Pathfinder 2e: If your MAP is too high, use your third action to Post.

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

But he's right!

Here's the "PF2 intro for 5e players" I posted last thread:

So, the big core concepts that define PF2 look a little something like this:

Game modes: All game actions are broken down into 3 distinct formats:
- Encounter Mode: Starts when you roll initiative. 6 second rounds, and each turn is broken down into 3 Action units. Move up to your Speed? 1 Action. Strike with a weapon? 1 Action. Grapple a foe, Jump a gap, Hide? 1 Action. Spells? 1-3 actions.
- Exploration Mode: A.k.a. any active play that isn't inside an initiative block. Measured in 10 minute blocks. Allows you to clearly designate a game action to take (i.e. Scouting, Detecting Magic, Treating Wounds, etc.) and while you can break it up with discrete actions like "I open the door", you'll be doing the background action in general and gaining some benefit from it. It lets players who are less aggressive about describing their dungeon crawling still "do something", even when not actively describing individual actions.
- Downtime Mode: Time between adventures is codified. You've got your basic crafting and earning income, retraining of feats and features, and a host of other options. Then, the Gamemastery Guide gives even more guidance and options.
Traits: Everything you do is trait-based. And traits matter. They matter so much. Some examples:
- Identify Magic (Concentrate, Exploration, Secret): Concentrate doesn't do anything on its own, but some things that disrupt your mental state would prevent you from doing this (i.e. confusion, raging). Exploration means that you can only do it in that mode, so it takes a standard 10 minute block of time. Secret means the DM rolls the check but doesn't tell you the result, they just give you information (possibly false) based on your secret result.
- Demoralize (Auditory, Concentrate, Emotion, Mental): Auditory means the target has to be able to hear you (although not necessarily comprehend). Emotion and Mental limit your targeting and allow targets to have specific defenses for those kinds of actions. For instance, Mental effects can't target objects or mindless beings, like constructs or some undead. Emotion effects are less effective on some elves.
- Heal (Spell, Healing, Necromancy, Positive): I won't get into fine details, but the short version is that this spell will, by rule, not affect certain creatures (like constructs) or adversely affect others (undead) based on the traits. No need for lengthy text boxes on each monster block.
Proficiencies: Every. drat. Thing. is a proficiency. Your armor. Your saves. Your skills. Your weapons. Perception (not a skill). Your DCs. So, what does that mean?
- Proficient: If you have any proficiency level in something, you add your level to it. So, your to-hit, your saves, your AC, your DCs, EVERYTHING scales directly to your level. Why? Because it makes it incredibly clear that proficiencies matter. You hit level 10? Oh poo poo, anything you are untrained in is way, way behind. Better do things you are trained in. (There are feats and such that can partially mitigate this so you aren't awful at things, but you certainly won't be good unless you are proficient.)
- TEML: Trained/Expert/Master/Legendary. Achieving these ranks give you +2/4/6/8 to your roll.
- Related attribute: Get a bonus to the roll for every 2 points in the attribute above 10.
- Bonuses: Every roll can have the following bonuses that range from +1 to +4: Circumstance, Item, Status. Take your best bonus in each category. No need for a bunch of maths. You get up to 3 total bonuses that each cap at +4. The end.
- Example: Gimli is a level 1 Fighter with 18 Strength swinging an axe that he's an Expert with and has a Bless spell giving him a +1 Status bonus. So, he rolls his d20 and adds +1 (Level) +4 (Expert) +4 (Strength) +1 (Status) = +10. That's it. That is how good he is with every swing of his axe.
Degrees of Success: Forget everything you know about critical failures and successes. Here's how it go: Make a roll, compare result to DC.
- Did you meet or beat the DC? Success.
- Did you not? Failure.
- Did you beat by 10 or more? Critical Success.
- Did you fail by 10 or more? Critical Failure.
- Did you roll a 1? Reduce your degree of success by 1 step.
- Did you roll a 20? Increase your degree of success by 1 step.
- Yes, you can fail on a 20 and succeed on a 1. But only in extreme cases. What is interesting is that every point of bonus or penalty counts big now, because it moves you not just closer to success or failure, but also critical success and failure.
But what about BAB, CMB, CMD, acronym, acronym, acronym???
- Dead as hell.
- I showed above how to get your attack bonus. Strikes (basic attack action) and many other things that were previously maneuvers (Shoving, Grappling, Knockdowns, etc.) are now tagged "Attack". If you do more than 1 Attack action on your turn, you suffer a Multiple Attack Penalty. Your second attack is at -5 and each attack after that is at -10. Some things will mitigate this (i.e. Agile traited weapons), and other things will get stronger based on your penalty (i.e. Press traited feats). The same penalty applies regardless if you are using a Strike, a maneuver, or a spell. If it has the Attack trait, it uses this system.
- Defenses are DCs based on the targeted stat. For instance, Grapples and Shoves compare you Athletics roll to the target's Fortitude DC (their Fortitude save bonus +10). Creating a diversion is a Deception check vs. the target's Perception DC.
How about "Encounter" or "Short Rest" abilities? These are mimiced by the Focus Spell System.
- Every time you get a new Focus Spell (largely through feats), you get +1 Focus Point Pool (max 3).
- Each class with Focus Spells gets a 10-minute Exploration activity to recharge 1 Focus Point.
- Most classes with Focus Spells gets additional feats to recharge extra points per 10-minute block.
- Each Focus Spell costs 1 point to cast and the Pool is shared between all your spells.
Character creation is done through the "ABCD" method:
- Ancestry: The concept formerly known as "Race". Gives you a Heritage feature, base HP, movement speed, languages, vision, and ability modifiers (see below).
- Background: Gives you 2 more semi-customizable ability boosts, a skill, and an associated skill feat.
- Class: Gives your character a fundamental chassis, including key ability score, hp/level, proficiencies (skills, equipment, saves, and perception (which is not a skill)), and your basic ability set.
- Don't know why they used an "ABC" acronym when you are only 75% of the way done.
- Then, by level, characters advance by picking up more feats in 4 categories: Ancestry, Class, Skill, and General. Feats are gained separately and generally do not compete (although skill feats are a subset of general feat and you can use your general feat slot to get a skill feat, instead).
  
