Ok, has anyone actually seen high level aid actually break anything? Like at worst, the penalty for repeat aiding should fix most issues that could theoretically pop up. It really feels like people are trying to solve a problem that does not exist.
First of all, I neglected to mention that the character is an elf, which rules out ideas related to other ancestries.
Secondly, if there was a sword that did slashing damage and had the finesse and two-hand traits that would be a possibility. But there isn’t (at least not in core).
So it looks like I’m stuck with a katana expert.
Thanks again!
If you do go this route, I would suggest not being a monk. Monk will give you very, very little if you are using a non monk weapon. Go fighter with a monk dedication for those ki abilities if that's what you're after, but a monk with a non monk weapon is truly just a worse fighter.
While there definitely are ways to be master in the katana as a monk, there is no way to give the katana the monk trait. Without the monk trait, you will not be able to flurry of blows with it, or use any other monk features with it. I would either use a reflavored temple sword (which you would just need the feat monastic weaponry for), or reflavoring the fighter or some other class if you need to use a katana in particular.
How do people think like 90% of TTRPGs work, with rules just as if not more loose than aid? That other games are some lawless wasteland where players exploit the rules for their own gain, the the GMs are powerless to stop them? I have never actually seen anyone break the aid rules, or rules like them, just people that don't use them saying how easy they are to break. Loose rules are almost a requirement for TTRPGs, and is what separates them from CRPGs or war games, letting the wizard be creative and find a reasonable way to aid the fighter at range one time will not break anything, and there are already rules for them doing it every round. This feels like such a non problem.
When I played my bard in stolen fates (so levels 11-20), Rallying anthem was used so much more than dirge of doom purely because of the much higher range. I had so many 60 ft+ range spells that I was rarely within 30ft of a solo boss, and in a group fight I was usually only within range for like half of them. And due to bad luck, in most of the cases where I was within 30 ft of enemies either I was halfway though a lingering composition because they where too far away at the start of the fight or the enemies happened to be mindless. It just never seemed worth it to spend actions to move that close, not use lingering composition until round 2-3, just to debuff the attack rolls and saves.
Interesting, I am also playing Stolen Fate so perhaps Rallying Anthem is the way to go.
To be fair, I would not be surprised if the foundry module, which has bigger maps than the standard cramped maps of every AP, played a large roll.
When I played my bard in stolen fates (so levels 11-20), Rallying anthem was used so much more than dirge of doom purely because of the much higher range. I had so many 60 ft+ range spells that I was rarely within 30ft of a solo boss, and in a group fight I was usually only within range for like half of them. And due to bad luck, in most of the cases where I was within 30 ft of enemies either I was halfway though a lingering composition because they where too far away at the start of the fight or the enemies happened to be mindless. It just never seemed worth it to spend actions to move that close, not use lingering composition until round 2-3, just to debuff the attack rolls and saves.
Swap Rahadoum being atheist for jewish, and have the Pure Legion enforce Judaism only. With jews hunting and killing clerics of other religions to enforce jewish purity.
You'd need to go back a few thousand years to the time of the first temple, but yea, that happen IRL (although not to quite the same extent). Turns out zealots just kinda do that when they get put in charge of a state. Zealots being in power is bad regardless of what they are zealous for.
PF1 Oracle is a Rahadoumi who had to flee the country after receiving her powers.
She isn't the only Rahadoumi Iconic. There is Enora the 1st edition Arcanist but she is in self-exile because she worships Nethys. As well as Thaleon, The iconic Pyschic who is traveling the world as he is a brightness seeker but is otherwise seems to be a pleasant guy.
Ragadoumi seems to have an extremely high number of iconics per capita. Can anywhere else beat it?
First, the eidolon is way, way stronger than an animal companion. An animal companion nice, but not a replacement for a martial, while an eidolon is with its substantially better attack, AC, and damage. The total hp between the caster and the companion will be higher, but with the summoners higher base hp, its not that much higher, plus they only get hit by AoEs once, are twice as easy to be healed (you can battle medicine each one) and the hp will go to whoever needs it the most.
