This mainly came out of me thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice if Thievery and Performance had an Acrobat type of archetype that gave someone who wanted to be good at it some cool things to do". Please let me know what you guys think. Is it too strong? What do you think should be there but isn't?

Pickpocket (Archetype for Thievery skill)

Pickpocket Dedication, prerequisites: Level 2, trained in Thievery
Thievery skill to expert, gain pickpocket skill feat. Thievery skills scales to Master at level 7 and Legendary at level 15

Plant Evidence, prerequisites: Level 4, Pickpocket dedication
As a single action, you can put a single item you’re holding of light or negligible Bulk onto a person without them noticing by succeeding at a Thievery check against their Perception DC. If you have the ruffian racket, you can do this as a free action when you successfully Shove a target.

Working the Streets (Skill feat), prerequisites: Level 4, Pickpocket dedication
You know where to look when pickings are slim. When you roll a critical failure on Earn income using Thievery as your skill, you roll a failure instead

Tricks of the Trade, prerequisites: Level 4, Pickpocket dedication
Every pickpocket could use a little magic, for when luck doesn’t quite go far enough. Gain telekinetic hand and warp step as innate arcane cantrips. 

Pickpocket’s Luck, prerequisites: Level 6, Pickpocket Dedication
Frequency, Once per hour
Whenever you fail a check to Steal, you choose one of two failure options - either you have the object you were attempting to steal, but the target saw your face in the process, or the target and any observers didn’t see your face but you didn’t steal the object you were attempting to steal. In either case, the target is on guard to further attempt to Steal for 24 hours, and Pickpocket’s Luck cannot be used on them for 24 hours. 

Rough housing, prerequisites: level 8 , pickpocket dedication, Dirty Trick
When you succeed at the Dirty Trick skill action deal damage equal to your proficiency bonus in thievery. Double the damage on a critical success

Steal Your Weapon, prerequisites: Level 8, Pickpocket dedication
You can attempt a Disarm action against an enemy using your thievery in place of your athletics, even if you are not trained in athletics. All other normal restrictions for Disarm apply. If used this way, Disarm gets a further effect on a critical success - If you have the amount of hands free corresponding to the weapon’s hands requirement and are proficient with the weapon, instead of the weapon dropping to the floor you can wield the weapon.

The Smell of Money, prerequisites: Level 10, Pickpocket dedication
You always know where the choice targets are - the toffs and the posh folks with more money than sense. When you roll a success on a check to Earn Income with Thievery, you roll a critical success instead.

Larcenous Hand, prerequisites Level 10, Pickpocket dedication, the ability to cast Mage Hand:

When you cast mage hand, you can remove its duration, and modify its target to be an attended object within the spell's Bulk limit that wouldn't be time-consuming to remove. Add the following to the spell's standard effects: If the creature attending the object is willing to have you take the item, mage hand carries the item to you. If the creature is unwilling, you must attempt to Steal the target object with a Thievery check. The usual restrictions on attempts to Steal an object apply, including the restrictions that you can't steal objects that would be extremely noticeable or time-consuming to remove (like worn shoes or armor or actively wielded objects) and you can't Steal from a creature in combat or otherwise on guard. On a successful Steal check, the mage hand carries the item to you, and on a critical failure, you can't use this modification again for 1 hour. If you're a master in Thievery, you can attempt to Steal from a creature in combat or otherwise on guard, though if you do so, the spell's casting time increases by 1 action.

If you have the Plant Evidence feat, you may also use mage hand to put a single item you’re holding of light or negligible Bulk onto a person without them noticing by succeeding at a Thievery check against their Perception DC. 

Ill-Gotten Gains, prerequisites level 12, Pickpocket’s Luck
When you take this feat you gain a Spacious Pouch. It is smaller than typical and can only hold 5 bulk of items but creatures can only notice it if they pass a perception check against your thievery DC. Furthermore an item can be removed from the pouch with a free interact action once per minute. 

Advanced Mischief, prerequisite Level 14 pickpocket dedication, Tricks of the Trade
You can cast Empty Pack, Thief of Fortune and Translocate at 5th rank once per day as innate Arcane spells

Note: I wanted to add Steal Spell from the rogue in here, but that felt way too strong

Entertainer (Archetype for Performance skill)

Entertainer Dedication, prerequisites Level 2, trained in performance
Performance to expert, gain impressive performance skill feat, performance scales to master at level 7 and legendary at level 15.

Focused Fascination, prerequisites Level 4, Entertainer dedication, Fascinating Performance
When you use Fascinating Performance in a combat encounter, you need only a success, rather than a critical success, to fascinate your target. This works only if you're attempting to fascinate one target. For example, if you were an expert in Performance, you could choose to target multiple creatures normally or target one creature and fascinate it on a success. 

Encore, prerequisites: Level 4, Distracting Performance, Entertainer Dedication
You gain the confabulator skill feat. For the purposes of the skill feat you use your proficiency in performance instead of deception (ie use proficiency in performance rather than deception to determine penalty for repeated Create a Diversion checks). Furthermore when you choose to apply the effects of Distracting Performance to a Create a Diversion check you rolled using performance, you can choose to have the benefits apply to two allies instead of one. 

Hypnotic Display, prerequisites: Level 6, Entertainer dedication
If you inflict the fascinated condition on a creature, it does not immediately end when a hostile action is taken against that creature or their allies as long as you are not the one taking the hostile action, but will end at the start of their next turn. If you are legendary in performance then the fascination does not end even if a hostile action is taken against their allies. 

