Kyle_TheBuilder's page

Ok, so again: spoilers, this is for those that already played Gatewalkers

Basically I am looking for ways to make Book 2 better. I already have ideas how to fix "escort" part, GMPC party part and how to make Egede more exciting part with less idiotic contradiction and anti-climatic subplot of Committee for Moral Rectitude.

However, here is what I need help with: I want to start giving some tips or clues that Dr Ritalson is a shady figure and that there is something wrong with him, this whole quest and Missing Moment stuff. Adventure BADLY lacks any build up to revelation in Book 3 that's its all Dr Ritalson plan. Also I would like to give more clues about players being behind kidnapping and Osoyo, but I dont know how to do it so I don't spoil whole thing. Maybe something with dreams? I don't know. This "plot twist" seems too much 0-100 for me. I don't have ideas how to make it more building up through book 2.

Any advice is welcome.

So my player with whom I will be starting Gatewalkers wanted to play Tengu Bard and he asked me if Tengu , being humanoid brids have genitals or they have cloacas.

Now, I don't myself find this question wierd (if you want to roleplay a race, you may want to know more about it, I understand that, especially when it comes to maybe some cross-species romance adventures of PC) but I honestly don't know. I am really new to Gloarion and Pathfinder lore so I have no idea. I only know that Tengu are born from eggs reading about them on PF wiki. But I don't know how otherwise humanoid they are.

Anything in official lore?

Nobody plays them in all campaigns I play right now so I have no personal experience with them apart from some little math I did. I mostly think probably people just don't want to bother with tracking HP/BT, calculating how much damage they can block, having decision breaks in middle of combat (should I block that much damage or not?), repair after combat etc.

So I don't personally have an opinion whenever they are good or not and how Shield Block scales on levels 1-20 on characters that want to do it.

I know Blade Ally (Shield) is basically the stapple to buff that, so probably if you want to Shield Block you should be Champion or archetype into Champion for that. Sadly Quick Shield Block feat comes quite late (level 8 earliest) so that Block fights with AoO/Champion Reaction.

Anyway, what is your experience with Sturdy Shields and characters that build for Blocking. Do you consider it good enough? Does it scale well with average damage dealt as levels go up? Do you think it's worth investment over free-hand, dual or two-handed or just using shield for AC bonus and don't bother with blocking?

Would be nice to look at it from APs perspective where encounters level +2 and up are very common. And let's skip talk about Amp Shield as I know it's a great alternative free of all the HP/BT stuff. Let's just focus on Sturdy Shields and Shield Blocking.

Giving my voice as to what I think is really one of the biggest mechanial mind boggles for me in PF2e. And I am saying it as a big Fighter simp, mind it.

How for Gods sake is it that a Monk, whose whole class legend/myth/power fantasy/lore/history/identity is being a master of unarmed fighting (originating from Kung Fu legends), of martial arts, is not getting Legendary in unarmed while Fighter does? And why Monk doesn't get crit spec of unarmed by default and needs to spend feat?

Now I am not against Fighter getting Legendary in weapons. I understand that they are Fighters and they are like masters of arms. However, the only thing that Fighter should not be Legendary in is Unarmed attacks. That should be monk.

Normally I am not a guy who sews mechanics with lore, however this one thing among martials just doesn't fit the class identities in my opinion. Monks are people who soley, for their whole life, try to master unarmed techniques. They learn various of Stances (martial arts), various of unarmed deadly techniques (like one-inch-punch) or learn how to (as the only class) use a Ki to further enchance their unarmed mastery. They are only proficient in simple and unarmed for that reason, becasue of how big focus they put into it. Even Monastic Weaponry being feat shows that it's something outside of their expertise without additional training.

Yet, despite all that training and dedication to unarmed martial arts and all the mystical ways to enchance them and rich traditions of monks Houses, Monsteries etc...

Here is a guy, a Fighter and he just happes to be Legendary at unarmed. Not only unarmed. Everything else. Monk player playing with Fighter/Martial Artist in party feels just wrong when Fighter is MASTER at unarmed but monk is only Expert? How?

Whos should be more Legendary in unarmed? A guy who just punches or a guy who achieved such greatness in unamred fighting that his fist are adamant, magical, cold iron, silver and can channel energies through them? What sounds more "Legendary"?

I wish we could see a change here in Remaster but also a reason from devs: why is Fighter more proficient in unarmed than Monk? It's like Wizard having better divine font than Cleric... I just don't get it and can't wrap my head around it.

