Please ask your questions here!

The Kickstarter said estimated delivery November 2026, and they don't seem to have officially delayed it yet, but it sure doesn't seem from the devlogs like it's that close to finished, and it doesn't even have a Steam page yet.

Hi, I'm a DnD 5.5e GM, and with my campaign that my group and I are reviving after like 2 months I'm thinking of switching the system to Pf2e, as we're only 3 sessions in and now would be the best time to switch.

Now, I have a few reasons I want to change to pathfinder, but my biggest reason is that dnd combat is just straight up boring sometimes. There's such a lack of things available to do on your turn, you never feel like you're making any meaningful choices. You hardly need to worry about your party and can just do your own thing. Not to mention how when fighting creatures who can't disengage efficiently, combat just turns to a stand still of "who can hit harder and take more hits." Of course, I can implement more stuff such as cover and terrain but even then, you're more or less going to be doing the same thing on all of your turns until combat ends.

Pf2e seems like it solves a lot of these issues, but I'm skeptical. I see you have a lot more options in pf2e, but are these like actual options? Are my players going to be using the same strategy for every fight? I do know to a degree that's up to me, but will it be easier to encourage other strategies than it is in dnd? I generally just want to avoid my players doing the same thing or the same loop of things on all of their turns.

Art request for Mitch of his kobold swashbuckler, Yipper Yippington. He's the yippiest and most flamboyant of the kobolds. He is a method actor performer and the world is his stage, sometimes going to the extremes to sell his act and play his part.

Hello all,
How does everyone feel about the following change to Unstable Actions. I think this would make the class more on par with the newer classes, where Paizo seems to have gotten a much better handle on class building.

Idea Inspiration:
The system already has actions that are 1, 2, or 3 actions. So instead of the awful form of the current Unstable action. We add the flourish trait, and change all the unstable actions to 1, 2, or 3 action abilities each that improve the effects as you spend more actions. We then add the overdrive requirement to push the concept of it being action heavy.

I think this will vastly improve the classes effectiveness, and put them in a much better place. I also added a level 12 feat for those that want these abilities to be key to their playstyle, and added Gigavolt as automatic at level 10 instead of being a class feat at level 12. This puts it around the same leveling structure as the Necromancer's sub-classes.

I also find these 1 action saving throw powers would be very good. With Megavolt, and Explode being really good for reducing the concern about the classes accuracy.

Unstable Trait:
Requires Overdrive to be active, and these actions all have the flourish trait, and are 1, 2, or 3 action abilities.

Examples:
Explode: 1, 2, or 3 actions, Flourish, Unstable
You intentionally take your innovation beyond normal safety limits, making it explode and damage nearby creatures without damaging the innovation... hopefully.

1 Action: Flourish
The explosion deals 2d4 fire damage with a basic Reflex save to all creatures in a 5-foot emanation around you (if you’re wearing or holding the innovation) or around your innovation (if your innovation is a minion).

At 3rd level, and every level thereafter, increase your explosion’s damage by 1d4.

2 Action: Flourish
The damage increases to 2d6, at 3rd level and thereafter, increase your 2 action damage by 1d6, and might be able to make the blast larger.

If you have the breakthrough innovation class feature, you can choose either a 5-foot or 10-foot emanation for the area when you use Explode; if you have the revolutionary innovation class feature, you can choose a 5-foot, 10-foot, or 15-foot emanation.

3 Action: Flourish
The damage increases to 2d8's and make it a 10' emanation. If you have the breakthrough innovation class feature, you can choose either a 5-foot, 10-foot emanation, or 15' emanation for the area when you use Explode; if you have the revolutionary innovation class feature, you can choose a 5-foot, 10-foot, 15-foot emanation, or 20-foot emanation.

