Ritunn's page

Overall, I quite like technomancer reading through it, however, one thing I've noticed is a few problems with Viper's Jailbreak Spellshape. This allows you to turn used spell gems into electromag grenades until the end of your next turn upon jailbreaking Spell Circuit. However, the one issue here is that grenades rely on Class DC to decide their save DC, which you're notably Trained in forever.
However, level 8 has a feat called Grenade Spell. This allows you to put a burst spell into a grenade and allows you to use your Spell DC for its save DC if its a Reflex save spell (in addition to casting the spell on folks caugh in the grenade burst), but there's a minor issue here. To get your electromag grenade and throw it next turn with requires:

Round One: 2-Action (Typically) Spell Cast > 1-Action Overclock
Round Two: Free Action Jailbreak Spell Circuit > 2-Action Spell Cast > 1-Action Overclock
Round Three: Free-Action Jailbreak Grenade Spell > 2-Action Spell Cast > 1-Action Area Fire with Electromag Grenade

Ignoring the fact that it takes 3 rounds of set up to throw a grenade with a DC that won't suck late game, it sort of makes one of your core class features as a Viper Technomancer useless if you don't take an 8th level feat. An 8th level feat mind you that will only make the grenade have a decent DC with a small selection of spells (a much more minor issue thanks to Spell Cache). Clearly this isn't a terrible issue, but it kind of feels bad to be forced to take an 8th level feat to even justify the action usage of throwing the grenade over anything else. It'd be nice if Viper had the ability to just use their Spell DC for the electromag grenades produced via their own feature in my own opinion just to allow you to make use of them outside of Grenade Spell. However, I imagine there are other solutions too, or perhaps it's fine as is for other folks! I'd love to hear opinions.

At the moment, ServoShell seems fundamentally just sort of unusable unfortunately. I'm honestly surprised there wasn't an option to acquire a familiar with the Tech trait, just as a nice flavor thing and also because one subclass just straight up doesn't work without such an option. Of course, having access to the robot companions the Mechanic gets would be even better! That would still require an archetype likely, however. I'm hoping this gets rectified eventually, but there was certainly a big oversight with that specific programming language.

Just some minor updates. I'm working on cleaning some things up and altering wording in some areas, which is going to just happen over the month. Additionally, I've added the Dust Bunny specific familiar from Tuesday's comedic article. Though not all content within the article is entirely balanced, I do believe the Dust Bunny is very in line with what to expect and elected to include it as it's a serious consideration one might make for a familiar choice. Also, it's adorable!

A new familiar? In an April Fool's article? I guess thoss things really just do show up everywhere.

I was originally introduced to Paizo via Starfinder funnily enough, but had always known of Pathfinder since 2012 due to my Earthdawn 1e and D&D 4e gaming groups. I eventually transitioned to playing D&D 5e, but PF 1e was always this funny oddity with what I was told had, "Too much math and really weird character options."

Eventually, I heard PF 2e had released and my same friend who introduced me to Starfinder 1e began telling me about it as well, but I was mostly more interested in Starfinder at the moment. Then, of course, they told me the secret passphrase to get me interested in the system entirely "They just added kitsune". I grabbed and read through all the mainline releases out by then and then proceeded to enjoy my few pages of kitsune content. I quickly realized the system had everything I loved about Starfinder and what originally made me excited for TTRPGs I hadn't really experienced since those 4e days. If anything, Pathfinder 2e is what truly got me into the TTRPG space and checking out even more systems from other publishers.

In the end, I didn't even play a kitsune in my first PF2e campaign, I played a kobold! But I have played several kitsune since then.

Annunciation of the Outer Gate is a spell I'm a huge fan of as a lover of all things occult. It's just got some amazing flavour going for it. Otherwise, I've been using Pocket Library a lot since it was printed in Secrets of Magic. I'm quite sad it's suddenly Rare!

When Magus first came out, I made a Laughing Shadow Magus with the Weapon Improviser archetype I dubbed the "Chair Warrior". It was overall pretty mediocre, but still fun. Honestly, overall happy to see the Resurgent Maelstrom Magus, really improves on the idea and makes it a lot more playable, which I appreciate. It's certainly not amazing, but it seems fun, which is what I care about primarily.

I've been sick the past week, so I've been slow writing stuff up in general, but the guide now has the new content from Lost Omens: Rival Academies covered! Additionally, it was brought to my attention AP 208 had a general companion item, so that was added as well.

