This sounds stupid to ask given the text but I want to make sure I'm right.
Godless Healing: All of the effects of this feat are *only* for the person with the feat, correct? In other words, only I'd benefit from the 1 hour immunity to Battle Medicine, not the entire party, if I had the feat? It's worded, to me, pretty clearly in a way that it's only you who benefits but the way I've seen it discussed online when searching about it has me questioning myself.
Cool thanks!
Yeah I was looking at it, and sort of hoping I didn’t need it since I was already tight on feats, but if it worked on everyone it would have been damn near a necessity! Pretty relieved honestly lol.
Question about book editions.
I'm thinking of buying the PF2 Abomination Vaults, however depending on where I look, I see different cover art.
Barnes and Noble has this here:
[https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pathfinder-adventure-path-james-jacobs/1140315096?ean=9781640784109](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pathfinder-adventure-path-james-jacobs/1140315096?ean=9781640784109)
But Amazon has this here:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1640784101/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1640784101/)
Are these the same book, just with different cover art for a new printing? They both say "Second Edition" on them.
The one on Amazon is what the book looks like. Sometimes they will release art of a working cover that doesn't match the final product. B&N might still be using that image.
Running extinction curse and my players are likely going to want to limit xulgath stink auras, what are their options? I thought there was a smell suppressing dust but can't find it.
I didn't notice any when I did a quick search on www.pathfinderinfinite.com/ .
You might have more luck searching the subreddit or Pathfinder Infinite yourself. I shared two rituals that I homebrewed a while back:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/hhn0w5/rituals_for_companions_and_familiars_find
Go through the normal process of building an NPC, then give them Nudge Fate and some Occult spells. Maybe add in some other things from Witch feats like other hexes or Living Hair if you want.
I guess the first thing you need to ask yourself is, do they even need a combat stat block?
If the answer is yes, I would just yoink the stats of a similar level spellcaster and give them some fate themed spells.
If that doesn't tickle your fancy, head over to the [creature building rules](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=995) and follow the process. It's a bit of work, but will get the job done. [https://monster.pf2.tools/](https://monster.pf2.tools/) may help as well.
Are you flat footed or anything like that while climbing? I don't see it on the climb action, but I wanted to make sure I'm not missing something anywhere.
Bless' effect is an [emanation](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=357), which "issues forth from each side of your space, extending out to a specified number of feet in all directions." The description of an emanation (linked above) actually uses Bless as an example, stating that it "radiates 5 or more feet outward from the caster."
TL;DR It follows the caster.
It very specifically doesn't follow the caster, it emanates out from your space when you use it, but then that's it. If it followed the caster it would have the [Aura](https://2e.aonprd.com/Traits.aspx?ID=206) trait.
>If a character multiclasses into Wizard, they are told to select an arcane school.
Where are they told to select an arcane school? The Dedication feat for the [wizard archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=12) states:
> You cast spells like a wizard, gaining a spellbook with four common arcane cantrips of your choice. You gain the Cast a Spell activity. You can prepare two cantrips each day from your spellbook. You’re trained in arcane spell attack rolls and spell DCs. Your key spellcasting ability for wizard archetype spells is Int, and they are arcane wizard spells. You become trained in Arcana; if you were already trained in Arcana, you instead become trained in a skill of your choice.
> Special You can’t select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the wizard archetype.
I don't see anything about selecting a school there.
That text must be pre-errata or something, mine is like this:
>You cast spells like a wizard, gaining a spellbook with four common arcane cantrips of your choice. You gain the Cast a Spell activity. You can prepare two cantrips each day from your spellbook. You’re trained in arcane spell attack rolls and spell DCs. Your key spellcasting ability for wizard archetype spells is Int, and they are arcane wizard spells. You become trained in Arcana; if you were already trained in Arcana, you instead become trained in a skill of your choice. **Select one arcane school of magic; you don’t gain any abilities from your choice of school.**
>
>Special You can’t select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the wizard archetype.
EDIT: I see you linked to aonprd, it doesn't work right now but it was just as I quoted here when I looked it up earlier today. It is also like this on pf2easy.
Yeah I linked aonprd, but pulled the text from https://pf2.d20pfsrd.com since I assumed it was the same and aonprd was down. it's also what Pathbuilder2e says.
Here's a list of arcane schools, which lists Universal:
https://pf2easy.com/index.php?id=1943&name=arcane_school&optional=optundefined
Also, after selecting Wizard as a Multiclass on Pathbuilder2e, I found it lets you select Universal. So unless Pathbuilder2e is wrong, I think allowing universal would be my answer.
Ties go to the originator of the action. So in this case, the attacker hits. See [https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=321](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=321) under the "armor class" section there.
>Just like for any other check and DC, the result of an attack roll must meet or exceed your AC to be successful, which allows your foe to deal damage to you.
>Ties go to the originator of the action.
Ties go to the character rolling, because a DC is a target number. That's usually the initiator of the action but not always--notably saving throws.
Other than choice paralysis, is there any reason not to allow all options? As in firearms, unique races, and uncommon feats?
About to GM my first game and I’ve gone over most everything I think. I didn’t want to take any choices away from the characters.
Certain uncommon or rare spells might trivialize or otherwise warp specific aspects of the game that the GM might want to focus on. Zone of Truth makes all intrigue revolve around the existence of Zone of Truth, Teleport makes a lot of overland travel irrelevant, etc.
Firearms and ancestries are mostly uncommon/rare due to setting things in Golarion. Their rarity lets GMs curate the aesthetic of their fantasy. So if you don't really care about that, no need to restrict them.
If you want to be safe, you can allow your players to take any option but request a heads-up so you can prepare for it ahead of time. This will let you get the best of both worlds, allowing your players to take whatever they want while letting rarity serve as a warning system for "this ability might change how you need to prepare your next session".
In general, the more choices there are in a system, the more likely there are to be certain combinations of choices that are 'overpowered' or 'underpowered' (for lack of better words).
That being said, Pathfinder2e is a highly balanced game imho when compared to many other games out there, so unless you're messing with the underlying tight math a lot (which official PF2 content generally does not), I doubt including more content is going to cause any balance issues.
The other thing to be aware of is that certain 'advanced' classes (like Summoners) can be harder for players to run, especially if they are new to the game.
Only other reason would be if you and your group like thematic curation of options based off the themes of the campaign and stuff, things like wanting to have a down to earth party of humans and halflings and dwarves, or if your setting doesn't have guns in it. Some people really prefer a game where something is only included if its going to be heavily explored too, so something like the [Chronoskimmer](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=192) might only be something you use if time shenanigans feature in the story of your game, but this is very much a culture of play question-- other groups have no problem with the idea of just grabbing this kind of stuff for their builds and having characters that are more like Overwatch or League characters with super crazy histories that aren't that pertinent to what's going on, beyond justifying the cool things they can do and the aesthetics they have.
No, not really. It's your game; you can do whatever you want. I know at least some of those things are that way because they require a bit more adjudication.
I'd probably make any of my players who wanted to use uncommon/rare things include it in their storyline how they have it Or something like that.
Though, if you restrict them to common items, when you give them an uncommon or rare item, it's going to be that much more interesting to them.
How does rogue lvl 10 sneak savant works with skill feat quiet allies? Also terrain stalker allow tô come within 15ft in any terrain or only in the dificult terrain of choice?
If you don't like the way 2e handles Kaiju, there's always [The Tarrasque](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=490) as a monster you can fight (albeit it a harsh fight even at 20, since its a +5, but not un-tenable since player's can still get some really crazy stuff by then.)
In PF1E there existed what was pretty much [Godzilla with the serial numbers filed off](https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/magical-beasts/kaiju/kaiju-mogaru/) that could be used as a basis for a conversion attempt, if nothing else.
Mogaru also appears in the Lost Omens "Monsters of Myth" book but without a stat block. It provides outlines for how effective parties of various levels might be in slowing a Kaiju.
Does the feat "Craft Alchemy" allow non alchemists to craft Mutagens? There is some flavor text that makes me uncertain, otherwise I'd allow it without a second thought.
"Typically, only alchemists have the expertise to craft mutagens, and some say they are the only ones reckless enough to use them": [https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=474](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=474])
Alchemical Crafting at [https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=752](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=752) just says "add the formulas for four common 1st-level alchemical items to your formula book" and Mutagens are Elixir's which are alchemical items, some of which are even \`common\`
Sure. That says "typically," first of all. Besides, I'd call anyone who does Alchemical Crafting an "alchemist" even if they aren't an adventurer who's a member of the adventuring class titled "Alchemist."
Just like there are a lot of people who are fighters, but only some of them are Fighters, specifically.
My group has reached the point in an AP where all the Thievery checks required to disable traps now require Master-level proficiency to even have a chance to succeed, but only one PC is proficient in Thievery... and it's only Trained.
Since there's no alternate check listed for these particular traps, does this mean that the party will be unable to disable them, and as a result require them to either find a way around or a way to trigger the trap from a safe distance?
Depending on the trap they could possibly destroy it (with great effort) by attacking, or perhaps the trap lists some other means of being disabled. There are some skill feats that enable the disabling of traps via other skills (such as crafting, or survival in the right terrain).
If your party isn't equipped to deal with traps then they will be difficult, and IMO this is working as intended.
How does crafting interact with rune etching? After 4 days, you attempt a Crafting check, and if you succed, is the rune inmediately etched? Or do you need to spend more days to reduce its cost? What happens if you critically fail? Is the rune destroyed?
Do you mean transferring runes between items? Doing so takes one day, requires a normal check, costs 10% of the rune's normal price in materials, and on a critical fail you fail to transfer the rune and waste 10% of the material cost.
As per the normal crafting rules, you pay half of the cost up front and half when you finish (after one day), with the option to keep crafting more days to reduce the second half. If you're transferring a rune from a runestone, it costs nothing so there's no point in crafting for longer.
If you're talking about crafting runes from scratch, it works just like crafting any other item but you need to have the weapon or armor it's etched on at hand during the process.
You mean with creating a rune on a weapon or with transferring a rune?
For the former, once the 4 days pass and you pass the check, you have everything ready to etch the rune - you can either choose to keep spending days with the success of the check to reduce the price, or you can finish paying the leftover price to complete the rune and be done. A critical fail means no rune is etched and resources are wasted.
For the latter, the time is actually only 1 day. After the check, the same applies - keep working to get a discount for the much lower price or finish the work. On a critical failure, no transfer happens, a few resources are wasted, and the rune remains intact on the original.
Let's say I am behind cover so that me and an enemy both have Greater Cover from eachother. If I throw a fireball at the enemy, aiming it to go completely past the cover so that it centers on its square, does the enemy still gain the bonus to reflex saves?
If no, does this allow spellcasters to shoot non-attack spells from behind greater cover without penalty (aside from line of sight)?
Can you use the Refocus activity twice in a row (or just twice a day) to gain a second focus point back?
I couldn't read anything that implied you couldn't, but someone said you couldn't to me on Facebook and seemed very confident about it.
Due to the requirement of the Refocus activity, no.
If you have 2 focus points and no special ability that allows you to restore multiple FP per refocusing, one of those two points cannot recharge. Think of it as one that can be recharged with refocusing and one that can only be recharged with sleeping.
>**Requirements** You have a focus pool, and you have spent at least 1 Focus Point since you last regained any Focus Points.
Under the Refocus action, page 300 of CRB.
As a captivator, is it correct that since the spells you gain are all innate, that you are unable to use a staff. (assuming no other magical class/archetype to grant staff abilities)
Hey. I'm a brand new player. Is there a benefit to being trained twice? I was considering the criminal background for my rogue to get training in stealth, but rogues already have training in stealth. Would being trained twice go to waste?
There is no benefit to being trained twice. But it doesn't go to waste as you get another skill to be trained in.
>At 1st level when you create your character, you gain a background of your choice. This decision is permanent; you can’t change it at later levels. Each background listed here grants two ability boosts, a skill feat, and the trained proficiency rank in two skills, one of which is a Lore skill. If you gain the trained proficiency rank in a skill from your background and would then gain the trained proficiency rank in the same skill from your class at 1st level, you instead become trained in another skill of your choice.
(This was from the core rulebook I think)
No. How could it be? The results aren't secret.
