pathfinder

Building a rogue, and the description tells me Key Ability should only be Dex, unless a Racket gives another option. I chose the thief racket, which should not provide any extra options, but when I go to select my Class Boost, which is also used to define the ability used for Class DC, I have the options of Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Is this a bug/missing feature in Pathbuilder, or am I misunderstanding what it’s doing?

I assume the intent is that either the answer is both yes or both no. But strictly reading it RAW, I can see a case that they may have different answers.

Step says:

Stepping doesn't trigger reactions, such as Reactive Strike, that can be triggered by move actions or upon leaving or entering a square.

To me, there is a good argument to be made either way, that Ready has a trigger the player sets, and thus it is not prevented. Or that they have chosen the trigger to be "a move action", and thus it is prevented.

Mobility says:

When you Stride and move half your Speed or less, that movement does not trigger reactions.

This is much more black and white. RAW, you cannot Strike someone who Strode less than half their speed.

I’m curious about whether you agree with my RAW interpretation, but even more about whether you think this is intended. And thirdly, if it is intended, whether you think it’s reasonable.

I’m not sure about the second question, but on q3 I definitely think it’s reasonable. Spending 2 actions and your reaction to get just one strike in. From action economy it sounds fair to me that this would bypass Step and Mobility. And from a flavour perspective it also makes sense to me, because a normal Reactive Strike is just quickly taking advantage of an opening they provide, but a Readied Strike is more like heavily concentrating on and waiting for a specific situation, which they shouldn’t be able to avoid just because they only take one step.

Opinions?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/26511521

So, if you're unaware, the basic math of PF2e's armour items assumes that for light and medium armour, (item bonus + dex cap) = 5, and for heavy armour, = 6. This means that as long as you can pick an armour that has a lower dex cap than your dex bonus, you are expected to be getting either 5 or 6 AC from your armour.

With all that said, there are a ton of armours out there that offer some kind of tradeoff, where that formula doesn't hold. For example, the Armoured Coat gives +4 AC between item bonus and dex cap, but it has the flexible trait which negates the check penalty to athletics and acrobatics checks. In my mind, that's a crazy tradeoff to make. The extra AC is so much more important.

At the end of the day though, I don't have the time to analyze the tradeoff offered by all of these "sub-optimal" armours. So yeah, I'd love to hear if anyone has experience with an armour item that yields less than 5 AC (or 6 for heavy armour) and yet the tradeoff was actually worth it for them.

Also on Kickstarter, and wrapping up in the next couple of days (ends on 9 August, at 6pm EDT/midnight UTC+0), is Legendary Game's Sea Monsters bestiary.

I grabbed their Mediterranean Monsters and Latin American Monsters books last month, and was really happy with both of those. They were thick softcovers with a lot of interesting legendary beasts, spirits, and faeries. And since I apparently just collect monster books now (BattleZoo and Viklander say 'hi'), I'm absolutely getting this one, too.

I was trawling Kickstarter again and came across another project supporting Pathfinder (this time both 1e and 2e): Lugon: Evolution & Magic.

It's a setting book that's adding some new races, classes, and spells, apparently with a focus on how magic interacts with or is derived from the ecosphere.

It has currently met its base funding goal, but it doesn't seem to have as much momentum as some of the other projects I've highlighted. Some of the stretch goals include extra spells, and "Mage guilds", which -- to my ear, at least -- sounds like some extra Wizard schools, something I know many Wizard players feel the game could use post-remaster.

Personally, I can't really find the interest to watch someone talk about things that could've been a text file, but maybe you all can peep some info on your classes of choice from this. I hear investigators and alchemists are eating good, but...

I'm just so upset about battle oracles, how could paizo do this to me immediately after bopping my favorite deity, too?

Hi, my name is Khan and I am the person behind Devabhumi. I am of Indian origin, and I have always been interested in non-European rpg settings. There is such a treasure trove of untapped stories, monsters, and legends in Indian Culture, which can provide fresh and unique content for your campaigns.

Devabhumi is a high fantasy TTRPG setting inspired by the history and epics of Ancient India. This setting features:

• 100+ pages of lore
• 8 new races
• 20+ historical weapons and armor
• 25 monsters inspired by Indian folklore

And much more!

