Skull's page

IIRC. DnD 4E just launched, and we were really not impressed. I started in DnD 3.0 and then 3.5, but 4 was a hot mess.

So someone in the group did some digging and came across a playtest for Pathfinder. Back in the days when a cleric's channel was both to heal and harm at the same time. We've been playing Pathfinder 1e ever since.

After Pathfinder 2e came out we tried it a bit, but then explored some other systems (some 40K stuff and more fantasy settings), but Pathfinder 1e is still my all time favourite system.

@ skull

his problem was the prestige class he was looking for had to be lawful (he got the monk to be N.G. with trait). and L.G. is 2 steps away from his chosen god which is to far even for most divine casters.

Oh right, sorry hectic day at work.

Skull wrote:

I don't really see a problem with a readied action for the Rhino charge, provided you don't use your move action during the round you set it up.

I'm just not sure how you qualify for Divine Fighting Technique of Cayden Cailaen. It's not really one I know, but from the d20pfsrd page, it seems the prerequisite is to have the same alignment as the deity it is tied to.

I see the Aasimar Enlightened Warrior trait allows you to take levels in monk while still Neutral or Neutral Good, but Cayden Cailaen is Chaotic Good. So this doesn't help you. Unless I am missing something else?

An inquisitor, warpriest or cleric of the deity can gain the initial benefit without meeting any prerequisites (including without having the feat) by giving up one of the 1st level powers of their domain.

You can be neutral good and still be a warpriest of Cayden Cailaen so I take a level dip in warpriest to make it work.

Okay... But how are you taking the Drunken Master and Monk of the Four Winds levels without being Lawful?

This poor thread just wanted some peace after 10 years. lol

I don't really see a problem with a readied action for the Rhino charge, provided you don't use your move action during the round you set it up.

I'm just not sure how you qualify for Divine Fighting Technique of Cayden Cailaen. It's not really one I know, but from the d20pfsrd page, it seems the prerequisite is to have the same alignment as the deity it is tied to.

I see the Aasimar Enlightened Warrior trait allows you to take levels in monk while still Neutral or Neutral Good, but Cayden Cailaen is Chaotic Good. So this doesn't help you. Unless I am missing something else?

Depends on the character...

As a dwarf it has to be a big axe or hammer.

If human, or any half humans Greatsword or a Bastard sword.

I'm currently making a character that will use a large Bastard Sword because... Well I recently picked up Dark Souls, and wanted an Ultra Greatsword in Pathfinder.
(Im only using a claymore in DS1, ultra greatswords are slow and the attack swing doesn't work for me)

Dwarven Reinforcement doesn't apply to shields, since they are not "thick objects and structures".

This has been discussed before. It works on doors and buildings, but shields are classified as "thin objects", so no go on that one.

The best shields for shield block are sturdy shields. But against high-level adversaries, you may have to purposefully forego shield blocking, unless you have backup shield(s).

Cool thanks. Will give this feat a skip then.

I looked into other threads, but didnt really see a clear answer. I guess this is the kind of feat for when you have an actual fort, like in Ashes.

I know Emblazon Armament is option for Clerics/Multiclass.

But thankfully in P2E damage is alot more dice based compared to flat bonus based.
So even when the average damage (never mind above average) may be detrimental to your Shield,
there will still be plenty of attacks where it ends up rolling below average damage (this can happen even with Crits),
so those are the ones that are most efficient to block without eating up your Shield too much/quickly.
Which IMHO makes sense for average/lower damage to be most easily absorbed, while damage spikes are most dangerous. YMMV

But if you expect that you won't always be Blocking even when you Raised, you might want some more Reactions besides Block.

Thanks for the tip.

Hi all, has there been any ruling on this feat and the hardness of shields?

I searched the forums and only found 2 threads without a clear answer and someone asking in another thread if this works, but he/she never got a reply.

I am planning on making a Dwarf Fighter for an upcoming Ruby Phoenix Tournament game and want to know if this will help my shield survive.

Max your attack stat, whatever it is (casting stat for casters, for example). Then up your DEX to the max allowed by the Armor category you are proficient in.

Upping WIS is good for Perception, Initiative, Will save.

That's it for ability scores.

Depending on the class, raising Con a bit is never a bad idea.

