The Raven Black's page

Spellstrike is plenty good as is.

It should directly be a once every 2 rounds thing to nerf Starlit Span back to the other Studies' level. And put the range of spellstrike to the lowest between the Strike and the spell too.

Also nerf the MC Dedication's Spellstrike to be unable to crit succeed on the attack roll.

Since most activated magical ammunitions require only 1 action to activate, it is likely this case that was considered.

Using it for ammunition with longer activations fall under the Too Good To Be True RAW clause and can be definitely forbidden.

Key question for the Shifter martial IMO is What do you do when you're NOT Shifted?

An Untamed Druid falls back on their casting.

A martial MC Untamed Druid falls back on their feats and class features.

I feel the Shifter would be in a situation similar to the not-Raging Barbarian.

Friendly fire.

Man.

Cheliax, plus my least-favorite bit of the setting (fae stuff) and two new classes I don't like the look of at all. We're in for another year of Pathfinder where I don't give a hoot at all.

Happy for the folks that like it, but it's been a minute since there was a book here that thrilled me.

Vaultlines AP will definitely star Sekmin ;-)

Sekmin FTW !!!

Hoping they somehow find a way to make Impulse more compatible with the Strike/Spell system.

Even though battleforms invalidate your speed, I for one don't believe that they invalidate your feats, and so would rule that Fleet could be used in battleform.

It is a valid approach.

I do not allow Fleet to apply because it would modify a special stat (Speed) but it is not a circumstance or status bonus, which are the only bonuses allowed by RAW.

Tailwind : yes. Not Polymorph and a status bonus to your speed (whatever your movement type).

Vibrant Thorns : GM decides, because it is a Morph effect and "Your morph effects might also end if you are polymorphed and the polymorph effect invalidates or overrides your morph effect. The GM determines which morph effects can be used together and which can't."

Mountain Resilience : I would say yes because it is not a Polymorph effect and I think Resistance is an ability and not a part of the "special statistics".

Boots of bounding : item bonus to speed does not apply ; item bonus to Athletics applies (kind of) if you are in a Battle form with text like "Athletics modifier of +9, unless your own is higher" and you use your own Athletics modifier, which includes the item bonus.
Finally, "In addition, when you use the Leap action, you can move 5 feet further if jumping horizontally or 3 feet higher if jumping vertically." applies since it is a constant ability.

Fleet : I would adjudicate that it does not apply because you lose your speed to gain those of the battle form. But I can totally see another GM ruling otherwise. So, ask your GM here too.

Ok, with Flying there's a problem that you can't Leap, High Jump or Long Jump while being in the air.

I see nothing in the definition of Leap preventing leaping while in the air nor in water.

BTW if we could have clear rules about what applies to a Battle Form stats (additional damage, magic-granted speed ...).

Just check Gortle's posts. They have been very good at identifying all these needs for clarifications.

I feel this clarification makes things more confusing. What is a "source" ? How is it different from an effect ?

Many posters say it makes things clearer. I can't help but wonder if it's just because they disliked the errata, are happy it is no more and feel they were finally understood.

The example of Spellstrike is very confusing to me.

I was happy that we got a definition of instance, but now I feel even this is getting lost in the ruckus.

We need clear rules that cover existing cases : Holy, weakness to water ...

Sounds like the PCs will go to Hell and negotiate Thrune's final defeat with Asmodeus.

Let us know what you think!

You are AWESOME !!!

A bit sad Shifter has not yet been adressed though.

Daredevil makes me think of Jacky Chan's movies.

Slayer made me think of Witcher right away, but also of an old concept of mine of a warrior becoming better equipped through looting trophies off their opponents' corpses. Good for those monsters who use no equipment.

Veey happy to learn that there was a name change for a creature that had nothing to do with the Ankou of Britain's myths.

Big thank you to whomever decided this change.

Be an Animal Yaoguai and take the Morphic Strike feat for an Agile, Finesse, 1d6 Slashing Claw unarmed attack in the Brawling group.

