Dargath's page

What games are you playing where 'one player/character usually has to carry the rest of the party a good 80% of the time'???

League of Legends. World of Warcraft :P

So you can't really produce stuff on the spot you'd need in a quick moment like an alchemist tools, blacksmithing tools, climbing kit or anything like that huh. Maybe that's what a bag of holding is for and you just pre buy stuff like that to have it handy when you need it.

I actually made a more "anime" inspired Samurai using the Swashbuckler, with it's ability to slice through enemies and high mobility, bouncing from target to target. It actually makes a pretty good Samurai with a little imagination, but only as presented in anime and video games.

For a traditional Japanese Warrior and all that entails...I have no idea. Other suggestions here seem perfectly serviceable.

Thank you! A lot of these answers are informative.

Can you please provide background on where you got this digital content?

Was it from the recent Humble Bundle? If so, what specifically did you purchase.

Okay all of this content is from a Humble Bundle awhile back which also included the Core Rulebook Physical Copy, as well as this here most recent Humble Bundle at $25 for the Abomination Vault Foundry VTT Edition, which I also redeemed on Foundry but do not know how to use (yet.) I am new to DM and basically internet tools. I paint minis in real life :x

I mean basically title:

1) I have 15 Pathfinder 2e Maps. What are they for? Do I print them out on some kind of large paper IRL? Are they for VTT? If yes, are they compatible with Foundry?

2) I have 11 Pathfinder Tales. What is a Pathfinder tale?

3) What are Pathfinder Organized Play things for? I have some Season 1 and Season 4 stuff. Would I use it to DM a Pathfinder Society Game for points? If so that is neat.

4) What are Pathfinder Pawns? I have a "Bigger Forest Map" (For what?) And Pathfinder Abomination Vault Pawns (Are they like monster tokens? DO I print them out? Are they for importing into a VTT?)

5) What are Flip Mats?

I guess the main question is: Where and how do I use this stuff?

One last last thing, is there a Hazard Building tool for simple or complex Hazards? If not I believe they have examples of almost all of my traps.

I can do Hidden Pit with 1d4 damage per turn from tiny spikes at the bottom.

Reflavored Poison Lock to fire an arrow (I think I literally change melee to ranged and have it fire when the dungeon door is opened).

acid pit exact same as drowning pit with 1d6 acid damage per turn exposed to acid, or maybe normal drowning pit is fine.

a hidden door/secret door.

Literally scything blades hazard straight no mods.

A locked door. Can break down, lock pick or with good perception answer the password if the find the paper with the password.

Thinking modified toppling furniture hazard for falling ceiling.

Another hidden door to avoid falling ceiling.

It would be nice to have a cute text block like the monster builder I found for my homebrew Orc Warlock, but if not I can hand write these and make flash cards I think.

Dargath wrote:

Lucerious wrote:

Sword Scion is a background from Kingmaker that gives access to Aldori Dueling Swords and makes them martial weapons for proficiency purposes. Having backgrounds that allow at least that much for other advanced weapons seems very reasonable now.

What is kingmaker? Is it like Matt Colville's Kingdoms and Warefare for 5e? I've been looking for that kind of supplement for 2E.

As mentioned, Kingmaker is an adventure path where in you found your own kingdom (you start off with a charter from another near-by by not too near kingdom who has had trouble with bandits IIRC) and by the end of the first book you're developing your own country. In features a system to develop buildings and and provides a layer of country management on top of the normal combat and exploration systems.

My new mission in life is to find a group to play this Adventure Path. Sorry for offtopic.

Dargath wrote:

The final boss encounter will

4 level 1 Orc Warriors
1 Level 3 Orc Warlock

4 Crystals which give the Orc Warlock immunity to all damage (force field bubble) that must be broken to break the forcefield. The Orc Warlock will be unable to fight while in the Force Field and unable to cast spells for he will be concentrating on his great ritual.

A two stage battle should be a lot of fun. But it does need to be handled well.

Dargath wrote:

I somehow need to come up with item rules for hardness and HP and such for the crystals. I think they should be pretty easy to break maybe the same as a level 0 or -1 creature, if items get AC.

There are some suggestions for item hardness and HP - though you don't necessarily have to follow those since these are custom items.

But you do need to come up with your own rules for AC and how to actually do damage. Strike doesn't have rules for attacking objects. I would go with either auto-hit (but not crit) once per round and just roll damage, or use Force Open with a burst DC based on the item level and have it ignore hardness and HP entirely.

Dargath wrote:

The main point is to distract the players from the crystals with the Orc Warriors, to buy time for the Warlock to summon his master (Pit Fiend? IDK something awful. Bela'kor the Dark Master haha).

