lemeres's page

Well, the obvious answer is that Kobolds in premaster spoke Draconic and were all themed around dragons. That got stripped out in the remaster and they just did a language swap. It made more sense with the dragon theming why Kobolds didn't have a unique language since they were themed as being draconic offshoots and they wanted to lean into that (dragons are a big deal, after all).

I think the problem is that in actual play this hardly matters. The common trade languages (Common/Taldane, Tien, Mwangi, and Sakravoth) are there so that the game can function smoothly. They're what is getting used most of the time, because a group of PCs who can't speak Goblin encountering a Goblin who only speaks Goblin is a fun encounter once, and after that gets annoying real fast. People tend to go find spells to solve that problem because players want to participate and shutting them out via language barriers doesn't facilitate participation.

I would still argue that this works for them culturally, even when draconic is not a default.

They only speak the common language of the area because they are always ready and willing to adopt and appropriate the culture of their current benefactor. They drop it just as quick when that benefactor doesn't prove useful any longer.

So this could be seen as a sign of a bizarre mix of cultural malleability and elasticity.

Additionally, the gameplay implication could also have an effect in setting for their masters as well: having cute servants that sometimes babble incomprehensibly in their own tongue can be fun at first... but you start to become suspicious about what they are saying behind your back. Having your own language only goes so far to obfuscate when your master can just make tools to translate it.

Better to forgo that entirely, and rely on a coded set of nonverbal codes and social cues. The kobold language is a squint and a quick glance at your tribesmen, the tone of one word your draw out a little too much, a glance at a bottle of ingredients that is a liiitttle bit too dangerous in high doses.

Bluemagetim wrote:

lightning is the best element because chainlightning.

Because d12s are fun.
Also its better when lightning is blue.
Also better when lighting is generated from one’s hand instead of a cloud.

Can I interest you in a 4th lvl spells called "Draw the Lightning"? You beckon thunder from the sky AND keep some in your hand for 1 minute.

I just checked it. It is legit. It has d12's.

Natural weapons were only a distinction in 1E because they were weird, and basically ignored MAP. So you could have as many as you'd like, and you'd get to throw them all out at max attack bonus.

Such things were originally meant for monsters, and players would only get access to claws and maybe a bite- which nice early, but eventually balanced out to around the level of master rank proficiency attack with a one handed or light weapon.

Once players got ahold of more options, it lead to a loooot of barbarian/alchemist catfolk raised by half orcs since more options=more 0 MAP attacks.

In 2e, natural attacks just got roped into the unarmed roles to bring them more in line with monks.

I always viewed alignment as a challenge.

How can I make a LN monk that lies, cheats, and steals?

How can I make a NE druid without it just being a captain planet villain?

Given that elves and orcs can produce viable offspring with every humanoid ancestry, by most taxonomical models that I'm familliar with the collective humanoid ancestries of Golarion make up a single species.

Given that that we're including reptilian Iruxi and Nagaji with Mamallian Humans and Avian Tengu, I think it's safe to say biology on Golarion works differently enough from how it does in the real world that real world models are going to break down.

Well, rocks and fire can also produce viable offspring with every ancestry. So biology is more of a polite suggestion in this setting. A quaint local custom, really.

The Arcane option just embarasses the Wizard.

Embarrassing wizards seems like a favorite passtime for sorcerers.

I would run it that the crocodile DOESN'T know, but it tries to do it anyway.

As you noted, aquatic ambush is just a single action move+strike with some bonuses based off of the idea that it is attacking defenseless prey.

If the prey is not defenseless, then I'd rule that there is enough of an actual engagement that the crocodile could not sneak anything in.

I think being unshackled from the OGL is only a good thing. Just seeing all the different designs of dragons is amazing, they're all so much more unique and vibrant, and now that you don't need to worry about chromatic/metallic, there's much more room to design new true dragons without going to other planes.

I think it is a good thing as well, but I still get very strong "messy divorce" energy at this point.

Not saying it won't be great once everything settles. But we are at the "I have to move to a new city, get a new job, and form a new social circle" phase of that experience.

A large portion of the societies in setting are feudal.

