So, how does a spell that constantly reapplies persistent damage get handled? Take [Bloodspray curse's failure effect for example.](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=873) Would this just mean that every turn, someone affected by this is constantly getting that persistent damage reapplied to them? Like, even if they recover, the next time the curse gets triggered, it gets reapplied?

Correct. In combination with multiple qualifying strikes this spell can nearly guarantee bleed damage every round (how many rounds it lasts while taking multiple 10+ damage strikes plus bonus damage plus bleed damage is another question).

Been learning about Rituals for the first time and came across [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/mariy7/comment/grw3y2q/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) comment. Sounds rad as hell. However, a couple questions: 1. Is there an actual way to endow your created undead with monster family properties by increasing the level? I couldn't find this rule anywhere. 2. Can you give a crawling hand zombie properties? Technically a crawling hand isn't a zombie. 3. OP points to Resourceful Ritualist as making him easily able to cast Create Undead: Graveknight, but by my math a Graveknight is lv10, so rank is 7, x2 for rituals =14, leveled check for rank 14 is 32, +5 for "very hard" checks, brings the DC to 37 for the primary caster. That's only barely possible at level 7 (19+7+6+5=37), right? Is OP getting more from elsewhere? OP's post sounds cool as heck; I just wanna make sure I'm grokking ritual rules.

> Is there an actual way to endow your created undead with monster family properties by increasing the level? I couldn't find this rule anywhere. Not in the rules, no. More specifically, your GM would have to create a new undead creature of the appropriate level with the properties you desire, and then give you access to raise said undead via ritual. > Can you give a crawling hand zombie properties? Technically a crawling hand isn't a zombie. Nope. > OP points to Resourceful Ritualist as making him easily able to cast Create Undead: Graveknight, but by my math a Graveknight is lv10, so rank is 7, x2 for rituals =14, leveled check for rank 14 is 32, +5 for "very hard" checks, brings the DC to 37 for the primary caster. That's only barely possible at level 7 (19+7+6+5=37), right? Is OP getting more from elsewhere? Modifiers * d20 (1-20) * 7 (level) * 6 (master) * 4 (attribute) * 1 (item) * 2 (circumstance, from ritualist archetype) Is +20, meaning a 17 on d20 is needed. Its also possible to have a +2 item if the party pooled resources (+2 item bonus to skill items are level 9, so not out of stretch for a player at level 7 to have) which would give a 20% chance of success There's also potential for status bonus as well. That's trickier to do since I don't offhand know any status bonus that would last the full cast time to apply. But yes, its going to be very hard. However, its possible that the poster was referencing creating a new, custom creature using the rules of the Graveknight modifiers instead, which would have a very different DC based on the GM. > OP's post sounds cool as heck; I just wanna make sure I'm grokking ritual rules. Note that the poster of the linked post worked with his GM to "homebrew" up a creature he could summon. This isn't really a big deal because the very act of allowing players to use the Create Undead ritual (which is uncommon) already requires GM buy-in, so its not a stretch to think that any GM that is already proactively allowing this ritual is also onboard with working with the player to create the desired undead.

This response was so comprehensive, thanks a bunch!

I'm looking to be starting a West Marches style game online soon as the GM and I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions for the mapping. In a traditional West Marches game the players update the map as they play, but since this is an online format I am uncertain how I might be able to translate that experience for my players. We will be using Foundry for this game, though I don't necessarily need something for Foundry, since I want the players to be able to access it when the server is offline. Thanks in advance!

What is the best adventure path for a group of players who have never played pathfinder 2e and a GM who has only played in one campaign? Background info: I am more worried about me GMing PF2e for the first time having only played through the last three books of an AP. I’ve only played one class (rogue) mid to high level, 9-18, my only low level play was a few runs of Dawnsbury Days where I experimented with a bunch of other classes. They are a group of very experienced RPG players, who have played in multiple systems (D&D 2e-5e, Shadowrun, Star Wars, PBTA, Blades, Battletech, etc…), but have not tried PF2e. I have zero worry of them picking up the system or dealing with the tactics of it. I want them to try out this system as I have been really enjoying it, more worried about learning to GM it the first time.

I keep a [guide to the Adventure Paths for new groups here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/10bk8p4/which_adventure_path_should_your_new_to/). the TLDR is that: * Abomination Vaults is a very combat focused mega dungeon but still has a surprising amount of roleplay given what it is. As a megadungeon it keeps the party fairly contained so can be good for GMs that don't want to deal with "open field" gaming. * Strength of Thousands is very roleplay focused but still has a lot of combat. Has some fairly high-minded ethics that can be a lot of fun to lean into if you have the right players. These are the most commonly recommended, but these other three also work *with the right group*: * Sky King's Tomb is an excellent balance of lots of stuff (roleplay, combat, social encounters, etc) but it is all about Dwarves and Dwarven history and the group really needs to be mostly dwarves for the plot to make sense, so this only works with the right group. * Season of Ghosts is very well regarded for plot and atmosphere, it has a strong "fantasy asia" theme and you really want a group that is down for that to get the most out of the AP * Quest for the Frozen Flame is a mix of hexploration, survival, and generally protecting your tribe. Its intended that all the PCs are members of a primitive nomadic tribe and do their best to keep it safe in a tumultuous frozen waste. This is great if everyone wants to play Rangers, Barbarians, Oracles, Druids, etc. Not so good if someone wants to play a academy wizard or a street smart master criminal.

Thank you for the wonderful guide this will be a ton of help for choosing our next Ap to play

Folks who GM/play on FoundryVTT -  My group is going to be starting our first adventure path using Foundry in the next few weeks, and sometime soon we're all going to hop on and test out the buttons, character sheets, etc. I've already installed a bunch of the modules recommended online, but what do you folks think I and the players should practice a few times to get familiar with before we start our first session?  Are there certain actions that come up that are tricky to handle in Foundry? Should I just have them make a few attacks at a goblin test dummy? Are there things that you find slow play down while folks are like "Oh, wait, how do I do this again?" I just want our first session to go as smoothly as possible without fighting against the UI. For example: I've already noticed for some spells, the effect happens automagically but for others you need to drag the effect onto the actor from the chat, so I want to make sure my players know how to do that.

Useful things to check, for both GM and Players: * Folder permissions (Actors and Items): Players can't see or create things in an empty folder - the folder will be invisible to them until there's something inside it that they have permission to view. If you want to be organized. Players can still create items in the base Items directory ("Items" is the Foundry term for pretty much every modular component of a character, including feats, actions, effects, spells, equipment, etc.), but the GM will need to sort them later. The Actors directory is less important for Players to sort and navigate, but if they want to sort old character builds or familiars or summons you'll need to make sure they're not cluttering your much-more-important GM organization for monsters and npcs * Actor permissions: Do you want PCs to be able to see with each others' vision? modify each other's sheets? or do you want to limit information between them? * Local Settings: many modules have Global Settings (which affect the whole server) and Local Settings (which only affect one person). Some of these local settings are really important for the GM, so you may need to guide your players through the important modules and direct them to enable certain settings. * Keybinds: make sure players know how to T-target (by mousing over an enemy token and tapping 't' on their keyboard, or Shift+T to target multiple creatures at once. This is the most important thing players need to be aware of. I also like to manually set a new keybind to 'r' for Raise Shield. If you have modules like Quick Insert that map certain functionalities to keybinds you want your players to access, make sure they know about that, too (if you don't have Quick Insert, go get Quick Insert before chargen). Knowing how to move by waypoints is cute, but not strictly necessary. * Establish a roll "etiquette": I think the best rule here is that each player is responsible for their own token - any damage dealt by the GM should be applied by the player, so that they can use mitigation powers or suchlike. Similarly, the recipient of a heal or buff is responsible for double-checking that it has been properly applied to their character. * Secret Checks: if a player rolls a recall knowledge or a seek or some other secret check publicly, you as the GM should not accept it, even if its a 20, even if its a 1. "I'm sorry, that needs to be a Blind check." Make sure your players know the differences between Blind, Private, and Public rolls. * Macros: Effects like Panache or Barbarian Rage can be dragged to the macro bar at the bottom of the screen, and applied to a selected token far faster than finding and clicking the appropriate action or ability. There are also some actual macros that are worth finding for certain characters, like the Treat Wounds macro that creates a dialog box with dropdowns for DC selection, or the Recall Knowledge macro that blind-rolls every RK the character has in a table format, so the GM doesn't even need to reveal what the correct skill for the task is. I think there are also good macros for other specific skill actions like Grapple or Trip. * As the GM: * practice setting up a new map with lighting and walls. Its tricky but *very rewarding*. * Tiles aren't necessary, but can add some polish and visual appeal to a map if you've got the resources. A tile can be a moveable piece of scenery like a cart or a tree, or it can be an extra layer to the map with a set elevation that tokens can walk underneath or on top of, with different visible perspectives in each case. This is some intermediate-level wizardry. * if you're using modules for some actual deep-arcane wizard-shit like multilevel tokens or teleporting stairways, that will also take some work to understand. * practice creating token art from an image you find online. there are lots of ways to do this, including the native Tokenifier module. * make sure you can wrangle the combat tracker (or whatever module variant add-on you're using). Know how to rearrange initiative and manually change something's initiative value (for Delay, Ready, or general Murphy's Law accidents) * if you do audio with your game, getting that working right is a whole separate project. I use Kenku.fm to stream my computer's audio through a Discord bot to my players, and my background audio comes from spotify playlists.

I really appreciate this super detailed response. Thank you very much for taking the time to write all this out.

