Pathfinder RPG: sqrt(13)th Edition

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Pathfinder RPG: sqrt(13)th Edition

Killer-of-Lawyers: Apr 22, 2008; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2020

Boba Pearl posted:

I was thinking of learning and running my own Pathfinder 2e game, but there's something I do in Roll20, and I don't know if I could do it in Foundry.

When I DM, and someone's in a mansion, or talking to an NPC or whatever, I stream a window from my computer and just kind of sketch out a picture of the scene, or the person, or whatever to give the players a general idea of what they are looking at. When they go into a dungeon or battlemap I draw it out live and get input from the players and put some stuff they want "Oh we had a cart can we put it here?" Or, "There were trees can we have one here?"

Then upload it straight to roll20 almost instantly.

Does Foundry let me either draw straight on the map with a tablet pen, or alternatively, upload pngs very quickly from my art program to a map situation?

e: I also am coming to PF2e from a 13th age / 4e perspective, I've been forced to run a few 5e games, but I wanted to learn pathfinder to see if I could grab people who don't want to play 5e. I had a few issues with the monster cards and player powers being more vague then I like.

Is it easy to make encounters?

You do have a set of tools for drawing on maps, and uploading a map file isn't really slow or anything, you just upload it and set it as the map, adjust the pixels and grid if needed, and make player visible.

There are also add-ons that make things like token generation easier which are real nice for making tokens on the fly in token stamp 2.

I made a battlemap while GMing a hexploration for the group and it was pain free to make it go live during the mid session break.

# ? Jul 8, 2021 22:29

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 12:05

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

The tile functionality is there if you want to upload small pieces and assemble a map out of multiple images, FYI.

# ? Jul 8, 2021 22:38

ZenMasterBullshit: Nov 2, 2011; Restaurant de Nouvelles "À Table" Proudly Presents:
A Climactic Encounter Ending on 1 Negate and a Dream

Andrast posted:

The spider people ancestry is adorable

(they also have a humanish form but who cares about that)

What book are these in?

# ? Jul 8, 2021 22:41

Megazver: Jan 13, 2006

ZenMasterBullshit posted:

What book are these in?

The new Mwangi Expanse book, I imagine.

# ? Jul 8, 2021 23:33

M. Night Skymall: Mar 22, 2012

ZenMasterBullshit posted:

What book are these in?

They're both from the new Mwangi Expanse book, it's pretty great. Taking that spider to magic school as soon as the Strength of Thousands AP drops.

# ? Jul 8, 2021 23:34

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

The quality of Paizo's PF2e products has been great, but I worry that the continued production issues (whatever happened to the Absalom stuff last year and extreme delays on shipping recent products from China) are going to drag the edition down severely.

# ? Jul 8, 2021 23:45

M. Night Skymall: Mar 22, 2012

Yeah, it's impossible to say what could have caused those delays. Incredibly unprofessional in these very normal times in which we find ourselves. That's why I'm only buying things from brand haven't been affected by shipping and production delays like

# ? Jul 8, 2021 23:57

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

M. Night Skymall posted:

Yeah, it's impossible to say what could have caused those delays. Incredibly unprofessional in these very normal times in which we find ourselves. That's why I'm only buying things from brand haven't been affected by shipping and production delays like

No, you misunderstand. I'm not saying they're unprofessional or something I personally object to, but they make me worry for the future of the company/products in general. Shipping's hosed, I get it. The Absalom book/Dead Man's Hand sounds like Erik Mona bit off too much, that's fine. I just worry about Pathfinder 2e getting a bad reputation or being shut down if this kind of stuff continues, and that would really suck.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 00:13

Epi Lepi: Oct 29, 2009; You can hear the voice
Telling you to Love
It's the voice of MK Ultra
And you're doing what it wants

Arivia posted:

The quality of Paizo's PF2e products has been great, but I worry that the continued production issues (whatever happened to the Absalom stuff last year and extreme delays on shipping recent products from China) are going to drag the edition down severely.

