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Lawrencelot wrote:

Lawrencelot wrote:

Any more lore on the Godsrain that we didn't know about? Effects of Gorum's death, other dieties who died?

Anyone? I saw someone replied to my comment about orc gods, but from another source. I also heard rumours elsewhere of Osirian and hag gods dying. What is in this specific book? I want to know which gods die besides Gorum.

This might be better as its own separate thread focused on the lore of war of the immortals. It seems like a lot of the folks flocking to this thread are looking for mechanics or at least stuff that can be pulled from the book quickly, without deep diving into the text for all of the lore writing. Someone who has read the book deep enough to have answers for you, might not be keeping up with a fast moving AMA thread on it?

Makes sense, but as always reddit delivers within 10 minutes of asking a question. Here are major spoilers for what happens to other gods according to one reddit user:

Any more lore on the Godsrain that we didn't know about? Effects of Gorum's death, other dieties who died?

Anyone? I saw someone replied to my comment about orc gods, but from another source. I also heard rumours elsewhere of Osirian and hag gods dying. What is in this specific book? I want to know which gods die besides Gorum.

Any more lore on the Godsrain that we didn't know about? Effects of Gorum's death, other dieties who died?

Magic in the masks?

I would love to understand what the AP KM creator's intentions were with how powerful the masks were intended to be after creation at the Masking Ceremony in Tireless Hall Chapter 2 of SOT, KM. Was it the creative team's intention to allow adventurers to pick from the Magical masks in the Adventure toolbox on page 73, and if so what levels?

Was it the author's intention to have the masks remain unmagical unless students transferred stuff from other masks that were found, to leave it wide open to GMs to grow the masks in power as the students grow, or to use the relic system in the Gamemastery Guide?

As a new GM, I would be more comfortable with a little more guidance on intent.

I believe the intention is for masks to possibly become more powerful in the following ways:

So I don't think masks are supposed to do anything right after the masking ceremony. They just replace the beads in a more powerful way roleplay-wise, not mechanically.

That said, other people have indeed incorporated the Relic subsystem from the GMG for these masks, which I believe would also work fine if the players are okay with having more options.

For those who mentioned that PF2 should have been more flexible with for example using int with a Religion check to recall knowledge about undead, this is already in the rules: "If the GM deems it appropriate for a certain situation, however, they might have you use a different ability modifier for a skill check or when determining your skill DC." (Source)

For some reason it just never happens in practice, I haven't seen any PF2 GM make use of this rule and as a GM I never use it myself. Maybe I should, but then I think players will expect to always be able to swap their ability modifiers.

The ideal scenario to me would be where a better version of the current Alchemist is some kind of generalist subclass, while the other subclasses are better at their own niche but worse at doing other stuff. A bit similar to the wizard schools, with one universalist school. I wouldn't even mind if the general subclass would be the best one mechanically, as long as bombers are good at throwing bombs all the time and mutagens can fulfill the Hulk or Jekyll and Hide fantasy. Make them more noob-friendly, not punish bombers for throwing bombs and doing what the Fumbus image suggests you should be doing.

I use recall knowledge on NPCs all the time, though mostly out of combat. Have been doing this since PF1. I roughly know what an NPC knows about the main plot mostly, but that's about it. There are infinitely many unforeseen situations while roleplaying so that I could not imagine NOT rolling dice to determine what an NPC knows.

'I ask the bartender what he knows about the barbarian king' <GM rolls dice, crit fails> 'The bartender has heard rumours that the barbarian king can turn into a dragon'

'I tell the fruit merchant in a subtle way that I know the fish merchant is using false weights' <GM rolls dice, crit success, PC rolls diplomacy, crit success> 'It seems that she already knew that, but she is impressed by your gossip and trusts you a lot more'

Yes, at least two people have:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/17x55ni/arcane_school_for_st udents_of_the_magaambya_sot/

https://www.reddit.com/r/strengthofthousands/comments/17vclzg/arcane_school s_for_the_five_branches_of/

Yeah, all the things I've seen asked are either:
1. in the bestiaries, with monsters that have cool abilities
2. in pre-written adventures (APs or PFS)
3. in the GMG (how to customize creatures)

You will need all three, though. If you have a homebrew campaign and you only look at the bestiary, then it is a valid criticism that the same creature can't feel both like a boss and later like a minion, if the only thing that changes is the level of the party. If you then look at the GMG, you might feel a bit lost if you don't look at examples from existing adventures. If you do have a pre-written adventure, you will still want to customize the experience to your players, for which the bestiaries or GMG can help.

