Is your analysis of Guidance correct? The way it reads is, "either way, the target is then temporarily immune for 1 hour." I'm inclined to believe that either way means "if the spell is used OR it is not used, the target is immune for the next hour." I don't see where it states (or implies) that "if the creature does not use the bonus, then this spell can be cast on them again."
I agree with you, and at my table if we played rules as written that's how I would rule it. We bend rules though and I would handwave the immunity if the spell wasn't used, so it works the way Nonat describes it. But I do think you're right on your interpretation
Daze is also Nonlethal. That is actually quite rare for spells and often useful. Guidance - even if bonus is not used, target is still immune for 1 hour.
I scroll down to the comment section to write this. and also it is only ranged offensive cantrip that work with neutral alined enemy for divine casters. it is very useful than people would think.
@@comatthew6 Daze lets you not kill a npc that you don't want to kill for whatever reason. Remember rules as written npcs do not go into dying. Once at 0 they die. And it's only the last hit that matters it being non-lethal or not.
Kodyack's Cantrip Notes, for additional context that people may not know!: immediate note on acid splash: you still do splash damage on a miss. If you bring acid splash to fight a troll, you can keep it's regen off, even if you roll poorly, barring critical misses. Also applies to things with weakness to area damage or splash damage. Chill touch requires 2 saves from undead to make them flee, really unlikely to ever go off. Daze's stunned effect is nice, but you'd be better off casting damage against groups of lower level targets. 1 weak creature action is not worth 2 of yours, nor the damage you could do with electric arc, for example. High level creatures generally won't fail that hard, but it's a nice hail mary. Electric Arc, unfortunately, is often the only option for casters even against high reflex targets, as there aren't enough cantrips that target saves. Because it targets a save when so few cantrips do, it should get 1000/1000. Spell attacks are notably inferior to targeting saves, generally speaking. Ghost sounds, sustain actions are concentrate actions. You don't need to continue making noise or doing hand signals once the spell is cast, just focus! Doesn't make ghost sound much better, but it might help with other sustained spells. Guidance targeted creatures are still immune even if they don't use the bonus, as others have noticed. Still a great minor bonus. That's all i have for you today, enjoy these pedantic and minor corrections and contextualizations!
Another note on acid splash: Nobody actually knows how it really works, because splash damage is only defined in relation to bombs. There are no rules to how it works with spells whatsoever and a clean reading of the acid splash spell itself means RAW it only does damage to a single target and only if it hits. It simply does a certain amount of acid damage and then a certain amount of splash damage to a single target. The "still does damage on miss" and "hits all targets adjacent to the target" are bomb rules.
@@datonkallandor8687 Incorrect! Under the splash trait rules we have: " If an attack with a splash weapon fails, succeeds, or critically succeeds, all creatures within 5 feet of the target (including the target) take the listed splash damage" And Acid splash is an attack that has splash, therefore it's an attack with a splash weapon. Granted it's a spell attack, but spell attacks are still attacks. You could try and rule that it's different if you wanted to, as there is some ambiguity, but you'd be going against RaW and RAI as I see it. You'd also be going against "rules as logical" as I like to call it, because you'd be changing the rules for one specific case for no discernable reason.
@@cajeb5396 There is no other leap to make, friend. If you would argue that this ONE instance of splash damage shouldn't act like other instances of splash damage, you are making your own leap that makes much less sense, savvy? Which is more likely, do you think? Paizo put splash damage on acid splash, intending it to work like the splash damage that already exists, or Paizo put splash damage on acid splash, intending it to only work on a success or greater, but for all other purposes be splash damage (not doubling a crit for example), and to also do damage to things around the target even though that isn't stated anywhere in the spell? Or Paizo put splash damage on acid splash and it just adds 1 to the final damage, as per what the spell says, and doesn't have AoE, as per how the spell says, and doesn't work at all like splash damage (and does double on a crit) because there is no rules for splash elsewhere, so you have to treat it based ONLY on what's in the spell? Personally, I think the only logical thing is the first option. It's splash damage. it works like all other forms of splash damage. End of story.
@@KodyackCasual @Kody A. 1. I'm not arguing anything. I'm pointing out the obvious hole in your argument. 2. The rest of your post is a RAI argument not a RAW argument.
I used ghost sound with the range metamagic in a game to lure a bunch of bandits up a tower where me and my team had laid a trap where we dropped heaps of rocks on the enemy and filtered them into a room where they were forced to engage with our liberator at the entrance while i blasted spells and our Rogue used a returning dagger from a raised floor
Daze is often in my prep list, especially when I have a lot of bonus cantrips for three main reasons: -It's nonlethal. You can get a lot of info from capturing and interrogating enemies. Thats a lot of hidden utility. -it's the only will targeting cantrip (pre SoM), and I like weakness targeting. Theres also a lot of readily accessible ways to nerf will saves (bot mot, goblin song, the fae sorc 1st level focus spell, the witch's sleep hex, etc.) -the extra 30 ft of range honestly makes a big difference from a safety standpoint for squishy casters
I think one thing that needs to be reiterated here is that Cantrips are costless and while they are spells they should be compared to weapons. They take the place of whatever a character would do when they're not using a spell slot... So you don't have dumb things like wizards trying to land hits with slings and crossbows. ;-)
Man I remember the days of being a level 1 wizard with ONE... SINGULAR... SPELL(SLOT) and then taking terrible pot shots with a sling or crossbow for a whopping... is it 1d4?!... IF you happened to hit! Granted Dex was likely to be higher than other things so you didn't get hit and likely die because you had about 6 HP!
21:35 There is no mention of having to use spell components while Sustaining a Spell - you only need to be able to concentrate. This should bring the spell rating up slightly. 23:09 " *Either way* the target is immune for 1 hour" - if they don't use the +1, it's wasted on them for 1 hour, regardless.
Disrupt Undead: it's great for "poking" around dungeons to see if that skeleton over there or corpse up ahead are creatures or not. Basically, anytime you come across a dead body just immediately Disrupt Undead to see if you're dealing with a monster.
Two things that Daze also has going for it is the non lethal tag and the 60ft range. In a world where most spells are 30ft the ability to keep even further away from the enemy when you need to means that this cantrip can find a lot of niche uses. Doing 4 damage from 60ft away is better then dealing 0 because you were 35ft away from the enemy. Also non lethal tags to spells are extremely important when playing with a group/scenario where you want to keep the bad guys alive like with a redeemer paladin in the party or Agents of Edgewatch.
Something that should be noted with Daze: Stunned is one of the few conditions that stacks with itself. So enough casters using Daze could stun lock an enemy.
Unless I'm missing something I think the numbers for electric arc that were mentioned are off. NoNat said on a double crit fail that's 8d4 +16, but it should be half that.
I think the answer to his question is that people look at spells and think "what does the most damage?" or in the case of a healer "what spell heals the most?" So the buffing spells don't really get used much even though they can make a battle WAAAAAAAAAAAY easier than they might be otherwise! The odd thing about this is that recently I started to think about making a character, probably for 5e because that is what most people I know want to play, that has a LOT of spells that buff themselves and/or other party members, also part of this is because Laura from CR gets a LOT of crap for being a Cleric but NOT being a healer, even though she is a TRICKSTER Cleric! I remember when I was young playing Pokemon and always getting rid of things like Tail Whip, Growl, etc but as I got older and understood strategy more I realized that these are NOT bad abilities, and they got a bit better when they started adding double battles to the games!
Maybe I'm missing something (hopefully you guys can help?); but I can't for the life of me see how Forbidding Ward is remotely useful. You're usually fighting more than one enemy at a time.... there's also typically 3-5 people in a party; How could it be useful to give only 1 person in your party +5/10% defense against 1 enemy (who probably wouldn't even target the buffed person now anyways)?
