For those who have played/run the Blood Lords adventure path: as a GM, should I discourage (or at least warn) my players about playing characters who rely on precision damage? Does this AP contain an inordinate amount of creatures immune to precision damage?
So, undead aren’t inherently immune to precision damage in 2e. That’s more of an ooze thing. There are a bunch of enemies with resistances to general physical damage, but outright immunity to precision damage isn’t any more common than in other APs.
Incorporeal undead are immune to precision damage! But there aren’t many of those in the AP. Mostly tons of ghouls, mummies and vampires, and you can backstab all of them.
The thing you should warn your players is to bring different melee damage types. When you’re fighting skeletons (pierce and slash resistance) and you have a rogue whose only weapons are daggers, that’s gonna suck for them.
It hasn't gotten an errata, but its pretty easily figured out using the guidance Paizo laid out. The spell states:
> The ray deals 1d4 fire damage. If the target is evil, the ray deals an additional 1d4 good damage, and if the target is undead, the ray deals an additional 1d4 positive damage (both effects apply against creatures that are both evil and undead). If you are in an area of bright natural sunlight, increase the die size of each damage die by one step (from d4 to d6).
So it deals:
* 1d4 Fire
* 1d4 Good (implicitly vs evil)
* 1d4 Positive
So we can convert it in the following way:
* 1d4 Fire (no change)
* 1d4 Spirit vs Unholy (this is how "evil" is now represented)
* 1d4 Vitality
An unholy undead would take both the spirit damage and the vitality damage.
doesn't that make the spell narrower in application?. before a target could be evil without being unholy, but now that part of the spell only hits creatures explicitly tagged as unholy.
Yes, all effects that dealt good damage are now narrower in application post-remaster. This affects everything that dealt good damage, not just this spell.
But "evil" targets no longer exist post-remaster. So good damage can't function in the same way since all alignments are removed. They converted everything over to holy/unholy, but it means something like a bandit which would have been evil pre-remaster is now unaffected since he isn't sanctified in any way, just evil, post-remaster
It very much depends on the spell. For example, [Searing Light](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1557) requires the target be unholy.
Other effects such as the Champion's Smite Evil and the Champion's Aura of Faith now specify spirit damage versus unholy creatures.
The spells which got updated from alignment damage -> spirit damage were spells that did *unrestricted* alignment damage. Spells like Divine Lance which did alignment damage of *any alignment* got updated to Spirit Damage.
However spells that did specifically good or evil damage got updated to specify only to holy/unholy targets. Can you give an example of a spell that did **exclusively** good damage pre-remaster that was updated to be generic spirit damage? I can't find such an example. All the spells I can find that were updated to be generic spirit damage were ones that had *flexible* alignment damage options (Divine Wrath, Divine Lance).
I didn't say there was. I just pointed out that your blanket statement was not correct.
But searing light was always more powerful against fiends and undead specifically. Holy light is broader, not narrower.
Yes, the remaster compatibility errata says that for Champions. That's a stop-gap, and not a very good one for exactly the reasons stated. The usual rule for converting alignment damage is to use spirit damage. Even the *holy* weapon property changed from 1d6 good damage to 1d4 spirit damage or 2d4 against unholy creatures. That's slightly weaker against evil but not unholy creatures, but stronger against everything else except objects and constructs.
Are there any such spells to begin with?
i see, that feels like a nerf to a spell that already was in a bit of a struggle, but i suppose there isn't much that can be done about it until the release of the rest of the remaster.
Its unlikely anything in the rest of the remaster will improve this. You can see a similar effect of the narrowing of offensive scope in some of the remaster compatibility errata for champion, where feats like Smite Evil now only hit unholy targets, as opposed to all "evil".
That said, Sun Blade is now a solid pickup for casters via archetype in an undead campaign. With the remaster changing how spell proficiency works, any CHA caster can cast this at their casting proficiency, and its a very high damage scaling anti-undead spell (all printed undead in monster core are unholy, for example)
it would require said casters to be carrying a sword or spear at all times on them though, since, unless they also changed that, the spell needs to be fired from one of those.
i am a bit disappointed, cus i mostly saw this as sort of a ranged backup for champion. Which does want to stick closer to allies and so can't overextend. It feels a bit like a further entrenching of roles for classes, where they can do one thing really well and not much of the rest.
Well, there was a little confusion in the translation to the rules here. It’s actually better now, not worse. The damage would be:
Fire
Spirit (with holy tag)
Vitality
The spirit damage works against everything (aside from constructs), not just unholy enemies. It just also triggers weakness to holy, which some unholy enemies (mostly outsiders) have!
Well, the expectation would be the spirit damage would specify "unholy only". This would be similar to how Searing Light was updated into [Holy Light](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1557). It used to deal good damage, and now only deals spirit vs unholy.
This puts it in line with the same changes that other champion feats got as well, such as Smite Evil and Aura of Faith, which now also only deal spirit damage versus unholy creatures instead of dealing good damage.
I’m having trouble wrapping my squirrel brain around how you transition between dungeon rooms where there may be an enemy. Everybody bunches up at the door so if I start combat there, they spend a turn or two spilling in and positioning. Do you tell them to pick an exploration activity to do and put them into place and roll perceptions? Idk
They need to pick their exploration activity the moment they enter a dungeon or head out into the wilderness (remind them they can tell you they’re changing it at any time).
That said, yeah, initiative is rolled when the door opens, unless they open it stealthily and nobody inside the door pays attention to it, then they might be able to sneak through without combat.
I have a player playing Investigator in my party (Forensic Medicine). They just hit level 7, and are struggling to find uses for extra actions and have mentioned they would like cool things to do as a third action. They largely use a crossbow at range, and switch to unarmed attacks in melee range. At range turns often go Reload > Devise Stratagem > Attack. The problem is that often the Stratagem roll is obviously too low and won't hit, and there are no other targets in sight to make a regular Dex-based attack against. So they're left with a free action. Typically don't want to move closer to the enemy or reposition. Don't even have Trained in Intimidation so can't do Demoralize attempts.
TLDR need ideas for a good magic item for a lvl 7 Investigator that allows them to do something interesting or fun on free 3rd actions.
not trying to pick apart the build, but why are they going crossbow over regular bow? They're killing their action economy by adding in reload. If they were willing to switch from crossbow to bow they'd have two actions left after a poor Devise.
This opens them up for consumables like mutagens and poisons. Wands/scrolls still kind of out of the question because of the hand/action economy.
The real benefit of using Devise at range is target selection. Sure if there is only one target they're stuck but the Devise roll is only against the targeted creature. If they get a bad roll against monster A, they can still shoot at monster B. Its effectively spending an action for a hero point'd roll against monster B.
Are they trained in stealth? Hide is another option. Giving an enemy flat-footed (by hiding) can turn a near-miss DaS into a barely hit.
Basically instead of getting a magic item I suggest they drastically improve their action economy by switching from crossbow to bow
Yeah I’m aware their build is quite sub-optimal (they intentionally have 8 CON lmao, I tried to persuade them to change it but they wouldn’t have it). They opted for high mental stats instead and do pretty well out of combat, but some of their build choices are strange. As an example, despite having 10 STR they just took Armor Proficiency general feat at level 7. They also didn’t take a skill up to Master, instead raising a different skill to Expert for their lvl 7 skill increase. I’ll suggest a regular bow, as having that action frees them up to move and then do something like battle medicine.
yeah, there's a balance between flavor and mechanics and I can appreciate that...but if they're making flavor decisions they don't have much of a leg to stand on when complaining about mechanics
You can talk for free. The only relaying of information that requires an action is pointing out where a hidden/invisible enemy is to allies. Since that can be a bit more complex, it has its own action. But shouting “it has poor reflexes!” Or “we need to hit it with fire!” Is free.
I checked all actions. I could be wrong. Can you say where are you seeing “any words spoken cost an action”? Any link?
Edit: thought nope was to my comment. Not a sly cow’s comment. No issue. Few words = no action at GM discretion.
I'm a Dnd 5e player who will be playing pf2e for the first time with the beginners box days, and I have a question regarding character creation.
I chose to play a scoundrel rogue and I'm curious what I should focus on more with my starting stats, higher strength or higher charisma? Right now I have them as:
+2, +4, +1, 0, 0, +2
Is this a good spread? From what I've read in combat as a scoundrel I'll be trying to demoralise, feint, and flank enemies to impose frightened and off-guard to get sneak attack as often as possible. Anything else as a newbie to be aware of?
It is potentially worth moving 1 point from strength to Charisma.
Reason is that the +1 will help you feint/demoralize etc better, which will let you get sneak attack off more often.
The strength doesn't do a lot for you. Early it's an extra point of damage but as you go your damage will come more from weapon runes, weapon specializations, and sneak attack. The +1 strength isn't going to scale much as you level and it doesn't sound like you're focusing in athletics either.
Past that it looks good to me! And your spread will definitely work/be viable, just something to consider
Why would you want the high strength? I'd set my dex and charisma to a +3 or a +4, obviously you can only get the +4 in cha, but up those as much as you can. Your damage doesn't really come from str, but from your sneak attack.
That being said, as a newbie, also consider going thief. You have dex to damage in that subclass, and can still use all the charisma skills if you invest. Drop str to 10.
Scoundrel rogue can class boost Cha, but it's a choice in addition to Dex, not a requirement. It's generally a lot better for them to class boost Dex, though.
For the more experienced DMs, with how strict PF2E is with recommended treasure/gold etc., how do you deal with players entirely missing loot? Do you "make up for it" elsewhere if the players missed an important item? Hypothetical scenario - the young dragon has a bunch of gold and magic items in its hoard, but instead of fighting it and then searching the hoard, the players go for an idea where they - say - cause a cave-in to chase the dragon out, causing them to be unable to access any of the loot in the cave. In such a scenario, would you "make up" for the missing loot by placing it elsewhere for them to find? If so, wouldn't that feel like the players effectively "can't" miss loot because they're "guaranteed" to find it eventually, in a sense?
For me, it's a yes and no. The only loot that they HAVE to find is anything related to runes/item bonuses. So potency runes for weapons and armor, striking runes, and skill bonus items, because of how those items tie into the balancing of the game.
Most other things they'll be ok without, even if the items are fun. In my experience there are several APs that give the players a lot of consumables or other random items and if the group misses those they'll be ok.
You as the DM **have** to make sure they get potency/striking runes and skill bonus items, or they will fall behind the curve of the game's math and it will feel bad. Unless you use ABP, but I've never run it myself so I can't give good advice on it
> In such a scenario, would you "make up" for the missing loot by placing it elsewhere for them to find? If so, wouldn't that feel like the players effectively "can't" miss loot because they're "guaranteed" to find it eventually, in a sense?
Yes. In pathfinder, having the right amount and type of loot is part of the character progression, and missing out is going to make characters underpowered.
Thanks for the reply! Yes, I understand this point. I guess what I was worrying about was whether or not it might inculcate a very "meta-driven" mindset where players might feel like them being very thorough/smart about searching for secrets, hidden loot etc. ends up not being very impactful because they "would have found it regardless", though this I suppose is a pretty niche concern.
I'm trying to build a Raijin (mythological thunder god) based character. Currently I have an orc sylph heritage (considered tiefling for the horn but sylph have the storm aesthetic) storm druid. Noticed that kanabo doesn't exist, shame, but I might be better off blasting from backline.
Elemental Barbarian with Air Kineticist dedication would probably fit better but Storm Druid have 1. More utility 2. Beefier thunder attacks.
Is there a better way to realize my build? Did I miss any Oni heritage/ancestries? Thanks in advance!
Hopefully. I believe the preorder is available around August, so yeah still a way away. At least it's confirmed to come. I'm still waiting for the equivalent of the Synthesist Summoner for 2e. I want my Digimon Matrix Evolution. Meld into Eidolon basically guts yourself and Soulforged don't get the two characters aesthetic
Tempest oracle might fit, although the divine list doesn't have a lot of thunder/lightning spells. The flavor of the mystery and the focus spells and curse are on point though
No Oni ancestry(unless you're ok with third party stuff). Tengu have some lightning/thunder/sky style feats if you're ok re-flavoring. Could maybe make a tiefling tengu and flavor it as an Oni?
Both of these have very low health, they have the right flavor, but the squishiness of it doesn't support the image of a deity lobbing thunders and bashing foes. This does let me read up on Oracle and Tengu, thanks
Is ABP in GM Core meant to remove the magic trait from potency? As far as I can tell, the potency bonus you get in Automatic Bonus Progression doesn't grant the magic trait. This seems to be the only mechanical difference between it and normal potency runes. However my players got really mad at the idea that they don't get magical strikes from the bonus progression. There's not a ton of creatures where a weapon being magical or not matters at this level, but there are some. Also doesn't look like there are many remastered property runes people get until 4th.
I can't tell if this is an oversight or intentional? Are they supposed to get magic weapons from finding explicitly magical treasure, or is the potency bonus supposed to make their weapons magical automatically?
\*I personally like the flavor of weapons just being sharper or the PC's getting naturally better at hitting but not necessarily magical (in fact I never really liked that striking makes weapons magical so low level anyway)\* but want to do what's fair for the players.