For me it should be: Monk Legendary in Unarmed, never in weapons (even with Monastic Weaponry), Fighter legendary in weapons, but never in Unarmed.

That's just how I wish it could be.

Mathematically it's worse than striking twice. Mathematically with 3 actions it's always worse than using Exacting Strike. Even vs high AC enemies with Furious Focus it still just matches Exacting Strike mathematically with 3 Actions available for only striking. Even Press feats like Brutal Finish/Certain Strike actually (statistically) helps more Strike-> Exacting Strike as if you miss Exacting Strike you can go for Brutal Finish and if you hit with Exacting Strike you can go for Certain Strike (or for 3rd Strike even).

Every other Fighter fighting style has it's "style defining" feat that is baseline of attacking: dual wielding has Double Slice, free-hand has Snagging Strike/Dual-Handed Assault, Sword and Shield has obviously tons of shield feats. Yet Power Attack, which I assume was supposed to be THE feat for 2 handed builds, mathematically fails to be that. Unless it's Exacting Strike that was supposed to be THE feat for 2 handed builds.

Anyway, I am just surprised that Paizo didn't think that PA needs a little bit of love. It should be a more viable way to use your 2 actions than Striking twice and mathematically that's never the case, unlike Double Slice which is always better than Striking twice and Snagging Strike or Dual-Handed Assault are direct upgrades to Strike action for free-hand builds. And while I understand argument "feats are situational": many feats are not and are direct upgrades to mechanics, like feats I mentioned here and many more.

I guess after so many years there no hope for errata for PA, but maybe we will get in future some defining feat for 2 handed characters. I love PF2e but I also love 2 handed weapons and it makes me sad that PA is so bad.

So, a quick question:

Imp. Knockdown is single Strike and you add effect of critical trip to that Strike. Further more feats says "If you used a two-handed melee weapon for the Strike, you can use the weapon's damage die size instead of the regular die size for the damage from a critical Trip"

So for example you use Greataxe, the critical trip damage bonus to your Strike is D12.

But what if you critical hit on Strike? Since you apply "critical success effect of a Trip" to that Strike: does the extra damage from critical trip that now rides on Strike also doubles on crit since now it's part of that single Strike? So would it be on Critical Strike Improved Knockdown from Greataxe an extra 2x(d12) then from critical trip effect?

Just wanted to get some general opinions about this idea for build, as there are pros and cons to it. This is pure optimization idea.

I don't like demoralize and frightened condition due to fall off. If I were to even invest in Intimidation on Fighter it has be to be on Hobgoblin Fighter because of Remorseless Lash and backup feats: Intimidating Strike and Shatter Defense.

So I thought about making it all little bit bette by taking Free Archetype dedication into Rogue (at level 8 or 9 depending if Adopted Human for Multitalented is there) for Dread Striker on level 12 + on level 10 Minor Magic: Arcane to be able to use scrolls/wands and later Gang Up becasue why not if I am already here, it's great feat.

General thought is that if there are already so many ways to make enemies frightened: Demoralize, Fear spell, Dirge of Doom, Intimidating Strike then Remorsless Lash is good to keep it with just Strikes (which means you can also use stuff like Knockdown and AoO will also count for prolonging frightened). But -1 for ancestry investment and loosing better ancestry feats for Fighters is in my opinion not enough. But Dread Striker makes that every frightened 1 is auto flat-footed, which means -3 AC from Demoralize success, from Intimidating Strike, from Fear spell, from Dirge of Doom. Which obviously combo with Remorseless Lash to prolong that -3 AC on enemy and best is when I trip frightened enemy and he Stands my AoO will still be with -3 AC becasue flat-footed is not caused by prone but frightened, so increases my hit/crit chance and prone if using hammers/flails. On heightened Fear or Dirge of Doom can make whole room -3 AC to Fighter and one Intimidating Strike has potential of -3 to -4 AC as opening on start which makes Press/Second Strike just -2/-1 on Fighter. Rogues know that Dread Striker is awesome. Then we could pick later Gang Up and pretty much have enemies flat-footed almost all the time. However the question is: is this worth the hassle, because there are pros and cons to this build:

Pros:
1. Every Demoralize, Fear spell, Dirge of Doom, Intimidating Strike, Dread Marshal Stance crit, Fearsome rune etc. can just straight up make enemy -3 AC at minimum, no flank or anything needed.
2. "Easy" condition to keep due to Remorseless Lash from Hobo and accuracy from Fighter.
3. "Easy" condition to reaply due to Intimidating Strike if needed.
4. Minor Magic from Basic Trickery is very good feat to pick. Cast a Spell Activity, we can pick any tradition, which unlocks scrolls/wands for us without having to take spellcasting dedication
5. Dread Striker just works. No strings attached. Once enemy is frightened, it works
6. Dread Striker + Gang Up + Flanking + Prone pretty much guarantees flat-footed on enemies in pretty much 95% of scenarios.

