Friday Publisher Preview: Three for the Road!

Friday, August 29, 2014

I’m currently at Dragon Con in Atlanta with Jason Bulmahn, attacking the Southern Front while several Paizonians are defending the homeland at PAX Prime in Seattle. The last long weekend of the summer means conventions, conventions, conventions, so in the interest of making it to my next panel on time and letting the Paizo web team get to PAX, I’m going to keep things short and sweet this week.

We've got three more minis to reveal, all from November's The Lost Coast set.

City Watch Sniper

This figure fulfills a couple of items on my wishlist. Here we have another City Watch officer to go with the two in our debut set, Heroes & Monsters. The Sniper also gives us a good crossbow figure, and a female crossbow figure to boot. The colors don’t match the rank-and-file officers exactly—the Sniper lacks the tan base color of the previous guards, but she’s a cooler-looking figure in general and is more likely to match additional City Watch figures in the future (there’s at least one more coming next year). The City Watch Sniper is a Medium, uncommon figure.

Firepelt Cougar

The Firepelt Cougar is one of the first original Pathfinder animals ever invented, appearing way back in Pathfinder #1. It’s also the animal companion of the goblin druid Gogmurt, from the same issue. Accordingly, I’ve wanted it in the Pathfinder Battles line from the beginning. In a way, it’s a slot-filler for a Runelords figure we missed the first time around, but given that it’s a pretty basic great cat, the figure should see high utility all around. That said, I think Pathfinder Battles probably has enough great cats for a few sets, so don’t expect to see too many of them in the future. The Firepelt Cougar is a Medium, common figure.

Pazuzu

Here we have Pazuzu, one of the jaw-dropper minis in the set. When WizKids first brought in this demon lord to the office, our very own James Jacobs—long a thrall of the Lord of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms—prostrated himself on the conference room floor and immediately began chanting Pazuzu’s name. He only said it three times before he disappeared in a blast of black fire. We haven’t seen him since and really need his help to finish the Iron Gods Adventure Path, so if any of you are in the Abyss this weekend and see James, please tell him we miss him. The Pazuzu figure is the perfect match for his consort, Lamashtu, who also appears in The Lost Coast set. Pazuzu is a Large, rare figure.

And that’s it for this week. I’m off to Dragon Con, where the gaming is fierce and the cosplay is absolutely incredible. I have not seen so many Zardoz’s since the movie Zardoz. Wow.

Erik Mona
Publisher

Calling All Miscreants and Malefactors!

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Get ready to get evil with Pathfinder Player Companion: Champions of Corruption! The latest volume in the Player Companion line provides players and GMs alike with suggestions on how to take their Pathfinder game to the dark side without pushing it over the edge of fun. Rather than tantalize you with mere words, however, I figured I'd let the illustrations in this book of vileness speak for themselves. In addition to dozens of new character traits, feats, and much, much more, the following features (and their accompanying art) are just some of the all-new content you'll find in this spine-tingling Player Companion.

Illustration by Chen Nambiarooran

Readers of Champions of Purity and Champions of Balance will be familiar with the treatment of the three evil alignments in Champions of Corruption. Whether you're shooting for a character that embodies the ruthless strictures of lawful evil, the wanton bloodlust of chaotic evil, or the sheer maleficence of neutral evil, this book's discussions on how to play antiheroes of the various evil alignments will leave you inspired and informed.

Illustration by Andy Timm

Magic is the ultimate weapon for the mischievous and misanthropic, and this book has no shortage of ways to use the powers of the arcane and divine to fulfill deviant goals. New evolutions enable summoners to use the arcane powers of blood itself to infuse their eidolons with sanguine sorcery.

Illustration by Vicky Yarova

Fans of the Umbral Court agent prestige class from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Paths of Prestige (or anyone with a penchant for stylishly sadistic body jewelry) are sure to get a kick out of the new rules for Nidalese shadow piercings in Champions of Corruption.

Let your hair down and give in to your bad side this fall, because Champions of Corruption hits shelves in September!

Patrick Renie
Developer

Play Iron Gods, Read Iron Gods!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

As someone who spends most of his time living in the Pathfinder campaign setting, I think one of the coolest things about the Pathfinder Tales novels is their ability to give players and GMs a deeper understanding of Golarion. As GMs, we may have read the sourcebook on a region, but the novels give us a chance to see that place through the eyes of the people who live there, to get the sights and smells in a more immediate and visceral fashion. As players, the novels are even more important, as they represent a chance to get that feel for an area without reading an adventure or sourcebook full of spoilers. That's one of the reasons we included the Pathfinder's Journal way back in Pathfinder Adventure Path #1—so that GMs could hand those pages to their players and say, "Here's a story about the place you're adventuring in." Now that we have the novels, I wouldn't think of starting a campaign in, say, Nidal without pointing my players toward Liane Merciel's Nightglass as inspirational reading.

Which brings us to the newest Pathfinder Tales novel, Reign of Stars. While it doesn't follow the storyline of Iron Gods—no spoilers, remember?—this book is very much a prequel to that AP. Tim Pratt first introduced us to his ex-Technic League apprentice Alaeron back in City of the Fallen Sky, but this time, he's gone whole-hog and taken us on a tour of Numeria, complete with first-hand insights into the insidious dealings of the Technic League and the Black Sovereign. What's more, when developing both this novel and the Iron Gods Adventure Path, James Jacobs, Mark Moreland, Tim Pratt, and I all worked closely together to make sure that not only did the flavor of the various books match, but that characters and critters from the novel showed up in the Adventure Path and the Numeria sourcebook, and vice versa.

In short, I think we've created the perfect fiction companion to Iron Gods. So whether you're looking for something to read between sessions of the AP, or simply itching for robots and techno-rays from beyond the stars, consider giving Reign of Stars a shot! You can read the first chapter for free here.

Also, since we weren't able to run it last week, here's an awesome new illustration of the absentminded alchemist Alaeron himself, courtesy of Roberto Pitturru!

James L. Sutter
Managing Editor

Catching Up

Monday, August 25, 2014

Illustration by Jakub Witowski

With Gen Con come and gone (see Mike Brock's blog updates and photos here, here, here, and here), and the tricky journey home a thing of the past, one might think that the Pathfinder Society production schedule would more relaxed. That's true relatively speaking, but we've still been busy catching up on Pathfinder Module and Pathfinder Adventure Path sanctioning. Emerald Spire's Chronicle sheets are nearing completion, and the remainder of Mummy's Mask is soon to follow.

Speaking of recent publications, I realized to my chagrin that the art for an important NPC in Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-03: The Technic Siege never made it into the scenario. I'm particularly excited about this piece, as the individual depicted is not only a longtime resident of Nantambu, the Mwangi city famed for the Magaambya school of magic; she's also an aasimar. I suspect this won't be the first time we see the "Dealer in Dreams both Tangible and Ephemeral" known as Aya Allahe.

Happy Gaming!

John Compton
Developer

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Leapin' Lizards (Part 2)

Friday, August 22, 2014

Several months ago, among the earliest Lost Coast preview blogs, I revealed a few of the set's scaly denizens. This week we return from Gen Con with three more reptilian foes heading your way in November.

Here we have the weird-headed Goblin Snake, a vile creature that made its original debut way back in Pathfinder Adventure Path #1: Burnt Offerings, our very first Pathfinder product. As the Rise of the Runelords campaign that adventure kicked off takes place in Varisia's Lost Coast region, it seemed a fitting time to let this guy slither out from under the rockpile he's been hiding in over the last seven years. Goblin Snakes occupy the low end of the "heads on snakes" niche that places them as distant—if unacknowledged—cousins of the more powerful nagas. You can find their statistics on page 132 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3. The Goblin Snake is a Small, common figure.

This not-so-little guy leaked out a few weeks ago when a canny retailer snapped a photo of one of my sales presentations, but here he is in all high high-res glory. What we have here is a particularly menacing Large Green Dragon, the latest in my quest to do all of the major dragons at all of the major size categories. We're a bit behind with Greens, but this guy is a good start and a fitting progeny for the Gargantuan Green Dragon case incentive for the Legends of Golarion set. The Large Green Dragon is a rare, Large figure.

Metallic dragons seldom get the love of their chromatic brethren when it comes to miniatures (prepainted or otherwise), something we'd like to address with Pathfinder Battles. Here we have a striking Large Bronze Dragon to lead the charge for goodness. The Large Bronze Dragon is a Large, rare figure.

Feiya Update!

We had a series of very productive meetings with our partners at WizKids last weekend at Gen Con, and I'm pleased to report the final details of the replacement figures for the insufficient Feiya, Iconic Witch figure from the Reign of Winter set.

As I mentioned in previous Friday blogs, WizKids will replace badly painted Feiyas with better versions of the same sculpt through their normal figure redemption service at WizKids.com. Folks who want to swap out their figures one-for-one are encouraged to use that system. That said, sending your figures in to WizKids involves the time, effort, and expense of putting something in the mail, and WizKids wanted to put forth some extra effort to make things a bit easier for loyal supporters of the Pathfinder Battles line.

I'm pleased to report that for the next set, Lost Coast, every case of figures will include one "super pack" among the rest. In addition to the four standard figures in that pack, the pack will ALSO include a FREE copy of the revised Feiya figure.

