Ramanujan's page

In fairness, some locations are much lighter than others -- I don't think we have yet had a 2e book (adventure path or lost omens) that has especially touched on Golarion's darkest places.

AnimatedPaper wrote:

Just download another browser for your iPad. I use both chrome and safari

No.

I just got it to work on my iPhone by going to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data > Search for Paizo, and delete the Paizo.com data.

has anyone found a storage solution to organize these? Love that they come with divider tabs but I haven't found a storage box tall/wide/long enough for these sets.

Storage solutions in general would be appreciated. For these, but also Bestiary cards, Pawns etc...

If you crit, great - your spell gets an effective +10 to hit (except it is actually slightly better than that, as it can undo incapacitation, but that won't happen often). Still +10 is an insane bonus.

If you hit, that sucks. You get +0 to hit with the spell, which is what you would have gotten when casting it anyway.

If you miss, you do not lose the spell, and on the next turn, you can try again. In other words, you have another shot at getting the insane +10 to hit.
---

One relevant question is, is having a second chance of getting +10 to hit, better than rolling at +0?

Some spells are worse than twice as good on a crit (e.g. Shocking Grasp) while many others are more than twice as good (e.g. Weapon Storm).

If the strike hits on a 9+, then it had a 50% chance of getting a normal hit (not criting), or a 25% chance with a -5 MAP penalty. That means across up to four possible attacks over two turns (i.e. with map at -0, -0, -5, -10), we have a *74.52% chance of casting the spell at +0, and a **15.32% chance of casting the spell at +10, and an 10.16% chance of not casting it at all.

If we ignore the chance of not casting the spell at all, then on average this works out as a +1.532 bonus to one spell (albeit with high variation).

Lets assume we are casting a spell with a basic save, so not casting the spell at all is the same as rolling a critical failure, which we can approximate to a -22 modifier on the spell - i.e. the minimum amount that guarantees a spell that would have otherwise hit on a 9 is a failure on a natural 20, and a critical failure on everything else.

Using that short hand for the sake of easy maths, this means we have an average penalty to the roll of -2.2 (albeit with very high variation), which when combined with the +1.532 bonus, is a reduction to your spell roll on average.

However, looking at it from another perspective; due to the way natural 1s and 20s work, if we land the spell on a 9, then we go from a 5% chance of crit failure (or no effect), when casting the spell normally to a †13.886% chance of critical failure/not casting it at all when using spell strike.
While the chance of critically hitting goes from 10% when casting normally to ††19.192% chance of critically hitting when using spell strike. i.e. the chance of critical failure/no effect increases by 8.885%, while the chance of critically hitting increases by 9.192%.

That is a net gain ... but a seriously tiny one, and getting the probability that high requires being prepared to spend all your actions for two rounds attempting to land the spell (though obviously you'd stop early if you succeeded on the first try).

---
I started writing this thinking Spell Strike seemed pretty good. I ended up persuading myself it isn't.

---

*50%+(40%*50%)+(40%*40%*25%)+(40%*40%*65%*5%) = 74.52%
** 50%+(40%*50%)+(40%*40%*25%)+(40%*40%*65%*5%) = 15.32%
†10.16%+74.52%*5% = 13.886%
††10.16%+74.52%*5% = 19.192%

Reading the contents of a sealed letter, without leaving any marks that could be detected?

Castilliano wrote:

As intriguing as Geb & Nex are, how does one make such an AP about the heroes rather than Geb or Nex (the entities)?

Party takes them both down? What are the unknown factors to make things interesting?

Geb is especially awkward because if the party disturbs the balance, they may unleash undead that are pretty quiescent as issues stand. Or maybe the Whispering Way is already trying to do that, seeing a second undead uprising as good for their business.

Not every Adventure Path has to be about heroes. And not all adventure paths that aren't about heroes have to be evil Adventure Paths.

I really want a PF2 game about being Con Artists. Ala Lies of Locke Lamora.

