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This thread is to discuss the gathering of trophies and its effects on roleplaying more than the bonuses, balance, frequency, etc. (or the bookkeeping or gore). We have step 1: Mark Quarry, done during Exploration as research and step 2: Claim Trophy taking a minute to add the "it" to your trophy case (no, no, it's just a trinket because this one was humanoid. Umm, sure.)
-All full. What struck me first is that there's no encouragement to expand one's trophy case once you have a diverse set of trophies. In the arc of one's career it seems prudent to hunt down multi-trait, multi-energy enemies early and simply stop unless you get lucky later. The earlier you hunt them, the easier it is to scout, trap, predict, use divination, etc. without them countering or teleporting to escape, etc. Plus the amount of at-or-above-level enemies shrinks, choices narrow.
-And slay with intention! So you make a point of finding specific critters, it being difficult to Mark Quarry, right? Even if tangential to the plot. It's like a caster hunting down Uncommon spells, except it requires screen time because there are battles. And this is exactly what the Slayer's purpose is, it's on brand.
-Or cowardice? Perhaps you stumble upon an exquisite, Rare specimen and well, a valid meta-strategy is to flee so you can Mark Quarry and kill it later. Or better yet capture it so you can Mark it before finally slaying it. Meh.
-Or hire mercenaries?! Claim Trophy doesn't require you to have helped slay the Quarry in any way, nor be present. There's no time frame either, so once you know of a creature's existence that you want in your trophy case, you could hire mercs to collect it for you. Most prudent if the target's elusive. Another reason to finish your collection early when common mercs can take on threats your level. Heck, the big city gladiatorial games might have monsters they'll let you spend a minute harvesting from after they're killed in combat. Reap away. I can imagine that'd be an established service if Slayers are a thing in Golarion (as currently written).
So yeah, as well as the pressing need to change Mark Quarry and call to improve trophy impact, I think Paizo also needs to consider the meta being encouraged so as to spare GMs the labor of curtailing such shenanigans.
ETA: It's a bit odd to me that a Unique, high-level, campaign-altering creature might be worthless as a trophy compared to a quirky, low-level, offhand creature w/ traits one seeks to fill a niche. I'm not saying trophies should time out, but it does feel odd that a high level Slayer might have an enviable trophy case made of insignificant threats that newbies cut their teeth on.
“Hey GM! Can I pause the main quest to go out to hunt a creature with my level or higher with a lot of damage types to make some trophies for me?”
Yeah I think there's a real threat, especially if you aren't grabbing a ton of extra tools, to be in a position where you find a few decent tools and then you just no longer care about collecting trophies.
I feel like there's potential for a nice middle ground between "My level 1-4 filled out all the types of trophy I'm going to need until 16+" and "I just levelled up, so I need a full suite of new trophies to remain relevant."
For one, making larger, broader tiers might be an option so that the 'tier' of your trophy matters enough to keep you hunting for better trophies but also make it so that they don't do the magic item thing of being unreliable or useless two levels after you outgrow them.
Just drawing numbers out of a hat, what if a monster that's level 8-14 allowed you to create a "master trophy" and likewise 15+ offers you a "legendary trophy". Or, to make it even more intuitive, you gain access to a class feature at 7 and 15 that allows the creation of master and legendary trophies respectively. Since you'd already need to hunt an equal or higher level foe, it pre-bakes the need for higher level foes into these new trophies' requirements.
(sure, it could also create a scenario where suddenly at these levels a Slayer might be motivated to dump their trophy case and go off into the woods to find 5-8 specific monsters, but the class as written already has that as a level 1 motive, this just recreates it)
... Meanwhile I don't think the difference of power would be too great. Enough to add a slight edge or other quality of life tidbit, but not enough that your old trophies feel bad to use until you get a chance to go hunting again.
(Of course this comes with a downside that every signature and secondary tool would need to come with some way to improve over 3 tiers of trophy, which might be a lot of page space and design to toss in unless it was something simple with purely numerical bonuses)
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“Hey GM! Can I pause the main quest to go out to hunt a creature with my level or higher with a lot of damage types to make some trophies for me?”
Like someone else said, this is like the wizard or witch seeing out a specific spell, or anyone wanting to craft a magic item or staff if the GM says you need components from powerful creatures. It is reasonable to go side questing for things to boost your characters abilities.
How would people interpret the slayer playtest classes "Claim Trophy" in a case where the slayer was acting as a bounty hunter and brining the quarry in alive? Would they still be able to claim a trophy for defeating their quarry?
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Well yeah, the trophy taken is easy to determine.
But the "Claim Trophy" action has the following:
Requirements: You have access to the remains of a creature that was your quarry when it died.
Which RAW, means you can't take a trophy from them if they are still alive.
What if when taking a trophy, you record the level of the creature you took it from with the other elements recorded for the trophy.
You may continue to use any trophy you have as long as it is of at least your level -1. When you advance a level you may if you want, pick a trophy you are personally vested in, and its level for record purposes becomes the your new level.
Other trophy’s in your case that are of level -2 cease to provide their former bonuses. (Or they could become consumable, and will only function for one encounter, letting the trophy go out in a use.). The boosting ability would theoretically allow a slayer to bring up to two trophies from the start of their career up all the way to their apex, but the tree others would been to be replaced every few levels.
You could also make a rule that in cases where a slayer is allowed to take a trophy from a creature that has not died yet. It gets recorded as a level less than its actual level.
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Well yeah, the trophy taken is easy to determine.
But the "Claim Trophy" action has the following:
Requirements: You have access to the remains of a creature that was your quarry when it died.
Which RAW, means you can't take a trophy from them if they are still alive.
I missed the point that RAW it has to die. but frankly... my fix is rule 0. we ain't playin' that way.
That would be an absolute nightmare for society play, at least. You'd never even be able to keep it full without heavily metagaming I think.What if when taking a trophy, you record the level of the creature you took it from with the other elements recorded for the trophy.
You may continue to use any trophy you have as long as it is of at least your level -1. When you advance a level you may if you want, pick a trophy you are personally vested in, and its level for record purposes becomes the your new level.
Other trophy’s in your case that are of level -2 cease to provide their former bonuses. (Or they could become consumable, and will only function for one encounter, letting the trophy go out in a use.). The boosting ability would theoretically allow a slayer to bring up to two trophies from the start of their career up all the way to their apex, but the tree others would been to be replaced every few levels.
You could also make a rule that in cases where a slayer is allowed to take a trophy from a creature that has not died yet. It gets recorded as a level less than its actual level.
So you think you'd never be able to fill your trophy case and keep if full? So you think you would have less than three encounters where you could use your Mark Quarry, and take down an on-level opponent? Actually, taking down a boss which is the more likely case, would reduce the number required as they would stay good for more than two level advancements. I mean wouldn't you probably maintain your trophy case even if you only got to use Mark Quarry once per scenario and take a Trophy?
Actually, society play is a worthwhile general question. How will society play record your having acquired trophies? Normally you have to pay for the things you pick-up/acquire from your pay for the scenario.
Yes, scenarios where you are supposed to defeat, but not kill the opponents would be problematic for Slayers. An Agents of Edgewatch AP might also be a bad place for a Slayer.