It qualifies for Gleaming Blade.

You can then be an Exemplar, for example with MC Champion for Retributive Strike.

Or a Fighter MC Exemplar, or a Monk MC Exemplar, or a Champion MC Exemplar. Or any combination thereof.

And you can always take Adopted Ancestry (Awakened Animal) if you like their feats.

Thaumaturge to best predict the weaknesses of your foes and how to beat them in combat.

An Investigator with lots of Additional Lore to cover all creature types can similarly shine.

The Black Powder Knuckle Duster is a single weapon (Hands 1). It's just that they seem to always sell 2 of them for 8 gp.

Would that mean a chicken wire fence blocks line of effect?

I see it as wire around holes rather than holes punched through a solid wall of wire, so no.

When I use the RK action, my PFS GM tells me what skill I should roll. So I already know what kind of creature I am facing.

Goes doubly for my Witch who used every possible way to get Additional Lore about Religion's and Nature's creatures.

I am tempted to play a Kuthite Monk who uses almost only non-lethal damage. Putting the enemy down efficiently while keeping them alive for further lessons in enlightenment.

Irori + Zon-Kuthon mix of teachings in a way.

I must learn more about the 5e Warlock and their patron.

They feel a bit like a mix between PF2's Witch and Cleric, so I looked to the Eldest's edicts and anathemas on Pathfinderwiki and felt several of them could be appropriate for the adventure. But it really depends IMO on what most fits the PC's personality and interests.

I felt Count Ranalc's edicts and anathemas did not fit the AP enough to compensate for the fact that he is involved, even though indirectly, which might force the player to have their PC act in a certain way because of their patron's involvement.

The Raven Black wrote:

I am getting pretty dismayed by the fact that I missed all this info about new products such as this Adventure anthology as well as the new Beginner Box it mentions in its description even though I spend A LOT of time each day browsing these boards.

Adventure content has been a bit tricky for us to announce, since they don't sell as well as do books aimed at players, and for a while the announcements were skewing more toward those products and we admittedly kinda lost the proverbial path for adventure announcements. Didn't help that last year was particularly chaotic of course. That said, it's something we've taken notice of and are trying to do better about. It's a slow process, but getting adventure announcements out there in a more visible way is for sure something myself and Rue and others are working toward doing better with.

That said, Paizo Live is an increasingly important place for us to make these announcements, so if one is interested in upcoming announcements, it's a good idea to look forward to and mark the date for these streams. Even if you don't watch, you'll know that during/after it's a good idea to check out here or reddit or wherever to see recaps or folks talking about them. I for one will always be eager to chat about the adventures here or on reddit... ESPECIALLY the ones I'm writing or developing!

A little history...

** spoiler omitted **...

In the meantime, if folks are ever interested or curious about what's been announced recently, asking here on the boards is never a bad idea!

Thank you for this insight. I am definitely looking forward to this.

I must say I love perusing threads about new products, but I never think about asking for information on new products I am not yet aware of.

The Raven Black wrote:

Ezekieru wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

glass wrote:

A thing that I just noticed: The Bastion of Blasphemies product page says that it is the "perfect follow-up" for a completed Troubles in Grayce. But according to its product page the latter had six adventures worth 1 level each, putting you at seventh if you finish it, while Bastion... starts at level 5. Is one of the pages in error, or is there something else going on?

"Pathfinder Adventure: Troubles in Grayce Adventure Anthology is designed for characters of levels 2–4"

I think you're not supposed to play each adventure with the same characters.

Paizo staff have talked about this, stating you can either go the regular XP progression route and only run half of the adventures before moving on to BoB, or go the slow XP progression route and play all 6 adventures.

I am getting pretty dismayed by the fact that I missed all this info about new products such as this Adventure anthology as well as the new Beginner Box it mentions in its description even though I spend A LOT of time each day browsing these boards.

To be fair, I spent a good chunk of time writing up a bunch of details about these products back when they were announced in December. A link to the Reddit post (which links to a Google Doc due to the sheer amount of images they showed off that month) can be found HERE!

