keftiu's page

With the announcement that we're getting a World Guide, Character Guide, and 4-book AP as a lavish 2e treatment of Tian Xia, I've been bouncing off the walls thinking about what a fresh palette for adventure that continent provides! While the books are a ways off still, a good number of Tian options are already in 2e, and 1e veterans had plenty of time to potentially touch the continent.

This thread is for everybody who calls the place home: everything from Kitsune pickpockets and Oni-blooded assassins to your Wayang pirates and gun-slinging Nagaji agents. Did you escort Ameiko to her throne, or win the Ruby Phoenix tournament? I want to see them!

I'm *shocked* these still don't exist! I had assumed this was something that would've snuck into Treasure Vault, so I didn't bother checking before now. Why the bias against hacking and thwacking?

Human, Elf, Gnome, Goblin, Orc - everybody in the corebook has a name that stands as a self-label other than these two, which describe them relative to the height of a 'normal' humanoid. We've seen a bunch of other Ancestries advance their endonyms recently, but do these two really stand alone?

It's no secret that Pathfinder has a fondness for ladies with redemption arcs: Arazni, Nocticula, and Shensen are all iconic 1e characters with a lot of lore and actual play behind them. Compared to them, I reach for guys with similar heroic turns... and my mind comes up blank other than Ragathiel, whose redemption is a matter of ancient myth (and also, somewhat shaky). There's not a big male AP villain I can remember switching to the side of good, but I also don't have total knowledge of older lore - and so, I turn to you all!

I want to be clear that I'm not alleging any kind of agenda or outrage-baiting, just genuinely trying to get some sort of mental tally. If it's really an underserved niche, I'll be sure to write some myself!

For no particular reason, our greenish-grey friends are on my mind today, and it's got me wanting to hear from our lovely community here: tell me all about the Orcs and Half-Orcs you've played!

Golarion's Orcs have a surprisingly unique palette beneath the traditional fantasy tropes; it looks like Sky King's Tomb is set to wrestle with the genocidal crusade that drove them out of the Darklands, while the Mwangi Expanse's Matanji are heroic demon-slayers devoted to a jaguar goddess, and Arcadia's Orcs are instead trusted allies of the Dwarves. Even in more 'classic' places like Belkzen, interesting nuance and unique faiths add texture that marks them as part of Pathfinder's setting. What have you made with those pieces?

In the big blog post, they mentioned that code OPENGAMING gets you the core 2e setting book at no cost! It’s super worth a look.

The intro to Lost Omens: Impossible Lands mentions that the nation of Nex has contact with other planets, but the book itself makes no further mention of such a thing. Is there prior lore touching on this? Failing that - anything fun we can imagine in the blank spaces?

There's been a fair amount of chatter around what a Mythic-equivalent system for PF2 might look like, and with the runaway success of 2e's Archetypes, I think there's a fair chance that's the shape Mythic might take in this edition. It makes good sense; in the same way that you can be a Viking or a Ghoul on top of whatever else you have going on, so too could you model a squirt of god-like power.

Owlcat's videogames are largely off doing their own thing, but their WotR's version of Mythic (with you taking on the abilities and eventually becoming one of numerous possible planar beings) has been very popular. It feels good for a Cleric to become a truly holy Angel, or for a LN character to lean into the harsh, impartial judgment of an Aeon - but the game also has a few alternatives (the wholly-mortal Legendary Hero, the ability to instead become a Lich, Swarm-that-Walks, or Golden Dragon) that could all certainly tempt PF2 characters.

So that's where this thread comes in; assuming 2e's Mythic looks something like how Archetypes broadly work already, what kinds of Mythic Archetype would get you most excited?

I honestly think I've made a thread asking after this in the past, but can't find it now, and have been puzzled by this particular issue since Book of the Dead dropped.

By RAW, can a PC with the Ghost Archetype make melee attacks against corporeal creatures? It forbids Strength-based skill checks against the living... but is a melee Strike a skill check? The next line implies that they can't - why specify melee Strikes as something that works normally for you against other incorporeal beings otherwise? - but I want to make sure I'm not parsing this incorrectly. Is it just slightly ambiguous wording?