  Attributes are handled as follows:
  - Start with a block of straight 10s in STR/DEX/CON/INT/WIS/CHA.
  - Ancestry +2 to three attributes and -2 to a fourth. Two of those increases are fixed, one of them is wildcard. (Humans, being generalists, just get two +2 wildcards, no penalty).
  - Background gives two more +2s, one chosen from a pair defined by the background, the other free.
  - Class gives +2 to your key ability (some classes have more than one ability to choose, but you only get a boost to that one).
  - Four wildcard +2s to dole out to 4 different attributes.
  - No ability can start above 18.
  - You cannot assign two boosts to the same score in the same step.
  - You can (optionally) take a two -2 flaws to two different scores to get an extra boost during the ancestry step. There's some extra rules for this, but basically it's a pretty steep penalty that lets you still play an ancestry that gets a penalty to your class's key ability without being too far behind.
  - When getting more ability boosts via leveling up, you get 4 wildcards, but boosting any skill past 18 only boosts it by 1 each time you advance, so scores cap pretty low.
  - Otherwise, you'll never really see odd ability scores, which were pretty useless anyway.
  So, I'll give an example character, so you can see it all come together.
  
  Gimli, son of Gloin, son of Copyright Infringement:
  - Gimli is a Dwarf, who has a base of 10 HP, a Speed of 20ft, a clan dagger, and gets +2 CON/WIS, -2 CHA, and a free boost, which we'll assign to STR.
  - Gimli is a Strong-Blooded Dwarf, so his Heritage feature is poison resistance and better saves against poison.
  - Gimli picks a first level Ancestry feat, so he'll take Dwarven Weapon Familiarity, which gives him access and proficiencies in advanced Dwarven weapons, in this case, for the Dwarven War Axe.
  - Gimli, being from Durin's line, is a Noble, so we'll give him that Background. He gets two boosts, one of which must be INT or CHA. Being a friendly sort, we'll give his fixed boost to CHA, and his second, free boost, to STR. He'll also get proficiency in the Society skill, Genealogy Lore skill, and the Courtly Graces skill feat.
  - Finally, Gimli is a Fighter, and we'll choose to make STR his key ability (DEX is also an option), which gives him +2 STR. He also gets 10 more HP, and all of the following proficiencies:
  - Expert Perception
  - Expert Fortitude and Reflex saves
  - Trained Will Saves
  - Expert in Unarmed attacks, Simple, and Martial weapons (his Ancestry feat also applies this to his martial and advanced Dwarf weapons)
  - Trained in advanced weapons
  - Trained in all armor and unarmored defense
  - Trained in Fighter class DC
  - Trained Athletics skill (we could have chosen Acrobatics, instead)
  - Trained in 3 more skills: We'll take Acrobatics, Intimidation, and Survival.
  - For being a fighter, he also gets the Attack of Opportunity reaction (this is rare among both players and enemies in this edition, only fighters and select monsters get it, natively) and the Shield Block general feat, which lets you use your shield to reduce damage taken.
  - Gimli also gets a level 1 Fighter feat, and since he's got stubby short Dwarf legs, we'll give him a way to engage a little faster. He'll take Sudden Charge, which lets him, if he hasn't attacked yet, move twice for the normal action cost, and then get a Strike in if he ends adjacent to a foe.
  - To finish, Gimli also gets four free ability boosts, so we'll give him +2 to STR/CON/WIS/CHA.
    
