Tactical Drongo's page

Ruffian with Katana is still legit imo

the one handed use gives a weapon for sneak attacks and a free hand for varied stuff

if you have an enemy who has immunity to sneak attacks, using it two-handed is a good way to reduce the damage gap

This sounds both like people trying to RAW the mechanics and munchkin-ing it out istead of going for RAI
while you are technically right, as a long term GM I would simply say no to both of those

as you said, the first one is easy to reign in as a combat only thing
where people really don't want to waste actions on self-harm

for the second, my suggestion would be to also make it combat only with the addition of 'not your own blood' which fits the general magical logic of the class (you cant draw you own power, it is already yours)
and if you really want to waste actions in combat, hurting you allies, be my guest
they should make an attack check though
if the ally in question holds still for getting hit, they become off guard
but they still keep up their combat movement

huh...took the wrong takeaway from the story bit we had then, I retract my first statement then

LazerZ wrote:

Actually Middle-Earth has even deeper ties to our Earth than Golarion, since it IS our Earth in a fictional period of history.

This. Tolkien considered Middle-Earth an earth of some indeterminate past.

This information is new to me and makes everything about Lord of the Rings actively worse.

not to mention that the story tells us of one prototype while only kinda worked several years after its construction with a single person deciphering the process and then being subject to experiments for decades without anyone finding out the process before he fled and the only test subject the nexian mages had went missing

I think it is safe to assume that automatons stay rare

require many materials, big effect on a large area, (arbritrary) additional limitations

honestly, I do wonder why they are not just another type of ritual
heck, since they are a once per caster thing, a sidebar would have been enough

While I dont dislike the idea (and havent seen the actual spells yet) it feels like the page space could have been better invested in...lets say additional archetypes or regular spells, that characters can just use and are relevant as more then a campaign mcguffing
you dont exactly need rules for those anyway, they are just outlined by the campaign they come from / are made for

Yep, as I told with the Magus some Pages ago

Names are really hard to be definitive set within the world. It depends on a lot of factors, Not least of them the culture and the language the specific character grew up with.

For some the 'necromancer' will be everything that influences dead and death with any Kind of magic
For some ist will be specifically one who comunicates with the dead (origin of the term 'necromancer' )
For some backwater places it might be Just a 'witch'
While places who study magic (nex, kyonin) or death (geb) might have at least in their local accent distinct words for different kinds of necromancer

Kitusser wrote:

I don't know what you mean by "Insulting". That's just the way spellstrike works. It's mean to work with spell attacks. I don't know why that's surprising.

Frostbite is the Remastered version of Ray of Frost, which was an eligible spell for Spellstrike, thanks to the attack roll. Now it's a save spell...

It's pretty telling that Paizo literally had to errata Spellstrike in order to add save spells due to how smaller the spell pool became.

Kitusser wrote:

Nothing is gonna convince you here it seems. You've entrenched yourself into a really strict position and wont accept anything even slightly different to your criteria. You won't concede any point when you are almost certainly incorrect on many of the things you are saying. You were like this on the Gunslinger discussion as well.

Please excuse me if I had hoped that Spellstrike's efficency would have been mostly dependant on the Magus's attack roll and be more potent via a regular weapon Strike than a spell cast, especially for cantrips.

Take the Slow spell for instance.
- If I cast the spell normally, the target simply has to make a Fortitude save. Fair enough.
- If I cast the spell via Spellstrike, I need to successfully hit its AC with a weapon Strike and THEN the target has to make a Fortitude save.

There's a extra roll/condition to get over. If on a Critical Hit, the target suffered a penalty to its save equal to the Magus's Weapon or Spell specialisation, THEN it would be worth it, because of the extra roll I need to do.

