Master Han Del of the Web's page

Oh, certainly, a sufficiently intelligent enemy can absolutely avoid a telegraphed attack without it being necessarily adversarial GMing (though I'd caution a GM from assuming every sapient combatant is automatically aware enough to recognize the false opening for what it is in the heat of combat). No, I was responding to JiCi's report that bracing reveals your plans to the GM--a take rather distinct from whether some enemies might be able to recognise a ready action.

Fools! You are all fools!

Having a properly formatted character sheet with your spells, feats, skills, class features, and ability modifiers listed out merely reveals your plans to the GM! They will know everything you plan to do with your character! You might as well surrender to them now!

Zo!'s Player Panoply!
A book of mostly player-facing options that seek to spin out existing options in new ways with class archetypes. Current thoughts include a Soldier that specializes in dual-wielding pistols to make close-range area fire attacks in unique patterns, a return of Broken Cycle Solarians and Vanguards as Solarian class archetypes, a 'Anachronistic Gladiator' archetype for Fighter.

Also, probably going to include a note somewhere saying 'Help, I'm trapped in the Paizo building and hiding in a janitor's closet'

Gotta love how often weapon complaints just boil down to 'my pet favorite weapon should do more damage'

Again, anything to steal WotC's lunch is good in my opinion. The people going for Daggerheart over Pathfinder are not going to be types to enjoy the crunch of Pathfinder but they are the sorts of people that might otherwise be drawn into the 5e event horizon and trapped there.

Okay! I've got to work a secret mocking dragon into my next campaign.

Oh no! Where are all the crypto spammers going to hang out while the site is down? Did anyone think of the crypto spammers?!

Captain Jack of the good ship Crypto Recovery will have to find a new port of call for the time being.

Yes. While perhaps somewhat harmful to the fabric of reality in some esoteric way and irritating the followers of Pharasma, undead PCs are not inherently evil. Furthermore, the old systems of alignment are not in play anymore. Ghost in particular have shown up with a wide range of motivations and ethical characters.

So long as they manage their hungers as ethically as possible, there should not be an issue with playing a ghost paladin. In fact, I'd say a paladin actively resisting their final reward to continue to right the wrongs of the world is a pretty dang compelling concept.

It comes out of their mouths, so teaching them not to bark is very important

4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 2, 6) = 12 11
4d6 ⇒ (5, 1, 1, 5) = 12 11
4d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 6, 4) = 19 16
4d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 2, 1) = 12 11
4d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 5, 1) = 10 9
4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 6, 2) = 12 11

Wow, okay... rerolling the 9

4d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 4, 2) = 10 9

9 again. Got it, cool... juuust gonna see myself out
Don't worry gang! I've eaten all the bad rolls!

Speaking of, I really hope we get to see tashtari return as companions. I love my silly laser wolves.

Not seeing an option to pre-order a physical copy, so it might be PDF only

Well, first and foremost, 2e.aonsrd.com has all the rules of the game available for free with the official sign-off of Paizo.

If you want physical books, I would recommend the Starfinder Player Core and Starfinder GM Core at the least. Those two books will contain all the relevant rules for playing the game, all player-facing material (classes, feats, equipment, etc), and various subsystems for throwing interesting challenges at your players.

Oooh! 'Steward'? We got a former space fed!

Alright, I am recovering from a minor surgery and need entertainment, so I am challenging you guys to grab the weird spam posts that crop up on the Paizo forums and Starfinder-ize them for me. Be they shady spellcasting services, travel agencies, drug suppliers, or 'Captain Jack's' latest attempt to get us to use his crypto recovery services, they are all rife for Starfinder parody in my estimation.

It would be fun to break some of them out on your players too! A crit fail on a computers check might bring a new tide of spam messages to harass your players with.

SF1e did not get any options to increase clip size on release, I'll bet SF2e will get something similar on their first big gear focused book.

thistledown wrote:

Really don't like Worlansi...

