Sammy T's page

Grab, Trip, etc. are tagged with the trait "Attack" -- it doesn't get more RAW than that.

Grapple, Trip, Shove and Disarm all have the Attack trait.

An ability with this trait involves an attack. For each attack you make beyond the first on your turn, you take a multiple attack penalty.

You are making the attack with the weapon. You fail to hit. You get the bonus on the next attack.

No. Trips and Shoves don't miss, they fail. You aren't rolling vs an AC.

By RAW, that has no bearing here.

This step can be simple, or it can create suspense. Sometimes you’ll know the Difficulty Class (DC) of your check. In these cases, if your result is equal to or greater than the DC, you succeed! If your roll anything less than the DC, you fail.

Attack rolls are compared to a special difficulty class called an Armor Class (AC), which measures how hard it is for your foes to hit you with Strikes and other attack actions. Just like for any other check and DC, the result of an attack roll must meet or exceed your AC to be successful, which allows your foe to deal damage to you.

Note neither of those have a special "miss" clause that differentiates a Strike failure from a Trip/Grab/etc failure.

One of the devs, Stephen Radney McFarland, said during the playtest on the Facebook forums that you could use your DEX to trip in place of STR if using a finesse weapon.

By RAW, I disagree you can release the shield to escape the Grabbed condition as it is the PC who is grabbed, not the shield.

However, if you decide by RAI to allow it, remember that unstrapping the shield is an Interact action which means it has the Manipulate trait, therefore the PC must succeed on a DC 5 flat check or the action is lost because of the Grabbed condition.

The monster grabs the PC.

1) Nothing in the text states it is negated if the target takes no damage.

2) The target is the PC, not the shield.

Sammy T wrote:

I would just like to say a Forbes contributor saying it's one of the best RPGs of the year in their blog/listicle isn't the same as Forbes, the institution itself, saying it's one of the best RPGs of the year.

Yes it is.

If the byline reads "Forbes Staff" then it is someone who is a vetted journalist full-time employed by Forbes.

If the byline reads "Forbes Contributor" then it can be anyone who is an "expert" in their field who can hopefully drive traffic to Forbes' website and potentially make money from popular articles. Basically the contributors are blogging.

Forbes.com uses a "contributor model" in which a wide network of "contributors" writes and publishes articles directly on the website.[28] Contributors are paid based on traffic to their respective Forbes.com pages; the site has received contributions from over 2,500 individuals, and some contributors have earned over US$100,000, according to the company.[28] Forbes currently allows advertisers to publish blog posts on its website alongside regular editorial content through a program called BrandVoice, which accounts for more than 10 percent of its digital revenue.[29]

While some contributors are former/current professional journalists, many others are not--and none represent the official opinion or views of Forbes.

I would just like to say a Forbes contributor saying it's one of the best RPGs of the year in their blog/listicle isn't the same as Forbes, the institution itself, saying it's one of the best RPGs of the year.

In PF1, an AOO vs someone standing up was considered to happen before they stood up. So, they were prone and you couldn't "triplock" them. However, you did get to attack their prone AC.

However, PF2 differentiated the timing of AOOs on various move actions:

Some reactions and free actions are triggered by a creature using an action with the move trait. The most notable example is Attack of Opportunity. Actions with the move trait can trigger reactions or free actions throughout the course of the distance traveled. Each time you exit a square (or move 5 feet if not using a grid) within a creature’s reach, your movement triggers those reactions and free actions (although no more than once per move action for a given reacting creature). If you use a move action but don’t move out of a square, the trigger instead happens at the end of that action or ability.

The crit specialization effect of the flail group is knocking your opponent prone. Since the attack happens after they have stood up, if you crit, you knock them down again.

...of course, for this to happen you need to have the ability to make AOOs, crit specialization effect training in flails, AND roll a crit vs your opponent's normal AC (as they are not considered prone).

Stephen Radney-MacFarland wrote:
If you are performing the Trip with a finesse weapon (such as the whip that has the trip trait), you add your Dexterity instead of Strength to that particular Athletics attack roll.

This was on Facebook during the Playtest. The thread is no longer available.

I've repeatedly requested a password recovery e-mail and not received it. I've used the two e-mail addresses I would have registered with and not received anything at either :(

Yeah, I concur. Your pathfinders literally have a permit and the GM can remind the party that they can show it. Problem avoided unless the PCs are intentionally trying to agitate the guards.

