The bravado trait specifies you gain panache from immune targets, doesn't that free up Acrobatics for people who want more skill flexibility? Why Tumble Through a zombie if I can just mock them relentlessly? (Haven't played a Swash so I might be missing something obvious)
I'd love to see a spiritual successor to Arcanist. I think there's potential for devs to go in a completely new direction with it, kinda like Occultist became Thaumaturge, how Cavalier is turning into Commander, or how Investigator went all in on its theme.
Minotaurs get STR boost, CON boost, free boost, CHA flaw, hence they can start with STR CON and DEX boosted at the same time. That's not something you can reproduce with "boost any 2", you would need a GM who houserules that "3 free, 1 flaw" is allowed.
"If this would bring another creature with you (even through extradimensional space) the effect is lost" has to be one of the most repeated lines of text in ability descriptions, so the devs' intent on how personal transportation effects are supposed to work is pretty clear. I'm just gonna assume they didn't think to include it here.
I understand missing the power of 1e spellcasting, but isn't that solvable trivially? It seems to me that if you: -treat all spell successes as crit successes
Then you're right back in 1e.
there is assumption here that everyone who likes first edition want to create a overpowered character but that is simply not true, the highest jump in the world build isn't particularly powerful nor is a build focused on being able to carry a mountain If it's really about optimizing an idea with no regard for whether it's powerful, then 2e has plenty of opportunity for that. In your taxonomy I am pure distilled "Explorer" essence and am very happy with 2e. You can make a character with 43 legendary skills; a Magus with 20 cantrips to spellstrike with in any given fight; a spellcaster with 3 different spell lists, with 10th, 9th and 8th level spells respectively. And those are just the first few that come to mind. The only real difference with 1e is your character won't automatically suck if you try to do these weird builds.
For a crunchy system that rewards system mastery and where optimized builds make an enormous difference, I'd recommend Exalted 3e. The advantage of that system is that the whole game is themed around the PCs being truly one-of-a-kind extraordinary heroes and it leans into that idea a lot. So when you create a broken build you actually still fit in the story, instead of standing out like a level 5 wizard who can kill god.
The problem is that just isn't something that a TTRPG can really replicate, as the other characters are controlled by other people. Look up Rogue Trader. In that game my coop partner had an officer playing maximum lazylord, we both had a blast. Sure the playstyle isn't for everyone, but the idea that it can't be done when multiple people are involved is demonstrably false.
If that's how players are expected to support casters offensively, then something in the class has to explain or teach it. Otherwise the class will have a reputation for being bad with casters even if more experienced players know it isn't true.
Ready Aim Fire being level 15 is both unfortunate and unsurprising. No good way to support a caster DPR until then. I agree that the class needs ways to help casters deal damage from the start, not just at level 15. It would be a shame if Commander had anti-synergy with casters like Skald did in 1e.
The class is absolutely glorious, I am sold. I approve of winning combat by twirling a banner while making voices imitating your enemies.
To celebrate the release of the Guardian class we are releasing a brand new AP where you are encouraged to make a full party of Guardians. The Archipelago of Galxy is a wild place where anything can happen, which only avoids cataclysm due to its plucky Guardians, a unit of misfits with a heart of gold. Select from premade guardians such as a deadly orc lady, a leshy of few words, or an awakened racoon (just don't call him that). A wild adventure is sure to await you in Guardians of Galxy™!
I expect the guardian to be CON based and to be especially good at controlling positioning on the battlefield. For instance they could have a Feat where allies who Step into a square adjacent to the guardian can immediately Step again. Or they could have a Reaction that interrupts an enemy in the middle of their movement so the guardian can move to block their path.
Shifter has the opposite problem from Inquisitor, there's not enough in there to really justify a whole class (plus Howl of the Wild would have been the book to get that class out if they wanted to do it). It could work well as an Archetype though.
Ferrumnestra accidentally runs into Gorum, is affronted to see a metal armour that has eluded decay for far too long and casts whatever a god's version of Rusting Grasp would be. Since Gorum IS the armour, he dies. Ferrumnestra then simply leaves, giving no regard to the pandemonium she has just unleashed.
What if every prophecy is canon and concurrent? See, in a different thread of fate, 10 of the Core died ignominiously and filled the surviving good gods with guilt and bitterness. Over there, the world has no stars left, undead are rampant, gods regularly get eaten, and spawn of Rovagug roam over the post-apocalypse created by his death. So the surviving 10 have travelled to an alternate timeline, our Golarion, to take over and start over. And so it would be all Golarion gods united against 10 of their corrupted alternate timeline selves.
