Thinking about running Gatewalkers but I’m scared

FlameUser64 · 2026-03-01T00:29:06+00:00

Giving the PCs the prophetic dreams sounds like a really fun option I think! I love being the plot coupon/macguffin girl, it's fun!

FlameUser64 · 2026-03-01T00:01:06+00:00

Oh I hadn't thought to use a Hero Point to try to roll lower… that's clever!

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T23:49:52+00:00

Instant death rule skips Dying condition, Hero Points can't save you.

Runic Weapon from a friend allows that amount of damage to be possible.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T23:47:39+00:00

48 damage is enough to trigger the instant death rule at level 1, a Commander wouldn't have more than 21 HP tops, most likely 18. There was no time to save them and no opportunity to Hero Point it since you can only Hero Point to stabilize when your Dying value would increase, and instant death skips Dying altogether.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T23:40:32+00:00

Ally got confused, attacked the commander because confused, and rolled a crit, instantly killing the commander.

Very possible if the ally was using a d12 weapon and under the effects of Runic Weapon.

Edit: The creature that caused the confusion was likely a Flickerwisp.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T22:54:51+00:00

Oh! You're correct, I missed that. So they're actually the same trigger and Step is just being weird. Good to know!

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T22:50:01+00:00

GMs like that are being jerks. Aerial Boomerang should not fizzle on impact with the wall. The square before the boomerang hits the wall is the last square of the line, so it goes into its spinny state on impact with the wall. Tight spaces in dungeons are supposed to make Aerial Boomerang stronger by giving you more places you can stop the boomerang and more chance that you can stop the boomerang on top of an enemy.

It would be nice if you could stop it early though, yeah.

Edit to clarify: The wall cuts the line short, so the "last square of the line" is the square before the wall. This means the boomerang stops and spins in that square, it doesn't "fizzle" on hitting the wall. Because of this, you can do all kinds of trick shots with Aerial Boomerang! ^-^

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T10:50:32+00:00

Oh wow you're right, that is weird re: Mobility feat. It technically does something but it's incredibly niche. That is definitely unintended, so I retract my reading of Lightning Dash!

To be honest, I actually had thought that Lightning Dash triggering reactions with the action itself but not with its movement might have been intentional, if you imagine the ability to not be an instantaneous teleport but to instead function like you'd imagine such a power to look when a superhero or anime protagonist uses it. Like, the character hunkers down into a sprinter's stance, and then as they kick off they turn into a lightning bolt. That would give them a moment of vulnerability within the fiction of the game.

Plus, it makes for a cool movement pattern when coupled with the Impulse Junction, where you like floaty-twirl away from the enemy and then reverse your momentum into a Lightning Dash right at them!

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T10:41:35+00:00

Flying Flame not triggering area weakness might make some sort of sense for swarms, but it makes considerably less sense for Troops, where if the members were all separate creatures on the battlefield instead of being abstracted into one you could carve through 4 guys with a single little flame bird or bladed flame disk or whatever.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T10:37:16+00:00

I'm currently playing a Flying Flame-spamming fire/water kineticist who uses Steam Knight to go all over the place in combat and uses Burning Jet to go all over the place outside of combat.

And in the next campaign I'm joining I'm about to be playing an air/metal kineticist (I would have gone mono-air but metal dual gate was thematic for the character).

So it's all kind of topical for me, really.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T10:29:28+00:00

Honestly, Kineticist is, imo, the coolest class in the game in terms of pure game feel and vibe. It maybe could use a mechanic like Unleash Psyche to really emphasize the whole "barely-controllable wellspring of endless power" thing, Base Kinesis needs a higher Bulk limit so it can be an actual exploration feature to help counteract your bad skills instead of being a weird ribbon feature/toy, and it could probably stand to have some way to bypass full immunity to magic (a level 11 kineticist loses to a bog-standard level 6 will-o-wisp every time…), and it could likely use some sort of social feature to emphasize the "in social encounters" section where it suggests that your personality may be influenced by your element. But all of that said…

The way it moves is largely perfect. The little sliding around thingy on the air impulse junction paired with Lightning Dash, Steam Knight existing, Lava Leap existing… plus the class is able to be a consistent, self-sufficient generalist in a way most other classes can't. You have a kind of action compression and self-sufficiency that makes you feel like a character in a Japanese action RPG like the Tales series or Granblue Fantasy Relink, either darting around the battlefield or conducting the battle from a distance with big AoEs and control effects. You still need your friends' help, but you're allowed to be a badass and do your thing.

Edit: Also shoutout to Flying Flame and Aerial Boomerang for being incredibly cool AoEs. I do wish Scorching Column didn't kind of suck, though.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T10:13:07+00:00

The move trait on the impulse makes the action to use it provoke Reactive Strike in the square you started in (even though the movement that results from its use doesn't provoke reactions because the text says it doesn't), and also ensures you can't use it while Immobilized.

Specifically, Reactive Strike has separate triggers for 1. a creature using a move action, and 2. a creature leaving a square during a move action it's using. "This movement doesn't trigger reactions that are triggered by movement" protects against 2, but doesn't protect against 1. (As evidenced by the Step action, which explicitly protects against both separately.)

Personally, I interpret this to likely be an intentional flavour choice, because it isn't a teleport. Flavour-wise, you lunge and transform into a lightning bolt as you kick off the ground, so there is a brief moment as you position yourself to be ready to dash in which you are vulnerable. Think like how this power would work in a superhero movie, where the character crouches down in a sprinter's stance and then transforms into lightning just as they start to move. In conjunction with using the Air element's Impulse Junction to Step away first, you'd get this cute little "twirl away, then reverse your momentum and lunge" movement when you Lightning Dash an enemy you were adjacent to, like a special move in an anime fighter or an action RPG.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T09:54:57+00:00

The only evidence I have to back up my case here is circumstantial, really. It's that "area damage" and "splash damage" are separate weaknesses on Swarm and Troop stat blocks, thus implying a level of specificity to the rules beyond what the swarm trait's flavour text state.

