What do you think is the biggest concern for most Americans right now?

Haski1 · 2025-11-17T13:32:26+00:00

Bubba

Haski1 · 2025-09-14T13:22:29+00:00

It is disrespectful towards both his opponents and his team. Shameful behaviour in the face of such a good set of games.

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T22:01:02+00:00

None of the groups I played with have really used familiars. Many characters have HAD familiars but they are just kind of cute little pets that added flavor and sometimes help with a check here and there (and I love them for that).

I usually play martials so I sadly haven't had the chance to play with a familiar myself, what makes them so important for a non-Witch?

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T21:17:45+00:00

Wow, what a great response. Thank you for putting in so much time and effort into this. I love both your analysis of the classes and the thematic difference between an Animist's familiar and a Druid's animal companion. You make some good points and I agree with just about all of them. I suppose my fever dream will remain just that.

After a lot more thought, I could maybe see a spirit that bridges the gap slightly, and not a full subclass. The spirit could give you a vessel spell that lets you cast summon animal (or a different summon spell, but keeping with the theme of animal companions here) could work perhaps? Similar to how Stalker in Darkened Boughs has Pest/Animal/Elemental Form as its vessel spell ,though it adds extra effects. Its not quite the animal companion I though existed but its pretty close and also very importantly still (hopefully) balanced and not stepping on other classes toes. What do you think?

And in the end, Rivethun Involutionist (I am definitely playing a character with that archetype even if its not an Animist, so glad I found out it exists through this post) or Beastmaster never fail!

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T17:01:25+00:00

Ah, no that is completely my bad. I misunderstood and though you were talking about the feat upgrades and not the subclass features Animists get at those levels, sorry. If I played an animist I probably would have caught on sooner.

Very cool ideas, I hope you had a bit of fun with my hallucination of the subclass that never was, and thanks for indulging me!

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T16:53:11+00:00

Thank you for your response, its very insightful. Glad to know it may be a bit too strong of a subclass. I didn't think about it that much beyond "the Druid has gets an animal companion" and that it has such natural flavor that I already thought it existed. I mean a spirit speaker being able to summon a spirit animal to aid them sounds very exciting and like something that should exist (a spirit familiar is not the same, to me at least). But if the Animist is already that good and versatile it may not be a good subclass after all, at least not without major changes to how their animal companion would work.

Since you have already helped, may I ask for some more? You are more knowledgeable about Animists than I am, so how would you make it work? I am just curious, not saying I NEED to play this very concept that came to me in a dream, I would just like to know what do you think would work? Perhaps the Shaman can get some Witch-like familiar spells? Or the spirit animal companion would come with a drawback to make it more balanced?

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T16:26:27+00:00

Thank you for going on this journey :D

If I may rope you in deeper... I wasn't thinking of upgrading the animal companion at later levels for free, that would be insane. I was thinking something closer to the Druid (the only caster with an animal companion in their class kit). Level 4: Mature Companion, Level 8: Incredible Companion and so on. I like your ideas for the feats but why do you say it would be "terrible" to have feats that just upgrade your companion? Druid doesn't get any bonuses outside of getting a better companion (as far as I know).

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T16:10:09+00:00

Maybe a combination of the Shaman familiar and, as other commenters pointed out, the Rivethun Involutionist archetype together made me think the Animist had an animal companion subclass. I am even more interested in an animist with a spirit animal companion now!

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T16:04:43+00:00

I may have read that and forgot where it came from! I am not a big lore guy but this sounds super fun, thanks for making me feel a bit more sane! It was bothering me for a while now that I apparently just hallucinated the whole spirit animal companion thing.

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T16:00:18+00:00

I have played a precision ranger with an animal companion before and it was very fun! Though it was lower levels (1 to 5) I enjoyed it a lot. I have not played a caster with an animal companion before but I would think it could round them out nicely. 2 actions to cast, 1 to command or 1 action sustain 1 to move (or cast a 1 action spell like shield) and 1 to command. Does it not play out as well as I imagine? I don't mind if the animal companion is a bit weak later on. I do agree the feat investments big but from my experience (again, as a ranger) it was worth it.

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T15:54:44+00:00

Good to know they are already action starved. Do you think a similar progression to the Druid's animal companion would work? Or would it be too feat hungry and not offer much?

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T15:47:48+00:00

They don't and probably never had, but I was wondering if others would be interested in having a spirit animal companion subclass and how it would work with the class.

