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I'm playing a gunslinger with a free archetype into Bard and I'm struggling with guns feeling... worthwhile.

Here's a copy of the character: https://pathbuilder2e.com/launch.html?build=1032692

My frustration is that my double barrel pistols sort of feels like a strictly worse version of a hand crossbow unless I crit. I'm built to fish for crits about as best as I can (Raconteurs Reload to Frighten, Pistol Twirl to feint). My dex COULD be higher, but I'm leaning a little more into my social role right now, and will be increasing my Dex probably next level.

So I guess what I'm asking is: Is there more I can do? Or should I just switch to hand crossbows unless I'm fighting lower level enemies?

Edit: My bard abilities haven't really come online yet, at level 4 I'm going to start focusing on grabbing Composition cantrips from it.

Against my better judgement, I'm making a Wellspring Summoner, and I realized just today that it's going to have some interesting problems. One of which being that, RAW, I think I might have 0 spells known by level 11??

So, Wellspring Mage reduces your spell slots by 1 per rank, and your cantrips by 1.
Summoner gains 1 rank 1 slot at 1st level and 5 cantrips, meaning that a Wellspring Summoner gains 0 rank 2 slots and 4 cantrips.

I gain my first rank 1 spell slot at level 1, and my first rank 2 spell slot at level 3. Each time I gain a spell slot, I gain one spell known.

At level 5 I lose access to 1st level spells, which RAW causes me to lose 2 spells known.

Meaning my total spells known at level 4 is 4, At 5 it's 3, at 7 its 2, at 9 its 1, and at 11 the knowledge of all spells is banished from my mind.

Unless I still gain spells known as if I was gaining spell slots as normal?

This seems like a weird oversight given Summoner and Wellspring Caster were released in the same book.

I'm trying to assemble an absolute nightmare of a character that I'm not going to get into.
Long story short: I'm struggling with AC. Currently I have a shield (+2 AC) and I can raise it to soak damage, but it breaks at 10HP and apparently becomes useless (despite having 20 HP???)

So I'm looking at Glass Shield or Protect Companion as backups for if (when) my shield breaks.

The problem is: The shield spells feel like crap. +1 AC if you raise it, and 5 Hardness if you block, but if you Shield Block with it, it locks the spell down completely for 10 minutes. It has worse AC and equivalent Hardness to a steel shield, but can only realistically be used once per fight.

Glass Shield has only TWO hardness, but deals 1d4 damage to the attacker if they're within 5 feet. Its Hardness increases, but so does its HIT POINTS, which means that if you block an attack that is too weak, the shield might not even deal damage to the attacker, since RAW (as I understand it) the shield vanishes immediately after you use Shield Block.

I'm a summoner who is my own Eidolon, so I can technically use Protect Companion on myself. It effectively gives me Resistance 5 on the triggering attack (and increases by 5 every time it heightens, which is nice), but it also has the once every 10 minutes restriction.

I'm struggling to understand why Archetype Subclasses exist mechanically the way they do. I was looking at Way of the Spellshot Gunslinger for a character, and previously I was looking at Flexible Caster.

Spellshot doesn't seem like it's drastically more powerful than a regular gunslinger, it gains the same number of features as a regular Way, the only thing it gains is access to additional Feats as if it were an archetype.

Flexible Caster is similar, it affects your casting, but in no way does it seem like it should require additional buy in. It lets you prepare a (small) pool of spells, but cuts your daily slots per level down to 2.

It feels like equivalent exchange BEFORE the feat, and the forced feat spend feels like punishment.

I'm making a character for Outlaws of Alkenstar, and I bumbled into an idea I like.
A Sweetbreath Gnoll bullet witch that charms her way across the country stealing hearts and loot along the way.

I'm fairly unfamiliar with Pathfinder 2 (I've played one campaign), and I'm hoping I can get some help figuring out possible options for her.

My natural inclination is to go Witch then archetype into Gunslinger. I'm more interested in the charm and shooting side of this than the punching people with guns side. I like the flavor of witch, along with the whole 'you have an otherworldly patron' thing.

I'm aware of Bullet Dancer, but it's very keyed toward Monk and with the way PF2's multiclassing Archetypes work, I don't think it's worth going down that path in a 10 level AP.

I've been looking into Mage Armor recently, trying to find a way to increase my low dex wizard's AC. From everything I'm seeing Mage Armor is actively worthless after 7th level, barring specific circumstances (Like having your clothes stolen while you still have spells memorized, or a scroll/wand in your back pocket that wasn't stolen for some reason)

I'm using Wizard progression below, because that's what I'm familiar with.

