masda_gib's page

I'm expecting this to be the Martials book like SoM was the Casters book so they should both not have spellcasting. I just hope Commander can pick either Intelligence or Charisma for KAS.

I would not be surprised if the Guardian or Commander have some spellcasting options. Especially for the Guardian, I can't imagine many subclasses of "I use my shield in different nonmagical ways". A guardian of nature would be a classic fantasy.

The two SoM classes were pretty martial-focused too. :D I mean both weren't full casters. One had a big monster friend that can eat you face very non-magically. And the main schtick of the other was to stab you with a spell-powered-up sword.

I hope that WIS will also be an option for the Commander. A wise warfare-advisor.

More like Deathys amirite

More like Nethysn't

I'll second Air Elemental Instinct Barbarian to fulfill the fantasy even at low levels.

It doesn't totally transform you but "While raging, you're cloaked in a vortex of elemental matter" sounds a lot like looking like a whirlwind.

And if you take Scouring Rage and Elemental Explosion (sadly both lvl 6) you are dealing area damage like a true whirlwind.

Add a Air Kineticist dedication and Lightning Dash at lvl 8 and you actually transform into lightning.

Approximate cantrip in action!
Very nice story and a good example of how to present modern themes in the fantasy setting.

Skeleton-Sprite for skeleton with fairy wings, whoop!

Ronald the Rules Lawyer lists his "10 things I DISLIKE in the Pathfinder Remaster, + the legislative history of DEATH", found here.

While watching that video and the part on Fascinated, I thought that Fascinated got a very slight buff via the change to the monster Grab/Knockdown abilities.

Since they now require an athletics check, fascinating a creature right before their turn applies the -2 penalty to the athletics check to Grab/Knockdown. ...it's something?

Some non-agile/finesse martial weapons:

Breaching Pike (Hobgobling), Cane Pistol (melee), Chakri, Earthbreaker (1h), Fighting Stick (Halfling), Flail, Gaff, Machete, Scimitar, Gnome Hooked Hammer (1h), Shield Boss/Spikes and many others.

There are some new options either for flavor or mechanics.

rainzax wrote:

"martial weapon" is new!

Yeah but martial weapons already had so many finesse and agile d6 options, I'm not actually sure what you're gaining here.

I had an idea for a "viking" themed rogue which didn,t really work. Now I can have a battleaxe and shield and make sneak attack shield bashs (shield spikes and the like are martial weapons).

Other than through Knights of Lastwall there was no way to make shields agile.

Also, you could make a mounted knight as a Ruffian with a one-handed lance now.

There is also the Blast Lance(from Outlaws of Alkenstar): https://pf2easy.com/index.php?id=21444&name=blast_lance

It's a magic item, not a base weapon. But it's exactly a lance with added pew-pew.

You could make it a Thief Rogue since it's a finesse weapon. There are some Trip feats for Rogue and you could take Fighter dedication for AoO later.

With those changes and the backstabber trait of the arbalest, Crossbow Rangers will make good assassins.

The Assassin archetype gives a +2 bonus to deception against your marked target (useful for the new Crossbow Ace) and Expert Backstabber doubles the backstabber trait bonus damage.

Secondary Detonation Array isn´t bad I think. It´s a blaster caster feat that rewards spell selection, knowledge about the opponent and tactical teamwork.

If you have this feat you want area spells of many different elements. If you then fight an enemy that has a weakness (which you know because you are a smart wizard) you cast an area spell that triggers that weakness. Then you let your party´s brawler (who maybe delayed to be after you) run up next to that enemy and maybe grapple or trip them. That enemy now spends 1 or more actions Stepping/Standing/Escaping or eats an AoO or takes damage that triggers its weakness again.

With the Exemplar, I can refine my character that is basically Dominic Toretto from FF.
For him I need a brawler with access to the Family domain. Champion worked but the flavor didn't really fit.