That poo poo is industry wide though, there were issues with importing things from China before COVID and COVID just made it worse.

I had an FFG Star Wars book that I preordered in January 2020 (just before scheduled release) that I received in May of this year because of bizarre shipping issues.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 00:16

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

Epi Lepi posted:

That poo poo is industry wide though, there were issues with importing things from China before COVID and COVID just made it worse.

I had an FFG Star Wars book that I preordered in January 2020 (just before scheduled release) that I received in May of this year because of bizarre shipping issues.

I'm sympathetic to that, but Paizo's responses haven't been helping things. Mwangi Expanse has been frustrating to many subscribers (at least from what I've seen) because Paizo insisted on delaying PDFs until they shipped the subscriber hard copies (their traditional policy) which resulted in many people being charged months ahead of time for books they didn't have access to in any form. Their subscription model has been a strength in the past, but it's significantly weakened if Paizo can't ship things on time, even if the reason for those delays is out of their hands.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 00:22

M. Night Skymall: Mar 22, 2012

Arivia posted:

I'm sympathetic to that, but Paizo's responses haven't been helping things. Mwangi Expanse has been frustrating to many subscribers (at least from what I've seen) because Paizo insisted on delaying PDFs until they shipped the subscriber hard copies (their traditional policy) which resulted in many people being charged months ahead of time for books they didn't have access to in any form. Their subscription model has been a strength in the past, but it's significantly weakened if Paizo can't ship things on time, even if the reason for those delays is out of their hands.

? Paizo doesn't charge for subscriptions until they physically ship the books. People will get angry about literally anything on the internet. Paizo has said they had their best year ever last year, and all their subscription numbers are up since 1e. The best you can claim about them dying is there're certainly angry 1e players who loudly claim 2e is dying because they won't play it, but there's no actual evidence for that, just grogs being grogs.

ETA: If anything it's pretty clear 2e is finally getting some traction. Roll20 released the Mwangi Expanse at the same day it released and they've supposedly committed to releasing Strength of Thousands in line with the release dates as well.

M. Night Skymall fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Jul 9, 2021

# ? Jul 9, 2021 00:24

Kvantum: Feb 5, 2006; Skee-entist

They shipped 3 volumes of the Adventure Path all at once because volume 1 of the 3-volume AP got delayed by like 6 weeks, so I got all 3 volumes of the AP and a module and the Mwangi Expanse book all in one box. I hadn't gotten anything from my Paizo subs for two months before that.

Also they just delayed the release of the "10th Anniversary" 2e update of Kingmaker to April 2022, so at this point I think it's more like a 12th anniversary edition.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 00:48

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

M. Night Skymall posted:

? Paizo doesn't charge for subscriptions until they physically ship the books. People will get angry about literally anything on the internet. Paizo has said they had their best year ever last year, and all their subscription numbers are up since 1e. The best you can claim about them dying is there're certainly angry 1e players who loudly claim 2e is dying because they won't play it, but there's no actual evidence for that, just grogs being grogs.

ETA: If anything it's pretty clear 2e is finally getting some traction. Roll20 released the Mwangi Expanse at the same day it released and they've supposedly committed to releasing Strength of Thousands in line with the release dates as well.

I'm glad to be proven wrong and I hope their run of successes continues, then!

# ? Jul 9, 2021 00:58

MadScientistWorking: Jun 23, 2010; "I was going through a time period where I was looking up weird stories involving necrophilia..."

Kvantum posted:

They shipped 3 volumes of the Adventure Path all at once because volume 1 of the 3-volume AP got delayed by like 6 weeks, so I got all 3 volumes of the AP and a module and the Mwangi Expanse book all in one box. I hadn't gotten anything from my Paizo subs for two months before that.

Only volume 1 of the AP was actually a part of the weird customs clusterfuck that delayed those books. Of course its pointless without those other two books so shrug....