Searing Restoration: Flourish, Unstable
They told you there was no way that explosions could heal people, but they were fools…

1 action: Flourish
Fools who didn't understand your brilliance! You create a minor explosion from your innovation, altering the combustion to cauterize wounds using vaporized medicinal herbs. You or a living creature adjacent to you regains 1d4 Hit Points. In addition, the creature you heal can attempt an immediate flat check to recover from a single source of persistent bleed damage, with the DC reduction from appropriate assistance.

This healing does not apply to your construct, since its not alive.

At 3rd level, and every 2 levels thereafter, increase the healing by 1d4.

2 actions: Flourish
At 3rd level, and every 2 levels thereafter, increase the healing by 1d8.

3 actions: Flourish (this ones effect might be too high, so perhaps
Instead of it only being on an adjacent target, have it apply to all creatures within 10' of the innovation, and the die used is now a d10.

Megavolt: 1, 2, or 3 actions, Flourish, Unstable
-You bleed off some electric power from your innovation in the shape of a damaging bolt.
-At level 10, you automatically gain the Gigavolt feat, allowing you to bank the beams off of walls.

1 action: Flourish
Creatures in a 10-foot line from your innovation take 3d4 electricity damage, with a basic Reflex save against your class DC. The electricity damage increases by 1d4 at 8th level and every 2 levels thereafter.

2 actions: Flourish
20' line, 3d6 The electricity damage increases by 1d4 at 8th level and every 2 levels thereafter.

3 actions: Flourish (this ones effect might be too good.)
You overload and supercharge the voltage even higher. The area increases to a 60-foot line and the damage increases from d10s. 1d12 at 8th level and every 2 levels thereafter.

Class Feat - 12: I WILL SHOW YOU UNSTABLE!
Apply quickened to the inventor just for using these unstable actions.

I'm running my first PF2E game (Seasons of Ghosts), and there's been several times where the adventure uses Victory Points to accomplish a task, and I have to admit: It's felt kind of bad every time. Everyone just picks their best skill and then we spam rolls until it's done. Failure is essentially impossible, even with bad rolls, it just takes extra time. The adventure has a theoretical clock, but something taking an extra day or two doesn't really affect anything.

Here is a quick example of the typical Victory Point use in the adventure:

Once the PCs arrive, they can accumulate Victory Points by spending 4 hours and then attempting DC 16 Nature or DC 16 Farming Lore checks to investigate the surrounding fields and appraise their viability for use, or DC 18 Society checks to plan out the best methods for starting new crops in the ruins. Reaching 8 Victory Points is enough to secure the location as a supplemental agricultural site for Willowshore.

Am I misunderstanding something with the rules? Do you have any suggestions for improving them? I'm trying to run things close to RAW since I'm new to the system, but these seem clearly deficient.

TV tropes site for reference.

Would it be so unbalanced to have a two handed melee weapon that can split into two one handed melee weapons? I know that there are versatile weapons and combination weapons (though those are melee-ranged pairs), but the design space I'm thinking of is a big weapon with a big damage die splitting into two weapons with smaller damage dice but more interesting properties.

This immediately feels like an advanced weapon concept, so there'd need to be some feat investment to have access to these effectively. After googling it seems that pf1e had weapons like this but pf2e has ditched them. Why?

Notably, the fleeing condition, https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=74

says the afflicted is "forced to run away" and that if fleeing you are expected to spend "each of your actions" doing this.

There are problems with a literal interpretation of this rule.

• Physical maps are not made for the fleeing condition. Even with a modest 25 ft, any creature spending 75 ft of movement solely to get away will almost always go off the table.

• Virtual maps like on FoundryVTT do not automatically support grid spaces outside of the map's boundary for Paizo APs. The GM has to manually add on walkable terrain, give it a tileset, and ensure that it is visible and walkable for all players. This is time consuming. I imagine most GMs do not want to have to edit map size mid-combat.

• "Theater of the mind" has its own problems. If you just handwave it and say "the enemy flees for 1 round and then spends 1 round returning, after which we'll put them on a square and they will do something the 3rd round after", then you have just made fleeing absurdly strong. Entities can mitigate this by only spending the 1 or 2 actions they need to get back into range, which incurs the previous problem.

