Hello Pathfinders!

I'm currently in a Rise of the Runelords (PF1e) campaign that will be wrapping up within the next couple of weeks. Our GM and a bunch of our players have expressed interest in trying out PF2, and I'm mostly ambivalent (I really like PF1, but it can get cumbersome from time to time) but I like understanding systems and engaging with them. So far PF1 has been a highly engaging system, and it looks like PF2 will be more of that, but I have some questions and I figure people who have played both would be the best ones to ask;

1.) What are things that you wish you had known moving from PF1 to PF2?

2.) What are the most easily/commonly overlooked rules?

3.) What are the biggest differences between the 2 systems?

I've been lurking this sub for a while and conceptually I've learned that PF2 has a much better balance between martial characters and Casters and there's far less emphasis on standing still and full-attacking, but I'm hoping for more than just those overarching ideas. I'd really appreciate any advice anyone can give.

P.S. I tend to be a bit of a "rules lawyer/power gamer/Assistant GM" at my table. My Powergaming is kept in check by the fact that I don't like to break the rules unless it's in the interest of more fun, so I will call out when rules are being overlooked or broken even when it's to my own detriment. A big reason I ask is so that I can help my GM keep things straight, since it's his first time playing PF2 as well.

Link: Longstrider

The Knights of Last Call 'All Spells Ranked' series ranked this spell as S Tier. Would you change that ranking, and why?

What items or class features synergize well with this spell?

Have you ever used this spell? If so, how did it go?

Why is this spell good/bad?

What are some creative uses for this spell?

What's the cheesiest thing you can do with this spell?

If you were to modify this spell, how would you do it?

Does this spell seem like it was meant for PCs or NPCs?

Previous spell discussions

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So in a few weeks I am going to run the final battle between a criminal gang and my players and their pirate ship crew. This is taking place in the lair of the criminals.
The players have recruited a pretty diverse group of NPCs to join their pirate ship crew and I am now afraid of running this fight and need advice on how I can manage it. All tips are welcome.

Note: the players and crew are way stronger than the criminals in levels and gear, but the criminals are buffed to the 8th degree as they are waiting in hiding for the players to assault their lair.

Crime gang

• Leader is Rogue/Swashbuckler 9
• Alchemist 8
• Barbarian 8
• Dozen or so (to be adjusted) rogue / fighters as mooks
• A Hydra "pet" (custom stats for added challenge, but same mechanics as base hydra)

Fighting zone

• underground lair
• high ceiling (flying is possible)
• Multiple tunnels all connected in a perimeter
• Large pool at center with the Hydra hiding in it.
• Map is from Savage Tide adventure path "There Is No Honor" thieves guild

Players and Crew

• Level 10 players: wizard, fighter (duelist), and bard
• Kitsune cleric 5 / Fighter 1
• Goblin slayer 6
• Minotaur ranger 4
• Human Magnus 9
• Captain cleric 10
• Aasimar Swashbuckler Rose warden 6/4
• Elf rogue 7
• Monk 9th

Again, advice is welcome. I made this mess as the DM but the players waited a long while to be strong enough to wipe the floor with this criminal group. I want to reward their recruiting and all, but this is going to be tough to juggle so many different stats and initiative.

I was rattling my brain about ways to interrogate someone and noticed that the brain you extract to then put into a brain cylinder or carrion golem retains its memories, so I was wondering, could you then interrogate de golem about the brain's contained secrets?

Could the Carrion Golem tell me somehow? Either through speech, Necril or morse code?

Hi everybody, first post here, so i have been playing a campaign with a party of four for quite a while and i have been having a blast with my nature fang archer druid the build is :

Shed - Nature Fang Druid 6

Race : Samsaran

Alternate racial trait : Mystic Past Life ( i took some shaman spells)

Background Traits : Adopted -> Bred for War; Deadeye Bowman; Deft Dodger

Stats (rolled plus racial bonus and level 4 bonus):

FOR 12
DEX 18
COS 16
INT 11
WIS 16
CHA 10

Feats:

Lv 1) Point-Blank Shot
Lv 3) Deadly Aim
Lv 4) Nature Fang Talent -> Ranger Combat Style -> Rapid Shot
Lv 5) Precise Shot
Lv 6) Nature Fang Talent -> Ranger Combat Style -> Manyshot

I chose Nature Bond : Animal Companion , it is a Saber-Thoothed Cat with the following feats:

Armor Proficiency, Light ; Dirty Fighting; Improved Grapple

As you can see it's focused on grappling foes and pinning them down so that i can deal sneak attack dmg.