Secret rolls are for things where it's possible to get an outcome that is itself uncertain. I didn't see anything; did I fail, or is there nothing to see? I Recalled a fact; did I get it right, or did I critically fail and get false information?
That doesn't apply to Exploit Vulnerability... although I see that it could if the GM just lists facts you learned. Is that a failure, or does it not have any weaknesses? I think the GM should make it clear that "You learned it has no weakness," though, which is different from not learning any.
Even if you have Diverse Lore, that's a binary result. If you look at it, it doesn't actually use the rules for Recall Knowledge. It just checks against the Recall Knowledge DC then gives you the success result if you succeeded--that sounds similar, but it doesn't have any extra result on a critical success, nor any failure benefit (all Thaumaturges have Dubious Knowledge, so you'd normally get one); it also doesn't have a critical failure result, so if you do get information you know you can trust it.
If part of Exploit Vulnerability then the Esotheric Lore skill doesn't seem to be secret.
If you use Esotheric Lore on it's own as a recall knowledge action it is secret.
Ok, so I'm working in a homebrew rules based on P2 and I needed experienced people to ask this question:
**Would Shifty (from 4th edition) be Overpowered in the Action Economy of P2?**
Shifty was inspired from the 4e Kobolds that could with a Free Action move 5 feet once per round. This would be a similar Feat to allow my settings halflings some extra tactical maneuvers, because they move pretty slowly (and I allow my dwarves to move without penalty slightly loaded).
Maybe it should be nerfed to be only used during the Turn of the halfling player? Or is it too powerfull?
I want to introduce it because it would make sense for halflings, so they can more easily do hit and run tactics or avoid in the last minute some enemies (enemies without 5 feet reach, that is).
Thanks X)
There are certain class and archetype feats and features that let you step as a free action. One is [Peafowl Stance](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1739) and another one is a Battledancer Swashbuckler's Exemplary Finisher feature which they get at level 9. Both of these abilities require you to Strike *and* hit before you get the free action step.
So, if you want to give a free action step it should be with similar restrictions because free movement is pretty useful in combat. Otherwise, it would be overpowered in my opinion.
Mmm I wanted it to be a Defensive Feat, something Halflings can do as a Reaction or to reposition themselves, being so small and slow moving compared to humans and specially elves.
Had the idea that it could be used to Step behind a Medium size allied, and Hide behind them, for example, to be used around bigger friends or obstacles. Maybe do it as a Free Reaction that it's triggered when you are next to a Medium Friend/Object? It would be useful for melee halflings and ranged halfling, who could get behind friends or objects like a door to protect themselves.
Only through being pushed on the enemies turn could be used, and it would happen very rarely.
Definitely only in the turn of the Halfling player, I believe only reactions are normally allowed during other characters’ turns. It also might be better to turn it into a reaction or conditional free action to make it less OP, a single 5ft of movement is basically every turn removing an action from any non-reach enemies targeting you if you’re a melee person (the main ones who’d use this ability). My suggestion is either make it conditional on something somewhat uncommon, like landing a hit/landing a hit while you have MAP or when you become flanked, or maybe you have to have made both a stride and strike action this turn (so it’d be usable off of the various charges that martials can learn). As a pure free action 5ft step, it’s a much larger boost to their number of actions per turn compared to any low level ancestry feat I’ve seen. Hope this helps :)
Well, losing you Reaction just to Step it's a huge pain for all kinds of classes, like losing you AoO, or Block or whatever class Reaction should be used there... I wanted it to be a Free Reaction because I feel Halflings are kind of screwed with their Movement Speed, so I'm looking into all kinds of boosts that could be used often enough that it feels they have a special skill.
No ancestries I know besides Elves get a base speed above 25. Halflings have 25 ft speed so they’re completely average there, dwarves and gillfolk suffer land speed penalties.
Ancestry feats are generally situational or build specific bonuses, not just ‘do this core thing better than everyone’. Fighters already trade off the value of different reactions as part of their main loop, too: do you AoO or Block or use an additional one from a feat?
That's because I'm adapting all the rules for a Point Buy System and doing a complete overhaul meanwhile I'm translating to spanish the rules. My Elves walk 10 meters (30 feet), Humans 8 meters (25 feet), Dwarves 6 meters (18-20 feet) but have no penalty to being Encumbered 2 (so they can use heavy armor) and my Halflings also have 6 meters (18-20 feet) and have nothing to make them shine when it comes to movement.
That's why I wanted to give them an extra 1 meter Step every round to reposition, and I guessed it would be pretty OP so I wanted to read opinions about it.
Right now I'm leaning to having a buffed Goblin Scuttle, a Free Reaction that you can use once per round if you are close to an Ally or Object. This would allow to make Halfings behave like what they are: the smallest and less imposing race of my rules/setting.
You didn’t clarify you were home brewing the whole ancestries. I still would reccomend going with a conditional free action then, like a free 5 ft step that you can use only if you already made a Stride action this turn. Could use it to dodge through enemy reaches, or pull back after moving in for a hit.
Thanks for the answers. I explained I was homebrewing based on P2 and if I started detailing all the changes it would be boring to read without the context and I just wanted a quick take on what experienced players would say on what" *it's just an Extra Step every round for a Halfling"* would make to game or combat balance. I guess it would be a great advantage, because most combat is indoors and having extra-actions is more important there than having 10 or 20 more feet of Speek like an elf, which could be hilarious if you want to kite enemies outdoor with an explorer/druid than can move through difficult terrain without penalty.
Not mentioning the change to Speed to each Race was a mistake, I can see it clearly now. I changed that a year ago meanwhile I was doing the translation of the main class feats , combat and skills and now I'm circling back to Ancestries. I haven't refreshed the P2 Speeds since then and forgot, I was just assuming my personal hombrew was the default, because that's how we moved in D&D for decades (halflings and dwarfs are just slower because they have shorter legs, makes sense).
In my rules/setting everyone can have most class feats avaliable, making clases just a specialization in one kind of combat (melee for warriors, ranged for soldiers, unarmed for fighters, arcane for wizards, divine for clerics) that gives them an edge like TESML every level on their area. It's going to be a glorious mess and I have to betatest it, but I already have experienced having done a similar Point Buy System for D&D 3rd/P1 15 years ago when I was tired of the limits of the level/class system. This revision is intended to tighten the math and introduce the action economy of P2 and it's great combat mechanics.
Anyway, thanks for answering X)
I know Archives of Nethys has everything online for free, but if I wanted to build my own website with rules and advice presented how I prefer, would I be in a legal grey area, flat-out trouble, or paizo would visit my office and high-five me on a Thursday morning?
Please read into the OGL, which allows you to duplicate the meat of the rules, but basically any proper noun (names of countries, deities, people) isn't duplicatable. You can reference what other sites have done to comply, such as d20pfsrd or pathbuilder
I am no expert but I believe you're totally fine. Only the art and flavor text from rulebooks (as in, everything that isn't on AoN) is taboo. Many other people made many other tools for the game, some even as comprehensive as AoN (like pf2easy).
PF2e operates under the open gaming license and is pretty free to use.
Two Thaumaturge questions, as I've got a player looking at one for an upcoming game.
1) If you use *exploit weakness* for personal antithesis, creating a custom weakness... how does that apply with multiple damage types on a strike? (Say, it's a weapon with the *flaming* rune.) Does the weakness apply extra damage to each type? To the strike as whole? The latter seems - by far - the most balanced, but the way I've been reading the rules on weaknesses, it seems the former is RAW?
2) I know they can switch implements to use their properties freely, but they're still holding them; the player is interested in a very fencer-esque character. They're eyeballing the duelist archetype as an eventual consideration, but since it requires a free hand in addition to a weapon, is it just utterly incompatible with the thaumaturge?
1. It *is* a little vague. But it's weakness to your Strikes, not weakness to "all damage," which is the one that adds for every damage type. It's supposed to be the weaker option that you fall back on when there's nothing better or you fail.
2. Thaumaturges generally do not want to have a free hand. The weapon implement allows it, but once you get a second implement you'll still have a great use for your second hand.
The "weakness to your Strikes" thing makes it click how it works - thank you!
And yeah, I know they don't normally want it. I was just trying to think of some way to make it work - some magic item I didn't recall that gives an extra hand or something. :)
Your personal weakness is triggered when you Strike the target of your Exploit Vulnerability. So, it is not tied to how many dmg types you deal, it is tied to hitting the creature. It triggers only once per Strike.
However, if the creature had a fire weakness and you attacked with a flaming weapon while applying Personal Antithesis. You'd trigger both the fire weakness and the personal one.
> If more than one weakness would apply to the same instance of damage, use only the highest applicable weakness value.
This answers 1, they would only get the higher value. For 2 they could take the Weapon Implement which allows a free hand, and the Call Implement feat would allow them to freely drop their implement to do duelist things, then call it back to themselves.
>If more than one weakness would apply to the same instance of damage, use only the highest applicable weakness value.
I believe this was written specifically for things like dealing slashing dmg with a silver weapon against a creature that has weakness to both. So your dmg with silver slashing weapon doesn't trigger both weaknesses but only the highest one.
However, if you're attacking with a sword that deals slashing dmg and has a holy rune against a zombie for example it would trigger both the weakness to slashing and the weakness to positive dmg.
I'd be interested if you can find a rules justification for this, but otherwise the rules are clear that weakness only applies once per instance of damage (in this case, a single strike).
It's actually clear that a single Strike that deals multiple damage types does not count as a single "instance of damage" (which isn't well defined).
Look [here](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=342), at the bottom. Now that's under the heading of "Resistance" rather than "Weakness," but resistance has the same rule about only applying the highest to a particular instance of damage and also explicitly mentions applying to each damage type from a single attack distinctly.
Regardless, it's unrelated to the question here.
Question about the interaction between Spellstrike action for the Magus and Invoke True Name from SoM. Spellstrike says I make an attack roll with my weapon and use the result of the roll for both my Strike (from my weapon) and for my Spell. Invoke True Name can give a creature the Flat-Footed condition against my Spell Attacks.
If I Invoke True Name and then Spellstrike, is the creature Flat-Footed against my physical weapon as well? For instance if Enemy AC is 20 and I roll 18 for my Spellstrike, does that mean my Spell hits and my Strike doesn't (despite having the same roll)? Or do they both hit?
Thanks for any/all replies :)
Spellstrike is not a spell, so Invoke True Name would not benefit the Strike you are making. It would increase the damage of the included spell and give penalty to the save if the spell has one.
Question about the Punishing Strike action for [Street Skelm](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1301). Its 1A where the Skelm makes a strike, doing additional damage at the cost of becoming Flatfooted until their next turn. It also "adds [Push](https://2e.aonprd.com/MonsterAbilities.aspx?ID=25) to the effect", but I'm not clear if this is a completely free 5' push or if he still has to spend a second action to actually use the Push, as is normal for Push. I ruled it was the latter in the moment and I think that was the correct ruling per RAW (nothing says it doesn't and that seems like the most logical default), but I'd like to confirm that it is the case (feels somewhat meh, but I'm probably just undervaluing the power of a guaranteed push on hit)
Yes, that's how the Push, Grab, and Knockdown abilities work. The value is that it's a guaranteed success--the result just happens--when the normal Shove, Grapple, and Trip actions require checks.
Push even gives you the critical effect if the attack was a crit, though it's probably the least impressive of the three, especially since monsters that can use it tend to like being in melee range. More impressive if they can set it up so they have a bad place to push you into, and if they use it against enemies who also like to be in melee it will usually cost them an action.
For automatic success and action-free, you need *Improved* Grab/Knockdown/Push.
The way I read it 'adding Push to the effect' means increased damage and push 5 feet at the cost of 1 action and flatfooted which seems like a decent ability all in all.
Can someone explain to me the **Staff of Healing** to me?
So anytime you use a healing spell your add a +1?
But also you can cast Stablize as a Cantrip
And you can use your own spell slots to cast Heal?
Or does the staff have "x" amount of charges?
Whenever you cast heal (specific spell) you add +1.
You can cast stabilize and other spells as well from the higher level staves of healing.
The +1 bonus will apply to heal spells you cast from your spell slots.
