HidaOWin's page

If Thunderstrike is the new Shocking Grasp, it hurts Magus a lot.

Shocking Grasp is Magus's best choice for a pure damage spell at most spell ranks as bizarrely they had almost no single target attack roll spells printed in Secrets of Magic.

It was so egregious I thought it was an in-joke "Ha, its on theme that Magus just casts Shocking Grasp at every level, just like 1st edition"

I can say with authority that we will not be adding any weird dice to the Pathfinder Core Rules as part of the Remaster Project.

Glad to hear that Pathfinder won't use any weird dice, just the naturally occurring platonic solids as Gygax intended, because the probability teaching kits he got included those dice. /s

Really disliking the lack of three boosts and a flaw, they were very handy for broadening a character build and shoring up some weaknesses. Also means the two boost characters have to compete with the raw power of humans or the extra stats of the three boosts and a flaw.

Due to the Irish postal service leveling new heavy duties on importing anything labelled games/dice/mats I regretfully need to cancel several of my Pathfinder subscriptions.

Its frustrating as I've been a long term subscriber and like supporting the company but the cost has spiraled out of control and I'm paying a quarter of the total price of the package if it contains ANYTHING that isn't a book.

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It does make Striking Spell a big priority but I think that makes the Magus play differently to other martials, less flexible but not completely rigid in tactics.

Reformating the Synthesises to feats works as well.

Slide Casting
Single Action
Magus 1
Synthesis
You Stride.

And you'd have to rebalance some stuff but you could do things like this, which meld an spellcasting and martial flavour.

Arcane Flicker
Single Action
Magus 4
Synthesis
You Step and gain concealment for a round.

thorin001 wrote:

When spellstriking use the proficiency modifiers of the weapon and add the item bonus to wit from its runes for the spell attack.

Yeah, I'm a bit surprised Paizo hasn't given the Magus the weapon's item bonus w/ spell attack rolls which use that weapon. This would give the Magus a distinct niche compared to other casters, though that may require shifting at what levels spell proficiency increases to keep the advantage between +0 to +2.

Or perhaps let them take advantage of combat positioning (ex. flanking) more easily. (Though not both unless proficiency gets decreased, which I wouldn't mind if the weapon-spell numbers balanced in favor of a Magus.)

The Magus is ultimately 3 points of bonus behind a caster who has maxxed their casting stat (20 stat and master vs 22 stat and legendary).

So I was thinking about the Magus feats, namely how Raise a Tome and Spell Parry are super cool, but Magus will rarely use them because the class tends to anchor around a three action sequence of Striking Spell -> Cast a Spell-> Make a Strike.

How about if that three action sequence stays the heart of the class, but some of their one action feats gain the Synthesis trait and you can gain the benefit of one Synthesis effect when you use Striking Spell.
So if you have Slide Casting and Spell Parry, when you use Striking Spell and Cast a Spell, you can use Slide Casting OR Spell Parry.

Basically the three actions sequence is the heart of the class, but you can choose from a variety of Synthesis effects as the bonus you get on that three action sequence.

Would open up the class a bit tactically, where which synthesis effect you activate can be context sensitive and add a bit of Fighter flavour to it of getting to customize how your Magus plays.

I've been playing a Sustaining Steel Magus at level 1 and level 11.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZTtrHFet2X4yjC6qZK6UQPZxJhLrx1KhF3pNLx_ CMJc/edit?usp=sharing

The Striking Spell benefit isn't terribly impressive, 1 hp on a cantrip at level 1 seems like a bad joke and at level 11 its not much more impressive.
More so than Slide Casting you feel the need to use Striking Spell every turn in case you get hit and that kind of locks you into a rigid playstyle where you have this three action block on your turn and then whatever shenanigan's you can fit around that.

Healer's Steel is also dreadfully underwhelming. Healing for your level probably 2-3 times a day is not really exciting.

Another catch on Sustaining Steel is that I found my weapon damage because it was a two handed weapon and cantrip damage were very similar, which makes the value in doing it in the small temp HP shield you get and the potentially hitting an elemental weakness. The boost in accuracy over a second weapon swing is somewhat counterattacked by the cantrip attack that turn being contingent on hitting with the first strike.

Assuming you get the opportunity to get your magic weapons on recommended level.

+1 weapon Level 2
+1 striking weapon Level 4
+2 striking weapon level 10
+2 greater striking weapon level 12
+3 greater striking weapon level 16
+3 major striking weapon level 19

Potency gets you
+1 weapon Level 1 1 level early
+1 striking weapon Level 5 1 level late
+2 striking weapon level 7 3 levels early
+3 greater striking weapon level 15 1 level early
It doesn't do +2 greater striking or +3 major striking.

