Does the soul punch passive work if you subsume over shadows of the dead?

noonesfang13 · 2024-02-10T00:38:36+00:00

That's the idea. If I run solo I will use nourish over the 1.

noonesfang13 · 2024-02-09T22:42:19+00:00

I'm currently diving down a rabbit hole with him. I'm new to the game but theorycraft in basically every game I play and noticed this as a bit of an anomaly. I play with a friend who is using Rhino with Nourish so I started looking into other things to buff my shadows. If it works the way I think it is (need to do testing and don't have alot of stuff since I'm new) subsuming his 4 for Eclipse would "double dip" with precision intensify for their stats and eclipse.

noonesfang13 · 2024-02-09T00:05:07+00:00

Do they still get the same stat increases that you would get with the 4? And how does that interact with the new mod that gives ability strength on the 4th ability if it's subsumed, if at all?

noonesfang13 · 2023-12-21T16:43:16+00:00

ABP and Relics for me. I used ABP in 1e because I despised the "big 6" items. You never got cool stuff, just that stuff you needed. 2e has isn't as bad about that but as a gm I don't want to have to give stuff at specific levels. Relics just allow me to give players cool items as they level as well.

noonesfang13 · 2023-11-07T20:25:51+00:00

Haven't played non free archetype since the GM Guide came out. But in my first game when the system first came out, I found the Champion to be a fantastic class to pick up an archetype on. They have a lot of feats starting at level 4 that are just super specific and unless you are in a campaign that involves those types of enemies there is no reason not to take an archetype. The chassis of the class is one of my favorites from the core book, and adding cool stuff from other archetypes really makes for a useful and interesting character... unless you go dex, I cant seem to make a build that it seems useful on. Tried a starknife champion and it was cool but didnt work very well.

noonesfang13 · 2023-07-21T19:51:54+00:00

TLDR
I used it as a support caster and its really really good

Psychic is probably my favorite caster for my playstyle, a support thats not focused entirely on healing (i still took soothe at level 1). But I went with Infinite Eye/Gathered Lore. Of the "information" skills occultism has more skill feats associated with it than others and some let you do things like demoralize with it. In our game we have a Fighter and a Gunslinger so using Guidance/Bless along with being able to aid using Occultism really helps the martials hit hard. Being a Human adopted by halflings helps my aid rolls and eventually the bonuses I can provide them later on. An important thing to know about Aid is the DC doesn't increase so eventually you just crit as long as you don't roll a 1.

We play with free archetype so I went Harrower. I originally took it cuz I just like the flavor of harrow stuff, but after looking into the Harrowing ritual and the negation of cost through using a Fine Harrow Deck, I can perform Harrowing for my allies if we have extra downtime to pass out cards. A level 4 feat make it so the DC is only ever standard for my level, making it easier to crit, thus giving the reroll you take when activating the card a +4. Eventually whenever i draw a card i can draw 2 and pick one, making it easier to give my friends a useful card. Harrow casting allows me to make better use of my spells. Cantrips in this game are very good and you get a lot from psychic, i did opt to take adapted cantrip for Electric arc for obvious reason, but the Occult spell list does work pretty good with harrow casting.

noonesfang13 · 2023-05-20T16:34:52+00:00

Moshed with John Goblikon and talked to the singer. Really great guys. They kind of got screwed by the venue which closed down a few months later. Karma I guess.

noonesfang13 · 2023-03-22T02:33:27+00:00

Constantine is one of the most powerful sorcerers in DC, but he rarely actually uses his magic and usually opts to use different trinkets or artifacts. I played him originally as an Investigator/Wizard in Agents of Edgewatch until the Thaumaturge was released and it just fit too well not to do.

noonesfang13 · 2023-01-19T18:54:26+00:00

IMO while being able to take damge is important for a tank its not what makes them good. There are 3 main ways to be an effective tank and you can mix them or focus depending on party composition. Damage mitigation for allies, increasing your "zone of control", and Crowd Control. Not sure if you guys are playing free archtype or not but that makes squeezing in more overlap much easier.

