| Temperans |
I think that this whole remastery situation is trying to make the best of a less than ideal situation from the beginning. This isn't how any company wants to make big changes to the product that they have built their reputation around, and there is still no 100% certainty that Wizards of the Coast is signing off on not litigating once the ORC books get published. That has to be nerve wracking, especially as you have internet debates popping up with all kinds of speculation before any products are actually released. I can feel for all the folks at Paizo.
I am not sure that there even ever was going to be a right way to completely redesign a game in the middle of an edition that has just blown up in popularity, excitement and good will. Minefields abound.
But I think it is very challenging for the fandom to keep getting mixed messages about the extent of changes, and then glimpses of some of those changes when many of them feel like they have to connect to other things that are not yet known. With so many books already published under the PF2 ruleset, it is very difficult right now to know what, if any content from books like secrets of magic, dark archive, gods and magic, Lost Omens books and APs are going to be useable in the remastered game, and the idea of a RAW system pretty much goes out the window for at least a couple of years. PFS will have its own decisions to make about all of this stuff and some players will insist that is the "official" way, but it will just be the society folks doing the best they can to hold things together until all the dust settles. At this point, if you have the OGL books, and you don't like the changes of the remastery, you just don't use them, or you only use the ones you like, because if you are in the middle of a campaign right now anyway, remaking half the characters is going to be nearly impossible and you don't have any ORC remastery adventures to run anyway (that are giving ORC gear and using ORC creatures, etc).
I definitely am not planning on changing any of...
There is a solution and its one that while drastic would eliminate the whole "will this work or not?". Just make a new edition and say it is backwards compatible with this one.
Licensing issue with another game? Gone because its a different system. Things not working? Not an issue because that a different system. Questions about what is canon? That's tied to the setting not the game rules, you can also declare the new edition to be an alternate reality or something. The campaigns? Well you can start an old campaign with the new rules.
The biggest issue is that you are effectively negating all of the previous work. But then every TTRPG that releases a new edition has to deal with that issue.
| Calliope5431 |
So I think technically you can hold a polearm for bonus damage on ignition, because reach is defined like this:
"Reach is how far you can physically reach with your body or a weapon...your reach creates an area around your space where other creatures could trigger your reactions. Your reach is typically 5 feet but weapons with the reach trait can extend this."
It's dumb but pending remaster changing how reach works it's arguably fair game.
| Lurker in Insomnia |
So I think technically you can hold a polearm for bonus damage on ignition, because reach is defined like this:
"Reach is how far you can physically reach with your body or a weapon...your reach creates an area around your space where other creatures could trigger your reactions. Your reach is typically 5 feet but weapons with the reach trait can extend this."
It's dumb but pending remaster changing how reach works it's arguably fair game.
One of my players wants a staff wrapped in conductive metals for that exact purpose, to get Shocking Grasp and other electric spells out juuuuust a little further.
| Darksol the Painbringer |
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So I think technically you can hold a polearm for bonus damage on ignition, because reach is defined like this:
"Reach is how far you can physically reach with your body or a weapon...your reach creates an area around your space where other creatures could trigger your reactions. Your reach is typically 5 feet but weapons with the reach trait can extend this."
It's dumb but pending remaster changing how reach works it's arguably fair game.
Pretty sure you can only benefit from weapon traits while actively wielding them, and not merely holding them or having them stowed on your person.
| SuperBidi |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
That is an interesting thoughts though. Wizards as the Fighter equivalent. Having them start out with Expert to class bonuses and DCs is a nice pipe dream. Maybe they don't get anymore spells than other classes because whatever metaphysical reasons, but boy are they just GOOD at them.
That would be way out of line unless you massively nerf the Wizard on the side. Other casters don't get anything as good as a +2 to spell DC.
| Darksol the Painbringer |
Lurker in Insomnia wrote:That is an interesting thoughts though. Wizards as the Fighter equivalent. Having them start out with Expert to class bonuses and DCs is a nice pipe dream. Maybe they don't get anymore spells than other classes because whatever metaphysical reasons, but boy are they just GOOD at them.That would be way out of line unless you massively nerf the Wizard on the side. Other casters don't get anything as good as a +2 to spell DC.
It would have worked if Spell DCs scaled the same as Martial weapon proficiencies. Obviously, it's a pipedream now since they made Spell DCs scale differently, though I wonder how different the game would be if this was an option proposed during the Core Rulebook playtest.
Just as well, Fighters have +2 to hit, and nobody is complaining that other martial classes are invalidated, so I don't see why a plain jane Wizard who gets +2 to Save DCs (at least with their chosen school at-first) is a problem if other classes get things to compensate, like higher proficiencies, good focus spells, better feats, etc.
Old_Man_Robot
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| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Lurker in Insomnia wrote:That is an interesting thoughts though. Wizards as the Fighter equivalent. Having them start out with Expert to class bonuses and DCs is a nice pipe dream. Maybe they don't get anymore spells than other classes because whatever metaphysical reasons, but boy are they just GOOD at them.That would be way out of line unless you massively nerf the Wizard on the side. Other casters don't get anything as good as a +2 to spell DC.
