Invictus Novo's page

I think some if the common APG spells used to be uncommon from some early AP (like Object Reading). I'm curious to see if Sudden Bolt made it into SoM. That would be an interesting power increase in single target damage spells.

Honestly I hope not. Sudden Bolt is major power creep on all other damaging spells. I played Extinction Curse and have Sudden Bolt on my PFS Druid and honestly feel bad casting it. I typically don't use it because of the powercreep and that it just annihilates just about anything it touches.

From the beginning of 2e it was obvious they wanted to get away from the idea that casters could do everything better than martials. As such there had to be give and take. If you want spells to do single target massive damage I think you'll be disappointed in SoM as that would make just "better" versions of existing spells.

Martials rule for single target damage and I can't see casters catching up on that. However AoE spells ultimately total more damage, just spread out and I can see more of those spells.

Additionally, damage spells with debuff affects (think Vomit Swarm) will also be prevalent in SoM I think. You just can't expect the damage to be amazing when they also debuff.

I have a few minor gripes (why can't I stand on my floating disk anymore?!), but overall they fixed the D&D and PF1e issue of casters just being better than martials at everything. And this coming from a player who plays casters primarily.

I'm hoping for more reaction spells. Many casters don't have great reactions and so I love throwing things like Blood Vendetta on them.

I just hate when my subscription ships after the street date. It's not part of my subscription to get the pdf early (though it's obviously exciting), but it really sucks to know it almost would be more satisfying to not subscribe. I want this physical book, and mostly that makes the subscription worthwhile, but it will be feelbad to have my subscription ship on the 25th or later.

This exactly. I already struggle with the idea of having my subscription because I'm not supporting my local gaming store by having it (who always has the books available on the street date). Even the free PDF isn't a huge value as the shipping cost is almost the price of the PDF.

I'm not complaining or trying to put down the subscription, but I've already been questioning it and weighing the pros and cons for me personally.

All these moves are starting to feel like teasing. But I'm glad they confirmed that SoM street date is still the 25th. Today is a bitter sweet day.

All these moves are starting to feel like teasing. But I'm glad they confirmed that SoM street date is still the 25th. Today is a bitter sweet day.

The reputation part is greatly appreciated. The rest is just icing. Thank you.

Well, in last night's stream Jason did make a point of plugging Secrets of Magic for coming out in "a few weeks." If it was being delayed again I think he probably would have either changed his wording or simply not mentioned it directly.

Filthy Lucre wrote:

Aaron Shanks wrote:

I'll have Pathfinder Lead Designer Logan Bonner as one of my 7 guests on Paizo LIVE this Friday from 4 to 6 PM Pacific. He will speak for more than 20 minutes on Pathfinder Secrets of Magic. twitch.tv/officialpaizo

This all but confirms that the book won't ship this week :'/

This was confirmed in the August shipping thread in Customer Service. Shipping is expected to start next Monday the 16th. However, there are still some items awaiting arrival at the warehouse, so this may still slip a little.

It's that last part that has me worried. It was immediately added after the thread went up. I'm hoping it just means they hadn't taken full inventory yet and are just covering themselves. We'll know soon enough I suppose.

Great story, please keep them coming!

I wonder if the magic-focused fey summoners will be comparable to full casters or if they will be in a bit of a side-niche magic wise. I could see the eidolon effectively supplementing the summoner's spell slots so they have as many as a full caster, with the eidolon having the low-level tricks and the summoner having the upper wave slots. But I also wonder if maybe it'll be in some side niche, similarish to how alchemist fits into a side niche where it isn't a martial or a spellcaster but it is a unique type of support.

I've been wondering about this as well. I mean a full caster has somewhere between 27 and 36ish spellslots at the end compared to 4 for typical Summoner.

I can't see the Fey Eidolon giving nearly enough to catch up in total and they will probably give up much of their martial prowess too. So, to be worthwhile at all the class/Eidolon is going to have to have some sort of niche.

When do you think spoilers will start popping up?

I love this short period when people receive their books or pdfs early and respond to questions from those who haven't received or purchased it yet!

Barring any more delays, they should start shipping this week or early next. Let's hope there are no more delays.

As long as people continue to try and compare the classes in 2e to 1e classes they are always going to be unhappy. Personally I'm super excited for SoM, I'm playing a modified version of the playtest Magus. I hope they kept the arcane fist. I haven't seen much in the way of support for an unarmed magus

They have specifically said that the current Magus fully supports unarmed. I think it was mentioned at Paizocon and they said it is baseline now that spellstrike can be done with a melee weapon or melee unarmed strike.

