kaid's page

Gaulin wrote:

Honestly I'm a little worried runesmith might be too strong. I really like the class conceptually and mechanically but it does seem to do silly amounts of damage even still. Hopefully there's pieces of the puzzle we don't have yet, like you can only invoke once a turn or one of each rune etched at a time, etc.

From what I've gathered, apart from runes dealing 1d8/spell level instead of 2d6/spell level:

- You can only invoke one kind of rune once per round
- You can only invoke once per round, and no more than two runes at once.

So you still can do some impressive single target damage, but you have to work for it.

Yeah sounds like you can still pull off some big booms but requires time/actions to set it up. I think that likely works out and should be fun for those who enjoy setting up fireworks to go boom.

Have paizo always done book releases this way where they send out previews? I'm quite enjoying it as it's putting new sites and creators on my radar.

For the real big ones and major gen con releases they have done stuff like this in the past. Given this book has 2 new classes and two apparently really reworked popular classes it was a real prime candidate for it.

BotBrain wrote:

A magus necromancer should be possible through your standard multiclass archtype method. Summoning thralls and your magus rotation will probably be action intensive but not insurmountable.

Magus getting more spells is important because magus previously had so few spell slots. For a class built around casting as many spells as they can to use their signature abilities, this made them struggle if you had several encounters in a day. This lead to a lot of people archtyping out for (focus) spells to compensate.

Not to be trite, but does 2 spell slots/day per rank really change much? It's still 2 of your top and 2 of your second from top slots, same as it ever was, now there's just more lower level spell slots.

So ultimately, has anything really changed? Won't you run out of meaningfully impactful gas as often as previously and still may need an archetype for an ever refilling decent focus spell?

It really does I think. You now can get a lot of the lower level utility/debuff stuff like sure strike without having to alot one of your four precious spells on it. It takes a lot of pressure off the focus spells and allows you to pack a lot more versatility of spells to spell strike with.

This is minor, but in Lost Omens Divine Mysteries, in the entry on Milani on p. 151, her edicts read:

"confront oppression in all its forms, defend the common folk, overcome despair to **sieve** victory"

I think that last part is probably supposed to be "overcome despair to **save** victory". I'm not sure how I'd actually sieve victory.

You have to sieve victory to make sure no defeat is left in the mix.

Sleeping in armor makes their bones ache.

LoreMonger13 wrote:

Happily surprised to see that they will in fact have the Automatons reprinted here!

Seems like a bit of a waste of space considering they came out with Guns & Gears and we already got Guns & Gears remastered so we already have automatons remastered, or am I missing something here?

I suspect there are adding non jistka automaton options. The previous ones were cool but were a very pidgeon holed origin story.

That makes a lot of such souls for just one Necromancer. The Summoner has only one.

Easier to attract and control a flock of weak souls compared to one very strong soul.

I think we will get the Create Thrall and Command as is, maybe with Command usable only when you Create a Thrall in the dedication and a 4th-level feat that gives you the ability to do it anytime.

And now I have this image of a Wood Kineticist MC Necromancer spamming Timber Sentinels and Thralls all over the battlefield.

Since necros = thrall casters it seems like they would need to be able to produce them. I am guessing their action economy and ability to use them is going to be what is limited.

The lore on how Thrall creation works is interesting to me here. Seems that the thralls are simulacra rather than the actual raising of the person. He's still using necromantic energy and he is using the actual remains of the person, but he's using it to create a copy of them as a thrall.

To me, this is a major distinction. Even in the story it implies that he calls the same people (or rather copies them) for each specific task over and over. Frankly, I'm a big fan of this approach to the lore.

Given summon spells are similar where it is not actually bringing a real creature in but a magic simulacrum would be a decent way for necros to maintain their dark vibes without really violating pharasmas edicts unless they really choose to by using rituals and the like to make real undead.

I think one of the issues that gets investigators rated a bit lower in general is a lot of what they do sort of needs GM buy in/support. To really shine they need lots of stuff to investigate. A very flavorful and fun class but some tables just don't let them play to their strengths.
But if you have a gm and an adventure that plays to their strength you can go full on sherlock holms goodness.

