Origin edition

>>IF YOU ARE ASKING A QUESTION, PLEASE SPECIFY WHICH GAME YOU'RE PLAYING<<<

Previous thread: >>96146614

/pfg/ (pathfinder 1e) link repository: https://pastebin.com/RSt0rF0T
/p2g/ (pathfinder 2e) link repository: https://pastebin.com/1zySxwm3
/sfg/ (starfinder) link repository: https://pastebin.com/5yp9s2U3
/s2g/ (starfinder 2e) link repository: https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/rulebooks/core
/3eg/ (D&D 3.X) link repository: https://pastebin.com/VMRsxB2m
/pacgg/ (pathfinder adventure card game) link repository:
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_games_considered_the_best
The T̶r̶o̶v̶e̶ Vault (seed, please!): >implying

>>CHECK THE SHARE THREAD FOR MISSING MATERIALS<<

TQ: What's your character's origin? Why did they become an adventurer?

2e
>You and your eidolon share proficiencies and your eidolon can use abilities gained from archetypes
How big of a fix is this?

In theory, Path/Starfinder 2e classes are cross-compatible, provided that futuristic ranged weapons and easy flight options (e.g. barathu, contemplative, dragonkin, ultralight wings) are kept away from Pathfinder 2e settings, so as to avoid upsetting the Pathfinder 2e meta. Someone could play a commander in Starfinder 2e as a Veskarium military officer with a holographic banner, or a soldier in Pathfinder 2e as a Knight of Lastwall who hacks down hordes using an archaic reach weapon. So too could someone play a mystic in Pathfinder 2e as someone who seeks satori not through a god, but through the cosmos's fundamental forces.

How would you compare the healing font cleric and the mystic? Notably, the cleric is the one Pathfinder 2e class that unambiguously has support in the Starfinder 2e Player Core, due to the deities section and the technology domain.

I think healing font cleric vs. mystic is a tough call. 8 base HP, a large stack of extra heal castings per day, and 3-slot prepared casting vs. 6 base HP, vitality network, and 4-slot spontaneous casting with a choice between divine, occult, and primal. I think that the cleric has the slightly better package, but the mystic is no slouch for a caster, either.

The vitality network is a bit downgraded from the playtest. It is capped at transferring only 10 Hit Points at a time, increasing to 20 at 5th, 30 at 10th, 40 at 15th, and 50 at 20th. Still, it is a decent bit of healing.

Infusion for healing and Anthem for a party-wide status bonus to attack rolls are both great focus spells. A mystic can even have both with New Epiphany at 6th; this is probably better on a rhythm primary mystic due to the rhythm harmony benefit, which helps with action economy.

Group chat at 3rd has a solid use in more intrigue-oriented campaigns. There is no way to extend it past 120 feet, though. Does it work through solid barriers, such as walls?

What do you personally think on healing font cleric vs. mystic?

Battlecry!'s Shock and Awe seems fairly good for a 5th-level arcane and occult spell.

>Shock and Awe [three actions], Spell 5

>Auditory, Concentrate, Emotion, Fear, Illusion, Manipulate, Mental, Visual

>Traditions arcane, occult

>Range 100 feet; Area 50-foot burst

>Defense Will; Duration 1 round

>You create the illusion of cannons exploding, bullets and arrows flying, and magical ballistics firing, as an overwhelming torrent of information, both visual and auditory. Enemies in the area must attempt a Will save.

>Critical Success The enemy is unaffected.

>Success The target is frightened 1.

>Failure The enemy is frightened 2 and stunned 1.

>Critical Failure The enemy is frightened 3 and stunned 2.

On one hand, this can definitely run into immunities. Three actions is inconvenient. The duration is only 1 round, making the debuffs short-lived. On the other hand, those are good debuffs (e.g. stunned alone locks out reactions), and the range and ally-friendly area are fantastic.

What do you think of this spell? Is it on par with Synesthesia? Does the duration limit it too much?

>>96212447

Battlecry!'s Blister Bomb is good, too.

>Blister Bomb, Spell 3

>Concentrate, Disease, Manipulate

>Traditions arcane, primal

>Range 100 feet; Area 5-foot burst

>Defense Fortitude

>You launch a small bomb enchanted with a fast-acting skin disease at your foes, causing their skin to break out in horrible bleeding sores. All creatures in the area of the burst must attempt a Fortitude save.

>Critical Success The creature is unaffected and is immune to blister pox for 1 week.

>Success The creature is sickened 2.

>Failure The creature is afflicted with blister pox at stage 1.

>Critical Failure The creature is afflicted with blister pox at stage 2.

>Blister Pox (disease) Level 5; A creature can’t reduce its sickened value below 1 while it’s taking persistent bleed damage from blister pox; Stage 1 sickened 2 (1 round); Stage 2 sickened 2 and 1d6 persistent bleed damage (1 round); Stage 3 sickened 2 and 2d6 persistent bleed damage (1 round); Stage 4 sickened 3 and 2d6 persistent bleed damage (1 day)

Sickened 2 even on a success.

Grenades and grenade launchers have been significantly upgraded since the Starfinder 2e playtest. There is much more of a reason to use them now.

During the playtest, one concern I noted and send as feedback was that there was no clear rule on how a soldier's primary target functions with grenades and grenade launchers. This does not appear to have been addressed in the final release.

How do you think a soldier's primary target is supposed to work with grenades and grenade launchers?

What exactly is the case for a sniper operative using a sniper weapon? You get higher damage and range increment with e.g. the assassin rifle compared to the machine gun or plasma caster, but you have to reload after every shot. They took Mobile Reload off the chassis and there's no in-class feats to help with reloading, so you'd have to archetype out of the class for basic reload functionality. Your turns would likely consist of Mobile Aim, reload, Strike if you have to move, or reload and a 2-action Aim+Strike+rider feat if you don't.

A "rifleman"-type operative would likely have turns of Mobile Aim, Strike, Strike or 2-action feat, Strike, and would have much readier access to Hair Trigger. If they took the sniper subclass they could mitigate the shorter range increment somewhat with the free feat.

Are there really so many combats in SF2E scenarios that start at distances of 100+ ft?

>>96211413
I wouldn't consider this a fix, either with RAW ideas or intentions. The Summoner is still just stuck with unarmed attacks, not actual weapons. And there aren't a lot of archetypes the Eidolon would benefit from, even with Summoner Spellcasting baked into them. It just makes it easier to do a Twinned Eidolon melee bruiser concept, which I rather have more distinct support from a Class Archetype ala Team+'s Kindred Warrior idea.

And even if I take the idea of this than the RAW rules, essentially controlling 2 of the same person, needing to account for 2 separate build lines, just feels like a lame headache for not much gain in power.

>>96213083
Single shot weapons just blow ass and I don't know why they decided Operative should have zero reload compression at all when they're the "sniper" class. Very cool the best weapon for them is just Assault rifles and revolvers.

Operative feels like a fucking mess, though, that ends up strong despite it. It has Fighter scaling in martial guns, caster scaling in everything else. It can't get full advanced gun scaling until level 19. Striker meanwhile gives you the full legendary scaling on all agile and finesse weapons ever, even Advanced ones.

>>96213164
>Striker meanwhile gives you the full legendary scaling on all agile and finesse weapons ever, even Advanced ones.
I noticed this, yeah. On first read I'm inclined to say Skirmisher with a rotating pistol is still better, but Striker looks a lot like a (melee) rogue that traded skills for better mobility and much better offense.

>>96213164
>Striker meanwhile gives you the full legendary scaling on all agile and finesse weapons ever, even Advanced ones.
That's definitely feel like something they would errata on Day 1. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to say Martial Agile and Finesse melee weapons.

>>96213332
desu without the adv weapons, Striker would honestly just not give you enough to justify itself. It kind of doesn't do that even as is, but that's just the Operative subclasses aside from sniper being nerfed for seemingly no reason.

Thank you donator for Myths and Magic tokens for foundry fuck yes

>>96213366
It feels like they got a lot of feedback saying the Operative was a little overtuned and they over corrected in response. No reload compression in particular makes me think they heard people hypothetizing over the potential issues of a sniper team of operatives wiping encounters before the enemy could reasonably respond.

>>96213130
Giving your eidolon Ravel of Thorns, Nimble Strike, Flurry of Blows, or any other stance, reaction, or metastrike seems pretty nice.

>>96213130
>The Summoner is still just stuck with unarmed attacks, not actual weapons.
Summoners can use simple weapons or martial ones with familiarity at the same proficiency as unarmed. If you're talking about rune sharing with the eidolon, they can do that with weapons too.

When I playtested Starfinder 2e, one concern I was vocal about was that ubiquitous flight significantly increased the necessity of measuring three-dimensional movement (including the difficult terrain for upwards flight) and distances. I found it especially tedious to measure three-dimensional AoEs, such as the quantum field that the witchwarper laid down during every single combat. Outdoor battle maps tended to become meaningless due to all the flight.

Another matter I found tiresome was individually counting ammunition in magazines. It was bothersome enough to do so as a single player managing a single PC. Tracking ammunition for multiple enemies as a GM was such a pain. This was especially burdensome whenever Auto-Fire comes up.

This does not seem to have changed in the final release. How would you personally address these? Does it become all but a necessity to use a virtual tabletop to calculate three-dimensional distances (especially for upwards flight and three-dimensional AoEs) and track ammunition in magazines?

>>96214087
I have the type of players that'll keep track of enemy ammo so I don't have to. The second I try to fire a shot over without reloading, someone will let me know about it.

>>96214087
I think the simplest thing for ammo tracking on enemies would be to abstract it - every grunt enemy (that is, everyone who isn't supposed to be a boss) gets 5 attacks unless they auto-fire, at which they have to reload straight away. Keeps things moving and makes it feel appropriately action movie.

I am thinking about making my next campaign start by having the players escort a caravan to a far-away hard to reach city under the assumption that they were going to be paid a huge sum of gold, only to find out after getting there that the guy swindled them and doesn't intend to pay them at all. Instead he'll run and hide in the city to establish the first threads of the campaign.

Is this a good idea or do you think it'll piss my players off to much? I'm debating whether I should actually play out the swindling part or just present it straight to my players and have them start in-media-res immediately after said swindling had taken place. The whole goal is to have them trapped in a foreign city with no contacts, money, or resources and have them flounder around while slowly introducing high-profile citizens that they can (hopefully) buddy up with who will bring their own laundry list of problems that the players can get involved with.

>>96214627
I think starting with the swindling is a good idea, just make it part of the established background of all their characters. Maybe have session 1 start with them turning up to get paid with the rest of the caravan crew, and they all realize there is no money at all? That way it's not just the PCs getting screwed and you have some characters (the former caravan workers) who can help guide them to get things rolling.

Anons, anyone knows of a way to get Mystic Theurge to be able to cast level 9 or at least 8 spells of both Sorcerer and Oracle?

Golomas are fucking awesome
That is all, thank you for reading

>>96214650
>That way it's not just the PCs getting screwed and you have some characters (the former caravan workers) who can help guide them to get things rolling.
That's probably a good idea so they don't seem completely targeted by it, I'll most likely do that. I'll just make it very clear that everyone else is common laborers so they don't feel compelled to try and recruit random NPCs right off the bat.

>>96214087
>Another matter I found tiresome was individually counting ammunition in magazines.

I would just give them ammo counts that are AS GOOD AS WHAT WE HAVE ON EARTH NOW OR BETTER BECAUSE SPACE TRAVELLING HIGH TECH. Easier to deal with when you have realistic ammo counts in magazines. Paizo, what is this 5 shots bullshit. We don't want to play your game of reload every other round. Getting 5 shots should be what the FUCKING SNIPER RIFLE HAS!!! Jeezus, go to a shop or a range.

Making a tanuki lady for Season of Ghosts. How are they as frontliners?

>>96214935
Paizo needs to put out another ancestry guide, every race should have 4 level 17 feats to choose from at minimum.

>>96215127
Hasty celebration fucks, it's a +2 circumstance bonus so it stacks nicely with any status bonus you're getting and off-guard, frightened, clumsy or whatever.

Rolling white bottle form is fun with nimble crawl and kip up. It's not great but it's fun to have in your pocket.

>>96215127
Theyre pretty ok. 10 HP base with 25 ft speed. The only downsides are Small (so Athletics all but requires Titan Wrestler) and a penalty to WIS (but you can always just ignore that and take 2 free boosts instead of their normal ones).

Ancestry feat wise they have tons of fun but mostly useless in combat feats. (transformation and such).

Theyll perform fine, just dont expect the ancestry to make you a better frontliner, itll all come down to your class.

>>96215173
>>96215157
Alright cool. Still making plans but I'm pretty set on tanuki. Thinking thamauturge for my class?

Lads noob pf2e gm here.
One of my players wants to play some bootleg ghost busters thaumaturge and he picked haunt ingenuity.
I never played around with haunts before and reading about them is actually confusing me more. Are they just like traps and the guy can basically see/sense them immediately because he has the feat?
Also the fact that they can be disabled if you have the relevant skill... Does that thematically mean that some negroid died by the spell SOUL RIPPER 9001 and the player can now banish that haunt and give it peace with an arcana check because it's a "spell haunt"?

>>96188196
>>A witch who had a child with the god of time & resulted in them becoming erased from time just to come back and continue the loop. They break out by Killing themselves from their original timeline where they are a chronomancer.
>I can't figure out any time themed songs, preferably something with an in-song rewind. I was thinking The end of Evengelion but it is just too slow for a climatic fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY3weLzHXk4

>>96216227
Disabling a haunt doesn't get rid of it permanently. They reset unless you do something special to put them to rest. The problem is that most of them don't include what you have to actually do to permanently destroy them. Here's an example of one of the haunts that has all the information it's supposed to have.

https://2e.aonprd.com/Hazards.aspx?ID=151

Hey /pgg/ friends, a few questions for you about SF2 if you're going to be running it-

What's your campaign premise? How much/little PF2e content will you be allowing?

I'll admit I am a sci-fi novice, and could use some inspiration for running a game for my players who really enjoy sci-fi.

