deranged's page

So my players looked at the route, looked at me, and then said, "Yeah, we want to teleport there." What keeps them from doing that? I mean I could come up with some Deus ex Machina but I would like a logical reason.

So Earth Supremacy states, "In addition, you gain a +1 insight bonus on melee attack and damage rolls whenever both you and your foe are touching the ground." How is ground being defined? I know it is nitpicking, but I feel there is a difference between the ground as in any surface that is part of the gravitational plane (so the plowed field, the floor of an inn, etc) and the ground as in any natural occurring surface (grass, natural rock, sand, etc).

I am getting ready to run the Serpent's Skull AP with some old friends from college. Since we now exist over several time zones, this will be done with Maptools. Many of my players are new to the setting and want a quick background of the world so they can develop their characters. Now the Players Guide for SS does a great job of getting players in touch with where they are going, but not with where they are coming from. If we were all in the same town, I would just pass around my Paizo library until they found what they wanted.

So to be brief (TOO LATE!) is there a short handout on Golarion somewhere that I can give to my players, or do I need to do my own write up using the Campaign Setting book?

So I am creating a 6th level wizard using your guide. A friend used your ranger guide and swore by it.

I have two race options that I am juggling with... elf or tiefling. My stats (including my 4th Level +1 bump) are:

Str 12
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 16
Wis 11
Cha 8

Both racial options seem to have their pros and cons so I thought I would have someone else weigh in on it. Thoughts?

Nice item all the way around. The ability to reuse it, its need to be refilled, and its low price makes the Sublime Phial a great item. I can easily see a niche for it as a magic item that a low level party can find and put to use.

The following is my Character Background.

The real Matt L: Teaches High School English in rural Missouri. His wife is working on her doctorate in Asian Ethnomusicology, but we have not gone to Japan (her number one choice) yet.

The Matt L superhero:
Matt L (born 1983) has taught both history and English. When his wife Carol, working on her doctorate in Asian ethnomusicology, went to the Philippines, her husband joined her. Now he teaches conversational English to high school children who want to go to an American college. The pay is good for the country, and it helps support his wife during her studies. They both live in a small, but decently furnished apartment wit their three cats. During the day he works with his students, and at night he tells his wife he is tutoring for extra money.

This is not the truth. No one else knows. Not his family. Not his friends. In high school, Matt began to notice his Cross Country time drop dramatically. His coach just thought he was finally putting forth some extra effort or had a change in diet. Matt realized that neither was true, as he stopped feeling tired after running six miles and still managed to get the best time on the team by a full minute and a half. One night during his Junior year he finally pushed himself to go as fast as he could and realized that something was not right. He did not run Cross Country his senior year, citing a need to focus on his grades as the reason. In truth he was afraid his super speed would be found out. He kept his powers secret, never using them for any purpose, as both his home town and the city he went to college had no real crime to fight. It was not until he moved to Chicago for a few years that he realized he could no longer keep his powers to himself.

Donning an outfit reminiscent of a World War I flying ace, Matt takes to the streets of Manila to crack down on crime. The locals have began calling him Mangindusa after a god in Filipino Mythology who, among other things, was responsible for punishing criminals. His superhero efforts have all been minor in nature, busting a few drug dealers, and stopping some purse snatchers. No one of real significance has ever met up with Matt, and he is OK with that. While he feels he needs to help out others, he has read enough comics to know that taking on the big bads, usually leads to trouble for the hero and those closely connected with him. He never uses his abilities during the day in case of being found out, though he was tempted once when he was running late for work. He currently struggles with telling his wife the truth about his double life.

I am interested. I am thinking of Crusader. The class looks very interesting to me.

That's fine, though I would warn you that I tend to place a lot of the action in my campaigns in cities, dungeons, or other closed in areas, so your mount may not be the best. I would be happy to discuss alternatives to it and your mount charging abilities, if you wish.

You are right, that does put a damper on things... However would a size small character (and thus a medium size mount) work for the setting?

I'd really like to play as well. I would like to make an Archon if you are allowing third party material, if not I would like to play an Inquisitor.

I am playing an inquisitor in a low level game right now. I am having a lot of fun with it. Allows the party to have someone who can heal in a scrape, but still puts up one heck of a fight. High recommend it.

I am interested. I am thinking of Crusader. The class looks very interesting to me.

