Gaulin's page

Just wanted to say that I really, really hope osteo armaments makes the cut into the final game. It's exactly what I've wanted for options like mind smith.

Not only do I hope it stays in the game, but that this kind of feat (easier access to backup weapons) becomes the norm. It's not going to be superior to a fully runed up weapon, but when it comes up you'll be so happy you have the option to create a new weapon right then and there.

I know that magical traditions are a pretty major talking point for some people, and I am far from an expert. But I was thinking about the traditions today when it dawned on me that the arcane tradition kind of gets the short end of the stick. The least amount of unique spells (while having the most spells in general, I know), dragon got taken away from being a more arcane thing, and just mostly kind of bland, imo.

What if runesmith was only arcane? Runes just scream arcane to me, all about the study, the language of magic. It's like magic science in my brain. Am I blaspheming of do others feel the same?

I definitely like the idea of backup runic enhancement, but once per day is a little meek. Good at first level for sure, but I hope we get a later feat to have it be castable at will on weapons you hold/your body. I mean necromancer, of all classes, can do it at will on any weapon they hold, one at a time. If any class should get that kind of ability, I would hope it would be runesmith. I would also love a mystic armor option as well, for the unarmored runic tattoo trope.

So immediately getting into the class (which is wicked) I was picturing a tattoo laden runesmith. But upon reading some of the feats, there are some issues.

It might be intended, but there's no action compression feats for unarmed. It might be intentional, but I would love some kind of compression there. Also there are a few things that are specific to weapons that probably shouldn't be. Runic optimization specifies it only works with weapons (the main reason for this post, really), and elemental revision only works on an unattended item or held by a willing creature, not worn like hand wraps.

Just reading through feats and came upon effortless concentration again and realized the fear itself doesn't have the concentration trait. Text if the feat;

You maintain a spell with hardly a thought. You immediately gain the effects of the Sustain a Spell action, allowing you to extend the duration of one of your active class spells.

So what do people think? I had always run it as if it had the concentration trait, but looking at it I'm not so sure.

Hey all, just looking to see if there's some rule I can't find. I'm wondering if there's any mention of how a cube area works in regards to placement mostly. Looking at hell of 1m needles as an example, it says it fills a 30 ft cube; my question is how do you place it if you have less than that much area? Could it occupy a small corner of a room, does the center have to be in line of sight/effect, etc.

So I started the campaign with a session 0 in which I asked my players to make characters that want to help the town of otari, to generally be good characters. But I have a player (my first time gming for him) that I have since learned loves to be an edgy PC. In the beginning his character (a nagaji dhampir) hated undead and worshipped pharasma, in part because he was turned into a dhampir. Which was well and good.

On the first floor of the keep, the party Crit on a knowledge check on Nhimbaloth. I still wanted to have the god be a little mysterious so I pretty much read out the beginning paragraph of the Nhimbaloth chapter in the back matter of the book. And honestly, reading it back, it's an afront to the cycle of souls but really just makes the god seem like a powerful predator.

Fast forward to now, the party just had a harrowing encounter with volluk. They were not prepared for a boss fight when they entered that room and were a little upset by the end even though they succeeded. After the fight while the party was resting, this edgy player went up to the chapel area and started praying to Nhimbaloth (I should also say for flavours sake, he got hit by a hazard earlier that gave him some memory loss and so forgot a lot about pharasma).

All that to say, I'm not sure how to handle a character who wants to worship Nhimbaloth. Should I give them knowledge that creating undead is a main form of worship? I feel like staying a non evil character and praying to Nhimbaloth feels wrong. Any tips here?

It also makes little sense to me that Nhimbaloths edict is creating ghosts and undead to feed her, and yet this lighthouse is full of ghosts that she can't feed on because they're stuck in this place. It also seems like worshippers sacrifice themselves to her, or when they die their spirits are to be eaten by her, and yet again the ghosts never move on and so can't be eaten (namely belcorra?). Almost seems like becoming a ghost and staying on golarian saves you from being eaten since you don't move on to the boneyard.

I ran into a situation last night that frustrated one of my players. Basically one of his allies, another PC, was confused and he wanted to feed him a focus cathartic elixir to attempt to counteract the confused condition. But confused means you don't treat anyone as your ally, and this confused person is straight up attacking this guy trying to pour an elixir in his mouth. After a bit of back and forth (maybe an attack roll, etc) I said whatever they want to do, just know that it opens the door for enemies to force poisons into your mouth. Eventually they gave up and just attacked him but the Alchemist player was a little annoyed.

Am I wrong, is the item an oversight, or any other insights into this situation?

This is half wishful thinking, half mechanical relevance, but I keep looking at rebirth in living stone and questioning exactly how it works. It will likely never get clarified as devs have better things to do and high level play is rarer, but I thought I would pose the question to the community.

Rebirth in living stone text - Rock overflows from within you to consume your form before cracking open to reveal your body transformed into living stone. You gain 40 temporary Hit Points. You’re immune to critical hits and precision damage. You can’t be pushed, pulled, or tripped while you’re standing on earth or stone. Your earth Elemental Blasts deal an additional 1d10 damage of their normal type.