Which in your friend's terms means: "A nation with a relatively weak central government that is mostly ruled through the use of local warlords with minimal oversight. Action is usually only taken against them if they attempt military coups or treason with a neighboring power.

The keys to power are held by a wealthy elite class that owns a large proportion of the country's property rights, and power is usually transferred in a despotic manner through hereditary inheritance.

Only a very small proportion outside of the elite class have any say in governance, and it is typically easier to curry favor with the hereditary warlords. Democratic principles are a minority in most of the region."

Let's go classical. A paired set of anathema

1. You cannot eat carrion meat (ie- no road kill)
2. You must always accept food offered to you by old women.

Post-remaster, cavern elves are known as Ayindilar elves, and they descend from those who sought the Darklands as shelter after Earthfall. They maintain isolated, self-sufficient settlements in the Darklands, and may have had grander cities that are now ruins in parts of the Darklands. They replace what happened to the elves who fled into the Darklands in 1st edition lore and became drow but do NOT fill the drow niche. They'll fill a new niche and will represent a friendly element in the Darklands for people to encounter at some point, but we haven't yet explored this topic at all in print beyond a single paragraph in the "Return to the Darklands" article that appeared in the Sky King's Tomb Adventure Path.

While I understand that certain "outside" pragmatic concerns require you to move away from drow, I am not sure how well a "friendly element" might work within the setting.

When looking at these, I am forced to think about how the dwarves known for steadfast devotion to tradition and history- chose to leave the darklands. And for good reason, since the darklands are an unfriendly place to...pretty much everyone. It raises the question "why don't the cavern elves leave?", or at least "why don't they primarily stay near the surface, like dwarves".

In comparison, Drow are unfriendly, to say the least, which helps them to thrive in that environment. Since they are hostile with most elves (and pretty much any culture that are familiar with their 'new employee recruitment programs'), they find it hard to establish a foothold above ground.

But there would likely be a cultural resistance against full on attempts to abandon their underground empire. Their entire conception was born out of a desire to hold fast to their home, even when faced with an increasingly hostile world. Despite the warping they suffered, they managed to survive, thrive, and even dominate. So they are already well entrenched in a preexisting empire that serves as a major player in their region- which further limits desire to move and make a fresh start.

Of course, despite all these concerns... I understand that there is generally a need to move away from drow, and trying to make the parts work in setting may have to take a backseat.

Xenocrat wrote:

The PFS note says if you use it to fill a 5' cube you can use it for either cover or concealment, but not both, although it doesn't block line of sight. That's a good cantrip!

Wait, how does it work as cover (From a logic standpoint, I mean)? Isn't cover, by definition, a physical obstruction? The figment doesn't stop a projectile, so how does it work as cover?

I mean, an overturned table might stop an arrow. An illusion of one won't, although the concealment might cause someone to miss.

Arrows don't have very good saves to disbelieve illusions.

1. No, you will pretty much never use the P option. Honestly, I have to stretch and search for situations where it can come up other than "underwater when you are doing one of the pirate campaigns". I usually just ignore the P on versatile weapons.

Raze is similarly specific. I won't say you will never had to destroy items, but it is usually not a popular option since that could damage loot.

2. You are already aware of the trade offs of these two weapons. I think the consistent damage might be better if you are the main melee character in the party. The lower one handed damage might be fine if you are setting things up for a barbarian or something that can get big hits in.

I assume that you won't have the actions to mess around with regripping your weapon since you have a pet. Although you might also use your pet for set up, and then you get to do the big beefy blow.

So it up up to you how you see your usual fights going down. They are all pretty much valid your attack bonus. The gunslinger gets by with less on the same crit fishing theory.

3. I will also suggest an odd ball answer: light hammer so you can have a side helping of a throwing build.

Damage is about the same as the earth breaker one handed. Fighters have great attack bonus, so they can pull off a switch hitter build fairly well despite being str focused. Returning is a dirt cheap rune to put onto you weapon (a flat 55 gp). Having the option to do ranged stuff doesn't interfere with your main gimmick.

For fun, I would say yes, but the transformation would mix with their shape changing instincts.