Ironically this means level 8 is when you get Runic Impression which means you'll spend 2 levels of fights debating which one to activate just as you get your shiny new feat.

I think the lack of extra focus regen in Magus hurts this ability badly. Theoretically you could forgo buying a weapon and use this instead as it gives you an on curve weapon a level or so early (apart from the weapons that are bizarrely missing, +2 Greater Striking and +3 Major Striking) but in later levels Magus Potency is competing with Runic Impression and Hasted Assault for the one Focus spell you cast every fight. That competition and action tax I can solve by just buying an appropriate magic weapon, which seems like an easy solution.

I suppose its a pinch hitting option where I can buff up a weapon to get to another damage type like bludgeoning but then I'm both spending an action to draw the weapon and then another to cast the buff.

I think you'd save the True Strike for turns when you have a real spell in the chamber as it were.

I was thinking about turn by turn play with the Magus.

The first thing I think people will try to do with their Magus is find a way to get into position to do a three action combo of Striking Spell -> Cast a Spell -> Strike.

Shooting Star just needs to be in range, Slide Casting gets a bonus Stride and Sustaining Steel needs to work for it, but lets assume they find a way to regularly be in range of a target and free to hit the combo.

Ok so lets assume they stay in range 2 rounds in a row to execute their combo.

Scenario A
Round 1: Striking Spell -> Cast a Spell -> Strike. Strike hits, you do your damage and then you make an attack with your spell of choice. If you use a cantrip spell your damage is lower than a marital succeeding at two attacks but your accuracy with the spell attack varies between comparable and superior. This all assumes you hit on the first attack.
Round 2: Repeat tactics from Round 1.

Scenario B
Round 1: Striking Spell -> Cast a Spell -> Strike. Strike misses. Baring Haste, your turn is over. This is worse than a martial who at least has the option to try another attack or invest in some defensive tactics like raising a shield but has one silver lining, your cantrip is still cast in your weapon.
Round 2: If you are still in range, optimally you should just Strike here, if you hit you have delivered 1 melee strike and 1 cantrips worth of damage, but you still have two actions to play with. I think the optimal play here is to Cast a Spell without using Striking Spell. Any spell with an attack roll will have a -10 MAP penalty but save spells are unaffected, so our ideal cantrip here is electric arc. This way we potentially can deal 1 melee strike and 2 cantrips worth of damage to a single target. This recoups some of the losses for Round 1 and delivers a bumper Round 2

Scenario C
Round 1: Striking Spell -> Cast a Spell -> Strike. Strike misses.
Round 2: Nothing is in range, the most likely turn of events here is Stride, Strike and then find something to do with that third action. It would be nice if Energize Strikes was available on these kind of off turns.

Scenario D
Round 1: Striking Spell -> Cast a Spell -> Strike. Strike misses.
Round 2: Target in range. Strike (miss) Strike again and hit. We again have an orphaned action.

I'm going to check this out in play at Level 1 and Level 11 and see does it actually play like this.
I'm also going to compare it to a hypothetical character just Striking and casting Electric Arc every turn.

Hooray Sara!

HidaOWin wrote:

9 items in my order and the charge has hit my credit card. I can but hope now.

How can you tell if you have been charged?

Checked my account online, that charge can show up a few days before they do the order though.

9 items in my order and the charge has hit my credit card. I can but hope now.

“It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand."

My May and June orders arrived in the same week here in Ireland despite shipping over two weeks apart.

"The first transport is away!"

Lethargic cheers everyone!

My order got fixed, huzzah.

So I contacted them about adding the Thieves Guild and Red and Black Dragons to my case subscription sitting last week. Added both to sidecart as instructed.

My case order generated with the Red and Black Dragons, but no Thieves Guild.

I wonder if the Magus's unique edge will be being able to give spell attack rolls an item bonus by delivering them through his weapons? Maybe that's why they shy away from an item bonus to spell attack rolls.

Will Pathfinder Battles case subscribers need to purchase the Adult Red and Black Dragons and Thieves Guild Premium set manually or will they be added automatically as it previously was?

If you specifically state and demonstrate that an example police force is based on something akin to the Peelian principles of policing by consent, rather than some sort of quasi-military repression arm I think you are making enough of a distinction to be separate and distinct from American policing methods.

Cheers for shipping my March packages, I know times are stressful right now, any idea why they all shipped as 5 separate orders?

The increased postage cost is not ideal, I know the bestiary probably needed to be separate but the two adventure paths and two map packs could probably have been one package, did it work out as cheaper that way?

Given the current success chance of Study Suspect, the Investigator ends up being a high variance class.

