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Bind Heroic Spirit (the faux Heroism focus spell) is back in some form, Reaper only, and now a level 6 feat. (So presumably heightens at all the normal Heroism ranks of 6 and 9). There's also a corresponding Puppeteer only feat called Conjurer of Corpses.
Paizo has been ignoring 99.99% of things posted on these forums since the FAQ button was removed many, many years ago. On the rare occasion you can make even a weak argument to the contrary (reactions to remaster dying rules and errata to weaknesse/resistance) Reddit probably carried the bulk of the PR disaster heat anyway. Everyone can be and is ignored on here all the time. It's no doubt one of the reasons post volume is down something like 90% from the PF1 days. Reddit is where Paizo employees still show up and comment, Discord to a much smaller extent that seems to be fading to nearly nothing the last year or two.
Pharasma is Objectively Correct in her opinion that not everyone should worship her, and should do what they want, she's just a referee, accountant, and logistics agent for what results from that.
Hallowed blood reaper necromancer made me think of a follower of Vildeis.
Well, until your tiny spell inventory runs out, and you pay the opportunity cost of using those slots for anything else.
The most unforgivable thing about CTASEUP is that the Ultimate grade is second to last. That’s penultimate!
The author of the preview article hinted there's later feat support to make the reaper hold up at later levels, with a coy comment on Reddit to those disgruntled that it doesn't have more that they should wait for his later article covering higher level feats. The "heroism but focus spell" may still exist in some form and/or other options.
My biggest issue is Contest just does nothing... It has 1 role and a really bizarre feat that takes a whole turn to get anything out of. Not takes whole turn the set up is "spend an act to add a role then spend another role on yourself THEN do recall" it's just... Insanely impractical. It only takes one action to set the role on the enemy, which may be useful anyway if those save adjustments are to your benefit later, and then one action for the recall knowledge with (potentially mega boosted via feats/familiar) Performance. You get a free action spotlight on yourself and don't have to spotlight the enemy, so your third action is free. It's basically a one action tax to super charge an omnilore for one one target. It's fine. It's even good if you're going to transfer the spotlight with your RK check and hit the lowered save or set up an ally to do so.
I think some are going to be "I *can* win" spells that strip away mythic powers or cast "give GM excuse to give demon lord/archdevil/Eldest a stat block."
1. Use Society modifier instead of Diplomacy to Gather Information. Presumably if you take this feat your Int is higher than Cha and your Society higher than Diplomacy. Gather Information is a specific task strictly limited to Diplomacy and different in what it "can know" than Recall Knowledge. RK is "things I know about the world I learned in the past" while Gather Information is "what news/rumors are currently going on." So you could RK with Society to know "Abrogail Thrune II is a sorcerer and the queen of Cheliax," but you'd ordinarily have to Gather Knowledge with Diplomacy by going to taverns or other places and talking people for an extended period of time to learn "Queen Abrogail is offering bounties on Warshards and has reportedly collected them from..." If you could have learned it from a book/instructor in the past, it's Recall Knowledge. If it's current events/news, it's Gather Knowledge. 2. "In any settlement you frequent regularly, you can use the Recall Knowledge action with Society to know the same sorts of information that you could discover with Diplomacy to Gather Information. The DC is usually significantly higher, but you know the information without spending time gathering it." This one incorporates the Gather Information task into your regular known knowledge database if you frequently visit a place. So instead of having to hit the streets for an hour when you suddenly realize you need to track down a rumor, you've been constantly maintaining relationships and following the news so for you it's a RK check with Society instead of a Diplomacy check. But only in established, well visited settlements. It may very well be that many GMs don't understand or don't care about the difference between these two basic information gathering/known methods, but that's on them being sloppy or permissive.
These points are correct, but because you are you I wonder if you then tried to take those facts somewhere unsupportable. But in isolation, yes, you’re right.
They've only ever remastered/converted-to-ORC old products that are necessary to have an independent viable product line should Hasbro follow through on their old threats. Originally this was the bare minimimum of the core books. Probably Guns and Gears and Dark Archive weren't originally on any longterm plan (and maybe not Monster Core 2), but Paizo's customers had the bad taste to buy enough that they sold out and could support an economically viable reprint with the absolute bare minimum of work to strip out OGL and almost no effort on rules fixes. As low as I'd expect the future G&G and DA revenue to be, providing the geniekin in a new book is surely going to make even less compared to alternative new material they could be printing.
