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The Guns & Gears Remaster Errata changed the wording on Clear a Path to allow it to benefit from Actions or Activities that include Strikes, rather than only a plain Strike. The fact that they felt the need to make this change tells me that things that say "Your previous action was a Strike" only work with basic Strikes.

Additionally, I think it's very intentional that every weapon Ikon ability is either 2 actions or a basic Strike + 1 action follow-up.

I have a bit of a bias towards gishes, Strength builds and Athletics Maneuvers in general, so the idea that an Animist can play to all of these is very appealing to me.

Its easy enough to take Sentinel early for some heavy armor, as a melee Animist might not care as much about their low level feats, and Mighty Bulwark can be fit in later between Wandering feats (allowing you to drop Dex). And none of the above prevents you from taking Steward of Stone and Fire to go blasting when the opportunity arises. You're even encouraged to do so in a way, since the Steward grants access to both Blazing Spirit and Roaring Heart.

It's mentioned in the Sayre quote, but Dancing Invocation allowing Tumble Through and not Stride prevents it from working with a Quickened Stride, which is a pretty easy way to get it for "free". Especially compared to the other examples given here, like Elf Step and Maneuvering Spell, which take more commitment/investment than a 3rd level spell.

Plus you can still Tumble Through in the situations where you wouldn't be able to Step/Leap, like underwater or in the air, where it would otherwise be a useless class feature.

Deathsworn wrote:

Guntermench wrote:

About the Soothe clarification: while in the playing undead section, the sidebar seems to be written as if it works on all Undead because it doesn't specify playable undead. But the Undead trait still says "don't benefit from healing effects". So is the sidebar still wrong, or is the Undead trait wrong?

The clarification even mentions the mindless trait, which means it seems to be meant to work on Undead in general, but it just... can't.

The effects of Traits don't apply to ancestries, they are only for classification and determining things like "Humanoid Form lets me turn into a Poppet, but not a Leshy"

Ancestries/Traits: "These descriptors have no mechanical benefit, but they’re important for determining how certain spells, effects, and other aspects of the game interact with your character."

It's not written as if it's only for players.

The point is that the Undead Trait doesn't mechanically effect players, which is part of why the Basic Undead Benefits exist. As player Undead aren't mindless and don't block all healing effects like non-player Undead (just positive healing), there is no issue with Soothe anymore.

About the Soothe clarification: while in the playing undead section, the sidebar seems to be written as if it works on all Undead because it doesn't specify playable undead. But the Undead trait still says "don't benefit from healing effects". So is the sidebar still wrong, or is the Undead trait wrong?

The clarification even mentions the mindless trait, which means it seems to be meant to work on Undead in general, but it just... can't.

The effects of Traits don't apply to ancestries, they are only for classification and determining things like "Humanoid Form lets me turn into a Poppet, but not a Leshy"

Ancestries/Traits: "These descriptors have no mechanical benefit, but they’re important for determining how certain spells, effects, and other aspects of the game interact with your character."

...

I missed the spell attacks section, thanks for pointing it out. There is one part, however, that I think it's worth pointing out: "Spell attacks don’t deal any damage beyond what’s listed in the spell description."

Since there's the line about Dancing Blade dealing only one of the available damage types on the weapon, I think the spell attack damage rule holds true. Otherwise there would really be no need for that line, and it would deal damage as normal for a Strike.

You would crit as normal for a Strike and get the Potency bonus to hit, though.

Deathsworn wrote:

Old_Man_Robot wrote:

I brought this up in another thread, but I'll throw it in here as well.

Since the Dancing Blades cantrip makes a weapon attack, it seems like by RAW it would benefit from any Potency runes on the weapon itself. Its text diverges from similar sorts of spells, and since it uses a permanent item, it can be runed.

I'd like to point out that the Dancing Blade isn't making a traditional Strike, but it is taking the Strike action listed in the spell description. This special Strike uses your spell attack roll and has a specific damage it deals. The damage type can be modified by the runes on the weapon, but no other part of the weapon determines the damage dealt. Also with this interpretation, it cannot critically hit, as spells always list their critical effects because they aren't Strikes.

Now, saying that, it would be nice to rename this distinct Strike action to something that doesn't conflict with the most common action you normally take with a weapon.

Imaginary Weapon has a similar issue for its amped effect, where it says you Strike, though it doesn't have the same pseudo-strike that DW has. It might be an oversight, or it expects you to reference the previous cantrip. Either way it should be rewritten for clarity as well.

The Strike subaction.. thing also doesn't do double damage on a critical hit, unless you partially use the Strike rules. It's a bit awkward overall, but I believe the intent was for it to be very Strike-like and possibly even trigger reactions based on Strikes.

I agree that this might be the intent, but what matters in the end is how it is written.

Dancing Weapon's is written as a subaction that the weapon itself takes as if it were a creature, but it has a listed damage that scales with your spell level and is a spell attack roll. Critical effects aren't mentioned anywhere.

Imaginary Weapon is a melee spell attack that scales off of your spell level and lists a critical effect as normal for spells. The amp, however, somehow suddenly becomes a Strike and I guess assumes you know what to roll for it? Does it now function as a normal Strike with the normal critical effects? Does that mean it loses the optional knockback detonation? Who knows.

I brought this up in another thread, but I'll throw it in here as well.

Since the Dancing Blades cantrip makes a weapon attack, it seems like by RAW it would benefit from any Potency runes on the weapon itself. Its text diverges from similar sorts of spells, and since it uses a permanent item, it can be runed.

I'd like to point out that the Dancing Blade isn't making a traditional Strike, but it is taking the Strike action listed in the spell description. This special Strike uses your spell attack roll and has a specific damage it deals. The damage type can be modified by the runes on the weapon, but no other part of the weapon determines the damage dealt. Also with this interpretation, it cannot critically hit, as spells always list their critical effects because they aren't Strikes.

Now, saying that, it would be nice to rename this distinct Strike action to something that doesn't conflict with the most common action you normally take with a weapon.

Imaginary Weapon has a similar issue for its amped effect, where it says you Strike, though it doesn't have the same pseudo-strike that DW has. It might be an oversight, or it expects you to reference the previous cantrip. Either way it should be rewritten for clarity as well.

Explicit clarification of magic items being able to become implements would be appreciated, as right now it's only implied.

From what I've understood, a success on the roll translates to "Ah, I know, let's use silver!", then you quickly apply a silver chain to your weapon with a free Esoteric Antithesis. A failure says "Hmm, one of these must work.", taking a moment longer to apply a few different trinkets.

In both situations you know (or are convinced you know) what the target's weakness is and it just works, due to your raw confidence in saying "This will work".

The person who truly knows what to do and the person who thinks they know what to do are both supported by the Thaumaturge, it's up to how you flavor the action's results at that point.

My current idea is an aasimar that uses divine runes as their Esoteric, combining them to make key words and phrases that apply to the desired weakness. It was an evolution on the Shrine Maiden idea I initially had, flavored to fit the character more. Instead of tags and charms, they manipulate the runes and apply them to their Implements.