Iron Gods presented Casandalee as a "build-a-goddess," with a more options for customization than any canon iteration could possibly cover in full. 2e placed her firmly in the center of the Alignment grid, not allowing any of the four corner 'extremes' for her followers... but what are Casandalee's Neutral Evil followers up to? "Edict: encourage understanding between artificial and organic life" and "Anathemas: treat artificial life as lesser than organic life, foment distrust between artificial and organic life" feel pretty strictly non-Evil to me.

This question brought to you by me yet again wishing she had Champion options other than Redeemer and Desecrator, neither of which fit too well - but while Redeemer is merely imperfect, the Desecrator feels totally out of left field. She's not SHODAN, y'know? Her ascent to godhood is literally the story of her and some heroes surviving two other Evil AIs - it's strange to think she'd empower that, especially with such progressive religious ideals. Desecrators being obliged to "subvert or corrupt everything in your path that is pure and good, and sow doubt among those upholding such ideals" feels like it doesn't fit with the above.

Any insight?

While Ra may be King of the Heavens, the cosmos greater than any one being can safeguard - even a god cannot see everywhere at once. The Eye of Ra is a guardian against chaos, tasked with finding and destroying any threats to the sanctity of the pantheon, the proper order of the universe, and their solar monarch. Like the King, the Eye of Ra burns with the power of the sun, its purity banishing deception and burning the judged.

The role traditionally falls to a goddess of the Osirian pantheon, and often acts as a counterbalance to Ra's typical fixation on unflinching Law; Sekhmet is infamous for her desire to take the fight to the foe, while Bastet and Hathor prefer to safeguard the realm and the home. It's unclear when or why the position changes hands, leading some to believe that the three may even be many faces of one divinity; at this suggestion, the three old goddesses merely smile.

Edicts protect the weak, destroy unnatural evil, enjoy intoxication and music
Anathema become lost to intoxication, go a full day without thanking the sun
Areas of Concern slaying fiends and other monsters, guarding families, revelry, the sun
Follower Alignments CG, CN, NG
Pantheon Members Bastet, Hathor, Sekhmet

Divine Ability Strength or Charisma
Font Harm or Heal
Skill Performance
Favored Weapon claw or spear
Domains family, sun, passion, protection
Alternate Domains destruction, trickery, wealth
Cleric Spells 1st: pest form (cat only) 2nd: flaming sphere 3rd: threefold aspect

///

A brief note: closer names to the proper Ancient Egyptian for these three are Bast (the -et is redundant) and Het-Heru, with Sekhmet being the only one not mangled by the Greeks.

This interpretation of these three has historical precedent - and, not coincidentally, is the framework I use for my own private worship. On Golarion, this Pantheon is probably long-forgotten by most folk in Osirion today, but fits the region's Amurruns - allegedly created to "hunt evil spirits" at the dawn of time - like a glove, though they probably interpret Het-Heru as being feline like the other two. With the fondness for cats in LOIL, you might even sneak some small cult of the Eye of Ra into Dongun Hold.

With me begrudgingly accepting that the explicitly Kemetic elements of Osirion aren't going away, it seemed fitting to throw this together; I hope folks like!

Pathfinder lore is, at this point, over a decade long and thousands upon thousands of pages deep, offering fertile soil for nerdy minds to take root. Countless NPCs exist only for one or two brief appearances, questions are raised and never answered, and plenty of deities and demigods are completely unknown to the average player; maybe you like a weirdo Ancestry that's not even in 2e yet, or there's a single named spot well beyond the Inner Sea's familiar shores that you're dying to visit.

I want to hear about them! What do you all have tucked away in the most esoteric, indulgent corners of your Lost Omens love?

With the release of the new Impossible Lands book, we now have 2/3 Garundi microregions thoroughly explored in the current edition's lore. What's there is already so much more than any one campaign has any hope of possibly getting to, I think there's a lot of potential in considering the continent as its own context, independent of their northern neighbors.

Trade is the obvious link for the places we know well - Alkenstari gunpowder, Gebbite grain, Thuvian potions, Katapesh's endless hungers, Kibwe's commerce, Mbe'ke trade goods, pirate booty - threading distant lands together with gold, offering an easy framework for a traveling campaign. God-hating alghollthus and asuras might make common cause, while undead-slayers have two separate unnatural kingdoms to rally against. Ancient Osirion's legacy lives on in the domains of the archmages it spawned. The Padishah Empire of Kelesh lurks, just to the east, impossibly massive and with its nearest extent led by a barely-leashed satrap. Murderers stalk the high seas, mountain passes, and dark alleyways. Cursed ruins of the long-dead cyclopes and serpentfolk endure, full of Evil. Magical and scientific learning are ascendant, internationally. Ships sail to Arcadia and Vudra.

