I'm whipping up a campaign and I intend on using Free Archetype and Relics as campaign mechanics.
Free Archetypes will be gained through faction rep. So you get in good with say the Hellknights and get a trainer that gives you those extra feats. Relics will be tied to characters' personal quests. So once Jimmy the Hellknight beats up his chaotic good father, he can take his family beer stein and unlock its true potential.
Now I'm wondering if anyone has used these two and seen any noticeable power bumps? I know you can mete out relic powers via WBL but each step is rather large (4 levels), and then any early recipients also have their Free Archetype power.
But more importantly, how would you handle gaining Free Archetype feats late? Say you only get in with Lord Hellknight at level 5. Would you let players take a lump of feats retroactively, or implement retraining rules?
After I run beginner box I intend on starting a campaign. I've heard many people give free archetype or an extra level to smooth out the difficulty. Our GM did a custom soul seed for each player, which has been great in play.
I have considered reworking the various faction specific archetypes into city based factions and rewarding them for accumulating influence. I figure that would allow for that small boost while letting people play out the first few levels vanilla (many PF2e first timers)
I was wondering if anybody had experience with interesting ways to bump PC power a smidge besides the usual variant?
My GM is running a Sigil campaign and we've decided to homebrew a Gith ancestry for it. We have a rough draft of the basic ancestry outline, but figured it'd be wise to crowdsource some of the ancestry feats.
However, critique on the chassis is also welcome.
8 hit Points
Medium
25-ft
Boosts: Int, Free, Flaw-Cha
Languages: Common, Gith
Stable Lifespan: Time always flows at a 1:1 rate for your body, regardless of the plane you're on. You do not suffer the effects of aging when entering and leaving the Astral Plane or similar dimensions. Additionally, you have a +2 bonus on any saving throw that would age you.
Connected Mind: The Gith can telepathically communicate with other creatures within 20-ft. This ability is one way unless that creature also has this ability.
So we have a basic chassis with a mostly lore-ability in Stable Lifespan so Gith don't get messed up while plane swapping. Connected Mind is their main ancestry boon, which fluff-wise symbolizes the connection to the Queen.
The lore is in flux, but it seems like we're leaning toward Githyanki having an active psychic connection to their Queen, and the Githzerai a latent one. So the -yanki have more communal/connected flavor whereas -zerai are of course isolationist mentally and literally. This is roughly the explanation behind the Cha flaw as well.
Heritage
The first possibly controversial bit is that we're considering shifting an ability boost to a heritage. We concur that all Gith should have Int so they can be proficient psychics and magi. However, the class-fantasies associated with the -yanks and -zerai are quite different, and we couldn't agree on a universal second boost.
Githzerai get +Wis and Mage Hand as a cantrip.
Githyanki get +Dex and Mind Link 1/day
Ancestry Feats
There are some obvious feats for Gith that we've already brainstormed. First off, proficiency with the Silver Longswords, which we've made "Gith Curve Blades" because Magus is Strength/Dex. Though I think its possible to switch this prof with Mind Link and make that a feat.
We also have your typical Gith psionic abilities as a feat line: Jump, Feather Fall, and a telekinetic line for better mage hand and/or a smattering of spells.
However, that's about it! I'd love to hear any feedback or ideas people have for Gith. While we're using Gith lore as a springboard, any fresh takes are more than welcome.
One of my groups is still playing 1e but I'd considered pitching 2e because of how easy it is to GM. We're playing a Gestalt game but thankfully my allies are Witch/Oracle and Inventor/Gunslinger so they're covered quite well!
But I'm playing a Cleric / Slayer (Ankou's Shadow), which is where it gets kind of tricky. I understand that Ankou's Shadow is a pretty niche class so we likely won't see an archetype soon or ever, but the shadow abilities have become core to my PC's backstory and gameplay.
So how do I make that in 2e?
I'm assuming Summoner is my best bet? It seems like mechanically it meshes nicely, but sadly you're stuck with basically 1 shadow you can control very well, versus many shadows that scale in control.
Hopefully there's some archetype or option I missed, or something else I can reskin, but any help at all would be appreciated!
I'm building a for my first PF2e character, a Leshy Cloistered Cleric of Pharasma. Love the system but I'm a bit overwhelmed by the options at the moment. I've noticed many of the Cleric feats are oriented around either war priest, healing, or harm blasting, so I'm wondering what I should take if I'm looking to focus on spells
I have poor charisma (12, aiming to improve it as part of my character arc), so I am to use Medicine for primary healing. Since I get Phantasmal Killer, I figured I could be a debuffer with Intimidate and other fear spells.
I realize archetypes crack this wide open, opening up an ocean of other feats. Druid archetype? I see you can get an impressive amount of spell slots from taking the 3 casting feats for a caster. I won't have the stats for Champion archetype until level 10, so that's out.
And then there's domains, I understand I'll want around 3 to get max focus pool? I've started out with Death to be a health battery.
Also any general cleric advice or anecdotes are welcome.