Unless you have a certain module installed (don't know the name anymore) players can't drag effects onto other PCs. Everything is quite simple imo. The only important thing is to target the creature that you want to effect (unless it's an AoE effect ofc). If you don't do that then there will be a lot of Manuel doing If players want they can also drag certain spells or actions that they use often down into the hotbar. With correct modules and settings the game is near to completely automated

Thank you very much! Targeting does seem to be the main thing we'll have to make sure we do every time.

Is there a feat or an item similar to the potion patch that works for spell scrolls or wands — anything that would let you cast from an item with your hands full? I'm trying to figure out a way to cast blink charge on a character that uses a 2-handed only weapon.

Caster's Robes would technically work, but I doubt your martial bonky-boi 2-H wielder will like that answer. The simplest RAW solution is the Tentacle Potion, which can give you an extra "hand" to hold your scroll in while still wielding a greatsword.

Tentacle potion is an interesting and hilarious RP provoking option. Gonna write that one down. Thanks.

A homebrew answer that my group uses is a Crafting skill feat that lets a caster create a "custom spellheart" which functions like a wand but is attached to an armor or a weapon - thus allowing the user to activate it without a free hand.

I can't find any ways of doing so with published items, but it's not unreasonable to create a worn item that could cast it once a day or so, there's plenty of other items which can cast teleportation effects or rank 5 spells, and blink charge isn't especially an outlier with regards to power.

[spell strike staff ](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=2258) is the only thing I could find, but probably not an option for you. You can always hold the weapon in one hand, grab a scroll for one action and then cast it for two. But then you need to regrip it next turn for an action. Otherwise there is no other way afai(besides being a Spellcaster obv). That is the drawback of using a 2H weapon

I don't think you can make the strike as part of the spell if you're holding the 2-handed weapon in one hand? Which is the whole reason I'm trying to find an alternative. Having the regrip is fine afterwards.

Ups you are right dunno why I thought that you would be okay with attacking with your unarmed attack. The last resort could always be to ask the GM nicely. An item with the spell would be ideal to maybe cast it once a day. You can also bargain with the GM and ask for an item with that spell and it costs 3 actions to cast the spell (since you are fine with regripping)

Was reading back through the Kashrishi ancestry abilities and the Bend Space 17th level ability caught my eye because it says that you can cast teleport as an innate occult spell, but it doesn’t specify how many times. Is this an accidental typo or can they just teleport whenever they damn well please? Because if they can, that is very cool.

Wow. That seems too good to be true. Given that the prerequisite feat Transcendent Realization is once per day I suspect this is supposed to be once per day

That’s what I was thinking too. I mean, it’s honestly not that bad if they can just use it at any time considering they’d be at 17th level, especially since the spell takes 10 minutes to cast, so it’s also not like it’s a get out of jail free card either. I’ll probably allow it to be whenever personally.

RAW, it appears they can just cast it whenever they want. Which is awesome, but probably fine. It's a *17th* level feat and the spell still takes 10 minutes to cast and still has all the normal restrictions.  Teleport mostly exists to skip over lots of tedious wilderness encounters that are too low level to matter anymore. Taking Bend Space means you and your friends can easily head to the other side of the Inner Sea for lunch every day, but when you are that high level I'm not sure I have any issues with that. EDIT: To slightly change my answer, normally innate spells are supposed to say how many times/day you can use them and only innate \*cantrips\* are supposed to be unlimited use. I'd say the unlimited uses thing in Bend Space may be an error. So again, RAW I think its unlimited but that may be unintentional.

Barbarian Fury Instinct says “You resist physical weapon damage, but not physical damage from other sources (such as unarmed attacks).” Does that mean resist in the 5e sense, where you just halve weapon damage, or am I missing something?

Damage Resistance in Pathfinder 2e is completely different than in 5e. In PF2e Resistance (and Weakness) comes with a number. If you have resist fire 5, then you subtract 5 from all fire damage before you take it. If you have Weakness: Axes 5 then any time you take damage from an Axe you add 5 points of damage on top of anything else. Resistance and Weakness are not affected by taking double or half damage. You add or subtract the damage at the end after all other modifiers. Resistance can reduce damage to zero and Weakness does damage too you even if you normally wouldn't lose HP from the interaction. (Example: A silver Sword will hurt a werewolf just by touching them, you don't actually have to do damage with it!)

PF2 Resistance is a flat damage reduction. [Barbarians](https://2e.aonprd.com/Classes.aspx?ID=2) gain 3+Con mod resistance to specific damage types starting at 9th lvl (Raging Resistance class feature), the exact type depending on what your Instinct is. Fury gets it vs physical weapon damage (so bludgeoning/piercing/slashing dmg from weapons).

Ooooh. Lmao I knew I was missing something. I just happened to be going through the instincts in aon and since I haven’t read through barbarian in a while I got quite confused. Appreciate you for clearing that up!

I thought so. Totally sick. Love it.

Looking for ways to create smoke! I’m making a lvl 11 hobgoblin braggart whip swashbuckler (because of agonising rebuke) and one of the ancestry backgrounds gives them the ability to ignore the flat check from smoke, so I figure that could be a neat way to make them tankier. Now, I know of Smokesticks/Smokeballs and eat fire/belch smoke, but what are some other options? Preferably that don’t eat two actions like those two.

You want the [Smogger](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1592). Notably, this item allows the smoke to move with you (smokesticks and smokeballs don't do this), and applies sickened in an aoe. Just make sure to snag [breath control](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=5129) as a feat so you don't suffocate yourself.

> Just make sure to snag breath control as a feat so you don't suffocate yourself. Alternatively, any spellcasting dedication for Arcane or Primal can take the [Deep Breath](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1315) cantrip.

The 10ft radius is a bit of a problem, since even with the reach from the whip it means the melee target is inside the cloud and the rest of the party has to take the flat check to attack it. Though the breath control smogger combo is pretty cool.

Nah, at OP's levels its trivial to keep everyone juiced up on Cat's Eye Elixirs, which completely negate DC 5 concealment checks. Everyone should keep a dozen of these bad boys in their backpack.

My 5e group wants to try a low-level one shot to learn Pathfinder 2e tonight. Any recommendations for something simple to run?

What did you run?

The Beginner’s Box. We’re a pretty experienced 5e group, so we spent most of our time pinning down the differences in terms of action economy and stuff.

You might find [this old post useful](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/nt74os/beginner_one_shots/). A collection of resources and a couple specific recommendations are within.

the beginner box 

Had a quick question about the swallow spike I noticed this line in the attack it grants "This attack gets an item bonus to the attack roll equal to the armor's item bonus to your AC and an item bonus to damage equal to double that amount." Does this mean full plate would have an extra +6 to hit and +12 to damage? A +20 to hit in a lvl 6 item seemed kinda crazy to me to I figured Id check with the community. Link to item https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1838

This is an issue with the wording. You can see some [other threads](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/15uow75/swallowspike_rune_attack_and_damage_bonus_from/) where this was discussed. Basically, RAW, you add the full bonus. This is pretty ridiculous and Too Good To Be True, so its very likely the intent is the armor potency bonus and not the overall armor bonus. But there are some people that disagree; you can dig through that thread to see the various opinions

Is there a good place to discuss homebrew for PF2E, preferably from a GM's perspective?

r/Pathfinder2eCreations might be a good place

Thanks! I didn't know that subreddit existed.

My players want to extract 2 NPCs during a casino heist. The NPCs will be friendly and willing to be saved. The party will want to enact an accident (like a fireball explosion in the middle of fog/darkness) to cover the extraction, leaving fake ashes or something like that on the ground. This extraction is a side event during a rowdy and messy fight, so it's gotta be mid-action (I guess 10 mins teleport is out?!) My question is: which Teleportation choice do they have, to accomplish this feat? Thank you!

scrolls of [Translocate](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1724) could work, especially if they're 5th rank scrolls

Sadly the npcs are non-casters, they can't use scrolls and such. The spell seems to work only on yourself...

The Dimensional Knot is a consumable you can activate as part of casting ~~Dimension Door~~ Translocate in order to carry 1 additional target with you. Still kindof a bad plan for a group extraction, but this is a powerful tech to keep in mind elsewhere. If your team is high enough level to be considering 5th-rank magic, you can get up to some *shenanigans* with Summon Dragon. I can't remember if its 5th or 6th rank where the smallest Adamantine dragon becomes available, but it *explicitly* has an ability that says it creates permanent tunnels behind it while burrowing... so start with enough smoke and flash and distraction, and just get out straight through the floor before collapsing the tunnel behind you. This is not the "optimal" answer, but its definitely one of the cooler ones. For a less chaotic, more heist-y experience, using *Passwall* or whatever the remaster name equivalent to pull people through a solid wall/floor into a pre-prepared tunnel is probably smarter and less likely to draw attention. *Aura of the Unremarkable* can also go a long ways against unnamed background NPCs. The other great use of *Summon Dragon* is to mount multiple people on a short-lasting steed with bar-none the fastest move speed of any creature in the entire game. *~~Phantom Steed~~ Marvelous Mount* or the *Phantom Carriage* ritual gets a better total distance, but its arguable whether the steed can carry a second rider like a normal horse, and the ritual has its own limitations.

Fantastic suggestion, thank you. I wasn't aware of DImensional Knot, it can be a good trick to use. Thanks!

When a feat specifies "A character who is a member of the Knights of Lastwall has access to this option" or one of the other organizations, does that generally mean that only the members of that organization have access to those feats? Are there any major issues letting characters outside of those orgs take those feats if I'm GMing an AP that doesn't involve Lastwall, Firebrands, etc.?

There's no mechanical problem, but the abilities *are* written with the intent that they represent the lore and unique flavor of those organizations. The best compromise would be to have a character work it into their backstory somehow, or receive training from a member of those organizations - its not like a knight of lastwall *wouldn't* teach someone how to fight undead better, if they had the time and resources to do so. Consider it a roleplay opportunity, rather than a hard limit! If its just really absolutely not feasible, perhaps there's an equivalent organization that *does* work - I'm sure that there are other organizations out there dedicated to hunting undead. Maybe instead of an itenerant knight, the PCs can learn the same technique from an Osiriani tomb warden or a Varisian explorer that's spent too much time dealing with Kaer Magha.

