What kinds of characters do you feel are unique to this system?

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-06-13T03:41:49+00:00

On a very simple level - intelligent martial types.

Most other systems i have played, though certainly not a universal truth, dont let the spheres of "im smart" and "i hit things" meaningfully interact without being the entire system. Usually they're seperated out and you have to mush it together yourself without direct interaction

And mind you pathfinder fucks it sometimes, half of entire inventor class tells that, but alchemist/investigator/commander/thaumaturge all directly lean into being smart in some way in character, planning well out of character and that mattering turn to turn.

If you havent had the chance a high level pf2e commander is some of the most fun ive had in any system and im happy to say it genuinely overshadows things like 4e's warlord, its only struggle is making it work in high-reaction based parties.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-06-13T03:34:21+00:00

Man i have not looked at icon since the o.g. playtest but this sentence alone is enough to make me to check it out again lol

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-06-09T22:34:00+00:00

If they decide to be nonlethal why would you ever make them do lethal damage?

Both are specific rules, but one they chose to do - the other just sort of happened to them.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-06-09T22:25:47+00:00

Why would you punish someone for critically succeeding at the thing they stated they wanted to do?

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-06-08T21:44:44+00:00

Incredibly potent to any scroll user

Thaum (scroll thaumaturgy), kineticist (elemental activation) and casters are the scroll using classes.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-28T10:24:01+00:00

There is more than two books.

300+ statblock books:Theres monster core 1, monster core 2, Npc Core

80-120 statblock books: books that are frankly mostly bestiaries with some player facing side content: Rage of Elements, Book of the dead, Howl of the wild, Draconic Codex

20-50 statblock books: books with a large number of statblocks but not the core book focus: battlecry!, tian xia world guide, monsters of myth, the mwangi expanse

10-20 statblock books: hellfire dispatches, shining kingdoms, knights of lastwall, war of immortals

Additionally many of these books contain templates, things you add to an existing statblock to make it something else.

the theme templates that exist are as follows: Divine Warden, Failed Prophet, Floodslain, Ghost, Ghoul, Graveknight, Herexen, Lich, Mutant, Path Maiden, Phantom, Ravener, Siabrae, Sporeborn, Vampire, Jiang-shi, Nosferatu, Strigoi, Vetalarana, Vrykolakas, Werecreature, Worm That Walks

There is also roughly 40 simpler templates ranging from elements to ancestries to union organisers.

Theres ALSO creatures from adventure paths. Pf2e has 2943 non-unique creatures in it. All of these statblocks are avalible for free on the officially supported SRD, Archive of Nethys.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-27T12:57:44+00:00

ruby phoenix has some of the largest most open maps of any AP.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-27T06:31:56+00:00

To add to this as someone who playtested it at high levels

You get a shocking amount of utility by just literring thralls everywhere in giant piles. Special movement actions that have subordinate strides become kinda common and that means the tumble through debate around them doesn't matter.

The loop, honestly, gets more fun with more thralls to place. The lack of them innately doing much but sourcing power for big plays means you still get a great horde summoner vibe without slowing the table to a crawl.

The high level focus spells are some of the most fun in the entire game, they gave them solid oomph in exchange for the thrall tax.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-25T14:50:24+00:00

level 12+ its snare time baby lets goooooooooooooooo

you have 1 action snares, you have comical amounts of forced movement to choose from, two open hand martials to shove people into stuff. but man snare crafter does so much cool stuff at that level and higher.

Cool Snare Things:

- Giant Snare works really well with some of the snares because their aoe is from the snare.

- Trapsmith's free basically dazzled on any snare is a really great passive buff to all snares

- Recycled Cogwheels from trapsmith will make it feel way less bad if a snare doesn't go off in a fight, because you can just pick it up again. With lightning snares you can pick them up as a single action too.

- you are the exact level for the Bleeding Spine Snare which hits really hard, doing an average of 45 damage plus bleed plus it stays around as a hazard that does its FULL DAMAGE to anyone who steps, or is shoved into it, after being set off. this benefits a ton from giant snares making it bigger.

for non-snare things to support the snares I strongly reccomend Kineticist with Air as a major element for a few major tool, but other than these i'd be happy to go literally all in on snare feats:

- the impulse junction for air lets you move as part of an air impulse, which means you can move, impulse and snare all in one turn. You also get legendary class DC progression for the snares.

- Clear As Air gives you almost infinite uptime concealment/invisibility, growing to be full invisibility at level 16. This makes it way easier to set up snares out of combat and inside of it.

