This is a detailed example of magic striker creature Monster AI creation for Pathfinder 2e system.
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Table of Contents
Magical Striker
Magical Striker high attack and high damage; moderate to high spell DCs; either a scattering of innate spells or prepared or spontaneous spells up to half the creature’s level (rounded up) minus 1
Gamemastery Guide pg. 56\Archives of Nethys
In contrast to spellcaster, these creatures have high attack and high damaging spells.
Define attack spell preference.
In general, these creatures should have at least couple damaging spells with one being leveled spell with high attack/high damage and weaker but unlimited cantrips.
Order these based on the potency i.e. the highest average damage per round potential to the lowest.
With casting # limit, coding can be simply put in order of potency from to top to bottom like below.
🪄 acid arrow 🪄 (3 actions) magic missile to most # of 🎯
The example above says the creature tries to cast acid arrow (2 action spell) first if available. On the same turn, magic missile can not be casted as the code says 3 action version of magic missile. So the line is ignored.
On the next turn, acid arrow casting will be ignored as the creature has used it up during the previous turn. So this time the next in the order, magic missile is casted.
My current coding preference is place limited # use spells in the Special Tactics section while placing cantrip (unlimited) spells in Basic tactics. I personally see this as a better organization though I could add third line in above like ray of frost and put all 3 lines in basic tactics.
Define each encounter usable spell situations
For all other spells that can be used during an encounter, we should try defining its best/generic use situation.
For example, beginner box adventure says Kobold boss use fear in a following way.
If anyone gets past her guards, she casts fear on that hero, hoping to make them run away.
This can be coded as below.
If no more ally between this and 🎯: 🪄 fear
Command is an example appropriate for random effect.
You can command the target to approach you, run away (as if it had the fleeing condition), release what it’s holding, drop prone, or stand in place. It can’t Delay or take any reactions until it has obeyed your command.
For defensive use, run away, release weapon and drop prone all have identical effect. The target creature needs to use one command to correct each condition i.e. move, pick up and stand. So choosing which one specifically can be randomly chosen. This can be coded as below.
🪄 command 🎲1: 🎯 Drop prone. 🎲2: 🎯 Flee furthest from this. 🎲3: 🎯 Release what its holding.
When command spell is being casted, I will roll a die and randomly choose one of the 3 option.
Defense Mechanism
Spellcasters do not have intrinsic defense mechanism i.e. no high AC or HP. Therefore, it needs another method of defense. If there is a defensive spell such as shield, it is one way. Otherwise, retreat with keeping distance from heroes is the most basic way of defense.
Move
With most spells having long range, movement is often optional/unnecessary. Therefore, usually this is put on the top-line of special tactics section. If there is other spells that requires different/shorter range position then this is defined in range section individually with a tag.
📍[spell] ≤120ft from 🎯 Until this reaches to 📍[spell]: 👣 Stride
Examples
Zolgan, Kobold Boss
Zolgan, Kobold Boss is a variant of Kobold Dragon Mage from the beginner box contained adventure, menace under Otari. This simplified version of Kobold Dragon Mage provides a prototypical magical caster example with 3 combat relevant spells.
Using stat block conversion tables, Kobold dragon mage has high charisma ability score. As a level 2 creature, she has high spell attack bonus and high to extreme spell DC. Its best attack spell, magic missile with 3 actions is high damage category. Therefore, it perfectly fits the magical striker category.
This simplified version of kobold dragon mage has following spells that can be used during encounter:
- 1st level: magic missile (x3) and fear
- Cantrip spell: ray of frost.
The adventure book specifies general tactics of Zolgan.
On her first turn, she spends all 3 actions to cast magic missile. If anyone gets past her guards, she casts fear on that hero, hoping to make them run away. If she runs out of 1st-level spells to cast, she casts ray of frost.
Game Masters Guide p24-25 from Beginner Box
This part is readily translated as following.
If no more ally between this and 🎯: 🪄 fear 🪄 magic missiles (3 action) 🪄 ray of frost
Ray of frost will not be casted if either fear or magic missiles are used during the turn because both ray of frost and fear cost 2 actions and magic missiles is 3 actions.
Zolgran attacks with her staff only if she runs out of other options.
Game Masters Guide p25 from Beginner Box
One of translation decision I made here is how to define running out of the other options. Ray of frost being cantrip, Zolgan has unlimited use of it and using AC 25, despite a single casting per turn, ray of frost (2 actions) is superior to 3 action melee attacks.
Also Zolgan has two melee attack options: staff and claw. Between the two, staff is superior on the first attack and claw can take over second and the third attacks due to its agile trait.
