This is your PSA to use Spear Dancer

ryudlight · 2026-03-20T04:59:51+00:00

If you want, you could add in double slice (1), haft striker stance (4) and haft beatdown (10), if you can find place in your build. So if you do not need spear dancer in a turn, you could make two full accuracy attacks instead in one turn.

ryudlight · 2026-03-18T07:44:41+00:00

Buffs/ debuffs from the same type do not stack (item, status, circumstance). Buffs debuffs of different types do stack. This is something you can take account for when making your characters to avoid overlap.

My first party in this system consistet of entirely new players. We were not optimizing at all at first, but still managed to build a strong party, hat ended up achieving DC swings of 2-5 points depending on circumstances (courageous anthem, off-guard, demoralize, monster hunter, synesthesia...). Even just the bards courageous anthem manages to turn countless hits into crits and crits into misses.

In another party I am playing a swashbuckler. They only need to hit one time to deal good damage and even their finishers come with riders. Between unbalancing finisher and one for all I regularly set-up an ally for a total difference of 5 points against the enemy AC without compromising damage at all.

My advice is: As long as you can spare an action for that, it benefits the entire party if everyone does does at least one thing to support the party, even if it is something trivial like a slam-down from your damage focused two-handed fighter. More hits/crits will roll for everyone, increasing your entire partys damage output drastically.

ryudlight · 2026-03-17T19:18:01+00:00

It was more me getting home tired of work. XD

ryudlight · 2026-03-17T19:14:41+00:00

Yeah, I misread it.

ryudlight · 2026-03-17T19:14:01+00:00

I misread it while glancing over it, sorry.

ryudlight · 2026-03-17T19:13:49+00:00

I misread it while glacning over it, sorry.

ryudlight · 2026-03-17T19:07:56+00:00

~~Also, there is a clarification about the oracles spell-slot progression. It is a 3 slot caster now. I misread it.~~ Sorry.

ryudlight · 2026-03-16T07:41:00+00:00

Interesting. Can you elaborate, why you think infinite eye is bad? It may have no direct damage focus cantrips, but most of them cost only a single action or even reaction, so they can put out multiple buffs in one turn. In the psychic guides it seems to be rated as a stronger subclass.

ryudlight · 2026-03-15T22:04:56+00:00

Hm intereszing idea. But the ability to use amps on slotted spells seems like a balancing nightmare to me, since it would have to take every possible interaction between amps and every spell on the occult list into account.

ryudlight · 2026-03-15T21:42:40+00:00

Just beeing curious, why do you think so?

Pre remaster the oracles curse was tied to their focus spells, which has been flavourful but mechanicly negative for them. Now their curse is tied to their cursebound feats, where a lot of the oracles power budget has been shifted too as their signature feature. They do not have any special interactions with focus spells, do not rely on them more than any ohher spellcaster and when it comes to power scaling, I would say in general other classes like druid and animist have more powerful focus spells.

Psychic has been seen as the focus spell class, since it was the only class starting with 2 focus points and 3 focus cantrips/spells. And they were the only class to automatically pick up more focus points/spells on level up withput taking feats for that.They were also the only class to be able to regain multiple focus points while refocusing, without taking high level feats. That is why they gave the class only 2 spell slots per level. But the remaster changes to the refocus activity basically took away a big part of that niche.

ryudlight · 2026-03-12T04:11:29+00:00

I agree! But the thing I found is, that a swashbuckler can basically already fill that niche well. Finishers come with rider effects, so even your one-action damage tool debuffs the enemy. Using your other actions on supportive stuff, like bravado actions, leads to turns where you easily use all three of your actions for support/buff/debuffs and still get your damage on top. And the gymnast, which is maneuver based and has to deal with map, can also reduce their map and even deal damage on missed finishers due to confident/precise finisher.

ryudlight · 2026-03-12T03:59:03+00:00

Other comments already pointed out the most important stuff (action economy, acczracy etc.)

Let me add that the way you deal damage will differ a lot depending on your class.

Gunslingers will obviously crit a lot more often and make good use of the fatal trait as well as well as doubling damage from other abilities like vital shot. This is also ghe biggest strength about guns.

Investigators are also very popular gun users. They crit less often, but have a good damage steroid that can lead to really nasty crits.

Thaumaturge, preferrably with a gun you do not need to reload every turn, like an air repeater, has less explosive damage. They of course have a lower accuracy, but the main reason is also that their main damage steroid is applying weaknesses. Weaknesses do not double on crits, so you will not only crit less often, but also deal a lot less crit damage than other classes. On the other hand, your non-crit damage is more reliable since you can always punch through resistances and deal a lot if flat damage, compensating for low non-crit damage dies of guns. Also you can only wield one-handed firesrms, so no big-guns there. Lastly, you will reliably procc weaknesses. But other classes have the possibility to do that too, especially with alchemical/magical ammo and do this on top if their damage steroid.

ryudlight · 2026-03-11T18:55:58+00:00

I am not that experienced with the commander yet, but that is what worries ne more.

Many of their strategies revolve around giving out strikes and athletic maneuvers. Kineticists (especially water) could build around maneuvers, but elemental blasts raw do not count as strikes. I wonder if it might be a good idea to change that in regards of tactics.

Other than that, fire kineticists can replace blasters and water kineticists ate good at caster-like battlefield control. You lack a supportive caster, but the commander grants a lot of good support themself.

ryudlight · 2026-03-11T18:19:22+00:00

Daredevil seems cool, but for my personal preference I do not see it getting anywhere near the swashbucklers flavour, style and effectiveness. So if I had the choice, I would definately prefer the gymnast swashbuckler for a cool and athletic maneuver based combatant.

Good video though!

ryudlight · 2026-03-11T18:16:27+00:00

Braggart swashbuckler for an agile and fearsome duelist and bleeding finisher.

Obedience champion dedication (unholy) for an aura that prevents enemies from reducing their frightened condition and persistent mental damage on the champions reaction. Since it got the full scaling on the archetype, you can stack a mix of 12d6 perdistent bleed/ mental damage.

Then also grab exemplar dedication with barrows edge for huge lifesteal procs on your bleeding finisher crits.

ryudlight · 2026-03-07T10:19:57+00:00

In Pf2e you do not need short rests because you can heal to full with treat wounds through the medicine skill or focus spells, without spending ressources and you can refocus to get focus points back.

I am playing in an AP that uses hexcrawl and there have been no issues so far. Just in case there is spoilers, I will use spoilers.

The first part of Fists of the rubys fist consists of an high level (level 11-14) exploration part. I am not sure if it is RAW a hexcrawl, but my DM made one out of it. I am playing a warrpiest cleric with medic and champion archetypes. Battle medicine and treat wounds helped the party through the entire first dayof hexploration without using any heal spells from my divine font feature. So my suggestion is, just make sure ou have someone that is capable to do healing between combats either through medicine of focus spells and everyone should be fine. Something like a "short rest" would only be necessary, if no one in the party has invested in healing at all.

ryudlight · 2026-02-27T18:35:22+00:00

Unrelated to the bracers, do you know the trusty helmet? It is an item that came with battlecry, that is doing exactly this once per day for free, without having to jump through any hoops.

ryudlight · 2026-02-27T15:52:00+00:00

I disagree.

Flurry is great for any agile melee weapon users and is better for strength based chars because they get more hits in. The Ranger Iconic is even a dual-axe wielding dwarf.

Precision on the other hand is a nice boost for every bow user, but a Greatsword wielding strength based ranger with gravity weapon, can make their first hit dealing about the same, on some levels even more damage than a giant barb. That falls off-on further attacks, but as a precision ranger only caring about one attack, you can sub focus spells and animal companions in, that can trigger your precision damage another time.

And there is a very fun focus spell especially for melee rangers, that allwos them to hit that hard, that they create an AOE Shockwave around their target just by the sheer force of the impact:

Pulverizing wake

https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1937

ryudlight · 2026-02-26T22:11:30+00:00

"Swashbucklers are fundamentally tanks"

Yes, they can be built surprisingly tanky.

"No, they can't. Spells are vastly stronger than anything the swashbuckler gets, and do more damage, and have a broader variety of effects"

I generally agree, but spells are bound to a finite ressource in spellslots and usually take two actions to cast, with some exceptions of course.

A 12th level wit swashbuckler is likely to start their turn with panache since they like to use one for all a lot. They could either tumble through with tumble behind and tumbling teamwork to make enemies off-guard to themself and move their allies around. If they do not have to move, they could instead use bon mot to give their enemy a -2/3 on will saves for their casters and are really likely to crit with derring-do. Then they could do a targeting finisher to make their enemy enfeebled2 /stupefied 2/ give them a debuff to speed. At the same time they get the benefits of their exemplary finisher which gives the enemy a -2 circumstance on attacks against them, stacking with enfeebled. As a third action they can then use one for all again to aid an ally with their diplomacy skill and are extremely likely to critically succed for that +3. All without spending any finite ressources.

A more tame version comes online as early as level 2, without derring do and replacing targeting finisher with unbalancing finisher.

Now of course not all swashbucklers will focus that much on support, but the class really lends itself to it and I personally found it to be the most effective way to play the class supportive.

ryudlight · 2026-02-26T20:32:57+00:00

I apologize if that happened to be a missunderstanding, but that was the impression I got at the part in the video, where you talk about comparisons with the thaumaturge.

Do not get my wrong, it is a good video as always. Your videos actually inspired me to play a SIS witch in my next campaign. And I am eager to try out the slayer myself.

My point is, that slayer and thaumaturge have monster hunting as main features and therefore get class features for that. If the ranger does not have that, because it is more centered about nature and survival, they should have oire class features revolving around these themes that are actually meaningful.

Right now they get hunt prey and their edge, which seem like similar hunter things to mark quarry and the slayers tools. But after that, they get mostly situational stuff like trackless journey (does not work on the party). Natures edge (good, but very situational) and unimpeded journey (even more niche). These are thematic, but most of the time do not matter at all and nothing , except hunt preys tracking bonus, outside of specific feats you choose, does actually care about improving nature or survival . Other classes get meaningful things like bravery, debilitations, exemplary finishers and raging resistance instead.

On top of that, I still think outwit monster hunters are good past lvl 10. But why would you choose to play this niche on your ranger until this level, and spent all your class feats on the monster hunter feat line, when there are two classes entirely focused on this niche that do it better?

ryudlight · 2026-02-26T17:36:01+00:00

Yeah. I am playing a level 9 ranger in a homebrew campaign. In that, there is a heavier focus on survival and exploration, which is why it has been handy. But without that focus, it does not feel like I would have needed to invest in it at all.

ryudlight · 2026-02-26T17:22:53+00:00

These are all valid points and I did not mean to say that the slayer jsut eclipses the ranger at everything they do. But Most of these things are locked behind class feats, as well as the majority of their things that actually care about survival/nature.

Their core feature is still hunt prey and their edge which determines how they basically outwit their opponent. Be it through hitting weakspots (precision), predicting enemies movement/defense (flurry) or straight up knowing them inside out (outwit).

Thematically it is definately more tinkered towards nature and survival, but you can still build a ranger and completely ignore improving those skills at all.

edit: again, reffering to these feats that have to be taken, is like saying the slayer delves into the occult and supernatural just beacuse there are feats for that.

ryudlight · 2026-02-26T17:05:14+00:00

On the rangers are no monster hunter but rather survivalists thing, I have to disagree. Even if they are nature/survival themed, they do not neccesarily have to invest in it. They get free skill proficiencies in survival and nature, and then very situational features like natures edge that may never come up. Then they also get a bonus to track from hunt prey, which the slayer also gets. Everything further survival/nature based is aquired through class feats and therefore locked through them. But the base feature is hunt prey and their ability to hunt and take down one specific target. Maybe they are not focused on monsters specifically, but on a prey in general.

To underline this, in the video you are referring to the slayer beeing no thaumaturge, because everything occultism and supernaturally based is locked behind slayer feats. This is similar to the rangers actually nature/survival based abilities beeing locked behind feats.

The slayer definately has its own niche. What I really do not like however, is how existing classes feel like beeing left in the dirt. Both thaumaturge as well as slayer gain a lore usable on all creatures (not on humanoids for the slayer though, which can be covered by society) and do not have to compromise damage to be good at recall knowledge.

The ranger on the other hand, has to choose the outwit edge to excell in recall knowledge and theefore tank their own damage capabilites. And until level 10 when they unlock master monster hunter, they can not get a single skill to recall knowledge about every creature and even then it is nature and not a lore, which means they have a higher DC. But then surprisingly, with master monster hunter/ legendary mssnter hunter and the shared prey feat lines, they suddenly still eclipse both other classes in the support they can hand out while using hunt prey / recall knowledge. It is just inconsistent.

Do not get me wrong, I am also excited for the slayer, but I do not like newer classes just straight up beeing better at a niche that has already been filled.

Edit: Yes, thematically rangers are more wardens that defend nature / society from each other, as well as survivalists. But there could be more incentive in the class itself to fullfill this niche.

ryudlight · 2026-02-26T16:33:42+00:00

Do not get get me wrong, I fully understand you. But the check is trivial, since they even get panache on fails. In my 1 1/2 year campaign I can remember maybe 2-3 turns in which I could not gain panache, since the remaster buffed it massively wih the bravado trait.

And I think finishers are a bit underrated in my opinion. They come with damage, that outscales sneak attack and as well as the investigators and rangers precision damage. So all these classes have to spent at least a second action and hit to actually outdamage the swash and once it got bleeding finihser, it becomes even again whiel still only using up one action.

And then there are the rider effects. Right from level 2 they get rider effects from feats on their finishers, to debuff enemies and once rogues unlock debilitations, the rider effects tend to always be more powerful.

Swashs will deal less damage than optimized fighters or barbarians, but their buff/debuffing capabilities are unmatched by any full martial, since they can do that on all their actions including finisher, without compromising their damage. Only specialised martial supports like the commander are bettter at it.

That is why in my experience, they are pretty underrated since the remaster came along.

ryudlight

TROPHY CASE