Luckily, all of this is available for free on AoN.

As a practical example, the way I do it is to take a monster from a certain level, think about what would make it cooler (let's say a petrifying gaze, for example because I saw it in a pre-written adventure), then look at higher-level monsters that have such an ability (basilisk/medusa), then add the ability to the boss using the rules in the GMG. It might actually need lower AC or hp to compensate for the ability, but as OP says this makes the boss more interesting. If I wanted the monster to have more actions, I would look at creatures with reactions for inspiration, or something that triggers on a crit or on death. Plenty of examples in the bestiaries.

One thing that I feel like is missing is clear rules for how to design troops, because they sort of have multiple stages. But you can look at the existing ones and figure it out quickly. Another thing is multi-stage boss fights in general, or bosses with multiple spots in the initiative order. Again, there are some examples, but clear rules of thumb would help.

I don't understand getting disappointed about something not changing from how it has always worked.

Like if going from 18 to 19 to 20 in two boosts was a huge failure of design, I'm confused why we never saw people complaining about it before the remaster? Like suggesting house rules or something?

What? There have been many complaints about ability scores in PF2.

It's one of those things that do not make sense unless you've been playing TTRPGs since the 1970s, just like Vancian casting and spell levels. Actually, spell levels and ability scores suffer from exactly the same issue: an arbitrary linear formula that you need to remember, instead of just using level and modifier for everything.

Spell level = [Character Level]/2 rounded up

Ability score = 10+2*[Ability Modifier]

The remaster would have been an excellent opportunity to tidy this all up. Actually, the switch from PF1 to PF2 would have been too, but roleplay veterans have a larger voice than new players unfortunately.

For the last mission at level 1, the Uzunjati mission, players are supposed to tell a story and also say something about the morale of the story. What did your players come up with?

My players had the following:

You are never too old to learn.

Sometimes you have to take a different perspective to see what is truly going on.

You can ignore what is happening outside, but it is possible that what is happening outside does not ignore you.

You can always rebuild that which was lost.

Never mix nitric acid and copper.

I have run two alchemists as a DM. I have not seen the Alchemist run out of bombs past the low levels. High level alchemists never run out of bombs. The goggles are useless for them.

There is always someone arguing some niche case which almost never comes up for an item that is badly designed. This is a badly designed item that needs a fix. I made it better so the alchemist player felt like having one. If a class's main reason for wanting this item is "I ran out of my strongest bomb, so I have to rely on my weaker bombs and these goggles keep the item bonus to hit up to par with my strongest bombs so my even weaker bombs from Perpetual Infusions are certainly going to do worse damage leads to the self-doubting question...why am I even here?"

If that is the line of thinking, that item is not great. Bombers should never run out of their strongest bombs during battle past the low levels.

I don't think it hurts to buff this item, but I would argue that ignoring lesser cover is its main advantage, not the item bonus. It essentially allows you to have +1 (on top of the bomb's item bonus) in the common situation that there is an ally or enemy between you and your target.

The mechanics are not the issue. You pay some gold and you use an item in one hand, and you spend an action to increase your AC: that's all fine. The issue is purely thematic: the typical monk fantasy fights with two hands free (except those who use certain weapons, which is a different problem with its own thread). Or at least not with a shield or buckler.

So, if there was some kind of class feature given for free, with exactly the same mechanics as a shield but different fluff, that would solve it. It would be a small buff due to no gold needed to spend on a shield, but that's all. Maybe compensate it by not giving shield block as an option. So the parry option given above would work. But you don't want to rely on reflavouring when it's such a classical power fantasy.

Adding this to my SoT campaign right away

Wait, Stone ghost doesn't know undercommon? That seems like quite an oversight. My players know so many languages, but not undercommon, so they had some trouble with the gremlins so far. I will have to add it to stone ghost to make him a believable commander of gremlins.

Both of them can get to dying 3 before being healed back or doing a heroic recovery. So the hp is mainly important to determine the first time they go down.

I really enjoyed this! The course list is excellent!

