Markov Spiked Chain's page

Most recent familiar: Brandt's Familiar/Companion Brent. Brandt is a bat-kin skinwalker who's always in Bat Form. Brent is his very similar looking bat familiar/packmate (via Eldrtich heritage.) They're both good boys.

Brent uses a Ring of Eloquence to speak now, which is nice. He really picks on person in the group to hang out on and help. He used to be an Emissary familiar, able to cast guidance at will, and 1/day Bit of Luck. But after a series of dreamland adventures, he became a Figment familiar! Which mostly makes him a really good scout/guard. (Flying Foxes get Skill Focus[Perception], Figment gives him Skilled (Perception) as an evolution.) He's got a bandolier of various Oils that he uses in combat to help his chosen PC. At lower levels, he could be as effective as Brandt, but now the basic Oils are somewhat less cool. Oil of Enlarge Person is a rockstar though! Being able to apply it as a standard (instead of a 1 round cast) from a familiar helps out melee types a ton. But he's used Cure Light Wounds, Holy Weapon Balm, Bless Weapon, and Shield of Fait to good effect as well. He should probably grab some Vanishes too.

He was mostly a joke to have twin bats, but I've been pleased at how much he can help in combat. I think an Ioun stone or two (maybe with Watchful Eye?) would go a long way if I ever play him again.

Fauchard is also worth it for many builds. There's no other 18-20 reach option.

My Skald Malric's familiar Goat is quite the butt kicker. He started as a normal semi-intelligent goat, driven to rage by Malric's song. At low levels, he was a great flanking partner and triggered Amplified Rage for some pretty effective attacks. He was eventually blessed by Sarenrae and turned into a Fire Mephit.

Now, at 17th level, he's basically a high level Barbarian:
26 Str while raging, DR 5/Magic, Fast Healing 8 while raging and FH 2 out of combat hanging out in a fire.
Wielding a Furious Bloodsong Fauchard for big crits.
A nice mix of Rage Powers (Strength Surge, Savage Dirty Trick, Unexpected Strike, Flesh Wound, Guarded Life)
Solid combat feats from Eldritch Guardian (Power Attack, Outflank, Coordinated Charge, Improved Dirty Trick, Greater Dirty Trick)

I haven't gotten to play with him since picking up Improved/Greater Dirty Trick. Skalds basically rage cycle every round once they get sift action perform at 13. So he's using Strength Surge (+15!) + Savage Dirty Trick for a pretty debilitating and almost guaranteed Blind every round, Flesh Wound basically negating one hit a round, and Outflank + Fauchard picks up a lot of extra AoOs. He's also usually the trigger for Coordinated Charge, which is a great way to give martials (or Malric, depending on what he's up to at the start of the fight) an improved Pounce.

In short, he's a monster.

There will not be a case where a familiar is a better choice to scout than a character. The only case where you actually want to use a familiar as a scout is when you don't have another option.

Are we mixing up terms, or mixing up the Exploration action part of the discussion?

Scout during Exploration mode doesn't use a skill at all, so a familiar would be just as good a Scout as anyone else. Assuming other PCs have at least some other reasonable Encounter mode action, the familiar would *always* be the choice for Scout.

If Familiars could Scout during Exploration, they would be freeing up/replacing a PC.

I normally love Bards and buff/support classes. But I'm really having trouble getting excited about the PF2 Bard. I thought they'd make some of the Inspire Courage class feats (Input Heroics and Lingering Performance) less clunky, but it doesn't look like the changed anything from the playtest.

Is there something awesome I'm missing that makes spending an action every round for a non scaling +1/+1 really compelling? Or worth spending feats on to make it into a random bonus that costs Focus? Is there some other gem in the Bard's abilities?

Another round of kicking the can down the road.

