Virellius's page

I own the original PDFs. I own the original foundry modules. I own the REMASTER hardcover and pdf.

Why in the world am I required to purchase the Foundry Module for the Remastered version? I simply do not understand the logic here; I want to finish running this for my group. They'd love to finish. We held off on book 3 til the remaster came out and we're ready to get back in now but like... I don't wanna spend 60 bucks for ONE book when I already own it.

Why couldn't the existing modules be updated? This feels very anti-consumer and un-Paizo. Kinda putting me off even finishing running it tbh and we were all very excited to segway it into Stolen Fates.

Is buying the whole remaster module full price really the ONLY way to get this (which I already own for Foundry) to update to the remaster on Foundry?

Hey!
Looking into running an infiltration; I've done one before but the module to track it in Foundry doesn't seem to be updated.
Is there any online builder (the pf2 tools one seems to not load for me) or other module people like using? I can absolutely do it the old fashioned way but if there's a faster/more convenient method I'd love to know.

Obviously this is all going to be theoretical since I don't think there's a lot of official public information but let's say travelers made their way to New Thassilon and trekked up to Sorshen's new capital. What do you think it would take to get an audience with the Runelord?

Is it a process full of red tape and long waiting? Is it a more free-form process, designed to take advantage of the new era of Thassilon and a removal of the old traditions?

Does she hold parades or would she think that's too vain and prideful?

I'm curious as to how people view what life under Sorshen's rule would be like. My party is about to visit her capital and I'm brainstorming how I want it all to play out. Do we think there is an Undercity of dissidents? Do they have legitimate complaints about her rule?

Just looking for people's opinions and thoughts.

The name is so iconic among many of us long-term Pathfinder players; I saw it while reading through the Shining Kingdoms book and my eyebrow raised.

Coincidence, or has the Consortium been infiltrated by a (more) nefarious entity? Glorio and kin will always be favorites of mine; is anything written about this Jemi outside of this book?

We decided to pause our run until the remaster came out and were just starting book 3. Haven't had time to look through it too much but I did notice some new art which is great.

Minor question: in the page for the dream scrapers in the bestiary, the sidebar mentions night hags. I thought for sure they were OGL. Was this a missed edit or is there a new remaster friendly night hag?

That aside, I am excited to finish our campaign and deal with a horrid frozen Eldritch space whale. How are other people feeling about the remaster?

I was behind on bills and got behind on money in general. Just fixed the billing info for 44571882 and have enough for that order at this time. I don't have enough for both, as it's a change from 87 to 200+ dollars.

Can you do something to adjust it so they are split orders allowing me to get my funds in order for this months? Was really not expecting this change.

Working on my eternal project of finally finishing a hex crawl across the Storval Plateau and I find the Muschkal Sepulcher listed on the map.

I can't find any notations about -where- it's listed or what it is. Anyone know? Is it in an old splatbook or society quest perhaps? If not, this is about to be VERY useful for me as a convenient dungeon location.

In Rise of the Runelords, on page 200 of the pdf in the section referring to the other giant tribes around Jorgenfist we are introduced to the Jormunsir lead by Vlorian.

Vlorian... like the Vloriuan Cythnigot... as in from Vlorus, the realm of Xar-Azmak, dead Demon Lord of Rust!?

This is likely just a coincidence and means absolutely nothing, but I AM going to use this in my homebrew followup to Rusthenge. Thank you, almost-two-decades-ago Paizo for giving me a tiny little throwaway reference.

I love Golarion so much. :)

Hey! Not sure if this is the right forum, but: I need to find the highest res map of Varisia that exists. I need to set up a bit of a hexcrawl on the Storval Plateau and I wanna make sure I'm rolling with the most HD, up-to-date map that exists.
Unless I'm mistaken, Seven Dooms only has the Hinterlands and I'm not sure which of the many PDFs may have the best one.

I'm sure I'll find it eventually but I figured I'd ask if anyone has any input. If it's in a book I don't own (unlikely but you never know!) I'll absolutely pick it up.

Hello! My campaign continues apace; the party has finally cleared the distance from Sandpoint to the Storval Stair. Now, after what is going to be a fun little stop in Jorgenfist with some 'oh no some threat has re-invaded the thassilonian ruins/excuse to re-use the map from Rise/ReturnotRL' I am faced with a huge order: fill the distance from there to the base of the mountains wherein lies Xin-NotYetEurythnia with interesting and fun adventure.

