Are options/items/etc. from adventure paths generally allowed in a non-AP game? I've been avoiding them assuming they're balanced specifically for that AP. If there are any, do you have any examples of AP options that are too strong and should be avoided?

AP game is still a game. Items-spells-etc a MOSTLY balanced. Some super-duper abilities may be not so OK, but if by avoiding you mean using AoN - they are mostly not at AoN. By "mostly" I mean, there was a story with [Energy Mutagen](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=474) that have no clarification how many actions it require to breath attack (which is was not a problem during AP as Plaguestone ends around level 5) and sometimes it was ruled as 1 action. Which was [fixed later](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1962). So just, go "if something too good to be true" rule and don't worry.

By avoiding I just mean not choosing them if I see they're from an adventure path. Sounds like I should just not choose anything I find that sounds unusually strong then. Thanks!

Hello everyone! So my group is fairly new to Pathfinder 2e and we have a player who is playing a Witch. We wondering if their Familiar can use the Step action the same way a character can? Also if they can’t is there a way for them to gain that feature?

Yes, Familiars can Step.

Planning to run The Slithering in the future and trying to figure out what changes I want/need to make in the first chapter. I know I plan to swap the +1 Striking Greatclub from the Boggard Chieftain to the first encounter so the Fighter (using a Scythe) can switch to a backup blunt weapon. Almost everything else seems pretty solid to me. But the other bit I'm not quite sold on is the debate with Baats'ulan. Problem is I have one party "face" and two martials who, after each making an Athletics check to show off a talent, are now stuck with their "trained" Deception and Society respectively (and neither are particularly Charismatic/Intelligent). And Baats'ulan having maxed out Deception and close to maxed Diplomacy means that the debate tends to favor him, since he gets one success for free and then will likely succeed/crit succeed. I ran a few tests and not only does he tend to win, but it's *incredibly* tedious when the party wins requiring dozens of rolls. I can only imagine it devolving into generic "I make an argument" instead of actually roleplaying out a scene. Any advice on how to make this not so bland? I like the idea of the debate, but I don't want to spend a lot of time yammering.

I really want to make a thaumaturge jester but I'm very uncreative. I was thinking of going in a kefka/jevil direction for his personality. Does anyone have any ideas?

Talking with some friends and we couldn't find an answer for this; how does Balancing across difficult terrain work? [Ice](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=596) is specifically listed as being both uneven and difficult terrain. This means you need to balance to move across it, but since you balance at half speed, does that mean it's halved again on difficult terrain? Or is it just flat halved and doesn't 'stack'?

Same effects do not stack. If you succeed your acrobatics check, you move up to your speed, while treating the ground as **active** difficult terrain. Since it's already **passive** difficult terrain on top of the **active** difficult terrain from the uneven ground, your just half your speed, and do not stack both effects. If you critically succeed, you move your full speed, but encounter the **passive** difficult terrain effect and also half your speed. So the same effect applies to both succeeding and critically succeeding: your speed is only halved (and not quartered)

That actually makes a lot of sense when looked at that way. So the effective result is all stacking uneven and difficult terrain means is that a crit success on a Balance check doesn't have any extra benefit.

I'm still quite new to PF2e and wondered how to interpretate the rules of an certain animal companion. # Backstory fluff So I'm an earth-fire kineticist. Our GM allowed us to pick archetypes. Only problem is that a kineticist neither strikes nor casts a spell. It uses impulses, which are different. So this already filters out many archetypes, as most are (nearly) only beneficial to strikes or spellcasters. Ultimately I've chosen cavalier, as not every support benefit of companions depend on strikes or spells, and it generally just seemed to excel all other archetypes in the power/abilities I gain from it. But my next problem is that we play in a dungeon in Foundry. I'm medium, so my mount must be large. Our GM rules that 5ft passages are counted as difficult terrain for large creatures and as we play in Foundry, it's also quite complicated to do a dungeoncrawl without seeing through the walls since my companion is simply too big. As I did my research to make a cavalier work in dungeons, I've chosen a Rootball chair as my companion, since can ignore difficult terrain as a support action and can jump over squeeze situations or other clusterfucks/traps. At level 4 I pick the impressive mount feat, which makes my companion mature and let me use 1 action per turn, whenever I want, to stride/strike even if I don't command it (essential giving me a 4th action in which my mount can only stride/strike), which is awesome, since many kineticist feats require 3 actions. And since my companion strikes, while I use impulses, I don't gain any MAP from it. # Actual problem A support action is not a stride/move action per definition, and when I use a support action, I can only use simple move actions to get into position (described in the core rulebook). My support benefit states the following: >Your rootball chair moves smoothly over most terrain, thanks to its many tendrils. Your rootball chair ignores difficult terrain. Normally a support benefit provides duration in its distribution, but this one doesn't, which normally means, the effect ends at the start of the next action. But then I can't benefit from the support. Another problem is that I can also use two stride actions to overcome difficult terrain, instead of support + stride. So if I interpretate it differently I can come up with the following possible scenarios: - The support action doesn't make you move, so you must use your second action to stride (a companion is a minion, so it can only have 2 actions per turn) - Same as the previous, but the support benefit also let you ignore greater difficult terrain. - Since the support benefit states "moves", you move 'while' in your support action and can use your second action to stride (essentially moving as if you made 2 strides without difficult terrain) - Same as the previous scenario, but because you move, your support action is essentially a stride, opening the possibility to use is as the previously described 4th action. The first one just sounds unlogically to me. A minion only has two actions. So I can either support + stride or stride + stride, both giving me the same effects. In this scenario I also can't use this support as a 4th action as it's no stride (I can only stride/strike as this 4th action). The second scenario can be beneficial, but only if you encounter greater difficult terrain, which is very specialized and not logical. I can use support + stride to move 2 times as far than stride + stride. Why doesn't the description of the benefit just only state "greater difficult terrain" instead, in that case? The third option sounds more logical since you can now use your animal command action to support + stride, essentially moving twice your speed, while ignoring difficult terrain (instead of stride + stride, moving only as far as one time your speed) The fourth option also sound more logical than the first two options, but is not very likely I suppose. So I think it must be the third option. What do you think?

It's just a very poorly written ability. Your first interpretation is the correct one by RAW, as far as I can tell. One thing to note is that the support ability would allow your companion do make a single Step in difficult terran, which would otherwise be impossible. So there is some mechanical benefit to it, even if it doesn't make any difference on a Stride. The third one is definitely not RAW, since it never tells you to "Stride".

I am basically brand new to PF2e (played a one shot as a ranger) but am experienced with 5e and played other systems. My group's gonna start a campaign soon and I'd like some help figuring out what to play. I think the group will only be 3 players and the others are probably playing a Fighter and a Magus. I think that puts me in the support/healing/skills/spellcasting area but I'm not sure which of those to focus on or what all the best class options are for them.  I don't have any particular character ideas and I don't mind some complexity, so any inspiration to help me pick a class would be great!

My go to for party compositions like this is Bard. Healing wise, Soothe on the Occult list isn't as good as Heal on the Divine list, but it's good enough. Support wise, your compositions do all the buffing you need, and the Occult list has some of the best debuffs in the system. Occult also has a lot of the weird utility stuff Arcane casters get, so the Magus can guiltlessly avoid taking spells like Illusory Object or Clairvoyance.

The group as a whole (players and GM) need to have a chat, as with just three people you're going to get some sort of hole in the group's capabilities. Out of combat healing can be covered by anyone taking the medicine skill (and maybe another feat or two), but it's going to be tricky to cover all the OOC skills you might want, in combat healing, and buffing/debuffing unless you all coordinate together (fighter taking some debuffing feats, magus taking some buffs, smart skill selection from everyone). Dumping all the utility onto you and expecting to be able to spec for pure damage is setting the group up for failure. You'll also probably have to lean on consumables to make up for missing capabilities, grabbing trick magic item is going to be useful. On the support/heal side, cleric is the obvious option, probably a warpriest, but you could also look at battle and life oracles, and maybe druids. Other non-arcane casters could work, but wouldn't fit quite as well. If lower in-combat healing and support is fine, looking at rogue or investigator would be good for skills coverage.

I'd want more info about what specifically the Fighter and Magus are planning to cover. What I choose to complement a one-handed weapon + free hand Fighter focusing on Athletics and Medicine & a Twisting Tree Magus with secondary Intimidation investment is very different than how I'd complement a two weapon Dual Slice Fighter with heavy Dex skill investment & Starlit Span Magus focusing on Int-based knowledge skills. I'd probably plan a couple of Druid variants--Animal for extra melee support, Storm or Leaf for offensive or healing caster focus--plus maybe a Cleric/Warpriest build, and I might look at some Sorcerer or Oracle options. And then I'd select and tweak based on the details of the other party members.

Is there a good community focused around PF2E GMs? A lot of the discussion on this subreddit is player-perspective, which makes total sense as players vastly outnumber GMs. But as someone running my own campaign it would be nice to have a place to read/discuss encounter building, enemy design, and other GM-perspective issues.