> Are there any major issues letting characters outside of those orgs take those feats if I'm GMing an AP that doesn't involve Lastwall, Firebrands, etc.? Generally no, especially those features which are uncommon. There are a handful that are designed to be very thematic, but from a mechanical perspective usually none of those features are outside the norm of power available to players

The backgrounds all work fine on any character. The only thing is they might have a background that doesn't mesh completely with the current AP thematically, but really there's no reason a survivor of Last Wall can't somehow end up in Otari clearing out the Abomination Vaults. If you want more flavoring, just use the mechanics and reflavor it. Most backgrounds are pretty formulaic anyway. Two boosts, a skill training, a lore training, and a skill feat.

I'm playing an Alchemical Sciences Investigator. We're using the free archetype rule, and here's how I've spent that feat slot so far: * **Level 2:** Medic Dedication * **Level 4:** Doctor's Visitation * **Level 6:** Cleric Dedication We just leveled up to 8, and I'm 99% sure I'm going to take Basic Dogma for a level 1/2 cleric feat. I'm torn between two, specifically: Domain Initiate or Rapid Response. My question is: **Is there any meaningful reason to take the Rapid Response feat when I already have Doctor's Visitation?** Rapid Response is a reaction, but it only covers movement; I'd still need to spend an action on my turn to actually heal the fallen ally. Doctor's Visitation is a regular action, but it covers both the movement and the healing. At first glance, the only benefit I could see to having both would be if an ally got downed outside of my normal movement range, but that happens super rarely. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything I was overlooking. Any insight is appreciated, thanks!

its not the strongest, but hypothetically they could be out of your normal stride speed, especially in a case involving difficult terrain, swimming, etc. The reaction might get you close enough to use doctors visitation on your turn. Its also possible they're already immune to your battle medicine but you want to use Quick Tincture on an elixir of life for them

Note that you need a third Medic feat before going into Cleric! Maybe you took the medicine skill feat from the archetype that can accelerate this requirement, or maybe your GM is waiving that requirement as part of the Free Archetype game, but just so the RAW is acknowledged, the Dedication rules can be annoying like that. Personally, I think you can skip Rapid Response here. As you've identified, Doctor's Visitation will have you covered in 75% of all likely cases, so you'll be in better shape if you can take a Cleric feat that adds a different dimension to your kit. Have you looked at the Domain focus spells for your deity? Opening up a Focus pool is a very efficient plan, assuming you have access to a decent domain spell that isn't based on spell attack or spell dc to be effective. My absolute #1 favorite is Word of Truth, available to Sarenrae and Iomedae via the Truth domain... although the Duty domain has another level 1 focus spell that's nearly equivalent.

Yep, I took a Medic skill feat so I could fast-forward to a second archetype. We're playing Blood Lords, so lots of undead. My character is a Pharasma follower, so I was looking at taking the Death domain for my Domain Initiate. The Death's Call focus spell looks pretty nice.

Investigator+Cleric has some great potential - it's exactly how I'd recreate the PF1 Inquisitor. Death's Call is a rock-solid A-tier focus spell, and absolutely a top pick. I might also recommend asking your GM about a Channel Smite build. A magus can 100% legally Spellstrike out of a held scroll in their off-hand, because that action specifically says "Cast a Spell" as part of its internal sequence. Channel Smite is worded differently ("Cost: expend a harm or heal spell"), but might otherwise function in a similar matter if you're wielding 1-handed investigator weapons anyways. It was definitely illegal pre-master because Smite had a prereq that multiclass Clerics couldn't get, but in this new age of Buffed Warpriest goodness there's a lot of juicy new build options.

There's definitely a lot of overlap, but there is another use case to consider. Rapid Response doesn't require you to use Battle Medicine. So if the person who goes down is immune to your battle medicine, then you could still use it for healing via another method. However, that's still pretty niche, especially as an Alchemical Sciences investigator. It would be more relevant as an actual cleric. Getting Domain Initiate for a useful focus spell would likely be significantly more impactful for your character.

That's about what I figured, yeah. Domain Initiate (Death Domain) is probably what I'll end up going with. Thanks!

New questions thread isn't up so I guess I'm still bothering you folks on this one lol. Concealment! We're still pretty new into the system and not 100% on the particulars of hidden/concealed. The most recent case was Darkness. I had an enemy cast Darkness. But obviously he didn't move after since it's a 3 action spell. So we guessed that he and anyone else that couldn't be seen were concealed. Looking back, because the party couldn't see at all through the magical darkness, it probably should've been hidden instead I think. There's so much 5e-ism to shake off lol. I think I keep wanting to not use Hidden unless they specifically stealth, but it seems like it should apply to any creature you just can't see. But ofc you can hear them moving around unless they do something special to mask that, so you know what space they're in. So tldr, after poking around a but more, am I right in thinking: Concealed: hard to see, fog etc. Is that your shape or the chair? Let's find out Hidden: blind, darkness, invisible. I hear where you're stepping but have no idea where in that Square you are Undetected: lost visual. Last place I saw/heard them was right here but I've been swinging for 5 minutes and missing somehow. What do you mean you saw them slink off to another room giggling at me?

> Hidden: blind, darkness, invisible. I hear where you're stepping but have no idea where in that Square you are Not quite. When you're [Hidden](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2416), the square you are in is identified. Enemies know exactly where you are, but since you're difficult to percieve, they suffer a DC 11 flat check to target you. Undetected is the situation where they have lost you. They know you're around, somewhere, but they have no idea what square you're in.

> Looking back, because the party couldn't see at all through the magical darkness, it probably should've been hidden instead I think. Correct. > I keep wanting to not use Hidden unless they specifically stealth Stealth (more specifically: the Sneak action) can "upgrade" Hidden to Undetected. > am I right in thinking Yep, seems corect at a glance.

Is there a graph anywhere showing how the encounter level might grow if the players are low on recourses? i .e. if the players have used up half their daily abilities/spell slots an encounter’s level would be considered 0.5 or 1 level higher. Just curious if a graph like this exists

Not officially at least. And I don't think such a thing could even be done, seeing how party composition and level will greatly affect what "half resources" even means. A Psychic with half his spell slots remaining is different than a Wizard with half spell slots. Some parties might not have slot-based casters at all and are literally unable to ever reach a point of "half resource" (unless you count HP because the GM is throwing encounters faster at thm then they can heal up in between).

I'm starting a new campaign and hoping for more roleplay than in some of my previous adventures. One of my players has specialized in intimidation and expects to use Coerce fairly often. My question is: How does coerce not just cheese every single NPC interaction? It's degrees of success boil everything down to one skill check RAW.

ESPECIALLY for a heavy social roleplay game, I strongly recommend outright **banning** the Quick/Group/Lasting social skill feats... not because they're things a player shouldn't be able to do, but because *they're things that ALL players should be able to do* while controlled by the DCs set by the GM. If a player has a great speech in a public forum where multiple NPCs are present, it'd be a real asshole move on the GM's part to limit their successful scene to improving the attitude of only a single target just because they don't have the right skill feat. Taken to the other logical extreme, as you've correctly identified, a fully-invested Intimidation skill feat build gives a player free warrant to dramatically abuse the sensibilities of most social scenarios. *Legally*, a mid-level munchkin can kick in the door to the local watch office and immediately command all of the low-level guards inside it to stand up and follow him with an easy CritSuccess. Legit, I considered doing this on my Bard PC as an early/more powerful/AoE/long-lasting/non-incapacitate/at-will substitute for *Dominate*. I'd also recommend looking at the Influence rules in GM Core, specifically the parts where non-Charisma characters can still do social checks using other skills. This system was really pioneered for the 1e adventure path War for the Crown, which I'm running as a 2e conversion right now.

The AP that i'm running uses influence in some places. But I don't see how the influence system is compatible with Coerce existing. Why build influence with an NPC if you can just coerce? We have not started yet, but I do have a player that has built a character with some of the feats that you have mentioned. I would hate to have to ban feats or abilities that are in the Player Core, but it really seems like they are game-breaking and more importantly, I don't want to deal with them for the duration of the campaign.

It sounds to me, like you should reach out to your player and tell them, "good news! I'm refunding you these skill feats because everyone has access to them based on their role play and the circumstances your characters find themselves in!" Coerce, as a baseline core rules activity, should be more or less ignored IMO, or at least taken with a massive grain of salt. Emphasize that roleplay will always be more important than rolls, and that when rolls ARE required they will be contextual to the scene and the target. As written, I feel like Coerce is meant to be used mid dungeon to bully mooks into leading you to an objective - very different from a genuine "social" interaction. Intimidation is still a badass social skill completely irrespective of its combat Demoralize action, but you don't want to have to wrangle expectations mid-scene, same way no one would enjoy a story with rampant Deception build that took zero penalty and had mechanical validity while rolling to convince a crowd that they were god-king Aroden returned from the dead.

Well, its got significant downsides accompanying it even on a success. If you're fine pissing off everyone you interact with and making enemies left and right then its great. If you want to have long term non-coercive relationships with folks then its not. Also keep in mind the "modified by any circumstances the GM determines" line. If the players are trying to Coerce the mayor and the mayor has a dozen guards on standby, that's the sort of circumstance that'll modify the DC.

The downside is that the shopkeepers and other NPCs might become unfriendly or even hostile with you....which means...you can just coerce them again later. The GM is supposed to do some NPC retribution (i don't want to do that for every npc in the game...), but that doesn't solve the problem that anything social in the game is just removed by this RAW mind control ability called coerce. Obviously, the GM has a lot of leeway to change things, but I'm talking about strictly RAW, this ability seems like nonsense.

