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I think one reason the SF2 sniper rifles got trimmed back on fatal/deadly damage, which PF2 guns don't share, is that they have the Pick category extra damage crit effect. So for anyone with crit spec the Shirren Eye actually does 1 extra damage per die on average (+2 per die crit spec, minus 1 per die lower fatal die). Of course the Arquebus's gun crit spec is plenty powerful, it's just not damage focused.
Is the Errata for Radiant Zone witch warper feat (p 172) the same as the original text or am I missing something? Almost. There's a typo in the original text, it reads "Creature who begin their in your quantum field." (Begin their what?) The new errata specifies it's "begin their turn in your quantum field."
Thanks, I knew there was a FAQ or guidance on that somewhere and was about to engage on what I expected to be a fruitless crusade before I read down one post.
The Starfinder spell New Game has a 1v1 combat application in a virtual environment. Maybe tone that down or adapt a dual Quandary like effect (which is another thing New Game can do). PF1 had a psychic mindscape spell, I think, that allowed mind to mind discussion and combat. Make it harmless and time compressed.
Monster Core 2 introduced a new level 13 elemental (available via ritual or Summon Elemental 9) that can dig permanent Huge size tunnels. It introduces a new toolkit for high level casters digging mega hungover time or busting into someone else’s complex.
Just be sure you apply it consistently between resistances and weaknesses. This is just a specific example of the undefined “instance of damage.” If each square is an instance then resistance to the hazard type makes it trivial, but weakness is a death zone. If you make it per move action it’s an equally mild outcome for both. I suspect if Paizo ever was forced to rule they’d say per move action.
The blog post mentions changes to the Striker operative specialization, but I don't see any in the errata. It and only it benefits from the general change providing crit spec for all expert weapons since its different proficiencies didn’t match the old language. That said I think it may still not cover unarmed.
Fireball and other physical spells are probably those that subtle doesn't usefully hide you as the origin - the spell energy still shoots out of you to the target sight if you're retaining the old "a pea sized speck of fire emits from you to go out and explode" that is the historical baggage they don't explicitly print as part of the flavor text anymore. Dropping a Confusion 8 or Phantasmagoria, which more plausibly totally invisible, is still good for some sneaky mass murder, though. At that point maybe Empyreal Lords start sending dreams about you to wandering champions, or level 20 investigator with arcane/occult caster multiclass shows up with Retrocognition to get some clues.
(and unfortunately, probably a lot of reprints of Secrets of Magic spells and other things). Spells and items that were such a crime, they need the RPG cops to prevent them a second time. Seems unlikely they would fit 4 (non-core) classes in one book. Especially with the kinds of fixes and extra content people expect for summoner and magus. Would leave far less page space for anything else. I do hope the two remaster classes get a great book and some TLC, however it happens. If the impossible book is an effectively remastered Secrets of Magic they can fit in the two new classes by removing the elementalist archetype (already republished in Rage of Elements), the defunct spell schools chapter, hopefullly almost all of the truly terrible spells, most of the more than typically bad items, and one or two other archetypes if needed.
Yes, this one of a few clown show and amateur aspects to SF2 that has made it seem like a bit of a joke of a game.
Huh. Was changing the scaling intended at all? Or were they just trying to prevent you from sustainign the spell twice to get two MAP-less strikes. My first thought was no, but I couldn't figure out what mechanical change this errata was making. But you're right, it takes away the option to sustain for more than one attack in a round, which the comparable witch focus spell and psychic amp (which also has extra utility beyond attacks), do have. So while the heightened damage would still be quite high, it's not as crazy if you can't do 2 attacks plus a stalk every turn. I'll play it as heightening normally and deleted my OP to keep this cleaner since it's (probably) a nonissue.
"The tactical and advanced akashic lens (page 283) casts akashic download as a 4th-rank spell." Akashic Download's heighten entry is only 3rd, not 4th. Unless there's a desire to give some sort of weird counterspell advantage this should have been 3rd for both versions.
I appreciated the PFS Blister Bomb explanation that used supposed aesthetic concerns to be kinder than the real “what fool thought this was in any way balanced.” If it’s good enough for a mythic rank 7 spell summoning a demon lord’s corpse, it’s good enough for every fifth level caster.