I think one of the reasons they went with thralls for Necromancers is some kind of transient constructs like thralls has a bit easier for people to deal with as you are not really directly raising dead bodies but more kind of whipping them together out of spirit energy/materials from the area that only hold together as long as the necro is actively maintaining them.

You are not taking spirits from the boneyard and sticking them in some permanent construct but more just grabbing onto soul stuff to spackle a puppet together long enough to use and then the energy goes back from whence it came.

Harmless undead COMPLETELY contradict Golarion... except for the Exceptions, but those aren't Relevant because we're talking about "Generality Exactly" which sounds like a contradiction in terms to me, but whatever.

Oh, and the fact that in what is confirmed to be the same universe, just the far flung future, we have an entire PLANET of undead, which not only hasn't caused the Universe to end via their mere existence, but also were among the first to sign the peace treaty that is one of the pivotal parts of the setting.

but my idea of harmless undead must be wrong and is complete fantasy... in this fantasy game.

Like I said, I'm tired of being told I'm imagining wrong.

One thing EOX has going for it that is harder to come by than golarian is ability to manufacture artificial "food" and "drink" for its citizens. One big issue for harmless undead is they have hungers and it is a challenge on gloarian to satiate them in a way that is not HIGHLY frowned upon by people who feel like they may be the cattle.

Still eox seems to be a reasonable way to demonstrate that whole undead could be cosmologically problematic the threshold seems pretty high and some undead here and there does not seem to be an immediate threat.

Errenor wrote:

Ok, now I have to ask. Do iruxi being cold-blooded(?) reptiles(?) generally even like hugs from warm-bloods? Maybe it's unpleasant. Or if not, still not comfortable. Maybe they don't like touches.

Also Usharak is an interesting enough iconic.

Pet reptiles can be quite physically affectionate =]

That said, particularly with a more sapient individual, one should always check the intended recipient's boundaries first.

But I could totally imagine an Iruxi glomming onto a willing warm-blood at night to keep cozy through sleep. A steady, reliable heat source with minimal fluctuation would be quite the benefit!

I used to have to help reposition a very large rat snake that liked sleeping on the 8th green of a golf course I worked at. I would get a call to move it by the grounds keepers and I would go there and offer my arm next to the snake. Snake sensing how warm my arm was would curl around it and then I could just gently lift it and go sit by its favorite sunning rock until it was warmed up enough from my arm it would just slither to its rock.

I am sure some necromancers are going to be full mustache twirlers but they also clearly want heroic necromancer options that likely are skirting stuff that pharasma would really put her foot down about.

Weapon rune tatoos for unarmed would be pretty dope honestly.

We already have several ancestries that have have armor runes carve don their scales and such after all.

Yeah a tattoo version of the handwraps would be both cool and a very flavorful option. When adding upgrades to it doing it as adding to the tattoo and making it more complex changing its design would be neat.

Same. And yeah Impossible Spells hopefully are the kind of insane broken stuff that will feel memorable whenever you get to use one.

I would have to suspect that such a spell would also have some long lasting effect/repercussion.

It will be interesting having a hologram luminary. It is hardlight constructs all the way down.

The support angle of the class seems to have a lot of focus but basically no juice. The low level feats and focus spells seem to want you to also just mainly ignore the spotlight mechanic and have you leave it on yourself forever which feels odd?

Being able to do no savedebuffs that last a turn is useful but I don't see much to attract people to the class outside of the wacky fantasy (which doesn't work for me personally since it's a very niche pitch and this is a game with 6 second combat turns

I would have to see it in play but I suspect the spotlight should be moving around a lot turning on the roles of those it is currently on. The minus save ones I think should be pretty strong if you have people in the party capable of using it.

I think this is one of those classes though where people are going to need to play it a bit to get a better feel of how its combats flow.

This is an excellent example of why friends don't let friends train their LLM on reddit.

griefninja wrote:

The movie Project Hail Mary is very fun and I enjoy how the aliens are depicted in that. An ancestry inspired by them would be super fun.