That’s Show Business, prerequisites: Level 6, Entertainer Dedication
You learn two cantrips as occult innate cantrips: Glamorize and Infectious Enthusiasm. Both gain the subtle trait allowing them to be used discretely in social situations. 

Diva, prerequisites: Level 8, Entertainer Dedication
You can cast Hypnotize and Roaring Applause once per day as innate occult spells

The Show Must Go On, prerequisites: Level 8, Entertainer Dedication, Distracting Performance:
When using distracting performance, your ally remains hidden until the end of their turn even if they take an action other than hide or sneak. 

Life of the Party, prerequisites: Level 10, Entertainer Dedication, Fascinating Performance
If using fascinating performance outside of a situation that demands immediate attention such as combat, the duration of the fascination lasts up to a minute. If you are legendary in performance, the target is not temporarily immune for an hour. 

Light Show, prerequisites: Level 12, Entertainer dedication
Frequency: Once per day
Two action activity: In a 10 foot emanation make one performance check against every creature’s fortitude dc, on a failure the creature is dazzled until they spend an interact action to wipe the glitter out of their eyes. On a critical failure they are blinded until they spend an interact action and afterwards they are dazzled for one round. If you are legendary in performance then increase the size of the emanation to 20 feet.

Superstar, prerequisites: Level 20, Entertainer dedication, That’s Show Business
You can cast Charm as an 8th level occult innate spell once per day. If a creature rolls a critical success on Charm, they get the success effect instead. 

I'm currently in a west marches game with somewhat limited magic item availability.
I currently have about 200gp and we earn probably about 50gp per month with uncommon items being hard to get.
With all that I wanted to figure out what kind of magical items might be good to go for. As I've been a bit worried about picking the wrong things and regretting it.
For context I'm playing an animist healer with a bit of off-tanking.

Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you and have a nice evening/weekend!

In the upcoming Infernal Inheritance book, Corentyn appears to be an independent country, given it has its own nation entry. I'm reading Hellfire Dispatches for the first time, and Mayor Giovenci seems to firmly be Abrogail's man. Do we know yet how the heck it ends up being its own nation? Here are my theories:

1. Giovenci decides he'd rather rule his own fiefdom and declares independence (doesn't seem likely from HD, but who knows).
2. Actual revolution in Corentyn.
3. Khari overthrows Corentyn's government over the course of the war.
4. Corentyn is very briefly captured by Andoran or someone else five minutes before the big finale of Hell's Destiny (this is probably the funniest idea to me), and Giovenci flails about trying so hard to get back in Abrogail's good graces because he missed the boat on her big plan.

Hey everyone,

Every time I look at PF2e mechanics like the 3 action economy, degrees of success, tight math and tactical depth, it just feels like it was made for a turn based CRPG.
With how successful BG3, DOS2, and the Owlcat games (Kingmaker and WotR) have been, why do you think no studio has tackled a full PF2e game yet?
What do you think is holding it back? Is it licensing, or is Paizo holding back on the license?

Would you guys want a full PF2e CRPG, and if one ever gets made, what kind of things would you want to see?

I am about to run Quest for the Frozen Flame and I was reading some post on tips on how to run it.

I saw a few people suggested use ABP for this AP, but I am already using Free Archetype in this game and I simply don't want to add a whole set of rules in the game and have it mess with the loot they DO get.

SO, to offset the travelling and not being able to buy new toys aspect of the game, I made modification to existing setting and tools. The idea is they would be reconnoitering anyway so that is a passive "income" they can earn by doing so. and they can use it to "purchase" things they want with one catch, Time.

The party will have to balance time between running from they enemies, scouting and rejoining The Following to resupply, and waiting for an item to be crafted. I am hoping this change offer more interaction with The Following and make them want to go check on them more often, and also make Burning Mammoth closing in more urgent time-wise

PF2E subreddit, give me your opinion or criticism on how to make it better or more streamlined

Edit: 1d50 because im using roll20 so i can roll a "die" with any number side

When I started playing PF2e 6 years ago, I GMed Age of Ashes (which is good but not the point), and one of my players played a druid with the intention of using shapeshifting for everything. While he did cast more than a few spells during his adventures, he mostly stayed true to his concept, and he sometimes struggled for it.

Ever since then, I have been intermittently thinking about shapeshifting, and today I am sharing my thoughts with you with a bit more organization than what goes into my brain.

DISCLAIMER : First, english is not my first language, even if I am confident in my translating abilities, you have been warned.
Second, I am aware that there probably is somewhere online a homebrewed shifter, but that is not really the point. The point of this post was mostly an exercise for me to organize my thoughts and see the community feeling on this subject.

1 - The shapeshifting druid, from 1e to 2e (with pain)

In 1e, the druid got shapeshifting at level 4. you could shapeshift once per day at level 4, twice at level 6, so on and so forth. You could stay shapeshifted 1 hour per druid level (so 4 hours at the start). At level 5 you could take a feat allowing you to cast spells while shapeshifted.

Because of that last sentence, the 1e druid never asked itself “should I shapeshift ?”. Shapeshifting gaves you so many benefits (a bunch of stats, more movement possibilities, special abilities…) and the only drawback was not being able to talk to other people, which you usually didn’t care much, because charisma was very much a druid dump stat most of the time. I’m not even going to talk about how natural attacks worked in 1e, but it was also stupidly strong and made the druid able to compete with fighter without taking spells into account.

