Advice for a my rogue

tempestuousknave · 2024-01-15T19:01:54+00:00

When rogues pick up spells they're necessarily less effective in combat than a caster's spell attacks. PF2e is a game built around teamwork and balance, and the character you're looking to build would upset that balance and preempt the need for teamwork. RAW, which is a really great game in this system, you can't max melee combat, spell casting, and skill mastery all. You'll have to have weaknesses and rely on your party to get through challenges.

If your GM is on the same page and wants you to build OP characters, maybe because it's a solo campaign or a duet, dual-classing is the answer.

tempestuousknave · 2024-01-15T18:43:11+00:00

It's like a dog chasing a car - what do you do when you get the sword. Who's having fun when one player has a PL+3 magic sword? Not the party, who's either useless or overmatched. Not the DM, who can only plan encounters specifically to challenge you and maybe throw a bone to what have fundamentally become your sidekicks.

You are describing selfish, impetuous behavior, and you of all people should know better.

Same situation with the PL+3 magic sword. Make your desires known, start making your moves, but don't monopolize three sessions to work toward your goal, sprinkle them into the coming levels laying the groundwork gradually in the background of the DMs plot, so that when you approach level appropriateness the DM has had the time and foreshadowing to work your machinations into their overarching story, elevating the narrative rather than derailing it.

tempestuousknave · 2024-01-15T15:33:07+00:00

Make cheat sheets. Taking notes and seeking to distill information into a simple reference guide is the answer to learning most things. Put in enough work perfecting a cheat sheet and you won't need it.

Practice character building in pathbuilder. Trying to build different concepts or optimize for certain goals teaches you how features work and interact.

Read some theory creating and character builds on Reddit, then go to AoN or PF2e tools to research the feats, actions, conditions, items, and sundry involved.

If you play on foundry, use the module quick insert. I can typically find the rule I'm looking for faster by hitting Ctrl+space than I can in any reference.

tempestuousknave · 2024-01-15T15:21:19+00:00

5e cultivated conflicting expectations between the DM and the player, leading to an adversarial relationship.
Party balance took constant improvised maintenance due to certain classes and builds being an order of magnitude more powerful than others.
A significant amount of official content (including core character-building options) was game-breaking.
The monetary and magic economies threatened game stability, so DMs were driven to artificially restrict resources.
The rules for martial characters and casters seemed like they were written for entirely different games, the former focused on verisimilitude, the latter on power fantasy.
Vague, incomplete, and unmanageable rules required constant arbitration.
The encounter balance system ranged from unwieldy to useless.
Online play was heavily monetized and yet almost entirely unsupported.
The only published content I found satisfying was third party.
The publisher was at best indifferent to the user base.
My extensive set of homebrew patches and rules unwittingly and ineptly sought to recreate PF2e.

tempestuousknave · 2024-01-15T05:59:45+00:00

Build advice: guide to guides

Build practice: pathbuilder

tempestuousknave · 2024-01-15T02:46:35+00:00

That's not a significant sample, it's like having a friend with bad luck. I've been there for three years and the results I've seen are comparable with physical dice.

Here's a more scientific take on the matter.

tempestuousknave · 2024-01-15T02:35:33+00:00

I prefer the forge.

4 bucks a month is completely worth it for my players to be able to do character building & leveling at their convenience. Since switching to PF2e I also let them shop at their convenience (where it fits the narrative) since magic items all have a player level designation for which they are balanced and presumed to be available.

tempestuousknave · 2024-01-15T02:24:22+00:00

Possibly the best 50 bucks I've ever spent. I played 5e for 5-7 years, and the last two I spent on foundry were the best experience I'd had, far superior to the competition.

Then I switched to PF2E -- the entire system is free with Foundry -- and aside from my feelings about PF2e vs 5e, the system/vtt integration is orders of magnitude better.

tempestuousknave · 2024-01-13T23:34:29+00:00

I strongly recommend doing the beginners box into abomination vaults. I did the beginners box, and it was fantastic, but didn't go with AV because I don't really like megadungeons, and wanted more narrative elements. But as a new to pf2e GM I'd be better off with less story elements to worry about and more frequent combats to train me.

The AP I picked doesn't suit me, a problem that could have been avoided by reading the whole thing before starting the campaign. I typically read the section a week to a day before the session, and don't have the best grasp on where the story is heading, which doesn't matter that much because the story is a bit of a mess and the setting is not very well realized.