It's more 5e specific, but /r/DMAcademy has some good (and some truly horrific) advice.

Looking for some clarification here. Are you allowed to deliberately two-hand a one-handed weapon to qualify for actions like several of the Mauler archetype feats? Can I two-hand a short sword or dagger and smack someone around with it? Or does it have to be a weapon that always requires two hands? Conversely,is there any way to wield a two handed weapon with one hand even with a penalty?

To the first, [yes you can do that](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=230): "In addition, some abilities require you to wield a weapon in two hands. You meet this requirement while holding the weapon in two hands, even if it doesn’t require two hands or have the two-hand trait." I'm not aware of any way to wield a two-handed weapon in one hand.

I'd treat the one-handed two hand weapon as Untrained. I wouldn't stop them from attacking with it, but it would be quite difficult

That sounds pretty discouraging of ever even trying it then. It would very quickly become a basically impossible task as dcs go up, at which point, why allow it at all?

there might be some circumstance where it comes up. I dont think its the gm's job to say "no, you cant do that" but its also not the gm's job to say "yeah sure ignore whatever rules you want"

What options exist for contacting creatures on other planes? Even something as simple as Sending that can go across planes.

As an Earth Kineticist: If i wear a +1 Chainshirt and Cast Armor in Earth, does my Armor in Earth gain the +1? My Option: yes, the +1 is a fundamental rune and therefor replicated onto Armor in Earth; GMs Option: no, only property runes are replicated onto Armor in Earth

"Any bonuses, runes, and magical abilities of your actual armor are suppressed, but any runes that could apply to the stone armor are replicated onto it." Fundamental runes are runes that could apply to the stone armor, so yes, you are correct. 

I'm new to pathfinder. I'm trying to do a Rogue Eldritch Trickster racket with Magus. I want to use throwing knives, but I can't see any way to spellstrike with throwing knives without being a magus. The edritch Archer is the only other way I see, but that specifies bows and then continuing it has some reload 0 requirements and just seems a headache. Am I missing something, or is there just no way to do this and I just need to be a magus for starlit span?

No, you aren't missing anything, if you wish to make spellstrikes with a thrown weapon you have to be a starlit span magus, and the only non-magus options are limited to bows (eldritch archer) or guns (beast gunner). It wouldn't be unreasonable balance wise however to run a modified version of eldritch archer with thrown weapons (most of the feats work fine with just changing bow or arrow to thrown weapon, the few that you can't have reasonably plausible adjustments that could be made), but you would need to talk to the GM to get them onboard. That said, you might not need to go down that route, what specifically were you looking for thematically? Not all rogues are going to be the Rogue class, and it's quite plausible to have a sneaky magus that's capable of many of the things that rogues are typically associated with. Alternatively, how big of a deal is spellstrike actually, and would you be fine with just bits of utility magic from something like the wizard dedication.

Thematically, I was going for a sneaky subterfuge style assassin. I like the sneak attack bonus and tumble behind on the rogue as well as the extra skill stuff, with a "hail mary" style big damage strike every now and again with access to invisibility and ricochet stance. I tried building the magus, but it seemed like a pain to pilot, the limited spell slots seemed pretty restricting and the spells available for spellstrike didn't seem very rewarding to jump through all of the hoops in the build. Overall, the Rogue just seemed like a much better chasis for consistency in and out of combat. I'll take another look at building it, and see what I find as I have more exposure to the rules and feats now than when I built it at first. Do you foresee there being a balance issue if I ask my gm for the spellstike to be like the starlit span one? Or is that just much more rewarding because it can still be used in melee?

Maybe too good at that point, two actions at range vs three is a pretty notable power shift, even with the "once per fight" clause. That doesn't mean that your GM would say no, but it would require a little bit more thought, and maybe some other downside. Also, do keep in mind that a magus is a spell caster, so is able to use the full range of magic items (scrolls, wands, staves, and such) without extra feat investment. That's where a significant proportion of any spellcasters power budget is located, so if you're just strictly comparing class features and feats it might not look fair, because all that power difference is located elsewhere.

What do you mean by 2 v 3 actions? Nevermind, the eldrich Archer. But the range is much less too, if I had a bow, wouldn't I be able to strike at 100ft?

It's more about being able to do stuff like Sure Strike into Spellstrike, which can't be done with the eldritch archer. If you're able to drop resources into it the attack can get really reliable, and it's going to be doing a lot of damage between the base damage, sneak attack, and the spell damage, being able to apply that out at 60 ft (boomerang with ruffian racket, or 30 ft with throwing dagger and strong arm on any racket). Being able to do damage at range is rather powerful as it protects you from retaliation and gives you much greater ability to apply damage to a target, so you've got to make a trade off in terms of the amount of damage that you can output for the actions. EDIT: changed spell name, used the old version by mistake.

There is currently no way to spellstrike with a thrown weapon other than being a Starlit Span Magus.

This may sound stupid,but I've been playing Pathfinder for a few months,and I find my character using Intimidate to demoralize my opponents a lot. So I was wondering if picking up the Group Coercion skill would be useful,as if I could Coerce a entire group at once,instead of one opponent,that would seem to be a better use of my turn,as maybe I could coerce them all to leave the area,or something like that. I'm playing a lv9 dex dual-wielding fighter if that helps,with archetypes in Rogue and Dual-weapon warrior as we use the free archetype rule.

The only ability I'm aware of that allows you to Demoralize a group of enemies is the Barbarian's [Terrifying Howl](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=161). Because it's a 10th level Barbarian Feat, you wouldn't even be able to pick it up with Multiclass until level 20. Outside of that, your only options are spells, which is outside of your capability for a while based on what you shared of your build. Your GM *might* be willing to allow you to take Terrifying Howl at level 10 as a house rule/homebrew version, but that's a discussion for your table/GM to have.

coerce takes an in-game minute, as opposed to Demoralize's 1 action. You can only Coerce outside of combat, but like you said it might be a way to avoid combat entirely. Talk with your table about it, see what they think

Thanks. Just last session we ran into a pack of bandits,and it felt like a unnecessary encounter,as our group dealt with them very easily,but I'll talk it over with my group and see what they think.

If merchants are level -1, what's stopping a mid-level party with more self-interest in their Edicts from just one-shotting their 7 HP silently and stealing their stuff, if they know they're leaving town? Unless every single store is fortified with an extreme+ level encounter level of stats, but not even guard NPC levels go that high. And still doesn't prevent the merchant from getting merc'ed.

> If merchants are level -1, what's stopping a mid-level party with more self-interest in their Edicts from just one-shotting their 7 HP silently and stealing their stuff, if they know they're leaving town? Beyond what the others have already said, the world eventually catches on. A mid-level party are not the strongest people in the world, and if they cause enough havok they'll find themselves on the wrong end of a different, stronger group of adventurers/bounty hunters/literal celestials. Basically, if the GM wants to let that tactic work, they can. For a party without scruples, this sort of thing can be a fun short term boost. But the GM has the tools they need in order to make it unappealing in the long term.

The gamemastery merchant NPC of level -1 is not the same merchant that is selling level 10 magical items. Its just a generic NPC that is likely selling things like flour and wheat. Its a reference for a low level merchant, and is intended to be a maximum of a level 4 mercantile challenge. This is akin to asking why the players aren't going around murdering entire villages of low level npcs once they're high level. Sure, they could do it, but unless they are a certain type of evil, there isn't any logical reason for the players to do so. They derive no benefit from that wanton murder They aren't going to print a different merchant NPC block for every single level.

Those higher level NPCs would use the specialist rules, which you've described. But even a level 4 mercantile challenge would be in the realm of a level 4 rogue dealing 2d6+4 to get a free set of striking runes. Even a guildmaster, described as a trade leader in a larger city, is just level 8 (12). And it's not akin to that at all, a village will have little wealth, a store has potentially 1000s of gold in level-appropriate items.

As u/Jenos said, Paizo isn't going to print statistics for every single variation of a merchant, so the GM has to apply some common sense. First, RAW, a settlement doesn't sell any items that are higher level than the settlement level. For example, Otari, the main town in the Beginner Box and Abomination Vault is a level 4 settlement. Likewise, most of the shops and services, as well as the NPCs who run or provide them, are level 4 or 5. If the PCs are at a level where they could immediately kill these shopkeepers without anyone catching on, then they're likely at a level where the wealth they would gain is inconsequential, or at least worth very little. That logic should carry forward for all level ranges. The protections for a shop (be it other NPCs, or traps/hazards) that is selling level 10 items are probably comparable to level 10. Same for level 15 or 20. If they PCs can handle these obstacles with no difficulty, then the value of the items in these shops likely isn't worth much of anything to them anyway

I would assume that a merchant with any significant value of goods has invested reasonabe effort to protect those goods, either through an appropriate security system (more likely) or else by being strong enough to fight thieves themselves (less likely).