# ? Jul 9, 2021 02:37

Pyronic: Oct 1, 2008; ROYAL RAINWHARRGARBL

Was browsing around the Archives of Nethys and came across the Ringleader Bard Archetype https://aonprd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Bard%20Ringleader%20(AG)

quote:

Cunning Plan (Su): By spending 1 minute laying out a plan, a ringleader can impart inspiring instructions to a number of allies equal to her bard level + her Charisma bonus. Upon concluding the plan, the ringleader chooses one of her bardic performances and expends a number of rounds of bardic performance equal to up to double her bard level. Thereafter, as a move action, the ringleader or any of the instructed allies can trigger the implanted instructions, causing that creature to immediately gain the benefits of the ringleader�s implanted bardic performance (each creature can trigger the instructions for itself separately). This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the rounds of bardic performance the ringleader expended while creating the plan, though the effect also ends if the ringleader dismisses it as a free action or activates a different plan or bardic performance. For the purpose of this ability, the ringleader attempts any skill checks associated with the bardic performance once a creature triggers the plan. A ringleader�s cunning plans all expire each time she regains her daily spell slots or after 24 hours (whichever comes first).

At 7th level, the ringleader (but not an ally) can trigger a cunning plan as a swift action instead of as a move action. At 13th level, the ringleader can trigger a cunning plan as an immediate action. A ringleader is less capable of improvising, and when she uses bardic performance without creating a cunning plan, she must expend 1 additional round of bardic performance to begin the performance.

How the heck is this supposed to work? Is this just a way to like pre-gaming some rounds of inspire competence or inspire courage? This wouldn't work with most bardic performances right? like Countersong/Distraction/Fascinate/ etc?

quote:

For the purpose of this ability, the ringleader attempts any skill checks associated with the bardic performance once a creature triggers the plan.

this part confuses me, it doesn't mean that like if the bard inspires courage on a fighter that the bard rolls the fighter's saving throw right?

the level 6 ability: Countless Contingencies is basically just gonna be either competence or courage till 8 or 9? ~~but at level 12 you could stock up a bunch of allies with a contingency Soothing Performance mass cure serious wounds?~~ just noticed that this ability replaced Suggestion and Soothing Performance.

I love the flavor behind this archetype but it does seem like one of those "Meant for NPCs only" archetypes.

Pyronic fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Jul 9, 2021

# ? Jul 9, 2021 03:54

Syrinxx: Mar 28, 2002; Death is whimsical today

Boba Pearl posted:

I was thinking of learning and running my own Pathfinder 2e game, but there's something I do in Roll20, and I don't know if I could do it in Foundry.

When I DM, and someone's in a mansion, or talking to an NPC or whatever, I stream a window from my computer and just kind of sketch out a picture of the scene, or the person, or whatever to give the players a general idea of what they are looking at. When they go into a dungeon or battlemap I draw it out live and get input from the players and put some stuff they want "Oh we had a cart can we put it here?" Or, "There were trees can we have one here?"

Then upload it straight to roll20 almost instantly.

Does Foundry let me either draw straight on the map with a tablet pen, or alternatively, upload pngs very quickly from my art program to a map situation?

You can definitely drop any image you want as a tile (also does tokens, journals, ambient sounds) using a module called "Drag Upload". It goes to the tile layer and not the map layer but you can enlarge it and essentially make it function like a map.

This is what it would look like. Assuming you have your drawing saved somewhere handy, you just drop it on the tile layer, switch to the token layer and add your tokens for players or their horse or whatever.

https://imgur.com/1NJJv8i

You can also draw on the canvas just like roll20 with the mouse, so assuming the tablet is a valid input device that would work pretty much exactly the same.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 04:38

Boba Pearl: Dec 27, 2019; by Athanatos

Ah well, that's an instant buy for me then, once I get paid.

I wanted to run a Pathfinder 2e game where you're in a mega-city that's inside of a living creature (ala Eyes of the Stone Thief) And you are trying to get a small gang together, so you can kill all 5 of the trade guild leaders and replace them with revolutionaries.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 04:42

Vanguard Warden: Apr 5, 2009; I am holding a live frag grenade.