Mangaholic13 wrote:

TheKazM wrote:

I am relatively new to Pf2e so apologies in advance if this is a very basic question, I am making a Witch at 11th level (to replace a dead Bard) and in this truly excellent and very helpful guide, you've noted "Familiar Master is one of the best archetypes for familiar aficionados who don’t happen to be a witch." Why is Witch excluded?

Because Witches can do some pretty crazy and powerful things with their familiars that the other classes cannot.

For instance, depending on the patron, the familiar can unleash different effects whenever the Witch casts or sustains a Hex.

A good example is the "Stitched Familiar" and "Spirit Familiar" Witch feats. Those give your familiar the ability to ATTACK! Sure, they can only do it once every 10 minutes, but no other familiar can use damaging moves.

But why does that exclude Familiar Master from being one of the best archetypes for Witch specifically? Is it simply that Witch has better options? I am making a resentment Witch so I am more interested in the survivability and maneouverability of my familiar as opposed to damage output.

It's also important to note that Witch gets pretty much all the feats available to Familiar Master already. It's a perfectly fine archetype to take if you don't have anything else in mind for archetypes and you were going to take Enhanced Familiar anyway, but Witch in particular gets no benefit in specific from it.

Glad to hear there's going to be some undead familiar options for the Necromancer in the full release. Was one thing I felt was really missing.

Pre-post edit: found it. Constructs still insta-die at 0 HP after the Remaster, in the "Getting Knocked Out" section on PC 410

Quote:

Creatures can't be reduced to fewer than 0 Hit Points. When most creatures reach 0 Hit Points, they die and are removed from play unless the attack was nonlethal, in which case they're instead knocked out for a significant amount of time (usually 10 minutes or more). When undead and constructs reach 0 Hit Points, they're destroyed.

The Construct f.ability grants the Construct creature trait, so it imposes those rules.

It's completely black and white that all construct familiars instantly die if they are ever reduced to 0 HP. Wow.

(I really, really hate that the Construct trait was truncated and had all the mechanical info deleted in the remaster.)

I should not have to special search AoN to find that yes, constructs still have the insta-death mechanic.

Which means that yes, Alchemists being bizarrely forced to create a construct instead of a living being is a ridiculous nerf that (hopefully) pushes more PCs to archetype out of Alchemist for their familiar. (Or just Archetype into Alchemist and avoid the class entirely)
There's just no excuse for *forcing* such a double-edged trait like that, if it was optional I would have 0 issue with the change.

Not really sure I understand the reason for omitting this issue from the guide, nor why the trait is worth a 3 star rating as an f.ability. Familiars having low HP means that the ability to drop dying and get brought back up is rather dang important to their survival.

Construct screws them from both ends. Not only do they insta-die, but you cannot normally/easily heal them in combat if they are a construct. If your familiar takes chip damage from an AoE save, needing something like Quick Repair Legendary Crafting to even being to make that combat heal practical is an absurd ask.

Your mileage will really vary. I've had no issue with it myself in play and it does offer several handy immunities still. At the end of the day, the goal is to not have your familiar ever take enough damage to reduce it to 0 and having some stuff that makes that goal easier is nice, even if it comes at the cost of in-combat heals, which I've rarely had to worry about in most games outside of witch. It's a perfectly acceptable ability provided you got Crafting handy from my point of view.

HeshKadesh wrote:

There is no benefit stated for taking multiple of the same Ability. If you take Fast Movement twice, you don't get two speeds increased to 40ft, you use two options that provide the same benefit to the familiar.

While the redundant effects rule covers most of those obvious cases, there really does seem to be a rule gap for others like Spell Battery, Spellcasting, etc.

I'll link the rules post on this question here so we don't clog up the familiar thread too much, but if I put myself into a GM mindset, I don't think I'd block a PC from stacking the familiar abilities that seem to fit with this.

I was honestly expecting someone to have found an ability / combo that would make this ruling too balance-breaking to leave alone by now, but it seems to not be an issue from the balance angle either.

I'll add my own two cents here, though I think the thread goes over it fairly well. I treat familiar and master abilities just like class feats, unless there's something saying you can take it multiple times, I'm a no go on that kind of stuff. However, some specific familiars can break that rule, like the Ceru's version of Cantrip Connection providing two spells rather than one.