Nothing about hardlight says it can't give any mechanical benefits. A GM could easily rule that an arbitrary 5x5x5 object of L bulk that is solid light can serve as partial cover (think "hardlight milk crate") or difficult terrain ("hardlight fiber optic cable in a horrible tangle in this 5' square"). Star Contestant is effectively "my last MAP attack either hits or they buff my full accuracy shot next round." You could sometimes justify spending a third action on a -10 MAP shot just to get the +2 buff next round once that heightens. It's also useful for those hazards that require multiple skill checks under time pressure to disarm them. Some AP hazards need 4-6 successes to disarm, a +1-2 bonus following your frequent failures can help trim a round off and save a lot of party HP.
Guys, you can just do the Bill Clinton closed fist thumb pointing gesture while talking about politics in the tavern and silently casting Suggestion or Charm on the barkeep. What matters is that if you're in combat you trigger manipulate/concentrate stuff as appropriate, but if you're not there's not and never has been a requirement that your spell gestures be particularly weird or noticeable.
Synthesis: You can have two ikons in the same object, but it requires an Interact action to swap between the two uses and you have to pay twice to apply any runes to applicable separate ikons in the same object.
Thanks for the explanation! In other words, it's not a flippant losing of paperwork with hands in the air going "la,la,la" waiting to rue the day, it's a conniving, deliberate act from what was an assumed trusted pillar and law makes it the others responsibility, they didn't ever even need their own paperwork to lose? That seems worst than what I was thinking tbh, like that's sorta nuts. I thought this was a more flippant corruption, but nope it's just daily corruption. Thank Abadar I don't deal in law. There's no corruption, Paizo lent their stock to Diamond to sell for them to be redeemed later when sold, and was always a creditor just like someone who loaned money for a set term to be returned later. Paizo had superior rights and protections in the event of a bankruptcy if they chose to exercise them through the annoying and costly requirements of perfection of their interest, but they didn't, for what are entirely reasonable reasons. But their stock they chose to loan to Diamond under this consignment agreement isn't "theirs" in the event of bankruptcy any more than money in Diamond's account belongs to the bank or bond holder who loaned a similar amount in the past. All the assets belong to the collective claimants, of which Paizo is one, under our bankruptcy laws that determine the order and priority of claims. Paizo could have put themselves at the front of the line.
This is not true. Paizo and the other consignors are themselves creditors of Diamond, and no more entitled to all of their money than anyone else affected. Because they failed to perfect their consignment interest, they are unsecured creditors. No individual creditor in a bankruptcy is "entitled to all the money." The purpose of the bankrtupcy is to (1) pay secured claims first, e.g. mortgages and properly registered claims like a perfected interest in consigned goods, (2) save the company as a going concern if possible, to increase payouts to creditors as best you can and zeroing out equity if necessary, which it almost always is, and (3) liquidating the company efficiently if it has no value as a going concern to pay off debts. The distribution among creditors by type and class is governed by the policy goals of the bankruptcy code. One of those policy goals was to enable consignors to have a (not costless) way to protect themselves if they chose to avail themselves. Paizo didn't, and now is just another creditor in the crab bucket.
It's bizarre to me for anyone to claim the people of Golarion know how the afterlife functions. Almost all of them are lied to or receive a grossly simplified or wrong model, if they receive any education at all. Many probably hear "your god gets your soul and you serve him for eternity." Well, if you don't bargain it away, or pay what Pharasma decides is effectively lip service when your actions should send you elsewhere, or it doesn't get eaten by a daemon in transit, and many/most shades merge with the plane and don't get converted into servitors/outsiders depending on the plane and god. And of those that do become servitors many are going to die far short of eternity in various battles - lots of angels and archons are throwing away their immortality guarding borders or conducting crusades, a new demon might live a shorter life than he did as a mortal unless there's some realistic submission/domination cultural cues that develop in the Outer Rifts to limit the actual violence. Many others probably hear nothing at all, get an animist/reincarnation version (which may or may not be true for them), or get the Rahadoum progaganda. And some get deliberately lied to by competing priests trying to win souls and disparage the competition. And even then, have you visited Pharasma's court or the final destinations to verify any of these stories and witness all these outcomes? It's all pure story telling you have to take on faith.
