roquepo's page

The fact that any caster can poach the Imperial Sorcerer focus spell worries me a lot, I fear it will be everywhere.

Extend Spell is something I'll miss, but I get why it was changed, the replacement is much easier to use and makes more sense as a Focus Spell.

The changes to Draconic and Demonic's 1st focus spells are amazing. I specially like Draconic's, it is really evocative, helps with multitarget early on and scales fairly well.

What I dislike is Crossblooded going away, I think it is the only change I actively dislike. That feat did so much work in making the class work at its peak.

As for my first impressions:

> Ho boy. The delayed proggression is going to be a contentious topic, isn't it? The first delay I think it is alright and fair. Level 7 offense for level 5 defense is acceptable. What is not acceptable is the master proficiency for weapons. 17 is way too late, it should be 15 at most, make legendary armor and master weapons the same feature and call it a day.

> The bulk looks also a bit questionable. You are +2 AC ahead on levels 5 to 11, and 13 to 14 and 19 to 20, +4 ahead on levels 15 to 18 and even levels 1 to 4, but your core feature to attract enemy attention gives enemies a +2 to hit you, making it in reality a -2 from levels 1 to 4 and even most of your career against the enemy you need to keep in check the most (most of the time, the highest level one). It gets a nice damage reduction on crits, but it should probably also get a lower damage reduction for normal hits as well.

> Intercept strike needs to come with movement at some point. Actual movement. Combats get more mobile as you level up, being adjacent to an ally does not cut it by level 8 or 10. By level 20 it should scale at least to 20 or 30ft of movement to not be a dead feature in most combats. As it is it is better to just stick to intercept Foe until level 14 and then do Intercept Foe into Intercept Strike.

> Some feats need some work. Energetic Specialization is not it, for example, the resistances are laughable. If it gave all 5 resistances it would be decent, but as it is it is just impossible to justify. On the other Hand, Hampering Sweeps is just too good for a level 2 feat, I think.

> Perfect Protection should specify how it interacts with a Fortification rune.

Guess I should post my first impressions here.

I really like what you are trying to do with the class, but it looks very rough around the edges.

> Drilled Reactions is a bit wonky because lots of the tactics available don't even use them in the first place. I also think it is a wasted opportunity, having a class that can give proper, non-limited extra reactions would be amazing, both fun to play with and it would give the class a very strong niche.

> I'm fine with heavy armor because I think the class is more fit for ranged combat anyway, it is just a needed help for melee commanders. I like the current overall proficiencies too. I'm also a big fan of Warfare Expertise. If I could add something, it would be that for skill checks caused by your tactics, your allies can use your Warfare Lore stat with a penalty (something like a -2 or a -4) instead of their regular skill stat if it is lower. That way, even if your allies are not that well prepared to take advantage of your tactics, they get to do something thanks to your instruction. Sort of a consolation prize.

> Tactics in general are all over the place in value, but I like the general design. One thing I want to say, though. I hope for the final release we don't see a slighly too efficient Trip or Grapple tactic due to the lack of testing.

> I'm generally fine with the design of feats, but there are a few that worry me. First is Defiant Banner. It is alright for the most part, but it needs a smoother scaling. 5 resistance to physical damage is not that much by level 13 and 12 is a bit too much by 14 I feel like. Another that worries me is Fortunate Blow, I just think it is too good to not have a once per 10 min CD instead of flourish (of course, I might change opinions if I get to test it).

> Why does the AC get a delayed proggression? Once you released both the Cavalier and Beastmaster dedications it stopped making any sense. Just give it full proggression, it is IMO a very important part of the classes flavor, you should not need to ignore the in-class version and pick an archetype instead.

> A weaker version of Pennant of Victory early on would be neat.

Most action compression stuff gets the Flourish trait. Mostly just focus spells (or actual spells) get around it.

Trip.H wrote:

Repertoire casters IMO are the closest to those w/ "spell list paralysis" precisely because they don't have an easy time changing their selection once made.

While Clerics have the full list to pick from each day, the fact that they can just freely pick the next day really does mean that it's kind of a nothing-burger to see a giant list.

