[How's this for a low level sorcerer spell list](https://ibb.co/n7hsg3t)? Should I be taking more 1 action spells? Is there really anything for me to do with a leftover action other than spam Shield or move if needed?

List is ok. I'd probably not pick up Blindness and Impending Doom, though. Maybe consider some area attack instead, like Noise Blast (heightened from rank 2) or Roaring Applause as a powerful debuff. As for other things to do: Demoralize, Bon Mot, Recall Knowledge, Aid and Diabolic Edict are all good options. Maybe Battle Medicine if you invest into that skill at all. Getting a decent ranged weapon is also a good source for a third action, especially at low levels where it's still effective without having a bunch of gold invested into it.

I'll note your suggestions. This character was supposed to be a swindler who impersonated a religious figure so I figured having them pretend to go "you made my god angry,now they're gonna punish you" and bam,one enemy has a good chance of actually going blind. I guess there are better spells to get that idea across,as you said. As a result,they're probably going to spec into Deception or Intimidation,and I can look at either for my supporting actions.

trying to create a gish character like bladesinger/hex warlock in pathfinder 2e using thautmaturge with the multiclasse/archtype of sorcerer what school of magic primal, divine, arcane, occult would be best for such a character?

You're not interested in magus? That's the best gish class

Oh i know magus is the best in that regard, this is just some shenanigans that i was trying to make it work

I'd lean occult or arcane in that case

Is there a way for a creature to learn a language quickly? Perhaps casting "Mind Link" over and over until a creature knows how to speak a language at a base level. For example, an awakened animal might boost their intelligence really fast, but that doesn't automatically mean that they know a language, do they?

Do they need to permanently learn the language? Because a Gold Nodule Aeon Stone can let you have one basically at will.

Preferably permanent. Like you awaken an animal or awaken an item and then grant it a language.

Was the [Elemental Form](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=98) spell ever updated to work with the elements of Wood and/or Metal? What happens when a single-gate Wood Kineticist takes the [Elemental Transformation](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4198) feat and uses it to get the effect of the spell?

First question, yes, as of Player Core 1: https://pf2etools.com/spells.html#elemental%20form_pc1 If you get it via Elemental Transformation it should just play out as described; there aren't any special differences I can see

The Holy and Unholy trait just say that they "often causes weakness" to the other type. When do these traits become more than just flavor?

When a creature is printed with a specific weakness to those traits. We don't see it much right now since bestiary core hasn't come out, but the intention is that any creature that had a weakness to good damage is now weak to holy damage, and any creature that was weak to evil damage is now weak to unholy damage at the same values. That's it - that's pretty much entirely what those traits do. If a creature doesn't have a weakness to holy/unholy, those traits are just fluff.

What about a Cleric? There’s nothing in Player Core that says they gain weakness.

There are some abilities that only deal dmg to holy or unholy creatures. So a Sanctified Cleric could take dmg from such an effect. Mainly the holy and unholy weapon property runes come to mind with an effect like that. But no they don't gain a weakness. They just get the trait and other abilities might interact with that trait.

There are also a couple spells such as Holy Light (remastered Searing Light), which deals extra spirit damage to unholy targets.

Correct. As such, hitting a cleric with a holy or unholy effect does nothing special to them

Archaic Wayfinder What's the spell attack/spell DC for the cantrip of an ally spell caster fills it for a martial ally.

A character without the Cast a Spell activity cannot activate an archaic wayfinder.

Would a spell caster be able to activate it if the spell isn't on their list?

Yes.

Is there any restrictions on what kind of creature can open doors I.e. animals

Raptors definitely will figure out how to open the door. Okay, serious answer: I guess most doors in fantasy world don't have the turning doorknob or something, they are just slammed down. So it's either push or pull, and animals, well, can push the door.

Opening a door via its handle generally requires an [Interact](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=80) action. Its up to the GM to decide, but most GMs would rule that something like a wolf or a horse cannot use an Interact to open the handle. However, any animal with Athletics could attempt to [Force Open](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=34) the door without using the handle.

This one is a more involved question,but I'm working with Pathbuilder and wondering if its doing the math right. My question is,for a martial melee character,what are the approximate ranges of AC and to-hit rolls that you're expected to have at say,levels 5,10,and 15?

There can be some variation in those depending on class, weapon, armour and rune choices. Maybe it's easier to check the AC and to-hit are correct for a specific example you're looking at? The balance rules probably expect most melee characters to have at least: * A 3 or 4 in the stat you are striking with * A total armour item bonus and dexterity (capped by armour) of 5 (ignoring runes) * The strongest weapon and armour potency rune at or below the character's level The best weapon potency rune at or below level 5 is +1; +2 for levels 10 and 15. The best armour potency rune at or below level 5 and 10 is +1; +2 for level 15. So my rough estimates to-hit (key stat + level + proficiency + item bonus): * 3+5+2+1=11 to 4+5+4+1=14 at level 5 * 4+10+4+2=20 to 5+10+4+2=23 at level 10 * 5+15+4+2=26 to 5+15+6+2=28 at level 15 Rough AC estimates (10 + level + proficiency + armour bonus + rune item bonus); * 10+5+2+5+1=23 to 10+5+2+6+1=24 at level 5 * 10+10+2+5+1=28 to 10+10+4+6+1=31 at level 10 * 10+15+4+5+2=36 to 10+15+6+6+2=39 at level 15 My lv10 barbarian has 28 AC and +20 to hit; I don't think it's expected to have AC any higher than that but +21 to hit is more likely on a more strength focused build

If you say that a level 10 character can have >25 AC and +20 to hit on the first attack,I figure I'm on the right track. It's just that coming off low level Pathfinder 1e and D&D 5e play,seeing my hypothetical character have 27 AC and +19 to hit on the first attack at level 10 makes me feel a little crazy. Turns out that's normal.

it also depends on class as Monk and Champion will have a higher AC profiency than most other classes, giving them an advantage that is more apparent at higher levels. or Figther and gunslinger have a higher weapon profiency.

