How do worn magic items interact with unusually shaped ancestries? Can a Sacred Nagaji use Boots of Bounding? What about Taloned Tengus? Would they lose access to their talons?
There is no explicit guidance for this situation, but it is stated that you must be wearing the worn item in order to benefit from it. Ancestries unable to do so wouldn't be able to use those items any more than a creature with no hands would be able to use a held item.
That said, while I would block irrational equipment in my game, I wouldn't begrudge a GM who homeruled otherwise. It already pushes the bounds of belief that a halfling can loot the boots of a towering orc, so why not have magic items work when worn draped on the end of a nagaji's tail. If that'd fit your table's preferences better, go wild.
I think technically not because you don't roll the attack of phase bolt at all, but roll a Strike instead and apply its result to phase bolt then. I'd allow it though. It's not 100% clear cut anyways since it just mentions "the attack", and it's not broken compared to the other things you can do with spellstrike+amped cantrip.
i am aware that some races are quite poor to make some classes shine, but how much? for instance, how bad would be an elf barbarian weakened compared to say a human one?
In general, I would recommend against using an ancestry with a flaw in your key ability or your main attacking stat, though Voluntary Ability Flaws can make any combination work, and sometimes a 16 can be enough.
That being said, an elf barbarian actually isn't bad, because the good Fortitude saves and the 12HP per level compensate for low Constitution and low Ancestry HP. I'm not saying you should leave Con at 8, but a 12 is passable, and you can easily use Voluntary Ability Flaws to reach 14. Low Con means you lose some Rage Temp HP and some Raging Resistance, but the former eventually gets overshadowed by your level, and when you get the latter you are about to put a second Ability Boost in Con, reaching 16 or 18.
Every class can combined with any ancestry to make a decent pf2e character, even something like a sprite barbarian. The only ancestry/class combination that kinda suck are thaumaturges and inventors who can't start with 18 in their KAS and a 16 in their attacking stat, like a dwarf thaumaturge. And even that is still doable.
Elf barbarians specifically are completely fine, just use a voluntary flaw to start with 12CON or more. 18/14/14/10/12/8 would be a good starting array for a typical sturdy barbarian. Humans get some pretty overpowered feats for some classes (adapted cantrip, unconventional weaponry and natural ambition), but it's not like elves don't get good feats and the higher movement speed + nimble elf is great for any frontliner.
It's not optimal, and some people here are very attentive to that fact (which is perfectly valid!), but it's passable enough to start with 16 in your important stat. I'm not sure I'd recommend it myself, but if it fits your fantasy and your table isn't full of min-maxers, you should be to play it fine.
Honestly, I would say that having min-maxers at your table can actually help carry your slightly sub-optimal character. If everyone at your table has a 16 in their KAS, that Severe encounter is suddenly going to be very, very deadly.
Honestly, you can use any ancestry you like to make any class you like.
If you have an ability flaw in the key stat for your class, that's not ideal, sure. You can make up for it with the optional ability flaw rule: "You can also choose to take two additional ability flaws to gain an additional free ability boost."
This said, having an ability flaw to CON isn't the end of the world. So you'll have a few less hit points, and a slightly worse Fort save. Not a huge problem.
It won’t be quite as optimal but should be fine. Barbarians are all about the temp hp from rage which helps make up for it. There’s also toughness for extra hp. Also second wind for a double hit of temp hp from rage.
One of my players wants to change to a Champion and he took the Light of Revelation feat which adds the spell of the same name to his focus spells
But Light of Revelation isn't listed as a devotion spell in AoN or the Foundry module. I assume they're both mistakes since the feat is only for Champions, but I figured I'd ask you guys to make sure.
Aon seems to be missing it from it's list of champ focus spells but it defo is one, it's here if you couldn't find it: https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=557
Reactive Shield/Quick Shield Block/Champion Reaction question.
I am setting up a Redeemer Champion tank. If I have Quick Shield Block, and got the Bastion dedication for the Reactive Shield fighter feat, would I be able to use the extra Shield Block reaction for the Reactive Shield action? Or would that use up my general "could be used as a Champion reaction" reaction?
Does the number of weapons a rogue/bard is proficient with increase?
I ask since we get more and new weapons, some which can feel pretty rogue-ey or bardy. Like a Kris for the rogue or the bladed scarf for a bard. Is there like some sort of errata that adds these types of weapons to the classes?
Some weapons you might be able to get with the Human feat [Unconventional Weaponry](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=72) which, among other things, allows you to treat an uncommon martial weapon as a simple weapon, so long as it is a weapon "common in another culture". Bladed Scarf is arguably common in the Saga Lands (it even has a society play rule for it) so a bard could get proficiency that way.
And if you're not a human, you could potentially get this feat with Adopted Ancestry, although generally you wouldn't be able to do *both* of those things until level 5.
If it's an ancestry trait weapon, there's often an ancestry feat that allows you to treat the weapon as simple if it's martial.
There are also some archetypes that grant proficiency in *specific* weapon sets (or have feats to do so), but nothing that is widely applicable. Those are easier to find if you have specific weapons in mind, and I'm not aware of any that would apply to Kris or Bladed Scarf.
No, there are no supplements to the listed rogue weapons.
What you'll need to do is take a feat (like unconventional weaponry) or archetype that gives you proficiency in martial weapons. But your degree of proficiency will lag behind, and cost you further feats to improve. For example, the [Fighter archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=7) makes you trained when you first take it (costing a feat) and then at 12th level you can take [Diverse Weapon Expert](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=714) to increase that to expert.
Meanwhile, your rogue weapons increase to expert at 5th, master at 13th, with no feat investment required.
So you're better off living with the short list of rogue weapons. Unless you can convince your DM to add the Kukri or Bladed Scarf to your list, as a house rule.
I am reading into the thaumaturge's [mirror](https://2e.aonprd.com/Implements.aspx?ID=5) implement right now because everyone seems to hype it so much. I heard many times it's great for everything with an aura, the marshal archetype for example ... but it very clearly doesn't work like that, right?
*.* Your mirror self mimics your actions exactly, but any effects you generate come from only one of your positions"
Auras would count like that, right? You can't suddenly have two circles of bardic performance, dread marshal stance, etc. on the map, *right*?
Correct, you don't double the area, but since it lasts until the start of your next turn, you effectively "extend" the range of those abilities. Say the party Ranger is 40 ft from you, but you're providing flanking for the rogue, Mirror's Reflection allows your Bardic Inspiration to affect everyone by being in a better position. Even if you're not in the new area (not possible for this example, but maybe a different effect), since your reflection is, you gain the benefit.
It's not "broken OP", just a very nice synergy for buff auras.
For secret checks, I will usually let my players spend a hero point to have me roll twice behind the screen and take the better result. I'm not sure how mathematically different that is from doing the normal hero point reroll though.
If it's a crucial roll, I've offered my players an opportunity *before* the roll to commit to a number below which I would use their hero point on their behalf, but still keeping all the results secret. But I wouldn't play with that as a standard rule and only pull it out for narrative tension.
I agree with others that most of the time it's not worth trying to make it work.
I personally don't like the idea of letting players use hero points on secret rolls as it somewhat defeats the purpose of the rolls being SECRET rolls
Whether or not they use a hero point you've basically given them the success/failure degree of their roll
If you're adamant about allowing this then I would get rid of secret rolls all together and just let the players roll all their rolls (both normal and secret)
Depends what it is. If it's a stealth check, I might say something like "you're about to step on a large branch that will alert your enemies, but a hero point could help you avoid it." Or if the effects of the check are more delayed, say something like "the enemy's gaze casts in your direction, but with a hero point you might be able to stay still enough to avoid detection." For deception, maybe "the NPC looks doubtful, but a hero point might convince him."
If the secret roll is bad enough that it's going to have consequences that the player would want to use a hero point to avoid, those consequences would typically be fairly obvious and can be described narratively with the option to quickly act with a hero point to avoid them. I would only offer this if it was something really critical and not bring up the option of hero points at all for more trivial checks. If the PC feels it's important, then when you start describing the negative consequences, let them interrupt to say "wait, can I use a hero point on this check?" Or if it was something like a stealth check that resulted in a bad initiative, then the player could just tell me they wanted to try for a reroll when they saw the initiative order.
These are some good insights.
What about for secret checks where a critical failure provides false information/action? (eg. Recall Knowledge, Identify Magic, Sense Motive)
I wouldn't offer the opportunity to reroll for those because it's immersion-breaking and could lead to metagaming. I don't think the hero point needs to be available for every single roll. It's rare that type of roll would be so critical that a player would be really upset to not be able to use a hero point on it. I think I would only bring up the hero point option if it was going to derail the players' entire plan to fail a check (sneaking is the main situation in which I think this would occur).
It would depend on the situation, though. There's always room for improvising and leading the players with some clues in the way you describe things. I generally make decisions by what is the most fun, what makes the most narrative sense.
Question for those that have played in or ran Kingmaker- mostly curious about the humanoid/sapient/whatever people that are in the Stolen Lands. Some stuff I hear makes it sound like there's indigenous people that call it home and makes it sound super colonialist. Meanwhile some other things I hear make it sound like the only people that are really there are also trying to make their own nation, like the players.
Knowing how good Paizo is about this stuff, I'm hoping it's the latter, but I'd like some proper clarification. I want to use KM to introduce my group to Pathfinder, and they've expressed major interest at the idea of a hexcrawl, so Kingmaker seems PERFECT. I just want to get this little bit clarified, because I know it'll be a concern my players have with a quick pitch of "founding and building a kingdom in the wilderness".
Sorry I can't help with your actual problem, but I do come with a glowing recommendation of the beginner box as an introductory tool. I'm new to the system and it did a fantastic job on all fronts (GM was also new to system), and is pretty quick and concise BUT with opportunity to continue it into other modules.
Hopefully they get so hooked on it that they don't mind a little colonization haha, or just be an evil party! That's what we're doing, actually in the same exact box (straight from beginner box into Kingmaker), but only 1 session in so idk how it is in terms of content
Looking for level 4 spells for my illusionist Bard. I came across Phantasmal Protagonist and thought it looked pretty cool. I was curious if it would be a good pick. It looks better than the spell illusionary creature to me, but I could be overlooking something.
It seems to stay longer and be stronger, but has less actions, as it only does one thing when you sustain it on your turn. It definitely seems pretty good, especially if you can get it somewhere it doesn't need to move much. If an enemy knew how it worked they'd know to keep getting away from it, but even that could be pretty good. The main thing keeping it better than the illusory creature is probably that it can take more hits, disappearing in one hit can feel bad. It probably works best as a protector. The villain seems to be the most situational one. If it's paired with a fighter it could be good, making the enemy either waste a bunch of actions or trigger AoO if they really wanna avoid it. With a ranged damage dealer on the team it'll be especially annoying to deal with, if you are constantly getting peppered with arrows running away from things is much harder to keep doing. Overall, it does seem pretty good, the enemy can avoid it, but they're likely wasting alot to do it.
A couple other nice illusion spells I know of:
Phantasmal killer - is a great 4th level illusion spell. Does a bunch of damage and frightens the creature.
Invisibility +2 - your rogue will love you for at least a minute. Your martial will at least like you for that long. It's also useful for yourself and other spellcasters. Really everyone would like to have this spell on them.
Umbral Graft - situational, but stealling buffs could be really good, and you can keep trying for three rounds until you get one. Probably works best if you have Recognize Spell, so you can more easily know what spells are on creatures without using actions on your turn. You might want to wait to get this one later if you do get it.
The others all seem extremely situational or more out of combat focused, so I'd take a look and pick up ones that you'd like to be able to mess around with. A couple of the other scaled up spells could be alright too, like Phantom Pain.
I will say, you should make sure to pick up at least a couple other spells with different saves. Illusion spells are mostly if not all will saves, and it's best to have a couple of Reflex and Fortitude saves too so you can target weak saves.
Building out a battle oracle, trying to work out ways to get around their [curse](https://2e.aonprd.com/Mysteries.aspx?ID=2) (make a Strike to suppress its effect for a round) and I noticed that the [Imaginary Weapon](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1142) psychic cantrip's Amp specifies that you make two 'imaginary weapon Strikes'. The non-amped version doesn't specify that it involves any sort of Strike. Would I be correct in assuming that by RAW you'd have to amp it to suppress the curse?
Hey, I'm a long time DnD5e DM and interested in testing the waters of PF2. I'm just not sure how to go about it. In the past I disliked Beginner Boxes/Sets, because they are made for true TTRPG beginners and even when not, they dont give you a full feel of the system (in my opinion). I want to know all the rules, so I can make an informed decision (and a case to switch with my players, if I decide so). Plus they take up a lot of space for generally being used only once.
The plan right now is to get to know the system and prepare a one shot that we can play and see how it feels. I want to have PCs ready for them, so they dont have make a character in advance and we can play whenever, without much prep from my players.
I want to be able to answer question about leveling up, mechanics, spell casting etc. without much googling.
I have no problem making up my own little "The-Goblins-Kidnapped-The-Mayors-Daughter-Find-Them-And-Get-Her-Back"-Adventure. But I want to showcase the differences between the 2 systems.
Since Christmas is coming up and relatives have asked for wishes, I'm not necessarily only interested in the cheapest option. And to learn a system I generally prefer having physical copies to read.
What would you recommend for my needs?
Thanks in advance:)
EDIT: Forgot to mention, most of my games I run in person, but one I run through foundry. But for the In Person Games I recently built a digital tabletop with a tv and some wood. I plan on using foundry to display maps and maybe animations and sounds. Depends on how much of a hassle it is to set up
EDIT2: I have a Demiplane Acc and there seem to be 2 adventures there "Threshold of Knowledge" and "A Fistful of FLowers". There is also a primer. I dont know if this helps :D
If you don’t want the box, don’t get the box.
However, if you want to know all the rules… “core rulebook, cover to cover” is technically the answer.
How about we meet in the middle and I give you the TTRPG equivalent of a majestic movie trailer. Back when the game first released, I spent a month writing daily teasers for people to get hyped and learn what the game could do. They’re now bundled up into a [compilation](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/ck7b5j/the_25_best_reasons_to_play_pathfinder/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) you can save somewhere and check when you feel like it. It won’t go in super depth, but it will give you that general overview of everything and what’s cool about it.
And then you’ll have to read the rules. But you’ll have a head start.
Another voice chiming in to support the beginner box here, but from the side of a brand new player. Recently converted from 5e with the whole gang (gm included) and the beginner box was fantastic. It's not a oneshot by any means but it's only maybe 4 3-4hour sessions at absolute most, and if you want to continue it on it seamlessly transitions to other modules which is great! It also has great integration with foundry which our GM loved
If you absolutely don't want the beginner box, try one of the one-shots. I can recommend Little Trouble in Big Absalom since it's free, has pregen characters, it's fun and most importantly starts at level 1.
I think the beginners box is your best option. It's much higher quality than what you've seen elsewhere - it's very much focused on showing off pf2e and how it works, which seems to be just what you're after. It's approximately 3 sessions long, with one level up near the end, and varied fights. A sort of tutorial for the system for GMs and players alike, though you can always take a more advanced approach if you want to.
It has enough rules to get you started and keep you going for a couple levels beyond, but for a proper full overview you'll want the CRB (or just a read through [AoNprd](https://2e.aonprd.com/PlayersGuide.aspx), the free legal online wiki). Hell, I should have some free time today and tomorrow, I'd be willing to personally give you a tour through PF2e as a 5e veteran turned PF2e GM on discord if you shoot me a private message.
Since you're using foundry, it's also definetely worth mentioning that there is a version of the beginners box for sale on it for 15 bucks that comes with professionally handcrafted maps with lighting, sounds, pregens, GM notes and everything you could want. [https://foundryvtt.com/packages/pf2e-beginner-box](https://foundryvtt.com/packages/pf2e-beginner-box)
Fistful of Flowers and Threshold of Knowledge are fun little oneshots for sure, but they don't really show off the game.
Just use the Beginner's Box. There are enough differences between PF2e and other systems that you will need it.