IN ADDITION, that super-booster will also include a previously unannounced improved repaint of the much-maligned King Irovetti figure from Legends of Golarion, the figure that had, prior to Feiya, been the most disappointing slide from paint master to production figure. WizKids' figure replacement service will also handle requests for improved versions of that figure. I'll let everyone know in this space when the replacement figures are ready—they're at the factory now, so it's safe to assume they will be closer to the November release of Lost Coast set.

Both of these figures will be identical to their previous versions, albeit with vastly improved paint jobs. The base text and sculpts will be exactly the same.

And that's all I've got for this week. Stay tuned for more cool reveals next Friday!

Erik Mona
Publisher

It's a Brand New Day!

Thursday, August 21, 2014

If you're a regular poster to the paizo.com messageboards, you may have noticed that we now have a link to our Community Guidelines in the reply box to each thread and private message. What is this change exactly? Well, we've aggregated a lot of feedback from our Website Feedback forum, email, and among our staff and these new guidelines are the result.

You might be wondering, "What does this change actually mean for me?" or "What is this meant to actually accomplish?" These new guidelines are intended to make our moderation goals more transparent and lessen the ambiguity of our decisions. It's also meant to better facilitate issues that may arise and enable our moderation staff to react more efficiently.

There are a lot of people signing up to post on paizo.com daily, and as Paizo and Pathfinder continue to grow in popularity, we want to make sure that your voice can still be heard. So check out the new Community Guidelines, let us know what you think, and thank you for your feedback and continued support!

Chris Lambertz
Digital Products Assistant

Reign of Stars Sample Chapter

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Alaeron and Skiver return in Tim Pratt's brand-new Pathfinder Tales novel set against the backdrop of the Iron Gods Adventure Path—Reign of Stars!

When the leader of the ruthless Technic League calls in a favor, the mild-mannered alchemist Alaeron has no choice but to face a life he thought he'd left behind long ago. Accompanied by his only friend, a street-savvy thief named Skiver, Alaeron must head north into Numeria, a land where brilliant and evil arcanists rule over the local barbarian tribes with technology looted from a crashed spaceship. Can Alaeron and Skiver survive long enough to unlock the secrets of the stars? Or will the backstabbing scientists of the Technic League make Alaeron's curiosity his own undoing?

Chapter One: Intangible Assassin

The perimeter alarms howled, and Alaeron—master of the alchemical arts, student of the arcane, and hater of unexpected visitors—carefully capped the lead flask hissing and bubbling on his worktable and wondered which trap would kill the intruder.

The simple spike-and-pit traps in the back yard were haphazardly covered with dead leaves and unconvincing bits of sod, and were meant to be noticed—burglars who attempted to avoid those would almost inevitably step on an ingeniously hidden catapult that would fling them back over the wall. In theory, anyway. When Alaeron had tested the trap with pigs and goats, about ten percent of the subjects had been thrown at an awkward angle and splattered into the wall instead. But anyone who chose to ignore the spikes and quite realistic-looking skulls and climbed over the wall anyway deserved whatever fate befell him.

If unwelcome visitors managed to avoid the catapult, their approach to the back entrance would take them through a field of reactive caltrops of Alaeron's own invention. His friend and patron, Skiver, said they were basically just bear traps with unnecessary barbs, but bear traps merely snapped shut; these would bite down, and then start chewing, sinking in the barbs and pulling them out again. They were a fine area denial weapon and he had high hopes of selling them to the Andoren military if the generals ever got over their aversion to what they termed "gruesome violations of the honor of the battlefield." There were less scrupulous governments who would be delighted with the weapons, but Alaeron was enough of a patriot to refuse to sell anything that might be used against his own people. Andoran was the greatest nation in the world, forward-thinking and idealistic, even if its generals did make poor ordnance-purchasing decisions.

Any intruders who made it past that threat—presumably by levitating—would trigger a cloud of acid when they got within ten feet of the laboratory proper, a spray deployed from nozzles hidden in the rather garish topless female statues Skiver had installed on either side of the door in a misguided attempt at a housewarming present. The acid was a new formula Alaeron was working on, a short-acting compound that should serve to dissolve clothing and flesh and muscle and organs, but leave the bones intact. Alaeron could always sell skeletons. He wasn't particularly interested in anatomy or necromancy, but he corresponded with other researchers who were. Intruders in heavy armor would probably just have their armor and skin stripped away, leaving the organs exposed, which would be terribly messy, but it was hard to imagine someone in full plate climbing over the wall and making it through the other traps unscathed anyway.

Anyone making it past that—some kind of acid-resistant golem, perhaps—would have to stand on the steps, or touch the door, and needless to say, no visitor who wasn't expected could possibly survive that. True, if someone made it that far Alaeron would have to install a new exploding door, but he had heaps of those in storage, as they'd proven strangely unpopular among the wealthy and security-conscious Andorens he'd expected to buy them. Those would-be customers had insisted that not all unexpected visitors deserved to be killed automatically, which made no sense to Alaeron at all—how could you get any work done if you just let anyone show up on your doorstep at any time with no consequences? Alaeron supposed his measures were overkill if you were simply worried about door-to-door salesmen, religious zealots, and those seeking alms for the poor, but surely he wasn't the only person in the city of Almas who was regularly menaced by unannounced and heavily armed would-be assassins?

Alaeron watched the softly glowing crystal globes on the wall, which indicated the smooth operation of his various defense mechanisms. They would turn red if they were triggered...but they remained steadfastly green. Perhaps he should have installed some sort of mystic eye or magic mirror to give him a view of what was going on out there—but watching thieves, spies, and Technic League assassins die didn't particularly interest him.

When he heard the knocking sound, he initially assumed it was one of his more lively experiments trying to escape from a box. It was only when a voice called, "I bring a message from the north," that Alaeron realized it was the sound of someone knocking at the inner door of his laboratory, which should have been utterly unreachable. The knock itself was peculiar, though: more of a rattling rat-a-tat than the usual thump of a fist.

Alaeron considered the various bottles within arm's reach. There were extracts that, when consumed, would give him superhuman, feral strength, and if he wanted a more direct approach, there were bombs, and even acids—the latter mere reagents for other concoctions, but they'd prove quite effective if flung at any exposed skin or mucous membranes.

But if the visitor had made it through his outer defenses unscathed, none of those were likely to do any good. Clearly something more formidable was in order. Alaeron called, "Just a moment!" He lifted the weapon concealed beneath the worktable, took aim, and twisted the knob.

This particular weapon—he called it the Wave-Maker, because it transformed solid matter into an equivalent volume of water, which always tended to make a splash—was looted from the last Technic League assassin who'd tried to kill Alaeron. The would-be murderer had reduced a portion of Alaeron's outer wall to liquefied mud with the weapon before blundering right into a trap that released a tiny spurt of a compound made from the glands of a blue dragon that instantly turned all the liquid in his body into sand. The manner of his death, given the weapon he came armed with, was almost ironic.

A shimmering beam shot from the rounded end of the Wave-Maker, and the whole delicately curved and articulated weapon hummed with the usual minor seventh chord. The inner door and a portion of the wall turned to water, showering down into a messy puddle, and revealing the lean, tall, long-haired form of a Kellid beyond. The northern barbarian's cold and watchful eyes looked at Alaeron levelly, and despite walking directly through the path of the beam, the man was not even remotely liquefied.

Alaeron winced and put the weapon away. "Incorporeal?"

The Kellid nodded.

"I remember Gannix of the Technic League was experimenting with an artifact from Silver Mount that rendered things incorporeal," Alaeron said. "But his test subjects kept falling straight down into the bowels of the earth. I suppose someone else took up his researches after his death and managed to solve the practical problems. Hmm. Clearly the effect is aura-based, since your clothing is also incorporeal. Combined with a levitation effect to keep you on a level plane, I assume? That's how I would have approached it."

"I have not come to discuss my—"

"Hmm. Did you make yourself solid again to knock on the door? Seems like a dangerous gamble, since if you gave up incorporeality I could have killed you in any number of ways through the door. But there was something funny about that knock..." Alaeron snapped his fingers. "Wait, I know that sound—you threw pebbles at the door, didn't you, like a suitor flinging stones at a lover's window? So you can pick up stones, and they become incorporeal, and when they leave your aura, they become solid again. How interesting. Not very sophisticated, but elegant in its simplicity, I suppose."

"You like to talk," the assassin—for what else could he be?—said. "You would do better to listen."

"And so I will, the moment I hear something interesting. I assume you've come to kill the thief, the apostate, the runaway apprentice? Er, those are all me, I mean. All three." Alaeron was sitting on a stool, and the stool was on top of a trapdoor. With the right shift in pressure, he could trigger a lever, drop through the trapdoor, and slide down a greased chute into a heavily fortified safe room, which would be worthless against a person who could walk through walls. Alaeron wondered how the Kellid would strike, given his incorporeality. Throwing knives, perhaps, becoming solid when they left his aura? Perhaps a sling or a slingshot? Even a crossbow. The possibilities were, if not endless, at least numerous.

Alaeron had killed four League assassins in the past year and a half—none as formidable as Kormak, the first of them, who'd pursued Alaeron to far continents in his zeal. It would be a shame to die now, at the hands of yet another servant of the League, even though, statistically, Alaeron had always known his luck would run out and his planning prove insufficient someday.

But, apparently, not today. "I am not here to kill you," the Kellid said. "I am here to deliver a message, and a gift."

