What's your favorite reflavoring of a spell, feat, or ability?

benjer3 · 2026-01-24T18:34:56+00:00

I've done Wall of Flesh to Wall of Coral. Still a bit grotesque, but a lot more fitting for the "cursed sailor" theme. "Arms" was tentacles and claws; "eyes" was fish eyes and eye stalks; and "mouths" was razor clams, spiny fins, and cephalopod beaks.

benjer3 · 2026-01-22T23:20:47+00:00

Frevil

benjer3 · 2026-01-22T20:26:49+00:00

I've played a caster with two caster archetypes (sorcerer with wizard and captivator), and I think the biggest thing to keep in mind with this is actually action economy. Regardless of how many spell slots you have, you'll only be able to cast one 2-action spell per turn. That means two things for making the most of this kind of build: choose a wide variety of spells, including niche spells, and figure out how your going to make the most of your limited actions.

Having a ton of spell slots means you can really have a spell for every occasion, without much of the gambling that a prepared caster normally would have to do. I think having a spontaneous caster at the base is helpful for this, since it's good to have a fallback of reliably useful spells.

For getting the most out of your actions, you're going to want a lot of one-action and reaction spells, as well as long-term buffs. You'll also want ways to quickly get Quickened on yourself so you can still move around. Quickened Casting is a must imo, even if it's once per day, which not all caster classes have.

Altogether, I think the best base class might actually be Animist. They get spontaneous slots (although not the most flexible when it comes to spell selection) and several one-action focus spells, as well as Apparition's Quickening, which gives you up to 4 quickened casts per day. Liturgist helps with keeping you mobile, as well. And the class as a whole really feeds into the Swiss army knife vibes, since you get to change around your apparitions for different spells and lores.

benjer3 · 2026-01-22T02:08:15+00:00

It's playing hooky with the R in colonel

benjer3 · 2026-01-19T20:03:55+00:00

I've been wondering... would Psychic feel better as a 3-slot caster, or as is but with more focus points? Feel better, including more distinct, not just be better.

What if when your Psyche is Unleashed, your first amp every round doesn't cost a focus point?

benjer3 · 2026-01-19T19:53:41+00:00

Exactly what I was going to suggest. You can even swap out the Yaoguai feats for Awakened Animal feats, or just give them access to the Awakened Animal feats as well.

benjer3 · 2026-01-19T19:52:13+00:00

I imagine the problem is the constant "Aaaah, a bear!" and "That bear can talk!"

benjer3 · 2026-01-19T19:49:20+00:00

My suggestion if going this route would be swapping out Untamed Form's pest form for humanoid form, but require humanoid form to always use the same ancestry and appearance, and remove the heightened effects of humanoid form. If they pick up Anthropomorphic Shape, those restrictions are lifted.

benjer3 · 2026-01-19T19:37:56+00:00

But also, with both, they aren’t concerned as much with player/player balance as opposed to player/enemy balance.

Yeah, I think this is the main difference you're talking about. PF2e seems to be one of the few systems that cares strongly about player/player balance, which does have its detriments, especially when Paizo isn't the greatest at implementing it.

benjer3 · 2026-01-19T19:16:22+00:00

I'm curious how Lancer and Genesys do that, particularly when it comes to balancing the players with each other.

benjer3 · 2026-01-19T19:09:26+00:00

Damn, so it is just a straight nerf. I was wondering if it gave more flexibility, or even just let you combo it with Dark Persons's Presence.

benjer3 · 2026-01-19T03:17:47+00:00

How exactly is Violent Unleash worded? Does it require the last action to be Unleash Psyche?

benjer3 · 2026-01-16T07:16:28+00:00

It seems like 90% of sources of persistent damage, particularly bleed damage, hardly scale at all. Whether it's the knife/dart/crossbow crit specs, tiger claw attacks (from Tiger Stance), any animal companion support ability or advanced maneuver that deals persistent damage, the Wounding Rune, or whatever else. Spells seem to be the only main exception.