As an Exemplar with the Tinker background, he would have the Ikons Titan's Breaker (any club like weapon flavored as a wrench), Gaze Sharp As Steel & Victor's Wreath (which is a bottle of whatever passes as Corona on Golarion).

Get Claim Initiate & Advanced Domain and basically fill the other feat slots up with Vehicle Mechanic and later Trick Driver.

Exhibit A:
In the PFS adventure "The Mosquito Witch", an NPC named Rosa Hart has a brandy brewery. Brandy is distilled wine. So there's distilled alcohol on Golarion.

I just want to say that if what is shown is the official Starfinder 2e logo that that is worlds better than the current SF logo. It looks really awesome!

I'm looking forward to the compatibility of many things on the GM side. If SF2 is compatible with PF2, I can use all working mechanics of PF2. :)
The whole Victory Points subsystems, stuff like Influence encounters or the followers stuff. I can take a PF2 adventure and switch out or reskin monsters and have a SF adventure.

This is the best Paizo book so far because it gives out temperatures in degrees Celsius in addition to Fahrenheit! :D A long standing wish came true.

YFTAFT might be of high value if you reduce your AC on purpose.

The only way I can think of is multiclassing into Giant Barbarian and using YFTAFT to negate Clumsy and have good AC once a round. You could even get "Come And Get Me!" at lvl20 and negate the self-imposed flat-footed penalty with it. So +3 AC in that case. :)

Even if it's a bit late I want to chime in saying that the diverse, colorful and inclusive things are exactly what keeps me supporting Pathfinder. Just in case someone at management gets to see this thread and needs some hints that this direction is good.

The rule hints for the summoner even clarify that the summoner is the one in control. The eidolon will not object to anything or do something against the summoners will unless for RP reasons.

A summoner can always hinder the eidolon attacking by just not giving it any actions. RAW an eidolon attacking is a willing hostile action of the summoner.

"Monsters big enough to be a kind of terrain" is rules territory I'd be happy to explore as GM.

I wonder if the rules on riding sentinent creatures (LOAG) can help there a bit. It was "each of the two loses an action or the rider falls off" if I remember right.

Since the monster won't save actions, the PC climber would fall off every round and would have to Grab an Edge to stay on the monster. The PC would only have 2 actions or risk to fall off again. I don't know if that too restrictive to be fun, though. :/

Reaching a certain bodypart could be one or a few Climb or Balance actions.

The Raven Black wrote:

Would it be the same if they are immobilized by an arrow, a grapple, manacles and an Entangle spell all at the same time ?

Yeah as far as I can tell. The GM would have to pick the highest level effect that is immobilizing the target. All of the others would just fall off.

That gets a bit weird to imagine, especially in the case of a grapple which can be ended off the targets turn, but rules as printed, that is how Conditions work.

I mean you wouldn't argue that someone who has been put to sleep by two different sleep effects, say the sleep spell and a sleep poison, has to wake up twice right?

As there are to stages of waking up in real life (getting out of bed, having the first coffee), this is not the best example. :P

Hmmm... I think Adopted Ancestry for other characters should add something to it's text

Special You can only take this feat at Level 1. If you do not have a Level 1 feat to take it you may take it anyway and have to pick it up by level 3.

So a little bit like the Runelord for the Wizard

But why? If my level 10 orc fighter takes a pause from adventuring to live among gnomes for a year, they should be able to take Adopted Ancestry after that event. There is no reason to limit it level 1 or 3.

Sure, if the "adoption" is not part of the character background there should be some event to make it make sense (GM approval). Maybe "If you take this feat after level 3, it gains the Uncommon trait".

A Reddit user once wrote something that made me realize there is a rule in PF2 for most "creative" spell uses beyond what the spell actually is described to do: The Aid action. Aid requires to sacrifice and action to help. Casting or sustaining a spell that has no useful effects would count as an action for Aid for me.

Wizard wants to cast Dancing Lights to confuse the ogre the party is fighting? Cast it and use a reaction when an ally attacks to Aid using Arcana. On the following round the wizard can sustain and Aid with the lights again.