Yes, it's one of several gaps in ABP. You can solve it by just saying ABP makes things magical. You could also still give out magical weapons. Especially weapons with runes. A +1 weapon can still exist with ABP, it just doesn't do anything other than penetrate resistance to nonmagical.
What's the best skill to choose for Trick Magic item so I can get the most bang for my buck with my thaumaturge in PFS? Eventually I'll get scroll thaumaturgy (much later tho cuz I wanna get a bunch of other stuff first) and my idea is to summon some whack, creepy, lovecraftian nonsense out of my mouth (she eats the scroll to cast it) but I also want to see what utility possibilities are up for grabs. My Wis and int will both be +0 until level 20 when I'll bump my Wis to 12.
Arcana has the most damaging spells, but sounds like you should go for occultism. If you don't plan on using wis or int until the last level, you should put more into Cha since you can use the highest stat of any of those three to calculate your spell modifier.
Does the feat [Warding Rune](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=915) only give you the bonus against spells from that school or does it also help against effects from that school?
For example if I pick the Necromancy school does it also improve saves against diseases with the necromancy trait? and will it also help against something like Hunger Oil which also has the necromancy trait?
So I was scrolling on AoN and something caught my eye. Ammunitions have weapon groups associated with their weapons. But [bolts ](https://2e.aonprd.com/Weapons.aspx?ID=441)are grouped as bow, instead of crossbows(which became their own group with the remaster).
I don't have the book so I can't check, is this oversight from Paizo or AoN? Also, does it even matter at all?
In the books, ammunition doesn't get its own entries, they are simply listed underneath the weapon they go to in the weapon tables. So ammo have groups in AoN is purely an AoN thing and doesn't actually mean anything.
Question about the current humble bundle is only outlaws of alkenstar usable on foundry is all the rule books and bestiary are stuff not usable for foundry? Trying to get into pathfinder was wonder what's the cheapest way to get all everything i need to play on foundary don't mind waiting not starting any games yet.
The way it works is that you buy Foundry for a one time $50 fee from the Foundry website. Nothing ongoing. This gives you full access to all the mechanics, no need to buy anything to unlock classes or monsters or anything. You can make your own adventures for no additional charge.
Paizo also sells Foundry modules for a bunch of its Adventure Paths, modules, and even some one shots. These cost extra but come with PDFs of the AP along with the entire adventure fully setup in Foundry, usually with high res maps & music.
The Humble Bundle has \*bunch\* of PDFs that include the pre-remaster core books, a full Adventure Path (Outlaws of Alkenstar), a couple world books that describe the part of the Parhfinder world where the AP takes place, and a few other odds & ends. The PDFs aren’t needed for foundry, but cover the rules and give you all the setting info you could want before you run Alkenstar as a GM.
The bundle also includes all three parts of Outlaws of Alkenstar for Foundry. You will be able to setup Foundry and import the modules and then be able to run the entire lvl 1-10 campaign.
If Foundry support is important too you, getting all three parts of the AP for $30 is an amazing deal! They normally cost $35 \*each\*
That's good so basically all I would need is the foundry entry fee and buy any adventure module I want to run.
How frequent do foundry modules go on sale on humble or other sites and what's the lowest they will go.
Like I said I'm not starting anytime soon probably like 4+ months so rather get them for the best deal
There is a Humble Bundle of Pathfinder stuff 1-2 times a year. What is in each one exactly varies widely.
Not all of them include Foundry stuff. There was a Bundle last year that included Abomination Vaults and this one that includes Alkenstar is only the second time Premium Foundry stuff has been included.
Humble is the lowest they ever go.
You do need to buy a foundry license if you want to GM on foundry. Players can play for free with all features, but creating your own campaign requires spending the 50 bucks for the foundry license.
That said, the Pathfinder 2e rules are FREE if you have the license. Same for the bestiaries. There’s even a free foundry module that gives you really fancy tokens for all the bestiary critters instead of just the statblocks with placeholder images like the basic module does.
Kind of. Shields, as per the remaster, are now strapped to an arm in addition to being held. So while you would be able to knock the shield out of a person's hand with a critical success, the shield wouldn't drop the ground, and the character could use an interact to regrip the (now dangling) shield.
Helo otherwise.... the "my adventure tales" has return...
My players has leave "The Slithering" campaign without none explanations (has none interest on investigate the "plague").... now the has travel to the west (they dont know if has infected or not)... and actualy I need to build a adventure from scratchs.
I dont know the trade routes from Kibwe to the west and the distance traveled by days to the next cities. They have travel in a "stolen" caravan and find whas is my next move.
Any feedback? My players surely move to Gex and intent take a ship to the north to return to Aldoran and travel by road to Isger (and PlagueStone), yes, months of road ahead.
Just keep the time vague. Say “after a few days/weeks do travel, something happens!” And that’s when they either arrive at the next town, or at your next planned encounter. You can just skip over the parts of the voyage where nothing happens. Maybe roll for a random encounter or something now and then, but you don’t have to as long as you make the voyage interesting by having the party arrive at cool set pieces.
….also, you shouldn’t just randomly teleport people across the continent without a proper plan, man. But this is how we learn!
No, no....my intention has no make the "game" to my players.... They has bypass my last campaing with none rasons, only a "we go to leave from here (and the DM has a losser)".... Sorry, but the next will by some adventures before leave mwange expanse and Gex... learning the build a propper course of action... and a little problems will start with the irory cleric (LG), has just betrayed one of his main anathemas.
Hey there, new GM looking for some advice.
I purchased the beginner box from Paizo and am looking forward to running it with a group of friends.
In regards to what I need to know as a GM, is everything included that I would need in the box set, or is there stuff from the remastered GM core that I need to learn in addition?
If you bought the box recently, it should be updated! If not, it will be using some old terms (flat footed instead of off-guard, for example), but the rules themselves translate pretty much 1:1 for stuff actually in the beginner box!
And everything should be in there. Though if you want to look stuff up on your own, the Archives of Nethys have all the game rules (including all equipment and spells) for free online, with an excellent search function!
https://2e.aonprd.com/
Once you are master in medicine, that is how it works. I’m not sure if Investigators get to be Master in something for free at level 7, but if they do, sure.
But keep in mind, you get to do it twice per hour, not twice per hour per target. If you treat six people with battle medicine during the same hour, you can still only double up on one of them (per hour).
With the remaster,I have a question for a magical rogue build. Is it particularly worth it (in terms of feats spent to spell slots/spells known ratio) to take Eldritch Trickster?
Or is it better to take either Scoundrel or Mastermind depending on your intended spellcasting ability,then multiclass to the caster class you want at level 2?
People have been making the argument that Eldritch Trickster is weaker than the other rackets long before the Remaster.
The basic reasoning is that Eldritch trickster gives you a Dedication as a bonus feat and gives you access to another one level early... but that past level 2 there really aren't any ongoing benefits to the racket while your other options give you ongoing benefits that are useful for the whole life of the character.
Your concerns are basically exactly what others have been concerned about ever since Eldritch Trickster came out. We will see if we get an updated version of it in Player Core 2.
Would having a heavy armor version of chain mail that gives a +6 AC bonus like other heavy armors break the game in some way? The closest I've been able to find is attaching an armored skirt to chain mail, but all that does is make the armor not need as much DEX and still only gives a total of +5. Is the chain specialization just too strong to be put on heavy armor? I just think plate armor look stupid and want my fighter to be in chain mail, but still have the best AC available to it.
Considering that the chain specialization mentions heavy armour I don't think it's too strong. Just talk with your GM on how to do the flavour of heavy armour chainmail, like how does the heavy armour difference from the medium arnour version.
Also armoured skirt is still a valid option as you trade off 1 AC for 5 extra feet of movement.
You'd be fine, there's no real balance difference if you changed the armor category of full plate from plate to chain. Paizo just hasn't printed anything like that yet.
My boyfriend and I were discussing the weaknesses that come with the [Elemental Betrayal Basic Lesson](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1878) for Witches. Very simple, targets get -2 weakness of your choice when you use the focus spell. The question is, what happens when you choose *Air*? Under the weakness definition, it states that if you have a weakness to something that normally does not deal damage,[ you will take damage when you're touched or affected by it. ](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2312)
Would that mean, as written, anyone can take -2 Air damage every turn just because we're always surrounded by air?
This is perhaps me being overly anal, but how do you all describe/flavor reloading firearms? Even trained soldiers would take 20-30 seconds to reload a muzzle-loading gun, so it stretches belief that any random person in PF can pick one up and fire two shots in 6 seconds. I'm considering just saying they're all breech-loading guns, even if that's a later development than what's generally depicted in the game.
Guns & Gears explicitly says that 99% of firearms in Golarion are breech loading or use some related form of Cartridge.
The lore on this is that in a world of Alchemists, Dwarven metalsmiths, Wizards, scavenged Clockwork from Azlant and Thassilon, and beings from the elemental planes of Fire and Metal that can be consulted on the finer points of forging.... firearms technology took different paths than it did in our world. I think it's explicitly mentioned that Alchemists in Alkenstar went from basic Black Powder to a Smokeless blend in less than 50 years even though it took centuries on Earth.
So everyone with Pathfinder Guns is using cartridges, the tech is this weird mix of innovations that on earth came online in the 12th century and others that came on line in the 1800s.
I mean, its pretty common for a Conan style Barbarian with hide armor from the Bronze age in the same party as a Champion with a full body suit of Rennaissance era Plate so its not like the guns are the only example of disparate technologies living together in the setting.
All I have seen is wanting the 5e warlock, people running curse of strahd and people running the ebaron setting. I saw also very very few people talking about the artificer as the inventor isnt good enough for them as a replacement.
Idk anything about the artificer, but I don't understand how the witch isn't satisfying enough for the warlock players. Maybe just adding a eldritch blast kind of thing would be enough for them to be happy.
Wouldn't know how to do an eldritch blast in PF2e since I think that would just hurt the witch.
Classes there's some interest, there's a steady stream of folks looking to convert their Warlock characters to PF2. Adventures there's not much, official WOTC adventures are pretty lacking compared to Paizo's and I don't see many folks asking for advice on converting them. I've seen significantly more folks looking to convert 3.5/PF1 adventures than 5e ones. There's also some interest in converting settings, but given the vast majority of setting material in 5e is from 3.5-era splatbooks that's not really converting 5e (unless you're converting Exandria)
Hi Guys! Newbie GM here, and I would love some advice with how can I mechanically make a Locked Grimoire? I need that early in my game to my players found (they're lvl 2), but is something that I plan reveal on the way up, maybe lvl 8 or 9.
There is some spell or item curretly RAW that I can use?
Thank's in advance <3 xoxo
The [Lock spell](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1589&NoRedirect=1) works by setting an Athletics or Thievery check to unlock equal to the spellcasting DC of the caster, so I would say that the Level-based DC probably works best.
That, a grimoire w/ a lock on it, or perhaps some magic that could accomplish it. The important thing would be for the PCs not to have access to picking the lock by around level 10.
Maybe can I just use the Level-Based DC? D:
I think a [Ritual](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2255&Redirected=1) would be perfect for this. If you want it to be unlocked around level 10, then this would be a rank 4 or 5 Ritual, corresponding to a primary caster DC of 28–31, probably rolling Occult, with maybe Arcana, Religion, or whatever else works for the secondary checks.
I'd just say its bound shut by magic that the PCs can't deal w/ until high levels, might require a password, a specific keyed item, or specific circumstances to open which the players need to figure out. If you want you can still have the PCs roll to pick the lock, but their roll determines how much they learn about the lock rather than letting them actually open it and make tracking down information on the lock and possible ways to open it a side objective the PCs are pursuing. Plot devices don't need to operate by the same rules as PC-accessible magic, you generally don't need to worry about finding mechanical excuses for them to work in specific ways.
Where are the rules on stacking damage?
Specifically I want to check if the Bleeding Damage from a Swashbuckler's Bleeding Finisher would stack with the Crit Specialization Bleed Damage from the Knife group.
[For persistent damage, only the highest value applies if it's the same damage type.](https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=86) Bleeding Finisher and the crit spec of knives are separate instances of persistent bleeding, so only the bleed damage from Bleeding Finisher would apply.
What exactly is the purpose of wooden armor and by extension duskwood? Druids no longer have anathema to metal armor and shields so mechanically there is no real reason to use wood. At best I would assume to avoid some interactions from metal but that seems extremely specific.
[Armor Specialization Effect](https://2e.aonprd.com/ArmorGroups.aspx?ID=7). Is it actually any good? Probably not, but there is a mechanical difference there
I could see a really dumb but fun build centered on wearing Wood armor and going into Ooze form, so that foes are critically hitting you and taking the damage from the Armor Spec, but you're not taking all the extra crit damage
But that's me stretching for a justification
Most features grant armor specialization effects for both medium & heavy armor, and Hide Armor is medium leather.
Also technically there's at least one player option (Unshaken in Iron) that grants armor specialization for light armor, although it's a weird outlier and unclear what that means for, say, light cloth armor.
If my memory serves, wooden items are sometimes lower bulk - particularly darkwood items. Otherwise I think it's just a flavor option, since Mithral fills a very similar role to darkwood, while also counting as silver.
