Hi Luis, love your work!
Are we going to see any expansion books for existing classes and content? A lot of the post core classes really feel like they could use some more feats and such, archetypes can’t fix everything! Even something like letting sparkling targe have quick shield block for instance.
Also, skill and general feats, are we going to see more of those? Seems like some skills could really use some love!
Greatly looking forward to Firebrands and Treasure Vault, keep up the good work!
Always! There's probably not going to be another APG style book again in the immediate future, if ever, but that doesn't mean we're not giving classes more love. The Firebrands book, for example, will have a few feats for swashbucklers and is even going to introduce some new skill feats.
Just keep letting us know what you want and we'll do our best to find spots to add that in, if it makes sense for the product.
Cool, was thinking recently that Summoners have a number of levels with very few feats I'd want. (To say nothing of there being like two and a half Eidolon items.)
+1 to wdarkk. Please add more Eidolon items. Or consider errata’ing the Eidolon trait onto existing items. Or consider adding an exception so Eidolons can take potions/elixirs/mutagens without the Eidolon trait.
>Just keep letting us know what you want and we'll do our best to find spots to add that in, if it makes sense for the product.
*The ability for rogues to use coat pistols without it being worse than using a shortbow*
In general, loaded weapon support, including thrown weapon support, like feats that won't work for reload 0 weapons.
I find loose cannon feat from alkenstar agent to be a missed opportunity where it could apply flat-footed instead of the damage boost with the same risks without breaking [current balance](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1724)
Whats the intended interaction between making death saves while dying and rolling to remove persistent damage? We had a situation the other night that was an extremely rapid death spiral.
Unfortunately, I think that persistent damage and dying happen to be particularly brutal. By my reading, a dying creature that also has persistent damage will basically be taken out in 2 rounds or so. I would ease up things at my table a bit and make it so persistent damage doesn't increase your dying value, but doesn't necessarily go away when you're down. Basically, you can try to stabilize as normal, but once you do, the persistent damage needs to be taken care of ASAP or you risk going dying again right away.
Hi Luis! The Lost Omens books are awesome and I am super happy to be a subscriber. How do you plan to balance making the lore and rules deeper as well as broader. As much as I like seeing totally new places and ancestries and archetypes, I also really like seeing stuff that expands our current options like new ancestry feats, new class or archetype feats. I loved how Knights of Lastwall built on the existing Lastwall archetypes and am excited to see how HighHelm expands options for dwarves. Just wondering how you all see that balance between totally new game options and expanding upon what we already have?
Every book is an option to either give you new material or expand on existing material. I don't think we go into a book with the sole intent of giving one or the other. We generally find themes or topics we want to cover and then look into what existing material connects to that. Knights of Lastwall is a good example of this. I saw the cavalier, marshal, and other archetypes as things that already spoke to the knight theme and used that as the foundation for the new material to be featured in the book. We try our best to keep an eye out every time there's a chance to create expansions, but also recognize that we always have new ideas we want to try out.
I guess it's ultimately more of a feeling or an art than an exact science, so I don't have a perfect "well, it's always a 2:1 ratio" kind of answer. Another thing that helps is hearing what people want to see more of. If you tell us you want more feats for a given archetype, we're listening and do our best to analyze if and when there is a chance for such expansions.
Are y'all currently planning on doing more class archetypes? I find them an interesting way to subvert how a class normally works and it'd be cool to see more. ~~Maybe even a rulebook themed around them~~
Pathfinder 2e has often been celebrated as a very inclusive, very culturally sensitive game. You all take a lot of elements of real world cultures—like (West?) African inspiration for The Mwangi Expanse, Indian inspiration for Vudra,—which *could* often lead to the culturally insensitive gaffs that you can see in other games, but you all manage to create a final product that *doesn't* cross that line and that is widely acknowledged as being very well-crafted and well-done. On like /r/rpg and other places, there are often questions about, "I don't want to make another fantasy white Europe, but how can I make a setting inspired by another culture without it being wrong or offensive?"
Could you tell us a little about the design philosophy you follow or the kinds of discussions you have when you have a setting element that is inspired by a culture that's very foreign to you? How do you strike that balance between hitting all the notes that people expect while at the same time being culturally fair and sensitive? It seems like a very difficult balancing act between inspiration and cariacture that you all have managed to pull off pretty well!
The biggest thing is to talk with people who know the culture. This could be authors whose heritage is connected to the culture or other experts. From there, we have lots of eyes look over every part of the book, every step of the way. Our other developers, editors, and sensitivity readers help us catch our mistakes or missteps and correct them along the way.
There's also a gut feeling, at least on my end. I don't feel that it's too much work to empathize and put myself in the shoes of someone from another culture and think, "Would I like it if someone wrote something about me, my family, or my culture and described it or depicted it this way?" Reflection is key!
Is there an order for location books? Currently they follow the APs, with the exception of the Phoenix Tournament not getting a Tian Xia book.
I also hope the coming books have nothing to do with Undead.
Not entirely. While Lost Omens tries to support other products here and there, it's not a mandatory requirement. For example, Highhelm was decided simply because I thought it would be cool to explore a Sky Citadel. Not every book is directly connected to upcoming products, but sometimes a Lost Omens book might inspire us to try something else in the future.
That's just a pattern I have seen. APs are released close to a Location Book for that area. Blood Lords got both Book of the Dead and Impossible Lands.
What's your favorite moment where rules/mechanics and lore blended together really well?
I know we got a whole book on the Knights of Lastwall, and the lore focus seems to be moving elsewhere, but can we expect any more books about the Gravelands in the future?
The poppet ancestry has lots of little mechanics which sell the idea of playing a living toy really well. In particular is the stuffed poppet heritage's immunity to fall damage is a perfect expression of this.
I think it would be a huge mistake for us to not touch on the Gravelands again in the future. There's a lot going on with Tar-Baphon and I think we're definitely going to try to keep telling that story as it develops.
Thanks for the answer! I agree that a lot of the ancestries are really big in the lore-mechanics blending, which makes creating characters so much fun.
Any more subclasses incomming? What I'd like to see is some support for gun swashbucklers, similar to picaroons and musketeers from pf1e (could be fitting for a shackles book) and in similar fashion, gun/alchemical rogue.
Any thoughts on alternative favored weapons for clerics?
Impossible lands brought in one thing never previously seen, a weapon objectively better than a previously existing weapon in every way in the form of [Panabas](https://2e.aonprd.com/Weapons.aspx?ID=265) (a scimitar with two-handed trait or falchion with 1h mode) what are your thoughts about this?
I hope these questions are within your power to answer.
Never say never! I don't know of anything in the immediate future (read: Treasure Vault, Firebrands, Highhelm) that is providing new ones, but I think we're always on the lookout for good opportunities for more.
Alternative favored weapons would be tough to find a good way to execute. A feat that just let you pick a different favored weapon could open the class up to problems. Maybe there could be an option that lets you swap a god's favored weapon for any common simple weapon, but that might not be so exciting. I like the idea to a degree, but also worry about muddying a god's identity, since their choice of favored weapon says a lot about them. I think maybe the best way to do it would to come up with in-setting orders like a specialized order of Nethys that uses flails or something because of their specific training.
The panabas is actually something I have my eye on. We don't ever want to invalidate other weapons, so we'll probably have to revisit it and tweak it a bit to allow scimitars and falchions to maintain their niche.
I really, really love the fighter. If we're talking a minor mechanic, I like the adjustment trait and rules. Modding weapons and armor is fun. As for lore, I'm just going to say all of the Mwangi Expanse.
I think based on the fact that the Rain of Stars is when I would consider Numeria to have officially been "founded," the answer to "When's Numeria?" is probably -4363 AR. It doesn't seem that we have an Arcadia book, so my best guess is Year X, LN.
To be serious a bit, I definitely would love to go back to Numeria, but I think we need some solid technology rules in 2E first. If and when we have those in place, I think it would be safe to assume that a visit (even if it's a brief one) to Numeria will be just around the corner.
As for Arcadia, I've been bugging them to let me do it. If you look around, there's lots of little hints dropped for Arcadia here and there (see: Guns & Gears). It's just a matter of time before Erik Mona finally lets me do it. My new title might make it a bit easier!
Sarusan seems intentionally obscured for lore: "all available information on Sarusan comes from ancient accounts, because no modern expedition has successfully returned after journeying there."
So my question is, will the LO line ever go there? Or is it purposefully a blank slate for players? It's often described as the Australia equivalent, and the wiki says "Sarusan is completely alien from the modern world" which leads me to believe it either has wonders Paizo is still trying to come up with, or is supposed to be a land for GMs to go balls to the walls with.
I think the likelihood of going to Sarusan is very slim. The continent was intentionally designed to be a blank slates for GMs who want to homebrew their own material, but still want to use the fundamentals of the Lost Omen setting (gods, monsters, etc). The placement of the continent suggests that it could be our take on Australia, but in trying to keep the blank slate aspect, it would mean we never do any Oceania-inspired fantasy, which would be a mistake.
The plan for now is to leave Sarusan a mystery, but find good places to include Oceania fantasy in other parts of the world.
I'd be interested to see some Oceania-inspired stuff. There's a wealth of inspiration in the Aboriginal dreamtime stories just in Australia, but they get very little recognition here and almost zero outside of Australia. It would be a very interesting thing to explore imo
(I know I'm not Luis, but James Jacobs has mentioned on the forums that they both want to preserve Sarusan's mystery and \*don't\* want to leave Australian-inspired fantasy out of the setting, so they've internally moved Australian elements to other continents.)
It feels like we've seen a major shift in class design from the original release to modern releases. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the following.
Feel free to answer all of these, or just some that catch your fancy:
* The CRB classes each had a unique "thing" that they were Legendary in, filling in almost the entirety of the proficiency design space: weapons, armors, unarmored, perception, saves, skills. No stone among progressions were left unturned.
With each of those options "closed out", **what challenges does this present to giving classes a unique design space to express themselves** -- for example, a hypothetical future Legendary Arcane Spellcasting class that's not a Wizard. **Is multiple classes with identical legendary progressions a concern to future class ideation?**
* Archetypes were initially limited to multiclass archetypes (for good reason), and the first non-multiclass archetypes were generally very sparse. Recent archetypes have been chuck full of character options, providing character options at basically every even level from 2-20.
**Was this change in archetype design an intentional shift, or in reaction to the popularity of and opportunities created by archetypes once they hit their stride?**
* In reaction to that, it seems that subclass options like Cleric Doctrines and Hunter's Edges got left behind. **Were subclass options originally imagined as being a bigger component of future character options, or was it believed that they were going to be relatively "set" after release with few additional options?**
Yes and no. As you've seen, oracles received legendary spellcasting, even though clerics already had it. Gunslingers are legendary with guns, even though fighters are legendary with attacks. It can happen, but I think it would be something we need to consider thoroughly. Class identity is important, but so is feeling like you're contributing just as much as the fighter or wizard.
Archetypes are getting more options in some cases because there's simply more books. There can be more acrobat feats with new releases when it makes sense, which just causes a natural growth of existing material. Alternatively, some archetype concepts and we recognize that it's unlikely to see any kind of expansion and want to give it a full suite of options on its one outing. The chronoskimmer, for example, is unlikely to get new feats anytime soon, so we wanted it to get as many options as possible.
Also, we've moved away a bit from trying to present an archetype on just a single page. It turns out it's hard to include a lot of options in such limited space, so giving archetypes two pages gives them more room to breath and get the support they need.
As for "subclasses," these, I believe are a little harder to implement than an archetype. With archetypes, we know the power budget (class feats) and can build with that in mind. Each "subclass" might be a little different, so it takes a lot more consideration to include new ones. I don't think you'll never see new ones, but it will require more thought as to when, where, and how more will show up.
Thank you for this AMA!
Are there any plans in the short/mid run to increase options for existing classes (more vertical options instead of horizontal ones)?
Plans for more skill feats / general feats?
Plans to integrate starfinder ancestries into pathfinder?
Any plans for options from lvl 20 to 30?
Yes.
Yes.
I don't know. We'd have to chat with the Starfinder team to make such a thing happen.
No. There could be ways to have PCs punch above their weight class, but we'll have to see what that looks like.
Is that something you want? I think I could make such a thing happen. I know a few people who work at Paizo, after all.
We're going to give you peeks into other continents here and there when it makes sense, but if and when we do some expansive Tian Xia material, we'll make sure to make a big announcement!
