Charlatan's page

Great! I have already ordered the Emerald Spire!

"I've seen Galaxy Exploration Manuels you people wouldn't believe. Attack Starships off the shoulder of Akiton. I watched C-beams, glitter in the dark, over the Adari gate. And all those moments..."

GM gets bored: "OK, roll initative Roy Batty =P "

I'm drooling and laughing and aww'ing too much. I was thinking of playing LESS this year, but I gotta use everyone here.

<3

That's an interesting choice to have the town blow up when the PCs rested and Vilree had been alerted to their presence. It makes perfect sense in realistic terms, it's what she (and the AP) would do, but it doesn't feel heroic to your players to not get the chance to save the town, I suppose.

I feel the better option would be to put the destruction chase behind Vilree regardless, so you must deal with her before the chase does or doesn't occur, as opposed to happens soundlessly, and off screen, whlie the PCs rest up to find a "huge monster" battle that actually is just beating a twisted soul after the fact.

Cheers for the info, as I'm running this now, and I hadn't thought about this situation coming up before, but I'd definitely halt the bomb finale if they did the same/took a rest at the same point.

caps wrote:

What does it mean for this to be a "deluxe" adventure?

Comes with cheese and a basket of fries.

How do we use the Basket of Fries in game? I'm having trouble with the errata. If I equip the Basket into my pockets etc, can I eat the fries and draw them to consome in the same action? What if I have the skill feat Battle Snack?

"Outlook not so good..."

"Please, Diriddl, stop quoting your 8-ball! Use your mind magic or whatever it is."

*shakes 8-ball again*

"Signs point to no."

This is great! the closest we had in 1E was the Rougarou, which no one can spell, say or write properly.

Well said, and thanks for the communication.
Last night I played at my lgs and we had the tables set waaay apart. My own table was actually set within the shelves of gaming stuff and puzzles, chess boards etc. I felt special =)

Plus, a true rarity, it was quiet enough to hear everything my players said.

Here ya go.

That's amazing, thanks. You win the forums today =)

I'm looking forward to this, despite being a long time GM. I'm always happy with the "refresher" products because they do just that, refresh my excitement for adventure roleplay!

I enjoyed this. Short and sweet and a very quickly established in a setting which could only be a Monks training ground and a monks "play" fight (g!% d$#n trolls lol)

I'm intrigued by the "advice on how to create your own science fantasy tales" bit. I feel like a lot of people go into Starfinder expecting D&D in space (a la Spelljammer), or else something much more akin to true science fiction, and are surprised to see the amount of influence magic and gods and the supernatural have over the game. Science fantasy isn't the best defined genre out there, so a lot of people don't really know what to do with it. Starfinder's greatest strength - it's truly sandbox setting that allows scientific ambition, humanistic ideals, zealous religions and divine power, and Lovecraftian nihilism to exist concurrently and all be equally valid - is also its greatest weakness. There's too much extra thinking ahead involved.

Pathfinder can get away with being a sandbox setting because it can be concisely understood: "sword and sorcery, Lord of the Rings flavor fantasy except God is dead and the reliability of prophecy and fate with him." It's easy to pick up the game and play Pathfinder or even make your own setting from there. With Starfinder, a host of questions require the game master to put in a lot of extra thought ahead of time. What to do with a world where Heaven, the Devil, Cthulhu and space Elon Musk all exist concurrently? How are gods supposed to work in a world where a local drought or plague can be cured with commercial imports and advanced medicine? What effects does magic and the gods have on technological and social progress? How prevalent is magic, and is it more powerful than science? While fantasy has an abundance of pre-made templates giving GMs an idea of what a fantasy world is supposed to look like, science fantasy is a much more amorphous genre. As much as I love Starfinder's setting, I also know a lot of people who prefer to make their own, and often feel at a loss as to how to make a science fantasy world feel cohesive and make best use of the genre's flavor. I think it would be really helpful to have a creative world-building section, a campaign builder, and some...

I agree and disagree at the same time, much like you say being science fantasy is a strength and weakness. While it is a vague genre, it's because it's just all forms of play mushed together. You can liken it to steampunk being "fantasy science fiction" seeing we've got technology creeping into a fantasy world. It's a matter of degrees. I couldn't see any guns appearing in LOTR, but in Pathfinderverse gunslingers are definitely present.

I like that you mention people make their own versions of the world, picking and taking the Pact Worlds lore for what they need and ignoring the parts that don't apply/sweeping them under the rug. I use this when making my own sessions, but I let the players know what is/isn't available, and that other things will be determined on the fly.