While I'd love any and all thoughts on the topic and story or campaign ideas, what I really want to ask is folks' thoughts on Rarity for such a project! The honest germ of this whole idea is thinking that Iruxi would be Common and core if Garund stood alone, given their prominence in multiple regions across the continent, and things spiraled from there. Things skew different from what we usually see centered; outside of the proud Mualijae nations and the wandering Vourinoi, Elves are fairly scarce, as are Goblins outside the occasional wasteland mutant or monkey-tailed sailor. Geniekin are the central planar scions, seen more often than the like to the north, and those touched by fiends instead bear the blood of asuras, divs, and rakshasa over devils. It's a fun shift in palette!

One of PF2's greatest strengths is the greater depth of culture it affords all of the people in its setting, where not only do humans refuse to be painted with a broad brush, but even people like orcs and catfolk can get multiple ethnic identities! Not every Ancestry was fortunate enough to get a treatment in the Character or Ancestry Guides - and likewise, many are hurting for more Feats and Heritages, on top of being thirsty for a little more lore.

By my count, there's 36 playable Ancestries in the edition at present. If you could wave you magic wand and bless one with more detail - pages of new Feats and meaty lore - who gets the spotlight?

I'll freely confess: threads on this topic have made before, but they've derailed pretty hard and all pretty old at this point. I figure a clean break and a following in format of the previous Lost Omens threads for fervent wishing and animated discussion. There's no hiding that I have a particularly keen interest in Pathfinder's stand-in for the Americas, as a platform and a palette for telling indigenous and latinx fantasy stories... but I want to hear from you!

In the cold north, Ulfen immigrants bond with the local Mahwek folk and seek glory in mythic Valenhall, their settlement in Port Valen slowly growing. Segada, one of Degasi's great cities on the northeastern coast, puts the abundant skymetals of the Land of Northern Lakes to use in the form of great outdoor elevators. Ancient Razatlan once lorded over most of the continent, leaving behind mummy-haunted ruins - and modern Razatlan in the continent's center, seemingly a friendly enough neighbor to demigod-shaped Xopatl. Gunslingers and honest folk make do in the scrubby desert of the Deadshot Lands, handily beating Alkenstar at its own game. Of the Land of Second Souls, the Primal League, and the Salt Stretch - or indeed, almost anything I don't mention here - there's little to be said at all presently.

Dwarves and Orcs are ancient allies here, while Gnomes and Halflings make lives on the Grinding Coast - alongside Wyrwoods, clever constructs who fled Azlanti servitude ages ago! Cruel, owl-like Syrinx considers themselves superior to all others, while the Sahkils, fear-fiends, clash against celestial Couatls for the hearts of mortal creatures in the name of Ohachtsik. These lands know heroes empowered by incredibly powerful spirits and armed with guns forged by fey hands - or of beast souls.

Obviously, there's a lot to like... and a lot we don't know. If you could wave your magic wand, what would you put in between the covers?

Howdy, folks! I'm hope I'm not breaking a rule against self-promotion here; the mods should feel free to can this thread if it does.

I recently fell in love with the 2400 anthology, a collection of 3-page microgames that all share a core system, but each have unique premises and mechanics. The engine it runs on, 24XX, is open for use, and I've spent the last month refining and releasing my 199X Trilogy, three 24XX games based on old-school cyberpunk media and tabletop games.

SHUTDOWN casts you as punks, hackers, and scared survivors trapped within a corporate arcology with a mad AI; it adds cybernetic Hardware and hacking Software to 199X, if you're lifting mechanics from all three for use as a toolkit! INFEST is about wasteland freaks walled into a radioactive ruin with alien Bugs, adding psychic Powers and mutant Twists to your 199X PCs. COMPLEX puts you into the shoes of elite troubleshooters for the factions that rule your sprawl, empowered with robotic Drones and the ability to Sway those factions for favors.

If you're into old editions of Shadowrun and the original Ghost in the Shell OVA, or you just like the idea of a retro-future where wireless tech is almost magic, I hope you check it out! Character creation can be done in under five minutes in every game, and the 24XX format is so compact that they really lend themselves to one-shots.