​

This is the build so far, i took the bred for war trait to try building onto the ranged trip feat tree but i've had some doubts lately.

Do you fellow Pathfinders have some creative ideas on how to continue the build? (Preferable without losing caster level)

I accept any suggestion from becoming a switch hitter with a light weapon to anything niche:

Thank you in advance!!!

I'm currently playing a Bard in the Hell's Rebels adventure path, and because I'm a sucker for the setting and I'm doing a lot of singing at the table, I went and converted an Irish rebellion song to the campaign. It's set to the tune of Planxty's "Follow me up to Carlow", which, when sung quietly first and then more loudly, has a wonderful menacing quality to it. Feel free to borrow!

Verse:
Silver city set alight
tyrant's fires burning bright
Night of Ashes, days of fright
to quell the spark of defiance

Ravens and mice were but the start
your dottari left us beat and scarred
but the folk you hold in disregard
will suffer no more in silence

Chorus:
Hear our tune, Lord of Thrune
pride shall drive your house to ruin
you will meet your justice soon
for fallen is your star low

From the spoils your men have cut
from the rubble grows a bud
flower of hope, as bright as blood
shall bloom once more in Kintargo

I plan to add more stanzas as the campaign progresses (the Silver Ravens need to make an appearance), but this is definitely enough for a first impression of a song sung to a little gathering of rebels. (We're very much at the beginning of the campaign, so no spoilers please!) The last stanza of the original song ends with "Now for [bbeg]'s head/we'll send it over dripping red/to Queen Liza and her Ladies", which I'll totally steal to turn into Queen Abby and her Ladies.

Today's spell is Enemy's Heart!

What items or class features synergize well with this spell?

Have you ever used this spell? If so, how did it go?

Why is this spell good/bad?

What are some creative uses for this spell?

What's the cheesiest thing you can do with this spell?

If you were to modify this spell, how would you do it?

Does this spell seem like it was meant for PCs or NPCs?

Previous Spell Discussions

Hiho fellow Pathfinder,

I am recently trying to learn more about the wizard, since my usual go to characters are cleric and I want to branch out.

I found these two guides: Treantmonk and Professor Q.

Both of them rate Spell focus kinda low.

I was always under the assumption that as a control caster, you want to boost you DC as much as possible.

Am I mistaken here? Is it enough if you aoe cc and just some enemies fail?

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Kinda related side note: Can an elemental wizard prepare non-wizard/any spells gained via their elemental school in his normal slots?

An awakened animal gets a boost to Int and Cha as well as the ability to gain Class levels. Is adding that to an Animal Companion game breaking? Would it be fine if was just the stat boost?

I know the rules say no but I want to know if there are mechanical reasons and if anyone has used an awakened animal companion before

I am building him to be level 7. I was thinking of taking a exotic weapon feat and using the Urumi. Keening it basically to make a crit build. This would mean a critical threat at 16-20. For the hungry ghost monk if they crit (or drop an enemy to 0) I could funnel life from them to me up to my monk level.

We are doing a 25 point buy. Should I also make him a DEX based monk as to limit spreading out my points? Dhampirs get a +2 to DEX as well. Thoughts?

Hi all, GM here (fairly new GM at that) -

I am running an adventure path for a party of 4, using Roll20 as a virtual tabletop. I'm in the process of creating a new "game" for part 2 of the adventure path and moving all of the characters over ahead of time for my players, since I'm not sure how well transferring the characters will work while they're making improvements to the VTT.