This has been somewhat the opposite of my experience. Repertoire casters spend some time considering spells, but not significantly moreso than anyone else and do it during what's usually downtime (i.e. leveling up) too.

Cleric and Druid style prepared casters on the other hand not only have a lot of overhead but are expected to sometimes make decisions mid session (because it happens every time they rest). While the individual decisions are more reversible, the volume and frequency are significant enough to make them problematic. To the point where a significant number of prepared casters I've had in my games simply abandon their own mechanics and play like a spontaneous caster (i.e. picking their spells once and rarely, if ever, changing them).

This is my experience too. Most complex thing I've seen is a friend coming up with a few spell arrays to adjust for general situations and designating a few slots as flexible slots to adjust for particular stuff whenever it was possible. Most people just have 1 spell array, slot out the least important spells they have when needed and call it a day.

I also somewhat agree with SuperBidi with the fewer the easiest it is to play around thing, but I would want to add to it. TL; DR, I don't think it applies to all spells.

Spells can either be disruptive or non-disruptive. A Fireball is disruptive, as it friendly fires. So does most battlefield control spells. Those you want to minimize to a degree for the sake of being easy to play around you (you also should let your group know what your general plan is if you have one, but that I think is a general advice that also applies to martials). There are lots of spells that do not care about your party in the slightest and for those your party should not care much if you use them or not because they won't need to forsee you using them to capitalize on what you do, just react to it. If I buff a martial, they don't need to prepare for it, they just need to make it count afterwards. Yes, they can do stuff in advance to make the buff more impactful, but it is not that important as them letting you cast your Fireballs and Walls of Stone, not even close.

Even as a spontaneous caster, I like having a few niche spells as long as they are the kind of spell my party does not need to play around. As long as you have good signatures, it does not matter that a particular slot of yours you only use once in a while as long as it is impactful when it gets casted

Is meowing at a half empty bowl of food a familiar ability? If it is, that one.

Some stuff I picked up while reading the arcane section:

- In the cases in which a spell was renamed in PC1 with no mechanical changes, you use one of the names for the entry and the other you add in the description. Sometimes you use the remastered name for the entry and others you use the old name. Thought you might want to make that consistent later on (if you want examples check Magic Missile and Sure Strike).

- The Wand of Manifold Missiles was renamed to Wand of Shardstorm, you might want to include that under the magic missile entry.

- Acid Grip is a reflex save instead of an attack roll, you might want to have a different entry for it.

- Comprehend Language was renamed to Translate in PC1.

- Obscuring Mist was renamed to just Mist in PC1.

- Dimension Door was renamed to Translocate in PC1.

- Phantasmal Killer was renamed to Visions of Death in PC1, but it comes with a few rule changes.

- Cone of Cold has two "C" at the start.

- Prying Eye was renamed to Scouting Eye in PC1.

- You might want to add that See the Unseen is an straight upgrade to See Invisibility with a few extra abilities and a bonus vs illusions.

- Tonges was renamed to Truespeech in PC1.

- True Seeing was renamed to Truesight in PC1.

- Control Sand has two "F" in the "IF".

- Plane Shift was renamed to Interplanar Teleport in PC1.

- Maze was renamed to Quandary in PC1 with very minor changes.

- Mind Blank was renamed to Hidden Mind in PC1.

- Weird was renamed to Phantasmagoria in PC1, but the spell changes quite a bit.

- Wish (and all the others) was renamed to Manifestation in PC1 and it was somewhat nerfed, might want to add two entries.

Also some stuff I personally disagree or that I would add:

- I think your rating of Schadenfreude is a bit to harsh just because it is a level 1 reaction and that's imo the best way to use level 1 slots past a certain level. It has strong competition in Lose the Path for Occult, but Arcane and Divine don't get access to it, so I find it a decent option at mid to high levels.

- I would mention the value of making Shadow Siphon your level 5 signature spell since despite having 2 extra levels to counteract, it is still a counteract.

- I think Arctic Rift deserves a higher rating. Crit failure somewhat removes a creature from combat for a round or two and it eats an action per target on failure. Damage is considerably lower than rank 8 Chain Lightning but it comes with a lot of crowd control.

