Celebrating International Transgender Day of Visibility!

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Here at Paizo, we value and are proud of the many and varied perspectives that our employees, contributors, and community provide. Since March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility, we'd like to take this opportunity to celebrate and showcase transgender members of our community. Here are their thoughts in their own words!

Rigby Bendele, Venture-Captain: Gaming and queer experiences have always been tightly tied for me. After all, I've chosen to focus on the intersections of queer theory and gaming in my scholarship for a reason. RPGs offer possibility. Play is a way to try on new identities and explore areas of myself that I don't explore otherwise. Play has served as testing ground for me to decide what was and wasn't safe to disclose. I've found benefit in the failures I've experienced in RPGs. I learned what gender expressions didn't feel right for me through exploration in RPGs. These failed attempts at creating fantasized versions of myself helped me learn more about who I was and who I wanted to be. RPGs, particularly Pathfinder, offered me the opportunity of endless, unquestioned exploration. Without this, I wouldn't have been able to find a space for me that exists outside of the hegemonic gender categories we're placed into.

Since coming out publicly as nonbinary two years ago, I've found my role in my local gaming community a way to both educate others and provide support to other trans people. While I'll never claim that gaming alone can save us, it's important to me to ensure gaming communities are just. As a Venture-Captain, I've used my own standing in the community to create a more welcoming environment. As a result, I've had several members of my local area's organized play community feel safe enough to come out as trans. They've said that watching me live openly as trans made them see transition as a possibility for their own life. While being one of the first visible trans members of this community has come with rough spots, knowing that my visibility makes it possible for other people to be themselves has made all the challenges worthwhile.

Crystal Frasier, Author: Tabletop gaming was an important support for me when I was young and lonely and hurt by the world. I hated myself a lot back then, and RPGs gave me a brief few hours to not be myself and be someone I liked instead. In retrospect, it was pretty hilarious that the only times I felt like I wasn't pretending to be someone else were when I was pretending to be an elf or a superhero or a grizzled, postapocalyptic powersuit pilot. Now that I like myself and don't feel a need to hide, I draw on those same experiences of isolation, alienation, desperation, drive, and triumph to help inform my writing. While the circumstances of transitioning are unique to transgender and some intersex people, those emotions and experiences behind it are universal and powerful.

Melissa Guillet, Systems Administrator: I first began playing tabletop games in earnest shortly after 2nd edition AD&D came out back in 1991. I worked in the local small-town bookstore, and I met the man who would be my GM when he ordered the new books through us. He told me that I could play once I reached sixteen, and so when I passed my driver's test, I joined his group. I played with that group for about 15 years. They were mostly Army/Air Force guys, and they were my best friends who saw me through high school and a lot of other transitions in my life. I had a hard time at about nineteen when I was trying to figure out how I was going to make this all work, being poor and stuck in a small town in the Southwest. I hermitted away, and my gaming friends were the ones that came around, got me out of the house, and told me that whatever was the deal, they'd be okay with me. I didn't tell them during that time, but their kindness did put me at ease. That's when I began exploring more feminine aspects of myself in game; I started playing more and more women characters. One day, some friends asked me why I was starting to play more female characters all of a sudden. I played coy at first but couldn't quite bring myself to tell them—not yet. My best friend in the group, who was basically a brother to me, deserved to know first. If I could tell him and he would be okay with it, then, well, everything else would be okay. This was way back in the late 90s, I think, so things were quite a bit different. I wrote a letter and drove to his house and gave it to him, and then I sat in his living room while he read through the pages. I poured my heart out, and he told me that, no matter what, he'd always be there for me. And then one by one, I told my gaming friends. Not everyone was immediately supportive, but they all cared and loved me, and that was about as powerful a story for gaming and togetherness as I can make. Gaming meant having the support of people who loved me and wanted the best for me. So this story goes out to Gerald, Ben, Wade, Lanell, Mark, Keith, and some guy named GM (he's really named JD). I miss you guys. Thanks for being a powerful force in my life.

Sasha Lindley Hall, Venture-Agent: I feel that one of the biggest intersections between my gender identity and my love of gaming is in how I approach the details. Both of them are constantly evolving and changing and moving forward; as our understanding of gender and ability to extend our ideas grows, in parallel are the supposed limits of gaming (mechanically and culturally, both in game and out) pushed and discarded. At their core, gaming and gender are about freedom to me—the freedom to explore beyond myself and within myself. With them as prominent driving forces in my life, I am growing better every day.

Violet Hargrave, Author: While there were obvious-in-retrospect signs all throughout my life, what really made it click that I was trans was playing Pathfinder. I used to alternate playing men and women "for variety" until it sank in that all the women were fully fleshed-out characters I was really at ease inhabiting, while the men were all slight, shy, and weirdly prone to amassing magical and nonmagical disguises "just in case." Once you articulate to yourself, "I'm always a lot more comfortable as a woman," it's a lot easier to realize that it applies to more than just RPGs.

Isabelle Lee, Author: For me, roleplaying games and my trans identity are very closely linked. Gaming has been an outlet for that part of me for as long as I can remember, allowing me to experience the idea of life as a woman before I even knew I needed it and introducing me to the possibility of leaving one's assigned gender behind, while my transition has inspired a few of my creations in my time as a contributor. Accepting my gender identity gave me the confidence to decide that I wanted to be part of this game and this industry, and the friends I've made in the process (both of transitioning and of writing for Pathfinder) have enriched my life more than I can describe. I know I've been an inspiration to people, as both a writer and a trans woman, and I hope to keep on being one for a long time to come. ^_^

Jen McTeague, Author: Pathfinder was a large part of how I explored being trans in the first place. Komana Higgenstrom was my first female Pathfinder character, and I really enjoyed playing her more than the vast majority of my other characters. I didn't quite understand why at the time. After all, it would still be a year or two before I realized that I was trans. But when I started to question my gender and look back in my past for signs, those game sessions where I played Komana were a major clue that I was headed on the right track.

Nowadays, my trans identity affects a lot about how I play PFS. Since coming out, I've met a bunch of trans PFS players, and we've been supporting each other. In addition, while I'm no longer a VO, I still try to make the communities I'm a part of more friendly to trans people. This includes both talking with other organizers and pushing back against unfortunate words that are said at the table. After all, I had the great opportunity to use PFS as a jumping point for my transition, and I want other people to have the same opportunity.

Please join us in celebrating these incredible voices!

—The Paizo Staff

Critical Hits and Critical Failures

Friday, March 30, 2018

In the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook, when you roll your d20, there's more than just success and failure on the line. You can also critically succeed or critically fail at a variety of checks, from attack rolls, to saving throws, to skill checks and beyond. Rules like these have always been a part of Pathfinder—for example, if you fail a Climb check by 5 or more you fall, and if you fail a Disable Device check by 5 or more you set off the trap—but they are uncommon and not universally applied. In the playtest, we have a unified mechanic.

The Four Degrees of Success

In Pathfinder Second Edition, every check is rolled against a particular DC. Your roll on the d20 + your proficiency modifier + your ability modifier + all your relevant modifiers, bonuses, and penalties make up your check result. If your check result meets or exceeds the target DC, congratulations! You succeeded, and you might have critically succeeded. Otherwise, you failed. If you exceeded the target DC by 10 or more, or if you rolled a natural 20 and met or exceeded the target DC, then you critically succeeded. If your result was 10 or more lower than the target DC, or if you rolled a natural 1 and didn't meet the target DC, then you critically failed. Collectively, success, critical success, failure, and critical failure are called the four degrees of success. You can gain special abilities that increase or decrease your degree of success, often due to having a high proficiency rank. For instance, if your class grants you evasion, you get master proficiency in Reflex saves and treat any success on a Reflex save as a critical success!

Examples

Let's start with a fireball spell. In Pathfinder First Edition, if you succeed the Reflex save, you take only half damage, and evasion allows you to take no damage on a successful save. In Pathfinder Second Edition, here are the degrees of success for fireball (and many of its old friends like lightning bolt and cone of cold) in the playtest.

Success Half damage
• Critical Success No damage
• Failure Full damage
• Critical Failure Double damage

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Any character who critically succeeds takes no damage, and characters with evasion count their successes as critical successes. What about someone legendary at Reflex saves with improved evasion? They count critical failures as failures and thus can never suffer the deadliest effects of a Reflex save, even on a natural 1!

Not all effects list all four degrees of success. If an effect doesn't list a critical success entry, that means there is normally no special effect for critically succeeding, so you just use the result for a success. Similarly, if an effect doesn't list a critical failure entry, there is normally no special effect for critically failing, so you just use the result for a failure. If a success entry is missing, that means nothing happens on a success, and if a failure entry is missing, that means nothing happens on a failure. Let's take a look at an example that combines two of these rules: the results of a basic attack called a strike.

Success You deal damage, which equals the weapon's or unarmed attack's damage dice plus your Strength modifier if it's a melee attack, plus any bonuses.

Critical Success You deal double damage—you roll twice as many damage dice and add double the ability modifier and double any other bonuses to damage.

Let's unpack what this means. You deal damage on a success and double damage on a critical success. Since there is no failure entry, that means normally nothing happens on a failure, and since there is no critical failure entry, that means a critical failure has the same effect as a failure, so nothing happens. But the fighter might have something to say about that! The fighter can use the special certain strike action, which lets him strike with the following failure effect.

Failure Your attack deals the minimum damage. (Treat this as though you had rolled a 1 on every die.)

So with certain strike, a failed attack roll isn't actually a miss—your fighter is so skilled that you still get a glancing blow on a failure and miss entirely only on a critical failure! Meanwhile, a fighter with the twin riposte reaction can use one weapon to parry and attack with the other weapon whenever an enemy critical fails an attack roll.

Save or Lose

One of the effects of the four degrees of success that adds the most fun to the game is what this means for save or lose effects—effects where if you fail your save, you're unable to continue the fight. These sorts of effects are tricky in almost every roleplaying game, and Pathfinder is no exception. In Pathfinder First Edition, even if your character has a 75% chance of succeeding at your Will save against a mummy's paralysis, chances are pretty high that four mummies are going to paralyze you. (Thanks a lot for that encounter in your Pathfinder Society Scenario, Jason!)

It's tempting to just decide the solution is not to have save or lose effects, but that really cuts off a wide variety of classic feats, monster abilities, and spells from the game. The flip side of those abilities is that if they don't just win, chances are that many of these effects are just wasting a turn. So you either cast the save or lose spell and win, or you cast it and waste the turn. Having those as the only two outcomes is not a great proposition, and of course, players and GMs often maximize their DCs and saving throw bonuses in order to tilt the outcome to their side as much as possible.

But with four degrees of success, suddenly the design space broadens significantly. You can still suffer an effect that takes you out of the action entirely on a critical failure, and you can completely ignore the effect on a critical success. But on a failure, you suffer a powerful effect but not one that takes you entirely out of the fight in one go, and even on a success, you suffer a milder effect that is still useful for the spell's caster. For example, if you critically fail your save against dominate, you are completely under the spellcaster's control, but if you only fail, you can try to break out of the effect each round. On a successful save, you aren't controlled, but you still lose an action on your next turn as you struggle to fight off the mental commands, which could be a serious problem—you might not be able to step away before casting a spell, or have time to raise a shield.

Some Mysterious Critical Effects

I'm closing out with some cool critical effects that result from critical successes on your attack rolls or skill checks or from critical failures on your enemy's saving throws. See if you can figure out where they come from!

• The creature is banished and can't return to your home plane by any means for 1 week.
• The creature takes the full collapse damage and falls into a fissure.
• The target believes the fact for an unlimited duration.
• The target's intellect is permanently reduced below that of an animal, and it treats its Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom modifiers as –5. It loses all class abilities that require mental faculties, including all spellcasting. If the target is a PC, she becomes an NPC under the GM's control.
• The creature is pushed 30 feet in the direction of the wind, is knocked prone, and takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage.
• You grant a +4 circumstance bonus.
• Per a failure, except the target believes that everyone it sees is a mortal enemy. It uses its reactions and free actions against these enemies regardless of whether they were previously its allies, as determined by the GM. It otherwise acts as rationally as normal and will likely prefer to attack enemies that are actively attacking or hindering it.
• The target must succeed at a Fortitude save or die. Even on a successful save, the target is frightened 2 and must flee for 1 round.
• Your target regains Hit Points equal to 2d10 + your Wisdom modifier.
• Per a success, but even afterward, the target is too scared of you to retaliate against you.

Mark Seifter
Designer

Signal of Screams Adventure Path Announced!

Friday, March 30, 2018

Illustration by Pixoloid Studios

Early this year, we let you know that the Starfinder Adventure Path is going monthly starting in August, starting with the 3-volume campaign Against the Aeon Throne. While that Adventure Path is perfect for heroes who want to strike a solid blow against the sinister Azlanti Star Empire when they unlawfully annex a Pact Worlds colony, it will be over by November! We mentioned that we will be returning to the 6-volume Adventure Path format in February of 2019, but we have yet to say what's going on in between.

Well, witness as the shadows part to reveal terrible, twisted forms and soft clink of chains. I am so excited—rapturously so—to preach unto to you of the beautiful pain to be found within the Signal of Screams Adventure Path. It all begins when the heroes are treated to an all-expenses-paid vacation to New Elysium, a posh resort on a remote asteroid in the Diaspora. Things slowly begin to go awry, as all good things eventually do, and they will have to protect themselves and some of the other guests from a creeping madness infecting both the staff and the facility. Eventually, their adventures will take them to the Darkside of Verces and beyond as they struggle to overcome the architects of this affliction before it spreads to the rest of the Pact Worlds... and possibly into their souls!

Paizo's very own Chris Sims is writing the first adventure, "The Diaspora Strain," which is for 7th-level characters. That's right, your heroes can go straight from Against the Aeon Throne to Signal of Screams once they return to the Pact Worlds. After all, they deserve a bit of R&R after escaping from Azlanti space with their lives! This volume also includes a new system of corruption that will plague your heroes throughout the campaign written by yours truly, as well as advice for running horror campaigns in the Starfinder RPG written by Epidiah Ravachol, author of the incredibly popular indie RPG Dread.

It's going to be such a scream! From your players, of course.

Jason Keeley
Developer

Pact Worlds Player Options!

Thursday, March 29, 2018

In addition to a vast amount of information about the Pact Worlds themselves, the Starfinder Pact Worlds book also contains numerous new player options tied to specific groups and places within the setting. Some of this material, such as the many new themes (biotechnician, corporate agent, cultist, cyberborn, death-touched, dragonblood, dream prophet, gladiator, roboticist, solar disciple, space pirate, tempered pilgrim, wild warden, and xenoarchaeologist) is presented alongside the specific planets or societies within the Pact Worlds each item is most strongly associated with. In most cases such material is also useable for characters from disparate backgrounds, but it makes the most sense to present them in the context of the worlds and groups they are most likely to be connected with.

Other player options, such as the new archetypes, feats, equipment, spells, and races are gathered into a player support chapter for ease of reference. Like the themes, the archetypes (Arcanamirium sage, divine champion, Skyfire centurion, star knight, Starfinder data jockey, and Steward officer) exist to show ways in which player characters can be part of specific groups and benefit from the training and techniques those groups provide. Feats are a mix of those which are popular with numerous groups within the Pact Worlds (such as Close Combat) and those that provide a strong link to specific elements of the Pact Worlds (such as Divine Blessing). Much of the equipment has explicit links to some group that manufactures or uses it extensively (sword canes are popular on Absalom Station, the interposing weapon fusion was developed by the Knights of Golarion, and so on).

The new playable races presented all have very strong ties to the Pact Worlds, though the exact nature of those ties vary considerable depending on the race. Astrazoans are shapeshifters that often pass as other races, and may trace their origin back to Apostae. Bantrids are a race of rolling creatures that have awoken from a long hibernation on a shepherd moon of Liavara. Borai are an unusual form of undead, most common on Eox, where an undead spirit possess a still-barely-living host body. Khizars are a plant race that evolved on Castrovel. SROs (sentient robotic organisms) are highly-evolved true machine intelligences most commonly found of Aballon, with a wide range of appearances 9and existing in both Small and medium frames). Strix are one of the many orphan races of lost Golarion, who have managed to adapt to life among the stars. Each of these races is designed to take its place alongside the core and legacy races presented in the Core Rulebook, and each tie themselves to one or more of the worlds outlined in Starfinder Pact Worlds.

Given the vastness of even a single world, it's impossible to outline every interesting option players and GMs might wish to bring into their backstories and campaigns from the Pact Worlds, but our hope is that offering a few specific new options related to the worlds we're presenting will help represent the great variety found within the core of the Starfinder setting.

Owen KC Stephens
Starfinder Design Lead

Adventure Card Game Homebrew, Tower of Doom

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Today's PACG Homebrew Special blog is by Todd Alexander (Wilbur_Whatley), about a homebrew of a different kind. Todd wanted a new surface on which he could play our game and... well, he made something everyone in our office now wants. Take a look.

I've been a fan of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game for a few years now. My entire family played Rise of the Runelords, my wife and I played through Wrath of the Righteous, and I've played everything I could solo. All those decks and cards and layouts were getting hard to manage on the dining room table, and after fighting the cat for room on the table—again—it occurred to me it would be great to have my cards up off the table.

I had been surfing for Pathfinder images for a different project when I came across some photos of people making really cool custom boards for their favorite CCGs, and from there, the ideas began to flow. By the next night, I had come up with an exacting blueprint encompassing some of the ideas I'd been having fun with. (Warning: I can't draw a stick figure!)