Wow, second post today that reminds me of my ninja. He was meant as my Batman build...

Ki Charge (Su)

Benefit: A ninja with this trick can invest a portion of her ki into a single thrown weapon, such as a shuriken, and throw it as a standard action. The thrown weapon explodes on impact in a 5-foot burst, dealing 1d6 points of fire damage plus 1d6 points of fire damage for every four levels of the ninja above 2nd, to a maximum 4d6 at 18th level. Creatures caught in the blast receive a Reflex save to halve the damage. The DC of this save is 10 + 1/2 the ninja’s level + the ninja’s Charisma modifier. If the thrown weapon hits a creature, that creature takes a –2 penalty on the saving throw. If the thrown weapon misses, treat it as a thrown splash weapon. Using this ability expends 1 ki point from her ki pool.

Probably not what you want, as this is only one shuriken throw a turn. But I always thought this was a nice Gambit like trick :)

I made a PFS character that was my take on Batman. He was a half-orc ninja He had a few shuriken powers and took unarmed strike. With vanish and improved vanish securing those sneak attacks were great :)

Id have to go look up my sheets, but I know he had sap adept, unsure if he had the follow up master feat.

Well, if you want to focus more on a helpful than powerful Kobold: How about bard into DD? Or am I the only one who remembers Deekin? :)

But, my favourite classes already don't use spells. :P

Unsure if qinggong monk would count as a caster or not... That said even without it, monks were always a favourite of mine. I also like Barbarians and Fighters.

Haven't played 1e in ages, and would give almost anything to play a dwarf fighter.

Paizo did a great job to uplift them from the only bonus feats as a class feature. Everyone says its a simply class to play and this is true. However if you know what you are doing, you can make a real beast. The bonus feats also means you can take feats you otherwise wouldn't.

I usually favour either the barbarian or fighter when I look at full BAB classes, and currently id rather roll a fighter again :)

Id say it does not provoke. They are basically just changing a feat. The entry does not specify it as a spell, or spell-like ability. Simply a standard action, most of which doesn't provoke.

I didnt check the hunter entry, but would assume it has the same wording.

That said, I dont know why you would want to switch out feats in the middle of combat. Once or twice, maybe. But I think this is more something to do between fights.

5ft difference is breaking the sound barrier?

Hahaha, not entirely, but they have ways of improving it further via heritage feats etc...

The newer movement values just feel off to me. Along with several other heritage mechanics.

But yeah, this is more a thread about how PF1 is still an active healthy community. :)

After PF2 hit, we tried to play is, but things just felt off. I was also not a fan of all the heritage feats and how they work.

And I still don't understand how elves break the sound barrier, but dwarves move slower than the small races. Makes no sense to me.

Anyhow. Our group has been playing other systems for a while, but I want to get them to seriously consider more PF1 games. It's the system I really enjoyed theory crafting in and there are still a lot of builds left for me to try.

I also don't visit these boards nearly as often as I used to, but I like coming by when I can :)

When I was a lad, I ate four dino eggs
Every morning to help me get large
And now that I'm grown, I eat five dino eggs
So I'm roughly the size of a barge

Ive always wanted to do a Swashbuckler character in 1e as a Dwarf with Picks. Never got around to it. I like most things dwarf, and turning the tables on a finesse style character with a dwarf and picks felt like an awesome idea :)

Glad someone is doing it ^_^

Pretty much what everyone is saying.

If your shield has hardness 5. And the enemy is doing 6 damage to you when you use the block reaction. 5 of the damage is mitigated by the hardness of the shield. You and the shield each takes 1 damage.

Because (a) the game is more fun when the one nimble little halfling in the party doesn't force everyone to move at a slower pace so as not to leave them behind, and (b) why not?

Except in the case of (a)

And yes, they do get an ancestry feat to help with this. But now they have to spend a feat to not get slowed by heavy armour, just so they wont fall behind everyone else.

It's a problem I've had with the dwarves since the 1st playtest was released.

You know, I think it is totally bizarre. I may just remove both the flexible and the noisy traits from both armors and call it a day. This satisfies me, but hopefully there aren't any other rules repercussions I am missing.

I was also looking for the actual penalty "noisy" gives, but after reading your post: I think I get what they might have gone for:

Flexible - you don't apply the armour check penalty to Acrobatics and Athletics.