Talking of Psychic classes I really want a non-medium Fiend Keeper.

I loved the Fiend Keeper's flavour. But medium made zero sense as the chassis; 'I'm keeping a demon bound ... but also swapping it out for a different demon each morning'.

Basically I want to play Penric-esque characters (as per the novels by Lois McMaster Bujold), though not necessarily the spell casting part - that isn't what is important about the character for me.

#4 is how I usually run games.
Though I do feel what you call 'some built in GM permissions' is what the game assumes is standard - one of my first players was from the Mwangi, but a member of the Pathfinder lodge there - not giving them access to the Pathfinder Agent Dedication would in my opinion, be an odd choice (despite that not giving access strictly speaking).
When a player comes to me with a concept/background they get 'permission' for anything uncommon that fit that theme particularly well. Rare stuff might require a discussion/active pursuit in game, but I still don't like being stingy.

#5 is a bit beyond my comfort level right now. Maybe in the future.

Being able to craft thieves' picks in a prison without tools or books has obvious potential.

No, it's understood they get human, elf, or half-elf feats. Seems like choices are just very limited because the few that are available at 9th may have a prerequisite, which if you don't have, makes it one choice or nothing.

I did see that half-elf gets an advantage on Multitalented which is nice. Just wish there were a few more options.

You can also take lower level feats and grab those prerequisites.

And as a third choice, you can retrain your previous choices in order to swap those old choices into the prerequisites.

Building a postal network, could be fairly involved - a little like building a kingdom, but a lot more geographically diverse.

I really quite like this idea.

Obviously Terry Pratchet's Going Postal could serve good source inspiration.

Deadmanwalking wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

Based on the other thread, I now want a Large snake-like ancestry. Maybe a heritage for Nagaji?

Or just nagas. Those are both Large and basically snakes, and we've got one as a Pathfinder Tales protagonist, so...

Yeah I rather have a Naga ancestry than Nagaji.

I would very much agree with this.

I'd also rather have Naga ancestry than anything else I'm aware of, including Anadi. Not counting announced races such as Sprites, Tieflings, Duskwalker etc...

That still makes me hope chances for other snek ancestries are plausible ;D

Also, Droon IS in Garund. And there isn't really evidence of ancient lizardfolk ruins in Avistan for whatever reason(whether its because Paizo writers used Iruxi as "swamp dwelling LN tribal creatures" while ignoring all the "used to be big deal in old days" lore or because Avistan didn't have as huge Iruxi presence in past)

Ah, well, I will have to retcon my comment to being 'south west of the Mwangi expanse' then.

Unless that is also where Droon is. In which case the lore in those two books makes zero sense.

So... in hopes of shifting this thread's topic to a more positive light, I'd love it if folks talk about what they DO want in a snake-themed player ancestry. Not serpentfolk. Not nagaji. I want to know what it is about snake-themed PC ancestries folks want. Is it a sleek, serpentine body for your PC, perhaps one with no legs or even no arms? Is it the ability to use a poison bite? A forked tongue that grants scent? Links to real-world snakes? Or is it merely the desire to play a member of an ancestry against type thematically—the same sort of thing that's attractive about playing a good drow or a redeemed demon or the like?

After reading the Pathfinder Tales Pirate series, Celeste was really pretty cool.

Perhaps compensating the potential range of a modified innate mage hand with low movement speed (and vice versa)?

Paradozen wrote:

lemeres wrote:

They descend from ancient empires that once held a large power over the world, but have since faced decline. That history gives them perspectives and secrets that are distinct from the human cultures in power today.

Is the empire of Droon in decline? I got the impression that the Iruxi empire was still going strong but simply doesn't care about the Inner Sea region so we don't get a lot of details about it

Nope; Droon is going strong.

As a side note, while Droon may be going strong, there are at least two Pathfinder Tales novels that deal with Lizardfolk from ancient empires that no longer exist.

In fact the Pathfinder Tales books are the only place I've encountered Pathfinder Lizardfolk (outside of Oblivion Oath) - and I remember thinking they sounded awesome and wanting to play them.

