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So the alien species I'm thinking of (some of you may find familiar) would get

8 extra hp at starting level

25ft movement speed

a d6 slashing unarmed attack from blades at the end of their tails

"Thought Speech" which is to say they communicate via projected telepathy either to a specific individual only, or openly broadcast for everyone to "hear".

They have a centaur like arangement of their body, but more a dear than a horse, so they are still only medium creatures. fur in shades of blue and purple. weak arms, with seven fingers on each hand.

No mouth, they eat through their hooves.

eyes on stalks that give them 360 degree vision.

I'm thinking +1 to dex and int, -1 to strength, and a free boost

Heritages would include
a large size that removes the Int bonus, and changes the -1 to strength to a +1.
a faster heritage with a faster movement speed,
and a heritage that lets you alter polymorph spells cast on you to your benefit.

with feats to enhance the unarmed attack, feats to allow them to cast polymorph spells on themselves, feats to enhance the use of their stalk eyes increase their perception.

My understanding is that the Belkzen Hold is a harsh and inhospitable landscape with little in the way of resources. but... why? given it's location, And tall peaks, with a river running down it's spine, and tall mountains, I would expect it to be fairly green. Is there an in universe reason for the harsh environment

... because I can think of one.

For... reasons, I'm building a party of characters, and I'm trying to figure out if they are balanced.

So I have a cleric, a Druid, a Monk, a Swashbuckler, and a Thaumaturge (if I can figure out a way to make them "showy").

is this a fairly balanced party?

So, this players guide gives us the Elebrians, big headed folk with innate magical sense that are, mostly, kept for entertainment on Eox, and thus they culturally are mostly actors, streamers, and other performers.

You also get Corpsefolk as a versatile Heritage. You are whatever your ancestry was, just undead. with three lineages and lots of necro-tastic feats.

new spells, and new magic items as well, including weapons, like the Replica Zo! Microphone

https://bsky.app/profile/samreich.bsky.social/post/3m3436xerls2o

So, Paizo... any funds left in the marketing budget?
Dropout is home of one of the most popular Actual Play series on the internet and one of the most famous gamemasters.

For information regarding how they spent the $100K that LinkedIn gave them, GameChanger's "Who Want's To be Jacob Wysocki." One of their cast had been having a rough year, including losing his mother, so they did an episode of their show themed around Who wants to be a millionaire that was designed to make him win the $100K, and celebrate the amazing person he is, with big moments to break for sponsorship placement in the most hilarious way possible.

Mind you, Jacob is a guy that when another of their shows put $3K in his pocket, he donated it split between a charity to help revitalize a history town and a local high school marching band.

at a convention I'm going to next month, hosting a panel about getting started in Pathfinder 2e, from the perspective of someone who play's 5e.

I was wondering if I could post my spiel on here for feed back on: Accuracy, presentation of information, selection of topics, flow/structure.

The only thing I'm not looking for feedback on is my grammar (I don't think it's perfect, it's just I'm the only one going to see this so I don't care so long as I can understand it)

This is not me explaining Witchwarpers, this is me begging the better players to help me understand them, both from a lore perspective, and a mechanical one. Help me understand the GENERAL rotation and play style, help me understand the class fantasy, because I will be honest... I don't get it.

Archaic Adapter: You specialize in archaic weapons, but have adapted to all the technology around you.

Requirment: your character's class is form Pathfinder 2e.

basically the idea is that you have found ways to put upgrades onto archaic weapons, let them interact with computers without giving the base weapon the tech trait

... can you tell I've been playing Horizon Zero Dawn recently?

So, I'm doing this just because I'm excited that we are now 3.5 weeks out from the official release date for SF2e Core rulebook! Soon we'll get to see the release version of the first six classes, and more. and while this may be unlikely in the case of SF2e, there are always the subscriber and reviewer copies that go out early, so we could be hearing news sooner than that (I don't really thinks so, but it is technically a possibility)

Creation for the sake of creation. I welcome critique and input.

The idea being it is a 2 slot per rank class, but at early levels it does not recover spell slots on long rests. They do have an special reaction that allows them to consume magic and magical effects to refill spell slots. they can use the refocus activity to draw in ambient magic to restore spell slots, which would allow them to use spells at early levels, when magic items and other ways of restoring their magic is rare. They would obviously have cantrips.

