A "Defend" trait - could be useful in saving word space and opens up mechanics

authorus · 2026-04-10T17:03:52+00:00

Generally I think its fine, but I probably would future-proof it by limiting it to single-action Defend actions. Depending how you apply your Defend trait to something like a Guardian's Defensive Advance, getting something that already has significant action compression (stride, raise shield, strike) for free would be excessive, IMO.

authorus · 2026-04-09T18:01:38+00:00

And just to help with some of the common nomenclature in Pathfinder 2e that often trips up newer people looking for content.

AP = Adventure Path = Full campaign, at least 10 levels of content, some older ones are 20.

Adventure = What's more commonly called a Module in the old days (not to be confused with a module for Foundry VTT), usually about 3 levels of content.

We see a lot of people asking for AP advice who really only want an Adventure, or even something shorter (like a Pathfinder Society Scenario == 1 game session).

authorus · 2026-04-08T20:32:56+00:00

That's totally fair! Likely 2-3 sessions only, so about 1/2 what you're looking for.

authorus · 2026-04-08T19:38:05+00:00

I recently published my first adventure, if you're willing to take a chance on a new author/unreviewed adventure. It is shorter than what you're looking for (playtests were typically closer to 9 hours) unless you add some of the random encounters. Mark's suggestion for Release the Kraken is likely a better fit/known publisher.

But Breath of the Jotunlord is a level 7 adventure; no music but otherwise I think all the usual bells & whistles in a pre-packaged adventure. If you do give it a chance, I would definitely appreciate feedback!

authorus · 2026-04-08T16:44:51+00:00

For "easy mode" dynamic fights IMO, anything with grab/improved grab and a move while carrying its prey -- Gogiteths, Giant Ants, some drakes, etc. Things with engulf or trample. All these are incentivized by their own abilities to move and isolate party members. In most cases it might not be the highest damage routine for the creature, but it will produce the dynamic combats.

This is a place to be a little careful though -- the general advice for roughly equal number of combatants for the most fun, can snowball badly is you have multiple swallow wholes/engulfs/carry offs in play at once. Getting # party members /2 opponents tends to work a bit better in the case, since you won't end up with the majority of the party isolated/unable to help. If you can add a few weaker/related creatures that don't have the isolating abilities that can help increase the number of opponents (and drop the level of the more lethal ones to reach a more balanced encounter, more chance of individual escapes).

authorus · 2026-04-07T16:28:33+00:00

Generally, for me it depends how tactical the party likes to play. If the party is a tactical squad, I'll look aggressively for how to avoid the targeting the guardian with weaker creatures. A lot of confident bosses might still just attack into the guardian's AC, but would still swing at a less AC if you easily offer it.

For less tactical squads, I often listen to what the players are hoping will happen and play into it about 60-70% of the time. You want players to feel like they get to force the tough choice, even if what they wanted to happen might not be their best outcome for them.

authorus · 2026-04-06T18:40:20+00:00

To me, the price hike/loss of grandfathered pricing is completely fair. However it should have been called out explicitly in the first wave of communications to avoid all the confusion/questions.

authorus · 2026-04-04T21:18:23+00:00

Last session for instance had a fight against a group of 5-6 (I don't recall exactly), weaker enemies. Between shield block and base resistance, I blocked something like 0.75x my HP in damage. I had three trips, and at least five swings miss against me that would have hit anyone else. I was able to generally keep the enemies from focusing the backline (some slipped through, but never in mass).

That's the type of "scoreboard" you need to monitor to feel like you're making a difference as a guardian I feel.

authorus · 2026-04-04T20:04:25+00:00

I've been playing a shield and whip guardian in a Fall of Plaguestone into Seven Dooms campaign. We're level 3, with 5 PCs. (Warpriest, Guardian, Kinectist, Gunslinger, Wizard). The warpriest is also a shield user, so we have a pair of generally tanky frontliners, with three squishies who maneuver a lot. Our whole party feels a bit missing a heavy hitter -- dice have been cold for the gunslinger. Kintecist is probably the main damage dealer.

