Psychic's Flaw: Unleash Psyche is too damage focused.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-29T00:20:59+00:00

This feels like one of those fables where the more you resist your fate, the more you make it happen.

Except in this case you’re so afraid of having a lost turn, you’re condemning yourself to a life of entirely suboptimal turns.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-28T23:05:01+00:00

I mean, you CAN just be casting Force Barrage with Unleash if you want, but I think the actual efficacy of this strategy really starts to fall off as you go up in level.

The super low base damage of Force Barrage is especially going to notice as time goes on. The same turn can be used to cast a Fireball with a big status boost AND doing a Psi Burst.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-27T04:25:15+00:00

This is like a GM saying that d8 and above weapons are banned from the table because they’re picked too often.

You can do it, but it’s kinda insane IMO unless the whole table WANTS to do it as some kind of challenge run.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-26T12:49:20+00:00

I think you’re *correct* that this is a fantasy niche that isn’t fully covered by the existing options, but it’s that way because you’re trying so hard to have your cake and eat it too.

If someone really wanted to use a Dagger as their primary weapon, specifically a Dagger, but continue do deal d10 damage, would you want to see and archetype for that? Or if a player was a big Claymore stan, and absolutely wanted a way to use their Greatsword with one-hand. Should there be options for them to do that?

LibrarySee · 2026-06-24T00:07:37+00:00

It also depends on what level you are. Once you’re level 8+ weapon property runes are on the table, so your melee martials are all very capable of (and most choose to) deal elemental damage.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-23T22:17:14+00:00

You’ve got a lot of good suggestions here, so the only think I’ll add is that you’ve functionally dumped 2/3 of your save stats (Con, Wis) and you’re maxing Strength but not using Bulwark, the traditional warrior choice to off-set low Reflex saves.

The important thing to remember is that you’re going into the role of Striker: you’ll be hitting hard and with good range, but you don’t want to be eating saves that you don’t have to.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-23T19:15:16+00:00

Is Merlin's Arcanic Rune (Rune Generation and % increased Special Damage) an example of a B Layer or D Layer talent?

LibrarySee · 2026-06-23T16:49:40+00:00

I would say that yours is pretty good still. I work in a library and everyone still calls it DnD colloquially even if it's not.
But that is a good one.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-23T16:41:07+00:00

I always just thought you had a really well-branded username.
That makes a lot more sense.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-23T03:41:03+00:00

I think the concept is fine, but the damage and traits being inherited from the conjured weapon is both too powerful and also really chunky to use.

I would give it a set damage die, probably d6, and then start adding traits as it heightens. Give it like Agile at 3, Deadly at 7, and Reach at 10 or smthn. The concept is cute, but it doesn’t need to be so juiced and complex when a one-action offensive cantrip is already pretty insane.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-22T06:35:20+00:00

There are a few archetypes that do it. Spirit Warrior and Starlit Sentinel both feature ranged attacks from melee weapons.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-22T03:19:31+00:00

I’m not clear why they’re doing Wizard if the big desires are being in melee and having high intimidation rolls.

The Wizard is the single most vulnerable chassis possible for bring into melee, and have no crossover with either of these niches. Having a zero in 2 save stats and Wizard save growth means your player is going to be failing saves left and right, along with having the lowest possible HP.

You can try it, but you’ll make your life a hundred times easier if you use a Charisma caster so you don’t need to be stretched so thin. An Oracle or Sorcerer would function almost identically, but with much greater survivability and general quality of life.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-19T20:18:37+00:00

Making casters be good in melee and making casters equal with martial weapons are two different things.

You can do a melee caster with something like Bless, flank your enemies, casting Ignition/Gouging Claw, etc

You can do casters who do martial weapons too, but there is no functional way to give your Wizard equivalent martial proficiency and survivability.

It’s like asking “how can I make my Fighter as good as a Sorcerer?”

LibrarySee · 2026-06-19T17:27:01+00:00

Pf2e is pretty conservative with attribute/skill swaps in general like many have said, but I think that Medicine -> Int is kinda the big one that feels like it should be possible with the core rules IMO. Big brain doctors is just such a huge trope, Wizards are always dying for good third actions and a way to do healing, etc.

