drakkonflye's page

Looking forward to this book as I have been waiting for it since it was announced, but really would prefer the paperback edition. Any idea when that will be available for preorder? I have a voucher I would like to use before it expires next month

As for possible builds, I for one would like to see a catfolk iconic for this class. Don't ask me why other than I like catfolk; just Daredevil seems to be something I can picture for a catfolk

Based on the three playtests I've been in so far, props are pretty much just useful to give you a 10-foot speed boost at beginning of the encounter, and stunt damage pretty much never happens.

"If you are adjacent to a prop (see sidebar) at the beginning of a move action, you gain a +10-foot circumstance bonus to your Speeds for that

Not beginning of the encounter, beginning of a move action, so you can use it at any time during your turn as long as it is at the start of a move action. For myself, I made a kickboxing kangaroo acrobat, former circus performer that Awakened during the Godsrain when he was "struck by a falling star", as he puts it, and have used him twice now in PFS2E play. I like extra movement and have used it to set flanking, and to Shove enemies into walls and nearby objects for Stunt Damage, but yeah, it does provoke Reactions and you can't Tumble Through since that is its own action. But then again, that's why it's Risky; you have to hope they don't have Reactive Strike or similar. I have been having fun playing this character, but yeah, I did go down several times since to use Acrobatics and Athletics well, you can't be burdened by heavy armor (yes, I know Attacks are not burdened), and getting 10 hit points instead of 8 would have made a difference in two of those cases, but I think there should be some way for them to either soak damage (stunt people know how to take a beating), or avoid some of it (like a heightened reflexes that allows them to boost their AC temporarily).

Ranger feats that deal directly with knowledge of hunting monsters

Monster Hunter
Monster Warden
Favored Prey
Giant Hunter
Master Monster Hunter

Ranger feats and warden spells that deal with mimicing beasts and prey

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Eerie Environs
Spit Slime
Animal Feature
Canopy Crawler
Imitate Fauna
Threatening Mimicry
Warning Stripes

The Ranger also has entire optional feat lines for specialized hunting tools like snares.

I see your point, but these feats and warden spells you listed are designed for use with animals, and some specifically say "animal" in them, so wouldn't be able to be used with "monsters" as defined by the Slayer class. Yes, the Knowledge checks are equivalent, but the benefits vary as they tie into the class features. Yes, the Ranger would be a good baseline for an archetype as opposed to a full class. I just think you have too many varying features that define the Slayer class as offered to rebuild it without having to take multiple dedications. Can you build something similar? Absolutely! Probably not me though as I am not as well-learned as most 2E players to know what books to pull from. which is true for a lot of players like me with limited experience. The class as presented offers a more streamlined option without all the dedications, especially since most dedications require at least two feats plus the initial dedication before you can take another dedication. Good thing 2E now stacks levels as character level instead of class level.

I have to question what unique purpose these two new clases serve that couldn't be covered by just making them an Archetype.

At first glance, the Daredevil doesn't seem much different than the Swashbuckler, substituting Adrenaline for Panache. The ability to use Props is a great add... but it feels like something that was left on the cutting room floor from the Swashbuckler. This class seems to step all over the creative niche the Swashbuclker already covers, but with a few more bells and whistles.

The Slayer class I want to like... but it also seems like a niche version of the Ranger. The Slayer could have been a new sub-class for the Ranger or simply a new Class Archetype starting at 2nd level, much like others have (Avenger, Battle Harbinger, Elementalist, etc.). We already have an Undead Slayer archetype, making parts of this seem unnecessary...
"

My first thought was pretty much the same, as in, "Why do we need yet another set of base classes? Why not more archetypes, or better yet, more feats and options for existing classes?"

After reading through these two, I can see some notable differences from existing classes that would make it difficult to build these by pick and choose the right options for the existing class, so they do stand out a bit more on their own. The Daredevil looks like a cross between the 1E Acrobat and Brawler and although it has some nice ranged options, it is built mostly around close combat and while it does have some commonalities with Swashbuckler, it's flamboyancy and showmanship is more WWE than Robin Hood and Princess Bride, so it works. I actually am interested in playing this class myself.

