[Legendary Games][PF] Sagitta Stellaris Open Playtest: Cosmic Archery for Path of War

[Mezzaluna]

https://i.imgur.com/s25l1eA.png

Hello! Welcome to the playtest for Sagitta Stellaris, a new discipline for Dreamscarred Press' Path of War system for Pathfinder 1, focusing on astronomy, divination, and tactical ranged combat! This is a pretty technical discipline that moves ranged martials to more of a crowd control role, having them draw trails of magical terrain on the battlefield with their projectiles, but also offering a degree of compromise with normal ranged full attacks.

Included here is the full discipline, along with supporting feats, a martial tradition, and a ranged-combat archetype for the Harbinger focusing on movement speed debuffs.
Coming on August 27th is also a half-initiator archetype for the Gunslinger.


[Playtest Here!] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_XuqWHppYBWecWO56fuNqUIbZlm7B-wZ-TS-OddsMaw/)

I hope you enjoy the playtest, I'll be listening close for feedback! Thanks for looking!
You can leave comments on the document or find me in the dedicated playtest channel in the Legendary Games Discord (https://discord.gg/SHV5t4A).

[AmberVael]

Sagitta Stellaris: Because maybe (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?10707-Maneuvers-Falling-Star-Discipline) we should (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=10640971&postcount=7) stop using (https://www.enworld.org/threads/homebrew-falling-star-style-the-tenth-path-of-the-sublime-way-tempest_stormwind-edea.471376/) the name 'Falling Star.' (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?42614-Yet-another-discipline-named-Falling-Star-ToB) :smalltongue:

At an initial glance, this looks pretty neat and creative. That said, it's quite complex, with heavily used descriptors that have a LOT of detail and a lot of pretty wordy maneuvers. Simplifying even just the descriptors would go a long way towards making it easier to use and understand.

[Mezzaluna]

Thanks for reading!
...I admit, I didn't realise there were that many astronomy disciplines people have already made, though that makes me happier to hear that people still see it as creative in spite of that!

Sagitta Stellaris is inherently a complex discipline and I don't think there are easy ways around that - but it's something that was on my mind, and now I've changed the upfront rules section to be a bit less intimidating by moving all the edge case interactions to an appendix at the end of the document. Hopefully that means the upfront wall of reading is a lot easier to process.

I don't think I can get away with reformatting the maneuvers like that, though - needing to clarify on edge cases is a necessary evil to writing unique mechanics without much precedent, and I'm worried it would backfire if someone finds it harder to read because they have to jump back and forth between each maneuvers description and an appendix.

[PraxisVetli]

I got a dumb question.
When it says 'make a 90' trail ranged attack'
What if you don't have 90' of range, such as with most thrown weapons, especially at low levels?
Does it just let you throw 90' anyway, or...?


Edit:
Also I just want to say I think that it, while complex, is SUPER FREAKIN COOL!.
Might be my new favorite actually.

[Mezzaluna]

I got a dumb question.
When it says 'make a 90' trail ranged attack'
What if you don't have 90' of range, such as with most thrown weapons, especially at low levels?
Does it just let you throw 90' anyway, or...?


That's right, at the moment the way the Trail rules work is that it's always that range, no matter whether it's shorter than the first range increment longer than the maximum range of the weapon you're using. However, you would take a pretty steep range increment penalty on the attack in the latter case! Unless you're actually throwing at a target 10ft away and making the path loop around and come back like a boomerang.

I've added a bit to the appendix to clarify what happens if you go over the maximum number of range increments (basically, it's just treated as the maximum.)

Thanks for the compliments, too! My goal here was to make something with a lot of interesting decisions but also had a lot of 'flashy' abilities that were thematically cool to use.

[PraxisVetli]

That's right, at the moment the way the Trail rules work is that it's always that range, no matter whether it's shorter than the first range increment longer than the maximum range of the weapon you're using. However, you would take a pretty steep range increment penalty on the attack in the latter case! Unless you're actually throwing at a target 10ft away and making the path loop around and come back like a boomerang.

I've added a bit to the appendix to clarify what happens if you go over the maximum number of range increments (basically, it's just treated as the maximum.)

Thanks for the compliments, too! My goal here was to make something with a lot of interesting decisions but also had a lot of 'flashy' abilities that were thematically cool to use.

Ok so, in the case of a thrown weapon with a 10' range, on a 90' trail, you'd still take the penalty for throwing your maximum distance, but it would let you throw 90 instead of maxxing out at 50, correct?
Sorry, I just like calling things back to make sure I understand. A mental relic of working in kitchens for so long.

Unless you're actually throwing at a target 10ft away and making the path loop around and come back like a boomerang.
Wait so if I throw it in a swirling flower shape around me, and it's never more than 10' away but travels 90'...is that only the first range increment??

Also. I love what my friends and I have dubbed 'Hippie-Harb'.
Kinda want to find the old test for Chimera Soul and see if I can't build a 'Martial Druid, hold the Druid'

[Mezzaluna]

Ok so, in the case of a thrown weapon with a 10' range, on a 90' trail, you'd still take the penalty for throwing your maximum distance, but it would let you throw 90 instead of maxxing out at 50, correct?
Sorry, I just like calling things back to make sure I understand. A mental relic of working in kitchens for so long.

Yep! And no problem



Wait so if I throw it in a swirling flower shape around me, and it's never more than 10' away but travels 90'...is that only the first range increment??


At the moment (which I could change if most people think it's too weird), only the distance between you and your target matters for the range increment. So if a target was 10ft away, you could throw a trail that goes past them until it's 40ft out, then reverses direction and boomerangs 40ft back to hit the target, and that would count as the first range increment.

Mostly this design decision is to make it easier to use in game (so you don't always need to count the exact length of the trail you're making if you don't need to draw it to its maximum length), but you can justify it in flavor with the fact that you've still got a much closer view of the target.

[PraxisVetli]

Yep! And no problem



At the moment (which I could change if most people think it's too weird), only the distance between you and your target matters for the range increment. So if a target was 10ft away, you could throw a trail that goes past them until it's 40ft out, then reverses direction and boomerangs 40ft back to hit the target, and that would count as the first range increment.

Mostly this design decision is to make it easier to use in game (so you don't always need to count the exact length of the trail you're making if you don't need to draw it to its maximum length), but you can justify it in flavor with the fact that you've still got a much closer view of the target.

oh nuh-UH

That's amazing.

[Mezzaluna]

As promised, today the Bulletwriter archetype has been added to the playtest!
These are psychic gunslingers who 'write' magic bullets by treating them as artwork and self-expression.
(This one's a bit more eclectic since Deeds are just a grab bag of tricks, but I hope it can fill the space of a more technical ranged combat half-initiator.)

I've also added two preliminary cross-discipline feats for Veiled Moon and Steel Serpent, which can be seen at the top of the feat list: hopefully more to come soon.

And for a very noticeable cosmetic change, I've renamed the [Rain] mechanic to [Constellate], a word that was right in front of my face the whole time without me noticing.