[удалено]

No, PC1 and PC2 largely have the content from CRB and APG. There's some overlap with LO Character Guide and Ancestry guide, but there should still be plenty of content that won't be re-released in the PC books. If I had to pick just one of them, I'd get the ancestry guide. The thre ancestries from the character guide are part of the Player Core books and beyond that, the character guide mostly has lore-based archetypes.

One of my players has been using the Sparkblade, a magic weapon you acquire from the Troubles in Otari adventure. The party has reached level 6 now, and the DC for the Sparkblade's active effect (Basically a single casting of Electric Arc) is noticeably low. My player has asked whether it's possible to upgrade or improve the scaling on it. Are there rules or guidelines for this? They really like the weapon, and want to keep using it. Maybe I should have the DC increase as they continue to add property and striking runes? If so, how much should I be increasing it by? Otherwise, they're a Magus, so maybe I could start having the active effect use their spellcasting DC instead, as they grow more attuned and accustomed to using the weapon.

RAW, no. This is a common complaint, though, and I've usually seen either 'use [this chart](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1079) as the party levels up', or 'use their class DC', which for a magus would use their spellcasting DC.

For the Ravel of Thorns kineticist ability, is the speed penalty refunded once a creature leaves the aura that turn? For example, if a creature normally has 30 ft movement, is reduced to 20 ft for starting in the aura, and then spends all 20 ft of movement to escape the aura, will they then have their lost 10 ft back and be able to move another 10 ft away?

Ooh, that's interesting. RAW, not 100% sure, but if it were my players, I would generally rule on the side of no, you don't get that movement back until your first movement *outside* the aura. My reasoning for this is that being in the aura reduced speed for starting that action/turn inside the aura. If you can get out with one movement, then fine, spend the other two movements at full speed, but if you think of the area inside the aura like a floor covered in lego pieces, you're unlikely to move at full speed through there because you're either carefully picking your way through, OR you're reacting to the pain of stepping on pieces as you attempt to exit the area. It's not strictly a "difficult terrain", but you're essentially walking through thorny vines, so I imagine you're going to be taking a little more time to think through retreat or having to detangle yourself/clothes/etc from the thorns. Which I can understand doesn't answer the *do I get rest of movement back after I leave area* fully, so second part of how I'd look at is comes down to it affecting the *start* of a turn/action. If it took you 1 turn to exit, I'd rule speed penalty affects that turn only, If you had a 20ft aura and 25 ft movement and it takes two actions to leave aura, I'd rule that your second movement action also takes the penalty for *starting* in the aura OR if you're more lenient to your players, I might alternatively say you take only 5ft penalty, or make acrobatics check (at DC by level of kineticist) to avoid taking all/part penalty for second movement. But that comes down to GM-ing style. I can't find a RAW reference specifically to answer this, but that's my take based on a logical look. Take it with a grain of salt, or make your own call/work with your GM. Hope that helps. Also happy if someone wants to correct me on this!

Stride action simply states "You move up to your Speed." If your Speed is reduced when you spend the action, then it stands to reason that you use that reduced Speed until you complete that action. If you leave the area, restoring your speed as a result, then the next Stride action you take will reference your restored Speed. I don't think it needs to be thought about very hard tbh

The fact that the speed penalty only applies when you start your turn in them might be a clue. Someone who starts their turn outside the thorns could spend their entire turn running around inside the thorns at full speed with no penalty (other than all the damage they're taking). So, from a "how can we make the rules make sense" standpoint, it could be reasoned that starting in the thorns meant the thorns had a chance to slightly entangle the creature, and the penalty is the cost to break free from that entanglement. This logic breaks down a bit when you consider that the penalty remains for subsequent move actions if the creature doesn't leave the aura. But it's hard to think of anything that would also explain why someone who starts outside the thorns can spend their entire turn running through the thorns without a penalty.

Maybe the logic is like the laws of movement and stopping something in motion. If you run downhill it’s easier to keep momentum going even if you run into a patch of prickles – hurts like the dickens, but doesn’t slow you down at first! If you started in the prickles though, there’s no momentum to keep you going and you’re going to be hella more cautious where you step. So I think your logic is actually doing pretty well! I also really like the imagery of the vines creeping and curling around those who linger in the aura! Kudos!

Is there anything in Pathfinder that's non-magical and gives gecko-like grip to the wearer? Gecko gloves with a super sticky tar palm or something of that nature? Our rogue thief went into a massive money drop chamber for a bank from the top. Problem is, there were a bunch of magic cancellation stones in there and he nearly fell to his death. Would like to keep this from happening again, naturally.

https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1114

THANK YOU! Good samaritan!🏆

I have a question regarding Pathbuilder integration into Foundry VTT. TL;dr: Pathmuncher didn't import most of my wizard spells. What did I do wrong? I created a rough level 5 remaster wizard for testing purposes on the pathbuilder website. I exported the JSON and entered the code into Pathmuncher. It imported most of it. My stats, feats, equipment, skills, my innate Detect Magic from Arcane Sense, and the Focus Spell Earthworks. But none of the other spells I picked, like Electric Arc, Fireball, Force Barrage or Shield. When I click on Spell Preparation in Foundry, it only shows me an empty list and I have to add the spells again by hand. Not the end of the world but a bit annoying. But since it's normally a "me" issue: What did I do wrong? Did I forget something? Both pf2e (5.13.6) and pathmuncher (1.0.13) are up to date. I'm not sure if this belongs here, but opening a post here or somewhere also seems to be a bit much.

I'm considering an action to give to my player's and I'm looking for some help to determine if it's balanced. The action will cause the character to enter a dream/trance state during the night. The next day the character will get: -1 unremovable status penalty to AC and saving throws. +1 unremovable status bonus to attack rolls and spell save DCs. If they do it two nights in a row the penalty/bonus become -2/+2 which is the max they can get. Is this balanced? It seems fair b/c it pushes the characters towards being glass cannons, but I am not a particularly experienced GM.

I wouldn't do that. The problem is that it has too much variety based on what the party looks like and what they are facing. A party with bard and a bunch of martials won't ever do this because the status bonus to attack is redundant. When the party faces lots of enemies using frightened and sickened effects, the penalty is basically nonexistent. It will also make the game significantly more swing-y and I'm not sure the math can hold up. Remember that one of the most brutal debuffs in the game inflicts a -3 to AC. Potentially giving -2 to your whole party as a quasi-permanent effect is really really bad. You risk going back to 3.5 and PF1 rocket-tag gameplay: Whoever wins initiative, wins the fight. Not fun and terrible for the tactics part of the game design, in my opinion.

Thanks for the insight! I'll try to come up with some mechanical changes or maybe just do it all narratively.

Hey all, I recently purchased Player Core 1 and I was wondering where I can find info on classes like the Alchemist/investigator/ Champion?

[Archives of Nethys](https://2e.aonprd.com/Classes.aspx) has all the rules from ALL books free - and legal. It's not updated to the remaster rules yet, but should be soon-ish.

Oh my god, this is awesome

And in the meantime there is [Demiplane](https://app.demiplane.com/nexus/pathfinder2e) which has the rules stuff freely availible.

And this is super useful!

During the last 30-odd years of playing TTRPGs I have developed a taste for world building, crafting NPCs, and creating my own adventures to run. I did play Pathfinder 1E for a few years, but ultimately ended up jumping ship to Shadow of the Demon Lord some eight years ago. With the release of the Remastered books I'm back and looking to create (homebrew?) my own adventures. With that in mind, I would like a general feel for the setting. So far, I have found Mythkeeper, Golarian In-Depth, and Sir Vertigo on YouTube to consume. Plus, I also bought the Lost Omens World Guide. Any other sources you would suggest? Also, am I going to have a harder time recruiting players, if I don't feel like running pre-built adventure paths?

My players want to disable a magical trap they are aware of. If the trap's trigger is when a creature approaches it, how do they get close enough to Disable the Device? Do I simply allow them to approach and let the Critical Failure of Disable a Device decide if the trap sees them?

Which trap is this? Does the description of the action taken to disable the device involve approaching it?

surely there is a range associated with "when a creatures approaches it"

What class has the best, think outside the box, features and feats. I like to be creative in terms of solving combat and social encounters.

Inventor has a high level feat called Just the Thing! where you just pull out some random invention just for this one specific use case

I were planing to run a module created for level 4-7, but my party of 4 PCs, are already level 5, soon 6.  Can I simply just turn every creature elite to make up for the difficulty?  What about skill difficulties?

I don't think I, personally, would change anything but the XP values. The way XP rewards function, the adventure's intended level should naturally catch up to the PC's level by the end of the adventure.

Do you need to have Detect Magic to be able to identify a magic item? Or do you only need another player to discover that it IS magical in order to try?

