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Last night I ran a cinematic starship scene that was very well received; I'm very pleased with how the subsystem came out and really only wish I had more examples in GM core.

I used the Scanning a Dying Sun example for my lvl 6 party of 5 with the following adjustments: I changed the scanning DC from 27 to 23 bc my 2 computers players were only trained and neither were intelligence classes. I reflavored the dying sun to being an exploding reactor core in a derelict ship that they were trying to scan the last transmission of. I finally reflavored the fire elementals to being Swarm organisms for story reasons and bumped the health from 90 to 110.

It was a tense finale to the previous sessions investigation of the derelict when I left them with the cliffhanger that the ship had been scuttled by Swarm. All this to say I really enjoy the subsystem and look forward to trying to build some encounters of my own incorporating the homebrew upgrades my players give their ship in the campaign (until I can get official tactical rules).

How have cinematic starship encounters been for y'all? I'm interested to see how they've played out and what kind of scenarios other people plan on crafting. I'd also love to hear ship actions and homebrew improvements anyone has thought up while we wait for tactical rules.

What are everyone's predictions for the psychic remaster?

It could go a lot of ways, they might not even really change it all that much. However, I lean towards the refocus changes necessitating something more for psychics.

Psychic is ultimately a two slot caster with buffed cantrips, good focus spells, and two turns of psychic rage damage. Compared to how light some caster chassis are it miiiight really justify the missing 3rd spell slot. Hell, the necromancer is continuing the trend with board control and good focus spells costing that 3rd slot.

I think what the psychic offers is way more interesting than what the druid or witch have to offer, but I can't shake the feeling that something needs a bit more to justify cutting the spellcasting by one third.

Maybe psychic not being stupified after unleash. Or maybe unleash lasting a third turn. Maybe changing the cool thematic psychic feats to not be AOEs that harm allies as much as enemies.

What are y'all's thoughts?

Excited for the technomancer/mechanic playtest; should be anytime now! This is a last minute thread for speculation and hopes. The necromancer chassis has me very interested for what they could do with mechanic. What are y'all's thoughts?

Outside of commander and guardian, what items, game systems, and character options do you guys expect/want from Battlecry? Just wanted some guesses before the product page drops in a month or two.

When going through the forums, poster fonts have increased while all other fonts on the forums have shrunk. It happened to me a few days ago and idk how to fix it

I was thinking about possible avenues ship combat might take and I remember the devs talking about how they didn't want it to be a separate game.

I had an idea of a possible shape it could take if it followed the lines of PC combat: ships get some arbitrary number of actions (more than 3) and you get a relevant list of actions a ship can take tied to skill checks or relevant class action rolls. You parcel out the number of actions each activity costs and when it's time for the party's ship in initiative the party decides what they want to do and the relevant characters make relevant rolls. Ship stat blocks just function like monster stat blocks and everything stays quick and snappy (provided the combat doesn't field too many ships.

It sounds like 1e ship combat but I think trimming the cumbersome portions (like shield facing and hex movement) plus the addition of the 2e action system would speed things up.

All speculative, but I just wanted to hear some thoughts.

Looks like advanced alchemy and quick alchemy are separated now; quick alchemy is now versatile vial which is becoming a replenishable (possibly focus point like) mechanic. Reworked additives and new feats too. It's a good taste but I'm still curious what this shapes up to bring in play. They didn't mention proficiencies so no idea on changes there. What do y'all think?

Gonna field this to the group to get some input. I've got a 1-20 campaign in mind but idk if I'd be better off play testing with the playtest adventures and waiting to Homebrew a campaign with the final product.

I'm excited for everything we'll see at paizocon, but more than that I'm excited for the two months of weekly PC2 class previews that might follow; im particularly interested in seeing what's happened to alchemist and champion. What are you guys looking forward to learning about?

Wanted to make a dedicated thread to talk about all the class archetypes (so I can get more class archetype content). I'll start:

Battle harbinger: wave casting martial cleric that loses font and access to font feats

Bloodrager: reduced damage barb that gets a sorc dedication for free and doesn't need to moment of clarity for spells (my probably wrong guess is build-a-wave-caster that sacrifices a LOT of barb stuff).