The ship has long sailed on something like that anyhow. There might have been room for something like that If most casting scaled to Master. But with every full caster going to Legendary, there is no “room” for additional scaling.
| SuperBidi |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The ship has long sailed on something like that anyhow. There might have been room for something like that If most casting scaled to Master. But with every full caster going to Legendary, there is no “room” for additional scaling.
I disagree. The only issue is to find a level 19 ability for the class with Expert proficiency right off the bat. Now, I think it'd be a massive ability and as such would need a class extremely limited in its features or ability to apply that bonus.
Just as well, Fighters have +2 to hit, and nobody is complaining that other martial classes are invalidated, so I don't see why a plain jane Wizard who gets +2 to Save DCs (at least with their chosen school at-first) is a problem if other classes get things to compensate, like higher proficiencies, good focus spells, better feats, etc.
The problem is that many spellcasters nearly only have spellcasting. The Sorcerer, obviously, but even classes like Oracle, Cleric, Witch, etc... have for first feature their spellcasting and then a few things on the side that are never going to compete with a +2 to spell DC. So you'd need a buff to all spellcasting classes in the game or a nerf to the Wizard to provide such a bonus.
Also, I think a lot of people are complaining about the Fighter being too strong and overshadowing other martials.
| Lorkmir |
| 7 people marked this as a favorite. |
I gave this example before to a fellow player in a game who seemed to not grasp the significance of the versatility reduction with the curriculums.
Comparing a 14th level wizard: with the curriculum example given, I have a maximum of 15 different spells I can prepare in the extra slots. Under the school system, an illusion school wizard of the same level has 45 potential spells to choose from for that extra slot. That is triple the choices. Keep in mind too that I did not even count uncommon or rare spells in the second count, but did in the first.
This change is concerning to me beyond the impact of this change alone though. Any competent designer should have been able to see that this was such a drastic reduction in the wizard's choices that it would obviously result in general concern and worry over the state of the class in the remaster if seen on its own. As a result, they would (hopefully) add notes explaining that this is one part of a larger overhaul of the wizard and should not be a point of concern. Or, at the very least, they would have simply avoided including the curriculum change in the preview by itself and instead waited until it could be viewed as part of the whole with the remaster release or a preview specifically on the wizard.
The fact that the designers apparently did not have that good sense, is worrying on its own with regard to their competency for the remaster.
| Unicore |
| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
But you only memorize one spell in any slot of any one level. Having 3 choices at level 1, 5 at level 2, 7 at level 3...etc, etc is only a problem if you don't like your choices. That is where having enough different schools focused around the spells that casters from that school would actually want to cast comes in. If you have an idea for a school that doesn't currently exist, pitch it to your GM. You will have plenty of the spells you want to put into that slot to choose from.
Everything else about the remastery change though (and really this point too) are still way too dependent upon unknowns to start trying to build characters around or make assumptions about how they will work.
| Lorkmir |
| 9 people marked this as a favorite. |
The player shouldn't need to ask their GM and hope they acquiesce to patch over a design hole in the game. The rules should be functional and balanced as written.
The only way I can see curriculums not being a massive nerf (to a class that definitely didn't need it) is if players can make their own curriculum selections without needing to talk the GM by just choosing from common spells at each level to be their available curriculum spells PLUS additional overall class changes.
The kind of difference between 15 to 45 in spell choice is so vast that even if all 2-3 spells for a level in a pre-defined curriculum are standout spells within the theme, that will still be a loss compared to the school system pre-remaster. As I could simply prepare not just those, but any standout spells in my normal slots and then have a huge number of school spells to pick from to fill the school slots. Any way you cut it, if curriculums are going to fit a predefined list as given in the example, and players can only make their own through GM fiat, it is a massive loss in the freedom of wizards to prepare what spells they want.
| Unicore |
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Casters choosing spells without talking to their GM about how they want to use them is the road to hurt feelings and misadjusted expectations. “Be cool with Schools” is good GM advice. If you really hate it, ask to just keep using your OGL wizard.
This really is a molehill issue. I get folks who are already worked up about wizards feeling bummed that big boosts don’t seem to be on the horizon, but there is not enough information here to let the PDF ruin your day.
| YuriP |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Casters choosing spells without talking to their GM about how they want to use them is the road to hurt feelings and misadjusted expectations. “Be cool with Schools” is good GM advice. If you really hate it, ask to just keep using your OGL wizard.
This really is a molehill issue. I get folks who are already worked up about wizards feeling bummed that big boosts don’t seem to be on the horizon, but there is not enough information here to let the PDF ruin your day.
I don't think that neither GMs would like having wizard players begging for some specific school spells and neither player would like to do this. Also makes no sense to have a universalist (Unified Magical Theory) if you always can ask to your GM to allow a spell.
| Deriven Firelion |
SuperBidi wrote:
I hardly think the Wizard will be nerfed.I hope you are right.