Once the Force Field is broken he begins raising dead on his allies to provide more distractions. At half health he tries his health potion. He also clings to life with Ferocity. He's Ray of Enfeeblementing everyone and slinging cantrips for damage.

Thoughts on this final boss encounter in a simple one shot adventure?

Is there option in the plot of the Orc Warlord completing the ritual and successfully summoning a big monster? If so, then that encounter needs to be planned and balanced for as well. Basically the idea is that if the party succeeds at destroying the crystals in time (probably by...

I do not expect the Warlock to suceed his ritual since I was going to set the timer to 10 rounds. It's mostly there as plot device/raise threat and tension. I want it to be suspenseful, and a bit like an MMO boss encounter with actual mechanics outside of tank and spank kill all the enemies. I think I did an ok job at designing this. Another idea was to introduce something like roving fire on the ground or acid pools the players needed to avoid as well, but it felt too complicated. I think objects to destroy, forcefield, and bodyguards to distract is enough.

Honestly it's a mix of the Magtheridon binding ritual in Blood Furnace and a quest in (Maybe?) Warlords of Draenor or Legion (or even Battle for Azeroth?) where you face Jaina or a Blood Elf caster who is immune die to the 4 crystals and you have to break them to free Thrall. I am copying some elementals from WoW haha.

Yeah, that should be fine for stats and such. A CR= enemy spellcaster with several CR-2 allies.

Dargath wrote:

but now I am on the spells part and I feel a bit lost.

1) pick a tradition in order to make the spell selection believable.

2) a 3rd level spellcaster can cast a few 1st and 2nd level spells, and a handful of cantrips.
3) Pick only spells that you actually intend to use during the battle. Don't worry too much about filling all of the possible spell slots or repertoire - or even making a distinction between prepared or spontaneous casting.
4) Pick spells that are generally useful or would be thematically appropriate for the enemy character - don't go out of your way to tailor the spell selection to what the players have (that would be GM metagaming) unless this enemy does actually have some prior knowledge of the party and is deliberately trying to thwart them specifically.

So with a staff of necromancy, I would suspect Divine or Occult tradition.

So for Occult tradition (as an example), maybe pick:
Cantrips: Telekinetic Projectile, Shield, and Guidance
1st: Fear, Magic Missile
2nd: Blistering Invective, Mirror Image

Now, if this was a player character it would either be a Bard (that has composition cantrips), a Psychic (that has amps), a Witch (that has a familiar) or a sorcerer (that has blood magic effects and more spell slots). But NPC enemies aren't built by the same rules as a player character, so you don't really need to worry about all of that. The point is to make it feel like a spellcaster enemy. Not feel like a player character that went rogue.

My Orc Warlock may or may not be inspired by World of Warcraft's Gul'dan, so I am looking at "fel" magic (Destruction aka Evocation and dark/evil spells such as drain life, rain of fire, or the PF2E equivalent)

He ended up with:
Cantrips: Chill Touch, Phase Bolt
1st: Animate Dead, Ray of Enfeeblement, Grim Tendrils
2nd: Death Knell, Deafness

https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1853

https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=230

Given that you have your baddie a staff of necromancy, here's two thematically appropriate monsters that use necromancy spells and are 3rd level.

And here's a few non-necromancy ones, just for options or inspiration:
https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=331
https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=56
https://2e.aonprd.com/NPCs.aspx?ID=922

The final boss encounter will

4 level 1 Orc Warriors
1 Level 3 Orc Warlock

4 Crystals which give the Orc Warlock immunity to all damage (force field bubble) that must be broken to break the forcefield. The Orc Warlock will be unable to fight while in the Force Field and unable to cast spells for he will be concentrating on his great ritual.

I somehow need to come up with item rules for hardness and HP and such for the crystals. I think they should be pretty easy to break maybe the same as a level 0 or -1 creature, if items get AC. The main point is to distract the players from the crystals with the Orc Warriors, to buy time for the Warlock to summon his master (Pit Fiend? IDK something awful. Bela'kor the Dark Master haha).

Once the Force Field is broken he begins raising dead on his allies to provide more distractions. At half health he tries his health potion. He also clings to life with Ferocity. He's Ray of Enfeeblementing everyone and slinging cantrips for damage.

Thoughts on this final boss encounter in a simple one shot adventure?

One last thing, as I have created my Encounters using the Encounter Builder going from 3 Low Encounters, 2 Moderate Encounters, with the final Boss being just shy of a Severe Encounter, (I think that's pretty good scaling difficulty) do we have an example of a 3rd level enemy spellcaster which I could try to copy from?