IB is Item Bonus

1st level Mage Armor (available at Level 1) grants a +1 IB to AC
+1 Explorer's Clothes (available before Level 5) grants a +1 IB to AC

4th level Mage Armor (available at Level 7) grants a +1 IB to AC and Saves
+1 Resilient Explorer's Clothes (available before Level 8) grants a +1 IB to AC and Saves

6th level Mage Armor (available at Level 11) grants a +2 IB to AC and +1 to Saves
+2 Resilient Explorer's Clothes (available before Level 11) grants a +2 IB to AC and +1 to Saves

8th level Mage Armor (available at Level 15) grants a +2 IB to AC and Saves
+2 Greater Resilient Explorer's Clothes (available before Level 14) grants a +2 IB to AC and Saves

10th level Mage Armor (available at level 19) grants a +3 IB to AC and Saves
+3 Greater Resilient Explorer's Clothes (available before Level 20) grants a +3 IB to AC and +2 to Saves
+3 Major Resilient Explorer's Clothes (available before Level 20) grants a +3 IB to AC and Saves

So, the Wizard only gains ANY benefit from Mage Armor before reaching level 8 and after reaching Level 19 (and then only if they want to burn an extremely valuable spell slot on +3 Armor and Saves). It's also important to note that you can, in theory, find potency runes and resiliency runes before their level, thereby making Mage Armor even more useless.

Am I understanding this correctly? Does it stack with Potency and Resiliency runes on Explorer's Clothes? Is there some use case for Mage Armor, or did Paizo nerf it into the ground?

An idea popped into my head, and now I'm curious.

If you wanted to make a martial spellcaster, is Magus the best choice? Or is there a viable reason to do Wizard > Fighter or Fighter > Wizard?

PF2's feat selection is a bit too overwhelming for me to figure this out myself, and I'm hoping some more experienced folks than I have done some thought on the matter.

I'm trying to find a special spellbook I remember reading about. It has black pages and spells written into it appear in silvery ink.

I think if you look at it in the light, it shows up blank, but if you read it in the dark, it shows up in silvery ink?

Im playing a Kobold Unchained Drunken Master Monk in Pathfinder, and I'm considering multiclassing into Elemental Ascetic for flavor reasons, but I'd like some opinions on whether this is a godawful idea or not.

Gremmel's stats are as follows:
Str: 12 Dex: 16 Con: 12 Int: 10 Wis: 14 Cha: 13

He's getting a +4 belt of physical perfection, which will be increasing his Str, Dex and Con by 4.

He's an Unchained Drunken Master. Essentially my GM is letting me add the Drunken Master features to the Unchained Monk's ability pool, and replacing the default abilities where they come up.

His monk features are Drunken Ki (+1 Ki for taking a drink, Max is 1/2 level), Drunken Strength (Spend 1 ki to deal extra damage), Shattering Punch (Punches ignore hardness), and Scorching Ray (Qinggong ki power), and the standard unchained monk stuff.

His feats are Imp Grapple, Imp Unarmed Strike, Weapon Finesse, Dodge, and Draconic Aspect (Red)

He has a pair of enchanted beersteins that increase his STR by +1 for every point of Ki he has (including drunken ki), and can fill themselves with strong booze by clapping the bottom on a surface. (This item was homebrewed by the GM to help him account for the Kobold's awful stats)

I'm considering dipping into Elemental Ascetic, with fire as his element, to show his draconic bloodline starting to manifest in a unique way to him. If I could just get some feedback on how Elemental Ascetic might work or not work, I'd be very grateful!

I'm playing as Carmine Moscsto, a Dhampir Alchemist Bloatmage that uses blood to enhance his formulae. He also acts as a sort of night doctor for non-hostile vampires and other undead that need medical work done, because he's one of the few people willing to do that sort of work. He's a bloat mage so he has plenty of blood on hand for stopping thirst rampages, etc.

One of his old patients, V, an unlucky vampire who regularly turned up at Carmine's clinic with blood borne diseases, and has a bad habit of ending up in bad company, has just turned up under a geas from a lich. He has to kill anyone who's come to kill the lich. He's also a werewolf now, which is pretty baller.

We're about to throw down, and V politely asked that if I have to kill him, just to patch him up afterward and we'll be right as rain... But I don't know if there's a way to bring a vampire back from death?

Resurrection can be used on creatures turned into undead, but it can't be used on undead creatures(?) Are there any other 1st party spells or items that might be able to bring a dead vampire back?

TL;DR I need a list of spells or items that can resurrect a vampire.

We've got a trio of gnoll antipaladins of Rovagug in our party who we're slowly turning away from Rovagug, and I'm trying to figure out how we can keep some of the abilities of being an anti-paladin without having to keep them CE.

Turning them into paladins would be an interesting beat story-wise but Pathfinder's Lawful Good requirement would mean a *complete* departure from their character. They're essentially hulking, muscular, biped versions of the 3 hyenas from The Lion King, except maybe dumber. Frankly a jump from CE to LG is a bit extreme to do within a retraining period.

