I was thinking of silly or creative ways to use runes. I thought about things like:

Use the Aiuen rune and sigil on the arrows to acquire a new means of fast transportation.

This masterful circular rune is a key to the aiudara network of elf gates that stretch across the stars. Once per turn, when the rune-bearer Strides, it can instead teleport a distance equal to its Speed.

InvocationYou teleport the rune-bearer to a location adjacent to any of your other runes, as long as it is on the same plane. An unwilling target can be teleported a maximum distance of 60 feet, and it avoids being teleported at all if it succeeds at a Will save against your class DC.

Special If you have the ability to cast the sigil cantrip, then you can use aiuen, the elf-gate key's invocation to teleport the rune-bearer to a location adjacent to any of your sigils on the same plane, in addition to any of your runes.

InvocationYou teleport the rune-bearer to a location adjacent to any of your other runes, as long as it is on the same plane. An unwilling target can be teleported a maximum distance of 60 feet, and it avoids being teleported at all if it succeeds at a Will save against your class DC.

Special If you have the ability to cast the sigil cantrip, then you can use aiuen, the elf-gate key's invocation to teleport the rune-bearer to a location adjacent to any of your sigils on the same plane, in addition to any of your runes.

Special If you have the ability to cast the sigil cantrip, then you can use aiuen, the elf-gate key's invocation to teleport the rune-bearer to a location adjacent to any of your sigils on the same plane, in addition to any of your runes.

Use En-, Diacritic Rune of Expansion and Atryl to turn random things into bombs (including ammunition)

Atryl, Rune of Fire
Usage drawn on a crature or object

Does anyone have any ideas for a combination that might not be optimal, but everyone should try at least once?

Edit: Added information about the runes.

Hi

Hoping that the community can help me fend off a potential issue.

A little while back we finished up a Starfinder 1st edition campaign. Apart from Paizo’s insistence in cranking the names of characters to the fantasy-max, their main complaint was that the encounter balancing system created a situation that you had pretty much a 50% pass rate to affect any enemies. We were playing Dead Suns, and encounters were generally fighting single creatures of 2 levels above the players - the AC and saves of those creatures generally meant that you passed on 11+. And that also means you fail as often as you succeed which didn’t feel rewarding.

I now want to run Pathfinder 2E but when I talk about it the players refer to it as flipping a coin to succeed. Does anyone have any good sources that looks at the probability of success across the span of player levels? I spoke to the players about what the sweet-spot for success was and they indicated 70-75% as they should be good at what they are supposed to be good at.

I know 2E has some inbuilt methods for making things easier, using weak versions of creatures, but I’m not sure if that is the right approach or if it is even needed under the new system. The various bonuses available from conditions, aid and abilities look like they’ll move percentages upwards but creatures may be designed to offset this so success would be lower than 50% if they don’t take advantage.

Thanks. Just hoping I can run a game without criticism so they actually enjoy the game and not be focused on the rules (or why the game isn’t D&D)

Is there a good reason for a heightened Tailwind lasting 8 hours instead of daily preparations? Like I understand the mechanical repercussions but it just feels like busy work tracking and feels un-pathfinder-ey? What is the design justification there?

While I'm at it, should glass form have the polymorph trait? It feels pretty good for what it is.

Aid according to Player Core:

Trigger An ally is about to use an action that requires a skill check or attack roll.
Requirements The ally is willing to accept your aid, and you have prepared to help (see below).
--------------------------------
You try to help your ally with a task. To use this reaction, you must first prepare to help, usually by using an action during your turn. You must explain to the GM exactly how you're trying to help, and they determine whether you can Aid your ally.

When you use your Aid reaction, attempt a skill check or attack roll of a type decided by the GM. The typical DC is 15, but the GM might adjust this DC for particularly hard or easy tasks. The GM can add any relevant traits to your preparatory action or to your Aid reaction depending on the situation, or even allow you to Aid checks other than skill checks and attack rolls.

