#System: Pathfinder

[taffywabbit]

portrait for a character i'm playing in lil D&D campaign with some friends! her name is Irene. i think she's pretty neat, and also a VERY shocking and original choice of player species that nobody would ever expect from me

[dare-to-dm]

I make and use excel spreadsheets for my TTRPG character sheets, for the most part. I like the freedom it gives me to design the sheet the way I want and have plenty of space for notes. Plus you can plug in all the formulas to make it do the math for you, and the act of putting those formulas in yourself (as opposed to using some ready made tool instead) is a good way to learn more about the mechanics.

Anyway, I recently made a sheet for 5E characters since my friend is running Curse of Strahd in that system. We leveled up the other night, and with the use of my new sheet it literally took me 3 seconds to level my character. XD

[asheepdraws]

goth elf for my friend's 80's fantasy pathfinder game 🖤

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

Have you ever been playing dnd and found yourself wishing you could experience the full immersion of mechanics for brewing potions, charting maps, picking locks, or enchanting items that were more than simply chucking a d20 and hoping for the best?

In addition to an expansive combat system that favors player exploration and expression, Tales from the Aether encourages players to explore more facets of the fantasy and adventuring genre. Some fun examples are the Chef’s Tools and Climbing Tools mechanics.

Chef’s Tools

These tools are used to make delicious and nutritious meals that are far superior to simple rations. In order to make a nutritious meal that last the whole adventuring day, you must use at least 4 lbs of food stuff such as meat, vegetables, or roots per individual you wish to feed.

You gain a number of d6s equal to your Nature or Knowledge score. You only need to roll one dice to make a successful meal but can gamble for additional bonuses. If you roll doubles on anything other than 1s, your meal grants an additional bonus. Any effects granted from the meals lasts until your next long rest.

If you roll anything other than a 1, the meal is a success and grants a temporary increase to Hit Point maximum equal to your Nature or Knowledge score.

If you roll a 1, the meal is just an average meal with no additional benefits.

If you roll multiple 2s, the meal grants a +1 Bonus to Stamina.

If you roll multiple 3s, the meal grants a +5 to Speed.

If you roll multiple 4s, the meal grants a +1 Bonus to Awareness and Security checks.

If you roll multiple 5s, the meal grants a +1 Bonus to Diplomacy, Deception, Intimidation, and Performance checks.

If you roll multiple 6s, the meal grants double the increase to Hit Points.

Climbing Tools

Climbing long distances is a dangerous sport and can be nearly impossible without the proper tools. With these tools, a misstep may lead to a minor panic attack, not a fall to one’s death.

You gain a pool of 5 dice (1d4). For every 100 feet you climb, you must use these dice to reach a DC of 10. If you fail to meet this DC, you gain 10 points of Stress but make the distance.

The dice you get to roll is increased depending on your Skill Rank. Novice grants a 1d6, Apprentice a 1d8, Journeyman a 1d10, Expert a 1d12, and Master a 1d20.

If you are climbing with multiple people, you can share your dice to help your companions out. For example, if one member of the group is an Expert and passed the DC with 2 dice, they can share their last 3 dice with members of the group that are less skilled in Agility or Strength.

This is just a taste but there is much more to be found. If such exploration of different mechanics interests you, give a follow to keep up to date with Tales from the Aether’s progress! I may be inviting more people to the discord to take a look at the 250+ page document once its V1.2 is completed ;p

[septemberlikestea]

its look at my son monday.

[grimvestige]

Commission for @grand-theftautumn!! I always love getting to do a twelfth-night redraw with people's OCs, it's such a fun pose~

🌱 Commission Info

[lizzorasaurus]

Gorum.

[mythrilpencil]

New character alert!

This is Säde, my first ever Pathfinder character. She’s a Dragonblood Elf Psychic, with both her subclasses (because apparently Psychics in Pathfinder 2E choose two subclasses) being the ones themed around dreams.

She’s probably going to be a head-in-the-clouds type with a mischievous streak, and I’m really excited to try her out!

[palidoozy-art]

Wanted to do some visual exploration of spellcasting and wildshape.

