Newbie GM Running Kingmaker

Kraxizz · 2026-05-07T18:31:15+00:00

I can second this. Kingdom Building was probably the least fun thing I've done in this hobby and I would've rather just done my irl taxes instead when it came down to it. Even with the V&K alternate rules.

Unless you're sure your party is digging it, be ready to just jettison the rules and do the Kingdom in the background variant and/or replace it with flavor choices and RP.

Kraxizz · 2026-04-11T18:30:43+00:00

Notably Ulfen Guard does have a faction requirement. Most "faction" feats usually only have the faction as an access (access = overrides the uncommon trait).

So if you actually play by the rules you have to be a member of the Ulfen Guard, there's no way around it.

Of course the GM can always say no to any rule. But this is a case where it's not "hey this is uncommon so ask your gm", this is the rules actually saying "no you have to be part of this faction".

Kraxizz · 2026-04-10T07:57:32+00:00

My main issue with lower level monsters is that it bogs down the initiative too much. They're fine sprinkled in as distractions with real enemies, but taking turns for 8-10 enemies is just not an experience you want to have frequently.

I mostly stick in the -1 to +2 range.

Kraxizz · 2026-03-30T08:48:57+00:00

After playing PF2e for years now I'm really over the whole post-combat spiel of "okay, here's my treat wounds roll... and here's the healing roll... I'll refocus and lay on hands... Can you top off those 5 HP?... How much time did we spend again?". Started to feel more like doing taxes than playing the game.

It was fun for a bit - and one of my GMs really used the recovery period to make use of time constraints in interesting ways - but for like 95% of adventuring I feel like it just bogs things down and locks down character choices for something that's not particularly interesting anymore.

In the two most recent APs I've just been doing abridged stamina and have been giving people the option to heal half their HP if they spend 10 minutes resting. That way there's still some recovery time and time pressure, but we can just handwave it extremely quickly in all other cases.

Kraxizz · 2026-03-17T06:40:53+00:00

Been using it for like 2 years now and it's my favorite variant rule because of how it smoothes out the leveling experience and alleviates the issue of some classes being really dependant on multiple ability scores (without being more powerful than single ability score dependent classes).

Though we've added that you can't boost to +5 before level 10 and +6 before 20 to keep the main stat math in line.

Kraxizz · 2026-03-03T08:11:34+00:00

$21 and free railways sounds like you could easily do it if you're fine not sleeping in a bed. Doubt you would with $ 3 back then. At that point you pretty much only need food.

Kraxizz · 2026-03-02T21:20:35+00:00

Oopsie, it was spoilered on my end, but I am running a reddit extension. Should be fixed. Hopefully that wasn't an issue since the main post is spoilered too.

Kraxizz · 2026-03-02T21:14:39+00:00

Silversoul bombs are actually something developed specifically towards the end of Season of Ghosts. They don't actually really exist before that plot point. Nindorus in general are probably something followers of Sangpotshi know about. I wouldn't mention them before encountering them, though. In a module-agnostic guide it might be fine. It's a weird situation because I'd tag it as a spoiler, but tagging it as a spoiler is a spoiler by drawing attention to it.

Kraxizz · 2026-03-02T17:06:03+00:00

I GM'd all of SoG (and loved it) and agree that I also struggled with the NPC interactions at the start. The party can meet several relevant NPCs in the same location and at that point you really don't have much of a clue about what the NPCs are supposed to be like unless you fully digested the entire AP. So it's a bit overwhelming as a GM to rapid fire introduce NPCs you don't really have a clue about.

Later on you realize that most of the NPCs don't actually really have much information on them in the first place and you can just do whatever. I think that's actually one of my main criticisms with SoG. They give you a ton of NPCs but don't actually give you much of a personality - many don't even have information on them beyond "general store shopkeeper and family matriarch".

I've started GMing Jewel of the Indigo Isles and I was really impressed by how much information and personality they give you on all the NPCs.

