of a year & 1/2 long game.
Our party's wizard is a generalist. In all the big fights, they would have wiped without him.
He puts enemies in a resilient sphere to buy time. He turns into an earth elemental to come up behind foes. He puts up illusions that he can see and cast from. He banishes extraplanar creatures. He puts them in mazes.
Casts fly on the barbarian to send him after airborn enemies. Teleports. Plane shifts. And, yes, throws fireballs.

Arcane casters can change the makeup of the entire battlefield.

I find Foundry to be maddeningly difficult to figure out. I purchased a module on there recently, did the activation code, and the module simply isn't there.
Every time they do an update, you have to check to see if your current module also got updated. Otherwise it can cause trouble if it's not one of the "stable" updates.
I just find it to be super hard to use. I use FGU. Even tho it is very slow on updates (the opposite problem). But at least it's easy to figure out.

The only thing I don't like is that humans always had a free +2/+2. And it was supposed to emphasize their versatility. Now all ancestries get it OR their old options. So it kinda feels like humans got shafted.

A lot of folks have been posting with questions. I can try to simplify it a bit, and others can weigh in, if I forget anything.

PF2 is broken up into a couple of sections.
If you go to the button on the Paizo site at the top, to click for products. There are basically rulebooks, setting books (the "Lost Omens" line), and adventures.

The rulebooks just say Pathfinder (with 2nd edition at the top). Your "main" book is the Core Rulebook. It has the rules for players and GMs both. It's huge, at around 640 pages. There are three Bestiaries. And there are various other books that you can introduce at your own pace, once you're comfortable (the Advanced Player's Guide, Secrets of Magic, Book of the Dead, among others).
I highly recommend the Gamemastery Guide in general, but especially if you're bringing a campaign over from another system. It will help ease the transition.

The Lost Omens series of books all deal with the world of Golarion. They all either highlight a specific geographical area, or they focus on a certain topic (such as the Pathfinder Society or Gods & Magic). These books all include options for players (feats or gear) to help them immerse themselves in the campaign world.

The other main books are Paizo's bread & butter. Adventures, specifically their adventure paths. These books are monthly releases that are half adventure, and half articles (with NPCs and monsters). They're written by tried & true authors. They are complete campaigns. Some 6 issues (level l thru 20) and some are 3 issues (levels 1 to 10 or 11 to 20).
There are also stand-alone adventures (such as Crown of the Kobold King or The Fall of Plaguestone.
There are also Pathfinder Society adventures, which are short, and adjustable for different levels.

Also, starting next week, the Glass Cannon Podcast is starting a series specifically aimed at players moving to PF2. I believe it will be under their Friends of the Pod line (but somebody might wanna factcheck me on that... I'm at work).

And, other than that... welcome, if you're coming from 5E or even another system. I know you'll love it.

Also, welcome to Pathfinder =)

This latest power move is all my friends and I have talked about.
This is amazing. Fantastic.
I've never been more proud to be on the side of the underdog.

Ched Greyfell wrote:

I can't get it to work. Each time I download it, it unzips to a file that is 0 bytes big.

What are you trying to download?

The updated Core Rulebook PDF.

I can't get it to work. Each time I download it, it unzips to a file that is 0 bytes big.

I play in one bi-weekly 5E game. It's not our system of choice, but it's our buddy's game in Forgotten Realms. So we figure as long as we're eating pizza and rolling dice, it's all good.

This is opinion, not based on anything concrete, but I don't think Razmir could beat the Starstone. I think if he were in that scene in Neverending Story where he had to face himself, he'd run away screaming. I think everything he is & does is based on a lie. And that would carry over into any tests he took in the cathedral.
I also think he knows this. And it's why he hasn't attempted it.

I remember someone pointing out to Jacobs once that after Ultimate Magic came out, if Razmir just got one more level he could pick up the Immortality arcane discovery & solve a lot of his own problems.

The problem with this thinking is that NPCs don't "take" levels or archetypes or anything else. They're not playing a game.

Savage Tide is owned by WotC, so Paizo can't republish them.

Well, we know that. That's why there was the comment about getting lawyers to draw up contracts, and having the paths printed up in 5E as well as PF2 to make everyone happy.

My group is going to be going thru Second Darkness. Gosh, it'd be nice if it was updated, so we didn't have to do it...

But, yea. I agree the Crypt of the Everflame series would be good. So would Dragon's Demand.

I think a campaign where Rovagug is trying to escape his prison would be fantastic.
I mean, I'm sure Rovagug has always been trying to escape his prison. But an adventure where he has followers that somehow are working on it happening.
Mythic followers of Sarenrae and Asmodeus would have a great time in an adventure like that.

Adding more per-day powers to up power level always gives me pause. Because of players that do this:

Them: Well, I've used my 3x per day powers. Time to camp.
Me: But it's 9 in the morning...

I always have to put them on timers.
For every day you delay, another prisoner gets sacrificed to the evil cult! (or whatever)

But I think some folks are derailing the OP.
It's not supposed to be about whether you think there should be mythic. But about what stories would be good if those rules came out.

Savage Tides and Age of Wyrms were so great to read.

Even if they had to update them to both PF2 and 5e (or 6e? whatever the next iteration is) in order to make everyone's lawyers happy, I know a lot of gamers would instantly scoop up a collected edition of both of those APs.

Oh, for sure. Like they did Abomination Vaults and Kingmaker for 5E. It could be like that for the 3.5 APs from Dungeon magazine.