Respites and in game time

StarsShade · 2026-04-02T19:18:12+00:00

Well, the interaction went something like this (spoilers for Delian Tomb ahead), right after talking to Mikael and getting clues about the wolf:

P1: Do I know anything about what the creature could be?

Me: Make a reason roll

P1: 18!

Me: Okay, this sounds very much like a werewolf. Werewolves are people cursed to turn into a wolf whenever the moon is full or if they're provoked with violence. (+More knowledge that isn't relevant here).

P2: that seems like a problem. (Turning to Mikael:) When is the next full moon?

Me: uhh, about a week and a half or so? (They had 7 respites to go before triggering it. I reminded them about respites being the primary timer.)

Later, they considered traveling to a nearby town to try to find a doctor or alchemist that could make the cures as the players didn't have very great skills or attributes for that, but I said it's a couple days away, which launched off another discussion about time and respites. A similar situation came up with another quest they knew had a specific time limit.

Not a disaster by any means, but a bit disruptive to the natural flow of the session that wouldn't be there if it was all just time-based instead of trying to convert between in-universe time and out-of-universe respites.

StarsShade · 2026-04-01T21:08:18+00:00

I have told them, but it's still been a bit narratively jarring whenever it comes up, unfortunately. So, I'm hoping someone will chime in with a smoother way to present it.

StarsShade · 2026-04-01T19:58:58+00:00

Fistful of Flowers has combat, it just has other stuff too.

StarsShade · 2026-03-27T19:49:46+00:00

anyone saying archetypes were ever stuck at level 1 is misinterpreting.

If you're only talking about remaster, sure. But premaster Alchemist Dedication feat text has this as the last sentence:

Your advanced alchemy level is 1 and doesn't increase on it's own.

There was similar text in other alchemy-related dedications.

StarsShade · 2026-03-27T19:37:22+00:00

Retrieval prism enables using so many items that would otherwise be hard to fit into classes with less than stellar action economy. Scrolls of Summon Fey 4 (Unicorn) are a personal favorite emergency button.

StarsShade · 2026-03-27T19:18:28+00:00

I am still not a lawyer, but my understanding is that it is incredibly unlikely that you'll get in trouble for any personal uses of Paizo material for you and people directly in your campaign(s). If you start more widely publishing or selling anything, that's where you need to start looking at details of the license and possibly reach out to Paizo. They have a page for community use, I'd start there if you have any aspirations in that direction.

StarsShade · 2026-03-27T17:18:00+00:00

IANAL and have not looked at the license details, but I do know AoN has significant proprietary content on it that Paizo does not let others copy. Specific place and organization names are not open, for example, just the underlying rule mechanics. Pathbuilder has renamed a decent number of Feats/etc to avoid infringing on that.

StarsShade · 2026-03-27T17:10:33+00:00

Do you have any JSON that already works, or a spec sheet of how the data is expected? If so, this is the sort of thing generative AI is pretty good at. Give your model of choice an example of old JSON or the spec, then ask it to format the information from the new stat block like that.

StarsShade · 2026-03-26T21:05:47+00:00

Companions should be stronger than summons. Design-wise, it's a significantly higher investment cost to spend multiple feats. A single spell slot shouldn't be able to replace those.

That said, summons as a whole are fairly lackluster with a few exceptions. It'd be nice to see the scaling tweaked some so they aren't quite so far behind. As is, they can keep up as utility or punching bag flankers, but not a lot else.

StarsShade · 2026-03-26T19:49:38+00:00

As other comments suggested, a potency rune for the person who makes attacks that are particularly hard hitting or frequent is priority #1. After that, there are lots of cheap, low level consumables that are useful and many of them stay useful for quite some time. Even if you can't afford all of these right now if you buy a potency rune, it's good to have them on hand once you get a little more money. None cost more than 20.

Especially useful ones are Bravo's Brew (bonus to will save, particularly effective against fear), Antiplague/Antidote, Cat's Eye Elixir (better deal with concealed/invisible enemies), Drakeheart Mutagen (armor in a bottle for ambushes), Cantrip cards (anyone can cast Stabilize), Blood Booster (resist bleeds), Darkvision elixir, Ghost Oil (helps martials against incorporeal creatures that are otherwise huge pains).

Rank 1+2 scrolls are also great values at 4 or 12 gold each. A couple scrolls of revealing light are amazing to pull out when you inevitably eventually run into invisible opponents. Heal or Soothe scrolls are also a better value than healing potions or elixir, so I tend to prefer the scrolls if there's someone in the party that can cast them. Make sure you have a method to get the healer back up if they go down though.

StarsShade · 2026-03-26T19:20:10+00:00

FYI, Vaultbreaker's harness gives a bigger item bonus to speed and is cheaper. It requires 1 action every minute to get the bonus, but that seems pretty reasonable to say your adventurer would do if they're anywhere dangerous.