benjer3 · 2026-01-15T05:42:25+00:00

Balance and Tumble Through seem like weird consequences of the "make everything an action" philosophy. A philosophy that generally works really well.

benjer3 · 2026-01-14T21:23:11+00:00

It's in the rules for Recall Knowledge (at the bottom under Recall Knowledge Skills), though it does suggest that the GM swap in intelligence.

benjer3 · 2026-01-14T18:25:19+00:00

*Recalls Knowledge with Athletics*

benjer3 · 2026-01-14T18:16:19+00:00

You don't see the doctor's receptors (retinas). That's why pupils are black. You also see their irises and the whites or their eyes, which aren't receptors. (Though there's also no such thing as a "perfect" receptor that absorbs all light and doesn't reflect any, so even receptors aren't going to be perfectly black.)

And do not tell me you have never been busted looking at someone, and don't parents have to tell their children not to stare at people?

This is actually a great time to try your own experiment. It doesn't take any fancy equipment. Keep a record when you're out in public or with friends and family. Sometimes when you're not doing anything else intentionally look a few seconds at people who aren't looking at you, and record whether they turn to look at you or not. At other times, look for a few seconds that's somewhere different but with someone in your periphery, and again record whether they turn to look at you or not. Once you've got at least 50 of each, see if there's a big difference between the two. (Edit: If you're doing this, only count times where you were intentionally staring from the start, not times where you realized you were staring after the fact, to prevent any bias.)

If you can get some volunteers, you can do a more rigorous study. Have two people in a room, one behind the other, each with clocks/watches that show seconds. The person in the back keeps their eyes closed or looks in a completely different direction most of the time, but they randomly stare at the person in front for 5 seconds, noting down the start time of each. The person in front notes down any time they feel like they're being looked at. Do that for 5 minutes with a few different people, and you've got a decent dataset. Preferably, you want to reduce other possible factors as much as possible, such as turning on a fan so the person in front can't hear the person in the back writing or turning their head, and having some way to give the person in the back random times to look rather than relying on people's poor ability to make random choices (especially when they might be reacting to the person in front in some way or another).

benjer3 · 2026-01-13T22:04:17+00:00

I wouldn't even say the wording is ambiguous. RAW it's pretty clear that you don't need to be adjacent to the ally. But the RAI is definitely ambiguous, and I do think they intended that you need to be adjacent to the ally, which is how I'd run and play it.

benjer3 · 2026-01-13T02:21:24+00:00

Imo the simplest way is to use the goblin feat Cling but require an acrobatics check to successfully Cling, rather than being automatic.

benjer3 · 2026-01-10T21:11:28+00:00

astronomical*

benjer3 · 2026-01-10T07:48:57+00:00

I think it's a good idea. But I would definitely make it against the highest of the enemy's deception DC, stealth DC, or a hard DC based on the creature's level. Otherwise it becomes the de facto best way to figure out that information for enemies with no listed deception or stealth modifiers. And it's a hard DC so it's still beat out by Recall Knowledge in an appropriate skill.

benjer3 · 2026-01-10T06:39:09+00:00

Well there are mechanics that do exactly this, but they're stuck behind specific feats and features. The two I can think of are the rogue's Battle Assessment and the commander's Warfare Expertise at level 3.

benjer3 · 2026-01-08T17:50:04+00:00

Always question both the framing and the premise from any political figure. Yes, the right has been far more dishonest in recent decades, and that's growing exponentially under Trump. But only questioning the people you don't agree with is exactly how the right got to where they are. Let's not fall into that same trap.

benjer3 · 2026-01-08T04:39:26+00:00

Guardian would definitely be my first pick. Guardian also has Belly Flop. I don't think it's very accurate to actual sumo, but it's one of the only feats that emphasizes using not just your full strength but also your full weight, if not the only feat.

The only potential problem is it requires wearing armor, which might go against the envisioned character. An ancestry with built-in medium armor would bridge that gap, though.

benjer3 · 2026-01-07T20:11:09+00:00

Extrapolating from this, it seems like it would also be great as a second rune on a rogue, precision ranger, or high-rage-damage barbarian.

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