    Gimli's final attribute total looks like:
    STR: 18 (A/B/C/F)
    DEX: 10
    CON: 14 (A/F)
    INT: 10
    WIS: 14 (A/F)
    CHA: 12 (-A/B/F)
    
    With a starting 22 HP (10 Ancestry + 10 Class + 2 CON), and +7/+5/+5 Fort/Ref/Will saves.

So, other than the above, what are highlights about the system?

Multiclassing/prestige classing is super simple. It's called Archetyping and you do it by simply skipping a Class feat and instead taking an Archetype feat. That feat gives you some bonuses, and chains to further feats you can take at later levels by, again, skipping your class feat. That simple. You are always still your main class, through and through. No complex formulas of bonuses or spells slots. You are your main class. You just take some other feats.
Weapons and Armor are diverse. There's dozens of weapon traits and every weapon has 1 or more. In addition, weapon families can add different bonuses when you crit. Armor isn't always about just grabbing the highest AC in a type. Many have extra bonuses or penalties. Picking the ones that fit your build makes all of it feel less samey. Also, customizing your magic weapons and armor feels enjoyable because basic bonuses like to-hit and AC don't compete with cool flavor bonuses like ghost touch or camouflage.
Rarity: Spells and items that would short-circuit a game's flow (i.e. Zone of Truth or Locate) or be otherwise incredibly powerful for PC use (i.e. Geas or Resurrect) are marked as higher rarity and are not player-facing by default. It lets DMs have them a tools, and be able to let players use them on a limited basis without players feeling entitled to them.
Healing matters, and not just ping-ponging at 0hp. When you drop to 0hp, you have plenty of opportunity to not be dead, and to get healed back into the fight, but the opportunity cost is massive. Even if you get healed immediately, you drop down in initiative, and you generally have to spend at least 2 actions on your next turn standing up and picking up your dropped weapon (and maybe even a second weapon or shield with a 3rd action). And all of these will provoke AoOs. You'll basically lose you whole turn when you go down and so will the person healing you.
Caster/martial balance feels a lot better, at least coming from 5E. The fact that spells take more actions, and have more restrictions feels like the choices you make with them matter more.
With the release of the Gamemastery Guide, the game gives you not only a metric ton of charts and tables to mechanically shore up your game, but a lot of discussion goes into flavor and ways to make the systems interesting, fun, and engaging. It's actually very good at explaining WHY you should do some things and not just HOW.
Characters really feel complete at level 1, unlike how 5E makes you wait until you get a subclass at level 2 or 3, or until you get a feat at 4 to feel like your build is more than the local shitfarmer. A level 1 bog standard fighter has a minimum of 5 skills and 4 feats. That's enough to actually feel like a somebody.

So, what don't I love?

The Alchemist class is really bad, especially the mutagenist. They are already throwing errata at it, but it got reworked late in design when the magic item system changed and it's still underpowered and awkward.
Combat Cantrips feel real awkward. Caster clerics don't have a real power damage cantrip and most everyone else gets Electric Arc which is basically the hammer when every single monster (or even better, 2 monsters) is a nail.
Clerics are still Big drat Heals, and while they can definitely do other things, and other people CAN heal, clerics just feel like healing on EZMODE and that's kind of a shame.
Some builds lack diversity and others are swimming in it. Clerics have almost infinite possibilities, between dozens of unique dieties, each with their own core customizations, subclasses, spell lists, etc. A Rogue has levels where their subclass nearly forces feat selection, so it doesn't always feel great.

