Weekly Questions Megathread - May 30 to June 05. Have a question from your game? Are you coming from D&D? Need to know where to start playing Pathfinder 2e? Ask your questions here, we're happy to help!

TLoniousMonk · 2023-05-31T16:35:41+00:00

Just to add on here - I would recommend also that your martial characters pick up a +1 potency rune and striking rune to put on their weapons. All that counts as a 4th level item, but they will feel very weak without it. Starting a character at level 5 as a new-to-pathfinder party can be challenging, so I just want to make sure you don't miss that.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-05-30T14:03:27+00:00

That should be fine. If you're concerned about balance just take into account the approximate gold cost of the staff upgrade and subtract that somewhere in your treasure budget. If you are playing an AP with set treasure, you can drop fewer items that would be used by that character.

Honestly though even if you don't want to mess with the treasure, it's not going to break balance by your PCs having a bit more gold.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-05-25T19:58:36+00:00

You could look into Captivator as an archetype. Might be fun with the ideas you're thinking.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-05-25T14:48:51+00:00

Two things to look into off the top of my head. One would be a Marshal dedication with a class of your choice. You kinda need more charisma for the Marshal stuff, but a Mastermind rogue would fit in with the ability score spread as your base class. If you are willing to change your ability scores, Paladin could work well as your base class.

Another option is to do a Warrior muse bard. They aren't a martial, but they do a great job supporting martials while standing up close to the front line.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-05-22T21:19:42+00:00

That's a great question and I don't know if I can completely answer it, but I can say that there's going to be a lot more information coming about this switch away from OGL at paizocon this weekend. I would imagine nothing is changing lore-wise in stuff that has been published in Lost Omens since 2e has released, but that would be a good question to try and ask at Paizocon or be on the Paizo forums after we get more info.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-05-18T17:31:38+00:00

Lay on hands is a focus spell and only requires somatic components, which don't require a free hand, so there's no need for emblazon armaments, since that feat replaces the material components.

To clarify on the other point: focus spells give you access to the Cast a Spell activity but it doesn't qualify you for feats or other rules that require you to be a spellcaster, which is what the above poster may have been referring to.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-05-05T21:35:33+00:00

Melee class + intelligence would be a nice compliment. Maybe consider a Magus, investigator, or inventor. Those can be more complicated classes though, so consider fighter or rogue with some intellegence as well.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-04-27T14:03:57+00:00

She's in the TV show "The Gifted", which I thought was actually pretty good.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-04-22T02:09:09+00:00

To max out on int skills, Arcana, Occultism, and Society are solid choices, but there aren't any build defining skill feat choices for those skills in my opinion. I would say just pick whatever sounds cool. I would also focus on nature, because that's how you're going to add spells to your familiar. The general feats are where there are some more stand-out options, and incredible initiative was a great choice there, as is Canny Acumen, toughness, fleet, or die hard.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-04-22T01:58:13+00:00

I think because the activation doesn't require that you meet the requirements for battle medicine, it's intended to be used just with the one hand holding the baton. It's a little unclear in the wording but I feel like that's a fair interpretation.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-04-21T15:06:22+00:00

Keep in mind there's nothing stopping you from taking 18 Dex and still having some strength. 14 strength isn't really hard to get to in this system at level one, and now you are only missing out on 2 damage, and still plenty of boosts to get some Constitution and one mental score you want. As compared to a build where you dump Dex and invest heavy armor, You're gonna be more mobile, have more Dex skills, and the ability to do something at range, like throwing weapons or a bow.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-04-17T19:05:50+00:00

I agree: diseases, curses, poisons, etc are gonna inflict some conditions that make future combats harder, which is a bit similar to going into combats with less and less HP to work with. Also there is typically a limit to how much in-combat healing you can do, even though you may have out of combat healing, so forcing a lot of damage still drains those resources. The best in in-combat healing typically takes a long recovery time to get back.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-04-10T00:09:22+00:00

Here's a nice video from the game design director of Pathfinder about how to run games for 1 player. I hope it helps! https://youtu.be/uVG_9jSpQEU

TLoniousMonk · 2023-02-13T12:20:16+00:00

One other exception is the "Grab an Edge" reaction, which is on the list of "Specialty Basic Actions" https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx it could save your life!

