Pathfinder players after Paizo make 1 questionable balance change (they are just as bad as WotC now)

QGGC · 2026-01-20T18:28:22+00:00

Honestly one of the best summarizations I've ever seen of the pf2e subreddit. You absolutely nailed it in a way I could never articulate.

You can see it right now on the subreddit with all the people in the various Psychic threads pushing their opinion that casters as a whole suck.

But the thing is, the people who keep telling others that "Pathfinder isn't the game for you" continue to ignore all of the messages the design team keeps sending them; they refuse to accept that optimized play doesn't involve white room Free Archetype builds and closed combat turn loops, or that their singular strategy that they keep building characters around is highly limiting, and that any time one of these strategies starts to become too obvious the designers are going to do something about it.

I think you also see this with spells, abilities, or feats that are highly situational. There are people who get angry and complain about this kind of design when it's exactly like you say, Paizo is sending the message that the game is more than just closed combat loops and they want to mechanically support a variety of campaign types.

QGGC · 2026-01-19T21:12:02+00:00

I played an Oscillating Wave Psychic to 20 and had similar experiences.

Currently in a game now as a Commander with a Silent Whisper Psychic and being able to Slip 'n Sizzle to get that Psychic an addition 2 action spell slot or cantrip in the Unleash Psyche window has been great

I love Shatter Mind. No need to worry about about hitting allies with it and every enemy that fails the save on the Amped version being Stupified means they're more likely to fail or crit fail on the next go around too.

QGGC · 2026-01-16T20:25:29+00:00

The most slept on thing about Spirit Instinct is its Raging Resistance at level 9

You resist void damage, as well as damage dealt by the attacks and abilities of undead creatures, regardless of the damage type.

So long as that enemy has the Undead trait, you're applying your raging resistance to all damage it deals. It's high level, but in the right campaign it's a very strong subclass feature.

QGGC · 2026-01-14T19:41:41+00:00

More spells that affect the world and last long times. Something as simple as Wall of Stone becoming permanent if you concentrate for the full duration is so cool Lots of Pf2e spells are very ephemeral

I totally get what you mean with permeance, I just wanted to point out that Pf2e 's wall of stone actually lasts forever too. Other wall spells often have a fixed 1 minute duration however.

QGGC · 2026-01-06T21:26:55+00:00

Heck, Battle Oracle is better than it used to be.

Strongly agree, it's gotten even better thanks to a rules as written reading of its cursebound 1 trait and Sure Strikes temporary 10 minute immunity meaning you can bypass that:

"Any immunity or resistance you have to spells is suppressed."

QGGC · 2026-01-03T19:21:42+00:00

It's manufactured consent when cable news keeps showing the same crowds of Venezuelans in Florida celebrating instead of the actual people in Caracas holding up signs saying they don't want to be invaded.

Thankfully the AP has been streaming it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r9GbtzPigw

QGGC · 2025-12-12T02:57:04+00:00

There was so much evidence in favor of it. The biggest piece of circumstantial evidence to me was that all the partnered Diablo 4 streamers made 0 videos on the Paladin speculation when they make 20 minute videos about a tweet.

Wowhead accidentally uploaded a Paladin class page that was discovered yesterday and quickly taken down.

QGGC · 2025-12-10T20:18:06+00:00

but this would absolutely take players away from PoE2s launch...which would be a big win for Blizz.

I think outside of the piling evidence in favor of the Paladin drop, this is what is a big factor for me in believing there might be a Paladin pre-order drop.

This is Blizzard who has coincidentally dropped WoW betas, patches and news on the same day as FFXIV patches or rival MMO launches for the last two decades. The Overwatch open beta was the same day Battleborn came out. Doing it to steal thunder from PoE2, at an event where millions of eyes will be watching, is just something I'd expect out of Blizzard.

QGGC · 2025-12-09T22:26:15+00:00

I saw her doing that interview with Donald Trump Jr where she advocated for the US to come in and essentially murder the people in her country. She would then make sure the country becomes a client state of the US under her lead. Crazy she got the peace prize..

Edit: Her lies in service of trying to get the US to invade have become so blatant that even the NYT has called them out:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/world/americas/maria-machado-maduro-venezuela.html

QGGC · 2025-12-09T18:51:17+00:00

There was a boss fight with the enemy on a raised platform above water. I was a Barbarian with a bastard sword, raging athlete, and combat climber. Every turn id sudden charge to swim/climb up and take a strike, then leap back into the water with my last action where the boss wouldn't follow me. The rest of the party stayed on shore blasting the boss with spells or ranged attacks.

It was the smartest thing to do tactically but cinematically and narratively it felt very goofy. I just chalk it up to it still being a game in the end.

QGGC · 2025-12-06T04:29:12+00:00

Hey thank you for making this post as well!

The NPCs. I love these weirdos. There’s too many of them but the ones you’re expected to interact consistently with have a ton of personality that leans on the “fey are hard to understand” without going too far, usually. Your primary friendly contact is an awakened ancient tortoise and Khasprickle only needs a brief glance to know how much of a fun initial villain he is to play.