Stephen Radney-Macfarland Comment in 2nd Ed Pathfinder Playtest Facebook Group

yes and that’s why I recommended it over the flickmace

A flail has the disarm and trip traits, meaning the PC could add the item bonus to the attempt and have a greater chance for success.

Furthermore, Trip requires at least one free hand. Since the PC is a shield user, a flickmace would not work in that build unlike the flail which has the traits that allow the weapon to be used regardless of free hands.

My books are still weeks away, but the post below sounds intriguing. Perhaps Assurance is especially useful against opponents that are weak against your chosen form of attack?

Mark Seifter wrote:

Another fun one is a level 2 rogue (or character with an archetype that allows expert Athletics via its dedication) with Assurance (Athletics) and expert Athletics can auto-trip a level 3 ogre warrior, which is either a solo boss in a low threat encounter or a boss with some minions in a harder encounter, or potentially one of two ogres in a particularly severe boss fight (both of which you can then auto-trip).

Unless I'm missing something, Mark was wrong here.

Assurance is 10 + Proficiency. The Rogue in this example would have an Assurance trip attack of 14.

An Ogre Warrior has a REF of +6, meaning the REF DC is 16.

14 < 16, so that's a failed trip.

When was the last time we saw official FAQs or Errata for a PF1 product? Offhand I can only think of post-Ultimate Wilderness in early 2018 and then IIRC nothing since then.

Will the Dev team do a sweeping set of FAQs for PF1 to settle longstanding issues? It would be nice to get some definitive closure on rules questions as you sunset PF1.

I wonder when it will be approved for PFS?

Try mid-2019 at their current rate.

I just hope they give combat maneuvers another pass and improve disarm, give options for grappling (like the staggering/intimidating slam move from Martial Arts Handbook), and create a PF2 dirty tricks maneuver.

I've always wanted the Monk to be like an Oracle, with Schools (or Paths) instead of Mysteries. While archetypes helped scratch that itch, I always wanted the flavor baked in.

Quick correction to #2: Unarmed is Agile/Finesse by default

Sammy T wrote:

Graystone: humans have the Unconvemtional Weaponry feat...which would make this all the more hilarious if I were so inclined.

Only if your human took the lowest human height and grew a beard too. You could complain about elves too. And maybe always have a stein in your other hand. ;)

STOP GIVING ME IDEAS

Fuzzy: Well, let’s give this dragon staff monk a shot in the L5 PFS playtest.

Graystone: humans have the Unconvemtional Weaponry feat...which would make this all the more hilarious if I were so inclined.

I'm making a L5 Monk who would use Dragon Style for kick attacks and use his hands to hold a Bo Staff for a 1-action Parry (+1 Circumstance bonus to AC).

Am I missing something or do you not need proficiency in a weapon to use its traits like Parry? This would make my monk even more hilarious ("Oh this stick? I just use it to keep things away...I don't even know how to use it. The real weapons are my FEET!")

Confirmed Assurance works with trip/grapple.

Assurance might make the 3rd attack maneuver palatable if there are other condition/circumstance/etc penalties in play besides the MAP.

You can forgo rolling a skill check for your chosen skill to instead receive a result of 10 (do not apply any of your bonuses, penalties, or modifiers).

HERO POINTS
Your character earns Hero Points for performing heroic
deeds or tasks and can spend these Hero Points to gain
certain benefits. Your character starts each game session
with 1 Hero Point. The GM can award Hero Points when
PCs perform further heroic deeds or tasks, or when players
do something special for the group. For the characters’
actions, this all comes from the story. A character
needs to do something selfless or daring beyond normal
expectations. Players add Hero Points by taking on at least
one additional responsibility, such as bringing food for the
group, keeping a map of a dungeon, or taking notes.

Each game session, the GM should award no more than
1 Hero Point per PC for in-game actions plus 1 Hero Point
per PC for out-of-game actions. This number can be higher
for game sessions longer than 4 hours.

Your character can have a maximum of 3 Hero Points
at a given time. These points can’t be saved up over the
course of multiple sessions; at the end of each game
session, your character loses all Hero Points.

Spending Hero Points
Spending Hero Points doesn’t require your character to
take an action, a reaction, or a free action.

• Spending 1 Hero Point allows you to stave off death.
Anytime you gain the dying condition or your dying
condition increases in severity (see page 296), you can
spend 1 Hero Point to lose the dying condition entirely,
even if the increase in the dying condition would otherwise
cause you to die. If you have 0 Hit Points, you also go to
1 Hit Point.

