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The Order Authorization window hasn't closed yet right? They started 7/12 but still being generated today? I've noticed by Order hasn't been generated yet and was also nervous that my Subscriptions aren't working as expected.

Hi, is there any alternative way of reaching out to Customer Service? I emailed customer.service@paizo.com and got the automated response that a support ticket was created and the team will reply shortly. There wasn't any promised ETA.

It's been over a week and I replied to the email several days later to add a comment just hoping for a status update or a general ETA but still nothing. This seems really frustrating as there seems to be no path forward if Customer Service just doesn't reply or acknowledge the ticket via email.

There is no Customer Service forum anymore. There is no phone number anymore. I've had the Paizo Advantage subscriptions for over 4 years now and this is the first time I've felt punished for being a loyal customer. I had the same issue as others where the Pathfinder Society Scenario orders weren't being generated since September 2023 and even just reply for an ETA update on my ticket would have been enough.

Paizo's Customer Service was always top-notch in the past and the thought of having to go through this process in the future for any issues is... intimidating.

I really hope the Ranger’s Animal Companion feat progression was changed to match the Druid and Beastmaster archetype’s progression. It has consistently annoyed me and that a class’s base feature progresses slower than an archetype and as such you had Rangers taking Beastmaster just to keep their Animal Companions relevant. Just felt mechanically silly.

But having it built-in feels a bit too powerful for the class as well to allow this martial to use melee and range attacks off a single attribute. Also a lot of the existing base class features feel essential so I wouldn't know what to swap with it if it was to be built-in.

This is just feels a little close to the Alchemist's Powerful Alchemy situation and it's always a little awkward when there is a Level 1 Class Feat that stands out among the rest.

There's also the potentially strange interaction of Flexible Blasts working with Elemental Weapon to allow for a Brutal One-Handed Crossbow or a Brutal Firearm but that is possibly intentional since the damage die of Elemental Blasts with those Ranged Weapons were similar anyway.

So one of my first reactions upon reading how the Kineticist is supposed to function. Since the Elemental Blast is a specialized action and not a Basic Strike action, this is one of the first Martial progressing classes to seem to have a harder time utilizing Haste to have a Quickened Action for a basic Stride or Strike with potentially the Magus as an honorable mention.

I'm curious how the mid-level playtests go in this regard. My following thought is that since the Kineticist has so many Impulse feats that require good positioning and that the class is pretty action-hungry to Gather Elements, Elemental Blast, and use special Impulse actions that they probably are happy with a Quickened action to Stride each turn anyway without ever using a basic Strike. One of the things I hope playtesters keep an eye on. I think melee Maguses did also appreciate the Quickened Stride too anyway even if they focused on Spellstrikes instead of Basic Strikes on most turns.

Speed Runes on the Handwraps of Mighty Blows are also awkward but that is near Level 19 where the Kineticist does get a built-in Class feature to make them Quickened to Gather Elements which is excellent and nicely helps the class take advantage of the Quickened condition but waaaaay later at Level 19.

Me too, I didn't see the usual Digital Subscription thread get posted either. Still hoping to see Escape from Oppara get fulfilled. My players played the prior scenario and are optimistic about Part 2.

Same for me. Both scenarios are pending for me as well still.

Deepest Wellspring is the normal bread-and-butter Level 18 ability to Refocus three spent Focus points that all classes that utilize Focus points get in their feat selection. However due to the Psychic's unique interaction with Focus Points amplifying cantrips, I was expecting... something unique with this feat.

I would like to see either:

1) This feat be available at Level 14 or 16 but include the restriction that all 3 focus points are restored if all focus points are spent to amp cantrips and have it freely upgrade to the generic Level 18 version (might be too good to frontload taking a level 18 feat at a lower level but this could be a unique perk of the Psychic feat selection)

2) Some extra ability tacked onto this Level 18 feat. Perhaps just 1/day the Psychic can use a free action/single action to amp a cantrip without using a Focus point as a bonus rider to simulate having potentially 4 Focus Points for one fight for the Psychic

The Master Summoner feat from Summoner might be a good option for those who want more Psychic-themed spells at higher level slots. Give a feat option to choose a spell-slot to be two spell slots for a specific set of "Psychic" spells.

Summoner has the same problem for taking the Wellspring Archetype and is an existing class. RAW they seem to have a very rough Level 1 with no spell slots and just cantrips when taking the Wellspring Archetype.