As of this moment in time, it has been nerfed. We're just waiting to see what else happens with it, if anything, and if it offsets what we currently know.
SuperBidi wrote:It would certainly be an interesting inclusion. Pseudo 5th slot via a use of your Bonded Item per level would certainly offset the loss of versatility from the School spell to a certain degree.
And considering how Schools are nerfed, I don't expect the Unified Magical Theory to keep the Universalist bonus as it would be way imbalanced. I definitely expect the Universalist Bonded Item as a class feature.
Unless the same designer is still at Paizo that said, "I want the wizard to be the weakling of PF2. I want you to make sure that happens. If I even begin to sniff the wizard being one of the better classes of PF2, I'm taking the nerf bat to the wizard." If that designer isn't still there, hopefully the wizard will turn out to be fun and powerful again.
If Paizo is hovering over the wizard designer making sure they are weak, then the wizard will continue to be the guy you'd be better off building an Imperial Sorcerer to be a wizard-like character.
Unless they nerf the sorcerer to make the wizard more attractive.
So right now wizard and caster players will have to stress until the full remaster is available to look at.
| Calliope5431 |
Old_Man_Robot wrote:SuperBidi wrote:
I hardly think the Wizard will be nerfed.I hope you are right.
As of this moment in time, it has been nerfed. We're just waiting to see what else happens with it, if anything, and if it offsets what we currently know.
SuperBidi wrote:It would certainly be an interesting inclusion. Pseudo 5th slot via a use of your Bonded Item per level would certainly offset the loss of versatility from the School spell to a certain degree.
And considering how Schools are nerfed, I don't expect the Unified Magical Theory to keep the Universalist bonus as it would be way imbalanced. I definitely expect the Universalist Bonded Item as a class feature.Unless the same designer is still at Paizo that said, "I want the wizard to be the weakling of PF2. I want you to make sure that happens. If I even begin to sniff the wizard being one of the better classes of PF2, I'm taking the nerf bat to the wizard." If that designer isn't still there, hopefully the wizard will turn out to be fun and powerful again.
If Paizo is hovering over the wizard designer making sure they are weak, then the wizard will continue to be the guy you'd be better off building an Imperial Sorcerer to be a wizard-like character.
Unless they nerf the sorcerer to make the wizard more attractive.
So right now wizard and caster players will have to stress until the full remaster is available to look at.
Did someone seriously say that? Source? I wouldn't be surprised if it were true, for the record, just curious where it came from.
| YuriP |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I don't know if they did this because they wanted to nerf the wizards. My best bet is that they don't get too much time to work in this and due the need to change many things in the game due license they had to remove the old school system and they simply made this because was simples to made and to adapt.
IMO my bet still that this is an "elephant in the room" and they are showing the "worst" part of the wizard first to make it impact sooner than when they show the rest we can accept more easily with others better modifications later.
| Darksol the Painbringer |
| 14 people marked this as a favorite. |
If you have an idea for a school that doesn't currently exist, pitch it to your GM.
Why is this always put forth as an answer when it wasn't even really required before for the class to function? Putting forth a "GM May I" mechanic on a class that was all about following and understanding the "rules" of magic and the Arcane is a significant change in both flavor and mechanics, which is for the worse I might add.
You don't see Clerics asking "GM May I" for some custom deity option. You don't see Sorcerers asking "GM May I" for some custom bloodline. You don't see Witches asking "GM May I" for some custom patron. You don't see Bards asking "GM May I" for some custom muse. You don't see Druids asking "GM May I" for some custom order. Why should Wizards be asking "GM May I" for some custom school of magic when other classes haven't had to do this?
| Unicore |
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School is nothing like a bloodline or a muse or a patron. You still have access to a full range of arcane spells you can choose to learn. This is just some free spells you get to add to your book with the caveat that you get to memorize one of them per level. We don't even know the total number of schools we will get or how often they will add new ones yet.
If, as it seems, it is just not going to be that important a part of the class, (like there aren't going to be feats unique to specific schools, but just generic feats that interact with all schools equally), then they could be getting published regularly in APs and lost omen content as well because they require very little space and add regional flavor very easily. This seems like the intention behind the new school mechanic:
Get some spells you get to add to your book for free, and get one extra spell slot per level per day from amongst them, or build a universal school wizard where you probably just get to pick any spells you want to be in your school, but you don't learn any of them for free, so you have less total spells in your book, and the focus spells are a little more generic.
PF2 didn't do much with schools to start with so there really isn't as much being lost here as people are making it out to be. You still had to get access to your school spells to add them to your book, so usually 1 or 2 spells per level were the most spells you were getting for free to potentially fill your school slots with in the first place. I do have some reservations about what we have seen about the remastery but the school thing is below the bottom of the list. It will affect very little and probably add more Golarion flavor pretty quickly.
| Deriven Firelion |
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Deriven Firelion wrote:Did someone seriously say that? Source? I wouldn't be surprised if it were true, for the record, just curious where it came from.Old_Man_Robot wrote:SuperBidi wrote:
I hardly think the Wizard will be nerfed.I hope you are right.