The issue with consignment goods being subject to bankruptcy liquidation isn't "I pretend I lost the paperwork that says it's yours," it's "you failed to follow the legally prescribed procedure to inform all other potential creditors in a potential bankruptcy that you have a superior interest in property held by Diamond, so that we won't lend them too much money when doing our due diligence on the assets vs. liabilities they have." The policy choice is that if the consignor can't be bothered to file the paperwork they accept the risk rather than put additional secret financing risk on other debtors. It's the same as a mortgage bank forgetting to file their lien on your house. If you file for bankruptcy with a $5 million in debt, $2 million in real property (and no other assets) with a $1 million mortgage balance, they aren't going to get all of their mortgage money back because they didn't file their paperwork to be a secured vs unsecured creditor.
Look at the action icon on Nethys for this feat. It's a free action, granting the feat's listed benefit of "You interact [normally one action] to change your grip on an item you're holding from one-handed to two-handed or vice-versa." The first part is clearly a benefit. The second part, "or vice-versa" is some combination of future proofing or covering the Fatal Aim trait if you bring it over from PF2, because Fatal Aim weapons do require a full action to swap from 2H to 1H with a Interact instead of a Release. But normally this feat does nothing if you're going from 2H to 1H grip, it's there to help you go 1H to 2H with no action cost once per round. So you can release, Interact on something of your choice with your newly free hand (maybe open a door, flip a plot relevant switch, throw a grenade from the advanced cyber arm with a hideway compartment), then go back to 2H mode with this feat as a free action and have 2a left to area fire or whatever.
It’s a free action instead of an action to add a hand and go two handed grip. Nethys and the book show this, Demiplane does not.
Today is the release date. I don't think they've announced a new policy not to sell pdfs on the release date, it just seems to be consistent webstore tech problems or incompetence the last few months. Am I wrong and they just use a random number generator to add the pdf some number of days later as part of this not well known new release delay?Is there a reason the PDF for the damn book is impossible to find???It's not out yet. Subscribers get books early, but "buying it from the Paizo webstore" isn't possible until your FLGS gets their order fulfilled (because doing it the other way would damage those relationships.) Found the pdf listing by searching for "destiny" at the store. https://store.paizo.com/pathfinder-hell-s-destiny-adventure-path-pdf/?searc hid=631541&search_query=destiny
Is there a reason the PDF for the damn book is impossible to find???It's not out yet. Subscribers get books early, but "buying it from the Paizo webstore" isn't possible until your FLGS gets their order fulfilled (because doing it the other way would damage those relationships.) Today is the release date. I don't think they've announced a new policy not to sell pdfs on the release date, it just seems to be consistent webstore tech problems or incompetence the last few months. Am I wrong and they just use a random number generator to add the pdf some number of days later as part of this not well known new release delay?
I am not familar with that sort of Chinese fiction, I wonder what tropes and vibes is associated with it? There's a great trilogy by Barry Hughart, the Tales of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, that does investigations of Chinese folklore mysteries based on real Chinese mythology and stories. The first, Bridge of Birds, is EXCELLENT and won the World Fantasy Award. Number Ten Ox is a huge, simple peasant boy whose village has all the children catch a bizarre plague. He's sent to hire a sage to solve/cure the problem, and finds Master Li, an extremely wise, extremely drunk, extremely old ("if only I could be ninety again, but you'll have to do it"), extemely ruthless, but somewhat ethical ("there is a small flaw in my character") former imperial magistrate and provincial governor who retired to do investigations. To solve the quest to heal the children the duo have to free ghosts, commit a murder ("hopefully we'll find someone who truly deserves it") to trigger a necessary funeral, kill tyrants (three times), steal secrets, liberate great treasures, get arrested, escape unescapable dungeons (three times), reform the wicked, uplift the weak, uncover ancient mysteries, and finally restore a lost goddess whose very existence had been erased from history.