Longevity really depends on how well the wave casters can use cantrips. If all they are doing is using a cantrip and not much else they will suck, however that doesn't seem to be how they are built. Both the magus and summoner seem to be built around the idea that you will cast a cantrip and also have something else going on too.

If a Summoner's Eidolon is strong enough in melee (or some other form of combat) then casting a cantrip while somewhat weak (though not horribly so) combined with their attack makes all the difference. If a Magus can cast a cantrip and combine that with a decent attack then that is ultimately a good combo.

With wave casters I think the main thing is they are splitting their turn between multiple things and so that cantrip combined with the other is a decent damage output. This vs. a full caster that will cast a cantrip, then not have much else offensively to do (perhaps debuff with demoralize or something, but no damage).

Ultimately, we shouldn't look at the cantrip casting in a vacuum with wave casters and ask ourselves whether that is the whole turn or just part of a turn. I wasn't a fan at first, but I'm starting to be won over since the playtest.

Then, with the high level slots, they can do big short bursts for big payoff. The Magus in the liveplay is certainly showing that potential. The Summoner hasn't yet, but part of that may be opportunity and part is due to the player (Bonnie) just really doesn't understand the game or her character (though she has a wonderful role-play mind making it still enjoyable to watch).

Damn, Factotum and Occultist? He's got a good sense of style.

Agreed. Factotum was my favorite 3.5 class and I still play one to this day in my on-again-off-again D&D 3.5 game (at 40+ years old I'm the youngest in this group...so we're still playing the last edition they were comfortable with).

I love these livestreams. Here are a few questions of mine to pick from hopefully (mostly geared towards the SoM team):

1. We just heard the Eidolons will each have two stat-blocks. What do these look like and what drove the decision this way vs. having a variable stat-block for people to use?

2.The live-play happening on Thursdays is really showing off the magus as a pull away damage dealer. He's been dishing out tons more than any other character in that group. Is this representative of the design in general and is this what the class is expected to do at most tables?

3. Can we expect more Eidolon choices in the future (Elemental, Aberration, and Devil are most prominently missing)?

4. Do you have to take specific archetypes to use things like Shadow Magic, or are they just spells added to the spell-list with a new Shadow Magic trait? How do these new magic styles work?

5. Will Eidolons be able to take advantage of Summoner feats? Specifically, if I take the Fighter dedication, will the Eidolon get to take advantage of the feats I choose from that line?

6. What is your favorite single thing in SoM?

7. Prepared casters are getting cool Grimoires to use, are spontaneous casters getting any such item love?

8. Who is your favorite NPC from Strength of Thousands so far?

9. Aside from Blood Magic, what didn't make it to SoM that you hope to fit elsewhere?

10. What was one thing that you learned from the SoM playtest that really stuck with you?

HumbleGamer wrote:

Deriven Firelion wrote:

What?

You can use one action with the Stance trait per round.

Quote:

After you use an action with the stance trait, you can’t use another one for 1 round. You can enter or be in a stance only in encounter mode.

This prevents you from, for example, activating the tiger stance, use flurry of blows, and then swap to crane stance, because of the +1 ac and reaction +3 ac and AoO ( It's just an example of mine ).

Other "limits" ( though I wouldn't call them limits ) might be:

- That stance forces you to only make a specific attack ( like crane or rain of ember stance )
- The stance doesn't necessarily have finesse strikes ( like dragon stance )
- The stance has additional rules ( like the mountain stance, which requires you to be on the ground )

I know how stance works. I'm surprised the OP came to the conclusion he did about Point Blank Shot.

Well your comment was odd then if that's what you meant. The OP had already been educated and even stated they knew where they went wrong before you ever made your comment. So, it is quite understandable that this person thought you were confused about how stances work.

Invictus Novo wrote:

Wow, this is an old thread to revive. Thought this was talked to death before, but the short version is that it seems Paizo has went down the road of believing if a Creature is sentient it can make its own decisions and go with or against cultural norms.

In cases of goblins specifically, they are typically short lived which also tends to mean they can evolve culturally much faster. A few individuals and then some tribes started being less aggressive and actually found that life expectancies of the ones that adapted to work WITH other races extended and so that life style caught on even more.

Outside of the game, there has been a push in the real world to understand other cultures and realize that people may be different, but that doesn't equate to good or bad. Paizo is tapping into real world move for tolerance and taking that into their game world.