John, I don't think you realize how big a deal this is for Paizo, the company certainly is not acting like you think it's important. I've already canceled my subscriptions because of this. At this point, I'm giving up on buying any Paizo product except scenarios I'm needed to run. In particular, Pathfinder 2 is a non-starter to me until I see some acknowledgement of the problem here and a commitment to addressing it.

I've been playing an Undine Sensei (+Ki Mystic and Qinggong) Monk that's been a ton of fun. Unfortunately, he was already level 11 when I played 9-24, so I didn't get to play him.

He's a low Strength Grappler (which wouldn't be limited underwater, and coud be neat for drowning air-breathers) :
Improved Grapple, Snapping Turtle Style, Snapping Turtle Clutch, Greater Grapple.

Grappling possibly too effective, I try my best to only engage when attacked, or when I think someone could be in trouble.

I took Wisdom in the Flesh trait to get Wisdom on Swim checks instead of Str.

Blazing Rondo is a super effective Bardic Masterpiece, one of the only ones worth a feat. Throwing out a giant AoE Haste as a move action is super effective.

Level 1 sucks, because you haven't got Wisdom to hit yet.
Sensei isn't that cool until level 6, so definitely stick with Monk until then.
Level 7 Gives you Bardic Performance as a Move action.
At level 8, you can take one level of Cleric (I took Sacred Attendant) for Ki Channel. Ki Channel can give you a ton of Ki points, especially with a Phylactery.
I retrained back to full Monk at 10th level, since the level 10 Sensei power is crazy good (1 Ki Point gives your whole party a Ki power. For example, +4 Dodge to AC.)

Get a Ring of Ki Mastery as soon as you can, so that you can hand out re-rolls cheap from Ki Mystic.

I took True Strike, then Barkskin, then Gaseous Form for my Qinggong powers. Sticking with Wholeness of Body is probably fine as well. Giving True Strike to other people is very Sensei-y. Giving True Strike to your entire party is fun, if not overwhelmingly effective. Handing out +4 Natural Armor to the group for 100 minutes is great (and gets nonsensical when you're handing out +4 Dodge on top of that in many rounds.)

You can double down on Ki Channel if you want by taking the Aquatic trait for Undine and the Aquatic domain. You'll get a second set of channels. I found I didn't need that many Ki points, so I never actually did this. Also buy a bunch of Tea of Transference to get extra cheap Ki for emergencies.

Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.

Extremely seconded/thirded. And I don't really care which sub-team of the Paizo is responsible.

I bought Potions and Poisons in December, and still can't use it. Let along the other pile of dead books since then.

I don't think it's fair to count the Bard's Muse feat against the Sorcerer, since it can't be used for Multiclass feats, and is more like the first level bloodline power. The second level class feat is also a little suspect since the only real choice is to Multiclass or take the only feat you qualify for.

It would be really nice if the 6th and 10th level bloodline powers were just turned into class feats, to give Sorcerers some build options.

Occult Evolution looks significantly better than Esoteric Scholar:
- You get a free trained skill.
- You don't have to pay for and drag around a spellbook.
- You can nab any Occult spell you want (even though the Bard ponied up cash, you're still more flexible.)
- You can pick your spell during the adventuring day in a minute, rather than during your Daily Preparations.

Sorcerer is dramatically more flexible here.

I'm concerned about some of the Compositions as well. Specifically, the skill checks for Inspire Heroics and Lingering Performance. Rolling skill checks every round to figure out basic things like what your attack bonus looks like it will slow things down dramatically. Having wildly varying bonuses to allies looks frustrating to track for everyone. I'm honestly not sure how someone who's played with PF1 bards could think having their bonuses change round to round would be anything other than annoying. Finally, spending Spell Point on buff abilities only to have them fizzle ~50% or more of the time looks completely un-fun.

With all this content, is there any chance of a timeline on Additional Resources update?
I've got purchases from Jan I still can't use.

Has there been any clarification on the costs of transfering Weapon Fusions in SFS?

