ErikMona — 05/28/2021
Goblin Firework Fight has been in development for like 4 years.
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"Question about "Book of the Dead" and related content. Erik mentioned this was a way for Paizo to continue delving deep into monster lore and bestiary content. Does this mean we can look forward to other books in this vein like "Book of the Dragons" or "Book of the Giants"?
If this is not the case, then how much money would I have to shower the devs in to make it so? Does the dev team accept souls and cookies as payment for more dragon content?"
ErikMona — 05/28/2021
Yes, that's precisely what it means.
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"Speaking of Book of the Dead... I wonder if there'll be a ritual to become a lich? :thinking:"
ErikMona — 05/28/2021
That would make a lot of sense to include!
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"was there a release date announced for the goblin firework fight, and is there a place to go to read more about it?"
Jeff Alvarez (he/him) — 05/28/2021
We are hoping for an October release but because it's a card game and more complicated than a book, it could slip to November.
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"@ErikMona Will Book of the Dead allow me to play a dead thief who's more-or-less of the Robin Hood type, stealing from the evil and giving to the good?"
Michael Sayre — 05/29/2021
The book largely lacks the capacity for allowing or disallowing anything, but you'll for sure be able to play a character who is not-living, a thief, and free to redistribute wealth as their inclinations and abilities allow.
James Jacobs (he/him) — 05/29/2021
I'm not Erik but yeah. It will. The thing about these rules I'm most excited by is that it opens up potential plot twists like "OH, so your PC died in the fight, but now you're back as an undead and can keep on playing!"
Being able to play undead PCs is something that in the previous version of the game was weirdly complicated, due to the lack of undead having a Constitution score and being immune to so many things, particularly mind-affecting effects. Getting rid of that for 2nd edition so that undead DO have Constitutions and CAN be affected by mind-affecting stuff was sort of future proofing the potential for doing something like this in the future.
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"what is the one question you want to answer that never got asked?"
James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — 05/28/2021
lolllllll
license to spoil, hmmm
I'd say if there's a setpiece in my adventure I particularly like, and there is one! I don't think I should go into toooooo much detail but "old combatant who wants that one last good fight" is a trope I enjoy much ^_^
James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — 05/28/2021
There is also, somewhere, an amabie, a yokai that @Eleanor Ferron (she/her) and I have enjoyed depictions of over the last year--she even statted one up for our blog!
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James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — 05/28/2021
I'm about to head out for the day, but I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for coming out and I hope you enjoy the con! I'll leave you all with a very minor spoiler of something I mentioned on stream--a couple of the new base weapons coming in this AP . If anyone wants to talk about Ruby Phoenix, I'll be here over the weekend, and tell me what kind of stuff you're looking forward to or what your fighting team looks like!
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"Hey James, just wanted to say that your thread is something I normally check multiple times a day, and I love getting little bits of info from you. Thank you for putting up with all our shenanigans, even though I know it can be trying.
For an actual question, walking down the street of Absalom, how likely would it be that I see a "monster". Like, how would people react to something like a giant or a dragon going out for a shopping trip?
are there any unexpected monsters that might be common to see? Using monster here to kind of mean non-pc ancestry, I guess."
James Jacobs (he/him) — 05/29/2021
Yay! No worries; that thread's a lot of fun to chase!
As for walking down the streets of Absalom, that depends on your definition of "monster." You'll see gnolls and lizardfolk and kobolds daily on the streets, along with a wide range of creatures like terror birds used as mounts or even things like clockworks daily as well. But shifting to the non-PC ancestry... not often. But not rarely enough that it'd be THAT outlandish.
You can check out the Agents of Edgewatch Adventure Path for a good example of this in action.
Since that whole campaign is set in Absalom, and there's plenty of monsters in there.
Most folks would react to the appearance of an unexpected dragon or giant with panic though. It's a big city, but they know about monsters!
As for unexpected monsters that might be common to see... the Absalom book goes into more detail there (including some new creatures) but it really depends on the district.
I did sneak a wrackworm (from Planar Adventures) into one of the locations I wrote for the city, for example...
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"Tabris is one of the more interesting planar beings in the setting but hasn't been mentioned in 2e beside being in the background of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye, is there any information about his edicts and anathemas that can help someone playing a cleric of him?"
James Jacobs (he/him) — 05/29/2021
Not really. He's a strange case, for sure, but doesn't really have clerics who worship him. He doesn't grant spells. Yet. We might change that if/when we explore his story further in the future.
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"What level of familiarity do people around the Inner Sea have with a) Achaekek, and b) the Red Mantis?
What's up with the Mediogalti Hermit? Open-ended hook or Secret of Golarion™?"
James Jacobs (he/him) — 05/29/2021
Achaekek and the Red Mantis are quite well known about the Inner Sea. They're infamous. On par with ninja, for example, or the Mafia.
Including a LOT of misinformation and false rumor.
The Hermit is an open-ended hook.
(For Now!)
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"I think you said something in the panel about Rovagug being, if not the most powerful of the core 20 deities, at least in the top 3. Who else do you think rivals him most closely? My guesses would be Pharasma and Asmodeus, but I'm curious where you stand.
Also, when Dou-Bral became Zon-Kuthon, his Star Towers were damaged or corrupted. Presumably Z-K wouldn't want Rovagug's bindings loosened any more than D-B would have. Was that a byproduct of the transformation, or did something take advantage of the transformation?"
James Jacobs (he/him) — 05/29/2021
Pharasma is the only deity in the core who comes close to rivaling Rovagug, the more I think of it. Asmodeus is nowhere near. So I guess that puts Rovagug in the top 2. If you expand things to include everything, I'd say Yog-Sothoth is one of the top 3.
The damage to the Star Towers is a combination of passage of time, Rovagug's constant writhing, and the transformation to Zon-Kuthon weakening all that Dou-Bral ever did.
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"Are we going to see the PF2 equivalent of Blackfire Adepts any time soon?"
James Jacobs (he/him) — Yesterday at 1:26 AM
They're not on any to-do lists I'm aware of, so probably not soon.
"Same with Riftwardens?"
James Jacobs (he/him) — Yesterday at 1:28 AM
Yup; the riftwardens and blackfire adepts are pretty much a Yin/Yang situation. Can't really do one without the other, which means that they take up more space and time and resources to develop than other groups, which means that it's harder to "schedule" them in.
James Jacobs (he/him) — Yesterday at 1:29 AM
THAT SAID! If folks do want to see us explore something in print, let us know! Either at a convention like this or on our messageboards or whatever. Customer desires are a significant factor of us deciding what we want to do.
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"Ooh, any cool lore info relating to Quest for the Frozen Flame? Really excited for that"
James Jacobs (he/him) — Yesterday at 1:36 AM
We only just announced Frozen Flame at Paizocon. Patrick Rennie is developing it. It starts at 1st level. I don't wanna spoil TOO much more about it yet though, since I don't know how much has and hasn't been said, but it's for sure the most wilderness-themed Adventure Path we've done for 2nd edition so far.
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"oh, I guess I have oooone last question. The Ashen Man! Nyarlathotep! Will we be seeing more about his plans that were teased at the end of Doomsday Dawn?"
James Jacobs (he/him) — Yesterday at 1:38 AM
Folks wanting more Ashen Man stuff should REALLY check out "Malevolence" when it's out in a week or so.
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"Speaking of Dominion though any chance that "They Drown the Gods in Oblivion" who is already present near Golarion(and other Dominion leaders by extension I guess) would get any teases in near future content? ;3"
James Jacobs (he/him) — Yesterday at 1:53 AM
There's a chance, but not anytime soon. There's a fair amount of Dominion stuff in "Malevolence" as well, but it does some different stuff. New stuff.
James Jacobs (he/him) — Yesterday at 1:54 AM
But also builds on some established stuff. As a spoiler... one of the NPCs mentioned in the article on the Dominion of the Black article in the backmatter for "Valley of the Brain Collectors" in Iron Gods has a pretty key role in the haunted house's history.
James Jacobs (he/him) — Yesterday at 2:00 AM
It's also for 3rd level characters, who'll hit 6th or MAYBE 7th level by the end, but if your PCs screw it up, it could have a more disastrous set of repercussions on the Inner Sea region than most failed Adventure Paths. It was fun figuring out how to do a low-level adventure with really high stakes.'
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"(More Vudra please. I love the mythology and the traditions of intrigue from that part of the world and there is such an rich and vibrant variety of cultural trasitions one can be inspired to draw forth incredible stories, terrifying monsters, and fantastic heroes! But the region is sadly glossed over by most TTRPGs...)"
"there's a big section on that in AoE B3 in the backmatter - but we can always get more!"
James Jacobs (he/him) — Yesterday at 2:53 PM
Yup; the section about Vudra in Agents of Edgewatch 3 is the biggest thing we've done for it yet. But it will NOT be the last.
James Jacobs (he/him) — Yesterday at 3:00 PM
Vudra's also one of those places we need to get right and make sure we have the best possible authors to create it though, like what we did with the Mwangi book, so it's a (necessary and welcome and long-time-coming) tougher thing for us to do.
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"What are secrets between friends "
Logan Bonner — 05/29/2021
What, like this?
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/847539883886379078/848269656883724318/IfLA.png
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“@Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) How many class archetypes are in Secrets of Magic?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Doing a quick search looks like there are 4 class archetypes in this book: wellspring magic, elementalist, flexible spellcaster, and runelord.
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“@Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) Are there any qualifiers you need to have for the shadow spell casting in the book?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Mechanically, just the ability to cast spells.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
You have to give up a portion of your soul that keeps out the shadows, so you can tap into them more easily.