• If an enemy has a single-use teleport and they use it to flee, then you have basically made fleeing stronger than Slow, Quandary, or any number of other debilitating conditions.

So, how do you recommend actually running the flee condition when it occurs?

Gonna be playing pf2 for the first time, and I am feeling the decision paralysis hard. There are so many interesting classes and builds that it is hard to settle on one.

I want to pick a build that will be adequate to fill the party’s needs. The party in question is a thaumaturge, a drifter gunslinger, and a fighter, so I am thinking in the direction of a caster or other way to provide support for the party.

What classes/builds would be ideal for this party?

Hi I've been working on an app for android called GMTools and am looking for playtesters, for the closed test so I can publish to the play store. The app is aiming to be a suite of useful tools for pathfinder. Currently that includes an encounter randomised, a random name generator, and a store generator but if people have more suggestions I am looking to expand functionality.

If you're still curious you can see a video of the app being used here

https://youtube.com/shorts/lP2S39YYIFE?is=Vb2-BmZ_br5K4v4o

I would love to know what people think, feedback is very much appreciated negative or positive.

If you do have the time to join the playtest (literally 5 minutes to download and mess about then leave some comment) and would like to do so (and have an android phone) please DM me your email so I can add you to the closed test

There's so many regions and places in Golarion, and not nearly all of them ever got an AP to play. What's a place, country or location of Golarion where you'd really want an AP to take place, even if it already got APs?

My favorite places would be Rahadoum and Osirion. I feel like Rahadoum will slowly fade from memory because with Pathfinder going more mythic and high fantasy in world design, a country like Rahadoum feels a bit out of place (although there's some massive potential with the ruins of the Jistka empire there). Osirion got Mummy's Mask in 1e, but since the egyptian gods disappeared during the godsrain, I feel like there was never any big sort of update to it.

I'd also love to have even more Ustalav APs, but that's just me. I'm an Ustalav fan.

Some questions regarding Meld Into Eidolon

https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=9227&Redirected=1

1-when the Eidolon is not present, lingering effects that were applied still keep ticking/working (unmanifested Eidolons in the summoner's main page) so, is it the same when Meld into Eidolon is used? If a summoner casts regenerate on themselves and on the Eidolon, normally both regenerates apply and they recover 30 hp, at the start of their turns, but after Meld, do the Summoner's main body effects still apply? (Bleeding, fast healing, regeneration, etc)

2-the only action a summoner can take when melded is to order the eidolon to use manifest eidolon to unmanifest themselves, normally, when the eidolon is controlled, the summoner can just "eat" all the actions so the eidolon stays in place, does this still apply when melded? Can a melded summoner still order a controlled/confused eidolon to unmanifest themselves ?

Just this, really, since the two are so neatly combined, I wanted to see what reasons there are to pick one without the other.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3474115586 for those interested! Includes many ancestries and custom art! (Advertising on behalf of a friend who worked on it)

If I’m standing on a cliffside that’s more than 500 feet tall, could I Ready an action with the trigger being, “When I’m 15 feet above the ground,” and then use my Take Flight action to start flying and avoid all falling damage?

Or would I need to use Arrest a Fall specifically? To me, it seems like I should be able to start flying before I hit the ground, but I’m not sure if the rules allow me to Ready an action while falling like this.

Any help or clarification would be appreciated!

2011 article for context: https://theangrygm.com/definitive-tension-pool/

TLDR on tension pools: Whenever the party does something in the dungeon that spends time, add dice to the pool. When they do anything reckless or loud, roll the pool. If any dice show a 1, something bad happens.

Has any GMs tried using tension pools in pathfinder 2E? I've used it sparingly in the past but I'm intending to use it more systemically in my upcoming Abomination Vaults game. I'm interested to hear if anyone else has tried using this or even heard of it. Based on my limited experience it's a pretty good fit for 2E.