Basically, I'm looking at getting a Item Level 4 Spellthrower Fusion on a weapon. Is buying an IL1 Fusion first (120cr) then transfering it to my level 4 weapon (340) the cheapest, legal way to do that, or has something dealt with this rules issue?

Sorry to gently necro this, but I want to link to the PFS Blog Post with the FAQ clarifications for familiar item slots.

This thread is the first google search for familiar item slots, and finding the blog post is a hassle even if you know about it.

I'd seriously consider Magical Knack(Oracle) as a trait. Round/level spells become viable, CLW improves, and the duration on other buffs is dramatically improved.

Fallback Strategy is my go-to spell for Cleric/Oracle dip. Embrace Destiny is good if you have Magical Knack, if a little redundant with Fallback Strategy. Protection from Evil, Endure Elements, Comprehend Languages, Bless, and Moment of Greatness are all good options.

The action economy required to use an Artificial Personality isn't really clear. I assume it's supposed to be able to Aid Other, as opposed to becoming the face of the group?

Can I have the AI feed m insults most appropriate to a target (Aid Other Intimidate) the same round as I try to Demoralize? Can it look up useful etiquette tips while I'm talking with some new friend on a weird planet, aiding my Diplomacy?

I asked in part of a rules thread, but this seems as good a place as any:

How does Telepathy work and how do Lashunta and Shirren Societies treat it?

Does it work through walls? To creatures outside line of sight? Can a Lashunta kid yell to his mom in the other room?

Can you broadcast to multiple people?
Can you speak only to a specific person?
Can you speak to a random subset of people (only lefties!)?
What happens if the person you're telepathying at doesn't know any of your languages?
What if you have a language in common, but you "telepathy at them" in a different language?
Can two Shirrens communicate telepathically in front of a third without the third knowing? How rude is this?
Can three Shirren all talk with each other, or do they have separate two-way conversations and have to repeat things?

Combining some of these questions:
Can a Lashunta shout to a building so that *only his sister* can hear (if she's inside, he's not sure,) but his parents can't?
Is there any way for his parents to overhear?
Can this Lashunta shout to "any females" or some other limited group? Or it is either "anyone" or "this specific person"?

How does telepathy work with non-telepaths?
Say I start a telepathic conversation with my 5 crew mates.
Can they all here me at once, or do I need to "transmit" to each one?
Can they hear each other once they're communicating with me, or do I need to repeat things to everyone?
Can they "shout" or "think at me" to start a conversation, or do I need to initiate before they can respond?
Does any of this change if they're on the other side of a wall?
If telepaths and non-telepaths work differently, how do two telepaths with different ranges work?
Can my 180' Lashunta talk to a bunch of 30' Shirren, but them not able to respond to each other?
What about 4 Shirren each 25' apart, all trying to talk to each other? Do they need to do a ton of mental telephone to talk?

Do Lashunta and Shirren work differently? I could imagine that Shirren always "broadcast" to everyone in range, but Lashunta have only 1-1 communications.

What's the etiquette like? Is sound-talking more "formal"?
How rude is it to communicate directly in front of others (as opposed to the "broadcast channel", if there's even a difference)?
Is it considered intrusive, formal, more personal, etc to talk directly instead of "on broadcast" even if there are only two Lashunta present?
etc.

Personally, I think you can't really do "secure" two-way communication: if there's another telepath, they can hear your conversation just like you were talking in fornt of them. There's basically one "channel" for telepathy. If someone thinks at you in a language you don't know, you can "hear" them but not understand them. You can shout to everyone in range (and range isn't limited by doors/LoS) but can't target people, and can't tell if there's someone there unless they respond telepathically.

The interactions with non-telepaths are harder to get a coherent idea for. I *want* to say you can just start a conversation with a single telepath and a bunch of non-telepaths, and still carry on a coherent discussion. But the way that makes the most sense is that they can only talk to/from the telepaths, and a telepathy has to repeat each statement. Which makes it super annoying in groups.