Slayer seems more Undead Slayer and Thaumaturge taught a class together and this is who graduated. It's more aggressive than Thaumaturge though, and I like the idea of using the monster's own abilities against it as opposed to inventing weaknesses. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy what the Thaumaturge can do, but there's a flavor of "an eye for an eye" about the Slayer that I like. I actually think the Slayer compliments Thaumaturge very well and can only imagine what having both in a party would be like. As an archetype for Ranger though, I have to disagree. This class dabbles too much into Alchemist, Ranger, Thaumaturge, and Undead Slayer to build without losing a lot of class features to taking multiple dedications to recreate.

I took the last slot, assuming the reserved person was already signed up. I can withdraw if Drakkonflye wants to play.

Thank you, but I will wait until the next one as I am still trying to build my character. I am having issues with my concept due to concerns about RAW and RAI. My ratfolk inventor concept has a prototype construct companion with a unique way of storing, retrieving, and throwing bombs*, but apparently a construct companion can't use bombs according to Reddit posts because they can't activate them. The part that I don't understand is why this limitation exists since to activate them, all you have to do is hit something with one. There is a side note that a GM might allow it, but for PFS2 play, that would mean having to run it by every GM I game with, something I would be willing to do because yeah, this would be fun to play.

*Let's just say the construct concept is a clockwork monkey and let your imagination fill in the blanks ;-)

Edit: Ok, bombs are considered weapons, and companions can't use weapons, but could I use Alchemical Ammunition with the Projectile Lauincher?

Lysle and/or Watery Soup, I may have another PBP newbie coming your way. I'm going to point drakkonflye to this discussion as they want to roleplay.

Hmm

Hello, that would be me, and thank you Hmm for sending the information my way.

1) How is character creation done? Are players bound by PFS2 guidelines? Or is character creation a bit more loose, allowing for Uncommon or Rare backgrounds et al not yet available in PFS2 play?

2) How do you handle die rolls? Honor system? Online digital dice? GM rolls for everyone?

3) How often do people post? I read the article where quality is often better than quantity, but I would assume most GMs would prefer daily check-ins unless that's physically impossible.

4) Are maps ever used for PBP play? Or is it all done by storytelling?

I'm sure I may have other questions later on, but those are the first ones that come to mind for me. Thank you for your time

Glad to be a help. :)

I'm trying to demystify everything for you because I recognize that org play rules are all over the place. So long as you are creating Tiki Tiki and her companion from the Inventor class (and so long as you own Guns & Gears) you won't need a boon. All players automatically have access to the Inventor and Gunslinger classes.

You also do not need a boon for ratfolk (ysoki) because Organized Play opened access to all the Player Core 2 Uncommon races. And you don't need to purchase Player Core 2 (but it's a great read, and worth buying) because it's part of the Core Assumption of the game.

Hmm

TL/DR: To create Tiki Tiki, you will need to own Guns & Gears. PDF format is fine for this requirement.

I have Guns & Gears already as well as Player Core 2, so all set there. I just didn't know if I needed to buy the boons for weapons or other items since there is a boon for curated lists and where firearms might fall on that list

The backgrounds are more for me to help me build a personality, goals, and purpose for the character: Where did they come from? What was is like growing up for them? How do they handle conflict or meeting new people? Why did they take up the life of an adventurer? These are part of the concept for me and I usually will at some point write this out as I consider myself a storyteller, and will embellish on the story as the character grows and develops. However, I keep this off the table, something someone can feel free to read on their own time if they wish. Otherwise, I let my characters tell their own story as I play them :-)

I like your approach on the frontstory concept and I think I will be doing more of that myself going forward as I've always enjoyed the role-playing aspect of the game.

I do have another question for you though: You mentioned online gaming. I attended Strategicon here in LA for Labor Day weekend and I met someone who hooked me up with different groups on Discord to try getting into PFS online. There's just a few problems for me. I really don't know my way around Discord well enough to try to play a game through that, and I have absolutely no idea how to even get started playing online other than investing in Foundry or Demiplane or something, and have no idea what to do even if I did invest in those. Do you have any suggestions where i can find some sort of tutorials to get me started? It's all just so confusing to me

Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!

I am still trying to figure out how to make and advance characters in PFS play, so I really appreciate your guidance. I am old school and used to making characters that are more about backgrounds and personality, something I am having a hard time with as I meet too many players who are more concerned about how much damage they do in a round than where their character comes from and what motivates them. I'm trying to find a middle ground where I can focus on backstory, but still contribute to the overall party. Your suggestions are really awesome, and I so appreciate your time and advice.
And thank you for calling my questions "interesting" :-)

Oh, and yes, that Alkenstar Tinker will be absolutely PERFECT for Tiki Tiki. I assume the rules for her invention being her companion Knick-Knack would follow the standard rules for inventions? I don't need to buy any special boons for it?