So you would turn into a wolf spider

The party would have to roll knowledge (nature) checks to even figure out what is wrong with you since they don't realize you turned into a different spider species.

1. I think that the Sun Orchid Elixir has been ignored because it is "only just" 3000 years old.

When talking about the time scale of immortals that get attention from inevitables, I think that is on the end of "dangerous new internet fad". That is still at the range where some long lived creatures are going around normally. It isn't something you might need to do something about, 'yet', since the problem might take care of itself, given time.

I mean, I am still expecting Razmir to try to kick their door in at some point. Someone is going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. All it takes is one bad catapult or fireball shot at the wrong building when sieging a place for the elixir.

The elixir is a temporary fix that only gives some time on the clock. It isn't a permanent solution, and it requires careful cultivation and processing techniques known to maybe one person. That is the kind of thing that is very, very easily lost.

Now, if he did die and come back, seemingly or actually ALIVE or perhaps Undead (but obviously not, I mean come on, that's no ghoul/lich/shade, he's perfect guys, get a CLUE) that could be pretty interesting for sure.

I'd rather see him actually attain his actual goal though and earn his place in the pantheon though, that'd give the setting a bit of shake-up and really sort of validate while also ironically invalidate the cult at the same time.

No, no undeath. Or even coming back. An old man just doesn't get up from bed one morning. Peaceful, natural old age, without any back ups or strings attached.

But "Razmir" still somehow shows up for the morning sermons.

I want the man to die, and the lie itself to live, thrive, and move on without him. The man never lived up to the lie. The truth just held the lie back.

In more plain terms- I want the metaphysical manifestation of his lie to succeed where Razmir failed.

Before thaumaturgy was released? Lots and lots of lore skills.

If you grab skills like lore (undead), you can skip wisdom based skill checks. And the additional lore feat automatically lets you grab legendary rank in those skills just by trading feats. So you can do this without being bound by the limit of three legendary skills.

Unfortunately for the ID investigator, thaumaturges can now pull this off without going out of their way.

It is still a nice way for wizards to show off how smart they are, since they aren't as bothered with skills and skill feats (assuming you aren't just waiting for unified theory)

He's not really flashy, he's brutally efficient. Dex Fighter/martial artist would be my pick. Dex just for the unarmored look with explorers clothing. Maybe pick up wrestler too

...in researching for this, I watched a clip of him ripping off a giant statue monster's arm, and then punching the statue in the crotch with its own giant fist.

I count that as a finisher.

Still make it completely condescending and arrogant.

Have her care deeply about the well being of those below her. But she is just looking out for the "lessers" under her charge, and she has a poor opinion of human ability and intelligence.

Of course, you can also give her a core retinue that, for generations, have carefully preened and cultivated her attitude in order to take advantage of her ability to create water.

"Oh no. I was hit by the weresnail's love dart"

Bard dedication on a Stumbling Stance user.

You will need CHA anyway, so you aren't going out of your way. It is a dex stance, so you can keep decent defense too. And this takes advantage of your action economy.

Its damage will be fairly consistence. You will have two attacks at full BAB that get inspiration and flat footed from a free feint. The increased chance to crit can add a lot.

It is also a great team player.

Presumably the rules for the contracts a devil can offer mean the benefit and the payment have to be commensurate.

That sounds like a very naïve presumption. The devils will, of course, not correct that mistaken impression.

If a devil is going out of his way to make an offer, then there is profit to be made on his side. And that profit is typically at your expense. You have to fight and bargain hard to get anywhere near even.. and even then, it is usually a trick to get you into some subclause trap.

What if you promise your soul to a demon, then stick your soul in a phylactery?

What? You can still have it. Lol.

And thus started an exceptionally well funded undead slaying expedition.

THREAD HAS BEEN NECRO'D - for those who missed it.

Aaron Bitman wrote:

I quote: "Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep."

It doesn't say that the undead don't HAVE to eat to survive. No, they DO NOT EAT.

Paizo also has a "Specific Trumps General" clause. This means that "Undead do not eat" is superceded by "Ghouls do eat" or "Vampires do eat" or anything else that is more specific than "all undead".

