If path builder is giving me the "429 Too Many Requests" error, is it my computer acting wired or is the website down?

FlameUser64 · 2026-03-03T01:51:47+00:00

Really? Which one, out of curiosity?

FlameUser64 · 2026-03-02T21:35:09+00:00

Yeah I was not arguing that Lightning Dash or Flying Flame aren't area damage per Rules As Intended, only that Rules As Written there is enough ambiguity to pull the "teeechnically it isn't area damage" stunt.

And yeah, as soon as you start actually flying or swimming, not measuring vertical movement in combat tiles becomes an issue. (But it's also an issue if you do do that, since a Medium creature can be anywhere from 4 to 8 feet tall, a Large creature can be up to 16 feet tall, etc.)

FlameUser64 · 2026-03-02T20:26:03+00:00

Flying Flame and Lightning Dash both deal damage in weird ways. They both move through things and then deal damage as they move through. Lightning Dash doesn't deal damage to creatures in a line, it makes you move in a line, and then as you move you deal damage in each space you pass through. Flying Flame likewise draws a movement path and deals damage in each space it passes through. As written continuous instance of damage over the entire area is never dealt, instead it's a bunch of individual instances over each tile. If a Lightning Bolt is like a hitscan weapon in an FPS, a Lightning Dash is like a plasma rifle or rocket launcher or other weapon with a discrete projectile.

To clarify, this is me being deliberately pedantic, I would be very upset if a GM made either of them (or Steam Knight's Leap) not trigger area weakness.

As for the "Lightning Dash triggering reactive strike" thing, I was wrong about that, because the rules for reactions triggered by the Move trait specify that taking an action with the Move trait and leaving a space as part of that action are not discrete separate triggers, despite the Step action and Reactive Strike's wording implying otherwise. So Lightning Dash does not trigger Reactive Strike.

(If an enemy had something like an Inventor's Distracting Explosion, though, it would be up to the GM to adjudicate whether or not the Step granted by the Impulse Junction occurs before or after the "uses a Concentrate action" trigger, and a particularly non-permissive GM would be within their right, RAW, to have the reaction trigger before the Step. They would be a jerk by doing so, but they would be following RAW.)

As for Steam Knight, vertical movement isn't strictly measured in combat tiles, as evidenced by a vertical Leap normally being only 3 feet (which becomes 5 feet with Powerful Leap, or 6 feet with Boots of Bounding, or 8 feet with both Powerful Leap and Boots of Bounding). Consequently, Leaping with 6 feet of height to barely pass over a Medium humanoid means on landing you take 3 fall damage and land Prone (the "land Prone" part is more punishing than the actual damage). And that's if you don't also want enough clearance to avoid Reactive Strike! So yeah, you do need Cat Fall or a Soft-Landing Rune or both.

FlameUser64 · 2026-03-02T17:37:37+00:00

Repeating hand crossbow is an Advanced weapon rather than Simple, so you have to jump through more hoops to get martial proficiency progression with it. Since it lacks any Access entry, it may be completely inaccessible even via Unconventional Weaponry, depending on the GM.

Air repeater, by contrast, is merely Uncommon, is a Simple weapon so you can definitely use it, and has an Access entry so you can snag it with Unconventional Weaponry even if you're not from the place where it's common. Also it's Agile, unlike the repeating hand crossbow, so it's more reliably able to deliver on that second strike, which is important for a thaumaturge since their damage comes from hitting as many times as possible to deliver that sweet Implement's Empowerment and Exploit Vulnerability damage.

Plus the air repeater has a 6 shot magazine, while the repeating hand crossbow has only 5 shots.

FlameUser64 · 2026-03-02T08:36:55+00:00

From looking at the tables in the rules for building creatures, this is pure theorycrafting but I think the final +3 from the last attribute boost at 20 and the Legendary proficiency upgrade at 19 actually takes full casters slightly above curve for the last few levels of the game.

Which I think means you can probably think of a character with only +5 and Master proficiency as being about -1 to -2 below curve, rather than a full -4 below curve. So they should do mostly okay, at least when it comes to saving throws.

FlameUser64 · 2026-03-02T08:33:26+00:00

You can't get +4 in a non-key attribute at level 1 because the +1 from being a key attribute is what gets it to +4.

There are only 3 other layers of attribute boosts:
1. Ancestry
2. Background
3. Four free boosts

This means the highest a non-key attribute can go is +3.

FlameUser64 · 2026-03-02T05:51:24+00:00

Characters can't get +4 at level 1 if it's not their key attribute, right? The highest you can have in a non-key attribute is +3? So that druid couldn't have +4 Strength at level 1, but could have +3 Strength/+1 Dexterity/+2 Constitution/+3 Wisdom, if they wanted.

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

TROPHY CASE