I also need to give the party like... maybe 2 levels worth of XP across the plateau. I was thinking of maybe converting the entire area north of the Cinderlands into a hexcrawl.

If you were tasked with adding some fun level 7-9ish adventure and plot hooks in that region, what would you do? I have some vague plans about involving the Shoanti and since this is a post-Rusthenge game I have some ideas to use a scaled-up Rust Hag pursuing them for thematic reasons but aside from that I'm sort of drawing blanks. Maybe a mini-dungeon in a Thassilonian ruin like the one from History of Ashes.

What do you guys think? What would you put into the northern half of the Storval Plateau for a travelling party to deal with?

Also: there is the possibility they just take the Storval Deep to the Kazaron River and branch off at the Stalak which does sort of negate a lot of overland travel, so perhaps some ideas as to why river travel is dangerous, or alternately, ways to make it interesting.

So, in theory, this sounds easy. Ranger, Outwit, Monster Hunter/Warden etc. Put skills in Recall Knowledge locations.

Problem is, you end up skill starved and at level 7 I would be doing almost no damage. Free archetype is on the table here.

Anyone built a sort of Witcher/Monster Hunter/Wandering Beasty Bounty Hunter with a crossbow type? I was thinking maybe Archer archetype for more Crossbow feats but you still end up so bad at skills that the recall knowledge feels insufficient. I want to feel competent in combat at least, and even with a heavy repeater, you're still at like d10+2 ish without striking. Even then, 2d10+2 is pretty boring.

This part of the region has so many interesting plot hooks, and I'm loving how little canon there is about the place (makes my home campaign very easy to run) but dang! There is a LOT going on in this part of the world!

Beyond the little snippets on the wiki and the mentioned books, there hasn't been anything super new happening in Viperwall or dealing with the Twilight Academy, right? These places both seem super interesting and have so little written about them! Also, to whoever decided to make a village full of werewolves pissed off at the oppressive rulers of the local government, I salute you. I wonder how they like Magnimar's new mayor?

Anyone ever used these locations for campaign stuff? Considering how popular Sandpoint is, I can't imagine people haven't used the area south of Ravenmoore (I hear they have a GREAT feast) for some adventuring.

So, last Sunday, my elf player in our homebrew campaign decided they would do some more backstory work and decided to be from Riverspire, as a part of the Morgethai family.
Today, my .pdf drops into my files and I find out that Riverspire heavily features and the Morgethais have an entire plot point including art of the featured member.

From the time my fallen paladin who turned to Arazni, regained his power, and swore an 'Oath in Crimson' to her at the final battle of that AP, to the announcement of Shadows at Sundown a day after my table had a long chat about wanting to do a followup to our beloved CotCT campaign, to now this, I think perhaps we may have tapped into something or someone on the AP team is actually hiding in my walls.

Thank you once again for giving me exactly what I need when I need it.

Due to a twist of fate, my Post-Rusthenge party has decided that they want to go and bring word of

They stopped by Sandpoint due to its history and all the heroes who have come through there, and now I am in the very interesting position of Re-Tracing the Rise of the Runelords pathway up to Xin-Shalast. However, obviously, things are different these days. I'm not SUPER aware of what Shalast looks like under Sorshen's rule; anyone have any fun ideas for adventures on the road? Keeping things level-appropriate but also hopefully getting them enough side adventures and things that they'll gain a couple of levels on the trek.

I'm planning on potentially scaling Feast of Ravenmoor to their level and porting it to 2e, but I'm hoping some other people may have some more knowledge about some interesting places of interest along the way that could make for some fun adventures? Jorgenfist comes to mind, although I'm not sure how the Stone Giants are doing these days.

This would be... just pre-Godsrain, too. I have plans for that. :)

So, party today stopped through Sandpoint on the way for their journey and it just so happened I have a player who loved ReturnOTRL, so I thought why not throw in a cameo? Audrahni was there visiting the cathedral and talked a bit to the party, and they got into the topic of her goddess and lore tied to Lady Rushlight, the first will-o'-wisp. One of the party members rolled a nat20 on a recall knowledge for wisps and I mentioned Nhimbaloth as an entity associated with them and then it hit me: Nhimbaloth is said to be the progenitor of all will-o'-wisps; Lady Rushlight is said to be the first.
Did Nhimbaloth create Lady Rushlight and is Ashava, without really having it mentioned as part of her history or lore, fighting against Nhimbaloth directly? As far as I remember, she wasn't mentioned in Abomination Vaults in any way connected to The Empty Death but this just seems too good.
Am I overthinking it? Was this just a coincidence or is there an intended connection here?