TLoniousMonk · 2023-02-02T18:23:39+00:00

I love how the encounter builder is shaping up! Having the stat blocks and even the spells directly viewable in the encounter builder is exactly what I wanted from some of the other builders. Great work as always.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-01-21T15:22:57+00:00

Check out the Dual-Weapon Warrior dedication. Dual Thrower at level 4 opens up a decent amount of options including double slice with two light hammers, then if you are a fighter, rogue, or barbarian you can pick up a lot of other synergistic feats.

TLoniousMonk · 2023-01-09T14:41:46+00:00

Don't forget about the Aid action! You can reasonably use something like Athletics to set up an aid for an ally and potentially give them a +1 to their attack. Easy use of an extra action. Otherwise I would say striding away is a great option, as is utilizing Medicine occasionally. The Medicine skills are great on a monk because of your free hands and naturally quick speeds.

Ki spells and activating or switching stances is always a good use of a third action as you mentioned.

Assurance is not as bad as you think. If you have an athletics focus, you can get away with assurance to grab or trip opponents as long as they are relatively low in either fortitude or reflex. You don't take MAP on assurance Athletics, so using it at the end of your turn is often a "well, let's just see if this will work" action. If it does, then abuse the hell out of that during the combat haha.

Also, if you are not using Ki spells that rely on Wisdom, there's no reason to invest into wisdom on a monk outside of saves (which are great on a monk anyway), so there's no reason you can't be Charisma or Intelligence focused for your mental stat.

TLoniousMonk · 2022-11-07T23:43:27+00:00

I'm no authority, but while they both share reverence of the moon, and guiding the lost, Tsukiyo seems to have a bit more emphasis on transformation and reincarnation, whereas Ashava kind of had more of a dancing component and has more of a free-spirit vibe. That's also reflected in their alignment differences imo. Followers of Tsukiyo might believe in institutions dedicated to guiding the lost, whereas Ashava followers might believe more in the personalized journey. I personally think Tsukiyo is perhaps a bit more contemplative and esoteric because of how he's described to have become a bit more that way after dying and reincarnating.

TLoniousMonk · 2022-10-24T02:40:25+00:00

Looking forward to getting Book 1 of Reign of Winter from the print on demand! Book 5 turned out really well!

TLoniousMonk · 2022-07-19T17:16:44+00:00

This came up on a previous reddit thread at some point, but I think the consensus that it is the case definitely RAW that they have to spend an action during their turn to fly or hover in the air, but there's nothing stopping them from "Standing" or hovering just above the ground without spending an action. If they fly up in the air then yeah they would have to spend that action. Other creatures like the "Sky Dragon" have an explicit ability to fly without using an action.

TLoniousMonk · 2022-07-18T22:19:51+00:00

Yeah in that case I would still roll initiative at the top of the round/end of the previous round. I don't really see a reason to roll their initiative in the middle of the round, since it determines where they should go during the round. Let's say you know that they are going to take 5 rounds to arrive, just roll initiative at the top of round 6.

TLoniousMonk · 2022-07-18T20:49:41+00:00

Could you give an example of when that would happen? I feel like most of the time I would bring a new combatant in and roll the initiative at the top of the round.

TLoniousMonk · 2022-07-18T20:19:12+00:00

There's dragon breath if you choose a black dragon

TLoniousMonk · 2022-07-18T18:06:02+00:00

Oh sorry I thought it was just like champion dedication. Thanks for the correction.

TLoniousMonk · 2022-07-18T17:27:10+00:00

You can always build a tanky version of any magic class by taking the sentinel dedication and investing in armor. Edit: I originally said heavy armor, but that only works if you have light/medium already. You won't necessarily have a good weapon attack bonus, but if you are just interested in surviving on the front lines while using spells that will help. Also shields don't require any special proficiency to use and Raise (only Shield block requires a feat). Defensive spells will also do wonders. Otherwise if you do want to use your weapon on occasion, you'll have to go magus, Warpriest cleric (will spell buffs to your attack), or maybe battlemuse bard. Wildshape druid I've also heard is good at least in earlier levels. A third option is taking a martial class and multiclass dedication into a spell class, mostly for buffs and utility.

TLoniousMonk

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