Redditor r/The-Magic-Sword has been diligently covering the Paizocon panels, as is their custom, live-blogging them in... uhh... GDocs. Links below!

Paizocon 2025 Keynote Live Write-Up

Paizocon 2025 Hellfire Crisis Live Writeup

Paizocon 2025 Starfinder Release Starmap Live Writeup

Paizocon 2025 World of Lost Omens Live Writeup

Over on Reddit, u/Duck_Suit has announced a Google Docs-based tool for quickly filtering spells based on mechanical criteria and casting options. Currently, it's supporting Rank 1 spells, but they intend to flesh it out up to Rank 10.

Seems like a decent little offline resource for caster players.

Original post below:

I love playing spell casters, but the honest truth is that there is an intimidatingly large number of PF2e spells and there is currently no great way of filtering those spells or directly comparing them. Having so many spell options should be an awesome part of the game, not a un-parsable barrier.

For this reason, I have been developing Keth's Spellbook:

https://sites.google.com/view/kethsspellbook?usp=sharing

The spellbook allows magic users to quickly filter spells based on essentially any mechanical criteria, heighten spells and adjust casting options, and create personal spell list.

I have had a lot of fun making and using this resource and I think you will enjoy it as well. Please visit the website above to check it out for yourself! Consider leaving feedback here or at the bottom of the website so that I can take it into consideration for future versions.

Note: The beta contains all 227 available Rank 1 spell and cantrips from the 4 standard magic traditions for the PF2e remaster, though I plan to include all spells to Rank 10 in the future (including class-specific spells and Starfinder 2e spells). Be on the lookout for updates to the spellbook!

Note: I know and love Archive of Nethys. In fact, every spell in the spellbook has a link to its AoN entry for reference. However, I think that this spellbook adds to what is available on AoN and is not redundant with it. Spell filtering on AoN is a bit obtuse in my opinion.

cross-posted from r/Pathfinder2e

TL;DR: Turning the difficulty slider down can give a different experience that is still fun!

Let me start by saying I love PF2e. It's not perfect but its my favorite high fantasy system that I've played and the main group I play with has been running 2e for a few years now and it has entirely been run in the DMs homebrew world (so no APs). All encounters are made by the DM.

One thing I noticed after a while is that my experience was different than the experience of others based on posts in this sub. A lot of the discourse focuses on "the value of a +1 bonus" or "Spellcasters aren't actually weak" or around how to optimize or use teamwork to deal with severe encounters. All of which is super interesting but I think might be scary to a new person whos curious about the "vibe" of PF2e (particularly folks who might be emigrating from 5e). Its my understanding that a lot of this discussion came about due to some of the early APs being overtuned and kind of requiring optimizations and strategic thinking so I think its helpful to have those discussions for people running those types of campaigns but I wanted to offer a perspective from the other end of the difficulty scale.

As I said, the table I play in is a homebrew setting and the campaign is entirely the work of our lovely DM. The story is interesting, our characters are fun, and the encounters are interesting but... the difficulty very rarely rises above moderate. Early on when we were first getting used to the system there were a few encounters in the hard range that I think caught us off guard and the DM dialed back the difficulty and since then as never really ramped it up much other than for the occasional boss at the end of an arc. Most encounters also lean towards the "lots of lower level dudes" as opposed to "one big monster" which I think also contributes to the difference in tone.

At first I was kind of leery of this cause I enjoy some crunch and tactics (as do most of the people at the table) but I now realize that it's pretty liberating. Knowing that I don't need to squeek out every possible bonus really expands the options available. When optimizing there tends to be options that are just flat better than others (this is far less an issue in 2e than in other systems, mind you) and if you're expecting to run into a severe encounter then "every +1 matters" becomes really really true. Choosing to take a suboptimal feat or spell or choosing to do an interesting but tactically unsound action can become real liability. But when you know that you can still pretty reliably hit even without flanking for offguard then you can start doing funny stuff without holding back your party.

This is especially true for spellcasters. I don't think spellcasters are underpowered in 2e, but I do think that there are a lot of spells that sound cool but mechanically just don't do enough. Well in our campaign, since everything tends to be lower level, suddenly those incapacitation spells start working as you fantasize them working. Hordes of mooks make wizards feel like gods again without overshadowing the "boss" encounters.

