KevinM1's page

I want dedicated Gish classes for Primal and Occult schools. Magus is magus and cleric now has both war cleirc and battle harbinger to help fill the niche. I would like to see similar for primal magic and occult magic.

Ditto.

I was hoping the upcoming Necromancer class would fulfill the occult side of things, but I guess Paizo wants to keep it as a dedicated caster according to their post-playtest comments.

That got me thinking about a class archetype for the Witch. Maybe something Hexblade-ish, where instead of a familiar, you get a patron-infused weapon? But that might step on the toes of weapon innovation Inventors.

From a conceptual POV, spending every morning drilling with your party, but only having one ally (should be squadmate) benefit from an extra reaction/round feels... awkward.

IMO, Drilled Reactions should initially be the number of squadmates equal to half your INT modifier from the outset, and raised to full INT modifier somewhere between levels 10-15.

Would be nice if that feature grew so that you could give more quad mates that per round.

Was just thinking the same thing.

Drilled Reactions really needs to scale, especially given the number of tactics rely on reactions.

A quick question about the reactions given by the various tactics - are these EXTRA reactions, or does a squadmate have to decide to use them vs. whatever reaction(s) they already have?

I'm guessing the latter, but would like confirmation.

+1 for "there REALLY needs to be a link to the playtest on the main Paizo and/or Pathfinder page(s)."

Woohoo! Thanks so much!

I've looked in the store, but I can't tell if the existing PF 2e character sheets have been updated to the remastered (read: no ability scores) version or not. Does such a product exist? If so, where?

Thanks!

Driftbourne wrote:

Sanityfaerie wrote:

Driftbourne wrote:

I get you can't include all of Absalom in a beginner's box or any adventure, for that matter. But where ever the beginner's box takes place it should have a starter location usable as a home base, even if it's just a tiny portion of a larger station.

Oh, huh.

Maybe make it a little scrap of Absalom Station that's just important enough that you can throw in call-backs from time to time in other APs and whatnot without feeling awkward or contrived. Make it feel homey and grounded.

Exactly ^^ and throw in a few shops and services and a bar (dare I say a cantina). A bar is a great place to have to find adventure leads, and having a few shops and services with familiar NPCs can make buying selling, and upgrading much more interesting.

I like the idea at the end of an adventure being able to park your spaceship and walk to the bar for a much needed drink and have it feel like you're walking a familiar path you can visualize. And be greeted by a familiar face at the bar saying "What happened to you? look like you've been to Eox and back."

A bar/inn/cantina is a good idea but a bit overdone. This is the future. Let's have a fast food restaurant near the starport frequented by adventurers. The manager can stay the same but the teenaged workers can change frequently. A chain restaurant can also make multiple return appearances in other cities on multiple planets.

I'd be down for a sci-fi version of Saved by the Bell's The Max XD Heck, lean into the weirdness and have every restaurant have the same waiter/cook/manager, like Pokemon with Nurse Joy, but it's literally the same entity.

So, for me, it's a bit weird. I'm utterly unfamiliar with almost everything SF, and I've been waiting specifically until a 2e (which I assumed would be using PF 2e Remaster's ORC license mechanics) before learning about it. I didn't want to waste time re-learning OGL 3.5 rules when a change was inevitably going to be happening soon.

That said, I'm looking for something that can reignite the magic I felt waaaaaay back in the late 80s with Star Frontiers. It was my first TTRPG experience (I was... 8? 9? years old and played it with my older brothers). I'm not sure how to accurately describe that magic. We played the game 'wrong'. Instead of budget Star Wars, we played it like The A Team in space (like I said, it was the 80s XD).

Nu-Star Frontiers is a no-go for... obvious reasons. But a sci-fi kitchen sink setting where I could potentially remake a character like my old Yazarian melee weapon expert (or something adjacent to them) would be amazing. Bonus points if it can have flying squirrel-esque 'wings'.

KevinM1 wrote:

This is exactly what I’m looking for! Thank you!

Yeah, I have the Lost Omens World Guide pdf, and as great as it is, it doesn’t dive as deep as I want in certain respects (which isn’t meant as a slight to the authors).

Take Belkzen: it feels like there’s a concerted effort by the devs to make the orcs more interesting and fleshed out than the stereotype, especially when it comes to actually becoming a nation and not just various infighting clans. Evidence of this is with the book mentioning that other kinds of people - artisans, merchants, etc. - are now welcome. That the leadership realizes that in order to become an actual nation (especially one that can successfully build alliances to fend off the Whispering Tyrant) their society needs to offer more than just warriors.

To me, that’s super interesting and has a lot of potential for both adventure hooks and character moments. That said, I’d like to know more. What are the clans in the Hold? What are the points of contention between them? Are any of the clans good (in terms of ethics/morality rather than the soon-to-be-jettisoned mechanic)? Where can I fit a character I would like to play within that setup? Your reply answers a lot of those questions, so, again: thanks!

From a lore POV I feel like I have a very top level, Reader’s Digest idea of the setting and people, even with the Wiki(s). And then I’m not sure how much of this kind of information is provided by the devs, and how much is left to players to figure out at the table. Being a lore nerd in general, I want to learn as much as possible.