Pathfinder 2e

Would a monk that leans heavily into Ki stuff work thematically into the 'Strength of Thousands' Adventure Path? Or is it too much of a stretch to call Ki like magic?

WHAT
IF THE GOD OF WAR

WAS LE SAD ABOUT WAR

>>96216719
I'm going to be perfectly honest anon, I am way more likely to take SF2e and use its rule elements combined with pouring everything from PF2e into the box with it, and then running the sloppiest JRPG bullshit I can, than I am to run anything actually space sci-fi with it.

>>96216768
>Have something you are invested/passionate about ruined by bad-actors that poison the concept
Was it all a metaphor for TTRPGs?

>>96216799
You could go full-on isekai slop. I respect it, sounds fun as hell

>>96216719
I've got a vague idea that a delivery the PCs are assigned to is actually some kind of living super weapon, and the campaign is essentially trying to figure out who (via proxy) hired them to deliver it to the ass end of nowhere and why

>>96216739
Kung fu IS magic, it just comes from your own internal energies

>>96216719
I feel like nobody plays starfinder irl

>>96216739
Nothing wrong with training the mind as well as the body. Off the top of my head, Irori's self-perfection shtick is primarily explored in terms of physical prowess but he's also a god of history and knowledge. I can easily see why a follower of Irori might seek entrance to the Magaambya, which is both a magic university and ancient library. 1e material even lists "mystics" as some of his primary worshipers. And, of course, you don't have to be a worshiper of Irori anyway.

My players are kind of new to PF2E. Should I feel bad killing their characters when they make rookie mistakes or should I be a bitch and let them get away with it?

>>96217000
Nothing wrong with letting them die. That's how people learn stuff, and death should be expected in these kinds of games. That being said, if it's a new group and you don't care, nobody's going to come after you if you give them a couple mulligans. Both are really fine at this point, although at some point you'll probably want to stop pulling your punches.

God, some of these character concepts are so deceptively simple at their outset but the more you dive into how to make them mechanically salient the harder it gets. Like, you would think a one sentence description like:
> "Artistic catgirl with claws, Really Good Eyes to the point where they're described as Godlike, and short distance burst teleportation"
would be at least somewhat easily doable but I am tying myself into KNOTS figuring out how to do this within the span of a mid-range build.
I've made at least some headway but man I did not think it was gonna be this hard.

Is paizo really going to kill off cheliax as a major antagonist with hellbreakers? What the fuck are they doing? They are ruining all points of attrition in the setting. Which is exactly the opposite of what they should do.

>>96216719
>>96216799
>>96216815

Back in October of 2023, I ran a brief campaign set in the Starfinder galaxy. It was very heavily themed after Honkai: Star Rail, but still abided by Starfinder galaxy lore.

It was reasonably entertaining. I think I will try it again if and when I run Starfinder 2e: the Starfinder galaxy, but with Honkai: Star Rail in theme and atmosphere.

>>96217229
Sounds like you want to play Exalted, not PF.

In PF2E, how much do stock do you guys put in the "recommended amount of loot/items per level" chart? I personally really like items and find it to be a bit stingy. It's my first time running a pf2e campaign though so I worry though that I may break something if I'm too generous with the loot. Is this something I need to really worry about so long as I'm sticking to giving the level appropriate items/not giving them a ridiculous amount of item healing?

>>96217803
PF2e has a very tight math to make things balanced. If you give them too much, you might fuck with the carefully created enviroment in order to balance on the fly. If you plant to do this, I would at the very least follow the weapon/armor rune progression chart strictly.
But, of course, sometimes an unbalanced game can be fun. it's just that I'd rather play 3.5/pf1e at that point.

>>96217803
As long as the items are mostly on-level and not wildly (3+) above them, and you aren't giving them like, 10x recommended values (and even then lol lmao), you ain't breaking shit

>>96217827
Honestly the game is already unbalanced. We're using automatic bonus progress, free archetype, ancestry paragon, and dual class. So I'm already having to go well above the stuff any encounter calculator I've used considers hard. I plan to do full homebrew creatures and stuff, but right now I'm using default creatures or at most taking options from monsters and giving them to others with some small adjustments to dc/damage/damage types.

>>96217862
This was my gut feeling and what my more pf2e experienced friend said.

>>96216768
It's 10x funnier that his death begat COVID-19 rainstorms and queen dogfucker sent out PPP loans but you fags don't read books.

I am looking for the Return of the Runelords PDFs and all the sources in OP are outdated. I've been scrounging the internet and found nothing so far, anyone care to help out?

2e
Two question about hexploration for Kingmaker. If you are moving via flight, do you ignore difficult and greater difficult terrain hexes? Like if you use a heightened Marvelous Mount of 5th or 6th lvl. Also, the new item Beacon of the Wilds let's you and your allies ignore difficult terrain, would that work for hexploration too and would it do anything to greater difficult terrain?

Any fun builds for a duergar BBEG?

How do we return young male audience in pf2e?

>>96217763
How would you define a Honkai Star Rail them and atmosphere?

>>96220362

A mix of funposty side quests and much more serious, lore-heavy main quests.

>>96220234
Young queer male audience does play PF. If you're saying young non queer nerdy male audience, maybe start by just not making every npc personality just a bland "I'm this queer sexuality, look at me" kind of thing.

>>96220234
scrub the gay out and make adventures that actually allow for some fucking agency and player initiative

>>96220234
oh and also make the female characters hot and the male characters actually cool
all the character art they put in their books is a fucking joke

I think I'll be playing an Animist, what should I invest into? Should I take advantage of the medium armor training, and what about weapons?

Shillpill me on the Commander class for PF2. I'm playing a thaumaturge right now but our group is super melee heavy, so I was thinking of a commander to supplement that.

>>96223498
It's up to you and what you want to do, being melee focused and keeping embodiment of battle or devouring dark form for ranged grapples are both strong options that it might be worth going high strength and sacrificing some dex because you can eat that and just wear a breastplate but you can also just play like a normal caster in the backline, ignore str completely and go with whatever else you want, you can pump your cha or int a little and still cap your AC.

>>96223622
>ranged grapples
Oops, I meant reach grapples.

>>96223322
>make the female characters hot
>all the character art they put in their books is a fucking joke
But they are hot?

>>96223661
You but if that character were for a 1e cover she'd be wearing 50% less clothes

>2e campaign
>Walking around a dungeon where the dreamworld is intersecting with the material plane
>First hour of the session is us wandering around aimlessly with no direction except the GM asking us for a will save that makes us tired (with no mechanical downside at this point)
>I am an Archer Magus with Stealth so I scout ahead.
>GM randomly spawns a Dreamscraper on top of me with no warning or opportunity for a check
>Luckily I always have Ready Action Time Jump as my Exploration Activity since I'm used to him doing this.
>Combat begins and he spawns a Lesser Animate Dream literally right next to me out of nowhere that I had no opportunity to even try to detect and smacks me three times (luckily only one hit because I have actual defense stats)

I've spoken with him about this but he still does it. Does my GM just hate me or something?

>>96223661
one character out of a thousand that looks decent
truly the paizbros are starving

>>96223661
The only cool or hot character in that pic is Merisiel.

is it appropriate to have a story about my thaumaturge implement at level 1

>>96219024
huge newfag

>>96223807
Is this a Paizo campaign or homebrew? I've noticed sometimes that official campaigns can say "Oh yeah if anyone walks into this room they just get jumped by three things that immediately spawn in." He should be giving you perception checks to notice anything amiss though.

>>96225202
homebrew.

>>96223807
I mean to be honest if you're a dex archer, I'm assuming you have at least a 35 foot move speed. And if you used Time Jump that means you moved at least 70 feet back basically signposting "I would like to take steps to avoid frontline combat and am willing to expend a resource to do so."

For a GM to spawn a monster literally right next to you IS honestly kind of a prick move ana makes me think they're either new or just generally adversarial. Especially right after making your character bumble into a Large Creature with no check like a retard. Especially Especially since you're a Magus.

Assuming that your story is not embellished of course.

If it's not and this is a consistent issue, you should probably see if other players maybe feel the same way and talk to your GM about it. If they're not a complete prick, they should ease up if multiple people tell them it's annoying.

>>96225308
>>96223807
To elaborate slightly on my opinion, Lesser Dreams are actually pretty fun and flavorful low level monsters. They can do a lot more interesting things than Strike three times especially in combination with other enemies.

The fact that the GM would have one ignore everything actually interesting it can do just to Strike at a Magus three times leads me to believe they were kind of targetting you for no real reason.

If it just cast Paranoia on you or something, I'd be more inclined to side with the GM.

Starfinder but the party is 2 soldiers, an analyst witchwarper and a primal mystic.

I honestly think that in their drive to keep SF and PF cross-compatible, we might have reached the apex of SF being objectively better in its player core; everything else they put out for SF will be weaker. Echoing the whole PF thing of Fighter/rogue/cleric being the core fuckmasters of the system. I guess animist breaks this a little, maybe I'm just stupid.

What's the deal with SF2e and adventure paths, are they doing them? As far as I can tell, none have been announced and they announce the PF ones like 9 months in advance.

>>96223588
Faster

>>96224831
Backstory about your family heirloom is encouraged.

>>96223661
>Choices are blacked elf, lesbian elf, or black woman
It's getting grim, chudnards...

>>96224831
It's encouraged. It doesn't need to be anything that makes your character more than a standard level 1 grunt, but the object should have a history that your character can connect to. Maybe your father held a pass against an overwhelming force holding a banner and that same banner wrapped around your wrist is your amulet. Or some shit like that.

>>96225542
>>96225555
what I had before asking was just "a mysterious bell PC's adventurer father found in an abandoned temple, and thought was completely mundane, but a strange force compelled him to take it home where it sat til PC started messing with it and determined it was magical"
which is pretty lame, but a bell's hard
all I'm really coming up with now is the bell's haunted as fuck, it was part of a temple or shrine of [some deity] and the bell itself bore witness to the monks of the temple being slaughtered and the dingaling causes those spirits to assail the target "or so the PC believes"
but the PC is supremely unedgy so that feels kind of juxtaposed. it's for season of ghosts though so that feels like good flavor, and it's tian xia so item spirit animism isn't out of the question at all
no damn clue what deity to associate it with

>>96225718
I don't see anything wrong with that. Aang is a kid with the power to bend all the elements and end entire nations, but he just wants to fly in the sky and goof around. There's that one super edgy demon guy from Inuyasha who has a sword that can only bring people back to life. As for the deity, have a look through the domains and pick one that makes sense for a bell to be associated with. That should narrow your choices down at least.

i tried dnd5.5 and it wasn't that bad as we were told by paizo. man, we are losing

Do glass cannon podcast will have shadow dark as the game for their third campaign. Idiots should have just run kingmaker 2e and pressured the DM to allow hero points.

>https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/1mefkwe/the_new_war_mage_class_archetype_proves_how_badly/

these idiots will never learn

>>96226834
>aggggh wizard gets to spend a fucking feat to do a LITTLE more damage with bespell strikes (on a crit) magus is fucked

Why are they like this?

Did Starfinder make this general sperg out

>glass cannon are dropping 2e like a sack of bricks after everyone visibly hates playing it compared to 1e (good)
>they're unironically switching to Shadowdark aka DarkBad in an attempt to court 5e theater kids upset with WotC except Troy is like a year too late to chase that trend and a bunch of other more noteworthy competitors literally just released (lol lmao what the fuck)
is there a single decent 1e actual play left? Also I can't wait until the zoomer theater kids they're trying to court find out that Troy used to joke about the orcs attacking Trunau sipping Hennessy in between lighting houses on fire and raping people...

>>96226834
>>96226896
Wrong formula, right answer. Magus is fucked and needs a rework.

>>96227554
>Troy used to joke about the orcs attacking Trunau sipping Hennessy in between lighting houses on fire and raping people...
Lol based god I missed when they weren't pandering to mentally isane lefties

>>96227554
>>glass cannon are dropping 2e like a sack of bricks after everyone visibly hates playing it compared to 1e (good)
Nah, more like Troy is being antagonistic GM faggot and refusing to understand hero points exist for a reason in PF2e to keep characters alive.

>>96227623
>>96227610
Iiroonically their PF2E Quest For The Frozen Flame is doing well. Troy should just run PF2E Kingmaker and actually fucking use hero points as intended

>>96227554
>is there a single decent 1e actual play left?
Were these even a thing in current year? Honestly I would expect (You) to be one of those theatre kids if you were actively searching for any actual play podcast instead of just...playing your own game.

>>96227590
As a 2eMagus dickrider, even I agree with the sentiment of the idea of making a new Magus. At the very least, cleaning up Spellstrike and Arcane Cascade to be smoother to pilot should be a major idea.
Do not understand the comparison between it and War Mage. They don't even have the same goals...

>>96228021
my own game is only four hours a week, during COVID I managed to run/play multiple games at a time but I don't have that kind of time anymore so I like to listen to APs because I'm the kind of autist who enjoys engaging with TTRPG shit even when not at the table.

The reason I liked OG glass cannon was that their Giantslayer run actually felt like a real TTRPG table where they were actually playing the game, following the AP, and even their shitty character builds from people who thought they understood the game was more than they actually did (literally anything by Joe, it will never not be funny that the ACTUAL literal theater kid who is a professional playwright by trade, Matthew, ended up making one of the mechsnically strongest characters in their original party simply because he actually read the rules as a new player lmao) and rules fuck ups had a "listening in on somebody's home table" feel compared to all the overproduced and heavily scripted trash.

For decent 1e APs they still had Legacy of the Ancients which was a ROTR campaign GM'd by skid but it's main issues are that skid is too nice and treats them with kid gloves even when they act retarded and deserve to die or fail, Troy made the decision as CEO of their dumb company to drop cast members to instead focus on other shittier APs nobody cares about, and worst of all it features fucking Nick Lowe as a main member (yes, THAT Nick Lowe, the guy who's literally the Marvel editorial staff member personally responsible for ensuring Spiderman remains a cuckold and loser never allowed to have a steady love interest).