Wizard wants to help rocket jump with fireball? Cast it and when the ally makes the Long Jump spend a reaction to Aid using Arcana, maybe against a higher DC. Also the ally has to make a reflex save.

The Aid action is luckily so broad that it is usable for many creative uses.

Yeah, a player who hates magic and spellcasting might not be the best fit for a campaign about a magic school. :)

Apart from that, if the player just doesn't want to cast many spells, they can take the Druid dedication. Druid has so many non-casting feats that you can easily have the MC archetype without any spells apart from the initial cantrips. Take all the animal companion feats plus a leshy familiar and you should be set.

Magus action economy is tight as is. The advantage of Starlit Span is that it can turret, using a Spellstrike and recharging it every turn. With a crossbow you need an action to reload, which gets rid of that advantage. Maybe with a Repeating Crossbow?

At level 1 yes, you would have the problem that you always have to reload. But at level 1 switching weapons is easier since runes aren't a thing yet.

But you don't get any extra damage from Arcane Cascade at range so you don't really need the stance at all.

Right, I forgot that while writing the post. 8)

So, everyone agrees that the crossbow isn't the best weapon there is. But can a magus use it effectively combining some features of the crossbow and the class?

1) For a starlit span magus that can only spellstricke within the first range increment, the crossbow has the best accurate range. A shortbow only has 60ft and a longbow has the volley trait - so if you don't MC into Fighter for point-blank stance it is bad for spellstrike. Crossbow gives accurate spellstrike range of up to 120ft!

2) By level 2 you seem to be able to get 2 attacks going before needing to reload. First, your Spellstrike Shot and the second one via Force Fang. Force Fang says it replaces all weapon statistics and basically only uses the weapons reach or range. You don't Strike with the weapon so the crossbow doesn't need to be reloaded. And Force Fang is one action so at high levels you can fire up to 3 force shots.

So, our sniper magus can spellstrike with a heavy crossbow from 120ft on the first turn, then follow up with 1 to 3 bolt(s) of force at the same range on turn 2! And then either take a break to reload or switch to spells or a melee weapon or whatever.

Maybe still not optimal but a unique way to get around reloading. And with casting Shield befor the Strike for Arcane Cascade or MCing (Ranger) for crossbow goodies, the first Spellstrike can even hit harder.

Even bigger bursts can work with expansive spellstrike. The burst starts at a corner of your choice in the center of the target.

With a reach weapon against a gargantuan target, even a fireball doesn't hit the magus.

Another thing that stands out to me is how good designed the Magus MC archetype is. You can get Spellstrike OR the hybrid study spell. Even if you don't want spellstrike you can get some fighting-magic on your martial for your favourite hybrid study.

Edit: For me Inexorable Iron because it goes full on heavy weapon mage. Followed by Twisting Tree because it has some cool stuff.

I don't think they stack but they are both active at the same time.

So if there is a skeleton and a devil near the cleric and the cleric does an AoE Heal, the skeleton would be damaged and start burning and the devil would be damaged by the Heal, too (but not burn).

thejeff wrote:

The Gleeful Grognard wrote:

... well this is super disappointing. The spine has changed from being uniform and themed to having the art wrap around it. (Especially as the art from the product page shows oherwise)

Really bad design choice this far into the line imo, I will have to consider if I will just get the pdf copies in the future instead of print and PDF. It won't bother everyone, but it is a shame imo.

This brought up before. There was no hard response, but a suggestion that the region books might be going with this look

I can't find the quote right now (from either Sarah Robinson or Erik Mona), but the alternate spine is intentional to distinguish our 10 meta-regions from the other Lost Omens books. Grand Bazaar will return to the standard spin.

Nice! Since 9 further meta-region-books are now officially confirmed, I want to ask: will the books on Arcadia, Tian Xia, Azlant and Casmaron also follow this design? :)

I just read through the PDF and I have to say it is amazing! Absolutely great work, Paizo!

It starts with being very GM friendly with having summaries of the AP, the adventure and each chapter and a list of all important NPCs and locations.

