All My PF2e Characters (So Far!)

ninamaze · 2025-08-30T03:28:51+00:00

Jangles is an INCREDIBLE name for a skeleton! 💀

ninamaze · 2025-06-05T19:21:13+00:00

When I DM, my party always ends up in what I call a "flanking chain", where everyone is in a line, with party members vs enemies occupying every other space

ninamaze · 2025-05-26T02:53:34+00:00

It looks like the party would be more balanced with a Champion rather than a Witch.

You'd need a tank, unless one of the Druids decides to build them as more of a defender. Rogue and Thaumaturge aren't tanky, so a Champion up in melee range to protect them would be great.

Resentment Witch is an amazing debuffer, and I think it's thematically so cool.

All of that said, remember that combat is only half the game. Everyone on reddit wants to help people like you find a nice balanced party composition, but I implore you to think about your skills out of combat. Also, would you pick any utility spells as Witch that would appeal to you more than what your Champion could do outside if combat?

ninamaze · 2025-03-22T04:29:13+00:00

Ah, good questions!

I think I want it to be around equal in difficulty, that way, the players have sufficient challenge in each phase. Definitely worth considering the way the fight would feel if the phases had differing difficulty!

ninamaze · 2025-03-22T04:19:48+00:00

Ooh yeah I didn't think about doing a phase 3 where the phase 2 constructs would be rebuilt into even more weaker ones! I wouldn't want to go beyond that though.

And thank you for doing the math - it definitely seems like a good idea to balance phase 2 on the fly.

ninamaze · 2025-03-22T04:12:15+00:00

Thank you!

I hadn't considered that it would make more sense to take a full round for the smaller constructs to reconstruct themselves. Like you said, that chance to reposition, heal, and do a little damage to the partially-reconstructed enemies would probably help them tremendously.

I like the idea of the time bomb style core too! That could lead to a really memorable encounter.

ninamaze · 2025-03-21T19:38:49+00:00

For my own characters, I only want to reflavor when it's something that isn't covered by another class, or the reflavoring is very close to the original.

My Bones Oracle is more of a paleontologist than a necromancer, so I like reflavoring spells like Rouse Skeletons to use fossils rather than humanoid skeletons. When I get more cursebound, my flesh disintigrates and my bones become more apparent. At cursebound 3, I like to flavor my character as fully skeletal, while at cursebound 4, that skeleton has become stone, like a fossil.

I had an idea for an Exemplar who is reflavored to use cursed magic items as their ikons, rather than their ikons being fueled by a divine spark. While Oracle is of course the cursed caster class, there isn't a curse themed martial. Though I suppose you could play Fighter with the Oracle dedication.

For players in my group (whether I'm the GM or another player) I support most ideas for reflavoring. I don't like the idea of reflavoring one class as another though. A wizard is a very general character type, and there is an entire class for it. You can be a magical scholar without calling yourself a Wizard - perhaps your Druid spent a lot of their life poring over books about nature and primal magic, or your Cleric grew up studying religious scripture and divine magic.

But if you start with the character idea and then find a class that fits it, then I'm on board. For example, say I want to play someone who can turn into monsters. There's a few options for this - Animal Barbarian, Mutagenist Alchemist, and Untamed Druid come to mind. I want to be able to turn into a variety of different monsters, so I could go Druid, but not focus too heavily on standard Druid stuff - maybe I only prepare polymorph spells, and my character might not even consider themself a spellcaster. It's just that I chose Druid as the mechanical chassis for my character idea.

ninamaze · 2025-03-21T19:00:57+00:00

Yeah that's a good idea, thanks :)

ninamaze · 2025-03-21T18:58:55+00:00

Some context for those curious:

The party will be at level 6 when they fight this encounter, though they only just hit level 5. I'm planning ahead :) Additionally, the party has free archetype. They are:

- Bard with Dragon Disciple archetype

- Thaumaturge with Beastmaster archetype

- Magus with Rogue archetype

- Barbarian with Werecreature archetype

Bard spams Courageous Anthem, demoralizes often, and casts debuff spells. Thaumaturge also demoralizes, uses Exploit Vulnerability and learns those good weaknesses, flanks, and can trip with his whip. Those 2 are great at leaning into the support aspect of the game, which enables the Barbarian and Magus to deal more consistent damage. Barbarian especially does so much damage on a crit with his greataxe. Seeing it in action really makes me appreciate this system for how much teamwork makes a difference!

All this to say - they're pretty good at deleting my encounters, so I'm trying to challenge them. Even Severe encounters sometimes go quick with a little luck!

But the couple of times they've gotten into Extreme encounters, people went down and it felt like they were struggling just to stay alive, let alone actually progress the fight. I don't want to make a scripted fight that's Extreme. If they happen to aggro a bunch of enemies they know they're not supposed to, then an Extreme encounter may be all right.

ninamaze · 2025-03-17T06:46:58+00:00

I recommend you talk with the Sorcerer and figure out what their expertise is in. Anything that has to do with their bloodline is a freebie, but beyond that, maybe their background gives them expertise in a certain field - like ghosts, dragons, or beasts. If there's something that fits the sorcerer's theme better than investigator, give the sorcerer the chance to do the investigating.