The silver lining of legacy of the Ancients is that it at least confirmed that Nick Lowe unironically 100% has a fucking cuck fetish and it's not just memes, since he literally wrote and gleefully roleplayed his half-elf character's backstory to be that her dad was a barbarian who cuckolded her mother's fiance while they were adventuring together while she was away from her fiance

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/epictellers/starfinder-afterlight
Paizo, you really need to learn not to just hand out the license to any random motherfucker and negotiate games with real devs...

>>96228141
>because I'm the kind of autist who enjoys engaging with TTRPG shit even when not at the table.
Past busting your balls, am in the same boat. I tend to not listen to actual plays because I don't jive with annoying theatre kids, but I can admit freely that I haven't found something that scratches my itch. Stuff like people not reading the rules flares up my autism fierce.
All said, I can see why the GC Podcast resonate with people beyond their apparent incompetence at everything, if that wasn't the appeal to begin with. They do sound like it would at least be an interesting deep dive into each player, especially with the Nick Lowe reveal...

>>96228148
I mean, wasn't Owlcat just some randoms MFs before they made Kingmaker?

Besides, from what little is even here this looks 1000% better than Dragon's Demand because that shit looked liked it was made in fucking Heroforge

Ok im kinda inspired by Ragebound, but how far can you push a throwing build with knives?
Ranger or rogue for a class for native quick draw, I guess for ranger would be flurry or precision unless Draconic Barrage from dragon domain vindicator could patch up using bad weapons. Meanwhile rogue has actual support for increasing range and later ricochet stance would fix up some issues
DWW for Dual thrower, later down the line maybe exemplar for Shadow Sheath to ditch thrower's bandolier?
Alternatively could still use melee weapon like karambit and use thrown weapon for support/inbetween turn while getting to next target

>>96228650
For thrown weapons Id go flurry Ranger with Exemplar Archetype.

Shadow sheathe is basically unbeatable in action economy and a damage boost. Take Hurl to the Horizon for +15 foot range, and the Exemplar feat that lets you change your spirit damage to another type, like Slashing. For your 2nd archetype, DWW for dual throw, as you said. The eith +15 foot range and the ranger feat to double range increment + hunt prey letting you ignore penalties on the first one you can chuck throwing knives at fickers 140 feet away.

>>96228755
hmm got something like this and i think it's good enough for one shots at least and progression towards isn't that cumbersome so maybe even regular play, with FA, could likely do cuts for non FA
>human (but really could be either, ranger thrown shit runs out pretty quickly) aiuvarin
>Flurry ranger lvl17
>Warden spells: Gravity Weapon, Soothing Mist (most cut-able), Draconic Barrage
>Exemplar: shadow sheath, scar of the survivor (cut-able), Energized spark
>DWW: Dual Thrower, Dual Weapon Blitz, Flensing Strike
>Cleric:Basic Dogma (Domain initiate (dragon)), if gm is not a retard for favoured weapon add in deadly simplicity
>Ranger more notable stuff: Greater/Distracting Shot, Far shot, 2 warden spells feats
i could take far shot with normal daggers to effectively have throwing knifes (if weapon isn't thrown it just gets +10ft instead 15) and then squeeze in Deadly Simplicity regardless so they're d6

>>96229001
If your GM (and you) are ok with a bit of reflavoring you could simply use Starknives. You get a dagger but with throwing knife range and deadly d6. Just call it a heavy throwing knife or smth and ignore Paizo's retard design.

But yes it looks solid enough for sure, even with normal daggers.

>>96214935
freakshit

>group has like 3 different PF games going
>"Bro we need a different campaign for each time a different person is not here"
>as a result multiple campaigns that only get played once every 6 months
>even the main campaign has just reached 1 year of IRL time for 20 actual sessions

>>96229227
my group just does a one-shot if we're missing someone

>>96229227
>>96229264
this or we just play some board game or something instead

>>96225534
OK but my question?

cis straight human male fighter
cis straight human male cleric
cis straight human male wizard
cis straight human male rogue

hope it, it's time to play

>>96223588
Do you have at least 2 other melee martials who like running in and hitting guys? Are you level 7+? Then congratulations, for two actions Commander lets you tell those two meatheads to run in and strike, and that also might inflict fear on the enemy they attack. There is no cooldown on this.

There's a lot of other good reasons to play one, granted. You have pretty good universal recall on enemy weaknesses, you have a lot of funky positioning tools, you can have out of combat climb or swim speeds for everyone, and more, you have some good support feats (the banner plant is really good THP generation if you're confident you can keep enemies from stealing or destroying it).

Just a good-ass class. It's eternally funny they proudly said they didn't enable lazylords, but buffed a tactic that makes lazylording incredibly powerful and easy.

Opinions on the new archetypes? Necrologist looks fun.

>>96229437
not even a kitsune?

Finally nearing the point where I feel comfortable starting my campaign set-up. Players are working on their characters, I have a rough storyline pencil'd in, and I've got a map for the area all finished up.

Now, my main issue: what's the best (and cheapest) option for online hosting? I've played on Foundry before, for a FFG StarWars campaign, and I really liked it. But I don't think I can commit to a $50 purchase I might only use a couple of times.
I've heard good things about both Owlbear and Roll20, but both seem to be riddled with ads, and getting my resources would mean constantly adding and deleting assets. Anyone have experience running through TTS+Discord? It's a setup everyone (except one) player has.

>>96230001
The Fighter took Captain Archetype to have a kitsune slave. As a treat for CHAD behavior.

>>96229926
A typical array of hits-and-misses, as expected. Nothing particularly pops out, but they all have some niche or decent powers I wouldn't mind white room-building around.
>Aldori Duelist
The new feats are cool, but it still lacks a good niche for most martial builds.
>Captain
I wish there was a spellcasting follower option. Does feel a little empty without at least the attempt being made. Otherwise, decent options all around, probably wouldn't pick one over an animal companion just by virtue of how much space they take up.
>Crossbow Infiltrator
It's Drow Shootist, minus the Drow and Running Reload for god knows why. I think they genuinely just forgot to put it in, especially with Repeating Hand Crossbow Training mentioning it by name.
>Field Propagandist
I'd imagine Mesmerist fans would enjoy this one. I don't think the feats come together well, but the individual perks each one give can provide a lot of good team support.
>Guerilla
I'm not reviving the subordinate actions debate, so I'm just assuming Frightful Attrition and Deathblow work together.
I appreciate real sling and blowgun support, but it really puts too much power budget into the favored terrain skills. I can't really imagine this working in the average campaign, not without some GM grace.
>Iridian Choirmaster
Teamwork feats! Again!
Cool archetype but I think Commander eats a lot of the appeal of these co-op options. I think if you and a buddy work well together, this would be a pretty strong archetype to go down.
>Munitions Master
Shit.
>Necrologist
It's technically better than Swarmmaster was, there are good utility feats here. The main problems are the prerequisites. There aren't a lot of casters that are willing to eat so much for flavor's sake...
>War Mage
Even without the ability to ignore Sure Strike's cooldown, this one seems fine. Rather take Runelord, but this is fine as is.

>>96229926
The multiclass archetypes are really good and exciting, the standalone archetypes range from "okay" to outright terrible, so normal archetype fare.

>>96230159
>kitsune slave
if you have a fighter why would you need another guy like that for manual labor

>>96230379
>guy
not even a Fighter can resolve all the needs of a cis het human male...

2e: I noticed Demoralizing Charge (and a number of other tactics) won't function with mounted characters. Is this a balancing decision or an oversight? Does Commander not work well with mounted allies?

>>96230510
ah I see he's that sort of guy
yeah, I see, I know the appeal

anyone here also else made or did some stuff on hacking up or making a PF2E based system homebrew thing? I'm GMing a mecha campaign where I adapted and hacked up PF2E into an armored core esque cracked up game and its pretty fun but I want to know if anyone else has done this and if there are some tips from people who did so I don't make some fucked up stuff in the future that I can't come back from

>>96230758
Never did anything on that big of a scale, but I've definitely adapted stats and numbers to different "eras".
Had a campaign that was more futuristic, so we did a re-flavor of all the gear to be more tech, and some mechanical adjustments to things like Bows to become Rifles. I think the one time we had exo-suits come up, they were treated like Wild Shape, with a custom statline for like Bugbears, and we just did the weapons and skills on the fly.

If I was to approach a project like that again, I'd more than likely lean into GURPS, or one of the older DND systems to adapt. Everything now is too skill and Feat focused, when, at its core, you should probably be more number and descriptions.

>>96230791
I actually did GM the same setting/game previously using up a hacked 5e and it was way less fun. I adapted a lot of feats and skills by just being features that mecha parts give you and it worked really decently.

>>96230796
I can definitely see that working, especially if you're dead set on combat being Mech only. Would also give some gravity to the Pilot encounters, where you don't get to have your funny beam sabers to use, and are left with that little 1d4 Pistol.

If I wasn't working on trying to get this campaign off the ground, I'd probably start fucking around and trying to adapt some of these rules myself. Probably do something like each Mech Frame is one of the classic "Core" Archetypes, and you install your parts to customize them with the Feats and Skills you want. More free-form class flow. Pets can be Bits, a Paladin would definitely be a beefy unit with strong strikes from a Beam Saber. Rogue for a light-weight mobile class, using precision weaponry...

fuck you anon, now I'm interested

>>96230758
https://youtu.be/Pz8zHp5Fw_I

>>96228755
>>96229001
I don't see what flurry ranger adds to the build at this point. Thrown weapons aren't compatible with Hunted Shot and Shadow Sheath makes Quick Draw unnecessary (although Twin Takedown should still work, since Shadow Sheath doesn't disallow multiple copies). You're ignoring MAP with Dual Thrower, too, so the reduction from flurry isn't really useful. Far Shot's not bad but if you're doing Hurl at the Horizon I'm not sure it's necessary.
For Shadow Sheath I'd probably mainclass fighter, rogue, or exemplar. Rogue can't double up on sneak attack with Dual Thrower, though, and fighter has a lot of overlap in feats earlygame. It'd be interesting to see a build using striker operative, although putting exemplar archetype on operative is basically asking the GM to tell you to pound sand.
Mildly cheesy option with Shadow Sheath is exploiting the "light Bulk" requirement with mithral/dawnsilver; a trident is 1 Bulk normally but light Bulk if mithral.
At higher levels, you could also do champion archetype (or base champion) with Retributive Strike, Nimble Reprisal, and Expand Aura.

>>96230813
I'd have to translate it from my language to english, if there's interest, and the part list is still only at the earlier levels, although I have already prepared later level stuff. I just translated this section from the part sheet to give an example
There can be both pilot and mech combat because they mostly work by the same rules, but mech combat is more exciting. The pilots in my universe can also be cracked at combat and gain feats but they don't have the sauce the mechs have that let them do crazy stupid shit. They're also very squishy. As you said, I adapted a lot of stuff like summoner eidolons as bits and I took a lot of class feats and put them as acquirable pilot talents

For new stuff: Basically, mechs have two major mechanics, G Force and Boost. G force begins at 0 and goes up to 14, with a tolerance at 6. A lot of mech actions and nearly all action feats add to your mech Gs during combat, and your Gs decrease every turn start depending on what you did previously. Boost is a free action that gives you: an extra Strike/Quick Draw, an AC bonus effect the first time it's used and lets you stride/step for a bit. And you can do it as many times as you can in a turn before you blackout. But it also gives you 3Gs.
So here's the thing. Hitting your G force limit at any point puts you in Blackout, which is essentially a super stun and you're fucked until you wake up. But, there's also a "Tolerance", at 6s, where, above that, at the end of your turn of at the moment you got 6+ Gs on you in the round, you must make a G Force roll, which is a flat d20 that defines if you G-LOC or not. G-LOC is kinda like a soft-blackout, but you can wake up more quickly.
Because of this, you can play it safe and boost or use good feats every once in a while to keep your G-Force stable... or you can lose your fucking shit and do 4 boosts in a round. It's up to you.

I also made an new weapon list and reworked the MAP to have different recoil "levels"

>>96230814
couldn't reply due to post limit but thanks for this as well! I'll be taking a look at it.

why is there a warning about THIS of all things but having somebody's fucking severed head as your familiar is totally okay, or all the Undead companion archetypes which can include using an actual dead person crawling on all fours as a mount, or just "regular" zombies and ghosts used as servants? or a construct companion given Miracle Gears so it's sapient and intelligent and capable of language yet still commanded to explode itself to blow up orcs. Or eidolons which despite being intelligent and sapient beings can be shut up and dismissed at-will by the summoner, and who are forced to share any wounds inflicted on their master (who can also be someone binding them unwillingly, including demons and other outsiders unhappy with the arrangement or trying to corrupt you....)
no, no, no....having soldiers following a commanding officer's commands in battle is what's so problematic it needs an entire sidebar!

Hirelings should be the least controversial meat shields in a game like D&D, they're literally just dudes doing a job.....why is extraplanar slavery and necromancy or literally growing a sentient-but-biologically-incapable-of-treachery homunculus servant taken as a granted totally fine, but "hey man, your job is to stab the guys I tell you to stab" is a trigger warning? "muh power dynamics" it's called having a fucking job, at least these fuckers are employed and not literal magic slaves summoned to die for their masters....

>>96231133
Each of those others has reasons for being considered lesser than the PCs. Hirelings are just people like them who are explicitly less important.

>>96231133
you know, I just automatically assumed the sidebar was to address "people already whine that they need to spend an action to command animal companions, so the idea they have to use similar command mechanics for a stat block representing an actual person might make them insufferable"

>>96231243
I think a sentient undead slave is a lot more unethical than literally paying a guy to protect you as his job as a soldier. like, it is literally a bodyguard's job to protect his employer, he's """"less important"""" because the entire idea is he's being paid to protect the other guy.