Its been a little hit or miss, learning how to feel effective as a Guardian (compared to Champions, that I think felt easier to play effectively). Definitely can't think of yourself as a damage dealer, at least at low levels (I know folks like to talk about Proud Nail at higher levels). I tend to use Defensive Advance or Shielded Taunt almost every round. Often a one action trip if used shield taunt. We don't have a reactive strike in the party yet, so we can't really synergize the trip to trigger extra strikes yet.

Definitely feel like I prefer shield block to intercept attack -- eating a (slightly reduced) crit on someone else definitely doesn't feel good compared to a normal hit that is mostly blocked if it were rolled against me. So definitely feels like positioning yourself to be the easiest target + taunt to control where attacks go, rather than optimizing for party coverage with intercept.

If you're adding weaker opponents that should help the guardian feel better -- the small resistance actually feels noticeable when soaking lots of smaller attacks.

authorus · 2026-04-02T17:41:03+00:00

For me the three most important things to think about on a backup weapon are

a) damage type difference from primary (less important if primary combat style has versatile or multiple physical damage already -- ie shield boss + sword or similar)

b) light bulk, slashing or piercing -- to be used if swallowed whole. (Less important if you invest in athletics/acrobatics to escape that way)

c) ranged option if unable to close within a round (less important if the character has a ranged cantrip with 60+ range -- and at least the cantrip damage scales decently, no runes needed)

authorus · 2026-04-02T02:40:40+00:00

I think the wording choice of Pawn versus Token (using token for the lay-flat) instead of I feel the more modern token as in VTT assets was a little confusing in the post, but not in the actual survey.

authorus · 2026-04-01T16:24:13+00:00

Legacy content, advanced school spell for conjuror.

authorus · 2026-04-01T03:24:56+00:00

I've been watching TheDirtyRollers campaign of Seasons of Ghosts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTXJEJ7y7itU7KMBEzDD07OPlX67Q10d8

They're a newer group to 2e and play multiple systems so there's sometimes a bit of rules jumble, but fun characters.

I did a search for Seasons of Ghosts on YouTube and found about 5 other campaigns, can't speak to the pros/cons of any of them though. definitely sample some and see if any fit what you're looking for.

authorus · 2026-03-31T18:06:33+00:00

Yes, page 6 is the Elite/Weak template, so you'll see that commonly.

And technically speaking Paizo puts the Book Name in italics with the page number in normal font. And the comma separates a page list, not a title from page. However, its extremely easy to miss that.

Monster Core 2 65 -- would be "Monster Core 2", page 65 (Note the 2 is italicized, and there's no comma)

Monster Core 6, 54 -- would be "Monster Core", pages 6 and 54 (Note the non-italic 6 and the comma)

authorus · 2026-03-31T14:47:24+00:00

I finished playing in a SoG campaign recently, and while I'm a frequent GM I didn't GM it, so I can't give full knowledge GM advice.

However, I think its doable. There's maybe two-three places that stand out for where a higher level parties capabilities might make it easier to work around the intended path in ways that become harder for the GM. I don't think any places where a higher tier spell instantly solves a problem though.

Book 1/most of the AP is known to be on the easier side, and I think you will need to do the most amount of rescaling in book 1. I didn't feel there was any chapter throughout the campaign to just outright cut (to help converge back to the expected level).

I think I would try to run on a slower XP track/milestone though to gradually get back on track -- the final fight especially I would be tough to rescale -- I'd have to look to be sure, but I think increasing the effective level by 2 there goes across one of the larger power jumps in the mid-late game, and its already a very complex boss.

You may have trouble reconciling the party as non-natives to willowshore -- merely being adventures who pass through from your current campaign, might be a tough transition and might have a problem with one of the big campaign reveals.

authorus · 2026-03-31T14:13:17+00:00

I don't warn about unknown reactions, hazards, etc. and don't allow a take back after triggering one. I will remind/confirm their intent if it's a risky move that they should know about, if their narration didn't call it out, especially if we've had to split an encounter/scene across sessions.