Thank you very much for this. It is a great service you provide here.

I confirm I missed it earlier on these boards.

The Raven Black wrote:

glass wrote:

A thing that I just noticed: The Bastion of Blasphemies product page says that it is the "perfect follow-up" for a completed Troubles in Grayce. But according to its product page the latter had six adventures worth 1 level each, putting you at seventh if you finish it, while Bastion... starts at level 5. Is one of the pages in error, or is there something else going on?

"Pathfinder Adventure: Troubles in Grayce Adventure Anthology is designed for characters of levels 2–4"

I think you're not supposed to play each adventure with the same characters.

Paizo staff have talked about this, stating you can either go the regular XP progression route and only run half of the adventures before moving on to BoB, or go the slow XP progression route and play all 6 adventures.

I am getting pretty dismayed by the fact that I missed all this info about new products such as this Adventure anthology as well as the new Beginner Box it mentions in its description even though I spend A LOT of time each day browsing these boards.

A thing that I just noticed: The Bastion of Blasphemies product page says that it is the "perfect follow-up" for a completed Troubles in Grayce. But according to its product page the latter had six adventures worth 1 level each, putting you at seventh if you finish it, while Bastion... starts at level 5. Is one of the pages in error, or is there something else going on?

"Pathfinder Adventure: Troubles in Grayce Adventure Anthology is designed for characters of levels 2–4"

I think you're not supposed to play each adventure with the same characters.

PossibleCabbage wrote:

Look, if you die you can't feel any more pain. The point is to get you healthy so you can suffer even more.

Healing doesn't have to be painless, like if a Kuthite puts a cast on your broken leg, that thing is going to be *really* itchy.

This is in fact a big mistake that many people make about Zon-Kuthon. That he does not preach for death, but for pain.

And in fact a dead or unconscious character will not feel the sacred pain preached by Zon-Kuthon, it is important that she stays alive, and probably a cleric of Zon-Kuthon will try to guarantee this, but in the most painful way he can do.

The ideal for a believer in Zon-Kuthon is for the pain to be as great and constant as possible, but without this decreasing the creature's lifespan or increasing its chances of dying.

Seeing or suffering excruciating pain from death, illness, or bleeding can be pleasant enough for a follower of Zon-Kuthon, but at the same time, he knows that if this hastens the creature's death, then the game is simply over.

Obviously there are also followers with a more evil view (since Zon-Kuthon is an officially evil deity) who does not care if others perish, as there will always be more to suffer in his place, in addition to there being a variation in his belief where he is also the deity of loss and nothingness, which justifies evil clerics not caring about killing.

Interestingly, Zon-Kuthon is a deity that does not refer to souls, even though he is a deity corrupted by the great beyond. In all the writings I've read about him, he seems to be much more interested in torturing the bodies of the living than the souls of the dead.

In the end, each follower of Zon-Kuthon decides how he will honor his divinity. Perhaps an interesting option for a not-so-evil cleric of his, playable in a non-evil adventure, is to simply never attempt to fully heal. Always choose to leave at least a little damage and never fully treat the injured condition. This probably enough to count as doesn't comfort...

Exactly.

The proper Kuthite knows that pain is the key to enlightenment.

Being alive and conscious to feel more pain and suffering gives the creature a much higher chance at reaching enlightenment.

Taking it away, by providing comfort or otherwise, is indeed the greatest sin.

Mercy killing is definitely anathema to Zon-Kuthon.

The Raven Black wrote:

Still a huge ratio IMO. I do not think 9% to 25% of Martial PCs have it.

*shrug*

Campaign 1: 67%
Campaign 2: 40% (or more)
Campaign 3: 50% (or more)

That's not counting people I've played with in Dawnsbury Days taking it either, just full TTRPG parties.

Most dex based classes will have it.

Many str based classes will pick it up after Athletics unless they're strongly into another two skills.

Great census. Thank you. Are PCs getting Prone that often ?

