The Blue Fairy's page

*A.A.S.H. = Affair at Sombrefell Hall

Also:
R.A.W. = Rules as Written
Ability Score Abbreviations: STR, DEX, WIS, et cetera…

For A.A.S.H. in the 2e Pathfinder playtest, players are required to create a seventh level group of all healers - two of which must be clerics who channel positive energy. I already have thoughts and opinions on paladins (I hate the ultra-restrictive Lawful Good alignment prerequisite but I love the idea of religious warriors and templars), so I called dibs on the paladin in our group with the idea that I’d be able to give more concrete feedback on the design elements I care about if I’d actually playtested the class in question.

So I sat down to start making my paladin.

It’s been two days.

I am so far down the proverbial rabbit hole that El-ahrairah is farting pixie dust.

First, I need to pick my ancestry!

Let’s get this out of the way: I think, per the 2e playtest rules, humans (and half-humans, at the cost of one feat) will make the strongest paladins out of the gate. Arguably they make the best everything, but the fact that they take no penalties and can freely choose two ability bonuses automatically gives them a huge advantage over every other ancestry especially with paladins. A paladin’s main stat is STR. Humans are the only race that can, if they want, have an ancestry bonus to STR without leaving a negative modifier elsewhere as they progress with their stat build. No other ancestry is freely given a bonus to STR. Humans have the best ancestry feats to pick from between General Training and Natural Ambition alone. Their only real weakness is their lack of any kind of Low-Light or Darkvision. Overall they make an extremely strong choice for a paladin with virtually no drawbacks.

I just, personally, hate playing humans. I am a human in real life. Gross. That’s not what I’m sitting down to a tabletop fantasy RPG for. So I looked at my other options.

Dwarves (+Con/Wis; -Cha): The bonus to CON is appealing, but WIS isn’t very important for paladins anymore. Taking the hit in CHA, however, is harsh since it’s a paladin’s explicit secondary (and “spellcasting”) stat. Darkvision is a plus, but the Unburdened feature of dwarven ancestry is pretty meh considering how slow dwarves are to begin with - it’s less of a perk and more of a janky workaround to make their exceptional (*cough*unnecessary*cough*) slowness somehow theoretically still viable in armor and... that’s it. Mechanically speaking, when building a paladin in the 2e playtest, I found dwarves a not terrible but not great choice for a paladin. Which was super weird considering how iconic dwarven paladins are in most classic fantasy.

Elves (+Dex/Int; -Con): Neither DEX nor INT are particularly critical for paladins. Since paladins are first and foremost a frontline melee class, the penalty to CON is off-putting. Low-Light vision is better than nothing I suppose and a couple of the feats could be helpful, but nothing about elves really seems to redeem the drawbacks they bring to the class.

Gnomes (+Con/Cha; -Str): Bonuses to CON and CHA are really attractive, but taking a penalty in your primary stat for a paladin is not. Even so I think it would be easier to make a strong gnomish paladin with fewer disadvantages to compensate for than, say, a halfling or an elf. Low-Light vision is okay, and I find their feat selection better than others (your mileage may vary). The lack of any kind of major size penalty solidifies gnomes, I think, as a sub-optimal but still very viable choice for a paladin in Pathfinder 2e R.A.W.

Halflings (+Dex/Wis; -Str): Much the same as what I said above for gnomes, but with the added disadvantage of DEX and WIS being much less enticing bonuses for a paladin. No Low-Light vision. No Darkvision. In my opinion, halflings probably give you the worst starting point for a paladin and a lot more to overcome than other ancestries.

Goblins (+Dex/Cha; -Wis): And here we are. Following humans, I think goblins make your strongest mechanical choice for a paladin in the R.A.W.

And that was a strange realization to come to. Goblins, unlike other small races like gnomes and halflings, don’t take an innate penalty to STR which is kind of a big deal if you’re trying even half-heartedly to optimize a paladin. Goblins get a bonus in a paladin’s secondary/casting stat with CHA which is quite attractive. The bonus to DEX is kind of meh on the surface but the plain fact of the matter is that literally every build for every character I can think of in Pathfinder 2e can get full mileage out of a simple +1 to DEX. Even full-plate heavy armor allows you to apply a +1 from DEX to your AC. So that mandatory ancestry bonus to DEX that goblins get is basically a free +1 to AC, even for heavy armor wearers like fighters and paladins and even if they never look at their DEX again. The negative modifier to WIS feels like it should be a bigger deal than it really is. Paladins get a lot of juice via their class features/feats to help bolster their will saves (really, all their saves) if they want it. Beyond that, WIS only really seems to matter for Religion skill checks, or Medicine skill checks if you decide take the Hospice Knight paladin class feat. Goblins get Darkvision. Goblin ancestry feats are a mixed bag and, in my opinion, overall weak and situational. But I think that’s true of most of the non-human races in 2e. As noted above, there are no size penalties anymore.

I think the primary “disadvantage” you need to overcome on a goblin paladin is simply the RP. As with most unusual race/class combinations, that dilemma is almost always solved by a backstory along the lines of, “But I’m the weird one for {reasons}.”