The next weekend I found myself escorting the family to the local crafts store. I spotted some foam board for school presentations and remembered those homemade die-rolling towers I'd seen online. From there I walked around trying to imagine how everything in the store might work as part of a diorama. I picked up a couple sheets of moss and some pillars intended for a wedding cake. When I got home, I borrowed the lazy Susan from the kitchen, which made things easier to reach and work on. That also made it a circle, which really drove a lot of the implementation of things. A lot of what followed was more out of necessity than design. That also meant it evolved as I put it together, which was fun to watch.

It changed even more after we used it a few times. My attempt at water turned out to be not just a mess but also sticky and oily. Lesson learned: stick with modelling tools and supplies! I ended up covering the whole base in moss, which has turned out be a lot easier to use. It also made things look more like a miniature place that could be real, rather than just a rotating board.

That brought me to the next step in my Tower of Doom: greeblies. I had heard that term on an Adam Savage vlog and it clicked. Greeblies are tiny little details that movie effects artists add to props and models to make them more complex and multi-layered. They often take them from old model kits they keep around for this purpose. Well, I'm a geek—I have plenty of little things around the house that I could use, like a gargoyle kitchen magnet that is now a fallen piece of rubble. That was next to the Kyra figure I had from playing Mummy's Mask. Nearby was a Cthulhu miniature I picked up at Comic-Con.

Speaking of Cthulhu, I used a website to translate H.P. Lovecraft's famous quote “That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die” into J.R.R. Tolkien's dwarf runes, and copied that onto the base. (Told you I was a geek.) I was bothered by the plainness of the board—those petrified stone pillars were begging for some extra moss effect... and there's always room for magic runes. The diorama nature of the board and the miniature props give it a multilayered look that I love to look at when we play.

The top section is for rolling dice and holding the blessings deck. It would need to support a fair amount of weight, so I used the four wedding cake columns from my craft store run. I glued the column bases to a center stand I made to give the tower a little extra height. I attached a thin lazy Susan to the column tops, so the top section swivels independent of the main base, which is on the lazy Susan I took from the kitchen. Having access to every part of the die roll tower while fighting goblins is pretty handy! I added short foam board walls around the top so the dice wouldn't roll off. I lined a piece of cardboard with shelf paper, giving it the look of a stone floor. Toothpicks became wooden beams sticking out of the stone walls. As we've played, I've made a few changes, adding a little moss here and a Supernatural pin there. I haven't had to make any big fixes—I suggest a lot of Gorilla Glue if you try something like this.

It has added a lot of atmosphere as we spin it to play a scenario. While my family and I made this, I'd like to thank Mike Selinker and everyone at Paizo for giving us the inspiration. I'm off to make a new Adventure Path to play on this nifty board...

Todd Alexander

Origins—Launching into a New Starfinder Society Season

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

From the first, the organized play team envisioned Starfinder Society as a stand-alone campaign. So when discussing season rotation, we looked for a way to give the event spotlight focus. Putting the launch at Gen Con would overload the team and possibly diminish the impact of the Pathfinder Society season rotation. So we looked to another large event that would have the scope to handle a season premier. Origins Game Faire, June 13-17 in Columbus, Ohio, met our desires. Thus we brought Origins under the umbrella of Paizo-organized conventions. But not only Starfinder Society benefits from the expanded Paizo focus. It also brings an opportunity to play Version C of the Solstice Scar ongoing interactive event and the chance to participate in some Pathfinder Playtest demos. Another benefit is added rewards for GMs, namely store credit for the paizo.com webstore, volunteer t-shirts, and a copy of a Pathfinder or Starfinder hardcover book, in addition to rewards offered in previous years such as hotel rooms and boons.

With 35+ tables of scenarios and 5 tables of Pathfinder Playtest demonstrations running each 5-hour block, and 8 blocks scheduled between Wednesday and Sunday of the event, we need a goodly amount of GMs to run games and demos at the event. Anyone interested in volunteering should check out the Origins 2018 GM Application for a list of benefits and a questionnaire to register interest in volunteering. For GMs interested in running Pathfinder Playtest, please mark PFS Demo on the questionnaire.

For those community members not interested in GMing, I invite you to join John Compton, Thurston, myself, and a couple other Paizo staffers at Origins to experience the adventure first hand.

Now onto a less logistical note, I'll turn the blog over to Starfinder Society Developer Thurston Hillman to discuss specifics for the Starfinder Society launch and what to expect from our ongoing storylines...

Quoting Thurston Hillman, Starfinder Society Developer:

In the wake of all the excitement surrounding the announcement of the Pathfinder Playtest, there have been some questions about the future of Starfinder Society. Specifically, the team's been hearing a lot of questions about our plans for our upcoming interactive special and the transition into our next season. How about we dive into some answers?

We're proud to announce our first Starfinder Society interactive special: Starfinder Society #1-99: The Scoured Stars Invasion. This event is Starfinder Society's first exclusive scenario, running at select events starting at Origins 2018 up until the end of Gen Con 2018. Shortly after Gen Con, we'll be making this special available to organizers and events across the world. To help with making sure our first Starfinder interactive is one to remember, we've brought onboard veteran freelancer, Mikko Kallio, to tackle this project. Mikko's had experience with writing interactive specials (with the well-received Pathfinder Society #9–00: Assault on Absalom), and the team wanted to get him on this project to help ensure we get a good start with our first Starfinder interactive special. I've been personally working with Mikko on this project and I can already tell that it's going to be a very memorable event!

So with that announcement, you can probably tell that our interactive special is touching on some major elements for our ongoing storyline for Year of Scoured Stars. One important caveat, is that "The Scoured Stars Invasion" is not the end of the Year of Scoured Stars. Instead, we'll be going back to some of the earlier days of Pathfinder's organized play campaigns and extending our inaugural season into 2019. That's right, the Year of Scoured Stars will be getting a full additional year of content behind it. When the team sat down to discuss how we'd end the Scoured Stars storyline, we recognized that the abbreviated season made it difficult to give the full story that we thought the players deserved—something that changed when our schedule adjusted to 2 scenarios per month! We all agreed that extending the season by another year gave us the ability to really tell this defining introduction story for many Starfinder Society players.

Looking ahead, players, GMs and organizers can view "The Scoured Stars Invasion" special akin to the mid-season finales that have become popular in modern media. This event will have some major repercussions that the campaign will explore into the second half of its now-extended season. To maintain a cohesive narrative and not punish players who don't have the chance to attend the events debuting the special, we won't be directly following-up on these events until at least a month after the exclusive window ends. This gives local lodges a chance to run the interactive prior to delving into any scenarios that touch on the ramifications. To give us that buffer, many of the scenarios following Origins will go back to some growing fan favorites. While the details on these scenarios aren't entirely finalized, our current "schemes" involve some of the following:

• Finishing the "Tour of the Pact Worlds" by exploring some of the remaining planets (sorry Aucturn, you'll have to wait a bit longer.)
• Providing a second Tier 5–8 scenario (this time with starship combat!)
• Returning to the false moon of Salvation's End (with a very special guest author appearance.)
• Yesteryear's Sorrow. (... nope, I got nothing else to say about that one.)

I wish I could say more, but I'm going to remain silent as there's a lot of major changes coming with "The Scoured Stars Invasion." Sufficed to say, the second half of Year of the Scoured Stars is going to be just as big, if not bigger, than the stories we've told over the past months. Now more than ever, the Starfinder Society needs new field agents; if you haven't had the chance to try out some Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild games, I highly suggest taking a look. Between local games and our thriving online community of play-by-post and virtual tabletop games, there's probably never been a better time to get involved and experience the living campaign that is Starfinder Society!

Time for me to get back to scheming. There's a lot more stories to tell and the Year of Scoured Stars is only just getting started!

Convention season is ramping up and I'm working diligently to get everything scheduled and delivered as needed. If your expecting something for any convention, keep an eye on your inbox.

Tune in next week for an update on GM stars, upcoming conventions, and other topics of an organized play nature.

Until next time—explore, report, cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Pathfinder Society 2: Replay, Rewards, and Rebuilds

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

There's been a lot to follow, not only with the twice-weekly preview blogs for Pathfinder's second edition, but also in the many discussions about how these might affect Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. If didn't already see it, check out our earlier blog about Pathfinder Society in Second Edition, where I laid out some of our preliminary thoughts and inspirations with the invitation to give us feedback, brainstorm ideas, and help build an even better campaign.

Over the past few weeks, the team's been discussing some of the trickier topics with our venture-officers, and I'd like to share some of the ideas we've been batting around as well as some of the prospective challenges.

Three Competing Interests

The transition to the second edition campaign has to balance three competing interests: old player loyalty, new player accessibility, and ease of implementation.

Established Player Loyalty: People have put a lot of effort into the first edition campaign, from building characters to earning GM stars to seeking out rare race boons. There's a lot of investment, and many have a strong desire to hold onto those investments indefinitely—or at least have them mean something in the new edition.

New Player Accessibility: The announcement of second edition is driving a lot of interest. With an outwardly easier level of entry (one book as opposed to hundreds) and an opportunity to join a new campaign on equal footing, we can attract many new players. The campaign needs to remain accessible to these players and GMs, and that includes not locking a huge number of rewards behind having played in the first edition.

Ease of Implementation: Our team's larger than ever before, and there's a lot of time between now and the second edition's release, but we're not kidding ourselves; there's a lot of work ahead, and a lot of that depends on the playtest and what the final version of the game looks like. We have to consider the ease of implementing each change, including the resources required from the development team, the technological requirements to implement a solution, the burden placed on the venture-officers, and the effort required of the individual players.

For some topics, these three interests see largely eye-to-eye. For others, they're in opposition. Collectively, they all contribute to the health of the campaign and are part of our assessment about how to build the second edition organized play experience. With that, let's look at some of the tougher decisions that lie ahead and what the team's currently thinking.

GM Stars

When Starfinder Society started up, we recognized that five GM stars wouldn't necessarily correspond to proficiency with the Starfinder rules. Certainly GM stars conveyed dedication to organized play as a whole and comfort "behind the screen," yet we needed a separate means of tracking one's Starfinder Society accomplishments. As we look toward the second edition of Pathfinder RPG, we're seeing similar indicators.

That means a few things. First, it means that we're looking to introduce an additional means of tracking GMs' efforts in second edition games. Second, it means that first edition GM stars aren't disappearing; their principle impact is on the first edition campaign, and they remain the celebrated badge of honor for a GM's contributions. Third, we recognize that this may disappoint some folks, and we're looking at ways to balance this by making players' experiences and GMs' ongoing efforts relevant in the new campaign. We've been following the conversation in several places, and we're opening another thread that focuses the discussion—let us know your thoughts in this [https://secure.paizo.com/community/forums">GM Stars thread.

Option 1—New Metric: Everyone retains their GM stars, which correspond to the first edition campaign. For the second edition campaign, we introduce another 0–5 scale metric that's similar to stars/novas. We've tossed around several names for these, including glyphs and sigils, but there's no final decision on this matter. Glyphs/Sigils would have a fairly similar role to GM stars but be specific to the second edition campaign.

Option 2—Subsidized Metric: This functions as Option 1, but the GMs stars reduce the number of games required to earn glyphs/sigils. Two stars reduces the number of games run to earn one's second glyph/sigil by 10. Likewise three stars reduces the number of games run to earn the third and fourth glyphs/sigils by 10 respectively. Finally, a five-star GM reduces the number of games needed to earn the fifth glyph/sigil by 20. It ends up looking like this for a five-star GM.

1. 1st Glyph/Sigil: 10 games
2. 2nd Glyph/Sigil: 20 games (10 less than normal)
3. 3rd Glyph/Sigil: 40 games (20 less than normal)
4. 4th Glyph/Sigil: 70 games (30 less than normal)
5. 5th Glyph/Sigil: 100 games (50 less than normal)

Basically, having a bunch of GM stars conveys that you're already an accomplished GM, so attaining a similar rank in the second edition would be easier.

Option 3—New Metric with Reward: This functions as Option 1, but the GM stars provide a carry-over benefit as a thank you for a GM's efforts in the first edition campaign. Assume that the benefit is something interesting and flavorful but not something that grants an overtly significant power boost. This might be a special character background, fancy item, title, or the like.

Option 4—Something Else: We can, of course, explore other options. As noted in the "Three Competing Interests" section, there's a balancing act between old player loyalty and new player accessibility—ensuring that GMs feel they're getting their due without locking too much away from newer players who never had the same opportunity.

Where We Are Now: Our discussions so far have brought up sundry variations on the Subsidized Metric and other models. That's sparked ongoing conversations with our tech colleagues to assess what's possible and with what required resources. We can cook up clever ways to connect GM stars and the glyphs/sigils, but ultimately we need to ensure that our solutions work for our co-workers. In the meantime, we're continuing to debate the merits of each approach, and we're interested in your feedback.

Character Rebuilds

As we stated in the Pathfinder Playtest FAQ, we are not converting first edition characters into second edition characters. This may be the toughest decision we've had to make. There are a bunch of participants (like many of us, no doubt) who have tons of character folders and Chronicle sheets, and that also translates to some characters who won't reach especially high character levels.

Fresh Start: The news of a second edition is causing a lot of buzz, including in groups that haven't tried Pathfinder before because of the large perceived buy-in. Avoiding character conversions means everyone starts at (or very near—see the playtest credit section) the same level, and that means that newer participants aren't perceptibly "punished" for having joined now rather than years ago.

Conversion Options: For practical purposes, the second edition Core Rulebook will have a limited number of pages, and that means that there's space for only a fraction of the classes and races present in the entire corpus of first edition books. While the Core Rulebook will contain lots of cool options, it won't present contain the full breadth necessary to adapt a player's ganzi bloodrager or merfolk kineticist. For some of those class + ancestry combinations, those options might not even be available in the first year or two. On top of that, there are plenty of character builds reliant on combos that might function differently in second edition. Even with the characters who would convert into the new edition fairly cleanly, there's a lot of messiness involved in making these changes.

Publishing Schedule: The odds are good that Pathfinder Society's second edition release will look a lot like that for Starfinder Society's first year, albeit with at least two scenarios per month. Namely, we're hoping to provide a bunch of low-level scenarios right out of the gate and gradually expand into higher and higher tiers over time. Allowing character conversion would leave us with numerous characters ranging from levels 1–20. We'd either have nothing for the higher level PCs to play for a long while, or we'd be releasing content that's exclusively for first edition conversion characters (and that assumes that everyone converted characters that fall in the same tier).

First Edition Boons

There are a lot of convention boons out there, and the common perception's that there's not enough time left to use them all—much less provide much incentive for earning more of them. There are a few approaches we've considered, and from that have spun at least a dozen sub-variations.

Option 1—No Transfer: In this model, first edition boons would apply only to first edition. Use them now while there's still a good opportunity. From the perspective of new player accessibility and ease of implementation, this option's very good. The "clean break" nature of it makes it tougher for established players.

Option 2—Boon Currency: In Season 4 there was a convention boon called Xenophobia that allowed someone to irrevocably sacrifice race boons to it in order to gain favored enemy benefits. We might be able to use this model to let players use First Edition boons—perhaps only those of certain types—gain some kind of long-term reward based on the number of boons used (for the sake of discussion, let's say 10 boons maximum). This would allow someone who doesn't want to use her remaining boons in First Edition to still enjoy some payoff in Second Edition. That's certainly nice for an established player, particularly for someone who made it to lots of conventions. It's not great for newer players, and it requires a modest amount of design work.

Option 2 Variant—Expanded Boon Currency: This is really more of a variation on the Boon Currency mechanism, not a new way to make use of first edition boons. Specifically, the Expanded Boon Currency model takes everything above and allows someone to trade in specific second edition boons to qualify for whatever rewards we would present for this system. This variant could also be applied to any of the other Boon Currency options that follow.

Option 3—Rotating Boon Trade-In: This model resembles the Boon Currency option. However, instead of being able to use a pile of boons to purchase a variety of benefits, the first year or two would have a few rotating second edition boons that one could secure by expending any one first edition boon of a similar style—most likely exchanging any race boon for an ancestry boon. This would let us keep any boon conversion limited but interesting. It seems to strike a respectable intersection between established players, newer folks, and staff resources—particularly if boons available in this way were eventually released through other channels that didn't require this exchange.

Option 4—Boons for Benefits: This model also riffs on the Boon Currency option. However, instead of opening access to options that only established players can access, this allows players to expend boons in order to secure temporary/instantaneous benefits that could benefit any number of characters at the table. Conceptually, compare it to the Retail Incentive Program, where rewards focus more on giving everyone a little boost or averting a catastrophic stroke of bad luck. The venture-captain who pitched this variant referenced the benefits of breath of life at the cost of a first edition race boon, calling it "Life for a Life." This is a pretty charming approach because it allows players to carry over some benefits to the new edition, but it does so in a way that nobody's really holding exclusive options over newer participants.

Legacy Boons: During Seasons 9 and 10, we're including some legacy boons on Chronicle sheets. Each of these presents some combination of a fun carry-over benefit and/or a lasting narrative repercussion for having done something important. You've already seen one in a Season 9 scenario, and we expect more in the coming months as appropriate.

When I presented this remark about the legacy boons to our venture-officers, I received a few remarks that the one legacy boon so far seems underwhelming. I can see where that comment's coming from; that particular boon is more a feel-good acknowledgement of selfless action than it is an awe-inspiring boost in personal power. I would keep one key thing in mind: the final Second Edition rules don't exist yet, and they won't exist until after our community's been able to playtest the system. While we're able to design some boons based on the current rules, we're cautious about laying out boons that could prove incompatible or disproportionately powerful, diminished, or even invalidated based on the Core Rulebook's final text. That means that the more rule-oriented components of legacy boons would need to appear in a supplemental document in the final days leading up to Second Edition's launch at Gen Con 2019.