Ok, so I had a concept for a duskwalker Champion of Pharasma and had to reimagine his backstory as the background I wanted to give him is rare and not currently available. That said, I decided he was found in a graveyard by a Pharasmin priest at the apparent age of 14 on the eve after Tar Baphon's escape from Gloomspire. The priest saw this as a sign and took the boy in, naming him Angheles Mors, the Pallid Lady's Angel of Death, and over the next 6 years, they traveled to various shrines and private homes of Her faithful so the boy could be trained in Her history and precepts, as well as the art of combat.

Now, with this new backstory, I have a couple ideas for his background:

Pilgrim works as he spent years traveling with his mentor to learn what he needed to become who he is today, but it doesn't quite fit what I envision.

I was going to have him hail from Geb and someone suggested Quick, but I don't see that as an option in Archives of Nethys so not sure if it is available.

Haunted Citizen would suit him and would work well in PFS2 play, but it's from Book of the Dead, so do I need to buy World Explorer to get access to it since it is not in the Core books?

Any suggestions would be very helpful as the PFS rules are vague to me as to what I can and can't take from backgrounds, other than I can't take any rare ones unless they're on the list. I'm also looking to make a ratfolk inventor from Alkenstar as some point, so I'm going to have to find out what would be allowed for her.

Thank you

Also, we should probably move this discussion to another thread on the PFS forum, as it has gone beyond the original rare background request.

Understood, but I would like to keep my request there for hopefully seeing Reborn Soul and/or Returned become available options.

As a side not, just occurred to me Hmm is your signature. Here I thought it was you being pensive given your profile pic choice. Or maybe it's both?

Hmm... ;-)

Hello Hilary, and thank you for responding

...Have you looked at the common background, Lastwall Survivor? It describes surviving an undead incursion (which could have happened in a previous life before you became a duskwalker), and it gives you the Battle Medicine Skill Feat -- one that is useful for most adventurers and would be appropriate to a duskwalker who worships Pharasma.

Appropriate maybe, but "survivor" wouldn't work as he was supposed to have died and come back from the dead, and part of the concept involved a variant of PTSD with him having flashbacks of the events leading up to his death triggered by using Undead Lore (and failing), or Farming Lore (also failing) triggering memories of his family, especially his sister, Fiorella, his "little flower"

As for the two scaling lores offered by the rare background, you can emulate that somewhat with the Additional Lore skill feat.

I hope that this helps you build the character that you want to play!

Hmm

Farming Lore fits the background of growing up on a farm and why he favors a scythe as his weapon (besides being a duskwalker weapon), and Undead Lore as he is supposed to hail from a modest town in Geb where as the eldest son, he was part of the town's volunteer militia when the town was besieged by undead while everyone was gathered there for the Harvest Moon Farmer's Market

Really wish there was a way we could buy into rare backgrounds if we could provide a good storyboard as to why this character should have that background.

Hello, just found this page and wanted to know if there is a way to get the Reborn Soul background for a character I want to play in PFS2. My concept is a Duskwalker Champion of Pharasma with a Guardian dedication who died defending his family and town against an undead invasion and was given a second chance, but has flashbacks of his previous life, most particularly of his little sister and the events leading up to his death and leaving him wondering if she survived. I do not see that in the options, however, and was told that may not be possible. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance

Her introduction was a bit confusing in the "Meet the Iconics" thread, but this tells so, so much more about her character. Really starting to like her now. She's more of an anti-hero than a hero, and she likes it that way

Oooohhhh....the cover art alone is enough to make me want this book. SO looking forward to this release

Brinebeast wrote:

If I was a Dragon, I would want Maya in my horde, because Maya is an absolute treasure!

THIS IS ADORABLE, AND I'M JOINING YOUR HORDE IMMEDIATELY.

WE LOVE YOU MAYA!!

I don't get to play much PFS2 because there are no local games and I am totally ignorant about playing in online groups, so this is just based on what I have been reading across this forum, but instead of having a cantrip to Create Thrall and an innate ability to Consume Thrall to gain a focus point, why don't we just make both abilities innate abilities for the Necromancer and make the thralls manifestations of the necromancer's focus pool?