Pyronic posted:

How the heck is this supposed to work? Is this just a way to like pre-gaming some rounds of inspire competence or inspire courage? This wouldn't work with most bardic performances right? like Countersong/Distraction/Fascinate/ etc?

The jist of it seems to be that unlike a normal bard, (1) the allies don't need the bard to be nearby and non-incapacitated to maintain the effects of the performance, and (2) the durations of the performance effects are independent for each target based on when they are individually triggered. It would hypothetically be handy if all the affected characters needed the benefits at different times rather than all at once, like if they were taking their actions in sequence as part of some sort of heist.

It's correct that it wouldn't work with performances that are meant to target enemies (since you implant the performances in allies), but Countersong affects allies so that would work fine; the bard would take 1 minute to implant some number of Countersong rounds in the group, and then each member could start the timer on their own personal Countersong effect as a move action, lasting for them until their rounds ran out.

Pyronic posted:

this part confuses me, it doesn't mean that like if the bard inspires courage on a fighter that the bard rolls the fighter's saving throw right?

This bit is referring to the skill checks made as part of the performance, like the Perform checks within Countersong. To continue the previous example, once someone activated the Ringleader's Countersong the bard would start making Perform checks every round and the affected ally would get to use that result instead of their own for appropriate Countersong-applicable saving throws, plus free save attempts to end such effects each round also using that result. I think Countersong is actually the only bardic performance that this clause could affect from the base class, but it's probably meant as a catch-all for performances you might get from mixing in other archetypes.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 05:14

Pyronic: Oct 1, 2008; ROYAL RAINWHARRGARBL

Vanguard Warden posted:

The jist of it seems to be that unlike a normal bard, (1) the allies don't need the bard to be nearby and non-incapacitated to maintain the effects of the performance, and (2) the durations of the performance effects are independent for each target based on when they are individually triggered. It would hypothetically be handy if all the affected characters needed the benefits at different times rather than all at once, like if they were taking their actions in sequence as part of some sort of heist.

It's correct that it wouldn't work with performances that are meant to target enemies (since you implant the performances in allies), but Countersong affects allies so that would work fine; the bard would take 1 minute to implant some number of Countersong rounds in the group, and then each member could start the timer on their own personal Countersong effect as a move action, lasting for them until their rounds ran out.

This bit is referring to the skill checks made as part of the performance, like the Perform checks within Countersong. To continue the previous example, once someone activated the Ringleader's Countersong the bard would start making Perform checks every round and the affected ally would get to use that result instead of their own for appropriate Countersong-applicable saving throws, plus free save attempts to end such effects each round also using that result. I think Countersong is actually the only bardic performance that this clause could affect from the base class, but it's probably meant as a catch-all for performances you might get from mixing in other archetypes.

Ok, that's more or less the conclusions I came to after reading, and rereading the abilities and comparing them to bardic performances for a lot longer than i'd admit. I'm generally pretty good at reading the style of formatting pathfinder uses but drat an example or two would have helped SO much.

I'm still wrapping my mind around practical uses for this.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 05:41

Boba Pearl: Dec 27, 2019; by Athanatos

Are there any "MUST HAVE" addons for Foundry?

# ? Jul 9, 2021 06:43

Ryuujin: Sep 26, 2007; Dragon God

Megazver posted:

The new Mwangi Expanse book, I imagine.

From looking at the SRD it seems like the Mwangi book has a bunch of interesting Ancestries.

There is the spider ancestry which already seems really interesting, but also an ancestry with a face of hardened material that looks like an eight eyed mask, also their dark hair in the back is filled with numerous eyes and they have feat options for all around vision. There is also an ancestry that is an orb of light, dark or space looking stuff that then grows a wooden body to allow them to move around and interact with stuff.

All three of these sound like they could be fun to try out.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 07:23

Lord_Hambrose: Nov 21, 2008; *a foul hooting fills the air*

The Mwangi book is extremely cool, much more interesting than I expected. If I ever play a campaign set there you better believe I will play a cleric of the god of being huge.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 14:13

Syrinxx: Mar 28, 2002; Death is whimsical today

Boba Pearl posted:

Are there any "MUST HAVE" addons for Foundry?

