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tbh magus is better off using cantrips or maybe a focus spell from an archetype (like imaginary weapon from psychic) for spellstriking rather than spending spell slots on it.
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Nov 18, 2023 23:27
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Nelson Mandingo posted:I'm so bummed they made Daze not apply flat footed with the errata fix. I don't think that was really overpowered at all. It turned it into a very powerful utility spell that requires setup (most likely delaying to be last in the round) to really take full advantage of, and it does literal scratch damage. Nah. Approximate is the weakest spell in the game.
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Nov 19, 2023 19:20
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Facebook Aunt posted:Nah. Approximate is the weakest spell in the game. I think Draw Moisture is worse, before it was printed I would have assumed that drying something was part of Prestidigiation's cleaning ability.
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Nov 19, 2023 19:29
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I could see some possible utility for Draw Moisture for a part of a campaign where survival and rationing were important, but Approximate baffles me. You can't even heighten it to get exact counts, cover a larger area, or sniff out hidden items, which would be the only possible reasons I would ever consider casting it.
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Nov 19, 2023 19:40
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PublicOpinion posted:I could see some possible utility for Draw Moisture for a part of a campaign where survival and rationing were important, but Approximate baffles me. You can't even heighten it to get exact counts, cover a larger area, or sniff out hidden items, which would be the only possible reasons I would ever consider casting it. Plus between the spell Approximate and the feat Eye For Numbers it kinda makes it seem like approximating is something most people on Golarian can't do it all. The guy who wins the "guess how many jelly beans are in the jar" contest is burned as a witch. 
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Nov 19, 2023 20:11
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Approximate is cool because it’s so lovely and should be given to every spellcaster automatically as a bonus spell with rewards for using it effectively
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Nov 19, 2023 20:36
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Are there any Occult Cantrips that target a Reflex save? Daze is Will Void Warp Fortitude Needle Darts/Phase Bolt/Telekinetic Projectile are AC
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Nov 20, 2023 18:25
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The Slack Lagoon posted:Are there any Occult Cantrips that target a Reflex save? Nope! Occult magic isn't very good at targeting Reflex saves.
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Nov 20, 2023 18:35
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Actually, Astral Rain is technically an occult cantrip that targets Reflex. But that’s exclusive to Tangible Dream Psychics of 6th level and above.
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Nov 21, 2023 05:09
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So, I’m prepping to run AV for some friends, and now that I’m reading through it I’m getting pretty excited. Is there a good write up somewhere of “key plot points that show up later but you should sprinkle in early”? This’ll be only my second time GMing, and last time I went wayyyyy overboard in prepping each session so I’m trying to lean more towards “bare minimum” both to save my sanity and to be less railroady while working on not having a panic attack when we gotta improv some content. We’ll be using the Foundry module so that definitely takes a huge mental load off my shoulders, but I feel like I need some sort of outline doc of key beats plus plot elements I should make sure they pick up on for each floor.
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Nov 21, 2023 15:26
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Pryce posted:So, I’m prepping to run AV for some friends, and now that I’m reading through it I’m getting pretty excited. Is there a good write up somewhere of “key plot points that show up later but you should sprinkle in early”? There's a chapter synopsis, but from running AV in Foundry I'll say my prep is to take a look at the areas the party is likely to explore in a given session, get a feel for how the monsters there might fight. Having easy map notes to open really helps.
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Nov 21, 2023 16:06
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I haven't gotten too deep into GMing Abomination Vaults, and my party is just about to finish up the 4th floor. I'm using the foundry module and the main preparation I do before each session is to look at each monster's stat block on the floor they are on and maybe the one below if they are close. Once they got down to level 3 or so the monsters started getting real attack patterns that they were supposed to try to do, and I found myself missing them if I didn't have a good grasp on them. The lurker in light on the 3rd floor and the voidglutton on the 4th level really showed me how to run monsters better. From the module standpoint my players really liked when I used the macros that were in the module for changing the environment. Also, I missed it but if you look through the music Volluk has his own song which you can play in his hangouts to foreshadow him that way. The map notes are really helpful but like The Slack Lagoon said, there are synopsis to the chapters at the beginning you should read because it gives the overarching story for the level.
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Nov 22, 2023 18:29
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Thank you both! I’ve read chapters 1-4 now while doing Thanksgiving traveling, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good grasp on stuff. From some quick glances before I left home, the module macros are really neat for map changes and events. Pretty psyched to get things started with friends.
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Nov 23, 2023 00:56
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It's a well done module and pf2e works really well in foundry
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Nov 23, 2023 01:14
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Ordered Player Core and GM Core, but for some reason all the shops in my area won't have it until the 28th!?