I'm seeing a lot of posts claiming sacrificing a thrall AND spending a focus point is too high a cost for most of the Necromancer's focus spells, so what if it was one or the other, with the downside being that the thralls ARE the focus points, so the most any necro can have at any one time of 3 per focus spell rules. They would have to consume one to use a focus spell, but can use an action to create another one, and can still attack with the newly created thrall as per Create Thrall (with applicable MAP, of course).

Granted, this means they won't be able to flood the battlefield with thralls, but maybe this can open up the possibility of letting the thralls perform simple basic actions (Fetch, Step, Stride, Strike) instead of just standing there, although the Necromancer should still have to use an action to Command a thrall. If you still want Necromancers to create multiple thralls at higher levels, let them choose to Create or Command the same number at said level.

I am guessing the cost of focus point AND thrall for some focus spells is probably more for crowd control and keeping the number of thralls down, but most of the spells aren't really worth the cost, and the ones that are could simply cost two or more thralls to cast, while the ones that create additional effects if a second thrall is destroyed stay the same.

Yes, this changes the dynamics for focus points and spells, but let's be honest, this class is all about changing the dynamics of those anyways.

Oh, and will there be a paperback version of the remastered Treasure Vault like there was for the original? I would assume yes, but it doesn't list it in the Products page

Kalaam wrote:

Crossing fingers for a SoM one too lol

Though very curious to see what might change

The odds of Secrets of Magic getting a reprint in its current state are low. Considering:

1. Several pages of lore regarding the old D&D schools of magic that are no longer valid.

2. Several of the options presented in the book have been reprinted in other books:
- Elementalist got reprinted in RoE
- Runelord is set to appear in Rival Academies
- Several spells got reprinted across Player Core and Player Core 2.

If they have to replace the reprinted/OGL content, we would be looking at a completely different book.

Then again, what do I know?

I don't know, but something tells me because so much of the Secrets of Magic material has already been incorporated into the Core books, is it possible the upcoming "Impossible" book might not contain just the two new classes we are playtesting, but also might contain remastered versions of the Magus and Summoner? I mean if a remaster of SoM is redundant, it would make more sense to incorporate them in the new book, especially since we have no idea what the book is about except possibly Impossible Lands, which themselves are excellent areas where Magus and Summoner might hail from

This is more akin to stowing the item in an additional location, one that has a distressing tendency to go boom and drop whatever it is holding if something so much as raises their voice at it.

This made me laugh so hard I cried. Thank you for that LOL

So Arcade Cascade is still useless if you take Starlit Span? I was really hoping this would be just an oversight *sigh*

drakkonflye wrote:

Unless I am mistaken and focus cantrips don't cost points to use?

Correct. Presumably the designation 'focus' on focus cantrips is to separate them from cantrips that any member of any class can take. For example, Courageous Anthem is a focus cantrip (and also a composition cantrip)

Okay. Someone else just pointed out to me as well that per remaster rules, all classes that gain focus spells always gains focus points up to a maximum of three points to their pool and no longer explicitly states that in the spells themselves. My apologies, but I am not up to date on all the changes as I have not had very much gaming experience lately (full table every time I try to sign up), so I didn't know.

Since the remaster you always have as many focus points as you have focus spells. It's no longer spelled out in each individual class or feat.

You can absolutely go up to 3 focus spells as a necromancer. The problem is that you only start with one as a focus-based class and that you never get a bigger pool unless you pick up more focus spells. This will most likely happen eventually for pretty much all necromancers but dependong on your feat priority, your lower level will have you pretty focus starved.

Consume Thrall is barely a bandaid on a severed arm. Spending two actions in combat to regain a single focus point doesn't mesh well with the action economy of a caster.

Okay, I haven't had much play time with the remaster rules, so I did not know this, thank you. I do think the Consume Thrall should upscale as the necromancer levels up to let them fill out to their maximum pool though at higher levels, even if they do still limit how often they use the ability

I would just like to point out one thing regarding this discussion: Create Thrall is a focus spell, so it costs a focus point to use. and as things are currently written, necromancers only get ONE focus point, TWO if they Consume Thrall, and the class as currently written does not have a means to gain any more points, so they can not as currently written do "endless spamming' of thralls. They can do a one action casting to create maybe 4 thralls with legendary necromancy, 8 if they Consume Thrall and use three actions to get them all in one round, and then nothing for 10 minutes.
Unless I am mistaken and focus cantrips don't cost points to use?