@@dlpatri imagine in a group of 3-5 people, there's only 1 person in your party engaged in melee. Buffing their ac means they're less likely to fall and reach you and your buddies in the back, and that 1 melee buddy has a better chance to keep swinging. EDIT: it also increases your saving throws against an enemy, so say your friend is fighting a snake that can poison on their attack, you're not only increasing their chance to not get hit, but also their chance to save against the poison if they still get hit
@@mattsullivan2458 idk... imho, you're better off trying to knock-out/kill/capture/charm the snake and having someone use medicine/spells later if needed. Also, if your group only has 1 melee combatant; then everyone in the party is a melee combatant. Even animals instinctively know to go for softer targets. Your 1 melee guy can only block up a 5ft hallway or a narrow doorway and ranged attackers may ignore them anyways. Either way, unless the defensive option is _really_ good; offense is usually better. Adjusting the TN on a d20 by 1 or 2 only _if_ 1 specific person targets another specific person is incredibly weak. Here's a useful scenario. Your ally is getting mad at another ally; with this spell you can try to intervene to try to prevent your friend from clobbering them. But with its high variance and linear distribution... It's rare for +1/+2 to matter. It definitely happens. It's just rare.
@@dlpatri If an enemy can hit my fighter with any die roll 1-15 (75% chance of hitting), and my forbidding ward decreases that to 1-14 (70% chance of hitting). The hit ratio reduction is based on the starting condition of 75%, not 100. Therefore the reduction is 5/75 which is 6.7%. The plus 1 has effectively reduced the hit percent by 7%. When you apply the same math to crit effects, the bonus compounds. If that enemy can crit my fighter with a 1-5 on the die (25% chance to crit and associated effects), the +1 decreases that outcome by 20% (25-20=5 / 25). Consider the effects of crit fails on statuses as well and whether your party is prepared to deal with all of those eventualities. This cantrip (using the same numbers) now acts as a blanket 20% reduction on all of those critical effects). +1s (and +2s) are deceptively, and sometimes counter-intuitively powerful. The math works out to make this bonus even more effective when considering multiple attack penalties--that third attack even with an agile weapon has its hit% decreased by a massive 14%. Again, that's a single cantrip.
In my Pathfinder 1e campaigns, Ghost Sound was such a party favorite that I routinely created random ghost sound tables for party members who enjoyed firing off weird noises without warning. These tables were arguably the most popular aspect of my games for close to a decade! May need to revive them for 2e!
I feel the espionage aspect is being REALLY slept on. You can reverse pickpocket one of your belongings onto a cultist and track them back to their lair, find you kidnapped best friend/companion, etc. This is basically a spammable, mini Locate spell. It's not a game breaker (which is good, no cantrip should be), but it's really good in the hands of a clever player once you get 7th level spells
MY GROUP USED GHOST SOUND LAST SESSION!! The group was sneaking into the woods and a pack of zombies was closing in after the cleric failed the stealth check. My bard used ghost sound in the other direction to run them off. It was nice.
I don't think Acid Splash deals double damage on a Critical Success. It only says, "On a critical success, the target also takes 1 persistent acid damage."
oh damn you are right, I checked with other attack spells and Produce Flame specifically states the double damage. Man, acid splash just can't catch a break
Correction for you, Dancing Lights is not very useful in combat unless your DM decides to actually pay attention to darkness, like if they're running a game on Foundry VTT. Because, the moment the torches go out, you're flat-footed against all attacks and blindfighting everything.
I really like Daze, I actually put it on my Human Fighter with the Arcane Tattoos feat just because it let's me deal a bit of chip damage without contributing to my Multiple Attack Penalty. Also it just really fit with the Dread Warrior aesthetic I was going for.
People that math it up always seem to bring data saying it is definitively the best, but my experience at the table says otherwise. Needing two victims and splitting damage are most often negatives, you can’t hero point, and AC debuffs are far more common then applying Clumsy. Also, creatures tend to get inflated saving throws anyway. My vote would be Telekinetic Projectile
1- You don't split damage, you deal the same damage twice 2-You don't need clumsy. Frightened and sickend also work, as those reduce all saves. 3-Fighting two enemies is super common, and being able to take them both out at once can turn a fight in an instant.
06:48 I don't know about that, i've seen some interesting uses of dancing light in combat. The big one is when dealing with a bunch of drow with light sensitivity, a party sorceror just placed a couple of the dancing lights right next to them, so that they have this glaring light right in front of their eyes.
As for the usefulness of Daze against one big monster, it's actually doing way more on a crit than "refunding" half your spell actions. If you consider the average party to be 4 people vs 1 monster, that monster's 1 action lost actually equals 4 actions.
Rogue: Eldritch Trickster: Bard Dedication. Dancing Lights and Ghost sound to distract while I am stealthing. Though the Verbal is difficult to factor out. Mage Hand - "I want to steal that thing over there and I can't reach it." Daze - *Cough* Vicious Mockery.
I know a simple solution. Offer to be a dm tricked them into playing pf2e, make sure they have fun, next campaign you're a player check mating your 3d chess strat
If you have a computer and a mic, check out roll20 or foundry. Both are vtt (foundry does cost a dm 20 bucks though) and allow you to play pathfinder 2e and tons of other ttrpgs online. Groups can be hit or miss but once you find a good group you can branch out connections through them through games.
Wizard, "We are lost. Hold on let me cast Know Direction." Ranger points at the sky, "The sun rises in the East and sets in the West." Fighter, "If you need to borrow my Compass you guys could just ask. They are only 1 gold in most towns, I got spares cause I knew this would happen again."
I would love to have a player like Nonat in my games. Not only could I have a second person in the group to make sure the rules are being followed and interpreted proper, but this detailed knowledge could also provide me a great challenge as the GM.
Love the video! Just want to clarify one thing regarding detect magic and traps. Using detect magic doesn't discover any magical trap, only those that specify they can be detected using the cantrip or those without a minimum proficiency needed for detection.
I was playing a relatively high level campaign as an old wise and smart druid, one of my fellow PC's was playing a bard with really insane skills and a good collection of maps. GM had us go through a portal and we were lost, ash clouds overhead, no way to navigate or know where we were. We were truly and utterly lost. Three up-cast versions of Know Direction later and through the magic power of triangulation we knew where we were. Know Direction from 13th level up can be the GPS of Pathfinder 2e. Character also had a bit of senility for mundane things by that time, so at those levels the GM let me cast it to find the direction of the privy of the tavern we were staying at so long as I had actually found it before. Also, and we may have not played this properly, I used it to help find the path back to our favourite tavern on the prime material after we got sent to the infernal planes by an evil cult of Asmodeus worshipers. The direction we needed to go was the portal back to the Prime Material after all. For my druid I would rate that cantrip 11/10, never leave home without it.
Love this one because I love the pathfinder spells. Though you know, as soon as you are done with Cantrips and Lvl 1 spells, Secrets of Magic will release adding 200+ new spells, including cantrips to the list :)
During a Bar fight the bard of our team casted ghost sound to make a strong crack sound at the selling and with a crit at deception, she convinced everyone the roof was falling, stopping the fight as everybody was trying tho flee the tavern. It was memorable!
Ah yes, NoNat who thought "let's take this game about numbers and makeup arbitrary numbers" LOL (after finishing the video I give it 1,587 out of 1,000)
I wish he explained if he even had a basis for the scores. That disrupt undead score shows how arbitrary his whole system is. Maybe like 1 = doesn't do as it's intended, 5 = good but very niche/situational, 10 = must-take. These are also arbitrary but atleast there's a reference in here. Maybe a tier list would've been better though
@@martinstephenortiz4628 I mean, I'm pretty sure the arbitrary nature of it is part of the point. He's mentioned before how ratings don't really hold up because there are so many different variables so everyone's experience will vary. Its part of an on going bit about "ranking" things.
