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Benjamin Tait wrote:

So we know of unholy animals (like the Thrunosaurus), what holy animals/beasts are there in here?

Karkadann looks like an ugly unicorn. Creature 7 with Fey and Holy trait.

Alicorn- Flying unicorn Creature 11

Makes sense, the Karkadann and Unicorn come from the same original myth interpreted two different ways. The theories I heard in school was early traders saw african rhinos and told stories about them and they spread from South Africa to North Africa, then across the sea to Europe and the Middle East. An extremely long game of telephone.

Europeans heard the stories of a magical hoofed creature with a resistance to weapons (because of a Rhino's thick hide) and a single sword-like horn and assumed it was like a horse with a straight horn, and made the Unicorn. In the Middle East they heard that story and figured it was a lizard-horse with a curved sword-like horn.

At least that's what I half remember from a class about mythology...

Cloud1802 wrote:

Aparently Athamaru have a large option? While I’m at it I’m interested in what all their heritages are?

Heritages

Coral - Coral on body medium armor +4/+1 Dex cap
Hopeful- large, 10 ft aura +1 v. fear
Kaleidoscopic- Reaction, roll misfortune on flat check v. concealment
Quilled- unarmed attack 1d6 piercing, agile finesse

Hopeful seems sick. Now I need to drum up a Tidehunter style character, a jolly green sea monster with puns and an uplifting demeanor.

Thruneosaurus Rex (level 17) is not based on a real animal.

Thrune-osaurus, as in a devil dinosaur related to the house of Thrune? Sounds like it's potentially a small reference to Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur...

Alchemist and the Snarecrafter Archetype that is replacing Snare-focused Ranger. Alchemist I'm mostly curious about how Mutagenist and Toxicologist will be updated to be competitive with bomber/chirugeon. Since it's becoming an archetype for everyone, I'm curious how Snarecrafter is going to be changed and clarified, are we gonna see Int-classes with crafting like Alchemist and Witch with snare builds?

Also like every time player Core 2 gets mentioned; Kobolds. How will Kobold snarecrafting fit into this new archetype? Awkward-ish overlap like the previous version, or better designed to fit the idea of a Kobold trapmaster?

How high a deception check do I need to roll… to convince an Alicorn that I'm casting Heal… when it's actually fireball?

Could be an interesting story beat, actually. A fireball is lobbed at the party and their Alicorn NPC friend draws the fireball to themself to protect them.

p.77 Brimorak, Size listed as Medium but has always been Small. Not sure if intentional.

Flavor still reads "These goat-headed demons have glowing red eyes and flaming hooves but measure only about 4 feet in height....."

I think it used to say they were 3 feet tall? So they at least got a foot taller.

I guess someone felt that the "basic" soldier demon being just a little guy felt odd. The art looks like a big scary beastman, and then he's actually a gnome-sized bipedal goat. I think I'm still going to run mine as small, because I think it will be interesting to see how my players react to a single kobold-sized goat being more powerful than an ogre. Really emphasizes how scary the world wound was when even the basic little guys can kill a village singlehandedly.

Yeah, probably what Dani said. Basically all the Beginner's Box encounters are designed to "lead" your players to correct/optimal choice, or to teach them mechanics one at a time. So this very difficult check on the iron door teaches them that they need to use their more niche skills, instead of just brute forcing their way through every option.

I am learning in my own campaign that if you let players choose between Athletics or any other skill, the fighter pushes the other person out of the way and chooses Athletics 100% of the time. Crafting check to make a support/ramp to move a large stone, or just brute force it? Brute force all day. And since Athletics has use in combat and common skill checks like climbing up/down walls, it's important to let other people like the rogue/wizard use their skills too.

Drakes are the monkeys of dragons, they're quadrupeds with 'batwings' for hands/front legs. So it's either one with non-functional flaps or what happens if you strip a dragon of its wings

Ah, so they are related to other drakes. Then maybe a drake/wyvern that walks on it's front wings, like Tigrex or Nargacuga from Monster Hunter.