Just curious - Have you come up with any info about the new teachers you added?

Not yet, I'll probably improvise something in my campaign. But someone on reddit started work on this:

I really like this and have started fleshing out the new teachers. Since their names were similar, I have made Xhosiliawa a kobold and a sister to Xhokan from the Powderpile. Varashod is an android. Working on the others.

While the vanilla 'Life in the Magaambya' study system is too bare-bones for my taste, the expanded Magaambya with weekly checks is too overwhelming for me. So in my system, I picked some parts from these systems, as well as from the Monthly study system (which includes exams, and roles for branches), to make a new bi-weekly study system. I don't have a calendar or exams but I do have a course list, as my players indicated they would like to choose the courses their characters are following, and I've seen some nice examples of courses online already.

So with that, I present:
BI-WEEKLY STUDY SYSTEM

for the Magaambya. This document is written from a player's perspective. The branch benefits remain the same, though you could also change the benefits based on what courses the players took. I also encourage to combine it with an NPC Influence system, for which many options can be found online: I personally like this one best. How many Influence Points (or Friendship or Relation Points) you need for an NPC to give a certain advantage is left open. I also had to introduce some new teachers, else the teaching load of the staff mentioned in the AP would become ridiculous. For example, there is only one Emerald Boughs teacher mentioned (Zuma) and it is mentioned that he only teaches electives, so I made up some alchemy and other related courses for him.

Now we have 4 possible study system options (3-monthly, monthly, bi-weekly and weekly), so I hope this will be useful to someone. Please let me know if you have any critique!

A historical ninja was essentially a spy whose job was mostly to gather intel and report them to their Lords. They rarely assassinated people, as blood splatters would be too glaring and obvious. The idea of this stealthy and powerful warrior came from medias.

Speaking of generic names, I think 'Spy' would be an excellent class name that could cover some things that the current rogue does not cover. Stealthy poisoner with smoke bomb and some ki magic (ninja) could be covered by it, as could the Vigilante (though this is already an archetype), but also more diplomatic characters that don't necessarily want to use music, the gods, or the blood of their ancestors to influence people.

The map and the Tanuki art look super dope!

It doesn't really make sense that a crime boss could amass wealth and power in a society where wealth is meaningless.

Maybe she wants to go back to the old ways, or just keep wealth for herself instead of sharing it with society. However...

What I would recommend instead is still playing up the ways in which Nantambu approaches this ideal while having it fall short for practical reasons (the rest of the world is not like this, after all) and then having some of those shortcomings resolve throughout the AP.

This sounds like a very good idea to me. The events with Salathiss and Froglegs like you mention, and later with Dimari-Diji visiting Nantambu, could all result into big changes in Nantambu society.

And thanks for answering my questions! This helps.

I feel like the positive influences from both the Magaambya and the city's connection to the plane of Axis can definitely be highlighted without turning the city into a post-scarcity utopia. Personally, I would advise against committing to the idea as hard as you propose; first, it would involve a lot of rewrites, but more than that it undercuts Osibu's role both in the Mwangi Expanse and in this AP as... well, a utopian Mwangi city full of magic that's worth protecting.

Plane of Axis? I missed that, is it in the Mwangi expanse book? And yes I would have to make sure Osibu still plays an important role, I didn't yet have a solution for that. Taking your and hauk's ideas together, maybe Nantambu is on the edge of becoming a paradise, but some troubles need to be solved (stone ghost, frogless, salathis, etc.) and once Osibu is protected and Dimari-Diji visits Nantambu, the heroes can help shape Nantambu into a paradise city like Osibu.

Another thought on this (apologies for the double post): if Nantambu is so utopian, then it makes Walkena's argument significantly weaker - why put up with his tyranny when a perfect life is so relatively close at hand? The hardscrabble lives folk make in Bloodcove or while (re)building Vidrian are somewhat cheapened if they could just move to a nearby slice of paradise.

This, however, doesn't seem an issue to me. Because it is already the case (Nantambu being a haven of peace and culture), just to a lesser degree. And Nantambu is much too open of a society for Walkena.

