I thought the idea of playing a skeleton exemplar would be fun, especially for RP. However, the mechanics of trying to build this character is sending me on a frustrating goose chase where some traits (or the lack thereof) seem somewhat odd. In particular, healing for the character. Now, I get that playing undead characters (such as skeleton or damphir) is supposed to come with the challenge of dealing with void healing, but I'm realizing the options seem extremely limited. Please indulge my rant and consider the path I have been down:
The exemplar has 3 basic ikons that can work for healing:
-- Scar of the Survivor: the transcendence ability, No Scar But This, does a great deal of healing. Basically able to do the equivalent of a 1 action Heal spell at the rank for the character's level every other round. This amount of potent healing makes some sense that it would have the Vitality trait. Of course having that trait makes undead types unable to use it.
-- Barrow's Edge: the transcendence ability, Drink of My Foes, allows the exemplar to sort of drain of health from those they damage with their weapon. Unlike No Scar But This, Drink of My Foes requires the exemplar to successfully strike with the weapon and then can only heal half of the damage dealt. I start scratching my head at this point as to why the Vitality trait is on this ability. The healing is much more conditional, and the mechanics seem right along the line of something "vampiric." But it has the Vitality trait, so again, undead characters cannot use it.
-- Horn of Plenty: this one doesn't have the Vitality trait, so undead can use it just fine. But wait, the free Elixir of Life only works on living creatures (and BTW, automatons and poppets, although constructs, are still considered "living" beings in the rules of PF2 so they could use it just fine). OK, the Elixir of Life doesn't work, but at least undead characters could load up the Horn with Oil of Unlife... except Oil of Unlife is not a potion or elixir. (Why does it NOT have the Potion or Elixir trait?) I only found 1 elixir or potion with healing properties that undead could use at early levels: Soothing Tonic (Lesser) [lvl 2 elixir] gives fast healing 1 for 1 minute. The next available potions or elixirs are lvl 5 items.
Now, perhaps one might say, "Get a wand of Harm or Soothe," "There are feats that allow you to effectively cast Harm," "Train in medicine and use Treat Wounds." Very well, but in the mean time while I try to reach the necessary character levels, train in the extra required feats to use them (and in some cases the additional extra feats to use them as an undead), and necessary wealth needed for some of these items; I very likely will have to spend a significant chunk of gold on consumables that use up extra actions. (As mentioned before, even construct ancestries that would normally not be affected by these things suddenly get to be considered "living" and don't have to worry at all about these kinds of restrictions and barriers to being healed.)
I get that being an undead character is supposed to be a challenge in several ways. I'm not against needing to deal with the topsy turvy mechanics of Void Healing. What is making me pull my hair out is the woefully lacking options for undead characters to stay alive (so to say) long enough to achieve anything like the survivability almost any other ancestry or heritage can enjoy with far, far less use of resources at level 1.