They would have a spell sink (spelbook/familiar/spell-cache) where they can learn a new spell at each level, but if they critically succeed their reaction to consume a spell, it can be added to their spell sink regardless of the school.

The school you can automatically learn from is based on your subclass.

Neutrality: grants the divine school. you get a bonus to your reaction to consume magic verses spells and effects with the holy, unholy, vitality, and void traits. and if someone restores your hit points using magic you can restore spell slots equal to healing/ your level no more than your max spell slots.

Depression: Grants the Occult school, you get bonuses to consume spells with the mental and emotional trait, and if you critically fail a save against a spell with the mental or emotional trait, you regular fail instead.

Vacuum: grants the Primal school: you get bonuses to consume innate spells, and magical effects produced by creatures directly (such as a dragon's breath attack). your consume magic reaction also deals void damage to living creatures, and spirit damage to undead.

Null: grants the arcane school, admittedly this is where I lose ideas.

Okay, this is petty, and it is not very important, but I want to gripe about this, so I'm doing it here, and not elsewhere, where it could cause the Paizo community to get a bad name, further I say this as a die hard Critter who was there in the Geek&Sundry days...

The number of D&D creators I see doing all kinds of videos and dives on Daggerheart, but can never be bothered to even look at Pathfinder 2e! WHY!? (because DH, being tied to Critical Role, is gonna get them more views and there is nothing wrong with that but it still annoys me).

It is less of a change to try out PF2e, but they act like it's learning a different language, but Daggerheart comes out, using a completely different game engine, and they don't bat an eye and making content for that!

Petty Grumble, petty gripe.

So one of my favorite book series is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I've long wanted to figure out a way to do something from the 3rd book that would be silly but possibly interesting. However, it involves subverting the rules in a weird way. Specifically I want to make a series of skill feats that revolve around failing a perception check, or succeeding a will save against your own perception DC.

So in the books the author says that there is a skill, or rather a knack to flying. You have to throw yourself at the ground... and miss. in a later book, it demonstrates that this is done by being suddenly and severely distracted before hitting the ground.

What was that?: skill feat (perception)
reaction
Trigger: you are falling
you are suddenly and severely shocked by something in your surrounding or landing area, and entirely forget to continue falling. you attempt a reflex save against your own perception DC with a +1 circumstance bonus to your reflex save
Critical Failure: you not only hit the ground, taking full damage, but you are also stunned 1 at the start of your next turn.
Failure: No effect
Success: your fall halts right before you would hit the ground as you are distracted. at the start of your turn, the moment you take any action OR free action, you fall the remaining distance as you remember what was going on, while you are prone, you take no damage.
Critical Success: You were distracted very early and can choose a height other than the ground to stop your fall, though the remaining rules still apply.

I'm sorry, what were you saying?: your ability to be distracted from gravity is increased, the circumstance bonus to the reflex save against your own perception DC increases to +2, and on a critical success, gain a flying speed equal to your movement speed, until it is brought to your attention that you are flying and shouldn't be able to, at which point you lose your fly speed and fall again.

Head in the clouds: the bonus to your reflex save against your own perception DC increases to +3. You gain the same limited flying speed on a regular success. Further if you should say something or someone would say something to you that would end your flying speed, you can make a will save against your perception check, or if someone else pointed it out, the other party's diplomacy DC: if you succeed, you do not lose your fly speed.

I've done this for the others, and I just had an idea for a Mystic today, so it's the mystic's turn.

tell us about a mystic you're excited to play, or that you have already played.

The idea I had was a human who was raised on Aballon by Anacites. His parents were researchers who died in a meteor storm (or at least that's what he was told). While he carries their sense of community, in that Anacites work together harmoniously for a the good of their world, he struggles with purpose. Anacites are all purpose built, they all have purposes. but non-anacites... they don't have that luxury. So he seeks connection (healing connection) with other non-anacites. he speaks rather stiffly to start with, and is somewhat blunt.

This is not intended to be perverse, or just a referendum on furries, though... yeah.
How do different regions and cultures react to couples/polycules that cross ancestral lines?