Having way different atmosphere requirements reminds me of how a lot of aquatic ancestries need to soak in water to avoid drying out. You'd just "replace soak in water for an hour" with "breathe in ammonia for an hour." The way they use their limbs could also be fun. Do you use all four as legs for more speed, or do you hop around on one to have three "hands" free? It'd be interesting to see ships or stations built with two atmosphere zones or space suits for personal use.

Their vision being totally different is also fun. They echolocate, basically, so not being able to see stars or most other species writing could be a very interesting hurdle for a species in a sci-fi setting.

Rocky has been what I've thought of pretty much every time someone has brought up Vlaka senses over the past year.

Yup it is a good demonstration of an advanced spacefaring race figuring out work arounds like using devices to translate one set of input into another. Once they realize that information is important or they need to interact with it whipping something up to translate it into something they can work with is reasonable.

Given how many aquatic/semi aquatic ancestries are around in starfinder I don't see much reason to restrict them. In starfinder just about everybody has/should have long lasting environmental protections. It isn't much of an advantage as long as you have some kind of ship/base to recharge your suites as well as lots of magic options to do the same.

Aquatic races and non aquatic ones still will need to do most of the same tasks gathering resources and what not because underwater breathing is unlikely to be much of a help/hinderance but finding food/shelter/equipment effects everybody.

kaid wrote:

ScooterScoots wrote:

My continual flame doesn’t take up a hand, it’s a helmet light. With a cover and everything. If I want multiple instances I can get multiple and chuck them.

Yeah if your party does not have low light/dark vision light cantrip is a champ. can just have it follow most of your group around with no hands required. Just fire it up and have it last all day. A real lifesaver for dungeon crawlers.

Of course, carrying (or wearing, etc.) light sources in a Darklands campaign (such as the upcoming Vaultlines AP) make the entire party detectable from a long way off...

If you are in the darklands and need light to begin with it may broadcast your location but it beats walking around totally blind.

JohannVonUlm wrote:

- Camping Kit (contains 1 week of food, tent, bedrolls, fire igniter and a survival knife), 30 cr

I'd say that is best saved as a group buy or in play purchase since multiple creatures can make use and it's likely rarely needed.

Yeah unlike pathfinder it is really going to depend on the your adventure for if you have any need/use of a lot of the normal adventurer outdoor stuff. Even when you are going exploring new worlds often you are still basing out of a town/settlement or your own space ship so a lot of the long term outdoors things like tents weeks worth of rations/canteens may never get used. Also if you have somebody with a maker kit it is often just easier to have UPB and just print them if you do wind up needing them.

Also it is REALLY handy if somebody in your group has a maker kit it allows you to make stuff you need out in the field or enroute. Starfinder due to how starship travel works tends to have a lot of chances to make stuff between parts of an adventure in your ships workshop.

In our groups for things that did not have a type that matched one of the normal recall knowledge we used computers. I figured in a setting like starfinder googling stuff you don't know should be a thing.

For carbs (and I'm making up fantasy nonsense here) I imagine a region unique substance; Wood Gruel all the heartier trees and such that still couldn't cope with the Eternal Storm have been beaten and battered. but instead of just wearing down, larger chunks have broken down from the constant lash of water. They can be juiced, and so long as the pulp is extracted, the resultant liquid can be dried in smoke houses into a gel or powder that is high in basic carbohydrates, but lacking the indigestible parts of wood (basically it's cellulose). It lacks flavor other nutrients of it's own, used to stretch meals usually,

There are areas where they will import various wood logs sticking them at just the right point where they won't blow away but get the constant lashing of water needed to be converted.

You don't even need to reach much. In an area as wet and boggy as the sodden lands there should be plentiful things like cat tails many of which have edible starchy roots. You would also likely find things like wild rice thriving in that kind of situation and probably other stuff like cran berries or other bog tolerant species.

On page 70 of Galactic Ancestries, it says for the Tankmeat Goblin heritage "While you're wounded, you gain +5 status bonus to your Speeds and melee Strikes". Even with the wounded requirement, the +5 bonus to melee Strikes at level 1 seems unintentionally excessive?