Alaeron grunted. He had, briefly, served as an apprentice to the Technic League, a group of vile arcanists who plundered the riches and relics of Numeria, where long ago a ship—or a city, or something stranger—had fallen from the sky and crashed into the earth, scattering its bizarre and powerful mysteries across the breadth of the land. Alaeron, always fascinated by forbidden knowledge, had been unable to resist the appeal of such a place, though the members of the League revolted him, as they were slavers and tyrants who were only interested in power, not the deep secrets of the universe. After certain misadventures in Numeria he'd escaped with a sack full of relics...and ever since, the League had been trying to get its stolen property back, and take revenge on him, too. In the process, the League had allowed Alaeron to steal even more property from its failed assassins, which only made its leaders want to kill him more. It was a vicious circle, though it also served to enrich Alaeron, so it could have been worse.

"Is this message mostly in the form of curses and inventive profanity?" Alaeron said. "And is the gift poisonous, or explosive, or both?"

"The nature of the message has not been disclosed to me," the Kellid said. He reached into his pack and then tossed a wooden box slightly larger than a human head toward the lab table. When the box left his field of incorporeality, it became solid and landed with a thunk. Alaeron sucked air through his teeth in dismay—there were substances on the table that did not react well to being jostled—but nothing blew up or bubbled over, so no harm done—this time.

"I am staying at the Succulent Eel, near the docks," the Kellid said.

Alaeron blinked. The Eel was rather exclusive, in a very particular way. "Really?"

The Kellid continued in a bored tone. "I will be there for the next two days, if you wish to send back a message." With that, he departed, passing through a wall and out of sight.

Alaeron carefully examined the box from all angles. It was made from an unfamiliar pale wood, with unsettling patterns in the grain that made him think it had come from a tree twisted by magical forces. The nails holding it together were shiny and uniform, the sort of precision work he'd grown accustomed to seeing during his time with the Technic League. He didn't see any indication that the box was trapped, but he wished briefly that he'd hired an assistant at some point anyway—someone disposable to pry open the box while Alaeron himself stood some discreet distance away, perhaps behind a wall of stones and steel.

He swabbed the edges of the box with certain substances that reacted to the presence of alchemical explosives, and they turned up no sign of such dangers. After a moment's thought he went to another worktable in the long, high-ceilinged laboratory and returned with an augur. He drilled a coin-sized hole in one side of the box, then activated an alchemical light-stick and peered inside by its illumination. How embarrassing it would be to open the box and be attacked by some venomous mutated Numerian serpent.

But as far as he could see through the hole, the box contained nothing but a folded sheet of parchment resting atop a small object wrapped in cloth.

There was such a thing as being too cautious, and in truth, Alaeron's elaborate precautions were just an attempt to offset his natural tendency to leap in without looking. You couldn't make bombs and mix acids and dismantle ancient relics for a living if you were overly worried about preserving your own life, limbs, and sanity. He'd crawled into many a barrow, burglarized many a library, and mixed many an unknown substance just to see what would happen, and if he hadn't grown a bit paranoid about the League's attempts to kill him, he'd likely still be leading such a reckless life, trusting in his own quick thinking and reflexes to keep him from coming to serious harm.

He'd rather hated traveling the world and adventuring when he was in the midst of it, but now, sitting here in his laboratory examining the treasures he'd won on those expeditions, he sometimes missed the excitement.

Alaeron took a chisel and hammer and prised off the top of the box. He lifted out the parchment, which was sealed with a blob of wax marked with the impression of a cogwheel, the Technic League's symbol. The wrapped parcel made him more curious—mysterious objects were, in a very real sense, his reason to live—but it was probably better to see what the letter had to say first.

He read it, stared at the wrapped parcel, read the letter again, then folded it carefully and put the lid back on the box. After that he descended through the laboratory's cellar, opened a panel in a false wall, deactivated the traps ahead by pressing the proper stones in the wall in the proper sequence, continued along a subterranean tunnel, reset the traps by pulling a concealed lever, and emerged through a similar hidden door into the basement of an empty house he owned some blocks away from his laboratory. From there he went out into the street, found one of the loitering street children who could be trusted to perform simple tasks for small coins, and sent the boy with a message to Alaeron's friend Skiver.

The message was simple: "Come quickly. I've just received a letter from a dead woman."

Coming Up Next: A story of loyalty and betrayal in Druma by Stephanie Lorée!

Tim Pratt is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novels Liar's Blade and City of the Fallen Sky, as well as the short stories "A Tomb of Winter's Plunder" and "Bastard Sword". His writing has won a Hugo Award, a Rhysling Award, and an Emperor Norton Award, as well as been nominated for Nebula, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Stoker Awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies such as The Best American Short Stories and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, as well as two short story collections of his own. His non-Pathfinder novels include the contemporary fantasies The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and Briarpatch; the Forgotten Realms novel Venom in Her Veins; and seven books in the Marla Mason urban fantasy series (as T. A. Pratt). He edited the anthology Sympathy for the Devil, and Rags & Bones with Melissa Marr. His books and stories have been translated into French, Czech, Dutch, Russian, Greek, Korean, Spanish, German, and several other languages. Visit his website and blog at timpratt.org.

Guess whose flight got canceled!

Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 10:29 AM Pacific

13 happy campers, extending Gen Con into the Best Five Days in Gaming!

Mark Moreland
Developer

Final PFS Numbers Count

Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 11:32 AM Pacific

We have our final tally of PFS RPG OP over the course of the four days at Gen Con.

Total tables - 1,476
Total seated players - 8,736
Total quest tables - 211
Total seated quest players - 842
Total new PFS numbers issued - 1,758

A huge thank you goes out to all HQ volunteers, VOs, GMs, and the player base. As I tell the VOs all the time, they are the best group of volunteers in the world and make my job much easier. Without the volunteers, we could not make PFS as awesome as it is. We have the best group of GMs and players as well. With the coordinated effort, we sat all real tickets among the 160 tables by nine minutes past the hour at the latest, and all generic tickets by 15 minutes past the hour.

I hope everyone had a fantastic time at Gen Con. Please feel free to provide feedback so we can improve next year's Gen Con experience. Finally, if you have any thank your or similar to pass on to the volunteers, please do so. They did a superior job and PFS went off with very few problems this year.

Mike Brock
Global Organized Play Coordinator

Pathfinder Society Organized Play helps support the Gen Con charity

Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 10:14 AM Pacific

The 10 PFS boons that we donated for the Gen Con charity auction raised $3,830! Awesome job Pathfinders!

Mike Brock
Global Organized Play Coordinator

The view of the PFS Gaming Hall after taking a potion of fly

Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 10:11 AM Pacific

This is what the PFS Gaming Hall at Gen Con looks like after taking a potion of fly.

Mike Brock
Global Organized Play Coordinator

Hidden Treasures!

Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 03:23 PM Pacific

The Advanced Class Guide, Iron Gods 1/6: Fires of Creation, and the Technology Guide all sold out today, but we've scoured our booth and calculated how many subscription pick ups we have left and... We found a few more copies of each! We'll put them out first thing tomorrow (Sunday) morning and when they are gone... they're gone! (You can still order them from paizo.com or pick them up from your FLGS).

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Adventure Card Guild in action!

Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 02:02 PM Pacific

Pathfinders hunting for the treasure of Jemma Redclaw.

Tanis O'Connor
Pathfinder ACG Designer

Kyra!

Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 11:26 AM Pacific

Such a detailed and great cosplay!

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Arrr Mateys, Get Yer Free Button for Saturday

Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 06:56 AM Pacific

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Fans' Choice for Best Publisher

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 07:29 PM Pacific

Gold: Paizo (Thank you so much folks, we love y'all too!)

Silver: Evil Hat Productions

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

ENnies for Best Product of the Year

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 07:26 PM Pacific

So much hard work, time and talent has gone into all the nominated products, congratulations for well deserved ENnies to

Monte Cook Games for their Gold ENnie: Numenera

Evil Hat Productions for their silver Silver ENnie: Fate Core System

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Best Game ENnies Go To....

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 07:20 PM Pacific

Congratulations to all the nominees and to the winners!

Gold: Fate Core System; Evil Hat Productions

Silver: Numenera; Monte Cook Games

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Gold ENnie for Best Supplement

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 07:14 PM Pacific

Pathfinder Ultimate Campaign!

Silver goes to Fate System Toolkit

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Gold ENnie for Best Monster/Adversary

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 06:53 PM Pacific

Pathfinder Bestiary 4!

Silver goes to Numenera: The Ninth World Bestiary

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

ENnies for Best Miniature

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 06:47 PM Pacific

Gold! Pathfinder Battles Wrath of the Righteous Case

Silver! Pathfinder Battles Wrath of the Righteous Gargantuan Demon Lord Deskari

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Gold ENnie for Best RPG Related Product

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 06:41 PM Pacific

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Rise of the Runelords Base Set!

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

We Be Excited!

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 06:02 PM Pacific

James Jacobs thrilled about the Gold ENnie for We Be Goblins, Too!

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Gold ENnie for Best Free Product

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 05:56 PM Pacific

We Be Goblins, Too!

(Silver goes to Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Quickstart)

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Gold ENnie for Best Cartography

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 05:50 PM Pacific

Wrath of the Righteous Poster Map Folio!

(Silver goes to Numenera Corebook)

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Gold ENnie for Best Interior Art

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 05:35 PM Pacific

Inner Sea Gods!