These benefits last until the end of your next turn, but you can Sustain them up to 1 minute.

After you gain temporary Hit
Points from this impulse, you can’t do so again for 10 minutes.

And then there's the relevant text for channel elements - Your kinetic aura automatically deactivates if you’re knocked out, you use an impulse with the overflow trait, or you Dismiss the aura. Though you can’t use new impulses while your kinetic aura is deactivated, ones you already used remain, and you can still Sustain any that can be sustained. Stance impulses are linked to your kinetic aura and end when the aura deactivates.

So rebirth in living stone both ends on overflow, but can be sustained through overflow?The wording of RiLS makes me feel like it does persist through overflow and just lasts a round unless sustained. It would also be a bummer if you got the temp hp, had to do an overflow, and then lost them and couldn't regain them until ten minutes were up. If it did end on overflow it would seem counterintuitive to me, but I do understand becoming immune to crits is a very strong effect so maybe that is the intent. Just stinks like a fart if you couldn't use it and the other earth capstone in tandem. What do you all think?

To start I want to say we're a long ways off from release and we don't have a ton to go on, so a lot of this will be almost baseless speculation.

It seems to me that going off of the soldier field test that starfinder classes want to be distinct from pathfinder classes. Which is great. That is, in a way, how sf1e was too. But sf2e soldier, from what we've seen, is much more focused on one role. It makes me think the expectation is that pf2e classes being in starfinder is almost expected.

It's also my hope; being able to take established classes and races from pf2e and bring them into the future, outfit them with awesome tech weapons, armors and augments without jumping through hoops sounds amazing. There's really no reason in my mind why classes would cease to exist anyway. I do see why bringing sf2e characters to pf2e might pose a bit more of an issue, but I hope going from past to future is widely accepted at any table playing starfinder second edition (including sf2e sfs).

So all that said, I really really would love to have a page or two of starfinder 'specific' feats for pathfinder classes. Giving druids an expanded, alien species wild shape, an investigator a biohack methodology, or a swashbuckler hacking swashbuckling style (I've put no thought into this but wanted to put some examples down to maybe get others thinking).

Not sure if the core rulebook for sf2e would be an okay place since some have said it's supposed to be completely stand alone - maybe an separate smaller rules book? But for me that would be huge for selling me personally on the new edition (let's be honest I'll be buying it anyway but this sort of thing would get me much more pumped about it).

This post is rompted by a reddit post in which the main subject line was along the lines of 'plz help my players are demolishing severe encounters". In it they detail the group composition (which I am not going to do) and how they get the most they can out of their magus through things like synesthesia, inspire heroics, true strikes, etc. I thought it was great, I still do.

My sort of worry is that this sort of thing is far and away the best way to play the game. In my game we are level 18 and have heroism and synthesia and throw flat footed and aid each other as much as we can and it's a good time. But I don't want to feel like that's the single best way to deal with tough fights. There's not much that can debuff as well as synesthesia or only a couple ways that I know of to get +3 status bonuses out to the party.

Does anyone have advice for good strong tactical play or group comp that is as good or better than stacking the same buffs and debuffs?

In all the new core book hullabaloo, I feel that this awesome new class coming out in around two and a half months may not be getting the excitement it deserves! Many aspects of it have been discussed to death, to be fair, in the rage of elements area, product page for the book, discord, reddit, etc. But paizocon is just a couple weeks away!

Kineticist is the class that got me interested in pathfinder and ttrpgs in general so I am very biased, but it seems to me that the class might have the biggest amount of changes from playtest to full release. From the retrospective it seems that nearly every aspect of it may be changing, from number tweaking on damage and action cost to fundamental changes like gather element and elemental blast. Not to mention two whole new elements to add to the mix.

As such, I wanted to make a post in general discussion for better visibility (hope that's okay) about what questions people have for the devs when they talk about the class! I believe we get an hour of rage of elements discussion on Friday, may 27th. Of course this thread is not made by a dev or anything, no guarantee that it will be seen, but who knows. With enough discussion it might get some attention.

So, what are your burning kineticist questions?

A little late in the year to make this thread, but I always enjoy reading the speculations and hopes of everyone for this awesome game in the coming year. My request for this thread is to not speculate about starfinder 2e and instead focus on this great game we have and the content possibly coming out this year for it.

My own hopes

More pocket editions! I recently started buying these and they are wonderful. At least any rulebooks with classes included would be my top picks for pocket versions.

This comes up a lot and I know the arguments against it, but please another AP that goes to level 20.

Honestly I can't think of more classes to add to the game. I'm sure the smarties at Paizo can think of something, but I got nothing! I would like more class options though, at least for newer classes (witchwarper, biohacker, nanocyte, precog and especially evolutionist). Core classes have a ton of options and I would be okay with them getting a little less if it meant new classes get more.

More errata and FAQs done is always welcome, not going to mention anything specific, not too hard to find questions that don't have answers yet.

Quick question for devs - what category is the flight granted by enhanced mobility? I'm guessing and hoping (su), but it's not stated. Thank you!

