Wendy_Go's page

By balanced I mean that when this slime splits, it pays a price (depending on what variant rule you use).

I was trying to bake up a slime encounter suitable for low level PC's. I saw the String Slime and liked it, but the fact that it's splitting magnifies it's action economy with no penalty (other than risk from area attacks) bothered me, as did the fact that slashing always splits it and other damage types do not; this could make certain players feel singled out, or fail to teach the "split" mechanic if it is never triggered.

This is my (perhaps overly complex) response. I'm planning to use the 3rd level Slime Mold as an encounter in the beginner box temple. I've run it against the Iconics and they generally come through fine, with maybe one character getting seriously injured but not downed, though the casters do typically use some spell slots. I suspect normal players will fair worse, but probably not to much so - the need to use a reaction to split curbs the craziness, as does the fact the new slimes are either lower level, or are stunned. I plan to use the "resize" rule variant myself.

As you might see, I only have stats for slimes up to level 5. Levels 7 and 9 will continue the trend of being larger, slower moving, and harder hitting, likely also gaining reach and the ability to split into un-equal sized slimes and / or more than two slimes. I might add some other oddities suitable for a mega-sized "collective life form" that hint at emergent (and very alien) "intelligence".

Rules are linked as imaged from my Foundry screen. Sorry about the awful rule formatting, if there's a better way to post Foundry sheets here, let me know!

https://imgur.com/a/O8f1AOC

I always found it odd that you can make a character that has a -1 Dexterity mod, but there is no armor suited to them. There are also a rather limited number of armor types in general. The Armored skirt broadens this a bit, but actually makes the armors best suited for a -1 Dex character less so, not more so. With that in ming. I cooked up the following item.

Armor Adjustment - Heavy Construction
Uncommon , Adjustment
Price: 6 gp
Usage: applied to light, medium, or heavy armor
Bulk: 1
 
Armor can be made of thicker materials, although this is counter-productive for many wearers. This adjustment can be applied to any armor when originally crafted or purchased, but can not be removed or installed on existing armor.
 
Heavy Construction increases the armor's item bonus to AC by 1, reduces the armor's Dex cap by 1, increases it's bulk by 1, and adds the Ponderous and Hindering traits. It can not be added to armors that already have either of those traits, or to any armor that has the Aquadynamic or Flexible traits. This also changes the armor from light to medium, or medium to heavy, with no further effect if already heavy, and you use the proficiency bonus appropriate to this adjusted armor type.

Let me first say I know (or think I know) how this rule is supposed to work, and will assume you do as well. But let me walk you down a path of reading and logic that shows how the text is confusing and should probably be changed.

OK, first let us look at the rules for equipment use:
Source Player Core pg. 235 "Equipment"
"Some abilities require you to wield an item, typically a weapon. You’re wielding an item any time you’re holding it in the number of hands needed to use it effectively. When wielding an item, you’re not just carrying it around—you’re ready to use it. Other abilities might require you to be wearing the item, holding it, or simply to have it."

OK cool, so if you hold and item in your hand(s), you are wielding it. There's a few exceptions (say if it needs two hands and you use one) but they aren't relevant to this discussion.

Now let us look at the rules for 4/6 hands from the ancestries that have them:
Source Player Core pg. 54 "Kasatha"
"You have four arms, which allows you to wield and hold up to four hands' worth of weapons and equipment. At any time, one pair of hands is designated as your active hands. You can change this designation from one pair of hands to another by taking the Switch Hands action action, which is a single action. You can wield items only with your active hands."

Source Player Core pg. 70 "Skittermander"
"You have six arms, which allows you to wield and hold up to six hands' worth of weapons and equipment. At any time, one pair of hands is designated as your active hands. You can change this designation from one pair of hands to another by taking the Switch Hands action, which is a single action. You can wield items only with your active hands."

OK, so I'm playing a skittermander and have a big gun in my active hands. I want to have a med patch in one of my other hands... but you are "wielding an item any time you’re holding it in the number of hands needed to use it effectively", so if I hold that med patch in any hand, I'm wielding it. The rules above say I can wield items only with my active hands. So I guess I can't hold that med patch in any non-active hand, ever....

Clearly this conclusion contradicts the intent, but it follows from the text because the meaning of "can wield items only with your active hands" is ambiguous. Does it mean that I can't do things that would result in wielding? To me that is the logical conclusion, but it clearly (or maybe not so clearly if that is the only source you have) is also NOT what the game intends.

I suggest these sections be changed as follows:

Source Player Core pg. 235 "Equipment"
"Some abilities require you to wield an item, typically a weapon. You’re wielding an item any time you’re holding it in the number of hands needed to use it effectively and those hands are your active hands. When wielding an item, you’re not just carrying it around—you’re ready to use it. Other abilities might require you to be wearing the item, holding it, or simply to have it."

Source Player Core pg. 54 "Kasatha"
"You have four arms, which allows you to wield and hold up to four hands' worth of weapons and equipment. At any time, one pair of hands is designated as your active hands. You can change this designation from one pair of hands to another by taking the Switch Hands action action, which is a single action. You wield items only with your active hands."