Kjosev would never describe himself as a druid. He tells people he's a 'failed wizard,' so I thought it'd make sense for him to go down the transmutation line and use the moss/sticks on his body to cast shit. Unsure why I haven't thought of that until like, now, but y'know.

Also was never sure how I wanted to visually display the in-between transformation with wildshape. I usually describe it body-horror style but I realize this doesn't address the fact that your clothes/everything else get absorbed into your body. Plus I don't want to draw that every time lol.

[feeshies]

A pet peeve of mine when it comes to ttrpg or D&D posts on this site is when people will act like players (especially players of the earlier editions) who focus more on combat and stats and less on roleplaying and character development are somehow playing the game “wrong” or “don’t know how to have fun.” It’s just a conflict in playing styles.

I’ve played campaigns that focused more on combat and stats than characters, and while it was fun for a single session, I probably couldn’t sit through a long, multi-session campaign with that style because I need to feel attached to the story and characters to keep going.

On the other hand, I also played campaigns where we did little to no combat or anything else that would require rules or character sheets, and I didn’t like that either because I felt like I was being tricked into doing improv theater.

I know what style and balance I prefer, so I try (back when I had time to play) to find games that work for me. But one isn’t better over another.

[empyreal-lore]

The more I think about the political opinions of the Wrath companions the more I realise Arueshalae would end up having the best ones out of anyone and probably one of the closest things to a anarcho-communist you can get in that kind setting.

[dungeon-roving]

Rereading Dunmeshi.

What better thing to do for this horrorshow amalgamation of a blog than stat out monsters! It'll certainly be easier than creating a very detailed nutritional subsystem.

Some notes about Dunmeshi's world if it were statted as PF1e:

The status of gods is uncertain, but considering there are jobs such as priests suggested to Falin, it's safe to say that you -- at the very least -- could play a Cleric and choose the domains that fit your philosophy. Falin sure as hell isn't a rabid Pharasmin beating undead to death a second time.

ABP is 100% in use in Dunmeshi, as it seems to be a relatively-low magic setting, but is otherwise similar to Golarion in many ways. The magic is unevenly spread, and so is the technology (automated trolleys are the kind of thing you'd find in Alkenstar.)

There is without a doubt a good DM needed if you want to run the kinds of encounters in the show/manage. Things like the Shapeshifter encounter would probably be only really possible with a Discord Play-by-Post campaign (probably using everyone's Sense Motive scores to set the Perception DCs. So... don't have a Kabru in your party, TLDR).

Oddly enough, there seems to be Earth-like level of knowledge of scientific topics?! That's the most wild thing I've ever seen, it's like the Russian Expats in Irrisen also exist in Dunmeshi and gave the medieval world knowledge about how microbes and immune systems work. Even the Dwarves in the setting seem mostly on-par with Alkenstari technology in terms of Golarion... not Numerian fuckery. This is probably just a narrative device, in all honesty!

The called shots system is also 100% in play, and would factor into the monster design fairly readily. In addition this would probably also work with Swashbuckler and Gunslinger targeting deeds. Things like the inverse scale of the dragon, the golem's cores, the roots of the man-eating plants are all targeted and deal massive amounts of damage.

On the above point... perhaps there are extra regions for called shots that you only know with a successful knowledge check, or a knowledge check relayed to your allies? It would explain why having an Inquisitor-LoreWarden would be benificial to the party?

Random encounters are essential to the story and the nutritional subsystem unless you want to be bland and play normal pathfinder with a few alt rules and just buy heaps of rations like a loser. If for some reason someone is trying to recreate Dunmeshi in any system. using rations is nigh-anathema.

I'll probably start with the walking mushroom to refresh myself on the monster creation rules. There's nothing really like it in Pathfinder if I recall, but it shouldn't be too hard to create a plant creature with a slam attack that can be taken out by bonk from an ARCANIST.

[wall-eye]

nother new little guy :3

[b33tlejules]

felt nostalgic for my dnd character from 2020 so. here she is. the epitome of 'pure of heart dumb of ass'.

[soleminisanction]

I kinda joked about this a few weeks ago, but the more I think about it, the more convinced I become that the Bad Kids are Pathfinder 2e characters trapped in a Dungeons & Dragons 5e world.