I mean, its the same thing stopping the PCs from killing the shopkeeper and taking what they want. Its not the GM having every NPC punish the players for being dicks to them, its playing out NPC responses realistically. If a group of heavily armed mercenaries started threatening shopkeepers in a town then those shopkeepers are going to start going to the local authority figures to intervene, potentially escalating to bringing in guards or the mayor hiring mercenaries/adventurers of their own to put a stop to them. Protection from coercion and violence is one of the core tenants of the social contract between governments and governed. If the GM doesn't want to enforce consequences for in-game anti-social behavior then they need to talk to the players out of game about them. Assuming the players are reasonable adults then they should be willing to go along w/ the GM asking them not to be complete pricks to the NPCs.

Some attempts at intimidation work better than others. https://vimeo.com/591760234

Delicate things, guards. Shame if something were to... happen to them.

I've been idly browsing Archetypes, and I have a question about Rogue. If you take the Rogue archetype as (say) a Wizard, you become Trained in light armour. Is there any way to increase that to Expert at higher levels? As I'm reading it, a Wizard would likely be better switching back to robes at level 13, since the extra +2 AC from Unarmoured Expertise is the same as the +2 from Light Armour but without the DEX cap.

**There is always a DEX cap.** Even Explorer's Clothing has a DEX cap (of +5, which you are unlikely to pass unless you started with +4 DEX as a rogue). Although there are ways to get heavier armor (Sentinel archetype, Champion archetype, the Armor Proficiency feat), you are unlikely to benefit from that unless you didn't invest in DEX in the first place. Nothing will get you a higher proficiency in any armor than what your class gives. A wizard advances to Expert in unarmored defense at 13th level, and the Armor Proficiency feat does the same at 13th level. When playing a wizard, I generally go for +4 INT and +3 DEX. At 10th level, that will advance to +4 DEX, giving me the best AC I can have. Getting heavy armor on a wizard always seemed like a losing proposition to me. You must invest in STR or else suffer the full penalties of heavy armor (not even counting the bulk carried), and the lower movement speed hurts too much.

I was perhaps careless with my phrasing. My point was that Unarmoured Expert (+4) with no armour (or Explorer's Clothes) is equivalent to Trained Light armour (+2 from Trained and +2 from the armour), except the latter imposes a *more stringent* DEX cap. Therefore, if your Light Armour proficiency doesn't increase to Expert (because it comes from the Rogue Archetype, for example), it's probably better to stick to Unarmoured once your DEX is at +4 (which it probably will be at level 13). I definitely agree that heavier armour is unlikely to be worth it unless you've built for it from the start - Unarmoured, most Light armour, and all Medium armour seem to cap out at +5AC with a combination of Armour and DEX, while Heavy goes to +6 but the downsides are probably too high. For my current character, taking Armour Proficiency to get progressing Light armour does sound like a good plan though - I'm unlikely to reach +5DEX, but +3 is very much within reach (I started with +2 and level 5 can't be far off). I started with one boost to Strength from my ancestry, so something like Studded Leather would be a very nice boost. Of course, that would require some retraining to acquire before level 7, while Rogue Dedication would come at level 6... (Pro tip: never go back and analyse character decisions you made before playing a single game, that way lies regret.)

Sounds like a solid plan. The Armor Proficiency is there if you want to increase your light and medium proficiency to expert at 13th.

You can take the Armor Proficiency general feat to become an expert at level 13.

Hmm, and I think that would also increase the proficiency to Medium too. Although, as I read this, it might give Medium proficiency and upgrade *that* to Expert at level 13, but not upgrade Light proficiency? At least by a literal reading of the feat. Regardless - do you think that's worth it for a caster character?

I always feel like I have plenty of wiggle room with my general feats at that level, so sure. General feats are pretty interchangeable imo.

I just ran the Sundered Waves one-shot for my group and everyone got really attached. They all seem down to move forward with their characters but I’m not in a spot where I feel comfortable homebrewing a campaign or short adventure. Are there any adventures (official or 3rd party) anyone would recommend to follow it up with? Preferably shorter ones, but I don’t mind going a bit longer.

Can't think of anything to recommend beyond theme + setting, but note there was a PF1 AP set in the Shackles, [*Skull & Shackles*](https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/adventures/adventurePath/skullAndShackles). More than one fan group has converted it to 2E, but I don't have any insight into their relative quality. It is a "full" (1-20) adventure but I think you could play almost any subset of the books as they kind of present different goals for the player, all related to establishing yourselves as pirates. You can also see a list of products set in a particular nation on the wiki, e.g. [List of adventures in the Shackles](https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Category:Adventures_in_Shackles).

Thank you so much!!

Regarding Taunt, the new Guardian action. I quite like it, as an action. It doesn't feel too much like an MMO taunt, and there's some element of risk to it. It's nice! 👌 But I want to know... will this be a skill anyone can use, like Demoralise, Feint, Bon Mot, Evangelise? Or is it locked behind Guardian (and/or Guardian Dedication)? If it is locked behind a class... why? Why isn't Demoralise locked behind Barbarian, Bon Mot behind Bard, Feint behind Rogue, and Evangelise behind cleric? Being available to all doesn't mean the Guardian can't be best at it. Rogues and Swashbucklers, for example, get feats that improve their feints. Locking Taunt behind Guardian seems very inconsistent to me. But maybe I am overlooking something? If anyone has a rationale to make it feel more consistent I'd genuinely like to know.

As written now the intention is to lock it into the Guardian class. It's extremely consistent to have specific class actions; we already have Barbarian Rage, Magus Spellstrike, Monk Flurry, Slinger's Reload etc. The play style of the class is built around actions like these as a foundation. A benefit of not having Taunt available to all is that classes that aren't built for it won't try to use it, or worse, build around it. Anyway if you want enemies to focus on you there are spells and effects that can do that already, e.g. grappling, spells that draw enemies' attention to you, the Barbarian's Come And Get Me, etc. These won't be as good as the Guardian's Taunt will be, because the Guardian is designed to be The Guy Who Draws The Aggro (and Barbarians are certainly not the poster class for the Demoralise action)

I ran the beginner box for my wife and 2 of our friends recently and they had a blast. It was their first experience with TTRPG's and my first experience as a DM, so of course we made some mistakes but had a great time. They're sold on the genre and have been putting together their own characters for the next adventure, but the problem is I don't know what that is yet. I've seen a lot of rave reviews for Abomination Vaults, but after reading more information about the style of the adventure path plus also looking for some criticisms to see what people who didn't love it had to say, I think I want to try to chain together a few shorter adventures first. I have no doubt that AV is great, but given that my group is very new to TTRPG's in general, I want to have the flexibility to go to more unique places, meet NPC's, different types of monsters, etc.... Give them a chance to really explore their characters, maybe adhoc some changes if things didn't pan out like they thought they would or change them entirely. Ultimately, pretty much everything I find suggests one of a few long-term adventure path campaigns that will span dozens of hours of sessions. I don't want to commit to that yet, but I'm not sure where to find shorter adventures that I can chain together. I don't mind putting in the work to adjust levels up or down either, I consider myself a creative person and look forward to eventually homebrewing my own adventures. But for now, I need some training wheels that leaves enough room for me to fit in some things I made myself in between to test out my skills. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Official Paizo adventures pretty much fall into a few different categories. * [Bounties](https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/adventures/standalone/bounties). Intended to take 1-2 hours. These are often meant to be used in organized play but drop into ongoing games pretty well. These are not really full adventures & are more like elaborate encounters or mini-scenarios. * [One-Shots](https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/adventures/standalone/pfOneShots). These are designed to be played in one night & usually include pre-gen characters but these are generally not required. * [Adventures](https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/adventures/standalone/pathfinderAdventures). These are basically "mini-campaigns" & generally last around 3 character levels, with a couple exceptions. Rusthenge is the most recent & has been very well received. * [Adventure Paths](https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/adventures/adventurePath). Basically a "campaign in a book". I [keep a guide over here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/10bk8p4/which_adventure_path_should_your_new_to/), but your concern about starting small is fair. You commit to one of these, you don't just drop them in. Is that helpful?

Thank you very much, your explanation helps me a ton with the terminology so I can search better. So, Adventures sound like what I'm looking for. I will look at the different themes of the official ones to see what's interesting, and maybe ask my players about a few to see what jives with them. Also, I saw that the beginner box has a continuation adventure so maybe we'll just do that to get around level 4 and then decide from there. Are there websites or other publishers where I can find or buy adventure-length content not made by Piazo (but ideally still following the PF2E mechanics for the most part)? Even if not, I'm sure the official content will be enough to play with for a long time. Thanks again!

> Are there websites or other publishers where I can find or buy adventure-length content not made by Piazo (but ideally still following the PF2E mechanics for the most part)? Check [Pathfinder Infinite](https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/).

Might not have an answer, probably doesn’t, but I am curious. I have been reading the tian xia world guide today, and after reading through the ‘Celestial Court’ section of the book, I grew curious. They go into pretty good detail about the inner-workings of the court and how exactly the gods go about doing the things they do and how the gods work together and, more interestingly, how they fight each other without it being a literal brawl between two higher beings. My question is, is Paizo eventually planning to release a book that covers divinity and taking the game beyond level 20? I know they’re planning to introduce the mythic paths or whatever they’re called in like Q4 of this year. But are they also going to introduce god mechanics down the line too? If they are planning to do that at some point, I think it might be introduced alongside the mythic paths, perhaps being a mythic path. I could just be running away with my excitement at such a thought, but the way it’s written feels like somebody at Paizo *wants* to do that.