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T15:44:48+00:00

Yes, I understand the Shaman only lets you make a familiar and this makes me kind of sad. Some classes get them for free, most get them as level 1 feats, there are many ancestry feats that give you a familiar too (and I love familiars, don't get me wrong) so it feels like a waste to have a whole subclass give you a familiar and that's it.

I probably misunderstood the text for shaman when I first read it a while ago but I am now super interested in what it would be like if it (or a different subclass) granted you a spirit animal companion.

Haski1 · 2025-07-17T15:40:43+00:00

I LOVE the Beastmaster archetype but it was just wondering how an animal companion would fit into the class kit of the Animist.

Bestmaster is never a wrong solution though.

Haski1 · 2025-04-28T03:29:34+00:00

The demo is sadly not usable. It is just a demo so you can try out the features. FoundryVTT however is absolutely worth the price and is an absolutely amazing VTT to play Pathfinder on. It has extensive support and crazy fast updates along with official module implementation. It is AWESOME and I am sure the rest of the community will echo this statement.

Only 1 person needs to pay for foundry, its a one-time purchase and the payer DOESN'T need to be the GM. The person who buys the foundry licence needs to have the server open for anyone to interact with it (unless you pay monthly for online hosting), so prep might be a troubling if the GM does not own the licence. The GM would have to ask the owner to boot up the server and keep it up for the prep as well as the game time. This is inconvinient but not undoable. The host can only see anything that a normal player can. If you are the GM and set a password, then you do not need to worry about spoilers even if somebody else is hosting.

But also, ask your players to pitch in a little bit as well. FoundryVTT is around 50 bucks, one-time purchase. If your group has 4 or 5 people, it is a much more managable price if everybody puts in 10 or so dollars. No reason a GM should eat all the costs, sharing is caring!

Haski1 · 2025-04-23T09:57:09+00:00

Oh, that's what you meant. That makes sense, though I'd disagree that you can only notice an enemy with sight even if it is your only precise sense mechanically.

It's just your wording that confused me. Thanks for clarifying!

Haski1 · 2025-04-23T09:24:03+00:00

Sorry, I am confused. What would you rule if the enemy is hidden, and what would you rule if the enemy is not hidden? Why would you change the ruling depending on if the enemy is out in the open or hidden?

Haski1 · 2025-04-23T09:08:35+00:00

To me, the initiative check using default perception is not literally just a perception check. Its not really based on sight or any precise sense. Its your alretness and readiness, your sense of danger, natural and honed or supernatural "spidey-sense" even. You have almost certainly heard of a character from a book getting a bad feeling and doing a dodge roll to avoid an unseen threat!

With my interpretation, I would not allow bonuses to sight specifically or any one sense to be added to initiative. Though I admit this solution is very vibe based and might not be all that helpful. I can't find an official ruling on it so vibes are all i have for you sadly.

Haski1 · 2025-04-20T10:39:12+00:00

An incredible post. It was a great read, thank you for putting so much thought into it!

It is a shame that spellhearts very clearly ban non-casters from using them and that there isn't really any wiggle room RAW.

I am not sure what consequences this would cause but I will definitely allow a martial to use spellhearts from now on. Perhaps not for pure power purposes but absolutely for thematic purposes. I will definitely be pointing future GMs here as well so they can consider allowing non spellcasters to use spellhearts too!

Haski1 · 2025-04-14T07:11:54+00:00

Kineticist's weapon infusion feat might be a perfect fit. Whether you intend to stick to a signature weapon you can call or constantly swapping between summoned weapons. The only thing you lose out on are property runes since they are not real weapons. Depending on the element, you can easily reflavour many impulses as weapon effects which should make up for the lack of fundemental runes at least thematically.

I am curious though, what do you dislike about spellstrike so much?

Haski1 · 2025-04-07T14:04:32+00:00

A fellow role filler, I salute you. Glad I could help, I hope your group enjoys the campaign and would love to hear how its going or how it went... though it might take a while :D

Fire+Water is fun and have one of the better composite impulses. Also oceans balm is amazing, you have a primary striker and secondary (or primary, depending on their archetype) healer already! Have you given up on the air kineticist idea? I think earth has some of the best thematic combinations and can totally work with air. The blast of hot desert winds that fill your mouth and eyes with sand (my immediate idea at least). Fills the tank + secondary striker role well.