In preparing for this AP, I've decided that I really wanted to lean into the utopian aspects of Nantambu. It is already described as a haven of peace, learning and culture, but I want to take it one step further. The Magaambya being focused on both arcane and primal magic also gives me solarpunk vibes, with nature and magic (instead of nature and technology) as core aspects of the city. With so much magic going around, and so many people dedicated to improve society, and such long periods of peace due to the tempest-sun mages, in my campaign I imagine Nantambu has recently developed a post-scarcity society where everyone has their basic needs met. Unseen servants keep the streets clean, primal magic causes an abundance of food, and healing magic keeps everyone healthy (though resurrections would still be rare and costly). Money is no longer necessary: everyone can ask for basic things like food and minor healing, and if anyone needs something more special like a big house, or transportation to another city, it is freely given if it is 1) abundantly available and 2) deemed necessary. The chime-ringers help in making sure no one gathers wealth for themselves (cough Froglegs cough) and also that slackers (cough Chizire cough) get a bad reputation and might be refused luxury goods and services.

Now, the question is, if I make such a choice, besides the effects on the story it will also have mechanical effects.
1. No money means less bookkeeping, which is good, because I can focus more on bookkeeping for NPC relations and an elaborate academic subsystem. Even more so if I add milestone leveling and automatic bonus progression.
2. Item levels. These are a good way to limit what characters can get (no you can't get this scroll of teleport, that's for this teacher who is doing an important mission in Absalom). But what about, let's say, 4-th level items for 1st level PCs? These items should still be abundantly available, what would be a good reason to deny them to the PCs at first?
3. Importance of diplomacy. If items are not traded for money but on the basis of need and availability, a PC who has invested in diplomacy or deception might be able to convince someone to give them a high level item. This makes social skills very powerful, maybe too powerful?
4. Trade with other cities. If Nantambu is the only post-scarcity society, they still need to trade with neighbouring cities and countries. So money still exists, unless they are so utopian that they are self-sufficient and just give away what they have for free, but that seems unlikely on such a dangerous world as Golarion. Maybe PCs will need to keep track of their money after all, just not in Nantambu?
5. Treasure: what do PCs do with treasure they don't need if they can't trade it for money? They can give it away to gain reputation with a certain NPC or group maybe, or go to other cities to trade it for money. How would you react to such a rule as a player?

These changes are great! I am still preparing but I've also read similar qualms about Koride, and I also thought the Vesicant Egg could use an update on the role it plays in the AP. Your rewrite solves a lot of problems I've read from others.

I will also add here the idea I've read somewhere else about the animal trader in book 1, to make it more like an animal hospital. In general, the vibe of this AP could be much more positive, and I was thinking of making Nantambu much more of a utopian place, but a utopian place overrun by insects seems even more fun!

Try this mirror: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hSvaNxF7Ihs5naizo8G6UpCgZnOZWYLk?us p=sharing

Wait really? I live in the centre of the Netherlands and my party just entered Xin-Shalast. I'll send you a private message!

Also, congratulations on finishing the campaign! What was the most exciting part of the campaign?

Exactly how much downtime is expected to occur in any given chunk? The reason I ask is that I just crunched the numbers and unless I'm mistaken, it would take a level 3 Wizard who critically succeded their craft check something like 44 days to complete a level three item worth 75gp. Am I doing this math wrong or am I just assuming 'downtime' is much shorter than it actually is...?

I don't think there are expectations. I run a converted PF1 AP and I just give a few weeks of downtime between books.

Note that for what your player is doing he is better off just buying the item, then spend the rest of the time adventuring (if possible) or if everyone wants downtime, use the Earn Income action. Unless there is no 3rd level settlement anywhere near, which I doubt. Or he has a cool uncommon formula of an item not sold anywhere nearby.

Crafting is almost never the best option, check the homebrew forum for ideas on how to change that.

I've run one homebrew campaign and one AP is currently near the end. As someone fresh to roleplaying in general, for the homebrew campaign I was very grateful for the pathfinderwiki to read up on the lore. Then I thought of an overarching story, and made encounters 1-3 sessions in advance.

When I switched to running an AP, the thing is that it is easier, but takes the same amount of time. Where I would actively look for monsters and lore in a homebrew campaign, for the AP I could just read the book. It requires less creativity, but still gives the option for creativity by making changes to the AP and tying in player's backstory, etc.

So APs have my preference unless I have a very long creative spark.

PC: Mok

Can't edit my post anymore so here's the aftermath.

