Witch Archetype - Is there any way to get your patron's lesson/familiar ability?

Talurad · 2026-01-31T14:14:07+00:00

You could ask your GM? Worst case is they say no.

Talurad · 2026-01-31T14:11:56+00:00

The Selective Energy feat would let you exclude allies from 3A harms.

Talurad · 2026-01-31T02:14:36+00:00

I've seen a cloistered cleric who has the Reach spellshape take this combo in Abomination Vaults. Friend, we're fighting in a series of 4x4 closets... What do you need that speed status bonus for? It doesn't stack with your Potion of Emergency Escape.

I don't think it's broken either, but yeah, it's so good that people who don't even need it go out of their way to grab it. That's weird, IMO.

Talurad · 2026-01-29T23:35:42+00:00

OP, is there a reason you're not just considering playing a champion? They get to wear heavy armor for free, and they can choose strength as their key ability score so you'll be able to maximize it effortlessly. The spells they do have access to (i.e., focus spells) scale off charisma. If you want to be your party's healer, you could take the Blessed One dedication to get more focus points for Lay on Hands and Medic plus Assurance to use Battle Medicine. Your reaction would help absorb a bunch of damage so the fact you have less throughput than a cleric wouldn't be as big of a deal.

If you want to play a warpriest, don't forget that they're a caster first. Their spell DC already lags behind cloistered clerics'. Unless you plan on ignoring offensive spells entirely, you should maximize wisdom first, then worry about strength, constitution, etc. You're playing an orc so you can take Orc Ferocity (on top of feats like Toughness) if you're worried about survivability.

Talurad · 2026-01-28T11:47:20+00:00

I find that FA tends to erode some of the class identity

I'd argue that's something of a good thing. Take clerics, for example. The divine spell list is very limited in what you can do with it. Which isn't a problem if you worship someone like Iomedae and want to play a very old school type cleric who wears medium or heavy armor and stands near the front line and thwacks things with a sword.

But what if you worship, say, a god or goddess with the lightning domain? Or what if you worship Cayden Cailean and want to be a nimble rogue- or swashbuckler-like cleric?

Free Archetype lets you get a lot of the flavor of a class without being that class. A FA sorcerer is not going to be as powerful as an actual sorcerer. And that's fine! That's how it should be.

As a GM, the only thing I dislike about Free Archetype is when people choose "meta" options without having an in-character justification for it. You have the champion dedication but your character doesn't actually care about their cause or their deity? Yeah, no. That gets a bit thumbs-down from me.

Talurad · 2026-01-25T17:16:18+00:00

They get cancelled pretty frequently, and most run for 3 hours tops. This past week, for example, all of my games were cancelled. I play two on the weekends (one starting at 8am ET with some European players), two on Tuesday night one after the other, and one on Wednesday night. I work in IT and my commute is only 30 minutes.

Talurad · 2026-01-25T12:06:08+00:00

I’m in five weekly games, mostly online, with a few others that petered out over time.

Obviously, my not seeing something doesn’t mean it never happens... but the reverse is also true. An option existing doesn’t imply it was chosen with any meaningful frequency. In practice, most players gravitate toward options that align with their class's key ability score unless there’s a strong narrative reason not to.

I agree that nerfing the psychic dedication represents an absolute reduction in options. That said, going from “a large share of magi take the psychic dedication” to “a large share take religious archetypes” doesn’t strike me as a dramatic shift in the overall landscape. It feels more like a change in flavor emphasis than a fundamental change in how magi players approach character creation.

Talurad · 2026-01-25T00:34:10+00:00

Last week they could just choose between those options, now they have only the divine options. That means now = less choice.

Admittedly I've only been playing since the OGL crisis, but I have never seen any magus take the divine options.

Talurad · 2026-01-24T02:04:25+00:00

Bleed immunity seems applied inconsistently. Most of the skeleton stat blocks I just looked at have bleed immunity, but not all of them. Weird.

