Oakblade's page

Jump harder.

First, how does second compare to first? What are the changes that make a big impact? Does it simplify? Make things more interesting?

Also can second edition be ran comfortably with 1st edition adventures? Like Rise of the Runelords, etc?

As a player:

2. Crits and fumbles are better. They work the same in skill checks, saves and attacks, if you beat the DC by 10 or more you crit, if you miss by 10 or less you fumble. Nat 20s and Nat 1s still matter, because they can turn a failure into a success or a crit failure into a regular failure.

3. Multiclassing is gone, if you pick fighter at first level, you are a fighter. However, you can take dedication feats to get features of a different class to mix your own combination of spells and abilities, so all "fighters" are different and yours is special.

4. Leveling requres 1000 xp per level. Simpler math.

5. Not all classes are released yet, some are still being playtested. But there are a bunch of new playable species, or ancestries as PF2 calls them.

6. Use pathbuilder2e app on android to make characters. It makes it SO much easier than going through the book. It's the best.

As a gamemaster:
1. Monsters scale with level, and this math is important. That means any monster that is 2-3 levels above the party is a solo boss fight, and any monster that is 4+ levels above the party level is a TPK. Likewise, any monster 1-3 levels below party level is a trash mob, and anything below that is trivial. So your encounters should always be within -3 to +3 levels of the party.

2. Encounter budgets are important. You can't wing them when making your own content for the game, you have to count the beans. If you throw a horde of low levels at players they might get overwhelmed by sheer numbers. If you throw more than one "boss" enemy at a time at them, that could also be problematic (bosses crit more often, shrug off spells more often, etc). A good encounter should be within 120-200 XP. Higher than that would be a slog or a brick wall of a TPK, anything lower might be over too soon or too easy. Thankfully this math is simple, just read the fine print carefully. Don't do what I did on your first game and pit your players against a group of 5 monsters who are all 2 levels above them. When the encounter difficulty table says your budget is "severe", believe it.

3. Making encounters is easy. There's a ton of bestiary entries, plus you can use pathbuilder2e app to make a monster the same way one would make a character. Level 3 character = CR 3 monster. Easy! Just count the encounter budget as I mentioned above.

4. Adventures aren't backward compatible with 1st ed. You'd have to restat all the monsters.

5. There's a handy table of how much stuff your players should earn per level. Reference it every level when building your stuff to make sure they're not too poor or too rich. Math is tight, and if you deviate too much from the guidelines you can be in a situation where the fights start being too challenging or not challenging enough.

6. Virtual tabletops, such as Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, Astral or (my favorite) Talespire can help your group meet and play while isolated in quarantine. You mentioned coming back to the hobby, so be aware that it is a changing landscape and a lot of it has gone digital in a variety of ways.

Welcome to Corneria!

The reference

After all these years, the wait is finally over.

The Inventor looks amazing.

I like swords!

Having played and run games for decades, I have a lot of experience at the table and in the industry.

It boggles me that folks are being disrespectful, but the misanthrope in me says that's what humans do.

Even in a regular pick up game at a convention (paying for a con ticket is fine, but paying a gamemaster is not? what? how?) exposes one to a roll of the dice, by mere fact that you are signing up to play with strangers.

Roll a d20:

1. The "strange uncle" has a torture fetish.
2. The nerdy kid fudges dice.
3. The jock starts bullying a minority player.
4. And then the slurs come out.
5. The cosplayer is getting leered right off the table.
6. One of the players decides half-way through to stand up to go to the bathroom and doesn't come back.
7. The game master is unprepared and is not good at improv.
8. The rules lawyer court is now in session.
9. "PvP! PvP! PvP!" chant that smoothly transitions into a real life brawl.
10. This sex scene with ants and octopi needed a fade to black 30 minutes ago.
11. All of the above.
12+. Hey a regular game. Grats.

So as a paid game master, you get blamed for antics of other players because the expectation is that you are also a baby sitter, because they paid you money to have a good game.