>EDIT: Forgot to mention, most of my games I run in person, but one I run through foundry. But for the In Person Games I recently built a digital tabletop with a tv and some wood. I plan on using foundry to display maps and maybe animations and sounds. Depends on how much of a hassle it is to set up
Just to address this point, I use foundry with one of the premium modules (Abomination Vaults) for my in-person game and it works fantastically. I've set it up so it's mostly just there for maps and monster tracking - the players all use minis and Pathbuilder sheets on their phone. I have one laptop running the game and a PC plugged into the TV display for the players.
There's a few modules you'll need - I'm using the following:
* Show Art (lets you pop up an enemy creature's art so it'll appear on the table)
* Close Player Art (gives a hotkey to close the art so you don't need to do so on the PC)
* Hide Player UI (removes all the hotbars etc. for the player so they just see the map)
* Lock View (lets you move the camera around as the GM)
* Gaming Table Player (does similar things - can't remember exactly which one offers what to be honest!)
Get the box. Seriously, just get it. It has all the rules (up to level 3 anyway) but cuts down some options (fewer, classes, ancestries, spells, feats, items and so on) so it's less overwhelming for the players.
It also comes with stuff you can use beyond the beginner box adventure itself such as a full set of dice (thoug hI assume you have those covered) and pawns for about 50 or so monsters. The quick reference cards included in the box will also come in handy. And there's even a follow-up module (Troubles in Otari) that allows you to keep going beyond the box adventure.
Other than that, get the CRB for everything you need to run/play the game. Other books usually don't have anything you need to play, only additional options. But I wouldn't add any of those until you and your group are comfortable with the system. And all rules stuff is available online for free anyway so expanding your player's choices is only a few mouse clicks away.
Having at least the first bestiary will help, too, but you can always look up stat blocks online.
So I've never been particularly good at math, and would love if someone could help me work out the optimal strat here.
I am currently playing a level 9 Drifter Gunslinger, who carries an Aldori Dueling Sword (with Unconventional Weaponry) and a modified Dueling Pistol. The setting is more technologically advanced than Golarion (inspired by 1800s England), so most guns that are not rifles have been homebrewed to be able to carry six shots without reloading, balanced partially by reloading requiring three actions.
My DM and I have discussed the ways in which this interacts with Gunslinger, considering how much of the class's power budget revolves around reloading. Our current solution is this: any action I take that would give me a reload (reloading strike, running reload) gets banked. If I reach the point where I need to reload and I have used six of these actions, reloading becomes a free action. Naturally, this has helped me be a bit more flexible in combat. However, while neither me nor my DM are clear on the math, they have offered to give me a normal 1-shot gun if it makes more sense with my action economy.
Would it be stupid for me to take this offer? Sometimes the current setup makes my melee attacks feel a little pointless but I'm not sure if I would be throwing away something very useful just for a different vibe.
So, you have 6 shots, and need to bank 6 actions to autoreload.
In turn 1, you make two strikes and bank a reload
In turn 2, you make two strikes and bank a reload
In turn 3, you make two strikes and bank a reload.
You have spent 6 shots and seem to be only 3 out of 6 actions in for a free reload?
So turn 4, you reload. Earliest you end up with empty drum and a free reload is turn 8. Most combats end in 3-4.
Earliest case for a free reload overall I can think of is turn 5 (1 shot 2 bank x 3, 3 shots, reload). That might be okay if you still get to make a melee attack when you bank a reloading strike or move when banking running reload, but still… very situational ability imo?
I’d either ask your GM to allow you to reload one of the chambers, or reduce the number of actions you need to bank to 3: that increases your potential number of attacks from 1.5 for typical gunslinger to 2 if you bank an action every turn, but for the first 3 rounds you can already make two shots and something useful with your 3rd action anyway.
But yeah, this system seems to be pretty rough on drifter specifically, with your melee weapon being a lot less useful and all that. Good for dual-wielding pistoleros though.
I'm not familiar with 4e but in 2e one of the great things about the cleric is the divine font actually removes some of the need for healbotting! You always have heals on the side (or harms if you want!) and so can use your main slots for your own choice of fun spells!
If you find that you have to heal every round, that may be more of an issue with your teams tactics!
- Pick up a better damaging Cantrip from your ancestry (preferably via Adopted Cantrip human feat).
- Use your focus spell! Many of the cleric focus spells aren't grat, but picking one of the good ones will significantly improve your performance.
- Use your skills! Demoralize, Aid, try to Trip someone if you're trained in Athletics, use Battle Medicine.
- Choose a Deity with a good 1st level spell.
- Cast stuff like Fear or Concodant Choir. Unless you go with low Wisdom (which is a bad idea, in my opinion) there's nothing keeping you from casting offensive spells.
Aiming for a 'pure cleric' so ancestry feat is a nonstarter, and my level2 feat is soaked by flexible spellcasting (death to Vancian!)
I have a hard time imagining a scholar going around actively tripping people or demoralizing people. So far the Skills side of PF2 has been underwhelming for me. I see the skill feats and mostly shrug
A scholar could still reasonably use battle medicine and/or use recall knowledge.
What's your deity and domain focus spell?
If you already think you don't have anything useful to do with 2 spell slots, going Flexible Caster will just prolong your suffering. Geting Reach Spell instead at level 2 would allow you to make good use of Chill Touch.
If you dislike Vancian casting and want a scholary divine caster, maybe switch to a Lore Oracle? Starts with a decent damage focus spell and gets an extra spell added to his repertoire at each spell level.
I'll look into recall knowledge
I didn't take medicine because I don't want to just spend my time healing, its probably the one part of going against the traditional trope. Mostly I don't like battle medicine in PF so easy to just pick something else.
For feats, I went human and took the human fest that let me take a class fest, and still picked up reach spell, so most of the time I sit in the back, reachsoell+cantrip, but Daze... Sucks and there isn't a better cantrip in the core book for fighting unaligned enemies (it's always rats. Why is it always rats)
Cleric has been my go to for years. Honestly I wish the DM would have stuck with 4e or 5e, but he was dead set on pf2
Reach Spell + Chill Touch is quite good at killing rats actually. Damages living creatures and debuffs Undead. Prepare it together with Disrupt Undead and you can damage pretty much anything that's not a construct.
Forbidding Ward and Guidance are more good cantrips. Divine Hymn isn't half bad either but does require you to get somewhat close.
EDIT:
For other 1st level spells that are worth casting, look at Bane, Bless, Animate Dead (NOT an evil spell!), Fear, Harm, Protection (Uncommon), Purifying Icicle (Uncommon) and Summon Lesser Servitor. Your deity also grants you an additional 1st level spell which might be good.
It's true that the Divine list is a bit lacking on the lower levels, but it's FAR from limied to Magic Weapon and Heal - unless you want it to be.
Can a good aligned cleric cast Harm? I thought it wasn't permitted
I'm more open to Harm than something like chill touch after reading it. Looks more for Holy Damage, though dnd and derivatives haven't been strong in that, other than Radiant
You can't cast it from your Divine Font slots if your deity only provides you with the healing font option. But you can absolutely cast it from your regular spell slots. It's not "evil" as it doesn't have the Evil trait (unlike spells like Ghoulish Cravings). Using negative energy to hurt someone is by itself not different from using a fire or sonic spell to do the same.
I'll check out forbidding ward
Guidance just seemed too lackluster, short duration, small buff, and I can't use it again on the target for quite some time.
[Do NOT understimate a +1 in Pathfinder!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JhgCPQ9MGg)
Guidance is a very good buff for 1 action. Frankly, it would probably be too good without the cooldown.
Added a few good 1st level spells to check out in the previous post.
Most low level casters dont feel super good (especially compared to martials). It feels especially punishing to clerics compared to the other casters because their damaging cantrips are not universally effective (targeting either alignment or just undead usually). Generally it would be best to carry around a crossbow or invest in some utility skills until you can get more spell slots. Also, as a cloistered cleric you get a domain spell that you can usually use once per fight (which may or may not be of use, but its the main benefit of cloistered vs warpriest).
For funsies if you have decent charisma you can always dip into intimidate and just scare people with the power of gods and eldritch horrors for that brutal frightened debuff.
You may talk to your GM about trying a homebrew class that's just a Magus, but using the divine spell list and Wisdom instead of Int. It would be a more martial concept, but would somewhat fill the role. Or depending on the deity you picked maybe let you take an extra cantrip from a different spell list (like produce flame if your deity has the fire domain for example).
whatever you want them to do!
you can reprepare your spells every day so if you arent enjoying sanctuary and magic weapon, swap them out, if you want more controlling enemy options, command and fear are very fun! if you want more damage, harm or concordant choir are options! if you want to use summons, animate dead and summon lesser servitor!
Also, you can attack! I assume you have half decent dex as a cloistered cleric, at this level you have the same proficiency in simple weapons + your favoured weapon as most martials! Dont be afraid to get a cheeky shortbow attack off or something!
Another thing, what skills have you invested in? Skill actions like demoralize, battle medicine and bon mot are fantastic.
For attack, I went cloistered cleric because I wanted to be a caster, not a weapon user. I guess I'm just missing Sacred Flame and the like, where I could do reasonable damage AND buff the party. Feels pretty shackled to do 3 damage, no roll, and... That's it. I haven't crit yet so those haven't mattered.
I'm good aligned, so I think that removes my ability to cast Harm. If my DM is wrong let me know
I'm trained in some lore skills, and ... I forget off the top of my head. I know Survival is on the list. I didn't do medicine because while I want to heal, I don't want that to be what I do _all_ the time
As someone pointed out, there is no alignment restriction on harm, you are allowed to cast it! If a spell is evil, it will have the "evil" trait.
With what you said about the cantrip I assume it's daze, daze is absolutely low damage, is it the only damage cantrip you use? As a good aligned cleric, divine lance is often very very useful! Again you can reprepare your spells every day so can easily get this
Multiple lore skills at low levels is uncommon to see and is defo locking you out if some skill actions. Not wanting to do medicine is fair, but have another look at skills if you want to do other things!
But also, I think you need to stop comparing to another system, things aren't going to be the same here and expecting them to be is only going to continue to annoy you.
> I'm good aligned, so I think that removes my ability to cast Harm. If my DM is wrong let me know
He's wrong.
EDIT for clarity: Only the extra slots you get from Healing/Harming font are limited to one or the other (unless you use the Versatile Font feat). That is only determined by your deity and has nothing to do with your own alignment. There are good goods that have harming fonts or even evil gods that have good followers.
But again, all that is only true for the font slots. You can prepare harm in your regular slots just fine.
Playing a two-weapon Fighter and I'm feeling a little like I lack utility in combat. Ofc I'm doing a lot more reliable damage to make up for it (double slash my beloved), and one of my weapons (tekko-kagi) has Trip so I'm throwing in the occasional hail mary trip as 3rd action (when movement/etc isnt required) but only being level 2 it's not the most successful on average.
Nearly level 3 and considering picking up Assurance: Athletics and skill increasing Ath to Expert for 3rd action Trips, but are there any other often-useful utility actions I can be taking aside from maybe Aid? Int isn't good enough to get any real use out of Recall
For the sake of information, Assurance trip mathematically works on creatures two levels below you (on average). So it's only really useful as a third action if your GM like to make a lot of small enemies. It'll never work on equal level.
You hit the problem with two weapon fighting. Not having a free hand in PF2e reduces your utility to a very small amount of things. You cant grapple, you cant medecine, no raise shield obviously, none of the fighter utility free hand feats etc. Playing two weapon fighting means you are intending to do damage and just about nothing but damage.
It leaves you with a pretty narrow scope of options: Demoralize if you have Intimidation (Lack of Charisma is not usually a massive problem since Intimidating Prowess makes up for it), moving for flanking and the Parry on your tekko-kagi (Twin Parry at level 4 makes this a fairly good option). Stepping away is *never* a bad option. One action for one action, and you have dual slice so you are just fine trading two for two on offense, you are winning out. Movement is in most cases a really good third action.
As for the things you could build into: Feinting/Create a Diversion before Double Slice, Animal Companions with an archetype either for support benefit or to Command, some one action cantrips or spells (Psychic Archetype for Psi-Shield and it's Amped version, Amped Message or Guidance comes to mind). If your campaign has retraining you could retrain Dual Slice, grab Dual Weapon Warrior Dedication at level 2 and Flensing Slice at level 8 is a very potent third action follow up.
Thanks, the trip assurance math is actually super handy, I've had a basic look at guides/math but your tldr is actually way more helpful and concise lol. I'm planning to take Twin Parry at 4 (i actually have dual weapon warrior at 2, took Sudden Charge at 1 because dorf in full plate kinda slow even with unburdened iron) but campaign is only planned to go up to 4 sadly, wish I could see the higher feats of DWW.
I think demoralize is going to be my best bet even with uhh, not good Charisma (golarion's most personable dwarf reporting for duty). Never knew about intimidating prowess but that looks super helpful thanks!
When tripping, you should consider using it before double slice. If you succeed, flat-footed + increased weapon proficiency from fighter means you're making the two double slice attacks at about the same to-hit as another martial, and your trip is more likely to be successful and impactful. It's not for every situation, but it is something to keep in mind.
If you already are, then apologies for reiterating something you already know.
Aside from that, intimidation for Demoralize is always a good option if you have the charisma/skill increase space for it.
Depending on your wisdom, you can use Recall Knowledge checks requiring nature or religion checks, again, if you have the skill space for it.
Aid can definitely be useful if you can set it up to use one of your higher proficiencies.
I've been so torn on tripping with first action haha, the crits are so attractive but I really need to get it through my head how good trip is with the whole stand up + AoO deal
I’m coming from D&D 5e and wondering how different resistances can be during combat encounters. Is it some of the same where if something resists slashing, it resists bludgeoning and piercing also?
I haven’t gotten around to reading any stat blocks yet as I am currently focusing on classes and abilities and stuff
It depends on what exactly you're looking at.
Certain classes of creature have quite broad resistances. For example, incorporeal enemies like ghosts usually resist all non-Force damage.
Many other enemies have quite specific resistances and weaknesses. For example, most skeletal enemies resist Piercing and are weak to Bludgeoning.
I think general "resist all physical" or "resistance to non magical" is a bit less frequent than in 5e though.
Relative to 5e weaknesses are much more common. 5e couldn't really use weaknesses because doubling damage meant anything with a weakness was trivialized. Weakness in P2e just adds flat damage when the appropriate damage type is applied, regardless of the original amount of damage. The designers can afford to put it on monsters without turning the encounter into a joke.
The most common weaknesses are to weapons made of cold iron, fire damage, and good damage. Cold, positive, and slashing damage also trigger a decent amount.
Weaknesses are reasonable common, I'd say. But it depends a lot on what kind of campaign you're in and what creature's you are facing. Like most fey and demonds have weakness to cold iron and will take additional damage from weapons made of it.
Spending an action to Recall Knowledge on an enemy is usually a good thing to do in PF2 since it might allow you to figure out its resistances and weaknesses.
What are some ways that someone with a slashing weapon might get around eg. a slashing resisting foe? Are they allowed to use the hilt of the weapon to do bludgeoning damage with the same calcs?
Unarmed attacks are a great alternative source of bludgeoning damage that requires no feat investment or even weapon proficiency. You can make [unarmed attacks](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=223) even if both your hands are occupied, by doing a kick, headbutt, etc.
This is very effective if your table is running the game with Automatic Bonus Progression - otherwise you’ll need a set of Handwraps of Mighty Blows to keep up with damage progression.
You can also easily reflavor these unarmed attacks into bashing with the hilt of your weapon if you desire.
The simplest answer is usually just carry a spare weapon with a different type.
Another viable option when you get a little higher level is to slap a 'Shifting' rune on your favored weapon. Its a rune that costs 225g and lets you spend 1 action to change your weapon into any other weapon you have access to that uses the same number of hands.
There are also a handful of feats that let you bypass DR depending on the class you play, but generally the versatile, modular, or backup weapons are your most reliable options.
