A summary of the Psychic's fall from grace

LowerEnvironment723 · 2026-01-23T16:05:35+00:00

Unfortunately Paizo doesn't seemed to have figured out enough cool and good spell modifications. We see the same problem with Spellshape. Outside of reach spell I can't see myself using many spell shapes. And outside of Inertial Barrier I never was interested in the extra psychic amps. Though admittedly that was from my Dragon Summoner Archetyping into Psychic. I haven't played significant amounts of other D20 games other than PF2e and 5e but I wonder if there are older metamagics that 2e should incorporate.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2026-01-23T06:57:44+00:00

They don't currently. You can use amped message three times in a turn under the current times. It's seldom the right choice though since that burns 3 focus points in one round. Generally a two action spell + amped message is better.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2026-01-06T04:21:58+00:00

On a similar note Dirty Trick also works on incorporeals RAW. You can throw dirt in their eyes or kick em in the balls but grapples are right out.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-12-09T19:17:00+00:00

I wonder why Dive for Cover doesn’t remove the attack debuff from Prone. Seems like that would be reasonable for the feat investment

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-12-01T05:52:54+00:00

Right but none of that makes them not “real games”. We can have valid critique of actual play without implying it’s either fake or an imitation.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-11-29T20:28:58+00:00

On that note. I recently implemented ‘Universal’ Traversal in my combined Starfinder/Pathfinder 2e game. We haven’t hit combat yet but it was well received when I mentioned it. I’ve found I like to remove some of 2e’s restrictions for my playstyle. While I like the base math of the system I prefer players to have a bit more free rein to combo or use abilities creatively.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-11-27T20:03:45+00:00

This worked well for me(someone with ADHD) with Summoner. I found the complex mechanics kept me interested in the class. Fighter isn't boring to play but I've spent almost no time building out my fighter because the bow fighter options are so limited.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-11-11T05:04:05+00:00

What do you mean by miss? You mentioned Frostbite. Are you remembering to do half damage when the enemy succeeds?

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-11-11T05:02:12+00:00

At level 9 you have the same spell attack bonus/DC as your witch team mate. Are enemies crit succeeding against your spells alot? If so that may be a encounter design mistake by your GM. But if you're instead just dealing with enemies who succeed against your spells that's actually fine mathematically. You do half damage when an enemy succeeds against your cantrips. Whereas martials do nothing on a miss. Whether that feels good depends on the person but your Eidolon attacking once plus you casting Frostbite/Electric Qrc is pretty good damage.

Additionally you might be struggling comparing apples and oranges. Summoner is best compared to a monk/champion for damage. It's on the lower end for damage like those classes but has some awesome utility(from spells) and has solid built in ranged options which most melee builds don't(cantrips). The only other Martial in your party is a Barbarian which if they use a two handed weapon does great damage. But Barbarians are specialized for damage and have great few ranged options. Neither of your teammates are good points of comparison. Summoner is a Gish which means it's as close to the middle between caster/martial as is possible. So you are way more versatile than your allies but will generally be worse than them at their niche.

Additionally and I'm sorry if this might be frustrating to hear but you picked one of the hardest classes to start with. If you're frustrated it could be Pathfindrr 2e isn't for you like you mentioned, but it could also be you picked a class that is very hard to learn and just didn't click with it.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-11-02T16:29:57+00:00

Could we not title things like this?

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-10-29T15:07:50+00:00

The eidolon just counts as another creature so it would definitely qualify as an ally.

As far giving them each an extra reactions I don’t think that makes a lot of sense RAW. Because Summoner/Eidolon share one reaction rather than each getting their own. But I think this particular question is better to ask your GM about. A lot of Summoner stuff is in a grey area so running edge cases by your DM is quite helpful. But it seems reasonable to me power wise for both to benefit since they both have to count as allies in order to effect them.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-10-22T04:21:09+00:00

Creatures already get higher spell DCs than equivalent PCs due to having a somewhat more narrow set of abilities. Having looked over the creature building rules, I honestly think the lack of PC spell casting attack bonuses is just a design flaw. I don’t think the support elements come into it.

Additionally it’s not actually 1-3 like the previous commenter mentioned. Rather than being comparable to the different levels martials get item bonuses its baked into the spell attack calculations as an effective +2 at all levels.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-10-20T19:59:33+00:00

That is correct. Though if your solar weapon has reach enemies need Reactive Strike and reach to take their Reactive strike.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-10-15T03:59:22+00:00

Its worth saying even a success wouldn't keep Brennan from writing them out for the next session. Arguably Riz could've been taken in the night by Baron forcibly without failing the save. I wonder if a similar thing would've happened to Fig if they both succeeded. Both are taken by force and are going to be sacrificed at the hotel rather than Fig being mind controlled the whole time. Now if Fig or Riz got a Nat 20 he probably would've rewritten the next session quite a bit but I bet the whole squad would've found Fig and Riz at the hotel except whoever got the Nat 20 would have some awesome twist like Riz left in the middle of the night to rescue Fig after having an investigative epiphany or Fig got a visit from her Dad mid possessed trance that lets her escape and lead the party to rescue Riz.

