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HALFLING SLING STAFF - CAN IT BE USED AS A MELEE WEAPON?

Uncommon Martial Ranged Weapons - Rulebook 182

Halfling Sling staff does not appear in any Melee Weapon lists, so is unclear if it can be used as a "staff"… and whether it should be considered a simple weapon when used this way.

Fighters get to use their attack all day. Wizards at first level get only a couple of uses, then gain about a spell use per level. Wizards SHOULD be powerhouses based on limited use per day.

Cantrips, Cantrips, Cantrips, Cantrips.

Not only can the caster use a strike action or concentrate on a spell (say a summon), but they can cast a cantrip as well in one round. These cantrips auto heighten and often have a critical effect as well (even marital characters have a hard time blocking weapon critical effects... wizards get this at lvl 1).

I agree it's sad to see spells get nerfed, but if we are trying to level the playing field and lessen the gap between the old tiers of PF 1 then I feel the changes are pretty balanced considering the action economy. Also, seeing as even on a saved spell there is usually an immediate effect and that means your cast is rarely ever completely wasted.

Auto Heightening all spells is interesting, but I would say probably swings us way out of balance. Effectively eliminating all lower level spell slots and converting them to free higher level slots.

ROGUE CLASS FEAT: BLUDGEONER - MACE WEAPON GROUP

Rule Book 121

"You make brutal bludgeoning attacks that daze your foes. You can deal sneak attack damage with one-handed weapons of the club and mace groups even if they don’t have the agile or finesse trait."

No Mace Group in Weapons Section - Rule Book 180 - 183.

WHAT EXACTLY ARE PHYSICAL ATTACKS & DO/CAN THEY INCLUDE SPELL ATTACKS THAT TARGET AC &/OR TAC?

The term Physical Attacks is never clearly defined. Needs to be defined so Mechanics are clear for the below reactions (or the Trigger language needs to be adjusted):

Shield Block Reaction Trigger - Rulebook 309

“Trigger - While you have your shield raised, you take damage from a physical attack.”

Defensive Roll Reaction Trigger - Rulebook 124 

“Trigger - A physical attack would reduce you to 0 Hit Points.”

CONFUSION: Do spells that deal damage and target AC or TAC trigger these reactions? (spells that could trigger the above reactions: Chill Touch, Acid Splash, Acid Arrow, Telekinetic Projectile).

Noteworthy Items:
“Spell Attacks” can be found in the Spells Chapter (Rulebook 197).

“Physical Damage” can be found in traits section (Rulebook 422).

“Physical Attack” is present in one other place (that i have found anyway) and that is while referencing Barbarian Spirit Totem’s ability to hit Incorporeal Creatures (Rulebook 56).

“Physical attack” is not included in the index or traits list and is not included in the Strike Action (Rulebook 308).

CLERIC FEAT: IMPROVED COMMUNAL HEALING

Improved Communal Healing - Rulebook 76

“You can grant the bonus healing from Communal Healing to any creature within the range of your heal spell instead of just yourself. You also get the benefit of Communal Healing when you target only yourself with a heal spell, though you must give the bonus healing to someone other than yourself.”

Confusion: Language is a little broad… “any creature”.

Clarification Required: For the first sentence: Is this just one other creature within range? Or any/all creature that is within range?

Someone in 2nd sentence seems to imply that that target applies to only one other creature.

RELIEVING PERSISTENT DAMAGE - ACTION & DCs

Persistent Damage - Pg. 323

“You or an ally can spend actions to help you recover from persistent damage, such as casting healing spells or using Medicine to Administer First Aid against bleeding, dousing a flame, or washing off acid; successfully doing so reduces the DC of that condition’s flat check to 15 and usually lets you immediately attempt an extra flat check to end that persistent damage. The reduction to the DC lasts until you remove the persistent damage or gain another persistent damage condition with the same damage type.”

Couple issues below (1. Clarification on what actions can be taken to offer flat DC 15 check & 2. Conflicting Information-Sited below):

1)What Actions can be used to to offer flat DC 15 check?