- Falling Sky is a great scroll spell (or spellbook spell for Arcane Sorcerers). The important part of the spell has no save and the save effects are very generous to account for the incapacitation trait.

If I find some more time I will go over the others.

I think that metal is the worse main element in the class, but the few Impulses it has that are good are really good, so I find it a serviceable secondary element. The utility impulses it has are also very interesting and this combo, while not much, makes it so it is not worse in combat than monofire in the worst case scenario for the build.

I asked because I was tinkering in pathbuilder since my current campaign is about to end and I'm still unsure what to play next and the idea of playing an automaton that is a living furnace sounded like fun. Came up with this and thought it could be both useful and fun to do.

Tried it. It is alright for what it tries to do, but I would not want to do it again. I've been playing for so long that levels 1 to 3 don't feel that interesting anymore, level 0 adds more time in that level stretch.

A Decent Enough Guide to Bards has been remastered. That said, it probably has lots of things that flew by during revision (be it bad wording, typos or wrong terminology). If you spot something that needs fixing, send me a DM in these forums and I will change it if needed.

As for the Ranger guide, that one will take a bit more time. Mostly because remaster changed basically nothing and it feels more of a chore than anything else.

A Decent Enough Guide to Bards is still halfway there on the remastering process. I'm recovering from a surgery so it will take some time, will post here whenever it is done.

But the Nimble Strike pass different message to the enemy/GM. While Opportune Backstab attracts attention to you (soft-aggro) showing to your target that "every time that some ally of this creature hits me this creature take advantage of the gap to Strike me. This creature is dangerous, maybe is better to primary target it to prevent these reactions" while the Nimble Strike pass the opposite message that "every time that I Strike this creature it not only tries to avoid the Strike as also Strike back! Maybe is better to focus in another creature".

A Nimble Strike Rogue can benefit from Gang Up also, but it doesn’t make it more likely that Nimble Strike will happen.

Nimble Strike helps you stay alive, though. A common issue I've seen Opportune Backstab Rogues have is that they tend to fall down rather quick in lots of encounters. Doing lots of damage, being squishier and needing to stay adjacent to enemies does that. Feat is bonkers, but it has a few downsides.

So Gang Up may not help Nimble Strike proc more often, but Nimble Strike does make Gang Up be relevant for more rounds.

They both exist technically, but Restoration is kind of absolete spell now.

As for what to allow and what not, I'll wait for PC2. We need to see the bigger picture before jumping to conclussions. Right now the best course of action IMO is just allowing everything.

I also like Desert wind + Boomerang spam on a math level, not as high of a ceiling as Fire kineticist unless you get 3 damage ticks, but lots of utility on top.

That said, I'm pretty sure I would find it quite boring after a while. You are basically locking yourself out on a single damaging impulse for the rest of your career. From 1 to 20.

I use my top slots for utility as often as not and I get by just fine with lower rank spells.

Since the point of the thread is blasting as a caster, I don't think that advise amounts to much.

roquepo wrote:

You can still carry a fight with level -3 or -4 spells if you choose the right ones

I kind of agree. Of course, some evergreens work fine up to level 20. But the first one is Slow (against bosses). So with 3-4 ranks less than your top spells we are speaking of level 11-13+. It's a limited moment (you could say nearly half of the game, but we all know that low level play is more common than high level play).

Efficient low rank spells is really an end game concept.

I consider level 9 the breakpoint, honestly. Rank 2 slots by then feel inexpensive, so you can start making good use of spells like Hideous Laughter or Loose Time's Arrow, who are very meaningful spell casts by that point in the game. Obviously things get much better at levels 11 or so once you can start throwing like nothing not only those, but also Slows or rank 3 Fear spells.

And it is not like proper blasting is that effective at low levels either, it is also a mid to high level thing for the most part. Before rank 3 spells you don't have good AoE/multitarget spells besides Scorching Ray, and at levels 5 and 6 casters lagging behind in their spell DC hurts quite a bit. Before that we are looking at Magic Missile for bosses, Scorching Ray for mobs and that's kind of it. That's alright, but it is nothing too impressive either, specially considering how in levels 1 to 4 Runic Weapon and Heal are as dominant as they are.