You get me

so we first need to hit with an attack
and then the enemy saves effectively with something from +3 to +8 against the spell

and since we have to reload the spellstrike we dont even have an advantage in action economy if we dont have extra feats or use a limited recource
(and then if we look at for example the shield magus, where your spend a focus point to recharge the spell to raise a shield)

I mean, the solution is simple:
If you spellstrike, treat any spell (for the main target only, if you have expansive spellstrike) as attack spell
gives the additional risk of wasting a spell, but if you hit, you do hit
and the enemy cant suddenly evade the reason why you effectively use 2 additional actions on that strike

Magus is literally just latin for a Mage
So with taldor in some parts looking rather italian
Mage is the modern word and Magus is old taldan

Might be different in other languages, never forget that while you use english for common, Golarion has a lot of different languages and even has discriptions for the sound of many of them

I always did have a feeling that Magi had a distinct space within the lore, as there is for example a specific accademy for Magi in Kyonin (I want to say near greengold but I am not sure, was 1e stuff and had a Magus archetype there Greensting...something)

But I can also imagine elves with their long lives and extensive study of magic having specific words for Magi, Wizards, Battlemages and other adjecent stuff

but then Ulfen probably just use'Mage' for all of them. Except the ones living in Irrisen because the winter witches prefer to be distinct.

Names for classes are always hard to pin down and in universe culture and languages do a lot of work on how they register for people.

As languages were mentioned I can tell a little anecdote about those on top:
In German:
-Wizards are Called Magier (more literal translated to Mage)
-Sorcerers are called 'Hexenmeister' (which is the male term for a 'master witch' or a master of witches depending on how you spin it) but they could be easily called Zauberer (linguistic sounds closer and is very discriptive - 'one who casts spells' )
-Witches are Hexen
-Warlocks (like in dnd 3.5) are called Hexer (which is a male version of witch, linguistically basically the witcher)
-I am calling whoever did the translations first a 'Vollpfosten' (litterally 'full pole/post', which is a german slang term for an idiot)

to find out what spells come from where you can go to archive of nethys, go to the spell page, filter for rare spells only and then look at the sources

This looks great and all but I think you forgot to tell why you are posting this

Hmmm...I do like the changes in general, but I think the changes in spellstrke should have gone one step further
as the proficiency doesnt scale, there is little benefit in using saving throw spells for spellstrike
otherwise I like the changes and the new stuff

I am not sure what kind of input do you want here, but those look functional
theres a tool for easily creating monsters and the like yourself that has similar condensed statblocks (still pre-remaster)

https://monster.pf2.tools/

That would be kinda cool
some new feats and alternate heritages
in my current campaign I improvised sa non-jistka automaton to play a living doll kinda character

would also make sense with the runescribe iconic being a backwards engineered automaton

are we really derailing into a 'no more evil' discussion?

Fine lets do this: (I put this in sub-points for anyone wanting to react to make it easier)

1) Saying things like that is really reductive. We have no alignment anymore but good and evil, order and chaos are clearly still things. I mean, there seems to be at least *SOME* sort of Karma involved that Pharasma and the Psychopomps use to assign the afterlife.

2) What we now have is an holy/unholy system which does not influence anyone, but if you get blessed or interact with aligned stuff often enough, it certainly racks up some karm in one of the two directions.

3) That does not mean that necromancy by default is unholy. Necromancy from the origin of the word is 'Speak with Dead', Seances and maybe a commune spell/ritual directed at ancestors. In the context of magic in pathfinder 2e it seems to be mostly the manipulation of life force - remember that pathfinder 2e before the remaster had heal tagged with necromancy?

4) There is a whole plane with rampant void energies out there, people can live there without having their sould smoldering or them all going to hell because of the ambient radiation. (Not saying that they are all healthy and there are certainly people like the Kayal who adapted and probably didnt have a very good time before)

5) Too much void energy seem still to influence the soul in some way, but it is fair to assume that the dosage of void energy in the creation of intelligent undead is on a whole different level as the minor levels from the netherworld that people seem to be able to shrug off more or less without big problems.

6) Most of the spells that summon or handle undead do not have the consecrated or unholy traits, which leads that while they are not exactly inherently nice, are probably also not exactly evil.

7) A necromancers thralls are created, last a minute and disperse. Compared to what happens in the gravelands that is hardly a drop in a full bucket

8) We do not have the final spell and its tags, but the animated thrall might work different then actual summoned/bound undead. Most necromancy so far seems to be domain of the divine, but as the Necromancer is an occult caster, things might look different here.

