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In the forum thread "Paizo Blog: Starfinder Masterclass Miniatures Partnership" I have one "new" message, according to the Forums main page. However 1) it's been there for several days and does not go away however many times I click on it, 2) when I do click on it I'm taken to the relevant Blog entry instead of to the forum thread, and 3) clicking on the thread title also takes me to the Blog post rather than the thread.
The main roles for a four person party are exemplified by the Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, and Wizard. First, what more general name would you give these four roles? Something like Damage Dealer, Healer, Utility, Blaster? Not sure that pays tribute to everything a class might be able to do. What I'd like to see, in the end, is a list of classes with notations of what they're good at. Rogue, for example, is good at damage as well as utility. And what does "utility" mean, anyway? Is "Buffer/Debuffer" a good role descriptor? What about "battlefield control"? What others are there? Anyway, given a list that says what the classes are good at, and combining that with ThrabenU's three part tier list, it should be easy to pick a class depending on whether you're new or of moderate or experienced player ability.
Spellcasters can be classified in a number of ways. For example, by Tradition, by whether they are Prepared or Spontaneous, by whether they need a spellbook for all their spells, and possibly by other criteria I'll think of later or someone will bring up later. Here's my list: Animist
Bard
Cleric
Druid
Magus
Necromancer
Oracle
Psychic
Sorcerer
Summoner
Witch
Wizard
Seven prepared spellcasters, two get a free spell book at character creation, two don't need a spell book for common spells, and three have special "spell books" (Dirge, Eidolon, Familiar). Six spontaneous casters. Twelve total casters, because the Animist is both. Runesmith is not listed here because "runes are not spells", but the class works similarly to a spontaneous caster. Some runes are of a specific tradition, some are just "Magical". A Runesmith's repertoire can have as many as twelve runes, but the Runesmith can etch only half as many runes as are in his repertoire on a given day. Kineticists aren't spell-casters either, but they do manipulate the six elements (earth, air, fire, water, wood, metal) and virtually all of their abilities have the Primal trait. From the class description: "The primary magical actions kineticists use are called impulses. You can use an impulse only if your kinetic aura is active and channeling that element, and only if you have a hand free to shape the elemental flow." Most impulses are gained through feats. Note: the "slots per rank" above is based on the max according to the class's spell slot table. Some have more, e.g. the cleric's divine font spells (Heal or Harm). There are also Focus spells, which all spellcasting classes have and some non-spellcaster classes (Champion, Monk, Ranger) can have. Did I miss anything? I hope this article might be useful to some players and GMs. :-)
Earthbreaker has the "Two Hand D10" trait. Klar is a "lightweight shield". Can a creature wielding Earthbreaker and Klar wield the Earthbreaker two-handed while still wielding the Klar?
A gish is, as I understand it, a character who combines spellcasting with fighting. The original gishes were, I think, multi-classed fighter/wizards. The Magus is sort of that. I wonder. First, are there other viable combinations of spell-casters and martials? Bard/Swashbuckler maybe? Barbarian/Psychic? :-) In the PF2E multi-class dedication which way would you go? Spell-caster with martial dedication? Martial with spell-caster dedication? Would you rather have the dual-class optional rule available? Let's say there's a dozen (purely arbitrary number) viable "gishes" per the rules, including one or more dual-class ones. If you put them all in an arena and tell them to fight it out, will one come out a clear winner? If so, which one? Let's assume whoever is playing these guys is an expert at playing the game and playing the character, so he makes best use of the character's abilities and is not over shown by some other player's ability. Be an interesting thing to set up in roll20 or Foundry or whatever. Maybe the Order of the Amber Die would find it interesting. :-)
A new first level Alchemist takes a familiar. Pathbuilder says the familiar gets two abilities. Da Roolz say there's a list of Familiar abilities and a list of Master abilities. Pathbuilder does not afaics show a way to choose Master abilities instead of Familiar abilities. I want one Familiar ability (manual dexterity) and one Master ability (extra alchemy). How do I do that in Pathbuilder? I tried submitting a bug report, but github wants me to jump through hoops I don't want to jump through. :-(
Would like to see a complexity ranking. Which are the least complex classes? Which are the most complex? In general, I think spellcasters are more complex than martials. Is there overlap? At the low end of complexity, I would start, I think, with Fighter. What's next? Barbarian? And so on. :-)
I've got a feeling I could have done better with this start. What do y'all think? Omari Tumen
I need to come up with a backstory for this guy.