Clarification required:
Is this saying that Administer First Aid can be used to douse flame/acid?
-or-
What action/activity do we take to Douse/Flame Acid?
-and-
What about other damage types like Positive/Negative Energy & Electricity?

2) Conflicting Info:
Administer First Aid - pg. 152
Persistent Damage - Pg. 323

Administer First Aid-
“Success The creature at 0 Hit Points gains 1 Hit Point, or you end the persistent bleed damage (see page 323).”

Persistent Damage Entry-
You or an ally can spend actions to help you recover from persistent damage, such as casting healing spells or using Medicine to Administer First Aid against bleeding, dousing a flame, or washing off acid; successfully doing so reduces the DC of that condition’s flat check to 15

Clarification(s) required:
-Does success at Administer First Aid end the condition or offer an immediate DC 15 flat check.
-if Administer first aid is not required to douse conditions other than bleed, is a check required to be made by the PC attempting to douse the condition? And if so, what is the skill associated with the check and does DC remain 15 per Administer First Aid precedent?

This would be incredibly useful for me as both DM and PC:

Master Table with Actions/Activities.
- I would love to see a table that players and DM can reference with ease and for quick reference of all common actions/activities as well as those available via skills and feat.
- This grid should include a brief description of the activity (similar to the description of feats in the feat table in PF 1), number of associated actions, traits any prerequisites / requirements, and should be organized by type (common actions, skill based actions (broken out by skill), feat based skills, and page number where the full action’s description/mechanics can be found in the rulebook (bonus for digital version - page number a clickable link).

This would be incredibly useful for me as both DM and PC:

Conditions Table
- A table with cliff notes description of each Condition, how it is negated, and page number to the condition.

WEAPON TRAIT - DEADLY

Traits - Rulebook 415
&
Weapon Traits - Rulebook 182

“Deadly On a critical hit, a weapon with this trait adds a weapon
damage die of the listed size. This damage increases to two dice if the weapon is master quality and three dice if the weapon is legendary. For instance, a master-quality rapier deals 2d6 additional piercing damage on a critical hit.“

Conflicting info:
Weapon Table, Rapier entry - Rulebook 180

The table list the deadly damage die as d8.

Clarification required:
Is rapier deadly d6 or deadly d8?

I would love to see a thread that just includes direct feedback to Paizo and doesn't get drowned with spats, complaints and unnecessary reply chains. Perhaps this can be it!

My main constructive criticism here: The guts of the rulebook are solid, but there is an abundance of confusing and contradictory language throughout the rulebook and it needs fixing. I understand we are in playtest, but the rulebook is riddled with confusing language, discrepancies, and conflicting information. We are also given a lot of specific mechanics in great detail, but also areas where specific care really needed and not at all present.

Difficult to playtest if mechanics to be tested are not clear.

Ground rules that i think will help keep this useful:
- Keep it constructive... leave emotions out please.
- Site your sources - Include Page Numbers/Book being referenced
- Be as specific as you can without getting too lost in minutia... cut to the heart of the issue you are presenting.
- Let Paizo editors find misspellings/grammar mistakes, but let's point out confusing verbage that makes a game rule/mechanic unclear or able to be interpreted in multiple ways.
- If you feel the rulebook is missing something; i.e. - a specific mechanic/or mechanic that appear broken, a useful table, etc. feel free to present that.
- Limit replies. And certainly only reply if you have a specific answer you can back up with sited reference (Book, Page Number, Official Errata, etc.)
- No RAI battles. We need specific fixes/answers to specific issues/questions. And the Specific overrides General convention (Rulebook 299) Paizo has supplied us should also apply to them as game developers. Let's challenge Paizo to get both clear and specific with their product and push them to make a great product.

I’ll post a few below to get it started.

Please post and (to the best of your ability) be specific, clear and concise (admittedly not one of my strengths).