Until level 8 and doing ersatz get em the luminary doesn’t overlap at all with the envoy when comparing their every round resourceless combat loops. I guess some of the stagecraft spells can give status bonuses to hit, but they also do more or do it better than get em. If nothing else they’re more action efficient once they’re up. It’s surprising no one has said much about the comparison of the luminary to the much lamented envoy playtest penalty to reflex saves from get em. It’s back (albeit status and not circ), now with Will and Fort options!
Changing Shape just makes you look like another ancestry, it doesn't give you any of their abilities unless a later feat explicitly and specifically gives you something that that ancestry has. I know there are options for natural attacks and extra arms, I don't remember any feats granting flight options that something you're imitating has. Some ancestries are not practical to imitiate because they come with inherent abilities that can't be imitated by an Astrazoan.
There’s a big difference for main character syndrome between the Exemplar’s “I have inherited/stolen/acquired divine essence from a god answerable now only to myself and am a self sustaining demigod” vs the champion or cleric kneeling before a good who can take away their powers if they misbehave, or an oracle whose divine power comes with a curse they cannot avoid.
Yeah, Starfinder recently introduced a pair of 17th level ancestry feats that allow you a guaranteed "this next check is a 20" result every 2-3 days, having that as an impossible spell result would be very sad.
It’s “yes” because you can substitute performance for a few social tasks from other skills and performance is the easiest skill to perma boost +3-4 ahead of baseline if you select the right ancestry (shiny skittermander for one also a 9th level Pahtra option) and a hardlight familiar.
There is zero non-magical buffing in the Luminary.
That rule didn’t exist in SF1, either. It was suggested you make it that no one would sell you items more than level +1 or +2, depending on the size of the settlement and other circumstances, due to licensing issues that fade away as you become more competent and connected. But it was only a suggestion and nothing mechanically prevents you from using any gear the GM gives you. But a party pooling wealth to buy a way over level consumable could seriously screw up a scenario, this was a tool for GMs to prevent that.
There's a handful of high level creatures that have zero athletics, hilarious if you ever encounter one of those.
Ancestry synergies with Luminary. 1. Uh oh:
Add to a hardlight familiar with accompanyist and this is +3-4 to your Performance checks substituting for other things. 2. Get rid of the familiar/Virtuosic Performer issues for a perma bonus to Performance:
3. Same, but bigger bonus less often:
4. Ok, Skittermander Shiny isn't unprecedented, this was in Player Core. You can retrain out of some Luminary feats once this comes online.
Contest platform 1. Star Contestant: One interesting thing about this is that it incentivizes MAP attacks you might not otherwise make, because a miss means you carry a +1-2 status bonus into your full accuracy attack next turn. It also is good for the many hazards/traps Paizo publishes where you need to make several skill checks under time constraints to disarm something. It can theoretically be a lot to track. You can simultaneously be carrying an attack bonus to be used, up to three save bonuses, and unlimited skill bonuses as your failures accumulate before you attempt those checks again. As a practical matter you'll rarely have more than two, I suspect. 2. Wheel of Superstars: This is...eh? If you have a large party who are in a spot they are happy to be (in cover) and close together to all benefit, I can see popping this for everyone to spend their third action to grab buffs and some fireballs and heals in round 2+. But few SF classes have actions to burn. I do think the possible results are strong. 1a for Heroism, a 64% damage fireball, a hero point, Haste (all move actions only), a self only Heal with THP spillover are all great, with that 1/6 chance of what's essentially perma Frightened 1. I want to play a session where someone stacks that penalty to -3 every 1/216 times or even a -4 on 1/1296 odds. Double down! 3. Summon a Friend: This basically covers the gap in Star Contestant to give you bonus/advantage on those first rolls where Star Contestant can't boost you because you haven't failed yet. Both this and Grand Slam are versions of "Sure Strike plus plus, with no cooldown." Fashion platform 4. Trendsetter: Is this better than just trying to Frighten? Well, (1) it's not subject to emotion/fear immunity, (2) it lasts two rounds instead of ticking down at the end of their turn, and (3) at rank 3 you can target a second target IF they're in a spotlight. Is that worth a focus point, an action to set up the ability, and making them do a reflex save against your spell DC rather than rolling your maxed out and boosted Peformance against Will DC for a penalty to everything rather than just Clumsy? I'm not sure. 5. Vogue Catwalk: You're investing 2a to give you/ally a free action (half) stride in a limited area. Even if they want to pace back and forth (kiting a melee only enemy?), the party isn't saving any actions until the spotlighted person has taken three turns after this is cast. Yuck. The dazzle on leaving just makes it worse. 