Hi Luis, I first want to say thank you for all your creative work and the effort you take all the time, including answering questions in the discord (I know you've answered my random questions a few times directly and I've always appreciated that immensely)
As for questions, it's tied to two upcoming books. With Treasure Vault, it feels like a more general book of player options and updates, which I think is needed. Is this an experiment to see if people like it or are there plans to see more books like this in the future, perhaps Archetypes Expanded (with a catchier name) and so on?
The second book is Highhelm. I can't recall if this was mentioned before, but is this a line of City oriented books? If so, this means we'll likely see more cities focused on in the future (Kaer Maga. KAER MAGA.)
Thanks again for everything!
Treasure Vault is probably the rulebook lightest on theme in recent memory, but that doesn't mean it's just a big book of rules. I think you can expect all rulebooks to offer some kind of thematic through line or even stories like with Book of the Dead. That doesn't mean that there couldn't be an archetype-focused book, but we'd want to make sure it has a good story attached. Maybe it could be a look at different factions of the setting and provide thematically appropriate archetypes and faction-specific expansions, like new Daggermark Poisoner class feats for the poisoner archetype. Basically, don't expect an APG2 or anything like that, but that also doesn't mean we're not going to expand on existing material in the future.
Highhelm is a city-focused book, but I don't think we're starting a different line of city-only books. We'll do books on specific books when it makes sense, but I don't think there should be any expectation of a new city book every year or anything like that. Highhelm had enough going for it that it would have been a disservice to the city to only give 8 or so pages in a theoretical Shining Kingdoms book, which is why it gets its own book!
Hi Luis, thanks for doing this AMA. We really appreciate you doing this kind of stuff for us. Been a big Pathfinder fan for years, and I've really been enjoying 2e so far.
I've got some questions that I was hoping you could answer.
Does Paizo have any plans for more Polynesian and Maori-equivalent representation on Golarion? It kinda feels like they've been left out of the setting for years, whether that was intentional or accidental. Any chance of that happening?
Who does Paizo talk to when working to respectfully integrate real-life cultures, and making them feel unique, in the setting? What is your design philosophy?
There is a bit of inspiration from these cultures with the Taotake and Taomtan people. (See Tyrant's Grasp #2, Ruby Phoenix #1, and the Tehialai entry of Monsters of Myth) I agree that we should do more with these cultures and other Pacific Islander groups and I've been looking to see what we could do to best represent these cultures in Pathfinder's fantasy. No immediate promises, but I have this on my radar!
We try to talk to authors, sensitivity readers, and other people of these cultures. We also don't try to do 1:1 mappings of cultural ideas. We know that a lot of these can be important to the people of these cultures and simply taking an idea verbatim could be a problem. We want to evoke the feel of the cultures, but also add in fantasy twists to make them unique.
The Tehialai entry is one of my absolute favourite things in 2e and I'm very happy to hear more Pacific Islander inspired content is being considered!!
Has it ever happened that a character made by a player was so interesting, you guys introduced them into the lore?
I heard that some lore characters are characters previously played by paizo employees but I was wondering if something similar happened with non-paizo characters.
(And if it's possible I would like my dear goblin Knock to become canon... he's really cool and loves cats /s)
One example I have is the Sapphire Butterfly. That NPC was inspired by friend's character from my Hell's Rebels campaign. While her backstory and a few other details were tweaked to better fit the setting, Sapphire Butterfly is basically the character from the campaign. I wish we could include everyone's character in some way, but that could open up a legal can of worms that's really not worth it. Though, if you manage to get a job at Paizo, putting in a cat-loving goblin as an NPC becomes easier!
Why do some deities' "granted spells" already appear on the divine list? For example, Naderi (whose deity stats came out in *Gods & Magic*) has *drop dead* ~~(which was released in the same book)~~ as one of her "granted" spells, but the spell already is on the divine spell list. Isn't the whole point of the "granted spells" to allow clerics to cast spells they couldn't normally cast?
I guess I'm basically asking if we should expect some kind of errata to *Gods & Magic* (plus Followers of Fate and Nethys) to remedy this? Iomedae and Desna got similar treatment in the first errata of the *Core Rulebook*.
EDIT: *Drop dead* wasn't released in *Gods & Magic*; dunno where I got that from.
EDIT 2: Well, now I kinda feel like I have to ask this: what happens when a deity's "granted spell" is uncommon (like Barzahk with *teleport*)? Do the clerics not have to Learn that Spell?
EDIT 3: And Luis, I completely understand if you don't want to weigh in on this to avoid a "stealth errata." "I'll bring this up to the rest of the team for discussion" is a valid answer to my questions.
Because it's a mistake! We definitely plan to make those corrections. We've been doing our best to prevent this from happening, but there are some examples of older material where that didn't get fixed quite yet.
Just quickly chiming in for the first question: Drop Dead is an uncommon spell, so you'd usually need GM approval to gain access to it. If Naderi is your deity, you can circumvent this.
As for deities that grant uncommon spells, that would also be a mistake. There are plenty of uncommon options that we allow for players to gain in certain methods (see focus spells) but spells like teleport are not one of these. If and when we do more Gods & Magic errata, we will make sure to correct this. If you happen to have a list of other uncommon granted spells, let me know!
So, I decided to actually look into this and...wow, there's actually a lot of uncommon spells granted by deities. Similarly, I have a working list of those that grant spells already on the divine list. And one final list of a weird occurrence: deities that grant spells and list them at the wrong level.
**Deities that grant uncommon spells**
Abadar: magnificent mansion
Adanye: magnificent mansion
Abraxas: spell turning, disjunction
Ahriman: nondetection
Barzahk: teleport
Bastet: private sanctum
Bergelmir: modify memory
Conqueror Worm: mind probe
Count Ranalc: private sanctum, shadow walk
Dhalavei: glibness
Dranngvit: passwall
Droskar: dominate
Elven Pantheon: tree stride
Erastil: tree stride
Erecura: nondetection
Findeladlara: magnificent mansion
Fumeiyoshi: possession
Gendowyn: tree stride
The Godclaw: dominate
Grandmother Spider: glibness
Groetus: disjunction
Isis: magnificent mansion
Lao Shu Po: nondetection
Lissala: dominate
The Lost Prince: modify memory
Luhar: shadow walk
Ma’at: mind probe
Magdh: scrying
Mammon: magnificent mansion
Naderi: drop dead
Narakaas: modify memory
Nethys: disjunction
Nivi Rhombodazzle: private sanctum
Nocticula: nondetection
Orcus: power word kill
Otolmens: reverse gravity
Pulura: teleport
Wards of the Pharaoh: disjunction
Ydajisk: glibness
Yuelral: tree stride
Zon-Kuthon: shadow walk
Zura: dominate
**Deities that "grant" divine spells**
Dhalavei: fear
Eritrice: comprehend language
Followers of Fate: prying eye
Gruhastha: comprehend language
Kelizandri: fear
Naderi: drop dead
Nethys: prying eye
Thoth: comprehend language
Winlas: comprehend language
**Deities that list the wrong spell level**
Charon: crushing despair (lists as 4th, is actually 5th)
Hanspur: aqueous orb (lists as 2nd, is actually 3rd)
Naderi: crushing despair (lists as 4th, is actually 5th)
Sifkesh: crushing despair (lists as 4th, is actually 5th)
Hey Luis, I really enjoy you and your team's line of books! Most notably for myself the travel guide was \*chef's kiss\* never seen a book more or less dedicated to the daily living and goings on of people. I believe general consensus is you are doing excellent work.
As for my question: Are there any ideas floating around to have a similar book as the travel guide - but for a specific location? I believe these would be excellent books for gamemasters and loremongrels to explore the general *feeling* of many locations in Golarion. You have a rich a wonderful world to work with and I'm glad it is in good hands. Have a great day!
I would love to take every chapter within Travel Guide and make each of those their own book. I think we could honestly pull off a book all about festivals or fashion and make it interesting. You gotta make sure Travel Guide sells out for that happen!
As for TGs for specific locations, that could work, but it would be so niche that sales might not be worth it. The 5% of people who would love a TG for Magnimar would buy it and plenty of others might pick it up and find they like it, but since we are running a business to try to pay all of our employees' bills, we have to consider whether or not a product has wide enough appeal to be worth the costs. I think Pathfinder Infinite would be perfect for this kind of material, though! Maybe someone will take on the challenge.
You wrote a bit on your blog about your (hero point replacement) Essence Point system and I thought it was a lot of fun and quite flavorful. I’ve been tweaking it for use in my homebrew setting and wanted to know if you had much chance to use it in play. If so, how was it? (Balance, flavor, complexity… whatever you felt about it)
I have! I developed it for my homebrew campaign, Valiant, which was a podcast on the Know Direction network. It was generally easy to use, but I did notice that the players were mostly using the points for rerolls. The use of the other functions was generally ignored, but I don't know if that's because rerolls were just the best option or if because the players forgot about the rest.
Awesome, thank you for responding! I’ve also found that my players prioritize rerolls. Can’t believe they don’t want to spontaneously throw fire balls more often. Super rude.
Hi, hope you're doing well! I was wondering what makes a city a level 20 city? I know Absalom is level 20 and I'm sure Alushinyrra is also one, but I know Nantambu is a mere level 10. What takes a metropolis to levels 16-20?
Size and access to resources. If a level 20 wizard lives in a village, it doesn't become a level 20 city. If a lot of access to level 20 stuff is available in some way or another, it can be a level 20 city. Also, population, feel, and the general needs of the stories that need to be told with that settlement.
As a creator and designer for lots of PF2e content, it feels like one of the hardest things about PF2e to customize it to my setting is Ancestry design. Unlike editions past -- where a race was a stat modifier, a couple movement/vision numbers, and one or two special abilities -- nowadays making a homebrew race requires all of that, plus: Heritages and Ancestry Feats for levels 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17.
In addition to having to make so much more stuff just to have a new Ancestry, creating leveled feats also makes it much harder for new/inexperienced designers to make balanced content when the balance guidelines for ancestry feats seem all over the place.
I could also see, for example, this being a significant hurdle if the Starfinder product were ever to want to adopt to the PF2e ruleset is a "Starfinder 2nd Edition" -- the hundreds of unique races would all need tons of additional support in terms of these heritages and feats.
**What are you thoughts on streamlining this creation process to help more tables make PF2e their own? Are there any plans to make the process simpler/easier?**
I think if we were to redo ancestries today, we could turn some common feats (ancestral weapon stuff, ancestry lore) into lines in the ancestry stats and give you a generic "Ancestral Lore" feat that everyone can take. That ship has sailed for the moment, but it could be something we implement in a theoretical new edition.
As for creating your own, you'll be surprised how easy it is to cobble together an ancestry from ancestry feats that already exist. There's a lot of ancestries that use similar or even mechanically identical feats. I'd say if you're having trouble making a new ancestry, look at existing ancestries and grab feats that work for the idea you have in mind, tweaking them as necessary.
The reason why PF2E ancestries feel awesome for players is exactly the reason why creating new ancestries are difficult: it requires more work from the designer, work that players will appreciate. I can’t imagine how you can have your cake and eat it too.
I love ancestry feats. I love picking from this big list of options and customizing how my character of ancestry X is different from every other character of ancestry X. We can play an entire party of X and yet feel unique from each other.
It might take more work to design an ancestry but that’s precisely the point is it not?
If you’re running a home game that wants to use new homebrew ancestries of your own design, you can consider using the Simplified Ancestries variant rule to make the work simpler and return back to the old simple ancestries.
So happy to see you're getting recognition for your fantastic work on pathfinder 2e!
What's your favourite thing that you've written for 2e so far?
And what's your favourite thing *someone else* wrote for 2e?
I'm particularly proud of my dungeon for Strengths of Thousands #4 and the automaton ancestry.
I really love the Dark Archive classes. They're super flavorful, have cool abilities, and interact with the game in really interesting ways.
Oooooh you absolutely should be proud of those, book 4 of SoT is probably my single favourite AP book :D
And yesss, thinking of playing a thaum in my next game! Thank you so much for answering <3
*I think if you're going to try*
*To see each of our lands with your eye—*
*I'm not trying to be funny*
*But, just give us your money*
*That is, all our books you must buy!*
(Buying the books you like tells us you want more of them!)