Radovan Virholt
Do eidolons have a Class DC? If so, do they have their own, separate from the Summoner's, or do the two share the one Class DC?
Akorian is a Eurythnian (part of New Thassilon) of Azlanti descent who worships the long dead Acavna, goddess of the moon and defensive battle. Still working on his backstory. Here's a statblock at level 10: Akorian
Comments?
This term was introduced in Secrets of Magic specifically in the discussion of the Magus and Summoner Multiclass Archetypes. It was never really defined, but appears to refer to the fact that in those archetypes as one gained levels, one would have spell slots for only the highest two spell ranks one could cast, and would lose any lower spell slots that one had previously. Reference was made to the base classes, whose spell slots worked the same way, but the term "bounded spellcasting" was never used directly in connection with the base classes. I think this was an oversight. As I understand the term, then, "bounded spellcasting" refers to a case where, as a character increases in level, that character retains spell slots for only the two highest ranks of spell he can cast, losing any spell slots of lower rank he may previously have had. The recently published Impossible Magic redesigned both the Magus and Summoner base classes and the corresponding archetypes so that their spell slots are no longer "bounded" in the sense above. In fact the term "bounded spellcasting" appears no where in the book. As far as I know, no other spellcasting class or multiclass archetype is "bounded" in this way. Conclusion: The term "bounded spellcasting" is obsolete, at least until (and if) Paizo decides to reintroduce it -- at which time I hope they'll be clearer as to what it means and to what it applies. Did I miss something?
A while back there was a "Risk and Rewards" Playtest for two new classes: Daredevil and Slayer. I think it ended in April. Haven't seen anything since. I assume the idea was a new rulebook called "Risks and Rewards". Still in the pipeline? Eaten by Rovagug? Inquiring minds want to know! :-)
On the store, this book is noted as "Remastered", but the pdf I have, which was downloaded in July of 2023, has the OGL, not the ORC in the back. I find only this version in my downloads, in my downloads library, and as far as I can tell, in the store. So has this thing been remastered or not?
I've noticed recently that most if not all of my downloads from my Paizo library include long strings of letters and numbers, sometimes with but often without any intelligible text telling my what the download is about. I'm guessing this is some artifact of the new store. I'd really like to see it go away. Less importantly, I'd like to know if my guess is correct.
There are various kits in the game. Some of them, at least, contain consumable items -- healer's toolkit for example contains bandages. As far as I can see, such kits are always full and never run out of anything. The rules speak of "replacing" such components, but no mechanism is mentioned. I suppose it's one of those things most players consider "too nit-picky" to worry about. Have I missed something?
Do folks have mental or written lists of things they will prioritize buying as they move through the world? For example, always buy fundamental weapon and armor runes as soon as possible; always buy at least N healing potions of maximum available level as soon as possible; prioritize elixirs of healing over healing potions (because they're cheaper); always buy/upgrade spacious pouches/smuggler's packs ASAP... What things are on your list? How do you prioritize the list? How many potions/alchemical items/consumables in general do you carry? Class should matter. Casters should probably have wands, maybe staves, on their list. Toolkits (and their upgrades) should be on the list for people with the appropriate skill. Also, for skills, items that improve chance of successful use (AoN lists these for many skills). Does everyone carry a healer's toolkit (you need one to administer First Aid, which is an untrained action)?
Hm. Posted this on RD's thread, but I really shouldn't have. So I'm reposting it here. “Other folk thought the Rage was simple bloodlust, a berserk savagery that neither knew nor cared what its target was, and so it was when it struck without warning. But when a hradani gave himself to it knowingly, it was as cold as it was hot, as rational as it was lethal. To embrace the Rage was to embrace a splendor, a glory, a denial of all restraint but not of reason. It was pure, elemental purpose, unencumbered by compassion or horror or pity, yet it was far more than mere frenzy.”