Where We Are Now: As I mentioned above, folks have pitched a lot of variations on these ideas, each of which aims to balance our goals in different ways. Each one—including the No Transfer option—has merits for the short-term and long-term health of the campaign. This topic really brings another dynamic to the fore: cosmetic rewards (e.g. titles and fancy wayfinders) vs. mechanical rewards (anything granting a notable edge, such as free gear, bonus gold, or stat boosts). Just as we're examining the means by which to address first edition boons, so too are we looking to what rewards feel the most worthwhile and the impact of not having access to those rewards—either ever or at a later opportunity—as would be the case for a newer participant. Let us know at our First Edition Boons thread.

Replay in First Edition

We've seen several threads regarding replay in the first edition campaign. This seems to stem from two different attitudes.

"There won't be enough new scenarios to finish my favorite characters' stories."

"Paizo has taken the stance that unfettered replay damages campaigns. Once Paizo moves to Second Edition, they will have already ended the first edition campaign. There's nothing to lose."

Even once Second Edition launches, we're not interested in opening up unlimited replay. However, we are interested in providing folks a chance to explore a favorite character's story to its fullest. There are a few ways forward.

Option 1—No Further Replay: There are already some replay options out there, and everyone would be able to fill out a new Expanded Narrative boon (i.e. "recharge the GM stars' replay" boon) each year. However, there wouldn't be any additional allowances for replaying beyond what already exist.

Option 2—Favored Character: This model allows each participant to select one Pathfinder Society PC to ignore all replay restrictions. That could mean playing a new PC all the way from 1st level to 20th, or you could make an 8th-level PC your favored character in order to play through all of the Tier 7–11 and higher adventures. Whatever the case, everyone would be able to fulfill that limitless story with another PC.

Option 3—Heightened GM Star Recharge: In this model, the Expanded Narrative opportunity continues but has some capacity for more recharging than normal. That might mean someone could instantly begin a new Expanded Narrative Chronicle sheet the moment she fills out the first one, not waiting for a new season. It might instead mean that there's a limit of one sheet per season, but the sheet grants more than one replay for each GM star. There are likely other variations on this approach.

Option 4—Unlimited Replay: As noted above, we're unlikely to institute unlimited replay in First Edition, even after the new campaign launches. If that's something you'd want to see anyway, go ahead an say so, but please also convey what you'd want to see were unlimited replay not selected.

Where We Are Now: We're still in internal discussions about the right way forward for replay, balancing the health of communities, the desire to wrap up a few select characters' stories, and ways to transition toward the second edition. We're interested in hearing your take on what replay considerations would be best for the organized play campaigns and community at our First Edition Replay thread.

Earning Playtest Credit

We intend to incentivize playtesting, much as we have incentivized playtesting new character classes in the past. The especially tricky consideration in this endeavor is that we won't have a finalized Chronicle sheet format, wealth-per-level expectation, or any number of other key variables until after the playtesting has concluded. As a result, you won't see a Chronicle sheet for each playtest scenario, as it would be full of IOUs. What's more, the playtest scenarios and the printed playtest adventure Doomsday Dawn cover a wide range of levels, which would be strange to array in any meaningful way—much like assigning a new character a Tier 16–18 Chronicle sheet.

Instead we're looking at more of a "prize table" model. Much as one could redeem tickets at a pubic arcade for prizes, players and GMs alike would earn points for special options in the second edition. Each quest played or run would earn 1 point, and each time someone plays or runs either a Doomsday Dawn chapter or one of the scenarios, they'd earn 4 points. Prizes might include a special background, a special wayfinder, the ability to start the campaign with a single character at 2nd, or the ability to start with a single character at 3rd level. The catch? A player can only select each prize once.

This comes with a few considerations. First, this does strain the Ease of Implementation goal somewhat, as it represents another thing the organized play team would need to design. Second, there is the possibility of giving everyone who earns a handful of points (let's say up to 10 points) an additional one-time point boost equal to (or double) their number of GM stars as a modest way of rewarding GMs in the past campaign.

Where We Are Now: So far, this approach has been going over well. There are still many details to work out, but the system is equipped to advertise our playtesting incentives in a clear way, finalize the exact mechanics for the rewards once we have the final game rules in hand, and let people playtest as much or as little as they like and still have options for what they earn.

John Compton
Organized Play Developer

Rogue Class Preview

Monday, March 26, 2018

Are you plagued by a friend and coworker who peppers his blogs with puns and ridiculous word plays, often dessert-based? Does it bother you so much that you fantasize about stabbing him in the back, but federal and local statutes (along with those pesky pangs of morality) stop you? Well, I have good news! You can play a rogue and take out your frustrations on your friend's monsters!

Last week, Jason presented a preview of the Pathfinder Second Edition fighter class, giving you a peek into our process when designing classes for the new game. This week, I am happy to present the fighter's favorite combat companion—the rogue!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

The design goals for the rogue were simple: she had to be nimble, skillful, and able to take full advantage when enemies are unaware. The new class design achieves this through a mix of classic and new mechanics.

Rogue Features

I'm sure it will surprise no one that the first class feature the rogue gets is sneak attack. It works much like you would expect, granting extra d6s of precision damage when she strikes a flat-footed foe. Flanking a foe is the easiest way for the rogue to make her foe flat-footed, but at 1st level, she also gets the surprise attack feature. Thanks to surprise attack, during the first round of combat, the rogue treats any creature that has not taken its turn yet as if it were flat-footed.

But wait, there's more! In addition to dealing extra damage when attacking flat-footed foes, at 9th level the rogue also applies debilitating strikes to such attacks, allowing her to entangle or enfeeble her foes on top of the normal punishment. As her level rises, she has the opportunity to expand the conditions applied with debilitating strikes and increase the number of conditions applied, leading up to a potential instant kill with her Master Strike at 19th level.

So, the rogue is a ruthless combatant bringing pain and misery to her foes, but that's only half of the story. She is also a master of skills. Not only does she gain training and proficiency increases in more skills than other classes, but she gains skill feats at an accelerated rate (one per level instead of one every other level). And while Deception, Stealth, and Thievery and all of the skill feats attached to those iconic rogue skills may seem like obvious choices, the rogue's mastery of a wide variety of skills makes her one of the most versatile classes in the game—her breadth of knowledge and abilities means she's extremely useful in every mode of play.

If you want to play a dungeon-delving rogue, stock up on skill feats expanding on Acrobatics, Athletics, Stealth, and Deception to gain skill feats that let you do things like kip up from prone for free, jump from wall to wall, and move stealthily at full speed. If you want to be a savvy con artist bilking the rich and vain, focus on Deception, Diplomacy, Performance, and Society. If you want to play a fence or burglar with a semblance of respectability, focus on Crafting, Intimidation, and the like. Your options are so rich that you can easily create a mix of these types of rogues and many further variations.

Rogue Feats

Bridging the gap between the murderous and the skillful are the various class feats available to the rogue. The few of you lucky enough to playtest the rogue at Gary Con X or the GAMA Trade Show became acquainted with Nimble Dodge, a reaction that increases the rogue's Armor Class by 2 at a whim. And that's pretty cool, but the rogue's tricks don't stop there. At 2nd level, a rogue could take Mobility, allowing her to move at half her speed and ignore all sorts of reactions triggered by movement, such as attacks of opportunity. And at 4th level, there's a rogue feat called Reactive Pursuit, which allows the rogue—as a reaction—to chase after foes trying to disengage from her constant stabbings.

Avoiding attacks and getting into position are all fine and dandy, but occasionally rogues have a hard time lining up flanking. The 4th-level feat Dread Striker allows you to treat frightened creatures as flat-footed, which is pretty good, but if you want even greater flexibility for positioning, check out Gang Up at 6th level. That feat allows you to treat an enemy as flat-footed when it's within the melee reach of you and one of your allies, no matter your positioning. If that's not good enough, wait until 14th level, when you can take Instant Opening—with a few choice words or a rude gesture, you can make a single creature within 30 feet flat-footed to your attacks until the end of your next turn.

Rogues are slippery characters, both physically and mentally. Cognitive Loophole lets the rogue ignore a mental effect for a round before it fully takes hold. At 16th level, a rogue can parlay her proficiency in Deception to become a Blank Slate, which makes her immune to detection, revelation, and scrying effects.

Of course, many of the rogue's class feats also increase her fighting potential. One of my favorites is the 6th-level feat Twist the Knife. With this feat, as long as you have just hit a foe and applied your sneak attack damage, you can apply persistent bleed damage equal to half your current sneak attack dice. That's sure going to leave a mark.

All this has only scratched the surface of the rogue. In the end, this class is a toolbox of tricks, cunning, and mayhem, adaptable to a variety of situations in and out of combat. Its design allows you to focus on the kind of rogue you want to play, from a ruthless slayer who infiltrates dungeons to a swindler charming away coin from gullible townsfolk, or even a hard-boiled hunter of fugitives. It's up to you!

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Senior Designer

No Bears, Oh My!

Monday, March 26, 2018

Hail and well met, Pathfinders! We're getting close to the end of our trek through the Jungle of Despair, and we'll be free and clear with a month to spare before its May release. No jungle is complete without animals to call it home, both benign herbivores like the slow-moving sloth and docile deer, and more deadly predators. What fun is a mini of a sloth, though? Let's take a look at some of those hunters!

First we have the lion, the so-called "king of the jungle." Now, you and I know that lions really live on the plains, but who am I to argue with one if he wants to be known by an inaccurate royal name? I've seen the videos of lions attacking, so I'll just call this one king of whatever he wants me to. The lion is a Large uncommon figure.

Next, we have another great cat—and one that actually lives and hunts in jungles, though it doesn't need such silly titles as the lion king. No, the tiger is content to hunt in peace and quiet. And if painted white, it might even do some magic tricks for you in a Vegas review. The tiger is a Large uncommon figure.

How does that line from "The Wizard of Oz" go? It's "lions and tigers and eagles, oh my," right? I think so, because that's what's next in this blog's sequence, and I'd never deviate from canon by changing up such an iconic listing of dangerous critters. The eagle makes an excellent animal companion or a summoned creature, available to even low-level adventurers. A Small uncommon figure, GMs everywhere will be saying, "the eagle has landed" in just a little over a month's time.

The set has more than just these iconic apex predators in it, however. After all, someone needs to clean up all the rotting, half-eaten corpses left behind in the hunters' wake. Leave that to the vulture, a gross, bald-headed scavenger bird sure to strike fear into players everywhere when a few of them start to circle overhead. The vulture is a Small uncommon figure.

With all these wild animals about, we really could use someone to train them. Fear not, for the human ranger is on the task! As a Medium rare figure, he's still a steal for the lucky collector who pulls him from a pack, because he's really two minis in one. With his trusty bird of prey perched on his gloved hand, this figure pairs well with either of the two avians previewed above.

Next week, we explore the horrors wrought by nature run amok, but until then, enjoy the birdies and kitties revealed today; next week's offerings won't be as kind.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

More Pathfinder Content on Fantasy Grounds

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Bestiary 3 is now available for Fantasy Grounds! It contains all 300+ monsters from Bestiary 3, with tokens, stats, images and full descriptions available for reference and use within the Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop. Special abilities and spells have been embedded within each monster to keep everything at your fingertips and to keep the focus on the combat and roleplaying that your players love. Since several of the races include details for playable races, we've included a separate Bestiary 3 Player Version that you can share with your players to allow them to build monstrous characters like the canny ratfolk, genie-blooded sulis and more.

We've also released the fifth and sixth volumes of the Mummy's Mask Adventure Path. This completes one of the 6 separate Adventure Path volumes from Paizo that are converted and ready to play on Fantasy Grounds. Check the Fantasy Grounds website for a full list of available Paizo products for both Pathfinder and Starfinder.

Be sure to sync your Paizo and Fantasy Grounds accounts to get the PDF added to your Paizo account as part of the purchase or to get the entire cost of the PDF as a discount on your purchase at fantasygrounds.com!

Doug Davison
President, SmiteWorks

Pathfinder a la Mode

Friday, March 23, 2018

No, we are not putting a scoop of ice cream on top of every copy of the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook, but we are adding flavor to the different parts of the game. You've probably heard a lot about it in the blogs and podcasts, but today we are dishing out a big scoop of news on the different modes of play in the next evolution of Pathfinder!

Every moment in the game can be categorized into encounter mode, exploration more, or downtime mode. The modes of play are governed by the needs of the adventure, and the transition between them is ultimately up to the Game Master to decide. You might be traveling through the woods, following the trail of the bandit queen, which would be exploration mode, only to have the group thrust into encounter mode as a combat breaks out with a pack of bloodthirsty wolves. Later, after defeating the bandit queen, you might take your treasure back to town and take a week off, entering downtime mode to craft a better suit of armor with your newfound wealth.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Encounter Mode

Without a doubt, this is the most talked about part of the game up to this point. Combat takes place exclusively in encounter mode, when characters, villains, and monsters are locked in a life-or-death struggle, wielding blades, claws, and spells to win the day. As we've mentioned elsewhere, encounter mode functions much like it did in Pathfinder First Edition, with each round of play taking 6 seconds of game time. You roll initiative at the start, putting all of the combatants in order; each one takes a turn in initiative order, and then you cycle through the combatants repeatedly until one side is victorious.

The changes we made to this system are intended to make play a little easier to learn, while also giving you a wider array of choices as to how you can take your turn. To start with, each character gets 3 actions on their turn. While everyone has access to a list of basic actions, like stride (which lets you move your speed), step (which lets you move just 5 feet, but without provoking any reactions), and strike (which lets you make an attack), all characters have special actions that they can take, derived from their ancestry, class, feat, and gear choices.

For example, if you're playing a barbarian, you can take a feat called Raging Courage that allows you to spend actions to shake off being afraid, letting you get back into the fight. If you're playing a fighter, you instead pick a feat called Intimidating Strike, which lets you spend 2 actions to make an attack against a foe. If it hits, your enemy is frightened and flat-footed until the end of your next turn! (Just don't use it on that barbarian.)

In addition to the 3 actions on your turn, you also get 1 reaction to use anytime before the start of your next turn. The fighter blog on Monday mentioned the reaction attack of opportunity, which allows you to take a free swing at foes that try to move around you or attempt to cast spells adjacent to you, but fighters are not the only class to have fun things to do with their reactions. The druid can gain a feat called Storm Retribution. If you are a druid of the storm order and a foe critically hits you, this feat allows you to unleash a powerful tempest on them in return, dealing 3d12 damage and possibly pushing them away. Wizards, meanwhile, can get the ability to counterspell with their reaction, canceling out enemy magic before it can even take effect.

The choices you make when building your character greatly influence what you can do during combat. You can build a simpler character with a narrow field of powerful choices, just as easily as a more complex character with a vast array of options in a fight. As with the other modes of play, it's all up to you!

Exploration Mode

If you are not in a combat, chances are you are in exploration mode. This free-form part of the game allows characters to take actions as needed to accomplish tasks, investigate problems, and interact with other characters and the world around them. Travelling from place to place, talking to a merchant lord, and swimming across a river to a mysterious island are all part of exploration mode. Exploration mode is measured in minutes and hours, depending on the task at hand and the flow of the game.

Skills and skill feats govern a lot of what you can do in this part of the game, along with your roleplaying and character backstory (as related to your background). These options are available to all characters, and while some get more options than others (like rogues), you can always focus on a few ways in which you can shine.

Let's say you really want your sorcerer to be in tune with nature. Not only could you put some of your proficiencies into the Nature skill, giving you knowledge of the natural world, including plants and beasts, but you could take skill feats that let you use Nature to heal people or even train an animal, which can then help you on your journey. These opportunities are not unique to any particular character. Anyone with the right proficiencies can select them.

For long periods of exploration, characters focus on one task at a time so it's easy for the GM to determine what rolls they make and how they're set up for any challenges they face. This lets the game move quickly through long journeys, then resume a more fine-grained pace when the party finds something to investigate or encounters monsters or hazards.

What you do in exploration mode can also influence how you enter combat. As you go on your adventures, the Game Master will periodically ask you what you are doing, how you are traveling, and what precautions you are taking as you venture into the unknown. These choices influence what you roll when it's time to roll initiative. For most characters it will be a Perception check, indicating how alert you were to the danger. If instead you were trying to hide, you might roll Stealth, possibly allowing you to start the combat unseen. If the fight is breaking out in the middle of a crowded tavern, you might roll Diplomacy or Intimidation to get the upper hand, using charm or a brutish manner to give you an edge. The GM makes the final determination of what everyone rolls for initiative, and might allow you to choose between multiple choices (one of which is typically Perception) if several options would make sense.

Downtime Mode

Up to this point, we haven't talked much about the downtime mode of play, where time passes quickly, allowing characters to retrain, work at a profession, craft items, and more. Downtime mode is always measured in days, allowing you to accomplish large tasks quickly in terms of time at the table.

Just as with exploration mode, how you interact during downtime mode is mostly up to you and the choices you make with your character. If you are playing a bard with expert proficiency in Performance, you might spend your downtime putting on shows in local taverns and for nearby nobles, earning money to help fund your next adventure. With a few days and a decent roll, you could easily afford an extra potion or two.

Let's say instead you are playing a dwarven fighter who wants to make his own weapons. With the Craft skill, you can make weapons of a quality up to your proficiency. Better yet, if you pick up the Magical Crafter skill feat, your dwarven fighter could even make magic weapons! This feat is available to anyone who is an expert crafter, making the creation of magic items available to all. I should note that some items, like scrolls and wands, do require you to be able to cast certain spells to create them, though.

Finally, we have made retraining a core part of the game, allowing you to trade out a feat, skill, or even class choice for another equal option. Retraining occurs during downtime, and can take as little as a week, giving you the flexibility to go on your next adventures with the right tools to succeed.

Well, that's the scoop on this blog. I wish I could tell you a bit about the Monday blog, but it succeeded at its Stealth check. You'll just have to stop by then to find out what it is!