So, in summary, Pathfinder 2E is a system of contrasts.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2022 02:19

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 07:26

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

But he's right!

Jarvisi posted:

Every single rule available in Pathfinder. Online for free. Buy the books to support Paizo, or if you prefer having them in physical format.

This is a link to 1e nethys.

Also, I'd post a link to the download for the Iconic Pregens as they are good sample characters.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2022 02:28

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

But he's right!

Here's a sample of PF2E combat I built off a reddit post using the sort of tactics and actions that you might expect to see, even at Level 1:

The Party:

Swashbuckler (Wit)
Bard
Fighter
Rogue

The situation:

The party spots a Hellknight coming down the road.
The Rogue, having been Avoiding Notice as an Exploration Activity, hides in the woods.
The Bard and Swashbuckler start hollering that the Fighter is attacking them.

Initiative:

Bard: Rolls Deception(CHA) (19)
Hellknight: Rolls Perception(WIS) (18)
Swashbuckler: Rolls Deception(CHA) (17)
Rogue: Rolls Stealth(DEX) (16)
Fighter: Rolls Perception(WIS) (15)

Round 1:

Bard Delays, waiting for the Hellknight to close.
Hellknight Strides in to intercept the Fighter.
Swashbuckler uses Bon Mot to tell the Hellknight how dumb they were for falling for their ruse and gains Panache. They then spend their remaining 2 Actions to Ready a Confident Finisher after the Fighter acts.
Bard returns to Initiative. Casts Fear for 2 Actions, which targets the Hellknight's Will Save, which has been lowered by Bon Mot. The Hellknight fails and is Frightened 2, lowering all of their DCs and Checks (including AC, Saves, and Attacks) by 2. They use their 3rd Action to cast Inspire Courage, increasing all party member Attack and Damage rolls by 1.
Rogue Delays, waiting for the Fighter to set them up.
Fighter Strides to close the gap to the Hellknight. Then, the Fighter Trips the Hellknight. Because the Frightened condition has lowered the Hellknight's DCs by 2 and the Bard is playing Inspire Courage for +1 to the Attack roll (Trip is Attack tagged), the Fighter succeeds and the Hellknight falls, becoming Prone and Flat-footed. The Fighter follows up with a sword Strike. Because this is the 2nd Attack of the turn, the fighter has -5 to the roll, but that is made up for by Flat-footed (-2 AC), Frightened (-2 AC), and Inspire Courage (+1 Attack).
Now that the Hellknight is vulnerable, the Swashbuckler uses their Delayed action unleash a Confident Finisher. They have all of the bonuses as the Fighter, but not the Multiple Attack Penalty. Also, since they have Panache, they deal 2d6 bonus Precision damage. They are very likely to Critically Hit.
Rogue now Strides in from the woods, Flanking with the Fighter, and Strikes twice, with all of the bonuses and gaining bonus Sneak Attack precision damage on each strike as the foe is Flat-footed.

Round 2:
The Hellknight is in dire straits, and attempting to stand will result in the Fighter getting an Attack of Opportunity Strike at full bonus, since Multiple Attack Penalty doesn't apply off-turn.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2022 05:05

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

But he's right!

Hunter Noventa posted:

Has anyone got something like this for PF1 players? I did try building a character for PF2 and I couldn't get it to do what I wanted.

I never played PF2, but if you explain what you're looking to build (less in a "Here's my PF1 build" and more a "Here's the role and style of what I want"), I'd be glad to take a look.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2022 21:06

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

But he's right!

Quote posted:

Is the beginners box a good buy for someone with a good deal of 5E experience who wants to dip into Pathfinder? Or would I be better off with the core book?

Get the Beginner Box. It's real good.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2022 16:40

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

But he's right!

The errata is for design principles. Not power. It's fine to give players.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2022 17:04

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

But he's right!

Epi Lepi posted:

Do you need the Magical Crafting feat to transfer a rune from one weapon to another? Even if you don't need Magical Crafting, do you need to be an expert in crafting to transfer runes? You definitely need to be expert to create runes. I'm very unclear on the requirements are to transfer runes.

There's dozens of pages of back-and-forth on the Paizo forums, reddit, etc. because they wrote the rune transfer rules both vague and bad and have never bothered to clean them up with errata. The PFS OP rules are just "take it to an NPC who waived the labor charge" because people needed a solution. In practice, the answer is: There's no good reason to gate this from your players in any way because it's a fundamental part of system math, so just let them do it as needed.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2022 05:52

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

But he's right!