You'll get a different answer from every GM but here are mine, in descending order of "gotta have"
- Dice Tray
- Turn Marker
- Pings
- Drag Upload
- Less Fog
- PF2e Persistent Damage
- Token Mold
- Hide GM Rolls
- Drag Ruler
- Dice So Nice
- Show Art
- Smart Doors

Player QoL:
- PopOut!
- T is for Target
- Herolab Online Importer
- Pathbuilder 2e importer
- Chat Portrait
- PF2e Animal Companion Compendia

# ? Jul 9, 2021 20:13

Boba Pearl: Dec 27, 2019; by Athanatos

Syrinxx posted:

You'll get a different answer from every GM but here are mine, in descending order of "gotta have"
- Dice Tray
- Turn Marker
- Pings
- Drag Upload
- Less Fog
- PF2e Persistent Damage
- Token Mold
- Hide GM Rolls
- Drag Ruler
- Dice So Nice
- Show Art
- Smart Doors

Player QoL:
- PopOut!
- T is for Target
- Herolab Online Importer
- Pathbuilder 2e importer
- Chat Portrait
- PF2e Animal Companion Compendia

This is a great list, Drag Upload is sooooo good for what I need.

If anyone is here, and interested, I'm doing my first game with goons from the forums!

Hopefully, I'm not clogging up the thread!

Boba Pearl posted:

So we�re going to be doing Pathfinder 2e through Foundry (I have a server that will be up 24/7 on my website,) and discord. I have my own bot with like Syrinscape, a mynoise.net subscription, voicemod, the whole 9 yards, so I�m going to be going ham on the digital tools. I also draw, and generally screen share on Discord to sketch out an NPC you�re talking too, or a setting, and also I do my battlemaps live letting you guys place terrain and stuff like that before I upload it to foundry to do the actual combat on.

You�ll be starting at level 2, with two free archetypes 1 is Bellflower Tillier (though instead of slaves think of it more about the destitute and disenfranchised in general) the other is your choice and I�ll be throwing levels in using the milestone system. You get levels when you hit cool moments, or do cool things. I normally do shorter campaigns and then if people really like it, or have the ability to commit to longer then we do longer. A good example is the 4e game I�m running right now. I started people at level 5, now after about 7 months, we�re level 11, and a few people are going to bow out as we wrap up the end of the �campaign� while a smaller group are going to move forward into a larger epic tier campaign following up and continuing the first part.

The game I have planned should be �over� in 7 - 9 months, but like that�s going to be during Christmas, Thanksgiving, midterms and finals. That plus people leaving / joining could throw all the in disarray. I�m just saying it�s not gonna be a �forever� thing. I like doing story arcs, and I tend to want to do a bunch of different settings.

The time would be 7 - 11pm PST Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday I will do as many players as 6 though I�ll push it to 7 if the other 6 are ok with it. I don�t cancel games because a few people don�t show up. As long as 3 people are willing to play, I�ll do a full session, and if there�s only 2 or 1, I�ll normally just shoot the poo poo, and maybe talk about some down time stuff or back story stuff, and maybe hand out a cool magic item or boon that they�ll get later from whatever story we make up.

Players don�t have to be from SA, if you know someone who�d like to play as well that�s awesome, invite them! Just make sure they aren�t huge CHUDS or weirdos. I�m Trans (She/Her Pronouns!) and I kind of need a safe place to do my gaming.

Let�s get into the setting. It�s High Magic, with crystals for communication, and maybe like a social media thing, I dunno we�ll get the tech level nailed down in session 0. You are in a giant monster that the name of has been long forgotten. The people who live here just call it Titan. There are multiple cities inside of Titan, and a number of towns, forests, caves, and agricultural areas. A government run by multiple corporations (one for every player,) have to work together to use necromancy to keep this giant monster moving. That�s because in the outside world, there�s about a 7 hour window where the world is neither too hot, nor too cold for the species that live in Titan to exist in. The monster has to keep moving around the world, always staying in twilight to make sure that they never fall into either climate and wipe out all life in Titan. Life has been like this for hundreds, and maybe thousands of years, and it�s gotten to the point that there are very few who remember what the world was like before you all entered the Titan, and even fewer actually knew what caused this hellscape. A world run by corporations has all the problems you�d think it does, but the specifics will be hammered out as a group.