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Nov 23, 2023 05:12
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Do you guys think this is a reasonably balanced magic item for Investigator near the end of level 3? I know this will be a strong item that should excite the recipient but I want to make sure it isn't bonkers. This will be the first striking rune I'm handing out. The investigator player specifically seemed like he had a pretty rough time in the fight against the Shadow that introduced them to incorporeal, so I have thrown a ghost touch rune on here as well and am not counting its value against their treasure budget-- I don't intend to make them fight a ton of ghosts and the investigator specifically seems like he would appreciate having an answer to ghosts even if it won't end up being incredibly relevant, which is why I felt it should just be free. The other party members have much better options for dealing with incorporeal innately. They also can't remove the property rune from a named weapon if I understand correctly, further limiting it. I'm mostly wondering about the activated power I've thrown on there. I looked at the officially published named magic weapons to get an idea of appropriate power level for innate abilities baked into weapons and I saw at least one example of a level 3 weapon with power that was essentially "cast this cantrip-like effect for one action once per day", and some level 4 weapons that seemed to have powers roughly on par with an action-discounted rank 1 spell. I modeled the effect after the 1-action version of Gravitational Pull (with the spell DC of a level 4 character with a +4 spell mod), which seemed like a fun spell that probably isn't very good to actually cast. My understanding is that Fortitude tends to be the beefiest monster resist as well so I opted to make the cooldown once per hour instead of once per day because it would be pretty feel-bad if this effect gets resisted constantly and they can only try once every one to three sessions. The free strike essentially makes this a free action to cast if the investigator can set up the situation properly, which seems like a fun payoff for engaging with an unusual item power that isn't going to totally warp the combat balance (I hope). Scoss fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Nov 23, 2023 |
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Nov 23, 2023 12:29
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Early Striking might be too much but you can always disable it or give it +1 damage until everyone is level 4/has striking access. The move effect is huge but it seems fine as long as they cant Devise it. Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Nov 23, 2023 |
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Nov 23, 2023 14:13
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mind the walrus posted:Ordered Player Core and GM Core, but for some reason all the shops in my area won't have it until the 28th!? They finally posted last week about some warehouse issues (including the problem i had where it shipped at the beginning of month but never arrived). They didn’t go into super detail but it sounds like they have a huge backlog that got flagged as shipped but never did. Maybe that included retail too? https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43w9x&page=3?New-Physical-Product-Releases-in-November-2023#149
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Nov 23, 2023 15:02
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Harold Fjord posted:Early Striking might be too much but you can always disable it or give it +1 damage until everyone is level 4/has striking access. The move effect is huge but it seems fine as long as they cant Devise it. A striking rune at the end of level 3 is barely early
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Nov 23, 2023 15:17
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Pryce posted:They finally posted last week about some warehouse issues (including the problem i had where it shipped at the beginning of month but never arrived). They didn’t go into super detail but it sounds like they have a huge backlog that got flagged as shipped but never did. Maybe that included retail too? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knXpjb33lkw Andrast posted:A striking rune at the end of level 3 is barely early Scoss posted:Do you guys think this is a reasonably balanced magic item for Investigator near the end of level 3? I know this will be a strong item that should excite the recipient but I want to make sure it isn't bonkers.
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Nov 23, 2023 16:35
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I'm looking to run the beginner box for the first time. Has it been updated to the new remastered rules?
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Nov 23, 2023 18:50
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Kwolok posted:I'm looking to run the beginner box for the first time. Has it been updated to the new remastered rules? Not yet, and it hasn’t been announced. Paizo has released updated level 1 pregen character sheets for the iconics - https://paizo.com/products/btq02evu/discuss?Community-Use-Package-Pathfinder-Remaster-Iconics-Pregenerated-Characters and if you are running the latest version of Foundry it will be up to date and handle most of that stuff for you on the rules side, but some text in the adventure may be out of date I guess. I would expect a new Beginner Box announcement sometime next year though. Probably with a whole new adventure written for it.
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Nov 23, 2023 19:20
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mind the walrus posted:Ordered Player Core and GM Core, but for some reason all the shops in my area won't have it until the 28th!? Same here. Amazon is the same. Maybe the 15th is the pdf release date and the 28th is the physical release date? Facebook Aunt fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Nov 23, 2023 |
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Nov 23, 2023 19:25
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Chevy Slyme posted:Not yet, and it hasn’t been announced. Paizo has released updated level 1 pregen character sheets for the iconics - https://paizo.com/products/btq02evu/discuss?Community-Use-Package-Pathfinder-Remaster-Iconics-Pregenerated-Characters and if you are running the latest version of Foundry it will be up to date and handle most of that stuff for you on the rules side, but some text in the adventure may be out of date I guess. Ah alright, maybe I'll wait then
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Nov 23, 2023 19:45
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Kwolok posted:I'm looking to run the beginner box for the first time. Has it been updated to the new remastered rules? There’s not really anything to be updated here (other than the pregens) since it already uses a simplified version of the rules as-is. We just played it the week the remaster hit and there wasn’t really anything specific about it that we had to think about or relearn.