How do you think it works? And do you ever think we'll get enough clarification for most of us to agree it works the same way?

I'd really like a ton more clarification about how this ability works. Apparently, two of the seven major races use this as their major form of communication. It's a key part of how the setting works, and it should be absolutely clear how it works.

I think the question of how "secure" it is, and how interactions with non-telepaths work are the main issues.

Other questions:
1. Can telepathic communication travel through wall/barriers?
2. Can non-telepaths "think at" a telepath to intentionally start a conversation? Does this require LoS/LoE?

I'm toying with a Lashunta with 180' telepathy, but really have not idea how useful that would be, or what it would even mean.

My theory: Aroden's death gets re-written out of history, but takes 300 years to kick in.

Meaning Pathfinder is currently in the middle of the first "Gap" until times gets re-wound, Aroden lives, and prophecy goes back to working.

Gary, I agree with you on the communicator battery. How are you planning on handling all the other battery/charges questions in SFS until this gets answered?

Can a character with a Backup Generator recharge other PCs batteries, or does that fall into cheating?
Using a battery from an NPCs rifle/pistol instead of your own?
Transfer Charge too/from an NPC's Pistol to yours, etc.

If feels like there's a *ton* of gray area between "track meticulously and pay for every charge with no way to recharge free/cheaply" and "cheating".

I don't understand who thought "You know what feat is OP and needs to be nerfed? Skill Focus!"

I agree it clearly doesn't stack with other class insight bonuses, and someone went out of their way to make sure it didn't. But this is just bad design. At least Skill Synergy gives you two more Class Skills.

This got mixed in with the "Treat deadly wounds sucks" thread, but never got answered, so I'm creating a separate thread (that hopefully gets FAQed!) It seems vital to how useful Medicine is at lower levels (Until advanced medkits and +10 skill bonuses are common.)

Can you Take 20 to Treat Deadly Wounds?

Taking 20 means you are making multiple attempts at the

task until you get it right. It also assumes that you are failing
many times before you succeed.

A creature can receive this treatment only once every 24-hour period, unless it is delivered in a medical lab.

Not directly relevant, but here's the version from Pathfinder Heal skill, which seems to make taking 20 an option (Treat Deadly can only *benefit* once per day, and you can retry as long as you know they weren't healed) :

A creature can only benefit from its deadly wounds being treated within 24 hours of being injured and never more than once per day.

...
Try Again: Varies. Generally speaking, you can't try a Heal check again without witnessing proof of the original check's failure.

Instead of combat tracking, your exocortex can access another computer system within 20 feet, allowing it to attempt a Computers check against that computer each round, using your skill bonus. This counts as a standard action for the purpose of the Computers skill.

Can this be used during ship combat to make a Computers check to balance Shields or Scan?

Can it access the Science Officer console while you're on a nearby ship role (like Engineering)?

I would *love* an option to use two or three race boons for a rebuild, or otherwise make rebuild boons accessible outside of a trip to Gencon.

Or maybe a GM boon with more limited re-build options that aren't available with normal re-training? Sell back and re-buy your grear? Re-train your traits and racial traits? Re-spend your attribute points and stat bumps?

I'm amused at buying all my Mithral/Adamantine gear size Tiny and using Resize Item.

I think the Adventurer's guide errata/reprints are slowing things down this round. It's a shame, there's some stuff in Legacy of the First World I've been looking forward to.

The problem though is that life link works based on the bonded creature not the bond. So a life link who puts five on the same tank starts his turn. Life link says "yup" and does the heal/harm thing once per bonded creature.

Exactly. Multiple Life Links between the same two targets clearly don't generate multiple healing pulses.

I think that pretty clearly means that having Life Link from two separate abilities works just the same as putting up multiple bonds from the the same Life Link. If you can convince your GM that's how it works, go for it I guess. But I absolutely wouldn't at my table.