The new holder of the key is explicitly reckless in his ambitions, with a promise to unleash Rovagug if his reckless plan doesn't go his way. That seems to me like a decent monkey's paw.
Crazy Theory:
Feeling powerless, some deities start plotting to free Rovagug to unleash him against this new threat, Godzilla style. They are betting on the idea that they caged Rovagug once, so they could always cage him a second time after he has defeated the threat. And so at the worst possible time the gods go to war with each other, with the gods who want to free Rovagug on one side and those not willing to risk freeing him on the other.
It's just Xanderghul who changed all of reality in order to retroactively survive his own death (no one other than him is aware that anything changed). Changing the schools of magic was the most important thing to ensure his fate got altered significantly, the rest was all just acceptable side effects. Want proof? Look at the Remaster GM Core. Who is on the cover? Xanderghul. I rest my case.
Mixing Logic with Faith, what comes to mind for me is Prophecy. Which would be fitting, since Prophecy is in fact a type of magic that is lost (at least in its reliable form).
Keeping with the theme of magic that already exists - Transmuting the physical to spiritual and attaining perfection, all of that sounds like Ascension. Magic that turns one into a god (with fun spells like Create Starstone). So here it's not that the magic is lost, it's just that no one, not even the gods, can control it.... Now if we plug those two Traditions into Nethys' death... Nethys would have been trying to restore the power of Prophecy AND create a magical Tradition of spells that grant godhood, all at the same time. Is it any wonder everything blew up?
So "Saw it Coming" is basically, when you meet a shady character in a seedy cantina and they suddenly decide to attack you, you are more likely to shoot them first? I see what you did there...
Assurances have been given that exactly one Core20 will permanently die. So clearly there is no way that Paizo: We are proud to introduce Skapgoet, a brand new deity, to the core 20! Skapgoet: Uh, hi! I'm Skapgoet, and I'm so happy to *ACK* Paizo: Oh no! Something killed Skapgoet! One of the Core20 is now dead, permanently! What a shocker!
Is it just me or does this really read like the setup for a 90's teen movie? Either way I loved it.
The in-game outcome is more than a little ridiculous. "Oh no! I'm so sorry, I'm TOO GOOD, I can't HELP hitting all your weak points! I swear I'm moving my hand towards your armguards but DAMMIT I stabbed your kidneys again! And now I've twisted the knife, Oh no!"
I don't feel there's too much of a mystery why a game that prides itself on inclusivity would attract players who value tolerance enough to put it in their self-insert god's portfolio.
Kerrad, The Wondrous Gift Symbol: A spherical aeon stone wrapped with a gift ribbon Areas of Concern: Magic, Technology, Wonder, Altruism Edicts: Empower good people with magic or technology, encourage curiosity and discovery, take responsibility for the unintended consequences of your actions. Anathema: Hoard what you could gift, Engage in reckless research or creation, knowingly empower those who seek to harm others. Domains: Creation, Family, Knowledge, Magic (Alternate: Change, Perfection) Divine Ability: Intelligence or Wisdom
Kerrad feels very undeserving of his divinity and wishes he could share it freely with those he thinks would do more good with it. He spends most of his time researching the very essence of divinity in hopes of one day being able to truly share his power, rather than just enable divine spellcasters. Likewise, he smiles upon all those who research magic and technology in order to empower good people with it.
That, ironically, could actually be her fear, to just stop being invested in her own survival. Not to seek death outright, but just to adopt an attitude of "you know what, if it happens, it happens". The prophecy starts by describing how Urgathoa didn't even bother setting up proper defenses around her feast. Once she became more interested in her feasts than in her own survival, her death was just a matter of time.
Lizbon is an aging cleric who spent his entire life doing the good works of Dahak. A teacher at heart, he loves nothing more than to destroy people's ignorance and assumptions. But what he enjoys most is to debate nomenclature and what the name we give to things says about them. Today, he shed a small tear when he heard one of the villagers proudly correct the others "No Darren, that's not a Green dragon, that's a HORNED dragon! Get on with the times!". Finally, his years of teaching were bearing fruit! After all, it's just so insulting to name dragons after colors and metals. You don't call humans the Leather people do you? Why should dragons suffer this indignity? Sure, it was just this village for now, but soon the chromatic and metallic dragons would be no more, and be reborn with much more fitting names. The world would probably never know he had started this remaster of dragon nomenclature. But he would know, and that was enough.
I'd love to see Asmodeus and Erastil bickering over how to best influence the trade agreements of mortals. Erastil: "Think of the community!"
This one...makes like no sense. Plot twist: the author of these prophecies isn't being deceitful on purpose, they just took the Dubious Knowledge feat and they failed 19 of their 20 rolls.