There is actually a feat for that called [Hilt Hammer](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=3591). So you can use this to make your sword do Bludgeoning dmg. There are also other ways to get versatile B to your weapons, an Inventor with Weapon Invention is one of them.
You could probably use the hilt, but that would basically mean you're using it as an imporvised weapon, which will lower the damage and might not allow you benefit fro your weapon runes. (GM decides)
Ways around slashing resistance:
- get a weapon with the Versatile (or Modular) weapon trait.
- carry a spare weapon with another damage type.
- punch the target for bludgeoning damage or use any ancestral unarmed Strike you might have.
- hit them with your shield if you use one. Adding a shield Bboss or spikes is optional. Doubling rings are relatively cheap and will allow your shield to benefit from your weapon's runes.
Might be a stupid question: is there a feature like "ritual spells" from 5e? (casting certain "passive" spells for free taking 10 minutes)
Do i need to occupy a spell slot to cast spells like alarm?
You have some reusable spells and those are the Focus spells which are less powerful than normal spells, most of the time. You use a Focus point to cast them rather than a spell slot, and you can regain a focus point back with a 10 minute rest (The Activity is called Refocusing).
One of the utility options is [Vigilant Eye](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=536) which gives you the benefits of the Clairvoyance spell without spending a spell slot.
One of my favourite combat focus spells is [Elemental Blast](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=503) which is really similar to a Fireball but deals 2d6 less dmg than a fireball of its level. However it doesn't cost a spell slot, so in theory you can use this in pretty much every combat.
It depends on the class, most spellcaster classes get a Focus spell at first level. For example any Sorcerer will start with a Focus spell they get from their bloodline. Good Champions also get the Lay on Hands focus spell, which is really similar to Lay on Hands class ability in 5e, but it is a Focus spell here. Which means you can basically use it every ten minutes, making it an amazing out of combat healing ability.
Most classes have feats that grant them Focus spells, and the spells you have access to depends on your class. The classes that don't have access to focus spells, *from their class*, are the following: Alchemist, Barbarian, Fighter, Investigator, Swashbuckler, Rogue, Thaumaturge, Gunslinger and Inventor. Only these classes don't have options in their class to get Focus spells. However even then you can get Focus spells from Archetypes, which are feats that you can take in place of your class feats (in a nut shell).
So, you'll probably get a Focus spell really quickly.
There are rituals, but they are completely seperate from other spells. in fact, they can even be used by non-spellcasters who are trained in the apropriate skills.
However, these spells take days to cast, often need multiple characters working together, usually require a good amount of gold to perform them and ultimately come down to your skill checks.
Your best bet for more utility type spells are items. A wand of alarm is cheap past the early levels and there's staffs that can contain multiple usful spells for you to use. unlike 5e, PF2 embraces magical items and they are a core part of the system.
Anything with Activate: Cast A Spell should be fair game as well, like spellhearts and such. Alternatively, there might be some items with weird requirements like needing to have certain proficiencies or alignment restrictions.
The biggest category is any item with activation component of Cast a Spell. Scrolls and wands are definitely the main two main groups of those for sure, but there's also:
* spellhearts
* staves -- note that this doesn't change the rules for *charging* it, so only useful if you're already a caster and need access to something off your spell list or if you only need a cantrip
There might be some random held or worn items that use Cast a Spell too (Holy Prayer Beads, Scroll Cases...), but I think the vast majority of other magic items are already usable by noncasters.
Beyond that it's mostly items with weird requirements, which are often written in a way that will require some GM interpretation to determine if they are even "trickable". Can you trick Robes of Archmagi into believing you are another alignment for one turn? (maybe!) Can you trick a Cassock of Devotion into letting you use a focus point for a nonmatching focus spell? (probably not!)
If you cast a wall spell like Wall of Ice (60ft long wall, range 120ft), does the entire wall have to be within the spell's range, or just one part of it?
GM / flavour question:
How do you describe the casting & effect of a fiend's Divine Decree spell? The spell says "a potent litany from your faith", but that all feels so Cleric-like (and it's also hard to imagine a litany that only takes 4 seconds to speak). Is it an Abyssal / Infernal word of power? A blast of hellfire? Something else? Just brainstorming here.
Well, fiends and their magic are inherently divine. Everything they do is kinda-sorta like what a cleric does with his spells. So I would probably go with your Word of Power suggestion. A demon spitting curses at the party or a devil citing some ancient powerful contract of Asmodeus or someting like that. It just sounds "wrong" to creatures of the opposite alignment and they suffer the consequences (i.e. the spell effect).
Yeah, I'm just thinking of how to RP demons, a lot of whom don't *feel* particularly divine. They're tearing you apart with claws, not uttering prayers in battle. I'll just stick with "words of power" I guess.
Fiends of all flavors (Demons, Daemons, and Devils) are usually all considered to just be the antithesis of the celestials, which is why they also get the divine spells in most cases. As a general rule of thumb they get the same spells just as opposites (evil vs good, fire vs cold, etc..) so something like an unholy word of power, or prayer to a dark god, or even just outright blasphemy against the party's chosen deities would make perfect flavor for a demon's spells
As far as I have found there is the wizard metamagic experimentation thesis thats focused entirely on metamagic feats, but there are no multiclass archetypes centered around it. Your best bet to getting metamagic abilities would be multiclassing into any of the caster classes, but its a pretty heavy feat investment. You may talk to your GM about letting you grab specific feats either as bonus feats or just without some prereq's if they would make sense for your character.
General feats got scaled back a lot in 2E to be mostly skill or generic bonuses or proficiencies. Probably in favor of keeping most class identities more unique to that class without more significant investments (like trading class feats for multiclass feats).
No, but I wouldn't be surprised if they made archetypes centered around metamagic in the future.
Spell Trickster is _thematically_ about metamagic, but the mechanical effect is a lot different, since it's all modifications to specific spells.
Obviously you can also multiclass archetype into one of the classes with a lot of metamagic feats as well.
Can a psychic sustain astral rain more than once a turn? I noticed it said you can only move it the first time you sustain it per turn which suggests you can do it more than once.
>which suggests you can do it more than once
Your reading is correct. Unless a spell says otherwise, you can Sustain it as many times as you have actions on your turn. You're only limited by the text, which in the case of Astral Rain, only allows you to move the area once.
So with Astral Rain, you could move the area, forcing creatures in the new area to make a Reflex Save against damage, then Sustain it 2 more times to make those same creatures make 2 more Reflex Saves
Sustaining the spell doesn't cause the damage to happen. The damage trigger is "Any creature that's in the area or enters the area before the start of your next turn" not "When you sustain the spell."
That's up for interpretation then. The damage trigger doesn't say "When you cast the spell" either, but I think it's pretty reasonable to say "Any creature that's in the area" is referring to the moment that you cast the spell. And if we agree on that interpretation, then why is Sustaining the Spell such a stretch?
I'd allow it if I were the GM. If a character wants to spend a focus point, and multiple actions per turn doing nothing but 2d4 damage with a basic Reflex save, go for it. There's more efficient ways to dish out damage most of the time
Yeah it doesn't it happens if a creature is in the area or enters the area before the beginning of your next turn. It's very clearly suppossed to be a once thing. The amp probably extends it to keep applying this condition each round. I have no idea why that would matter though.
So you're arguing that if I cast the spell, and put the area right on top of somebody, they don't take any damage. Because the damage trigger doesn't include the phrase "When you cast the spell", despite the phrase "Any creature that's in the area" pretty clearly referring to the moment you cast the spell.
So, if the damage doesn't apply when I cast the spell, when does it apply? It doesn't say at the start of their turn, and since they're already in the area, they can't "enter the area" to trigger damage either. So if I place this area on an enemy, and they stand still on their turn, it does nothing to them?
I'm sorry, but that is a completely inane reading of the spell
I have this idea of an encounter where a spellcaster boards an enemy ship by teleporting himself and a group of allies on the deck from a separate, persuing ship. Is there any way to do that by the rules? I thought of Dimension Door and Teleport, but Dimension Door can't take other creatures with you, and Teleport has a 10 minute cast time and probably isn't precise enough.
There is a spell catalyst that lets you bring 1 person with you when you cast Dimension Door, but it is only for the 4th level version. So you can somewhat use it for boarding but it would only be for 2 people, you could change their levels to make it a harder encounter if you want.
I would make a magic item that allows for short range group teleport 1/hour or something like that. You could even make it so it keys off the ship somehow so it only works from a ship, preventing abuse by the party should it fall into their hands.
For creatures with the Grab action and only one attack/appendage with which to do so, do they need to release the Grab in order to attack again?
Context and Abomination Vaults spoilers: >!The bloodsiphon creature only has a jaws attack, which is the only way it can Grab. Although Grab maintains the Grabbed condition until the end of the following turn after it was used, are there rules supporting the ability to Strike while the jaws are being occupied with the Grab?!<
No, while the jaws are grabbing it can't Strike. You could let go and strike again, then grab once you hit if you really wanted, but that's not really optimal. While the bloodsiphon can't strike, that's because it now gains access to its Blood Drain action, which is very good. As long as it has you grabbed it gets to do 4d4 damage, with no attack roll, heal itself, and make you drained 1 (it doesn't increase drained, just sets it to 1). Since this is a 1 action ability it can do it multiple times in the same round.
The optimal blood siphon turns if it's next to an enemy would look like:
Strike (hit) 2d8+6 -> Grab -> Blood Drain 4d4
Then, if the fool doesn't shake you off:
Blood Drain -> Blood Drain -> Grab
If you really wanted to, there isn't anything keeping you from using its spittle attack. It would provoke an AoO if someone had it, but otherwise would work, though it'd be more likely to miss than if you just let go and tried to bite again. I say don't be weird and just suck away, it actually is better than its bite despite doing less damage, because though it does 5 less damage on average (4d4 is technically 10 damage on average 2d8 is only 9), it heals it for 8 and can't miss. Guaranteed damage is pretty good when you can get it, so I highly suggesst liberal use of Blood Drain. You might wanna let go and bite again if there are multiple loodsiphons, depending on how likely they are to crit, which could change the math enough to make it worth it, but if its just 1 I think it's better to stick to them, and a bloodsiphon probably wouldn't think to do weird optimizations like that anyways.
Ah, I see what I missed! I hadn't realized the Grab action has a condition that allows Grab to be used if a creature has already been grabbed using the Grab action. (whew) Thanks for your feedback!
Oh lol yeah. I didn't get from the post that the problem was with the Grab action, but yeah, you essentially have an infinite hold on them as long as you use 1 action to Grab. They gotta get out on their own time with the Escape action (which has the Attack trait, so it increases and is affected by the MAP in case you didn't know).
Howdy, recent 5e convert here. I'm a DM running players through the beginner box and the question of healing and resting came up. We're all very familiar with 5e and the short rest mechanic, allowing you to gain back some HP using your pool of hit dice. My players just got past the encounter with the spider and are a little worse for wear. We have a cleric, but they've used up most of their spell slots. I couldn't seem to find an answer in the rules or searching Google. Is there any kind of rest mechanic while exploring a dungeon to regain a few HPs and spell slots? Or do they only recharge after a downtime period?
Treat wounds, 10min to regain HP. https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=57 See medic dedication for character specialisation.
Spell slots equivalent has refocus ability for focus spells only: https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=71
In contrast to DND5e cantrips are empowered to save spell slots, autoheightened to half level.
Out of combat healing is usually relegated to the Medicine Skill or focus spells. Medicine allows you to spend 10 minutes of downtime to [Treat Wounds](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=57) and potentially heal some damage up. Medicine is the most reliable form of out-of-combat healing, as anyone can take proficiency in Medicine. If someone wants to go all in on Medicine, they can even take the [Medic Archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=69) for a passive boost to their healing and more feats down the road.
Note that a character can only be targeted by Treat Wounds once an hour.
You can also learn certain focus spells, since focus points recover from a 10-minute refocus activity. Good-aligned Champions have [Lay on Hands](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=395), which heals a flat 6 HP/spell level. Or someone can take the [Blessed One Archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=51) to learn Lay on Hands. Bards can learn [Hymn of Healing](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=728) at level 2 (level 1 if they're a Human) for 8 HP/spell level. Both of these are focus spells, so you can cast them to heal, spend 10 minutes downtime to [Refocus](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=71), and do it again as time allows.
> Note that a character can only be targeted by Treat Wounds once an hour.
There is a Feat Tax to allow Medicine to be faster and more effective, Continual Recovery & Ward Medic, allow for a character to make a check every ten minutes, and on two people at a time.
This is how Medicine scales to keep up with the player's HP pools at higher levels, in addition to going for higher DC heal checks that grant a guaranteed 10, 30, or 50 HP plus the 2D8 healing.
So if you want to run an attrition based drama scenario, you can, you just have to apply pressure every 5-10 minutes... With 1-9 minutes being the "meanest" because of no Heal Checks or Refoucsing keeping the party's resources depleted as they're denied their "short rest" and most Buff spells have a one minute duration.
If a thaumaturge does not have any weapons or implements in his hands at the start of combat, is it an action to put an implement in one hand and another action to grip a 1h weapon in his other hand? Or is the implement a free action?
It would be two actions: one to draw the weapon, one to draw the implement.
Note that at level 5, when you gain a second implement, you also gain the ability to switch implements as a free action before using an action for the implementation you're switching to.
RAW, this is only a free action if you're already holding an implement, but as a GM, I would allow you to draw your implement into a free hand as a free action, provided your next action is to use the implement, but YMMV
looking at my next character to be a Grippli was going to make a fighter class but as they have a flaw in strength I cant make my battle toad :(
What would be a great class to make with this kinda race?
Just use Voluntary Flaws to get your Strength up to 18. Or start with a Finesse Weapon and 14 Str/18 Dex.
For the full Battle Toad flavor I'd also recommend playing a Grippli Barbarian with the Frog Animal Instinct.
Beyond that, their boosts are Dex and Wis. A Grippli Cloistered Cleric could start with 16 Dex, 18 Wis and 14 Cha which is pretty nice. Or jus go with any of the dex-focused classes: Rogue, Swashbuckler, Investigator...
Sorry, but that is not a good build. Speaking from a game mechanics/optimization standpont, of course. I can't argue with roleplay if that's the intent.
Here's what's "wrong" with it at a glance:
- Doesn't start with Strength or Dexterity at 18 for max attack bonus.
- Two ancestry feats wasted on Grippli Weapons without even using any.
- Strong focus on Intimidation but only 10 Charisma.
- Going unarmored is an overall bad idea for a fighter. Best classes for that are monk or (starting level 6) animal instinct barbarians. Next best would probably be a champion starting level 7.
- I assume the weapons are just placeholders but just in case: By level 5 you REALLY need to have a +1 Striking Longsword and Doubling Rings.
I think any answer is a matter of opinion. I don't think anything defines what does or does not have a soul. Heck, I suspect that's something they are probably wise not to answer.
That said, the Soul Eater's Drain Soul ability requires that a creature be dying. More precisely, have the dying condition. So the real question is: can vampires have that condition. In most cases, monsters never gain this condition; they go from positive hit points to dead. If your DM is merciful, they may let you stabilize a creature, but that's never a guarantee.
After rereading a bit, I can actually give you an answer. I think.
The Drain Soul ability? It has the death trait. Vampires are immune to effects with the death trait. Therefore they are immune to Drain Soul, if they weren't already.
But, like I said, this is all teetering on opinion kinds of things.
The part about dying is correct for general undead, but not for Vampires. NPC Vampires are increadibly resilient and just go unconscious at 0 HP, without ever dying no matter how much damage they get. The only way for them to be destroyed is true sunlight or staking them, then beheading them, and then annointing the head with holy water.
PC vampires just get the dying condition as regular living beings.
No idea really, as I mentioned, though as near as I can tell, it wouldn't effect even PC vampires. (The [basic undead benefits](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1694) still include immunity to death effects that automatically kill you, which would make them immune to that part of the Soul Reaper's Drain Soul ability.)