The Cracked version of Vibrant Purple Prism Ioun Stone is a great price for level 1 spells.

Also, thank you for clarifying things!

This seems to clearly allow familiars:
Drinking potions
Applying Oils (I'm thinking Shield Other)
Using Poisoner's Gloves

Probably:
Activate a Amulet of Might Fights of Spell Storing (this looks Use activated without a command word?)

Very muddled:
Activating Vibrant Purple Prism Ioun Stone (it's not clear if this involves a command word, and then it's not clear whether "can activate Ioun stones" overrides "cannot require a command word.")

Unclear:
Activate a Ring of Spell Storing (is this Command word activated, or Use activated?)

Probably not:
Cloak of the Hedge Wizard ("on Command" sounds more explicitly like it requires a command word?)

Not Allowed:
Turning on a Merciful Amulet of Mighty Fists.

No one's mentioned Magical Knack or Bifurcated Magic.

Or the obvious best trait ever:

Mutant Eye. 50% more eyes. BAM.
There's no feat that even gets you 10% more eyes. Clearly OP.

Medium would be an amusing way to do this. Channel the spirit of your character, possibly from different plays/episodes. It's Cha based so you have room for Perform and face skills.

I'm confused, are we supposed to be entering PFS + character numbers in the "Other" field like Big Norse Wolf suggests, or is the survey reminder just a little off? I've entered two characters but I'm going to hold off on the other 5 for the moment.

Edit: Nevermind, thanks Dan!

It's definitely powerful, probably borderline too good. But dual cursed or pei zin are both still good and don't stack with it.

Is there a legal/always available sign language in PFS?
Assume we can't just make up languages?

I want a sign language to talk to my Silent Image with.

If you're going melee, you might want to look at the Skald. They're basically bards with a little better armor and weapons who rage and let their allies rage instead of Inspire Courage.

Build's pretty straightforward: grab Skald's Vigor, Power Attack, a big two hander and go to town. If you know your group, consider Spell Warrior or Urban Skald.

I've really enjoyed Fey/Serpentine on my Mesmerist. Charm Person on inappropriate targets is comedy gold. So far, a winter wolf is my favorite, but I've hit bears, a sphinx thing, and a couple others to good effect.

Since you're level 1 still, consider the adopted(half elf) trait for bifurcated magic. That'll double your sorcerer durations, and get back your Oracle caster level.

Flagbearer, and eventually a Longspear with a Banner of Ancient Kings, is a solid passive buff.

Just in case, Merciful is third party and not a legal PFS choice. It's also probably too good.

For the season 9 Faction Cards, could we please include the Faction Pin rules in the main writeup, and the Associated Skills on each Faction card?

I've ended up scribbling the skills on the side of (some of) my faction cards anyway, but it seems like an easy tweak and the natural place to look.

For what it's worth, I agree with Torrquan. This is the second additional resources that allowed some Shaman stuff, but brutally nerfed it to 1/day. It's not clarification, it's just a straight power reduction. If the devs think these powers need adjusting, they should be caught in the editing process. I'd rather just have them banned, it's less frustrating, and less painful to explain to someone who checked additional resources that a separate doc immediately "clarified" that their shiny new power is only 20% effective.

Yes, assuming your pet was adjacent to you so you count as flanking, and your pet was flanking with your ally, you would get:
Ally Attacks and crits
Pet gets an AoO from Outflank
You get an AoO from Paired Opp and crits
Pet gets an AoO from Outflank (because you count as flanking)
You get an AoO from Paired Opp (because your adjacent Paired Opp buddy got an AoO.)

This is why I ended up riding a T-Rex on my hunter, it can get one enormous bite attack with Animal Focus and x2 Str damage. With Broken Wing Gambit and a Fauchard it just got to be too much. Enemy would approach and get 2-4 AoOs and a grab, then attack and take another 2-4 AoOs. All the AoOs are +8 from Snake Focus and Paired Opp, and another +4 from Pack Flanking. It's just a blender.

