If you're using the full camping rules from the Companion Guide then in stage 3 - Eating, folks either use rations, eat a prepared meal or Subsist.
The big thing is that Subsist means you don't need rations but also you don't get the benefits of the prepared meals.
As for any benefits of standard of living, for me that's a RP thing more than anything.
Ye spot on the rules
I will say it's weird because it honestly seems like there's supposed to be some decision making behind doing Basic Meals or Rations or Subsist, since Basic Meals is more efficient ration wise, but subsist is just really easy to augment and rations are cheap as hell and weigh nothing
Like, Basic Meal, it's only a fail on a meal just satiates you, a fail on Hunt and Gather to get basic ingredients gives you 7 days worth of ingridients, minimum, and it becomes 20 days worth by end game locations, and a basic meal always costs 2 basic ingredient + 1 ration, and a weeks worth of rations is just 4sp, assuming a 4 person party in the span of a week, making a basic meal for them only expends 7 days worth of rations, while eating rations only expends 28 rations in a week
But downsides is you attract more encounters, (Hunt & Gather in general is a camp trait activity so it naturally attracts encounters), but because rations are so efficient, theres no point in trying to risk encounters to make a Basic Meal (all of this null for Special Meals cuz the buffs they can give are crazy)
I wish Kingmaker had some optional rules that went 100% instead of being on the fence and shipped with more harsher rations and nerfed to survival stuff since it seems like the Kingmaker wants to have more of a survival feel and it would give Step 3 more weight than it actually does currently to make resource management more of a thing, but
There's no actual codified mechanical benefits, they're just for RP benefits
A suggestion I've seen is giving a hero point for someone going out of their way for a better standard of living since Hero Points are on average supposed to be given out for every 1 hour of play
So I think it'd be sensible, they dropped 2 feats and bought an item to specifically be good at providing a comfy life on the road not just for them but everyone, and in Kingmaker you can have loads of people at a time in your group
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For when your in civilization, i've also seen suggestions like making it so that NPCs from certain walks of life respond better or worse depending on on your standard of living, i.g urchins like you more of your on Subsistence, working folks like farmers like if you live a comfy, well of folks like Fine, and nobles love extravagant
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I think just giving only 1 basic ingredient is fine as is, a status bonus to checks I feel can be fairly strong for something someone can do pretty much automatically and then further bolster at higher levels, and accelerated natural healing I feel could step on one of the abilities a companion could provide, otherwise I think it'd be fine
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Also, the camping rules can be really confusing, and the fluff can make it really hard to parse while your mid session, I made a camping rules clarification here.
EDIT: I forgot to add the google docs link it's more up to date as I can edit it after the 1 hour window for posts on the forums here to be editable are finished
You descend from a line of Kitsune who have lived for a long time with people of another ancestry, far longer than most other Kitsunes and have lost some powers as a result.
Choose a common, Medium humanoid ancestry. Your alternate form is a form that matches this choice called a tailless form. You also gain the Adopted Ancestry feat for your chosen humanoid ancestry.
Your true Kitsune form is equivalent in appearance to the 5th level feat Hybrid Form Kitsune (think the white kimono woman used in the official 2e Kitsune art)
Due to how distant you've become, even in your true form, you can't use unarmed attacks from a Kitsune ancestry feat, and you can't use an ability that requires your tails, and you only gain half the amount of tails as you level that other Kitsune would normally get, you can use these abilities again in your true form if you take the Hybrid Form feat at level 5
Balance concerns:
I'm basing this of the Adaptive Anadi Heritage, sure their a rare Ancestry but would giving adopted ancestry and loosing some Kitsune abilities in return make it balanced?
Sould also loosing the ability to use tails and unarmed attack make this hertiage bad? I mean it doesn't seem bad right now, you just lose Foxfire and Retractable Claws, but seeing as the Tian Xia books for 2e are coming up and they might add more Kitsune feats, this could be extremely debilitating, but well remains to be seen, but if I remove this restriction, it makes Hybrid Form useless, so it's either I invalidate currently 2 feats right now with this, or just 1
But other than that pretty much all other feats still work, so you can still cast spells from Kitsune feats just as well as other heritages
Reasoning for making this Heritage:
I think its weird to me based on Kitsune lore that Kitsune cant get Adopted Ancestry until level 3 but the Anadi who they share some similarities with, can through the Adaptive Anadi heritage
The lore similarities I'm talking about are (on the Archive of Nethys 2e page)
Kitsune wrote:
"Though all-kitsune settlements exist, most live among people of other ancestries, granting them a degree of external insight into social rules or dynamics that others process only subconsciously. Kitsune enjoy subverting expectations as much as they do going along with them. Their fondness for jokes, stories, and wordplay, especially when the twist of a riddle hinges on the listener's assumptions, reinforces their reputation as tricksters."
