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I don't think that you can throw heavy stuff with this belt. As it only says you treat it as weightless when you lift it and then exclusively states the object has its full weight and bulk for all other purposes.
In large town/cities yes as you point out. The sleepy little "town" that is just an inn and two houses for the farmers? probably not gonna find magic Costco there. There is a specific rule that limits your crafting earnings, if you intend to sell, based on settlement size. p 237. If you don't intend to sell them you are fine. Compared to the earn income paragraph on page 504 you will only be able to sell items of 0-1 at best in a village. If you are unable to find a special contract to sell something specific to a specific person or organisation that might be present.
I think the mobility crane stance grants has been underestimated here especially with skill feats like quick jump.I appreciate mobility as much as the next guy Vestris, but does that really warrant bumping up crane style? I’m not so sure, especially since I don’t think IIRC stances can be used in Exploration mode? I was mostly curious as to why you omitted to mention the mobility factor in crane stance while explicitly pointing it out for dragon stance. As I assumed crane would be the mobility stance, kinda hit and run with high ac and the potential to waste a lot of actions from opponents. Or getting out of range entirely while utilizing vertical jumps. If that would warrant a boost in your ranking? I don't know. I haven't looked at the stances in too much detail yet but I am very happy with the many different fighting styles introduced for the monk.
There are also degrees of scouting, generally scouting for something ahead is a little easier than scouting for a prepared and active ambush.
I like the change, however I would have wished for a little more differentiation, which I guess could have been done, employing the other physical damage types.
I think the mobility crane stance grants has been underestimated here especially with skill feats like quick jump.
My personal experience so far has been really good, mostly under 10 min for a level one character. Most of my players are rather new, so some of them have a little bit of PF 1 or PF 2 playtest experience some have never played a pnp RPG ever before. For level 1 characters we had roughly an hour per person, from scratch. Level 8 Rogue with a completely new player 3h.
Which roughly mirrors my experience from the playtest, where I introduced ~10 new players to the system.
You sure can, you need 1 feat to gain access to bows and there are plenty of great spells that work really well with wizards/sorcerers shooting with a bow. Magic Weapon as a level 1 spell is extremely powerful until you get magic weapons, then you can exchange it for true strike (better hits) or jump/fleet step, for increased mobility and getting to cover. You can also fire your bow for 1 action + electric arc cantrip (actually any combat spell that does not include an attack is really good with a bow) as it is not an attack. Or fire twice with shield up. + Bespell Weapon on level 4.
Instantly killing 2 of 3 should count as a severe buff to the intimidation check though.
I wonder if that's true, physics says no. His gear, disregarding his bombs, weights 4 bulk 7 L. Granted they omitted the infused bombs, however the infused daily reagents have light bulk, now I wish for some errata here, but applying physics as a base rule the bombs should have light bulk as well considering the weight of infused reagents is true. He would then have 4 bulk 8 L. p 72. Together, these infused reagents have light Bulk.
For the chirurgeon:
The only issue I have with elixir of life is, that there is no 3rd level version.
Just caught the end of the replay on G&S, it was nice, great for Europeans that we can watch it in the early morning.
I'm not sure how striking an unattended object works-- usually their AC is so low most characters would crit them on a strike, but I don't think you should be able to crit a wall for example. First of all thank you for your detailed first impression! I still don't have my books, but I would say depends on the object, as most of them will not be classified it depends on the DM to decide whether they have a weak spot, and thus can be critted, and if that weak spot is easy to hit.
I would disagree, in PF1 terms yes but in PF2 this is the difference between trained and Master or trained and Legendary. And as others already noted Quickdraw is especially useful for ranged or thrown weapons. Regarding ready action in exploration mode. This depends on the exact phrasing of the ready action, the playtest version is clearly phrased in a way that sets it in encounter mode.
You could just switch to encounter mode, roll initiative and then let them play it out turn by turn, as the Goblins would not act differently while they don't notice the players. I would prefer version 1 as it is less abrupt in the change of narration, and the flow is just better, letting only one person roll while the others don't change their behavior unless detection happens.
I guess, high deception and diplomacy don't affect the CR/level too much in an encounter sense. This might obviously be a wild guess as I do not have the bestiary yet and they might have additional abilities to profit off of the high skill bonus.