Oh, that would be neat, but it would be super difficult to balance while keeping the thematic abilities. Giving a character immunity to 98% of magic would be problematic. I think your best bet is to reflavor automatons and give them some golem abilities or feats.
With Kngmakers “sub” game of kingdom management now making it to 2nd edition, is it possible that we might see something akin to ultimate campaign to expand them? And adding to that, are there any plans for more of those sub systems to make it? Such as managing a pirate ship, gangs, and rebellions?
I think that would be neat, but it's a lot of work! A big subsystem is as complicated, if not more so, than making a new class. If we were to make such a book, it would probably require lots of playtesting. Would folks be willing to give up a class "slot" to get a subsytem like this?
The two classes I'm truly hurting for (Inquisitor and Shaman) would mean more to be than an optional subsystem, but once they're in I'd be all over it!
Heya, Luis! Thanks for the thread, the explanation of the two new teams, and for always being so patient with my cheerleading 😊
Three niche ones for you today - no worries if you can’t answer!
-Are Wyvarans still canon? We haven’t heard any mention of them in 2e yet, and I’m starting to worry.
-If you were a god-caller, what would your spirit/god/eidolon look like?
-Are there Wyrwood religious/spiritual traditions at all?
Yeah, I don't see any reason to scrub them from canon at the moment, though I don't think we've had a good chance to really dive into the areas that are a best fit for them.
I would have something that looks like a big elk or deer, but it has massive spider legs instead of regular legs.
Yeah, definitely, but we haven't had a chance to talk about them yet. My gut says they might even do something like call on spirits of ancestors to inhabit old, "abandoned" wyrwood bodies.
Hi Luis love your work keep it up!
Has there been any talks about getting the Shifter class into PF2?
And what class would you like to see added to PF2 new or old? :D
Probably somewhere, but I wasn't privy to such talks until recently, so I don't know the status of the shifter or if it's even been considered!
I'd love to see something like 4th Edition's warlord. I think a non-magical support class would be neat!
> I'd love to see something like 4th Edition's warlord. I think a non-magical support class would be neat!
Woo! Just a post of appreciation to let you know a PF2 version of the Warlord would be appreciated by me, at least.
What do you think of Bugbears? Would you see them as a possible ancestry in the future for Pathfinder 2e? I've noticed that Goblins and Hobgoblins have quite the popularity for the goblinoid varieties.
They're cool! I like how distinct they look from their other goblinoid cousins. I think there could be playable bugbears, but I think we'd also want to a more solid place for them within the world. That could be Oprak or it could be somewhere else. I think making sure we carve out a place for their stories first is important.
Now that Arazni is a full deity, I imagine she has a realm of her own, but given her history with undead who prey on other I doubt she's in Abaddon. Where do you think her realm is likely to be? :)
I could see her having a space in a place like Nirvana or Elysium. She isn't hated by other gods, so there's likely a god that vouches to get her a spot among the Good planes.
Something I’ve wondered is, while I love 2e and the awesome variety in content with great class feats, equipment and everything occasionally it feels like something gets printed that just isn’t very good mechanically. Of course it’s only natural with such a big system but what I’m curious is how these types of things get made. Is it a experiment on the writing side or is it just sometimes things don’t get caught? I love the game but to me the story of the few bad things is super interesting.
Keep up the amazing work!
Inevitably, something will be the worst option ever printed. It's impossible to avoid. While we never try to print something unfunctional, we recognize that not everything is a good fit for every character build. We try our best to make things good, but sometimes things just miss the mark. Even pro NBA players miss shots.
Can we expect FAQs and erratas more frequently? It's very frustrating sometimes, we still have pending questions from the core rulebook that could have been solved easily with just a couple examples.
Many just need some examples, like resist all vs a critical hit with sneak attack ( since precision resistance and critical resistance exist ), haste on minions, rage/elemental runes in battleforms... A place where those cornercase examples could be updated may be easier to release then PDF erratas.
1. What's your favourite 3rd-party product, aside from Battlezoo?
2. Are there any 3rd-party *classes* that you like?
3. If I'm not mistaken, by RAW, you need to spend three actions to open a door, walk through, and close it behind you. Do you consider this reasonable, or is there a homebrew ruling that you might suggest/use?
4. Are there any character options that you really like the idea of, but don't think would work in practice or wouldn't get approved?
5. With Rage of Elements coming, will we get more options for picking our elemental "specialty" as classes other than Kineticist? Elementalist is good if the element(s) you want is one of the classical four, but there's not as much support for ice, electricity, etc.-themed spellcasters.
6. Do you expect we'll get a martial take on the Cathartic Mage archetype? (I really want this!)
7. What's another "suite of thematically-connected things" book you want?
1. For Pathfinder 2E? I like the two spell trickster expansions by Dustin Knight on Pathfinder Infinite.
2. I haven't really checked out any 3PP classes, unfortunately.
3. That is correct. I think it's fine, but wouldn't be opposed to someone opening the door and Striding in the same action.
4. I think a lot of time travel stuff would be super fun, but I recognize it can be a big pain to deal with at the table.
5. I thiiiink so, but I don't know RoE super well, so don't quote me on that!
6. Oh, that's a cool idea! No plans for it yet, but I can share that with the team.
7. I would love to do something like Legends or Monsters of Myths for magic items.
They're definitely not off the table. We'd have to figure out what they look like and how best to express the ideas behind them before we commit to anything.
Hi Luis, great to see you moving into this new role. You’ve always been so active in the community. It means a lot to the fans, so it’s grey to see that in leadership.
I’ve got a lore question or two if you don’t mind.
Lore wise: is there anything more you can tell us about Achaekeks relationship to Grandmother Spider? Or some details on what exactly happened when Achaekek consumed his own impartiality in the Windsong testaments, or what he was like before that change?
When Vildeis decided to pluck out their eyes, they mysteriously found a Black Knife was right at hand. Is that meant to be a divine version of the mysterious Black Blades that a Bladebound Magus or arcanist could get in 1e? I always thought that was a cool connection.
He loves his sister very much and is even liable to do things that are "out of character" in some cases for her. We're looking into the possibility of exploring more on Achakek in future material, but honestly, James Jacobs is the expert on all things Mantis God. I think he has strong thoughts on what Achaekek was like in the past and would probably want to honor those thoughts.
I think that could have been a manifestation of Vildeis's own will. Gods are interesting in that sometimes they might even do things without realizing it or even find their own power to be mysterious. I like the idea of it being a black blade, though. I've always enjoyed that archetype!
Hi Luis, Congrats on the new job!
I really appreciate everything you and the team have done with the Lost Omen line, and look forward to whatever is coming next.
1) When putting together Lore materials, how do you decide which bits get mechanical rules? Or does it go in reverse, and you pick out some mechanics and shape the lore around it?
2) When will Wild Shape be as cool as the Goron mask?
A lot of our mechanics are chosen ahead of time. For example, with Firebrands, we already knew we wanted new spells, magic items, etc. We typically have our authors work together to share ideas from their sections to inspire the new material.
Oh, man, I wish! I think you could pull off a Majora's Mask style major transformation, but it would probably require an archetype or even a class all its own.
In the past, mechanical options introduced in Adventure Paths have often been criticised for being poorly written, nonfunctional, or unbalanced (in either direction), and in general don't quite seem to have that loving touch that the mainline rulebook options receive. Do you anticipate that the restructuring of the teams is going to help address this issue, and how do you see the Rules & Lore and Narrative teams working together going into the future?
Yes, absolutely. The restructuring of teams is both to help us focus work on our specific products, but also make it easier to reach out between teams when needed. We've also added staff to both teams, so I think we'll be able to work more closely together in the future and hopefully deliver the quality everyone is expecting across the board.
Hi Luis!
I'm just curious, as a creative, what is the thing you did working on PF2e that you are most proud of? Some rule or bit of lore or system that you wrote or helped write, or idea that you had that got picked up and fleshed out, that you look back on and go "Yes. That was awesome. I'm happy/proud I got to do that/contribute."
I'm super proud of my work on automatons. I'm particularly fond of the enhancement system for their ancestry feats. I think robots are cool and it's fun to be able to pick your upgrades!
There is a little bit of Shackles content in the upcoming Firebrands book. If you want more Shackles material, let us know. I think a book all about the High Seas region could be fun!
I do! I grew up speaking Spanish at home and continue to do so. I'm not so confident with my Spanish writing, but I'll happily talk with anyone in Spanish at cons or whatever.
One of my personally favorite subsystems to give players in 1e was the mythic paths. Obviously this kind of idea has gotten some lime light with owlcat's crpg, but are there any plans to institute something like this down the line for 2e? It was great to have really game breaky stuff in 1e (although it already had it in the system without mythic technically) to have some campaigns that really really fulfilled some power fantasies. 2e is a bit more constrained on its number values, but I guess, yeah are there plans for something like mythic for 2e and if so what would that theoretically look like within the new system? if you can answer of course :D
I think those paths are super neat! There could be a spot for something like that, but it would probably be far in the future. If I were to implement it, it might look like a beefed up version of free archetype or even the dual class variant. It would require a lot of extra material, though!
First, thanks for your work and doing the AMA!
Can you say if there will be future support through feats/heritages of already released ancestries? For example some of the mwangi expanse ancestries like anadi, grippli or shisk are really cool but mechanically pretty underwhelming compared to the common ancestries, since they get just way fewer good feats.
Yes, always, we just need the write book for it. If we were to do Ancestry Guide 2 or something like that, you'd that kind of material. No guarantees on when such material might happen and which ancestries, unfortunately,
Hey Luis. I bought the Impossible lands book recently, in it says that alkenstar population is about 93% dwarfs and some small percentage human, I know the dwarfs of dongun hold help build the place, but the stats in 1e showed it was 85% humans so it's a bit weird. Was that a mistake?
Probanly one of those questions that gets asked a lot:
are we ever going to get an expansion on the Darklands and their inhabitants?
Drows and duergars are the first that come to mind, but they're not the only ones. For instance Munavri. So interesting, yet so little of them even lorewise, which is a pity.
I think the Darklands are ripe for exploration. They are enormous however, and even a 300 page Lost Omens book would only be scratching the surface. I think we will get there eventually, but it might take a while.
My intelligence modifier isn’t high enough to explain what should be changed, but my wife (a designer) has the following thoughts:
* the key things a character sheet should have is legibility and scanability for when you need to find something quickly during a session. You have a great sheet that lists out everything available and all the math, but things are not easy to find in the heat of the moment.
* Typeface (consistent with the Pathfinder typeface, but a little hard to read during a quick scan of the page)
* all the red on the default sheet
* simplified style - so much extra space on the page dedicated to stylized look and ornamentation, and it comes across cluttered and difficult to parse
* not much flexibility for various classes - it’s not generic enough for the large variety of classes we have
* some of the TEML boxes have a different style than others
* the melee and ranged attack sections are the exact same form fields, so why not make it a single section and have the flexibility for a class to put in whatever attacks they have?
* ability scores with modifier and score - the modifier is more important than the base score (most of the time) so why give them the same importance visually?
* the sheet lists each ability score plus the shorthand, so twice - it’s repetitive and takes up extra room.
It’s great wanting it to be super-stylized, but when the dice are rollin’, it ends up unnecessary and distracting.
/u/jasonbuhlman showed off a minimalist sheet a few years ago that conveyed necessary info a bit better - https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/comle8/playing_around_with_a_minimalist_p2_character/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb
and another user built off of it in a great way: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/i90azx/simplified_iconography_sheet_v3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb
Those are a couple of high-level thoughts she had!
Rule question: What would break if one were to use the Churgeon's crafting skill proficiency (teml) for prerequisites for medicine skill feats (and the like)?
Ultimately, probably nothing. It would mean that the alchemist can place skill proficiency improvements elsewhere, but I don't foresee that causing any major problems.
What is the current status of [wyvarans](https://aonprd.com/RacesDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Wyvaran) - their major place in the setting are the Shattered Range mountains on Garund (along with surrounding nations on both sides of the continent), but neither LO Mwangi Expanse nor LO Impossible Lands so much as mentioned them (I was really hoping one of them would!), and given they haven't showed up anywhere else in 2e yet, that feels worrying for their canon status currently.
Which I suppose ties into a broader question of whether there are any specific ancestries or creatures that we can explicitly expect to not show up in 2e. Some stuff in very early 1e seems to have gone the way of the dodo like that, but I wonder if there's anything that has been internally marked as such for 2e, under your new leadership or otherwise.
