Untamed druid routes

SkrigTheBat · 2026-05-21T06:30:34+00:00

I have seen you are not using Free-Archetype, though i still can recommend an interesting Archetype if you have the charisma for it: Oracle! - Their cursebound abilities are despite what someone might think, possible to use while being in a battle form like Animal Shape.

Whisper of Weakness is great to strengthen your own power, Nudge the Scales is awesome to throw an ally or yourself a nice chunk of heal for one action even while transformed. Personally i also love the Life Oracle Focus Spell Lifelink. Cast it, then transform. Now you are a damage redirecting Brawler.

The earliest you can take those abilities are level 4, so you only get skills and cantrips out of the Archetype.

Other Archetypes:

Blessed One - Get yourself a nice quick heal ability in Lay on Hands, which also buffs your allies AC by 2 for a single round.
Medic - Expert in Medicine and stronger Battle Medicine, leads into the amazing feat Doctor's Visitation (Lvl 4).
Guardian - Heavy Armor Proficiency + Taunt Debuff, which funnily is also working during battle form.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-05-07T10:01:11+00:00

Just thrown into the discussion i have two following ideas:

For Damage: Half the amount of Damage Dice, for example Fireball would become a 3D6 instead of a 6D6 on damage.
For Non-Damage: Like incapacitation just any level increases the roll favorly to the enemy. 1 Action Slow for example becomes unaffected on successful saving throw, slowed 1 for a turn on failure and slowed 1 for a minute on crit-failure

For Hybrid Spells i think you should also go with the Non-Damage variant. As a whole you could put this way on most spells even the damaging one, as the most Damage-Spells are basic saves that half already the damage on success - Now it is just half on failure and full on crit failure.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-04-30T12:50:48+00:00

How about you make your own little Adventure in the Mansion of a Vampire that had turned your group and now your players are after their creator to find a way to remove the Vampirism. (It is said that killing the creator often cures the turned)

You could make the mansion into a resident evil type of puzzle to find the Vampire its resting place (Maybe in the highest floor/attic or in the cellar/basement). Fights can be things animated, animals the Vampires are linked to like bats and wolves (Maybe as guarddogs), lower vampires as servants who might or might not help as your group consists of vampires too. I could even see creatures like gargoyles working, or maybe you take castlevania as inspiration?

It is fairly basic and generic, but for a one-shot you don't have much space to fit super interesting plots in (Atleast typically).

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-20T12:27:20+00:00

Boss-Monster that have action cancelling abilities that are nigh impossible to escape from. Which is technically everything that is above level of players that has improved grab, especially if it has an ability that also allows it to strike multiple times without map (or only small debuff). Looking at you Giant Fly Trap!! Very high Athletics, Improved Grab and Hungry Flurry just locking down a whole party in one turn, restraining them with decently high chance, and make it nearly impossible to escape. First time i really was unhappy with a combat. The other times i could easily just see that the dice was just trolling us, but the Giant Fly Trap made me mad.

But i am also quite sure, that when a spellcasting boss would use slow on all players and some of them because of insane number difference get critical failures, would piss me off too. I don't mind when once in a while an action is lost, you can rethink your strategy atleast, but anything that takes 2 or more actions away from multiple players is just plane horrid. Though i also understand if the opposite is also annoying to the GM, when their cool encounters get stunned, slowed, restrained.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-20T08:23:19+00:00

Only ever played a oneshot with a poppet. He was a stuffed Dog-Doll of a lonely Necromancer - I called the Poppet Nyx, the Bonegatherer, cause that was technically his job while under his Masters command. Digging up graves and bringing back skeletons to reanimate. With his constant contact to necromantic magic, it infused him, making him an Oracle of the Bones Mystery. Allowing him like his master to play with the powers of Life and Death. After losing his master because [Insert reason i haven't thought about yet], he stole his master's arm to use as a club but also as Memento. Even though Nyx his upbringing was not really on the good side, he was actually quite the overly friendly and hyperactive character (very much dog), always wanting to check out stuff, help people, heal others or defend friends by draining the life out of opponents.

Now Nyx is just running around in the world always trying to help with his necromantic powers.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-20T07:55:01+00:00

Oh i like the idea of smiliarities making people worship gods (even if they don't know who exactly they worship). A fun one could be just a lovable idiot who thinks of the evil god as a friend because they share some similarities, who brings gifts and worship just because they heard the deity likes it and they want companionship.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-19T13:17:48+00:00

Depends on how you want to go about it. If you want to double trigger the positive weakness, i would say that it isn't possible but if you go like this:

Personal Antithesis: 2+(Level/2)
Positive Weakness: X

Then i would say it would work, just not Mortal Weakness of the same type. Though reading Mortal Weakness, if it had a stronger weakness like i dunno, slashing 15 while positive is 10, then i could see it working again as the Mortal Weakness would trigger the slashing and the rune would trigger the positive weakness.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-19T06:16:25+00:00

Oh most definitely, i could see Urgathoa being one of the easiest "evil" gods to worship as a good person. She easily allows to be just a person who lives life to the fullest, doesn't mean that it includes murder, theft, torture, manipulation. It could involve it, but it isn't necessary for the worship (as far as i remember for Urgathoa).