Having looked at my choices and come to the conclusion that empirically my best options are either human ancestry or goblin ancestry, I had a small existential crisis before deciding, with great hesitation, on a goblin paladin (let’s call him Scabby). And I guess I’ll be the weird one for {reasons}. We’ll get to that. Please stand by.

Choosing my race has cost me 1 pt. of Sanity.

I got about three quarters of the way through building this - admittedly, very weird - paladin before a question arose in my gaming group that brought my character creation to a dead stop. I don’t have a concrete answer. Neither does my GM. Neither does anyone else in my group.

How does a Halfling Sling Staff work?

A Halfling Sling Staff is listed as an Uncommon Martial Ranged Weapon of the Sling weapon group. It does a listed 1d10 damage with a range of 80ft, (x1) reload, (x1) bulk, and requiring (x2) hands to wield. It is a halfling ancestral weapon and it is Propulsive, allowing you to add ½ your STR modifier to ranged damage rolls.

What I (and members of my group) see as valid interpretations of the RAW:
1.) The Halfling Sling Staff is exclusively a ranged weapon, as it is listed under “ranged weapons” and does not explicitly say anywhere that it can be used in melee. This is supported by the Sling Staff belonging to the Sling weapon group. I don’t agree with this read (for reasons I will cover below) but it is a valid interpretation of the text presented.
2.) The Halfling Sling Staff is both a sling and a staff. It says so right in the name. If I, as a GM, introduced a weapon into my homebrew campaign called a “Sword Bow”, I think most people would assume and expect this weapon to somehow function as both a sword and a bow. The listed 1d10 damage for a Sling Staff applies also to melee attacks since that is what is listed in the entry.
3.) The Halfling Sling Staff is still both a sling and a staff (itsayssorightinthename!!!), but it is PRIMARILY a ranged weapon (hence: sling group and ranged table). Use the provided 1d10 damage stats for ranged and reference the “staff” on the Simple Melee Weapons table for melee damage (1d4). I think this is probably the most fair and balanced implementation, but I also think there’s the least support for it in the actual text - it doesn’t tell you to reference anything, and that would be kind of a big deal.

Other points of note:
‣ If a Halfling Sling Staff can’t be used as both of those weapons please, Development Team, for the love of Gozreh, name it something else. Like… “Halfling Longsling”. Or call it a “Titan Sling”. Anything, at all, else. Thanks.
‣ It doesn’t make logical sense that a Sling Staff can’t be used as a melee weapon. It’s a wooden stick. Staves are weapons. Clubs are weapons. The sling part is a small scrap of leather at one end. Heck, even crafting tools are improvised weapons in 2e. But it’s somehow impossible for my character to thwack an enemy over the head with a sling staff? Golarion space-time forbids it?
‣ Sling Staves are uncommon weapons in the new 2e, which means that NO ONE can use it without spending AT LEAST one feat, at least two if you’re not a halfling. It can cost up to three if you play a class with extreme limitations on weapon proficiencies. That’s a steep cost for basic proficiency. It would make sense for weapons listed as Uncommon, and bearing that kind of potential feat cost, to be “better” and/or have unique advantages (like a sling staff having the flexibility to be used at range and in melee).
‣ Almost every incarnation I have ever seen of this weapon in tabletop is both ranged and melee. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I really couldn’t help pointing out precedent (per my experience).

No one I’ve spoken with in our gaming group, including our GM, knows the answer to: how do Halfling Sling Staves work? There are valid points and counterpoints to each of the three reads on Sling Staves that we have identified. Unless a Dev decides to clarify the rules for Sling Staves in the next week and a half our GM is going to have to make a judgement call, and possibly put it to a party vote. In the meantime, my character is stuck.

Attempting to pick a weapon has cost me another 1 Sanity pt.

I tried to look at special materials in the meantime just to theorycraft while I’m stuck. I thought Darkwood would be a strong choice for my weapon (if Sling Staves work in 2e the way I originally assumed)

Did you know for an item to be made of Darkwood it must be Master quality? Did you know they list hardness values for Expert quality, apparently non-existent Darkwood? Furthermore, no one in our group can figure out how you are supposed to build items from any of the special materials. How many items levels do special materials add to the base item, for starters? What level item would a Darkwood Sling Staff even be? Or mithral full plate armor?

I don’t know. We don’t know.

Browsing special materials has cost me 1 Sanity pt.

Our GM has been playing and running tabletop for 40+ years. I’ve been at it for almost 25 years. Everyone in our group has a good amount of experience under their belt, from a wide variety of systems. And all of us are finding large chunks of Pathfinder 2e Playtest downright indecipherable.

For now, I am sticking with the playtest. But I really don’t know how many more two or three day character creation rabbit-holes I have in me. It’s not streamlined. It’s not clear. Many of the mechanical design choices have very, very strange implications for the world itself (like goblins making extremely strong paladins).

And since I’ve spent more than ten minutes typing this I have acquired the Exhausted condition (because typing is so tiring) on top of my Sanity loss. I must rest. Happy trails, friends, and may your next character build go smoother than mine.

Edit: Necessary correction, thank you to ENHenry for catching it! :)