As of this moment in time, it has been nerfed. We're just waiting to see what else happens with it, if anything, and if it offsets what we currently know.
SuperBidi wrote:It would certainly be an interesting inclusion. Pseudo 5th slot via a use of your Bonded Item per level would certainly offset the loss of versatility from the School spell to a certain degree.
And considering how Schools are nerfed, I don't expect the Unified Magical Theory to keep the Universalist bonus as it would be way imbalanced. I definitely expect the Universalist Bonded Item as a class feature.Unless the same designer is still at Paizo that said, "I want the wizard to be the weakling of PF2. I want you to make sure that happens. If I even begin to sniff the wizard being one of the better classes of PF2, I'm taking the nerf bat to the wizard." If that designer isn't still there, hopefully the wizard will turn out to be fun and powerful again.
If Paizo is hovering over the wizard designer making sure they are weak, then the wizard will continue to be the guy you'd be better off building an Imperial Sorcerer to be a wizard-like character.
Unless they nerf the sorcerer to make the wizard more attractive.
So right now wizard and caster players will have to stress until the full remaster is available to look at.
No, man. No one said that.
The wizard took such a huge hammer to their power in PF2, I pictured a Paizo designer like The Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files saying, "I don't want the wizard to be powerful ever again while I'm alive" like when he said, "The Buffalo Bills never win a Super Bowl." Most will not get this reference as The X-Files is an old man show now.
But the gist is someone at Paizo tired of the wizard being the Super Man of PF1 decided to 100% make sure the PF2 wizard wasn't going to overshadow anyone. They went so far ensuring the wizard was not anything like PF1 that they hammer hit them too hard to make them weak.
| Darksol the Painbringer |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
School is nothing like a bloodline or a muse or a patron. You still have access to a full range of arcane spells you can choose to learn. This is just some free spells you get to add to your book with the caveat that you get to memorize one of them per level. We don't even know the total number of schools we will get or how often they will add new ones yet.
If, as it seems, it is just not going to be that important a part of the class, (like there aren't going to be feats unique to specific schools, but just generic feats that interact with all schools equally), then they could be getting published regularly in APs and lost omen content as well because they require very little space and add regional flavor very easily. This seems like the intention behind the new school mechanic:
Get some spells you get to add to your book for free, and get one extra spell slot per level per day from amongst them, or build a universal school wizard where you probably just get to pick any spells you want to be in your school, but you don't learn any of them for free, so you have less total spells in your book, and the focus spells are a little more generic.
PF2 didn't do much with schools to start with so there really isn't as much being lost here as people are making it out to be. You still had to get access to your school spells to add them to your book, so usually 1 or 2 spells per level were the most spells you were getting for free to potentially fill your school slots with in the first place. I do have some reservations about what we have seen about the remastery but the school thing is below the bottom of the list. It will affect very little and probably add more Golarion flavor pretty quickly.
It's not, but what makes school a mechanic become more "GM May I" than any of those other ones? Also, "access to a full range of arcane spells you can choose to learn" only applies to your 3 base slots, not all 4 slots, and given that Sorcerer gets better innate benefits without having to compromise what they can use their slots on more than any other ones means a Wizard is paying their ability to prepare spells in the form of slot versatility to be worse than a Sorcerer is with their slots, which is just absolutely backwards design. "You can use these 3 slots for whatever, but this 4th one has to be one of these two spells, and nothing else" goes against the idea that a Wizard is basically the Batman of spellcasters, being able to prepare and plan for most every situation. At that point, Cleric and Druid are better prepared spellcasters because they don't have to compromise what they can prepare their spell slots with.
This doesn't work because you can't just retrain schools, or if you do, it takes a large amount of downtime (and gold/opportunity cost), and requires access to do so if they're Uncommon or Rare or Unique. Rarity-locking schools, while it makes sense from a setting standpoint, is problematic from a balance standpoint, because this often means these rarity-locked schools will likewise have rarity-locked spells, which is currently used for more than just "This form of spell is hard to find outside of these regions/options." For example, putting Teleport behind a rarity-locked school creates issues with the idea that the school in question is outright better than a similar school that simply doesn't have Teleport as an option, and plus, being able to learn that spell for free, instead of having to invest time and resources into simply getting access to it, is a form of power creep. Short of these having spells that the AP requires, and is only useful for that AP, I don't find locking schools behind rarity tags to be a feasible solution.
Supposition as to what the Unified Magical Theory does isn't really helpful, since odds are they will still maintain the "Arcane Bond can be used once per spell level per day instead of once per day" balance point, since this was a key differentiator between them, and the Remaster might be a step too far to change that balance point.
Not doing much with a mechanic is fine. They didn't do much with patrons or bloodlines in addition to schools, and people didn't complain that the class felt shafted compared to other classes. Really, the only complaint about schools was the focus spells were lackluster, which doesn't translate to "I have too many different types of spells to prepare in these bonus slots, please cut them down so I don't have decision paralysis!"