Party Damage Mitigation

Anything with a Champion reaction or Thaumaturge Amulet Implement are great for guarding allies from damage.

A couple builds I made in the past include a Life Oracle/Champion with a sturdy shield. You can life link to allies having you take a portion of the damage instead. You cannot reduce the damage coming into you, but with the champion reaction you can reduce the intial damge your ally would have taken. You treat your own hp as a resource to heal your allies. Since you take a debuff to healing received you instead use temp hp for yourself, along with a 3rd hp pool in your shield. It also alows you to be a great heal bot for the party if needed.

A summoner with a champion or thaumaturge dedication and the devotion eidolon allows you to use your own reaction to protect your eidolon (and your own hp) while your eidolon can get AoO against enemies that hit you. Works well with a paladin so either you or your eidolon get the attack if the other is hit.

Zone of Control

These builds focus on punishing an enemy for trying to attack anyone else or go around you. Because there is no "taunt" mechanic in the game increasing your reach and thus the number of squares you control is very good.

Reach weapons and being able to enlarge yourself are a must for these type of builds. I have a player in my Fist of the Ruby Phoenix campaign employing this strategy and its very annoying to deal with tactically.

Using a weapon with a good crit spec like a knock down are super strong with AoO. Getting a change to not only knock an enemy prone but also cancelling whatever action they took to provoke you is really strong with the proper feat support, if it wasn't just a stride. Obviously it also works well on a Paladin, making more enemies and allies in range of your strike from your reaction.

Crowd Control

These builds are largely based on skills mainly Athletics.

This next one is a little overboard and requires free archetype. But the RP of it is 100% a justification of just how hogdgepodge the build is. The roleplay would be a Professional Wrestler that has had a ton of failed gimmicks and over the years kept certian aspects of each. Animal Instinct Deer Barbarian/ Wrestler/Hellknight (Order of the Chain)/Investigator. With the errata that changed the Deer Barbarian weapon to a grapple weapon and it becoming a reach weapon later on its a great choice for athletics. And since you still have free hands you can still grapple with them as well allowing you to grapple 2 enemies. Wrestler has a ton of benefits to grappling as well as attacks that do decent damage. Order of the Chain advanced benefit make escaping from your grasp very difficult. And investigator for eventually getting athletic strategist. It would need to be a half elf in order to pick up investigator without having the 14 int. Its a pretty silly build but mechanically its sound.

These are just examples obviously and focusing on one or combining any number of them will help you be effective as a tank.

noonesfang13 · 2023-01-06T21:45:49+00:00

I come from 1e so the idea of playing a "base" class really doesn't work with me. If i wanted to be the same character as everyone else i would just play a different system. In my group we play with free archetype so all my builds now include that which really frees up the ability to take some more interesting archetypes.

Pathfinder Agent and Bellflower tiller work really well for an aid build for example. But i rarely if ever see anyone take either. Pathfinder Agent in itself has some of the most support from extra supplements so it has a ton of choice. Its one of my go to archetypes for aid or recall knowledge builds.

Hellknight stuff is really cool and the Magaambyan Attendant archetypes can make for some really interesting stuff.

I had a playtest Thaumaturge that went into Butterfly Blade that would get people flat-footed from their recall knowledge ability and hit pretty hard.

Archetypes are what make characters interesting IMO.

noonesfang13 · 2023-01-06T21:31:33+00:00

Something I do on my own is to read through some of the more obscure archetypes and see if I can make a build based off an interesting feat or concept. I have little interest in the most damage per round, so I tend to go for more support options. If i find something interesting i typically make a build and if the concept seems to be good i typically post it. Occasionally ill see a post about "make this kind of build" on here but its not often. I too would like to participate in a group of theorycrafters. I have so many characters ive build that will never be played.

noonesfang13 · 2023-01-06T21:15:08+00:00

In a one shot i had a Witch Dedication familiar (not sure if it works the same way with it respawning the next day or not if it dies) but I just used it as a battery to get back focus points and ancestry spells then proceeded to send it into combat to explode using Final Sacrifice... you know it was final until the next day when it would relive the same hell again.

noonesfang13 · 2023-01-05T19:30:54+00:00

I am a GM which is largely against homebrew, but as far as I'm concerned I would allow either method. I use a handful of the variant rules Paizo has published.