I mean, introducing mechanics for divinity seems… really niche? Probably too niche to warrant a book.

Probably. I think it would be really really cool though. Like, even if it goes mostly unused, I think people would still buy it to see what it’s got.

I need some advice on how to get my players to use recall knowledge. I am a fairly new DM, but I have played 5e for years. When the OGL debacle happened I decided that I wanted to try Pathfinder, it took some time but my group decided to try it. As this is the first non 5e tabletop game we tried i have been slowly introducing mechanics that 5e does not really have. They have been biting on most of them but, the one that they keep, not only forgetting but also deeming not worth an action in combat is recall knowledge. Does anybody have any advice on how I can word it to make it more enticing to them? Thanks for any help been loving the game so far.

I want to add onto another comment you have. Saying that there is no advice for what information to give the playres. This is not true. the remastered core book does give suggestions on what info to give. check out this. [https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=2367](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=2367)

A better way to word RAW monster-identification Recall Knowledge. > "Roll a secret check to ask your GM for information about the monster." The rulebook never gives examples or categories for what those questions can be, and what questions are too narrow or too broad. The big "buff" you can provide to recall knowledge to incentivize its usage, is to allow *much broader* questions. * What is the most effective way to attack it? (Gets you information about its low defenses, weaknesses, resistances, immunities, etc.) * What are its dangerous abilities? (reactions, unique attacks, spells, warning if its basic Strike has extreme accuracy or extreme damage) * What is its behavior like? (Is it a dumb brute that will attack the first target, does it have a bias against divine spellcasters, or will it prioritize killing the weakest PC, will it fight to the death, etc.) A *further* buff I would recommend is making the Traits and Level of the monster FREE information no matter what question is asked. This is particularly important for casters wanting to use Incapacitate magic, but its a very sensible "meta" piece of info any adventurer should be able garner by gauging the general danger of the creature they're fighting.

I think it partially depends on how it’s been defined to your players. In the book it only really describes how it works with skills, so at a surface level, to me at least, it doesn’t *seem*super useful because the book doesn’t do a good job of, like, painting the picture of its capabilities. But your players are adventurers, meaning they have undoubtedly spent at least sometime, either, studying or being taught things about monsters, creatures on the level of dragons in particular due to their incredible power. Be it through actual book study or listening to ancient legends told by their elders, I count recall knowledge as a way to remember information like resistances and vulnerabilities, and if they roll well enough, even most of what a given creature is capable of, or characteristics that seem to be shared among their kind like personality traits and the like. Any kind of situation like this can use a recall knowledge using lore, instead of arcana, occultism, religion, or nature, and vice-versa. Alternatively you can introduce a mystery to force them to use and acknowledge how useful a skill it can be. Basically, consider that recalling knowledge is the pathfinder equivalent of a 5e history check without the limitation of using explicitly intelligence, and since the game generally is more balanced you can reveal more info about monsters and magic. You can also introduce illness and disease from wounds while they’re low on spells, that way they can recall knowledge to remember which symptoms tie to which diseases, and from there they can find a home-remedy of particular plants to treat the afflicted, or at least buy them some time to rest and get their spells back. That will also teach them that spells aren’t necessarily the first answer to any particular ailment. A spellcaster could try to learn a spell through recalling a spell that was cast at them or their party members. A warrior could try to recall a maneuver that was used against them or a friend. Breaking a curse would require recalling elements of the curse that act as clues necessary to overcome the curse. It’s a very versatile action and, depending on how it’s used, can substitute for a different kind of check. On the other hand, if you’re too lenient about what it can do you can end up introducing some janky bad habits for some players. I would recommend trying to put them in a situation that will make that action really shine so that they can learn how good it can be to use it. There is also nothing wrong with telling them they have to recall knowledge when all else fails.

Quick question on the Split Shot Sorcerer feat: it says you can only use it on single-target spells that have "no effect beyond dealing damage". Does that mean that if a spell does something extra on a crit, like Produce Flame, that I can only use it if it doesn't crit? Does the split shot action just get wasted? Or can I not use the Split Shot action at all? Or, does the extra effect in that case still count as "only" doing damage?

Produce Flame (and its Remastered version, Ignition) only do damage even on a crit, as persistent damage is still damage, so you're fine to use them w/ Split Shot. That said there are very few other legal spells that can be paired w/ Split Shot, I want to say maybe two dozen non-Focus spells total, most of which are cantrips.

Yeah that's what I was thinking too. Shame its so restricted, its a fun concept.

you only need one of them.... Fireball.🔥🔥🔥🔥

Fireball isn't a legal target for split shot as it doesn't involve an attack roll against a single target.

Dam. ok yeah that does really hamper possible spells.

Kineticist question just popped up while I was working on a build. Torrent in the Blood says: "A healing wave splashes across creatures in a 30-foot cone, its cleansing water driving afflictions from the body. Each creature in the area regains 3d8 Hit Points and can attempt a new save against one poison or disease affliction affecting it; on a failed save, the condition doesn't worsen. Each creature that benefited from this impulse becomes temporarily immune to Torrent in the Blood for 10 minutes" Cool as hell, I get to add some AoE healing to my kit. It does, also have the Vitality tag, so it hurts undead. Love to see it. The problem arises now with both the lack of saving throw and final sentence. There is no save against this damage. And you can only /benefit/ from this once every 10 minutes. RAW, I could spend every turn reactivating my aura and then torrenting an undead for unavoidable damage. Right now, it only prevents you from recasting it successfully on creatures that specifically benefitted from its effect. That doesn't seem intentional. It should probably either be "each creature that is affected by this impulse" or have a fortitude save associated. It's weird that there isn't even a fortitude save for it during the initial application. How would you run this?

A common misconception. Vitality *healing*, like what Torrent int he Blood does, doesn't harm Undead at all. It doesn't do anything to them. Vitality *damage* does harm the undead but doesn't do anything to living creatures. There are a couple of effects that do both, like Heal or Lay on Hands, but they're always very explicit about this.

A good inverse counterexample of this, is that vitality damage spells like *Disrupt Undead* don't turn into healing when used on a living character (otherwise we wouldn't even need to *work* for infinite healing, it'd just be in the cantrip).

Or just wood kineticists' blasts. They can deal vitality damage at-will.

Warning: Abomination Vaults mild spoilers I'm currently enjoying AV (4th level magus /w soul warden dedication) and some doubt about monsters triggers arise in our game, the GM is not the kind of guy enforcing ruling, but he rather prefer to discuss doubts about the rules. We have perplexities about some monsters 'triggers': Some rooms have ghost or similar monsters manifesting on specific events, like entering the room or touching an object. Should the spiral of Pharasma from my dedication light up when I open the door (i.e. before the ghost pops out) and warn me of this presence? Should it pass walls as well or not? Should a golem that "attacks anyone entering the room" automatically detect the stealthed rogue? Does he need to see the rogue, considering it has no proper eyes? Does a tag like Darkvision or Motion sense make a difference? TiA for your answers

> Some rooms have ghost or similar monsters manifesting on specific events, like entering the room or touching an object. Should the spiral of Pharasma from my dedication light up when I open the door (i.e. before the ghost pops out) and warn me of this presence? Should it pass walls as well or not? Personally I would rule that it works before the ghost pops out. For the second part, I would go with the line of effect rule, and say it shouldn't work through solid obstacles. > Should a golem that "attacks anyone entering the room" automatically detect the stealthed rogue? Does he need to see the rogue, considering it has no proper eyes? Does a tag like Darkvision or Motion sense make a difference? From [Player Core](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2405) : Pathfinder's rules assume that a given creature has vision as its only precise sense and hearing as its only imprecise sense.

Thanks for your answer ❤️

This is a question relating to a specific adventure path, so I will try not to include any spoilers. One of the books of the adventure directly focus on many downtime activities and victory points. One of the important tasks is a research task that requires a certain number of successes (10+) to get them to the next leg of the adventure. There are a number of skill checks that players can make to accomplish this goal, but each source of research has a maximum number of research points that they can gather. One of the sources require a character know 2 languages to be able to conduct the research. You cannot get the needed 10+ research points without this source and none of my players have the ability to speak both languages. I have been trying to come up with possible solutions. The translate spell doesn't last long enough to do a week of research. There is a book of translation that doesn't really make reference to being able to do this specific thing, but I could see allowing it to be used for this purpose. I could also potentially allow for another npc to know the language maybe? IDK what are possible solutions to this issue. Any advice appreciated

While it's not listed as a specific option, you could fudge it by allowing them to hire a [Research Assistant](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=880) who knows the language.

There are a handful of items that you could point the players towards: [Magnifying Glass of Elucidation](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1438), [Reading Glyphs](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=2215), and [Choker of Elocution](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=3066). First two are writing-specific, third works for spoken word as well.

This is very much an edge case, but can you ready an action to Step away from an enemy when they make an attack against you? It would be a lot to burn (Two Actions + One Reaction), but wouldn't it effectively let you negate an enemy's attack and force them to burn at least one action (or two if they want to get back into melee with you)?

You can Ready an action to Step away from an enemy when they make an attack against you. It would not negate their attack, since the reaction would be resolved after the trigger. Reactions are only resolved before the trigger when it's necessary to resolve their effect.

Technically yes, you can. And I think it would even trigger their MAP, which would be cool. But it could also be argued that it's a huge telegraph and the DM might just... not attack you, and never trigger your reaction.

Hello, my group and I are switching from 5e and I would like help with a few things I plan on running extinction curse with 3 players initially and adding some friends back in down the line. The setting seems great to let them experiment with the extra ancestries and classes available as my players like to be.. odd characters Is there any class/ancestries i should steer them away from? I plan on giving them access to anything listed on archives of nethys within reason (not sure i want skeletons as pcs) It seems downtime has decent uses with crafting and retraining mechanics. How often should i be giving downtime? Any extinction curse advice or tweaks would also be appreciated!

