Taja the Barbarian's page

The biggest 'mechanical' issue would probably be the 'casting arcane spells generates heat, doubling any chance of Arcane Spell Failure you might have' rule: With ASF no longer a thing, I guess this just becomes a flavor thing for the most part???

On the plus side, the way magic is split in PF2e seems to line up very nicely with the setting, with Divine spells for Deity worshipers, Primal spells for Titan worshipers, and Occult spells for those touched by the Slarecians (okay, the last one isn't quite as alien as classic psionic powers, but we work with what we have).

Taja the Barbarian wrote:

I should probably add that the vast majority of beings in most campaign worlds should have no idea how many hours are in a day

Around about 800 CE in Western Europe, villages would have time marked by the church (bells probably) for services. (This tradition goes back much earlier but I don't know the history of it)

Vaguely from memory:

prime (1st hr of daylight)
terce (3rd)
sext (6th or noon)
none (9th)
vespers
compline
matins?

etc

They had water clocks and sundials, and other such devices, so villagers would know the time. That lone hermit in woods, maybe not.

Mechanical clocks became available around 1300 CE.

Golarion's tech base varies; Absalom is Victorian and steampunky, the less advanced parts are at least 900 CE from their armor and weapons.

Of course, worlds don't have to invent things in the same order. And Golarion is a fantasy world.

But sundials are canonical in golarion and almost every village paizo makes has a temple acting as community hub.

Three hour 'bells' aren't particularly useful: Weather permitting, pretty much anyone can already tell if it is Dawn, Mid-morning, Noon, Mid-afternoon, or Dusk. Bells are only really useful if society decides they need a level of time coordination for some reason (like a call to prayer from a mosque).

My point is people won't have watches or smartphones and as a result their lives are unlikely to be closely scheduled to the point that exact hours and minutes really matter.

The big point is my second item: I don't think we actually know how many hours are in a Golarion day, nor do we likely care. Like currencies, this will probably vary from culture to culture, so the game just presents them in the way easiest for the players to understand (a gold piece is a gold piece, and our day has 24 hours so we'll just use that for the rules). Ironically, switching the rules to decimal time will probably just add chaos to lawful-themed world as players will likely need to manually translate this back into the 24 hour clock they are familiar with.

I'll add that the basic Magic Rules were out before they came back to work on Magic Item Body Slots(MIBS) which now set what melds and where you have a choice.

Fungoid/Fungal Creature template is good for "blighted" archetype.

Unless I am missing something (which I easily might be), these rules only define which items a creature can wear and doesn't override the general 'When you cast a polymorph spell that changes you into a creature of the animal, dragon, elemental, magical beast, plant, or vermin type, all of your gear melds into your body' rule: All your equipment is still absorbed when you take one of these forms, even if you could actually use that item slot...

I should probably add that the vast majority of beings in most campaign worlds should have no idea how many hours are in a day: Without widespread access to fairly modern mechanical clocks, pretty much no one will actually know exactly what time it is and most won't really care as society can't really be built around something that doesn't really exist, so sunrise, noon, and sunset (along with high tide and low time for mariners) will be the key events your life revolves around.

The time units in the books are just for the convenience of the players, and the actual characters likely have little idea (or care) how long an hour is (beyond maybe an hourglass item or how long a specific candle burns)...

Generally speaking, games don't mess with 'time' like this because it can make the game more difficult for players to easily grasp by eliminating a common frame of reference: People are very familiar with 24 hours per day / 365 days (roughly) per year and using a different system can add some confusion and/or annoyance.

Additionally, you'll probably want some sort of intermediary unit to replace the 'hour' in common use: A 50 minute block would be best, but it seems like your world would probably use a more unwieldy 100 minute block.

Mechanically, the general issues are:
a) Decimals don't handle fractions very well: 24 very neatly divides into thirds, quarters, and sixths while decimals do not.
b) Shorter days will lead to 'less productivity' for longer-term projects as there is just less time to work on anything: A project or trip that normally takes '7 days' to complete should now take '10 decimalized days' instead.

Offhand, I'd say the Commune with Spirits feature sets a minimum casting time, so any spell that normally takes a minute or longer to cast isn't really affected.

Commune with Spirits (Sp): Instead of relying on alchemical research to find clues, a spiritualist relies on communion with the world beyond death. At 1st level, a spiritualist gains the ability to use comprehend languages, detect secret doors, and identify, but each has a casting time of 1 minute, as the spiritualist needs to consult with the spirits of the dead that dwell in his area or that are somehow attached to him in some way. The spiritualist can use this ability a number of times per day equal to his investigator level + his Wisdom modifier.

As he goes up in level, the spiritualist gains the ability to use other spells with the casting time as above. At 5th level, he can use augury. At 7th level, he can use speak with dead and locate object. At 9th level, he can use legend lore. Each of these requires one use of this ability.

This ability replaces alchemy. A spiritualist cannot take the alchemist discovery talent or any investigator talent that affects alchemy.

For anyone interested, this is just the infamous TROLLEY PROBLEM.