After talking with one of my players, I realized that neither of us know what a "riding drake" is. Is it a species of drake/wyvern that has non-functional wings (like a Diablos or Basarios from Monster Hunter)? Or is it a large 4-legged and wingless lizard that we call a "drake" as a misnomer, like how sea horses aren't horses?

Are there any depictions in the text or adventure paths? I haven't been able to find art of it.

Oh, the Culdewen is an interesting one. Looks like it would be a fun plot hook (ba-dum tish) to have him kidnap a player or companion. The party hunts him down afterwards, but he's lost his catch already and now you need to deal with merfolk/athamaru/grindylows who have your friend for whatever reason.

Grodairs seem awesome too, I like their exploding into water trick. Might be an interesting trap to have players in a small room that floods more each time a player defeats one, and they need to find their way our before killing the last one or calming the grodairs.

Never realized there were aquatic fey options like that, outside the aquatic gremlins. Though I'm surprised there's no klabautermann stat block.

Orc commander is my bet. I feel like with the new spawn of Rovagug, Firehair ascending, Belkzen adventure, Orcs in the core book... It's their time.

My group has just started "Quest for the Frozen Flame" and as the GM I was surprised by how many fey appear in Book 1. It's been a pleasant surprise for me. I thought this was going to be a Vikings meet Conan the Barbarian sort of campaign, but instead on this journey my players keep meeting various fey creatures.

So it got me thinking; what are your favorite fey things in Pathfinder? Whether it be a creature, an individual, companion animal, etc.

For me it's been the Twigjack. There's something so entertaining about how mobile and dangerous the little guys are. Despite their tiny size and unassuming appearance, these twig men are CR3 and will easily slaughter caravan guards or soldiers who come into their woods unprepared. And they are difficult to deal with diplomatically, because unless they need something from you they are very aggressive.

My only problems with the scamps are 1) I can't find the water scamp are in the book, only online. 2) The earth scamp art is hidden in the index, so people may not get to see it the delightful little beast. 3) Rage of the Elements lacks Metal and Wood Scamp art, so we're still missing two more delightful little elementals (probably because they needed an art redesign after the Remaster began, but still).

Or to make it simpler, my problem with the scamps is that I NEED MORE OF THEM.

My guess was the water scamp that was previewed was the prototype art, and then the art director said "No, go back and make them cuter and more elemental looking," before release. So then they made the other scamps for Monster Core and Water Scamp was left on the editing table.

Because the Water Scamp art we saw looks way different from the Earth/Fire/Air ones we can see. Completely different head design and body proportions, the water scamp was kinda just blue with no elemental signifier.

I imagine they'll get around to it in player core 2. That's where we expect the non-multiclass archetypes.

Bluemagetim wrote:

Outwit ranger with some charisma is getting the most out if crossbow ace. Even a +2 in cha with outwit is equivalent to having a +4 in cha.

I would say its in line with outwit being a more defensive and skill oriented path.

Turn 1
Hunt prey
Strike maybe with backstabber depending in how combat started.
Crossbow ace to take cover and reload (defensive use)

Turn 2
Strike
Crossbow ace to create diversion and reload (offensive use)
Strike with backstabber

Create diversion can be used then with a next action to hide making the turn more defensive.

Yes, this is the sort of build that can utilize the new version of the feat. But how many rangers have you seen with outwit? Is it more than 10%

It's me, I'm the outwit crossbow ranger! (Or I would be, if I wasn't the GM).

I do unironically think Outwit is an under appreciated subclass though, and it would be 100% my choice as a ranger. Being able to spam create a diversion, being able to be the face with hunt prey in social encounters, being the smart guy who can recall knowledge for weaknesses and call them out for allies, demoralize, maybe feint if the monster charges me, etc. It's a really versatile subclass that usually gets overlooked for the extra damage of Flurry/Precision. I like being the guy who can be smart about wildlife and how to fight them.

I wonder how niche "take cover + reload" bonus is, because I usually try to include some cover for my archer fighter whenever we get into fights, but maybe some GMs aren't as generous. I like to scatter rocks, barrels, and fallen logs when it seems right.

This thread started with gushing over the new Hags, so I probably shouldn't focus on it. Even if I love them very much. I like that the Iron Hag looks a little like a fighter, she's ready to throw hands.