Constant Levitation
Your power has unbound you from the earth below, letting you float harmlessly over traps and unstable terrain. You’re affected by a constant air walk, except the highest you can walk is 5 feet above the ground. While your psyche is unleashed, you’re also affected by a fly spell.

This is mechanically super cool, but comparable feats at Level 16 are giving characters permanent flight. Because you can only Unleash Psyche in a significant encounter this mechanically is more inline with temporary or in-combat flight abilities that are granted by mid-level options. The advantage of Constant Levitation is the fact no actions are required to activate the flight in combat and the constant Air Walk at 5-feet above the ground.

But since it doesn't actually grant true out-of-combat flight (You aren't trying to fly the One Ring to Mordor with Constant Levitation), I don't see why this feat needs to be Level 16. To keep it as is, it should be probably be a lower-level option.

Preferably, it feels weird you are able to passively float at 5-feet above the ground but require significant in-combat stress to actually fly. I would prefer... using a Focus Point to at least get a temporary boosted flair of flight for out-of-combat use.

This feat is really cool, just hopefully tweaked and cooked a bit more before final release.

Current wording is:
"If you’ve spent at least 2 Focus Points and spent Focus Points only to amp psi cantrips since the last time you Refocused, you regain 2 Focus Points when you Refocus. Otherwise, you regain 1 Focus Point."

I think the restriction to have only spent Focus Points exclusively to amp psi cantrips a bit much considering how much of the player base likes to mix and match player options like picking up another Focus Spell/ability.

I suggest changing it to:

"If you’ve spent at least 2 Focus Points to amp psi cantrips since the last time you Refocused, you regain 2 Focus Points when you Refocus. Otherwise, you regain 1 Focus Point."

This way the ability still encourages Focus points to be spent to amp psi cantrips, particularly spend 2 to regain 2 same as before but now if the Psychic picks up another Focus ability and gain a 3rd Focus point, they can still spend that 3rd Focus point towards a new Focus Spell/ability and 2 Focus points to amp psi cantrips in order qualify to regain 2 points when they Refocus.

Very slight softening of the restriction that should play the same in the normal case and is less restrictive to multiclassing and archetype options.

I also had my order created with USPS Priority as the Shipping Method instead of the usual Standard Postal

Advanced Weaponry - You’ve upgraded your construct’s weaponry. Choose one of your construct’s unarmed attacks to gain your choice of one initial weapon modification, chosen from the list on page 17 or from other initial weapon modifications to which you have access. The unarmed attack must meet any requirements for the chosen traits (such as being a melee attack for entangling form)

One of the Initial Weapon Modifications is Complex Simplicity (simple weapon only) Increase your innovation’s weapon damage die by one step (d4 to d6, d6 to d8, d8 to d10, d10 to d12). In addition, it gains one of the following traits of your choice: versatile B, versatile P, or versatile S.

I believe RAW since Advanced Weaponry mentions the construct's unarmed attack must meet any requirements for the chosen traits, no unarmed attacks qualify for Complex Simplicity which can only apply to simple weapons and RAW, unarm attacks do not count as weapons.

"However, unarmed attacks aren’t weapons, and effects and abilities that work with weapons never work with unarmed attacks unless they specifically say so."
https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=223

I am unsure if this is intentional and if it is intentional, I am wondering if this Breakthrough option should clarify it with reminder text since increasing damage die is going to be among the more appealing options each time. I'd rather it is clarified that Complex Simplicity can be taken as an option specifically as an Advanced Weaponry modification. It doesn't seem overly powerful and in example builds I simply wanted to upgrade the projectile launcher d4 damage die to a d6 instead to make it line up with a shortbow's damage output.

Yes, I hope people understand this when they fill out the surveys. As written the Summoner reselects the 4 spells they know every level up for the spell slots they can cast.

Even with only 2nd and 3rd level spell slots, they can still have Mage Armor, listed as a 1st level spell, but known as a 2nd/3rd level spell (text doesn't change since it has no heightened effect until at least 4th level)

But unlike the Magus, as a spontaneous caster it is important to note that the Summoner *will be forced to forget old spells to learn new ones* and this feels miserable and is silly to explain to players. It breaks immersion and feels so video-gamey.

Immersion of the fantasy world through mechanics should be a major pillar of the game and it feels downright silly through the Summoner's current spellcasting mechanics. I'm ok with reduced spellslots but do not force players to *forget old spells to learn new ones.* This is similar to D&D 4E's approach to spellcasting and it felt miserable in that edition too.

