u/DetectiveSimilar5654

Hi! First, a bit of context:

The character I’m playing originally comes from D&D 3.5. She was a homebrew Necromancer, and in another campaign, a combination of a Dread Necromancer and a Shadowcaster. She always worked like a charm—a top-tier debuffer and crowd controller who also had undead minions providing consistent, heavy DPS and solid tanking. I adore her; her story is legendary at our table, and she’s my only character to reincarnate across three different campaigns. However, I have a major problem on my hands.

My current GM decided to switch systems due to frustration with high-level 3.5 combat (you know, when it stops being a challenge and becomes GM vs. Players, with mid-dungeon encounters taking hours, or boss fights ending in minutes due to massive damage). We moved to Pathfinder 2e. Between these two systems, I’ve played three characters: a Wizard and a Barbarian (both of whom I enjoyed) and this character.

To recreate her in PF2e, my first choice was a Sorcerer with the Undead Master Archetype. However, I felt my spells were redundant with our group's Bard, and my undead minions didn't feel like a real threat—they were just meat shields. I talked to my GM and switched to Summoner. While it felt better for a couple of sessions, I hit a wall: since our party lacks a dedicated Healer, I spend 50% of my action economy self-healing with spells or Battle Medicine. I spend the rest of my actions just standing up, moving, or casting defensive spells to survive. On the rare occasions I actually get to Strike, I usually miss, or my damage feels paltry compared to my teammates.

I know I’m technically filling the frontline role for the team, but honestly, I’m not excited to play this way. I used to play this character as a full caster with impactful undead, and now I’m just the punching bag who has to heal herself over and over because the party didn't optimize their composition.

Retraining the build is still an option, and I have even more flexibility because the GM allows some Battlezoo content. However, the party is reluctant to change their playstyle, and I refuse to stop being a Necromancer since it's her core identity. How can I fix this? Maybe another archetype, class, or playstyle? The only thing I’ve thought of is lean into a Gish build (pre-buffing before combat), but if I do that, the frontline stays unprotected with only one character, and I end up wasting the independent actions of an Undead Companion and the extra action from an Eidolon.

Hi!

A bit of context: I'm running a campaign in a bizarre world. It combines several high fantasy nations with a couple that are reaching a sort of magical industrial age, others with steampunk-style advancements, and, most importantly, a human supremacist nation that has achieved cyberpunk-level technology!

The thing is, until recently, I only allowed Pathfinder content, reskinning a few things like firearms to make them more advanced. But recently, a reality-altering shift occurred where, through a magical-technological ritual, Starfinder stuff entered my campaign, and as a result, new weapons, monsters, and other things started appearing.

I've heard that, obviously, while these systems are compatible in terms of action economy and such, they have balance issues. So I wanted to ask what I should and shouldn't allow (as a recommendation, the Starfinder manual itself says you should keep a critical eye on everything you include, but I'd like something more concrete).

So far, this is what I have:

• My campaign is more focused on Pathfinder 2e than Starfinder 2e, so my intention is to maintain the "fantasy" aspect more than "space travel".
• Because Starfinder 2e ancestries have telepathy and flight at very early levels, I decided to ban them outright.
• I've been allowing medpatches, consumable weapons, general consumables, comm units, and comm unit chips, but I don't know what other items would be "safe" to include.
• Added to this, I wanted to see which classes I can allow without breaking the game or leaving the rest of the party behind. I've heard that classes like the Mystic have too much HP compared to an average caster, or that the Soldier is too good at AoE damage to allow...
• Regarding feats, I wanted to see which ones are and aren't safe: I'm almost convinced there are no issues with skill feats, but what about archetype feats, general feats, etc.?