I have a player who is playing an oracle, but for some reason he has a Concentration level of 9 (level 5 character at the moment) - and when I look at the configuration on his old sheet, it says "Caster 5 +Ability 4", but on the new sheet I am creating, it seems to be locked in at "Caster 5 + Ability -1" and is only giving him concentration of 4. What am I missing? I've checked all his feats and stats and everything else matches up, so I'm not sure where he's getting the 4 ability modifier from, and Roll20 won't let me go in and manually adjust it. Can anyone provide guidance on where I should be looking to tweak this stat?

I'm making a 3rd level earth Kineticist and the spell isn't really clear on how this works. It lasts for a minute, but does the damage only happen when it's cast or each round a creature is inside the effect?

Going to be making my first archer. Instead of just picking the first options presented, what archetypes or other niche (but still decently good!) choice would work? Love using the more obscure archetypes for classes

Hi there! I’m going to be running Seven Dooms for Sandpoint for a group of 4-5 players coming up soon. I have the book ordered through my LGS but I want to make all my scenes/terrain myself. Does anyone know if/where I can find just maps of the various stores or the dungeon crawling bits that I could use to start working on crafting before the books arrives? We’re doing session 0 in two weeks and first real session two weeks after that so I have some time but not a ton. TIA!

Hi!

So, a silly question here... Do you think hoofed races would wear horseshoes "realistically speaking"? Both as an accessory and as a necessity

As for the former, it's not very noticeable, but I think shiny metallic horseshoes would look quite good on a tiefling or a satyr. And they do add some nice ringing to their walking. Although I can't imagine them being made of anything remotely precious, as they would get tarnished, chipped, and ruined in no time. And as for the latter, yup. Characters who travel a lot like monks and rangers can benefit from some horseshoes. Can't say if horseshoes would be better than common footwear, though

Would love to hear other people's thoughts and opinions

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/violent-display-combat/

https://www.aonprd.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Violent%20Display

I have a Swashbuckler Rogue Fetchling who I'd like to take this feat. Under the D20PFSRD, it says "Special: This feat is available to weretigers, weretiger-kin and those who associate with these creatures."

I'm unclear as to what this means. Is this a feat category normally unavailable to Weretigers, but this is an exception to their exclusion? Or is the Special saying this is a feat only exclusively available to Weretigers?

If there is any resource to clarrify, I would really appreciate a link!

So first off Bragil, Miriam, Merea, Rogar & Ul avert your eyes if you happen to stumble across this.

I'm currently working on my BBEG's secret weapon. His maddest alchemists and most vile necromancers are researching a way to weaponize negative energy in the hands of disposable foot soldiers. My idea is loosely inspired by the Blight Quartz special material. The weapon will consist of crystallized negative energy but unlike blight quartz it is stabilized to not decay outside of the negative energy plane.

For the grand finale there will likely be a big negative energy bomb that threatens to take out a major city. I'm not too worried about mechanics for that as the scope of the consequences push this well into narrative territory: Catastrophic event wiping out most life in the area and generating countless undead doesn't require dice rolls imo.

What I'm having trouble with is that I want the group to encounter smaller versions of this weapon beforehand so the concept is well established when I introduce the big boy. So I'm thinking there could be rare instances of negative energy grenades for which I'm trying to figure out what they'll do.

What I have so far is:

• 30 ft. radius spread, centered on the user (I like the cruelty of sacrificing the user, makes the BBEG nice and detestable)
• 10d6 negative energy damage
• 1 temporary negative level (24h, cannot become permanent)
• Fortitude DC 18 halves damage and negates the negative level
• Corpses in the effect radius are raised as random undead. The CR of the undead is limited by the HD of the corpse and more powerful undead are still less likely than weaker ones. (I'll make a table for that)
• Like Blight Quartz, being in possession of a negative energy grenade inflicts 1 negative level that can only be overcome by getting rid of the grenade but can never become permanent.

For context: My party is currently level 7 and they will encounter those weapons very rarely and never more than one at a time for now. Lackeys of the BBEG will only use them as a last resort when they are beat.

I have very little experience making homebrew content and since most homebrew that gets posted here is usually broken in one way or another I wouldn't be surprised if mine is too. So I'd be thankful for any improvements or ways this is will ruin my game that you can come up with.