I know that this is a Pathfinder 1e thread, but did Pathfinder 2e address any of these problems?

A little bit: PF2e casters are generally less powerful, and some of the more 'world altering' spells (like teleports) are uncommon so GMs are supposed to actively allow access to them rather than just hope players don't take them.

BotBrain wrote:

I don't think this is a contradiction, really. We could have the same conversation about why a legendary in athletics can't jump 1000 feet in the air unaided, or a legendary in survival can't forage when there is literally nothing around. Some things just aren't possible with skills, and attempting to calm an animal that is in active danger (against a dragon no less) is one of those.

Is is really impossible when there is literally a level 1 skill feat to reduce panic of creatures? This exact feat is diplomacy instead of nature but you get the idea. And yes, my PC has +30 diplomacy.

Generally speaking, the point of a skill feat like Tame Animal is to let you do something you can't otherwise do.

If you have the feat, you can tame a non-hostile animal.
If you don't have the feat, you can't.

You are combining two items individually banned by PFS (Synthesist and Divine Fighting Technique / Desna's Shooting Star) for the issues they can cause: Taking just one of these should be a 'red flag' for your GM.

This is likely less an issue of 'right and wrong' or 'order of operations' for your GM and more a question of 'is this build likely to ruin the game?' Building a mono-stat character can be entertaining, but can end up making the game less fun for other players if you step on too many toes by being a caster, the face, the tank, and a big melee damage dealer all at the same time...

Just to be clear, most of the spells you are complaining about go back at least as far as AD&D1e in the late 70's and probably back to the earliest versions of Basic D&D, so you are kinda complaining that water is wet...

PCs have very similar issues: In our AD&D2e campaign back in the early 90s (using a lot of AD&D1e adventures), I found that by the time my thief finally got his hands on a ring of invisibility, pretty much EVERYTHING could see through it one way or another...

Taja the Barbarian wrote:

Zepheri wrote:

...

Second the spell elemental for express that you ASSUME a element and gain they special ability something that other polymorph don't give so here they express that you gain the earth glide,burn ect.
Third you are transform into a elemental so you gain the following elemental so you don't have to breath as you earth glide
...

Actually, no: You don't get the Type, Subtype, or any trait granted by them that is not listed in the spell text or base polymorph rules, which is why the higher level versions of Elemental Body have to spell out the specific elemental immunities granted.

'Assume the form' is a pretty standard phrase for polymorph effects, also used in the Beast Shape, Fey Form, Giant Form, Monstrous Physique, and Undead Anatomy spells.

If what he says is true, then the Ranger's favorite enemy and similar abilities like Horizon Walker's mastery wouldn't activate, even though according to you Whether they take elemental or animal form, they are still considered humanoid.

Correct: The important thing to remember about polymorph spells/effects is that you get EXACTLY what it says on the tin (or in this case, the specific spell text and the Polymorph subschool rules): No more, and no less.

You may have the appearance and a few abilities of an elemental, but you are still just an organic poser at heart...

For context, Polymorph spells were potentially very overpowered in D&D3.x if you picked the right form (Alter Self + Troglodyte for its +6 natural armor was a personal 'low level' favorite of my Battle Sorcerer, plus a hat of disguise to retain her normal appearance) and were significantly modified in PF1 to keep them remotely balanced.

Hello knowledgeable people.

We came across a situation concerning Wild Shape PF 1st Ed.
Our Druid and GM feel that a Wild shape into an Earth Elemental and using Earth glide, the character cannot see while underground, does not know direction (North South Etc) and cannot breath while under ground. Given situation an Item has been buried under old foundations we need to find.
The argument is that the rules do not state under Elemental body that they can beath, know direction or see, so therefore cannot search a grid and the player has to cast life bubble or similar to remain underground for a duration like drowning.

He is able to Wild shape higher than 3rd level as he is level 10 Druid.
My thoughts are If you change to a fish you can see breath swim how does the natural medium terrain is different.

Thankyou

Okay, let's hit this point by point:

• A druid wildshaped into an Earth elemental does still need to breathe.
• The Polymorph subschool rules do grant polymorphers in a form with a Burrow speed the ability to breathe while doing so, and Earth Glide comes into play 'When the creature burrows' so the druid is in no danger of suffocating.

Senses Underground:

• The only special sense granted in Earth Elemental form is darkvision 60 feet, so the Druid is effectively blind and presumably has the use the 'groping' rules to find anything: 'A blinded creature can grope about to find unseen creatures. A character can make a touch attack with his hands or a weapon into two adjacent squares using a standard action. If an unseen target is in the designated square, there is a 50% miss chance on the touch attack. If successful, the groping character deals no damage but has pinpointed the unseen creature’s current location. If the unseen creature moves, its location is once again unknown.'
• Keep in mind that the Druid presumably doesn't know how deeply the item is buried, so this is going to end up as a three-dimensional search area, which will likely complicate everything.
• Also, determining if you actually found the 'correct item' is a bit questionable, as lots of thing could end up under the foundations of a building.
• The ability to cast Know Direction to help navigate is a GM's call, but if you are searching in three dimensions, knowing where north is won't help you determine how deep you are.