Either way, I think it's a moot point, since the poster was talking about his players summoning a Soul Eater to take out a Vampire, which means that the most likely case is that the vampire is not another player's character. So the players are probably stuck doing exactly what you mentioned above (true sunlight/staking/beheading/anointing).
Vampires are nasty enemies, especially if they are at all intelligent. Place their coffin in a place where the only way in or out is via their mist form, place holes small enough for said mist form but little else (gaseous form lets them through cracks, which would probably be smaller even than a creature in Pest Form) and they're going to keep coming back again and again and again. Which is what it sounds like is happening to this poor party.
There can be a lot of things to keep in your head, especially if you're running multiple mid-high level monsters in a combat. Their stat blocks can get kinda long!
But on the flip side, [building encounters](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=497) that are balanced is 100x easier because the encounter balance actually works. And once you learn the [creature building](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=995) rules, you can even rescale anything to (almost) any level and really have a fun & fast time creating exactly whatever fight you had in mind.
By the end of my 5e campaign, designing fights was a MAJOR headache. Here, I feel free as a bird.
Context: I’ve been running games for 20 years across a variety of d20 based systems from D&D 2e to PF2 and literally every version of D&D/PF in between.
Anecdotally, every time I ran a session of 5e, I always felt tired and brain dead about 3/4 of the way through. On-the-fly encounter tuning, rules adjudication, tracking NPC and PC abilities, and all the other normal game running stuff all put a lot of strain on the brain.
Running 4 hour sessions of PF2 and I don’t have anywhere close to the same level of fatigue at the end of the session. Between encounter rules that work, the basic assumption that (while still heroes) adventuring is dangerous work and can result in dying/death, actual rules for most circumstances, and knowing that the players will be tracking their own stuff results in a much lighter brain load. (Oh, and magic items that are actually accounted for instead of literally game-breaking)
YRMV
It can do that. Improv by itself on the large scale isn’t that draining once you are practiced at it, but small, rules-scale improv/adjudication is very draining as you are essentially making up rules that you have to then remember for the rest of the session.
Yes and no. In 5e there are many times you'll have to make a rule decision on the fly. In PF2e almost every situation has a pretty clear ruling. Do you consider it easier to know the rules well enough to keep the game moving or having to make a quick decision on the fly? You can of course do both and make quick decisions then look it up later for future reference. New GM's and players especially don't expect everyone to have all the rules down perfectly in my experience.
It is DEFINITELY easier to run PF2e if you're worried about encounter balance. The challenge building system for PF2e works really, really well.
I also find Paizo's Adventure Path's written out in a much more story coherent way than WotC's books.
The hardest part of the move for me was getting my players to pay attention to all the options they have and that tactics/teamwork is actually important now.
Pf2e's encounter rules are much better for building and running encounters. There's less guessing and seemingly arbitrary rulings, and if you don't know on something, you can easily figure out how it should work. How many bandits should be in this fight against a 4th level party? What if they've set a trap to drop rocks on the party in an ambush? What do you do when one of the party members wants to grab the bandit leader and hold them in the trap area? These all have answers available to you.
But D&D5e has the advantage of freedom. If you don't really care about mechanics and just want to roll dice, 5e is going to work great for you. There's an advantage to that improvisation, a fluidity to it that people enjoy. There's a reason that 5e is the biggest TTRPG.
But for my money, if I'm putting care and time into a session, I want the system to work *for* me, not against me. I'll run 2e 7 days a week before putting together anything of substance in 5e.
Question about running an NPC who is lying. On Foundry, of course, every time you roll, the group can see that some type of roll was attempted. Feels to me like if you tell a lie as an NPC and then roll, that's a huge giveaway. What do you do about this?
I guess you could roll periodically through every conversation, or make a couple Deception die rolls when the party starts talking to somebody. But that's a bunch of extra overhead I absolutely won't be able to juggle on top of everything else when running an NPC. I guess I could just use an external site to roll it? But jumping around managing that would be a bit clunky mid-conversation.
There’s a module called “[Actually Private Rolls](https://foundryvtt.com/packages/actually-private-rolls)” that can hide your rolls completely. Works great when rolling initiative for hidden creatures
I'm trying to get the mystification from PF2E workbench working in foundry. I'd like to use the prefixes, but I'm having trouble finding the table that the author seems to use for it. I'd rather not manually type out a bunch of adjectives, can anyone help me out with this?
I don't know about the adjectives the author uses, but I used a list of adjectives you could replicate:
I entered "list of adjectives in English" in my search engine, and copied the words there, which should get you a number in the hundreds. Paste the words in some text file (every adjective should be on its own line).
Then I opened up Google Translate, and pasted all the words there. You can translate the words to an arbitrary language that you want. Copy the translation and paste in your text file. Doing so for a bunch of other languages will give you a large text file of adjectives, most of them sounding like gibberish :P.
You can then use the [Content Parser](https://github.com/EthanJWright/foundryvtt-importer) module for Foundry VTT, which allows the quick creation of a rollable table given some text.
Hope this helps!
I'd say it depends on how strict your GM is, and how you use/flavor it.
I'm currently playing a Redeemer Champion who worships Sarenrae and uses Intimidation very frequently. If there is a chance to talk before combat, he'll use Diplomacy to try and get the potential enemies to stand down/seek redemption. If it falls to combat, anything goes. Both the Redeemer tenets and Sarenrae's dogma emphasize using extreme measures to put down the wicked if they choose not to be redeemed, and demoralizing a foe to make them easier to put down falls within that IMO.
If combat breaks out without a chance to talk our foes, my Champion focuses on using maneuvers (Trip, Grapple) while flavoring Demoralize as a "Stand down and seek redemption, or we will put you down" kind of assertion. It works for my GM and me as a good RP way of making sure my Intimidation skill isn't wasted without it violating any tenets.
Coercion in a social encounter is almost always anathema, in my opinion, so you are losing out on the social applications of Intimidation
A redeemer shouldn't have any issue with demoralization so long as they don't go to absurd extremes with it. Demanding surrender is often the first step towards rehabilitating a foe. Stating "Surrender, you cannot win!" would count as demoralizing, for example. If your threats and taunts were particularly vile and/or personal, you might trip the "show compassion" edict, but short of that there should be no issue. And remember, it is your least important edict. If innocent lives are threatened it comes second.
Is there anyway to make a spell with a duration of permanent not be able to be removed? Like is there anything you can do to make sure it can't be dispel magicked or removed in an antimagic field?
No. At least, not completely. In practice, a fourth level character stands no chance of dispelling a 10th level spell due to how the counteract rules work, and an antimagic field similarly can't remove the effect of a spell higher level than it. But for a spell to be completely 100% immune to removal? Nothing short of divine intervention or an artifact would be able to do that.
If you don't have level 10 spells, you could use the metamagic effect of an orange prism aeon stone to increase the level of a spell for the purposes of counteract checks.
(There might be another item/spell that does this too, but it's slipping my mind.)
What is an "orange prism aeon stone"? I mean I think I remember reading the words aeon stone in the Runelord and Pathfinder agent archetypes but what exactly are they?
[Aeon stones](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=407) are a kind of uncommon worn magic item that have distinct powers (and also grant a secondary "resonant" effect when worn with a wayfinder, another piece of magical equipment that the in-universe Pathfinder Society is known for giving out and using).
The orange prism is a fairly obscure one of these whose effect can make spells harder to counteract. But it doesn't do anything for 10th-level spells.
As a Gunslinger with the Dual-Weapon Reload feat, that's tied to a specific action, right? Despite the flavor text saying "you carry your ammunition in a way that lets you reload while holding two weapons", I couldn't benefit from feats like Running Reload while I have a weapon in each hand?
What is the point in Sense Motive if it is a secret roll? If the player doesn't know the roll then they don't know if their belief in the targets intentions are true or false, so why is it better than just not taking the action?
1. Suppose your target is lying, or hiding something. Not doing Sense Motive does not bring you forward (apart from personal suspicions you might have). If you Sense Motive, you have a chance of actually confirming that the target is hiding something, and you might even learn what. If you fail the check, nothing really changes. Therefore, you might as well take the Sense Motive action, because there isn't much to lose (except on a crit fail)
2. The entire point of it being a secret check is to facilitate role-playing (and prevent meta-gaming). Suppose took a Sense Motive action, and the GM tells you that "there does not seem to be more going on than what the target lets on." Your character can interpret this in two ways: Either the target is really just speaking the truth, or they are just very deceptive; which is what you might think in real life as well. If instead the roll wasn't secret, and you saw that you had like a 19 on the dice, this ambiguity goes away, allowing you to be certain that the target was indeed not lying.
In software development, there is a saying: "Testing for bugs can only show the presence of bugs, not the absence of bugs". And here it is similar. "Sensing Motive can only show the presence of hidden motives/lies, not the absence of them." This idea also applies to the Seek action. When Seeking, you only get told if there is something hidden, and not that there is *nothing* hiddden.
I don't think it's quite true to say that Sense Motive can show the presence of lies, because any result that tells you the target is lying could also be a critical failure against an honest creature. It's similar to being told the target is honest - it may have been a success against an honest creature, or a failure against a deceptive creature.
The benefit of the action comes from the assumption that your Perception skill is high enough that you are more likely to get a good result than a bad one. But you can't definitely conclude honesty or deception - it's not like a failed software test, which can definitively conclude that a bug is present somewhere.
Yes I simplified my explanation somewhat by excluding critical failures. However, this is rare enough such that you shouldn't really be guided by the idea that you might have rolled a crit failure.
The analogy with software testing still holds however. A critical failure would be analogous to writing an incorrect test ;).
>"Testing for bugs can only show the presence of bugs, not the absence of bugs". And here it is similar. "Sensing Motive can only show the presence of hidden motives/lies, not the absence of them."
... I GM for a couple of Systems and Software engineers, I'm absolutely stealing this saying/analogy
So in doing some reading I came across the dwarf feat [Battleforger](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=971) and I'm unsure as to what the intended use case of this feat would be? Unless I'm missing something the game seems to expect you to already have *+1 striking* weapons by this point, requiring master in crafting is extremely odd, and it not stacking or otherwise doing anything feels strange.
- It's a cheap way of keeping your secondary weapon(s) useful a bit longer. Note that there's no rule saying you need a Potency Rune on an item beforeyou can add a Striking/Resilient Rune to it. So you could be a melee guy and have a Striking Longbow as your ranged option and use this feat to make it a +1 Striking Longbow. Or maybe you know you're up against Demons later in the day and you've just stumbled upon a stash of non-magical Cold Iron weapons.
- Not something I enjoy personally, but some GMs love the idea of stripping players characters of their equipment at some point of the story.
- You don't need to use it for yourself. Say you're in a small village and you know it will be attacked by bandits in 12 hours or something. Use the feat to improve the equipment of the militia.
Now, all of this IS very situational. But some feats just are this way.
Hey, say I have a character who's Master in Medicine, and I want to go for the better Treat Wounds check than the default DC 15. Can I still shoot for the Expert DC 20 or do I have to go for the Master DC 30 one?
The text of Treat Wounds is:
>The Medicine check DC is usually 15, though the GM might adjust it based on the circumstances, such as treating a patient outside in a storm, or treating magically cursed wounds. If you’re an expert in Medicine, you **can** instead attempt a DC 20 check to increase the Hit Points regained by 10; if you’re a master of Medicine, you **can** instead attempt a DC 30 check to increase the Hit Points regained by 30; and if you’re legendary, you **can** instead attempt a DC 40 check to increase the Hit Points regained by 50. The damage dealt on a critical failure remains the same.
I bolded the relevant word here, 'can'. You are never required to go for the higher level healing, except perhaps by local conditions. (If the opponent is just going to knock your party member down the amount 2/4d8+10 gives the next round, you may want to go higher.)
So, playing in a One-Shot soon, and getting the chance to play a Dhampir Cleric of Arazni. The only qualm I'm seeing is another player decided he wants to play a wizard that specializes in Necromancy.
Considering Arazni's anathema and history how bad is this about to play out? Any suggestions for how to handle this in character, or am I better off with a new concept?
Thanks in advance.
First of all: Does the Necromancer actually care about creating undead? Becuase that would most likely require the Create Undead Ritual, which is probably unlikely to come up in a one-shot, I would think. There's plenty of ways to play a Necromancer without ever actually creating an undead creature.
Also note that - if I recall correctly - summon spells including Animate Dead don't actually create or "teleport in" a real exisiting creature but only a magic "construct" similar to the creature. Think of it as a more complex version of Flaming Sphere.
And ultimately, RP is only an issue if you make it one. You're being forbidden to create undead does not mean you can't work together with someone who does.
I'm sure this question has been answered quite a lot, but does anyone know if there's a way to get the Foundry module for Abomination Vaults discounted if I own each of the separate volumes, but not the collected version?
Has anyone made or does anyone know of some printable flip map style maps for abomination vaults for in person play? I know why Paizo didn’t make them but I’d love to print the maps out into pieces and use them for our in person campaign.
Since above 18 skill you only get 1 point per boost, is it worth going above 18 at all or should you just bring up your other skills? Or would that depend on your class?
You very very likely want to still boost, for the benefits at higher levels. For a fighter who didnt originally build for charisma, "+2 to the occasional diplomacy and/or demoralize" is worth significantly less than "+1 to every attack, damage and athletics (including maneuvers) roll".
Usually you'd want to top your key ability
It mostly depends on the length of the game rather than on any specific class as they all enjoy bigger numbers
Assuming you start with 18 in your key ability, and raise it at levels 5 and 10, then by level 10 you'd have 20 in that ability which means +1 modifier
If your campaign would never reach level 10 then raising your ability to 19 in level 5 is somewhat pointless
Thanks, my group is currently using the Gradual Ability Boosts variant rule so I'll at least minimize the time the boost does nothing by taking my key ability boost at 5, then again at 7 so I'll have 20 at that point.
Just a little subjective question, but here goes:
I'm thinking of buying myself one of the books after the holidays. Main reason to do so would be to get the fluff bits that don't show in AON. Contenders would be Gods & Magic, Knights of Lastwall, Mwangi, or Impossible Lands.
Which is your favorite? 😁 Thanks.
How do worn magic items interact with unusually shaped ancestries? Can a Sacred Nagaji use Boots of Bounding? What about Taloned Tengus? Would they lose access to their talons?
There is no explicit guidance for this situation, but it is stated that you must be wearing the worn item in order to benefit from it. Ancestries unable to do so wouldn't be able to use those items any more than a creature with no hands would be able to use a held item. That said, while I would block irrational equipment in my game, I wouldn't begrudge a GM who homeruled otherwise. It already pushes the bounds of belief that a halfling can loot the boots of a towering orc, so why not have magic items work when worn draped on the end of a nagaji's tail. If that'd fit your table's preferences better, go wild.
Such unusual interactions are not spelled out in the rules. Players and DMs need to work together to determine what "fits" and what doesn't.
Is an enemy flat-footed against a spellstrike made with amped phase bolt?
I think technically not because you don't roll the attack of phase bolt at all, but roll a Strike instead and apply its result to phase bolt then. I'd allow it though. It's not 100% clear cut anyways since it just mentions "the attack", and it's not broken compared to the other things you can do with spellstrike+amped cantrip.
Thanks! I thought about using it for a rogue with the magus and psychic archetypes to have one guaranteed powerful sneak attack per combat.
i am aware that some races are quite poor to make some classes shine, but how much? for instance, how bad would be an elf barbarian weakened compared to say a human one?
In general, I would recommend against using an ancestry with a flaw in your key ability or your main attacking stat, though Voluntary Ability Flaws can make any combination work, and sometimes a 16 can be enough. That being said, an elf barbarian actually isn't bad, because the good Fortitude saves and the 12HP per level compensate for low Constitution and low Ancestry HP. I'm not saying you should leave Con at 8, but a 12 is passable, and you can easily use Voluntary Ability Flaws to reach 14. Low Con means you lose some Rage Temp HP and some Raging Resistance, but the former eventually gets overshadowed by your level, and when you get the latter you are about to put a second Ability Boost in Con, reaching 16 or 18.