So someone pointed out the class as currently written does not gain focus points to its maximum pool by taking focus spells as other classes do, which seems to make Necrotic Focus a useless feat since you only get back one focus point by refocusing with or without the feat. Not sure if this is an error, of if the intent is to have the necromancer rely on its ability to Consume Thrall to regain focus points. If this is intentional, then maybe instead of making Consume Thrall once every ten minutes for only one point, perhaps have it upscale so the necromancer can use it once per minute at level 6, and once per round at level 12, but limit the focus pool to no more than 3 focus points as any given time to be more in balance to other classes that DO gain focus points as they learn focus spells? Just my thoughts on this..

I saw this review! I cried a lot reading it, but it's very heartfelt, explore a LOT the dangers and omnipresence of "orientalism", and ultimately gives GREAT PRAISES for the book. :3

Lost Omens: Tian Xia World Guide Review on reddit

Just read through this myself and it really hurts that the author had to endure such b*@+%%+@. Like I said there, *I* would have let him play his druid and if anyone else said anything, THEY could play the damn monk or take a walk. I don't tolerate racist bull at my tables, and if I ever say anything that might offend, I encourage my players to tell me and I will strive to not do it again.

Please change the name of BATTLE-TESTED WAR HORSE to BATTLE-TESTED WAR MOUNT (or STEED). I have been in groups where someone will see the feat as written and insist the mount must be a horse, even though the prerequisite feat (Commander's Steed) just says "young animal companion". On the other end, "Typically, the steed is an animal companion with the mount ability" suggests this is not always true, so any young animal companion large enough to bear a rider would work even if it doesn't have the mount ability (Ex: catfolk warriors who ride lions and tigers as mounts).

Is it possible to train an animal to be a mount and give it that ability?
I am guessing yes, but not sure where to find the rules for that in the Remaster edition

NOT sorry to revive this as I hope we can build an interest in this as well. As much as I enjoy the lore inside the hardcover books, it is a lot of work to bring my hardcover library to a game session. I would so mush prefer to bring the pocket editions, especially any Lost Omens books that have character development lore (feats, spells, archetypes, etc.). Add me to that list of those wanting more pocket editions

I prefer to wait for the pocket edition to come out for portability purposes; I was one of those GMs with an overstuffed backpack of tomes and those were way too heavy to go through that again (please keep pushing for those Lost Omens accessory books to be made into pocket editions, Aaron!). Will the pocket editions be exact copies of the hardcover ones just released? Or will they be updated with the errata by the time they see print? I have no idea how far ahead of printing these layouts are done

..it's exciting having your culture be seen for once (instead of treated lesser).

It most certainly is, and please, keep sharing with us. I for one am so glad to see you so excited about this, and so willing to share more of your culture with us. I am US born and raised and have never had the chance to travel, so for me, reading about other peoples' cultures and folklore and lifestyles is exciting and enriching. I am glad when Paizo can represent those cultures correctly, and even more so when they turn to the people who have lived those cultures and stories and give them the chance to share it with the rest of us. Seeing how excited YOU are for these books makes ME even more excited for them as well :-)

I actually really like this as a variant on an urban spirit, but I agree it might be too specific, so maybe trickster spirit like QuidEst suggested?
Also, maybe something from the "spirits" that haunt an old theatre or similar venue as a type of urban spirit? Such a place would have a gamut of emotions and could sway easily between positive and negative energies as needed. Plus imagine the different spells involved: ghost sound, ventriloquism, hideous laughter, enthrall, hallucinatory terrain (gotta set the scene), uncontrollable dance...
Just a few ideas off the top of my head LOL

The original Harrow deck used the 9 alignments and 6 attributes as their base. Now that alignment has been removed as of the Remaster, will there be changes to the Harrow deck to reflect that?

Anyone read Tamora Pierce’s ‘Circle of Magic’ book series with Sandry, Daja, Tris, and Briar?

Look Briar and Tris will always be my favourites but let’s be honest- It’s Sandry- the stitch-witch who can literally weave different magics together -that stands out as most powerful. She literally bound their fates together as a group, and so as a buff/support caster- I think weaver might be fun -maybe it allows you to temporarily transfer abilities and statuses to one another.