I notice I strayed a little from my initial starting point

tldr: there is good and evil, just no rules depiction; sanctification clears it up for some people, I dont think necromancers have to be evil or suffer a lot for their art (they certainly seem to have to learned advanced usage)

Hey people, you seem to not to be able to change each others mind
by now you sound both different degrees of petulant and thediscussion isn't getting anything out of it
maybe you should both take a nap and after that one of you opens a new threat 'Necromancy, Void Energy and being Evil (tm)'

and let the thread here return to the discussion about impossible magic without arguing about the setting metaphysics

On the one hand it's cool to have something which is hard to get rid of. On the other hand, each time characters are affected by some nasty curse I just have to introduce a way to get them a scroll of 4th rank Cleanse Affliction. And for cheap (or with instant compensation) as otherwise gold budget breaks if they even have the money. It's kind of annoying.

And I can't just leave a character mostly broken. Or simply dead. Don't think it's much fun.
Obviously it's for levels 1-6.

If you are so worried about a remove curse thing eating through the finances, they might be a little tight in the first place

But, as other mentioned before, there are enough ways around it, even though most of them are more on the storytelling site.

The most typical way would be that the party is send on a quest to retrieve the ingredient by a magical alchemist or something.

Second most typical way would be to get a priest of sufficient level to heal the character, either for doing a quest to earn it, or owning the priest/church in question a favor.
There is also the Saerenrae Church which makes a point out of never turning someone away who needs healing. A curse might be not classical healing, but I am sure they would be willing to help if a priest is of sufficient level (or the quest might be just to go to a specific temple/monastery where a more advanced priest/mage is living)

Of course, Rituals are always an option, a specified ritual might even be easy to execute - finding the 'how to' and the ingredients in turn, might also be a sidequest.

Of course, there is the mostly organisatory measure to tell the gm 'I dont enjoy stories where my character is too much tied down by curses and the like, please consider how the enemies picked influence the adventure in the long term'

monk standces are basically advanced two-handed weapons
very good profiles

if you play a monk you should take 2+ dex boosts at the start of the game

you start with expert proficiency in unarmed defense, thats +2 free AC
the two ways to use it:

if you take only 2 you are at the same defensive level as basically every martial and grow a little faster

if you take full 4 boosts you are ahead of the curve of every martial with champion and guardian at some point catching up (potentially getting slightly ahead on the cost of mobility)

and dont forget that your mobility can also be leveraged for defense, another strength of the monk

My guess would be pretty much post remaster
maybe they had vague concepts for the classes before
but with the OGL debacle and the pressure to remove themselves from dnd, a book to rewrite big parts of the magic lore kind of had to be done
but its not something does casually

the only line I am missing is 'Hey chat...!'

Those are just monikers for them. There can be overlap. If I had to throw my lot in with one of them I still would go to asmodeus

But generally, what was said is correct.
Asmodeus is the Prince of Darkness in the classical sense. The big daddy of almost all things (constructive) evil.
Zon-Kuthon is the ruler of the netherworld and the darkest urges of (some) people.

So they both can be decently fitting called that.

I wouldnt say its a shrödingers weapon situation

while I get where it comes from, it seems pretty clear to me

a fan is a fan and a fighting fan is a fighting fan

while the last one can fulfill the functions of the first, it is always a weapon

and the regular fan is usually mad eof light materials that are just not made to whack ot slice people with

Honestly, as a gm I would quickly put a stop to it as well

Argument: fighting fans need lots of movement and buckler, no matter how well made, is going to limit that (and make the grip on the fan worse, also the buckler is going to cover half the fan)

while RAW there is some wiggle room for shenanigans
Pathfinder is a system that values a certain degree of logic and RAI

while you are not at my table, I believe that many gms would argue similar and shut down attempts to play the rules like that (of course, there are always exceptions and I am sure some would be quite amused about it)after all, you are supposed to play the game, not the rules.

as a note in 3 parts
1) pathfinders strapped buckler is weird, those ar enot bucklers, those are a different kind of shield
2) it is historically correct to use the buckler hand at the same time for something else, there are even weapons that have a degree of inherent compatibility
3) I would personally actually allow the buckler hand to use quite a variety of objects and weapons, but fans are really not dimensioned in a way that makes sense to combine them with a buckler

It is not so much 20+20+5=45

it is more

25 dmg - 5 block = 20 dmg
apply final damage to shield *and* character

My favourite take on Iado which was successfully used at my table is:

Swashbuckler
If you have panache, your weapon is sheathed
attackes with panache is quickly unsheating, striking, re-sheathing
and finisher are the full powered anime-level iaido strikes

that being said, those feats look fun, very tactical

Suggestion for another item:
Sheathe of many swords - works like a throwers bandolier for iaijutsu
the rune is on the item and the last weapon drawn gets its effects
probably no recall action needed

