I completely ignore the activation action for magic ammunition. You are already spending an action to fire it, and burning money before finding out if it hits, and then there is usually a save after that.
The idea that familiars cant activate items is so arbitrary, I let them use the alchemist's elixirs for them since that's arguably the primary reason an alchemist would create a familiar in the first place. And fuck it, i'll let them reload a crossbow too, why not.
I understand why the Incapacitation trait exists, but oh my God is it unfun. It's already difficult to get a higher level enemy to fail a save. It's basically the Legendary Resistance tax from 5e except you can't even pay it off
This is true, but at the same time, most of the incap effects are on spells with saving throws, which so rarely result in crit fails that it just feels mean to nullify it when it happens
I'm pretty sure not having something like it would be fairly unfun for the GM though.
I am a GM. I have fun telling a fun story, not swatting down players when they would otherwise succeed
I kind of resent how Incapacitation makes my spell lists all look the same. Fear, Command, and Slow all show up on every single spellcaster because they're all worthwhile enemy facing spells that can change the fight, usually better than spells loaded up that incapacitate. Primal gets some neat tools, but they're worthless if your teammates don't care about skirmishing and only want to go in.
Staves in general. Playing a spellcaster before they're available feels like absolute shit, so making little baby staves for 1st-level characters where none otherwise exist is good. I also don't make them necessarily staves, either. Sometimes you want to cast out of a cool grimoire or a mystic orb instead. Any sufficiently-magical one handed object is good enough for me.
I'm also way more lassez-faire about the economy. RAW gold-and-stuff-per-level is very stringent at maintaining a very straightforward difficulty curve and power progression, which does not mesh with the kind of campaign where players will drop everything to go buy a teahouse. Plus, the sheer bookkeeping of double-checking every random bandit and cultist they loot doesn't have too many valuables on them is a hassle I cannot fathom ever bothering with. They can have their three extra gold pieces here and there, I don't have the energy to give a shit.
Finally, uhhh spell traits I guess. You know there are like seven good arcane-and-cold spells in the entire system? Fuck it, if it's got an elemental trait and can be reasonably reflavoured, go for it. Paizo isn't going to print cool ice spells so I'll make them myself I guess. Fucking Paizo, those guys are assholes.
I was with you till the last sentence.
Recovering 1 Focus Point PER DAY. The fact they fixed it in the upcoming remaster tells me they also agree it was a stupid idea originally.
It's not 1 per day. You can recover 1 focus point everytime you spend at least 1 focus point. There is a familiar ability that does let you recover a focus point that is once per day though.
Sorry let me rephrase. You can use one and recover it, over and over. However, if you use 2 then that’s it. You can recover 1 and have to wait for the next day, but if you use 3 then you’re extra screwed for that point. It shouldn’t have a cap on recovery and they’ve fixed it in the remaster.
Yeah it's one of the better changes coming with the remaster. That and the change where you get 1 focus point (up to the cap of 3) everytime you get a focus spell. It's annoying picking the few feats that give a new spell, but not another focus point.
Weapon Potency runes apply to spellcasting attack rolls and DCs.
Big boost to spellcasters, and brings their average chance of getting the enemy to fail/crit fail up from 40% to 50% for a big portion of their career. A bit powerful at the highest levels, with the +3 on top of Legendary, but honestly, when you're at level 19+, you can already rewrite reality. That, and I tweak up a few spellcaster enemy DCs to compensate at those levels, so they're equally scary, and it all works out.
Pathfinder 2e General Discussion