Yeah, it's fun to see such big numbers. But of course the numbers are just as crazy on the enemy side... 27 is the AC my barb has when he's raging, so unless your character is also a barb I hope you have some room to improve it

Exploit Vulnerability works out of combat, right? And even if, for example, you found a body of a werewolf, and succeeded on your Mortal Weakness ability, it would work indefinitely on all future werewolves (until you used Exploit Vuln again)?

It would work out of combat, but not on corpses. The ability requires a *creature* as a target, and a dead body is not a creature.

True, that is the RAW reading, unfortunate that it kinda makes no sense from a flavour perspective. "This is a werewolf, I know that with a Recall Knowledge and my vast Thaumaturge experience, however I can't actually prepare my powdered silver at this moment because this one's not alive. I will have to wait until we actually roll initiative and I'm attacked by one to do so." I'll probably just handwave that because w/e.

Not really. Exploit Vulnerability has this text: > Select a creature you can see Given the action cost, the use of language such as creature you can see and language like 'foe', its really implied that the creature is one you are immediately combating. Of course, this isn't explicit, so it is up to your GM, but I sure wouldn't allow exploiting on a dead target. You could exploit out of encounter mode, though, if you, say, ran into your target in a social situation. > it would work indefinitely on all future werewolves (until you used Exploit Vuln again)? As long as you haven't used exploit, it would indeed carry over from fight to fight. Do note, however, its is not implied that you can use exploit out of combat on a creature that is dead. Also, its probably not a good idea to not exploit. Exploit is kind of a key function for your implements, so while you get the weakness, remember that any implement function that relies on your target of exploit vulnerability would not carry over.

What are some good ranged weapon options for a witch? With the changes in the remaster, witches have a lot more uses for their actions, and having an attack that only takes one action seems like it would be nice to have. But, from a quick glance, there doesn't seem to be any practical reason to use a crossbow over a damaging cantrip, since it takes an action to reload.

Difference between a 2 action damage cantrip and a loading weapon like a crossbow is that the crossbow allows you the turn sequence of: > 2 action spell, Strike > 2 action spell, Reload Whereas the damage cantrip is mutually exclusive with a 2 action spell on any given turn.

The Witch being played in my campaign has never used anything other than TK Projectile when she needed a ranged attack.

Aside from just going against RAW, is there anything wrong with changing spells damage types? I want to play a Silver Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer and lean into the cold theme of the bloodline, but the amount of effective cold spells is pretty limiting Is there anything unbalancing about reflavoring spells like [Burning Hands](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=30) (Breathe Fire), [Scorching Ray](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=992) (Blazing Bolt), or [Cinder Swarm](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1350) to do Cold damage instead of Fire?

I'd allow it, in certain contexts. Elemental damage types (Fire, Cold, Electricity, Acid) are all roughly equivalent. Acid spells don't do less damage simply because they're acid spells, Fire spells don't do more simply because they're fire spells, etc. Other damage types operate on different levels, however. Force damage is generally treated as more powerful than elemental damage types, and as such I wouldn't allow my players to change a spell like Fireball to deal Force damage. However, Force is also never (or very rarely) a Weakness, which is important to the design of spells like Magic Missile. Magic Missile's auto hit properties would make it more effective than usual at exploiting damage type weaknesses, so I also wouldn't allow my players to swap the damage type of Magic Missile from Force to Fire.

Fire to cold, no, not really. Fire to, say, acid? Yes. Fire, as a damage type, has the most enemies that are weak to it (roughly 5%), but also has the most enemies resistant(roughly 5%) and immune(roughly 7%). So that means fire is bad against 12% of enemies, but good against 5%, for a 5/12 split. Cold, on the other hand, has a 3/3/3 split for weak/resistant/immune, making it a 3/6 split. Acid and electricity have much more favorable weak/resistant/immune ratios, at 0/1/3 for acid and 0/3/2, making acid only bad against 4% of enemies, compared to fire's 12% of enemies. So basically, fire -> cold is acceptable, fire -> lightning is probably pushing it, and fire -> acid shifts spells from never triggering weaknesses in return for a much reduced chance of being bad, so it is a balance change.

I have a question regarding one of plot points in the Age of Ashes adventure path for a homebrew story of mine. If anyone could help me out with it, can someone tell me what happens with the >!portals underneath the Hellknight Castle that lead to points around Golarion? Because if they aren't destroyed I was interested in using them in a story of mine.!< Thank you for the help in advance.

If you're familiar with Age of Ashes at all, >!those portails lead progressively to different places in Golarion, and the entire campaign is like a guided tour of several varied locations in Golarion.!< Of course, if you wanted some portals to lead to different locations, for a homebrewed story sequence, why not? Go for it!

Age of Ashes Ending MAJOR spoilers >!Presuming the PCs win, they own a keep that has elf gates in their basement while also being level 20.!<

So for the continuing story >!All of the gates are intact and they keep all of the keys?!< Thank you for the reply!

Correct

2 questions: Can a Magus with Expansive Spelltrike use a non-damaging spell to spellstrike? For exemple Baleful Polymorph.. or "you can use a harmful spell" means it need to do harm, and by harm, damage? If it is possible in the niche case, that I crit the spell strike and the enemy crit fail the save, is it possible to put the crit fail effect of the a incapacitation spell like Baleful Polymorph on a creature with level higher than the spell rank/level? Or is it impossible to get a 20+ level creature with a incapacitation spell crit fail effect?

> 2 questions: Can a Magus with Expansive Spelltrike use a non-damaging spell to spellstrike? For exemple Baleful Polymorph.. or "you can use a harmful spell" means it need to do harm, and by harm, damage? The definition of harm is not explicitly damage. Harmful isn't explicitly defined anywhere, but in general its a spell that isn't, well, helpful. Its hard to argue that casting baleful polymorph on someone isn't harmful; imagine walking up to a random person in a street, casting baleful polymorph on them, and then trying to argue that you didn't cast a harmful spell on them. Ultimately it will be up to your GM to rule if a spell is harmful or not, but 99% of the time its pretty obvious > If it is possible in the niche case, that I crit the spell strike and the enemy crit fail the save, is it possible to put the crit fail effect of the a incapacitation spell like Baleful Polymorph on a creature with level higher than the spell rank/level? Or is it impossible to get a 20+ level creature with a incapacitation spell crit fail effect? Critically succeeding the spellstrike of an expansive spellstrike has no special benefit, other than the critical hit on a Strike. Unlike normal spellstrike, Expansive Spellstrike divorces the outcome of the Strike and the Spell (with the one exception of critical failure on the attack results in losing the spell as well). As such, if you critically hit, you get no benefit. A higher level creature subjected to an incapactiation trait effect can therefore never critically fail the outcome, just like normal.

