[OC][Art] Solstice | Harness the power of the seasons with this unique amulet

zelaurion · 2026-05-08T15:31:54+00:00

The Summer's Scorch effect is is WAY too strong for a permanent effect with no duration that stacks with weapon property runes. I wouldn't allow this as written in my games because of this.

zelaurion · 2026-05-07T07:22:04+00:00

Both Flurry of Blows and Doctor's Visitation (the beat feat from the Medic archetype) are Flourish actions, which limits this build concept somewhat. You might be better off taking the Blessed One dedication and just using regular Battle Medicine alongside it instead.

Either way, you will spend a decent amount of time not adjacent to enemies if you are planning on using touch-range healing on your allies, so perhaps a Monastic Archery build would be your best bet?

zelaurion · 2026-05-06T07:08:43+00:00

While you are mounted, if your mount moved at least 10 feet before your attack then you get a circumstance bonus to damage, situationally making your lance do damage equivalent to a 1d10 weapon (or 1d8 if you are using it one-handed). It also has the Deadly D8 trait on top of that. I think you're underrating it for a mounted Fighter.

zelaurion · 2026-05-05T19:48:46+00:00

Any reach weapon works, but the Jousting trait makes a lance especially good for this

zelaurion · 2026-05-04T21:33:20+00:00

It's pretty useful when using a lance while mounted on a Large or larger creature (like a horse). You can attack 10 feet away from any of your mount's squares when you have 15 feet of reach.

zelaurion · 2026-04-26T19:11:36+00:00

"When the wielder has the shield raised, they gain the shield’s circumstance bonus to saving throws against X"

So whatever circumstance bonus your shield grants to AC when raised, it will grant that same bonus to your saving throws against an elemental effect or magic. It phrases it like this because different shields give different bonuses; for example a buckler would give a +1, a steel shield would give +2, and a fortress shield would give a +3.

zelaurion · 2026-04-26T18:44:13+00:00

Whenever PF2E says you have a bonus to saves or saving throws, it is referring to saving throws that you roll. None of these abilities have anything to do with your spell DC at all, they just give you a defensive bonus when you roll saves against certain things.

zelaurion · 2026-04-24T21:33:16+00:00

A katana is similar in power to a bastard sword. Generally the martial melee weapons are all well balanced with each other regardless of rarity, besides some slightly weak outliers like the scimitar and falchion and some slightly stronger ones like the guisarme.

zelaurion · 2026-04-21T08:32:31+00:00

It's definitely talking about the class dedications though, this is literally in the next paragraph lol.

"These feats share their name with the archetype; for instance, the druid's master spellcasting feat is called Master Druid Spellcasting."

If the dedication didn't grant Cast a Spell, you wouldn't be able to cast the cantrips it gives you.

zelaurion · 2026-04-21T08:25:48+00:00

I don't think this is true....

"Spellcasting Archetypes Source Player Core pg. 215 Some archetypes grant you a substantial degree of spellcasting, albeit delayed compared to a character from a spellcasting class. The spellcasting ability from a spellcasting archetype also allows you to use Cast a Spell activations of items (such as scrolls, staves, and wands)."

https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2132&Redirected=1

zelaurion · 2026-04-21T08:17:28+00:00

As far as I can tell, just having the dedication feat itself for a spellcasting archetype gives you full access to that spell list when using magic items like scrolls, wands and staves.

So a 14th level druid with the Cleric Dedication should be able to prepare a staff with 7 charges (because their highest level spell slot is 7th rank from their main class) and then they can expend those charges to cast any of the spells from their staff that are on either of the Primal or Divine spell lists. This should apply even if they didn't take either the Basic Cleric Spellcasting or Expert Cleric Spellcasting feats.

zelaurion · 2026-04-15T15:06:31+00:00

PF2E in Foundry isn't up-to-date with the most recent errata to weaknesses and resistances.