I don't like the expectation, but I don't have a solution.

wait does that mean a character with that feat could kill entire armies of low level characters without even fighting wow

A young man went up the mountain to train in the art of the sword with a sensei. But the sensei refused to train him, for he saw the man's heart was bent on vengeance.

"How can I prove my worth to you as a student?" the young man asked.

"See this rock?" the sensei nodded at a boulder.

"Yes?"

"Break it with your sword."

"That's not possible! This thing is huge, the best I could do is dull the blade!"

"The best warrior is like this rock. He doesn't need to draw his sword to win the fight. Be like this rock, and you won't need what I teach."

Drew these guys for our tokens:

Picture of the whole gang

Also can't wait for the Magus and Secrets of Magic.

One of the characters I played in Pathfinder: Kingmaker CRPG was a sword saint, and it was funny to get to AC 70 by level 17-ish. Doubt I'll be able to make a Magus this tanky in 2nd edition, but I'll give it a good shot. :)

I came here from 5e, and I dig how tightly balanced the encounter system is. If your party is level 2, any monster of level 5 is a boss for you. IF your party is level 8, that same monster is a trash mob. It helps with encounter design, there's less math to do for the game master. So I'm running a Pathfinder campaign in TaleSpire with my friends who are remote and it's wonderful.

I am also playing a war priest in a friend's game and I really enjoy it so far - can't wait for Channel Smite at level 4 to start wasting spell slots. :)

Can you find me in this character line up?

https://twitter.com/LaggingDice/status/1330548082824646664?s=20

1. Striking Spell to work similar to Channel Smite, one hit for both spell and strike damage. It shouldn't take more two actions to use, so you can move or do something different every turn.

2. Charisma or Wisdom casting options similar to Sorcerer? Primal Magus, Divine Magus?

3. More Synthesessesisess..es. Tanky magus? Two-weapon magus? Unarmed magus to be its own synthesis? Maybe make them the tank spec? (Shtick: no manipulate/concentrate traits when casting a spell through your body, being able to apply weapon runes to your FACE; headbutts!)

The only class kit to contain clothing is Witch.

Swashbuckler has some clothing in "optional" section.

Everyone else is buck naked.

What's up with that?

The class kit for magus or summoner wasn't included in the playtest document. But when we finally see it, we'll find out for sure whether Magus is Golarion's butt or not.

Hammer Space!

Channel Smite is combining a 1 action Spell with a 1 action Strike to 2 Actions. It's exactly the same action economy as Striking Spell.

Channel Smite is always 2 actions, which gives you an extra action to move or cast Shield or whatever, regardless of the Harm's level.

Channel Smite doesn't have a manipulate or concentrate trait, provoking no attacks of opportunity, at all, ever.

Channel Smite is way better, even though the only thing it delivers is damage, not any debuffs or other effects.

Furthermore, Disruptive Stance on a fighter can screw you up when you cast Striking Spell, since it has 'concentrate' trait, which gives (admittedly high-level) fighter an AoO.

I didn't even think that Strike to unload Striking Spell also provokes AoO. That makes me sad.

Compare Magus Striking Spell to Warpriest's Channel Smite. That's how you do it.

No manipulate trait, no concentrate trait, no problem. Bam!

Alternatively, you could grab a sorcerer dedication at level 1 with ancient elf and build yourself a charisma-cantrip build, with your regular spell slots going into buffs, and all the DCs + spell attacks coming from sorcerer.

Magus needs something like Elemental Toss (1 action damage focus spell from Elemental Sorcerer) as a bandaid for the 3 action stumbles.

Its not impossible for a Magus to justify its existence-- far from it, but I'm not gonna lie, this one just hasn't. Its making me regret that the Magus's legacy in the game demands it. Which given that my first forever class was the 4e swordmage, is tragic, I'm squarely the target audience for this class.

But here we are, unless they're willing to actually cancel a class we're stuck with it, so we've gotta put everything into this to make it worthwhile.

I'm being doom and gloom of course, if they up the...

