Mad Gene Vane's page

This would be something that falls into GM territory, since a mixture of ancestries doesn't necessitate an extended lifespan except where it says, like with half-Elves. As such, the GM will tell you if it sounds reasonable or not. That being said, even Dragons don't live to be a millenia old, either because they grow old and die out, or would-be adventurers and dragon hunters slay them. The odds of this character being that old without having pissed someone off to kill them or not having some sort of deathly encounter is slim to none, all things considered.

If you are the GM, then consider how the longevity and lifestyle at their disposal has developed the character. Does their age benefit them or serve as a drawback? Is being a Dhampir forcing them to hide in the shadows, or have they acquired experience that no other living being has, making them powerful enough to live that long? Would the character being hundreds of (not just one or three, but numerous) years old be a fit for the campaign for a player, or would this be better fit for a unique NPC instead? Having concise answers to those questions will tell you both the feasibility as well as the likelihood of such a character existing, either as PC or NPC.

Thanks for the detailed response. The character idea isn't for any game, and I'm not sure if it'd be better as PC or an NPC. It's more me just thinking out loud.

I think with your point on dragons, I'd cap the age between 1000 to 1200 years old.

I was thinking millennia because a human dhampir lives to be 600 years old. Normal human life span is 70-ish years. Being a dhampir extends it a bit over 9 times. Nine times longer than a typical elf's lifespan would probably break the game.

Mulling a character idea around in my head.

An Elf Dhampir who was part of the Shining Crusade fighting against the Whispering Tyrant. Elves and Human Dhampirs live to be about 600 years old, on average.

How old could an Elf with Dhampir heritage live to be?

Shining Crusade ended in 3827 AR, and the current year is 4722, which is only 895 years ago, which I think should easily be in the age range Elf Dhampir can live to be.

Do you think a middle aged 1200 year old Elf Dhampir would be reasonable? Or could the character have a truly astounding lifespan and live up to three or four thousand years or longer?

It a low charisma character or one that is untrained in social skills makes a really good case a GM could either give a bonus to the character’s roll or lower the DC, since the character did something to appeal to the NPC.

I think of it like the good argument is a tool that can help make things easier to convince someone, like a tool that aids in physic checks. If you need to make a climb check, and there’s a rope or a ladder the DC for the climb check goes down, but the character still needs to make the actual climb, so there’s a chance they miss a rung on the ladder and start slipping down.

A convincing statement to appeal to an NPC should work similarly. The NPC sees a benefit in the argument, but isn’t totally convinced, so the PC still needs to make the check.

The big boss battle can easily result in a TPK, unless the GM goes out of their way to not use all the bad guys abilities or hand waves somethings to keep a PC from dying 4.

The saves in this encounter would be more appropriate for levels 9-10 or higher. A level 7 character trained in a save, and a +1 ability mod would have a +10 save. The chances for failing saves are well over 50% this encounter. At best a PC in high tier may be a master in one type of save, so level seven master in a save, and with a +4 ability mod is a +17 save. There’s still a greater than 50% chance to fail some of the saves, if the PC is a master in the necessary save. The PC’s other saves won’t be as good, so if the weaker saves are what’s needed, then making that save is very unlikely.

The entire encounter is save or suck, with the chances of sucking being far greater than making the save.

I don’t normally complain about scenarios, but this big boss battle is so much more dependent on dice rolling high that it’s just not fun. I usually like hard encounters, but a good hard encounter has multiple ways for PC’s to prevail. In this encounter, more than half the party to the entire party can fail their saves, in which case GM not holding back can easily TPK a party in under four rounds.

PMSchulz wrote:

Can we request a specific table/scenario beforehand, like building a list at GenCon, or is it first come, first serve?

It will be first come, first serve when event sign-ups open, starting on May 4th for GMs.

Where will GM signups occur? Will it be on Paizo’s Discord server, at the Organized Play Foundation Website, or another website or location?

Thanks for the replies. They bring back down to earth with what I can do with the rune.

The fearsome rune "When you critically hit with this weapon, the target becomes frightened 1."

If I put the fearsome rune on a weapon with the trip trait, and make a trip attempt against an opponents Reflex DC and the trip attack with the weapon crits against the Reflex DC, does the opponent become frightened 1, as per the rune's effect?

It makes sense to me that it should, but I couldn't find anything to clarify this. I don't want to wishfully read into something to get it to say what I want it to do, when it might not work the way I want it to.

Any thoughts and clarifications would be welcome.

Thanks for the replies. This really clears it up for me.

