Ok, I'm sure this has been asked a million times (maybe someone can just direct me to the answers), but if I have all of the Rise of the Runelords books, what benefit to I gain (aside from updates to PFRPG) by buying the hardcover? Like whats new? Are there any new encounters and such? New art?
Thanks for the help!
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Yeah, there is some new stuff, not a lot. Apparently some stuff bridging the modules together a little more smoothly. It sounds as though the final chapter has been reworked quite a bit. 8 (I think, maybe 6) monsters that haven't yet been Pathfinderized. Some new artwork. And b#$~$in awesomeness. Hopefully we'll get some reviews up later tonight as those that picked it up at PaizoCon have had a chance to return to their rooms and look it over.
EDIT oh, and if you get the PDF, you get interactive maps and a separate PDF for all player handouts.
X is downgraded, the K fight more varied.
Hmm... so they downgraded X, instead of making an X for L swap?
Quick question: How is Nualia's background being handled given that the ARG appendix gave a starting age of 60 for Aasimars?
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Quick question: How is Nualia's background being handled given that the ARG appendix gave a starting age of 60 for Aasimars?
I would expect that things won't change with the only explanation being that Nualia is an exception to the rule. (That, and I do believe the min starting age is one of those "PC Only" rules that don't necessarily apply to NPCs).
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Quick question: How is Nualia's background being handled given that the ARG appendix gave a starting age of 60 for Aasimars?I would expect that things won't change with the only explanation being that Nualia is an exception to the rule. (That, and I do believe the min starting age is one of those "PC Only" rules that don't necessarily apply to NPCs).
James Jacobs on the aasimar issue as it relates to Nualia.
(If you don't feel like clicking: JJ wants to get the starting ages errata'd, for that specific reason among others.)
I'd Like to start adding a list of campaign changes other than monster stats that are different or added. I won't go into too much detail so that people who decide to get it will have something to enjoy.
There is a killer scene after the goblin raid where Amieko's dad comes into the rusty dragon and try's to drag her out of town. Some of the best writing I've seen, it was hilarious.
there is a surprise waiting for adventures who investigate the boneyard for clues about tobyn's remains.
there is an event written for parties who fail their diplomacy on the sanitarium owner and draw swords, includes a crazy were rat and a pair of tieflings
there is another red herring in SM where sandpoint has a necromancer you can fight.
Xenesha has way more treasure. way. more. and a note from her sister taunting her to come to fort rannik.
Kib is no longer a bear. sadly.
The nymph gets an explanation for why she can resurrect lamatar, she receives the final death in exchange.
-That's all i have, so far.
There's a ton of new art, and I was frankly surprised by the amount of changes added. Especially the last book.
It's probably not enough to merit buying it if you have all of the older books unless you plan on running it again.
Creative Director
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Quick question: How is Nualia's background being handled given that the ARG appendix gave a starting age of 60 for Aasimars?
By scheduling an errata for the Advanced Race Guide that brings Aasimar ages (and tiefling ages... Council of Thieves has issuses there with long-lived tieflings in an even more frustrating way than Burnt Offerings) back to where they should be—closer to human ages.
Extending the ages of tieflings in the Advanced Race Guide was, in other words, an unfortunate error.
By scheduling an errata for the Advanced Race Guide that brings Aasimar ages (and tiefling ages... Council of Thieves has issuses there with long-lived tieflings in an even more frustrating way than Burnt Offerings) back to where they should be—closer to human ages.
Quick question: Will this apply to the other planetouched races (e.g. elemental-kin) as well?
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Creative Director
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Why not add a major random element to the aging process for Tiefling and Aasimar? Besides effectively retconning the advanced race guide with other reference books (and novels), it would provide a neat explanation for why both races are so isolated from mainstream races (unpredicatable aging rates)and it would explain why good outsiders are so reticent about having children with mortals. Tieflings could be even more angst ridden because even if two pair up, there would be no guarantee that they would both grow old together at the same rate.Quick question: How is Nualia's background being handled given that the ARG appendix gave a starting age of 60 for Aasimars?By scheduling an errata for the Advanced Race Guide that brings Aasimar ages (and tiefling ages... Council of Thieves has issuses there with long-lived tieflings in an even more frustrating way than Burnt Offerings) back to where they should be—closer to human ages.
Extending the ages of tieflings in the Advanced Race Guide was, in other words, an unfortunate error.
Because adding a major random element to the aging process is just as out of the blue and unexpected and unnecessary as makign them ridiculously long-lived.
It's an error in the ARG, pure and simple. Just as if we'd given kobolds a +20 to their Dexterity scores, or as if we'd accidentally made a 19th level spell.
It's not a retcon. It's errata to fix things back to the way they were assumed to work before the book came around.