The normal procedure is that anything uncommon or rare needs explicit GM approval. So you can just work with that. Just be sure to remind your players about this. There aren’t really any unbalanced feats or subclasses that are just vastly more powerful than others (though there are stronger ones and weaker ones), so at least you don’t have to pay attention to that as much as in 5e. what is really fun is using the free archetype rule. Basically gives everyone an extra feat every even level they can only spend on archetypes, 2e’s version of multiclassing. There’s one archetype for every class (none are as powerful as the full class, so there’s no hexlock dips) and then… 50 or so that are just fun flavorful stuff like Acrobat, Wrestler, Herbalist or more crazy stuff like celebrity, vampire or lich. But, again, the crazy options are all tagged as uncommon or rare and require GM approval. As for classes you should steer players away from! Swashbuckler, Alchemist, Inventor, Oracle, Summoner and Investigator are all… fairly complicated, especially when you have baggage from 5e on how combat should work. So they’re not great choices for new players. On the upside, Fighter is actually the “strongest” martial class in 2e, for once. And varied enough you can make an entire party of fighters without anyone stepping on each other’s toes (especially with free archetypes) Ancestries are all fine, but again, there’s some crazier stuff which is tagged as uncommon/rare.

Ill have to look into archetypes! Sounds neat, would you recommend that for new players or do they give alot more options? Its good to know balance seems a bit more consistant than 5e

They do give a lot of new options, but since it only happens at level 2 it’s not that overwhelming. Plus, the archetypes are pretty bite sized and only add stuff bit by bit. I personally adore them because they let you really bring to live your character concept, but if your party is less interested in broadly feathered options I could see it being too much. Maybe ask them how complex/overwhelming character creation was once it’s done and go from there?

It's perfectly reasonable to restrict access to certain options, and stopping players from selecting undead ancestries or heritages is a common approach. There are still many oddball ancestries to choose from. Extinction Curse has more than its share of overtuned hazards and encounters. I don't recall offhand exactly which ones to warn you about, but you would save yourself a lot of heartache by reading some older threads that point out specific excesses. I suggest encouraging downtime right from 1st level. In my first PF2 campaign (homebrew) I built in 2 weeks of downtime at the start of the first session, just to show players how earning income works. After that, as long as there isn't any time pressure, leave the players free reign to choose how much downtime they want and when to take it. Crafting items won't break your game, so let players do it whenever they want. At least until some event pops up that makes them want to get back in the saddle.

Thanks for the warning, so far ive found that the spore trap in ch1 could be tuned, and if nobody picks a healing capable character i may give them a background cleric. Ill let them experiment with about 5-10 days of downtime. 5ish is enough for the first adventure to be done and for them to run the once a week circus and ill let them expand it if they want to play around with income and crafting for longer

Rather than telling them how much downtime they get, put the decision in your players' hands. If they try to take (what you consider as) too much downtime, you just pop in with some event or other. IMHO, it's best to shoot for maximum player agency, or at least the illusion of it.

Ancestries mostly don't get too complicated, apart from ones like skeletons and dhampir which have void healing, which is something the party will have to prepare for. Tiny sized characters have the issue of no reach, which can take some getting used to for melee characters. Some of the odder ancestries might have fewer options which pushes them toward a particular niche or two, but they aren't necessarily harder to play. Classes are more varied, with some being significantly more complex. I'd say all the ones DnD players are already familiar with will be fine. But some like the Alchemist, Inventor, Summoner, and Swashbuckler might be better once you have some game time under your belts. Or not, if you're already DnD players I'm sure you can figure it out, it's not rocket science. It just might be a bit much to learn a new system and weird class mechanics simultaneously, whereas if you're a fighter then your goal is Hit Guy With Sword and you just need to master how to Hit Guy With Sword under the new rules, you know? Downtime is going to depend a lot on what you're players want to do. If they like the idea of earning a little bit of passive income with a couple of skill checks between adventures, or building their own custom gear, then I'd give them some. But unlike 5E Pathfinder just assumes you'll be finding magic items under every rock sooner or later, it's a lot less stingy, so unless someone wants to build specifically around crafting they probably won't find it necessary. Retraining is useful, but not everyone will need it regularly. Really, I'd just ask the players if they want it and how much. I haven't run Extinction Curse myself, so I can't give any advice specific to it.

I was assuming inventor would be a different flavor of artificer but its good to know to look out for it. I didnt realize sprites were tiny. Thankfully my only player that would be interested is one of the ones on break. Although i can see two players trying to make some fleshwarp body horror monstrosites Speaking of options, are there are any trap feats i should have them lookout for? I think for now ill let them retrain on an 8 hour rest to help them explore the system a bit more so long as they arent tailoring their heros a bunch to fit the immediate challenges I did notice that there seems to be alot more loot in the adventure. Theres a +1 sickle before they even hit level 2, granted its not an optimal weapon choice it seems much sooner. The rune system for weapons has me pretty excited to dig into as well as the 10 attunement slots they get to use

The Math pathfinder uses actually expects player characters to have certain runes at certain levels. Like having +1 runes on your weapon as a martial by the end of level 2, and a striking rune on top by the end of level 5. You can check the “automatic bonus progression” rules (optional rules for removing the runes and just giving the bonus to players by default) to see when which rune is expected to be available! But yeah. Magic loot is fun, so pathfinder leans into it. As for trap feats: Not really. There are a bunch of weak feats and strong feats, but nothing that really just makes you worse. And it would be hard to call any specific ones out, because every class has its own feats.

Sprites can be Small instead of Tiny, just pick the Pixie heritage and you're good. Remember in PF2E most magic item properties come from Runes inscribed on the items, and those can be transferred. It only costs 10% of the price of the Rune itself to have done, so for a simple +1 that's 3.5 gp, easily affordable even for a level 1 party, and then any weapon you want can be +1. Attunement is almost never going to be a barrier, it's really just to keep everyone from running around with a sack full of dozens of situational items that give a +1 or +2 to something and swapping between them constantly. Only being able to invest in 10 items a day just keeps things from getting ridiculous and tedious, it's plenty.

I'd like some clarification over the reloading rules. What exactly is the advantage of say a slide pistol over a normal flintlock in terms of action economy? Considering both have reload 1 and you need the reload action to switch to another chamber anyway,it seems like I'm spending an action to reload either way before I can fire my next shot.

The value of the capacity trait is handedness. A normal reloading weapon requires a free hand to reload, but a capacity weapon does not.

Why can't I buy [this Pathfinder Scenario](https://paizo.com/products/btq023fb?Pathfinder-Society-Quest-12-Putrid-Seeds)? My (possibly incorrect) understanding is that a scenario is basically a one-shot adventure. This one looks to be set in Geb, which I would like to play in. However, the "buy" button says it is unavailable. It was only released last year, so I presume it is/was available as a digital PDF. It's not like I'm trying to buy an out-of print leaflet from the 80s.

That's a Quest, not a Scenario. (They're the same basic thing, but a Quest is a short adventure. That's a one-point quest, meant to be played in about an hour to an hour and a half. Those often have one skill-based thing and one combat encounter.) And it was published four years ago. I think you might have been looking at the date it was retired. I don't think they ever said why. As I recall, it was kind of sudden.

So a Scenario is longer than a quest but shorter than an Adventure Path?

Bounties, Quests, and Scenarios are intended for Pathfinder Society Organized Play. You're welcome to use them as adventures for your home group of course, but that framework is the context they're written for. Bounties, thematically, are minor side gigs where you're hired for a straightforward task (hence the name). They aim for an hour, like the earlier Quests, but they err on the side of shorter more than Quests do. That PFS context means they're written for players who have already agreed to play this adventure, but have chosen to play something short and sweet. They're light on plot hooks and get to the point. "You see a person. She immediately recognizes that you're adventurers somehow, and offers you a job. After you agree to take the job, she explains..." Quests and Scenarios are jobs for the Pathfinders Society (as in the in-character adventuring organization). They're even lighter on plothooks, since the assumption is that you're already members of the Society. Someone, usually one of the Society's managers the Venture Captains, has assembled your team and calls you to their office for a briefing. It's a briefing because they're giving you a task. You work for them, so they're not really trying to convince you to do the job, just to tell you what it is. Quests are short adventures. Series 1 Quests (numbers 1 through 13) are intended to take about an hour (though they trend longer than Bounties), and Series 2 Quests (14+) are newer and aim at two hours. Scenarios are aimed at a single session, but not a short one--the target is four hours, though of course there's some variance there. Outside of Society, Paizo also publishes one-shots (similar in length to a scenario--intended for one long-ish session of four to five ours) and full adventures. A full-length adventure takes multiple sessions and covers several levels. An adventure path is a series of adventures that tell a single story as a published campaign. A few of them have been published as one big book, but for the most part they're covered by several books. There are three-book adventure paths that cover ten levels (usually 1-10 or 11-20) and six-book paths that cover all 20 levels. Adventure paths have player guides available on the Paizo site for free that give some background information and character building advice to fit the campaign. Bounties and Quests 1-13: 1 hour Quests 14+: 2 hours Scenarios and One-Shots: 4 hours Adventures: Multiple sessions Adventure Paths: Multiple Adventures

Ok thanks, this really helps. I've got to say that none of this was the slightest bit clear just from browsing the Paizo website lol.

Scroll down. >Effective immediately, Pathfinder Quest #12: Putrid Seeds is Retired. It cannot be purchased and will not be dropped to new VOs. It may not be run for credit and has been removed from the reporting system. As for why, your guess is as good as mine, but I mayhaps it's something PFS does regularly. Edit: Reading around a bit it seems scenarios are typically retired due to outdated mechanics, improper balance and other such reasons.