They're dumb as heck, so Magus wouldn't work. The best I can think of off the top of my head is probably a Sorcerer or Oracle. War Oracle would give them the proper weapon and armor proficiencies for them to function, but the flavor might be kind of weird. Sorcerer would mean they'd probably need to either multi-class or feat tax to get back into heavy armor and martial weapons. I think War Priests require Wisdom, and these three aren't very wise either, I don't think.

the Cruelty and Fiendish Boon features is two of the things I'm wanting to somehow keep hold of. The fact that they can just apply conditions on attacks sounds legitimately incredibly useful.

I am petitioning the high council of character builders for help.

Edit: I'd like to avoid multiclassing as much as possible so as not to make my DM's life hell.

I remember reading somewhere in the Downtime rules in Ultimate Campaign that you could pay half the price to build a room/building if you did the labor yourself instead of hiring someone.

I might have read wrong, but maybe someone here might know if I'm missing something?

I'm running a really weird character build right now. I'm playing a dex and cha based Venomthought Vesk Armor Solarian. I've been enjoying violently exploding and ruining entire crowds of people.

One thing that's been driving me insane, though, is that Venomthought Vesk are described as rare psychic offspring of vesk. They get Charisma for one of their main ability scores, which makes them great for Witchwarpers. The thing that drives me nuts is that Witchwarpers aren't describes as being psychic as far as I can tell? and Venomthought Vesk don't even have the option of gaining Telepathy or Minor Telepathy as a trait.

So my options for becoming psychic are: bioware, probably, which feels unfulfilling narratively; or a feat. My feat options are:
Realty Glimmer, which gives me access to the Witch Warper spell list. 2 lv 0 spells and 1 lv 1 spell. Sounds great except TELEKINETIC MESSAGE ISN'T ON THEIR LIST FOR SOME REASON.

Minor Psychic Power, which will give me access to Telekinetic Message 3 times per day. WOW, I can send a minor psychic message 3 times a day. that's worth a whole feat.

I'm just really annoyed and I need to vent.

With the introduction of Reality Glimmer, Connection Inkling and Technomantic Dabbler, Stage Magic and Psychic Power feel like absolute garbage trap feats.

EDIT: Is there an implant or something I can get to get Telekinetic Message?

I'm trying to convert my Kobold Drunken Master Monk from 5e to Pathfinder, and I need some help trying to keep some of the flavor while also not being COMPLETELY useless.

I understand Kobold + Monk/Brawler is a terrible idea mechanically, but I'd rather play a suboptimal character that keeps my flavor than scrap all of my flavor and build a kobold caster or archer or something.

Gremmel of the Overflowing Cups was a Drunken Master Monk in 5e that used two pewter beer steins as monk weapons. He was a wyrmling kobold (in-setting they're kobolds with more dragon blood in them than normal) which gave him 1/day fire breath and resistance to fire damage. He owned a bar and was a brewer and a chef.

Despite being treated like royalty in his home town for being dragon-blooded, Gremmel is a common 'bold with a disdain for dragon worship as a whole. He's a simple man who punches problems he can't talk away.

His stats in 5e were: STR 12, DEX 16, CON 13, INT 10, WIS 14, CHA 13.
in Pathfinder we're doing 25 point buy and Kobolds have a staggering -2 CON and -4 STR, and a piddly baby +2 Dex.

I'm considering replacing the +1 natural armor with Fire Resist 5, replacing Darkvision with Day Raider, which removes sunlight sensitivity and grants Low Light vision, and replacing Crafty with Wild Forest Kobold (+2 +class Perception/Survival) or Wyrmcrowned (+2 +class to Diplomacy or Intimidate).

I'm aware of 3 options to make Gremmel in Pathfinder.
1: Unchained Monk
I've read a bit about Unchained Monk, but tbh Pathfinder makes my head hurt. From what I gather, Monk is a decent damage dealer and has good defensive options, like adding wisdom to AC and stuff. This is what I'm currently considering as my main option.

2: Brawler
From what I've read, Brawler is good for versatility and maybe combat maneuvers, but being small is going to ruin my chances of being any good at combat maneuvers, so this sort of feels like it's out the window. It also depends really heavily on the ability to change out combat feats, and looking at Pathfinder's feat list drains years from my life.

3: Elemental Ascetic Kineticist (Fire).
This might work best for viability because it doesn't depend on my strength to deal damage, and I still get some of the monk's defensive abilities. My biggest problem here is that I don't see Gremmel as some kind of mystic psionic that's lighting his fists on fire with his mind.

If anyone can give me some tips on this, I'd be very grateful.

EDIT: He's level 5.

