I really love this feat, but I have a lot of issue using it.
Can I use it on an Initiative check? On a free action? In social circumstances? On a Sense Motive check?
There are many actions without a stated duration or with an instant duration and I don't know if I can use Ageless Patience on them or not...
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Elf
You work at a pace born from longevity that enhances your thoroughness. You can voluntarily spend twice as much time as normal on a Perception check or skill check to gain a +2 circumstance bonus to that check. You also don't treat a natural 1 as worse than usual on these checks; you get a critical failure only if your result is 10 lower than the DC. For example, you could get these benefits if you spent 2 actions to Seek, which normally takes 1 action. You can get these benefits during exploration by taking twice as long exploring as normal, or in downtime by spending twice as much downtime.
The GM might determine a situation doesn't grant you a benefit if a delay would be directly counterproductive to your success, such as a tense negotiation with an impatient creature.
Offhand, I'd say if it doesn't actually take any actions/time then you can't apply the bonus from the feat.
So, 'no' for initiative (definitely 'counterproductive') and free actions / reactions in general.
Social circumstances will probably vary a lot, so this is very much a GM's call.
Sense Motive should probably work, as it normally takes one action.
I 100% agree on initiative (as this one is obvious) and reactions (as you can't pay for 2 reactions anyway).
For free action, it's complicated, as a strict application of RAW would say you can use 2 free actions to get the effect. And unless it's counterproductive (which should rarely happen) it's hard to forbid it...
Are there particular free actions you're looking at?
Not precisely. But there are many with Recall Knowledge (like Monster Hunter). And some free Perception checks (like Trapfinder).
They probably need to be handled case by case.
Monster Hunter's Recall is done "as part of the action" to Hunt Prey, so I'd say you need to double the Hunt Prey action to apply Ageless Patience. Which makes it worthwhile if you're looking at tracks but not if you're in combat, which sounds right.
Trap Finder's free check isn't part of anything that takes time, so I don't see how you could double it. And it would be sort of weird IMHO if you could extra-patiently not search an area, so I think that's ok.
They probably need to be handled case by case.
I think you're right. For these kind of actions, I'll have to annoy the DM (I play mostly PFS, so I'll have to do it at every game). I think I was looking for reasons not to take it with my Alchemist. It is, in my opinion, one of the best feat in the game for any skill monkey.
I'm just a bit sad that I need Adopted Ancestry to grab it. I dislike Adopted Ancestry, maybe I'm not understanding it properly (I'm not native english speaker) but being adopted is something that happens during youth, so how can it happen during your carreer? I'm puzzled...
In PF1 it was actual adoption; in PF2 it retains the name but not that fact.
You’re fully immersed in another ancestry’s culture and traditions, whether born into them, earned through rite of passage, or bonded through a deep friendship or romance. Choose a common ancestry. You can select ancestry feats from the ancestry you chose, in addition to your character’s own ancestry, as long as the ancestry feats don’t require any physiological feature that you lack, as determined by the GM.
Also, AFAIK the time your character gets a feat need not be the exact same time they got whatever it represents; they just didn't mechanically have it until then. If that makes sense.
Right (even if the title is kind of misleading).
I think my Alchemist will find an elven mentor as it's both the most logical way of aquiring their way of dealing with things and because it's hyper logical (she's a lot into knowledge, be they magical, alchemical or natural).