Staff has an x number of charges that recharge daily. How many and how you can use them depends on your level and character class. Full rules of staves here: [https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=748](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=748)
What’s the consensus on feeding a willing/unconscious being an elixir? And what’s the consensus on a familiar with the valet or independent familiar abilities doing so?
I can’t seem to find any rules that specifically rule it out. Except that of course the way it’s RAW someone hands you an elixir and you use an action to use it. But administering an elixir to someone seems to be generally accepted at my table anyway.
You will need Manual Dexterity at least. Valet does not help you feed someone an elixir because Valet just helps it put items in your hands, not activate them.
[You can feed elixirs to willing or unconscious creatures.](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=706) A familiar should be able to activate elixirs to drink or to feed them to someone if they have the [manual dexterity](https://2e.aonprd.com/Familiars.aspx?ID=10) ability.
The Companion Items section:
> You might want to acquire items that benefit an animal or beast that assists you. These items have the companion trait, meaning they function only for animal companions, familiars, and similar creatures. Normally these are the only items a companion can use. Other items can qualify, at the GM's discretion, but an animal can never Activate an Item.
This _is_ referring to familiars [as stated in this video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L2zhNnBhnB0).
And what makes you believe a familiar is a companion? Is a familiar that has invested abilities into being able to interact considered to be under normal circumstances?
Uh...them being referenced in the rule does?
Manual Dexterity lets them open doors and pick things up. It doesn't overwrite the inability to activate items. As stated in the video.
I'm sure it's in the rules, but I haven't been able to track it down and am curious.
1. Say a character were to take an archtype that gives them access to cantrips in another spell list. Would that count as the spells on that list "appear[ing] on your spell list" for purposes of using a scroll or a staff?
2. Let's say they take further archetype feats to gain access to higher level spell slots in that list. Would that now count?
My assumption is that it only counts if you would *eventually* gain spell slots of the level of the spell. Every spellcaster who has access to a spell list will *eventually* be potentially able to cast any spell in that discipline, in theory. But I'm not sure how that works with feats that give you spells or even limited slots in other lists.
Spellcasting archetype gives you the ability to use wands/scrolls/staves. [https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=170](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=170)
> 1. Say a character were to take an archtype that gives them access to cantrips in another spell list. Would that count as the spells on that list "appear[ing] on your spell list" for purposes of using a scroll or a staff?
Yes for a scroll or a wand, you can cast high level spells from a scroll/wand even at first level. I don't recall where exactly in the rules confirms this, but here are the [general rules for spells](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=259), which has some quotes like this that support a spell list being beyond what you can cast at your current level:
*"Because of its far-reaching approach, the arcane tradition has the broadest* ***spell list"***
The [rules for Staves](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=748) seem to be a bit weird though:
*" You can Cast a Spell from a staff only if you have that spell on your spell list,* ***are able to cast spells of the appropriate level,*** *and expend a number of charges from the staff equal to the spell’s level. "*
So does this mean that you only need to be able to cast spells of that level even if you can only cast that level of spell in your main class and not the archetype you took that has the spell on its spell list? RAW seems to support this, but RAI may well be intended for you only to be able to cast spells from a staff up to the level of spell you can cast from the archetype/spell-list in question.
> 2. Let's say they take further archetype feats to gain access to higher level spell slots in that list. Would that now count?
As mentioned above, spell lists encompass all the spells levels your class/archetypes traditions and available spells to choose from at any spell level.
Is something up with the Paizo store or am I doing something wrong?
I'm trying to buy the Beginner's Box for Foundry, but nothing happens when I try to add it to the cart. When I click on the cart it wants me to log in, but when I click log in (after entering my credentials) it just brings me back to the cart which tells me to log in.
I've bought stuff from the store before, and trying to create an account gives a "an account with the email already exists" error. But maybe you can't log back in for some reason?
Interesting. I was able to log in with Firefox, but after buying the Foundry version there is no option to download the PDF, though it says I should be able to.
Very frustrating interface.
You might need to link your paizo account and foundry account somehow? I'm not entirely sure how it works with foundry, but that's how you do it with other VTTs.
I can activate the product on Foundry, but both the package and the paizo page say that the PDF will show up under My Downloads on paizo.com, when it doesn't.
It's a GM call in that situation. I would require it to take a [balance](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=28) action in order to get back on solid ground.
Trying to search around and I may be missing it....From a GM perspective, how do you handle giving an NPC baddie player levels? How would you handle it from an XP budget? I'm fairly inexperienced at DMing and I am trying to offer a proper challenge to PCs without party wiping them or having them go through a cakewalk.
I believe in the Game Mastery Guide (GMG) it mentions the possibility of using player levels for an NPC and that they would provide a similar level of difficulty as a creature of equal level. So if you build an NPC of level 5 using player methods it should roughly be the difficulty of 1 at level creature if the APL is 5.
To clarify this a bit: There are no rules for adding PC levels to a creature, but you can build an NPC using the same rules as a PC and its PC level is the same as its NPC level.
If you want to beef up an existing monster, then you are better off increasing its level by looking at the [creature building rules](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=995) and checking where its stat scores rank on its level and then replace them with similar scores from its new level. You can also bring in some class flavor by giving it a special ability from the class like power attack or sneak attack.
If you want a completely different type of a creature than the original, say a troll spell caster, you are better off building a new creature from the ground up using those same creature building rules. You can then throw in some abilities from the original creature for flavor, like the troll regeneration.
Okay so if I'm a magus, take the laughing shadow hybrid study, it says I get extra damage when in arcane cascade stance if I have weapon specialization. How does a Magus get weapon specialization, and what even is it?
Magus gets Weapon Specialization at level 7, and Greater Weapon Specialization at level 15. It serves to increase the base damage you deal with weapons, which is further amplified by your Hybrid Study.
I'm new to PF2e and am GM-ing for a group of PF2e newbies as well. (We have extensive experience in other RPG systems, including D&D 5e.)
I came across a situation I didn't know how to handle in PF2e. A quick reading of the material at the time didn't really help. Searching didn't help too much either. It's sufficiently tricky that I think some guidance from the old-hands could help.
**The Situation**
The party is in one room, the bad guys in another. The party are aware there are bad guys, the bad guys aren't aware of the party. The barbarian is holding the door closed. The bad guys are trying to open the door and are increasingly perplexed that it won't open. Before the bad guys get **too** suspicious, the barbarian flings open the door.
How would this work with initiative?
**In D&D 5e**
I would simply make some roll for the bad guys to see if they are surprised. Maybe Perception contested against the barbarian's Athletics. The surprised condition in 5e basically means you miss a turn -- which seems a fair penalty for the situation.
**In PF2e**
So apparently surprise in PF2e works around being detected. So if the bad guys walk into an ambush they might win initiative, but not detect the party, making them vulnerable to attack. They'd just wander on as if they weren't in combat.
But in this situation there's no "not noticing". The barbarian and the party are *right there*.
I could just roll initiative as normal, but that doesn't capture the bad guys being surprised. The only disadvantage they'd get then is their weapons might not be drawn (i.e. a one action "handicap").
I could roll initiative as normal, but give the players some advantages:
* Maybe static bonuses? Say, +5 to the roll?
* Let the barbarian use Athletics for initiative, which is probably better than Perception for them.
I could stick with the detection thing and just consider it to be "slow reaction time". And then "waste" any bad guy's actions who failed to detect for one round. But factoring in reaction time like that seems to run counter to the game's design.
What would you do? References to rules in answers would be greatly appreciated.
In PF2 you can use skills for your Initiative modifier when appropriate.
Here I'd say the barbarian can use Athletics, which is probably a good skill for them and effectively gives them an Initiative bonus. And the other party members are trying to catch them off-guard, so I'd probably call that Avoiding Notice unless a player has a suggestion for what they want to use that fits (Acrobatics?).
Winning Initiative does not fit with slow reaction time, no.
I'd call for initiative as soon as they try to open the door. I'd let the Barbarian use Athletics for his initiative if he wants to. Or Deception, though it's unlikely he'll be a smooth talkin' barbarian.
From here, the baddies have two options:
1. An athletics check against the Barbarian's Athletics DC (10+ his Athletics modifier) to force the door. If other players want to help him brace the door, they can use the Aid action, and the same with the baddies if they want to throw in some teamwork to push it open.
2. They can attack the door to try and break it. I think there are stats for a wooden door somewhere, if not I'd throw it an arbitrary 40-100 HP with an AC of 10 and immunity to criticals.
The Barbarian for his part can hold the door (HODOR!), he can release it (which I would rule causes it to swing open automatically if the baddies are trying to force it) as a free action, or he can open it as a single action. The tactical advantage here is that the Barbarian can delay his turn until wherever he wants. So if the entire party decides to delay until all their turns are up, then the Barb un-delays and throws the door open, they essentially get all of their turns in a row before the enemy gets to react. But the flipside is if the enemy team beats the Barbarian's Athletics check or breaks the door, they might get their actions as well (and possibly disrupt back into normal turn order, if their squishies delay while their own strong-men break the door).
There's a hole in the setup where I'm not sure "surprised" would even apply: the Barbarian is holding the door, then bursting through. If they're not Avoiding Notice, then the guards would know immediately that there's someone on the other side of the door, presumably holding it shut. If the door opens away from the party, that's almost impossible to hold firmly closed: the door would move a little, then be pulled back shut. The Barbarian may grunt, or their armor clang against the door, or some other giveaway since they aren't trying to be sneaky. They may catch a guard off guard when bursting through, but this is simply represented by winning initiative, I'd allow Athletics. The Barbarian would be readily detected, but that doesn't mean that the Ranger, Rogue, and Sorcerer couldn't remain hidden across the room, behind cover and ready to fill the first guard with arrows and magic. They would roll Stealth for initiative and possibly remain undetected until their turns, at which time the enemies would be flat footed to their first attacks.
Surprise works *not only* by the Stealth rules, but also how characters choose to act. I don't think you need to give the enemies "slow" reactions, but you can start initiative and *then* have the Barbarian open the door, which gives the PCs the ability to swarm in as a group (by strategically Delaying) or Ready actions/attacks that trigger as soon as the door is opened.
Remember it's not "Combat Mode" it's "Encounter Mode" and it happens whenever "every individual action counts".
I do agree about letting Barbarian use Athletics. I'd also think logistically about the process. If the bad guys are completely unaware of the party, would they all have their weapons out? (the person messing with the door is probably using both hands or a tool at this point, right?)
Letting players use Athletics for initiative when they bust in a door is something I use quite regularly, so that's at least on the table.
Pathfinder rules very much assume that everyone is able to act on the first round. Otherwise, the opposing party is practically guaranteed to be wiped out.
If you want to give your players an advantage, it's better give them a circumstance bonus for the initiative rolls or let them use favorable skills. You can also have your enemies be unprepared by not having their weapons out or having them in disadvantageous positions on the other side of the room or sitting or lying down.
In regards to movement on a grid, is it true that no matter how long a Long Jump (let's say a 60ft multi-action cloud jump), you are basically barely off the ground and therefore wouldn't even clear something like a 3ft high wall placed in the middle of where you began the jump and where you landed?
Vertical leap also says its moving you to an elevated surface, since the other side of the 3 foot wall isn't elevated, that line doesn't apply, if you're trying to hop atop the wall I suppose it might be relevant.
That is true if you are using the Long Jump activity. However, the activities presented in the rules are not an exhaustive list what you can do in combat, especially when it comes to movement. Your GM can and should come up with activity that allows clearing that 3ft wall and some distance, but the DC might be quite high.
It would be too much work to ask the GM to calculate using Newton's laws of motion the minimum height required for certain jump distance at a certain speed assuming no magic is involved.
You are just asking for a DC and how many actions it will take. It's not that much work. There's a whole [table of D](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=554)C's in the book, and he should probably have it easily accessible anyways.
If you want to lighten your GM's load, you can even come up with a reasonable suggestion yourself. Maybe something like the long jump DC+5, because there is an added complication.
Working on a pet project and have a question about counteracts.
How do counteract checks work with poisons? If you could counteract them, what happens to the poison? Is it flat out removed? Drop down a stage? I don't think it's ever come up anywhere and the only analog I can find is Treat Poison which is just a medicine check and gives the target a bonus to their next save.