Plus...goblins are very fun to role-play!

Yes to all of that, especially the last part. I'm hypocritical about that though because I believe at the same time that creators have liberty to reserve some sentient creatures to use purely as NPCs, predominantly in an antagonist capacity. Goblins have an evolving narrative as to their worldview but some sentient societies like serpent folk are all generally evil. I'm down for social progress but I also like dms having a toolbox of recognizable "bad guys". Maybe that toolbox shouldn't have humanoids anymore.... maybe serpent folk and xulgath should be aberrations or some other classification. Or maybe, as is happening in APs, all you really need is more nuanced writing. Idk I'm rambling, but goblins becoming nicer and being playable is definitely a boon. It's fun to be a loud, chaotic gremlin.

I dont disagree. It is a nature vs nurture thing for me. Some societies in fantasy settings, like Golarion, are evil by most standards. It is what they know based on their teaching (murder as appropriate, slavery, underhanded tactics to get the upper hand, xenophobia, etc.). In those societies, most of the individuals will be evil as well and will display it rather prominently. However there are always going to be exceptions. I know it's D&D, but Dritzz is the perfect example of this.

The opposite holds true too of course. However it has never been as big an issue to people when a single bad guy emerges from an otherwise good community. I never understood why a small group of "good" guys emerging from a generally "evil" community triggered some people.

Wow, this is an old thread to revive. Thought this was talked to death before, but the short version is that it seems Paizo has went down the road of believing if a Creature is sentient it can make its own decisions and go with or against cultural norms.

In cases of goblins specifically, they are typically short lived which also tends to mean they can evolve culturally much faster. A few individuals and then some tribes started being less aggressive and actually found that life expectancies of the ones that adapted to work WITH other races extended and so that life style caught on even more.

Outside of the game, there has been a push in the real world to understand other cultures and realize that people may be different, but that doesn't equate to good or bad. Paizo is tapping into real world move for tolerance and taking that into their game world.

Plus...goblins are very fun to role-play!

I understand we're getting two new classes with this book, but will there be any new builds for existing classes? Like Cleric Doctrines or Barbarian Instincts or Druid Orders, etc?

Druid, Monk, and Wizard are getting class specific content. All other additions are either class agnostic or archetypes that can be applied to multiple classes (but perhaps not all). An example of the latter is Wellspring magic can be applied to any spontaneous FULL caster. I note "full" caster as they are distinguishing Magus and Summoner as not being "full" casters.

They said they avoided class specific options for the most part in order to use page space on things more people can enjoy rather than only specific classes.

I see that the adventure works around arcana and nature traditions ( as FA ), but I don't really get why it is explicitly required to take the wizard or druid dedication.

I mean, why not sticking with the tradition instead in order to widen the multiclass possibilities?

For example, in addition to wizard and druid we could have had:

- Sorcerers
- Witches

eventually

- Scroll Tricksters ( only primal and arcane scrolls ), for classes who don't really want to be "magical".

Is it something lore/continent related?
-

I see 2 reasons.

1) the lore of the land puts specific emphasis on Wizards and Druids as well as the history of the school

2) it is a SCHOOL. Wizards and Druids are traditionally taught their magic. Sorcerers instinctively manifest their magic and Witches have powerful magic thrust upon them by their patron. As such neither Sorceror nor Witch particularly fit into a magic academy.

The most disappointing thing about the santioned content in PF2 is the inability to use the actual character in playing it. Even as a facsimile, the overall disparity in exp rewards (actual vs pfs single level) and having to likely play a higher level version (of the character played for the content) later in the adventure, it is disconnected to the PFS character that is rewarded the chronicle.

The advantage of faster santioning is appreciated, of course, but largely, with online play being prominent and not having a group meet for the four or five sessions needed to play through a module or part x of an adventure path, I have not been able to participate in any of the scant offerings we have had here locally, nor can I offer it at my store I schedule for currently (Ye Gamer's Guild in Greenwood).

I hope that the new one shots can have characters be played rather than using the pregens at some point, using the tier level range that the old Modules did in PF1. (lower level, stated mod level, higher level) I was hoping that higher level content for PF2 (and beyond, really) would use the three level tier paradim rather than the two tiered ranged (xx/xx) scenario, with the advantage of only having one set of monsters to set for the adventure.

My two cents.

I'd echo this as well. I also want to say that I love and would really like to play things like Strength of Thousands, unfortunately it is hard to join those games online when you don't have a home group. PFS scenarios really help keep the game alive for me as I can typically play weekly or every other week in a pick-up-game.