Good news, there's 20 non Worlansi options included in the book. It's 95.2% not Worlansi!

If you believe in homeopathy that's like... 100% Worlansi

People continuing to undervalue Lore categories is even more disheartening.

An adventure centered around Hellpunks pulling a massive raid on an infernal prison or something would rock so hard.

This sounds more like a question for Demiplane. They have their own forums and are, in fact, a separate entity from Paizo.

Just going to swap a letter here and...

A H A B

This was always going to be the fate of the Hellknights. They willingly associated themselves with entities that specialize in corrupting systems of power and institutions. The thought that they would be the ones to turn Hell's tools to their own ends was simple hubris the entire time. They even tipped their hand by choosing Hell as their model.

Sure they can claim that they wanted to leave aside Hell's evil aspects to pursue a more perfect order and that Heaven's goodness was a similar weakness but... like... there already are outsiders of perfect order that are not aligned to good or evil but no one is going around calling themselves the Axisknights.

What Hell always offered was power and that's at the core of what the Hellknights have always wanted too. Given a galaxy to play with, the mask has simply come off as they grow beyond the previous bounds to become the perfect minions of Hell. They aren't directly controlled by Hell from what I've seen but they don't need to be. They are a perfectly refined machine crafted over centuries by subtle diabolic influence to operate autonomously in the galaxy at large.

Narratively unsatisfying in some aspects? Sure. A well observed truism about what power and authoritarian tendencies do in the long run? Definitely.

(Ironically, this is the first time I've actually been interested in playing a Hellknight. The idea of breaking from the current paradigm and trying to reclaim some of the earlier goals of the orders, even if it is a deeply futile exercise is appealing to me.)

This sounds like a complaint better directed at Demiplane. They've got a full forum primed for making your voice heard.

Master Han Del of the Web wrote:

exequiel759 wrote:

Master Han Del of the Web wrote:

Being able to auto-crit on aid actions at 9th level has some nice perks.

Assurance (Diplomacy) for a character with the One For All feat.

Damn, that is a really good combo.

It really isn't.

Hey bud, you're right. I missed the more semantic read you pointed out in your previous post. Saying it twice and once with a specifically snarkily named alias sucks.

Master Han Del of the Web wrote:

Being able to auto-crit on aid actions at 9th level has some nice perks.

Assurance (Diplomacy) for a character with the One For All feat.

Damn, that is a really good combo.

Being able to auto-crit on aid actions at 9th level has some nice perks.

A) While they share a lot of DNA, PF1e and PF2e are two fairly different games with different priorities. There's not going to be a 1-to-1 translation for some things.

2) Summoner, specifically, was one of the more busted PF1e classes. It had the absolute best pet in the game, 6th level spellcasting full of buffs, and additional free spells for further summoning. It snapped the action economy over its knee. If that's what you're looking for in PF2e, you're going to be disappointed as PF2e is considerably more balanced.

-) It's fine to bounce off PF2e, a lot of the old guard did and that's fine. That said, try some of the other classes. I bet the swashbuckler you mentioned is having a great time not being completely overshadowed in combat by spellcasters.

Slings deserve much better than that. Much, much better than that. I should know what I'm talking about. I myself commissioned a genuine sling in the Baleares for 2,400,000 Pesetas (that's about €20,000 today) and have been practicing with it for almost 25 years now. I can even break slabs of solid steel with my sling.

Balearic slingbuilders spend years working on a single sling and braid the cord up to a million times to produce the finest slings known to mankind.

Slings hit thrice as far as English longbows and thrice as hard for that matter too. Anything an arrow can pierce through, a sling bullet can crack through better. I'm pretty sure a sling could easily punch a hole in a knight wearing full plate with a simple direct hit.

Ever wonder why ancient Rome never bothered conquering the Balearic Islands? That's right, they were too scared to fight the funditores and their slings of destruction. Even in the Napoleonic Wars, French soldiers targeted the men with the slings first because their killing power was feared and respected.