Holy crap on a cracker that is an awesome analysis, well worth the wait. I love everything I'm reading here, seemed to have hit the nail on the head and I'm really happy with what was said about the especially divisive topics like single target damage and burn.

I would be sosososo happy if elemental blast becomes more like a cantrip. Not getting my hopes up too high as things surely aren't written in stone yet (and even then the language is vague), but ditching reliance on damage runes and scaling off of constitution would be amaaaazing

I'm having difficulty understanding the wealth by level chart and what is meant by permanent items. I understand what it's saying, I guess, but from an actual balance point it seems really unbalanced? By that chart a character would possibly end up with a bunch of low level items (and we all know that most items don't scale well), maybe miss out on having an appropriately leveled weapon or armour set, and some change (not enough to buy say, a new weapon).

In the campaign my character is in (an AP, were about to finish book 4) I'm struggling to save up for bracers of armour 2 and we're just about 15th level. I don't spend any money on things like consumables, instead we sell just about everything we come across. My dm (rightly) says that judging by the wealth by level table, you're not actually supposed to have weapon or armour of your level. At least it isn't a guaranteed thing.

Is this a normal thing? Do others have a similar experience?

One thing that would really open up some builds and classes for me would be being able to tattoo weapon runes on arms as if they were handwraps of mighty blows. The flavor of the magic actually being part of your character makes it so much cooler, so much so that when I'm messing around making characters I frequently multiclass with witch to get eldritch nails.
Being able to tattoo weapon runes (and possibly armor runes applying to light armor?) Would also solve the lack of tattoo formula as well.

So I have a few discussion points. Do you think it could be implemented in a future book? If it was, what sort of issues would there be (balance wise, rules wise, economy wise?)? Would it be a popular enough thing to warrant pagespace?

As far as I can tell, an inventors weapon innovation starts as a level 0 or 1 item. It seems like you can add runes as normal, but you cant get a future weapon and turn it into your new innovation. And the only way to aquire a precious material weapon is to make one (or buy etc.) A whole new item, you cannot simply turn an existing item into a precious material weapon.

Last night, February 16th, Know Direction Beyond had an interview with John Compton about how the Evolutionist had changed since the playtest. It's a great interview and I recommend everyone check it out (as of now it's just on their twitch) but I know that videos aren't everyone's cup of tea. So I am going to summarize most of the points made here!

A very important note - John wasn't, for the most part, reading from a script or even the text from the near finished project (still has to go through copyfitting). In addition it really sounds like there has been a lot of changes to the evolutionist, both before the playtest and after. Mix all that with numerous other things he is in charge of and it wouldn't surprise me if there were some confusion in regards to specifics. For example there were a few things that he had said were in the playtest but weren't. I am 1000% not throwing blame or upset at all, just wanted to say that this write up may not be 100% accurate to the final product.

- Evolution points have been renamed to Mutation Points (MP). Sounds like they work the same way they did in the playtest, gaining them over time in combat.

- When asked about out of combat focus there was a little confusion in regards to how they worked in the playtest (unless I'm the one who didn't understand) in that evolutionist could spend RP to gain MP, and thus spend them outside of combat. I didn't think it worked that way, looks to me like they only were gainable in combat, but that could be one the the things that they went back and forth on. John also mentioned that out of combat you lost your MP fairly fast, whereas it had been clarified on the forums you lose them when combat ended. In looking at feedback, they found there wasn't a long enough period that the buffs you gained from spending MP lasted long enough outside of combat. So they have adapted some of the adaptations we had see in the playtest to have either a constant benefit that you could spend MP to briefly augment, or they have a slightly longer period that they apply, so you're not just resisting something for a couple of rounds. An example that stood out was some of the sensory adaptations, like gaining darkvision constantly, but spend MP to make it longer range or see through stuff.

- Talk about how complex everything is, and how they made simpler. Big one here is Evolutionist is going to be a full BAB class! No more spending MP to get full BAB. There has been other simplifications, less things to juggle (nothing specified other than BAB)

- Augmentations are talked about. Little confusion here as its said in the playtest you got a free augmentation of your level that you could upgrade on level up as part of the augmented evolutionary focus (you only got a discount). Now though, you get a free augmentation (based on your niche) at either level one or two (I'm assuming two, in the playtest that's when the augmented form class feature is unlocked) that you can upgrade as you level, and if you go the augmented focus, you gain another one at a slightly lower level. In addition to being able to plug more augments into one system as in the playtest.

- Drawbacks were discussed, mostly the eldritch niche because it got some pushback. The drawback was changed so you only take extra damage from nonmagical kinetic damage. Also as a new benefit to the eldritch niche, as long as you have at least 1 MP remaining, you gain a reaction where you can gain extra resistance when damaged by a spell. Most of the niches are going to look very familiar.

- Fulcrum was discussed a little, but one of the issues is that it levels as you do, and how that works with fusions. It wasn't clarified how that was changed (normally you have to pay an amount for fusions depending on the level of the item you install them on, how does that work when the item levels up?)