The main thing however is how flexible it is. more than even a minion, a summoner really has 4 actions in a round with act together, and the eidolon is much more capable of doing various actions than a minion. you really are two characters on the map, capable of doing so many creative things
The rare souls that do find peace with their ultimate fate instead serve the graveyard as its custodians or guardians.1
Quote:
This is more a form of quarantine than a punishment, out of a belief that these souls would be ill-served by a continued existence in the Great Beyond.
(totally going to take your word for it narrator. Way to fail the lampshade attempt and get the reader to think about how fvcked this sentence from Phar is)
Instead, here they remain forever dormant, eternally separated from the fabric of the Outer Planes and the rest of the multiverse. Those souls that still have the will to rouse themselves here are usually either those that have recently arrived or those consumed by emotion over their fate; some wander emotionlessly and in a haze, while others might beg visitors for aid or simply lash out at them in their rage.
Quote:
The vast field of graves is seemingly without end, stretching for over a thousand miles and filled with cold, quiet crypts that feel suffused with a sorrow unlike Pharasma's graveyards in the Universe. This sadness comes from the quiet reality of the fate of the souls at rest, for no glory in an afterlife nor rebirth will ever be given the souls that have been sent here.3
"Literally in between your other quotes wrote:
This fate is reserved only for certain atheists, because most of them are still subjected to Pharasma's nuanced judgments, which permit them to remain as ever-watching spirits in the Astral Plane, to pass on to the plane that best corresponds to their alignment, or to even be sent back to the Universe to be reincarnated and given a second chance at life. Furthermore, truly evil atheists that require punishment for their crimes are not given the solace of the Graveyard of Souls. Only those who angrily and completely reject all forms of divinity and the Cycle of Souls itself, are the ones that become interred in the Graveyard.
That sure seems like "could have gone elsewhere if they wanted to" to me.
Also, just a me thing, I would not trust a wiki, not on something this niche.
She has an entire sub-realm of souls she denies an afterlife to, who are wasting away in neglectful agony. A basement full of people, left to rot because they don't measure up to her standards. Note that *all* of them could have gotten an afterlife if they had pledged their soul to a god.
That "crime" of remaining unpledged, while having "not enough ethos" is how they end up locked away in her Gravelands, trapped until their soul-bodies eventually give out.
All of them could have gone to another afterlife. And the afterlife they have is not some horrible hellscape, its a peaceful spot. And if you do not want that spot, you can just go elsewhere. Pharasma is simply giving them the choice. Not being in the afterlife at all, going back to the material plane, appears to be an option based on how many animist religions there are, but it is not one taken frequently, likely for good reason. The people of the setting are not idiots. No matter how common place an evil is, there have always been people calling it out, from abolitionists of ancient Rome to Free France. No one in setting, outside of like ugathoa, is calling out pharasma as a tyrant, likely for a reason.
When a mortal dies, their soul travels to the Boneyard in the Outer Planes where they are judged by Pharasma, the goddess of the dead. Once they have been judged, their soul is sent on to their final reward or punishment in the afterlife, and in the process is transformed into a creature known as a petitioner. This process grants the soul a new body, one whose shape is the result of the prevailing philosophical forces of the plane to which it is sent. The petitioner's memories from their life are typically wiped nearly clean, allowing them to retain only a few hazy fragments akin to half-remembered dreams. Regardless of the petitioner's size, power, or nature in life, they're a Medium creature in their afterlife.
So no, you have provided 0 textual reason to think the amnesia is natural to death. It's an artificial thing imposed by Pharasma herself, and happens after the mortal is judged.
There is also no evidence that Pharasma is responsible for this (from this source at least). Like most of your arguments, as far as we know this is an inherent part of the system outside of anyone's control, and you have not provided any evidence that other systems wouldn't lead to much worse outcomes.
