For the record, I don't hate spell slots. I think it's a fine design, and I'd happily run a game with them. The problem is at my table players do not like to pick a caster, and the reason is always the same. They look at the slot column, they know they will spend the best spell by the second fight.

So I tried to build something that keeps the choice and drops the budget. It has been running for a while now at levels 1 to 10, one group through level 10. The starting idea, fatigue instead of slots, is borrowed from a Brazilian game called Arcana Primária, which I'm crediting because it's someone's design. Nothing from their book is reproduced here, and nothing from Paizo either.

The rule

You don't have spell slots. You have a number called Magic Fatigue, and it gets added to the DC of casting.

Effective Casting DC = base DC for the rank + your current MF + Repetition Strain

You roll d20 + level + proficiency + key ability, plus 2 if the spell was prepared or is in your repertoire, against that DC. Success, the spell happens. Failure, it doesn't, and fatigue goes up. MF floors at 0 and caps at 10.

Rank categories come off your highest rank: High is your top rank and the one under it, Mid is one below that, Low is everything else.

Cantrips never roll. A two action cantrip removes 1 fatigue, guaranteed, even if the target resists or the attack misses. That line is the whole recovery system. A tired caster is not sitting out, they are casting small and getting safer, and then they can push again.

Things I'd call the interesting parts:

On a normal failure you choose: eat it, or Forced Effort, where the spell works anyway and you pay 2 more. Not available after a critical failure.

Cast the same spell at the same rank twice in a fight and every later copy gets +2 DC and +1 extra MF, stacking. Prepared casters get out of that by preparing a second copy. Spontaneous casters get one free repeat per rank. Signature spells don't give you more ammo, they give you the spell at other ranks, which is how you dodge the strain by moving sideways.

At 10 fatigue you can't attempt checked spells, and you can burn hit points instead: free action, fatigue drops to 4, Drained up 2, no daily limit, the limit is your body. That is the answer for the player who says "but what if I just want to keep going".

The Foundry VTT Macros

It needs a counter. I know that. Running this on paper means tracking one number per caster per fight, and if nobody at the table wants to do that, the system will drift and the caster will say "I think I'm at like 5". In practice a d10 next to the sheet works.

The Foundry macros do it properly. Two Script macros: the caster picks a spell off their real spellbook, the macro rolls the check, applies the fatigue, tracks which spells have been repeated, prompts Forced Effort, and posts the spell card without spending the slot, because in this system a slot is not a resource. There is one d20 for the casting check and the spell attack, a Hero Point prompt that shows your current result before you spend, a Counterspell flow, and a separate Spellstrike macro for the Magus that compares one strike roll against AC and against your casting DC.

Repo, with the quickstart, the full rules and the macros:

https://github.com/Thilaq/Escalating-Spellcasting/

Also: this is not a conversion of every option in the game. I converted what I thought I should, Divine Font, the wizard's bonded item, the three arcane theses (Spell Substitution, Staff Nexus, Spell Blending), Studious Spells, the Spellstrike, the eidolon feats, the Animist's two spellbooks, staves, wands and scrolls. Counterspell got one line rather than a conversion, it's the game's rule plus what you pay in fatigue. Bard, Druid, Oracle, Sorcerer, Witch and Psychic have a paragraph of guidance each, not a per-feat audit, and archetypes are barely touched. For anything I missed the full rules have one line for the GM to convert it on the fly, and that has held up so far.

What I want to know

Is the critical failure column too steep above level 10? I have no play above 10 to check it with.

And whether Refocus should be as free as it currently is. Fatigue clears to zero after 10 minutes of downtime, once per hour, riding on the game's own Refocus activity.

Hiya folks! So I happened across Flower Street Infamy and thought it was absolutely hilarious, so now I really want to build the most pansexual man in the world. I have no idea how well I'll actually play him since I'm ace, but that's part of the fun of ttrpgs!

That being said, does anyone have some interesting class pairings or builds in general? I'm currently playing a gymnast swash so probably going to avoid that, looked at some other options like rogue or investigator or even fire kineticist to use that intimidation bonus + the AOE demoralize (assuming my GM is ok with the general impulse/strike Homebrew that people seem to like), but I wanted to see if anyone had some fun ideas!

Ideally I'd be able to hit em with the bon mot + did your mom one turn combo, so maybe not a spellcaster but I'm open to anything.

https://pathbuilder2e.com/launch.html?build=1564508

As a tribute to the great Tim Curry and his phenomenal on screen performance I wanted to make a Long John Silver character build. I tried to make it within his flavour, but I did also want a build that would actually be pretty good. Perhaps there are a few things you could change to make it even more fitting. Captain archetype would be a great addition, but I wasn’t sure what to do with the follower system.

This build is made with Free Archetype and Automatic Rune Progression in mind since that is what my table always plays with.