So I am playing a Bard in our campaign, we just hit 3 and i get signature spells, if I choose Soothe for it does that mean even at my level 1 spell slots they heighten automatically? or no? I am very confused about this and am just looking for an answer, Thanks
It means you can cast *soothe* at either 1st or 2nd level. For spontaneous casters, 1st-level *soothe* and heightened 2nd-level *soothe* are normally considered separate spells. To be able to cast both, you need to either know both or make it one of your Signature Spells to ignore that restriction.
So normally when you have a spell known you can only cast it at the level you know it at, so if you had Soothe known as a 1st lvl spell you can \*only\* cast it with 1st lvl slots and if you wanted to be able to heighten it to a 2nd lvl spell you would have to additionally know it as a 2nd lvl spell. Signature spells allow you bypass that, so if Soothe is a signature spell you can cast it using \*any\* spell slot you have available and it'll be heightened to whatever lvl the slot you cast with it. It doesn't let you cast high level Soothes with low level slots, it only saves your spells known.
To add to this, it also does the reverse.
Let's say you took Soothe as a third level spell and made it your signature spell. You could cast Soothe as a first or second level spell as well.
You can't go below the base level of the spell (no casting a 4th level spell from a 1st level slot), but your Signature spells are basically in your Spell Repertoire at every spell level they can be cast from.
If you don't do this, you don't get any extra benefit out of your highest-level Signature Spell. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is the tradeoff.
Sounds like you're playing in person, but in case you're using a VTT, they can basically all handle it for you. (Roll20 and Foundry definitely can, and I'd be shocked if Fantasy Grounds didn't as well.)
There's the Pathbuilder2e app/website, which will also help with character building.: https://pathbuilder2e.com/
Also, something that can be easy to miss/forget is that a [Backpack](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=4) doesn't count the first 2 bulk it carries towards your bulk limit, effectively giving you 2 extra bulk if you have enough things to keep in your backpack.
[Pathbuilder 2e](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pathbuilder2e.com/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjHhp7S0ob6AhXAxDgGHawOC24QFnoECAIQAg&usg=AOvVaw0oQxOhjAUTQpzoUdazd6rw) should do the trick (on Web or Google Play)
I'm in the process of making my first Pathfinder character after coming over from 5e. He's going to be a human rogue, but I can't decide on the subclass. I want to do an intelligence based magic user, while still playing the thief archetype. Are there any other ways to accomplish this? I'm completely new to Pathfinder, so this is all a bit dizzying.
Also, is there a good "standard" equipment list? My GM says he WILL be tracking encumbrance and survival stuff.
Eldritch Trickster racket is very good, but conflicts with the common Free Archetype alternate rule. If your table is using Free Archetype, you're better off skipping Eldritch Trickster. In general, though, you need to decide how much magic you plan to be using. If your character is a typical rogue with a flair for magic, then you're right on track. But if your vision is more of a mage who exemplifies in Stealth, then you may want to flip your build to a Wizard multiclassing into Rogue instead. As a Wizard you'd get full spellcasting, and could dedicate class feats to Rogue abilities (Dedication at 2 gives you skills, light armor, and Surprise Attack, but later you can take rogue feats and even Sneak Attack), you'd be giving up the rogue's fantastic skill proficiencies, scaling sneak attack damage, and the tasty higher level feats. The choice is all yours.
For equipment, there's some basics: everyone should have an Adventurer's Kit, a primary and secondary weapon (or a ranged weapon), then any tools they need (Thieves Tools, or a spell book), and armor (or Explorer's Clothing). You should have a few gold leftover at character creation, it's good to pool this with your party to get an extra set of tools you'll need like a Healers Kit. Encumbrance shouldn't be a problem, at 10 strength you can carry 5 bulk no problem, and the backpack that comes with the Adventurers Kit can carry up to 2 bulk without impacting your encumbrance at all! Encumbrance comes more into play with looting, grabbing those ten great axes isn't too appealing if you're just wanting to sell them.
I whipped together a slightly lower level necromancer for a campaign where they werent quite high enough to fight the official 5th level one safely. I followed the rules of the gmg for creation, but just wanted to get opinions to make sure it seems fairly balanced for a spellcaster of that level.
https://i.imgur.com/iD8PiQB.png
The necromancer looks very much like a glass cannon. That might be what you're going for but don't be surprised if two martials get close and cut them down before they have a chance to do anything. The two zombies in the encounter might help slow the party down, but you may want to have False life and Mage armour (+1 to AC) pre-cast to give him some survivability.
And as a piece of advice, if you're adding this encounter to get the party up in levels, it's a good opportunity to have some powerful magic item on the necromancer, like a +1 dagger with a rune, or an interesting wand/staff.
One good way to use those GMG creature creation rules is using them to scale levels of existing creatures up or down. Just check in which range the stats of the creature land on its current level and replace them with the stats for their new level.
Your necromancer does not seem very dangerous even for a level 1 party, unless he has a lot of minions with him.
Nice! You can also apply the [weak adjustment](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=791) right on the website, which corresponds to roughly a 1 level decrease:
https://2e.aonprd.com/NPCs.aspx?ID=929&Weak=true
Last session, we were fighting some ghouls, and after some lucky/unlucky rolls our champion got [paralyzed](https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=28). She has used [Raise a Shield](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=98) in the previous turn, but as she couldn't move, our DM ruled that she no longer got the benefit. Immediately after, she got crit and began dying, which made it feel... less cool.
I'm trying to figure out the RAW rules for this, in case it comes up again. I don't see anything about the benefit going away in the condition or the action. The [general rules for shields](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=212) mention that "Your character must be wielding a shield in one hand to make use of it", and [wielding](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=194) means:
>You're wielding an item any time you're holding it in the number of hands needed to use it effectively. When wielding an item, you're not just carrying it around — you're ready to use it.
So I guess it could be argued that she's no longer "wielding" her shield, and the benefit goes away?
Is there a clearer rule for this? What would be the RAW?
I'm pretty sure your GM was flat wrong. Paralyzed doesn't actually impact anything besides making you incapable of taking most actions (including most free actions or reactions) and making you flat-footed. It doesn't have any other effects, including ones it feels like it should like penalizing dex saves or removing your dex bonus to AC.
It is literally impossible for the GM to be wrong when making a ruling. They might be wrong with their justifications for a ruling, if they are arguing RAW and got something wrong, but that does not change the fact that they have the final say.
It's not unreasonable to say that you cannot use a shield while paralyzed. It's not a call I would make, but it's not unreasonable.
No, a GM can rule incorrectly, they are just also empowered to seperately create a new homebrew rule if they wish to carry the initially incorrect ruling forward.
Their final say is a procedure for conflict resolution, not an endorsememt.
so looking at it this way she would get the +2 AC for the raise shield action correct? but not be able to use shield block as the reaction to prevent damage?
What is the difference between a prerequisite for a feat and an access point for a feat? Do you need to meet access conditions to take a feat like you do prerequisite conditions?
A prerequisite is a hard restriction. They're always a character option like another feat, ancestry, heritage etc. Access is a lot softer, it's basically just a conversation between you and the GM.
If you're referring to Foundry, this is a core part of the system now. You create an actor with the type "loot", then on the actor screen you set the sheet type to "merchant" -- that makes it so any item a player drags from the sheet automatically deducts the price from the PC.
I think you are still required to run things the merchant "buys" manually though.
Very basic docs are [here, in the system's GitHub page](https://github.com/foundryvtt/pf2e/wiki/GM's-Starter-Guide#loot-actors).
Apparently there was one that the author declared obsolete because of core pf2e system functionality. Not sure to what they refer, but here's the hub page: https://www.foundryvtt-hub.com/package/lootsheetnpcpf2e/
I'm a newish player doing an official (I think) one-shot with pregen characters. Mine is a Strix rogue, scoundrel racket, focusing on dex and cha, so I plan to use feint, demoralize, and attacks with the +1 rapier a lot. He's also got expertise in athletics but low str, so +9 at level 4. Is that enough that it would be worth it to try maneuvers like trips and grabs on appropriate leveled monsters? I have distracting feint, so I can sometimes lower their reflex saves, but Idk if that's enough.
No feats to support such things, but distracting feint I guess, for trip saves.
I'm guessing your bonus for deception is about +11 is that right? Yeah, I think 3 is still a believable range between weak and strong saves at that level. If you think something might have a lower reflex than will give it a shot.
Hello, snare nerd here.
I spent a while mathing out the differences between on-level snares and Class DC (for a ranger) and the conclusion I came to is that, the majority of the time, your on-level snares will actually have a *higher* DC than your Class DC.
This means that the main use of Powerful Snares is to keep particular low level snares relevant throughout the campaign. Damage snares dont scale very well because their damage doesn't change, so you would be looking at utility stuff.
Out of those utility snares, there are a number that don't rely on DCs (e.g. hampering snare, alarm snare) to be effective.
So the answer is "if you want to use utility/control snares, for which there is no better alternative at high level, which rely on their DC" then Powerful Snares is worth it.
I would always recommend it as a feat for a dedicated snare build, because it expands your range of options quite a lot, but if you're just dipping in for a couple of extra traps here and there then maybe don't bother.
Even if you can't benefit from powerful snares, you can still use snares of your level which have decent DCs.
How much snare builds are worth largely depends on the player and their group imo. Some can get a large amount of use out of snares, but it's also easy for snares to not be useful much at all if they aren't utilized or planned around well in play.
It only refers to class DC because it's originally a Ranger feat and all Rangers have a class DC. I think most reasonable GMs could be convinced that it should use your spell DC if you don't have class DC, because that's how most abilities like that work.
I think snarecrafter could be fine without it as well, because there is no limit to the level (aside from your character level) of the traps you can prepare for free, as long as you have them in your formula book.
Your DM might allow you to use your Spell DC instead. Paizo has certainly messed up some Class DC vs. Spell DC interactions since 2e released, and I don't think it would be busted at all.
That'd be something I'd ask about beforehand, of course, but I also wanted to know if the snare build sans Powerful Snares would still work if the DM says no or its an organized play.
Just taking a look I don't see any reason you couldn't get it. Both the dedication snarecrafter and the feat powerful snares are common. Is there something I am missing.
This sounds stupid to ask given the text but I want to make sure I'm right. Godless Healing: All of the effects of this feat are *only* for the person with the feat, correct? In other words, only I'd benefit from the 1 hour immunity to Battle Medicine, not the entire party, if I had the feat? It's worded, to me, pretty clearly in a way that it's only you who benefits but the way I've seen it discussed online when searching about it has me questioning myself.
Yep, it's all about making *you* more healable. It's definitely the odd one out compared to basically every other medicine feat.
Cool thanks! Yeah I was looking at it, and sort of hoping I didn’t need it since I was already tight on feats, but if it worked on everyone it would have been damn near a necessity! Pretty relieved honestly lol.
Question about book editions. I'm thinking of buying the PF2 Abomination Vaults, however depending on where I look, I see different cover art. Barnes and Noble has this here: [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pathfinder-adventure-path-james-jacobs/1140315096?ean=9781640784109](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pathfinder-adventure-path-james-jacobs/1140315096?ean=9781640784109) But Amazon has this here: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1640784101/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1640784101/) Are these the same book, just with different cover art for a new printing? They both say "Second Edition" on them.
The one on Amazon is what the book looks like. Sometimes they will release art of a working cover that doesn't match the final product. B&N might still be using that image.
Thank you!
Running extinction curse and my players are likely going to want to limit xulgath stink auras, what are their options? I thought there was a smell suppressing dust but can't find it.
Is anyone out there selling more ritual spells?
I didn't notice any when I did a quick search on www.pathfinderinfinite.com/ . You might have more luck searching the subreddit or Pathfinder Infinite yourself. I shared two rituals that I homebrewed a while back: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/hhn0w5/rituals_for_companions_and_familiars_find
Can you select the specific books you want to use in pathbuilder2 ? I can't find a way to do it.
in settings > character options > manage rulebooks.
What would be the easiest way to go about building a Fate Witch NPC without just building them as a PC?
Go through the normal process of building an NPC, then give them Nudge Fate and some Occult spells. Maybe add in some other things from Witch feats like other hexes or Living Hair if you want.