Gonna start with Riz here because he's the one who put the idea in my head in the first place. Riz Gukgak and his parents are clearly closer in concept and design to the green, sneaky, tech-and-fire loving Pathfinder Goblins than they are the yellow, burly mobs of the official D&D goblins. (This is probably because most of the art you find when you google "Dungeons & Dragons goblins" is actually of Pathfinder goblins.) Riz also uses guns, weapons which are uncommon but well-established in Pathfinder, but barely exist at all in D&D.

Most importantly, Riz is fundamentally an Investigator, which exists as its own class in Pathfinder but not in D&D. You know what other classes D&D doesn't have? Oracle and Swashbuckler. The former of which is mechanically way closer to the way Brennan already plays Adaine's oracle powers narratively (and has its own built-in narrative hook to play with, a curse), while the latter has entire fighting styles built around dance and makes you a more effective fighter the more you show off.

For Gorgug you have to dig a little into the gritty details, because Barbarian is a class shared by both systems, but the big one is that unlike D&D, Pathfinder has actual technology rules. Non-magical technology rules, so taking on the Artificer equivalent, the Inventor, as an archetype wouldn't have had that particular synergy problem. There's also a feat, Adopted Ancestry, that would give him mechanical access to culture-based gnome feats to reflect his upbringing with his adopted parents.

Similarly, with Fig, Bards exist in both games (Warlocks don't, but multiclassing into Hexblade is mechanically similar to taking the Magus archetype) but you know what doesn't, RAW? Tieflings that are also elves, because of how D&D's races work. In Pathfinder, however, the tiefling equivalent (nephilim, specifically hellspawn) are a versatile heritage, a secondary template that can be applied to any ancestry, so "elf hellspawn nephilim" is legal RAW. And it's something where you can choose how much of that heritage is expressed in your character's appearance so, again, the mechanics line up better with the narrative re: it only being something she learned about later in life.

Finally, you've got Kristen, who is, on paper, the one who fits comfortably in either game -- a human cleric. But I will attest that, given what she's capable of, she's not just a human cleric. Given the shit Kristen has pulled off over the last three seasons, I maintain that she would be best represented by, at bare minimum, taking the archetype for the upcoming Exemplar class (playtested last year and releasing officially in War of the Immortals, Oct 2024), the only rare class in Pathfinder 2e because they're meant to be literal, actual demi-gods, legendary heroes on the same level as Hercules, Gilgamesh, Cú Chulainn and Maui. It's a class designed to essentially break the game in select ways to make the players feel awesome (hence why it's rare, so GMs can restrict access if they choose), and well. Tell me that doesn't sound like Kristen Applebees.

So yeah, there's the rational behind my crack theory that makes way too much sense: the Bad Kids are Pathfinder characters. Or growing up to be Pathfinder characters. Something like that.

[asquared-ohgodnotthehorrors]

Ya know, I have a setting I would love to run a D&D campaign in - specifically a D&D 5E campaign in. The setting specifically requires so many assumptions that are baked into the rules that were given, and without that anchor, that mechanical core, everything sorta falls apart.

The problem is two things however:

1. 5E has a lot of problems. Problems I can no longer overlook- because I’ve played other systems. I’ve seen how much more freeing and fun it is to run other systems, and I simply don’t feel like I can go back to 5E. I don’t want to go back to 5E, despite how crucial the class assumptions and species are to what I want to run. I don’t want the game to be as crunchy, and I don’t want to have to struggle to make my players feel like they’re challenged or forcing a narrative onto a system that isn’t designed to make the narrative I want to run.

2. 5E is dying. Not because of the fan base or anything- no, WotC is actively killing off the rules that were and replacing them with what will be. It’s changing the thing I want into something else rather than making something new. And it’s not like I can just ignore that either- if I somehow found players who wanted play in this system, they would inevitably use those resources, rely on them. And they would be stranded. Few of my friends want to go back to D&D- and I don’t feel comfortable reaching out to that community to play either. Because I don’t think they’d want to play in the world I want to run.

All in all, I just feel… a little lost on what I want to do. There are a few systems that are able to do what I want. And I just feel a little lost.