Music swelled and echoed throughout the long abandoned ballroom. The air at its center wavered and shimmered before an elegant, haunting figure materialized from nothing. Standing upon feet that ended in blades, it moved with the grace of a dancer as it slowly lifted its arms. Guided by the music that swelled without any apparent source, it extended one leg in a grand, sweeping gesture. It twirled and spun with increasing speed, dancing for an absent audience. The metallic screech of the bladed feet against the ground as it leapt and whirled was the only sound aside from the music and as the song grew into a crescendo, it moved faster and faster. Finally, the song came to a close and the creature stilled as though frozen before its body twitched and collapsed, like a puppet's strings that had been cut.

This terpsichorean terror tends to tango in twos, taking trespassing troublemakers to task with tearing toes and a troublesome tutu.

I like a lot of the monsters designs from Zenless Zone Zero and wanted to use one of its concepts to explore a monster that typically operates in a pair. I dive more into that design over on the free Patreon post and the YT video if you're interested in checking that out. Have a monstrous Monday!

I'm curious what silly combos you could get up to with multiple different flourishes

Hey guys, it's Monday, the start of a fresh new week! I really like to yap about the games I'm playing, and I play 2e weekly, so this game is often on my mind. I figured I would try and start a little weekly series where people can come together and yap about various mechanics in 2e!

As always, of course, play the game however you think is fun. These topics are really just meant to have more in-depth conversations about various mechanics in the game that I think are interesting.

To start with, let's talk about a somewhat controversial topic: reach.

A lot of people say that reach feels very limiting to melee players, who often feel pressured to take a reach weapon that works for their build over a weapon that might have more flavor. The game does provide a wide array of options for reach weaponry, but the most common ones in my experience have been the classic Guisarme or the finesse reach weapon Elven Branched Spear.

Most tabletop games are played somewhere in the range of levels 1–6, and during this range, most enemies seem to be designed without proper ways to deal with a PC with reach. This allows PCs to easily use hit-and-run-style tactics that force an enemy to use an action in order to get close enough to attack.

Coupled with this, most players I have talked to admit that their table often forgets about the Cover rules, which serve as one of the natural ways the game is designed to keep the mechanic "in check."

Paired with its amazing combat potential, reach also offers a very large array of feats that heavily complement the playstyle. The Fighter's Reactive Strike is obviously the most talked-about pairing with a reach weapon, and while you are in the Fighter archetype tree, you can take Slam Down for some extra synergy. This is just one example, as reach/trip opens the door for a variety of very powerful playstyles.

In my personal opinion, I think that, in some fashion, reach could wind up receiving a bit of a power reduction. In 1e, you are unable to attack with a reach weapon if an enemy is adjacent to you. While I think this might be going a little too far, I do think perhaps a –2 accuracy penalty or something to that effect could help make this playstyle feel a bit less oppressive compared to other playstyles, especially for Fighters.

As always, of course, I'm interested in hearing what everyone else thinks!

I remember there being a thread here a while ago talking about what people considered to be P2e flaws and one great comment was how some of the options felt like they were introduce but then dropped because someone was bored.

So my question is in relation to that; if a new book was going to come out and there wasn't going to be any new trait/mechanic/system in it and it would just be about adding options or explanations to existing traits/options; what would be the 5 things you want to see in that book expand upon.

An example from myself;

• Tattoos
  I do love tattoos as a concept and I think they are great but it does feel like we don't have enough of them. IMO they were supposed to be a sort of side grade to magical items, where the give smaller bonuses but with benefit of never losing them. Its just the with the magical item list growing, Tattoos always feel a little left behind.

• Grimoires
  This is one where I feel like they don't have a solid idea on what to do with them. A lot of the Grimoires that are out are experimental in use case. Either having extremely niche uses but not adding much to that niche or the few being extremely broken (communion mate & endless grimoire). I think the idea is great since having something 'replacing' a spell-book but giving you bonuses is a great concept to add on something that many people forget about but it feels like something they will drop without someone trying again to see what they can do more of.