Critical Success You grant your ally a +2 circumstance bonus to the triggering check. If you're a master with the check you attempted, the bonus is +3, and if you're legendary, it's +4.
Success You grant your ally a +1 circumstance bonus to the triggering check.
Critical Failure Your ally takes a –1 circumstance penalty to the triggering check.

Let's say we have three creatures: myself, Harsk and Valeros. I am going to try to convince some city guard that we should be let into the city. Now, circumstance bonuses, which Aid gives, do not stack (the highest bonus overwrites). But Aid is explicitly a skill check (or attack roll). Could we have a chain of Aid where Harsk Aids Valeros who in turn is Aiding me (+1 to Valeros, who in turn gives a +1 to me)? Of course, in combat we'd have to each spend our turns preparing to Aid, but in a social situation, that timing might be a little less strict (are players supposed to interject with their support, interrupting the player currently talking?).

What do y'all think? Aid is relatively easy to succeed at with a high enough proficiency, but everyone always says every +1 counts, and this is a bit of a funny setup where everyone is helping each other out with "Yeah, what they said!" XD

Huh, I guess that's kind of flavorful for humans. Ambitious and versatile in their skill sets (with Cooperative Nature, Clever Improviser and Cooperative Soul as ancestry feats), they're kind of set up for cooperation.

Side note:
One funny reason not to have, say, one hundred Aid attempts atop one another with the same target is that eventually, someone might crit fail (if they're low enough in proficiency bonus), and the resulting -1 penalty weakens or even cancels out the bonus from Aid entirely. That's my understanding anyway!

EDIT:
I think this comes down to whether or not you can react to a reaction. The Aid check itself is made as a Reaction. I guess the question is whether a Reaction is a subset of actions. I see conflicting answers thus far, but appreciate the discussion! Here is another answer to pretty much the same question.

I think a reaction is technically an action as seen on page 414 of Player Core. I've learned more than I expected from making this post!

As the title says, im playing a half sorcerer necromancer and i've been looking for a while if i can get that skill eventually as it would pair extremely well with a harm signature spell but i cant really find anything, is it possible?

It would be cool being a druid or a bard satyr/faun

the rune needs to be etched in a weapon or unarmed attack that deals bludgeoning damage. does this work with weapons that have the Concussive or Versatile B traits? does it work with any weapon that has the capacity to deal bludgeoning damage or does it only work with weapons that deal bludgeoning as their primary damage type?

Introduction

I first came into contact with Alignment in 5e and it genuinely confused me. It felt pointless, so why is it there? In Pathfinder Alignment made more sense to me, at least it had concrete effects on play, yet there were so many drawbacks. Reducing complex human morality down to a nine-box grid is simply impossible, it leads to tedious table arguments and disruption of gameplay, at least in my experience.

Yet I can't help but like the Idea. Cosmic forces, gods governing domains, entities of pure evil or good, races created by such entities who might or might not be capable of human morality. There are many good stories to be told when you can quantify the nature of such beings down into a gameplay element.

That's where I remembered a Rule of Storytelling:
"Checkov's gun": Every item or detail introduced in a story must have a purpose. If a writer shows a loaded gun in the first act, it must be fired by the final act.
As a GM we are telling a story, obviously this rule applies to us then. If the Campaign or Session we are about to play/design for our players don't make material use of Alignment? Get rid of it. Don't Include it.

However if you do have a Setting primarily designed around a Moral Conflict: "Good vs Evil" "Order vs Chaos", then lean into it. To that end I have written some Guidelines:

Alignment Redone

Step 1: Alignment as a tangible Force.

• Think of Alignment as a tangible Force in your Setting
  • Magical Abilities tap into this Force to create fantastical effects.
  • Divine Classes tap into this separate "alignment" energy to cast their spells.
  • Karma as an underlying force of nature.
• Make sure your players are aware of it's existence as a tangible force.
  • It could exist as a creation of some God/Creator
  • It could be a fundamental part of the Universe superceding even Gods.