Recovering the item

• As noted in another post, there is no explicit rule on if a being using Earth Glide can carry an object they find along the way, which makes it a GM's call.
• Presumably, you could just Burrow without using Earth Glide to dig your way out with the item.
• If the GM rules you can't actually pick the item up, you could presumably just head 'straight up' and get folks digging straight down from your emergence point (assuming the whole point isn't to recover the item without clearing the area's inhabitants first).

My questions from a player perspective:

• Is this item actually intended to be recovered?
• If so, are you skipping or ignoring the intended recovery process/adventure?
• If not, were any steps taken to prevent Earth Glide or similar shortcuts from working in the area?

...

Second the spell elemental for express that you ASSUME a element and gain they special ability something that other polymorph don't give so here they express that you gain the earth glide,burn ect.
Third you are transform into a elemental so you gain the following elemental so you don't have to breath as you earth glide
...

Actually, no: You don't get the Type, Subtype, or any trait granted by them that is not listed in the spell text or base polymorph rules, which is why the higher level versions of Elemental Body have to spell out the specific elemental immunities granted.

'Assume the form' is a pretty standard phrase for polymorph effects, also used in the Beast Shape, Fey Form, Giant Form, Monstrous Physique, and Undead Anatomy spells.

A miithral chain shirt is not the only option for a high DEX character. Dark Leaf studded leather would also be a good choice. It has a lower armor bonus but a higher max DEX bonus and is even cheaper. Parade Armor has the same stats as studded leather so that could also work.

While Dark Leaf armors are an option, they are never better (AC + Max Dex is never better than 10 for special material light armors), often worse (Dark Leaf Studded Leather is worse AC until 24 dexterity), and aren't really much cheaper (775g vs 1100g) than the classic Mithril Shirt: There is a reason this item has its own full 'magic armor (but not really)' entry.

I have occasionally used Dark Leaf Lamellar(leather) to save a tiny bit of gold (though I'm uncertain if that combo is even legal) at low levels, but that was for characters that weren't actually pushing Dexterity to the limit and mainly wanted to save weight and eliminate armor check penalties.

Parade Armor might be the answer to the OP problem. Parade armor has no real defined look or even material. The description allows the armor to be nearly anything the player wants. There is no reason parade armor could not leave the chest bare to satisfy the aesthetics of the spartan armor from the movie.

Yeah, going to be kinda hard to convince people that a ceremonial loin cloth protects like a full suit of studded leather armor (exact same stats across the board): Even giving it the stats of an Armored Kilt would probably be generous.

Addendum:
The 'best' light armor option for anyone not pushing dexterity to the max is Mithril Agile Breastplate with its +6 armor and +5 Dex cap: 'Taja the Bloodrager*' used a set of this armor through almost the entirety of the last PF1e Runelord AP and it served her very well as she would actually hit dexterity 20 once she got the 'Transformation spell while raging' buff. It is, of course, more expensive at 4,400g and not really relevant to the OP's question...

*The fourth (and likely final) incarnation of Taja, and the only one to make it past 3rd level without the campaign falling apart...

The action economy seems pretty poor here, as you need to spend a full round action after you cast the original illusion spell. As such, this really seems to be more of a 'out of combat' general utility power to perhaps create food, water, or some piece of equipment you don't normally carry with you.

A non-magical mithril shirt costs the same as a wand of mage armor (50 uses) plus 14 scrolls of mage armor (64 total uses). Potion is a bit more expensive if your party has no magic users or UMD capables.

Mithril shirt would need to be +2 at level 1 to help in this scenario, +3 at level 5ish (+2 dex belt), +4 at level 8, +5 at level 11. None of those are plausible. Note that a Nimble Mithril Shirt does slightly better in these scenarios, but not enough that it would ever be the optimized use of your Wealth.

64 charges will be used up in a mere 4 days if you want protection from 'unplanned encounters' (ambushes or random encounters) during that time, and even that leaves you basically unprotected while sleeping. Additionally, 'Urban' ragers can boost their Dexterity up pretty high, but probably not for every encounter (at least at lower levels) and they don't naturally sync with 'dex to dmg' options either, so it will typically take a few levels for such a character to actually be effective (High AC plus low damage output leads to longer fights, which means more rounds of rage spent).

An 'all day long' 24 Dexterity isn't likely until level 8-ish, at which point you probably have access to +2 armors that push the 'no armor is generally better' to 28 Dexterity, which might be level 16-ish, by which point your armor enchants have probably gone up to +4 or so. You could take the gold you didn't spend on armor enchants and get rings/amulets, but the exponential pricing of magic items means you just can't keep up with an armor wearer who is also seeking AC (8k gold can get you +2 armor, a +1 ring, and a +1 amulet, or just a +2 ring).

Mithril Shirts are still pretty valuable, even for high dexterity builds, but starting with a 20 Dex probably means you dumped strength, possibly to the point that even this lightweight armor is just too much for you to wear...