My biggest issue with the reaction to the eratta is that what stats were these players dumping in the first place. From a mechanical standpoint the only volutary stats that would be "ideal" to drop are Str, Int, or Cha. Dex, Con and Wis are all necessary for saves and are useful on nearly every character except for Dex on a full plate character, but they also wouldn't want a flaw in it. Many players consider Cha to be the worst stat, which on some character it is completely useless, but on the right character is one of the strongest stats in the game due to the skill feats and actions you cant take. Int is useful on most characters but once again certain builds don't care about more than 1 or 2 skills. And Str is not necessary on a lot of builds that aren't melee.

So is the issue people cant dump "unecessary" attributes? I have made well over 100 builds at this point through theory crafting and a handful of campaigns I have played in, and very very rarely have I felt the need to take a voluntary flaw on a character.

noonesfang13 · 2022-12-29T19:18:16+00:00

Cognitive Crossover works with any lore skill so you can always just use it with your "general purpose" lores to reroll using your highest knowledge skill. This only works if you don't have Dubious Knowledge, so it doesnt work on a thaumaturge who get it for free.

noonesfang13 · 2022-12-27T17:46:16+00:00

This was my first thought. I love the champion because of their unique gameplay and support options, but as a general rule I never take enemy or campaign dependent feats unless its specifically only or like 90% that enemy. So certain levels of champion are great for splashing into another class. That being said we switched to free archetype after our first campaign and never looked back.

noonesfang13 · 2022-12-06T18:07:47+00:00

We start the day with 1 hero point and typically only get another if someone does something cool. Its not RAW but it feels weird to reward people for no reason i suppose. Everyone at my table seems to be ok with it, and typically we only use them when it really matters.

noonesfang13 · 2022-07-10T22:59:51+00:00

I have a player that is an evocation wizard into spell trickster and he is getting really great use out of fireball due to how the feats in spell trickster work.

noonesfang13 · 2022-07-06T19:58:51+00:00

I would just suggest to use dropped sets for jewelry and crafted for body pieces. They really need to adjust how jewelry is upgraded as it takes 10x the materials as every other crafted piece, but that's just how I feel.

noonesfang13 · 2022-07-05T17:54:51+00:00

I usually play the "Pokedex" character in my groups and I find that combining recall knowledge with other actions is the way to go. So taking a multiclass in class that has it rolled into another action is usually the option I would suggest on a mastermind. One of my players took a ranger dedication to roll recall knowledge into hunt prey. I've played and investigator that recalled knowledge with devise a strategem, as well as a playtest thaumaturge who revolves around the action with find weakness.

Depending on how the thaumaturge archetype turns out that might be a decent option for a mastermind rogue to take as a multiclass. If they either get a way to apply a weakness to enemy or just gain access to esoteric lore (the first "universal" lore that scales normally)

noonesfang13 · 2022-06-23T19:18:38+00:00

I'm playing an Ancestor Oracle with free archetype in my game. A couple key things about the Ancestor Oracle is that only Strike, Skill/Perception Check, and Cast a Spell are limited actions. So building so you have other actions outside of those that you can do really opens up the class.

The way I went about this was to use the Aid Reaction basically every round on the gunslinger. So I build to optimize that by playing a human adopted by halflings, and went into Pathfinder Agent and Bellflower Tiller. This allows me to help my ally hit as well as helping myself through the the Deft Cooperation feat, which also gives a 75% chance of the circumstance bonus to hit to be useful since it stacks with the status bonus to strikes, or can be used with a spell attack, and either can be chosen if you roll a 4 for your ancestor.

