Barrow’s Edge

How reliable is the healing provided by the Exemplar’s Barrow’s Edge? Let’s test it with a Greatpick.

# Install in JupyterLite
%pip install -q pathfinder2e-stats

import matplotlib as mpl  # noqa: F401  # Needed by JupyterLite
import xarray

import pathfinder2e_stats as pf2

Note: you may need to restart the kernel to use updated packages.

level = 4
half_health_enemy = True

atk = (
    pf2.tables.SIMPLE_PC.weapon_attack_bonus.exemplar.sum("component")
    .sel(level=level)
    .item()
)
atk

11

weapon_dice = pf2.tables.PC.weapon_dice.striking_rune.sel(level=level).item()
damage_bonus = (
    (
        pf2.tables.PC.ability_bonus.boosts.sel(initial=4)
        + pf2.tables.PC.weapon_specialization.exemplar
    )
    .sel(level=level)
    .item()
)

immanence = 3 if half_health_enemy else 1
weapon = (
    pf2.armory.pathfinder.melee.greatpick(weapon_dice, damage_bonus)
    + pf2.armory.runes.auto(level=level)
    + pf2.Damage("spirit", 0, 0, immanence * weapon_dice)
)
weapon

Damage 2d10+4 piercing fatal d12 plus 6 spirit

AC = pf2.tables.SIMPLE_NPC.AC.sel(level=level)
AC.display()

variable	AC
challenge
Weak	15
Matched	20
Boss	24

Let’s compare hitting an enemy without any buffs/debuffs vs. when they’re flanked, grabbed, or prone:

off_guard = xarray.DataArray(
    [0, -2], dims="off-guard", coords={"off-guard": [False, True]}
)

Both the challenge of the enemy and the off-guard conditions are what-if analyses: let’s roll our Strike only once and compare the output against all of them.

pf2.set_config(
    check_dependent_dims=["challenge", "off-guard"],
    damage_dependent_dims=["challenge", "off-guard"],
)

Let’s Strike the enemy! On a hit or critical hit, we will Spark Transcendence to heal ourselves.

atk_roll = pf2.check(atk, DC=AC + off_guard)
dmg_roll = pf2.damage(atk_roll, weapon)
barrows_edge_heal = dmg_roll.total_damage // 2
pf2.outcome_counts(atk_roll).display()

variable	values
challenge	Weak		Matched		Boss
off-guard	False	True	False	True	False	True
outcome
Critical success	0.34996	0.44976	0.09888	0.19948	0.04992	0.04992
Success	0.49928	0.49971	0.50140	0.50144	0.34975	0.44966
Failure	0.10023	0.00000	0.34919	0.24855	0.44957	0.44989
Critical failure	0.05053	0.05053	0.05053	0.05053	0.15076	0.05053

Damage distribution

barrows_edge_heal.display()

variable	total_damage
challenge	Weak		Matched		Boss
off-guard	False	True	False	True	False	True
count	100000.000000	100000.00000	100000.00000	100000.000000	100000.000000	100000.000000
mean	14.216850	16.81701	7.70719	10.322810	4.881320	5.908030
std	9.924312	9.37972	8.05557	9.396203	7.034005	7.026836
min	0.000000	0.00000	0.00000	0.000000	0.000000	0.000000
25%	8.000000	10.00000	0.00000	0.000000	0.000000	0.000000
50%	11.000000	13.00000	8.00000	10.000000	0.000000	0.000000
75%	23.000000	25.00000	11.00000	13.000000	10.000000	11.000000
max	40.000000	40.00000	40.00000	40.000000	40.000000	40.000000

total_heal = barrows_edge_heal.stack(col=["challenge", "off-guard"])
means = total_heal.mean("roll").to_pandas()
stds = total_heal.std("roll").to_pandas()
_ = means.plot.barh(xerr=stds)

bins = barrows_edge_heal.max().item() + 1
_ = (
    barrows_edge_heal.stack(col=["challenge", "off-guard"])
    .to_pandas()
    .hist(bins=bins, figsize=(10, 10))
)

Conclusions

Barrow’s Edge provides a solid health drip when fighting against extras, effectively allowing the Exemplar to take on an entire army and just keep going indefinitely. However, both its reliability and mean effect drastically drop when tanking a boss - which is also what hits the hardest. So you should consider complementing it with Scar of the Survivor or be backed by a dedicated healer.