I do think a section that highlights this "slice of game world" idea to newer GMs would be real handy, but more than a "you're the GM, you decide!" paragraph or so.

Plus I love the idea of a product that makes introductions for newer players so easy and engaging.

I feel as though enhanced resistance feels natural. Not in the sense that certain races start with it, but that someone can, through training, have a naturally resistant body. Thus it's a natural source. You aren't installing iron plates into your skin, as with Dermal Plating.

And I know in the start of Feats it mentions that pcs can generate whatever reason they want for their feats (maybe it's training, or a rare gem from a previous adventure giving them +1 to beat SR) but yeah.

I like the idea, but I'd change the name to "Standard save". Standard makes more sense, as it's the standard way that damage only spells will be dealt with, and "basic" speaks of levels, like basic, medium, expert, legendary, etc.

Otherwise, I love this idea. Very easy to "get" for experienced gamers, which makes it easier for newer players to learn and retain.

As for spells that want all four results listed, I think succes, cri success, fail, crit fail is still fine, because the noncrit results will be far more common (assuming the PCs haven't decided to hunt down and fight a +4 level Dragon).

I ran my session 1 playtest last night and didn't even think of resonance until one of the players mentioned it.

One solution could be that most level items stop working on being's who are too powerful for them. A level 1 cure works up to level 7 characters, but a level 20 fighter who drinks a level 1 heal gets 1 hit point.

Also greats Diplomacy rolls between Paizo and it's insane customer base. Ta for the info.

Well, this has been the most exciting update in a while. I like the reworking so that "half whatever" can now be applied to any Race, like in your dwarf/orc example (but how that unison occurred I can't imagine. Arm wrestle in a bar turned into a passionate night of neutral hate-lust?)

I'm definitely giving these a go.

Mark Seifter,
We couldn't pretty please get the Jabberwock as a sneak peek could we?
Just because you're nice and wanna wow people in the forums?
Yours sincerely,
Hopeful.

This is good, I am much excited.

I'm impressed with the new rules for Barbarians rage and Rangers favoured enemy, to keep them constantly relevant. These great new changes are why I have strong faith in PF2.

I do like having the cake and eating it too. +1 to hit and an extra damage dice is noice!

It's a great game and a fun system,.

I like the removal of alignment, because I always wondered how organised Barbarians could do it, like wandering brigands or whatever. I understand it was about Not following the law, doing what's in your heart, but that shouldn't stop you from learning how to flurry of blows as well, for exampler.

Barbarian Paladins hazaar!

I like the new conditions (without having played them for in game flavour) compared to the many different names that there were for heavier versions of the same thing, like shaken into frightened or whatever.

I love the change to flat-footed because it was always such a detriment to high dex characters, but less so to high Con armoured houses. A Paladin in Full plate with no Dex doesn't have a different armour class when flat-footed or not, so it was really abusable in certain cases. While a Rogue loses so much of their dex when flatfooted.

Making it a standardised -2 means it WILL definintely apply to everyone, and it works fine in Starfinder so far, and it still does it's most important job of letting the Rogues sneak attack.

So I am very hopeful re Conditions.

Tryn wrote:

Seems Paizo didn't get the main problem with the wizard:

"lack of spell/day at lower levels"
Once they run out of spell slots wizard

You need to do more research. Your information seems out of date and your going on more assumptions then the average poster given the previews so far.

Aka "was this the first article you read?"

I like the choice between two Abilities. Are there any backgrounds that don't make you smarter? :P

Scullery maid/man. +2 con or Wis. you get +2 thanks to hour years spent around the produce of others :)

Cool. I like the pre-storied backgrounds for the feats, always helps a player build their char/direction as well as not just being "+4 initiative because [no reason, you choose one]"

Ie:
Improved initiative: +4 init. As a child you had to get out of bed early enough for breakfast and the toilet.

Feel free to try to talk me out of it.

Thanks to limited space, they won't put in new paladins at this point. It's a playtest, you cannot possibly test everything. They made their point well and were honest and open about it.

Oh I like this. I have always enjoyed the discussions around Paladins and what they can and can't do, but also the option to now think through your No-no's and answer the highest one makes it easier to play without stepping on toes. Ie:

I played a paladin when another player had a rogue. He ran around town, convinced people a Dragon attack was imminent and stole jewellery from the abandoned houses. Seeing I found out I told the authorities we bumped into, but that felt bad for me. I was pouring water on the player's good roleplaying and ideas, (and when he tried selling the jewels to the NPCS they all refused -- hadn't he heard? There was a Dragon coming so everybody was selling up and moving on!)