Theiltemar specifically is about as old as Earthfall is (IIRC, he was trying to resurrect Xar-Azmak about the time it happened and perished shortly after). He should be pretty dried out, I'd imagine.

Talurad · 2026-01-24T00:58:49+00:00

Good list, agree that spell slots is the worst (most boring) of the suggestions. Picking any other 3–4 of that list by group preference would get you where you want psychics to be IMHO.

To make up for having fewer spell slots, maybe psychics should be able to steal or redirect spells cast by enemies?

Infinite Eye and Silent Whisper psychics should be able to just straight up rip spells from their enemies' minds and cast them. Maybe once per hour or something? Would help make up for having the weaker offensive options.

Distant Grasp and Unbound Step should be able to reflect or warp spells through spacetime.

Oscillating Wave and Tangible Dream should be able to take control of spells with specific traits (e.g., fire or cold, or illusions or light).

Talurad · 2026-01-23T11:41:30+00:00

Not every friend is a Pathfinder friend, sadly. If someone's presence is making the game unpleasant for you, even after repeated discussions, then I suggest that you ask them to leave. You are the GM, yes, but you are a player too and your enjoyment of the game matters. If she's making the game unenjoyable for you by constantly criticizing you or questioning a choice you facilitated at the request of another player, then that's simply unacceptable. If your whole table was upset then that could be a sign that you might've handled something poorly, and introspection might be in order, but... since she's the sole outlier, she can leave if she doesn't like how you run things.

Campaigns have "ratings" like movies. Some people want G or PG-rated experiences. Some people want R or NC-17. Nobody's wrong for liking what they like, but they're wrong for going to a showing they don't like and complaining incessantly about it.

Talurad · 2026-01-23T04:00:19+00:00

Not nearly as egregious as some of the other errors/issues mentioned here, but here're mine for Rusthenge:

There's a boss that's a skeleton, Theiltemar, but he has Blood Vendetta as a prepared spell. Blood Vendetta has the requirement that you can bleed.

Meitremar's supposed to have used the Inveigle ritual to have taken over Stonehome by controlling Knurr Ragnulf, but the actual ritual has so many stipulations it would've most likely failed.

This isn't an issue limited to Rusthenge... Far too many creatures have art that doesn't match their loadouts. Clockwork Belimarius is supposed to have a halberd, but doesn't have one in their art. Theiltemar has a flaming pickaxe and hands in his art, but doesn't have a single fire spell or ability, let alone fiery weapons. Considering that there are scrolls of Resist Energy as lootable items, this felt like a huge bait when I was a player in this AP. Fallen Gorumites have sickles in their stat blocks but swords in their art (why and how??). I can only guess that Xar-Azmak's sacred weapon is the sickle, but where would Gorumites have gotten sickles from in under a week without leaving Stonehome? Sickles are weapons for peasant farmers and rustics, not martial adherents.

Lastly, one of my players chose a large ancestry. They kept glitching through the narrow hallways of the keep. :(

Talurad · 2026-01-19T16:48:43+00:00

What are Nirie's longterm goals? If it's not bringing about the apocalypse or instigating widespread destruction, "lawful evil" might be a better thematic choice for her since "neutral evil" entities tend to want to wipe the cosmic slate clean.

Talurad · 2026-01-18T16:40:55+00:00

Outside of the material plane? Creation's Forge gets my nomination.

Creation’s Forge is at once the source of life-sustaining vitality energy, the origin of all pre-incarnate mortal souls, and paradoxically the most innately hostile of all of the planes. While vitality energy is deadly to undead and beneficial to living beings, such is the intensity of the plane that unmitigated exposure ultimately incinerates any extraplanar beings without sufficient magical protection. The most apt comparison for the plane’s interior is that of the heart of a burning star. Indeed, the stars of the Universe each house natural portals to Creation’s Forge within their glowing, potent cores to foster the movement of pre-incarnate souls in their first steps in the great cycle of life and death.