Jason Bulmahn
Director of Game Design

She who Writes the Player's Guide Should Swing the Sword

Thursday, March 22, 2018

The long-awaited War for the Crown Player's Guide is now available! As chaos falls across the ancient land of Taldor and powerful parties move their pieces into place, the action of lone figures can shape the fate of a nation. Spies, assassins, and cultists rub shoulders with nobles and sages, and all of Taldor stands open for canny adventurers to save or exploit. But how do elves fair in the bustling human courts? What role does a woodsy hunter or foreign psychic have to play in events? This player's guide contains plenty of information and advice for the themes and challenges yet to come, and what classes and character options can help you prepare for them!

With the first volume, Crownfall, already on store shelves, everyone has been eager to see the Player's Guide as well to finally get started on their own campaigns. In addition to the usual character advice, the guide also includes a short, spoiler-free primer on Taldan history and culture, as well as simplified rules for social combat based on those from Ultimate Intrigue, not to mention a bonus NPC statblock for Princess Eutropia, a longstanding figure in the Inner Sea political arena!

Sieze control of your destiny and take the reigns on a nation! Download the War for the Crown Player's Guide today!

Crystal Frasier
Developer

Adventure Card Game Combat Goes to 11!

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Ultimate Combat, the first of the Ultimate Add-On Decks, is making its way into the hands of subscribers and favorite local game stores everywhere, so it's finally time to spill the beans on our design process for the Ultimate decks:

1. Phase 1: Include every super-awesome thing we can think of
2. Phase 2: ?
3. Phase 3: Profit

Okay, wait, it was slightly more complicated than that.

Hayato should spend some time with Jinfu's stylist.

First, we identified a single character to include in each deck, preferably ones we'd had trouble sneaking into a class deck otherwise. Hayato was the obvious pick for Ulitmate Combat. He is a master of Iaijutsu and mounted combat, fighting under a banner that bolsters his comrades and strikes fear into his enemies. His bonded mount Jinfu is a versatile warhorse that never lets him down.

"Yojimbo" does sound way cooler than "bodyguard."

Hayato's roles are designed primarily around your fighting style in your party. Ronin is best for when Hayato who walks his own path, with a great deal of healing and bonuses to checks while alone. Yojimbo is better for when Hayato wants to protect others and make the best use of Jinfu in a group.

I'd recommend a Wakizashi to pair with the Katana, and a Do-Maru for that fine helmet.

Because Hayato is a Tian character, this was a perfect opportunity to include some appropriately themed cards. That includes the Katana, a more elegant Bastard Sword for a more civilized samurai, and the Kabuto Helmet, highly protective and good for impressing those you come across.

Dwarven innovation to break down a wall, elven innovation to shoot the army on the other side.

The deck is not limited to just that theme, however. It features a startling array of weapons, with some of the best one-handed and two-handed melee and ranged options in the game at every adventure deck number.

Bringing armor back, baby!

We've been experimenting with the design space for armor for quite some time. Our design goal (going forward, but specifically for Ultimate Combat) is that armor should be good enough that players are always tempted to spend a card feat on armor and a power feat on armor proficiency. Armor is designed to save you from emergencies, but in doing so it cannot increase your chance of failure to keep it around.

The new armors in Ultimate Combat tend to have great bonuses to make them worth keeping in your hand or displaying. Kikko Armor displays, allowing you to use it when needed with no downside. Choosing to use a one-handed weapon over a two-handed weapon allows you to use a shield, but generally reduces your Combat check. That's not an ideal formula for success, so the new shields like the Dwarven War Shield help melee combatants make up that gap.

I'm extremely interested in hearing what folks think of the new armor. I'm probably not supposed to say that you're playtesting ideas for the next base set [You are most assuredly not.—Mike] but you totally are.

We play both Ranged and Melee at this fine establishment.

While armor and weapons are the slim majority of the deck, we did not remotely skimp on other cards. Any character who really cares about combat, especially of the Melee and Ranged varieties, will other cards to keep them occupied. That includes an entire cycle of Bow Ammunition (similar to the bullets in Gunslinger), cards like the Grappler's Mask to help combat-focused characters occasionally get past those pesky non-combat challenges, and a small array of spells for Arcane and Divine mixed martial artists.

There are indeed vikings in Golarion.

There's also a solid selection of great allies. Most trend towards assisting in combat, moving to combat, and post-combat healing, but there should be something here for everyone. I'd certainly consider taking a Swiftshooter on a non-Ranged character just for the draw before I explore.

You'll count your blessings that you've got these blessings.

One of the earliest design decisions for the Ultimate decks was how much each deck should support the included characters. There may well be a parallel universe in which Ultimate Combat contains only armor and weapons, where to remotely play Hayato you need to supply other cards. That universe isn't this one, so we needed a bunch of blessings for every Ultimates deck. Mike meticulously analyzed every single blessing we've made and every deity who could still use one to make sure we solved this problem right.

Each Ultimates deck contains a new basic blessing, like Blessing of the Samurai above, that should be well-suited and even exciting for its intended audience. Each also contains a number of new deities, including deities from Tian and nonhuman races when appropriate. Finally, spread over the Ultimate decks are normal and upgraded blessings for every single one of Golarion's core deities.

Those of you playing in the Adventure Card Guild may wonder how Ultimates work for you. If you're playing a character from a non-Ultimate Deck, you can add the cards from any 1 Ultimate Deck to your deck; if you're playing a character from an Ultimate Deck, you can add the cards from any 1 Class Deck. This means that Hayato can use cards from, say, the Paladin Class Deck if he wants. It also means that you can start taking Ultimate Combat boons with any of your Organized Play characters like Crowe, Oloch, and Reta. If you've ever regretted not having an upgrade choice for a boon type, fret no more—we've got you covered. If you're prone to analysis paralysis and aren't sure what boon to take... expect to spend a lot more time paralyzed with indecision!

See you next month to talk about the dozens of spells and other magic doodads in Ultimate Magic!

Keith Richmond
Adventure Card Game Designer

Starfinder Society, From the Streets to the Stars!

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

March sees some major changes for the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. This month, we transition to two scenarios per month—after all, we can't lag behind the adventure path line switching to one adventure per month! Luckily, the organized play team had contingencies for Starfinder's rampant success, and many of the stories we want to tell were based on a potential two scenario per month rollout. So, without any further rambling on my part, how about we take a peek at the March releases?

Starfinder Society #1-10: The Half-Alive Streets written by Mara Lynn Butler, is our first scenario release in March. This scenario takes us back to Absalom Station at a lower level range and provides some additional introductory friendly content for newer Starfinder Society players. What I enjoyed most about this scenario is that Mara Lynn included scenes that really focus on the personal lives of some of Absalom Station's inhabitants and gives some really touching moments for the PCs to get involved in. Also, this scenario has some callbacks to previous scenarios, with a few fan-favorite NPCs making their return. I know that at least one of these NPCs is obvious, but I think players will be surprised to see a second (maybe) friendly face show up during this adventure.

This scenario has no tags.

Illustration by Priscilla Kim

Our second scenario (still getting used to that) is Starfinder Society #1-11: In Pursuit of the Scoured Past by Pathfinder Society veteran author, Cole Kronewitter. Cole's had some experience working with Hellknights, and when we decided this scenario was going to introduce some Hellknights into Starfinder Society, we knew that he'd be an excellent fit to write it! Along with Hellknights, this scenario also continues the ongoing narrative of the Year of Scoured Stars, and it acts as the second installment in our ongoing major story arc that started with Starfinder Society #1-05: The First Mandate. Finally, this scenario introduces a new locale that I really think encapsulates the theme of Science-Fantasy: the library world of Athaeum. I suspect scholarly PCs (and a certain scholarly ysoki who tags along with them) will find themselves overwhelmed by the specific information kept within the towers of this mysterious world.

This scenario has the Faction (Second Seekers [Luwazi Elsebo]) tag and contributes to the ongoing year of the Scoured Stars storyline.

Illustration by Priscilla Kim

Next month is looking to provide a similar spread of scenario types. First off, we have a new repeatable introductory scenario that includes starship combat. Next month's other release is the third part in the ongoing Scoured Stars storyline that also includes a very special starship encounter. Expect to see a preview post on these scenarios sometime in April. Next week, get ready to hear about our future plans for the Starfinder Society, when we unveil our Origins offerings and provide some further information on our first interactive special.

Now, it's time for me to get back to work and work on some of our future scenarios!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

New Pathfinder Society Scenarios, What's In a Name?

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

March has been a month for announcements, most notably the Pathfinder Second Edition announcement two weeks ago. In case you missed it, also be sure to check out the FAQ for Pathfinder Society in the new edition as well as the follow-up blog from last week, when we provided even more information about the upcoming campaign and how we're soliciting your feedback to help shape the experience. Expect another blog soon, exploring ways we're aiming to handle the playtest and other topics.

Speaking of exploration, we have new adventures this week!

Ever since Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-16: House of Harmonious Wisdom, the team's been excited to include more quest content into our yearly schedule. This season we take a long-overdue trip to Isger, where the government has recently declassified documents from the Goblinblood Wars, whose wounds still feel fresh two decades later. Among the papers is a reference to the Irrica family, who possessed a powerful weapon that kept them safe from House Thrune's interference. These documents provide enough leads to reassemble that tool, but anything potent enough to spook Cheliax's ruling family is too dangerous to leave where anyone can find it. In the Tier 1-5 Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-16: Fallen Family, Broken Name, the PCs dig into the wars' aftermath—including the involvement of the goblins, Druman Blackjackets, and Hellknights—and travel across Isger.

Not only has this been a great opportunity to work with the authors Saif Ansari, Louis Manko Levite, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Kevin Willis, and Scott Young, but it's also been a great chance for our newest developer Michael Sayre to work on scenarios. It's the kind of experience you'd want to repeat again and again, which is great because these quests are freely replayable with 1st-level characters.

Illustrations by Tawny Fritz

Looking to our next scenario, let me step aside to let Linda Zayas-Palmer take over.

What if you're in the mood for something a bit more dangerous? Then check out this month's Tier 5-9 scenario, Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-17: Oath of the Overwatched, brought to you by Isabelle Lee. The Blakros Museum has seen its fair share of troubles over the years, but today's events have Zarta Dralneen and Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin rushing to the scene personally. The mysterious copper gate beneath the museum is dissolving into a morass of twisted space at the behest of beings from beyond the stars. The PCs will need more than strength in battle if they hope to charge beyond the gate, stop these beings' foul plots, and return with their sanity intact. The poor soul shown in this image by Teresa Guido was not so fortunate. Isabelle did a great job providing interesting and varied ways for the PCs to unravel the story of the accursed realm, including a particularly unusual NPC in the second portion. If you want to know more, you'll need to send your PCs in to find out, or gather up a group of brave players.

Illustrations by Teresa Guido

And with that, we're back to developing more scenarios, sanctioning more playable content, and working toward our best convention season yet!

John Compton
Organized Play Developer

Spiral of Bones is Here!

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

The newest entry in the exciting saga of Pathfinder comics hits the web and comic book stores tomorrow. This issue, Spiral of Bones #1, not only kicks off a gripping new five-part storyline, but it also marks the Pathfinder comics debut of our very own Crystal Frasier!

She's already done a few interviews with external media sites, like Comic Crusaders, Major Spoilers, First Comics News, and Know Direction. But these are mostly aimed toward the general comic fan rather than readers already familiar with Pathfinder, its characters, and its world. I sat down with Crystal to ask a few questions that seemed particularly pressing for existing Pathfinder fans—a paizo.com exclusive!

As a Pathfinder developer, you have a wide breadth of knowledge about the setting, its characters, and its ongoing plots. What inspired you to write this story, set here, and involving these characters?

I love the ways that roleplaying game settings are unique from other fictional settings, and one of the big ways that Pathfinder is so unique is the lackadaisical nature of death. Heroes come back from the dead all the time—all you need is a diamond and a friendly cleric. But what kind of world does that give you in practice, and what's death like while you're there? Valeros gets to look at that up close, and as our most... non-miraculous iconic, he's the perfect audience insert for encountering and reacting to this planar weirdness, while getting some of it explained for the lay fighter or casual reader.

Kaer Maga creator and former Paizo editor, James L. Sutter, makes a cameo appearance in a crowd on the opening page of this issue. What other Easter eggs can fans of Pathfinder and Paizo hope to find in this or later issues in the series?

There are a few here and there in the first issue, but none quite as big as Sutter grinning at the camera like a film extra. The remainder for issue 1 are mostly nods to fun setting elements, like the goblin love of pickles or classic cloaker paranoia. We get a little more free with the cameos in book 2; once Valeros is wandering around the afterlife we get to have a little fun by dropping in other characters from previous comics—many of them killed by or near Valeros.

This story arc features some crazy locations, certainly the most bizarre settings the comics have yet explored. Which was more fun: writing Kaer Maga or writing the Boneyard?

Why would you make me choose like that? I can definitely say that I am sad I didn't get to write more of Kaer Maga proper, as we move on pretty quickly from that very unique and interesting setting. I only really get to scratch the surface of a city varied enough for a whole series, and I hope I get the chance to revisit in the future. Until then, man, the Boneyard was a ton of fun to write!

One of this issue's variant covers and the comic's story itself feature Valeros and iconic inquisitor Imrijka engaged in some, shall we say, "adult activities." What's the story behind this pairing?

Imrijka and Valeros have been a popular fan relationship since we first introduce Imrijka in the Advanced Player's Guide, and they're one of the few relationships between iconics anyone has really talked about beyond Kyra and Merisiel. They're both fairly energetic and physical, but feel healthier being uncommitted, and neither are the type to judge someone at first glance. Plus, I honestly just think they make a cute couple. Or at least cute "friends with benefits," at any rate.

Thanks to Crystal for taking the time to answer these pressing questions!

"Pathfinder: Spiral of Bones #1" hits comic store shelves tomorrow and is part of your ongoing Pathfinder comic subscription here on paizo.com. In addition to the main Spiral of Bones story, this and all other issues in the series include a backup Starfinder story called "Helping Hands" by Paizo Chief Creative Officer and Publisher, Erik Mona, a Pathfinder RPG rules appendix, and a pullout poster map.

For fans in the greater Seattle area (or with the disposable time and income to make last-minute travel arrangements), Crystal will be doing an in-store signing at Outsider Comics & Geek Boutique in Fremont, tomorrow evening, March 21, from 5–7 PM. Don't miss it!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Fighter Class Preview

Monday, March 19, 2018

Over the past 2 weeks, we've tried to give you a sense of what Pathfinder Second Edition is all about, but now it's time to delve into some details on the classes. From now until the game releases in August, we'll go through the classes one by one, pausing now and then to look at various rules and systems. Today, let's take a look at one of the most foundational classes in the game: the fighter.

The fighter was one of the first classes we redesigned, alongside the rogue, cleric, and wizard. We knew that we wanted these four to work well in concert with each other, with the fighter taking on the role of primary combat character, good at taking damage and even better at dealing damage. The fighter has to be the best with weapons, using his class options to give him an edge with his weapons of choice. The fighter also has to be mobile, able to get into the fray quickly and hold the line, allowing less melee-oriented characters time to get into position and use their abilities without have to fend off constant attacks.

Let's start by looking at some of the features shared by all fighters.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

First up is attacks of opportunity. This feature allows you to spend your reaction to strike a creature within your reach that tries to manipulate an object (like drinking a potion), make a ranged attack, or move away from you. This attack is made with a –2 penalty, but it doesn't take the multiple attack penalty from other strikes you attempt on your turn. Other classes can get this ability—and numerous monsters will as well—but only the fighter starts with it a core feature. Fighters also have feat choices that can make their attacks of opportunity more effective.

Next up, at 3rd level, you gain weapon mastery, which increases your proficiency rank with one group of weapons to master. Your proficiency rank increases to legendary at 13th level, making you truly the best with the weapons of your choice. At 19th level, you become a legend with all simple and martial weapons!

The fighter gets a number of other buffs and increases as well, but one I want to call out in particular is battlefield surveyor, which increases your Perception proficiency rank to master (you start as an expert), and gives you an additional +1 bonus when you roll Perception for initiative, helping you be first into the fight!

As mentioned in the blog last week, the real meat behind the classes is in their feats and (as of this post), the fighter has the largest selection of feats out of all the classes in the game! Let's take a look at some.

You've probably already heard about Sudden Charge. You can pick up this feat at 1st level. When you spend two actions on it, this feat allows you to move up to twice your speed and deliver a single strike. There's no need to move in a straight line and no AC penalty—you just move and attack! This feat lets the fighter jump right into the thick of things and make an immediate impact.

Next let's take a look at Power Attack. This feat allows you to spend two actions to make a single strike that deals an extra die of damage. Instead of trading accuracy for damage (as it used to work), you now trade out an action you could have used for a far less accurate attack to get more power on a roll that is more likely to hit.

As you go up in level, some of the feats really allow you to mix things up. Take the 4th-level feat Quick Reversal, for example. If you are being flanked and you miss with your second or third attack against one of the flankers, this feat lets you redirect the attack to the other target and reroll it, possibly turning a miss into a hit!

We've talked before about how fun and tactical shields are in the game. To recap, you take an action to raise your shield and get its Armor Class and touch Armor Class bonuses, and then you can block incoming damage with a reaction while the shield is raised. At 6th level, fighters can take the feat Shield Warden, which allows them to use their shield to block the damage taken by an adjacent ally. At 8th, they can even get an extra reaction each turn, just to use shield block one additional time. (And yes, they can spend this extra reaction on another use of Shield Warden.) At 14th level, a fighter can use their shield to protect themself from dragon's breath and fireballs, gaining their shield's bonus to Reflex saves.