My favorite new monster is either the Ofalth Larva or Sargassum Heap. The art for the Ofalth Larva is kinda cute in a weird way, and I like having a weaker "living mound" type of monster available to throw at my lower level players. CR10 is surprisingly high on the Ofalth, when other sewer/trash dwellers your low level party will fight is like rats, sewer oozes, and spiders. It's nice having more options. Though the new art raises a few questions; inside the Ofalth is there a spider (like that Monster Hunter creature that is a mantis with a rubble mecha suit) or are those legs just a different type of tendril? Because the normal old Ofalth looks like a beefy mass of plant matter.

Sargassum heap has lovely art, and I enjoy the idea of mirage spores. Like your players walk into a grotto or creek near the sea shore, and suddenly see their villain or their loved ones. They become fascinated, walk into the encounter, then from beneath the water they get grabbed. It's an awesome image, and I desperately want to use it. I think I'm going to have some Boggards worshipping one in their swamp, believing the mirage is their diety Gogunta. After "Gogunta" lures in and eats some Boggards, the tribe starts kidnapping people to feed her more. The party arrives and every member sees something or someone else... "Wait a minute..."

Their breath forces opponents to see visions, making them disoriented and confused. It could be a neat plot point to have a neutral Omen Dragon who isn't sure of a party's dedication offer a test; survive my breath damage and make the will saves and I will help you see the future.

Like the thing about the mimic, I think, is elucidating. It's not important to reproduce the actual monster, even if the image of "a chest with teeth" is iconic. It's more important to reproduce the niche that monster fills- specifically a predator that poses as a thing the PCs think is safe or interesting in order to ambush them.

IIRC there's some earth elementals that could fill that role. Cobbleswarm? Some sort of predatory rock that could pretend to be a floor or wall of a dungeon, perhaps in a treasure room.

Maybe we could get a land-based Octopus or mollusk that transforms. Like those Octopus species that can chance the texture/color of their skin to pretend to be plants, rocks, or other creatures, hiding in coconut shells on the sea floor. The chandelier droops as the arms drop down to grab adventurers walking by, or sticky tentacles pop out of a cabinet to pull in prey.

Blindheims could be flash toads(like how there are flash beetles). Darkmantles could be cave squids. In another thread I liked the idea of combining Web Lurkers and Driders; Spider-like centaurs that live in communities in the darklands herding and breeding spiders.

Maybe you could combine mimics and doppelgangers under a new name; maybe the young/weak ones copy inanimate objects like chests, but as they get stronger/more experienced they start learning to copy people to hunt.

Kelseus wrote:

Even some of the D&D creatures may make a come back in one form or another.

Per James Jacobs, even a Drider could be in Remaster

Similar to "Medusa" being used as the name for a type of creature rather than a singular individual, "Arachne" seems to have taken up the mantle of "public domain spider-centaur" in a lot of circles.

Maybe they can combine the story niches of the Drider and Web Lurker. Spider centaurs that cultivate "herds" or nests of large spiders in the darklands.

I hope a future Monster Core 2 has a focus on darklands monsters. It's an environment that really got hurt by the cuts, and various wildlife options like blindheims, cave fishers, basidronds, etc is leaving it a little sparse.

In a similar veins, Paizo is using Golems so they have a chance of returning, maybe under an adjusted name.

Yeah, some like the missing golems and Oni are likely to come back in the theoretical Monster Core 2 and Monster Core 3.

Some of these like the Blindheim I'm like, "that was a D&D thing!? I never knew."

The Raven Black wrote:

This blog post actually.

Effectively the thread, since it's only in the thread that they explained "you can use Paizo original content without having to reference the OGL, just be aware that you could easily mess up because there's a lot of things you might not expect that we didn't invent and copyright law is always more complicated than you think" free of legalese.

Makes sense to have that warning, it's hard to track who owns what, so it's always a risk. I still can't get over some things like Ettin being a D&Dism; 2-headed giants existed in myth, Ettin is an old world for giant, but using Ettin to specifically refer to a 2-headed giant was a D&D invention. It's popped up in so many video game RPGs, but I never knew. Feels like something that always existed, not something from the 80s.