I've got a player who is a Vindicator of Ketephys and there is surprisingly little info on him. I want to help incorporate their deity more but... he's sparsely attested. There's some in Elves of Golarion and little snippets here and there; running up into Spore War I wondered if we'd get some more info on him due to his connection to hunting demons, but I haven't seen word of that.

Anyone got any secret stores of Ketephys lore?

So, my party completed Rusthenge. Everybody loved it and they want to keep going! So: bringing them to Magnimar to meet with Sheila Heidmarch about what the hell they have in their possession, they will discover via some rituals or some such how it must be destroyed. Step one is washing it in nectar from a peach plucked from an immortal arboreal (we're going to Tian Xia, baby!).

Step two is dipping it into a pool of molten dawnsilver. Now, the easy option is just 'melt a bunch of it' but that's boring. Where in Golarion do we think would have reason to have a pool of molten mithral? First thought is Highhelm, but is that too obvious?

My goals are to show off a lot of Golarion if I can. I thought perhaps Kyonin, since elves have an association with dawnsilver as well, but is there anywhere more fitting or more interesting?

I had also considered Nex, since perhaps the alchemists there have something going on that needs liquid metal. Anyone got any better ideas?

(Sorry to make two threads in one day, but what are you gonna do?)
Anyway, do we know where the Sihedron is/what it's doing/who has it as of current day Golarion? I imagine the Sihedron Council still exists in some form; perhaps the heroes of Shattered Star have it kept locked away?

Sorry if this info is easily found somewhere and I'm blindly missing it!

Simple question; party in my campaign is in Magnimar seeking the Pathfinders and are about to head to talk to Sheila.

I'm sure some PFS module has a map of the manor (I know it's briefly described in Return of the Runelords) but does a map/layout/detailed description exist somewhere that anyone is aware of?

Also, I am not up to date on PFS. Has Sheila done anything super important recently that would line up with around Rusthenge timeframe? I strive to keep my campaigns relatively canon to existing lore.

Where's our shadow pain friends? Not even a mention in the index/ending area but we do get two pages of random coatl gods instead? It's not that they're removed from lore, they're Mentioned, but for a full compilation of the divine it feels strange we'd be missing one entire pretty major species who has noted divinities.
Anyone find any info on them at all?

So, I love our new water buffalo friends. I want to make one for a campaign; the problem is I do not speak Tagalog, and many sources I've seen for real life stories are either in Tagalog or frustratingly brief. Most English sources just say 'this is just a minotaur from the Phillipines' and it's annoying.

So, to both answer players who wonder 'why aren't they a heritage for Minotaur, what makes them different enough to warrant being a whole ancestry' and also 'what are some stories to draw inspo from', does anyone have suggestions or some cool lore?

In a stream it was mentioned that Oni and Rakshasa were not fiends any longer in the traditional sense; they are other kinds of evils.
Given that, what are those descended from them called? Are they still nephillim or will there be a new heritage to match those people who are descended from spiritual beings that do not fit the Empyrean/Cambion dichotomy? Perhaps a place Duskwalkers could fit in easily too, and maybe a sakhil-blooded person?

Hey everybody! Going to be starting Rusthenge for some new players soon and I was actually sort of surprised there's no gazetteer for the city in the book. The backgrounds mention some other Elders but aside from maybe a name reference elsewhere I didn't see any other info on them.

Is there information on the town the party is meant to be from somewhere else or is it more of an open spot?

Simple question with a likely extremely complex answer: do we as players know how Gozreh functions as the god of nature, in a world with numerous weaker nature deities, the elemental lords who rule the natural elements, and the Green Faith who do not worship a god but do revere Green Men among other things, who have the ability to grant divine power?

Has there ever been discussion on how a God of Nature who grants Divine spells and not Primal spells coexists with lesser divinities who fill a more explicit connection to Gozreh's own primary domain?

It seems like this would be a VERY interesting in-setting discussion for druids and clerics (for example, are clerics of Gozreh commonly ALSO druids?)