I've recently fallen into a bit of obsession with Pathfinder's take on Shamans and their potential to return as a 2e class, and obviously one can't properly exist without the spirits they're defined by associating with! Pinning down what, precisely, that means, however, has proven remarkably elusive.

Spirits are ephemeral creatures defined by their spiritual self and often lacking a physical form.

Spirits are often intangible, which makes good sense - that's how hauntings and the like usually are. It takes a little digging into the magical Essences to understand the former part:

Also called soul, ethereal essence, or spiritual essence, spirit is an otherworldly building block that makes up a being's immaterial and immortal self. The spirit travels through the Ethereal Plane and into the Great Beyond after the death of the physical body. The spirit is most easily affected by divine and occult spells. Spirit spells are usually of the divination or necromancy schools.

So it would seem that Spirits are essentially incarnate soul-stuff/Spirit Essence, rather than being tethered to an organic body, which likewise makes good sense. From there, "Spirit" is a pretty big tent, covering an awful lot of things!

Intangible undead (like ghosts!) are probably the most well-known of the bunch - but certain folks have made clear dealing with them might feel strange for certain Shamans, an opinion I'd love further thoughts on. Hantu are interesting in that they're Occult nature spirits, distinct from the Primal ones we see as Spirit Guides. Phantoms are mortal souls gone strange, denied their final judgment but distinctly *not* undead. Gliminals are natives of their Positive Energy Plane. Kami, interestingly, are some of the only non-undead Divine spirits we've seen in 2e, bonded protectors of chosen items and natural sites. 2e Oracles make fascinating mention of 'ancestor spirits beyond the cycle of reincarnation,' a juicy lead worth following.

That breadth gets even wider when you get into older canon: the Rivethun dwarves and certain Amurrun consider the gods to 'merely' be great spirits, while Old Sarkoris (most famous for Spirit Guides' honored place in their society) likewise entreated with all sorts of fey, elementals, and other planar creatures as 'spirits.'

Does the term "Spirit" have all that much inherent meaning in Pathfinder? Should a Golarion Shaman have all of these within their theoretical wheelhouse? I'd welcome whatever thoughts you have to spare :>

Vudra reveres Embaral and Obari, twin deities of the oceans that flank the subcontinent, and it just dawned on me that I’m surprised there isn’t something similar for the others that I know of. Is there any canon out there about worship of the Arcadian or Okaiyo oceans? It seems so obvious that I’m surprised to have not noticed its absence earlier.

One of the most-requested features people ask to have return from 1e is something equivalent to Mythic, a mechanical framework for building up player characters to demigod-like levels and allowing them to tackle exceptionally potent threats. 1e's Mythic heroes were able to close the Worldwound, solving a nation-sized threat on the face of Golarion, which is the kind of impact many expect to match with a 2e storyline on the same tier.

Obviously, Tar-Baphon needs to get smacked down, likely as the climactic end to the edition - which opens the door to other storylines! We've heard that Iblydos (and its famed hero-gods) needs something like Mythic before PF2 ever sets foot there, while the return of Nex (which has been imminent for years now!) and all-but-certain resulting war with Geb would similarly demand something greater than level 20 heroes.

But I've obviously heard my ideas - tell me about yours!

I obviously understand from a meta perspective that Alkenstar exists to be a steampunk Wild West fantasy, and so draws on the language and visual stylings of both Victorian Britain and the American westward colonization, but it's always bugged me that it doesn't seem to be diegetic at all.

Alkenstar is located in northeastern Garund, sandwiched between Nex and Geb, with the Mwangi Expanse over the mountains to the west and Jalmeray due east over the sea... so where are folks getting their fashion, which looks to be much more in the style of Taldor and Galt? I don't imagine Ancient Osirion left the region with a long history of saloons or cowboy hats, yet they're all over here. Ancil Alkenstar himself hailed from Nex, which has radically different looks, and doesn't seem to have any other duchies - so where the heck does any of this spring up from?

This came up some around the topic of Taldane being the Common suggested for Outlaws of Alkenstar, but it's been on my mind long enough (and feels topical enough, with the imminent Lost Omens release) that I wanted to actually voice this. Excited to hear your thoughts!

The debate over the place of Drow in the world has been done to death, and any further begging for their inclusion isn’t likely to do much for Paizo either way - so I wanted this thread to be something else entirely! If an official Drow Ancestry dropped tomorrow (in whatever form you’d like), what would you do with that?