Noisy - Apply armour check penalty to stealth, even if you have enough strength to negate it.

Thoughts?

Pit Wizard wrote:

I asked the same question earlier. As written, it's not totally useless but it doesn't seem to be a very good use of your money. Adamantine shields, on the other hand, would be very useful.

The Sturdy enchantment for shields is cheaper and stronger than Adamantine, and comes online earlier (compare 7th-level Sturdy to 8th-level Adamantine, and 13th-level Sturdy to 16th-level Adamantine). It's also not Invested, so doesn't count against your 10-item limit.

Only advantages of an adamantine shield would be in an anti-magic field, which you will hardly ever encounter due to rarity. Overall, adamantine doesn't seem too useful for defense.

Wouldn't you be able to make a Sturdy Adamantine shield?

Skull wrote:

Secondly Dwarven Weapon Familiarity (the initial feat in the chain) has this flavour text:

Archives of Nethys wrote:

Your kin have instilled in you an affinity for hard-hitting weapons, and you prefer these to more elegant arms. You are trained with the battle axe, pick, and warhammer.

So it looks like Dwarves favour big heavy weapons. Which I totally agree with.

So it wouldn't make sense for the follow up feats to help with the light versions of their beloved weapons.

Big heavy weapons you say?

What would your RAI ruling be about the Greatpick?

Sadly the same. They seem to like heavy one handed weapons. Anything 'Agile' has other bonuses that apply to them, smaller multi attack penalty etc. So having bonuses for some flavourful non 'agile' weapons makes sense.

I have to add that if it was me, id include Greataxe, Maul and Greatpick for the critical specialization affects. Just not swords :P (an easy change for most GMs)

Awesome. This was what I was missing. An easy breakdown to compare proficiency. :)

While making my character for the Sunday game, I had to keep jumping between tabs and try and keep track of things.

Skull wrote:

I don't think it would apply.

Firstly because I've never thought of the light hammer being a mini version of a warhammer. Same with picks, but I can see where you are coming from.

Secondly Dwarven Weapon Familiarity (the initial feat in the chain) has this flavour text:

Archives of Nethys wrote:

Your kin have instilled in you an affinity for hard-hitting weapons, and you prefer these to more elegant arms. You are trained with the battle axe, pick, and warhammer.

So it looks like Dwarves favour big heavy weapons. Which I totally agree with.

So it wouldn't make sense for the follow up feats to help with the light versions of their beloved weapons.

Yes, I can see your reasoning and re-reading the prereq. feat; it makes sense.

Thank you for your input!

have a great one!

Cool. Always a pleasure to help a fellow Dwarf player :)

Good catch.

I also found it funny that monks start as trained in unarmed, but fighters start as expert in unarmed.

I don't think it would apply.

Firstly because I've never thought of the light hammer being a mini version of a warhammer. Same with picks, but I can see where you are coming from.

Secondly Dwarven Weapon Familiarity (the initial feat in the chain) has this flavour text:

Your kin have instilled in you an affinity for hard-hitting weapons, and you prefer these to more elegant arms. You are trained with the battle axe, pick, and warhammer.

So it looks like Dwarves favour big heavy weapons. Which I totally agree with.

So it wouldn't make sense for the follow up feats to help with the light versions of their beloved weapons.

Skull wrote:

Had my 1st session in an Age of Ashes game yesterday. I went fighter for some "shield shenanigans".

It was a lot of fun. My shield only took damage from one attack. I completely blocked 3 or 4 attacks.

It took 5 damage. But for the life of me I cannot find the repair DC for a steel shield. It's probably in the manual, but I cannot find it on Archives of Nethys.

I got to 15 on me repair check, which I assume is enough, but I want to know the DC :)

It depends on what kind of shield and your proficiency in crafting:

p. 277 lists all the shields and their HP and BT.

A Buckler has 6 HP while a steel shield has 20 HP for example.

All shields have no items levels listed, making them Level 0 items.

p. 503 lists dcs by level , a level 0 item has a dc of 14 by default without any other adjustments (going to assume your GM didn't consider the task worth adding modifiers)

You roll the repair roll, got dc 15, which is a normal success.