- Adaptive strike is discussed. It's been worked out that adaptive strike g e n e r a l l y has the same damage output as a solarians solar weapon or a solar flare for adaptive strikes that target EAC. You get (he thinks) two different adaptive strikes at first level, you can change what it is when you level, and you gradually add in more as you level. Eventually you get the ability (if he recalls correctly) to manifest multiple adaptive strikes at once, but early on you can only manifest one at a time. This was another thing John thought might have been in the playtest (must have gone through a lot of iterations)

I was already excited for evolutionist, and now am even moreso. The main issues with the class have been dealt with, it sounds like, and we got some wicked bonuses like multiple adaptive strikes and free augmentations. What do you all think of these changes? Have they got you excited for this new class?

Galactic magic is an awesome book, excited for others to get their hands on it! Also might be a bit of a reach but I hope the evolutionist book is announced!

As we get close to the end of 2021, I keep thinking about the evolutionist and what sort of book it might appear in and the questions around that. I definitely have a tendency to read into things too much, but I find it strange that the dark archive book was announced as the playtest classes for it were, and even that was after the evolutionist playtest was over. And now, on the fifth month after the playtest started, we still don't know the book it's coming in (and I assume it will also be a gencon release like dark archive).

I do think the book will be announced soon, likely within the next couple of months. It could be a sort of fallout from drift crisis, or its own thing entirely. And what would it contain?

I personally would love to see a biotech based book, focused around augmentations, PC alien companions, and other class options that fit this theme. Would be cool to fill out what I see is sort of book he core of starfinder - magic, tech, and biological. Maaaaybe cosmic could fit in there too, but it may be too niche.

What sort of book do you see the evolutionist coming out in?

It pains me to say it but I've come to realize pathfinder isn't my favorite anymore. Too many issues and I don't want to have to implement alternate rules to games. Starfinder is more my speed; I'll keep that subscription. Thank you!

You are immune to poison and low-level radiation. Additionally, you treat each other category of radiation as one step lower (for example, you treat high radiation as medium radiation).

Radiation is a poison effect. So by RAW being immune to poison means you aren't affected by radiation, right? Unless the RAI is that radiation doesn't count as a poison effect for the purposes of this discipline?

I'm sure the feat intends the user of the feat to use their level as their caster level when using this feat, however as written it has none. Maybe for the next round of errata.

Apologies James if threads like these are unhelpful (they might even be annoying), but I was a little worried that pretty much every aspect of a psychic is covered in the current Conscious Mind options. That got me thinking of what else might be cool, and then the thought train got going and I couldn't stop thinking. So this is a thread about brainstorming new ideas! Also naming isn't my strong suit, so bear with me on that.

- Psychic Projection - You have a powerfully vivid imagination and artistic talent. You can create images or other sensory effects in the minds of others of beauty or terror, and anything in between.
Cantrips - Bullhorn - Amp effect - Enemies within 30 ft make a basic will save. On a fail, they take 2 bleed damage, double that on a critical fail. Heightened +2, +2 damage on bleed.
- Ghost Sound - Amp effect - When cast and once each turn the spell is sustained for the duration, choose an enemy within range to make a basic will save. On a failure, they are flat footed to the next attack against them until the start of your next turn, on a critical failure, they are flat footed to all attacks against them until the end of your next turn.
- Illusory Wall - (2a, 30 ft range) Can make two contiguous squares solid objects until the end of your next turn, with a will save to disbelieve.
- Amp effect - Can make up to 4 contiguous squares solid objects. Enemies who are adjacent to the squares at the start of their turn and haven't disbelieved take 1d4 mental damage per spell level on a basic will save, as the wall damages them with illusory flames, blades, or whatever else.

- Force Constructs - Instead of moving things with telekinesis, you have mastered the ability to manifest your psychic powers into simple physical objects in the world. These objects are made of pure force, but they all have a different look and feel depending on the individual creating them.
Cantrips - Shield - Amp effect - increase the circumstance bonus to AC to 2. After shield block is used, the caster can cast it again in subsequent turns.
- Forbidding Ward - Amp Effect - Target only an enemy; any ally the target enemy targets gains the status bonus listed.
- Force Armament - (2a) The caster creates a weapon or layer of force to attack or deal damage. If creating a weapon, the caster can make either a ranged spell attack to a target within 30ft, or a melee spell attack roll, dealing 1d4+Mod (+1d4 per spell level) force damage. The weapon can be used to make more spell attacks until the beginning of the users next turn for (1a). If used to create a layer of force, the caster gains (Mod) temporary hp until the end of the casters next turn (heightened +1 temp hp/spell level).
- Amp effect - The weapon created deals damage in a 30 ft cone, 10 ft burst within 30 ft, or 60 ft line with a basic reflex save. The damage is increased to 1d6+mod (+1d6 per spell level). The layer of force gives the user resistance equal to (Mod) while the user has the temporary hp from the spell.

I have a couple more ideas but that's probably enough for now. Curious as to what others may have in mind!

Like many others, I'm very surprised by this class. It's very unique and very different from 1e. Kudos to you James! Honestly I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I do. This thread is going to be nitpicky, as there's not a whole lot I have major issues with.