In my PFS experience, it is rather uncommon.

Also you do not ask Geb to rewrite. Ever.

Rysky Surgery sounds perfect here.

And in combat, if you do not heal the party members, they will end up suffering less hits.

Actually, the Kuthite should consider healing enemies so that they can suffer more too.

Except that the official errata's example explicitly states that such is not the case for Holy.

And it is likely the right way to do things considering the collective review process that happens before an errata is issued.

Tridus wrote:

Additionally, the "base magic weapons" where the savings come from say they cover common weapons:

Quote:

Many magic weapons are created by etching runes onto them. The magic weapon stat block covers the Prices and attributes of the most common weapons you can make with only fundamental runes.

And then in the statblock itself they forgot about it:

"A magic weapon is a weapon etched with only fundamental runes. A weapon potency rune gives an item bonus to attack rolls with the weapon, and a striking rune increases the weapon’s number of weapon damage dice.
The Prices here are for all types of weapons. You don’t need to adjust the Price from a club to a greataxe or the like. These weapons are made of standard materials, not precious materials such as cold iron."
Only precious materials are excluded.
But yes, this doesn't mean much.

Even this quote does not provide access to not-Common IMO.

The story mentions only the Great Beyond. Not the Universe.

And the Outer Gods, seemingly older than Pharasma, have their abode in the Dark Tapestry, which is part of the Universe.

Mysteries abound, which is as it should be.

I would go for a fitting Eldest that would be neither the Lantern King nor Count Ranalc. I feel this leaves the most possibilities open for the PC.

Tridus wrote:

Creating a NPC with it is perfectly reasonable. MOST of the NPCs having it is not.

I've literally never said most NPCs have it.

I said most martial-like NPCs have it. That's a huge difference. So like 30-50% of NPCs overall which make up like 30-50% of opponents.

So like 9% to 25% of overall opponents.

Still a huge ratio IMO. I do not think 9% to 25% of Martial PCs have it.

What could a Shifter archetype or a MC Shifter dedication (if a Class) bring that the Druid MC Dedication (Untamed Form) cannot ?

This might be the biggest point against the return of the Shifter.

Ravingdork wrote:

For you naysayers, how on Golarion do your players make use of things like hyperconition or true hypercognition at your table?

Here are 5 questions from the player core to ask about a creature plus one more I thought was important for a hypercognition.

Can it be reasoned with?” “What environments
does it live in?” “What’s its most notable offensive ability?”
“Is it highly vulnerable or resistant to anything?” “Are any
of its defenses weak?”
What is its favorite color?

Nothing about its speed ?

The solution seems to be "no one in this town is selling clockwork macuahuitls or o-yoroi armor today". These would have to be commission pieces and you wouldn't get base materials for free.

Indeed, their Rarity and level already account for it.

Wrong John Silver wrote:

That would depend on the nature of the multiverse.

(Full disclosure: I don't know what all has been presented in the past 6 years; a lot of this is conjecture, anyway.)

So we know that Pharasma (and maybe Zon-Kuthon) came from the previous universe, but that the Abyss was already there. So, it might be better said that Pharasma colonized the qlippoth's universe, and changed it to something new. The thing that allowed it was the invention of souls. (And it was probably the daemons who invented them.)

So, the reason everything exists as we know it is because of this first souls, first gods, first outsiders. In any case, it created a place with far more stability. So, if all the souls go to the Good planes, the daemons starve. The question is whether that instability gives the qlippoths the way to break through, and free Rovagug.

In such a scenario, it would be interesting to figure out which god will start the next multiverse. Groetus, perhaps?

IIRC the lore correctly (and I may be wrong) when Pharasma built this instance of the multiverse, not even the Abyss existed. I think only the Malestrom (pure chaos) existed. At the time of the creation of the multiverse I think only Pharasma and the Watcher (and maybe the Malestrom) existed.

I believe the Universe (ie Material Plane) existed and that Pharasma's steps merely created the aligned outer planes.