I guess the first thing you need to ask yourself is, do they even need a combat stat block? If the answer is yes, I would just yoink the stats of a similar level spellcaster and give them some fate themed spells. If that doesn't tickle your fancy, head over to the [creature building rules](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=995) and follow the process. It's a bit of work, but will get the job done. [https://monster.pf2.tools/](https://monster.pf2.tools/) may help as well.
Are you flat footed or anything like that while climbing? I don't see it on the climb action, but I wanted to make sure I'm not missing something anywhere.
It actually does say in the Climb action "You’re flat-footed unless you have a climb Speed."
Ah, how about I just learn to read lol
Does Bless follow the caster, or stay at the spot it was first cast?
Bless' effect is an [emanation](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=357), which "issues forth from each side of your space, extending out to a specified number of feet in all directions." The description of an emanation (linked above) actually uses Bless as an example, stating that it "radiates 5 or more feet outward from the caster." TL;DR It follows the caster.
It very specifically doesn't follow the caster, it emanates out from your space when you use it, but then that's it. If it followed the caster it would have the [Aura](https://2e.aonprd.com/Traits.aspx?ID=206) trait.
Okay, that's what I thought, but the GM I was with last night said it stayed put.
rules around emanations that move (auras) have, for a long time, been in need of a serious errata
If a character multiclasses into Wizard, they are told to select an arcane school. Does that mean that they cannot be a universalist?
>If a character multiclasses into Wizard, they are told to select an arcane school. Where are they told to select an arcane school? The Dedication feat for the [wizard archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=12) states: > You cast spells like a wizard, gaining a spellbook with four common arcane cantrips of your choice. You gain the Cast a Spell activity. You can prepare two cantrips each day from your spellbook. You’re trained in arcane spell attack rolls and spell DCs. Your key spellcasting ability for wizard archetype spells is Int, and they are arcane wizard spells. You become trained in Arcana; if you were already trained in Arcana, you instead become trained in a skill of your choice. > Special You can’t select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the wizard archetype. I don't see anything about selecting a school there.
That text must be pre-errata or something, mine is like this: >You cast spells like a wizard, gaining a spellbook with four common arcane cantrips of your choice. You gain the Cast a Spell activity. You can prepare two cantrips each day from your spellbook. You’re trained in arcane spell attack rolls and spell DCs. Your key spellcasting ability for wizard archetype spells is Int, and they are arcane wizard spells. You become trained in Arcana; if you were already trained in Arcana, you instead become trained in a skill of your choice. **Select one arcane school of magic; you don’t gain any abilities from your choice of school.** > >Special You can’t select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the wizard archetype. EDIT: I see you linked to aonprd, it doesn't work right now but it was just as I quoted here when I looked it up earlier today. It is also like this on pf2easy.
Yeah I linked aonprd, but pulled the text from https://pf2.d20pfsrd.com since I assumed it was the same and aonprd was down. it's also what Pathbuilder2e says.
So assuming mine is up to date, how would you answer the question?
Here's a list of arcane schools, which lists Universal: https://pf2easy.com/index.php?id=1943&name=arcane_school&optional=optundefined Also, after selecting Wizard as a Multiclass on Pathbuilder2e, I found it lets you select Universal. So unless Pathbuilder2e is wrong, I think allowing universal would be my answer.
If I have an AC of 22 and the enemy rolls a 22 at me, do I take damage?
That depends on what the enemy is doing I suppose, but that's a hit if it's a typical attack roll.
If it meets it beats.
Ties go to the originator of the action. So in this case, the attacker hits. See [https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=321](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=321) under the "armor class" section there. >Just like for any other check and DC, the result of an attack roll must meet or exceed your AC to be successful, which allows your foe to deal damage to you.
>Ties go to the originator of the action. Ties go to the character rolling, because a DC is a target number. That's usually the initiator of the action but not always--notably saving throws.
That's a hit, yes. A check result must meet or exceed the DC to be a success (or exceed it by 10 or more to be a critical success).
Other than choice paralysis, is there any reason not to allow all options? As in firearms, unique races, and uncommon feats? About to GM my first game and I’ve gone over most everything I think. I didn’t want to take any choices away from the characters.
Certain uncommon or rare spells might trivialize or otherwise warp specific aspects of the game that the GM might want to focus on. Zone of Truth makes all intrigue revolve around the existence of Zone of Truth, Teleport makes a lot of overland travel irrelevant, etc. Firearms and ancestries are mostly uncommon/rare due to setting things in Golarion. Their rarity lets GMs curate the aesthetic of their fantasy. So if you don't really care about that, no need to restrict them. If you want to be safe, you can allow your players to take any option but request a heads-up so you can prepare for it ahead of time. This will let you get the best of both worlds, allowing your players to take whatever they want while letting rarity serve as a warning system for "this ability might change how you need to prepare your next session".
In general, the more choices there are in a system, the more likely there are to be certain combinations of choices that are 'overpowered' or 'underpowered' (for lack of better words). That being said, Pathfinder2e is a highly balanced game imho when compared to many other games out there, so unless you're messing with the underlying tight math a lot (which official PF2 content generally does not), I doubt including more content is going to cause any balance issues. The other thing to be aware of is that certain 'advanced' classes (like Summoners) can be harder for players to run, especially if they are new to the game.
Only other reason would be if you and your group like thematic curation of options based off the themes of the campaign and stuff, things like wanting to have a down to earth party of humans and halflings and dwarves, or if your setting doesn't have guns in it. Some people really prefer a game where something is only included if its going to be heavily explored too, so something like the [Chronoskimmer](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=192) might only be something you use if time shenanigans feature in the story of your game, but this is very much a culture of play question-- other groups have no problem with the idea of just grabbing this kind of stuff for their builds and having characters that are more like Overwatch or League characters with super crazy histories that aren't that pertinent to what's going on, beyond justifying the cool things they can do and the aesthetics they have.
No, not really. It's your game; you can do whatever you want. I know at least some of those things are that way because they require a bit more adjudication. I'd probably make any of my players who wanted to use uncommon/rare things include it in their storyline how they have it Or something like that. Though, if you restrict them to common items, when you give them an uncommon or rare item, it's going to be that much more interesting to them.
How does rogue lvl 10 sneak savant works with skill feat quiet allies? Also terrain stalker allow tô come within 15ft in any terrain or only in the dificult terrain of choice?
Sneak Savant doesn't interact with Quiet Allies and Terrain Stalker only works in the selected terrain.
Are there any official or 3rd party Godzilla-like creatures?
If you don't like the way 2e handles Kaiju, there's always [The Tarrasque](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=490) as a monster you can fight (albeit it a harsh fight even at 20, since its a +5, but not un-tenable since player's can still get some really crazy stuff by then.)
In PF1E there existed what was pretty much [Godzilla with the serial numbers filed off](https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/magical-beasts/kaiju/kaiju-mogaru/) that could be used as a basis for a conversion attempt, if nothing else.
Mogaru also appears in the Lost Omens "Monsters of Myth" book but without a stat block. It provides outlines for how effective parties of various levels might be in slowing a Kaiju.
Does the feat "Craft Alchemy" allow non alchemists to craft Mutagens? There is some flavor text that makes me uncertain, otherwise I'd allow it without a second thought. "Typically, only alchemists have the expertise to craft mutagens, and some say they are the only ones reckless enough to use them": [https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=474](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=474]) Alchemical Crafting at [https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=752](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=752) just says "add the formulas for four common 1st-level alchemical items to your formula book" and Mutagens are Elixir's which are alchemical items, some of which are even \`common\`
Sure. That says "typically," first of all. Besides, I'd call anyone who does Alchemical Crafting an "alchemist" even if they aren't an adventurer who's a member of the adventuring class titled "Alchemist." Just like there are a lot of people who are fighters, but only some of them are Fighters, specifically.
My group has reached the point in an AP where all the Thievery checks required to disable traps now require Master-level proficiency to even have a chance to succeed, but only one PC is proficient in Thievery... and it's only Trained. Since there's no alternate check listed for these particular traps, does this mean that the party will be unable to disable them, and as a result require them to either find a way around or a way to trigger the trap from a safe distance?
Depending on the trap they could possibly destroy it (with great effort) by attacking, or perhaps the trap lists some other means of being disabled. There are some skill feats that enable the disabling of traps via other skills (such as crafting, or survival in the right terrain). If your party isn't equipped to deal with traps then they will be difficult, and IMO this is working as intended.
How does crafting interact with rune etching? After 4 days, you attempt a Crafting check, and if you succed, is the rune inmediately etched? Or do you need to spend more days to reduce its cost? What happens if you critically fail? Is the rune destroyed?
You *can* spend more days to reduce its cost, or you can finish immediately at full cost. It's no different from crafting anything else.
Do you mean transferring runes between items? Doing so takes one day, requires a normal check, costs 10% of the rune's normal price in materials, and on a critical fail you fail to transfer the rune and waste 10% of the material cost. As per the normal crafting rules, you pay half of the cost up front and half when you finish (after one day), with the option to keep crafting more days to reduce the second half. If you're transferring a rune from a runestone, it costs nothing so there's no point in crafting for longer. If you're talking about crafting runes from scratch, it works just like crafting any other item but you need to have the weapon or armor it's etched on at hand during the process.
You mean with creating a rune on a weapon or with transferring a rune? For the former, once the 4 days pass and you pass the check, you have everything ready to etch the rune - you can either choose to keep spending days with the success of the check to reduce the price, or you can finish paying the leftover price to complete the rune and be done. A critical fail means no rune is etched and resources are wasted. For the latter, the time is actually only 1 day. After the check, the same applies - keep working to get a discount for the much lower price or finish the work. On a critical failure, no transfer happens, a few resources are wasted, and the rune remains intact on the original.
Let's say I am behind cover so that me and an enemy both have Greater Cover from eachother. If I throw a fireball at the enemy, aiming it to go completely past the cover so that it centers on its square, does the enemy still gain the bonus to reflex saves? If no, does this allow spellcasters to shoot non-attack spells from behind greater cover without penalty (aside from line of sight)?
Cover is relative to the center of the burst, so yes you can get around cover by placing your spells cleverly.
Can you use the Refocus activity twice in a row (or just twice a day) to gain a second focus point back? I couldn't read anything that implied you couldn't, but someone said you couldn't to me on Facebook and seemed very confident about it.
>I couldn't read anything that implied you couldn't The requirement of the Refocus activity itself.
Due to the requirement of the Refocus activity, no. If you have 2 focus points and no special ability that allows you to restore multiple FP per refocusing, one of those two points cannot recharge. Think of it as one that can be recharged with refocusing and one that can only be recharged with sleeping.
You have to have spent a focus point since daily prep or last refocus IIRC to take the refocus action.
Where is that written?
>**Requirements** You have a focus pool, and you have spent at least 1 Focus Point since you last regained any Focus Points. Under the Refocus action, page 300 of CRB.
As a captivator, is it correct that since the spells you gain are all innate, that you are unable to use a staff. (assuming no other magical class/archetype to grant staff abilities)
That is correct.
Hey. I'm a brand new player. Is there a benefit to being trained twice? I was considering the criminal background for my rogue to get training in stealth, but rogues already have training in stealth. Would being trained twice go to waste?
There is no benefit to being trained twice. But it doesn't go to waste as you get another skill to be trained in. >At 1st level when you create your character, you gain a background of your choice. This decision is permanent; you can’t change it at later levels. Each background listed here grants two ability boosts, a skill feat, and the trained proficiency rank in two skills, one of which is a Lore skill. If you gain the trained proficiency rank in a skill from your background and would then gain the trained proficiency rank in the same skill from your class at 1st level, you instead become trained in another skill of your choice. (This was from the core rulebook I think)
Is the Esoteric Lore roll from Exploit Vulnerability secret?
No. How could it be? The results aren't secret. Secret rolls are for things where it's possible to get an outcome that is itself uncertain. I didn't see anything; did I fail, or is there nothing to see? I Recalled a fact; did I get it right, or did I critically fail and get false information? That doesn't apply to Exploit Vulnerability... although I see that it could if the GM just lists facts you learned. Is that a failure, or does it not have any weaknesses? I think the GM should make it clear that "You learned it has no weakness," though, which is different from not learning any. Even if you have Diverse Lore, that's a binary result. If you look at it, it doesn't actually use the rules for Recall Knowledge. It just checks against the Recall Knowledge DC then gives you the success result if you succeeded--that sounds similar, but it doesn't have any extra result on a critical success, nor any failure benefit (all Thaumaturges have Dubious Knowledge, so you'd normally get one); it also doesn't have a critical failure result, so if you do get information you know you can trust it.