I am using the Build a Monster rules from the CRB or GMG (Not sure which found them on Archives of nethys 2e) and I'm using the recommended guidelines for a Spellcaster, and copying what I can from Orc Warchief, but now I am on the spells part and I feel a bit lost.

I gave him Padded Armor and a Staff of Necromancy. He has a very terrible melee attack (1d4+4 per the staff rules and at -1 Str), +1 con, +3 Dex, +4 Int, +3 Wis, +1 Cha AC 18 (pretty bad), 35 HP (Average) Fort +6 (pretty bad), Reflex +9 (average), Will +12 (Good), the Ferocity reaction every single Orc unit seems to have. He has some skills, I doubt they come up (Arcana+10, Occultism+10, Intimidation+8, Stealth+6) with a High Spell Attack and DC. He is a final boss so I want him to be pretty tough but not overpowering. He will be 3rd level with 4 Level 1 Orc Warriors bodyguarding him.

I am also considering giving him some health potions and possibly some other consumables.

In the end I went with 2 Cantrips (Chill Touch, Phase Bolt) and 2 spells (Animate Dead, Ray of Enfeeblement). The idea is to buy time to complete the ritual with debuffs, and every time a Bodyguard dies we Reanimate him to continue to throw bodies at the party. Will this imbalance the encounter past Severe? Is this like summoning in Age of Sigmar where free points makes it much harder for an army without summoning to compete because your list is effectively 100+ more points than your opponents taking a 2000 points game into 2100+ vs 2000?

The party will all be 3rd level. I expect 5 players.

Beastkin are how I get a Minotaur for now. However since I have no home group and I only have access to PFS so far, due to lack of interest in PF2E and a stronghold of 5e holdouts it's basically locked off to me as an option.

This is perfect. I think this will be a really good experience for both myself as a first time DM and my players, especially giving my forever DM a chance to play since he has been running 5e and other games for years. If possible I would like to transition them into an Adventure Path or one of those medium length one shot adventures (I'm not sure what they are called, not the multi-book ones, just like 3-5 sessions in one setting)

I think this is going to be awesome. With this encounter builder I can plan all my enemies and using simple trap rules I think I should be able to create my traps. I also think there is a recommended DC for table somewhere. What do you think that should look like? Easy traps escalating to more difficult to see traps that still only slow down the party? Not really looking for party deaths, I don't think that makes the game "more exciting" I think it would just bum out a player.

What level players? Level 1?

I think level 1 would maybe be ideal to not throw too many details at newer players, however I was considering level 3 or level 5 depending on the level of the monsters in the Bestiary. The mean level of Orcs in 5e was about 3 to 5 and i had all the special Orcs planned like Fist of Gruumsh and stuff like that, which I don't think PF2E has.

Seems like a reasonable 1-shot to me.

For creating this in Pathfinder 2nd edition:

Dargath wrote:

I think I want the party to be level 3 or 5?

Pick one. Either will work. Both won't.

Dargath wrote:

I have read the rules on trap design and recommended DC, but I'm not sure how to translate some of this over to PF2E.

What specifically are you wondering about?

Arrow traps, spiked pit traps, axe traps and such are classified as simple traps. Make sure not to have them be too much higher of a level than the party or they can 1-shot a character that trips it. Simple traps by themselves are either an annoyance that causes the party to have to slow down and heal up after getting hit, or they are character killers. There isn't much wiggle room in between.

I don't know the exact details of resurrection but it seems difficult to do mid dungeon at these lower levels so I think a slow down and heal up would be more effective. Should the trap be like part level -1 or -2?

Are you using DnD rules or Pathfinder 2nd Edition or Pathfinder 1st Edition?

My intention is to not use D&D 5e rules anymore, but instead I would like to run this one shot using Pathfinder 2e rules, especially because I heard CR encounter building actually works so that should make it much easier. For a party of probably 5 players. How many goblins would be a pretty simple fight for 5 players? What level should the players be to find them relatively easy so it's a fun first first gradually increasing in difficulty as they progress through the dungeon?

Should they find cool loot like +1 weapons and armor and consumables? I'd like to think so, but I don't know how that works due to weapon property runes and such. Should everyone come in with some runes already?

Keeping in mind for myself: I am a first time DM ever, and my party has only played PF2E ONCE before and they didn't care for it much so I'd like to make a good impression and not overwhelm them with options to keep track of.

I created a 1 shot for D&D 5E and I wanted to start with goblins, and eventually work up to Hobgoblins working with Orcs, all the way to a final boss fight in which 4 Orcs protect 4 crystals which need to be broken so the Orc Spell Caster in the middle's shield will break and the party will be able to defeat him. He is channeling a spell to open a portal to their dark master (probably a super high level demon) and if the Orc Warlock isn't defeated in time the portal will open and the encounter will end. It's supposed to be exciting and use more mechanics than simply "beat up the monster".