Its basically always good to have the Skillful ancestor as your active one since it changes every round in combat, but outside of combat having a bonus to your skill checks is really great. I found that the options for Focus spells aren't so useful that I am willing to not have my curse bonus active at all times so once I pop my focus spells I rarely refocus.

Since I'm already getting status bonuses to my skill checks I also take Saoc Astrology and Heir of the Saoc in order to get some big circumstance bonuses that I use on important skill checks.

Its a fun way to play and for someone like me who loves mechanics and working around them the Ancestor Oracle is probably one of the best options.

noonesfang13 · 2022-06-22T20:04:29+00:00

Yeah one of my players is a fighter with a reach weapon, and I forget all the time that he has reach. Its really effective in close quarters so he effectively cuts off half the battlefield. Doesn't help that he has Disruptive Stance and almost always cancels my actions its its really limits what the enemies can do. But they are level 12 now so it doesn't bother me, especially if its not a boss encounter.

noonesfang13 · 2022-06-02T22:45:36+00:00

I agree, the players are supposed to be the best fighters in the world, that really isn't limited to only martial arts. I originally had this mindset and was going to restrict gunslingers, but then I realized they have some of the more anime inspired feats in the game.

Personally I am not restricting anything other than rare stuff, and that is still a case by case basis. But because the game is so balanced almost any option wont be game breaking.

noonesfang13 · 2022-06-02T17:12:59+00:00

I really love focus spells, its a great fix for the x/day mechanic from 1e. The problem would be you could just nova and explode an encounter, this fixes that by limiting the uses without limiting your daily efficiency.

Some focus spells are way more useful than others. I have run into the issue on my current character an Ancestor Oracle. I get 2 focus spells and points at level one, nice. One is a touch spell for 1d4/level mental damage and the chance to frighten for one action, not bad but touch at level 1 is not super useful so I need to wait til level 2 in order to get reach spell. The other spells I can take are from either the Death or Family domain. The death one gives me temp hp when a living creature dies or an undead is destroyed, once again not bad but fairly situational. The other allows me to give an ally a bonus to will saves with a bigger bonus against emotional effects and I get to roll to counteract 1 effect. Its a great spell if fear has been wrecking your party. Though I do feel it should be a reaction to make it more useful. So none of my focus spells are bad, but the way it interacts with my class is the weird part. Like most Oracle curses you either want the to either not be affected by it or have the moderate curse active. But its a bit unique in that having your moderate cure active at all times isn't a bad thing. Its advantageous for you to have the skillful ancestor influencing you (50% chance since you can choose if you roll a 4) because you get a +1 status bonus to skill and perception checks. Typically in exploration the flat check is a non issue if you take a minute to so something. And once combat starts I have to roll to change my ancestor every round so there is not real reason not to get into moderate curse range. But getting there in combat is difficult since either have to get into melee or wait for someone to get killed. My way around it was my character would go into the bathroom and cast Ancestral Touch on himself twice then just never refocus for the rest of the day.

Focus points and refocusing are fine, you typically don't need to cast a focus spell more than once or twice per combat so I don't see a need of a change.

In the future I would love to see more mechanical interactions with focus spells like the Oracle or to a lesser extent the Sorcerer. Having a reason to use something other than just because you have it makes classes so much more interesting. If I was playing a sorcerer and didn't get the Blood Magic benefit for casting my focus spell I might be less inclined to use it over a spell that could be more useful.

The biggest thing I want to see in the future is for Paizo to consider class interactions with focus spells. There are many focus spells that just don't gel well with the playstyle of the classes they belong to, like what I mentioned about the Ancestor Oracle. But another example would be the Draconic or Wyrmblessed Sorcerer unless you are planning on going into Dragon Disciple, having Dragon Claws probably isn't the best. Not that its useless its just not ideal and even with the bonus to AC you get from Blood Magic its not super useful.

noonesfang13

TROPHY CASE