In the world of Norfressa, Bahzell Bahnakson is a Horse-Stealer Hradani (one of the Five Races of Man) and a (very reluctant at first) Champion of Tomanak, the War God. Can we build him in PF2, adapting the above description of the Rage? Or is "Hradani" just too different from "barbarian"? And who became the War God in Golarion, now that Gorum is dead? BTW, Bahzell is about seven feet tall and has pointy ears. He is not an elf, that's another of the Five Races. :-)
Again, not sure where best to put this, but on the store page for Myth-Speaker where there should be a link to the Players' Guide and the Sanctioning document, the PG is fine, but the text for the sanctioning doc is not a link. Same is true for the Spore War page. No mention of a sanctioning doc for Blood Lords. The link for the Strength of Thousands sanctioning doc gives an error: "Firefox can’t connect to the server at paizo-inc-store-1.mybigcommerce.com." No mention of a sanctioning doc for Agents of Edgewatch. On the Extinction Curse page the text about the sanctioning doc is not a link.
Not sure where best to put this but the link on the Bastions of Blasphemy page for the PFS Sanctioning Document actually goes to the document for Hell's Destiny.
There seem to be at least two answers to this question. First "spell list" often refers to all the spells of a given tradition. Second it can refer to all the spells known by a given spell caster. Which just adds another question: what does "known" mean? I don't think you can logically answer this by saying 'if a spell is on the caster's spell list it's a known spell'. :-) First let's ask what kinds of spellcasters we have: 1) Prepared Casters (Cleric, Druid, Magus, Witch, Wizard), 2) Spontaneous Casters (Bard, Oracle, Psychic, Sorcerer, Summoner), and 3) Hybrid Casters (my term) (Animist) A Prepared Caster prepares his or her spells every day. A Spontaneous Caster has a Spell Repertoire. For a wizard or magus it's fairly straightforward: a spell is known if it's in his spell book. It gets in there either through the leveling process or through the "learn a spell" activity. For a cleric or druid, I'm not sure. These classes get their spells from their deity or from Nature, so it would seem that their personal spell list is the Divine or Primal list in its entirety. Is that right? Basically they "know" all spells of their tradition? A witch basically doesn't "know" any spells. Instead, her familiar knows spells garnered from the witch's patron through the leveling process, or from "consuming" written spells of their tradition. Spontaneous casters have a Spell Repertoire. In effect that is their personal spell list (all their spells "known"), and is a subset of their tradition's list. The Animist I call a hybrid because some of his spells are Prepared from the Divine list in much the same way as Clerics do it, and some are Spontaneous spells you have in a Spell Repertoire that you gain from your attuned apparitions. Have I got this right? Did I miss any spellcasting classes? I assume that the Multiclass Archetype Casters are the same as their base class in this regard.
Currently it looks to me like we're up to 25 Adventure Paths, with the latest being Bastion of Blasphemies and Waking Tigers and then Vaultlines coming up. Is this correct? This used to be easy to track even when (as I have lately) I fail to keep up. This time I had to run all over the place trying to figure this out. :-(
Specifically, the party finds a Wand of Heal (1st Rank). The description of this wand includes "The golden caps on the ends of this white wooden wand are adorned with ruby cabochons." This gives a somewhat obvious clue to what it does. Still, best to be sure, so your party wants to Identify Magic on it. What's the DC? "The GM sets the DC" says the description. Okay. This wand is a common level 3 item. The "DCs by level" table in the GM Core suggests the DC should then be 18. OTOH, the spell is rank 1, which suggests the DC should 15. Which should the GM use? One way to answer this is to look at the spell's traditions, which are divine and primal. So you could say that if you're using Religion or Nature to Identify Magic, you use the spell rank DC of 15, but if you're using Arcana or Occultism you use the item level DC of 18. I kind of like this but I'm not sure I can come up with a logical explanation why it should be this way. Of course, you could get lazy and just pick 15 or 18 for any attempt, but I don't like that much. What say you all? Added: on the gripping hand, I just took a look at 1st level Ezren, who is trained in all four skills: Arcana (+7), Nature (+4), Occultism (+7), and Religion (+4). So it doesn't matter if he uses Arcana or Occultism against a DC of 18 or Nature or Religion against a DC of 15, the end result is the same. Or I've missed something. Of course, not every magic user will be trained in all four skills, so there's that.