Concerns

- Damage. This is one that's really only going to be apparent with playtesting, but this thread is just initial thoughts, and it jumps out a little. Really it's a combination of small problems that add up. One, cantrip damage (at least unamped) on the new cantrips seems a little low. Most of them do area damage, of course, so maybe everything is as it should be, but it feels like 5d6 damage with no flat bonuses at level 20 is not a lot, especially when said cantrips seem to be a major part of the class. It would be pretty rare to get more than two enemies caught in a 5ft burst or 15 ft cone, and things like electric arc or scatter scree do a lot more damage (10D4+stat).
Now to offset this, we have the amp stuff. Which I love, I really do. But when used outside of psyche, they don't compete well with other damaging focus spells are usually 2d6 per spell level. I personally play an elemental sorcerer (admittedly possibly the best blaster around, but there are others like druids, oracles, even some cleric domains that have the same scaling damaging focus spells) and I feel like doing half that damage wouldn't feel great.
And to offset that, there's the psyche stuff. Again, really cool feature. But I could probably count on my fingers the amount of combats I've had that last more than 3 rounds. Part of me loves it, a PC that gets stronger, not weaker as a battle goes on as most casters do. Having a tiny hp pool does scare me a bit though, and as far as balance goes, why wouldn't I just play a different blaster that can just end the fight early instead of hoping the fight lasts longer so I can throw out amp cantrips?
I don't mean to make all of that seem harsh, like I said I actually love the class and those mechanics. Playtesting will be needed but I think damage on the cantrips could use a liiittle boost. Also, to be clear, please keep spell slots as they are and boost cantrips, it's so much more interesting than another spellslot blaster.

- Going to echo what a lot of others have said; please have a wisdom option. It makes sense and we need more wisdom love. Also as another pointed out perception never going beyond trained is rough, more wisdom would help that a lot.

- Bunch of rapid fire feat concerns - how does Mental Buffer (resistance to mental damage) and Become Thought (weakness to mental damage) interact? Does Become Thought make you the age, memories, etc, of the person who knew you? Unleash Reflexive Sustainment is just so much worse that effortless concentration (uses your psyche 'slot', has a drawback, has requirements, can only use after 3 turns) even if it's available earlier, it feels like something worse for no good reason. I dislike the 'drawback' of the subconcious mind option, precise discipline, very much. It's already way too hard to get around spells being interrupted, especially in later levels (some monsters are almost impossible for a caster to fight, see lesser death). Lastly, maybe this isn't fair but all the level 20 feats are either super good or too cool not to take, would be really nice to move a couple of them to at least a level 18 slot.

Things I love

- The focus on cantrips is very cool, and all three of the conscious mind options are really good in their own way. Special call out to arrest trajectory and mental scan (circumstance bonus is so strong, even if it won't ever be higher than a +2, the range is great)

- Psyche options are very flavorful, and most are really good. The only one I'm not sure on is the default original one - it's strong, but -2 AC is really scary. Oh, and unleash poltergeist phenomena, that ones also very cool but risky for the same reason. Dark persona, soaring passions, and self defense are all very cool, strong, and flavourful.

- Tons of feat options that encompass everything I would want a psychic to do, especially feats like sixth sense or the autonomic feats.

This came off a bit more negative than I meant to, but it's a little harder to gush about the good stuff than point out the why's of the bad stuff. I love the class very much, hit it out of the park, really.

I'll preface this by saying that I don't think this is the class for me. It's very flavourful, and very well designed, but it's just not my sort of flavour. But I would still like to put in my input for others sake, both as someone who may GM for one, and for those who may love the class!!

Concerns

- Stat usage is something that might be looked at. Charisma being a key stat and being very important to the class (recall knowledge not working is a big bummer for this class, need that cha as high as possible, as well as things like class DC) means that the class will be one behind in the early levels. It might even be as high as two behind in later levels, depending on the apex item chosen, I'm not sure which stat is the right choice here. That being said, this is relatively minor, just something to consider when adding feedback and playtesting.

- Recall knowledge being a huge part of the class presents a few problems to me. Others may not be in the same boat, but I really hate dubious knowledge as a gm. Just adds more work and I'm bad at it, I would prefer my players don't take it. It being forced in is kind of annoying. Recall knowledge being so important to the combat of the class means that one almost has to spend all of their skill increases in nature/religion/occult/arcane, and even then a thaumaturge might run into something that can only be identified with society or crafting or another skill they haven't increased. So not only does it feel like their skill increases are forced on them, but even spending all increases on those RK skills they still may not be able to use their main class feature on enemies. Lastly, and this may be my own confusion but I'm sure others could get caught on it as well - a failed recall knowledge means the character can't recall knowledge anymore. Isn't that a big deal or am I missing something?

- This one is more personal and I honestly have yet to find someone who feels the same way, so feel free to disregard. But I can't stand playing classes who are powerless when you take away their toys, and Thaumaturge seems to maybe be the prime example of this. I know there is a feat to call ones implement, but a mile isn't super far, and bags of holding are everywhere. And what if they're destroyed? Also take away their esoterica and you have a similar problem. I would personally love a feat, maybe a higher level one with the prerequisite of Call Implement, that allows the Thaumaturge to call their stuff from anywhere, even another plane, and rebuild it if it's destroyed. But again that's just me.

