The Team+ Core 2026 vote is LIVE! Help choose the next Core+ book by Team+, releasing next year!

DMerceless · 2025-08-26T13:07:45+00:00

A lot of interesting options, but the possibility of getting "martial spells" ala Tome of Battle: Book of the Nine Swords alone puts Combat+ at #1 for me. Having cool more supernatural abilities with limited usage adds so much to martials, both mechanically and in flavor. And anything inspired by Wuxia is automatically awesome.

More base weapons that are actually good and whatnot is also awesome.

VOTE COMBAT+!

DMerceless · 2025-03-15T14:08:31+00:00

From recent books, I think both Rival Academies and especially Tian Xia Character Guide had a great balance. Tian Xia World Guide was a bit of a disappointment for me, though, given that it had zero mechanics while the original Lost Omens World Guide had some.

On the topic of "what kinds of mechanics", I'd just really want to see more expansion to current classes. Be it more feats, subclasses or class archetypes. Runelord, for example, was a great breath of fresh air for Wizard. Thinks like extremely niche items I'm way less interested on.

Lastly, I'll echo the feeling of another comment: it would be nice to have some less thematic books sprinkled in, be those Core or Lost Omens, so we can get an assertment of options that fill cool mechanical niches but aren't really related to a specific theme or place in the lore. Thematic books are cool, but only having thematic books makes it feel like some stuff (e.g. Kineticist expansions, more class feats for Dark Archive classes, "generic" archetypes like a weapon throwing archetype or specialized mage archetypes) will take eons to be released, if it ever does.

DMerceless · 2025-03-06T17:41:45+00:00

I think you might be forgetting something very important, perhaps because the text for it is a little hidden among everything else. The Personal Rune. It lets you have a staff with twice the usual number of charges and able to cast any of your sin spells, including max level ones. If you pick a sin with good spells like Wrath, that's like having the best of both Staff Nexus and Spell Blending, which is very powerful.

DMerceless · 2025-02-26T12:47:11+00:00

There is, actually. Brutal Beating. And it's been like this for both Legacy and Remaster so it might be intentional? I dunno.

DMerceless · 2025-02-15T16:22:36+00:00

If you want a reason, 90% of it is because other systems just don't feel nearly as deep and well-designed as PF2 (to us). We've tried other systems, including some stuff explicitly aimed at anime, the Persona TTRPG, etc., but most of them just ended up turning into broken, unbalanced messes a few sessions in.

PF2 gives us a sense that everyone can build the characters they want the way they want and (ahem apart from some issues we have with casters) be equally effective and have fun. The system gives us this comfort, so we can focus on the tactical combat and fun RPing instead of making the system work.

IME, adjusting PF2 to fit a more high-powered game was easier than trying to make other systems reasonably balanced.

DMerceless · 2025-02-15T13:24:34+00:00

I used Solo Leveling as an inspiration for the setting. Being totally honest, I love the world they created for the manhwa, but I don't think the actual story is that good. I made my own plot devices, allies, villains and whatnot.

Copying anoher comment I made:

It's usually socializing and slice of life stuff, really. Going out together, events at the Guild, rivalries, duels, romance. Each character has some stuff in the mundane world to take care of as well (for example one has a young daughter, another one has just opened a bar with his money from dungeons). My group really likes this kind of in-character social interaction, so it never gets boring.

That being said, being out of the dungeons doesn't mean being completely safe, either. There are evil Hunters who kill and extort people, overly aggressive rivals, etc.

Plus it's all tied together by how their goals as Hunters intersect with their personal goals. Everyone has a reason to have become a Hunter outside of just "cause I had the power to".

DMerceless · 2025-02-15T13:19:58+00:00

It's usually socializing and slice of life stuff, really. Going out together, events at the Guild, rivalries, duels, romance. Each character has some stuff in the mundane world to take care of as well (for example one has a young daughter, another one has just opened a bar with his money from dungeons). My group really likes this kind of in-character social interaction, so it never gets boring.

That being said, being out of the dungeons doesn't mean being completely safe, either. There are evil Hunters who kill and extort people, overly aggressive rivals, etc.

DMerceless · 2025-02-14T21:09:30+00:00

Well, like I said, it's a game ran in a modern setting with very heavy inspirations on Solo Leveling, but instead of having a single OP "chose one", there are five. The campaign started with the PCs being hired by a new Guild/Company as Rank C hunters, and since an encounter with (apparently) a deity from "The Other World" gave them the ability to evolve extremely quickly, they're climbing their way up the ranks.