Cons:
1. Hobgoblin is a must. Remorseless Lash is just imo mandatory for fear martials. Darkvision from start is also nice. You can justify Adopted Ancestry (Human) or (Dwarf) for very good feats, but not both, so you lose good combo of Human with Adopted Ancestry (Dwarf) or counterwise.
2. 14 DEX to pick Rogue Dedication hurts as we want to be STR Fighter. You can start with 12 DEX and 10 WIS and get 14 DEX at level 5, but that means delaying your WIS increases to level 10 and Fighter Will saves are not good.
3. Traits like "Emotion", "Mental", "Fear" make whole combo useless vs mindless enemies like Golems for example. Something to keep in mind when thinking about cost of opportunity here.
4. Dread Striker is level 12 to pick at earliest due to "two times level" rule for dedication advanced feats. Which means levels 1-11 it's pretty much just Remorsless Lash -1 debuff for keeping with suboptimal 14 DEX being there. So we will play till minimum of level 8 with diffrent FA dedication anyway. Makes you wonder about justification of Hobgobling pick. -1 from frightened 1 is good but makes me wonder if it's worth on higher levels where casting Fear spell is very cheap option. This is "late game" build sadly so even in 1-20 campaign you only see the "power" of it on levels 12-20.

Hi,

So we chose AoA as our first adventure, becasue it allows for biggest variety of locations and it's great way to see Golarion (everyone are new in PF2e) while going 1-20 levels. However, we know that some encounters are no as balanced as later adventures (understantable, AoA was first) and we'd rather avoid random TPKs for group that will still be catching up with PF2e many mechanics. So, with that said: could you please give some general pointers of how to balance (and which ones) encounters in AoA? Like for example "First fight should be level -2 instead of level 0", "final boss at Book 2 works better as Level -1 and with 5x henchmens instead of 10x" etc. I would appreciate tips like that from those that already played that adventure path.

Cheers.

Hello,

I am still learning PF2e and I just got to a point where I think I understand optimization aspect around Fighter (class I plan to play, which took me like 2 weeks) but I absolutely didn't touch yet any other class or full casters mechanical nuisances in PF2e.

So I basically ask for "head start" here and recommending me builds for her, as that will be also great way for me to have some starting templates to reverse engineer them and help her build her character and me understanding how it works (since I have to explain to her, she is not very rule-reading-friendly :P)

So I know for sure she will like to play as Druid or Witch as she loves "nature casters" (Clerics are out of question, she hates clerics). As for races I am sure she will lean towards Leshy, Kitsune or Catfolk. She also loves summons (she is Summoner main in FF XIV for example, healer main in general) so I included Summoner class too if it can be healer too (dunno). She was dissapointed healing/buffing was so bad in DnD 5e so I hope she can have fun with that in PF2e.

She is not to keen on direct combat tactics and prefers to be buffer on top of being healer. Basically she loves to be support to buff allies, heal allies and place some debuff on enemies if needed. So I guess Occult or Primal is what I am looking at?

Dedications (multiclass) are probably out of questions as she is not very good at very mechanical complicated stuff with many many things to follow/remember. Unless it's very "light" Dedication like Blessed One for example, where it's just few bonus things easy to track.

If it matters, I will be playing two-handed Fighter with knockdowns (flails/hammers), wizard dedication for true strike/enlarge shenningans at front line.

Anyway: please kindly recommend me builds you would recommend her as if she was one of your players at table and I will be grateful for every single proposition as it will help a lot :). Thank you.

Me and my group are heavy powergaming group and we like many are leaving DnD and trying PF2e for first time. Obviously it will take long time before we can start crafting power builds for PF2e as system is huge!

So I would like to start with something grounded like melee-focused character (Paladin or Cleric/Ranger too, doesn't have to be without magic) for our first campaign. So what kind of best melee focused builds you can recommend and I would be grateful if you could also give me breakdown of your build so I can start to see "patterns" and "syngergies" etc. and slowly build my understanding of optimization in this system.

Thank you very much for every single proposition! Go wild, I don't really have any race, class/mulitclass or alligment restricion :). Just want to deliver very high damage/DPR and hopefully still keep nice defenses up.