This is my first time working on a MnM character from the ground up, so feel free to check the math. Also, when did we acquire our powers? At the same time as the Zombie menace? Earlier? Do we even know about the Zombie threat yet? Thanks. When I get these answers I will have a background for you.

tr 10
Dex 18 (8)
Con 12 (2)
Int 12 (2)
Wis 10
Cha 13 (3)

Saving Throws
Toughness 4
Fort 3
Ref 4
Will 3

Combat
Attack 4 (8)
Defense Defense 4 (8)

Powers
Super Speed 4 (21) [with Wall Run and Rapid Attack]
Strike 6 (6) [used to represent the speed of his fists]

Skills (6)
Bluff 3
Computers 1
Craft [Art] 1
Craft [Structural] 1
Diplomacy 2
Drive 1
Knowledge [History] 3
Knowledge [Current Events] 1
Languages [American Sign Language] [This from an Int mod of +1]
Perform [Acting] 2
Profession (education) 3
Sense Motive 3
Survival 2
Swim 1

Feats
Defensive Roll (1)
Dodge Focus 2 (2)

---

I am almost done, but I am having trouble making heads of tales of the "Speed" power. It says I move up the Time and Value Progression Table (page 70). I don't see how this deals with speed as it only mentions time. Now I will admit that I have not taken physics since high school, but last I checked I need both distance and time to give me speed. Any one know how to interpret this?

Assuming there is room for me, I am thinking of a speedster character. If not that, then maybe healing. Thoughts are always welcome.

*after picking my jaw off the ground*

Heck ya I want to play!

Excellent. Thanks for the quick response. The game, from the initial play, was fun. If you decide to do other battles (such as the Dismember the Alamo) I would encourage an example of play section. Just a thought. Keep up the good work!

My wife got the game for her birthday and we have a rules question... how does the pointer work. If it points to the side, do they attack their own troops? What happens if your soldier is on the right flank and the pointer points right? Does that person attack empty space? I have reread the rules and cannot find the relevant information on how exactly the pointer works.....

I found this on one of my favorite sites:

http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/456/Pathfinder

Just thought I would share...

Then go play 4th edition.

Knock is a great spell. As a DM I encourage my players to memorize spells other than just direct damage. Some times a rogue can't open a lock, some times its too powerful.

Do you whine when the barbarian crits with his scythe before you can sneak attack?

Just because someone else can do what you do doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to.

1. If I wanted to play 4e, then I would not be here. Please do not insult my opinion on an open forum dedicated to making a system we can all love (or at least tolerate and feel a part of). I will try to pay you the same courtesy.

2. Please remember that I am not criticizing the ability for the Wizard to pick a lock via magic, but rather the ability for him to do it without rolling AND that the mechanic for whether he is able to succeed (i.e. size being the determining factor) is silly, in my opinion.

3. No I do not whine when the barbarian crits and kills something before I can. To crit, the barbarian must roll dice. There is a possibility of failure or success.

In short if the scenario I posted went something like ".. and then the wizard cast a spell, made a check and made the DC" I would not complain about it. The suspense was still there.

What I want out of this discussion is just a spell that is better made.

I can see your point, and don't disagree with the idea of a spell that can help get past doors is useful. What I disagree with is the way the spell is executed. What determines the ease that a wizard opens a door is not its DC, but its size. This, in my opinion, is a poor way of doing it. As for Dimension door and teleport, they are higher level. A third level wizard does not become equivalent in trap opening skills as a 20th level rogue with these spells, because he does not have them.

With just a change to the nature in which the spell works, I believe a much better spell can be produced that allows others to open locks, but does not make it a sure thing OR based on the relative size of the door itself.

So there my gnome rogue was, in the middle of combat, trying to open a lock so we could escape from a monster we were not powerful enough to defeat. The lock was hard, but not impossible. This was a time for my character to shine! I just had to wait for the wizard to go. After that I would leave everyone in suspense as I rolled the d20. What a great moment....

And then wizard casts knock and the door opens automatically. No roll, no suspense.... just an open door.

In short, I hate the knock spell. I hate how it opens a door based on the size of it. In essence you could have the smallest, most complicated lock on the planet with DC 50, and a level 3 wizard could open it. Conversely you could have the largest door known to man, built to let Colossal Red Dragons through three abreast with a DC of 5 and a 20th Level Wizard would stare blankly at it. Knock is a horribly worded spell. I would love to see it changed in Pathfinder Beta to something where the spell caster must make a caster level check with the DC equal to the lock. This allows arcane casters a way to get around locks, but not take all the fun from a rogue that has invested skills in opening locks.