Damn, and just when Frieren made the Mimic more popular than ever.

Kurai yo!
Kowai yo!

:p

Gotta use the Dungeon Meshi mimics, where it's a giant hermit crab that uses empty chests as a shell. They go to open it, and the Rogue gets speared by a claw.

It's worth noting that kobolds and dragons are both going to be keyed to traditions of magic. The connection is indirect, but very strong.

That's a good point, they share that same strong connection to the 4 traditions of magic. Both Kobolds and Dragons are naturally linked to the same innate power of the universe. Deep down, all magic is lizards..

I'm kinda surprised sekmin don't have an ancestry. I mean they are somewhat similar to Nagaji, but if serpentfolk are the next big bad under-empire, you might imagine a few go rogue and become adventurers like the Drow they replaced. Maybe it's because the ancestry might need innate spells like Disguise Self for zyss sekmin, which could be difficult to balance...

I see a lot of changes, but there's one I worry about. The Mimic is listed as Legacy content. Did it get the axe as well? I had been working on an adventure for 2e that uses them.

Also, Starfinder will do a good job replacing the Doppleganger. They have the AStrazoan, which does almost everything the Doppleganger does.

Archives of Nethys lists every monster as legacy at the moment. I don't have a copy of the book, but I imagine there's a 90% chance the mimic is gone, though.

Evil God caused Golarion gods to have alter the fabric of the universe to prevent this evil god from destroying the world?

So I actually had this come up the other day. My players found an Everlight Crystal (remastered Everburning Torch), and since they found it on an undead noble he wanted to try and recall knowledge with Legal Lore (maybe the dead guy was a judge or barrister?)

Screw it, roll a dice, this might be funny...

He crit, so I improvised an explanation like "you recognize this object is one of many magically transmuted by the gods in recent history. A war between creator gods of this world and another occurred, and to protect this world from divine contracts and laws they used their powers to slightly alter the fundamentals of Golarion."

Now he wants to use Legal Lore on any magic items he finds.

As to doppelgangers, pretty sure faceless stalkers are still in there. I was never quite clear why we had both TBH, and there are plenty of other shape shifting creatures too. Totenmaske springs to mind.

I legitimately forgot Doppelgangers and Faceless Stalkers were separate monsters. Both around the same level, too. One is level 3, one is level 4.

Edit: I do prefer the Pathfinder art of the Doppelgangers though, so I'm just going to keep using that art and model.

But, and it's important to stress this, anything that's in a PF2 Bestiary isn't going away, they just will not be used going forward in adventure content from Paizo

And just as the Green Dragon became the Horned Dragon, Paizo can bring monsters back if they find a good reason, twist, or change to incorporate it back in. Like since there's an empty niche for an ice dragon with the White Dragon gone, maybe a future book will take that idea and make an Ice Shaper Dragon that uses their ice breath to make armor mid-combat, or breaths ice onto their tail to make it like a sword.

For the Rust Monster, iirc there's a metal elemental creature in Rage of Elements of a similar level that rusts and eats weapons. So while gone, there's options for an equipment destroying beast.

Might be a bit of a tangent for the monster core thread here, but damn I cannot wait to see how kobold ancestry looks after this new information. They were already a very cool ancestry so I'm a little worried about changing them, but their new shtick has so much potential.

I'm ready to see fey-influenced kobolds, or elemental-influenced kobolds.

Now I wanna play an oddly lumpy blue kobold druid or ranger who's like "you are not alone. theres bugs"

Now if only there were more bug/invertebrate animal companion options (that I like). IIRC there's only scorpions and medium/large beetles. Somehow there's no spider companion, but I guess I would ask my GM to say my scorpion is some breed of web-less spider like a jumping spider.

The sidebar on Kobolds and how their eggs pull power from nearby powerful beings, not just dragons, opens up some interesting possibilities for the Ancestry and Heritages in PC2

Kobolds who have a tribe around worshipping an Arboreal or Dryad, with their horns changing to resemble antlers and/or branches in their shape. Kobolds that work for a Hag, with oily iridescent scales and heterochromia similar to changelings. Kobolds who live in an abandoned fortress alongside ancient arcane constructs, with metallic scales and crystal-like horns. Lots of ways to mutate to match the enviroment/biggest monster.

