OrangeyPeel's page

After looking through PF1e classes, I was inspired to begin working on an adaptation/revamp of the Hierophant, which I'm dubbing the Apostle for now. The basic concept I had was to fill in the gap for a Wisdom-based martial (both because Int and Cha already have their own dedicated martials and to fill out the small amount of Wisdom-based classes to begin with). Currently I'm playing around with the idea of incorporating the new sanctification mechanic into their core class design, with Holy, Unholy, Unsanctified, and a sort of "Dualistic" sanctification (access granted by worshiping deities that allow holy or unholy sanctification) serving as the subclasses.

I also considered the idea of making this class a divine counterpart to the Kineticist, though I am less confident in that idea.

My very rough initial idea is for a mechanic known as "Divine Pulses" (name shamelessly stolen from Fire Emblem) which would serve as ways to directly channel your deity's power, perhaps to buff specific aspects of yourself. Say you predict the need to make an important saving throw approaching, you would take an action to channel your deity's power, routing it to your body so they can protect you directly. Or if you need to make an important attack roll, you would bless your weapon and sanctify it for a time, allowing your deity to guide it as if they were wielding your blade alongside you.

I feel like this idea in and of itself is a good basis but the mechanics are where I'm stumped. The flavor isn't quite there yet, and on-the-fly circumstance bonuses would be the easiest idea but isn't something I feel fits the gameplay loop of PF2e all too well. I like the idea of Divine Pulses being more like close-range kineticist impulses, to still have focus on the martial idea, but I want to try and steer away from simply making this class "kineticist but divine," what are some ideas to bring out the flavor of a warrior using power directly from their deity to perform unbelievable feats of martial prowess?

I'm not sure if I'm just missing something, but does the Exemplar really not have weapon ikon options for non-staff bludgeoning or brawling weapons? That seems like a bit of an oversight considering the kinds of characters mentioned as inspiration.

I have a player at my table who is literally playing an incarnation of Sun Wukong (although in my homebrew world rather than Golarion), just in a "stripped of most of his divinity and forced onto the level of mortals" sort of way, so honestly this might be a really fun playtest for us to try out, depending on when or if Exemplar gets implemented into Foundry.

Commander would be something I'd really love, I just really like the fantasy of being a martial with such skill that I control the battlefield through tactics and getting my allies to use their abilities to the fullest potential, but I feel as if there might be some design overlap with features already present in the game. Hopefully if one of these classes does end up being a Commander sort, that it carves out a sufficient and mechanically unique niche.

If you really want to go that route, you can always make the caster use a scroll of Time Jump. It would look like a trully last resource act considering how expensive those are (30gp is quite a lot at those levels), and in case your party somehow gets to oneshot them, it would be a really cool reward to have, kind of like an easter egg.

You can even make him hold a scrollstaff, wear scroll robes or something similar as a tell for your players that this thing has a trick up their sleeve.

I actually quite like this idea and might scrap the original homebrewed action for this, although I do hope it doesn't give my players the impression of "if we blow up every boss as fast as possible we'll get cool stuff", but I'll see how it pans out in the first place.

Worth noting... the first few levels of PF2, the first level especially, are sometimes referred to as "rusty dagger shanktown". This is primarily because the available damage is high enough as compared to the available HP that it's very possible to have people suck down two or three unlucky rolls and just die.this can happen to enemies (not a problem) and to PCs (not great).

One thought... at least make sure that you're handing out hero points appropriately and that the PCs know of their value as lifesaving resources.

Yeah, I looked into them more and realized I wasn't handing them out as I was supposed to in sessions 1 and 2, and I'm going to be not-so-subtly nudging my players to use them if I see scenarios where they could be useful ("Oh geez, you failed that really important attack roll/skill check/save, do you wanna try rerolling that?"), because they're a little prone to ignoring options they haven't seen work first-hand. I was also going to get the macro for Foundry that automatically hands out hero points on a timer.

Another thought - roquepo mentioned not using a homebrewed version of Warp Step. I both agree and disagree.

A custom ability for enemies is often a very good thing. There are plenty of examples in the bestiaries of creatures that have some unique abilities - especially reactive abilities. A Giant Fly for example with its "Avoid the Swat" reaction.

So creating a custom ability for the boss enemy that is based on Warp Step and is used defensively to prevent the party from trivializing the encounter by stunlocking the boss makes a lot of sense.

Don't call it Warp Step though. Since that is something that the players could get their hands on - but then be unsatisfied since it doesn't work the same way for them that it does for the boss.

Yeah, I've made sure to call it something different, although I just found out the name I used for it ("Shadow Step") is used by something else in the game already, so I'll need to rename it real quick. Maybe something like "Necrotic Jaunt"?

I would definitely second that.

A level +1 enemy is just fine for a boss enemy. Unless they have deliberate counters to the party's abilities that the players are not being warned about.

So in your next round of combat tests, see what happens if the party spends a round or two trying out their normal strategies and having them not work. It may be that it is fine and they can recover and adapt - that is the goal at least. But at low levels, the characters don't have very many second choice options. If their primary tactics are not working they may not have a backup plan available. And they may run out of HP and time to implement a plan even if they do have one.

In PF2, when a combat snowballs, it snowballs fast. In either direction.

In my tests the boss' mobility doesn't FEEL overwhelming, as usually he's the only target by the time it becomes relevant to dealing with the party's tactics, the biggest effect it has is burning turns through making the martials move to his new location, and protecting him from effectively getting stunlocked by allowing him to escape Prone and flanking in 1 action, I intend for it to be largely a defensive ability with some offensive applications (using it to reach the squishier Psychic or NPC and engage them in melee)

Basically, I want their synergy to still work, just not have the boss be overwhelmed by it. However, I definitely will run some more tests with your suggestions.