On the other side of the screen I feel like this also made things a bit more fun for our DM. If winning or losing fights aren't as uncertain then you can start adding in extra variables without the fear of going to far. There was a point where I noticed that he started to get a lot more creative with the combat arenas. For example one fight was against a group of goblins all PL-2 or less. On paper probably a moderate encounter. But the fight took place on a series of suspended platforms over a bottomless pit, where everyone needed to hop from platform to platform. The goblins had a mix of shooters and bruisers who were trying to push us off the platforms. There was tension, there was drama, and there was silliness which made for an extremely rememberable encounter even though in hindsight the actual risk was relatively small.

Most of the "Drama" comes from the sandboxy nature of the campaign. The choices we make outside of combat tends to have the biggest effects.

In summary, this is just a post that says the difficulty slider can be turned down as well as up and the game is still fun. I've played it both ways with various groups and I see the benefits of both.

I really liked this post by u/Slavasonic over on Reddit. Not only does it reflect my own experience running a beer-and-pretzles game with childen (a pop-and-chips game?), but it's actually not been down-voted into a smoking crater, which means it's probably doing something to connect with people that I've not yet figured out.

As my table continues to evolve, I've become increasingly enthusiastic about 2e's effectiveness in more casual games, and as a story engine for narrative and character-driven play. It provides a full "physics" engine in the box that I can tune to my heart's desires. The result has been really great, and discussion of it has gotten a ton of pushback by the community over on Reddit.

Edit: NodeBB seems to be hijacking the blockquote formatting, so I'm switching to horizontal-rules to encapsulate the quoted post.

I have a World's Greatest Screen and I'm looking for some artwork for the front. I could use the cover from the PF2 or SF screens that I bought, but while that art is fantastic, it is too detailed to print well on a home laser printer.

Whats your favorite art or sources for Pathfinder/Starfinder that is simple enough to print nicely?

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/37168120

Cross posting for a mastadon user.

cross-posted from: https://mastodo.neoliber.al/users/Reshirams_Rad_Slam/statuses/114387597054659805

@nostupidquestions @pathfinder With all the buff other spells and debuffs being status bonuses and martials and casters being balanced, what's stopping the best composition from being bards + 3 martials in Pathfinder 2e?

I realize this could all be misinformation because it's AI.

#pathfinder #pathfinder2e

cross-posted from: https://wanderingadventure.party/post/21

This was the largest encounter I've ever run, and what an experience it was! I learned as much from this one fight as I have from months of adventure prep and minor encounters.

We're a very casual table, just me, my partner, my step-son and a friend, running short (~90 minutes) sessions every week or two. We're progressing slowly, and leveling up even more slowly. I decided early on, due to the material I've, uh, stolen my ideas from, that level progression would be locked to McGuffin acquisition, but speed with which the party is actually getting their hands on these objects is much slower than I had initially expected.

We've settled into a tick-tock adventure cadence, then, with mid-level power-ups being added via gold and item injections into keep everyone happy. Which is all to say, when the players level up, it's a big deal, and I've taken to giving them something worthy of their new powers to cut their teeth on.

This time, we'd been running the Forge of Fury, which I converted as we went.

Consider this a spoiler warning for this 25 year old module!

Hiding in the third section of the dungeon -- known as the Foundry -- was the party's second McGuffin, and after some unexpectedly friendly interactions with a group of Hryngars (nee Duergars), a frightening from an Allip, and a really awkward discussion with a crypto-succubus, they managed to find their level-up trinket.

The original adventure hook for the module was to go searching for some ancient +1 weapons, or some such, but that seemed like some pretty weak sauce. The intent was also for players to delve too deep and encounter Nightwing, the black dragon and its hoard of gold, but I'd sent the players in there looking for an NPC and a McGuffin, and have a setting where dragons are very rare, and where at least some of the enemies are (unbeknowst to the players) trying to resurrect a dragon, so just throwing one at the players early in the campaign would be kind of undermining.

So I threw zombies at them, instead. A lot of zombies.

Forge of Fury has a Xulgath (nee Troglodyte) den on the second level, and that is where I stuffed the NPC they were trying to find/rescue. Unfortunately, the party bypassed the den, and took the outer route around the outskirts of the dungeon. This meant that the amped up Drow Sorceress/Necromancer I had following them had some bodies she could unalive and then un-unalive.

Not exactly RAW, of course, since it takes a full day to use the Create Undead ritual for a single target, but the players don't know this, and what they don't know can't hurt them. Besides, Summon Undead is a Rank 1 spell. shrug

The players return to the main hall, new power-up in hand, to discover the troop of friendly Duergars fighting a large wave of shambling Troglodytes (a Level 4 Shambling Troop).