(Silver goes to Numenera Corebook)

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Gold ENnie for Best Cover Art!

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 05:32 PM Pacific

Mythic Adventures!

(silver goes to Achtung! Cthulhu)

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Panorama of the Pathfinder Society Room

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 05:23 AM Pacific

The Pathfinder Society Special is in full swing!

Mike Brock
Global Organized Play Coordinator

Cosplay from Gen Con 2014!

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 05:18 PM Pacific

Angela as Seoni, the iconic Sorcerer!

James Sutter
Managing Editor

Friday's Button!

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 11:59 AM Pacific

From the Advanced Class Guide our new iconic slayer!

He just wants to say hello!

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Gen Con 2014 PRD Update!

Friday, August 15, 2014

With the release of the new Iron Gods Adventure Path, we figured it would be a really cool idea to put the tools you need from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Technology Guide up on the Pathfinder Reference Document. Now that the books are in the hands of many gamers at home and at Gen Con, you can get started on planning your campaign by checking out the latest update to the PRD right now! While you're there, you may also notice that you can now access the content from the Bestiary 4. There are also some visual changes to help improve the experience for many who access the PRD from mobile devices like iPads, Android tablets, and various phones.

Be sure to check it out and leave your feedback in our reporting thread if you have any comments. The Paizo Skeleton Crew back here in Redmond hope you're having an amazing time at Gen Con!

Chris Lambertz
Digital Products Assistant

Gen Con Thursday Button

Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 10:04 AM Pacific

Get your free button at the Paizo booth! Stop by each day to collect a new design.

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Quinn investigates the Paizo booth line!

Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 09:19 AM Pacific

Thus year the line to get into the Paizo booth runs around the outside of
the dealer hall instead of inside. The line starts just to left of the
entrance to Hall J. See you soon!

Mark Moreland
Developer

Archer makes a menacing goblin!

Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 09:19 AM Pacific

At least one young fan is making the most of waiting in line for the Paizo
booth.

Mark Moreland
Developer

The Paizo booth line

Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 07:10 AM Pacific

This year the line for entry into the Paizo booth ruins outside the dealer
hall. Get in line just to the left of the entry to Exhibit Hall J. We'll
see you soon!

Mark Moreland
Developer

Ready for the First Wave!

Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 06:07 AM Pacific

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

The Runelords will rise again.

Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 05:49 AM Pacific

Stop by booth 203 and proclaim your allegiance!

Liz Courts
Webstore Specialist

Break time!

Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 12:55 PM Pacific

The booth crew takes a break and plots strategy for the next project to tackle!

Liz Courts
Webstore Specialist

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIVE!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Hey, Pathfinders.

I'm pleased, proud, and exhausted to announce that the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild Guide to Organized Play is now available for download! The card game team and our estimable Venture Officer community have put in many hours to bring this document to you, so we hope you enjoy it. We'll have printed copies available to read for those of you playing in the program at Gen Con, but for now, grab the PDF and get to reading!

If you're coming to Gen Con but don't have tickets for the sold-out Adventure Card Guild events, we might still be able to seat you with a generic ticket if you come to room 232 in the convention center. I recommend coming 15 minutes before slot start time to see if we can accommodate you.

Gen Con 2014 Adventure Card Guild Event Schedule

Thursday: 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM, 7:00 PM, 9:00 PM
Friday: 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM, 7:00 PM, 9:00 PM
Saturday: 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM, 7:00 PM, 9:00 PM
Sunday: 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM

As announced last weekend, due to a necessary delay in Class Deck shipments, Adventure Card Guild play will begin on Wednesday, September 3 at a store near you, with new scenarios released each Wednesday (except for Christmas and New Year's Eve Day) for the rest of the six-month Season of the Shackles! Don't see your store in the locator? Then they're not part of the program yet! Tell them to sign up and make sure they check the box to tell us they want to participate in the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild!

One more thing...

This arrived literally minutes ago.

See you all soon!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

Guide 6.0 and Changes to Pathfinder Society Organized Play

Monday, August 11, 2014

With Gen Con just four days away, we wanted to release the new and improved Pathfinder Society Guide to Organized Play (version 6.0) today so everyone has an opportunity to review it and discuss it before Gen Con. With the help of the Venture-Captains and Venture-Lieutenants, we have added several much-needed changes that we think will improve your experiences in Pathfinder Society play.

Most notably, the following changes will go into effect on August 14 when Season six kicks off at Gen Con:

• Removed aasimar and tielfing as legal race choices. Added kitsune, nagaji, and wayang as legal choices.
• The nation-based factions have transitioned to ideal-based factions. These new factions borrow some traits from past factions and introduce several new traits. Those who already have faction traits no longer appearing in the Guide to Organized Play keep those traits, but they are no longer available as options for new characters. If you are currently playing in a online game (PbP, VTT, etc..), you may finish the game with your character in its current faction. After the game is complete, you should immediately transition to one of the newer factions, with the exception of Grand Lodge and Silver Crusade.
• Updated the faction goals for season six.
• Added a new section in Chapter Five for special rules pertaining to Season 6, including information about time-worn technology and glitches.
• Updated the shirts available for free reolls, including the new ones that go on sale at Gen Con.
• Updated the art throughout to reflect the theme of season six.

There are quite a few more changes from version 5.1 to 6.0 so make sure to brush up on it before the new season starts.

Additionally, we have released the update to Additional Resources, including all of July and August books. That means you are able to get a few days to decide what new class you want to build from the Advanced Class Guide.

Finally, the Quick Start Guide has been updated to reflect the color scheme of season six, as well as a few changes in the text to match what is listed in the Guide.

We look forward to seeing all of the awesome VOs, GMs, and players at Gen Con, and are looking forward to an even more awesome campaign in the upcoming Year of the Sky Key. We sincerely appreciate everyone who provided feedback for the changes to the Guide for working together to make our organized play campaign the best itcan be for the player base, GMs, coordinators, and Venture-Officers. Feel free to pull us aside at Gen Con to chat about any or all of the above changes.

Mike Brock and John Compton
Global Organized Play Coordinator and Developer

Getting in Character at Gen Con

Sunday, August 10, 2014

As is yearly tradition, I'm happy to announce that Paizo's 7th annual Gen Con cosplay contest is nearly upon us! I'm always amazed to see what everyone is able to fabricate each year, and I know the rest of the staff absolutely adores seeing what everyone manages to surprise us with as well.

This years costume contest runs the same rules as previous years. In order to qualify for one of the prizes your costume has to be identifiably from Pathfinder or Golarion, so dressing up as one of the iconics or Squeely Nord would have you be eligible, while dressing up as a White Mage wouldn't. Wait—White Mages are a playable archetype now? Oh my!

Previous contestants from our 2010, 2012 and 2013 Gen Con contests!

Swing by the Paizo booth and have one of our staff members get a picture of you in your fine finery, and make sure to let us know who you are on the Paizo website so we can give credit where credit is due.

This years 1st, 2nd, and 3rd best received costumers will find $50.00, $25.00, or $10.00 in store credit waiting for them on their account after our community determines who their favorite Pathfinder personifiers are.

Gen Con is less than a week away, we look forward to seeing you all there!

Erik Keith
Customer Service

Late to Class

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Greetings, Pathfinders.

We hope you're excited for the launch of the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild—we certainly are!

Unfortunately, we've had some very bad news this week from our card printer. They had a problem with one of their presses, and many of the Class Decks they printed had to be destroyed. As a result, the retail release date for the Class Decks is moving from August 14 to September 3, and we won't be able to ship paizo.com preorders until shortly before that. And because you must have a Class Deck to participate in the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild, that means that retailers won't be able to launch the program until September 3.

The good news is that this won't stop us from launching the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild at Gen Con next week. Our friends at DriveThru Cards are rushing to print versions of the Class Decks that we can use in the Adventure Card Guild room, and we'll be providing printed character sheets for the characters you choose so you can register your character on Paizo.com and keep track of your rewards and deck upgrades as normal.

Our printer is also working to deliver some finished decks to Gen Con, though they may not arrive until later in the show. We promised a free Class Deck to any player who purchased 4 or more Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild events, and we will make those available for pickup in the PFSACG room as soon as they arrive. (And if the official decks arrive too late for someone to pick up, we will take that person's name and address and ship the chosen Class Deck as soon as copies arrive in our warehouse.).

We're very sorry about this situation, but we are committed to delivering the full amount of fun that everyone expected to have, albeit not on our desired schedule.

We still expect to have the Skull and Shackles Base Set and Character Add-On Decks to be available for purchase in the dealer hall, as well as all the available play mats and card sleeves from our partners at Ultra PRO.

Please use the thread below to ask any questions you need answered.

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

Friday Publisher Preview: Iconic Heroes Return!

Friday, August 8, 2014

Ever since our very first Pathfinder Battles release, Beginner Box Heroes, Pathfinder's iconic characters have been an important part of the product line. Each of our large sets has included at least one iconic character, and these heroes are often among the best-detailed figures of the bunch. They're also often the first to sell out, and command some of the craziest prices on the secondary market.

At the same time, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game has brought a whole new audience to Pathfinder, and many of them want to use miniatures of the iconics to represent their characters in play.

Starting in January, we'll address both of those issues with monthly non-random Iconic Heroes Boxed Sets. Each set comes complete with six figures—five iconic Pathfinder heroes and one associated creature, be it an animal companion, eidolon, or familiar. Each box also includes a unique Pathfinder Adventure Card Game card associated with each figure in the box—special boon cards unavailable anywhere else.