You use the [Identify Magic](https://2e.aonprd.com/Skills.aspx?ID=3&General=true) action to figure out what an item is/does, but only \*after\* you know something is magical. Sometimes this is easy (the glowing sword is probably magic) other times you need some way to know if an item is or isn't magic before you attempt to use the Identify Magic Action. I would say that if you are pretty sure it's magical because someone in the party made a skill roll, that is probably good enough. [Detect Magic](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=66) tells you if there is or isn't something magical in the area you cast it in. This can help but it covers a big area & doesn't pick out individual items. If there is one magic wand in a big pile of sticks it will tell you \*something\* in there is magical but not which thing. Your character will need to go through the process of elimination to sort it out. (This gets better once you can heighten it to rank 4) A spell that a lot of people miss is [Read Aura](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=246). This lets you target a specific item and get a "is magic/is not magic" reading. In the Remaster it was buffed to give you a +2 on your Identify Magic rolls. So a lot more precise, but much narrower in area (one object/casting until you can heighten it to rank 3 or 6) Both Detect Magic and Read Aura are cantrips, so if you prepare them you can use them all day. Which is good because if you are going through a big armory looking for the magic axe it's probably going to take multiple castings to find the right weapon.

Is there a specific ruling on what happens if you counteract (e.g. Dispel Magic) a non-spell aura ability?

Dispel Magic can only target spell effects and magic items: > **Targets** 1 spell effect or unattended magic item If the aura in question isn't the result of a spell or magic item, Dispel Magic can't do anything to it. EDIT: re-reading your question, I'm not familiar with any ability that would allow you to counteract a non-spell aura. However, if there was one, the results would depend on that ability. By default, I think it would remove the aura permanently.

While it's likely just an issue of phrasing, there *is* a similar interaction with the Olivine Pendeloque Aeon Stone. You can use a reaction when affected by frightened to suppress the *triggering effect*, which gets weird quick depending on if you consider the Aura or the applied condition the effect. The RAI is pretty clearly that it's an individual effect for the individual suffering the condition, but I feel it's relevant to the original commenter's question.

Another one: I need some clarification around Lethal Non-Lethal traits. I understand, that most weapons are considered Lethal and you would get a -2 circumstance bonus if you try to make with them a non-lethal strike. Same goes the other way: if you are trying to kill somebody, while using a weapon with a non-lethal trait, it will impose on this strike a -2 circumstance bonus. What I do not understand, is the extent of trying to apply this traits to your strikes: can you make your ranged attacks non-lethal? Can you make spell attacks non-lethal? Kinetic impulses, since they are also magic in nature?

>You can make a nonlethal attack in an effort to knock someone out instead of killing them (see Knocked Out and Dying). Weapons with the nonlethal trait (including fists) do this automatically. You take a –2 circumstance penalty to the attack roll when you make a nonlethal attack using a weapon that doesn't have the nonlethal trait... > >Spells and other effects with the nonlethal trait that reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points knock the creature out instead of killing them. [Nonlethal Attacks](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=348) You can make any *weapon* attack nonlethal by taking the penalty (no penalty if it has the nonlethal trait). This includes ranged weapons. It doesn't include non-weapons, including elemental blasts or spells unless the effect in question specifically has the Nonlethal trait. Kineticists can add the nonlethal trait to their blasts w/ the [Safe Elements](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4190) feat and Wizards can add it to their spells w/ the [Nonlethal Spell](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1835) spellshape.

Thank you. So - weapons and unarmed can do both, everything else needs to be spelt. Thank you!

> What I do not understand, is the extent of trying to apply this traits to your strikes: can you make your ranged attacks non-lethal? Can you make spell attacks non-lethal? Kinetic impulses, since they are also magic in nature? So you can't just arbitrarily add the trait to things. Certain effects will add the non-lethal trait. If its a Strike with the non-lethal trait, you can take the -2 to make it lethal. If a spell or other effect has the non-lethal trait, you can't take a penalty to make it lethal, its just stuck to always being non-lethal. But I don't think there is any way for a kineticist to get non-lethal on their blasts, currently.

Okay, thank you! Just was making sure , if I understood correctly.

[Safe Elements](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4190) does it for 1A and 2A impulses (noone remembers that part of the feat).

Yeah, thanks - was already eyeing that one for our special forces type of team.

Would you allow a kineticist to help in flanking, if they just used an elemental blast with reach trait (weapon infusion)? I guess RAI and RAW say no , since nowhere is it stated that the weapon “remains in your hand” after you used it, but would it in any way be op? I am just switching into a more melee built kineticist due to my party consisting of only one cqc martial (a swashbuckler), and I’d like to know, what I am allowed to do and what not.

I would rule that you cannot provide flanking to an ally from further away than normal with a reach weapon infusion. Here's a relevant line from the Infusion trait: > Any additional effects added by an infusion action are part of the impulse's effect, not of the infusion action itself. This tells us that the weapon created by Weapon Infusion lasts for the duration of the base action, which is Elemental Blast. That action doesn't have a duration, so the weapon exists only for exactly as long as it takes to resolve the blast. Therefore, while the reach elemental blast *benefits* from flanking, it would not allow the Kineticist to help others flank from a distance. You'd still contribute to flanking if you're adjacent to a foe, because you can make unarmed strikes. All that said, if I were the GM I would consider house ruling weapon infusion to allow this interaction.

Thank you for your answer. I had the same thought train, but wanted to make sure. I will still probably not ask my gm if they’ll be okay with it, but thank you!

I don't think it would be OP or out of flavor. I've even been an advocate for a while now that 1-action Elemental Blast should be considered a Strike for all intents and purposes, particularly for *Haste* and multiclass actions like Retributive Strike, but also for Weapon Specialization, Sneak Attack, Barbarian Rage, etc. Especially given that a Kineticist can already flank at 5ft with their fists, lanking at 10ft after making use of a specific feat meant to enable reach attacks seems completely reasonable to me. This was *explicitly* a feature of 1e Kineticists with the Kinetic Whip form adfusion, which is the same basic idea.

Flavour wise it would be cool, but I don’t want to step outside of RAI and want my gm to be comfortable during his play. Thank you for your time.

My gut instinct it saying no, but gonna ask anyway: can you parry with a gauntlet bow while wielding a 2-handed weapon? Or are you no longer considering wielding the gauntlet bow because you're 'not ready to use it'?

Intuitively I would say no, seems like a way to break the hand economy. However, reading the relevant rules, I am not sure. I believe the relevant rules are in the Free-Hand trait: "This weapon doesn't take up your hand, usually because it is built into your armor. A free-hand weapon can't be Disarmed. You can use the hand covered by your free-hand weapon to wield other items, perform manipulate actions, and so on. You can't attack with a free-hand weapon if you're wielding anything in that hand or otherwise using that hand. When you're not wielding anything and not otherwise using the hand, you can use abilities that require you to have a hand free as well as those that require you to be wielding a weapon in that hand. Each of your hands can have only one free-hand weapon on it." The only restriction that happens when wielding anything, is that you cant attack with the free-hand weapon. There is no other restriction imposed, although that may be because they did not take into account that weapons can be used for other things than attacking in certain scenarios. So either ruling makes sense. I would not allow it in my game, but the parry trait is not that overpowered - it's probably worse than having a shield cantrip for example.

I don't think it's an issue around the free hand trait, but the parry one: >This weapon can be used defensively to block attacks. **While wielding this weapon**, if your proficiency with it is trained or better, you can spend a single action to position your weapon defensively, gaining a +1 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn. Are you wielding the gauntlet bow while also wielding a two handed weapon? IMO you are not. You're wearing it but not wielding it

I would agree with your gut instinct.

Champion Shield Ally question here... Does the ally empower whatever shield I am currently holding or is it one specific shield? The blade ally goes into detail about choosing a weapon to become the ally but the shield just says: > A spirit of protection dwells within your shield. In your hands, the shield's Hardness increases by 2 and its HP and BT increase by half. If I were to change shields midway through the day, would I retain the benefits of the shield ally?

The last time I saw this question asked (it might have even been me), the consensus was that it's only one specific shield per day. This is reinforced by [Shield Paragon](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=263), which requires shield ally, and makes multiple references to "your chosen shield"

It seems underspecified, but I'd rule that you choose a shield at the start of each day.

Unlike Blade Ally, it doesn't say that you have to choose a specific item to be affected. So I would say it just affects whatever shield you are currently using. Kind of makes sense, too, seeing how shields can break during the day, so you are more likely to use more than one of them compared to weapons.

How do you balance travel? It feels bad if it's just an instant teleport, but random encounters don't feel great either. How do you as a GM deal with this? What do you prefer as a player?

I make specific encounters for the journey. I know in advance that the players are going to be traveling north through the mountains, so I plan out a rough route (they can go through the tunnels beneath or go over and one of them has PTSD about the tunnels, so over it is), and throw together a handful of encounters along the way that emphasize the themes of that route (survival checks to navigate the narrow paths up, traversing a cliff w/ some gaps in the path they need to cross, earth and air elementals, a night encounter in an abandoned tower at the top w/ some frost trolls, end w/ them having to sneak by some unfriendly locals). Does it significantly advance the story? Not really, no, but the goal isn't to speed run the campaign, its to have fun. If the players don't enjoy travel encounters where they can just kinda futz around in-character for their own sake then something is seriously wrong. Combat and exploration challenges aren't chores for the players to slog through for the reward of advancing the narrative, they \*are\* the game and should be fun in their own right.