KaeYoss wrote:

lastknightleft wrote:

Not quite as needed, but then when you look at that chart in the PH it has lots of space that's just sitting unused.

Rent it out.

Longsword; 15gp; 1d6; 1d8; 19-20; 15gp; Get your "long sword" at www.naughtyknight.com; 4; 15HP

Am I the only one who went immediately to check out www.naughtyknight.com?

No.....

Was I the only one who was let down when the URL led to nothing?

Wow! Demonhide armor! I cannot wait to see the items people come up for this one. As for me I had best get my brain juices flowing if I am going to even have a chance on this one!

Ok so not really, but I think that a medieval/fantasy styled gun or two would not be too bad. They are rare in occurance, but we are seeing more of them with Monte Cook's Ptolus (a great game by the way that I love playing in) and World of Warcraft RPG. A pistol and blunderbust would cover most of the firearms used in fantasy societies with some tech in it. Just a thought.

Also if you want to add some suspense to your game AND have your game be a little bit more organized I have a suggestion. Select what item cards you will be in various chests ahead of time. Go ahead and put them, along with a slip of paper mentioning any gold/silver/copper/whatever into the envelope. When they see the chest give them the envelope to open. If the chest is trapped, I like to write it on the inside of the envelope. When they open the chest/evelope they get a message like "TRAP! Roll a fort save." My players seem to get a big kick out of it. Also it makes them more mindful to be careful.

Also while I am here, just wanted to say that I really like the item packs and finally got my local gamestore to start carrying them. I know of two other games that now use them as well in our small college town.

Ring of Thyris (DnD 3.5)

History: As the wizard Thyris began to age the subject of his mortality began to weigh on him. Having spent years as an adventurer Thyris had bested man and beast, staring down death and surviving to live another day. Now, however, it seemed his battle with time was coming to a clos. Still Thyris, known for his stubborn nature, began to plot on how to escape death's grip once more. Immersing himself into research Thyris found his solution, become a lich. For a phylactery Thyris chose an old ring, his first piece of treasure from his adventuring days. Having destroyed a lich in his youth, the wizard realized that the resting place of his life force was also his biggest weakness. In order to hide the rings true nature Thyris cast permanent nondetection. On top of this he imbued the ring with fire shield. At last Thyris had the final piece he needed in order to become a lich. He reveled in his immortality. Time passed and Thyris began to go out adventuring again, overconfident in his abilities. One day his luck ran out. Taking on what he assumed to be a mere elf, Thyris soon found himself face to face with a gold dragon. In a blaze of fire Thyris was no more... for a while. The dragon snatched some of the liches baubles to add to his horde, including Thyris's phylactery. When Thyris came back a week later in his study, he searched for his phylactery, but with one problem. The nondetection spell he imbued the ring with in order to hide its true nature also kept him from scrying it. Meanwhile the gold dragon, not realizing what he had and assuming it was only some minor magical item gave it to one of his hatchings to start off their horde. Thyris is still searching for the ring to this day.

Plot Hook: The party recently helps a young gold dragon out of a jam, he rewards the party with a very special trinket. He tells them it is a ring of fire shield and that it was given to him by his father. Meanwhile Thyris has been constantly searching for the ring and has employed a group of rogue's to scour the countryside for the ring. If a member of the party wears the ring one of the rogues sent by Thyris notices it and reports back to his employer. Thyris is now hot on the party's trail, hoping to reclaim his phylactery before anyone realizes what it is.

Description: When identified the caster can tell that the ring casts fire shield 3/day as if cast by a seventh level caster. The nondetection spell keeps most people from realizing that is also doubles as a phylactery.

Faint abjuration; CL 7; Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Ring, Fire Shield; Price 153,600 ( 120,000 phylactery + 33,600 fire shield 3/day)

I was looking at these two spells and they are nearly identical except it seems, to me, that Snowball is just worse.

