So...Spirit Walk makes it so that you and your party don't trigger reactions of haunts while in exploration mode. Haunts, like all hazards, need a reaction to roll initiative. So barring very weird exceptions, Spirit Walk just straight-up makes a party immune to haunts, because they will never trigger.
Similarly, does it constantly make Apparition Sense a precise sense? Or only in exploration mode? And what happens if the animist doesn't have Apparition Sense because they attuned to Imposter in Hidden Places? Do they just not get that?
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So...Spirit Walk makes it so that you and your party don't trigger reactions of haunts while in exploration mode. Haunts, like all hazards, need a reaction to roll initiative. So barring very weird exceptions, Spirit Walk just straight-up makes a party immune to haunts, because they will never trigger.
It is very powerful... for a very narrow range of encounters.
In the entire first book of Abomination Vaults, I think it would let you bypass 3 encounters.
Also for very specific party sizes. If you have more than 5 PCs, you can't protect them all. Though 5 PCs is already above the expected number, so I'm not sure how meaningful that is. But I think it is worth noting.
Similarly, does it constantly make Apparition Sense a precise sense? Or only in exploration mode?
I'm seeing that as a separate thing than the "While Searching or Detecting Magic in exploration mode" sentence previous. So the precise sense upgrade would be permanent.
And what happens if the animist doesn't have Apparition Sense because they attuned to Imposter in Hidden Places? Do they just not get that?
Yeah, that tripped me up at first too. The feat has the Wandering trait. So if it would be useless to you because of your Apparition choices, then during your daily preparations you can retrain it to something that you can use.
Edit: You could retrain it even if you could use it with your Apparition choices for the day. Wandering feats are able to be retrained for the LOL's.
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Small note that Familiars, Companions and Eidolons count as one ally. So pets will often have to stay way behind.
You can also split the party and have them pass by the haunt / spirit in groups of 4.
Or just forget about the number of allies and set it at those that stay within 10ft or 15ft of the Animist.
Spirit walk essentially makes small parties immune to haunts. Abilities that outright nullify certain encounter types are not good game design.
Perhaps spirit walk could allow the animist and only the animist to ignore reactions triggered by haunts. Even then I'd say that's too powerful. Better to give the animist buffs against haunts opposed to what is essentially immunity.
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Doesn't a trap-minded Rogue (et al) negate traps as a threat? And traps seem more common, yet unless there's a distraction or the trap's OP, when does a trap activate at your table?
Plus Mobility, if one goes half speed, negates Reaction-based traps.
Neutralizing Haunts seems very on theme for Animists so they should have similar prowess. This comparison does suggest the Animist should take some action to overcome the haunt (whether it can react or not), and perhaps move slower while guarding against them.
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Doesn't a trap-minded Rogue (et al) negate traps as a threat? And traps seem more common, yet unless there's a distraction or the trap's OP, when does a trap activate at your table?
Plus Mobility, if one goes half speed, negates Reaction-based traps.Neutralizing Haunts seems very on theme for Animists so they should have similar prowess. This comparison does suggest the Animist should take some action to overcome the haunt (whether it can react or not), and perhaps move slower while guarding against them.
What, exactly, are you talking about? All I am finding is Trap Finder.
Which very much does not negate traps.
If Spirit Walk worked like Trap Finder only for Haunts instead, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have this thread.
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Doesn't a trap-minded Rogue (et al) negate traps as a threat? And traps seem more common, yet unless there's a distraction or the trap's OP, when does a trap activate at your table?
Plus Mobility, if one goes half speed, negates Reaction-based traps.Neutralizing Haunts seems very on theme for Animists so they should have similar prowess. This comparison does suggest the Animist should take some action to overcome the haunt (whether it can react or not), and perhaps move slower while guarding against them.
What, exactly, are you talking about? All I am finding is Trap Finder.
Which very much does not negate traps.
If Spirit Walk worked like Trap Finder only for Haunts instead, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have this thread.
"Trap-minded Rogue" isn't a game term, it's simply saying any (typical) Rogue with a mind to address traps. And that they have little trouble with traps (w/ the exceptions noted above). I thought this was fairly well known & consistent at PF2 tables. So what I'm talking about is how builds with a high Dex/high Perception/high Thievery can handle traps on behalf of the party. Whether that build has Trapfinder (or Mobility) is secondary, though both would help.