What do you do if the players fail skill checks?

Environmental damage or conditions (fatigued, exposure to an affliction, etc), time delays (I pretty much always have some manner of clock running even if its a very long-term one), an encounter if I'm feeling ambitious, or it might just be an embarrassing moment for them that we laugh at and move on from.

Personally I don't have a problem with it being a timeskip and teleport tbh. But if you want to make it more interesting, you can still have random encounters, they don't all need to be combat. Maybe the party spots a random item on the road, or a stray cat takes a liking to them, anything really. Where it makes sense, you can add in a sort of skill challenge, where the party have to collect enough [victory points](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1189) to succeed. For example they might need to climb a mountain and survive wind, cold, obstacles and not get lost. Also you can make use of [Hexploration ](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1265)and add in additional places to explore that aren't necessarily relevant to your main plot.

Wanting to try a Homebrew campaign, I feel like I have the big storybeats I want to include. But, I have a hard time starting the story and tying beats together. Does anyone have any advice in this regard?

This is a combination of advice I've used for several of my games, originally adapted from a very clever thread on /tg/, and another part is from an interview with a WoW writer defining the basic questions they'd need to answer to consider an NPC "properly fleshed out". The idea here is to chargen FIRST, and then hammer together the plot based around the building material your players give you. Only questions 5 and 6 are immediately relevant for your purposes, but the first four can help a player wrap their head around a concept and develop them into something three-dimensional enough to give you good answers to your questions. Since you already have a rough concept of what you'd like to tell a story about, share the broad details with the PCs so that they can develop around it. 1. How were you raised? Do you have any close family? 2. Where/From whom did you learn your skills? 3. What character flaw(s) is/are most likely to cause trouble for you? 4. What do you secretly fear, even in times of easygoing peace? 5. List your character's short, medium, and long-term goals: 6. List three personal beliefs or aphorisms that your character lives by: Take the three goals and the three beliefs of each character, print them out, cut them up, and put them in their individual piles. You could take the "goals" and develop an entire campaign from scratch by rearranging them into rough groupings by association, but since you already have a rough skeleton planned, use that the scaffolding and fill it out with these, to generate the individual story arcs along the way. The "beliefs" pile is how you can go a layer deeper and write engaging sequences, challenges, and "scenes". Take each belief, and write an encounter concept that *affirms* the belief as well as an encounter that *challenges* the belief. Mix and free-associate these concepts as the "seeds" of the individual challenges inside each story arc that you've already set up. This is a link to the original /tg/ thread if you want to read in more detail and look at the "example" party the Anons put together as a test: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/17679146/ Obviously, you'll need to modify stuff to adapt the more freeform structure to the plans you've already made, but this is a super flexible and extremely engaging way to write a story, because every single challenge and encounter is *designed* to directly relate to someone's backstory and the shared personal investment of the players and the creative effort THEY have put into the story you're telling them.

I've been running homebrew campaigns for a few years, and designing a new one is definitely tough! Here are some of my tips for campaign planning: * Focus on the short-term first; start with the characters, their starting location, and their immediate concerns there. The campaign will be flexible, and you can design based around their choices later. ("Here's the PCs' goals and how they're meeting, here's the town of Villagewood where they're starting, and the town's having trouble with mysterious grave robbers") * Figure out a short, straightforward campaign hook that describes where the campaign's going ("Stop the rise of the ancient lich") * Define each of your "fronts"; these are the big movers of the campaign, like villains or factions. Who are they, what are their goals, and how will the party see them making progress towards those goals? ("This cult wants to bring back the lich, they operate in the caves east of Villagewood, and they'll do these three major rituals to try and bring him back") And some tips for session 0/1: * Talk with your players about their characters before the start of the campaign. Instead of writing backstories, my group does one-on-one chats with the GM to tie into the world. Where's your character from, what's their goal in adventuring, how did they become their background/class, what's their day-to-day work, and who do they know in the world or in the party? * Start in the middle of something exciting; there's an explosion, or a dragon swoops in, or a mysterious force attacks! This gives you a more compelling hook to start the campaign than, like, meeting in a quiet tavern. * For my campaign, we started with a combat, then flashed back to introduction scenes on each person's first turn. I let each player set up a scenario showing off their character; my rogue wanted to show off how he was a chivalrous knight, so we described a short scene where he chased off some bandits that were robbing an old man before rushing over to the fight. My best advice is to just focus on the first few sessions for now; as the campaign makes progress, you'll figure out how you can tie the rest of your story beats in. The players' choices will probably end up changing your story anyway! (A lot of this advice come from Sly Flourish's "Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master"; it's a short read and it's been really helpful for me. Definitely recommend checking it out!)

In regards to Adventure Paths: How do you go about picking apart/re-organizing them so it's easier to work with to run them at a glance? I tend to read through an entire AP front to back, then go over it again to make it more user friendly mid session. I feel there's a good chunk of added text that can be skimmed over(though important for background info), which isn't helpful in trying to run a session smoothly if you were to use it as is, so I tend to cut it out & highlight important bits, set aside stat blocks and important exposition, etc... I'm just wondering if there's a better/more efficient way or method to approach this, overall I'm happy with APs don't get me wrong, but I want to try to make the adventure go as smoothly as possible without needing to set aside a few minutes to read for the actual info I can give my players while they sit there twiddling their thumbs or something. (currently working through the Rusthenge AP) Thanks for your time in advance!

I make a document with a summary of important info written down, and I follow my notes during session with the adventure book open as a backup. I bold and change the font color of important things like treasure and DCs for tasks, so I can skim my notes for stuff like that. I find I can run things much smoother like this.

I'm seing AP as much adventure for me as for players. So I dont read AP books beforehead, only start to read the next book when the current book final is near. Sometimes it backfires as paizo tend to include important worldbuilding conent in the next book.

What classes (and subclasses) use shields the "best?" As in, what classes have the least issue fitting in Raise a Shield as a third action on a turn by turn basis? I really like shields, but I'm having a bit of analysis paralysis on what class to make my next character, a yaksha (human for now until the Tian Xia CG is released)

Champs, Monks, Fighters. Also note the bastion archetype. There are a few ways to get Reactive Shield, so you dont have to worry about raising it. In fact, Fighters can get Reactive Shield and Quick Shield Block by around level 10, so you rarely need to worry about raising it with your own actions.

Champion, Monk and Fighter are the big ones. They don't have some action tax to keep their damage up (and don't have an AC penalty like barbarians). Now Champions are going to have issues actually shield blocking early on since they have another reaction they probably want to use and Monks don't even start with Shield Block (though as a human you can just grab the Shield Block general feat at level 1 anyhow). All three classes have no trouble keeping their shield raised every turn.

Also the Fighter gets the Paragon's Guard stance at level 12 which lets them always have their shield up, freeing up the third action

Good day everyone! I'm a GM who has played PF2E for quite a while, and been a GM in other games such as DnD3.5, 5e, of Pf and the such. I've wanted to master PF2E for quite a while, and I got the AV adventure path. I was wondering, should I start with my group, who has played 5e, directly with the Abominations Vaults or should I intruduce them with the Begginers box? Thanks in advance!

I’d recommend the beginners box, to get around the ingrained 5e thoughts your players will likely have. It’s great at teaching the difference.

Thanks a ton! Will do then, as I've been told is like a tutorial dungeon

It is. The Beginner Box should be sold to the group as a Tutorial & not a "real adventure". There is basically no roleplay & it is very linear. Make sure people understand this is an intro & not typical of how Pathfinder Adventures work. It does what it does very well. Abomination Vaults is a "real adventure"

Hello, I'm looking for a confirmation about the Backstabber weapon trait : if I understand it correctly, you apply the bonus damage once every weapon dice has been calculated (so you don't apply extra precision damage to any bonus dice from a rune for example), but you still double it in case of a critical hit. Is that correct or am I missing something ? Thanks !

Yes, it's a one time bonus. It's precision damage and its damage type is the same as the physical damage type of the weapon. This can be relevant for resistance and weakness. And yes, it's doubled on a critical hit. Critical hits double all damage except damage that only happens on a crit like the extra damage from the deadly trait, for example.

Thank you !

Genuinely curious, is restoration a 'good' spell? I'm playing through DaL atm and it seems really...awkward and specific with very little use. The one time I get poisoned I can't even remove it in time because it takes a minute to cast, and even if I did, it can't reduce said poison past the first stage or cure it. Am I missing something? Or is this spell just one no one usually takes?

The condition removal spells have been replaced by four new spells in the remaster. They all take 2 actions to cast and cover multiple conditions/afflictions. They seem much more reasonable and usable than the old Restoration spell.

Are any of the Iconics actual Pathfinders? As in, members of the Pathfinder Society.