So what am I saying? Slings are simply the best ranged weapon that the world has ever seen, and thus, require better stats in the 2th Edition Pathfinder system. Here is the stat block I propose for slings:

Traits Concealable, Deadly 1d12, Propulsive
Favored Weapon Khepri, Lalaci, Pulura
Price 200gp; Damage 1d12 B; Bulk L
Hands 1; Range 300 ft.; Reload 1
Type Ranged; Category Simple; Group Sling
Ammunition Sling Bullets

Special: does half damage on a failed Strike (non critical).

Critical Specialization Effect for Sling group: The target must succeed at a Fortitude save against your class DC or be stunned 3 (automatically killed on a critical failure).

Now that seems a lot more representative of the crushing power of slings in real life, don't you think?

Not gonna lie, you got me at first.

Planning a horror one-shot for spooky season at my FLGS and I need a good horror monster to build the adventure around for a party of around 4-6 level 3 PCs. I'm shooting for a pretty severe encounter to really drive home the scariness. Bonus points for if it has some abilities I can use to make red herrings for them as they try to investigate the monster before fighting it.

I just hope we see something like the arrangements come back as a class archetype. Broken Cycle Solarians were one of by favorite options back in SF1e

That's very much been how I've been playing Solarian to great effect. It works pretty darn well and I was able to completely shut down a very high damage sniper in the last fight by yanking him off his perch with black hole and then proceed to clown on him in melee and running circles around him with stellar rush when he tried to reposition.

Eh... sort of?

Enhance Weapon temporarily boosts the weapon's grade and requires casting from a higher spell slot to boost the weapon even higher. Casting a 1st rank Enhance Weapon on an advanced weapon, a 6th rank Enhance Weapon on an elite weapon, or a 9th rank Enhance Weapon on a paragon weapon will do nothing.

Supercharge Weapon is just a flat damage boost to your next attack. It does not require higher rank spell slots to affect higher level weapons.

Enhance Weapon is more powerful but it also requires you to keep a higher and higher rank spell slot dedicated to it to stay relevant as your party's gear advances. Supercharge Weapon needs no such thing as it just increases damage. Higher rank spells slots do give more damage but it still increases damage not matter what rank it is cast at making it a nice thing to spam and burn through lower rank spell slots with.

The use case in my mind is as follows. You slap Enhance Weapon on the best martial in your party so they deal more damage throughout the fight while you Supercharge Weapon when you really need something dead now. Heck, you could even apply both at once to the same character to really hit hard.

I'd say Enhance Weapon is a more vital spell, especially for low level parties where that extra +1 to hit and damage dice can make your heaviest hitter into a 1-hit kill machine. Supercharge Weapon on the other hand is more tactically useful and more flexible.

My beloved apocalypse beam and singularity cannon. I would love to see them come back in some capacity, they were such fun weapon ideas that were on the outer edge of what the system was built to do.

Master Han Del of the Web wrote:

They have fighter weapon proficiency and sniper weapons all have kickback often with backstabber as well and frequently either deadly or fatal. These are weapons with very high damage potential and operative is specifically able to get those crits fairly often.

The design intent and trade-offs feel fairly obvious to me. Sniper operatives are clearly intended to make fewer attacks but have the ones they do hit much harder. Their typical turn is very action heavy, yes, but reload is not the only point of action compression for the class. There is nothing stopping a sniper from taking mobile aim, for instance.

I understand the design intent, it just doesn't work. Sniper Operative exchanges flexibility for damage, except it actually does less damage. It loses second attacks, it loses reaction attacks.

None of what you have said refutes what I have said.

They have fighter weapon proficiency and sniper weapons all have kickback often with backstabber as well and frequently either deadly or fatal. These are weapons with very high damage potential and operative is specifically able to get those crits fairly often.