>>96231262
One assumes by the time you're letting a necromancer of any stripe in the party you've kind of had the arguments and debates about the ethics and morals of raising the dead and putting them to use, whereas with this archetype you're hiring a whole ass human being and all that entails who you *know* at least some players are going to treat as a totally expendable stat block they can throw at problems and just buy more of later.
A lot of safety guideline shit is printed so it can be pointed to by a GM who is dealing with Shit Head Jimmy, this is no different.

>>96231281
>One assumes by the time you're letting a necromancer of any stripe in the party you've kind of had the arguments and debates about the ethics and morals of raising the dead and putting them to use,
except they're not necromancer specific, they're Common familiars anyone can take. a lawful good (pre-remaster lol) champion could take familiar master as a dedication if he wanted and get one. not even uncommon. no access required.

>>96230925
Extra range on the knives, MAP reduction on your third strike and following. Anon said they're 17th level, that means they have access to both Dual Weapon Blitz and Two-Weapon Flurry, which means you can do something like Dual Throw + TWF for +0/+0/-2/-2 or Dual Blitz+TWF for +0/-1/-2/-2 and a Stride if you need to move.

If they want to keep their build without cutting for those feats then they can just do Precision Ranger to bump up the damage. One of the reasons I suggested Ranger is that frankly if you go Thrown with no companion they have a bunch of dead levels where its easy to slot in Archetype bullshit, and I dunno if anon is using FA or not.

I think your ideas have merit too, especially at high level, at that point you can do whatever the fuck you want, basically.

>>96231281
>who you *know* at least some players are going to treat as a totally expendable stat block they can throw at problems and just buy more of later.
that is literally what a soldier's job is to be.
you think charging machine gun nests in ww1 was all volunteers? everybody in a pike formation put at the front to intercept charging cavalry was having a grand old time?

they're not slaves, they're paid money. in exchange for being paid money, they can be expected to fight and die if the situation demands it. that is LITERALLY what being a soldier is.

>>96231303
I'm so glad you used WW1 as an example because it's also a prime example of why that isn't enough. People get sick of being asked to put their lives on the line pretty fucking quickly, the French Army had a literal goddamn mutiny about exactly this! It's not about being commanded, it's about treated like a line item, a thing being added and subtracted on a balance sheet, not a living person who wants to make it through this and live to actually spend that money. Even, hell especially, the most mercenary bastards understand to cut and run if the risk isn't worth the gold.

>>96231303
NTA, I kinda agree with how cringey the text box is. But there is something to be mentioned about the blatant power difference between a PC and a follower. There's nothing in 2e's lore that makes it explicit what makes you different to the average normie.
It is less about slavery and being meatshields so much as how hard it can be to square the circle of why this dude is both lesser than everyone at the table but still allowed to hang out with them. And should they care about what happens to them, compared to the average animal or construct companion.

>>96231323
every other sapient and intelligent minion in the game has those exact same concerns and there's no safety sidebar for those.
the least controversial one, who are ACTUALLY PAID (even if the game says GMs should handwave this off-screen, just like their kit magically upgrading with runes and being repaired with no dice rolls when it breaks), are given special attention even when the ACTUALLY unfair power dynamic magical slaves are glossed over.

inventors can literally explode somebody who's more intelligent and eloquent than the party fighter. nobody cares. at least the follower is getting paid

>>96230965
Seems really fun, but I wonder how you explain the later level feats that come with or use magic

>>96231302
Fair enough; I was responding more to the reply-chain OP than to you. As a side note, OP mentioned FA in that followup example build, so I'm assuming that's on the table (which is why such a build can probably afford champion on top of exemplar + DWW).

I'd say I still generally prefer fighter to ranger for this; less mucking about with Hunt Prey, same if not more ease in ignoring in-class feats, generally better chassis.
At level 17, fighter has access to the 16th-level Needle in the Gods' Eyes, which combined with TWF from DWW lets it Leap up to its speed and make 4 attacks at +2/+2/-4/-4, same MAP as it would have with DS+DWW (albeit incompatible with feats like Flensing Slice and Dual Onslaught).

IMO/IME 30ft range from a 20ft agile thrown weapon (light hammer, tamchal chakram if you have Unconventional Weaponry) and Hurl at the Horizon should do you pretty well, although it depends on campaign. In the worst case Needle lets you move closer without sacrificing any MAP, although for the flurry build that's admittedly a difference of -1.

Finally got to play animist a solid amount and it feels a little crazy Paizo just made a caster that gets to do everything well compared to the other casters.

It's fun at least, though. Only thing I don't like is divine's flavour.

>>96214087
Maybe count enemy ammo by bulk and mark autofiring enemies with a reload token?

Other option is to use dice. Either say a 1 to 4 on the hit roll means they need to reload (Or 1,7,15,19) or by marking them with a d6 to count down.

So if the starship combat rules and the two technology heavy classes aren't coming out until next year, what exactly makes Starfinder 2e different from Pathfinder 2e?

>>96232330
In terms of meta, ranged combat, easier access to flight, space terrain, guns and magitech.
In terms of the average campaign, a more whacky tone ("Can I livestream here?"), cosmic horrors, stronger focus on both urban and desolate terrains, and the dynamics between technology and humanity being a stronger focus.

You can think of Starfinder2e without the spaceship more like a lighter version of Shadowrun (Brightwalk?).

I've been invited to a PF2e game. They asked me to play something Int based, but they also cautioned me against being a pure caster. Any advice? I've never played PF2.

>>96232645
You got a couple of options
>Alchemist -- okay, this is a pick just to rub it in your friends for coddling you. It's MORE complex than the average pure caster.
>Investigator -- Be Sherlock Holmes
>Commander -- Order your friends around while you sip martinis in the back
>Inventor -- Not a good class but has some interesting ideas. Build your own super special weapon/armor/robot.
>Magus -- If you want to experiment with spells but still focus on being a martial damage dealer, here's your gish.
>Rogue -- While technically DEX-focused, Mastermind Rogue is a valid option and still provide all the perks of INT.

In any case, I advise reading the book and the official SRD site. Take your time and figure everything out.
https://2e.aonprd.com/PlayersGuide.aspx

>>96232345
I wonder what the first adventure path for SF2e will be like. Dead Suns fell flat due to Temple of the Twelve being so fuckawful it drained my will to GM, so hopefully they've learned how to write better material.

Still holding out for them to make a Metamorphosis Alpha-knockoff megadungeon. When I first read the blurb for Devastation Ark I was extremely hopeful and then it was just the same campaign structure as Dead Suns but higher level.

>>96231337
>inventors can literally explode somebody who's more intelligent and eloquent than the party fighter
Well, Explode doesn't hurt the Construct. It's more like venting fire everywhere than actually exploding.

>>96232645
Don't be a cuck. Pic wizard. Just don't do anything weird, be recal knowledge bot for fist 2 levels. Play carefully and with 2 level spells you will have fun

>>96232679
No self respecting man pick these classes

Okay, I'm working on a DM-PC that will tie into, and become, the main plot-hook for the big bad. The idea is, in DND terms:
>Artificer/tech focused character
>multi-classes into Warlock
>Patron is a disembodied being looking to trick the guy into crafting a new, powerful body for it
>Unwitting accomplice in this all, thinks he's going to bring back his love

Strength aside, since that can be adjusted with dm bullshittery, what class/dedications would make the most sense for this kind of lineup in PF2E? I want him to seem like he's an artificer of sorts, helping the group investigate a bunch of seemingly unrelated events in a large city that ties into the body crafting.

>>96233402
Inventor or alchemist are easy picks for class depending on how you spin it. Forensic investigator could also probably work.

For dedications, Lepidstadt Surgeon can be fun and have a lot of flavour if they have a mad-science kind of feel. Maybe eldritch researcher. Maybe scrounger. Hard to really use those for a dm pc though I'd say.

I'd say you'll have a better time just making a purpose-built NPC but I've done the same as you to ok results before.

>>96233481
Oh yeah, all those classes make for fine dedications too.

>>96233481
>>96233482
i was messing around on pathbuilder a bit, with alchemist as the start. Tried playing around with the character being one of the healer/chirurgeon types, so his knowledge about bodies and anatomy wouldn't be out of place. Hints about him having a patron using him would probably come from a Familiar that isn't quite right. Probably something like a Raven with an extra set of eyes, or a rat with two tails. something you don't notice unless you look.
I might just make them (for the playable part that I'll use with the party) a dedicated healer, and just snag Feats that make sense to be boons from the Patron.
I'd prefer him to be as close to a player character as possible, since the story for him is that he's just being used. he's not the one drawing on forbidden powers and ancient magics. Just a poor heartbroken bastard, forcibly haunted by the Patron using the memory of his lost wife, to be an unknowing pawn in a greater plan.

>>96230925
>Mildly cheesy option with Shadow Sheath is exploiting the "light Bulk" requirement with mithral/dawnsilver; a trident is 1 Bulk normally but light Bulk if mithral.
part of the autism is using knives and not tridents, if i wanted to stay closer to original ninja-like autism I'd prolly include more spellcasting archetypes for buffs/convenience since flurry would be carrying the MAP weight at that point, rogue has some ok options too but harder to squeeze in dual wielding

>>96233273
>Don't be a cuck. Pic wizard
don't confuse the newcomer with these contradictions

>How often is your table less than 50% human?
>How often are Non-Humans just Furries instead of weird freak aliens?

>>96232645
If you're starting at level 1 as a first time player just play a 4 STR, 3 INT fighter. The only reason a table will ask someone to play an INT character is to be the lore bitch.

Take Combat Assessment (Level 1) so you can at least kick ass while recalling knowledge. Then you can pretty much go anywhere in your build from there as a Fighter.

Train your Athletics, Arcana, Occultism, Society, Crafting if you're going to be shield blocking, and there's still two free skill picks left.

>>96234088
Where do elves and dwarves and such fall on the "furries to weird aliens" scale?

I couldn't make it to gencon this weekend to check this out? Did anyone happen to go down there or have any documents from it?

>>96234801
dwarves, elves, halflings, and gnomes are considered human when arguing about freakshit

>Riposte ⤸
>General, Feat 1

>Trigger: While you are wielding a weapon or unarmed attack with the parry trait and are currently benefitting from the trait, an enemy within your reach succeeds or critically succeeds in a Strike against you.

>You adjust the angle of your weaponry so that an attacker that wants to damage you must also take punishment in return. You deal damage equal to the number of weapon damage dice of the parrying weapon plus your Strength modifier. Additional damage, such as rage or weapon specialization, is added to this as well. Extra damage dice, such as from a flaming rune, are added as if they rolled the minimum. If the parrying weapon is made of a precious material, this damage affects the triggering creature as normal. The damage type is the weapon's normal current damage type. (choose one if the weapon has the versatile trait)

Figured I'd add something for fun. Something for non shield users and characters without things like Opportune Riposte. Over explained like a lot of Paizo's stuff, you just make the triggering enemy take minimum damage from you.

There's something just inherently funny about how SF2e seemed obsessed with making each class cover a specific ability score for KAS, but then at the last second it caved for Witchwarper and made it Cha OR Int. But they didn't allow alternate KAS for any other class, going as far as to REMOVE the option to swap to Str from Striker Operative for some mysterious reason.

The worst part of a big paizo release really is looking at shit like this and knowing that something is going to be changed later, but it'll take a whole five ass years of waiting.

>>96236349
"force of personality" casting goes really badly in pseudo scientific seting which sf2 is, afaik technomancer isn't cha either and they just caved in for sorc/oraclefags since mystic subclasses pretty much cover basic wis classes like cleric and druids

>>96236384
Mystic feels more like it would make sense for Cha as an alternative score to me, but I know that Witchwarper got it solely because of SF1e and how the 2e iteration of the class is Witchwarper and Precog mashed together

Is SF2e slower on combat since everyone is behind cover till melee'd or directionally flanked or is it still 4-5 turns just with maybe bit more movement involved?

>>96234801
Elves and dwarves are Star Trek aliens.

Specifically:
Elves = Vulcans
Dwarves = Tellarite

Also note that catgirls have been omnipresent in pulp sci-fi since the 1940s and are grandfathered in as Not Furry.

Is it just me or is this new item cracked?
https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=3795
>no body slot occupied
>item bonus to any skill
>1/day automatically convert failure to success, or crit fail to regular fail
This seems insane for 100 g

>>96236822
It only works for the skill you make it for when you first craft it, so you'd have to choose a skill you give enough of a shit about to mitigate the failure but you only get to do so once a day. Useful for alchemist/crafter types, I suppose, or for guaranteeing you don't fuck up the one thing you can't afford to fuck up today, but it's not a must have. Plus, invested, so there's an upper limit on how many you can use while denying yourself more fun toys.

>>96230965
>>96231022
what the fuck was this schizo

Relics are way cooler than ARP/ABP

My players go bonkers for them

>>96223322
Paizo art is FILLED with hot girls, half the iconics are hot girls

Serious lack of hot and strong white men. Then again, straight guys like women NPCs so they have more charisma opportunities
Hot white guys are reserved for player characters only I suppose

>>96223588
Commander is s tier, really enables classes that don't have good reactions to do more stuff.

Pairs really well with martial ranged and blasters

>>96233530
Consider familiar master or the witch dedication if you want to draw upon that aspect. Witch is probably pretty good there given you have various themes to choose from and it comes with a familiar as part of the dedication. The familiar isn't as special as a full witch's though, it's just a regular one.

Could also be worth browsing through NPC core, although sadly there's only one low level apothecary NPC to look at. As far as paizo's slop goes, the overall book was actually pretty good though. Lot of npcs with interesting mechanics or borrowed class features.

I've posted about this before in here so pardon me if you've seen it.
I have a creature who specifically only attacks during canceled sessions. I'll randomly text my players during the day of the missed session, asking them to roll saves or skill checks for their characters' subconscious interaction with this creature. If they don't respond they fail. Depending on how many people fail, I fuck with their journal notes (vtt) a certain amount, and then the next session back is usually spent with them trying to decipher what the creature did and if they need to try and resolve anything.

some input I'm looking for from /pgg/:
>Any creative ideas I can steal for running this creature/doing wacky things?
>More than half of the group is going to the beach next week, myself included. How does this creature fuck with the players for this week?

