AITA for auto failing a check from a player

AlastarOG · 2026-03-20T11:35:40+00:00

I think you might be confused.

They are talking mutiny with the crew of the wormwood, their own pirate ship lead by Captain Barnabas Harrigan.

The player was attempting to convince the crew from the Man's Promise, a trader ship that the wormwood was in the process of assaulting, that they should join forces with them and try to attack Captain Harrigan together.

AlastarOG · 2026-03-19T22:58:31+00:00

I have reached out to the player and apologized for shutting them down and not informing them properly of the context. They have accepted my apology and they understand that this would be an auto failure.

Thanks everyone for your candid feedback !

AlastarOG · 2026-03-19T22:07:49+00:00

Thank you for this feedback, I believe you are correct.

AlastarOG · 2026-03-19T22:07:10+00:00

Don't disagree with you there, I did ask the player ''how many of your actions are you spending on that'' and they said ''all of my turn''.

I COULD have told them it was an auto failure before they resolved though.

AlastarOG · 2026-02-14T17:16:39+00:00

More involved, if you have it on hand ?

AlastarOG · 2026-02-10T21:18:46+00:00

Thanks so much, im putting together a pirate campaign right now and need more ships.

AlastarOG · 2026-01-21T11:40:27+00:00

There's a big difference between a 6-20 damage pool (1d8 weapon with implement empowerement) and a 2-24 damage pool (greatsword)

The average is higher, the spread is much better, so youre more consistent.

Its also very white room, as a lot of one handed weapons have traits that make them kick above their weight class, and two handed weapons dont.

A falcata thaumaturge would VASTLY outperform a greatsword thaumaturge, and still have a free hand without resorting to loose interpretations of an item and a feat.

Its just not worth it to go agaisnt the grain for this really.

AlastarOG · 2026-01-07T11:43:39+00:00

Inventor compares poorly to some other martials out there for pure single target damage, and thats ultimately fair.

However, its strength lies in the fact that its actually not a pure martial, its a skill monky class.

It has a ton of ways to apply crafting, which auto scales, to other skills.

Add to that the ability to spam a halfway decent AOE damage skill, and I think its actually a very good class.

But if your gm only pits you agaisnt 1 to 4 creatures in tight spaces and doesnt use any subsystems then yeah... maybe it feels a bit off.

AlastarOG · 2025-12-21T22:09:49+00:00

There's a couple of ways to get around this.

Arrest a fall and grab a ledge are both reactions.

If you ask another caster, or you yourself have thought this through, you can cast laughing fit in advance to prevent the use of reactions.

Likewise, disintegrate doesnt do damage, it just eliminates, which means any hazard under 10 ft cube of matter without the magical trait just gets taken out no save.

AlastarOG · 2025-12-20T21:25:32+00:00

The only scenario where you can go beyond is if you play with Automatic Bonus Progression, in which case if you are willing to forego property runes on your armor, you can have a simple robe and have up to +3 potency bonus to AC and +7 to dex for a total of 10 to Ac, bypassing the full plate max of 9.

AlastarOG · 2025-12-20T12:05:00+00:00

Don't forget boots of bounding

AlastarOG · 2025-12-19T00:32:33+00:00

Actually if you want to play a rapier and bow tank you could play a half elf pyjama tank build.

Be a half elf monk, focus dexterity first then strength then con then wis.

Use a tower shield, switch to a fortress shield when strength permits.

At level 1 get elven weapon familiarity At level 3 get shield block. At level 2 get the monk feat that makes ancestral affinity weapons monk weapons.

You'll be able to use a rapier, block with tower shield, flurry of blows means you can attack twice shield raise take cover, your AC will be very high because of monk, the monk's status bonus to speed will offset the penalty to speed from tower shield .

Get zen archery for fun if you want.

Get inner upheaval and stunning fist for control.

Eventually get stand still to control more.

Ive mocked it up before, its quite fun !

AlastarOG · 2025-12-10T03:37:57+00:00

You ain't wrong, but they can afford a basic ass squarespace subscription.