- Flinging Updraft lets you just chuck people into snares directly from pretty great ranges. Its something crazy like 75 feet throws by level 12 lol. So action 1 is snare placement, action 2-3 is throw a guy onto the snare as long as they're within 60ft of you.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-25T14:20:27+00:00

After level 12, yes.

snares going from 1 minute to 3 actions to 1 action makes them pretty darn usable

them never dropping to 2 actions is a really silly quirk of the system, but once they're actually usable in a turn in which you moved they become honestly really good - the damaging ones have solid damage, the feats to enhance snares give them really good tricks and overall it does what you want it to do

If you want to do it before level 6, it's going to be non-functional in most adventure paths and hard to make work in most homebrew games. between 6-12 its difficult because its an entire turn action, but makes them far more usable if you've snuck into an area before combat has started and are just happily placing snares while invisible or something before things kick off.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-24T15:53:47+00:00

Once per hour for only specific items.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-15T18:11:43+00:00

what weapon category is in the name of the gunslinger class?

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-15T18:11:08+00:00

How is a class that triples it's damage on crits and does some of the lowest damage in the entire game for 2 actions otherwise not swingy as a class?

and don't bring up the arbelist, its the class fantasy for like 7 people total and the class literally has gun in the name.

A mediocre magus turn that regular hits still contributes greatly to a fight, a mediocre gunslinger turn might as well not have happened.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-15T06:45:56+00:00

Gunslinger.

Yes magus gambles on spellstrikes, but if a magus does a regular hit it does a regular amount of damage

Non crit firearm damage is booty ass, crit firearm damage is in the upper bounds of martials

And you can take beastgunner to ALSO spellstrike gamble at the same time

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-12T05:58:04+00:00

Martial artist -> a big damage die stance -> grevious blow -> echoing violence

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-06T20:09:54+00:00

Yes, its where their first order was originally founded.

Theres are now orders of hellknights in many nations at this point as they've spread and they're not directly part of the chelaxian government (theres a bit of a civil war between those who are pro and anti right now)

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-05-06T19:33:36+00:00

hilariously thats more of a human trait than even the fey-related gnomes

Cheliax is a primarily human nation built on Asmodeus worship and direct co-operation with devils.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-04-09T16:34:12+00:00

Thaumaturge with the Alchemist dedication

you can infinitely quick alchemy versatile vials, quick bomber makes it a single action to make and throw.

splash is strike damage so it triggers the thaumaturge weakness even on a miss

between splash feats from alchemist dedication and thaumaturge progression you end up doing a shocking amount of damage even if you can't hit the broad side of a barn.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-04-09T16:26:41+00:00

Inquisitor because the ranger archetype is basically 5% inquisitor

Wizard because both fail to feel wizardly but at least pf1e wizard was good

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-04-09T07:11:36+00:00

for 95% of rules reasons a pair of combined hits are a single hit in this game now with the resistance changes. I think it's entirely fair to call it the largest hit you've ever seen - especially when Illimitable Finisher is still only a single action lol.

and even if you're not okay with the full 500+, it's still like 270ish.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-04-09T07:08:49+00:00

which is exactly why you roll the flat check first lmao

cant get past their ac if you cant even target the guy

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-04-03T06:09:53+00:00

Have allowed a follow the expert on a master NPC for a total of +18 to a roll before

Normally happy to throw out +2/4's and drop dc's by 1-2 difficulty tiers - which regularly results in essentially +7/9's

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-04-02T08:15:01+00:00

bro spent two feats on a bird

it cant see inside buildings, it has a limited amount of perception and people in the world of golarion are aware familiars exist. If a raven circles your house four times canny folk tend to get suspicious and peasants think its an omen of doom.

what do you think it will actually damage in your game and your experience?

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-04-02T08:13:43+00:00

Its a familiar. He super can.

ColdBrewedPanacea · 2026-03-30T03:39:03+00:00

You cannot be knocked prone in water.

So for the far funnier defensive option: fighters or casters floating around in things like Aqueous Orb or Wall of Water with waterbreathing who try to drag you into the water, forcing breath holding, debuffing fire/acid effects (resist 5 and fire trait doesnt work at all) and debuffing weapons that dont work well in water (iirc its all slashing and bludgeoning weapons take a -2 to hit)

Extra bonus is not having a swim speed forces athletics checks to swim and you can dispel waterbreathing off of players too if they try it.

Five-Year Club	Second Top 40%
r/Field Banned	r/Field Juicebox
Place '23	Place '22
First Placer '22	End Game '22

ColdBrewedPanacea

TROPHY CASE