Dungeon Map

When they first enter the dungeon there's a poison arrow trap mostly meant to fire at them and alert them: THIS DUNGEON HAS TRAPS!

This is a link to a hand drawn picture of the map and all the traps I had set. The bottom box with weird curving lines are supposed to be Goblins Tunnels with some sword and shield goblins engaging the party, and goblin archers hitting and running through the tunnels ambushing the party.

The second is a trap I was inspired by from Goblin Slayer in which there's a hard to see hidden passage past a break in the wall on the way to the very obvious straight ahead spider warren for goblin reinforcements to ambush the party from behind...or get ambushed if the party has great perception! Along the way there are spider webs all over the walls and a giant acid pit between the party and the spider warren.

Since the party will know they were ambushed from behind, and the goblins will have opened the secret door it will be clear hopefully they should proceed in this way and there will be a spiked pit trap down this corridor leading up to the first mixed orc and hobgoblin trap.

After this encounter there will be a ceiling axe trap where the axes swoop down from the ceilings to chop at them if they don't disable it.

Moving down to the Orc Door which I believe will require a key or a password, or brute force :) Behind this door lurks a tough Orc miniboss!

After defeating the miniboss a falling ceiling trap waits for the party, but it can be bypassed by going through the disgusting sewers if they happen to spot the difficult to see hidden tunnel.

Then they arrive at the aforementioned final boss with crystals and bodyguards and portal summoning.

I think I want the party to be level 3 or 5? Depending on how strong the encounters would be? I think it should gradually escalate in difficulty culminating in a pretty tough but not impossible final boss, I definitely want the players to win but be challenged throughout the dungeon. Maybe not at first, but slowly I want the heat to rise til they're feeling engaged at the end and it feels tense and exciting. Could this be done at level 1 to keep it simple?

I have read the rules on trap design and recommended DC, but I'm not sure how to translate some of this over to PF2E.

I've never DMed anything in my life and just wanted to try DMing for the first time with this hopefully simple one shot.

Does this seem fun to you? Would you want to play it yourself?

Sword Scion is a background from Kingmaker that gives access to Aldori Dueling Swords and makes them martial weapons for proficiency purposes. Having backgrounds that allow at least that much for other advanced weapons seems very reasonable now.

What is kingmaker? Is it like Matt Colville's Kingdoms and Warefare for 5e? I've been looking for that kind of supplement for 2E.

I don't think it is an Advanced Weapon and it probably is not Optimized, but I did take Goblin Weapon Familiarity for my Goblin Rogue at level 1 for Pathfinder Society, and as a Rogue I do plan on getting Goblin Weapon Frenzy to pick up the critical specialization. It felt worth it to me for a thematic and cool and unique weapon to my ancestry, gives me a stronger connection to my character and his weapons.

The feeling behind it is something like, "These are MY special weapons and nobody else can use them." Even though, as has been pointed out, adopted ancestry and so on and so forth. It just feels cool to have something rarer and kind of tailored to your character/ancestry instead of generic "Shortsword+Rapier" which I can almost guarantee you is more optimized mathematically. It's like when you use the gear in a Computer RPG because it looks cooler even if it's worse. Also this game doesn't have transmog haha.

I did find some good goblins (2) for a Goblin Thief/Ranger who would dual wield, but no Hobgoblins. I appreciate all the links!

After everybody's suggestions and feedback my planned build now looks like this:

https://pathbuilder2e.com/launch.html?build=324501

The reason for not taking medicine is my ancestry gives me a negative to it and it just seems like there are plenty of wis primary or secondary classes that would take it to make up for it. I chose to focus on stealth, thievery, deception, acrobatics and athletics. Again my strength is only 10 so pretty bad so I figure a Fighter would take lead the expert or a strength champion or Barbarian or some other strength focused class who would also naturally take athletics.

I tried to focus on my characters strengths which would be breaking and entering, stealing, scaling buildings and getting inside, scouting to a degree, disabling traps (probably not finding them though probably a ranger would do that)

I haven't played in PFS, so take my thoughts for the ramblings that they are.

What I would expect from the games that I have been involved in though, is that the teamwork Rogue is going to have a lot more opportunity do use their special abilities than the one that wants to be on their own. Lone stealth and pounce missions don't mesh well with a cooperative squad/team-based game.

The idea behind the skirmisher was a couple factors. I’ve only played 5 or less sessions in PF2E and one was heavily homebrewed before we had even tried the system RAW. However my impression in 90% of games is the Rogue is very squishy and typically doesn’t have amazing defenses.