Cobyslarni is such an interesting yet absolutely hilarious concept for a school full of planar pact makers. Leave it to a fey to make a school all about making deals and effective pacts with other powerful creatures.

New year, new build! I've added a fun and thematic Grandeur Champion of Apsu Shield build to the guide that uses the Poppet's Minuscule Mentee to have your own personal bard for your knight in shining armor.

Otherwise, the guide has also been updated and maintained for a whole year now! This was my first time doing guide writing of this scale for a TTRPG and truthfully, I was quite anxious at the time about how it'd be received. However, folks have been very helpful in aiding me improving it and I've had a number of people messaging me in thanks. So, I want to say thank you to all of you who've commented here or elsewhere! I couldn't have made the guide what it is right now without your help. I look forward to seeing what new familiar options come with 2025!

Ritunn wrote:

It's nice to see Set get the option for Holy and Unholy and some much kinder anathema. I know one of my players was quite sad to see the deity all evil, but it seems he got a more neutral take on his character now!

Now, if only they could all actually have their Egyptian names...

That would be interesting to see! Paizo seems to do a solid job on creating fair representations of cultures and their folklore with 2e, but they do seem to stick to anglicizations for names too.

It's nice to see Set get the option for Holy and Unholy and some much kinder anathema. I know one of my players was quite sad to see the deity all evil, but it seems he got a more neutral take on his character now!

Object familiars have something that I think should be mentioned. Versatile Form is effectively discounted for object familiars, because they get Construct without needing Tough.

It might also be worth mentioning patrons that can sometimes skip Animated. Familiars with long range abilities or ones targeting your own space can ignore it a little better- mostly Paradox of Opposites, Wilding Steward, and Mosquito Witch.

Updated the guide with this information!

With Divine Mysteries soon out, my work for new books is done for the rest of the year (and hopefully for a bit, holy, so many familiar stuff this year). However, in this update, you'll find the addition of the Choir Politic and Paradox of Opposites patrons and their familiars, along with the long awaited remasters of the Baba Yaga, Mosquito Witch, and Pacts (now The Unseen Broker) patrons and their new familiars. Otherwise, there's a new subsection for witch covering object familiars, along with new sections on the Rivethun Emissary archetype and deities for familiar users (which includes the god of familiars and witch, Atrogine, as its only member currently).
Why did I add a section for a single deity that contributes no actual build advice? It is because I must talk about everything directly related to familiars. I also think Atrogine is really cool as a nonbinary deity focused on curiosity and helping out witches, while their familiar helps out other familiars.
Either way, expect the return of a build I'm reworking soon, along with an aforementioned animist build, and other builds I got in mind. Until next time!

Pretty much all the changes I wanted for Exemplar got added! The new ikons added for War of Immortals are also super cool. Especially love Horn of Plenty and Starshot. Otherwise, a fan of all the familiar stuff Animist got too!

Updates for War of Immortals have been made! An Animist section has been added, along with an Exemplar build. I'll add an Animist build later next month. Do enjoy!

Going to be honest, wasn't expecting Animist to have a whole familiar thing to be going on that is about on par with Improved Familiar Attunement Wizard in terms of overall power. However, also pretty busy with exams and work this week, so it may be a wee bit until the guide is updated.
Overall, expect a section for Animist soon, along with a wee bit of coverage on the Seneschal Witch. However, due to the way that class archetype functions, I don't have much to say about it in regards to familiars other than maybe some possible fun ideas with free access to Witch's Charge.

Interesting to see how Mythic Prof scales as you get to higher levels, but I'm very curious about what all these neat sounding mythic destinies will offer!

I've had some Tian Xia characters I've been waiting to fully put together for a while, but the main one was a Yaoguai Cultivation/Flame Druid. Heavily tea themed, started out as a tea plant, has a tea leshy familiar, focuses on using fire/plant magic to grow and make tea, ect.

Though I initially made them for an Abomination Vaults game with the mind to use Yaoguai when it came out, the release of options like the Cultivation Order and Familiar Sage really brought the build together. A minor focus on Crafting to make magical potions and teas given by the Cultivation order. While Familiar Sage provides a nice way to get Enhanced Familiar and some other neat feats like Phoenix's Flight which really brought the idea where I wanted it.

Otherwise, I have a Lady Jingxi/Kofusachi Cleric I really want to play that's all about collecting stories and a Monastic Weaponry Bo-Staff Monk with strong Wukong vibes I'd love to try out.