Another note:
if the defense is too high, debuff the character

there are surely ways to make them clumsy, off-guard, sickened and other using one of the not-so good saves
especially off-guard is a really easy tool if you have a few more mooks

again, something that should not be done every combat, but can be used once in a while to make it easier for enemies to fight the optimized character

Tactical Drongo wrote:

Sir Belmont the Valiant, II wrote:

Have the (Boss) monster target the shield, it should be broken (-2 AC) after the first hit.

so the boss uses an action to invalidate a core of the players tactic

the player will be annoyed at the very least

And the judge is already annoyed, or DMchucky69 wouldn't be asking for advice. The judge has to enjoy the game as well, or what's the point of judging?

Quote:

even if pf would handle item attacking/damaging better then it does, if you just go in and snipe one of the core equipment parts, that would feel very bad for the player

You only have to do it once. Like the threat of death, an unusual set-back adds tension/suspense to the game.

Quote:

its basically the same as stealing the sword of a fighter or the alchemists satchel or a gunslingers rifle

always consider both sides of such an action

Which is different from Disarm how? (or Dispel Magic on the Haste?)

Throw the party a curve ball now and then.

you suggest that sounding like a standard tactic to deal with perceived high power of a character that is perfectly within the rule expectations

if the shield gets destroyed because the player deemed it better to use it, its fine, if it gets destroyed because the dm decides it is a problem it leaves a bad aftertasty
Can I trust the gm to leave me my fun or will my shield always get sniped whenever it is inconvenient for them?

It is a question of trust as much as of game design

a disarmed sword can be picked up, a destroyed shield that just gets sniped turn one is out until at least the next combat

dispelling haste is also a valid tactic - if it happens once in a while. But if it would happen every other combat or just every hard combat, it starts to feel like counterplay

of course you now and then have to play out the weaknesses of the players, just as much as you have to give them opportunity to shine with their strengths

The character uses the normal system math and is slightly optimized, which means most enemies still can hit them and if they fight against above party level threats they still gonna suffer
while pathfinder 2 is not a perfect system, its tight math is in questions of balance a very solid foundation. If a player reaches close to or the maximum ac for their level, it is perfecty fine. If nothing seems to be able to stop them, encounters must be made a bit harder

now and then disabling haste is valid, now and then disarming is valid, putting so much pressure on the tank that the shield breaks is valid

Sniping the shield of the frontline tank and circumventing raw and rai to do so will leave the players with any number of negative emotions

Have the (Boss) monster target the shield, it should be broken (-2 AC) after the first hit.

so the boss uses an action to invalidate a core of the players tactic

the player will be annoyed at the very least

even if pf would handle item attacking/damaging better then it does, if you just go in and snipe one of the core equipment parts, that would feel very bad for the player

its basically the same as stealing the sword of a fighter or the alchemists satchel or a gunslingers rifle

always consider both sides of such an action

that actually reminds me of an expanded dnd 3.5 class

The truespeaker - was a mage, but used a skill check instead of spellslots. Repeating the same spell on the same target within a short time increased the DC, but they were basically an all day caster.

Could easily be coupled to Class DC in 2e.

And that in turn reminds me on the expanded book incarnum, where basically magic 'juice' could be shaped into pseudo magic items that basically all had a cantrip or passive effect and a strong active spell like effect if you undo the 'item'.

I think people tried already to convert the shifter. The way pf2 handles its math and abilities, it should be theoretically, easy enough to pull off. Give abilities to shapeshift to get new attacks and traits and special actions.