Yeah but is the maximum stealth you can get at your level really all that different from the maximum perception you could get? Is it all that different from the perception your opponents can get?Depends. You could max stealth and sneak a lot, which is quite good.There doesn't seem to be much you can do to consistently get high initiative though. I mean, keep up your Perception, but that's about it. It's not like PF1 where you can take so many bonuses that winning initiative is practically guaranteed. Strongly depends, on the situation and the opponent. If you get the drop on someone they will have to go with perception, while you use the skill of your choice. Lets say it is a fighter or a fighterish monster as we want to stay on the AoO example. Then they will likely have high proficiency in perception but unlikely high wisdom as well so their overall score evens out, while you as the attacker will choose a skill in which you are at peak proficiency and ability score. Be that stealth, deception, acrobatics or whatever fits the situation best. Plus it will likely be easier to gain circumstance bonus on your skill checks than on perception. So I would figure you would have an edge of 3-4(5-6 with item) points over an equal level fighter. If both sides are surprised it would come down to perception and thus roughly a 50/50 situation which suits the situation.
I think I like this as it gives quick (high initiative) fighters an edge over those that are slow. And if it is true it accounts for all weapon drawing. So a fighter that wins the initiative and has quickdraw, walks up to the opponent, draws, strikes twice and gets an AoO against his opponent if he draws in front of him.
I would guess extra damage from a crit is not affected, while replacement effects still take place. So for fatal the higher die is rolled and doubled the extra die not.
Thank you for this unexpected birthday present, now I don't have to store my players characters on ancient stone tables anymore :)
I completely agree with the treat wounds assessment, it feels rushed and brute forced into the system bursting the game world. The only real restriction of healing being a short amount of time? I guess wrapping everyone up until they look like mummies heals wounds now. I will houserule this asap if it stays anything like this. The DC and the HP regen are completely arbitrary. The more experienced the healer the harder it is to cure the wound? I thought the worse the wound the harder the healing but well. It also roflstomps the non magic heal feats, for free. Also the description is very bad. You can help your allies recover with a significant time expenditure, ten minutes (or less then 2 minutes per person in a party of 6) are not significant not even an hour (ten minutes per person in a group of 6) for a full heal is significant. Also being unlimited while magical healing stops after a tough fight. Why would anyone even invent/create/use such pathetic healing magic in a world like this...Sorcerer needs good and inspiring bloodlines with choices involved not a well you don't have to use them exception. The ranger changes is actually something that I like a lot because it supports his role as a mobile fighter that can deal very well with the action economy.
However I could also see more or different school powers with 1 actions, like dimensional steps or the compositions for the bard or some of the cleric domain powers. Sorcerers can activate their dragon claws or their ancestral surge too.
Great, except there's nothing a full caster can really consistently do with their third action and stay in character as a full caster. I don't really like quoting myself but I just mentioned a couple of things earlier in this thread: I still think that casters are in a decent spot, being able to do multiple things on a turn (e.g. Cast + Attack, Truestrike + Attack spell, Shield + Spell, Wizard: Recall Knowledge to identify + cast appropriate spell, Sorcerer: demoralize + spell (which btw. makes sure DC spells work better) Bards can use Inspire courage as well. Having some more 1 action cantrips with different abilities would certainly help, but we already have precedence for them so lets wait on those.
Not a particular good outcome for your party, but an I would certainly call this an epic attempt to kill the manticore. Maybe a bit too bold and unlucky to chase the fleeing manticore with half the group.
It's a problem because maybe I want to play a full caster, not a spellsword, or a multiclass wizard/grumpus who glares at people scarily after casting fireball (though I might want to do the second one on one character after that description.) Plain and simple.Eh. It does still result in you usually being better off playing a gish, though, since it's better to be able to cast that burning hands and make an attack, than to just cast burning hands. About the only other useful thing a caster can do with that last action is cast the shield cantrip, and in most cases you're probably better off with the weapon attack. Which you can do with 3 spells a day + cantrips. Chose carefully. Identifying all the monsters can help too.
I feel like paizo is trying to come up with rules that micromanage the game so that bad dm's can't fail. Never going to work and the good GM's aren't going to play that game. What is stopping the good GM's?
I still would not go too far with the conclusions drawn from this fight, you had 3 PC's and you were slowed and you had no AoE so of course 3 mirror images are very hard to beat, having effectively 6 actions/round fewer then a normal group. The boss was a very strong caster and more than a viable threat in CC.