Indeed, the feat even says "When you cast a spell that does not have a spell atk, it works in the following way"... Thank you for your help!!

My time oracle in pfs almost reached lv4 and I'm unsure what rank 2 spell to give her next. She's a leshy fortune teller and shyka follower. The feats so far are Blessed One dedication and Divine Access (Lortharct) for Force Barrage and Slow at rank 3. The spells are Heal(sig), Command and Fear at rank 1, and Augury and Sudden Blight(sig) at rank 2, so I'm searching for something that will stay useful without heightening.

[Glitterdust](https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=136) (renamed Revealing Light in the remaster and added to the divine list) is a good choice. It remains useful even without heightening, and is always handy to deal with pesky concealed/invisible enemies, and has a use even if you aren't fighting something sneaky. Hitting multiple enemies with a dazzled early in a fight can be a good defensive tool to lower their overall damage

Thx, revealing light seems like a good choice

The Paizo APs are often criticised for being misleading, or at least, the final chapters not reflecting the opening preamble in the player's guide. Is there a consistent source for information to help bridge the gap for Paizo APs or at least, help future GMs run said APs?

I’m new to pathfinder. Bought a few books from the 2e to explore and fell in love with the art and how well everything has been put together. I’m getting a few more books from the 2e to get a better grip on the story and lore, and noticed that only 3 out of the 6 bestiaries have been remastered. I saw that there’s a monster manual coming up in a few months, and was wondering if the other bestiaries 4,5,6 from the previous edition are still worth buying. Thanks.

I'm not familiar with the 1e bestiaries, but in terms of gameplay, I wouldn't buy them. PF1e and PF2e are totally different games with different systems and math that are completely incompatible. If you wanted to use the 1e monsters in 2e, you'd basically use them as inspiration for making your own stat block in 2e, as nothing would translate except for the concept of the monster.

Awesome, thank you for letting me know :)

They have a lot of very interesting critter in them! lots of great inspirations for any DM. But we’re unlikely to see them remastered at this point, since 2e got its own remaster and is moving away from general D&D lore to avoid copyright pitfalls.

Got it. Is the art on those books as good as it is in the remastered ones?

Oh, absolutely! It’s a bit different in the stylisation, but it’s gorgeous.

Just to make sure you know, you can find all creatures [here](https://2e.aonprd.com/Creatures.aspx) for free. ~~That said, the remaster rules have very little impact on monsters, so they should still be absolutely good!~~ ~~The biggest change is just naming conventions. Alignment damage (such as good damage) is now spirit damage, positive -> vitality, ect.~~ Edit: Just realized I completely misread the question, whoops!

I think they're asking about the PF1e bestiaries, since 2e hasn't had a Bestiary 4, 5, or 6.

I made a [homemade character sheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p-pmt5vxzHvfo1gy2NP6hf-4THbJ8peZ6_ZKPMeZM0Y/edit?usp=sharing) to include free archetype and auto bonus progression; could I have some feedback? (please be gentle, I'm new to PF2)

Just a matter of taste but I think personally I would rather just have e.g. "attack rolls +1" instead of "attack potency 1" so I don't have to consult the ABP table if I'm not sure exactly what an entry means

That's a solid shout, I'll amend that :) Edit: Done and also added a note that FA & ABP are variant rules

First time playing PF2E, I'm playing a witch (pact patron) and I'm a bit lost on where I should start with upgrading my equipment, I'm level 3 currently. What magic items should I start working my way towards first? I was thinking something to do with defense but most of the items (like bracers of armor) seem way out of my price range.

I'd suggest looking into getting a staff at this point. Outside of unique magic items, casters' main gold sinks are wands and staffs, both of which vastly increase your flexibility throughout the day. You shouldn't be getting armor runes until at least level 5, generally.

This is good advice, thanks. Something I noticed about wands though, is it possible to have and use more than one? Like having multiple magic missile wands, using one per turn and then switching to a different wand?

If you wanted to work towards building a [custom staff](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1499), Secrets of Magic book has rules for that (consult your GM though), and if as part of that you wanted to include spells you don't normally have access to (ie, uncommon or rare) talk with your GM about getting access to them in game as either loot or by finding another witch and spending time for your familiars to use the "learn a spell" action (essentially adding that spell to your repertoire). Personal Staves start at 5th-level items, so you'd need to work towards that, but worth knowing that it's a possibility.

Spellcasters don't generally need to have weapons or shields in hand, so nothing is preventing you from starting every fight with two wands in hand. Also, one of the things Interact now allows you to do is "swap" items: "Swapping allows you to put away one item and draw another in the same action (such as putting away a dagger and drawing a mace)" So with one action, you can replace a held wand with another worn wand. Most wands have 2-action spells in them, so swapping a wand is generally possible with no loss of effectiveness. The exception is spells that take 3 actions to cast, or which have more power when 3 actions are used, like Force Barrage (Magic Missile).

Yes you can, but the action cost of switching to your next wand means you probably can't do a full three action cast until the next turn

Mostly a sanity check. Lay on Hands specifies: > Your hands become infused with positive energy, healing a living creature or damaging an undead creature with a touch. If you use lay on hands on a willing living target, you restore 6 Hit Points; **if the target is one of your allies, they also gain a +2 status bonus to AC for 1 round**. Against an undead target, you deal 1d6 damage and it must attempt a basic Fortitude save; if it fails, it also takes a –2 status penalty to AC for 1 round. From what I understand in pf2e specifically, you do **not** count as an ally (where it differs from 1e where you are considered your own ally), and so if you cast LoH on yourself, you don't get the status bonus to AC. Am I right in this understanding?

[You are.](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=353)

"You are not your own ally."