This lead me to believe I was helping my team by playing “tag” with the enemy by hitting and running because you can’t deal damage if you’re dead. So the idea was to help me help them by staying out or combat and striking once maybe twice and picking defensive feats like mobility, skirmish strike, tactical entry, and other hit and run tactics to capitalize on mobility, stealth and sneak attack without being the guy constantly down and having to be rezzed mid combat.

The other build feels scary to me because it seems like you want to get stuck in and while it capitalizes on things like having opportune backstab so you can hit a guy who hits a guy, or gang up so I get flat footed no matter where it’s encouraged to plant and strike I think. Although I really like “leave an opening” feat for my Allies.

Is there a good way to share builds?

If you can see these: for the sake of pathfinder society, which I assume precludes all rare and uncommon feats and everything else, save for that which gives access to which character would you rather play alongside?

https://pathbuilder2e.com/launch.html?build=324501

I call the above character the "team character" because he has feats like gang up, and leave an opening and has a lot of interaction with other characters.

https://pathbuilder2e.com/launch.html?build=324502

I call this the "skirmisher rogue" in which I like to use abilities like Strike from the Shadows, Skirmish Strike and other mobility options to go in, hit, and run away.

I'm not sure which is preferable for semi-organized team play with random people each week and what others who play PFS would prefer to see out of a Rogue. I think one tends to get stuck in and fight it out more than the other. Right now I have done 1 session with 4 XP. I plan on pretty much just playing this because I can't find a home game or a private game.

I would really like a Paizo Style Goblin Rogue, Hobgoblin Fighter (Sword and Shield preferably) and probably some kobolds. I just love the Paizo specific art style and especially the goblins and hobgoblins.

I have a PFS merchant that I love, Zendel of Oprak. Zendel is a gnome who was adopted by the hobgoblin Brazadig of Brazadig's Construct Emporium. His father, who wants to develop trade partners all over Golarian, decided that the most expedient route to do so was to have Zendel join the Pathfinder Society, and make new connections wherever the Society sends him.

Mechanically:

Zendel is an Interrogator Investigator with a lot of charm. He's got Onyx Trader background, and Obsessive Lore to make both his Mercantile and Hobgoblin Lore scalable. He does have the Dandy archetype, which worked very well for his character.

(I could have seen also seen the Linguist archetype working for him, but I went with other choices.)

If you want to be a merchant, just be a merchant. Pick a mercantile background, or pick up mercantile/underworld lore with Additional Lore. If you want to max your Earn Income, be Field-Trained and acquire Storied Talent via the Horizon Hunters faction. (However, I actually think you will have more money if you're trained by one of the regular Pathfinder schools and get a free consumable with each mission. Your mileage may vary.)

Really, any character can be a merchant. What do you want to do with your merchant? Who are they? What are they selling?

If I had all the skill boosts I would invest in Int in order to boost crafting as well. I'd like to gather materials, steal materials, steal objects, and otherwise acquire anything and everything not nailed down, and then sell it for profit :D I think crafting my own dragon leather or something for later adventuring could be very fun. High quality magical items, potions, and consumables, weapons.. Anything and everything really. I'd like to get involved in the Thieve's Guild (if there is one) for missions that could be accomplished in tandem with the greater quest at hand for everyone else, a little side mission to bring them <something> from said dungeon/adventure for...some boon or money or something. I just want to do the whole charlatan snake oil salesman thief class fantasy. Steal something from your bag then bamboozle you into buying it back from me, that sort of thing. A mischief maker. Chaotic Neutral.

Dargath wrote:

I know it would waste a spell slot but is there a workaround as-is in game to just cast enlarge on your familiar...?

By RAW, there are several specific rules that prevent using Familiars in combat that can't be resolved by just casting Enlarge Person.

Namely the inability to make Strikes is one of the biggest RAW restrictions for a combat focused familiar.

Well it sounds like they just want to ride around on it and nothing else. At that point maybe you could just shrink a donkey or something when you want it small, going the other way? haha

This game is so cool. I am very excited. I just don't know how to add a new Lore skill and train myself in it using Pathbuilder 2e. I guess it is not a problem using pen and paper.

I know it would waste a spell slot but is there a workaround as-is in game to just cast enlarge on your familiar...?

If we go back to PF1E I will be heartbroken. I didn't play it for a reason. I quickly adopted 4E D&D for the balance. Hated how busted PF1E was. Pun Pun should never exist, why are there so many rules loopholes. In fact I wish casters were a little stronger here, just a touch, to keep everybody even stevens. I want a game where everybody contributes equally, and everybody can play a class they like and still clear content. No "I'm a CoDzilla I show up and end the entire encounter with 1 spell slot" and no "I want to be a wizard but they're useless so I'll just play another fighter." That's why I loved 4E D&D and raiding with friends in MMOs where meta classes didn't matter. I could be whatever class, whatever spec and we always downed bosses.