After which I suggest that should perhaps be the baseline for an Animist to handle Haunts. Not automatic (as currently written), but reliable, and maybe requiring more investment, i.e. maybe they'd need to max out Religion or Occult proficiency to handle at-level Haunts much like a trap-guy needs to max out Thievery.
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Separately I could imagine a party bypassing lots of Haunts, losing their Animist, and then having to exit. Gulp.
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Doesn't a trap-minded Rogue (et al) negate traps as a threat? And traps seem more common, yet unless there's a distraction or the trap's OP, when does a trap activate at your table?
Plus Mobility, if one goes half speed, negates Reaction-based traps.Neutralizing Haunts seems very on theme for Animists so they should have similar prowess. This comparison does suggest the Animist should take some action to overcome the haunt (whether it can react or not), and perhaps move slower while guarding against them.
What, exactly, are you talking about? All I am finding is Trap Finder.
Which very much does not negate traps.
If Spirit Walk worked like Trap Finder only for Haunts instead, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have this thread.
"Trap-minded Rogue" isn't a game term, it's simply saying any (typical) Rogue with a mind to address traps. And that they have little trouble with traps (w/ the exceptions noted above). I thought this was fairly well known & consistent at PF2 tables. So what I'm talking about is how builds with a high Dex/high Perception/high Thievery can handle traps on behalf of the party. Whether that build has Trapfinder (or Mobility) is secondary, though both would help.
After which I suggest that should perhaps be the baseline for an Animist to handle Haunts. Not automatic (as currently written), but reliable, and maybe requiring more investment, i.e. maybe they'd need to max out Religion or Occult proficiency to handle at-level Haunts much like a trap-guy needs to max out Thievery.
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Separately I could imagine a party bypassing lots of Haunts, losing their Animist, and then having to exit. Gulp.
I'd say not quite. Because a trap-focused rogue still has to "engage" with the game to deal with the traps. Perception is involved, and disabling the traps. There's action occurring.
Meanwhile an Animist can just walk their party through a haunted mansion packed to the brim with Haunts and by the way it's written, nothing happens at all. No story is told. Maybe the GM tells the Animist about the Haunts they're just naturally suppressing, but otherwise nothing occurs.
The equivalent would be if a Trap-focused Rogue had an aura that said "No traps function within 30 feet". The Rogue could take a casual stroll with their entire party through a trapped hallway and nothing would happen.
EDIT: Quick edit to note, there's a difference between "minimizing" and "negating" a threat. Trap-focused rogues minimize traps as a threat, but because they can crit fail their disable checks, it's never fully trivialized. Meanwhile Animists just have an off-switch for Haunts, actually negating them entirely.
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Well, yes, that's why I was suggesting shifting the Animist's level of obstacle-overcoming to resemble Thievery's. IMO that's still effectively neutralizing, which seems the core complaint of the OP, but with as you note, interaction.
And yea, Haunts tend to be quite flavorful, even impactful on one's understanding of the locale's backstory, so it's kinda sad to erase them from the narrative with zero interaction. An Animist shouldn't be effectively invisible to Haunts, but rather one who soothes or eradicates them. There should almost be a dialogue, even to the point I could see the Animist using social skills w/ Haunts (much like a Druid/some Rangers w/ animals). That's their shtick.
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Trap finder is maybe being a bit underestimated.Non magical traps can often be auto disabled by avoiding physical triggers like trip lines or allowing traps to trigger safely for example by opening a door but not stepping through immediately. Where as haunts are more like magical traps, they often occupy entire rooms with no physical manifestation and have no real limit on triggering detection isn't as big a bonus to disabling. Additionally spirit walk is also nullified by the presence of any enemies as combat or trying to sneak past an enemy ends the search exploration ability and hence the protection where as trap finder allows you to sneak and still detect traps. It's also worth noting that haunts are relatively rare which makes the feat more situational.
That said it is perhaps a little too passive. There are a few ways to change it and make it better.
One would be that when you detect the haunt you can do a ritual to appease the spirit. This could be a roll like perception or religion and it makes it clearer that spirit walk is not a quite activity. You are chanting prayers and smoking incense
Another way is to instead have it delay reactions by triggering initiative or in other words the party rolls initiative and then the reaction occurs when it gets to the haunts turn. It would turn the surprise attack haunts often get into a regular attack and give the party some time to disable it prior to the trigger similar to how pf1e haunts worked.
Having a way to try and disable the Haunt before it starts attacking feels like it would be perfect.