For most encounters, my group takes a 20 - 30 minute rest if time allows as we typically do 1 - 2 moderate encounters a session. If a severe encounter comes up, it's often the end of session and folks go take their long rest and heal up to full over that time.

Sometimes I may make it known there's a time limit and only offer a chance for a 1 - 2 10 minute rests. However, the groups I run games for often have a medic with Continual Recovery and Ward Medic and then someone with focus healing too, so that's rarely an issue either and they're able to get back up to full.

Over the course of a level is difficult, but my groups tends to level up every 2 - 4 sessions, so with my best estimate, they're probably doing about 12 - 20 rests in that time.

Ritunn wrote:

QuidEst wrote:

It might be worth mentioning the complications of taking Familiar Master+Sage on a character who starts with a familiar. Both of the dedication feats become Enhanced Familiar, so a note to talk to the GM might be worthwhile.

For the fulus, maybe mention skipping low-level fulus with a DC. Their DCs are equivalent to trained with a +0 modifier until higher level, which is pretty rough.

Familiar Ritualist might want to mention the main point of synergy: being able to customize your familiar to the ritual's skill requirements. That also means it probably shouldn't be taken if you have a specific familiar locking down daily ability selection.

These are all good points! I'll make sure to write that in once I can.

... Whoops, looks like I'm wrong on Familiar Ritualist- it replaces the need for a secondary check entirely, which is much better than I thought.

It's no worries! That particular part I didn't end up changing. But yeah, Familiar Ritualist does let you skip the need to make a check for a secondary caster using your familiar which is nifty if you can get rituals.

It might be worth mentioning the complications of taking Familiar Master+Sage on a character who starts with a familiar. Both of the dedication feats become Enhanced Familiar, so a note to talk to the GM might be worthwhile.

For the fulus, maybe mention skipping low-level fulus with a DC. Their DCs are equivalent to trained with a +0 modifier until higher level, which is pretty rough.

Familiar Ritualist might want to mention the main point of synergy: being able to customize your familiar to the ritual's skill requirements. That also means it probably shouldn't be taken if you have a specific familiar locking down daily ability selection.

These are all good points! I'll make sure to write that in once I can.

Guide is now fully updated for all familiar options featured in Tian Xia Character Guide! Additionally, I've added the Weaver of Heavenly Threads build featuring the new Unfurling Brocade Magus and Shikigami specific familiar.
As well, at the request of someone who reached out to me a bit ago, I've added a new section with suggestions for how to build familiars and what specific familiars to take if you don't innately have access to familiars. This is something I'll need to refine further since many abilities are more build specific, but I hope you enjoy it for now.
Lastly, I've added in a subsection called Familiar Feats. This just gives all my thoughts regarding Familiar, Enhanced Familiar, Improved Familiar, and Incredible Familiar in one place. When those feats appear in the guide now for classes and archetypes, you'll be referred to look there for any thoughts that aren't class specific. Otherwise, there are now suggestions for abilities to take for every class in the guide.

Glad this got changed! Was a good bit worried about it and how it'd affect things moving forwards for fan creations, but it all worked out in the end it seems.

The Familiar Sage archetype, 4 new ancestry feats, and 3 new abilities from LO: TXWG have been added (along with some build changes) to the guide! Currently, I'm postponing adding any direct information about specific familiars released in the book into the guide for now (just not enough time today), but you can see my rating for all 5 of them until then. The Shikigami and Tapir Sage are certainly my favourite from the bunch though, so expect a magus build making use of one of the two soon.

Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide is coming in and my oh my is there a lot for familiars! New ancestry feats, new specific familiars, new abilities, a whole new archetype! This is taking some time to evaluate all things considered and I want to put together some new builds as well using all these tasty new options (I also have other work to do for my writing job). So, expect an update later this week.

I'd love to hear all of your thoughts on some of the new options in the meantime, however. Especially on the Familiar Sage archetype and the new Kindling master ability. The latter is something I'm unsure of how to evaluate, especially when the Shikigami specific familiar is entirely made for Kindling. Though second opinions always help!

Personally, the way I like to play and the way I like to run things changes around. The kinds of players I'm with tends to change things up too.

When I'm playing, my goal is to make a character that plays to a specific theme that offers good roleplaying opportunities and functions well in combat. So, games where I get enough time to play the build in combat and RP the theme and story I want to do with others is my ideal. I tend to bounce off of games where there isn't a good balance of both, especially if there's too many players less interested in RPing a character and/or playing tactically in combat. Essentially, I want to play with others who feel competent and are invested in telling a story or just playing their characters in interesting and fun ways.

