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Figured everyone could use a place to talk about what excites them in the book now that most people have it (and if you don't for whatever reason, everything is already up on Archives of Nethys!)
For me, the Marshal archetype is everything I ever could've hoped for. Auras, bonuses to attack or damage rolls, manipulating ally actions, giving temp HP, and more all on a purely martial character? I love it.
Also, I really love some of the new wizard feats and will probably be picking up a couple when I play my wizard. Spellbook Prodigy, Nonlethal Spell, Call Bonded Item, and Split Slot all look up my alley.
My favorite thing is definitely Kobold ancestry, followed by Dragon Disciple.
I'm also a big fan of the Sentinel granting scaling, improved armor access for one class feat. Shame it locks you into the archetype if that's all you wanted.
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Let's see...
From new feats for Core classes:
Barbarian throw ally feat is pretty fun, and now people can have their throw the Halfling moment.
I like combat assessment from Fighter, useful for those smart pants fighters.
Rogues new "bandit" feats, mugging people and so on.
Sorcerer Fusion Metamagic, have some fun applications, like a Flaming Sphere that always target weakness or Acid Rain that have fire for some reason.
Wizard Forcible Metamagic, creating weakness is the best thing that Ruffian can do and now Wizard have the Elemental version of it, just pick an element that you party is using property runes.
Archetypes
Beastmaster making anyone having an Animal Companion, very fun for some concepts, like Nature Clerics.
Dandy, I love the social aspect of it and the gossip stuff.
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Love the archetypes in general -- I especially like that even the straightforward ones ("get all the shield feats") always have 3-4 exclusive feats to give them some extra flavour.
Also, I'm very intrigued by the witch, which is surprising for me to say, because it's never interested me before. I realized last night that a big reason for that change is that it's our first official prepared occult caster, with 3 main variations to boot!
I'm also keen on the Dragon Disciple, I just need to figure out how they best work.
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It's very hard for me to choose. In no particular order...
Tyrants demanding you bend the knee.
Really, just Evil Champions in general. Behold...
Investigators having Batman levels of paranoia.
Witches stabbing a creature with its own shadow.
Swashbucklers stabbing a dude through another dude.
Perhaps I'll pick my teeth with it...
Oracles losing their earthly tether and becoming void.
Oracles getting to demand that foes 'see how you like it'.
Perpetual bombs for non-Bomber Alchemists.
The critical failure effect on Reincarnate.
On that note... Voltorb, use Self Destruct!
Clerics always being on hand when they're needed most.
Gee Timmy, how come your Mom lets you have two animal companions?
This is a very good book.
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I like the Beastmaster and Familiar Master (+ the new Familiar abilities).
My full support Alchemist who was struggling to find it's place in the party will now be very nice to play. In my opinion, lots of new options for the Alchemist are pretty good, even if the Alchemist main issue (lack of reagents especially at low level) hasn't been addressed. Paizo, if you hear me, a feat giving extra reagents at level 1 would be excellent!
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Super Saiyan Monks.
Now that it's out, I have to note that when I wrote the first version of this feat, I wasn't thinking of super saiyans but I was rewatching an old anime at the time.
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So far, I like the very presence of a flexible tradition prep-caster (Witch, for now), to mirror the flexible Sorcerer.
Now that it's out, I have to note that when I wrote the first version of this feat, I wasn't thinking of super saiyans but I was rewatching an old anime at the time.
Super Saiyan Monks.
Ah, Yu Yu Hakusho is a classic indeed. And to add a comment,
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Ah, Yu Yu Hakusho is a classic indeed. And to add a comment,
** spoiler omitted **
Look, I bugged Logan during CRB development until he made ki blast a variable action spell so you could charge it up while yelling the appropriate phrase of your choice, I put ki form in my turnover to design for APG (plus a lot of other cool monk stuff like the clinging shadows and archery feats), I can only do so much, lol!
If you like martial arts and flashy anime though, be sure to check out Lost Omens Pathfinder Society and Agents of Edgewatch #2: Sixty Feet Under next month, because they both include mystical martial arts player options.
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Duskwalkers are awesome. That's been the biggest surprise for me so far - the lore and everything else is just really cool, and I'd love to play one some time.
Plushies Kobolds are amazing, also.
The warpriest in my AoA campaign is really happy that he can kick Heavy Armor Proficiency into the trashcan where it belongs and just take Sentinel Dedication instead; he was worried he would need both.