They did a fair amount with deities, though, since there is a lot of mix-and-match to be had with those mechanics, but given how fleshed out that is, schools would have to be similarly fleshed out if we want to have "cherry-picking" options like what deities currently are now for Clerics. And incidentally, Clerics are probably the weakest of the spellcasters that they implemented (though Witch is still slightly worse), even though they have the most highest level spell slots in the game, and have all of the customization presented to them.
Dexter Coffee
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| 7 people marked this as a favorite. |
As much as I don't like "GM may I" since as GM I'm very permissive and when I play being unable to take choices I want makes me itch. I like the custom school idea just for the nonsense that pops in my head.
Potential Arcanium Applicant: "Look at all the spells they give you access to for being an alum so cool."
Recruiter of the Hodgepodge School of Whatever the Hell You Want: slugs whiskey and hits some Pesh "Don't do it kid, we got Slow, Summon Dragon, Horizon Thunder Sphere all the good s**t. You don't need those snooty a*******s help. Now, sign right here.
| Calliope5431 |
Sorcerer gets better innate benefits without having to compromise what they can use their slots on more than any other ones means a Wizard is paying their ability to prepare spells in the form of slot versatility to be worse than a Sorcerer is with their slots, which is just absolutely backwards design. "You can use these 3 slots for whatever, but this 4th one has to be one of these two spells, and nothing else" goes against the idea that a Wizard is basically the Batman of spellcasters, being able to prepare and plan for most every situation. At that point, Cleric and Druid are better prepared spellcasters because they don't have to compromise what they can prepare their spell slots with
I mean. Cleric kinda does have to compromise what they prepare their slots with. They get 3 slots per level just like wizard, and instead of getting a selection from school spells for their fourth option, they get a pile of harms or heals. Now, admittedly, harm and heal are very good spells (heal more so if you're a vitality healing party, harm for void healing), but then again so are some wizard spells. And yes I know for cleric the free spells are cast out of your highest level slot as opposed to getting 1/level of spell you can cast, but still. It's not unlimited like sorcerer.
And druid just doesn't get four slots at all, restrictive or no. So you're actually a slot up on them. I'd rather have 3 open slots and 1 heavily restricted than 3 open slots and 0 heavily restricted. And no, their 2-action focus spells do not compensate for having 1 fewer slot per level. There are sorcerer bloodline 2-action spells (hag's You're Mine, for instance) that are miles better than druid focus spells, and sorcerer is getting 25% more spells.
That being said, "druid is sad" is not a good reason to make wizard sad. It's a reason to make them both more on par with sorcerer, in overall play experience if not specific mechanical implementation. The issue is more that wizard is bottom-of-the-barrel in terms of saves, hp, perception proficiency, weapon proficiency, and armor, and so it really REALLY REALLY needs something to compensate for said bottom-of-the-barrel status.
Aristophanes
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Darksol the Painbringer wrote:Sorcerer gets better innate benefits without having to compromise what they can use their slots on more than any other ones means a Wizard is paying their ability to prepare spells in the form of slot versatility to be worse than a Sorcerer is with their slots, which is just absolutely backwards design. "You can use these 3 slots for whatever, but this 4th one has to be one of these two spells, and nothing else" goes against the idea that a Wizard is basically the Batman of spellcasters, being able to prepare and plan for most every situation. At that point, Cleric and Druid are better prepared spellcasters because they don't have to compromise what they can prepare their spell slots withI mean. Cleric kinda does have to compromise what they prepare their slots with. They get 3 slots per level just like wizard, and instead of getting a selection from school spells for their fourth option, they get a pile of harms or heals. Now, admittedly, harm and heal are very good spells (heal more so if you're a vitality healing party, harm for void healing), but then again so are some wizard spells. And yes I know for cleric the free spells are cast out of your highest level slot as opposed to getting 1/level of spell you can cast, but still. It's not unlimited like sorcerer.
And druid just doesn't get four slots at all, restrictive or no. So you're actually a slot up on them. I'd rather have 3 open slots and 1 heavily restricted than 3 open slots and 0 heavily restricted. And no, their 2-action focus spells do not compensate for having 1 fewer slot per level. There are sorcerer bloodline 2-action spells (hag's You're Mine, for instance) that are miles better than druid focus spells, and sorcerer is getting 25% more spells.
That being said, "druid is sad" is not a good reason to make wizard sad. It's a reason to make them both more on par with sorcerer, in overall play experience if not specific mechanical implementation. The issue is more that wizard is...
Nothing anybody else has makes the Druid "SAD",
| ottdmk |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I find myself wondering if the Ignition change is a way to encourage folks to stop "shopping" outside their tradition?
Say they included something like the following to the Cantrips section of Spellcasting for each spellcasting class: "You add your spellcasting ability modifier to the damage of Cantrips from your Tradition."
So, if Electric Arc followed in the footsteps of Ignition (2d4 instead of d4+SAM). If it's on your list it's 2d4+SAM. If it's not, it's just 2d4. Does it remain the "you gotta get this Cantrip somehow" Cantrip?