Thanks for the great responses! I am building this character for Pathfinder Society since it's all I have access to, however if I ever find myself in a private/home game with the free archetype option...I don't know what to pick! Maybe Scout? Or Acrobat? My character focuses on charisma/face skills (No I definitely did not steal that.) or (Would you like to buy this potion I definitely didn't lift from your bag?), thieving (duh! haha :D) and stealth, with a side of athletics (how else can we get to the 3rd floor from the outside, sneak in, steal the precious diamond and make our escape?)

Then I want to sell wares for fun and I really enjoy the Merchatile Lore and I would like to put points into that. Would the same thing be useful for Underworld Lore, but for the black market? My background is criminal and I'd like to lean into the thieve's guild, underground marketplace, etc scene if possible.

I wasn’t really sure since they do have an archetype for scroll maker. Just looking to involve my character in downtime and crafting and various other thief activities to increase revenue

I know there is Celebrity, but as a Thief I don't want a lot of attention on my character. Are there any Archetypes that are more...crafting/selling based? If possible I'd like to open a store selling stolen goods (I am a thief) or something like that.

Thank you! I ordered my miniature and hopefully it arrives before Saturday! I am ready to get back into Pathfinder 2e, and I wanted to learn on an easier class so I can focus on Striking and Moving and build from there, haha.

So at level 1, as a Goblin Rogue Thief, I chose to take Goblin Weapon Familiarity in order to gain access to the Dogslicer for Pathfinder Society this upcoming Saturday.

When I eventually, hopefully, level up and progress my character what feats will I need to keep it relevant? Goblin Weapon Frenzy? Goblin Weapon Expertise to continue scaling? None of the above?

Talking about polymorph feat, wild shape is far from the worse now that I think about it.

The red mantis archetype have the "mantis form" feat who not only also suffer from the "can't help getting bigger" problem of wild shape, but also have no further support at all (and no synergy in it's archetype), so you don't have new feats to keep it relevant at latter levels. More importantly, it doesn't even have the "you may use your attack bonus +2 rather than the attack bonus of your new shape if you want" clause. So once you pass level 10, not only does turning into a mantis difficult (because there need to be enought space), but all you get out of it is 20 temporary HP, reach and the amazing ability of only using your flat unarmed strike attack bonus (and probably losing some AC to boot).

So I guess what I need the most right now, even more than a fungal druid order would an errata of wildshape so that you're not forced to always get bigger, and a rework to mantis form so that it have at least the same bonus as wildshape (along with one or two other feat supporting it in the archetype, something like making your mantis natural weapon have the same runes as your sawtooth saber if you were wearing them when you transformed would go a long way making it more usefull at later levels).

I eccho all of this. I don't know all of the rules super precisely, but I am guessing when you are in another form it comes with a lot of weaknesses: losing class feats and abilities (probably), especially as a Druid unable to spellcast, and any martial feats I am not sure work with Mantis form (I haven't looked at it.) Depending on if your gear transforms into your body you probably can't access potions or other items in your bag. Basically all you get is some temp HP and natural attacks, it's mostly to look cool. Any other martial is by default immediately stronger, and it costs a lot to untransform to be able to cast spells or access other things. I don't think it will break the game to let Druids be as good as any other martial in a normal animal form the entire career because they wouldn't get stuff to improve their melee unless they multiclass and even then I am not sure how interactive say, fighter feats are with being a wolf. At that point even if you are investing class feats into being more effective at melee you still cannot cast spells in combat until way high level, so any healing, or CC, or debuff removal, or anything else is locked off unless you want to burn through actions and focus points, which again is not insignificant.

Hybrid Tax like in WoW, you can have it all, MAYBE, but never all at the same time. You have to pick and choose and make choices to use your expanded versatility.

Unicore wrote:

Or people who will make broad claims about how bombs objectively suck, because they have charts to show that their single target damage is sub-par to other ranged martial routines, without asking the question of whether single target damage is the point of a bomb focused attack routine. Obviously, if you want to be a bomber who does devastating damage with bombs against single targets, then the answer is "yes, this is a sub-optimal build for your character goals." But isn't this the same thing as point out that focusing on knives as fighter is not going to result in the highest damage tank character?