The design intent and trade-offs feel fairly obvious to me. Sniper operatives are clearly intended to make fewer attacks but have the ones they do hit much harder. Their typical turn is very action heavy, yes, but reload is not the only point of action compression for the class. There is nothing stopping a sniper from taking mobile aim, for instance.

Hey, so this cropped up over on the Reddit and with all the grief I give WotC and their flagship product, it felt hypocritical to not try and get a formal response on this.

There's this saying... I'm pretty sure it involves mountains or maybe it was molehills, not sure. It might have been relevant here and explained why you're getting so much 'pushback'.

It's a niche ability so it gets to be more potent than normal within its niche. That's how these things are balanced. Compared to, say, darkvision or flight I frankly find it too niche to be a primary driving factor for building a character around.

Anyway, I'm done here, you're clearly not interested in the opposing side and I'm not interested in giving you ground.

Master Han Del of the Web wrote:

Because it is one trope of many and not every party will have a prismeri in it. Different parties inherently negate different tropes. Also the capacity to negate trouble with drift engines is a fairly niche ability that only comes up in a specific context.

And when it does, it will invalidate the entire adventure/scenario hook. That is just dumb. For no good reason. And is trivially fixed (see below).

Then refer to the other half of my response which you cut off. If a malfunctioning Drift engine is important to whatever scenario you are running, ask the players not to take Prismeri. Again, this is no different from disallowing a caster from taking Create Water and Goodberry in a wilderness survival focused adventure. If you cannot have an adult conversation with your players then that is on you. Personally, I never encountered this trope in my entire career playing SF1e from release to today. It is not as pervasive or important as you seem to think.

It is not 'dumb'. It is not present for 'no good reason'. It is a niche but flavorful ability that follows in the footsteps of the other planar-touched ancestries that make traveling to their planet easier, such as Fetchling.

Yep, it’s just as Pastor Niemoller said:

“And then they came for me, but by then all my roleplaying buddies had been interned, so nobody spoke up for me.”

Considering the number of communists, socialists, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and religious minorities in the gaming space these days, this is just depressingly accurate.

Because it is one trope of many and not every party will have a prismeri in it. Different parties inherently negate different tropes. Also the capacity to negate trouble with drift engines is a fairly niche ability that only comes up in a specific context.

Honestly the same criticism could be leverage against just about every specialization in the game. Part of a GM's job is tailoring the adventure to meet the wants of the players while still executing on their planned vision and if a prismeri inherently removes a big aspect of their planned campaign then they can ask their players not to use the ancestry. This is no different than asking players not to take Create Water and Goodberry in a campaign where wilderness survival in adverse conditions is a key aspect.

Master Han Del of the Web wrote:

OceanshieldwolPF 2.5 wrote:

Master Han Del of the Web wrote:

Yeah, no, the only salient point this guy made is that all the pieces of SF2e some people are looking forward to will not be there when the game initially releases. Additionally, while salient, it is not hard to point out the relevant factors outside of Paizo's control that contributed to that situation. Everything else has been answered pretty thoroughly by the community.

That point about “factors outside of Paizo’s control” are effectively meaningless. The poster is concerned about the state of SF2, not the state of RPGs in the wake of Wotc’s various Wotcgates.

The state of SF2e is pretty inextricably linked to the actions of WotC. That's what happens when the largest player in the industry pulls some seriously hostile nonsense on the rest of the industry. If I was referring to, say, White Wolf or Massif Press, sure, we can fully disregard them. WotC, however, has directly impacted the development of SF1e, PF2e, and SF2e and not acknowledging that misses a massive factor in why the games are currently in the states they are in (to be clear I am very happy with PF2e and looking forward to SF2e). It's like seeing someone unconscious and battered on the ground but refusing to take into account the guy walking away while casually tossing a pipe into some nearby bushes.