On reddit the person who designed that heritage seemed to confirm that was an error and should be +1 to melee strike.

I do want to point out one of the funniest pieces of art in the book- The Gap-touched section includes a familliar face... I guess now we know why we needed a new Iconic Solarian!

Justnobodyfowl wrote:

The one that surprised me the most was the Ijtikri. It's one thing to say that an ancestry loves adopting and making found families, but it's another thing when they're the foot soldiers of the colonial empire. I feel like there's a lot of really messed up, complicated, and interesting ideas you could mine out of a planet of soldiers who habitually adopt war-orphans they created. What if a found family WASN'T perfect and wholesome?

Tangentially related to this, I do find it interesting that the Vesk boasting of conquering their entire home system rings hollow once you realize that the Ijtikri, Talphi, Skittermanders, and Kothama all offered almost no resistance and the Pahtra were at an enormous technological disadvantage since Pulonis is incredibly hostile to electronics and permanent construction.

Yeah it is hard to claim you conquered the skittermanders when all they wanted to do is help you with your objectives.

It might depend on how they got to the prime material plane (PMP).

If they were summoned, they go back to their specific elemental plane.

If they came to the PMP of their own volition, they could very well be dead permanently.

I can't see an elemental going to Pharasma's Court to be judged.

BTW, folks who have already been judged and sent to their afterlife, don't get judged again if they're killed on the PMP.

If they're an outsider and they came to the PMP on their own and die, they're dead forever.

If they were summoned to the PMP and die, they just go straight back to their own plane.

That seems about what I would think too. Most of the other planar stuff seems to just go back to their plane and reincarnate. We know in the first world nothing really dies there and the lower planes are basically the same and I assume the higher planes are the same.

As they said in the good place just a drop of water returning to its ocean.

I feel bloodseeking blade has IMO the same problems as weapon ikons in the exemplar, though in the case of the exemplar it isn't as bad since you can actually choose 3 ikons at 1st level and one of those its almost guaranteed to be a weapon ikon. Still, in both cases I think their damage steroid should be an innate part of the class and not something that's situational (in the slayer's case is way worse than the exemplar though).

Heck in the exemplar description of ikons it flat tells you that you should pick at least one weapon ikon.

I sort of suspect that the blood seeking blade should be default to all slayers and then the other options be what they select between.

I want an uplifted bear! I am hoping they will allow SFS uplifted animals at some point..

Yeah need to have my orbital insertion soldier uplifted bear. Show them how dangerous a drop bear really is!

rainzax wrote:

I do have a 4th level PFS character that hasn't purchased a single item yet.

So yeah, naked. And carrying nothing.

=)

Where do you put your Runes ?

There are some ancestries with innate armor where you can etch the runes on their natural armor. Otherwise you can do kineticists built in weapons built in armor depending on what you go for gates. You could get by with nothing for a good amount of levels on a kineticist before eventually needing some clothing to stick runes on or if GM lets you etch them on your body.

In Pathfinder, I feel like it's legitimate to not wear clothing in a universe that once semi-canonically crossed over with Red Sonja and Tarzan. Those are the Ur-Texts of Semi-To-Mostly-Nude adventuring heroes. Maybe we need an archetype that gives you an AC boost when rocking the Chainmail Bikini?

In Starfinder, polite society frowns upon it more, but I think there's actually more chances for it. It would be really easy to just only use holographic projector based "clothing". I figure most Astrazoans would WANT to avoid the same distinct pieces of clothing that they can be recognized by. Maybe the Nudist archetype would give you a boost to using the SF2E-Exclusive "Livestream" exploration activity as well?

Starfinder is interesting because a lot of their armor basically is clothing in a space station somebody sporting environmental body armor is probably expected as a reasonable safety measure. But they also have a lot of armor that looks like normal clothing reinforced with force fields. There is also weirder stuff like hardlight armor where you are just wearing some projectors and could be totally naked just running around wearing a light show.