Holy Avenger: rogue with spirit damage and sanctification?

Palantine Investigator: no clue someone help

Just as the title says, I'm happy that the devs are getting to make classes in the 2e engine that's had nearly 5 years to test the waters and stretch the limits while maintaining a balanced session of play. The little I've seen seems novel compared to the Pathfinder classes. Soldier being an AOE damage/debuff tank, mystic taking the lay on hands heal/buff approach to a ranged network, Solarian taking the resourceless spell economy of the kineticist and adding a phase cycling loop, envoy BRINGING THE WARLORD FANTASY TO THE 3 ACTION ECONOMY, and operative....aiming and having powerful ranged shots (I really need to watch that playtest stream to see if other operative mechanics have been teased). Witchwarper sounds cool from the little blurb we got about it's aura shenanigans, but we'll have to wait to see some gameplay/ teasers. It all looks to play very different from the pathfinder core. Taking these classes coupled with an entire fantasy game worth of archetypes is gonna make for a fun summer when my table and I finally start playtesting

Divine mysteries will be replacing God's and magic to bridge the excising of alignment. Unicore previously pondered if there would similarly be a redo of secrets of magic to account for the excising of schools from the golarion magic system.

I wanted to make a thread for speculating narrative angles and making wishes for such a book's contents. Here are some of mine:

1) one or two new patrons since mosquito witch and baba yaga haven't gotten the remaster treatment (yet)

2) maybe a remastered magus? Idk it doesn't need much....summoner doesn't need much either

3) maybe a bloodrager instinct with subpar rage damage that gets moment of clarity as a free action

4) the narrative angle could be dragons from all the traditions of magic giving deep dives on their respective traditions....ACTUALLY, it could just be a dragon book that just HAPPENS to double as a new Secrets of Magic by bent of how the new paizo dragons are written

So the remaster is here and I was interested for everyone to share what new PCs they wanna make. The next few PCs I wanna run look like this:

Spinner of threads witch with time mage archetype: this elf has a winged snake familiar named Ouro and their patron will end up being a future version of themselves

Sword and board Warpriest of Ragathiel: not much to say except I'm pretty sure I'll be hard pressed to not spend all my class feats on the new/improved cleric stuff. Looks fun and varied

Flail and spiked-shield ruffian with dual weapon warrior archetype: finding the right woman reformed this crooked dwarf from his life as a gang enforcer to more reputable muscle gigs. A century later, he's getting into the adventuring world to help his son make ends meet and put his granddaughter through prep school

Unified theory wizard with spell substitution thesis and divine witch archetype: this cleric of Nethys will solve any problem with the help of his owl Archimedes

Looking over all the changes and quality of life improvements, I wanted to give the devs a shout-out: it's good stuff, thank you all for taking the lemons from the beach magicians and turning it into lemonade!

I'm excited to grab my copy in a couple weeks.
I especially have my eye on making some new witches, clerics, and rogues!

Michael Sayre said something in another thread about more spirits being added in the final release and looking to fan input for some of them, so we should make a thread for spitballing! I'm thinking maybe a maternal/paternal/traveller's spirit that's all about soothing, protecting, and guiding you and your allies. Maybe a spirit of resentment and despair from places like prisons or work camps that's about lashing out at and restricting your enemies. Maybe the collective spirit of an imperial court or marketplace that's all about dazzling, making good impressions, and swaying opinions. What spirits do you guys want?

I really love supreme incarnation as a class chassis capstone. It's fluffy and unique. Narratively, I love a party of adventurers that have traveled together for 19 levels with one of these weirdos constantly talking about the "spirits" they talk to while they do their magic schtick. Some of the party members might roll their eyes but come the end of the game they incarnate when the animist casts avatar and the nonbelievers scream "my gawds, they were real the whole time!" I'm just picturing the kid version of Hailey Joel Osment transforming into Bruce Willis!

Just thought I'd reiterate my hope for animal companion barding that makes strength based companions more attractive. Even after the erata to nimble companions I don't think 6 damage is worth a whopping 2 AC in P2e. Honestly, the existing damage difference as well as the cost of keeping your companion barded should balance them to nimble ones. Otherwise, I don't think strength companions are sturdy enough to bring along considering the heavy feat investment required.