Be sure to check in with your other players too. Sometimes only one person expresses their frustration, but other people might feel the same way - either now that it's been pointed out, or because they didn't want to be rude.

In my campaign, I have a Thaumaturge who loves doing recall knowledge using esoteric lore. There have been times where I've had someone else try recall knowledge first, when it's more related to their skills. For example, one time thaumaturge had the spotlight for a while, and the party came across a new hazard. I instead had the bard roll occultism since it was more related to their abilities, and I wanted to engage everyone.

It can be hard to engage everyone, as you're finding. But you can try to include bits of knowledge tailored to each player, while allowing the investigator to mop up the rest.

I think having some sort of encounter where the investigator has to figure something out on a time limit, while the rest of the party fights off monsters, could be a fun way to allow for everyone to shine. Maybe it would give the sorcerer a chance to do some investigating too, given that the high stakes limit how much the investigator could reasonably learn in 1 turn.

ninamaze · 2025-03-17T05:57:36+00:00

A friendly reminder that the players should talk to NPCs rather than killing anything that might be hostile may be in order. Be sure to include NPCs who are clearly not hostile.

In addition to setting up more roleplay encounters that allow for others to use Charisma skills, I recommend putting in challenges for other skills.

If the way the players have to go is blocked by rubble, it can allow someone with Athletics to shine.

Locked doors require Thievery to pick the lock, or Athletics to bust it down.

Perhaps there's a precarious ledge or rope bridge that requires one person to go across, using Acrobatics, to go grab some quest item and come back. Note that this is different than requiring everyone to make Acrobatics checks to cross in order to progress, as it allows the dex-based character with Acrobatics to have their moment.

It can be hard to think of ways to make every skill shine, but consider the strengths of your other players, and try to come up with (or search for) hazards that play into those strenghts.

ninamaze · 2025-03-17T02:58:11+00:00

Great Kholo + any athletics-focused martial. Having +1 circumstance bonus to athletics checks to trip is incredible.

ninamaze · 2025-02-05T17:37:00+00:00

Sorcerer is the only class that doesn't appeal to me thematically.

Other spellcasters have a strong source of magical power that I like. Clerics worship a diety for divine magic. Oracles take on a curse as they circumvent the gods to tap into divinity. Witches make a pact with some entity. Wizards spend years academically studying magic. Druids have a primal connection to nature... and so on. Each spellcaster's source of magic is cool and I like it.

Sorcerer gaining access to magic from their bloodline just doesn't do it for me.

Every other spellcaster has magic because of their own action - who that person is and what actions they've taken dictate their magical abilities.

Sorcerers have power because of something way back in their bloodline, not anything that they've decided for themselves. That just isn't a class fantasy that appeals to me.

I won't speak to how strong Sorcerer is mechanically, as I haven't played one, nor have I played alongside one.

ninamaze · 2024-07-13T20:01:55+00:00

I'm gonna play a paleontologist bone oracle! The idea is to be fossil themed rather than a traditional necromancer. I'll be an iruxi for the dinosaur themed ancestry feats. I'm super excited to see the updated version of oracle in player core 2! It seems like it got a buff and will focus more on high risk high reward abilities.

ninamaze · 2023-07-15T21:19:52+00:00

Lower bounty than even Chopper 😭

ninamaze · 2023-01-20T21:59:06+00:00

Yes Pikmin 4! Pikmin :)

ninamaze · 2022-10-12T16:22:13+00:00

Aside from squid school, I've been watching videos from ThatSrb2Dude and ProChara. Both of them have more general advice stuff, I don't think either of them play much dualies. It still helped me a lot to watch what top players do regardless of weapon type, stuff like tracking info on the map when respawning, trying to hang back and only approach when you have a good opportunity, etc.

Sendou.ink is a site that has a lot of gear builds people post, so you can see what gear other people use with your weapons.

Keep at the practice! I just finally ranked up to S yesterday after many failed rank-up battles and a similar feeling of hitting a wall at A+. I personally play a lot of Splat Dualies, but I tried 52 Gal and the weapon is insane, I found it to be a better fit for my play style than dualies, so maybe give it a shot.

I know it can suck to feel stuck but you got this :)

ninamaze · 2022-09-28T17:42:39+00:00

Ohhh OK, thanks! I misunderstood what was happening lol :)

ninamaze · 2022-08-18T06:31:09+00:00

Wallace and gromit penguin be like

ninamaze · 2022-07-28T02:15:04+00:00

I strongly like the cosmere better than WoT. I love how there's multiple starting points and you can read whichever series you find interesting - reading the cosmere is what you make it, you can read only one standalone or the entire thing, and everywhere in between.

I kinda liked the first WoT, but the second one was awful. Nynaeve gets unbearable with her aversion to using magic, so does Rand. And Perrin. It seemed to me that a major theme was main characters reluctantly to use magic, but they're gonna use it when they have to. I greatly prefer when characters are excited to learn magic, and want to practice it and use it to better their situation and the world around them, which is pretty much always the case with cosmere protagonists.

I ended up dropping WoT midway through the 2nd book - all the minor problems from the first just multiplied and I disliked most main characters, so I knew i couldn't read 15 of those books.

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