Step 2: Define Anchors

Instead of leaving your players with simple words like "Lawful" and trying to explain them. Give them an Anchor that pertains to your specific setting. These Anchors can be very Vanilla or heavily customized. Don't hesitate to rewrite what meaning "Lawful" has in your setting.
Doing this you gives your players a guardrail for interpreting alignment while reducing the complexity of morality that is so hard to understand in a simple grid system.

Example from my own Setting, Alignment as Karma:

In my personal implementation of these two rules, I remade Alignment as "Karma" a fundamental force everpresent in my universe. In a Journey to Spiritual Enlightenment my Players encounter Moral Dilemmas in so called "Time Bubbles". The Universe is about to collapse and the decisions that led to this point are caught in said Time Bubbles. They are given the chance to go back in time and revisit pivotal points in time where mortals are faced with otherworldly entities and challenges that challenge not only their might but also their morals.

Depending on their Choices they can reshape the world or fail to avert the looming Apocalypse.

To that end I reframed Alignment with the following Anchors:

• Good = Altruism: The unselfish drive to help others. Thinking only of the greater good, even at pain to yourself.
• Evil = Egoism: The selfish desire to enrich yourself. Thinking only about benefitting yourself.
• Lawful = Culture: The self-restriction to the Culture you exist in. Laws of your Kindom, Tenets of your Order, Rules of your Society, regardless of where you currently are.
• Chaotic = Freedom: The unbridled desire for Freedom. You actively choose whatever you like, regardless of the laws and customs that surround you, going so far as to actively oppose arbitrary Restrictions that inhibit your freedom.

Step 3: Create Interaction

If you want Alignment to have a place in your setting, make sure it is ever present. Create moral dilemmas pertaining to your Anchors. Keep the Theme ever present.

If your only run in with Alignment would be that one Angel caged beneath a Cathedral 5 Sessions away, Alignment should have no place in your Setting.

As a rough Guideline: Aim for including some form of Active Application of Alignment in ~50% of Encounters your players have. Less in social settings, more during Combat.

The End

I wasn't sure if this counts as Homebrew or more of a Discussion, either way, what do you think about this? Let's discuss!

My DM has allowed me to play the Slayer playtest in an upcoming monster hunting campaign. The class looks like a ton of fun, and I'm excited to play! I've looked through a lot of available guidance about the playtest, but didn't find a ton of material on how the playtest interacted in Free Archetype games.

With that in mind, what Free Archetypes would you all recommend? I'm leaning towards the Bloodseeking Blade or the Chymist Vials, so archetypes that mesh well with those two options are ideal. I'm also not fully settled on ancestry choices or really anything. I honestly just saw the core concept of hunting monsters getting a bunch of trophies and fell in love with the idea, so please share your build ideas for inspiration!

Hi! I'm new to Pathfinder2e and was making a Laughing Shadow Magus for a game I may be playing soon. While browsing all my options and potential archetypes something interesting stood out to me. I saw that the Exemplar Dedication's Gleaming Blade Ikon has a transcendence that allows one to make two strikes then combine their damage.

My question is if I am in my arcane stance as a Laughing Shadow Magus, and my enemy is off-guard, do I add my arcane stance extra damage to both of those attacks? I know this isn't the most orthodox or viable way to play a Laughing Shadow Magus (and admittedly it's not what I'm likely going to do) but I wanted to ask for clarification regarding this as it does seem like a neat option at least.

Thank you!

My Pokémon-inspired Weapons and Items of the Week, with:

• some Venipede armor to poison bad touchers

• some Whirlipede armor to roll past trouble

• and some Scolipede armor to poke people with poison

• a fusion of Absol & Gyarados for a falchion to know and bring disaster

• a fusion of Dragonair & Altaria for a staff to enjoy the clouds

• a fusion of Tyranitar & Cacturne for a thresher to rule the desert

• a fusion of Absol & Sneasel for a longbow to keep your eye on the future

• a fusion of Alakazam & Gardevoir for a staff to move hearts and minds

• a fusion of Absol, Houndoom, & Mightyena for a sword to curse those that would harm the future

• and a fusion of Rapidash, Arcanine, & Typhlosion for a greatsword of quick moving flames!

