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This should probably be in the Rules Forum.

A quick search of AoN shows that this a total of 1 arcane spell that targets AC and does not have the manipulate trait: Widow's Bite

It deals 1d4 plus 3d4 persistent at a touch range. Compared to fireball, which does 6d6 at 500 feet in a 20 foot burst, its pretty crappy. Also, I think poison immunity is more likely than fire immunity. Throw in the heightened +2 and it is downright garbage.

For spells that target a save without the manipulate trait, there are a total of 5. One is rare and 3 are uncommon. Also only Utter Destruction is a damaging spell (8d8 sonic/void).

Long and the short is that pretty much every spell is going to provoke in remaster.

100% agree with Pixel Popper.

There is no reason to use Command Thrall on a Summon. Done. If you sustain, the Summon is commanded as part of the sustain process. If you don't sustain, the Summon is gone so you can't use Command Thrall on it.

Done.

What Conjurer of Corpses does do is allow you to use your summon as the target of your Grave Spells or as the origin of your spell using Reach of the Dead.

This complaint is not really an issue.

Thanks for doing this Starling.

I really appreciate the rules interpretation sidebars. They help to alert players to possible shortfalls with their build if they GM has a different interpretation than you do.

Thanks for the write up Playwars!

I think as a Gm I would not allow a necro to have more than 1 Thrall up during Exploration. Mostly because it would require too many actions to keep up with the party.

The [url=https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2581]travel speeds in the GM core[/uel] pg 36, assumes you are using 1 action per round to walk. You can't summon/move 3 thralls and still have actions left to move yourself and keep up. That also means you can't do any other exploration actions. No perceiving, or detecting magic, or sneaking, etc.

I think 1 is more than reasonable. More than that and all you are doing is maintaining.

Scarlet Fever does not have the death trait because it doesn't kill you instantly.

Only stage 4 is a death effect. "A death effect might state that it kills you outright, without dealing damage, in which case you die without having to first reach dying 4 or be reduced to 0 Hit Points."

At stage 4, you are dead. it's really that simple.

I think the operative sentence is the second one.

You channel your necrotic magic through a thrall, expending it in the process. If the next action you use is to Cast a Spell that has range, you cast that spell from one of your thralls within 60 feet. That thrall becomes the point of origin for your spell; calculate range and cover from its space instead of yours. The thrall is then destroyed.

The way I read RotD is that it works similar to Project Image. Instead of the spell coming from you, it comes from the Thrall. Necrotic Bomb, as an example, requires you to target "one of your thralls" within 30 feet. RotD means that you have to target one of your thralls that is within 30 feet of the RotD thrall.

TLDR; The thrall that is the target of RotD is not a valid thrall target for casting the spell.

I just noticed that the Ooze Eidolon is Arcane instead of Occult. This is a bit of a surprise since a Summoner with an Ooze eidolon wouldn't know anything about their eidolon or any oozes because they are IDed with occultism.

this is from my post on the Impossible Magic thread. I looked at the math for the Focus Cantrips.

You can create thrall as a single action. This can include a Strike which deals 1d6+1d6/4 levels. While it is a spell attack roll, it deals damage similar to a kineticist's elemental blast.

Thrall Charge is 2 actions. At level 5 it deals 4d6+3 damage. A rank 3 cantrip deals 4d4. At level 11 it deals 6d6+6 v. 7d4 for a cantrip.

They also have a level 6 feat that is the equivalent of Reactive Strike. While it's not hitting as hard as a matrial combatant would, it triggers adjacent to a thrall, not you.

Also I think people are significantly underestimating free flankers. My current game I have a Paladin (still using legacy rules). When we have a large or bigger enemy, I have to choose between flanking and being close enough to by allies to trigger Retributive Strike. If we had a necromancer, they could just toss a thrall behind the creature.

I really think the play style for Necromancer will be to use their Focus Cantrips and Focus Spell almost to the exclusion of their spell slots.

I could see you taking Invert Harm at level 2 and just filling your upper rank slots with a tone of Harms for healing your allies.

I actually really like the errata for Palm-Held Sun. A third rank spell that counts as real sunlight was way too powerful.

I did notice yesterday while reading that the hedge mage didn't get a way to add spells to it's not-a-spellbook, so happy they added that.