Anyone else missing this? Really loved those bits to help expand the NPCs motivations and such.

That being said, any GMs who are prepping to run this have any ideas, thoughts, or concepts in mind for fleshing out any of the major NPCs, particularly the (i thought she was Ayindilar but she's a fey actually) Queen on the cover?

So, as we know, dragons are being revamped. The big question that lingers, however, it's what's being done to the existing dragons that are lore- important? What happens to the ruler of Hermea, or the Warlord Kazavon?

Are we just going to never hear from them again, much like the former drow, or are the old metallic and chromatics still existing, just less talked about? Is Dahak still red?

So I'm making a shisk PC, and I was curious as to where in the real world any lore, cultural, or design inspo may have come from if any. If NONE, what would be maybe some good design notes to help them feel accurate?

As far as we know, they ONLY live in the Mwangi Expanse, correct? I wouldn't want to just make a bunch of white shisk, for example, if there isn't a precedent for them to exist in Golarion.

Considering the amount of lore on them is painfully small, I was hoping to see other ideas players have had for playing Shisk.

I'm playing a cleric of Brigh in an upcoming Kingmaker campaign, as a Fleshwarp with the Saved by Clockwork background. Aside from whats written about her in the Gods and Magic/Inner Sea Gods books, and the really good insight we get into her clergy and text in Outlaws of Alkenstar book 2, what else is there written about the Whisper in Bronze?

I admit I'm not as fully versed in the older 1e setting books, at least the obscure ones. Is there anything significant recorded beyond the above? If not, any input or ideas on how to play a fledgeling Brighite?

My new AP pdf for Stolen Fates book 1 gives me an empty download. 0KB in size. Anyone else having this issue/any updates on fixing it?

So, I was working on a PC (A Ghost automaton summoner for Blood Lords who is essentially a ghost in their own shell, if you're curious) and it got me thinking: we have a pretty good idea of the general look of a Jistkan automaton; the sleek, ancient high tech look, and I love it. It did get me thinking, though...

How do you imagine automatons look in the current day? I don't mean the recently awakened ones, but those who have been around a bit. Is it POSSIBLE for them to adjust or even completely restructure their bodies? Could one, in theory, craft something akin to Brigh's form, or perhaps use Gebbite undead grafts to give them a semblance of external humanity?

Is there any canon examples of automatons who have done anything of this sort? I feel like, with many of the newer ancestries (at least in terms of visuals) we have such a limited pallet to draw inspiration from. I'd love to hear how other people have been playing or imagining their ancient friends.

The airship in book 2 goes to Cloudreaver Keep on its way to the Spellscar. Cloudreaver Keep is almost directly due north. The Spellscar is... Not.

The Bridge of the Gods is described as a Massive Causeway that leads from Cloudreaver to Dongun Hold and Alkenstar, and yet... Where? How? It appears on no map. It's described this way in both this book and Impossible Lands, and yet no map shows exactly how this path works.

I was trying to explain to my party how the airships path worked and everyone was confused, especially considering the book describes it as following the causeway.

Anyone have any sort of explanation for this? Paizo maps are usually in my experience very good but the Mana Wastes seem... Well, like the Mana Wastes but irl.

So, I'm planning a campaign that will take place initially in the Shackles, and I'm having some trouble getting current info on the region, specifically on if Kerdak is dead or not. As far as I knew, he was killed at the end of S&S but everything I've read simply states he was voted out and that Tessa is queen now.

Has this been clarified? I feel like it must have been. Is the Master of Gales still kicking? What was the end result of the Chelaxians attempted invasion in terms of politics and such?

On top of that, what would be good sources for further information on the region?

Quick little question here: I noticed in at least two instances, old Chelaxian families having noticeably Greek sounding names (Kalepopilis in Crimson Throne, and Narikopolous in Hell's Vengeance, iirc). Is this a pre-Thrune thing, or were those types of names an outlier and not indicative of a typical old Chelaxian name?

So, I was doing some thinking, and something strange stuck out to me. Golarion doesn't have a 'wildmother', Mother Earth, Gaea type deity.

There's Gozreh, but in every depiction I've ever seen, they seem very closely tied to weather, wind, and waves, and less to animals and green things.

There's the Green Mother, but she's very much DANGEROUS flora, seductive aspects of nature, and also evil.

There's a few empyrean lords focused on things adjacent to the concept, like farming.