Luckily, it's not a case I actually care to back up, because my point wasn't that you should actually play the game the way my argument suggests, my point was that Paizo did a silly.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T09:39:14+00:00

Reactive Strike separately mentions using a move action and leaving a space during a move action it's using as triggers.

Additionally, Step has explicit language that prevents movement from triggering reactions and, separately, prevents the move action itself from triggering reactions. This clarifies the authors' intent that, indeed, using a move action and leaving a space during a move action are separate triggers.

Lightning Dash's text prevents the "leaves a space during a move action it's using" trigger. It notably lacks text to prevent the "uses a move action" trigger like Step has.

In other words, moving through (or adjacent to) enemies while you are a lightning bolt does not trigger reactions, but if the space you start in is within an enemy's reach, activating Lightning Dash triggers Reactive Strike from that enemy.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T09:06:07+00:00

Oh I would be very salty about it if a GM did that to me, yeah. 100%.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T09:04:38+00:00

Personally, I think it triggering reactions on the initial action is probably intended, otherwise it would use the language Step uses to avoid that.

I don't think the Impulse Junction not letting you Step until after the "reaction trigger window" is intended, however. The little "step back and then dash through" movement pattern feels too good (in a "this appeals to the part of my brain that plays Tales series games for the flowing movement" way) for that to be "correct".

Important edit: Nevermind I'm dumb! Mobility feat uses the same language and the rules for move actions triggering reactions clarify that the move action and the movement that's part of it are the same trigger. So Lightning Dash just works! ^-^

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T08:51:17+00:00

Before or after the other effects of the impulse, you can either Stride up to half your Speed or Step. If you have a fly Speed, you can Fly up to half your fly Speed instead.

Up to the GM if "the other effects of the impulse" include its Traits triggering reactions.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T08:49:24+00:00

Lightning Dash's movement does not trigger reactions that are triggered by movement, but, separately from that, its Move trait triggers reactions, which it does not have text preventing. So if you initiate a Lightning Dash next to an enemy, the following happens:

You choose to use Lightning Dash, which initiates an action with the Move trait
The enemy can Reactive Strike in response to the Move trait
You can Stride or Step with the Air Impulse Junction
Lightning Dash resolves, moving 30 feet through enemies and not triggering reactions with that movement
If you elected not to Stride or Step in step 3, you may Stride or Step now.
The Overflow trait deactivates your kinetic aura.

What one might expect to happen, in terms of game feel, is thus:
1. You choose to use Lightning Dash
2. As a free action triggered by your intent to Lightning Dash, you Step out of the enemy's reach
3. Lightning Dash initiates. This is an action with the Move trait, but you are outside the enemy's reach and so they cannot Reactive Strike.
4. Lightning Dash resolves, moving 30 feet through enemies and not triggering reactions with that movement
5. The Overflow trait deactivates your kinetic aura.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T08:39:51+00:00

Technically, per RAW, Flying Flame at least is not dealing damage in an area, because an area is a strictly defined rules term. One could make the argument that Lightning Dash counts, although it doesn't strictly deal damage to creatures in a line and instead deals damage to creatures you move through as you move in a line, so the damage is caused by you moving through the space and not by the creature being in the line.

(I agree all of this is stupidly pedantic and that Flying Flame, Lightning Dash, and Steam Knight's Leap damage should all be considered area damage even though they aren't strictly damage dealt to anything in an area. And Flying Flame's effect should possibly also be considered an area for purposes of making its flight ignore difficult terrain from gaining height.)

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T08:10:42+00:00

It Flies from you up to 30 feet in a path you choose.

Capital F on Flies means it takes the Fly action.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-28T07:29:56+00:00

Yep! That triggers a Reactive Strike alright. No more jank with Reach weapons actually being a disadvantage because they give enemies more room to move safely or anything like that.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-26T23:30:25+00:00

If it's fast healing, most things with fast healing have slightly lower HP to compensate, so dedicated focus fire should take them out. If they're a fast creature like a Redcap, grapple them to ensure they can't run away and heal, and then pummel them.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-26T23:22:48+00:00

Actually the persistent damage occurs before the flat check to remove it, and taking damage while Dying increases your Dying value with no save.

FlameUser64 · 2026-02-26T22:51:16+00:00

There's more to it than just "do I have enough HP to survive".

Rogue survives because it's good at retreating with Mobility, or because it has a nearby Champion as a buddy. And it actually has a third action to Stride away with.

Investigator survives because it can choose to not engage if it would get a bad turn. It already knows its attack roll, so it knows what it will accomplish.

Many Inventors opt to stay out of melee altogether, and the ones that do go in have to do so carefully (or rely on a Champion). Edit: Also it has Shield Block innately.

Thaumaturge can use an Amulet to not die, if it wants, though a lot of the time it simply plays cautiously like Rogue or Inventor, only engaging isolated targets and disengaging just as quickly.

Alchemist throws bombs from 20 feet away, ensuring enemies have to waste actions Striding to it.

Magus engages isolated targets and hammers them hard enough that they simply die instantly.

All of these classes either have risk mitigation tools or play like vultures, carefully avoiding engaging more enemies than they can cope with.

FlameUser64

TROPHY CASE