The first thing that is frustrating about that is that a lot of Investigator combat feats become relevant when you can do Studied Strike damage which requires you to succeed at the Study Suspect check. If you fail that as your first action, a player is going to be deflated, the rest of their turn is diminished by that failed roll. That's going to lead to dissatisfaction with the class unless they feel its a high risk/high reward situation, then a player can rationalise it as "win some/lose some"

Lets look at the reward now.
While Studied Strike is often higher damage than Sneak Attack by 1d6, I'm not sure the extra damage is commensurate with the failure chance of Study Suspect. Additionally the triggering condition for Sneak Attack is all over the core game, often the cost is positional but its such a big bonus that any two melee classes are happy to spend an action each to get it. In play Sneak Attack is much more reliable than Studied Strike.
So I suppose the intent of the class has to be looked at; is Investigator a high risk/high reward class or should it have similar reliability to Rogue?

If it's high risk/high reward, Studied Strike damage needs to increase, either more dice or increase to d8s or something tangible.

If it's meant to have similar reliability to Rogue you can do several things.

You can add Study Suspects success and critical success effects to Recall Knowledge checks so you can spend additional actions to try and activate Study Suspect, this leads to additional synergies for feats like Known Weakness.
You can remove the once per turn limit on Study Suspect and clarify you only get the free action once per turn.
You can add a Calculate Trajectories class feat that lets you Study Suspect off Reflex DC instead so Investigators can target all three saves.
Both of these solutions only help a bit with high level opposition.

You could also do something radical as follows. Scale down Studied Strike damage to Sneak Attacks progression. Probably remove the free clause from Study Target.

Critical Success On all your attacks against the target until
the end of this turn, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to
your attack roll and increase Studied Strikes precision damage by 1d6.
Success On your next attack this turn against the target, you
gain a +1 circumstance bonus to your attack roll and increase Studied Strikes precision damage by 1d6.
Failure: On your next attack this turn against the target, you are considered to have succeeded on your check to Study Target.

That way you can always trigger Studied Strike.

HidaOWin wrote:

I actually worry about the Nova turn for Fire Oracles, with a 30 foot range limit you are likely going to end up having to regularly take an action to move yourself to get into range.

Why is Incendiary Aura a two action spell? Given its a revelation spell and purely a buff spell why not a single action cast?

Note that it includes a free casting of Produce Flame. So you're basically doing 1 action to buff it and then another to immediately fire it off.

No Flaming Fusilade has a free casting of Produce Flame, Incendiary Aura give you the ability to put persistent damage on someone you hit with fire damage at short range.

I actually worry about the Nova turn for Fire Oracles, with a 30 foot range limit you are likely going to end up having to regularly take an action to move yourself to get into range.

Why is Incendiary Aura a two action spell? Given its a revelation spell and purely a buff spell why not a single action cast?

Erk Ander wrote:

I didn't say merely situational, I said REALLY situational. The really part matters.

Here is the thing. PAthfinder first edition had a ton of useless and very situational feats. This edition should imo aspire to avoid that. From the very start.

Hot Take: Pathfinder 2 already has a ton of useless and very situational feats.

A slightly more nuanced take.

There are few totally useless feats, if useless means does nothing. I think just about every feat in the game does something.

There are a decent amount of situational feats, which isn't a bad thing and most of the highly situational ones are in archetypes instead of core class feats. Given that this edition has prioritised choice existing for players and that feats should not habitually increase raw numbers this means some feats will end up more niche than others. That's working as intended.

Erk Ander wrote:

I didn't say merely situational, I said REALLY situational. The really part matters.

Here is the thing. PAthfinder first edition had a ton of useless and very situational feats. This edition should imo aspire to avoid that. From the very start.

Hot Take: Pathfinder 2 already has a ton of useless and very situational feats.

A slightly more nuanced take.

There are few totally useless feats, if useless means does nothing. I think just about every feat in the game does something.

There are a decent amount of situational feats, which isn't a bad thing and most of the highly situational ones are in archetypes instead of core class feats. Given that this edition has prioritised choice existing for players and that feats should not habitually increase raw numbers this means some feats will end up more niche than others. That's working as intended.

That struck me a little as I read through it, but I took a second read through of some sections and there is a secondary motivation that can be emphasised.

The NPCs you'll end up working with are rich and great at making stuff and are going to offer that stuff in exchange for jumping through hoops. I'd emphasize that when the players interact with the scout they meet and I think player greed for toys will carry the day.

Instagram cover is great, I love the creepy panel of the skeletons reaching for the star stone at the top.

I mean seems like all the martially inclined characters would find a way to grab Attack of Opportunity if bad guys all persisted in this behaviour, at which point they will cut it the hell out as a full accuracy extra attack in a turn is a pearl without price.

Also adding official clarifications to how sightless characters now magically perceive the world with hearing takes additional text space because you have to explain the ways in which it would be different in a way that's more involved than a monster ability because you as the GM have to reframe the PCS experience of the entire game.
Then to cover deaf and blind characters you have to do magical touch.
Then to cover deaf, blind and numb characters you have to do magical smell.
Then to cover deaf, blind, numb and anosimic characters you have to do magical taste.
Then to cover deaf, blind, numb, anosimic and ageusic characters you have to do navigation via a magical vestibular system at which point its better off just saying

"If you as a player want to play a character with specific disability(s) that's ignored by a fictional magical ability, talk to your GM who may assign a cost in ancestry to access that ability"

Not covering every situation that a person might exist in is not bigotry, its a fact of word count and evidence of the diversity of the human condition.

Also, the flickmace could look like a ball and chain flail with some cunning self retracting mechanism. Or look a bit like a meteor hammer. It could definitely look cool.

One other thing on Wolf Drag, there is a lot if synergy available there in the core book to compound its power.

If you grab Brawling Focus as a level 2 feat you get access to the crit specializations of the Brawling weapon group which is Fort save on a crit or be stunned 1.
Get a Grievous Rune on your gloves and that save is made at a chunky -4.

If you are facing a tough opponent, a successful Wolf Drag puts him prone requiring an action to stand up. A critical Wolf Drag is a Fatal hit, which puts them prone and a Fort Save at -4 or be stunned as well potentially taking 2 actions off a boss.

That can be fight winning.

Also despite being uncommon its possible a ranger might get their mitts on an alchemical crossbow. On demand access to different elemental damage to hit opponents right in the weaknesses is very on brand for a ranger.

Ordered a second Pathfinder 2e corebook before Gencon, intending to pick it up with my order there but it didn’t go through presumably for logistic reasons so I just bought a second one there.
Therefore there is an extra corebook on my next order, was wondering if I could get it removed if possible.
Thank you for your time.

I’d say the Drow dodge works like Reactive Shield in Fighter so it can make an attack miss or not crit.
Rogues Nimble Dodge is weaker in that its done on targeting not hitting

Eh, if you are Strength 14 or better you can ignore speed penalty from hide armour, but I understand what you mean.

That seems an pretty low AC even with the -1 penalty.

Your barbarians level 1 AC should be 10(base) + 2 (trained in armour) + 1 (level) +3 (hide armour if your dex is bad) +1 (dex) = 17 AC, 16 with Rage, you could also be 14 dex which pumps that up one higher.

It’s a potentially tough fight alright and your AC being lower than expected can really sting especially against the tougher foes in it.

Master Spell Proficiency is the rough equivalent of Expert Weapon Proficiency in number terms because Spells don't get an item bonus to attacks or Save DCs. That's why multiclass feats get to Master Prof at level 18 if you invest 4 class feats.

Getting a Master prof in weapons/armour or Legendary prof/10th level spells is something that really has to be restricted to your main class in standard games as otherwise you encroach too much on the main classes core strength.

So just a thought experiment, if Paizo did make a level 1 general feat that gave you scaling heavy armour proficiency and plate was allowed remain the best armour.

Would anyone be upset at the complaints that other types of armour are pointless because plate is the best and it only costs a general feat to get and that feat is basically a feat tax and everyone at my table is wearing plate armour? Just curious.

Corvo Spiritwind wrote:

You get X and Y by paying Z.

Getting X via another resource Ø, but not getting Y for the same resource Ø. Now that's dishonest.

Except that's incorrect. Martials do not get only increased mastery in spells, they also receive spell slots via those feats.

Spellcasting is the CORE of the casters. This is what martials get when they archetype into casters. EXPERT Weapon proficiency alone is not the core of Fighter. It is all the other feats that Fighter gets access to that makes the core of Fighter.

We are not asking for Master or Legendary proficiencies in weapons, which makes you dishonest when you phrase your arguments as if we are asking for that.
Even if a caster takes Martial archetype, they will only receive MATCHING proficiency to weapons they get from class. They do not get to improve proficiency in something they did not have.

But casters can get Expert proficiency in the weapon of their choice, it just costs 2 class feats.

You're not arguing for options for casters to get expert proficiency, you're arguing they should get it much much cheaper.

Actually it's going to be 1 better than heavy armour until level 15 because your character is unlikely to start with 18 dex if you are planning on using heavy armour.