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Creative Director
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By scheduling an errata for the Advanced Race Guide that brings Aasimar ages (and tiefling ages... Council of Thieves has issuses there with long-lived tieflings in an even more frustrating way than Burnt Offerings) back to where they should be—closer to human ages.Quick question: Will this apply to the other planetouched races (e.g. elemental-kin) as well?
Since we have no well-established (or, frankly, even just established) elemental-kin races in Golarion, it's not 100% necessary. I'll leave that choice up to the game designers, but I suspect we'll NOT change their ages simply in the interests of keeping the errata to the book as minimal as possible. There's nothing in print that has a plot that requires anything from their aging rates, so it's not actually an error for them to age more like elves and less like humans.
Aasimars and tieflings DO have that problem, and so it's an error for them.
Yeah, there is some new stuff, not a lot. Apparently some stuff bridging the modules together a little more smoothly. It sounds as though the final chapter has been reworked quite a bit. 8 (I think, maybe 6) monsters that haven't yet been Pathfinderized. Some new artwork. And b*~!&in awesomeness. Hopefully we'll get some reviews up later tonight as those that picked it up at PaizoCon have had a chance to return to their rooms and look it over.
EDIT oh, and if you get the PDF, you get interactive maps and a separate PDF for all player handouts.
How do I get the PDF? I ordered the Edition and it has been shipped out, but aren't I supposed to be able to download the PDF for free?
The PDF is free only to Adventure Path subscribers who preordered the Anniversary Edition or the Deluxe Edition.
Is it too late to be a subscriber and receive the PDF?....thanks
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Chief Technical Officer
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The PDF is free only to Adventure Path subscribers who preordered the Anniversary Edition or the Deluxe Edition.Is it too late to be a subscriber and receive the PDF?....thanks
The regular anniversary edition is no longer a preorder, so no on that one. The Deluxe Edition is still a preorder, so signing up for an Adventure Path subscription and preordering that will qualify you to get the PDF for free when we ship the print edition... but it won't ship until November.
OK, here's another question, concerning the founding Families.
They were:
the Deverins (farmers and brewers)
the Kaijitsus (glass-makers and jewelers)
the Scarnettis (loggers and millers)
the Valdemars (shipbuilders and carpenters)
The info I have (I don't have the module yet) is that four of the deitys the cathedral is dedicated to (Abadar, Sarenrae, Shelyn, and Gozreh) are the patrons of thse founding families.
Who goes with who? I've tentatively assigned Shelyn to the Kaijitsus, for the creation of beauty (after all they're jewelers) and Ameiko's stat block giving Shelyn as her deity.
Just in general, I'd say Gozreh for the Valdemars (shipbuilders) but the others are up in the air.
Can I get an offical comment on this? Spoilered, if need be.
Judging by the alignments and personalities of the Deverins and Scarnettis that feature most prominently, I would guess Sarenrae for the Deverins and Abadar for the Scarnettis.
That makes sense. I'll go with that unless something comes up that counters it.
They've detailed another of the Runeforge wings too.
X is downgraded, the K fight more varied.
Some more changes:
The map for the Ravenous Crypts in the Runeforge has been completely redesigned. This, in addition to the new detailed area for Sloth.
On potentially big change for those so inclined to go that route....
On potentially big change for those so inclined to go that route....
** spoiler omitted **
Oh, wow, yeah... I'm definitely adding that aspect back in. A few of my players actually mentioned getting lands and titles and that made an excellent point for it to happen.
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Creative Director
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Regarding the fate of Fort Rannick...
The reason I changed the hardcover so that the PCs don't gain control over Fort Rannick is because the rest of the adventures do assume the PCs return often to Sandpoint, and if they have a different home base hundreds of miles away, that gets awkward.
I'm thinking of changing the location of Fort Rannick in my campaign, and I wonder, have any of you guys done it? I believe that positioning it nearer to Sandpoint should solve some of the perceived problems (lack of motivation for the PCs to go solve a far-away problem, home base far from home, etc).
If you were to change it, where would you place it? I'm thinking at the southern base of the Malgorian Mountains.
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Ok, I'm sure this has been asked a million times (maybe someone can just direct me to the answers), but if I have all of the Rise of the Runelords books, what benefit to I gain (aside from updates to PFRPG) by buying the hardcover? Like whats new? Are there any new encounters and such? New art?
Thanks for the help!
Much like the transition from 3.5 core to Pathfinder core, a lot has changed but you only really see how much when you dig into it.
A lot of confusion was cleared up, things make a lot more sense to players and paths are clearer. They did add new encounters and modified others (while of course updating it all to pathfinder) and the fixes IMHO greatly improve the product.