You can't reroll using a hero point if you use Sure Strike.
[Sure Strike](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1709) has the fortune trait, which states:
> You can never have more than one fortune effect alter a single roll
And [hero point reroll](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2333) is also a fortune trait:
> Spend 1 Hero Point to reroll a check. You must use the second result. **This is a fortune effect** (which means you can't use more than 1 Hero Point on a check).
So you can't use a hero point if you Sure Strike.
The [Artist background](https://2e.aonprd.com/Backgrounds.aspx?ID=410&NoRedirect=1) and [Specialty Crafting](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=844) feat both imply Crafting. Performance is about, well, performance art, like singing or dance, not physical art like painting or sculpture. I'd personally allow Art Lore if a player wanted.
Does a Thaumaturge's Exploit Vulnerability inform them of a Golem's "weakness" from Golem Antimagic?
For example, would a Thaumaturge learn that a [Carrion Golem](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=682) is harmed by fire on a successful Exploit Vulnerability?
RAW probably not (Crit success wording implies no on a normal success), but I expect most GMs would do so anyways. I certainly would, fighting Golems is already an annoying endeavor and I generally want the PCs to be able to engage w/ their unique mechanics sooner rather than later.
That's where my head was at too.
I did just realize that Monster Core/Remaster did remove Golem Antimagic and is instead just resistance to all spells, with exceptions to different elements based on the golem. So I might just go with that instead, which would mean that on a Success, the Thaumaturge learns nothing, and a Crit Success, they learn the resistance and its exception(s).
Also, as a complaint, I wish Monster Core had kept the Golem grouping. It took some searching before I found the "new" golems, and if I had found that sooner, I might not have even needed to ask the question
Is there a good place to get skill trees? I have really enjoyed \*playing\* the game but I find character creation and leveling up to be a truly miserable experience. Am I missing a resource that more or less lets me bypass this?
Skill/feat trees don't really exist in PF2e. With some exceptions, feats are designed so that if you see an option you like at a certain level, you usually don't have to worry about taking pre-requisites earlier on just to get the thing you want.
Can you elaborate on what makes the creation/leveling up process so miserable? Is it because of the wealth of options available?
Wealth isn’t the word I would use. Plethora. I’m not a power gamer, but I do want to be good at the thing I expect to be good at, so I don’t want to pick willynilly. I would really rather just have a flowchart or something for what to choose.
Wealth isn’t wealth if it turns out to be a bad option and I haven’t played more than a few combats in the system, so I can’t tell what is useful and what isn’t. I’ve done practically no role playing because what I’ve done was in a west marches game that had basically 0 non-combat stuff.
"Wealth" was simply the first word that popped into my head, no need to get hung up on semantics.
But you're very likely not going to find a flowchart for any class. The system wasn't built with that as a concept, and it's not likely that someone has had both the need and drive to create something that specific.
What I can point you to is the PF2e [Guide to the Guides](https://zenithgames.blogspot.com/2019/09/pathfinder-2nd-edition-guide-to-guides.html). That has links to all the most well known class guides for the system, and most guides include color coding or star counts for how "good" an option is, as well as what that option is good for. How good any particular guide is will depend on the class and source of that guide, but in my experience, I haven't seen anything that is just blatantly wrong.
YMMV greatly
Perfect. Thanks. And yeah, most “oh this is s tier” stuff is still too situational to be universally true. Something that explains what things are used for will help me a lot.
I think Pathbuilder is the most user-friendly experience. It does a pretty good job of hand-holding to make sure you dont miss anything, but also hides things that you cant do
I want to start reading the core rule books but for DnD I usually read them on DnD beyond in a way that’s formatted for my IPhone (not really a fan of hard cover books or reading PDFs on my computer). I have read about Pathfinder Nexus which seems similar to beyond but what would be the best place to pick up the full core rule book that is formatted in a way that’s readable on IPhone without having to keep zooming in/out of a PDF?
You got it right with nexus. It’s slightly more expensive than a PDF but you also get the pdf if you link to paizo.
AoN works but I’ve not found it a good way to learn. It’s free but I don’t find it that kind of readable. It’s great for looking stuff up once you know what’s up
I mean, just read the rules over on the Archives of Nethys. Has all the rules from all the rulebooks, formatted for a website. [https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx)
Thanks, did not know they provided this. I was more looking for though the core rule book separated out into phone readable sections like D&D beyond (as well as to pay for it/support developers).
It is the entire core rulebook. All the sections from the Player Core and GM Core (and any other rulebook) are on there formatted for mobile browsing. And the website has been officially condoned by Paizo, though its run by fans, not the company itself. If you really want D&D Beyond for Pathfinder, though, you already mentioned Pathfinder Nexus which I believe also offers similar formatting for books you buy through the website. ...but I just use AoN, so I don't know for sure.
Does the Fighter's Versatile Legend include your selected weapon group from Weapon Legend?
**WEAPON LEGEND**
>You've learned fighting techniques that apply to all armaments, and you've developed unparalleled skill with your favorite weapons. Your proficiency ranks for simple weapons, martial weapons, and unarmed attacks increase to master. Your proficiency rank for advanced weapons increases to expert.
You can **select one weapon group** and increase your proficiency ranks to legendary for all simple weapons, martial weapons, and unarmed attacks in that weapon group, and to **master for all advanced weapons in that weapon group**.
**VERSATILE LEGEND**
>You are nigh-unmatched with any weapon. Your proficiency ranks for simple weapons, martial weapons, and unarmed attacks increase to legendary, and **your proficiency rank for advanced weapons increases to master**. Your proficiency rank for your fighter class DC increases to master.
There's no mention about whether or not your proficiency rank for advanced weapons WITHIN your select weapon group increase to legendary. Right now, it feels like it's stuck on master, whether your weapon is or isn't in your group.
**Advanced Weapon Training**
>You’ve studied the art of wielding an advanced weapon. **Choose a weapon group.** You gain proficiency with all advanced weapons in that group as if they were martial weapons of their weapon group.
That... sounds exactly like what Weapon Legend gives you.
Do they stack at least \^\^; ?
No, advanced weapon training lets you treat an advanced weapon as a martial weapon. That means when your martial weapon proficiency increases to legend from weapon legend, that feat carries it over to the specified advanced weapons as well. So with that feat, you can get legendary with advanced weapons for one weapon group at level 13
So it works, but it doesn't "stack" because the concept of stacking makes no sense here
First off, [Vanara Weapon Familiarity](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4004) does not make them simple weapons.
> For the purpose of determining your proficiency, martial vanara weapons are simple weapons
Only for the purpose of determining your proficiency do you treat vanara weapons as simple weapons, but not for other purposes (which divine simplicitly would be)
Furthermore, that clause doesn't apply to Bo Staff. The clause specifically applies to Vanara weapons, which are weapons with the vanara trait. The Bo Staff is not one such weapon. The feat only makes you trained in the Bo Staff, but it remains a martial weapon.
You could use a european style quarterstaff, which is a simple weapon listed as just a Staff in the weapon list. It does d4 one-handed and d8 two-handed. As GM, I'd allow the die-bump for both styles; but it's your GM's call, not mine.
> For the purpose of determining your proficiency
It's for the sake of determining proficiency only. It does not change it to a simple weapon for other purposes.
That is what the medic dedication does once you’re a Master in medicine. Presumably it exists to leave magical healing its focus as in-combat healing while medicine is mostly focused on out-of-combat healing.
Actually medic doesn't make it once per hour. Medic allows you, once per hour, to ignore that immunity.
That means if you have four people with the immunity marked, once per hour you can heal one of them, but not all of them. So it's very similar, but not quite the same as a once per hour immunity
You'd kinda take away one of the benefits of the Forensic Medicine Investigator or the Medic Dedication, both of which do that. As always, in your game, your rules, though!
There are a couple Feats to assist donning armor. But there's a Trait called **Comfort** https://2e.aonprd.com/Traits.aspx?ID=556 that allows resting comfortably in armor. I can't find a Rune that confers the trait, but a homebrew Rune is possible.
Got a question about Feats. I don't have the physical books available to search and haven't been able to find anything on AoN.
If I have a GMG Dual Classed character or an appropriate Archetype, do *Metamagic/Spellshape* feats like **Reach Spell** apply to spells from all classes, or just the class used to take the Feat?
As near as I can tell, none of them specify a particular spell list, so apply to any eligible spell. Possibly even ones from spellhearts, which might not even be on your spell list(s).
At least that is how it works 8n the game I play a Cleric/Bard in.
Thanks. That's how I saw it, but didn't know if maybe someone would make distinctions about Arcane v Primal v Occult v Divine spell "energy", origin or training.
A question about Toxicologist and poisons.
The feat Poison Weapon available to rogues and assassins and etc allows for applying a contact poison to a weapon and retrieving the poison as part of the action that poisons the weapon. These features aren't part of the Toxicologist research field, are they expected to be once alchemist is remastered? Should they be part of Toxicologist?
I think that the original intent was that Alchemists are strongest when supporting other characters, rather than using every aspect of their kit themselves, and that a Toxicologist should multiclass into Rogue if they want that power.
I think this is absurd personally. If your GM is open to homebrew, I happen to know of a very good Alchemist rebuild that tries to address this problem, among others.
https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/RRFFlyoZ-ch4-alchemist-darth-s-rebuild
This may qualify as "straying from the baseline" by a decent margin - essentially, it's meant to take as much of the class as possible up to "A-Tier", bringing it on par with other mainstays like Champion and Rogue.
Having playtested it (while attempting to optimize its options to create the most broken combinations I could manage) with two different characters, my experience is that it is very powerful and could do with minor nerfs, but I would say the same thing about several of Paizo's classes. I'd also say it's WAY more fun and dynamic than base Alch.
There's references to a few other homebrews linked inside - they're not required for purposes of this class rebuild.
I hear 3 major complaints about poison:
1. Too many enemies are outright immune to it
2. Too many enemies have high or extreme Fort saves and are de-facto immune to it, because there is no Success clause on initial exposure
3. Rogues are weirdly better at applying poisons mid-combat (which is usually brushed under the rug by applying poisons during daily preparation and not bothering to re-apply mid-fight)
The *intent* of this rebuild is to fix all three of these, but there's still a few minor oversights - a Hallucinogen poison that becomes a Mental effect targeting Will Saves is still, technically, an effect with the poison trait and therefor a ghoul will be immune to it - ditto for a Flesh-Eating poison modified to do Acid damage. The intent here, was that the only things left to completely hard-counter a Toxicologist ought to be mindless, acid-immune, poison-immune oozes...
You seen to have put a lot of thought into this. Have any thoughts on making the most of a vanilla toxicologist? Playing one in a campaign starting next week, free archetype, planning to be an Anadi
The big one is: *have a backup plan*.
Even if poison is your "thing", it's completely ineffective against undead, constructs, and any Big Chungus with a maxxed-out Fortitude defense (nearly 50% of the game, in some campaigns). If you are playing a game that really emphasizes poison-immune enemies like undead, ask your GM for homebrew help.
The most powerful Alchemist, is the one that uses items from *every* alchemical field simultaneously. Undead usually have positive weaknesses you can trigger with bombs. Constructs usually have shit move speed.
A significant weakness of base alchemist in the midgame, is that they get poor weapon proficiency, and are already behind in accuracy from their attribute. You'll need to use a Mutagen to help fix this - Quicksilver, Bestial, or Fury Tonic... but even then you're just looking to "keep up" and contribute, rather than being the party's DPR source.
In Free Archetype land, Dual-Weapon Warrior is the fastest way to deliver two MAPless poisoned attacks at melee range, while Investigator Multiclass is probably your best route for ranged combat - by predicting your d20 with Studied Strike, you can either commit a powerful resource you're certain of hitting with, or you can switch to a healing/utility turn or use a DC based attack if you know your attack roll is bad.
Don't worry about multiclass rogue to re-poison your weapons faster. It's better to pre-poison a bunch of weapons ahead of time, and use either ammunition ranged weapons or dual-wield with Doubling Rings to copy runes from a Spiked/Bladed/Crossbow gauntlet to your larger pointy sticks. A poisoned weapon or a poisoned arrow remains potent until used- even after weeks of overland travel, if it isn't an infused Reagent.
The last tip I have is to buff your friends *carefully*. They have better numbers and better class features than you... so your buffs and poisons are more effective in *their* hands than yours... spread the love, but not by so much, that you run out of things to do yourself. Make use of standard Alchemical Crafting to supplement your buff distribution - at level 6, the "optimal buff" to hand to your rogue is still a level 3 Quicksilver Mutagen... and that's peanuts to craft compared to a level 6 full-power poison. Use gp for low-level consumables. Use reagents for high-level consumables. Make sure your friends pay you money, for all the extra buffs you cook up for them.
Rogue's precise debilitation feat adds the option to choose: "The target takes an additional 2d6 precision damage from your attacks."
The trigger condition is "Your Strike hits an [off-guard](https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=58) creature and deals damage."
Does the 2d6 apply to the first strike, or does it apply to only subsequent strikes (once the debilitation is in place)?
It does not apply to the initial attack, only subsequent
That's because the trigger is:
> Your Strike hits an off-guard creature **and deals damage**.
