aobst128's page

Yeah I'm with everyone here. Using chatGPT as a rules reference is ridiculous. It's built to make convincing conversation, not to interpret rules or solve actual problems.

The only way CHA stops being the stat for innate spells is if you take the psychic feat that turns it into int, having spellcaster investment does not change that stat it just gives you a proficiency in the tradition (or now in the remaster just gives you proficiency in spells in general but the stat still stays the same)

Tengu feather fan can also change the DC to potentially any other stat

One neat thing is that the tengu feather fan is a lot more viable without the need for charisma to damage. You can go ahead and strength or dex cast electric arc without worry.

More importantly, the cantrips and traditions are a lot more balanced now. The aoe cantrips are more consistent which I appreciate. The divine list has a respectable amount of offensive cantrip options now too which is great.

I'm not sure about the insistence about how cantrips are equivalent to weapons. They're not really mutually exclusive. You can have both if you want to. Cantrips are a toolkit more than anything and occupy a different sphere of design than weapons. The comparison is kind of a waste.

As far as electric arc goes, I would have appreciated a nerf honestly. Could have been 2 targets but the second target has to be within 10 feet of the first or something like that.

Yeah, Paizo design has improved since the first core and the apg. That's why inventor and thaumaturge get their free boosts. I strongly suspect the remastered swashbuckler will have some automatic skill progression.

Alchemist too probably.

I do really like the idea of treating panache like special reloads. Spend an action to gain panache and use a skill action rather than gaining panache from a successful check.

With the new shield rune, shields of all kinds compete with sturdy shields for hardness and hp. Casters targe is a good one for the scrolls. Bucklers can reliably shield block now too so you could have access to your healers tools for battle medicine. Fortress shield if you really want to tank.

THERE. ARE. FOUR. DICE.

-Captain Picard (if he was a wizard)

I'd really like some more options in general too. More advanced firearms. As of now, advanced shooter just helps with the repeating crossbows since the firearms are all ancestry linked and you don't have access by default and the way to access them makes advanced shooter unnecessary. Need an advanced one handed gun of some kind.

Hell of a necro. Still wild anyone would be confused as badly as op was on this.

The standard spear also has the monk trait now which is nifty. Now shooting stars monks can invest in a melee weapon with their throwers bandoliers.

I like that the khakkara has the monk trait now. A second d10 option outside of dragon stance is nice.

That's probably the right move. I kinda like the balance point of capacity though. It would be a more balanced choice if dual weapon reload was a passive instead of being pretty much the only choice for drifters and the like. Right now, you have to have either a capacity weapon or a bladed gauntlet to support risky reload and running reload which are fairly essential in keeping up efficiency.

Rogues now have proficiency with bow staffs which is the least painful combo weapon. I could see that getting some use now.

There's definitely a cost to having that versatility but I find its not debilitating in most cases. If your choice of switch hitting happens to be a combo weapon and you're not a triggerbrand it's notably rougher, which is unfortunate since switch hitting seems to be their goal.

I'm currently playing a soul forger barbarian switch hitter with a thrown nodachi that's been a lot of fun. Falcata and chakram (with abp) as backup after I use my essence power. I find plenty of opportunities to make ranged strikes even when melee is my priority

What I'd like to see would be a fix to dual weapon reload to make it a passive so you can use other special reloads. I like the idea of having singular expertise scale. I'd also appreciate a d8 kickback 1 handed gun. Would round out high strength drifters. They're missing that option.

I've had decent success with switch hitting with and without abp. A flexible combat approach is often rewarded in my experience. I've seen drifters at play in my games and they've filled that role reasonably well. The premise of the thread though I do tend to agree with. Gunslinger could use some help but I don't think it's as abysmal as people tend to think.

The more troublesome way is triggerbrand. Tougher to dedicate yourself to a D4 ranged attack when you have salvo in your pocket. Mainly a problem with combo weapons themselves.

If you need to switch hit you don't even need to go drifter though, just get an attached weapon and have a better gun and worse melee weapon because you are going to use the gun more anyway.

That's a fair point. Drifter has some of the best deeds though. Into the fray is good enough to consider multiclassing for even if you don't use guns lol. Plus, reloading strike makes things a lot smoother.

aobst128 wrote:

Squiggit wrote:

IF you're avoiding melee combat because you're flimsy you could just be any other Way at that point and not leave a bunch of features dead on the floor.

They're not dead. You can do both. That's the point.

If you are not in melee, literally none of your Way features or Way-exclusive feats apply. You essentially don't have a subclass. If that's not dead, then I don't what is.