If you are untrained in crafting, you would restore 5 hp for the 10 minutes you spent repairing the shield. The number of hp repaired increases depending on your proficiency, if you are trained, you would restore 10 hp to the shield.

But yeah you did succeed in repairing the shield even if you were untrained.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I already knew the rest. I also left out that I am trained in craft with Speciality Crafting Blacksmithing (Just realised I didnt add the +1 from this feat so I actually got to 16) :)

There were no special penalties for the check. We were some place safe and secure, and had plenty of time to do the repairs. I am going to be focusing on the Craft skill and looking forward to crafting my own items later.

The repair DC of an item is the same as the DC to craft it. A steel shield is a level 0 common item, so the repair DC is 14 (on the DC by level table)

Thanks!

I knew the craft and repair DC is the same, but both only list "GM's call" on the site.

Had my 1st session in an Age of Ashes game yesterday. I went fighter for some "shield shenanigans".

It was a lot of fun. My shield only took damage from one attack. I completely blocked 3 or 4 attacks.

It took 5 damage. But for the life of me I cannot find the repair DC for a steel shield. It's probably in the manual, but I cannot find it on Archives of Nethys.

I got to 15 on me repair check, which I assume is enough, but I want to know the DC :)

It works the same as old Toughness, which is fine.

1hp per level. I think it's great on anyone.

The only difference between PF1 and 2 toughness, is it use to start you out on 3hp, and then +1 for every level after 3rd.

Just some feedback after our 1st 2e session. It felt a lot better than the playtest ever did. I cannot pinpoint anything specific, but a lot of nice changes. It felt smoother as well.

So good job, looking forward to the next session.

I was very skeptical, and negative after playing 2 playtest games.

However, we are starting an Age of Ashes game later today. And I literally spent most of yesterday jumping around on the Archives of Nethys page, comparing classes and having a hard time to pick.

The cleric page was a bit confusing, as it didn't explain the "Cleric Focus Powers" section, but a friend who has the PDF could easily steer me to the correct answers.

Ended up rolling a Fighter, because Ive never been a fan of casters. I really like how a lot of it has turned out. Only actual play will let me decide if I like it better.

I also watched some review/reveal clips on youtube. One of which was almost 2 and a half hours... So yeah, I am exited to give it a go.

Awesome!

This looks good!

We are starting a Age of Ashes game later today, and I will be using this sheet :)

I think when rolling for stats. The best option is if everyone rolls one set, and this set is open to the table. Anyone can use an array that was rolled. This will help make it a little easier to get a fair stat array per player.

GM should still be free to disallow really low or high stat array. :)

Wow, those are bismal stats. But I would also not roll with the second set.

If I rolled those I would make a Halfling Bard, and stand back and do a more support roll.

Bard stats id go:
7/5
10/12
10
7
10
10/12

Use a halfling sling, and sing.

Richard Crawford wrote:

NikkEatsRocks wrote:

I just think it sucks that we're never going to have any real nation in the inner sea region that isnt human centric because halflings are okay with being humanity's butlers, gnomes suffer from magical dementia that apparently small country life is sufficient enough to stave off but nation building or anything larger than a village can't and because goblins are now being portrayed simultaneously as everyone's best friend/comic relief AND vermin scourge that must be eradicated.

Everyone forgets Kyonin and the Five Kings Mountains. And to a lesser extent Belkzin and the worldwound.

With good reason. Golarion is relentlessly human centric, and the other races are either slaves (halflings), idiots and cowards (elves), irrelevant (gnomes and dwarves) or monsters (orcs and goblins).

I wouldn't really call Dwarves irrelevant, but after some thought: They do not feature a lot.

Bonus points for calling Elves cowards and Goblins monsters. :)

I'm going to miss dwarven movement speed.

As it stands now, 10ft movement in Full Plate, because I want to still resemble a dwarf as much as possible.

David knott 242 wrote:

LordVanya wrote:

NikkEatsRocks wrote:

...2E is set further in the timeline ...

Not as far I know, it isn't.

Personally, I think they should set the 2e timeline to 100 to 200 years later and swap out the signature characters for their descendants.
That way the major differences in the game system can be chalked up to 'this is how things are done now'.