I wrapped up the first part of the adventure the week before last, and I got ready to choose some magic items to give them, as the adventure suggests.

Among the items that I was looking forward to giving my parties was the Monkey Pin. Our Rogue had tried to climb up to inspect the dark corner in the goblin room of Part 1, and failed repeatedly, so I figured I would give him an item that would make climbing a bit easier for him. The Monkey Pin was a good fit, because it turns a regular success critical and a critical failure less bad.

But it requires Expert level in Acrobatics.

WTF?

Magic Items were great for 2 things in 3.5/PF

1st thing, they're good at plugging up holes your character can't do. Helm of Mind Reading is great for someone who can't read minds, because now they can. Boots of Elvenkind are great for a beefy meat man fighter who can't sneak well.

2nd thing, they're good at enhancing someone's strengths. A rogue with those boots of elvenkind would be a pretty radical rogue in the wilderness. A wizard with a wand of fireballs can cast fireballs a lot more than a wizard who can't.

In PF2 you can only do the second thing, and it's really annoying.

There's also a 3rd level magic item that requires you to have Expert in a weapon, which apparently only Fighters get at first level.

Monks don't even start with Expert in Brawling, despite it being their main focus, and by end-game probably the only weapon they'll be using for damage output.

It also highlighted to me that the skill system feels really frustrating because your skills go up super slowly. you get a skill increase maybe every 3 levels, which means you can't easily spread out or get better at something you're lacking in. I don't want Pathfinder 1 levels of ridiculous numbers, but it feels frustrating. And you don't get an increase in weapon proficiency until level 13 for most classes, meaning that you stay at Trained for over half of your adventuring career.

This wouldn't be an issue if MAGIC ITEMS and SKILL FEATS weren't tied directly in to your skill proficiency level.

Ratfolk should be a core ancestry. Their race writeup makes them perfect as a core race.

They love collecting things, and actually prefer finding trinkets and treasures instead of gold, but in combat they're not afraid of using their collection of goodies to help themselves or others.

They're communal and form close bonds with their families, and will jump to protect their communities if something threatens them.

They are commonly found in cities. They love trade and commerce, and they get along well with humans, and it's implied that they either match or outnumber human population.

They have a stat block that isn't represented (+int, +dex, +free -Str), and they would create a bridge between Starfinder and Pathfinder, since Starfinder has the Y'soki as a core race.

Despite Ratfolk being apparently really common, they're almost never listed in any of the population breakdowns, and are basically ignored. I find that really strange, given their race block.

Here's a link to the PRD ratfolk page

This room felt really stupid and just pissed my players off.

It's a small room with an interesting fungus in it. As soon as the creatures step into the room, the fungus emits a cloud of spores, forcing a Fortitude save to resist becoming confused or stupefied.

This is a great idea, but there is literally no point in coming in this room, so all it did was waste a lot of time, and cause us a lot of confusion thanks to the Affliction rules. There is no treasure, nothing of value to find, just a little bit of XP for burning down a defenseless fungus.

The wording on Afflictions states that "On a successful or critically successful saving throw, you are unaffected by that exposure to the affliction. You do not need to attempt further saving throws against it unless you are exposed to the affliction again."

As it's worded, it sounds like you could walk into the virulent spore cloud, succeed at the fortitude save and then just stand in the spore cloud for 10 minutes, breathing the cloud in, without making another fortitude save.

That sounds silly to me.

Regardless of how it works, this fungus should have been put in the Goblin room. the confusion effect would have made a good trap for if players try to sneak in or something, and it would have made for an interesting set piece, trying to avoid going near the fungus while the goblins deftly fight around it, or pushing them into the cloud to make them confused and useless in combat.

I've ran 2 sessions of Pathfinder 2nd Edition so far, and this is all of the feedback I've collected from my players and myself.

1: Goblins should not get a bonus to Charisma. They are hideous, unpleasant little bastards that society still doesn't like very much. I would give them Dexterity and Constitution because Goblins typically live in kind of gross environments out of necessity and would be hardier because they're used to wallowing in filth.

2: Strike, Stride, Seek and a lot of other things are awkward terminology. My players and I feel stupid saying them, and we frequently make fun of the weird new terminology at the table.

3: Wizards should cast spells like Arcanists. This isn't actually something mechanically wrong with the system, but I hate how they have to meticulously plan every single casting of their spells. I loved the freedom of being able to prepare a small pool and cast from that. I think it creates a smoother play session where the wizard can prepare a situational spell like Knock or something without completely freezing up a valuable, and limited, spell slot just to use that one spell, if they happen to come up against a locked door.

4: you should be able to drop items held in both hands as a single action. It doesn't make sense to have to use two separate free actions to drop the item in one hand and then the item in another. it's silly.