I do not think I can really get back into the swing of writing full playtest reports for 2e again. My surgery recovery is slow, I terribly oversleep each day, my other games have been ramping up in terms of investment and prep time needed between sessions, I have been suffering extreme player attrition such that I ofttimes have only two players and must stressfully run two GMPCs, and my morale for 2e has been dwindling further and further. I am sorry. I am sorry to hear this and hope your recovery will improve! I understand the player numbers dwindling I guess with 13/13 TPK's one can build a reputation. And I still do not understand how you even do it. I have not seen a single report that has had any trouble with the early encounters, it was always the players plowing through. Like even with the cleric being grabbed how do the spawns kill him easily with 2 times drained 1 through his athletics DC? The first three encounters had terrible issues even hitting my PC's getting slaughtered almost by the paladin alone. Other than the Shadows and Ilvoresh there has been no danger what so ever.
You are quoting a notion that is from the general rules referring to the specific rules of the searching tactic which does not include any action numbers and instead states you move at half your speed while searching which implies you move and search at the same time (or you do both every round). Which is part of the general rules and specific trumps general. There is a reason why they created specific actions for sneaking, tracking and the like that specifically allow to do sneaking at half speed, because you need to do it (stealth + stride) together every turn!
Because fatiguing requires to use 20 actions in 1 min over 10 min (if interpreted as strictly as you did earlier). Move 9 times per minute raise shield 10 times per minute 19 actions. Not fatiguing.
You have been pretty worked up and insulting for a thing you claim to not care about. I disagree with OP and will go by my RAI as I do not think RAW implies what the OP suggested, which is why I am even bothering with this thread.
Can we agree that most Goblins are illerate? They could still light the text on fire and read the flames no?
The only thing that i have been able to find for a side by side comparison is that a hill giants greatclub does 2d10 damage instead of the medium size doing the normal 1d10. So my speculation is that you add another die of weapon damage for each size increase. But i havent been able to find any proof of that anywhere and they seem to either be over looking it or keeping quiet about it. So my opinion is that if you really wanted to you could just say that you found or got a hill giants greatclub as your starting weapon and boom 2d10 at character creation. I do however feel that this is kinda a cheat in many ways and would be subject to party interpertaion as we all entire party approval. Monsters underlie different rules than players so a comparison does not help us here. Hill Giants also deal 3d10 damage with their greatclub, however that might also factor in their actual size. There are no different weapon sizes in PF2 outside of monsters or polymorph spells, or the titan mauler. Except the fact that they cost double the money and weigh twice as much there is no other effect. Titan mauler just works under its own ruleset. Normally characters are unable to use large weapons when they are medium or small. Rage damage is doubled, thats it. For the drop question, you find someone who makes a large weapon for you, or you kill a large creature wielding a weapon, however with runes granting magic effects finding the appropriate weapon isn't that big of a deal anymore. Some effects as dual-handed assault or Deific Weapon, increase die size.
I guess a lot of problems with magic as of now arise from the fact that monsters seem to be too good. I still think that casters are in a decent spot, being able to do multiple things on a turn (e.g. Cast + Attack, Truestrike + Attack spell, Shield + Spell, Wizard: Recall Knowledge to identify + cast appropriate spell, Sorcerer: intimidate + spell (which btw makes sure DC spells work better). I also agree that some spells need some attention, damage feels a little inconsistent especially if burning hands, shocking graps or the like is the only thing you do in a turn. There could be some more metamagic, especially things like "heighten" as increase DC for an action or maximize (maybe costing one action + slow 1 on the next turn, or no non cantrip spells for 1 turn) that make you more consistent. Adding the spellmodifier for damage in turn for smaller dice might also work. I would also say that the universalist ist likely one of the harder choices by default as relying on your focus needs some skill, while a specialist has a rather clear game plan. Healing is too efficient compared to blasting from my perspective and that mostly because of the cha + 3 channeling that clerics get.
Centaur, Catfolk, Ratfolk and I hope at least two of them get the animal trait so that you can heal them with heal animal.
So pathfinder 2 exploration mode is a stop motion movie? It does not say that you take a move action only every other turn. You are quoting a notion that is from the general rules referring to the specific rules of the searching tactic which does not include any action numbers and instead states you move at half your speed while searching which implies you move and search at the same time (or you do both every round). When your interpretation is correct there will be no "search" tactic as depending on the player description it is fatiguing or not. Move 10 feet stop and then search is 1 action a turn. Move 10 feet while searching is 2 actions a turn. Same for defending. Or detect magic.
Why would anyone even defend at half speed when he could defend without fatiguing at 90% of the speed? Why would anyone hustle when he could just wander quickly at 190% of the speed? I guess Detect magic tactic is "1 round cast the spell (fatiguing), 1 round Stride (not fatiguing), 1 round cast the spell (fatiguing), etc"; or: 5 stride, 5 2-action detect magic/minute, total 15 action/minute. Maybe you should read the rules instead of guessing? I don't care about what you guess the rules are.