The fighter also has a wide variety of options with ranged weapons, allowing you to deal more damage up close or fire more than one arrow at a time. I foresee a lot of fighters taking Debilitating Shot, which causes a foe to be slowed if the attack hits (causing it to lose one action on its next turn).

And all this is a small sample. We've made a conscious effort to give fighters a number of paths they can pursue using their feats: focusing on shields, swinging a two-handed weapon, fighting with two weapons, making ranged attacks, and fighting defensively. These paths are pretty open, allowing you to mix and match with ease to create a fighter that matches your play style.

The goal here is to give you a variety of tools to deal with the situations and encounters you are bound to face. You might walk into a fight with your bow and open with Double Shot, allowing you to fire a pair of arrows into the two nearest foes, only to swap over to using a greataxe when the rest surround you, making an attack against all enemies in your reach with Whirlwind Strike! It all comes down to the type of fighter you want to play.

Jason Bulmahn
Director of Game Design

They Came From Below!

Monday, March 19, 2018

The journey into the Jungle of Despair continues this week with a look at some of the myriad threats that may face your party in the Darklands below the jungle, such as in the final two volumes of the Serpent's Skull Adventure Path.

You've already seen the morlock cleric, serpentfolk cleric, and serpentfolk wizard, so there's no use in trying to tease what monstrous civilizations this week's previews are going to represent. What good is a morlock cleric without a congregation of followers to do his bidding? Look no further than the morlock, a Medium common figure. I expect most GMs to get at least two of these figures to take advantage of their swarming special ability!

Not to be outdone by the degenerate offspring of their ancient Azlanti enemies, serpentfolk are even better represented in this set than morlocks, with two more figures we haven't seen yet. The first is the serpentfolk hunter, a Medium common figure, the perfect component for a serpentfolk warband, either guarding their subterranean domain or venturing to the surface with evil intent.

The final serpentfolk in the set is the serpentfolk rogue, a Medium uncommon figure. I love hand crossbows, and this figure shows off why. Using the vials of poison on its belt, the serpentfolk rogue can envenom both a bolt and its blade, presenting a deadly threat both to enemies within reach and dozens of feet away.

Lastly, we have a brave adventurer willing to travel into the darkness to rid the world of these sinister beasts. The human paladin commander makes a great figure for both a player character or the noble leader of a holy order of knights, such as the Glorious Reclamation in the Hell's Vengeance Adventure Path. The human paladin commander is a Medium rare figure.

Check back next week, for the antepenultimate entry into our Jungle of Despair preview series! Yes, that makes this the preantepenultimate preview, but who's counting?

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Are You Proficient?

Friday, March 16, 2018

The term "proficiency" has been a part of the Pathfinder rules since the very beginning, but in the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook, we've expanded the concept to cover more than just weapons and armor. In the new proficiency system, your proficiency matters for just about every check you attempt and DC you have. You don't just have proficiency in weapons, which helps when you swing a sword, or proficiency in armor, which protects you when you try to avoid a blow—instead, proficiency covers everything from axes to spells, from Acrobatics to Thievery, and from Perception to Will saves. Your proficiency in Fortitude saves can allow you to shake off virulent poisons in an instant, and your proficiency in Diplomacy might help you stop a fight before it begins. There are five different ranks of proficiency.

Untrained

An untrained character lacks even basic proficiency. He adjusts his checks and DCs by –2 and sometimes flat-out can't attempt certain things. For instance, someone who is untrained in Thievery might be able to try to steal from someone but isn't skilled enough to pick a lock, no matter how high level he is.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Trained

A trained character has put in enough work that she's able to perform effectively. She can even start taking skill feats to achieve new and special effects with her skills. Many skill feats grow more and more powerful as your proficiency rank increases.

Expert

An expert is particularly accomplished in a particular field, adjusting her checks and DCs by +1, and gains access to more powerful features requiring expertise.

Master

A master is extremely skilled in an area, and she can achieve incredible results. In addition to adjusting her checks and DCs by +2, she may unlock powerful perks like master-level skill feats for skills, or the ability to dodge fireballs completely for Reflex saves. Other than a few classes like fighters, with their incredible command of weapons, characters can't become masters until level 7 at the earliest, and sometimes much later.

Legendary

A legendary character is world-class, and in addition to adjusting checks and DCs by +3, can routinely produce results that defy real-world explanation, even if they're not a spellcaster. For instance, a character who is legendary in Survival could learn to survive without food, water, or air in a featureless void, a character legendary in Thievery might be able to steal the armor off a guard, and a character with a legendary Will save might have a mind so strong that no mental intrusion can fully affect him. Most characters can't hope to become legendary until level 15 at the earliest, and even the mightiest fighters reach these heights with their weapons only at level 13. Most characters become legendary in only a few skills and one or two other statistics.

Proficiency Modifier

Your proficiency modifier is based partly on your rank and partly on your level—you add your level to the modifier from your rank to determine your proficiency modifier. For instance, a level 20 rogue who is legendary at Stealth might have a +23 proficiency modifier, while a level 1 paladin who is untrained at Stealth might have a –1 proficiency modifier. But does that mean that your level 20 untrained and magic-hating barbarian knows more about arcane magic than your friend's level 1 bibliophile wizard does? Not really. Your barbarian, with her extensive experience in battle, might be able to identify a dragon's weaknesses much better than the wizard with his ivory-tower book learning, but when it comes to magical theory, identifying the gestures that compose a spell, or other such topics, your barbarian simply doesn't know anything at all.

Gaining Proficiency

For most of your statistics, your starting proficiencies are determined by your class, though for skills, you can assign your ranks as you choose among any of the skills in the game. When it comes to leveling up, all classes gain skill rank increases at every odd-numbered level (or more often for the rogue!). Your other proficiencies increase based on your class and feat choices.

Making the Nonmagical Extraordinary

The best part about proficiencies is the way they push the boundaries for nonmagical characters, particularly those with a legendary rank. If you're legendary in something, you're like a character out of real-world myth and legend, swimming across an entire sea while beating up sea monsters like Beowulf, performing unbelievable tasks like Heracles, or hunting and racing at astounding speeds like Atalanta. While we did perform a bit of research on things like real world Olympic records and average expectations when it came to the lower ranks, masters and especially legends break all those rules. Want your fighter to leap 20 feet straight up and smash a chimera down to the ground? You can do that (eventually)!

And that's the basics of how proficiency works! Thanks for reading, and let us know what you think in the comments.

Mark Seifter
Designer

Visions of the Pact Worlds

Friday, March 16, 2018

Starfinder Pact Worlds is almost here, so we thought it might be fun to show off some of the cool art you'll encounter as you delve deeper into the cultures and politics of the Pact Worlds. To find out more about these exciting locations and interesting personalities, check out Starfinder Pact Worlds, available this month!

Illustration by Leon Tukker

Illustrations by Roberto Pitturru and Ben Wootten

Illustrations by Mark Molnar and Oh Wang Jing

Robert G. McCreary
Creative Director, Starfinder

Making the Most of Character Unlocks

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Ever since the first Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Class Decks were released, you have been able to use Adventure Path characters of the same class as your deck in the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild. This has been a great way to add more variety to PFSACG character options (in case the 88 Class Deck characters aren't already enough for you!).

The latest version of the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild Guide extends this to work with decks that contain characters of more than one class. For example, since the Pathfinder Tales Character Deck contains a wizard, you can use Ezren with that deck. And certain PFSACG adventure rewards unlock the ability to use specific characters with specific decks.

So, I decided to make a list of all the additional characters that you can use with each deck, including those you can only unlock with Chronicle sheets or boons. Every Class and Character deck has at least one additional playable character!

• Alchemist Class Deck: Damiel (Skull & Shackles), Damiel (Mummy's Mask), Mavaro (Mummy's Mask)—unlocked by Season of Plundered Tombs Adventure 4
• Barbarian Class Deck: Amiri (Rise of the Runelords)
• Bard Class Deck: Lem (Rise of the Runelords), Lem (Skull & Shackles), Mavaro (Mummy's Mask)—unlocked by Season of Plundered Tombs Adventure 2
• Cleric Class Deck: Kyra (Rise of the Runelords), Kyra (Wrath of the Righteous), Drelm (Mummy's Mask)
• Druid Class Deck: Lini (Rise of the Runelords), Lini (Skull & Shackles), Channa Ti (Mummy's Mask)
• Fighter Class Deck: Valeros (Rise of the Runelords), Valeros (Skull & Shackles)
• Goblins Burn! Character Deck: Tup (Rise of the Runelords Promo), Reepazo (Mummy's Mask Promo)
• Goblins Fight! Character Deck: Ranzak (Skull & Shackles Promo), Ekkie (Wrath of the Righteous Promo)
• Gunslinger Class Deck: Lirianne (Skull & Shackles)
• Hell's Vengeance Character Deck 1: Kyra (Rise of the Runelords), Kyra (Wrath of the Righteous), Drelm (Mummy's Mask)
• Hell's Vengeance Character Deck 2: Ezren (Rise of the Runelords), Ezren (Mummy's Mask), Imrijka (Wrath of the Righteous)
• Hunter Class Deck: Adowyn (Wrath of the Righteous), Harsk (Rise of the Runelords)—unlocked by Season of Factions' Favor Adventure 4, Harsk (Wrath of the Righteous)—unlocked by Season of Factions' Favor Adventure 4, Harsk (Ranger Class Deck)—unlocked by Season of Factions' Favor Adventure 4, Agna (Ranger Class Deck)—unlocked by Season of Factions' Favor Adventure 4, Arabundi (Ranger Class Deck)—unlocked by Season of Factions' Favor Adventure 4, Wrathack (Ranger Class Deck)—unlocked by Season of Factions' Favor Adventure 4
• Inquisitor Class Deck: Imrijka (Wrath of the Righteous), Mavaro (Mummy's Mask)—unlocked by Season of the Runelords Adventure 6, Zadim (Mummy's Mask)—unlocked by Season of Plundered Tombs Adventure 1
• Magus Class Deck: Seltyiel (Skull & Shackles), Ahmotep (Mummy's Mask), Crowe (Wrath of the Righteous)—unlocked by Season of Factions' Favor Adventure 1, Mavaro (Mummy's Mask)—unlocked by Season of Plundered Tombs Adventure 6
• Monk Class Deck: Sajan (Rise of the Runelords)
• Occult Adventures Character Deck 1: Estra (Mummy's Mask)
• Occult Adventures Character Deck 2: Mavaro (Mummy's Mask), Yoon (Mummy's Mask)
• Oracle Class Deck: Alahazra (Skull & Shackles), Alahazra (Mummy's Mask), Shardra (Wrath of the Righteous)—unlocked by Season of the Runelords Adventure 3, Estra (Mummy's Mask)—unlocked by Season of Plundered Tombs Adventure 5
• Paladin Class Deck: Seelah (Rise of the Runelords), Seelah (Wrath of the Righteous), Alain (Wrath of the Righteous)—unlocked by Season of the Righteous Adventure 6
• Pathfinder Tales Character Deck: Ezren (Rise of the Runelords), Merisiel (Rise of the Runelords), Seoni (Rise of the Runelords), Merisiel (Skull & Shackles), Seoni (Wrath of the Righteous), Ezren (Mummy's Mask), Simoun (Mummy's Mask), Enora (Wrath of the Righteous)—unlocked by Season of Factions' Favor Adventure 3
• Ranger Class Deck: Harsk (Rise of the Runelords), Harsk (Wrath of the Righteous)
• Rogue Class Deck: Merisiel (Rise of the Runelords), Merisiel (Skull & Shackles), Simoun (Mummy's Mask), Jirelle (Skull & Shackles)—unlocked by Season of the Shackles Adventure 1, Arueshalae (Wrath of the Righteous)—unlocked by convention boon, Zadim (Mummy's Mask—unlocked by Season of Plundered Tombs Adventure 6
• Sorcerer Class Deck: Seoni (Rise of the Runelords), Seoni (Wrath of the Righteous)
• Summoner Class Deck: Balazar (Wrath of the Righteous)
• Warpriest Class Deck: Oloch (Skull & Shackles)
• Witch Class Deck: Feiya (Skull & Shackles)
• Wizard Class Deck: Ezren (Rise of the Runelords), Ezren (Mummy's Mask), Enora (Wrath of the Righteous)—unlocked by Season of the Shackles Adventure 6

Whew! That's a lot of possibilities! Some of these options are total win for the characters, such as unlocking the Hunter deck for any Ranger. But there are a few that are more strange and interesting. Let's talk about a few of these, shall we?

The Pathfinder Tales deck has the most new options. The deck contains Varian (a wizard), Radovan (a rogue), and Celeste (a sorcerer). The Wizard, Rogue and Sorcerer Class decks are among the first that were released, so they didn't include any cards from some of the more recent base sets. The Tales deck has plenty of new cards, so let's see what fun things we can do giving those cards to a character who has otherwise been left a bit behind as far as card selection goes: Seoni from Wrath of the Righteous.

Seoni's Element Master role works best with spells that have the Acid, Cold, Electricity or Fire traits, of which the Tales deck includes many. When you choose this role, she gains a free power to reduce damage of a type matching one of these traits. She can also take a feat to add a flat +4 to her checks that have one of those traits, and another feat to let her auto-recharge items with those traits, so items like Necklace of Fireballs and Wand of Flame are excellent choices for her.

You can just imagine Seoni's delight when she finds this wand in some dark dungeon.

Has your Seoni been frustrated by the Trigger trait in either of the Mummy's Mask-based seasons? Grab the Tales ally Eando Kline, who gives you the ability to ignore non-villain Trigger powers. Or pick up the duo of Acadamae Student and Acadamae Scholar, who work together to make your Arcane checks oh-so-good. Or grab Jelani or Isiem, who can add the Cold or Fire trait to your combat check with a simple recharge. And there's a Blessing of the Elements in the Tales deck, an obvious choice for fiery Seoni.

Next, let's take a look at the new Occult Adventures decks. Both include characters from the Mummy's Mask Base Set, including my best character ever. Mavaro can be played using any of four other class decks, so he has had access to plenty of excellent boons throughout his long and storied career. However, some of the boons in Occult Adventures 2 are just too perfect for him to pass up.

For example, Mavaro has his own sword, The Missing Eye. It's a fine weapon, and is especially good at taking out demons. And it gives him a bonus on Fortitude or Perception checks when he really needs it. Even better, if he displays it, he gains four useful skills equal to his Intelligence: Strength, Melee, Wisdom and Divine. If you'd like to use him as a spellcaster, there are some excellent spells that use his Knowledge or Perception for effects or recharge checks, both of which he has a bonus to, such as Mind Thrust, Object Reading, and Kinetic Blast.

There are a lot of reasons why Mavaro is my favorite character, but I think the top one is his rockin' dad bod.

Have you found yourself taking a bunch of Mental damage that can't be reduced? You should really pick up the Crystal Mail, which will let you recharge those cards instead of discarding them. Or perhaps you could hang the Shrunken Head on your belt, letting you ignore a monster's powers that happen before you act. Also check out the Mindblade, who lets you use your Perception skill for your combat check.

I hope I've convinced you already of the potential value of some of these deck unlocks, but now let's really go off the deep end with the Hell's Vengeance character decks! I'm going to start with Deck 2, which contains Zelhara the Inquisitor, thereby allowing us to use Imrijka from Wrath of the Righteous. In her quest to root out evil and corruption, Imrijka has never been afraid to use tactics that might make some people squirm, so I can imagine she would embrace some less-than-legal items if she got hold of them, and that's exactly what the Hell's Vengeance 2 deck does for her.

First, there are a ton of great Ranged weapons that she can use her unique Ranged: Strength +1 skill with, such as the Galvanic Chakram +1, the Spirit Blade, or my favorite, the Stalker's Crossbow. Of course, that crossbow has the Corrupted trait, but there are ways that Imrijka can get around the penalties that trait imposes, like the Redeemer Blacksmith or the Channel Corruption spell.

Imrijka has never been too concerned with getting her hands dirty, and using a Corrupted weapon for the sake of good intentions is still good, right? Guys? Where are you going?

Excellent spells like Blade Lash and Steal Soul are here for the taking as well. The Sniper's Studded Leather, Shackles of Compliance, and Robe of Bones are all fantastic items that Imrijka can use to streak fear into her enemies, and those animated Undead allies... well, she normally wouldn't make use of those as a Pharasmin, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Last but not least, let's look at Hell's Vengeance 1. This deck includes Lazzero, a cleric of Asmodeus. He's evil and grouchy and people just generally don't like him much, but perhaps there's another cleric that can bring some divine light into this deck? I'm talking about Kyra, my friends. No, not Drelm. Kyra. Yes, you heard me right.

Kyra is a goody-two-shoes, and everyone knows it. She's a staunch supporter of Sarenrae, hates dead things, and tries to bring light and happiness to all. But not this Kyra. Maybe this version of Kyra lost the love of her life Merisiel in a fight with a vampire, and was turned by that vampire to serve his dark bidding? However it happened, this is not the undead-hating Sarenrae-loving Kyra we all know and love... this is something else, and there are plenty of ways for her to get out her newfound aggression using Hell's Vengeance 1. Interested in using a flaming hammer to strike down some weaklings? Check out Sinderbos, and maybe boost your combat with a fun spell like Instrument of Agony or Circle of Evil. Or perhaps just burn them to death with your Hellfire Halo..

Look into her eyes and tell me there's a shred of decency left in her. Oops, you probably shouldn't have looked directly into her eyes...

There are fun allies to capture, like the devil Suurlahetas or the Asmodean High Priest. There are a dizzying array of new Corrupted blessings to choose from as well, like the Blessing of the Prince of Lies, which lets you bury it and all other cards in your hand to straight up succeed at a check against a boon or non-villain bane.

