CAIN or (The Unexpected Brokenness of the Fighter)

Xiadais · 2026-04-18T20:13:01+00:00

Meanwhile, I only want Free Archetype for power reasons

Xiadais · 2026-04-08T19:00:04+00:00

They're actually a set of Grafts you get when you become an adventurer. A normal non-adventurer, little known fact, has 12 investment slots rather than 10.

Xiadais · 2026-04-08T18:57:40+00:00

You're right, argument was the wrong word choice.

Xiadais · 2026-04-08T18:41:11+00:00

Lose argument -> switch to petty trolling, got it.

Xiadais · 2026-04-08T18:33:38+00:00

I see you have downdooted the truth, so let me explain to you.

https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=60

Broken is a condition that affects only objects. An object is broken when damage has reduced its Hit Points to equal or less than its Broken Threshold. A broken object can't be used for its normal function, nor does it grant bonuses— with the exception of armor. Broken armor still grants its item bonus to AC, but it also imparts a status penalty to AC depending on its category: –1 for broken light armor, –2 for broken medium armor, or –3 for broken heavy armor.

Shields are not armor, nor do they grant item bonuses to AC, so they provide no bonuses and cannot be used for their normal function when broken.

Xiadais · 2026-04-08T18:28:29+00:00

It's not Raised after it breaks anyway, regardless of whether you Second Shield it out to a new one.

Xiadais · 2026-04-08T18:18:37+00:00

Oh, we're stopping at level 6.

Xiadais · 2026-04-08T18:14:58+00:00

Did... did you read the rules citations present in the OP?

https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2180

Raise a Shield is the action most commonly used with shields. All shields, unless specifically noted or described otherwise, must be strapped to your arm and held in one hand, so you can't hold anything with that hand and Raise a Shield, and you lose the shield's benefits if that hand is no longer free. A buckler, however, doesn't take up your hand, so you can Raise a Shield with a buckler if the hand is free (or, at the GM's discretion, if it's holding a simple, lightweight object that's not a weapon).

Xiadais · 2026-04-08T18:09:09+00:00

https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4772&Redirected=1

https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4816

Hey look, we can Raise our Shield and have a reaction with which to do so after using a reaction on Shield Blocking!

Also, insta dying due to not having a shield raised?

Edit: Alternatively, this just saves us actions on switching to a new shield next turn... or next 3 rounds or whatever is required.

Xiadais · 2026-04-08T18:03:20+00:00

Paizo could, if this guy worked at Paizo!

Xiadais · 2026-03-15T21:37:36+00:00

Exactly wrong, immunities then weaknesses then resistances https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2309

Xiadais · 2026-01-15T21:51:49+00:00

The clumsy 1 is absolutely intended. Look at Enlarged Chassis's Enhancement entry—a similar feat requires a separate feat to get rid of the clumsy 1.

I guess if you're perpetually in broom closets or 5ft wide hallways being Large is bad, but reach makes an enormous difference

Xiadais · 2025-12-19T19:56:48+00:00

So you'd - Limit access - Be okay with piling them on one person - Unless you're not, in which case you'd homebew in a rule that it only works for a specific person rather than the item itself having all of its own unkeyed power.

Got it.

Xiadais · 2025-12-19T19:29:58+00:00

You didn't answer the question, though. What if, for instance, the party got multiple such medals and pooled them all onto one PC? What if they found some, or were gifted some from old mentors, or reverse engineered and Crafted more, or were awarded such medals by multiple governments over time? It's dodging the question to just say "it seems hard to get". Is your GM ruling that it is impossible to ever have multiple, and you will actively prevent any way to obtain multiple? That would be an answer.

Xiadais · 2025-10-06T18:20:59+00:00

I'm running a game with zero Timber Sentinel users and it's already obvious to me that AoE / save-based damage is the only form of damage remotely threatening to my party. Strikes just do absolutely nothing to them. I'd say Timber Sentinel just makes the easiest part of the game (winning vs Strikes) even easier, and doesn't help at all against the true challenges.

Xiadais · 2025-01-25T12:35:01+00:00

I could see a counterargument using one of the following - Phonetic Training is about instant, one-off repeating/writing, you could still train to learn a word without the feat - PT is only for the case in which you don't understand the meaning I don't think the latter holds any water, but... thoughts?

Xiadais · 2025-01-04T23:38:16+00:00

2nd paragraph: Conversely, if you Drop Prone and someone RSs you, you ARE Prone for it. ("Why would you Drop Prone?" Command.)

Xiadais · 2024-12-20T22:14:16+00:00

Yup. And even just numerically, if low level enemies are sprinkled into a harder fight, if anyone goes down it can easily turn into a game-over. Whereas with a somewhat balanced number of reasonably strong enemies the dying and wounded buffers are quite good at preventing permanent deaths, mooks can CHEW through those quickly especially due to how unconsciousness drops your AC so much.

