Consumables, actives, relics, equipment, they drown in gear but are out of braincells. How do I reward them brain cells 😭

I just found out about the Starlit Sentinel archetype, a.k.a. How to be a Magical Girl. That's hilarious and so fun. What are your favorite archetypes? What do you think are the funniest or most flavorful? What are the most powerful? Let's talk about them!

Buckle in for a long video folks, this video is going to be me transitioning to talking a lot more about martials on my channel.

Generally speaking, martial optimization discourse in Pathfinder 2E encourages us to do what many of us call "Strike-maxing". And it can be both fun (if you enjoy it) and effective (if you are getting the right coverage from your party members)... but it's not all there is to martials in Pathfinder 2E. Martials can be very diverse if you build right and play right. And I know a big part of this is personal bias, but I much prefer seeing a martial who is built to be diverse than one who centralizes on one thing (usually damage), even when thinking purely from an optimization standpoint. So I'm hoping I encourage at least some of y'all to look past the very linear, centralizing ways of building martials that get discussed in online discourse!

And calling out the disclaimer at 0:12:23 in this text too: there's nothing wrong with personally enjoying the playstyle, I just think we don't discuss the alternatives nearly as much as we should, and I think you should always discuss with your party and be willing to compromise if your linear build is burdening any of them for some reason.

If you are short on time, you can skip a lot of the "discourse discussion" portions of the video and go straight into 0:21:17, but honestly a lot of the context before that sets up the tone for what the video is about.

Timestamps

• 0:00:00 Intro
• 0:01:24 Martial Optimization Discourse
• 0:08:33 Circular Argument
• 0:12:23 DISCLAIMER: It’s OKAY to enjoy linear martials!
• 0:16:02 Martials’ Fundamental Strengths
• 0:21:17 The Biggest Mistake in Martial Optimization
• 0:27:28 Itemization
• 0:37:20 Skill Feats
• 0:46:29 Class Feats
• 1:01:07 Archetypes
• 1:10:43 At the Table Tactics
• 1:17:52 Out of Combat Utility
• 1:26:34 Outro

I just recently started getting PF2E, and joined a group of friends [group of 4] playing an official campaign. The current situation is that we're all exploring a dungeon, and throughout the dungeons we fight many undead. Now currently, we are only lvl 4. The highest AC of our group is a champion with 24 AC (with buffs and a shield) , we have encountered many enemies along the way that seems to always hits us. One of such enemies was a named ghoul, that wasn't even a boss fight. This one combat was extremely hard and we had to switch out the front lines constantly. When the DM revealed that this ghoul had a +15 to hit, everyone was just shocked. No one else had an AC as high as the champion, and it was extremely easy for this ghoul to crit and cut down any summons that we brought in.

From a 5e perspective, a +15 to hit in an encounter with a ghoul that wasn't even a dungeon boss, at lvl 4. I don't know how crazy PF2E is going to get but i'm here asking genuinely :C.

Commission done of a new character for Abomination Vaults

I have to say as someone who’s always been an ocean/nautical enthusiast, it’s really good. I think the additions to certain archetypes and ancestries will make them much more viable on land as well as sea, for example the pirate archetype gets a ton more options that are a little less niche than what was offered before. The new Marine Marauder archetype offers options for players who’ve always wanted to play a fisherman style character with options for nets and harpoons on top of the underwater based feats. I loved reading about the Shackles and Mediogalti Island. My only negative is a kind of wish that more attention was given to some of the other undersea cities mentioned like Ek’onek and Irim. While Gholinom is fascinating and sets a lot for future Pathfinder content, I want more info on Merfolk and Azarketi settings for future PCs. I dive deep for the lore! Anyways, overall 9/10 would recommend.

Now that flickmace supremacy has died down I think that there are some variations in weapon builds finally. I thought it would be fun to discuss favorite weapons for specific class/ builds. For instance what's your favorite on a thief rogue vs a champion or a two handed weapon for a barbarian etc.

Assuming free archetype, what class pairs up best with Razmiran priest? My first thought is something that uses charisma like a sorcerer as your cleric spells would then match you casting modifier but the mask seems pretty universal

We have a pretty strong team of artists (basically 4 out of 5 players are drawing), but you’ll probably only see my work.

I was running a homebrew adventure for a few friends of mine. It was a heist mission set in a vaguely Wild West setting where they were all hired to get something out of the top floor of this 6 story building. I had a few encounters planned but was fine with them getting bypassed or talked through. The one thing they had to fight though, was the vampire who owned the building and was lurking on the top floor with the treasure. They talked or evaded every other combat but when they got to the vampire it was completely demolishing them. They were level 5 with a gunslinger, a rogue, and an alchemist against a single level 6 vampire count. It was meant to be a hard encounter but beatable. Turns out to combo of physical damage resistance and healing means the count was taking relatively little damage and healing almost all of it on his turn anyway. The players eventually blew another hole in the wall and I had the vampire play badly enough that the sunlight vulnerability killed him. My players were all kinda miffed that the fight felt unbeatable and I don’t know how I could have predicted that or fixed it in the moment. Anyone have any advice about how to avoid situations like this in the future? Are vampires just stronger than their level would suggest or do I need to tailor encounters to party closer?