Anadi wrote:
"As a communal and peaceful people, anadi ancestors endeavored to establish trade with the neighbors of their homeland. However, these anadi soon learned that most others found their appearance to be extremely objectionable. Wishing to avoid conflict, ancient anadi retreated into isolation until they could find a solution. The answer came when their greatest scholars innovated a fusion of transmutation and illusion magic that allowed them to assume a humanoid form. The technique was developed, perfected, and eventually taught to the overwhelming majority of anadi."
It's weird to me that Anadi have a heritage that's because their lineage wanted to explicitly blend into Common Medium size Humanoid ancestries, but not also Kitsune
Sure the Kitsune are prolly more distant in a sense to the people they mingle with than the Anadi but, idk like wouldn't it be sensible that you would also find a Heritage type of Kitsune who are like the Adaptive Anadi more, they found that they love being apart of X ancestry and want to become closer to it? They want to not just trick anymore, but actually be almost one with their chosen ancestry?
Also forgot to add the main goal of this was also to make the rules easier to look at quickly mid session so its a lot more directly written and with no flavor text
So I had a mid session crisis yesterday thinking I had a grasp on the camping rules after reading them, and found out that I somewhat didn't, but session turned out somewhat smoothly all players said they enjoyed it, but to make it run smoother I decided to reread and review the camping rules and, well, they seem to be a mess and hard to get the intent off, and pretty hard to read while in session
So I wrote up a document to clarify the rules and need some feedback and thoughts if it's really correct of what I wrote or not, hoping the folks who worked on the Kingmaker 2e AP see this and clarify for official confirmation
Also note I suck at formatting currently
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Quick note: Companion Guide and James Jacobs recommends not rolling for encounter while camping in most cases
Companion‘s guide says:
RANDOM ENCOUNTERS
Camping sessions provide multiple opportunities for random encounters, but too many interruptions can overwhelm or bore your players. Keep an eye on how they’re doing and adjust the number of encounters to fit their playing style and the pace they enjoy.
If you’re unsure, try limiting random encounters to once per camping session. You can keep your players on their toes by rolling dice as if you’re checking for further encounters, though! (page 109 of the Kingmaker Companion Guide)
James Jacobs on Paizo Forums
“The GM should always adjudicate when a random encounter happens or not; if they're bogging down play, then limit them to one per day or less. (I thought I put some language to that effect in there, but it might be in the random encounter info in chapter 2 of the main book...).”
“Camping in the wilds SHOULD have dangers associated with potential encounters, but they shouldn't be happening so often that dealing with them is all you do in your session.”
Step 1: Prepare Campsite:
Use the Prepare Campsite exploration activity, this takes 2 hours (reduced to 1 if you already prepared a camp in the hex). Only one PC performs this activity, but someone can use the Aid action to give a bonus
(remember that multiple people can Aid, but bonuses don't stack so the one with the higher check is taken)
Meanwhile, others can do the following Exploration activities (and only them):
NOTE:
Cannot be done if the Prepare Campsite activity is a Crit Fail
All actions done in Step 2 increase encounter chance, it doesn't matter if you've done 5 activities or just 1 in each hour. And activities that are 2 hours, like activities with camping trait, trigger the check twice
Camping Activity specifics
(First resolve actions that take the least amount of time since rolls for encounters happens hourly)
The Party can take up to 4 activities with the Camp trait each day as long as they aren't fatigued, (camp trait actions that explicitly state can be done multiple times in a camping session do not count to this limit)
The hours in the day before watches and rests begin is entirely up to you, but recommended to take how many hours you've been awake, 8 hours* if you've just been doing Hexploration , minus the watch time during rests unless you want to be fatigued during the watch
*(8 hours of hexploration is the standard but can be affected assuming no weather effects and or temperature effects reduce
Activities with the Camp trait are each done by a single PC, PCs perform their chosen Camp trait activity simultaneously in game time wise
A PC that succeeds on a particular Camp trait activity means that activity cannot be attempted again by any PC until next camping session (with the exception of Relax)
Activities without the camp trait are not limited to one success per camping session, they take the normal amount of time that activity takes to perform.