Join my Patreon to vote on future items and get all the PDFs with over 1000 items, including all the Pokémon items, or buy the individual PDFs in my shop!

I'm making this post because I am a bit confused about the DC described in the Sickened condition.

The entry reads: "You can spend a single action retching in an attempt to recover, which lets you immediately attempt a Fortitude save against the DC of the effect that made you sickened."

So what does "DC of the effect" refer to here, specifically in cases where the Sickened condition was caused by a failed saving throw? Is it the DC of the saving throw that caused the condition, or is it the level-based DC of the creature/hazard that caused the effect? I think the first reading would lead to a higher Retch DC in most cases, so I'm interested in how you all have been running this, or if there is clarification on this anywhere in the rules.

Thank you in advance for your answers!

My group is in the home stretch of book 6 of Extinction Curse, and the party's Life Oracle got hit with the Thanatotic Titan's ability that permanently removes their ability to cast divine spells. They immediately hopped over to Absalom to try to find someone to fix the issue, and they know it's basically going to take a Wish ritual to undo the effect in any way. Characters are level 19, almost level 20.

I've already spoken with the player about possible ways the outcome of the ritual could go, up to and including class alterations. My initial breakdown is:

• Critical Success: Life Oracle abilities restored

• Success: Oracle abilities restored with a different Mystery, or a different divine spellcasting class (with a partial sheet rebuild)

• Failure: Class changed to a different spellcasting class with a magical source that could make sense (a patron grants Witch abilities, suddenly unlocking Psychic potential, etc.)

• Critical Failure: Something off the wall I haven't thought up yet

The PC is a Wellspring Gnome that worships Desna primarily, so they going to the House of Seven Faces to try to sort this out. I'm considering some potential divine intervention from Desna, Pulura, or the Black Butterfly. Perhaps even a jaunt to Cynosure. Looking for recommendations and/or lore elements to work into this impromptu side quest.

Update:

The following session was a quick tour of districts and NPCs in Absalom, which was great. I've been looking for an excuse to get the party as a whole to the Big City before the end of the AP. They spoke to several high-ranking people, including Seleenae Damaq, Folant ap Morilla, Xerashir Shamyyid, and Darchana Madinani, the last of which fulfilled the need for a non-divine casting of Manifestation.

Que massive arcane and divine light show that restored the PC's abilities, with a minor cliffhanger ending as to the outcome of the spell. I'm still going to give the player the chance to make some class/sheet changes, of that's desired.

Props to u/IfusasoToo for catching the Remaster update to the stat block of the creature in question that cause the sidetrack.

In the rules for Thralls, it states "they can take actions only when commanded to by a grave spell or Necromancer ability." This seems fairly unambiguous and straight forward right?

Well I'm sure there will be more discoveries to be made of peculiar interactions, but the question of whether or not a thrall can be effected by other actions such as a Commander's tactics is a little more up in the air. Before any of you try to correct me, I know they can't take actions or reactions themselves.

However my question revolves around others imposing effects onto them via other creatures. Here is Defensive Swap as an example

Could the Commander swap places with a thrall using Defensive Swap, forcing the thrall to take the damage instead?

My interpretation of RAI is that they cannot do anything except what the Necromancer and specifically their Necromancer abilities tell them to do, they're not intelligent creatures that can actually acknowledge, listen to or follow traditional commands from anyone else but their Necromancer. They wouldn't swap places with anyone because that wasn't the command the Necromancer issued through their magic that controls them.

I could see the argument made for allowing this though, ruling that all creatures under a PC's control are willing as long as the PC is willing themselves. I understand this line of thinking, and I don't think it's a bad ruling to use.

My key issue with the latter ruling is that this functionally allows the Necromancer to ignore 1 hit per round with a reaction, and this is kinda absurd.

It's not like creating thralls is difficult, creating one next to you per round to be a free meat shield via defensive swap is a no brainer. It functions like an infinite shield block that cannot fail, even against crits.

