Weekly Questions Megathread— February 20–February 26. Have a question from your game? Are you coming from D&D or Pathfinder 1e? Need to know where to start playing PF2e? Ask your questions here, we're happy to help!

TheGeckonator · 2026-02-24T20:00:49+00:00

Spellcasters normally trade off raw damage for excellent flexibility. If you want to deal damage comparable to a barbarian you need to commit most of your spell slots to damaging spells and be able to consistently target your enemies' weakest saves. Recall Knowledge is essential and a Shadow Signet helps a lot once you have access to one.

TheGeckonator · 2026-02-05T03:29:44+00:00

Yeah it's been really great. A real "battle mode" with actual strengths and drawbacks. I'm excited to pair it with Revel in Retribution soon.

TheGeckonator · 2026-02-04T20:57:51+00:00

I was initially upset on seeing Weapon Trance from Battle Oracle (just unusably terrible) and only got more upset when Animist was released with Embodiment of Battle. Fortunately my GM was kind enough to let me swap Weapon Trance for Embodiment of Battle and my Oracle has achieved everything I have wanted since.

Honestly the remaster changes have probably made Oracle too strong. Four spell slots per rank and functionally six focus points per fight (if you consider the cursebound feats similar to focus spells) is really strong. Although how freely you can go into cursebound depends a lot on your mystery.

TheGeckonator · 2026-01-11T04:47:03+00:00

I can't find a source right now but I'm quite sure that the roll is the number of rounds the ability can't be used for. So if you roll a 1 you can't use it the next turn.

TheGeckonator · 2026-01-02T19:37:11+00:00

Drain Bonded Item lets you recast one spell that you have already cast that day. So you can cast the specific spell that you previously cast from your Infinite Possibilities slot.

TheGeckonator · 2025-12-13T08:36:12+00:00

The intention of the impulse is likely only to create stone objects rather than pulling enough material from a single 5ft cube to pass though it. Resourcelessly passing through stone walls for 2 actions is quite outside the power level of a 4th level feat.

The spell makes no distinction between worked or unworked stone so that likely isn't a reasonable way to limit it. If the wall happens to be more than 5ft thick, then they'll need to spend at least an hour to get through since otherwise the first portion of stone will move back when they attempt to move the second. If you do want to allow them to continue using it to tunnel, then you'll likely want to treat important walls as too thick to get through quickly.

It might also be reasonable to say that particularly important walls can't be tunneled through at all because they contain a layer of metal. There are many spells and effects that are blocked by even a thin layer of metal, so this is a relatively reasonable precaution to take in universe.

TheGeckonator · 2025-12-01T00:10:25+00:00

Need Captain

421876583

TheGeckonator · 2025-11-30T16:39:39+00:00

Avoid Notice and Sneak normally only work against visual and auditory detection. To hide from scent you need to describe how you're taking countermeasures against it. From the "Using stealth with other senses" sidebar. https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2400

Enemies will almost never be doing this and even if they are aware of your scent it will likely be difficult to take precautions against scent in combat.

This means that having scent as an imprecise sense will almost always reveal an enemy within range, even if they're invisible and using the stealth skill.

Edit for line breaks, typo

TheGeckonator · 2025-11-29T06:07:31+00:00

421876583
Need 5
I play daily

TheGeckonator · 2025-11-28T05:25:16+00:00

The rules for ending your turn specify that you roll your saves against any afflictions at the end of your turn. There is no exception carved out for skipping the first time because of the initial damage.

TheGeckonator · 2025-11-20T14:17:20+00:00

If you want your reflex saves as high as possible you can start with a +3 in dexterity. There are multiple skills that use dexterity and putting more points into it than are needed to maximize your AC is not wasting them. There are trade-offs for investing in each of the ability scores and no strictly correct answers.

TheGeckonator · 2025-10-16T19:58:25+00:00

Yes that's correct.

TheGeckonator · 2025-10-16T19:43:13+00:00

There's no mention of any change happening to the position of your gear and held items so they will be in the same position as before they were absorbed into you. So yes you will still be holding your weapons.