As to the general question: Very few of the undead beasties are fully original Paizo products, most of them pull from real-world myths and lore. The reason Vampires drink blood is because Vampires that don't drink blood aren't recognisable as vampires. The same goes for Ghouls eating human(oid) flesh, etc.

I think the "ability to eat" can be separate from "trying to eat".

A normal, unbuffed level 1 human "can't" sit and meditate while sitting on a fire. Only some creatures like tieflings might have some luck there, since they might have fire resistance that lets to get around it. But humans can "try" to stay in a fire.... with obvious results.

Vampires and ghouls are the only ones with something resembling a functional digestive system. They eat and it goes somewhere. But a zombie can shove hunks of "things" down its mouth hole.

Of course, from there, it is just clutter that eventually damages its nonfunctional organs and contribute to its decay and spilling guts everywhere. Basically, think of it like pica, where someone swallows quarters, and might have to go to the hospital for it.

One of the first things we have to consider is whether all liches are competent.

The ritual requires a lot of expertise and preparation. At the same time, it is also the hot shot option in the Whispering Way community. So there are going to be people that will run into this when they are really, really not ready for it.

They will mess up, but maybe not bad enough that it 'fails'.

So here is my idea- an oven. They accidentally misfocused the spell and there was a decimal point wrong on the altitude settings, so everything went into the upstairs kitchen instead.

Now, every time they reform, they have to crawl out of the oven. And it is SUPER embarrassing.

Any demon lord. I mean, it is just an implied part of their hierarchal relationships. "I'm willing to follow you for however long it takes for me to find a good chance to stab you in the back and rob your blind".

There are also the dark tapestry. Mostly due to general apathy towards you everything you ever do, hope, dream, or accomplish. Crushing you underfoot has nothing to do with rewards or punishment, and you are a fool for trying to believe otherwise.

Early on, the monk's 'armor' proficiency gives them a +2 bonus over most melee classes. This amounts to having leather armor and then going with a dex build, only you don't deal with a max dex. So with 18 starting dex, you are doing better than anyone with a breastplate.

By the time you hit the dex cap, a dex monk's AC is some of the best in the game and only falls behind champions, really.

Strength is nice, but it isn't everything. With 14 or 16 str early on, you don't really see much benefit with taking it further. Most of your damage comes from magic items giving you more damage dice.

If you feel there are problems with your damage, there are much better options than strength- or even more monk feats. Flurry of blows gives you great action economy for your attacks, so you could easily slot in things like a bard dedication to snag inspire courage. That would give much more direct boosts which also benefits the party.

Is there any simple build that supports summoning?

Bard get animate dead, which is basically a summoning spell and doesn't have any alignment tags on it. So unlike the create undead ritual, it is mostly just socially awkward.

Anyway, bard seems like they might make good 'summoners' since they have party wide buffs that could help keep options relevant. The undead list seems like it has a variety of meat shield and weird special abilities.

I would argue against taking Attack of Opportunity, especially on a Paladin. I am currently playing a level 12 Pal, and I find that pretty much every turn I am declining to use AoO so that I can keep my reaction for Retributive Strike. Its a better hit (adding 4 persistent good) and it helps my allies.

I also want to second reach with Ranged Reprisal. Any creature that is within reach of your champion's reaction is also within a Step of your reach weapon's range.

AoO is a secondary reaction, for sure, but it covers key tactical situations that fills in the gap for your reaction.

The main argument for AoO is a simple situation: "Oh no, the wizard is over 20 feet away from me, and that thing is trying to run around me to get to the wizard".

And yes, the enemy can step to avoid your AoO. But you want to make them "have" to step to avoid your AoO. That is one less action they have when they charge at your team mate. The enemy has to move and then attack, and having one less action means the difference between a blue dragon biting your wizard for 32 damage, and the blue dragon getting off a full draconic frenzy with three attack for 83 damage.

Interestingly enough, the weapon flavor text/description HEAVILY implies that the weapon, while it is wielded in 1 hand, is actually strapped to the arm thereby making it impossible to simply drop or put the weapon away without spending additional actions. There are no mechanical descriptions for that, much like the issue with the description of how Shields are strapped to the arm.