Like, I imagine in Cheliax it's full on illegal in any degree, including with elves and orcs. and the only reason infernal nephillim are tolerated is because you don't actually have to have relations with the infernal being to have a nephillim. But I would assume everyone gossips that you did anyway.

I imagine in somewhere like the 5 Kings mountains or Kyonin the Dwarves/Elves socially look down on it, though don't ban it, but react with a "dude, They're a third of your age, that's kind of creepy" vibe.

Andoran and Absalom I think believe they're accepting and don't care, certainly no laws, but see a human with a hobgoblin, or tengu, or other more... un-human ancestry and people will give weird looks and whisper.

My understanding is that there is no history of when or how the halflings first appeared on Golarion. What about them? do they have any lore about their early days?

I am (For my own amusement) writing a story. and I have an old Halfling telling stories passed down about the Halflings meeting other major ancestries for the first time, they taught the humans to farm. They gave food and crops to the orcs who had ventured to them scouting for food, they taught elves to Make wine (which they won't argue the Elves have done very well, even arguably better) the taught the Dwarves to enjoy the soft (causing the dwarven word for a bed with a mattress to this day to be derived from the dwarven word for halfling), and with the Goblins they found unity in their loose concept of ownership and property (everything is for the community). They pride themselves in that they survive, by trusting in their neighbors. It does not always work (this Halfling was smuggled out of Cheliax by the Bellflower Network), but they will never let the world take that from them.

So I saw someone with a... erm... "Crappy Idea" (IYKYK) about a wand that double the range of a spell. And I thought, why isn't that a thing in PF2e?

Like not necessarily a wand to do it, but an item that you attach to an arcane focus or yourself to let you use a spellshape, even though you don't have the feat for it. Make it a talisman that a spell caster can attach to a staff or wand, and any time they cast a spell they can use an action to consume the talisman and use the spellshape.

Would that be unbalancable? would that erode the purpose of taking the feat?

This is a creation for creations sake thing, not necessarily getting ready to deploy it, but I want people's opinion. Could the item level of the talisman be equal to the feat level? What are problems y'all foresee I'm not thinking of?

So I can understand the 3/rank, given the Spellcache's ease to change your spells, and the strong emphasis on spellshape (including overclock and Jailbreak). But what do y'all think? The Mystic and Witchwarper were 4/rank and had power built into things other than spell casting, whereas the Technomancer is is all in on hit's spell casting.

I love this ability. it is exactly what I wanted, kludging together alterations to all kinds of gear.

kind of surprised there isn't an option here to temporarily increase damage die size. but all the ways they can make changes are wonderful!

So the witchwarper is not my favorite of the casters we've seen so far, but after playing Cyberpunk 2077, I had an idea for a Witchwarper subclass.

you surf the Infospheres, the largest, and deepest, most heavily populated and longest existing. but as you dug through data and information you found something... you dug too deep, too greedily. You gazed into the digital abyss... and now it gazes at you.

You are the Focus of a rogue AI from time immemoriam. Whether created prior to the Gap or by a lost civilization, this thing is powerful, and it claws at the barrier between the material world and the digital one.

your Quantum field deals 1 electric, psychic, or void damage (whichever harms the individual creature worse, if all are equal the GM chooses) to any creature within 30 feet of you. as free action when you create your field and as an action on your turn you can perform an arcana or computer check against any peice of technology in your field, and on success it gains the glitching 1 condition, on a critical success glitching two.

(Double checks, okay, spelled it right this time)

So similarly to my question over in the Solarian, what kind of Operative did you have in mind.

I had kind of a sillyone. She's a sniper, accurate and deadly. She goes by Pahk T'Worlder. She's just an ordinary Pact World citizen... with purple eyes... and a deep widow's peak. Yup, just a normal Citizen. Definitely not an Azlanti deep-cover spy sent to get information on the Pact Worlds.

She was chosen for this job because she's an amazing operative, quiet, deadly... and they kind of thought that would also include deceitful... she's a terrible liar.

I'm getting excited about the playtest coming later this month, and the full release coming this summer, so I thought I'd try and see if anyone else is as excited. Solarion is the class, from the Core, that I'm most interested in.

I've shared elsewhere that I want to make a Skeleton Solarion. He did 200 years on Eox working customer service in a florescent lit cubical farm. and now that he has his freedom, he wants to feel the sun on his bones. Photonic Attunement.