On a separate note, I mentioned in an earlier post that a 'shield and no armor' style would be fairly common in warmer climates, but what you aren't likely to find is the 'shield and loincloth' look the OP is seeking, as such a warrior would likely be incapacitated by sunburn...

Not really relevant to this game, but I seem to recall D&D5e Barbarians getting a 'add your Con Mod to AC if you aren't wearing armor' option while still being able to use a shield: I recall seeing posts about how broken this was, which always boiled down to 'we rolled for stats instead of using the default arrays and the Barbarian player rolled obscenely well...'

Mechanically, this is likely the best fit you are going to get for a 'Snyder Spartan' build, but you need good stats to make it work (not quite as MAD as a monk, but you still need all your physical stats to be really good).

Alternately, PF2e Monk with Mountain Stance would fit decently if the attack restriction were altered.

Again, I know I can just decide to use a shield and no armor on a character that could use armor, but what I'm looking for is any mechanical reasons to make that choice.

Like is it possible to get your dex up high enough that it's better to not use armor because of the max dex? (pretty sure the answer is no, it's not, especially as a fighter with the max dex cap increase)

And again, this is based on heroic imagery, not real armored hoplite, but the fantastical artist depiction of the heroic nude that was prevalent in Greco-Roman art. Because this is a fantasy game. Not a reality game.

The 'spear, shield, and no armor' image just isn't mechanically supported in PF1, which is a 'western medieval fantasy (with some far eastern options)' game at heart: Warriors without armor would probably be very common in a more African or middle-eastern* setting where heatstroke would be much more dangerous than any foe's attack, but it's just pretty hard to mechanically balance 'knights in full plate' vs. 'warriors in a loin-cloth' without breaking one or both options...

*Ironically, the 'no armor' style would have actually been very common with Sparta's foes from the Persian empire, which stretched from modern Iran to Egypt and Türkiye.

It seems to me that 'damage on a miss' systems can go one of two ways:

• The damage is insignificant, which makes it more annoying to track than actually helpful, or
• The damage is significant, which makes fights shorter and more brutal for both PCs and Foes.

This sounds like a second edition question: I've flagged it to be moved.

Teridax wrote:

IIRC, Mark Seifter, one of PF2e's co-creators, initially wanted to integrate Strikes more fully into the game's four degrees of success via a glancing blow mechanic. Effectively, you'd still deal damage on a failure (but not a critical failure), dealing something like minimum damage or the damage you'd do minus damage dice, which classes like the Barbarian could have then enhanced by doing stuff like ignoring resistance.

I remember this talk. I believe he said you did 1 point per dice on a miss (i.e. minimum danmage as you said), and for this reason the barbarian had a small DR so they could fight all day whereas the fighter could not.

He said they cancelled it because it took long to keep marking hit points.

With VTT-first design, this could be usable.

Minimum Attack Damage on a miss strikes me as way too powerful at low levels when you are probably only rolling one damage die anyway: Doing 1d6+4 on a hit and 5 on a miss means you really don't care too much if you end up missing, as you very easily could have rolled minimum damage and you likely only lost 2-3 damage on average. It gets a bit worse with larger damage dice, but you still reasonably could have rolled that low on an actual hit...

Even at endgame, 'minimum damage on a miss' is only slightly weaker:
An endgame shortsword thief would probably still do about half normal damage on a miss: 21 damage versus rolling 8d6+13 (41 avg).
An endgame Fighter with a 1d12 weapon would be a little bit behind the thief (the system does favors 'twice as many dice of half the size') but still doing roughly half damage: 19 vs. 4d12+15 (41 avg).

Yeah, you're going to have to provide a bit more context if you want actually useful advice:

• Any particular reason you want this specific combination?
• What sort of point buy are you working with?
• What do you actually want the character to do?

Taja the Barbarian wrote:

Zepheri wrote:

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

Intensify Spell only adds +5d10 not 10d10.

The reason I take 10d10 instead of 5d10 is because the mythic fireball using 2 mythic power change the spell to 20d10 Wich can be seen as 2d10/level

And thank you for explaining me the furious metamagic

The second mythic boost just changes the level cap from 10 to 20: You still only do 1d10 per caster level.

Mythic Fireball wrote:

Source Mythic Adventures pg. 94

The damage dealt increases to 1d10 points of fire damage per caster level (maximum 10d10). Any creature that fails its Reflex saving throw catches on fire (Core Rulebook 444), taking 2d6 points of fire damage each round until the fire is extinguished. Attempts to extinguish this fire use the spell’s save DC.

Augmented (6th): If you expend two uses of mythic power, the maximum damage increases to 20d10, the area increases to a 40-foot radius spread, and any fire damage dealt by the spell bypasses fire resistance and fire immunity.

This effectively makes Intensified Spell (Metamagic) useless for you unless your caster level is above 20, as it would just increase the level cap from 20 to 25.

Thank for the clarification, but I don't have problem with reaching cl 25 I have magic knack arcanist that improve my cl to 20, have a ioun wyrd with the ioun stone that improve my cl +1, have spell specialization in fireball and have my arcane reservoir with the potent magic exploit

Then it should probably be something along the lines of:

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

Intensify Spell only adds +5d10 not 10d10.