Say what you will about the current system, but its efficient, and if it stops being efficient the universe ends. Could there be some way thats just as efficient, or even slightly less efficient but way more moral? Maybe, but no one in universe seems to think so. I can't think of any cannon characters that think the current system needs to be replaced except like Ugathoa, and I would expect any that do exist to be similarly evil.
reading to this it feels like Trip has taken personal offense to Pharasma existing
while the old lady is just sitting there, doing her job, basically not bothering anyone
The issue isn't just Pharasma herself, but what she represents. She's essentially the Pathfinder equivalent of D&D's Wall of the Faithless, a feature so blatantly biased that it was thankfully removed in later editions. Just as the Wall was a thinly veiled attempt to punish atheist players (reflecting its origins in a more Christian-dominated era), Pharasma and the surrounding lore are clearly intended to shut down any discussion about the moral complexities of necromancy. She's a divine "I win" button designed to silence any necromancer who dares to suggest that raising the dead isn't automatically an act of evil. For players who enjoyed the morally gray necromancy of earlier editions, Pharasma is a slap in the face.
I mean, with the removal of mechanical alignment, it is now still morally gray. You are causing the end of the universe, but how much are you personally doing? If you can feed your kingdom with an undead workforce at the cost of causing the apocalypse to happen 100,000,000,000 years from now instead of 100,000,000,001, isn't that worth it? Whats more important, a small drop in the bucket with the universe at stake, or monumental good only done in a small area?
Creatures that hail from or have a strong connection to Axis, the Boneyard, or the Maelstrom are called monitors. Monitors can survive the basic environmental effects of planes in the Outer Sphere.
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Psychopomp Allies wrote:
The mandate of marut inevitables is similar to that of psychopomps. Generally, the practical psychopomps are content to let an unyielding marut complete its mission and swoop in afterward to ensure the work has been done, but occasionally, they may work together.
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This is exactly the kind of willful blindness I'm talking about. For whatever reason, when it comes to Pharasma, people will somehow completely ignore the text in front of them if it makes her order look bad, lol.
You did read that most just let them be, and only occasionally help, presumably in classes like undeath and not in cases that pharasma is fine with. Also, the psychopomps have autonomy, and do not inherently reflect the will of pharasma. Also why did you bring up the definition of monitor? I would not blame asmodius for something a daemon does, even though they are both fiends.
Edit, as I did not see your edit. Extending your life is not thwarting death. She like literally lets resurrection magic work. Per the spells themselves, she can just stop them if she wants, but they clearly work most of the time.
We also have direct evidence there are entire species of outsider doing nothing but pursuing and killing mortals for the "heinous crime" of extending their lives.
https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=538
Quote:
A marut is tasked with hunting mortals who cheat death by artificially extending their lifespans. This includes those who seek undeath, such as liches and vampires, but also includes those who use powerful magic to cling to their youth, use divination to discover and avoid an appointed death, or call too often on the power of resurrection. Once the marut has selected its target, the inevitable pursues its quarry without surcease or deviation until either it or the target is dead.
These guys are L15, with divination, plane shift, dispel magic, dimension door, etc. They are literally designed to be relentless and efficient hunter-killers that exist for the sake of this job.
As soon as a Marut finishes one kill, it will get a new target, and then hunt that one to the death.
And they don't seem to be connected to Pharasma. Someone else doing things that Pharasma did not ask for is not a criticism of Pharasma, but of the Aeons.
doesn't have str or dex as key ability but have many feature and feat rely on hitting enemy
So is the thaumaturge, which is widely considered to be one of the best classes in the system and certainly one of the most popular too.
Is the thaumaturge a badly designed class?
not that I disagree with everything else, but the devs have stated that the thaumaturge is one of the least popular classes. It is very popular among experienced and active players who are likely to post about it, but not amongst the majority of more casual players who never post.
There is so much stuff here that I don't think I can get into everything. I'm just going to leave it at most of this seems to be a GM issue and not an AP issue, as most of that is not how the book goes, and everything you blame the AP for is handled better by the book. I am not claiming that this section of the AP is a masterpiece, but it isn't bad. The only bad part of the ap is the first chapter of book 4, which you should just replace.
