Queries for The All-Seeing Orb

[The All-Seeing Orb]

As has been the case in the past, when books manifest within The Orb's vision earlier than they do for other's, a thread is opened so that the sightless might query the All-Seeing. That is what is happening here! For those poor souls who have yet to see these new tomes (that is, the Core Rulebook and Bestiary), ask your questions below, but heed these rules!

1. There is no guarantee a question will be answered. Do not spam questions, though you might draw attention to it once more if it has gone more than a few days unanswered.

2. Do not expect specific numbers, detailed mechanics, or excerpts from the books. Prophecy is vague by nature, and attempts to wring undeserved information from the beyond leads only to ruin!

3. Waste no words beseeching The Orb! A simple "Thank You" or "Please" suffices if you insist on such courtesy, but The Orb has no patience for groveling. Ask your question and be done with it!

Now, go forth and ask below!

All answers will be hidden in a spoiler tag, so the precognition-averse need not worry themselves.

Also, if any dev feels this previewing goes too far, please let me know. I'll stop at once

[Rysky]

What’s a fun non-instinct Barbarian Feat?

[AvalonRellen]

For a given monk stance, roughly how many feats are there to further develop that stance? Can we expect more than 1 feat choice to supplement a given stance, which would allow us to use a stance in different ways?

[Mechalibur]

What power do abjuration specialist wizards get?

[Xenocrat]

What are the Occult 10th level spells?

[Eoni]

What are potions like?

Can you tell us about any of the high level alchemical items?

[Kyrone]

What are the focus spells of Illusion and Evocation wizards?

[PossibleCabbage]

What form does the "dwarves are less slowed down by armor and encumbrance" ability take? Is it a heritage, a feat, or just something inherent to the ancestry?

[Quandary]

Is Signature Spells no longer a daily choice, required to choose one from each Spell Level, and omnidirectional i.e. Up and Downcasting?

What is coolest and most flavorful abilities of Fury Totem AKA the anti-Totem?

[RicoTheBold]

Rysky wrote:

What’s a fun non-instinct Barbarian Feat?

I'm no all-seeing orb, but...

Spoiler:

Share Rage looks pretty cool at level 8. Single action to let a willing creature within 30 feet gain the effects of rage, except they can still use concentrate actions.

[RicoTheBold]

PossibleCabbage wrote:

What form does the "dwarves are less slowed down by armor and encumbrance" ability take? Is it a heritage, a feat, or just something inherent to the ancestry?

Spoiler:

1st level feat that removes speed penalties from armor and also reduces any single speed penalty you're suffering from by 5. Not as necessary since high Str mitigates all/most of the speed loss of armor, but it also affects debuffs.

[RicoTheBold]

Quandary wrote:

Is Signature Spells no longer a daily choice, required to choose one from each Spell Level, and omnidirectional i.e. Up and Downcasting?

Spoiler:

No longer daily, but you can change it if you swap out the spell (retraining or via leveling). Up and downcasting of signature spells is explicitly allowed. You didn't ask, but unfortunately it doesn't look like there's a way to get signature spells for someone multiclassing into spontaneous casters, which came up in the Twitch broadcast with Stephen Radney-MacFarland.

Quandary wrote:

What is coolest and most flavorful abilities of Fury Totem AKA the anti-Totem?

I'll leave that one to the orb.

[The All-Seeing Orb]

Rysky wrote:

What’s a fun non-instinct Barbarian Feat?

Spoiler:

Initially The Orb was also going to share "Share Rage", but instead, you'll get a capstone ability, "Contagious Rage". With this, the Barbarian can Share Rage with multiple allies, and even grant them the power of the Barbarian's instincts! What a buff!

AvalonRellen wrote:

For a given monk stance, roughly how many feats are there to further develop that stance? Can we expect more than 1 feat choice to supplement a given stance, which would allow us to use a stance in different ways?

Spoiler:

Most stances have at most 2 additional feats to support them, and they generally follow a progression very similar to PF1's style feats, with an entry feat, a secondary feat that grants a new ability, and a tertiary feat that expands on the initial ability. A stance that can be developed in different ways is an interesting idea, though, and one the rules definitely support. Perhaps in a future book!

Mechalibur wrote:

What power do abjuration specialist wizards get?

