I recently completed the Lies of P Overture DLC and created a couple of the DLC specific weapons.

You can check out the Pale Knight and the Monad's Rose Sword on my Patreon 100% free. There's also tons of other content on there free as well including dozens of creatures!

Thunderous footfalls echoed through the icy cavern, their direction indiscernible through resonating sounds. The fighter called a warning to his companions as he lifted his shield above his head to block the scattered falling of icicles. Huddling beside him, the elfin wizard swiftly chanted and intoned familiar words of abjuration as her eyes darted about desperately. Her worries were finally allayed when the far wall cracked and suddenly crumbled, giving way to a great cavern beyond that was briefly hidden by a fog of snow. However, the swirling flakes swirled and parted before a behemoth that lumbered from the darkness. It was a vast serpentine creature that moved forth on powerful limbs. The incredible length of its body was covered in rib-like structures that vaguely resembled metal pipes coiling with fog. A low, thrumming sound emerged from it that grew in intensity as small eyes, nearly lost to its helm, fixed its dread gaze upon the party of adventurers.

Cold and colossal, this critter crawls across caves and caverns while its curved coverings keep it consumed by cryo that it copiously conveys to crusading combatants.

From my understanding, I'm nearing the end of my exploration of Wild's monsters. This was a very fun onemy to design in part because I just love cold-based creatures and abilities even if it is actually more of a heat sink rather than a directly cryo critter. I do a deeper dive into the details of its design over on the free Patreon post and YT video, if that interests you. Have a monstrous Monday!

Hello yall, here's my attempt to make an archetype for that iaijutsu master / ranged sword waves / and the ability to use all those special moves you see in those games. It focuses on Combo/limited type actions, heavily inspired by exemplar combat style without copying it.

However, I'm not too experienced with PF2e balance yet so I want some opinions on it.

So here it is: The Ascendent Blade

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10pwQwpwT1jKFEXOXINSLD7TdVgUhJOLBo90AXLhyRQM/edit?usp=sharing

The Way of the Hexer expansion includes:

• Hexer Class Archetype A witch class archetype that sacrifices its spell slots in exchange for martial prowess and a deeper focus on their hexes. Includes 8 paths that are inspired by the witcher schools that grant a feat and a unique benefit, such as the path of ursine hexer that focuses on heavy armor or path of gryphus hexers that delve even deeper into their hex spellcasting. They also gain the Hex Combat ability, that allows them to cast a hex spell and Strike. Hexers are a more support and debuff focused gish class archetype, compared to the Magus' offensive focus.
• Witch Class Feats 8 new class feats for Witches such as the Second Lesson feat that can be taken by any witch that grants them a new hex cantrip of their choice from 11 new hex cantrips specifically created for this feat.
• New Lessons 18 new lessons for all lesson categories, including 3 new final lessons (introduced in Witches+). These include from 1st-rank Quen, 3th-rank Ignis, and 5th-rank Axii, to 10th-rank Call Patron, where you summon your patron as an Incarnate spell.
• New Patrons 4 new patrons and 1 remastered patron from my first book (Way of the Trickster). With the Dragon patron you can either have a generic type of dragon as your patron such as Arcane, or Divine, or you can choose a specific dragon type. This determines your tradition and the damage type of your Patron's Breath hex cantrip!
• New Magic Items New magical armor, weapons and other items such as the Monster Hunter's Grimoire, Monster Hunter's Weapon, Hexer Medallion, and the mythical artifact Aerondight!

Includes Free Foundry VTT and Pathbuilder Support!

I'm currently creating a Pathfinder 2e (remastered) conversion of Curse of Strahd using Curse of Strahd Reloaded as the narrative basis. The campaign is running levels 2–12, and I'm already planning to use Automatic Bonus Progression (CoS has notoriously sparse treasure) and Free Archetype (I just like it) as variant rules.

I'm now considering whether to also add Proficiency Without Level, and I'd love input from people who have used it, especially in horror or gritty campaigns.

My thinking so far:

Reasons it might suit CoS:

• Barovia should feel dangerous at any level. Standard PF2e math means zombie shamblers become irrelevant by level 8 or 9, which undermines the horror tone. PwL keeps lower-level threats credible in numbers.
• The compression of outcomes feels appropriate for survival horror (there is less reliance on dramatic crits and its more of a war of attrition).
• The GM Core itself explicitly mentions PwL in the context of "gritty, low-magic, survival-horror" games, which is almost a direct description of CoS.