Arteries are major trade lines, bones have large caverns inside that can be used to travel around. Capillaries and veins are like side streets, and entire chunks of muscle hard as rock and constantly leaking acid have been carved out to create space for towns, trees, crops, and live stock. There are monsters lurking on the roads of Titan, and trade is dangerous. The monster is dead and decaying, and whoever first animated this giant had also created an eco system to help keep it functioning. There are those that feast on the things that make it rot (but also the people who live inside.) You�ll find many strange places in Titan, as you travel it, and nothing will be quite as it seems...

The main thrust of adventure is that you�re all a member of a singular newly created company. You all got a license (or will in the first few sessions) specifically to topple all of the other corporations (or force them to get in line,) and bring about a new government that allows the workers of Titan that keep it running to profit off their own labor, not the corporations that force them to toil in destitution. Right now you have the party, a small starting hub (maybe a bar, an office, an inn, that�s also a session 0 thing,) and you�re going to be starting small but quickly expanding.

If that sounds vague, it�s because it�s a rough sketch, people might end up getting pulled a different way, or some throw-away NPC might become more interesting and you guys want to do a whole campaign about that, or a million other things. The idea though is this is what brought you guys together.

So all I need from you right now, is just an interest post, what day would be good for you, the character idea you had, and the corporation you�d like to introduce to this world, if you want to go the extra mile, give it a capital city and explain how the corporation has turned this city into the perfect place for it to do business. I�d like Character Sheets to be done by session 0, but you don�t need one just to say you�d be interested!

I got a discord, I�m on the TG and CYOA discord, and I�m going to be plugging this thread on the forums and discords looking for people, if you can too that'd be awesome!

https://discord.gg/Hd9XD3xaGe

# ? Jul 10, 2021 00:42

Boba Pearl: Dec 27, 2019; by Athanatos

Sorry to double post, but I just want to talk about how cool this system seems now that I'm learning it. I'm cross posting this from Discord...

I'm teaching myself Pathfinder for the first time, and so much of it is so exciting. It seems like they made Martials better in general (not wizard tier, but actually able to participate in combat,) the three action systems is so much less clunky then the standard move minor system from 4e, and the mix of ancestry, heritage, background, and archetype seems to give crazy flexibility in making truly unique and interesting characters. I have the beginner box, and the SRD, and every new race or class or archetype I learn about spawns a dozen ideas for cool campaigns. The skill system has mechanics for things I have to home rule in a lot of game, which is nice because it lets me feel like I can hand off more to the system. Especially things like using athletics to break down doors, or Deception not being a generic bluff stat, but having different mechanics for lying vs impersonating vs diversions.

I feel like Hero Points are better than advantage, they let the player decide when to re-roll and they're an easy mechanic to hand out. The +10 crit rule seems super cool as well. It has power cards and keywords as well which rules, and combining that with foundry shows a list of every keyword pertaining to that power / action / item which seems like it would take out a lot of the compendium searching I have to do in 4e. Death can also be really boring in DND with it not really mattering because of revival stuff at later levels, but also just because mechanically it doesn't feel good to take a character away when someone dies. The Hero Points letting you avoid death rules, because it makes player death a decision made by the player. It reminds me of the wound system of Tenra Bansho Zero.

The Game Mastery guide and Core Rulebook are also very well written, and when I have a question it seems like it answers them, where as a lot of other systems leave me wanting.

Pathfinder 2e might not be as good as it seems but on first blush before play I'm super stoked to see it play out.

Also Leshi and Arandi might be two of the cutest creatures in the world of tabletop games ever.