Btw, I think these medium levels (7 to 13 or so) are the ones I've played the most. I'm pretty sure the low levels are undoubtly the ones people play the most, but outside organized play I don't think the difference in experience people have with low and mid level play is as big as you may think. 15+ though, that I'm sure most people have little to no experince with from what I can gather from these boards, Reddit and Twitter.

Lots of words

I also prefer starting Dual Gate for OP's situation. The only relevant things they'll lose are getting several composite impulses through Elemental Overlap and the counter fire reaction.

I personally favor Wind and Water for the secondary element. Wind for the invisibility and Flight impulses, Water for the reaction and the healing (also Steam Knight, but it requires dome deviation from what most would consider a standard fire build).

While I agree with going hard on archetypes is a bad idea without FA, getting sentinel at 2 is not that hard to fit for most fire builds. That's why I don't value Earth of Metal that much outside their composite impulses, and if I want them, mono fire already gets access to them and a few more toys on top.

Also, for the reactions I really like Volcanic Escape even though oveflow is not where Fire kineticists are at. Yeah, it costs you an action later on, but it makes you really hard to kill (enemy moves in and strikes, you react and you are suddenly out of reach for their follow-up) and makes it so staying at that sweetspot range relative to enemies towards the border of your aura way easier. It is also a decent way of squeezing a bit more damage towards the end of a fight.

Regarding high level impulses, Ignite the Sun is too good to pass up. It has insane damage potential, even if you plan to only sustain one and use your actions for other stuff.

So OP, what I'd do if you want to go Fire Kineticist is

1. Decide between mono-fire or dual gate. It comes down to what you value more, the ability to counter fire effects and poach composite impulses or getting the extra utility that a second element brings.

1.5 If you go for dual, decide your second element. I recommend Water or Wind, but most elements have good things to offer.

2. Make sure you get the most important impulses. Those being Flying Flame, Thermal Nimbus, Furnace Form and Ignite the Sun. Weapon Infusion, Aura Control and Effortless Impulse are also too good to skip. I'd also consider Volcanic Escape if you don't have a better reaction and also encourage you to pick Versatile Blasts if you go for mono-fire.

2.5 If possible and only if you are not going for the Earth, Metal or Wood dual gate route, try to get Sentinel Dedication so you don't need to worry about DEX. You will also need Armor Proficiency for heavy armor.

3 round out the rest of your build, get some items, come up with a cool backstory and go play your character.

First thing I would do is giving them a free stance/Monastic Weaponry for free at level 1, then pick an actual level 1 feat.

I would make FoB the central piece of the gameplay and give the class more ways to change it or improve it through feats. As it is now you barely use any other form of striking with monks, let's double down on that to give them a sharper identity.

And I think that's it really, I think monk is mostly fine as it is. If you want more damage, you can archetype to get it and the base chassis is really solid already.

Edit: Oh, I would also drop the Ki spells requirement of needing another ki spell beforehand, needing Ki Strike/Rush to get the others is needlessly restrictive.

I've noticed a lot of the Primastic spells from the CRB have yet to reappear. They aren't amazing by any means, but they are very fun spells too!

I'm also not entirely sure what a Remaster-only game even means.

Right now I view anything that hasn't shown up in the Player Core but could have because it was from the core book or APG as potentially being held for further review and adjustment, potentially being released in Player Core 2. Excepting, of course, the things we're already sure are legacy content.

I hope most of the missing ones will show up in PC2, just want to know which relevant ones are missing now.

roquepo wrote:

As Riddlyn said, Striker's scroll lets you use that scroll as your spell of choice for the Spellstrike without the need to hold it. What you are doing is easily replicable though.

For your TS you can use a staff (cast, then drop for the first turn of combat) or scrolls and a Retrieval Belt (or a retrieval prism).

The staff seems a touch excessive. If you're only doing it one cast per fight, then you can just walk into battle with scroll in hand and use that... thus freeing the hand. Retrieval prisms are potentially useful if you wind up in a fight without scroll in hand. Not sure what this "retrieval belt" thing is, though.