Is there an equivalent in Player Core to the Core Rulebook Divine Spell Death Knell? I haven't found one.
Just my opinion, but... 1. It seems to me that rituals are spells, so learning a rank 3 ritual should cost the same as learning a rank 3 spell. 2. Formulas should work the same way. 3. Rarity affects the learning process in whatever way the GM decides, anything from "no effect at all" to "add x% to the cost listed in the rulebook" to "go on a quest to find someone who knows how to do whatever it is you're trying to learn", to whatever the GM decides. 4. I have a vague memory which may be bleed-over from another system that uncommon spells or formulas should cost twice as much as common ones of the same level, while rare items should cost ten times as much. In such a case though I would expect the cost to include finding the right teacher or whatever (see #3). Comments? Recommendations? Falcon 231 does not apply. :-)
I'm in the forums. I have a list of topics. The list says I have an unread post in the forum discussion attached to a blog post. I click on the link that should take me to the unread message. It takes me to the blog, no access to any discussion. Same for product discussions. The link takes me to the store.
Gord the Rogue was a creation of Gary Gygax's. There were a couple of novels about him, as I recall. My question is "how would you create him in PF2E?" Probably pretty simple: He starts out as a Thief, and later adds Wizardry to his resumé (via Wizard dedication I would guess). I wonder though if there's anything special in Gord's CV, perhaps some special ability not covered by "Thief with Wizard dedication". I suppose you'd have to go back and read the books -- if you can find them. Hm. Wizard dedication. Which School?
There are twenty-five classes listed on Archives Of Nethys right now, the last two of which are the Animist and the Exemplar from War Of Immortals. The next two are the Commander and the Guardian, from Battlecry! I know that there are two after that, the Necromancer and the Runesmith, to be published in (I think) some book with Impossible in the title which has not been announced yet (GenCon 26?) That makes a total of twenty-nine. Will there be more?
Several of the class archetypes in WoI are clearly intended to be the 2E equivalent of 1E hybrid classes. Bloodrager, for example. Is Seneschal in that group, or is it something completely new?
So going through my downloads I found a folder called CommunityUsePackagePathfinderSocietyPregeneratedCharacters. This has four sub-folders: Advanced Class Guide, Core, Occult Adventures, Ultimate Combat. The classes from the Advanced Players Guide are missing. Where can I find them? (BTW, I can't find any files to download in the Community Use Section of the site. In fact, the Community Use link, which was there ten minutes ago, now seems to be gone. All I have is Blog, Forums, PaizoCon, and Guidelines. That last links to a message from Lisa Stevens and a bunch of FAQs. Not what I'm looking for.
Zadim is the iconic Slayer (hybrid Rogue/Ranger) in PF1E. In PF2E, with the advent of War Of Immortals, he's an Avenger (Rogue with the Avenger Dedication, which doesn't seem to give him any Ranger abilities. Here he is at level four: Zadim 4
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You can download a character sheet for Zadim in Paizo's Community Use Package for PF1E Iconics, if you can find it. Oh, here it is.
I was digging through my Herolab Online characters, and found this one. Apparently Tieldlara is an NPC from back in PF1E, an Aldori Swordlord. I don't know why I built this, or why I chose to go dual class, but here's her build at level 4. What do people think? Tieldlara 04
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In the Playtest Errata is this note: Page 44: Change the text of the ysoki Sharp Teeth ancestry feature to read: “Your prominent incisors offer an alternative to the fists other humanoids bring to a fight. You have a jaws unarmed attack that deals 1d4 piercing damage, is in the brawling group, and has the agile and finesse traits.” I can't find any mention of a "Sharp Teeth" ancestry feature on page 44 or anywhere else in the Ysoki section of the book.