# ? Jul 10, 2021 09:14

Roadie: Jun 30, 2013

Boba Pearl posted:

Also Leshi and Arandi might be two of the cutest creatures in the world of tabletop games ever.

# ? Jul 10, 2021 09:28

Megazver: Jan 13, 2006

# ? Jul 10, 2021 10:20

the_steve: Nov 9, 2005; We're always hiring!

So, Secrets of Magic is supposed to come out this month, isn't it? Did they specify when, or just "July." ?

# ? Jul 10, 2021 11:20

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Sadly I think it�s out on the 25th of August

# ? Jul 10, 2021 12:38

The Golux: Feb 18, 2017; Internet Cephalopod

Boba Pearl posted:

Sorry to double post, but I just want to talk about how cool this system seems now that I'm learning it. I'm cross posting this from Discord...

I'm teaching myself Pathfinder for the first time, and so much of it is so exciting. It seems like they made Martials better in general (not wizard tier, but actually able to participate in combat,) the three action systems is so much less clunky then the standard move minor system from 4e, and the mix of ancestry, heritage, background, and archetype seems to give crazy flexibility in making truly unique and interesting characters. I have the beginner box, and the SRD, and every new race or class or archetype I learn about spawns a dozen ideas for cool campaigns. The skill system has mechanics for things I have to home rule in a lot of game, which is nice because it lets me feel like I can hand off more to the system. Especially things like using athletics to break down doors, or Deception not being a generic bluff stat, but having different mechanics for lying vs impersonating vs diversions.

I feel like Hero Points are better than advantage, they let the player decide when to re-roll and they're an easy mechanic to hand out. The +10 crit rule seems super cool as well. It has power cards and keywords as well which rules, and combining that with foundry shows a list of every keyword pertaining to that power / action / item which seems like it would take out a lot of the compendium searching I have to do in 4e. Death can also be really boring in DND with it not really mattering because of revival stuff at later levels, but also just because mechanically it doesn't feel good to take a character away when someone dies. The Hero Points letting you avoid death rules, because it makes player death a decision made by the player. It reminds me of the wound system of Tenra Bansho Zero.

The Game Mastery guide and Core Rulebook are also very well written, and when I have a question it seems like it answers them, where as a lot of other systems leave me wanting.

Pathfinder 2e might not be as good as it seems but on first blush before play I'm super stoked to see it play out.

Also Leshi and Arandi might be two of the cutest creatures in the world of tabletop games ever.

I like all of these things a lot but I have some issues with 10th level spells and bards being full casters because they didn't want to make the Psychic core (to have a full caster from the occult spell list; having just four spell lists is also kind of an issue), and the proficiency system rubs me the wrong way since there's no way to have, like, a little bit of ability in a skill (I am one of the weirdos that usually has at least two skills with less than max ranks in in PF1e/3.x).

Plus I kind of like the original for still having everything built on pretty much the same hit dice foundation so you can mix and match things more easily but I understand that they changed that largely so stat blocks were less huge.

But yeah there are a lot of good design decisions.

# ? Jul 11, 2021 00:13

Epi Lepi: Oct 29, 2009; You can hear the voice
Telling you to Love
It's the voice of MK Ultra
And you're doing what it wants

Epi Lepi posted:

I'm finally going to get to play in Pathfinder 2e soonish and I am going to play an Elf/Tiefling Ranger. I want him to be at least somewhat Witcher-esque, so wields a sword, knows a lot about hunting monsters and fucks around a little bit with potions/magic. Current plan is the elven ancestry feat for the free arcane cantrip for shield, the monster hunter ranger feat, the outwit hunters edge and then take alchemist dedication at level 2 (we are doing free archetype). I plan on using my third action to recall knowledge a lot or use shield. I might pick up more spells later through ancestry feats or a second archetype when available.

So it turns out one of the other players in the game is playing a full alchemist so I will be bumming potions/mutagens off of her instead of taking the alchemist dedication at level 2.