. Since you only need the lowest level version, it is quite affordable. In the long run it will save you quite a bit of money (4 gp per combat) and it also gives you access to extra versatility in the form of more spells. Think the average player will do more than 60 combats between level 9-ish and level 20, that's more than enough to break even.

If the game is not going to the high levels, then yes, it is not a good move.

Now I think of it, is there a Staff of Divination equivalent in PC1? Needing to go to spellstriker staff would make this quite worse, since you don't get the extra utility spells and it is considerably more expensive.

As Riddlyn said, Striker's scroll lets you use that scroll as your spell of choice for the Spellstrike without the need to hold it. What you are doing is easily replicable though.

For your TS you can use a staff (cast, then drop for the first turn of combat) or scrolls and a Retrieval Belt (or a retrieval prism).

Casters are already good against multiple enemies thanks to their slots, so any ability that helps them vs strong enemies are IMO more important than anything that improves their AoE.

I personally find encounters against multiple PL or PL +1 enemies more dangerous on average than encounters against a single enemy past a certain level (with the exception of PL +4 cause at some level thresholds the math is just against you), but the ones that can struggle the most with those encounters are not the casters.

I think that is out of scope even when the class is slated for a major upgrade because one of the premises of the remaster was that all the characters that existed previously would be mostly playable as they were or as a better version of themselves after conversion. Forcing Alchemists into a specialized role would go against that.

Don't underestimate how far behind Investigator actually is when comparing its combat performance with other martials. Class needs a less action-intensive DaS AND a better DaS.

Besides the ones Gesalt mentioned, there are a few damaging ones that are really good for long encounters.

Illusory Creature (damage is far from excellent, but it has lots of other uses)
Phantom Orchestra
Control Sand (uncommon and comes from an AP)

Insight coffee is only affordable enough (you need dozens of these) at late mid to high levels, sadly, so I'd only consider it a factor for Alchemical Sciences until then.

It is also not enough, sadly. Even at those levels you are ahead of rogue on precision damage, you are looking something like:

Level 9 comparison (with Insight coffee, Investigator has +2 STR, both have a d6 weapon and a damaging property rune)

Investigator: 2d6+4+3d8+1d6 = 28 avg damage
Rogue (thief or ruffian): 2d6+6+2d6+1d6 = 23'5 avg damage

So, on their best level respective to the Rogue and with a stat spread that requires a low save stat, Investigator gets 4'5 points of damage on their first attack (close to 20% more damage) in exchange for a really bad second attack with no damage booster and less precision than usual at some levels and equally bad reaction strikes that you need to archetype for cause none of your feats give you one.

So yeah, free action DaS and starting with 2d6 on Didactic Strike would be a place to start.

I'd like it to be a bit more complicated than that.

Like... let them pull Devise a Strategem as a free action, but only on enemies that they've successfully run a Recall Knowledge on. Then let them have ways to check for a recall knowledge while pursuing a lead.

No need to reinvent anything, Suspect of Opportunity already exists, its only issue is that it is level 10 and costs a class feat. Make it level 3 top and turn it into a class feature and problem solved.

Pursuing the right lead before combat would still reward you with the ability of not needing to be hurt by your suspect first.

I really wish this revamp does the 1E Alchemist justice, honestly. It was one of my favourite classes back then and now it leaves a lot to be desired (it is functional past level 7, but it is way too bad before that and the payoff is not really there either).

I also wanted to add that I have no firsthand experience with the class, but I've played from level 3 to level 17 with a Bomber Alchemist PC, so I've seen what it is like. Will only talk about bomber cause I don't care much for the others besides Mutagenist and I don't know much either, being honest.

As for specific fixes, guess the big elephant in the room are the proficiencies. While I don't think they will get full martial proficiencies (unless they completely redesign the class role from scratch), I hope it lies somewhere between a martial and the remastered Warpriest. Maybe 7/15?

As Mythraine said, autoscaling on crafting would be nice, all classes hard-locked into a skill should have that IMO.

I also want the class to have access in some way to its "cantrips" way earlier, even if they are on a very limited form or limited to once per combat.

Finally, they still need to bake in a few more feats into the chassis of the class. Passive and unconditional damage boosters like Calculated Splash should not be feats in my opinion.