I want to know about your Drow characters! I want to hear campaign ideas where such a thing would fit well! It’s easy to have the abstract “Drow would be nice,” but I figure something more concrete is a little more entertaining.

It's been a little while since we've had a general wishes thread, and it's always fun to get a temperature check on what the perceived holes are in PF2 as it currently stands. A good chunk of the most loved PF1 classes are back, with the recent confirmation of the Kineticist crossing off one of the options that consistently came up, and likewise there's been a steady stream of new and returning Ancestries. The Lost Omens line largely seems to prioritize the unexpected, with the imminent Impossible Lands taking us to under-loved locales and the just-announced Highhelm is a deep dive somewhere we've never been in depth.

You could play PF2 as it currently stands for a decade before touching all of its content! I don't want to ever appear greedy or insatiable, and that's worth making explicit. But it's always fun to know: if you could wave your magic wand, what would you have them make next?

As has now become tradition, I figure it's only fair to start the Gatewalkers subforum off with the usual thread: who are you bringing to this as your paranormal investigator? It's a 1-10 AP with a vibe of alien mystery and lost memory, bouncing across a number of far-flung locations but apparently starting in Ustalav. Both of the classes from Dark Archive (but especially the Psychic!) seem like natural fits here, but I imagine almost anyone can be swept up into the strange proceedings.

I have an Elf Psychic, Ithuriel, who's a naïve diplomat from Kyonin with ties to distant Sovyrian, and the opening book's apparent interest in Sevenarches has me very curious how elven PCs fit into things - to say nothing of the curious choice of background article mentioned on the store page. A pointy-eared telepath with a fondness for portal-based travel and an endless well of curiosity feels about as on-theme as I can manage, and yet I've had her since before Dark Archive released! Got lucky with my daydreaming there.

Pathfinder burst onto the scene with an iconic new spin on tired old Goblin tropes, making them into vicious horse-fearing pyromaniacs beloved enough to earn a softer treatment as the edition went on and a place in the new edition’s core.

We come into 2e and get a visual redesign on Kobolds, a greater focus on them as buddies to other Ancestries (joining the Pathfinder Society in Absalom, living openly among the Mbe’ke dwarves). It’s anecdotal, but I feel like I see a dozen Kobold PCs for every one Goblin.

So I have to ask: are the Kobolds the next big Pathfinder success story? Should we expect to see them in the PF3 corebook, if such a thing comes to pass? How do you feel about the little dragons and their increased spotlight as 2e continues?

As it came up in another thread, I realized today: Mesmerizing Gaze, an 8th level Feat from the Psychic Playtest that clearly evoked the 1e Mesmerist class, didn't end up making it into Dark Archive! I spent so much time with the playtest that I missed its absence in the final release.

There was some fretting about Mesmerizing Gaze during the playtest, but I don't know that I've seen much talk about it not making the cut, or indeed about a 2e Mesmerist class at all. I came in as a new fan with 2e, for the most part - do folks think it has legs as a full class in this edition? Would you be upset with a more robust Class Archetype for the Psychic that imitated its abilities and flavor? Did the Mesmerist even have 1e fans?

Pathfinder is rich is gods, demigods, Eldest, demon lords, Horsemen, mythic beings, and all sorts of other divinities who meddle in mortal lives and compel the souls of their faithful... so many so, in fact, that it can be a bit overwhelming! Amid the endless ranks of the holy and the profane, I want to know - who's the best of the bunch?

Whether you love what they stand for or adore the villains in their service, once played their most pious Cleric or their most devoted Inquisitor, tell me all about the god of your choice!

Thank you for this lovely blog, and for the amazing work you all do! I’m a white girl myself, but I’ve never lived outside the American Southwest, where Latinx people and culture are inescapable and vital. It’s overdue that such rich histories, traditions, and languages get an equal spotlight; I’m glad Paizo has such cool people on board to make it happen someday.

Carlos, thank you for the calaca and the guitar both! Santana was beloved in my childhood home.

Assuming a Kingmaker 2e party is angling to be Good and merciful, as one might expect, Nyrissa likely survives the events of the Adventure Path, has her missing ability to love restored, and is no longer beholden to or pursued by the Eldest. Given that she's level 23 before being made whole again and was formerly powerful enough to at least somewhat challenge the Eldest, what are the odds of her being a demigod nowadays?