What does your Solarion look like? Which feature do you think you'll lean into most? I'm thinking my guy will focus on the shot and the nimbus.

So, with the playtest coming up in April, along with everythign announced in the Galaxy Guide, and the Official release coming this summer. What has NOT be announced for second edition that you are eagerly hoping to see.

For me, Its the Nanocyte class, and the Hologram and SRO ancestries.

What do you imagine religious services of various gods to look like?

For Arazni I imagine it looks somewhat like an AA meeting, but the things they share are "how did you assert your dignity" or "What did you do to survive." Those who feel shame for what they did for survival were welcomed not to say, but were reminded that they are worthy of survival, and "By Any Means Necessary" does not mean just violence.

And of course, they are encouraged to meditate on what they will do to their abuser/oppressors when they get the chance.

So the idea here is kind of Jekyll/Hyde, or Hulk, or something else where instead of summoning a creature seperate from you, you are unleashing something that is a part of you, causing a fundamental transformation in the process. You can spend 1 focus point to meld into the eidolon as a single action.

You choose your Eidolon like normal, but DO NOT choose the mutation feat at first level. instead you gain the Meld into Eidolon feat, and this is the only way you can manifest your Eidolon. and you can only have your eidolon manifested for 1 minute at a time
At second level you MUST take this class archetype dedication. Part of the dedication will be choosing a second archetype dedication. The benefits of this second archetype are only available WHEN YOU ARE MELDED INTO YOUR EIDOLON. When taking a class feat/or Class archetype feat, you may take a feat from this extra archetype instead.

When creating a new god for PF2e are there any concerns to keep in mind. I want to create a God who's domains include undeath who can sanctify Holy. GIVEN that we can have undead PC's in the game, and thus that would indicate undead can be good people, why not create a god they can follow who doesn't despise them either for being undead or for being not cruel and selfish.

I figure with everything going on with the War of Immortals it might be a good time for a new Undead God to arise.

So reading through the discussion about items to boost spell attack rolls got me thinking about an idea for an Archetype. This is Fully admitted to be half baked, and suggestions, or observations of clear imbalance are welcome and encouraged.

A lot of spell slingers originate from Nex, but can arise in Arcadia. They are magic wielders who are masters at slinging magic fast, hard, and targeting enemy spell casters.

Spell Slinger Dedication
Uncommon, unless you are Nexian
Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell with the attack trait.
You have learned to make a Slinger's Focus. these usually take the form of specially shaped wand-like items, but could also be rings, or other magical foci. You have put the runes on it necessary to let your magic fly straight and true. this Slinger's Focus requires attunement. While attuned you gain a +1 Item bonus to Spell attack rolls, but your Spell save DC gains an Item penalty of -2. Weapon Potency runes can be applied to your Slinger's Focus and their Item bonus will be applied to your spell attack roll. (Should the penalty to Spell save DC grow with potency runes?)

Further Feats would be things like letting you roll your magic tradition (Arcana, religion, occultism, nature) for initiative.

Casting AOE and save spells as attack spells.

Allowing you to pick up attack spells from other tradtions.
Getting a limited ability to lower the action cost of a spell.
Maybe a special set of feats that let you bond your focus with or turn it into a spell or staff or scroll case letting you use it's ability with those spells.

So I was thinking about runes that are put on weapons and armor... and I was wondering... Is there a rune that can increase the circumstance bonus a weapon with the Parry trait provides. Like, clearly it would need to be at least level 5 or higher. but... I don't know. Just a thought. Would that be game breaking?

What are some regions/countries/ lands in Golarion where a Pathfinder Society Lodge could Legally exist, but would illicit community mistrust. Idea for a campaign I had where my players, who join the PFS in universe are sent to a far flung long abandoned Lodge to staff it and try to establish a positive PFS presence in the region. And I would offer them various locales to set up
Numeria
the Belkzan Hold
Irrisen
Nex
Maybe a few places in Tian Xia would work?

With the introduction of the new bastion system over in that other system, I think that PF2e would not only benefit from a system like that, but you could create an entire AP around it. at level 3, the PFS assigns the party to man a remote now defunct lodge in a semi-hostile area. They have to promote the Society by taking on jobs and helping the locals. Slowly convincing the society and locals to join and help grow the resources of the lodge.