I agree that many of these errata pull things back from being must haves. but that is exactly why errata exists.

So is there a reason Necromancers are 2 slot casters? I'm looking at you Oracles and Witchwarpers... 4 slot casters. Let me expand on this train of thought.

Psychic and Necromancer are both 2-slot Casters. How does this work even? Psychic is 6 hit points a level and Necromancer is 8 hit points a level. Okay when you compared them both to the other classes of their respected Hit Point Level. This is what you get.

Psychic 6 hit points, 2 slots per rank
Sorcerer 6 hit points, 4 slots per rank
Wizard 6 hit points, 3 +1 bonus slot per rank
Witch 6 hit poitns, 3 slots per rank

Where is the balance?

Necromancer has the same issue with Oracle and Witchwarper giving 4 slots per rank vs 2 the Necromancer gets. This is not including Clerics with Divine Font.

Then there is the odd classes like Bard and Druid who get no bonus spell slots, for exchanging for what? Yeah feels like some things are over valued verse others.

Because a Necromancer isn't a standard spell caster. Their play style is to utilize their thralls to attack enemies. The Necromancer has very strong focus cantrips.

You can create thrall as a single action. This can include a Strike which deals 1d6+1d6/4 levels. While it is a spell attack roll, it deals damage similar to a kineticist's elemental blast.

Thrall Charge is 2 actions. At level 5 it deals 4d6+3 damage. A rank 3 cantrip deals 4d4. At level 11 it deals 6d6+6 v. 7d4 for a cantrip.

They also have a level 6 feat that is the equivalent of Reactive Strike. While it's not hitting as hard as a matrial combatant would, it triggers adjacent to a thrall, not you.

My group is coming up on the very end of book 6 (I am a player). My biggest issue in AoA is that there are very limited opportunities to purchase or loot on level gear.

Book 3 takes place in a city that is level 7 (i.e. you can buy items up to level 7). Book 3 expects you to be levels 9 to 12. By level 12 the book math expects you to have a +2 greater striking weapon. Meaning you should be doing up to 5 dice per hit (3 for greater striking plus 2 weapon property runes). Makes fights really hard.

Book 4 (levels 12 to 14) is in a city that is only level 10 (if memory serves), but allows for weapons/armor up to level 14. This is good for weapons and armor, but by this level you need to be purchasing non-weapon items too.

At the end of book 6, not all of our martial characters have major striking runes and only one of the PCs have an apex item.

Paizo offered AoN a six-month delay on the artwork, not a long term fix. In those circumstances it's understandable that AoN saw little value in delaying the inevitable.

Yes, but publishing the letter probably significantly reduced the likelihood of Paizo doing more business with them in the future.

If every time AoN gets a bad offer, they run to the public and cause a massive pile on, Paizo execs will be much more reticent to give them anything at all.

Will the long term loss of community good will cost Paizo more than the short term savings from cancelling the partnership. Probably. The problem is if Paizo doesn't have the money NOW to pay for the partnership, it doesn't matter.

Is buying 100 rolls of tp at $25 a better deal than buying 2 rolls for $5? Absolutely. But if all I have is $5, it doesn't matter b/c I have to spend the money now.

lol. The 1000 posts on the topic seem to indicate otherwise.

The trigger says "a small or medium enemy within 30 feet dies."

there is nothing in the description that states that the enemy's body is used to create the thrall. It only creates the thrall in the corpse's space. This make sense since thralls are not made from dead bodies (like zombies or skeletons) but magically created by the necromancer.

The obvious problem is that "dies" is an ambiguous term.

There is an argument that it doesn't work on undead because "When reduced to 0 Hit Points, an undead creature is destroyed." (see undead trait). Same with constructs since they use nearly identical language. "Constructs are not living creatures, nor are they undead. When reduced to 0 Hit Points, a construct creature is destroyed."

That being said I think it would be fine to allow Inevitable Return to trigger for any corporeal enemy that is reduced to 0 hit points. (I would not allow for incorporeal enemies because they don't leave a corpse, so there is no location for the thrall to arrive.) Especially since it is 1 thrall and you can make 2 to 3 with one action every round.

I can't read the preview b/c it keeps asking me to allow ads even when I open in incognito where I don't have an ad blocker.

Can't wait to get my hands on this on MONDAY!!!!

