Spamotron's page

For reference:
O-Yoroi

Bulwark Trait

Laminar Trait

Having Bulwark and Laminar on the same armor with no drawbacks aside from the standard Heavy Armor speed penalty was always good. But given how much the Guardian wants to dump Dex and has so many of their abilities tied to their armor it might border on outright nerfing yourself not wearing it if you play that class.

If you don't like the aesthetic. Too bad.

Also does anyone else find it strange that O-Yorori is just Full Plate but Better and didn't get a drawback trait in the Treasure Vault Remaster?

Once again Paizo has opted to put out news on its social media but not its own website or forums. Bluesky Link

Apparently someone is going to roleplay one of the Iconics with a Vtuber model while they play video games.

So, as a lot of people have observed what often makes or breaks a spellcaster at low levels is if they have a good focus spell that is consistently useful.

Now that people have had some time to play with the new wizard schools. Which ones have focus spells that work well?

So for people who haven't heard it turns out that Echolocation is a skill humans can learn and teach. That sounds like something that would be useful to adventurers.

From what I've gathered: There's passive echolocation that uses ambient noise. There's active echolocation where the user relys on things like clicking their tongue or tapping their feet.

Now for a starting point we have the level 1 Awakened Animal ancestry feat Natural Senses that grants 10 feet of Precise Echolocation as an option. As well as the level 5 Beastkin ancestry feat Greater Animal Senses that grants 30 feet of Imprecise Echolocation. Finally we have the human Ancestry Feats General Training and Advanced General Training that imply General Feats and Ancestry Feats are considered roughly equivalent in power.

So the Homebrew seems fairly straightforward.

Basic Echolocation General Feat 1
Gain echolocation 20 feet as an imprecise sense

Advanced Echolocation General Feat 3 (Would 7 with an upgrade be better?)
Enhance the echolocation you gained from Basic Echolocation to Precise

This splits the difference between the two existing Ancestry Feats.

Given the precedent of giving Deaf Characters the Sign Language Skill Feat for free it would make sense to be able to have echolocation as a blind character from level 1. Something like: As an optional rule if your character is Permanently Blind at level 1 they can take Basic Echolocation for free and have the option of trading their level 1 ancestry feat for Advanced Echolocation as well.

The real world version of this uses human audible sound unlike say a bat's ultrasonic echolocation and is a conciously used skill. Giving it a Concentration Free Action to turn on and a penalty to stealth checks would likely fit. But would that be too fiddily or make the feats too weak?

Other opinions?

Sources:

Be Smart YouTube channel

Physiology News Magazine

Smithsonian Magazine

Also I remember in the mid 2000s to early 2010s there was a story about an ATV racer who could use passive echolocation from his and competitor's engine noise so well he could use it to race at over a hundred miles an hour. Implying that yes if you get good enough it can be predcise and fast enough to use in combat. But I can't find it. Anybody have any better luck with Google?

So there's all kinds of things on the internet that have potential to get a player or GM's mind spinning with ideas. If you find something that made you think "hey I bet I could use that in a game." Post it here.

For the monster homebrewers: What is over a hundred tons, lived in shallow water where even PCs in a non-aquatic campaign could run into it and is carnivorous?

Meet Perucetus Colossus

For PC inspiration and character artists: It's pretty common knowledge that in the time periods that inspired fantasy roleplaying pretty much everyone carried a knife of some kind. Have you put any thought into what kind your character carries?

What does your character's dagger say about them? Eat cheese or die, perhaps?

So for people who haven't heard the news Paizo has determined that it isn't feasible to salvage the Drow from the OGL mess. There's an ongoing argument about if they've been retconned from existence, but either way Paizo is never publishing anything about them again.

Check out The-Magic-Sword's writeup for a summary of the whole Darklands Panel.

Since they're gone for legal reasons and not story ones that means they can't be used in Starfinder either. Which is messy because Apostae and it's mysteries is a pretty big Pact Worlds subplot.

An entire planet in the Pact Worlds system just not being mentioned ever again probably isn't a viable solution.

How do we think the Starfinder team is going to sqare the cirlce? Are the Drow going to dig too greedily and deeply and get wiped out the same way the Ilee were?

So I take it Kyyudah was originally a cybernetics path evolutionist but when she was changed to plant based biotech it was too late to change some of the art orders?

Nice portrayal of hyperfixation by the way.

Ciravel I appreciate your optimism but if you struggled against Radiation Drakes doing anything but running for your lives against a Kyokor is suicide.

I keep getting this error message every other page:

Server Error in '/' Application.

Request timed out.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: Request timed out.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[HttpException (0x80004005): Request timed out.]

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.8813; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.8813

I'm wondering if it's my internet or the website.