The reason I take 10d10 instead of 5d10 is because the mythic fireball using 2 mythic power change the spell to 20d10 Wich can be seen as 2d10/level

And thank you for explaining me the furious metamagic

The second mythic boost just changes the level cap from 10 to 20: You still only do 1d10 per caster level.

Source Mythic Adventures pg. 94

The damage dealt increases to 1d10 points of fire damage per caster level (maximum 10d10). Any creature that fails its Reflex saving throw catches on fire (Core Rulebook 444), taking 2d6 points of fire damage each round until the fire is extinguished. Attempts to extinguish this fire use the spell’s save DC.

Augmented (6th): If you expend two uses of mythic power, the maximum damage increases to 20d10, the area increases to a 40-foot radius spread, and any fire damage dealt by the spell bypasses fire resistance and fire immunity.

This effectively makes Intensified Spell (Metamagic) useless for you unless your caster level is above 20, as it would just increase the level cap from 20 to 25.

So at first glance, I'm seeing Caster Level 18 (Arcanist + Dragon Disciple), which means you are doing 18d10 base +100% (Empower + Channel Power) + 6 (Furious) + 36 (bloodlines) = 36d10 + 42 damage (78 - 402).

Mithril does not have a specific pricing for Weapons, so you use the weapon's weight to calculate it, which will vary with size. Traditionally speaking, Mithril weapons aren't something you would ever see, so they presumably forgot to include the specific weapon pricing for it.

Singing Steel does have a specific pricing for Weapons, so you just use this for all small and medium size weapons. There is no price reduction for small sized weapons.

For weapons that aren't small or medium, I believe you add the material adjustment to the base weapon price before applying the odd size adjustments, but this might be a PFS specific rule...

The '5 pound' requirement is for an item you are actually wielding that isn't a weapon or shield:

'When WIELDING a singing steel weapon, shield, or item weighing at least 5 pounds, or wearing medium or heavy singing steel armor...'

I believe previous delves into this question concluded that you only need to meet the new feat prerequisites now, so you can replace your 1st level feat (assuming nothing else you have depends on it) with a feat you didn't actually qualify for at 1st level but do now.

I don't like this myself, but that's the way the rules are written...

What do you actually see this character doing? Between this and your previous thread, you've been very reluctant to elaborate on what exactly you want this character to do. You mention Rikimaru from Tenchu' as your inspiration, but please assume your readers have never heard of this character*...

*I have no personal knowledge of this character, but a quick google search brought up the following AI text 'His main weapon is a sacred short sword named Izayoi, passed down by his master' which would seem to support a Thief build rather than a Ruffian. Of course, this is based on an AI generated response, which might be complete nonsense...

Secondly, be prepared for disappointment: Generally speaking, characters from movies or video games don't translate over into TTRPGs very well. Pathfinder adventures are based around a group of players that rely on each other to succeed, while movie and video game characters tend more toward a single unstoppable protagonist who can somehow handle everything by themself.

Before they get access to Gang Up at level 6, it can be tricky for a rogue to get your foe off-guard, and playing in PFS probably isn't helping your teamwork as you are presumably playing with a different team each week. At low levels, keep in mind that 1d6 one-handed weapon + 1d6 Sneak Attack (avg 7.0) isn't really a lot better than 1d10 two-handed weapon (avg 5.5) so putting yourself into a vulnerable position to get a sneak attack might not be a great idea (though the improved accuracy is always nice).

As a low level Avenger, I'm guessing you'd largely need to forget about using Hunt Prey outside of a 'solo' monster that will probably take a couple of rounds to defeat: The extra action to designate a target probably isn't worth it on 'trash'...

As a low level Ruffian, you probably want to take a flanking position when convenient but not worry too much about it outside of boss fights.

Once you get Gang Up, melee sneak attacks get pretty easy to make with the slightest cooperation from the rest of your party, but Ruffians are still only looking at an average boost of 1.5 damage per weapon die as you generally get an additional sneak attack die around the same time you get another weapon die.

• Rogue(Ruffian) with Katana (one handed): Gets Sneak Attack against an off-guard foe
• Rogue(Ruffian) with Katana (two handed): Does not get Sneak Attack
• Rogue(Avenger) with Katana (either grip): Gets Sneak Attack against an off-guard 'designated prey' assuming you worship an appropriate deity.
• Ranger(Precision) with Katana (either grip): Gets slightly better precision damage (d8s instead of d6s) on your 'designated prey', but only once per round.

Ranger(Precision) is probably the easiest build to pull off but the action economy will likely be annoying and you'd be giving up on all those rogue goodies (like all the skills) so it might not really 'feel' like a Ninja. Also, Ranger feat options tend to lean more toward ranged attacks and dual-wielding than two-handed melee weapon wielding.
Rogue(Avenger) combines the action economy issues of Hunt Prey with the off-guard requirement of sneak attack, but rogues do have a lot of 'off-guard' options available to them. Will do more damage than the Ranger build if you hit your designated prey more than once per round.
Rogue(Ruffian) is far easier on your action economy but doesn't get to combine the two-handed d10 weapon die with Sneak Attack.