Let me introduce you to my friend Gorum and my other friend, two-handed sword. :)

Have you considered a career in smiting and glory hounding?

I feel you, I played the hell out of a sword saint, and this magus archetype isn't cutting it (hehe), but a warpriest just might.

Might. Get it?

Any spell or cantrip that forces a target to save instead of rolling to hit with a spell attack is more reliable because of MAP.

If you miss on the last action after Striking Spell, you can try three more times on the next turn. First chance at +0 MAP, second chance at -5 MAP, last chance at -10 MAP. MAP doesn't affect saves, only strikes and spell attacks.

So Acid Splash is hard to land with -10 to hit, but Daze still requires the same basic save at -10 MAP as it does at +0 MAP. Its damage is not as good, but hey, stunned 1 can still happen.

So, a cleric of Gorum and a magus walk into a bar... and nobody's surprised when they bring swords to a bar fight.

If both of them use two-handed weapons, it begs the comparison on how they function.

Cleric of Gorum pre-Channel Smite: pretty much like a fighter, i.e. Strike, Strike again, maybe Demoralize. Might also do 'cast True Strike', then Strike, then maybe 'Cast Shield'.

But at level 4, they get Channel Smite. Which lets them burn a heal or harm to do extra damage on a Strike for the low cost of 2 actions. No extra to-hit or resist rolls, no chance for extra crit, just burn a spell slot and get more damage dice, and you have one action left for movement or other useful things like healing or demoralizing.

What does a magus get?
For two actions, prime a Striking Spell, then as a third action, Strike. If you miss, you don't burn the spell and can try again three times next turn. But the spell you cast is probably more reliable if it requires a save because MAP can make it hard to land both the spell and the strike in case of consecutive misses. The magus also gets to do this from level 1. And if they are using a two-hander like the cleric, they also get some temporary hitpoints, at the cost of mobility. At level 10, healer's steel also heals them a little bit. But it's comparable to burning 1-action heals by the cleric, admittedly at the cost of spell slots. Last but not least, a magus can get a lot of mileage from cantrip strikes, whereas the cleric has to burn actual spells for Channel Smite. But Cleric has a lot more slots to burn.

Cleric:
+mobility or flexibility from the third action
+more spell slots
+one stat dependency: strength; +charisma helps for extra spells, dump wisdom
+no double jeopardy on channel smite, just bonus damage dice
+Emblazon Armament, 2nd level feat: can cast 3-action spells without taking hands off weapon
-burns through a lot of spells
-healing isn't free
-all or nothing on channel smite, must burn true strike or a hero point for second chances
-slightly less weapon training in certain level bands (esp after level 14)

Magus:
+cantrip nukes for days
+almost (but not quite) free healing
+second chances on missed attacks
+better weapon training in some level bands
-few spell slots
-needs both high str and int, which means your defenses or other utility will suffer
-double jeopardy: if your strike hit, doesn't mean your spell will
-clunky mobility with a two-hander
-no big heals
-concentrate trait on Striking Spell makes them vulnerable against a specific fighter build with Disruptive Stance feat

Who would win? My money is on the cleric.

With certain feats the two-handed weapon magus can be very tanky, and might even defeat an equal level cleric in a duel if they get overconfident with heals and get spiked down by a crit, but against a mobile enemy the magus may have a hard time, especially if that mobile enemy has ranged attacks.

The cleric has a lot more resources to throw at a problem and can get strong heals on demand, along with better, more flexible action economy. I feel like the cleric would be more enjoyable to play if not outright better in some ways.

Raise a tome is problematic, because of the hand economy the magus has.

If you're wielding a one-handed weapon, you need a free hand for fun feats and electric-sliding around.

If you're wielding a two-handed weapon, you need a prehensile tail.

So you can only really raise a tome if you're an unarmed magumonk.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems the whole point of having this feat is to give a break to people using two-handers, so they don't have to do the "free hand" - "interact" shuffle to cast a three-action spell with a material component and eat attacks of opportunity doing so while wasting precious actions.