Now, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that playing evil Kyra will be easy. Neither the Rise of the Runelords nor the Wrath of the Righteous versions of her have as many ways to deal with the penalties of Corrupted boons as the characters that come in the deck do, so she'll have to rely on things like Channel Corruption and the Redeemer Blacksmith. If you're looking for a challenge, though, bringing Kyra over to the dark side might just be up your alley.

That's it for this edition of "Tyler takes over the Paizo blog." I've recently become the Venture Captain for Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild online play, and we are currently running several games as part of the OutPost play-by-post gaming convention on the Paizo forums, so if you have any questions about this blog's content or about playing the card game online, feel free to contact me at cartmanbeck@orgplayonline.com!

Tyler "Cartmanbeck" Beck
Venture Captain, Adventure Card Guild Online Play

Rituals and Rivals

Thursday, March 15, 2018

I know there's a lot of excitement in the Pathfinder community these days, and I'm proud to be at the center of it with the most adamantly followed announcements of them all—Jungle of Despair previews!

Prior to Jungle of Despair, which releases in May, the last major jungle content we've released across our myriad Pathfinder lines was the Worldscape series of Pathfinder comics from Dynamite Entertainment, written by our own Chief Creative Officer and Publisher, Erik Mona. These crossover comics find the iconic Pathfinders whisked from Golarion to a strange, jungle demiplane where they battle and ally with such pulp fantasy heroes as John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, Red Sonja, and Fantoma. The demiplane, called the Worldscape, was actually created by the archmage Nex, one of the Pathfinder setting's most infamous wizard-kings, to serve as a staging ground for the greatest warriors of three worlds to assault the unconquerable city of Absalom. Now you can include elements of the Worldscape saga into your campaigns with the final piece of dungeonjungle dressing in the set, the summoning pillar. Modeled off the prominent monoliths scattered throughout the Worldscape, this imposing relic can also serve as any standing stone in your campaign.

No summoning pillar is complete without a powerful spellcaster to active it or bend its ancient magic to her will. One such figure is the serpentfolk wizard, a Medium rare figure based on one of the final villains in the Serpent's Skull Adventure Path, a wizard of the Amphisbaenian Rite.

If serpentfolk aren't your thing, you can instead use the summoning pillar with the morlock cleric, a Medium uncommon figure based on the art for Eudranis, the sample morlock in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Darklands Revisited. We're not picky about what evil monster person activates the summoning pillar, honest. What's really important is that your PCs get whisked away to a strange jungle of adventure and, I'll venture to say, despair.

Not all your foes need to be spellcasters, however. Why not give your players a hard time with a little bit of friendly assassination? And who better to stab someone in the back than a silent, sneaky elf? The elf assassin figure, a Medium uncommon offering, can easily serve this purpose. Or he can make for a nice rogue of swashbuckler player character. This figure's utility knows no limits!

Next week, we'll delve beneath the Jungle of Despair to look at some of the threats one can find teeming in the Darklands below.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Pathfinder Society 2, Expanding on the FAQ

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

By now many of you have heard that Paizo's launching a playtest for a second edition of Pathfinder RPG. This sort of news inspires all sorts of questions, so be sure you've checked out the Pathfinder Playtest FAQ. In short, Paizo will release the playtest book, pdf, and a playtest adventure at Gen Con 2018, gathering your input to revise the game and release it in full at Gen Con 2019.

A new edition inspires changes in other programs, including Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. When the new edition releases in August 2019, we will be launching a Pathfinder Society campaign using the new rules. Scenarios from that month onward will use the new edition, but that doesn't stop you from continuing to play first edition adventures (hundreds scenarios and dozens of sanctioned modules and Adventure Paths) with your first edition PCs.

We answer a lot of preliminary questions in the Pathfinder Society section of the FAQ, but there's a lot more to creating a new campaign than nine questions can detail. Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing more information and soliciting feedback on much more. After all, we've had a long time to consider strategies, but we've had only a little more than a week to discuss the matter with the community without spoiling the announcement. And discussion's an important part of the equation for organized play community; we thrive on incorporating player, GM, and organizer feedback into our decisions to ensure the most fair and fun experience.

So lets look at some preliminary answers together.

Lessons from Starfinder Society

By the time we began creating the Starfinder Society campaign—with much of the heavy lifting done by Thurston Hillman—everyone on the team had years of playing in, designing for, and managing the Pathfinder Society campaign. This was also our first time building an organized play campaign largely from the ground up, and it was gratifying to identify what had worked and what hadn't aged well in order to create a great program. In saying this, I do want to dispel one myth: Starfinder Society wasn't a prototype for a second edition Pathfinder Society campaign. It represented our creating a great organized play campaign informed by hard-learned lessons and years of inspiration. As we look toward creating a new Pathfinder Society campaign, we're learning from both the first edition experiences and Starfinder Society's success to create another great organized play program.

So what's worked well for Starfinder Society? Short answer's "A whole lot of things," and the team's impression is that many of these could work very well in Pathfinder Society, too. Let's break that down into subtopics.

Smaller Tiers: Pathfinder Society's first edition uses a 5-level spread for its tiers (e.g. Tier 1-5), breaking that into two subtiers (e.g. Subtiers 1-2 and 4-5). Although this has worked well from the perspective of allowing as many characters as possible to play each adventure, it leaves an awkward out-of-subtier gap. Also, the wider the level range, the easier it is for someone on the low end of that range to end up facing a wildly overpowering foe in the higher subtier; the same's true for very high level PCs practically walking over low-subtier threats. On the other hand, Starfinder Society uses a 4-level spread for its tiers (e.g. Tier 1-4) with two subtiers (e.g. Subtiers 1-2 and 3-4), eliminating the out-of-subtier gap and tightening the difficulty ranges for the encounters.

Overall, we're inclined to switch to this 4-level tier model, which would include Tiers 1-4, 3-6, 5-8, 7-10, and so on. We've opened up a Tiers and Level Gain thread to solicit your insights, so be sure to join the conversation there.

Boons: Starfinder Society boons—everything from the story awards earned during scenarios to the incentives distributed at public events—underwent a major revision in the form of boon slots. With some exceptions, each boon belongs to one of six categories: Ally, Faction, Personal, Promotional, Social, or Starship. At the beginning of each scenario, after hearing the mission's briefing, each player takes a moment to assign up to one boon of each type into its respective boon slot. There were several goals here. First, it gave us a clean way to handle our new faction model (see below). Second, it meant that players didn't have to shuffle through piles of Chronicle sheets mid-game to find a boon but could instead ready boons at the beginning of the adventure. Third, it helped us balance boon design around the idea that each PC would have a limited number of boons rather than dozens upon dozens of minor bonuses for which the Pathfinder rules simply don't account. By being really clear in scenarios when a boon might be useful to a player, I feel we've also promoted transparency, not yanked out the rug from under players.

All told, we've been really happy with how Starfinder Society boons work, and our inclination is to translate that system over to our second edition campaign. Naturally, we'd replace the Starship slot with something more genre appropriate (I know, I know... I just ruined one of your character concepts, didn't I?).

But that's our take, and we want to know how you feel about how boons would factor into the new campaign. Let us know in the Boons thread.

Factions and Fame: Okay, let's get one complaint out on the table: the Prestige Points/Fame/Reputation definitions aren't completely consistent between Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society. We recognized that going in, but we also balanced that against a desire to set Fame and Infamy in opposition to each other and just have shorter, cleaner terms overall. The odds are good that we'll adopt similar terminology in the new campaign.

Starfinder made some significant changes to how factions and Fame work. The most dramatic change is that each PC can work with any number of factions, slotting in a different faction champion boon at the beginning of any adventure to represent that allegiance. The especially devoted can stick to one faction, of course, but the options are there. What's more, factions in Starfinders provide about a dozen purchasable boons each, many of which might remind you of the vanities from Pathfinder Society. The more you serve a faction, the higher your status with them, and the more impressive the boons you can buy with your Fame. The drawback's that these took us a lot of time to create (especially Thursty, who handled the majority of the wordsmithing), but they've given each faction a much deeper role, both narratively and mechanically.

We're strongly looking to adopt the same faction model for second edition, giving PCs the freedom to work with an assortment of factions and purchase faction-themed benefits. We want to hear what you think in the Factions and Fame thread.

During the first few seasons, the Society's factions fought with one another in the Shadow War for control over Absalom. The intrigue was compelling, but the tight-lipped secrecy and occasional elements of backstabbing weren't especially conducive to playing a cooperative game. In the past five years I feel the factions have reached a comfortable equilibrium of working with the Society while also pursuing their own objectives (and sometimes pulling the Society along for the ride). Starfinder Society's also done a great job with this, showing how each faction is a facet of what drives the diverse cast of Starfinders. What's your take? Let us know in that discussion thread.

Finally, any discussion of the factions begs the question "Which factions will appear in second edition?" Well, we already know about some more faction developments coming down the pipeline later in Season 9 and Season 10. Beyond that, though, I'll be frank: we haven't locked in anything. Some factions might step back or merge. Some new ones might appear. All I can say is that the fewer the factions, the more we attention we can give them.

Chronicle Sheets

Around four years ago, the team created numerous prototypes for a new Chronicle sheet, shifting all of the information boxes to the top (rather than splitting it along the top, bottom, and side), juggling various features, and even eliminating certain entries altogether. We eventually returned to the original concept but tinkered with the layout and information fields in smaller ways. I admit that at this point I'm comfortably fond of the current design. I'm also not a graphic designer, and I'm sure that there are countless ways we could improve the Chronicle sheet to make it easier for players to find information and easier for GMs to fill them out—all while maintaining a visually attractive format.

At this point there's no final design. Instead, we're soliciting your feedback in the Chronicle sheets thread. What would help you keep track of your rewards, minimize paperwork, and not impose an undue burden on the GMs?

Oh! I almost forgot: there are already plans in the works for how to ensure that items on the Chronicle sheets are relevant without undermining a PC's general access to other gear through Fame (or a similar mechanic). Until there's more news from the design team about equipment, though, I'm going to leave it at that.

Organizing the Guide

A new campaign demands a new Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide. The Guide's gone through around 10 revisions in its lifetime, and it's certainly become a complex creation over the years. That said, Tonya's efforts to reorganize the document with major help from our guide review team (a group of venture-officers who help us identify inconsistencies and places for improvement) have helped break the veritable tome into more easily printed, essential sections.

We feel the Guide's in a pretty good place now, and we'll certainly apply many of the lessons learned when creating the next Guide. That said, we want to hear from the people who are using this document on a regular basis. Tell us what you'd want to see in a redesigned Guide—layout, organization, information, and more—in our Structure of the Roleplaying Guild Guide thread.

Character Numbers

Player numbers are going to stay the same in the new edition's campaign. Much as Starfinder Society character numbers began at -701, you'll find that any playtest characters are going to start at -1501, and second edition characters will start at -2001. I imagine this won't be contentious, but speak up if you foresee some hidden issue with this numbering scheme.

That does raise the question of how we're tracking playtest credit, doesn't it? Does that credit translate into second edition Chronicle sheets? Not quite, but potentially. That's something for a later blog.

GM Stars

When Starfinder Society started up, we recognized that five GM stars wouldn't necessarily correspond to proficiency with the Starfinder rules. Certainly GM stars conveyed dedication to organized play as a whole and comfort "behind the screen," yet we needed a separate means of tracking one's Starfinder Society accomplishments. As we look toward the second edition of Pathfinder RPG, we're seeing similar indicators.

That means a few things. First, it means that we're looking to introduce an additional means of tracking GMs' efforts in second edition games. Second, it means that first edition GM stars aren't disappearing; their principle impact is on the first edition campaign, and they remain the celebrated badge of honor for a GM's contributions. Third, we recognize that this may disappoint some folks, and we're looking at ways to balance this by making players' experiences and GMs' efforts relevant in the new campaign. We're reviewing the ongoing commentary and soliciting opinions in an ongoing process of establishing this policy's details—matters we'll discuss in a future blog.

Character Conversions

As we stated in the Pathfinder Playtest FAQ, we are not converting first edition characters into second edition characters. This may be the toughest decision we've had to make. Like me, you probably have several folders of characters with lots of Chronicle sheets and tales yet to be told. Not only are we providing lots of options to tell meaningful stories with those characters in the coming months, but we're also including various ways to carry your gaming experience over from one campaign to the next. This is an ongoing process and one that we'll address in a future blog.

Season 10

Okay, that's a lot to digest for the second edition. Let's talk a little about Season 10. I've seen a lot of threads and posts noting that Season 10 needs higher-level scenarios, should wrap up some ongoing stories, and should go out with a bang.

The organized play team agrees entirely!

We traditionally announce our new season's name at PaizoCon and hint at some of the awesome stories to come, and I'm not going to spoil that today. I will, however, say that we have some Big Plans for the first edition campaign's final scenarios. We're also thoroughly aware that many of you want to pit your favorite characters against higher-level challenges, so we're reducing the number of lower level scenarios published noticeably for Season 10 while increasing the number of Tier 5-9, 7-11, 12-15 adventures (perhaps higher). There's so much great story content in the works, and we look forward to sharing it over the coming months.

Our New Developer

We have a lot on the horizon and a lot of work ahead, and we're excited to have Michael Sayre join the organized play team as a developer. He's been working on the upcoming Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-16: Fallen Family, Broken Name, and we're looking forward to the great things he'll bring the Pathfinder Society campaign. With Michael on board, I'll be spending more of my time helping Thursty on Starfinder Society development and working on the upcoming playtest scenarios, and our larger team means more opportunity for all of us to help spin up the next edition's Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild.

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

Forest from the Trees

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Not too long ago we announced a change to our modular mapping products. Pathfinder Map Packs had a good run, but we knew we could do better. To replace the Map Packs, we put together Flip-Tiles: 6-inch-by-6-inch, double-sided tiles, each corresponding to a themed starter set, and designed to be even more modular than the Map Packs where.

Our first Starter Set along with its first expansion saw announcement in that earlier blog. Surprise, surprise, it was dungeon themed. After the release of those two sets, we are going to release the second starter, which will be Forest Starter Set. Coming quickly on its heels is a forest-themed expansion, similar to the role that Dungeon Perils plays with the Dungeon Starter Set. From these two initial starter sets and their expansions, you can see where we are going with all of this. Given that many of the sets also have connector tiles—that is tiles that bridge the gap between one theme and another, you can probably get a good idea of where the product line is going.

Not everything is set in stone, though. As with any new product, we are keen to assess your wants and desires for such products. I'm pretty good at anticipating, since my first thought when designing a new map or a mapping product is always, "would I want to play with this?" But sometimes something incredibly obvious can just zing over my head as I sketch away on this project or that.

In one of those "why the heck didn't I think of that?" moments, when we announced the product in an earlier blog, a group of folks suggested that we find an alphanumeric scheme for the tiles. It was a good idea and sent us backpedaling a bit and considering the best way to implement such a feature.

Like any product decision, this starts with a cost/benefit analysis, not one that talked to the bottom line when it comes to the actual economics of the product. It wouldn't affect the printing costs, but would such numbering be beneficial rather than harmful. The benefits were numerous. Not only would it help the user organize their collection, but such a code can also be utilized by adventure writers to instantly tell the user what tiles were needed to present a map that used them and even which set to find the correct tile.

It's no secret that an element for the success of the Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics line is Pathfinder Society's has utilization of Flip-Mats throughout that line and the older GameMastery lines' existence. It turns out that when actual use and play increases so does demand. One of the goals of the Flip-Tile line was an increase of utility with of modular mapping product, so any idea that would improve that usability carried a great deal of weight.

Of course, as with anything, there were arguments against organizing the tiles with an alphanumeric code. But they were sparse, typically amounted to the complaint that it would "reduce immersion," so we knew that if we could make it as useful and unobtrusive as possible, we could hover around the best of both worlds.

In the end, after a great deal of brainstorming and discussion, we came up the with the following format:

[Two letter abbreviation for set] [Set number]
[Tile number] [Side A or B]

The abbreviation for the set type tells you what starter set the tile is from or expands. For instance, if the tile is part of the Dungeon Starter Set or one of its expansions, it features the letters DU (for dungeon). If its part of the Forest Starter Set or one of the forest expansions, it features the letter FR (for forest... while avoiding the somewhat confusing FO designator). The set numbering is as brief and concise as possible. If the tile is from a starter set, the set number is 0. Since Dungeon Perils is the first expansion of the Dungeon Starter Set, that set's tiles will feature a DU1 in the first line of the code.

There is a tile number from 01-42 for in each starter set or 01-24 in each expansion. One side is labeled A, and the other is labeled B. So, for instance, the second side of the 24th tile in Flip-Tiles: Dungeon Perils would have the following code featured on a corner of the tile.

DU1
24B

While the last second side of the last tile found in Flip-Tiles: Forest Starter Set would feature this code.

FR0
42B

With just a glance, you can put away and rearrange your tiles. Better yet, when preparing your next game, you can just list the group of tiles you need for each encounter, throw them in a box and go.

All of this stems our main goal here at Paizo—to give you all the content and tools to have the best roleplaying experiences available.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Senior Designer

Leveling Up!

Monday, March 12, 2018

With the Pathfinder Playtest, we're looking to level up the entire Pathfinder game. And that means leveling up... leveling up! Gaining new levels and the toys that come with them is a core part of Pathfinder First Edition, and we want to make it more rewarding in the new edition. So how do you level up?

Well, first you're going to need some Experience Points. You can get those XP by fighting monsters, encountering traps, solving puzzles, and accomplishing goals. Once you hit 1,000 XP, you level up! (That's for every level, so whenever you have 500 XP, you'll always know you're halfway to leveling up again! And if you have any extra Experience Points after leveling up, they count toward the next level.)