6. Strut and Pose: This is good for taking away actions and/or forcing them to move. The latter is good for reactive strikes and similar, or if you can lay down some hazardous terrain. Both the luminary and the witchwarper can lay down hazardous terrain, although if the luminary blows up their spotlight they'll need to spend an action/reaction restoring it to keep the effects of this forced movement/lost actions going. Music platform 7. Diva: Minor healing (the healing result from Wheel of Superstars is 4.5 per rank vs 2.5 per rank from this, Soliloquoy gets you effectively 4 per rank for the Romance option), I think the main benefit is that you give any ally or yourself a sticky spotlight for a long battle or double the area of the next spell. You may not use the heal every round or at all, maybe to patch up after the fight. 8. Starsong Recital: This is strong against big groups to suck away actions from those who fail and force them to walk through hazardous terrain (consult your friendly witchwarper or get the exploding spotlight feat). Make sure to concentrate fire only on those who passed their save so that those failed remain fascinated. 9. Grand Crescendo: 64% Fireball damage, no friendly fire, sonic is rarely resisted, and half THP 1 round for the party. Good clean up in round 3-4 after you've sucked people in with Starsong Recital, but you can also just spam it three rounds in a row if you open the fight in close quarters. Sports platform 10. Star Player: The THP is probably an error that it doesn't scale, but you're mostly here for the save or prone on first strike every round. Basically gives you crit specialization effect of a hammer on your regular hits with ranged weapons. Plus a minute of your regularly assigned role for defense or a no-save crit rider. It's good! 11. Big Game: Half fireball damage (but bludgeoning and fort save) split into two mobile 10' (so easy to avoid friendly fire) areas that also do difficult terrain? This is great, compare to the rank 6 slotted spell Phantom Orchestra: only one 10' area, no difficult terrain, but 2a vs 3a and +2 dice damage and sonic to avoid physical resistance. 12. Grand Slam: This is a single strike (1) Heroism accuracy boost, (2) Sure Strike reroll if necessary (without accuracy boost), and (3) free action demoralize. If you cast this on your Star Player operative they get a free action full MAP use of this in addition to their Hair Trigger or Kill Steal, absolutely disgusting. Theatre platform 13. Lead Actor: The off-guard scene group allows easy ranged off-guard at the cost of inflicting it on party members who benefit from it. Pull in your martials who are beefier anyway, keep your casters/healers/support out of the scene. The Lead Actor role is very important for Soliloquoy flexibility. 14. Soliloquoy: I love this spell overall, but some role effects have issues. Comedy's stun is useful taking away reactions. Don't forget that there's a 1st level feat to let you use Performance to dramatically Shove people off cliffs, balconies, or catwalks... Drama's damage boost is marginal to pointless once you have your Cha boost at 9th level, healing boost to others is pointless compared to directly healing with Romance, so all it's good for is setting up a small healing boost received from an ally. This needs a change. Horror works even overlapped with an existing frightened condition, because if they don't crit succeed an existing frightened value can't be reduced below 1 for a round. Not action efficient, but good for a sticky full spectrum debuff. Irony is very funny and a good damage boost on plenty of things, but the once a day is going to encourage you to spread your damage around, which isn't optimal. Use this as the Lead Actor and then swap to a different role on your subsequent turns. Mythology is probably supposed to be Epic, and has similar results (save or dazzle on strike, rather than dazzled on crit). Needs a name and maybe effect edit. Romance heals the equivalent of 4 HP per rank, compared to 2.5 per rank for Diva and 4.5 per rank for the Wheel if you get that 1/6 result. Pretty good! Tragedy is here if you want to try to stupefy a spellcaster to disrupt a spell, but Horror/Comedy are your better debuffs. 15. Final Confrontation: Eeeeh. A good defensive buff to your ally against focus fire from multiple enemies if he's going to focus on one enemy himself, but is this worth 2a and a focus point nad a 12th level feat? No. Other stragecraft spells 16. Adoring Fans: A 10' zone of difficult terrain against an ally to protect from melee opponents, and the luminary can hide/sneak inside it. Other allies are going to deal with the difficult terrain. This was already marginal, but the fact any AOE makes it go poof kills it for me. 17. Cameo Appearance: A quickened(!) and improved (!) version of the already good slotted spell Illusory Creature. It's a little less good for you at levels where your spell DC lags a full caster, but this still should probably be a 2a spell. 18. Sculpt Hardlight: 3a bunker spell for a place to get away from melee threats (but you'll need to spend an action to enter and an action to close the door after they're created) and get perma cover against ranged threats. Can also be used as ersatz walls/obstacles in some cases. Good party defense, but lots of actions necessary to create it and move into it. 19. Take Five: This is a rank 7 focus spell that is mostly a worse version of the rank 4 Stasis (Time Domain) focus spell. Stasis has 30' vs 120' range, but on a success the target is still stunned 1 and on a crit fail the target potentially loses up to 3 rounds of actions if it keeps failing. Take Five has no effect on a success, and no extra effect on a crit fail. Needs a buff.