I appreciated the PFS Blister Bomb explanation that used supposed aesthetic concerns to be kinder than the real “what fool thought this was in any way balanced.”
I can’t speak for the PF2 side, who exercise fearsome social media discipline days, but Jenny J’s responses to questions about stuff like this on a SF discord where she’s active suggest her perspective is “this is just a game you shouldn’t take this seriously” (I paraphrase pretty closely) and pretty plausible but less clear that she may think customers who can’t or won’t just do a table ruling and move on with their lives are a bit dim or obsessive. (Is the latter in dispute by anyone but the supremely obsessive?) I appreciated the honesty of the viewpoint everytime she expresses it and it certainly explains a lack of urgency for errata. They’re vibing new stuff (and playing a lot of video games) to make money, ring up that credit card and don’t sweat it, compadres.
An announced book with contents and a date. A playtest is not a commit to publish anything at all or at a given time.
There are a few void effects that work against objects/constructs/undead. The Entropic Stabilizer weapon upgrade and Awaken Entropy spell (Dark Archives) immediately come to mind, there may be one other spell out there. Entropy Strike is sort of on point in SF2 - it's poorly written, but seems to intend that it convert to the acide version from void for any target that is an object or nonliving creature.
Singularity Seed spell (page 360) has the Void trait but no void damage or other obvious interactions with this trait. Probably a carry over from playtest where it did void instead of bludgeoning damage. Recommend removing Void trait.
Yes, people are wrong about how early GenCon books are generally announced. And both “generally” and “announced” are also not particularly reliable descriptors. They’ve done teases in Twitch, Paizocin keynote announcements, and increasingly stealth product page postings or retail reseller leaks attributed to when/how they sell forthcoming books to wholesalers/Amazon/B&N pre-“announcement.” Last time I looked at this first word of GenCon books as a promised product runs January through late March.
As Vortext noted above, Bardic Lore doesn't let you use Charisma with it, so there's actually no problem here. Bards must also invest in intelligence to use this.
50 page thread with hundreds of FAQ requests where nobody can figure out how a certain ability works that gets hit with a "no clarification needed" post after like three years. You’re not narrowing it down!
I enjoy Paizo playing Lucy with the errata football yanking it away from Charlie Brown at the last second for many, many years now. I feel young. No matter how many times I see a new errata system get announced, get delayed, get properly implemented perhaps once or twice, get eternally delayed or silently ignored thereafter, and then the whole thing abandoned via backchannel communications it never gets old. Real OGs are nodding their head to memories of the old FAQ button on forum posts, the highly sporadic answers, and then its silent removal without any explanation or replacement for the longest time.
I adore the Timewracked Mythic Destiny. I wonder which Starfinder 2e class would be the most fun for Revenge of the Runelords. Witchwarper (Analyst for rerolls to take the heat off your mythic points for other uses, or precog to combine with Timewracked) or Mythic (any work, Akashic is probably most thematic and works well with scholar path).
"Stop trying to make fetch happen! It's not going to happen!"
Plenty of AP material came out after the remaster that wasn't remastered. They were on parallel development tracks: the remaster rules had to be locked down and cross trained before a new AP series started development.
How quickly we forget the contents, such as they were, of the last errata.
The Revenge of the Runelords one is truly an abomination. The Ashen Man should have won.
AoN puts an asterisk after most/all additional feats (e.g. the Wrestler lists Combat Grab, Crushing Grab, and Snagging Strike as "Feat 4* because these are level 1-2 feats for Fighter or Monk). Feats that are not additional, and are unique to the archetype, don't have the asterisk.
Another oddity is that we were promised a playtest for the Starship Rules in Tech Core which most people predict to also be released at GenCon. Given times to print even if we see it in January they’re cutting that awfully close.I'm assuming Tech Core won't be out until AFTER Galactic Ancestries. Gen Con is after Tech Core, but there’s almost no time to do a two month playtest, analyze and implement data, and still send it off to the printers in time for defensive slack in their distribution to be 99% nothing (e.g. another tariff flare up) disrupts the books before GenCon.