I think they do a remaster when they are going to reprint the book because it sold out.

Also there is a possibility that some of these things will get reprinted in Impossible Magic, since it has a necromancer class in it.

If you look at 9th rank spells, several say heightened (+1) (see falling stars) or heightened (10th) (see massacre). Those wouldn't need to be there if you couldn't heighten the spell to 10th level.

Also, if you look at higher level monsters that cast cantrips, those are listed as rank 10 cantrips.

I imagine part of the issue is just Paizo not expecting the remaster to be as much of a smash hit as it was.

Paizo was not doing Remaster because they wanted more money. They did remaster because the alternative was spending every dime they had and then some fighting with a multi-billion dollar company over the copyright of the term "magic missiles" and "owlbear."

Ask any of the Paizo employees (or go back and look at their former posts). Paizo would have 100% been happy to stick with OGL. Hasbro forced their hand.

I'm confused though. The heck? How can.. a guy who went bankrupt say Paizo not allowed to use someone else. You went bankrupt the company dead.

FWIW, the Bankruptcy Judge agrees with you. But the creditors that now control the zombie of Diamond think the judge got it wrong and are asking the 4th circuit to overrule them.

How are you doing today after yesterday's news?

Diamond is appealing the termination of the contract because the contract is an asset that can be sold to pay down the debt that Diamond has.

Its the same as the consignment books Diamond has. They want to sell the books, but instead of paying Paizo their share, their creditors are saying that they are entitled to all the money.

Just to add for all classes :

Thrower's Bandolier is a level 3 item.

Returning throw is a level 9 Dwarf feat.

Hunt Prey is even better on a Thrower. You will rarely need to worry about attacking into your second range increment with a shortbow and almost never with a longbow. But getting no range penalty up to 40 feet instead of 20 is much more likely.

Dual thrower is a pretty good feat. It lets you treat thrown and 1 handed ranged weapons as melee weapons for purposes of two-weapon warrior feats.

Returning is a level 3 rune. Ricocheting Stance is a level 6 fighter feat.

Now you can use a ton of fighter feats with two thrown weapons all day long.

Plenty of feats work just fine with thrown weapons. The below feats are fighter feats that work with Thrown weapons. This doesn't include the feats that are explicitly for thrown (i.e. ricocheting stance).
Point Blank Stance
Exacting Strike
Assisting Shot
Advantageous Assault
Mobile Shot Stance
Felling Strike
Incredible Aim
Agile Grace
Debilitating Shot
Savage Critical.

That's 10 feats. Is throwing the best option in the game? No. Is it perfectly viable? Yes.

This is pretty good to start.

First I would NOT give expert in religion. No PC gets expert before level 2, most not before level 3. it's also extremely rare for a class to give an automatic boost to skill proficiency. Also, clerics are already on the low end of skill proficiencies, since they only get 2+ int, and are unlikely to have a particularly high int. Getting one more skill trained would be more valuable then a free skill increase.

Instead I would suggest society. That leans into the community aspect of the Pantheon. Protecting the weak, supportive of others. Medicine would be a good one too for the same reason.

I like your domain selection, but I would suggest that Duty would be a standard domain instead of alternate. It feels more core to the main tenants of the faith than say truth.

For cleric spells this is really more of a flavor choice then a mechanical one. The only real requirement is that they are not already on the Divine list.

Leaning into the protection part of the pantheon, I could see: 1) protector tree; 3) shared invisibility; 5) shadow siphon.

I think there are several reasons why encounters don't merge, some already mentioned above;

1) monsters assume the guys down the hall can handle it.
2) the monster is not intelligent and isn't going to venture out of its den to help another creature outside of its "territory"
3) the monsters don't like or really care for the guys down the hall and if they die, all the better!
4) the monsters have specific orders from their superior to hold the room they are in. Think like an attack on a castle. The guys at the gate don't abandon it when the walls are attacked. That's the job of the guys on the wall. If you leave your post unattended then you may be the reason everyone dies.
5) the monsters are busy doing an experiment or ritual or something to that effect. They will fight if interrupted, but the other groups' job is to deal with the threat so they can stick with the plan.

All of these are perfectly reasonable explanations for why monsters will stay in their rooms instead of venturing out and none have to do with the monster not hearing what is happening.