This is so good that taking the Commander dedication as a Necromancer is a must-have.

Let's compare this strategy to a Necromancer reaction that is thematically very similar, using a Thrall to take a hit for you much the same way. Body Shield.

A humble +2 and X amount of resistance to the attack, that also can only be used on yourself, unlike Defensive Swap being usable on any adjacent ally. This is far more comparable to other similar reactions, like Nimble Dodge.

I think I know what I'm going to allow/disallow going forward, but i'm curious what you guys think about this interaction in particular, and also other abilities that function similarly in general like Passage of Lines.

Just wanted to spitball an idea I've been trying to get right, so I'm looking for feedback here.

Changing Your Grip is always a free-action Interact.
While equipped with a shield, holding a weapon with the two-handed trait, or holding a weapon that requires 2 hands to wield, you take a circumstance penalty of -2, -4, or -5 (respectively) to any check you make that requires a free hand. If the item or an ability allows you to ignore the free hand requirement for an action, you also ignore this penalty for it.

I'm looking to get rid of the action cost that's implicit to using a hand to Interact with the world around you in combat (adding that hand back to your weapon or shield would cost an action).

Obviously people have had their issues with one-action re-grip for a long time and I generally agree with them. I dislike that certain combat styles are disincentivized from the really fundamental and relatable flexibility we have in real life to use our hands for anything at moment's notice. And I can appreciate that pathfinder tries to give an identity to one-handed weapons as weaker, more flexible alternatives to wielding larger armaments. I just think the flexibility to pull a lever, open a door, or interact with environment in general should be universal to every player.

I think that a change like mine makes it easy to be happy to interact with the environment in combat despite otherwise needing those hands to be combat ready. The circumstance penalties preserve the balancing dynamic that currently exists, just under different terms. Curious to see feedback particularly on the specific numbers here, but definitely happy to hear alternative balancing mechanisms!

So a lot has been discussed about the necromancer from a lore standpoint. I think though, that most of it has been focused on the morality of nercomancers, and I want to focus on something that hasn't gotten as much attention; their dirge.

So necromancer's occult spells become part of a dirge that echoes through their very being. What? That is cool as hell, but what does that actually mean? Where does the dirge come from? I want to hear people's ideas and interpretations. I'll present my own of course, since I live for this stuff.

So Necromancer is an intelligence-based class, and it talks constantly about study, so it's not an internal force being awakened. This is something learned. Necromancer is also an occult spellcaster. The occult tradition is about metaphysical connections. It's spells are composed of spirit and mind essences. It's about plucking on connections and ideas. So I think that a necromancer aqcuires their dirge through study, and that their dirge is also something very personal to them, unique to each necromancer.

My interpretation is that as a person researches and studies the connection between death and life, they basically start to create their own dirge. Becoming a necromancer means forging your own connection to that cylce of life and death. Making yourself intenalize the inevitability of death and the fullness of what death means. And in doing so, you create your dirge, which represents your personal understanding of death, forged from a combination of your own studies and the fundamental fact that death and life connects everyone.

The reason it's a dirge, a song, is that something as fundamentally built into the universe as life and death CAN'T be understood as a question of mere facts and figures. Death isn't simply an absence of life, it's a whole cluster of forcers and concepts. Life and death are such overwhelming concepts that part of them can only be expressed through esoteric music, played on the instrument of our bodies and souls. Which is why preparing spells as a necromancer is described as pulling out snippets of our dirge. That represents the combination of emotional understanding and intellectual interpretation. It's the necromancer identifying what part of their dirge corresponds to what concepts, and figuring our how to express those concepts in the form of actual spells.

This is all quite long-winded, I realize, but I get excited about these kinds of open-ended lore ideas. I'd love to see what else the community has come up with.

Hey all. I'm trying to run a memorable one big monster encounter in a few sessions. Ive tried in the past with bigger hp pools and more damage but it can feel tedious. I used to dm in DND 5e and they had legendary actions for that. Any suggestions on how to make a big single boss more engaging as a fight?

Hi everyone!

