I am building a character, a merfolk sylph air/water kineticist, who "swims" through the air (at level 8 Cyclonic Ascent). This means the character will have a land Speed, swim Speed, and fly Speed. The Air Impulse Junction also allows me to move half my speed, so I have incentive to boost my land/fly Speed.
Which begs the question: How can I increase my fly speed? Or the more general question of how the rules work with Speed bonuses and fly/swim/climb/burrow Speeds?
Page 420 of Player Core reads:
Speed: Most characters and monsters have a Speed statistic that indicates how quickly they can move across the ground. This statistic is referred to as land Speed when it's necessary to differentiate it from special Speeds.
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When you use the Stride action, you move a number of feet equal to your Speed. Numerous other abilities also allow you to move, from Crawling to Leaping, and most of them are based on your Speed in some way. Whenever a rule mentions your Speed without specifying a type, it's referring to your land Speed.
My problem is, every option I look at seems to only increase land Speed.
Ancestry feats...
Swift: You move with the wind always at your back. Your Speed increases by 5 feet.
General feats...
Fleet: You move more quickly on foot. Your Speed increases by 5 feet.
Item bonuses...
Boots of Bounding: ...These boots give you a +5-foot item bonus to your Speed...
Spells...
Tailwind: The wind at your back pushes you to find new horizons. You gain a +10-foot status bonus to your Speed.
If Speed = land Speed, then every option seems to only increase land Speed. Is this intentional? The only way I see around this, which I don't like for reasons which will become obvious, is if you gain speeds based on your modified land Speed.
Take Cyclonic Ascent for example: "You gain a fly Speed equal to your land Speed or 30 feet, whichever is greater..."
So, if you have a base Speed of 30, as an elf, and you are affected by Tailwind, your Speed becomes 40. If Cyclonic Ascent is based on your modified Speed, then your fly Speed would also become 40. If this is the intention, however, it is a frustrating way of getting bonuses. My merfolk being an extreme example, they have base land Speed of 5. For me to get a bonus to my fly speed from Cyclonic Ascent, I would need a +30 bonus to my land Speed, and it would only net me a +5 bonus to fly Speed. And, since I have an inherent swim speed not based on my land speed, I have no means to improve that.
Is it Paizo's intention that we not be allowed to improve alternative speeds at all? What gives?
That's true. I had been thinking I could use Tailwind, which wouldn't stack, so I'd put it out of my mind. Thank you for reminding me.
To be clear though, is there consensus about whether things like Cyclonic Ascent use your base land Speed or your modified land Speed? If you have base Speed 30, with +10 from Tailwind, is your fly Speed from Cyclonic Ascent then 30, or 40?
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If your land speed is 40 your fly speed that's equal to your land speed would also be 40. I don't see how to possibly parse it otherwise.
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If your land speed is 40 your fly speed that's equal to your land speed would also be 40. I don't see how to possibly parse it otherwise.
Yes. Sylph with 25 ft Stride speed that is using Wings of Air would also have a 25 ft Fly speed. Picking up Swift would increase the Stride speed to 30 ft and also increase the Fly speed to 30 ft since it matches.
An Undine with 25 ft Stride speed also gets a 10 ft Swim speed. Picking up Fleet or casting Tailwind would increase the Stride speed to 30 or 35 ft respectively, but leave the Swim speed at 10 ft in either case.
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One trick is to pick up an effect that says (fly/swim/whatever) is equal to your lands speed. Then you just buff the heck out of your land speed.
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One trick is to pick up an effect that says (fly/swim/whatever) is equal to your lands speed. Then you just buff the heck out of your land speed.
Which also tends to increase leaping, climbing and swimming distances.
PCs with unusual speed types were definitely not considered the norm back when designing PF2.
Your Speed refers to your land Speed unless otherwise specified. For instance, the penalty in Acid Grip explicitly lowers all your Speeds, but Fleet Step only buffs your Speed (so just your land Speed). If speed is spelled with lowercase s, it might not specifically refer to your land Speed, or even to any Speed in particular.
Poor Merfolk. Speed of 5ft is a challenge.
Poor Merfolk. Speed of 5ft is a challenge.I thought they had equipment for dealing with this.
They did. Originally, the equipment didn't actually give them a greater speed (they were basically just regular wheelchairs/traveler's chairs with no further adjustments). But the errata yesterday did give them a 20 ft. Land speed (or your Swim speed, whichever is slower).
Errata is
Page 113: The supramarine chair, land-delver’s chair, and similar aquatic accessibility options are intended to allow aquatic creatures to operate on land. Add the last sentence to the item: “You increase your Speed to 20 feet or your swim Speed, whichever is lower.”