The issue is that there isn't a bomber build that is actually good at single-target damage and that even their AoE can feel outclassed by a spellcaster who's prepared the right elemental damage AoE. The fantasy of the bomber isn't that of a character that uses a crossbow, hands out elixirs, and also throws bombs. So it only makes sense that people will point to damage charts when talking about the ways in which the alchemist doesn't work for them.

Ironically that is exactly my class fantasy. I want to heal, buff, and debilitate. Poison Bombs, healing bombs and tonics, and buffs to damage for allies. Make the Fighter/Barb fight better, the wizard smarter, the druid wiser, etc. Make everyone else better and keep them alive and make the enemy worse. :)

The problem you are experience is thematic blasting rather than general spell casting blasting. Overwhelming creatures immune to your damage type just isn’t really possible in PF2. Good blasters in PF2 target different defenses and do different damage types. I think the pure elemental sorcerer defaults to bludgeoning mostly because of this problem (as will the kineticist) and that fire only damage will often be fine, but occasionally completely overwhelmed in PF2.

I just like themed characters. I like stuff like 'Necromancer' and pick all spells from Necromancy school and raise dead and such. Or "Frost Mage" and focus on cold spells, like a lizard blizzard wizard.

It's probably because I played too many video games, but if you want to be a general we can always go for a Final Fantasy Black Mage who typically use Fire, Ice and Thunder (cold and electricity respectively) to deal damage and then whatever Flare and Ultima are. Just untyped chaos damage that deals tons of damage lol.

Unicore wrote:

Also fireball has a range of 500 ft. That might feel like over kill to a dungeon crawling party, but it’s obvious warfare applications give it a very obvious, thoroughly justified niche that maintain its iconic position as a spell of mass destruction.

Honestly, Fireballs are fine, there's no need to look for niche applications when they shine in most fights. My feeling is that those who criticize them never played with a proper blaster.

Any tips or hints on playing a proper blaster? I have always wanted to play a fire mage. I've looked at Flame Oracle, Elemental Fire Sorcerer, Flame Druid...etc..

Also I am building a goblin alchemist for pathfinder society and I will be taking Healing Bomb and you can't stop me. My character concept is the Goblin Alchemist from Warcraft 3.

I want to deal damage with bombs and inflict statuses. I want to heal my allies so I am picking Chururgeon. I also want to buff my allies to go berserk and do tons of damage. If possible I would like to ride around on a Barbarian or Fighter's shoulders and hand them Elixirs and Mutagens to buff their stats. I'm not entirely sure my character will do much damage or even attack every turn. I think to help my action economy and my ability to support I will be taking Alchemical Familiar as my 1st level feat giving it manual dexterity and lab assistant.

min/maxing a character concept like "Fire Mage" or "Guy who fights in cat form" or "Only uses greatswords and is a fighter" or something else.

Instead of, for example from 5e, the classic Fighter with Sentinal and Greatweapon Fighter with a Polearm. I don't like Polearms visually and they almost never fit my preferred aesthetic. Maybe if i'm playing some sort of pikeman, or jouster on a mount, but I don't want to be a fighter in full plate walking around with a Polearm. I like Greataxes for Orcs and Dwarves and Greatswords for Humans and Aasimer and such. Paladins also get Greathammers because World of Warcraft.

I like to be, say, a Frost Mage or a Fire Mage, or build a werewolf man, or a goblin wolf rider (a goblin who rides a wolf and fights) even if it's not Best in Slot Feats or Ancestry or whatever. I built a Goblin Wolf Rider who rides a wolf and dual-weapon wields. Haven't gotten to play it, don't know if it's good, but I did my best to make it the best it could be so I wouldn't be a burden but could still be cool.

Slacker 2.0 wrote:

Greater verisimilitude between mechanics and player expectations would likely resolve a lot of what people, myself included, keep asking for. There are things a reasonably trained warrior should be able to do that are gated behind classes and feats in a way that can feel unsatisfying both in play and while building a character. Some of these could cause balance issues and/or make for a more complicated system with feats gated by proficiency rather than just class and level but in a system as wordy and rule-heavy as Pathfinder 2 I think there's room to make it work.

Like... what, exactly?

I mean, when there's a conflict between simulationism, narrative, and game balance, Paizo pretty much chooses the latter two every time, and if you like simulationism a lot I could see how that might get frustrating, but I'm not actually tracking on anything that I'd say that "a reasonably trained warrior should be able to do" that isn't possible as a level 1 fighter.

I love this game with all my heart, but sometimes it has a hyperfocus "bigger is always better" problem. For instance a lot of Alchemist feats are bomb focused, and I don't necessarily want to always go in for bombs, I want a little healing, a little buffing and a little bombs. Maybe the answer is more Alchemist feats.