Spoiler:

Abjurers learn a power called "Protective Ward". A minor AoE AC buff, that only takes one action to cast (though it requires further actions to sustain it). Not particularly flashy, but in this edition, every point of protection counts!

Xenocrat wrote:

What are the Occult 10th level spells?

Spoiler:

They are "Alter Reality", "Fabricated Truth", "Gate", "Remake", and "Time Stop".

"Remake" is essentially "True Resurrection" for objects, and "Fabricated Truth" forces a subject to believe a statement of your choosing as fact. A great way to reform an evil-doer, though there is potential for far crueler uses.

[Porridge]

RicoTheBold wrote:

Up and downcasting of signature spells is explicitly allowed.

YES! That makes me very happy. :)

[The All-Seeing Orb]

Eoni wrote:

What are potions like?

Can you tell us about any of the high level alchemical items?

This one will take some time, as The Orb really wants to go over Alchemy with a fine-toothed comb. An answer is coming, though.

Kyrone wrote:

What are the focus spells of Illusion and Evocation wizards?

Spoiler:

Illusionists learn "Warped Terrain", which allows the Wizard to produce illusory difficult terrain. At higher levels, it can even be conjured in the air, making difficult terrain for flying creatures.

Evokers learn "Force Bolt", effectively a single magic missile, though it improves in damage with level.

Quandary wrote:

What is coolest and most flavorful abilities of Fury Totem AKA the anti-Totem?

Spoiler:

This is a tough one to answer, as the Fury Totem is somewhat uninteresting by design. It does give the Barbarian an extra first level Barbarian feat, and it seems the intention of the Fury Totem is that it's what you'd pick if you want to focus on some of the Barbarian's more interesting feat options, some of which are part of pretty long chains.

One interesting option is a pair of feats called "Thrash" and "Collateral Thrash", which let you do automatic damage to grabbed targets and automatic damage to foes adjacent to the grabbed target, respectively.

[oholoko]

The dragon instinct barbarian did he get any changes? Love the concept but the playtest execution left a lot to be desired.

[Mewzard]

How viable is the Medicine skill as the primary source of healing in a party if you're willing to invest the skill feats into it? Thanks.

[RicoTheBold]

Eoni wrote:

What are potions like?

Can you tell us about any of the high level alchemical items?

I'll toss an opinion, since I've had several days to soak in the books.

Potions:

Spoiler:

Pretty straightforward items you consume to have an effect that is often related to a specific spell. Oils also exist, which get spread on items. There about 2 pages of potions, and 1 page of oils.

High Level Alchemical items:

Spoiler:

They're mostly the same as lower-level ones, but with better numbers.
The Philosopher's Stone is a notable exception. I think this is something that will get better over time, but it doesn't excite me much right now. Compared to 1st edition, though, this is a huge improvement in system design; you could legit design adventures around poison intrigue without the game just breaking because the PCs could somehow get and use the poison. It's just hard to get 20 levels worth of interesting and unique items of a whole new category in one book that is just full to bursting already.
Also, the layout of the items is much better than the playtest, where they were all combined into one category.

[Kasoh]

oholoko wrote:

The dragon instinct barbarian did he get any changes? Love the concept but the playtest execution left a lot to be desired.

about dragon barbarians

spoiler:

The Dragon Instinct Anathema changed so that you can respect or abhor dragons. If you respect them, you have to obey your dragon type. If you abhor them, you cannot let a dragon of that type pass without attempting to defeat it.

Dragon Instinct specific feats: Dragon breath at 6, dragon wings at 12 (doesn't drop you when rage ends), Dragon transformation at 16.

[RicoTheBold]

oholoko wrote:

The dragon instinct barbarian did he get any changes? Love the concept but the playtest execution left a lot to be desired.

I don't really know all the issues with the playtest version, so this is kind of a partial answer, but...

Spoiler:

Barbarians have one big change in that Rage lasts a minute, so you're not switching in and out repeatedly, which was wacky. This is true for most classes, but Weapon (and unarmed) proficiencies come a little faster; you're at Master at level 13.

Wings are at your land speed instead of a flat number, and explicitly keep you from falling damage when it ends.

I can't accurately represent whether the math is better or worse. The main thing is that polymorph spells now typically let you use your better attributes for attacks and whatnot, AC is typically set to a flat number + your level, and I think that helps a lot for any of those. Barbarian version of the 16th level Dragon Transformation feat (using Dragon Form spell) lets you keep your own AC, too, and adds additional bonuses to the fly speed, breath weapon DC, and damage at 18th level.

