Homebrew: 4e Minions in PF2

Hey folks!

Several years ago, before the Troop rules existed in PF2, I ported the rules for minions from 4e into PF2. It didn't feel perfect, and when Troops came out I figured that I should try the official version and see what all the hype was about. 

While there's a lot to like about Troops, however, I also had a lot of complaints! Chief among these:

• Troops feels more like fighting a normal enemy with weird resistances and abilities, rather than like fighting a large number of foes.
• Troops targeting reflex rather than AC feels odd, and leads to a situation where Rogues were better at leading their allies into battle than Champions, which feels ever worse!
• AoE damage isn't better enough against Troops when compared to single-target attacks. While that gets better when there are 3-4 Troops, it doesn't feel significantly difference than targeting 3-4 normal creatures.
• Troops are hard to physically maneuver on the table! In person, it's a ton of minis to manage, and if you have  multiple identical troops you need them to be different enough that you can tell the different units apart. Tracking is easier on VTTs, but it's almost impossible to get the level of movement flexibility that Troop Movement is supposed to allow. Same deal with using movement trays for IRL minis.
• Troop Defenses are hard to track! I don't know that I've ever remembered to check if a Troop was passing through 2 HP thresholds, and the stuff about single-target vs. area effects are consistently hard for us to remember.

These are all ultimately problems of fantasy - the rules for Troops work, but not in ways that feel right to me at the table. If you like the overall fantasy of fighting a Squadron rather than its individual members, however, feel free to take a look at "Fixing Troops" at the end of this article!

I'd previously used Minions quite a lot in 5e, and I know that I love the way that they feel when used correctly. Plus, in the interim, MCDM came up with incredible innovations that I couldn't wait to try out in PF2. So, over the past few years, I spent a long time crunching math and trying things out, and I am pretty happy with where we ended up.

Here's the full document. Let's jump in!

Expanding Duels in PF2

Hey folks!

While the Pathfinder 2e dueling rules work well for some situations, they really don't capture the highly regimented rulesets of a lot of real-life Dueling traditions. This idea has been kicking around in my head for a while, so today I am pulling the trigger (pun intended)!

SoT Book 5 Chapter 2 - The Red Planet

Today we'll be doing a few things. First, we'll be slightly revamping how Akiton's weather works (and indeed, severe temperatures in general!) to make it matter more on the scale of hours and days. In the main bulk of the post, however, we'll be fleshing out some aspects of Akiton - writing actual descriptions to help GMs introduce the PCs to different areas, figuring out how difficult finding information on various topics would be, and making the Scenario Structure surrounding Skartitch and Tan-Takneh a little more robust!

I'll be organizing it by section. First, general mechanics surrounding Akiton. Then, the Hall of Reason - better descriptions and doing research. Finally, Seldo and the surrounding conflict. I actually also updated one of my previous posts on Chapter 1 to outline how players can research Akiton and find the spells they need to survive it!

Let's jump in!

RHOD Sidequest - The Mad Mage's Manor

RHoD Masterpost

There's a throwaway line on page 52 that says "The razorfiend has done quite well for itself, having plundered a ruined wizard's manor not far off." That's a fine justification, but what's up with that manor? That sounds interesting! The first time I ran RHoD, this line inspired me to create a mini-dungeon, fleshing out that line, and since my players are about to head into the Blackfens I figured I would type it up and streamline it!

This is the first full homebrew mini-adventure I'll be posting on this blog, though not the first I've published - I hope y'all like it!

New Class: The Necromancer

Hey folks!

Cover of Harrow IX

I'm so excited to announce my first complete Pathfinder 2e class: the Necromancer! You can find the full document here. And oh boy, did I pick a tough one!

A year ago, Paizo released the Kineticist, and in many ways it revolutionized PF2 class design. It presented a version of spellcasters without attrition, with action-flexibility, and with fewer, reliable abilities rather than an exhaustive spell list. While I certainly don't think every spellcaster must follow this format, there was a big conversation on reddit about creating more thematic spellcasters that are tailored to a specific fantasy, rather than generalists. I started work on this class within the week!