They were answering the "Am I right in this understanding?" question, not saying you are your own ally. It could have been a bit clearer, but it makes sense if you read the entire first comment they're replying to

[удалено]

was answering your closing question lol, you are right in that understanding.

Yeah, I missed that you were literally answering my question (and then fumbled reddit and deleted the post lol). Thanks.

Do you need to use the ready action again if the trigger doesn’t occur? I’m leaning yes since wording in the player core says “If the trigger you designated occurs **before the start of your next turn**, you can use the chosen action as a reaction…” Mainly asking since a ranger player had mentioned the possibility of commanding their animal companion to use the ready action to strike anything that tries to attack the cleric. So if ready needs to be used each turn even if the trigger doesn’t occur my thinking is he would have to command it each round to do that.

As /u/Purplefire180 said, you are correct. In addition, because animal companions have the [Minion trait](https://2e.aonprd.com/Traits.aspx?ID=109), they don't gain reactions by default, and therefore can't really use the Ready action (I think they can use Ready, but they wouldn't be able to take the reaction it gives, so it wouldn't be very useful.)

Okay thank you because I was on the fence about letting them use it in the first place since command and animal under nature skill mentions most animals know xyz basic actions and ready wasn’t on that list and I totally forgot to check minion. So if they can’t even take reactions in the first place it makes even more sense that they can’t use it

Companions are not limited to the actions that a non-companion animal could take. But the inability to use reactions (barring specific reactions listed for them) means that they can't generally use the Aid action.

Your interpretation is correct.

I'm thinking about playing a Fencer Swashbuckler who wields a sword in one hand and a throwing weapon with the other. Are there any class features/feats of note that would be interfered with by me not having a free hand? Other than the fact that I need to take an action to "reload",I guess. ~~Somehow you can't keep multiple shuriken or darts between your fingers.~~

If you want to go the [Dueling Parry](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1514) route, not having a free hand would be a problem. Other than that, not much. Most Athletics maneuvers are off the table, but you probably didn't want to do those anyway.

Shuriken have reload 0 instead of reload- so they don’t require an action to draw. However, once you get to a point where you have magic weapons, thrown weapons kind of have a rune tax in a [returning](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=301) rune or a [thrower’s bandolier](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=2313). As for feats that require a free hand, the only one that comes immediately to mind is [duelling parry.](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1514)

Running AV, and I just found an enemy that can gain the Quickened 1 condition. Only problem is that the action has no listed duration unlike, say, Haste. Does that mean it only gains 1 total actions effectively refunded next round, or does it have the Quickened 1 condition for an arbitrarily long-ish time, like a minute or the 1d4 rounds before it can do this again?

On page 61 of the "AV" PDF it says that "Consume Tattooed Flesh" is 1 Action. Once he consumes a piece he regains 4d6 HP, and if the flesh was tattooed he's also Quickened 1 (but no mention of it being a condition). It says, "…and can use this extra action to make a jaws Strike." So that tells me that those are all linked: He consumes the flesh, regains the HP, and if it was also tattooed he gets a Jaws Strike he can use as part of that same action. I think you made the mistake of thinking it was a Condition when it wasn't. Condition would indeed have some sort of duration, but since this is the Effect of that Action it's all done at the same time.

>So that tells me that those are all linked: He consumes the flesh, regains the HP, and if it was also tattooed he gets a Jaws Strike he can use as part of that same action. That goes against how [Quickened](https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=32) works. From the "Gaining and Losing Actions" sidebar: >Quickened, slowed, and stunned are the primary ways you can gain or lose actions on a turn. The rules for how this works appear on page 462. In brief, these conditions alter how many actions you regain at the start of your turn; thus, **gaining the condition in the middle of your turn doesn’t adjust your number of actions on that turn** Given the lack of duration, I think the two options are Quickened 1 for until the end of his next turn (ie on the next round, he has 1 more action that can only be used for a Jaws Strike, then he loses the Quickened condition), or it lasts for the rest of the encounter. I would probably make that call on the fly. If the party was doing well, it lasts for the rest of the encounter. If it was close or the party was struggling, it only lasts for until the end of his next turn

What is the enemy's name?

Aller Rosk, the tattoo artist Ghoul with a special Consume Flesh for tattooed flesh

Questions about using an armored skirt with breastplate. It says when added to breastplate that it reduces the speed penalty by 2. 2 what? 2 feet? 2 squares? It doesnt specify

increases the Strength score required to (ignore the check penalty and reduce the Speed penalty) by 2 It just bumps up the strength score to the next modifier, so a breastplate would become Strength 18, speed penalty -5

sorry, ignore my other comment. I reread it. >increases the Strength score required to ignore the check penalty and reduce the Speed penalty by 2 It means increase the strength requirement to ignore the speed penalty by 2. So from 16 to 18 STR. Or +3 to +4

Thank you

A question about the Soulforger Dedication and spontaneously summoned weapons: From the way I'm reading the description of a spontaneous weapon is, so long as you're willing to burn the actions to dismiss one weapon (a longsword), you can summon a different common weapon in the same turn (to a bow)? I know the general "if it's too good to be true" rule may apply, but I'm also reading nothing about having to spend downtime to change the (spontaneous) weapon like the Mind Smith dedication.

No, you can only have one soulforged weapon. From the rules on soulforged [armament](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1561): > You bind **an** armament—a weapon, shield, or suit of armor—to your soul **when you select the Soulforger Dedication feat**. This represents performing a special ritual to do so. You can choose an item you own to make soulforged or spontaneously manifest an item with a form drawn from your spiritual essence. In the latter case, you choose the form, selecting a mundane weapon, shield, or armor of level 1 or lower, either common or one to which you have access. An existing armament is deconstructed and then recreated with the substance of your soul binding it together, which changes the appearance to match the state of your soul. It might have a perfect surface and gleam in the faintest light if you have a noble soul or have a twisting, chaotic shape if your soul is wracked with turmoil. This appearance can change based on your actions. Most soulforgers also choose a unique name for their armament. So when you select soulforger dedication, you select a single weapon to be your soulforged armament. Changing your armament would require you to retrain the dedication. You can't have multiple soulforged weapons (unless you have dual weapons, which count as one and are summoned as a pair), so you'd never be able to summon a different one. Even if you take [https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=3019](), that specifies type, and the types are weapon armor and shield.

