VictorTheII's page

I was browsing the What do you still need thread and was going to make a post about wanting an option for a divine spell list bard. Music is an important theme in various religions and Galorian is somewhat aware of this given the existence of creatures such as the Choral.

But before I said I'd be fine with either a Bard Class Archetype or a new Cleric Doctrine, I thought to experiment with building this concept myself using cleric as a base and Mard as a Multiclass and not taking any of the occult spell slots, to see if I could fulfill the fantasy I wanted.

The answer was sort of. Fantasy would not be fulfilled at level 2 since i'd have to pick utility cantrips. Even if I started with a 16 in charisma I couldn't improve my spell attack rolls without getting occult spell slots.

At level 4 the fantasy would be fulfilled so long as I picked polymath muse at level 2 in order to take Versatile Performance now, which would give me plenty of mileage out of the Performance skill. Maestro feels like it would have fit the flavor better (It outright references Choral Angels) but Lingering Composition is useless until I get a composition cantrip, which I can't do at level 2.

So that leaves level 6 as a sweet spot where my divine singer fantasy comes online. If I went Polymath I can now pick counter performance and if I picked maestro I had the time to grab Inspire Competence to pair with Lingering Composition

This felt fine for me personally, I've previously had a 5e build planned that came online at around level 9. Character died just before that point but I knew the risks.

However Paizo seems to have a design philosophy of giving you all the tools you need to fulfil a fantasy as early as level 2. Alchemist and Magus for example are feature rich classes that pile on multiple mechanics on you at level 1 (Advanced Alchemy/Quick Alchemy and Spellstrike/Spellstrike recharging focus spells/Arcane Cascade respectively), despite it making the classes harder to grasp for new players.

Which brings me to my question. What is the maximum level one should reasonably wait for a build to come online in this system?

Welcome to version two of my Guns and Gears supplement.

Since the release of the original version I've gotten my hands on an old DND 3.5 book called Arms and Equipment Guide which had a couple of really nifty crossbows in it that inspired me to update this document.

This supplement now contains:
- over a dozen new crossbows of various categories and types, including combination weapons and strength based crossbows.
- balance adjustments. Several of them got rebalanced to better reflect the power budget of the existing weapons in Guns and Gears, especially the strength crossbows that work off my Strongarm trait, which are now more in line with Kickback and Propulsive weapons.
- 2 new sections for equipment and special crossbows. They are a bit barebones at the moment but I can expand on them later after I figure out the balance on a crossbow with stave charges.

The document can be found here.

During the discussion regarding Medium armor, Sentinel and the Bulwark trait, I've seen some users express concern when it came to applying ability boosts.

Specifically that they always spend 3 on the main defensive stats (DEX, CON and WIS) out of fear of critically failing saving throws, unless they can gain access to the bulwark trait to negate the dumped DEX score in favor of STR.

Rather than discuss weather these fears are mathematically warranted or not, I wish to instead bring up D&D 4e, specifically how they allow for variable ability modifiers to be used on saves (so for example you could use the highest score between WIS and CHA to determine your Will).

Would PF2e benefit from introducing this mechanic in any way, as an extra means to encourage weird stat distributions? If yes, to what extent?

1) Class specific abilities that can't be accessed by other classes even through Dedication feats?

2) Class specific feats you can gain before your level 5 ability boosts?

3) One use general Feat like Canny Acumen?

4) Separate general feat per Saving Throw?

Since the release of Guns and Gears, I have had two small niggles with it...there weren't enough new crossbows, and none of the ones we got had deadly.

Those niggles are the main reason I created this "and Crossbows" supplement which contains:
- all the missing crossbows from PF1;
- a couple martial crossbows with deadly, for Gunslingers that want the big crits but play in a low tech setting.
- composite crossbows that benefit from a high Strength score by letting you lower the reload if it's high enough.

They should all be balanced, even the composite crossbows which went through more iterations than I care to admit, but I am open to nerf recommendations. So without further ado...

Here you go

I've been theory crafting a Crossbow Sniper Gunslinger and I keep going back and forth on this feat.

You do a worse Leap and a "Nimble Doge" in one reaction, but then you have to spend an action to get back up, which sets you back to a minor net loss in terms of action economy. You can mitigate this at level 7 if you get "Kip Up", or 15 if you delay your Legendary in Stealth for a Legendary in Acrobatics and "Nimble Crawl", neither of which are ideal.

This is without taking into account that it triggers half as often as "Nimble Dodge" since it has to be a ranged attack, and the fact that I have to be mindful of any other creature that may act before me, because I'm not just going to give them a free flatfooted. In practice I'll be using this reaction about a quarter of the time as Nimble Dodge even when i can leap behind total cover.

There is also the elephant in the room of shooting while prone. I'm willing to admit I may be blind here, but I don't think they brought back the rule that let's Crossbows/Guns shoot while prone without the -2 penalty. So even if you start the turn prone with an unloaded weapon, reload+take cover is useless since you have stand up to fire.

None of the stabilizers seem to negate that penalty either. The Shielded Tripod let's you take cover in that square, something you could already do while prone. If I'm reading this right, that means all existing stabilizers are designed to be used while standing up.

Even without the prone shooting issue, since I play at tables that frequently homebrew that exception in without me even having to prompt them, it just feels to me like this feat isn't good even on the subclass that seems like it would get the most use out of it.