Iconic Hero Boxed Sets retail for $29.99. WizKids plans to apply "premium" paint jobs to these figures, using some of the very best figures we've produced to date as a quality benchmark. Although many of these figures have appeared in previous sets, the Iconic Heroes Boxed Set versions of the iconic heroes will come with completely original sculpts.

In order to get the details correct, WizKids has shifted this line to completely digital "sculpts." This has given us a great deal of control over the final figures, allowing us to get all of the little equipment and details absolutely true to the original Wayne Reynolds illustrations.

And here's a sneak peek at the digital sculpts for the first set! Please keep in mind that digital sculpts lack shading and some of the final details like patterns and symbols, so they can tend to have an unrealistic look that will not carry through to the final product.

Valeros, Iconic Fighter

Seelah, Iconic Paladin

Seoni, Iconic Sorcerer

Sajan, Iconic Monk

Lini, Iconic Druid and Droogami, Snow Leopard Animal Companion

Future sets will feature a wide array of iconic characters, eventually including every iconic we've done to date (including the ninja and samurai, and all of the classes from the Advanced Class Guide. Stay tuned to this space for links to product pages, previews of the cards, updated images of painted figures, and more as we get closer to January.

Next week I'll show off more of The Lost Coast set. For now, two more previews of the cool Gen Con-exclusive Pathfinder Minimates.

Here we have Isiem, the spellcasting hero of Liane Merciel's fantastic Pathfinder novel Nightglass facing off against an evil ghoul!

And our last two-pack is the elf ranger Elyana, from Howard Andrew Jones's novel Plague of Shadows facing off against an insidious Razmir Cultist!

All Minimates pieces are interchangeable. We will have limited quantities of these figures available for sale on paizo.com following Gen Con.

If you're at the show, please stop by the Paizo Booth (#203) to say hi and talk miniatures!

See you there!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Meet the Iconics: Adowyn

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Today we introduce the next of the new iconic characters from the Advanced Class Guide: Adowyn the hunter. Adowyn will also be a playable character in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Wrath of the Righteous set due for release in February 2015.

There’s always a need for a skilled hunter, someone who can track down a threat and put an end to it. And when a quarry is particularly dangerous or elusive, there’s only one hunter the people seek: Adowyn.

Born to a pair of skilled woodworkers in the quiet town of Crowstump on the northern border of Nirmathas, Adowyn was always a wild child, more comfortable sneaking around in the mud chasing the town rooster than practicing her letters or learning to carve. She grew up surrounded by peoples from far-away lands, merchants and traders who had come to make deals with her parents. Fascinated by their stories, Adowyn was eager to see the world beyond, and when a journey with her father finally gave her that chance at the age of 14, she was overjoyed.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

That joy was short-lived, however. Not a day after Adowyn and her father left home for the dark forest trails of the Fangwood, a diseased bear charged into their camp, savaging Adowyn’s father before she could even cry out. Using the bow her father had carved for her, she sank arrow after arrow into the beast, tears streaming down her cheeks. At last the bear fell. The creature was dead—but so was her father.

Lost in the woods, Adowyn found herself in the Blight, an area of the Fangwood where the trees grew thick with disease and rot. Worse still, she found that no matter which direction she walked, all paths led back to her meager camp. She spent six months alone there, hunting and scavenging what food she could find and honing her skills at the hunt. The beasts of the Blight were cunning and deadly, and making her the prey nearly as often as she was the predator. Yet all of that changed when she found Leryn.

Wounded by a fight with a rotting treant, the lean gray wolf was limping through a clearing when Adowyn chanced upon him. She knew right away that the wolf was not from this place, but rather was trapped in the Blight like she was. She approached him with a scrap of meat from her most recent kill, earning his trust. Over the following month, she nursed the wolf back to health and named him Leryn, after her father. She soon found that she could sense his mood, knowing instinctively when he was hungry, angry, or excited. They shared much with each other in those first months. She exulted in his feral appetites, his thrill of the hunt, and he learned to calm his urges, gaining her patience and determination.

Years passed, and the two became an inseparable team, learning to anticipate each other’s moves and hunting together as one. Now the whole of the forest was their prey, but still they could not escape the Blight. Indeed, the rot in the wood seemed to be growing worse by the day, and neither hunter could shake the sense of something just beyond their reach, stalking them but never revealing itself.

For months the tension grew. Adowyn and Leryn slept in shifts, keeping watch over their small hovel. Finally, in the dead of night, their mysterious watcher revealed itself, smashing the side of their home while unleashing a terrifying howl. Rolling out of the debris, Adowyn and Leryn rose to face the threat.

A gigantic bear rose up before them. Like the beast that killed her father, this one too was poxed, but it was far larger, with a sickly green foam spilling from its lips. Leryn leapt upon it, clawing and biting at its flank while Adowyn drew forth her bow. Taking aim, she sunk a shaft deep into its left eye. With an agonizing growl, the bear shook loose the wolf and tore off into the woods, with Adowyn and her friend in hot pursuit.

The chase lasted until dawn, when the Leryn's fangs finally managed to sink into the bear’s throat, bringing it down. The pair stopped over their kill to admire their work, and it was only then that they realized they were no longer in the Blight.

It was by sheer chance that they found their way to Crystalhurst, a community of druids in the southern Fangwood. They stayed there for a while, regaining their strength and sharing what they had learned with the druids, who swore to put an end to the Blight. The druids thought that Adowyn might make a fine disciple for their order, but her bond to Leryn perplexed them, as it was stronger than any they had ever known. In the end, they excitedly concluded that the pair must be something new entirely, and were eager to study them. Yet while Adowyn learned a great deal in her short time there, Crystalhurst was not a place she meant to stay. Soon, she and Leryn set out once more, intent upon returning home to see Adowyn’s mother and sister.

The young woman who returned to Crowstump was nothing like the girl that had left. The townsfolk kept their distance from her and the fierce wolf that padded along behind her. Returning to her home, she found only strangers. It seems that her mother and sister, heartbroken after the loss of Adowyn and her father, had left years ago to start a new life somewhere less troubled by painful memories.

In the years since that day, Adowyn has wandered the Inner Sea with Leryn at her side, working as bounty hunter. She’s stalked a naga through the bleak wastes of Osirion, brought back a master thief from the sewers of Oppara, and even managed to recover the tail feathers of the elusive Jade Hawk without harming the reclusive bird. The only quarry she hasn’t managed to track down is her own family, but that search never ends—one day, she’ll be reunited with her loved ones.

Adowyn is never found without Leryn by her side. To others, she is quiet and brooding, but she can frequently be found having animated conversations with her wolf, as if he were responding in kind. She wears the armor and garb of the rangers of Nirmathas, a gift she was given after hunting down a patrol of Molthuni regulars that were stalking behind the lines terrorizing small villages. The bow she carries is her father’s, a weapon she treats with reverence. In battle, Adowyn and Leryn single out their foes with grim determination.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

The Usual Suspects: Class Decks Preview

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Gather round, Pathfinders. I've got some secrets to share with you. It's the story of an unlikely group of adventurers whose journeys took them into the Eye of Abendego, out to the Worldwound, and beyond. How does the story end? Well, that's up to you to decide...

The Courtier

Graceful, talented, and beautiful, Siwar has ingratiated herself into the highest courts of the River Kingdoms. She is knowledgeable in topics ranging from art to politics and is highly schooled in etiquette. Though her talents might lead an observer to think that she is too delicate for the adventuring life, Siwar is happy to make eye contact with that observer, smile impishly, and direct him to do her bidding.

Siwar Illustration by Florian Stitz

The Scholar

In the city of Oenopion, Zarlova is a well-known professor at the Hive, an academy of wizards and clerics working in concert to unravel mysteries left by the god Nethys. A master of The Book of Magic, Zarlova routinely ventures from the halls of academe to spread knowledge among the unenlightened. Her mastery of offensive magic makes her a valued ally on any adventure.

Zarlova Illustration by Tim Kings-Lynne

The Legbreaker

Tontelizi's rough-and-tumble past began with a stint as an enforcer in his family's shady business. Because of his short stature, some mocked him with the nickname "Legbreaker." They soon found their ability to walk severely compromised. After retiring from daily enforcement detail, Tontelizi found himself missing the simple pleasures of maiming and intimidation. He now wields his polearm as a mercenary for fun and profit.

Tontelizi Illustration by Jorge Fares

The Gamekeeper

Dwarves laboring in the mines of Kalsgard have limited exposure to the animals of the forest, but Agna has trained in the wilderness, and she's introduced many beasts to the lands below the earth. Ready to fight with a weapon in either hand, Agna can make you think she's your biggest threat, right before a trained bear attacks you from behind.

Agna Illustration by Eva Widermann

The Death Whisperer

Wu Shen loves death as if it were an actual person. She speaks of death as "her lover," and listeners may mistakenly believe she is referring to a mortal. Each time she brings a monster to its grisly end, she savors a moment of hope that death will acknowledge her as its favorite. To add spice to her devotional gifts, Wu Shen often chooses unique or difficult ways to complete her kills.