All in all, this feels like a very inaccurate representation of the book, or perhaps an accurate representation of player/gm error. Like really, book 2 is when you complain? Book 4 I get, but book 2?
Trip.H described him- or herself as a player. Therefore, this is how their GM represented the book to the players. The same GM who gave a thousand yard stare whenever Trip.H made a rational suggestion that differed from the module's plot.
And in the robber story, the module makes no suggestion that the PCs need to capture the robbers alive. The robbers fight them with lethal damage, so the PCs might respond likewise. Loakan is mentioned as fighting to the death, though she surrendered in my game. The stolen musical instruments are listed in the treasure of the room with no suggestions to the GM about how to return the instruments to the buskers.
** spoiler omitted **
...
the module does not tell you these things, correct. Trip was making seem like the module was telling you to do the wrong thing, when it tells you nothing at all, because each party can and will do things differently. Most of these issues seem to be GM error, and not really the fault of the AP. It's a pretty average section of a AP, and not an example of why the whole AP is broken.
Also, these robbers are not smart at all, considering who they're betraying. To them, no witnesses=no problems.
Just a heads up, but I'm an L10 player in SoT, and it is going to get so, so much worse than "Why don't we ask a teacher for help?" pretty quick. The "plot nonsense" plaguing that AP had to become a running joke at our table, because otherwise it would have killed our fun. "Who in the city needs help tying their laces today, I wonder?" type jokes.
I super duper recommend you as a GM who is willing to perform triage on situations like that, read the books up until the PCs leave the city behind, asap. Don't wait and try to improvise without that fore-knowledge.
It'll make a world of a difference if you are able to know ahead of time what actually comes back around later, what does not, and therefore what's "safe" to invent and add to the existing material.
While I've not played many APs, SoT has had by far the worst "Why don't we just do X?" --> GM gives me the thousand yard stare --> "OK, never mind, we don't do that obviously rational thing." because of how little the AP expects PCs to act like thinking beings with agency.
SoT also has the very worst murder-hobo moment I've seen or heard of in an AP, and that entire "mini arc" needs a whole lot of fixing.
** spoiler omitted **...
This is grossly misleading
What actually happens:
First, the police are of no help... because the cities leadership has been infiltrated by serpent folk who are actively harming their efforts, plus this seems like very small potatoes at first.
The thieves do not fight to the death, they run away at low hp. there is no indication you need to kill them, the non lethal tools you have been using throughout the campaign will also work. The party should be chastised if they kill them. The boss absolutely has important info, like the name of the mob boss, which you still don't know. There is no indication that the part has to take the loot, they can absolutely give it back to the city. It just lists what is there.
The timing of the assignments is up to the GM, and should be done in whichever way works best for the party. Even if the GM just runs though them in the order they are printed, there's a bunch of stuff in between the events you listed and would have a better narrative pacing then what you went though.
Also, I might just be missing something, but when did firepot kill anyone? He caused flashy but minor damage to some property, and burned someone as a child because he didn't know he was a sorcerer.
All in all, this feels like a very inaccurate representation of the book, or perhaps an accurate representation of player/gm error. Like really, book 2 is when you complain? Book 4 I get, but book 2?
Actually, having access to a magical wikipedia is a Level 1 spell. Pocket Library.
As if. It actively refuses to give any answers. +1 to a skill you already have can't represent encyclopedias. They should give a skill you don't have at least.
I know, I know you are joking and I'm picking on trifles.
Just because you can look up a scientific document does not mean you're initiated enough to understand it.
Look at this day and age where you can look up anything on the internet, yet look at how much technical knowledge is actually known by the average joe despite this.
Things that pf characters want to know about in the game almost always aren't comparable with advanced science. You can look up an elephant on wiki and you just get a trove of information about it: size, some anatomy, some biology, some behaviour - anything pf character would want to know about a creature and much more. And you don't need to be a biologist for this. Moreover you could know nothing at all about elepants before this - and now you know enough.
Yes, identifying would be a bit harder, but there are identification guides.