I'm looking to sketch out some notion of what Narland might look like in 2e, and having a divine fey patron would be a really cool way to reflect the impacts of the original campaign. Having such a figure for the other fey of the Stolen Lands to look to as a paragon of mortal cooperation could be really cool!

Any thoughts from other Kingmaker alumni or folks with their hands on the 2e book?

It makes good sense to me that a deity, archdevil, psychopomp usher, and the like can call grant divine spells to followers, being divine beings themselves, but how does that work for other powers? The Eldest (being fey) and the Elemental Lords can all have Clerics sworn to them, and despite being primal beings themselves, the magic they grant is divine. Any thoughts?

We've had official word that the Kingmaker kingdom in the Stolen Lands will remain canonically undefined, as to allow tables to insert their own proud creations there, but I figure with the 2e re-release it might be fun to take a swing at imagining such a thing! As the title warns, again: this thread will contain Kingmaker spoilers!

The "Kingdom in the Background" sidebars offer brief glimpses at a default option: Narland, with its capital of Shrikewall built over the fort of the fallen Stag Lord. We can imagine that, like all 1e APs, the player characters were successful - so Narland survives its trials, incorporates Varnhold and Pitax (as well as Olegton and Tatzlford), and presumably enjoys peaceful relations with the Nomen centaurs. There's a chance Narland has kobold citizens, and at a stretch may even be home to some iruxi and trolls. With the introduction of Jamandi Aldor's prologue and the heavy Brevoy slant of the official Backgrounds, Narland is likely allied to some degree with Aldori and Rostlander factions within that nation, perhaps enough to cause escalating tensions with the ruling Issians.

What else am I missing? What would you like to see from a Narland on the map?

I've always been fond of collaborative forum threads like 101 Thaumaturge Connections, and one of my preferred ways to pass the time is to write and roll up characters that I'll probably never play. Golarion provides a rich enough palette, and enough endless variety, that I'm pretty much never bored!

So that's the premise for this thread: I'm going to be dropping parties of four characters, each aligned around a Meta-Region and some core theme, and you're invited to do the same! I'd love to see your characters, and I hope mine can provide some inspiration for you all.

My recent obsession has been all things Sarkoris, and Jorsal of Lauterbury’s presence in so many Worldwound and Mendevian scenarios has me curious about him, but the wiki is scant on details. How did he come to be in Mendev? What or where is Lauterbury?

Two recent forum posts alluded to Khari being back in Rahadoumi hands nowadays, something I had no concept of. I came into Pathfinder with 2e, and while I can't find much of any mention of Khari in 2e sources, the LOWG presents it as part of the Old Cheliax meta-region and within Cheliax's borders. Some digging revealed to me that the idea of a Rahadoumi recapture of the city is part of an article in the back of Hell's Vengeance #5, which presents the following:

As House Thrune moves its army into the heartland and its navy to defend its vital southern coast, the city of Khari is left with only a token force to protect it. Malduoni and the other members of the Rahadoumi Council of Elders quickly meet and decide on a plan for action, calling in the warriors from the numerous nomadic tribes and raising the armies in the closest cities of Azir, Botosani, and Manaket. These forces march upon Khari, and take it in less than a week of sieging. The Chelish navy stationed at Corentyn is alerted, but without sufficient ground troops to retake the town, can only bombard the Rahadoumi positions from their ships.

The Council of Elders briefly discuss launching a marine invasion of Corentyn in order to gain complete control of the strait, but in the end decide against it, concluding that the Rahadoumi fleet is no match for the heavy warships of the Chelish navy, and that their ground troops are predominantly light desert raiders who don’t have the patience or expertise to conduct an extended siege.

None of this is hypothetical, mid-AP action - the article it's in presents the canonical responses to the outbreak of the Glorious Reclamation from surrounding nations. The section does end with two potential outcomes, and I'll share the one that matches canon history here:

If House Thrune emerges victorious after the rebellion, it reinforces Corentyn but cannot immediately retake Khari because of the losses it sustained.

HV seems pretty open-and-shut about the whole thing, so was this just missed? I'd welcome some semi-official clarification on it. My preference would be for Khari to be in Rahadoumi hands, grappling with centuries of Chelish rule and infernal influence - and culture clash with their atheist 'kin.' It also opens up the strait some, which enables more sailing stories!