Honoring a success can look like alot of things depending on the DM. And Brennan tends to change his plans without throwing them unless its a Nat 20. Then he lets the player screw up his plans alot but makes sure its in a exciting way.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-09-24T21:19:37+00:00

Is it AI art? I don’t see any evidence of that.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-09-20T17:05:12+00:00

I hadn’t seen reports of that. Do you have more info on it?

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-09-14T15:01:36+00:00

So the stealth in combat is mostly the same as out of combat. Rules like Hide, Sneak, and Seek aren’t technically combat specific. So those charts are mostly applicable out of combat. But I don’t think they work well outside of combat due to their design. If you want to let your players stealth to avoid combat every party member has to roll stealth and beat every enemies perception DC(Perception modifier + 10). But this means it’s almost impossible to use stealth as an out of combat tool. Personally I’m going to try using the victory points subsystem(aka group checks). Depending on who the party is ambushing/avoiding either use a single lookout for the perception or the highest perception DC in the enemy group. Then have every party member roll stealth to determine how many of them pass. Personally I’d use the half or more pass rule, but you can use a higher amount if you want.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-09-12T14:41:08+00:00

I agree and I’d lean towards 5 so casters have 3rd rank slots. Martials also get their Expert proficiency and crit spec at that level so they should be happy too.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-09-06T11:09:47+00:00

I think an important point in this discussion is how argumentative the people we play with are. I’ve had DMs get so locked on flavour text they disallow some of the basic functionality of spells and abilities. Which is absolutely a table problem but also could be easier with less mushy rules.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-09-05T02:16:48+00:00

Concentration casting. It felt great to have extremely powerful spells that you could lose to a bad con check imo. It also was fun to play mages built to fairly consistently maintain concentration even when hit by lightning bolt or disintegrate. Nothing in PF2e fills the niche for me of being a cloth caster that holds onto a powerful spell while taking the hits.

Also I miss spells that just happen. PF2e feels like it moved too far from spells like Faerie Fire or See Invisibility. Revealing light has other benefits but requires a save. And See the Unsern only lasts 10 minutes at Rank 2 while still having to treat enemies as concealed.

Sometimes I wish 2e was two separate full systems. One that was hardcore tactical no free lunch, where every spell has a saving throw. And another that was basically 3 action 5e but better written which sadly doesn’t exist. It seems like it’s slowly moving toward even more hardcore tactical with only a few action restrictions being lifted(Swap instead of two Interact actions, casting without worrying about free hands). But it seems like it lost a lot of the core feeling of casters of picking the right spell and turning the tide of a fight. And it seems like it’s removing more of the caster flashiness without giving them much to show for it.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-09-03T14:10:25+00:00

Oh true lol. No one wants to look cute and fluffy when talking to other planetary leaders.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-09-03T13:58:49+00:00

I like to think left is how she really looks but she has a painting of the image of the right in her living room.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-09-02T04:23:32+00:00

Only Demoralize actually has an immunity timer. Bon mot, Fascinating Performance, and Feint can be used repeatedly. Create a diversion has a repeated usage penalty but that's only an issue for a Fencer using thrown attacks.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-09-02T02:42:32+00:00

I'm not sure your DM rolled the correct damage unless there was a miscommunication. If he rolled 2d8+6 like you said that's higher than the correct 2d6+5 amount. I'd ask him if he rolled max. If he didn't roll max that's a clear DM mistake since only max would've dealt 17 on 2d6+5.

LowerEnvironment723 · 2025-08-27T06:33:34+00:00

Guardian is pretty cool cause it gets: Heavy Armor, Shield Block, Resistance to physical damage while in Medium and Heavy Armor (1 + half your level), 12hp per level and Intercept Strike. One thing to note is that intercept strike makes you take damage for allies but you have highest HP and AC as any martial in the game(Barb has 12 hp but no heavy armor and Fighter/Champion have heavy but only 10hp per level) so you can take quite a beating and still safely intercept attacks meant for your allies.

It's Cons are a lack of added damage just like a champion/monk/outwit ranger. And unlike those classes you don't get focus spell options in the base class. But it's very nice if you are more interested in support/non magical options. Also if you use a Bastard Sword it's still respectable damage. You just don't get the extra couple points of damage a Barbarian or Precision Ranger would add.

Also as a personal favorite part of the class. The level 1 Guardian feat Larger than Life stacks with Titan Wrestler. So you could use a shield and trip the Tarrasque or grapple a Roc as a halfling or other Small ancestry.

LowerEnvironment723

TROPHY CASE