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While reading through the world guide my friend came across a section about Thuvia which described the Scrollspire as a:

"Magical university built atop the entrance to an ancient Tekritanin library-well."

Now, that sounds really cool and we want to incorporate it into the campaign he's working on. However he wasn't able to find any references to what a "library-well" is.

I did some digging in a few PF1 books (people of the sands, legacy of pharoahs, lost kingdoms) with no success. We looked on the wiki, in the archives and searched the forums as well.

Our guess is that it's a deep cylindrical library left over from the Tekritanin league, but it would be nice to know exactly what it was intended to be.

I wanted to name this thread “What I think the alchemist, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger and rogue could learn from the barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer and wizard.” However, I think that title might have been a bit long.

Looking at the level one options I find that the classes fall into two different categories. Some classes make a very meaningful choice that differentiates themselves both thematically and mechanically from others of the same class, while some other classes get no such choice. To list them below:

Mechanical / Thematic Choice:
Barbarian (Totem)
Bard (Muse)
Cleric (Domain)
Druid (Order)
Sorcerer (Bloodline)
Wizard (School)

No Choice:
Alchemist
Fighter
Monk
Paladin
Ranger
Rogue

One could argue that the “no choice classes” have a choice of a 1st level class feat, but I feel like there is a big difference here. When you make a choice like an order or a bloodline, that choice really stands out and feel unique. If you’re a druid with a wild order, you know you’ll always have an edge over druids of other orders when it comes to your shapeshifting abilities. This carries on well past first level, with many class feats giving you a bonus depending on your order. I really like this system, as it doesn't lock in your progression. You could still take the animal companion class feat at level 2 as a wild druid, or choose to forego a companion altogether.

I would love to see something similar for the other classes. Perhaps rogues could pick a creed, choosing between stealth bonuses, social bonuses or combat bonuses. The rogue with the social creed would get a bonus to sneak attack damage after using “You’re next”, whereas the rogue with the combat creed would be able to attack after successfully dodging an attack with nimble dodge (perhaps at a penalty).

Rangers could choose a combat focus, getting bonuses to trap, melee/ranged attacks or their companions. Monks could pick a style (or a lack thereof) and paladins could choose an extra oath, granting them benefits to either offensive, defense or their divine powers. Alchemist could have a crafting specialty, picking between apothecary, poison master, grenadier or mutagenist (granting a special mutagen at level 1). Fighters could pick a signature weapon and gain different bonuses based on it’s type.

One of the other benefits here is that these choices allow for easy additions in the future. Let's say Paizo wants to add a wizard option focused on time magic. It would be easy to add that in! Instead of picking a school at level one they chose to focus on time magic. I think these choices could work in tangent with archetypes, allowing for even more differentiation.

Why I bring this up is because during character creation one of my players (druid) was truly excited about his choice. He had a tough time picking between the wild and animal order because they “both sound so awesome”. Whereas another one of my players (monk) looked at the class feats and went “meh, guess I’ll choose monastic weaponry”. I think he would have been more excited if he had picked a path of specialization, instead of a single ability.

To the note about ranger animal companion selection:

*Additional Resources Specificly says - "Animal Companions: ankylosaurus, aurochs, brachiosaurus, dire bat, dire rat, dolphin, elasmosaurus, electric eel, elephant/mastodon, frog, goblin dog, hyena, monitor lizard, moray eel, octopus, orca, pteranodon, rhinoceros, roc, squid, stegosaurus, triceratops, and tyrannosaurus;"

* The faqs says - "No additional companions are legal in Pathfinder Society Organized Play for Rangers except when granted from another legal source."

*And the roc entry says - "Rocs taken as animal companions by druids or rangers are typically newly hatched birds"

*Leading me to believe that the bestiary allows rangers to a roc as a companion. Whether or not it is eligible for a falconer is a different story.

To the note about it being eligable for a falconer

*One one hand it says "The bird can be of any type of large hunting or scavenging bird (even a vulture)." Which would seem to allow Roc's.

*On the other (as Caderlyn pointed out) it says "but the falconer must take the bird animal companion".

To me this is unclear as it's contradicting itself. But I'm now leaning towards saying the Roc is not available to falconers.

Either way, this is a fairly new player and I know she's not trying to exploit anything or anyone. She plays for fun, but wants to have her Roc as a mount when she hit's 7th (Large size), when is why she is deadset on the roc.

Today I had a player who was a ranger with the Falconer archetype. They used that archetype to get a Roc animal companion at level 1, "At 1st level, a falconer earns the trust and companionship of a bird of prey.". We looked at the rules and I am torn. The Falconer first states "The bird can be of any type of large hunting or scavenging bird (even a vulture)." This would make you think that you could get the Bird, Roc and Giant Vulture animal companions as pets with the archetype. But looking further it states "but the falconer must take the bird animal companion". This now implies that you may ONLY take the bird, not the Roc or Vulture. I think the concept of the Roc works for this archetype, but I'm not sure if she can actually use this in a PFS game. I looked around on the forums and found this post about it, but that basically boils down to being up to the GM interpretation. That is never a fun place to be in PFS, and I didn't want to tell her that she couldn't or could without getting more input on it. Personally, I think it would be ok, but my opinion does not decide PFS legality. So, is there any place I could check for an "official ruling" or anyone we could ask?