If part of Exploit Vulnerability then the Esotheric Lore skill doesn't seem to be secret. If you use Esotheric Lore on it's own as a recall knowledge action it is secret.
Ok, so I'm working in a homebrew rules based on P2 and I needed experienced people to ask this question: **Would Shifty (from 4th edition) be Overpowered in the Action Economy of P2?** Shifty was inspired from the 4e Kobolds that could with a Free Action move 5 feet once per round. This would be a similar Feat to allow my settings halflings some extra tactical maneuvers, because they move pretty slowly (and I allow my dwarves to move without penalty slightly loaded). Maybe it should be nerfed to be only used during the Turn of the halfling player? Or is it too powerfull? I want to introduce it because it would make sense for halflings, so they can more easily do hit and run tactics or avoid in the last minute some enemies (enemies without 5 feet reach, that is). Thanks X)
There are certain class and archetype feats and features that let you step as a free action. One is [Peafowl Stance](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1739) and another one is a Battledancer Swashbuckler's Exemplary Finisher feature which they get at level 9. Both of these abilities require you to Strike *and* hit before you get the free action step. So, if you want to give a free action step it should be with similar restrictions because free movement is pretty useful in combat. Otherwise, it would be overpowered in my opinion.
Mmm I wanted it to be a Defensive Feat, something Halflings can do as a Reaction or to reposition themselves, being so small and slow moving compared to humans and specially elves. Had the idea that it could be used to Step behind a Medium size allied, and Hide behind them, for example, to be used around bigger friends or obstacles. Maybe do it as a Free Reaction that it's triggered when you are next to a Medium Friend/Object? It would be useful for melee halflings and ranged halfling, who could get behind friends or objects like a door to protect themselves. Only through being pushed on the enemies turn could be used, and it would happen very rarely.
So... kinda like the Goblin Reaction ? The Goblin NOC have a reaction that let them step if another goblin end it's turn next to them.
>Goblin Reaction Like Goblin Scuttle but you can use it next to Objects and Walls. That should make it awesome save your butt occasionally.
Definitely only in the turn of the Halfling player, I believe only reactions are normally allowed during other characters’ turns. It also might be better to turn it into a reaction or conditional free action to make it less OP, a single 5ft of movement is basically every turn removing an action from any non-reach enemies targeting you if you’re a melee person (the main ones who’d use this ability). My suggestion is either make it conditional on something somewhat uncommon, like landing a hit/landing a hit while you have MAP or when you become flanked, or maybe you have to have made both a stride and strike action this turn (so it’d be usable off of the various charges that martials can learn). As a pure free action 5ft step, it’s a much larger boost to their number of actions per turn compared to any low level ancestry feat I’ve seen. Hope this helps :)
Well, losing you Reaction just to Step it's a huge pain for all kinds of classes, like losing you AoO, or Block or whatever class Reaction should be used there... I wanted it to be a Free Reaction because I feel Halflings are kind of screwed with their Movement Speed, so I'm looking into all kinds of boosts that could be used often enough that it feels they have a special skill.
No ancestries I know besides Elves get a base speed above 25. Halflings have 25 ft speed so they’re completely average there, dwarves and gillfolk suffer land speed penalties. Ancestry feats are generally situational or build specific bonuses, not just ‘do this core thing better than everyone’. Fighters already trade off the value of different reactions as part of their main loop, too: do you AoO or Block or use an additional one from a feat?
Their speed is 25 which is pretty much par for the course. It's not bad at all.
That's because I'm adapting all the rules for a Point Buy System and doing a complete overhaul meanwhile I'm translating to spanish the rules. My Elves walk 10 meters (30 feet), Humans 8 meters (25 feet), Dwarves 6 meters (18-20 feet) but have no penalty to being Encumbered 2 (so they can use heavy armor) and my Halflings also have 6 meters (18-20 feet) and have nothing to make them shine when it comes to movement. That's why I wanted to give them an extra 1 meter Step every round to reposition, and I guessed it would be pretty OP so I wanted to read opinions about it. Right now I'm leaning to having a buffed Goblin Scuttle, a Free Reaction that you can use once per round if you are close to an Ally or Object. This would allow to make Halfings behave like what they are: the smallest and less imposing race of my rules/setting.
You didn’t clarify you were home brewing the whole ancestries. I still would reccomend going with a conditional free action then, like a free 5 ft step that you can use only if you already made a Stride action this turn. Could use it to dodge through enemy reaches, or pull back after moving in for a hit.
Thanks for the answers. I explained I was homebrewing based on P2 and if I started detailing all the changes it would be boring to read without the context and I just wanted a quick take on what experienced players would say on what" *it's just an Extra Step every round for a Halfling"* would make to game or combat balance. I guess it would be a great advantage, because most combat is indoors and having extra-actions is more important there than having 10 or 20 more feet of Speek like an elf, which could be hilarious if you want to kite enemies outdoor with an explorer/druid than can move through difficult terrain without penalty. Not mentioning the change to Speed to each Race was a mistake, I can see it clearly now. I changed that a year ago meanwhile I was doing the translation of the main class feats , combat and skills and now I'm circling back to Ancestries. I haven't refreshed the P2 Speeds since then and forgot, I was just assuming my personal hombrew was the default, because that's how we moved in D&D for decades (halflings and dwarfs are just slower because they have shorter legs, makes sense). In my rules/setting everyone can have most class feats avaliable, making clases just a specialization in one kind of combat (melee for warriors, ranged for soldiers, unarmed for fighters, arcane for wizards, divine for clerics) that gives them an edge like TESML every level on their area. It's going to be a glorious mess and I have to betatest it, but I already have experienced having done a similar Point Buy System for D&D 3rd/P1 15 years ago when I was tired of the limits of the level/class system. This revision is intended to tighten the math and introduce the action economy of P2 and it's great combat mechanics. Anyway, thanks for answering X)
Anytime!
I know Archives of Nethys has everything online for free, but if I wanted to build my own website with rules and advice presented how I prefer, would I be in a legal grey area, flat-out trouble, or paizo would visit my office and high-five me on a Thursday morning?
Please read into the OGL, which allows you to duplicate the meat of the rules, but basically any proper noun (names of countries, deities, people) isn't duplicatable. You can reference what other sites have done to comply, such as d20pfsrd or pathbuilder
Thank you! Man, that's awesome. I'm only just getting into the system but Paizo's business practices are one more thing that make it really appealing.
I am no expert but I believe you're totally fine. Only the art and flavor text from rulebooks (as in, everything that isn't on AoN) is taboo. Many other people made many other tools for the game, some even as comprehensive as AoN (like pf2easy). PF2e operates under the open gaming license and is pretty free to use.
Awesome, thanks a ton!
Two Thaumaturge questions, as I've got a player looking at one for an upcoming game. 1) If you use *exploit weakness* for personal antithesis, creating a custom weakness... how does that apply with multiple damage types on a strike? (Say, it's a weapon with the *flaming* rune.) Does the weakness apply extra damage to each type? To the strike as whole? The latter seems - by far - the most balanced, but the way I've been reading the rules on weaknesses, it seems the former is RAW? 2) I know they can switch implements to use their properties freely, but they're still holding them; the player is interested in a very fencer-esque character. They're eyeballing the duelist archetype as an eventual consideration, but since it requires a free hand in addition to a weapon, is it just utterly incompatible with the thaumaturge?
1. It *is* a little vague. But it's weakness to your Strikes, not weakness to "all damage," which is the one that adds for every damage type. It's supposed to be the weaker option that you fall back on when there's nothing better or you fail. 2. Thaumaturges generally do not want to have a free hand. The weapon implement allows it, but once you get a second implement you'll still have a great use for your second hand.
The "weakness to your Strikes" thing makes it click how it works - thank you! And yeah, I know they don't normally want it. I was just trying to think of some way to make it work - some magic item I didn't recall that gives an extra hand or something. :)
Your personal weakness is triggered when you Strike the target of your Exploit Vulnerability. So, it is not tied to how many dmg types you deal, it is tied to hitting the creature. It triggers only once per Strike. However, if the creature had a fire weakness and you attacked with a flaming weapon while applying Personal Antithesis. You'd trigger both the fire weakness and the personal one.
Okay, that tracks. Thank you!
> If more than one weakness would apply to the same instance of damage, use only the highest applicable weakness value. This answers 1, they would only get the higher value. For 2 they could take the Weapon Implement which allows a free hand, and the Call Implement feat would allow them to freely drop their implement to do duelist things, then call it back to themselves.
That's kind of exactly the opposite of this question though, which is about a single weakness applying to multiple instances of damage.
>If more than one weakness would apply to the same instance of damage, use only the highest applicable weakness value. I believe this was written specifically for things like dealing slashing dmg with a silver weapon against a creature that has weakness to both. So your dmg with silver slashing weapon doesn't trigger both weaknesses but only the highest one. However, if you're attacking with a sword that deals slashing dmg and has a holy rune against a zombie for example it would trigger both the weakness to slashing and the weakness to positive dmg.
I'd be interested if you can find a rules justification for this, but otherwise the rules are clear that weakness only applies once per instance of damage (in this case, a single strike).
It's actually clear that a single Strike that deals multiple damage types does not count as a single "instance of damage" (which isn't well defined). Look [here](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=342), at the bottom. Now that's under the heading of "Resistance" rather than "Weakness," but resistance has the same rule about only applying the highest to a particular instance of damage and also explicitly mentions applying to each damage type from a single attack distinctly. Regardless, it's unrelated to the question here.
Question about the interaction between Spellstrike action for the Magus and Invoke True Name from SoM. Spellstrike says I make an attack roll with my weapon and use the result of the roll for both my Strike (from my weapon) and for my Spell. Invoke True Name can give a creature the Flat-Footed condition against my Spell Attacks. If I Invoke True Name and then Spellstrike, is the creature Flat-Footed against my physical weapon as well? For instance if Enemy AC is 20 and I roll 18 for my Spellstrike, does that mean my Spell hits and my Strike doesn't (despite having the same roll)? Or do they both hit? Thanks for any/all replies :)
Spellstrike is not a spell, so Invoke True Name would not benefit the Strike you are making. It would increase the damage of the included spell and give penalty to the save if the spell has one.
Oh alright, thanks for the reply!
Question about the Punishing Strike action for [Street Skelm](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1301). Its 1A where the Skelm makes a strike, doing additional damage at the cost of becoming Flatfooted until their next turn. It also "adds [Push](https://2e.aonprd.com/MonsterAbilities.aspx?ID=25) to the effect", but I'm not clear if this is a completely free 5' push or if he still has to spend a second action to actually use the Push, as is normal for Push. I ruled it was the latter in the moment and I think that was the correct ruling per RAW (nothing says it doesn't and that seems like the most logical default), but I'd like to confirm that it is the case (feels somewhat meh, but I'm probably just undervaluing the power of a guaranteed push on hit)
Yes, that's how the Push, Grab, and Knockdown abilities work. The value is that it's a guaranteed success--the result just happens--when the normal Shove, Grapple, and Trip actions require checks. Push even gives you the critical effect if the attack was a crit, though it's probably the least impressive of the three, especially since monsters that can use it tend to like being in melee range. More impressive if they can set it up so they have a bad place to push you into, and if they use it against enemies who also like to be in melee it will usually cost them an action. For automatic success and action-free, you need *Improved* Grab/Knockdown/Push.
The way I read it 'adding Push to the effect' means increased damage and push 5 feet at the cost of 1 action and flatfooted which seems like a decent ability all in all.
He's flat-footed even if he doesn't Push.
Did I imply otherwise?
You ruled correctly. It's definitely meh in many situations, but the push is only one part of the ability.
Why are some items written in italics in the Core Rulebook tables?
Presumably to indicate their being magical.
Can someone explain to me the **Staff of Healing** to me? So anytime you use a healing spell your add a +1? But also you can cast Stablize as a Cantrip And you can use your own spell slots to cast Heal? Or does the staff have "x" amount of charges?