The one shots seem good (I've played the first), however I really want to A) play my PFS character and B) receive reputation for playing.

That said, I'll remain cautiously optimistic as I love what you've done so far and thus you've earned credit in my book.

Awesome, I'm really glad people like the blog!

I do want to make sure people thank Lu though too, both for writing an incredible Meet the Iconics that inspired me so much for the blog, and also for his amazing editing pass with so many great subtle changes to help strengthen Ija and Tuku's inner and outer voices. So three cheers for Lu!

Great team effort! I can't wait for the Summoner class itself keep theory crafting with the trickle of info that keeps coming.

Ija and Tuku are absolutely incredible as the Summoner iconic and loved this read. Please keep it up as I don't think I'll ever get tired of reading about their exploits and "hearing" their banter.

Thanks Mark, Lu, and team!

I think release date got pushed back because Gen Cons date got pushed back.

The release was pushed back due to printing delays and they don't want to release the PDF until the book hits the street (which has always been their stance).

I work in an industry that relies heavily on print materials and can definitely attest to the fact that there are major delays across the board for print materials.

The original release date was July, that got pushed to August 5th, then that to August 25th. Hopefully it doesn't push any further back.

Two stat block versions of every Eidolon? Wow, that must take a lot of page space. Part of me things COOL! Another part thinks they should have just given floating stats for us to fill in.

WWHsmackdown wrote:

Honestly 5 feats of wizard/witch on magus and 5 feats of sorcerer/bard on summoner isn't too bad an investment for making a big gishz threat. I'm guessing both classes are gonna have enough primo feats to make that a hard decision. Just a gut feeling.

I hope we get some nice feats. I've been playing a playtest Magus from level 2 to level 9 now. The playtest feats so far are meh. I'm playing in a free archetype game so I've used my free feats to dedicate into Witch for extra spells and focus spells. I've used some of my Magus feats to also dedicate into Fighter for Attack of Oportunity.

I'm hoping the final version has A) attack of opportunity as a feat at 6th level, B) more and better feat selection in general, and C) way more interesting focus spells. I'm very eager to see the Laughing Shadow focus spell that lets you teleport since my playtest Magus is a slide Magus.

A) the live play has already shown the Magus gets AoO by at least 6th level.

B) there is no doubt there as they said the playtest was just a small sample of the final product

C) from what we've seen so far, they are pretty solid with most being action compression.

Wait, now Summoners can blast, too?

In short bursts given such few spellslots. Looks like Ija was using Electric Arc a few times and saw Tuku use his breath weapon as well.

Is there about "truename" in PDF?

As mentioned the book isn't out yet so nobody can tell you what is in it for sure. That said, true naming is said to be in the book as more of a GM option that will use the research ruleset from the GMG.

Shisumo wrote:

Ezekieru wrote:

Zero the Nothing wrote:

Is Secrets of Magic the book with the new FF Summon style spells, cuz I wanna make Yuna?

Those are incarnate summoning spells, and yes, they are in Secrets of Magic.

Be warned, however, that most are higher-leveled spells, so it'll take you a while before you can start casting them.

We've already seen a 1st-level one in the Secrets of Magic livestream, so I think the devs were being careful to cover all the spell levels.

What? No we didn't.

The only thing close is Animal Allies, and that doesn't follow the incarnate spells' "arrive, do one effect, stick around, then next turn, move, do a second effect and leave." It's just a 5-foot emanation around the spellcaster.

This ^

30) Misty the Sprite has recently become very curious in her first world heritage. She was born on Golarion, but her mother came directly from the first world and now that Misty is older she has become more and more interested in where her family came from all those years ago. As her curiosity swelled, so did some innate magical abilities that had been lying dormant all her life. These powers continued to grow and one day, out of the blue, a large (at least to her eyes) fey was there in her house when she woke up. As they talked, it became apparent they were family and that somehow she had called her brother (which she never knew she had) from the first world into Golarion. In the form of an Eidolon, her brother is just as curious about Golarion as Misty is about the first world. Now they are inseparable as they travel together to quell their curiosity and deepen their family ties.

Subscribers don't always actually get the pdf early, some lucky few do. The further you are from the Paizo office, the later they tend to ship your order, so if you're outside the US don't get too excited.

Which is crazy considering the farther you are the longer it would take to ship and thus the sooner they should ship. Unless of course it is shipping from another location (very possible and likely).