PFS Standard Snowball Spell 1

Attack Cold Evocation Water
Source World Guide pg. 112
Traditions arcane, primal
Cast Two Actions somatic, verbal
Range 30 feet; Targets 1 creature
You throw a magically propelled and chilled ball of dense snow. The target takes 2d4 cold damage and potentially other effects, depending on the result of your spell attack roll.

Critical Success The target takes double damage and a –10-foot status penalty to its Speeds for 1 round.
Success The target takes full damage and a –5-foot status penalty to its Speeds for 1 round.
Failure No effect.
Heightened (+1) The damage increases by 2d4

PFS Standard Chilling Spray Spell 1

Cold Evocation
Source Gods & Magic pg. 107
Traditions arcane, primal
Cast Two Actions somatic, verbal
Area 15-foot cone
Saving Throw Will
A cone of icy shards bursts from your spread hands and coats the target in a layer of frost. You deal 2d4 cold damage to creatures in the area; they must each attempt a Reflex save.

Critical Success The creature takes no damage.
Success The creature takes half damage.
Failure The creature takes full damage and takes a –5-foot status penalty to its Speeds for 2 rounds.
Critical Failure The creature takes double damage and takes a –10-foot status penalty to its Speeds for 2 rounds.
Heightened (+1) The damage increases by 2d4.

I mean other than Chilling Spray targeting Ref saves (which is arguably the hardest save to hit) it can target multiple opponents and it's penalties are for 2 rounds instead of 1. It's damage scales the same as Snowball and Snowball only has a 30 ft range, which never gets better. I can't for the life of me see why someone would want to use Snowball over Chilling Spray.

What do you guys think?

I know this cannot be answered in absolutes but I would like to know if any of the developers can tell me/us how much more stuff is going to be in the final draft of the book. One of my players main concerns is that there just isn't enough in the playtest to Warren switching to the new system. I said it's impossible to cram 10 years of content into a single playtest book but his point is valid. So I have this question.

How much more will we see in regards to Ancestry, Skill, and Class Feats as well as Backgrounds, Archetypes, Prestige Classes and Spells?

25% more? 50%?

I know this cannot be answered right now as we have 2 months+ of playtest left but just in a general ballpark how much more will be included?

To everyone in the forums how much more would you like included? I would like the following,

Ancestry/Heritage Feats: Maybe about 4 more per Ancestry. Whether that's 1 heritage and 3 Ancestry or 2 and 2 I don't really mind. About 4 more seems good.

Skill Feats: I honestly think there should be a LOT more skill feats. Like double what we have now. Really let our characters flesh out our skills. I love the new system but it's just not beefy enough.

Class Feats: I'm not sure how many more I would like. Maybe 2 extra every time a class feat is gained. That seems okay.

Backgrounds: I am actually quite happy with the current backgrounds so maybe add like 4 or 5 more. I'm not quite sure.

Archetypes/Prestige: This is something I hope there is a whole chapter of the book dedicated too. I want at least a dozen Archetypes (not including the basic Class Archetypes) and maybe 4 to 6 prestige classes.

Spells: I think some more "cool" spells need to be added. I don't have a specific number but throw some cool new spells in there. Really make this edition your own.

What do you guys want to see in the core rulebook upon release?

Okay when I first looked at the new DC table I was like okay whatever as they were relatively the same. But then I started looking at the new skill checks for Mirrored Moon and I was like dude c'mon.

Every Hex has a DC 30 Perception or DC 27 Survival base?? Why??

Only 3 classes have master perception at that level and none of them (Fighter, Ranger, and Rogue) have any reason to have more then +2 MAYBE +3 Wis. So even with a +2 Item bonus that means they would generally have a +15 or so Perception. That's only a 25% chance to find anything after 2 DAYS of searching?? Now Granted the Survival check is a little more doable but 27? Why are these checks so high?

There's not a single important check that's lower than 25. That's just not okay.

I mean yeah someone could roll a 20 but these just seem way to high for no reason. Was this intended?

Like the title suggests do attack spells that go off saves incur MAP? Like if a character shoots a bow for his first attack and attacks with Electric Arc on his second what penalties are applied to Electric Arc?

Are Lances 2 handed even when on a mount? They are usually held with 1 hand and a shield in the other, bracing the weapon against the mount. If I remember in P1E it worked that way, is it the same in P2E?

Do Animal Companion actions have to be consecutive?

As in I use an Action to command them, they get 2 actions they have to use right now, then I get my remaining 2 actions.

Or.