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“How the recharge works? How spellstrike works with save spells? One roll for them would be pretty busted”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Can't speak to the latter part, but recharge is mostly done through feat actions and focus spells.
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“Will Magus (archer) apply to any thrown? Or are my Gambit fantasies dead?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
It works for any ranged weapons or unarmed strikes!
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“Are there any class specific options in the book? new doctrines for clerics, hexes for witches, and so on?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
We have new class options for monks and druids for elementalist, in addition to the runelord wizard options. Might be more I've forgotten.
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“how do you balance flexible spellcasting? what's the downside?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
You have slightly fewer spells. Obviously not that many fewer or else it would be pointless for the non-wizard prepared casters, but slightly fewer.
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“I really want this to happen, so: is the create pit spell in this book?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Sadly no, sorry!
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“I'mma gonna sleep but first were there ooze magic options? Ooze bloodline? Anything oozerific for oozemorphs?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
Ooze Form
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“Are there more damaging divine spells for water or air? Aspiring tempest oracles are inquiring”
“I’d definitely like to echo the question on divine spells. Specifically curious about how a cleric’s spell options might feel different after this book is out”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
There's a ton of new divine spells, but conceptually the elements are material essence magic. Divine list won't get those basic elemental spells just like arcane won't get heal.
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
The new divine spells look like they aren't especially focused on elemental damage, but I hear you about oracles. My favorite new divine damaging spell is blink charge, which is a teleport-then-Strike spell.
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“About forms, can you spoil the battle form spells in the book?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
There's a ton. Ooze form, daemon form, demon form, devil form, angel form, cosmic form, fey form…
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“That brings me to my next question.. any level 1 incarnate spells?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Nope! They're reserved for high-level creatures that carry more weight than something that weak.
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“Do you have a specific magic weapon that stood out to either of you?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
I think there's a weapon that extends to be like 100 feet long or something like that.
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“@Mark Seifter (Design Manager) hey sorry to spam this question a bit but will there be a way to play in a similar way to the playtest ? Or is it pretty different ? I really liked this spellstrike even if it wasn't working with spell attack roll and a total change may be a bit strict.”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
There's a feat for the save spells, but ultimately if you want to clone the playtest, maybe ask your GM to have you run a playtest magus?
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“I heard there will be new divine attack cantrips- and that will be much appreciated. Despite daze already being a perfect spell”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
There is 1 new one for sonic, bringing it up to 5 divine attack cantrips and covering all 5 of divine's usual damage types.
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Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Favorite magus feat, can't remember who asked, is Cascading Ray. When you Spellstrike, you can spill energy outward in a ray toward the creature you damaged and further damage them by basically shooting the residiual magic at them.
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“I have 2 big Magus questions, one of which is how the feat for save spellstriking might work, and the other is if the hybrid studies are as limiting as they sound in terms of weapon/hand combat styles”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
You can use save spells, and they have their normal saves if you do. You are encouraged to use a style that fits your hybrid study by some carrots, but if you don't want to for some reason or need to use a backup weapon, you can if you want (with of course the exception that all but the ranged one can't Spellstrike on ranged)
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“This might be a little too broad a question, but is there any kind of official thought on how/if the Class Archetypes interact with the Free Archetype variant rules?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
You can give the archetype feats for free. Remember, class archetypes have those too (so runelord has a bunch of runelord feats you can take)
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“Can you give us some examples of unique combat actions the Eidolon can get to help them keep up with Martials who have tons of combat feats to augment their attacks?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
There's a feat called Blood Frenzy for your eidolon that essentially lets them Rage :eyes:
“How does blood frenzy work exactly?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Gives the eidolon buffs, but it takes a –2 penalty to AC, like a barbarian
“So the -2.. so they get buffs like the Giant instinct I hope lol
What level is blood frenzy?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
The buffs are damage, scaled with number of die, and temporary HP for blood frenzy. That one is 6th level
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“Can you give us some examples of unique combat actions the Eidolon can get to help them keep up with Martials who have tons of combat feats to augment their attacks?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
There's a lot of fun actions and abilities for eidolon, and the options were greatly expanded. However, if you're looking for the eidolon to keep up with a martial character on their own, without counting the summoner in for anything, you're going to be disappointed. The class in total is very effective (and I am routinely a high damage dealer for our party and a pinch healer with mine) but the eidolon is part of the whole.
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“Anything like the 1e blackfire adepts?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
Not exactly no.
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“I too would like to know more about the soulforger. Will it fill the synthesis fantasy?” “I want to be venom”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
So with soulforger, you have a "soul path" you take—a cause or motivation that drives you, and you use that to imbue your essence in your weapons.
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
You manifest your soul armaments from an extradimensional space, and they can adapt around you, but they aren't sentient on their own.
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“Can you give us a tidbit about the Soulforger Archetype or the Soul Seed stuff?
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
Soulforger binds a weapon or armor to themselves and can call it into being (and occasionally when you need the big power up transformation that you'd only pull out for the really big enemies on the sentai show, you can pull in a stronger form with extra abilities). Soul Seed is like relics, but inside your soul.
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
There's a variety of rad essence powers you can choose from for your soulbound armaments.
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“Is there a way for the Eidolon to gain or share skill feats?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
There is a specific option for it.
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“So the Eidolon starts with 16 right? Otherwise the summoner with Eidolon would have 2 18's”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
They actually do start with 18 which means they essentially do have two 18s. This is part of what I was talking about with the "ensemble" being very powerful even though eidolons intentionally aren't 100% of the way to a martial.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
There's now more choices for what ability array you want per eidolon too.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
Like the beater dragon vs one that's more of the smarter dragon
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“Can you give us a tidbit about the Construct Eidolon, such as a Feat that works with it or how it's customizable?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
You can reconfigure your construct as you level up!
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“So can I have a caster focused Eidolon now?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
As mentioned in the panel, you can get them spells...and eventually that can wind up being a lot of spells. Possibly as many or more as the summoner has if you really want.
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“Are there any Skill Feats in the book?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
First that comes to mind is super niche but amazing: Tattoo Artist!
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“Any new backgrounds?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Lots and lots of backgrounds!
“Give us a spoiler of one that you like!”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Song of the deep. You were lost at sea but saved by merfolk or similar, and they shared their knowledge on breathing underwater with you.
“Is this a rare background?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Yep!
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“Any info on the Runelord Archetype you can drop?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Runelords have the classic focus on a single school, with prohibited schools that they can't use. Coolest thing about it IMO is the Embed Aeon Stone feat, which lets you attune aeon stones to your body.
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“So, you said that soulforged weapons aren't sentient on their own-- is there a way to make them sentient? Or, really, anything in SoM that would be like the old Black Blade/sentient weapon archetype? (thank you for answering all these questions!!)”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
I don't think so, sadly, but Mark might have something in mind that I've forgotten.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
Intelligent weapons are kind of a GM decision. They are not an object or slave, they're a person, basically an NPC along with the party with their own motivations and actions in combat, so it's unlikely to really make a player-opt-in intelligent item for those reasons. But a GM interested in the idea and OK with the power boost of those extra actions can totally work with players to make a soulforged weapon intelligent, or I think you could pick an intelligent weapon as your soulforged weapon if you have one but I don't have my file open,
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“Can you give us an example of how the Magus recharge actions work?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
You cast a magus focus spell, or you spend an action and recharge it.
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Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Magus has a focus spell called force fang that lets you essentially bite a creature with force magic. Love that.
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Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Summoner has a focus spell called lifelink surge that gives your eidolon fast healing for 4 rounds, which is super useful.
“My EIDOLON fast healing for 4 rounds? I thought we shared HP, so would it also apply to the summoner?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
It's applied to your shared HP. It specifies in case it matters. For instance if your eidolon has ghoul fever and heals for half or something.
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Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
I believe evolutions are feat-based. So you start with a (very cool and powerful) base eidolon at 1st level, and build from there.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
We had enough level 1 evolutions and other feats in there for Logan to be like "Are we sure we need this many level 1 feats." That's when you know you have maybe even slightly too many level 1 feats. Hopefully it's just enough and not too many!
“In the post playtest, Mark mentioned allowing Eidolons to have a single level 1 evolution at the start like fighters or barbarians start with a level 1 class feat”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
If it's too many, blame me because I answered "Yes."
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[Deleted message, asking why Thassilonian Runelord archetype is a thing, given the setting]
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Lore-wise, it's because of New Thassilon. The idea is that with these ancient practitioners of sin magic alive today, you can learn their tricks. But it's rare, of course.
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — 05/29/2021
Also, despite the name, the runelord class archetype doesn't mean you're a runelord at 1st level. It's a very gradual, balanced gaining of power, like any other type of class option. Just that the abilities you get are thematic to runelords. (Like aeon stones and polearms)
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Logan Bonner — 05/29/2021
How about the focus spell for the sparkling targe magus? Remember that this also recharges your Spell Strike!
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Logan Bonner — 05/29/2021
Please help Alex's die, it's very sick.
Ok, I can't resist one more. And with that, I'm out of here!
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James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Yesterday at 5:41 PM
I was told I could spoil something, but I have not yet spoiled anything
I shall! Let me hmmm pick a potion
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James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Yesterday at 5:57 PM
hmmmm I can drop a couple of arcane cantrips and their brief descriptions before I need to scuttle off for panel prep--I know one came up on panel at least!
James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Yesterday at 6:00 PM
Like everyone was saying, there's some spells for just everyday tasks, in addition to some new combat magic to fill out some gaps--I defs am happy for a wind cantrip, and the bullhorn spell, if I remember correctly, was something that came up when we were talking about how you might address a crowd, such as in a certain giant magical fighting tournament
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Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 1:19 PM
Okay yeah Spellstrike is 2 actions always. Actual text says "You Cast a Spell that takes
1 or 2 actions to cast and requires a spell attack roll," so that potential for the spell to take a variety of actions is built in.