When I'm GMing, my goal is to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves. I'm having the most fun when making interesting encounters that are difficult, but always winnable, and everyone else is having fun beating them. Additionally, I like it when players feel invested in the game, they're excited to tell a story with their character, whether it's a small and short arc or affects the whole campaign in a major way I can build around. I spend a lot of time teaching new players how to play as well, so helping new players understand their character and seeing them do great is always a delight for me as a GM.

Overall, a simple way to put it would be I like it when people take the game seriously in a fashion where they know what they're doing and want to tell a story too. When it comes to GMing for new and inexperienced players though, I have fun when I can help them improve and they discover the cool things they can do with this game!

I decided to take a bit of time to mull over everything, see what I did and didn't like about the updates. However, the update is now out and the guide is fully remaster compatible with the release of PC2! A brief overview of some changes:

- Fey Dragonet got pushed to a 4 star ranking with its lower investment requirement.
- Pipefox got pushed to a 3 star ranking with the loss of an ability.
- Construct got some clarifications in the section where I actually go over it rather than with the Poppet.
- The Blessed Turn, Gumiho's Beloved, and Honey Hawking Healer builds all got updates with the changes to their respective classes and archetypes. The point of each one still remains the same.
- I settled on 3 stars for Item Delivery. It's good, but does require a lot of investment to make great.

Otherwise, I added any new abilities and updated ones that got changed or replaced, and moved the Imp and Fey Dragonet to their new homes in the 7 and 5 cost specific familiar sections. I'm likely to add a new build or two in the coming weeks, along with adding in Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide's Familiar Sage archetype and Origami specific familiar (along with whatever else it brings) when that comes out next month! If you have any comments or feedback, please let me know as always.

Ritunn wrote:

With folks starting to get PC2 (alas I still wait to get my hands on it), the new familiar options and specific familiar changes have been revealed. I did want to go over some stuff first though!

Alchemists got a lot of changes, including to Alchemical Familiar which now gets Construct for free. However, I'm going to need to do a total rebuild of the build in the guide! Especially with the addition of the Item Delivery familiar ability, which finally allows familiars to easily transport and feed allies consumable items (which was the whole point of the build). Probably the best new option ever for alchemists (and for any item delivery familiar). Either way, quite excited for these familiar changes and I look forward to writing about them for all of you! At latest, the guide will be updated during GenCon, but I hope to be able to update it this week if possible.

If you want to skim the Alch news thread, there's discussion of the familiar change news, starting here:

https://paizo.com/threads/rzs4qj44&page=4?First-impressions-of-alchemis t-news#196

Many are discussing the item delivery as a 3 for 2 action save / bonus of Command --> [take] + [move] + [Feed/Handoff]

My take, the item delivery ability's main issues:

* Pre-req of item in the master's hand. This means that:
* * the action cost of getting item in-hand has already been paid.
* * Any time the desired patient is in reach of master, delivery is useless.
* * The master has the option to throw the item to an ally for 1A via remaster Interact; familiar delivery must be more desirable for some reason.
* * familiar & master must be sharing a square ahead of time

* familiar ends the action in the ally square:
* * The 3:2 save is deceptive. Actions must be spent to move the familiar back to the master.
* * moving across the battle map means familiar is put at combat risk.

The ability is not really an action save, but a possible way to feed allies that cannot pop the cork...

Opinions seem a bit divided on the thread currently. I personally don't think it's necessary on alchemist (though I still like it a lot, I definitely used a lot of hyperbole in my previous statement), and it's currently the best familiar ability I've seen for familiars that want to bring items to allies. If, however, folks can just throw consumables over to allies willy nilly no issues with Interact now, then obviously it's not as good.

However, if there's extra stipulations or it costs your ally's actions, then I do still quite like it. Alchemist of course has the ability to throw healing at allies now with little issue, but this is at least fairly safe for you and doesn't require any rolls. One merely needs to take Independent at the end of the day to get their familiar to move back for free next turn as well. There is to be concern over the safety of your familiar, but they should be able to at least take one or two hits from an AoE if you get unlucky at later levels.