Epi Lepi posted:

That was my impression thank you.

I'm looking forward to Treasure Vault and the alternative crafting rules they promised in it. Hopefully they are an actual improvement!

Honestly, crafting (and downtime) rules feel like they should have been an entirely separate game system off in the GMG or something as an optional rule, because codified downtime for my players always feels like an underwhelming slog that only certain characters get any meaningful benefit from (and they NEED it) and everyone else is just like "idk I guess I roll a skillcheck for a couple of silver pieces or something). There are very specific types of campaigns where downtime is a thing and it's honestly never been a good addition to the official mods or a thing I just throw at players normally.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2022 17:36

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

But he's right!

Harold Fjord posted:

I like down time in age of ashes

They give you specific things to do during it to improve your house that I assume will eventually come under siege.

Yeah, but should that compete against class features like crafting alchemy items or scribing spells?

# ¿ Sep 20, 2022 18:00

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

But he's right!

Weird Uncle Dave posted:

Why does Organized Play feel like it's so hostile to new players? I'm just looking for a local game, but their own event list is very thin and basically impossible to search by geography. Or they recommend several other web sites, none of which are much better in either regard.

Then the FAQs and such are chock full of what looks to be fairly esoteric rulings, which I'm sure are important, but as a new player what I really need is "here's where to find a game" and maybe "if you want to roll around character in advance here's which optional rules you can use." I think they address the latter, but the options are overwhelming. The important stuff really needs to be more visible, and the visible stuff could easily be tucked behind another click or two.

(While I've played a share of TTRPGs it's been literally decades. It shouldn't be this laborious and confusing to just find a place to roll some dice.)

Related: How lost, story-wise, would a new OP player be? It looks like I will have missed literally years of events, and my hunch is that nobody runs "old" stuff.

PFS OP is still rooted in 20-year-old ideals and cargo cults. And it was literally years behind the PF2 release. I like PFS in concept, but somehow they managed to be worse than AL in serving the OP community for PF2, and that's real dumb.

As far as story, none of it matters, the blurbs at the beginning of the adventure boxtext will tell you the bits you need to know.

As far as "what can you use", basically 99% of first-party stuff. Hopping in with a level 1 character built using official sources will Just Work almost certainly, and you can figure the rest out after you get started.

I haven't done it for PFS, but AL was very much a "just hop into one of the big discords and join a level 1 game and get your feet wet", but I do know that presents hurdles in PFS because of the antiquated design.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2022 05:08

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

But he's right!

The Slack Lagoon posted:

I'm GMing a Pf2e game, and one of the challenges I'm having is that each creature has multiple actions that synergizes with each other and they're always different from one creature to the next and it's a bit annoying. Is running monsters in pathfinder just... more involved? I seems to take a lot more effort to run the pf2e encounters than it does 5e encounters.

Yes, PF2 is designed to be more crunchy than 5E, so encounter design is more complicated. Once you get familiar with the tags, though, it gets a lot more intuitive.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2022 20:07

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

But he's right!

I was surprised tonight to find out the module we are using has multiple chases but no implementation for chase points.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2022 03:57

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

But he's right!

Rythian posted:

Except the Aid action which felt surprisingly vague. Felt like 5e with having to make rulings based on their suggestions of what they thought would count as Aid. Only thing that stood out to me compared to all the other actions in and out of combat.

I don't know if you've seen the additional guidance in the Gamemastery Guide, but it's somewhat helpful:
It's up to you whether someone's preparation is enough to let them Aid an ally. The preparation should be specific to the task at hand. Helping someone hold a lockpick steady might be enough preparation to Aid an attempt to Pick a Lock, but just saying you're going to �encourage� them likely wouldn't. Second, the character who is attempting to Aid needs to be in a proper position to help, and able to convey any necessary information. Helping a character Climb a wall is pretty tough if the character a PC wishes to Aid is nowhere near them. Similarly, a character usually needs to be next to their ally or a foe to Aid the ally in attacking the foe. You'll also need to determine how long the preparation takes. Typically, a single action is sufficient to help with a task that's completed in a single round, but to help someone perform a long-term task, like research, the character has to help until the task is finished.

That said, a lot of the time, Aid doesn't help. It's a Circumstance bonus, and if they're already getting a Circumstance bonus from another source, the Aid may not do anything at all.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2022 06:26

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

But he's right!