Well, and improve the feats I guess, but looking at witch or cleric I think that's a given at this point.

Cosmos Oracle mainly. That one is quite strong.

roquepo wrote:

Missed that somehow, that changes things.

Cantrip is still good since there are only a handful of enemies with greater darkvision, but the familiar power leaves a bit to be desired tbh.

Disagree here. It is one of the only powers that can affect multiple enemies at a time. And if the familiar is concealed it can use it's actions to hide and sneak, and it should always have an action with independent. With a 20% or 50% mischance or just being undetected you've got a great defense.

Shroud of Night is the sort of ability you can build whole parties around. A sniper, dread striker rogue, and monk would all love it as a team mate. The whole party being able to hide whenever and whereever gives you a lot of power to dictate who the enemy can even target. Ongoing Misery is another such ability.

Rather the opposite, it is quite hard to affect several creatures with a 5ft emanation. Remember pre-remaster bane/bless? Enemies would need to surround your familiar for it to affect several creatures and as I said early enemies focusing the familiar is a bad strategy for them. Enemies being side by side is also rare due to how flanking works (unless the map is really small and has choke points). Sure, concealed and frightened 1 are solid defenses, but enemies can do a lot with 3 whole actions and worst of all, 5ft range means that you will need to move a lot more, making Independent -> Hide a lot worse. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Starless Night is weak, but most of its power comes from the hex and not the familiar ability.

The class being narrow in both theme and mechanics is by design, and I personally think it is fine. A single class being for very specific campaigns (or people willing to make it work outside of them) is acceptable, it is really similar to rogue for a reason afterall.

What needs some serious improvements is its combat performance. Strategic Strike damage is too low and Devise a Stratagem should be easier to do as a Free action. Class should also have access to useful and reusable save effects built in so they can do stuff besides striking when they roll low on Devise a Stratagem.

Class is fun as it is now, but in combat if feels more like playing a helpful NPC than anything else.

I'd let them have their 10 min+ duration impulses active at all times unless they find themselves in a situation in which having their weapon drawn out would be a problem, like most social encounters.

And yeah, all these abilities should just be an on/off toggle for Kineticist.

If you can point me to one that uses an ethically-sourced data set instead of stealing from uncredited artists en masse, I'll be nice about AI stuff.

Until then? I'm not interested in what a blind algorithm spits out by ripping off people. It doesn't help that the folks who like it are some of the loudest evangelicals on the internet today.

There's been a few cases of fully ethical uses of AI in art, like the last Spiderverse movie using assisting AI tools trained by artists specifically commisioned for it, but besides those few cases yep, it is all built on stolen art and thus not very ethical to use or promote.

I personally don't mind much people using it for personal and private purposes though, as long as they know how that AI was most likely trained.

AI art and art theft have a long shared history. That's mostly why it is hated in most circles.

Most people find AI assistance tools "fine" for most fields, be it art or something else, the line is mostly crossed with AI generated art.

If the GM is willing to swap a few spells from the Wizard's curriculum it should be around the same if not better. Some new (or changed) feats are better than what they had before.

If you run it as it is, they are worse than pre-remaster Wizard period. Not by much, but still worse.

I think they mean force fang?

Yeah, got both of them switched up cause I have a terrible memory for names and stuff.

I want to know how badly the Magus is hammered after the cantrip changes. They look like they may have been neutered hard.

Magus should be better than ever with the new Gouging Claw, Ignition and the focus spell changes. Only issue is they have less damage types to choose from and less slotted spells to use with spellstrike, but that goes away if the GM allows pre-remaster content too. They also rely less on INT so STR based magus need Sentinel a bit less than before.

Like, you can now do amped Imaginary Weapon Spellstrikes three times per combat at level 6, don't see how they could be considered weaker now.

Also Ruffian with a d8 weapon is slighly above Thief in damage until level 10 (assuming both have reach, that is). Once Precise Debilitations come into play, any chance of catching up disappears, so I don't get where the fuss comes from when all we are talking is a measly deadly d8 damage that will only be somewhat relevant once or twice per level at most when there are remaster Ruffian builds that are already above what a let's say Glaive can do.