My concerns:

• I've done some stat block conversion work already through the first Arc of CoS Reloaded. PwL would require recalculating all of these. It's not a big deal, but I'd rather not do it if the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
• I'm concerned that encounter building becomes less reliable as the level-gap heuristics PF2e uses changes.
• I've read it's unpopular in the community and I want to understand why before committing.
• My players are coming from 5e. I'm currently running them through Troubles in Otari, so they will have some PF2e experience before we do this campaign, but they won't be veterans. I'm wondering if PwL makes character building decisions punishing for players still internalizing the system.

Specific questions:

1. Have you used PwL in a horror or gritty campaign? Did it achieve the intended tone or did it create more problems than it solved?
2. How much does it affect encounter building in practice? Is it a manageable adjustment or does it genuinely make the XP budget system unreliable?
3. Does it feel like a meaningful change at the table or mostly a behind-the-scenes math adjustment that players barely notice?
4. Combined with ABP and Free Archetype, does PwL create unexpected interactions or does each variant stay reasonably self-contained?
5. For players transitioning from 5e who are still learning PF2e, is PwL an additional burden or does it actually make the system feel more familiar coming from 5e's flatter math?

I'd be happy to share more about the conversion if the context is helpful. I'm also hoping to share the conversion once I've finished if anyone is interested. I'm looking for some honest takes from both players and GMs.

Folklore tells of beings that lurk in the wilds; eccentric recluses, unnatural beasts, fey folk of supernatural beauty…not quite esoteric, but not quite of the natural world, these cryptic beings skirt the Boundary of the real and ephemeral. Harnessing the overlap of the occult and primal, they use their weird combination of magics to protect the boroughs they inhabit, stalking travellers before deciding to reveal themselves…be it as a friend or foe.

Hello folks. Today* we are announcing the playtest for the first new class we've been working on at Southern Realm Games: the cryptic, which will be released with our third planned supplement release, Messages from the Boundary. This is a resource all about the uncanny overlap of the real and the surreal; think cryptids lurking thorough wyrd-weald forests meet SCP in high fantasy. Much like our first release Blackpowder, Magic, & Plot tied heavily into mechanics and themes from Guns & Gears, Messages from the Boundary will draw a lot of parallels from and even riff off content directly from Dark Archive, but will have its own bent about the supernatural bending and blending with nature.

We have a tonne of content planned from subclasses, standard and class archetypes, a plethora of magic items, environmental-warping rules, and creatures, all that we hope will fill you with the same indiscernible yet palpable dread as a Shoshinkai build-inspired Mario 64 ROM hack or photos of an abandoned McDonald's from the 90s (Earthbound music is likely playing over both). However, as expected with a major class release we wanted to put this one out into the wild first and gather feedback before we finalize content.

^(*this is actually the version 2 release of the class, but we didn't end up announcing v1 here on Reddit. More info below)

What is the cryptic?

The cryptic is a wisdom-based prepared spellcaster who sits upon the edge of the real and surreal. They are the first the first of a new concept we're calling a confluence caster; a merging of two traditions of magic into one. In the case of the cryptic, they harness primal magics from the physical world and esoteric occultism from the realms of spirit, thought, and shadow. Not quite stepping foot fully into either tradition, they instead create an overlap that distorts the familiar in uncanny ways.

Cryptics represent the unsettling and clandestine regions and tales of the natural world; hermits in the woods that wield secrets of lost tradition, cryptids seen only from a distance obscured in fog or shadow, fey folk who play pranks on hapless souls who enter their domains...what they all share in common is their penchant for secrecy and generating hearsay. As such, the overlapping theme of all cryptics is their elusiveness, and how they react when caught. However, each cryptic is storied with its own unique tales and hearsay about them; it is this surrounding folklore that makes them stand out from one another, yet neatly categorizes them as so-called 'civilized' folk are wont to.

Features and Abilities

Confluence Casting Cryptics harness an overlap of occult and primal magic. Though by default they only have spells that can be learned by both traditions, they gain access to more spells through their class options and feats...usually with more unique (if sometimes uncanny) effects than they would normally have when cast with standalone traditions.

Obscurity As secretive beings, cryptics prefer to keep their identities hidden from those around them. A  unique vision state called obscurity enables them to use certain actions and gain benefits while they're not observed by another creature, or if their form is not fully visible to them, such as from concealment or Taking Cover. To help them, they get a Passing Disguise that hides their true identity, and may peek around corners and over ledges without needing to use actions thanks to the Cryptically Watching feature.

