Let's Take A Look At Pathfinder 2's Deities & Domains!

There's a new Paizo blog up about the way deities and domains work in Pathfinder 2nd Edition. It shows how deities are described, with the example deity Shelyn, along with new domains and domain powers.

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Favoured weapons, edicts, and anathemas don't have mechanical effects for most characters, but provide strong roleplaying touchpoints. However, for clerics, a deity has alignment restrictions, bonus skills and spells, and more.

As for domains, there are 23 new domains (some of which were subdomains in PF1). New domains include Indulgence, Dreams, and Wealth, and come with basic and advanced powers accessed though Spell Points.

Read the whole thing here.

 

[Sunseeker]

I like spell points. I really don't like that they're using spell points for domains and vancian-ish casting for spells. I think two seperate systems for essentially doing the same thing (casting magic) is just going to end up being clunky.

 

[Ancalagon]

This entry is frustrating because they say "if you have Spell Points" but they don't explain how that system works....

 

[Parmandur]

I like spell points. I really don't like that they're using spell points for domains and vancian-ish casting for spells. I think two seperate systems for essentially doing the same thing (casting magic) is just going to end up being clunky.

"Elegance" is not a particular emphasis to the design philosophy here: Byzantine complexity is their jam, kind of what they are going to do.

 

[Draegn]

Shelyn, The Eternal Rose, goddess of [FONT=&amp]art, beauty, love, and music, who uses a glaive?

[/FONT]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaive

 

[Sunseeker]

"Elegance" is not a particular emphasis to the design philosophy here: Byzantine complexity is their jam, kind of what they are going to do.

Well, since they're reading this board and have even directly replied to me, let me say it out loud:

IT OUGHT TO BE

Complexity for the sake of complexity is annoying. It's like someone trying to sound smart while talking about a subject they know nothing about.

If they want to use "spell points" there are more interesting and more elegant ways to do it, such as utilizing spell points for metamagic abilities (which is similar to what they're doing here, but strangely limited to only one area of spellcasting).

Vancian casting is IMO, a drag on the system. It's that sort of nerdy, ultra-mechanical system that wargamer-types like, appealing to folks who like to calcuate the specific values of their armies and how to best optimize the loadout of each individual marine. It does not, on the other hand, apply very well to "magic". If you want to limit how many "big spells" a person can cast per day, put the limit on the spell, don't bake the limit into the system.

IE: How Wish has all those rules about exhaustion, con drain and so forth, to disincentivise people from casting it repeatedly.
Heck, even simple "You can only cast this spell X times per day." would be perfectly fine in my book.

I've said it before and I've said it again: I'd really like to see a D&D-style game use spell-points as the default system.

 

[Parmandur]

It's that sort of nerdy, ultra-mechanical system that wargamer-types like, appealing to folks who like to calcuate the specific values of their armies and how to best optimize the loadout of each individual marine.

This seems to be a good read on what they are going for with this system, yes.

 

[Yaarel]

I get it, Golarion is a specific setting with a specific polytheistic cosmology.

I hope the core rules are crystal clear, that the cleric − according to the rules as written − can be part of any kind of sacred tradition, especially, monotheism, animism, cosmic forces, ethics, and philosophy.

 

[Yaarel]

Regarding spell points.

All casters
• have permanent known spells,
• selected while leveling,
• and use spell points to cast them spontaneously.

However, to cast a spell that you dont know, you do it from a spellbook in a fully vancian way, investing spell points to prepare the spell ahead of time, in the context of a ritual while reading the spellbook. These prepared spells work the same way as fire-and-forget, but actually they are more like grenades, being a pre-cast spell that goes of with a trigger. To cast a prepared spell, is more like following the instructions of a recipe book or a how-to manual. The mage isnt actually memorizing anything.

By contrast, the known spells, being cast spontaneously, are never forgotten.

 

[Parmandur]

I get it, Golarion is a specific setting with a specific polytheistic cosmology.

I hope the core rules are crystal clear, that the cleric − according to the rules as written − can be part of any kind of sacred tradition, especially, monotheism, animism, cosmic forces, ethics, and philosophy.

I wouldn't bet on it, they seem to be doubling down on the setting/system combination.