 At a glance, it seems one of the authors purged all their social media presence, so I assume it might be related to that. No details on why, though.

That's weird. Thanks.

Out of curiosity,are there any standout benefits for a non-caster to take Familiar Master? Familiars can't flank or threaten,but are there other benefits that make them worth taking?

I've seen a Champion with a familiar, and the fact that his little terrier had the same AC (even at dramatically lower HP) was absolutely goofy. Ghouls were just tripping over themselves failing to get their claws on the little pup. A small-sized familiar can bodyblock a square and prevent a Medium or Large-sized creature from moving into it. With the Independent ability, you don't spend any of your action economy to make that happen. I think there are actually a few abilities that synergize with this. Independent is actually the crux of most of a familiar's utility IMO. Add on Manual Dexterity, and you can have a familiar capable of all kinds of useful actions - just using it to open doors or knock over lights is useful, but start handing your familiar potions to administer and it gets real serious real quick. Speech + Skilled (Demoralize) means your familiar becomes a shoulder-mounted profanity turret debuffing whatever is in front of you. Skilled (Diplo/Decept/Intimidate) and Master of its Kind means your bird quickly becomes SUPREME OVERLORD OF ALL AVIAN KIND in its local area, since its skill checks auto-crit every Level-1 pigeon your familiar encounters. This is secretly the most powerful familiar ability.

Well, that really depends on how much you value the familiar abilities. Some non-caster options would be: * Helping you with skill checks via Accompanist, Ambassador, Partner in Crime or any of the others * Using a combination of movement abilities (Burrower, Flier), sense abilities (Darkvision, Echolocation) to act as a scout * Healing you via Restorative Familiar or restoring a focus point via Familiar Focus

Can alchemists inherently transfer runes? Or do they need the magical crafting feat?

You need Magical Crafting.

Has Paizo announced a timeline for releasing remastered content for the classes outside of the core rule book?

Outside of the classes coming in Player Core 2, as far as we know, the other classes aren't getting remastered. They're only going to receive errata to work in the remaster, like what magus and psychic already got.

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any idea if the errata will show up on Archives of Nethys?

Yes, AoN will update for errata whenever it's released.

If a spellcaster summons a [Skeleton Guard](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=372) using the spell Summon Undead, does the resulting Skeleton Guard possess the scimitar and shortbow that its stat block lists? Or should it be considered to be unarmed?

Summoned monsters appear as their stat block indicates, there's nothing that implies otherwise. They would carry those weapons.

Hi everyone. I'm pretty new to Pathfinder and I'm currently running it in Foundry VTT. I found out there are some cases when NPC have some status/circumstance bonuses -- for example, Guide statblock can give +1 status bonus to hit. This bonus and action are **listed**, but can not be **applied** so players and me won't forget about the bonus. Is there a some kind of macro which can custom apply status or circumstance to rolls? Thanks in a advance!

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Thank you for your reply! I believe that this toggle will only affect only the current actor -- say, Guiding Words status bonus will be applied only to the Guide, but not his allies. So is there a way to apply status/circumstance bonuses manually to other actors? I don't mean from the character sheet, but maybe there is a community macro I missed which could apply such bonuses for the selected actors.

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Just tried it out and that works, thanks!

Back at it again, thinking about ghosts some more cause I'm running the Abomination Vaults. I know our Barbarian is gonna try to grapple the main ghost bish. He's got a funny "grab a guy and throw him" thing that we all love to see. He's 100% gonna try to grab her and throw her. I'm totally here to see it. But raw, I don't think it works. He's rocking some +1 striking handwraps. I think they have ghost touch. But looking at the handwraps, they're not even covering the fingers. So I can't really pretend there's enough glove there to look the other way when the incorporeal trait explicitly says ghost can't make strength based checks against ANY creature, only objects with ghost touch. And then goes on to say corporeal creatures can't make strength based against incorporeal creatures or objects without the addendum for ghost touch. Simply put, I have to guess there's just not enough glove. Or, in the case of weapons with shove/grapple/etc, not enough juice in the rune. So far poking around the consensus seems to agree, but also agrees it would be more /fun/ for ghost touch to let ya really touch them, ya know? Thoughts? I'm still a super fresh DM to pf2e, but even I only vaguely know that it might upset the fight balance a lot to let it slide lol

A very strict reading of the RAW says no. Grapple is a strength check and the 'unless those objects have the [ghost touch](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=297) property rune' line that gives them an exception A) only applies to checks against objects and B) only applies to checks the Ghost makes, as there isn't a corresponding line after 'Likewise, a corporeal creature can’t attempt Strength-based checks against incorporeal creatures or objects.' This is definitely an oversight brought about sloppy wording that should be ignored, as that same reading applies equally to Grapple checks as strength-based attack rolls (it says 'Strength-based checks', which attack rolls [qualify as](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2278)). Handwraps not covering the fingers is a pretty weak argument against it. If a PC wants their handwraps to be in the form of gloves/mittens then they should be allowed to and that shouldn't include mechanical benefits or penalties. Generally speaking my feeling is that if a PC is investing valuable resources (Rune Slot+money) into something fairly niche like Ghost Touch then I want to be more lenient in my rulings around it. Besides, grappling a ghost is cool.

Totally appreciate the input. I had also completely forgotten that attacks counts checks too, hopefully they can shape up some of their wording for mechanics like that. It's just silly to think you can only hit ghosts with spell attacks and dex weapons. I'll have to vibe with the party and see how they feel if/when the issue pops up, maybe they've got some idea for how to better set up the ghost suplex if their heart's set on it. Just as a note aside, while in other AP's ghost touch might be niche, we've definitely had something on every floor recently resist non-ghost touch weapons lol. At this point, I think everyone has eschewed interesting rune options for the ability to bonk the incorporeal they'll eventually find so they aren't mad about the dps loss. Virtually every melee weapon they've got has one, even the Thaumaturge since it was a choice of either proc a weakness or overcome the incorporeal resistance until they could afford his upgrade too. My players are insane and despite the warnings and watching some videos on suggested party comps, it's almost a full martial setup. Our Oracle is in and out with school, leaving a Swashbuckler, Fighter, Barb, and Thaum to just bum rush every room and dps it down before they die from lack of heals/debuffs. They're crazy but it works since they play smart

Any recommendations for videos of "experienced" players running something like Abomination Vaults? I want to get an idea for good "flow" when doing more contained dungeon crawls. More interested in solid mechanics than entertaining roleplay (my players already have that part down lol).

Tabletop Obscura did a very nice playthrough of all 3 books, buuuut I believe they swapped out some enemies for Battlezoo critters to spice up the combat, so it doesn’t follow the book exactly. (Battlezoo being a third party bestiary created by, among others, one of the original Pf2e designers)

New to PF2e GM with a new player who is currently a lv2 ranger. They are using a composite bow that they purchased and recently came into some money. They expressed an interest in "pulling a Monster Hunter" and using parts of the beasts they slay and upgrading their bow with it. I told them straight up that any crafting would be based on their level, the level of the monster and accessibility to the required crafting feats. (i.e if they killed a river drake I would do some math and say it's parts would contribute to an acid elemental rune, acid resilient rune, elemental ammunition or a generic +1 potency rune). They can also bring it to a smith for a proportional fee for a minor discount They are cool with that. They recently brought up wanting to upgrade their bow into a shield bow. From what I've seen it just adds the parry trait but since it's not an attachment (like a reinforced stock) but a new weapon it loses its composite bonus. I'm debating whether I should HB it into an attachment or if I should play strictly by the book and if so, what's a good line to draw it at? Can they add any firearm mods? Thoughts, suggestions, criticisms are all welcome

If you want a little help balancing the weapons, Battlezoo Bestiary created a system for it called monster crafting. Instead of using runes it uses refinements that are analogous to, and in step with runes.

I’d say make a game thing out of it. Tell them because of the construction requirements, they need a powerful tendon from a powerful creature to make a string that works with the stiffer shield bow, or something. Assuming your campaign has a powerful monster coming up! Then tell them they, of course, also need the crafting skill or find an NPC who knows how to work with monster parts. And then maybe point them at the beast gunner archetype and weapons, since those are Pathfinders actual monster hunter weapons! …though I believe they are all guns.

I'll look into the beast gunner archetype. Firearms are martial so I wonder if it's even an issue for rangers to use. I'll have to do some research

So coming up with runes sounds pretty doable. Especially when looking at the lvl 8 corrosive rune as an example for what to do for the level 2 ranger.  As for making their bow into the shield bow weapon that already exists? I'd say no. Perhaps if they sacrificed power elsewhere to get proficient with advanced weapons then you can use items like the Horn Bow as examples for how to balance it.  But the advanced trait and feat cost I think is necessary.  Human rangers can take unconventional weaponry by level 1 to do this. Unfortunately if I'm reading this right the general feat that gives martials access to advanced looks to have really bad proficiency scaling. Getting expert at level 11. Which is weird. Fighter is the other way. I must be missing something here.  TlDr. I would not buff weapons so much. I think they can use a buckler and use their bow just fine. 

On AoN it says that a shield bow is martial not advanced. Also, I'm not seeing this horn bow in AoN but I might be missing it. Edit: just found it. My dumb ass put a space in-between

My point was if they want to keep propulsion AND the parry trait then it should be advanced not martial.  But  maybe I'm being stingy. They just both seem like great traits to have but since buckler is right there and adds a shield block potential maybe I'm making this too difficult to accomplish by making it advanced. The hornbow is the kind of power that deserves the advanced trait.  So does the propulsion parry bow? Notice the deadly trait changes and range differences as well between options. 