Things I love

- Feats for making both scrolls and talisman is very cool. Two pools of objects to be able to make (and use thaumaturge DC, awesome) means a ton of variety for the class, and only if one wants it.

- All the tools for making a supernatural hunter are there. I couldn't think of anything else a class like this could want, really knocked it out of the park here.

- A lot of variety in playstyle. The more I think about it, the more builds one could make. Could make a gish with scrolls and wand, a damage support, healer, single target damage dealer, even a bit of a tank.

So I'll start by saying I really do like the class - awesome concept and mostly great mechanics. I hope this post doesn't come off as too negative, most of the points are small in the big picture. But I did want to get my take on the forums, there doesn't seem to be enough discussion for me!

The main feel I got after reading the playtest is I loved the concept, but the mechanics don't seem to mesh very well. I'm not super sure what the class is supposed to be good at. I would think it would be about adapting, being ready for anything, but it doesn't do the best job of that I think. Dpr seems pretty low, and that's okay, if the adaptiveness is increased a little (imo).

As others have said, too little out of combat options. And I can see why the class is designed the way it is, it's kind of a weird spot. A lot of the stuff the evolutionist can do can be covered by (sometimes dirt cheap) augmentations. It would feel kind of crappy to spend class features on things that anyone can purchase. I'm not sure how to fix this, to be honest - maybe something as simple as a budget that can only be spent on augmentations (picked from the niche picked) that can be changed on level up (don't have to be installed, just mutated/grown/whatever).

In combat options are pretty cool. It is a little weird there is no damage boost type feature. Spending an EP every turn just to get full BAB feels kind of crappy, and may be my main gripe with the class. Spending your classes main resource just to get something other classes just have passively, and it seems to be really the only way to bump up dpr, feels wrong. I would rather a more unique damage booster, or something to give cool properties to attacks. The latter would, to me, fulfill what the class seems to be about, adapting to situations.

I was thinking today about starfinders new class playtest that was dropped (the evolutionist, extremely cool concept) and it made me realize that maybe we could get a 2e playtest earlier than I thought. Gencon seemed like a good bet to me, as it would be after SoM and directly following GnG (not GaG, yw Micheal Sayre). But gencon is usually end of July, and the timing of a convention shouldn't push the whole release schedule of paizo, right? Even SoM was supposed to be released at the end of July before delays that were beyond paizos control.

So, place your bets, when will a new playtest be announced? I'm thinking/hoping next month for an announcement.

I've found a few similar threads on this subject, but far from a consensus, so I wanted to bring it up again. I'm looking at building an alchemist and there are a few situations that are a little squiggly. I would like to find a way to create and throw two perpetual bombs in the same turn.

First off, there is the debate that double brew/alchemical alacrity don't work for perpetual infusions, as they say "When using the Quick Alchemy action, instead of spending one batch of infused reagents to create a single item" and perpetual doesn't spend any infused reagents. So that's a possible way but I wouldn't rely on it if players are split on how it works.

Second is using a familiar. With lab assistant, your familiar should be able to spend a couple actions to create a couple things. Some hangups here - can it use perpetual infusions, can it add additives to said infusions, and how would the action economy work with handing the bombs to the pc? I would thing that even if the familiar could send two actions to make two bombs, the pc would have to spend two actions to grab said bombs. So this one may be a wash as well.

I'm pretty new to building alchemists and don't know all the ins and outs. If there's something else I'm missing I would love to hear it!

Some monsters in the game, especially higher level ones, can disrupt spells very easily. I haven't looked at too many as I am a player in a game and don't want to metagame too much, but I do want to be prepared if we run into this sort of thing!

It's bugging me a bit because I can't see a way out of it. I even played a reach barbarian with AoO and it locked down casters really well; and some monsters (even fighters with the right feat) disrupt casting on even a regular hit. So I am hoping for some suggestions. These are all assuming that the caster doesn't go first, and so doesn't get any spells off beforehand. I am personally playing an elemental sorcerer, but any suggestions would be appreciated for others who might stumble upon this thread. Some half solutions I have;

- Contingency. I can't figure out the best spell to get off using it (not much on the primal list, even using contingency is using up my precious crossblooded evolution) but it can't be stopped from going off.

- Movement. This is a simple one but some creatures can provoke from 60 or more feet away, and terrain can make it impossible.

- Quicken metamagic. Only once per day, but a second spell in a round could turn the tide. Personally couldn't make it fit in my build.

- Steady spellcasting. Not sure this is worth the feat, it's still very likely the spell will get disrupted.

Any other cool strategies? Also, I'm aware that it's a team game. But I hate feeling useless, even if my character would get focus fired and the rest of my team is free to do their thing.

One thing I'm not sure about is if animal companions can benefit from hunters edge if the animal companion was gained through a non ranger archetype, such as cavalier. Has anyone had any experience with such a build in pfs or anything?