Play a Necromancer if you want to bend hordes of undead to your will, unleash devastating theorems to wither your foes, or become the master of death itself!

Is Pathfinder Too Complicated?

Hey folks!

I love Pathfinder 2e - it is cohesively designed, tactically deep, and rich with options. It basically fixed everything that frustrated me about 5e: lack of GM support, overpowered character options, unbalanced stacking bonuses, incomplete rules*, goofy restrictions, lack of specialization/customization, weird action economy, and so much more.

*To be clear, rule-lite games can be rad! But 5e is not that. There's nothing wrong with the core of the game being "the GM and players have a conversation about the world and determine the best option to fit that specific scenario," but it is a problem when some things (esp. spells) are as (or more) complicated as PF2, and others basically don't have rules, because the GM still has to check whether there *are* rules before giving their own ruling. Plus, some of the existing rules are just bad!

However, I know a lot of my players have more trouble with PF2! Part of this is that a lot of them have played 5e, and that transition requires a lot of unlearning bad habits. Players who are newer to RPGs in general always have an easier time, but even they can struggle with some aspects, and I have seen many stories of folks online who struggle even more than my own players.

So, in this post, I'm going to explore some ways that I think that GMs can approach PF2 to help make this transition easier, as well as a few possible house-rules if you want to go further. Let's dive in!

RHoD Addendum - The Ideology of the Red Hand

Hey folks!

This is a post I've been thinking about for a while, as discussed in my History of the Vale post. My original vision for it was going through the history of Weimar Germany and trying to map that onto the History of the Vale, in order to help draw out the parallel of the Red Hand as Fascists. Unfortunately, I don't have time for the amount of research that would take, so I had decided not to post about it.

And then I saw a post claiming to discuss the Red Hand's ideology that I think fundamentally destroys the module. I'm not going to link it, because I am not trying to start beef, and I don't want people going and arguing with this person (if their group is having fun, they can do whatever they want! I'm not here to tell them how to run their game), but I will be quoting from it at length so you can probably find it if you really try. This post is not about drama, it's about thinking through the underlying ideology of the Red Hand and, therefore, better understanding both how to roleplay their members and how to flesh out the world around them.

Let's jump in!

Review: Gatewalkers AP

I've been interested in Gatewalkers for some time, but have been put off by the reviews! Even from the start folks were saying it did not deliver on the promise of Paranormal Investigation, and some recent reviews really cemented that opinion.

I do love a challenge, however! And Investigation scenarios are some of my favorites, if also some of the hardest to pull off successfully (though the Three Clues Rule and Node Based Design help a ton). There's a large part of me that wants to remix this AP into actually delivering on its promise, because that promise is so cool!

Before I put in too much work, I want to get a strong sense of what's already there, how much work "fixing" it would be, and whether it's going to be worth it! Note: I won't be looking at all at challenge per say, but rather the overall scenario design and narrative. I also haven't run it yet, this is based on reading the books and other peoples reviews.

So, is Gatewalkers worth running? Does it fulfill our investigative dreams? Let's jump in!

SoT Book 5 Chapter 1B - Doorway to the Red Star

Hey folks!

The Dooraway to the Red Star
by Hinchel Or

Today we'll be going through the second half of (the very packed) Chapter 1 of Book 5, focusing on diplomacy with the Iobane, raiding the Cathedral of Nothingness, and opening the Doorway to the Red Star.

For the first half of this chapter (the actual Preparations and Pranksters), see the previous post! I won't be going through the journey, other than to touch briefly on how the area has been warped by the Vesicant Egg - I assume it'll take about a month overland (unless the PCs teleport somewhere closer, like one of their homes) but won't be particularly tough.

RHoD Addendum - Adjusting Skull Gorge Bridge

Hey folks!

Fun situation this week - my players are about to reach Skull Gorge Bridge, but they really took their time! A series of retreats and side excursions means that they are arriving on day 8 - the day the Red Hand is set to arrive at Skull Gorge Bridge! I don't want this to mean auto-failure, but it's sure going to make this already tough scenario a bit tougher. Let's jump in!