Harold Fjord posted:

There's a rule about not stacking circumstance bonuses right? I couldn't find it when I was trying to tell our gunslinger about it

It's not specific to circumstance bonuses. In each bonus class (Circumstance/Item/Status), you use the highest bonus and penalty of each type, and disregard the rest. They are also bounded -4 to +4. So, there's always a manageable number of individual bonuses/penalties applied to any roll.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2022 15:53

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

But he's right!

Rythian posted:

Yeah, I think I might just set a base rule of "make the same skill check/attack roll against the same DC/AC or 20, whichever is lower." (I think the DC 20 is a bit high early on, considering they have to spend action and reaction for just a +1).

Thanks for the advice.

Yeah. The Core Rulebook says "20, but feel free to mod easier/harder", so I'd start with a 16 at level 1 and just crank it by 1 per level until it hits 20 at level 5 and just leave it there forever with exceptions for especially novel edge cases.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2022 15:55

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

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hyphz posted:

You do really want to modify that DC 20 later on unless you are prepared for Aid to become a universal bonus once a character is high level and has Assurance.

Doesn't seem like a problem to me.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2022 16:11

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

But he's right!

Froghammer posted:

So if I'm an occult caster (like, say, a Bard) who takes Psychic Dedication at 2 and Basic Thoughtform at 4 to get Psi Burst, it would key off my Psychic class DC and not my Bard class DC, correct?

Chevy Slyme posted:

Spells don’t key off your class DC, they key specifically off of your DC in the relevant spellcasting tradition, which, in the case of a Bard/Psychic is occult for both, so you’ll use whatever the Bard’s proficiency is.

(Class DC’s don’t get T/E/M/L unless specifically noted, as with the Alchemist)

Psychic feats are a little broken and honestly need an errata to the class specifying to use your Occult Spell DC for all of them. So, I can see why it would be confusing.

However, neither psychics not bards (natively or multiclass) have Class DCs. They only have spell DCs, which is what you should use in this case, despite Psi Burst not being a spell.

HOWEVER!!!

Psi Burst is not usable from Psychic multiclass because it is a Psyche ability requiring you to Unleash Psyche which only base Psychics, not multiclass, have access to.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2022 17:14

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

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Cyouni posted:

Assuming they failed both saves, they are slowed 1 for 1 minute, and slowed 1 for 1 minute.

I'm not sure where you are going with this, but:
"When you�re affected by the same thing multiple times, only one instance applies, using the higher level of the effects, or the newer effect if the two are the same level. For example, if you were using mage armor and then cast it again, you�d still benefit from only one casting of that spell. Casting a spell again on the same target might get you a better duration or effect if it were cast at a higher level the second time, but otherwise doing so gives you no advantage."

So, 2 copies of slow just resets the duration. This is relevant in case someone was trying to dispel it from you, for instance. There aren't 2 copies to dispel, only the stronger one.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2022 00:47

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

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This is beyond just conditions, though.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2022 01:13

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

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5-Headed Snake God posted:

So I've been playing in a Blood Lords campaign for the last few months. Great campaign, super cool. But gently caress the player's guide for recommending undead bloodline for a sorcerer. Harm has been great to have (our entire party has negative healing), but when 80% of the enemies are undead and positive energy is super illegal, I've had a real lack of options in most encounters. Even with some of the house rules my GM has used to throw me a bone, it feels like it was mostly a trap option.

I just... needed to get that off my chest.

The divine spell list isn't big on DD, no matter the scenario, but you've got all of these by level 3 (In addition to your innate Chill Touch) to at least have some options:
� Daze (Mental)
� Haunting Hymn (Sonic)
� Admonishing Ray (Bludgeoning)
� Animate Dead (Varies)
� Concordant Choir (Sonic)
� Summon Lesser Servitor (Varies)
� Inner Radiance Torrent (Force)
� Sound Burst (Sonic)
� Spiritual Weapon (Force)

# ¿ Dec 30, 2022 00:15

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

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Cyouni posted:

Nah, this is definitely not true, especially if you're targeting the right save - my favourite example will still always be guaranteed trip on the level 7 elephant as a level 7 master. You can guarantee success quite a bit through smart Assurance use, and if you can't you were probably not hitting with a -10 anyways.

Only if you Enlarge yourself first (which is likely metagaming).

# ¿ Jan 3, 2023 01:26

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

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Harold Fjord posted:

There's a halfliing feat for that

In 2e?