And Spellstrike automatically targets only 1 creature, but you can take feats that let you target more.
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“Question: Can you confirm if the Summoner still has the magic proficiency progression they did in the Playtest (expert at lvl 11)? If so, are there other class features that use Charisma that would give reason for that stat to be maxed given that DC/Attacks would already be behind the curve (thus encouraging the use of mostly buff spells).”
“Will any of the eidolons be incorporeal?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 1:25 PM
Summoner now gets expert at 9th level
And master at 17th, yep!
Doesn't look like the phantom eidolons are incorporeal, sorry!
I imagine that would be just too hard to balance at low levels.
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“Does the Magus still has that 1 level feat to sheathe his weapon in his sleeve/hat/folded clothe ? I don't remember the name Spirit Sheathe I think ?
This was super flavorful”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 1:29 PM
Spirit Sheathe is now a 2nd-level feat, looks like!
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“I have a question! Does Magus still have the Martial Caster feat that gives them utility spell slots?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 1:47 PM
Looks like Martial Caster didn't make the cut, sadly! Not sure why, since it happened between my passes on the class.
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 1:50 PM
There is a 7th-level class feature that grants you specific spells based on your hybrid study, which might be what it was replaced with.
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[Long set of messages talking about traits, and where a Flaming rune on a weapon would proc Energize weapon or the Conducting rune/Resonant weapons]
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 2:07 PM
I think energize strike is gone, actually, sorry!
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“If you can answer, Avi, What will the Summoner and Magus Multiclass Archtypes look like?”
FirstWorldBard (he/him) — Today at 2:09 PM
“think we've heard that magus multiclass gives spellstrike at 4th level feat, but that's once a minute (can't be recharged sooner)
magus dedication is just like other caster dedications with cantrips. again, this is from memory discussed 2 days ago”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 2:11 PM
Ah! Yeah, you don't get Spellstrike right away with the multiclass arch. It's very much aimed at a non-caster base class, so the dedication feat for magus is what FirstWorldBard said. Spellstrike comes in at 4th level.
Summoner, you get the eidolon but the action economy is more limited.
Also, the eidolons ability scores are a bit lowered.
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 2:12 PM
Yep, you don't get Act Together from the multiclass arch.
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“just my last question... does arcane cascade can only be activated with spellstrike or any spell? Like the focus spell?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:10 PM
spellstrike or any spell! (as long as you have actions remaining, of course)
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“we have a lot of pretty standard damage cantrips, so I'm curious how haunting hymn stands out”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:16 PM
It's a sonic damage cantrip. That alone makes it pretty special!
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:18 PM
It doesn't have any bells and whistles per se, though it also gives the target the deafened condition for 1 minute on a crit fail.
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“Will a flames oracle be able to take the Elementalist archetype?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:21 PM
Sadly no, elementalist is arcane and primal only.
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“Can any new cantrips hit multiple enemies aside from the air cantrip?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:26 PM
In addition to gale blast, haunting hymn affects all enemies that can hear you! (Did we mention it's a ridiculously good spell?) There's also a spell called scattering spree that creates difficult terrain in 2 squares and deals 1d4 bludgeoning to creatures in those squares.
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:34 PM
I said 1d4 earlier, but it1s 1d4 + your spellcasting modifier, which is much better lol.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Today at 4:34 PM
Haunting hymn affects all enemies that hear you that are in the area.
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:28 PM
Also in addition to gale blast (an air damaging cantrip), there's actually a number of new air and water spells! (to support elementalist)
“Damn, does gale blast inflict any conditions or is it a simple blasty blast?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:30 PM
It also pushes creatures away from you, 5 feet on a failure and 10 feet on a crit failure!
“haunting hymn sounds like it could be scary, surely it doesn't do much damage, I imagine”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Yesterday at 4:31 PM
Damage equal to your spellcasting modifier!
“scales like daze, I imagine then”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Yesterday at 4:31 PM
Yep
“scattering spree sounds really neat. Is it a ranged spell or in spaces beside you?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:33 PM
It's 2 cubes within a range of 30 feet!
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Today at 4:35 PM
Which must be adjacent.
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:34 PM
The damage requires a save, but the difficult terrain applies regardless, which is nice.
“Since we're overanalyzing the shit out of Haunting Hymn, can we know the area? :eyes:”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:44 PM
15-foot cone :slight_smile:
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“Does it give anything beyond Spellstrike that isn't just the Feats from the Magus class?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:39 PM
Other than the usual spellcasting improvement feats, nope, but the magus feats rule so you'll have plenty to play with.
“Definitely looking forward to those Feats! Any fun ones that stand out?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:42 PM
There's a really cool one that will be great for wizards, which lets you fuse a staff into a weapon so you can cast spells and Spellstrike with it.
(And hit people with it.)
“Mark mentioned you can't put shifting runes on staff still, even with magus”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Today at 4:48 PM
Yes, but you can do the fusion thing Avi mentioned and switch between modes at will.
It's not the shifting rune though.
It's a new thing.
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“I wanna know more about puff of poison, and if my stheno poison magus dreams can come true”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:52 PM
Puff of poison has a range of 5 feet and does damage equal to your spellcasting modifier, and 2 persistent poison damage!
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“Are there any future plans to bring a version of the 1e hexcrafter (curse and hex focused - witch magus archetype) back for the 2e magus?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Today at 4:54 PM
I'm not really "here" here, Avi is the one on a power hour, but I'm pinching backup a little. That said, consider the witch archetype for your magus. It's a really strong archetype choice.
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“Any info on the water cantrip? I really like water based stuff but there was very little before”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 4:55 PM
Spout has a range of 30 feet and a 5-foot cube area, and it deals 1d4 bludgeoning plus your spellcasting modifier. It only affects one square, but if there are multiple creatures in the square, it affects all of them.
You can also change the area to a 5-foot burst centered on you, if you want.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Today at 4:57 PM
“You can also change the area to a 5-foot burst centered on you, if you want.”
If you are in water.
Option 2 is a 5-foot burst centered in water, not a 5-foot emanation on you.
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“Does Divine get any interesting self-buffs for the likes of Warpriest? :eyes:”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 5:05 PM
Warding aggression lets you strike a foe and then gain AC bonuses against that foe, which I love.
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“One thing I would love to know more about but don't know what specifically to ask about are the soul seeds. I've heard they work like relics. Can you give any cool examples of stuff they do?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 5:07 PM
How about one that lets you grow scales to defend against attacks from dragons?
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“Is soul seed archetype rare?”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 5:09 PM
They're not actually attached to an archetype, but yes, they are rare.
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“Pretty sure we're over the time limit here, but any cool details from soulforger you care to/ are able to share?
Sorry, weapon summoning is just the thing I'm most hype for. Miss my old soulknife character”
Avi Kool (Senior Editor; they) — Today at 5:11 PM
One of the essence powers you can choose from, which you gain with the 2nd-level dedication feat, gives your weapon the returning rune for free. SO COOL
It also gains the thrown 30 feet trait. So you can do it to any weapon
So you could have a thrown returning greatsword. I'm nerding out here too lol
This is why it's rare :laughing:
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Today at 5:18 PM
It is awesome. But remember that the essence mode with the big powers isn't always active. Even so, it's great!
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Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:04 PM
I don't know whether ant gnolls have been talked about much yet, but you DO get to meet one right away--as one of your fellow students!
(They are lil' gnolls.)
“Aardwolves gnolls”
Sol St John | Editor (they/them) — Yesterday at 5:05 PM
Yessss the lil' gnolls.
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“Im a big fan of "monster ancestries" so I am so excited for seeing gnolls (and more orcs) in the Mwangi expanse.”
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:08 PM
I think the conrasu and goloma are really good for really crazy ancestries to play. One thing we've done with "monsters" like gnolls and orcs, in the Mwangi Expanse, is show how they view themselves and interact with others, to make them less "monstrous."
“Gonna ask this, since we didn't get a chance to answer it on stream. So far we know the ability boosts for the Conrasu (+CON +WIS +FREE -CHA) and the Goloma (+WIS +FREE). Can we know what the other 4 ancestries' boosts are?”
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:13 PM
Shisks love knowledge and secrets, as we mentioned in the panel. +INT +Free should come as no surprise, then.
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“I actually don't remember if BugMom is single. But it may well be a possibility.”
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:18 PM
We don't actually say whether she's single, technically, so GMs can run with that if they see fit. And her name is--spoiler announcement!--Strands-of-Glowing-Dawn Tzeniwe.
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“So, just asking because That Other Wizard School Property casts a long shadow... does Strength of Thousands do the student houses thing?”
Sol St John | Editor (they/them) — Yesterday at 5:18 PM
Not in terms of like, sleeping arrangements. It's more like a real-world university where you've got student dorms and then you choose a branch of study, and those branches can kinda-sortta act like the house thing but are also, well, schools of study.
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:19 PM
There are two answers to that. First, incoming students are grouped into "cohorts" who are expected to support and learn from each other. The PCs are just such a cohort, which is why they stick together--not because they're a standard "adventuring party," per se.
My second answer is already in canon: there are 5 "branches" in the Magaambya, and the characters each pick one of those.
“Does this mean they are roommates?”
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:20 PM
The 9 student NPCs in the first adventure are there because they, along with the heroes, all share the same dormitory on campus.
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“For MwE, what sort of information is there on Senghor?”