Actually, I know they are really shooting for one prepared caster and one spontaneous caster to balance the class offerings in Secrets of Magic but I would rather just have Summoner be a prepared caster like the Magus. That would just fix everything for me. The 4 spell slots at your two highest levels only mechanic really just plays better with prepared casting over spontaneous at this point if there is a concern of power balance with a spontaneous caster with a large spell selection. (I doubt they would want to bring back the 1E Arcanist spellcasting tables again though I would also not mind that here.)

Yes that's correct. The playtest flavors it as you can "reselect" your four spells in your repetoire when you level up.

I also agree that it's weird and never liked the verisimilitude of explaining that a character forgets something to learn something new. It's always because of a balance reason over anything else, most common with retraining character choices.

Every level up feels too frequent to encounter this kind of weird immersion breaking rules process, compared to something like retraining. The Magus by comparison doesn't have to worry about this with a spellbook keeping past spells they know.

Keeping all old spells as signature spells is probably too powerful as a spontaneous caster, even keeping the 4 spell slots a day. I would like them to consider it or some kind of other option though.

The only upside is for new players, Summoners are always just going to have 4 spells on their sheet to fight choice paralysis.

I wouldn't mind if the concern is future-proofing against skill feats that don't make sense for an Eidolon to see if in the Skill Feat section of the Summoner to list certain skill feats that can be taken for the Eidolon instead at those levels.

Otherwise, I think you can just add the usual verbiage of GM adjudicates what makes sense and just either state skill feats can be taken for either the Summoner and the Eidolon or they state the Eidolon can benefit from the Summoner's Skill Feats.

I do think having the Skill Feats just be shared feels a bit much. The feats are generally flavored to be unique choice of the player character and the Eidolon sharing those is starting to cross over into the Twinned Summoner feel too much.

I don't mind the skill proficiencies being shared since it does simplify alot of the bookkeeping across two statblocks. Feats being shared is pushing a bit far for me. I think the Eidolon should get their own and would love to see them get a few skill feats for free even as they level up to feel distinct.

I saw a few posts from other people mentioning that this Focus Spell should have its duration increased to 10 minutes but wanted to add my playtest feedback for this.

This focus spell really wants to be a out-of-combat spell. It's a pretty natural trope to want your eidolon to scout ahead, especially when they have alternative speeds and senses to use. 1 minute is far too limiting to accomplish this, even if they do have an advantage of unmanifesting at the end so they don't necessarily need to secure a route back to the party.

I wouldn't mind seeing a 10-minute duration as a heightened version of the Focus spell, so that while not being available at Level 1, eventually unlocks as an option to use.

Having the duration become longer than 10 minutes is awkward for a Focus spell, but might still be okay for consideration as another heightened level (like an hour for example) since the Summoner's refocus activity requires bonding with their Eidolon which wouldn't be possible until they returned. (If the Summoner gains another Refocus activity, I can't see this being a broken Focus spell still.)

So the Eidolon's Proficiencies are listed as:

Proficiencies
Your eidolon’s level is equal to yours. They begin as an expert in Fortitude and Will saves and are trained in Reflex saves. In addition, they’re trained in unarmed attacks and unarmored defense. **They share your skill proficiencies.** Certain class features increase your eidolon’s proficiencies.

I like this class feature. It helps simplify the complexity of managing two statblocks.

I like the flavor of the Class Feat Dual Studies:
You and your eidolon have each practiced some skills on your own, though not all your experiences translate with the shared link. Choose two different skills. Your eidolon becomes trained in one of those skills and you become trained in the other skill. At 7th level, you each become an expert in the chosen skills.

I, however, find it confusing from the way the Eidolon's skill proficiencies were implemented. The flavor of the class feat seems to be that you and your Eidolon uniquely gain skill proficiencies that differ from each other but it seems the way these two mechanics would actually interact would be:

*You become trained in a skill and therefore your Eidolon also becomes trained in that skill. Your eidolon becomes trained the other skill and you do not become trained in that skill.*

Specific overrides General and maybe this Class Feat is meant to override the general Eidolon Skill Proficiences but it isn't clearly worded that they wouldn't gain the proficiency from the skill proficiency the Summoner just gained. I think this class feat's wording should be clarified if it's kept as is in the final version.

I don't think it should be a question of how good the Champion Dedication is. Deific Weapon is associated with the Champion Class Identity, and a player choice to have their character take on the Champion Dedication should have the options to feel more Champion-like. It should be able to be balanced as a Feat option to take as it only affects Simple Weapons. The level of the Feat can be balanced if there is a power-level concern. Flurry of Blows and Inspire Courage are both high-level archetype feat options for those reasons.