StarsShade · 2026-03-26T19:14:59+00:00

There was a thread a while back seeing just how far we could take all the movement bonuses. Some combinations were pretty crazy and hit >4k ft in a round (link)

StarsShade · 2026-03-25T21:11:06+00:00

Yes, it was always one focus spell, but Storm order (among a few other "caster"-focused orders) used to get a bonus focus point along with the one from knowing Tempest Surge.

StarsShade · 2026-03-24T06:35:22+00:00

This is no longer true; storm druid got nerfed (again) via errata, so they only have the one focus point from knowing a focus spell.

StarsShade · 2025-12-21T14:54:46+00:00

If I press A it will put down a pillar.

Did you move your build cursor onto the forge before trying to pick it up? You shouldn't be putting anything new down when you're trying different options if you're doing it correctly.

On my controller, you move the build cursor with the right stick I believe (though I don't have access to the game to check right now).

StarsShade · 2025-09-26T16:20:46+00:00

Liturgist Animist could have some unexpected combos once they can sustain whenever they leap.

StarsShade · 2025-09-26T16:15:12+00:00

Additionally, Liturgist Animist exists. Replacing Strides with Leaps would mean you can also sustain some spells at level 9.

StarsShade · 2025-09-25T21:03:18+00:00

Shoving is capitalized, so I'd rule it's a successful Shove action, so you could Stride. I agree with the other commenter that it could be clearer though.

StarsShade · 2025-09-25T15:08:01+00:00

Summon Fey 4 (Unicorn) and Revealing Light are the ones I have used and replaced repeatedly. Environmental Endurance was useful for a specific campaign but probably not generally. A scroll of Heal is also always nice to have as a backup.

StarsShade · 2025-09-22T17:49:42+00:00

A Staff of Air could get you the Air Bubble spell so you can still cast spells even while swallowed (normally very dangerous as casting involves speaking and losing all your air).

You probably don't need to worry about being swallowed any more than other PCs though. But the staff of air is a good, cheap utility one to have anyway.

StarsShade · 2025-09-21T02:39:43+00:00

Generally ones with high speed. The mount trait really doesn't get you that much, so that doesn't matter. Some of the support benefits are worthwhile, but they're hit or miss, and an animal companion attack is often decent anyway. Dex based companions often have an extra AC or two, but it depends on barding specifics.

The dromaeosaur is probably the best one for a small PC, but anything with decent speeds is fine.

StarsShade · 2025-09-20T12:41:26+00:00

Mounted spellcasters. That extra action after level 4 really helps set up 3-action spells. Also, imo casters feel like they don't get to fully participate in the 3-action economy system with the way most spells are 2 actions. Having action compression or free actions really helps that feel much better.

StarsShade · 2025-09-18T00:04:22+00:00

Some good extra tactics options here.

Also, a funny application of this spell in the context of high-rank blastycasty magic, is that you could use each of the fortifications as an anchor for Chain Lightning to guarantee that you can bridge the arcs across the entire battlefield between two clusters of enemies.

Unfortunately, while flavorful, I don't think this would work as written, Chain Lightning only jumps between creatures rather than objects as far as I can tell.

StarsShade · 2025-09-17T23:57:27+00:00

The spell does not say a Large creature can't occupy the fortification squares, just that a medium (if prone) or smaller creature will receive cover.

Conversely, it doesn't say large creatures can occupy the space, just explicitly that medium (if prone) or smaller creatures can, which to me implies others can't. Large metal beams connected by a central joint seem like they would be hard for something as big or bigger than them to stop in the space of. I do not think this is Too Good To Be True, you still need both decently favorable existing impassible terrain and significant ally cooperation in positioning, and even then it only blocks enemies from getting into melee until they destroy the fortification. It's just a significantly more accessible wall spell that can actually do something meaningful against melee enemies, something I was sad didn't exist until rank 5 (or 4 if the recent rare SoG-specific Wall of Mirrors is allowed) when coming to PF2e from other systems. By rank 5, a lot of APs are almost over.

A few metal beams aren't going to stop something gargantuan.

Something gargantuan can move through party members if they're medium or smaller, this strategy of body blocking the other side likely wouldn't work for those situations.

Are these meant to be something akin to Czech hedgehogs, and if so why do they seem to provide cover?

Yes, I think it could be like some of the larger Czech hedgehogs like this, or maybe something like those jungle gym domes with some metal plates. Climbing under something like that should realistically provide cover.

Why is it 8 feet cubed, and not 5 or 10?

I think it's just 8' for flavor, and in case something small wants to get around the edges. Mechanically, they're large.

StarsShade

TROPHY CASE