And as Squiggit already pointed out, a Drifter at range isn't actually good. "You can do both" is technically true, but it also implies that you are competent at both, which the Drifter is very much not.

Regardless, the most competent drifters are ones who use their features tactically and not exclusively, which I will still argue is the point. What you're leaving dead if you only use melee is your range increments which are fairly useful considering your better half will always be your gun. It hinges on how much you value switch hitting which I do. If not, drifter probably isn't for you

aobst128 wrote:

Squiggit wrote:

Drifters aren't really switch hitters either, you need to be in melee range to use all their features. A drifter at range is just a gunslinger without a reload feature.

Though I'm also not convinced switch hitting is even much of a meaningful role in PF2- most switch hitters I see are better off just sticking to range or melee entirely.

I disagree. You're not obligated to use all of your tactics immediately by running into melee. Drifters simply can do that more easily. Turn one drifters aught to use their free stride to get in, do their routine, then get out. You've got a gun. Why be a action movie goon and run at the target? Lol. You're flimsy so skirmishing and keeping distance is still a good idea. You just gotta use your judgement for when to use your melee strategically.

As a side note, drifters are the best use case for dual weapon reload if you don't want to use a slide pistol. Reloading strike for melee, dual weapon reload for range.

IF you're avoiding melee combat because you're flimsy you could just be any other Way at that point and not leave a bunch of features dead on the floor.

They're not dead. You can do both. That's the point.

aobst128 wrote:

Squiggit wrote:

Drifters aren't really switch hitters either, you need to be in melee range to use all their features. A drifter at range is just a gunslinger without a reload feature.

Though I'm also not convinced switch hitting is even much of a meaningful role in PF2- most switch hitters I see are better off just sticking to range or melee entirely.

I disagree. You're not obligated to use all of your tactics immediately by running into melee. Drifters simply can do that more easily. Turn one drifters aught to use their free stride to get in, do their routine, then get out. You've got a gun. Why be a action movie goon and run at the target? Lol. You're flimsy so skirmishing and keeping distance is still a good idea. You just gotta use your judgement for when to use your melee strategically.

As a side note, drifters are the best use case for dual weapon reload if you don't want to use a slide pistol. Reloading strike for melee, dual weapon reload for range.

Dual Weapon Reload should just let reloads happen with full hands in the first place.

And I disagree with you because in that case my ranged(as in my 40-60 ft ranged increment Strikes) amd melee should synergize more.

Agreed about dual weapon reload. There's synergy if you choose it. Drifters juke, bullet split, and rebounding assault come to mind. And of course, the final deed which is incredibly good, drifters wake.

Drifters aren't really switch hitters either, you need to be in melee range to use all their features. A drifter at range is just a gunslinger without a reload feature.

Though I'm also not convinced switch hitting is even much of a meaningful role in PF2- most switch hitters I see are better off just sticking to range or melee entirely.

I disagree. You're not obligated to use all of your tactics immediately by running into melee. Drifters simply can do that more easily. Turn one drifters aught to use their free stride to get in, do their routine, then get out. You've got a gun. Why be a action movie goon and run at the target? Lol. You're flimsy so skirmishing and keeping distance is still a good idea. You just gotta use your judgement for when to use your melee strategically.

As a side note, drifters are the best use case for dual weapon reload if you don't want to use a slide pistol. Reloading strike for melee, dual weapon reload for range.

I'll posit shooting stars monk fills that switch hitting role best. Less range than pistols but that can be improved through archetypes.

Sounds like the argument hinges entirely on stunning fist, which is very good but the role of switch hitting dpr that the archetype suggests still falls short of drifters.

As a side note, disarm is a lot better with the remaster. The penalty to attack rolls on a successful check lasts indefinitely now until the target spends an action to regrip their weapon.

I'm wondering which kinds of ranged strikes would be allowed given the text of the combination trait.

So you make a successful melee strike, so you don't need to switch modes to make your next ranged strike against that target. So far so good, but does that only mean "Strikes" specifically or could you say, make a ricochet shot or a risky reload?

I'm still confused with bullet dancer reload. It's nice with a musket but doesn't actually help to make multiple strikes with pistols since once your gun or guns are empty, you still don't have a way to reload them.

Bullet dancer can also grab reloading strike themselves with gunslinger archetype later on. With that and bullet dancer burn, it looks a lot better

If bullet dancer stance allowed martial firearms and the archetype had dual weapon reload as well as running reload, it would be a much better comparison.