I'm OK with the current state of Ruffian RN and I assume Paizo took this measure both to get this done quick and as a way of future proofing the subclass, but pretending that the pillars that build this system would crumble due to a Rogue wielding a sharper stick is just an absurd notion.

Despite how good the Kineticist dedication is, the impulse DC scaling is quite bad being frank. It is somewhat useful at really low levels, but that's it. Better used for effects without save, as Gesalt said earlier.

What I think people will do more is Psychic dedication at 2 for Telekinetic Projectile or Phase Bolt to have both better versions of those cantrips and a decent damaging focus spell (well, CHA and INT casters at least).

I won't be able to play new character for a while, but for the next campaign I'll play in I have 2 concepts I really like.

The first is Relan, an Aiuvarin Human Rogue. He used to be a street urchin, but got adopted by a gnome gunsmith who took pity on him. After some years a strange mineral arrived to their workshop and when they started investigating, the material exploded, making his master disappear and taking both an arm and a leg from Relan. From that point onwards, Relan body was cursed, refusing any kind of healing magic. Even then, he decided to embark on a journey to know for real the fate of his master. He has a gunslinger (triggerbrand) dedication, the tech reliant background and would be a pain in the ass to play were not for the Rogue proficiecy changes.

The second one is Kamil, a Suli Monk with the student of perfection archetype and with a focus on using several monk weapons. She dedicated her whole life to get to participate in a certain martial arts tournament representing the school of wind (we play on a homebrew setting most of the time, would take a lot of time to explain so I'll leave it at that), but before she came of age, her master kicked her with no apparent reason. She took that hit badly and is currently going through a very low point in her life. I wouldn't even try to play were not for the new refocus rules. I'm mainly looking forward to PC2 to see how it will affect her.

Edit: If we count RoA as remaster PCs, I also have a fire+air Kineticist in mind, but it is just a build for now. Dual gate Air and Fire (all improvements to fire later on) with monk dedication for some Ki spells and Guarded Movement. Air is there mostly for Four Winds, Clear as Air and Cyclonic Ascent, the rest is just fire stuff. Idea is for them to be some sort of elemental knight, so I'll probably throw in a Sentinel Dedication as well.

roquepo wrote:

Would you say the cantrip change has widen even more the difference between casters that have a good focus spell (or have focus cantrips) and those who don't between levels 1-4?

Focus spells and focus cantrips don't really interact with Cantrips. Whatever the damage of TKP, you gonna Inspire with your Bard. So it affects all casters roughly equally.

Since you can fully refocus between fights, you should be able to get away with casting cantrips a bit less at low levels if you manage to get 2 or more focus spells and at least one of them is a generally usable one. That's what I tried to ask about.

So better put, is the best case scenario for no resource fights (2 or 3 focus spells and either 1 or no cantrips used) vs the worst case scenario (3-4 cantrips) a wider or narrower difference from what the same scenario would look like pre-remaster (basically the difference between a caster with a good focus spell and a caster without it)?

I won't be able to play with a remaster caster until next year (currently only playing 1 game and it has no casters), so I'm really curious about where the new caster "meta" will end up and how people are faring RN.

Would you say the cantrip change has widen even more the difference between casters that have a good focus spell (or have focus cantrips) and those who don't between levels 1-4?

Also, a few of them were also buffed a bit, right? A few of them do 3d4 instead of 1d4 + mod. Do these feel better or is it mostly the same?

Agree, this discussion seems a bit backwards. Ruffian was already one of the best PC options you could take. What they could do, they can still do and now they even have more options. I don't really see the issue some people are having.

Is it though? A leshy with Grasping Reach could already use a fauchard or literally all ruffians a shauth lash that has exactly the same traits as a scythe.

If we use longspear as the benchmark, going from d8 reach to d6 reach, deadly d8, trip and sweep is a tradeoff. Going from d8 reach to d8 reach, trip and deadly d10 is a direct and significant upgrade.

Shauth Slash is uncommon, comes from an AP (with other significantly above the curve weapons) is advanced and lacks reach (or would go to d4 with the leshy feat). What's the point you are trying to make exactly?