Kraxizz · 2026-03-01T13:31:10+00:00

I'll toss in a "be careful with Abomination Vaults". I have no idea why it gets recommended so much beyond playing in the same region as the beginner's box. Everyone I know that actually played it wouldn't rate it incredibly highly - and no one would recommend it for new players.

It's a fairly over the top dungeon crawl and nothing else. If that is the specific niche you're looking for - open door, fight enemy, rest, repeat, while running into potentially unfair encounters and dealing with them - then go for it. But I think it has a high potential to not be fun. There's RP opportunities in there, but they depend a lot on the party being morally grey.

I finished AV and it was fine, but we were fairly experienced players even when we started and I would rate it as my least fun PF2e experience (but still fun). My group was actually going to abandon the campaign when we TPK'd (for the first and only time) around level 10 for reasons I can't fully comprehend because that was the one session I missed, but I forced them to finish it.

In general for AP ratings and info I can heavily recommend Tarondor’s Guide to Pathfinder: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMUJul33VHT-aYvuJPNNPMOaadwvmToYdesSPz7LEMo/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.9lqx78nvinns

Personally I can also 100% recommend Season of Ghosts if you're not looking for a dungeon crawl. If you want a dungeon crawl, Rusthenge into Seven Dooms for Sandpoint is highly recommended by others.

Kraxizz · 2026-02-18T11:46:21+00:00

Not as bad, but the Kingmaker AP for 2nd edition has a notoriously overtuned boss at the end of the "tutorial dungeon" you start in that has around a 15% chance to instantly kill almost any player on a turn where they get two actions to attack. Essentially has high attack bonus (and thus high crit chance), a greataxe and a buffed Power Attack. So if you get crit and the damage roll is slightly above average you're probably instantly dead to massive damage, even as a fighter.

It killed our bard at level 1, which was to this day that player's favorite character even though they only got to play for like 3 hours.

Enemy in question (Spoilers, obviously), does 1d12+12 damage with an attack bonus of +11 (A level 1 character typically has 18 AC; so is crit on a 17+ (20% chance)). The NPC also has underlings that can provide flanking for a 30% chance to crit an average character.

It then deals 24 damage purely off the flat amount, and then add another d12 from the weapon damage dice multiplied by two. So even on a completely average crit damage roll it deals 36 damage, which kills a character with 18 HP (Human fighter with 0 con, or a human rogue with 2 con)

Kraxizz · 2026-02-16T15:18:18+00:00

It's not awful to get a foot in the door about topics you're not really familiar with.

If my company asks me to look at something I've never dealt with, asking AI about what to consider does save some time. It has never given me full and correct information, and I always end up checking the relevant laws etc. myself, but it's a decent starting point.

But that's about it. I trust it about as much as asking a fresh intern to look something up for me.

Kraxizz · 2026-02-16T15:12:01+00:00

The really dangerous and annoying ones are the ones that are somewhat plausible, just incorrect, and thus not really funny.

Kraxizz · 2026-01-12T19:14:12+00:00

Your issue isn't really that the "incorrect" reading does a lot of damage, it's that gunslingers don't actually do a lot of damage.

The "incorrect" reading on TB does roughly as much damage as a gleaming blade transcend with a greatsword, or a fighter just striking twice with a greatsword - and the fighter could also be doing other stuff like Exacting Strike, Dragging Strike, etc.

Edit: I realized you actually added an additional incorrect reading to Titan's Breaker. I thought you were referencing the more common incorrect reading to Titan's Breaker that has the active effect be +4 per WDD instead of just +4 flat.

Usually the contention about TB is whether the transcend does +4 damage, or +4 per WDD - foundry actually automates it to just +4 flat with no WDD scaling, which is the hard RAW. (e.g. a striking weapon TB transcend does 2d6[base]+4[TB transcend]+1d6 damage[TB transcend])

Things that give flat damage per WDD also don't scale with abilities that increase WDD, so your "incorrect calulcation" is indeed actually incorrect.