Words of power was something I also found rather interesting,but is very hard to integrate as straightup alternative system. One would have to completely rework how the system interacts with spell slots.
On top of that, and probably the more pressing issue, is that you have to design a system that can encompass most of the spells already existing *and* then it would have to be updated with new words every few books
I never played a powerword caster, but the lack of updates was likely one of the biggest problems the class faced (outside of eventual balance problems, but pf1 and balance was a complicated relationship at best)

While I am also annoyed by the ammount of stuff that is coming for 5e instead of literally anything else

I have to say 2 things before we continue:

1. this might not be the entirely correct forum, but I am not sure because
2. please use a few paragraphs, a wall of text like that is really hard to parse

I had a long day today, but I am sure other people would be more willing to say something if that whole block got split up into a few smaller chunks that are easier to digest

Okay, not in detail read through all the posts but a few things to the world that can be said and are likely good to know:

1) Technology: Many parts of the world act on a high or late medieval technology level, there are exceptions. Alkenstar in the Mana Wastes and Ustalav hav basically reached Victorian/Steampunk/Clockpunk Tech level and stuff like that can be found in trade centers (like Absalom)

1.1) Guns: The general baseline assumption for guns in this world is cartrige based, break action, smoothbore guns - which is realistically the closest to the mechanical side of how they function

2) Recources: Golarion has a decent ammount of natural recources that can be found roughly where expected. The world also has access to recources in multiple ways that are not quite as natural.
Among other things there is a stable permanent portal to the plane of earth below oprak which grants virtually infinite access to stone and metal of all kinds. There are other places where the planar boundaries are thin and magic bleeding onto the material plane can influence the abundance and composition of recources. And sometimes a adamantine dragon flies by, scratches off some old carapace on a mountain side and leaves a adamantine deposit big enough to feed generations of people.
Theres also multiple giant cave systems, not easily accessible but there are entry points and settlements in there. Which makes trade to underground recources in the area easier.

3) Air travel: It is still rare and only availible in a few places. One of the simplest reasons why it is still rare is just what you find in the air: Next to birds you go hippogriffs, griffons, drakes in different sizes, real dragons, rocs, air elementals and the occassional outsider. Despire being above a lot of the usual trouble, travel is not neccessarily safer since the things that you meet that are dangerous are *very dangerous*
there is of course an argument that there are no sea serpents or krakens in the sky and you can meet giants virtually anywhere

4) Ancestries around the world: There is no real good rule of thumb here. Some settlements in some areas have actual population numbers, but things can easily skew in one way or another.
Imagine Taldor for example. Classical medieval area, many humans around.
But there is for example one big forest where fey are aplenty and druids live (mostly) peacefully. You can expect a village there to have a few more feytouched people or sprites then you would find in other places.
It can be very localized (and whatever your campaign needs) want a village full of tieflings Cambions? Someone has slain a big demon there about two decades ago. Bam, you got it.

5) Classes around the world: There is little guideline here. Usually you can just apply what seems logical to you, there are a few pointers though:
-The elves of Kyonin like to master magic, bow and sword, they likely have a higher level of magi then most others (theres even a specific magus academy in the country)
-Several nations have named big magic academies (Magaambya on Garund, Nex' magic academies, absalom) those will have, especially close to the places in question, more wizards and other mages, sometimes with specific archetypes and schools
-Technology and science based classes have the highest concentration in the mana wastes, ustalav and absalom as three of the prime centers of learning
-Rahadoum outlaws divine worship, you will have almost no divine casters there
-otherwise for divine classes you have to look at where the gods are worshipped and you will easily find points of origin

a few more general tips:

1) If you come from pathfinder 1e, treat this as a new system. You have to unlearn a whole lot anyway, easiest way of dealing with it is pretending its a new system - it virtually is

2) encounter level: no matter if you want a heist or a dungeon, there are two easy ways to set it: look at the level of the party or just set a level ton the place.
The first one is the safe way to make adequate challanges and encounters. There are some good hints for doing that.
The second one is more appropriate if you want to highlight something.
The party is mid level and tries to rob a small village? Well, they are going to have a bad time because if they dont have a retired adventure, they are likely to have just low level gard your party can oneshot (makes for a good show of how far they have come)
They want to rob the temple of abadar that also functions as bank with high security vaults in absalom? Good luck with that. They will have low level clerks, sure, but the guards are mid to high level with a few elites in between and magical countermeasures. They got the money and the right right clerics/wizards on their payroll, they can afford it.

3) Sustainability: As was said before, focus spells and the heal wounds skill are your new friends here. No more lugging around a fifty charge want of a minor heal spell because its just the cheapest option (never liked that anyway)
Everybody with some wisdom and proficiency in the medicine skill can somewhat reliable patch wounds
if you got the medic dedication or are a forensics investigator, even better and easier!
And focus spells can be used one per character every 10 minutes if you are left in peace, so out of combat healing is decent as soon as you got a champion or one of several other classes/archetypes

Came recently up in my campaign. One of the party members is a geniekin and theorized they might go to the elemental planes after they die instead of the 'regular' afterlife.
Which honestly would surprise me, but made me think.

