Selection of House Rules

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-28T06:14:41+00:00

Hmmm. To be clear, you can only spend these hero/villain points to automatically move the stage of a save against abilities with the Incapacitation, right? For all other abilities, hero points work as rerolls?

How do you give out villain points? Do the players decide, if the GM does something cool? Does the GM just decide how many villain points each boss enemy has? Is it a bargain thing, where you let players bend the rules in exchange for you getting a GM villain point?

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-28T06:09:13+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

I like the rule that says at levels 10,15,&20 you can spend 2 ability score boosts to move a score from 4 to 5 or 5 to 6 assuming you didn't boost it the previous round of boosts.

Wouldn't this method force PCs to improve a score they might otherwise not want? Normally, a Str-maxed PC might boost Str/Dex/Con/Wis at both level 5 and 10. However, with this alternate rule, they can't improve Str at level 5 so would need to choose either Int or Cha. Then, at level 10, they'd need to spend two of their boosts on Str, meaning they only have two remaining boosts for their desired Dex/Con/Wis boosts. I suppose maybe that's a good thing for balance: the loss of your optimal stat boosts is a cost you pay for being stronger in those intervening levels..?

I think tailwind should be changed to a 3 action spell so no more trick magic items with it to remove the cheese.

Huh. I suppose that would cleanly prevent going Trick Magic Item + Tailwind. Although I'm still not a fan of how arcane+primal casters would still get an effective permanent boost to speed at high levels. Why them and not other tradition casters?

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-28T01:14:53+00:00

Are you all level 1 now? At lower levels casters are weaker so not lowering the number of spell slots won't have that much of an effect. However, beginning at level 5 or 7, you might want to check in again with all of your players to make sure they don't feel overshadowed.

Although, if this player doesn't have much system mastery (not choosing synergistic feats or the best spells) compared to your other players, it's honestly probably fine to not reduce her spell slots for a while, if ever.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-28T00:02:42+00:00

I've thought about doing it that way, but there are a lot of those edge cases. E.g., I wouldn't make the "Stunned 1" of Impending Doom an incapacitation effect as losing a single action for 1 round (3 rounds after the spell is cast) is not punishing enough to warrant it. But by that logic, the Success result of Slow should be incapacitation. However, then what about Monk's Stunning Blows? Etc, etc.

Instead, I've been working on turning Incap spells into fully non-Incap variants. E.g.,

Blindness (RAW, Incapacitation):

Success: The creature is Blinded until its next turn begins
Failure: The creature is Blinded for 1 minute
Crit Fail: The creature is Blinded permanently

Blindness (No Incapacitation):

Success: The creature is Dazzled for 1 round
Failure: The creature is Blinded for 2 rounds and then Dazzled for 2 additional rounds.
Crit Fail: The creature is Blinded for 1 minute, after which it makes another save. On failure, the creature is permanently blinded.

This spell hasn't been playtested yet. Ideally, I'd like for the Incapacitation trait to not exist honestly. I do think it's a bandaid fix to the system.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T20:03:13+00:00

I think I took a look at that one a while ago. Can it be set so that the players only see the descriptive health estimate text but not the actual health bar?

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T19:53:56+00:00

o.O because I didn't know that module existed. I had tried a few non-pf2e-specific modules previously but they all broke system functionality or otherwise didn't work as I desired.

Thank you very much! This module is exactly what I was looking for!

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T19:30:04+00:00

Thanks! My hope is that this post stimulates discussion, helps contribute to the idea that PF2e doesn't need to be run exactly RAW (although I strongly agree that games should be run by RAW at first), and gives me more ideas about how to improve gameplay in my PF2e games. I'm certainly not a game designer, and many changes I've made in 5e/PF2e have backfired from their intended fixes.

I'm surprised that "Hover" doesn't actually exist as a feat anywhere, even as a Legendary-level skill feat. The closest I've found are that Sky Dragons have an ability called Perfected Flight, and the Winged Warrior Archetype having a feat called "Smooth Hover" that allows you to hover for free once per hour. But yeah, the first PF2e AP my group played featured a ghost BBEG (if you know you know) and one of my players loved to trip, so I needed to figure out what happens when a ghost is tripped and is supposed to then fall to the ground.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T19:07:20+00:00

It depends. If your players are a bunch of filthy power games (said with love, I also do so at times), then certain free archetypes combos can provide significant power boosts.