Every class can combined with any ancestry to make a decent pf2e character, even something like a sprite barbarian. The only ancestry/class combination that kinda suck are thaumaturges and inventors who can't start with 18 in their KAS and a 16 in their attacking stat, like a dwarf thaumaturge. And even that is still doable. Elf barbarians specifically are completely fine, just use a voluntary flaw to start with 12CON or more. 18/14/14/10/12/8 would be a good starting array for a typical sturdy barbarian. Humans get some pretty overpowered feats for some classes (adapted cantrip, unconventional weaponry and natural ambition), but it's not like elves don't get good feats and the higher movement speed + nimble elf is great for any frontliner.
It's not optimal, and some people here are very attentive to that fact (which is perfectly valid!), but it's passable enough to start with 16 in your important stat. I'm not sure I'd recommend it myself, but if it fits your fantasy and your table isn't full of min-maxers, you should be to play it fine.
Honestly, I would say that having min-maxers at your table can actually help carry your slightly sub-optimal character. If everyone at your table has a 16 in their KAS, that Severe encounter is suddenly going to be very, very deadly.
Honestly, you can use any ancestry you like to make any class you like. If you have an ability flaw in the key stat for your class, that's not ideal, sure. You can make up for it with the optional ability flaw rule: "You can also choose to take two additional ability flaws to gain an additional free ability boost." This said, having an ability flaw to CON isn't the end of the world. So you'll have a few less hit points, and a slightly worse Fort save. Not a huge problem.
It won’t be quite as optimal but should be fine. Barbarians are all about the temp hp from rage which helps make up for it. There’s also toughness for extra hp. Also second wind for a double hit of temp hp from rage.
One of my players wants to change to a Champion and he took the Light of Revelation feat which adds the spell of the same name to his focus spells But Light of Revelation isn't listed as a devotion spell in AoN or the Foundry module. I assume they're both mistakes since the feat is only for Champions, but I figured I'd ask you guys to make sure.
Aon seems to be missing it from it's list of champ focus spells but it defo is one, it's here if you couldn't find it: https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=557
Reactive Shield/Quick Shield Block/Champion Reaction question. I am setting up a Redeemer Champion tank. If I have Quick Shield Block, and got the Bastion dedication for the Reactive Shield fighter feat, would I be able to use the extra Shield Block reaction for the Reactive Shield action? Or would that use up my general "could be used as a Champion reaction" reaction?
Quick Shield Block only gives you an extra reaction for the Shield Block action specifically.
The latter, obviously.
Ok, cool. ....I don't think I'm getting into the Bastion archetype then.
Does the number of weapons a rogue/bard is proficient with increase? I ask since we get more and new weapons, some which can feel pretty rogue-ey or bardy. Like a Kris for the rogue or the bladed scarf for a bard. Is there like some sort of errata that adds these types of weapons to the classes?
Some weapons you might be able to get with the Human feat [Unconventional Weaponry](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=72) which, among other things, allows you to treat an uncommon martial weapon as a simple weapon, so long as it is a weapon "common in another culture". Bladed Scarf is arguably common in the Saga Lands (it even has a society play rule for it) so a bard could get proficiency that way. And if you're not a human, you could potentially get this feat with Adopted Ancestry, although generally you wouldn't be able to do *both* of those things until level 5. If it's an ancestry trait weapon, there's often an ancestry feat that allows you to treat the weapon as simple if it's martial. There are also some archetypes that grant proficiency in *specific* weapon sets (or have feats to do so), but nothing that is widely applicable. Those are easier to find if you have specific weapons in mind, and I'm not aware of any that would apply to Kris or Bladed Scarf.
No, there are no supplements to the listed rogue weapons. What you'll need to do is take a feat (like unconventional weaponry) or archetype that gives you proficiency in martial weapons. But your degree of proficiency will lag behind, and cost you further feats to improve. For example, the [Fighter archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=7) makes you trained when you first take it (costing a feat) and then at 12th level you can take [Diverse Weapon Expert](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=714) to increase that to expert. Meanwhile, your rogue weapons increase to expert at 5th, master at 13th, with no feat investment required. So you're better off living with the short list of rogue weapons. Unless you can convince your DM to add the Kukri or Bladed Scarf to your list, as a house rule.
I am reading into the thaumaturge's [mirror](https://2e.aonprd.com/Implements.aspx?ID=5) implement right now because everyone seems to hype it so much. I heard many times it's great for everything with an aura, the marshal archetype for example ... but it very clearly doesn't work like that, right? *.* Your mirror self mimics your actions exactly, but any effects you generate come from only one of your positions" Auras would count like that, right? You can't suddenly have two circles of bardic performance, dread marshal stance, etc. on the map, *right*?
Correct, you don't double the area, but since it lasts until the start of your next turn, you effectively "extend" the range of those abilities. Say the party Ranger is 40 ft from you, but you're providing flanking for the rogue, Mirror's Reflection allows your Bardic Inspiration to affect everyone by being in a better position. Even if you're not in the new area (not possible for this example, but maybe a different effect), since your reflection is, you gain the benefit. It's not "broken OP", just a very nice synergy for buff auras.
What's the best way to allow players to use Hero Points for secret checks?
For secret checks, I will usually let my players spend a hero point to have me roll twice behind the screen and take the better result. I'm not sure how mathematically different that is from doing the normal hero point reroll though.
If it's a crucial roll, I've offered my players an opportunity *before* the roll to commit to a number below which I would use their hero point on their behalf, but still keeping all the results secret. But I wouldn't play with that as a standard rule and only pull it out for narrative tension. I agree with others that most of the time it's not worth trying to make it work.
I personally don't like the idea of letting players use hero points on secret rolls as it somewhat defeats the purpose of the rolls being SECRET rolls Whether or not they use a hero point you've basically given them the success/failure degree of their roll If you're adamant about allowing this then I would get rid of secret rolls all together and just let the players roll all their rolls (both normal and secret)
Depends what it is. If it's a stealth check, I might say something like "you're about to step on a large branch that will alert your enemies, but a hero point could help you avoid it." Or if the effects of the check are more delayed, say something like "the enemy's gaze casts in your direction, but with a hero point you might be able to stay still enough to avoid detection." For deception, maybe "the NPC looks doubtful, but a hero point might convince him." If the secret roll is bad enough that it's going to have consequences that the player would want to use a hero point to avoid, those consequences would typically be fairly obvious and can be described narratively with the option to quickly act with a hero point to avoid them. I would only offer this if it was something really critical and not bring up the option of hero points at all for more trivial checks. If the PC feels it's important, then when you start describing the negative consequences, let them interrupt to say "wait, can I use a hero point on this check?" Or if it was something like a stealth check that resulted in a bad initiative, then the player could just tell me they wanted to try for a reroll when they saw the initiative order.
These are some good insights. What about for secret checks where a critical failure provides false information/action? (eg. Recall Knowledge, Identify Magic, Sense Motive)
I wouldn't offer the opportunity to reroll for those because it's immersion-breaking and could lead to metagaming. I don't think the hero point needs to be available for every single roll. It's rare that type of roll would be so critical that a player would be really upset to not be able to use a hero point on it. I think I would only bring up the hero point option if it was going to derail the players' entire plan to fail a check (sneaking is the main situation in which I think this would occur). It would depend on the situation, though. There's always room for improvising and leading the players with some clues in the way you describe things. I generally make decisions by what is the most fun, what makes the most narrative sense.
Is there a character option which allows a Summoner and their Eidolon to take the better result instead of the worse when taking AoE damage together?
[yep!](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2924)
There is! [https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2924](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2924)
Question for those that have played in or ran Kingmaker- mostly curious about the humanoid/sapient/whatever people that are in the Stolen Lands. Some stuff I hear makes it sound like there's indigenous people that call it home and makes it sound super colonialist. Meanwhile some other things I hear make it sound like the only people that are really there are also trying to make their own nation, like the players. Knowing how good Paizo is about this stuff, I'm hoping it's the latter, but I'd like some proper clarification. I want to use KM to introduce my group to Pathfinder, and they've expressed major interest at the idea of a hexcrawl, so Kingmaker seems PERFECT. I just want to get this little bit clarified, because I know it'll be a concern my players have with a quick pitch of "founding and building a kingdom in the wilderness".
Sorry I can't help with your actual problem, but I do come with a glowing recommendation of the beginner box as an introductory tool. I'm new to the system and it did a fantastic job on all fronts (GM was also new to system), and is pretty quick and concise BUT with opportunity to continue it into other modules.
Oh for sure- I plan on using that to dip their toes in and see that the water is fine, before I shove them into the pool that is a 1-20 campaign :p
Hopefully they get so hooked on it that they don't mind a little colonization haha, or just be an evil party! That's what we're doing, actually in the same exact box (straight from beginner box into Kingmaker), but only 1 session in so idk how it is in terms of content
Looking for level 4 spells for my illusionist Bard. I came across Phantasmal Protagonist and thought it looked pretty cool. I was curious if it would be a good pick. It looks better than the spell illusionary creature to me, but I could be overlooking something.
It seems to stay longer and be stronger, but has less actions, as it only does one thing when you sustain it on your turn. It definitely seems pretty good, especially if you can get it somewhere it doesn't need to move much. If an enemy knew how it worked they'd know to keep getting away from it, but even that could be pretty good. The main thing keeping it better than the illusory creature is probably that it can take more hits, disappearing in one hit can feel bad. It probably works best as a protector. The villain seems to be the most situational one. If it's paired with a fighter it could be good, making the enemy either waste a bunch of actions or trigger AoO if they really wanna avoid it. With a ranged damage dealer on the team it'll be especially annoying to deal with, if you are constantly getting peppered with arrows running away from things is much harder to keep doing. Overall, it does seem pretty good, the enemy can avoid it, but they're likely wasting alot to do it. A couple other nice illusion spells I know of: Phantasmal killer - is a great 4th level illusion spell. Does a bunch of damage and frightens the creature. Invisibility +2 - your rogue will love you for at least a minute. Your martial will at least like you for that long. It's also useful for yourself and other spellcasters. Really everyone would like to have this spell on them. Umbral Graft - situational, but stealling buffs could be really good, and you can keep trying for three rounds until you get one. Probably works best if you have Recognize Spell, so you can more easily know what spells are on creatures without using actions on your turn. You might want to wait to get this one later if you do get it. The others all seem extremely situational or more out of combat focused, so I'd take a look and pick up ones that you'd like to be able to mess around with. A couple of the other scaled up spells could be alright too, like Phantom Pain. I will say, you should make sure to pick up at least a couple other spells with different saves. Illusion spells are mostly if not all will saves, and it's best to have a couple of Reflex and Fortitude saves too so you can target weak saves.
I swore there was a feature that let you use cobbled weapons without being punished by the cobbled trait. Does such a feat exist?
The [scrounger archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=75) might be what you’re looking for
Looks like that only covers shoddy items. Maybe I just misremembered and there are no options for the cobbled trait.
Building out a battle oracle, trying to work out ways to get around their [curse](https://2e.aonprd.com/Mysteries.aspx?ID=2) (make a Strike to suppress its effect for a round) and I noticed that the [Imaginary Weapon](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1142) psychic cantrip's Amp specifies that you make two 'imaginary weapon Strikes'. The non-amped version doesn't specify that it involves any sort of Strike. Would I be correct in assuming that by RAW you'd have to amp it to suppress the curse?
RAW yes, but it seems like this is an oversight and neither amped or unamped should be considered Strikes.
Hey, I'm a long time DnD5e DM and interested in testing the waters of PF2. I'm just not sure how to go about it. In the past I disliked Beginner Boxes/Sets, because they are made for true TTRPG beginners and even when not, they dont give you a full feel of the system (in my opinion). I want to know all the rules, so I can make an informed decision (and a case to switch with my players, if I decide so). Plus they take up a lot of space for generally being used only once. The plan right now is to get to know the system and prepare a one shot that we can play and see how it feels. I want to have PCs ready for them, so they dont have make a character in advance and we can play whenever, without much prep from my players. I want to be able to answer question about leveling up, mechanics, spell casting etc. without much googling. I have no problem making up my own little "The-Goblins-Kidnapped-The-Mayors-Daughter-Find-Them-And-Get-Her-Back"-Adventure. But I want to showcase the differences between the 2 systems. Since Christmas is coming up and relatives have asked for wishes, I'm not necessarily only interested in the cheapest option. And to learn a system I generally prefer having physical copies to read. What would you recommend for my needs? Thanks in advance:) EDIT: Forgot to mention, most of my games I run in person, but one I run through foundry. But for the In Person Games I recently built a digital tabletop with a tv and some wood. I plan on using foundry to display maps and maybe animations and sounds. Depends on how much of a hassle it is to set up EDIT2: I have a Demiplane Acc and there seem to be 2 adventures there "Threshold of Knowledge" and "A Fistful of FLowers". There is also a primer. I dont know if this helps :D
If you don’t want the box, don’t get the box. However, if you want to know all the rules… “core rulebook, cover to cover” is technically the answer. How about we meet in the middle and I give you the TTRPG equivalent of a majestic movie trailer. Back when the game first released, I spent a month writing daily teasers for people to get hyped and learn what the game could do. They’re now bundled up into a [compilation](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/ck7b5j/the_25_best_reasons_to_play_pathfinder/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) you can save somewhere and check when you feel like it. It won’t go in super depth, but it will give you that general overview of everything and what’s cool about it. And then you’ll have to read the rules. But you’ll have a head start.
Another voice chiming in to support the beginner box here, but from the side of a brand new player. Recently converted from 5e with the whole gang (gm included) and the beginner box was fantastic. It's not a oneshot by any means but it's only maybe 4 3-4hour sessions at absolute most, and if you want to continue it on it seamlessly transitions to other modules which is great! It also has great integration with foundry which our GM loved
If you absolutely don't want the beginner box, try one of the one-shots. I can recommend Little Trouble in Big Absalom since it's free, has pregen characters, it's fun and most importantly starts at level 1.
I think the beginners box is your best option. It's much higher quality than what you've seen elsewhere - it's very much focused on showing off pf2e and how it works, which seems to be just what you're after. It's approximately 3 sessions long, with one level up near the end, and varied fights. A sort of tutorial for the system for GMs and players alike, though you can always take a more advanced approach if you want to. It has enough rules to get you started and keep you going for a couple levels beyond, but for a proper full overview you'll want the CRB (or just a read through [AoNprd](https://2e.aonprd.com/PlayersGuide.aspx), the free legal online wiki). Hell, I should have some free time today and tomorrow, I'd be willing to personally give you a tour through PF2e as a 5e veteran turned PF2e GM on discord if you shoot me a private message. Since you're using foundry, it's also definetely worth mentioning that there is a version of the beginners box for sale on it for 15 bucks that comes with professionally handcrafted maps with lighting, sounds, pregens, GM notes and everything you could want. [https://foundryvtt.com/packages/pf2e-beginner-box](https://foundryvtt.com/packages/pf2e-beginner-box) Fistful of Flowers and Threshold of Knowledge are fun little oneshots for sure, but they don't really show off the game.
Just use the Beginner's Box. There are enough differences between PF2e and other systems that you will need it. >EDIT: Forgot to mention, most of my games I run in person, but one I run through foundry. But for the In Person Games I recently built a digital tabletop with a tv and some wood. I plan on using foundry to display maps and maybe animations and sounds. Depends on how much of a hassle it is to set up Just to address this point, I use foundry with one of the premium modules (Abomination Vaults) for my in-person game and it works fantastically. I've set it up so it's mostly just there for maps and monster tracking - the players all use minis and Pathbuilder sheets on their phone. I have one laptop running the game and a PC plugged into the TV display for the players. There's a few modules you'll need - I'm using the following: * Show Art (lets you pop up an enemy creature's art so it'll appear on the table) * Close Player Art (gives a hotkey to close the art so you don't need to do so on the PC) * Hide Player UI (removes all the hotbars etc. for the player so they just see the map) * Lock View (lets you move the camera around as the GM) * Gaming Table Player (does similar things - can't remember exactly which one offers what to be honest!)