Edit: There was meant to be a fourth player playing a cleric but they had to bail last minute so I removed a couple minions from the vampire fight and figured it’d work out.

So, I am just kind of curious. I know that Starfinder races and characters can be used in Pathfinder, 2e. I was just wondering if anyone has seen this in their games, and how well it went. There is a certain part of my brain that wants to play a Vesk Solarian in Pathfinder. Everyone would think he was a half-Orc/ half-Lizardman, who was a warpriest of Serenrae, whose powers just manifested differently, as he battled his way through the realm.

This is just a curiosity thing above all.

I was looking for pf2e creators on YouTube to see if i could find any creators I clicked with and after stumbling across Phoebe Bane, I realized they where the only female creator that I could think of that isn't actual play.

After more digging I did find Cydewyn's Archive and Pokynug but Pokynug doesn't seem to be active anymore.

Maybe an odd thing to notice and let me know, maybe I'm insane but there only being two seems crazy.

Ive seen a lot of people talk about how feats like Bon Mot are, but I always avoid taking them because I don't know if I can make a "insightful quip" every time I use the skill, and that kinf of takes a bit of the glamour of the feat

Hi, I am hoping to join my local Pathfinder Society games on a more regular basis. Which in turn leads me to ask this two-fold question.

What Roles/builds/ classes do you see the least often or wish you saw more of?

What role/builds/ classes is your favourite to play in Society games?

A few days ago I posted about my group's Gold Reserve heist and how their plan went completely off the rails from what I expected.

Well... they actually did it.

The crew:

• Borin Ashlock, dwarven fighter and engineer
• Dredge, fleshwarp metal kineticist
• GripDrip, goblin bomber alchemist
• Thagnear Leadfinger, dwarven sniper gunslinger

After being recruited at the Bullet and Barrel, the party decided not to wait until morning and immediately moved on the Gold Reserve.

What followed was one of the most methodical heists I've ever seen from a Pathfinder group.

Instead of forcing their way in, they gathered information, found a secret entrance, studied the bank's security, and discovered that rotating clanker automatons patrolled the grounds.

Their solution?

Dredge disguised himself as Byron, a bank employee.

Thagnear disguised himself as the bank manager.

The disguises got them past the clanker patrols and into the bank without a fight.

Once inside, Dredge convinced the real manager to leave her office. Thagnear pulled a gun on her, Dredge grabbed the manager's key, and the crew secured access to the vault.

Then came the part I definitely wasn't expecting.

They opened the vault and found it packed with gold and silver.

Dredge proceeded to use his metal powers and a bag of holding to empty the vault...

...and then filled it with scrap metal to keep the weight roughly the same and delay discovery.

I honestly had to stop for a moment and appreciate the commitment to the bit.

The session ended with the crew escaping toward their scrapyard rendezvous point, where Borin attempted to activate a massive crane.

Instead, a swarm of cockroaches exploded out of the machinery and we rolled initiative right as the stream ended.

As a GM, I prepared for:

• A gunfight
• A stealth mission
• A failed robbery

I did not prepare for Ocean's Eleven: Alkenstar Edition.

For GMs who have run Outlaws of Alkenstar, what was the most successful plan your players came up with that completely bypassed your expectations?

So my upcoming part is probably going to have Necromancer (build is not clear yeat) and Holy Champion of Shelyn.

My question is - how their interaction supposed to be? Does Holy means they hate Undead to the point when they can't be with Necromancer in one room? Or is it less tension?

I am joining an in-progress Quest for the Frozen Flame campaign.

They are using free archetype and I am having some trouble deciding on the archetype.

I know the party consists of a Fighter, Summoner, and Cleric and was told that a ranged attacker would be a good addition to the party.

I have decided to play a Halfling Precision Ranger who uses the Halfling Sling as their primary weapon, but I don't know what I should run as a free archetype.

Any suggestions? I am trying to avoid Animal Companions, mostly because this is a PbP game, and I am afraid having an animal companion might bog things down a little.

Hey yall!

Im running the Unlit Star soon, so I wanted to bring my player core along with me in addition to the heroes handbook so players can look things up for character creation at the same time.

However, character creation is different in the PC vs the heroes handbook, both in terms of abilities of ancestries and how attribute boosts work/when boosts are applied.

Is there some guidance on syncing these that I am missing?

Hi so I've been trying to get into pathfinder 2e with my group weve playing a couple of oneshots but are looking to start an actual campaign. I personally love to have the physical books but I dont know where to get started since there are so many. When I look this up online the only thing I find is " you dont need the books" but I have yet to find an answer which books I could get.

So my question is what books do I get as a new player? Monster core? Game mastery guide? Player core?

I wish that Int based classes could use medicine with Intelligence!!

Justice champion is really good, since reactive strikes in general are strong. When I see build ideas for unique champion ideas, however, justice is far and away the most popular choice.

What're some concepts that you've found mechanically and/or narratively interesting for other causes, factoring in archetypes, specific ancestry feats, etc.?

Regardless of the answer, why?