So it may not be accurate world wide, but I certainly had a very strong impression that Lizardfolk were once a very long time ago part of a large and powerful empire - two novels told me that was the case.

This discussion has made me suspect that the history in those books was entirely Garrund centric, which is fine, though I am feeling slight whiplash from the change in my understanding.

That was awesome.

And genuinely scary.
I also would be leaving immediately.

I actually woke in the middle of the night, thinking about it, after reading that just before going to bed. The idea didn’t just disturb a fictional character’s sleep.

This is awesome. Thank you.

would it work, if instead of/in addition to choosing the patron, the player chose the style of relationship?

E.g. is the witches relationship to the patron:
Voluntarily entered contract
Quid pro quo (a series of trades)
Enforced (e.g. blackmail, or there is a hostage of some sort)
Mysterious
Temptations
Stolen (The witch somehow takes the power against the patrons will or knowledge)

To me this seems potentially just as impactful, sometimes perhaps even more so, than who the patron is.

Or something like this ability:

Form or join a coven with other individuals.

You can cast spells that you know or have a written copy of (such as a scroll) as a ritual without requiring the spell to be on your spell list, using a spell slot or consuming the written copy but with a casting time of six hours per spell level, reduced by an amount of time per member of your coven involved in casting the ritual, based on their skill checks, to a minimum of one hour.

All participants must make a skill check, with the skill depending on what kind of magic at least one participant with this feat or participating hag casts. The DC of the check is equal to 13 + the level of the spell x2.

On a critical success the spell takes two hours to cast less per spell level.
On a success the spell takes an hour less to cast per spell level.
On a failure casting the spell takes an additional hour to cast per level.
On a critical failure the spell takes an additional two hours to cast per level.

Witches with this ability and Hags cannot get a worse result than a success; including you.

The cost of material components is reduced by half per participant who succeeds or critically succeeds, but doubled per participant who critically fail. If you do not have sufficient material components once the skill checks are made, the spell fails and the components are not spent.

If the spell ends up taking more than 12 hours to cast, it automatically fails and the components are not spent.

Nb the details would need tweaking. But the idea is that you can form a coven, it lets you cast rituals with that coven, and hags and witches have a substantial advantage in doing so, but it can be done with others, especially if they have the relevant skills.

Regardless of the witch having access to divine magic, i like how it’s lack of presence in the playtest caused the lore explanation to come into being. In that yes witches can have a divine patron, but they don’t get divine magic because the god has to be secretive about the relationship.

I like how this means a good god might employ a witch to accomplish something underhand that they don’t want to be associated with.

For example Serenrae is known for being willing to work with evil to accomplish greater good. But she might not want Iomedae to know every detail of her collaborations with Asmodaeus, or other evil entities. - such a witch might be half convinced their tutor is that evil entity!

Or maybe Shelyn, is using the witch in some dumb and doomed attempt to reach out to her brother? Her brain knows it is stupid, so she doesn’t want other wiser heads to know, but her heart wants to do it.

Seems like it would have been a lot simpler to say, if you have spent X focus points, then you have Curse severity X. You can only gain focus points through Oracle class features, which are not restricted by the limitation of a maximum of three.

That way you can transfer your understanding of focus points, and it is consistent with other classes.

Sorcerer isn’t that likely - or shouldn’t be - to be attacking multiple times in melee, not only because of their lower attack bonus, but also their low numbers of hit points.

If they only got one of finesse or agile, I would definitely choose for them to have finesse.

Suggested locations for chickens:

Trapped at the bottom of a well.
Cornered by a Fox.
Stuck up a tall tree.
About to be turned into dinner by a cook.
Angrily chasing a thief.

I plan on having mundane arrows broken on use, and providing a ten minute recover arrows activity to recover and repair them* - cribbed from the repair shield activity.

*subject to GM adjudication - firing arrows into a void, or wooden arrows into a fire elemental probably aren’t recoverable.