Am I just missing something? The Green Faith exists, as does worship of individual Green Men, but afaik, there is no neutral or good aligned plant and animal themed natural divinity.

I wonder why that is? I feel like such a clear and obvious gap in traditional divinity concepts is intentional.

On a side note, IS there anything in setting tying Gozreh more strongly to terrestrial nature? It may be just my recent reading of Mwangi Expanse but They seem so specifically tied to a more... Wet nature.

Sprites are unique among ancestries in that their heritages specifically are what KIND of sprite they are; a jungle orc or an Arctic orc are both orcs, but a Melixie and a Grig are two entirely different things. So if instead, you choose undine for example, what is the 'base pixie' you are assumed to be, RAW?

In my own game, I'm house ruling that the type of sprite you are is mostly flavor if you choose a versatile heritage, since you technically can't be an ifrit Nyktera, but it SHOULD in theory be possible.

What's your input?

I have a serious question about the Magnificent Mansion spell. It states it holds enough food for a multicourse 150 person feast. How the hell are 150 people fitting into a 40x40 room?

'a mansion featuring a magnificent foyer and numerous opulent chambers. The mansion can have any floor plan you imagine as you Cast the Spell, provided it fits within a space 40 feet wide, 40 feet deep, and 30 feet tall'

40x40 isn't even a single opulent chamber, much less a foyer and numerous.

Honestly this spell is broken as written and simply doesn't work as intended.

If there's one thing that CR has taught me, it's that there is nothing game breaking or OP about letting a character make their own wizard mansion. Limiting the spell so much is just wild to me, and the 9th level one isn't much better as the spell conjures a literal physical structure, severely limiting it's usage since it's impermanent.

Anyone else just house rule that the size is bigger? Does anyone else think perhaps the rules intend that EACH CHAMBER AND FOYER can't be larger than 40x40, and not the full structure itself?

JJ mentioned I should ask here if Mr. Lundeen has any input on Belcorras appearance? She wasn't described in this book but it is implied she is visible in her painting and her appearance is 'recognizable' by the time the players face a certain enemy.

I'm playing an alchemist in Ruins of Gauntlight atm. We're using free archetype, I'm taking medic, and took the Anatomist background. Character is essentially a doctor and teacher who uses his knowledge as a weapon, I.E.: bombs.

While a doctor was my first idea, chirurgen is almost completely useless in a very real sense, so I decided to go bomber for more combat versatility and use.

Now, I've played through the entirety of Agents of Edgewatch and numerous other campaigns, and a lot of adventures. My group plays A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT during the pandemic, and we have lots of real play experience under our belts. I get how the game flows, how classes grow, and etc.

I just do NOT get how an alchemist stands out. I really don't. I'm a Paizo simp to the utmost, but I really just don't get what happened here.

My issues (and the requests for advice on fixing/addressing them) are as follows.

1. My bombs are trash. In a balanced situation, against the first mite miniboss in the dungeon, our rogue attacks from hidden and crits. Does 4d6+1d10 with her shortbow. One-shot the boss. Meanwhile when I crit against a group earlier, I did a total of 8 damage, which our wizard has a very real chance of doing, also in an AoE, with electric arc. My damage, even at it's HIGHEST POTENTIAL, is currently and, as far as I can tell, will ALWAYS be behind.

2. I can craft potions and the like. That's nice, and the freedom and flexibility of the reagents is great. Problem is, when am I gonna have a need to spend two actions pulling out and administering a 1d6 potion to someone when I could spend a SINGLE action using battle medicine, something literally ANYONE can do? Even at the highest, and even if you consider them being free, a medicine check will always outshine an elixir of life for the sheer simplicity of it. Can't roll assurance on drinking a potion.

3. Almost every mutagen is statistically bad. Any sort of skill bonus they give can easily and simply be replicated by a guidance spell until level 3, and even then do I want to spend my needed reagents on helping our wizard get a +2 on recall knowledge for ten minutes when I could just use the alchemical crafting skill feat as any other class and do the same thing?

4. Any sort of advantage I get is able to be copied or done better by another class, or often as a skill feat. The main purpose I can foresee is my quick production of antidotes and antitoxins. As the campaign goes on, I am going to be relegated to nothing more than a 'running around the field using battle medicine' bot, and I just don't see why bombs cap at such a LOW number for a disposable weapon, when a fighter with a flaming rune and a fearsome rune can both debuff and do energy damage on a (pretty likely) crit, when I have to struggle to do more than a few points of splash damage on anything slightly high in AC.