As I said I'm playing an Elf/Tiefling Ranger, outwit hunters edge, wielding a bastard sword. Stat array is 18-14-12-14-10-10. Had the 14 in INT to get into Alchemist Dedication and I'm leaving it for now to do better at certain recall knowledge checks. Debating dropping it to 12 and raising WIS to 12.

What other cool archetypes should I consider taking? First glance I'm thinking Mauler, but I'm open to anything.

Rest of the party is Monk, Bard, Cleric, Swashbuckler and aforementioned alchemist.

# ? Jul 12, 2021 22:15

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Epi Lepi posted:

So it turns out one of the other players in the game is playing a full alchemist so I will be bumming potions/mutagens off of her instead of taking the alchemist dedication at level 2.

As I said I'm playing an Elf/Tiefling Ranger, outwit hunters edge, wielding a bastard sword. Stat array is 18-14-12-14-10-10. Had the 14 in INT to get into Alchemist Dedication and I'm leaving it for now to do better at certain recall knowledge checks. Debating dropping it to 12 and raising WIS to 12.

What other cool archetypes should I consider taking? First glance I'm thinking Mauler, but I'm open to anything.

Rest of the party is Monk, Bard, Cleric, Swashbuckler and aforementioned alchemist.

Are you doing Free Archetype?

Even if not, if you get a few tricks for pushing people, the snare master stuff is kinda cool at higher levels as eventually you can place a trap as an action and then push someone into it to trigger it and the high level snares are hilarious.

# ? Jul 12, 2021 22:19

Epi Lepi: Oct 29, 2009; You can hear the voice
Telling you to Love
It's the voice of MK Ultra
And you're doing what it wants

Free archetype yeah.

# ? Jul 13, 2021 03:54

Killer-of-Lawyers: Apr 22, 2008; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2020

That free archetype rule seems so good and often used I have to wonder if it'd be worth introducing it to my established game. Play it up as extra training they got.

They could use a little flexibility, like no one fills the roll of the rogue.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 01:17

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

I�m absolutely convinced of free archetype, there is a small power bump, but only in the form of greater flexibility. Great at shoring up weaknesses in the party or giving people a unique trick.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 02:04

Epi Lepi: Oct 29, 2009; You can hear the voice
Telling you to Love
It's the voice of MK Ultra
And you're doing what it wants

The only thing you have to consider is how you want to handle if someone takes an archetype that doesn�t have a feat at certain levels. There�s a few that go from 2 to 6 and skip 4 so do you stick with the �must take x amour of feats before you can take another archetype� rule or let your party ignore that part. I�m doing the latter for my group.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 05:19

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

How have I only just found out that somehow, against all odds, Pathfinder 2E is a good system, and the next AP is a magic school?

I just spent some time googling and I can already see 50 characters I'd want to make. (But top two are dwarf cleric of Calistria focusing on the grudge/revenge aspect of her portfolio, or irongut goblin witch who found their urban fox familiar when they tried to fight them for food scraps in the street.)

e: I broke down and ordered the core rulebook and advanced players guide.

CottonWolf fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Jul 15, 2021

# ? Jul 15, 2021 16:15

Andrast: Apr 21, 2010

CottonWolf posted:

How have I only just found out that somehow, against all odds, Pathfinder 2E is a good system, and the next AP is a magic school?

I just spent some time googling and I can already see 50 characters I'd want to make. (But top two are dwarf cleric of Callistre focusing on the grudge/revenge aspect of her portfolio, or irongut goblin witch who found their urban fox familiar when they tried to fight them for food scraps in the street.)

e: I broke down and ordered the core rulebook and advanced players guide.

I was as surprised as you are now when I found out.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 16:26

Toshimo: Aug 23, 2012; He's outta line...

But he's right!

Hell, same. I didn't predict Hogwarts in 2021, but here we are.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 16:54

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 12:05

Roadie: Jun 30, 2013

Toshimo posted:

Hell, same. I didn't predict Hogwarts in 2021, but here we are.

From the descriptions it's more of a Hogwarts: Three Houses, complete with time skips between some books.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 17:42

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