If your observation is accurate, the only thing I can think as to why, would be if they want to give preferential treatment to those closer to the office to create more buzz in their geographical area. of course, it could be as simple as a sort by zip/regional code starting with theirs (odd way to sort, but possible).

One shots can be fun and as long as the GM doesn't restrict it to just the pre-gen characters in it then I can always "recreate" my appropriate PFS character to run in it at the appropriate level. Unfortunately, as others have said, they don't reward reputation which is somewhat off-putting. That is why I haven't bought the two that are out as I run games almost exclusively for society play now and that is a tough pill to swallow.

Solution - for Nethys' sake, have the one-shots reward the same reputation as a PFS scenario! How does that unbalance anything? I mean, I ran my home group (the one exception to my society play) through Extinction Curse and THAT gives reputation. So it obviously isn't due to the player might not being a society member as EC doesn't assume that either. Honestly, the 1 shots not getting reputation seems more like an oversight than anything.

HumbleGamer wrote:

Oh my god it's beautiful.

Don't mind if it doesn't recharge your spellstrike, it's awesome in terms of possibilities.

I believe it does based on the context. I imagine whatever grants the focus spell or the Spellstrike feature itself would in some way allow for the conflux spells (which this should be) to recharge Spellstrike.

I believe that isn't the case though. In the discord panel at Paizocon they said most focus spells for the magus would recharge spellstrike but not all of them would. In fact, I believe that they used this one as an example of one that doesn't recharge it.

Btw, the Summoner in the Stream used the new cantrip Gouging Claw, melee only d6 damage per spell lvl.

Hope this does something on a critical hit. Otherwise it is a worse Telekinetic Projectile. It does the same damage, but is melee and cannot do bludgeoning damage.

I agree that I hope dedication feats can apply to your Eidolon. However I believe the class feats will give diverse things to do. For example, we know from Paizocon that one will give it Trample. We also know from the live stream another class feat gives the beast Eidolon an altered attack type.

That said, I would like to take a Fighter dedication and give my Eidolon AoO makes sense as my Summoner himself has no business in melee.

TOZ wrote:

o.O

Tonya Woldridge wrote:

* Nowhere in Erik's blog do we talk about reducing high-level content.

So are there going to be high level quest, bounties and one shots?

While I wish it wasn't so as I liked the Quest format better than Bounties, Quests are a discontinued series. They were replaced by Bounties.

I'm excited to see what grimoire can do and what new attack spells are going to be in there to support magus. Plus all the new magic items especially the new components.

I'm really excited for grimoire's as well. I'm thinking they will help empower specific spells. Perhaps something like making a single casting of an attack spell do half damage on a miss. Things like that.

Unfortunately, based on what we learned at Paizocon, they are strictly for prepared casters. I really hope that spontaneous casters get some neat toys like that to play with and empower their spells.

I've come to this party for the Summoner, however I have to say that the information given and the live plays we've seen, and even the designer enthusiasm all seem to be playing up the Magus much more than Summoner. Grimoires are just one more thing that seem to push things towards Magus over Summoner.

Really hope there are more repeatable scenarios with the reduced number. Season 2 was very disappointing in that regard.

As for bounties they are fine, but I don't like how they are for a single level as my society characters graduate out of them quickly combined with the regular scenarios.

Personally I preferred the quest format, but then I have a feeling I'm not the target demographic.

Who ignored me and made this?

Not sure if this is to be funny, but it doesn't come off as such. That thread is about Guns & Gears specifically. This thread seems like you want to talk about some unannounced future theory crafting. Numeria and technology is probably beyond steam punk is likely far off or will be in small pieces in APs.

I know we already knew Seltyiel from 1e, but man is that a great entrance into 2e. Great bit of writing there, thank you for it. Major contrast to the Summoner iconic introduction of all warm and fuzzy (loved them both).

TheGoofyGE3K wrote:

Ashanderai wrote:

I can see so much possibility for the tactic of using an eidolon tanking on the front lines while the summoner hangs back and gets touch healed by the cleric/other party healer, saving the the group the problems of having to get the healer up to the front line tank, getting the tank to fall back for healing, or casting a less powerful ranged heal.

I could see Divine Summoners doing that with or without a healer lol

Sure, but remember that the summoner and eidolon share their action economy, as well as their hit points. A tank that does not have to spend actions healing himself, is going to have more actions to tank with, which will make him better at tanking than someone doing double duty with healing themselves, too. There are more benefits to this sort of tactic, but that alone is a big deal.