Given how many aliens are wandering around I suspect if you just wanted to strut around au naturale you would get a couple glances but otherwise probably not much else.

Seems like maybe something along the line of the book of the dead which could be a good format to cover more first world info and stuff.

I would guess rage of elements gets "remastered" when/if they need to reprint it. I suspect it mostly would be some minor edits to de OGL whatever remaining remnants are in it but it was already pretty much made with the remaster in mind so I doubt there would be much done to it.

I think just the phrasing of "I am taking trophies from defeated enemies" kind of squicks me out, even if you're just taking their belt buckles or whatever. Like it's not the sort of behavior that strikes me that a person who's not serial-killer coded would do.

I understand wanting to play a monster hunter, but do I have to be one that collects mementos? Like why is this the basic class theme?

It kinda is adventurer 101 go slay beasts take their stuff and often wear it. What is that if not taking trophies.

Honestly could be a lot of things it probably only matters if it is symbolic to you and tied somehow to the thing you slew. Could even be something like a drawing you do and then some hair/blood from the target or some kind of small fetish/totem item you make to represent it.

Work with your GM if you want it to be less grisly I don't see any reason you could not flavor it however you want.

It obviously culminates with helldivers as you fight for democracy and super earth!

That makes sense, but all of it's abilities are just so... situational. it is a terrible weapon to use until level 7, at which point it becomes just a bad one.

Specially when the daredevil lets you throw random props and make use of your handwraps to empower them. For such a major pick it seems just lacking. The armor is really nice the blood seeker blades look really nice the potion seems interesting but you can grab that feat that lets you spray a cone of fire with it and then you have you have holy/unholy chip damage walmart daggers. One of those things does not seem like the other.

Ok, so first impression was hype, both of these seem fun, and the slayer turned out to be way cooler than I was expecting by being explicitly a Witcher/Monster Hunter (as in, the franchise) and the specialized tools seem super cool.

Second Impression is that I want a bigger emphasis on stunts that earn you Adrenaline for the daredevil because adrenaline already feels like a good benefit-- feats that have the press trait are cool and I like how they intersect with the flurry benefit, but I want more that have the risky trait, and not the press trait. Daring Stunt is fine, but I'd prefer for more feats that serve that niche to mix and match with press stunts.

On the flip, the Slayer is awesome, but I'm concerned primarily with the balance between the subclasses, vis a vis their 'thing' that exists parallel to sneak attack / edge benefit / rage etc.

Bloodseeker feels mandatory right now, because its the best one by far and its reinforce gives a lot of sheer output-- flavorwise I really like Panoply, but the daggers have too much suck factor with their slow rune progression and lack of property runes. I love their intersection with crossbow though, and the feat to upgrade them. Chemyst Vial seems to be lackluster until the level 7-8 when the spec kicks in and the feat becomes available, I think the scaling is just too low for what it's trying to do right now.

We'll see if my feelings change as we get into the playtest period, especially if any of my players choose to test it in our west marches.

So far first read I am pretty similar. Base level vial maybe needs a bit more early game oompf and the panoply daggers need to start better. You are giving up a really good weapon option to pick it up so it should start better than chip weakness damage vs holy/unholy targets. It is a neat idea but as one of the two offensive options it needs to stand up a bit better to the bloodseeker blade. Doesn't need to be the same damage but it should be better than just basic daggers.

Nicolas Paradise wrote:

I don't think I need any other weapons as a solarian because of solar weapons and flares.

Solarions weapons are kinda crap at low levels. I'd strongly recommend that you get a good melee weapon. Personally, I really like the Fangblade because boost can be very powerful (its essentially a free Vicious Swing)

A D8 1 handed weapon with reach at level one seems reasonable. The extra reactive triggers seems like it would offset lack of boost.

AI regulation is going to be driven by competitive pressures, necessity, and a big fight for control of content in the creative industries.

I'm more looking forward to the robots. That's going to be fun if we can send AI robots to colonize other planets as a preparation for human habitation. We have self-driving cars right now, automated warehouses, and I hope at some point robot maids/cooks that will allow us more time to engage in less tedious activities. Science fiction is coming to life in our time. Pretty fun.