The XP reward system is what I would expect from an AP: customized to the story and not the default per-encounter XP. It really makes work easy to follow the story an just adjust the combats to the group's liking.

The adventure itself sounds like fun. Many RP possibilities and some dramatic fights. And SO MUCH to do in the way of building relations and side quests and events. The first chapter is a nice way to introduce the schools lore.

If the quality of adventures in the AP stays at that level it will really be the best AP so far. :D

EDIT: I also like the social/relationship stat blocks of the other students. Nice quick usable information.

16) Germaine is a human entertainer and singer. One time while he was performing, his #1 fan died in a freak accident when they where climbing onto stage and where knocked dead by a falling stage prop.
But death didn't stop them as the fan now follows Germaine anywhere on his travels as a devoted if a bit annoying phantom. Germaine feels they will only go away once they get an autograph... but since the phantom protect him fiercely he is starting to accept its presence.
(Human devotion phantom summoner)

"Fire and Flame dance on my command
with that bit of guano in my hand.
In a 20ft radius I want to burn them all.
That's why I cast FIREBALL!"

Bonus:
"Fire and Flame please linger on
although my spell slots are nearly gone.
All the fireball fun at one point ends;
So now I must cast BURNING HANDS!"

I agree that the -2 apply on every Force Open check without a crowbar*.

* I'd also say that "crowbar" is a stand-in as the most recognizable Force-Open tool. For other skill actions you have generic Thieves Tools or Healer Kits. Just here it's a concrete item.

So the mechanical item could be generalized to Force-Open Tools. Where you have a crowbar for chests and doors, a portable ram for walls, and so on... like the other kits.

For all of you multilinguals out there, I have always been curious how well a translator program would do with a deliberately perverse sentence like:

I am present in the present to present a present.

** spoiler omitted **

But I can't read what the translator returns with.

Google Translate makes correct if a bit fancy German out of that sentence. :)

Thanks a lot! I thought so, too, but the first two translations in my got-to translator where exactly the two opposing options. :/

Plus I remeber it being fairly limited in the playtest so I was unsure.

One of my players now has Stunning Fist so I have to clarify a question.

The feat says "If either Strike hits and deals damage, ...". English isn't my first language and I found conflicting interpretations for that.

So, does Stunning Fist trigger when ONE OF THE TWO Strikes hit or only when BOTH hit?

I would count Hunting Lore mainly as a narrower field of Nature recall knowledges. So you would have it easy to identify animals and beasts for example. Or use it to know stuff about environments those creatures live in. Like remembering to bring snowshoes when hunting the Yeti.

But since there is a bit of overlap with Survival, I would allow it for knowledge based Survival checks. I might allow to roll Hunting Lore instead of Survival on Survey Wildlife for example. I'd not allow it to FIND Tracks (that's Survival) but to identify the found tracks.

That explanation sounds sience-y enough to be plausible for me, Watery Soup. :)

Ruzza wrote:

So the scenario is one in which a person wizard and a witch are both in the same party and the wizard is creating the scrolls for the witch to learn from.

I was mostly thinking about a Spellblender Wizard who picks up Witch Dedication to bolster his number of lower level spell slots. So I don't have to pay twice to learn a spell.

In that special case, wouldn't the gold cost and DC to learn the spell be pretty trivial anyway? :)

You can cast 1st level spells with witch dedication at level 4. Learning those is DC 15 and costs 2gp. At that level the wizard would have +12 on Arcana making it hard to fail and 2gp is pocket money. (I'm assuming it would be an arcane witch dedication.)

Lucerious wrote:

Monastic Weaponry does when combined with FoM

Sure, and with Monastic Archery you Grapple at 60 feet.

Yeah, I think that's a very good argument against that maneuvers are made with the weapon when using FoM. The wording on Monastic Archery and Monastic Weaponry is the same so if you allow it with one you should allow it with the other.