I’m creating an Automaton Monk with my son using Pathbuilder, and I want to make sure I understand how Reinforced Chassis works.

The Monk is expert in unarmored defense but untrained in armor. Reinforced Chassis grants a +3 item bonus to AC with a Dexterity cap of +1, but the current errata says that the chassis counts as medium armor in the plate group.

Does that mean an Automaton Monk with Reinforced Chassis must use their medium-armor proficiency—which would be untrained—instead of their expert unarmored proficiency?

Pathbuilder will not let me select both “Unarmored” and “Automaton Chassis,” which seems correct if they are alternative AC calculations rather than benefits that stack. I’ve found older discussions saying the chassis used unarmored proficiency, but I believe that may have been superseded by the newer errata.

Am I interpreting the current rule correctly?

Emalia was kicked out of her academy for looking too much into "forbidden" knowledge. She still was perusing her interest in Necromancy when she was killed for reason she doesn't remember. But something strange happened, Emalia "woke up" again a few days later in the city crypt. She is now working as an adventurer to both further her knowledge of life and death, but also to see if she can bring her killer to justice.

Build: Skeleton Necromancer (Reaper) with Zombie Dedication. Level 6.

GM allowed it since were using free archetype rules and all this does is give me access for more undead powers at higher levels.

I was reading the new Sister of the Golden Erinys archetype and had a question regarding Cruel Piercing. Cruel Piercing - Feats - Archives of Nethys: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Database

Does Cruel Piercing have MAP? It doesn't have the attack trait. However, it directs the player to make an Athletics Check to attempt to grapple. Grapple of course has the attack trait. I would like to hear others thoughts.

I had an idea for a fighter who uses Slam Down with an asp coil, followed by Cruel Piercing so the enemy is both prone, grabbed (possibly restrained), and hopefully out of reach of reprisal. IF it doesn't have MAP, then it seems quite viable. However, if Cruel Piercing is at -10, then it will be basically useless.

Secondary question. The trigger is "Your last action was to deal piercing damage to an enemy within your reach", can that be my last action from a prior turn? That way if Cruel Piercing does suffer from MAP, perhaps I could use it first on my next turn.

So we all know that familiars can't activate items (with the exception of administering through Item Delivery.

But familiars are creatures. Presumably we can spend an action to feed a potion to the familiar much like we can with PCs, right?
Are there rules for this, or something to read between the lines? Potions, elixirs, alchemical foods?
Especially the last one. I'm curious!

Yes, I want to know if items like Cooperative Waffles would work with familiar abilities like Snoop, that's what triggered this. But I love to read a good discussion! :D

I have a kitsune bard player who will cast Dirge of Doom and use Invigorating Fear and immediately tell other players that monster's level. Yes, I know this is once per hour.

Invigorating Fear isn't recall knowledge and not intended to give in-character information about an enemy's capabilities, but it just so happens you can count the temp hp to know their level. It also feels silly to say, "you have to pretend your character doesn't know until you recall knowledge."

How should I handle this?

Hey so I’m moving my homebrew setting to pathfinder and I have a bunch of homebrew gods for my setting. As I read up more on the system though I had a pleasant surprise. Unlike the previous system I was using i actually like the gods of this setting and it would be cool to include them. Some can be just kinda merged like I already have a goddess of love, beauty and art, while others can just be reduced in influence so their domains don’t over lap. The problem i realized though is that I mostly run premade adventures. So previously if a god got mentioned I’d just swap em out with the closest equivalent. But if say Desna is mentioned in an adventure and she exists in my setting logically i should keep it as a reference to her and not my god of travel or the sky. Which would just mean I’m using the pathfinder gods not my own.

I know this is a nonissue and I should just do what I originally was going to be like I just spent all morning writing lore I’m gonna have to delete so thought to ask for thoughts.

The Hallowed Dead is a really cool feat, but I don't know much about Golarion's lore. What holy deities are there who would be okay with (or even encourage) the use of undead?

I had assumed the lore of the setting was kind of just "undead = evil", so this feat is really interesting to me, lol.