Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 8
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Hi,
I tried to apply the optional rule for Voluntary Flaws to a new Pathfinder2 character (PF2Core, sidebar page 26). The HLO Ability Screen has info on it that, for a moment, led me to believe it would work. For example, the legend includes the greyed-out icon for "Ancestry Flaw (Counteracted)". But I couldn't quite get it done according to rule's RAW. So I would guess it's not possible after all. Since it's an optional rule, I think it's not appropriate to file as a bug report, so I'll post it here as a request. I'll quote the official rule, for context (emphasis mine) and give an example to illustrate what I'd like to be able to do. Quote:
Or make a Sociable Dwarf Sorcerer. After starting with the Dwarven base (STR 10 DEX 10 CON 12 INT 10 WIS 12 CHA 8), I could add two optional flaws to strength and intelligence and then put both boosts into Charisma to turn if from a flaw into a strength (STR 8 DEX 10 CON 12 INT 8 WIS 12 CHA 12). Or finally, I could make that Dwarf just very frail and chatty by negating the constitution boost to mitigate the charisma flaw (STR 10 DEX 10 CON 12 INT 10 WIS 12 CHA 8) would become (STR 10 DEX 10 CON 8 INT 10 WIS 12 CHA 12) If I try to paraphrase the ancenstry ability score rules, I'd say ancestry is the first adjustment of your ability scores. You'll get an initial roster of ability scores with a fixed distribution defined by the ancestry, and your first pool of free boosts/flaws. Humans have a "10/10/10/10/10/10" roster, plus a "+2/+2" pool, and other ancestries in the core book have a "12/12/10/10/10/8" roster, plus a "+2" pool. You can optionally add "+2/-2/-2" to the free ancestry pool. Then you can apply the free boosts/flaws whichever way, so long as no score is lowered below 8 or increased above 12 during the ancestry step. If I'm not direly mistaken, that covers all the cases of both the standard rule an the optional rule. I couldn't find any explicit way to opt into adding the two flaws and one boost. I did see the option to lower scores, but that turned out to be only manually lowering the scores for flavor (which I believe was the basis for the playtest rules). HLO does state that "This ability score's starting value has been reduced below 10 as a voluntary flaw", so that's nice. However that's where the support for this optional rule stops. Best I can do is manually apply "-2/-2" or "-4" and overspent one ancestry boost. The variant where the flaw is both mitigated and boosted is not possible at all. It would be good if the ability screen offers a way to use this optional rule. It would give me exactly the type of flexibility I appreciate, for example when playing a character whose ancestries default flaw is the key ability for their class. Any chance that we'd see support for this in the near future? That'd be very welcome! |
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#1 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 25
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A bit of necro here, but this was the only thread I found addressing this issue. I'd like to echo this request. It would indeed be very welcome!
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#2 |
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 8,232
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This is still in the queue. But it's been percolating its way upwards as other tasks have been completed, so it probably won't be too much longer before this finally finds its way into place.
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#3 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 24
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Any update to this?
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#4 |
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 13,243
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To turn it on, go to the settings page, in the Other Character Options section. Then, go to the Ability Scores tab to choose which ones get the boost and flaws.
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#5 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 25
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Thanks for adding this!
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#6 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 24
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I have it turned on, but the problem mentioned by the OP doesn't seem to be fixed yet. As far as I can see on my character, as described by the OP, the boost doesn't seem to stack if you've already spent a normal boost to mitigate your normal ancestral penalty in that stat, even though that is explicitly allowed by the rule.
For instance, I've made an Iruxi witch, and I want him to start at 18 intelligence. I get normal bumps to INT from 1st level, ancestry, class, and background, however because Iruxi have an ancestral penalty to INT, that only gets me to 16. I choose to take voluntary flaws to STR and CHA to get an extra bump to INT to get back up to 18 (something that is explicitly allowed by the sidebar in the book, even though I already have an ancestral bump to INT). HLO, however, doesn't seem to allow the normal ancestral bump and the voluntary flaw bump to both apply, so only shows a 16. Last edited by dkmuldoon; August 23rd, 2020 at 11:15 AM. |
#7 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 24
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After a little more playing around, it seems to work correctly on one character and not on another. I'll file as a bug report.
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#8 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 19
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#9 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 24
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I have not, and the problem still exists.
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#10 |
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