Instead it specifically requires a free hand. Who would use this?

The baby got thrown out with the water.

To add insult to injury, raise a tome feat requires you to hold a book. Do any of the published ancestries have access to prehensile tails?

Or is this only something an unarmed magumonk would use?

Comparing to Warpriest's Channel Smite, it's a bit of a wash.

Channel Smite costs 2 actions and expends a heal or harm spell to deal straight up damage if you hit with a melee attack.

In comparison, Magus' Striking Spell:
+ is available at level 1 from get go
- costs more actions
+ does not waste a spell on a miss (you can try again next turn)
+ can be used with cantrips
- can miss when the attack hits, wasting a spell slot
- depends on two attributes: Strength or Dex for the attack, Int for spell attack or save

I prefer Channel Smite mechanics overall, because there is less uncertainty and fewer dice rolls. YMMV.

EDIT: concentrate trait is a landmine! Channel Smite doesn't have a concentrate trait, meaning that a fighter in a disruptive stance wouldn't be able to shut it down with an attack of opportunity.

I will add 8: make player decisions matter.

Players love derailing adventures with curve balls. Let them.

It does not mean you need to be a pushover. It only means that when an encounter ends not the way you expected, you can figure out what happens next, improvising if you have to.

Say they throw a clutch spell or crit on a skill check and pull a cow corpse out of a bag of holding and the owlbear is friendly now, what then?

It is a magical moment and it needs to be savored.

Let these magical moments create waterfall effects through your adventure. They should have a profound effect, not just "ok lets get back on the rails".

I like the Witch, because it's the only class in the game whose recommended adventuring class kit includes clothes.

Swashbuckler's kit has an "optional" set of fine clothes, but you know, it's clearly listed as clothing optional. :)

All the other class kits in the game have no clothes at all. I don't think it's an error or a coincidence.

People of Golarion are brave in many ways, the Witch is the only sensible and modest one.

Thank you, that explains it. Sounds like I just need to sit tight and wait...

I didn't know I loved playing clerics until I tried playing one in Pathfinder 2e.

Step 1: find a deity whose ideas and IDEALS you like.

Step 2: roll around, basking in the glory that is GORUM!!!

Step 3: run headlong into every battle howling things like "Witness me!" and "Gorum hold my beer and watch this!"

Step 4: crave heroic death in battle. This is different from throwing your life away fighting some wolves. To be a heroic death, you must find a dramatically appropriate moment, where your death is a meaningful sacrifice, where it has gravitas. That is a major quest, to find a moment like that.

Step 5: profit?

P.S. Heals are nice. People like them. One for me (smashing greatsword sounds) one for my homeys (heal a friend with two remaining actions).

P.P.S. In all seriousness, when people (in a game or in real life) engage in prayer, they're really talking to themselves. It's a form of meditation. By appealing to a higher power, you're mustering the strength you've had all along to do what you need to do. It's like going through the stages of grief or fear until only you remain. Gods are standins for yourself. Get off your knees and hold your head high as you charge toward certain, inevitable death. Make the best of it. Your time is now. Don't live it in fear. Live each day like it is your last, and you won't miss a thing.

Hope this helps. :)

There was a homebrew magic item in some game or other I vaguely remember. I think it was a monocle or a magnifying glass, that allowed you, once per day, to cast a spell with a single changed letter in the title.

Cause Bear.

A very nice system designed by Starfox, my GM, for a D&D 3.5 level 1-20 campaign using the Savage Tide AP:

Spellcasting did not exhaust the slot, but "locked" the spell level instead, prohibiting you from casting any other spells from that same spell level. At the end of your turn, you rolled individually for each of your locked spell levels to unlock them. Once a level was unlocked, you were free to cast any memorized/known spell of that level again. The DC to unlock levels increased, so higher levels were harder to unlock. Classes that originally were spontaneous casters got a bonus on the unlock roll.