There they saw Mok's soul going towards Pharasma's judgment, fought some Astradaemons, and also figured out that some of the souls from Varisia were missing the greedy part of their personality, causing a wrong judgment from Pharasma and disturbing the whole process. Outsiders asked them to figure out what was going on with this, as the PCs suspected Karzoug had something to do with it.

In the boneyard they found a high level cleric NPC and paid him to cast the Resurrect ritual on Mok, but unfortunately the NPC failed because he had never tried to resurrect such a powerful person before. It cost them most of their coin. Then they realized the NPC could also use the Raise Dead spell, which is more expensive but at least wouldn't fail. They sold everything they didn't need and Raised Mok's body, then returned to the Material Plane with the help of Iomedae's herald.

My players disliked Belor so much they thought he might have something to do with all the murders. It was for similar reasons: it seems like he's not doing anything useful in the AP and he's a lousy sheriff.

What helped in my case was a bit counter-intuitive: giving them a badge that said they were on a mission for the sheriff of Sandpoint. In the meantime Belor would go look for other recruits, or train the guards in case there would be a ghoul or goblin attack. But the badge helped make the relationship more clear: the PCs were on an official mission, rather than doing this guy a favour. In later books they just took the role of independent investigators but for book 2 it helped them being able to say they were on official business everywhere.

PC: Mok
Class: Rogue 14
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors (Pathfinder2e) -> Halls of Wrath
Catalyst: Sinspawn Axemen
Story: The PCs got past the Iron Archer statue by solving a riddle for it, then successfully convinced the inhabitants of the Wrath Wing that they were there to pass 'the test' (trying to defeat their leader, High Lady Athroxis), though in reality they were looking for a teleportation portal. When they wanted to continue to the leader, they were held back as the inhabitants did not think they were ready. The PCs then convinced them to do a pre-test, a mock battle to show their strength. The inhabitants agreed that if the 4 PCs could beat 6 Sinspawn Axemen, they were ready for the test. Unfortunately, the rogue got downed and healed and then downed again multiple times, which in PF2 is the best way to get yourself killed. The last critical hit of a greataxe with power attack proved fatal, and the mock battle was cancelled.

Although I think that PF2 missed the opportunity to either renumber spell levels to match character levels (though some non-players getting spells at accelerated/decelerated ratio might make this option hard);

or rename "spell levels" to some other word to avoid confusion (while I can get it straight, there's no guarantee a random new young reader could distinguish character level and spell level), like "spell circles" or something else.

Fully agreed. With a better system than ever for heightening spells, it's a really missed opportunity. There are still so many spells that do similar things even though they are separate spells. We could easily have 20 levels of spells corresponding to item levels and character levels and basically all other levels in the game, where most spell effects would be defined by heightening.

Illusory creature/object could be the same spell, many damaging spells could be the same spell, but once you heighten it to a certain level something cool happens for example.

This character (Twisted Fate from League of Legends), or any other character that uses magical cards to attack.

Edit: never mind, turns out there are feats for fighting with playing cards!

You can absolutely still "main" a stat and not start it at 18. 18 isn't the norm, its the specialized equivalent that chooses specialization as opposed to average skills. But for the most of the game you won't even be that far off from a player that starts at 18 if you start at 16.

You'll be 1 behind for half of the game (lvls 1-4 and 10-14 and 20). So it's about a 0.5 point difference. That is noticeable, but not as bad as some other suboptimal things in the game.

Why not just use the subsystem rules from the GMG? Seems like what your group needs are some Victory Points to show the progress they're making before getting to the boss.

** spoiler omitted ** (rolling stone build)

Thanks so much for this! Gonna start playing a Dwarf monk as a tank in PFS, these feat choices could come in handy.

What is the "deception DC" in this case? Does the DM also roll deception? Also, what if the person isn't lying but what they are saying is still hard to believe?

The Deception DC is 10 + the creature's Deception bonus. You have to choose: either the NPC uses the Lie action (which I don't like, because on a success the PC would believe the lie, meaning they can't choose as a player whether they believe the lie or not) or the PC uses Sense Motive.

Alright thanks everyone

What Cordell said. It takes several seconds to cast a spell. From the moment someone starts casting a spell, until 6 seconds later, a lot can happen. In which order that 'lot' happens, is determined by initiative order, but for the story it happens simultaneously.