I use an action to command them, they get 2 actions but use 1. Then I use 1. Then we both use our last actions.

I see no rule that says they have to be consecutive only that they be on your turn.

So I've seen quite a few people complain about the same level coin flip problem. That you generally only have a 50% chance to succeed against same level enemies or hazards. For the life of me I just didn't see how this was a bad thing. Being able to hit 5/10 times against something that is a threat (even a trivial one) to a party of 4 isn't a bad thing. Yet people still say it's a major problem that needs fixing. Well I decided to take a look at the Doomsday Dawn Adventures and see just how many times you'd actually be at a coin flip or less. The results may shock you lol.

I put the results in spoilers in case people don't want to see what type of threats they are facing.

So what do these findings prove? Well I think it shows that your chances of the Coin Flip are VERY unlikely if your GM designs his game world around what's happening and not simply what level you are. The amount of times you face threats that are lower level than you is overwhelming. Which means in running the game the way its SUPPOSED to be run the coin flip (or less) will only come up in the dire circumstances where you're facing hard odds. Which makes getting in that 50% range all that more satisfying I think.

I also believe that this comes from a problem that encounters seem to be designed a little differently than the previous edition and nobody was told so. Before a solo monster of your level was a joke. A single well made character had pretty good chances of taking it down solo, so that means even though it said CL 14 and your parties APL was 14 that doesn't actually mean it was a threat to your party. Now a CL 14 monster or Hazard is actually a problem for a GROUP of adventures but still something that can be overcome. That's a very different mentality on how the party tackles encounters and I think the data from the Doomsday Dawn Adventures support that.

As the thread subject says do these items allow you to carry more items, just stored away? Or do the items in the bag still count toward your carry weight?

I used to believe they did but in another post someone mentioned that they do not and now I'm inclined to believe them.

If they in fact do not do you think that they should? To me it makes sense that a backpack/sack/satchel would make the items inside easier to carry. Maybe reduce the Bulk of an item in a backpack by half or from 1 Bulk to L and L to negligible.

What do you guys think?

Same as with the Alchemist. I'm just posting them in separate threads so they can be talked about individually.

1. It seems strange that the Animal Totem would not let them use weapons but they are free to use armor? Maybe give them expert training in unarmored and not allow them to use armor when selecting that totem? Probably make it scale like the monks. That would seem to suit the flavor of the Totem. I understand they can get Animal Skin at lvl 6 but that's a long ways away.

2. Do Titan Mauer Weapons go up a die damage or do they just double your rage bonus? Cause I feel they should do more damage even outside of raging. They are bigger and should do more base damage. Some clarification would be nice.

3. The Barbarian gets no range attack abilities, save for Spirit's Wrath. Even if it was just for thrown weapons that would be a welcome addition. Something like this would be cool;

Power Throw [[A]] [[A]]
While Raging you hurl a weapon with all your might. If the strike hits you deal an additional dice of damage and add your rage bonus to damage in addition to your Str modifier.

4. Giants Stature needs some further info. Does it work like the Enlarge Spell? Do you get an additional +2 to damage while large? And then +4 for being huge? Also do your even larger weapons do anything else? Does it double your rage modifier to damage again? Or is the only benefit the extra reach?

5. The Dragon Totem Breath should be more usable. Once an hour is very harsh. Maybe increase it's action count to 3 and make it usable once per Rage? I know this has been talked about in the podcasts but I felt like leaving it in.

6. Why is Spirit's Interference only against Range Attacks? It seems that it should be against all attacks. Do the Spirits just not like flying things?

7. Animal Rage doesn't seem very helpful. For such a serious transformation it doesn't really do much except give you scent. Maybe some rework to actually make it useful and not just flavorful. Unless I'm mistaken and I missed something.

8. Giants Lunge seems out of place as a 14th lvl ability. I understand it gives you reach without having to transform into large or huge but it seems at a very odd level. Cause by that time you would normally have all those other abilities so would you just retrain them away? Seems strange.

9. Knockback is just not good. I understand you basically get a free shove but how often is that going to come up in combat as being helpful? I might understand if Knockback was a lower level Class Feat because for a lvl 10 Feat it seems very underwhelming. It just seems like a feat tax for Awesome Blow which is a really cool feat, send them flying and landing on their a**. Maybe change Knockback to Knockdown and give them a free trip? That seems much better.