You can check out the project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/silvercompassmaps/devabhumi-a-dandd-5e-setting-inspired-by-ancient-india

Dr. Dhrolin's Dictionary of Dinosaurs is a monster book for D&D 5e written by paleontologists Drs. Nathan Barling and Michael O'Sullivan is gettinf a Pathfinder 2e conversion.

The book features realistic dinosaurs and paleontologically accurate (as of 2023) background information, as well as artwork by paleo-artist Dr. Mark Witton.

I'm maybe a little too excited about this one. I was a dinosaur kid growing up.

Buried somewhere in the announcement post on reddit is some really interesting creature adjustments coming with the book. u/Linda_Zayas_Palmer, a former Paizo developer who consulted on the conversion, dropped this:

Roughly 4 level -1 adjustments, 20 level +0 adjustments, 75 level +1 adjustments, and 20 level +2 adjustments.

So it's going to be a massive toolkit for GMs.

At level -1, we've got things like thin dermis, which includes vulnerability to slashing damage.

At level +0, we have things that you might be looking for to change your creature's habitat but that aren't going to make significant difference to their power level. Concepts like wader, which helps with moving through shallow water, and pneumitisation, which makes your creature a bit faster at the expense of making them easier to topple over.

At level +1, there are tons of examples. Some of them are more defensive, like a bony frill that can be raised defensively. Others grant new Strikes or reactions, ranging from the realistic, like adding a horn attack, to the fantastical, like a dinosaur with web-shooting spinnerets or the ability to shoot off psychic mind rays. And others do a variety of other concepts that I'm not previewing just yet :)

At level +2, we start getting into concepts like super-tanky creatures with thick armoured plates and creatures with neurotoxic venom.

You can find the original announcement here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/1dfy8r0/british_palaeontologists_excited_by_pathfinder/

I believe there are many such examples, but the particular one I’m thinking of right now is the Cold Spot haunt which states that a character is clumsy 1 if they critically fail. When would they stop being clumsy 1?

Direct link to the Champion Remaster preview

This isn't strictly a Pathfinder thing but I like this community.

Basically, there is this meme that Human Figher is a "boring" default choice or sign of an uncreative character. I disagree. Picking out a weird ancestry is not creative. Choosing a human fighter basically means that you get zero flavor from your ancestry and class - so you are forced to get creative yourself. You are forced to give your character a personality, and you are forced to solve problems creatively.

For me, the stereotype is the opposite - if a player chooses an esoteric ancestry and class combo, I worry that their characters whole personality is just their ancestry.

Of course both humans and other ancestries make for great characters if done right.

u/MeiraTheTiefling on Reddit has released a homebrew Sorcerer subclass for feedback and testing:

I try to keep my homebrew as close as possible to official design standards, so feedback is always welcome!

FAQ:

Q: Can I share your content or use it in my games? A: Absolutely! Please credit me as MeiraTheTiefling when sharing with others. Also, if this ever hits your table, I would love it if you reached out to me eventually to let me know how it plays :)

Q: When might the Thornmaw Snapper make saving throws? A: Any time it makes sense, e.g. if it's affected by an indiscriminate AoE (like Howling Blizzard) or a reasonable creature-targeting ability (like Ignition). If there's any doubt, the GM has the final call. Note that its Tendrils never make saving throws, as they're only affected by attacks that deal damage.

To check out my other work (mostly 5e homebrew as of now), visit my Homebrewery page!

The-Magic-Sword from, like, all of the other Pathfinder forums was live-recapping the PaizoCon presentations. Linking them below:

Keynote

Godsrain Panel

Starfinder 2e Panel

With Howl of the Wild released, the wider community seems to be turning its attentions to Player Core 2 now. The new hotness is "what do you expect from {class} in PC2?"

So, what does the Threadiverse expect from the classes in PC2? We know Alchemist, Champion, Oracle, and Sorcerer are all in line to get some kind of meaningful touch-up.