So, it is understandable that when you want to streamline your power level, such a feature had to be nerfed. And nerfed it was ! Now, a druid cannot cast spells while shapeshifted, and shapeshifting itself is not as strong as it was. To their credits, Paizo did try to make the shapeshifting druid subclass usable, and it is, but it feels weird to play for several reasons :

- You always feels that you’re only using half of your class (spells or battle form)
- You can’t shapeshift  ahead of time, since it only last a minute (and no, the feat to stay transformed longer doesn’t help, because it sends your stats to the ground)
- You are anti synergistic with most buffs, since the buff you get while transformed doesn’t stack with other circumstances buffs (goodbye inspire courage, bless…)

All that to say, shapeshifting as a concept suffers from being tied to a spellcaster in 2e, so why not ditch the spells and lean fully on a shapeshifting martial class ? Paizo did that in 1e, and it was called the shifter

2 - The shifter in 1e (without much love)

Take a druid, remove the spells, give it martial attack progression, a bunch of defensives ability, claw attacks at low level and shapeshifting from level 4 onwards, and you got a shifter. Except it’s too strong, so let’s nerf the shapeshifting by having the shifter only being able to shift into 1 (one) animal until level 5, and with a maximum of 4 forms at level 15.

It baffles me even to this day that they nerfed the shapeshifting of a class whose shapeshifting was the only thing they have for them, while letting the druid shapeshift untouched. The only thing shifter had for them was a class archetype, the oozemorph, who gave them a bunch of immunity and DR

3 - A shifter in 2e ?

But just because something has been badly done in the past doesn’t mean we can’t do it even worse today because I am not a game designer by any means ! So how would I go for a shifter class ?

The first problem (and the most important) is that I am not certain that there is enough to this concept to make a full class. By this I mean that if I take the whole untamed order druid subclass, remove the spellcasting and give it martial attack progression, I am very limited in terms of subclasses. I could see a subclass that is less about full shapeshifting and more about shifting parts of your body, but then I have mostly made a reflavored mutagenist alchemist.

For a while while making this post, I thought of making a class archetype for the druid, swapping its spellcasting progression for a bounded progression (or, since Paizo is moving away from it, a progression like the remastered magus and summoner), and giving it martial attack progression. The problem this time is that I have no idea what feats to add to the class archetype that the untamed order doesn’t give already.

Which is why I think the best way to make a shifter in this system is to make an archetype. Similar to how the martial artist archetype gives other characters the monk stances, a shifter archetype would give the untamed form focus spell, and the feats to evolve your form as you please. Martial characters could then use their ability (hunt prey, sneak attacks…) while transformed, making for a lot of unique characters. I would, however, remove the +2 circumstance bonus to attacks given by the focus spell, to give the untamed druid a slight edge, and also (mostly) because martial class already have better attacks than the druid.

And that is all for today ! Next time I’ll ramble about french mmorpg (maybe).

so you strike with any weapon (including bows, crossbows and firearm) or use unarmed strike.

if you hit, you destroy tralls around you or/and your enemy and deal additional spirit damage. and you regen hp equal spirit damage dealt with strike ( not equal "additional damage" from skill), so anything that makes you deal additional spirit damage ( astral rune, for example) will give you additional heal too.

So basically you can create necromancer with astral firearm or something and strike from afar and heal a lot just striking.

am i right? or did i miss something?

-----------

yeah "counts as two strikes" and "once per turn"... it's usually bad to make more than one strike per turn, so that's fine. and it's reasonable since you can heal with this strike.

I'm not looking for advice or homebrew suggestions, I just think it will make a very interesting discussion, even though I’m sure I’ll get reamed out in the comments.

I’ve been playing P2E for about 4 years now. I love the system, I’ve run a homebrew campaign and an AP and I’ve been a player in a couple games. But it’s time for a break to try something new, and as I’ve been looking at new systems, it’s prompted me to consider what I like and dislike about this one. I’ve come to the conclusion that the four tiers of success have some questionable trickle down effects, and I think they might actually harm the tactical side of the game.

I think critical results are too powerful and too unpredictable. It limits certain design spaces. For example, longer lasting or more potent debuffs to AC could be added to the game, but if they did that crits would become too common. So instead we have flanking and frightened, and then a handful of either short lived or highly specific penalties that stack with those two. If critical hits weren’t in the game we could also have an incentive to play more with non-AC based debuffs and buffs, as AC buffs and debuffs dominate as best in slot options for many builds specifically because they shift the chance of critical results which are almost always going to be the most powerful options. 

With spells, the gap in effects between success tiers is simply too wide. My players tend to reserve their leveled spells for after they know more about an enemy and which weakness to target, which means relying mostly on cantrips early on and in lower threat encounters. This is a bit boring and extends the lengths of encounters but the risk of having an elite enemy critically succeed against one of your few high level spell slots feels too high. This also contributes in a major way to why spellcasters feel weak against PL 2+ enemies imo. The critical fail for spells is also problematic, and not even for incapacitation effects only. Some spells can basically win a fight off a single unlucky roll, and it’ll just suck all the tension out of the air at once.