How do you determine the DC for a Recall Knowledge to identify a creature?

For example, an Owl Bear is a Level 4 Creature. If a character rolls a Nature check to recall knowledge, what would the DC need to be to get information?

What would be the adjustment to the DC for Uncommon, Rare, etc. creatures?

"Wit

You are friendly, clever, and full of humor, always knowing just what to say in any situation. Your witticisms leave foes unprepared for the skill and speed of your attacks. You are trained in Diplomacy and gain the Bon Mot skill feat. You gain panache during an encounter whenever you succeed at a Bon Mot against a foe."

If a foe cannot hear you, or cannot understand you (whether due to language or mindless), they are not going to be unprepared for your attack.

Your witticism will have no effect.

If you tell me my mother was a hamster, and my father smelled of elderberries, but I do not understand your language, I would not be shocked at the silliness of your remark or be offended by your remark.

The style is not about making you feel good about yourself, but rather about making your enemy go "huh? what'd you say..." and therefore they need to be able to hear and understand you.

I am playing a dwarf barbarian for PFS.

I'd invest in a reach weapon. The dwarf's 20 foot move speed can limit your ability to reach a bad guy, and attack in the same round, versus other characters with a 25 foot move speed. A reach weapon helps offset your limited movement.

If you're campaign is mostly in open air, there is something to be said in favour of the mounts AC.

By level 4, if you take Mature Animal Companion, it's is more or less 1 free stride action if you are using your 3 actions, and if not your mount can either give you great mobility or some attack.

I guess the question is what do you want to do with your AC / why did you decide to get one?

A weakness with a lot of four legged animal companions is a lack of climb speed, so when your party needs to climb up or down a wall, cliff face, etc. your four legged buddy can be a bit of a liability.

This is not a common, but when it happens, it can be annoying. Especially for a large animal companion, like a mature horse.

Just some food for thought on benefits and drawbacks of some types of animal companions.

Outside of Gymnast, which uses athletics to do maneuvers like grapple, trip, and shove to gain panache, the other styles use a charisma based skill like Deception, Performance, Intimidation, or Diplomacy.

Most swashbuckler styles should work well with a charisma centric character like a bard. Gymnast would be the least synergistic, since your primary stat to use to gain panache would be strength.

Quick question, if I make a level 1 character with an intelligence of 8, will I lose one of the slots for trained skills?

If a class gives me one trained skill and the ability to choose four trained skills of my choice, does an Int 8 reduce this to three trained skills of my choice?

"Spirit Rage (instinct Ability)
When you are raging, you can increase your damage from Rage from 2 to 3 and deal negative or positive damage, instead of the normal damage type for your weapon or unarmed attack (choose each time you Rage)"

This is the first sentence of the Spirit Rage instinct ability. My interpretation, as written, is I can choose to increase my rage damage from 2 to 3 and can choose to deal positive or negative energy damage, instead of my regular damage type.

My reading is that I am not required to do positive or negative energy damage, with the additional rage damage, and therefore can add rage damage to my physical weapon damage.

Probably not RAI.

I just do not see how the requirement to increase rage damage from 2 to 3 is contingent upon doing positive or negative energy damage.

For example, "when you enter MGV's Lunch Counter you can increase your order from the a regular lunch to the lunch special and get a gourmet side salad or gourmet soup, instead of the normal sides for the regular lunch".

In the above sentence, getting the lunch special is not contingent on getting a gourmet side salad or gourmet soup. The gourmet sides are optional. I can still get the lunch special, and refuse the sides.

I do not see why the first sentence of the Spirit Instinct ability would not allow the extra rage damage to just be physical damage, as it is currently written.

Can this please be clarified?

Congratulations!

You discovered the other benefit of MCD!

Yeah, MCD seem like a quick way to try to break 2e, even if just a little bit.

Nothing in the "Casting a Spell forma Scroll" section says you must be able to cast spells of the scroll's level.

The spell must be on your spell list and the moment you take the caster dedication, you are trained in that magic tradition's spell list.

So I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to cast any spell (of your tradition) from a scoll.

There's also no limit to caracter level. You could cast Time Stop from a scroll at character level 3 if you somehow got your hands on a scroll for that.

Thanks for the clarification. I honestly have some issues adjusting from 1e, with regards to how much nicer 2e is many regards.

I am a martial character. I take a casting dedication, for example Wizard, at second level.

Table 11-3, on page 566 of the CRB, lists a scroll for a second level spell as a character level 3 item.

