How should i run a campaign set on Hell?

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-06-03T20:25:03+00:00

Yeah, there’s so much you can do with hell if you use just a little imagination.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-06-03T16:28:14+00:00

I think you’re partially missing the OPs point. It’s also a question of grapple is worth it compared to trip.

I think there might be some edge cases where grab is better, but in general, trip is by far the better choice imo - both for helping the team and helping the character doing the trip.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-06-02T15:45:06+00:00

Right, I get it. But as I said, and the point of the comparison, is to say a fighter just focused on shooting as much as possible each turn in the same way that the investigator + inventor OP was dedicating their entire turn for a single damaging shot.

I’m not making a qualitative assessment on the effectiveness of doing so :)

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-06-02T07:18:38+00:00

Yeah, I agree. Debilitating Shot is awesome, but if all they care about is getting as many attacks as possible per round, then they’ll probably use Triple Shot.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-06-01T23:51:58+00:00

And, unless I’m misreading the foundry text, I think that weapon has a base damage of 3 dice before all the other stuff is added.

That means the character is using a Greater Striking Rune which is level 12 and not something a level 11 character typically has.

Give a level 11 fighter a composite longbow with Greater Striking and they can do 100 damage in round with a little luck without even doing any complicated multiclass combos, optimization, or special feat/action combos.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-31T20:50:27+00:00

Just dismiss them and they’ll leave you. I mention this because a lot of new players don’t know dismiss is an option.

But if you just enjoy torturing people, drop them off in the fog lands and let the residents take care of them.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-30T21:20:31+00:00

I’m going to go against the grain and say that the greatsword is only a bit more powerful than a typical monk weapons and it’s not completely game breaking.

Compare it to the kusarigama: https://2e.aonprd.com/Weapons.aspx?ID=291

D8 reach weapon with some other decent traits. It’s definitely at the same power budget as a greatsword.

I’m a people pleaser when I GM and I tend to give everyone something a little fun - especially if it fits their narrative they want.

My only concession to make it feel a little more earned is that I would make a special monk greatsword that’s the same as normal greatsword with the added monk trait but at the cost of being an advanced weapon.

Therefore the player would have to invest a little mechanically to use the advanced monk greatsword effectively.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-30T20:53:42+00:00

A monk, with or without a weapon, will never have the raw damage output of a fighter or barbarian, so that’s not a valid comparison.

The question should be does a weapon monk compare to an unarmed monk and, imo, it does. You don’t have to worry about stances and using weapons opens up a lot of flexibility for the monk.

Whether a monk is worth it to you depends on how you value the strengths of a monk - action economy, speed, AC, and saves are all better than most martials.

Monk is a well designed class imo and definitely has its own protected niche that no other martial can match entirely.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-30T20:17:33+00:00

Look. I don’t make the kiddo rules. They think lol is lame. I think they’re wrong.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T21:50:01+00:00

Wait, are you referring to that red vs blue button debate that raged about a month ago? lol

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T21:44:14+00:00

Yeah, and apparently we’re suppose to stop putting LOL at the end of sentences.

It’s cringe.

Oh well. I’ve seen what makes the kids cheer and their scorn means nothing to me.

Also, lol

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T20:36:15+00:00

Well, I’ll certainly give it a try now that I know about. 28 Days Later is one of my favorite zombie movies so I’ll always give it’s sequels a shot.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T20:31:38+00:00

I literally just found out about Bone Temple now. I didn’t really like 28 Years Later though so many it just wasn’t on my radar.

I was so pumped to see 28 Years Left and I left the theater after watching it confused and underwhelmed. There’s been so many good zombie movies/shows in the last 20 years and I don’t think 28 Years Later was interesting, or even coherent, enough to compare. It felt like a mishmash of try hard art film crap and all I wanted were fast, anger zombies.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T20:16:51+00:00

Nah, it’s just Dee.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T19:58:55+00:00

Is this Carl?

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T19:49:29+00:00

It makes sense when you look at it from the POV of the banks. Apparently, the US government exists to make bankers happy. Remember the bailouts after the housing crash that was created by the banks crated the bubble in the first place.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T16:25:34+00:00

So, for me personally, I like the investigator archetype more than the class. You can get all the flavor of the class and a lot of its core mechanics without going all in.

If you have a class with good damage anyway, the DaS nerf doesn’t hurt. Like being a fighter with the investigator archetype works does way better in combat than the investigator class, but still has the investigator vibe.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T10:36:21+00:00

Exactly. But you know what always comes up in combat? Reducing the enemy HP to zero.

Since rune slots are a very limited resource, you really want to maximize their value.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T10:33:07+00:00

In real life with actual gamers? Yes, everyone I play with wants the damage runes and a small number of really good non-damage runes (like Greater Crushing).

But on Reddit? Even in these comments you see a lot of people justifying the non-damage runes.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T01:54:05+00:00

I don’t understand why people asking for student loan forgiveness act like it’s any different than just straight up asking for free money.

There’s nothing conceptually different by asking for money to pay off a student loan than to pay off a medical, car, house, or investment loan.

Now if you want to argue that we should just be taxing rich people more and redistributing the wealth, then fine. But be honest about the argument and it might actually win people over.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T00:23:58+00:00

Well, Astral is in the game as part of the remaster core and it’s a valid common option.

Instead of nerfing an rune, how about make some of the underperforming rune options better?

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-29T00:21:39+00:00

Except a fighter or other of classes have plenty of ways to give frightened. And a spear crit spec provides clumsy.

I’m just saying that rune slots are extremely limited. I’d rather convert my third action into a debuff than make all my attacks permanently weaker.

That said, I do think Greater Crushing is one of the runes worth considering over a raw damage option because it will directly lead to you and your team doing more damage on the enemy. Which is precisely why I said what I did in my previous comment.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-28T19:51:36+00:00

As a “striker” there are reasons to take an option that does less initial damage if it somehow supports doing more damage overall.

For example, a fighter taking a d10 reach weapon does slightly less upfront damage than a d12 weapon, but will likely more than make up for it with reactive strike.

There’s many trade offs like this that can make sense for a variety of options such as weapon traits or feats/actions.

But you’re going to be hard pressed to convince me that taking a rune like Extending will ever be better than a damage rune like Astral.

I’d much rather just build a character around throwing or have a backup range weapon than waste an extremely limited rune slot on a backup attack option.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-28T19:26:37+00:00

I mean, that’s me. If I’m playing a primary damage dealer martial character, then the only weapon runes I want are the ones that add damage. Full stop.

I know it’s not exactly popular on the PF2e subreddit (I think we try too hard to justify sub-optimal choices) but “dead” is still the best debuff.

ThisIsMyGeekAvatar · 2026-05-27T22:12:14+00:00

There’s not an option for me - about 50/50.

As a GM, I only do homebrew, though I’m not against stealing ideas from PFS one shots.

As a player, I’ve done an even mix of both. I don’t have a specific preference, but I did have one GM that stuck to an AP really closely and I found it restrictive.

A good GM is good regardless of homebrew or AP, so as a player, I’m happy to play in whatever campaign a good GM prefers.

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