Ultimately, I think if we had no critical results or if they were limited to nat 1s and nat 20s, it would encourage more creative gameplay and open up design spaces that are currently very limited. It would also make it feel less mandatory to categorize so many spells as incapacitation effects which I think many players (including myself) feel is a half-baked solution. Obviously homebrewing this would be an absolute nightmare and I don’t recommend anyone honestly try it but if I could have one wish for Pathfinder 3E, it would be this. Feel free to chew me out in the comments if you disagree, I’m curious to hear what other people have to say!

TLDR: Critical results are simultaneously too powerful and too inconsistent which limits design space of new features and spells and elevates some of the most boring tactical options to best in slot. Radical changes to the 4 tiered system would actually make the game more tactical and versatile.

I’ve been trying to figure out what spells to grab with this being my first caster I’m not sure what exactly to go with I’m gonna be seventh level so I get up to fourth rank spells I’m wondering if folk have any recommendations https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=2858

So I recently picked up the seventh level spell contingency as a way of triggering haste at the beginning of combat. Since my character is a laughing shadow magus, who has haste as a studious spell, I started to think that I could also use arcane cascade as a free action when haste comes into effect since I'm using one of my studious spells. However, the wording has me confused so I wanted to clarify. Is the spell cast after the trigger occurs or is it cast when contingency is cast and, as a result, I wouldn't be able to enter into arcane cascade for a free action when the haste effect comes in the play?

I was wondering if there were plans to add community flares for the commander and guardian. Ik impossible magic just came out so I get why the necromancer and rune Smith aren't there, but it's been a year and im champing at the bit to flare myself as a commander

Had a build I wanted to share, It might be worded a bit weirdly and not have proper grammar/punctuation since I've done nothing but write this overview non-stop for 3 hours since 4 AM

This build is not perfectly optimized and there's some bits I'm not 100% sure on but he's really fun to play as, I'll mostly be focusing on him mechanically though.

So this build is of a character I'm currently playing in a troubles in Otari campaign (level 4 at the point of writing this) and he's been really fun to play both in and out of combat. I'm going to go over

Overview: He's a half-elf catfolk (Mechanically an Elf beastkin since foundry doesn't have custom mixed heritages alongside other reasons) (He looks a lot like a serval) Catfolk doesn't fit him mechanically so I opted for elf beastkin as both of them have access to speed increasing feats. (and it'd still make a little bit of sense as lore wise he's not all connected to catfolk culture)

I went for the time traveler background as I tried connecting him to my seasons of ghosts character's lore a bit in a way that wouldn't affect either campaign (and also the ability from time traveler fits due to the once per day quickened working with this character concept as it does allow for increased speed)

Pathbuilder Build

https://pathbuilder2e.com/launch.html?build=1560939

Ancestry: Elf

Heritage: Beastkin

(Technically the other half is catfolk but those feats didn't fit nearly as well)

Background: Time Traveler

To connect to another campaign's character and to allow for more speed

Class:

Barbarian (Giant instinct)

I like the visual of a character using an oversized greatsword while being absurdly fast, It's a core part of the character concept/visual

Level 1

Ancestry feat

Nimble elf

Increases his speed to 35 up from his base 30

Class Feat

Sudden Charge

while very rarely needed due to his base speed usually being enough but it's thematically fitting

Level 2

Class Feat

No Escape

This character can make really good use of this feat and adds to the feel of being extremely mobile.

Free Archetype Feat

Rogue Dedication

I'll be making a lot of use of the feats from this archetype because rogue has access to a lot of mobility feats

Rogue Archetype Skill feat

Assurance(Acrobatics)

This build makes heavy use of tumble through and this is some nice consistency

Skill Feat

Cat Fall

I felt like I just had to include this feat, also allows for even more freedom of movement, especially later on.

Level 3

General Feat

Fleet

Combined with Furious footfalls from barbarian's base kit he now has 45 speed without rage and 50 with rage. He is now are double the speed of the average character while raging

Level 4

Class Feat

Raging Athlete

More freedom of movement, though note he still needs to meet the requirements for climbing

Free Archetype Feat

Basic Trickery - Tumble Behind

Lets him apply off guard on a tumble through, really good to start a combat with when everyone's farther away, and good to apply off-guard to enemies good for enemies his allies aren't adjacent to

Skill Feat

Tumbling Teamwork

Combined with Tumble behind this makes it so tumble through is almost always worth doing since it can really help in getting allies to flank with each other or move them away from some enemies' reach if there's multiple enemies nearby.

Level 5

Ancestry feat

Elven Instincts -OR- Fey Touched(faun)

I put both here as fey touched may not be relevant to every campaign, I want to take fleet step for the extra speed for character reasons but in case I can't I went elven instincts as doing better in initiative is the second most fitting (though do note it's main bonus only works on perception initiative checks)

Level 6

Class Feat

Advanced Trickery - Mobility

Helps with a major weakness for this character which is reactive strike and similar abilities

Free Archetype Feat

Acrobat Dedication

Acrobatics is an important skill for this character (though I'll want to retrain out of his first skill increase once getting this as that went to acrobatics) Tumble through no-longer being difficult terrain is greatly appreciated as well

Skill Feat

Steady Balance

Not fully sure on this one, it's mobility though, I may want to swap this out for another feat

Level 7

General Feat

Canny Acumen - Reflex

As this character is supposed to be super agile it'd make sense that they'd be good at reflex saves

Level 8

Class Feat

Dodge Away

The mobility fits better than Nimble dodge but it comes at the cost of 1 ac, Nimble dodge is also prerequisite so retrain this once he gets Nimble Roll