Between Double Slice, Twin Feint and Twin Takedown which is the best option for a dual wielding rogue?

>>96239184
Last I checked the math Double Slice is better than Twin Feint in pretty much all scenarios despite having anti-synergy with Sneak Attack (since it only lets you deal Sneak Attack damage once, even if both attacks hit). If the target is off-guard already, Double Slice's increase for your second Strike's accuracy makes up for the potential loss in Sneak Attack damage (remember: if only one of your Strikes hits anyway, Double Slice's limitation of only dealing Sneak Attack damage once doesn't really matter), while Twin Feint does literally nothing. If the target ISN'T off-guard, Twin Feint and Double Slice just about equal out in terms of damage. Twin Feint boosts your second Strike's damage by enabling Sneak Attack damage on a hit, while Double Slice boosts your second Strike's damage by increasing its hit chance. It ends up about the same, although I wanna say Double Slice still comes out on top, barely. The downside for Double Slice is that you need to archetype to get it, which makes it kind of a no-brainer in free archetype games but a little bit of a tougher sell in games without FA.

Twin Takedown is its whole own thing. It's barely a damage boost at all (it does let you punch through damage resistance I guess): instead, it's action compression in the form of two Strikes for one action. However, you need to "buy" the action compression before it kicks in, by using the Hunt Prey action, so Twin Takedown really only benefits you on your second turn attacking a target. On top of that, it's a Flourish action, unlike Double Slice or Twin Feint, which means you can' use it with stuff like Preparation. If you're an Avenger rogue and you're tied to Hunt Prey and have Twin Takedown on your list it's probably something you're going to pick up, or if you're multiclassing ranger for some other reason it might be worth considering, but in general Twin Takedown's for rangers and Hunt Prey is too much of a hassle to buy into unless you've got a good reason for it.

>>96239244
Yeah we're playing with free archetype so getting the feats isn't a problem. There's also Spirit Warriors Overwhelming Combination but that has the flourish trait too which I didn't consider at all.
Double Slice it is then.

>>96239053
>How does this creature fuck with the players for this week?
The Ghastlight writes with great gusto how much fun it had with it's friends at the beach :).

one of my potential players has a really neat idea for their character, but I'm not sure how much it would potentially break mechanics.
They're looking at playing some sort of Undead, leaning them towards Dhampir Heritage, to tie into a story of being captured by a vampire. they want revenge, but, im not sure how much the flipped heal/harm synergies will actually fuck with everything.

>>96211406 (OP)
1e

How are the firearms rules for pathfinder?
Is path of war any good?

My group's about to start our second pathfinder campaign, probably a heavily remixed Wrath of the Righteous game. Played core only for our first campaign and we've plenty of 3.5e xp before that. With 3.5e our group tended to self-balance around tier 3-4 in terms of power, and our GM is pretty good at subtly intervening if the casters get too powerful or anyone else lags behind, obviously we're got less practice doing that with pathfinder but there were no glaring balance issues in our first campaign.
With that in mind, I want to play a pistol wielding disgraced noble turned pirate captain and one of the other players is missing Tome of Battle.
What's the general consensus on these rule sets? Are there likely to be any issues bringing them into the game? And, with firearms specifically, how do the feel to play?

>>96238367
>classes that don't have good reactions to do more stuff
Why did PF2e make the same mistakes as 5e did with bonus actions?

>>96239822
There's a level 1 oracle feat to let you choose between vitality and void healing every day.
https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=6055

>>96239822
It only matters if there are other members of the team that use vitality healing. Otherwise, he can just rely on treat wounds to heal himself

>elect to run a game for my Pathfinder buds
>I've never GMed a proper campaign before, and never PF2e at all
>first game last night
>accidentally trolled the party for like an hour straight with a set of Elite trilobites
>It's literally just the party and the seabugs flailing wildly at each other and missing
>the rogue gets knocked prone
>damage rolls are all almost as low as they possibly could be
>cantrips miss and fail
>It's just a big fucking mess
It turns out a group of purely defensive creatures is maybe not the best opener fight, haha.

>>96241547
>It's literally just the party and the monsters flailing wildly at each other and missing

Don't worry. That's just the early game experience in general.

>>96239839
PoW is good but not broken, strong damage but still (almost) nothing gamebreaking
Be concerned if people start dipping with full casters though
I dont know enough about firearms

>>96241547
Could always just increase the HP and lower the AC of creatures you fight if you find this keeps happening

>>96241547
NGL that should have been the moment where you teach your party how to utilize statuses and bonuses like prone and flanking so they can get the math fixed in their favor more.

>>96243113
Now if only Paizo wasn't retarded and had made ways to land saving throw cantrips easier

>>96243549
Demoralize is easy and saving throw cantrips still do shit on a success.

>>96243549
enemy having to roll bellow 11 on fortitude/will to fail isn't that much to ask for cmon...

>>96239839
Firearms rules are serviceable, but I know a few people around here have done homebrew reworks of them for varying degrees of autistic realism.

So haven't really played 2e Pathfinder, reading through 2E Starfinder and I really can't see any mechanical reason to play human when anyone can switch from their stated boosts+flaw to two free boosts. Am I missing something? Humans don't get any positive traits and their heritages aren't that much better than others.

>>96244393
In a world filled with all of these crazy beings, there's something to be said about being someone so mundane, so normal, just walking up and slapping shit with a sword.
That, and since you can take the Human statline for everything, sometimes i just want to be normal. Not ever campaign needs a party of a Skeleton, Ratfolk, Femboy Elf, and Bob the Leshy

>>96244393
They get pretty good feats across the board and the heritages are fine, specifically skilled and versatile with skilled breaking the usual flow of skills progression and letting you get a third thing to expert before you start being able to hit master in stuff.

Natural ambition is a big level 1 feat that allows humans to make certain classes pop in ways that other races can't and general training can be character-defining if you want to do something like make an unarmored class just start with medium armor, meaning you can change your stat spread and neglect your dex a little in a way that would be almost impossible to make work on any other race if you're starting at 1, your AC is in the toilet until you put together the general feats. Adapted cantrip is fine too, was a lot more impressive before spellhearts and power creep on all the spell lists but it might still be something you want if you're in a game that's only allowing SF options. Then you just have good feats at every tier.

They work as anything and some pretty narrow and specific builds only really work as a human. For me the black sheep of the player core are the ratfolk, their shit is garbage.

>>96244393
Despite all the random bullshit and power creep, human remains one of the most-picked ancestries because what it has to offer is just that good still. In PF2E, I think only Ancient Elf or a minotaur/centaur competes with it if you're a powergamer.

>>96217229
>>96217779
Well despite the difficulty I managed to make it work anyway. I included a bit of 3PP but technically it wasn't required to make the build work since I also included 1PP means to accomplish what I wanted alongside it as a "backup", so I'm not all that worried about it. (Not that I've stopped myself from using 3rd party material before or anything anyway)

Regardless, while I'm sure there was probably some way to get an even higher Perception bonus than this, ultimately I had to balance it out with the other powers, but even still a +40 baseline at level 13 is nothing to sneeze at, and will easily notice just about anything in the Monster Manual even at CRs 5+ higher than her.

As always, if anyone wants to see the other sheets I've done, you can find them here: https://x.com/DrumerThead/

>>96243113
I did tell them that the giant crabs were extremely vulnerable to being knocked prone (they take a -4 AC penalty instead of -2) but it just kinda didn't happen. Although I'm a bit surprised the Fighter didn't try tripping or anything. He's played the system a lot more than I have and was actually running our previous campaign. I get they're only level 2 but he definitely has more to do than just full round attacking.

Credit where it's due, they did get creative during the last fight of the night with a stick of dynamite and the kineticist's fire powers but the bastard trilobites crit succeeded their reflex save anyway.

>>96242957
I think in the trilobite's case it's mostly due to luck and their reaction. When they take damage they get a +2 to AC until their next turn and that brought them up to 18 (PWL) on a night when everyone was rolling dogwater. The giant crabs, which were actually somewhat dangerous, tended to get bodied (except for the first one, which almost strangled the wizard to death).

I'm using some kholos as their final encounter for this little dungeon and those guys should be a little more glass cannon-y. I guess we'll see how that goes.

>>96245797
>giant crabs were extremely vulnerable to being knocked prone (they take a -4 AC penalty instead of -2)
The -4 penalty is only if you critically trip the crab, and Reflex is their highest save. Trying to trip them is one of the worst things you could be doing.

>>96245857
>The -4 penalty is only if you critically trip the crab
What? That can't possibly be-
>it's true
What the hell, man. I knew their reflex save was their highest but that payoff seemed worth it for getting a trip in. What's the point of including that sort of vulnerability if the attacker has to crit anyway?

Well I guess it wound up not mattering but I continue to be baffled by every other design decision in this system.

>>96245944
>GM creates a badly designed fight that doesn't fit his player's characters
>Blames the system

my group is going to be playing pf2, i have no experience with it, whats good and whats not?

is there anything thats so bad i should just avoid it? our group needs kind of a front line brick shithouse type of guy, so i was leaning barbarian, fighter or champion. any other options? what about like summoner or artificer, can they kind of do like pet tanking? also how about wild shape druid?

we are starting at level 5, so i've got a few levels to play with, not completely naked. the rest of the group is mostly support casters and an archer type guy, all very squishy, so i need something that just wont quit and can intercept mobs

>>96238299
Agreed, relics are sick. I made these rules a while back for my Ruby Phoenix campaign but I'll probably be using them for everything going forward. I'll just remove the references to martial arts and make sure everyone knows they get a Minor Gift at level 1 and a Major Gift at level 11. Just that little bit of extra customization makes a world of difference in terms of flavor.

>>96245985
I just said it wound up not mattering because they never actually targeted the crabs' reflex saves (and these were reskinned with no RK checks, so they wouldn't have known the block to look up). I was asking what the point is in including a weakness like that and then making the barrier to entry so high it's hardly worth trying.

A fighter needs to roll 13 or better on a die to knock the crab prone; I don't think that's unreasonable if the payoff is a -4 to the creature's AC, but I don't see the point in making that weakness and then basically locking it behind a nat 20 unless the party is overleveled for the encounter.

>>96246142
>Barbarian
Does big damage and has a lot of hp, but doesn't really have much in the way of tanking abilities beyond Athletics maneuvers.
>Fighter
The gold standard martial. Good at everything. This is the only class that starts with Reactive Strike (Opportunity Attack).
>Champion
Gets a reaction based on their subclass that gives damage resistance to a nearby ally under attack and punishes the attacker in various ways. Also gets to pick between an ability that gives nearby allies more AC or Lay on Hands for some healing.
>Guardian
Brand new super tank that came out a couple days ago. Can taunt enemies and gets a reaction to take a hit for a nearby ally. Isn't going to do as much damage as the others but is still good in different ways.
>Summoner
A bit more complicated. Gets some spellcasting and the summon can get some decent tanking abilities. I wouldn't go for this first time.
>Inventor
Worst designed class in the game. Just don't.
>Wild shape druid.
Don't do this either. It isn't a main play style in this edition. Even if you specialize in it, it's more of something you have if you need it rather than something you always use. A fighter multiclassing into druid actually uses it better than druid does.

Special mention to Monk and Kineticist as other tank options, but they also aren't ones I'd recommend to a new player.

>>96246380
>A fighter multiclassing into druid actually uses it better than druid does.
Not anymore (arguably ever). Fighter only gets the extra proficiency rank in a weapon group (brawling applies to Fist, but is not the inherent group of any/all unarmed attacks). Pre-remaster, this meant you needed the martial artist archetype ON TOP of druid archetype (very feat-hungry). And then once you have it you only had a few levels before Animal Form's scaling drops off. In remaster, martial artist no longer gives scaling unarmed attack proficiency, so this combo no longer works.
However, now that SF2e and its jank have hit print, you CAN technically pull this combo off again with striker operative, although your AC/HP will be worse off than when it worked with fighter. It's still probably worse than normal operative, esp. if you tack on extra cheese that exists now like exemplar archetype.

>>96246380
i dont mind a bit of complexity. im new to pf2 but i've been playing dnd and other tabletop rpgs since the 90s, so im not new to the genre. appreciate the breakdown, i was mostly looking for a summary so i didnt have to parse through 600 pages of slowly loading pdfs and unfamiliar web apps before figuring out which classes were good and which were a waste of time.

if you dont mind expanding on summoner, monk and kineticist i'd like to hear your take on them.

the 3 character ideas i was interested in were full plate+shield shield bashing and intercepting guy (guardian seems good for this looking at the app), a berzerker that goes super sayan with holy power (not sure, maybe some kind of god infused barbarian?), or a demonologist style demon summoning guy (summoner with demon eidolon archetype maybe?)

ruled out the druid, looked up the wild shape rules and they seem wildly convoluted for little payoff

>>96245985
>System is poorly designed from the ground up
>Blame the GM

>Magic+
Are casters playable now?

>>96247091
ain't nobody playin with teamplus content with that artstyle

>>96247091
item bonus spell attacks is fine, whatever
essence casting late game has gay ass force requirement that you're max-2 so you're delayed 2 turns before casting the strongest spell, since if you used any charging action you'd overflow and reset the counter, but hey it's spellslotless even if it fucks with anything that would be castable with 1 action since that's an essence leak and you piss your essence
apparently they also got ritual casting option to not expend spellslots on qol/out of combat utility spells but you have to refocus after each one

Is playing a Lizardfolk Monk just shooting myself in the foot? I love the idea of a Monk that can bite, claw, grapple, and tail whip, using their full body. But the racial features to increase your Unarmed and other body part attacks seem redundant and outclassed by the Monk's actual features.

would I be better off just going Fighter or something, and having him fight like a brawler instead?

How does the Starfinder 2e soldier fare in Pathfinder 2e skirmish combat?