5: I feel that the duration on positive and negative effects should both last until the end of the turn. It feels pointless to make them resolve at different times, and it adds a small extra bit of confusion.

6: Why do creatures hiding in darkness treat creatures in lit areas they can see as 'Concealed'. that's weird. If I'm hiding in the shadows of the rafters, I don't have a hard time seeing the creatures in the well lit room below me.

7: I feel that you should be able to perform activities over multiple turns at the risk of being attacked and losing all of the spent actions. For instance, you could start an activity that takes 3 actions using the last action of your turn, then on your next turn finish it with the first 2 actions of that turn, but if you take damage you have to roll concentration or something to not get distracted and lose it.

8: You should put how far you fall in one turn. I know it's a long distance, but the question "How far do you fall in 6 seconds" is something I've asked a lot, and I feel like you could just put it in there really easly. It's nearly 600 feet or something.

9: You should bring back equipment kits. They're a great way of getting all of the equipment you need without having to meticulously comb through the lists. I don't know why you removed them.

10: Ball bearings. Add them to the game. They're like Caltrops that trip you instead.

11: the Sleep spell says "The target falls asleep" I feel like this should state more clearly that the target "Gains the Asleep condition" for clarity's sake.

12: HP recovery while resting, as it is currently written, would only heal a level 20 character with a 10 constitution by 1 HP.

It's current wording states that you heal a number of hit points equal to your Constitution Modifier x your level (Minimum 1), meaning that if you have a constitution modifier of 0 or less, you will only ever heal 1 HP, no matter how high your level is.

The minimum value you heal should be equal to your level, not 1.

13: I find it weird that you don't get a feat at first level.

14: My players feel that monsters being able to strike up to 3 times a round makes them too dangerous, and increases the chance that they'll hit (or critical hit) by sheer volume. Most low level monsters that I've run so far don't do anything other than attack, meaning that they would logically just attack as many times as they can manage, and the one fighter has to take most of those attacks because he's the first in to the fight.

This also means that a low AC, low HP character, like our Wizard is at extreme danger because a goblin has a much higher chance to hit him multiple times than the fighter, who has more HP and more AC. He could realistically die in one round of a goblin running up to him and hitting him twice.

15: Bulk is not a good system. It's far too abstract, and the number is far too low. Every one of my players, including the fighter, feel that they're being artificially limited by the Bulk system. They each can carry about 1 weapon, a piece of armor and a piece of adventuring gear. My fight has a Whip, a Rapier and his armor and he's at his weight limit. My cleric is much the same.

Also, a dagger should not weigh 5 - 10 pounds, so it shouldn't be a bulk. it should be L.

I would double the bulk limit, as it currently stands it feels far too low.

16: The wording on Afflictions is weird. It states that "On a successful or critically successful saving throw, you are unaffected by that exposure to the affliction. You do not need to attempt further saving throws against it unless you are exposed to the affliction again."

This came up in response to the Fungus room in the first adventure section. It leaves a lingering cloud of spores, and the wording of this paragraph implies that if you walk into the cloud, breathe the spores, and make your save that you shouldn't have to make the save again, no matter how long you spend in the cloud.

That sounds ridiculous, and I'm pretty sure that's not how it works, but the wording suggests that it is.

17: 3 action Heal doesn't increase with your level. 1 and 2 action heal recovers HP equal to 1d8 plus spellcasting modifier, and that increases to 2d8 when heightened. 3 action heal does not gain a benefit from being hightened.

This is a problem given how much damage enemies can deal because of how many attacks they can do in a turn, and also makes 3 action healing a waste of time when you're higher level.

18: The layout of the book isn't great. Spells should be at the back of the book, where they always have been. It makes it easier to find the spell section when you're looking, and it prevents Spells from taking up almost 100 pages in the middle of the book.

Every single one of my party members and I hate bulk.

Everyone in my party can hold about 1 weapon, 1 piece of armor and maybe a shield and then they're at the limit of their bulk.

Back in PF1 you could easily carry a couple of weapons, armor and some adventuring tools without hitting encumbrance if you have a 12 strength.

The carrying capacity needs to be at least doubled.

I don't know how to handle surprise in combats.

I understand that Initiative is usually Perception, and that if the characters are sneaking before combat, it can be Stealth.

But how do I handle surprise? If 3 characters sneak into a room full of goblins and intend on attacking them, do I roll initiative for everyone, and then just ignore the initiative values of the Goblins until the PCs go?

Do the Goblins get to make Perception checks against the sneaking party when combat starts? is that what Initiative means?

I'm just not sure, and it's driving me crazy.

I'm only a few pages in, and I think one of the biggest potential problems is Strike and Stride.

they're only one letter apart, meaning that an accent can muddle which word they're going for.