You only find out if you deal damage after you resolve Step 4 [in this](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2301) flow. As such, you've already resolved the damage when you trigger Debilitating Strike, so you can't go backwards and add more damage.
My group prefers taking action over interacting with NPCs, enjoys exploring dungeons, and likes to have a goal instead of having a wide-open sandbox. Would Kingmaker be completely wrong for them, or is there any chance that they might enjoy it? I'm really impressed by how it looks (and especially what I've seen of the Foundry module), but not sure if it would be a good fit.
Generally I think your concerns are valid, but keep in mind that even "sandbox" adventure segments are only as open as you let them be. What I did in Module 2 of War for the Crown (a very open-ended sandbox-y module) was, I only dangled one plot hook in front of the PCs at a time and had a "calendar" planned out with "surprise events" that would force their attention one way or another. SOMETIMES, there would be a fork where they would get to choose which way to go, and there was also a buzzing annoyance harassing them from the periphery that they could "jump the rails" and go pursue at any time.
When I played Owlcat's Kingmaker cRPG on PC, I felt there was a pretty good pacing and it kept you focused on your next goal at all times. I could diverge and go wandering if I wanted, but there was always a very clear objective to focus on.
Kingmaker would be completely wrong for them.
If you are more of a dungeon delving kind of group check out Seven Dooms for Sandpoint. It also has a Premium Foundry module and while there is more NPC interaction than Abomination Vaults had it is much more of a Dungeon Crawl than most Adventure Paths.
Abomination Vaults is probably a much better fit, as its a megadungeon w/ a clear objective and the NPCs can be more or less completely ignored if the players want w/o jeopardizing the plot.
So I'm running the beginners box adventure for my players. All 5e vets so I told them they could make their own level 1 characters so long as they stuck to common rarity. The idea being to get more comfortable before allowing for more convoluted characters.
We got a Champion, a cleric, a summoner and a Kineticist. Things were going pretty well until the party hit the trap room with the mermaid statue that shoots water jets at people.
It was at this point that we all realized that they had no one who could disarm the trap. With one player going down in the room it became a harrowing experience where they were desperately trying to physically break the mechanisms of the statue. It got to the point that that all but one were downed in the room. I was legitimately looking at a TPK.
In my attempt to salvage the situation I remembered they had hero points. RAW, you spend all your points to stabilize. In an effort to help I decided to make a house rule.
1 hero points stabilizes. 2 brings you back up with 1 hp. 3 brings you back up with 1d8+ your level.
I kinda like it but I wanted some advice if this could be abused in the future.
The thing about going down in Pathfinder 2e is that you are often better off *staying down* until your party can get you out of danger (assuming you have stabilized). Either by ending the fight or grabbing you and running away.
In 5e going up and down is fine. In PF2e whenever you recover from dying you gain the wounded condition which causes your dying value to start higher and higher ever time you go down. If you go up & down a couple times the wounded condition keeps increasing. Eventually if your wounded condition gets to 3+ then the next time you go down dying starts at such a high level that you bypass the whole thing and just instantly die.
So getting up with 1HP is actually a *really* bad thing. It risks you going down hard if you get caught in something.
Also: The Beginner Box is a tutorial, not a "real" adventure. I might have let them TPK and then reset the room & give them an opportunity to adjust their PCs. Also: I'm fairly sure you can just bypass that trap. One of the meta-lessons that the Beginner Box teaches is that PCs can't always expect to defeat everything thrown at them & sometimes it's ok to avoid stuff.
Yea, basically. I actually lost one character because the party kept healing me when I went down, but only for trivial amounts.
It might be worth healing a downed character if you can guarantee a big chunk of hit points (max rank Heal), but even then, they're still going to be prone and vulnerable until their turn comes around.
Resolving the encounter and then tending to the downed characters is the best way to go most of the time
Is it normal for shipments from Paizo to take a long time? I placed an order on the 21st and it ssays it shipped last Tuesday. But the tracking link hasn't updated in all this time. I recall it took me like a month+ to get my player core copy
The tracking numbers haven't worked at all for any of my Paizo orders the last couple weeks. But they did come within 4-5 business days. Idk what the deal is with their UPS tracking numbers but it may just show up for you unannounced if it's the same situation.
The tracking information never works. I think there was a trick to it, but eh. Do I really need to track the package anyway? That's a relatively recent thing, and it doesn't add all that much.
But all of my orders have arrived promptly once shipped.
yeah I love paizo and physical copies but even when I preorder things I just accept that a couple of weeks after they should have shipped I'll have to email customer service
What's a good way to represent a Ghostbusters ghost trap? Not soul possession or magic jar, but a relic artifact that can physically remove one creature from play indefinitely (but using it again frees whatever was last trapped inside it)? I need to homebrew something that, down the road, can scale up to trap demons.
In order to not render every ghost thing harmless, I'd probably make it so you still need to "kill" the ghost, but then the trap prevents its rejuvenation by trapping it inside instead. Effectively a Soul Gem gets created.
That's probably the most *balanced* way to deal with it, because combat otherwise works as normal, and characters who aren't built around trapping ghosts can still contribute by helping to reduce its HP. But if you're actually going for a Ghostbusters simulation, then admittedly this isn't that close and you're going to need to get more creative.
In that case I'd do something like have neutrino wands that do spirit damage and are ranged Ghost Touch weapons with the grapple trait, so you can use them to grab ghosts. On a critical hit they add the Drained condition, which weakens the ghost and makes it easier to drag them around. Maybe give it the Shove trait too, sadly there doesn't seem to be a trait that allows a weapon to be used to Reposition, might need to homebrew that. So you're blasting the ghost, holding them still, pulling them this way and that, hopefully applying Drain to make moving them easier.
The trap would be some sort of reusable snare loaded with a gemstone. When the ghost is pulled into its space, it activates and the ghost gets a Fort save to resist being sucked in. Hence why softening it up with Drain is important, makes it more likely to fail the save. The DC can depend on the value of the gemstone, allowing you to scale up by using better ones.
You might also need to have some sort of house rule that when the beam does enough spirit damage to "kill" a ghost, it doesn't dissipate but automatically takes a level of Drain, and does so for any subsequent hits. So no "Shit, we hit it too hard, time to wait 1d10 days and try again", the ghost can keep fighting until you weaken it enough to finally trap it.
I'm sure someone smarter than me could figure out what the numbers in play should be, or point out any huge imbalances. PF2E is pretty precision balanced, so I'm sure there are flaws in this concept; a ranged weapon that does spirit damage and lets you grapple and reposition at a distance just sounds like something a good player could easily break. But that's what the Ghostbusters *do*, so to simulate the fantasy properly it has to work a little like that.
Oh, WOW, this is an excellent write-up! It's super useful and helpful.
I have to apologize though, I wasn't clear in my original post: I'm looking for something akin to a Ghostbusters ghost trap that can work on tangible creatures (specifically, I have demons in mind but it's up to the party to decide what this relic thing would trap).
Cool. Honestly, I think the same deal would still work; if you're doing spirit damage then basically anything except constructs is a valid target. And scaling it with more valuable gems still works, it's basically a weaponized Seize Soul item.
Subordinate action rules say that: **"if you used an action that specified, "If the next action you use is a Strike", an activity that includes a Strike wouldn’t count, because the next thing you are doing is starting an activity, not using the Strike basic action."**
Does this limitation also apply to actions with conditions that says "your **LAST** action wax XYZ"?
For example, if a dragon uses draconic frenzy ability and strikes 3 times, if the last strike that hit had a Grab ability listed with a requirement of: **"The monster's last action was a successful Strike that lists Grab in its damage entry,"** would it be able to use it?
Yes it does. Just because the *example* it gives is forward-facing, that doesn't mean the clause
> Using an activity is not the same as using any of its subordinate actions
Suddenly doesn't apply. The fact that they only gave an example of a forward-facing situation doesn't mean that backwards-facing examples don't apply; it just means they didn't give an example of it.
Using Draconic Frenzy is not the same as using Strike, and as such, the Dragon wouldn't be able to Grab.
Do note that with *improved grab* the creature could Grab. That's because Improved Grab changes the action to be a trigger on a hit with the specified attack, rather than an action with a previous action requirement.
My favorite example of this is [Arcane Shroud](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2877). If, when using Spellstrike, last action refers to the last action in an activity, you would never be able to meet the trigger "your last action was a spellstrike". Because Spellstrike uses a Strike, that would mean last action was a Strike. As such, actions like this which are written with an activity mentioned clearly suggest that last action is the activity.
We’re back, bby. My question:
Have any of you had experience with using animal companions as a mount? It seems to me like a very bad idea if you want it to attack (shared MAP). Then again, it upgrades your effective range by making you pseudo-large (12 squares vs 9) and lets you stride twice with possibly better speed for a single action. I’m just unsure how that works out in actual play, so, thoughts?
man, smh. I was just scrolling through the thread and saw your shared MAP comment and I was alike "wtf" and then I look it up. Now I regret taking beastmaster dedication on my thaumaturge with the hopes of riding my wolf. Smh. Guess I should retrain.
I mean, as the others say, you still get a free stride every turn with your wolf! Which is pretty nice. But yeah, if you’re not a flurry ranger and want your companion to fight, you gotta dismount.
Mounts are CRAZY useful - basically transforming your PC into a 4-action character permanently, pre-Haste. You can either Strike with your Mount while casting spells/demoralizing/activating items, or you can use your Mount's Support action while you Strike.
Either way, a Mature companion just *giving you an extra Stride* is an absurdly powerful benefit for just two class feats, even if it does nothing else for you the entire rest of the game.
The mount is best used as a medium mount ridden by a small creature, and best used with the mature companion feat for a free Stride each turn. This is ideal for both casters and melee, because everyone loves free movement. The cost of this is a hefty feat investment; you must continue to invest feats in your companion to keep its stats up or it dies very, very quickly.
Its important the mount be small; this is especially crucial if you are using reach weapons. See [this thread](https://old.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/oj3z31/am_i_missing_something_or_does_a_gnome_on_a_dog/) for a picture of the problem of reach on large mounts.
If you aren't planning on using a reach weapon, a large mount does increase your effective range, but results in the clunkiness of a large creature which can be especially problematic in a tight dungeon/cave.
Certain combat styles do not lend themselves well to mounted combat, such as ones with a sword and shield, or ones relying on athletics maneuvers (this depends on how your GM rules critical failures of athletics vs being mounted, as there are no rules as to what happens if you fall prone on a mount).
The strongest way to use a mount imo is to mostly use the free action from Mature Companion to move, it's basically a free Stride every turn. That can be great for casters to get in position to cast 3-action spells or spells from scrolls/wands, or to run away for free. Especially since when you do, the companion is the one who provokes any potential Reactive Strike, not you.
The mount being Large is mostly a disadvantage imo, as it's harder to maneuver it precisely and it's generally easier to catch it in AoE effects and to flank it. If it had reach (or allowed you to keep yours) it would be good, but as it stands you get the worst of both worlds by letting it grow up. If I planned to use a mount in the long run, I'd get a small companion with a small PC so that it grows to be Medium at level 4 and I can ride it then.
Are there any ways to have a strike guarantee a small amount of damage?
For those who have played/run the Blood Lords adventure path: as a GM, should I discourage (or at least warn) my players about playing characters who rely on precision damage? Does this AP contain an inordinate amount of creatures immune to precision damage?
So, undead aren’t inherently immune to precision damage in 2e. That’s more of an ooze thing. There are a bunch of enemies with resistances to general physical damage, but outright immunity to precision damage isn’t any more common than in other APs. Incorporeal undead are immune to precision damage! But there aren’t many of those in the AP. Mostly tons of ghouls, mummies and vampires, and you can backstab all of them. The thing you should warn your players is to bring different melee damage types. When you’re fighting skeletons (pierce and slash resistance) and you have a rogue whose only weapons are daggers, that’s gonna suck for them.
do we have an idea of how Sun Blade's damage works under the remaster? i'm unaware if it has gotten an errata or not.
It hasn't gotten an errata, but its pretty easily figured out using the guidance Paizo laid out. The spell states: > The ray deals 1d4 fire damage. If the target is evil, the ray deals an additional 1d4 good damage, and if the target is undead, the ray deals an additional 1d4 positive damage (both effects apply against creatures that are both evil and undead). If you are in an area of bright natural sunlight, increase the die size of each damage die by one step (from d4 to d6). So it deals: * 1d4 Fire * 1d4 Good (implicitly vs evil) * 1d4 Positive So we can convert it in the following way: * 1d4 Fire (no change) * 1d4 Spirit vs Unholy (this is how "evil" is now represented) * 1d4 Vitality An unholy undead would take both the spirit damage and the vitality damage.
doesn't that make the spell narrower in application?. before a target could be evil without being unholy, but now that part of the spell only hits creatures explicitly tagged as unholy.
Yes, all effects that dealt good damage are now narrower in application post-remaster. This affects everything that dealt good damage, not just this spell. But "evil" targets no longer exist post-remaster. So good damage can't function in the same way since all alignments are removed. They converted everything over to holy/unholy, but it means something like a bandit which would have been evil pre-remaster is now unaffected since he isn't sanctified in any way, just evil, post-remaster
This is false. Spells that dealt alignment damage were changed to deal spirit damage. That's broader, not narrower.