• One of Oracle's class features just got generalized to the whole game
• Champion needs adjustments to account for the removal of alignment. And with the Guardian seemingly stepping into the non-religious defender role, the Champion could see its theming further narrowed.
• Sorcerer needs some of its bloodlines to be reflavoured to disentangle it from the OGL
• They said they wanted to make Alchemist not suck-out-loud for players who don't have the most mastered of system mastry.

But what does this mean exactly, in your estimation?

Personally, I'm seeing people starting to get hyped, and I think they're all going to be sorely disappointed by the scope of any updates in this release. I'm expecting modest changes to the chases of Oracle and Champion, some tweaks to TEML progression for Alchemist, and no chassis tweaks at all for Sorcerer, with Oracle and Champion getting additional feat support in War of the Immortals.

Paizo Design Manager Michael Sayre just dropped some long-awaited errata on us, marking a return to the 2022 plan of regular errata updates.

The current release includes errata for Guns & Gear, Firebrands, Rage of Elements, and Howl of the Wild, and a promise of another errata drop in the fall/winter period.

Hi, my name is Khan and I am the person behind Devabhumi. I am of Indian origin, and I have always been interested in non-European rpg settings. There is such a treasure trove of untapped stories, monsters, and legends in Indian Culture, which can provide fresh and unique content for your campaigns. Devabhumi is a high fantasy TTRPG setting inspired by the history and epics of Ancient India. This setting features:

• 100+ pages of lore
• A karma mechanic
• 6 new races
• 20+ backgrounds and feats
• And much more!

You can sign up for the Kickstarter here.

We are going live in 3 days!

Over on the 2e subreddit, u/EzekieruYT let everyone know that they'd stumbled across a pre-launch Kickstarter project called Pathfinder: Dragon's Demand. Speculation swirled for a bit before former Paizo Marketing Director Aaron Shanks chimed in to quietly announce the title, and confirm that it's being built on the 2e ruleset.

No details have been announced yet, and the studio behind it doesn't have a deep catalogue, so who knows what it'll actually look like in the end. People are getting hyped for PaizoCon, though.

On my last session of d&d combat took too long and I had to apologize for it to my players. One player, who is a Pathfinder 2e player, said it's nothing compared to long fights he had in that system, where between party of high level casters, boss, minions and enemy spellcasters, he would be waiting a whole hour for his next turn. I certainly want to at least have one Pathfinder 2e campaign among options to present to this group after we finish current one, so how much is this a general problem and not his group's problem and are there some ways to avoid this long combat?

u/corsica1990 has posted the results of their survey from last week, asking if we could identify creatures weakest saving throws from their art alone.

The slide deck (linked in the title, above) gives the creature description, the actual save values, and the number of responses for each save, as well as brief commentary reflecting how much more difficult the majority response would make the fight for cases where the we collectively got it wrong.

Their thread on Reddit is available here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/1cpu5ug/i_made_a_saving_throw_quiz_last_week_here_are_the/

Their original post is over here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/1cj1rjx/how_easy_is_it_to_guess_a_creatures_worst_saving/

u/Vorath on Reddit has a Hyrule bestiary on Scribe to go with u/Tragedi's player and GM documents.

I present to you, The Legend of Zelda Monster Core!

https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/bLq87XSo-the-legend-of-zelda-monster-core

And its supplementary bestiaries (all linked on the first page of The Legend of Zelda Monster Core)

• Ancient Guardians of Hyrule (dedicated to constructs): https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/F3fW3tbw-ancient-guardians-of-hyrule

• Bestiary of the Ocean King (dedicated to monsters of the sea, rivers, and lakes): https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/MljF9dLv-bestiary-of-the-ocean-king

• The Book of Blins (dedicated to blin variants of all kinds): https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/Dmb2mdWb-the-book-of-blins

• Dangerous Flora of Hyrule (dedicated to the plant monsters of Zelda): https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/lpJ1oLov-dangerous-flora-of-hyrule

• The Dead of Hyrule (dedicated to the undead): https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/LxBRv4x1-the-dead-of-hyrule

• Denizens of the Depths (dedicated to monsters that dwell deep within dungeons or the depths of Hyrule): https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/s5L70QcF-denizens-of-the-depths

• Dinos and Dodongos (dedicated to reptillian monsters, from dodongos to lizal): https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/bYHsC7yH-dinos-and-dodongos

