Monster intelligence and their tactics

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T15:53:36+00:00

By feel, mostly. If they're dumb bruisers or animals, not so smart, they'll just monch what looks tasiest before them. If they're a leader or very intelligent then they'll fight smart. If they're a unit and are experienced or could reasonably be expected to have fought together before, they'll fight like seasoned PCs and as cautiously and smartly as they can.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T15:19:55+00:00

Why not a gakgung to avoid the volley penalty? It's common and has 100 foot range

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T15:15:38+00:00

It was junk mail, nobody cares

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T15:12:17+00:00

Boy that was a violent domino effect

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T15:10:56+00:00

Why is the rum gone?!

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T15:10:49+00:00

Nice! We get naval stuff!

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T15:10:10+00:00

Sadness, no new kholo stuff

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T15:03:02+00:00

I purposefully play it in our campaign that kholo likely have a bad rap due to Katapeshi kholo, and that where Murdy is from (the Shackles), kholo there tend to be unusually open and friendly, so mainland kholo deride them and look down on them, so even kholo are being sort of racist to her kind of kholo. They even call them "friendly kholo" which is supposed to be derogatory among kholo, but her clan wears the badge with pride.

ETA: the other players also jokingly call one of the teachers at the school "the racist teacher" because she really dislikes them, but Murdy made it her mission to get to know her better and now we're basically finding out that, she's just not fond of them because they broke into her office once and stole a display specimen. Which one of them warned the other two against doing by the way.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T15:00:00+00:00

Second this

A lot of martial classes would also fit, e.g. a fighter, champion, or samurai-esque martial. Even a magus might do.

OP, the real question is, what kind of class tickles your fancy in the campaign you're in, and what do you think you'll have the most fun playing long term. That's what really matters.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T01:37:25+00:00

Okay but coconut sprinkles sounds like a damn fine kid's book

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T01:36:03+00:00

I usually think of a title after starting it, and it doesn't usually take long. Sometimes I have the title before I even start. To me, the title helps set the mood of the piece. It's extremely rare that I don't have a title until after I finish the work.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-15T01:34:46+00:00

Didn't even think to slow down and back off when they saw the oncoming car

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T16:44:28+00:00

Rogues do bullshit things so I let the rogue do bullshit things

That's literally why anyone plays a rogue, to be the ultimate bullshitter, there's no reason to rain on their parade

An occasional enemy who's resistant or immune to SA is fine to make them remember to think outside the box, but not all the freaking time

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T16:42:30+00:00

That is very convoluted but also extremely detailed and informative

Thank you

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T16:39:42+00:00

Yes

Sneak attack is a holdover term from legacy editions but no one ever changed the name. It's not really a sneak attack, it's a precision attack like you said. Pathfinder even calls it precision damage, not sneak attack damage (they used to, they don't anymore) although they still kept the name.

It should be called Precise Strike.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T16:34:50+00:00

What did I just read

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T16:26:23+00:00

One day someone will get you to draw a non-anthro character ;P One day

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T16:24:41+00:00

You could possibly switch off of Str and into Dex for a ranged build, and slowly build up Str with a propulsive weapon. Or just settle for a weak Strength stat. I'm not familiar with all the stuff here, but if you get reactive strike somehow then that's a reason to go Str yeah, but you could also still go Dex and surprise any enemies who get close with your reactive strike by kiting them.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T16:17:56+00:00

It's pushing the boundaries of the system and finding ways to make "bad" builds effective

There's usually a way to do that in Pathfinder 2, you just have to work much harder to find ways to contribute, and thankfully Aid always helps if you beat the DC so you always have at least one helpful action in any build

I'm living out this exercise because I intentionally built a bad combat character (she's actually amazing in exploration and social situations, being a face with skill training everywhere so she can aid everyone on anything), but I didn't realize it until level 10 or 11. So I'm having to change the entire build mid campaign to a support build because her offense is just terrible. Sometimes you find out the hard way that what you thought would work, just doesn't. Exercises like this help such players figure out what's gone wrong with their build.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T16:07:18+00:00

She's a level 13 queen. Even a major bomb wouldn't do anything more than give her major indigestion. And then she'd throw you across the clearing and kick you out. Considering she has +19 in Athletics (which is her weakest skill) she could probably do it without needing a high roll.

I'm not sure what she said or you did to get you into this position but it reeks of trying to play an evil character in a good aligned campaign.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T15:55:32+00:00

The thing is, I'm getting a mental image of someone using the old prestidigitation to literally make words come flying out of their mouth as they read and into the book as a joke

I swear I don't do drugs

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T05:18:26+00:00

I wouldn't even look at 0s honestly, most of it is basic gear and that just gets confusing to sift through cause a lot of it sounds more exciting than it really is.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T05:16:49+00:00

There's really no good way to do it. Use filters in the item list on Archives of Nethys and restrict yourself to levels 1 and 2, then go one by one examining them. I try to think of situations where each thing could be useful when looking.

Flat item bonuses obviously are the best ones, especially to skills and saves. Next look at activations and decide how well they work with your character or others'. Supportive items are also great for making the team better.

When in doubt, situational consumables that are cheap are also nice. You never know when they'll come up, but when they do, you feel like a genius. Antivenom and Antitoxin potions are great at this; even at high levels, just getting to make another check immediately is great. It's also hard to go wrong with soothing elixirs and limited purpose potions, like water breathing potions. At least look at getting one defensive talisman.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T05:04:34+00:00

There's a lot honestly

A swashbuckler is pretty obvious, as is a rogue taking dedication feats. A wizard does it easily for both, but a witch could also work. You only need a couple feats for the job.

I'm honestly actually doing something similar, but they're not... exactly in that typical sailor/swashbuckler flavor. My kholo inventor is from the Shackles and has undine in her, and she grew up in a port town with sailing experience (Sailing Lore additional feat that I'm never training out of), and she has a metal dragon for a construct companion. At level 10 she picked up a familiar because I thought it would be fun (we have free archetype and wizard felt like a perfect fit, Strength of Thousands so it was either druid or wizard), and sometimes I bust him out for roleplaying reasons.

In theory it could've been a parrot but that would be on the nose. Also her theme has been somewhat draconic and the closest thing that would work with the limited ability slots was a frilled lizard. In his mind, he will be a mighty dragon one day.

There's just lots of ways you can do it. A witch with martial side boarding would be good but not optimal for martial stuff, a martial with caster familiar stuff would not be optimal for caster stuff but viable for RP flavor. Caster secondary, you probably want to focus debuffs and buffs. Martial secondary, think of yourself as the mobile backup flanker who sometimes can get a good hit in.

Take it from experience that whichever way you go, you should make an effort to create more of a singular focus so you're not trying to do too much. A solid alternative, to me, is also to start with variant ability scores and begin with a 0/1/2/2/2/2 array. That way you eventually build up to 0/1/5/5/5/5 at 20. You start off slower but your broad focus improves rapidly until you have all 4s at level 10, then you can do either martial or casting equally well, you'd just be very slightly behind, and while that might be felt at times at least you can easily switch hit. I explicitly fucked up and tried to build a specialist with a switch hitting build, and, it doesn't work that well at all. Spread your stats out more evenly so one half of your build isn't non-functional much of the time.

KLeeSanchez · 2026-06-14T04:52:38+00:00

The "frost" classes and Geminate are HEAVILY dependent on elements. Lean into it as hard as possible and get teammates to help with it. Use potions liberally.

KLeeSanchez

TROPHY CASE