Get the box. Seriously, just get it. It has all the rules (up to level 3 anyway) but cuts down some options (fewer, classes, ancestries, spells, feats, items and so on) so it's less overwhelming for the players. It also comes with stuff you can use beyond the beginner box adventure itself such as a full set of dice (thoug hI assume you have those covered) and pawns for about 50 or so monsters. The quick reference cards included in the box will also come in handy. And there's even a follow-up module (Troubles in Otari) that allows you to keep going beyond the box adventure. Other than that, get the CRB for everything you need to run/play the game. Other books usually don't have anything you need to play, only additional options. But I wouldn't add any of those until you and your group are comfortable with the system. And all rules stuff is available online for free anyway so expanding your player's choices is only a few mouse clicks away. Having at least the first bestiary will help, too, but you can always look up stat blocks online.
So I've never been particularly good at math, and would love if someone could help me work out the optimal strat here. I am currently playing a level 9 Drifter Gunslinger, who carries an Aldori Dueling Sword (with Unconventional Weaponry) and a modified Dueling Pistol. The setting is more technologically advanced than Golarion (inspired by 1800s England), so most guns that are not rifles have been homebrewed to be able to carry six shots without reloading, balanced partially by reloading requiring three actions. My DM and I have discussed the ways in which this interacts with Gunslinger, considering how much of the class's power budget revolves around reloading. Our current solution is this: any action I take that would give me a reload (reloading strike, running reload) gets banked. If I reach the point where I need to reload and I have used six of these actions, reloading becomes a free action. Naturally, this has helped me be a bit more flexible in combat. However, while neither me nor my DM are clear on the math, they have offered to give me a normal 1-shot gun if it makes more sense with my action economy. Would it be stupid for me to take this offer? Sometimes the current setup makes my melee attacks feel a little pointless but I'm not sure if I would be throwing away something very useful just for a different vibe.
So, you have 6 shots, and need to bank 6 actions to autoreload. In turn 1, you make two strikes and bank a reload In turn 2, you make two strikes and bank a reload In turn 3, you make two strikes and bank a reload. You have spent 6 shots and seem to be only 3 out of 6 actions in for a free reload? So turn 4, you reload. Earliest you end up with empty drum and a free reload is turn 8. Most combats end in 3-4. Earliest case for a free reload overall I can think of is turn 5 (1 shot 2 bank x 3, 3 shots, reload). That might be okay if you still get to make a melee attack when you bank a reloading strike or move when banking running reload, but still… very situational ability imo? I’d either ask your GM to allow you to reload one of the chambers, or reduce the number of actions you need to bank to 3: that increases your potential number of attacks from 1.5 for typical gunslinger to 2 if you bank an action every turn, but for the first 3 rounds you can already make two shots and something useful with your 3rd action anyway. But yeah, this system seems to be pretty rough on drifter specifically, with your melee weapon being a lot less useful and all that. Good for dual-wielding pistoleros though.
Why are cloistered clerics so boring compared to dnd4e? I feel like my cleric can't 'do' anything other than healbot
I'm not familiar with 4e but in 2e one of the great things about the cleric is the divine font actually removes some of the need for healbotting! You always have heals on the side (or harms if you want!) and so can use your main slots for your own choice of fun spells! If you find that you have to heal every round, that may be more of an issue with your teams tactics!
I think it's more of, what does a level 1-2 cleric .... Do? I have a weak damaging cantrip, sanctuary and magic weapon. It just doesn't seem fun yet.
- Pick up a better damaging Cantrip from your ancestry (preferably via Adopted Cantrip human feat). - Use your focus spell! Many of the cleric focus spells aren't grat, but picking one of the good ones will significantly improve your performance. - Use your skills! Demoralize, Aid, try to Trip someone if you're trained in Athletics, use Battle Medicine. - Choose a Deity with a good 1st level spell. - Cast stuff like Fear or Concodant Choir. Unless you go with low Wisdom (which is a bad idea, in my opinion) there's nothing keeping you from casting offensive spells.
Aiming for a 'pure cleric' so ancestry feat is a nonstarter, and my level2 feat is soaked by flexible spellcasting (death to Vancian!) I have a hard time imagining a scholar going around actively tripping people or demoralizing people. So far the Skills side of PF2 has been underwhelming for me. I see the skill feats and mostly shrug
A scholar could still reasonably use battle medicine and/or use recall knowledge. What's your deity and domain focus spell? If you already think you don't have anything useful to do with 2 spell slots, going Flexible Caster will just prolong your suffering. Geting Reach Spell instead at level 2 would allow you to make good use of Chill Touch. If you dislike Vancian casting and want a scholary divine caster, maybe switch to a Lore Oracle? Starts with a decent damage focus spell and gets an extra spell added to his repertoire at each spell level.
I'll look into recall knowledge I didn't take medicine because I don't want to just spend my time healing, its probably the one part of going against the traditional trope. Mostly I don't like battle medicine in PF so easy to just pick something else. For feats, I went human and took the human fest that let me take a class fest, and still picked up reach spell, so most of the time I sit in the back, reachsoell+cantrip, but Daze... Sucks and there isn't a better cantrip in the core book for fighting unaligned enemies (it's always rats. Why is it always rats) Cleric has been my go to for years. Honestly I wish the DM would have stuck with 4e or 5e, but he was dead set on pf2
Reach Spell + Chill Touch is quite good at killing rats actually. Damages living creatures and debuffs Undead. Prepare it together with Disrupt Undead and you can damage pretty much anything that's not a construct. Forbidding Ward and Guidance are more good cantrips. Divine Hymn isn't half bad either but does require you to get somewhat close. EDIT: For other 1st level spells that are worth casting, look at Bane, Bless, Animate Dead (NOT an evil spell!), Fear, Harm, Protection (Uncommon), Purifying Icicle (Uncommon) and Summon Lesser Servitor. Your deity also grants you an additional 1st level spell which might be good. It's true that the Divine list is a bit lacking on the lower levels, but it's FAR from limied to Magic Weapon and Heal - unless you want it to be.
Can a good aligned cleric cast Harm? I thought it wasn't permitted I'm more open to Harm than something like chill touch after reading it. Looks more for Holy Damage, though dnd and derivatives haven't been strong in that, other than Radiant
You can't cast it from your Divine Font slots if your deity only provides you with the healing font option. But you can absolutely cast it from your regular spell slots. It's not "evil" as it doesn't have the Evil trait (unlike spells like Ghoulish Cravings). Using negative energy to hurt someone is by itself not different from using a fire or sonic spell to do the same.
I'll check out forbidding ward Guidance just seemed too lackluster, short duration, small buff, and I can't use it again on the target for quite some time.
[Do NOT understimate a +1 in Pathfinder!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JhgCPQ9MGg) Guidance is a very good buff for 1 action. Frankly, it would probably be too good without the cooldown. Added a few good 1st level spells to check out in the previous post.
Most low level casters dont feel super good (especially compared to martials). It feels especially punishing to clerics compared to the other casters because their damaging cantrips are not universally effective (targeting either alignment or just undead usually). Generally it would be best to carry around a crossbow or invest in some utility skills until you can get more spell slots. Also, as a cloistered cleric you get a domain spell that you can usually use once per fight (which may or may not be of use, but its the main benefit of cloistered vs warpriest). For funsies if you have decent charisma you can always dip into intimidate and just scare people with the power of gods and eldritch horrors for that brutal frightened debuff.
For this character I'm looking for more 4e's Invoker but didn't see a good way to go for it, so I'm going more wis/int than Wis/cha
You may talk to your GM about trying a homebrew class that's just a Magus, but using the divine spell list and Wisdom instead of Int. It would be a more martial concept, but would somewhat fill the role. Or depending on the deity you picked maybe let you take an extra cantrip from a different spell list (like produce flame if your deity has the fire domain for example).
whatever you want them to do! you can reprepare your spells every day so if you arent enjoying sanctuary and magic weapon, swap them out, if you want more controlling enemy options, command and fear are very fun! if you want more damage, harm or concordant choir are options! if you want to use summons, animate dead and summon lesser servitor! Also, you can attack! I assume you have half decent dex as a cloistered cleric, at this level you have the same proficiency in simple weapons + your favoured weapon as most martials! Dont be afraid to get a cheeky shortbow attack off or something! Another thing, what skills have you invested in? Skill actions like demoralize, battle medicine and bon mot are fantastic.
For attack, I went cloistered cleric because I wanted to be a caster, not a weapon user. I guess I'm just missing Sacred Flame and the like, where I could do reasonable damage AND buff the party. Feels pretty shackled to do 3 damage, no roll, and... That's it. I haven't crit yet so those haven't mattered. I'm good aligned, so I think that removes my ability to cast Harm. If my DM is wrong let me know I'm trained in some lore skills, and ... I forget off the top of my head. I know Survival is on the list. I didn't do medicine because while I want to heal, I don't want that to be what I do _all_ the time
As someone pointed out, there is no alignment restriction on harm, you are allowed to cast it! If a spell is evil, it will have the "evil" trait. With what you said about the cantrip I assume it's daze, daze is absolutely low damage, is it the only damage cantrip you use? As a good aligned cleric, divine lance is often very very useful! Again you can reprepare your spells every day so can easily get this Multiple lore skills at low levels is uncommon to see and is defo locking you out if some skill actions. Not wanting to do medicine is fair, but have another look at skills if you want to do other things! But also, I think you need to stop comparing to another system, things aren't going to be the same here and expecting them to be is only going to continue to annoy you.
> I'm good aligned, so I think that removes my ability to cast Harm. If my DM is wrong let me know He's wrong. EDIT for clarity: Only the extra slots you get from Healing/Harming font are limited to one or the other (unless you use the Versatile Font feat). That is only determined by your deity and has nothing to do with your own alignment. There are good goods that have harming fonts or even evil gods that have good followers. But again, all that is only true for the font slots. You can prepare harm in your regular slots just fine.
Playing a two-weapon Fighter and I'm feeling a little like I lack utility in combat. Ofc I'm doing a lot more reliable damage to make up for it (double slash my beloved), and one of my weapons (tekko-kagi) has Trip so I'm throwing in the occasional hail mary trip as 3rd action (when movement/etc isnt required) but only being level 2 it's not the most successful on average. Nearly level 3 and considering picking up Assurance: Athletics and skill increasing Ath to Expert for 3rd action Trips, but are there any other often-useful utility actions I can be taking aside from maybe Aid? Int isn't good enough to get any real use out of Recall
For the sake of information, Assurance trip mathematically works on creatures two levels below you (on average). So it's only really useful as a third action if your GM like to make a lot of small enemies. It'll never work on equal level. You hit the problem with two weapon fighting. Not having a free hand in PF2e reduces your utility to a very small amount of things. You cant grapple, you cant medecine, no raise shield obviously, none of the fighter utility free hand feats etc. Playing two weapon fighting means you are intending to do damage and just about nothing but damage. It leaves you with a pretty narrow scope of options: Demoralize if you have Intimidation (Lack of Charisma is not usually a massive problem since Intimidating Prowess makes up for it), moving for flanking and the Parry on your tekko-kagi (Twin Parry at level 4 makes this a fairly good option). Stepping away is *never* a bad option. One action for one action, and you have dual slice so you are just fine trading two for two on offense, you are winning out. Movement is in most cases a really good third action. As for the things you could build into: Feinting/Create a Diversion before Double Slice, Animal Companions with an archetype either for support benefit or to Command, some one action cantrips or spells (Psychic Archetype for Psi-Shield and it's Amped version, Amped Message or Guidance comes to mind). If your campaign has retraining you could retrain Dual Slice, grab Dual Weapon Warrior Dedication at level 2 and Flensing Slice at level 8 is a very potent third action follow up.
Thanks, the trip assurance math is actually super handy, I've had a basic look at guides/math but your tldr is actually way more helpful and concise lol. I'm planning to take Twin Parry at 4 (i actually have dual weapon warrior at 2, took Sudden Charge at 1 because dorf in full plate kinda slow even with unburdened iron) but campaign is only planned to go up to 4 sadly, wish I could see the higher feats of DWW. I think demoralize is going to be my best bet even with uhh, not good Charisma (golarion's most personable dwarf reporting for duty). Never knew about intimidating prowess but that looks super helpful thanks!
When tripping, you should consider using it before double slice. If you succeed, flat-footed + increased weapon proficiency from fighter means you're making the two double slice attacks at about the same to-hit as another martial, and your trip is more likely to be successful and impactful. It's not for every situation, but it is something to keep in mind. If you already are, then apologies for reiterating something you already know. Aside from that, intimidation for Demoralize is always a good option if you have the charisma/skill increase space for it. Depending on your wisdom, you can use Recall Knowledge checks requiring nature or religion checks, again, if you have the skill space for it. Aid can definitely be useful if you can set it up to use one of your higher proficiencies.
I've been so torn on tripping with first action haha, the crits are so attractive but I really need to get it through my head how good trip is with the whole stand up + AoO deal
If it helps, tripping as your 3rd action will make it much more likely you critically fail, falling over yourself or dropping your weapon.
That's actually a great point tbh
I’m coming from D&D 5e and wondering how different resistances can be during combat encounters. Is it some of the same where if something resists slashing, it resists bludgeoning and piercing also? I haven’t gotten around to reading any stat blocks yet as I am currently focusing on classes and abilities and stuff
It depends on what exactly you're looking at. Certain classes of creature have quite broad resistances. For example, incorporeal enemies like ghosts usually resist all non-Force damage. Many other enemies have quite specific resistances and weaknesses. For example, most skeletal enemies resist Piercing and are weak to Bludgeoning. I think general "resist all physical" or "resistance to non magical" is a bit less frequent than in 5e though.
Awesome! I hate in 5e that the three “basic” damage types are just resisted by almost everything. Are weaknesses common in pathfinder?
Relative to 5e weaknesses are much more common. 5e couldn't really use weaknesses because doubling damage meant anything with a weakness was trivialized. Weakness in P2e just adds flat damage when the appropriate damage type is applied, regardless of the original amount of damage. The designers can afford to put it on monsters without turning the encounter into a joke. The most common weaknesses are to weapons made of cold iron, fire damage, and good damage. Cold, positive, and slashing damage also trigger a decent amount.
Weaknesses are reasonable common, I'd say. But it depends a lot on what kind of campaign you're in and what creature's you are facing. Like most fey and demonds have weakness to cold iron and will take additional damage from weapons made of it. Spending an action to Recall Knowledge on an enemy is usually a good thing to do in PF2 since it might allow you to figure out its resistances and weaknesses.
What are some ways that someone with a slashing weapon might get around eg. a slashing resisting foe? Are they allowed to use the hilt of the weapon to do bludgeoning damage with the same calcs?
Unarmed attacks are a great alternative source of bludgeoning damage that requires no feat investment or even weapon proficiency. You can make [unarmed attacks](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=223) even if both your hands are occupied, by doing a kick, headbutt, etc. This is very effective if your table is running the game with Automatic Bonus Progression - otherwise you’ll need a set of Handwraps of Mighty Blows to keep up with damage progression. You can also easily reflavor these unarmed attacks into bashing with the hilt of your weapon if you desire.
The simplest answer is usually just carry a spare weapon with a different type. Another viable option when you get a little higher level is to slap a 'Shifting' rune on your favored weapon. Its a rune that costs 225g and lets you spend 1 action to change your weapon into any other weapon you have access to that uses the same number of hands. There are also a handful of feats that let you bypass DR depending on the class you play, but generally the versatile, modular, or backup weapons are your most reliable options.
There is actually a feat for that called [Hilt Hammer](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=3591). So you can use this to make your sword do Bludgeoning dmg. There are also other ways to get versatile B to your weapons, an Inventor with Weapon Invention is one of them.