• Fauna of Hyrule (a catch-all for animals and beasts that don't fall under the other bestiaries): https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/RqL4TqlL-fauna-of-hyrule

• People of Hyrule (dedicated to named and unnamed NPCs): https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/zW46FlVl-people-of-hyrule

• Skyward Threats (dedicated to monsters of the sky): https://scribe.pf2.tools/v/fByTSw8P-skyward-threats

Original Post (Reddit): https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeldaTabletop/comments/1cl6wf6/pf2e_the_legend_of_zelda_monster_core_and/

u/Tragedi, the creator behind the Legend of Zelda conversion for Pathfinder 2e Paths of Hyrule, has released v1.3 of their player and GM resources, and announced that v1.4 is currently in the works, building off of Howl of the Wild content.

Formerly known as Adventures in Hyrule, Paths of Hyrule is a massive total conversion homebrew supplement for PF2e that I've been working on for the past year or so. It currently features 19 feature-complete ancestries, a slew of new backgrounds, animal companions, specific familiars, spells, class feats, subclasses, deities, archetypes, and items. Needless to say this project is a massive undertaking that aims to provide you with all the tools you need to run fully Zelda-themed campaigns regardless of your preferred Zelda game or era.

Paths of Hyrule Player Core 1.3: Scribe, PDF

Paths of Hyrule GM Core 1.3: Scribe, PDF

Pathbuilder Pack: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1euSWHql7q1P548RQpL40pnAGp4uZJyG5/view?usp=sharing

Tragedi's Discord Server: https://discord.gg/ampVnNdZ

Original Post (Reddit): https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/1cncuc6/paths_of_hyrule_v13_a_zelda_supplement_for_pf2e/

u/AvtrSpirit over on Reddit has released some interesting homebrew rules for defeat, Hero Points, and martial attrition using the Wounded condition. I thought they were worth spreading around some.

The comments on Hero Points in particular made me realize that many tables are much more stingy with HPs than I would have expected. Players love Hero Points. Are y'all not just handing them out like candy?

Heroic Defeat:

Original Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/1cbjw8c/heroic_defeat_variant_v2_fewer_rules_all_feedback/

Anti-frustration mechanics + MCDM's victories and recoveries:

Original Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/1cn50gc/heroic_variant_part_2_antifrustration_mechanics/

I stumbled upon this and couldn't find any definite answers.

The Escape action states that you can use Athletics, Acrobatics, or your unarmed attack modifier. However, it specifically says that you use your modifier and not an actual attack. While fists have the Finesse trait, the regular attack does not - so am I correct in assuming that if you have a higher Dex than Str, that you can only use Dex with acrobatics, not with the unarmed attack modifier?

u/corsica1990 over on th'other site posted a survey a few days ago, trying to figure out how easily people could intuit creatures' worst saving throws (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will) based on just the creature's name and bestiary art.

How'd you do? Also, will you, too, forever have nightmares about jellyfish clam squids? Because I ain't ever unseeing that.

It's been a little over 24 hours since the Battlecry playtest dropped, and while opinions on Commander are overwhelmingly positive (seriously, I think people might be disappointed when it goes to print; the class is borderline OP, and this level of excitement's going to invite a closer look by the designers), peoples thoughts on Guardian are...

Well, let's just call them extremely polarized. Like, many people are reacting to the class like it shot their spouse or something, and I'm more than a little bit surprised.

Personally, I see a lot to like in the Guardian. Even some things to love. Like the Commander, it's a class built for managing and controlling a battle field. The Commander is all about empowering the PCs to do more in a round, while the Guardian is focused on restraining enemy options. They're both classes designed for facing larger groups of creatures, and leveraging pre-firearms infantry tactics and maneuvers.

Without actually playing it yet, I suspect the Guardian could use a little bit of a survivability buff, while also being concerned that Taunt doesn't provide enough of an incentive shift to pull a mob off of a squishy ally. But it seems very well suited for forming and maintaining a proper front line (as opposed to a martial morass).

It makes me wonder what else is coming with Battlecry. Coming off of the War of the Immortals, are we getting proper troop combat or something?