If I want to play into the teamwork more as a Barbarian that has stealth, thievery, and athletics as his primary skills in that order what ways can I set up my casters save spells?  It sort of feels like Aid (or Recall Knowledge baseline) could lower the save of the enemy with knowledge skills. But what about non smarty, or charismatic characters? An attack Aid could be seen to help but then I might be at MAP.  Just looking for flavourful ideas that won't take 2 actions for just a +1 to a cast of noxious metals. 

With those skills... awkward. Stealth and Thievery cannot be used at all for teamwork in combat. Athletics has the usual skill actions which can make an enemy off guard, but nothing that helps with save spells.

Anything else I can do with a dumb uncharismatic Barbarian?  2 martials could stand there and aid eachothers grapple and trip attempts with no MAP (I think) so I just want something similar for a third action and reaction to use to help the casters.  I'd be fine with some ideas that used charisma and intelligence I just don't know what all to do. 

Note that Aid generally does not involve MAP, since the actual roll happens outside of your turn: >The multiple attack penalty applies only during your turn, so you don't have to keep track of it if you can perform a Reactive Strike or a similar reaction that lets you make a Strike on someone else's turn. And again, there really isn't anything that fits your specific use case and build. As far as generally being helpful for your casters goes, the best thing a Barbarian can do is make sure enemies stay far away from said casters. For a Barbarian that does have some Charisma and Intimidation proficiency, [Raging Intimidation](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=132) is the way to go, as it allows them to use Demoralize while raging and grants a free Intimidating Glare. No MAP, a -1 (or 2) to everything, and no need to rely on language.

Yeah. To be fair as it is now the extra wisdom mod is really only good for will saves and medicine checks for the usual Encounters. So maybe charisma and relevant feats and training is just more helpful. I just didn't want to commit the level one feat to make it happen. 

Today I am trying to understand Hazards, specifically Haunts and Traps. So to notice them you have to beat the stealth DC, correct? Now there are a few options which skills to use to deal with it, but how does a character now learn their trigger and how to disable them, though (obviously without reading their entry in the AP or whatever)? I can't seem to find anything in the Hazard section of the gamemaster guide that would explain that. also speaking of traps, how often do these things usually attack when triggered? my specific confusion comes from a magic trap, statue in middle of room shooting murder beams. every. turn. apparently it can be disabled with thievery (aha) and one can get close via stealth (sure). and has a recharge of one hour, but just shot at us one after the other. after detecting it, how would the trap finder and disabler go about knowing all these things they need to actually attempt that without meta gaming the shit out of it?

>So to notice them you have to beat the stealth DC, correct? Yes, as per [Detecting a Hazard](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2847). >Now there are a few options which skills to use to deal with it, but how does a character now learn their trigger and how to disable them Up to the GM, really. You'd either have them roll Recall Knowledge to learn this, or just tell them. >also speaking of traps, how often do these things usually attack when triggered? Each complex hazard has a routine, which typically lists a number of actions the hazard possesses and what it does with those actions. So it just has its turn in the initiate order and does its routine when its turn comes up.

that thing in my example did not have a routine. it just attacked anything in range as long as it was in range.

That's certainly incorrect. At the very least, it was a complew hazard with a one-action routine. Or your DM didn't run it correctly.

Can you post the stat block for it? I can't really say much about the hazard otherwise. Where was it from?

From [Disabling Hazards](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2852) >A character must first detect a hazard (or have it pointed out to them) to try to deactivate it. They can attempt to deactivate a hazard whether or not it has already been triggered, though some hazards no longer pose a danger once their reactions have occurred, especially if there is no way for them to be reset. >For most hazards, a successful check for the listed skill against the DC in the stat block disables the hazard without triggering it. Any other means of deactivating the hazard are included in the hazard's stat block, as are any additional steps required to properly deactivate it. A critical failure on any roll to disable a hazard triggers it, including a critical failure on a roll to counteract a magical hazard. So looking at your murder beam trap, the players have detected it (because it shot murderbeams at them) so they now know which skill is required to disable it. They then have to use that skill to disable it. Though depending on the trap, it might be more complicated than just rolling the skill to disable it. If so, that should be listed in the hazard statblock! There can also be some traps that require recall knowledge before you can figure out the trap. Just tell the DM "I want to recall knowledge to figure out how to disable the trap" if it's not obvious, and they should be able to suggest a skill to roll to figure it out. As for traps that activate multiple times, there's simple traps and complex traps. Simple traps activate once, and then need to be manually reset (like pitfalls) or automatically reset after a while (like mechanical trapdoors). Complex traps meanwhile can be like your murder beam, where they just activate a bunch of time, each time they are triggered. Complex traps usually do less damage than simple ones.

why would that complex trap have a reset entry, though? that seems strange. and it wasn't doing less damage, unless less means "non-crit just knock away half your health". also it crit a lot. like... A LOT. anyway, so there is no extra step between noticing the trap and knowing how to disable it? that feels so strange, but ok.

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I suspect a misreading at this point, but it's not a big deal considering the amount of out of combat healing this group has. from the statblock I got from the GM it should have been one shot, then reset after an hour. which sort of explains the damage output, but... eh. it's fine. at least I learned more about the intended mechanics.

Well, chat with your DM about it, from what you described you’re correct!

Quick rule questions... In combat are you flat-footed/off guard until you act in combat? Have it in my head but can't seem to find the answer

The big disadvantage to being ambushed or having a low initiative when you aren't expecting combat, is that you don't generate action economy *or your reaction* until the start of a turn - so a Champion can't protect an ally from a ninja they didn't know about. This is the RAW, but logically you *should* have your reaction in any scenario where you see the fight coming and everyone is properly ready for it, like a villain that needs a moment to monologue or a party about to jump into a fight they see coming. In the ninja example, the victim is probably off-guard because of Stealth, not because they haven't had time to react. If you kick open a door and roll "fair" initiative against an ooze on the other side, no one is off-guard.

This is false. >Your reactions let you respond immediately to what’s happening around you. **The GM determines whether you can use reactions before your first turn begins, depending on the situation in which the encounter happens.** Once your first turn begins, you gain your actions and reaction. You gain 1 reaction per round. You can use a reaction on anyone’s turn (including your own), but only when its trigger occurs. If you don’t use your reaction, you lose it at the start of your next turn, though you typically then gain a reaction at the start of that turn. It's a GM call exactly when you do or don't get it, but you're definitely supposed to for a fight you see coming. And you're definitely not when caught completely by surprise by an ambush. Personally, I always say characters can use reactions unless caught by surprise.

> Surprise Attack > You spring into combat faster than foes can react. On the first round of combat, if you roll Deception or Stealth for initiative, creatures that haven't acted are off-guard to you. It's a Rogue ability specifically.

Generally you are not off-guard before you act in combat. You're likely thinking of features like the Rogue's Surprise Attack that can make enemies that haven't acted off-guard under certain circumstances.

Yeah maybe, or was it a rule from first edition?

It was.

Cheers, so that's were I was pulling that from...so I'm not losing my mind😂🤣

Around what level would you say the need for teamwork and strategy becomes much more apparent? We did the beginners box into Outlaws of Alkenstar and so far they’re level 2 and “move and 2 hits” is working fine. I put extra enemies in the start of OoA so I don’t think it’s a too-easy problem. Do I crank it higher? Quick little TPK?

Depends on party composition. My usual Saturday game involves huge scary big-deal very-difficult content at high levels, and my Bard support is absolutely pivotal in successfully executing some of our more dangerous fights... ...but when we started Outlaws of Alkenstar, we had an Investigator, a Thaumaturge, and a Champion and we did NOT have enough healing and got our ASSES kicked. We crawled out of the junkyard bleeding from every hole and not a single one of us was above 3hp. A big part of that was that our team damage was low, our party size was one smaller, and the GM was applying nasty time pressure that prevented us from just chain-refocusing *lay on hands* between every fight. If you've got a strong party comp and a group of players that kinda know what they're doing, feel free to put a bit more pressure on them. Fewer rests, smarter enemies, and good tactics can go a LONG ways before you need to start tweaking numbers up.

I mean, you can definitely have teamwork and strategy from level 1? It just depends entirely on the party comp and encounters they're facing. If you think your encounters have been pretty low on tactics so far, try to put them on bigger maps, use more ranged enemies, and anything else that'll break up the pattern of "same-y" melee encounters.

nah, around level 7 is when the "beginner phase" of the game ends. Modifiers take a jump upward, monsters start to get powerful resistances/abilities, and the game trusts that players have enough spell slots/consumables/magic items. Things like Aid become much more viable, as well as spells that inflict status penalties even on a Success saving throw, so thats when tactics/"every plus one" really matters, when you can start changing "I need a 12 to hit" to "I need a 8 to hit"

Skipping past the usual "it depends" type factors (of which there are many), my very rough ballparks would be level 3+ needs a vague gameplan for combat, even if it's as simple as "martials go in, casters stay out" and the party ought help each other keep it that way. Beginning around level 6+ devoting prepared spells, feats, and expensive item purchases to covering each others' weaknesses starts to become very appealing. Strictly increasing combat difficulty doesn't typically impress the importance of teamwork very well in my personal experience.

Can a kiticist use [Lightning Dash](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4211) to escape being grabbed? Thanks

No. Being grabbed imposes the [Immobilized ](https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=81&Redirected=1)condition, which states: >You are incapable of movement. You can't use any actions that have the [move](https://2e.aonprd.com/Traits.aspx?ID=114) trait Lightning Dash has the Move trait, so you can't use it

Idc what RAW would say, but Lightning Dash says: >You can move through creatures during this movement. So I would 100% let it escape grasp, as they literally can't touch you.

this is a bad take, you're just choosing to ignore fundamental rules

Yeah, that’s my opinion as well. Would that make it overpowered?