I have to say that ghost sound made my first experience with pathfinder a ton lot more interesting. Like, being able to lure enemies to follow a wrong path while being chased, or to separete two strong enemies (like, making one of them follow an ally while the other look for fake step sounds elsewhere) in such a way that we can defeat them separatelly, or doing something stupid like creating a distraction while my allies are fighting and I can't be seen. I really think it deserves more.
You can't really spread Dancing Lights out that much. Each light has to be within 10 feet of all the others, so the best you can do is basically a 25 foot radius of bright light and a 20 foot radius outside that with dim (it wouldn't exactly be a circle, but close enough). Electric Arc has a subtle weakness in that it deals electrical damage, which basically nothing is particularly vulnerable to. Most other damage cantrips have the ability to trigger weakness damage, which is usually pretty significant when it exists, but not Electric Arc.
As a low level wizard I use Chill Touch with extend range feat constantly. I generally does the most damage. No miss, 30 feet and great failure effect.
recent usage of ghost sound from my players : Sneaked up on a sleeping camp of bandits, cast raise dead on a wolf they killed earlier, caused massive screaming with ghost sound near the bandit camp, unleashed wolf, rest of the party ambushes the panicked bleary eyed bandits.
One additional note on forbidding ward (It is literally my second most used cantrip, 960/1000 from me hahaha) is the fact that it provides a STATUS bonus to AC which allows it to very easily stack with other bonuses to AC such as shield, parry, dodge... etc. It is just very strong in my experience.
Only use i've seen of Ghost sound was myself using it as a joke. My Swashbuckler had just gotten upstaged in a display of fighting Choreography by a feeble oracle of life, at which point he with harumph went something to the effect of "Yeah, well look what i can do" and ghost sounded the sound of shattering glass up in the trees. Ironically this was before the cock called, and the noble we were transporting wasn't entirely convinced this spell was necessary at this hour. I've thought of other uses for it, but no game i've been in have reached level 9 just yet so i've never had the reach with it to where it actually felt useful. 60 feet is fine, but for any super practical use like drawing enemies away i almost feel like 120 feet is needed. Other cantrips feel great, this one just feels underpowered. My favorite cantrip is telekinetic projectile, which you didn't quite reach in this one. There's a few different reasons, firstly it was used to awesome effect in my game, with several crits making it feel like one of my party members had a magnum and was just popping head. Secondly i'm just quite fond of the telekinesis flavor, and the fact you don't need to originate the attack from your own square "You hurl a loose, unattended object that is within range and that has 1 Bulk or less at the target" means you can use the spell to get around cover if there's say a loose rock or maybe a dropped dagger laying in the right spot. Lastly at 1d6+caster ability (+1d6 per heightened level) it's just generally pretty good, at least i think so, look forward to hearing your thoughts on it in part 2. Love your videos.
25:39 - Back in my 1E AD&D days a very popular move by DMs was to make the players prove they still knew which was was what as we tried to make our own maps of dungeons on sheets of graph paper. My instinct thus still rates "Know Direction" way above where it should be. ;) That Heightened ability... if that works across planes and time and so on, yeah. Otherwise kinda odd. But that's basically a 'shortcut to end of this series of Dr Who' ability if it has no limits, which is an extremely niche use... :) BUT... that brings up the problem with an ability like this. If it's in the game some plotlines just can't be used by your DM. If it's not in the game they can be. If your DM doesn't use those plot lines it's usefulness is near zero. And if the DM does use 'you're lost' storylines you have a free skip to the end of the whole 8-months of preparation the DM did. The spell is thus either 'useless' or 'game breaking' with no middle ground.
If there was an official Dardklands campaign I would agree. But this is just a DC 10/15 survival check cheapened for the most part. I mean you can homebrew a Darklands campaign. And it is a staple of PF, so no reason to leave it out.
ghost sound is so much fun, it was cooler in first edition but I used it all the time. I had a rogue that specifically got minor magic just to get this cantrip. Want a diversion? Ghost sound a shrieking woman around the corner. Want to threaten someone? Ghost sound people screaming and knocking on their doors, or imitate guards approaching, it's such a creative spell. Now that I'm a GM I have a player that got it bc she's a gnome and she uses it to mimick animal sounds to alert her friends if things go awry "Listen for a crow's call if shit gets real", so many possible uses. 2nd edition nerfed it a bit but it still vaguely does what it needs to do in most situations. Can't have real words or mimicked voices of a person's loved ones anymore, but still a perfectly useful trickery spell.
The bit about Divine Lance reminds me of my Blessed Servant of Pelor who, during a fight with some aboleths in the deeps, blasted an ally with a cone of blinding shards that only hit evil creatures. Unfortunately for said "ally," this was how my cleric found out he was evil, and notably worse for him my cleric was the one who'd cast Water Breathing for the party. When he started trying to fast-talk the party I dismissed his ability to breathe. Thankfully the player's take on this was, "Yeah, I'd assumed I was gonna get caught sooner or later."
The Tengu Feather Fan ancestry feat lets you use your Class DC in place of the spell DC for cantrips you get from Tengu ancestry feats. Which means your Tengu fighter’s ancestral magic becomes stronger as they get more buff.
Hi Nonat1 .. Ghostsound is a BOMB! .. I lured a blood ooze into an acid mud trap and basically owned it with one move (I created a ghost sound of a heartbeat at the loudness of "four men shouting") and because the Bloodooze cannot see it had no reason but to follow the loud heartbeat sound.
And in response to using the somatic incantation .. it's not as loud as 4 men shouting... also you are forgetting the noise cover granted by the spell (got some tin can fighter trying to sneak... use ghost sound to mask the sound of armour clanking and rustling) should be at least 800 bub!
To be honest I don't think Acid Splash deals AoE dmg... Splash Trait describes how AoE dmg from splash works; however, Acid Splash doesn't have this trait. So it seems that Acid Splash deals splash dmg only to its main target and not those that are adjacent. Unless there was something in errata that I am unaware of.
Yup, Acid Splash as written is just an extremely bad single-target spell. It's only advantage is having (single-target) splash damage to trigger splash damage weaknesses.
its gonna be another 4 months before my friends and i restart out PF2 Campaign and im playing a purly martial ranger. So this video is almost of no use to me. However i just love listening to you rant about spells and cantrips of a DND style game. Kinda of like a podcast while playing some games. Love the content!
I think "ghost sound" might be usefull if you combine it with the metamagic "Reach Spell" or "silent spell", which is that big of a cost as it's not realy combat oriented anyway.
Responding to a one-year old video ahaha. I'm going to go to bat for Ghost Sound, even at 30 feet. It's one of those rare cantrips that is left open ended, which is AWESOME. Pretty much the only restriction you have on the damn thing is it can't produce voices, which is basically the function of a level 2 version of Ventriloquism, and complex sounds like music. But hear me out (...haaa) The uses of this spell is amazing. Since starting it about a week ago, I have been recording a catalog of sounds that can potentially be useful. This spell can cause a distraction, but it can also scare the everliving hell if you picked the right sound. In my session 0 encounter, I had my spellcaster evoke the sound of a train screeching into a stop to scare off a pack of wolves. The sudden cacophony of metal screeching against rail was horrifying and completely avoided the encounter. Her attempt to use the sounds of the rhythmic sounds of soldiers marching in unison did not have the same effect, unfortunately. Even at 30 feet, you can do a lot with this thing. At the volume of four people shouting, it can produce the sound of a roaring wind outside someone's window, potentially offering cover to a thief or assassin that is attempting to get close to a target. The sound of hail or a thunder storm discouraging a gang to go outside their door. It can be used to signal your camp that a meal is ready (triangle ringing anyone?) In a chase scenario it could produce the sound of boots running in a different direction. Want to intimidate? Rush toward the target with a jump cord or a high pitched wail. And while it cannot produce articulated sounds, there's enough here (with DM's permission) to emulate the cadence, tone, and rhythm of a person's speech -- all things that are good enough to be a distraction to the inattentive. Plus you can lull yourself to sleep with the roar of a crashing ocean, and who wouldn't want to sleep to that? (Or wake people with the sound of a very VERY loud rooster...)