My suggestion would be to change Stride to Move, Walk, Run, anything other than Stride.

Strike is fine, but "Ranged Strike" sounds really weird. Honestly I don't see the point in changing them from Attack and Move.

I just noticed that the engineer drone upgrade Reductive Armor makes no sense.
It starts at DR1 then gets DR2 at 7th level, then finally DR3 at 13th level... But it's an advanced mod, so you can't even get it until 11th level.

Was this tested?

Hey,

making my first character, a very social Vesk that will piss off every optimizer in existence.

I need something to do in combat, because my combat stats are crap, and I noticed the Needler pistol.

I want to use it for healing, but it deals 1d4 damage, meaning it has a potential to deal more damage than the healing serum heals.

Is there any way to make it *not* deal damage? without house ruling or whatever, of course.

I'm running Iron Gods for my players, and we just hit the Collector Robot.

I'm not going to lie, I think the encounters in this book are written pretty badly, and I'm seriously concerned for the later books, but this collector robot really takes the cake.

What Level 2 (maybe 3) adventuring party can fight something that can deal up to 14 damage per turn, fly to keep out of melee range, and has 10 HARDNESS!?

The robot can not only wreck my party, but they can barely hurt it. Only the Battle Oracle in the group can really damage it - only dealing 2 damage max on a near perfect roll.

Yes, it's weak against electricity and crits, but critical hits aren't exactly something you can rely on, and even if you *DO* get a critical hit, it's still shaving off 10 points of damage. it's possible to crit this thing and have it shrug off all of the damage. And electricity isn't something every group is going to have ready availability to - my group's only caster is a summoner.

Most adventures will have something that you can find to soften up a tough encounter like this, but there's nothing of real use in the dungeon so far, and all of the useful magic items (specifically the adamantine ones) are FAR too expensive for my group to buy.

Me and my players are both super frustrated with this adventure.

Edit:
Its Electricity weakness doesn't even seem to make much of a difference, because hardness only takes half damage from elemental damage, as far as I understand?

So, even it's weaknesses don't make it any better to deal with.

I'm running Iron Gods, and I'm not sure what the intended advancement speed for the module is?

I have a 4 man group, and I don't want them to end up over or under leveled.

Thanks c:

I've been seriously considering writing a pathfinder supplement based on a setting I've been working on - adding some races, some magic items, some monsters and a town, maybe a short adventure too - but I don't want to get deep into writing the supplement before I know the rules of making a Pathfinder Supplement.

Am I allowed to reference Pathfinder and it's setting specifically? or is it like D&D, where you can only mention it as "the worlds most popular RPG system" and other vague references?

Does anyone know if there's just a convenient list I could reference? or perhaps a Paizo representative that could walk me through it?

Thanks!

Hey, Paizo Community,

I've been working on a pen and paper RPG that's currently going by the name "Wayfarer Project", which is a d20 OGL RPG based on PFRPG's version of the OGL, and I've run into a bit of a snag that I'm hoping some of you may have a solution to.

I've more or less completely gutted the combat system out and replaced it with something of my own design. To put things simply, AC is out the door, as is Base Attack Bonus.

In place of AC, you have Dodge and Defense. Dodge acts as what AC once was - it's the score that enemies have to roll to hit you. Defense, on the other hand, is more like damage reduction. Armor has 3 defense values, some armor has 4.
Blunt, Slashing, Piercing and Magic defense. Blunt damage is reduced by the "Blunt" Defense score, Slashing damage is reduced by the "Slashing" defense score, so on, and so forth.

Armor is protective, but also heavy, so armor check penalty applies to your dodge - meaning it's easier for enemies to hit you, but harder for them to hurt you while you're wearing armor.

My main problem is that Dodge isn't high enough to justify NOT wearing armor, because it's still calculated similarly to touch AC:
10 + Dexterity Modifier + Shield + Misc things.

I'm still in the middle of rewriting/removing/changing things, so you can assume that things that raise AC would instead raise Dodge (like the Dodge feat, for example).

The other problem is directly related to the system I've put in place to change attack bonuses and proficiencies. Your attack bonus comes from something called "Weapon skills". There are currently 8 weapon skills, and every weapon falls into a certain skill category. Longswords would fall into Light Blades, Maces fall into Blunt, etc.
When you attack with a weapon, you add the weapon skill of the category it fits in.

Every level you gain a 3 Training Points. Training points can be used to buy proficiencies with weapons, but also used to increase your weapon skill ranks to a maximum (Currently) of your Level + 4.

At first level, you could have a minmaxed fighter swinging with an attack bonus of +10 (+5 from 20 strength, +5 from weapon skill) which means that you'd have a near guarantee of hitting anyone without a particularly high dodge, and as you get higher level, your dodge would start to become less and less adequate...

