wheatleymr's page

Comparing Detect Metal:
"You attune yourself to magnetic fields, becoming aware of the presence or absence of metallic objects, veins, and deposits within the area."

to Detect Magic:
"You send out a pulse that registers the presence of magic. You receive no information beyond the presence or absence of magic."

Does Detect Metal allow you to detect e.g. "there are 3 collections of steel the size & shape of armour behind that door" or "there is silver and gold clustered underground over there"?
Or is it like the remastered Detect Magic, and it just reveals that "yes, there is hitherto unknown metal (steel, gold, etc.) within 30' of you".

I think that Minions with a Fly Speed should be able to use the "Arrest a Fall" reaction.
This seems ... OC to make minions excessively vulnerable, and IC to make Minions act excessively dumb.
It's mostly the latter that bothers me, TBH.

From a "player & DM cognitive load" point of view, the DM doesn't need to engage in any decision making with this - if the Flying Minion gets knocked prone, then yes, it will make that DC 15 acrobatics/reflex check to avoid damage. Done.

This is a question primarily for the players, either directly, or what DMs have noticed about their players:
What specific attributes of playing in the Darklands made it more entertaining, from a player's perspective?
And, conversely, what reduced the entertainment value?
Or perhaps there was something that nearly worked, as a game concept, but failed in execution?

And I'm particularly asking about things specific to the Darklands:
- Not so much "mega dungeons" in general. (But please do mention significant play experiences.)
- Not so much overland travel or exploration mode in general. (Again, please do mention significant play experiences.)

Off the top of my head, this could be a location to add OSR style concerns to a campaign that doesn't normally care about such things. ...
...But what have you actually experienced in actual play?

The Water Sprint skill feat is here:
https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=6515

"Experience and training have taught you that water has just enough surface tension for a master sprinter to traverse the surface. When you Stride in a straight line, if you move at least half your Speed over ground, you can move any amount of the remaining distance across a level body of water. If you don't end your Stride on solid ground, you fall into the water.
If you're legendary in Athletics, as long as you start on solid ground, any part of your Stride can cross the water's surface, even if you aren't moving a straight line, though you still fall into the water if you don't end your movement on solid ground."

Leap is this:
"Leap
The Leap basic action is used for High Jump and Long Jump. A horizontal Leap lets you jump up to 10 feet horizontally if your Speed is at least 15 feet, or up to 15 feet horizontally if your Speed is at least 30 feet. You land in the space where your Leap ends (meaning you can typically clear a 5-foot gap if your Speed is between 15 feet and 30 feet, or a 10-foot gap if your Speed is 30 feet or more)."

***

The Water Sprint skill feat refers to "Stride" which is a game term, and means a single action to move up to your (land) speed.

So for a move speed of X, then Water Sprint (before legendary) requires:
X=20': 10' over ground, 5' over water, ending on 5' of solid ground.
X=25': 15' over ground, 5' over water, ending on 5' of solid ground.
X=30': 15' over ground, 10' over water, ending on 5' of solid ground.

The way it is phrased, the rules apply to each Stride Action, so you can't "Stride 3 times" to cover a wider body of water. Each individual Stride has to start with "at least half over ground" and "end on solid ground".

Compared to the basic Leap action that covers that gap, no feat needed.

Or someone of level 7 and Master in Athletics doing a 2-action Long Jump, who will cover 13+1d20 feet, with at least 10' of a Stride action beforehand.
I can see occasional situations where Water Sprint saves an action, if the destination is exactly 1 Stride away, with a water barrier of no more than 10', immediately before the destination.
Or if your land speed has been significantly boosted.

...Is it just me, or is this *really* niche?

Or perhaps I have I miss-understood how these rules apply, and it works better than this??

(Or is it a gag, they are just doing a long jump and deluding themselves?)

I like the idea of the Wandering Chef archetype, but I suspect I'd be better off just taking the Alchemist archetype and learning the Alchemical Food recipes first?

I think it boils down to:
is Pack With Flavour [https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=7058] sufficiently better than Alchemical Power [https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=6189] as to be worth the loss of flexibility?

Or are there some other benefits that only the Wandering Chef archetype has?

I've been checking my assumptions about what traits various things have, and what effects they have, and as far as I can tell, the "elemental" trait is actually very limited.

E.g. consider a druid with a fire elemental companion, a fire elemental familiar, who summons a fire elemental, and then shifts into elemental form as a fire elemental.

All 4 "don't need to breath" but only 2 of these 4 have immunity to "bleed, poison, sleep, paralysis".
Because those keywords are not built into the "elemental" trait, they are just things that (summoned) elementals all have, but are built into the familiar "elemental" ability.

Is this correct?

Are there any feats that allow companions with the "elemental" trait to have these immunities?
Likewise, are there any feats that allow shape shifted druids to have these immunities?

Is this something that would make sense for a future product? Would it be balanced?

(1) The Remastered rules for Multiple Attack penalties are clear that MAP only applies to your own turn, so we don't need to remember it if [for example] making a Reaction Strike.
(2) The specific rules for Ready Action make state that this is an exception, and you instead use the MAP penalty you had at the point you used the Ready Action.
(3) Unless I'm missing something, one can spend 2 actions to Ready an Action to make a single action Hunted Shot. (Ranger feat.) This is 2 ranged strikes in one action balanced by the MAP penalty applying "as normal".

"As normal".

It is not clear to a new player if Hunted Shot is a specific case of Ready Action, or Ready Action a specific case of Hunted Shot. And maybe debating specifc-vs-general priorities isn't the most helpful & clear way to go about this?

I'm pretty sure that optimal game design is to apply the MAP penalty to the 2nd shot of a Readied Hunted Shot, even though it's not happening in your turn.

[Edit: Hunted Shot is a Flourish action & you can only make one Flourish per turn anyway, so no need to worry about multiple off-turn Hunted Shots.]