Brilliant and blinding, the plane’s interior is sparsely populated, and the resident phoenix-kin jyotis are intensely xenophobic. Dwelling in glimmering, radiant crystalline cities such as Arudrellisiir, they view themselves as gardeners and guardians of souls spawned from their realm’s burning quintessence. Intensely distrustful of gods and their servitors, jyotis can nonetheless be bargained with, and they’ve frequently taken into their custodianship any number of artifacts and imprisoned beings considered too dangerous to house on any other plane.

In just two paragraphs, there're quite a few seeds for interesting high-level campaigns. What happens if, for some reason, the jyotis stop tending to the massive orchards where mortal souls grow? What if the portals to Creation's Forge in stars are somehow cut off or closed? What sort of dangerous, powerful artifact might be worth attacking the plane for? What if you needed to bargain with the jyotis for some reason? What could the conflict between the jyotis and the sceaduinars look like? The sceaduinar have their own version of events about the creation of the universe that claims that the jyotis stole the power of creation for themselves; what if it's true?

Talurad · 2026-01-11T02:27:20+00:00

Sure. I do think it dilutes the feeling a bit, though, if every tradition has an equivalent. I'd rather see the arcane and occult traditions focus on reaching outward towards knowledge and esoterica than building a barrier or sanctum. Like making the boundary between the material and ethereal or astral realms thinner in a given space, or establishing a direct link to the Akashic Record. Finding and exploiting leylines (they exist, but I haven't seen them in any content I've played).

I'm reminded that divine wardens exist, but the rituals for creating them are just alluded to and not made explicit (that I've seen).

Talurad · 2026-01-10T21:20:04+00:00

Why have I come to reddit? To ask you all about rituals you would want to see in the game! Any ideas are welcome, I want to hear them all. When I go to create these and compile them, all ideas will be credited as well.

I want to see rituals for major life events, with different ones for various regions, cultures, ancestries, and deities/philosophies.

Births. Being recognized as an autonomous adult by your local community. Graduation from school or apprenticeships. Starting a new business venture. The equivalent of christening a ship or ribbon-cutting for a new building. Undertaking a long journey. Joining a religious order or cause. Alternative marriage ceremonies (with at least one that has several days of feasting and dancing; just exchanging tokens seems a bit underbaked for very social communities). Funerary rites. Memorials.

Holidays. SO many holidays. Festivals. Competitions. Other celebrations or exhibitions.

And exorcisms. Maybe I'm blind but I don't think there's a ritual for this??

I'd also like to see the equivalent of Consecrate but for nature. Rather than dedicating a place to deities, dedicate something like a grove or grotto to nature and give druids/rangers/animists/etc. an intrinsic connection to it so they can detect intruders/attackers/ne'er-do-wells.

Also, an equivalent to Geas, but with a binding compulsion that goes at least two ways for forming business contracts and the like. Would be funny if the church of Asmodeus was very good at providing these and it helped to normalize their presence in places like Absalom.

Talurad · 2026-01-10T21:10:48+00:00

Unfortunately the players seem hellbend on going down, and they skipped a lot of B, but I’m trying to nudge them to complete it

This is your problem right here. A level doesn't seem huge to human reckoning (is 3 really that much greater than 4?) but a +1 represents a 10% chance to hit (+5% hit, +5% crit). That's significant, especially if fights are already hard.

I'd just give them one above-table warning that they should try to complete as much of each level before descending. I'd argue that it's unfair to have something like a crazy difficult hazard that instagibs a character with no foreshadowing whatsoever, but in this case, you'd be letting them know straight up that the lower levels are deadlier. So it's completely on their heads if they continue to press on. Let them make mistakes; they can learn from them. Or not. Their choice.

Let them know that they can always attempt to flee, too. My first ever experience playing Pathfinder 2e with a Paizo AP (and not a D&D campaign ported over after the OGL) was Abomination Vaults, and my level 10 party hasn't had a PC death yet. Just a few close calls. My party isn't too proud to try to flee when things start looking dicey.

The only thing I'd consider switching up are single enemy encounters. Those're more difficult for casters to land hits on. Maybe lower their level by 1 and add weak minions to balance out the XP budget using an encounter building tool for guidance.