(1) Spell Matrix is not an effect of the quantum field (the QF is just a range enhancer/extender to the spell), so immunity/exclusion to QF effects wouldn't apply to spells/effects that require targeting within the QF but do not add effects to the QF. However, note that at 19th level Warped Infinities allows you to exclude squares, not just characters/people, from the QF. At that point you could avoid hitting allies with something like Isolated Spell Matrix because you could exclude their squares from the QF and Isolated Spell Matrix limits the spell effects to the QF - a fireball can't spill past its limits. (2) Warp Reality specifically says anchoring sustains don't reposition it, only a pure Sustain action. For everything else, it's ambiguous whether Anchoring -> Sustain, and also -> effect that requires Sustaining works. There's a couple of instances where they specifically state that something comes into effect if you Sustain it or do an anchoring action, which makes it seem that there's not a universal rule of inclusion. Either there's a distinction and not all anchoring actions result in all sustaining effects, or they sometimes specified either/or for reasons of convenience and copyfit. Things that just say Sustain qualifies to trigger their effects: analyst paradox QF effect to recall knowledge as a free action, Enlarge Quantum Field, Complete Transposition. Things that say either sustain or anchoring action work to make them happen: anchor effect from anchors, Soothing Anchor feat, Borrow Spell feat ("an action" that Sustains your QF). Three and three. My guess/ruling would be that there's no general rule that any anchoring action gets all sustain benefits. Unless they say otherwise, an anchoring action just gets you (1) the QF lasts one more round and doesn't move and (2) your anchor's anchoring effect of condition removal. 3) You absolutely, in no way, can use an anchoring action to move your QF. This is explicit in the Warp Reality action paragraph. It must be the pure Sustain action with no other benefits (except your anchor effect of condition reduction) to move it. Furthermore, I'll note that is not clear that Sustaining an anchoring focus spell is itself an anchoring action that sustains your QF. Casting one is, and casting one sustains your QF, but later sustaining the spell may or may not also sustain your QF. I believe it does ("using" an anchoring ability is required, and I say sustaining an active anchoring spell is continuing to use it), but it's not necessarily the case.
One of these things is talking about souls on their way to judgment, the other is rules for eating souls of living PCs - whose souls survive the process to join the river of souls, where they can qualify for a more permanent digestion.
The dragon aura also explicitly converts spells to nonlethal as well as strike damage, so it covers pretty much everything. Maybe not a monster energy AOE.
This is hilarious/apalling/amazing: The delight dragon has an aura that no save forces all damaging effects "used" in the aura to become nonlethal. (I assume this means originating from within the aura, and that ranged/spells from outside wouldn't be effected.) The Ferrous Form spell makes you immune to nonlethal damage. The delight dragon is divine, so you need to be a divine tradition caster to summon it. If you want to also do Ferrous Form on the same caster that limits this combo to a cleric of Ptah (RIP), cleric of the covenant of Shapes of the Fading Luster, or animist with the apparition Crafter in the Vault. But any divine caster can use this to combo with a primal/arcane caster who has Ferrous Form or the metal kineticist impulse that does the same thing. Are there other ways to achieve immunity to nonlethal effects for PCs? Edit: There's a spellheart that gives up to 10 resistance to nonlethal on armor. FYI, the aura also has a save or you do half damage on your first or all strikes/spells that round, so it's sort of a gimmick or for healers/buffers, not that a summon aura DC is hard to pass.
Me everytime someone walks through more than one square of hazardous terrain: is each square an instance of damage, or is one move action through an arbitrarily large number of squares one instance? (I know it's the latter, and why, but I don't feel it's for a good, principled reason.)
In addition to what he said, Spellsurge Ammo has a limit of once per turn, and I wouldn't let it trigger on an off turn reaction. I think the clear intent is to have it activated with actions on your turn so you can't blaze away three strikes (four with Quickened) with it active. I'd let you strike (or Anchoring Strike) and if you missed cast Alternate Outcome (on your turn) to trigger it that way, but if you keep hitting you miss out and the first shot isn't going to get the bonus damage.
For psychic casting I imagine the manipulate can be something like holding the back of your hands to your forehead as you concentrate really hard (thwack!). I always think of the Conceal Spell manipulate gesture as the Bill Clinton thumb gesture - innocuous, awkward in a fight (thwack!), appropriate in social situations.