Once you have enough Experience Points to level up, you'll increase your proficiencies, then get some more Hit Points (8 + Constitution modifier for a cleric, for example), and then get to make the choices for your new level. What choices? Those are all covered on your class's class advancement table. For instance, at 2nd and 3rd levels, the cleric gets the following:

2	Cleric feat, skill feat
3	2nd-level spells, general feat, skill increase

(Wait... what if I multiclass? We'll cover that in a future blog, but let's just say you'll still be referencing only one advancement table.)

One thing we knew we wanted to include in the new edition was a good number of choices for all characters. In first edition, this could be pretty unequal. Even though over time, the game incorporated more ways to customize any type of character, we wanted to build in more robust customization into the structure of every class. That's why every class gets specific class talents (which include spells for spellcasters) at 1st level and every other level thereafter, increases to skills every other level, and feats at every level!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Feats Feats Feats!

How does gaining feats at every level shake out? Every class has special feats just for them, which you gain every other level. When your cleric hits 2nd level and gets that cleric feat, do you want to become a better healer? Learn another of your deity's domains? Turn undead away from you? Your class feats give you these options, so you're not locked into the same path as every other cleric.

On any level when you don't gain a class feat, you gain a skill feat to change the ways you can use skills, a general feat that's useful to any character regardless of class, or an ancestry feat that reflects the training or advantages of your people. Skill feats are part of the general feat category, too, so if you really want to invest in your skills, you can drop 15 feats on improving them!

Many of your feats—especially class feats—give you new actions, activities, and so on that you can use. They have a special format to tell you how they work with your three actions and one reaction. Formatting them this way means that it's easier to tell whether a feat is something you can always do or a special action you can take. In Pathfinder First Edition terms, this would be like the difference between Weapon Focus and Vital Strike.

One of our goals with feats was to make them easier to choose and to use. Most feats require very few prerequisites, so you won't need to worry about picking a feat you really don't want in order to eventually get one you do. Any prerequisites build off your level, your proficiency, and any previous feats the new feat builds onto.

The Best of Your Ability

You'll also amp up several of your ability scores every 5 levels. The process might be familiar to those of you who've been playing Starfinder for the last several months! There are, of course, a few tweaks, and we made all ability boosts work the same way instead of being different at 1st level. Learn it once, use it in perpetuity.

Second Chances

So you get all these choices. Let's say you make a few bad ones. It happens!

Retraining your abilities is now in the game from the get-go, covered by the downtime system. You can spend your downtime to swap out choices you made for other ones. (Though you can't swap out ones that are a core part of your character, like your ancestry, unless you work out a way to do so with your GM.

Some classes give you ways to retrain your choices automatically. For instance, some spells get less useful as you go up in level, so spontaneous spellcasters get to replace some of the spells they know with other ones when they get new spells.

Leveling in the Playtest

The playtest adventure will have you playing characters at various levels, and tells you when to level them up (or tells you to create new characters for certain chapters). Our goal has been to make your options expansive and satisfying, but not overwhelming. We look forward to you telling us which decisions you're making, trading tips with fellow players, and agonizing over two feats when you really want them both.

Logan Bonner
Designer

Fiendgully: The Last Painforest

Monday, March 12, 2018

It's just been a bit since our delayed look at the set's creepy crawlies, but a short detour in our journey through the Jungle of Despair won't prevent me from at least trying to stay on schedule. This week we examine some of the fiends featured in the set: daemons and qlippoth!

Hailing from the desolate plane of Abaddon, daemons serve the Four Horsemen in their efforts to claim as many mortal souls as possible. Like all Outer Planes, Abaddon's primary means of soul acquisition comes from worshipers of neutral evil deities who are judged and sent there upon their mortal demise. But daemons' hunger is rarely sated, and like most fiends, they are always looking for new, less scrupulous means of growing their numbers. The terrifying astradaemon, for example, traverses the River of Souls on the Astral Plane, like a shark, plucking unlucky victims from their rightful path to the afterlife. With a life-draining touch, astradaemons speed their living victims toward death, increasing the prevalence of their prey in the River of Souls. The astradaemon is a Large rare figure.

Exhibiting cephalopod, crustacean, and humanoid features, the menacing venom daemon uses potent poison to bring low its enemies. Native to the swampy or fully aquatic regions of Abaddon, venom daemons target the strongest of their foes first, both as a tactical choice and for the emotional impact when foes see the greatest among them fall. The venom daemon is a Medium rare figure.

Older even than deamonkind are the qlippoth of the Abyss, whose hatred for the myriad demons who now rule their home plane knows no bounds. Last week we looked at the spider-like thulgant qlippoth, but it's just one of the four qlippoths Jungle of Despair has to offer. First this week is the ravenous qlippoth, whose body takes the form of a writhing ball of intertwined intestines and toothy mouths, an anatomy that serves it well as the scavenger of the Abyss. The ravenous qlippoth is a Medium uncommon figure.

The slightly more powerful infectious qlippoth is a manifestation of the Abyss's fecundity, spreading pain and suffering throughout the multiverse. The monocular, tentacle-covered beasts are capable of travel to other planes, where they spread misfortune indiscriminately. The infectious qlippoth is a Large uncommon figure.

Finally, we come to the gongorinan qlippoth, the crablike spawn of the qlippoth lord, Yamasoth, who was himself closely associated with Alaznist, the final Runelord of Wrath. A medium rare figure, the gongorinan qlippoth (along with most of the other figures in this week's preview) is sure to serve Game Masters running the forthcoming Return of the Runelords Adventure Path well.

That's all for now, folks! I hope you survived our glimpse into the Abyss (and Abaddon). Next week we'll return to the jungles of Golarion with a look at some of the mortal rivals your adventurers may encounter along their journey into despair.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Pathfinder Playtest: Return to the Crypt

Friday, March 9, 2018

As part of our announcement for Pathfinder Second Edition, we recorded a game session with the hilarious crew from the Glass Cannon Network. They were kind enough to invite us to their studio in New York, where Erik Mona and I playtested the game with them, converting the first ever Pathfinder Module, Crypt of the Everflame, to the new rules.

Because this was a live session, and because I was converting this adventure "on the fly," I thought it might be useful to all the listeners out there to include a companion blog post that explores some of the spoilers from the recording and corrects a few of the mistakes that we made during play.

Note that the following commentary includes spoilers, so if you have not listened to the podcast, you should probably go and download it from the Glass Cannon Network site right now (or from wherever you subscribe to podcasts). Entries include an approximate time stamp to let you know at what point they happen during the session.

Commentary for Part 1

This commentary refers to the first part of the podcast.

• (03:00) I should note that the new version of Pathfinder has been in design now for well over two years. The first playtest of the core mechanics was only a few months into the design process, back in 2016.
• (04:00) Obligatory Princess Bride reference.
• (04:40) The only preparation for this adventure was to pull together existing monster statistics that correspond to those in the adventure. So, if the adventure featured wolves, the document I had with me had the new wolf stat block. Nothing else was converted—not the traps, random skill challenges, or monsters—without a corresponding converted stat block.
• (06:00) This is the actual beginning of the module, starting with player and character introductions and the reveal of the adventure they are about to undertake. For ease of reference, the players and their characters listed here:

  Pherise (Matthew Capodicasa), Elf Rogue
  Mamolo Blunch (Skid Maher), Goblin Alchemist
  Keith Slashmaster (Troy Lavallee), Human Fighter
  Grellun the Green (Erik Mona), Human Wizard,
  Emmerich Kant (Joe O'Brien), Human Paladin
  Sifferus Sufferas the Vociferous (Grant Berger), Human Cleric

• (31:40) The first skill check in the game is a Society check. This skill covers knowledge about towns, people, their customs, and their history. The information they are looking for here is relatively common knowledge, and the number they needed to roll (the Difficulty Class) is only a 10. Keith (Troy) fumbled the check and got false information, which was quickly debunked by the others.
• (35:30) The party leaves town, entering exploration mode as they venture into the Fangwood.
• (39:00) Erik, playing Grellun, just starts reading the spell descriptions from his character folio. Of note, when he reads off acid splash, he mentions "somatic" and "verbal," which does not seem to be much of a spoiler, but those are actually the names of the two actions you must spend to cast the spell!
• (39:50) To keep the adventure moving along, in the hope to make this only a few hours long in total, there are a number of minor encounters that get skipped. During the journey, for example, I left out the encounter with the wolves, as it is ultimately unnecessary to the overall plot. Of course, the game still ran extremely long, due in large part to the fact that we were just having too much fun.
• (40:10) Here we have the first fight of the game, against a trio of bloodthirsty orcs.
• (43:50) That's right, Perception is no longer a skill. Your class gives you an initial proficiency in Perception and might possibly increase it over time.
• (47:30) A note on attacking more than once in a round. If he had attacked with all three of his actions, the third attack would have been at an even larger penalty.
• (54:10) Most of the maneuvers—grabbing, disarming, tumbling, and tripping—are now associated with the Acrobatics or Athletics skills.
• (59:00) As the fight rages on, it quickly becomes apparent to some of the characters that these orcs are not real. Created by illusion magic, they vanish the moment they are struck. These phantom foes are created using a new spell called illusory creature. Created by a hidden wizard, these orcs are bit more difficult to hit than ordinary foes, basing their statistics on the caster. The fact that they are a spell also explains why they have only two actions each turn and hit for so little damage (all of which is halved once the illusion is revealed).
• (1:05:30) The developers made me change that back. Neon green dice once again roll just as well as any other color of dice.
• (1:07:20) Nimble Dodge has seen a lot of play in office playtests and has saved the lives of countless rogues.
• (1:11:40) The characters in this playtest have decent bonuses to attack, but that is of little help when everyone is rolling lower than 10. No amount of redesign can account for fickle dice.
• (1:16:00) A note on flanking. I made a small error here. Flanking does not grant you a +2 bonus to hit. Instead, it now makes the target flat-footed to your attacks, causing it to take a –2 penalty to its AC. It's the same result, but the distinction is relevant.

Commentary for Part 2

• (02:30) I call that a skill unlock, which is an old term for what we now call a skill feat, which characters get starting at 2nd level.
• (05:00) Small mistake here. The three-action casting of heal does indeed target everyone in the group, but it heals only an amount equal to the caster's spellcasting ability modifier at this level (which should be only 4).
• (07:10) I probably should have waited until he rolled to announce the result.
• (11:10) The Survival skill can be used to navigate in the wild, make a shelter, and find food. In this case, instead of making shelter, the skill was used to simply find a good, defensible place to camp.
• (14:10) Remnants of the wolf encounter that I decided to skip to keep things moving.
• (19:00) Okay, I admit, my description of the body may have been a bit too detailed, but it is important for the tone shift that happens at this point in the adventure. Things are starting to get serious.
• (21:10) This really does begin to show the relationship between proficiencies and crafting that will undoubtedly be the topic of a future blog post. Suffice it to say, the higher your proficiency, the higher the quality of the items that you can craft.
• (23:50) For clarity, there is a pair of puncture wounds on the upper torso and another on the lower torso. The punctures are about an inch in diameter, with the pair about 12 inches apart.
• (24:20) The only way the illusion is detected is if it is lower-level than the detection spell. If it is of the same level, it is unnoticed.
• (36:10) In converting this particular hazard, I treated the various results on the table as the failure, critical failure, success, and critical success results of the new effect. The DC was changed to 15. I modified the damage a little, but the only other significant change was to remove the ability damage from the critical failure effect, replacing it with a condition to represent a sprained ankle.
• (46:10) If this were during combat, when time was short, I could have called for an Athletics skill check to move the horse carcass, instead of just looking at their Strength scores and figuring out how much spare bulk they had to move it around.
• (51:50) Repeated the mistake here with heal again. It should have been only 4 points restored.
• (55:10) The skeletons here are not very powerful undead, but in large numbers like this, they can be deadly. Most problematic, they have resistance 5 to weapon damage, but they still have a weakness to bludgeoning, which can cancel out that protection.
• (1:01:20) Skeletons also have resistance 5 against fire damage.
• (1:05:25) Claws are agile weapons, which is why the skeletons use them as their second attack, reducing the penalty on the attack roll to –4.
• (1:09:00) The Shield Block reaction is very powerful, preventing damage by forcing the foe to beat its way through your protection. It does mean that warriors tend to go through shields with some frequency.
• (1:11:00) The shield spell is also a cantrip, meaning that you can cast it as often as you like.
• (1:13:30) Explaining the confusion, there was an earlier draft of acid splash that hit multiple targets. That is no longer the case.
• (1:16:10) Troy just cannot roll above a 5 in this fight.
• (1:19:00) I finally realized that I was doing the heal spell wrong, and then promptly missed the part where the skeletons should get a save against the effect. Fortunately, it didn't matter much; they were all pretty damaged at this point.
• (1:21:45) Sweeping the leg is probably an Athletics skill check...
• (1:24:50) There are two doors leading out of the room: one to the east, one to the west. The scream came from the west. Somewhere in the dungeon, a tortured soul calls out for help.

That wraps up this look at the first part of the playtest podcast with the Glass Cannon Network. Stop by on Monday when we will be investigating how you level up using the new rules!

Jason Bulmahn
Director of Game Design

Starfinder Now on Fantasy Grounds!

Thursday, March 8, 2018

We're happy to announce that SmiteWorks has released version 1.0 of their Starfinder Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds! The ruleset comes with the entire contents of the Starfinder core rules in an easy to read reference manual and with drag and drop data elements for everything like classes, races, armor, shields, and starships. Character creation is assisted by dragging and dropping race, theme and then class. Starship build support and starship combat is still getting finalized but will make an appearance when we release version 1.0.

In addition to the Starfinder core rules, we also simultaneously launched the Starfinder Alien Archive and first three volumes of the Dead Suns Adventure Path. The Alien Archive comes with tokens where possible.

We are collecting feedback on our dedicated Starfinder forums and plan to push a series of smaller patches out over the coming days and weeks.

Like all official Paizo conversions for Fantasy Grounds, Paizo has allowed us to provide a discount for any product where the PDF is already owned at paizo.com. Use the Store > Paizo Account Synchronization to link your accounts and Retrieve paizo.com Purchases to enable a discount on each product owned. Once linked, the products will show a discount equivalent to the PDF price of the same product. This means $9.99 off the bigger core rules products and as much as $15.99 off when you buy one of the Dead Suns adventures. If you don't already own the PDF, buying the Fantasy Grounds version allows you to sync that purchase back to paizo.com to get a free PDF added to your account there.

Doug Davison
President, SmiteWorks

All About Actions

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

One of the most important aspects of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is combat. Monsters and villains are a very real threat that adventurers have to deal with on a daily basis, and quiet negotiation is rarely the answer. When talking fails, swords are drawn and combat is joined. In Pathfinder First Edition, combat could become rather bogged down just by the weight of options available. Time and time again, we heard new players talk about the complexity of the action system, how it made the game slow down as players looked to eke the most out of their turns.

Basically, the previous system was a barrier, and so it should come as no surprise that we are looking at ways that we can simplify it to make the game run more smoothly and intuitively. The hard part was making sure that the versatility of the old system was still present, while cleaning up the overall experience. We want your turn in combat to be exciting and full of interesting choices. We want you to be elated by coming up with just the right combination of actions to win the day. We just don't want those choices to be hedged in by a number of complex categories.

Seven Types

Before I explain the new way of doing things, it might be good to look back to find some perspective. The previous edition of Pathfinder featured seven distinct action types: free, full-round, immediate, move, standard, swift, and a nebulously defined “other” category. These helped to curb what a character could do and encouraged varied tactics to get the most out of your round. In particular, the immediate action was of interest because it was something you could do outside your turn.

This approach has served us well over the years, but we have long looked for better ways to accomplish some of the same goals with a more intuitive system.

Three Actions

It's your turn. You get to take three actions. That's it. You want to move three times? Done. Instead you want to move once, draw your sword, and attack? No problem. How about attack three times? Go ahead (but you'll take an increasing penalty for each additional attack). With only a few notable exceptions, most things in the game now take one action to accomplish. Opening a door, drawing a weapon, reloading a crossbow, moving up to your speed, raising your shield, taking a guarded step, swinging your greataxe—all of these and much more take just one action to perform.

There are, of course, some exceptions. A few things don't take an action at all, like talking or dropping a weapon. Conversely, most of the spells in the game take two actions to cast, although some can be cast quickly, such as a heal spell that targets yourself. Many of the classes can teach you specific activities that take two more actions to perform. The fighter, for example, has a feat that you can select called Sudden Charge, which costs two actions but lets you to move twice your speed and attack once, allowing fighters to get right into the fray!

One Reaction

One aspect of Pathfinder First Edition that was important to us was the ability to occasionally, if the circumstances were right, act outside your turn. While this was most often a simple attack of opportunity, we saw this as a way to add a whole new dimension to the game.

So now, all characters get one reaction they can take when the conditions are right.

Reactions always come with a trigger that must occur before the reaction can be taken. Let's say you're playing a paladin with a shield and you have spent an action to defend yourself with that shield. Not only does this boost your Armor Class; it also allows you to take a special reaction if you are hit by an attack. This shield block reduces the damage taken by an amount up to the shield's hardness!

Not everybody will have a reaction they can use during combat, but you can always ready an action that allows you prepare a special action that you can take later if the conditions you specify are met. You might ready an action to attack the first orc that walks around the corner, allowing you to make a strike if that happens before your next turn.

Finally, some monsters have reactions they can take as well. While some have simple reactions that allow them to attack those who drop their guard while adjacent to them, others have wildly different abilities. An earth elemental, for example, can spend its reaction after being hit to crumble into a pile of rocks, burrowing down into the ground for safety.

The New System in Practice

The three-action-and-a-reaction system really has done a lot for gameplay around the office. Turns are quite a bit more dynamic. The breadth of options now compete with each other, not based upon what action type they are, but instead on their merits in the current combat situation. Concentrating on a spell might be vital, but not if you need to move away, draw a potion, and drink it. Maybe you could wait to drink it until your next turn to keep the spell going, or maybe you could not move and hope the monster does not eat you.