# ¿ Jan 3, 2023 01:39

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

But he's right!

Roadie posted:

...how is that supposed to be metagaming?

If you were burning limited resources like spell slots to turn on Assurance trips, it would likely be because you were looking up monster stats (because why else would you be taking the 15% chance of success).

# ¿ Jan 3, 2023 08:58

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

But he's right!

Idk I just don't think it's as big a deal as you guys are making it that the one specific 18/16/14/12/8/8 statline doesn't exist anymore.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2023 23:34

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

But he's right!

Epi Lepi posted:

Like I would rather die than have 2 8's but it completely invalidates the build my partner is playing right now and that's kind of bullshit.

"Completely invalidates" or "has 1-4 less HP"?

# ¿ Jan 4, 2023 23:51

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

But he's right!

I mean, they may have also found that the vast majority of players using flaws were using them so that they could use an ancestry they wanted for a concept/theme, but that had an existing flaw, which always felt lovely. 90%+ of people I saw take flaws did it for this, and this solution is hella better so v0v.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2023 07:55

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

But he's right!

Boba Pearl posted:

My memory is fuzzy, but it has a pretty good character creator as well or something? Do you think I could run it like DND Beyond at the table, where they set up a character and it tells them what dice to roll? (I already have a webhost.)

Character creation in Foundry is Not Good while not being Actively bad. Unfortunately, there is no good solution anymore since pathbuilder isn't actively updating and herolabs is poop. So, uh, I guess just make them as much as possible in pathbuilder, manually rekey it into foundry, and double check it all.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2023 20:13

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

But he's right!

Chevy Slyme posted:

??????

https://pathbuilder2e.com/patchnotes.html?v=61

Looks pretty active.

Apparently, it's just the Foundry importer that stopped updating. I got bad info from my in-house tech support.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2023 20:20

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

But he's right!

Epi Lepi posted:

Speaking of this, I couldn't actually find a changelog to see what the difference between 1.2 and 2.0 is. Can someone give me a link or a summary if the link has spoilers.

New features:
Journal structure and content significantly overhauled to support V10 journals
Added support for granular content selection on subsequent imports. After the initial import in which all content is used, users will be able to select which document types they would like to reimport. This is to facilitate updating to newer versions of the module. Please note that the module can only ever be designed to be used as a whole, and so partial imports might result in unexpected behaviour.
New Content:
Added some journal content from the original run, specifically character biographies for {redacted}
Added an effect item for {redacted} action which offers automation for token changes and some mechanical adjustments
Added a new token for {redacted} which the {redacted} effect automatically swaps him to
Fixes and tweaks:
Restored the missing {redacted} macro. Oops!
Narchy came out of retirement to make some minor adjustments to the map files for certain scenes including the labels on the Otari map, the bridges in the {redacted}, the {redacted}, the {redacted}, and the {redacted}. Where necessary the tiles and wall data have been changed accordingly, but those who do not reimport the scenes may need to make those adjustments themselves
Every floor of the dungeon has had a QA pass on things like door lock status thanks to impressively thorough user feedback
A certain character from floor 9 is no longer a "thicc king" and has been restored to his correct Small size, finally

# ¿ Jan 19, 2023 06:11

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

But he's right!

Saxophone posted:

Alright, so I have a definite uptick in Pathfinder interest. One of the things D&D 5e killed me with though is how sloggy combat would get and also there didn�t often seem to be interesting choices.

How is it in PF? I definitely enjoy being very narrative and rule of cool with combat, but sometimes D&D was just �I swing sword. Cool.� Because it was the most �optimal� damage dealing method.

Kwolok posted:

Hello pathfinder thread. Following the drama that has become the future of dnd 5e, I am looking for alternatives. I am hardly a seasoned TTRPG guy, but I have hosted a handful of 5e games and played in even more. I do really enjoy it, largely for the free-form aspects and hte "make poo poo up on the fly as the DM" mindset that allows for some good imrpov and quality campaigns.

I have heard a ton of opposing opinions on pathfinder. That is has more freedom, that is has more rules, that is has more freedom because it has more rules. I am not really sure what to expect, and reading the 640 page manual seems daunting. So I guess my question is, for someone who is often times bad and gets confused as to how DnD wants me to do things so we just kind of wing it, is pathfinder a good framework for that style of play? Is it worse? Is it more confusing then DnD's already confusing ruleset?