At third level would I be able to caste a level two arcane spell from a scroll, even though I can only cast cantrips from the multi-class dedication?

I GM'ed a game.

A 2nd level player has a critical success on an Earn Income check. He's trained in the skill. It's his level-2 for the check, so it is a level 0 task.

Normally he receives 5cp/day over 8 days for 40sp.

Per CRB for 2nd edition a critical success is the amount of money earned per day +1, so he would receive 6cp/day for 48sp.

I just want to make sure my math is correct.

I was mulling over making a Fighter, with Guard background, which gets Intimidation as a trained skill, which is charisma based.

I was playing around with a 10 charisma or 12 charisma, and I started to wonder how much difference is there actually between a 10 or 18 in a character stat.

On the bonus for a d20 roll, it’s just a 20% difference. When I think of the difference between a 10 and 14 charisma or 18 charisma (or another stat) in playing a character, it does not progress linearly like the bonus on the d20 roll does.

A 10 charisma stat I play as an introvert. A 14 as the life of a party, and an 18 like a superstar.

Outside of strength, which is quantifiable, with carrying capacity the other five stat categories are not really.

For example, at what dexterity stat number does character gain the agility of a gymnast? Or can barely touch their toes?

I’m just curious on what people’s thoughts are how much the value of a character stat affects how you play your character.

Protective Ward is the first level focus spell from the Wizard's Abjuration school of magic.

Focus spells, like cantrips, automatically heighten to half your level, unless otherwise noted.

Protective Ward gives a +1 status bonus to AC, and radiates as an emanation, increasing area by 5 ft. every round it is sustained up to a 30 foot emanation.

As focus spell, how does Protective Ward heighten? The spell description (CRB p. 408) isn't clear.

Does the AC status bonus automatically scale or does the maximum size of the emanation increase? And at what levels does it heighten?

Or is it what it is, and the focus spell does not heighten?

“ Fatal: The fatal trait includes a die size. On a critical hit, the weapon’s damage die increases to that die size instead of the normal die size, and the weapon adds one additional damage die of the listed size.”

A great pick is Fatal d12 on a critical hit.

Your standard 5d10 damage roll would become 6d12 on a critical, with a great pick.

Games I’ve played double the damage roll, rather than rolling more dice.

Edit1: If you play 5d10 on a critical goes to 10d10, you would roll 11d12.

Edit2: The Fatal trait doesn’t have any carve outs stating there’s an exclusion for power attack, so I am assuming it includes power attack dice.

Chapter 11: Crafting & Treasure / Runes / The Etching Process / Transferring Runes

As long as you have a crafter who can make the necessary check, you can just transfer the runes (there is some debate if you also need Magical Crafting feat).

Thanks for the clarification.

The examples in the CRB are rune transfers between magic weapons, so I had my doubts.

My character has a +1 striking Great Pick. I want to change weapons. I buy a mundane melee weapon. Can I transfer the runes to the mundane question or do new runes need to be etched?

Can I transfer the runes at 10% of the 35 gp for potency rune and 65 gp for striking rune for a total of 10 gp.

Or do I need to spend 35 gp for a +1 potency rune, and 65 gp for a striking rune, on my new mundane weapon?

That's what I thought. Thanks for the clarification.

Thanks.

The idea of having a hand locked into a shield, while exploring is unnerving. I don't know why, but I get bad feeling about not having both hands free.

Just seems like you're inviting a pit trap to be sprung, which requires both hands to grab the ledge and pull yourself up, or a difficult climb, where you have to sheath the shield and when you get to the top there's an encounter. And now you have to spend 2 actions to don the shield and draw the weapon, which screws up your normal action economy.

Maybe I'm over thinking it or paranoid from playing too many RPG's or both.

The Additional Lore Skill Feat states:

Prerequisite(s) trained in Lore

Your knowledge has expanded to encompass a new field. Choose an additional Lore skill subcategory. You become trained in it. At 3rd, 7th, and 15th levels, you gain an additional skill increase you can apply only to the chosen Lore subcategory.

Special You can select this feat more than once. Each time you must select a new subcategory of Lore and you gain the additional skill increases to that subcategory for the listed levels.

Backgrounds generally give you training in one Lore subcategory.

For example, I took the Mining background and am trained in Mining Lore.

Would my Mining Lore automatically gain additional skill increase at 3rd, 7th, and 15th levels? Or does this only apply to the Lore subcategory taken, with the Additional Lore skill feat?

Thanks for the clarification, and the MC rogue dip for quickdraw to shield bash and attack with a weapon is an interesting idea.