IIRC the Outer Gods that predate this instance of reality belong to the Universe.

Shifter would be nice. The best Untamed Form using martial I could make for PFS is a Monk MC Untamed Druid MC Champion and it is not that good nor fluid.

A class about Fortune and Misfortune effects, including being able to transfer Hero Points, is still my highest wish.

WWHsmackdown wrote:

So yea, if you're GM makes sure a feat stays irrelevant instead of using statblocks as written, then yea, that feat will be irrelevant. Doesn't seem like worthy discussion of game balance, though.

A GM creating a high level NPC who could very reasonably have Kip Up is not a crazy or unfair notion.

How often you fight NPCs like that (as opposed to creatures or NPCs who wouldn't reasonably have Kip Up) is very campaign dependent.

An urban campaign is very different from a dungeon crawl is very different from a wilderness campaign.

The fact that a level 7 feat (Kip Up) which has low feat cost significantly weakens prone is a factor, though. Just like you'd expect a high level NPC to have stats accounting for stuff like Fleet and Toughness.

Only having 3 skills and needing Acrobatics to be one of them is the biggest limiting factor here.

Your GM is quite in their rights to make changes to NPCs they feel are best for the story.

But it means your experience with so many enemies having Kip up is definitely not typical.

The Raven Black wrote:

For Multitalented without stat requirements, any Ancestry with Aiuvarin heritage and Adopted Ancestry (Human) can do it.

With this, you can take a 3rd dedication by level 14.

Without it, it is level 16.

Quite feasible.

S+~* man sometimes you can get 3 dedications by level *9*. If you want an example just look at magus. Or, well, magus if sixth pillar -> maneuvering spell -> touch spell wasn’t so goated. Maybe a better example is wizard.

Right, my bad.

The Raven Black wrote:

I do not get how a burst that hits "a much larger percentage of the individual members of the swarm" and that deals persistent damage is not dealing it to the same much larger percentage of the individual members of the swarm that makes it qualify as "area of effect".

We have nothing in the RAW saying this persistent damage is not area damage too.

Nothing in RAW says persistent damage is area damage. Persistent damage is a condition and that governs how it works. Noting in there says that it behaves differently if the source is a burst or a single target attack.

Since nothing says it changes based on the source, RAW it doesn't.

Well, RAW the same could be said for the initial damage AFAICT.

I would definitely not give away for free an armor or weapon that costs more than the rune itself.

It isn't really a subordinate action. It is using the maneuver actions as part of the spell effect. You (the caster) isn't the one doing the maneuver. The spell is.

Which is also why it is done at the 60 foot range of the spell instead of the reach of the caster that is normal for a combat maneuver action.

I wouldn't have the spell checking for the size of the target creature. It is already costing a spell slot to make one attempt. It should be more powerful than a generally available action that can be repeated with no resource cost.

The spell is very clear that the caster is doing the maneuver:

"you move a foe or something they carry. You can attempt to Disarm, Reposition, Shove, or Trip the target using a spell attack roll instead of an Athletics check."

RAW, except for the range and the spell attack where specific trumps general, all usual rules of the actions apply.

We're homebrewing here because we don't like the idea that these usual rules apply.

As long as the quantity of souls cycling stays the same, the whole of reality stays stable. The outer walls stay strong. Which is all that Pharasma cares about.

If a vast amount of souls go to the Good planes, it will make those stronger in the internal conflict between Holy and Unholy. Which will undoubtedly have an impact on existence within reality, being more aligned to Good.

Same if many souls went to the Evil planes.

It would be like blue vs orange. More blue lights and blue rooms and blue walls inside the house. Or more orange.

But the house will stay the same when viewed from outside, with strong walls and good maintenance.

What could be a problem is the trend of Evil to create undead. Which weakens the walls.

Conversely, a more Good reality might end up in less undead and thus a strengthening of the outer walls.

I am extremely happy that JJ makes any and all modifications he feels are required to tell the best story.

Loremaster archetype too.