Detect magic is only non fatiguing because the specific rule says so and not because of the underlying action economy. Because every spell casting tactic is normally fatiguing. This is an exception of the general rule and sets the precedent for more exceptions on the GM's behalf.
You could also just use the existing framework and create an action for exploration mode riding (without the talent) based on the skill actions track, sneak, cover tracks. Having such an action as I proposed earlier would negate the specific problem. However I would like to have a more general approach as in the survey wildlife action that somehow goes on for 10 minutes for a single action, as it is meant for exploration mode. Now this could read like this: [A] Ride
Going back to the specific problem of riding:
To move 40 ft. is a pretty precise and complex instruction compared to start moving, now I tell the horse to start moving and give it the general direction later I give it the command to stop after we reached the destination 100 ft away. Two actions of command, plenty of actions to handle. Now its up to you to decide whether or not the horse arbitrarily stands still after 40 ft. And again
However I am very unhappy with the inclusion of the fatiguing paragraphs as it is completely arbitrary and does not include the staged affliction system, as there is only 1 level of fatigue. Multiple levels of fatigue that can be reversed by resting shortly would be great to have. But that is a different problem from the OP entirely.
I'll concede the speed of play issue. And, I'll grant the martial dynamism bit. But then I would say if you have spent an action to "raise a shield" it should be doing its job. You should not have to use your ONE reaction to "shield block". What is a shield for, sitting on? A shield blocks, thats its job. As of now, it makes you harder to hit when just protecting yourself in general and it can absorb damage per reaction if you chose it to do so and actively block. If your AC is high enough including shield it blocks 100% of the damage if your opponent would otherwise hit you you can prevent some damage with shield block.
It seems like it would be useful for spellcasters to be able to dispel effects like Charm and magic items at character levels lower than 5th. You would think that low level spellcasters would be called upon to counter magic too. It also seems like relegating it to 3rd level limits the number uses quite a bit. In that you need to make a check against a DC, it works a bit like skill. Maybe a better approach would be to make it a spellcaster ability and use spell points or burn spells or daily uses instead. That could let it exist at lower levels and make it easier to have it available more if needed. Or make it a level 1 spell that you can heighten, so use higher level spell slots to dispel higher level magic. That would also allow the wizard to use it ritual like with Quick Preparation.
PF2 also heavily depends on the classes you bring, so I'm not surprised by vast differences in experience.Especially, "do you have a cleric?" Mine did not have a cleric yet and it worked out fine. However the +3 to the focus energy pool is something I miss in the other classes powers. I do think that the sorcerer primal or divine is fine for a main healer though. I hope that my group will play some of my dream compositions in one of the higher level adventures, animal totem barbarian, animal druid (main healer), animal companion ranger and a wildshape druid to round it out, everyone can take natural medicine too.
I guess with one player more it would have been a better experience, however I assume having fun fighting is not the premise for this specific adventure, rather than a tedious grind to test the healing capabilities. Also which party compositions will be created with this kind of hard coding restriction, will there be mostly clerics? Will there be non-arcane sorcerers, how about bards? Paladins, druids (which order?) Druids, bards and sorcerers (with cleric and bard having a higher likelihood having an area effect spell) can take care of mirror images, if your party is only going for melee combat there it is tedious, and well the spell does its job very nicely. I would prebuffing Ilvoresh with a diminished party is a bit much. I am really happy that AoO is not the default anymore, your could have readied actions to try to disrupt spells though.
This is actually an issue I agree on, objects, vision line of sight need to be defined in the core rules. I would assume that it did not make it into the book due to space reasons, as something that is already well defined and easy to convert.
Nice! Well done. One thing that sprang out to me is the following, if you recall knowledge to identify a threat, you will get information about the most iconic ability of the monster correct? So in the golems case that should be his magic immunity right? Not a part of it, like it is only one ability that causes all of this.
Fair enough, and yes rage is shutdown by heavy armor, so I guess fighter multiclass is not ideal there. He can go for twin parry later. I guess such a build needs a rather dedicated healer early on.
Any reaction is not subject to MAP, as your MAP is reset on the end of your turn. The Ready Attack Action is the only exception thus it is written in the rules. I assume that retributive strike does not include it as it has been changed shortly before the playtest release, some feats still quote the original rules (Loyal Warhorse) that said, it seems to be an oversight there or in the AoO paragraph. However as the general rule is MAP does not apply outside of your turn, AoO does not need the extra line of text.