Overall though, I can't make any accurate comments until I have the book in front of me! So these are nothing more than initial impressions. I'm still exicted either way for Item Delivery since it's something I've wanted for a long time as someone who plays with familiars on a majority of my characters. I imagine the changes to abilities that exclusively work with alchemy will wow me even more! But we shall see.

I appreciate the comments from both of you.

With folks starting to get PC2 (alas I still wait to get my hands on it), the new familiar options and specific familiar changes have been revealed. I did want to go over some stuff first though!

Alchemists got a lot of changes, including to Alchemical Familiar which now gets Construct for free. However, I'm going to need to do a total rebuild of the build in the guide! Especially with the addition of the Item Delivery familiar ability, which finally allows familiars to easily transport and feed allies consumable items (which was the whole point of the build). Probably the best new option ever for alchemists (and for any item delivery familiar). Either way, quite excited for these familiar changes and I look forward to writing about them for all of you! At latest, the guide will be updated during GenCon, but I hope to be able to update it this week if possible.

The new Bravado trait is exactly what my Swash players were looking for before. I'm glad that you still get a little something on a failure now! Should be an amazing change for the class overall.

Personally I still want wyvaran, syrinx, and gathlain a lot! I think my wyvaran itch will be scratched by new heritage coming out in Player Core 2, but I'd still like to see the owlfolk (maybe with some lore changes) and the much taller playable fey to make a return.

How does everyone here rule the Spirit Guide familiar that is given a melee Strike?

Bound to Mortal wrote:

Your familiar gains unique benefits from its bond to you. Your familiar gains an additional 10 Hit Points and can make an either a jaws or claws unarmed attack using your normal melee attack bonus. You choose whether it has a jaws or claws unarmed attack when you first gain the spirit guide as your familiar. If it has a jaws unarmed attack, the attack deals 1d6 piercing damage and is in the brawling group. If you choose the claws unarmed attack, it deals 1d4 slashing damage, has the agile trait, and is in the brawling group

The largest question about this is how the familiar's damage is intended to scale. There's a later Feat in the Archetype, Spiritual Flurry, that seems intended for it's included off-guard until the end of your --current turn-- (but you are at MAP 10), to be tailored just for your familiar to follow up with its own attack.

Yet, I have no idea how the author intended for the familiar's strike damage to increase.

"your normal melee attack bonus" seems to be limited to the "to hit" side of the equation, and maybe would grant STR to damage. That said, the notion of doing 1d4 + STR damage at higher levels (especially on a creature with 0 reach) is... rather unusable at high levels.

As far as I can tell, this is just another rule gap / hole, so I can at least prompt to see how yall would fill it.

(I might be doing a sequel campaign after Gatewalkers, and I do want to take that single chance I'll have to at least try out that archetype, if possible)

Personally, I just boost it up when you get your better striking runes to have it scale in a similar fashion to animal companions (but less damage due to no "weapon spec"). Doesn't really break anything since it's basically just an animal companion as a familiar and it makes my players happier.

Ritunn wrote:

Shadow has some perfectly creepy focus spells that also happen to be pretty solid on top of an amazing list of bloodline spells that makes for a great sneaky illusionist.

I like the Shadow bloodline, it's one of my fave 1e bloodlines, but what is so great about the bloodline (focus) spells? Dim the Light is an awful design for a 1st-level bloodline spell. Those spells should be a useful staple for casters, who struggle with few spell-slots in the early levels, yet you can't even use Dim the Light until level 5.

There are just 3 granted spells that trigger it: Darkness, Chilling Darkness, and Shadow Siphon; and 2 of those spells are unusable with it! Darkness is a 3-action cast, thus you can't Sneak after Dim the Light, and Shadow Siphon is a reaction, thus you can't cast Dim the Light. Sure, you can add other darkness/shadow spells to your repertoire at higher levels, but having the player search for possible 3+ level spells just so he can use his basic focus spell... that's just horrible design.

I hope the 1st-level bloodline spells get a proper rework, especially Shadow. For why not let Dim the Light trigger on any (non-cantrip) spell instead of just darkness/shadow spells? Why not give Dim the Light some Heightened effects like turning it into a free action or including a Sneak action in the reaction? Or just make Steal Shadow the 1st-level bloodline spell (reduce damage via "reverse Heightened"), and find a new thing for Dim the Light. For example, it could work like a mix between Shadow Siphon and Arcane Countermeasure with a big bonus towards countering Light trait spells, i.e. "Dim the Light". Or you could even make it something like Undermine Reality.