• Spending 2 Hero Points allows you to reroll a d20 roll. You
must use the second result, but if you fail, you regain 1 of
the Hero Points you just spent. You can’t spend Hero Points
more than once on a single roll. This is a fortune effect.

• Spending 3 Hero Points allows you to act one extra time in
an encounter. You can spend the Hero Points on your turn
to increase your number of actions for the turn by 1. To take
an extra reaction when you’ve already used your reaction
for the round, you spend these Hero Points when the trigger
for that reaction occurs. You can’t spend Hero Points to use
additional actions or reactions if you can’t act.

Describing Heroic Deeds
Because spending Hero Points reflects heroic deeds or
tasks that surpass normal expectations, if you spend a
Hero Point, you should describe the deed or task your
character accomplishes with it to the other players.

Your character’s deed might involve a lesson learned in
a past adventure, could be spurred on by a determination
to save someone else in the encounter, or might depend on
an item that ended up on their person due to a previous
exploit or social interaction. If you don’t want to describe
the deed or don’t have any strong ideas about how to do
so, ask the GM to come up with something for you. This
can be a collaborative process, too. The GM might remind
you of a long-forgotten event in the campaign, then have
you fill in how that comes back just at the right time.

Simply purchase an oil of flying for 2pp.

Hero Points seem like an intrinsic part of the PF2 system and I haven't seen anything official specifically disallowing them. Are we using Hero Points in the Playtest or not?

...that we DO or DON'T use Hero Points in PFS playtest?

Barbarians, whose class ability makes it easier to be crit (!), should have their key ability read "Strength or Constitution"

From the work of Reddit user BlackBacon, I created a spreadsheet for myself to look at how a Combat Maneuver specialist stacks up.

In the Playtest Bestiary, it appears the REF defense is almost always lower than the FORT defense. All hail trip, our new king of combat maneuvers?

A little hyperbole there, but trip has been given some love in PF2. It works on creatures up to 2 sizes larger than you (up from 1). On a success, a creature is tripped; on a Critical Success, it also takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage--while not much, it does make those Nat 20s or Critical Successes feel good at the table. Another boost is that Trip now inherently works on flying creatures (Prone Condition: “If you’re Climbing or Flying when you would be knocked prone, you fall instead.”) Critical failure, as always, is you falling prone instead. Trip also has substantial weapon support (13 weapons, but half are gated as Uncommon weapons).

Grapple is a mixed bag but definitely has been nerfed from it’s PF1 incarnation. You no longer can grapple creatures much larger than you (2 sizes larger max), but you only need one free hand and suffer no penalty for using just that one hand. You can no longer maintain a grapple and damage at the same (with one monk class feat exception)--in the 3 action economy, it seems like you are expected to Grapple with one action and then Strike on subsequent actions. There is no grappling “flow”--your opponent’s status can fluctuate between Grabbed and Restrained from round-to-round depending on how you roll...with no way to progress from Grabbed to Restrained. Currently, there are no rules for tying up a foe. Finally, Critical Failure is really bad for a grappler now--your opponent can reverse the grapple and give you the grabbed condition or force you to fall prone! Grapple has no weapon support.

Thoughts?

My problem with animal totem is that the way I read their anathema they can’t use bows.

How rare they supposed to deal with flying opponents?

In my mind, that alone made it a totem I would never take.

Also (someone will have to double check me) they are trained in unarmed but don't get the monk-like ability to deal lethal with their unarmed strikes. So, if they're not raging, they can only do non-lethal damage, correct?

Secret Wizard, what do you think of an Elf monk with the Shield spell via ancestry feat?

That +2 on subsequent attacks is canceled out by the MAP of -5/-10.

Each attack counts toward your MAP. You can see this in the monk preview blog.

Yes. Since you're taking the multi-attack penalty on the second attack, it shouldn't be much of an issue.

Unless I missed something, reach weapons no longer have the donut of death?

This weapon is long and can be used to attack creatures

up to 10 feet away instead of only adjacent creatures. For
creatures that already have reach with the limb or limbs that
wield the weapon, the weapon increases their reach by 5 feet.

When you critically succeed to identify a target you're hunting with Recall Knowledge, you (and your allies, if you tell them) gain a +1 circumstance bonus to your next attack roll against it, but not against other creatures of that species. The creature is bolstered.

