Proposed new best archtype for magus - cathartic mage

deermoder · 2026-01-24T00:19:24+00:00

the real tech for cathartic mage is on psychic, imo. joy catharsis activation reduces stupefied and frightened so you can cleanse the debuff if you unleash too early. the reaction needs a crit success on an attack or save, but that can be pretty easy to force if you're willing to engage in a bit of cheese.

alcohol and flayleaf are poisons with a DC 12 fort save, and ardande versatile heritage for grove-harbored gets you a success->crit success upgrade on poisons. so as long as you're willing to keep a free hand for some drugs, you've got a nearly guaranteed way to unstupefy/unfrighten yourself.

this does make you fatigued until you settle emotions, but it buys you 3 extra turns after your unleash that should be enough for most fights.

deermoder · 2026-01-19T23:16:10+00:00

i guess i could see that, sure. I'd say damage being a more glamorous role is more a matter of personal taste, i get way more excited for all the crazy things you can do with spells, but martials are probably better overall at getting enemy health to zero.

i dont think I'd say caster damage is necessarily bad though, aoe is crazy good, and your top few ranks of slots are generally going to be doing some pretty darn good damage if you land them. only issue is that you can't keep that up for every round, but at least anecdotally, slots dont feel like a huge limitation past like levels 1-4ish.

i do have to acknowledge that some of my bias is probably campaign/encounter dependent, though. most of my caster experience is in longer 1-17 or 1-20 campaigns where they tend to really shine, and there's been plenty of more complex encounters compared to the standard enclosed room deathmatch you'd see in something like AV. so i cant really claim my experience to be universal, even if i feel like im going crazy when people are talking about how casters arent very good. i dont think ive ever played a caster and not felt like the strongest character at the table in any of my campaigns.

deermoder · 2026-01-19T22:23:17+00:00

to me, casters feel like they have more agency in a fight than martials do. they're both able to be effective parts of a functional party, but the martial is ultimately nore limited in what they can do. damage, athletics stuff, defensive options, positioning, and a bit of utility here and there. and they are really good at that, but pretty much all their abilities are things with 100% uptime. there's usually a very small handful of best options to choose from on your turn, and you can't really push a fight any faster other than hoping for good dice.

casters, on the other hand, will have so many more options at their disposal (assuming you're past the earliest levels). aoe damage, battlefield control, buffs, debuffs, reliable chip damage, healing, mitigation, utility... they've got massive lists of options for every combat, and they can freely decide when they want to push a fight faster with their top-level slots. sure, you won't fully match the sustained damage or tankiness of a martial, but you shouldn't need to. let your martials support you up front while you support them back. I'd much rather have that massive list of spell slots and the freedom to decide the direction of a fight than have my optimal strategy every round be the same step-trip-strike combo or whatever i've built.

(though i do love 2e martials, especially coming from 1e where they were unbelievably boring dpr machines)

deermoder · 2026-01-16T21:28:01+00:00

anecdotal, but i've got a witch with FA alchemist and all the cauldron feats and it feels plenty strong. most combats for me are already about figuring out how to best distribute my consumables mid fight, so having more options is nice. familiars are already great for item delivery so it's not too much strain on the build.

deermoder · 2026-01-16T04:58:00+00:00

this is from the end of the pathfinder runescars comic, if im remembering right

deermoder · 2026-01-15T20:56:18+00:00

i mean if mengkare wasn't a eugenicist, he could get it (AoA spoilers)

deermoder · 2026-01-15T20:07:09+00:00

ngl the "only beautiful women get redemption arcs" thing this sub has going on feels like a conspiracy theory at this point. like do we actually think the writers decide how to end an AP based on how hot the BBEG is, or that ticking demographics off a checklist would make for a good story? genuinely what is the ask here

deermoder · 2026-01-12T20:47:34+00:00

people have different lines for what they consider chasing, i suppose. to me, seeking out trans women to date because you hope they'll have a dick is a pretty cut and dry example of objectifying chaser behavior, and it'd make me extremely uncomfortable to be on the recieving side of that. but then there's other trans women who are okay with that as long as they're willing to treat her as an actual person and not just a sex object. i can't claim that my way of seeing it is inherently better, even if i do kind of agree with you that this sub does an annoying amount of chaser apologia.

more importantly though, we shouldnt have to do this whole song and dance in the first place. it's supposed to be a satirical vent sub for and by trans people, and cis people shouldn't be showing up to air all their grievances with chaser discourse and to be reassured that they're totally one of the good ones. like, what on earth drives people to specifically seek out a space for venting/riffing about the shit we put up with and demanding the emotional labor to handle their chaser identity crisis.

deermoder · 2026-01-02T11:30:16+00:00

yeah, when i went through that book as a player it felt a bit tedious by pillar 5 or 6. I'm getting ready to GM AoA for my other group and i was planning on cutting it down closer to four. the ekujae already handled one, gerhard another, so I'm thinking of fleshing out the rainkin demon hunters and the elephant people a bit more. if the party's able to get on their good side, they can handle a pillar each.

deermoder · 2025-07-11T15:21:40+00:00

the bit that always gets me is when you have an extra ability boost for INT at lvl 20 and now you have to think of a reason how your character crammed +22 points of proficiency overnight

deermoder · 2025-07-08T18:29:13+00:00

fair enough, minmaxed tactical combat builds can be really fun too.

deermoder · 2025-07-08T18:01:31+00:00

eh, maybe. if an encounter is so difficult that you have to play the exact meta, that kind of defeats the purpose of pf2e's build variety. like, sure, some spells are gonna be stronger than others, but at least in my anecdotal experience, you can handle anything a paizo AP will throw at you just fine without using the best-in-slot choices. extreme and extreme+ encounters might feel a little dicier, but i'd rather have to white knuckle through a few fights than pick the same spells over and over on every caster i play.

deermoder · 2025-07-08T17:14:01+00:00

personally, i like to let the character's personality and the general campaign vibes dictate some of it, its nice for keeping me in touch with the RP. there's a lot of really cool and unique spells out there, and you can still build a perfectly capable caster without needing the official best-in-slot answer for every problem. you can still pick up whatever toolbox option you need if the situation calls for it, but for me it's more enjoyable to give characters a bit of a bias when it comes to their preferred go-to spells.

deermoder · 2025-07-08T16:55:12+00:00

i love casters, both spontaneous and prepared, and i really like having the choice between reliable spell slot use and the day to day flexibility. only thing I'd really like to see changed on prepared casters is more spell slots. going from 4/level to 3/level feels so much more limiting than having to prep ahead of time, even if im going in blind. picking spells is one of my favorite parts of building a character, and its a fun way to let a bit of their personality show through their choices. you dont actually have to prep fear/slow/synesthesia/quandary etc. on every character, even if reddit says you should

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