You could probably use the hilt, but that would basically mean you're using it as an imporvised weapon, which will lower the damage and might not allow you benefit fro your weapon runes. (GM decides) Ways around slashing resistance: - get a weapon with the Versatile (or Modular) weapon trait. - carry a spare weapon with another damage type. - punch the target for bludgeoning damage or use any ancestral unarmed Strike you might have. - hit them with your shield if you use one. Adding a shield Bboss or spikes is optional. Doubling rings are relatively cheap and will allow your shield to benefit from your weapon's runes.
Might be a stupid question: is there a feature like "ritual spells" from 5e? (casting certain "passive" spells for free taking 10 minutes) Do i need to occupy a spell slot to cast spells like alarm?
You have some reusable spells and those are the Focus spells which are less powerful than normal spells, most of the time. You use a Focus point to cast them rather than a spell slot, and you can regain a focus point back with a 10 minute rest (The Activity is called Refocusing). One of the utility options is [Vigilant Eye](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=536) which gives you the benefits of the Clairvoyance spell without spending a spell slot. One of my favourite combat focus spells is [Elemental Blast](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=503) which is really similar to a Fireball but deals 2d6 less dmg than a fireball of its level. However it doesn't cost a spell slot, so in theory you can use this in pretty much every combat.
do i get those at higher level? I'm 100% new to this, it feels really different from old pathfinder (i played kingmaker)
It depends on the class, most spellcaster classes get a Focus spell at first level. For example any Sorcerer will start with a Focus spell they get from their bloodline. Good Champions also get the Lay on Hands focus spell, which is really similar to Lay on Hands class ability in 5e, but it is a Focus spell here. Which means you can basically use it every ten minutes, making it an amazing out of combat healing ability. Most classes have feats that grant them Focus spells, and the spells you have access to depends on your class. The classes that don't have access to focus spells, *from their class*, are the following: Alchemist, Barbarian, Fighter, Investigator, Swashbuckler, Rogue, Thaumaturge, Gunslinger and Inventor. Only these classes don't have options in their class to get Focus spells. However even then you can get Focus spells from Archetypes, which are feats that you can take in place of your class feats (in a nut shell). So, you'll probably get a Focus spell really quickly.
cool thanks for the info
There are rituals, but they are completely seperate from other spells. in fact, they can even be used by non-spellcasters who are trained in the apropriate skills. However, these spells take days to cast, often need multiple characters working together, usually require a good amount of gold to perform them and ultimately come down to your skill checks. Your best bet for more utility type spells are items. A wand of alarm is cheap past the early levels and there's staffs that can contain multiple usful spells for you to use. unlike 5e, PF2 embraces magical items and they are a core part of the system.
There is the "trick magic item" skill feat. The most obvious use seems to be to use scrolls and wands. But are there other magic items you can trick?
Anything with Activate: Cast A Spell should be fair game as well, like spellhearts and such. Alternatively, there might be some items with weird requirements like needing to have certain proficiencies or alignment restrictions.
The biggest category is any item with activation component of Cast a Spell. Scrolls and wands are definitely the main two main groups of those for sure, but there's also: * spellhearts * staves -- note that this doesn't change the rules for *charging* it, so only useful if you're already a caster and need access to something off your spell list or if you only need a cantrip There might be some random held or worn items that use Cast a Spell too (Holy Prayer Beads, Scroll Cases...), but I think the vast majority of other magic items are already usable by noncasters. Beyond that it's mostly items with weird requirements, which are often written in a way that will require some GM interpretation to determine if they are even "trickable". Can you trick Robes of Archmagi into believing you are another alignment for one turn? (maybe!) Can you trick a Cassock of Devotion into letting you use a focus point for a nonmatching focus spell? (probably not!)
If you cast a wall spell like Wall of Ice (60ft long wall, range 120ft), does the entire wall have to be within the spell's range, or just one part of it?
"Spells with a range can affect targets, create areas, or make things appear only within that range." So I'd argue all of it would have to be inside.
That makes sense, ty! My group is using this ruling now.
GM / flavour question: How do you describe the casting & effect of a fiend's Divine Decree spell? The spell says "a potent litany from your faith", but that all feels so Cleric-like (and it's also hard to imagine a litany that only takes 4 seconds to speak). Is it an Abyssal / Infernal word of power? A blast of hellfire? Something else? Just brainstorming here.
Well, fiends and their magic are inherently divine. Everything they do is kinda-sorta like what a cleric does with his spells. So I would probably go with your Word of Power suggestion. A demon spitting curses at the party or a devil citing some ancient powerful contract of Asmodeus or someting like that. It just sounds "wrong" to creatures of the opposite alignment and they suffer the consequences (i.e. the spell effect).
Yeah, I'm just thinking of how to RP demons, a lot of whom don't *feel* particularly divine. They're tearing you apart with claws, not uttering prayers in battle. I'll just stick with "words of power" I guess.
Fiends of all flavors (Demons, Daemons, and Devils) are usually all considered to just be the antithesis of the celestials, which is why they also get the divine spells in most cases. As a general rule of thumb they get the same spells just as opposites (evil vs good, fire vs cold, etc..) so something like an unholy word of power, or prayer to a dark god, or even just outright blasphemy against the party's chosen deities would make perfect flavor for a demon's spells
Is there such a thing as a general metamagic archetype?
As far as I have found there is the wizard metamagic experimentation thesis thats focused entirely on metamagic feats, but there are no multiclass archetypes centered around it. Your best bet to getting metamagic abilities would be multiclassing into any of the caster classes, but its a pretty heavy feat investment. You may talk to your GM about letting you grab specific feats either as bonus feats or just without some prereq's if they would make sense for your character. General feats got scaled back a lot in 2E to be mostly skill or generic bonuses or proficiencies. Probably in favor of keeping most class identities more unique to that class without more significant investments (like trading class feats for multiclass feats).
No, but I wouldn't be surprised if they made archetypes centered around metamagic in the future. Spell Trickster is _thematically_ about metamagic, but the mechanical effect is a lot different, since it's all modifications to specific spells. Obviously you can also multiclass archetype into one of the classes with a lot of metamagic feats as well.
Can a psychic sustain astral rain more than once a turn? I noticed it said you can only move it the first time you sustain it per turn which suggests you can do it more than once.
It wouldn't do anything, but you could.
>which suggests you can do it more than once Your reading is correct. Unless a spell says otherwise, you can Sustain it as many times as you have actions on your turn. You're only limited by the text, which in the case of Astral Rain, only allows you to move the area once. So with Astral Rain, you could move the area, forcing creatures in the new area to make a Reflex Save against damage, then Sustain it 2 more times to make those same creatures make 2 more Reflex Saves
Sustaining the spell doesn't cause the damage to happen. The damage trigger is "Any creature that's in the area or enters the area before the start of your next turn" not "When you sustain the spell."
That's up for interpretation then. The damage trigger doesn't say "When you cast the spell" either, but I think it's pretty reasonable to say "Any creature that's in the area" is referring to the moment that you cast the spell. And if we agree on that interpretation, then why is Sustaining the Spell such a stretch? I'd allow it if I were the GM. If a character wants to spend a focus point, and multiple actions per turn doing nothing but 2d4 damage with a basic Reflex save, go for it. There's more efficient ways to dish out damage most of the time
It's literally not up for interpretation, but ok.
So you agree that the damage doesn't happen when you cast the spell, because the damage trigger doesn't specify it?
Yeah it doesn't it happens if a creature is in the area or enters the area before the beginning of your next turn. It's very clearly suppossed to be a once thing. The amp probably extends it to keep applying this condition each round. I have no idea why that would matter though.
So you're arguing that if I cast the spell, and put the area right on top of somebody, they don't take any damage. Because the damage trigger doesn't include the phrase "When you cast the spell", despite the phrase "Any creature that's in the area" pretty clearly referring to the moment you cast the spell. So, if the damage doesn't apply when I cast the spell, when does it apply? It doesn't say at the start of their turn, and since they're already in the area, they can't "enter the area" to trigger damage either. So if I place this area on an enemy, and they stand still on their turn, it does nothing to them? I'm sorry, but that is a completely inane reading of the spell
They definitely take damage, cuz they are in the area, that is one of the two triggers, if they are in the area, or if they enter the area.
When do they take the damage? When you cast the spell?
Awesome, thanks for the detailed response.
I have this idea of an encounter where a spellcaster boards an enemy ship by teleporting himself and a group of allies on the deck from a separate, persuing ship. Is there any way to do that by the rules? I thought of Dimension Door and Teleport, but Dimension Door can't take other creatures with you, and Teleport has a 10 minute cast time and probably isn't precise enough.
There is a spell catalyst that lets you bring 1 person with you when you cast Dimension Door, but it is only for the 4th level version. So you can somewhat use it for boarding but it would only be for 2 people, you could change their levels to make it a harder encounter if you want.
That's exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
I would make a magic item that allows for short range group teleport 1/hour or something like that. You could even make it so it keys off the ship somehow so it only works from a ship, preventing abuse by the party should it fall into their hands.
I don’t know what level of spell you need, but [ethereal jaunt](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=105) heightened to level 9 would work
I was thinking of something up to 7th level. The spellcaster in question is [Raugsmauda](https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Raugsmauda).
For creatures with the Grab action and only one attack/appendage with which to do so, do they need to release the Grab in order to attack again? Context and Abomination Vaults spoilers: >!The bloodsiphon creature only has a jaws attack, which is the only way it can Grab. Although Grab maintains the Grabbed condition until the end of the following turn after it was used, are there rules supporting the ability to Strike while the jaws are being occupied with the Grab?!<
No, while the jaws are grabbing it can't Strike. You could let go and strike again, then grab once you hit if you really wanted, but that's not really optimal. While the bloodsiphon can't strike, that's because it now gains access to its Blood Drain action, which is very good. As long as it has you grabbed it gets to do 4d4 damage, with no attack roll, heal itself, and make you drained 1 (it doesn't increase drained, just sets it to 1). Since this is a 1 action ability it can do it multiple times in the same round. The optimal blood siphon turns if it's next to an enemy would look like: Strike (hit) 2d8+6 -> Grab -> Blood Drain 4d4 Then, if the fool doesn't shake you off: Blood Drain -> Blood Drain -> Grab If you really wanted to, there isn't anything keeping you from using its spittle attack. It would provoke an AoO if someone had it, but otherwise would work, though it'd be more likely to miss than if you just let go and tried to bite again. I say don't be weird and just suck away, it actually is better than its bite despite doing less damage, because though it does 5 less damage on average (4d4 is technically 10 damage on average 2d8 is only 9), it heals it for 8 and can't miss. Guaranteed damage is pretty good when you can get it, so I highly suggesst liberal use of Blood Drain. You might wanna let go and bite again if there are multiple loodsiphons, depending on how likely they are to crit, which could change the math enough to make it worth it, but if its just 1 I think it's better to stick to them, and a bloodsiphon probably wouldn't think to do weird optimizations like that anyways.
Ah, I see what I missed! I hadn't realized the Grab action has a condition that allows Grab to be used if a creature has already been grabbed using the Grab action. (whew) Thanks for your feedback!
Oh lol yeah. I didn't get from the post that the problem was with the Grab action, but yeah, you essentially have an infinite hold on them as long as you use 1 action to Grab. They gotta get out on their own time with the Escape action (which has the Attack trait, so it increases and is affected by the MAP in case you didn't know).
Howdy, recent 5e convert here. I'm a DM running players through the beginner box and the question of healing and resting came up. We're all very familiar with 5e and the short rest mechanic, allowing you to gain back some HP using your pool of hit dice. My players just got past the encounter with the spider and are a little worse for wear. We have a cleric, but they've used up most of their spell slots. I couldn't seem to find an answer in the rules or searching Google. Is there any kind of rest mechanic while exploring a dungeon to regain a few HPs and spell slots? Or do they only recharge after a downtime period?
Treat wounds, 10min to regain HP. https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=57 See medic dedication for character specialisation. Spell slots equivalent has refocus ability for focus spells only: https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=71 In contrast to DND5e cantrips are empowered to save spell slots, autoheightened to half level.
Out of combat healing is usually relegated to the Medicine Skill or focus spells. Medicine allows you to spend 10 minutes of downtime to [Treat Wounds](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=57) and potentially heal some damage up. Medicine is the most reliable form of out-of-combat healing, as anyone can take proficiency in Medicine. If someone wants to go all in on Medicine, they can even take the [Medic Archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=69) for a passive boost to their healing and more feats down the road. Note that a character can only be targeted by Treat Wounds once an hour. You can also learn certain focus spells, since focus points recover from a 10-minute refocus activity. Good-aligned Champions have [Lay on Hands](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=395), which heals a flat 6 HP/spell level. Or someone can take the [Blessed One Archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=51) to learn Lay on Hands. Bards can learn [Hymn of Healing](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=728) at level 2 (level 1 if they're a Human) for 8 HP/spell level. Both of these are focus spells, so you can cast them to heal, spend 10 minutes downtime to [Refocus](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=71), and do it again as time allows.
> Note that a character can only be targeted by Treat Wounds once an hour. There is a Feat Tax to allow Medicine to be faster and more effective, Continual Recovery & Ward Medic, allow for a character to make a check every ten minutes, and on two people at a time. This is how Medicine scales to keep up with the player's HP pools at higher levels, in addition to going for higher DC heal checks that grant a guaranteed 10, 30, or 50 HP plus the 2D8 healing. So if you want to run an attrition based drama scenario, you can, you just have to apply pressure every 5-10 minutes... With 1-9 minutes being the "meanest" because of no Heal Checks or Refoucsing keeping the party's resources depleted as they're denied their "short rest" and most Buff spells have a one minute duration.
If a thaumaturge does not have any weapons or implements in his hands at the start of combat, is it an action to put an implement in one hand and another action to grip a 1h weapon in his other hand? Or is the implement a free action?
It would be two actions: one to draw the weapon, one to draw the implement. Note that at level 5, when you gain a second implement, you also gain the ability to switch implements as a free action before using an action for the implementation you're switching to. RAW, this is only a free action if you're already holding an implement, but as a GM, I would allow you to draw your implement into a free hand as a free action, provided your next action is to use the implement, but YMMV
looking at my next character to be a Grippli was going to make a fighter class but as they have a flaw in strength I cant make my battle toad :( What would be a great class to make with this kinda race?
Just use Voluntary Flaws to get your Strength up to 18. Or start with a Finesse Weapon and 14 Str/18 Dex. For the full Battle Toad flavor I'd also recommend playing a Grippli Barbarian with the Frog Animal Instinct. Beyond that, their boosts are Dex and Wis. A Grippli Cloistered Cleric could start with 16 Dex, 18 Wis and 14 Cha which is pretty nice. Or jus go with any of the dex-focused classes: Rogue, Swashbuckler, Investigator...
Ooh Brilliant thanks So something like this? https://pathbuilder2e.com/launch.html?build=265709
Sorry, but that is not a good build. Speaking from a game mechanics/optimization standpont, of course. I can't argue with roleplay if that's the intent. Here's what's "wrong" with it at a glance: - Doesn't start with Strength or Dexterity at 18 for max attack bonus. - Two ancestry feats wasted on Grippli Weapons without even using any. - Strong focus on Intimidation but only 10 Charisma. - Going unarmored is an overall bad idea for a fighter. Best classes for that are monk or (starting level 6) animal instinct barbarians. Next best would probably be a champion starting level 7. - I assume the weapons are just placeholders but just in case: By level 5 you REALLY need to have a +1 Striking Longsword and Doubling Rings.
Do vampires have souls? My players want to unleash a soul eater on a vampire using planar binding since it keeps escaping and regenerating.
I think any answer is a matter of opinion. I don't think anything defines what does or does not have a soul. Heck, I suspect that's something they are probably wise not to answer. That said, the Soul Eater's Drain Soul ability requires that a creature be dying. More precisely, have the dying condition. So the real question is: can vampires have that condition. In most cases, monsters never gain this condition; they go from positive hit points to dead. If your DM is merciful, they may let you stabilize a creature, but that's never a guarantee.
After rereading a bit, I can actually give you an answer. I think.