So what happens if elementally hypercharged beings or straightup elementals dies?

a) they go to pharasma like everybody else
b) they go to the elemental planes and become (re-)incarnated as an elemental
c) something else that nobody at my table thought about

I implore Paizo
stick to what you do
Don't imitate those corporate drone buffoons who don't know the heart of their own game and are only successful because they appear everywhere

Thank you, thats all

I'm honestly surprised by the lack of unarmed support in the daredevil (either innately or through feats), since it clearly borrows from the 1e brawler in some aspects and there's clear inspiration from action heroes like Van Damme or Jackie Chan as well.

I think the class should have the monk's Powerful Fist ability and few unique stances as well.

hmmm...how about an ability instead that takes all those crappy d4 brawling weapons (yup, just checked, ther is not a single brawling weapon in the AoN that has more then d4) and gives them an extra die size (and maybe a little something on top like the grapple trait if they are simple)

This again? I found that already horrible back with the inventor
when the inventing and crafting class never gets an upgrade to the class skill
and for these guys its even more important

I played the first games of the series and I think Clank is much better represented by either a clockwork familiar, possibly using familiar master
since he rarely got a fighting role and usually was more a support for ratchet

another possibility, more for dual class alternate rules, would be to combine the summoner and inventor

Another fun fact about the Rogue Ruffien
if you somehow get a natural weapon with a decent attack
he makes a great wrestler
grabbing makes the enemy off-guard, which means you can make a suplex - as a sneak-attack

alchemical ammunition is made as a single bullet
there is afaik no official ruling as of yet for how singular bullets interact with magazines
also note that many alchemical and magical ammunition has an action to activate it which makes it with a firearm (or another reload weapon) that you need one action to load and one to activate (which makes them a action inefficient choice anyway)

thinking logicly (which I know not always applies) weapons with a magazine probably have no point to really enter special ammunition, so that would mean going ahead and out of combat removing a regular shot and then filling it with the special ammunition in question, which would make the loading of the ammo just part of loading the magazine, but of course comes with the disadvantage of having less flexibility in its use

For investigator the palantine eye archetype/secret society which dabbles more in supernatural might be worth mentioning

Berselius wrote:

Quick question somewhat related to the original question: Has any Demon Lord stepped up to replace Nocticula as the Demon Queen of Lust and Succubi?

Shamira might be the next in line, but we haven't done much to expand on this yet.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed that she was not listed in Divine Mysteries.

Tactical Drongo wrote:

My bigest worry about the reprint of magus is that spellstrike will not be updated *enough*

interaction with save spells is awkward and we have a notibly diminished number of attack spells

I advocated for it before, but I will do so again:
I think a successful (critical) hit with a spellstrike should cause the corresponding (critical) failure in a save spell

I dont mind if the spell just goes kaputt in case of a missed attack, that would be the disadvantage of the otherwise improved action economy

(If that wont be the case I will certainly homebrew it for my tables, but the current state of spellstrike feels just awkward)

I think the problem there is that it would allow much higher rates of applying the game's nastiest effects- things like Dominate or Slow, where a critical failure means being more or less out of the fight or worse.

Then they need to make some other limitation on top

there are ways to work around it
some more efficient then others, but I am sure one could come up with *something*

My bigest worry about the reprint of magus is that spellstrike will not be updated *enough*

interaction with save spells is awkward and we have a notibly diminished number of attack spells

I advocated for it before, but I will do so again:
I think a successful (critical) hit with a spellstrike should cause the corresponding (critical) failure in a save spell

I dont mind if the spell just goes kaputt in case of a missed attack, that would be the disadvantage of the otherwise improved action economy

(If that wont be the case I will certainly homebrew it for my tables, but the current state of spellstrike feels just awkward)

the big advantage good has over evil
while azata, agathion and angels dont neccessarily agree on their methods, their ultimate goals are similar so they can often enough set their differences (sometimes grudgingly) aside

while demons, daemons, devils and qlippoths is just a battle royale

Okay, my view on things as someone who loves to experiment with builds and gamemasters a lot