I really like the flavor of the battle herald for a new "Against the Giants' campaign, but the class just kinds sucks. Notably, it requires the Cavalier/Samurai Challenge feature as a pre-req, but doesn't scale the mount. Morale bonuses on cavalier banner and bardic song, which do both scale up, don't stack.

This just feels like a very very poorly thought out prestige class.

What I want is a character who is a tank or offtank that buffs the party and fearlessly charges into battle shouting epic poems at the top of his lungs to inspire allies to feats of valor.

I was considering
- 3 Oath of the People's Council paladin which trades smite for bardic performance
- 7 warrior poet samurai with order of the songbird for versatile performance
- 10 battle herald to scale perform and banner and get the battle herald buffs
- using feats to get my mount so I'm not crippled by a mount that scales based on levels in a single class.

This gets me 20 BAB and a lot of buffs, which I like, but it's lame and just plain irks me that banner and inspire courage don't stack. The build also ends up feat starved since getting the mount costs 3 feats.

Any recommendations for something with similar flavor?

For now I'm thinking I'll go
- 2 caviler order of the songbird for versatile performance
- X Evangelist cleric (which gets bardic performance) of Erastil with the animal domain to get the mount and add some healing and buffing.

But I don't love the 3/4 bab of cleric. Spells are nice and divine casters don't have spell failure, but I strongly prefer spontaneous casters. I'd go oracle, but then I lose bardic performance. Unless there's an oracle mystery I don't know of that grants bardic performance...

I'd appreciate any suggestions or ideas for a mounted warrior that uses perform: oratory to inspire the party. Hit me with your build ideas!

​

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So one of the challenges Shadowdancers sometimes face is that they must be within 10 feet of an area of dim light in order to make use of their Hide in Plain Sight. Casting Darkness on the field can be difficult for characters that don't have some form of Darkvision, so there are various ways I've seen of getting around the requirement of having dim light somewhere and not hampering people with patches of dim illumination that creates miss chances, concealment, etc.,

https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Funereal%20Weapon

But then I ran into this spell which, aside from being useful as a level 1 spell for purposes of fighting undead, says this in the first sentence of the description. "You imbue a weapon with a faint silvery glow that dimly illuminates a 5-foot square."

Am I correct in assuming that if a Shadowdancer/Inquisitor puts one of these bad boys on their weapon...they can just HiPS as they like? And since it only dimly illuminates their own square, it wouldn't impact the vision of their party members without darkvision?

Link: Lock Item

The Knights of Last Call 'All Spells Ranked' series ranked this spell as Unranked Tier. Would you change that ranking, and why?

What items or class features synergize well with this spell?

Have you ever used this spell? If so, how did it go?

Why is this spell good/bad?

What are some creative uses for this spell?

What's the cheesiest thing you can do with this spell?

If you were to modify this spell, how would you do it?

Does this spell seem like it was meant for PCs or NPCs?

Previous spell discussions

Title.

My player hit a group of ranged attackers with it and claimed they couldn't hit anything since they couldn't tell who was what.

Is that true? The description makes no mention of this.

I was looking for ways to make it work, and I think I may have encountered one.

With Gorum's swordmanship you can add vital strike to a charge using a greatsword, my question is whether you could use martial versatility to enable Gorum's swordsmanship to affect weapons from the same weapon group?. Could it be possible to utilize Gorum's swordsmanship together with versatile design on a lance?

Therefore, using Vital Strike on a mounted charge with a lance.

Could this work together?

I'm looking for perspectives and opinions on a feat/trait I'm allowing a player.
The idea is to allow Metamagics to be feasible low level, but still allow a chance of failure with higher level spells.

Researcher's Prowess:

• When casting a spell, you may roll a Spellcraft check in an attempt to alter it with metamagic feats you know.
• DC=5x the spell's level.
• For every 5 you exceed the DC, you may apply an additional Metamagic you know to the spell.
• Using Metamagics in this way does NOT increase the Level of the spell slot used.

Should I increase the DC? I basically want it to be a significantly less annoying Sacred Geometry.

Edit: Based on various suggestions, this is the current feat.