I would hope that as 2E matures as a system, the player options increase so that customization increases to have players don't feel punished for progressing their feat choices in a direction that makes sense for their character. Multiclassing into Champion with no way to obtain a Champion Feature (or anything regarding their Deity's Favored Weapon) feels off.

I agree. It's a straightforward houserule fix. I mostly posted to hopefully bring visibility to Paizo so it's addressed in a future release or errata.

Something that has come up recently for one of my players. I have a PC who took Champion Dedication and is adjusting to 2E multiclassing changes. They expect to get some benefit regarding their Deity's Favored Weapon which is an unarmed attack.

Now since the Deific Weapon is a Champion Class Feature and not a Feat, there's no way for a player who took Champion Dedication to increase the Damage die of their Deity's Favored Simple Weapon or Unarmed attack.

Since Clerics can increase the damage die of their Deity's Favored Simple Weapon or Unarmed attack through a feat, Players who take Cleric Dedication do get access to this through the Cleric Feat Deadly Simplicity within the Cleric Multiclass Archetype options.

I think Champion Dedication Archetypes should also get access to a similar feat. Apologies if this was posted about before. I didn't see the topic among the threads and is an odd anomaly that I hope can get addressed in future content or errata.

The Playtest version of Noisy gave a -1 penalty to Stealth checks to Avoid Notice. It's interesting that they seemed to have removed the mechanical penalty and generalized it to GM Fiat but it's probably simplest to run it similarly as a mechanical penalty as it was written in its playtest iteration

singingzombies wrote:

Quandary wrote:

singingzombies wrote:

Oh poo, guess I’ll allow the Playtest Bard player to continue to Shield Block till level 3 and then make him take the Shield Block general feat. It would be weird if he “forgot how to” for a whole level. Punished for starting the campaign with Playtest rules.

Well the player very well may not want to spend a Feat taking it, so you may benefit from taking slightly broader view. With or without the Feat, a character is doing substantially the same thing (raising the Shield), the Feast just grants certain benefits re: DR. But the effect of DR isn't really distinguishable from the enemy happening to roll less damage, so without metagaming about the process of appying DR to "original" damage, there isn't really any overt change to notice. Technically the character might notice they are statistically taking more damage now, but distinguishing that from the normal level increase in enemy damage seems pretty dubious. Stepping away from metagaming player perspective, I don't really see a problem re: character immersion.

Yeah, I rationalized that shields still function from an immersion-level without shield block but this is slightly different because:

1) The party got a Sturdy Shield magical item as a drop and the only noticeable difference from a normal shield (I haven't seen the final version) is that it absorbs more damage when used to Shield Block

2) the player has been using the ability with the reaction already and enjoyed it. (I also like that shields feel more proactive this version. It's a good change) Bards also don't have consistent use for their reaction compared to other classes as well.

The simplest solution to me is to have the Bard take the feat to keep the build 100% legal and I have a feeling he will be ok with that (We all knew builds would change ultimately when converting over) but in the possibility it isn't. I've been thinking about handing out extra feats as rewards. I'm just heisitant with

...

No, he's are playing a Goblin. I was honestly pretty neutral on Goblins as a Core Race, but the glee I saw in his eyes when he found out he could play as a Goblin now was worth it.

singingzombies wrote:

Oh poo, guess I’ll allow the Playtest Bard player to continue to Shield Block till level 3 and then make him take the Shield Block general feat. It would be weird if he “forgot how to” for a whole level. Punished for starting the campaign with Playtest rules.

Well the player very well may not want to spend a Feat taking it, so you may benefit from taking slightly broader view. With or without the Feat, a character is doing substantially the same thing (raising the Shield), the Feast just grants certain benefits re: DR. But the effect of DR isn't really distinguishable from the enemy happening to roll less damage, so without metagaming about the process of appying DR to "original" damage, there isn't really any overt change to notice. Technically the character might notice they are statistically taking more damage now, but distinguishing that from the normal level increase in enemy damage seems pretty dubious. Stepping away from metagaming player perspective, I don't really see a problem re: character immersion.

