Norade's page

Why does every wizard on Golarion cast the exact same fireball, minus a very few meta magic effects? Do they all just copy ancient notes without innovation? Does magic just dictate that you can only evoke exactly x fire at between y and z distances and it takes tremendous effort to change that?

It seems lame that magic is so rigid and inflexible when that's just not what one sees in fiction. Would it be that hard to balance a Wizard who's made their fireball do less damage but over a larger area? Or the wizard that wants to fire a single big magic missile instead of a massive spam of them? Or for a sorcerer to put just a little more oomph into a big spell, by using an extra action or lower-level spell slot, when the chips are down?

Given that a default game of PF2 has a roughly 16th century level of technology*, it seems odd that firearms are generally excluded from the core rules. There was never a time when the knight in full harness astride a stead existed in a world without gunpowder or firearms. Is the distaste some people have for them simply a byproduct of early genre pieces and early fantasy RPGs excluding firearms or is there some other cause of this distaste? Moreover, should we simply accept that firearms are too 'spicy' for core rules or should we seek to correct the inaccuracy and include them fully and from the start of whatever the next big fantasy game/new edition is?

*Judging by the designs of plate armor available as well as the existence of the rapier and some of the polearms listed.

I'm trying to get hyped for PF2 so I can give it another shot as a player. My issue is that for the kind of fantasy world Golarion presents I want types of characters that PF2 doesn't do well. For example, it can't do a Shonen-style character very well and would likely struggle with presenting even a mid-series Rand al'Thor very well, but I don't want to be negative. So instead let's flip it.

What sorts of fictional characters it can represent well mechanically? More specifically, at least for my interests, what kind of smite first ask questions later melee style divine beat stick can I make?

If you could get a single book containing, 2 new classes, several archetypes, a dozen or so new spells and a similar number of items, and some setting details published what sorts of classes and spells would you pick?

My book would be based around a gladiatorial arena.

The first class would specialize in dirty fighting with exotic weapons as I think a class designed almost purely around maneuvers would be very interesting. I might also see if there is a way to give them some 4DoS interaction as a test to see if it's really that bad on a martial class.

To accompany it I'd take a crack at a Con-based martial class that specializes in latching onto a foe and being impossible to remove until they choose to let go. Like a Greco-Roman-style wrestler but far more lethal and nasty.

The spells would be based around creating spectacle and changing the arena's terrain to favor you and your allies.

The items would include weapons for our dirty fighter as well as anything else on theme for the arena.

I'd try to get rules for fighting for show. Such as called shots that lead to exaggerated injuries to represent the showmanship of the pits. These could also serve as added content for people that would like this sort of thing for use in a normal campaign.

What would you ask for?