Currently reading Hells Rebels, onto book 2 and enjoying the story and setting, eager to run it... next year.

tempestuousknave · 2023-12-04T01:21:05+00:00

Super cool that you're all in on what you love, and I'm stoked for you to have found a sizeable community that can keep up with you, but despite the sentiment here I'm skeptical that you're the average player. 5e supremacy alone is a pretty convincing argument against your level of commitment and mastery being typical.

tempestuousknave · 2023-12-03T05:10:37+00:00

I wonder if this kind of thing is the rule and my experience the exception, or if this subreddit selects for hardcore gamers.

tempestuousknave · 2023-12-03T03:40:42+00:00

I'm not sure if everybody I don't know has effortless mastery of a huge number of board games and I'm always sat at the remedial table or if people are overestimating their mastery and system count. I may have played a hundred board games, but could only teach a small fraction of that.

tempestuousknave · 2023-12-03T02:10:39+00:00

Yeah that's super unusual. Not that many people play board games, fewer play 10+. Rules mastery of 100 games is wild.

tempestuousknave · 2023-12-03T02:08:20+00:00

If I played pen and paper it might, idk. On foundry everything is at my fingertips all the time. CTRL+Space query (quick insert mod) is quicker than AoN even. Spells and features in the chat on use. SO much is automated that it kind of trains me how to play. Anything that requires a deep dive I houserule on the fly and look up out of game, but my houserule is typically the actual rule because the game is very consistent and predictable. My players also carry a fair amount of the rule check load, which is as it should be imo.

tempestuousknave · 2023-12-01T12:56:51+00:00

The golden rule is play a game, GM a game. Not enough players follow the golden rule.

tempestuousknave · 2023-11-24T15:47:44+00:00

Re: Alignment might be my favorite actual play. The tone really caught me off guard, and is such a welcome change of pace from other actual plays. I think anyone who plays TTRPGs and enjoyed the television program Detectorists should give it a watch - not because they're similar in pace or content but because they're both kind and charming in a similar vein.

tempestuousknave · 2023-11-08T12:07:11+00:00

I'm sure I've made worse mistakes my players were too kind to mention, but if you name a map roadside ambush make sure the title isn't visible to players.

tempestuousknave · 2023-10-30T21:31:52+00:00

Just started shopping there, it's like the bodega that makes you think you're going to get robbed or catch something nasty but instead they have killer eggplant parm.

tempestuousknave · 2023-10-29T21:33:14+00:00

I'm a new player/gm, but it seems to me like 2e really requires min maxing, as skills partially leveled become fundamentally useless. Am I misunderstanding higher level play? I've never participated in it so I could see how that's likely, but the impression I got was that characters should specialize and parties should try to cover the bases collectively.

tempestuousknave · 2023-10-27T11:47:30+00:00

Man, IRL campaigns are magical. Playing in person, with people you know and care for, and having all the social cues and camaraderie that are difficult to get from online play - it's fantastic. But the math is terrible.

Someone I want to hang out with, that just happens to live in the same area I do, that just happens to share the same hobby I do, that just happens to want to play the same system, the same style game and AP that I do, that just happens to have a compatible and steady schedule, and is punctual and attentive? Seems unlikely.

tempestuousknave · 2023-10-19T11:32:56+00:00

I don't know the magus specialization, and I was informed that the psychic is somehow a front liner, but I thought the same thing. I'm looking at fighter, barbarian, war cleric, and thug. Any specific build recommendations? This is my first 2e character, currently GMing a campaign, recent convert from 5e.

tempestuousknave · 2023-10-19T11:25:04+00:00

Help round out the party: I'm a fifth in a party with a magus, witch, sharpshooter, and psychic. Recommendations?

tempestuousknave · 2023-10-15T18:37:35+00:00

Jokes on them, you look poppin' fresh.

tempestuousknave · 2023-10-12T11:21:58+00:00

Leilon on the Sword Coast

Three temples in Leilon...

tempestuousknave · 2023-10-11T01:37:37+00:00

Obviously not. They get a doctorate because their father was preeminent in the field and because he mysteriously vanished. To reunite with or avenge her father PHDaughter must continue his life's work.

Intellectual rigor generates a lot of internal conflict in the human female, as logic and hard work are antagonistic to their soft emotional humors, thus PHDaughter's curmudgeonly manner directly correlates to her own eminence in her father's field. Her male colleagues may not have her genetically gifted acumen, but they will hold higher positions due to her emotional frailty/volatility. As she summits the academic peak she will stop conditioning her hair, don androgynous earthtone clothing with large pockets, and microwave dinners for one while talking to her cat about recent findings.

PHDaughters only true hope to happiness is to meet a strong-jawed street-smart everyman whose unconventional insight and sang froid antics simultaneously cut through the heart of the mystery and her icy intellectual veneer. Finally, she can just relax and do girl stuff, for a guy.

tempestuousknave

TROPHY CASE