My least favorite one so far, but then again I never liked the "there must always be a Lich King" trope. On the plus side, I now have no clue who is dying because my vote was 100% on Urgathoa.
roll => 42 => Urgathoa Reste is a staunch undead preservationist. Her stance towards hostile undead is to capture them and release them somewhere where they won't harm people or be harmed by them. Her long term plans includes opening an undead "wildlife reserve" where she could safely harbour large numbers of undead and study them in peace.
My money is on Urgathoa being slain in the opening salvo of an all out divine war, with Arazni on one side and Tar Baphon on the other. Arazni needs to accomplish something big to earn her promotion to core, so settling the score with Tar Baphon sounds about right. And there are all sorts of ways in which Urgathoa dying might accelerate a conflict between the two (or if not accelerate it, then happen as a result of it). On the meta side, Urgathoa is not one of the Popular Ones so she's a valid target. Plus, plenty of other gods of undeath exist so she won't leave too big a void behind. And also, if you want the killing of a god to be extra impressive, then killing the goddess whose whole thing is not dying is a good way to do that.
So this person obtained a spark of divinity and kept it within one of his personal items, and since then the stories people tell about him have caused his divine powers to grow? I didn't know Cayden Cailean was an Exemplar!
Corruption assumes the authority figures go against their oath or overstep their authority in some way. I think in most circumstances it's more that fantasy governments have a lot more power and far fewer checks and balances. If an elected representative in Andoran forces his constituent to fight the evil medusa before he will stop the local hospital from being foreclosed, then that's corruption. If the same interaction happens between an Archduchess of Cheliax and one of her subjects, then she is probably completely within the bounds of both her oath and her authority.
Love it. It reminds me of the Psyche Serpent in 1e, who also lived solely for the thrill of hatching grand conspiracies, but was a Level 2 Tiny Beast.
The GM Core explicitly states "almost all undead are unholy". So it's pretty much established that unholy is the norm but exceptions exist.
The bonus skills from Intelligence never go beyond Trained. If an ability boost increases your character’s Intelligence modifier, they become trained in an additional skill and language. "become trained" is a different concept from gaining a skill increase. Everywhere in the rules where you "become trained", it strictly refers to gaining the Trained proficiency, not gaining an additional skill increase. Skill Increase -> become trained OR increase further than trained Intelligence increase -> become trained
There's a 3rd party book for it here, though I haven't read it myself. If they do bring it back something tells me that the at will Reverse Gravity aura isn't coming back.
Weird life created by wizards with too much time on their hands has always been a part of Golarion. "Intelligent weapon that obtained a body" doesn't really sound stranger than Wyrwood or Shabti.
Alternatively, a redeemer of Calistria could be someone who uses redemption as the instrument of their revenge. See, everyone is praising you for turning all of the big bad's most trusted underlings to the side of Good. But secretly you're only doing it so you can see the look on the big bad's face when everything they built turns on them and the hand holding the knife to their throat is that of their former friends.
I mean, if I want to kill a demon in 1e I use Smite Evil. Well yes obviously. The point is there was room for Law to perform comparably to Good when fighting Chaotic Evil.
Are you saying that pre-remaster, having access to both, you chose cantrips over offensive focus spells? If yes, that was obviously a balance problem. If no, then the real change was focus spells becoming more usable, not any rebalancing of cantrips.
It's common in some combat systems to forbid using an ability if you don't have all of the targets for it. In that mindset the spell would have to specify "attacking up to two foes", because just saying "attacking two foes" creates an assumption that you need two foes to even cast the spell.
I think it would be more accurate to say that pure law and pure chaos can be both beneficial and hurtful, than to say they are outright hostile. Valmallos is the reason your 5 year old neighbor can't cast meteor swarm, but also the reason you as a farmer can't cast the spell that will cure your friend's illness. Otolmens is the reason entire planets don't get cooked or frozen by moving too close or too far from their star. But if the proper orbit of a planet dooms it to annihilation she will also make sure it happens.
I'm genuinely curious why Force Barrage wasn't 1d6 (average 3.5) instead of 1d4+1 (average 3.5). Hey now, you can take the name out of Magic Missile, but changing the 1d4+1? Now that's just crazy talk! More seriously, I think it's because the spell's niche is finishing off very low HP enemies, so a higher minimum damage gives a higher threshold at which you are 100% guaranteed to finish off an enemy with it.
I have to admit the name "exploration mode" really threw me off when I was first learning the system. I had mostly skipped that section of the book because I thought for sure it had to be some special mode that wouldn't come up in normal play. And then it turned out it's really just whatever we're doing when we're not fighting! Oops! Hopefully a blog like this will help new players avoid making that mistake!
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