Source Player Core pg. 70 "Skittermander"
"You have six arms, which allows you to wield and hold up to six hands' worth of weapons and equipment. At any time, one pair of hands is designated as your active hands. You can change this designation from one pair of hands to another by taking the Switch Hands action, which is a single action. You wield items only with your active hands."

Did anybody even playtest this combat style? It seems a bit on the weak side and even worse, lacks an obvious identity, is just "the one that can use a third action to suppress at long range and maybe can tank". I suggest adding the following action to it as well:

ERUDITE ANALYSIS [free-action]
Trigger: an enemy you have suppressed targets anybody except you with a Strike or other offensive action
Frequency: Once per turn
When not defending against attack, you can analyze enemy reactions to suppression, drawing useful conclusions about their capabilities. Make a recall knowledge test regarding the target. You may end the suppression to roll class DC as a general skill on this test (e.g. in place of Religion but not Undead Lore against undead).

I just want to say this feat is a hidden gem that maybe should be lower level and then expanded on at higher level. Angled Shot really upped my AA game and the thinking I had to do when lining up shots. I think maybe it (and the other similar "increase you AA" abilities) should be level 4 instead of Punishing Salvo, and PS could be level 12!

I don't think Line weapons are very popular for Soldiers, but IMO they should be. I took a soldier using a Zero Cannon as their only weapon through Empires Devoured and felt it was very effective.

At level 10 it was good because I got 15 shots from an Advanced Battery. I juiced my movement by completely negating my armor penalty (Mobility Enhancer) and running Speed Suspension and using ampules for the rare times (happened once) that I wanted to fly. I was moving more than the rest of my group combined (including the Solarian) and it was fun. I didn't use Punishing Salvo very often, which encourage me to use meta-attacks like Covering Fire.

Eventually I think the GM figured out how to make it harder for me to line up 2+ enemies, say by parking them all in corners. I was moving less and just dumping my 3rd action on Punishing Salvo, doing high single target damage and not using meta-attacks. YAWN. And that's how most soldiers play from level 4 up, as I understand.

At level 12 I picked up Angled shot and suddenly I could tag those corner lurkers, bounce off the wall behind them, and also tag a second baddy. When I didn't have to move to do it, I could use punishing salvo, so now the GM was moving to prevent me from getting to both hit two targets with AA and use PS.

I think if the levels at which I had gotten Angled Shot and Punishing Salvo were reversed, it would both drop level 4-12 DPS and put more focus on Meta-strikes than just maxing DPR with PS. It encourage thought and movement from a class that otherwise easily becomes a no brain turret and improves a weapon (Zero Cannon) that otherwise seems sub-standard (though probably isn't once you upgrade ammo capacity, even just with advanced batteries).

As a side note, When I mentioned this ability in a PF2E discord, the caster players were all drooling at the idea. Something similar would make a very good spellshape, or could just be the basis of an interesting new spell, or a cool ability for wands that cast line spells, or probably implemented in a dozen other ways.

Are player AP guides ever updated to reflect new classes, or at least this sort of issue addressed in blogs or some such?

I'm gonna take a second to b@*#& about a couple Animist vessel spells, namely "Darkened Forest Form" but also heightened levels of "Devouring Dark Form" that allow you to transform into aquatic creatures, and the "Store Time" Spell.

The basic problem is that all the spells that transform you into animal forms have the same "sustained 1 minute" duration the other focus spells do, rather than the 10 minute duration the "spell book" versions get. Which means you get fewer actions per round, AND fewer rounds to use the animal form for things like special movement (swimming under water, flying) or (relevant to a plan I wanted to try) sneaking around spying on bandit camps. In combat 1 minute seems like a lot, but effectively you get 20 actions to use, which is very little when it comes to movement and exploration. And since the battle forms are not really any stronger than you baseline humanoid form at that level and still require you to spend an action sustaining... just what are you gonna use these spells for?

I would love to see those spells get an Errata to give them a longer non-sustain duration when cast as an exploration or downtime activity, perhpas the same 10 minutes as the spell book versions. Yes, that does mean Animists could use the spell to "pre-buff" but as noted, they don't normally gain much from the battle forms and would be down a focus point. It might even allow indefinite use as long as the Animist keeps refocusing and casting, which is strong but also precludes some other activities, effectively puts you down a focus point all day long, and requires re-casting the spell every 10 minutes. As an upside, this PERFECTLY fits the traditional stories of a shaman transforming into a creature and doing various types of long term activities (spying on a hero, traveling across long distances) and maybe getting detected by a clever hero / enemy while doing so.

An entirely sperate issue is the "Store Time" spell. I'm sure many people have commented on how strange / awkward it is to use. I won't belabor that but instead want to point out that it is the only vessel spell that gains NOTHING from being heightened. There is ample potential there to add stronger / more easily used options at higher levels. Performing an action and then triggering it as a reaction would be very nice, for example. I know your authors can be MUCH more creative with temporal effects, because you NAILED it with the Withcwarper!