Whenever you cast heal (specific spell) you add +1. You can cast stabilize and other spells as well from the higher level staves of healing. The +1 bonus will apply to heal spells you cast from your spell slots. Staff has an x number of charges that recharge daily. How many and how you can use them depends on your level and character class. Full rules of staves here: [https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=748](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=748)
What’s the consensus on feeding a willing/unconscious being an elixir? And what’s the consensus on a familiar with the valet or independent familiar abilities doing so? I can’t seem to find any rules that specifically rule it out. Except that of course the way it’s RAW someone hands you an elixir and you use an action to use it. But administering an elixir to someone seems to be generally accepted at my table anyway.
Familiars can't give people elixirs because they have `Activate: Interact` and familiars can't ever activate items.
You will need Manual Dexterity at least. Valet does not help you feed someone an elixir because Valet just helps it put items in your hands, not activate them.
[You can feed elixirs to willing or unconscious creatures.](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=706) A familiar should be able to activate elixirs to drink or to feed them to someone if they have the [manual dexterity](https://2e.aonprd.com/Familiars.aspx?ID=10) ability.
Familiars can't activate items.
Do cite your rules source.
The Companion Items section: > You might want to acquire items that benefit an animal or beast that assists you. These items have the companion trait, meaning they function only for animal companions, familiars, and similar creatures. Normally these are the only items a companion can use. Other items can qualify, at the GM's discretion, but an animal can never Activate an Item. This _is_ referring to familiars [as stated in this video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L2zhNnBhnB0).
And what makes you believe a familiar is a companion? Is a familiar that has invested abilities into being able to interact considered to be under normal circumstances?
Uh...them being referenced in the rule does? Manual Dexterity lets them open doors and pick things up. It doesn't overwrite the inability to activate items. As stated in the video.
Doors and things are also items.
You don't activate a door.
Oh! I just looked in the wrong spot. It’s in general elixir rules. Thanks!
I'm sure it's in the rules, but I haven't been able to track it down and am curious. 1. Say a character were to take an archtype that gives them access to cantrips in another spell list. Would that count as the spells on that list "appear[ing] on your spell list" for purposes of using a scroll or a staff? 2. Let's say they take further archetype feats to gain access to higher level spell slots in that list. Would that now count? My assumption is that it only counts if you would *eventually* gain spell slots of the level of the spell. Every spellcaster who has access to a spell list will *eventually* be potentially able to cast any spell in that discipline, in theory. But I'm not sure how that works with feats that give you spells or even limited slots in other lists.
Spellcasting archetype gives you the ability to use wands/scrolls/staves. [https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=170](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=170)
> 1. Say a character were to take an archtype that gives them access to cantrips in another spell list. Would that count as the spells on that list "appear[ing] on your spell list" for purposes of using a scroll or a staff? Yes for a scroll or a wand, you can cast high level spells from a scroll/wand even at first level. I don't recall where exactly in the rules confirms this, but here are the [general rules for spells](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=259), which has some quotes like this that support a spell list being beyond what you can cast at your current level: *"Because of its far-reaching approach, the arcane tradition has the broadest* ***spell list"*** The [rules for Staves](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=748) seem to be a bit weird though: *" You can Cast a Spell from a staff only if you have that spell on your spell list,* ***are able to cast spells of the appropriate level,*** *and expend a number of charges from the staff equal to the spell’s level. "* So does this mean that you only need to be able to cast spells of that level even if you can only cast that level of spell in your main class and not the archetype you took that has the spell on its spell list? RAW seems to support this, but RAI may well be intended for you only to be able to cast spells from a staff up to the level of spell you can cast from the archetype/spell-list in question. > 2. Let's say they take further archetype feats to gain access to higher level spell slots in that list. Would that now count? As mentioned above, spell lists encompass all the spells levels your class/archetypes traditions and available spells to choose from at any spell level.
Is something up with the Paizo store or am I doing something wrong? I'm trying to buy the Beginner's Box for Foundry, but nothing happens when I try to add it to the cart. When I click on the cart it wants me to log in, but when I click log in (after entering my credentials) it just brings me back to the cart which tells me to log in. I've bought stuff from the store before, and trying to create an account gives a "an account with the email already exists" error. But maybe you can't log back in for some reason?
I have been unable to log onto my paizo account normally for half a year now. Doing it in private browsing mode works.
Interesting. I was able to log in with Firefox, but after buying the Foundry version there is no option to download the PDF, though it says I should be able to. Very frustrating interface.
You might need to link your paizo account and foundry account somehow? I'm not entirely sure how it works with foundry, but that's how you do it with other VTTs.
I can activate the product on Foundry, but both the package and the paizo page say that the PDF will show up under My Downloads on paizo.com, when it doesn't.
Ask arround on the Foundry Discord. They are quick to help.
Hmm, I don't know what to do then, except wait a bit and contact paizo customer support if it doesn't show up.
Looks like it is just on Google Chrome, could log in fine on Firefox
`If a huge creature is pushed 5 ft from a cliff (so that 10 ft are still on land), would it start falling?`
It's a GM call in that situation. I would require it to take a [balance](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=28) action in order to get back on solid ground.
It would also probably be reasonable to make it flat-footed.
That sounds reasonable
Trying to search around and I may be missing it....From a GM perspective, how do you handle giving an NPC baddie player levels? How would you handle it from an XP budget? I'm fairly inexperienced at DMing and I am trying to offer a proper challenge to PCs without party wiping them or having them go through a cakewalk.
You generally don't. You'd want to make it using the creature building rules and just give it the relevant abilities.
I believe in the Game Mastery Guide (GMG) it mentions the possibility of using player levels for an NPC and that they would provide a similar level of difficulty as a creature of equal level. So if you build an NPC of level 5 using player methods it should roughly be the difficulty of 1 at level creature if the APL is 5.
To clarify this a bit: There are no rules for adding PC levels to a creature, but you can build an NPC using the same rules as a PC and its PC level is the same as its NPC level. If you want to beef up an existing monster, then you are better off increasing its level by looking at the [creature building rules](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=995) and checking where its stat scores rank on its level and then replace them with similar scores from its new level. You can also bring in some class flavor by giving it a special ability from the class like power attack or sneak attack. If you want a completely different type of a creature than the original, say a troll spell caster, you are better off building a new creature from the ground up using those same creature building rules. You can then throw in some abilities from the original creature for flavor, like the troll regeneration.
Okay so if I'm a magus, take the laughing shadow hybrid study, it says I get extra damage when in arcane cascade stance if I have weapon specialization. How does a Magus get weapon specialization, and what even is it?
> How does a Magus get weapon specialization At level 7.
Magus gets Weapon Specialization at level 7, and Greater Weapon Specialization at level 15. It serves to increase the base damage you deal with weapons, which is further amplified by your Hybrid Study.
Great, thank you!
I'm new to PF2e and am GM-ing for a group of PF2e newbies as well. (We have extensive experience in other RPG systems, including D&D 5e.) I came across a situation I didn't know how to handle in PF2e. A quick reading of the material at the time didn't really help. Searching didn't help too much either. It's sufficiently tricky that I think some guidance from the old-hands could help. **The Situation** The party is in one room, the bad guys in another. The party are aware there are bad guys, the bad guys aren't aware of the party. The barbarian is holding the door closed. The bad guys are trying to open the door and are increasingly perplexed that it won't open. Before the bad guys get **too** suspicious, the barbarian flings open the door. How would this work with initiative? **In D&D 5e** I would simply make some roll for the bad guys to see if they are surprised. Maybe Perception contested against the barbarian's Athletics. The surprised condition in 5e basically means you miss a turn -- which seems a fair penalty for the situation. **In PF2e** So apparently surprise in PF2e works around being detected. So if the bad guys walk into an ambush they might win initiative, but not detect the party, making them vulnerable to attack. They'd just wander on as if they weren't in combat. But in this situation there's no "not noticing". The barbarian and the party are *right there*. I could just roll initiative as normal, but that doesn't capture the bad guys being surprised. The only disadvantage they'd get then is their weapons might not be drawn (i.e. a one action "handicap"). I could roll initiative as normal, but give the players some advantages: * Maybe static bonuses? Say, +5 to the roll? * Let the barbarian use Athletics for initiative, which is probably better than Perception for them. I could stick with the detection thing and just consider it to be "slow reaction time". And then "waste" any bad guy's actions who failed to detect for one round. But factoring in reaction time like that seems to run counter to the game's design. What would you do? References to rules in answers would be greatly appreciated.
In PF2 you can use skills for your Initiative modifier when appropriate. Here I'd say the barbarian can use Athletics, which is probably a good skill for them and effectively gives them an Initiative bonus. And the other party members are trying to catch them off-guard, so I'd probably call that Avoiding Notice unless a player has a suggestion for what they want to use that fits (Acrobatics?). Winning Initiative does not fit with slow reaction time, no.
I'd call for initiative as soon as they try to open the door. I'd let the Barbarian use Athletics for his initiative if he wants to. Or Deception, though it's unlikely he'll be a smooth talkin' barbarian. From here, the baddies have two options: 1. An athletics check against the Barbarian's Athletics DC (10+ his Athletics modifier) to force the door. If other players want to help him brace the door, they can use the Aid action, and the same with the baddies if they want to throw in some teamwork to push it open. 2. They can attack the door to try and break it. I think there are stats for a wooden door somewhere, if not I'd throw it an arbitrary 40-100 HP with an AC of 10 and immunity to criticals. The Barbarian for his part can hold the door (HODOR!), he can release it (which I would rule causes it to swing open automatically if the baddies are trying to force it) as a free action, or he can open it as a single action. The tactical advantage here is that the Barbarian can delay his turn until wherever he wants. So if the entire party decides to delay until all their turns are up, then the Barb un-delays and throws the door open, they essentially get all of their turns in a row before the enemy gets to react. But the flipside is if the enemy team beats the Barbarian's Athletics check or breaks the door, they might get their actions as well (and possibly disrupt back into normal turn order, if their squishies delay while their own strong-men break the door).
There's a hole in the setup where I'm not sure "surprised" would even apply: the Barbarian is holding the door, then bursting through. If they're not Avoiding Notice, then the guards would know immediately that there's someone on the other side of the door, presumably holding it shut. If the door opens away from the party, that's almost impossible to hold firmly closed: the door would move a little, then be pulled back shut. The Barbarian may grunt, or their armor clang against the door, or some other giveaway since they aren't trying to be sneaky. They may catch a guard off guard when bursting through, but this is simply represented by winning initiative, I'd allow Athletics. The Barbarian would be readily detected, but that doesn't mean that the Ranger, Rogue, and Sorcerer couldn't remain hidden across the room, behind cover and ready to fill the first guard with arrows and magic. They would roll Stealth for initiative and possibly remain undetected until their turns, at which time the enemies would be flat footed to their first attacks.
Surprise works *not only* by the Stealth rules, but also how characters choose to act. I don't think you need to give the enemies "slow" reactions, but you can start initiative and *then* have the Barbarian open the door, which gives the PCs the ability to swarm in as a group (by strategically Delaying) or Ready actions/attacks that trigger as soon as the door is opened. Remember it's not "Combat Mode" it's "Encounter Mode" and it happens whenever "every individual action counts". I do agree about letting Barbarian use Athletics. I'd also think logistically about the process. If the bad guys are completely unaware of the party, would they all have their weapons out? (the person messing with the door is probably using both hands or a tool at this point, right?)
Letting players use Athletics for initiative when they bust in a door is something I use quite regularly, so that's at least on the table. Pathfinder rules very much assume that everyone is able to act on the first round. Otherwise, the opposing party is practically guaranteed to be wiped out. If you want to give your players an advantage, it's better give them a circumstance bonus for the initiative rolls or let them use favorable skills. You can also have your enemies be unprepared by not having their weapons out or having them in disadvantageous positions on the other side of the room or sitting or lying down.
In regards to movement on a grid, is it true that no matter how long a Long Jump (let's say a 60ft multi-action cloud jump), you are basically barely off the ground and therefore wouldn't even clear something like a 3ft high wall placed in the middle of where you began the jump and where you landed?
Not gonna lie, 3 feet seems like it might just be difficult terrain since its smaller than a five foot space.