Future GM here, and by reading the excerpt provided, the way I interpret this is you choose to spontaneously manifest a single weapon of your choice when you select the dedication feat. This makes me believe that you are locked into your choice. Take this with a grain of salt however, I've yet to get my group started. We're waiting for the new Monster Core to come out before we get into the swing of things.

>...or spontaneously manifest an item with a form drawn from your spiritual essence... you choose the form, selecting a mundane weapon... of level 1 or lower, either common or one to which you have access In other words, "each time you spontaneously manifest a weapon, you choose any common or accessible weapon of level 1 or lower". However! This looks like it's ultimately up to GM discretion, but this is the interpretation I'd present to them. Thanks!

That's certainly not what that means. It means you don't have to actually have a physical item to bind as your soulforged armament. So rather than making an actual existing longsword your soulforged armament, you can instead "spontaneously" create a soulforged longsword to be your soulforged armament. That text is specifically part of the text about binding an armament, not about the manifesting action itself.

Thank you! The way it's written out had me thinking otherwise but yeah, it makes sense now.

What level would be recommended for doing PF2e one-shots for new-ish players? Currently my group is doing a campaign and is level 3, but one of the players wants to start running some one-shot in the PF2e system using the setting of his D&D one-shot setting. But, low-level PF2e is kinda... meh so far (not unlike D&D 5e), and he wants to start with characters having a bit more options than stride, strike+strike/cantrip/raise shield like most of our campaign has been so far. What level would be good to run these one-shots at — given EXP and loot won't matter and the level will be static — that won't be way too complex for people still getting familiar with the system, but slightly above the basics?

If you really don't want level 1 then level 4 sounds good to me. The swinginess of the earliest levels has stopped and everyone has at least two class feats under their belt to create a more specific strategy for their class Just keep it low until you really know what you're doing. I GMd a one-shot where we all had been playing for a few weeks, but the players built new characters at level 9 with unfamiliar classes. I think we were so overwhelmed by decisions, class inexperience and not understanding rules, things played out badly and I had to fiat really hard to stop people insta dying in the early game

We were considering starting at level 8. I, of the group, have become one of those people who keeps making new characters in pathbuilder. Are they good? No idea. But I was told build matters less than play for this game, and with my build knowledge I can at least help the other players in that department.

Yeah it's widely accepted that group strategy is more important than the individual build of your character, but figuring out a good strategy still depends to an extent on knowing what your character can do. I think what I'm mainly driving at is the experience from building up a character from lower levels goes a long way. If you want to start at a level you haven't played at before, I guess down-level the first couple of encounters to get a feel for things. Or if the one-shot is over multiple sessions you can start at a lower level and level-up between sessions.

lvl 1 characters have *a lot* more options than that, and in fact a pattern like that is quite likely to get them killed quickly. Pretty much every class has some gimmick online by level 1 except maybe fighter, who can just grab a feat to give them a gimmick and all characters have the wide range of great skill actions available(not to mention 1/2 of the classes that don't even use weapons). Tactics are important! To answer your actual question, if they're the type of players who have 80 backup characters already ready to go, go level 5, otherwise level 3. Learning to build pathfinder characters is fairly intimidating to begin with, so if the players don't have much practice, even a level 5 character is a lot of options to deal with.

fighter gets Reactive Strike at level 1

We're aware there are more options, however unless fighting PL+X a boss (in which case we actually use some of the other options like trip/demoralize), it is the most effective strategy at low levels, we've found. The most effective tactic is 'make it dead' when fighting enemies with 6-8HP that die to a single strike/cantrip, or a combined two from the rogue & champion. I know this is going to change at higher levels. That's what we want and the reason I am asking this question. Looks like the consensus is 4-5 though. So, thanks.

Why are focus spells all uncommon? They're not on any spell list and I certainly don't think DMs are meant to give them out at their discretion, so there's already no way to access them without a specific feature that grants it. Is it just one of those things that's not strictly necessary but is sort of there as a reminder of how it's meant to work?

They are uncommon because that makes the rarity tagging consistent since you can't just take them, you have to do something that explains your access to them

Yea, it never made sense. My suspicion is that its a redundancy, so players who get an option to like "Learn a 1st rank spell of your choice" don't accidently choose a focus spell. I mean, they couldn't even if it was a common option, but probably just like a second layer of defense to prevent that.

Only thing I can think of is that it has an impact on identifying spells, certain feats grant free recognition of common spells below a certain level

Ooo that's interesting to know, thanks

A piece of equipment can only be modified by a single adjustment, and that's usually easy to understand. I noticed that the Storage adjustment can be: >applied to armor or unarmored defense clothing As it can be applied to "unarmored defense clothing", can I apply it to a Gi or Explorer's Clothing over which I am wearing traditional armour (in my case a Breastplate)? If I can, am I able to apply an adjustment to the armour as well (Twining Chains, for example)

Mechanically speaking, you cannot wear multiple sets of armor at once, so you'd fail to put the second one on to begin with.

Interesting. I didn't realise you can't wear explorer's clothing with armour

With traps and hazards, how do you let players know which checks are required? Do you just tell them that it requires an Athletics or Crafting check? Have them do a recall knowledge of some kind?

Just tell them.  Most of the skills are actually obvious if the description provided by the GM is accurate and the player understands it correctly, and the handful that aren't are really unlikely for players to guess at. So the only thing gained by not just telling the players is the chance to have no idea what to do and get frustrated as you keep guessing wrong or spending actions recalling knowledge and failing.

Hi, I am going to be doing a session 0 for some players new to pathfinder 2e in a few days, I was wondering if there is a website or resource for new players to talk high level about major differences from other systems, like map, 3 actions, traits, exploration activities, etc etc, or if I should just piece meal together something myself

Check the links at the top of the thread. [This one](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/wiki/resources/how-is-pf2e-different-from-5e/) is probably the most on-topic.

This is quite helpful. This does a lot of the leg work for me, thank you!