Fighting higher level creatures at level 1 in PF 2e can be...challenging. The first four or so levels with my newbie PCs consistently required suboptimal tactics/die roll fudging on my part to keep things fun and prevent "lolrandom you just die" stuff, especially from poison and persistent damage.

Spellcasting boss means this is somewhat obviated, because the dang thing isn't swinging at some unholy to-hit and one-hit dropping people with crits, it's just giving them debuffs (spellcasting bosses get more and more painful the higher level you are, if they have debuffs). Being only a creature 2 also helps keep its pluses lower.

Also, bear in mind how beat up they are from previous encounters and play it by ear. If they haven't burnt their healing spells/Battle Medicine beforehand that gives you a cushion.

In my tests I've deliberately set their healer NPC to only have 1 slot available for Heal, so that I can determine if the encounter is reasonable with lessened supplies. I'm definitely no stranger to playing stuff by ear (although fudging isn't super viable since we're playing in Foundry), so I can adapt the enemies' strategies on the fly if need be. I mainly want to prioritize fun, as in my personal experience these players really hate being taken out of a fight (one of them quit another's campaign in another system cuz he got hit by a much nastier equivalent to Fleeing during our first boss fight) so I'm trying to avoid quick kills if I can.

You've got three other system newbies, and it's going to be their third PF2 combat encounter ever?

My advice - start low and work up. Severe is probably about right for a big boss fight, but I'd want to make sure they'd had at least a few moderate encounters first, both so they can get a bit more comfortable with running encounters in this system and so you can get a better feel for how much they can handle.

Worth noting... you've been running combat tests. That means that right now, you're likely a lot more skilled at this system than they are. You also know exactly what the enemies are. In your tests, you're likely not making a bunch of mistakes int eh first round or two as you try to figure out what's going on, or being surprised by what the enemies pull out.

So yeah. "Severe" means it'll probably be okay, but my suggestion would be to fit in another moderate encounter or two and make sure that they're comfortable with the system before you throw them into the teeth of that thing... especially when you've deliberately tuned it against their particular strategies.

I will say... if your first boss starts out looking really impressive, but then legit just goes down like a chump because he simply can't handle the party's Awesome Thing? That's not actually a bad outcome. Obviously, if you let that happen with every boss encounter, that can quickly result in a serious reduction in perceived threat, but it's not a terrible thing to have happen from time to time, and the first boss encounter with a new system isn't a bad time for it.

This is fair. The Champ and Fighter have been wising up to their synergy (especially as I've been pushing them to do so as their first encounter looked a lot like 5e combat with very little tactical thinking on their part) and the Champ especially has been so far quick to pick up on the value of Trip, flanking, and Delay, but I placed the aforementioned optional Animated Armor encounter to enforce that further, since the thing goes down like a chump to the two of them.

And good point, if the boss ends up going down quick, I won't be upset, but I wanted to give it some ways to deal with their particular synergy so they don't end up autopiloting into the Trip > Flank > AoO rotation in the future.

The NPC is using a longbow and has access to Guidance and Heal for a supportive role, (the only source of combat healing the party has is through potions, and the Psychic didn't take any combat utility spells) and I might give him Disrupt Undead as well. I've been running these tests with him only having one spell slot out of two because I'm working under the assumption that he'll use at least one cast of Heal beforehand, but he also has Treat Wounds outside of combat and a few minor healing potions to help in this regard as well, so he might join the party with 2 slots instead.

I'll test out the brutes being -1 and see how it pans out as well.

The first boss fight is coming up in my first campaign of PF2 with three other system newbies (Champion, Fighter, and Psychic). I have three combat encounters planned so far (a big battle with the PCs and NPC allies vs a small army of skeleton guards, an optional battle against an Animated Armor that will reward a little macguffin + lore that can debilitate the boss a little, and the boss fight proper) and I've been running combat simulations of all these encounters for weeks now, yet I'm still unsure on if my boss encounter (Level 2 + two level 0s) is solid.

The level 0s are two brutes (skeleton warrior and a reskinned skeleton goblin) but the boss is a somewhat intelligent, gish-y spellcaster (his memory and mental faculties are a bit shot as he's been reanimated against his will by a much stronger necromancer). I'm trying to strike a balance where the party (3 level 1s and a level 0 NPC) will be in danger but not have a TPK happen, and I know how swingy low levels can be just based on my combat tests.

I found in my testing that the boss is extremely vulnerable to the Champ and the Fighter as they have a really good synergy with the Champion wielding a bo staff and being able to reach Trip while the Fighter flanks and Double Slices and AoOs him to death, and Warp Step led to the boss really struggling with action economy as a result of needing to Stand and then Warp Step to reposition effectively, so I deigned to give him an action that essentially gives him Warp Step for 1 action without provoking reactions (if he is prone he can use it to Stand in place of one of the Strides, but this Stand still provokes reactions as normal) as well as ways to inflict Grabbed and Sickened on the party (he has a fist attack that does negative damage with the Grab trait, and an action that forces a Will save on whoever he has grabbed against being Sickened). The arena is small enough that his mobility won't lead to completely out maneuvering the party, but it will require the Champ and Fighter to be mobile in order to get into position, or make use of Delay to be reactive to his mobility.

I've been planning to run him as casting Guidance on his two lackeys at the start so they can potentially chunk some people in the party down as he kites around them with Phase Bolt, and when his lackeys go down he'll be utilizing True Strike in combination with his melee attacks.

I'm trying to be creative in how my bosses use their action economy, but I'm worried this is too much for the first boss. Any tips on where to go from here and how to run these low level bosses?