Dancing Lights requires that the lights all stay within 10 feet of each other, or the strays vanish. So you can't spread them around to light a large area without selling the GM on the idea first.
Yeah, people often misread "no two may be more than 10ft apart" as "each light must be within 10ft of another" when it really means "each light must be within 10ft of ALL others"; so a 10ft diameter area is the max for that one.
I had a group of Goblins using ghost sound mimic dinosaurs while they hid in a bush and shook branches to scare off foes. Also, I have dreams of a maestro instrument that can sustain ghost sounds for you so you can have a synthesizer bard.
You'll rarely stun with daze if you are not using a legendary spellcaster. Just compare all the will stats from level 1 creatures against the DC of 16 (+4 Int), they would need to roll a 1 to be stunned. Its rare, and it becomes even rarer with level increase. They should heighten the stun effect.
today. i made dancing lights useful in combat. due to special circumstances. we were a level 1 party. fighting a huge adult dragon. as part of a massive battle to save a city. at night. my dancing lights allowed the soldiers assisting those operating the ballistas to drop their torches and focus on actually helping. so we got more shots, and eventually won. that was pretty much my whole contribution to the fight. keeping the dragon clearly visible to everyone involved. i had no spell slots left(and no useful spells for this situation prepared anyway), and level 1 damage cantrips against a full adult dragon are kind of disrespectful.
Acid Splash is the high school jock that peaked and by mid levels it is balding, sitting on a couch reminding of that time at level 1 when it hit 4 targets that one time.
On Ghost Sound: Do you know how loud a single person shouting is? Not to mention 4 people shouting at the same time. An average human shouting at the top of their lungs is as loud as a jackhammer. According to the CDC, the noise of a person shouting in your ear can cause total hearing loss within 2 minutes. The spell is only an Illusion so it won't cause actual harm of course. However the noise of 4 people shouting in the same 5 ft square you're in is the equivalent of being deaf to everything else. Nobody will hear you mumbling incantations over that noise, nor would they be able to understand someone else's commands. I'd rule any action or spell with the Auditory trait as lost or an automatic failure if the source or target stand in the square of Ghost Sound. And give everyone in the vicinity some sort of disadvantage (probably a flat DC 5 check or -1 circumstance penalty). If a creature has echolocation as it's only precise skill gets near a Ghost Sound at full volume, then everything would be concealed from it. Seeing through (or rather hearing through) the illusion would of course be possible. Also what does it mean for a persons concentration if they're close to a source of that much noise. I'd say first ask your GM on their opponent, then try to use it offensive.
I don't see this mentioned anywhere so I'm leaving this for anyone else watching this months late: dancing lights can't be spread out that much. No two lights can be more than 10 feet apart. That doesn't mean that each light needs to have at least one light nearby, it means that each light needs all three others to be no more than 10 feet away. Essentially you only get an extra 10 feet of torchlight in any one direction. That's pretty small in larger rooms and in smaller rooms it's almost unnecessary.
I think the spells still heighten to your current spell level, they just don't get the extra heightened benefits until they hit that level. Detect Magic can heighten to 2 for purposes of detecting level 2 illusion magic, but it won't get the 3rd level heighten until character level 5.
Dancing Light requires all lights to bewithin 10ft of each other. Can't exactly spread them put to far corners that way. Would have been cool if it heightened and expanded that distance.
Hey Nat, I'm somewhat confused, you can crit with spells like this? I was under the impression that unless it indicates what it does you DON'T crit for things other than strikes (CRB 278).
@@Nonat1s now reading some of the rules, there is an specific section about the basic saving throws, in there is the answer of this case... Weird, is like they rule proofing this for special saving throws, i know it is unlikely, but i do wonder the possibilities.
the highten of know direction is in that level because it work on other planes... the plane of fire have not north but if you are familiar with a city there you know in wich direction that city is...
Dancing Lights is even *worse* than you described: You can't spread them out in a line across a chasm, as each individual light must be within 10ft of all other lights. 10ft is the absolute maximum length of any line you could create. Each light emits 20ft of bright light, so you're looking at a maximum diameter of 50ft bright light, as opposed to the 40ft given by a single torch.
I’ve never used Ghost Sound but I don’t think you need to be in range to sustain a spell. I feel like it will excel if preemptively cast and then you sustain it as you distance yourself from where the sound emanates.
Most atk cantrip add spell modifier so, I don't think Daze damage is not a point in it favor as roll a even having a bad roll those cantrips will do more damage. I agree with you about conditions. I agree with you on condition it a reason I like splash of art focus spell ( I think it a good spell as it less powerful color spray).There are just better option in my opinion that is more reliable for conditions and can do more and as a play who usually only have one atk cantrip daze is not that appealing to me.
Cantrip timestamps:
2:08 Acid splash
4:45 Chill touch
6:14 Dancing lights
7:32 Daze
10:10 Detect magic
13:33 Disrupt undead
15:04 Divine lance
17:03 Electric arc
19:00 Forbidding ward
20:28 Ghost sound
22:26 Guidance
23:58 Join pasts
25:39 Know direction
And that was part 1.
Is your analysis of Guidance correct? The way it reads is, "either way, the target is then temporarily immune for 1 hour." I'm inclined to believe that either way means "if the spell is used OR it is not used, the target is immune for the next hour." I don't see where it states (or implies) that "if the creature does not use the bonus, then this spell can be cast on them again."
I agree with you, and at my table if we played rules as written that's how I would rule it. We bend rules though and I would handwave the immunity if the spell wasn't used, so it works the way Nonat describes it. But I do think you're right on your interpretation
Daze is also Nonlethal. That is actually quite rare for spells and often useful.
Guidance - even if bonus is not used, target is still immune for 1 hour.
Daze is also the only cantrip that uses the will save.
Often useful? I'd say it's actually less useful because of all the enemies immune to nonlethal or mental.
I scroll down to the comment section to write this. and also it is only ranged offensive cantrip that work with neutral alined enemy for divine casters. it is very useful than people would think.
@@HelenCG ooh wow 2 actions to deal 2-4 damage. Very helpful.
@@comatthew6 Daze lets you not kill a npc that you don't want to kill for whatever reason. Remember rules as written npcs do not go into dying. Once at 0 they die. And it's only the last hit that matters it being non-lethal or not.
Kodyack's Cantrip Notes, for additional context that people may not know!:
immediate note on acid splash: you still do splash damage on a miss. If you bring acid splash to fight a troll, you can keep it's regen off, even if you roll poorly, barring critical misses. Also applies to things with weakness to area damage or splash damage.
Chill touch requires 2 saves from undead to make them flee, really unlikely to ever go off.
Daze's stunned effect is nice, but you'd be better off casting damage against groups of lower level targets. 1 weak creature action is not worth 2 of yours, nor the damage you could do with electric arc, for example. High level creatures generally won't fail that hard, but it's a nice hail mary.
Electric Arc, unfortunately, is often the only option for casters even against high reflex targets, as there aren't enough cantrips that target saves. Because it targets a save when so few cantrips do, it should get 1000/1000. Spell attacks are notably inferior to targeting saves, generally speaking.
Ghost sounds, sustain actions are concentrate actions. You don't need to continue making noise or doing hand signals once the spell is cast, just focus! Doesn't make ghost sound much better, but it might help with other sustained spells.
Guidance targeted creatures are still immune even if they don't use the bonus, as others have noticed. Still a great minor bonus.
That's all i have for you today, enjoy these pedantic and minor corrections and contextualizations!
Another note on acid splash: Nobody actually knows how it really works, because splash damage is only defined in relation to bombs. There are no rules to how it works with spells whatsoever and a clean reading of the acid splash spell itself means RAW it only does damage to a single target and only if it hits. It simply does a certain amount of acid damage and then a certain amount of splash damage to a single target.