Perhaps it isn’t the most flashy and unique build, but there are a few notes I wanted to highlight:

• There is no Cutlass weapon in pf2e. Given the weapon he uses in the film there is an argument the scimitar would be a better fit, but it would not function with the build at all.
• I wish I had a background that allowed for an additional point of charisma, but since he is introduced as a cook it had to be that
• There had to be a few betrayal themed feats in, like Bitter Taste of Betrayal and Opportune Backstab
• Walk the Plank was an obvious include
• Reveal Machinations reads a bit more grandiose, but I felt like it was a good fit for the way he betrays Jim Hawkins
• Legendary professional required Pirate Lore to be picked up, because how else are you going to be a professional pirate?

Dont by scare he just wants a hug,ignore that he his covert in blood,with a knife,thats his name is Carnage and that his job is to get people faster to Pharasma

I have tried literally everything and cannot for the life of me figure out how I'm suppose to add this. I'm making a custom heritage to go with a game setting I have in mind, but I don't see anywhere the option to simply add Low-Light Vision or Darkvision as a feat unless it's a special trait normally connected with another heritage or even a class. Am I missing something?

Krugg and his Dodo "DeeDee"
made them for a high-powered mythic campaign so the build is a little silly- level 12 dual class Dwarven Guardian/Fighter with a Cavalier archetype, and a few sneaky extra Monk feats thrown in. The Dodo is a Terror Bird, and I decided right away that she's an endangered statblock. If she dies ol Krugg will never get another mount. Unfortunately it's had the side effect of the DM feeling bad and avoiding opportunities to attack the dreadful beast- Though maybe that's a "Lobster too buttery" type moment...

I play him to mostly just bog down enemies and block/intercept attacks, he has a few abilities that allow him to unarmed attack even if both hands are full, so I interpreted that as headbutts. But he never does too much damage tbh.
He is fun to play though, I get to yell at everything and headbutt doors open. And feel like a hero when I intercept a crit for an ally.

in terms of art- man I struggled rendering this one tbh! kinda at the limit of what I know how to do, this illustration has for sure taught me I gotta get back to some studying and figure out lighting and colours a bit better. I could keep stirring this particular pot but I decided to call it finished, serve it up, and just be happy with it so I can move on to other works. Might have some more PF2e characters to upload here soon!

So, here's my question. Is it at all possible to use a large ancestry (Centaur, Minotaur, or Big Blue) as a "mount" for a medium or smaller sized Eidolon? How could one make that happen?

So apparently I've accidentally been giving my players the ability to strike several times a day, even several times per turn? And I didn't even check the chalice like ever. Like what the hell do I do? I can't just tell my party of more than a year that I've been missing this obvious rule for such a long time, they're already used to falsely being able to strike several times! Any ideas?

So with the changes for the Summoner could a eidolon Rider build be viable? Mostly looking into riding a dragon eidolon, with the option of picking any tradition and more low lvl Spell slots (for reactive spells like interposing, Lost the Path etc)

How would a build like that work? Since i need to be a small Race to Ride it unless i want to wait till i get a large eidolon humana heritage for armor shenanigans is kinda limited

Is there any real pro for going in this Route?

Going to be starting a new game in a few weeks and I had a idea of a concept but I am not sure if it would work out well. Because there is only going to be three players the DM is doing dual class, and I wanted to try Necromancer and Gunslinger. But I don't know if the action economy would support it, so I wanted to ask if anyone had any input or thoughts.

So one of my players has made an inventor and has really laid the tech priest flavoring on thick. Him and i are both very fond of 40k so I thought it best to reach for similar inspiration. However instead of doing a direct foil in dark mechanicum. I thought it interesting to pull from a warpsmith. I was thinking of using a Kravek Morne miniature I own for the board during combat. But either way I want to do a progressive side by side development for the antagonist so I figured using an NPC inventor with some adjustments could work well. I will however concede that if people think it a better idea to just go stat blocks then please let me know.

Either way any help, suggestions, or feedback is welcome. Please have a nice day.

How does thaumaturge's exploit vulnerability work on creatures who are disguised, either through illusory disguise or other means? For example, if a boss is disguised as a low level enemy, if the player rolled high and still didn't get a crit or success, then they would know the creature is not what they appear and actually something much more dangerous. Similarly they could get a result that doesn't match what they see. Or would they get results for the creature that it is disguised as, assuming that they don't succeed any checks to perceive the illusion? Both seem somewhat unfair to me, as I would like to give a hint to the player in this scenario without necessarily giving away it's a disguise.

I read the paragraph on splitting and combining movement in the GM Core, and it gave me an idea for a new activity.

Traverse (2 or 3 action activity)

[Move]

Stride up to your Speed. At any point during this Stride, you may make a Long Jump, High Jump, or Leap. If you make a Long Jump or High Jump, you may jump during your initial Stride. If you didn't Stride at least 10 feet before the jump, you still automatically fail.

What do folks think? Reasonable or too strong?

I have been running these characters through Rusthenge and we have continued on to Seven Dooms. See the comments for details on who they are.