To Clarify:

The Katana has the [Two-Hand 1d10] trait:

Source Player Core pg. 283

This weapon can be wielded with two hands to change its weapon damage die to the indicated value. This change applies to all the weapon’s damage dice.

This gives the Katana a d10 weapon die when wielded in two hands, and therefore not eligible for sneak attacks from a Ruffian as their text specifies that you make die size adjustments before determining sneak attack viability:

Source Player Core pg. 166

You prefer the direct approach: strong-arming or intimidation. You might be an enforcer for organized crime, a highway bandit, or a noble who bullies others with threats of your family's power.
You use whatever tools you have at hand to get the job done. You can deal sneak attack damage with any weapon, not just the weapons listed in the sneak attack class feature. This benefit doesn't apply to a simple weapon with a damage die greater than d8 or a martial or advanced weapon with a damage die greater than d6. (Apply any abilities that alter the damage die size first.) Critical hits you make with these weapons gain the weapon's critical specialization benefit if the target is off-guard to you.

You're trained in Intimidation and medium armor. You can choose Strength as your key attribute. When you gain light armor expertise, you also gain expert proficiency in medium armor, and when you gain light armor mastery, you also gain master proficiency in medium armor.

A Ruffian wielding a Katana in one hand can sneak attack, but not if wielding it in both hands.

...

It is actually NOT problematic at all as real world ninja used katana or weapons like this, and they certainly wore at least some armor.

'Real World Ninja' were most likely spies and assassins, neither of which would typically wield such a large and obvious weapon when a far smaller and concealable one would do the job just as well. The 'traditional ninja sword' is supposed to be the Ninjatō (Shortsword), though there is apparently zero historical evidence of this weapon actually existing...

Does the initial spell have to be single target, or can it be one person affected by a multi-target spell? If the latter, consider Hunter’s Blessing.

Hunter's Blessing has a 1 hour / level duration, making it a poor option as it already lasts an entire adventuring day before even considering using a Pearl of Power or Extend Spell metamagic.

Honestly, I'd probably disregard any spell with a 10 minute / level duration (like Freedom of Movement) as they will generally last an entire adventuring session already, making them a somewhat poor use of a Mythic ability.

Angelic Aspect is a bit weak: The fly speed is pretty nice, the Darkvision & Low-light vision will depend on your character's species (and possible magic items), the DR is horrible (at least when fighting demon armies), the resistances aren't particularly good, and you are going to want an actual holy weapon if you intend to actually attack in this AP. The 'Greater' version looks like a much better option with its aura and outright immunities, but won't come into play until the very end of the AP (I remember my oracle hitting 18 at the end of the 5th module).

Antilife Shell is, as I posted last year, a truly horrible option that will hurt you far more than it might possibly help.

True Seeing is a decent if somewhat situational option: It won't come into play too often, but actually having it up when you need it is very nice.

Death Ward is also highly situational: It probably won't come into play in most sessions, but will be huge when it actually does.

Sorta reviving this post.

Does Esoteric Magic give access to Alchemical Extracts?

Extracts, while operating like spells in many ways, are not actually spells.

Okay, I made the mistake of assuming Krune created the spear that bears his name, but the wiki states is was actually crafted by Xin, presumably between his appointing the runelords in -6480 AR and his 'death' in -6420 AR (presumably close to the start of this period).

So there was only a 32 year period (–6452 to -6420 AR) at best in which both Xin and any Runewell existed.

It is possible the ability of the runewell/font to weaken the spear is more a reflection of the Runewell's power and synergy than any association with its actual creation.

Also note the wiki for the Alara'quin also lists a different option for destroying any of these weapons, involving an entity which didn't appear on Golarian until -6301 AR (119 years after Xin's death):

The Alara'quin can be destroyed by hurling them under the crushing feet of the Oliphaunt of Jandelay, but only if there is no active runelord of the associated school of rune magic...

Artifact destruction clauses tend to fall into one of two specific categories:

Given the near impossibility of actually meeting the requirements (you'd have to get the spear without actually killing Krune, go to the runewell of a city destroyed so completely that no one can find it, dip the spear in it, then immediately kill a direct descendant of a specific dragon killed 11,000 years ago), I think this one falls into the latter category...

What does "dakka" mean?

"Dakka" is an onomatopoeic slang term, most famously used in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, that represents the rapid, deafening sound of automatic gunfire. In the lore of the Orks, it has evolved into a foundational philosophy: "There is never enough dakka"—meaning you can always use more firepower

Krune became the 7th Runelord of Sloth in -5525 AR, so the runewells would have been around for nearly a millennia before he rose to power (having been a high priest and advisor to Ivarinna, the prior Runelord of Sloth, who reigned from -5752 to -5525 AR).

This does clash with the 'runewells die with their masters' trend, but I presume that they weren't so fragile in the old days when they were being fed by an empire and only in modern times are they so dependent on their specific runelords.