Playing around with building a 2E character sheet for the iconic Arcanist Enora. Would help if I had a 1E sheet for her. Anyone know where I might find one?
Currently:
On deck, in no particular order:
So this afternoon I was reading, and this idea came to me. Not the usual class for Tarzan, but I think it sorta fits. What do you think? Tarzan
Jad-Bal-Ja
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In choosing/setting up your new forum software, please ensure that when you reply to a comment that's in a long thread, once your reply is posted, the software takes you back to where you were in the thread when you posted it. I'm getting tired of having to hunt "now where was I?" :-(
In the "my downloads" section of "my account", you have headers like "Paizo Inc.: Adventure Path Outlaws of Alkenstar (#178-180) (6)". Problem is this gives no clue whether this AP is for pathfinder 1E, pathfinder 2E, or Starfinder 1E (or, soon to come, 2E). My recommendation is to add that info in the header, so "Paizo Inc.: PF2E Adventure Path Outlaws of Alkenstar (#178-180) (6). Same is true, and even more important IMO for PFS and SFS scenarios: they're headed by "season of" or "year of" but... indicate which edition/game they're for, please. Also, is there a way to activate the triangles in the listing (to hide whatever's under that header) all at once (like cmd-click or shft-click on one and they all close) without causing the server to have a fit (which happens at some point(s) now when I'm clicking on them all one at a time in succession)? Also, group things that go together all together, perhaps under new higher level headers. For example, all PF1E APs in one place under one header, All PF1E PFS scenarios in one place, all PF2E stuff in one place that's different to the PF1E stuff, etc. If you do that, the request in my first paragraph may be redundant. BTW, how's the "looking for new forum/store software" quest coming? :-)
So far, I count five pocket editions in the SF RPG line: Core Rulebook
With SF2E coming what, next year (after 1 year playtest), that would seem to bode ill for pockets for the other dozen books in the line. Anyone have a clue they can pass on?
I haven't really delved into Starfinder much, so this question occurs: in Pathfinder, a "basic party" consists of a Fighter, a Rogue, a Cleric, and a Wizard. What's the Starfinder equivalent?
What does the above error message mean? I got it when trying to follow a link on your main page to one of the "sketch cover" Remaster books. After I got it I couldn't get away from it. I had to close the tab in my browser, try again, fail, close the tab again and retry.
Pre-Remaster, what's the difference between Drow and Cavern Elves? Both have existed since the beginning of PF2E, both are some kind of elf, but one is a monster and the other is a heritage. That's not what I mean by "what's the difference" though. Trying to answer my own question I come up with maybe Cavern Elves are very similar to Drow in that they retreated underground after Earthfall, but perhaps didn't go as deep or at least didn't run into whatever corrupted the elves who became Drow. Post Remaster, as I understand it, there are no Drow. The extensive empire they supposedly built in the Darklands never existed. Neither did they. They're strictly legendary. So how did the legends arise?
It seems to me there are basically two ways to build a world. In both you start with a history (and perhaps a prehistory) that goes back several thousand years. In one you then provide a "snapshot" called "now" where "now" then moves forward in time along with your publishing schedule. This is, I think, the way most world-builders, including Paizo, do it. The other way is to provide a snapshot of "now" at a particular date - and never move "now" from that in-world date. Any future publications cover parts of the world that haven't been covered yet, or provide additional information about the history of places that have already been covered that doesn't conflict with what's already published. To the best of my knowledge only one setting -- Harnworld -- works this way. Which gives rise to my question: are there other "frozen in time" settings besides Harnworld out there?