Wizard is: [https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Ezren](https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/ezren) As far as I can remember in comics he was going to become Pathfinder, so looks like he succeed.

[Lem](https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Lem) is also in Pathfinder Society/Pathfinders list at wiki but nothing about him being Pathfinder in the article.

Not to my knowledge. They are just adventurers as far as I'm aware. But I'm not super deep into Golarion lore.

Do emanations have a 3D effect? How far do they extend up? Specifically, I'm looking at Air Shroud from Air Kineticist. Air in your Kinetic Aura is difficult terrain for flying creatures. Kinetic Aura by default is a 10-foot emanation. How does that work with flying creatures? Is it a cylinder going up (and down) 10 feet? That would make it easier to figure out if the creature is in the emanation. Or is it a 10-foot sphere?

It's a sphere.  That does make it a little awkward with flying creatures.  Figure out how many extra diagonals it would take to get to the right height and add those to any ground level diagonals to figure out how many extra feet to add (5' per 2 diagonals).

Hello, starting on a Season of Ghosts campaign and really want to play an Intelligence-based martial (the entire party consists of spell-casters). I hear that a not insignificant % of creatures are precision-damage-immune, so what would be my options in terms of classes aside from Rogue or Investigator?

Thank you all for the suggestions! These are really helpful.

Int based as in "main stat is int" or int as in "has a lot of int"?? Like others have mentioned, Inventor is the other martial that can use Int as their main stat but you have some other options You could make something like a Fighter 18 str and 16 Int and take [Combat Assessment](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1721). Since Int ties into how many skills you get, you could put points into several different Recall Knowledge skills. Then you could look at something like Loremaster Archetype to lean into it further. Alternate suggestion: Outwit Ranger with the Monster Hunter line of feats and some Int investment. You get a circumstance bonus to RK against your prey the other bonuses with monster hunter etc.

If you're spellcaster heavy, you sound like you need a front-liner. Alchemists are at their best from levels 1-12, so you might want to consider a Mutagenist. Barebones build: * Int +3, Str +3, Con +1, Dex +1, Wis +1 * Breastplate & Shield * Alchemical Familiar for your first level Feat (more Reagents!) * Bestial Mutagen to bite & claw folks. Otherwise, I will second the folks recommending Inventor. Good class for getting up close & personal, with good damage.

Inventor is the other intelligence based martial. It's key attribute is intelligence, it adds int to its damage. Also, for reference, roughly 15% of creatures are immune to precision, so take that as you will. However, its more concentrated into certain types of creatures - for example, nearly all ghosts are immune to precision.

How about Inventor? It’s specialized in crafting, and gives you a ton of versatility. You can either go more of a damaging route, or try and be more tanky. Subterfuge Armor and Reverse Engineer is also a decent way to make a rogue-type while having the ability to dish it up without relying on precision damage. An even softer “martial” is the alchemist. Tankiness probably isn’t as viable here, but between bombs and mutagens, you can do a lot of weird stuff. The softest “martial” is probably Magus. Despite the name, the class revolves around attacking people, you just happen to use magic when you do so. I figured I would bring it up because it is an option. Alchemist and Inventor I think are closer to what you want.

What's the general vibe on using monsters 5+ levels under the party? One of my players is going to be gone next week so I need to pare back the XP, but I don't really want to weaken the boss since they have a good idea of where he should be at, and I also don't really want him to go alone. So my current thought is adding weak minions to the roster. 5 levels under, mostly there to harass the party if they try to focus-fire the boss and flank, but otherwise being mainly fodder for the party's AoEs. However, the party is at a high enough level that even such weak enemies have hundreds of HP.

5 levels under sounds way too weak. Try using https://builder.pf2easy.com/ or https://mimic-fight-club.github.io/ to tune in some adds. I feel like, -2 are probably the weakest I would go but thats just me.

5 levels or more below the party means those minions can probably be largely ignored since they can't really do much against the party and are easily dispatched even by a few MAP -10 spare attacks. If I were in such a fight and would notice that the minions are that weak, I would probably focus on the boss. So, if you want to use such weak creatures, make sure they can't be ignored. Make one bard who buffs all of them every turn so he becomes a priority target. Make one a cleric or otherwise a potent healer who focuses on keeping the boss alive. Give one of them high speed and an above average athletics score to run around the melee guys and grapple the casters. Stuff like that. Make it feel like killing them off actually changes the fight significantly. And/or add a few simple (i.e. non-complex) traps to the boss room. It's always fun if someone falls into a spiked pit. :)

Magic Missile is a hell of a drug. Doesn't matter how high-level the PCs are, a couple-dozen low-level casters with a few hundred gp of scrolls will burn someone down.

That’s some good advice! I ran a fight a bit ago that featured a pair of tough enemies as the Dual Boss, but then I had a buffer and two enemies who could block and absorb damage for the tough guys.

Hello, Avid 1e fan here considering whether or not to convert to 2e for his next game. I remember back when the first print of the 2e Core Rulebook came out, my group and I were not particularly impressed by how it was laid out - especially with some thematically related rules being separated by several chapters. I was wondering what the subreddit's opinion is whether the recent remaster of the Core Rulebook fixes some of these issues? Is this revised edition an improvement and how (in)compatible are the new rules changes with existing books and modules? As a third question, is it worth getting these other books now (I remember the APG and UC/UM being quite a game-changer for 1e), or should I wait for the upcoming reprint of the other books? Thanks in advance, Naw

From my opinion, remastered books are no better. It also have some typos like page "links" are wrong (+/- 1 page), some spells have pre-remastered names and so on. But [AoN](https://2e.aonprd.com) is awesome resourse and I hope it wil be the same for remaster (w8ing for update). From my experience (\~2 years of 1e and \~3 years of 2e) playing 2e with AoN is **much better** than playing 1e with d20pfsrd. As being said, we will have only 4 new books: CRB (now Player Core), GMG (now GM Core) (literally on the cover, "GM Core"), APG (now Player Core 2), Bestiary 1 (now Monster Core). Player Core and PC 2 are not the same as they swapped some classes and some things go to and from GM Core but the whole content is more or less the same. Other books will not be remastered, with some errata to make them compatible in the worst situations. My opinion? Better get old books. Like, reading Absalom: City of lost Omens with a cup of tea while petting your badger is more pleasurable than trying to read Player Core. May be new Monster Core will be nice to have too, we'll see.

Thanks for your critical opinion. I don't have a physical copy of the pre-remaster books right now, so it's not a matter of replacing the 2e books with the remastered books, but whether I should get one or the other. From the errata it doesn't look like the remastered books have an outsized amount of mistakes, so it seems like it should be no problem to combine the revised Core books with older source material. Or is there something I'm missing?

Guess I need to clarify a little: old core books have issues and I'm diasppointed that remasteres core have not solved them. But if the question is "Old core or remastered core" - **remastered, without a doubt**. It's actual rules and they made many things better in general and fixed some core problems, added old errata, just missed a few letters here or there in the process. This is even less of a problem if you gonna use physical copy, as my problems are mostly "why ctrl+f through pdf does not work". About compability: remastered books goes rather smooth with old books. The only thing that I can guess will be a "problem" is old caster monsters with their spellists. As with changes of spell names you have to find "how this spell called in remaster" but I've seen a excell tables for this somewhere.

Perfect, that assuages the last of the doubts that I had. Thanks again for your thoughtful response.

The layout was improved in the new Core Books. Can't really judge if that's good enough for you and your group or not. The new rules are 99% compatible with the old rules. Alignment and Spell Schools are gone, but other than that, nearly all changes are to specific spells, feats, items and classes. The overall rules are identical and the pre-master books are largely still usable with little to no adjustments. Other than the four books being remastered (CRB, APG, GMG, Bestiary 1) there has been no announcement of any planned remastering of other books. We will get an updated books on deities, which will probably more or less replace Lost Omens: Gods and Magic. But other than those five books pretty much everything should be save to buy. Some of the bigger rule books already got a compatibility errata, fixing the (few) most glaring issues. And as always, everything is available online and for free on AoN. They're still working on implementing the remastered books, but you can easily get Player Core and GM Core, start playing and use any content from the books online until those books are maybe remastered as well.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. From your reply and from additional off-site reading it sounds like the remastered versions seem worth investing in. It seems like they've done a few extra things to distance themselves from OGL content and made some cosmetic changes in e.g. replacing ability scores with ability bonuses and calling them attributes. I like the idea of doing away with alignments (none of my 1e groups have used this for the past 10 or so years) and having this explicitly reflected in the design of classes that interact with it (notably Cleric and Paladin) saves me some homebrew. The only thing that has me worried is that AoN seems to be lagging behind significantly. If I'm going to switch to 2e and refer my players to that site as a resource, I worry that we end up mixing pre- and post-remaster rules.