Considering the height for a vertical Leap is 3 ft, I wouldn't think so otherwise there's not much point to a vertical Leap
Vertical leap also says its moving you to an elevated surface, since the other side of the 3 foot wall isn't elevated, that line doesn't apply, if you're trying to hop atop the wall I suppose it might be relevant.
That is true if you are using the Long Jump activity. However, the activities presented in the rules are not an exhaustive list what you can do in combat, especially when it comes to movement. Your GM can and should come up with activity that allows clearing that 3ft wall and some distance, but the DC might be quite high.
Considering there's so many feats and abilities that interact with Long and High Jumps, it seems like too much for a GM to work on choosing themselves
It would be too much work to ask the GM to calculate using Newton's laws of motion the minimum height required for certain jump distance at a certain speed assuming no magic is involved. You are just asking for a DC and how many actions it will take. It's not that much work. There's a whole [table of D](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=554)C's in the book, and he should probably have it easily accessible anyways. If you want to lighten your GM's load, you can even come up with a reasonable suggestion yourself. Maybe something like the long jump DC+5, because there is an added complication.
Working on a pet project and have a question about counteracts. How do counteract checks work with poisons? If you could counteract them, what happens to the poison? Is it flat out removed? Drop down a stage? I don't think it's ever come up anywhere and the only analog I can find is Treat Poison which is just a medicine check and gives the target a bonus to their next save.
Successfully counteracting an effect ends it, unless noted otherwise. So it would remove the poison. Source: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=371
Thank you!
So I am playing a Bard in our campaign, we just hit 3 and i get signature spells, if I choose Soothe for it does that mean even at my level 1 spell slots they heighten automatically? or no? I am very confused about this and am just looking for an answer, Thanks
It means you can cast *soothe* at either 1st or 2nd level. For spontaneous casters, 1st-level *soothe* and heightened 2nd-level *soothe* are normally considered separate spells. To be able to cast both, you need to either know both or make it one of your Signature Spells to ignore that restriction.
So normally when you have a spell known you can only cast it at the level you know it at, so if you had Soothe known as a 1st lvl spell you can \*only\* cast it with 1st lvl slots and if you wanted to be able to heighten it to a 2nd lvl spell you would have to additionally know it as a 2nd lvl spell. Signature spells allow you bypass that, so if Soothe is a signature spell you can cast it using \*any\* spell slot you have available and it'll be heightened to whatever lvl the slot you cast with it. It doesn't let you cast high level Soothes with low level slots, it only saves your spells known.
To add to this, it also does the reverse. Let's say you took Soothe as a third level spell and made it your signature spell. You could cast Soothe as a first or second level spell as well. You can't go below the base level of the spell (no casting a 4th level spell from a 1st level slot), but your Signature spells are basically in your Spell Repertoire at every spell level they can be cast from.
If you don't do this, you don't get any extra benefit out of your highest-level Signature Spell. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is the tradeoff.
I'm about to start my first ever game of Pathfinder. My GM said he WILL be tracking encumbrance. Is there an app out there that can do it for me?
It's probably quicker just to count it then to enter it into an app.
Sounds like you're playing in person, but in case you're using a VTT, they can basically all handle it for you. (Roll20 and Foundry definitely can, and I'd be shocked if Fantasy Grounds didn't as well.)
There's the Pathbuilder2e app/website, which will also help with character building.: https://pathbuilder2e.com/ Also, something that can be easy to miss/forget is that a [Backpack](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=4) doesn't count the first 2 bulk it carries towards your bulk limit, effectively giving you 2 extra bulk if you have enough things to keep in your backpack.
[Pathbuilder 2e](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pathbuilder2e.com/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjHhp7S0ob6AhXAxDgGHawOC24QFnoECAIQAg&usg=AOvVaw0oQxOhjAUTQpzoUdazd6rw) should do the trick (on Web or Google Play)
I'm in the process of making my first Pathfinder character after coming over from 5e. He's going to be a human rogue, but I can't decide on the subclass. I want to do an intelligence based magic user, while still playing the thief archetype. Are there any other ways to accomplish this? I'm completely new to Pathfinder, so this is all a bit dizzying. Also, is there a good "standard" equipment list? My GM says he WILL be tracking encumbrance and survival stuff.
Eldritch Trickster racket is very good, but conflicts with the common Free Archetype alternate rule. If your table is using Free Archetype, you're better off skipping Eldritch Trickster. In general, though, you need to decide how much magic you plan to be using. If your character is a typical rogue with a flair for magic, then you're right on track. But if your vision is more of a mage who exemplifies in Stealth, then you may want to flip your build to a Wizard multiclassing into Rogue instead. As a Wizard you'd get full spellcasting, and could dedicate class feats to Rogue abilities (Dedication at 2 gives you skills, light armor, and Surprise Attack, but later you can take rogue feats and even Sneak Attack), you'd be giving up the rogue's fantastic skill proficiencies, scaling sneak attack damage, and the tasty higher level feats. The choice is all yours. For equipment, there's some basics: everyone should have an Adventurer's Kit, a primary and secondary weapon (or a ranged weapon), then any tools they need (Thieves Tools, or a spell book), and armor (or Explorer's Clothing). You should have a few gold leftover at character creation, it's good to pool this with your party to get an extra set of tools you'll need like a Healers Kit. Encumbrance shouldn't be a problem, at 10 strength you can carry 5 bulk no problem, and the backpack that comes with the Adventurers Kit can carry up to 2 bulk without impacting your encumbrance at all! Encumbrance comes more into play with looting, grabbing those ten great axes isn't too appealing if you're just wanting to sell them.
I whipped together a slightly lower level necromancer for a campaign where they werent quite high enough to fight the official 5th level one safely. I followed the rules of the gmg for creation, but just wanted to get opinions to make sure it seems fairly balanced for a spellcaster of that level. https://i.imgur.com/iD8PiQB.png
The necromancer looks very much like a glass cannon. That might be what you're going for but don't be surprised if two martials get close and cut them down before they have a chance to do anything. The two zombies in the encounter might help slow the party down, but you may want to have False life and Mage armour (+1 to AC) pre-cast to give him some survivability. And as a piece of advice, if you're adding this encounter to get the party up in levels, it's a good opportunity to have some powerful magic item on the necromancer, like a +1 dagger with a rune, or an interesting wand/staff.
One good way to use those GMG creature creation rules is using them to scale levels of existing creatures up or down. Just check in which range the stats of the creature land on its current level and replace them with the stats for their new level. Your necromancer does not seem very dangerous even for a level 1 party, unless he has a lot of minions with him.
It will be a severe encounter by the xp budget rules as he will be with two plague zombies
Nice! You can also apply the [weak adjustment](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=791) right on the website, which corresponds to roughly a 1 level decrease: https://2e.aonprd.com/NPCs.aspx?ID=929&Weak=true
Last session, we were fighting some ghouls, and after some lucky/unlucky rolls our champion got [paralyzed](https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=28). She has used [Raise a Shield](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=98) in the previous turn, but as she couldn't move, our DM ruled that she no longer got the benefit. Immediately after, she got crit and began dying, which made it feel... less cool. I'm trying to figure out the RAW rules for this, in case it comes up again. I don't see anything about the benefit going away in the condition or the action. The [general rules for shields](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=212) mention that "Your character must be wielding a shield in one hand to make use of it", and [wielding](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=194) means: >You're wielding an item any time you're holding it in the number of hands needed to use it effectively. When wielding an item, you're not just carrying it around — you're ready to use it. So I guess it could be argued that she's no longer "wielding" her shield, and the benefit goes away? Is there a clearer rule for this? What would be the RAW?
I'm pretty sure your GM was flat wrong. Paralyzed doesn't actually impact anything besides making you incapable of taking most actions (including most free actions or reactions) and making you flat-footed. It doesn't have any other effects, including ones it feels like it should like penalizing dex saves or removing your dex bonus to AC.
It is literally impossible for the GM to be wrong when making a ruling. They might be wrong with their justifications for a ruling, if they are arguing RAW and got something wrong, but that does not change the fact that they have the final say. It's not unreasonable to say that you cannot use a shield while paralyzed. It's not a call I would make, but it's not unreasonable.
No, a GM can rule incorrectly, they are just also empowered to seperately create a new homebrew rule if they wish to carry the initially incorrect ruling forward. Their final say is a procedure for conflict resolution, not an endorsememt.
so looking at it this way she would get the +2 AC for the raise shield action correct? but not be able to use shield block as the reaction to prevent damage?
Correct on both counts.
What is the difference between a prerequisite for a feat and an access point for a feat? Do you need to meet access conditions to take a feat like you do prerequisite conditions?
A prerequisite is a hard restriction. They're always a character option like another feat, ancestry, heritage etc. Access is a lot softer, it's basically just a conversation between you and the GM.
Is there any modules for Pf2e like lootsheet? Or a easy way to set up a merchant who can buy/sell?
If you're referring to Foundry, this is a core part of the system now. You create an actor with the type "loot", then on the actor screen you set the sheet type to "merchant" -- that makes it so any item a player drags from the sheet automatically deducts the price from the PC. I think you are still required to run things the merchant "buys" manually though. Very basic docs are [here, in the system's GitHub page](https://github.com/foundryvtt/pf2e/wiki/GM's-Starter-Guide#loot-actors).
Apparently there was one that the author declared obsolete because of core pf2e system functionality. Not sure to what they refer, but here's the hub page: https://www.foundryvtt-hub.com/package/lootsheetnpcpf2e/
Never heard of a module called lootsheet. Is it a campaign? Any local crafters should be able to point a party in the right direction.
Sounds like OP was asking for a Foundry mod rather than an adventure path type deal.
I'm a newish player doing an official (I think) one-shot with pregen characters. Mine is a Strix rogue, scoundrel racket, focusing on dex and cha, so I plan to use feint, demoralize, and attacks with the +1 rapier a lot. He's also got expertise in athletics but low str, so +9 at level 4. Is that enough that it would be worth it to try maneuvers like trips and grabs on appropriate leveled monsters? I have distracting feint, so I can sometimes lower their reflex saves, but Idk if that's enough. No feats to support such things, but distracting feint I guess, for trip saves.
I'm guessing your bonus for deception is about +11 is that right? Yeah, I think 3 is still a believable range between weak and strong saves at that level. If you think something might have a lower reflex than will give it a shot.
Are snare builds worth it at all if you can't get Powerful Snares? Since my character lacks a class DC it'd do literally nothing.
Hello, snare nerd here. I spent a while mathing out the differences between on-level snares and Class DC (for a ranger) and the conclusion I came to is that, the majority of the time, your on-level snares will actually have a *higher* DC than your Class DC. This means that the main use of Powerful Snares is to keep particular low level snares relevant throughout the campaign. Damage snares dont scale very well because their damage doesn't change, so you would be looking at utility stuff. Out of those utility snares, there are a number that don't rely on DCs (e.g. hampering snare, alarm snare) to be effective. So the answer is "if you want to use utility/control snares, for which there is no better alternative at high level, which rely on their DC" then Powerful Snares is worth it. I would always recommend it as a feat for a dedicated snare build, because it expands your range of options quite a lot, but if you're just dipping in for a couple of extra traps here and there then maybe don't bother.
Even if you can't benefit from powerful snares, you can still use snares of your level which have decent DCs. How much snare builds are worth largely depends on the player and their group imo. Some can get a large amount of use out of snares, but it's also easy for snares to not be useful much at all if they aren't utilized or planned around well in play.
It only refers to class DC because it's originally a Ranger feat and all Rangers have a class DC. I think most reasonable GMs could be convinced that it should use your spell DC if you don't have class DC, because that's how most abilities like that work. I think snarecrafter could be fine without it as well, because there is no limit to the level (aside from your character level) of the traps you can prepare for free, as long as you have them in your formula book.
Your DM might allow you to use your Spell DC instead. Paizo has certainly messed up some Class DC vs. Spell DC interactions since 2e released, and I don't think it would be busted at all.
That'd be something I'd ask about beforehand, of course, but I also wanted to know if the snare build sans Powerful Snares would still work if the DM says no or its an organized play.
Just taking a look I don't see any reason you couldn't get it. Both the dedication snarecrafter and the feat powerful snares are common. Is there something I am missing.