To nobody's surprise, bringing the Pathfinder 2e skirmish rules over to Starfinder 2e results in a bloodbath for troops, because Starfinder 2e has Area Fire, Auto-Fire, grenades, and grenade launchers. Besides, it would be fairly weird for futuristic military personnel to willingly bunch up into squares.

What about something more subdued, though: bringing a Starfinder 2e soldier over to Pathfinder 2e, using archaic, melee reach weapons? Think Dynasty Warriors: carving into ranks of troops with area attacks. Does a soldier prove overly powerful in such a scenario?

I think it might not be too bad, particularly since the attack penalty from the suppressed condition would not actually apply to troops, who force Reflex saves instead of making attack rolls.

>>96247091
Where is it?

I'm continually impressed by how every time I look at SF2e Envoy, it's worse than I remember it being, which is impressive when I remember being underwhelmed by the playtest. Feels like paizo forgot that support is a role that needs juice to not feel like shit.
>you can only use ONE directive per turn now, on top of the dogass Lead By Example change
>Get 'Em no longer does anything for abilities targeting reflex, and the damage bonus only applies to strikes now
>if you want to force an ally to strike for you, you have to wait until level 14??
>so many directives eat ally reactions, and the only way to give bonus reactions is a lvl18 feat
>their ranged feint comes online later than PF2e pistol twirling, and doesn't even have a way to benefit ally's attacks like it did in SF1e
>3 changeable skill feat slots seem infinitely worse than just having 10 more skill feats outright over your career
>its most unique Directive is one that abuses RAW to have ranged battle medicine

>>96244496
In SF1 their main racial bonus was tumbling through squares and not suffering attack penalties for prone or zero-g. Now instead they get a natural weapon? On a race whose stats are made for ranged skillmonkies?

Hopefully they get a new set of ancestry feats when Mechanic gets released because I don't know what the fuck they were thinking.

>>96244496
Vesk seem kind of shit imo, but maybe I'm overvaluing the loss of 5 ft of speed. They have some okay feats, but nothing they get feels like it compensates for needing to spend a heritage to unfuck their base speed.

Shit like this is why I'm insanely curious to see what kind of errata the SF2e PC will have in the next few years.

cis white human males built party

>>96250810
And oh yeah, the ever so lovely "Let's take a neat trick a player will ask a GM to let him do once a campaign and turn it into a level 17 feat."

>>96250857
What did he expect? Unless it's family day that's the standard GenCon crowd.

Didn't go this year but I've boardgame demos for friends for years. You mainly get four types of groups at Gen-con.
1. All middle aged white guys.
2. Older guy with three teenagers and maybe a wife.
3. Two college dudes and two 6/10 girls constantly fussing with their costumes.
4. Germans.

>>96250904
>What did he expect?
Dunno, but from reading the post he wasn't disappointed and he loved the experience.

>>96250851
I had the same reaction to vesk at first but I've come around on them. First off, they don't have any other must take heritages so briskwander brings them back to 25ft. Following on from that, armor ace is good and their stuff around dealing or resisting fear is fine with a special shoutout to opening roar letting you hit intimidation for initiative which can be huge on something like a witchwarper and in general it's a way of getting agency over your own initiative without eating your exploration activity like stealth and avoid notice.

Looking over their stuff now, I'm just confused by a probable misprint, Damoritosh's claw is in the 13th level feats section but it says "Feat 5". Good feat anyway, humans get the same thing (at 13) but an extra focus point you can regen in combat that will stack with the focused items that are obviously coming in PC2 will be good.

>>96250992
>First off, they don't have any other must take heritages so briskwander brings them back to 25ft
I think the thing about this is it just feels like it means they simply get no heritage at all, so it's still an absolute negative to me. Especially since they had their natural armor heritage nerfed for... Seemingly no reason?

>>96250904
Paizo's target audience are not cis white people but they still came. WTF? where female pathfinders? paizo said 50% of players are females

>>96246528
NTA but I can throw in my pieces on the classes.
>Summoner
This is quite a powerful class but absolute HELL on the mental stack. Because you have two bodies that share HP and can split up to 4 actions between them, I've only seen one 2e Summoner player that didn't got exhausted by the end of the session working with them. They also have a disappointingly linear progression in terms of good feats up until Level 8, so that can be kinda disappointing and make it feel your power was very frontloaded. All said, its a complex class but does pay dividends for the extra work.
>Monk
One of the more open classes, but this leads into some distinct holes in build theories. There's a lot you can build around them, but plenty you can fuck up if you aren't paying attention or expect to play on the same degree as a similar option. Being a weird Defender/Skirmisher mix is just going to lead to some awkwardness, but ultimately it IS a powerful class that can do a lot and isn't burdened with Typical Monk Design Problems seen in other d20 games.
>Kineticist
It is a strong caster-that-plays-like-a-martial. Infinite resources, no spell slots, strong power scaling, loads of build choices. It is everything you would want out of the concept of "I want to deal elemental damage but do not want to even TOUCH a wizard hat." Their biggest issue comes from their rather awkward defensive scaling and incompatibilities issues between impulses and...everything else in the game, like archetypes and metastrikes.

As a beginner, I would recommend Monk out of these three. Though the 3 character ideas given, the Guardian is probably gonna be the most effective just because of how simple it is and how powerful Guardian is as a class.

>>96251194
for beginners and for master
>Fighter
>Cleric
>Wizard
>Rogue

2e
Shield Block
https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=5212
Glimpse of Redemption
https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=6

When do you have to announce your reaction for both of these. After the successful to hit roll but before the damage roll or after the damage roll and the damage amount has been announced to you.

>>96251284
I feel after you know the exact damage amount, since you wouldn't be using those if e.g., resistance ate the damage.

>>96250660

>if you want to force an ally to strike for you, you have to wait until level 14??

You can do it with the envoy (guns blazing)'s two-action Ready Arms, though it does take a hit from you, and it eats up their reaction.

You could simply play a Pathfinder 2e commander in Starfinder 2e, if you would prefer that. It would likely work well.

>>96251284
Before the damage roll so you can waste your reaction on a 10 from 6d8.

>>96246528
>ruled out the druid, looked up the wild shape rules and they seem wildly convoluted for little payoff
It actually isn't, it is pretty straightforward all things considering. It just that yeah, it isn't that potent for what you are losing or gaining. Battleforms are all balanced around being vanilla strikers with pretty limited powers. It is what would happen in 5e if you use Wild Shape OUTSIDE of Circle of the Moon. It's a good fallback option, but not something you want to rely on, which is where Untamed Order loses out. It doesn't anything to supplement the feat chain and loss of spellcasting during shifting. And one of the few bonuses is something standard Druids can't actually use to their benefit. So I definitely get the meh reception to it. Howl of the Wild sourcebook tried to add more stuff but it doesn't really resolve the feat chain issues nor are they pretty powerful at the end of the day.

But I think in practical play, there's a lot of good moments where a battleform would be effective over typical casting. And being a vanilla striker isn't the worst thing to be in 2e. I still wouldn't recommend a beginner to use the playstyle but I do urge others around here to at least give the spells the old college try. Ooze Form, Dinosaur Form, and Elemental Form are good picks if you know how to use them.

>>96251208
Unironically if you aren't playing Runelord or War Mage, I'd say run Witch over Wizard. Hide the familiar from the chads and just say you never felt the need to use Drain Bonded Item.

>>96251284
After the damage roll for both. Something that triggers when you'd take damage can't trigger until after there's damage to take. For a more explicit example of how this works, take a look at Martyr's Intervention.

>Trigger A creature within range would take damage that reduces it to 0 Hit Points

The wording is the same ("would take damage"); but you can't possibly know whether or not the damage would reduce the creature to 0 HP until after the damage has been rolled.

Why isn't Iomedae in Starfinder 2e's list of gods?

>>96247742
anyone? any advice here? or am I just reading too much into things?

>>96247742
Yeah I don't know what it really does for you as a monk. Lizardfolk isn't terrible for monk (their ability score spread is nice for most martials; int penalty is a dump stat for you), but there's not a lot of synergy with their heritages or ancestry feats.

I feel like a Bakuwa lizardfolk rogue with Ruffian racket might do what you're looking for. Ruffian grants medium armor proficiency, which enables the Bakuwa natural armor (which is medium armor for some reason???). It also allows you to do sneak attack damage with your d8 fangs, while other rackets would limit you to your d6 claws. If you have room, you could multiclass into fighter at some point (you'll qualify for it because Rufffian has strength as their key ability score) to grab Snagging Strike and Combat Grab, both of which take advantage of your free hands while you're biting people with your fangs, which sounds kind of like the vibe you want with the character. It's not, like, going to blow anyone's mind with how powerful the build is but there's some stuff you could build around there. If you wanted you could just go fighter instead and ditch the Bakuwa natural armor for actual plate armor, but that's way less cool.

>>96252206
Oh, also wrestler's an option for those feats, and is a little better if you're just looking for those two (wrestler dedication gets you a skill increase in Athletics and the Titan Wrestler skill feat, while fighter doesn't really give you anything great). You could go deeper into wrestler if you want but frankly I think Snagging Strike/Combat Grab are the best two pickups from the archetype. I guess there's the possibility of going all-in on grappling too. Something like

>Wrestler for Snagging Strike, Combat Grab, Clinch Strike, Strangle
>Rogue takes Preparation

Your standard round would be Snagging Strike > Combat Grab > Preparation. If you've still got the guy grabbed at the start of your next turn, you'd Strangle (might as well get the bonus damage) then Combat Grab > Preparation again. Preparation enables Clinch Strike to smack anyone who escapes from your grab. You'll also almost certainly grab Opportune Backstab at some point to use your other reaction, so you should be getting a lot of fang Strikes in.

Basically you'd just run up to people and start biting and grabbing them and then strangling them (possibly with your tail? Who can say). It's flavorful at least. Might be a little feat heavy if you're not FA.

>>96251589
Makes sense. Still kind of a pain that you have to figure that out by comparing different triggers.

>>96250992
There's a FAQ on the SFS page about Damoritosh's Claw. Was checking out the page because thinking of signing up for a local club and wanted to see character guidelines for the season.

Since mechanic isn't available yet, thinking of running a Ysoki Operative.

>>96251194
>>96246380
Okay, i ended up settling on kineticist. The more I read the more I liked it, and it also matches a mini I have really well. Went with earth/fire gates for lava shenanigans, took the earth armor which seems really good.

Can you give me a qrd on the game play loop for channel, aura, impulses and overflow?

From what I see, you need to use channel to activate your aura which lasts until something cancels it. You cannot use impulses unless you are in an aura. And overflow impulses automatically end your aura and you can't reactivate it that turn essentially ending your ability to cast until next turn

Does that all sound right? Also do these impulses cost spell slots or anything? Or are they like a rogues sneak attack where it's just an action you can do whenever the requisits are met?

Any must have impulses or class feats I should keep an eye out for? For flavor reasons it has to remain within earth and fire and lava themes

>>96253693
So here's one tip, you never actually have to turn your aura off as long as you remain conscious. It's not a stance so it works outside of combat. Turn it on at the beginning of the day and don't turn it off until you have to or are forced to. Second, you are absolutely allowed to reactivate your aura after you use an Overflow as long as you have actions to do so. You've probably seen Lava Leap. A good turn is Lava Leap -> Channel to reactivate your aura and turn Thermal Nimbus back on to deal passive damage to the enemies you just jumped next to. Remember, when you Channel you can activate a 1 action Stance or 1 action Elemental Blast. There are no slots, you can just spam your stuff all day.

For feats, you already have the earth armor, which is good. Don't get Scorching Column, it's bad. Thermal Nimbus is a must have, it makes you deal passive fire damage to help you threaten as a tank. You want to get the aura junction feat that makes creatures in your aura weak to your fire damage. You also want Weapon Infusion and Versatile Blasts since you will end up doing a lot of elemental blasts as a melee and you want to be able to do cold damage to hit weaknesses. Otherwise, just make sure you read and reread all your abilities.

>>96211406 (OP)
Give me the worst possible duel class/racial meme combinations

>>96254168
Human Fighter
Dwarf Cleric
Elf Wizard
Halfling Rogue

So I'm retiring my rogue and going to be playing a Wizard in a large party for the Ironfang Invasion module (8 players plus GM, 1-2 players are in and out of games a lot of the time so we usually run 6.). We have a Druid who's definitely doing a lot of buffing and cc. And the group in general does a good job in general in combat.

I guess I'm just curious on how to get the most out of being a wizard in this sort of group? I was thinking on something of an elven battlemage for a character background.

refute this

>>96255921
Easy, strike.

>>96255876
>elven battlemage
Wizard is Cis white human male named ezren.
Your woke character wouldn't be a wizard. Pick witch

>>96256343
elven wizard is an archetype older than you, likely twice over. It's the human wizard that's forced DEIslop

>>96255921
I cant
the 3 action system is terrible

>>96256385
Merlin and gendalf, zoomer. Wizard concept is more older than elfs. Zoom zoom

Why do they add more useless shit like more useless archetypes or group fighting in battle cry if no one playing past 5 lvl. Pf2e is for short woke companies

>>96256410
>Magic man is older than ancestor worship

>>96256430
You can't play as non human male wizard. Or pick female fighter. Female caster is sorcerer, female fighter is a barbariab
Iconics represent everything about the class

>>96256442
Ezran is a middle aged retard that wasted his life and sucks dick for scroll scraps because no wizard school will bother to teach him.

>>96256410
>Merlin
Tiefling
>Gandalf
Angel

Still waiting on that human wizard, anon...

>>96256422
I struggle to see why so few groups wind up in the mid-levels, at least. I started my first campaign last weekend and the group is halfway to level 3 with a quarter of the dungeon (and hardest fight) still to go. Obviously not every session is a dungeon crawl but any moderately challenging fight seems like it'll be a good bump to your XP, and PF2e doesn't struggle with the weird issue of quadratic XP requirements like 5e.

So I heard that Starfinder 2e and Pathfinder 2e are completely compatible with each other- is this true?

>>96258108
The popularity of the shitty rule that is milestone leveling

>>96258142
Reading through the rules and there's some intenional lines drawn (Pathfinder armor can't use armor upgrades, Starfinder armor can't use armor runes) but so far they seem mostly the same.