It's at this point that I hand them the stat blocks for the Duergars and a list of names that they will be playing. Each of them got 2 Duergars Sharpshooters and a Duergar specialist of some type to play, which I expected them to use as cannon fodder.

Each round, I unleashed new creatures onto the battle field. First, it was spiders (four Hunting Spiders and a Huge Spider Swarm), then it was the missing NPC's party (2 human Zombie Shamblers), then it was the Xulgath leader and an Orc captive (2 Zombie Brutes). Some skeletal warriors and a Ragewight followed this, before themselves being followed by the boss: A custom built undead anti-paladin, representing the NPC they failed to save.

The battle was chaos, in the best way. Even with this giant roster of enemies, the players got a turn every couple of enemies, and my partner seemed really into the idea of running multiple creatures, and letting the dice determine their personalities.

This was also the encounter where I decided to say "ok, fuck it" more often. As we've played, I've been increasingly convinced that PF2 not just works as a fiction-first game, but plays better that way. I've lacked the confidence to truly give in to this idea at the table though. But with three other characters at her fingertips, all of them martials, my partner started mulling over her character sheet less, and just... dropped her knees into the boss's back. The NPC was tied up at this point, and prone, thanks to a critically successful bola attack, so there wasn't a whole lot he could do about this. I thought about it for a second and decided that it sounded like an unarmed strike to me. But it also sounded like she was now on top of the guy. Like, that's what happens when you drive your knees into a prone person's back, right? So, I threw caution to the wind, let the fiction take over, and told her "you're now sitting on top of him".

The light in her eyes at hearing that was magical.

On his turn the NPC shook her off, broke his bonds, and got to his feet. The battle resumed, but something had changed. The players now understood that they had permission to try things, and I had confidence that I could decide whether what they were trying made sense, and, importantly, what potential outcomes made sense.

The fight ended a couple of rounds later, the boss disarmed (they thought to kick his sword away) and once more knocked to the ground. The party's Guardian did a Smash Bros. style leaping downward strike with his sword, pinning him in place, while two enlarged Duergars stomped a mudhole in him. After four sessions, and nine rounds of combat, the battle was won, and the module was complete.

And my table finally started seeing the game through their characters' eyes, as a world where they can try to get away with anything.

[en español with English subtitles] 5 razones por las que prefiero Pathfinder RPG a D&D (Rules Lawyer) | 5 Reasons Why I Prefer Pathfinder RPG Over D&D

The rules for encounter building and XP rewards in PF2E are great. If your party is all about the same level and you know how difficult of an encounter you want to throw at them it's really easy to build that encounter. As in so many things, the core Pathfinder math Just Works.

But what is hidden behind it? What if, due to player shenanigans, the encounter ends up being very different than you planned or there is a completely unplanned combat? Or you're just curious about how the encounter math works behind the scenes?

Well, here's how it works: Creatures of level 1 and above are worth 160 XP/level. So, a level 2 creature is worth 320 XP and a level 10 is worth 1600 XP. Creatures of level -2, -1 and 0 are worth 40, 80 and 120XP respectively.

To get the per character XP reward for defeating the encounter, total the XP for the creatures in the encounter and divide by the total PC levels at the table.

For example: an encounter of one level 2 and two level 1s is worth 640XP. If faced by a four person party each of level two, thats 640/(4 * 2) = 80XP per character. Or that same 640XP encounter by a party of two level 2 and one level 1? 640/(2+2+1) = 128XP per character.

Granted, this can get silly if the creature levels are way out of whack, which is why in the encounter building rules they don't have table for creatures more than +-3 levels away from the PCs. But just in case you have an odd party or an odd encounter, the math is pretty easy.

Includes both 1E and 2E versions of the the epic Kingmaker adventure path, a Steam key for the Owlcat Kingmaker CRPG, and a bunch of other adventures and source books. A hard copy of the 1E AP is also available.

Does the Player Core book replace the Core Rulebook? Or are they both need?

I dole out level-ups somewhat more sparingly than most, operating under more of an actual-play cadence of one level-up per 'chapter'. The adventure structure that has come out of this mini-boss midway through the adventure, mid-boss guarding the adventure goal, and then adventure boss after level-up.

This time, they beat the dungeon boss, gathered the treasure (a relic crossed with a spell heart, giving them access to higher ranked spells than they 'should' have), and now they're facing... basically all of the enemies (and potential allies) in the dungeon that they bypassed.