The "still does damage on miss" and "hits all targets adjacent to the target" are bomb rules.
@@datonkallandor8687 Incorrect! Under the splash trait rules we have: " If an attack with a splash weapon fails, succeeds, or critically succeeds, all creatures within 5 feet of the target (including the target) take the listed splash damage"
And Acid splash is an attack that has splash, therefore it's an attack with a splash weapon. Granted it's a spell attack, but spell attacks are still attacks.
You could try and rule that it's different if you wanted to, as there is some ambiguity, but you'd be going against RaW and RAI as I see it. You'd also be going against "rules as logical" as I like to call it, because you'd be changing the rules for one specific case for no discernable reason.
@@KodyackCasual The problem is that you seem to have made a logical leap to call a spell attack a splash weapon...
@@cajeb5396 There is no other leap to make, friend. If you would argue that this ONE instance of splash damage shouldn't act like other instances of splash damage, you are making your own leap that makes much less sense, savvy?
Which is more likely, do you think? Paizo put splash damage on acid splash, intending it to work like the splash damage that already exists,
or Paizo put splash damage on acid splash, intending it to only work on a success or greater, but for all other purposes be splash damage (not doubling a crit for example), and to also do damage to things around the target even though that isn't stated anywhere in the spell?
Or Paizo put splash damage on acid splash and it just adds 1 to the final damage, as per what the spell says, and doesn't have AoE, as per how the spell says, and doesn't work at all like splash damage (and does double on a crit) because there is no rules for splash elsewhere, so you have to treat it based ONLY on what's in the spell?
Personally, I think the only logical thing is the first option. It's splash damage. it works like all other forms of splash damage. End of story.
@@KodyackCasual @Kody A. 1. I'm not arguing anything. I'm pointing out the obvious hole in your argument.
2. The rest of your post is a RAI argument not a RAW argument.
The Microsoft Sam overdub absolutely slew me 🤣
I used ghost sound with the range metamagic in a game to lure a bunch of bandits up a tower where me and my team had laid a trap where we dropped heaps of rocks on the enemy and filtered them into a room where they were forced to engage with our liberator at the entrance while i blasted spells and our Rogue used a returning dagger from a raised floor
Daze is often in my prep list, especially when I have a lot of bonus cantrips for three main reasons:
-It's nonlethal. You can get a lot of info from capturing and interrogating enemies. Thats a lot of hidden utility.
-it's the only will targeting cantrip (pre SoM), and I like weakness targeting. Theres also a lot of readily accessible ways to nerf will saves (bot mot, goblin song, the fae sorc 1st level focus spell, the witch's sleep hex, etc.)
-the extra 30 ft of range honestly makes a big difference from a safety standpoint for squishy casters
I think one thing that needs to be reiterated here is that Cantrips are costless and while they are spells they should be compared to weapons. They take the place of whatever a character would do when they're not using a spell slot...
So you don't have dumb things like wizards trying to land hits with slings and crossbows. ;-)
Man I remember the days of being a level 1 wizard with ONE... SINGULAR... SPELL(SLOT) and then taking terrible pot shots with a sling or crossbow for a whopping... is it 1d4?!... IF you happened to hit! Granted Dex was likely to be higher than other things so you didn't get hit and likely die because you had about 6 HP!
@@JacksonOwex Ah, the good ol' crossbow of shame.
A wizard using a weapon should not be dumb at all...I like the feeling of magic as something special and not to be toying around at will
@@JacksonOwex ex was also higher because you needed it to hit with spells. And the difference in attack bonus was not that high on lvl
@@guille787 depends very much on settings
21:35
There is no mention of having to use spell components while Sustaining a Spell - you only need to be able to concentrate. This should bring the spell rating up slightly.
23:09
" *Either way* the target is immune for 1 hour" - if they don't use the +1, it's wasted on them for 1 hour, regardless.
Shhhhh. We all know I can't read.
Disrupt Undead: it's great for "poking" around dungeons to see if that skeleton over there or corpse up ahead are creatures or not. Basically, anytime you come across a dead body just immediately Disrupt Undead to see if you're dealing with a monster.
Time for a bone mech.
It rendered Detect Undead redundant in my 3.5 days.
Two things that Daze also has going for it is the non lethal tag and the 60ft range. In a world where most spells are 30ft the ability to keep even further away from the enemy when you need to means that this cantrip can find a lot of niche uses. Doing 4 damage from 60ft away is better then dealing 0 because you were 35ft away from the enemy. Also non lethal tags to spells are extremely important when playing with a group/scenario where you want to keep the bad guys alive like with a redeemer paladin in the party or Agents of Edgewatch.
The target of Guidance does become immune even if they don't use it.
If only YT never got rid of annotations so that we didn't have to pin comments like this for corrections. But good catch!
Something that should be noted with Daze: Stunned is one of the few conditions that stacks with itself. So enough casters using Daze could stun lock an enemy.
Unless I'm missing something I think the numbers for electric arc that were mentioned are off. NoNat said on a double crit fail that's 8d4 +16, but it should be half that.
yeah, it's 4d4.
"Forbidding Ward is not used enough" my witch player uses it in every combat cause it's so powerful. This and Guidance.
I think the answer to his question is that people look at spells and think "what does the most damage?" or in the case of a healer "what spell heals the most?" So the buffing spells don't really get used much even though they can make a battle WAAAAAAAAAAAY easier than they might be otherwise! The odd thing about this is that recently I started to think about making a character, probably for 5e because that is what most people I know want to play, that has a LOT of spells that buff themselves and/or other party members, also part of this is because Laura from CR gets a LOT of crap for being a Cleric but NOT being a healer, even though she is a TRICKSTER Cleric!
I remember when I was young playing Pokemon and always getting rid of things like Tail Whip, Growl, etc but as I got older and understood strategy more I realized that these are NOT bad abilities, and they got a bit better when they started adding double battles to the games!
Maybe I'm missing something (hopefully you guys can help?); but I can't for the life of me see how Forbidding Ward is remotely useful. You're usually fighting more than one enemy at a time.... there's also typically 3-5 people in a party; How could it be useful to give only 1 person in your party +5/10% defense against 1 enemy (who probably wouldn't even target the buffed person now anyways)?
@@dlpatri imagine in a group of 3-5 people, there's only 1 person in your party engaged in melee. Buffing their ac means they're less likely to fall and reach you and your buddies in the back, and that 1 melee buddy has a better chance to keep swinging.
EDIT: it also increases your saving throws against an enemy, so say your friend is fighting a snake that can poison on their attack, you're not only increasing their chance to not get hit, but also their chance to save against the poison if they still get hit
@@mattsullivan2458 idk... imho, you're better off trying to knock-out/kill/capture/charm the snake and having someone use medicine/spells later if needed. Also, if your group only has 1 melee combatant; then everyone in the party is a melee combatant. Even animals instinctively know to go for softer targets. Your 1 melee guy can only block up a 5ft hallway or a narrow doorway and ranged attackers may ignore them anyways. Either way, unless the defensive option is _really_ good; offense is usually better. Adjusting the TN on a d20 by 1 or 2 only _if_ 1 specific person targets another specific person is incredibly weak.
Here's a useful scenario. Your ally is getting mad at another ally; with this spell you can try to intervene to try to prevent your friend from clobbering them. But with its high variance and linear distribution... It's rare for +1/+2 to matter. It definitely happens. It's just rare.