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Nov 23, 2023 22:54
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Finally finished Gatewalkers tonight. Final thoughts: Really uneven AP. A big part is spent doing stuff that seems only tangentially related to the main plot or whose plot threads barely interact with the rest of the AP aside from some cool background knowledge (which you can easily miss). When it comes together and does stuff right it's really fun and the mystery can be compelling at times. But then at other times it hits you with mechanics and story moments that seem to come out of nowhere and are either underdeveloped or clearly were not play tested well: There's an segment in the last book that has you crossing the north pole in a straight line to the objective, which completely throws out the already existing, perfectly fine overland travel rules in favor of introducing: a system where your party has to make four rolls a day to slowly fill up a meter until you arrive at your destination, and each day you roll for random encounters and/or events. In total you have to make something like 60 rolls depending on your luck and how optimized your party is and every encounter is just a random throwaway or something where you can lose or win extra points. There's also mechanics like extreme cold and fatigue that are described in detail in the module...except it then immediately hands you tools to negate these. It's meant to simulate a harrowing, gruesome journey over the frozen wasteland but in practice it's just tedious and really, really easy to trivialize Also at the end of this segment you have a sequence with a character who wants to help you and who basically restores your memory and reveals party of mystery to you...and the very first thought I had was "Why didn't this happen sooner, we would've saved so much time and effort that way"
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Nov 28, 2023 00:19
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Bought the Beginner's Box. Planning on getting the revised rulebooks if my group enjoys it. We just have to finish our final D&D campaign, then we'll make the switch. I'm the GM and I'm excited to try something new. I have a question to this thread. Have any of you any experience with running Pathfinder 2 rules in the Eberron setting? At a surface glance it seems to fit really well. And there are resources online to create warforged etc. So I'm looking for pitfalls or boons I should look out for, if anyone knows.
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Nov 28, 2023 00:26
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There's a full range of construct ancestries. You can be a stuffy doll animated by a child's love (child not included) or a steam powered smashing machine.
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Nov 28, 2023 00:57
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Gatewalkers seems to be one of the two 2e APs that gets criticized the most (the other being Extinction Curse). Besides the tedious aspects you mention, the big criticisms of Gatewalkers are that 1) it presents itself as more investigation-oriented than it is and 2) the story isn’t very coherent, and basically turns into a series of loosely connected setpieces in weird-for-the-sake-of-weird environments. I haven’t read/played it, though. I think the investigation issue might be a fundamental problem with the concept of APs on some level. On one hand, you don’t want to gate the basics of the plot behind difficult skill checks the way 1e APs sometimes did. On the other hand, sometimes the alternative seems to be that there’s no room for meaningful investigation even if you play an Investigator; instead you find out the plot by clearing a mini-dungeon, reading the diary or shopping list of the boss you’ve just killed, then going to a place mentioned in the diary/shopping list for the next mini-dungeon. I’ve heard that there are other systems (mostly Cthulhu-themed ones) that can square this circle somehow, but I’m not sure it can be done in most d20-derived systems. I think in the specific case of Gatewalkers, there might also be a weird issue where they were trying to make “the Dark Archive AP,” but ideas like deviant abilities, cryptids, secret societies, occult spellcasting, and so forth don’t always play nicely together mechanically or narratively in practice. (Outlaws of Alkenstar almost certainly had this problem to an extent, just with Guns and Gears instead of Dark Archive. For one thing, the lore pushes players towards a party composition along the lines of Inventor, Alchemist, Gunslinger, Rogue, which is probably not very mechanically optimal.)
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Nov 28, 2023 00:57
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Silver2195 posted:I think the investigation issue might be a fundamental problem with the concept of APs on some level. On one hand, you don’t want to gate the basics of the plot behind difficult skill checks the way 1e APs sometimes did. On the other hand, sometimes the alternative seems to be that there’s no room for meaningful investigation even if you play an Investigator; instead you find out the plot by clearing a mini-dungeon, reading the diary or shopping list of the boss you’ve just killed, then going to a place mentioned in the diary/shopping list for the next mini-dungeon. I’ve heard that there are other systems (mostly Cthulhu-themed ones) that can square this circle somehow, but I’m not sure it can be done in most d20-derived systems. I feel like investigations are really hard to do well in any TTRPG, because a ton of it has to be this delicate balance for the GM between 'prewritten clues/leads' vs 'reacting to the players' without it feeling like you're being railroaded. The Alexandrian has tons of strong feelings about doing mysteries well and he's been writing a series throughout the year talking about it, but it seems like it's really dependent on the GM to ultimately make it work.