If I create a sword and shield character, and while I am exploring a dungeon, ruin, forest, etc., I normally keep my sword and shield sheathed, so my hands are free.

But suddenly a random encounter appears, and I need to be ready for battle.

Does it take one action to equip my shield and one more action to draw my sword?

Basically, does a sword and shied character build take 2 actions, out of the 3 available in a round, to equip the sword and shield and be ready for combat?

Bob, thanks for the chart. Really helps

Thanks for the clarifications

It's the 27/3=9 part that trips me up.

Need to remember finished 9 levels and now starting 10

I have been away from PFS for a few years.

I have one question on XP.

I played my level 9 barbarian, with 26 xp recently. With the 1 xp gained from completing the scenario, my character now has 27 xp.

Is my barbarian still level 9 or did he advance to level 10?

Thank you in advance for your assistance

I have played four modules of the Emeraldspire Super Dungeon so far. When I first got the Land Rush Boon I did not have enough Prestige to buy land. I now have Prestige to buy two plots.

My question is can I retroactively buy land using an earlier character chronicle sheet or do I have buy one plot now and wait to run another module to buy more plots?

Empyreal Knight is too back loaded to make up for the loss of Divine Grace at second level and lay on hands.

At 3rd level you get energy resistance 5 to acid, cold and electricity. If it included fire, it would be an A+ ability, but as it is it's a B, because it omits the most common form of damage dealing energy in the game: Fire.

At 6th level you get a +4 save versus poison, which would be unnecessary, if you still had divine grace.

It takes to 9th level to get the energy resistance up to 10, level 12 to get immunity to petrification, level 15 to get true speech and level 18 to very nice protective aura against evil creatures.

At level 5th level you get a bonded mount, which gets the celestial template at level 8 and becomes a Pegasus mount at level 12.

You can summon a celestial ally, at level 4, but the level 4 celestial ally will be from the Summon Monster I list, while a 4th level caster will have access to Summon Monster II, i.e. your celestial ally will always be a step behind what casters can summon, so will probably not be the an awesome combat buddy, but rather something that can do support type work, like an advanced familiar.

In PFS play, had another player get the Hosteling property on a tower shield to store a Roc, for places the animal could not go.

Medium character, so this was possible with a large animal (Roc), but if I ever played a character with an animal companion, I'd look to save up some money to get Hosteling put on my armor or shield, to avoid the problem of "wolf can't climb up the rope to get to the top of the cliff face".

I am playing a Dragon Disciple, with levels in Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. I am a me lee /tank build, As such I wear armor,

A 9th level DD gets the Sorcerer 15th level bloodline power Wings.

The Wings power states you grow leathery dragon wings from your back as a standard action, good maneuverability, 60 ft fly speed, and can dismiss the wings as a free action.

My rules question, can I grow the wings through my breast plate?

I would pick up Point Blank Master at level 5: not provoking when using a bow is really nice, and it lets you take advantage of Point Blank Shot more.

Point Blank Master is nice, but Archer's get an ability at level 9, where they do not provoke.

Do you burn a feat on something at a lower level, that will be a class ability later on?

This is an honest dilemma I have with the Archer Archetype and I really do not know a good answer.

************************

As far as stats go (a bit generic):

Str 12 Pts 2
Dex 16 Pts 10 (+2 racial)=18 total for the stat
Con 12 Pts 2
Int 12 Pts 2
Wis 12 Pts 2
Cha 12 Pts 2

The +1 to damage from 14 Str can be made up for at later levels, with magical gear. At lower levels you can't afford a compound bow anyway.

If you have to fight with melee weapons the +1 bonus from a 14 str versus a 12 Str is not huge.

I find fighters to be starved for skill ranks. 2 skill ranks per level, with a low intelligence build is rough. Dropping 1 skill rank per level with an 8 Int is making it rougher.

Without skill ranks you will only be shooting things.

Sometimes a Knowledge Engineering check can be handy or a Survival check.

12 Int gives you 4 skill ranks per level (2-class, 1-Int, 1-Human Racial Feature), so you can contribute to your party during non-combat time.

You can min-max the above numbers a bit, if you want, but if you are going to have a dump stat I'd choose Charisma. You can dial it down to 7, since even with a 12 CHA you won't be the party face.

O.K. I have a level 1 Half-Elf Fighter for PFS play. In making him for the first scenario I had a brain fart. I some how got it into my head that an Elven Curve Blade is a double weapon.