Emergence When caught, cryptics tend to utilize their actions in ways that betray their unusual behaviours. Actions with the emergence trait have a standard action cost, and trigger in the case of free actions and reactions. However, other select abilities will let you use emergence actions with a different action cost and triggers, sometimes in addition to other effects. This means you could use a one-action spell or ability as a reaction, a reaction or free action as part of a single action that has other benefits, or a reaction with another reaction's triggers! Notably, all cryptics get the Caught Out reaction at 3rd level, which lets them use an emergence action against a creature that breaks their obscurity or catches them out of it.

Boundary Environments Each cryptic has an environment they're attuned to where the Veil between reality and the supernatural realms have torn. Their environments give them access to occult and primal spells of certain traits they can prepare as cantrips, and a bonus spell slot each rank that lets them prepare spells with those traits in them. Other class features may grant them unique benefits based on their environments, such as different movement speeds, additional environments you can draw from, and the ability to adapt to a new environment when you enter it.

Folklore Origins All cryptics have a specific magical affinity that acts as the basis for their storied reputations. As their primary subclass, the cryptic's folklore origin grants them every spell from the occult and primal spell list of specific traits, a Boundary Influence that changes how those spells behave, and a Cryptic Secret; a unique spellshape or reaction that grants more options to enable their playstyle. The five folklore origins in the playtest are as follows:

Auspex - An augur who reads the signs of the natural world to see subtle clues others can't and predict events through Butterfly Effect-esque causality. The auspex knows the result of all secret checks they make, and gain access to all spells with the detection, fortune, misfortune, prediction, revelation, and scrying traits, granting select options from those a new trait called Prophetic. With this, spells that don't end up changing the outcome of checks they influence or finding anything through detection (such as rolls of a Sure Strike both missing or hitting, a bonus or penalty not tipping the result of any rolls it affects, or not finding any invisible creatures with See the Unseen), you do not waste your spell slot!

Fey Trickster - A mischievous prankster who uses glamours and emotional manipulation to toy with others. Fey tricksters learn all spells with the emotion, illusion, and sleep traits, and can choose charisma as their Key Ability Score and spellcasting modifier. Fascination effects from their spells and cryptic abilities are innately improved, only breaking when the affected creature is targeted rather than their allies. They also gain access to unique spellshapes that make their illusions more enticing or blinding.

Fungal Colony - A specimen infected with an all-consuming mycelium growth. The fungal colony gains all spells with the disease, fungus, and poison traits. Any spells they cast with those traits spread spores onto affected creatures, friend and foe alike. You can utilize those spores to cast further spells with those traits from the location of spore-covered creatures, or target them directly to bypass cover and concealment. Additional feats at higher levels let you expend prepared slots to cast spontaneously from a list of select spells and target spore-covered creatures with them, such as nerve spores that cause mental effects or nutrient spores to heal allies.

Manifold Rumour - A classic shapeshifting cryptid, the manifold rumour is a tulpa that turns itself into beasts of hearsay and nightmare through an amalgam of limbs and bodily transformations. It gains all spells with the morph and polymorph traits, and can still cast morph spells on itself while in battle forms. It also has the ability to change to another form available to the polymorph spell it's currently affected by once per turn for one action. Use its Fight or Flight cryptic secret or the Shapeshifter Reveal feat to go on the offensive the moment you shapeshift, and it has the morph and polymorph feats from Howl of the Wild as additional options give it more versatility in battle form.

Shadow Person - A shadowy skulker who thrives in darkness while preying on fear. The shadow person gains all spells with the darkness, fear, and shadow traits. Their light-reducing spells are so potent they still work on creatures with low-light and darkvision to limited degrees, and can selectively choose to be considered obscured or not while in darkness to give them more control over how they engage with victims. Their spellshapes let them inflict the frightened condition on creatures affected by darkness and shadow spells while the shadow person is obscured to them, and feats at higher levels let those spells open a rift to the void to deal extra damage with them.

Multiclassing Archetype Included

What's that? A multiclass playtest? That's right, the multiclass dedication feat and subsequent archetype feats are available! Pick up some cryptic casting with spells granted from folklore origins and boundary environments, and nab yourself some select class features like your origin's cryptic secret, Cryptically Watching, and Caught Out! This along with all standard spellcasting archetype benefits for your cryptic casting, and access to all feats!