You don't have to move it to keep it from going out. It lasts two turns on you without doing anything, and after you hit 3rd level you can use your reaction on turn 3/5/7/9 to restore it for two more turns. A basic routine would be to assign the basic spotlight to yourself this way (zero action cost if you're happy with your assigned role or one available from your level 1 feasts) and then 1a cast a stagecraft spell to give a 1 minute immobile spotlight to an ally. Easy. You miss out on enemy debuffs this way (and crit specialization), but you can also assign the regular spotlight to the enemy and keep it on them with the same minimal every other turn reaction maintenance. The class can be downgraded to be simpler according to the player/GMs cognitive limitations.
The spotlight only has to move (or at 3rd level use a reaction to restore) every two turns. That’s once per combat most of the time.
Several things state you “use Performance” and implicitly may (or may not) mean to simply roll the skill rather than the Perform (or Recall Knowledge!) action within the skill. This matters for whether you can apply Virtuosic Performer feat bonus. But not if you get a Hardlight Familiar (feat 2) and take the Accompanyist familiar ability. That's the way to go if you're trying to use Performance for all the things.
Good catch, I'd submit as survey feedback. Maybe you can use it in turn 1 only.
You will never use the unarmed attack with this, you're here for the Enlarge and from Moon Frenzy the 10 THP and +10 speed. So you have your d10 or d12 weapon ikon, and Warped By Rage feat enhancing your body or worn ikon. Turn 1: start with spark in body/worn ikon, 1a transcend Spasm of the Beserker. Now you have 10 THP, +10 status to speed, size huge and reach increased by 10', +4 status to damage. This lasts until to the end of turn 2. (Except not, see next turn.) Your spark is now in your weapon ikon, and you get the +1-3 (usually +2) damage per weapon die immanence bonus as you make your strike(s) this turn. Turn 2: You start with you spark in your weapon ikon, and do a transcendance for a big hit. Spark transfers to worn/body ikon, and you still have Spasm of the Beserker active, which means "If this ikon becomes empowered again, you can extend Spasm of the Berserker’s duration until the end of your next turn. While you’re already affected by Spasm of the Berserker, the transcend action becomes a free action to extend its duration until the end of your next turn." Turn 3: Repeat turn 1. (Refresh 10 THP from Spasm.) Turn 4: Repeat turn 2. And so on. You are always benefiting from faux Giant Barb status with this. You can also add on Compliant Gold (feat 12) to give a d12 weapon reach, increasing your total reach to 20' or a d10 reach weapon to 25' total reach.