[tqomins]

Re: Dragon Instinct—we don't have to guess. We saw it in the UKGE slides. Below is a quick transcription of what I could see on the slides; put that with the two above answers and you've got basically the whole thing.

Dragon Instinct:

DRAGON INSTINCT
You summon the fury of a mighty dragon and manifest incredible abilities. Perhaps your culture reveres dragons' majesty, or you gained your connection by drinking or bathing in dragon's blood or after watching a marauding wyrm burn your village. Select a type of dragon from Table 3–4: Dragon Instincts to be your instinct's dragon type. Chromatic dragons tend to be evil, and metallic dragons tend to be good.

Anathema
Letting a ?? your instinct. Choose whether ?? respects or abhors your dragon type. If you respect ?? dragon is anathema, and if you abhor ?? such a dragon ??

Draconic Rage (Instinct Ability)
While raging, you can increase the additional damage from rage from 2 to 4 and change its damage type to match that of your dragon's breath weapon instead of the damage type for your weapon or unarmed attack. If you do this, your Rage gains the arcane and evocation traits, as well as the trait [corresponding to the?] damage type

Specialization Ability
When you use draconic rage, you increase the additional damage from Rage from 4 to 8 If you have greater weapon specialization, instead increase the damage from Rage when using draconic rage from 8 to [12? 16?]

Raging Resistance
You resist piercing damage and the damage type of your dragon's breath weapon.

[RicoTheBold]

Mewzard wrote:

How viable is the Medicine skill as the primary source of healing in a party if you're willing to invest the skill feats into it? Thanks.

Spoiler:

Seems solid enough to potentially always fill the role of "we have a few hours, can we get everyone to max HP?" scaling down to less and less time with feats. In-combat, still pretty much one potentially good boost per patient per day. It's going to vary from campaign to campaign, but I don't think anyone is going to miss the days of spamming Wands, even without a dedicated healing spellcaster.

[RicoTheBold]

tqomins wrote:

Re: Dragon Instinct—we don't have to guess. We saw it in the UKGE slides. Below is a quick transcription of what I could see on the slides; put that with the two above answers and you've got basically the whole thing.

** spoiler omitted **

For the parts that were missing big chunks in this transcription:

Spoiler:

Anathema: Letting a personal insult against you slide is anathema to your instinct. Choose whether your character respects or abhors your dragon type. If you respect it, defying such a dragon is anathema, and if you abhor it, failing to defeat such a dragon you come across is anathema.

The section in greater weapon specialization ability with the ? is "8 to 16."

[Bardic Dave]

What are the various shape shifting spells and focus powers available to druids, and which one is the coolest in your opinion? And how do they scale with character level (if at all)?

[PossibleCabbage]

In the playtest the spirit totem only got 2 feats to support it, less than the dragon, giant, or animal totem. Does the spirit instinct get a 3rd feat? Is it cool?

[Reziburno25]

What are posion feats like from alchemist.

[Thebazilly]

Bardic Dave wrote:

What are the various shape shifting spells and focus powers available to druids, and which one is the coolest in your opinion? And how do they scale with character level (if at all)?

Also, is the duration on any of these upgraded to allow non-combat/utility use?

[RicoTheBold]

Bardic Dave wrote:

What are the various shape shifting spells and focus powers available to druids, and which one is the coolest in your opinion? And how do they scale with character level (if at all)?

Quick edit is in here because I left out a detail that adds some nuance to my recommendations.

Spoiler:

They scale with heightening, mostly, giving better static numbers and some that are based on character level separately from spell level. A few give abilities that apply to all wild shapes, like fire resistance, to make them seem more relevant when you've moved on to something cooler, but they have to compete against everything else you can use class feats for.

Soaring Shape is a prerequisite for any flying forms*, so it's hard to skip. Cruelly, Soaring Shape comes at the same level as Ferocious Shape, which lets you turn into dinosaurs which is obviously cool as hell, but you can probably get by without because animal shape is still solid there and you might want the feats for an animal companion or something. Dragon Shape seems like a solid compromise to take later, because it's a lot like being a dinosaur except you can also fly. Purple worm or phoenix as 16 with Monstrosity Shape is neat, and kaiju at 20 with True Shapeshifter is just ridiculous.