I dunno. For the most part, I'm with Unicore on this one. I think that until Player Core 1 comes out this fall we just don't have enough of the full picture.
| gesalt |
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
I gotta wonder why they'd bother to put information in their preview that was guarenteed to get people mad over the further nerfing of an already 3rd rate class, not to mention showing off a slew of spell nerfs when so few spells are worth casting to begin with.
My concern is that if they're nerfing already bad options, how much worse will the good classes and spells get hit.
| Darksol the Painbringer |
Darksol the Painbringer wrote:Sorcerer gets better innate benefits without having to compromise what they can use their slots on more than any other ones means a Wizard is paying their ability to prepare spells in the form of slot versatility to be worse than a Sorcerer is with their slots, which is just absolutely backwards design. "You can use these 3 slots for whatever, but this 4th one has to be one of these two spells, and nothing else" goes against the idea that a Wizard is basically the Batman of spellcasters, being able to prepare and plan for most every situation. At that point, Cleric and Druid are better prepared spellcasters because they don't have to compromise what they can prepare their spell slots withI mean. Cleric kinda does have to compromise what they prepare their slots with. They get 3 slots per level just like wizard, and instead of getting a selection from school spells for their fourth option, they get a pile of harms or heals. Now, admittedly, harm and heal are very good spells (heal more so if you're a vitality healing party, harm for void healing), but then again so are some wizard spells. And yes I know for cleric the free spells are cast out of your highest level slot as opposed to getting 1/level of spell you can cast, but still. It's not unlimited like sorcerer.
And druid just doesn't get four slots at all, restrictive or no. So you're actually a slot up on them. I'd rather have 3 open slots and 1 heavily restricted than 3 open slots and 0 heavily restricted. And no, their 2-action focus spells do not compensate for having 1 fewer slot per level. There are sorcerer bloodline 2-action spells (hag's You're Mine, for instance) that are miles better than druid focus spells, and sorcerer is getting 25% more spells.
That being said, "druid is sad" is not a good reason to make wizard sad. It's a reason to make them both more on par with sorcerer, in overall play experience if not specific mechanical implementation. The issue is more that wizard is...
It depends. If they aren't Void Healing, but need to prepare Harm for Channel Smite/offensive capability, then it's ultimately a case of "Prepare Harms with Font, prepare Heals with slots," which isn't exactly original or helpful, but that's a little different when your choices of bonus spells are probably the two strongest spells in your tradition in the game, and are usable across all levels of play to great effect. Like, if there was a Wizard school that gave access to Force Dart and Thunderstrike, that would probably be a pretty solid school based on those two spells alone, even if it doesn't have other powerful ones like Slow/Haste, Fireball, etc. The other big benefit is you don't need to spend gold to have access to spells in your list (unless they're Uncommon or Rare, but even then, coming across a scroll or some other source is enough to get access). Need Regenerate? Well, I don't need to pay X amount of gold and Y amount of downtime to acquire it, I can just prepare it when I get access to that rank if spell.
Druids will have less spells, true. But they also have better proficiencies to compensate for it. They have armor and weapons, and they have more HP and better saves progression, meaning they can multiclass to other things to greater effect compared to Wizard, and given that Storm Druid has practically nothing for in-class support, multiclassing is basically mandatory for them.
| Temperans |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
gesalt wrote:I gotta wonder why they'd bother to put information in their preview that was guarenteed to get people mad over the further nerfing of an already 3rd rate classEh? I don't see any alchemist or investigator nerfs in the document.
Okay that was a good one. They are probably saving it for later.
| Darksol the Painbringer |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
gesalt wrote:I gotta wonder why they'd bother to put information in their preview that was guarenteed to get people mad over the further nerfing of an already 3rd rate classEh? I don't see any alchemist or investigator nerfs in the document.
Pretty sure those are Player Core 2, which is still in development, so I wouldn't expect any information on those classes in this preview.
**EDIT** Though, if you are being facetious, we also forgot to mention Swashbuckler.
| FlySkyHigh |
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
As much as I don't like "GM may I" since as GM I'm very permissive and when I play being unable to take choices I want makes me itch. I like the custom school idea just for the nonsense that pops in my head.
Potential Arcanium Applicant: "Look at all the spells they give you access to for being an alum so cool."
Recruiter of the Hodgepodge School of Whatever the Hell You Want: slugs whiskey and hits some Pesh "Don't do it kid, we got Slow, Summon Dragon, Horizon Thunder Sphere all the good s**t. You don't need those snooty a*******s help. Now, sign right here.
Actually wheezing at this mental image, thank you.
| Calliope5431 |
Nothing anybody else has makes the Druid "SAD"
It's not a bad or broken class, to be clear! It's nowhere near alchemist in terms of "this just needs a fix." It's just that it gets 1 fewer spell slot than other full casters like sorcerer or wizard, and unlike cleric (healing/harming font), bard (crazy-good focus cantrips), or psychic (amps) it doesn't get anything that makes up for it, besides better hp and armor. Both of which are identical to cleric (and for that matter, bard has the same hp progression).