Not exactly pertinent to this current conversation but I thought it was interesting to note.

While the weapon tries to sell the fantasy of giant robot fists, its functionality seems more like those joke boxing gloves that spring out.

Which is not bad either. Or it wouldn't be, if Paizo didn't continue to design monk weapons that are almost universally inferior to a level 1 stance mod. If this thing could hit d8, then it would be golden and everyone would love it. Maybe if they made it d6 and finesse, this would have a place. But as is, I am forced to always ask myself "Why would I use this over a bo staff?"

This is quickly being relegated to cheese that you throw on and ignore while focusing on your actual build, much like monks with shields.

Occult is about connections. Connections to those around you, connections to parts of yourself that you didn't even know where there, connections to things that... ok, honestly, you probably shouldn't connect with.

It is the flirty bard of magic traditions, with all the smoozing and strange eldritch STDs that come with it. Others (wisely) choose not to make those kinds of connections, but you can't help yourself from offering them a drink and trying to chat them up.

And given the scope of the cosmos, the majority of bars in the universe have tentacle monsters in them.

Ah yes, pointing out the spells that specify interaction with metal like those come up in 100% of campaigns targeted at player characters and thus it's a note-worthy alteration to the rules for a character to have armor that is bone instead of metal... totally got me there, not at all a non-difference in all but a few weirdly-specific and GM-chosen situations.

As for making non-metalized options uncommon, that's also either a non-effect because the player says "Can I have?" and you say "Yes." or is a GM pretending they aren't saying "No." when they are doing exactly that.

Same with making them more expensive; it's either not more expensive enough to matter so it's a waste of you bothering to alter the price, or you're using the price to tell the player "I don't actually want you to have this but I'm pretending to say it's okay if you do" because it is expensive enough to influence the player's decision making process.

But seriously though; demonstrate one thing that is actually broken by a druid having the same AC but with slightly different stats, because I do not believe there is anything.

I think strange armor types might come up, though. It is not uncommon for some tables to heavily rely on heat metal against humanoid opponents since they often have armor and equipment. At the very least, it can be a distraction while the opponents try to save their friend from being cooked well done.

Think of it this way- if the players often used this spell, and the GM suddenly said "these enemies are wearing bone armor", then that could be seen as an attempt to nerf the spell.

I think that the reason why Lizardfolk avoid metal and leather armor is mostly due to their environment.

The archetypal lizardfolk described in the bestiary lives in swamplands. They are strong swimmers and often use this skill as part of hunting and warfare.

The problem with this is that constant exposure to moisture makes metal rust and leather rot. The materials mentioned in the description all lack this problem.

Armor is a large investment, and it is the first thing that gets skimped on when conditions make it troublesome. This is also one of the reasons why armor was not that popular on sailing vessels. You generally aim to not get hit often enough that battle damage does more to you than several weeks/months of exposure to the elements.

Now, this is probably less of an issue for lizardfolk adventurers- successful adventurers can extravagantly spend on equipment, and they are usually traveling with landbound companions in dryer conditions.

Conversely, I was a bit sad when tiefling and aasimar became versatile heritages. They seemed so defining physically and culturally that I could see them as ancestries themselves.

This is particularly jarring, since the entire heritage system seems like it mostly stems from the heritage system used by tieflings and such. Which drove the tieflings' heritages down into a race feat instead, and further pushed any progression that might have had into level 13+ (ie- something you will rarely see).

I always assumed that wisdom based monster ID checks were based off of intuition and experience (mostly because wisdom is associated with druids and clerics).

Like how you FEEL the creeping, clawing aura of an evil spirit, or the seething hatred and playful malice of a demon.

They can then just work backwards from there- they know what kind of creature it is, so they just need to remember the factoids of what it is called. It takes less detail based observation and deduction that way.

There are some nice monk weapons, like the bo staff and kusarigama. Both are reach, and the latter is one of the few weapons to get both of the useful damage types (bludgeoning and slashing).

Of course, we don't have anything that is nice AND finesse capable. All good weapon using monk builds have to be fairly MAD str/dex builds right now.