My original idea was to have a double-bladed sword wielding Half Elf, who will multi-class as a Rogue and Barbarian (for imp. uncanny dodge), but OMG! The crit range on an ECB is 18-20 and is just calling me to take improved critical and critical focus feats at levels 9 and 10 and crit away, along with Power Attack at lower levels.

Though my original conception was a Darth Maul-ish character (human side being Shaonti, so he'll have face tattoos), with a double bladed sword and multiple attacks, who will eventually be tacking Sneak Attack damage to the attacks.

I can take Power Attack with a two bladed sword as well and attack two handed, but it would not be worth investing in the critical feats to try and be a crit-hitting machine at higher levels.

Current Feats: TWF, Double Slice
Alt Racial Trait: Ancestral Arms: Either ECB or Two bladed sword
Traits: Adopted (Auspicious Tattoo) +1 Will Save
Deft Dodger +1 Reflex Save

Stats:

Str: 17
Dex: 16
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 7

Thoughts on which way to go initially? At higher levels, I'd have the money to get both weapons, but at lower levels, not so much.

Lvl progression:

1. Fighter
2. Fighter
3. Rogue
4. Rogue
5. Rogue
6. Rogue
7. Barbarian
8. Barbarian
9. Fighter
10. Fighter
11. Fighter
12. Fighter

Playing a Ranger 2 /Sorc (Dragon bloodline) 3 / DD 3 for PFS play

I've turned him into a tank. At level 8, my base AC is 27. If I can get shield cast it goes up to 31.

I've found there's a trade off between attack bonus and spell casting. More levels in a fighter type class you have better BAB but less spell casting.

More levels in Sorc and you lose BAB, but gain spells.

You will never be able to go toe-to-toe as a spell caster with a full caster, but you can still do some damage / buffing with your spells, if you use them in the right situations.

What I find tough is overcoming SR, as my caster level will always lag behind the caster level needed to overcome the CR of the creature being fought.

If you are patient, the stat boosts to strength means you do not need to put as much into strength as with a full fighter build and you can still be effective.

A starting strength of 16, for example, will still be effective and frees up points for other stats, like Dex or Wis, that can come in handy when making saving throws.

Some races - Halfling, Half-Orc, and Half-Elf - for example start off speaking Common and their racial language (Halfling, Elvish, Orc) but what, if you had a character that was not raised around members of that race?

Language IRL is acquired, so despite being from Germany or China, for example, if you are not raised in an environment where German or Chinese is spoken, you would not learn those languages as your native language.

If you had a Halfling, or Half-elf raised only around humans, do they just pick up the racial language as some innate trait or would that be lost and they have an extra slot for another language or would human language rules apply?

I think a good PFS character needs to be able to bring two things to the table: (1) competent in combat and (2) cover some skill rolls.

Not every PFS encounter is going to be resolved by combat.

Some require a good diplomacy or bluff roll.

Others require a Knowledge or Survival roll.

Any encounter with a "monster" - undead, evil outsider, ooze, etc. - can be greatly aided by someone with good stats in Knowledge Religion(for undead), Planes (outsiders), Dungeoneering (Oozes), and Arcane (magical beasts).

Dungeoneering doesn't come up as much as the other three, but being able to ask a question on things like DR or special attacks can help plan battle tactics.

Halfing Fighter 1 / Cleric 11 (Desna)

Alignment: GC

Domains: Liberation and Travel

Alternate Racial Trait: Warslinger (can load slings as free action, no need to to use two feats, though you lose +2 to climb/acrobatics)

Stats:

Str: 12 (-2) = 10
Dex: 14 (+2) = 16
Con: 13 (0) = 13
Int: 10 (0) = 10
Wis: 16 (0) = 16
Cha: 10 (+2) = 12

Traits:

Child of the Temple: +1 Bonus to Knowledge Religion
Deft Dodger: +1 Reflex Save

Weapon: Halfling Staff Sling (can be used as both melee weapon and ranged)

Feats:

Level 1: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Level 3: Up to You
Level 5: Up to You
Level 7: Up to You
Level 9: Up to You
Level 11: Up to You

Skill Ranks:

Invest in Knowledge Religion and Planes (they are class skills)
Invest in Perception (high wisdom)
Rest up to you

Saw the Impervious Weapon Quality in Ultimate Equipment. One part, I'm not sure how it applies:

"An impervious weapon is warded from damage and decay. A metallic weapon cannot rust and a wooden weapon cannot rot or warp, even by magical or supernatural means."

What if I had a battle axe, which is a metal blade with a wooden haft.

Does the quality apply to the entire weapon or just the metal part or just the wooden part?