I've considered lowering the weapon skill max to Level + 2, but that only helps so much. What I'm saying, basically, is that Dodge isn't as viable as I want it to be, and I need help making it moreso without making armor also useless.

http://wayfarerproject.pbworks.com/w/page/47326694/Combat%20Rules
http://wayfarerproject.pbworks.com/w/page/77468831/Training%20Points
http://wayfarerproject.pbworks.com/w/page/77334821/Combat%20Scores
http://wayfarerproject.pbworks.com/w/page/77327939/Character%20Stats

Here are links to the current system docs for my game, If you could take a look and give me your thoughts, I'd be most appreciative.

Thanks.

P.S. If you like the idea, I have a facebook page made for it at facebook.com/wayfarerrpg

Bugbear (Custom, using ARG)
Monstrous Humanoid (3RP)
Medium size (0RP)
Normal Speed (0RP)
Specialized Ability Scores (1RP)
+2 STR, +2 DEX, -2 CHA
Standard Language (0RP)
Common, Goblin
Fearless (1RP)
+2 Racial Bonus against Fear
Stalker (1RP)
Stealth and Perception are always class skills.
Gatecrasher (2RP)
+2 bonus to strength checks to break down barriers, +2 to CMB to Sunder
Skill Bonus (2RP)
+2 Intimidate Skill

She's currently level 9, Cleric(3) Wizard(3) Mystic Theurge(3)

STR: 14
DEX: 14
CON: 12
INT: 17
WIS: 16
CHA: 8

BAB: +4

I'm not going to go into her skills in detail, but she has at least 1 point in all of her trained skills, and she has most of her skills focused in knowledge, spellcraft and sense motive.

She's a Universal Wizard, I'm leaning towards an Arcane Bond instead of a familiar

She's a cleric of Nethys, and her Cleric domains are Magic and Knowledge.

Her talents are Self-taught scholar and Bruising intellect.

So, now that I have character stats down - I'm looking for feats that would be applicable for a mystic theurge. Her whole theme is knowledge and support, but given that she's got two classes that prepare spells, I want her to be capable of both support and offense.

Also any other advice would be appreciated, but keep it civil, please, I've had some bad experiences with extreme judgements on character builds.

Thanks :3

I'm writing a pen and paper game that's based on the D20 OGL, and I started a blog specifically for the purpose of posting updates about it's progress...

but I don't know what updates to post. I'm only used to seeing dev blogs for video games where they post screenshots and gameplay videos and stuff, but I've never followed a devblog for a traditional game, so I'm unsure of what exactly gamers like to hear about.

Talking about the system changes feels a bit dull, and going on about the setting feels like I'm being too long winded.

I'd like an outside opinion on the matter.

my blog is http://demonskunk.tumblr.com if you want to see some of what I've posted, for reference, or for interest's sake.

I don't understand what makes the witch desirable to play - they get such a tiny pool of spells to begin with that they seem to be rather a bit too ineffective at first level, and it seems like the only thing they have over wizards is that they can hex, and that they get higher level spells faster.

Is there something I'm missing? some awesome thing that makes witches super great in their own right?

So, I built a Sorcerer/Noble Scion, and I got leadership as a bonus feat at 6th level.

The rules of leadership state that you can have a certain number of follower NPCs by level. My leadership score is 13, so by the table, I can have 10 1st level followers and one 2nd level follower.

Is there any way, by those rules, that I could have, instead of 10 1st level followers and 1 2nd level follower, say, a 6th level follower and a 5th level follower? or anything higher level than 1, I suppose?

The 'fluff' reasoning for this is that my character is an entirely socially focused sorcerer, with very little in the way of combat capability, and I was hoping to use my leadership feat to get some sort of capable bodyguard - not a flock of first level fodder.

What IS this guy? I like the way he looks, but is he a demon? some kind of kangaroo monster?

My DM says that you can only gain one level per encounter, but I thought that was removed in 3nd edition.

does pathfinder have a rule like that? and if it does, where is it stated?

I'm working on a pen and paper RPG, and have recently decided to just go D20 OGL on it instead of struggling through designing my own system, and having it ultimately suck really bad.

I rather prefer Pathfinder's version of the core rules, because they generally seem a lot smoother and more usable than 3.5s, so I was wondering just how much of it, and what parts specifically, were usable under the OGL?

the average weight spectrum for a small creature is around 8 - 60 pounds. the ratfolk average weight is a scale-busting 71 - 89 pounds. The BASE NUMBER you add the 2d4x3 to is 65, which is already over the average small creature.

Dayum, ratfolk. you fat.

I have a Stonelord paladin in my group, and he has his bonded elemental - this has created a whole lot of irritating problems.