I think the issue is that they grandfathered the "weapon trait is a trade off for damage" mindset without considering how characters have to spend a resource to get weapons, and they also made unarmed strikes extremely attractive and powerful this edition. The only thing that really competes is reach at this point.

Bagpipe. Obviously.

The idea is not as bad as it seems mechanically if you use voluntary flaw rules (a net negative in stats, but it lets you work in ideas like this; or gnome barbarians). I would probably dump wisdom since you have good will saves anyway.

Yeah, you don't really have your hands free with bagpipes. But even with flaws, it is hard to be a dwarf that both does charisma magic AND is good at hitting things. Bards have some surprising blast and summoning options along with their buffs, so it isn't too bad to go full caster.

2e bards gain a weird degree of weight that you didn't really see before. Now, they are basically oracles or witches with direct intervention of otherworldly powers.

In 1e? They were people that took a few classes at their local community college without picking a major. A bit of swordplay, a bit of skills, a bit of 'useful' magic (buffs for other stuff, emergency healing, a trick or two). Even though you relied on performance to accomplish some of the more magical aspects, you could say "he is not very good at magic, so he has to mnemonics to get by."

It felt like something that a person with a slightly eclectic personality might pick up on their travels. That way, you could just be "an adventurer", rather than anything as specific as a "bard".

In fact, there was a highly effective dip you could do with the archaeologist that got rid of music entirely for a less narratively significant 'luck'. I could stretch that for every fight in a day from level 1, giving enough melee bonuses to make up for being 3/4 while having a fantastic saves. I could then easily switch into any martial class without any kinks in his 'career path'.

"Oh no! I've been banished back to my home plane... of Memphis, Tennessee!"

How good/important is low light vision compared to dark vision?

Only to the extent that it makes it easier to get darkvision. there are a large number of options that improve vision, and they often let you skip straight to dark vision if you have low light vision already.

Darkvision as a defensive measure is pretty much hit or miss depending mostly on whether your GM uses light rules a lot. Even then, light spells are fairly effective in this edition.

Darkvision as an offensive tool might be more of a question. It depends a lot of how much of the bestiary has appropriate senses, and which part of the bestiary you are playing around with.

A darkvision party in a campaign set inside a single city? Then you are probably going to have a nice time messing around with human enemies and darkness spells. A darkvision in an undead campaign? Not so much.

The first four levels seem fairly straightforward, since it is a reach monk's bread and butter.

1: Monastic weaponry (to even get a bo staff at all)
2: Stunning fist (yes, works with weapons, and making enemies lose actions as a free rider effect is great)
4: Stand still (so you can use your long stick to its full advantage to hit people outside of your turn).

Everything outside of all that is just whatever you feel like grabbing. Reach is generally a fairly strong playstyle, and you are useful even if enemies avoid you since they have to waste their time doing that.

You will probably want ki strike at some point (lvl 1 as a human if you can), since it is more damage and it is a prerequisite for ki abilities. Wind jump at lvl 10 seems both useful and thematic, since you can jump around in air between trapeze lines.

I would be wary of what scrolls you give your party access to though.

Let's say this is a fireball spell. If a level 20 wizard misplaces their fireball, and their lvl 20 fight is hit too, then it is a small mistake that is easily fixed by the lvl 20 cleric.

A level 1 wizard with a lvl 10 fireball scroll that hits their level 1 fighter is the guy that is going to be buying pizza for the group for the next three sessions as an apology.

Lower level characters simply have less ability to deal with the consequences of a high tier power. if they misuse a plane shift scroll then congratulations- your campaign has been converted into something set in that new plane, because they are 10 levels away from being able to fix the problem, and probably 7 levels away from paying someone else to fix it.

So carefully consider the dumbest thing they might do with that scroll, and whether they can do anything to fix that problem. Players assume that any item they are given- particularly unusual items like this- are to be used immediately, much like they will try to use a newly found plot key on any door they come across. Assume they will jump the gun on 'which problem they are supposed to solve' and waste the scroll on the midboss.