Couple of questions!

1) "a target you're hunting" -- Does this mean 'the focus of Hunt Target'? Or any creature you're just regularly hunting/tracking. I know that's nit-picky, but this is a level 1 feat and probably should be very clear.

2) "you (and your allies, if you tell them) gain a +1 circumstance bonus to your next attack roll against it, but not against other creatures of that species" So, if we're fighting a pack of 5 wargs, and I critically identify one, the bonus doesn't carry over to the other creatures in the same combat?

3) What action is using Recall Knowledge? Since there's no [[(X)]], that would be free, correct?

I know we don't have all the pieces yet, but it doesn't seem that fun to fight a group of identical creatures (which happens a lot) and have to spam Recall Knowledge on every single one you target in succession in the hopes of a critical success for a one-off bonus. Is there a feat/ability that lets Recall Knowledge work for all the same type of creatures in a single battle, or at higher levels, the same types of creatures over a period of time (like hours/level)?

Not a blog as such, but the Paizo live show right now is going through creating a character (including showing the character sheet), with Jason Bulmahn.

Linky

Front of character sheet
Back of character sheet

Are 'Hero Points' renamed 'Spell Points'?

You don’t share a square when grappled or pinned.

Stunning Fist should be renamed because its titular effect occurs only on a critical hit/crit save fail combo. I understand the legacy aspect of keeping the name, but imagine new monk players discovering how rarely it actually lives up to its name.

Obviously, I need to sit down and play the monk at different levels for a true read, but my concerns seem to be in line with those being posted already. Also, “Flurry of Blows” as previewed does not feel like FoB...might as well call it Double Strike or somesuch. And 0/-4/-8/-8 for full round of attacks feels like Flurry of Misses all over again. (And if the intent is move/Flurry/(other 1 action ability) it really doesn’t feel like a FoB)

Honestly, this preview has me feeling just whelmed by the PF2 Monk. Here’s hoping there will be an engaging archetype for it!

The Sanctioned Content Key reads:

Sanctioned Content: Legal Character Levels
Part 1: In the Jackal’s Shadow: 11–13
Part 2: Oblivion and Sand: 12–14
Part 3: Flesh for the Famine Prince: 13–15

However, the chronicles are:
Part 1: In the Jackal’s Shadow: 10–12
Part 2: Oblivion and Sand: 11–13
Part 3: Flesh for the Famine Prince: 12–14
Bonus: Bonus Chronicle: 13-15

I'm guessing I should use the Chronicle level ranges vs the Sanctioned Content Key ranges, correct?

A rage lasts 3 rounds, followed by a round of fatigue. While you're fatigued, you can't rage again, but once that round has passed, you can enter a new rage, with a shiny brand-new set of temporary Hit Points to go along with it. You can do this as often as you need during the day!

In case anyone complains about this, I'd wait to see if there is a class feat available that extends how long a rage lasts before fatigue sets in.

To quote the full concealment rule:

Total Concealment

If you have line of effect to a target but not line of sight, he is considered to have total concealment from you. You can’t attack an opponent that has total concealment, though you can attack into a square that you think he occupies. A successful attack into a square occupied by an enemy with total concealment has a 50% miss chance

If you can't see the target, you're targeting the square they're in with snaking infusion. The GM has the right of it.

If you want to move around the corner and kinetic blast without repercussion, you're gonna have to eat that that miss chance until you get something like Tremorsense or Blindsight.

Reinald, the Dirty Fighting feat takes care of that.

Nicholas, I decided to forgo the Kitsune line. I think this character is stalled around L4 or so...been GMing a lot and playing my grandfathered Wiz 2/Cleric 1/Mystic Theurge X recently.

My CN worshipper of Rovagug worked well in PFS parties because I crafted a specific POV and personality for him that allowed for him to work for PFS yet be true to Rovagug. Also, he constantly courted converts during combat due to the PCs' obvious talents for destruction and bloodshed 3-4 times a scenario.

Just an idle thought every time I see item quality referenced, I kind of wish that instead of:

Poor, Standard, Expert, Master, Legendary

It went:

Poor, Basic, Expert, Master, Legendary

If only for the three middle levels as a light reference to the D&D BECMI boxed sets. Such a weird and minor thing to think about, but every time I hear "Expert" and "Master" I keep flashing back to those classic box covers.