Seeing the remaster beginner's box remove 5 monsters (drow, owlbear, mimic, web lurker, and doppelganger) and then fill the space with already known monsters is making me SO CURIOUS. Because Monster Core is going to have more entries than Bestiary 1. With 2 less dragon varieties and a lot of OGL monsters gone, *something* has to be filling all those entries.

Will we get new troop variations of common Bestiary 1 enemies like goblins and orcs?

Will we see adventure path specific monsters like tanglebones and redcap cavalry be added in?

Will new monsters be added to fill open niches left by leaving monsters? Crabs living in chest to be mimics, shape-shifting fey mud men to replace dopplegangers, some other large semi-magical predator to replace Owlbears?

Without knowing the puzzles (I don't know that adventure), you can always try crafting them out of paper or cheap wood. Dollar store crafts section has been my friend as a new GM.

For normal stuff to spice up a room from being just a square I drew on the map, i've gotten a lot of use out of free STLs from Thingiverse; pillars, doors, barrels, rocks etc, that I have printed. Paired with dollar store craft stuff like small mushrooms and plants, I have a nice amount of 3d terrain to better sell the room.

I guess that's kind of a clickbait title, it's not really a leak. It was just added to the digital downloads discretely, and it's been neat to read through to look for changes. This is mostly just the bestiary stuff, and I probably missed a lot, but slight spoilers for the second floor at the end.

Owlbears, Mimics, Dopplegangers, Web Lurkers, and Drow were removed. Mostly unsuprising, other than Dopplegangers, I thought their art was pretty distinct from D&D's, and the concept is based in myth. I'm on copium and think maybe it wasn't a good fit monster for a beginner's box, and they might still be in monster core. RIP Web Lurkers, I really liked you.

Giant Ants, Reefclaws, Minotaurs, Wargs, and Caligni, were added to the mini bestiary. Caligni have enough profiles put in to replace the multiple drow profiles missing, so I think it's the same number of monsters.

Basilisks, Bugbears, Ghouls, Gargoyles, Harpies, Orc Scrappers, Shadows, Wights Xulgaths, and Xulgath Bosses got new art.

Some mechanical changes I saw; animated armor got a longsword, ghoul trades paralyzing claws for sneak attack and stench, harpies no longer sing but get stench and a vacuum wind ability to suck people closer, shadow is now vulnerable when in light (and not specifically the light cantrip), skeletal giant traded their greatsword for a greataxe, the wight's drain life was renamed but seems the same.

The Aiuvarin and Dromaar versatile heritages should have the requirement of non-elf and non-orc respectively*. A humanoid requirement like Beastkin has is more subjective, but might also be worth considering.

*To be clear, I mean that Elven Aiuvarin and Orcish Dromaar don't make sense. I absolutely want to see a sibling team of an Elven Dromaar and an Orc Aiuvarin.

"I'm half orc, and the other half is also orc."

Yeah, when I was messing around with pathbuilder it took me a moment to realize Dromaar isn't meant to be applied to Orcs.

Strigiform-ursine hybrids

So Owlbears are out, as we all expected. May I bring up my alternative once more, the Crowboar? A porcine terror that is half corvid, half wild boar. Has a bonus to prying open locked doors and containers with it's iron beak. Like real feral hogs, farmers hate them for destroying crops, and they are know to break into root cellars and barns using their crowbar powers to feast.

I'm sorry, I like this stupid pun too much.

I respect the artist or writer who saw the cool art of the green Dragon and said "oh, no, we are keeping *this* one." The Pathfinder version of the green dragon looks so cool and distinct with it's rhino horn, I'm glad it's staying in some form. I like it better than the D&D one covered in back fins.

I'm all for the cool new dragons with new powers, but if there was one old dragon subspecies I was going to miss, it would have been the green one. The model and art makes them too handsome. And if they are staying similar in personality, a good chatty librarian NPC or magic item merchant who suffers no thieving adventurers.