Wu Shen Illustration by Alex Tooth

The Trickster

Qualzar's heritage includes mischievous fey who curdle milk, tie shoelaces together, and generally make nuisances of themselves. He claims to not understand why others find his humor malicious, but in truth, he doesn't care. He's willing to hurt others for the sake of a pun or a punch line, and he's got a book of plucked fairy wings to prove it. His mind-melting spell blasts and mesmeric powers are almost always turned on enemies, so it's probably safe to adventure with him.

Qualzar Illustration by Kostja Schleger

The Necromancer

The power of the dead courses through Darago's thin veins. It's a rare wizard who can traffic with the unliving and retain most of his soul, but so far, Darago has resisted the baser desires of most necromancers. Still, his chilling voice and devilish sense of humor will surprise even the most hardened mercenary. After all, he will happily battle at the side of any adventure while she lives... and perhaps for a short time thereafter.

Darago Illustration by Diana Martinez

I hope you've enjoyed this preview of some of the new characters and cards found in the Class Decks. Preorder one now and get ready for the Adventure Card Guild, launching in just two weeks!

Also, make sure you check out Erik Mona's Publisher Preview on the Paizo blog this Friday. (It's a weekly blog that mostly talks about Pathfinder Battles pre-painted plastic miniatures.) Pathfinder Adventure Card Game players, be they miniatures lovers or not, are going to want to read this week's installment.

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

Queen Sacrifice

by Steven Savile

Chapter Four: A Burning Love

Caron stumbled as the urdefhan threw her into the cage.

She went sprawling across the ground as the shadow man slammed the cage shut and fired the bolts into place. Pain lanced up her thighs as she landed on her knees and pitched forward.

A voice in the dark. "Caron?"

It was Caleb. The boy scurried forward and threw his arms around her.

She wrapped her arms around him in turn, pulling back for a moment when he winced at her touch. Beyond the cage, a single torch provided enough light to expose the bruising and stains of dried blood where he'd been beaten.

"How bad is it?"

"I'll live," the boy said, firelight reflecting from the tears running down his cheeks. She wanted to tell him he was safe now, that she wouldn't let anything bad happen to him, but she said nothing. There was no point lying to him.

More urdefhans gathered around the bars, watching them intently.

She pushed herself up to her feet, standing protectively in front of Caleb. "Let him go," she said. "Let him go and you can have me."

One of shadow men moved closer to the cage, pressing his face close to the bars. He stood directly in front of her, close enough to reach out and touch, his vile organs bright in the dim light, and inclined his head to one side. "I already have you. You have nothing to bargain with. Nothing I want that I don't already have."

The laugher was accompanied by a strange gurgle as if coming through liquid in the creature's throat. He turned his back on them and walked away. The others followed in his wake, leaving the two alone again in the dark.

Caleb rose slowly to stand beside her. He wasn't steady on his feet.

Caron turned to look into his eyes, only to see the shadow of a ghost.

For a heartbeat it was as if she faced Neve, the boy's mother, but it was different now. Neve was an old ghost. Everyone carried old ghosts. It was how the living moved through the world that was important, not the dead who walked with them.

"It's going to be all right," she said, running her fingers through his hair.

"It's not, is it?"

"You father's waiting for you," she said. "I promised him I'd get you out of here, and I will."

"But how? How do we get out of here?"

She didn't have an answer to that. She hadn't thought that far ahead. "Our chance will come," she said, making another promise she didn't know she could keep. "Can you find your way back to the stairwell?" She couldn't, not without going back through the fissure the tunnel rat had led her down, and she had no idea where that fissure was because she'd been unconscious when the urdefhans dragged her here.

He nodded.

"Good. You have to be ready. No matter happens. When I tell you to run, you run. Promise me. You run and you don't stop running until you're at the top of the stairs." The boy nodded, rubbing away his tears. "Be strong, son."

"Yes, mother."

It was the first time he'd called her that.

She couldn't let it get to her, even though she felt a surge of love for the boy. They both needed to be strong. The darkness weighed heavy on them. There was no easy way of knowing how long they would be alone down here. She could only pray that Keir wouldn't get it into his head to come and save them. She needed to know he was up there, ready to help them get out of this hell if she could work the opportunity to escape.

But that time in the darkness gave her time to think.

She needed a plan, which meant trying to think through her moves, and think how the shadow men would react to them. This was their element. Down here they were kings. For all of her skills, for all that she had dedicated her life to the land, to nurturing it, this, down here, this was a different kind of evil. It existed purely to cause pain.

In the distance, hammers and the grating of stone haunted them as work continued endlessly on the urdefhan outpost.

The cage would have to open soon. They'd want Caleb to work. Would they use her, too? Would she get a chance to fight their overseer and buy Caleb a few precious seconds to run for the stairs? Or would they keep her imprisoned while they worked him into the ground, knowing what she was from the sigil of Erastil on her travel-worn cloak?

She unclasped her cloak and bundled it in the corner of the cell, as though making a pillow to rest her head.

Her one hope came from the possibility of the urdefhans underestimating her. If they saw her as some helpless human, not the warrior she was, then maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to do something.

She thought about huddling at the back of the cage, forcing them to come in and get the boy. It was an option, but not much of one. Since she had no weapons, she needed to turn the environment into her weapon, and that meant using the cage somehow. It was the only thing she had. Of course, she was her own best weapon.

So she waited, leaning against the bars rather than pacing the confines of the cell. She didn't want them to know she was a bundle of pent-up energy. Let them think she was beaten.

The sounds of work continued. She heard screams and what could only be the feeding frenzy that followed a fallen worker.

Then they came for the boy.

"You. Come here," one of them barked, pointing at Caleb while the other opened the lock to release him. Caron pushed herself to her feet and put herself between them and Caleb, ready for the moment the door swung open. He started to move toward the open door. She held out an arm to stop him. "I'll work," she said. "I'm stronger than I look. Let him go. I'll carry his load as well as mine. Just let the boy go." She kept on talking. What she said wasn't important, it was purely meant to keep their eyes on her.

"Quiet, human, your turn will come. Give us the boy."

She stepped aside, seemingly in surrender. The side step took her just out of line with the open door. It was a single step, but it might just save Caleb's life—if the gods were on his side.

With their eyes on him, Caron kicked out hard—not at the urdefhan, but at the door, sending it swinging into the shadow man's face. Metal jarred against bone on both sides of the iron door. The creature staggered backward, momentarily dazed.

Its sword clattered to the floor. The door swung open on rusted hinges.

This was it.

One chance.

Ignoring the pain lancing up her leading leg, Caron threw herself out of the cage, rolling fast and snatching up the two-bladed weapon as she rose. It took all her strength to lift the sword. She screamed as she swung, all of her weight behind the blow. The blade's keen edge sliced into her captor, opening it up before it could raise its own blade to fend her off.

It fell to the ground spilling its lifeblood into a dark pool that quickly surrounded its body.

"Run!" she rasped, knowing that her scream must have alerted others of their kind. The echo of running feet confirmed her fear.

She despatched the stunned urdefhan with its own sword. There was nothing merciful about the action; she couldn't leave an enemy at her back. The scent of blood would only bring on the frenzy, though, drawing them like piranhas.

They had to get out of there.

An urdefhan wants nothing but war and death.

Caleb was already twenty feet ahead of her, running hard, arms and legs pumping in a terrified sprint. She ran after him—as fast as the heavy blade would allow. She couldn't hope to catch him, not carrying the sword, but without it she wasn't getting out of here. That was the grim reality of it. He was thirty feet ahead now, and gaining ground every second they ran. She thought seriously about casting the blade aside and just running, but she knew that she'd never make it.

It was an illusion; a lie of the acoustics. The shadow men circled around them, herding them toward death. Without the weapon, she'd be helpless to make good on her promise to Keir. With it, she had a chance. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless. She'd get the boy to the stairs, and then just pray Erastil was with her for one last time, deep in the darkness of this damned place.

She pushed herself on. She couldn't slow down, even as her lungs burned and the bitter acrid air of this hellish place clawed at the back of her throat. She ran. And she prayed.

Caleb ran close to the scaffolding constructed along the outer walls of the subterranean outpost. Up above, Caron saw slaves watching him run. They were lit by oil burners along the wooden platforms. The flames didn't so much as flicker and the slaves didn't whoop or cheer. The whole thing was eerily quiet. They'd seen others make a run for it, only to be herded like cattle by the urdefhans and then set upon. Every time it happened it only served to drive home the fact that no one got out of this hellish place alive.

Theirs weren't the only eyes watching them run.

She saw the organs of the urdefhans radiating rich spots of color in the dark, like malevolent fireflies swarming around them.

Caleb was fifty feet ahead now, dangerously alone should the shadow men attack.

They were creatures of the dark; they didn't need the oil fires. They lived their entire lives down here, hence the pigmentless nature of their skin. They didn't see light and shade like she did. He mind raced. Did they see by heat? She didn't know, but it was possible, wasn't it? And if that was the case, fire could effectively blind them if it was fierce enough.

If she could reach the bottom of the stairwell they had a chance.

"Run!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, not to urge Caleb on—the boy was flying—but to draw the shadow dwellers to her.

And then the first voice cried out from above.

One of the slaves urging her boy to run for his life.

The cry was taken up by a second slave.

Then a third.

In a few seconds the entire subterranean cavern echoed with that one word called out by first one voice, then a dozen and yet a dozen more, until it swelled into a baying chorus that brought the urdefhans out to silence it.

And then it hit her: down here chaos could be her fiercest ally.