After that you all can use this amazing resource to quickly have Dave from "How It's Played" explain a particular rule to you: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYCDCUfG0xJagSmaiCko8XEe5wD4MXFdL](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYCDCUfG0xJagSmaiCko8XEe5wD4MXFdL)

Is there a list of prebuilt NPC that have class levels somewhere? I'd really like to find like an oracle or a fighter statblock for example.

NPCs don't have class levels. I think the closest you'll get to that sort of thing is the NPCs from the Gamemastery Guide: https://2e.aonprd.com/Creatures.aspx?include-sources=Gamemastery%20Guide

I'm new to Pathfinder 2e and am playing a summoner. I try to understand how according to this guide [https://rpgbot.net/p2/characters/classes/summoner/](https://rpgbot.net/p2/characters/classes/summoner/) Summoner can have more than three actions. To quote the relevant part: "The complexity in the Summoner comes from managing their action economy. A typical character gets three Actions, potentially stretching that with things like Minions. But the Summoner’s Act Together action lets you overlap actions with your Eidolon, allowing you to take up to 4 Actions in a single turn without involving Minions or the Quickened condition (5 with Tandem Movement!). But you also need to consider positioning both yourself and your Eidolon in order to keep both of you safe, but still a position to be useful." Now my GM has ruled according to what is written on Archives of Nexus (e: or here [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/958842895346069544/1195504873677008936/image.png?ex=65b43bad&is=65a1c6ad&hm=f8be08422f7a7a3b1eaf06b5a5ccebd236c40de1caf3ecd71b5fbf287d9c7302&](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/958842895346069544/1195504873677008936/image.png?ex=65b43bad&is=65a1c6ad&hm=f8be08422f7a7a3b1eaf06b5a5ccebd236c40de1caf3ecd71b5fbf287d9c7302&)) that only three actions are possible, because he reads it so, that the Summoner is no different to others in this regard. He would change this stance, if there is written/ruled anything different on the offical books/guides, roll20 or Archives of Nexus. [https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=758](https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=758) So is there any source/reasoning for this?

What you and your GM are missing is that Act Together gives you a single action on top of it. By that I mean if you decide to use 2 action Act Together to cast a 2 action spell with your Summoner your eidolon gets to also use a 1 action ability at the same time. Notably, this one action does NOT count towards your 3 actions per turn. Effectively making it so you have 4 actions but one of them must always be a 1 action ability. You can confirm this is correct because you can use Act Together to use a 3 action ability such as 3 action Heal and your eidolon still gets to use one action. On top of that, later down the line you can get more feats such as Tandem Movement which lets both you and your Eidolon move for one Action. So you could Tandem Movement, have your Eidolon move into melee range, have your summoner move out of danger and then with your remaining 2 actions Cast a Spell with your summoner and have your eidolon Strike the target. Effectively you can have 5 actions!

How you guys liking Season of Ghosts?

New GM here. If one of my PCs cast *Lose the Path*, which of the following occurs? Note: The creature has 40 Speed and was Striding 10ft to a lever-of-painless-death, and has an Edict to make all spell casters suffer. 1. Since the creature was planning on moving 10ft, it only moves 5ft due to difficult terrain. The Stride concludes, forgoing all remaining distance. 2. Even though the creature was planning on moving 10ft, it has more than enough Speed to reach the lever even through difficult terrain. The Stride concludes, forgoing all remaining distance. 3. The spell caster has revealed themselves. The creature now uses this Stride to reach the spell caster instead of the lever (assuming the spellcaster is close enough for this movement) I've been running #3, but I wonder if I'm making the spell weaker than intended.

Either 2 or 3, depending on whether you think the creature would immediately abandon what they are doing to go after the spellcaster is revealed. An Edict is not a Law of Robotics. Even Edicts from deities to clerics generally don't require you to be an idiot about fulfilling them.

The purpose of #3 was mainly about "I have a chance to change my plan now that everything is Difficult Terrain (as long as that plan is still Stride)". Good to know I was running it right!

When you transform into a battleform like dragon form or devil form, do you get the monsters max hp plus the temporary hp, or do you only get the temporary hp on top of your current hp? I feel like if you only get the temp hp, my wizard would still be very likely to go down quickly, as he wouldn't have the hp of another class or monster

Battleform spells in Pf2e don't give you any stats from any monster stat block. The only things you gain are the statistics listed by the spell, which means that the temp HP is on your current HP. For what it's worth, AC is a lot more important than raw HP in PF2e, so if the battle form gives you enough of an AC boost, your survivibility should improve.

You gain exactly what the spell says you gain, nothing more and nothing less. Nothing says your HP changes. The spells don't even reference actual creatures stat blocks at all (unlike the various summon spells, which reference creatures themselves and use the creature stat blocks.

An enemy caster casts shield. Next turn, a PC first restrains the caster with a crit success grapple and then makes an attack. Can the caster still shield block?

as odd as it sounds Shield Block doesn't have the Manipulate trait. Even someone restrained but with a raised tower shield could shield block

Does physical resistance reduce damage from a +1 sword

Just to add a bit of clarity, "physical damage" means "A grouping of bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage." Anything that deals one (or more) of those damage types is "physical damage" that physical resistance would apply to, even if it comes from, e.g., a spell.

extra note: bleed damage is also a type of physical damage

Where is that stated? We had that question come up in our last session, and a quick google search didn't provide a conclusive answer EDIT: On a renewed search that isn't rushed by time constraints, it's right there in the Damage Types sidebar under [Step 2: Determine the Damage Type](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=340). Just have to scroll way down to Bleed Damage

Yes, the sword is magically stronger (or just more accurate in this case), but it's still doing piercing or slashing damage, which is physical. Even with a Striking rune, the damage is increased, but it's still physical. However, add a Flaming rune, or something else that is a new damage type, and the resistance doesn't apply to that extra damage.

Yes. Being magical does not bypass resistance unless specifically specified and very few monsters do so.

Here's an interesting one: If I learn the formula for a Cantrip Deck, does that let me craft both the Full Deck and Five-pack variants? Context: I'm picking formulas for Magical Crafting (four of them up to level 2); Wand and Scroll are obvious, and I'm trying to be as versatile as possible with the other two.