And...

Yeah, Dim the Light is a real head scratcher. Penumbral Shroud is available at 1st rank to the Occult list, but it's not exactly an amazing spell. I went and took the Shadowcaster dedication to have a decent spell to use for it at level 2, but that was 2 focus points. I'm hoping they expand it to the void trait at least in the remaster, but we'll have to see when they release it. Otherwise, I do quite like Steal Shadow and Consuming Darkness at least.

Big fan of Phoenix and Shadow. Love the vibes and interesting blaster/healer role Phoenix sorcerer fulfills with its options, and Shadow has some perfectly creepy focus spells that also happen to be pretty solid on top of an amazing list of bloodline spells that makes for a great sneaky illusionist.

Some pretty simple updates today. The Crysmal Shardling's name got changed in the errata, so updated as needed. Additionally, added the alchemist build at last. Talked with some alchemist players to figure out what abilities folks valued the most for it and I think I was able to put something solid together with the information given. Do enjoy!

I was thinking about a deer who's forest ends up dealing with an otherworldly incursion that leads to their awakening due to a malevolent symbiotic entity bonding with them. They end up becoming an investigator to figure out how to stop it, all while trying to stave off the influence of the entity.

To my surprise, Fascinated by Society and Urban Jungle fits pretty well with Investigator. The announcement of the Palantine Detective for later this year is another boon to the idea, as I was considering the idea of them being a member of the Palatine Eye, albeit a tenuous one at best.

Otherwise, my playgroup has made some other fun ideas, such as a juggling zoophonia seal bard and a swarmkeeper sloth precision ranger who's swarm are the sloth moths that live upon it.

Thank you for this guide. Quite helpful.

Ritunn wrote:

Paizo loves Leshy Familiar apparently (and who doesn't?), as we got two new orders that gain access to it in the latest AP, Cultivation and Spore. As such, I've referenced both in the guide where needed and updated the druid build to make use of the Cultivation order instead of Lead. Nothing changes about it other than now it has Int instead of Cha.

And I now demand from Paizo the druidic Order of Lead.

Sounds heavy.

My fingers' desire to turn leaf into lead whenever I type strikes again! That would certainly be an interesting order, however.

Paizo loves Leshy Familiar apparently (and who doesn't?), as we got two new orders that gain access to it in the latest AP, Cultivation and Spore. As such, I've referenced both in the guide where needed and updated the druid build to make use of the Cultivation order instead of Lead. Nothing changes about it other than now it has Int instead of Cha.

Otherwise, I've now given witches their own subsection in the build section of the guide as I've put together a build for each tradition now. Arcane gets The Rabbit Prince's Heir, an Inscribed One Witch + Harrower build, with the harrow as their patron. Divine gets The Blessed Turn, a Faith's Flamekeeper Witch + Blessed One build, with Chaldira as their patron. While Primal gets The Final Parting, a Devourer in the Decay Witch build, with Mother Vulture as their patron.

As well, the builds section got a general makeover to offer a clearer direction and organize each build much better. Enjoy as always.

The guide has been updated for Howl of the Wild! You'll find information covering the following:

- All 3 new witch patrons.
- Scatter Swarm and Greater Lesson: Lesson of the Flock witch feats.
- A new subsection in the ancestry section covering those weird giant moray eel mount feats for Athamaru.

I'd love to hear opinions regarding these new options! I'm a good bit iffy on some of them, but these initial ratings are based off discussions within my groups rather than the wider community until more people can get the book. I did leave out one feat for the zoophonia bard muse in the 18th level Pack Performance feat as it's mostly for use with Summon Animal and animal companions rather than familiars even if you can technically target them due to being animal minions. Zoophonia bard is real cool though, pretty unique playstyle for a Beastmaster FA Bard.

Additionally, I'm currently tinkering with an alchemist build and you can expect to see it in the guide soon, though I may delay it to the PC2 release. Thanks for reading!

With Howl of the Wild comes out comes a new witch patron, the Devourer of Decay, with an equally new and interesting patron familiar ability. I'll be updating the guide once I've taken a bit more of a look through Howl of the Wild, but you can expect updates soon (with perhaps a new build or two).

Probably my favorite martial to come out to date since Thaumaturge, and one of the better playtest classes.