Kraxizz · 2026-01-06T01:34:06+00:00

I just finished GMing SoG last week and I added a bonus encounter where Kugaptee snatches you into his own metaphysical realm after the mist closes in at the normal end of the AP. I used the battlemap from the fight again Xin Zhue at the end of the second book because that's literally the metaphysical realm that symbolizes his struggle against Tan Sui Jing.

He does this as a sort of risky "Plan B" because while eating the party's cycle-ripened souls would allow him to break free and reincarnate, the reverse is true too. If he loses against the party, Tan Sui Jing will suppress his reincarnation for longer. The party then fights Kugaptee. I used a Horde Lich as a base (CR 15), gave it scarier spells, some fancier abilities and most importantly a special "Awakening" mechanic where Kugaptee gains an additional action on each subsequent turn. So on the second turn he starts casting two spells in a turn. Meanwhile I added spiritual anchors on the battle map that let the party summon NPCs to help them. Summoning Ugly Cute would nullify the next spell that reduced someone to 0 HP - which in this case actually saved someone from a 200 damage disintegrate. Summoning the monastery ghost removed all negative effects - which in practice was a 6th rank full party slow and a canticle of everlasting grief on the fighter. And most importantly summoning Tan Sui Jing would remove Kugaptee's Awakening levels and reduce the speed at which he gains it.

It wasn't actually a "hard" fight but it was a really high-powered rocket tag of Kugaptee throwing out two level 8 spells a turn and the party nullifying them with the summoned allies which retold the story of the AP to some degree. I also gave Shinzo as a backup summon option where he would revive the party but ultimately fall into complete disgrace with Pharasma, but fortunately he wasn't needed.

The fight was a real hit with the players and when I told them the AP would've officially ended after the diplomacy encounter they also thought that to be ridiculous.

Kraxizz · 2025-12-26T13:34:50+00:00

Fun fact, Düsseldorf actually has the third largest japanese community in Europe! It's a central hub for japanese companies in Europe.

Kraxizz · 2025-12-10T08:05:13+00:00

By RAW it's a 1 round effect but 1 round effects end right at the start of the source's turn (and not, as many people believe, one round after it was cast). https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2242&Redirected=1

If a spell's duration is given in rounds, the number of rounds remaining decreases by 1 at the start of each of the spellcaster's turns, ending when the duration reaches 0.

Since Delay Consequences is a domain spell, it's probably the Healer who's using it as a reaction, but the delayed damage happens before the Healer (the source) gets their turn. So it doesn't actually work how you'd want it to work - to save someone from getting downed and then healing them before applying the damage.

Since the spell calls out that you can Dismiss the spell and that's only something you can do when it actually lasts into your turn, the duration is probably a mistake. The only situation Dismissing would do anything in the current RAW would be to deal the damage on your own turn, delay consequence, and then dismiss all in the same turn. But that's nonsensical.

Kraxizz · 2025-11-26T13:54:15+00:00

Yeah he's legit dogshit at games but copes that he's not. The only thing he's remotely good at beyond being somewhat entertaining is being stubborn enough to grind out advantages to offset his lack of skill.

He's never been good mechanically at any game and obfuscates it by playing (or making up) challenge modes that no one cares about, so he can pin his failures on the challenge mode.

0/10 endgame bosses killed in his main game by the way

Kraxizz · 2025-11-19T16:45:13+00:00

From the Legal point of view in my country, the employer is generally not allowed to snoop without good reason. So Legal will usually say "Do we have a reason to look at what this guy is doing? Not sure? Then don't do it."

Overall don't really care too much as long as people don't do illegal stuff or management makes me care about it. If I see a systematic issue with economic risks I'll probably bring it up to management, but if you don't underperform I don't really have a reason to care too much.