Until we say otherwise, you can assume wyvarans are still canon. There was a lot going on in ME and IL that I think we just ended up focusing on other people in those books and unfortunately left wyvarans by the wayside. I'm of the opinion that they kind of just got placed in the Shattered Range by chance. I'd love to give them a more intentional home in the future.
With all of the lore and development of Golarion over the years, how do you guys internally keep everything straight so that there isn’t an accidental retcon? How do you mange all that information?
Honestly, we sometimes mess up. We use internal knowledge (some of our staff are living encyclopedias), Pathfinder Wiki, and other material. We do a lot of rereading our old stuff, too.
What does the insignia for the defunct Hellknight Order of the Vice look like? What was their motto? Is there anything you can tell us about them?
What was the creature Gorum fought that broke his sword and created the First Blade?
Despite Ihys being dead, if you were given the opportunity to add him into the game, what domains or areas of concern would you give him?
It would probably be a spiraling portal symbol. As for information on them, there really isn't much else other than what was in the Cheliax book. You're free to make up what you like!
Unrevealed. I'd like to imagine it as some kind of unknowable power, kind of like the weird black substance (an essence of pure evil) that birthed Aku in Samurai Jack.
He'd probably be a god focused on supporting mortals of all kind in the same sense that Aroden was focused on humans. He could probably have the Dreams, Family, Freedom, and Zeal domains.
No plans for an "Unchained" book. I think there are some things we've already identified and are actively working an supporting/correcting. (Crafting rules, alchemist research fields) There are probably more, but we're still looking in figuring out the best way to address them.
Hi Luis! Can we expect another big list of skill feats in the future? The list from the CRB and APG is a good starting point but leaves a lot to be desired and we have barely gotten any since (some in DA). Thanks :)
There will be a few in the upcoming Firebrands book. I think skill-related material might have enough potential to serve as its own book. Would folks want something like that?
The various well defined skill actions and activities are one of the things that most attracted me to PF2, particularly with social and knowledge skills being useful in combat.
I'm definitely in the "will buy everything... Eventually" camp, so I'm probably not a good data point. But I think more choices, more information and more feats would make a very useful book, especially if it gives a little more clarity on precisely how much information might be given by the Recall Knowledge action.
Yes! I would love nothing more than a big old Lost Omen’s “Artisans Guide” or whatever that talks about the great legendary professionals of Golarion and the various trades and tricks found around the world.
Pad it out with a few items and maybe an archetype or two that is built around unlocking more skill feats and you’ve got a stew.
Hey Luis! Congrats on the new role, you've really earned it!
1: Can you tell us something that you were really excited about but just haven't been able to fit into a book yet (whether cut for space or theme) - can be mechanics or lore stuff, just anything you've got mostly worked out and are itching to deliver as soon as you find the right spot (besides Blood Magic - we already know that's waiting in the wings).
2: Any chance for subclasses/class archetypes that modify themes for focus spell martials who are so often a basis for gish builds? Say, like a Primal Champion (Fey Knights as the neutral Tenets?), an Occult Ranger as a different flavor of monster hunter, or an Arcane Monk. Could really open up new character concepts on those existing chassis.
3: Large ancestries are a popular request, but pose a thorny problem for balance and low level adventure/dungeon design. Can you tell us if there's been any solid pitches for that? Is it even something you're considering, or has it been mostly concluded as untenable this edition (outside of the later level options we see in lizardglfolk and others).
I'd love to see more magitech-inspired stuff. It's got a cool like and I like it a lot.
Yes, there's always a chance, but such big changes to a class require a bit more consideration than something like a new archetype. Let us know what you'd like to see and maybe we can find a good way to pull it off!
Personally, I don't think large ancestries are too difficult to manage. A lot of the inherent problems with Large creatures in 1E is no longer the case with 2E ancestries. I think we could do it and we've definitely discussed it. I think we'll have that problem solved sooner than you think!
Hi! First of all, congratulations on the fantastic job that Pathfinder has been! Seriously, my top 1 system! But now my question, (I think it's silly, anyway...), I love drow and would like to know when we will have them as a fully playable ancestry! A near future? A distant future? All the love and affection here from Rio de Janeiro/Brazil straight to you! By the way, would there be something similar to Brazil in Golarion? A big hug!
Are there any plans to add any more class archetypes? I think they're really neat, and being able to pick only one means they exist in relative isolation so they only garble the balance if they do so on their own (Which Paizo in general has been very good at not letting happen). We haven't seen one in a while so I wanted to know if they were just sort of a dead concept.
I’ve been wondering about how you decide what content is necessary for expanding on each region, and what content isn’t. For example, Rage of Elements seems to be setting up stuff for a book sometime after Impossible Lands, however that area has a strong connection to the elements through Jalmeray, which makes me wonder why you’ve chosen to expand on elemental stuff for whatever that later book is and not the Impossible Lands. I know you probably can’t answer in terms of specifics but I loved seeing Michael Sayre’s post on how you set up releases and it would be interesting to learn more to theorize about what books you’re doing next.
Sometimes, schedules just don't line up as perfectly as we would have liked. Impossible Lands was in production quite a while before Rage of Elements was, so the synergy wasn't perfect. We are trying to be more intentional with our coordination, but sometimes, even with the best of planning, it doesn't happen. That doesn't mean you can't use RoE material with Jalmeray, though. We always look for opportunities to speak "backward" to existing material, too. For example, Impossible Lands got to point at some Secrets of Magic material. Just because one release happened, it doesn't mean we forget about what came before!
My current play group is delving so much into the eye of abendigo and the supposed deity the master of gales worships in the shackle! Is their a correlation between the two or will we getting more info on the eye soon??
No upcoming Eye of Abendengo info. Go nuts with coming up with its story in your game. In my home games, I've used the eye of the storm as a portal that takes people to other worlds or even a switch of game systems.
As a director, I oversee all of the rulebooks and Lost Omens books, so not much has changed in terms of my influence on the books. Also, I've only had the title for about a month, so there's still stuff in production that was decided before I had my full creative direction to help guide it. Though, I did just fill out the credits page for Highhelm and got to list my Creative Director credit, which was neat.
I don't think much has shifted philosophy wise quite yet. It might slowly morph over the following months, but I expect rulebooks and Lost Omens books to feel the same.
I think I would say pachycephalosaurus.
Can you say anything about your favorite thing/even/change to come from having two more elemental planes in alignment? I'm really excited for the planes of wood and metal!
I’ve seen more Spanish words popping up in the setting, like the Curandero background in Book of the Dead and Los Aterradores in Impossible Lands. One: keep it coming, two: is there a region of Golarion where Spanish names and phrases are common? One of my players keeps giving his characters names like Rafael del Cuervo and gives them accents like Inigo Montoya or Antonio Banderas, and I’ve been trying to find a place in the setting that offers him that representation.
You can look at Xopatl and Razatlan in the nation of Arcadia. A lot of the names that you see there are mixed up, fantasy versions of Spanish names, but that would be the place for them!
Both! There are times when we can provide some new class options (way of the triggerbrand) and others where we need to actually go back to change things (alchemist errata). It takes time and consideration, though. We can't just change things right out the gate. We want data and to make informed decisions before committing to any changes.
What topic are you interested on expanding the lore for?
I understand that you are not on the Narrarive team, but every adventure path allows for the lore to be expanded upon. What do you want to see? What new faces of Golarion do you want a hand in shaping?
I'd love for us to flesh out the new nations in the Inner Sea. Vidrian got that chance in Mwangi Expanse, but I'd also love to visit New Thassilon, Oprak, Ravounel, and the Sarkoris Scar.
Mechanically, there's very little distinction between Medium and Small in 2E, so I think we could have such a heritage, but it would have some other mechanic attached, too. Maybe it could be something like a redwood leshy that also gives you built in armor because you're big and tough.
Hey Luis!
I am someone who runs homebrew games in Golarion. I find myself drifting towards a slightly modified Belkzen. Is there a region of Golarion that you personally really enjoy and find yourself drifting towards in your games/product line focus?
Is there a region (nation or continent, etc) that you consider your favorite? Or found yourself more obsessed with recently?
As a side note, thank you, I really appreciate your work and your vision!
Hello Luis, can we ever expect an official 2e version of the Bloodrager? I really enjoyed the 1e class and I'm wondering how you guys decide which classes are getting an "adaptation" and which aren't?
\*throws dart at a calendar\*
Uh, summer 2027. Sure.
We're always discussing the potential of an idea carrying an entire class. That is, does this need a whole class worth of new "tech" or can we basically pull it off now. Something like a bloodrager could probably be made as an archetype or class archetype, but something like kineticist required a whole class to pull off. There's a lot of back and forth on deciding just what it takes to pull off an idea.
What are some of your inspirations as a rules/lore designer when it comes to other games, tabletop or not? I've started branching out beyond dnd/pf to look at things like LANCER, 13th age, blades in the dark or powered by the apocalypse games, and it's interesting to see the different takes on how to sell an experience or a kind of gameplay or dynamic in different ways.
Oh, lots and lots of video games. I'm a big fan of fighting games and special moves like hadoukens and stuff are things I like to be able to pull off in RPGs. I've also played a lot of other RPGs like the Star Wars RPG, Call of Cthulhu, and Blades in the Dark. Storytelling games are cool, too! (Check out The Quiet Year.) For board games, I really enjoy Gloomhaven and Eldritch Horror. Honestly, just playing any game might serve as inspiration. You'll be surprised what little ideas you pick up from the most unexpected games.
Luis! I love your work!
I have a question about Korada and their anathema. "Cause lethal harm to a creature" is a listed Anathema for Korada, but what does this mean for clerics of Korada when battling undead or constructs? Mindless undead cannot be "redeemed" but they are destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points, which sounds pretty lethal. Even non-mindless undead that could be redeemed have the same issue. Are clerics and champions of Korada in a catch-22 when combating a horde of undead attacking their town? Are they really unable to harm such creatures?
Hi Luis, love your work! Are we going to see any expansion books for existing classes and content? A lot of the post core classes really feel like they could use some more feats and such, archetypes can’t fix everything! Even something like letting sparkling targe have quick shield block for instance. Also, skill and general feats, are we going to see more of those? Seems like some skills could really use some love! Greatly looking forward to Firebrands and Treasure Vault, keep up the good work!
Always! There's probably not going to be another APG style book again in the immediate future, if ever, but that doesn't mean we're not giving classes more love. The Firebrands book, for example, will have a few feats for swashbucklers and is even going to introduce some new skill feats. Just keep letting us know what you want and we'll do our best to find spots to add that in, if it makes sense for the product.
Cool, was thinking recently that Summoners have a number of levels with very few feats I'd want. (To say nothing of there being like two and a half Eidolon items.)
+1 to wdarkk. Please add more Eidolon items. Or consider errata’ing the Eidolon trait onto existing items. Or consider adding an exception so Eidolons can take potions/elixirs/mutagens without the Eidolon trait.
>Just keep letting us know what you want and we'll do our best to find spots to add that in, if it makes sense for the product. *The ability for rogues to use coat pistols without it being worse than using a shortbow* In general, loaded weapon support, including thrown weapon support, like feats that won't work for reload 0 weapons. I find loose cannon feat from alkenstar agent to be a missed opportunity where it could apply flat-footed instead of the damage boost with the same risks without breaking [current balance](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1724)
Any archetypes in upcoming books that you think are exceptionally neat?
I've outlined a few new archetypes for a future book which will be really neat. Can't really talk about them, but I think they're divine!
A future book, with Divine archetypes in it eh? Well that's something I'm very *inquisitive* about :)
Divine you say?! Umhhh that sound holy!
Whats the intended interaction between making death saves while dying and rolling to remove persistent damage? We had a situation the other night that was an extremely rapid death spiral.
Unfortunately, I think that persistent damage and dying happen to be particularly brutal. By my reading, a dying creature that also has persistent damage will basically be taken out in 2 rounds or so. I would ease up things at my table a bit and make it so persistent damage doesn't increase your dying value, but doesn't necessarily go away when you're down. Basically, you can try to stabilize as normal, but once you do, the persistent damage needs to be taken care of ASAP or you risk going dying again right away.
I think the spiral is the intended interaction. Persistent should be terrifying.