Yeah, I rationalized that shields still function from an immersion-level without shield block but this is slightly different because:

1) The party got a Sturdy Shield magical item as a drop and the only noticeable difference from a normal shield (I haven't seen the final version) is that it absorbs more damage when used to Shield Block

2) the player has been using the ability with the reaction already and enjoyed it. (I also like that shields feel more proactive this version. It's a good change) Bards also don't have consistent use for their reaction compared to other classes as well.

The simplest solution to me is to have the Bard take the feat to keep the build 100% legal and I have a feeling he will be ok with that (We all knew builds would change ultimately when converting over) but in the possibility it isn't. I've been thinking about handing out extra feats as rewards. I'm just heisitant with doing this 1st Campaign since I want to get a sense of how balanced the numbers are RAW.

I'm glad someone answered my question and honestly when I heard Shield Block was being given as a class feature/general feat my immediately thought was Bard is likely a class that wouldn't get it so I was already halfway there with my expectation.

Zaister wrote:

Rysky wrote:

tqomins wrote:

singingzombies wrote:

Are Bards able to Shield Block by default since they had Shield Proficiency during the playtest?

Is the Draconic Sorcerer Bloodline Focus Power different from what they had during the playtest, the Draconic Claws Power?

I'd make the shield question more general:

Which classes get shield block by default? We know the Fighter does, but who else?

I believe everyone can do the Shield Raise to get more AC, but only Fighters start with the option to sacrifice their shield as a form of DR.

Champions, warpriest clerics, druids, fighters all gain the Shield Block general feats as a level 1 class feature.

Druids? That seems strange to me

Oh poo, guess I’ll allow the Playtest Bard player to continue to Shield Block till level 3 and then make him take the Shield Block general feat. It would be weird if he “forgot how to” for a whole level. Punished for starting the campaign with Playtest rules.

tqomins wrote:

singingzombies wrote:

Are Bards able to Shield Block by default since they had Shield Proficiency during the playtest?

Is the Draconic Sorcerer Bloodline Focus Power different from what they had during the playtest, the Draconic Claws Power?

I'd make the shield question more general:

Which classes get shield block by default? We know the Fighter does, but who else?

I believe everyone can do the Shield Raise to get more AC, but only Fighters start with the option to sacrifice their shield as a form of DR.

Thanks for the reply! Does the Shield cantrip let's you Shield Block with the temporary shield created at least by default?

My questions since I started a campaign using the Playtest rules 3 weeks ago (My group couldn't wait) are:

Are Bards able to Shield Block by default since they had Shield Proficiency during the playtest?

Is the Draconic Sorcerer Bloodline Focus Power different from what they had during the playtest, the Draconic Claws Power?

right I saw that. The numerical bonuses stack for each rank you have in the training. I still feel the channel energy is setting the precedent for how this will work.

Channel Energy is a resource and you still get the benefits of multiple sources of Channel Energies, in that you can pull uses from each poor.

I see it more likely (and would be more likely to house-rule it) similar to Armor Training and Animal Companion levels, in that they would stack. I think the Animal Companion levels is the better precedent to look at since it basically merges very similar features from multiple classes into a clean single Animal companion that scales well with multiclassing. (It's the simplest of the solutions, makes sense from the flavor of multiclassing on a single character with the classes sharing a similar feature, and isn't game-breaking)

That being said, the RAW is still strictly gray-area, (and RAW-wise I would lean towards Flurries not stacking without an FAQ to clarify) I would love to see a clarification/errata/faq on the subject, and expect table variance sadly until they do so.

Kits in the ACG don't line up with the UE kits for weight and cost.

Barbarian vs Bloodrager is the most obvious, as the only difference is the Barbarian kit weighs LESS despite containing "Rope" (Which I assume is 50 feet of hemp rope worth 1 GP and weighing 10 pounds) while the Bloodrager kit does not. Despite this the Bloodrager kit costs the same while weighing 3 pounds more.

Additionally, only the Warpriest has a holy symbol or spell component pouch in his kit (while all UE kits contained these if needed).

Plume of Panache makes no sense.

I personally am baffled by the Arcanist's Kit, which has exactly the same contents as the Wizard's Kit, has the same price, and is somehow 18 pounds heavier. (39 vs 21 lbs)

Pg 89 Brawler Archetype Wild Child. Animal Companion (EX) Replaces the bonus combat feats gained at 2nd, 5th, 11th, and 14th lv. Wild Tricks replaces the the bonus combat feats gained at 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 20th lv. So... both abilities replace the 5th and 14th lv bonus combat feats.

Don't forget the 11th bonus combat feat since someone must have completely forgot to double-check their archetype work.