Beastkin is probably my favorite heritage of all time. Loose origins make it possible to have a ton of cool ideas, and picking basically any animal makes it even more flexible. That and the feats themselves having multiple options, and that it's a versatile heritage so you can slap it onto almost any ancestry, makes it the best. Thank you guys for making it.

I figured the boards are slow enough now and we're close enough to the end of the playtest that we could maybe get some more discussion going. My initial impressions have definitely changed, partially through discussion from others. So what do people think of the following frequently brought up discussions?

Proficiencies

Not too much discussion here, though I have seen some say that the armorer innovation at least should have heavy armor proficiency right off the bat. I personally don't feel strongly about this.

Key ability score

Definitely some divided opinions on how much that extra point of strength matters, and if it would be okay to have an unintelligent inventor. Personally think it might be kind of cool to be able to choose between the two, like how some classes can choose between strength and dex, etc.

Skills

Some posters have pointed out that an inventor that doesn't invest in crafting is making a really bad decision and should maybe automatically improve over time. While I agree that would be good, it may be stepping on toes of other skill classes. On the other hand, I don't think many other classes have so many features tied to a skill. Tough one.

Unstable

This one has been a huge topic of discussion, buuut personally think it should be flat out ignored since it sounds like it's going to be super different in the final version. I feel its best to leave this topic alone.

Armor innovation

Probably the topic most discussed. Some have said a lot of the options are too similar and would like some more variety in its modifications. I agree that would be nice, but again stepping on the toes of other innovations (especially weapon) might be an issue. I'm sure we'll get more options in the final version regardless, so this might just fix itself, but all for more cool stuff!

Construct innovation

Two main issues with this guy - healing and low stats. A lot of the actual play write ups have said it's hard to keep alive, and I could definitely see that being an issue. Lower stats than an animal companion is another thing that's been brought up, but it seems like it's mainly an issue in later levels which haven't been playtested much. I'm all for being able to spend extra feats to make it slightly stronger, like how a druid or beastmaster or cavalier can specialize their companion multiple times. One thing no one seemed to complain about were the actual modifications for the construct, which is awesome after the crazy discussions in the summoner playtest!

Weapon innovation

Seemingly the most well liked option, a lot of posters had a good time with this one. Lack of ranged weapon options and some modifications that are too similar (multiple modular options for example) are the only things I remember that have been brought up.

Overdrive

One of the few things almost everyone can agree on, overdrive is great early, but as the game gets to higher level its not worth using for the action.

Feats

A pretty huge topic, but as this is basically a summary, I will summarize the main feats that people have brought up.
- Tamper is cool on paper, but in practice there are too many weaponless/armorless foes for it to be worth it.
- Overdrive ally/Shared overdrive/ubiquitous overdrive are problematic just because of how strong overdrive is in general.
- A lot of talk on the unstable feats, but again I'm going to mostly ignore them.

And that's about it! Pretty concise playtest I think, very solid job by the devs. My own personal wish is that innovations get a sort of automatic bonus progression, half to make a magicless character but also to make it a lot easier to change up your innovation without the headache of transferring runes. I'm very much looking forward to the full class, or even just the playtest roundup blog post!

I've almost posted this topic a few times but chickened out because I'm sure I'm a dummy and am missing something. How the heck do you use the moonlight bridge spell? Attacks can't pass through it, you and your friends can't, and enemies can. Obviously it can be used to cross gaps and leave your enemies behind, but that can't be it? It can function as a straight up wall, but it only blocks ranged attacks and it's only 10ft wide. As the highest level focus spell for a cosmos oracle, it's gotta be good, right? What am I missing?

I suppose this is for those that have the apg already. In gaining the archetype, you can craft without needing appropriate tools but get a -2 to craft checks. Does that mean alchemists with the archetype wouldn't need anything to craft alchemy stuff? I would say it at least applies to advanced alchemy, but I'm not so sure about quick alchemy.

Playing 2e last night and we ended up fighting a krooth. One thing that left a bad taste in my mouth is that you need a DC 26 medicine check to stop the bleeding it inflicts, no other way will stop it. We had been getting on with lay on hands and spells, and my barbarian with very low medicine (just uses assurance to hit the 15 dc). So we had a very, very hard time dealing with it, even after it died.

Are there other situations like this, where if you aren't trained in a specific skill you're out of luck?

First off just want to say that I'm forever grateful to my gm, I'm having an amazing time finally getting to be a player. This is a very small issue but I'm curious if it's ever come up in anyone else's games and how it was dealt with.

We're playing extinction curse, currently on book 2. I play a barbarian and took fighter dedication at 2 and AoO at 4. Before we had a character with AoO, monsters were very careless. They casted things in our faces, did regular strides away from characters for whatever reason, etc. We did the same to monsters, unless we found out they had AoO in which case we did the usual counterplay of 5 ft steps, etc. But ever since my character got the ability to AoO, suddenly all monsters are being super careful and taking steps and such. Its a little frustrating to me, and I end up calling out the gm, asking why they would do that. Sometimes he would think of a legit reason (some of their goons explained our tactics or something similar) but other times it would be a reason like they're just playing smart.