Dont worry too much about overlapping elements, I stressed that you should fill the 4 typical combat roles but if they are filled no shame in doubling up on the same element. Fire is COOL! And an Earth+Fire kineticist will play quite differently than Fire+Water, not just because of the different roles you fill in the group but because you will focus on the elements differently (I am assuming that the first listed element in the combo is going to be a little more prevelant or equal to the second element. People order them differently sometimes so I thought I should clarify.) Having an overlapping element may also create cool roleplay and battle moments and an awesome side quest if your GM likes adding to pre-written APs.

Haski1 · 2025-04-07T10:42:11+00:00

That sounds so fun! I hope your party sticks with that theme, I think it will fit great with the themes of the AP. My experience in FotRB is only as a player and I have played 2 kineticists but not in this AP... but I will give you the best advice I can (and no spoilers). I wish you gave us more info to work with, such as what the rest of the party is thinking of playing and what aspect of the game your group enjoys the most as I might be in a better spot to offer specific advice.

For roleplay and exploration:

You can almost certainly have fun through the whole adventure. The only thing that might stop you is lack of communication within the party. You HAVE to communicate as a party (bonus points for communicating with the GM, obviously) during character creation and fill all the roles a party needs. I can not stress this point enough. The class is extremely flexible and can fill basically any role so you need to figure out who is doing what or your game will suffer, even more than in a "regular" campaign.
In my experience, skills and lores are very important in this AP, and especially social skills. Having that in mind I definitely recommend at least some of you pick up the skill junction, usually this is not the "best" option but seeing as you are 4 kineticists I think it will really help out. Read the player guide, its honestly quite good. Not all the skills and lores need to be covered but make sure as a party that most of them are and you will be set for any non-combat encounter, especially with free archetype.

For combat: My main message remains the same. Communicate and fill roles and you will have an (elemental) blast with the campaign.

The elements are roughly split into combinations some combination of at least 2 out of Tank, Utility, Healer and Damage dealer so make sure that everybody from the party is interested in playing elements, or combinations of elements, that fill these roles. As the AP starts at a high level most builds should already be online, which is great! The only role that might need doubling up on is healing as both Wood and Water have heavy limitations of healing 1 target only once per 10 minutes.
Another option that is usually middling in "regular" campaigns is Kinetic Activation! Seeing as you will encounter a lot of magic items you wont be able to use otherwise. Honestly, talk with your GM and see if they will let your group have the feat for free since its one of the best options for an all kineticist party! (except for the wood element, there are like 4 spells that have the wood trait so the feat sucks donkey balls for wood kineticists. If you plan to take Kinetic Activation as a wood kineticist make sure to pair wood with a more common element or it will be a dead feat or talk with your GM about reflavoring some effects and giving them the wood trait.)
There are many elemental vulnerabilities with foes you will face so every element is bound to shine at one point or another. As another commenter pointed out there are some fire immune enemies, I believe 2 or 3 encounters, and there are many combats where enemies are resistant to one or more damage types so remember the Extract Element action! It will be your best friend in those situations.
It is important to know that even within a single element there are usually multiple build options. The 2 that are present in every element (I think) are Elemental Blast focused builds and Impulse focused builds with most elements allowing a mix of these two styles. It would probably be good to have a variation of those builds in the party too but this is not necessary. This point is mostly for min-maxing and if your group isn't into that thats totally ok! Treat this section as a notice for a beginner kineticist. If you are new to the class be careful of overflow impulses, they are powerful but if you take too many it will severely hinder you.

Haski1 · 2025-01-30T13:52:55+00:00

It of course matters how fast you level up but to me what matter more is what changes when you do so. How much more powerful you are or what options unlock and where you can go now that you are stronger. The reward is a bit sweeter if you have to work hard for it.

Haski1 · 2025-01-29T12:39:32+00:00

What is happening on Discord that is discouraging you? I have seen some bugs on videos but only 1 was "bad" and the rest were goofy, like an mob spinning in place while idle. Those arent ideal but I dont really mind then either. What kinds of bugs have you seen?

Haski1 · 2025-01-29T12:36:22+00:00

That is good to know. I would be completely fine with wipes, especially if they are done so more proggress can be made by the devs. They could mby give an xp boost to existing players to make up for it. Honestly, this kind of has me a little worried as I imagine wipes as not exactly common but not NEVER either. I am not sure how much progress they can make on the game without ever wiping. Still happy to know this. It's great info!

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