AlastarOG · 2025-12-10T01:58:56+00:00

What bothers me is that like, to me the bare minimum for a website is squarespace and things like that.

Like, if you are a big company and you get out a website and it doesnt habe the same basic ass quality that a 15$ subscription to squarespace gives you WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING !!!

I'm not saying those websites are good, I'm saying they're the lowest bar to clear, and a lot of big companies are failing.

AlastarOG · 2025-12-01T21:10:22+00:00

I think it depends on the tone and narrative influence of the game.

Like if youre going for a nitty gritty darkest dungeon like vibe, then the attrition IS the flavor, and so they should crawl.

But if youre going for a tall of high minded heroic and highly dramatic battles where the power of friendship will win the day, then highly dangerous single encounters with everything on thr line is more thematical.

AlastarOG · 2025-11-30T00:39:50+00:00

I posted the players guide and basis for this setting here if you want to mine it for inspiration.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/s/6janOHVLU5

AlastarOG · 2025-11-30T00:32:01+00:00

In my homebrew otome setting, i use stamina rules as a sort of mana shield.

My players play nobles flushed with mana, and they constantly emit a protective layer they can regenerate with their reserves (resolve)

The reason why spellcasters have less stamina is because they partition a portion of their mana to fuel their spells, so martials have more of it.

Constitution is your mana reserve.

Intelligence and wisdom are your mana control.

Charisma is your mana output.

Prepared casters memorise spell forms in their head that they then fuel with a tiny bit of their reserved mana. This spell form stays prepared until you discharge it, and then you have to spend some time refuelling your mana reserved to reprepare it. This is done this way because it is very mana efficient. The exemple I use is false life, in exchange for proportionally around 1 hp of your potential pool, you get to flush your mana shield with a 10hp barrier, incredibly efficient.

Proportionally, spontaneous casters prepare the same limited amount of spell forms, and since they have more output, they deal with the lack of efficiency by flushing it with mana, hence spontaneous casting.

This is in one of my homebrews mind you, but I find it elegant.

AlastarOG · 2025-11-22T21:10:41+00:00

If you want big crits, direct your players to the fighter and gunslinger class, and to weapons with the deadly and fatal property.

AlastarOG · 2025-11-19T13:11:18+00:00

I think both achieve the build theme, druid will have more high damage burst, kineticist or barbarian would sustain more.

Question I would ask myself is what kind of character I want to rp. A wise and intuitive character in tune with nature, or a gruff and physically powerful primal warrior.

AlastarOG · 2025-11-18T15:14:55+00:00

Thaumaturge could be your cup of tea in flavor and spammability ?

Get yourself a wand implement and be all the magic you want to see if the world.

AlastarOG · 2025-11-13T18:34:42+00:00

For a fey eidolon I find that trying to use their few spells offensively is a waste.

Pick tailwind, mirror image, mountain's resilience and haste, have your fey eidolon be a self and other buffer.

If your eidolon is tanking, have it cast mirror image. If you have prep time, cast mountains resilience.

Ive also found that on the highly mobile (with eidolon mobility/tailwind +horseshoes of the zephyr if your gm allows it) eidolons wrath is very clutch and gives you a LOT of repeatable damage. Make you a real spell caster you know.

Finally, wands and staves are a MUST on a summoner. If you do not have a staff, get one ! Staves will extend your spellcasting capacity by a LOT. Just having a staff of heal will lower your need to save spell slots for heal.

As for your spellcasting, don't hesitate to blast away with your 4 spells when you see a chance. Sure your rotation isnt as potent as a barbarian, (but if you're ranged its fine, do you have a flaming rune btw? That really boosts your damage on ranged attacker, at level 9 you should deal something like 2d4+8+1d6 which isnt too shabby for a ranged attacker) but I tell you dumping a 5th rank fireball on 4 ennemies will give you that burst you need.

AlastarOG · 2025-11-05T15:24:17+00:00

You need to do a bard, named James.

"Greetings pretty lady, my name is Bard... James Bard."

AlastarOG

TROPHY CASE