EDIT: Further strangeness - the 2e map of the Inner Sea presents all of northern Garund as being within the Golden Road, with Old Cheliax ending on the Chelish side of the strait, but the zoomed-in Old Cheliax map shows Khari as still being Chelish-controlled. The zoomed-in Golden Road map has no missing land... but Khari isn't labeled at all! Not helping matters is the fact the the only time "Khari" appears in the book is on that map of Old Cheliax.

It's significantly harder for the devs to find your thoughts trawling through lengthy forum threads, and the playtest ends tomorrow - if you want your voice to be heard, the class feedback and open response surveys are the surest bet!

Octavia’s writeup in the Companion Guide states that the Technic League is a “now disbanded” organization. Does Kingmaker 2e take place post-Iron Gods, or is this a small error?

We've been using the "What do you want to see changed in 2e Tian Xia?" thread as an informal general discussion space for that continent, but I figure the angle of that title might be skewing the conversation some, or scaring people off. With 2e steadily expanding its focus beyond the familiar climes of Avistan, and an apparent surge in relevant material coming in 2023's releases (an Underworld Dragon is the master of the Treasure Vault, Rage of Elements adding the missing elements of the Wuxing philosophy), I can't help but wonder if we might be seeing Tian Xia's shores soon.

So what are you excited about? Most Tian nations have had to make do with a handful of pages of published canon, so there's abundant space (and need!) to expand, flesh out, and create completely brand new things. Which nations do you most want to see play in, or adventure content for?

As I usually do for each AP, I figured we could use a thread for the new generation of conquerors setting out into the Stolen Lands!

There's quite a few more Ancestries on the table than the 1e version had to contend with originally, and I'm curious how much that variety will penetrate into such a classic campaign here now. Likewise, we have some stranger classes in play - I haven't stopped thinking about Zousha's idea for an Aldori Thaumaturge since it was posted - and I think that can skew potential Kingdoms in really interesting ways.

I remember a fleeting mention of Count Ranalc in one of the panels this year, but can't seem to find which, and I'm not exactly eager to scrub through several days' worth of streams to try and find it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I swear it was an answer Eleanor gave to some question.

Thanks in advance!

The Dark Archive playtest initially presented the Psychic as Uncommon, with Access granted to those hailing from Kyonin for its proximity to the psychic world of Castrovel. With so much of the other life on the elven home planet, this makes good sense, but I’ve been wondering - how far does this spread?

Thaleon, the Iconic Psychic, is of the desert Vourinoi elves, but I don’t know the character well enough if his powers are understood and familiar. The “snowcaster” Ilverani have a range that touches that of the psychic Erutaki humans, but do they share that talent? It wouldn’t surprise me if the Mordant Spire’s folk, touched by space and warring against psychic aberrations, might have a ready place for those abilities within their ranks. Maybe the aiudara are understood by Unbound Step psychic principles?

There’s been a lot of buzz around the role a Shaman could play, and I figure it’s fruitful enough soil to warrant a thread of its own. We’ve heard designer comments in the past about how any 2e version would be a ground-up rework, drawing more on real-world shamanism… but I’m not versed enough in that topic to speak at all on what that looks like.

Formally announced today, their first take on character creation is up, featuring reworked Races, Backgrounds, and Feats. PF2 fans will be pleased to see Backgrounds granting your starting bonuses, rather than your Race. Also of note: Orcs are core now, as are the 5e PHB set (Human, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Dragonborn, Tiefling) and a new celestial planetouched known as Ardlings, who have the heads of animals and ephemeral angel wings.

All that plus some promising mechanical clean-ups give me surprising hope for what comes next. Figured folks here might wanna talk about it!

We've had a number of good threads about the Meta-Regions of the Inner Sea that have yet to receive a spotlight book in 2e, and have fostered some of my favorite discussion on these boards; Old Cheliax is the last of the bunch to not be touched on yet, so I figured it's time for one last chat!

Old Cheliax is defined by the titular infernal empire, and more broadly by a darker tone than other parts of the setting. Evil has largely won here, with the Chelish throne still strong with Hell's support, Isger reduced to an extractive vassal state scarred by war, and Nidal in Zon-Kuthon's nightmarish grasp for thousands of years. Ravounel, the young rebel state, is precarious and imperfect, depending on their greatest foe for survival even as they brace for retribution. Halflings live in servitude, while Tieflings are despised and Strix dehumanized. Faiths other than Asmodeus and Zon-Kuthon are under constant threat wherever they aren't actively oppressed. The whole Meta-Region is ripe for grim, gritty intrigues and desperate resistance.

