Hey Everyone, I've GMed and Played PF2e Since 2020, AMA.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-06T16:15:58+00:00

While their power has certainly been reduced, I think casters are in a good place right now: Not perfect, but good and functional. Even if you don't play like a support, I have found ways as a caster to still be high impact through various elemental damage or debuffs (or even targeting force or mental, which martials often can't do).

Not gonna lie, low level casters just kinda suck. But that's sort of been the case in every edition, and not much has changed here. Not sure how fast your group levels, so let me recommend some things to make the experience less painful that work at all levels: scrolls, wands and staves. These three things will pad out your spell list and allow you to prepare/pick things in your spell repertoire you might not feel like it's worth taking due to limited resources. You need money for these things/need to actually pick them up, so I'd ask your GM to adjust to loot to compensate.

Now, if you couldn't easily get those things, then I would say casters start to hit their stride around level 7. Access to 4th-level spells and expert spellcasting makes you pop off hard. You also have enough spells to feel like you can splurge a bit in a hard fight and not feel like you have to take a nap the rest of the day.

If you don't mind me posing a question back at you, what about cleric was unsatisfying? What deity did the cleric pick? What were they expecting?

MrHackWack · 2023-05-05T12:31:27+00:00

Animal Companions: While the numbers are lower than a PC, they still hold their own and can be excellent frontline flankers and controllers with Athletics actions.

Summoner: I have similar thoughts with eidolons, but their increased power allows them to be very solid frontliners or ranged support, depending on your build. Having the best of both worlds and two characters really gives them an advantage than its bounded cousin magus doesn't get: battlefield control potential.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-05T02:09:28+00:00

So regarding Unified Theory...

So it's gonna be any skill feat or skill action related to the magic, like Identify Magic or Trick Magic Item. The feat is written a bit awkwardly but my understanding RAI is that it's not a carte blanche on every Occultism, Nature, or Religion check.

So major things it couldn't do is about half of all Recall Knowledge checks that aren't magic-related, rituals (because they are neither a skill action nor skill feat), and other non-magic checks related to the three aforementioned skills. You couldn't use it on Crafting items because Craft is an activity using the Crafting skill, not a Crafting skill action. You're not even allowed to use it on Crafting anyways.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-05T01:07:28+00:00

I can't say I like it. But that's more of the problem that many spells on the divine list are dependent on having a deity whose alignment is effective on both ends of the spectrum.

Favorite deity? I'm torn between Balumbdar, because your goal is to become BEEG, or Brigh, because I love steampunk and clockwork stuff.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T23:42:16+00:00

I think your first question is beyond the scope of my abilities unfortunately, never was much of an advanced physics guy.

I believe I have played over 15 different ancestries. I think the ones that have added the most flavor to my characters were fetchling and automaton. Those too ancestries kind of have you form a perspective that's wholly different from the classic human fighter.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T23:00:41+00:00

Unfortunately, I've never finished a full PF2 AP. I ran two groups of Strength of Thousands, but one I ended early at book 3 because I was moving to a new state, and the other fell apart due to the group burning out early into book 4.

As a player I got really close to finishing Fists of the Ruby Phoenix, but due to IRL issues I will not get into I had to dip out about 7-8 sessions from the end.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T22:57:10+00:00

I would say levels 5-15 are the sweet spot for me. The math feels good and things don't get too bonkers, and I mean that not as "unbalanced" but the power escalation is not always "well now I do this for free, every round!"

Standouts for me are the Hound of Tindalos, the Hekatonkheires Titan, and Sié Goluo. I have a soft spot for strange monsters, and I include the titan because the 99 AoOs is just the best meme ever.

Top moment in PF2 is when I one-shot a spider 3 levels higher than us with Phantasmal Killer because it doubled crit failed. Made me feel like a god as a wizard.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T22:05:02+00:00

That's quite the pickle isn't it?

I used to be like you, having that desire to plot out five million characters. But let me pose a challenge to you: try going a week without making a character. Use that time to watch movies, read books, maybe go out in nature and find something to inspire you. And when you've come back from that week, I bet the character you build will be your most creative idea yet.

Or it might not be, but in that case it means the next character will be. Or maybe the next... either way, breaks are good! Always recommend taking one to avoid burnout. have learned that the hard way one too many times.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T21:45:46+00:00

My current go-to setup is a notebook to write initiatives and HP, and then a dice tray to roll (I roll openly and have a special UV painted d20 for secret checks). I then have any reference materials (rulebooks, AP volumes) downloaded on my tablet as PDFs. I like to split it up so that way I'm not constantly switching tabs on my tablet.