Giving more ten minute activity options makes sense I think.

Anyway, I have no particular delusions that I'll actually change someone's mind on an internet forum, so this is probably my last post on the subject.

For what it is worth, while you may not have ‘changed my mind’, because I didn’t really have a set opinion before reading this thread, I did find your replies useful.

For what it is worth, for me PF1 struggled to provide this even given ten years. It was was generally the one class I most wanted - and spent most time looking for.

Synthesist was possibly the best in terms of catering to options from level one, even though it had spell casting. Some of the archetypes were ok, but most were very disappointing, and none were amazing/exactly what I was looking for - even if given a lot of rope.

Edit: Actually Oozemancer was hilarious and as a result qualified as amazing in my book.

but one thing is certain: if you want to maximize xp, you can't avoid any encounter; each time you bypass an encounter, there's a risk you lose some xp.

This makes a computer-game like assumption about the universe.

I.e. That is that there is only a limited amount of content - what was programmed into the game. Which in an RPG is not necessarily true.

In a computer game, if you skip a room, there is a sense in which you have permanently lost something that won’t be replaced. Because there is only a limited amount of content in any non-generated computer game.

In an RPG you can carry on playing as long as you are all enjoying it. In fact the thing that you do instead (of missed room) with your time may be more fun, and can just as easily provide in game benefits.

This doesn’t work if the GM sticks rigidly to an AP, but that is not at all the case for all GMs.

“Right now it's perfectly fair to use it as an example of LG behavior.“

Note that Iomedae is not just an example of a good character, but so far as I am aware she makes no claims of being the ultimate good (the definition of good).

She has a character, and this example of her actions is just that. It could maybe be held up as an example for followers of Iomedae to follow, but not necessarily more than that. Shelyn in her place would likely have acted differently, while Asmodeus might have acted similarly.

Your statement also assumes that the gods in this universe are infalliable, which I see no reason to assume. They may be just as faliable as mortals.

I don’t know, but I suspect you are applying Christian influenced logic to the pathfinder universe.

I would hope they lower the dependency on the familiar.

Or make it far more resilient.

This seems to me to be working as it should.

You can now wear ten rings instead of two, or twelve with a feat! (Provided you've got the fingers for them).

Feat should really let you wear another ten.

You two guys are on the same page! Brilliant stuff. For his signature spells any suggestions? He was thinking Heal actually got level 1 incase there are no healers in the group he could cover that, or would you guys recommend a blasting spell there also?

As a side note Heal also is fairly good at aoe blasting undead.

When wanting to get a real world estimate for the value of coins I use the heuristic of 1cp ~= £1, or $1.

This puts a week’s rations at £40, which is very pricey, but in the right ball park.

A days income at £20 per day’s success for level one. This is low, but again in the right ballpark. Maybe 3 hours minimum wage for an adult - or 4+ hours for someone younger than 18.

Tweaking it down or up from there makes one of the two closer to reality, while pushing the other further away from it. Overall it is a good compromise, that is simple to calculate, and lets me estimate prices quickly on the fly.

Which would put your player’s bribe at £500.

Centre point to centre point of two neighbouring hexes is 10 miles.

The centre point to something just slightly further away than the centre point in the neighbouring hex is more than ten miles.

The maximum distance between two locations in neighbouring hexes (that are ten miles across) is twenty miles. This is because if from the origin location I have to cross the entirety of the first and second hex to get to the destination hex, then I have crossed two hexes that are ten miles accross.

Similarly the maximum distance between two locations that are in 10-mile hexes with four hexes separating them from each other is 60 miles - because getting from one to the other would require crossing the entirety of six hexes.

Ten miles can be used as an approximation to the distances between locations in neighbouring ten-mile hexes. Because that is the average distance, and generally speaking exact distances are not needed.

To you problems with speed of travel, remember first that even the best edited books often still have errors. This book was produced at the same time as the rules were being written, and as a result errors and discrepancies between the two should be expected. The advice to make the choice that is most fun for your party is serious advice, and has been given to you by a Paizo employee.