Ankou Shadow + Trip, or combat maneuvers more generally. I haven't seen a lot of discussion around this archetype so I'm curious what people think of it (I did see it in IluzryMage's recent guide).
Disclaimer: I am running a lvl 4 Cleric (Travel/Luck) // Ankou Shadow gestalt that's built around being a reach cleric ala Brewer's guide. But I'll put a spoiler at the end with those details since becoming a one man phalanx is the interesting part here.
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Thoughts about the Ankou Shadow
- Shadows seem to threaten with whatever weapon you're wielding, and can take AoOs post-5. You can make trip attacks with weapon AoOs, so thusly, shadows should be able to trip.
- Mandatory basic feats. Combat Reflexes. Improved & Greater Trip. Surprise Maneuver seems really good post-9. Not as good as on rogue, but Slayer gets full BAB to even it out.
- Post-5 you can have your shadows flank and swift action aid another a single enemy, which can get you a minimum +4. The shadows don't utilize flanking/aid another feats, but I think buffs worded as "when you (i.e. the slayer) flank, X occurs" should work.
- This actually seems insanely strong because you can permanently turn on your sneak attacks when soloing enemies.
- You share movement with shadows, and they provoke AoOs, but with a reach weapon this isn't as big a deal. If you can't position them safely, then just leave them behind you as you run a circle around your enemy or a line across the battlefield. Acrobatics seems mandatory for this reason, I think.
- Getting shadows up is a full round, but you can leave them up forever, and hopefully, the person actually hitting will draw more aggro than the flanking/aiding shadows. Evasion is a mandatory talent at level 10. How strong the shadows are depends entirely on how much you piss off your GM.
- Slayer Talents really suck, just over 20% of them are Samaran only. This is doubly true for Ankou's Shadows who don't get Studied Target. You'll most likely want Slow Reactions, and then nothing but Ranger Combat Style and Rogue Talents.
- Ascension Games has a gross polearm combat style slayers can take. Opens up Cleaving Finish, Whirlwind, and Pin Down without the feat prereqs.
- Alternate build (or late game retraining), go down the Kitsune line and become a one-man phalanx of dirty tricks.
- Forest Warden gives your flanking bonus an additional +2, and gets you +2d6 sneak attack dice (which also adds to Surprise Maneuver). This should actually net you +1 in most circumstances since you lost 3 BAB, but that depends on how often your GM hits your shadows. But you also get a ton of other goodies even if your shadows go down.
- It might be wise to spec into dirty tricks post-10 to deal with the issues of late game trip builds. You have to get the Dueling (FG) property on your weapon, but that seems worth it to transition all your buffs to dirty trick.
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My Build:
Cleric (Travel/Luck) // Slayer (Ankou Shadow)
The build is pretty much exactly the same as a normal Ankou Shadow except:
- The idea is to maximize action economy in our party's favor, a control build. This comes not only from tripping/tricking away your enemy's actions, but by increasing our own. By 5 we should be using a swift action every round, and by 11th an immediate with Divine Interference. I took Devout Pilgrim as well, which means I can cast a spell and teleport an ally into full attack range on the same turn.
- 5 feats tossed to Cleric side (Divine Interference, Extend / Reach / Quicken Spell, Spell Perfection). It sounded like less in my head.
- GM allowed me to Dex a Glaive with Bladed Brush and Deadly Agility since I was willing to sink 3 feats into it.
- Cleric really fills out Slayer's class skill list
Since Slayer Talents suck doubly for Ankou Shadow, GM let me double dip unchained/chained rogue talents, which means 4 combat feats instead of 2 (bless them).
So I'm having trouble with the high level cleric spell list with regards to my buffing cleric?
Where are all the buffs? There's the paladin aura and holy aura and that's basically it at high levels, both of which are round/level. Where are my huge, aoe, min/hour per level buffs? Where are my one man juggernaut buffs?
The cleric spell list from 6+ becomes a bad touch cleric's wet dream, it seems like the writers just assumed everyone wanted to cast 8 versions of "kill you". But my character doesn't cast harmful magic and I'm rapidly running out of support for my build.
Then you have the symbols clogging up the list with even more NPC spells. And crap that shouldn't be a high level spell like making a POND with Oasis.
What's good are the world shaping spells that are super open ended, but then you're basically wizard-by-grace-of-god.
It feels like the buffing archetype got totally dumped in the end game in order to make bad touch/wizard clerics? The spell list feels like swiss cheese, some levels I have 10 golden spells I really want and other levels its totally barren.
None of this is helped by railroading in our current game making the great open ended cleric spells useless. Control Weather and Scrying are utterly curtailed because they have too much potential to change the game's course.
Alright now tear into me and tell me how great the cleric's list is and how I'm a spoiled full caster. Don't get me wrong I love playing my cleric, I'm just kind of struggling with the high level list and what to prepare.
EDIT: I should clarify that I'm using a Candle of Invocation to prepare some higher level spells is why round/level doesn't work so well for me.