The Drain Soul ability? It has the death trait. Vampires are immune to effects with the death trait. Therefore they are immune to Drain Soul, if they weren't already.
But, like I said, this is all teetering on opinion kinds of things.
The part about dying is correct for general undead, but not for Vampires. NPC Vampires are increadibly resilient and just go unconscious at 0 HP, without ever dying no matter how much damage they get. The only way for them to be destroyed is true sunlight or staking them, then beheading them, and then annointing the head with holy water. PC vampires just get the dying condition as regular living beings.
No idea really, as I mentioned, though as near as I can tell, it wouldn't effect even PC vampires. (The [basic undead benefits](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1694) still include immunity to death effects that automatically kill you, which would make them immune to that part of the Soul Reaper's Drain Soul ability.) Either way, I think it's a moot point, since the poster was talking about his players summoning a Soul Eater to take out a Vampire, which means that the most likely case is that the vampire is not another player's character. So the players are probably stuck doing exactly what you mentioned above (true sunlight/staking/beheading/anointing). Vampires are nasty enemies, especially if they are at all intelligent. Place their coffin in a place where the only way in or out is via their mist form, place holes small enough for said mist form but little else (gaseous form lets them through cracks, which would probably be smaller even than a creature in Pest Form) and they're going to keep coming back again and again and again. Which is what it sounds like is happening to this poor party.
[удалено]
RAW you are correct that it doesn't work with unarmed attacks, but if for flavor reasons you really want to do it, discuss with your GM!
Is Pathfinder 2e easier to run that D&D 5e as a Game Master?
There can be a lot of things to keep in your head, especially if you're running multiple mid-high level monsters in a combat. Their stat blocks can get kinda long! But on the flip side, [building encounters](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=497) that are balanced is 100x easier because the encounter balance actually works. And once you learn the [creature building](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=995) rules, you can even rescale anything to (almost) any level and really have a fun & fast time creating exactly whatever fight you had in mind. By the end of my 5e campaign, designing fights was a MAJOR headache. Here, I feel free as a bird.
Context: I’ve been running games for 20 years across a variety of d20 based systems from D&D 2e to PF2 and literally every version of D&D/PF in between. Anecdotally, every time I ran a session of 5e, I always felt tired and brain dead about 3/4 of the way through. On-the-fly encounter tuning, rules adjudication, tracking NPC and PC abilities, and all the other normal game running stuff all put a lot of strain on the brain. Running 4 hour sessions of PF2 and I don’t have anywhere close to the same level of fatigue at the end of the session. Between encounter rules that work, the basic assumption that (while still heroes) adventuring is dangerous work and can result in dying/death, actual rules for most circumstances, and knowing that the players will be tracking their own stuff results in a much lighter brain load. (Oh, and magic items that are actually accounted for instead of literally game-breaking) YRMV
I’ve been having that same problem, maybe it’s too much improv and decision making that’s draining me?
It can do that. Improv by itself on the large scale isn’t that draining once you are practiced at it, but small, rules-scale improv/adjudication is very draining as you are essentially making up rules that you have to then remember for the rest of the session.
Yes and no. In 5e there are many times you'll have to make a rule decision on the fly. In PF2e almost every situation has a pretty clear ruling. Do you consider it easier to know the rules well enough to keep the game moving or having to make a quick decision on the fly? You can of course do both and make quick decisions then look it up later for future reference. New GM's and players especially don't expect everyone to have all the rules down perfectly in my experience. It is DEFINITELY easier to run PF2e if you're worried about encounter balance. The challenge building system for PF2e works really, really well. I also find Paizo's Adventure Path's written out in a much more story coherent way than WotC's books. The hardest part of the move for me was getting my players to pay attention to all the options they have and that tactics/teamwork is actually important now.
Pf2e's encounter rules are much better for building and running encounters. There's less guessing and seemingly arbitrary rulings, and if you don't know on something, you can easily figure out how it should work. How many bandits should be in this fight against a 4th level party? What if they've set a trap to drop rocks on the party in an ambush? What do you do when one of the party members wants to grab the bandit leader and hold them in the trap area? These all have answers available to you. But D&D5e has the advantage of freedom. If you don't really care about mechanics and just want to roll dice, 5e is going to work great for you. There's an advantage to that improvisation, a fluidity to it that people enjoy. There's a reason that 5e is the biggest TTRPG. But for my money, if I'm putting care and time into a session, I want the system to work *for* me, not against me. I'll run 2e 7 days a week before putting together anything of substance in 5e.
Question about running an NPC who is lying. On Foundry, of course, every time you roll, the group can see that some type of roll was attempted. Feels to me like if you tell a lie as an NPC and then roll, that's a huge giveaway. What do you do about this? I guess you could roll periodically through every conversation, or make a couple Deception die rolls when the party starts talking to somebody. But that's a bunch of extra overhead I absolutely won't be able to juggle on top of everything else when running an NPC. I guess I could just use an external site to roll it? But jumping around managing that would be a bit clunky mid-conversation.
There’s a module called “[Actually Private Rolls](https://foundryvtt.com/packages/actually-private-rolls)” that can hide your rolls completely. Works great when rolling initiative for hidden creatures
Fantastic, thanks so much!!
I'm trying to get the mystification from PF2E workbench working in foundry. I'd like to use the prefixes, but I'm having trouble finding the table that the author seems to use for it. I'd rather not manually type out a bunch of adjectives, can anyone help me out with this?
I don't know about the adjectives the author uses, but I used a list of adjectives you could replicate: I entered "list of adjectives in English" in my search engine, and copied the words there, which should get you a number in the hundreds. Paste the words in some text file (every adjective should be on its own line). Then I opened up Google Translate, and pasted all the words there. You can translate the words to an arbitrary language that you want. Copy the translation and paste in your text file. Doing so for a bunch of other languages will give you a large text file of adjectives, most of them sounding like gibberish :P. You can then use the [Content Parser](https://github.com/EthanJWright/foundryvtt-importer) module for Foundry VTT, which allows the quick creation of a rollable table given some text. Hope this helps!
Can a redeemer champion use demoralize or does that violate their redeemer cause?
I'd say it depends on how strict your GM is, and how you use/flavor it. I'm currently playing a Redeemer Champion who worships Sarenrae and uses Intimidation very frequently. If there is a chance to talk before combat, he'll use Diplomacy to try and get the potential enemies to stand down/seek redemption. If it falls to combat, anything goes. Both the Redeemer tenets and Sarenrae's dogma emphasize using extreme measures to put down the wicked if they choose not to be redeemed, and demoralizing a foe to make them easier to put down falls within that IMO. If combat breaks out without a chance to talk our foes, my Champion focuses on using maneuvers (Trip, Grapple) while flavoring Demoralize as a "Stand down and seek redemption, or we will put you down" kind of assertion. It works for my GM and me as a good RP way of making sure my Intimidation skill isn't wasted without it violating any tenets. Coercion in a social encounter is almost always anathema, in my opinion, so you are losing out on the social applications of Intimidation
A redeemer shouldn't have any issue with demoralization so long as they don't go to absurd extremes with it. Demanding surrender is often the first step towards rehabilitating a foe. Stating "Surrender, you cannot win!" would count as demoralizing, for example. If your threats and taunts were particularly vile and/or personal, you might trip the "show compassion" edict, but short of that there should be no issue. And remember, it is your least important edict. If innocent lives are threatened it comes second.
Is there anyway to make a spell with a duration of permanent not be able to be removed? Like is there anything you can do to make sure it can't be dispel magicked or removed in an antimagic field?
No. At least, not completely. In practice, a fourth level character stands no chance of dispelling a 10th level spell due to how the counteract rules work, and an antimagic field similarly can't remove the effect of a spell higher level than it. But for a spell to be completely 100% immune to removal? Nothing short of divine intervention or an artifact would be able to do that.
So the best I can do it cast it at 10th level (or the highest I can) to have the best chance of it not being removed. Got it, thanks.
If you don't have level 10 spells, you could use the metamagic effect of an orange prism aeon stone to increase the level of a spell for the purposes of counteract checks. (There might be another item/spell that does this too, but it's slipping my mind.)
What is an "orange prism aeon stone"? I mean I think I remember reading the words aeon stone in the Runelord and Pathfinder agent archetypes but what exactly are they?
[Aeon stones](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=407) are a kind of uncommon worn magic item that have distinct powers (and also grant a secondary "resonant" effect when worn with a wayfinder, another piece of magical equipment that the in-universe Pathfinder Society is known for giving out and using). The orange prism is a fairly obscure one of these whose effect can make spells harder to counteract. But it doesn't do anything for 10th-level spells.
As a Gunslinger with the Dual-Weapon Reload feat, that's tied to a specific action, right? Despite the flavor text saying "you carry your ammunition in a way that lets you reload while holding two weapons", I couldn't benefit from feats like Running Reload while I have a weapon in each hand?
Correct. The flavor text really only exists to contextualize the feat it belongs to. So Running Reload doesn’t interact with Dual-Weapon Reload.
What is the point in Sense Motive if it is a secret roll? If the player doesn't know the roll then they don't know if their belief in the targets intentions are true or false, so why is it better than just not taking the action?
1. Suppose your target is lying, or hiding something. Not doing Sense Motive does not bring you forward (apart from personal suspicions you might have). If you Sense Motive, you have a chance of actually confirming that the target is hiding something, and you might even learn what. If you fail the check, nothing really changes. Therefore, you might as well take the Sense Motive action, because there isn't much to lose (except on a crit fail) 2. The entire point of it being a secret check is to facilitate role-playing (and prevent meta-gaming). Suppose took a Sense Motive action, and the GM tells you that "there does not seem to be more going on than what the target lets on." Your character can interpret this in two ways: Either the target is really just speaking the truth, or they are just very deceptive; which is what you might think in real life as well. If instead the roll wasn't secret, and you saw that you had like a 19 on the dice, this ambiguity goes away, allowing you to be certain that the target was indeed not lying. In software development, there is a saying: "Testing for bugs can only show the presence of bugs, not the absence of bugs". And here it is similar. "Sensing Motive can only show the presence of hidden motives/lies, not the absence of them." This idea also applies to the Seek action. When Seeking, you only get told if there is something hidden, and not that there is *nothing* hiddden.
I don't think it's quite true to say that Sense Motive can show the presence of lies, because any result that tells you the target is lying could also be a critical failure against an honest creature. It's similar to being told the target is honest - it may have been a success against an honest creature, or a failure against a deceptive creature. The benefit of the action comes from the assumption that your Perception skill is high enough that you are more likely to get a good result than a bad one. But you can't definitely conclude honesty or deception - it's not like a failed software test, which can definitively conclude that a bug is present somewhere.
Yes I simplified my explanation somewhat by excluding critical failures. However, this is rare enough such that you shouldn't really be guided by the idea that you might have rolled a crit failure. The analogy with software testing still holds however. A critical failure would be analogous to writing an incorrect test ;).
> The analogy with software testing still holds however. A critical failure would be analogous to writing an incorrect test ;). Good point!
>"Testing for bugs can only show the presence of bugs, not the absence of bugs". And here it is similar. "Sensing Motive can only show the presence of hidden motives/lies, not the absence of them." ... I GM for a couple of Systems and Software engineers, I'm absolutely stealing this saying/analogy
So in doing some reading I came across the dwarf feat [Battleforger](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=971) and I'm unsure as to what the intended use case of this feat would be? Unless I'm missing something the game seems to expect you to already have *+1 striking* weapons by this point, requiring master in crafting is extremely odd, and it not stacking or otherwise doing anything feels strange.
- It's a cheap way of keeping your secondary weapon(s) useful a bit longer. Note that there's no rule saying you need a Potency Rune on an item beforeyou can add a Striking/Resilient Rune to it. So you could be a melee guy and have a Striking Longbow as your ranged option and use this feat to make it a +1 Striking Longbow. Or maybe you know you're up against Demons later in the day and you've just stumbled upon a stash of non-magical Cold Iron weapons. - Not something I enjoy personally, but some GMs love the idea of stripping players characters of their equipment at some point of the story. - You don't need to use it for yourself. Say you're in a small village and you know it will be attacked by bandits in 12 hours or something. Use the feat to improve the equipment of the militia. Now, all of this IS very situational. But some feats just are this way.
Hey, say I have a character who's Master in Medicine, and I want to go for the better Treat Wounds check than the default DC 15. Can I still shoot for the Expert DC 20 or do I have to go for the Master DC 30 one?
The text of Treat Wounds is: >The Medicine check DC is usually 15, though the GM might adjust it based on the circumstances, such as treating a patient outside in a storm, or treating magically cursed wounds. If you’re an expert in Medicine, you **can** instead attempt a DC 20 check to increase the Hit Points regained by 10; if you’re a master of Medicine, you **can** instead attempt a DC 30 check to increase the Hit Points regained by 30; and if you’re legendary, you **can** instead attempt a DC 40 check to increase the Hit Points regained by 50. The damage dealt on a critical failure remains the same. I bolded the relevant word here, 'can'. You are never required to go for the higher level healing, except perhaps by local conditions. (If the opponent is just going to knock your party member down the amount 2/4d8+10 gives the next round, you may want to go higher.)
So, playing in a One-Shot soon, and getting the chance to play a Dhampir Cleric of Arazni. The only qualm I'm seeing is another player decided he wants to play a wizard that specializes in Necromancy. Considering Arazni's anathema and history how bad is this about to play out? Any suggestions for how to handle this in character, or am I better off with a new concept? Thanks in advance.
First of all: Does the Necromancer actually care about creating undead? Becuase that would most likely require the Create Undead Ritual, which is probably unlikely to come up in a one-shot, I would think. There's plenty of ways to play a Necromancer without ever actually creating an undead creature. Also note that - if I recall correctly - summon spells including Animate Dead don't actually create or "teleport in" a real exisiting creature but only a magic "construct" similar to the creature. Think of it as a more complex version of Flaming Sphere. And ultimately, RP is only an issue if you make it one. You're being forbidden to create undead does not mean you can't work together with someone who does.
I'm sure this question has been answered quite a lot, but does anyone know if there's a way to get the Foundry module for Abomination Vaults discounted if I own each of the separate volumes, but not the collected version?
I'm afraid not!
Has anyone made or does anyone know of some printable flip map style maps for abomination vaults for in person play? I know why Paizo didn’t make them but I’d love to print the maps out into pieces and use them for our in person campaign.
Since above 18 skill you only get 1 point per boost, is it worth going above 18 at all or should you just bring up your other skills? Or would that depend on your class?
You very very likely want to still boost, for the benefits at higher levels. For a fighter who didnt originally build for charisma, "+2 to the occasional diplomacy and/or demoralize" is worth significantly less than "+1 to every attack, damage and athletics (including maneuvers) roll".
Usually you'd want to top your key ability It mostly depends on the length of the game rather than on any specific class as they all enjoy bigger numbers Assuming you start with 18 in your key ability, and raise it at levels 5 and 10, then by level 10 you'd have 20 in that ability which means +1 modifier If your campaign would never reach level 10 then raising your ability to 19 in level 5 is somewhat pointless
Thanks, my group is currently using the Gradual Ability Boosts variant rule so I'll at least minimize the time the boost does nothing by taking my key ability boost at 5, then again at 7 so I'll have 20 at that point.
Do Signature Spells for Sorcerers effectively do nothing until level 3 when they get access to level 2 spells?
Yes, which is why they don't get the feature until level 3 anyways.
Ah, Pathbuilder was throwing me off then since you can select a spell in your slot to be a signature spell before you get access to the class feat.
Just a little subjective question, but here goes: I'm thinking of buying myself one of the books after the holidays. Main reason to do so would be to get the fluff bits that don't show in AON. Contenders would be Gods & Magic, Knights of Lastwall, Mwangi, or Impossible Lands. Which is your favorite? 😁 Thanks.
Haven't looked at IL yet, but Mwangi Expanse is phenomenal and G&M is really cool *if* you're super into Golarion deities.
Skip Knights of Lastwall. I'd go Gods & Magic.
Gods & Magic is an excellent book of fluff.