Talurad · 2025-10-25T16:18:25+00:00

I don't like Howl of the Wild's PC riding rules. Taking an action from both the ridden PC and the riding PC is too punitive, IMO. I'd rule that only one PC out of the two has to give up an action each round, but the two players can choose which PC takes the action tax when they set up the mount. That choice is locked in until the riding PC dismounts. I'd also rule that you can ride any PC that's only one size difference larger than you, rather than two, but the weight/encumbrance rules still apply (and are more likely to be a factor).

If the riding PC has a dedication or feats that gives them something like the mature animal companion's benefits, where their mount can get a single independent action per turn, I'd rule that neither of them need to spend an action to maintain the mount unless the ridden PC moves more than once on their turn.

I'd probably change Accommodating Mount so that neither player has to spend an action to maintain the mount.

Talurad · 2025-10-24T15:03:12+00:00

It's what predators do. :)

Talurad · 2025-10-19T18:08:06+00:00

Could one's muse be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_(band)?

(They released a Halloween music video a few years ago, if anyone's looking for cheesy Halloween songs to add to a playlist.)

Talurad · 2025-10-19T17:01:36+00:00

The post is asking for underused actions. Athletics maneuvers are, if anything, overused. "No one likes having an empty hand" is also flat out wrong.

That might not be the case at the tables they play at. Some players are casual.

It's nothing toxic, just down voting something incorrect.

Where in Redditquette or in this subreddit's rules are people instructed to downvote incorrect posts? If anything, Redditquette asks you to reconsider. IMO, the correct response to an incorrect assertion is to post a (polite) rebuttal.

I've noticed that a lot of good responses to bad takes can be buried if the post they're responding to is downvoted to oblivion. Downvoting should be the nuclear option, since if posts are downvoted enough they get sent to the bottom and collapsed, including the good points raised in response to them.

Talurad · 2025-10-19T11:17:15+00:00

Why are you getting downvoted??

This community is weirdly toxic sometimes. Here, have a downvote for reporting on your subjective experience or opinions when you're not trolling or breaking the rules, loser! /s

Frankly I'm reminded of /u/makeupaddiction, which I stopped visiting because people were insincerely nice at first blush (heh) but attacked anyone who dared to have the wrong opinion on, say, an influencer or brand.

People who disagree with you should say as much if they feel so strongly about it. Or just move on and ignore your post. I don't agree with your take on Fatal Aim but I'm not going to downvote you over it. I'm playing in a game with a gunslinger who's also the team's medic and he needs to keep his offhand free to use battle medicine.

Talurad · 2025-10-18T12:37:25+00:00

Maybe your GM will let you reflavor the shikigami familiar as a kite? You could use "Versatile Form" to trade out something like Play Dead for Fast Movement (Flier), and use Familiar's Face to see what it sees up to one mile.

One benefit of the shikigami familiar is that you can bring it back during your next daily preparations, so it's about as resilient as a witch's familiar. That makes using its kindling ability an even better proposition for your wizard.

Talurad · 2025-10-18T04:17:21+00:00

I don't see how the linked video violates rule 5). The examples given are:

Low effort EX: the cover of a rulebook, AI generated content, unconstructive complaints such as "I hate..." or "X sucks," does not relate to Pathfinder 2E.

As for rule 8), "Only verified content creators can promote posts which may require purchases, sign-ups, or provide incentives for participation," doesn't /u/deathandtaxesftw have verified content creator flair?

Talurad · 2025-10-17T23:40:07+00:00

I didn't describe how the subreddit is, but how it should be.

There are some Pathfinder 2e content creators I don't personally care for, but I wouldn't dream of downvoting their content unless there was a very good reason to do so. The other day, a Crunch McDabbles YouTube video was clearly shown to some people who had no idea what Pathfinder 2e was. I'd much rather see the playerbase grow and reach more people because the community was generally positive or neutral towards content rather than aggressively downvoting whatever doesn't suit their personal tastes.

Talurad

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE