Hoshi Akane's page

i will assume when you say "scenario," you are referring to my explosive runes example...

Yes, I should have been more clear.

...not even an action...

Already mentioned above, which renders this ability really only useful for scouting and ruining the majority of traps.

...i can already see these high cr challenges become irrelevant (or rendered exponentially less effective than they should be) as this "familiar" is exploited...

That certainly does sound like an issue now.

i never used the word "overpowered" (which it really isn't). i think it's broken and needs a little more restrictions for the level that it is...

I apologize, I have come to mix up the words and meanings of broken and Overpowered as they are generally used the same in my experience.

...(not sure if this ability is allowed in pfs, but i can definitely imagine rampant exploitation)...

Archives of Nethys has it marked as PFS legal so I have reason to believe it is.

...i am identifying very specific problems and hope to find a fix that doesn't change the fundamental parts of the ability/power/whatever...

Am I correct to interpret this as you want suggestions on how to house rule this ability to fix it? If not I don't quite understand the point of this anymore.

The Sideromancer wrote:

If the situation where the familiar is overpowering isn't one anybody wants to spend time resolving, it's arguably worse for the game to remove an option that bypasses it. Personally, make X check or take Y damage is about as uninteresting as it gets, so for me the situation is broken and should be removed, rather than the character ability.

what? that’s saying “we made this class that has ability x that’s (unintentionally) broken; so let’s go back and rewrite all the adventures and remove or rework parts where this ability makes the situation irrelevant.”

What I believe Sid is saying is that the scenario you are bringing up sounds uninteresting for the players and that being able to bypass that is a good thing. As a side note I do not think it is overpowered.

Instead of finding a way to try and 'Balance' it try to drop hints that using that too much may be a bad idea. Maybe make it so that this thing randomly floating about alerts enemies up ahead and they prepare for an ambush. Perhaps the trap effects a large area (Maybe a 150ft long tunnel, and when someone reaches the middle poisonous gas starts to fill the area unless they can open the door, in which case using it will have put them at a disadvantage, because they are further from the door.) Or triggers an alarm of some kind, that would have been more obvious in person and have no drawback if simply disabled from the start.