I'm a filthy 5e casual, what sort of madness should I expect?

(I've played a couple of PF1e one-shots and built a few characters so I know the surface-level differences, but what sort of 5e thinking do I need to un-learn?)

This is a guide to achieving durable total concealment in combat. Durable in this case means that the concealment does not end or degrade the moment you attack your opponent.

This guide is derived from a comment I made back on Reddit years ago, but I believe it would be appreciated here. I made the comment to answer a question about sneak attacking at range, and so it is mostly written from that perspective, but I have made some slight alterations to post it here and it could also be useful for other purposes.

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There are four practical ways to become concealed from an opponent in combat in such a way as it will not wear off the moment you make an attack. They are as follows: Blind your target, utilise darkness, utilise obscuring conditions such as fog or smoke, or finally becoming invisible.

Blindness

Several spells can blind your opponents, including the 1st-level spell touch of blindess and the classic glitterdust. As a bonus, convincing a friendly mage to go this route should be pretty easy, since blinding your opponents is a great debuff anyway.

The dirty trick combat manoeuvre can apply blindness for a round. A familiar with the prankster archetype should be able to pull this off, though a friendly melee fighter can also build for it. Greater Dirty Trick is important here to make the blind last more than one round, and Quick Dirty Trick lets them do it in place of one of their normal melee attacks. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to reliably perform dirty tricks at range, so if you prefer to attack at range you will be relying on the melee combatants to do this for you.

Darkness

If your opponent doesn't have darkvision, but you do, a simple darkness spell (or other way to turn out the lights) will grant you total concealment. This is unreliable since so many of your opponents will likely have darkvision, but the night blindness spell can turn this off.

If you can get the "See in Darkness" ability, you can use deeper darkness to disable regular darkvision, which will work for almost all opponents apart from devils. Ways to get See in Darkness include the advanced rogue talent by the same name, getting a Rod of Shadows, or playing a tiefling and taking Fiend Sight twice.

Wielding a rod of shadows could be tricky. You could use a one-handed weapon or get an extra arm to hold it in. If you fight in melee, you could also use the spellsword spell, which has a good duration.

Obscuring Conditions

Very few creatures can see through effects like obscuring mist, so if you can get some way to see through such effects yourself, you can gain very effective concealment.

If you're playing an Ifrit, you can take the Firesight racial feat to be able to see through smoke, then find some way to fill the fight with smoke, such as using a smokestick, either on its own or as an alchemical power component for an obscuring mist spell.

Ashen path cast on you will allow you to see through not only magical smoke but also magical fog and mist and similar obscuring effects, while a Goz Mask will work for even nonmagical obscuring conditions.

Obscuring mist is the obvious way to create obscuring conditions here, but you could also get a Saltspray Ring (GM permitting, it is from an Adventure Path) and have as much mist as you want, and it follows you.

Invisibility

A very obvious option is to use greater invisibility, although that only lasts a very short duration.

If you play a ninja, the vanishing trick ninja trick will let you get one sneak attack as a swift action, and later invisible blade will extend it to the whole fight, letting you get full attacks with sneak attack on every hit.

An Amulet of the Blooded can get you Fey bloodline powers as a 9th level sorcerer, including the ability to use greater invisibility for 9 rounds per day. The action to do this is unclear; since it isn't stated, RAW it's a standard action, but based on the comparable Illusion Wizard school power, I believe it should be a swift action.

I used the #Pathfinder1e #redkind as the base creature on which I built this back-conversion of the Pathfinder2e #bogey, but it still has some redkind abilities I thought were cool for the bogey, so it's not an exact conversion. Notably it has the redkind's situational blindness and twisted shadows abilities, as well as some of the redkind's spell-like abilities. It's also got some tweaks I made to my #P1e #bogeyman as well, specifically unspoken name as a constant spell-like ability. The creature is intended to replace the redkind at my own table in my #Ustalav campaign so the overlap in special abilities is a non-issue for my use.