Same thing with Druid. I just want to be a normal medium sized cat like a panther my entire career and be effective at melee, but no I have grow larger and larger and eventually I have to become an elemental, a dinosaur, a dragon, a kaiju etc... or forget shape shifting and be a spell caster. Why can't I start the fight with something like Entangle, shift into Cat form, do a bunch of damage, then after the fight use a spell slot to heal some damage to my allies? Versatility. I don't think it's super OP or anything. You could never have the stance and abilities of Monks, the ability to attack multiple times like a Ranger, have better attacks like a fighter, cast magic in combat like a Magus, etc etc like you'd just be using basic cat form strikes...but at a normal melee competency like Ranger, Monk, Paladin, etc.

Dargath wrote:

I want to be a chirugeon alchemist who rides a barbarian around and infuses him with chemicals to make him stronger and tougher while healing him. Is this a playable character?

I have a similar concept, but to avoid action economy issues; it's a summoner mcd alchemist, and the "barbarian" is my eidolon

That is a pretty genius work around honestly. I was always inspired by the Goblin Alchemist from Warcraft 3 who rides around on an Ogre. He has a poison bomb for damage, a healing spray to heal himself and others and a berserk injection to make the Ogre deal lots of damage. His ultimate is he turns people into gold which is more for an RTS where gold is a valuable resource for building armies, I doubt there's any spell or effect, but I like the core abilities: bombs and poison for damage, healing for support and damage buffs to make your allies better.

Fixleby is his name. Because he fixes things.

I want to be a chirugeon alchemist who rides a barbarian around and infuses him with chemicals to make him stronger and tougher while healing him. Is this a playable character?

Dargath wrote:

I am trying very hard to build a full time cat animal form druid but it is pretty hard.

There was a thread about something similar to this.

My favorites are Hunter Automaton, Quadruped Poppet, or Sprite with a custom Cat Sith heritage that just gives the shape mechanically.

Then you can resort to Animal Form to change your stats for when combat breaks out like any other druid.

It may have been my thread actually. I should be clearer: I want to remain a medium sized cat and martial user primarily who scales to end game without having to grow in size or take different animal form feats. I've looked at Fighter dedicating into Druid and it's pretty good, but it's just difficult to maintain defenses and other stats if you "downcast" (assuming its even legal) to take only the medium sized version of animal form.

It also doesn't get the concept going until around 4th level or 6th level depending. I'm fine with very minor spellcasting and support, 1 or 2 spell slots for a Heal, or Remove Curse/Disease or a dispel magic or some other utility flex spell, but I just want to be a cat and melee stuff similar to a feral druid main from WoW. They CAN become bears, and Orcas, and Birds and they CAN heal a little but they run out of mana fast and its weak, and they CAN entangle and remove curse, but 99.9% of the time they are in cat form in combat doing melee DPS.

I am trying very hard to build a full time cat animal form druid but it is pretty hard.

Minotaur really that's it for me

Dargath wrote:

I think the aspect I like most about the WoW Druid is flexibility when exploring. You can fly at will pretty much, save yourself from falling, breath under water and swim faster, and so forth.

4th level Animal Feature. So by level 7 you will need to be a ranger or have Ranger Dedication, then get Gravity Weapon and Animal Feature.

Interestingly with the new ranger spells like soothing mist it’s possible to get a little bit of healing and all the supporty Druid stuff so maybe Animal Barbarian with Ranger dedication could pull it off too.

That's not how it's flavored but most people would be completely fine with you flavoring it that way. It's often referred to as 'fluff' - a way you describe something that has no mechanical bearing.

My ruffian rogue uses a longspear. In fiction it's actually a spiked ball on a long chain, very akin to a meteor hammer. Stats are the same.

If you wanna emulate a tauren feral druid from modern wow, a barb might be a closer fit either way. As a druid your a full caster and you are doing yourself a massive disservice by not using your spells alot.

Animal instinct barb with a monk dedication is a super viable build for what you are going for. The wrestler archetype with the animal barb is also great. Might be more of bear druid vibe, alotta crushing and throwing. Plus acces to the coolest feat in pf2e history - whirling throw.

I think the aspect I like most about the WoW Druid is flexibility when exploring. You can fly at will pretty much, save yourself from falling, breath under water and swim faster, and so forth. It seems there’s no real way of getting that flexibility, and I would be using the classic spells like remove curse, healing, having a ranged cantrip (like wrath basically), and all that. I know this game has a massive problem with casters also being good at dealing damage for whatever reason, but I think an animal instinct Barbarian dedication Druid with spellcasting can get me a lot of the way there. Could possibly even grab the wild shape for the other utility forms (maybe). Not sure if you can get aerial form via dedication or if it’s too high level.