Without thinking, she veered away from Caleb's disappearing light and ran, head down, toward the scaffolds, venting a wild cry as she hefted the double-bladed sword and unleashed a wild swing straight for one of the thick stanchions holding the precarious structure up. She knew even as she did that some of the slaves would be hurt by the collapse—but others could run. And catching one boy in a crowd of frightened, panicked, and desperate slaves running for their lives would be so much more difficult.

With the oil burners toppled, the fire would spread quickly to the wood, consuming it with bright blinding light.

The collapse was fast as it was brutal. And deafening.

Caleb faltered, looking back over his shoulder.

Caron urged him on. They had seconds, not minutes.

The sounds of pursuit came from every direction. Flames moved in the dark space that was the distance. She saw children streaming down from the collapsed platform, bleeding and battered, hobbling toward the lights, each trying to help the other in a bid for freedom. They wouldn't get far, but it was better to die trying to taste freedom than it was to work slavishly to death only to become meat for the beasts. She couldn't save them all, and she couldn't wait for them to climb the stairs; she could only focus on Caleb. If any of them got out, then Erastil be praised, it would be nothing short of a miracle.

She saw her boy standing at the bottom rope of the wooden stairway that led out of the pit, ever upward finally to the sun.

And to Keir.

"Up!" she yelled as he hesitated.

Behind her came the sounds of dying.

The boy was rooted to the spot, staring at the chaos behind her.

"Your father's waiting. Tell him I love him. I love you. Now go!"

He snapped out of it and threw his torch on the ground to light her way, and started to climb.

She glanced over her shoulder.

Half a dozen rag-clothed children ran toward the light. Behind them came countless urdefhans, their vile faces twisted by the firelight. She couldn't wait for the children. But she couldn't damn them, either. She froze, great sword in hand, knowing she couldn't take the first step up toward freedom while they were so close and yet so far away. Her fate was sealed; she was going to die down here. That was the deal she offered the universe. One moment of divine intervention—these lives saved, her life traded.

And it would buy time for her son to flee.

No matter what she'd thought no more than a day ago, he was her son in every way that mattered. Family was about more than blood.

"Faster," she screamed at the children. "Run!"

She looked up to where Caleb was, near the first platform. He still had so far to go. He looked back down at her. She snatched up the torch he'd thrown down, and raised it above her head. Its flame burst into life as she swung it through the air.

He knew what she was about to do. She could see it in his face. She didn't want to look at him anymore. Now it was all about dying.

Queen sacrifice. It felt like forever since Keir had shown the boy the move.

She turned to face the oncoming blackness, holding out the burning brand in one hand, the urdefhan blade in the other, with just one single thought: keep the enemy at bay. Every moment could be precious, every heartbeat increasing the chance for Caleb to climb further out of their reach.

The first of the rag-clothed children reached her. She urged the girl up the stairs. Then the second and the third. But time was running out. The urdefhans were almost on them. The fourth and fifth made it to her together, but the sixth—a young boy clinging onto some childhood toy he couldn't bear to be parted with—was brought down by the first on the savage shadow dwellers. She should have let the child die, but she couldn't. She hurled herself at the creature, thrusting the flame in its face to drive it away from the boy, then dropped the blade to scoop the frail child up, and sweeping the burning brand through the air stepped back and back to the stairs. "Run for your life, little one," she whispered. Tears streaked down her face. One life for seven. That was a good thing. She couldn't think about the children who hadn't made it to the stairs.

The urdefhans gathered around her, coming close to the flame. The nearest released a gurgling cry that revealed its fear of the fire. But the torch wouldn't burn forever.

She dared not turn her back on them. When the flame died, so would she.

The last of the children was only twenty feet above her. "Keep going!" She yelled at them. There was one last weapon she could use, she realized. "Spill the oil from the burners!"

She had no way of knowing if they'd heard her, but a glance up into the shaft confirmed that they were climbing, Caleb lost to sight now as the slowly turning spiral promised to take him to his father.

The horde grew braver as the torch burned lower, looking to surround her. Caron defended the ladder with nothing more than the dying torch. They knew she was not going anywhere. They knew that it was only a matter of time. And they were faster than the children. It was useless to fight them. This was their world.

Caron felt a single drop of oil fall on her face. They'd heard her.

She retreated onto the first wooden step and with her empty hand reached out for the first oil burner, the only one the children had missed. She upended it, the oil splashing over her arm and down her left side.

The urdefhans came on, crowding the stairs, braving the flame.

Caron swept the torch through the air, causing it to ripple with the oil fumes.

She had to hope it was enough.

She had to believe the boy would make it all the way to the top.

She swung again and again, pushing them back until she felt more oil spilling from above. It wasn't a steady flow. She prayed it would be enough and touched the torch to the rope. A gout of flame rose from it and raced up the twisted threads. She dropped the torch to the floor. The wooden treads began to smoulder. It would be enough. It had to be.

"Remember, I love you, son!" she shouted again, not knowing if her voice would carry out of the pit, but needing the boy to know. They wouldn't catch him now. That was all she'd wanted. She'd kept her promise. It had taken everything she had, every ounce of strength was gone.

As though in answer, the flame caught her oil-soaked foot and leg, chasing up her body as she blocked the way to the children, burning bright, and carried on chasing after them up the stairs. The urdefhans howled their frustration.

There was no way past the burning woman.

Coming Next Week: The web fiction is taking a break next week for Gen Con coverage, but it will be back on Wednesday, August 20 with a preview chapter from Tim Pratt's brand-new Pathfinder Tales novel Reign of Stars!

Steven Savile is the internationally best-selling author of almost twenty novels and many more short stories, set in both original worlds and those of Primeval, Stargate SG-1, Warhammer, Torchwood, Dr. Who, and more. He won Writers of the Future in 2002, has been a runner-up for the British Fantasy Award and shortlisted for the Scribe Award for Best Adapted Novel, and won the Scribe Award for Best Young Adult Original Novel. For more information, visit his website at stevensavile.com.

Illustration by Dion Harris.

Iron Gods Player's Guide

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

"You never said anything about an android being on board! Why not?"

Some people have been scrambling for this Adventure Path since before we ever announced it, and I'm happy to say that the Iron Gods Adventure Path is finally here! Next week GMs across the world will be reading Pathfinder Adventure Path #85: The Fires of Creation and prepping for an exciting campaign in Numeria—the savage land of super-science—thousands of players are dreaming up all the possible characters they can play in this Adventure Path.

The Iron Gods Player's Guide gives advice and suggestions to help players make the best character they can that fits in with the themes and challenges presented in this campaign. In addition to these tips, the Player's Guide provides six campaign traits that help anchor any character to the story told throughout the Iron Gods Adventure Path, a brief glimpse at the town in which the campaign begins, and notes on some of the things to expect during the campaign.

Don't waste any time! Download the Iron Gods Player's Guide now! Suit up and head out, because somebody has to go out there and it might as well be you!

Adam Daigle
Developer

Advanced Class Guide Preview: Hunter

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Alright guys, this is it! The Advanced Class Guide releases next week and this is the final rules preview blog, featuring the hunter. When describing the druid class to a new player, you would often say something "She casts nature spells, turns into animals, and has an animal pet if you want". For the ranger, it might be "He fights well against certain foes in certain terrains and eventually gets nature magic and an animal pet if you want". The hunter is a hybrid of the two, and she pushes the pet up in that list, "She casts nature magic spells and has an animal pet with all kinds of synergies." Those of you who were watching my little teasers know that there's a tweak to the hunter that, while small in terms of wordcount, I think will have major repercussions in making the hunter awesome.Flavorwise, you might have been able to pull off some of the hunter feel before with a ranger or druid character. In fact, this class was the one that was the hardest sell to me as a playtester, as the first playtest version felt like you could make an archetype of druid that traded out wild shape for the hunter abilities and it wouldn't be too out of line for an archetype. Perhaps an alternate class at most. Basically, she was a prepared Wisdom-based caster like the druid, with the druid's BAB and skill points, mostly druid weapons and armor plus bows, using the druid spell list but casting with the 6th-level spellcasting advancement of a magus. She got a bunch of teamwork feats that the companion automatically shared, which was pretty cool, and a feature called animal focus that gave her and her companion a choice from a menu of small but generally useful buffs as a swift action with very limited uses.

Illustration by Subroto Bhaumik

Playtest feedback was mostly along the same lines—the teamwork feats were a good start, but hunter still had a way to go if she wanted to be able to hang out with the druids and rangers and hold her own. So she whistled for her companion and retreated into the woods to meditate on her nature. Though she hadn't made as many friends as she wanted yet, she wasn't lonely with her companion there. When she emerged, she had some substantial upgrades. For one, she could now use all martial weapons and despite the lack of proficiency, she wasn't restricted from wearing heavy armor if she wanted. More importantly, she gained earlier access on abilities like wild empathy, she scored free Precise Shot at level 2, and her animal focus now worked for about triple the number of minutes per day on her and permanently on her animal companion (she could still switch it out). She even cooked up a few new teamwork feats that worked great for a hunter.

But there was still plenty of good feedback about the hunter needing to change a bit more to find her niche. Many playtesters gave feedback that when running side-by-side comparisons of druids and hunters in their games, despite all the hunter had gained, she was still not doing as well as the druid. Unlike most of the other classes in my reveal blog, the hunter has plenty of new secrets to share, including multiple new class features involving using her link to scout and raising her companion from the dead. For melee hunters, that free Precise Shot freebie I mentioned can now be swapped for an extremely juicy early-access Outflank at level 2! If your companion dies in action, all the permanent animal focus powers instantly shift over to you, allowing you to stack up to four different powers onto yourself starting at level 8. The hunter even has 6 skill points per level now!