Whoops, misspelled barding in the title

I posted something about this in another thread but was wondering about a low lvl feat (4 or 6) to use two actions and two hands to do something akin to fusion blast, except with one element if you're single gate (and scaled slightly less than two attacks like power attack is). A low level power attack like this would satisfy my desires for single target blasting. I'm just one guy though so I wanted to gauge the room for interest or see if it's too much

Looking for suggestions, people! With Book of the dead about to drop I'm thinking skeleton tyrant champion with divine sorc multiclass dedication. How would everybody else go about it?

My palms are getting itchy bc I haven't heard any new news on the book and I needed a release valve. I just want that undead master archetype, and undead summoner, and lich stuff, and mummy stuff. I want it all. There'll also be a suite of new monsters that'll fill out the animate dead spell. I have a lot to be excited for. What are you guys looking forward to in the book?

What things are you hoping for in dark archive outside of the classes? I'm crossing my fingers for witch content and maybe an archetype for finding a sentient item.

What things are you hoping for in dark archive outside of the classes. I'm crossing my fingers for witch content and maybe an archetype for finding a sentient item.

My magus character is inexorable iron with rune witch for life boost and spell slots. I chose to make him an orc to triple down on the harder to kill theme. What are some other ancestry synergies you all have found for your magi?

I'm down to be a righteous raiser of undead if it means I can still form a little posse of bony boy skelly bros. What does everybody think this archetype is gonna look like?

Secrets of Magic saw a splash of direct class content for wizards, monks, and druids. Considering the subject matter I'd like to throw my hat in the ring and ask for/ suggest witch content in Dark Archive. Thank you and good day!

Now that SoM is out what are the magi builds percolating in everyone's minds? I personally want to build an inexorable iron magus with a witch dedication to get more arcane spells plus the life boost focus spell to couple with sustaining steel when things get hairy. The free familiar is a nice bonus.

Are there any skill equivalents to bon mot for helping casters target fortitude or reflex?

I wanna play a caster in a friend's upcoming run of malevolence and I was wondering what would be better for the campaign between wizard or occult witch. Wizard would probably be a dude looking to scribe lore and investigate the occult. The witch would be someone drawn there by their patron.

I'm pretty excited for Quest for the Frozen Flame. I've always been more of a novella man when it comes to literature, thinking a story shouldn't take any more space than it needs. 3 books is just a much more reasonable amount of space to fully flesh out your elevator pitch without having to resort to filler. With the critical reception of Abomination Vaults, I'm hyped to see if Fists of the Ruby Phoenix is of similar quality. If it is, the 3 part APs might become my standard written modules moving forward as a dm.

It finally dawned on me that initial dedications for weapon archetypes are pretty solid for casters with limited weapon choices (it's been talked about before in here but I never really stopped to think about it). What are some casters you've seen or made that took a weapon archetype?

Basically the title. With Secrets of Magic as well as Guns and Gears releasing this year, I wanted one spot to look at everyone's guesses for any and all archetypes we might see soon

As the title suggests this is all pure speculation until the playtest drops, but I love the idea of a magus with a wizard dedication. Five class feats is a steep price, but provided the magus comes out with two slots per level ending the game with 4 slots per most spell levels by means of a wizard dedication seems like a really nice way of extending your spell strikes and utility casting throughout the day. You still have 5 feats leftover to pick the choicest magus feats (of course the final product might be stuffed to the gills with unique action feats that make it hard to fit everything you want).

So what happens here? Do you get one familiar with 2 abilities and another with 1 or do you get one familiar with 3 abilities?......I'm building a human staff nexus universalist wizard/witch/scroll trickster for UBER SLOTS and I'm wondering if taking the familiar early will lead to a 3 ability familiar after the witch dedication

I'm new to the forum and I'm kind of lost on how to give myself a profile pic. I wanna be one of the cool kids too!!!

Header says it all. I just wanna know if my more gishy wizards and sorcerers can cast from their weapons if they're morphed staves