I am newish to TTRPG, having started with P2e about a year ago. I joined a group mid campaign (Extinction Curse) when someone had to drop out, and made a basic sneak rogue. After this campaign finished about 4 months ago, we started Hellbreakers and I made a Champion. We are going to start a 2nd campaign running alternate weeks, where we play Myth-Speaker.

Both campaigns I've played, I have taken relatively basic martial combat style; where I always do the same thing every combat.

I am looking to play some sort of caster, but I am new to casters. Is there a beginner friendly caster that plays well with Myth-Speaker?

No one in our party has decided on anything yet, so everything is possible.

Hello friends. I was wondering something. Due to the Horrendous troubles with ditribution I decided to buy some books right from the source and support good ol Paizo in the meantime. Now I am only interested in two products currently. One is impossoble magic which is already out, and feybound.

Now I was thinking about maybe getting a subscription but I am wondering if that is worth it for only one book. I know there is no monthly fee but will they charge me for every product that comes out in the line or can I just pick and choose? I am currently really ONLY interested in feybound so is it worth subscribing or not?

Reaper Necromancers have a really neat ability called "Thrall Teamwork" that specifies:

"Once per round after you cast create thrall, you can make a melee Strike as a free action against a creature within your melee reach that is adjacent to at least one of your thralls."

Does this strike need to immediately follow the cantrip, or can it be interrupted with movement, flourishes, action compression abilities like "defensive advance", or skill related actions/ combat maneuvers?

The consensus at my table is that the strike needs to happen right after creating the thrall(s), and I am inclined to agree.

If this is the case, how would the ability read if the action could be interrupted?

The store page right here mentions "the orc homeland of the Hold of Belkzen", who was first put into the Eye of Dread meta-region, as one of the Saga Land's sub-regions to be included in the book. But i just saw that yesterday James Jacobs made things clear on the Paizo forums, so i decided to share it here since the store page wasn't updated yet.

Disappointment with Sterling Dynamo is a frequent point of discussion here. I would LOVE to hear your blue-sky ideas for how it could be better, more fun to use, or just to serve the fantasy better.

I have a player whose character lost an arm past the elbow due to illness at a young age, and basically wears a slab of iron in the rough shape of a fist. I'm considering offering a souped-up homebrew version of Sterling Dynamo a few levels down the line after they help out a mechanic who specializes in prostheses. I might integrate some of your suggestions for that, but I'd also just love to hear your ideas about SD in general!

Was considering adding something that is just a Falcata stat wise but a flail instead of a sword. Maybe an edged hoop of steel for slashing, or a simple heavy steel spike situation for piercing, or just a good ol cube of metal for bludgeoning.

Do yall think the prone condition following a huge fatal crit would be too punishing?

Hi, my group of friends is gonna restart a campaign we stopped almost at the beginning 2 years ago. The thing is, we started that campaign as DnD and now the master wanted to change to Pathfinder, so we agreed to it. Now, I haven't played pathfinder so far (thou the master says I'm gonna be the one to love it the most), so I could really use some help to translate the character to have the progression clear from here on. So thank you in advance if you comment.

My character is a semi-elf (a human aiuvarin here, I suppose) who has lived as a woodcutter all her life and now has been recruited to go to war, etc., etc.
My idea on dnd was to start as warrior, multiclass to barbarian, and eventually go for Eldritch Knight. So I would go with Axe and javelins as thought weapons and at the end of the campaign have them even returning to me.

So in pathfinder I think I should go with warrior and stick to it, but i'm not sure... and I still lost myself in class feats, archetypes, and all that...
So, can some veteran give me advice on how they would build a character with that idea?
And also, what background would fit a lumberjack the best? scout? I have found some online, but I'm not sure if that is homebrew or even from the first edition, and the one who is master this time is not very fond of homebrew...

A player asked me and I cant find the rules for it but can sheilds like the dart sheild and such have the weapon modifications attached? Like csn the dart sheild have a spike or a gun? I forget the other one they said but its a thrown slashing sheild. Can that ien get a sheild boss?

I'm making a Runesmith that uses his familiar to trace runes but I'm having a hard time envisioning what a glyph familiar would look like.

Is it just a floating rune? Is it a manifestation of a rune's meaning? Is it a little robot with a rune on it? A tiny rune dragon maybe?

I don't have the book and the text doesn't give much insight into the intended idea of the creature. How would you all describe your "living rune"?

Edit: Thanks for all the suggestions! I ended up combining u/duzler 's stone with a glyph on it and my tiny rune dragon idea and made it in hero forge Pet Rock

Hello everybody. A discussion came up at my table regarding the regenerate spell.

An allied NPC pf the players lost a limb in battle. The party and everybody else had to flee.

The Player characters leveled up and the cleric finally got access to the regenerate spell.

Now it says it can regrow lost organs and/or reattach lost limbs.

Now the cleric argues that the lost limb of the NPC counts as a organ an will regrow. The DM says its a lost limb and could be reattached not regrown. But as the aforementioned fight is month ago ingame the lost limb cannot be retrieved. So the NPC stays crippled.

Whats your take on that?