Again, not a bad class! It's just a bit disappointing.
Order spells are just normal focus spells, comparable to those of any other class.
And like most 2-action damage focus spells they get dramatically outclassed by leveled spells (cast from spell slots) at higher levels. None of them is greater than fireball for damage, and cone of cold and chain lightning both scale better than fireball, dealing 14d6 and 8d12 (~15d6) respectively at level 6. Similarly, clerics get spirit blast, which deals 16d6 (though that's single-target of course).
Compare this with pulverizing cascade/powerful inhalation/stone lance. Heightened to level 6 they deal 11d6/11d6/12d6, which is 2d6-4d6 lower than these 6th level spells. Even if you're trying to conserve slots, a basic cone of cold out of a 5th level slot deals 12d6, which is still higher. And remember - the wizard/sorcerer has more slots than the druid, so they can more easily cast these spells than the druid can.
Moreover, a sorcerer or wizard (or cleric, for that matter!) has focus spells that can be cast in 1 action, such as force bolt, elemental toss, mystic beacon, elemental tempest, and the like, which further add to their damage over and above the druid's. Or they have focus spells like fey bloodline's fey disappearance or the abjurer's energy absorption, which increase defenses. While the druid is burning focus points on keeping up with wizard/sorcerer/cleric damage from spell slots, the wizard/sorcerer/cleric is burning them dealing even more damage or getting extra nifty tricks.
Heck, dragon bloodline sorcerers get the focus spell dragon breath, a 2-action blast spell which scales at the same rate as the druid order focus spells. But the sorcerer gets more base spell slots on top of that, and the druid doesn't.
| Deriven Firelion |
Calliope5431 wrote:...Darksol the Painbringer wrote:Sorcerer gets better innate benefits without having to compromise what they can use their slots on more than any other ones means a Wizard is paying their ability to prepare spells in the form of slot versatility to be worse than a Sorcerer is with their slots, which is just absolutely backwards design. "You can use these 3 slots for whatever, but this 4th one has to be one of these two spells, and nothing else" goes against the idea that a Wizard is basically the Batman of spellcasters, being able to prepare and plan for most every situation. At that point, Cleric and Druid are better prepared spellcasters because they don't have to compromise what they can prepare their spell slots withI mean. Cleric kinda does have to compromise what they prepare their slots with. They get 3 slots per level just like wizard, and instead of getting a selection from school spells for their fourth option, they get a pile of harms or heals. Now, admittedly, harm and heal are very good spells (heal more so if you're a vitality healing party, harm for void healing), but then again so are some wizard spells. And yes I know for cleric the free spells are cast out of your highest level slot as opposed to getting 1/level of spell you can cast, but still. It's not unlimited like sorcerer.
And druid just doesn't get four slots at all, restrictive or no. So you're actually a slot up on them. I'd rather have 3 open slots and 1 heavily restricted than 3 open slots and 0 heavily restricted. And no, their 2-action focus spells do not compensate for having 1 fewer slot per level. There are sorcerer bloodline 2-action spells (hag's You're Mine, for instance) that are miles better than druid focus spells, and sorcerer is getting 25% more spells.
That being said, "druid is sad" is not a good reason to make wizard sad. It's a reason to make them both more on par with sorcerer, in overall play experience if not specific mechanical implementation. The
If the druid pretends to be sad, can they have more power?
| Calliope5431 |
If the druid pretends to be sad, can they have more power?
No, then they get hit with a nerfbat.
Exhibit A: Wizzie McWizard.
Exhibit B, coming soon: witch.
(I do have more faith in the devs than that, to be clear. They have done an excellent job of designing a good game in general. But I couldn't resist)
| Calliope5431 |
Interesting, most people I see discussing this kind of thing put Druid as one of the stronger casters between their good proficiencies, strong list, and solid focus spells (you say they're no different but they're clearly a lot more important than most cleric or wizard offerings).
Very fair! And hey, other people may have had different experiences! Having played one each of storm, fire, and animal order druid, though...gotta say I had more fun with evoker and conjurer wizards, magic domain cleric, and fey and elementalist sorcerers. The spell slots just are really tight, whereas sorcerer has room to breathe. And still gets the primal list! Primal list is great.
| nothinglord |
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
As much as people say "wait for Player Core 1", that just spells out how s*@+ty of a preview this is. I was planning to try preorder the special cover versions of the Remaster books, but with how this preview is, I won't be getting the new books (even new non-Remastered books) at all unless they show off more that makes this not as bad as it looks.
When someone would ask "should I get books now, or wait for the remaster?", I previously would've said to wait, but now I'd tell people to buy the originals and avoid the Remaster books.
This isn't a good preview. If there is things that account for these very blatantl nerfs, then they better preview that too.
| Captain Morgan |
What's weird was the separate preview I saw for Flame Strike was such a big buff.