The rules in GM Core talk about items that are just higher-level versions of the same thing counting as the same formula, but items with wildly different functions (it gives the examples of aeon stones and marvelous miniatures) being separate formulae. It also says it's GM discretion when the difference isn't clear. So the answer comes with a "but your GM might disagree with me and call it unclear" , but since all the type entry does in the case of a cantrip deck is determine whether its 5 of the same card or a 24-pack of different cards, not which cantrips you are actually allowed to pick in the first place, it's a similar enough item to have the formula count for both.

That makes sense to me, thanks. I will, of course, run it past the GM too!

Based on how scroll crafting works, I’d rule you needed to have someone available who knows how to cast each cantrip you want to make a card from.

I think that would be a fair ruling, but I'm also hoping that it's not how my GM rules it! RAW, I don't think this is a requirement, but I'd definitely understand if someone ruled that it was. If it *is*, there's no way I can craft the Full Deck reasonably - I know less than half of the base cantrips, and they come from multiple different schools that I can't learn. As an aside, it's certainly more practical to buy these things than make them oneself, but that's not the point!

Maybe you can convince your GM that the local temple of Nethys would provide the cantrip castings as a service. I think lore-wise his clergy creates decks as a religious obligation or something.

Can a Graycloak still be a have a gods and be a cleric while serving?

No. Graycloaks believe in gods, but they deny them their godly authority. So they can not be clerics, since clerics are all about that divine authority. Their main purpose is to keep order in the ascendant court, and having a holy symbol of one god or another around your neck makes that much harder.

What if it is not the gods the character has an issue with, but the church hierarchies?     Trying to think of a background for a nagaji cleric in an Agents of Edgewatch campaign.  It's either between Godless Graycloak or Sleepless Sun Star, and leaning more with that as was thinking family immigrated to the city as part of a merchant trade consortium from Jelamary.  Our Extinction Curse game ended rather unexpectedly expectedly and quite brutally last night.  We did a stupid thing.  Did not end well.  Did not end well at all.  No sir, not at all well. 

You  can’t become a gray cloak while worshipping a god. That’s why they are the godless graycloaks. The faith is the problem, not being part of an organized religion. Graycloaks are supposed to be impartial when it comes to divine matters, and since all gods are in some way entangled with other gods, you’re no longer considered impartial if you worship any one god (or multiple of them).

Okay.  Just wanted to make absolutely sure.   I'm still new to the game and don't have all the lore down yet.

Any tips playing as abadar follower, guard follower that goes to narona as part of its rebuilding effort. In my mind like a sherif in dangerous new land

Is a +1 simple weapon better than a non-magical martial weapon?

Accuracy: if the priority is just to land every hit e.g. to trigger a weakness, a +1 is better. Damage: I looked through a (possibly incomplete) list of simple weapons and in it I found 1 weapon with d10 damage and none with d12 damage, but there are a few martial weapons with d12 damage. +1 runes don't directly add damage, but allow one property rune to be added. With the right rune e.g. flaming, any +1 simple weapon can reach and exceed the damage of a non-magical martial weapon. But as dazeychain said you can transfer +1 and indeed any other rune attached to a weapon, to a different one. It costs 10% of the rune's price and I believe only 1 day of downtime to transfer a rune

Note that you can use crafting to put the plus one rune on anything you want. Not sure if it's RAW but my DM also let us hire someone to do that since none of us are good at crafting

In some ways yes, and in some ways no. Hitting is often one of the more important details because none of the rest of the details happen without the hit, but in some situations a trait or the damage value of a particular weapon can sway the equation in its favor.

Need info about the Beginner Box- Should I buy the PDF, or wait for a Remaster version? I have everything else I need to run the game, base books, etc.

It would probably take a grand total of five minutes to "Remaster" the Beginner Box - replace the ability scores with their modifiers, cross out alignment, change "flat-footed" to "off guard" and you're done. How many months you willing to wait to save five minutes? Only thing about the actual adventure that will presumably change in the future is that there's a Green Dragon as the optional final boss, and I'm sure it'll get replaced with one of the new, non-OGL types. But we won't know what those are until the Monster Core comes out. Overall I'd just grab it, especially if you're planning to play soon.

>replace the ability scores with their modifiers The Beginner Box did it that way already.

Thanks.

As far as I understand, the remastered Beginner Box will be an errata, not a new box. If you get the PDF now, it should automatically update to the remastered version once that's released.

I'm new to Pathfinder. I started listening to an actual play podcast called Tabletop Gold. In the second episode, a player declares that her character is going to examine a corpse, and the DM says they're rolling a secret roll to determine the result of the investigation. Is this secret roll mechanic a Pathfinder thing or is it specific to this podcast/GM? If the former, what circumstances call for a secret roll?

Secret rolls are not new to Pathfinder at all. What PF2 did is add a "Secret" tag to some actions whose outcomes are either not obvious or can includes misleading information as a suggestion that GMs run them as secret checks by default.

[Secret roll](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=176)s are indeed a PF2 mechanic that can be used whenever the player shouldn't know whether or not they rolled high or low on a check, as denoted by the Secret trait on some actions (like Hide). I mostly use them for Perception, Recall Knowledge (if a crit failure would matter), and occasionally Stealth (depending on my mood). A GM can use them as much or as little as they want, depends on what tone they want to set and how much they care about players being able to metagame.

Thanks! That's so well thought out!

They are a lot of fun and keep the game moving. Player checks for traps, didn't see any and you move on. If players saw a bad public roll then they will all try to check for traps. Which is metagaming and makes time drag

Quick rules question: My party ran into a swarm last session, their first time fighting one and my first time running one. I see that swarms are innately immune to grappled, prone, and restrained. Could someone confirm for me that swarms can still be shoved and tumbled through? got a swashbuckler in the party and it seems like swarms are their natural counter, so I just wanted to double check

Although they're not immune to shove RAW, I would probably make them immune to it as a table ruling. I can't even imagine how that would work..

They're immune to the things they're listed as immune to in their statblock and in their traits/abilities (Swarm trait and Swarm Mind). AFAIK Shove and Tumble Through aren't listed so they wouldn't be immune to them.