The thing I'm most excited for; more Scamp art. Rage of Elements didn't have any (boo!) and we got a preview of a water scamp for Monster Core. I'm not too hurt that they are replacing Mephits, because I like Bats and Mephits were kinda ugly.

IIRC Shamblers are out (because Shambling Mounds are OGL), but the monster preview had the Sargassum Heap to replace it (and the already existing Ofalth filled a similar niche anyway). I have a weakness for sea monsters, and there's potentially really cool set-up of the party's boat drifting into a sargassum bed during a trip only to find algae monsters climbing on board.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Kobold changes. They are still draconic cousins, but they aren't just dragon servants from what was hinted. A tribe might now serve other powerful magical creatures they find. There's a funny idea somewhere with Kobolds serving a hag, unicorn, or dryad, but it could hurt their identity.

It looks like a walking pile of loot, but I imagine it's not so easily gotten. All those magic items, coins, and gems melted onto it's flesh. Spending a few hours trying to saw off lumps of gold, most of the magic swords melted or damaged beyond repair.

There's an old Monster Hunter cutscene or trailer that had wagons come from town to haul a rathalos back, and then the whole town is processing scales and fangs to make a suit of armor. I imagine getting the loot from a Fortune Dragon is gonna be similar, you need a village to process it.

Bone Golem! The art and model are so cool, I'm surprised it never made it to 2nd edition. There's a lot of golem types, but the two "undead" golems I remember, Fossil and Carrion, don't quite have the same feel.

Why no, I didn't just paint the Wizkids Pathfinder Bone Golem and get saddened when I saw it was a 1e monster... I guess if that person was me, I can use it as a Tanglebones...

Eldritch Yodel wrote:

Also, whilst the Metallics and Chromaticsv aren't ac thing in the Monster Core (as sure, "Blue dragon" can't be copyrighted, "evil blue dragon which breathes a line of electricity, lives in the desert, has a smug personality, and it's a set of a specific five types of evil color based dragons" is a fair bit more specific), they're not getting ret con'd out the setting, it's just that it'll take more time to work out what to do with them.

This. After all, Blizzard Entertainment's WarCraft Universe has Dragons of various colors (as well as some not labeled with a color name), but they aren't the same as D&D Dragons (although their Blue Dragons do have a lightning attack). Although I don't think Hasbro would want to go after them now that they are coming under the Microsoft umbrella . . . .

Obviously we need to riff off Tactics Ogre dragon color + element system. Yellow dragons breath air, green dragons breath stone, white dragons breath holy, black dragons breath unholy, etc.

It's the perfect con, since Square Enix doesn't care about Tactics Ogre anyway, you would never get caught :P

lemeres wrote:

I am not sure how well a "friendly element" might work within the setting.

All lore aside, having no opportunities for respite and friendly dialogue throughout the Darklands would make it an absolutely trash-tier place to set a campaign. Since you need such a thing to tell good stories in there, you may as well use Cavern elves as one of the options.

Even the D&D version Underdark has pockets of respite. It's not all Drow, Mindflayers, and Hook Horrors, there are normal communities living in the depths. Regular dwarves, deep gnomes, myconid colonies, harper hideouts, etc.. A party that looks hard enough could find friends in low places.

sedacthy marauders, sargassum heaps, Octopus hags, and marsh giants... This is looking like a good spread for a maritime adventure.

.. I like the idea of the new and improved bearjay, but that crowboar concept you got there is nothing to sneeze at. That could go places.

Oh, Bearjay is a lovely pun. I need to think of some other weird animal-bird hybrids. Great Hareon? Chickadeer? Maybe need to go back to the drawing board...

The preview looks good more monsters, I like seeing the Sargassum Heap replacing the Shambler, but I grew up around the water. Cool to see more marine monsters make the list, inspiring for a nautical adventure. "As you approach the island your ship can't help but sail through the sargassum patch, and subtly the algae starts to shift. Two humanoid shapes climb over the side and hit the deck with a wet thud... Roll initiative."

This banshee discussion seems to be getting a little heated, repetitive, and worst of all... boring. So I propose a change of pace;

What changed/new monsters are making it in? With all those old pages being being trimmed, *something* has to fill the gap. Monster Core says it's going to have over 400 monsters, which is in line with Bestiary 1's monster count, so something needs to be added back in.