@@dlpatri If an enemy can hit my fighter with any die roll 1-15 (75% chance of hitting), and my forbidding ward decreases that to 1-14 (70% chance of hitting). The hit ratio reduction is based on the starting condition of 75%, not 100. Therefore the reduction is 5/75 which is 6.7%. The plus 1 has effectively reduced the hit percent by 7%. When you apply the same math to crit effects, the bonus compounds. If that enemy can crit my fighter with a 1-5 on the die (25% chance to crit and associated effects), the +1 decreases that outcome by 20% (25-20=5 / 25). Consider the effects of crit fails on statuses as well and whether your party is prepared to deal with all of those eventualities. This cantrip (using the same numbers) now acts as a blanket 20% reduction on all of those critical effects). +1s (and +2s) are deceptively, and sometimes counter-intuitively powerful. The math works out to make this bonus even more effective when considering multiple attack penalties--that third attack even with an agile weapon has its hit% decreased by a massive 14%. Again, that's a single cantrip.
In my Pathfinder 1e campaigns, Ghost Sound was such a party favorite that I routinely created random ghost sound tables for party members who enjoyed firing off weird noises without warning.
These tables were arguably the most popular aspect of my games for close to a decade!
May need to revive them for 2e!
Know Direction at higher levels can be used to figure out your general location if you have a map. It really does become "I'll never get lost again."
I feel the espionage aspect is being REALLY slept on. You can reverse pickpocket one of your belongings onto a cultist and track them back to their lair, find you kidnapped best friend/companion, etc.
This is basically a spammable, mini Locate spell. It's not a game breaker (which is good, no cantrip should be), but it's really good in the hands of a clever player once you get 7th level spells
One thing worth mentioning. Daze targets will dc. No attack roll needed is handy too. That has to be worth at least a couple dozen more points.
MY GROUP USED GHOST SOUND LAST SESSION!! The group was sneaking into the woods and a pack of zombies was closing in after the cleric failed the stealth check. My bard used ghost sound in the other direction to run them off. It was nice.
I don't think Acid Splash deals double damage on a Critical Success. It only says, "On a critical success, the target also takes 1 persistent acid damage."
Additional context: The Cast a Spell action doesn't specify that damage should be doubled on a Critical Success either.
You're right on this, it's a common misconception.
oh damn you are right, I checked with other attack spells and Produce Flame specifically states the double damage. Man, acid splash just can't catch a break
As someone currently playing in a Pirate-themed campaign, I can confirm that Know Direction can indeed be very useful.
Im a 2e dm thats never played but i made my first 2e guy and i grabbed ghost sound with my bard cant wait.
Correction for you, Dancing Lights is not very useful in combat unless your DM decides to actually pay attention to darkness, like if they're running a game on Foundry VTT. Because, the moment the torches go out, you're flat-footed against all attacks and blindfighting everything.
I really like Daze, I actually put it on my Human Fighter with the Arcane Tattoos feat just because it let's me deal a bit of chip damage without contributing to my Multiple Attack Penalty. Also it just really fit with the Dread Warrior aesthetic I was going for.
People that math it up always seem to bring data saying it is definitively the best, but my experience at the table says otherwise. Needing two victims and splitting damage are most often negatives, you can’t hero point, and AC debuffs are far more common then applying Clumsy. Also, creatures tend to get inflated saving throws anyway.
My vote would be Telekinetic Projectile
Electric Arc also can't be used with and Eldritch Archer or standard Magus because it doesn't have an attack roll. TP wins again.
1- You don't split damage, you deal the same damage twice
2-You don't need clumsy. Frightened and sickend also work, as those reduce all saves.
3-Fighting two enemies is super common, and being able to take them both out at once can turn a fight in an instant.
@@Sodiumman123 those are good points. I still wish it required an attack roll so I could use it on an EA.
06:48 I don't know about that, i've seen some interesting uses of dancing light in combat. The big one is when dealing with a bunch of drow with light sensitivity, a party sorceror just placed a couple of the dancing lights right next to them, so that they have this glaring light right in front of their eyes.
I’m completely new to pathfinder, this was such a fun video and really helps with learning!
As for the usefulness of Daze against one big monster, it's actually doing way more on a crit than "refunding" half your spell actions.
If you consider the average party to be 4 people vs 1 monster, that monster's 1 action lost actually equals 4 actions.
Before watching the video, just looking at the title: For combat? I mean, I can't argue, Electric Arc is fantastic.
"Know North, Go East"
*Proceeds to point in a hypothetical WEST direction*
i guess you say he has 'No Direction'
THANK YOU
A player of mine used ghost sound to make bird sounds to scare a swarm of bees.
Rogue: Eldritch Trickster: Bard Dedication.
Dancing Lights and Ghost sound to distract while I am stealthing. Though the Verbal is difficult to factor out.
Mage Hand - "I want to steal that thing over there and I can't reach it."
Daze - *Cough* Vicious Mockery.
I wish more people near me played this
I know a simple solution. Offer to be a dm tricked them into playing pf2e, make sure they have fun, next campaign you're a player check mating your 3d chess strat
If you have a computer and a mic, check out roll20 or foundry. Both are vtt (foundry does cost a dm 20 bucks though) and allow you to play pathfinder 2e and tons of other ttrpgs online. Groups can be hit or miss but once you find a good group you can branch out connections through them through games.
Wizard, "We are lost. Hold on let me cast Know Direction."
Ranger points at the sky, "The sun rises in the East and sets in the West."
Fighter, "If you need to borrow my Compass you guys could just ask. They are only 1 gold in most towns, I got spares cause I knew this would happen again."
I would love to have a player like Nonat in my games. Not only could I have a second person in the group to make sure the rules are being followed and interpreted proper, but this detailed knowledge could also provide me a great challenge as the GM.
Love the video!
Just want to clarify one thing regarding detect magic and traps. Using detect magic doesn't discover any magical trap, only those that specify they can be detected using the cantrip or those without a minimum proficiency needed for detection.
I was playing a relatively high level campaign as an old wise and smart druid, one of my fellow PC's was playing a bard with really insane skills and a good collection of maps. GM had us go through a portal and we were lost, ash clouds overhead, no way to navigate or know where we were. We were truly and utterly lost. Three up-cast versions of Know Direction later and through the magic power of triangulation we knew where we were. Know Direction from 13th level up can be the GPS of Pathfinder 2e.
Character also had a bit of senility for mundane things by that time, so at those levels the GM let me cast it to find the direction of the privy of the tavern we were staying at so long as I had actually found it before.
Also, and we may have not played this properly, I used it to help find the path back to our favourite tavern on the prime material after we got sent to the infernal planes by an evil cult of Asmodeus worshipers. The direction we needed to go was the portal back to the Prime Material after all.
For my druid I would rate that cantrip 11/10, never leave home without it.
Love this one because I love the pathfinder spells. Though you know, as soon as you are done with Cantrips and Lvl 1 spells, Secrets of Magic will release adding 200+ new spells, including cantrips to the list :)
During a Bar fight the bard of our team casted ghost sound to make a strong crack sound at the selling and with a crit at deception, she convinced everyone the roof was falling, stopping the fight as everybody was trying tho flee the tavern. It was memorable!
Ah yes, NoNat who thought "let's take this game about numbers and makeup arbitrary numbers" LOL (after finishing the video I give it 1,587 out of 1,000)
I wish he explained if he even had a basis for the scores. That disrupt undead score shows how arbitrary his whole system is.
Maybe like 1 = doesn't do as it's intended, 5 = good but very niche/situational, 10 = must-take. These are also arbitrary but atleast there's a reference in here. Maybe a tier list would've been better though
@@martinstephenortiz4628 I mean, I'm pretty sure the arbitrary nature of it is part of the point. He's mentioned before how ratings don't really hold up because there are so many different variables so everyone's experience will vary. Its part of an on going bit about "ranking" things.
NoNat: Points "north"
Also NoNat: Turns "west" while saying "east."