Paizo friends - feel free to post replies / answers if you have them. I have really enjoyed your past products and would like to see PF2.0 be a success.

So sorry for reopening this can of worms and a stupidly long post:

Shield Block, Page 309 says:
"You snap your shield into place to deflect a blow. Your shield prevents you from taking an amount of damage up to its Hardness— the shield takes this damage instead, possibly becoming dented or broken. See page 175 for rules on dented and broken items."

Trouble language: "the shield take THIS damage instead"

Presumably, "THIS damage" is referring to what was just written before... "an amount of damage up to its Hardness".

SO, according to the Shield Block Reaction, only 1 dents worth of damage, and thus 1 dent, can be dealt to the shield per use of the Shield Block Reaction. Any remaining damage is passed to the player... since, "Your shield prevents you from taking an amount of damage UP TO its Hardness"

It then cals usl to page 175. Which only muddies the water on how the SPECIFIC (remember specific overrides general guideline - pg 299) Shield Block Reaction actually works... the call to page 175 only seems to be there to get you in the right part of the book to figure out how much damage each shield can absorb and how many dents they can take before breaking.... The problem is, it goes on to detail the amount of dents a shield can take from one source of damage. This doesn't seem possible RAW because we have no way to target shield, armor etc. Strike only targets creatures.

MY GUESS/THEORY:
Paizo removed sundering action/activity not because it was unpopular, but because it is unbalancing, OP, and probably not that fun for anyone at the table. They also accidentally left in echoes of sunder rules (broken condition, the confusing bits from pg 175, AC for traps with no way to target them, & the demolishing structures rules in bestiary).

2 reason why sunder was probably OP and removed:
1) Multiple Damage dice make denting and destroying objects arbitrary... even at 1st level... cleric casts magic weapon on fighter with great sword... 2d12 plus strength could dent or even break a shield outright.
2) Crit fishing - We now also crit on 10 over target AC and have multiple attacks/round from lvl 1...any way to debuff AC and make it easier not only to hit, but also to crit would quickly become the most optimal way to play and deal obscene amounts of damage (Player and DM alike).

Paizo, love ya, please fix. And if we can have sunder work in this edition, without breaking the game, that would be amazing. Please, thanks.

Thanks Draco18s, will have to take your word on the %'s... math not my friend. I would think the percentage chance would not change going to infinity... isn't that the whole gamblers fallacy thingy? Won't each flat DC 15 check net a 30% chance of success?

As for what action you need to take to take the DC down to 15...as far as I'm concerned right now the rules are "spend an action and you do <<<something>>> and you get the benefits." <<<something>>> doesn't need to be defined at all, just that you spend an action dealing with the problem.

That's how I interpret it too, but no such action or activity exists in the rulebook (it is eluded to, but not specifically defined). Also, fuel to the fire, check out this sentence from Rulebook pg 323... can be interpreted in another way than how we both think it works... that Administer First Aid Action is to be used to put out fire/acid (and it also contradicts Administer First Aid's stop Bleed Mechanics as described in the skills chapter pg 152):

"You or an ally can spend actions to help you recover from persistent damage, such as casting healing spells or using Medicine to Administer First Aid against bleeding, dousing a flame, or washing off acid;" - Rulebook Pg 323

Grammer... ugh... I highlighted the trouble word that seems to suggest we need to use medicine for bleeding, dousing or washing...

This could be errata'd quite simply:

1) Interact Action - include language about dousing a burning buddy, washing off acid, finding a way to ground your electrified bud,

2) Add a new action / activity that fits this niche.

Seems to me the current design of character creation is supposed to net generally the same stat array (from an optimal standpoint). This is probably great for 2 things:

1) Play testing

2) Pathfinder society play

and I +1 Kerobelis... you can always roll characters for a more varying ability array. Personally I prefer this... everyone getting roughly the same stats feels a bit like everyone getting participation awards... some of my favorite / memorable RP moments/characters are attributed to characters with a terrible stat and having to build and strategize around/despite that.