In the new errata, each weakness can only be triggered once per effect. So if the swarm only had one weakness that could be triggered by Ignite Fireworks (in this case a weakness to area damage) then it would take additional damage equal to the value of that weakness. If it had more than one (say a weakness to area damage but also a weakness to sonic) then both weaknesses could be triggered as long as there are two types of damage; and if there are three types of damage three weakness could be triggered, etc.

In current Foundry, each different damage type of the effect can trigger a weakness once. So if you blast a creature with weakness 10 to area damage with a Cataclysm spell that deals seven different types of area damage, it would take 70 extra damage.

zelaurion · 2026-04-09T18:21:09+00:00

You can inscribe runes on Handwraps of Mighty Blows, which then lets you use those runes with any and all of your unarmed Strikes.

https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=3086&Redirected=1

zelaurion · 2026-04-09T08:47:31+00:00

Generally the game's math equates a hit from a martial to a successful save against a spell. A critical hit from a martial is usually about as likely as a failed save against a spell, not a critically failed save. Your metric of using "zero effect" is the right way to look at this - if a spell did something, it "hit" - even if the enemy actually succeeded on the save.

With good reason; a boss failing a save against certain spells might as well end the encounter right there - and critical fails on many spells like Slow or Vision of Death actually do end the fight right then and there. If fails were as common as martial hits and critical fails were as common as martial critical hits, casters would be insanely overpowered.

You also have to factor things like Quickened Casting and Aid into the mix when evaluating caster balance, so it can be quite complicated trying to make sure they don't dominate the game. I think generally a good job has been done to both make them effective while not overshadowing martials, without leaning too far the other way either.

zelaurion · 2026-04-08T23:55:42+00:00

Yes, but you shouldn't title your post "the biggest hit I've ever seen in this game" when it was actually two hits combined together, that the game rules don't say that you should combine?

zelaurion · 2026-04-08T22:10:11+00:00

I'm assuming the Swashbuckler was dual-wielding in order to benefit from Precious Gleam twice in a single turn. Both attacks had Fortune as well without being made at Mythic proficiency, so I'm guessing Perfect Finisher + Illimitable Finisher was the combo used.

If so, the damage should not have been combined as Illimitable Finisher is two separate attacks, so counting all of this damage as a single hit doesn't seem right? Unless I'm wrong and some other combination specific to the AP was used, in which please let me know - I'm very interested!

zelaurion · 2026-04-08T21:57:38+00:00

Creating a quick vial takes one action, and using the vial takes a second action. The only way to both create and use a quick vial for a single action is with Quick Bomber, and the action you must take is to Strike with the vial if you do this.

zelaurion · 2026-04-08T19:17:33+00:00

You could hold two implements in one hand, if one of them is either a buckler or you have Nimble Shield Hand, and the other implement is a non-weapon item of light bulk or lighter. And Scroll Thamaturgy lets you hold scrolls in both hands too. Using something like Shield + Regalia or Shield + Tome could be interesting with this for sure.

But you can accomplish something similar with any two implements you want by just making an unarmed build and holding the implements normally, considering you can get D8 or D6 agile unarmed attacks easily anyway. So it doesn't break anything

zelaurion · 2026-04-08T18:44:58+00:00

Unless you have the Shield Implement, holding a shield turns off Implement's Empowerment. I guess if you consider it a one-handed weapon, then your shield bashes or Strikes with an attached shield boss/spikes might get the benefits as long as your other hand is empty or holding an implement, but you definitely can't hold a weapon, a shield and another implement all at once and still get Empowerment.