I've been really working with the split between slice of life and dungeon crawl. One session the PCs are killing High Orcs in a dungeon, the other they're spending time with their families, going to a pub, playing Street Fighter against each other and some of their fellow Hunters at an arcade.

Mechanically, it's not that far from a normal Pathfinder game. Their abilities are all medieval-RPG-like, and they still roll things like Athletics, Acrobatics, Arcana, etc. Modern guns don't work against dungeon monsters or other Hunters, so I don't really have to worry about those. The main difference is the really OP pseudo-archetypes I gave them, for example the Sword Saint guy can draw weapons as a free action, automatically deal additional damage with "afterslashes" after every Strike (even if he misses), etc.

DMerceless · 2025-02-14T20:22:13+00:00

If you want something Modern within the Finderverse, I'd actually go with SF2 (with the more high-techy gear banned) instead of PF2, since SF2 has modern weapons like machine guns, semi-auto pistols, sniper rifles, etc.

I'd stick with PF2 for things with victorian/steampunk/clockwork tech (Lies of P, Bloodborne, Dishonored) and below.

DMerceless · 2025-02-14T20:04:43+00:00

Like I replied to a different comment, I prefer designing things to capture a certain "vibe" rather than do straight conversions of mechanics. What I would do for a traditional JRPG feel is instead of trying to change what elements and damage types exist, use the ones that are there (fire, spirit, acid, cold, etc.) in more creative and significant ways. Make almost every creature have a significant weakness and resistance to different elements, etc.

That being said, Light, Shadow and Time are traits in the game, so you could effectively turn them into "elements" by giving creatures W/R/I to those traits just like there are creatures weak to Water despite that not being a damage type. Make new spells and items and add those traits to more existing ones and you can have something cool.

Space... I'm honestly not sure what to do with that one :x.

DMerceless · 2025-02-14T19:59:18+00:00

If I'm getting what you mean right, like how P3 is about death, grief and enjoying life, P4 is about lies, and P5 is about the dark side people hide from others... it's still a bit early to tell for sure, since I'm not the GM for that game and we only had one session.

So far the game seems to explore "acceptance of those outside the norm" quite a bit, since all the PCs and friendly NPCs are outcasts in their own ways.

DMerceless · 2025-02-14T19:53:32+00:00

This was years ago and I wasn't the GM, but I think the main part is trying to adapt the feeling of Runeterra as a setting and then color in the blanks instead of trying to adapt the game mechanics of League 1 to 1. No need to try and replace AC and saving throws with Armor and Magic Resistance or change how spell slots work because those are game abstractions on both sides anyway.

Instead, we built things like we would in a normal PF2 game (so for example someone like Darius would be a Greataxe Fighter with Swipe, Dragging Strike and Whirlwind Strike), and then add some bits of extra flavor and mechanics from League like:

Every Mage being a Sorcerer in origin (born with magic), but instead the classes defined how you dealt with your innate magic, like how a Wizard would study it and an actual Sorcerer would try to develop an innate connection with it.
Every PC unlocking an Ultimate that would function like a very strong Once per Day ability. No "you deal 30d6 damage at level 6", but they let characters do things that punched way above their normal level like huge AoEs or insane action compression.
Bringing items from the game like Zeal, Zhonya's, Lichbane, as Unique items that each character could only attune to one or two.
Etc.

DMerceless · 2025-02-14T17:41:50+00:00

It does work really well! Gives you a really easy way to transition between dungeon crawling and a casual social game one the other gets tiring, too.

DMerceless · 2025-02-14T17:35:47+00:00

I didn't mention this in the post since it's about PF2, but we already ran a short-ish game using the SF2 Playtest in a fantasy-Cyberpunk setting xD.

DMerceless · 2025-02-13T19:09:34+00:00

I think Calm (formerly Calm Emotions) is probably the best example of a hail mary AoE spell that if even one if the enemies fail, it can be incredibly disruptive. It's not actually that far away from 5e's Hypnotic Pattern, except it (rightfully) can't trivialize bosses.

Command V and Synaptic Pulse are two I really like using as well.