Heroes of the High Court should also be in this round. I'm looking forward to/curious what makes the cut from:

Enlightened Noble
Genial Magic Gnome (please!)
Court Poet (hopefully they clear up Rage Powers)
Protective Luck
Virtuous Bravo
Pageantry Discipline
Silksworn Occultist (4 implements!, +Cha to mental focus!)

I have a question about the non-combat pets section:

The second is a familiar or mundane pet that does not participate in combat or other challenges. Such familiars grant their basic special ability, such as a bat's +3 bonus on Fly checks, the Alertness feat, and access a witch's spells.

I think a Spiritualist Phantom that doesn't manifest would count as a non-participating pet too? It's just providing passive bonuses and doesn't take time or table space. Specifically, I'm thinking about an Exciter Mesmerist who in principle has a Phantom, but *can't* manifest it, so it's really just some Skill Foci feats.

I wonder how many Kinetic Knights are waiting in the wings. I really hope we get some Healer's Handbook and Psychic Anthology love soon.

It seems like whoever wrote this didn't understand how Mediums work. You can just do your seance in the evening, take the Burn, then sleep it off with no downside.

I had some thoughts, but was mostly looking at it as a single level dip for extra flexibility in an Unsworn Shaman build. My main problem is that it doesn't interact well with Legendary Influence since using both means you're already taking your Spirit Penalty, and mostly can't surge. Legendary Influence is vital to getting Medium to work well.

I was looking at:

Rune Domain in PFS gets you Spell Focus, which helps Archmage quite a bit, and also potentially lets you take Augment Summoning through Legendary influence.

Wolf Domain gets Improved Trip without the Combat Expertise pre-req.

Trickery is great for move action Mirror Images.

Monkey Crocodile or Eagle for a familiar are all cool, especially if you can pick an Archetype (I don't see why you wouldn't.) Sharing your skill ranks with a Figment Monkey and the skilled evolution could end up with quite a large bonus in most skills (Level+10 Disable Device for example.) Sage could be similarly flexible. And Mauler is a handy flank buddy.

Cave Domain might be useful if you don't have Darkvision.

Swamp domain could be good if your group has lots of animal companions.

Aquatic domain is great if you're an Aquan with the aquatic racial trait.

Mountain domain might be handy for control at low levels.

I've had a ton of fun with a (now) Eldritch Guardian 2/ Skald 13 for PFS. I started off Amplified Rage-y but gave up because it was too much of a hassle. I started with Bloodrager 1, then retrained that level somewhere around level 10 into Eldritch Guardian fighter, then took a second level of Eldritch Guardian.

Quick rundown:
As Khan says, Rage Powers make the Skald. They're great and a vital part of your build. You should be thinking about them and listing them above. Lesser Spirit Totem is a lot of fun/power early on although it tapers of later. Strength Surge is okay early, and then gets crazy good later. I've used Savage Dirty Trick extensively, and it's great party-wide if you can teach your group how to use it. Unexpected Strike is awesome for a whole party. Since this is a home game, Lesser Celestial Totem has some crazy healing tricks. You could have a very defensive Skald with Lesser Celestial, Guarded Life and Greater Guarded Life. Or the Villain Codex Rage Powers that keeps everyone alive an extra round after damage that would kill them. Or go for generic Beast Totem Pounce.

Around the point where you get Unexpected Strike, you should be thinking about "Rage Cycling" by stopping your song and then starting it as a move action to reset once per rage powers. Because of this, Lingering Performance is less important.

Consider the Community Minded trait. It'll extend your Str/Con/Will bonuses for two rounds, giving you both a mini-Lingering Performance and a mini-Raging Vitality.

You *really* want to get Greater Skald's Vigor at 11 (or 10 if you can retrain.) It's a big boost to your party. It's particularly handy with Exquisite Accompaniment and a Lesser Extend rod. Turning a 3rd level spell into a (slow) 80 point group heal at 10th is nice.