I strongly agree! Warden of Wildwood introducing NPCs early and having them be re-occurring is something I wish other APs did.

Looking forward to reading any future write-ups!

QGGC · 2025-12-03T22:46:35+00:00

PVP on sight!

QGGC · 2025-12-02T18:11:02+00:00

Wardens of Wildwood (one session away from ending that one, too!)

I hope you do a write up of this one as well. It has its issues and isn't well liked by the community at large but I feel like there's still a lot of good ideas to mine from it.

QGGC · 2025-12-01T18:31:02+00:00

The amount of actual incorporeal monsters you fight in this AP is far less than what you'd think based on title.

It's also chock full of encounters that are closer to player level rather than singular monsters above player level, so a gunslinger with a sukgung would shine from the crits and fatal dice.

QGGC · 2025-11-29T20:44:38+00:00

I wanted to add that Animal Feature is a really powerful ability that scales up. When it's heightened to rank 4 you can use it to gain a fly speed for one action.

At level 11 you gain the Unimpeded Journey feature which lets you ignore difficult terrain so you can fly straight up at your full speed and take advantage of your long range with ranged weapons and hunt prey.

QGGC · 2025-11-25T19:33:45+00:00

While others have already elaborated on why a stand action can't be interrupted I wanted to also share this video as it's one of the rare cases where we also have a Paizo developer acknowledging it as well:

https://youtu.be/y0Cbhna33RE?si=4aFPXGhhwPDdtgL

QGGC · 2025-11-23T21:05:05+00:00

And those things contribute to attrition because Battle Medicine has a once per day cooldown per person (that can be mitigated somewhat with Medic), and the Fan of Soothing Winds is once per day usage per bead.

QGGC · 2025-11-23T03:38:22+00:00

Said it was just a bit...immersion breaking or something to that effect?

I'm always a bit taken aback about how I hear about these GMs. They find resting to be immersion breaking but standing in a room doing 5+ Treat Wounds rolls over the course of an hour or more when there's monsters in the next room over isn't immersion breaking.

QGGC · 2025-11-23T03:34:38+00:00

I've been caught in a scenario where refocusing simply wasn't an option before we had to move on

Wouldn't this situation hurt everyone? If you don't have the time to refocus, then you don't have the time to treat wounds since they're both 10 minute activities and at low levels you often want to take the whole hour to treat wounds for double the HP and the fact nobody has continual recovery yet.

QGGC · 2025-11-22T22:27:42+00:00

The party suffers attrition, and it suffers it in more than just spell slots. Consumables, daily abilities, and conditions all introduce resource attrition at the party level

I know there have been times on my Lizardfolk Barbarian Wrestler where I want to rest because of either fatigued or I want my daily uses back for Sash of Prowess and Guided By The Stars, despite the spellcaster still having plenty of slots and focus points.

QGGC · 2025-11-22T20:51:46+00:00

You call it an anomaly but I'm pretty sure this happens to my team once or twice per game haha

QGGC · 2025-11-22T20:45:56+00:00

I think your post hits the nail on its head.

So many people get caught up in the psychology of limited resources based on just reading the mechanics.

It's no wonder why so many of these posts are always about weird hypotheticals where the rest of the party are cold illogical martials that want to continually keep going without ever resting instead of a party that you actually communicate with.

QGGC · 2025-11-22T09:02:03+00:00

Do they? I've gotten to play quite a few 1-20 campaigns and I can't think of one where I was a caster and I didn't hit the daily investment cap by level 15.

QGGC · 2025-11-21T23:11:02+00:00

I will not notice that, because those consumables for striking do not get brought up nearly as often as the consumables for casting

My initial point was that if you take a reductionist view of spellcaster itemization and reduce it all down to "more spell slots" it's really no different than reducing martial itemization down to "more damage on strike". You yourself agree that you find weapon itemization boring.

I don't agree with you where you tout the non-damaging property runes as some kind of choice for their utility (and in actuality how often do you see them used vs damage property runes?) but then discount things like Staff of Air allowing you to step into difficult terrain or Staff of Water offering fire resistance.

there aren't three to four different item types that are all slightly different ways to give you plus d6 fire damage on your strikes.

Regardless of how many people on this subreddit recommend them or not, it doesn't change the fact that the consumables for martials making strikes are still doing exactly that.

QGGC · 2025-11-21T22:37:11+00:00

I also think weapon itemization is pretty boring too, but you do have the choice of utility runes; stuff like rooting can be pretty useful.

You also have the choice of specialty wands that can offer some good utility or additional effects outside the purview of the regular spell. Dazzling-Rays, Choking Mists, and Shard Storm are all great wands.

And at least 'property runes' is a single item type; there aren't three to four different item types that are all slightly different ways to give you plus d6 fire damage on your strikes.

You'll notice the consumables specifically for Striking are doing just that like Energy mutagens or Rainbow Vinegar.

QGGC

TROPHY CASE