I've always thought of the StackExchange network as kind of a strange beast. In one sense, it is basically a Reddit clone. It has a "front page", it has "karma", it has "subreddits", etc. And yet, it is something else entirely. Through strict moderation and constraining site rules, it has always maintained a separate niche from Reddit, despite being so conceptually similar.

I think there is a real possibility that StackExchange network is basically already compliant with the "threadiverse" protocol (ie the Lemmy/Kbin dialect of activitypub), or rather that the data model of their API could be made to be compliant with almost no effort at all. I think it would be really cool to see some of the questions and discussion threads that get created over there appearing over here. Even if it was a one-way connection, the idea of knitting these networks together is fascinating to me. I have no idea if it would make business sense for them, but then again I don't actually know how StackExchange makes most of their money.

Like many 5e players, I investigated other systems during the drama in January. I have converted my table over to Pathfinder 2e, so that's what I'll mostly be running going forward.

However, I'm not one of those people who thinks 2e is better than 5e in all respects, and I'll probably run 5e again at some point in the future. And when I do, there's a mechanic from Pathfinder that I will 100% be porting over to 5e: Hero Points.

Below I will provide a version of this mechanic, written in the mechanical language of 5e (to the best of my ability)

Hero Points

(replaces inspiration)

Hero points represent a player character's unique ability to act heroically against adversity.

At the beginning of each play session, each player loses any hero points they have accumulated, then recieves 1 hero point. Depending on the average duration of your group's gaming sessions, the DM may increase or decrease the frequency of this by periodically resetting hero points mid-session, or only once every couple sessions. The expectation is that this reset will occur roughly once every 3-5 hours of play.

The DM may award additional hero points for any reason. They are encouraged to give out hero points to reward good roleplaying, good tactics, or any behaviour which improves the play experience for everyone at the table. A DM should award an average of approximately one hero point for every hour of play. You can have multiple hero points, but you can never have more than 3 hero points.

Whenever you roll an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check, you may spend a hero point after seeing the result and after the DM tells you whether or not the roll was a success or failure. If you do, you reroll the check and must use the new result, even if it is worse. This roll is unaffected by whether you have advantage or disadvantage on the check.

Whenever you would fall unconscious due to being reduced to 0 HP, or whenever you would accumulate a death saving throw failure, you may spend all of your hero points in order to remove any death saving throw failures and become stabilized at 0 HP.

The DM may provide other options for how to spend hero points, such as altering the story or introducing new information which benefits the party.

That's it, that's the whole mechanic. In general I just think 2e does a much better job of the "inspiration" system than 5e.

In my years as both a player and a DM, I can count on one hand the number of times I ever saw Inspiration being awarded to 5e players. It simply isn't a good system. The DM fiat needed to receive it makes it unpredictable, and it's way too hard to get players to actually spend it once they have it.

The Hero Points system is much better because it resets every session, meaning that players will have a predictable way to get hero points, and that they will have a good reason to spend them; even if the DM forgets to award it. And since they will be spending that resource more often, the DM will have more reminders that the mechanic exists.

I encourage DMs out there to experiment with this system in their own games. And let me know how it goes.

Hi all! Relatively new (or new to PF2e) GM here. Last night one of my players who is playing a Summoner raised the question of whether he can attempt Treat Wounds twice every hour instead of once since his Eidolon is a separate target (ie. Someone treats the Summoner's wounds and then immediately treats the Eidolon's wounds). I ruled in the moment that I didn't think that sounded right, my reasoning being that they share a health pool and the PC shouldn't be able to double its benefits solely because of which class it is. Can anyone tell me what the RAW is here, ideally with an AON reference I can point him to?

Edit: I found this thread which seems to suggest that I made the wrong call. I'd love to have a more official answer, but I think the idea that healing is supposed to be trivialized by certain combos makes sense.

I've been thoroughly enjoying this video series for the past few weeks where Simon from CTC solves the Sunday Times' Friday cryptic crossword

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/631499

So, I've been running the PF2E beginner box, which is like a tutorial adventure, for a group of 5 people (we play as long as at least 3 show up). The players had the option of playing any of the pregen "iconic" characters for Pathfinder. So far, we've had a fighter, witch, monk, swashbuckler, and summoner. Of those, only the witch has any sort of healing, and the witch player couldn't make our session last night.