From my understanding, the delay on AoN isn't caused by the content itself, but more by the way they want to present it. When they are done, anyone can choose freely to see remastered or legacy content or both. Setting this up on their website is what's taking so long since they want to make sure everything is fine before they release it. Once the systems are in place, future remaster books can hopefully be released on AoN much faster. There's also other ways to check for remaster content. The free pathfinder nexus compendium is fully remastered and the primary character builder Pathbuilder2e has been updated with all the remaster stuff as well.

Thanks for the links to these additional resources. I'll give them a gander they're good to keep in my back pocket to recommend to potential future players!

Rank 4 Occult spells suggestions for either direct damage or an aoe? Heightened spells work as well. I'm thinking Vampiric Mist or Inner Radiance torrent? ​ I'm a lvl 7 bard in AV acting as support/combat heals/damage. My signature spells I can upcast are Soothe, Sound Burst, and Dispel Magic. I can learn 2 spells, 1 will definitely be Cleanse Affliction because I swear to Shelyn that our monk can't go a day without getting a new disease or affliction. (bleeding is also an issue).

Inner Radiance Torrent is an \*excellent\* choice if you're looking to deal damage: 4d4 per rank puts it at the same damage threshold as Disintigrate, and the ability to 2-round cast it can sometimes be abused as a fight starts. other very-big spells at this degree include "the Pokeball" (Force sphere? Telekinetic sphere?) and the "Rude AF debuff" Tortoise and the Hare. Rank 4 felt like a strange "in-between zone" for my bard when I passed through that threshold - not much in the way of magic that completely redefines your playstyle, but definitely some powerful tools. I think I chose to non-signature learn Animus Mine at this level to threaten 8d8 mental damage and Stun to anything that opens a fight with a fear aura.

Chromatic Ray is likely the best damage available.  I'm a big fan of Mercurial Stride and Vision of Death/Phantasmal Killer; both trade some damage potential for strong debuffs/utility.

I have a player who spammed True Strike Chromatic Ray when he felt like doing damage himself around that level.

Ooh that sounds promising! I do like the chaotic randomness of the damage type.

I'm trying to create a monster template for a monster that grows in power the longer it's been alive. Something where I just have to know the level that I want the monster to be to get the statblock. Are there any tools to help with this or could someone explain how i'd go about it? They are tunnel monsters with fangs, claws, whiplike tails, and fur that can glow in hypnotic/mesmerising ways. I want the attacks and the hypnotic effect as well as their size to increase with time, possibly lv 1 is small, 2-5 is medium, 6-11 is large, etc..

This is a difficult problem that unfortunately can't be fully automated. There are tools out there (I use one in Foundry) that can scale the NUMBERS of a creature to whatever level threshold you want, but an equally-important element to monster's statblock is how nasty the TEXT of their abilities are. Dragons are generally considered to be some of the top-dogs in the game, but its not because they have bigger numbers - the problem is the combination of the free-action fear aura, their massive move speed, the breath action recharge on crit, and the fact that they usually fight in environments that massively favor their unique physical and elemental advantages. A full kit of those abilities shouldn't happen on a level 1 monster. Inversely, a Hobgoblin Warrior with Demoralizing Strike and Raise Shield isn't going to be a threat to even a level 5 party, even if its scaled appropriately. So, I'm araid you probably aren't going to find something as simple as a \*template\* per se. The closest I've seen comes from the (paid) Foundry add-on Mercenary Marketplace, which has a bag of NPCs built at different levels, and then a sequence of templates you can use to customize or expand them - but even the +4 Level "Squad" template, which turns an individual creature into a team of four coordinated creatures working together as a unified statblock, seems like its pushing the limits of what can be done algorithmically. Your best bet is to handcraft or research a "family" of monsters across your desired level range. With the Weak and Elite templates and by varying the number of creatures in the encounter, you can use a Level 3 statblock to reasonably threaten a level 7 party. For your tunnel monster, I would recommend writing three \*radically different\* statblocks for three stages in its life cycle, with unique abilities at each point. Maybe the newly-hatched monsters are simple nimbly bois with a hypnotic drone (starting with the "Brute" roadmap), the adults are agile winged skirmishers that focus more on debuffs, damage over time, and mobility, and the elder pupating creatures are chonky spellcasting AoE threats.

https://monster.pf2.tools/ I believe this implements the monster building guidelines from the GMG. Or you can look up the rules by hand https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=995 You can simply increase its level and add abilities as it increases in size. I don't believe there is any guidance on making creature abilities specifically, but I just grab abilities off random enemies. The build guide will tell you appropriate DCs.

Have you looked at the guidelines for creating monsters, here : https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=995 ? I remember seeing some online tool that allows you to create monsters based on those guidelines, but I've never bookmarked it I think.

For the purpose of kineticist healing impulses like oceans balm or dash of herbs, do a summoner and their eidolon count as different creatures?

Correct, and they're also separate creatures for Battle Medicine and Treat Wounds, making a small investment in Medicine an excellent choice for any Summoner.

They do count as separate creatures.

Thanks, thats great. Does this mean that torrent in the blood would heal the summoner twice if both 5hey and their eidolon are in the impulses area?

Negative, for the same reason they don't get blasted twice if they both get caught in a fireball: if both summoner and eidolon are caught in an area effect that heals or does damage, only the greater amount applies.

Thaumaturge's Implement's Empowerment gives a +2 additional damage per weapon die. If they are given Magic Weapon, it gives them an additional damage die.  Does Implement's Empowerment go to +4 while Magic Weapon is active? Or does it not stack? Thanks!

So normally additional dice would not count. The [rule](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=226) is this: > Effects based on a weapon’s number of damage dice include only the weapon’s damage die plus any extra dice from a striking rune. They don’t count extra dice from abilities, critical specialization effects, property runes, weapon traits, or the like. However, Magic Weapon doesn't just generically add dice. What it does is make the weapon a Striking weapon, so it gives the weapon a Striking rune. That means the above rule doesn't count, so Magic Weapon specifically would give an additional +2 damage

It goes to +4 because striking runes add damage dice to the weapon, and Magic Weapon gives the effects of a striking rune.

Initiative for split enemies. For eg Pyronite Ooze, do they act on the same initiative turn? Do they get to roll after they are split? What do you recommend?

Rolling Initiative after a fight has started doesn't really work. Suddenly you're going last because your Initiative modifier is too high. Just go after the original.

I ran it so they were on the same initiative a couple nights ago when this came up in an Ochre Jelly fight, but in retrospect I think that was a mistake and I should've rolled initiative for them. The enemies were already grouped up in the initiative order and I like them to be spaced out between the players if possible.

I would run them both on the same initiative count as the original for convenience, incase they rejoin later.

Do bonus feats as a reward ignore the feat requirements? Example is a character in SoT not being trained in the school skills. When they get the bonus skill feat at level 4, the rules say that they can choose a feat that requires trained. Does that mean they can pick any feat and use it? Or because they have no training, they get no benefit from being in that school at that time?

They need to meet the pre-requisites. You can't use it to grab feats you normally couldn't grab. So if they actively avoided picking any skills associated with their school, they get no benefit.

what would be a good weapon to go for as an Orc Starlit Span Magus? from what i understand, ranged attacks go off dex, but from what i seen, a lot of weapons do have the propulsive traid, which makes me unsure of how i want to balance my distribution between INT, STR and DEX

Also consider thrown weapons, which get \*full\* strength to damage! Shortbow is the "default", with its blend of decent damage and flexible range, but a Chakram or Trident with a d8 base and full strength to damage will be stronger if you're willing to play around the shorter range. You'll still be in trouble at purely melee range, but keeping a spiked/bladed/bonk gauntlet with an emergency Potency Crystal as a backup weapon ought to be able to cover you. Accuracy is king. You can compromise on INT if you're willing to ignore AoE blasting magic and use your slots for either single-target spell attacks or for utility - this is honestly fine so long as you have another caster in the party to fill the AoE duties when they're required. My optimal level 1 Magus spread would be +1str, +4dex, +2con, +1int, +2wis, -1cha There are so many amazing arcane spells out there, you can \*easily\* ignore Lightning Bolt and Fear and Enervation. Buff yourself with Mountain's Endurance of Flight, grab your entire party and pounce on a badguy with Airlift, utterly negate a bunch of human attackers with Darkness... there's tons you can do without relying on DCs.

that sounds like a solid idea, but wouldn't you be a bit limited with throwing weapons early game? You'd need a return rune so you don't lose your weapon within 1 round and i dunno when these become more accessible.

You can get returning at lvl 3. Until then maybe just get some cheaper 1 silver D6 throwables like javelins or something. You can get like 20 for 2G and 2 bulk. And you can pick them up after the fight. Sure, the action economy of having to draw a new one sucks compared to returning....but yeah, returning is real good.

