Literally posting one of the books that's a stereotype for books people pretend to read to look well read.

Right alongside Art of War.

Actually plenty of APs can have enhanced vibes if you don't put Walmarts everywhere.

A similar setup is pretty crucial to having the right vibes in Season of Ghosts.

Crafters are hugely useful in that AP for that and other reasons like Crafting and Lore checks being fairly prevalent and both INT based.

But let's be clear that it being that way isn't the system's fault.

The inventor has no use for crafting and can't give the ranger grappling hook launching swords because you didn't use the rules for that.

And your Walmart means the Malcus x Halen romance subplot NEVER HAPPENS.

Your GM decided to make the world and items blander so they certainly aren't using those available rules that you could use to make unique items, craft relics, or forge a natural disasters into swords, etc.

Your level 11 sword that in the rules most folks can't make means less.

You can't build a business trading goods to areas where they are more limited and cost more because there's a Walmart everywhere.

When you want that astral rune you go get it off the shelf anywhere rather than from a quest or specific place with an NPC.

That town has a Walmart instead of being the place you can go to get those fiend hunting items Malcus the ex-crusader that lives there makes and gives you a discount on because you resolved his drama with the local priesthood.

You never discovered Malcus knows Halen the shopkeeper mage in the city.

Congrats, your GM decided that an item that takes a master+ craftsman has no dramatic weight to it and is just on a shelf in bulk.

Your game could have made it where getting good gear is a story. Could have had that random town have more character because they have some items over its level.

Another example is the one where he is a sword but he can fly and has telekinetic hands.

Though that one doesn't abandon the premise as much because he's stronger when wielded.

Like the one with the girl that invested everything in defense.

She almost right away gets an OP attack.

Also none of that process is like starting a business and the fact he thinks it is says something about his business acumen.

I mean of course that's not a lot of damage compared to what a spellstrike could do at that level but it's still funny and a fun image. Isn't that what's important?

Snipe Target: "Is someone blaring 'X Gun Give it to Ya' on their car radi-" (takes 7d10+3d6+9 damage from lv10 Inventor's shot and is pushed 5-20 feet depending on Fort Save)

I would totally ask that skeleton out on a date after stressing out about what to do in place of the food/drink portions of the typical date.

It's perfectly fine to prefer things about a system and then modify it for a game.

That's literally how most systems came into existence. It's not inherently being a Gollum just because you didn't get it from someone else or publish it.

Golluming is bad though.

Recommending other games can come across like console-warring.

And on the other end there are just Gollum-like gamers that latch onto their game as the apex.

It's important to not confuse those extremes as the whole.

I'm just saying people get weird about this topic and about combat rules.

I do agree that if you are forced to ignore rules getting in the way a lot you would be better off taking a look at other games that might not only not have the block but explore the thing better.

For example a game about xenomorphs where you can't reliably fight it and there's precisely engineered rules for the motion tracker and keeping track of where the alien is in the base is naturally way better at that game than Pathfinder 2e is.

In my over 30 years of playing TTRPGs I have been recommended many games for social intrigue games with equal, less, or sometimes worse rules for social systems than a system I was playing that they labeled as a combat game.

I'm not saying there's not better systems for certain games out there.