I mean, these are physical books. you could easily spend the whole time just looking for the right book. You go though the index looking for "elephant" when it's actually under "pachyderm" for some reason. A success is actually finding the right page and book.
Why is everyone assuming malice when "the devs just though it was a cool idea and didn't think to hard about it" is way more likely scenario? There is enough people supporting it even here that clearly this idea is out there. I don't think it was a good idea, but I don't think they just wanted to make the rouge the best class. If they did, they could have gone a lot further.
I can see that. But the problem from Paizo's side comes when the power of these options prevents them from publishing new things (Sure Strike has constrained the design of spell attack rolls since day 1). And by your own reasoning, you're free to revert these changes in your home games.
This is a common rationalisation, but we have yet to see the removal of other such "constraints" resulting in meaningful change.
Actually, I think we have. The devs were fairly clear that they wanted all ancestories to be +stat +free instead of +stat +stat -stat +free, even publising whole books with +stat +free ancestries, but then they errataed the alternate ability boosts, and they started printing the old style again, likely because the errata made +stat +free not needed any more. Now they only do it when its thematic to not have a flaw. It's not like they're going to make a huge announcement about it.
Pathfinder feels like it has turned into video game patch notes, but written by game designers who clearly never coordinated with one another.
The fact that these mistakes are made to begin with: totally and utterly normal in the industry, still better than many if not most companies of a similar scale. The fact that Paizo fixes these issues makes them some of the best in the business. Other companies would just ignore it
Am I stuck using gauntlets and other free-hand weapons (or taking Engraving Strike) if I want to take advantage of my full defenses and still use my main class feature?
Either that ot use a buckler with your choice of 1 handed weapon.
Rune Singer is usable once per minute. And you've got your etched runes preloaded.
I think you'd be able to trace on the first round, then fill your hands to fight, using Rune Singer + etched runes and get through most fights.
After that you'd have to start hand juggling (1 action Swap between weapon and tool probably the most efficient) which probably reduces you to 1 attack/rd + rune every other round.
I've certainly played characters with worse action economy.
That is complicated enough that even if its "fine" it absolutely needs to be changed. That is way too much just to make a few feats work.
As I'm not part of the Paizo design team I can only guess that they decided to de-emphasize spells with the attack trait. But again, strictly speaking the pre-remaster spells still exist and can be used at your table. Is there a specific reason you can't use the pre-remaster versions?
Legacy spells can be treated as "3rd-party material" now, thus being unavailable.
Then none of this matters. The magus is a legacy class.
Just reading this thread now, and I'm disheartened to see that it was an intentional move to remove access in non-mythic games.
I had been hoping it was just a convenient re-print location for some flavourful rituals, which had the tag added by mistake.
Create Demiplane was one of those things which I thought was neat to have as an option, though have yet to personally find a reason to do it. It doesn't feel good however to know the option has been removed for the sole purpose of enhancing the value of a particular new rule set.
"Enjoy our video streaming service where it's ad-free even in the basic subscription package."
Later...
"Oh, you sweet summer child. You thought not having ads was going to be a permanent thing? That's precious! But if you really want no ads, we'll let you pay extra to go back to what you already had."
Except, we still have the old rituals. They did not burn your old books. This seemed to be an artistic choice instead of monetary one, like a streaming platform originally having foreign movies be dubbed, but then later adding subs and making that the default because they think its better, but leaving the dubs as an option. It may be slightly annoying to go though the menu, but its not the end of the world.
As I am currently running SoT, you're party should have 2 striking runes by now. You also had a comically large amount of downtime in book 2 to buy them, and you could easily earn the income for them in that time, even on top of school work.
Yes, there have been 2 Striking runes within the entire campaign by level 10. That's on the level of a "joke" compared to the other APs I've played/seen.
My PC literally wore armor without the STR requirement because I think it's the only +1 Resilient we have ever seen. Because the magic AP rewards armor that requires +3 STR...
And unfortunately, we've not had the ability to benefit from downtime because of the study system. You cannot both work to advance your branch ranks and earn an income at the same time.