On the one hand, I want to be challenged. On the other, it's frustrating to feel like I so rarely get to use my feat or have to annoy the gm into letting me use it. I'm probably going to trade in my weapon for a reach weapon so the problem is minimized, but I wanted to hear others thoughts on this.

I'm making this thread not as a complain thread, but because I'm sure there must be a genuine reason for it that I'm not seeing. Why is it that the summon blank spells lag behind in level as the caster levels? It seems to me it should stay basically the same (2 levels behind caster) since proficiencies are based on level. As it is now the farther along a caster gets, the worse the spell gets. At level 20, a level 15 creature is gonna be garbage against a cr 20 creature (not to mention parties might be fighting even higher than cr 20 encounters!), And that's using a level 10 spell.

For pfs and the like. There's no mechanical benefits or anything but I'm not sure if they are.

I'm not very good at theorycrafting, so I was hoping to get a little help making the best consistent cantrip user.

I think the best class to base a cantrip focused character on would be a rogue. With magical trickster you get to add sneak attack to a cantrip, and you have a lot of wiggle room with skills to make enemies flat footed, via feinting, distracting, etc. I think a thief racket would be best, purely because their debilitations are stronger (Precise debilitation allowing an extra 2d6 or making them flat footed), though scoundrel for the extra charisma boost is a little tempting. Multiclassing sorcerer is probably another good way to go, as they get better attacking cantrip options than a bard, though you lose out on inspire courage. Being a goblin with burn it! would also help with damage. I'll write out the feats I can find that would be good for a cantrip focused style character.

Goblin thief racket rogue

Ancestry feat - burn it!
Level 2 feat - Sorcerer dedication, pick up produce flame and ray of frost, for melee attacking and long range, respectively
Level 4 feat - Magical Trickster
Level 10 feat - Precise Debilitation

So eventually you're dealing 10D4+5+5+6D6 damage per hit, with +31 to hit. There are lots of wiggle room to get feats to do other cool things, but I think that's pretty good. Alternatively there's being an elemental sorcerer which gives extra damage to produce flame, higher charisma, gets better (and earlier) proficiencies for casting, but loses out on sneak attack damage.

Thoughts, or ways to improve the build?

Just a quick question I'm having a hard time finding the answer to - do the unarmed attacks of form spells have a weapon group? I would assume they're in the brawling group. I hope so, as I'm looking to be a fighter multiclassed into druid for wild shape, and proficiencies increase faster when you choose to specialize in them. It's possible that it's on purpose as a balance thing but maybe not.

The feat witch nails is a little confusing to me. It says runes applied to the nails work only on hands, not other unarmed attacks. But if you were to multiclass monk (I know technically there are no rules for that yet), would the runes applied to the nails work with their stances? Most of the stances use their hands, it would be a little silly to me if it didn't work.

This is one of those annoying questions about things that could be about GM discretion, but I would hope to get a general idea of what people think.

Two things I was thinking would be possible while wild shaped; command an animal, and maintain a spell.

Command an animal has the auditory trait, and simply says you give an animal orders. While wild shaped (with the exception being dragon form, in which you can speak) you cannot speak. But I would think that giving orders might not mean speaking, it could mean 'barking' orders. Especially if the animal you were commanding was the same species you'd wild shaped into.

The other thing is maintaining a spell while wild shaped. It says you cannot cast spells, but if one had already been cast, the next turn you wild shape and maintain the spell, should that work? I would think yes, but I don't want to cheese the game.

I know both of these probably don't have definite answers and are probably up to GM discretion, but I personally hate that. I would like to plan and play my character and know that there won't be dispute or create a bad atmosphere with people that think I'm not following the rules or stretching them. So hopefully I can get some input!

Thank you.

I've been very excited to make a form focused druid for the campaign my group is running. But something I'm sure most others have already realized hit me; wild shape, at medium to high levels, forces you to become large or huge. I can't find any concrete rules on squeezing either. So if we end up doing a dungeon or the like with 5 ft wide hallways, and I'm sure it'll happen depending on what ap or Homebrew we do, my character is going to be really lame.

Is there something I'm overlooking? I was really excited for my character but after this realization I feel a little deflated.

I'm always attracted to builds that need very little and can keep attacking without expending resources. I'm wondering if there are any feats or builds etc. that I've overlooked.

So far I really like barbarian, as they can rage as many times as they want, and certain kinds of barbarians need very few items. Spirit and dragon especially, with spirit getting a ranged attack that doesn't benefit from items and dragon getting the ability to turn into a dragon as long as you rage, and polymorph can't benefit from items anyway.

Druid is another, especially with a sorcerers refocus ability and form control means indefinite wild shaping.

Casters in general are okay with cantrips, but a single martial regular strike (ignoring all the other feats they can get to improve their damage) does as much or more than a two action cantrip. I know in the grand scheme of things it's balanced because of spells, but as I've said I'm looking more for longevity (not really looking to have arguments about how you should never have so many encounters in a day/you will have all the spells you need/etc).

Has anyone come up with any other neat builds?

Things like this makes me wish we had a simple questions thread, but oh well.

Just wondering if you add you str mod to damage to attacks made with form spells? Balance wise, I would assume yes, but I was hoping for clarification