10. I'm not sure Barbarians are doing enough damage compared to other classes considering they are the "hit things really hard" class. They don't really get bonuses to hit (or penalty reduction) so they'll be missing more often than Fighters or Rangers and even when they do hit they only do 2 to 4 more damage up until lvl 11? You could probably double the rage bonus to damage, or maybe just make it scale higher, and that would probably even it out a little more. Maybe something like;

1st & 2nd +2
3rd - 6th +4
7th - 10th +6
11th - 14th +8
15th - 18th +10
19th - 20th +12

This would make the Barbarians hits much more powerful but they still miss more often and crit even less. Yes it would make the Barbarians crit VERY powerful but isn't that the point of the Barbarian? Hitting things really hard?

Here are some things I think could improve the Alchemist as well as things that pertain to it. These aren't in any specific order, I just wrote them down as I looked at the class again to give my thoughts.

If I'm mistaken about anything or overlooking anything please let me know. If anyone has anything to add please feel free.

1. Low level Alchemists are very bad. If you do anything except max your intelligence and dexterity and take Quick Bomber you're basically going to be the weakest character in the group and even then your options are VERY limited. Assuming the Lost Star adventure is a normal indication of how many fights a party would get into that means it could be anywhere from 4 to 7 encounters in one adventure. That means the alchemist would need to have 8 to 14 bombs at first level in order to be able to use 2 of them in each of those encounters. You might say "well casters don't have that many 1st lvl spells" while that is true casters also have at will cantrips which some are pretty much guaranteed to cause damage, even if it's only half a d6. Alchemists on the other hand will only have anywhere from 4 to 5 resonance (barring being a human and getting Remarkable Resonance at 1st lvl). That means if you only make bombs, which kind of defeats the purpose of having other alchemical items, you can have 8 to 10 but that means no healing, no tangle foot bags and no cheetahs elixir. So the more you want of these items the less useful you are in combat. Which I can understand if they wanted the bombs to be similar to the casters spells but again Alchemists don't get cantrips. So once they run out of bombs they become useless.

I suggest adding either more resonance to use on bombs, allow full batches with Advanced Alchemy or something that gives them a type of cantrip ability, like this;

Junk Bomb
Every time you make a batch of bombs during your Daily Preparations you have enough salvageable materials to make 2 Junk Bombs. Junk Bombs do 1d4 damage and have 1 splash (the damage caused by the junk bomb is the same as the base bomb, so in making a Batch of Alchemist's Fire you would end up with two Junk Bombs that do 1d4 fire damage and 1 splash fire damage). Their damages scales with your Empower Bombs ability.

Something along those lines would give the alchemist a sort of cantrip type ability that would really help their longevity as a class.

2. The Alchemist has no melee option whatsoever (other than poison) until they get mutagins at lvl 5. It would be cool to have something that maybe makes your sword flaming or acidic for 2 rounds. That way if an Alchemist wanted to melee there would be the option other than going all Mr. Hyde (which is awesome but still)

3. The fact that a poison is wasted on a miss is pretty harsh. You have to take 1 whole round applying it (unless applying it before combat) and then one bad roll and it's just gone? I think it should just be wasted on a crit failure. It would make them much more appealing I think.

4. All 1st level feats except Quick Bomber aren't that great. Alchemical Familiar has no rules for its use with an Alchemist and can't actually help you, it's basically flavorful. Alchemical Savant is nice but compared to being able to draw 2 bombs in one action it's hardly worth getting. Far Lobber only increases the distance by 10 feet which is not comparable to being able to throw 2 bombs in 1 round. Smoke Bomb is.... I don't want to say useless but it basically is, especially at low levels where you would again feel the need to throw more bombs because all of your other options are terrible, bad ranged and bad melee. I understand that you get to have 2 of these because of the 1st and 2nd lvl class feats but again some more variety would be nice.

5. Quick Alchemy in its current form needs work. I've been making an Alchemist from lvl 1 to lvl 10 and putting them against random monsters to see how they do combat wise. It was ALWAYS better to get 2 bombs/elixirs from your daily prep instead of having the flexibility of Quick Alchemy. With the current state of things you would possibly only save 1 resonance for Quick Alchemy and then just try your luck on overspending. It is a lot more useful by the time your level 9 but it's kind of late for that ability.