The term 'font' comes from the latin for 'fountain' and can refer to a receptacle for liquid (a baptismal font) or a source of something (a font of information)*: The later usage is fairly synonymous with 'well' so the item is most likely referring to a Runewell.

*Yes, 'font' could also refer to 'an assortment or set of type or characters all of one style and sometimes one size' but that usage doesn't really fit the context very well.

While the city of Xin-Haruka was destroyed, its Runewell is an artifact tied to Runelord Krune so it presumably survived the destruction of the city but was actually destroyed when Krune was finally slain by Pathfinder agents**.

**The two examples of Runewells in AoN.com both state they are indestructible while their associated Runelord lives, but are destroyed when their runelord dies: Krune's runewell presumably follows this pattern.

The first rule of the Redeemer is: you do not talk about the Redeemer!

The Redeemer: If you can't say anything nice about an archetype...

On a 'less silly' note, a fundamental issue with this archetype is that it is built around taking prisoners, which leads to the inevitable followup question of 'okay, now what do we do with them???'

I do not see any contradiction between the Paladin code and the worship of Pharasma if a Paladin were to swear to lay the dead to rest, respect tombs and graves, destroy the undead, help with childbirth, and perhaps have an interest in prophesy. This is well within a Paladin's code of conduct.

I think it is probably best to think of Pharasma as being more along the lines of a cattle rancher in that any 'good' aspects really have very mundane (and possibly completely 'selfish') motivations: Pharasma only cares about the natural cycle of 'Birth to Death to Judgement' and therefore promotes actions that keep this cycle running smoothly (in particular, making certain the dead pass along to their judgement). She's not opposed to murder, as long as you don't prevent the victim's soul from moving on to her judgement...

Imagine a 'Paladin of Pharasma' encounters a fresh murder scene:
As a paladin, they should probably focus on pursuing the murderer to bring them to justice, as is the Paladin way.
As a worshiper of Pharasma, they should immediately focus on funerary rites to ensure the victim's soul doesn't linger for any reason, because Pharasma finds mortal law and justice irrelevant (after all, she'll judge the murder's soul at some point, so mortal justice just doesn't matter).

There is actually no restriction against worshiping Pharasma as a Paladin. The Paladin must be lawful good, yes, but the need to be within 1 alignment step of your deity is for Clerics and similar. The Paladin must honor his code of conduct but that code has no provision that a Paladin must be within 1 step of a deity's alignment.

Paladin's aren't actually required to worship a deity at all: In fact, the only mention of a deity in their CRB entry is when the opening blurb states they seek '...to embody the teachings of the virtuous deities they serve' which could be read as limiting their options to deities with Lawful Neutral, Lawful Good, or Neutral Good alignments as mentioned in the Gray Paladin archetype.

If you look deep enough, you'll find plenty of discussion on this specific topic in these forums.

Honestly, you could probably make a good argument that Pharasma as a goddess of fate and prophecy and the impartial judge of souls should actually be Lawful Neutral rather than Neutral, but that's an entirely different discussion...

Re-thinking this, what you probably really want to do is just convert this into a new blessing, but I'm not certain how you should go about this: Blessings get a lot more uses per day (albeit for both blessings) and need to have lesser and greater abilities, which don't seem to mix well with this specific ability.

...

Taja the Barbarian wrote:

...

If 'changing the rules' is not an option:
Death Ward is the classic counter to negative energy attacks, but if you are fighting shadows, I'm guessing you are too low level to cast it as often as you probably need it. ...

Death Ward is perfect. I just revealed how little experience I have playing divine spellcasters, as I'd completely forgotten that the type of ability damage we're talking about is a negative energy effect. :facepalm:

Back in AD&D 2.0, this was a weaker spell called Negative Plane Protection (lower level, gave a save against these attacks, but only blocked one attack) that kinda undersold its effectiveness against Death effects: They split the death effect protection into a separate 'Death Ward' spell in 3.0, and then rolled the Negative Energy effect into it in 3.5 giving us the version PF1 uses that kinda undersells its effectiveness against negative energy.

An issue with Death Ward is Shadows (both normal and greater) become completely impotent against someone warded with this spell: All they can do is Strength damage, which the spell negates.

The other problem with this spell is its fairly high level and not-long duration: It's great if you are making brief forays into areas with shadows, but problematic if you are facing them all day long...

Honestly, the best solution is to get a different set of Table Rules: This one is particularly bad as it is both extremely erratic (only impacts natural attackers) and extremely powerful (basically neutralizes impacted characters), which is just bad for the game: It might make 'logical' sense, but logic really needs to yield to the game being playable.
This why when a character falls into a pit and a giant stone plug drops on them, filling the pit completely, the PC still get a saving throw of some sort to avoid what is logically an inevitable shift from having three dimensions to only having two...

If 'changing the rules' is not an option:
Death Ward is the classic counter to negative energy attacks, but if you are fighting shadows, I'm guessing you are too low level to cast it as often as you probably need it.

Litheria Blossom looks pretty good as a consumable option.
The Ruby Skull of Chast would be extremely good for you, but it requires specific alignment or faith to work and isn't PFS Legal (which may or may not matter to your GM).

