LastFootnote's page

I am officially sick and tired of not getting official rulings on these sort of questions. This is not some edge case; it’s a basic question on how a badly-worded ability actually works. Is there any way to get these sorts of questions in front of the eyes of the devs?

So I'm playing a Ranger with the Wild Mimic archetype. My plan was to take Tiger Stance or Wolf Stance at 4th level, since I have yet to run into a creature that would allow me to take Ferocity Mimicry or Rend Mimicry. And then I remember, oh yeah, these stances require me to be unarmored. Wow, that's really awful!

So I guess one question I have is, man why is that a requirement for these stances at all? Is there some crazy combo that you could achieve if you could wear armor while using them? I'm guessing it's just flavor.

But also, doesn't this just seem like a huge oversight for Wild Mimic? These feats are basically unusable for almost any character who would want access to them. Casters that can't wear armor probably won't be taking the archetype anyway. Monks already have access to these feats at lower levels. And even other characters with Dexterity as their key stat are taking a 1-point AC penalty at lower levels if they want to use these feats. (My Ranger is Strength-based, so it's extra awful for him.)

As a side note, boo to Paizo for including Gorilla Stance and Gorilla Pound in the Wild Mimic archetype with a reference to Player Core 2, then not actually including those feats in Player Core 2.

So, can you use Counterspell to counter a spell that you observe whilst scrying?

One thing not mentioned here is that although the damage reduction applies to all damage of the chosen type, the on-miss ability only applies to weapon attacks, making it useless against unarmed attacks.

I'm still playing a playtest Exemplar in a Kingmaker campaign and chose bludgeoning as it seemed the most thematic for the character. I never used the Transcend ability until I had my Root Epithet, and even now I only use it for the healing. It's just such a narrow, worthless ability on its own.

If you use Shield Block to prevent some of the damage, the remaining damage might be reduced to 0. I believe that would trigger the effect, correct?

The flavor of it not working on you is weird, and if you rely on the ability, you encumber allies in combat if you do anything other than huddle up and ignore all your other ikons.

So like, I have to assume the intent here is not to enable your allies to lug around more equipment. By adding 8 to each ally's max bulk limit, I have to assume the intent is to allow you (because I have to assume it's meant to work on you too) and your allies to move things around the battlefield. That's the only thing I can come up with. And if this is the intent, I think it's really cool in theory. In practice, I think it runs up against some issues. One is the GM deciding on the fly how much bulk environmental objects are, which I talked about in my original post.

Another is the incongruity between bestowing a huge amount of carrying strength but not any other kind of strength. Because the line there is quite blurry. Can I lift this portcullis? Normally that might be an Athletics check, but this Immanence ability doesn't help with that.

Finally, its utility really depends on the GM (or module) creating interesting battlefields with potentially moveable obstacles. Without that, the characters are limited to perhaps moving each other around, Disgaea-style. Which to be fair, is more or less what the Transcendence ability gives you an improved version of.

Though, where are you getting the drag value? I remember things like that from older editions but I haven't been able to find that in 2e rules.

I don't have my physical Core Rulebook handy, but here's a link to the rule on AoN

Apparently dragged objects are treated as having half their normal bulk.

First of all, the Transcend ability: It's unclear whether you can pick up and deposit just one ally during this activity, or multiple allies. It says "at any point you are adjacent to a willing ally...", which doesn't really clarify how many times you can do it. The ability is called "Bear Allies' Burdens and the flavor summary uses the word "allies", both plural, but it's still ambiguous.

Second and more loosely, let's talk about the Immanence ability. At 1st level, let's say I have a +4 Strength modifier, the Hefty Hauler feat, and my spark in my Skybearer's Belt. That puts my unencumbered capacity at 15 bulk and my max capacity at (checks math) 24 Bulk. (Which also means I can drag an object of up to 48 Bulk outside of combat.) At this point, the bulk rating of various environmental objects becomes very pertinent. As a rough reference, we can surmise from the Core Rulebook that a piano is about 16 bulk. How heavy is this cabinet? How about that boulder? Some more example bulks for heavy objects would be great. Also, what's the maximum bulk I can throw, and how far can I throw it?

I only just found out this product existed. It's a real shame it's sold out. With Pathfinder's newfound popularity perhaps there will be enough demand to bring the Pawns line back. Here's hoping.

Confident Finisher gives your Strike the following failure effect: "You deal half your precise strike damage to the target. This damage type is that of the weapon or unarmed attack you used for the Strike."