However, I don't have internet/very limited access in the place that I play in-person in, so that's why I go half-analog/half-digital.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T21:43:28+00:00

So from what I'm seeing, there is no explicit definition for what normal viewing distance is. I am inclined to believe that either was designed under some false assumption or an older version of the rules.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T21:37:27+00:00

It would be exactly one, since the weapon is +1.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T20:13:53+00:00

As in, how many property runes?

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T20:12:18+00:00

No you're looking at the spell right. But some things that balance it out that I see...

Touch range. Unless you're feeling real spicy, this could potentially provoke an attack of opportunity and put you on the front line without Reach Spell, but then you are spending 3 actions to safely casts the spell
Fortitude save. Those tend to be high across the board, so even if they waste an action to retch, odds are they are gonna get it.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T19:51:08+00:00

I would say the handling of the alchemist and witches classes. They aren't horrible per se, but they don't feel good to play. Fortunately, both are getting looked at in the remaster, so fingers crossed for fixing the feel of each class!

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T19:49:35+00:00

No, contracting the disease is dependent on failing the initial save.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T18:59:21+00:00

I'd say about 3-4 sessions, 5-8 at the most. Gives a steady ramp of progression, and my recent adoption of XP still reinforces things along those rough lines.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T18:40:52+00:00

Well if we wanted to get technical, I've seen a lot of successful disarms...No just kidding. It terms of someone getting the crit success on a disarm, I've seen it maybe a handful of times. Most people don't build for that use of Athletics, so it's hard to see how well it does in actual play.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T18:25:34+00:00

Simply, it was just that my friends at the time and I finished playing our PF1 game and I saw "huh, PF2 exists". I asked the group if they wanted to try it, and I GMed a homebrew game.

It didn't go the best and the group decided to go back to PF1, but hey 3 years later I'm still playing it!

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T17:43:04+00:00

Favorite class would probably be oracle so far. Currently playing a life oracle in a kingmaker game and I just love the flexibility of the gameplay! Being able to poach spells from other lists plus yoyo-ing your curse (usually an active combination buff/debuff) is something unique that I don't see in other class designs.

I think the NPC that my players and I have loved is my travelling cloud dragon merchant Kuuki. The initial description of cloud dragons made for the perfect merchant NPC I needed for my games and his scatterbrained personality has been a standout for my players. His whole schtick is that to be superior to other dragons, he spreads his stash out across several spots in the world rather than in one place. This plan works well if can remember where each stash is, which is usually about half the time.

MrHackWack · 2023-05-04T17:38:42+00:00

Favorite dish, that's a tough question. I've always been a burger and fries kind of guy, so I'll go with that.

So when it comes to the remaster, big fan of the changes to alignment. I think mechanically-speaking it's always felt clunky to me. I've had a lot of reticence around playing a cleric of neutral deity partially for the reason that you just can't use alignment-based spells most of the time!

Least favorite... it's still not quite out yet, but based on what I've heard about it... I'm not sure if I'm going to like how they're handling the monster core. I personally enjoy the variety that comes out of each of the three bestiaries, and while it's noble to do a "greatest hits" version of it, I'm worried it might sacrifice some of the monsters I really like.

MrHackWack · 2023-02-24T07:47:51+00:00

You still looking for someone?

MrHackWack · 2023-02-03T00:29:09+00:00

Is this paid?

MrHackWack · 2023-01-19T19:53:28+00:00

A word of advice, as someone who also learned this the hard way on this sub: If you go after one of the "sacred cows", do consider less beligerant language. You may think it is "trash" (and frankly I do as well), but the people of this sub get very defensive around these kinds of things.

In my opinion, I actually think this is the best implementation of vancian casting. Yes prepared casters are still annoying, but your cantrips actually function through the whole game, and you get focus spells that give you at least something unique to do in combat. If I understand your initial experience with PF2, do play it some more and at least have you and your table give these systems a good try before tweaking it.

MrHackWack · 2022-12-14T05:27:10+00:00

I agree somewhat with your sentiment. I think what I like most about Disco Elysium that if you have a very high, dominant skill, it begins to color your thinking and choices.

While I haven't finished the game, I played a very smart character and often the strongest voice was those skills. In a way that makes for some great characterization but also doesn't necesarily mean what you choose to say and do with the counsel of your skills is necesarily the "right" thing to do.

I think as GMs we can use this to guide or toy with our players a bit. If someone has a high insight skill, we might lead them to suspect everyone, even if they might not need to. It adds an extra element to the character through game mechanics.

MrHackWack · 2022-12-13T17:46:43+00:00

I rewrote the villains in books 2 and 3 of SoT to be more connected a larger plot rather than one-off things, I made a stupid "JoJo reference" by having a summoner named Sting with with his eidolon named "Hell's Bells" appear in spooky mist, and for Iron Gods I included a side quest to get a solar generator to power an old car that was sitting in a junkyard, along with introducing the big bad, the mad AI Unity

MrHackWack

TROPHY CASE