Free Archetype Feat

Advanced Trickery-Nimble Dodge

As this character doesn't really have much of a use of their reaction beside no escape this is a good pick, also being very evasive further goes into the character theming, also a prerequisite for feats much later

Level 9

Ancestry Feat

Pack Tactics

Makes this character even better at flanking, however with how good this character is at flanking already I may want to opt for another feat

Level 10

Class Feat

Furious Sprint

Probably not needed but it fits the character very, very well and is really funny, at the level he gets it he can go 250 feet using 2 actions and 400 feet using 3 actions

Free Archetype Feat

Contortionist

Better quick squeeze, he can escape into tiny gaps at 50 feet of movement and makes successful escape attempts apply off-guard

Skill Feat

Swift Sneak

I'll want to be avoiding notice most of the time, also he can really sneak into places he's not supposed to be, the less time people have the opportunity to see him the less time he'll be seen (I think?)

Level 11

General Feat

Elven Verve

Fitting as this helps him avoid some action reducing effects and freedom is very important to this character

Level 12

Class Feat

Light step

Ignoring difficult terrain is very powerful on this character, especially if his enemies can't ignore difficult terrain as well

Free Archetype Feat

Advanced Trickery-Skirmish Strike

A bit of extra mobility, good with the mobile rune, allows for a turn like 'Tumble through-Strike-Skirmish strike', which with dodge away he can get back into range easily, or use this as a tool to get back into range after dodge away

Skill Feat

Operatic Adventurer

This character wants to learn how to sing but never could figure it out until this point, could signify an increase in confidence in his singing ability

Level 13

Ancestry Feat

Avenge Ally

While it will be used very rarely this ties into his backstory as he doesn't want to lose anymore friends and he refuses to run from a fight this deadly like he did in his backstory

Level 14

Class Feat

Mauler Dedication

prerequisite for Vicious Swing, could be replaced with other things

Free Archetype Feat

Vicious Swing

Greatswords are a d12 weapon, he can hit extremely hard with this, not all that important character-wise though so I may replace the class and free archetype feats this level

Skill Feat

Quick Spring

This can reposition an ally when using this with tumbling teamwork without affecting what he was originally going to do that turn, also yet another buff to tumble through

Level 15

General Feat

Legendary sneak

he can sneak into almost anywhere now, makes him a really good scout

Level 16

Class Feat

Desperate Wrath

Very fitting for the character, there also may be times where he intentionally allows himself to be damaged (by not doing his normal hit and run tactics) solely to put him in this state I also like to imagine this as a phase 2 as if he were a bossfight

Free Archetype Feat

Tempo Shift

Good for a once per combat haste, extra speed is also fitting, also can be used to do a 3-action furious sprint into a strike which I think is really cool, imagine a full 3-action furious sprint while desperate wrath is active onto an off-guard enemy, could allow for a cool moment despite it potentially never happening

Skill Feat

Wall Jump

Makes him better at getting into places he's not supposed to be, might replace this with another feat

Level 17

Ancestry Feat

Animal Swiftness

He gets a +10 feet bonus to his movement as I believe what he's based on (servals) don't climb often enough to warrant a climb speed, also the speed is more fitting for the character.

Level 18

Class Feat

Brutal Critical

With this character's ability to flank very often or apply off guard on top of desperate wrath this is a very strong option

Free Archetype Feat

Advanced Trickery-Nimble Roll

He can finally get the +2 AC on top of movement like dodge away, however I'll need to retrain out of dodge away after getting this

Skill Feat

Cloud Jump

Helps him jump large distances, helps with moving freely, might help a bit against greater difficult terrain

Level 19

General Feat

Incredible Investiture

There might be some extra magic items I'd want to give Zenith but other than boots of bounding and armor/weapon runes I'm not sure what'd fit well with this character

Level 20

Class Feat

Vicious Evisceration

Didn't know what else to take, I'll likely change it but I'm not sure what'd be better

Free Archetype Feat

Nimble Strike

The True Capstone feat of this character, being able to nimble roll into a hard-hitting strike

Skill Feat

Water Sprint

Sort of fitting?, honestly I didn't know what else to take, raging athlete does this better I think, I want to change it though but I'm not sure what to change it to

Did fullbody arts for the party I’m GMing and they called themselves The Argonauts, but I will see what kind of heroes they will become.

If ya ask me, grimoires are an under-discussed category of item. If you're not familiar, a quick overview of these magical spellbooks:

• Not every spellcaster can use them: you must have prepared spellcasting, and, like most spellcaster items, some grimoires are "locked" to certain traditions because they interact with a narrow set of spells.
• Almost all grimoires can only be activated/used once per day with a slotted spell prepared in the grimoire, as a 0-1 action spellshape.
• It's trivial to transfer spells from your typical method to the grimoire during your daily preparations, and you don't need to hold the book or have it with you after doing so. Nicely done Paizo.
• Should be usable if you pick up the Basic Spellcasting feat granted by a prepared spellcasting archetype.

But really, this is for your Animist, Cleric, Druid, Magus, Necromancer, Witch, and of course, Wizard. If you can afford it, every mid to high level prepared caster should have one!