6. Making the Elixirs still cost Resonance points to use for other party members (after you've already spent RP to create them) doesn't make sense. This makes the Alchemists not even able to be the parties discount Cleric which would have been really nice. Having two different classes that could give Resonance Free Healing would have made the Alchemist more appealing I think.

* Also making Alchemical Items not cost Resonance at all could possibly be an idea. Elixirs of Life aren't as good as Potions of Healing, and they are generally higher lvl, so they won't be as accessible but still a viable option for a non caster party as a means to heal themselves. Some tweaking and maybe adding in a way to get Alchemical Crafting at lvl 1 would be a must. Maybe creating a background that gives it to you? I think this is a smart option as a non caster party is going to be a death wish.

7. Remarkable Resonance should go off your Resonance ability score and not just Cha. Dwarf Alchemists will have a really hard time getting that feat and it's basically a no brainer for Alchemists.

8. Two of the four Alchemists feats at lvl 4 are, again, not great. Being able to make 8 regular items in a batch during your downtime or being able have your Int modifier to your splash damage are WAAAY better options then poison resistance or having your Quick Alchemy item last for 1 more turn. More options please.

9. Combine Elixirs is cool but the RP cost is too heavy. Finding a way to make it not cost so much but still do relatively the same thing would be ideal.

10. Tricky Tinkerer does not seem like an 8th lvl ability, a 4th lvl one more like.

11. Having the Alchemical Items listed by type and then alphabetically in each one would be very helpful.

12. Being the only class Trained in Alchemical Bombs their proficiency with them never goes up. They only get an item bonus at 15th level when using empowered bombs, which also seems really late. I get that they throw against TAC but even spellcasters proficiency goes up. It just seems strange to omit.

All in all the Alchemist just seems to need some low level balancing as they seem to even out at higher lvls. Not needing to spend money (and RP) on magic weapons helps with the RP overload but they still seem to be pretty stretched even at higher levels

Under the Efficient Alchemy feat it specifically says that items made during Downtime with the Craft Alchemy Skill can be made in double batches. And it says in the Craft Alchemy Skill that alchemical items with the consumable trait come in batches of 4. Elixirs have the consumable trait. So that means in downtime you could make 4 elixirs at the same time but with advanced Alchemy you could make 8, correct?

It also never says how much a batch is for any other items. Does that mean you can only create 1 bomb of your lvl in 4 days? That doesn't seem right.

(I'm not waiting to post this until after we've finished the dungeon because we won't be able to game next week so we'll have to finish up in two weeks. That way I figured I could share what's happened so far in my adventure and then put the second half after we finish)

Okay I ran my first session of Pathfinder 2nd Edition yesterday. We played for 4 hours but in all honesty we probably played for 3 (my group always has a hard time staying focused, not in a bad way though). We made about half of the way through the Ashen Ossuary in that amount of time. (Again this was expected as we generally like to talk and then bring up hypothetical scenarios and joke around and all that). I'll give my overall opinion of the system as a whole and then I'll go room by room and be more specific but first the characters they made. Oh and I know they were supposed to pick one of the backgrounds from the playtest for this module but they had already made their characters before I knew about that so I didn't force them to change it.

THE PLAYERS

THE GOOD
I can honestly say I LOVE the new action economy. It meant I could very easily just be like "Yeah doing that costs 1 action" and my players didn't even blink an eye because they knew they could still either move and attack or attack twice. Where as before actions were so important that taking 1 away was very bad and usually led to arguments or people just ignoring doing other things in battle because it was better to just use all of your actions to attack.

Also having done A LOT of prep I didn't feel at all confused. Looking up the monsters and their abilities and making sure I knew what conditions they could impart on my players, as well as how poison worked, I felt fully prepared every time they had a question. I think I only had to look through the book like twice in the session. So everything flowed really well. To be fair though I work night shift and have a lot of free time so I've just been pouring over the rulebook and the forums for the past week preparing for the session. Nothing seemed overly strong or weak compared to the last edition which was good.

I didn't realize how much I would like the new secret rolls for stealth and things like that. It makes combat flow so much easier and adds a sense of alertness when you never really know if somethings there as I don't yell out "okay everyone roll perception" and they automatically know there's something there. I can just roll it's stealth against their perception DC. And then if the players DECIDE to actively search for things they get to roll against it's Stealth DC. It's very fluid and I like it a lot.