You want to get to ~Skald 9/10 quickly, so I wouldn't spend a second level on Eldritch Guardian until then if retraining is an option. After then, sharing your combat feats is nice and go a long way towards making your buddy effective. Teamwork feats like Outflank are particularly handy.

I would consider taking Improved Familiar instead of Boon Companion. You can have a fox-shaped Earth Elemental that will be an ass kicking buddy for the same feat. I have a Fire Mephit, and a second target for Rage Song, plus Teamwork Feats and combat stuff is great. Make sure your GM is okay with the RAW that Skald levels count as "Arcane Spellcaster Levels" to qualify.

Take the Masterpiece Battle Song of the People's Revolt, for Improved Spell Sharing. You'll want to give your buddy Mirror Image, Echolocation, Freedom of Movement, Delay Poison, etc out of combat for a round of Rage.

Personally, I've never had trouble with Performance rounds, so I wouldn't worry about Extra Performance or Lingering Performance. There's a lot to be said for Harmonic Spell though. You can activate Song of Marching for an hour, then cast Haste/some other spell and switch to Raging Song as a swift, without spending a round of performance. Which will help your action economy at lot level 3-7, and somewhat 7-13.

Discordant voice is great. Not mandatory, but I'd definitely take it over Furious Focus.

Grab some Fervor Juice and drink it liberally. Skald's Vigor means you really want to be conscious enough to maintain your song.

That's what jumps to mind, I'll post more later.

Vexing Trickster basically trades Towering Ego and Touch Treatments for Combat Expertise and bonus Trick feats. It looks like a good choice to me, I feel like Touch Treatments were one too many things for Mesmerists. :)

Material Manipulator has a weird ability to shape change themselves and others. I'm not really sure what to do with them. They do get Transmutation wizard spells added to their list, which could be worth building around. Now that I think about it, there's probably a solid buffing option here with Spell Trick at 10th.

All in all, I'm quite happy with the Mesmerist stuff. I'm a *little* worried that the new Star feats are too good. The Trick feats give you various ways to really bring tricks into play. So far, I've found the limitation of only having one implanted (until 5th) as well as having specific triggers make them hard to use and basically impossible to use up all your tricks per day. Trick feats give you a few different routes to overcome those issues, and the different Trick feats bring out different playstyles. Swap Trick is the only real disappointment, I really wish it had just been "You can trigger a Swap Trick to expend the trick regain the trick use per day."

Sweet, there's an alternate Gnome Magic for Enchantment instead of Illusion.
I hope that and the new Witch Hex make the PFS cut.

2) I identify the spiral seer as not being unlocked on a Chronicle sheet because I don't have a sense at this time whether I might have an appropriate adventure tie-in coming up. Some time from now, I find the perfect opportunity and add it. Have I been disingenuous because I didn't flag the spiral seer as a Chronicle sheet unlock, causing some players to abandon any attempt to build toward qualifying for the prestige class?

This feels to me like a disconnect on the reasons for banning things from PFS. The only potential reasons for banning something as I understand it are:

1. Too powerful.
2. Not thematically appropriate for the Campaign. (i.e. Evil stuff.)
3. Planning on making it a boon soon.

I consider basically everything that falls into (1) a failure of the Paizo editing process, and find it quite frustrating as a customer, like I'm paying for content that's poorly thought through. But your scenario 2 sounds like banning without much reason at all. Which from the outside appears like another frustrating ding on the editing process.

Maybe "isn't appropriate for PFS" vs "isn't legal for PFS" would clarify this? Your 2 sounds like you're banning because it doesn't fit thematically, but it might eventually. Saying "isn't appropriate" still bans it for PFS, but makes me at least feel batter about why it was published in the first place. And still gives you the option of a boon later.

Now I'm just hoping Healer's Handbook makes the (delayed) cut for this round of Additional Resources.