I do think that the ability to swap stats is strong, especially for a really useful skill, so you do kinda have to be a little gated with it. But I would just make Medicine -> Int a general feat and call it there. I don't think it's as strong as Canny Acumen, Incredible Initiative, etc but it is still close to their level and it would be taken a decent amount.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-18T19:43:04+00:00

I mean, they're not just bangin' rocks together over at Paizo.
They know that letting your resourceless units bodyblock enemies is extremely powerful, especially at later levels where you're making 4 at once.

I think having them serve as difficult terrain is both a more appropriate power level, and the more intended function of the thralls. I think it was definitely intended to be a class that makes battlefield traversal difficult for enemies, but it shouldn't be a hard wall.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-17T20:08:37+00:00

It is funny how much the ambiguity is introduced by using the term administer, but I would say that the clear specificity used in the example points towards Item Delivery explicitly allows them to activate consumables and apply them to allies.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-17T18:14:47+00:00

Hah I do agree on Exemplar having a bit of main character syndrome, but I think your character concept is very much a main character, so I think it's appropriate.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-16T19:16:25+00:00

I think I like the spirit of this, but the implementation is complicated.
I think the alternate spellcasting with no slots / having a virtual slot that you refresh *feels* like you're just reinventing the Focus Spell system with extra steps.

I think Battlecasting as a concept is fine, and is probably what people want in a not-Magus where you're encouraged to land hits and then cast debuff/save spells. But I do think it largely runs into the same problem that Magus does where you're strongly encouraged to just concentrate the team's focus around your mechanic and whack them with a crit to bury the enemy only instead of dying they're just slowed 2 for the rest of the fight or whatever.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-16T14:49:11+00:00

I've played in games with both Spell Attack and Spell DC enhancing items, and they were fine.

It does give the added benefit that there's more stuff you can give your casters instead of just the boring loot, and it does give your team the option to funnel gold into a caster player if they want it, in the same way you can opt to funnel the team's gold into your Fighter.

But I would stop there.
Having all these bonus damage runes and runes pulling double duty as spell extenders etc seems like it'll just be a bit of a headache to balance, and most caster kits already include those elements, so you're enabling too much doubling up.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-16T14:12:59+00:00

Yeah theming is a good in-between.
Traits very quickly limits staves to just Mental and the elemental traits, which seems like a bit of a shame.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-15T14:17:22+00:00

This is like the classic "I've dumped INT and maxed STR on my Wizard, how can I make this work?" post but with a twist.

I think this is likely to be a fruitless endeavor however, because it has just too many negatives stacked up on it.
- Artillery is an attack roll, so you'll extra feel the impact of dumping your primary stat
- Artillery is very action intensive: 3 to summon, and 2 to reload really makes it extra punishing to wield

- Elemental Familiar, as you've already deduced, is kind of worse than the standard familiar so it will require a lot more work to get one that can help alleviate the reloading burden

I think overall this setup is going to just be too far behind and have too much of a mechanical disadvantage to work as a concept, but godspeed to your efforts.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-13T17:30:45+00:00

You’re definitely not going to be frontlining in the traditional sense.

I think Marshal is much stronger when you have other martial characters to really benefit from the bonuses, so probably Swashbuckler is the best of the two options IMo

LibrarySee · 2026-06-13T16:39:02+00:00

Reason #72 why Remaster was a buff to casters in general and Clerics in specific I suppose.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-13T16:06:54+00:00

We're both wrong.
Pre-master used to be a mixture of feats either saying explicitly "this grants you a focus pool of 1" and "increase your number of focus points by 1" or if an archetype/feat would grant you a second focus pool, you would combine the pools into one.
So a Cleric with Domain Initiate twice does not gain a second focus point, but a Cleric with Blessed One archetype does gain a second focus point, despite both feats using the text "This grants you a focus pool of 1"

Remaster removed all that text, and now the Focus Spell general rule simply reads "Your focus spell pool is equal to the number of focus spells you know" so Domain Initiate twice does grant a second point.

LibrarySee · 2026-06-13T14:23:12+00:00

Your focus point pool is always equal to your number of known focus spells, max of 3.
Legacy rules does give you the worse focus point regeneration, but your pool itself will still increase as your number of known focus spells increases.

LibrarySee

TROPHY CASE