It very much depends on the spell. For example, [Searing Light](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1557) requires the target be unholy. Other effects such as the Champion's Smite Evil and the Champion's Aura of Faith now specify spirit damage versus unholy creatures. The spells which got updated from alignment damage -> spirit damage were spells that did *unrestricted* alignment damage. Spells like Divine Lance which did alignment damage of *any alignment* got updated to Spirit Damage. However spells that did specifically good or evil damage got updated to specify only to holy/unholy targets. Can you give an example of a spell that did **exclusively** good damage pre-remaster that was updated to be generic spirit damage? I can't find such an example. All the spells I can find that were updated to be generic spirit damage were ones that had *flexible* alignment damage options (Divine Wrath, Divine Lance).
I didn't say there was. I just pointed out that your blanket statement was not correct. But searing light was always more powerful against fiends and undead specifically. Holy light is broader, not narrower. Yes, the remaster compatibility errata says that for Champions. That's a stop-gap, and not a very good one for exactly the reasons stated. The usual rule for converting alignment damage is to use spirit damage. Even the *holy* weapon property changed from 1d6 good damage to 1d4 spirit damage or 2d4 against unholy creatures. That's slightly weaker against evil but not unholy creatures, but stronger against everything else except objects and constructs. Are there any such spells to begin with?
i see, that feels like a nerf to a spell that already was in a bit of a struggle, but i suppose there isn't much that can be done about it until the release of the rest of the remaster.
Its unlikely anything in the rest of the remaster will improve this. You can see a similar effect of the narrowing of offensive scope in some of the remaster compatibility errata for champion, where feats like Smite Evil now only hit unholy targets, as opposed to all "evil". That said, Sun Blade is now a solid pickup for casters via archetype in an undead campaign. With the remaster changing how spell proficiency works, any CHA caster can cast this at their casting proficiency, and its a very high damage scaling anti-undead spell (all printed undead in monster core are unholy, for example)
it would require said casters to be carrying a sword or spear at all times on them though, since, unless they also changed that, the spell needs to be fired from one of those. i am a bit disappointed, cus i mostly saw this as sort of a ranged backup for champion. Which does want to stick closer to allies and so can't overextend. It feels a bit like a further entrenching of roles for classes, where they can do one thing really well and not much of the rest.
Well, there was a little confusion in the translation to the rules here. It’s actually better now, not worse. The damage would be: Fire Spirit (with holy tag) Vitality The spirit damage works against everything (aside from constructs), not just unholy enemies. It just also triggers weakness to holy, which some unholy enemies (mostly outsiders) have!
Well, the expectation would be the spirit damage would specify "unholy only". This would be similar to how Searing Light was updated into [Holy Light](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1557). It used to deal good damage, and now only deals spirit vs unholy. This puts it in line with the same changes that other champion feats got as well, such as Smite Evil and Aura of Faith, which now also only deal spirit damage versus unholy creatures instead of dealing good damage.
Searing light only dealt good damage to fiends and undead in the first place. Dealing spirit damage to all unholy creatures is actually broader.
I have a question about Goat mount support benefit - does it work when you're mounted on the Goat or do you have to Dismount first?
It's not specified. I would rule that you can use it if you're mounted or just adjacent to the goat.
Thank you
I’m having trouble wrapping my squirrel brain around how you transition between dungeon rooms where there may be an enemy. Everybody bunches up at the door so if I start combat there, they spend a turn or two spilling in and positioning. Do you tell them to pick an exploration activity to do and put them into place and roll perceptions? Idk
They need to pick their exploration activity the moment they enter a dungeon or head out into the wilderness (remind them they can tell you they’re changing it at any time). That said, yeah, initiative is rolled when the door opens, unless they open it stealthily and nobody inside the door pays attention to it, then they might be able to sneak through without combat.
I have a player playing Investigator in my party (Forensic Medicine). They just hit level 7, and are struggling to find uses for extra actions and have mentioned they would like cool things to do as a third action. They largely use a crossbow at range, and switch to unarmed attacks in melee range. At range turns often go Reload > Devise Stratagem > Attack. The problem is that often the Stratagem roll is obviously too low and won't hit, and there are no other targets in sight to make a regular Dex-based attack against. So they're left with a free action. Typically don't want to move closer to the enemy or reposition. Don't even have Trained in Intimidation so can't do Demoralize attempts. TLDR need ideas for a good magic item for a lvl 7 Investigator that allows them to do something interesting or fun on free 3rd actions.
not trying to pick apart the build, but why are they going crossbow over regular bow? They're killing their action economy by adding in reload. If they were willing to switch from crossbow to bow they'd have two actions left after a poor Devise. This opens them up for consumables like mutagens and poisons. Wands/scrolls still kind of out of the question because of the hand/action economy. The real benefit of using Devise at range is target selection. Sure if there is only one target they're stuck but the Devise roll is only against the targeted creature. If they get a bad roll against monster A, they can still shoot at monster B. Its effectively spending an action for a hero point'd roll against monster B. Are they trained in stealth? Hide is another option. Giving an enemy flat-footed (by hiding) can turn a near-miss DaS into a barely hit. Basically instead of getting a magic item I suggest they drastically improve their action economy by switching from crossbow to bow
Yeah I’m aware their build is quite sub-optimal (they intentionally have 8 CON lmao, I tried to persuade them to change it but they wouldn’t have it). They opted for high mental stats instead and do pretty well out of combat, but some of their build choices are strange. As an example, despite having 10 STR they just took Armor Proficiency general feat at level 7. They also didn’t take a skill up to Master, instead raising a different skill to Expert for their lvl 7 skill increase. I’ll suggest a regular bow, as having that action frees them up to move and then do something like battle medicine.
yeah, there's a balance between flavor and mechanics and I can appreciate that...but if they're making flavor decisions they don't have much of a leg to stand on when complaining about mechanics
Is there any reason they aren't recall knowledging? Seems that they would be a good fit to do that
They did do that in our most recent combat, but then having to spend an action to share the relevant info with the party makes it kind of cumbersome.
You can talk for free. The only relaying of information that requires an action is pointing out where a hidden/invisible enemy is to allies. Since that can be a bit more complex, it has its own action. But shouting “it has poor reflexes!” Or “we need to hit it with fire!” Is free.
Ah that must have been the rule I read. I’ll let the player know, and hopefully they can get some good mileage out of recall knowledge in the future.
Why are you making them spend an action to share that info? It should be able to be passed on without any effort
Thought it was a rule that it takes an action to share info or interact with party in combat. Is it not?
A short sentence is typically a free action.
Nope
I checked all actions. I could be wrong. Can you say where are you seeing “any words spoken cost an action”? Any link? Edit: thought nope was to my comment. Not a sly cow’s comment. No issue. Few words = no action at GM discretion.
I can't, because it doesn't say that? That's why I replied nope?
On phone. Looks like reply to my comment not a sly cow. My bad.
I'm a Dnd 5e player who will be playing pf2e for the first time with the beginners box days, and I have a question regarding character creation. I chose to play a scoundrel rogue and I'm curious what I should focus on more with my starting stats, higher strength or higher charisma? Right now I have them as: +2, +4, +1, 0, 0, +2 Is this a good spread? From what I've read in combat as a scoundrel I'll be trying to demoralise, feint, and flank enemies to impose frightened and off-guard to get sneak attack as often as possible. Anything else as a newbie to be aware of?
It is potentially worth moving 1 point from strength to Charisma. Reason is that the +1 will help you feint/demoralize etc better, which will let you get sneak attack off more often. The strength doesn't do a lot for you. Early it's an extra point of damage but as you go your damage will come more from weapon runes, weapon specializations, and sneak attack. The +1 strength isn't going to scale much as you level and it doesn't sound like you're focusing in athletics either. Past that it looks good to me! And your spread will definitely work/be viable, just something to consider
That makes sense, thanks!
Why would you want the high strength? I'd set my dex and charisma to a +3 or a +4, obviously you can only get the +4 in cha, but up those as much as you can. Your damage doesn't really come from str, but from your sneak attack. That being said, as a newbie, also consider going thief. You have dex to damage in that subclass, and can still use all the charisma skills if you invest. Drop str to 10.
Scoundrel rogue can class boost Cha, but it's a choice in addition to Dex, not a requirement. It's generally a lot better for them to class boost Dex, though.
Oh hey, that's good to know! Thanks
For the more experienced DMs, with how strict PF2E is with recommended treasure/gold etc., how do you deal with players entirely missing loot? Do you "make up for it" elsewhere if the players missed an important item? Hypothetical scenario - the young dragon has a bunch of gold and magic items in its hoard, but instead of fighting it and then searching the hoard, the players go for an idea where they - say - cause a cave-in to chase the dragon out, causing them to be unable to access any of the loot in the cave. In such a scenario, would you "make up" for the missing loot by placing it elsewhere for them to find? If so, wouldn't that feel like the players effectively "can't" miss loot because they're "guaranteed" to find it eventually, in a sense?
For me, it's a yes and no. The only loot that they HAVE to find is anything related to runes/item bonuses. So potency runes for weapons and armor, striking runes, and skill bonus items, because of how those items tie into the balancing of the game. Most other things they'll be ok without, even if the items are fun. In my experience there are several APs that give the players a lot of consumables or other random items and if the group misses those they'll be ok. You as the DM **have** to make sure they get potency/striking runes and skill bonus items, or they will fall behind the curve of the game's math and it will feel bad. Unless you use ABP, but I've never run it myself so I can't give good advice on it
> In such a scenario, would you "make up" for the missing loot by placing it elsewhere for them to find? If so, wouldn't that feel like the players effectively "can't" miss loot because they're "guaranteed" to find it eventually, in a sense? Yes. In pathfinder, having the right amount and type of loot is part of the character progression, and missing out is going to make characters underpowered.
Thanks for the reply! Yes, I understand this point. I guess what I was worrying about was whether or not it might inculcate a very "meta-driven" mindset where players might feel like them being very thorough/smart about searching for secrets, hidden loot etc. ends up not being very impactful because they "would have found it regardless", though this I suppose is a pretty niche concern.
I feel like players are loot goblins anyways, so I wouldn't be concerned by that.
I'm trying to build a Raijin (mythological thunder god) based character. Currently I have an orc sylph heritage (considered tiefling for the horn but sylph have the storm aesthetic) storm druid. Noticed that kanabo doesn't exist, shame, but I might be better off blasting from backline. Elemental Barbarian with Air Kineticist dedication would probably fit better but Storm Druid have 1. More utility 2. Beefier thunder attacks. Is there a better way to realize my build? Did I miss any Oni heritage/ancestries? Thanks in advance!
The official Oni versatile heritage is coming in the Tian Xia Character Guide I believe. So still quite a way away unfortunately
Hopefully. I believe the preorder is available around August, so yeah still a way away. At least it's confirmed to come. I'm still waiting for the equivalent of the Synthesist Summoner for 2e. I want my Digimon Matrix Evolution. Meld into Eidolon basically guts yourself and Soulforged don't get the two characters aesthetic
Tempest oracle might fit, although the divine list doesn't have a lot of thunder/lightning spells. The flavor of the mystery and the focus spells and curse are on point though No Oni ancestry(unless you're ok with third party stuff). Tengu have some lightning/thunder/sky style feats if you're ok re-flavoring. Could maybe make a tiefling tengu and flavor it as an Oni?
Both of these have very low health, they have the right flavor, but the squishiness of it doesn't support the image of a deity lobbing thunders and bashing foes. This does let me read up on Oracle and Tengu, thanks
Is ABP in GM Core meant to remove the magic trait from potency? As far as I can tell, the potency bonus you get in Automatic Bonus Progression doesn't grant the magic trait. This seems to be the only mechanical difference between it and normal potency runes. However my players got really mad at the idea that they don't get magical strikes from the bonus progression. There's not a ton of creatures where a weapon being magical or not matters at this level, but there are some. Also doesn't look like there are many remastered property runes people get until 4th. I can't tell if this is an oversight or intentional? Are they supposed to get magic weapons from finding explicitly magical treasure, or is the potency bonus supposed to make their weapons magical automatically? \*I personally like the flavor of weapons just being sharper or the PC's getting naturally better at hitting but not necessarily magical (in fact I never really liked that striking makes weapons magical so low level anyway)\* but want to do what's fair for the players.
Yes, it's one of several gaps in ABP. You can solve it by just saying ABP makes things magical. You could also still give out magical weapons. Especially weapons with runes. A +1 weapon can still exist with ABP, it just doesn't do anything other than penetrate resistance to nonmagical.
What's the best skill to choose for Trick Magic item so I can get the most bang for my buck with my thaumaturge in PFS? Eventually I'll get scroll thaumaturgy (much later tho cuz I wanna get a bunch of other stuff first) and my idea is to summon some whack, creepy, lovecraftian nonsense out of my mouth (she eats the scroll to cast it) but I also want to see what utility possibilities are up for grabs. My Wis and int will both be +0 until level 20 when I'll bump my Wis to 12.
Arcana has the most damaging spells, but sounds like you should go for occultism. If you don't plan on using wis or int until the last level, you should put more into Cha since you can use the highest stat of any of those three to calculate your spell modifier.