Offhand, this seems like more of a Home Brew item than 'advice' as you are trying to create something new here.

The basic issue you have here is that Druids are chock-full of odd abilities that can easily be traded out, while Warpriests are not: They really only have Fervor, Bonus Feats, Channel Energy, and Sacred Weapon to play around with. On a practical level, trading out your Bonus Feat at 3rd or 6th is probably your best option.

Of course, as you are playing this character, the person you really need to ask is your GM, who has the only opinion that actually matters here.

Blessed One should be a good option for healing.

I'm assuming the Wildshape feature from the Druid and Shifter classes isn't fitting your vision???

You are stepping into a bit of a minefield here: The Wildshaping Druid was the poster child for power issues in D&D3.0 as they were powerful melee combatants with full spellcasting as well, which made players wonder why they should bother playing a martial character at all. Polymorphs aren't as strong as they were back then, but they are still powerful and complicated so you're aren't likely to get anything 'more flexible' than Wildahape without a full caster build like the one you mention.

Not telling a player about a game mechanic is in my opinion is something that only a poor GM would do. You don’t have give them all the details, but they should be aware of the option.

The characters are part of the world and as such be aware of the way it works, even if the players themselves do not. It is the GM responsibility to let the players known things about the world (or campaign) their players would know.

As I recall (and it has been a long time since I played* this AP), these rewards aren't the sort of thing the characters would actually be aware of: They are part of the characters suddenly and unexpectedly (in game, at least) gaining Mythic power.

That being said, giving the players a 'good acts might be rewarded' or even 'This is GOOD vs EVIL, so be as Good as you can be' heads-up is not a bad idea.

*Okay, I never played the last volume, but I don't think that matters for this particular question.

Readying an attack to interrupt isn't something I've seen in actual play: Sacrificing a likely full attack for a chance at interrupting a spell the target might not actually cast (perhaps this would be a good time to use a magic item instead) is just awfully risky...

Strictly speaking, the feat text does not explicitly bypass the cover/concealment requirements of Sneak, but it really seems like this was the intent.

'...even if it’s currently observing you' should probably read as '...even if it’s currently observing you and/or you lack cover/concealment to it'.

The Raven Black wrote:

For iaijutsu, single Action Feint+Quick draw.

Come to think of it, a mix of Stumbling Monk but able to do only katana Strikes and Rogue for the Sneak attack sounds pretty perfect IMO.

Or just flavor the Stumbling swing attack as a katana strike.

A ranged version of this would also be quite nice, whether for a shuriken to the face or a concealed crossbow, even if it only works once per encounter.

You spring into combat faster than foes can react. On the first round of combat, if you roll Deception or Stealth for initiative, creatures that haven't acted are off-guard to you.

When your enemy can't properly defend itself, you take advantage to deal extra damage. If you Strike a creature that has the off-guard condition with an agile or finesse melee weapon, an agile or finesse unarmed attack, a ranged weapon attack, or a ranged unarmed attack, you deal an extra 1d6 precision damage. For a ranged attack with a thrown melee weapon, that weapon must also be agile or finesse.

As your rogue level increases, so does the number of damage dice for your sneak attack. Increase the number of dice by one at 5th, 11th, and 17th levels.

Gunslinger Ranger Rogue

Source Player Core pg. 159, Guns & Gears (Remastered) pg. 112
Archetypes Alkenstar Agent*, Butterfly Blade*, Dual-Weapon Warrior*, Eagle Knight*, Red Mantis Assassin*, Rose Warden*, Vigilante*
* This archetype offers Quick Draw at a different level than displayed here.

You draw your weapon and attack with the same motion. You Interact to draw a weapon, then Strike with that weapon.

Buffering Cap [head] $2000.

Common spells that cause issues;
• Grease:C1.
• Liberating Command:T1.
• Obscuring Mist:C1 (concealment at 5ft).
• Vanish:I1 (invisibility).
• {Burst Bonds:K1.}
• Blur:I2 (concealment).
• Darkness:K2 (concealment).
• Invisibility:I2 (invisibility).
• Blink:K3 (concealment).
• Displacement:I3 (concealment).
• Twisted Innards:T3.
• {Freedom of Movement:A4.}
• {Defensive Grace:T5.}
• a couple of polymorphs (elemental, ooze, etc).
kinda sounds like your usual fundamental arcane caster build...

It's not the sneak attack damage that is the issue, bur rather the 'grappled into inaction' itself, so I'm just going to eliminate most of your list as not directly relevant.

Grease: A good defense, but only if you use it before you get grappled.
Liberating Command: A good response to being grappled, but only if you have actually invested in the Escape Artist skill as the competence bonus will only carry you so far.
Burst Bonds: Still using a standard action with a (only) slightly higher chance of success, but requires you to be an Inquisitor and your opponent to fail their Fortitude save (which is probably pretty good on a grappler). Best case scenario, you are still trading a spell slot and a standard actions with someone who can just grapple you again on their next action.
Freedom of Movement: Yep, completely negates a grappling build.