LO Legends has excellent recent info on several key places (and movers and shakers) of the setting, including Belkzen.

For the latter, of exceptional note is the Burning Sun tribe, worshippers of Sarenrae. The most recent news about them is that their latest leader Mahja Firehair died in glorious battle and ascended to defy and kill a deity.

Awesome! Another one added to the list! Thanks so much!

So here's some thoughts for the antisocial elf magus. (The character, like pretty much everyone, might not be a reliable narrator, so I've phrased what follows with an editorial slant!)

Elves in Golarion are from another world entirely, having arrived via magical portals.

When an age of darkness fell upon the land, the majority of them ****ed off through their magic gates and left Golarion and her peoples to burn. A minority remained behind. Some chose to do so, to fight for their new home and alongside the other races who couldn't leave. Some just didn't make it to the gates in time to catch the last evacuation boat. And it's entirely possible that some were just unpopular with the ruling regime and their invitations to the big evacuation were 'lost in the mail' and they got left behind deliberately... Elves aren't always nice.

Eventually the age of darkness ended, and the elves-who-ran came flitting back to reclaim their abandoned communities and place on Golarion. The 'Forlorn elves' who stayed behind have their own cultures now on Golarion, the Snowcaster elves of the frozen north, the Ekujae of the Mwangi jungles, etc., etc.

Some of them aren't terribly impressed with the elves who have come back 'now that it's safe,' while the elves who spent so long on their home world seem to think that the elves who stayed are a sad broken remnant of their proud people, sunk into some sort of primitive uncultured state, and regard them with pity (as the title 'forlorn' suggests). Some 'Forlorn' even buy into this. Others think the elves-who-left when the going got tough should have stayed gone, rather than flounce back when the smoke cleared and acted all superior because they ran away.

As a result, an elf with a MASSIVE chip on his shoulder, all about being tough and independent, but *also* quite willing to ally with other races, like humans, dwarves, etc., races who *didn't* run away when the going got tough, while having some bitter opinions about the renewed elven nation of Kyonin (which is mostly populated by new arrivals from the home world), could be very on-theme.

Almost any of the elven groups that remained on Golarion would be suitable for generating an 'angry elf' who is out to prove he can outfight anyone (even if he has to use magic to even the odds) turning what turned out to be an unexceptional wizardly bent into a more 'magic enhanced martial' direction, so that he could instead of being a sub-par wizard *or* a sub-par swordsman, he could be an *exceptional* magus, combining the two skillsets.

Check out words like Snowcaster, Ekujae, Mordant Spire, etc. to google up some 'forlorn' elves to get some ideas about cultural details (Mordant Spire elves wear masks), skin tones (Ekujae elves are darker skinned), hair colors (Snowcasters look like the blonder half of Abba), etc. (The elves of Kyonin, the elven capital, on the other hand, tend to be the hoity-toity sorts that he'd despise.)

This is great! I knew/read about the exodus and return, but figured it would be ancient history even for the elves. I need to pay more attention to the dates.

And it works well because I've actually been in something of a similar position personally. 20+ years ago, my family went through some trying times. One of my older brothers left during the worst of it, and only came back once the dust settled. It definitely created some animosity. We all love my brother, and things are better now, but it was... tense for a few years. I can imagine the time frame of such feelings extending far longer for an elf.

It sounds like you could be interested in the Travel Guide! :) It's a book that is meant to explain a lot more of the down-to-earth parts of the setting - the holidays people celebrate, the food they eat, different lifestyles, what housing looks like across the setting, and so on. It's a very lore-focused book, with not much in the way of mechanics, so if you want to get away from a top-level idea of the setting, I think it'd be a great book!

Woohoo! Another one to add to the rapidly growing list!

Thanks again, everyone!

I chuckled when I saw this: https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sido

Talk about timing! XD

I will second the wiki for most things.

I have said before that I am a newbie to this world, but I dive into lore as it is my favourite part about a fantasy game. I have really found a lot of use from reading the wiki on different regions and such, and when those are only stubs (ie fetchlings, one of my favourite ancestries), I turn to the blurbs on Archives of Nethys and the books that have a bit more. Not perfect, but it helps.

There are definitely sections that I personally would love more info and details.

As to your example characters:

1 - Belkzen is really cool and excellent, and with the recent push to change their scattered ways, it is possible that group of orcs would be more willing to accommodate one of their own using assistive technology which would likely be brought over from Ustalav. But that said, orcs are all over the place in the Inner Sea (yay common now!), so it might make more sense, culturally, for this character to hail from Alkenstar, Ustalav, Numeria, Absalom, or another region that is more prone to tech and adjustments. That said, orcs in Golarion will likely see a shift in their religion, I foresee, with the fact that the orc gods have all been evil (at least the ones named and mentioned), but they also worship the main 20 gods as well.

2 - Elves are also all over the world, so it depends on how invested into their elven-ness you want this character to be. Are they from the elf capital of the Inner Sea? Kyonin is the bet there, which is really fascinating and leans into the alienness of elves on Golarion. But if you want more of "academic student" there is the big school in the Mwangi Expanse, The Magaambya, which is kind of like a huge university in Sub-Saharan Africa, and there are local elves in Mwangi as well if they are from the area (Lost Omens Mwangi Expanse and the player's guide for Strength of Thousands would be excellent tools). But there are other universities as well, I think Nethys has a university in The Golden Road, and there is a formal university...