Bullet dancer definitely has more staying power since it's base monk but in terms of offense, it's a clumsy mess compared to drifter.

Considering stab and blast, it's a far greater action condenser than fob too.

So is there any Ethical AI Art generators out there that anyone can think of? This is a rather interesting topic from art thieves to AI Art Generator but the real question is, if you're not selling the art and using it privately for games with a couple friends, is it actually bad?

That's the relevant question. I'll go for probably not.

Look, I'm not going to pretend like I've never gone on pintrest or google images, searched out a image that matched my character idea close enough, and than grabbed it to use as a token in a game. Hell, that has been the majority of how I've visualized my characters, as I do not have 50 to 100 dollars to spend on every single character I've ever played, especially when the one time I did spend 76$ on a commissioned art piece for a character, they died 2 sessions later from blind bad luck.

AI art is basically that same methodology but done by an algorithm instead of manually. It's definitely not an okay thing to do in a professional setting, and for home games it's iffy. The iffiness comes from a need for moral consistency, and the idea that if you start carving out exceptions to when AI is okay and not okay, than it becomes a downward spiral to all your favorite artists and writers being replaced by a corporate-run and trademarked line of code.

Personally, I think using AI to create character portraits is fine, because 90% of all TTRPG players were going to just go ahead and use stolen art from a google search, deviantart, twitter, pintrest, tumblr, or wherever else they see cool art of a character, if not just straight up lifting it from other commercial art like concept art, video games, anime, films, and character design sheets posted online. You will always be a bigger person and more respected for commissioning a character, but I don't think people deserve shame for using a free tool to make character art for personal use in a homebrew game.

Yeah, if it's on the open Internet, I can't blame people for using whatever they can find.

Using ai art for rp aught to be fine. It's not like you're selling it.

Oh, and there are also campaign differences. First, obviously, are houserules, and they can skew all sorts of things. Then there's the question of what kinds of encounters you're getting into. A campaign focused on single-encounter days with set-piece enemies that are level+2 or level+3 is going to see some major differences from one that runs 5-8 encounters per day and tends to have horde encounters where each enemy is at the level-1 or level-2 range.

Then there's the detail work. Prepared casters have an advantage when you can know more or less what you're going to fight at the beginning of the day. If your'e going in blind, then spontaneous casters are going to be better off. If you often have a moment or two to prepare and toss buffs before you bust down the door, then that's going to advantage certain builds a lot more than others. If you instead often find that you have time to prepare the room, then that's a different set of advantages. How restricted your battlefields tend to be, what kinds of enemies you tend to face, whether the battlefieds often have interestign features to exploit... a lot of this stuff matters.

...and, of course, there's the local meta. There are certain strategies that work well together, and if your group has one of those as its happy little rut, then the classes that contribute to those synergies are going to be more effective, and those that do not are going to be less effective. In a different place, with a different set of default strategies, you could see a very different set of classes and/or builds getting a chance to shine.

Oh, and of course there are differences that are much more class-specific. Like... the investigator really struggles by default... but if they can consistently set things up so that they're pursuing a viable lead every time they get into a fight, then they get a *lot* stronger. Wizards and Witches are going to care about how many new and more interesting spell scrolls show up in treasure packets. If you have...

Pretty much this. Too many variables to declare objectivity with so much confidence. Things are so often on a case by case basis.

Please visit

(http://dradodalovetemple.com)

i am here to give testimony on how this powerful spell caster called Dr Adoda helped me to fix my relationship. i was heartbroken when my fiancee told me he is no longer interested in marrying me because he was having an affair with the other woman where he work. I cried and sobbed every day, until it got so bad that I reached out to the Internet for help, that was when i read a review about the great work of Dr Adoda, then i contacted him for help to get my lover back, he helped me cast a powerful (reconciliation love spell) and to my greatest surprise after 48 hours of doing the love spell my Fiancee came back on his knees begging me to forgive him We are now happily married and all thanks goes to Dr Adoda Wonders for helping me save my relationship you can contact Dr Adoda through his email address: adodalovespelltemple440@gmail.com or WHATSAPP him on+2348112825421

Flagged. C'mon. Dumb way to necro a thread.

I really like the triggerbrand but I do wish the 9th level deed was less situational. The way is mostly a salvo machine which also sort of sidelines touch and go if you're sticking with melee since you don't want to switch modes.

Then again, I'm of the opinion that triggerbrand and drifter aught to stick with ranged at the start and let the other melee martials soften things up before deciding to skirmish. That's the purpose of switch hitting. No point in running immediately into melee if you have a gun. Gunslinger is on the squishier side of AC progression so keeping your distance is a good idea already.

