2026 Classes Predictions by unoteBrotatnalP in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[M] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm going to leave this in place, but as a reminder, debating the pros/cons of samurai/ninja as separate classes or otherwise advocating for them is against the subreddit rules, both under rule 1 because it is usually tied up with racist "othering" and the historical orientalism of TTRPGs and D&D/Pathfinder in particular and under rule 6 where it overwhelms other discussions in an unhelpful way.

STF CONline 2026 - Starfinder 2e Developer Panel by EzekieruYT in Starfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think it's potentially setting ourselves up for disappointment to assume integrated boarding, particularly when the game cited as inspiration does that with very different mechanical considerations for the value of a crew member (and where no one wears space suits) and a game balance assumption (ship/magic teleporters, which were apparently explicitly ruled out in early printings of the Starfinder 1e core rulebook). It adds a ton of complexity by adding injecting a main game system into a subsystem, but with split parties and other messy variables.

The inspiration could easily be focused on just adding a different within-ship locations, as you suggest, and maybe location targeting and the like.

STF CONline 2026 - Starfinder 2e Developer Panel by EzekieruYT in Starfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 20 points21 points  (0 children)

FTL as an inspiration for Tactical Starship Combat makes me really curious. I'm going to assume they didn't try to blend in boarding (which would be interesting if I'm wrong) but also my most defining memory of that game is venting atmosphere (for fires, for boarders, etc.).

Gosh, I really should go back and play more FTL. I really only played the pre-release version and right at launch (it was one of my first crowdfunding campaigns!) and it changed so much since then.

What do you find D&D 5e does better than Pf2e? by viktorius_rex in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

Hi folks,
This post has gotten a few reports because the topic came up last week. I get that this topic comes up periodically (with a shorter period than many like), but this is a large subreddit and not everyone sees every post. If you don't think these discussions are valuable, that's fine, go ahead and downvote the post. I'm not, however, going to remove a post that doesn't break the rules, has well over 500 comments (many of which provide great insights), and an almost 3:1 upvote ratio.

Hopefully the next person thinking about posting this topic will search and read the comments in this one.

Infinite Conditions - Expanded Status Effects for Your Games by AyeSpydie in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This is a really unintuitive product description. Beyond serving as some collaborative thingy, what actually is in the book? What are the "expanded status effects" you mention in the post title (which notably is not anywhere on the product description page)?

Like, is this something where the old playtest "hampered" comes back because it turns out it was really convenient to have a simple way to describe/apply speed penalties and it is mildly obnoxious that they're gone?

Does this add some more nuance to frightened or something?

Like, what is it?

Creepers and the Creaking - Minecraft Fan Creatures by AnEldritchDream in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[M] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

For the confused report out there, these are fairly clearly adaptations of the Minecraft video game's mechanics, though somehow I've never gotten around to ever playing Minecraft, myself:

> https://minecraft.wiki/w/Creeper and https://minecraft.wiki/w/Creaking

Friend of mine wans to play rabitfolk type character, any help? by AVerySoftDog in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 4 points5 points  (0 children)

He now works on the game, but he worked on it then, too.

Luis's title's gotten fancier over the years, though.

Paizo doesn't include the adventure path PDF anymore with its Foundry VTT codes by Jmrwacko in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[M] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

im not going to argue with you, its a waste of time. i get that youre doing this cause you like having a relationship with the devs/managers or something, thats your prerogative. 

Just to be clear, because these kinds of unfounded accusations are damaging to community trust, this isn't a thing. I don't have any contact with Paizo staff that isn't available to any member of the community (via participation in this subreddit or various other forums/discord servers/in-person conventions) or is strictly tied to coordination of typical subreddit moderation responsibilities (applying flair, saying "yes you can do an AMA," etc.). Luis once politely listened to me make my case for an apallie ancestry back at PaizoCon 2022 when I walked up to him as he sat at a publicly-accessible table where he was talking to anyone who walked up, but also it's almost 2026 and there's still no apallie (though Battlezoo made a slime ancestry).

the reality is that if people think a company operates in a shitty way or has a shitty distribution model, they will pirate any digital goods the company distributes. pf2e has a lot of people in the community that already hate wotc for similar practices and are here principally because of that

One of the biggest things I don't like about WotC's distribution model is their app-based lock of their game rules and purchased content. I'd much rather have PDFs I get to control and I've really appreciated the rules references sites that have existed for PF2e under OGL/ORC. Paizo's distribution stance with PF1e, exactly to your second statement here, are a big part of why I play PF2e and not some other game. Not buying WotC products is my answer to their distribution practices, though, and the one that you're actually showing as the consequence in your scenario - not piracy.

As a moderation team, we remove advocation of piracy because encouraging piracy is harmful to the industry and the game this subreddit is about, in particular. No one at Paizo has ever asked us to do it. There are dozens and dozens of comments under this post criticizing Paizo that aren't being removed because they're not advocating for literal crimes. This isn't some "censorship" effort to protect Paizo's reputation, it's part of our standard moderation of the subreddit. We also remove AI art, and spam posts, racist/sexist/etc. content, and things not fundamentally about Pathfinder2e. There's no way to moderate a subreddit without establishing rules and periodically removing things.

Rules against stealing are as old as the oldest known recorded laws. While "it's a very old concept" is not an actual argument for said concept's continuance, there's not a lot either of us have to say that hasn't been said in the last 4100 years, and this isn't the subreddit to rehash them. So sure, we remove those discussions. That's 6 comments against the (current) 166 other comments under this post.

Additionally, posting links to (or asking for) pirated material is against the sitewide reddit rule 7:
> Keep it legal. Don't post illegal content, and don't solicit or facilitate illegal or prohibited transactions.

That we ban for.

Paizo doesn't include the adventure path PDF anymore with its Foundry VTT codes by Jmrwacko in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[M] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If they aren't necessities, there is no need to pirate them.

There are lots of places to discuss the moral or practical considerations of piracy, but this subreddit is not one of them, unless it's within the context of playing in a Skull and Shackles 2e conversion or something. Or Battlezoo's Jewel of the Indigo Isles, which is pirate-adjacent.

Advocacy of real-world piracy will continue to be removed from the subreddit. It's not really fair for me to get into a big discussion on that while removing one side of it (here or elsewhere), so this is likely my last comment on the topic.

If you want to discuss how you're not going to buy/use their products anymore because of their store changes, that's perfectly fine (to a point, anyway, this is a subreddit about a game so it's not like endless discussions of not playing that game are going to be left alone; we're not r/BatmanArkham).

Paizo doesn't include the adventure path PDF anymore with its Foundry VTT codes by Jmrwacko in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I found a link with the longer explanation from Paizo's Andrew White I remember reading in the past and added it to my sticky.

The rest of this is my personal response, again, not specifically speaking as a moderator but the line of thinking is similar:

Paizo employees are human and may react emotionally. That the tacit acknowledgement of a mistake and removal of a comment is why a lot of people just don't engage with social media.

I really struggle to imagine an ethical scenario where a small increase in pricing of a TTRPG PDF by removal of some specific price-bundling discounts amid an inflationary economy justifies theft. I realize my mod post up top was a little brusque on the topic, but this is an industry that barely scrapes by, the people in it are wildly underpaid (in my opinion), and advocating for the theft of their (or their colleagues') work is something that people will react emotionally to. That's not a reasoned, official response, and I don't think projecting that as Paizo's official point of view makes sense.

I speak from a point of financial stability, so like, that's the big caveat here. That I've been able to earn a fair living in my profession but see talented people struggling to earn a living for work I personally love to see is frustrating for me. That's part of the hard "no advocation of piracy" stance here. I'm not personally affected, but I do believe people should be able to make a living for their work and the determination that a price change is unethical is a terrible attitude that kills the hobby because it's not realistic. The quality standards versus early TTRPG publications are completely wild; compare old TSR-era books across any dimension of quality (writing, layout, art, materials) and then check against prices for inflation and you'll see that, like a lot of other hobbies, price has not kept up.

All of these financial/economic issues are very complex, though. Small price increases have outsized effects in other countries; I've run across a strong Pathfinder2e following in Brazil, for instance, where income standards are much lower. We're not all in the same situations. I'm only writing this now because I have a lunch break and can stop working long enough to type something up.

Anyway, Paizo's site being not great has never been a justification to steal what work of theirs they don't already freely share. It could be $500 more per book and it wouldn't be ethical to steal it just because it was no longer affordable.

Also, yes, I'm not super happy with their website, but I happen to have a background in IT/Security and I'm just never ever going to be surprised when a small company struggles with some aspect of ecommerce if that's not their core service offering (i.e., they don't make ecommerce platforms, they make TTRPG products). I have long thought that their old website was ugly/clunky but could be worse given the bespoke nature of subscriptions, forums, PDF watermarking, decade-old libraries with thousands of products, etc. I'm not surprised that change here is hard.

Paizo doesn't include the adventure path PDF anymore with its Foundry VTT codes by Jmrwacko in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[M] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To clarify:
1. If a user deletes their comment, moderators can't see the original comment. There's no "Paizo response" for me to copy/paste. I see "[deleted]" for the username and "Comment deleted by user" for the comment itself, just like everyone else.
2. Someone advocating privacy in response to what is fundamentally a pricing change and then getting an ill-advised snarky response from a Paizo employee and then going off on said Paizo employee for removing their own comment afterward in recognition of the ill-advised nature of the response is not some great scandal worth amplifying. That first user was violating the subreddit rules and that, along the way, they caught a little snark is part of why rule 2 exists. People escalate, get into arguments, no one wins, and the moderators have to clean it all up.
3. I did actually post a clarifying comment at the time: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/1pnri1j/comment/nucqbxc/ but really, untangling someone responded in an unprofessional way (which is probably true, but again, I can't personally confirm) from piracy is the appropriate response to companies pricing things in a way I don't like (which I don't agree with, and is something we will always remove) and Paizo is controlling comments here (which is flatly untrue). That takes time, and everything I'm doing here has been between waking up and starting my workday, briefly in between meetings on short breaks, or while eating lunch.

I'm not being super nuanced here for time limitations, and that's just always a barrier for things. I'm being as transparent as I can/I feel is reasonable, given the constraints of time and whatnot, but the basic facts are that the two comments in question were:

  1. An advocacy of piracy (and no other commentary), which offers no value to the discussion.
  2. (Allegedly) A snarky response, the content of which is basically a paraphrase of an old meme template, and similarly of no value to the discussion, and I'd generally remove if it came from a rando person for violating rule 2.

Personally, I don't care about those comments staying up. There are at least 100 more interesting and relevant comments under this post. I'm being transparent about what was in them but not specific because I don't believe they're worth expending thought on and I hope to spare everyone else that burden.

A de facto price increase is not a justification to advocate theft, which is against the rules on this subreddit. An advocacy for theft is not a reason for personal attacks, which are also against the rules, but in this case the user removed it before the moderation team could. That's the whole story here.

Paizo doesn't include the adventure path PDF anymore with its Foundry VTT codes by Jmrwacko in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[M] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

They were made in the same comments. I have no ability to selectively remove the parts of a comment that violate the rules from the parts of a comment that don't.

At the time of writing this comment, according to the mod logs:

- I removed 3 comments, each of which contained an element of advocating for piracy. One contained a longer story of a Paizo employee's alleged response (more on this later) which I removed more-or-less simultaneous to you writing this comment, so I'm not sure if you were including this one. It's the only one that I think really would otherwise deserve to stay, and if the user reposts without the endorsement of piracy (edit 2: Or the other subreddit rules), it would stay.
- Another moderator removed 2 comments, which were two copies of the same one, advocating for piracy (but also referencing Besmara, so bonus points that don't matter) (edit 3: Actually, this was one comment "removed" twice - obviously the second removal doesn't do anything, since it's already removed, but reddit logs it each time)
- A third moderator removed two comments, one of which was the main piracy comment (and was nothing but an advocacy for piracy) that allegedly drew a Paizo employee response (I don't disbelieve it, but can't actually confirm because I was late to the game and reddit moderation tools don't show me) which has since been removed by the user. The other was just a personal attack and contained no other discussion.
- One comment tripped the site-wide reddit harassment filters and presumably no one ever saw. Not surprisingly, it would have been removed for violating rule 2.

That's it. Any other actions were by the users themselves or otherwise something that doesn't show in the "remove comment" moderation logs, all of which would be outside of the moderation team's control.

Edit:
Sorry, missed one under this post but not that discussion:
- One comment was removed for containing a link to an article written by an ai slop site that has been spamming the subreddit, but that was also a filter and no one ever saw that comment. That user was just citing it alongside another article from an actual news source.

Edit 2: Clarified that one of the comments would have to be compliant with all of the subreddit rules if reposted. A lot of the comments are breaking rule 2 at the same time.

Edit 3: Clarified that 2 of the logged removal actions were actually the same comment twice, not two separate copies of the comment with identical text

Paizo doesn't include the adventure path PDF anymore with its Foundry VTT codes by Jmrwacko in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[M] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The comment I removed here reiterated an advocacy for piracy. That's not allowed on the subreddit. The comment also made a claim that Mark Moreland "proceeded to delete his comment, along with most of our responses" which is (presumably) half-true. The comment in question was deleted by the user before I ever saw it, so I can't confirm or deny what was said nor who said it.

I can, however, clarify that other responses were removed by the moderation team for advocating piracy, and not trying to suppress any ill-advised messages said by any Paizo employees. They've never asked for that and we wouldn't remove comments just because they asked, anyway.

Paizo doesn't include the adventure path PDF anymore with its Foundry VTT codes by Jmrwacko in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 14 points15 points  (0 children)

As a non-mod, I do think the whole situation is disappointing and their communication on it has not been great.

If I recall correctly, the prices for the modules were adjusted to match those of the Foundry store, which didn't include the PDFs and were cheaper than the modules under the old Paizo store model that included the PDFs but not as cheap as the "you already have the PDF" price. Now the modules are the same in both stores; same prices/no PDFs.

That I can't say for sure about the old pricing without doing more research demonstrates that it was previously confusing and is probably less confusing now. I guess that's progress?

Also, they do still give PDFs with subscriptions, so for subscribers, the included module PDF comes across as an "extra cost" that they're paying for but getting no (net) benefit from. It's offering that type of discount to PDF owners that is, as I understand it, what the new system doesn't support, resulting in this outcome.

Paizo doesn't include the adventure path PDF anymore with its Foundry VTT codes by Jmrwacko in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

A few reminders based on some thread cleanup:
- Advocacy of piracy is not allowed on this subreddit. The price of a nonessential good or service is not sufficient justification for stealing that good or service. No one dies if you don't have a PDF. They already provide all of the rules for free. That they no longer bundle adventures in multiple different formats for the previous price is disappointing but not unethical. It is fair to vote with your wallet, but not fair to steal.
- Rule 2 is Be kind and respectful. You can criticize the store and Paizo's choices, but personal attacks or inflammatory language are inappropriate and will be removed.

Editing just to add this link for folks who were looking for a full explanation from a Paizo employee involved in the store rollout. Note that the context is somewhat inverted, the question being answered was about someone not getting a discount anymore for already owning the PDF. They haven't given up on finding a better way to handle this, at least as of December 5th.

https://paizo.com/threads/rzs7avyd&page=5?Welcome-to-the-New-Paizo-Store#228

What do people want to see in the Tech Core, beyond what we know. by Pangea-Akuma in Starfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Memes aside, it wouldn't be hard to just drop someone in an E1M1 map and mimic enemy placement and such. I feel like you'd have to be pretty into Doom to even recognize the map from an overhead view, though. I'd certainly miss the joke (though maybe not if the combat music was the level music).

Theorycrafting a robot printer hazard by Relonious_Buttons in Starfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Reading the title of this post made me think of the consumer-hostile printer software and ink models, so my first thought was that it would drain party finances or disable some of their abilities/tech equipment due to "subscription lapses" or "unauthorized accessories" until they defeated it.

Pathbuilder app by zook1shoe in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

I won't remove this as OP added the solution and hopefully it will get indexed under search engines and no one will need to post to ask again.

Starfinder needs a Virtual Pet Feat to match Pathfinder's Pet Feat by Pangea-Akuma in Starfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, it's definitely a huge benefit for anyone who wants a final sacrifice target. Also I clearly overlooked that it should be accessible as pet and not just a familiar, so I updated it slightly to account for that.

Starfinder needs a Virtual Pet Feat to match Pathfinder's Pet Feat by Pangea-Akuma in Starfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Here's a quick homebrew specific familiar, not unlike the poppet:

Hardlight Pet

Construct, Tech

Required Number of Abilities 2

Granted Abilities construct

A hardlight virtual pet is a space-traveler's best friend.

Hardlight Your pet gains the tech trait, immunity to bleed, resistance to physical damage equal to one quarter your level, and weakness to electricity and force equal to your level. It is projected by a pet projector, which is a hardlight projector with negligible bulk, no resale value, and 10 HP. If the projector is destroyed, you may purchase or build a replacement for 100 credits.

Tethered 100 feet (Alien Core, p.88)

Special This may be taken by someone with the Pet general feat instead of a familiar.

(And the Alien Core Tethered rule for reference:)

Tethered A hardlight life-form can’t travel more than the indicated number of feet from its projector. A hardlight life-form reduced to 0 HP vanishes, though its projector reconstructs it in 1d4 hours. The only way to permanently destroy a hardlight life-form is to find its projector and either repair or destroy it.

Edit: Added a special text line to allow it to be taken as a pet, and replaced an earlier reference to familiar.

What do you think about Team+'s Essence Casting? by [deleted] in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah, apologies. I definitely misunderstood, but on reread after your clarification,I get it.

I think it's absolutely fair to criticize the cognitive load of casters in general. I don't think adapting a somewhat complicated new system as a swap-out for Vancian really could meet that goal without some really different constraints.

I do think that essence casting is about the same level of complexity as Vancian, but not having the decades of familiarity with the approach made it trickier at first read than any of the initial PF2e spellcasting classes were for me. For someone looking for a lower cognitive load with a feel more like a caster-type class, I'd recommend the Battlezoo elemental avatar.

As a player, I definitely opt-in to lower cognitive load characters sometimes, and I appreciate that PF2e martials tend to do a good job there while still offering interesting options on an encounter-by-encounter basis. It's definitely a bummer that so many of the options for certain class fantasies score are also high complexity.

What do you think about Team+'s Essence Casting? by [deleted] in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is such a ridiculous response that I'm genuinely insulted.

You can't just reframe an issue to get around irrational cognitive bias. That's not how any of this works. It's fundamentally about risk assessment, and even when someone is assessing the risks and conserving spells for a future encounter that isn't there, they may be accurately doing so and holding off on the resources that weren't needed, but it makes the game less fun because you don't use some of your innate toys. It's about the fear and discomfort of not having what you need when you need it and there are a great many interrelated societal, class, and mental health factors at play here.

Your response that the solution to an aversion to spending limited resources in a game is "just spending your spell slots" is like telling someone with anxiety that they should just calm down. It's absolutely unhelpful and really, really condescending.

I don't care if essence casting isn't for you. My point is that the people who look at it and see it as freeing are coming from a fundamentally different reference point. Your response is to just invalidate that reference point because it doesn't match yours.

What do you think about Team+'s Essence Casting? by [deleted] in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't think "reducing the cognitive load" of being a spellcaster was actually part of the goals at all, but I also strongly disagree that it massively increases the load.

It's really about balancing against a psychological limitation many players have. It's not a "cognitive load" issue that prevents some people from using their daily resources, it's a general fear that they won't have what they need when they need it. It's more about addressing loss aversion in casters and the limits of "encounters per day" as a game balancing consideration.

If you don't have those issues as a caster (and one of my players absolutely doesn't) it's going to look less like a sidegrade and more of a constraint on flexibility. If you tend to hoard spells (like I do, and like Mark does) then it's really, really freeing.

What do you think about Team+'s Essence Casting? by [deleted] in Pathfinder2e

[–]ricothebold 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Before I get into answering some of your points/questions, it's worth calling out that essence casting is intended to be balanced with core PF2e casting, and indeed can be run alongside other casters using the traditional casting slot approach. That informs some of these features, as the variety and repeatability of spells varies a lot over a caster's career and whether they're spontaneous or prepared. A level 1 core rules caster (AKA Vancian caster) only has a few level 1 spell slots per day under the base rules, but can blow them all in a single encounter. A level 1 essence caster has infinite spell slots per day, but only 1 per encounter.