I own both the original books and this version, and they both have value to me for different reasons. But for pure play, the new one is kind of like getting an great game after the beta test with the bugs cleared up. You liked it before, but now you don't get TPKed midway through :)
couple of more things I've noticed:
Isha foxglove tears her way through the floorboards of the spiral stain to provide PC's who can't get through the steel door a way into the caves.
there is an extensive amount of variables in the way the Isha/Aldern fight can go down, it explains a lot of them.
There is a note that gives away the stone giant invasion of sandpoint.
The final battle has had a makeover. The eye of avarice is no longer eye shaped, instead of being the "inside out" of the runewell with smokey walls it's a series of catwalk like paths in a lake of fire. The outside area is described as being just like the plane of fire, and Karzoug has friends now. a few of them.
>Personally I liked the old area better, and the solo lvl20 wizard boss was cool for the reason described in the original (its something the players could achieve). But alas, this book has you at a level higher and I understand that single battles usually end up with quick losses for the bosses.
@Rune: Maybe just have sandpoint replace turtleback? rannick could be right up the river. Would take some finagling...
Also, I used Xenesha's updated stats for our fight. She still killed 2 players. Her medusa mask failed, but on her first turn she x3 crit the sorcerer, murdering him. And on her second turn she x3 crit the cleric, massacring him.
In hindsight, maybe I should have had her full round attacking multiple targets instead of 3 attacks on 1 person at 2d6+infinity or however hight it was
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I know there are still mentions of Leng but in the original is not Xin Shalast actually in Leng, where the party has to find a way to access Leng to even get there.
It seems to me that quite a bit of the Ap is a little dumbed down, they removed a lot of little things that IMO where cool and added flavor to the AP.
It's lodged in a demiplane between Leng and the material realm. This is stated in the original AP, but not in the anniversary edition.
First line page 59. :)
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Creative Director
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I know there are still mentions of Leng but in the original is not Xin Shalast actually in Leng, where the party has to find a way to access Leng to even get there.
It seems to me that quite a bit of the Ap is a little dumbed down, they removed a lot of little things that IMO where cool and added flavor to the AP.
Leng's presence in the AP is actually GREATER than in the first version...
I would certainly be interested in seeing examples of where you thought it was "dumbed down" or flavor elements were removed, because I really did try hard to keep my changes to the adventure to be additive, not subtractive. If I cut anything, it was because it didn't work all that well in the new game (rangers with bear companions, or thaumaturge classes, for example), or because it was a bad idea in the first place (and I can't think of any examples of that, honestly).
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Creative Director
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The only thing I really miss is the excellent Thassilon article from AP1.
Cutting the bulk of the Thassilon article from being reprinted was a tough call. First, there really wasn't room in the book to have another 8 pages of content, so SOMETHING had to go. And since we just recently published "Lost Kingdoms" which has a big article about Thassilon... I felt that was a bearable cut in the end. There should still be enough information about the parts of Thassilon you need to know about to run Runelords in the book though... if you want to know more about Thassilon for expanding the adventure, you'll want to pick up and look through the Thassilon article in Lost Kingdoms anyway...
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I know, I have 'Lost Kingdoms', and though the article is excellent, I liked the original RotRL article even better - and since I used Brodert Quink as the mentor of one of the PCs I created an amalgan of Thassilonian history and Varisian myths (anoter PC is a Varisian bard) to glue the campaign together, I used that article probably more than needed for the campaign, thus I noticed its loss a bit more.
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I would certainly be interested in seeing examples of where you thought it was "dumbed down" or flavor elements were removed, because I really did try hard to keep my changes to the adventure to be additive, not subtractive. If I cut anything, it was because it didn't work all that well in the new game (rangers with bear companions, or thaumaturge classes, for example), or because it was a bad idea in the first place (and I can't think of any examples of that, honestly).
I just skimmed through the first 4 chapters as I have already run them and my group is on chapter 5 so no real comments there. Now bear in mind that these are not drastic things that were cut out but like I said little flavor items that kind of made things more difficult for the players ( always something I as a evil GM like).
The seven wings of Runeforge radiate out from the central chamber in the same orientation as the Sihedron. These tunnels are magical creations, built to ease the passage of those specialized in the appropriate form of magic and hinder passage for all other intruders.
A wizard specialized in the same school of magic who steps into one of the seven exits from area D immediately finds himself standing in the first encounter area of that wing. All other creatures who enter these hallways perceive instead an endless hallway traveling off into the horizon. Every round of moving along this hallway in a direction away from the central chamber, a traveler must make a DC 20 Will save (wizards who have this wing’s school of magic as a prohibited school take a –4 penalty on this saving throw). Failure indicates that the passageway continues unchanged, but on a successful save, that character finds himself within the first encounter area of the wing he seeks.
From inside each wing, the passageway that connects to area D seems short—only a few dozen feet at most. Likewise, no matter how far someone feels they’ve traveled into a hallway (after failing multiple Will saves),the return to area D is always similarly short.