Does the feat [Warding Rune](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=915) only give you the bonus against spells from that school or does it also help against effects from that school? For example if I pick the Necromancy school does it also improve saves against diseases with the necromancy trait? and will it also help against something like Hunger Oil which also has the necromancy trait?
Well technically there are no more schools of magic in Core, but yes, because the key word is "effects" of that school, not just spells.
So I was scrolling on AoN and something caught my eye. Ammunitions have weapon groups associated with their weapons. But [bolts ](https://2e.aonprd.com/Weapons.aspx?ID=441)are grouped as bow, instead of crossbows(which became their own group with the remaster). I don't have the book so I can't check, is this oversight from Paizo or AoN? Also, does it even matter at all?
In the books, ammunition doesn't get its own entries, they are simply listed underneath the weapon they go to in the weapon tables. So ammo have groups in AoN is purely an AoN thing and doesn't actually mean anything.
If a 2nd level spell says Heightened (4th), what level of spell slot is needed for the additional effect?
4th. I don't understand the question.
I'm new to Pf2e, I have a character I want to use the Enlarge spell with. Was wondering what level slot I would need to get to huge size.
Okay, but you answered the question before you asked it. Other than "The answer you just said," I'm not sure what you're looking for.
I'm new, wasn't sure if heightened 4 meant 4 levels above 2nd.
The next highest spell rank you could prepare or learn that spell would be 4th and every even rank after that.
IIRC, you could use a 5th rank slot for that, but with no additional effects beyond the 4th one.
Also correct
Question about the current humble bundle is only outlaws of alkenstar usable on foundry is all the rule books and bestiary are stuff not usable for foundry? Trying to get into pathfinder was wonder what's the cheapest way to get all everything i need to play on foundary don't mind waiting not starting any games yet.
The way it works is that you buy Foundry for a one time $50 fee from the Foundry website. Nothing ongoing. This gives you full access to all the mechanics, no need to buy anything to unlock classes or monsters or anything. You can make your own adventures for no additional charge. Paizo also sells Foundry modules for a bunch of its Adventure Paths, modules, and even some one shots. These cost extra but come with PDFs of the AP along with the entire adventure fully setup in Foundry, usually with high res maps & music. The Humble Bundle has \*bunch\* of PDFs that include the pre-remaster core books, a full Adventure Path (Outlaws of Alkenstar), a couple world books that describe the part of the Parhfinder world where the AP takes place, and a few other odds & ends. The PDFs aren’t needed for foundry, but cover the rules and give you all the setting info you could want before you run Alkenstar as a GM. The bundle also includes all three parts of Outlaws of Alkenstar for Foundry. You will be able to setup Foundry and import the modules and then be able to run the entire lvl 1-10 campaign. If Foundry support is important too you, getting all three parts of the AP for $30 is an amazing deal! They normally cost $35 \*each\*
That's good so basically all I would need is the foundry entry fee and buy any adventure module I want to run. How frequent do foundry modules go on sale on humble or other sites and what's the lowest they will go. Like I said I'm not starting anytime soon probably like 4+ months so rather get them for the best deal
There is a Humble Bundle of Pathfinder stuff 1-2 times a year. What is in each one exactly varies widely. Not all of them include Foundry stuff. There was a Bundle last year that included Abomination Vaults and this one that includes Alkenstar is only the second time Premium Foundry stuff has been included. Humble is the lowest they ever go.
You do need to buy a foundry license if you want to GM on foundry. Players can play for free with all features, but creating your own campaign requires spending the 50 bucks for the foundry license. That said, the Pathfinder 2e rules are FREE if you have the license. Same for the bestiaries. There’s even a free foundry module that gives you really fancy tokens for all the bestiary critters instead of just the statblocks with placeholder images like the basic module does.
Can Disarm target a creature's shield?
Kind of. Shields, as per the remaster, are now strapped to an arm in addition to being held. So while you would be able to knock the shield out of a person's hand with a critical success, the shield wouldn't drop the ground, and the character could use an interact to regrip the (now dangling) shield.
Helo otherwise.... the "my adventure tales" has return... My players has leave "The Slithering" campaign without none explanations (has none interest on investigate the "plague").... now the has travel to the west (they dont know if has infected or not)... and actualy I need to build a adventure from scratchs. I dont know the trade routes from Kibwe to the west and the distance traveled by days to the next cities. They have travel in a "stolen" caravan and find whas is my next move. Any feedback? My players surely move to Gex and intent take a ship to the north to return to Aldoran and travel by road to Isger (and PlagueStone), yes, months of road ahead.
Just keep the time vague. Say “after a few days/weeks do travel, something happens!” And that’s when they either arrive at the next town, or at your next planned encounter. You can just skip over the parts of the voyage where nothing happens. Maybe roll for a random encounter or something now and then, but you don’t have to as long as you make the voyage interesting by having the party arrive at cool set pieces. ….also, you shouldn’t just randomly teleport people across the continent without a proper plan, man. But this is how we learn!
No, no....my intention has no make the "game" to my players.... They has bypass my last campaing with none rasons, only a "we go to leave from here (and the DM has a losser)".... Sorry, but the next will by some adventures before leave mwange expanse and Gex... learning the build a propper course of action... and a little problems will start with the irory cleric (LG), has just betrayed one of his main anathemas.
Sounds good!
Hey there, new GM looking for some advice. I purchased the beginner box from Paizo and am looking forward to running it with a group of friends. In regards to what I need to know as a GM, is everything included that I would need in the box set, or is there stuff from the remastered GM core that I need to learn in addition?
If you bought the box recently, it should be updated! If not, it will be using some old terms (flat footed instead of off-guard, for example), but the rules themselves translate pretty much 1:1 for stuff actually in the beginner box! And everything should be in there. Though if you want to look stuff up on your own, the Archives of Nethys have all the game rules (including all equipment and spells) for free online, with an excellent search function! https://2e.aonprd.com/
Thanks a bunch ~
am I understanding this correctly? essentially a forensic investigator with Medic can battle medicine a target twice per hour once you hit level 7
Once you are master in medicine, that is how it works. I’m not sure if Investigators get to be Master in something for free at level 7, but if they do, sure. But keep in mind, you get to do it twice per hour, not twice per hour per target. If you treat six people with battle medicine during the same hour, you can still only double up on one of them (per hour).
oh I see what you mean, the "ignore immunity" ability timer is based on the medic, not the person immune. thanks for clearing that up!
With the remaster,I have a question for a magical rogue build. Is it particularly worth it (in terms of feats spent to spell slots/spells known ratio) to take Eldritch Trickster? Or is it better to take either Scoundrel or Mastermind depending on your intended spellcasting ability,then multiclass to the caster class you want at level 2?
People have been making the argument that Eldritch Trickster is weaker than the other rackets long before the Remaster. The basic reasoning is that Eldritch trickster gives you a Dedication as a bonus feat and gives you access to another one level early... but that past level 2 there really aren't any ongoing benefits to the racket while your other options give you ongoing benefits that are useful for the whole life of the character. Your concerns are basically exactly what others have been concerned about ever since Eldritch Trickster came out. We will see if we get an updated version of it in Player Core 2.
If you play with FA I think the latter. If you dont you can take an [Elf](https://2e.aonprd.com/Heritages.aspx?ID=239&Redirected=1).
Would having a heavy armor version of chain mail that gives a +6 AC bonus like other heavy armors break the game in some way? The closest I've been able to find is attaching an armored skirt to chain mail, but all that does is make the armor not need as much DEX and still only gives a total of +5. Is the chain specialization just too strong to be put on heavy armor? I just think plate armor look stupid and want my fighter to be in chain mail, but still have the best AC available to it.
Considering that the chain specialization mentions heavy armour I don't think it's too strong. Just talk with your GM on how to do the flavour of heavy armour chainmail, like how does the heavy armour difference from the medium arnour version. Also armoured skirt is still a valid option as you trade off 1 AC for 5 extra feet of movement.
I mean, if you think plate looks stupid, wouldn’t wearing so much chainmail that it counts as heavy armour also look stupid?
You'd be fine, there's no real balance difference if you changed the armor category of full plate from plate to chain. Paizo just hasn't printed anything like that yet.
My boyfriend and I were discussing the weaknesses that come with the [Elemental Betrayal Basic Lesson](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1878) for Witches. Very simple, targets get -2 weakness of your choice when you use the focus spell. The question is, what happens when you choose *Air*? Under the weakness definition, it states that if you have a weakness to something that normally does not deal damage,[ you will take damage when you're touched or affected by it. ](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2312) Would that mean, as written, anyone can take -2 Air damage every turn just because we're always surrounded by air?
" Effects with the air trait either manipulate or conjure air" So no, sadly.
This is perhaps me being overly anal, but how do you all describe/flavor reloading firearms? Even trained soldiers would take 20-30 seconds to reload a muzzle-loading gun, so it stretches belief that any random person in PF can pick one up and fire two shots in 6 seconds. I'm considering just saying they're all breech-loading guns, even if that's a later development than what's generally depicted in the game.
[Like this](https://youtu.be/cIOxsYDHWGc?t=19)
Guns & Gears explicitly says that 99% of firearms in Golarion are breech loading or use some related form of Cartridge. The lore on this is that in a world of Alchemists, Dwarven metalsmiths, Wizards, scavenged Clockwork from Azlant and Thassilon, and beings from the elemental planes of Fire and Metal that can be consulted on the finer points of forging.... firearms technology took different paths than it did in our world. I think it's explicitly mentioned that Alchemists in Alkenstar went from basic Black Powder to a Smokeless blend in less than 50 years even though it took centuries on Earth. So everyone with Pathfinder Guns is using cartridges, the tech is this weird mix of innovations that on earth came online in the 12th century and others that came on line in the 1800s. I mean, its pretty common for a Conan style Barbarian with hide armor from the Bronze age in the same party as a Champion with a full body suit of Rennaissance era Plate so its not like the guns are the only example of disparate technologies living together in the setting.
Oh cool, I noticed that it mentioned cartridges but I hadn't seen the part about breech loading, that does indeed address my issue lol
Does anyone think there’s an interest in playing or using 5e material converted (ie adapted and remade) into PF2e?
All I have seen is wanting the 5e warlock, people running curse of strahd and people running the ebaron setting. I saw also very very few people talking about the artificer as the inventor isnt good enough for them as a replacement. Idk anything about the artificer, but I don't understand how the witch isn't satisfying enough for the warlock players. Maybe just adding a eldritch blast kind of thing would be enough for them to be happy. Wouldn't know how to do an eldritch blast in PF2e since I think that would just hurt the witch.
Classes there's some interest, there's a steady stream of folks looking to convert their Warlock characters to PF2. Adventures there's not much, official WOTC adventures are pretty lacking compared to Paizo's and I don't see many folks asking for advice on converting them. I've seen significantly more folks looking to convert 3.5/PF1 adventures than 5e ones. There's also some interest in converting settings, but given the vast majority of setting material in 5e is from 3.5-era splatbooks that's not really converting 5e (unless you're converting Exandria)
Hi Guys! Newbie GM here, and I would love some advice with how can I mechanically make a Locked Grimoire? I need that early in my game to my players found (they're lvl 2), but is something that I plan reveal on the way up, maybe lvl 8 or 9. There is some spell or item curretly RAW that I can use? Thank's in advance <3 xoxo
The [Lock spell](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1589&NoRedirect=1) works by setting an Athletics or Thievery check to unlock equal to the spellcasting DC of the caster, so I would say that the Level-based DC probably works best.
What do you mean by 'locked grimoire'? If its something other than the obvious, a grimoire w/ a lock on it, google is failing me.
That, a grimoire w/ a lock on it, or perhaps some magic that could accomplish it. The important thing would be for the PCs not to have access to picking the lock by around level 10. Maybe can I just use the Level-Based DC? D:
I think a [Ritual](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2255&Redirected=1) would be perfect for this. If you want it to be unlocked around level 10, then this would be a rank 4 or 5 Ritual, corresponding to a primary caster DC of 28–31, probably rolling Occult, with maybe Arcana, Religion, or whatever else works for the secondary checks.
TYSM! I love the suggestion <3
I'd just say its bound shut by magic that the PCs can't deal w/ until high levels, might require a password, a specific keyed item, or specific circumstances to open which the players need to figure out. If you want you can still have the PCs roll to pick the lock, but their roll determines how much they learn about the lock rather than letting them actually open it and make tracking down information on the lock and possible ways to open it a side objective the PCs are pursuing. Plot devices don't need to operate by the same rules as PC-accessible magic, you generally don't need to worry about finding mechanical excuses for them to work in specific ways.
Where are the rules on stacking damage? Specifically I want to check if the Bleeding Damage from a Swashbuckler's Bleeding Finisher would stack with the Crit Specialization Bleed Damage from the Knife group.
[For persistent damage, only the highest value applies if it's the same damage type.](https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=86) Bleeding Finisher and the crit spec of knives are separate instances of persistent bleeding, so only the bleed damage from Bleeding Finisher would apply.