Oh and before anyone asks, yes I am pretty dumb and bad at reading.

If you have not read them, I highly suggest checking out these posts for a general overview of the system, and a sample combat, to get an idea of what you can expect:

# ¿ Jan 24, 2023 05:18

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

But he's right!

The Slack Lagoon posted:

Is precision damage doubled on crits? e.g. a Hunter's Edge: Precision Ranger - would you double the d8 damage on a crit?

Yes. The only things you never double are things that only get added on a crit, like from a deadly weapon.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2023 18:53

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

But he's right!

Failboattootoot posted:

Anyone have any good recs for how best to approximate a Reaper from FF14? A melee dps job that fights with a scythe, has made a pact with a demon for power and the being they made a pact with shows up in some of their attacks (I don't really expect to have this pet). Lots of spooky dark magic. Speaking in old 3.5 terms it would probably be something like a melee warlock as the closest approximation but I don't have enough familiarity with pf2e to know what all the options are.

Warpriest cleric with scythe favored weapon

# ¿ Feb 5, 2023 19:45

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

But he's right!

Facebook Aunt posted:

In a way it makes sense. Imagine you slay a dragon and wind up with 5,000 gp worth of dragon hide. You could sell it for 2,500 gp to a merchant, or use it and put the full 5,000 of value toward crafting your dragon hide armor. That's where the financial saving in crafting it yourself comes from.

It is disappointing to hear that crafting sucks, when the alchemist and inventor flavor text are all about inventing and crafting poo poo. A rogue could also pick up a few crafting feats without much trouble.

"You can take it to a vendor and get the full 5k towards the cost of armor.". Problem solved. Delete crafting.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2023 20:32

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

But he's right!

It entirely depends on what the problem is.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2023 21:01

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

But he's right!

The problem with making crafting A Thing is the same issue with Wizards and their spell books: it gives 1 player and the GM a private minigame to dance through while everyone else just plays on their phones or whatever. Codified downtime with specified tasks is really one of the things that only works in specific campaigns, for specific groups. Otherwise, you wind up with one player doing their required homework, one player smashing the Advance Plot task, and the rest going "I guess I'll Earn Income. Mother may I?". Which is all kinds crap and not worth the hassle.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2023 15:21

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

But he's right!

Lamuella posted:

That raises an interesting question: what are the benefits, if any, of XP levelling? My first long campaign we did XP at first and everyone hated it. It was fiddly and people would forget their score and level up late, and we wouldn't all level up at once. Because of this the GM switched to Milestone and it just felt... right. We grew with the story. I'm sure there are benefits to XP I'm not thinking about and would be happy to hear them.

XP caters to people rooted in 80's nostalgia.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2023 00:18

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

But he's right!

5E OP eventually got rid of XP in the form of milestones where you got checkpoints for each hour of an adventure (which generally came in 1, 2, and 4 hour blocks for non-fullbook adventures), and that worked out just fine, so if you want a feeling of discrete progress, just do that instead of maths.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2023 16:59

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

But he's right!

Chevy Slyme posted:

The new salvaging rules are a pretty good step that is getting overlooked here I think. Tl;dr, if you want to salvage an existing magic item, you can get 75% of its value towards crafting something new, rather than 50% sell price. If you don’t use the whole salvage value, it’s lost, so you need to keep that in mind, but it goes a long way, IMO, towards “crafting is about making sure you can get the specific gear you want, rather than getting more gear.”

I'm that I've ever sold a magic item.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2023 16:01

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

But he's right!

They got you on the calculation, but I'd highly recommend considering milestone leveling over tracking XP rewards.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2023 01:07

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 07:26

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

But he's right!

LaSquida posted:

Hey folks. I'm about to start a Pathfinder 2e game that's going to be running through Abomination vaults and I'm very excited.

I'm making a fighter, and I really like the fact they're great at using just about any weapon they pick up right out of the gate. I really like the idea of playing a character who uses a ton of different weapons rather than monofocusing on one. However, if I do this am I going to be a detriment to the party/notably underpowered as we level up? Between specialization and magic item costs, is this just asking for trouble?

Kind of... But there are some ways to mitigate that. Specifically, there's Doubling Rings, which copy your main-hand magic weapon stats to your off-hand, so if you just want to cycle through 1-handed weapons in you off-hand, there's no problem with that at all.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2023 15:36

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Pathfinder 2e: If your MAP is too high, use your third action to Post.

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