Am I really missing something here? I know there's been a lot of discourse over the alchemist. I have LOVED every class I've played but I just do NOT get why alchemist was made a class as-is, especially when compared to how fun the 1e alchemist was. It's like a skill-class that gets overshadowed by a rogue at even that.

TL;DR: my damage is subpar, my healing is subpar, my utility is overshadowed, and my group niche seems... nonexistant. I feel like an NPC, to be honest, and it sort of sucks.

So, I'm playing a Paladin of Zohls in an Edgewatch campaign. Big issue is her favored weapon is of course the HEAVY crossbow. We're using the free archetype rules so I went ranger, and between gravity weapon and the deific weapon ability, it does hit pretty hard, but... It's sort of a once per combat weapon and I end up mostly being a 2h or sword and board type depending on situation.

I can't find any way to make a heavy Crossbow a one action reload. Am I correct in thinking this is correct? I understand why as far as balance is concerned but I was sort of hoping for a higher level feat.

Anyone have experience using heavy crossbows as a main weapon?

Obviously humans and A LOT of things are, but I've always wondered why, for example, a human can breed with a SIREN but not a dwarf? A human can have offspring with a literal fiend, or in theory even a dragon, but not a halfling?

Is there any kind of in-world explanation or is it just a 'maybe there are some but there are so few they don't have stats'?

Let's say you have a little capuchin familiar. They have, by nature, hands and can do things with them. Would you, as a GM, assume the spellcaster would have to take the Manual Dexterity ability the same way a flying familiar HAS to take fly? Or would you just let it go?

Mainly asking because a player was wondering and I'm tempted to just say go for it, because... as written, Manual Dexterity seems like it would give the monkey ANOTHER pair of hands which is... horrifying at best.

My order has been pending for 5 days. Is this normal? I'm new to the subscription process and the money hasn't hit my bank account as pending yet. Just wanna make sure money is in the right place when the payment is taken.

So, as of Return of the Runelads we know Time Travel to alter history is absolutely possible. Karzoug even almost managed to pull his ancient armies into the modern day via the Leng Device back in Rise.

So the question remains: since the ability exists, does a person travelling back in time do so simply in the material plane or does it roll back the entire multiverse? If you travel back before Cayden Cailean became a god, would a cleric of Cayden travelling to that time still have his power?

Mainly I'm asking for a homebrew campaign in which a plot element involves a timeloop of the Madoka sort and I was curious as to if there is a Golarion-canon example of how the Outer Sphere is affected by time travel.

So, with Baleful Polymorph, does the creature you transform (especially if it crit fails) take on ALL of the stats of the new creature, or does it simply... look like it?

For example: enemy crit failed against Baleful, gets turned into a crayfish (because why not) and he's just... a crustacean. Does he then take on all the base stats, as the spell states 'Body and Mind'? Does this ALSO apply if the target simply fails?

Crit fail says they completely change, but a normal fail just states they transform, without specifying exactly what that means. If I Polymorph Her Infernal Majestrix Queen Abrogail Thrune II, and she just fails, can I then have my familiar cottontop tamarin simply snack on the now-a-harmless-animal Queen of Cheliax? Or does she still retain all her AC and HP?

I'm sure there's an answer I'm not seeing somewhere.

Maybe I'm missing something from Return of the Runebois, but is there a canon, in-world writeup on why, as far as Sandpoint, Light of the Lost Coast is concerned, Ameiko is still running the Rusty Dragon?

Given the plot of Jade Regent, I would have assumed she'd be... not there? My party is playing through Rise, and then going to do Return, and I kinda wanna have some lore-friendly explanation for where Ameiko is.

Note that I HAVE NOT played Jade Regent and to be fair it will probably be eternity before I have time, and I'm a forever-DM so if there's some spoileriffic stuff involved, I'm all ears.

So, as far as I know, dwarves and humans are not genetically compatible, along with anything but human-elf and human-orc. Is this an absolute in canon, or is it just something so rare that it's almost legendary or mythical? Could there be a rare half-dwarf out there somewhere?

I can't remember if Paizo ever touched on this. Any input?