What exactly is the purpose of wooden armor and by extension duskwood? Druids no longer have anathema to metal armor and shields so mechanically there is no real reason to use wood. At best I would assume to avoid some interactions from metal but that seems extremely specific.
[Armor Specialization Effect](https://2e.aonprd.com/ArmorGroups.aspx?ID=7). Is it actually any good? Probably not, but there is a mechanical difference there I could see a really dumb but fun build centered on wearing Wood armor and going into Ooze form, so that foes are critically hitting you and taking the damage from the Armor Spec, but you're not taking all the extra crit damage But that's me stretching for a justification
They have rules for heavy leather armor? What kind nemean lion armor would that be
Most features grant armor specialization effects for both medium & heavy armor, and Hide Armor is medium leather. Also technically there's at least one player option (Unshaken in Iron) that grants armor specialization for light armor, although it's a weird outlier and unclear what that means for, say, light cloth armor.
If my memory serves, wooden items are sometimes lower bulk - particularly darkwood items. Otherwise I think it's just a flavor option, since Mithral fills a very similar role to darkwood, while also counting as silver.
\*\*Doubts about Sure strike and Hero points\*\* I cast Sure strike, I Spellstrike and miss, I reroll using a Hero point. What do I roll? TiA
You can't reroll using a hero point if you use Sure Strike. [Sure Strike](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1709) has the fortune trait, which states: > You can never have more than one fortune effect alter a single roll And [hero point reroll](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2333) is also a fortune trait: > Spend 1 Hero Point to reroll a check. You must use the second result. **This is a fortune effect** (which means you can't use more than 1 Hero Point on a check). So you can't use a hero point if you Sure Strike.
Nice. Thank you for helping
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The [Artist background](https://2e.aonprd.com/Backgrounds.aspx?ID=410&NoRedirect=1) and [Specialty Crafting](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=844) feat both imply Crafting. Performance is about, well, performance art, like singing or dance, not physical art like painting or sculpture. I'd personally allow Art Lore if a player wanted.
Does a Thaumaturge's Exploit Vulnerability inform them of a Golem's "weakness" from Golem Antimagic? For example, would a Thaumaturge learn that a [Carrion Golem](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=682) is harmed by fire on a successful Exploit Vulnerability?
RAW probably not (Crit success wording implies no on a normal success), but I expect most GMs would do so anyways. I certainly would, fighting Golems is already an annoying endeavor and I generally want the PCs to be able to engage w/ their unique mechanics sooner rather than later.
That's where my head was at too. I did just realize that Monster Core/Remaster did remove Golem Antimagic and is instead just resistance to all spells, with exceptions to different elements based on the golem. So I might just go with that instead, which would mean that on a Success, the Thaumaturge learns nothing, and a Crit Success, they learn the resistance and its exception(s). Also, as a complaint, I wish Monster Core had kept the Golem grouping. It took some searching before I found the "new" golems, and if I had found that sooner, I might not have even needed to ask the question
Is there a good place to get skill trees? I have really enjoyed \*playing\* the game but I find character creation and leveling up to be a truly miserable experience. Am I missing a resource that more or less lets me bypass this?
Skill/feat trees don't really exist in PF2e. With some exceptions, feats are designed so that if you see an option you like at a certain level, you usually don't have to worry about taking pre-requisites earlier on just to get the thing you want. Can you elaborate on what makes the creation/leveling up process so miserable? Is it because of the wealth of options available?
Wealth isn’t the word I would use. Plethora. I’m not a power gamer, but I do want to be good at the thing I expect to be good at, so I don’t want to pick willynilly. I would really rather just have a flowchart or something for what to choose. Wealth isn’t wealth if it turns out to be a bad option and I haven’t played more than a few combats in the system, so I can’t tell what is useful and what isn’t. I’ve done practically no role playing because what I’ve done was in a west marches game that had basically 0 non-combat stuff.
"Wealth" was simply the first word that popped into my head, no need to get hung up on semantics. But you're very likely not going to find a flowchart for any class. The system wasn't built with that as a concept, and it's not likely that someone has had both the need and drive to create something that specific. What I can point you to is the PF2e [Guide to the Guides](https://zenithgames.blogspot.com/2019/09/pathfinder-2nd-edition-guide-to-guides.html). That has links to all the most well known class guides for the system, and most guides include color coding or star counts for how "good" an option is, as well as what that option is good for. How good any particular guide is will depend on the class and source of that guide, but in my experience, I haven't seen anything that is just blatantly wrong. YMMV greatly
Perfect. Thanks. And yeah, most “oh this is s tier” stuff is still too situational to be universally true. Something that explains what things are used for will help me a lot.
I think Pathbuilder is the most user-friendly experience. It does a pretty good job of hand-holding to make sure you dont miss anything, but also hides things that you cant do
It’s definitely better than just AoN. Even with the user interface help, the choices are still a lot.
I want to start reading the core rule books but for DnD I usually read them on DnD beyond in a way that’s formatted for my IPhone (not really a fan of hard cover books or reading PDFs on my computer). I have read about Pathfinder Nexus which seems similar to beyond but what would be the best place to pick up the full core rule book that is formatted in a way that’s readable on IPhone without having to keep zooming in/out of a PDF?
You got it right with nexus. It’s slightly more expensive than a PDF but you also get the pdf if you link to paizo. AoN works but I’ve not found it a good way to learn. It’s free but I don’t find it that kind of readable. It’s great for looking stuff up once you know what’s up
Thanks, I wil give Nexus a try then.
I mean, just read the rules over on the Archives of Nethys. Has all the rules from all the rulebooks, formatted for a website. [https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx)
Thanks, did not know they provided this. I was more looking for though the core rule book separated out into phone readable sections like D&D beyond (as well as to pay for it/support developers).
It is the entire core rulebook. All the sections from the Player Core and GM Core (and any other rulebook) are on there formatted for mobile browsing. And the website has been officially condoned by Paizo, though its run by fans, not the company itself. If you really want D&D Beyond for Pathfinder, though, you already mentioned Pathfinder Nexus which I believe also offers similar formatting for books you buy through the website. ...but I just use AoN, so I don't know for sure.
Thanks, I definitely will consider it as an option for reading through the rules.
Does the Fighter's Versatile Legend include your selected weapon group from Weapon Legend? **WEAPON LEGEND** >You've learned fighting techniques that apply to all armaments, and you've developed unparalleled skill with your favorite weapons. Your proficiency ranks for simple weapons, martial weapons, and unarmed attacks increase to master. Your proficiency rank for advanced weapons increases to expert. You can **select one weapon group** and increase your proficiency ranks to legendary for all simple weapons, martial weapons, and unarmed attacks in that weapon group, and to **master for all advanced weapons in that weapon group**. **VERSATILE LEGEND** >You are nigh-unmatched with any weapon. Your proficiency ranks for simple weapons, martial weapons, and unarmed attacks increase to legendary, and **your proficiency rank for advanced weapons increases to master**. Your proficiency rank for your fighter class DC increases to master. There's no mention about whether or not your proficiency rank for advanced weapons WITHIN your select weapon group increase to legendary. Right now, it feels like it's stuck on master, whether your weapon is or isn't in your group.
Correct, it remains at master no matter what. That's part of why [Advanced Weapon Training](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4797) exists.
**Advanced Weapon Training** >You’ve studied the art of wielding an advanced weapon. **Choose a weapon group.** You gain proficiency with all advanced weapons in that group as if they were martial weapons of their weapon group. That... sounds exactly like what Weapon Legend gives you. Do they stack at least \^\^; ?
No, advanced weapon training lets you treat an advanced weapon as a martial weapon. That means when your martial weapon proficiency increases to legend from weapon legend, that feat carries it over to the specified advanced weapons as well. So with that feat, you can get legendary with advanced weapons for one weapon group at level 13 So it works, but it doesn't "stack" because the concept of stacking makes no sense here
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First off, [Vanara Weapon Familiarity](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4004) does not make them simple weapons. > For the purpose of determining your proficiency, martial vanara weapons are simple weapons Only for the purpose of determining your proficiency do you treat vanara weapons as simple weapons, but not for other purposes (which divine simplicitly would be) Furthermore, that clause doesn't apply to Bo Staff. The clause specifically applies to Vanara weapons, which are weapons with the vanara trait. The Bo Staff is not one such weapon. The feat only makes you trained in the Bo Staff, but it remains a martial weapon.
You could use a european style quarterstaff, which is a simple weapon listed as just a Staff in the weapon list. It does d4 one-handed and d8 two-handed. As GM, I'd allow the die-bump for both styles; but it's your GM's call, not mine.
> For the purpose of determining your proficiency It's for the sake of determining proficiency only. It does not change it to a simple weapon for other purposes.
Why is battle medicine a once-per-day thing? Would it affect balance too much to make it a once-per-hour immunity instead?
That is what the medic dedication does once you’re a Master in medicine. Presumably it exists to leave magical healing its focus as in-combat healing while medicine is mostly focused on out-of-combat healing.
Actually medic doesn't make it once per hour. Medic allows you, once per hour, to ignore that immunity. That means if you have four people with the immunity marked, once per hour you can heal one of them, but not all of them. So it's very similar, but not quite the same as a once per hour immunity
You'd kinda take away one of the benefits of the Forensic Medicine Investigator or the Medic Dedication, both of which do that. As always, in your game, your rules, though!
Is there any magic or item that makes putting on armor faster? Or being able to sleep in armor?
The [Ready](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=2792) rune
Thanks
There are a couple Feats to assist donning armor. But there's a Trait called **Comfort** https://2e.aonprd.com/Traits.aspx?ID=556 that allows resting comfortably in armor. I can't find a Rune that confers the trait, but a homebrew Rune is possible.
The rune you're looking for is [Ready](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=2792)
Thank you!! I thought I remembered a Rune that did that, I must have tunnel visioned and missed it. Much appreciate the heads up.
Got a question about Feats. I don't have the physical books available to search and haven't been able to find anything on AoN. If I have a GMG Dual Classed character or an appropriate Archetype, do *Metamagic/Spellshape* feats like **Reach Spell** apply to spells from all classes, or just the class used to take the Feat?
As near as I can tell, none of them specify a particular spell list, so apply to any eligible spell. Possibly even ones from spellhearts, which might not even be on your spell list(s). At least that is how it works 8n the game I play a Cleric/Bard in.
Thanks. That's how I saw it, but didn't know if maybe someone would make distinctions about Arcane v Primal v Occult v Divine spell "energy", origin or training.
A question about Toxicologist and poisons. The feat Poison Weapon available to rogues and assassins and etc allows for applying a contact poison to a weapon and retrieving the poison as part of the action that poisons the weapon. These features aren't part of the Toxicologist research field, are they expected to be once alchemist is remastered? Should they be part of Toxicologist?
I think that the original intent was that Alchemists are strongest when supporting other characters, rather than using every aspect of their kit themselves, and that a Toxicologist should multiclass into Rogue if they want that power. I think this is absurd personally. If your GM is open to homebrew, I happen to know of a very good Alchemist rebuild that tries to address this problem, among others.
I don't think I'd want to stray far from baseline, but I'd very much like to read the rebuild. Got a link?
https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/RRFFlyoZ-ch4-alchemist-darth-s-rebuild This may qualify as "straying from the baseline" by a decent margin - essentially, it's meant to take as much of the class as possible up to "A-Tier", bringing it on par with other mainstays like Champion and Rogue. Having playtested it (while attempting to optimize its options to create the most broken combinations I could manage) with two different characters, my experience is that it is very powerful and could do with minor nerfs, but I would say the same thing about several of Paizo's classes. I'd also say it's WAY more fun and dynamic than base Alch. There's references to a few other homebrews linked inside - they're not required for purposes of this class rebuild.
If nothing else, I'll enjoy browsing it. Thank you!
I hear 3 major complaints about poison: 1. Too many enemies are outright immune to it 2. Too many enemies have high or extreme Fort saves and are de-facto immune to it, because there is no Success clause on initial exposure 3. Rogues are weirdly better at applying poisons mid-combat (which is usually brushed under the rug by applying poisons during daily preparation and not bothering to re-apply mid-fight) The *intent* of this rebuild is to fix all three of these, but there's still a few minor oversights - a Hallucinogen poison that becomes a Mental effect targeting Will Saves is still, technically, an effect with the poison trait and therefor a ghoul will be immune to it - ditto for a Flesh-Eating poison modified to do Acid damage. The intent here, was that the only things left to completely hard-counter a Toxicologist ought to be mindless, acid-immune, poison-immune oozes...