Paizo advanced the timeline by about 10 years, from the date that PF1 was published to the expected publication date of PF2. During that time, the official story is that all PF1 adventures were completed successfully by their respective PC parties, and other changes will presumably be detailed later as needed.

Good to know, thanks.

I still think they should bump that up by at least 10 fold.

Wait, I always thought that Kingmaker takes a few decades to finish at least?

I'm sure Halflings are content to just have settlements of their own. I don't think they care too much to establish their own country.

I've never been able to get my head behind Gnomes.

As for Goblins...

I suspect there is a whole sect of Torag Paladins who made it their personal mission to make sure Goblins do not have a large settlement of their own.

Dwarves after my own heart :)

Sadly, Goblinoids are no longer listed under the Dwarves' listed enemies.

I like the fire resistance idea, but not the flavour behind it.

Sure, there would be dwarves in the desert, those poor fools are also cleanly shaven (I remember reading something along those lines for Dwarven monks in some desert).

But why would they have heat resistance where others don't? Id rather say it comes from years of working in the forges, being stubborn dwarves, I'm sure they just get used to the heat :)

I still think the poison resistance is the option for me. I had fun failing a save, but taking reduced damage, and recovering super fast from it in one of the sessions we played. It also helps with drinking.

Crayon wrote:

I don't know, I think I'd prefer if they dropped the mechanics from Ancestry all together and made it a purely aesthetic choice.

It's simpler, makes more sense, is more balanced, and presents more character options.

Pretty tough when you have races that for story reasons have innate differences, biology, or special abilities and all the NPCs have these and the PCs have no access to such things, or if NPCs also do not get it, it feels very flat and setting voiding to strip all those traits from things that did have them considering they are maintaining the same world.

Just realised that he poor NPCs all need to have these choices made too. This sounds like a lot of admin that no one asked for.

I still think all races need to have their racial abilities. Heritage and ancestry feats should be there to add extra flavourful options, or simply to advance existing abilities.

They really should just go back to the 30 foot speed as a baseline and reinstate general maneuvers like Charge and Run.

I like this plan. 25ft was a weird number from the start. I also find it very strange that all the small races are now just as fast as humans.

Poor dwarves are the only race to move at 20ft (10 in full plate). Sure you can get a heritage feat to negate 5ft of this, but now you are a weird looking human, who can see in the dark.

Earlier I complained that playing a dwarf felt very bland, now it has been made more so.

I probably shouldn't mention Darkvision, or they will change this to a heritage feat as well.

I don't play casters much myself, but arcane casters that melee are the Magus and the Blood Rager. Bards might also qualify to some extent.

Im not a fan of the Blood Rager, as a barbarian that can cast spells even while raging sounds a bit on the "stronger than most base classes" side of the spectrum... :P

Aether Seawolf wrote:

Everyone seems to have some issue with this area of the game, and I wanted to collect all the ones I've seen and experienced in one post. The problems appear to be:

>Growing into a race is weird roleplay wise. The game assumes I'm an adult adventurer, why am I still developing core racial abilities.
>The races feel really flat and flavorless.
>General Training and Natural Ambition are so far out of the league of everything else it hurts
>Race abilities (for the most part) are situational to the point of being painful
>Low incentive for players to branch out of human

The best example I can give is that an arcane caster elf has no incentive to take two of their strongest abilities - weapon familiarity and otherworldly magic, leaving Ancestral Longevity as the good pick with little growth. The other abilities are situational or not beneficial to a build. While abilities don't all need to line up for a build (I'm personally a big fan of suboptimal play - halfing barbarian and all) it would help if there were some flavor synergy that felt good.

100% agree. Love the concept and the variation in speed and hit points, but the ancestry feats are not powerful or meaningful enough, and we need more of them to make characters unique at first level.

Compare a Pathfinder Elf to a D&D 5E Elf

Pathfinder Elf
Hit points 6
Speed 30
Low-Light Vision
1 Ancestry Feat (Otherworldly Magic grants 1 cantrip)

D&D 5E Elf
Speed 30
Darkvision 60 ft.
Keen Senses (proficiency in Perception)
Fey Ancestry (Advantage versus charm saves, can't be put to sleep)
Trance (sleep less)
Subrace (even more customization, for example, High Elf)
Elf Weapon Training
Cantrip (grants 1 cantrip)
1 Extra Language

Hands down the 5E elf is cooler. The Pathfinder 2E elf is about 5 abilities short. Customizing our elf-iness over 20 levels is a cool optimization over 5E, but more power needs to be front loaded.