With you on this one. I think that one of the new classes is a caster, and is most likely the rare class as I would not be surprised to see a caster that can alternate between the four magics, arcane, divine, occult, and primal, at will. Possibly a studied caster who must memorize spells as normal, but can swap out spells freely (limited times, I would assume) like the 1E Arcanist did. Imagine being able to learn any type of magic and prepare it, but spend 10 minutes refocusing and swap out a spell for another of equal or lower level. That would be pretty strong if you can choose any spells from the four different magics, and definitely a reason to be rare. Just a thought

Luna Ravenheart wrote:

The flowers on the minotaur's hooves, though! So pretty! I want to play one just so I can have hoof-flowers. :D

"Decorative shoe nails" was just one of MANY Kent Hamilton design flourishes that went into each crew member—we had drafts of the crew members and their personalities from each author, which Kent used to further develop them through their character designs. Creating a cast of characters who could appear persistently throughout the book (alongside the iconics) was a really collaborative process that could NOT have happened without him!

Each crew member, eh? So most likely the centaur and minotaur are not the only crew members/playable ancestries with hooves?

... Does having a hydra head mounted on your wall just make you look stupid?

Well, maybe if you only have one...

Friends. New classes require playtests. And you can bet on them being Gen Con releases. :)

and what about those of us who aren't able to attend any Cons? when will we get to see the playtest (assuming there actually IS one), considering the book is slated for spring 2024?

The Time Mage archetype as well, while you're at it.

Saw this as well (yes, I DO own a copy of Dark Archive ;-P), and again very nice, but still 1/2 or even 1/3 of what I envision a full class would be. Both archetypes seem like minor versions of a full class, as if Paizo HAS an idea in mind for a chronomancer class, but is testing the waters by offering these archetypes first, then reverse engineering the class itself. This line of thinking has also got me wanting Timescape setting, like MCU's Time Police headquarters, or a certain city in the center of the planar multiverse we can't mention due to copyright infringement, where time-related beings and entities (and maybe gods?) oversee the timeline and make sure nobody messes with it, which of course there are those who most certainly DO mess with it (chro9nomancer being just one of those).

As I sit here writing this, I see a campaign unfolding before me revolving around this entire concept...

Man, I would LOVE to to be part of buidling that

Chronomancer...

I did, and to me, it's a good start, bot not what I wanted. This archetype reads like most of the 1/2 class archetypes out there, covering the basics of personal magic, but not fully fleshed out. For me, the chronomancer should be able to do more than hop through a few seconds of time one way or another, but also "borrow" things from the timeline, or maybe have some minor summons ability to pull creatures out of time (mostly a variant of summon monster/nature's ally/etc.)

Just my thoughts on it

Before I decide to buy the pocket edition of the core 2E rule book, can anyone tell me if it will be the latest update? If it is not, I would rather wait until they DO update it. Thank you

Chronomancer: someone with time based magic who can call weapons and armor from the time stream for limited periods. Make him a mid-range caster with decent skills who can alter time to make a hit a miss, or a miss a hit, or alter a saving throw "by a few seconds". As for conjuring items, think of it as a "need it on the fly" where he "borrows" something from the time stream for a few moments (level based duration?), maybe even more powerful items as he progresses (magical and specific material?), and time-related spell abilities such as haste, slow, timestop, etc, that affect only him, and can affect others at higher levels, but as focus spells instead of full magic. One ability I can think of would be to be able to call duplicates of himself like he was pulling himself out of the time stream from different minutes. Another idea would be a sort of "do over" where he might rewind an instance (say a combat round?) as if it didn't happen, but yeah, this could lead to issues of redoing rounds that don't go in his favor unless limits are put in place. Still, it would be interesting to see what Paizo could do with this

Personally, I also think kinetic aura should be part of the base chassis and should allow the kineticist to Gather Element as a free action if their aura is active.

Make it a two action feat, so Gather Element to activate Kinetic Aura would be three actions, but it would last for the full combat unless the kineticist gets knocked out. Change kinetic aura impulse feats so they require an active aura to use instead of being one action less to use if an aura is active (and reduce the base action costs on them to begin with), and have only one kinetic aura impulse feat able to be active at a time instead of snuffing out the aura by switching them.