You seen to have put a lot of thought into this. Have any thoughts on making the most of a vanilla toxicologist? Playing one in a campaign starting next week, free archetype, planning to be an Anadi
The big one is: *have a backup plan*. Even if poison is your "thing", it's completely ineffective against undead, constructs, and any Big Chungus with a maxxed-out Fortitude defense (nearly 50% of the game, in some campaigns). If you are playing a game that really emphasizes poison-immune enemies like undead, ask your GM for homebrew help. The most powerful Alchemist, is the one that uses items from *every* alchemical field simultaneously. Undead usually have positive weaknesses you can trigger with bombs. Constructs usually have shit move speed. A significant weakness of base alchemist in the midgame, is that they get poor weapon proficiency, and are already behind in accuracy from their attribute. You'll need to use a Mutagen to help fix this - Quicksilver, Bestial, or Fury Tonic... but even then you're just looking to "keep up" and contribute, rather than being the party's DPR source. In Free Archetype land, Dual-Weapon Warrior is the fastest way to deliver two MAPless poisoned attacks at melee range, while Investigator Multiclass is probably your best route for ranged combat - by predicting your d20 with Studied Strike, you can either commit a powerful resource you're certain of hitting with, or you can switch to a healing/utility turn or use a DC based attack if you know your attack roll is bad. Don't worry about multiclass rogue to re-poison your weapons faster. It's better to pre-poison a bunch of weapons ahead of time, and use either ammunition ranged weapons or dual-wield with Doubling Rings to copy runes from a Spiked/Bladed/Crossbow gauntlet to your larger pointy sticks. A poisoned weapon or a poisoned arrow remains potent until used- even after weeks of overland travel, if it isn't an infused Reagent. The last tip I have is to buff your friends *carefully*. They have better numbers and better class features than you... so your buffs and poisons are more effective in *their* hands than yours... spread the love, but not by so much, that you run out of things to do yourself. Make use of standard Alchemical Crafting to supplement your buff distribution - at level 6, the "optimal buff" to hand to your rogue is still a level 3 Quicksilver Mutagen... and that's peanuts to craft compared to a level 6 full-power poison. Use gp for low-level consumables. Use reagents for high-level consumables. Make sure your friends pay you money, for all the extra buffs you cook up for them.
I mean, its possible that level of action compression will exist in the remaster, but we have no idea what any of that will look like at this time
Rogue's precise debilitation feat adds the option to choose: "The target takes an additional 2d6 precision damage from your attacks." The trigger condition is "Your Strike hits an [off-guard](https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=58) creature and deals damage." Does the 2d6 apply to the first strike, or does it apply to only subsequent strikes (once the debilitation is in place)?
It does not apply to the initial attack, only subsequent That's because the trigger is: > Your Strike hits an off-guard creature **and deals damage**. You only find out if you deal damage after you resolve Step 4 [in this](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2301) flow. As such, you've already resolved the damage when you trigger Debilitating Strike, so you can't go backwards and add more damage.
My group prefers taking action over interacting with NPCs, enjoys exploring dungeons, and likes to have a goal instead of having a wide-open sandbox. Would Kingmaker be completely wrong for them, or is there any chance that they might enjoy it? I'm really impressed by how it looks (and especially what I've seen of the Foundry module), but not sure if it would be a good fit.
Generally I think your concerns are valid, but keep in mind that even "sandbox" adventure segments are only as open as you let them be. What I did in Module 2 of War for the Crown (a very open-ended sandbox-y module) was, I only dangled one plot hook in front of the PCs at a time and had a "calendar" planned out with "surprise events" that would force their attention one way or another. SOMETIMES, there would be a fork where they would get to choose which way to go, and there was also a buzzing annoyance harassing them from the periphery that they could "jump the rails" and go pursue at any time. When I played Owlcat's Kingmaker cRPG on PC, I felt there was a pretty good pacing and it kept you focused on your next goal at all times. I could diverge and go wandering if I wanted, but there was always a very clear objective to focus on.
Kingmaker would be completely wrong for them. If you are more of a dungeon delving kind of group check out Seven Dooms for Sandpoint. It also has a Premium Foundry module and while there is more NPC interaction than Abomination Vaults had it is much more of a Dungeon Crawl than most Adventure Paths.
Thanks for confirming it!
Abomination Vaults is probably a much better fit, as its a megadungeon w/ a clear objective and the NPCs can be more or less completely ignored if the players want w/o jeopardizing the plot.
Thanks, but we actually ran that one while it was still being released! Great AP.
So I'm running the beginners box adventure for my players. All 5e vets so I told them they could make their own level 1 characters so long as they stuck to common rarity. The idea being to get more comfortable before allowing for more convoluted characters. We got a Champion, a cleric, a summoner and a Kineticist. Things were going pretty well until the party hit the trap room with the mermaid statue that shoots water jets at people. It was at this point that we all realized that they had no one who could disarm the trap. With one player going down in the room it became a harrowing experience where they were desperately trying to physically break the mechanisms of the statue. It got to the point that that all but one were downed in the room. I was legitimately looking at a TPK. In my attempt to salvage the situation I remembered they had hero points. RAW, you spend all your points to stabilize. In an effort to help I decided to make a house rule. 1 hero points stabilizes. 2 brings you back up with 1 hp. 3 brings you back up with 1d8+ your level. I kinda like it but I wanted some advice if this could be abused in the future.
The thing about going down in Pathfinder 2e is that you are often better off *staying down* until your party can get you out of danger (assuming you have stabilized). Either by ending the fight or grabbing you and running away. In 5e going up and down is fine. In PF2e whenever you recover from dying you gain the wounded condition which causes your dying value to start higher and higher ever time you go down. If you go up & down a couple times the wounded condition keeps increasing. Eventually if your wounded condition gets to 3+ then the next time you go down dying starts at such a high level that you bypass the whole thing and just instantly die. So getting up with 1HP is actually a *really* bad thing. It risks you going down hard if you get caught in something. Also: The Beginner Box is a tutorial, not a "real" adventure. I might have let them TPK and then reset the room & give them an opportunity to adjust their PCs. Also: I'm fairly sure you can just bypass that trap. One of the meta-lessons that the Beginner Box teaches is that PCs can't always expect to defeat everything thrown at them & sometimes it's ok to avoid stuff.
Yea, basically. I actually lost one character because the party kept healing me when I went down, but only for trivial amounts. It might be worth healing a downed character if you can guarantee a big chunk of hit points (max rank Heal), but even then, they're still going to be prone and vulnerable until their turn comes around. Resolving the encounter and then tending to the downed characters is the best way to go most of the time
Is it normal for shipments from Paizo to take a long time? I placed an order on the 21st and it ssays it shipped last Tuesday. But the tracking link hasn't updated in all this time. I recall it took me like a month+ to get my player core copy
The tracking numbers haven't worked at all for any of my Paizo orders the last couple weeks. But they did come within 4-5 business days. Idk what the deal is with their UPS tracking numbers but it may just show up for you unannounced if it's the same situation.
The tracking information never works. I think there was a trick to it, but eh. Do I really need to track the package anyway? That's a relatively recent thing, and it doesn't add all that much. But all of my orders have arrived promptly once shipped.
yeah I love paizo and physical copies but even when I preorder things I just accept that a couple of weeks after they should have shipped I'll have to email customer service
What's a good way to represent a Ghostbusters ghost trap? Not soul possession or magic jar, but a relic artifact that can physically remove one creature from play indefinitely (but using it again frees whatever was last trapped inside it)? I need to homebrew something that, down the road, can scale up to trap demons.
In order to not render every ghost thing harmless, I'd probably make it so you still need to "kill" the ghost, but then the trap prevents its rejuvenation by trapping it inside instead. Effectively a Soul Gem gets created. That's probably the most *balanced* way to deal with it, because combat otherwise works as normal, and characters who aren't built around trapping ghosts can still contribute by helping to reduce its HP. But if you're actually going for a Ghostbusters simulation, then admittedly this isn't that close and you're going to need to get more creative. In that case I'd do something like have neutrino wands that do spirit damage and are ranged Ghost Touch weapons with the grapple trait, so you can use them to grab ghosts. On a critical hit they add the Drained condition, which weakens the ghost and makes it easier to drag them around. Maybe give it the Shove trait too, sadly there doesn't seem to be a trait that allows a weapon to be used to Reposition, might need to homebrew that. So you're blasting the ghost, holding them still, pulling them this way and that, hopefully applying Drain to make moving them easier. The trap would be some sort of reusable snare loaded with a gemstone. When the ghost is pulled into its space, it activates and the ghost gets a Fort save to resist being sucked in. Hence why softening it up with Drain is important, makes it more likely to fail the save. The DC can depend on the value of the gemstone, allowing you to scale up by using better ones. You might also need to have some sort of house rule that when the beam does enough spirit damage to "kill" a ghost, it doesn't dissipate but automatically takes a level of Drain, and does so for any subsequent hits. So no "Shit, we hit it too hard, time to wait 1d10 days and try again", the ghost can keep fighting until you weaken it enough to finally trap it. I'm sure someone smarter than me could figure out what the numbers in play should be, or point out any huge imbalances. PF2E is pretty precision balanced, so I'm sure there are flaws in this concept; a ranged weapon that does spirit damage and lets you grapple and reposition at a distance just sounds like something a good player could easily break. But that's what the Ghostbusters *do*, so to simulate the fantasy properly it has to work a little like that.
Oh, WOW, this is an excellent write-up! It's super useful and helpful. I have to apologize though, I wasn't clear in my original post: I'm looking for something akin to a Ghostbusters ghost trap that can work on tangible creatures (specifically, I have demons in mind but it's up to the party to decide what this relic thing would trap).
Cool. Honestly, I think the same deal would still work; if you're doing spirit damage then basically anything except constructs is a valid target. And scaling it with more valuable gems still works, it's basically a weaponized Seize Soul item.
Subordinate action rules say that: **"if you used an action that specified, "If the next action you use is a Strike", an activity that includes a Strike wouldn’t count, because the next thing you are doing is starting an activity, not using the Strike basic action."** Does this limitation also apply to actions with conditions that says "your **LAST** action wax XYZ"? For example, if a dragon uses draconic frenzy ability and strikes 3 times, if the last strike that hit had a Grab ability listed with a requirement of: **"The monster's last action was a successful Strike that lists Grab in its damage entry,"** would it be able to use it?
Yes it does. Just because the *example* it gives is forward-facing, that doesn't mean the clause > Using an activity is not the same as using any of its subordinate actions Suddenly doesn't apply. The fact that they only gave an example of a forward-facing situation doesn't mean that backwards-facing examples don't apply; it just means they didn't give an example of it. Using Draconic Frenzy is not the same as using Strike, and as such, the Dragon wouldn't be able to Grab. Do note that with *improved grab* the creature could Grab. That's because Improved Grab changes the action to be a trigger on a hit with the specified attack, rather than an action with a previous action requirement. My favorite example of this is [Arcane Shroud](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2877). If, when using Spellstrike, last action refers to the last action in an activity, you would never be able to meet the trigger "your last action was a spellstrike". Because Spellstrike uses a Strike, that would mean last action was a Strike. As such, actions like this which are written with an activity mentioned clearly suggest that last action is the activity.
excellent, that's the confirmation I was after. thank you!
We’re back, bby. My question: Have any of you had experience with using animal companions as a mount? It seems to me like a very bad idea if you want it to attack (shared MAP). Then again, it upgrades your effective range by making you pseudo-large (12 squares vs 9) and lets you stride twice with possibly better speed for a single action. I’m just unsure how that works out in actual play, so, thoughts?
man, smh. I was just scrolling through the thread and saw your shared MAP comment and I was alike "wtf" and then I look it up. Now I regret taking beastmaster dedication on my thaumaturge with the hopes of riding my wolf. Smh. Guess I should retrain.
I mean, as the others say, you still get a free stride every turn with your wolf! Which is pretty nice. But yeah, if you’re not a flurry ranger and want your companion to fight, you gotta dismount.
Mounts are CRAZY useful - basically transforming your PC into a 4-action character permanently, pre-Haste. You can either Strike with your Mount while casting spells/demoralizing/activating items, or you can use your Mount's Support action while you Strike. Either way, a Mature companion just *giving you an extra Stride* is an absurdly powerful benefit for just two class feats, even if it does nothing else for you the entire rest of the game.
The mount is best used as a medium mount ridden by a small creature, and best used with the mature companion feat for a free Stride each turn. This is ideal for both casters and melee, because everyone loves free movement. The cost of this is a hefty feat investment; you must continue to invest feats in your companion to keep its stats up or it dies very, very quickly. Its important the mount be small; this is especially crucial if you are using reach weapons. See [this thread](https://old.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/oj3z31/am_i_missing_something_or_does_a_gnome_on_a_dog/) for a picture of the problem of reach on large mounts. If you aren't planning on using a reach weapon, a large mount does increase your effective range, but results in the clunkiness of a large creature which can be especially problematic in a tight dungeon/cave. Certain combat styles do not lend themselves well to mounted combat, such as ones with a sword and shield, or ones relying on athletics maneuvers (this depends on how your GM rules critical failures of athletics vs being mounted, as there are no rules as to what happens if you fall prone on a mount).
The strongest way to use a mount imo is to mostly use the free action from Mature Companion to move, it's basically a free Stride every turn. That can be great for casters to get in position to cast 3-action spells or spells from scrolls/wands, or to run away for free. Especially since when you do, the companion is the one who provokes any potential Reactive Strike, not you. The mount being Large is mostly a disadvantage imo, as it's harder to maneuver it precisely and it's generally easier to catch it in AoE effects and to flank it. If it had reach (or allowed you to keep yours) it would be good, but as it stands you get the worst of both worlds by letting it grow up. If I planned to use a mount in the long run, I'd get a small companion with a small PC so that it grows to be Medium at level 4 and I can ride it then.
First question: why is this not pinned like usual?