Thinking I might go for a weakened bog mummy then. It's abilities are certain to make the players take notice (breath of the bog), while also not having many options that are likely to overwhelm the party.

One of the characters is VERY anti-undead, and we haven't seen a lot of those lately. So that should be exciting for the player. Plus, I can describe the weakened template as having been attacked and severely damaged by the ooze.

Even its incurable bog rot isn't likely to be much of a hindrance, provided the players think to go to the city less than a mile away to seek help.

You could also always throw in some skeletons. It is pretty easy to explain- they are previous victims, and the slime ignores them because it already took everything it wanted.

The skeletons would then attack anyone that gets close- heck, they might even mix with desire to attack the living with a honest last wish to ward others away from the same threat. You could use the undead to lure in the party- they charge in for skeletons, and then they run into the pudding.

I believe the Seedpod Leshy feat is nice for an Animal Barbarian since you can use it while Raging (and benefit from your handwraps' runes). Too bad that Raging Thrower does not apply to it RAW.

Well, you will have decent dex with animal instinct (since you will eventually need 16 to go unarmored), and your full strength bonus should make it better about as good as the guy with a poorly invested shortbow.

It even gets around bludgeoning damage- which is useful because a lot of the functional animal instinct weapons are piercing.

So it isn't bad, and it both gets around one of the key flaws of your instinct and shares the enhancements of your main melee attack. So it is nice enough, especially as a level 1 feat.

Leshies' short stature even makes the head based combat less awkward. I might make a deer build for reach.

The only issue I can immediately see is that these are competing with your lvl 12 instinct feat. Predator's Pounce is a rather good feat for the animal instinct (and animal instinct is often the choice for grapplers).

As Captain Morgan said, it has good action economy, and that works well for the feats you want to take- you can pounce, strike, and grab all in one turn, allowing you a movement, two strikes, and a MAP free grab.

And you can strike and thrash in the next round to finish off most basic opponents. Actually, I'm not sure if thrash adds to MAP, so it might be nice to lead off with that- if you finish the opponent off, then you can pounce to the next target and perhaps get them into a grapple in the same round.

...this discussion is actually making me excited for a high level deerman build.

I think part of the problem is not that this is a weird, situational skill. The problem is that it comes up kinda often.

There are a bunch of backgrounds with assurance skills. And I imagine it will continue to be used in the future as 'a weird flavor thing' for various feats, backgrounds, and archetypes.

So we will continue to see discussions like this, because people keep encountering it. Especially at low levels when dice rolls rule more than tertiary stats. I doubt it will be relegated to the logs of 'weird theorycrafter cheese'.

Someone has never rolled 6 out of 8 checks of 4 Orr lower when trying to heal

This is a feat for people that don't believe in RNGesus. Play and ye shall be saved.

But if you roll bad, then it is for some undisclosed sins that you probably committed. Probably.

Waldham wrote:

An illegimate child or to take the place of a child and perhaps to be the only survivor.

I don't think being an only survivor helps you very much.

A noble family with a "penniless" survivor, even with a noble family heritage isn't likely to see much benefit.

Much of nobility is about money and power, only in countries that are good aligned would I expect that you could use a noble name (whether really yours or not) to propel yourself up from nothing.

Honestly, a poor powerless noble isn't much different from a power powerless commoner. At least not in most places.

And to be honest, since noble is a background that any player character can take being a noble must by default not really give very much advantage on its own, or else every player would be practically required to play a noble.

I might even make the check harder because the opponent actively doesn't want to believe you- even if you were telling the truth. Shooing an imposter out your door is a lot easier socially then being rude to some poor unfortunate colleague down on his luck. So they would actively want to find some angle to label you as a charlatan.

Hunting Lore would also cover topic such as "which gods have hunting in their portfolio" and "who are hunters of legend" and "what kind of drinking games get played after a successful hunt".

And "how not to annoy a particularly touchy Erastil community" and "how to run for your life in the forest while being hunted because you failed when negotiating with that Erastil community".

The bottom of a pool of lava.

Wait, are we talking about peaceful and safe for humans? Well, it is their problem that they don't have fire immunity. That common mistake by most races is part of the reason why the pool of lava is so safe.