*Edit: flying combat forms
Pest form can let you fly with zero other investment if you just need to get from A to B and can do it in 10 minutes at a speed of 20 feet, which is possible at 7th level.

[RicoTheBold]

Thebazilly wrote:

Bardic Dave wrote:

What are the various shape shifting spells and focus powers available to druids, and which one is the coolest in your opinion? And how do they scale with character level (if at all)?

Also, is the duration on any of these upgraded to allow non-combat/utility use?

Spoiler:

This is optionally done with Form Control (level 4) and using a slightly lower-level version of your focus spell. Since it's a focus spell, though, it's also easy to do repeatedly throughout the day if you want. There's an exception in that Pest form starts at 10 minutes, and with Insect Shape can go to 24 hours.

And, as noted in my earlier post with an edit, pest form heightens to add the ability to fly as a 7th level caster with a speed of 20 feet without requiring any other investment than having the ability to wild shape.

[The All-Seeing Orb]

Alright, time for a quick overview of Alchemical items (Rico said about all there is to say on potions, which are of course not alchemical in this edition)

Spoiler:

Not a lot has changed since the playtest, it looks more like general polishing rather than new additions. Higher level bombs now have a baked in accuracy bonus, so bombers won't be forced to rely on quicksilver mutagens to stay competitive (though quicksilver mutagens are a little ahead of bombs in the item bonus they provide to ranged attacks, so a Bomber may still want one in a pinch.)

Bestial Mutagen actually gives you natural weapons now, rather than just boosting ones you already have. Quicksilver Mutagens are now a little less punishing, the damage they deal to the drinker scaling with the drinker's level, rather than with the item's level.

There are lots of poisons now (about 3.5 pages), and they bare little resemblance to the overpriced dishwater that PF1 poisons were. A high level philosopher in PF1 could safely chug hemlock by the gallon. In PF2, however, it seems a fitting tool for the execution of the impious.

[The All-Seeing Orb]

PossibleCabbage wrote:

In the playtest the spirit totem only got 2 feats to support it, less than the dragon, giant, or animal totem. Does the spirit instinct get a 3rd feat? Is it cool?

Spoiler:

Sadly, the spirit instinct seems to still grant access to only 2 feats.

[RicoTheBold]

The All-Seeing Orb wrote:

PossibleCabbage wrote:

In the playtest the spirit totem only got 2 feats to support it, less than the dragon, giant, or animal totem. Does the spirit instinct get a 3rd feat? Is it cool?

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:

But Spirit's Wrath now has a range of 120 feet (up from 25) and gets a +2 item bonus on top of your basic Str+proficiency.

[The All-Seeing Orb]

Reziburno25 wrote:

What are posion feats like from alchemist.

Spoiler:

A cursory examination of the Alchemist chapter reveals only a single poison feat, which lets them increase a poison's DC. Rogues get a few more tricks with poison, but not much. It should be noted, however, that poisons are much more potent than they were in the previous edition, and don't need much feat support to be viable.

[Iron_Matt17]

Could you please tell us what changes they made to the Champion's Radiant Blade feats? (level 10&20) What are the runes gained now? And is there more to the feats than just gaining more runes?

[RicoTheBold]

Iron_Matt17 wrote:

Could you please tell us what changes they made to the Champion's Radiant Blade feats? (level 10&20) What are the runes gained now? And is there more to the feats than just gaining more runes?

Spoiler:

They're basically unchanged, except for allowing more runes for the other alignments for the level 10 version, including unholy (which obviously is just for future-proofing the core rules since all the champions are good).

[Iron_Matt17]

Thank you Rico,

Do Weapons and amours only go to +4 now?

[MaxAstro]

Are runes that add elemental damage competitive with runes that add weapon damage? In other words, is it a viable choice to say "I'm going to only invest in fire damage runes instead of getting any striking runes"?

[RicoTheBold]

Iron_Matt17 wrote:

Thank you Rico,

Do Weapons and amours only go to +4 now?

This one's been spoiled for a while.

Spoiler:

+3, except for crazy artifact-level stuff, like Treerazer's axe

[RicoTheBold]

MaxAstro wrote:

Are runes that add elemental damage competitive with runes that add weapon damage? In other words, is it a viable choice to say "I'm going to only invest in fire damage runes instead of getting any striking runes"?