But the big change is so exciting, it gets its own paragraph. Remember how the hunter can cast spells from the druid spell list, up to 6th level spells? Well now, she can cast ranger spells too. And if they're on both lists, she casts them using the lower level. That's right, she's the only class in the game who can cast resist energy as a 1st-level character! Gravity bow, lead blades, and aspect of the falcon at 1st. Wind wall and spike growth as 2nd-level spells at 4th. The list goes on. She's also a spontaneous caster now, so she doesn't have to load up her slots with resist energy to still be able to cast it when you need it. So basically, for low levels, at least (particularly, 1, 2, and 4), the hunter is arguably a better caster than the druid in some situations (the druid still has the ability to prepare any spell from her list when you need that odd spell, so she still has her place), with better skills, better weapons, and a kickass companion. There's still plenty of reason to play a druid, but through one elegant change, the hunter has vaulted her way up to the point where I hope she will satisfy many of the playtesters who shape her new abilities.

Alright then, on to the archetypes! Today we'll be going on a hunt through the archetype section to stalk that cool-looking guy with the white tiger you see over there. He's definitely not the verminous hunter because he doesn't have a vermin companion, though he does look badass enough to be able to walk right through swarms. He's not the packmaster because he doesn't have several animal companions. While he definitely looks feral, he probably isn't the feral hunter because the feral hunter trades out the animal companion to gain permanent bonuses, wild shape, and boosts to summoned allies, though perhaps that's a summoned tiger by his side. He's also probably not the divine hunter, since even though I could believe he has access to a domain's powers and granted spells, that tiger doesn't look celestial or fiendish. So what's the conclusion? Well, I suppose he might be the feral hunter with a summoned tiger, but personally I think he's waiting to be your next PC! Anyone want to stat him up here in this thread? Perhaps it will help tide your salivating hunger for the final book. Soon, my friends. Soon.

Mark Seifter
Designer

Friday Publisher Preview: Feeling Iconic

Friday, August 1, 2014

As of this morning, we've officially crossed over into August, which means that Gen Con Indy is THIS MONTH. Please pardon me while I go curl up in a fetal position in the corner of my office and suck my thumb for a bit.

There, that's much better. As we march toward the Big Show, we've still got plenty of figures from November's The Lost Coast set of prepainted fantasy miniatures to reveal. Since we've been spending so much time previewing new iconic characters for the Advanced Class Guide these last few weeks, I've got iconics on the brain. So it seemed like a great time to preview the THREE iconics in this set.

Up first this week is Damiel, Iconic Alchemist. This wily elf enjoys brewing potions, throwing bombs, and morphing his body. WizKids did a fantastic job on the sculpt. While you can't quite make out his full backpack in this photo, I can assure you that it is just as complicated as the original Wayne Reynolds illustration. Lots of clear tubes and bottles on this guy, as well. Damiel is a Medium figure slated at the rare rarity.

Here is our iconic oracle, Alahazra. The image posted above is the paint master, so it's missing a lot of the intricate detail work that is stamped on during the factory process (this is called a "tampo"). Most of the really intricate sigils and designs on our figures are tampos, and it's always a little difficult to know how the final figure will look from the paint master.

Here's an in-production shot of Alahazra's tampo. Notice how this version of the figure contains a lot of design elements on the robes that the paint master lacks. Given the intricate designs on Alahazra's robes I was a bit worried about how this one would turn out, but I think it looks great. Alahazra, Iconic Oracle is a Medium, rare figure.

And, because YOU demanded it, here's our iconic pig, Squealy Nord. Old Nord figures in our "classic" (?) Free RPG Day adventures We Be Goblins! and We Be Goblins, Too!, and makes the perfect addition to the We Be Goblins Pathfinder Battles Builder Series we released last year. Squealy Nord is a Small, uncommon figure.

Minimate Update!

I've mentioned on previous Friday Previews that, in addition to four goblin promo figures we'll have at Gen Con, we'll also be releasing four Minimate 2-Packs featuring Pathfinder characters and monsters. Together, these 12 figures serve as an official "Preview" of the Pathfinder Iconic Heroes Boxed Set to be released in October.

This put me in the unique position to build the 2-Packs out of whatever creatures I wanted. You'll never guess who I picked first!

Here we have the unkillable OSTOG THE UNSLAIN VS. CAIRN WIGHT 2-Pack! Careful readers of paizo.com will no doubt recognize Ostog the Unslain as my own personal Pathfinder RPG player character, from James Jacobs's in-office Pathfinder campaign. Ostog's early stats appeared in the Pathfinder Chronicles: NPC Guide, and he recently featured in the backstory I wrote about his brother, the iconic skald Hakon. You might think it's corny for me to use my own player character as one of the Minimates, and you'd be right. What good is absolute power if you don't abuse it once in a while?

Facing off against Ostog is the Cairn Wight, a nasty undead variant creature from the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. Both Ostog and the Cairn Wight come with swords. The Cairn Wight comes with a removable helmet and a shield. If you really want, you could give Ostog the Cairn Wight's helmet and give the Cairn Wight Ostog's hair, because all Minimates parts are interchangeable. Just don't tell Ostog you got the idea from me, ok? We need to remain friends if he's to keep his "Unslain" title for four more levels until he retires...

The last set I'll reveal today is the HUMAN RANGER VS. LAMIA MATRIARCH. The Human Ranger was an early design prototype our partners at Diamond Select Toys put together, and when the time came to put together the preview set, I snatched him out of oblivion. Sure, he doesn't have a proper name, but he does have a cool hooded cloak, some sweet, sweet stubble, a bow, a quiver, and three arrows.

The Lamia Matriarch is probably responsible for more player character deaths in the Rise of the Runelords campaign than any other creature, so I just had to include her here. She comes with two curved swords, bracelets, and an amazing snake body.

I'll reveal the next two Minimates 2-Packs in next week's Friday Preview. Until then, I leave you with an image of the Godhead to watch over and bless your player characters for the rest of the week.

Erik Mona
Publisher

A Tale of Two Covers

Friday, August 1, 2014

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Class Guide is only a few weeks from release, and we're all getting excited about what the book has to offer. Over the last several weeks, we've revealed a ton of details about the 10 classes in the book, from hints at their game details to a look at the backgrounds of the iconic characters that represent them in the book's art. Looking over the final hardcover here on my desk, I'm enormously proud of the work our team has put into it, and I'm grateful for the tireless efforts of our playtesters, who made the Advanced Class Guide shine with their diligent testing and commentary. We could not have done this book without you, and we're all really pleased with how it came together.

With one major exception.

The cover of the Advanced Class Guide contains a huge error of the most embarrassing kind imaginable—we printed the book with the wrong logo.

That's right, the Advanced Class Guide, in many ways the most important release of the year, features the wrong logo. Instead of the "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game" logo, the hardcover's front cover features the "Pathfinder Adventure Path" logo.

The story of how something like this slipped through our assiduous quality controls turns out to be pretty boring. On the third round of back-and-forth changes after the book was sent to the printer, an image link somehow got changed, switching the logo to the wrong one at the absolute last minute. After the last minute, in fact. We have sign-off approval sheets for every stage of editing. Multiple employees sign off on the correct logos, on the trademark circle, on the "printed in country," basically on every single element of a book. But this error was introduced after all of those safeguards had been correctly adhered to, and the first time we noticed the mistake was when the first copies arrived from the printer.

Naturally, we were mortified and checked with our printer about turning around a ship with tens of thousands of copies of our book, destroying them, and reprinting from scratch. That effort would have cost more than $100,000, and resulted in literally tons of 99.9999% correct books going into a landfill. We've had considerable success over the last few years, but honestly there's a lot more that we can do with $100,000 to benefit the game above and beyond wiping some egg from our faces. Ultimately, after lots of consideration, we decided that it wasn't worth the expense to fix the logo.

And to be clear, the misprint concerns about three square inches on the front cover. The logo on the spine is correct. The logo on the cover page is correct. The logo on the back is correct. The logo on every spread in the book is correct. One image link broke, to one logo. Yes, it's the most important one, and yes, that's very embarrassing, but ultimately it makes no difference to the book's content. Many folks I've shown the book to did not even notice the difference, as the logos are very similar.

We've already shipped the book to a few distributors. Subscribers could start receiving them as early as next week. Many of you will notice the different logo, and will naturally have questions. I wanted to get out in front of that and explain what went wrong, and why we decided not to fix it.

It's a bummer. It's something we'll fix on subsequent printings, assuming that we do them. We considered making a sticker, or a paper wrap-around cover, or just about anything, but ultimately decided that it wouldn't make much of a difference. The covers are screwed up. Putting a little sticker over the mistake wouldn't fix the mistake, it'd just make the book look even more messed up.

So, yeah. Lame. The Advanced Class Guide has the Pathfinder Adventure Path logo on it. We apologize for the inconvenience this will cause to bibliophiles everywhere. Know that we feel your pain.

The book remains incredible, despite the cosmetic error. We're sure you'll really like it, and we've taken what steps we can to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future.

Thanks for your understanding.

Erik Mona
Publisher