Sol St John | Editor (they/them) — Yesterday at 5:20 PM
Senghor gets a full multi-page write-up, along with about a dozen other settlements throughout the Expanse, so suffice it to say there's lots of information incoming about them!
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:20 PM
:point_up:
LOTS about Senghor.
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“For SoT, how much information is in the book 5 backmatter gazetteer on (arguably a spoiler for that book but it is also public info) Akiton? Anything player-facing? Could you scrounge up enough information from that to run a full campaign/adventure?”
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:25 PM
Akiton! That's sort of a spoiler, but we've said you go to another planet AND the fifth adventure is called "Doorway to the Red Star" AND existing lore explains that the Doorway to the Red Star goes to Akiton. So I feel like I can say that.
We describe Akiton in detail, of course, since it's the site of the adventure, but we don't provide player-facing rules to be from there (ancestries, etc.). This is intentional. In the scope of this story, the heroes are aliens and outsiders on Akiton. They aren't natives; that would blunt the adventure's impact. So we don't intentionally present "here's how to be from Akiton!" rules. If those come from us someday (and it might!), it will come in some other product.
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River — Yesterday at 5:15 PM
“And is there a gnoll deity of some sort in the book, or at least, are gnolls disconnected from the usual "demon worshipper" baggage they're usually saddled with?”
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:29 PM
As to River's last question: there are lots of new gods presented, but none are "this is one for non-evil gnolls." The gods are more general than that.
Sol St John | Editor (they/them) — Yesterday at 5:29 PM
The gnolls are distinctly separated from the "demon worshiper" idea, though. They have their own unique and often misunderstood faith separate from that.
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“Do you have a favorite bit from the gnoll writeup?”
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:40 PM
I like that they have bonekeepers--people who speak to the gods and ancestors through ancestral bones. That's cool.
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“So physically, are the spiders (forgive me forgot their names as I do all proper nouns) humanoid, driver esque, or what?
Drider*”
Sol St John | Editor (they/them) — Yesterday at 5:41 PM
Anadi. Their natural form is just, spider, but they have the ability to shift between that and the humanoid form.
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:45 PM
I'm more familiar with their statistics as NPCs, not as PCs, because of the new anadis in the bestiary backmatter of Strength of Thousands #1: Kindled Magic. Bestiary spoiler!
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“Can you say something about...Given their awkward portrayal even sometime into the second edition, how did you go around...presenting the Bekyar humans in a more nuanced light?”
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:49 PM
We have taken a consistent philosophy of examining the cultures of the Mwangi Expanse from within the culture, rather than from outside of it. We do the same for Bekyar. They consider themselves brutally realistic pragmatists. They deal with demons and devils as a means to an end. This makes outsider see them as all malevolent devil-worshippers and such. And many are. But not all of them, and that's an important facet we discuss.
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“As we get more into Grandmother Spider, are we going to have a wider picture of Achaekek that comes with that?”
Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:51 PM
Only slightly in this book. But quite a few of us internally have a lot of interest in exploring more about Achaekek and the Red Mantis Assassins around here.
I mean, they aren't around here...or ARE THEY?
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Luis Loza (he/him) — Yesterday at 5:52 PM
Eleanor mentioned Old Mage Jatembe's philosophy on magic and I just had to make a meme
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/847540110446559242/848680405564784660/magicismagic.png
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Ron Lundeen — Yesterday at 5:56 PM
Eleanor points out that anadis have "web marriages," so there are a lot of romance opportunities, whether or not she's technically single right now.
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“Can you say anything about the Way of the Sniper? After spending actions on reloading AND hiding, it feels like they end up with very few actions to play with until high levels.”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 8:03 PM
I mentioned that each gunslinger way has their own unique reload activity that they get as part of their class features; I suspect that this will address your concerns for the sniper.
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“With all the cool reload abilities, could gunslingers work with crossbows and things like that in a lower tech setting?”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 8:05 PM
Absolutely. The gunslinger is written so that you can completely replace firearms and only use crossbows if that's the preferred dial for your campaign setting. There are a small number of abilities that just don't make sense with a crossbow as opposed to a firearm, but they're all optional.
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“Anything to say about how Guns & Gears is written? We have the treatises from SoM, and the annotations coming from Geb in the Book of the Dead. How is Guns and Gears written out, flavor-wise?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:06 PM
It's got little sections in character with introductions to help you get a feeling as you move through the "sub-books" about guns and gears, but nothing quite as structured in-world voice as the treatises. Also a fascinating short lore section that gets into progressions and things for different areas. I got so many ideas for adventures and characters reading those.
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“How have the Inventor's Overdrive and Tamper abilities/feats changed, if at all?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:09 PM
Overdrive has a slightly better scaling, but not getting into too many G&G details.
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“how many damage cantrips did SoM end up getting?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:07 PM
The way I answer these is always off the top of my head, so numbers are difficult. I think at least 5, haunting hymn, air, earth, water, and the claw one Logan mentioned
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:09 PM
Oh right puff of poison, I even was the one who said that yesterday, so at least 6.
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“Anything on the class archetype in G&G?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:12 PM
It does something Mike already also spoiled.
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James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Yesterday at 8:15 PM
I spoil a guns archetype now.
Most gunslingers are amazing shots, right? practiced for years and years and can hit a target on the other end of a battlefield cuz of how good they are? There is an archetype that is .... not that. maybe. Like the good-natured florist who's never held a gun before trips and she somehow hits a target while she's tripping. no ways she knows what she's doing, right?
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“Your favorite non-gun weapon in G&G? Favorite magic weapon/armor/rune in SoM?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:19 PM
My favorite magic weapon from SoM is the sword that grows like 100 feet long
“Does it have to be a sword, or can we have the staff of the monkey king too?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:21 PM
I think I made it a rune, and then Logan liked it and put the rune on a specific weapon he wrote too.
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“Can you tell us anything about how you handled the blugeoning/piercing damage on guns?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:22 PM
Very carefully but also in a way that is beneficial to gunslingers.
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 8:22 PM
And really anyone who wants to use guns.
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“James, any REALLY COOL spells from Secrets of Magic or favourite gun from G&G that you can't wait to use?”
James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Yesterday at 8:22 PM
hmmmmm..... I do love flowers, so burning blossoms . A high-level primal/arcane spell that grows an extremely beautiful tree. That blooms. Burningly. And so beautifully that it fascinates onlookers. Burningly.
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“Any cool tattoo spoilers?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:22 PM
There's a neat cultural tattoos sidebar in there!
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"awesome! At one point Mark threw out the idea of a gadget focused inventor more in the vein of the alchemist. Would that be the kind of thing that may return as a class archetype, or would it take too much groundwork creating the wide variety of gadgets?”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 8:24 PM
We mentioned this on the stream, but that option exists in supporting feats for the inventor.
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“So, we learned the names of all the Hybrid Studies (Laughing Shadow, Starlit Span, Sparkling Targe, Inexorable Iron), except the one with the Staff. What is the name of that Hybrid Study?”
James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Yesterday at 8:27 PM
twisting tree :evergreen_tree:
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“Can you spoil the name of a spell, an interesting stat (like targeting, area, trait, etc.) of a spell and a heightening effect of a spell? These might or might not be the same spell.”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:26 PM
One heighten I remember that could be fun is "As summon anarch"
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“oh! Is there a new transmutation cantrip for arcane?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:30 PM
The claaaaaaaaaaw.
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“Can Twisting Tree be used with spears and pole arms or is it just for use with staves?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:31 PM
Staff only but it buffs your use of staves to be much more awesome of a weapon.
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“What're some cool things Soulbound weapons can do?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:33 PM
1) Appear in a transformation sequence.
2) Have a more intense temporary effect for when you're doing the "Mega-power" transformation that the source material would do at the end of the show.
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“Also what's a cool new specific gun you'd like to share?”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 8:34 PM
Probably the mithral tree.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:36 PM
The harmona gun Mike spoiled earlier. It is based off the tiny but fierce fey beast known as harmona from Bestiary 3. Look them up if you don't know about them they are super cute. The gun is actually very big though.
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“I'm using my final question to earnestly inquire if there are any specific plans for bees in any future product, in any way, shape, or form.“
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:35 PM
Yes. The Logbee is a humble bee that offers many magic items for sale.
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“Oh, speaking of, what's a cool new Rune available in the book?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:37 PM
I like the extending weapon one. I think the one where you surf on your weapon was cut for space and is in another book now so not that one.
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"Can you please tell us more about Fulu and Magic Tattoos?”
James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Yesterday at 8:37 PM
Yvonne, who was on the Ruby Phoenix panel and wrote the Goka gazetteer, brought a lot of very cool ideas on fulu that blended their real-life uses with our kind of wizards and fighters fantasy. One of the things you see for instance in folklore is that fulu can be used to repel undead, so here we have the spirit-sealing fulu that paralyzes undead by halting the flow of negative energy within them
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:38 PM
Fulu are a group of paper items including fulu that are also talismans (and work like other talismans) and a bunch that totally aren't and don't get affixed to the usual places. The latter set are arguably even cooler and sometimes have day to day uses like anti-fire one to try to help against housefires.
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“Does the Occult summoner take the place of a spiritualist? Or do you think there is still room for a different identity?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:39 PM
It completely covers the spiritualist's link, the updated summoner lore expanded to include the spiritualist's link. Down to the definition of phantom in B3 mentioning summoners now.