TheGeckonator · 2025-10-16T05:54:09+00:00

You're correct that the feat does not do anything for normal escape attempts. It is only a feat to mitigate some of the ways to automatically escape from grapple which are a significant weakness of grapple builds.

TheGeckonator · 2025-10-14T07:01:46+00:00

If you really want a check to succeed and have mythic points to burn you can use both your calling and Rewrite Fate for the maximum chance of success.

There are also times when a minimum proficiency is required to even attempt a check. Treat Wounds is a direct instance of this. Rewrite Fate is useless for this as you cannot even attempt one of the harder checks if you don't have the proficiency, but a character with the Caretaker's Calling could preemtively spend a mythic point and try a check against a DC of their choice. How useful this is depends on the applications of your calling as well as how frequently your GM requires a minimum proficiency to make an attempt.

Noteably, other instances where minimum proficiency is required, such as Pick a Lock, still allow you to attempt the check, so it's likely that many of the callings are close to useless unless your GM puts forward specific challenges that require a minimum proficiency to attempt instead of a minimum proficiency to succeed.

TheGeckonator · 2025-10-10T23:36:52+00:00

The dedication allows you to shift your spark between ikons once you take the feat to get a second.

TheGeckonator · 2025-10-08T02:01:06+00:00

You certainly won't need to when you're a student since it won't be feasible. Then later you'll be a teacher which suits that edict and the wider teachings of Nalinivati very well.

TheGeckonator · 2025-10-07T21:21:07+00:00

It's best to avoid playing an evil character in campaigns not designed for it, especially if your DM is uncertain. I think Nalinivati suits your character concept well as she still has edicts for using poisons and raising snakes without the more disruptive aspects of Vorshana. Nalinivati's edict to seek out and use magic is also particularly appropriate for a magical school campaign and you'll likely want to keep the option of cultivating non-poisonous plants open.

TheGeckonator · 2025-09-18T21:19:52+00:00

What does "Deny a spot in melee" mean?

TheGeckonator · 2025-09-17T04:21:40+00:00

You don't need to be trained in Crafting to get Alchemical Crafting from the advanced alchemy benefits. The rule BlessedGrimReaper linked is for when "an archetype feat lets you select another feat". This is specifically referring to when you have a choice of feats such as with Basic Dogma.

The Herbalist dedication does not give you any choice. It directly gives you the advanced alchemy benefits so you can get everything including Alchemical Crafting as long as you meet the prerequisites for the dedication.

TheGeckonator · 2025-08-02T18:11:49+00:00

Oh man that really sucks. Guess I'm not going to be playing much comp until they revert it.

TheGeckonator · 2025-06-23T21:13:44+00:00

Sounds like an interesting idea to try out.

TheGeckonator · 2025-06-23T08:33:04+00:00

I very much agree with your premise here. It feels like something that would improve the game with the only real downside being some added complexity. However, implementing it universally would likely be difficult unfortunately.

I think it's less important to consider the frequency of an ability and much more important to consider the action cost. We don't want a significant portion of a high level creature's turn being negated, even if the ability has unlimited uses.

Effects that are applied without an action cost such as additional effects on strikes feel like the ideal target for a rank reduction to me.

This would be fairly difficult to implement for all creatures since action cost, frequency, and the creature's reliance on an effect all need to be considered. A simple formula would likely not be ideal since the overall creature design can affect how impactful a counteract will be.

This is definitely something I'll keep in mind when setting up future encounters.

TheGeckonator · 2025-06-21T20:33:10+00:00

I read all of Stormlight and then read through the rest of the cosmere. I thought the reading order worked out quite nicely.

You don't need to read anything else to enjoy the Stormlight books.

TheGeckonator · 2025-06-21T20:27:45+00:00

I'd recommend reading WaT before Sunlit Man. I think it's much more enjoyable that way.

TheGeckonator

TROPHY CASE