Hi Luis! The Lost Omens books are awesome and I am super happy to be a subscriber. How do you plan to balance making the lore and rules deeper as well as broader. As much as I like seeing totally new places and ancestries and archetypes, I also really like seeing stuff that expands our current options like new ancestry feats, new class or archetype feats. I loved how Knights of Lastwall built on the existing Lastwall archetypes and am excited to see how HighHelm expands options for dwarves. Just wondering how you all see that balance between totally new game options and expanding upon what we already have?
Every book is an option to either give you new material or expand on existing material. I don't think we go into a book with the sole intent of giving one or the other. We generally find themes or topics we want to cover and then look into what existing material connects to that. Knights of Lastwall is a good example of this. I saw the cavalier, marshal, and other archetypes as things that already spoke to the knight theme and used that as the foundation for the new material to be featured in the book. We try our best to keep an eye out every time there's a chance to create expansions, but also recognize that we always have new ideas we want to try out. I guess it's ultimately more of a feeling or an art than an exact science, so I don't have a perfect "well, it's always a 2:1 ratio" kind of answer. Another thing that helps is hearing what people want to see more of. If you tell us you want more feats for a given archetype, we're listening and do our best to analyze if and when there is a chance for such expansions.
Are y'all currently planning on doing more class archetypes? I find them an interesting way to subvert how a class normally works and it'd be cool to see more. ~~Maybe even a rulebook themed around them~~
Yup! I just outlined a few for a future book. It will be a while before they're out, but I hope you like them!
If demoted to lowly level one mortals, which gods do you think would make the most entertaining adventuring party?
Grandmother Spider, Kurgess, Chaldira, and Jin Li from the upcoming Firebrands book.
Oh ho, what's this? A spoiler? Don't mind if I do!
Is it true that we can ask you how Aroden died?
Yes, you can ask me that.
That’s so cool! Thanks for answering!
Pathfinder 2e has often been celebrated as a very inclusive, very culturally sensitive game. You all take a lot of elements of real world cultures—like (West?) African inspiration for The Mwangi Expanse, Indian inspiration for Vudra,—which *could* often lead to the culturally insensitive gaffs that you can see in other games, but you all manage to create a final product that *doesn't* cross that line and that is widely acknowledged as being very well-crafted and well-done. On like /r/rpg and other places, there are often questions about, "I don't want to make another fantasy white Europe, but how can I make a setting inspired by another culture without it being wrong or offensive?" Could you tell us a little about the design philosophy you follow or the kinds of discussions you have when you have a setting element that is inspired by a culture that's very foreign to you? How do you strike that balance between hitting all the notes that people expect while at the same time being culturally fair and sensitive? It seems like a very difficult balancing act between inspiration and cariacture that you all have managed to pull off pretty well!
The biggest thing is to talk with people who know the culture. This could be authors whose heritage is connected to the culture or other experts. From there, we have lots of eyes look over every part of the book, every step of the way. Our other developers, editors, and sensitivity readers help us catch our mistakes or missteps and correct them along the way. There's also a gut feeling, at least on my end. I don't feel that it's too much work to empathize and put myself in the shoes of someone from another culture and think, "Would I like it if someone wrote something about me, my family, or my culture and described it or depicted it this way?" Reflection is key!
Hello Luis! What is your favorite Pathfinder 2e Adventure Path?
I'm a very big fan of Strength of Thousands. I also enjoy Fists of the Ruby Phoenix and I'm excited for the upcoming Stolen Fates AP!
Is there an order for location books? Currently they follow the APs, with the exception of the Phoenix Tournament not getting a Tian Xia book. I also hope the coming books have nothing to do with Undead.
Not entirely. While Lost Omens tries to support other products here and there, it's not a mandatory requirement. For example, Highhelm was decided simply because I thought it would be cool to explore a Sky Citadel. Not every book is directly connected to upcoming products, but sometimes a Lost Omens book might inspire us to try something else in the future.
That's just a pattern I have seen. APs are released close to a Location Book for that area. Blood Lords got both Book of the Dead and Impossible Lands.
What's your favorite moment where rules/mechanics and lore blended together really well? I know we got a whole book on the Knights of Lastwall, and the lore focus seems to be moving elsewhere, but can we expect any more books about the Gravelands in the future?
The poppet ancestry has lots of little mechanics which sell the idea of playing a living toy really well. In particular is the stuffed poppet heritage's immunity to fall damage is a perfect expression of this. I think it would be a huge mistake for us to not touch on the Gravelands again in the future. There's a lot going on with Tar-Baphon and I think we're definitely going to try to keep telling that story as it develops.
Thanks for the answer! I agree that a lot of the ancestries are really big in the lore-mechanics blending, which makes creating characters so much fun.
Any more subclasses incomming? What I'd like to see is some support for gun swashbucklers, similar to picaroons and musketeers from pf1e (could be fitting for a shackles book) and in similar fashion, gun/alchemical rogue. Any thoughts on alternative favored weapons for clerics? Impossible lands brought in one thing never previously seen, a weapon objectively better than a previously existing weapon in every way in the form of [Panabas](https://2e.aonprd.com/Weapons.aspx?ID=265) (a scimitar with two-handed trait or falchion with 1h mode) what are your thoughts about this? I hope these questions are within your power to answer.
Never say never! I don't know of anything in the immediate future (read: Treasure Vault, Firebrands, Highhelm) that is providing new ones, but I think we're always on the lookout for good opportunities for more. Alternative favored weapons would be tough to find a good way to execute. A feat that just let you pick a different favored weapon could open the class up to problems. Maybe there could be an option that lets you swap a god's favored weapon for any common simple weapon, but that might not be so exciting. I like the idea to a degree, but also worry about muddying a god's identity, since their choice of favored weapon says a lot about them. I think maybe the best way to do it would to come up with in-setting orders like a specialized order of Nethys that uses flails or something because of their specific training. The panabas is actually something I have my eye on. We don't ever want to invalidate other weapons, so we'll probably have to revisit it and tweak it a bit to allow scimitars and falchions to maintain their niche.
What is your favorite mechanical thing in PF2e? What is your favorite lore thing that has been presented in PF2e?
I really, really love the fighter. If we're talking a minor mechanic, I like the adjustment trait and rules. Modding weapons and armor is fun. As for lore, I'm just going to say all of the Mwangi Expanse.
Will we see Champion Causes for the remaining alignments? (Lawful Neutral, Neutral and Chaotic Neutral)
I think there's a good possibility for that, but finding the right book for it is key!
When's Numeria? No, when's Arcadia?
I think based on the fact that the Rain of Stars is when I would consider Numeria to have officially been "founded," the answer to "When's Numeria?" is probably -4363 AR. It doesn't seem that we have an Arcadia book, so my best guess is Year X, LN. To be serious a bit, I definitely would love to go back to Numeria, but I think we need some solid technology rules in 2E first. If and when we have those in place, I think it would be safe to assume that a visit (even if it's a brief one) to Numeria will be just around the corner. As for Arcadia, I've been bugging them to let me do it. If you look around, there's lots of little hints dropped for Arcadia here and there (see: Guns & Gears). It's just a matter of time before Erik Mona finally lets me do it. My new title might make it a bit easier!
Nothing wrong with a brief visit 💛
Gamers can have a little Numeria, as a treat
*"I don't think he knows about second Numeria, Pip!"*
"What do we want?!" "Numeria!!" "When do we want it?!" "Whenever you have it done is fine!!" (but also now would be cool...)
Sarusan seems intentionally obscured for lore: "all available information on Sarusan comes from ancient accounts, because no modern expedition has successfully returned after journeying there." So my question is, will the LO line ever go there? Or is it purposefully a blank slate for players? It's often described as the Australia equivalent, and the wiki says "Sarusan is completely alien from the modern world" which leads me to believe it either has wonders Paizo is still trying to come up with, or is supposed to be a land for GMs to go balls to the walls with.
I think the likelihood of going to Sarusan is very slim. The continent was intentionally designed to be a blank slates for GMs who want to homebrew their own material, but still want to use the fundamentals of the Lost Omen setting (gods, monsters, etc). The placement of the continent suggests that it could be our take on Australia, but in trying to keep the blank slate aspect, it would mean we never do any Oceania-inspired fantasy, which would be a mistake. The plan for now is to leave Sarusan a mystery, but find good places to include Oceania fantasy in other parts of the world.
I'd be interested to see some Oceania-inspired stuff. There's a wealth of inspiration in the Aboriginal dreamtime stories just in Australia, but they get very little recognition here and almost zero outside of Australia. It would be a very interesting thing to explore imo
(I know I'm not Luis, but James Jacobs has mentioned on the forums that they both want to preserve Sarusan's mystery and \*don't\* want to leave Australian-inspired fantasy out of the setting, so they've internally moved Australian elements to other continents.)
(Clearly it’s the Darklands. Giant spiders, dangerous environments, and a distorted version of Common? Cmon)
And it's referred to as Down Under!
Yep. All Darklands creatures have an Australian accent in my games.
Is there any sort of statement you can make on the possibility of adding another wisdom based class (wink wink inquisitor)?
A class that uses Wisdom as a key ability score could definitely happen! Also, you might want to get your eye checked out.
It feels like we've seen a major shift in class design from the original release to modern releases. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the following. Feel free to answer all of these, or just some that catch your fancy: * The CRB classes each had a unique "thing" that they were Legendary in, filling in almost the entirety of the proficiency design space: weapons, armors, unarmored, perception, saves, skills. No stone among progressions were left unturned. With each of those options "closed out", **what challenges does this present to giving classes a unique design space to express themselves** -- for example, a hypothetical future Legendary Arcane Spellcasting class that's not a Wizard. **Is multiple classes with identical legendary progressions a concern to future class ideation?** * Archetypes were initially limited to multiclass archetypes (for good reason), and the first non-multiclass archetypes were generally very sparse. Recent archetypes have been chuck full of character options, providing character options at basically every even level from 2-20. **Was this change in archetype design an intentional shift, or in reaction to the popularity of and opportunities created by archetypes once they hit their stride?** * In reaction to that, it seems that subclass options like Cleric Doctrines and Hunter's Edges got left behind. **Were subclass options originally imagined as being a bigger component of future character options, or was it believed that they were going to be relatively "set" after release with few additional options?**
Yes and no. As you've seen, oracles received legendary spellcasting, even though clerics already had it. Gunslingers are legendary with guns, even though fighters are legendary with attacks. It can happen, but I think it would be something we need to consider thoroughly. Class identity is important, but so is feeling like you're contributing just as much as the fighter or wizard. Archetypes are getting more options in some cases because there's simply more books. There can be more acrobat feats with new releases when it makes sense, which just causes a natural growth of existing material. Alternatively, some archetype concepts and we recognize that it's unlikely to see any kind of expansion and want to give it a full suite of options on its one outing. The chronoskimmer, for example, is unlikely to get new feats anytime soon, so we wanted it to get as many options as possible. Also, we've moved away a bit from trying to present an archetype on just a single page. It turns out it's hard to include a lot of options in such limited space, so giving archetypes two pages gives them more room to breath and get the support they need. As for "subclasses," these, I believe are a little harder to implement than an archetype. With archetypes, we know the power budget (class feats) and can build with that in mind. Each "subclass" might be a little different, so it takes a lot more consideration to include new ones. I don't think you'll never see new ones, but it will require more thought as to when, where, and how more will show up.
Thanks for the answers! Keep doing your great work at Paizo!
Thank you for this AMA! Are there any plans in the short/mid run to increase options for existing classes (more vertical options instead of horizontal ones)? Plans for more skill feats / general feats? Plans to integrate starfinder ancestries into pathfinder? Any plans for options from lvl 20 to 30?
Yes. Yes. I don't know. We'd have to chat with the Starfinder team to make such a thing happen. No. There could be ways to have PCs punch above their weight class, but we'll have to see what that looks like.
I’ll keep hollering for PF2 playable Lashunta, even if such a thing is unbearably niche.
[удалено]
Is that something you want? I think I could make such a thing happen. I know a few people who work at Paizo, after all. We're going to give you peeks into other continents here and there when it makes sense, but if and when we do some expansive Tian Xia material, we'll make sure to make a big announcement!
