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The CounterFAQ
Pathfinder, like virtually all tabletop roleplaying games, was not written to be implemented as a computer program. At a live table, when there are ambiguities, apparent contradictions, and similar issues in the rules, they are not typically so serious that a gamemaster cannot make rulings ad hoc to resolve whatever has caused a pause in the flow of play. With a VTT implementation, there is sometimes greater tension when it comes to automating these rules, and occasionally the developers feel it necessary to bake in RAI judgement calls.
This page attempts to document areas in the 2nd Edition rules that made us feel compelled to make such calls, as well as common questions among users of the system that we believe have clear RAW answers.
Why did the Healing Touch feat increase my already-existing focus pool by one point despite the feat description reading, "If you don’t already have one, you gain a focus pool of 1 Focus Point?"
The rules for adding to a character's focus pool in lieu of granting one are as follows (CRB pg. 301):
It’s possible, especially through archetypes, to gain focus spells and Focus Points from more than one source. If this happens, you have just one focus pool, adding all the Focus Points together to determine the total size of your pool. (Remember that the maximum number of Focus Points a pool can have is 3.) If you have multiple abilities that give you a focus pool, each one adds 1 Focus Point to your pool.
The text of the Healing Touch feat would seem to exclude itself from the above. However, in the same section, Healing Touch is actually cited as an example of this very same rule (ibid.):
For instance, if you were a cleric with the Domain Initiate feat, you would have a pool with 1 Focus Point. Let’s say you then took the champion multiclass archetype and the Healing Touch feat. Normally, this feat would give you a focus pool. Since you already have one, it instead increases your existing pool’s capacity by 1.
In the Foundry PF2e system, we've decided to resolve this contradiction by treating feats that only grant a focus pool if the character doesn't already have one as unconditionally granting a pool or increasing their pool size by one.
I am using the Free Archetype variant rule and am trying to add the Medic archetype's Treat Condition feat to an archetype feat slot. Why can't I do this in Foundry?
Treat Condition is an archetype skill feat. From the Free Archetype rules (GMG pg. 194):
The only difference between a normal character and a free-archetype character is that the character receives an extra class feat at 2nd level and every even level thereafter that they can use only for archetype feats.
Class feats are "special feats that only members of that class can access" (CRB pg. 68). Most archetype feats can serve in place of class feats: "Archetype feats you gain in place of a class feat are called archetype class feats" (CRB pg. 219). However (ibid.):
Occasionally, an archetype feat works like a skill feat instead of a class feat. These archetype feats have the skill trait, and you select them in place of a skill feat, otherwise following the same rules above.