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James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Yesterday at 8:42 PM
I also really like the art for fulu. We don't, generally speaking, use real-life words or letters in our art, so we couldn't use real-life chinese characters in the fulu art (there's also some things about how the characters on fulu are not "normal" characters, which Yvonne left very helpful notes on, but that's a bit besides). Our fulu have some diagrammatic type illustrations as well as strokes that I think evoke the idea of ideographs without looking like Chinese characters, which is a very hard line to walk and I'm eternally grateful/impressed with our awesome art dept for realizing in the item illustrations
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“Oh can you give us some info on the new Gifts?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:42 PM
It's like dragon and soul. The soul is self explanatory but the dragon can cover like you know Sigurd who beat a dragon and was covered in its blood and then suddenly had weird powers, the kind of like "Beat dragon, now am weirdly magic" trope.
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“Is there going to be some new feat for creating fulus or would they be covered by the already existing crafting feats?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:44 PM
Normal rules, but there's a way to make more of them quickly but they don't last as long. Perfect for regular use.
Like if you're trying to get enough of the waterproofing ones for your village in monsoon season, speed may be more important than permanence.
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“Is it the same abilities relics have? Feel like I heard someone say that”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:45 PM
It is completely parallel and you can use any of the relic seeds for it.
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“Is there anything like Magic Tricks that makes an appearance? I guess spell catalysts (I think that's what they were called?) may fill that niche”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:45 PM
Not in SoM no.
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“Do any of the elementalist subtypes have a way to specialize to a specific element, or are they all generalists?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:48 PM
By default you focus on the elements, but if you are like Druid of the Flames or whatever you probably focus more on fire, right? But you aren't banned from the other spells when you need to fly or stoneskin.
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“I would also like to know what kind of role that tattoos fill. Are they just random magic items or armor replacement or what?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:47 PM
They are items you tattoo on yourself. There's one already in a Lost Omens I think?
“World Guide”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:47 PM
Yeah
More of those, very cool flavor, easy to use and add without tons of complex rules.
“Seems like they aren't like fundamental runes, more small fun buffs”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:49 PM
There's nothing stopping them from having fundamental runes and I wouldn't be surprised if we put out tattoos with them some day. Logan had a prototype for it for SoM but it would have cost the entire section and given no other tattoos and so we don't have them in SoM.
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“What kind of changes were made to the Innovation feature of the Inventor class? (i.e. does it advance at the same rate with breakthrough and revolutionary innovations or does it advance faster or slower during level advancement, can we still only get one innovation or can we get multiple innovations now, etc.)”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:50 PM
Some of the features have had their levels switch around slightly, so the advancements aren't quite the same.
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“Regarding existing Ancestries that might have an affinity for being inventive, industrious, or are known for having a mechanical aptitude for things like firearms, engineering, or clockwork/steampunk gear (such as Gnomes, Dwarves, Goblins, Ratfolk, Hobgoblins, etc.), does this book have any new options for them, such as ancestry feats, new heritages, or ancestral weapons/gear?”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 8:51 PM
Yes to several of those.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:52 PM
Especially dwarves. Dongun Hold is Golarion's capital of guns after all.
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Ezekieru — Yesterday at 8:58 PM
“What's an active ability that the armor innovation inventor can do? Their passitivity with their resistances was a concern with one of my players.”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 8:55 PM
That depends. Which of the armor innovation types did you pick?
“Ezekieru came back and said " Thermal Insulation, with Diving Armor feat."
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 9:02 PM
Ah, I was implying there's now a choice of which type of armor innovation to take which may have options associated, in the "My answer gives info but leads to more questions" way but realize I was ambiguous.
“ahhh, I was thinking in a way of "which active ability do you want me to spoil"”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 9:03 PM
Yeah I mean the sneaky options really only fit on the more dexy armor type right?
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James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Yesterday at 9:00 PM
so two stances already released touch on earth and air (mountain stance and wild winds stance, respectively). SoM fills out the quartet--of the two, I like Reflective Ripple Stance, which has some very cool soft martial arts-style abilities, mostly focused around supportive combat maneuvers like disarm or trip
“Oh? And how about the Fire Stance? Really aggressive stuff maybe?”
“there is a fire stance: raining embers - it is rare though!”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 9:19 PM
Canonically, Rain of Embers is actually a rare and mystical variant of the primary style normally practiced by the Monastery of Unblinking Flame, so it was only a matter of time!
James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Yesterday at 9:20 PM
there is a different, less lore-specialized fire stance for monks in this book, and i suppose if its just the name it's fine to say it's Stoked Flame Stance :thumbsup:
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“First off, Bug Mom is a treasure. Is there a Bug Dad?”
Eleanor Ferron (she/her) — Yesterday at 6:43 PM
Maybe! It's deliberately unspecified. I only mentioned it off-hand on stream, but anadi often have web marriages, which are something like a 3-5 member polycule or polyamory. So there may be bug dads, plural!
I recall one documentary I was watching where a man with two wives was looking to marry a third. They asked his first wife what she thought, and she said "I'm all for it! I'll have more time to travel for work!" So maybe bug mom has had the opportunity to take the kids to school while here other wives and husbands and spouses keep up the house.
“Hey Eleanor, care to give us any specific hints about Monsters of Myth?”
Eleanor Ferron (she/her) — Yesterday at 6:43 PM
There's a monster we nicknamed "handsey." He's super gross.
Okay, I'll be serious. There's a cryptid that I had some strong involvement with in the past who will be making a reappearance in Monsters of Myth.
“Can you share one of your favorite story hooks or setting details in the Mwangi Expanse book? Apologies if this was already in the Mwangi panel; I'm planning on watching that today.”
Eleanor Ferron (she/her) — Today at 3:55 PM
There's a huge grain storage silo in Kibwe to keep a surplus in case of famine--fairly typical. But grain keeps vanishing, and the storekeeper can't figure out where. Except the pillar watcher (it's a statue on a pillar, Kibwe has a lot of them) outside the silo keeps getting fatter and fatter. Everyone else keeps telling the storekeeper it's just his imagination.
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“こんにちは、いつもお世話になってます。Hello James. What is mean/roots of name of Tengu Olacle, Korakai?
I sense some of Tengus name are include cute sound of onomatopoeia about bird and I like it.”
James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — 05/28/2021
おはようございま！それともこんばんは :sweat_smile:
As you noticed, I did use a bit of onomatopoeia for the tengu names in APG, mostly with a lot of “k” sounds. Because tengu mix with other cultures a lot and share languages, I also made some of the sample names reflect other cultures—for instance, one is “Kakkariel”, which has the “-iel” in a lot of elf names, another is “Tak-Tak”, which repeats like a goblin name.
For Korakai, I wanted to pick something that fit those sounds. Also, because tengu come from Japanese myth, I wanted to make sure the name would be easy to say for Japanese speakers and that the pronunciation wouldn’t change too much if written in katakana. Once I knew he would be a tempest oracle with ocean powers, I knew I wanted his name to have “kai” in it somewhere, because it means ocean in both Japanese and Hawaiian, which were things that influenced his character.
PaizoConをごゆっくりお楽しみください！パスファインダー協会日本支部の皆様によろしくお願いします。
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“James, I don't know how much you know about the new spells in SoM, but can you share any new ones, or share how scorching ray works with each action spent?”
James Case 「Designer; he/him」 — Today at 2:49 PM
oh, let's go with this one--I wrote it for an earlier product but unfortunately it needed to be cut there, and Mark and Logan were kind enough to revive it for the spells here. One With the Land is a high-level primal spell where you merge into a natural feature like a big rock or tree, and can then control the environment in an area around to perceive, make attacks, or adjust the terrain
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“Still curious on what "cursed twisted ratajins" are? :open_mouth:”
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 1:19 PM
As am I. I didn't come up with that and had to google it to figure out what you were referencing! :stuck_out_tongue:
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 1:26 PM
What often happens when we're talking about a new location, be it Golarion back in the first few volumes of the Adventure Path, or today when we start talking about other places we haven't done much with, is that we drop in random nouns and strange names to tease things. That way, when we do something later in a larger book... like, say, present consarus as a PC ancestry... they're not sudden out of the blue things. They're words that folks have had a year or two or more to wonder about, so that when they show up, it's after anticipation rather than just "oh here's a PC ancestry for you that you never heard of before and has no prior weight or place in the world." That's very unsatisfying.
And that goes just as much for monsters as it does for ancestries. Since who knows if those ratajins are monsters or PC ancestries or neither or both yet?
“I love that yall do that, I've been periodically getting re-hyped for the new Mwangi ancestries ever since I read about them in the book. I guess Ratajin are the new ones for me to get excited about!”
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 1:41 PM
Hopefully that word'll catch on, then! Sometimes, words we make up for this simply don't ignite speculation or the imagination, or we wait so long between when they're invented and we're finally working on what the word was aimed at that the original creator is no longer working at Paizo or we just forgot the word and it goes on to be ignored.
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 2:02 PM
That said! Now that folks seem to have found this thread, I'm gonna sneak in a Malevolence art spoiler!
“Necrophidus right?”
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 2:06 PM
Yup! Necrophidius.
It's hard to tell in the image, but someone painted its bones red and black.
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“AMA Question: While the updates on GameOnTabletop have generally been light on details, the most recent update (posted 2 weeks ago) seemed to indicate that all of the actual development work is done. The only things mentioned left to do was layout and post-layout copy-editing.
Can we get any additional information on what is causing the 2nd delay for the Kingmaker 2e AP?”
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 2:35 PM
The development for Kingmaker is indeed done. It's currently in layout with Art. Starting tomorrow, I go back into those files and start to copy fit, which means cutting text or adding text to make things fit the page right. That will include more development and some actual new writing. Once that's done, the files go to editing, and typically on that first round, the editors have a LOT of questions for the developer, and they'll find things that slipped through the cracks. And those will require more development as well. The step that's finally done is the PRIMARY development/writing task. Which is indeed a huge step forward!