Because all Ruffian Rogues are Leshys, therefore the entire subclass has to be nerfed?

I'm not claiming that being the reason, just saying that d8 martial would be problematic in that specific scenario, that's all.

And yeah, forget about Fatal, kind of goofed there. Scythe would be too much still, though. d8 Reach, trip and Deadly D10 with a d6 steroid on a class that can comfortably attack 3 times with no map and gets enemies off-guard by breathing is not something I would want to deal with as a GM.

Been thinking about jousting and ruffian together lately. A lance has jousting d6, that would make it eligible for sneak attack. You can trigger gang up with your mount too and being able to carry a shield would make you very durable.

I also looked into the leshy feat that gives reach and lowers your damage die by 1 step, but most d8 2 handed weapons either have reach or finesse, making it kind of redundant. 3 section naginata is the only one I've seen that might be worth it for that combo (requires both human and leshy feats, though, so a bit convoluted).

Other bards can be bad with accuracy because they are still full spellcasters, why isn't a Warrior Muse bard more martial than spellcaster?

A bounded bard (which I think it would be the only satisfactory way of doing this, a warpriest kind of deal would not work well) would be a martial first and a caster second. That's not the case with Warrior. According to most of its mechanics, Warrior bards are commander-like figures, the caster equivalent of what most people think when they talk about a potential Warlord class. It has its own merits, so I don't think losing it for a proper martial bard would be a good deal.

Biggest problem warrior bards always had is the Warrior part in its name. I wish they were called Battle Bards or something else.

When what we care about is just hitting, every +1 on top of another starts having diminishing returns at some point. Being -2 or -3 is not that big of a deal for a class with massive buffs and debuffs when trying to trigger this level 1 feat is the only goal.

Like, if you quicken a Synesthesia, Inspire Heroics (will take a while for me to remember the new name) and then Strike you will extend that IH more often than not (or True Target instead of quickened Synesthesia as gesalt said earlier).

I'm genuinely curious about what kind of shenanigans a Resentment Witch and a Warrior Bard can pull of now when working in tandem. Guess we will get some table talk about these at some point.

I don’t see a benefit to the dev team commenting. All it will do is fuel further arguments, not solve anything.

Oh, absolutely, language is pretty clear RN from what I've seen, there is no much to say on their part.

Thing is, saying that we don't like this change/clarification and discussing why is important so we might influence Paizo to change it in the future with another errata.

In the same way that it is important that those that like or don't mind this change speak up as well.

As long as people do it with composure, of course (which probably won't end up being the case).

roquepo wrote:

gesalt wrote:

Inspire heroics, now called fortissimo composition, got the weirdest buff. Rather than being a very hard dc based on the highest level creature affected, it is now based on the highest will DC of targets affected. In the worst case this is usually easier by 2-3 but if you don't have a character with capped wis and will progression (most parties without a cleric or druid) it'll be even easier.

That's weird indeed. Even though it is better, it feels a bit inconvent having to ask who has the highest will save all the time for those that change parties often (thinking of westmarches and Society play).

We were already asking who has the highest level.

I could always tell you my level without checking. Not the case for a Will save. It is also a stat that can change with buffs and debuffs, so you might even need to ask several times.

Fort save is most likely a mistake, will surely be errata'd.

Two, it still doesn't feel like the Dying/Wounded rules overly affect 'new gamers'. It affects people who want to avoid healing themselves or allies before they drop. Which is a tactics choice, not a 'new gamer' type of thing to do.

And isn't this something new, players, specially those that come from 5E, will usually do?

Say what you want, but there is an obvious direct correlation between making dying rules harsher and people dying more. If it happened before, it will happen even more now, it is hard to argue against that.

And also, if this gets closed, it is not cause this topic should not be discussed, but because people are not keeping online etiquette. Discussing what we don't like about these changes is important.

I just don't like these new dying rules cause everytime I check reddit I can find a post written by a new player talking about their characters dying after 1 or 2 sessions without needing to scroll much.

It is most likely not a big deal for people that have good experience with the system, but I think the game was already deadly enough for new players. Any more could make the initial learning experience plain worse.