The players went into this room that is meant to be like an optional miniboss (but there isn't really a way for them to have known that). The miniboss is this fire elemental rat that is supposed to teach you how "persistent damage" works. It's a very tough fight, and the elemental has a lot of defensive options like a cloud of smoke around it. Eventually the rat killed two party members (the swashbuckler and the monk), and one more (the fighter) went unconscious but didn't die. The last player (summoner) got chipped down to like 3 HP but was able to drag the fighter out of the fight to safety.

I think it was a good learning opportunity for the players that you need to be tactical and work together in PF2e, since they basically just all tried to attack the rat in melee. It also shows the value of having support characters in the party.

Going forward we are going to complete the beginner box, the two players who lost their PCs are going to play new pregens (bard and investigator). I'm hoping the players don't get too disillusioned with PF2e because it is very difficult at times.

I'd love to hear other Pathfinder GMs' thoughts. I'm still new, so it's possible I was doing something wrong, but I think I ran that fight the way it's meant to be run.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/631499

So, I've been running the PF2E beginner box, which is like a tutorial adventure, for a group of 5 people (we play as long as at least 3 show up). The players had the option of playing any of the pregen "iconic" characters for Pathfinder. So far, we've had a fighter, witch, monk, swashbuckler, and summoner. Of those, only the witch has any sort of healing, and the witch player couldn't make our session last night.

The players went into this room that is meant to be like an optional miniboss (but there isn't really a way for them to have known that). The miniboss is this fire elemental rat that is supposed to teach you how "persistent damage" works. It's a very tough fight, and the elemental has a lot of defensive options like a cloud of smoke around it. Eventually the rat killed two party members (the swashbuckler and the monk), and one more (the fighter) went unconscious but didn't die. The last player (summoner) got chipped down to like 3 HP but was able to drag the fighter out of the fight to safety.

I think it was a good learning opportunity for the players that you need to be tactical and work together in PF2e, since they basically just all tried to attack the rat in melee. It also shows the value of having support characters in the party.

Going forward we are going to complete the beginner box, the two players who lost their PCs are going to play new pregens (bard and investigator). I'm hoping the players don't get too disillusioned with PF2e because it is very difficult at times.

I'd love to hear other Pathfinder GMs' thoughts. I'm still new, so it's possible I was doing something wrong, but I think I ran that fight the way it's meant to be run.

So, I've been running the PF2E beginner box, which is like a tutorial adventure, for a group of 5 people (we play as long as at least 3 show up). The players had the option of playing any of the pregen "iconic" characters for Pathfinder. So far, we've had a fighter, witch, monk, swashbuckler, and summoner. Of those, only the witch has any sort of healing, and the witch player couldn't make our session last night.

The players went into this room that is meant to be like an optional miniboss (but there isn't really a way for them to have known that). The miniboss is this fire elemental rat that is supposed to teach you how "persistent damage" works. It's a very tough fight, and the elemental has a lot of defensive options like a cloud of smoke around it. Eventually the rat killed two party members (the swashbuckler and the monk), and one more (the fighter) went unconscious but didn't die. The last player (summoner) got chipped down to like 3 HP but was able to drag the fighter out of the fight to safety.

I think it was a good learning opportunity for the players that you need to be tactical and work together in PF2e, since they basically just all tried to attack the rat in melee. It also shows the value of having support characters in the party.

Going forward we are going to complete the beginner box, the two players who lost their PCs are going to play new pregens (bard and investigator). I'm hoping the players don't get too disillusioned with PF2e because it is very difficult at times.

I'd love to hear other Pathfinder GMs' thoughts. I'm still new, so it's possible I was doing something wrong, but I think I ran that fight the way it's meant to be run.

Interesting post. It appears some AI generated comments are attempting to drown out discussion about theblackout

Looking for content like Reddit's rarepuppers, zoomies, dogberg, tippytaps, animalsbeingderps, whatswrongwithyourdog, etc.

I was playing D&D 5e up until January. Then, with the OGL fiasco I decided to try learning Pathfinder 2e. I have been playing through the Beginner Box for that and I like it a lot more than D&D already!