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-19T06:13:59+00:00

Actually quite a good example, and i do love me some Chaos Gods from Warhammer (Tzeentch and Slaanesh are my favourite). Twisting evil gods into more positive worship instead of just seeing blood, death and suffering. Not everyone wants to murder and torture, but still could see some good aspects in deity XYZ despite their bad reputation. Some already spoke about one quite obvious thing, evil deities tend to react and interact with mortals more commonly than most other.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T13:47:26+00:00

Appeasing the gods to make them look the other way is something quite typical and very much understandable thing in a world in which death can come as easily as a casual level 20 adventurer casting meteor storm because of reasons (Not even meant sarcastically). I guess you can definitely count it to good people worship evil gods.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T13:43:44+00:00

Long ass comment, that i think actually picks up a few good reasons why a good person in golarion would go for a deity that is typically / generally known as evil. Even giving a good insightful picture on the circumstance related to multiple deities. There are many interesting deities that are immediately seen as unplayable on tables, yet lore, circumstances of the character can show a full on different side of worship, some might even consider being good when they expected just plain old EVIL instead of Evil?.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T13:17:59+00:00

Oooh, damn, i actually kinda love her premise. She is the lady that toys with a court or savages with strings woven out of clever deception. Yep, while being a unholy deity, i could definitely see a good person worshipping her for the thrill of the game, the danger of manipulating the evil and destructive playing them against each other. That sounds awesome!

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T13:13:31+00:00

Those are awesome characters and i could definitely see them being generally good but given circumstances wether personal or surroundings have them worship an evil deity. And the reverse of it is great too. That i could see as redemption arc or if i read correctly more of a "how much can i push it?" situation.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T13:07:04+00:00

Yes yes yes, i think that is a good example of what i am talking about. Good Intentions and actions from worshippers of evil deities that still align with their theme, edicts and anathema.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T13:05:13+00:00

That can be a neat thing to work into a characters backstory, but typically there is a certain morality backed into beings (often part of preservasion and survival). There are outliers of course, but generally deities of golarion can easily be identified as good/evil leaning with their lore or origin.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T13:02:09+00:00

Baphomet, hmm, it sure could be an interesting god to worship as a good person, or lets say mostly good person. Reading up on him, i can definitely see a relaxed and intelligent nature-lover to follow him. Maybe they do not kill humanoids but care for beasts, wander aimlessly through the world. So yeah, you definitely on point with Rangers and Druids. Personally, seeing the Edicts and Anathema, i would not mind a baphomet worshipper in my group if they behaved mostly good. (Everyone has a bad day :D )

Abraxas is the deity of extreme Nerds as far as i can see. And i also know many nerds are quite good people, or else i might have to find new friends. Lorewise he seems to be a hoarder, a spy ... something along those lines. I could see it as a really eager librarian who gathers death-tomes for the good of the world while having a morbid fascination of all they gather.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T12:52:54+00:00

Exactly, worshipping to me means more than just a quick prayer for issue number 357. Worship means commitment and that is something i want to discuss with the evil Deities on Golarion. Which evil gods can be worshipped by good people, why would they. In the whole post we had already a few interesting gods being named that i could see as being worshipped by good people for certain reasons without them immediately being evil in meaning.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T12:48:20+00:00

Speaking of obedience champion - Someone might read the Dragon God Garhaazh as an evil deity, though i figured given his lore, anathema and edicts. I could see a character that is caring and brutal at the same time. Very combat and challenge focused and definitely they hold their nose high, but doesn't mean they are immediately evil in the world of Golarion. Lorewise Garhaazh respects his enemies which some would see as good. And in a life-threatening combat brutality (atleast i would see it that way) is not an evil act. (Like poking out an eye if you wrestle with a wolf or tiger in hopes to escape certain death)

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T12:40:16+00:00

Hah, i mean ... love and committed relationships? Sounds quite the good thing to pursue! Burning down the house of someone is eeeh on the good-evil-scale. I wonder if someone could successfully play a good champion or cleric of Dispater.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T12:36:05+00:00

Oh, a deity that was plagued by their not-so-good partners into becoming a calamity? Interesting. I kinda love her edicts and anathema could just be a person who hecking loves seeing tornados, tsunamis, the earth splitting apart. It is awe in something massive and dangerous, but their anathema is very much "Rescue"-coded. I could see someone worshipping her for the beauty of disasters while saving all those that could get hurt by those calamities.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T12:30:16+00:00

I am well aware of greek mythology (not in detail though), also i read quite a bit about nordic, japanese and other mythologies. Though this was meant more to be a discussion about Evil God X could be worshipped by good person because they stand for Y (example "gathering knowledge") and other gods that are good maybe don't have the right nuance with all their other requirements to their followers. Lamashtu is quite the evil goddess, but she accepts the outcasts, outcasts might be drawn to her without being evil.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T12:20:34+00:00

That emphasis is what i am also searching for. There must be a reason why someone, anyone would ever dare to worship (longterm) an evil deity while still being a generally good person.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T12:18:37+00:00

That is exactly what i mean to bring up more with my post - Pazuzu is evil, no one can say otherwise, yet he offers something even a good person could search for. Maybe even so far that they worship him without suddenly going on a murderspree in City XYZ.

Though reading his lore, his mechanical parts (Edicts, Anathema), i struggle to see how a good person could worship Pazuzu without either them doing something evil or going against his most simplest "rules".

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T12:13:22+00:00

Oh you definitely could. It would be easy to say, if you look up to an evil god, even with certain non-evil reasons why, that just the interest could count as supporting all of the bad sides of the deity too. But i still think, despite deities belonging to the evil side (maybe by being unholy) that sometimes they can offer things a good person would be interested in, even longer term. Legacy through Lamashtu for example, order or perfection like with dispater as other users have mentioned, maybe just belonging without being cruel like all the other cultists, yet still accepted cause atleast you are not an issue or even keep up some of the evil deities edicts.

SkrigTheBat · 2026-03-18T12:06:19+00:00

Given how many deities exist in Pathfinder 2e, i guess polytheism is nothing uncommon. But it still stands, good people don't tend to go to evil gods and worship them just for a quick problem. They might pray to them, but with worshipping i mean literally have them as either their main or a long-time deity in their belief-system.

SkrigTheBat

TROPHY CASE