I wanted to have a character I thought up have a path to Sanctification, though his wouldn't normally grant this.

If I wanted to make a custom feat to give him sanctification Holy. What level should it be, and What type of feat should it be?

For context, he's an Undead bones Oracle who THINKS he's a cleric of Urgathoa, but his teachings are actually heretical to her (hence his curse) He's actually being granted power, and theoretically, sanctification in secret by Callistria who is using him as a method of revenge for a petty slight from Urgathoa.

My thought is
You become Sanctified and gain the Holy Trait. Any spells that have the sanctification trait also gain the holy trait when you use them.

You may choose a set of edicts, but you gain the following Anathema
Anathema: act cruelly, or take pleasure harming others.

Just thought we could talk about the different Tian Xia characters we came up with and want to play.

I had an idea for a Yaoguai Ranger named Cam Tre. He is the spirit of a bamboo grove that has been harvested for generations by the Nong family. He has seen parent teach child to responsibly tend the grove, and the child in turn pass those lessons onto their offspring for many generations. However, it's been a while since he was harvested or tended. Worried for his friends, he has left his grove to seek out the fate of the Nong family... only problem is he has trouble remembering that his time scale is different from others, and frequently asks about people who have died hundreds of years ago. He's a happy-go-lucky sort who's been well cared for, and just wants to make sure his friends are okay.

So I'm noticing that there are only 3 Directive feats.
Take 'em Alive (1action) at level 1
Get In There (1 action) at level 2
Search high and Low (1 action) at level 2

Given that there is a "Leadership Style" that who's act of leadership includes "Issue another directive (In the spotlight) that seems odd to me.

Like, the main take away I got from the previews and everything, was that we would be issuing directives to buff our allies, but given you can't use the same directive twice in one turn. You HAVE to take one of those directive feats.

Also, I guess I just figured there would be more directives, given the emphasis they had in the previews.

So this is a two part question
If Starfinder 2e will be your first foray into the Starfinder setting, what locations or archetypal locations are you interested in seeing? What are you wanting to explore out there in the cosmos?

If you are continuing on from SF1e, what kind of updates or new changes (besides the hatching) are you hoping to see in the setting?

I was watching the Acolyte and I had an idea for an SF2e Hazard.

The party enters a dense, old forest, with trees towering as high as Redwoods. All of them must make will saves. On a fail frightened 1. crit fail frightented 2e. On a success not frightened, but they are uneasy. Crit success they perceive what's going on and are immune.

The Value cannot be decreased below 1. until they understand the nature of the hazard.
Once per hour they can make a new perception check against a moderate difficulty DC for their level, or they can request an appropriate skill check for a lower DC, GM DO NOT TELL THEM APPROPRIATE SKILLS. They would include Medicine, Survival, Forest Lore, or similar.

IF they fail this check, their frightened condition increases by 1. If they Crit fail, their frightened condition increaes by 2. IF they reach frightened 4, they become fleeing for one round in a random direction, and then reset to frightened 1.
If they succeed they may reduce their frightened condition, including to 0. and may be told a more applicable skill for the check. HOWEVER they are still under the effect of the Hazard.

Upon a critical Success, they perceive the nature of the Hazard
Those aren't trees. They are animals. not dangerous ones, but their ultra-low frequency loud heart beats, their slow barely perceptible breathing, their giving off animal life force/scent instead of plant, causes senses to report conflicting information to the brain, which causes fear.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm super excited to playtest. and I can't help but start thinking about the characters I want to play.

I'm thinking I want to play an Envoy who is kind of a Social Media personality. Not like a "prank channel" but one of those "I think my career is kind of interesting so I will show it off" type things, like those real-estate brokers who give tours of amazing properties in foreign cities. Except his career is adventuring. Any suggestions on an Ancestry?

So the commander doesn't have subclasses and I can actually see a bit of a whole in them that can be filled with Subclass abilities.

Victorious Banner
You become trained in the Diplomacy skill, and may choose to use your intelligence modifier in place of charisma for diplomacy checks, and you gain an extra tactic at each level of tactic that is RP focused around diplomacy situations, such as preventing crit fails for your allies, helping them making impressions, etc. the Inspiring Commander.