Overall, I think a lot of the components of the class are solid. I find the movement options from your tactics and other options like Stupefying Raid do offer solid caster support in addition to plenty of martial support. While feats such as Combat Medic and Officer's Education are simple, but really neat additions and I'm glad to see some shield support for the class.

The only things I think that could need improvement are lots of what's been mentioned here before, and that's better scaling for your mount, including some higher level feats for it past level 10. Shields Up! allowing casters to cast Shield would also be a neat addition since in my experience, there's only really ever 1 or 2 users of shields of the physical vareity in a party if any at all. Plant Banner also seems incredibly dangerous to use right now and maybe requiring an roll to remove it, like Athletics, could make it at least safer to use. Lastly, being able to preapre 1 more tactic and perhaps start out with 5 once we get some more in the full release would be really nice to have some more niche options available in addition to the ones you're going to want to work with your party comp best low levels.

Now that Monster Core has been out for a bit, I'm wondering what monsters, new or remastered, people love from the book? Personally, I love the cuckoo hag. A hag inspired by the Other Mother from Coraline with its own little twist is really inspiring for a lot of characters and certainly makes me think of several quests I'd love to run for players.

Wow! I'm learning so much of nothing! This is what I always wanted.

Ritunn wrote:

Captain Morgan wrote:

Elemental Betrayal with an elemental wisp looks fun, though I'm not sure what effects actually benefit from it. Seems like flaming runes would trigger elemental betrayal but not the the resonance aura. Also, you've got the Grand Bazaar entry described in there, but I thiiiink you should replace it with the Rage of the Elements version. The Bazaar version only has greater fire resistance, where as Rage gets full fire immunity along with the elemental immunity. They also have different descriptions of Resonance, but I'm not sure what the functional difference is.

How strange that AoN didn't have the the Grand Bazaar version link to the RoE one, so I entirely missed it. Looking at the differences though for Resonance, it's now only alchemical and magical effects rather than any effect. Which... doesn't actually change much, but it's a good distinction to have in the rare case you're dealing elemental damage without spells or alchemy. Wood also states it applies to stuff with the Plant trait, so that's rad.

Overall though, with this in mind, runes do continue to be affected due to being magical in nature and Gale's build is similarly unaffected due to impulses being magical as far as I understand.

To weigh in on the Polong conversation, I decided not to mention invisibility as it's not a mechanically listed ability it has. The fact that its incorporeal does make it at least ghostly and translucent in my mind, but whether or not it has true invisibility is up to your GM and something I have no intention of considering for its rating. If Paizo wanted it to be invisible, they have shown they give familiars the ability to do so when needed, such as with the Old Friend, another incorporeal undead familiar published in the same book.

Old Friend can cast the 2nd rank Invisibility spell once per hour, with all its limitations.

It definitely does not compare to always-on invisibility.

I certainly agree, but it does show Paizo is willing to codify these things. Especially when creatures like the Polong and Poltergeist have abilities to tell you they are always invisible except under certain circumstances beyond their description in monster statblocks. It's a weird space and I'd affirm that is up to your GM how to handle it if you do take the Polong. However, I do hope they do give it that natural invisibility mechanically in a future errata, and I see little issue if your GM does decide it uses the one from the monster statblock.

Elemental Betrayal with an elemental wisp looks fun, though I'm not sure what effects actually benefit from it. Seems like flaming runes would trigger elemental betrayal but not the the resonance aura. Also, you've got the Grand Bazaar entry described in there, but I thiiiink you should replace it with the Rage of the Elements version. The Bazaar version only has greater fire resistance, where as Rage gets full fire immunity along with the elemental immunity. They also have different descriptions of Resonance, but I'm not sure what the functional difference is.

How strange that AoN didn't have the the Grand Bazaar version link to the RoE one, so I entirely missed it. Looking at the differences though for Resonance, it's now only alchemical and magical effects rather than any effect. Which... doesn't actually change much, but it's a good distinction to have in the rare case you're dealing elemental damage without spells or alchemy. Wood also states it applies to stuff with the Plant trait, so that's rad.

To weigh in on the Polong conversation, I decided not to mention invisibility as it's not a mechanically listed ability it has. The fact that its incorporeal does make it at least ghostly and translucent in my mind, but whether or not it has true invisibility is up to your GM and something I have no intention of considering for its rating. If Paizo wanted it to be invisible, they have shown they give familiars the ability to do so when needed, such as with the Old Friend, another incorporeal undead familiar published in the same book.