This is exactly what I’m looking for! Thank you!

Yeah, I have the Lost Omens World Guide pdf, and as great as it is, it doesn’t dive as deep as I want in certain respects (which isn’t meant as a slight to the authors).

Take Belkzen: it feels like there’s a concerted effort by the devs to make the orcs more interesting and fleshed out than the stereotype, especially when it comes to actually becoming a nation and not just various infighting clans. Evidence of this is with the book mentioning that other kinds of people - artisans, merchants, etc. - are now welcome. That the leadership realizes that in order to become an actual nation (especially one that can successfully build alliances to fend off the Whispering Tyrant) their society needs to offer more than just warriors.

To me, that’s super interesting and has a lot of potential for both adventure hooks and character moments. That said, I’d like to know more. What are the clans in the Hold? What are the points of contention between them? Are any of the clans good (in terms of ethics/morality rather than the soon-to-be-jettisoned mechanic)? Where can I fit a character I would like to play within that setup? Your reply answers a lot of those questions, so, again: thanks!

From a lore POV I feel like I have a very top level, Reader’s Digest idea of the setting and people, even with the Wiki(s). And then I’m not sure how much of this kind of information is provided by the devs, and how much is left to players to figure out at the table. Being a lore nerd in general, I want to learn as much as possible.

Two works I'd recommend, both because they focus on some more Golarion-centric stuff and because they're good novels, are Death's Heretic and The Redemption Engine, both by James L. Sutter. He's written lots of stuff for Pathfinder and Starfinder.

The books take place in some pretty Golarion-focused locales, have an iconic Pathfinder deity as the nominal focus of both novels, and are a good time to boot.

I'd also recommend Hellknight, written by Liane Merciel. The novel deals with the Hellknights, unsurprisingly, which are an iconic Golarion organization. It's also a fun read.

Thanks so much for the recommendations! I'll consume all the lore I can get my hands on, regardless if it ties into my potential characters or not.

Totally Not Gorbacz wrote:

The thing is, Golarion is a kitchen sink, so no one specific place or topic "nails down the setting". Unlike, say, Warhammer's Old World, which everything is pretty much consistently a) dark b) bleak c) not-Reneissance Europe, Golarion has so much variation in themes and locales that you can hardly paint it all with one brush. If you'd share what area/theme you're after, nailing down good sources to get a feel about that place would be much easier.

I think OP is asking for Paizo products that give a feel for the setting, not extra-setting or setting-inspirational works. More along the lines of "read Nightglass if you want a feel for Nidal," not "read The Scarlet Pimpernel if you want a feel for Galt."

Yes, this. Apologies for not being clearer. But, yes, I'm looking for in-setting material beyond the various Lost Omen books themselves.

That said, OP, pick a nation if you want to get recommendations for setting material that will be applicable to your needs, as they are hermetically sealed boxes rather than parts of a cohesive world.

Ah... that's interesting. My TTRPG background is mostly Forgotten Realms, and (IMO) that setting is large and detailed, but a lot of it feels same-y. Adventures in the Sword Coast don't feel all that different than adventures in Cormyr, or The Dalelands, or.... That's not to say that it's completely uniform (looking at you, Thay). But there's definitely a sort of standard FR feel that permeates most of the setting.

So, it's really interesting to hear that each nation (or... region?) of Golarion is really its own thing with its own flavor.

To hone in a bit more, I'm specifically looking for more info to flesh out a couple potential character backgrounds:

1. Orc Inventor. The idea is that he got injured defending Belkzen from the most recent lich incursion. As I'm a physically disabled from birth person, the idea of having a character with both a visible physical disability as well as the assistive technology to (in part, anyway) overcome it is incredibly appealing. That said, I have 0 idea about Golarion Orc culture, specifically about Belkzen Orcs. So, anything that goes into their culture, religion, outlooks on someone using tech to remain a warrior would be great.

2. Elf Magus. Specifically, a Laughing Shadow. This one is a much more nebulous concept, mostly because I know nothing about Golarion Elves. The basic character sketch is that he's the black sheep of the family. Essentially dropped out of Wizard school and uses his magic gifts to... be a menace, really. Steal, spy, do dumb and dangerous things. Problem is, I don't know where to place him... what city/nation/region, what kind of elf, etc. I don't know where he fits.

Once again, thank you all for your help! And apologies for not being specific the first time.

Hey all, like others I'm someone finally making the commitment to PF/Paizo because of license shenanigans. I bought last year's PF 2e Humble Bundle, and it's great. However, even with the campaign setting info from the soon-to-be-outdated Core Rulebook and various Lost Omens books that were in that bundle, I still don't feel like I have a good grasp of the setting. Of how it looks and feels in practice.

So, with that said, what could you recommend - novels, comics, whatever - that you feel really nails down the setting? The tone, the politics, the living, breathing Golarion?

Thanks in advance!