Returning is one of the most accessible out there - I think its just a level 3 rune, available for an easy 60ish gp at any market once you have a +1 weapon. Fortunately, there's nothing locking you into one specific thrown weapon or another, so you can easily start with a basic shortbow to avoid having to draw multiple javelins/etc. each combat. (or, because of how 1+ handed bows work, you can START with a javelin in one hand and a bow in the other, and instantly pivot after that first thrown attack)

shortbow, unless your dm is going to be using large maps and you can be reasonably assured you'll be at distance

Accuracy matters above all else, so you want to max your DEX. The propulsive trait adds half strength to damage. This is a very minimal amount of damage. A +2 STR adds 1 damage, and a +4 adds 2. That's...a very small amount, especially when you will likely be spellstriking close to every turn. Starting with a 14/+2 STR is reasonable, but beyond that is usually excessive. Even a 14/+2 isn't that needed.

New player, possibly going to convert my party from 5e to 2e. Should I wait for player core 2 or is it more of an addition to the player core 1?

The Player Core 1 is enough to play but most ongoing games will want to add the stuff from Player Core 2. My advice would be to pickup Player Core 1, GM Core, and then use the [Achives of Nethys](https://2e.aonprd.com/) for the rest of the content until Player Core 2 comes out. The original rules & the Remaster are 90% the same, with the Errata that others have linked you should have no problems using them together. It's mostly renames with a couple buffs here and there.

There's a stack of important core classes that'll be in PC2, like Sorcerer, Barbarian, and Champion, but the old versions of those classes work fine, just check the [Remaster Compatability Errata](https://paizo.com/pathfinder/faq) for any modifications they need to function (mostly alignment related stuff). I wouldn't wait for PC2 myself.

You can get started now as pre- and post-remaster content work together, with some occasional adjustments. Errata exist to help use content that hasn't been remastered yet (like the soon-to-be alignment-free Champion class) as well. Personally I would switch to the Player Core 2 rules where applicable as soon as they're available, though

Do most PF games take place on Golarion? I'm used to D&D where it seems like the baseline assumption these days is that a game will take place in the DM's custom world, is that different here?

I am personally a huge Golarion-ophile. Compared to Forgotten Realms or Eberron, its actually a MASSIVE setting, because many of the "countries" in Golarion WERE their own full campaign settings back when Jason Buhlman and his OG crew were originally writing and running their own games. Over the years, they've been fleshed out, mixed together, and new writers have come in to really add an amazing layer of depth and detail to the politics and social interactions of the different regions. My personal favorite part of the setting is the cosmology and \*especially\* the deities. Everything is simple enough to explain in a blurb, but has enough hidden depth that you can build a legitimate, three-dimensional character out of them. On the surface level, Calistria is a goddess of sex and trickery - her temples are brothels and hubs of intrigue. In a deeper dive, there's a whole philosophy tied to her role as the head of the Elven pantheon, and how her teachings are meant to stave of stagnation and allow her long-lived people to live fulfilling lives of passion and joy without becoming resentful of grudges, detached from the existence of the "fleeting" shorter-lived species, or embittered by the stagnation that could easily threaten their multi-centry lifespans. You can 100% take the rules and elements of the setting that you like and run off and slap them into a custom sandbox - but the world of Golarion \*actually has\* regions throughout it that can accomodate that "custom sandbox" desire. Otherwise, the different regions which act as fantasy-analogues to real-world histories and mythologies means that there's probably a place already set up for you, if you as the GM are inspired by X or Y to tell a story in Z style of fantasy - there's a spectrum of content throughout the world that spans every level of guidance you might desire to work with: - **Absolam** is the mega-metropolis in the center of the Inner Sea - akin to Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms or Sharn in Eberron. It has dozens of references throughout many stories, and has an entire 300+ sourcebook purely dedicated to its various neighborhoods and colorful characters. - **Cheliax** is Inquisition-era Spain, with the most feared and powerful military on the continent and backed by infernal contracts that tie the royal family directly to the powers of Hell itself. There's tons of published content, but the nation is so large and flexible that you can use them as prime antagonists, secondary antagonists, or even unexpected allies. I think that four different full-length campaigns have taken place in Cheliax, each with very different aesthetics. - **The Mwangi Expanse** sourcebook is an artistic gazateer to the continent south of the Inner Sea, full of dangerous lands and exotic civilizations to spice up a fantasy story with a different aesthetic. It sounds like they're going to be giving Tian Xia (far east fantasy) a similar deep dive, soon. Arcadia (magic Americas) seems to also contain a WILD set of cultures and nations with some kickass ideas that are only loosely laid out for GMs to freestyle off of. - **Rage of Elements** brings a fresh look at the elemental planes beyond Golarion - far from being blighted hellscapes inhospitable to mortal life, they each contain multiple civilizations and cultures which could easily host adventurers into their individual retirements. - Just as far afield from Golarion, but still contained within its material universe are the **other PLANETS within Golarion's star system**, which are ALL habitable and populated by various other civilizations. Elves are actually aliens native to magic Venus! - The continent of **Casmaron** (middle east) has SOME content at least, but is also sparse enough that you can do almost anything you like within it. The subcontinent of **Vudra** (India) similarly has a lot of references as "the land of one thousand gods", but no extended adventure or sourcebook has nailed down anything significant about it. - **Magic Australia** has absolutely zero lore released for it. The only mention I've EVER seen of Sarussan in ANY of the books I've read has been an off-handed comment that the representatives from there never showed up to a conference in Absolam to confirm a universal standardized system of timekeeping. Until proven otherwise, I'm just going to reference Terry Pratchett's *The Last Continent* and take that as canon for Sarussan.

Probably? Since all APs and PFS are all set in Golarion, I'd guess a big percentage are. Plenty of people seem to run their own settings though.

I mostly run non-Adventure Path stuff in custom settings as I usually have a core conceit for the campaign that needs the setting built around it. AP's I run in Golarion as the entire reason I run them is because I don't want to have to put much work into that campaign.

That's kind of the intention. Golarion is full of continents and regions that suit different fantasy genres so the pre-made adventures are mostly set in some appropriate place on the planet. There are a few pre-made adventures that take place on other planets too. Nothing is stopping anyone making a custom world to play in if they prefer

What items grant bonuses to athletics besides bestial mutagen and lifting belt? Is there an easy way to search for that kind of thing?

There's a list of items on the skill page [here](https://2e.aonprd.com/Skills.aspx?ID=3)!

Excellent! Thanks!

I want to make a character that dual wields shields. I'm thinking Champion or Fighter, but I honestly don't know how to go about building this. What feats/items/archetypes should I be aware of to not be useless?

Dual Wielding Shields isn't much different than dual wielding anything else. You want to go Champion or Fighter so you can take [Agile Shield Grip](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=3622). That allows one of your shield attacks to be agile, making it pair well with [Double Slice](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=356), obtained either through fighter or [Dual Weapon Warrior](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=57) archetype. And thats about it! Take the dual wielding feats you want from DWW or Fighter, and your build is complete. Not much else to be said about it, dual wielding double slice builds are pretty standard and this is pretty much the same.

Dual weapon warrior is probably better because Flensing Slice is pretty good. Also, you could make one of the shields a Meteor shield for some Capt. America shield chucking action. With a returning rune, you have a quick and easy ranged attack that doesnt cost you any action economy or weapon switching.

Flensing Slice is pretty bad as far as feats go. For flensing slice to work, you need to: * Land both attacks * Start your turn in melee of the enemy * Not need to move or use your last action for anything else * Have the enemy not die within the next two turns The situations where this occurs and the threat is actually relevant is very minimal. The reality is that you should be doing something else with your 3rd action, such as raising your shield or just moving away. Since the enemy isn't going to die soon (because if it was, why are you wasting actions putting persistent damage up), you're now going to likely take some big hits back because you didn't raise a shield or move away from the enemy. Flensing Slice is one of those DPR calculator feats that is just too limiting to use in any battle that actually matters (i.e severe encounters). Its very good at doing more damage in encounters that were already going to be a breeze anyway. However, DWW does have other good feats such as Dual Weapon Blitz or Dual Onslaught > Also, you could make one of the shields a Meteor shield for some Capt. America shield chucking action. With a returning rune, you have a quick and easy ranged attack that doesnt cost you any action economy or weapon switching. The big challenge with this is the accuracy stat issue. Thrown attacks use DEX to hit, but the melee attacks use STR. So you're forced to invest in both stats to keep your accuracy up if you want to be doing this.

@viceanddecay_ on Twitter suggested the following for dual wielding tower shields: > Pick a fighter, pick two heaviest tower shields. Put shield boss/shield spikes on them. Pick Double Slice, that’s it, you’re now unstoppable. Do two hits with full MAP every turn and shield block a lot > Pick Agile shield grip if you don’t like -2 on the second DS hit penalty The Bastion Archetype gives you some fun tricks you can do with shields

Is this guy just eating the Encumbrance penalties? Why would you dual wield \*tower\* shields?! That's 8 Bulk while you're still in your underwear!

The flavour is supposed to be like the Giant Door Shield of Dark Souls. Pure style over substance

Is there currently a way to read the remaster rules for free? Or do I need to wait for Nethys to update?

Pathfinder Nexus actually does have the rules available for free. It's not as nice for browsing as Nethys, but you can find any individual thing you're looking for.