My understanding is that a spellcaster piloting a mech has no line of effect to the outside and so can't use 90% of their spells. Given that the complaints that starship combat had nothing for spellcasters to do ultimately lead to mystical weapons and the magic officer position it seems odd that mechs have nothing equivalent.

My thought process:

Champions are a really popular class.

Adventure Paths are designed to reach 20 and have many sessions at a high level.

Celestial Form is a really tempting feat for all champions from both a mechanics and flavor perspective.

Said feat explicitly says:

You take on a celestial countenance, appearing like a type of celestial who serves your deity; for example, as an angel, you would gain a halo and feathery wings.

Hence the thread title question is soon to be quite relevant for a lot of parties.

Another thought is how do such champions fit in with the rest of the celestial host? All other celestials of comparable power to a level 18 champion slowly worked their way up the ranks over millennia. Suddenly having a peer who is from a life experience perspective practically a newborn infant by their standards seems like it would be disconcerting.

For Reference: Pantheon, Godclaw

My understanding of worshiping a Pantheon is that the worshiper picks one patron deity from it as their primary so in the case of conflict between edicts and anathema, they take priority. But if a situation arises where the patron deity has nothing to say the other gods' teachings still have equal weight. Abadar, Irori, and Torag don't care that much about the things Iomedae and Asmodeus care about while the two of their teachings come into conflict almost all the time.

For example, a follower of the Godclaw has Abadar as their patron deity. During a fight a wounded foe attempts to surrender. That's something Abadar doesn't really care about but Iomedae says fight with justice and honor which includes accepting a genuine surrender but Asmodeus says granting mercy is an insult to his creed. (They aren't an "enemy of your people," so Torag doesn't care either way). His choice of patron deity appears to be irrelevant and he's in just as much a dilemma if he didn't have one at all.

So it appears that the only way to have a functional PC who worships the Godclaw is to take Iomedae or Asmodeus as your patron.

Is there something I'm misunderstanding?

To give appropriate context first I need to set up my understanding of how you're supposed to set DCs for lore skills. As I understand it the intention from Paizo is that the more specific a Lore is the lower a DC the GM is supposed to set when a circumstance to use it comes up.

For example, a group of adventurers is in Ustalav and have learned the mastermind of the scheme they are attempting to thwart is a Vampire Noble. They aren't under any pressure at the moment forcing specific exploration activities so the GM rules they can all try to recall knowledge. The Vampire is 10th level so he sets the master check as Religion with a target DC 27. The first PC doesn't have Religion but does have Society and is from Ustalav in his backstory. He argues that since the undead nobility is such a big part of Ustalav's history there's a chance he's heard of this guy. The GM agrees but decides that using a lateral skill like this would be very hard so sets the Society DC to 32. The second PC has Undead Lore which is even more specific than Religion so the GM sets the DC for him as 25. The third PC was envisioned as a vampire hunter and has Vampire Lore. With an even more specific skill, the GM gives him a target of DC 22. The fourth PC has Clever Improviser which says it allows him to treat any untrained skill as trained. PC 4 says he wants to use it for Vampire Lore. The DCs in this example are secret but PC 4 knows more specific lore = lower DC.

RAW would appear to allow it. But a Clever PC can in principle use the most specific Lore possible in any given situation. Effectively making them as good or better than the specialists more often than not.

Thoughts?

WIRED video on Disco Clam vs. Mantis Shrimp

So I was inspired by the above video to try out the monster creation rules.

Giant Disco Clam Creature 8
N Large Animal
Perception + 13 Blindsense (Motion/Water Displacement) 10 ft.
Str + 4 Con + 6 Dex + 3 Int - 5 Wis + 3 Cha + 0
Skills Acrobatics + 14 Athletics + 16 Stealth + 14
AC 27 Fort + 19 Ref + 13 Will + 16
HP 105 Resistances Cold 6 Piercing 11 Slashing 11
Disco Flashing (Aura, Visual) 30 ft. When a creature ends its turn in the aura, it must attempt a DC 26 Will Save. If the creature fails the saving throw it becomes Dazzled for 1 minute. If the creature critically fails it is Stunned 1. The Giant Disco Clam can activate or deactivate this aura as a free action by opening or closing its shell.
Speed Swim 20 ft.
Melee Shell Clamp (1 Action) + 18 Damage 2d8 + 8 Bludgeoning Improved Grab

I based the Flasing Aura on the Medusa's Gaze but with different Conditions.

Any notable mistakes?

The human ancestry feat Adapted Cantrip has that as its prerequisite.

https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=66

I've seen it recommended for human Champions and Monks to take a divine or occult caster multiclass dedication and then take the feat to pick up Electric Arc or Telekinetic Projectile for a strong dex independent ranged attack.

But does that even work RAW? Are the couple of cantrips you get from a multiclass dedication feat a "spellcasting class feature?"

Do other people think this prerequisite is confusing enough that it should be put in the errata and FAQ thread?