Someone posted on Facebook that he was trying to convert a PF1E character concept to PF2E and wanted to know how best to do it. The original concept was a scaled fist monk/draconic sorcerer. A couple of ideas were thrown about. Here's my quick and dirty shot at it: test monk 08
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There's a discussion of this somewhere, but I can't find it, so... The aforementioned discussion, as I recall it, said something about the rules around this being more draconian than most GMs have treated them. Here's my take after reading PC1 and GM Core: Generally speaking you will start an encounter with neither the dying nor the wounded condition. If during the encounter your hit points are reduced to 0, you fall unconscious and are Dying 1. If you take non-critical damage in this state, your Dying condition increases by 1 (to Dying 2). If you take critical damage, your Dying condition increases by 2 (to Dying 3). At the beginning of your turn each round, you make a recovery check. If you succeed you go to Dying 0 and are no longer dying, but you gain Wounded 1 and are (still) unconscious. If you fail, your dying condition increases by 1 or 2 (for a critical failure) plus whatever your wounded condition is (currently 0 in this scenario). Now let's say you get some healing while at Dying 1, but not full healing. You lose the Dying condition and gain the Wounded 1 condition, and you are no longer unconscious. If while you have Wounded 1, you get taken down to 0 hit points again, you are now Dying 2 (Dying 1+1 from your Wounded condition). Now you get healed a bit again. If this is from Treat Wounds (or you are healed to full) you lose the Wounded condition. But say it's from a spell that doesn't heal you fully. You don't lose the Wounded condition, but since you just got healed a bit you lose the Dying 2 condition, and your Wounded condition goes to 3. If you repeat this scenario again, you go to Dying 4 and you're dead. The moral of the story seems to be "use Treat Wounds on the dying or ensure they are healed to full". Have I got this right? Is there a more draconian interpretation that I'm missing? Is there a way to gain the Wounded condition other than by recovering from Dying?
So Ezren at level one decides he wants to craft some scrolls, so he gets trained in crafting at that level. But oops, he doesn't have expert crafting or magical crafting yet. Okay, wait 'til level 2, get those. No problem. So he decides to craft "scroll of first rank spell" (doesn't matter which one as long as it's in his spell book). Scrolls are consumables so they can be created in batches of four. Cool. But... Normally it takes a minimum of two days to craft something, but that can be reduced to one day if you have the item's formula. You do -- it's the spell itself. But you need four casts of the spell, and you only have three per day, so it's going to take you at least two days anyway. I think. Am I missing something? Added: if he wants to get these four scrolls for just the 8 gold of his initial expense, he's got to keep working on them for another 16 days (8 gold / 0.5 gold per day (from the earned income table) = 16), right?
On the Pathfinder product pages, there's a place for links to the last previous and next upcoming products in between the "See Also" section and the "Discussion" "Reviews" "Downloads" line. Appearance of these breadcrumbs is inconsistent. Sometimes they're there, sometimes they're not. Will this be fixed on the new website we're getting soon™? Can it be fixed *now*? I realize you may not have time for it, but it's real annoying when they aren't there.
Here's a character I came up with just this morning: Peter Pillbug, Poisoner Extraordinaire
Tiny
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How does an alchemist make a homunculus familiar? RAW, as far as I can see, with the exception of the poppet, the aeon wyrd, and the druid's leshy familiar, almost all familiars are animals, and "homunculus" isn't on the list. The homunculus is a construct. There's an entry for it in the Bestiary which starts by saying "A homunculus is a tiny servitor construct created by a crafter to serve as a spy, scout, messenger, or assistant. When a crafter first begins to study the art of creating constructs, she often crafts a homunculus first, since the creation process is simple and inexpensive due to a magical shortcut: the use of the creator’s own blood. This forges a link between the homunculus and its master, causing the homunculus to gain a spark of the creator’s intellect, as well as the same moral values and some of the creator’s basic personality traits. Homunculi left to their own devices never stray far from their masters." Yet there's no "Crafting" entry. The Alchemical Familiar feat says "You have used alchemy to create life, a simple creature formed from alchemical materials, reagents, and a bit of your own blood. This alchemical familiar appears to be a small creature of flesh and blood, though it might have some unusual or distinguishing aspects depending on your creative process. Like other familiars, your alchemical familiar assists you in your laboratory and on adventures. The familiar uses your Intelligence modifier to determine its Perception, Acrobatics, and Stealth modifiers (see Familiars for more information)." Looking at the Familiars entry doesn't help. Also, Herolab doesn't seem to have a possibility for a homunculus familiar. :-(
Not much really. 1. A biography for each iconic, including a physical description and a picture.
Not gonna happen, I'm sure, but it'd be nice.
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