All the PCs have also needed to take 2+ weeks for retraining, partly because the balance of options changes when we are this absurdly poor. My staff is L3 junk that we found, I've got 0 wands, and I think the most expensive purchases the PC has made are the lesser Alch Goggles and 3 min-level spellhearts.
There is a per month stipend, and I remember it was significant. At level 1. Couldn't remember the amount and looked it up, yeah, 4 gp a month is not going to do crap, sorry.
I have half a mind to tally it up now, but thinking specifically about this, I think SoT might genuinely have 1/4th the gp of Abomination Vaults, perhaps even less.
In level 4, you gain 225 gp, and you are supposed to get 200 gp. at level 7, you gain 450 gp out of an expected 720, but the additional level 9 armor worth 700 gp makes up for that even if you sell it. At level 8, you get 10025 gp out of an expected 1000gp. Seems like it lines up fairly well.
Also, I'm not sure if you didn't see my edit, but there are 4 striking runes by 10th level. I forgot some later level ones.
As to the "NPCs using different rules than the PCs" issue, I'll +1 that it's a problem / something that should be pulling dev effort to minimize.
I can identify that specific "grumble" denting the fun on multiple occasions, including my very previous session.
In Strength of Thousands, the AP seems allergic to giving the PCs magic items that sell / are on level, and multiple times this stinginess has been absurd.
Last session, we had a combat vs 4 humans stabbing us with tridents. This session took us from L9 --> 10.
Because these were outright humans with weapons, that created an expectation that they were using the same weapon and damage rules as us, and that we were (finally!) going to get some runes that we could at least sell. Nope.
Despite them doing upwards of 40 damage a stab, the weapons were L3 +1 Fighters Forks. As in, not even carrying a Striking rune. And their armor had 0 runes. Yeah.
It was a joke for a while, but it's not funny anymore when the math says I should be using cantrips instead of Strikes.
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It was certainly a "f-ing seriously?" moment for the whole party. This is also just a few sessions after an undead martial appeared to have a lightning rune in their weapon, but nope, monster-cheat rules for damage. I'm still stuck with +1 Striking at L10.
As I am currently running SoT, you're party should have 4 striking runes by now. You also had a comically large amount of downtime in book 2 to buy them, and you could easily earn the income for them in that time, even on top of school work.
Isn't a Divine Wrath of god beat stick class the Champion?
You'd think, but really no, they are focused around reactions (and the issues I have with some of them...oh boy, not mechanical power, just the play style they seem to be designed to encourage, like a Justice cause with a reach weapon and meat shields to proc reactions off) and tanking (look at the number of defence or shield feats they get vs ones that do damage).
The worst part is that they are worse tanks than fighters by comparison. Throw a fireball at a champion enough times and he dies easily. Can't say the same about a high enough level fighter.
Throw enough visions of death on the fighter and he dies easily. Can't say the same about a high enough level champion. What is your point?
Vision of Death is a fear effect, so Bravery kicks in, and Canny Acumen gives fighters master in Will Saves, so they are basically almost as good as champions for Will Saves. Meanwhile, champions don't get Evasion, and don't have good enough shield feats compared to fighters.
fine, phantom pain. Happy now? Also, I like how you claim that champions are so much worse because they lack evasion, but the fighters lack of divine will still makes them :almost as good as champions for will saves". Champions can just get canny acumen too. and non of this is touching the champions reaction, the focus spells, or you know, legendary armor? The armor alone makes up for feat effects or a few shield feats.
Isn't a Divine Wrath of god beat stick class the Champion?
You'd think, but really no, they are focused around reactions (and the issues I have with some of them...oh boy, not mechanical power, just the play style they seem to be designed to encourage, like a Justice cause with a reach weapon and meat shields to proc reactions off) and tanking (look at the number of defence or shield feats they get vs ones that do damage).
The worst part is that they are worse tanks than fighters by comparison. Throw a fireball at a champion enough times and he dies easily. Can't say the same about a high enough level fighter.