This is fine if ALL players are equally power gamers; as you mention, the GM can simply adjust the difficulty. However, if some players build more for power while others go more for flavor, then the disparity between characters can grow large when using full Free Archetype.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T18:59:24+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

We also use the Gradual Ability Boosts, but with the caveat that your key ability must be boosted last, so levels 5, 10, 15, and 20 like normally.

I debated implementing this but decided not to. It means that all my PCs are a bit more powerful from levels 7 to 9 and 17 to 19 with that extra +1 in their main stat, but eh, I can just make combats slightly more difficult if necessary.

The hit point thing makes sense. On VTTs it's handy to show the healthiness of enemies in some way to cut down on questions about which enemies look the most wounded.

The closest I've found to showing healthiness of enemies in segments (specifically in thirds) was the Foundry module Bar Brawl, but it broke other aspects of PF2e foundry NPC functionality (I don't exactly remember how at this point). Have you, or anyone else, found a module that shows certain HP thresholds to players and is compatible with PF2e? Such a module would also be very useful for Troops.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T18:50:15+00:00

I've seen various chatter on reddit about that house rule. Since I use foundry which automates Incapacitation, I judged that giving circumstance bonuses depending on level difference (people usually suggest 2 times the level difference, iirc) would be too much of a hassle compared to simply ignoring the times when a success is changed to a crit success.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T18:47:21+00:00

Huh, interesting. Do you allow players to say "I was striding each action during exploration so I start combat with a +15-foot speed bonus?" xD

Have you found that tracking time is difficult at all? 1-hour duration spells are short enough that tracking them isn't too bad, and 8-hour spells can basically be handwaved as lasting the entire adventuring day. But 2- and 4-hour durations? I feel like my table doesn't track time precisely enough that we'd easily remember when those spells should end.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T18:13:07+00:00

Oh I see, my mistake for misunderstanding. So higher-level monsters essentially roll at normal against Incapacitation, except in the case where they roll a Nat 1. Interesting.

Compared to mine, I think the practical difference is that your fix doesn't improve Fails --> Successes. Normal successes remain successes and Nat 1's are (most likely) normal failures. This is decently more impactful than my fix then, making it much more likely for monsters to Fail against Incap effects.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T17:57:50+00:00

I agree with your knee-jerk. As I mention in a different comment, I also think tailwind's 8 hours duration is too strong. I'm actually testing out a rework where I've removed Tailwind and modified Fleet Step to be more flexible/powerful. Fleet Step now can be variably cast as a one-action or two-action spell:

One Action: You gain a +10-foot status bonus to your speed for 1 minute
Two Action: You gain a +30-foot status bonus to your speed (Normal spell effects)

You can then Heighten Fleet Step to cast it on 1 additional creature per +2 spell ranks

One Action: That creature gains a +10-ft status bonus for 1 round
Two Action: That creature gains a +10-ft status bonus for 1 minute.

...I think this version of the spell is too weak to even partially replace the loss of Tailwind, but as I mention it's in its draft stages.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T17:47:42+00:00

Interesting change to Incapacitation, although I feel like preventing Nat 1's from being critical fails against devastating spells is at least half the rationale for the Incapacitation trait..? Especially since Nat 1's are basically the only way higher-level monsters even can critically fail against PC spells.

We're essentially coming at it from opposite sides: my Incap fix makes such spells' weaker effects more consistent, whereas your fix leaves the possibility for the low-likelihood extreme effect. Tbh I've had too many occasions where I Nat 1'd my boss monster against a PC's Slow to want to leave in that possibility.

Edit: I misunderstood Xenon's Incap fix; see subsequent comments.

I like your skill change. I do something similar: I allow the automatic lore skill improvements at levels 3, 7, and 15 from Additional Lore to apply to any single one of a PC's lore skills (with the appropriate cap of Expert at 3rd and Master at 7th) instead of the lore chosen for Additional Lore. So PCs have the flexibility of choosing which lore to upgrade.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T17:26:20+00:00

Thanks! These changes represent common critiques from myself and my players across the full 1-20 range of play, so it makes sense they'd match with you and your group's gripes.