So pathfinder 2 exploration mode is a stop motion movie? It does not say that you take a move action only every other turn. And you cannot let actions spill over turns, so it is stride + raise shield every turn with the extra prerequisite of reducing your speed while being on guard. However it has been said often enough that strict translation from rules that are meant to control the action economy in combat into "roleplay" exploration mode is not the way to go. And it does not shed any useful insight on unclear exploration rules that are meant as guidelines with a lot of GM freedom that is intended to be fun and rewarding (as of raw) for the players.
Well it is not necessarily designed to be fun, if it is bad design comes down if it does collect the data that they need, as it is a playtest adventure. My group cleared all the elemental rooms and then still brute forced the riddle. (Wildshape druid gnome, Divine Sorcerer elf, Dragon Totem Barbarian human and a TWF Ranger halfling) Longbow is very situational which is sad, I want that to change. A wildshape druid cannot sustain a group especially not when he wants to be a frontliner, only out of combat healing is not sufficient, against higher level opponents. Keep in mind that the group is item starved for their level so normally magic weapons would be more prevalent. I can also not stress this enough, magic weapon is an awesome spell for early levels. Crane monks seem to be low damage high mobility to get into the fray and out, I could see jump behind opponent for the flank flurry jump back. I wonder about the barbarians low ac though, he dipped fighter right? So he could use heavy armor to compensate for the low dex that I assume? Sure still lower than a fighter but should be decent.
I would say all this stands and falls with the example of the easy mobs being goblins. Goblins have changed a lot and are now more threatening than before. Why is that?Good attack bonus. Can make full attacks. Can flank easily with little risk of provoking AoO. That is true for all monsters and players though which I did not refer to it. Goblin scuttle helps with flanking though.
That is incorrect. It says both roughly and typically, there is no rule that says a horse will stop after moving for a round after you told it to move, because handle animal and command animal only refer to their encounter mode actions. Encounter mode actions most of the time are very hard to translate directly into exploration mode. And there are a couple of other parts giving the DM agency to decide with the strong connotation to rule in the players favor.
And most importantly.
If however you want to adjudicate the paragraph you cite strictly we have a huge problem with the example tactics and some more: Defending (Raise shield + stride, 2 actions/round, not fatiguing)
Detecting Magic (cast detect magic + stride, 3 actions/round not fatiguing)
However it would be very easy to clear up this mess by just giving ride its own action under nature, as searching, tracking or sneak and some other tactics already have their own, to leave no room for misinterpretation as it is obviously intended that people can ride without dropping exhausted from their mount after 10 min.
I could never understand why having a 7 INT or 7 CHA automatically makes you a complete idiot I guess it makes you as much an idiot as strength 7 makes you encumbered when carrying a rope while wearing a leather armor.
Just to stay on that example, from a GM's perspective this gives you a lot of room to actually build encounters or even whole settings. This explains why the undead might be able to overwhelm the city guards and thus the players are needed. You can create pressuring examples where the PC's are not really at danger but need to exert themselves to save the populus or guards. Or it is a fine explanation why the ghouls/ghasts are still at full health when they reach the players. Jump is fairly nice as there will be frontliners like fighters or paladins to which they might first get but after biting their teeth into hard metal they might look for something more squishy jumping into the back lines, while being replaced by more of their friends that need room to engage. Having the ability to pass through otherwise impassible or damaging terrain is nice too. So yeah in a vacuum these abilities might look boring or weak but they offer a whole lot of design space. I still hope that the dragons will be more diverse in their actions and special abilities in the final bestiary, the white dragon stands out so far.
I like that, on a crit the shield takes 1 dent. That would make shields practically indestructible (under current rules) if the wearer decides to preserve it as you shield block after damage has been rolled.
I want shortbows to be agile and longbows lose volley, other than that I am fine with bows. Some thrown weapons would be nice with str + attack like spears or axes. And reloading needs to be adjusted for darts and shuriken, there I do not care if they lose the interact to draw or if you can draw multiple per interact action. We better not start comparing the damage including the mobility of a lightly armored archer against a plate wearing bruiser as that will lead to bruiser tries to get in range deals 0 damage and dies while the archer runs around in circles.
Flaming is an ability you can only choose if you have the radiant blade spirit which is a level 10 feat. And again I am not sure if paladins needs help. The scenario involving undead has been a roflstomp for my paladin.
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