Throw enough visions of death on the fighter and he dies easily. Can't say the same about a high enough level champion. What is your point?
My issue is that... I see no reason to use Ignition over Fireball when Spellstriking.
I can simply CAST Fireball and see if targets can dodge or not, instead of having to Strike a target and THEN see if targets can dodge or not. Please note that for Fireball, I expend a spell slot and must heighten it to keep it relevant, unlike Ignition.
Unless the Spellstrike's primary target gets a bunch of penalties trying to resist the spell, might as well say "don't bother with spells with saves when using Expanded Spellstrike" in the first place.
I mean, you get 3 actions for the cost of 2. That is a very big deal. You will need to spend that 3rd action later to recharge, but you can just use a focus spells to recharge for "free". Regardless, at worst it is getting a bunch of actions early in the fight when they are most useful at the cost of some latter when they are less powerful.
It kinda feels like Paizo hates champions and only even still has them in remaster to retain backwards compatibility with premaster.
That is an absolutely wild claim. Why would you assume malice when most classes have had the exact name amount of content released for them? Why did they get new causes and tenants in the remaster instead of the bare minimum removal of alignment? Also, no, the champions design and thematic space is not being squeezed. Hercules and the knights templar do not share much thematic room. The rouge, a damage dealer, does not encroach on the fighter, another damage dealer because they are mechanically and thematically very different. The magus does not encroach on the fighter either for the same reasons.
I'm starting to feel like I should have rebuilt my PFS champion as a cleric because right now it feels like the champion's narrative space is getting steadily squeezed out of the game - you've got exemplar for the god-adjacent melee beatstick space, guardian for the stop the enemies from beating my friends space, and battle harbinger for the divine gish space; and champions don't even have their full premaster functionality back yet.
It kinda feels like Paizo hates champions and only even still has them in remaster to retain backwards compatibility with premaster.
The Oaths are back, and vastly improved, from my understanding.
This is about NEW class features, not bringing back stuff that got cut out in favor of other classes.
They are not saying they should be brought back, but that they literally have been brought back. They are in divine mysteries. People have read them.
...for instance Champions are tanks, you cannot build one as a wrath of god style smiter anymore, it just does not work)...
You totally can. All you gotta do is make a fighter or other offensive class, then multiclass into Champion.
Then you will have a "wrath of [a] god style smiter" in no time at all.
That is a fighter, not a champion. Dedications are deliberately total and utter traps.
Champion dedication is one of the best feats in the game, what are you talking about. scaling armor is incredible for everything without native heavy armor training, and for classes with heavy armor the champions reaction at level 6 is so good that it's almost a meme how often optimizers take it. A fighter with a champion archetype not only fits you're concept perfectly, it is also one of the best builds in the game
Even if people hate me for saying this, if a game needs to ask players to adjust their expectations, it indicates underlying issues with the game itself. It's fine to want the game to be focused on balance, but we shouldn't invalidate others' opinions simply because they expect a product to align with established norms. It's like an ice cream store deciding to drop chocolate, strawberry and vanilla to make only lemon mint and then complaining when customers expect chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.
Not really. If I walk into a history museum, it is my fault if I'm disappointed that it doesn't have any roller-coaster, just as the theme park isn't bad just because people expect it to have history.
Also, Pf2 is way more popular than PF1. This is like an ice cream shop that stops selling lemon mint. People who like lemon mint can and should find somewhere that serves lemon mint, but the shop is not required to make lemon mint, nor do they seem like they really need the lemon mint sales.
You don't gain the benefit of implement's empowerment if you are holding anything in either hand other than a single one-handed weapon, other implements, or esoterica, and you must be holding at least one implement to gain the benefit.
If you are holding a shield, you are holding something other than a single one-handed weapon, an implement, or esoterica.
So yes. There absolutely is something in Implement's Empowerment that says it cannot work while holding a shield.
I am not arguing this. What I am arguing is if a shield can be an implement. "of the same general type" is very vague, and up to the GM's digression. In this context, where the other hand is empty anyways, I would absolutely allow it, but if you wanted to sword and board I would probably not allow it, as it essentially gives you 3 hands.