>>96258142
Yes. SF2e uses the same rules as PF2e.
Naturally it isn't a great idea to bring everything to PF2e, and there's clear meta differences in power and expectations like early game flight, but if there's something you like between the two games, there's a high probability it will slot in with little effort.

>>96257484
>1 gp 7 sp
>1 spell scroll of grim tendrils
>wand of mystic armor
>these two spells
Sounds good to me

>>96258142
It's mostly true, some classes struggle across systems like soldier only having one useable subclass in a world without automatic/area guns and the general theming of the mechanic and technomancer. But SF stuff also seems to have a bit of a higher power budget than PF and some things that might take you until mid-high levels to gain in PF like a permanent flight speed are given out as common character creation options or low level items in SF.

I think the things that are safest to move from one system to another are PF classes, magic items, spells that make sense (No point bringing shit that targets tech and causes glitching into PF) and enemies. Some slightly unexpected stuff pops up doing that too though, like kineticist becoming area fire/grenade beasts due to their class DC scaling but that's not really a problem, they probably have impulses that are better than what those are doing.

Reading the description of hardlight handwraps in the core book and now I'm imagining a ysoki or vesk wearing a magical retainer to give them flaming bite damage.

>>96258754
>But SF stuff also seems to have a bit of a higher power budget than PF
>envoy
>solarian

>>96258911
Those two (unfortunately) do just fit right in PF2e. Envoy works as a more active,m less powerful CHA Commander and Solarian functions as an easy-bake soulknife Psychic/weapon Monk. Not great but not bad classes.
On the flipside, the other 4 are pretty blatantly overtuned for PF2e's expectations up until Animist dropped. They all are actually quite powerful at their jobs and get some more unique ideas like Witchwarper's scaling Class DC, Operative getting a raw damage booster on a Legendary Attacker, Soldier getting Legendary Class DC AND Armor, and Mystic's Vitality Network and Epiphanies making them a fantastic healer and debuff cleanser (and the VN recovers every turn too, unlike Cleric's Divine Font). None are overpowered but you can tell they were designed around both SF2e's own meta and years of powercreep starting to catch up.

>>96258963
It's actually kind of upsetting that in 2e you NEED a mystic because their healing is so overpowered when an Envoy could handle stamina healing just fine in 1e and you had battle medicine for hitpoint damage.

>>96258963
Solarian just being Paizo's soulknife is depressing, because it doesn't actually feel like it's well constructed or sitting on any truly good features, and just skates by because "Str martial hitting dudes and doing athletics maneuvers" is in general pretty strong.

>>96258994
You COULD just turn back on the Stamina rules, I'd imagine those would get fully reprinted in the GM Core unlike PF2e's. But yeah, hopefully they have have more healers in the future. Witchwarper can at least side deck it if you run the Occult anomalies.

>>96259006
I said it before, something like Solarian just needs more page space like Kineticist got. It's a concept that requires it to be feat-heavy and diverse to function and that just doesn't work when you are sharing space with 5 other classes and in a book they admit they had to remove all the cool skill feats we playtested for shit we already know about. There are some touch ups they could have done like letting their crystals apply to both Weapon and Flare at the same time, Brutal on Flare's shots, STR/DEX option, and/or avoiding stance dancing concepts, but ultimately it is a class that will need MORE to keep up and be interesting.
It really does make me appreciate Monk more and how well it launched and keeps up in the modern meta. It has problems and could get more, but what IS there barring some obvious holes is still great and impactful.

>>96259098
I also have tons of issues with monk (shield monk, monastic weapon and monk weapons, item ac bonuses), but monk at least didn't come out years after tons of shit that does everything it does but better had existed

Solarian definitely has the energy of a class that is maybe 1/3rds done at best

>>96259098
The entire core book feels starved for page space really, like all the races included in player core have literally half as many feats as those printed in the galaxy guide. Sure, eventually we'll get more ancestry books, but those will lose space to print any missing feats or heritages for the core races.

>>96259119
I wouldn't exactly know WHAT should be in Solarian's kit. Many some melee Area attacks, at the expense of stepping on Soldier's toes? Raw damage booster? Additional elements beyond fire/cold damage? Monk's ability to choose which saving throw to scale? It needs SOMETHING more, I just can't put my tongue on it because the concept is a little esoteric.

>>96259153
Paizo and page space are just archenemies at this point. I understand that margins for TTRPG book sales are razor thin but they really could help themselves more in making sure they could fit most of their ideas more (I laugh at how it took an entirely new game to make the Traversal trait a thing). Or just learn to invest in "digital DLC" as WotC is calling their weird Astarion splat and make some PDF-only content more often.

>>96259225
I think more digital content would be the best way to go, especially for something like SF2 where ancestries are so core to the feel of it - drop a splat of Pahtran stuff, then a splat of Vesk stuff and charge like 5 bucks for them, help beef out the feats a bit.

For the Solarian, I think some burst and cone melee options wouldn't go amiss - it helps further the concept of the Solarian as the sole melee martial in space and feels on brand for its whole manipulation of solar and gravity energies shtick. It would intrude a little into the melee soldier space, but not massively so, and would feel very different.

>>96259006
Solarian to me has always felt like they knew they needed a Jedi analogue for Starfinder but didn't quite know how to make one. Even in 1e it got redesigned twice.

Personally, my issue with the Solarian and the Witchwarper is that there's not a lot you can grab onto coming from outside the setting. Operative you can go "hey it's Han Solo", Envoy you can go "Hey, it's Princess Leia". Witchwarper is "Hey, it's Crichton from Farscape, except being stranded gave him magical powers somehow?"

Maybe you can roleplay them as the rare Isekai protagonist that isn't a gish?

>>96259225
>>96259328
You could probably bake Plasma Sheathe into the base kit somehow? Or something like it? It needed to be at least a "pick Str OR Dex for key score" class too. Solar Flare needed to be a more fleshed out weapon, probably with the option of being brutal and propulsive and not this weird vestigial-feeling THING that takes too much investment to even use properly.

DESU I'm mildly annoyed that Solarian does nothing with its old 1e Charisma key score, because strength feels bizarre for the themes of the class as a whole (especially its iconic), but I suppose it's too much to ask for a full martial that actually shoots and swings with its Charisma modifier without having some fucked up part of it.

>>96259313
I'm honestly hoping for a worldbook of just Akiton with full ancestry feats for Ysoki, Ikeshti(Since my brother plays one) and other species.

>>96259353
They were way too married to having each class have a separate KAC score, even though they fucked it up by giving Witchwarper intelligence because Technologist and Mechanic weren't ready yet, and giving Solider Constitution instead of Strength because Vanguard wasn't ready yet.

The only thing close to Solar Blaze I can think of from a sci-fi perspective is the leader from Galaxy Rangers, and I'm pretty sure Paizo's writers are way too millenial to have seen Galaxy Rangers.

>>96259313
The SF team is at least more open in slotting in new ancestries in Adventure Paths given how SF adventures need to function and we already getting a new ancestry-focused book within the next year. So ancestries shouldn't be too much an issue in the long run. But I wouldn't mind just some splats that toss in new ancestry feat options for both games, especially with how much the average race can just starve without anything new.

/SavPF/ You lads got any ideas on what I should run for my first game, because right now the default idea is Rip shit out of Planescape and duct tape it to fit. Because I like the Narritive implecations of using a Non Native System to Make Pathfinder Characters that will go through a Nexus Bridge and how there's layers to the reality of things being a bit fucked from jump.

>>96248083
Appears to be in the repo now.

>>96260492
I mean why don't I see an announcement for it on their blog and I don't even see it on pathfinder infinite

Question about SF 2e - how hard is it’s to port over Mystic Connections from 1e? I find that 2e’s Connections are too few, and kinda suck…

>>96212447
No Incapactiation tag?

>>96260692
Seem pretty difficult as you have to come up with/adapt 5 different spell effects -- 3 focus spells and 2 Epiphany powers. And the granted spells. If you don't know how to homebrew at least Sorcerer Bloodlines, you probably will be pretty lost.

>>96247715
After having read essence casting, I have to agree. The main issue is that casters in this system excel at long-term effects: debuffs, buffs, walls, etc. Throwing out Synesthesia on round 3 instead of round 1 isn't useless, but by then the fight's (usually) going to be halfway over. An occult caster at that level could still lead with Heroism, Slow, or Roaring Applause, I suppose, but it's still a nerf.
Crowd control is also hurt by this; a 5th-level arcane caster can throw out Fireball or 3rd-rank Fear on turn 1 and heavily influence the outcome of the fight. Using essence casting you'd have to wait until 7th level and use Unstable Draw to do this with Fear, and you'd still be a bit stunted with Fireball.

>apparently they also got ritual casting option to not expend spellslots on qol/out of combat utility spells but you have to refocus after each one
Once you have 4th-rank spells, you can cast out-of-combat spells for free as long as they're max rank - 3. Still kinda rough.

Personally, I think 1-action and reaction spells could have had the same feature applied (and would ask the GM to do this if I had to use essence casting). I sort of understand why they cause essence leaks; if they increased essence normally you could break the intended "tempo" with them, and if they didn't interact with it at all they'd be easy to spam.
But at 7th level, are Lose the Path, Curse of Recoil, and (1st-rank) Interposing Earth really that strong? Maybe. I'd be inclined to use some other kind of limiter, though. You can get better reactions off of archetypes instead of taking your caster class' shitass feats IMO.

Overall it seems significantly more complicated for a worse feel than quick-and-dirty houserules thrown about in here to just make your top 3ish ranks usable once per Refocus and anything below that usable at-will, or something similar. Proofreading could use some work too.

Anons, tell me if my issues with pf2e are legit or am I just retarded. I just finished a big campaign in pf2. And I can't make myself believe in the internal mechanics of the world, and I mean the game mechanics side not like the setting or anything. I can believe in internal mechanics of pf1 but not pf2. Something just rubs me the wrong way and I cant fully understand what it is. My suspension of disbelief just straight up evaporates once I think for 2 seconds about what is happening.
Pf2 seems to me like... a fucking marvel movie: everyone doing flips and shit, getting ballistas assembled for 6 seconds, doing ricochets off of their allies with fucking bullets, throwing quips with intimidate and diplomacy. While pf1 is much more grounded in reality, even the text in books seems less believable in pf2.
Am I retarded? Am I overthinking shit? Coz im considering leaving my current group that absolutely loves pf2, they all think that its the best rpg out there and it has zero issues.

of all the dedications to do this with?!

>>96263450
Yes, anon, whatever retarded shit you can do in 6s is apparent no matter what d20 3.x clone you play. Welcome to 2000 and fucking 1 you mongoloid, if you're this touchy about system mechanics you should be a GM instead of a waste of space playing while not wanting to be there. If you are already the GM just neck yourself my man

>>96243577
You are talking to people coming from a 3.x mindset, where power pumping DCs on startling effective spells is the name of the game.

>>96263781
>While pf1 is much more grounded in reality
This is how you know he's a troll, anon.

>>96263771
Yeah I don't know why they did that. I've just figured it is a misprint.

>>96263450
I have the opposite problem. A level 20 character is supposed to be an untouchable god to a level -1 creature, but I can't accept that when no matter how strong you are you can't push them farther than 10 feet.

>startin' my own PF campaign
>draw up a bunch of longterm stuff
>draw up a bunch of midgame stuff
>draw up a starter dungeon
>put party in dungeon
>realize I have not actually figured out how they're supposed to reach into the midgame
>shit
I guess I need to pencil up some scenarios for getting the party a little prestige.

So, I finished making my Lizardfolk Monk up to level 5. Idea is he's supposed to be the first real "boss" the players fight, kinda the capstone at the end of the tutorial where they aren't being assigned jobs by the Guild, but can choose their own.
If I want a party of 4 players to fight him, would the party all being level 3 be too low to face a 5? Two of the members look to be planning to play Bard, so I dont know if they want a traditional caster, or a real melee yet.

>>96265686
Downgrade his level and run more minions. If you have to ask how to run a solo boss fight, I am more than sure you aren't using the encounter budget correctly and/or aren't ready to make that fight interesting beyond just a slobberknocker. The fact you don't know Bard is a full caster in 2e (assuming it is 2e but honestly the advice is good for 1e standards as well) is enough to tell me that you should hit the books a bit closer.

>>96265741
he's not supposed to be an interesting fight. He's supposed to be a piece of shit member of the Guild that the party is working with as well, and the final portion of their introduction to the campaign will be to beat the shit outta him and put him in his place. It's supposed to be cathartic, just punching the asshole that's been nothing but rude and demeaning for the last few sessions in the face.
I know bards are full casters. These guys built one to be a huge support/buff source, and the other is a Warrior Muse trying to emulate the College of Swords. I don't know if the remaining players want to build something like a Witch, who is ALL spells, or if they're going to balance out the party with some melee capabilities.

PL3 vs a L5 on the encounter table is exactly on the 80XP budget. I just don't know if it would be fairly balanced, especially considering the huge bonuses Monks get to their save (making most of what one of the Bards wants to do even harder to do)

>>96251144
Paizo lied. There’s not enough attractive male NPCs and iconics to garner a 50% female audience

>>96265686
>>96265941
Don't use character building rules to make enemies. And tell your player that Warrior Muse is not a College of Swords replacement and he's going to be severely disappointed if he tries to use it as one.

>>96265599
man why the fuck are you thinking about longterm stuff at all, you don't gotta do all that
start with the starter dungeon and seed some rumors about surrounding stuff and see what they bite on and prepare that

2e, playing a Fetchling Thief Rogue in Kingmaker with Free Archetype. What are some good archetypes for dealing damage?

