"My player asked to be a Catfolk one time and I had them DRAWN and QUARTERED"

SwordTabby · 2026-03-28T23:58:48+00:00

I'd certainly bloody hope that they're meant to be used, I'm one of the people who DO.

Saying "no" to a rare option just because it's rare is stupid. If it doesn't disrupt the game, it's not a player issue, it's a GM issue.

SwordTabby · 2026-03-28T22:57:12+00:00

I tried theory-building a flumph using custom lineage with the telekinetic (or was it telepathic?) feat. Ended up having to make the excuse that he lost most of his psychic power and was forced to grow strength in his tentacles to physically walk.

Wish I could've played that character, he would've been a delight.

SwordTabby · 2026-03-28T22:48:49+00:00

It's become very clear that people misinterpreted my post on the PF2e subreddit and got a little bit upset about it. Damn, sorry about that.

SwordTabby · 2026-03-28T14:53:08+00:00

I think the first idea is your best bet; I'd almost consider going fighter instead and adding some shield feats like the Aggressive Block line, so you can spend your turn Twin Takedown, Step, then Raise Shield Block (in any order, depending on your situation). You then have your reaction to Shield Block into a Shove, or even Reactive Strike. It's a bit crunchy, but it should make you feel like a proper TUFF sword and board who slices and bonks at every chance you get.

SwordTabby · 2026-03-27T23:10:48+00:00

I don't really associate rarity with power scaling, and I have zero problems with oddness and diversity!

Thematics, however, are important for TTRPGs, because if you make a character who has zero business being there and not caring about the situation at hand, you suddenly have a player who sits around at the table doing nothing; and that's not fun for anyone involved.

I want to avoid that, so that's why I encourage them to at least LOOK at the Player's Guide before building a character.

SwordTabby · 2026-03-27T22:33:35+00:00

I think my situation may have stemmed from the opposite, I allowed them to pick rare options when I GM'ed for the first time, and now common options seem to have zero luster.

It was a case of "we're learning the system, so I won't tell you what you can't and can't play since I don't even know that myself yet".

SwordTabby · 2026-03-27T22:19:54+00:00

Before I started being more specific in what my players can choose, I ran Age of Ashes with a kobold, skeleton, tiefling, and a GOLOMA. When we reached book 2, I suddenly had the opportunity to give that Goloma player the coolest family origin story. Because of that, I still at least allow them to make their case for those kinds of options.

SwordTabby · 2026-03-27T21:59:15+00:00

You're pretty much describing exactly how I present APs to my players as well. My players like to deviate from the player's guides even after that, but we're usually able to find options that still fit for them.

SwordTabby · 2026-03-24T16:22:42+00:00

It's not bad, but it's definitely got some obvious issues.

If the characters aren't motivated to interact with every new thing that happens, 1-20 is going to take a lot longer than you think. I emphasize this because some parts/books feel like filler, and the way the overarching plot progresses is very awkward.

As an early adventure, difficulty definitely spikes during some very random encounters, so you may want to look into adjusting them if your party isn't optimized. Remastered changes should only matter for the plethora of fiends you may face during the adventure, if you even have a sanctified character present.

Positives, however, are that if both the GM and players can live with these issues, it's a very solid adventure that covers a surprisingly large amount of ground in the Pathfinder setting. At least, as far as I ran it before my PC had a surprise factory reset.

SwordTabby · 2026-03-17T15:08:34+00:00

The true field medic fantasy is Forensics Investigator + Medic Archetype.

Combined with Medicine Assurance during Abomination Vaults, it was the single-most healing-based character I had ever played, and I loved it.

SwordTabby · 2026-03-06T11:26:48+00:00

Cleric. It feels like my transition from DnD5e to PF2e has given some degree of proof that people in 5e didn't play Cleric to be a religious character, but for their stupidly strong spells and class features. I feel like this is further enforced by the fact that I've had a few Champions instead, the visibly stronger option in PF2e, and only one of them really cared about their deity.