The crit system is very swingy but I think it gives a sense of danger into the game that wasn't really there before. Now even little goblins can do some serious damage to the players on a crit. But the same goes for the players. Very good addition I think.

Poison is GOOD finally. I always felt poison was such an under utilized thing in P1E and I'm so glad it's made an epic comeback in this edition. Poison actually helps instead of just being there.

THE MEH
The skill system honestly didn't feel any different from last edition BUT they were only lvl 1. The Barbarian seemed to be the least skilled and the Wizard seemed the most, which would be generally true in the last edition cause of Wizards high Int. The Alchemist was really only helpful once in using Medicine. Oddly enough the Cleric was the most useful skill wise, having Medicine, Religion and not terrible Perception. I believe having most of the melee focused skills in Athletics will help out in the long run but I'm not sure my players knew about them (as they were usually forgotten about in P1E unless you specked in them)

The new initiative system, while not bad, is not very clear on what else you can roll for initiative. I basically had only Stealth being used (for the monsters) and I tried to think of some other things that the players could do but I came up short so we usually just rolled Perception. A table with some hints would be nice that I could reference and the players could look at.

THE BAD
I don't like that there isn't a surprise round (or something to replace it) at all. I had the monster "sneak up" on the players and go last, or almost last, so its sneaking just basically made it really close to them so they could get stomped on. I would say if you initiate combat after successfully using stealth you should be the top of initiative order no matter everyone else's rolls. That seems to be more along the lines of how this edition should work after taking out the surprise round.

How light sources interact with Perception and senses isn't exactly clear so I had to wing it and I think that made it easier for my players to sneak up on the Goblins in room A2. They surrounded the Goblins and stomped them into the floor. On that note Low-light and how it works is also not clear so I have to wing that as well.

Here's my opinion on the characters and how they did in the session.

Okay so here's room by room the jist of what went down.

Okay so before they moved into the next room the party searches the large central room, The Barbarian crits and finds the owlbear claw, the ring and the potion. The Cleric uses 2 of his 5 heals, one burst to heal everyone 3 hp and then another to heal the Barbarian to full with Healing Hands.

So there yah go. That was basically how it all went down. We stopped there because it was getting late and they had work in the morning.

I asked them overall what they thought of the system and all of them approved. Even the Alchemist was saying that he was rolling garbage all night and he didn't understand how his abilities worked and did his character wrong.

If you choose to put one of your trained skills into a signature skill at first level does it become Expert?

Hello to all. I need help with a question for the Lycanthrope PC class rating. The book says that its the "Same as base creature or base animal (whichever is higher) +1" simple right? But only if you pick an animal with a CR 1 or 2, at least thats what I've found. I was looking to make a Dire Wolf Lycanthrope, frankly cause its cooler, and found the CR of the Dire Wolf to be 3. So that means I would have a CR 4 (which as per the rules in playing a "powerful race" I would have 4 effective class levels. Looking at the Lycanthropes bonus I find this hardly to be worth 4 class levels. Heres what I would get for "4 class levels"

- No extra hit dice, so no BAB, saves or skill ranks for 4 levels
- +7 Str, +5 Con, only in animal or hybrid forms, because you take which ever stat is higher, your own or the base animals. Also +2 Wis and -2 Cha in all forms.
- +5 nat armor in animal or hybrid form, BUT this destroys my armor, equipment ect, as I turn large and makes my armor disappear in animal form.
- Dr 10/Silver, again only in animal or Hybrid form.
- Bite that does 1d8 plus strength.

This is all I get for 4 class levels. Now I know the increase to Str and Con seem good but it only raises that high because I'm a dex focused character, if I was a Str focus character it would probably only raise by Str by three and Con by nothing.

Using the Minotaur, as they get 4 class levels as well, heres what they would get
- 6d10 hit points; BAB, saves and skill ranks as well.
- +5 nat armor
- +8 Str and +4 Con
- Gore attack that does 1d6 plus str; Powerful charge does 2d6 plus 1 and half str

I'm curious what you guys think about this. If you could let me know what level you think I should by compared to the party. I'm thinking level 5 but level 4 would probably be more fair. It took a lot of convincing for my DM to even let me play a Lycanthrope and I don't want to get jipped because the rules don't seem right. Any help or comments would be appreciated.