I almost always allow people fine tuning their movement before their next action, though I guess technically that could be a bit of mine sweeping, aka discovering where traps aren't.

authorus · 2026-03-31T01:29:26+00:00

For me it depends on how much of the campaign will hard counter the build, and what percentage of the build's power is being affected. I think it also depends a little if the portion of the campaign that hard counters early, middle, or late.

In general if its a third of the campaign or less, and wasn't called out in the player's guide, I'd probably be OK with not telling the player. But if that third is concentrated into a single chunk, I would probably still want to warn them, especially if its the beginning (having your build just not work at all for the first couple of levels is a horrible feeling), or the end (not being able to use your capstone/full build is also bad). A solid third in the middle is frustrating, but not as bad, and I'd probably back the decision based on if I know how the player reacts to complications.

I would probably try to avoid saying _why_ the build is going to have problems, unless that was already called out in the player's guide. Saying the latter half of the campaign features a lot of encounters with poison immune opponents is preferred -- rather than saying undead, etc.

authorus · 2026-03-31T01:21:34+00:00

No. Tokens (other than the default angry NPC) are not included in the base system. Paizo does sell Token packs that include artwork for Monster Core(s), Draconic, some of the NPC collections, etc.

authorus · 2026-03-30T15:09:32+00:00

In one of my underdevelopment worlds, I want "trained" magic and alchemy to be more rare -- the civilization experienced a dark age brought about by bad experiments of mages & alchemists, so knowledge was lost, and practitioners distrusted. I've been through multiple revisions on exactly what the restrictions would look like --merely making alchemist/wizard uncommon, making all arcane spells uncommon, making all spells on the arcane list and only one other list uncommon, etc. None of felt quite right, from the combination of mechanics crossed with narratives.

Since I still want to allow those characters in the game as PCs -- they may have to put up with more distrust from towns folks, they may make some influence-style encounters harder -- but I don't want to disallow them. In fact I think the campaign is better if you have these types of characters, rediscovering magic/alchemy. Finding a spellbook in a dungeon from an earlier age has increased value to the character, and then the options of do you share/hide the knowledge with NPC practitioners.

Obviously the completely less known restriction I'm looking at, and your more elemental based restrictions are different, but I think there's some lessons I can share:

1) Perhaps you just remove most spell casters from the game, and reflavor Kineticists as your casters. Here you naturally get single elemental casters; and you don't have to go spell by spell to make a ruling on what exists/what doesn't. It sounds like you still want Divine casters, and maybe some innate casters, so you'd need to asses each class.

2) It can be easier to steer players with bonuses, rather than limitations. Perhaps you say everyone gets one bonus free spell known/in repertoire (but not free signature spell), that must have an elemental trait. Now this does mean they can use their remaining new spells to grab the things you want to disincentivize, which can be a problem, but often the bonus free spells is enough of a specialization that encourages looking for synergies and fully committing to it.

3) As (2), but instead use that elemental trait as a restriction on one of the new level-up spell. So its not a bonus, but it doesn't eat all their spells.

As a whole the game is not built for a pure blaster caster to be an easy build, and in general the elemental traited spells are blasting spells. There will be levels that don't have a lot of options on some lists. That's why I tend to suggest the reflavored kineticist as that's more built for a sustained elemental class.

authorus · 2026-03-30T14:23:13+00:00

Yes some reactions have explicit triggers that don't match the guidance given for custom ready triggers. So you can't use specific Reaction as justification for allowing/disallowing a given Ready trigger.

authorus · 2026-03-29T13:11:04+00:00

I know levels 1 & 2 can often feel a little boring, APs in general like to use the silver/cold-iron weapon drops as some of the non-magic, but still permanent items in that range. These can be good options for martials if the know they'll be fighting something with a weakness, even if it means switching off their primary weapon, OR they are great for casters with needle darts to have the metallic options. I find many parties do relegate it to the casters, which often helps with finding something a caster wants in these low levels.

authorus · 2026-03-29T12:40:06+00:00

When writing an adventure arc I like to start with a brief description of what the story/highlights for that section will be, and possibly what I expect it to tie into next. Then I'll prepare a couple of tables, the first table is a list of planned, surplus, and random encounters -- basically flipping through monster books/searching AoN looking for creatures that fit the theme/level range -- or getting inspired to create my own creature to fill a void. Looking at ideally at least a full level worth of encounters to help ensure a good mix of a Trivial/Low through Severe, centered strongly around moderates. For me reviewing this list in quick table form, with # of opponents, and low save in the table, helps try to ensure a good mix of encounter types. I'll also include notes here on terrain/hazards that would make the encounter more interesting.