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 2:37 PM
One of the main things that's causing Kingmaker to take so long is the simple fact that it's well over 1,000 pages of content on top of everything else we're doing, combined with the fact that the pandemic forced us to change how we were going about the task of getting that work all done.
“On the topic of Kingmaker, was there any work done to make the first part of the story flow into the second part a little smoother?”
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 2:40 PM
Absolutely. The size of the Adventure Path is over double the size now. It's almost triple the size. And a big part of that was re-organizing the entire thing so that it is presented more logically as one thing rather than six parts of one thing. It's still mostly a sandbox—that's the whole point of it, and as such the main villain isn't going to be "behind the scenes" in every encounter—but the transition between the parts is much more smooth.
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 2:42 PM
And keep in mind also that layout and editing are not fast things. Those passes take many weeks for a normal sized project to complete. We're talking about a project here that, overall, will be spread out over four books and several supplements, with a combined page count of over a thousand pages. For context... that's more work than the Core Rulebook and Bestiary combined.
Taken as a whole, this Kingmaker project is, physically and sheer-word-count, the largest project Paizo has done. It's not the most complicated—it's not as complex as launching an edition—but it's much closer to that level of complexity than simply reprinting a book.
The main adventure book alone for Kingmaker is 640 pages. AKA: The same size as the 2nd edition Core Rulebook.
“I am beyond excited for that! We happened to hiatus our Kingmaker run at book 2 right before you announced the project, and once it was I went all in and my players and I are looking forward to release. With what you've said though, it sounds like we aren't just picking up immediately, I'm gonna need a while to process all that! Thanks for putting so much into it :Care:”
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 2:55 PM
I'd strongly suggest restarting from the start once it's out. It'll be next year still, after all, but this version has an entire new beginning to it in Jamandi Aldori's manor, inspired by the start of the Owlcat computer game, and the kingdom building stuff is completely revamped to take full advantage of Downtime and Exploration rules. Plus, the 128 page Kingmaker Companion Guide adds rules for camping, campsite food, and most importantly several NPCs and quests to add to the main game.
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 3:05 PM
Ooh! ALTERNATELY: You could run that chapter 1 adventure as a 'flashback' with your players re-creating their 1st edition characters in 2nd edition rules, and once that first chapter plays out, let them level those characters up to 4th and then pick up where you left off at the start of the kingdom building/troll-fighting part of things.
All of the story elements from the 1st edition version are still there, after all. Many have been expanded or explored deeper, or have new twists in them, but if you've already played "Stolen Land" and your players have defeated the Stag Lord, that plotline doesn't change much.
James Jacobs (he/him) — Today at 3:22 PM
The kingdom rules have been rebuilt entirely as a result of the basic assumptions of 1st edition and 2nd edition changing. In 1st edition, items you got were based on gp value, so we built the kingdom rules on that assumption—that as you gained levels you'd gain more money (or in this case, Build Points). In 2nd edition, things are built on levels, not GP values. And so the kingdom rules are more like, say, the rebellion rules for Hell's Rebels. Your kingdom is built as a character, and it levels up as you do. Your kingdom has its own type of skills and feats and level-gained abilities, and as you play the adventure and grow your kingdom, you gain XP for your kingdom to grow. This results in not only a much more balanced system, but has the advantage of being simpler to learn. If you know how to build a character for 2nd edition, you know how to build a kingdom.
But to manage expectations... we haven't put a LOT more Nyrissa into things. She's still very much a behind-the-scenes threat that might go unnoticed by players for a long time. We did add in lots more places for PCs to start learning about what she's doing, and so GMs who want to lean into that story can, but Kingmaker is not now a story-based campaign where the players know they're working against an enemy from the First World from the start. It's still a sandbox.
And speaking to that... it's SO much a sandbox that if your players are the type who try to do every single thing, they'll hit 20th level well before they ever have to head to the First World. GMs who want to run a slower XP track will find Kingmaker works very well in that regard.
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“What non-Pathfinder/Starfinder source inspired a game element that was especially challenging to manifest in a recent Paizo product?”
Luis Loza (he/him) — 05/29/2021
I wrote a dungeon for my Strength of Thousands adventure that took a lot of inspiration from Zelda dungeons. While I can't really say much about it currently, the process of replicating the feel of a Zelda dungeon was tough for me as I never really did something like it, but I really like how it turned out. Hopefully people like it!
“Reallly excited to see how you did this! I tried building one myself themed around a special reusable dust of dryness, and it just didn't work. Any chance you've watched Game Maker's Toolkit before? They have a series of videos centered around LoZ dungeon design.”
Luis Loza (he/him) — 05/29/2021
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT INSPIRED IT
I was watching Boss Keys and kept thinking that I really wanted to see if it could be done.
Luckily, I had a good theme to the dungeon that I think would slot in perfectly with the kind of themes that Zelda dungeons typically have (forest dungeon, water dungeon, etc.) and I was able to use that as the basis for stuff.
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“Sooo if Halchyon magic is combination of primal and arcane, what are other magic tradition combinations? is any of them known or discovered yet? Or soon to be introduced? ;D”
Luis Loza (he/him) — 05/30/2021
I don't know if we've said. If there are any combinations in the vein of halcyon magic, they are as of yet unrevealed. I'm sure they would be a huge deal if and when we reveal them!
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“Hi Luis! What's one thing you would love to bring into PF2 from PF1 (or earlier editions) that you just haven't found the right opportunity for?”
Luis Loza (he/him) — 05/30/2021
The gloomblade archetype! I absolutely love the ability of drawing weapons from nowhere and I think it would make a great standalone archetype or expansion to the shadowdancer in 2E.
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“@Luis Loza (he/him) Sometime ago you had revealed there might be an Ancestry in the Lost Omens: The Grand Bazaar book. Is it to soon to reveal which ancestry that might be?”
Luis Loza (he/him) — 05/30/2021
We likely won't be revealing much more about the ancestry until the book releases. There are lots of cool items we want to show off in the lead up to the release, so you will just have to be patient. I know. We are very mean to make you wait.
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“So instead, can we know what the ability score boosts are for the Gnolls, Grippli and Anadi? We know the other 3's.”
Luis Loza (he/him) — 05/30/2021
Anadi
+Dex
+Wis
+Free
-Con
Gnoll
+Str
+Int
+Free
-Wis
Grippli
+Dex
+Wis
+Free
-Str
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[Big message of someone’s homebrewed Riding Bird animal companion statblock]
Luis Loza (he/him) — Yesterday at 12:02 AM
I like this! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news and tell you that the terror bird animal companion is coming in Grand Bazaar
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“Just double-checking, are the Conrasu Medium-size creatures? Or are they Small? Maybe there's an Aardwolf situation with them too?”
Luis Loza (he/him) — Yesterday at 1:00 PM
Conrasu are Medium.
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“Will the mwangi expanse book have anything about the Ekujae town of akrivel, at least putting it on a map somewhere?”
Luis Loza (he/him) — Yesterday at 2:54 PM
It has a small blurb of info
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“Is there anything you wanna slip about Inventor or a gadget you're excited about in the book?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/28/2021
Inventor has even more cool stuff than before, taking ideas from the playtesters and my own drawing board. I think people will really like the new way unstable is working, it's a lot more workable than the literally-broken version in the playtest doc.
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“What were the names you mentioned for the other full-casters?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
Ecclesiast, fey caller, and invoker.
Fey caller, like arcanist, has PF1 cachet to it.
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@Mark Seifter (Design Manager) The slide from Erik had familiars mentioned for Secrets of Magic. Were those cut alongside Blood Magic?
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
No they're in there a little. Like new spells that use familiars and shadow companions have familiars in it.
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“Any new familiar or master abilities that can be used by various classes?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
Very slightly in the shadow familiars.
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“Did Spell Parry make it?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
I see Spell Parry in there.
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“For Wellspring Mage, Logan said a surge happens on a crit fail and a temp slot on a crit success. But it's a DC 6 flat check, so is that a natural 1 for surge and 16+ for a slot?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
I thought it was a surge on a failure
“Wellspring works similarly, where it's just 2 slots, no threes (except Sorcerer, I guess?)?”
“Yeah but it also says that you can get slots back, right?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
Wellspring can get spells back from the wellspring yeah
“It was said the level of the spell regained could change. Could that be elaborated?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
Depends on if it succeeds or crits
“So a slot is regained either way, but the level changes? I had the impression the success only lets you avoid the surge.”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
I remember you also came out of the interview thinking it only surged on a crit fail and I'm not sure where that's coming from. Maybe I'm the one who's wrong but I really don't think so
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“Hi Mark, can you clarify a bit more how the fewer spells per day works with the flexible casting archetype?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
Sure, since Logan went over it mostly on stream. Basically you still get the same starting spells per level as normal, we'll not stick you with just 1, that would be bad, but it doesn't advance at even levels. But then everything is essentially like a signature spell and you prepare however you want, not like N 1st, N 2n, N 3rd, the only restriction is you must prepare at least one 1st level spell (that guarantees you can use all your slots after all)
So like you're level 17 and for whatever reason you want to prepare just magic missile and then everything else is 9th level spells? I really don't think that's a great plan, but you do you
“wizards seem weird in how they interact that way”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
There are specific rules to deal with special restricted slots
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“Hey Mark, is it possible for you to answer if missing Spellstrike uses up the Slot or if it still has a couple of turns for you to try with like in the Playtest? I saw someone mentioning that it loses the slot in another chat
If you can't I get it, the faucet's closed a few hours ago lol”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
The faucet isn't fully closed, just turned to be a bit less of a fire hose, but clarifying from the panel seems fine esp on Secrets of Magic. Now that it's all together in one roll, you do have to commit to the spell, like the Eldritch Archer does.
