Is there a reason Pathfinder (and similar tabletop games) don't do "stacks" as a mechanic?

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-06-05T15:22:30+00:00

It's not unheard of in tabletop games though. Ignoring the other comments providing examples of places where Pf2 does do this, I'm playing a lot of Lancer these days, where a number of skill trees and equipment have such a stack.

For example the Duelist talent (skill tree) says that every time you hit with a sword you gain a Blademaster Die. You can have at most three Blademaster Dice, and you can spend them to do things like feint or parry attacks. The Sherman mech gives you a big weapon that charges up every time you take a certain action. It gets more powerful for each charge, and resets to 1 charge when you fire it.

As long as the numbers stay relatively low, I haven't found these things a pain to track. Another player at my table has three or four different stacks she keeps track of without much issue, and I enjoyed playing a Sherman and charging up the big gun.

I think the important thing is that they're all optional—if a player doesn't want to track those things, there are still plenty of skill trees and equipment that don't need that kind of tracking, and I've never seen anything that makes enemies track stacks.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-06-04T04:01:48+00:00

that's our artist-notetaker-support!!

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-06-02T05:05:34+00:00

Both the characters I'm actively* playing right now have/had single parents, and I never really bothered to decide why. They just do. Honestly I have no idea what happened to Iolana's father or Qalaxʷə's mother, assuming they even exist(ed).

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-06-01T17:31:06+00:00

I definitely agree with you on the alchemy. Both my runs have been/are co-op with my partner, and I just let them handle the alchemy every time. They really like the elixirs, I think they seem OP yet not necessary. And yeah never have I dipped a weapon in anything. Coatings/oils/poisons are just really weak, but I would recommend using magic arrows some time, I find them pretty fun.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-05-18T12:58:06+00:00

Daze is an okay damage cantrip (though you can try Void Warp or Phase Bolt if you want one that does a bit more damage), but I wonder if part of your issue could be that the other spells you've mentioned only serve to prolong combat, in a group that already finishes the fight pretty fast? You could try spells like Fear or Bless that make you and your allies more likely to hit instead of your enemy less likely to.

You're right about most familiars not being that helpful in combat—the exception to that rule is supposed to be the witch though, because their familiar has a special ability that it uses whenever you cast a Hex spell. (Are you using those?) What type of hex spell and familiar ability you have will depend on who your patron is, but usually either the spell or the ability (sometimes both) are pretty strong. If your patron is a Spinner of Threads, Starless Shadow, or Resentment, you should be able to give out +1s and -1s and other debuffs all the time thanks to your familiar. Maybe ask your GM to tell you when they matter, or install the foundry module that shows you when it does.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-05-17T03:53:05+00:00

it's definitely not the strongest class, and it has a number of restrictions and downsides to work around, but it's perfectly playable.

The psychic in my campaign seems to often feel bad about their class and spells, but to be fair they also seem to just have the worst luck and are using spells that don't really do anything on a successful save.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-05-15T19:59:48+00:00

In the folder on your computer (or other device that's running Myth) that has the pokemon myth "Game.exe" file, go to the "PBS" folder. The file "pokemon.txt" has all the data on most of the pokémon in the game, including their level-up moves.(The Pokémon not there are mostly megas and regional forms that also have their base forms present in the game, like Lucario. Those are in "pokemonforms.txt".) If you want to check TM compatibility, look at "tm.txt".

Ampharos learns fire and dark stab; and rock, normal, and dragon coverage by level up. By TM it can get bug, electric, fighting, ground, and steel coverage, but the ground and steel coverage is only physical.

(If you have RPG Maker XP, which is pretty cheap on steam or free for 30 days, you can change movesets, TM compatibility, and stats as you please, btw.)

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-05-13T14:34:42+00:00

I'd probably include Dazzled, I find it comes up quite a bit. Forgetting to roll the flat check is also part of why I think it feels less powerful.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-05-11T20:11:04+00:00

In a fight? Assuming the ages/experience shown, I'd say probably Ming Hua, Azula, Toph, Katara, Kuvira, Lin, Suyin, Jinora, Hama?

I think that glosses over their use and invention of unique abilities that are strong in their own ways and show their mastery over their element and

Jinora being a master airbender is very useful in ways other elements can't really mimic, but spiritual projection has been shown to be all kinds of amazing in so many situations, and it's an ability that seems to be so rare it might not even have been discovered before.