Like I know I can already see some like the Ofalth is probably stepping in for the Shambler/Shambling Mound. Drow being removed could make room for more Xulgath/Sekmin/Hryngar variants or pets. Are Paizo going to publish monsters from Adventure Paths like the Tanglebones?

Goodbye Owlbear, hello... Crowboar? A brutish monster with a bonus to prying open doors and containers with its beak... You can have that idea for free, Paizo.

I now wonder what is the best class to build Captain America.

Oh, good question. Probably fighter, but maybe monk since he punches a lot too. Maybe Callow May (Iron Hag) changeling for cold iron punches? Shield augmentation let's you give the shield the thrown trait, and then a returning rune.

Another fun idea, "the Wall" meme from dark souls, dual-wield shields. Maybe one with a shield boss and one with a shield spike, or maybe replace the spike shield with an augmented shield (with trip and shove). I don't fully know how I would build it.

I played a super fun two-weapon fighting fighter build where one weapon was a shield boss - a classic viking raider archetype, and that was pretty fun. I did good damage and had the defensive properties available if I needed it.

I kinda wanted to try that as a Flurry ranger. Hatchet in one hand (Agile for the Flurry), and the Shield Boss counts as a weapon for Twin Takedown. Hit with hatchet and bash with boss, use Hatchet for normal attacks, have a shield I can use defensively if I need it.

Bastard Swords are awesome. It's like a greatsword you can drop to a 1-handed grip using a free action so you can have a free hand. Sure you lose Versatile Piercing, but you gain the ability to grapple, draw/use potions, draw/throw bombs, use a healers kit with battle medicine, etc.. You save an action on having to sheath you greatsword before using a potion and aren't left unarmed during it.

And having shield block for free is nice, even if you don't need it 100% of the time. I've had to drop my bow and draw my spare shield to block before in a one shot when a boss ran at me. As a free hand fighter you could also use it for blocking puzzles/traps that shoot projectiles, or if opponents are out of range. Hobgoblin Archer firing at me from a position I can't reach this turn? Run up while blocking with shield, next turn get close, free action drop shield when I get close enough to grapple or disarm him.

It feels like arguing that Druids should be able to trade their Wildsong feat for a general feat because they don't plan on talking to animals/plants this campaign and they don't want to pay for it. It's just a free part of the class, you spent nothing.

So, in a recent interview with Luis Loza (I think on the Althaven youtube channel?) they actually discussed this a bit. I watched it 2 to 3 weeks ago so I might misremember details slightly.

Aesthetically, Kobolds are keeping their 2E appearance where they look like they are a horned tegu lizard. Like this guy. Culturally they are still gonna be little trap dragons who live in close knit tribes, steal, and worship big monsters (but not necessarily only dragons anymore).

Draconic Exemplar rules are going away or being changed to no longer be linked to dragon type. Now tribes are linked to the 4 magical types (divine, primal, occult, arcane) just like the 8 new main dragons are. So, you wouldn't be a Green Dragon Kobold anymore, you would be a Primal Kobold with whatever rework powers that entails. Tribes tend to serve or worship entities related to their type, so a Primal Kobold might serve an Adamantine Dragon, Horned Dragon, or even a strong non-draconic Primal entity like an Arboreal or Dryad.

Scale colors are now decoupled from type, unlike the old Draconic Exemplar thing, where green dragon kobolds were green. It's not like all primal kobolds are green, all divine are red, etc. This theoretical tribe of Primal kobolds would have a mix of scale colors.

So mephits/the scamps that replaced them are said to work in groups of mixed elements sometimes (like it is said in the Wood Scamp entry), but how does that work? They have language, but they are specific to the plane. An Earth Scamp speaking Petran can't talk to a Water Scamp speaking Thalassic, right? There's no common language for them listed.

Archives of Nethys says they have long titles are part of their name to show off to other scamps/mephits and their master, but can they actually communicate that to their summoner? Will your average witch or wizard learn Muan to talk to their familiar? How do they convey these names and titles.