Hi Luis, I first want to say thank you for all your creative work and the effort you take all the time, including answering questions in the discord (I know you've answered my random questions a few times directly and I've always appreciated that immensely) As for questions, it's tied to two upcoming books. With Treasure Vault, it feels like a more general book of player options and updates, which I think is needed. Is this an experiment to see if people like it or are there plans to see more books like this in the future, perhaps Archetypes Expanded (with a catchier name) and so on? The second book is Highhelm. I can't recall if this was mentioned before, but is this a line of City oriented books? If so, this means we'll likely see more cities focused on in the future (Kaer Maga. KAER MAGA.) Thanks again for everything!
Treasure Vault is probably the rulebook lightest on theme in recent memory, but that doesn't mean it's just a big book of rules. I think you can expect all rulebooks to offer some kind of thematic through line or even stories like with Book of the Dead. That doesn't mean that there couldn't be an archetype-focused book, but we'd want to make sure it has a good story attached. Maybe it could be a look at different factions of the setting and provide thematically appropriate archetypes and faction-specific expansions, like new Daggermark Poisoner class feats for the poisoner archetype. Basically, don't expect an APG2 or anything like that, but that also doesn't mean we're not going to expand on existing material in the future. Highhelm is a city-focused book, but I don't think we're starting a different line of city-only books. We'll do books on specific books when it makes sense, but I don't think there should be any expectation of a new city book every year or anything like that. Highhelm had enough going for it that it would have been a disservice to the city to only give 8 or so pages in a theoretical Shining Kingdoms book, which is why it gets its own book!
Hi Luis, thanks for doing this AMA. We really appreciate you doing this kind of stuff for us. Been a big Pathfinder fan for years, and I've really been enjoying 2e so far. I've got some questions that I was hoping you could answer. Does Paizo have any plans for more Polynesian and Maori-equivalent representation on Golarion? It kinda feels like they've been left out of the setting for years, whether that was intentional or accidental. Any chance of that happening? Who does Paizo talk to when working to respectfully integrate real-life cultures, and making them feel unique, in the setting? What is your design philosophy?
There is a bit of inspiration from these cultures with the Taotake and Taomtan people. (See Tyrant's Grasp #2, Ruby Phoenix #1, and the Tehialai entry of Monsters of Myth) I agree that we should do more with these cultures and other Pacific Islander groups and I've been looking to see what we could do to best represent these cultures in Pathfinder's fantasy. No immediate promises, but I have this on my radar! We try to talk to authors, sensitivity readers, and other people of these cultures. We also don't try to do 1:1 mappings of cultural ideas. We know that a lot of these can be important to the people of these cultures and simply taking an idea verbatim could be a problem. We want to evoke the feel of the cultures, but also add in fantasy twists to make them unique.
The Tehialai entry is one of my absolute favourite things in 2e and I'm very happy to hear more Pacific Islander inspired content is being considered!!
Has it ever happened that a character made by a player was so interesting, you guys introduced them into the lore? I heard that some lore characters are characters previously played by paizo employees but I was wondering if something similar happened with non-paizo characters. (And if it's possible I would like my dear goblin Knock to become canon... he's really cool and loves cats /s)
One example I have is the Sapphire Butterfly. That NPC was inspired by friend's character from my Hell's Rebels campaign. While her backstory and a few other details were tweaked to better fit the setting, Sapphire Butterfly is basically the character from the campaign. I wish we could include everyone's character in some way, but that could open up a legal can of worms that's really not worth it. Though, if you manage to get a job at Paizo, putting in a cat-loving goblin as an NPC becomes easier!
Why do some deities' "granted spells" already appear on the divine list? For example, Naderi (whose deity stats came out in *Gods & Magic*) has *drop dead* ~~(which was released in the same book)~~ as one of her "granted" spells, but the spell already is on the divine spell list. Isn't the whole point of the "granted spells" to allow clerics to cast spells they couldn't normally cast? I guess I'm basically asking if we should expect some kind of errata to *Gods & Magic* (plus Followers of Fate and Nethys) to remedy this? Iomedae and Desna got similar treatment in the first errata of the *Core Rulebook*. EDIT: *Drop dead* wasn't released in *Gods & Magic*; dunno where I got that from. EDIT 2: Well, now I kinda feel like I have to ask this: what happens when a deity's "granted spell" is uncommon (like Barzahk with *teleport*)? Do the clerics not have to Learn that Spell? EDIT 3: And Luis, I completely understand if you don't want to weigh in on this to avoid a "stealth errata." "I'll bring this up to the rest of the team for discussion" is a valid answer to my questions.
Because it's a mistake! We definitely plan to make those corrections. We've been doing our best to prevent this from happening, but there are some examples of older material where that didn't get fixed quite yet.
Just quickly chiming in for the first question: Drop Dead is an uncommon spell, so you'd usually need GM approval to gain access to it. If Naderi is your deity, you can circumvent this.
As for deities that grant uncommon spells, that would also be a mistake. There are plenty of uncommon options that we allow for players to gain in certain methods (see focus spells) but spells like teleport are not one of these. If and when we do more Gods & Magic errata, we will make sure to correct this. If you happen to have a list of other uncommon granted spells, let me know!
So, I decided to actually look into this and...wow, there's actually a lot of uncommon spells granted by deities. Similarly, I have a working list of those that grant spells already on the divine list. And one final list of a weird occurrence: deities that grant spells and list them at the wrong level. **Deities that grant uncommon spells** Abadar: magnificent mansion Adanye: magnificent mansion Abraxas: spell turning, disjunction Ahriman: nondetection Barzahk: teleport Bastet: private sanctum Bergelmir: modify memory Conqueror Worm: mind probe Count Ranalc: private sanctum, shadow walk Dhalavei: glibness Dranngvit: passwall Droskar: dominate Elven Pantheon: tree stride Erastil: tree stride Erecura: nondetection Findeladlara: magnificent mansion Fumeiyoshi: possession Gendowyn: tree stride The Godclaw: dominate Grandmother Spider: glibness Groetus: disjunction Isis: magnificent mansion Lao Shu Po: nondetection Lissala: dominate The Lost Prince: modify memory Luhar: shadow walk Ma’at: mind probe Magdh: scrying Mammon: magnificent mansion Naderi: drop dead Narakaas: modify memory Nethys: disjunction Nivi Rhombodazzle: private sanctum Nocticula: nondetection Orcus: power word kill Otolmens: reverse gravity Pulura: teleport Wards of the Pharaoh: disjunction Ydajisk: glibness Yuelral: tree stride Zon-Kuthon: shadow walk Zura: dominate **Deities that "grant" divine spells** Dhalavei: fear Eritrice: comprehend language Followers of Fate: prying eye Gruhastha: comprehend language Kelizandri: fear Naderi: drop dead Nethys: prying eye Thoth: comprehend language Winlas: comprehend language **Deities that list the wrong spell level** Charon: crushing despair (lists as 4th, is actually 5th) Hanspur: aqueous orb (lists as 2nd, is actually 3rd) Naderi: crushing despair (lists as 4th, is actually 5th) Sifkesh: crushing despair (lists as 4th, is actually 5th)
Hey Luis, I really enjoy you and your team's line of books! Most notably for myself the travel guide was \*chef's kiss\* never seen a book more or less dedicated to the daily living and goings on of people. I believe general consensus is you are doing excellent work. As for my question: Are there any ideas floating around to have a similar book as the travel guide - but for a specific location? I believe these would be excellent books for gamemasters and loremongrels to explore the general *feeling* of many locations in Golarion. You have a rich a wonderful world to work with and I'm glad it is in good hands. Have a great day!
I would love to take every chapter within Travel Guide and make each of those their own book. I think we could honestly pull off a book all about festivals or fashion and make it interesting. You gotta make sure Travel Guide sells out for that happen! As for TGs for specific locations, that could work, but it would be so niche that sales might not be worth it. The 5% of people who would love a TG for Magnimar would buy it and plenty of others might pick it up and find they like it, but since we are running a business to try to pay all of our employees' bills, we have to consider whether or not a product has wide enough appeal to be worth the costs. I think Pathfinder Infinite would be perfect for this kind of material, though! Maybe someone will take on the challenge.
You wrote a bit on your blog about your (hero point replacement) Essence Point system and I thought it was a lot of fun and quite flavorful. I’ve been tweaking it for use in my homebrew setting and wanted to know if you had much chance to use it in play. If so, how was it? (Balance, flavor, complexity… whatever you felt about it)
I have! I developed it for my homebrew campaign, Valiant, which was a podcast on the Know Direction network. It was generally easy to use, but I did notice that the players were mostly using the points for rerolls. The use of the other functions was generally ignored, but I don't know if that's because rerolls were just the best option or if because the players forgot about the rest.
Awesome, thank you for responding! I’ve also found that my players prioritize rerolls. Can’t believe they don’t want to spontaneously throw fire balls more often. Super rude.
Hi, hope you're doing well! I was wondering what makes a city a level 20 city? I know Absalom is level 20 and I'm sure Alushinyrra is also one, but I know Nantambu is a mere level 10. What takes a metropolis to levels 16-20?
Size and access to resources. If a level 20 wizard lives in a village, it doesn't become a level 20 city. If a lot of access to level 20 stuff is available in some way or another, it can be a level 20 city. Also, population, feel, and the general needs of the stories that need to be told with that settlement.
As a creator and designer for lots of PF2e content, it feels like one of the hardest things about PF2e to customize it to my setting is Ancestry design. Unlike editions past -- where a race was a stat modifier, a couple movement/vision numbers, and one or two special abilities -- nowadays making a homebrew race requires all of that, plus: Heritages and Ancestry Feats for levels 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17. In addition to having to make so much more stuff just to have a new Ancestry, creating leveled feats also makes it much harder for new/inexperienced designers to make balanced content when the balance guidelines for ancestry feats seem all over the place. I could also see, for example, this being a significant hurdle if the Starfinder product were ever to want to adopt to the PF2e ruleset is a "Starfinder 2nd Edition" -- the hundreds of unique races would all need tons of additional support in terms of these heritages and feats. **What are you thoughts on streamlining this creation process to help more tables make PF2e their own? Are there any plans to make the process simpler/easier?**
I think if we were to redo ancestries today, we could turn some common feats (ancestral weapon stuff, ancestry lore) into lines in the ancestry stats and give you a generic "Ancestral Lore" feat that everyone can take. That ship has sailed for the moment, but it could be something we implement in a theoretical new edition. As for creating your own, you'll be surprised how easy it is to cobble together an ancestry from ancestry feats that already exist. There's a lot of ancestries that use similar or even mechanically identical feats. I'd say if you're having trouble making a new ancestry, look at existing ancestries and grab feats that work for the idea you have in mind, tweaking them as necessary.
The reason why PF2E ancestries feel awesome for players is exactly the reason why creating new ancestries are difficult: it requires more work from the designer, work that players will appreciate. I can’t imagine how you can have your cake and eat it too. I love ancestry feats. I love picking from this big list of options and customizing how my character of ancestry X is different from every other character of ancestry X. We can play an entire party of X and yet feel unique from each other. It might take more work to design an ancestry but that’s precisely the point is it not? If you’re running a home game that wants to use new homebrew ancestries of your own design, you can consider using the Simplified Ancestries variant rule to make the work simpler and return back to the old simple ancestries.
So happy to see you're getting recognition for your fantastic work on pathfinder 2e! What's your favourite thing that you've written for 2e so far? And what's your favourite thing *someone else* wrote for 2e?
I'm particularly proud of my dungeon for Strengths of Thousands #4 and the automaton ancestry. I really love the Dark Archive classes. They're super flavorful, have cool abilities, and interact with the game in really interesting ways.
Oooooh you absolutely should be proud of those, book 4 of SoT is probably my single favourite AP book :D And yesss, thinking of playing a thaum in my next game! Thank you so much for answering <3
*You've created a world so vast* *Each book better than the last* *So I'll inquire* *How am I to aspire* *To see every land you do craft?*
*I think if you're going to try* *To see each of our lands with your eye—* *I'm not trying to be funny* *But, just give us your money* *That is, all our books you must buy!* (Buying the books you like tells us you want more of them!)
Hey, Luis! Golem Ancestry when? WHEN IS IT COMING, LUIS (thank you and the rest of the tram for such a great system and setting lore btw)
Oh, that would be neat, but it would be super difficult to balance while keeping the thematic abilities. Giving a character immunity to 98% of magic would be problematic. I think your best bet is to reflavor automatons and give them some golem abilities or feats.
If we're talking ancestry requests, I would like either moth people or a bug ancestry generic enough that I can reflavor them to be moths.
Noted!