>>96270808
For Thief rogue id say something like Martial artist (you get d8 agile finesse weapons from stances), spirit warrior (flurry of blows on tap) or dual weapon warrior (double slice doesnt synergise with SA but it helps with accuracy)

>>96251144
They all play online with me and have terminal autism

>>96269290
The group is starting out enslaved in a large, destroyed city and I had to figure out
>why haven't they just escaped yet
>how do they escape if they choose to
>who are the local power players they might run into
etc.
They don't get a lot of agency until level 5, where the hex map opens up for them. It just so happened I ran out of time IRL to dedicate to tabletop things around the time I should have been filling out the earlygame.

I don’t “research the meta,” I don’t “balance pros and cons,” I play whatever sounds like an interesting character and if I die then I roll a new one

>>96264742
according to paizo, its easier to learn wizardry and reality bending as a hobby as opposed to being able to an advanced trash can suit

>>96251457
I will give the hot take that most battle forms are just straight nerfs. You sacrifice the only thing you as a class are good at and basically a whole turn to become a woefully substandard martial with a movement speed. Some are ok like dragon or ooze but overall they are just kinda lame and boringly designed. Some 3PP I've been reading have much cooler attempts at them.

Playing a melee Animist, what are some good Archetypes? Was thinking Soul Forger or Spirit Warrior.

Alright, 2 of the 4 players have figured out their characters, at least the class+race. Have a:
>Warrior Muse Human Dhampir (reflavored to be a curse, rather than a true Heritage)
>Thaumaturge Ghoran
Still waiting to hear back from one of the players, and the last is asking me what would be a good include to help "balance" the party. I'm leaning towards telling him either a high-utility character (something with an INT focus) or one of the beefier melee options, like a Guardian. Having 2 Charisma classes is going to be interesting, since both players were essentially the leader of their respective campaigns that i've played with them in.

>>96273437
Tell them to go Sorcerer and have the other guy go Summoner for an Oops! All faces! party.

>>96273478
god, im tempted. the last guy used to be in drama back in highschool, and he'd be amazing just for improv shenanigans against the others

>>96270938
Thief/Martial Artist is tits, especially in a FA game. You can get Martial Artist Dedication / Wolf Stance / Follow-Up Strike / Wolf Drag at 2/4/6/8 to grab yourself those d8 agile/finesse Strikes and get a whole combat rotation out of it (Wolf Drag > Strike or Wolf Drag > Follow-Up Strike on a miss). Wolf Drag is effectively Crashing Slam, except four levels earlier than you'd get it from mauler and two levels earlier than even fighters get it. Plus you've got free hands so you can use some of your billion skill-ups to rank up medicine and get Battle Medicine too.

How do I fix my MAP on a champion when I want to do both strikes and maneuvers?

>>96274247
The way to do that is to grab feats that add maneuvers as rider effects on your Strikes. Wolf Drag and Crashing Slam, mentioned in the post above yours, are both examples of that. Off the top of my head:

>Trip: Wolf Drag, Crashing Slam (martial artist, mauler, or fighter dedication)
>Grapple: Combat Grab (wrestler or fighter dedication)
>Disarm: Disarming Twist (duelist or fighter dedication)
>Shove: Brutish Shove (fighter dedication)
>Reposition: Sleek Reposition (requires a finesse weapon or polearm) or Positioning Assault (requires a 2hander, only available at level 16 via multiclass); both from fighter dedication

>>96274247
Have a free hand and do the maneuver second. You get to treat it as agile so the MAP is only -4 and your proficiency scales better with athletics than attacks. Might domain will also pump up your chances to land the maneuvers while letting you close in faster if you god has that available.

And/or take wrestler archetype and pick up combat grab.You'll still have MAP on it as it's a press attack but unlike going for a regular grapple action at MAP which can be scary as the crit failure on it is pretty bad, failing combat grab has no downside other than the wasted action, you can just send it.

Disarming block from bastion also helps, gives you a MAPless disarm if you block something.

>>96274311
Out of all those only Disarming Twist seems to be the only one that works for me. But it really sucks that it's so high level. It feels like there's a big gap for something lower level that isn't action compression but helps MAP.

>>96274323
>Have a free hand and do the maneuver second. You get to treat it as agile so the MAP is only -4
But if I trip/grapple first, then the followup attack effectively hits at -3 MAP because the creature is off guard. Though that also feels inelegant.
I'm missing any kind of metastrike or interactions for a very basic playstyle. But then if I try to get a different metrastrike, like from Spirit Warrior, the problem just gets worse.

1e
Slumbering Tsar campaign. Player party has learned that the ancient abandoned city of Tsar is home to a bunch of rival factions of evil dwellers, struggling like spiders in a barrel.

Party is discussing the use Contact Entity III which they have gained as a scroll of randomly generated loot.
>an open invitation to make contact and establish communication
to try and lure any Flying Polyps
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/aberrations/flying-polyp/
that may be in range to go visit that abandoned city, in hopes that the monster will slaughter some of its denizens. They plan to sneak into the city, cast the spell, which should guide any polyps around to that location, and sneak out.

The PCs are average level 11. City is above their level so this is a rather dangerous mission for them to just get in and out.

I honestly don't know how to even play this out if they do this. Random 1d20 roll, on a 20 there just happens to be one of these very rare monsters within 200 miles? Should that be a 1d100 instead?
> Int 19, Wis 20, Cha 21
>Knowledge (history) +22, Knowledge (nature) +22
Than another random roll to see it actually goes there?
>The primary exception to this, to the detriment of other creatures unfortunate enough to dwell in regions
claimed by flying polyps, is war. Flying polyps excel at genocide, using their mastery over wind to scour clean entire cities and civilizations when they come upon them.
The inhabitants of that city aren't friendly to anyone, the polyp is described likewise and also crazy alien.
I have no idea how to roleplay 'alien' + that stat line
What do?

>>96275473
I'm not familiar with Slumbering Tsar, are there even Flying Polyps close by? If there aren't any you can have them roll to gather information, or just have them cast the spell and it fails. Tough luck, buttercup.

Even if there are, as you point out, Flying Polyps have Int 19 and Wis 20. The spell is basically someone mentally going "yoohoo eldritch senpai, wanna come overrrrrr?" which any of these things should be skeptical about. They might check it out, they might not, and the players have no way to find out just from casting the spell.

And all of this for a CR 14 creature going into a city that you're saying is dangerous for level 11 PCs. That means they're not likely to do a lot of damage anyway.

Point is, this is super into GM fiat territory and you could very easily just say it doesnt work.

I wanna do something with the traditional fantasy species, elves and such, but in space. Would this break the game much?

Why would the base starfinder book have human-like androids instead of actual robots? Seems like playing it safe has led to a boring final product.

>>96276870
Because androids are just synthetic humanoids not actually robots. SROs are supposed to be full robots.

>>96277115
Why not make SROs the base option then? Android could just be a lineage for any species if it's just a meat robot.

>>96276870
Its safe because the core races generally have to be your common options with normal gameplay. We will get crazier races in later books but if Starfinder still has the same budget for races as Pathfinder then they will be disappointing.

wow

Did Hungerseed really need to be separated from Tiefling? I feel like those could be mixed together easily.

>>96277363
Onis aren't fiends in-universe nor in Jap mythology. It's something of a convergent evolution deal, oni are closer to demigods in Greek mythology than the typical youkai, despite their appearance looking closer to western demons. They have the right call giving them the kami trait over fiend.

>>96275851
Slumbering Tsar and even the world its set on has no mentions of these rare monsters. Its Frog God Games, The Lost Lands setting. The whole campaign is set within a wasteland corrupted by a stronghold of Orcus.

The only reason this creature even came up was because a scroll for this spell was rolled as part random loot and I thought that it would be fine to weave that random roll into the story
>hey, in this ancient tomb you just explored there was once a cult that that was preparing to contact some powerful, alien aberration before they got caught up in a war
I thought the scroll was so useless I didn't even count it toward their loot
I didn't expect the players to go
>Lets finish the job, than. This place is corrupted and basically hell on earth already, throwing an alien horror into the mix is fine because almost everyone within a hundred miles is some kind of evil.

You are right that by the rules of the spell, it has a very low chance of actually doing anything. I'm also looking at this from a perspective of a DM trying to keep things entertaining - they are going to invest 3-4 game sessions into this.
I am wondering how other DM's would handle it.

Someone make a new thread, I'm feeling lazy

whats the point of operative's getting bonus skill feats with no extra proficiency bumps?

So what's the most woke character possible in SF2e? I'm thinking nonbinary deafblind prismenni vlaka mystic with rhythm connection.

Also, find it funny that vlaka now have Dex as their dumpstat instead of Int because someone probably took offense at the implication people who refuse to get easy fixes for disabilities are morons.

>>96279778
They get the same proficiency bumps as swashbuckler.

>>96279947
>They get the same proficiency bumps as swashbuckler.
Do they? They have their own Stylish Tricks?

>>96279942
You can't play that at my table, sorry faggot. In the end that's all that matters. If anything it'll annoy you when I make the campaign covering 3 male operators and 1 white male fighter. Kill yourself, immediately.

magus remastered, the right the fuck now edition

>Arcane Cascade ◇
>Concentrate, Magus, Stance
>Frequency: once per round
>Requirements: You used your most recent action this turn to Cast a Spell using 1, 2, or 3 actions or make a Spellstrike. You need to meet this requirement only to enter the stance, not to remain in it.
>You divert a portion of the spell's magical power and keep it cycling through your body and weapon using specialized forms, breathing, or footwork. While you're in the stance, your melee Strikes deal 1 extra force damage. This damage increases to 2 if you have weapon specialization and 3 if you have greater weapon specialization. Any Strike that benefits from this damage gains the arcane trait, making it magical.
>If your most recent spell before entering the stance was one that can deal damage, the damage from the stance is instead the same type that spell could deal (or one type of your choice if the spell could deal multiple types of damage).

>>96280740
>Spellstrike ◆◆
>Magus
>Frequency: until recharged or 1 round has passed after using Spellstrike (see below)
>You channel a spell into a punch or sword thrust to deliver a combined attack. You cast a spell that takes 1 or 2 actions to cast and requires either a spell attack roll or a saving throw. You imbue its effects into an attack instead of executing the spell normally. Make a melee Strike with a weapon or unarmed attack. This counts as two attacks for your multiple attack penalty, but you don’t apply the penalty until after you’ve completed the Spellstrike. The infusion of spell energy grants your Strike the arcane trait, making it magical. If the spell required a spell attack roll, use your Strike’s results to determine the effects of both the Strike and the spell. If it required a save, the target of the Strike rolls its saving throw against your magus class DC.
>If you Spellstrike with any spell that isn't a cantrip or cost a focus point to use, you must wait for your mind and body to recover before being able to Spellstrike again. You aren't able to Spellstrike during the following round, unless you recharge your Spellstrike as a single action, which has the concentrate trait. You also recharge your Spellstrike when you cast a conflux spell that takes at least 1 action to cast; casting a focus spell of another type doesn’t recharge your Spellstrike.
>If you Spellstrike with a cantrip that doesn't cost a focus spell, it doesn't trigger reactions.

>>96280744
>doesn't cost a focus spell,
damnit I'm tired

doesn't cost a focus point

>>96280752
>Striking Orbit ◆ or ◇
>Concentrate, Magus, Divination
>Frequency: once per 10 minutes
>Requirements: You used your most recent action this turn to make a Spellstrike that failed or critically failed
>You can turn fate, and your attack, to your will. Make the attack roll for your Spellstrike again against the original target. You can make this attack at the same multiple attack penalty as the original Spellstrike as an action, or use your current MAP as a free action.

>Eldritch Rush ◆◆
>Concentrate, Magus, Flourish
>Stride up to half your Speed, or your full Speed if you are in the Arcane Cascade stance. This movement doesn't trigger reactions. If you end your movement within melee reach of at least one enemy, you can make a melee Strike against that enemy.
>Special: If you have the Starlit Span hybrid study, you can choose to make a ranged Strike within half of the first range increment of your ranged weapon.

>Energetic Strike ◆ or ◆◆
>Concentrate, Magus, Flourish
>Frequency: once per round
>Requirements: You are in the Arcane Cascade stance
>You can channel the magical power of your cascading energy. Make a Strike. If the Strike is successful, it deals normal damage plus 2 points of damage times half your level, rounded up. The damage is the same type as the damage your Arcane Cascade stance is currently adding to your Strikes. If you use two actions, the extra damage is 1d4 + 1 points for every 2 points the one action version of this feat inflicts.

>>96280740
>>96280744
>>96280760
You know what, yea sure, I'll take that over the hell we have now. Let me throw a dopey little ranged energy strike (using dex mod and my weapon's runes) while in cascade stance and you pretty much just do everything I'd probably give a shit about wanting

>>96280740
>Stance
It's trash

>>96277431
Last I checked, they have the bespoke oni trait (not the kami trait). Might've changed in remaster. A bespoke trait is probably the best way to handle it because they're not really kami.
Nor are youkai, despite Paizo tagging a bunch of obviously youkai-inspired monsters with kami, which is annoying to me because Paizo's constantly given plaudits for cultural representation/accuracy AND despite this is still disproportionately focused on JP/CN folklore, and can't even get those right.

>>96280675
(NTA) Stylish Tricks was just the skill feats pre-remaster and I wouldn't be surprised if whoever wrote operative didn't know it got buffed, or made the first draft before it got buffed and never updated it.

>Oh hey, the SFS guide for 2e has a full writeup for Ikeshti. Great to see them get more than a few paragraphs of lore!
>Actually read it...

So is Paizo just completely infested with tankies at this point? It seems like every other race is hippy dippy community-focused. The ikeshti went from lizardmen that had to fuck before senior prom or they'd turn into incredible hulks into mostly asexuals who don't have broods because "It'd be bad for the environment". Brood-minders went from pragmatists who killed any weak or sickly brood because they were essentially idiot tadpoles to hippy teachers that live away from their communities raising and educating a single brood at a time. Riveners went from an ikeshti failing to master their emotions during pon farr and turning into a monster that needs to be put down by park rangers to all ikeshti being BPD and turning into a rivener when they lose their temper, then turning back when they calm down.

They took all the edge away. Instead of a race that has both good and bad to it they feel like someone's self insert for their mental disability.