With this new set up I wouldn't feel like I HAD to dob him in. Rather, listening to the authority and doing what they asked was a much higher call then retrieving the jewels the Rogue got through outsmarting stupid npcs. If the authority did mention "watch out for looting" then in that case it's a direct tie between job and what I've witnessed, so that would a be a fun, tense moment when everyone looks to see if the Paladin speaks up (and knows that their God is watching too!)

Plus a Paladin for each extreme alignment sounds awesome. Chaotic Good are roamers who champion good in whatever way they find it, like Kevin Sorbo's Hercules, a wandering, handsome, muscular bum.

While a Lawful Evil paladin is clearly the head of a judicial system, so satan?

Interesting that AC and TAC are now a thing. I know they always were, but I did heavily suspect that PF2 would copy STF in regards to armor giving 2 stats.

As for this line however "so you can accurately budget your lifestyle decisions" I haven't rolled my eyes at anything previewed so far, but this did it. I play to escape, to run for miles through out amazing landscapes. I'm not interested in planning another life that isn't real, so I have zero interest in paying an accurate amount of living in quarters etc. I know this is relevant for less combat focused campaigns or politically inclined ones, but it just felt bad to read it in a preview.

Excited to see how magical upgrades work.

Most interesting, but at this point I'm champing at the bit just to get the whole thing in my hands. And it's only just May!

I do like the crit effects, because it makes a critical seem truly worthwhile, extra damage and a flavoursome effect. I remember rolling a crit once and rolling 1 on my d8s and sneak attack dice, for a total of 3 damage against the boss. What was critical about that?

As exciting as it is to receive new info on beloved classes, I can't see enough of the picture to think of Clerics I wanna play yet. Obv the healbot comes to mind, and maybe the 'surprise, I have a Waraxe variety' but beyond that I'd get more inspiration from having the whole of the rules. Don't worry, I'm waiting patiently :)

Technology!

Also, in my experience, playing a goblin only gives disruptive players an excuse to be even more disruptive than usual and then pass it off with the whole just playing my character bit

I only agree here IF you have players who don't listen to their GM, or if the GM isn't great at communicating. These are Goblins who're different from the bestiary entry, and so long as the GM gets that across I don't see why every Goblin should be feared as a maniac played to character.

Not that you couldn't allow PCs to play bestiary Goblins, or indeed ban Goblins from play at all. It is always up to the GM.

+Gets told how Goblins can be adventurers and aren't the nasty ones from the stories of yesteryear, then complains about How can goblins be heroes, when they were the bad guys of yesteryear?

I find the chance to legitimately play Goblins a great and immense addition to the core rules, and it makes sense that these Gobbos have a charisma bonus. They'll need it, to fight the prejudice of yesteryear, but also to believe in themselves are more than savages.

Cannot wait.

I enjoy this teaser season thing. Normally it's Magic, but that gets genuinely spoiled every now and then, but I'm really looking to each day and hoping for new info on my favourite levels.

As a gm i always love a fighter, because I need someone to use swallow whole on.

Interesting where "charge" is going. In Starfinder its a -2 bonus, and in Pathfinder 2 it looks like it's not a bonus or minus, but only for Fighters.

Am eagerly awaiting Rogues.

And stop asking such silly questions!

Here's a reducto ad absurdum argument: So there are things out there that aren't necessarily covered by the skill list. At first you think, great, I can just use the untrained value. But you know what else a fantasy character is Untrained in? Computer hacking. Hyperspace navigation. Corporate accounting. Aircraft piloting. Retroviral engineering. Now my 10th level rogue has a +8 in all these as well! I guess he just picked it up somewhere by osmosis.

While this example is admittedly silly, many of us has had that player who attempts to build a modern piece of technology in the fantasy world. In PF1e, we could say "your PC doesn't have the background knowledge for that," but in this system that explanation doesn't fly because everybody gets free skills at everything.

This question then becomes "What's Skillable in this setting [of PF2)]?" It doesn't make flavour sense for a fantasy/mythic character to want for a PC, when a soothsayer will provide the job of information/magical hacking/spying.

If you had your Pathfinder players sucked into Starfinder, where those skills became relevant, Computers is suddenly available and I'd take it's the GMs choice at that point. Give them the +15, but only after spending 1 level "getting used to modern technology/life" and requiring a Will save, then again a level later to take on those skills.

Just an idea.