While the caster is casting a spell, the paladin or an enemy might burst through the door. If the caster is later in initiative order, they can choose to 'cancel their spell' (without any mechanical game rules) and do something else with their 3 actions, or continue doing what they were doing.

Super crazy comment on an old thread, but has anyone created art for the stained-glass windows in Foxglove Manor? That was a missed opportunity, I feel...

Yes, someone did. You can search for it in the facebook group GMs for Rise of the Runelords. I can also look for it on my other laptop if you can't find it.

Thanks Alfa/Polaris, I agree. In some cases PF2 had new design goals compared to PF1 but failed to fully follow those goals. Luckily these are relatively rare and some of them are actually errors that would hopefully be fixed with the next errata. And else they can be easily fixed with houserules or variant rules. The examples I gave are a bit harder to fix, as they are mainly for new players for whom it would be hard to use house rules or variant rules unless the GM is experienced.

You create enough food to feed six Medium creatures for a day. (...)

Most Small creatures eat one-quarter as much as a Medium creature (one-sixteenth as much for most Tiny creatures)

I would definitely count young children as Small for this purpose, babies as Tiny, and teenagers as Medium, if the choice matters. And yes, the young children of Small creatures would then be Tiny. Though in my imagination, halflings eat and drink just as much as humans. I guess goblins too if they get the chance (though I imagine they need less to survive).

Just sinful ones. P.255 says

"It’s certainly likely you have characters who aren’t
sinners, or who are honestly virtuous. In either of these
events, simply leave their sins blank—these characters
find that while there isn’t a wing of Runeforge where
they feel particularly welcome, neither do they take
penalties for being in a wing that opposes their sin."

But I think I would rule it more similar to what Tangent101 says. I wouldn't like penalizing my players for playing a virtuous character. Though it also gives them less penalties.

I'm thinking of using a rule like this: sinful characters get the mechanical bonus in the room of their sin, the non-mechanical bonus (like not being attacked) in the room of their sin, and the mechanical penalty in the two opposite rooms. Virtuous characters get the mechanical bonus in the two opposite rooms, the mechanical penalty in the room of the corresponding sin, and maybe some story penalty in the room of the corresponding sin. But I haven't read this chapter entirely yet, and I don't know if this rule makes sense with the Runeforged weapons or with Thassilonian magic.

Many years ago (I have ran Rise too many times to count...), I had found a collection of maps, tokens, handouts and additional information all in a single concise location that was easy to navigate. It was a google drive that I had bookmarked for use. I recently upgraded my computer, which included reformatting and updating, and somehow lost those bookmarks on my computer. Now, I am on the search for it again. You guys have so much of the material that is in that google drive, do any of you happen to have the link to the actual google drive itself? If so, you guys are amazing!

This link should work: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0ByxZcYXd3MkxfkxHYkY3MS1mcjBBWGdTeUd pN1lXRk5SN1BtZVRQUFdKVTdWSjBMSy1qNU0

Homebrew suggestion: darkvision does not exist, it is replaced by precise scent. This makes the spell Negate Aroma actually do something as well.

Yes this is a joke, but I hope it opens more discussion and makes you wonder about dwarves in this homebrew system.

No one has seen my comment apparently, but I think it is very close to what you are looking for so I'll repeat it: http://pf2.tools/

In particular, http://scribe.pf2.tools/ and http://template.pf2.tools/ do the job quite well.

If you can achieve at least the same quality within an Overleaf template, that would be awesome, but these tools are already pretty good with being able to save things to your account and exporting and sharing links and what not.

What I did to throw the party off is not mention the PC name or initial on the first note they find (in Sandpoint's sawmill). Only on later notes like the one in Hambley's farm do they find the name of the PC written on the note.

What the title says. I'll first introduce the ruleset, then how it came into being. This has not been tested yet, I'd like to have your opinions on it.