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[Did X feat stay from the playtest? This was asked a lot.]
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/29/2021
For the most part we kept feats from the playtest unless people didn't like them or the changes changed them too much.
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“Hi sorry I missed the secrets of Magic discord discussion but I wanted to ask, you guys said you had completed blood magic but had to cut it, do you think maybe you could make it a free web supplement like the “extra boons” from Gods and Magic? I’m sure everyone would love that and I don’t know how long we’ll have to wait until to can find another product to put it in”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
We want to give blood magic the front and center treatment it deserves in a publication, so we've made it known that it's a quick, fun, and fully finished section that anyone can use in their books, and it'll make it in soon. We already found a book that had a great use for the parts of APG we had to cut at the end, for instance...you'll be seeing them sooner than you might think :wink:
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“Will there be an arch-type for the Magus like PF1 that is Charisma Based? Or is the current goal to leave it with arcane and spell book?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
All of the class archetypes were listed the other day, and that one isn't included. In general a class archetype for just one class is a tough sell because it's a number of pages that no one else can use but members of that one class, and unlike regular class feats it also can only be used by members of the class who take the class archetype. In general we'll use them when there's a big call for it like runelord wizard (heavy in the lore of the world) and some day synthesist summoner (popular concept that makes a heavy change but also demands a class archetype).
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“Oh, and general design question, are class archetypes considered an overall power boost since they use a lvl 2 feat?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
The level 2 feat itself typically also does something when you gain it. For example, wellspring mage's level 2 feat removes the limit for how many times you can get extra slots from wellspring.
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“For an actual question now Mark, if you can answer. I know the PT Summoner had some awkwardness with armor class. Like, it only got Expert unarmored at level 3, so it had caster AC for the first two levels, and the scaling was a bit weird. Was something changed in that regard?
I mean, um, the Eidolon”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Yes, we unweirded the scaling by tying some baked in item bonus and max Dex to the stat arrays you pick.
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“Interesting. I thought flexible casting was JUST the lvl 2 feat, the archetype feat, or maybe I misunderstood the stream.
(Obviously we haven't had class archetypes to play with before heh)
I thought it was just a lvl 1 class change, it just used up the lvl 2 feat in advance so to speak”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
In that one's case, for example, the level 2 feat gives you back all those missing cantrips.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
It lost cantrips because otherwise it would lose nothing at level 1.
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“Is the amount of spells you can prepare with Flex Casting equal to the total number of (post-reduction) spell slots?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Yes
You have a tooon of flexibility, and add in heightening everything you want and you can pull out just what you need when level matters.
“But you can spread them how you choose over spell levels? And they are all signature? That is amazingly flexible”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Yes and yes and yes
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“How does that work with specialist wizards? And the bonded item for generalists too actually”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
There are specific rules covering constrained special slots. The heal slots for cleric too.
(don't worry, you get to keep those, and they work basically like they used to, but afaik that part hasn't been revealed, whereas for the rest I'm mainly clarifying what we've said already)
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“Spell Strike is its own metastrike now, right? So you can't combine it with other unique actions”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Yep, when Logan talked on the stream about wanting to have a lot of flexibility in how you used Spellstrike in the playtest but realizing we would have to remove that to deliver the play experience that matched what the playtesters wanted, that's part of it.
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“I realized, when I asked about spell parry, I didn't actually ask for the right feat, the one I wanted to actually ask about was Capture spell, which is the one that seems at odds with new magus design”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
That's correct, the original version was tied into the old Spellstrike, so the new version is different.
“so it's still there in some fashion, but obviously different? that's still good at least”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
It's very different and the name is slightly different, but Capture is still in it.
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“"Can't enter Arcane Cascade". Wait, does it cost an action to enter Arcane Cascade?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
It's a stance.
“Can you say how long it lasts after you enter it?”
“until the end of the fight if its a stance”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
I thought we said it was a stance already I'll just say "It lasts like most other stances"
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“are evolution feats still class feats or are they acquired in a different way now?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
They are class feats but they are also acquired by a special 1st level feature that grants you an evolution feat (and the construct eidolon in particular was stated to be flexible with more evos).
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“boost eidolon cantrip still exists?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Yeah you've still got tools to boost and assist your eidolon if you want.
----
“forgot to ask, is the elemental order druid one order for each element or something similar to elemental sorcerer”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Storm already exists, so like Logan said it fills out the other three elemental orders from the lore on the Green Faith.
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“So cathartic magic how does it work is it like focus spell or like a class feature like barbarian ?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
It's an archetype with its own options.
“Thanks ! Is it possible to have an example of how we tap into our emotion or is it too spoilery ?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
I'm OK with it, but I'll play a little cagey too. The big thing is, it's different for each emotion, and each one really feels fitting for that emotion. So the way that you channel your anger and fear are each different!
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“Hmm. Any hints how the Magus Archetype deals with casting? Stat requirements?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
It's similar to other caster archetypes but it has a progression shared with summoner b/c wave caster.
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“Another magus clarification question: with spell strike specified as being two actions, how does that work with non-2 action spells?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
You can do a 1-action spell with it too, no problem, but I recommend 2
Most spellstrikable spells are 2 actions anyways.
“If the spell I use is variable action, which effect do I get, the 1-Action or can I choose the 2-Action version?
For Spell Strike”
Logan Bonner — 05/30/2021
Variable Actions: Some spells have different effects based on the number of actions you spend to cast them. You choose whether to use the effects of the 1- or 2-action version of the spell when you use Spellstrike. A spell has to take exactly 1 or 2 actions; you can’t use Spellstrike with a spell that takes a free action, reaction, or 3 or more actions.
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“Hi Mark not sure if you are the right person to ask but I ran into this debate and thought it was interesting: Why do spells with the auditory trait still require line of effect? Or more specifically, should spells with the auditory trait ignore cover in some instances? The general consensus in the subreddit is that most GMs would rule auditory does not require line of effect, but RAW nothing in the auditory trait suggests this”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Spells work based on the usual rules for line of effect with auditory as an additional limitation. The magic has to get there and the sound does too.
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“Not sure if that's a question that can be answered, but asking doesn't hurt: are there other archetypes in SoM other than the ones (mentioned in the panel) that are in the Book of Unlimited Magic? Like, more "normal" magic-related archetypes?
Also, bonus question: Why "wave caster"? Where did the name come from? xD”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
The five sections are the treatises, classes, spells, items, and BoUM
I think just someone used wave caster, it's not really an official term.
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“I'll ask this last question again, since things are wrapping up. Will the armor innovation inventors get the armor specialization effects when they hit expert level in their armor proficiency?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
I can't remember and even more so than SoM, I'm definitely going to stick to what I can remember for G&G (not least of which because I literally can't get to my files while Linda is streaming but also because that probably means it's too specific to give for G&G yet)
So maybe? I remember considering it but not what I did.
“That's fair. Just thought it was odd that it was missing in the playtest, but weapon-innovators got their critical specialization stuff.”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Yeah, I know I considered adding it. It might have it.
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“So about that Fire Stance that didn't get name dropped lol”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
I think I remember the other one had fire suplexes and stuff, but this one you heat up and blaze around burning things? Can't remember entirely and going on memory.
“My biggest gripe with the Fire Talon Unarmed Strike was that it was a d4, can you confirm wether this one is bigger than that?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
I think it's more but it's not directly all fire though.
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“Are these new Elemental Stances the Elementalist options for Monk or are there a couple more Feats?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
They are the thing!
“Do the other 2 Stances get any follow up Feats as well?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Yep, always
The heating up and blazing around burning things are via the follow-ups I think.
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“Man I keep thinking of synthesis summoner (or whatever the new name of the feat will be) and characters manifesting into their eidolon. Leshy turning into a treant, sprite turning into a giant fey…”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
The feat's new name is for the more limited version in the playtest. Some day we will find the book for synthesist class archetype to be primary synthesist!
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“Mark can you confirm or deny at this time that the Inventor Iconic is in anyway related to Fumbus
In some way shape or form”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
I'd pay attention to what Mike said in the panel about the inventor's backstory.
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“Random question, which spell tradition do you feel benefits the most from the new spells?
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Hard to say. They all benefit a lot, but maybe divine just because it had the fewest before so rising tide raises all ships but maybe the lowest the most?
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“Are all Magus Focus Spells action condensers that involve hitting a thing in some way or are there some cool flavorful ones outside of the ones in the playtest?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
The hybrid study specific ones are that, but very few of the others are.
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Like force fang is very strong but it's not an action economy Strike thing, it's reliable force damage and I love it.
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“Does the Staff Magus have a way to increase the damage of a Staff?
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
As mentioned earlier, they juice up the staff to the point it's a really good weapon choice for them
“Does it work with casting staves too?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
Yuuup
“Couldn’t put elemental damage runes on it though”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — 05/30/2021
That's because you're not twisting tree I guess. Be twisting tree, it's fun.
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“just my last question... does arcane cascade can only be activated with spellstrike or any spell? Like the focus spell?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 2:43 PM
If you Cast a Spell, you can cascade.
“Does this work even with non-damaging spells? Like with Haste?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 2:51 PM
Sure, why not, a spell's a spell! :slight_smile:
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“Mark, will Magus be part of the archetypes covered by Eldritch Trickster?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 2:47 PM
"Choose a multiclass archetype that has a basic, expert, and master spellcasting feat." Do you think magus and summoner will use the normal basic, expert, and master spellcasting feats?