That said the applicable rule of thumb is that the specific overrules the general. In this case the general rule is the CRB, and the specific rule is the adventure path. Perhaps fudging it, by providing the party or your npc ally with a magical item or ability that allows them to travel faster in exploration mode through the Mwangi. Might allow you to reconcile the two without breaking the crb ruling on speed of travel, and the way you feel the adventure was supposed to play?

Remember that in PF2, due to four categories of success, each point of difference can* have an impact on the outcome on two results of the die.

For example, crit failure on a stealth check is different to regular failure. This means that if the DC you and the bard were rolling against was 18, then the difference between your skills makes a difference to six possible dice results (14 to 12 and also 4 to 2), not 3 - as it would in PF1.

Bonuses are nearly (I.e. not quite) twice as good in PF2 as they were in PF1.

*Sometimes one or more categories makes no difference, most commonly crit failure generally has no impact on strikes. This is the main reason why bonuses are not quite twice as good.

I’ve ordered this book for the lore, and a physical place to reference it.
Particularly so that I can point my players to pages from it when they are trying to make backstories in a world they don’t know.

Player options in it are something of a distraction/freebie for me.

Level one skills usually lie in the range +7 to -1, not counting expert skills and/or armour penalties.

Which is 16 numbers on the die that make a difference between a category of success or failure and another.

Rysky wrote:

ChibiNyan wrote:

Rysky wrote:

Reziburno25 wrote:

Magic Warrior is just fluff thing with no mechanics to back it up.

Aside from the Dedication you get two transformation Focus Spells and the ability to use Nondetection on yourself.

The campaigns where non-detection on a PC has any value are extremely specific. I have never played or ran one where a player has wanted to cast this spell. The one where a +1 on saving throw against divination spell are useful are probably ZERO. Aren't those spells supposed to be cast multiple times to keep tabs on you?

The structure of Pathfinder APs make it so thwarting divination would either derail the entire thing or be irrelevant.

Now, it does have other abilities, but they are pretty disappointing too. Can't even get natural attacks or anything from their animal until the second spell, and it's not abilities you want at medium-high levels.

”I won’t use these in my campaign” =/= “has no mechanics”

Name one in an AP if you want.

Rise of the Runelords. Especially if the party grab one of the Star Medallions, but even if not, the odds that Karzoug doesn’t cast divination on the party once past a certain point is minimal.

I think I recall an interview with someone commenting that the goblins were popular last time, so likely to return. I'm not certain about that though. Possibly they wanted to, but found there wasn't enough space? — I've not seen the cards themselves.

They included them in the initial release as they were a very popular PF1 product. The reviews however for the PF2 versions have been disappointing.

I removed them from my own preorder after reading those initial poor reviews from subscribers.

As someone who came to PF1 about half way through it’s lifespan, I didn’t get the slow increase of races/ancestries - when I first played there were already many options available.

As a result, from my perspective, there is no difference in that regard. Golarion for me has always been full of unusual species.

That said, the presentation of Goblins specifically has definitely shifted from the adventures we played in golarion, and that was something I did have to discuss with my players.

This would be clearer if they had positioned the rules for doubling damage where it actually happens - at the end, rather than at the end of step 1, before weaknesses are applied in step 3.

Are we sure this is how it works?

The text for doubling damage says to include all normal modifiers, bonuses and penalties. Which might have made it clear, except that the rules text for weaknesses and resistances don't mention those specific terms.

From a freely available wiki (https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Hellknight)
Order of the Chain: Flail
Order of the Gate: Dagger
Order of the Godclaw: Morningstar
Order of the Nail: Halberd or Lance
Order of the Pyre: Glaive
Order of the Rack: Longsword or Whip
Order of the Scourge: Heavy Mace, Scourge or Whip

Lesser Orders:
Order of the Coil: Greataxe
Order of the Glyph: Battleaxe
Order of the Pike: Longspear
Order of the Scar: Rapier
Order of the Torrent: Longbow or Halberd

There is very little info on the wiki page about some of the lesser orders, yet it has the favoured weapons for all of them.