The Gleeful Grognard wrote:

Spending a more important feat (thanks to feat chains for martials) and disabling fast movement for yourself, as well as that increased armour check penalty that cannot be gotten rid of.

Forgive me if I am not seeing it as a shining example of where you could do it core in PF1e without a downside :P

It's quite different. You don't get a -5 AC penalty (rough equivalent to -2 in P2E) once you hit level 13th.

You don't get that big a penalty in real terms. Lets say you are a Wizard wearing + 2 Plate with 10 dex at level 12. Why do you have 10 dex? Because you are raising your Int, Str, Con and Cha at levels 5 and 10. Could you focus on Dex instead? Sure, but then you shouldn't wear plate.

At level 12 you would be:
Unarmored = 10 (Base) + 12 (level) + 2 (Trained) + 0 (Dex) + 2 ( 2 Potency Explorers Clothing) = 26 AC
Plate = 10 (Base) + 12 (level) + 2 (Trained) + 0 (Dex) + 8 ( 2 Potency Full Plate) = 32AC

At level 13 you would be:
Unarmored = 10 (Base) + 13 (level) + 4 (Expert) + 0 (Dex) + 2 ( 2 Potency Explorers Clothing) = 29 AC
Plate = 10 (Base) + 13 (level) + 2 (Trained) + 0 (Dex) + 8 ( 2 Potency Full Plate) = 33AC

At level 14 you would be:
Unarmored = 10 (Base) + 14 (level) + 4 (Expert) + 0 (Dex) + 2 ( 2 Potency Explorers Clothing) = 30 AC
Plate = 10 (Base) + 14 (level) + 2 (Trained) + 0 (Dex) + 8 ( 2 Potency Full Plate) = 34AC

If you choose to grab the Champion Multiclass feat you pump your AC by 2 while wearing armour at level 14, but assuming you are Dex 10, just being trained in armour is still better than unarmoured.

HidaOWin wrote:

Hang on, the feat works fine after 13th, it doesn’t stop working, however if you want 2 more AC while wearing your full plate, you just take the 14th level feat that raises your proficiency to expert. Or not and live with being 2 lower AC.

At that point, you may as well have not taken the feat at all. So why is 13th level, of all levels, the expiration date for such feats?

Because it’s better than your unarmoured AC? If you no longer want to wear heavy armour you retrain the feat, or you invest another feat and improve your AC or you keep wearing your heavy armour because your Dex is 10 and its still better AC than being unarmoured.

13th level is picked out because thats the level your defenses rise in some classes so the feat to match that increase is at 14th level so you can take it after that happens.

Lanathar wrote:

If Heavy armour is that important to the RP then the hit to AC should be considered acceptable just like all sub-optimal RP related choices in any version of Pathfinder

Maybe, but why is that something that we should be celebrating? Why is "Let's punish people for wanting to play something different!" a good thing?

It’s not punishing people for playing something different, its putting higher costs on something that has advantages, If you wear full plate you can drop dex and focus on your strength instead and get benefits to help out your reflex save and be generally higher AC than if you didn’t take the feat.

Again, why is it okay for these feats to function perfectly fine from 1st to 12th level, only for 13th level to be the expiration date?

What makes the math at 13th level demand that these feats become obsolete?

Hang on, the feat works fine after 13th, it doesn’t stop working, however if you want 2 more AC while wearing your full plate, you just take the 14th level feat that raises your proficiency to expert. Or not and live with being 2 lower AC.

I'd disagree pretty strongly. If you want your wizard to swing a greatsword you can just spend a level 2 class feat on Fighter multiclass and if you want it to scale fairly well grab the level 12 feat or if you want it more for flavour spend a General Feat to grab martial weapons. Do either of those and you'll fight acceptably well with a melee weapon, not to the same level of a martial but you'll usually be only 2-3 points behind most of them if you keep your Strength or Dexterity up there. (Fighter is the exception but Fighter is 2 points ahead of everyone)

In comparison in first ed, a Wizard couldn't come close to that, you could get proficiency through shenanigans or a dip but your BAB was miles behind the martials so your hit rate would always be much lower and you'd lose some casting power.

This is much more flexible than most D&Desque games because you can easier take a multiclass to add some new options to your character without compromising core strengths.

Champion's a bit of an issue due to thematic limitations. We really need another Archetype that's less thematically locked down to do the same thing with armor.

I definitely think we'll get something else that does a similar job, we even saw something like it in Grey Maidens in the playtest. Space in the corebook was at a premium though and the intention was to have those additional 10 archetypes available at launch in the Lost Omens book. That said, if its core to the concept right now, hold your nose and grab Champion, I'm sure something else will be along in a few weeks/months you can retrain into.