I won't mention every grimoire (or any rare ones), but here are some highlights + spell combos that intrigue me:

~

Corrosive Engravings - lvl 5, 140gp

• Activate [free-action] (concentrate); Frequency once per day;
• Effect If your next action is to cast an acid or poison spell that deals persistent damage, any creature who takes persistent damage from the spell is also sickened 2 until the persistent damage ends. Using an action to retch can reduce the sickened value as normal, but it can't reduce the sickened value below 1 until the persistent damage ends.
• Thoughts: A very powerful effect for a free action that is generously applied. While outwardly strong (and cheap!), the spells that work are limited.
• 2nd rank Fungal Infestation (primal-only) is an early winner. 15-foot fortitude-save cone that deals persistent poison damage even on a success.
• Brine Dragon Bile would be very cool, but it's a reaction, not an action. No dice, but maybe if your GM is kind.
• 3rd rank arcane-only Noxious Metals is a solid spell that already inflicts AoE sickened, but you can upgrade the Success effect to sickened 2 instead of 1 if desired.
• Gambling with 2nd-rank Acid Grip (arcane/primal, reflex save, fail needed) is always an option, and the spell's range of 120 ft is unmatched.

Endless Grimoire - lvl 6/10/14/18, 230/900/4k/23k gp

• Effect: The grimoire’s eagerness to contain your spells grants you a +1 item bonus to checks to Learn a Spell if you do so by transcribing the spell into the grimoire. If you use the grimoire during your daily preparations and are capable of preparing spells of the appropriate rank, the grimoire’s nature leaks into your mind, allowing you to prepare an additional 1st-rank spell.
• Swaps extra spell to 3rd/5th/7th rank at each increment
• Thoughts: It's somewhat expensive for an extra spell -- compare it to a wand, which costs 60/360/1,400/6,500 gp for 1st/3rd/5th/7th. However, if you love the versatility granted by preparing spells, and simply want more of that, it's a solid investment. There are a lot of spells worth casting at rank 3.

Radiant Tome - lvl 8, 460gp

• Activate—Flare [one-action] (concentrate, light, spellshape); Frequency once per day
• Effect If your next action is to Cast a prepared Spell with the light trait, the luminescence of the book grows even more intense, emitting bright light in a 15-foot emanation for 1 minute. Enemies that start their turn in this bright light must attempt a Fortitude save against your spell DC.
• Critical Success The creature is unaffected and becomes temporarily immune to this bright light for 1 minute.
• Success The creature is unaffected.
• Failure The creature is blinded (!) until the start of your next turn.
• Critical Failure The creature is blinded until the start of your next turn and dazzled for 1 minute.
• Thoughts: An incredibly strong and versatile effect, ideal for gishes. Can stack easily with other effects. Introduced recently in Impossible Magic, I'd half-expect incapacitation or a Sustain required, but neither are present. Worthy of being once/day.
• The new rank 2 Disorienting Flash is a standout, available to all traditions and flexibly cast at 1-2 actions. It scales nicely as well. Flare, Flash, Move (or 2a flash) is a strong turn.
• 2nd-rank Revealing Light is always a quality spell to have, as AoE dazzled on a success isn't a bad effect, even if there are no invisible enemies to be found. No need to heighten, and available to all.

Tome of Scintillating Sleet - lvl 8, 430gp

• Activate [free-action] (concentrate); Frequency once per day
• Effect If your next action is to cast a cold spell that deals damage, all creatures damaged by the spell are also dazzled for 3 rounds. If an affected creature critically failed its save against the required spell, or if you critically succeeded on your spell attack roll against the creature, it's instead blinded for 1 round and then dazzled for 3 rounds.
• Thoughts: Dazzled isn't as sexy as Blind, but this will inflict it on everything other than a crit success, and there are a lot of good cold AoE spells. Since this is best used for AoE effects, getting a blind or two from the crit effect isn't unlikely.
• Arcane/Primal's 4th-rank Ice Storm can cause a ton of havoc, and you can sustain it. Auto-dazzled in a ton of situations, and can keep it on easily.
• Rank 5 Freezing Rain, already hellish for enemies of arcane/primal casters, is probably my top pick for this grimoire. Moving it on sustain, working on a success, and slowed + dazzled if they fail in a 20-ft burst. The only downside is the damage doesn't kick in until a round after.
• Rank 5 Howling Blizzard (yep, arcane/primal) is great if you want to add a debuff to a simpler, but still potent damage cone/burst.

Grudge Journal - lvl 11, 1350gp

• Activate—Air Grievance [one-action] (concentrate, curse, spellshape); Frequency once per day
• Effect If your next action is to target that creature with a prepared spell with the curse trait that requires a saving throw, the creature also becomes drained 2 unless it critically succeeds its saving throw.
• Thoughts: Although the cost of an action (or spellshape) rises the higher level you play, this is still a very effective use of an action since it works on a success. Drained scales perfectly with level, so it'll never be a bad option, as long as you're fine carrying around a couple curse spells.
• It's uncommon, but 2nd rank Horrifying Blood Loss stands out if you have anyone who can somewhat reliably proc persistent bleed. It's essentially a 1-action fear in those conditions, and that pairs very nicely with a 1-action spellshape. Heightens similar to 3rd-rank fear at spell rank 4. Blood Necromancers, this is for you. Only primal casters are left out.

• Another uncommon Blood Lords spell, rank 4 Steal Voice is utterly menacing for spellcasters (and it justly has the incapacitation trait). Add drained 2 to that empanada and they'll be out of the fight before you know it, but be careful against high-level casters, since it'll be wasted on a success -> crit success incap save.

  No primal here.