Researcher's Prowess:
When casting a spell, you may roll your Spellcraft, or suitable skill at GM discretion, to Augment the spell.

• The DC is 10+5x the spell level.
• If you meet the DC, you may apply a single metamagic with level adjustment up to +1, that you know, to the spell.
• For every 5 you exceed the DC, you may apply an additional +1 level-adjustment of metamagics you know; ignoring the increased casting time is equivalent to a +1 metamagic level-adjustment.
• Using metamagics this way does not increase the spell slot used.

Today's spell is Energy Drain!

What items or class features synergize well with this spell?

Have you ever used this spell? If so, how did it go?

Why is this spell good/bad?

What are some creative uses for this spell?

What's the cheesiest thing you can do with this spell?

If you were to modify this spell, how would you do it?

Does this spell seem like it was meant for PCs or NPCs?

Previous Spell Discussions

If your party was hired to go capture a group of black dragons, how would you try to do it? You know the dragons live in a mountain swamp on the edge of a nearly ruined village. There are rumored to be kobold near by. The dragons are either tiny or small, rumors vary. The swamp is known to have very large cypress trees and depths are unpredictable, but certainly to deep to walk or stand with your head above water.

Hello everyone, I am going to make this in both the pathfinder and starfinder reddit as I find both very interesting. I have dm'd dnd one shots for strangers irl before and had a blast, but pathfinder is hard to find players for irl (at least from my experience) so I would need to do it online. Most pathfinder campaigns I've seen look way better made than dnd ones and I love the more complicated system of pathfinder.

So I am here to ask: How is running pathfinder online like? What apps would you need for it? Is it a nightmare to get players to show up on time or get them to learn the rules? Is it any less fun than playing irl? Do you have any reccomendations on how to do it?

If you guys could answer those questions I would be very happy. I'll probably do a one shot as a test if I decide to do it.

If a Synthesist summoner casts possession on an enemy he is unable to use most of the possessed creature's abilities but he's still able to summon his eidolon and fuse the possessed body he is inhabiting and as the Fused Eidolon abylity sais: "the two are now one creature"

Does this mean that all of the possessed creature's abilities that couldn't be used previously are now yours?

What happenss when possession ends but the fusion is still not over?

What if you possessed a summoned creature? [not one you summoned yourself]

Do you disappear with it or it stays even if its duration has finished?

And if you disappear with it, can you start a new life in the plane of summoned creatures?

This thread is not about any kind of balance.

So during our game tonight my Human Kineticist died and was subsequently reincarnated into an Elf. This has cost me a total of 4 points of Con which now makes a Kineticist build very underpowered. I currently have 8 levels in Blood Kineticist and I'm wondering if it'd be easier to simply retire my current character for a new build or if you guys might have some suggestions for a potential multiclass that would work well with my current levels of Kineticist.

As a note with my current equipment I go from having an 18 Con down to a 14 Con however my Dex does go up to base 17 from 15. The current party configuration consists of a Synthesit Summoner, a Swashbuckler, a Witch, a Swashbuckler/Slayer/Vigilante multiclass, and a Brawling Blademaster Samurai. I was the parties primary Ranged combatant.

Edit: Thank you to those of you who have offered suggestions beyond "lol just kys and try again". While it's not a bad suggestion from a mechanical standpoint myself and the group I play with are a lot more narrative focused and that just doesn't really feel like something my character would do.

So one other thing I forgot to mention in my last post here is that the same item that let's my character convert damage to healing, also allows her to pump 3 7th level spells or 2 8th level spells into it to cast "time stop" once per day. The undead antipaladin was surrounded by abominable snowmen, and my sorcerer had just cast 2 delayed blast fireballs on her previous 2 turns. Thankfully we had just rested,so she had all her spell slots. She pumped 2 8th level spell slots into the item and cast time stop. I rolled the d4 and got a 3 so 4 rounds of stopped time. So I cast firebrand on the frost wight antipaladin, and the warpriest/cleric, the fireballs then exploded, dealing no damage to my party, and double damage to the snowmen. Hopefully nobody that I play with reads this post, because the time stop thing is supposed to be a secret.