I’m going to be providing first aid to the unconscious person, not particularly interested in what led to the assault. That was the point I was trying to make - regardless of “why”, the poster wants to know “what” is happening to SF2. Reminds me of the permaculture principle that it isn’t (as) important to know who made the error or why and much more important to work out howto fix it and when. I always clarify that if working out who/why might lead to helping the how/when, then sure go for it, but mostly the adage stands. So yes, I’ll be making a Perception check to ensure the assaulter isn’t returning while I provide Battlefield Medicine.

Sorry, it really looks like you're arguing a somewhat vague semantic point to ironman OP while otherwise agreeing with me more generally.

If I've got a grasp on what you're arguing 'why' should be taken into account with the 'what'. 'What' is happening is that Paizo had to rush some of their releases and make a huge effort to legally protect their IP (I could add some stuff about wanting to put extra polish on a few aspects of the mechanics too but that is currently beside the point). Without the 'why' this is just a fairly vague and mundane sounding non sequitur. With the 'why' we get an actual picture of the weight of the situation and other effects can potentially be extrapolated.

Regardless, I really don't have much patience for semantic arguments these days so I'm probably going to drop this line of conversation here.

Master Han Del of the Web wrote:

Yeah, no, the only salient point this guy made is that all the pieces of SF2e some people are looking forward to will not be there when the game initially releases. Additionally, while salient, it is not hard to point out the relevant factors outside of Paizo's control that contributed to that situation. Everything else has been answered pretty thoroughly by the community.

That point about “factors outside of Paizo’s control” are effectively meaningless. The poster is concerned about the state of SF2, not the state of RPGs in the wake of Wotc’s various Wotcgates.

The state of SF2e is pretty inextricably linked to the actions of WotC. That's what happens when the largest player in the industry pulls some seriously hostile nonsense on the rest of the industry. If I was referring to, say, White Wolf or Massif Press, sure, we can fully disregard them. WotC, however, has directly impacted the development of SF1e, PF2e, and SF2e and not acknowledging that misses a massive factor in why the games are currently in the states they are in (to be clear I am very happy with PF2e and looking forward to SF2e). It's like seeing someone unconscious and battered on the ground but refusing to take into account the guy walking away while casually tossing a pipe into some nearby bushes.

Yeah, no, the only salient point this guy made is that all the pieces of SF2e some people are looking forward to will not be there when the game initially releases. Additionally, while salient, it is not hard to point out the relevant factors outside of Paizo's control that contributed to that situation. Everything else has been answered pretty thoroughly by the community.

The initial responses ranged from polite help to, at most, matching his tone. They were, frankly, much politer than I would have been with him. He's the one who came back hotter and escalated the tone. In the end, he did not in fact have anything useful to contribute and was more interested in catastrophizing than having a constructive conversation. This thread was set up to fail from the start.

It is not coddling or white knighting for Paizo to expect some decent manners. The is a public space, even if you access this site from the comfort of your home. Do not be surprised when people appropriately judge someone acting inappropriately in public.

The prophecy of doom at the end was a very nice touch

They could do the funniest thing and introduce even more Dukes of Thunder... Mostly because 'Hei Feng and the Dukes of Thunder' sounds like a wicked band.

Great! Thank you. That will make things much better.

For someone like me who was primarily there for gleaning more things about SF2e as opposed to the social engagement (nothing against you guys but this is not really what I come to a game company for and not a format I engage with generally) the stream was a little bit chaotic and hard to parse at times. If this is to be a more common occurrence, could an effort be made to put the most recent question on the screen somewhere?

And the Pathfinder Society is constantly getting tasked to go out on rescue missions to pull the Darklight Society out of the current mess that the Darklight has gotten themselves into.

Pathfinders sent out on rescue missions have to pretend the Darklight Society is a legitimate threat the entire time or they won't cooperate with the rescue.

Here I was thinking they might be a great stand-in for the Ahnenerbe SS in comparison to the Pathfinders being more Indiana Jones-coded but them being what amounts to a Team Rocket sound more hilarious. The one blurb I could find about them even notes that their rivalry with the Pathfinders is rather one-sided due to being much smaller than the Pathfinders.