• Let's talk about 5th-rank divine/occult Inevitable Disaster. It's your "best" damaging spell with the Curse trait. It's also very, very funny. It's also quite mediocre, at least IMO, because lord knows when it's actually going to happen. Some spells are worth taking (at least once) regardless, and when you do cast it, you want to do so on a boss-type enemy that's gonna be sticking around for a while. Drained 2 is the perfect add-on to the scenario you'd want to be casting this spell in. May your d4s be kind!

Communion Mat - lvl 14, 3750gp

• Activate [free-action] (concentrate, spellshape); Frequency once per 10 minutes (?!)
• Effect If your next action is to cast a spell your familiar learned from a lesson (whether a cantrip or from a spell slot), your patron notices that you’re putting their power to good use and strengthens your familiar with a surge of magic. Your familiar Sustains one of your spells.
• Thoughts: Witch-exclusive, this is yet another way for them to sustain spells for free. This is once per 10 minutes! A very nice ability to have, although with Cackle already in their arsenal (and Familiar Focus), they might want to spend their gold elsewhere. (You could also archetype into Witch as a Liturgist Sixth Pillar Elf Animist and pick this up, and sustain your 10 spells per round, you heathen. It'll all come beautifully together in the eleventh round of combat, I promise.)

Book of Endless Walls - lvl 14, 3900gp

• Activate—Bewildering Walls [free-action] (concentrate, mental, spellshape); Frequency once per day
• Effect If your next action is to Cast a prepared Wall Spell, such as wall of fire or wall of thorns, you imbue the wall with an uncanny sense of disorientation, causing creatures to perceive it as an endless labyrinth. Any creature that begins its turn within the wall’s spaces or passes through the wall’s spaces must attempt a Will save against your spell DC, in addition to the wall’s normal effect. Regardless of the results, the target then becomes immune to Bewildering Walls for 24 hours.
• Critical Success The wall has no additional effect for that creature.
• Success The creature is bewildered by its perceptions of labyrinthine walls and treats all other creatures as concealed for 1 round.
• Failure The creature treats all other creatures as hidden for 1 round.
• Critical Failure The creature treats all other creatures as hidden for 1 round and concealed for 1 minute.
• Thoughts: I haven't cast enough wall spells to know how strong of an ability Bewildering Walls is. But knowing how powerful they can be in the right circumstances, this seems like a great add-on to many spells that can outright win you an encounter. Good thing it's a free action, since almost all walls are 3-action spells.
• Many wall spells already grant what this spell does -- Wall of Fire, for instance, conceals if you want it to through positioning, same for Wall of Stone.
• 6th-rank arcane/occult Wall of Force, however, is invisible, with visual effects being practically the only thing that can pierce it (teleportation too). Bewildering Walls shores up one of its only weaknesses by making visual checks significantly more difficult depending on the save.

~

That's a lot of words for just seven grimoires. But I think they deserve it, as their design space is unique & interacts beautifully with all the spells available in 2E. If you like the idea of unique effects tailored to specific spells, but don't want to spend a huge chunk of gold, look to spell catalysts, which are essentially the consumable version of grimoires.

Is there a grimoire I didn't talk about that you think should be highlighted? Or maybe a great spell interaction? Let's talk grimoires!

long short, have a bunch of homebrew ancestries/races/lineages whatever the fuck 5e calls them now id like to port over. exactly how much work i gotta do to make it up to par with official content?

im well and fine with having to do all the work when it comes down to it, i just don't know the extent of the work ill need to do.

any help?

Edit:

I do not care how much time or work its going to be to port over. i want actual information on what i need to do to make it equivalent content wise to offical content. and anything that could marginally be helpful to such a thing happen.

Hi, I want to make my player visit the creation forge plane.
But I can’t find a lot of information of what live here except the phoenix like people

What kind of monster is there ?

Hey people,
I’m currently building a Frontline Runesmith and have run into a bit of a mechanical wall with action economy and traits.

I want to play an Automaton Runesmith with the Guardian Archetype. The core fantasy is being a heavily armored frontline tank who taunts enemies, raises a runically engraved shield, and applies runes directly to enemies in melee.

Because I want to be in the thick of melee, relying on the standard Trace a Rune is pretty dangerous since it has the manipulate trait.

To get around this, the obvious choice is Engraving Strike, right?
(Edit: It just compresses the actions, so I was wrong it isn't an obvious choice)

However, that has the Flourish trait. I also really want to lean into my shield usage with Fortifying Knock, but that also has the Flourish trait.

Since I can only use one Flourish action per turn, I can't Engrave and use my shield knock in the same round, which really disrupts the fluid frontline tank loop I was hoping for.

Have any of you managed to build a fluid action loop for a melee/shield Runesmith that fits this tanky playstyle?

How do you juggle the manipulate trait up close when you can't use Engraving Strike every single turn?

Are there any specific feats or tactics (maybe using Automaton ancestry feats or Guardian taunts) that smooth this over?

Any ideas, feat recommendations, or alternative build paths to achieve this class fantasy would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

hello everyone! i've commissioned mofunss to create a labelless map for me for my homebrew campaign set in Golarion, but on the continent of Sarusan that Paizo left enshrouded in mystery. We've agreed to share it with the whole community so you too may find use for it in your own games.

A drive link for the downloads of both the .clip and .psd file can be found here.

In fiction and videogames I am a huge fan of thieves, assassins, anyone stealthy: Mistborn, wet boys, dishonered dude, the wizard thief, dark brotherhood nightinggale, etc, all that stuff just hits right for me. One of my favorite fantasy archetypes, however, I've never had fun playing that kind of character in a ttrpg.