Name: Divine Immolation, much cooler
Damage: 2d6 became persistent damage, while the other 6d6 remained regular fire.
Radius: 20 ft burst
Extra: Now just fully counts as spirit damage if would be worse for the enemy than fire damage.
Traits: Sanctified.
They took that classic dud of a spell and made it into an absolute fiend killer. It got me super jazzed. Meanwhile, this list... Not so much.
| Calliope5431 |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I mean I don't think the intent was to nerf everything or even most of everything.
I think they tried to write a bunch of things they hoped people would be excited about and some of them are not exactly exciting. Such as cone of cold taking a damage nerfbat or wizard taking an everything nerfbat. It's also likely that stuff (especially the wizard list) was rushed out the door.
With the cone of cold -> howling blizzard switch, it looks cool on paper ("now you can make difficult terrain! And it's even got a 3-action version for long range cold blasting! Awesome! No one will care about a minor damage tweak to keep it balanced."), but the devil is in the details. Namely, the detail that caster damage is already nothing to write home about and nerfing it feels punitive even if you add on a new and exciting feature.
Personally, I'd like to see more stuff like the kineticist (tight thematic focus, solid unique mechanics) as opposed to more "I throw the kitchen sink that is the arcane list at all my problems." I do not support nerfing the current wizard to achieve this aim, but something like an Outer Planes kineticist would be freaking cool.
(In general I do think AD&D made a mistake giving spellcasters the superpower lottery - it's sort of bizarre that your average sorcerer has more unique abilities than Superman and your average druid can prepare for problems better than Batman - but that's a whole different topic, and has no bearing on the game as it stands today. The only reason I bring it up is to potentially give some insight into a possible mindset that would lead someone to publish such a restrictive spell list).
| Darksol the Painbringer |
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Howdy! I have a friend that happens to be a Magus (it's me) and he asked me if Thunderstrike is replacing Shocking Grasp? Any confirmation about that?
It's not definitive, but there is a lot of coincidental correlation to be put on that suggests that it's a replacement. There's also potential speculation that it's replacing more than just Shocking Grasp, which is why it is changed the way it is changed.
| WWHsmackdown |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What's weird was the separate preview I saw for Flame Strike was such a big buff.
Name: Divine Immolation, much cooler
Damage: 2d6 became persistent damage, while the other 6d6 remained regular fire.
Radius: 20 ft burst
Extra: Now just fully counts as spirit damage if would be worse for the enemy than fire damage.
Traits: Sanctified.They took that classic dud of a spell and made it into an absolute fiend killer. It got me super jazzed. Meanwhile, this list... Not so much.
Ooooooo! Where was that preview?
| Calliope5431 |
Captain Morgan wrote:Ooooooo! Where was that preview?What's weird was the separate preview I saw for Flame Strike was such a big buff.
Name: Divine Immolation, much cooler
Damage: 2d6 became persistent damage, while the other 6d6 remained regular fire.
Radius: 20 ft burst
Extra: Now just fully counts as spirit damage if would be worse for the enemy than fire damage.
Traits: Sanctified.They took that classic dud of a spell and made it into an absolute fiend killer. It got me super jazzed. Meanwhile, this list... Not so much.
On a stream, apparently - unfortunately Pathfinder 2e reddit is closed down on Tuesdays as a protest so I can't find the actual original source.
But a simple google for: "divine immolation" pf2
will give you the full spell.
| Captain Morgan |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It occurs to me that the reason we got these specific spells might not be because they were what would excite the community, but because they were referenced in Rage of Elements. I only spotted a couple that overlap, but it would be interesting to CTRL+F through the pdf and see how many spell names show up on a monster stat block.
Captain Morgan wrote:Ooooooo! Where was that preview?What's weird was the separate preview I saw for Flame Strike was such a big buff.
Name: Divine Immolation, much cooler
Damage: 2d6 became persistent damage, while the other 6d6 remained regular fire.
Radius: 20 ft burst
Extra: Now just fully counts as spirit damage if would be worse for the enemy than fire damage.
Traits: Sanctified.They took that classic dud of a spell and made it into an absolute fiend killer. It got me super jazzed. Meanwhile, this list... Not so much.
The weird thing is it was on a reddit forum that seems to be locked to private now. Maybe someone leaked something they weren't supposed to?
Ah, did google image and found it:
https://images.app.goo.gl/BYut9MavBZkJvT9U7
| Calliope5431 |
The weird thing is it was on a reddit forum that seems to be locked to private now. Maybe someone leaked something they weren't supposed to?
No, it's just because of a compromise with the whole reddit API protest thing. The Pathfinder 2e subreddit is locked on Tuesdays. Go figure.
| Ravingdork |
| WWHsmackdown |
| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
I hope there's a "school of comfort" with the remastered wizard; it would have a curriculum of mage hand, unseen servant, prestidigitation (for cleaning clothes), light, create food, mending, and feather fall (for when the ankle biters are climbing the oak tree....AGAIN!!) As a grown man nearing his thirties I'd kill for a magical home-ec degree