Crafting changes
The basics of Crafting are not changed. Anyone can use the existing Crafting rules in the core rulebook. All expert Crafters do, however, have the following additional option.
Before you roll your Craft check, decide whether you want to Craft normally (in this case the rules remain the same) or whether you want to do a fast Crafting. If you do a fast Crafting, the 4 initial days spent Crafting are reduced to 3 days if you are expert, 2 days if you are master, and 1 day if you are legendary in the Craft skill. The initial price to Craft remains the same (half the item's price, times the number of items if you make a batch of consumables). If you are successful you can pay for the remaining materials as normal. Or you can decide to continue Crafting, where each additional day spent Crafting reduces the materials needed to complete the item by an amount based on your proficiency rank and your level+1 if you are expert, your level+2 if you are master, and your level+3 if you are legendary in the Craft skill. Add another +1 to your level on a Critical Success as normal.

Any items made with fast Crafting cannot be sold, nor can they be used by anyone except you and your party members. For example, you use a quick handwriting on scrolls that only you and your party members recognize, or the item is missing crucial finishing touches that makes it hard to confirm what it is exactly or to determine the price. If you want to sell an item, you can either Craft normally and then sell it, or use the Earn an Income activity with your Craft skill.

Reasoning behind these rules
The main problem my players and I encountered was that Crafting does not add much compared to using your Craft skill (or any other skill) to Earn an Income. The only situations where it is better than using the Earn an Income action is when you don't have access to buy an item, not even when you would travel for 1 or several weeks, while you do have a lot of time AND a quiet place where you have all your crafting gear, like a smithy. These situations are just too rare. Furthermore, the benefit of increasing your proficiency in Craft is too small, often you don't decrease the time it takes to craft something. My players did not feel like they were really Master Crafters.

Any change that makes Craft a better activity would raise the question "Then why would you ever use Earn an Income" so our group decided that we would give Craft a benefit but make it so that you can't sell the item, to avoid exploiting this activity. With the rules above, a Master or Legendary Crafter now makes items about 2x-4x as fast as a Trained Crafter, which feels more appropriate, while at the same time it does not really feel as an exploit as they can't sell anything that they craft in this way, nor does it feel unbalanced or unrealistic to make something this much faster.

Finally, we wanted a rule that did not change the core rules too much. No new tables or anything that makes it so that existing feats would need to be changed. I think most Craft-related feats still work with the houserules above.

This blog also adds to this discussion I think, though it doesn't really answer the question and has stuff about different systems as well. But it was interesting for me to see how resting and pacing was done in the past.

https://theangrygm.com/hitting-the-rest-button/

You ask about balance, not story pacing; and about what the "average" party can handle. But what do you mean by balance? And why do you need to know about the average party? Consider:

As Zapp said multiple times in this thread, the answer to these questions is the same as when we are considering how much XP worth of monsters makes up a moderate encounter, or how much gold pieces an item that can cast a level 2 spell once per day should be worth. We have precise balance rules for a lot of other things in the game, and they are presumably based on an average party, or else on some other assumptions. Just apply those same assumptions on my previous questions and we should be able to get some more or less precise answer.

Same with dirtypool: player creativity and random chance applies to all other aspects of the game too, so why do other aspects of the game get precise rules why this particular aspect does not? Maybe the players in one campaign get really clever with a wand of illusionary creature while this item is useless in another group, this item still has a certain price according to the rules and is assumed to be of a certain power level (item level).

I'm with Ubertron and Zapp here. The discussion is about balance, not story pacing. The following questions should have a simple answer regardless of the story:

1. How many moderate encounters in a row (without any rest) can the average party handle before the next moderate encounter actually becomes a severe encounter?

2. Same as 1., but with 10 minute rests in between.

3. Same as 1., but for low-threat encounters.

4. Same as 2., but for low-threat encounters.

Etc.

No one minds if there is no exact answer to this, but a guideline would be helpful. We would expect something similar to the rules for how terrain changes the difficulty, from the GMG:

BUDGETING FOR TERRAIN

If you include terrain that’s tricky to navigate or takes
extra work to deal with, consider whether it should count
toward the encounter’s XP budget. A fight that requires
Climbing, Swimming, or pushing through difficult terrain
can be much tougher—especially if the enemies have
strong ranged attacks. Think about the impact of the
terrain in advance, especially if the battle would already be
a severe threat, or you might kill the party. You can pick
an equivalent monster level for your terrain and factor that
into your budget, or just assign extra XP at the end if the
threat without terrain is on the low or moderate end.

There are some guidelines in the 'building encounters' section as I mentioned in my previous post here. So there is something already. But I also expected something more precise, especially in the GMG.