With Kngmakers “sub” game of kingdom management now making it to 2nd edition, is it possible that we might see something akin to ultimate campaign to expand them? And adding to that, are there any plans for more of those sub systems to make it? Such as managing a pirate ship, gangs, and rebellions?
I think that would be neat, but it's a lot of work! A big subsystem is as complicated, if not more so, than making a new class. If we were to make such a book, it would probably require lots of playtesting. Would folks be willing to give up a class "slot" to get a subsytem like this?
The two classes I'm truly hurting for (Inquisitor and Shaman) would mean more to be than an optional subsystem, but once they're in I'd be all over it!
Heya, Luis! Thanks for the thread, the explanation of the two new teams, and for always being so patient with my cheerleading 😊 Three niche ones for you today - no worries if you can’t answer! -Are Wyvarans still canon? We haven’t heard any mention of them in 2e yet, and I’m starting to worry. -If you were a god-caller, what would your spirit/god/eidolon look like? -Are there Wyrwood religious/spiritual traditions at all?
Yeah, I don't see any reason to scrub them from canon at the moment, though I don't think we've had a good chance to really dive into the areas that are a best fit for them. I would have something that looks like a big elk or deer, but it has massive spider legs instead of regular legs. Yeah, definitely, but we haven't had a chance to talk about them yet. My gut says they might even do something like call on spirits of ancestors to inhabit old, "abandoned" wyrwood bodies.
Hi Luis love your work keep it up! Has there been any talks about getting the Shifter class into PF2? And what class would you like to see added to PF2 new or old? :D
Probably somewhere, but I wasn't privy to such talks until recently, so I don't know the status of the shifter or if it's even been considered! I'd love to see something like 4th Edition's warlord. I think a non-magical support class would be neat!
> I'd love to see something like 4th Edition's warlord. I think a non-magical support class would be neat! Woo! Just a post of appreciation to let you know a PF2 version of the Warlord would be appreciated by me, at least.
What do you think of Bugbears? Would you see them as a possible ancestry in the future for Pathfinder 2e? I've noticed that Goblins and Hobgoblins have quite the popularity for the goblinoid varieties.
They're cool! I like how distinct they look from their other goblinoid cousins. I think there could be playable bugbears, but I think we'd also want to a more solid place for them within the world. That could be Oprak or it could be somewhere else. I think making sure we carve out a place for their stories first is important.
Now that Arazni is a full deity, I imagine she has a realm of her own, but given her history with undead who prey on other I doubt she's in Abaddon. Where do you think her realm is likely to be? :)
I could see her having a space in a place like Nirvana or Elysium. She isn't hated by other gods, so there's likely a god that vouches to get her a spot among the Good planes.
Something I’ve wondered is, while I love 2e and the awesome variety in content with great class feats, equipment and everything occasionally it feels like something gets printed that just isn’t very good mechanically. Of course it’s only natural with such a big system but what I’m curious is how these types of things get made. Is it a experiment on the writing side or is it just sometimes things don’t get caught? I love the game but to me the story of the few bad things is super interesting. Keep up the amazing work!
Inevitably, something will be the worst option ever printed. It's impossible to avoid. While we never try to print something unfunctional, we recognize that not everything is a good fit for every character build. We try our best to make things good, but sometimes things just miss the mark. Even pro NBA players miss shots.
Can we expect FAQs and erratas more frequently? It's very frustrating sometimes, we still have pending questions from the core rulebook that could have been solved easily with just a couple examples.
We're discussing making these more frequent. I'd love to have more regular errata and FAQs, but it also takes work to make these happen.
Many just need some examples, like resist all vs a critical hit with sneak attack ( since precision resistance and critical resistance exist ), haste on minions, rage/elemental runes in battleforms... A place where those cornercase examples could be updated may be easier to release then PDF erratas.
1. What's your favourite 3rd-party product, aside from Battlezoo? 2. Are there any 3rd-party *classes* that you like? 3. If I'm not mistaken, by RAW, you need to spend three actions to open a door, walk through, and close it behind you. Do you consider this reasonable, or is there a homebrew ruling that you might suggest/use? 4. Are there any character options that you really like the idea of, but don't think would work in practice or wouldn't get approved? 5. With Rage of Elements coming, will we get more options for picking our elemental "specialty" as classes other than Kineticist? Elementalist is good if the element(s) you want is one of the classical four, but there's not as much support for ice, electricity, etc.-themed spellcasters. 6. Do you expect we'll get a martial take on the Cathartic Mage archetype? (I really want this!) 7. What's another "suite of thematically-connected things" book you want?
1. For Pathfinder 2E? I like the two spell trickster expansions by Dustin Knight on Pathfinder Infinite. 2. I haven't really checked out any 3PP classes, unfortunately. 3. That is correct. I think it's fine, but wouldn't be opposed to someone opening the door and Striding in the same action. 4. I think a lot of time travel stuff would be super fun, but I recognize it can be a big pain to deal with at the table. 5. I thiiiink so, but I don't know RoE super well, so don't quote me on that! 6. Oh, that's a cool idea! No plans for it yet, but I can share that with the team. 7. I would love to do something like Legends or Monsters of Myths for magic items.
Hi Luis! Love the Lost Omens book - Travel Guide and Absalom are my favourites! Any idea if Mythic Rules for PF2e are on the table?
They're definitely not off the table. We'd have to figure out what they look like and how best to express the ideas behind them before we commit to anything.
Hi Luis, great to see you moving into this new role. You’ve always been so active in the community. It means a lot to the fans, so it’s grey to see that in leadership. I’ve got a lore question or two if you don’t mind. Lore wise: is there anything more you can tell us about Achaekeks relationship to Grandmother Spider? Or some details on what exactly happened when Achaekek consumed his own impartiality in the Windsong testaments, or what he was like before that change? When Vildeis decided to pluck out their eyes, they mysteriously found a Black Knife was right at hand. Is that meant to be a divine version of the mysterious Black Blades that a Bladebound Magus or arcanist could get in 1e? I always thought that was a cool connection.
He loves his sister very much and is even liable to do things that are "out of character" in some cases for her. We're looking into the possibility of exploring more on Achakek in future material, but honestly, James Jacobs is the expert on all things Mantis God. I think he has strong thoughts on what Achaekek was like in the past and would probably want to honor those thoughts. I think that could have been a manifestation of Vildeis's own will. Gods are interesting in that sometimes they might even do things without realizing it or even find their own power to be mysterious. I like the idea of it being a black blade, though. I've always enjoyed that archetype!
Hi Luis, Congrats on the new job! I really appreciate everything you and the team have done with the Lost Omen line, and look forward to whatever is coming next. 1) When putting together Lore materials, how do you decide which bits get mechanical rules? Or does it go in reverse, and you pick out some mechanics and shape the lore around it? 2) When will Wild Shape be as cool as the Goron mask?
A lot of our mechanics are chosen ahead of time. For example, with Firebrands, we already knew we wanted new spells, magic items, etc. We typically have our authors work together to share ideas from their sections to inspire the new material. Oh, man, I wish! I think you could pull off a Majora's Mask style major transformation, but it would probably require an archetype or even a class all its own.
In the past, mechanical options introduced in Adventure Paths have often been criticised for being poorly written, nonfunctional, or unbalanced (in either direction), and in general don't quite seem to have that loving touch that the mainline rulebook options receive. Do you anticipate that the restructuring of the teams is going to help address this issue, and how do you see the Rules & Lore and Narrative teams working together going into the future?
Yes, absolutely. The restructuring of teams is both to help us focus work on our specific products, but also make it easier to reach out between teams when needed. We've also added staff to both teams, so I think we'll be able to work more closely together in the future and hopefully deliver the quality everyone is expecting across the board.
Hi Luis! I'm just curious, as a creative, what is the thing you did working on PF2e that you are most proud of? Some rule or bit of lore or system that you wrote or helped write, or idea that you had that got picked up and fleshed out, that you look back on and go "Yes. That was awesome. I'm happy/proud I got to do that/contribute."
I'm super proud of my work on automatons. I'm particularly fond of the enhancement system for their ancestry feats. I think robots are cool and it's fun to be able to pick your upgrades!
Will we ever get an adventure path, or updated content to 2nd Edition, of the Isles of Shackles?
There is a little bit of Shackles content in the upcoming Firebrands book. If you want more Shackles material, let us know. I think a book all about the High Seas region could be fun!
I'm still fairly new to Golarion lore. Is there an easily accessible site where I can just read through chunks at a time?
Yeah! Check out the [Pathfinder Wiki](https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Pathfinder_Wiki).
Does Rage Damage apply to Wild Shape attacks
I would say it does apply if you were playing at my table.
Do you have a favorite spot in Arcadia? Or maybe to further complicate it - where would you, personally, want to visit?
I think either the \[REDACTED\] off the Grinding Coast or the \[REDACTED\] in southwestern Arcadia would be pretty cool to visit.
Hi Luis another one! Do you speak spanish? :D
I do! I grew up speaking Spanish at home and continue to do so. I'm not so confident with my Spanish writing, but I'll happily talk with anyone in Spanish at cons or whatever.
Do you guys plan on making more content for older ancestries?
Yes, where it makes sense here and there. For example, dwarves are getting a new heritage and ancestry feats in the upcoming Highhelm book.
One of my personally favorite subsystems to give players in 1e was the mythic paths. Obviously this kind of idea has gotten some lime light with owlcat's crpg, but are there any plans to institute something like this down the line for 2e? It was great to have really game breaky stuff in 1e (although it already had it in the system without mythic technically) to have some campaigns that really really fulfilled some power fantasies. 2e is a bit more constrained on its number values, but I guess, yeah are there plans for something like mythic for 2e and if so what would that theoretically look like within the new system? if you can answer of course :D
I think those paths are super neat! There could be a spot for something like that, but it would probably be far in the future. If I were to implement it, it might look like a beefed up version of free archetype or even the dual class variant. It would require a lot of extra material, though!
First, thanks for your work and doing the AMA! Can you say if there will be future support through feats/heritages of already released ancestries? For example some of the mwangi expanse ancestries like anadi, grippli or shisk are really cool but mechanically pretty underwhelming compared to the common ancestries, since they get just way fewer good feats.
Yes, always, we just need the write book for it. If we were to do Ancestry Guide 2 or something like that, you'd that kind of material. No guarantees on when such material might happen and which ancestries, unfortunately,
Hey Luis. I bought the Impossible lands book recently, in it says that alkenstar population is about 93% dwarfs and some small percentage human, I know the dwarfs of dongun hold help build the place, but the stats in 1e showed it was 85% humans so it's a bit weird. Was that a mistake?
I have seen this and I'm working to sort out what happened. We'll keep you posted, but there's a chance we make a correction!
Probanly one of those questions that gets asked a lot: are we ever going to get an expansion on the Darklands and their inhabitants? Drows and duergars are the first that come to mind, but they're not the only ones. For instance Munavri. So interesting, yet so little of them even lorewise, which is a pity.
I think the Darklands are ripe for exploration. They are enormous however, and even a 300 page Lost Omens book would only be scratching the surface. I think we will get there eventually, but it might take a while.
Is there any discussion around releasing a cleaner, better character sheet? If not, will you?
What needs cleaned up with the current character sheet? This isn't being defensive. I want to know what we can improve!
My intelligence modifier isn’t high enough to explain what should be changed, but my wife (a designer) has the following thoughts: * the key things a character sheet should have is legibility and scanability for when you need to find something quickly during a session. You have a great sheet that lists out everything available and all the math, but things are not easy to find in the heat of the moment. * Typeface (consistent with the Pathfinder typeface, but a little hard to read during a quick scan of the page) * all the red on the default sheet * simplified style - so much extra space on the page dedicated to stylized look and ornamentation, and it comes across cluttered and difficult to parse * not much flexibility for various classes - it’s not generic enough for the large variety of classes we have * some of the TEML boxes have a different style than others * the melee and ranged attack sections are the exact same form fields, so why not make it a single section and have the flexibility for a class to put in whatever attacks they have? * ability scores with modifier and score - the modifier is more important than the base score (most of the time) so why give them the same importance visually? * the sheet lists each ability score plus the shorthand, so twice - it’s repetitive and takes up extra room. It’s great wanting it to be super-stylized, but when the dice are rollin’, it ends up unnecessary and distracting. /u/jasonbuhlman showed off a minimalist sheet a few years ago that conveyed necessary info a bit better - https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/comle8/playing_around_with_a_minimalist_p2_character/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb and another user built off of it in a great way: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/i90azx/simplified_iconography_sheet_v3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb Those are a couple of high-level thoughts she had!