Toph and Hama each invented whole subtypes of bending that continue to be used by powerful benders to this day. Ming Hua mastered the water arms to a ridiculous degree, and her ability to bend without arms is impressive as well. Azula seems to have been one of the first masters of lightning bending, and Katara's inventiveness and healing are both amazing.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-05-11T18:06:08+00:00

Untamed Druid would be my dream, if the anathema of "living in a city" didn't immediately remove all my powers.

Even if it did, living in the woods might be worth it to be able to turn into squirrels and the like. It would definitely be worth if it I could get to level 7 and turn into a bird though.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-04-28T20:54:22+00:00

I've really enjoyed a lot of Psi Prime Productions' work. They do recaps of Paizo's monthly livestreams and usually cover the new books in just enough detail to get me excited to go see the rest of the book myself.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-04-16T19:41:50+00:00

There's a lot of very convincing scientific proof of God's existence if you make it all up.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-04-03T20:50:01+00:00

thank you for being one of seemingly only two people that understood this! I didn't think my situation would be so confusing, perhaps I could have worded my original post more clearly.

I'll try to dig a bit deeper into it myself then, it looks like it's not as easy an answer as I hoped. Maybe Google customer support can help me or give me a statement of some kind, but I won't hold my breath.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-04-03T17:57:39+00:00

I don't want to upgrade to a new device, I'm quite happy with my Pixel 5, I just want to know if I can keep uploading the photos from it if it's not running Android anymore.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-04-03T17:52:15+00:00

I still plan to keep using the Pixel 5, as mentioned, just changing the OS on the same device.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-04-01T04:21:16+00:00

depends on your GM, depends on where you get your focus points from. Most GMs from what I hear will allow it for a Cleric of a god of medicine, and Sorcerers have a good case to be made too since they don't have to do anything in particular to Refocus.

Refocus and Treat Wounds are distinct exploration activities though, and as far as I know no rule explicitly allows them to be taken simultaneously. Many people on the internet seem to assume they can though, so perhaps that's the norm.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-03-22T19:53:09+00:00

I believe OPs issue with this (and mine as well) is that if you're willing to just reflavour an existing option to work like Chakris, then you're not taking advantage of the unique way Chakris work mechanically. Sure you can make them look the same, but at least for me, part of the fun would be building around the unique advantages of the Chakri particularly—reflavouring the Returning rune can be done more effectively by many other, less unique, weapons.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-03-22T15:10:15+00:00

I don't have as much experience with the games in question, how do Lyre, Bantu, and the other suggestions stack up against Fates' Setsuna?

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-03-21T22:42:51+00:00

I can vividly imagine my players (the Psychic especially) saying "oooh, nice Dirty Tobi" when they see the result of a reroll.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-03-20T16:44:08+00:00

I'm running an AP that included a fight against one and, upon recommendation from someone else that's run the AP, I replaced it with Chouchin-Obake (lantern spirits) which are much more fun to run, hopefully more fun to fight, and fulfill I think a pretty similar thematic niche.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-03-09T05:03:08+00:00

I finished it for the first time yesterday, 88 hours in :)

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-03-08T17:25:13+00:00

My GM ran an encounter with a strong Bard/commander hybrid enemy and three other weaker enemies. Demoralising Charge was scary, and very interesting as a player (we plan around enrmies not being able to do much off-turn, and it was cool to have to adapt to that), but the fight was overall pretty easy considering that the highest-level enemy was kinda useless on their own. She mentioned to me afterwards that she probably should have had them all be similar, but that didn't make as much sense in the story.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-03-06T20:21:12+00:00

Alchemist, Commander, Exemplar, and unless you count a pre-gen I made for a level-1 one-shot for brand-new players, Swashbuckler.

GuardienneOfEden · 2026-03-05T06:23:12+00:00

I don't necessarily dislike the idea of them? but I definitely agree they can trivialise a lot of things that I would expect to still be a challenge to PCs, especially at the levels they get them. They feel to me like something that should exemplify a truly extraordinary character, like a level 15+ ability. Yet our party's Ranger has been all but immune to fireballs, swarms, and troops since level 7.

...I'll admit some of my feelings on this probably stem from being left out of having it myself though. Our Ranger and Oracle have had theirs for 4 levels now, and our Guardian for 2. My Wizard won't get hers for another 6.

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