But of course the Precise Strike feature has two different damage amounts, one for Finishers and one for other attacks. Which one is meant to be used here? I'm 95% sure it's the higher finisher amount since this is a Finisher, but the Bleeding Finisher feat specifies "precise strike finisher damage" for a similar effect. So which is it meant to be?

I'm new to the system and trying to understand investiture of magic items. I've searched for an answer to this but have come up empty so far.

You can still gain the mundane benefits of an item if you don't invest in it. A suit of +1 resilient armor still gives you its item bonus to AC when not invested, but it doesn't give its magical bonus to saving throws"

Now forgive me if I'm wrong, but it sure sounds like uninvested magical armor still gives its potency rune effect. That counts as part of its item bonus to AC after all.

LastFootnote wrote:

Hopefully it's not too late to ask a related question here: what is up with the "simple injury poisons" that the feat allows you to create? I'm completely new to Pathfinder 2e so maybe there's a simple answer to this question, but "These poisons deal 1d4 poison damage" seems laughably vague. Is this not an affliction? Does the victim not receive a saving throw at all? Is it just an extra 1d4 one-and-done damage on the next attack, and the only reason it's "poison damage" is for the purposes of immunity/resistance?

It just does the listed additional poison damage if you hit: it doesn't persist or require saving throws.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I wonder if that's worth clarifying in the errata, since no other poison I've seen works that way. Unless creatures in the Bestiary use this sort of simple poison?

Hopefully it's not too late to ask a related question here: what is up with the "simple injury poisons" that the feat allows you to create? I'm completely new to Pathfinder 2e so maybe there's a simple answer to this question, but "These poisons deal 1d4 poison damage" seems laughably vague. Is this not an affliction? Does the victim not receive a saving throw at all? Is it just an extra 1d4 one-and-done damage on the next attack, and the only reason it's "poison damage" is for the purposes of immunity/resistance?

Could somebody please tell me what the point of the Criminal Reputation feat is, other than flavor? It appears to be strictly worse than Persuasive, and they don't stack. If there were other feats that required Criminal Reputation as a prerequisite, that would at least be an excuse, but there don't seem to be any yet.

Mchawi wrote:

Need help finding good occultist feats. Also what is the best armor and weapon for occultists?

Thanks.

I like the Extra Focus Power and Expanded Arcana feats for Occultist but YMMV.

Extra Mental Focus is good too.

Whoa, you can take Expanded Arcana as an Occultist? I mean by RAW you obviously can, but it never really occurred to me. Hmm… Now I have to consider that next level over Extra Mental Focus.

Errata: The Fire Beetle pawn is medium-sized, but should be small. Also, it prominently depicts a giant stag beetle instead of a Fire Beetle.

Thanks, all. In retrospect it was obvious. Just a case of hoping it worked differently. Three levels in, Occultist is still a fun class to play, even with needing to e.g. always save one point of mental focus in my Transmutation implement. Lucky I rolled a 20 Intelligence.

Two pertinent passages from the Occultist class description:

Once mental focus has been invested inside an implement, the implement gains the resonant power of its implement school, and the occultist can expend the mental focus stored in the implement to activate the associated focus powers he knows. If a resonant power grants a bonus that varies based on the amount of material focus invested in the implement, the bonus is determined when the focus is invested, and it not reduced or altered by expending the mental focus invested in the item. Once all of the mental focus in an implement has been expended, it loses its resonant power until mental focus is once again invested in the implement.

But then…

Each time the occultist invests mental focus into an [school] implement, the implement grants the following resonant power. The implement's bearer gains the benefit of this power until the occultist refreshes his focus.

So which is it? Does the resonant power disappear once the implement's mental focus runs out, or does it last until the occultist refreshes his focus?

Just finished glancing through the PDF. Great book overall. I'm surprised that there aren't rules for giant porcupine and giant skunk animal companions, though.

The arguments that the flask itself is somehow magical ring false to me. However, the area effect only hits unattended objects. A carried flask or vial is not unattended. A flask or vial sitting on a table is.

Of course, the subject is not magically silenced, and certain other conditions can render the recipient detectable (such as swimming in water or stepping in a puddle). If a check is required, a stationary invisible creature has a +40 bonus on its Stealth checks. This bonus is reduced to +20 if the creature is moving.

The creature cannot see. It takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class, loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), and takes a –4 penalty on most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks and on opposed Perception skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Perception checks based on sight) automatically fail.

Can anybody reconcile this for me?