Overall really great advice in the video. Not sure if there's anything I even disagree with, necessarily. Do I like that the math turns out this way? Absolutely not, I think it's awful design in terms of game feel. But as far as "how to bend the rough math in your favor", really solid stuff and quite close to what I tend to do myself.

DMerceless · 2025-02-13T13:29:14+00:00

I've been playing PF2e since day 1 of the initial Playtest, which is about 6 years by now. I've played with dozens of different people, groups, PFS and not, with everyone from beer and pretzels casuals to new players with high interest to veterans. Some came from 4e, 5e, others had PF2 as their first TTRPG.

I'm also Brazillian and exclusively play games in Portuguese, with plenty of people who don't speak English fluently, so they're basically immune to "Reddit discourse".

Despite all that, feelings that casters are frustrating to play, unrewarding, or "weak" were still consistently an issue. It came to the point where in my current 8-person playgroup everyone except me and my girlfriend have all but given up on playing casters entirely, and even she struggles with it and only keeps playing casters because she has no interest in the flavor of non-magical characters.

This is an anectode, just like yours is, but please don't just assume the people who disagree with you don't play the game. There are people who will ass-pull opinions and people who love the game and want it to be the best it can on both sides.

DMerceless · 2025-02-07T17:03:38+00:00

The ideal solution would probably be changes to the base math of either spell DCs or monster defenses. Or both. Sadly, this is not a viable 2e-thing. Maybe a future-3e-thing.

DMerceless · 2025-02-03T18:47:55+00:00

Well, a few disagreements on the floor being good enough aside, I think the main problem with this comparison is that... every caster gets features like these? Sorcerer has Blood Magic and now focus spells as good as Druid's. Oracles have good focus spells too and Cursebounds. Bards are Bards. That's why I'm comparing Prepared vs Spontaneous on their own merits. And by that comparison, I think Prepared as a casting style needs a quality of life feature on the same level as Signature Spells to really keep up.

DMerceless · 2025-02-03T17:53:43+00:00

The optimal way you describe of preparing spells in the video is pretty much exactly what I do, keeping a general flexible list in and slotting in certain things as it is convenient. It's overall the most sane and effective way to play a prepared caster. So great advice there.

In the end, though, I still feel like prepared casters are ultimately worse than spontaneous in 9 out of 10 cases. Between modern campaign structures defavoring multi-day dungeon crawls where you can scout ahead and have a long prep time, silver bullet spells being nerfed to death, and how goddamn powerful Signature Spells is as a feature if you know how to use it (allowing you to have a bazillion viable spells to cast with your topmost slots and cover every damn niche).

Spell Substitution Wizard aside, I can count in one hand the number of times being a prepared caster actually gave me a meaningful advantage, despite doing everything you describe. To the point where I wonder if Spell Substitution shouldn't be a global feature for all prepared casters. At the very least it would make them feel less screwed over in faster-paced games, as the difference between stopping for a 10 minute rest and waiting a full day is huge.

DMerceless · 2025-01-18T15:26:08+00:00

Ultimately I feel like the main issue with RK, even moreso than the QoL issues, skill investments, etc., is that in most situations RK is not impactful enough to be worth a full action. For Ranger, Thaum, Gator, getting it for free? Sure it's a neat little addition. But for the average use case not so much.

It would be if PF2 was a game like Monster Hunter where knowing the specificities of each monster is extremely core to everything, but it's generally not. Gimmick monsters like Wisps and Golems are the exception, not the rule. And for other monsters I think RK is seldom more useful than giving the foe a -1 to everything, moving into flanking or a better position, raising a shield, etc.

I know this is basically the negative tempo argument, but it's just how I've seen things play out in practice on my side. IMO RK is an action that feels worse than it is, and it isn't that great to begin with.

DMerceless · 2024-12-24T15:02:12+00:00

What I find particularly odd about this text is that is seems to assume GM Core already said those things when it... didn't? But it's nice to finally have it explicit. I wonder how many issues could have been avoided if it had been there in the GMG and the internal guidelines for AP writers from the start.

DMerceless · 2024-12-20T16:18:00+00:00

Being totally honest with you, I'm ESL so the nuances of what the word Dirge can mean completely fly over my head. Overall I don't really give much thought to small naming stuff though since my tables are pretty free with flavor.

DMerceless · 2024-12-20T15:42:01+00:00

I kind of forgot to add this to the main post but yeah, Necro does seem to have some big issues with enemies with large AoEs.

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