The only realistic situation I can think of when Zolgan loses ability to cast spell e.g. hero casts silence on her. In this situation, Zolgan needs to switch to melee combat tactics as she will fights until death.
If unable to cast ray of frost: 👣 Stride to flanking 🎯 ⚔️ Staff ➡️⚔️ claw ➡️⚔️ claw
Morgrym Leadbuster
Morgrym is a unique spell casting creature from the official pre-made campaign, Troubles in Otari. Using stat conversion tables, his spell DC and attack are high. Acid Arrow has average damage of 15, which is high to extreme category. With his ability, he can use Acid Arrow twice in a day. Therefore, his stat contour perfectly fit into Magic striker category.
He has following spells:
- 2nd Level: Acid Arrow, Obscuring Mist, Resist Energy
- 1st level: Command, gust of wind, Magic Missile
- Focus: Fear
- Cantrips: (2nd level) daze, ray of frost, shield, detect magic, ghost sound, mage hand, message
Here I’ve looked up each spells and determines those that can be used in combat (at least in a conventional fashion).
- 2nd Level: Acid Arrow, Obscuring Mist, Resist Energy
- 1st level: Command, gust of wind, Magic Missile
- Focus: Fear
- Cantrips (2nd level): daze, ray of frost, shield
Attack Method Priorities
The core assumption here is the creature knows which attack method has the highest average damage potential and use the best means before moving on to the next ones.
In the case of Morgrym, there are 4 damaging spells:
- Acid Arrow
- Magic Missile
- Ray of Frost
- Daze
In order to calculate average damage potential, not only damage but hit probability need to be incorporated. This depends on target’s AC or spell DC value so I have to just pick one value that does not saturate (i.e. make 100% probability or beyond; otherwise, it becomes hit roll becomes irrelevant). Since my heroes when facing Morgym has the highest AC of 20, it needs to be at least 20, but all the attack modifier of Morygym is over 10 so AC of 20 makes average hit probability to reach 100%. So I chose AC as 25 to avoid the saturation.
The order of potency matches with order of the spell level i.e. higher level spells are more potent.
Daze is also a cantrip with potential damage to the target; however, this is a bit different from other three spells, particularly Ray of Frost with both being cantrips. Ray of Frost DC is target AC whereas Daze uses Will save.
The tricky piece here is how to deal with Daze being non-lethal spell. It is easy to code such that when target HP goes below 3 (i.e. last daze attack) it switches to ray of frost. However, this requires assumption that creatures see each others HP, which is not realistic. Therefore, I’ve decided to assume Morygrym won’t know its daze attack is not killing spellcasters and keep using it.
Although this seems suboptimal, I think thematically acceptable and such situation is extremely limited in occurrence as melee attack heroes approach Morygrym i.e. becomes his target priority.
If 🎯 is not spellcaster & ≤60ft from this: 🪄daze 🪄 ray of frost
Melee Tactics
The last piece is melee attack option. Unlike spell attacks, this is a single action so there is potential of using multiple attack per round. In fact, if it uses 2 actions i.e. first and second strikes the potential average damage becomes 7.8 and that is higher than Ray of Frost.
Therefore, if Morygrym is forced in melee combat, it have a reason to use melee striking over cantrip attacks. However, Morygrym would still not like to stay in melee position due to its relatively vulnerability, melee striking only takes place when it is forced to do so by heroes.
Melee attack tactics 🪄 command 🎲1: 🎯 Drop prone. 🎲2: 🎯 Flee furthest from this. 🎲3: 🎯 Release what its holding. If command is not casted this turn: ⚔️ Staff ➡️⚔️ Staff 👣 Stride to📍[retreat] 🪄 shield ⚔️ Staff
With roll-over roll, command will be used first but if not available, double staff strikes will take place. After two actions, he will try to retreat but if that’s not possible it will use shield. If shield is also not possible, then if use staff attack.
Gust of Wind
Although gust of wind is not directly damaging spell, it is still combat usable. Here I have defined its use as following.
If torch, mist or fog aiding foe: 🪄 gust of wind
Reference
Official resources
- Pathfinder Core Rulebook 2nd edition
- Pathfinder Gamemastry guide 2nd edition
- Pathfinder Bestiary 1
- Pathfinder Beginner’s Box
- Archives of Nethys
- Pathfinder Nexus
Tactical resource
- Monsters Know What They’re doing – 5E based combat tactics
Other
Reddit – Helpful, kind/constructive feedbacks I have been receiving.
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