But anyways, triggerbrand salvo and stab and blast do make for some great melee turns. Just kinda stinks before then. I also appreciate the spellguns as a source of ranged support for gunslingers. The new draw/stow rules make their use a lot more comfortable.

Best to compare specific combat niches when talking class comparison. Monk has shooting stars stance which also allows switch hitting if you've got the gold to rune up handwraps along with throwers bandoliers. Then the case is a lot better for monk.

aobst128 wrote:

Karmagator wrote:

aobst128 wrote:

Bullet dancer vs drifter. Definitely giving that to the drifter. Bullet dancer is a mess without abp and free archetype to patch in reload support. Simple firearms are just too cruddy.

Then again, having a favourable matchup with one of the worst combat archetypes in the game is not exactly an achievement ^^

Ok but weren't you of the opposite opinion a moment ago?

No, the Bullet Dancer is not the Monk and not even remotely a "usual monk stance". It's an archetype a Monk can theoretically take when you feel like you want to downgrade your character that day.

I meant when you were comparing bullet dancer to drifter/triggerbrand. Might have been someone else. Can't find the post.

Edit: yeah that was you

Edit again: oh that was just comparing monk in general I see. I just assumed bullet dancer since it has the same niche as the melee gunslingers. My bad

The niche I appreciate about them is that they're the best self buffers. You can throw on a heroism, stride, and strike on turn one. Great with the fatal attack option.

aobst128 wrote:

Yeah. It doesn't do a lot with either its spellcasting or its attacks but it basically gets 4 actions per round which is incredibly valuable and offers a ton of options

Which, though quite good, is not as great as people often think. Due to restrictions, that fourth action is typically just movement, or a really weak strike from the summoner who is likely not only not built for it, but also needs to eat the eidolon's MAP.

The real strength is being in two places at once and impacting how enemies move around and respond to the party.

Dismissing free movement while everyone has to use movement is not that useful of an argument. The strikes are weak but are consistent and you get a lot of them while you have other stuff to do. You have to consider the efficiency and what you're doing overall and not just that individually your actions are weak.

Yeah. It doesn't do a lot with either its spellcasting or its attacks but it basically gets 4 actions per round which is incredibly valuable and offers a ton of options

aobst128 wrote:

Bullet dancer vs drifter. Definitely giving that to the drifter. Bullet dancer is a mess without abp and free archetype to patch in reload support. Simple firearms are just too cruddy.

Then again, having a favourable matchup with one of the worst combat archetypes in the game is not exactly an achievement ^^

Ok but weren't you of the opposite opinion a moment ago?

Bullet dancer vs drifter. Definitely giving that to the drifter. Bullet dancer is a mess without abp and free archetype to patch in reload support. Simple firearms are just too cruddy.

Yeah, haven't grabbed thermal nimbus yet. That with incendiary aura is pretty funny.

fire + Flame Oracle (+wood):

Thermal Nimbus + fire junction aura
+ Incendiary Aura + fire junction aura
+ major curse + fire junction aura
+ Sanctuary. (molten wire for more damage).

Stand next to enemies and they will burn.

With wood, you can toss out trees, fruit, herbs, and palisades to your allies, all while getting THP to offset the curse damage. And none of which is a hostile actions.
(*Is volcanic escape a hostile action?)

Monk Stance Savant and others do not require them to be monk stances. (though you probably still want to use one).

Winters Clutch and many other stances would works great for any front line. Add the earth aura and you got yourself a sticky front liner.

And keep in mind, you can make 1 attack without map, then a 2 action impulse.

Also, walls and healing are good for anyone. Sniper gunslinger on a palisades for instance. Or take air and fly.

The pyro/flame Oracle is actually a character I'm doing in a dual class campaign. It is notable however, that the fire aura junction only applies to fire damage from your impulses only. The bread and butter combo is incendiary aura and flying flame/single action blast. Works like a charm.

aobst128 wrote:

Seems like a slippery slope argument. Any reasonable gm would put a stop to players minecrafting their way through the campaign. Doesn't mean striking shouldn't be used for any other purpose.

I heard about some party beating Tomb of Horrors by minecrafting their way to the end over the course of years.

There are guidelines for that sort of stuff interestingly enough. But it is something that will take a lot of time and not something that can fit in standard exploration or combat as is suggested in the damaging items section.

Seems like a slippery slope argument. Any reasonable gm would put a stop to players minecrafting their way through the campaign. Doesn't mean striking shouldn't be used for any other purpose.