E.g. cast a 3rd level spell, like Fireball, and you won't be able to cast another 3rd level spell such as another Fireball or a Lightning Bolt until you've managed to unlock 3rd level spells.

This system effectively eliminated the 15 minute adventuring day, stopping spells from being exhausted, while simultaneously eliminating "going nova" and overuse of spellcasting in a single combat. Cast too many spells, and soon you'd end up with all your available spell levels locked.

It was also easy to tune how much spellcasting you wanted to have by adjusting the DC you needed to unlock a level. If I recall correctly, we used 8 + spell level as unlock DC, so you needed to roll 9+ for the first level if it had been locked, 10+ for 2nd, and so on.

It often tended to encourage "creative" spell use, as the level you really wanted to use stubbornly refused to unlock. :)

I love it!

Vancian magic is the devil.

I just recently got into this playtest. I may not see the big picture yet.

I really love the 3 action economy going on. This is a great new change that makes things simpler.

I also really like that some spells take longer to cast than others. That seems like a neat consideration.

And historically, ever since the days of AD&D I had a hate-hate-hate relationship with spell slots and mechanics that imposed hard limits on how often I could cast a spell.

I generally prefer systems like Shadowrun and Mage the Awakening, where your spellcasting resources don't have hard limits, but "soft" ones. By that I mean, you can pace yourself and make your spells less powerful in order to cast more of them, or to really push your luck and potentially blow your own head clean off to deliver a crazy alpha strike. This approach seems more "fun" for me because it's more interesting than "You have 5 spell slots, use them wisely, because after that you're done, I'm cutting you off. Last call, closing time, go home you're drunk."

Apologies if mentioning other systems by way of example is a no-no.

So as I started reading the spell descriptions I realized that most of them don't use the action economy the way I expected and I had a sad moment.

My expectation was that each spell could be cast at "low power" with just one action, and then other actions could be spent to buff it in some way. There are some examples of this, but the use is not widespread. I wish more spells had options to spend extra actions in wild gestures and incantations to make them more powerful and/or dangerous for all involved.

The other way that the dreaded Spell Slots and action economy could interact would be to let a "tapped out" spellcaster spend extra time in an activity channeling to "create" an extra spell slot.

For example, a spell that you already know that usually takes 2 actions to cast if you have a spell slot to burn would now take 4. You don't have 4 actions, so you complete the casting on your next turn, and during this channel time any attack on you can disrupt the cast.

Or, even simpler, you're out of spell slots... it costs 3 actions to create a level 1 spell slot, or 6 actions to create a level 2 spell slot. So you just stand there and meditate in the middle of a fight. But eventually, if you're left to your own devices you can be useful to the team again.

Anyway, action economy good, spell slots bad. Thanks for reading.

For what it's worth, double tapping is a thing that happens in real life, and has been a thing since people started looting corpses on the battlefield after a battle. It's a bronze age tradition, really.

The only unrealistic thing right now is that it takes three strikes instead of one to do it.

Why do combatants double tap? Besides greed, the motivation is self-preservation. Suppose your cavalry broke their ranks, and now you're mopping up the resistance, wading knee-deep in corpses (hey, difficult terrain!). If one of those "corpses" is still alive and is playing dead, you could get back-stabbed (or groin-stabbed) right as you step over them.

So you stab every corpse for safety.

Safety first.

Groin stabs suck.

Aashua wrote:

Tridus wrote:

It's the most important stat in the game, except for your primary stat. And DEX, since people like both hitting things and having the AC to not get crit constantly. And CON, since we all like making Fort saves and having HP.

I don't know, it seems like having multiple stats that all do useful things is the only reason to even have a stat system. If every class only has two stats they care about and then a bunch they don't, why with having stats at all?

You forgot Wisdom so you have a better initiative if you get jumped and are less likely to get jumped and less likely to get charmed/blinded/dominated/etc.etc.

Lol

Hey, you forgot INT because...

Oh.

Nevermind.

Move along, nothing to see here...

Isn't Int supposed to help you remember that other thing, what was it?

Crap, I forgot.