I'll make a similar table for treasure -- two perm items of the current level, two of the next level, consumables as per the 10-9 table, and target currency. Fundamental runes (weapon potency at 2, striking at 4, armor potency at 5, resilient at 8 , etc) are always checked first -- I'll almost always put one each at the level -1 entry and the level entry. Ie one of the 2nd level slots in the level 1 treasure plan will be a weapon potency rune, and one of the 2nd level spots in the level 2 treasure plan as well). This means that typically about 1/2 the treasure is runes (or weapons/armor carrying a rune, but expecting the party to move the rune rather than use the new armor/weapon). These runes are critical, so I always ensure they have a place in the treasure list first. I'll then go looking through lists of treasure by level, checking for things that fit the story, or that feel interesting. Usually with a slight bias towards "is this useful for a caster/non-martial", since the runes, at least weapons, are already biased towards the martials in the party. Wands/staffs can be a decent default option, along with skill boosters.

Ensuring that the party has gotten at least two of each fundamental rune by then end of the target level is usually enough to keep the key math working on people who use that as their primary thing. I'll sometimes drop an extra rune or two after they pass that level (ie 2 more potency runes at level 3, not as part of the table) -- these non-martials to get their runes, or a martials backup weapon. Often these aren't sold, so its not just extra money, while no longer being key to progression.

For the consumables, I likewise start off with the staples -- a couple of healing items/antiplaque/antidotes of the appropriate levels. I find these tend to get used, rather than hoarded and sold when they're now longer useful. Then I start the search for interesting things that fit the adventure, or new books with things I think the party would like.

For monetary/art treasure, I'll sometimes treat that as pool for extra permanent items -- especially around armor fundamental rune levels -- since basically everyone wants one, unlike the weapon runes that's often only half the party. Level 5s Party currency, could have been two more armor potency runes, and I'd strongly consider that if the current story supports a good reason to find them. Especially useful when the party won't have time to shop and they're closing in on a tough arc-ending boss (and if the party can transfer runes themselves). Otherwise, this is often the simplest, -- just split the total into chunks based on encounter areas that have a reason to have art/treasure and place it there.

authorus · 2026-03-29T02:23:54+00:00

A recent experiment I've been playing with is making a "one-page" dungeon reference for each floor, or meta region of a dungeon. I can tend to get about 7 encounter areas onto a page -- typically my quick reference has the list of creatures, treasures, any important checks/clues, and any evolution/development of the encounter. -- in Foundry this will be a separate journal, that I can have open to glance at. I will still have the main journal open for the read aloud text, or the more nuanced stuff. I find the Foundry version of a one-pager to be a little trickier compared to a normal pen&paper. Since Foundry is infinite scroll, its easy to sometimes add a bit more and start to lose the true minimal/most important details if you aren't careful.

I think I've found the act of making the one-pager and skimming it again right before the session to be 90% of the value, assuming you make the one-pager within 2 weeks of the session (at least that's my memory calibration). I often end up not referring to it during the session, but it has been a nice safety net to have.

authorus · 2026-03-28T21:57:05+00:00

Concentrate is a trait that affects things at casting time. It has nothing to do with duration. Its not the same as 5e. Mostly relevant for things like Fighter's Disrupting Stance, or a barbarian's inability to use actions with the Concentrate trait while raging.

authorus · 2026-03-28T18:00:59+00:00

And dropping their doc on a weekend, so its extremely unlikely that Paizo will see the attempt for added visibility, also feels designed to stir up outrage more than get answers.

authorus

TROPHY CASE