And the monk, who is the party healer a lot of the time, is very happy with Medic in general.
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Bard Warrior Muse as a melee option that saves on spells. Spam Inspire Courage as usual, but also add Courageous Assault to grant an ally a strike as a reaction(! - much better than a strike you'd make assuming your martial buddy's reaction doesn't otherwise trigger that round), Shared Assault (if your Courage Assault buddy crits, another buddy gets to reaction strike as well), Courageous Opportunity (you get an Attack of Opportunity with an extra trigger of auditory actions), Triumphant Inspiration (critical hit lets you free action use a composition cantrip, lets you do some shenanigans with Harmonize if you have enough actions - True strike first action to boost crit chance, Hasted to strike second action, free action composition, third action to harmonize, fourth action to composition).
Lore oracle with Glean Lore, Wizard multiclass to get Diviner's Sight (so reveal secret rolls on Glean Lore and other recall knowledge checks), and use Access Lore and Brain Drain to discover All the Things. Lore Oracle can also get a very wide variety of spells on their list from Divine Access feat.
Genie bloodline focus powers.
Dang. Warrior Muse definitely wants to combo with Maestro, though, to boost Inspire Courage to the max and get that sweet quickened composition at level 18.
One of the things I like is that a lot more classes are getting access to Focus healing spells.
I might have fallen in love with the orc, particularly their relationship to their ancestral pantheon. "I'm coming to take your place. Get ready."
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I might have fallen in love with the orc, particularly their relationship to their ancestral pantheon. "I'm coming to take your place. Get ready."
I've been practicing my death speeches ever since I wrote that. I've been running an orc in a game for the last couple months, and every time I trigger ferocity I've been going to my list of orc deities from Belkzen, Hold of the Orc Hordes and picking a situationally appropriate god to threaten. So far, Raggik has threatened Nulgreth, Rull, Sezelrian, Varg, and Zagresh.
magic hands ( i love the lore and mechanics of this feat)
medic
blessed one
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I’m really impressed with how fun and flavorful most of the options for kobolds and ratfolk are, and I normally hate smallfolk.
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I might have fallen in love with the orc, particularly their relationship to their ancestral pantheon. "I'm coming to take your place. Get ready."
I love that, but I'm kind of selectively ignoring the beginning of that paragraph that minimizes the impact of the orcish pantheon. To my thinking, those guys are not so much to be worshiped, but acknowledged, emulated where possible, and yes, challenged when the time comes.
Figured everyone could use a place to talk about what excites them in the book now that most people have it (and if you don't for whatever reason, everything is already up on Archives of Nethys!)
For me, the Marshal archetype is everything I ever could've hoped for. Auras, bonuses to attack or damage rolls, manipulating ally actions, giving temp HP, and more all on a purely martial character? I love it.
Also, I really love some of the new wizard feats and will probably be picking up a couple when I play my wizard. Spellbook Prodigy, Nonlethal Spell, Call Bonded Item, and Split Slot all look up my alley.
Swashbuckler gets basically 5e advantage through various feats and the wit variant is super nice. Advantage equates to +5 on the roll basically.
Martial artist I really like and send to use it with a barbarian, probably animal.
Eldritch Archer is very interesting looking.
The general system in these Archetypes of only being -2 behind is great (like martial artist stance feats vs monk stance feats. Or animal trainer feats vs ranger animal companion feats). It's a much better system then half rate and I hope they employ something like that for Gish proficiency progression eventually.
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I'm really liking Investigator. I'm currently considering how to build one to properly do what I want to do in a game, but there are several interesting options for the kinds of builds I really like, so that's good.
I love Skill-focused characters, so Investigator is great for me. Skill points every level, Skill Feats every level (with half of them needing to be INT/WIS/CHA skillsor Methodology based), adding your level to all untrained Recall Knowledge checks, it's great. I love the flavor of the class and all the crazy things it can do.
That said, the mobility and flavor of Swashbuckler is great. You can literally become an Insult Sword Fighter from Monkey Island with the Wit style, and it's all swagger in the best ways.
Man, the game really is better than ever with this book's additions.
Swashbuckler seems like a really fun and unique martial class, definitely a welcome addition. (The martial classes in PF2 have all been top notch, I should add. After a career in PF1 where I never played a class with fewer than 6 levels of spells, PF2 has finally gotten me to play a martial combatant, and I've been having a blast!)