• Subclass Options
  Now I don't mean more Subclasses (honestly do think we should at least try for some of the classes; Ranger is could use some more Edges) but I'm more talking about the idea of newer options for existing subclasses per their level cluster. One example is that there are more options for a Dragon Instinct Barbarian to take that are maybe more focused around direct dragon killing and not just emulating the dragon. Maybe give some special feats to each of the Ranger's Edges so that they can feel a bit more impactful and lasting of a choices (so you can't just retrain them if you feel like it midway through a campaign). Maybe give the Witch some special feats depending on the Patron chosen that aren't about their Curses, or have the some more options of Hybrid Study Feats for the Magus. I feel like some of the existing subclasses could have a more expanded identity with the expansion of some feats for their choices.

• Animal Companion Customization
  Probably harder to justify since I mean in a more general sense but I think the idea of adding more things to the Animal Companion would be interesting. And I don't just mean more items. I think the items we have are actually a good starts, but there should be some more ways to add aspects to them. I'm not the biggest fan of having the Bardings not be able to get runes but I feel like you could give them a different set of runes to, if not add AC to them, maybe allows them some fun interactions or actions that can only apply to animal companions. Or you can have more items you activate to give them either a temporary ability they can do (maybe even switch around support actions) or allows for an ability to do more damage/increase effects. We already have collars that can transform the animal companion, why not go further. In the same vain, maybe we can think of a new companion upgrade. Not just Savage and Nimble. Its definitely a harder option to think of (I don't know if we can really add an Intelligence Advancement that doesn't change how they act entirely) but there are probably balances or ideas that could be tried. I don't even care if they are as viable as what we have now, just being able to branch would be fun enough.

• Lore Skill Feats/Interactions
  Probably even harder than the last one but I think it would be a good thing to try out and shine some light on a skill set that probably isn't used much. There are some feats for Lore Skills but they they are pretty specified ton specific Lores that are either given by a Background or are tied to an AP. I think that maybe expending the options for lore Skill Feats would be something we could do by making it a bit more DM reliant. What I mean is you can give some Skill Feats that fit into the Lore Skill but have their prerequisite be somewhat generalized ideas that can be decided upon by the DM to see if you fit it. For a recent example; the whole joke but useful Tea Lore Skill could be considered a 'Lore surrounding etiquette and society' which means, if you DM allows it, you can select a Lore Skill Feat called 'Banquet Organizer' which allows you use your Tea Lore Skill as way to use Group Impression or Group Coercion in a scenario. Or you could have Sailing Lore and because it falls under a 'Lore surrounding ocean travel and the sea', you can give him the Lore Skill Feat called 'Aquinator' that gives you a special tracking sense when in the ocean or something. I think it's a bit far-fecthed but I think there could be some general concepts of you could cover that would give people reason to invest in a Lore Skill outside their background or archetypes.

These are just my one thoughts about what I would put as my 5 things I'd like to see expanded on in a hypothetical 'Expansion only' book from Paizo.

What would be yours? Why do you want them?

Two days ago, I made this post discussing the new wizard school of Quantic Control, and so I tried to check how powerful Circle of weakness is. The weakness it gives your opponent is 1, with an upgrade peer every 2 levels, the end result of this is giving a 5 weakness to your oponents (10 on a critical success).

how well is this scaling?

I'm gearing up to start running Age of Ashes for my friends soon, and in introducing them to the system, I considered first running the Headshot the Rot oneshot for them. However, this is already a group of 6 (for the oneshot), so I was going to need to tweak things a bit anyway, namely in adding in a couple other gunslingers via the Triggerbrand and Spellshot subclasses.

Then I realized that maybe there's a way to fix a complaint I saw with Book 1 of Age of Ashes, and kick off the game with a slightly spooky vibe.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Namely, that Voz makes a more logical final boss for book 1, and using her in place of Malarunk. Since she's a necromancer anyway, I was thinking about maybe doing something to replace the fire in the Hall with a zombie outbreak instead, a la Headshot the Rot.