This isn't an easy fight. This is a custom-tooled run of the Forge of Fury. They wiped out the Orcs on the main floor, by bypassed almost all of the Troglodytes, and almost all of the undead.

They befriended the Duergars, at least.

I've given everyone control over the Duergars (9 in total), so everyone is playing 4 characters this fight. They got through a couple of rounds of combat last session just fine, and everyone was into it.

Then last night, one of the players -- my partner -- managed to roll a 1 on every. Single. Damage roll. Like, her dice just decided they could not stand the sight of her anymore. It got to the point where I started to let her just re-roll her first roll if it was a 1, and about half the time it still came up a 1.

So, near the end of the session, as this well established itself as a giant cosmic joke, I pitched cascading damage dice to everyone, triggering off of a 1. They all agreed -- though one of the kids was sharp enough to ask if enemies would get the same benefit (of course they would) -- and we finished off the session giving it a try.

My partner rolled a lot of additional dice in the last halaf-hour of play. I let d4s trigger a second d4, but didn't let the secondary die explode. The mood at the table lightened considerably. The damage output increased negligibly, as 1s begat more 1s.

I've never played with exploding or cascading dice before. I don't have the bredth of system experience to have come across it organically. I was pleasantly surprised with how it added tension to damage rolls, and everyone else really loved how it softened the disappointment of rolling strong on their d20 only to find that they actually struck their enemy with a wet noodle.

I'm looking forward to next week, where I'll get to see how this plays out over a longer period of time. I think the kids are going to get a lot out of it, if they ever start rolling 1s.

In other words, what's an official rule or interaction between different rules in Pathfinder 2e that you think is dumb?

This past week has seen the launch of crowdfunding campaigns for The Potter's Curse, a low-level Pathfinder 2e adventure by Jay Scott, and of WARDEN, the genre-agnostic distillation of PathWarden by Ghost Spark. PathWarden is a hack of Pathfinder 2e, which means there's a lot of PF2's DNA to be found in WARDEN.

There are also several system neutral releases, thanks in no small part to ZineQuest

New

The Potter's Curse

• A gritty rescue adventure for Pathfinder 2e!

  Product Type: Adventure

  Systems: Pathfinder 2e

  Start Date: Saturday, 1 February, 2025

  End Date: Monday, 3 March, 2025

  Funded: false

Greasy Spoon: System Neutral Infusion Tables

• Art you can play! Solo or with friends. A tool for GMs and players to have fun going gonzo in the new weird!

  Product Type: GM Resource

  Systems: System Neutral

  Start Date: Saturday, 1 February, 2025

  End Date: Friday, 28 February, 2025

  Funded: false

Beside the Lesser Travelled Road

• 20 system agnostic, unusual and characterful camping spots for your fantasy TTRPGs games!

  Product Type: GM Resource

  Systems: System Neutral

  Start Date: Tuesday, 4 February, 2025

  End Date: Tuesday, 25 February, 2025

  Funded: true

RELICS + RELIQUARIES PART II

• A massive collected anthology of 100+ system-agnostic tools, friends, foes, encounters, items, curses and more for your favorite TTRPGs!

  Product Type: GM Resource, Items & Equipment

  Systems: System Neutral, D&D 5e, Mork Borg, Fist, Mothership

  Start Date: Saturday, 1 February, 2025

  End Date: Saturday, 1 March, 2025

  Funded: true

WARDEN - The d20 RPG for All Settings

• WARDEN is a genre-agnostic and cinematic d20 RPG, built on the bones of Pathfinder 2e, and designed for tight, tactical and fluid gameplay.

  Product Type: System

  Systems: WARDEN, Pathfinder 2e

  Start Date: Monday, 10 February, 2025

  End Date: Thursday, 13 March, 2025

  Funded: false

Ending Soon

Pip and Pawn - For D&D, Pathfinder, and Savage Worlds

• A short ebook about in-fiction games in table top RPGs. Includes history, magic, monsters, and more!

  Product Type: GM Resource, Lore & Worldbuilding, Rules Extension

  Systems: D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, Savage Worlds

  Start Date: Tuesday, 28 January, 2025

  End Date: Wednesday, 19 February, 2025

  Funded: true

Jason Keeley, Senior Developer on Pathfinder Second Edition, talks to Polygon about this year's big rule book release, Battlecry! Includes a look at the cover, and the new Jotunborn (Giantborn/Goliath) ancestry.

cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/14448537

I made books of short one-shots to eliminate that stress DMs feel when they aren't fully prepped.