The APG has re-sparked my interest in casters, though. The Warrior muse Bard makes me want to build a battlefield "conductor", and I'm looking forward to playing the delightful masochist of a Life Oracle I built for an upcoming campaign.
I'm also eyeing the Sorcerer's Shadow bloodline (if only because it seems a perfect way to build a character inspired by She-Ra's Shadow Weaver).
I'm just poking around on Archives of Nethys, but Risky Surgery? Oh holy cats
There are a few things I try to get on every character, at least eventually. Flight, a natural attack, healing, ranged attack, and an area attack. There are so many options for these now, and fairly early on too (constant flight is more of a high level thing but thats as it should be). I very much like the build variety there.
Sepulchral Mask focus spell. Compare to Ancestor’s Touch and yikes, poor Oracle.
Sepulchral Mask focus spell. Compare to Ancestor’s Touch and yikes, poor Oracle.
Seriously, this thing is gross. You hit enemies in your zone twice for sure for almost cantrip damage (on casting and when their turn begins) then you have a full minute of a buff, debuff, and damaging AOE. I can’t think of a reasonable competitor for best focus 1 spell.
I'm just poking around on Archives of Nethys, but Risky Surgery? Oh holy cats
Oh yeah, this feat is amazing. Unless your ally is literally dying, you basically always want to use it. Basically +1d8 healing on a success and a +2 bonus, which is very good all around.
Hard to pick a favourite, there is just so much to absorb in this book!
Buuuut... Shadowdancer archetype is everything I was hoping it would be! My only sadface moments for it is that Shadowblast is 1/day with no way to increase frequency and (more importantly) illusory creature doesn't allow it to interact (grapple) with creatures. My dream of a showdancer summoning a massive shadowy tentacle creature that grabs and squeezes enemies around them is not strictly possible.
All up an amazing book and some awesome additions to the game!
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I've only really skimmed it once so far. Nothing super jumped out at me, but there's a lot of stuff I like. The new ancestries are nice, the versatile heritage idea and how it's used here is great, the new classes seem fun, and it was fun to look at the new Archetypes.
If I had to pick one favorite, it would probably be the Oracle curses. They're dripping with so much flavor it makes me want to play one, even though I don't know if I care for the class itself.
My absolute favorite thing in there are the two pieces of artwork on the Viking - Weapon Improviser double page! They are perfect together. :D
On other content:
- the versatile heritages, especially Aasimar and Tiefling
- The swashbuckler for sounding really fun and the Investigator because I want to know how it works in real play.
Sepulchral Mask focus spell. Compare to Ancestor’s Touch and yikes, poor Oracle.Seriously, this thing is gross. You hit enemies in your zone twice for sure for almost cantrip damage (on casting and when their turn begins) then you have a full minute of a buff, debuff, and damaging AOE. I can’t think of a reasonable competitor for best focus 1 spell.
Well, both the Buff and Debuff are highly specific, since they're emotion based and not just mental (and they're only a +1/-1 and never improve), and at level 1 the fact that it's only a 5 foot emanation means that it forces you to get right up in the face of your enemies which is quite risky for a squishy Sorc.
I'm not saying it's not good. It's totally good, and I love it, but the best Focus 1 spell? Eeeeeeeeh...I think there are several great options out there that could give it some stiff competition. Touch of Corruption, Wild Shape...a few others.
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I'm really enjoying the archetypes. Excited to try cavalier or Marshall on my new aasimar/Human Battle Oracle
I really like that they added prestiges to this list, I always hated losing main core feature of a class or end up way behind in BAB because I dipped into a prestige for aesthetic and features. I'm also really glad they added some fighting style specific archetypes, this opens up interesting combinations that might have depended on MC dedications before. There seems to be a nice mix of combat, social and utility archetypes now, which makes brainstorming much more fun than before.
A ruffian rogue with Dual Weapon warrior could be interesting, or a mastermind rogue with Dandy. Eldritch archer oracle could have nice aesthetic with the war mystery as well.
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Accompanist familiar feat is great for a Bard who acquires one, replaces that skill feat that provides a circumstance bonus but only to one specific type of performance. With this you can be flexible and excel at all types of performance and not feel like you need to pick acting for its polymath/counterperformance synergies.