Is Slow and Steady useful in PFS

[HazMatt696]

Dwarves have the Slow and Steady racial trait. Does this ability come in handy in PFS scenarios? Is it worth spending a feat to access this ability as an Oread?

[TriOmegaZero]

Only if you're going to wear heavier armors and plan on increasing your speed through methods that are not impeded by the wearing of said armor, like the Travel domain power or barbarian fast movement.

[Ghatiyara, the Living Garden]

I felt I absolutely had to have it. 15-foot speed is simply brutal to endure.

(I might retrain if I ever reach level 7 and get the full armor training benefit. We'll see, I suppose.)

[SheepishEidolon]

If my PC would use medium or heavy armor, I would keep slow and steady. After some levels, you can remove the speed penalty by other means (armor training, mithral, Swift Sprint etc.), but slow and steady is cheap (one of several racial traits) and applies from level 1.

As Ghatiyara said, 15-foot is slowww. That's because movement speed itself isn't relevant - it's about the amount of actions you need to get from square A to square B. For example, if you want to travel 60 feet in combat:

Spoiler:

15-foot: You need to run to cover the whole distance in 1 round. This only works for a straight line and without heavy armor - and you end up without Dex bonus to AC. Ugh.

20-foot: You also have to run, but now you can wear heavy armor.

25-foot: No additional benefit.

30-foot: Hah, now you can charge the whole distance. -2 AC hurts, but is sometimes better than being without Dex bonus to AC. Alternatively, you can simply walk there with two move actions, even if it's not a straight line.

35-foot: No additional benefit.

40-foot: No additional benefit.

45-foot: No additional benefit.

50-foot: No additional benefit.

55-foot: No additional benefit.

60-foot: Now we are talking. Move there with a single move action and still have your standard action. Or do a staggered charge. Or move there with Stealth / Acrobatics and two move actions.

65-foot+: No additional benefit.

This is simplified, for example a barbarian can learn to charge with triple speed and with more speed you can move a longer distance with Acrobatics. The point is: +5 movement speed makes a bigger difference if you are slow.

[Anonymous Visitor 163 576]

Feats are all about opportunity cost. What feat are you giving up to get this one?

[HazMatt696]

Thank folks. I'm looking at building a Warpriest. I am also interested in knowing if there are situations where being able to carry heavy loads comes in handy. No specific scenario spoilers please.

I'm currently torn between using an Oread or Half-Elf.

[Hiruma Kai]

I once was in a PFS scenario with large boulders dotting the terrain. The Wizard cast create pit and caught all the enemies, who happened to have built in ranged attacks. We had a Skald, Barbarian, and Bloodrager as well, and a bunch of NPC barbarians from a local tribe watching.

A diplomacy check and approximately 50,000 pounds of pushing capacity worth of raging barbarians later, a 10'x10' boulder was pushed over the pit before its duration was up. First fight I'd won by being able to move heavy stuff. Might have also used grease to double to 100,000 pounds pushed capacity. I forget at this point.

Might not be exactly what you're looking for though.

[Rosc]

I'd say so. 15 feet sounds like Entangled But It Stacks With Entangled and I would never wish that on anyone.