Can it Step or Stride into a spotlight placed on it in order to vanish out of trouble if you send it out short range scounting or to peak around a corner? Requires LOS and refreshing the spotlight, or maintaining the spotlight on it as your exploration activity, but maybe useful. Definitely something to think about if you have the invisibility role. Accompanyist ability avoids the issue that Virtuosic Performer only clearly applies its bonus to a handful of abilities where you specifically Peform with a roll against a DC, rather than the things like initiative where you roll Performance. Accompanyist just clearly works on everything that uses the skill. Familiar Focus is the obvious other one, I think, if your GM allows familiars to ride their master. It's just a 2nd level feat for a flat +1-2 circ bonus on all Performance checks (including initiative, many skill replacement options, and counteracts) and a bonus focus point per day that you can stack on the 1-2 (maybe now 3 with Gap-touched, if there's a 1st level one to steal) ancestry feat options also available. Free archetype stuff to enhance it via a spellcasting dedication or Familiar Master might make sense for normal familiar play. If you give it the ability to Manipulate it can spin the Wheel of Superstars, which is funny, but probably only useful for the fireball or heal results, so bad math. I don't see anything else it can interact with on the spell side.
It doesn’t have to be something that inherently looks crisp at 15’ and fuzzy within that range. You just say that’s an inherent property of the form of hardlight you use. Suddenly the optical illusion is revealed when you cross that threshold, like a visual puzzle…or magic.
You can expand it with feats (invisibility and resistance are good ones, or reversing the save penalty ones I guess). It's not a waste of time presetting a role that otherwise takes 1a to apply. This way enemies still require an action, allies have action economy (if you use the preassigned role).
GM Core says the Verthani are in Tech Core.I mean, didn't someone from Paizo themselves say that Verthani are in Tech Core? Yes, several someones from Paizo including all their leadership published GM Core. “The Bible says Jesus will X.” “I mean, didn’t Youth Leader Jim say Jesus will X?” I guess, but I don’t care.
What are people using this for and what are GMs allowing?
Movie scene props and background scenes for buildings and terrain (like spaceship walls) are often painted paper mache, I don't see why you can't make a hardlight version of this to make a "knock me over with a feather" L bulk 5x5x5 obstruction that provides cover/square blockage. Maybe it's destroyed after the first AOE to hit and certainly if an Interact shoves it, but that's fine. Similarly, put some ultralight/ultrathin fiber cable spooled in a mess inside a cube for difficult terrain. Your turret mechanic now has a second (immobile, nonfunctional) turret that popped up! Maybe someone will shoot at it. Or look! a mine! Theatre does these best to keep them from being useless distractions within 15'. Carry a specific looking weapon/tool kit/etc. to fit into a place you're infiltrating (must stay 15' away from observers unless your platform is Theater, can't share with allies unless Contest). Quick disguises for the party (Fashion) "put these firefighter jackets on" even if you don't have time to put a full disguise on with your holographic kit. Recorded sound distractions (Music platform).
When the first combat of the day starts every PC can tell the Luminary and themeselves "here's the role preassigned to me and that I will receive as a buff if I get the spotlight, no one has to burn an action on Cast a Role if I/we are happy with this." Romance/Epic/Horror are pretty much what you're going to be using.
The answer is now out and being revealed by those with the AP, if you want to hunt around for it. I saw it on Reddit first.
This was amusingly hinted at in Era of the Eclispse, where a Hellknight immediately after the Gap struggles to remember if Hell has nine or ten layers. You're meant to just think it's a funny sign of how brain scrambled everyone is and how messed up historical knowledge is. I do agree that calling this a "layer" and Abby an "Archdevil" is preetty dumb given what she's bringing to the table. The other layers are theoretically infinite and practically many many orders of magnitude bigger than her territory.
There was a funny throw away line in the Starfinder Era of the Eclipse that it turns out hinted at the resolution of this AP.
Hardlight Props seem fine if your GM allows them to do what they say they can do, creat L bulk 5’ cubes and similar requiring an action to clear out of the way. A hardlight “paper mache” cube (like set dressing/background) could provide cover or concealment or block movement through a square, for example. “Plastic spaghetti” might provide difficult terrain.
Also I just realized that a spotlight lasts TWO turns on you before it goes away - from start of your turn to end of your NEXT turn. Then burn a reaction to restore it for two more rounds. Use your spotlight spell to buff someone else for a full minute for one action.
After the first two levels you can always use your mostly useless reaction to put the spotlight on anyone you want. I imagine this lets you just sacrifice your reaction to permanently keep it on one target. There are other reaction options so you don’t want to only rely on this all the time, but you aren’t in a straight jacket of free actions with condior a single action to freely set it.
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