If Pathfinder 2E added about 2-3 more ancestry feats at first level and made...

Wow, just checked out the 5E dwarf (1st time taking a look at it)

For those interested:
Dwarf Traits
Your dwarf character has an assortment of inborn Abilities, part and parcel of dwarven Nature.

Ability Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases by 2.

Age: Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans, but they’re considered young until they reach the age of 50. On average, they live about 350 years.

Alignment: Most Dwarves are lawful, believing firmly in the benefits of a well-ordered society. They tend toward good as well, with a strong sense of Fair Play and a belief that everyone deserves to share in the benefits of a just order.

Size: Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing Heavy Armor.

Darkvision: Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim Conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in Darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in Darkness, only shades of gray.

Dwarven Resilience: You have advantage on Saving Throws against poison, and you have Resistance against poison damage.

Dwarven Combat Training: You have proficiency with the Battleaxe, Handaxe, Light Hammer, and Warhammer.

Tool Proficiency: You gain proficiency with the artisan’s tools of your choice: smith’s tools, brewer’s supplies, or mason’s tools.

Stonecunning: Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the Origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.

Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarvish. Dwarvish is full of hard consonants and guttural sounds, and those characteristics spill over into whatever other language a dwarf might speak.

My suggestion would be to give each character 1 ancestral feats and 1 heritage feat @ lvl1. This way the "stronger" heritage feats are still limited and you get to at least feel like your ancestry.

As a level 1 dwarf, I didn't feel like a real dwarf. I had a slower speed, darkvision and resistance to poison. I would have felt a lot better had I had Stonecunning, hatred or giantbane. This same character also played the level 9 playtest. By level 9, it looked silly to get a +1 damage to 2 types of creatures.

Was planning on adding this feat to a fighter I was brainstorming, but then picked up that it was a reaction feat. So I rolled with Hardy again.

Also, I am not a fan of the very limited "ancestry" abilities you get for free. Mechanically all that separated my dwarf from the human and even elves was darkvision, slower movement and that I resisted poison.

I suppose this is not too bad, but the ancestry felt very watered down. Id feel a lot better if you start @ lvl1 with 2 ancestry feats (obviously only one heritage; in fact, force one as a heritage feat and one other).

FireManed_Viking wrote:

So I’m not sure if I’m interpreting this correctly… But with the Giant totem you gain the Titan Mauler ability. Which allows you to use a larger weapon like last edition, and you get a bonus to your conditional damage while raging. However, you gain sluggish 1 as well which adversely affects the character.

Am I correct in my calculations?

When Raging without larger weapon:
+2 Damage, -1 AC, +Temp HP

When Raging with Lager weapon:
+3 Damage, -2 AC, +Temp HP, -1 Dex Checks, -1 Reflex Saves.

I haven’t played this character yet and I’m assuming the choice to add the Sluggish 1 to the ability is for balancing however in the end I’m only getting an addition 1 to damage when all is said and done. I feel that you could have applied the slowed condition to this ability instead leaving the rage bonuses as they were would work better thematically. You would still get the +2 dam, but only have 2 actions a round.

It doubles the rage bonus damage, so +4 damage. Where it gets confusing is some people are also adding in the large weapon change that was in a sidebar somewhere (I don't have my book on me). I do not think it gets that bonus.

Also, give back barbarians shields! I want my Viking raider.

I am also a little confused as to why Barbarians are not trained in shields. In PF1 I always went two hander, because there was a 1.5x Str mod bonus, but now I would be keen to go with a shield. Esp for an Ulfen Raider type character. I suppose I will need to roll fighter for the same feeling, but without rage.

I am also underwhelmed by the initial Ki Strike ability.

It costs 1 Spell Point, for a +1 on a single attack roll. Would it be too powerful if it applied to all attacks for the rest of the turn?

For the rest, I mostly like what they have done with the monk.

I must be missing something obvious. Why am I seeing these Paladin builds with Celestial as a free language?

That was one of the 1st things I noticed in the builds, then I noticed that humans learn an extra language for free at 1st level