But what does Old Cheliax's future hold? There's a lot of fondness for locales like Westcrown and Kintargo, home to fairly iconic 1e Adventure Paths, but I'm curious what stories remain to be told - especially as someone without that 1e nostalgia. Is Cheliax still a compelling villain, and can it be beaten? Is there any hope for Nidal? More importantly, what's unique and interesting here that I need to know about?

With Rage of Elements announced for 2023 and the Kineticist seemingly the sole playtest for next year, it seems the wait for a focused expansion on divine options will be a little bit longer... but we haven't formally had this discussion in quite some time, so I figured its worth reviving! The arcane got some love with Secrets of Magic, Guns & Gears delivered to mechanical martials, occult spookiness permeated the Dark Archive, and now Rage of Elements is full of primal wrath - so the blessed and the damned seem due for their turn eventually.

What would you want from such a book? What new classes and class options would you hope for within its covers? What's a novel framing device and additional content for it to hold? This is my favorite thematic space, and I've love to hear what everyone's wishes are.

I was surprised to not see anything about this playtest through Paizo's main way of communicating.

Paizo posted the following as a QRT on a post from their own official account congratulating the success of Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, and I thought it was curious enough to share:

If you want to lift up diverse stories and voices in #ttrps, you’ll love what we have planned for August 18.

While I love the sound of what it’s promising - the biggest allure of PF2 for me is how it’s moved beyond traditional fantasy inspirations for more diverse sources - I’m pretty surprised by this. Paizo doesn’t often do things on a random mid-month Thursday, and the 18th is the date of Wizards Presents, WotC’s big news blast for what they have coming out next. It feels a little strange to compete with your main competitor for the spotlight, but I’ll admit that my interest is piqued.

What do y’all think?

Saw this raised in another thread and figured it deserved a topic to itself: Elemental Blasts not being Strikes means Kineticists lose out on a ton of abilities that grant them. A Kineticist who is quickened by the Haste spell can't use their Blast with that action, and can't make use of any Archetype Feats that grant or trigger off of making a Strike.

I might be alone on this, but at least for me, the heart of the Kineticist is that elemental fantasy, of using that raw primal power as my base weapon… so fire being the only non-physical damage type available to the basic attack is a miss for me. A version of the Kineticist who can’t dish out cold or electric damage on their normal, core weapon doesn’t feel like a Kineticist to me.

This might just be a victim of the playtest’s reduced scope, and come in the form of hybrid elements, in which case I apologize for the fuss! But seeing the array of elements work out as fire, bludgeoning, bludgeoning, slashing did make my heart sick some.

EDIT: Aaand of course I missed the Kineticist forum. Mods, help!

We've now gone around the Inner Sea and hit nearly all the 10 core Meta-Regions with threads like this, but I'd like to cross off one of the remaining two today: the Eye of Dread! Belkzen, the Gravelands, the Isle of Terror, Lake Encarthan, Molthune, Nirmathas, Oprak, and Ustalav make up this area in the heart of Avistan, lands with a grim bent and a fair bit of 1e nostalgia behind them.

The threat of the Whispering Tyrant and his ceaseless ranks of undead defines the region; I imagine putting the hurt on him is going to either going to coincide with 2e Mythic rules or the end of the edition, if not both, but the area's too popular to wait forever for.

And that's what motivates this thread, really - I largely came in with the release of 2e, and so I'm utterly lacking nostalgia for the Eye of Dread. I want to know what you love about it, and what you'd love to see expanded on, added to, or finally resolved within its borders! While Knights of Lastwall offered a taste, I'm not currently a fan, but y'all managed to make me see the light in regards to the Saga Lands, and repeating that success here would be a real treat.

The adventures and AP panel ended with three keywords as hints to Pathfinder’s unannounced future: rust, worms, and spiders. Let the pointless speculation begin!

My first instinct? A sequel to Iron Gods. The Lords of Rust lent their title to one of the original campaign’s volumes, a worm-that-walks featured briefly in The Choking Tower, and both the Dominion-touched Scar of the Spider and the spider-shaped annihilator robots. Tinfoil hate? Maybe, but I Want To Believe.