Love your videos, NoNat. You're one of my favorite PF2e guys :)
I have to say that ghost sound made my first experience with pathfinder a ton lot more interesting. Like, being able to lure enemies to follow a wrong path while being chased, or to separete two strong enemies (like, making one of them follow an ally while the other look for fake step sounds elsewhere) in such a way that we can defeat them separatelly, or doing something stupid like creating a distraction while my allies are fighting and I can't be seen. I really think it deserves more.
You can't really spread Dancing Lights out that much. Each light has to be within 10 feet of all the others, so the best you can do is basically a 25 foot radius of bright light and a 20 foot radius outside that with dim (it wouldn't exactly be a circle, but close enough).
Electric Arc has a subtle weakness in that it deals electrical damage, which basically nothing is particularly vulnerable to. Most other damage cantrips have the ability to trigger weakness damage, which is usually pretty significant when it exists, but not Electric Arc.
As a low level wizard I use Chill Touch with extend range feat constantly. I generally does the most damage. No miss, 30 feet and great failure effect.
recent usage of ghost sound from my players
: Sneaked up on a sleeping camp of bandits, cast raise dead on a wolf they killed earlier, caused massive screaming with ghost sound near the bandit camp, unleashed wolf, rest of the party ambushes the panicked bleary eyed bandits.
One additional note on forbidding ward (It is literally my second most used cantrip, 960/1000 from me hahaha) is the fact that it provides a STATUS bonus to AC which allows it to very easily stack with other bonuses to AC such as shield, parry, dodge... etc. It is just very strong in my experience.
My sorcerer character gets a lot of use out of Electric Arc. Plus, it's thematically appropriate for a bronze draconic bloodline sorcerer.
7th level know direction can be used with a map to figure out your location. Specially useful for ship navigators.
Given that, while under Dominate, my sorcerer put our paladin at 40% health on a crit failed Electric Arc... yeah it really deserves its reputation xD
Also do remember that Daze is nonlethal damage.
Only use i've seen of Ghost sound was myself using it as a joke. My Swashbuckler had just gotten upstaged in a display of fighting Choreography by a feeble oracle of life, at which point he with harumph went something to the effect of "Yeah, well look what i can do" and ghost sounded the sound of shattering glass up in the trees. Ironically this was before the cock called, and the noble we were transporting wasn't entirely convinced this spell was necessary at this hour.
I've thought of other uses for it, but no game i've been in have reached level 9 just yet so i've never had the reach with it to where it actually felt useful. 60 feet is fine, but for any super practical use like drawing enemies away i almost feel like 120 feet is needed. Other cantrips feel great, this one just feels underpowered.
My favorite cantrip is telekinetic projectile, which you didn't quite reach in this one. There's a few different reasons, firstly it was used to awesome effect in my game, with several crits making it feel like one of my party members had a magnum and was just popping head. Secondly i'm just quite fond of the telekinesis flavor, and the fact you don't need to originate the attack from your own square "You hurl a loose, unattended object that is within range and that has 1 Bulk or less at the target" means you can use the spell to get around cover if there's say a loose rock or maybe a dropped dagger laying in the right spot. Lastly at 1d6+caster ability (+1d6 per heightened level) it's just generally pretty good, at least i think so, look forward to hearing your thoughts on it in part 2.
Love your videos.
I find daze is great to knock out a commoner or low level guard so because it's non leathal especially if your hidden
25:39 - Back in my 1E AD&D days a very popular move by DMs was to make the players prove they still knew which was was what as we tried to make our own maps of dungeons on sheets of graph paper. My instinct thus still rates "Know Direction" way above where it should be. ;) That Heightened ability... if that works across planes and time and so on, yeah. Otherwise kinda odd. But that's basically a 'shortcut to end of this series of Dr Who' ability if it has no limits, which is an extremely niche use... :) BUT... that brings up the problem with an ability like this. If it's in the game some plotlines just can't be used by your DM. If it's not in the game they can be. If your DM doesn't use those plot lines it's usefulness is near zero. And if the DM does use 'you're lost' storylines you have a free skip to the end of the whole 8-months of preparation the DM did. The spell is thus either 'useless' or 'game breaking' with no middle ground.
I could see know direction being useful in a Darklands campaign. Especially if you get captured by say Drow or Duergar
If there was an official Dardklands campaign I would agree. But this is just a DC 10/15 survival check cheapened for the most part. I mean you can homebrew a Darklands campaign. And it is a staple of PF, so no reason to leave it out.
ghost sound is so much fun, it was cooler in first edition but I used it all the time. I had a rogue that specifically got minor magic just to get this cantrip. Want a diversion? Ghost sound a shrieking woman around the corner. Want to threaten someone? Ghost sound people screaming and knocking on their doors, or imitate guards approaching, it's such a creative spell.
Now that I'm a GM I have a player that got it bc she's a gnome and she uses it to mimick animal sounds to alert her friends if things go awry "Listen for a crow's call if shit gets real", so many possible uses. 2nd edition nerfed it a bit but it still vaguely does what it needs to do in most situations. Can't have real words or mimicked voices of a person's loved ones anymore, but still a perfectly useful trickery spell.
Two videos in a day? Very nice!
Possible hot take: Electric Arc could drop the ability bonus to damage, and still be a very good cantrip.
The bit about Divine Lance reminds me of my Blessed Servant of Pelor who, during a fight with some aboleths in the deeps, blasted an ally with a cone of blinding shards that only hit evil creatures.
Unfortunately for said "ally," this was how my cleric found out he was evil, and notably worse for him my cleric was the one who'd cast Water Breathing for the party. When he started trying to fast-talk the party I dismissed his ability to breathe.
Thankfully the player's take on this was, "Yeah, I'd assumed I was gonna get caught sooner or later."
Ayyy I love this! Talking about spells and countrips tho...
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Where's that sorcerer deep dive?
Acid Splash is how I killed the barbarian in my game. Splash damage can be brutal when the opponent has the Dying condition.
Finally more spell book! Thank you!
Ghost sound + melodius spell from bard... I LOVE IT xDD "Oh guards i think there's a riot maybe u shoud let me go away" xDDDDDDD
If you want to play a non-magic class but still want Electric Arc, play a Tengu ;)
The Tengu Feather Fan ancestry feat lets you use your Class DC in place of the spell DC for cantrips you get from Tengu ancestry feats. Which means your Tengu fighter’s ancestral magic becomes stronger as they get more buff.
Electric Arc is kinda the Fireball of PF2e cantrips
Hi Nonat1 .. Ghostsound is a BOMB! .. I lured a blood ooze into an acid mud trap and basically owned it with one move (I created a ghost sound of a heartbeat at the loudness of "four men shouting") and because the Bloodooze cannot see it had no reason but to follow the loud heartbeat sound.
And in response to using the somatic incantation .. it's not as loud as 4 men shouting... also you are forgetting the noise cover granted by the spell (got some tin can fighter trying to sneak... use ghost sound to mask the sound of armour clanking and rustling) should be at least 800 bub!
To be honest I don't think Acid Splash deals AoE dmg... Splash Trait describes how AoE dmg from splash works; however, Acid Splash doesn't have this trait. So it seems that Acid Splash deals splash dmg only to its main target and not those that are adjacent. Unless there was something in errata that I am unaware of.
Yup, Acid Splash as written is just an extremely bad single-target spell. It's only advantage is having (single-target) splash damage to trigger splash damage weaknesses.
Daze: Heightened should increase to Spellcasting mod + 1d6 etc. The 1d6 does not replace the modifier damage, it's added to it I believe.
its gonna be another 4 months before my friends and i restart out PF2 Campaign and im playing a purly martial ranger. So this video is almost of no use to me. However i just love listening to you rant about spells and cantrips of a DND style game. Kinda of like a podcast while playing some games. Love the content!
I think "ghost sound" might be usefull if you combine it with the metamagic "Reach Spell" or "silent spell", which is that big of a cost as it's not realy combat oriented anyway.
Responding to a one-year old video ahaha.