His elemental can move through stone walls and other stone surfaces no problem, which means he can effectively circumvent most any stone structure with little problem, which is irritating...

the more frustrating issue, though, is the frigging tremorsense. my enemies can't hide, because his elemental can FEEL them within 60 feet - that's an obscene radius, especially only at level 5. it can feel creatures several rooms away with that ridiculous range, and its senses are linked with the paladin's, so he automatically knows too.

Am I the only one that thinks this might be a bit OP?

I'm running a campaign including a gunslinger, and time and time again he's proving to be the group's weakest hitter, and generally the most useless party member.

His grit abilities add little to the game, his damage output is pitiful, and basically all he amounts to is a poor man's fighter with the ability to use guns.

Firstly: the group started off dirt poor, so he couldn't do much in the way of ammunition - he used a crossbow for the longest time - and when he finally managed to get his gun, the only noteworthy change was that he was now shooting to hit touch AC instead of full AC. This sounds really great, except for the fact that fighting any enemy with DR 5 is his biggest nightmare, since he has a 65% chance of doing literally no damage, unless the enemy is weak against piercing.

Everyone in the group out-fights him, he can use martial weapons, but at that point you might as well be a fighter. His weapons are obscenely expensive to make, and even more so to buy, and he doesn't get anything particularly amazing - no crazy trick shots, no ways to boost his damage (other than a feat that allows him to apply dex to damage) and his grit powers don't allow him to do anything really all that useful...

Does anyone have any ways to make this guy more viable without spending an arm and a leg on magical guns - they're currently level 5, and they're constantly falling on hard times, so that crazy amount of money isn't going to happen - because seriously, the gunslinger is probably one of the worst classes I've seen in play.

In my game the characters are starting at ages below starting age. The idea is they are starting as children and they will be aging throughout the campaign.

There is a 24 year old dwarf, two 13 year old humans, and an 18 year old halfling. The Humans and Halfling are two years away from starting age, while the dwarf is just a bit past half way to it. The Dwarf argues he has lived the longest so therefor is more mature physically and mentally.

The question is, what dictates the starting age? Is this when the are considered mentally or physiologically mature? Is it by the view of their culture?

So, there's a table that tells you which weapon you get if you're not aligned to a deity when you cast Spiritual Weapon.

but there's no entry for NEUTRAL.

any ideas? official ruling? Speculation?

So, were playing Jade Regent, our group just dropped an arctic Chimera - white dragon + walrus + polar bear.
I want to craft hide armor out of it's corpse - using it's hide as the armor bits and the dragon skull as a helmet. I have craft armor, we have all kinds of time, and a caravan of supplies.

On top of supplies, one of our party members is a trapper (Profession: trapper) so, are there rules for being able to craft equipment out of nothing but natural supplies?

do I still have to spend money even though I'm out in the middle of the wilderness and have nowhere to buy anything, and should be able to supply leather straps and stuff from corpses, or our own supply stock?

I'm attempting to write an RPG - and a setting that it'll take place in - and I'm sort of curious as to where Galorion started.

Was it a single town? A small area? A few characters?

The Assassin has always bothered me as a class - it's abilities and skills are perfectly fine, but why are they required to be evil? I understand that killing people is bad, but most adventurers kill more people in a day than the typical assassin probably does in a year, unless he's really efficient and sought after.

Outside of the social implications, there's the fact that at any given time there may be a paladin in the group, or a good cleric, or something of that sort that could use Detect Evil, sense the assassin (who the paladin/good cleric would probably not know is evil, given the paladin fluff and the fact that good clerics are generally pretty against evil stuff) and stab the guy right on the spot, or cause some shaky party relations at best.

If it's an evil thing, why is it even in the core rules at all? wouldn't that better be suited as a DMG sort of thing for game masters to use to build characters?

personally I think that assassins should be about as alignment neutral as rogues because assassins aren't always evil, anyone can be an opportunist killer, not just assassins. is a fighter evil because he gets the drop on a gang of gnolls that didn't see him coming? they might have been neutral, or even good, or doing absolutely nothing wrong, but in the fighter's mind, they're enemies and attacking first means a higher success chance.

Furthermore, one can make a necromancer wizard without being evil, even though necromancers are the first thing most people think of when they think of an evil wizard, and all of their spells are pretty evil focused, where as the assassin's abilities are just all about being really good killers.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems really irritating that the only prestige class for rangers is race locked to one of my least favorite races in the history of fantasy? It's the only race-locked prestige class, and by the written rules it's really restrictive.

I know that they moved over to archetypes and stuff over prestige classes, but I can't overlook the fact that this class (and assassin being evil-locked, yet still a player class) being some odd artifact from days long past, when a lot of things were changed for the better.

Any insight on this, guys? anyone just as annoyed by it as I am?