I don't understand what you're asking, but I'm sure it's no. Can you give a precise step by step example of what actions, spell, and attacks you envision with what bonuses?
- genuinely impressed at how evocative the names for abilities are in this book!).I think evocative ability names are one of Starfinder 2e's strongest points. I will always laugh at the 1/3 of Soldier feats based on Schwarzenegger movie quotes.
In this case I think does refers to the intended use case, not a mechanical limit. “This spell carries a ball of fiery destruction to your foes” would be a fine intro to Fireball and consistent with Paizo quality.
Wedding singer voice: “Things that could have been brought to my attention LAST YEAR!!!”
The most painful way this pops up is if you’re a caster playing Stolen Fate. The artifact cards with DCs all use class DC, not the more common language allowing you the better of class or spell DC on items. It’s probably an oversight or a space saving measure.
Maybe someday if we get some Tian Xia books, or an international gathering of magic schools.
Stupefied is a pretty powerful condition, because it can interfere with casting (and other concentrate actions). I used to have this same misconception - stupefy only gives a fail chance to spellcasting, not to any other concentrate actions.
I am disgusted to see so many mentions of Gaze as Sharp as Steel, knowing you just have to get to level 10 to take Breath of Vital Ash and make that piddly single target bonus damage cry.
ctrl-f: "epithet" [zero results] smdh You need to have a concept that uses your epithet(s) frequently if not constantly, whether it's drawing aggro with Proud, flatfooting with Cunning, reloading with Deft (I wish Steal/Palm actually did anything in combat RAW), defensive debuffing with Mournful, clutch/rotational healing with Radiant, or mobile melee chasing guys down with Brave. 7th gives you usually stronger options to mix in with AOE difficult terrain (Bones of the Earth), survivability with refreshing temp HP (Dancer in the Seasons), caster sustaining support that is effectively a free action quicken (Verse Unbroken), free action faux demoralize (Peerless Under Heaven), free step every round or chance to move an enemy (Restless as the Tide), or a sad little embarassing amount of thorns damage (Whose Cry is Thunder). The Sovereignity Epithets are pretty bad, unfortunately.
With so many dragon species I'm wondering what an effective breeding population is for each of these guys and where they manage to fit them on the planet with enough uncontested space and food. Maybe the ancient spellcasters with Interplanetary Teleport or Teleport (9th) are doing intrasolar or interplanar matchmaking to keep the inbreeding down. "Grandaughter, you're old enough for your debutante trip to Triaxus now." "Triaxus? They look down on all of us Golarion dragons as backwoods hicks. Why can't I meet a nice boy on Sarusan?" "Sarusan! No family member of mine is going near those weirdos!"
I can’t imagine how it wouldn’t require two actions. Each action is tied to a specific form of prep for a specific ally. You’re either aiding two different things on one ally, requiring two different approaches to prep, or two different preps towards different allies. But this feat is obviously meant to preserve your regular combat reaction, not aid twice, which is going to be more powerful anyway.
Hey, is this thing on?
How does POW! Ammunition work? "A weapon loaded with POW! ammunition automatically attempts to Feint targets within its first range increment" doesn't make sense. Weapons don't have a deception modifier to feint with. And a 15 credit item that would give a free feint action before each strike (At range, which normally requires a feat) is so overpowered it runs straight into "to good to be true." The easiest way to run it I've thought of is, "You can attempt to feint at range by expending 1 ammunition with this weapon," which is still incredible for 15 credit ammunition. I think you strike, get a free Feint (with your normal bonuses), and then get the benefit only then (after the first strike already resolved). So as a practical matter it's useful to try to get people offguard against your second (with MAP) attack unless you pull off a crit success and stick the offguard through the next turn. "Targets" is interesting because I guess it also works for area/auto fire weapons that can use POW!. Attack multiple targets, do your followup strike against whoever you actually managed to get offguard.
Their focus spells are way ahead of most PF2 focus spells, too. The downside is needing to have the QF active and juggling the anchoring trait to make it most useful (casting a focus spell in round 2 is optimal for QF maintenance, but many of them are 2 actions and lock out regular spellcasting you may need or 1a like the precog temp HP that you may want up as soon as possible in round 1 when the free anchoring sustain is useless).
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