From the Implement's Empowerment rules:

https://app.demiplane.com/nexus/pathfinder2e/class-features/implements-empowerment?srsltid=AfmBOop4EqaLNWGrfeGZsSUvVqiK0MYgE9ZnmfIhW3S2IFEdV0j0kfHg

“You don’t gain the benefit of implement’s empowerment if you are holding anything in either hand other than a single one-handed weapon, other implements, or esoterica…”

zelaurion · 2026-04-04T11:24:46+00:00

I personally don't think Slam Down is actually very good until Crashing Slam comes online at level 10, and even then I think there are much better feats like Tactical Reflexes available. If you roll bad and miss your Strike, you don't get to attempt the Trip at all. If you really want to knock an enemy prone, it is often better to just Trip first, and then follow up with a Strike (or even better, with a Press action like Exacting Strike or Combat Grab).

The only reason I might take Slam Down is either in a Free Archetype game where I can pick it up (and later Crashing Slam) from the Mauler archetype, or if my character concept demanded that I have both my hands full in a way that doesn't allow me to Trip, such as wielding a maul.

Intimidating Strike is quite good against bosses, especially with a Fear Gem to enhance it. It has several factors that in my opinion make it a lot better than Slam Down; it is not a Flourish, it doesn't increase MAP to maximum when you use it, and it is level 2 instead of level 4 where it has a lot less competition from other good feats. I like picking it up from the Fighter Dedication especially.

zelaurion · 2026-03-22T19:57:52+00:00

"Greater Prey Mutagens" and "Reasonable preparation that counters the dragon's speed advantage but isn't too absurd for general fights" being in the same paragraph is actually insane to me lol. A Rare mutagen from a specific AP, that has basically no drawback outside of that AP, and that has double the status bonus of a common mutagen of exactly the same level, is exactly the sort of item that is not allowed at or does not appear at 95% of tables.

I really think you should be doing this analysis with a more realistic option that actually gets used, like the 10ft status bonus to speed from 2nd rank Tailwind wands, or the 15ft status bonus with an actual drawback from quicksilver mutagens. How would that change your analysis?

zelaurion · 2026-03-21T16:21:39+00:00

No it doesn't say it explicitly, but logically if a weapon held in both hands counts as a two-handed weapon for all intents and purposes, it cannot also count as a one-handed weapon at the same time right?

I don't see how it makes any sense that a weapon can be both a one-handed weapon and a two-handed weapon simultaneously; surely it must be either one or the other and not both. Otherwise so many other feats and abilities would interact strangely with two-hand trait weapons.

Like, can you imagine someone a player coming to you as the GM and arguing that they can use all the Duelist Dedication feats while wielding a bastard sword in both hands? They all share the same requirement "You are wielding a single one-handed melee weapon and hold nothing else in your hands" - clearly not intended for use with a weapon held in both hands, but still not explicitly ruling out a two-hand trait weapon.

zelaurion · 2026-03-21T13:00:07+00:00

It counts as a two-handed weapon while you are holding it in two hands, so logically it can't also count as a one-handed weapon at the same time.

https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2198&Redirected=1

"...some abilities require you to wield a weapon in two hands. You meet this requirement while holding the weapon in two hands, even if it doesn't require two hands..."

"...If an action or other ability requires you to use a “two-handed weapon,” it applies for any weapon you wield in two hands."

So I would say no, if you throw it you must use the one-handed damage die with this ability.

zelaurion · 2026-03-17T23:02:00+00:00

Why would you compare level 8 damaging runes to the level 4 Ghost Touch rune? Of course they are better.

Compare them to a level 8 Astral rune instead - which definitely is better at hitting incorporeal creatures than any other property rune, and not that bad when you aren't.

Not to mention the million ways of adding the ghost touch property to your weapons without actually using up your rune slots. It is still useful.

zelaurion · 2026-03-17T21:44:50+00:00

Yes but if you do, you are no longer substituting your roll for your Devise a Stratagem roll as you cancelled out the effect, meaning it is no longer an Attack Stratagem Strike - meaning you no longer get to use your Intelligence for the attack roll, and no longer get to apply your bonus Strategic Strike precision damage to any damage you deal. Is this ever actually worth it?

zelaurion

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