One last note: I find that many adventures actually do include information about how the monsters react if the alarm is raised or something to that effect.

One of the problems with this is that the multiclass feat's level is well behind your main class feat's level.

You're not getting two level 10 fighter feats, you are getting a level 10 fighter feat and a level 4 fighter feat.

You'd be better off taking a fighting style archetype.

For instatance, the Mauler Archetype has the following Fighter feats.

Slam Down F4/M4
Vicious Swing F1/M4
Crashing Slam F10/M12
Brutal Finish F12/M14

If you take Mauler you can have those feats at levels 4, 6, 12 and 14, respectively. With Fighter Dedication, you get them at 8, 4, 20 and never, respectively.

TLDR; No, not worth it.

In our AoA campaign, our Monk has been using wolf stance, but had reskinned it as Wombat Stance for going on 5 years!

As a concrete example of making an impulse a spell and blasts a strike, I was looking at Bespell Strikes, level 4 feat.

It adds 1d6 damage to your Strikes for 1 minute for a free action.

This has just become a must have feat for a Kineticist. Your elemental blast is now damaging the same as if you were 4 levels higher. You can pick this up at level 8. So at level 9 you are dealing 3d8+1d6 per strike.

The melee martial PCs are only doing 2d8+1d6.

Collective Transposition allows you to move a creature anywhere within a 30 foot emanation on a failed save.

I would allow a PC to put a target in the air. Its a 6th rank spell with a max of 15 damage and prone, and no damage on a successful will save. There are much worse things a PC can do with a 6th rank spell thank 15 damage.

What about Star shape? I heard Star Foxes are pretty cool

Do a barrel roll!!!

Barrel: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (10) + 12 = 22

Here's a Writeup of the Paizo Live event from someone on Reedit for other future goodies: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AS_d85X_Bbb95BX9GEi3KEghTQcgdIghUX6csxF fDdc/edit?tab=t.0

The-Magic-Sword does a lot of these write-ups. They're pretty great.

We have been waiting for this since the launch of 2E. But it is finally happening.

Dead God's Hand is coming in September!!!!!

I am very excited about this! Cannot wait!

Also in the product description it says Aroden was murdered!

My guess would be in a format like Howl of the Wild and Rage of Elements. Lots of good ancestries, setting info and feats/archetypes/items. Then some great article and in character pages about the First World.

Nice to see the Sprite get a remaster pass. Also adding fauns seems like a no brainer after the minataur and centaur.

I am interested in memory magic.

Also maybe they can squeeze the shifter in there somewhere?

But is slam down enough better to justify a 4th level feat, on fighter, a class with really good feats?

I literally went through all 4th level feats for the Fighter and I literally said answered the question: Yes.

Do you disagree with my analysis of the options at level 4 for a two handed fighter?

Maya, I want you to know that we do appreciate your work on the forums.

I likewise don't have the new PDF in my library and I'm not sure if it's because I haven't had a copy of Dark Archive long enough or it's just delayed on my end as well?

Make sure you are checking our library on the Store site and not the message boards site.

But they didn't even print enough copies to cover subscribers. As a subscriber, I was notified there will be no hard copy for me in the first print run.

Paizo has to decide how many to print 3+ months before the street date. They probably looked at the other Remasters and assumed it would be similar numbers. As xNelly said, it was probably a combination of fewer people opted out and higher preorders than expected.

As soon as they realized the problem, they let us know and they hope to have the next set of books here by March.

If I remember correctly, the first print of Starfinder sold out almost immediately too.

Not one of those spells appears in a remastered book.

Hydraulic Push is ok at low levels and against oozes but doesn’t have the lasting value of shocking grasp. Blazing Bolt is your multi target. But other than that there are very few remastered options.

Briny Bolt is from the Gatewalkers hardcover, which is full remaster.

Exploding Earth and Splinter Volley are both Rank 2 from RoE and are good substitutions for Blazing Bolt if you don't want to do fire damage for the rest of your life.

Unfortunately, the next (and last) spell attack spell is Rank 6 disintegrate. So from levels 3 to 11 you are stuck with one of the three above spells.

I would expect to get a few more such spells from Impossible Magic.

All APs going forward will be in single books.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some psychic support in impossible magic coming out this year (I also wouldn't be surprised if it didn't get any).