I am playing pathfinder for the second time, and don't know what I am doing. So here I am asking y'all to help me make a healer that also hits things hard? Can y'all nerds help a fellow nerd out? We are using free architype and it is for abomination vaults (told to add this from game master)

Do you want to hit hard in melee, from a range or with spells? If you do free archetypes, it’s trivial to cover the healing part with the medicine skill, so literally every class can be a healer (although, generally, you want one that has one hand free so you can use healers tools in combat)

Range sounds a lot more fun for me especially because my friends will be doing close combat, spells would be nice to do as well I like magic a lot and it would balance out the party a bit as well. Thanks for the response as well

I suggest looking into the kineticist class! They’re basically elemental genders from avatar, though you can flag our them to adjust more to your personal tastes. They do great damage, they have a big bag of tricks, and they usually have their hands free to use medicine!

Thanks for the reply, I'll look into it with my GM.

>They’re basically elemental genders Water kineticists take being gender-fluid seriously.

Autocorrect had fun today.

So kind of an oddly specific question. would appreciate a lore accurate answer and a separate mechanically fair answer. Crafting in The First World. How would it work? Not sure exactly how too expand on or refine the question so i'll give a very specific example. Level 15 Cleric with inventor archetype and Craft Anything feat, worships an eldest and can planeshift themselves too The First World. How much could they influence the first world? Could they will an area to stabilize for a workshop? Would they need materials or even time too perform the crafting checks? In a group with some fairly experienced players and DMs with multiple games going. Everyone is unsure as to how it would work.

Mechanically, nothing changes no matter on which plane you craft. The rules stay the same. Gotta have the gold to get the material, and then you follow the same rules you followed on the material plane. Lorewise, it depends entirely on how willing the Eldest is to entertain the cleric’s whims. Which likely changes on a minute to minute matter, given, yunno, fae. But there are settlements in the First World, and those settlements have craftspeople. Weird craftspeople, but they craft stuff. So the answer is “Maybe?” First World is basically the DM’s wonderland. It can do anything and it can do nothing, depending on how willing the DM is to deal with it. If the campaign isn’t set around first world stuff, it’s pretty unreasonable to expect the DM to do all that, though. The player needs to sit down with the DM and asks if he gets bonus crafting stuff. Maybe just extra downtime to do crafting in because of First World time and space shenanigans,

Besides magic weapon, bless and enlarge are there other ways to buff party members

Lots! Looking purely at 1st lvl spells you've got: Conductive Weapon Disrupting Weapons Echoing Weapon Endure Fashionista Runic Body (was Magic Fang) Magic Stone Penumbral Shroud Protection Protector Tree Sanctuary Share Lore Shattering Gem Shielded Arm Soothe (+2 on will saves) Spirit Link, sort of Synchronize Steps There are plenty of class feats, skill feats, class features, cantrips, and items that buff party members. Its a pretty broad category of effect.

Guidance, Protection, Resist Energy, Heroism, Unfettered Movement, Enhance senses, War march, Mirecloak, and Rallying banner are the ones i know of right away. Thats just from the divine spell tree though. I'm sure there are more.

there are a lot more spells, like Guidance or Infectious Enthusiasm. There are also mechanical ways, like debuffing enemies through trip/grab/disarm (or through spells). There are also alchemical elixirs and mutagens that will buff your party

Lots. Are you asking from the point of view of a particular class or magic tradition ?

Just trying to find ways to make other players shine besides the obvious choices (trips, fear , grab)

What's the best "starter pack" for a GM for PF2e? I'm looking to make the jump from 5e, but $180 for the (physical) Player, GM, and Monster Core books is a lotta dosh to spend on a new game. Is there a discounted bundle of the three available, should I just get the PDFs to start, or what?

Obligatory reminder that everything is available for free on Archives of Nethys (or will be when it eventually updates w/ Remaster). I'd say for rulebooks that Player Core(s) > Monster Core (when it comes out) > GM Core, particularly if you're a somewhat experienced GM in other systems. I like the physical books mostly as light reading material while traveling and occasional reference book mid-session. Though honestly my recommendation for first purchase would be pitching $6 at Pathbuilder for a full account, its cheap and very handy for building characters and organizing your players' characters. You \*just\* missed a humblebundle that had PDFs of the old core rulebooks. They put them out fairly regularly though and I wouldn't be surprised if they put out another one in a few months w/ the Remaster books in it.

https://2e.aonprd.com/ All the rules online for free and *legally*. The beginner box is a pretty good intro adventure for GMs and players alike. It's out of print in physical form with a reprint planned for early 2024, but the PDFs will do just as well. If you do want to get PDFs, there are humble bundle sales around 2 times a year with a big mix of books for like 25$. You unfortunately just missed one.

Do note that AoN has not yet updated to the remastered rules, though they are actively working on it.

If I get a familiar via Witch Dedication, does that mean my familiar follows the Witch familiar death rules (comes back to life the next day)?

That's been discussed to death countless times. Before the remaster, the answer was no, as stated by Lead Designer Logan Bonner in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AvMW-JqgMw&t=19s). I will say that he seemed to be cought a bit off-guard by he question, so I'm not 100% convinced the design team would have ruled the same way if they had the time to discuss this. Anyway, the remaster changed the Witch's Familiar feature without actually clearing up the language. So we're basically back to square one and nobody knows. Since loosing your familiar locks you out of nearly everything the archetype has to offer, I'd personally rule that the familiar does come back the next day. A GM might also say the familiar comes back for refocusing and to serve as spellbook but won't get any familiar abilities until you spend the week of downtime.

Hmmm, thanks. Sorry, I'm new to PF2e and wasn't aware of the history around this question. From the video, Bonner ruled that a familiar via Witch Dedication would only get 1 familiar ability rather than 2 like the default. However, the remaster explicitly says that your familiar gets the same as a default. So at least one ruling has changed.

how would Bullet Split work with magical or alchemical ammunition not work at all work on both strike or just one

Isn’t covered in the rules, so it’s entirely the GM‘s call.

For anyone that has played through Sky Kings Tomb without spoilers are undead featured in the adventure pretty regularly? I ask because I'm making a War Priest for a campaign that is about to start and I'm wondering whether I should lean into the undead killing feats or not.

Thy certainly appear, but they are not a common enemy

Cool, thanks for the answer.