So your issue is your inability to estimate the weight of an object, which while I get you think the bulk system helps with, it really doesn't, because
a) a 10 pound item is 1 bulk, which you can't work out under the current system, so best of luck with that in the new one
and
b) Unless it's really light and designed to stack, there's no way that chair you're talking about is 1 bulk. If it was a person of average strength could carry 5 of them and be unencumbered, which I really doubt.

A) ... I don't understand this point. Why would I care about how many bulk 10 pounds is?

B) The chair is a light wooden collapsable chair that can be folded flat and stacked easily. I could easily carry five by threading one arm through them.

Hes trying to say that You have an intuitive sense of what something weighs in the system you were raised but not in one your not as familiar with. It's why I always have so much trouble figuring out a kilometer but I can roughly guess a mile.

I’m sure that’s true for many, but I even lack a strong intuitive grasp for the one I was raised with. I estimate distances frequently - including in Pathfinder. Relatively speaking I very rarely estimate weights (and never before in pathfinder).

Ramanujan wrote:

vagabond_666 wrote:

Ramanujan wrote:

For pounds I have to first find and use a calculator

It's close enough to 2 pounds = 1 kilogram that for rough estimates a calculator is completely unnecessary.

That still doesn’t enable me to estimate it mid game!

Then I have no idea how you can play pf in English at all since you can't estimate mid game what 30 feet are. Why don't you wait for a translation in your native language?

I don’t need to estimate that. You are misunderstanding me. Yes I can convert pounds to grams fine - though as I’ve previously ignored this system (because it is too fiddly and the reason I talk about in the next paragraph) I’ve never had to.

But if you asked me to estimate how heavy say the chair I front of me was, I would have no clue about it’s gram weight. I’d probably say it is fairly light for a chair... maybe 1 bulk? (Ok that last part is partly in jest - but only partly) Hence the second part of my paragraph about finding something labelled with that weight to try and lift.

Can we make an Hellknight Signifier like Wizard in Hellknight plate?

Not yet. This book has the Hellknight Armiger, which is like an apprentice.

The next book will have both the Signifer and the martial one (forgotten its name). The Armiger archetype counts as all types of Hellknight dedications for the purposes of restrictions, and I believe is designed to flow into them.

Although I’m sure you will be able to make a Wizard Hellknight Armiger in full plate.

I know how much 20 pounds weighs and feels but have no frame of reference how much unwieldiness + weight a 2 bulk item is.

I assume you are American?

I actually have more frame of reference for bulk, than I do for pounds. This is because bulk is so crude;

I can ask myself a simple series of questions in order to estimate the bulk of an item, such as ‘Is it small enough that the majority of it fits in one hand?’. I cannot do that with pounds.

For pounds I have to first find and use a calculator, then I have to go to a shop and pick some thing up labelled as that weight, in the middle of a game. I’m being slightly facetious here, but the serious point is that I cannot estimate pound weight mid game, where as I can estimate bulk weight.

Now there maybe cases the game’s designers have forgotten about, as well as typos or errors and estimates that I disagree with, such as the alchemist problems. But that is easier to correct than an entire pound based system I was just forced to ignore because I didn’t understand it.

I also wish they had got rid of Fahrenheit, but at least that one is easier to ignore.

A book about Hazard(s) and Environments

Really loving the new design space both Environments and Hazards , and would love a book (or two) with new Environment rules, disasters, Traps, Environmental Hazards and haunts !

Oh! That is a great idea; A Hazards Codex/bestiary!

Yes please!

Discounting books I want that have already been announced, easily the highest remaining priority for me is an NPC Codex.

And yes I know there will be some available in the GM guide. That will be a good stopgap.

Yes; this or the Synthesist as a class.

Oozemorph was a wonderful idea.