NOTE: You roll for your cooking check in step 3
Influence or Discover activities can be used on NPC companions; each such attempt to Influence or Discover takes an hour and isn't limited to one success per camping session
Encounter Chance
(If the check to Prepare the Campsite was a critical success, dont roll for the 1st hour)
At the end of each hour if anyone did an activity, attempt a flat check against the zone's Encounter DC (see the Camping Zones table); on a success, a random encounter occurs.
Each successive hour you attempt this check, the Encounter DC decreases by 1; once the PCs finish their daily preparations, or once an encounter occurs, the Encounter DC resets to its original value.
(Yes this means if you Hexplored for 8 hours, and decide to use all the 8 hours on camping,, you have to roll for 8 encounters,so advise your players to not use up all their hours)
Step 3: Eating:
A PC gains the effects of the only first meal they eat at this time; they cannot gain additional effects from additional meals during the same camping session.
Each PC chooses their own meal, the party collectively chooses the meals for any
companion NPCs camping with them, available meals are:
Rations
Subsist downtime activity
Magical sustenance (create food spell, a heroes’ feast ritual, a ring of sustenance, etc.)
Basic Meal or Special Meal if available (You now roll the check for making the meal)
Step 4: Resting:
Resting Rules
The table to the left summarizes how long the group needs to set aside for rest, assuming rotating watch assignments of equal length.
Every 4 hours, roll a flat check against the camping zone’s Encounter DC based on Camping Zones table
Any adjustments made to Encounter DC from time spent pursuing camp trait actions persist. After an encounter occurs, the Encounter DC resets to its original value.
STEP 5: Daily Preparations:
Zone’s Encounter DC reverts to original DC
Detailed on page 480 CRB
Daily prep takes 1 hour
The character regains Hit Points equal to their Constitution modifier (minimum 1) multiplied by their level.
The character loses the fatigued condition.
The character reduces the severity of the doomed and drained conditions by 1.
Spellcasters regain spell slots, and prepared spellcasters choose spells to have available that day.
Focus Points, other abilities that refresh during your preparations, and abilities that can be used only a certain number of times per day, including magic item uses, are reset.
You don armor and equip weapons and other gear.
You invest up to 10 worn magic items to gain their benefits for the day.
Menial tasks like breaking down the campsite are included in this step without impacting how long it takes for the PCs to prepare for the day.
If PCs wish to continue camping at this same location, they must use the Prepare Campsite
activity again (though it takes only 1 hour to Prepare a Campsite that has been used before).
(it actually says page 500 CRB on the companion guide but on archive of nethys that’s downtime)
Additional Notes & Clarification:
Camping Activities at Other Times (page 109 Companion’s Guide)
You can allow a PC to attempt a Camping activity when they’re not at a prepared campsite if you determine that they have the time and resources to attempt the activity
(although without a camp, some of these activities might be nonsensical to attempt in the first place). If you allow this, treat Camping activities as Exploration activities;
Once success is achieved, they cannot be attempted again by the party for 24 hours. Cooking in particular is an activity that players may be eager to pursue at other times, as camp meals can provide helpful benefits to the adventuring day. Make sure to enforce the scarcity of the unusual ingredients many of these meals require if you allow this.
Why does Hexploration assume 8 hours of travel, and what affects the time?
Hexploration rules assume your currently traveling in Normal temperature, mild to extreme heat/cold reduces to 4, while incredible heat/cold reduces it 2 hours, this affects how much hexploration activities you can do, essentially assume mild to extreme heat/cold as 1 step down how much exploration activities you can do (i,g from 2 to 1), and incredible heat and cold as 2 steps down (from 2 to ½, you can never go below ½ of Hexploration Activity)
Additional note, 8 hours of travel is also the assumption for Exploration mode as well
The Resting rule on page 499 of the Core Rulebook assumes 16 hours is when you become fatigued, what gives?
Essentially the Resting rules assume you weren't traveling and are just awake, stuff like hazards and combat don't really count towards this because their pretty short in game time wise (1 round in combat is 6 seconds), at GMs discretion they can reduce this 16 hours awake policy if you did something for a more prolonged time like Chase mode
Also the 8 hours thing also applies for Exploration mode too