Part of the reason I suspect we haven't gotten much Psychic support in the last 3 years is because it was not remastered. Paizo probably didn't want to print anything for the Psychic that didn't work with the new class.

Psychic also benefits from any book with new spells in it or spell caster feats, as many are shared between multiple classes.

I think this is a result of an incomplete update of an ability for remaster.

Between the original and remaster, the "without a new save" language was added.

I think you have two options, 1) ignore the new language and give targets a new save every round OR 2) no new save, on a F/CF the penalty goes up if they are still in the area when it is sustained.

My preference is option 1. It is simpler.

I think that a creature that enters the emanation on subsequent rounds is affected the same as a creature in the emanation on the first round (see "it repeats the effect...")

I agree that even if Razmir were to die, the cult would continue. Look at other organizations in a similar vein in the real world.

I like the idea that the cult leaders pull a Dalai Lama. "Yes Razmir shed his mortal coil, but he was reincarnated in the form of this child who very conveniently was born at the exact moment of Razmir's death. It's a miracle and proof of his divine power!"

Thanks Teridax, I appreciate the thoughtful reply and I will definitely look over what you suggested.

I decided to put together a homebrew an Aether and Void Kineticist.

I started with a quote from a sidebar in Rage of Elements about the "elements" of aether and void. I had three goals in mind when designing these elements. First was I wanted to be as true to the original void and force kineticists from Pathfinder 1 as I could. Secondly, I wanted to create more unique and original impulses that play into the unique aspects of each element instead of just reskining existing impulses.

Third, I wanted the new abilities to be balanced against the existing impulses. Force was particularly hard to balance. The Kineticist damage curve is already pretty stingy, but I was worried that giving force the same damage curve as other elements would make it too strong since there are no force resistant/immune creatures and it is a trump card for a subset of monsters (incorporeal). On the other hand, if you pull back on force damage too much then the rough damage curve gets even worse.

See the link below for write up. Any input is helpful. Is the ability unbalanced either way (too strong or too weak). Is there some void/force concept that I didn't use that could be better represented?

Aether and Void Kineticist

Otherwise look into the Assurance & Continual Recovery feats.

Note:
1) A trained 1st level medic with Assurance & 14 Wis hits the Treat Wounds threshold of 15 right away.

This is incorrect. Assurance ignores your ability bonus. It is 10 + level + proficiency. At level 1 that is 13. so it doesn't help you. By level 3 however, even at just trained you hit the DC 15 with assurance. You can hit DC 20 (expert healing 2d8+10) by level 6. Master DC 30 by level 14.

Assurance is still 100% the way to go with medicine, it just doesn't come online until level 3 unless you get a proficiency boost at level 2 (see rogue, investigator, etc.)

That being said, at level 1 with a +2 wisdom, a PC only has to roll a 10 to succeed at a medicine check.

I just want to start with saying that I really appreciate how up front you all about this process and the changes that are coming.

my understanding is that under the current system, your PDF is released once your box is packed and has a shipping label. Which means some people get their PDF the first day of shipping and some get it after the release date.

From reading this it looks like you guys are going to charge our cards on the first "shipping" date even if our box is not ready to go. But that also means that everyone who subscribes gets their PDF on the same day.

Is this correct?

Any of those new Devils make appearences in Wayfinder already?

I can't comment on Wayfinder.

Of the 5 new devils. 3 are reprints from Bestiary 2 and 3. One is a reprint from an AP volume.

There is one that appears to be a brand new devil. The Ayngavhaul (Heresy Devil) is a level 13 and does not appear on AoN.

Are there any interesting elementals?

Most are reprints.

Of new ones, Anguished Flame and Assault Alloy seem pretty cool. They both are tied to current/former elemental lords.

Kelseus wrote:

I have my copy if anyone has questions.

On a cursory flip through, do you have a favorite peice of art?

What categories of Fiends are described? Also if Asura show up are they all Spirits now like that one in the Myth-Speaker AP?

Are there new general adjustments or just the basic Elite/Weak?

My favorite art has to be either the new Alghollthu art, or the Despair Dragon. I really like the new Abrikandilu art too.

For Fiends, we have Demons, Devils, Daemons, Divs, Sahkil, and Velstracs.

Asura are all spirits.

No new general adjustments.