katzazi's page

I'm going to run "Expedition to the Drowned Planet" from "Tales form the Vast" and in there is a Cacodaemon. It has a jaws attack with the trait "reach 0 feet".

When I look up the "reach" trait I get:
"This weapon can be used to attack enemies up to 10 feet away instead of only adjacent enemies. For creatures with reach, the weapon increases their reach by 5 feet."

0 feet would mean just in the space or the monster directly, which would be more or less inside the monster which would require it to eat the enemy, for which it would need that jaw attack.

As the Cacodaemon is already a monster in Pathfinder 2e, I looked it up in the Monster Core (and online sources), but I also only could find "reach 0 feet", there.

Is it just a typo that wasn't addressed so far? Or how does it work?

So it's not an attack role but only saving throws?

I'm a little bit confused, as it sounds like a ranged (thrown) weapon, first. And as it even can be used to target a spot around a corner, which as such has cover, by bouncing off a wall or the like, which is a more complex thing to do by itself, I would have guessed, that there should be some aiming issues from the throwers side in the calculation.

When the weapon is dropped, what can others do with it if they pick it up?

Would it
a) disappear
b) act as a normal weapon without the attunement features
c) the weapon as manifested by the Solarian?

I myself are not a native English speaker as well. But for me the notion that it is an extension of the Solarian would indicate that it cannot exist separately from the Solarian. That would indicate a)

On the other hand, you can separate a hand from a person and the hand still exists as such and can be used by others. However others would not be able to use it as their own limb. This would indicate b)

I would rule a) as it is the simplest option. So if the Solarian loses hold of the solar weapon they would have to use the attune action again to get it back.

If it is not a) this would make things a lot more complicated. As the weapon would not be "dormant" the weapon would not be able to be manifested by the Solarian and it would have to be picked up again, by the Solarian. Or the Solarian could lend it to some other player, which could affect balancing.

It's about "a full round has passed". Even if the initiative doesn't come back to you, your decision to delay is still an event that can be tracked in relation to the initiative order / a round.

You decided and declared to delay between whoever was in initiative before you and the one who was in initiative after you. Even if that is in another round.

This is still an action, that can be tracked and it may in theory trigger other things. In theory there could be a free action or a reaction to.

Even if a round is not a specific amount of time, a full round has passed, if the one before you has acted again and the one after you hasn't acted yet. (Assuming, that their position in the initiative order were not changed.)

If this couldn't be tracked the last part of the Delay-Action wouldn't be possible at all: "If you Delay an entire round without returning to the initiative order, the actions from the Delayed turn are lost, your initiative doesn't change, and your next turn occurs at your original position in the initiative order."

To return to your "original position" this position must be able to be tracked within the round even if you are currently out of the initiative order.

So while initiative may not "come round to you again", it still "comes round to your original position in the initiative order". Where you reenter if you delayed until this point.

This point will be in the next round, regardless of who delyed "for one round". And as the check, if you did or didn't return to the initiative order before that point, it only makes sense that you should be able to enter the initiative after any other creatures turn between your Delay-Action and "your original position" when it comes up in the following round.

If this wouldn't be the case, then the formulation would be something like "until the end of the current round". (But then why would anybody who wasn't last, be able to enter at their original spot when they didn't act until the end of the current round and what happens to their reactions during the next round until their original position comes up?)

I don't understand the reasoning of the idea that somebody with low initative couldn't delay, because they were so slow.

Yes, the character is slow to get into the action (by default, to realize that there is a fight). That's why they usually cannot do anything until their first turn.

But as soon, as it's their first turn, they have gained the "same speed" as everybody else. Es they can do up to 3 Actions every 6 seconds like everybody else and also can directly (even within their own turn) react.

Also being "slow" doesn't change initiative order, it changes how many actions one gets per round.

So if everybody else can wait until they act for a part of the 6 seconds of their choice, also the perseon who was lowest in initiative should be able to wait the same amount of time and act delayed.

There is also the Swashbuckler feat "After you": "You allow your foes to make the first move in a show of incredible confidence. You don't roll initiative; instead you voluntarily go last. You gain panache. [...]" It implies that if you choose to wait, it's actually a daring thing to do. It would be weird if that swashbuckler wouldn't be able to delay even longer until others could even act twice and then decide to act within any given point during the second round.