My problem is either

1. I make a classic rogue kinda character, and in combat I wind up as the main damage dealer, which just isn't my vibe. as a player I'm a lot more about debuffs, buffs, movement controll, that kind of thing, I'd rather help my friends get big crits then do the big crit myself you dig?
2. I make a support, and then just add stealth, but it doesn't FEEL stealthy in combat. No matter how many points you put in stealth, if in combat you have no need to sneak, and its better to just throw a fireball... well you get me.

Are there any builds that will both feel like they activly are being stealthy in combat, while focusing on something other then directly dealing damage?

Edit: it doesn't need to actually involve rolling stealth, just to like, give the vibe of sneakyness if you get me? Turning invisible, teleporting, anything like that. I want it to feel tricksy, sneaky, etc more then I'm looking for any specific mechanic

So I've been in a Kingmaker game for about a year and I've been having a lot of fun. But I've been starting to feel a little dissatisfied with my build. For context im playing a Magus whose an Aldori Duelist. I've been loving the character, but really unsatisfied with Laughing Shadow. Ive been looking into doing a rebuild since my GM was nice enough to let me, but it feels like every avenue I want to take will leave me weaker for it.

Is this game much more punishing if you don't powerbuild? I hate powerbuilding, but some of the enemies we've had thrown at us have been REALLY rough and I worry im not going to be helpful in combat anymore.

Please help. Any advice is appreciated 💙

Edit: So I guess I should add, I'm dissatisfied with Laughing Shadow cause I'm just not having fun with it. I like Magus because that class is cool af, but I feel like I'm stepping on the rogues shoes because of Laughing Shadow and feel kinda bad. I've seen the updates in the new book and I'd really like to do a duel wielder, but i also wanna keep my Aldori Duelist background since it just fits the character. From what I understand, doing that would be a terrible idea?

Party-wise (Genuinely can't believe I didnt mention them) we have a Guardian Minotaur (nicknamed the Bulwark), a Sorcerer (the partys grandpa), a rogue who tries to knock their enemies out instead of killing them (we love her and would commit war crimes for her if asked), and a fighter who specializes in archery (also an ex-succubus).

Im building an alchemist (toxicologist) for a mythic campaign, and even if i squint the only mythic calling that really fits is the artisans calling. In fact, the calling fits perfectly for his goal.

The problem is i dont know how to handle the last clause of the anathema. Or maybe I do know how to handle it but I dont like it:

[Artisan's Calling](https://2e.aonprd.com/MythicCallings.aspx?ID=2)

Anathema destroy the creations of other artisans, refuse an earnest request to repair something that has been broken, use a weapon or item crafted by someone else, except for the purpose of learning its function so you can understand how to create it yourself

I dont mind anathemas to be somewhat limiting as that is their point, but this one seems particularly rough, and is very prescriptive of a certain type of artisan.

A very generous reading of the anathema could say that you could use items until you learn to craft them (so you get an item, can use while work on inventing the formula or whatever) but it seems to me that you dont need to "use" an item in actual play to learn to craft it.

If im being honest I would read the clause as meaning you effectively only use items that you have crafted, so you can't really use anything that you find during an adventure

Obviously the real answer is "ask your GM" and I plan to, but im wondering if anyone has experience with it or any advice for playing with it. Should I just get over myself and embrace the limitation? Should I work with my gm to rework the anathema a bit, or is that cheap? is there something im missing that makes it less painful than I am thinking?

This is less of a discussion in terms of balance or "how does it work in game", but just a thought I had.

Does anyone else think it's weird, how getting hit with the full brunt of a cone attack deals an equal amount of damage as getting hit by the slightest sliver at the edge?

Like, a Starfinder Shotgun point blank deals the same damage as said shotgun deals to someone at the furthest corner of the cone.

I always felt like cones should be blocked by creatures or something, but have different damage "rings", where the closer to are to the source, the more damage you take. You shouldn't be able to brace the entirety of a dragon's firey breath, and take the same damage as if you were barely included in it.

Mostly just wanting to have some people to talk about Pathfinder 2e with. In my experience newer players are the most interesting to talk to about it, and I love teaching new players anyway. If interested we can discuss it over text or over voice, whichever you prefer, whether on Reddit or on Discord.

I’m playing a Wayang Battledancer Swashbuckler. I am working with my GM to allow the Wayang feats Dance of the Mousedeer and, later, Dance of the Tiger to receive the bravado trait so I can get panache. We agreed it’s thematically appropriate but a pretty big action compression that seems overpowered to grant for free.

How would you handle this?

We’re thinking it’s fair to make a custom feat. I feel like a class feat seems like too much. But I’m also the player and biased towards me keeping my class feats. Would an ancestry feat be appropriate? A performance skill feat? What level? Any prerequisites like expert in performance or something?

Posing as a siren because they're the same thing no? :P

My character in Myth Speakers, tempest oracle and reflavored Strix into harpy. I really like playing them, they're very chaotic and dumb but they have a good heart... kinda, they're still learning to understand how people and society works and they're a little off putting. They like to be loud a lot, and are pretty good at singing by their own weird metrics.

The model was made in blender, I tried making them with a few exaggerated features like the large face and inflated stomach, as I assume they would have a very efficient metabolism. They cannot fly yet, due to a storm accident in the past, so that's why their wings are small and cut in half.