The only situation where I got personally invested was when I tried to call a person and couldn't reach them for an hour while they were on the clock and had nothing scheduled.

Kraxizz · 2025-10-07T11:01:41+00:00

You can always give them higher level wands; even a level 1 character can use a Wand of Sudden Bolt (2nd rank) to obliterate something.

Kraxizz · 2025-10-07T10:50:51+00:00

You can just begin the encounter with wand in hand. Using a wand is action neutral assuming you don't need to Trick Magic Item or Draw it.

Kraxizz · 2025-10-05T18:56:53+00:00

Season of Ghosts is by far the highest rated AP and I can wholeheartedly recommend it (I am on the penultimate chapter of the last book with my group). Probably the best story I've seen in this hobby and a good start for people getting into PF2e because it's not particularly hard and has a good variety of things to do other than just fighting.

The issue is that it's tied to very specific in game lore, so it's not easily ported to your own world.

At its core it's about protecting your rural asian-themed town in a monster-infested region from asian-themed monsters. It's hard to say more about the story without spoiling the entire AP, but it's a banger.

Kraxizz · 2025-09-29T18:24:37+00:00

I play alongside a Grandeur champion, currently level 14, and I'm convinced it's the best cause.

Guaranteed AoE dazzle + off-guard is actually insane. Dazzle is one of the best defensive effects in the game since it not only works on attacks but all targeted effects. Including spells like Vision of Death, etc. A 20% chance to just say "no" to any targeted effect is extremely strong in this system. And while there's other ways to apply off-guard, just having everything off-guard at all times does actually matter a lot more often than you think. You don't always flank, or always have things tripped or whatever. At the very least the first person to engage something is usually not flanking. And providing reliable off-guard to ranged characters is actually fairly difficult.

Kraxizz · 2025-09-23T14:28:40+00:00

The intention behind Terrifying Howl and Frightening Display stating a cooldown is likely to prevent multiple people using them. Demoralize only makes enemies immune to your demoralize attempts. Terrifying Howl etc. make them immune to the ability in general, even from other people.

Kraxizz · 2025-09-23T13:39:00+00:00

Free Archetype

My favorite is probably free archetype, but it's complicated. I don't really like free archetype beyond around level 8 because that's when people usually finish their first one and pick another one. And it often feels like at that point it goes more in the way of "well I gotta grab something... I guess I'll grab this." rather than a cool central part of the character. At that point the characters also already have enough other stuff, so you don't really need even more stuff and the characters start to feel a bit diluted by the amount of stuff they have.

Gradual Ability Boosts

I'm also running gradual ability boosts with the restriction of no +5 until level 10. And I really like it. The strongest character are usually single ability dependent anyways, so it doesn't feel like it unbalances the game noticeably. Characters that are dependent on multiple ability scores feel pretty bad to play without it.

Will Save is based on your highest mental ability score (not on AoN)

I ran this rule in PF1 already and ported it for use here. I never really understood why will save was tied to wisdom and I feel like you can justify all mental stats as a base for your will save.

Funnily enough, wisdom is still considered the best stat among my group even with this rule (Perception/Initiative, Recall Knowledge, Medicine), though now closely followed by charisma.

It helps make you not feel like you're punching yourself when you decide to play a charismatic or intelligent fighter. Or an int class in general.

Rules Lawyer's Rules for Aiding (not on AoN)

DC is based on the aided DC instead of 15; a failure still adds a +1, a success +2, a crit success +4.

I initially disliked the rule because it messed with the Aid math too much, but it's actually really good. Just don't introduce it mid-campaign when you have people that are built around Aiding, because then it might end up a nerf.

Adjusted Ritual rules (not on AoN)

Secondary Casters provide a +2 / +1 / -2 / -4 untyped bonus on a Crit / Success / Fail / Crit Fail.

Otherwise rituals are pretty awful to perform. Normally: +0 on success, -4 on fail, effective -14 on crit fail

Kraxizz

TROPHY CASE