I'm going to go to bat for Ghost Sound, even at 30 feet. It's one of those rare cantrips that is left open ended, which is AWESOME. Pretty much the only restriction you have on the damn thing is it can't produce voices, which is basically the function of a level 2 version of Ventriloquism, and complex sounds like music.
But hear me out (...haaa)
The uses of this spell is amazing. Since starting it about a week ago, I have been recording a catalog of sounds that can potentially be useful. This spell can cause a distraction, but it can also scare the everliving hell if you picked the right sound. In my session 0 encounter, I had my spellcaster evoke the sound of a train screeching into a stop to scare off a pack of wolves. The sudden cacophony of metal screeching against rail was horrifying and completely avoided the encounter. Her attempt to use the sounds of the rhythmic sounds of soldiers marching in unison did not have the same effect, unfortunately.
Even at 30 feet, you can do a lot with this thing. At the volume of four people shouting, it can produce the sound of a roaring wind outside someone's window, potentially offering cover to a thief or assassin that is attempting to get close to a target. The sound of hail or a thunder storm discouraging a gang to go outside their door. It can be used to signal your camp that a meal is ready (triangle ringing anyone?) In a chase scenario it could produce the sound of boots running in a different direction. Want to intimidate? Rush toward the target with a jump cord or a high pitched wail. And while it cannot produce articulated sounds, there's enough here (with DM's permission) to emulate the cadence, tone, and rhythm of a person's speech -- all things that are good enough to be a distraction to the inattentive.
Plus you can lull yourself to sleep with the roar of a crashing ocean, and who wouldn't want to sleep to that? (Or wake people with the sound of a very VERY loud rooster...)
26:15 ".. cast Know Direction to see North and go east" *points West* "It's pretty good, you'know?"
Dancing Lights requires that the lights all stay within 10 feet of each other, or the strays vanish. So you can't spread them around to light a large area without selling the GM on the idea first.
Yeah, people often misread "no two may be more than 10ft apart" as "each light must be within 10ft of another" when it really means "each light must be within 10ft of ALL others"; so a 10ft diameter area is the max for that one.
I had a group of Goblins using ghost sound mimic dinosaurs while they hid in a bush and shook branches to scare off foes. Also, I have dreams of a maestro instrument that can sustain ghost sounds for you so you can have a synthesizer bard.
Also, just to clarify, 1d4 on two enemies doubled is.... 8d4 was it? I think the numbers you were looking for was 4d4+16 :)
But totally agree with you on the whole "people overuse electric arc"... I've seen this way too many times.
I was talking to burrito about how i wish this was back, then realized oh shit this is a new video.
Very excited for this since the spellcasting and the spells are the only thing thats hard for me to get in pf2
You'll rarely stun with daze if you are not using a legendary spellcaster. Just compare all the will stats from level 1 creatures against the DC of 16 (+4 Int), they would need to roll a 1 to be stunned. Its rare, and it becomes even rarer with level increase. They should heighten the stun effect.
today.
i made dancing lights useful in combat.
due to special circumstances.
we were a level 1 party.
fighting a huge adult dragon.
as part of a massive battle to save a city.
at night.
my dancing lights allowed the soldiers assisting those operating the ballistas to drop their torches and focus on actually helping. so we got more shots, and eventually won.
that was pretty much my whole contribution to the fight. keeping the dragon clearly visible to everyone involved.
i had no spell slots left(and no useful spells for this situation prepared anyway), and level 1 damage cantrips against a full adult dragon are kind of disrespectful.
Acid Splash is the high school jock that peaked and by mid levels it is balding, sitting on a couch reminding of that time at level 1 when it hit 4 targets that one time.
Thank you.
Fact: odd numbers are intrinsically funnier than even numbers.
Now it is time for continuing archetype series.
Daze uses resources, casting a spell in combat uses actions and that is the most valuable resource.
On Ghost Sound:
Do you know how loud a single person shouting is? Not to mention 4 people shouting at the same time. An average human shouting at the top of their lungs is as loud as a jackhammer.
According to the CDC, the noise of a person shouting in your ear can cause total hearing loss within 2 minutes. The spell is only an Illusion so it won't cause actual harm of course.
However the noise of 4 people shouting in the same 5 ft square you're in is the equivalent of being deaf to everything else. Nobody will hear you mumbling incantations over that noise, nor would they be able to understand someone else's commands.
I'd rule any action or spell with the Auditory trait as lost or an automatic failure if the source or target stand in the square of Ghost Sound. And give everyone in the vicinity some sort of disadvantage (probably a flat DC 5 check or -1 circumstance penalty). If a creature has echolocation as it's only precise skill gets near a Ghost Sound at full volume, then everything would be concealed from it.
Seeing through (or rather hearing through) the illusion would of course be possible.
Also what does it mean for a persons concentration if they're close to a source of that much noise.
I'd say first ask your GM on their opponent, then try to use it offensive.
how its 8d4? its 4d4
I don't see this mentioned anywhere so I'm leaving this for anyone else watching this months late: dancing lights can't be spread out that much. No two lights can be more than 10 feet apart. That doesn't mean that each light needs to have at least one light nearby, it means that each light needs all three others to be no more than 10 feet away. Essentially you only get an extra 10 feet of torchlight in any one direction. That's pretty small in larger rooms and in smaller rooms it's almost unnecessary.
I think the spells still heighten to your current spell level, they just don't get the extra heightened benefits until they hit that level. Detect Magic can heighten to 2 for purposes of detecting level 2 illusion magic, but it won't get the 3rd level heighten until character level 5.
Dancing Light requires all lights to bewithin 10ft of each other. Can't exactly spread them put to far corners that way.
Would have been cool if it heightened and expanded that distance.
The insane part of Electric Arc is its not an attack roll.
"Twister game of big brain" I like that.
The fact its a cantrip and literally only has a V component makes me think Guidance is less a spell and more just yelling at someone to "do better"
For clerics, I've always imagined them just quickly praying to their god for, well, guidance.
Hey Nat, I'm somewhat confused, you can crit with spells like this? I was under the impression that unless it indicates what it does you DON'T crit for things other than strikes (CRB 278).
Yep! Any spell attack roll can critically hit for double damage! Most of them say so as well, like in divine lance stating (double on a critical hit).
@@Nonat1s now reading some of the rules, there is an specific section about the basic saving throws, in there is the answer of this case... Weird, is like they rule proofing this for special saving throws, i know it is unlikely, but i do wonder the possibilities.
@@Nonat1s whait darnit! why i keep forgeting to say thanks?! sry Nat thanks for the answer.
the highten of know direction is in that level because it work on other planes... the plane of fire have not north but if you are familiar with a city there you know in wich direction that city is...
Dancing Lights is even *worse* than you described: You can't spread them out in a line across a chasm, as each individual light must be within 10ft of all other lights. 10ft is the absolute maximum length of any line you could create. Each light emits 20ft of bright light, so you're looking at a maximum diameter of 50ft bright light, as opposed to the 40ft given by a single torch.
Very nice, wonder how long this will take!
"the new troop rules that were added in Bestiary 3"
Oh. I suppose I ought to open that one.
I’ve never used Ghost Sound but I don’t think you need to be in range to sustain a spell. I feel like it will excel if preemptively cast and then you sustain it as you distance yourself from where the sound emanates.
Wouldn't a crit fail on electric arc be only 2d4 on each enemy for a total of 4d4 + 16?
Only if you're below level 3. Starting level 7, it does 2d4 even on a success.
Most atk cantrip add spell modifier so, I don't think Daze damage is not a point in it favor as roll a even having a bad roll those cantrips will do more damage. I agree with you about conditions. I agree with you on condition it a reason I like splash of art focus spell ( I think it a good spell as it less powerful color spray).There are just better option in my opinion that is more reliable for conditions and can do more and as a play who usually only have one atk cantrip daze is not that appealing to me.
And in 2 months we will have 200 new spells ^^