The terminator is science fiction too.

Another fun fact about the Rogue Ruffien

if you somehow get a natural weapon with a decent attack
he makes a great wrestler
grabbing makes the enemy off-guard, which means you can make a suplex - as a sneak-attack

To be fair who really expects to be suplexed from the shadows?

I'm hoping for spherical power armor for Novians, with the Novian being the power source, to make a miniature Dysion's sphere. Another option would be making a Novian becoming a Dysion's sphere into an Evolunist niche.

Barathu in power armor for when you want to RP one of the killer robot things from the matrix haha.

I would say it absolutely works. Nothing in the feat or trigger says it doesn't. Breath of Life has limitations, but being a spell it can also be used as long as you have slots, spell gems/chips/scrolls/wands/whatever. Fish From The Fall's Edge lacks limitations but is only once per day and half the range. It's a feat for a single class that does what another effect does but slightly better/different. That seems to be in line with Paizo's 2e design and I'd argue very much on purpose.

Plus...from what I hear, there are many more "everyone dies" instances so, giving them this one win might help offset future disappointment with bad luck just ending things.

That said...

For a game surrounding a trait system, I'm shocked it is utilized so poorly. How simple to have a trait like...True-Death...with something along the lines of... The death of creatures caused by effects with the True-Death trait cannot be prevented by any means.

Funnily enough Disintegrate doesn't even have the normal Death trait and nothing in the spell says that the creature dies...so strictly by RAW it doesn't die when reaching 0HP...the creature is simply blasted to fine powder but otherwise...Dying as normal? Obviously I would never actually play it that way. But with translation issues, non-native speakers, strict rule lawyers, etc I could see where arguments could be made.

We see it happening here with a "you die" effect yet nothing saying it can't be prevented by strict RAW which opens up the argument of RAI.

haha get disintegrated would give new meaning to rub some dirt on it and walk it off as you slowly pull your ash pile back together.

Every time I read gideron authority my brain wants to read it as the gridiron authority. I picture hobgoblins with football gear on but in SPAAAACCEEE.

Hello, I have a question about virtuous tanuki heritage.

Quote:

You can't become incapacitated by conventional alcohol if you don't wish to be.

What means "incapacitated by conventional alcohol" ? No off guard, clumsy, stupefied, unconscious from the stage ?

Thanks for your future answer.

If you look it up in archives of nethys it is spelled out. At different stages you are flat footed at stage 2 clumsy flat footed stupified at stage three clumsy and sickened at stage 4 and so on until you are unconcious. Tanunki can have big fun drinking everybody under the table and be as much or as little effected as they wish.

I hope the new system makes boarding/counter boarding more viable/common. That lets people use their actual normal abilities a lot more frequently. In SF1 boarding was mostly mop up efforts after a ship was already basically disabled.

Holograms might be a subset of SRO. In SF1 it was basically a mini hologram projector drone that created the hardlight hologram body. It would makes sense if they just roll them in as a "lineage" of SRO.

Watching the STF Conline, and apparently Breneris (the otter folk), Dwarves, Elves, Novians (mini suns?), Talphi (A molefolk on Vesk 4), and Orocorans are confirmed for Galactic Ancestries. Poppets are confirmed NOT there.

Greys are explained to be "Not yet, but popular." Which if some of you remember a few old threads about the greys, makes me wonder if they'll be getting an Ikeshti-style thematic makeover. They said they wanted to focus on alien species that are more uniquely Starfinder first, though.

Funny thing about poppets is basically SRO could easily be Poppets of SF2. Your animated transformer robot toy gains a soul and becomes an SRO.

Thanks for posting that video. It touches on most of the major conversations on SF2e in the forums lately. (Tech Core, classes, and starship combat)

Now to go research how FTL plays.

I can't recommend FTL enough it is the best 10 bucks I have spent. It is super addictive and very fun game. It can get really hectic as you are dealing with hull breaches/boarders/managing power and systems to keep in the fight.