“I have no idea.
Probably?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 2:48 PM
We said earlier they cast more like a real magus
So they don't use the exact same spellcasting feats.
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“Can you spoil any specifics about phantom eidolons?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 2:52 PM
Check the playtest to get a taste of devotion.
Whereas anger is much more of the barbarian-esque offense to devotion's defense.
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“I believe it was stated Magus will have an ability or option to allow staves to use property runes. Does this work with shifting runes and can you still cast spells out of a shifted staff?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 3:11 PM
Shifting is explicitly not allowed.
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“Are there any other ways to get Soul-forged equipment other than being a divine caster?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 3:12 PM
Having 14 Wisdom.
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“Are there Hybrid Studies for general dual-wielding?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 3:19 PM
There aren't any that pressure you to dual wield, no.
But anything + staff and anything + shield work super well.
“X + Staff ? Oh so that would work for the Staff Hybrid study ? It can be staff+another weapon?”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 3:22 PM
Yes, and it works well with like a longsword? Do gandalf with staff + sword at once.
“Dual Weapon Warrior's schtick is Double Slice though, and it seems to be incompatible with Spell Strike. It looks like Magus wouldn't synergize well with this archetype.”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 3:28 PM
Could use it on off-turns for Spellstrike if you want to cycle Spellstrike while still using true strike a lot
So like true strike + Spellstrike -> Double Slice + force fang or w/e
The benefit of all the other actions and the way it flexes is to free you from the tyranny of just Spellstrike all the time (but still allow you to do that if like you really want)
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“I'm so excited to see the 'minor' versions of unstable actions. If we can do at will area damage explosions or electric blasts I will be so psyched”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 4:44 PM
Remember they don't all have minor versions, but many of them do especially at higher levels.
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“Are there any options for ranged attacking eidolons? (Something like an archer angel, a construct with a gun on their mouth, etc.)”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 5:21 PM
Sure are!
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“I don't mean to sound unappreciative, this weekend has been spoilerific. But I just realized we've had no eidolon evolutions spoiled. We've had types of eidolons though”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 6:04 PM
How about two more really powerful ones:
Ever-Vigilant Senses is straight out of the playtesters' ideas. It can be that you have a ton of eyes or heads or something or just you're always vigilant, but the eidolon becomes really good at noticing stuff.
Trample: It's trample yo.
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“Is that "most powerful" as in the highest level one (assumedly matching another Evolution Feat as well) or most powerful as in "spells are valuable"?
It was, but I'm basically asking if 18's the top”
Mark Seifter (Design Manager) — Yesterday at 6:06 PM
2/3 of the 20th feats are certainly eidolon-focused, but they aren't evolutions.
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Michael Sayre — 05/28/2021
I was thinking about what the best way to get this PaizoCon kicked off right is and I decided that the thing that makes the most sense is to tell all of you how many firearms made it into the finished version of Guns & Gears and what all of their traits are! I won't be sharing the definitions for any of those traits (though you'll be familiar with a lot of them, don't assume new traits mean the same thing they did in the playtest!), so if you really want to know what those new traits do, pick the ones that most intrigue you and be sure to ask about them at this Sunday's Ask the Experts panel!
There are a total of 62 firearms and supporting weapons in Guns & Gears, including all the magical firearms but not including any of the siege engines or the non-firearm gears weapons. All of the traits used for all of those weapons are-
Agile
Arcane
Attached
Backstabber
Capacity
Chaotic
CN
Cobbled
Combination
Concealable
Concussive
Critical Fusion
Cursed
Deadly
Disarm
Double Barrel
Dwarf
Elf
Evil
Evocation
Fatal
Fatal Aim
Finesse
Fire
Gnome
Goblin
Illusion
Intelligent
Kickback
LG
LN
Magical
Modular
Necromancy
Occult
Parry
Poison
Primal
Rare
Repeating
Scatter
Shove
Sweep
Tethered
Thrown
Transmutation
Trip
Uncommon
Unique
Versatile P
“Hmm, old traits can mean new things is clearly a teaser for the fact that "dwarf" is actually just a smaller gun”
Michael Sayre — 05/28/2021
I was referring more to the fact that traits that were first introduced in the playtest may have had their definitions changed between then and now :slight_smile:
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“Are the guns in Gears designed to be primarily for gunslingers, or can they be used in place of a bow or something for rangers? (With equivalent power)
Basically do they need feat/class support to be competitive like crossbows or do they stand on their own?”
Michael Sayre — 05/28/2021
The guns in Guns & Gears are primarily simple and martial weapons (with a few advanced options), so they can be used by any class. In the playtest we got a cool report of a player running a firearm-using witch and I expect we'll see a lot more such characters in the days ahead! They are uncommon though, meaning you need either GM permission or to be playing a character from one of the areas that grants access.
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“I liked the sword and gun style! Mixing melee and range has to be a nightmare to balance though lol!”
Michael Sayre — 05/28/2021
You have no idea! And as mentioned on the product page for Guns & Gears, we even took it a step further with gunblade type weapons that fuse firearms and melee weapons together into a single versatile weapon!
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Michael Sayre — 05/28/2021
Tip-toeing to the very edge of using up my discretionary reveals for this convention, I'm planning on playing a gunslinger in Strength of Thousands with a wizard archetype and the new gunslinger way that I'm most excited about, building into one of the most exciting new archetypes in Guns & Gears, so I feel you. I love hybrid characters and PF2's ability to let me do some really specific and different builds is one of the reasons it's really become my favorite TTRPG system over the course of the last couple years.
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“Sorry to crowd onto the Guns & Gears train, but: are you able to shed any light on how your team navigated firearm balance? Even in the playtest, it felt like firearms (along with crossbows) had trouble competing with the action economy of bows. I really like sneaky shooty characters, so I'm excited about Way of the Sniper.”
Michael Sayre — 05/28/2021
The reload question is a pretty common one, so I've got to save it for the Ask the Experts panel this Sunday where it will have the widest audience. I will tell you though, we did a lot to provide reloading options for a variety of different characters and fighting styles, and I plan to go over several of them in that panel. We also gave guns and crossbows some badass new customization options that just straight up aren't available to bows!
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“Just curious, maybe this needs to be saved for the panel, but did Gunslinger's proficiency change? Is it still legendary, or did it get knocked down to master to provide more class features, much like the Monk?”
Michael Sayre — 05/28/2021
They still have Legendary proficiency, though I both reworked some of the way abilities for a couple of the ways and added some new class features for all gunslingers. More details at the panel!
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“I saw arcane was on the list of traits for guns. Do we have magic guns! Maybe a magic archetype? There was this old anime Outlaw Star with spell guns…”
Michael Sayre — 05/28/2021
There are a variety of magical guns, yes. And at least one archetype that has both magical and gun-related options.
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“Was the guns stats changed as discussed some time ago. Remove fatal and make them deadly. When play tested them it went crazy. So much DMG and way outside of melee threat.”
Michael Sayre — 05/29/2021
There are a variety of firearm trait configurations, but the ones with damage boosting crit traits generally use fatal, not deadly, since fatal is a better match thematically and mathematically for how we want guns to function and how the surveys indicated the majority of people wanted them to work. Some guns, like the harmona gun, don't have either fatal or deadly and instead have a larger base damage die and a thematically appropriate damage-boosting trait.
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“I know the Playtest Gunslinger had a bit of a weird issue for Drifter and other builds with a melee mixup where your proficiency in the melee weapon was lagging behind, but it was so beneficial to increase the proficiency via an archetype (such as Aldori Duelist, Gladiator, etc.) that it was almost mandatory to do so for any somewhat optimized build. Was that issue taken care of in some way?”
Michael Sayre — 05/29/2021
Drifters (and gunslingers in general), will find that they have significantly less desire to dip into archetypes for proficiency matching purposes.
Tangential, they'll probably also feel less inclined to pick up Dual Weapon Warrior now that there are guns that can be reloaded without needing a free hand and Dual Weapon Reload is a 1st level gunslinger feat.
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“So Michael, can we get GUN MONK STANCE?¿?¿”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 2:47 PM
I am the design lead on Guns & Gears. The odds of there not being some kind of gun kata option located in there are vanishingly slim.
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“What about an Eldritch Gunslinger Archetype that can load cantrips into a revolver?”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 2:53 PM
It might not be an exact match thematically for what you're envisioning, but there are for sure options for blending magic and guns in G&G, including the way of the spellshot.
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“Since the Way of the Vanguard is meant to be a tank, is it just as dependent on Dexterity as the other Ways or is it more focused on Strength and Constitution? Also, related to this question, is the key ability for Gunslinger still Dexterity or is it more like the Rogue now, where you can choose a different ability score to be the key ability based on the Way of the Gunslinger you choose at creation?”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 3:47 PM
It's still Dexterity since even a vanguard is still primarily using ranged weapons, but there are more options to support gunslingers who don't max out their Dex.
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“Are there any new vehicles you're allowed to spoil this early?”
“Waiting patiently!”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 4:08 PM
Let your patience be rewarded! There is an alchemically-fueled vehicle called the sand diver that burrows through sand. The alchemical fumes its engine emits briefly crystallize the sand in its tunnels, so anyone who tries to chase after it while it burrows will find themselves crawling across essentially broken glass.
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“The keynote and ask the experts panel said there is going to be rules for prosthetic arms - can we attach weapons to them?”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 4:46 PM
You'll probably be pretty interested in integrated weapons.
“Is that an automaton thing or something anyone can use?”
Michael Sayre — Yesterday at 5:00 PM
It's not limited to automatons (clever phrasing of your question, btw, I approve).