I'm not clear from the wording.

You can pull off all the Vanishing, Teleporting, and being sneaky, as a straight Inquisitor.

Inquisitor isn't allowed per house rules, same with Oracle and a few other classes.

Wand wielding Rogue is an interesting idea.

Thanks for the suggestions.

In a home brew campaign set in the northern River Kingdoms and spilling over into Numeria.

Party is made up of an Artificer, Ranger, and two Magus (I think Blade Bound).

Went rogue-cleric to fill a gap, as I didn't have any character set in my mind to play.

Starting at level 1.

Stats assigned from a (generous) stat block/array 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12

Stats assigned after racial (halfling) adjustments:

Str: 13
Dex: 18
Con: 13
Int: 14
Wis: 17
Cha: 14

What I am in doubt about is my character progression, i.e. how many levels of Rogue versus Cleric to take.

My initial reaction was to go levels 1-2 rogue, level 3 cleric, levels 4-5 rogue and the rest as cleric.

Upon reflection, I might go levels 1-2 as rogue and the rest as cleric.

A more rogue heavy build was appealing because of the added skill points. Cleric heavy build is more appealing because of getting more powerful spells faster.

Cleric deity: Desna. Domains - Travel and Liberation.

Race: Halfling. ARG alt trait taken to move 30 ft/round at level 1.

In short, I'd be filling the role of skill monkey, trap defuser and healer.

The trade-off is coming between skill monkey (esp. for all the cleric knowledge skills others don't get as class skills) and healer. I can always go Skill Focus: Disable Device to make-up for losing 1/2 Rogue levels on my DD checks.

Any thoughts/comments on what you guys think is better would be welcome.

8 Red Wizards wrote:

10, 13, 13, 12, 13, 10

I've rolled worse in the past and still had fun playing the character.

I've rolled worse and played them and had fun. The key is I've rolled them.

I wouldn't want a GM to roll them or dictate stats have to be assigned by order, i.e. roll strength first, then dex, etc.

Magus/ paladin MT anyone?

I'd go with Ranger/Bard.

For annoying characters, as stated above, the suspicious types, who tell you nothing really suck.

Had a rogue, who was so suspicous, he didn't even tell us his name. We just called him "Guy".

You don't have, but its what you can expect a hellknight of that order to wield. Its hard to force someone to use a longsword if they really like their earthbreaker. I'm certainly not telling that man no.

Thanks. I just have some vague memories of earlier D&D versions, where I thought characters had to use favored weapons. Didn't know if it still applied.

Hellknight orders have favored weapons. If I decide to play a Hellknight, will my character have to use the favored weapon? Or is it optional?

They're broken.

No one stops to think about it, but they are ludicrously broken.

Per the rules a typical male adult Halfling is between 2'10" tall and 3'4" tall and between 32-38 lbs.

That's the size of a typical pre-schooler. Most preschoolers have trouble carrying a gallon of milk, because it's too heavy for them.

You can have a Halfling with a starting strength of 16, which means a light load is up to 76 lbs or less and they can carry a heavy load of up to 230 lbs.

Even a lower starting strength of 8 allows a light load to be 26 lbs and a heavy load to be 80 lbs on a 35 lb. frame.

A gnome's a bit bigger, about the size of a first grader, with a male gnome's starting height being between 3'2" to 3'8" and weights between 37-43 lbs.

You basically have two races, which are supposed to have the same body mass density as humans of their size - unlike Dwarves - yet can have a body weight-to-load ratio rivaling ants or spiders.

Whatever reality D&D/Pathfinder game creators try to put into character creations/rules - like daytime/night time, gravity being the same as on Earth, water being H2O and in liquid form at typical atmospheric temperatures, etc. - so we can wrap our heads around the other fantastic stuff just has never translated to the strength-to-size proportion of Halflings and Gnomes.

I don't know why, but this just irks me.

Playing a character the size of a 4 year old, that could lift me off the ground like Bam-Bam and toss me around is just a bit off. They basically have superhuman strength for their size, like Bam-Bam.

Everyone's squishy at 1st. A couple of hits and you get dropped.

You can stat out your character well enough and equip him well enough, but a couple of good rolls by your DM and you go splat.

2nd level you start to see some separation between the d10, d8 and d6 characters, with regards to total hit points, but you still don't have enough HP's for extended multiple melees in a session.

I'm not sure how to evaluate a character as being too squishy at 1st and 2nd levels.

All low level characters are basically squishy versus what your character becomes at 4 or 5th level.