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Nov 28, 2023 01:42
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My party for Outlaws of Alkenstar was a Fighter, Inventor, Gunslinger, and Alchemist. It would have had zero chance of success without the Alchemist taking medic dedication and the Fighter and Inventor taking Godless Healing. There were a lot of enemies vulnerable to splash damage or specific elements, so the Alchemist was pretty awesome. There were a ton of mental immune enemies, so the pistolero kinda sucked. I houseruled that mindless enemies weren't immune to create a distraction so he could do something with his class feature. Plus, why can't you trick a mindless enemy? They can still perceive things. Zombies in movies get tricked all the time.
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Nov 28, 2023 01:55
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KPC_Mammon posted:My party for Outlaws of Alkenstar was a Fighter, Inventor, Gunslinger, and Alchemist. Yeah, there’s an argument to be made that if an undead/construct/ooze has complex enough “programming” to be modeled as a creature rather than a hazard, it should be vulnerable to Create a Diversion and Feint. Maybe they should just be immune to mental damage and effects with the Emotion or Linguistic traits.
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Nov 28, 2023 02:28
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Feint presumes a creature is attempting to dodge block or parry.
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Nov 28, 2023 02:38
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Harold Fjord posted:Feint presumes a creature is attempting to dodge block or parry. Doesn't a creature having a Reflex save imply that this presumption is correct?
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Nov 28, 2023 02:41
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I do think "Hey look, over there!" should affect the mindless, gnawing zombie clinging to you, but only on natural 20.
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Nov 28, 2023 03:06
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Silver2195 posted:Yeah, there’s an argument to be made that if an undead/construct/ooze has complex enough “programming” to be modeled as a creature rather than a hazard, it should be vulnerable to Create a Diversion and Feint. Maybe they should just be immune to mental damage and effects with the Emotion or Linguistic traits. lmao
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Nov 28, 2023 05:32
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If zombies are able to attack a target on their own seems like you’d be able to trick them into attacking the wrong one.
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Nov 28, 2023 06:02
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I just assume unintelligent undead attack anything alive they can unless they have orders by a controller not to.
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Nov 28, 2023 07:15
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"Twin Feint" works fine against mindless though.
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Nov 28, 2023 08:57
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I have an idea for a hopefully fun encounter that might require some hand made monsters and could use some guidance. I want to have my players encounter zombified versions of our previous D&D party, trapped in the treasure room of a tomb they will be exploring. There are certain signature mechanical characteristics I'd like to include that were basically the thing each player did the most with their D&D character, but this will obviously require some custom work to realize in PF2 and I want to make sure it's a balanced fight. I assume outright that building player characters to use as statblocks for monsters is a very bad idea. The four characters I need to realize are as follows: Big Lion Man Rune Knight Fighter: This one should be relatively easy? He can use enlarge on himself and that's basically the character right there. Bonus points if I can implement the Fire Rune activated ability without it being too strong, or replicate the AoO when enemies enter threat range from Polearm Master. Can I find some beefy zombie monster to use as a stat template and just glue these abilities on? Dwarf Tempest Cleric: Literally will just stand around casting Shatter and Call Lightning Half Elf Bard: She was a support bot that mostly just cast bless and spiritual weapon. A literal DMPC that we frequently joked about exploiting, and having very bad dice-rolled stats. Maybe I could have her use bane and still cast spiritual weapon because it's kind of bad in PF2? Or maybe the joke is that she's actually the ring-leader here and is giving inspire courage and heals to the rest of the zombie party. Human Necromancy Wizard: Maybe she summons some very low level skeletal minions that look more threatening than they really are? Don't want the fight to balloon out with too many legitimately dangerous enemies. I know there are robust rules in the GMG for creating custom monsters but honestly it looks a little intimidating and I'd rather not create a whole crazy custom encounter as my first foray into that. Maybe I can if there's no better way, but what is my easiest option for building PF2 monsters that can reasonably replicate these signature abilities? Scan the bestiary for something similar enough sounding and then heavily reflavor their descriptions? How much can I get away with adding abilities to monsters before they become overpowered beyond what their stat scaling might suggest? Scoss fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Nov 28, 2023 |
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Nov 28, 2023 14:28
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