New Spells

In addition, we have over 40 new spells up to 5th rank available to any class! While many of them have been designed as either occult and/or primal spells to give the cryptic more options - particularly for traits currently lacking for its origins such as fungus and shadow - we have a number that are simply themed for our new sourcebook, and are available to any class of the appropriate tradition! New spells include but are not limited to:

• Monsters in the Dark; a shadow-based cantrip that shrouds a creature in darkness before unseen appendages assault them.
• A range of spell attack morph spells such as Bull Rush to charge and knock your foes back, Crustacean Grip to hold them in a crushing pincer, or Peck Eyes to hamper a their vision. All usable by the manifold rumour while in battle forms!
• Springy Mushroom; a large, bouncy fungus cap that can be used to propel you to new heights!
• 1st rank movement utility spells such as Slippery Critter to morph into a tiny pest that evades reactions and escapes grapples easier, or Wing Flap to grant short-duration flying or slowed falling.
• Uncanny Statue; an seemingly immobile wooden carving that stalks its victims via teleportation and prevents them from reducing their frightened condition
• Fairy Ring; a circle of mushrooms enchanted by the fey that traps a creature in it, either forcing them to dance helplessly or become both invisible and intangible
• Spore Renanimation; cover a recently-dead corpse in life-giving spores to temporarily resurrect a creature before it passes on for good!

Available Now

The playtest is available in both PDF form, and in digital modules for Foundry and Pathbuilder now through the TabletopObscura Patreon. It is completely free, and while we're some ways off releasing the final version of the full supplement (plus still working on other releases such as our animal companion-themed resource Mount and Order, and our ongoing Sinclair's Library Remaster project), we plan on updating the playtest based on feedback including going all the way up to level 20, maybe even adding a new folklore origin or two! All dependent on time investment and feedback received, of course.

Closing Thanks

Before I finish this post, I just want to shout out to a few people; first, Trapagon for providing the art for The Gnarlg, our feisty little iconic.

In addition, I'd like to give a huge thanks to u/AvtrSpirit from Spirit Bell Games and our dear friend and PF2e genius u/AnEldritchDream, along with our Patreon subscriber Rowan De Silva and Ninzard on the TabletopObscura Discord for all providing extensive feedback. As mentioned above, this is actually the second version of the playtest; we initially did a push on Patreon, which we didn't end up advertising here on Reddit due to delays getting the digital modules ready because of sickness (hand, foot, and mouth is not fun, folks). While the response was limited, the feedback we received from these users was extremely valuable in cleaning up the original draft, cutting down on bloat, and catching some fairly egregious exploits and mechanical oversights, so we decided to do a full version 2 revamp and delay the Foundry module till that was ready before the full announcement, as we know how important that is for many players.

While I'm sure there's still plenty more changes to come, I'm really happy with this version and believe it will give people the best idea for the vision we wish to achieve with this class. While this isn't our first release, we realize classes are the golden geese of PF2e content, and this is our first shot to leave the impression that we definitely know what we're doing when it comes to designing for the system. We hope this will inspire faith in us, but more importantly that you legitimately enjoy the class and have fun with it.

So please let us know what you think - positives, negatives, general cool things you like and things you won't even touch because it looks bad on paper. If you can playtest the class in your own games and let us know how it goes, even better! We want to make this as good as it can be, so we really want to know what is both clicking and popping, and what you think isn't resonating as strongly or needs improvement. Links for feedback in our Discord are available in Patreon post.

We hope you enjoy skulking about with the cryptic. We'll all see you at the edge of the Boundary (or maybe we won't?) soon...

Hestia Pringle, the Soup Saint of Sandpoint (female skilled human cook exemplar 7)

A tough, hunched old grandmother who spent her retirement running Pringle’s Hearth, feeding dockworkers, refugees, and goblin children. Then the Godsrain struck. Now this reluctant Exemplar wields a heavy iron khakkhara hung with pots, pans, cleavers, and a dinner bell, tenderizing bandits while handing out divine healing stew from her horn of plenty.

Humble by day, fiercely protective by necessity--she'll fuss over your wounds one moment and crack a sellsword's knee the next, all while muttering, "I’ve tenderized tougher meat than you!"

Perfect for Pathfinder 2e War of the Immortals campaigns. Everyone needs a battle grandma.

Fire blazed around the party as the wood crackled and popped. A branch crashed to the ground, sending up swirling embers as the massive, metallic figure lumbered through the blaze. It resembled a towering bear that had risen onto its hindfeet as it stomped forward with groundshaking steps. Flames bellowed from its mechanical body, and even through the dance of embers, the crimson glow of its eyes were readily apparent. The beast fixed its gaze on the party before it dropped onto four limbs, unleashed a fearsome roar, and thundered forward at a furious gallop.

Built to blaze and butcher, this big, bionic bear brings a barbeque to the brouhaha that is bound to burn builds, braves, and beyond to not but bits and bobs.

In a collaboration with Cameron McLoud (who made the D&D version), I have built the absolutely massive fireclaw from the Horizon Zero Dawn game series! You can check out the ideas behind the designs and get some encounter hooks over on the free Patreon post or on the YT video. Have a monstrous Monday!