You can use weapons only in place of unarmed attacks with the monk weapon feats. If you don't normally make an unarmed attack during a monk ability you don't use the weapon with that ability.

Flurry of maneuvers allows to replace the strikes with: disarm, trip, grapple. One would not be able to shove.

AoN and pf2.easytools both say Grapple, Shove and Trip.

...

So, for example, a Katar would be usable with monk feats and abilities that require unarmed attacks, such as Flurry of Blows, and even Flurry of Maneuvers, since those do require Unarmed Attacks to execute, since Flurry of Maneuvers just lets you replace attacks with, well, maneuvers.
...

I understand that Monastic Weaponry lets you use weapons with stuff like Flurry of Blows. But Flurry of Maneuvers in particular DOESN'T require unarmed attacks - you can use it without possessing any natural attacks if you only use free-hand-maneuvers.

If I go with your reading, would I be able to Shove or Grapple at reach by using Flurry of Maneuvers with a Bo staff?

A level 4 elf monk character takes Elven Weapon Familiarity, Monastic Weaponry, Ancestral Weaponry, and Flurry of Maneuvers. The weapon chosen is the Elven curved blade.

First action is Flurry of Blows with a trip (from weapon allowed from combination of feats) followed by a strike. Next two actions are both strikes.
Based on the debate in this thread, which of those strikes gain the benefit of forceful?

How is the Trip made with the weapon? Without Ancestral Weaponry it wouldn't be done with an unarmed attack but simply with a free hand. I fail to see what let's the curve blade do the Trip. I'd say only the last two Strikes get the bonus damage:

1) Flurry Trip. First attack, but not with the weapon. Just a normal free-hand maneuver.
2) Flurry Strike. Second attack but first attack with the curve blade. Forceful requires previous attacks with that weapon so no bonus.
3) Strike. Second attack with the curve blade. It gets weapon dice as bonus damage.
4) Strike. Third attack with the curve blade. It gets double weapon dice as bonus damage.

Ascalaphus, isn't that problem with skill challenges and some charas being untrained what Follow the Expert is for? You do not get your level to untrained skills per default but you have to have at least one character in the party that is Expert+ in the skill, then you can get it.

As Familiar is already a game term, I'd use "Dabbling" or "Dabbled".

I don't know if it's really needed but I don't think it's unbalanced. You 2 for 1 upgrade math seems to work out. It might be a nice story-given half-skill for the GM to give as you say.

You could also make the leveling-math 2 + half level (or 1 + half level) to limit familiar/dabbling skill to basic uses and leave really high level challenges to trained+ skills.

masda_gib wrote:

Petrified then :)

Yep, good to go.

masda_gib wrote:

Edit: Or failed against a lvl 1 Sleep spell.

Nope. Sleep: Failure The creature falls unconscious. Unconscious: When you gain this condition, you fall prone and drop items you are wielding or holding.

Ha, you activated my trap card! :D

A creature that falls unconscious from this spell doesn’t fall prone or release what it’s holding.

That's why I specified lvl 1 Sleep. Only the lvl 4 Sleep makes them normal-unconscious.

masda_gib wrote:

the weapon would also continue thrashing when you die.

No worries here as Unconscious, Dying, ect cause you to "drop items you are wielding or holding". You can't have/use a weapon trait without the weapon the trait is from wielded: for instance, you can't claim the Parry bonus from a bo staff after being disarmed.

Right. Petrified then :) Edit: Or failed against a lvl 1 Sleep spell.

After reading the trait many times and this thread, I also think it's handled like a stance. At first, I'd rule it like sustaining a spell but it really reads like "action to start, then automatically".

But I'd also would let outside factors like being paralized stop it. I think the reading that you have to "intentionally want to stop it" doesn't hold up because then the weapon would also continue thrashing when you die. If you would be for some reason unable to execute the thrashing in a useful manner it stops. Be that being paralyzed, the weapon being disarmed, you being disintegrated, you and the weapon turning incorporal, you turning tiny with reduced reach... it's not only dependent on the user's will.