So, the champions steed spirit ability specifies other things can be the steed, but it's not a mount. Which is fine.

My half-orc liberator wants to take a warg cub from Hellknight Hill and make it his animal companion. It's the right size and such, it's definitely young, anyone see any issues? I haven't done anything with animal companions in 2e yet.

My playtest party has a rogue. She assumed that, as per PF1, a rogue attacking from stealth would get the benefit of sneak attack. If you were to attack while sneaking, one would assume the sneak attack would apply.

This is incorrect. If you attack while stealthed, you become seen, specifically stating they are not flat footed. So, you can't stealth sneak attack someone, okay. Assassins are out.

So you want to be a multiattack rogue. You wanna get that sweet sneak attack multiattack before the beefy monster desecrates your existence. You've gotta get the enemy flat footed SOMEHOW. Reading the rogue class it tells you Flat Footed info is on page 322 or something. You check. It's a simple line about what FF IS, not how to inflict it. So you look at your feats. Nope. Not at early levels anyway. You wonder, as a new player, how?

An experienced Pathfinder could tell you 'bluff, obviously' but how would a newbie know to even CHECK the Deceive skill? Why would you think you should check a skill to activate your core class feature? There's no connection if you don't think you should look.

So you can't effectively triple attack and sneak attack since sneak requires an action to potentially make an enemy fat footed to one strike. You need a flanking partner. Once again, the assassination style is DOA. A rogue REQUIRES another melee to be effective in drawn out combat. And with a ranged rogue, you don't even get that, unless I missed something and ranged weapons give you flanking.

How is one supposed to play a rogue as anything other than a shortsword wielding soft fighter? What's the core class identity they're trying to go for? It just seems like rogue exists to give every other melee class something to multiclass from for a free d6 on flanking.

Am I missing something?

So, the wife and I decided to make some PCs. We're going to be running the Adventure Path with a friend or two, and figured 'we have heard almost nothing positive about this playtest, and what we've read seems questionable, lets give it a try!'

Here's my thoughts, as someone who played 3.5 when it came out, and swapped to Pathfinder as DnD became something unrecognizable.

I feel like Pathfinder is becoming its own enemy. The systems are all, in theory, highly functional. They work, in a vacuum, and that's fine. In practice, however, I found this playtest to be stifling.

I rolled up (not that I rolled anything at all or even touched dice during the creation process, which doesn't feel right) using the Stat Boost system a human sorcerer, dragon blooded. I chose the feat to gain a bonus class feat at level one.

I chose familiar, thinking I would get something akin to 1e's familiar choice. Instead, I get a mostly useless generic stat block placed onto whatever tiny creature I want, with Master abilities that are mostly useless to a non-prepared caster, unless I'm reading something wrong. I guess 40ft movement and deliver touch is okay, but I still have to blow an action to command my cat to do something? Speaking is no longer a free action, I guess. (what's worse, I find out MOUNTS work the same way, and if you don't use an action to MAKE it do something, your horse just... sits there.)

So, there's my cat. I chose my spells, all of which seem wildly imbalanced. 1d8 to TWO targets for a cantrip, at range? Electrical Arc is the new longbow, I guess. And yet Summon Monster lets me summon... a broom. Alright. Or One (1) Rattyboi. I'll stick with reliable zapping, ty. I could always transfer a shocking grasp through my cat, but why risk him?

Back to the bloodline, I get Dragon Claws. That's nice I guess. I can do 2d4 damage in melee and resist 5 electricity damage. Took me about a decade to find where the Spell Points are listed, considering it's in a tiny paragraph, at the end, tucked away.

Set up some skills, wondering what signature skills give me at level one (nothing?) and assuming eventually I'll care about the +3 as opposed to +2. I guess that's... exciting?

So, finished it up. Bought some mundane items, a staff (which does as much damage as my claws, sort of) and looked it over.

Underwhelming is what best encapsulates it. I feel like the spells are not exciting, the bloodline powers boring and uninspired, and the best abilities gated behind absurdly high levels. Even the Greater Power is a relatively boring 5th level spell. Draconic Power, capped off by... a fly spell? Lame.

All in all, heightening spells seems neat, but sorcerer, formerly my favorite spellcasting class, has left a bland and unexciting taste in my mouth. For the first time since I've played a Paizo product, I am NOT excited to play my new character.

Someone tell me I'm wrong. What am I missing out on here?