This is true, however this is also where the rarely used 1 action Heal spell could shine. No matter what, 1 of the 4 actions (due to Act Together) has to go to the Summoner himself, so using that for battle medicine or a 1 action heal spell still gives the Eidolon 3 actions to play with. Not to say having somebody else do it isn't just as good if not better, but it does make for an interesting mechanic.

By the power of our slowness, I might be able to try the summoner before the end of our AoA 3rd chapter.

I know that we only know what was on the playtest, but I'd like to discuss even based on what we currently know.

Our party is composed by

Quote:

- Goblin sorcerer ( hag ). The group "leader". He speaks, lies, makes deal and doesn't really care about anything but trading.

- Half Elf Swashbuckler: A street urchin who doesn't care neither of the rules nor the people ( He's not evil, but might be kinda selfish ).

- Dwarf Druid: Ex miner, now a shapeshifter with also animal order druid. He cares about the animals, but has no issue following his goblin friend.

- Human Ranger: Eldritch Archer. Good guy, but chaotic. I could say that he craves for fights, so it might be difficult to get a full approval for a non trivial encounter with enemies.

Then there's me

- Aasimar Champion: Paladin of Shelyn. Guess I said anything ( from the shelyn edicts and the paladin cause ). .

I really like the character for what concerns its combat mechanics, as well as being tied by codes and a strong faith, but I have to admit ( you probably wouldn't be surprised ) that fitting in that group led to different issues.

That's why I was considering a summoner.

In your opinion, not having a frontline champion ( and instead a summoner ) how much might affect the combat?

In the other campaign we are playing, our group has no champion and the difference is more than huge.

What do you think?
Would the difference be that much or I could somehow manage not to make the difference that big?

ps: as for the kind of summoned, I am open to anything ( probably slight less interested in the angelic one, but I'll consider that one too ).

Well, from what we know the Summoner will have a good chunk of HP since they have 10 per level. We also know that the Eidolon will have a stat with 18, so making it melee as either STR or DEX based is pretty good. So they should be pretty durable, especially if you can give them support with spells/focus.

The Summoner+Eidolon seem to be a different type of GISH so when combined with your other party members I think they will do fine if you build for durability in the front with the Eidolon.

Nothing that suggests it in this book. Though the Book of Undead is likely to have something like this

If you want some Arcadia info on some recent developments, check out the PFS module The Frosty Mug.

I'm interested to see what they do with Shadow Magic. Shadow Conjuration and Shadow Evocation were always two of my favorite spells since 3.5.

I'm hoping for flavor like that rather than just generic spells with a Shadow trait slapped onto it.

I wonder what could come out of a Soulforger / Gunslinger combination.

Shoot your gun and then rather than reload, throw the gun at them and Quickdraw another gun!

For Organized Play, you can find the Chronicle sheet that gives it as a boon here.

Surprisingly, that specific variation of the leopard doesn't appear on the Archives of Nethys. You will need to find a copy of the adventure to get its stats.

It is in on Archives of Nethys. You just need to go to the Animal Companion section, then click on "unique companions" and it is the only one listed since it is the only unique companion currently released.

Secrets of Magic is about all I can think about. New spells (most of my Big Baddies are spellcasters) along with the different magic types to add to the world will be fantastic. Not to mention all the additional lore and understanding of Magic in the world. I'm also exited for the new classes as my players will certainly want to play them and I want to see them in all their glory.

David knott 242 wrote:

Did anyone say that you actually get the chosen archetype dedication at 1st level? That would be a change from the Gamemastery Guide rules for the Free Archetype variant (which would be granted for free at 2nd level, with additional feats allowed at every even level thereafter).

Pertinent to my interests!!

Yes, it was mentioned in the Live Stream. Basically the AP takes place at a magic school so everybody needs some sort of magic to get in. As such, they give the archetype for free at first level to meet that requirement.

Albatoonoe wrote:

I can't say I'm not disappointed that we aren't getting more class feats, but archetypes are functionally feats for everyone. The Elementalist let"s me make a Pyromancy Wizard now, and that is cool.

With extra character options being included in APs, there are even more places where we can get new feats from. I'm fact, Strength if Thousands seems like a solid place for that kind of stuff.

Thought Elementalist was more whatever area you're in can affect the strength of spells, and wanted to use all the elements.

I believe that is geomancy. Elementalist seems to be a specialized caster of elemental trait spells like fire, water, etc.