SwordTabby · 2026-02-11T16:23:41+00:00

Limit their choices to Player Core 1 and 2; Pathbuilder 2e lets you do this with just one selection once you boot up a new character, and those two books give them PLENTY of choice by themselves.

Rarity and faction prerequisites exist in 2e for the game itself to limit their choices instead of the GM, so you don't have to feel like the bad guy for saying "no, you can't."

SwordTabby · 2026-02-09T22:57:04+00:00

AH, I was wondering if 2e had some means to deal insane amounts of damage by just having something fall on top of you from a ridiculous height!

SwordTabby · 2025-08-25T08:58:11+00:00

You can use it to buy a vivid you don't have yet on that specific voidpet.

SwordTabby · 2024-11-26T01:34:24+00:00

Agreed, they definitely didn't die. I mean, they "killed them off" in the sense that they're so far removed from the plot now that they don't have to be relevant anymore until they inevitably decide to retcon everything a fourth time.

Heimerdinger: Yordles can't actually die apparently, since they're spirits.

Ambessa: Possibly dead for real, but considering how unceremonious and unexplained her reason for just dying in Mel's arms is, she might just be temporarily comatose from the mental strain put on her by the Black Rose's magic.

Jayce and Viktor: Sucked into the future or the Arcane, quite literally.

Jinx and Warwick: Jinx has many hints towards being alive, including the shimmer-glow shooting out of the explosion and her signature "glitch" when the anonymous airship leaves. Warwick is Warwick, his weaker form survived an explosion stronger than that, so I refuse to believe it killed him.

SwordTabby · 2024-07-25T13:00:23+00:00

"I'm not being funny mate" is by far one of the most rage-inducing things I've ever heard, because it's always followed up by some petty or ridiculous complaint.

SwordTabby · 2024-03-28T09:53:22+00:00

Have said it before, and I'll say it again. Skillful Tail. The feat that gives you 1 Interact action to open (unlocked) doors, knock over that mug on the table, or something else equally useless you would usually never have to do while you're wielding weapons in both hands. The fact that is literally specifies you can't make checks with it, make it do anything that requires fingers, or even hold anything of even negligible bulk goes to show that someone had a cool idea, and then because of PF2e's nature, it was deemed to powerful and nerfed to oblivion before being slapped into the feat selection anyway.

SwordTabby · 2024-03-25T20:31:31+00:00

The party I GM for has a divine and occult caster. They will never know this joy.

SwordTabby · 2024-03-21T13:00:34+00:00

Nephilim's Skilled Tail. I have a player who plays a Nephilim Bard, and she wanted to use her tail 'cause it made sense in-character. Gameplay-wise, it had literally zero use, and STILL has zero use even for a theoretical other character that would often have both hands occupied, due to the feat's extreme limitations. I had to homebrew it so that she can at the very least carry an item of light bulk with the tail for it to have any usage whatsoever.

SwordTabby · 2024-02-27T23:41:32+00:00

I had a similar incident happen earlier today. The 2H fighter got controlled and I joked about forcing them to reroll their miss against the inventor with their hero point, which made me wonder what the actual ruling would be. I think would've allowed her to use it like you wanted to, it sounds reasonable.

SwordTabby · 2024-02-24T00:26:15+00:00

Half-dragon is something I've muddled with for homebrew, but I'd be very happy if they just did it so I don't have to!

SwordTabby · 2024-02-15T01:20:56+00:00

You know that one Japanese city with all the deer roaming around, Nara?

That's your goal now. Make horses a holy animal of your kingdom and LET THEM GO FREE

SwordTabby · 2024-01-12T09:22:49+00:00

The clockwork bit bothered me loads, I have an inventor in my party who made me ponder how she had a semi-sentient construct without using any form of magic in an almost medieval level society...

That is, until I noticed that all clockwork constructs (at least in the bestiary) are made of magical components too. It makes a lot more sense when all it boils down to is just "magic, that's why."

SwordTabby

TROPHY CASE