You'll note that it can hear "a personal name" and "bogeyman" but not "bogey" with its unspoken name constant spell-like ability. This is intentional, as I thought it should only be able to hear mention of the final form, not just the creature it is, though it can hear its own name if spoken. This also might help the bogey locate a bogeyman if someone is talking about one and it is not already in the company of one.

It has the devour soul ability of the Pathfinder2e bogey. I also gave my Pathfinder1e bogeyman the devour soul ability of the Pathfinder2e bogeyman, as this gives mechanics to a concept that was only hinted at in the P1e bogeyman lore. I haven't statted a bugaboo yet, though it's mentioned in the stat-block below. I'm not sure if I will stat one. If I do, it will just be a bogey increased to medium with increased sneak attack dice, and more hit dice, falling roughly halfway between a bogey and a bogeyman.

In places a superscript V (^V^) appears. This is my notation of a variant ability I'm giving the creature. It's essentially meaningless in this context, but makes sense when compared with my bogeyman and the standard redkind. I left it in anyway. The sources listed in the stat block are for the P1e redkind and the P2e bogey, as listed on aonPRD.

Bogey CR 3
XP 800
Source Taldor, The First Empire, page 62, Pathfinder #152: Legacy of the Lost God, page 78
NE Small fey
Init +4; Senses low‑light vision, unspoken name; Perception +7
Aura twisted shadows (30 ft., DC 14)
DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 18, flat‑footed 13 (+2 deflection, +4 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 size)
hp 27 (5 HD; 5d6+10)
Fort +5, Ref +8, Will +3
DR 5/cold iron; SR 14
Weaknesses situational blindness
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +7 (1d4)
Special Attacks devour soul^V^, sneak attack +2d6
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +7)
Constant—unspoken name^V^ (a personal name, “bogeyman”)
At‑will—darkness, detect thoughts (DC 13), ghost sound (DC 12), knock^V^, lullaby (DC 12), message^V^
1/day—gaseous form, minor image (DC 14)
STATISTICS
Str 10 (+0), Dex 19 (+4), Con 14 (+2), Int 10 (+0), Wis 9 (‑1), Cha 15 (+2)
Base Atk +2; CMB +1; CMD 15
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Weapon Finesse
Skills Disable Device +9, Escape Artist +12, Intimidate +9, Perception +7, Sense Motive +7, Stealth +16 (+20 in darkness); Racial modifiers +2 Intimidate, +4 Stealth in darkness
Languages Aklo, Sylvan
ECOLOGY
Environment any
Organization solitary, pair^V^ (bogeyman and bogey), or gaggle^V^ (2‑5 bogeys, plus 1 bogeyman)
Treasure standard
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Devour Soul (Su) When a bogey is adjacent to a creature he has killed within the last round, the bogey can consume the creature’s soul. Consuming the soul is a full‑round action. The soul is utterly destroyed—nothing short of a miracle, wish, or a similar effect can restore it to life, and only after the bogey has been slain. The bogey regains hit points equal to double the hit dice of the consumed creature. After devouring three souls within a year, the bogey transforms into a bugaboo.
Situational Blindness (Su) Bogeys have trouble targeting creatures who can’t see them. Any creature that can’t see a bogey (such as by closing its own eyes) gains partial concealment from it. Any creature that covers itself entirely (such as by hiding under a blanket) gains full concealment, even if the creature would not otherwise be considered hidden.
Twisted Shadows (Su) In areas of dim illumination or darker, a bogey’s presence animates the shadows within 30 feet of it into leering or wicked shapes. The first time a creature ends its turn within this aura, it must succeed at a DC 14 Will saving throw or become shaken for as long as it stays within the aura. If the creature succeeds at the saving throw, it cannot be affected again by the same bogey’s twisted shadows for 24 hours. This is a fear effect. The save DC is Charisma‑based.

@munroe@dice.camp

I'm interested in posting my #Pathfinder1e modified and variant monsters, as well as related content.
Is the #P1e General Discussion community the best place to do that?

Also, what is the URL field for in creating a post?