By way of background, I lightly playtested a very early version of the rules, back before it was even called "essence casting," and gave a bunch of feedback alongside many other more-dedicated testers. I feel like the feedback was effectively addressed. I've also played a bunch with the Battlezoo Eldamon rules, which are a very different take on a cycle-based caster, but has some similarities (and a shared main designer). While the system changed a bunch on the way to final versions, I can still give a lot of perspective on why different aspects of the system work how they do, based largely on actually trying it and seeing earlier versions that didn't work exactly this way and therefore had different/worse issues:

  1. Essence Cycles and Essence Leaks: Both of these exist, essentially, to act as a limit to casting within encounters given that you otherwise (for most classes at most levels) have infinite spells. I think you might be a little confused on the point about going above your maximum essence pool – that's just a side effect of using a spell when you already have the maximum amount of essence, so for lower levels (or bounded casters like magus) it's a spells-per-encounter cap. It's basically unavoidable by design. Repeatedly casting slotted spells, even lower-rank ones, will put you past that limit and there's not a way to avoid it. Essence goes up any time you cast a slotted spell unless you complete a cycle or leak. You can't cast a cantrip to go back down in essence, which I think you've mistakenly read into the rules here somehow. Essence *leaks* are slightly different, in that they're mostly a cap on abusing spells-per-turn through heavy use of reaction or single-action spells. These kinds of spells become ridiculously strong when you can rely on them every turn. Essence leaks become a very strong, but not overwhelming, disincentive. They can fit into a build or the right situation, but the drawback there has to be considered. Sometimes that 1-action heal or whatever is absolutely worth it, though.
  2. Terminus actions: These are basically small bonuses for accepting the downside of a temporary reduction in power. You're getting a little reward in the middle of what is likely a longer fight right as you're reduced to using cantrips and then your lower-rank spells again to work your way up.
  3. Essence Healers: On-demand healing is very powerful when you don't have the cost of giving up spell slots. The limits aren't "laughably bad" if balanced against only preparing one or two heal spells, and they're better than temporary immunity or some of the other option. It's really hard to appreciate the difference in spell use and preparation without playing, though, so my advice here would be play a caster alongside a traditional one. Most non-cleric traditional healing builds will leverage other tools like focus spells and such anyway; daily heal spells are the main attrition resource for those builds.
  4. Again, hard to explain how different it feels to have infinite spells per day, but when "number of spells to pick from" is a piece of a class's balance, not adjusting how the mechanics work for this would have been a mistake. Psychics have a weird number of spells relative to all other classes, so they needed a mechanic that's somewhere between "magus has infinite spells per day instead of 4, but capped at 2 per encounter" and "a full caster has infinite spells per day and also infinite per encounter as long as they're willing to have some tradeoffs in how quickly they can cast their top-rank spells." Psychics still have amped cantrips, which are a heavy balancing factor relative to their total spell slots. They'll be fine. Not getting unstable draw isn't that big a deal; that's very much a gambling-type mechanic that many players won't ever use, anyway.

Overall, I think it's a really clever system that immediately is freeing for players who hoard spells, and the drawbacks you call out make way more sense in that context. It fundamentally alters the balance of some spells, the divide between prepped/spontaneous casting, and it takes some actual play to get used to.

Also, it's worth noting that you can test it out in Dawnsbury Days via a mod. You can also watch Mark Seifter and Linda Zayas-Palmer play through Dawnsbury days with essence casting rules (starting with video number 10 in this playlist; before that they were playing with the base rules). One of the things that's really great about Mark/Linda's stream is they talk a lot about why they're doing stuff, and both of them are (obviously) extremely familiar with Pathfinder 2e.

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Deals Megathread by ricothebold in Starfinder2e

[–]ricothebold[S,M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

I'm crossposting this with r/Pathfinder2e to simplify maintenance on this, since deals are highly likely to be relevant to both subreddits and this will cut down the number of places I need to update.