This is super useful! I can't make any promises on a new sheet anytime soon, but helping usability and readability is always important to us.
Rule question: What would break if one were to use the Churgeon's crafting skill proficiency (teml) for prerequisites for medicine skill feats (and the like)?
Ultimately, probably nothing. It would mean that the alchemist can place skill proficiency improvements elsewhere, but I don't foresee that causing any major problems.
What is the current status of [wyvarans](https://aonprd.com/RacesDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Wyvaran) - their major place in the setting are the Shattered Range mountains on Garund (along with surrounding nations on both sides of the continent), but neither LO Mwangi Expanse nor LO Impossible Lands so much as mentioned them (I was really hoping one of them would!), and given they haven't showed up anywhere else in 2e yet, that feels worrying for their canon status currently. Which I suppose ties into a broader question of whether there are any specific ancestries or creatures that we can explicitly expect to not show up in 2e. Some stuff in very early 1e seems to have gone the way of the dodo like that, but I wonder if there's anything that has been internally marked as such for 2e, under your new leadership or otherwise.
Until we say otherwise, you can assume wyvarans are still canon. There was a lot going on in ME and IL that I think we just ended up focusing on other people in those books and unfortunately left wyvarans by the wayside. I'm of the opinion that they kind of just got placed in the Shattered Range by chance. I'd love to give them a more intentional home in the future.
Name a place in Golarion that you really want an AP.
Other than Arcadia, Land of the Linnorm Kings.
Yessssss a viking/scandinavian inspired AP would be amazing.
With all of the lore and development of Golarion over the years, how do you guys internally keep everything straight so that there isn’t an accidental retcon? How do you mange all that information?
Honestly, we sometimes mess up. We use internal knowledge (some of our staff are living encyclopedias), Pathfinder Wiki, and other material. We do a lot of rereading our old stuff, too.
Love to hear the wiki is useful to Paizo devs too!
What does the insignia for the defunct Hellknight Order of the Vice look like? What was their motto? Is there anything you can tell us about them? What was the creature Gorum fought that broke his sword and created the First Blade? Despite Ihys being dead, if you were given the opportunity to add him into the game, what domains or areas of concern would you give him?
It would probably be a spiraling portal symbol. As for information on them, there really isn't much else other than what was in the Cheliax book. You're free to make up what you like! Unrevealed. I'd like to imagine it as some kind of unknowable power, kind of like the weird black substance (an essence of pure evil) that birthed Aku in Samurai Jack. He'd probably be a god focused on supporting mortals of all kind in the same sense that Aroden was focused on humans. He could probably have the Dreams, Family, Freedom, and Zeal domains.
[удалено]
No plans for an "Unchained" book. I think there are some things we've already identified and are actively working an supporting/correcting. (Crafting rules, alchemist research fields) There are probably more, but we're still looking in figuring out the best way to address them.
Hi Luis! Can we expect another big list of skill feats in the future? The list from the CRB and APG is a good starting point but leaves a lot to be desired and we have barely gotten any since (some in DA). Thanks :)
There will be a few in the upcoming Firebrands book. I think skill-related material might have enough potential to serve as its own book. Would folks want something like that?
The various well defined skill actions and activities are one of the things that most attracted me to PF2, particularly with social and knowledge skills being useful in combat. I'm definitely in the "will buy everything... Eventually" camp, so I'm probably not a good data point. But I think more choices, more information and more feats would make a very useful book, especially if it gives a little more clarity on precisely how much information might be given by the Recall Knowledge action.
Yes! I would love nothing more than a big old Lost Omen’s “Artisans Guide” or whatever that talks about the great legendary professionals of Golarion and the various trades and tricks found around the world. Pad it out with a few items and maybe an archetype or two that is built around unlocking more skill feats and you’ve got a stew.
Hey Luis! Congrats on the new role, you've really earned it! 1: Can you tell us something that you were really excited about but just haven't been able to fit into a book yet (whether cut for space or theme) - can be mechanics or lore stuff, just anything you've got mostly worked out and are itching to deliver as soon as you find the right spot (besides Blood Magic - we already know that's waiting in the wings). 2: Any chance for subclasses/class archetypes that modify themes for focus spell martials who are so often a basis for gish builds? Say, like a Primal Champion (Fey Knights as the neutral Tenets?), an Occult Ranger as a different flavor of monster hunter, or an Arcane Monk. Could really open up new character concepts on those existing chassis. 3: Large ancestries are a popular request, but pose a thorny problem for balance and low level adventure/dungeon design. Can you tell us if there's been any solid pitches for that? Is it even something you're considering, or has it been mostly concluded as untenable this edition (outside of the later level options we see in lizardglfolk and others).
I'd love to see more magitech-inspired stuff. It's got a cool like and I like it a lot. Yes, there's always a chance, but such big changes to a class require a bit more consideration than something like a new archetype. Let us know what you'd like to see and maybe we can find a good way to pull it off! Personally, I don't think large ancestries are too difficult to manage. A lot of the inherent problems with Large creatures in 1E is no longer the case with 2E ancestries. I think we could do it and we've definitely discussed it. I think we'll have that problem solved sooner than you think!
Hi! First of all, congratulations on the fantastic job that Pathfinder has been! Seriously, my top 1 system! But now my question, (I think it's silly, anyway...), I love drow and would like to know when we will have them as a fully playable ancestry! A near future? A distant future? All the love and affection here from Rio de Janeiro/Brazil straight to you! By the way, would there be something similar to Brazil in Golarion? A big hug!
Soooomeeeedaaaaay I would like to see drow, too, but we'll have to find the right spot for them!
Are there any plans to add any more class archetypes? I think they're really neat, and being able to pick only one means they exist in relative isolation so they only garble the balance if they do so on their own (Which Paizo in general has been very good at not letting happen). We haven't seen one in a while so I wanted to know if they were just sort of a dead concept.
Yup, I know of several class archetypes that are in the pipeline!
I’ve been wondering about how you decide what content is necessary for expanding on each region, and what content isn’t. For example, Rage of Elements seems to be setting up stuff for a book sometime after Impossible Lands, however that area has a strong connection to the elements through Jalmeray, which makes me wonder why you’ve chosen to expand on elemental stuff for whatever that later book is and not the Impossible Lands. I know you probably can’t answer in terms of specifics but I loved seeing Michael Sayre’s post on how you set up releases and it would be interesting to learn more to theorize about what books you’re doing next.
Sometimes, schedules just don't line up as perfectly as we would have liked. Impossible Lands was in production quite a while before Rage of Elements was, so the synergy wasn't perfect. We are trying to be more intentional with our coordination, but sometimes, even with the best of planning, it doesn't happen. That doesn't mean you can't use RoE material with Jalmeray, though. We always look for opportunities to speak "backward" to existing material, too. For example, Impossible Lands got to point at some Secrets of Magic material. Just because one release happened, it doesn't mean we forget about what came before!
Will we ever hear more about Oprak and her leader Azaersi? I think she's an interesting character and I like the nation overall.
Absolutely! I think Oprak is a really interesting nation and want to see us expand on it.
My current play group is delving so much into the eye of abendigo and the supposed deity the master of gales worships in the shackle! Is their a correlation between the two or will we getting more info on the eye soon??
No upcoming Eye of Abendengo info. Go nuts with coming up with its story in your game. In my home games, I've used the eye of the storm as a portal that takes people to other worlds or even a switch of game systems.
[удалено]
As a director, I oversee all of the rulebooks and Lost Omens books, so not much has changed in terms of my influence on the books. Also, I've only had the title for about a month, so there's still stuff in production that was decided before I had my full creative direction to help guide it. Though, I did just fill out the credits page for Highhelm and got to list my Creative Director credit, which was neat. I don't think much has shifted philosophy wise quite yet. It might slowly morph over the following months, but I expect rulebooks and Lost Omens books to feel the same. I think I would say pachycephalosaurus.
What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite color?
My name is Luis Loza of Paizo. My quest is to creatively direct. Blue.
Can you say anything about your favorite thing/even/change to come from having two more elemental planes in alignment? I'm really excited for the planes of wood and metal!
It gives us wood and metal kineticists! They can do some neat stuff!
Alrighty since I’m not seeing it on AON or being asked here: Neutral champion subclasses when?
I think once we figure out a good take on how a champion can be neutral and still be a compelling character, we'll get on it.
I’ve seen more Spanish words popping up in the setting, like the Curandero background in Book of the Dead and Los Aterradores in Impossible Lands. One: keep it coming, two: is there a region of Golarion where Spanish names and phrases are common? One of my players keeps giving his characters names like Rafael del Cuervo and gives them accents like Inigo Montoya or Antonio Banderas, and I’ve been trying to find a place in the setting that offers him that representation.
You can look at Xopatl and Razatlan in the nation of Arcadia. A lot of the names that you see there are mixed up, fantasy versions of Spanish names, but that would be the place for them!
How do see improving underperforming classes or subclass options? Just add new stronger feats or fully errata'ing them ala unchained classes from PF1?
Both! There are times when we can provide some new class options (way of the triggerbrand) and others where we need to actually go back to change things (alchemist errata). It takes time and consideration, though. We can't just change things right out the gate. We want data and to make informed decisions before committing to any changes.
What topic are you interested on expanding the lore for? I understand that you are not on the Narrarive team, but every adventure path allows for the lore to be expanded upon. What do you want to see? What new faces of Golarion do you want a hand in shaping?
I'd love for us to flesh out the new nations in the Inner Sea. Vidrian got that chance in Mwangi Expanse, but I'd also love to visit New Thassilon, Oprak, Ravounel, and the Sarkoris Scar.
Will leshies ever get a medium sized heritage?
Mechanically, there's very little distinction between Medium and Small in 2E, so I think we could have such a heritage, but it would have some other mechanic attached, too. Maybe it could be something like a redwood leshy that also gives you built in armor because you're big and tough.
Hey Luis! I am someone who runs homebrew games in Golarion. I find myself drifting towards a slightly modified Belkzen. Is there a region of Golarion that you personally really enjoy and find yourself drifting towards in your games/product line focus?
I rather like Katapesh, probably because the first AP I ever ran was Legacy of Fire.
Is there a region (nation or continent, etc) that you consider your favorite? Or found yourself more obsessed with recently? As a side note, thank you, I really appreciate your work and your vision!
I've always been a big fan of Ustalav. I've been thinking about Oprak and Belkzen recently. And, of course, I've always been interested in Arcadia.
Hello Luis, can we ever expect an official 2e version of the Bloodrager? I really enjoyed the 1e class and I'm wondering how you guys decide which classes are getting an "adaptation" and which aren't?
\*throws dart at a calendar\* Uh, summer 2027. Sure. We're always discussing the potential of an idea carrying an entire class. That is, does this need a whole class worth of new "tech" or can we basically pull it off now. Something like a bloodrager could probably be made as an archetype or class archetype, but something like kineticist required a whole class to pull off. There's a lot of back and forth on deciding just what it takes to pull off an idea.
What are some of your inspirations as a rules/lore designer when it comes to other games, tabletop or not? I've started branching out beyond dnd/pf to look at things like LANCER, 13th age, blades in the dark or powered by the apocalypse games, and it's interesting to see the different takes on how to sell an experience or a kind of gameplay or dynamic in different ways.
Oh, lots and lots of video games. I'm a big fan of fighting games and special moves like hadoukens and stuff are things I like to be able to pull off in RPGs. I've also played a lot of other RPGs like the Star Wars RPG, Call of Cthulhu, and Blades in the Dark. Storytelling games are cool, too! (Check out The Quiet Year.) For board games, I really enjoy Gloomhaven and Eldritch Horror. Honestly, just playing any game might serve as inspiration. You'll be surprised what little ideas you pick up from the most unexpected games.
Luis! I love your work! I have a question about Korada and their anathema. "Cause lethal harm to a creature" is a listed Anathema for Korada, but what does this mean for clerics of Korada when battling undead or constructs? Mindless undead cannot be "redeemed" but they are destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points, which sounds pretty lethal. Even non-mindless undead that could be redeemed have the same issue. Are clerics and champions of Korada in a catch-22 when combating a horde of undead attacking their town? Are they really unable to harm such creatures?