It seems to me that "small, portable, handheld mirror" implies a mirror that actually fits in your hand—something around the size of a makeup mirror. I really don't think a mirrored shield qualifies. If that were the case, a mirror the size of a shield with a handle on the back would be an equally valid choice. I don't think such an item qualifies as small (it's more in the medium-sized dry goods category), portable (it wouldn't fit in most bags), or handheld (it is carry-able, but does not fit in the palm of your hand). If a theoretical mirror the size of a shield doesn't pass, I don't think a mirror that is also a shield passes.
Small is a matter of perspective. I agree that a normal shield is probably not small, but I could see smaller ones working. However, are you really saying that for something to be hand held, it must fit in the palm of your hand? If you can hold it in your hand, it is hand held. It is in the name. Also, battering rams have the portable tag. A shield is definitely more portable than a battering ram.
The dedication simply does not, blanketly, "[give] the full damage gimmick to another class."
But it could, which is the problem. And even then, most of the worn or body Ikons are way too good. A 2nd level feat should not give a fighter and everyone around them +1 to attack rolls permanently, no roll, no action, no recourses.
I tend to say that they remember something from a very biased source. You know what Cheliax says about the Bellflowers, but you can't really tell truth from propaganda. The bestiary you read said that hydras can be defeated with acid, but he says everything can be defeated with acid so who knows.
Elemental Counter lists earth, fire, metal, plant, water, or wood trait, air is skipped and plant is put in the same spots as wood. This causes earth to have to have two elements that counter it and metal to counter two elements. Air countering earth, metal countering wood, and wood countering air would make the most sense as an errata.
It's based on the east Asian 5 elements, which are earth, fire, metal, wood, and water, with each element countering another. In this model, air is not considered an element. Also plant is basically just what they called the wood trait before RoE. They are basically the same thing, and if you got rid of plant then there would be way fewer wood spells than every other element.
If you're going online, your best bet is the PF2 subreddit discord, which has more or less become the semi official paizo discord. It's been a bit sense I last found a game there, but when I did it you will have no problem finding players, and will likely be in the very nice position of being able to choose between like 10 potential players to find who will be the best fit for your table.
As for running the game online, discord for voice is very nice, and you can use it to roll dice with bots. However, if you're willing to spend a little bit more (or get your players to chip in), Foundry VTT is great, automates almost everything you will want automated, its constantly updated, and is a 1 time purchases of $50 USD with no subscription. Plus you can upgrade your beginners box pdf to the foundry version which makes set up extremally easy. The only downside of foundry is that you either need to pay a subscription to run it on a server, or requires that you set up port forwarding on your computer, which isn't hard but does require access to your router.
So, first thing to keep in mind is that the beginner box, player core, and GM core are all for pathfinder 2nd edition, while the video games are based on 1st edition. There is a huge difference between the two systems, and if you want to learn 2e I would forget all the game mechanics from the video games and treat it as its own thing. With that being said, running the Beginners Box is the best way to learn how to GM (DM is a dnd term so you will hear the term GM for game master here). I would run that first with some friends, and then you can move on to a pre written adventure path (not kingmaker. It has been ported over to 2e but without a computer running kingdom rules its a pain to GM) or you can create your own adventure.
And how does the Seneschal differ from the regular Witch?
Don't have the book. But from what I've read elsewhere:
You're basically your own Patron (the original Patron being dead/missing/whatever but you still siphon his power through the familiar bond).
Instead of the initial Lesson of your patron you get a different one based on your tradition.
You get Witch Charge feat for free.
You get more feats that go off based on Witch Charge.
Eventually becoming a full fledged Patron yourself.
What is the point? the rarity system ensures this will be collecting dust on a shelf, yeah I'm being negative because like the archetype and will never be able to use it.
It being rare doesn't mean no one will use it. Lvl 1 stuff in particular is usually freely given (unless you play in society or with a strict gm)