Honestly though, there's really not a lot of kineticist aura feats right now to make it worthwhile to follow this path. Doing this would just speed up a kineticist recovering from Overflow, unless Overflow would also suppress the aura (Flat save to maintain, or maybe an action to Sustain?), but let's be realistic, there are WAY too many feats with the Overflow tag with no real reason to have it. I'm on the side that Overflow should be an upgrade to an affect, like bonus damage or increased area, etc., at the cost of losing your elemental "focus". If Overflow was reconfigured, THEN I could see the aura being suppressed by "overdoing" it

Any chance of seeing pocket editions of these books in the future? As much as I love my hardcovers, they are quite a bit to lug around when I am traveling to a game instead of hosting it

Man oh man, the wait between chapters is driving me crazy! What a wonderful storyteller! SO eager for the next part

Love this character! Thank you for this truly awesome story

So, having just given the playtest document a cursory glance, here are a few of my first impressions on the classes:

** spoiler omitted **...

I want a tome implement, and a chime/gong/bell implement, so I can run a "bell, book, and candle" witchwife thaumaturge with cat familiar and a penchant for plants and animal talismans, one that lets the locals think she's a witch when in truth she's more of an investigator of the unknown who makes it her job to deal with the things that go bump in the night and that come from Beyond to prey upon those she's oathbound to protect, even as they fear and scorn her.

Well *I* figured it out, child, and rare it is to be gifted with such a presence ;-)
Seriously though, love these tales, and looking forward to hearing more about Azure Leopard and Jatembe and everything. Mwangi Expanse can't come soon enough!!

I am also amused to think of a tiny fey eidolon as the spellcaster and the summoner as the martial role, but that would be a big switch.

Sprites are going to become a playable class in the Lost Omens Ancestry Guide due out in march 2021, according to Amazon

I think the lack of evolution options is the single most universal complaint right now. Some people are thinking to solve this by going back to the 1e system and oh god no, for reasons you've already gone over.

We do need to see more things like other special attacks via evolutions, or sidegrades to allow different tactics. A combat reaction would be valuable to have available (all the core martials except Rogue have an AoO variant available, and Rogue gets Opportune Backstab). I'd want to be able to add more traits to the unarmed attacks (grapple is the big missing one). But for the most part, evolutions should be limited strictly to things like combat activities and special attacks (Sudden Charge, breath weapons, etc) or major sidegrades to base functionality (amphibious, flight, major senses like tremorsense, etc). They absolutely should not affect statistics (because that would become mandatory-ish under 2e math) or physical form (having to buy arms to then buy claws and s&#~ can stay in 1e).

I think the idea of bonus evolution feats every so often may be valuable to consider, depending...

The issue here is again, the Eidolon is not a class feature, but the entire class as it is currently written. We might as well call it the Eidolon class instead of Summoner. The Eidolon could use more abilities, yes, but the reality is it still leaves the Summoner just sitting in the back row "boosting" the Eidolon when IMO at least, they should be working in concert as a team. I would like to see more Tandem feats where they complement each other instead of the Summoner just sending in the Eidolon and using their limited actions to Boost, Reinforce, and Call Eidolon back when things get too tough.

KrispyXIV wrote:

Bestiary/monster version of things like Constrict.

That's one thing we all have to take into consideration here: According to some data I have, summoner is a class whose high concept is extremely attractive to brand new to RPG players (or it was in PF1), but then the complexity of building them caused some issues. That wasn't immediately obvious to an options junkie of a player like me who just wants to make lots of different decisions at every step, but whatever the final method of building winds up being, it needs to be simple but powerful, allowing as much depth as well as narrative customization and variety of options for your eidolon's story, thematics, and visuals as we can without too much complexity.

I am so, so, SO liking the concept of playing a Summoner Synthesist who's Eidolon is actually his alter ego, a Devotion Phantom who manifests any time the Summoner is overwhelmed with choices he can't or is afraid to make, where he takes a back seat and let's the Eidolon take over. I can even picture the Eidolon as having his appearance, only amplified to being the "perfect" being and physically augmented, sort of the "I wish I was this" persona. I can even see when the two of them are separate beings, the Eidolon acts as his subconscious, arguing with the Summoner's choices and playing devil's advocate and sounding a lot like the Summoner's parents (and other ancestors). Those spells, though...

Sorry, but I am on the "give them one spell per level even if it is only a Summon spell" bandwagon

Need more Conduit spells and more Tandem feats, really. I know you have the Inquisitor on the back burner to reintroduce at some future time; wouldn't it make sense to let the Summoner and his Eidolon have access to some of those future "teamwork" feats now since they ARE a team?