Bloody Banner
You become trained in the Intimidation skill, and may choose to use your intelligence modifier in place of charisma for intimidation checks , and you gain an extra tactic at each level of tactic that is RP focused around Intimidation, coercion, and shows of power. as well as bonuses to intimidation in your banner's aura. The Drill-Sergent commander

Artful Banner
You become trained in the Deception skill, and may choose to use your intelligence modifier in place of charisma for deception checks , and you gain an extra tactic at each level of tactic that is RP focused around Deception, making disguises, preparing back stories to give bonuses to allies on Deception checks and bonuses to feint or other deception checks in your banner's aura. The spy master Commander

I don't know if anyone wants to talk about this, but the PC2 advertisement on Amazon mentioned what that Undisclosed versatile heritage is. Not saying it yet, in case Paizo doesn't want that said and are already taking to Amazon about fixing that listing. But it's something that has been wanted for a while.

Just a thought that popped into my head, and realized there are probably more things like this.

So, say you're an Air Kineticist in a space suit, in space. Given you can use basic kinesis to summon air, If you cup one hand into a cylinder, and put the other flat against the back and summon air into it, can you propel yourself with this?

Add in any other weird physics or scifi interactions you can think of.

Also, feel free to answer the questions, but this is mostly in good humor

While I'm eager to hear about anything that is official from Paizo, feel free to throw head cannon's in here, it's where I'm starting from.

Goblins ferment and pickle everything. It's why they have a reputation for eating trash. But if you've ever had goblin cheeses you will either love the complexity of flavor, or vomit because they do take fermentation and pickling to extremes.

Orcs prefer to preserve the identity of their meat, hence they do minimal cooking, as they feel it disrespects their prey to deny what it was, a living creature who was killed for their sustenance. Thus not only is there not a lot of heavy cooking of the meat, but they also eschew sauces that would cover the meat. For this reason Meat is often served with a hearty vegetable stew

Gnomes are amazing patisseries and candy makers because sugar is stimulating. The most accomplished gnome candy makers will claim to cook with non-physical ingredients, and most other cooks, alchemists, and magic users cannot tell if the Gnome is being euphemistic, humorous, or literal when they talk about "sprinkling the cookies with children's laughter" before baking.

Okay, so this is a random thought that just hit me, and I'm going to make all of you suffer for it.

Dwarves should have a rich musical tradition, mostly vocals, but some strong percussion

As for what made me thing this: Disney's Snow White and the 7 Dwarves, The Hobbit, and tons of other media sources.

In universe why? Work songs. Lots of cultures have a musical tradition that evolve from work songs. And Given one of the biggest things about Dwarven culture is Their mining, this make especial sense. They use the songs to keep time and make sure they work in time with one another. Some songs, about caution or sadness, would be used to prevent them from striking in perfect synchronization, and generating dangerous harmonics in less stable tunnels. Tons of professions take up this habit of singing to keep time. from smiths pounding an billot in perfect rhythm, to chefs using the pacing of a song to keep the recipe and timing of the food. (needless to say Traditional Dwarven songs can be HOURS long)

this would also later evolve into singing magic into their creations, using the song as part of the verbal componants of a ritual.

Historians and Librarians also take up the habit, and thus older and traditional Dwarven Literature is written in meter and verse, not that this occurs to translators.

Most races don't recognize dwarven appreciation for music because the stronger empahsis is on being in time, they care much less about harmony, than they do for staying with the rhythm.

Thus while most Dwarven musicians are always off pitch and the instruments can seem untuned, EVERY Dwarven musician can keep time better than a metronome. Of course great Dwarven musicians sound wonderful to all ears, but as long as you can keep time, Dwarves never discourage you from singing.

While we haven't gotten a field test on the Solarians yet, we have seen them playtested.

They seem to automatically shift between stances automatically. They go into a photon or graviton mode at the opening of combat, and each time they attack (or use a Solarian ability probably) They automatically shift their stance to the opposite.

The one I saw playtested used a weapon and had a mote that seemed to take an attack whenever he attacked.

It seems, like they'll be one of those two-subclass classes. because they said he started out "balanced" so he could choose which stance he went into when combat started, but he also chose the weapon.