I use a bullet point format, designed for quick absorption during a session. No need to study and make notes beforehand. Each adventure is on a two page spread, so you aren't flipping around pages to find info. They are very information dense.

I varied the locations, type and plot so you'll have an adventure to fit just about any situation. Most adventures are not combat oriented. Some include riddles, puzzles and handouts. Each adventure has side tabs, so you can quickly find the type of adventure you want in the middle of your session. Won't be scrambling when the players go somewhere you didn't plan for.

The adventures are system agnostic, so there are no stat blocks. You'll need to look up the monsters in your system.

I worked hard to make each adventure very different from one another. I like to set up player expectations, and then use those expectations to surprise them. There are road ambushes with double twist endings, a gladiatorial battle where the enemies use the PCs own weapons against them, and a bard scroll, wrapped in a riddle, rolled up into a sea shanty. They've been selling well and I’ve been lucky to get amazing reviews.

Try an adventure out for yourself. Each book description includes one free adventure and instructions:

My website: https://deckanddicegames.com/quartershots_retail/ DTRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/28077/deck-and-dice-games Itch.io: https://deckanddice.itch.io/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMarcus%2BPascall

p.s. I believe people who buy printed RPG books should get the PDF for free, so if you buy from my website, I'll send you a DTRPG link automatically. If you buy from a game store or Amazon, email me a copy of your receipt for the link.

From Redrazor's Patreon page:

Quick update:

I finished phase 1 of development, which is to create a working app without any of the paid features.

I've signed up to the Apple Developer program and I'm in the process of getting a build of the app uploaded for testing. Once that is done I'll be clearer about how to get people to sign up for a bit of testing. I'll make a new post about that when I'm ready.

In the meantime I'm working on phase 2, which is the remaining locked paid content (custom stuff, pets etc). I've got another couple of weeks before Guns and Gears Remastered so hopefully will get the bulk of it done before then.

As ever, thanks for your continued support.

The Pathfinder-specific space is still pretty sleepy this January, but we've started to see some action on the system-neutral side of things. Some books of GM resources and roll tables are coming up on their close date in the next week.

The 5e space is absolutely buzzing right now, though. I'm glad to have a bit of a break in terms of what I'm interested in buying, but it would be super cool if some of that energy came Paizo's way in the coming months.

New

Pip and Pawn - For D&D, Pathfinder, and Savage Worlds

• A short ebook about in-fiction games in table top RPGs. Includes history, magic, monsters, and more!

  Product Type: GM Resource, Lore & Worldbuilding, Rules Extension

  Systems: D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, Savage Worlds

  Start Date: Tuesday, 28 January, 2025

  End Date: Wednesday, 19 February, 2025

  Funded: true

Ending Soon

50+ Random Tables

• What does that goblin have it its pockets? What's the name of that NPC? What's the MacGuffin for the next quest? Look no further!

  Product Type: GM Reference

  Systems: System Neutral

  Start Date: Monday, 2 December, 2024

  End Date: Friday, 31 January, 2025

  Funded: true

Blights, Catastrophes & Scourges on the Realm

• A collection of global catastrophic events impacting society that can be incorporated into fantasy RPGs. Claims D&D 5e compatibility, but appears to be system neutral in practice.

  Product Type: GM Reference

  Systems: D&D 5e, System Neutral

  Start Date: Wednesday, 1 January, 2025

  End Date: Friday, 31 January, 2025

  Funded: true

100 Amazing Events

• A supplement packed w/ 100+ unique moments, twists, and challenges to bring your World to Life! Claims to be for 5e, but appears to actually be system neutral

  Product Type: GM Reference

  Systems: D&D 5e, System Neutral

  Start Date: Thursday, 2 January, 2025

  End Date: Saturday, 1 February, 2025

  Funded: true

Landon Winkler is back with the second part of their preview of Lost Omens: Rival Academies. Here, they touch on the University of Lepidstadt, Magaambya, and the Monastery of the Unbreaking Waves.

Pathfinder developer Landon Winkler previews some of the academies spotlighted in Lost Omens: Rival Academies, namely Kitharodian Academy, Cobyslarni, and the Academy of the Reclamation.

Since War of Immortals has been out for a while now, I am curious: Does anyone have any experiences with the new Mythic Rules for 2E?

My group played through the 1E Wrath of the Righteous Campaign years ago, and while they were a lot of fun in the sense of being able to do some truly preposterous amount of damage, they were not exactly well-polished.