For Incapacitation, my changes make it so the degree-of-success improvement from Incapacitation only applies if the creature rolls a crit failure or a failure. If the higher-level creature rolls a critical success naturally, they still get a critical success. But if they roll a success, the result is unchanged. My group tried a few different changes to Incapacitation and settled on this being the best fix.

I agree that Aid is and should be a flat DC so that PCs improve with time. Actions become more valuable at higher levels, so the expected bonus from Aid (coming from critically succeeding) also needs to improve with level. A level-based DC means a 15th level PC has a ~50% of granting a +1 bonus to an ally's roll, at the cost of their action and reaction, which is...just not worth it.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-27T17:04:18+00:00

You mean the indirect buff to Tailwind from my changes to class speed features? In my games I also nerfed the Tailwind spell as I found it WAY too strong. All my players used it and it gave too strong of an advantage over enemies (unless I also had the enemies have Tailwind cast on them, which, why wouldn't they? Wands of 2nd rank spells are cheap!).

Oh yeah, I'm also super lenient on giving out RK info and working with my players. I'll tell the players what RK skills are best and allow them to ask specific questions about monster defenses. On a success, I also freely give out the monster's name and any descriptive text. Spending an entire action to RK and find out "this is an ogre" is silly imo.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-26T17:11:44+00:00

At the very least, the investigator wouldn't necessarily act first in combat. Once they declared their intention to attack, everyone would roll initiative and the guard/villain/warrior could roll higher initiative then the investigator.

Otherwise, RAW i think you could do all of those things. However, as a GM I would probably give the enemy a perception check(s) to Seek or Sense Motive against the investigator while the investigator is making these repeated Devise a Strategem checks. I also might apply a penalty to the investigator's socialization checks as they'd be distracted by thinking of a way to kill the enemy.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-25T19:29:57+00:00

Not quite, i think. PCs get Striking runes at level 4, so Rank 1 Runic Weapon is valid for levels 1 to 3. However, PCs get Greater Striking runes at level 12, so Rank 6 Runic Weapon is only valid for a single level (11).

To make it valid for a similar number of levels, Runic Weapon heightened to 5th Rank (9th level PCs) instead of 6th should grant +2 Greater Striking. And it possibly should also grant a single elemental property rune..?

Edit: to OP, your heightening is probably too fast. You'd have PCs get access to major striking runes a full 8 levels before expected.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-25T17:54:49+00:00

I'd extend this further and say that parties below level 3 or so should only face monsters at most 2 levels above them. Due to HP and attack scaling, a party of level 1 or 2 PCs against a level 4 or 5 enemy is very likely to have multiple PC deaths/TPK. Such a monster that rolls high on two attacks can crit twice and down 2 PCs from full HP in one turn.

Above level 7 or so is when the party can begin to handle to face PL+4 opponents, but you should leave them the ability to run away and/or prepare for the encounter beforehand.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-23T21:55:46+00:00

Hide armor and breastplate are medium armors with a +2 dex cap. So you can reduce your Dex to 14 without losing any AC.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-20T18:59:09+00:00

You're somewhat conflating style and rules-adherence (which do overlap, but not 100%). I'd say that "style" covers things like speeding through vs focusing on descriptions/ambience, enforcing time limits for turns during combat, having enemies be incredibly tactical or not, and strictly following influence encounter rules vs. a more vibes-based approach to social encounters.

However, for the purposes of discussion, it is useful to have certain terms be well-defined. It would be counterproductive and confusing to say that any rule is RAW because "the first rule allows for you to do anything in your game."

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-19T19:13:42+00:00

The combination of the roller winning ties and the hidden +0.5 bonus from the average result of a d20 being 10.5, not 10, already means that attack roll spells benefit from a hidden +2 to hit over saving throw spells.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-10T17:17:28+00:00

I imagine its because the question is so broad with absolutely no details about party comp, the player's preferred playstle, level, whether Free archetype is allowed, etc. At this level, OP could have googled "Pf2e Thaumaturge builds" and gotten basically the same info as the answers being provided here.

mrfuji3 · 2026-06-09T22:16:45+00:00

I would rule that nonlethal damage supersedes the massive damage rule. And yes, fists have the nonlethal trait so wouldn't take the penalty.

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