Resonance, Potency, & Potions: A Look At Magic Items in Pathfinder 2

Paizo has been delving into the way magic items work in its latest previews of Pathfinder 2nd Edition. Last week they spoke about Resonance, a resource that characters have for activating magical items; and on Friday they blogged about Potency, which is linked to the power of a magical weapon.

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Resonance is measured in Resonance Points (RP). Activating an item costs 1 RP, and your RP total is your level plus your Charisma modifier. Paizo points out that "We expect Resonance Points to be a contentious topic, and we're really curious to see how it plays at your tables. It's one of the more experimental changes to the game, and the playtest process gives us a chance to see it in the wild before committing to it."

They also preview a few magic items - cloak of elvenkind, floating shield, staff of healing, and some trinkets such as a fear gem, and vanishing coin.

When it comes to weapons, Resonance is not required; weapons have a "potency" value, which is roughly equivalent to its "plus" -- it gives you a bonus to attack, increases damage by a whole damage die per potency point (i.e. a +1 longsword gives +1 to hit and +1d8 damage). Potency and special qualities are limited by a weapon's quality - standard, expert, master, legendary.

Quality	Max Potency	Max Properties
Standard	+0	0
Expert	+2	1
Master	+4	2
Legendary	+5	3

Potency and properties are contained within transferrable magical runes, often found on a runestone. Some examples shown are disrupting, and vorpal.

Amor similarly has potency and properties. Potency affects AC, TAC, and saving throws. Some properties include invisibility and fortification.

This takes us on to potions. Potions can now have high level effects, and they don't have to be tied to the spell lists. Examples including healing potions, invisibility potions, dragon's breath potions, and oil of mending.​

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[The Crimson Binome]

I'm still not quite sure on what problem Resonance is trying to solve though.

In Pathfinder 1E, and supposedly in D&D 3E before it, healing wands trivialized any amount of HP damage (as long as you survived the fight). D&D had long been a game of resource management and attrition, which was inadvertently obviated through the combination of linear HP-growth with exponential wealth rewards.

Resonance is specifically trying to fix that problem. If you use a cheap wand of Cure Light Wounds to try and heal a mid-level character, then they'll run out of Resonance before they're half-way back. In order to keep a mid-level character up and going, you'll need to use a (vastly more expensive) wand of Cure Serious Wounds.

 

[Grimstaff]

At least two of the staffs pictured are disconcertingly top-heavy, and should impose a -4 Dex pen tally to the characters wielding them.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Resonance is measured in Resonance Points (RP). Activating an item costs 1 RP, and your RP total is your level plus your Charisma modifier. Paizo points out that "We expect Resonance Points to be a contentious topic, and we're really curious to see how it plays at your tables. It's one of the more experimental changes to the game, and the playtest process gives us a chance to see it in the wild before committing to it."

Hope it doesn't get shouted down, it sounds like a decent, even flavorful magic-feeling, way to keep a few extra magic item drops or systematic item creation or the like from breaking things too easily.

weapons have a "potency" value, which is roughly equivalent to its "plus" -- it gives you a bonus to attack, increases damage by a whole damage die per potency point (i.e. a +1 longsword gives +1 to hit and +1d8 damage).[/quote] Sounds like we're going to have some serious damage scaling, like in 13A.

Amor similarly has potency and properties. Potency affects AC, TAC, and saving throws. Some properties include invisibility and fortification.

Magic armor boosting Touch AC is an idea who's time has come...

...18 years too late for a lot of characters...


Seriously, though, definitely a good idea.

This takes us on to potions. Potions can now have high level effects, and they don't have to be tied to the spell lists. Examples including healing potions, invisibility potions, dragon's breath potions, and oil of mending.[/LEFT]

"Can now have?" How 'bout "high-level potion effects return..."

 

[Kaodi]

I fear our new 2nd Edition overlords may have jumped the astral shark on this one. Some of these effects which require a whole RP to activate seem incredibly weak. Opportunity cost is going to define this system hard.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I fear our new 2nd Edition overlords may have jumped the astral shark on this one. Some of these effects which require a whole RP to activate seem incredibly weak. Opportunity cost is going to define this system hard.

To be fair, ninety percent of the magical items in PF 1E were also vendor trash that nobody in their right mind would ever create, though I guess some of them saw use if they happened to show up somewhere.

 

[Kurviak]

I fear our new 2nd Edition overlords may have jumped the astral shark on this one. Some of these effects which require a whole RP to activate seem incredibly weak. Opportunity cost is going to define this system hard.

But we have the opportunity to play test it and share our findings with the development team, so if enough people find the resonance system lacking it’ll be modified

 

[mellored]

Sounds like we're going to have some serious damage scaling, like in 13A.

You don't get multi-attack scaling, so damage it is.

Magic armor boosting Touch AC is an idea who's time has come...

...18 years too late for a lot of characters...


Seriously, though, definitely a good idea.

I'd rather not have touch AC at all. There's enough defenses without it.

So either make it a Dex save or give spells the appropriate attack bonus to hit regular AC.

 

[Sunseeker]

Of all the things I have issue with in PF2, this isn't one of them. This is probably one of the best elements I've seen.

 

[Koloth]

Yet another reason for parties to rest after EVERY encounter. Bad enough that many magic types feel that entering any combat with less then a full spell load just can't be allowed to happen, now ALL classes have a RP pool to manage and worry if any amount less then 100% means they need to stop and rest for the day.

 

[Jhaelen]

People sure are going to love Paladins now.

Which is kind of funny, given that Paladins in D&D traditionally were limited to a small amount of belongings (and magic items).