Most importantly, taking your turn in Pathfinder is now filled with a wide variety of possibilities, allowing you to get the most out of your time in the spotlight, while still keeping the game moving and engaging.

Well, that about wraps up our in-depth look at the new action system for Pathfinder. Come back on Friday for a blog post looking into all of the spoilers from the first part of the Glass Cannon Network's podcast of their playtest of the game. In addition, if you want to see the game yourself, and maybe even get a chance to play, stop by Gary Con this weekend, where we will be running a number of Pathfinder charity games, raising money for the Wounded Warrior Project!

Jason Bulmahn
Director of Game Design

First Look at the Pathfinder Playtest

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Welcome to the next evolution of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!

Just shy of 10 years ago, on March 18th, 2008, we asked you to take a bold step with us and download the Alpha Playtest PDF for Pathfinder First Edition. Over the past decade, we've learned a lot about the game and the people who play it. We've talked with you on forums, we've gamed with you at conventions, and we've watched you play online and in person at countless venues. We went from updating mechanics to inventing new ones, adding a breadth of options to the game and making the system truly our own. We've made mistakes, and we've had huge triumphs. Now it is time to take all of that knowledge and make the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game even better.

By now, you've probably read all about the upcoming launch of the Playtest version of the game set to release on August 2nd, 2018 (but just in case you haven't, click here). In the weeks and months leading up to that release, we are going give you an in-depth look at this game, previewing all 12 of the classes and examining many of the most fundamental changes to the game. Of course, that is a long time to wait to get a complete picture, so I wanted to take this opportunity to give you insight into the game, how it works, and why we made the changes that we made. We will be covering these in much more detail later, but we thought it might be useful to give a general overview right now.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

New, but the Same

Our first goal was to make Pathfinder Second Edition feel just like the game you know and love. That means that as a player, you need to be able to make the choices that allow you to build the character you want to play. Similarly, as a Game Master, you need to have the tools and the support to tell the story you want to tell. The rules that make up the game have to fundamentally still fill the same role they did before, even if some of the mechanics behind them are different.

Building a Character

It's worth taking a moment to talk about how characters are built, because we spent a lot of time making this process smoother and more intuitive. You start by selecting your ancestry (which used to be called race), figuring out where you came from and what sorts of basic statistics you have. Next you decide on your background, representing how you were raised and what you did before taking up the life of an adventurer. Finally, you select your class, the profession you have dedicated yourself to as an intrepid explorer. Each one of these choices is very important, modifying your starting ability scores, giving you starting proficiencies and class skills, and opening up entire feat chains tailored to your character.

After making the big choices that define your character, you have a variety of smaller choices to make, including assigning skill proficiencies, picking an ancestry feat, buying gear, and deciding on the options presented by your class. Finally, after deciding on all of your choices, the only thing left to do is figure out all of your bonuses, which are now determined by one unified system of proficiency, based on your character's level.

As you go on grand adventures with your character, you will gain experience and eventually level up. Pathfinder characters have exciting and important choices to make every time they gain a level, from selecting new class feats to adding new spells to their repertoires.

Playing the Game

We've made a number of changes to the way the game is played, to clean up the overall flow of play and to add some interesting choices in every part of the story. First up, we have broken play up into three distinct components. Encounter mode is what happens when you are in a fight, measuring time in seconds, each one of which can mean life or death. Exploration mode is measured in minutes and hours, representing travel and investigation, finding traps, decoding ancient runes, or even mingling at the queen's coronation ball. Of all the modes of play, exploration is the most flexible, allowing for easy storytelling and a quick moving narrative. Finally, the downtime mode happens when your characters are back in town, or relative safety, allowing them to retrain abilities, practice a trade, lead an organization, craft items, or recuperate from wounds. Downtime is measured in days, generally allowing time to flow by in an instant.

Most of the game happens in exploration or encounter mode, with the two types of play flowing easily from one to the other. In fact, exploration mode can have a big impact on how combat begins, determining what you roll for your initiative. In a group of four exploring a dungeon, two characters might have their weapons ready, keeping an eye out for danger. Another might be skulking ahead, keeping to the shadows, while the fourth is looking for magic. If combat begins, the first two begin with their weapons drawn, ready for a fight, and they roll Perception for their initiative. The skulking character rolls Stealth for initiative, giving them a chance to hide before the fight even begins. The final adventurer rolls Perception for initiative, but also gains some insight as to whether or not there is magic in the room.

After initiative is sorted out and it's your turn to act, you get to take three actions on your turn, in any combination. Gone are different types of actions, which can slow down play and add confusion at the table. Instead, most things, like moving, attacking, or drawing a weapon, take just one action, meaning that you can attack more than once in a single turn! Each attack after the first takes a penalty, but you still have a chance to score a hit. In Pathfinder Second Edition, most spells take two actions to cast, but there are some that take only one. Magic missile, for example, can be cast using from one to three actions, giving you an additional missile for each action you spend on casting it!

Between turns, each character also has one reaction they can take to interrupt other actions. The fighter, for example, has the ability to take an attack of opportunity if a foe tries to move past or its defenses are down. Many classes and monsters have different things they can do with their reactions, making each combat a little bit less predictable and a lot more exciting. Cast a fire spell near a red dragon, for example, and you might just find it takes control of your magic, roasting you and your friends instead of the intended target!

Monsters and Treasure

The changes to the game are happening on both sides of the GM screen. Monsters, traps, and magic items have all gotten significant revisions.

First off, monsters are a lot easier to design. We've moved away from strict monster construction formulas based off type and Hit Dice. Instead, we start by deciding on the creature's rough level and role in the game, then select statistics that make it a balanced and appropriate part of the game. Two 7th-level creatures might have different statistics, allowing them to play differently at the table, despite both being appropriate challenges for characters of that level.

This also makes it easier for us to present monsters, giving us more space to include special abilities and actions that really make a monster unique. Take the fearsome tyrannosaurus, for example; if this terrifying dinosaur gets you in its jaws, it can take an action to fling you up to 20 feet through the air, dealing tremendous damage to you in the process!

Hazards are now a more important part of the game, from rangers creating snares to traps that you have to actively fight against if you want to survive. Poisons, curses, and diseases are a far more serious problem to deal with, having varied effects that can cause serious penalties, or even death.

Of all of the systems that Game Masters interact with, magic items are one of the most important, so we spent extra time ensuring that they are interesting and fun. First and foremost, we have taken significant steps to allow characters to carry the items they want, instead of the items that they feel they must have to succeed. Good armor and a powerful weapon are still critical to the game, but you no longer have to carry a host of other smaller trinkets to boost up your saving throws or ability scores. Instead, you find and make the magic items that grant you cool new things to do during play, giving you the edge against all of the monsters intent on making you into their next meal.

We can't wait until you find your first +1 longsword to see what it can do!

What's Next?

There are a lot of things we are excited to show off, so many in fact that we have to pace ourselves. First off, if you want to hear the game in action right now, we've recorded a special podcast with the folks from the Glass Cannon Network, converting the original Pathfinder First Edition Module, Crypt of the Everflame, to the new edition. Head on over to their site and listen to the first part of this adventure now!

Stop by tomorrow for the first blog taking an in-depth look at Pathfinder Second Edition, starting off with the new system for taking actions, then visit us again on Friday for an exploration of the Glass Cannon game, exploring some of its spoilers in detail!

We Need You!

All of us at Paizo want to take a moment to thank you, the fans, players, and game masters that have made this exciting journey a possibility. It's been a wild ride for the past decade, and speaking personally, I could not be more excited for where we are heading. But, as I am sure you've heard a number of times already, we cannot make this game without you, without your feedback and passion for the game. Thank you for coming with us on this adventure, thank you for contributing to our community, and thank you for playing Pathfinder.

Jason Bulmahn
Director of Game Design

Starfinder Pact Worlds: Per Aspera ad Astra

Friday, March 2, 2018

By now, you've had a look at the rules governing the Starfinder universe in the Starfinder Core Rulebook. Perhaps you've created a character or two and played in a few sessions of the Dead Suns Adventure Path! You've also gotten a glimpse of many of the weird and wonderful beings found in the Starfinder Alien Archive. But, in my opinion, an RPG really begins to blossom with an exciting and vibrant campaign setting. Luckily, Starfinder Pact Worlds is right around the corner!

The Pact Worlds is a unified coalition of worlds within the same star system who have banded together for mutual protection against larger threats. These 14 worlds and celestial bodies are the heart of the Starfinder campaign setting, providing a home base (or several home bases) for starship crews and other groups to blast off for adventures among the distant stars. But that doesn't mean the Pact Worlds are safe and boring. Far from it! Intrigue and danger abound in the varied environments and settlements. In fact, the planets of the Pact Worlds boast everything from sun-blasted deserts to frozen mountaintops and from massive space stations to untamed jungles.

Chapter One of Pact Worlds details these planets and celestial bodies, providing descriptions of the geography, residents, society, and political landscape, as well as an extensive list of notable locations. In addition, each entry is accompanied by a full-page map of the entire world—or, in some cases, a map of the most important area. Finally, a new theme inspired by that world rounds out the section.

Let's take a look at a few highlights of the book.

The chapter begins with a description of what is arguably the most important celestial body in the system: the Sun. Though it may seem to be just a burning mass of incandescent plasma that provides heat and light to all other worlds, it is so much more. A strange settlement actually exists floating inside this churning furnace. Discovered by worshipers of the sun goddess Sarenrae over a century ago, this collection of force bubbles of various sizes—dubbed the Burning Archipelago by its first pioneers—now houses a sizeable population. Corporations harnessing the ambient radiation, Xenowardens tending a series of lush gardens, solarian monasteries, a marketplace staffed by efreet and other denizens of the Elemental Plane of Fire, and a huge metal cathedral to the Dawnflower all exist in close proximity in this diverse metropolis.

From the heat of the sun, we turn to the wandering planet of Triaxus, which is currently in the throes of one of its centuries-long winters. The planet's eccentric orbit around the sun stretches out its more extreme seasons, but life has adapted to these climates, with some flora and fauna hibernating until their time to thrive draws close once again. Triaxus's two largest landmasses are home to the planet's main species: dragons, dragonkin, and ryphorians. These ancient cultures warred in the time before the Gap, clashing mainly on the bridge of land between the two continents, but are now in a state of peace. Some individual realms within these areas—the Allied Territories and the Drakelands—still look outward with expansionistic eyes. One such domain is Dretchnyl, run by the powerful green dragon Dretchnyliax, who recently emerged from hiding after being attacked by a contingent of good-aligned metallic dragons. She is now more machine than flesh-and-bone dragon, bristling with cybernetic augmentations and gun-bearing prosthetics.

While dragons and ryphorians have existed in the Pact Worlds system since before the system garnered that name, some denizens are slightly more recent emigrates. The kasathas of the generation ship the Idari are such a civilization, having fled their dying home planet on a slow migration centuries ago. The kasathas bring facets of their own culture to the melting pot of the Pact Worlds, as represented by the tempered pilgrim theme. In their adolescence, kasathas undertake a yearlong walkabout known as the Tempering, in which they are encouraged to experience as much as possible. Some members of other races have adopted this practice as well, and they are represented with the tempered pilgrim theme. They have extended the philosophy to their everyday lives, and learn about new cultures very easily and can draw on the diverse array of experiences they have already had. They consider themselves students of the universe, always ready to learn more.

Like any other spacefarer, these tempered pilgrims need a way to get from planet to planet or from star system to star system. Pact Worlds includes a handful of new starship options and example starships, focusing on groups such as the Hellknights and the Xenowardens. The most impressive of these vessels is the Iomedaean Cathedralship, a gargantuan carrier designed to look a soaring marble edifice. The Cathedralships come complete with soaring buttresses and artificial stained glass windows. The sight of such a ship usually evokes pride in the faithful and fear in the hearts of their enemies.

And that's just a taste of what can be found in Pact Worlds! Stay tuned for more preview blogs in the coming weeks!

Jason Keeley
Developer

Covered in Creepy Crawlies

Friday, March 2, 2018

Happy Friday, Pathfinders! We're now well on our way through our exploration of the forthcoming Jungle of Despair miniatures set from WizKids, due out in May. This week, I set aside my instinctive reaction to snakes and spiders and show off some of the figures in the set most likely to make your players' skin crawl.

Continuing the set's theme of snakes and serpentfolk, we begin with the metal cobra, a Small figure, this ophidian foe works both as a mechanical guardian left in otherwise abandoned tombs and ruins to protect the treasures within, or a more natural snake encountered in just about any environment (especially for GMs willing to repaint the minis). Released at the common rarity, most collectors will end up with a handful of them in their collection, giving them even more versatility to be used as a lone animal companion or an overwhelming swarm.

The metal cobra isn't the only creepy construct in the set, however. Check out the apparatus of the octopus, a magic item from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Aquatic Adventures. Capable of carrying two riders, this piece of dungeon dressing could easily serve as both treasure in a jungle grotto or as a means of conveyance along the ocean floor to an isolated jungle island. The figure is 60mm tall, which makes it roughly 11 feet tall at scale, making it a formidable presence on the table.

No trip to the jungle is complete without bugs, and not just any bugs. Giant bugs! Huge bugs! Bugs the size of people! THEM! We could make a dozen sets of nothing but giant bugs and still have species and sizes we never covered, so we have to pick our favorites. Jungle of Despair features the giant ant, a common figure, that can stand in for any number of Medium giant insects. Druids with the vermin familiar class feature from Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic can have a Medium giant ant companion at 4th level, making this miniature useful for a handful of players as well as GMs.

The Material Plane isn't the only plane full of creepers and crawlers. The Abyss prides itself on its myriad gross inhabitants, not the least of which are the primeval qlippoth, who hope to eradicate all mortals from existence, thereby ending sin and with it the demons from whom they could reclaim their stolen plane. Jungle of Despair features four qlippoth figures (and a few daemons, of whom the qlippoth also aren't particularly fond), the first of which is the thulgant qlippoth. This horrific, spider-like creature has tentacles and scorpion stingers and an overwhelming hatred for demonkind. Lording over hives of bound servitors in the depths of the Abyss, thulgants make great campaign villains, and at CR 18, present a challenging capstone encounter for experienced adventuring parties. The thulgant qlippoth is a Large rare figure.

Next week, we'll stare fully into the Abyss and see what other qlippoth stare back. Strap in for a journey to the lower planes, as we face off against five jungle fiends! Until then, roll high, and don't split the party!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Hail Gom-Gom!

Thursday, March 1, 2018

The Occult Adventures decks were a fantastic opportunity to stretch our creative limbs and show you some of the wilder things we can do in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Characters like Yoon, Mavaro, and Erasmus epitomize the ever-shifting cycle of play that I personally prefer, so I hope they work out well for you.

Yoon: Hi there, you! Meet Gom-Gom! He talks!

Which is scarier? Telling Yoon that Gom-Gom isn't really talking, or finding out he is?

Yoon: I'm going to tell you about the Occult Adventures Character Deck 2, which is the bestest deck with the bestest characters ever! I'm Yoon, Pretty Princess of Fire, and Herald of Gom-Gom. That means I talk for Gom-Gom who is the smartest coolest stuffed owly bear ever, and my favoritest card in the whole world. He tells me all sorts of great stuff about what I should do and who I should burn, and he protects me at night, so you better watch out or he'll make me burn you up!

Just nod along and don't get set on fire. Not being set on fire is good.

Yoon: I've been all over finding lots of cool stuff which make even cooler cards, like my stick that I used to hit things for fun like a game. Or people that are mean, but aren't on fire yet. Or to put out the fire, afterwards. Oh, and did I mention fire, cause it's totally awesome and I can make lots of it, cause I'm awesome. Don't you think I'm awesome?

What do you get the Occultist that has everything? More everything.

Mavaro: Yoon's enthusiasm for the deck is well earned, even if her focus may be misplaced. The true power of this deck can be found by careful examination of the cards within, the story they each can tell, and the many synergies a master of the occult may derive from them. As you can see, as an occultist I can ensure that I collect powerful and dangerous objects and use them safely. As you no doubt already know, I can do anything with time and the right tools.

Some cards are not for the squeamish.

Mavaro: This deck includes some of the finest items I have examined. The Planchette allows communication with spirits and is of extraordinary use if you are perceptive, particularly if you have examined your surroundings before using it. Many might shirk from carrying a Shrunken Head, but I can assure you of its efficacy in overcoming any foe whose mind is able to be influenced. The Lexicon of the Planes is a powerful artifact that can be used to move a battle to a less inimical location to assure success.

Did you know that Mike Selinker designed both the Harrow Deck and the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game?

Erasmus: The wonderful Eliandra Giltessan has waxed poetic quite enough over my capabilities, so I will be brief. Some of you are as interested as I am in harrowing, so I wanted to show you the possibilities and capabilities of my fine Harrow Deck. When I channel the power of my sister Veldira, priestess of Pharasma, I am a master of divining fate and influencing it.

There are how many stars!? I'm going to need a bigger deck.

Erasmus: I also wanted to assure you that, as mentioned previously, this deck continues the fine practice of observing the powers and benefits of tracking the stars and the signs found in them. The rider assists in war rangings, the mother protects us, and the bridge guides us past obstacles that might hinder our progress.

...

This deck marks the last Class Deck on the schedule for a while, as the next five months feature the Ultimate Add-On Decks. Reminder: The Ultimate decks are part of the main Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Subscription, not the Class Deck subscription, so make sure you're signed up if you want them! And if you're excited by any of the new and strange things to be found in Occult Adventures, better buckle up, because the Ultimate decks are aptly named!

Keith Richmond
Adventure Card Game Designer