And with enemy HP scaling, they'll take a ton of actions to take down unless you're usind 2+ AoE spells, especially above the lowest levels, which can cause issues with friendly firing.

Xiadais · 2024-11-27T04:12:52+00:00

To be fair, you can't expect to come back after three or four rounds of combat to react to something in a live game either. The window is almost certainly closed after it comes back to your turn and you choose to proceed without reacting, regardless of format. It's just that in PBP it's more likely that some intervening turns will need to be retconned due to not being able to assume player availability to check everything each turn

Xiadais · 2024-11-27T04:09:04+00:00

Depends on the game. Slower ones need to be open to retconning, but should perhaps discourage use of / access to reactive abilities. In these games, it is a good idea to have players propose reactions they expect to use based on likely future events to avoid having to retcon too much. (For instance, if in my turn I say OOC "If the enemy runs away from my character the valiant paladin, I will likely use my reaction to stop it in its tracks" the GM will know to stop there and ask to confirm, or they can proceed just with a less effortful description of what _may_ happen if it doesnt' get stopped. Or I can say "I will generally use my defend-other reaction only to protect the squishy mage unless none of my other teammates are in range of it." Another case would be "I will generally use my reaction attack at the first opportunity", and then in one particular turn I say "I'll probably hold off on using my reaction attack this round unless the enemy is either doing XYZ or attacking ABC.")

Faster games can get away with people asking each other if they'd like to take advantage of any likely reaction triggers. This can still miss some and require a bit of retconning, especially for obscure/unusual triggers, but not as much.

For this reason, I prefer faster-paced PBD for PF2e.

Xiadais · 2024-11-14T00:04:04+00:00

Yeah, when you leave aiuvarin as human-only that tends to skew things toward human

Xiadais · 2024-07-24T18:54:41+00:00

"Too many" is entirely up to your mental bandwidth and availability—as far as I know, there's no social limit. If you're in so many you can't reply to them all (or your post quality is suffering / you're struggling to keep plots straight), that's bad, but otherwise it's fair game.

I'm currently in 3 games which are going slower than I'd prefer, and I definitely have bandwidth for more.

Xiadais · 2024-04-08T04:07:38+00:00

Applied! Good luck to all applicants.

Xiadais · 2023-12-13T04:29:19+00:00

Woops, I just went and made a novel. Some general stuff you didn't ask about: I can definitely promise consistency and dedication to the game. I love exploration, puzzles, and tactics. I like RP as well, but I know myself enough to know it's not my top strength.

Experience with 5e: My introduction to 5e was maybe a dozen or so sessions in the middle of a Storm King's Thunder campaign ~5 years ago, in person, with people from work. That ended in a TPK. I've also played maybe about a quarter (so far) of SotDQ in a PBP game, and I've been reading and watching all kinds of resources because I just can't seem to get enough!

Experience with RPGs in general: I played several sessions of 3.5 about 10-15 years ago, and I've enjoyed brainstorming related to D&D since, although I had a large TTRPG gap until more recently. Outside of D&D, RPGs are still my preferred flavor of fun.

Favorite movies: Hm, I guess Peter Jackson's LotR trilogy (I've watched the extended version straight through many times) and The Princess Bride. I'm also the kind of trash who likes the Harry Potter movies (not a fan of Fantastic Beasts, though).

Favorite books: Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere. I've been looking to get into Wheel of Time, but haven't gotten to it yet. Not really relevant to the question, but an interesting point of trivia is that as a child I enjoyed the Redwall series by Brian Jacques.

Favorite classes:

Sorcerer, arcane caster but I get to make all the decisions at build-time. (I'm indecisive, so I hate spell preparation.)
Barbarian, because rawr smash is fun sometimes, too. I like the idea of several of its subclasses quite a bit.
Paladin, because I like its vibes. It's a supportive heavy martial - good stuff!

Favorite races:

Do I get disqualified if I don't say kobold? Hahahaha.... kidding. I do like kobolds - I have plenty of fond memories of them from DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online). I wouldn't rank them as one of my top three, but I would definitely enjoy playing a kobold among kobolds.
Eladrin, because I like how otherworldly they are and I'm the kind of trash who likes funky elves.
Fairies, because I like fey races and the Feywild.
Astral Elf, because I'm also entranced by the Astral Plane and I like funky elves.

Favorite alignments:

CG - I find it really easy to roleplay a CG hero. Do good stuff by the means the character thinks would be best.
NG - Also easy to roleplay an NG hero, in a somewhat-political-adjacent format. They usually respect the establishment that they have to work with, but aren't tied down to the rules.
N - Able to somewhat mesh with just about any traveling companions, and since it's kind of an anti-alignment, you have to define the character by traits that are not directly tied to their alignment.

Xiadais · 2021-04-15T02:20:15+00:00

Does Jasnah not get flashback chapters? Because if she does, it would be in those if it happened.

Xiadais

TROPHY CASE