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Another in the "did I miss something" series of questions.
1. You don't always get a focus point when you get a new focus ability, correct? I'm looking at a Champion who has 1 Focus Point from Lay on Hands, and took the Deity Domain which granted another focus spell. But it doesn't appear to grant another point. So it's expected that in some cases you might have more focus spells than points (not considering the 3 Focus Point limit, obviously).
2. The Refocus action has as one of the requirements that you spent at least one Focus Point since you last regained Focus Points. Since you only regain one Focus Point through Refocus, there is no way to fully refill Focus Points other than your daily preparations, right? I refocus for one, then have to spend at least one to refocus again. Are there any feats yet that allow you to gain more points while refocusing?
Ad 1) Afaik this is under discussion/clarification but RAW it looks like you are correct.
Ad 2) DEVOTED FOCUS FEAT 10
CHAMPION
Prerequisites devotion spells
Your devotion is strong enough to increase your focus to incredible heights. If you have spent at least 2 Focus Points since the last time you Refocused, you recover 2 Focus Points when you Refocus instead of 1.
There are a few other things that can give you a focus once per day, like a familiar and that gnome feat, but your "focus you can afford to spend every combat" is limited by how effectively you can refocus.
Yeah you can burn 3 points in one combat, but after that it is max. 1 per combat if you do not have any special feats or skills.
I'd you're talking about good berry it's an hour long cast. Just saying
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Hello, new in the forums. I feel like Champions are a little unfairly powered up, using lay on hands over 10 minutes and refocus specially in early levels. I think there should be a limit per day to gain refocus. For druids it is the same thing, herbs every 10 minutes but at least GM might ask to find herbs or sell them. Also what can a cleric do, rogue is better with expertise in medicine skill.
Out-of-combat healing is a matter of time constraints. This has always been true to a degree, since parties could rest overnight, sometimes for a whole week (or more!). Then came the CLW wands which became a bit too necessary. Adventuring became measured by your charges, that becoming the main source of attrition. That's not very heroic, and you can nab lots of those anyway within a few levels.
For PF2, playtesters wanted similar out-of-combat healing because it seems folly not to always have max hit points before heading into danger. So Medicine & Treat Wounds became a significant factor mid-playtest. The alternatives were Resonance (much hated by others though I admired its intent) or carrying vats of cheap healing elixir (which is even worse imagery than healing sticks).
So 10-minute intervals are the new currency, rather than days, so the adventure can keep moving. In adventures without time constraints, you do get unlimited healing, assuming players had the foresight to get one of the many ways to keep healing w/ zero attrition.
This leads to:
1. The healing comes from PCs, not items, so it feels like it's their abilities helping them overcome obstacles (rather than gold or sleep).
2. Combats can/will be harder, but also balanced because designers can operate thinking the party has full h.p. without worrying too much about players having system mastery enough to prioritize CLW wands.
3. Alternate forms of damage will arise when designers want attrition, i.e. curses, conditions, etc. Those tend to debilitate more than kill, so that gives some heroic obstacles to overcome. :)
4. And I'm guessing there will be more games w/ time constraints!
These will play much differently than games without. Difficulty will have to adjust for this. So you might get a gauntlet of mediocre encounters w/ zero ten-minute breaks becoming kind of hard as it wears on. Or an in-game hour-long story arc where you have to time your breaks for maximum benefit and hopefully have several PCs contributing to healing. Or an unlimited time limit, like a classic dungeon crawl, where every encounter could be hard mode.
Of course, getting too much rest time was the reasoning behind wandering monsters. You don't want PCs napping in what's supposed to be a dangerous place! Plus, many early modules had patrols return or actual recruitment so if you did refresh too much, you may come back to more monsters than drove you off in the first place! One Paizo dungeon gave a huge supply of various gems to a cult of high-level caster apes (yes, awakened apes serving Demogorgon). They could use those gems to Raise Dead, Create Undead, renew Glyphys, etc. So if you tried a hit-and-run strategy, your treasure dwindled. Doh!
(Funnily enough, perpetually dangerous dungeons led to parties carving out territory in dungeons, setting up permanent locales which then led to interactions with monster factions and a whole new level of complexity. Greyhawk, Waterdeep, and more had this sort of gameplay from the designers' own players.)
So no, the Champion & Druid aren't unfairly powered up as they're about the same as Medicine w/ Continual Recovery as well as some other sources of healing. That adjustment's just to keep the engine chugging along without logistics dominating strategy.
And this is also why in-combat healing should be managed well. Don't waste it on wounds out of combat.
Now I wonder if we'll see more wandering monsters. Not necessarily random, but seeded simply to disturb 10-minute lulls. Hmm...
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Thanks for your explanations but I still do not know what to make of it because even the massively buffed out of combat healing in PF2 still feals weird sometimes.
"Hey, we are in the midst of exploring this abandoned tower crawling with monsters but running low on HP and healing spells, should we continue to press our luck until we can be sure that there is nobody else left? Naaa, lets totally just set up camp here and do a multi-hour break using Medicine on everyone before we enter the very next room..."
Wands at least keept you going through all of the "scene".
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Another in the "did I miss something" series of questions.
1. You don't always get a focus point when you get a new focus ability, correct? I'm looking at a Champion who has 1 Focus Point from Lay on Hands, and took the Deity Domain which granted another focus spell. But it doesn't appear to grant another point. So it's expected that in some cases you might have more focus spells than points (not considering the 3 Focus Point limit, obviously).
There's a rule, I think in the Glossary? That says you always get +1 max focus point when you gain those feats, even if it only says "If you don't have a focus pool you gain one with 1 point". Of course, to the limit of 3. This does mean a Cleric could get a extr apoints at level 1 by taking Domain Initiate more than once.
There's a rule, I think in the Glossary? That says you always get +1 max focus point when you gain those feats, even if it only says "If you don't have a focus pool you gain one with 1 point". Of course, to the limit of 3. This does mean a Cleric could get a extr apoints at level 1 by taking Domain Initiate more than once.Another in the "did I miss something" series of questions.
1. You don't always get a focus point when you get a new focus ability, correct? I'm looking at a Champion who has 1 Focus Point from Lay on Hands, and took the Deity Domain which granted another focus spell. But it doesn't appear to grant another point. So it's expected that in some cases you might have more focus spells than points (not considering the 3 Focus Point limit, obviously).
Yes, if a feat just says 'you gain a focus pool' and you already have one, you instead get a focus point [up to 3]. sidebar page 302.
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Yes, if a feat just says 'you gain a focus pool' and you already have one, you instead get a focus point [up to 3]. sidebar page 302.
But the example in that sidebar uses a feat that explicitly grants a focus pool. I don't think that means that everything that uses focus automatically grants another focus point. The language in Devotion Spells implies that they don't:
Certain feats can give you more focus spells and increase the size of your focus pool, though your focus pool can never hold more than 3 Focus Points.
That would imply that some feats do not increase the size of your focus pool.
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That would imply that some feats do not increase the size of your focus pool.
Not as I read it. it states there are feats that give you (focus spells + focus points) and the pool is limited to 3. What part of that implies you don't increase the pool as long as you haven't maxed it at 3 already? Why are you separating getting a focus spell and getting a focus point?
But the example in that sidebar uses a feat that explicitly grants a focus pool.
The 2nd sentence under devotion spells spells it out: "Your deity’s power grants you special divine spells called devotion spells, which are a type of focus spell. It costs 1 Focus Point to cast a focus spell, and you start with a focus pool of 1 Focus Point." Devotion spells grants a base pool and the feat grants a devotion spell... refer to the sidebar on page 302 and that tells you to add a focus point up to 3.