1) Medium armor is good, light also, if your campaign goes high level, picking up heavy armor with a feat is a misinvestment as heavy gives you +1 ac over medium, -5ft movementspeed but your proficiency lacks behind by -2

1.1) Light armor has the advantage of being cheaper in the early levels and giving a better saving throw, heavy armors can compensate for that but you need an archetype to really use them properly

2) as said before, tower shields and similar are too action intensive (and possibly slow you down), you are going to be action starved anyway and likely have to use your focus spell for shield raising (or at least want to do that as often as possible for the action economy)
Thhe best shield for most characters is the standard steel shield

3) imaginary weapon is arguibly the strongest spell you can regulary use for your spellstrike, in fact is so good that there are people forbidding the archetype for your class wwith houserules and there are rumors of possible spell nerfs

4) Spellstrike is build with attack spells in mind, we do have enough of those but just in case you should check with your gm on how he rules expansive spellstrike in particular, using the spellstrike to deliver a saving throw spell is not quite as effective in the current ruling, but the system has a certain leaning towards those

5) I would advise against the guardian archetype *except* you get specifically the shield raise taunt
the taunt is a great teamwork skill, but as magus you have no need for dozens of alternate options, one or two are good, but you still have cantrips, a shield to raise and other stuff to do, so many players I know try to avoid getting to many extra action options, since we rarely have the actions anyway

I guess the easiest way to use it actually would be to reflavor some free hand simple d4 weapon as hoof attachment which of course would not really be an advantage for steelhooves
but the contrarian is technically right that unarmed attacks are not weapons

I'm relatively new to the Pathfinder universe and I've been doing a lot of research on Nocticula and Shelyn for an upcoming campaign since they overlap as patrons of art/artist and just curious what others may think. It seems to me like Shelyn's focus is more on technical perfection and conventional beauty when it comes to art and Nocticula focuses more on the artists themselves and on unconventional artworks. So I guess my question is more on the nuances between the two and what might be considered under whose purview since art is so subjective. I also haven't seen much on the relationship between these two given this overlap.

Two deities having similar or even the same areas of concern is not a rarity

or two major sun deities (Desna in Avistan, Shizuru in the Dragon empires)

Overlaps can happen even for big things - it is more that they are linked to the underlying concept of those things, enabling them to tap into the power (via domains, for example)

There are also deities and fiends who are worshipped on differnt planets
their domains certainly dont give them unique authority in those places too

In universe, the divine energies are complicated aligned, so the most surprising things can be either unique, or be around multiple times as area of concern for multiple gods

(which also in turn makes it easy to think up your own homebrew gods and inject them into the setting)

consider also this: the high grade of duskwood is probably the heartwood, so to be able to cut a tree you need to get a tool with at least 8, possibly more hardness
which leaves mostly skymetals and high quality alloys where an ingot of 1 bulk (possibly the heft of a lumberaxe head) costs between 6000 and 9000 gold and which are often hard to work or have downsides using them

so to get that on a 'big scale', which is still restricted to mostly 1 big forest on 1 continent in the whole world, which on top is guarded by fey, werewolves, (magical) beasts and other stuff
you need to invest tens of thousands of gold, just for the tools
then pay the guards that deal with the creatues
possibly get silver and cold iron equipment for them which also costs a ton of money
and then you still need to find a market for that stuff which relies on a likely limited number of craftspeople who can even work those materials and likely need those skymetal tools for themselves too, so likely veterans of the business or people who inherited presttigious workshops

the terming of extracting duskwood on a 'big scale' must be weighed carefully
the upfront investment alone makes it a business that, even with such prices, needs a while to pay back
every tree taken from the duskwood takes probably hours on an end before even transport

Dragon disciple is back? neat

now I can put more dragon in my dragon by playing a Kobold with Dragonblood heritate, picking additional draconic kobold feats, be a draconic sorcerer with draconic acolyte archetype
with ancestral paragon I can take up even more draconic racial feats
with dual classing or free archetype I can take up a dragonstyle monk or draconic barbarian
and I am sure I will find some sort of dragon worshipper background

make way dnd, if I go dungeoneering I am fitting in more dragon per square cube then you ever could

why would it be an aura otherwise?

the transcendence specifically states 'one ally within 15ft.' not referencing the aura
and with the aura being irrelevant for transendence it must be for the immanence which also states that allies are protected