Spoiler:

No, but they don't compete for slots. Striking runes, like potency runes are considered "fundamental" runes and don't count against the limit (which conveniently is the same as the +# of the potency rune).

[Gaulin]

How about elemental bloodline sorcerer? Could anyone let us know how it works? Some have said that it allows you to change damage types of spells to fire or bludgeoning. Is this only with focus spells, and is it the bloodlines special ability? Also what are the focus spells/granted spells?

Sorry for the huge multi-part question. If it's too much to answer that's okay.

[Quandary]

Thanks for the Info'z... :-)

BTW, is Dwarf base speed and other races' speed the same or different from Playtest? How do the various Racial/Universal Speed Boost Feats work? (Heritages?)

When you mentioned Flying and Dinosaur forms, is there Flying Dinosaurs or are those treated as something different? (stuff like Pteranodons seems popularly considered to be dinosaurs, technicalities aside)

[RicoTheBold]

Gaulin wrote:

How about elemental bloodline sorcerer? Could anyone let us know how it works? Some have said that it allows you to change damage types of spells to fire or bludgeoning. Is this only with focus spells, and is it the bloodlines special ability? Also what are the focus spells/granted spells?

Sorry for the huge multi-part question. If it's too much to answer that's okay.

Spoiler:

It's for the relevant bloodline "granted" spells and the "bloodline spells" (which are focus spells). It's kind of weird, and there's not really another effect like it I saw, but yeah, it changes them from fire to bludgeoning (for water/earth/air). It's part of the bloodline's special ability, but it also lets you get a +1 bonus to intimidation checks for a round or do an extra 1/spell level damage to your target. Granted spells are produce flame*, burning hands*, resist energy, fireball*, freedom of movement, elemental form, repulsion, energy aegis, prismatic wall, storm of vengeance. Focus (bloodline) spells are elemental toss*, elemental motion, and elemental blast.*

Everything marked with an asterisk takes the elemental type swap effect.

[Normal Pathetic Caster]

What are the names of all the Wizard Theses?

[RicoTheBold]

Normal Pathetic Caster wrote:

What are the names of all the Wizard Theses?

This is another one that's been spoiled a bunch.

Spoiler:

Whatever you want to name them. It's your thesis. Mark Seifter is apparently responsible for the monstrosity that is "On the Methods of Spell Interpolation and the Genesis of a New Understanding of the Building Blocks of Magic."

Anyway, the actual topics for your thesis are:
Improved Familiar Attunement, Metamagical Experimentation, Spell Blending, and Spell Substitution.

[Iron_Matt17]

Ok, so what compensation do the martials get to boost their power? Since there's no more +5 to attack, armour, and saves?

[Gaulin]

RicoTheBold wrote:

Gaulin wrote:

How about elemental bloodline sorcerer? Could anyone let us know how it works? Some have said that it allows you to change damage types of spells to fire or bludgeoning. Is this only with focus spells, and is it the bloodlines special ability? Also what are the focus spells/granted spells?

Sorry for the huge multi-part question. If it's too much to answer that's okay.

** spoiler omitted **

Iiinteresting. Could you detail elemental motion a little more?

[RicoTheBold]

Iron_Matt17 wrote:

Ok, so what compensation do the martials get to boost their power? Since there's no more +5 to attack, armour, and saves?

So much cool stuff.

Spoiler:

But for pure numbers, they tend to get higher proficiencies faster, and the numbers for the TEML proficiency levels are +2/+4/+6/+8

[Reziburno25]

Any new things three rogues racket get that werent in playtest?

[RicoTheBold]

Gaulin wrote:

Iiinteresting. Could you detail elemental motion a little more?

Spoiler:

1 minute duration granting fly=land speed/burrow 10 feet/fly=land/swim=land+breathe underwater depending on the element.

Gets faster with heightening to 6th and 9th level spells (10 more feet each time)

[PossibleCabbage]

Iron_Matt17 wrote:

Ok, so what compensation do the martials get to boost their power? Since there's no more +5 to attack, armour, and saves?

We pretty much fix this by doubling the bonus from proficiency and adding weapon specialization. I mean, best possible fighter with best possible weapon in the playtest was +28 + statMod for 5W + statmod. Now it's +31 + statMod for 3W+8+statMod. So accuracy went up a little, but damage for the biggest weapons went down a smidge.