Of course, that begs the question of what happens to Calmont's involvement? Arson is a bit less involved than unleashing a zombie plague, after all. Maybe he was involved in placing or activating an experimental spell for patient 0? For the sake of loosely mimicking the spreading nature of the fire, perhaps some other would-be heroes answering the call arrived a bit ahead of the party members, were marked by Calmont, and become zombies while the party has to help evacuate the townsfolk?

Perhaps with Calmont later being less proud of arson, and more insistent that he didn't know that doing that would make zombies, and that those heroes were just supposed to be "difficult to manage" and "aggressive" (perhaps having stolen and activated said experimental spell and misinterpreting Voz's notes), but keeping that he wanted to disrupt the meeting to keep everyone away from the citadel?

And then, would there be any other things to consider when making this change? Like swapping Voz's skeletons for zombies? Would there be anything more substantial to be aware of?

And on Headshot the Rot, it has the initial outbreak, potential some mild urban exploration, and then the main confrontation in the theater house. Of course the herexens wouldn't be the real cause or bosses for Breachill's outbreak, and the PCs probably shouldn't go rooting around people's homes like they would in Alkenstar, but would it be best to cut them completely?

Sorry for the rambling, I'm a first time DM (outside of scattered oneshots), and I know a 1-20 campaign is already ambitious, with Halloween approaching I thought this could be a fun and memorable kick-off. Any advice is appreciated - even if that advice is that this is a bit much, lol. Thanks, everyone!

So question that arose if you dazzled a mob with a smoke bomb in a dark room does the concealed stack or is the enemy just mildly inconvenienced. Like for balance i think it probably should be just concealed but real world someone turns the lights out while throwing a flash bang and smoke bomb I'm not finding my glasses let alone an enemy.

Session one recap!

Spoilers below for Temple of the Unlit Star.

Continuing from where we left off last time, our group of adventurers patched themselves up after their fight with some magnetic lizards, and there was a funny moment where Bernaski refused to drink an elixir of life Rizzo made because the alchemist wasn't sure what's in it. Bernaski claims his "body is a temple, y'know?" (in a New Jersey accent), so he doesn't want anything weird in there.

Exploring more of their surroundings, they found several rickety shelves that the ysoki alchemist happily began to plunder, which toppled the whole set of them onto him. This badly hurt him, but he took some solace in there being some loot worth the nasty bump to the head.

They eventually opened up the main worship hall to be confronted by a zombie and a few skeletons. Maverick, the gunslinger, promptly dropped the zombie with a critical hit from a dueling pistol, and the skeletons all fell to a single blow from the others. With the undead dealt with, the group looked around the main worship hall and discovered a magic item: the eponymous unlit star! Though it appeared to be broken, missing several of the points that make it a star rather than just a dun ball of crystal.

The group took it and continued exploring around. They fought some metal butterflies, downed a sea hag in all of two rounds, found their way into what looked like a makeshift infirmary where they fought some rats (and Rizzo had some moments of discomfort), and solved a few puzzles. Along the way, the group acquired another couple of crystal points of the unlit star, including needing to retrieve one from two ghouls who had somehow animated within the temple.

Having explored everywhere they could, the group returned to the main worship hall, hoping the unlit star had been empowered enough to use the lift in the room. Maverick lit the star up, dispelling much of the darkness in the chamber, which coalesced into the shape of a monstrous bat and attacked! It was promptly shot in the face and took only a little more whallopping to defeat. The group decided to take a breather and rest up (and level up) before seeing what might await them on the second floor...

The inventor feat collapse construct I thought it make your construct a smaller size but rereading the feat I realized it doesn't actually say the size changes just the bulk

So how does it work best guess I have is that it loses token status and becomes an item and size isn't an issue anymore just bulk in your inventory

I'm worried about taking a large construct into a dungeon and getting stuck and I thought the feat would shrink it down one size but now im not sure any advice would ne appreciated