Red Mantis Assassin mini

Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 03:26 PM Pacific

Lisa Stevens
CEO

Cats are away…it's time for little goblins to play!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Sara Marie: Hey Crystal!

Crystal: Yes?

Sara Marie: I just brought an order down to the warehouse and I realized something!

Crystal: That cats do, in fact, float?

Sara Marie: You are the ONLY person down there.

Crystal: Yes, yes I am!

Sara Marie: Know what else I saw?

Crystal: The end, whereupon none were spared, not even the children?

Sara Marie: The editorial pit. Unattended.

Crystal: Well, I wouldn't call it "unattended." I'm still here.

Sara Marie: Precisely. Sutter's desk, all alone, with no one to guard it.

Crystal: His cans of beans left unattended...

Sara Marie: Suppose he's got anything good over there?

Crystal: Perhaps his collection of priceless pre-Columbian guitar picks?

Sara Marie: I meant interesting.

Crystal: Oh! Yes! I think he has the original Dead Sea Scrolls and the final manuscript of "Misfit Monsters".

Sara Marie: I just had an idea! The entire editorial staff is going to be working this week at Gen Con. Every single one.

Crystal: Two time zones away

Sara Marie: There is no way they're gonna have time to check on Paizo's website.

Crystal: Definitely no way! Plus, they'd have to time travel to do it. What with the time zones and all.

Sara Marie: We could totally put up a Misfit Monster or two on the blog. WE WOULD BE FAMOUS!!

Crystal: Famous, eh? I do enjoy fame… But... do we dare?

Sara Marie: Ooooh this one is snazzy!

Crystal: What are you looking at in there? Hang on. Let me chew through my leg chains... Holy Lamashtu! Is this the new Flail Snail?!

Sara Marie: Sweet! I knew there would be perks to not going to Gen Con!

Crystal: You mean besides avoiding the sleep loss, exposure to dangerous chemicals, vomiting and hair loss?

Sara Marie: I wonder who else left their office unattended...

Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide Preview #5

Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Advanced Player's Guide releases in just one week and already boxes and boxes are on their way to your FLGS and subscriber copies are shipping out. One week from today, we will all be at Gen Con, handing out copies of this meaty rulebook. But that's next week. Today we have the final preview of the book, taking a look at prestige classes and some of the new rules found in the APG.

There are eight prestige classes featured in the Advanced Players Guide, from the mighty Stalwart Defender to the sly Master Spy. Here is the name and brief summary of each class in the book.

Battle Herald: This class blends the best of the bard and the cavalier to create a character that can truly take control of the battlefield, granting big bonuses to his allies.
Holy Vindicator: Mixing cleric and paladin, the holy vindicator is the perfect weapon to deliver his deity's will, usually at the end of a sword.
Horizon Walker: A class that nearly anyone can qualify for, this class is perfect for adventurers that travel the world and the planes beyond, granting a wide variety of bonuses based on terrain.
Master Chymist: A prestige class for alchemists whose minds have split into two because of repeated use of their mutagen—now they are part monster and part dangerous madman.
Mastery Spy: Skilled at the art of lying, able to take on the appearance of others easily, and even able to hide their alignment from spells, the master spy is perfect for infiltrating and hiding with the enemy.
Nature Warden: Bonding closely with her animal companion and the lands around her, the nature warden is a force of nature, deadly when protecting the lands that she calls home.
Rage Prophet: Sometimes the spirits that speak to oracles drive them into a mad, rage-filled frenzy. This mix of barbarian and oracle is just that, blending spells and rage together.
Stalwart Defender: This is a revision of the Dwarven Defender and it is no longer just for dwarves. This class is known for holding its ground and taking whatever punishment the enemy throws at it.

Illustration by Eric Belisle

Illustration by Eric Belisle

Of course, that's not all that you'll find the APG. The last chapter of the book contains a host of new rules to use in your game, starting out with four new types of combat maneuver. The first, and perhaps my favorite, is the Dirty Trick combat maneuver. This maneuver lets you apply a penalty (either blinded, dazzled, deafened, entangled, shaken, or sickened) to your foe for 1 round plus 1 round for every 5 by which your check exceeds the target's CMD. The type of course, depends on the situation and your imagination. Kicking sand in an opponent's face might blind him, while pulling down his pants might entangle him.

The next maneuver is Drag. This works like Bull Rush, only in reverse. Next up is Reposition. This maneuver allows you to move your opponent to a different location within your threatened area, but you cannot use it to move a foe into a dangerous space, such as off a cliff or into a fire. Finally, there is Steal. This combat maneuver lets you snatch a small item that is loosely carried by your target. So while you cannot take the plate mail of a target or take the sword from his hand, you can rip the brooch off his cloak. Of course, each one of these maneuvers comes with a pair of feats (Improved and Greater) to increase your odds of success and grant additional bonuses.

After Combat Maneuvers is a complete system for using hero points in your game. This system grants PCs a small pool of points that they can spend at particularly dramatic moments, giving them an edge. The rules also include guidelines for granting new hero points, how they can be spent, and a number of feats, magic items, and spells that use these rules. We recognize that not everyone plays with a system like this, so this entire rules section is optional.

Last but not least is the system of character traits. This system first appeared in the Pathfinder Adventure Paths and it grants PCs a pair of small bonuses tied to their background at character creation. Your PC might bear a curious birthmark shaped like your deity's holy symbol that you can use as a divine focus or you might have grown up as a bully gaining a bonus on Intimidate. No matter what you choose, this system gives you a reason to work out where your hero came from.

Well, that about wraps up the previews of the Advanced Player's Guide. With the book hitting shelves next week, I hope that you will swing by Gen Con or your favorite game store and check it out. I would like to take a moment to thank all of the playtesters that, once again, helped contribute to a truly great book. Until next time.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide Preview Banquet Recap

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

With PaizoCon 2010 officially in the books, it's time to start looking forward to the Advanced Player's Guide, which releases in early August at Gen Con. On Saturday night, during the banquet, I gave a nice long preview of the book, and wanted to make sure that everyone who was not able to attend also had a chance to hear about some of the exciting new rules and features in this mighty tome.

First off, we took a look at the races chapter, which includes a two-page spread of information on each of the seven core races. Each one includes new alternate racial class features for you to choose from and new favored class options. The latter gives you another thing to choose from when you take a level in a class favored by your race. For example, dwarven barbarians can choose to gain 1 additional round of rage per day instead of an additional hit point or skill rank.

Next comes the classes chapter, which starts off with the six new base classes and then continues on with new rules and material for the 11 core classes from the Core Rulebook. The base classes have received a host of updates since the playtest, but still primarily function much in the same way as they did before. For the core classes, we added scores of new rules. Most of the classes contain numerous archetypes, or different takes on the class, which includes a number of alternate abilities that you can take as a package. For example, rogues can select the sniper archetype which grants them increased range with their sneak attack and reduces their penalties for making attacks at long range.

Illustrations by Eric Belisle

Although this chapter has a little something for everyone, one of the things I was most excited to reveal was the antipaladin class. This alternate paladin is sure to keep your players up at night. His smite good attack deals double damage to paladins and good-aligned clerics on the first successful attack. His touch of corruption deals damage and can inflict terrible cruelties on hapless PCs. He can be a carrier of disease and can radiate an aura of sin. He is a tough, tough customer. But my favorite part of putting together the entire book was writing his code of conduct. Here is an excerpt:

Under exceptional circumstances, an antipaladin can ally with good associates, but only to defeat them from within and bring ruin to their ranks.

After classes is a meaty feats chapter, containing 163 feats that range from metamagic feats, combat feats, and even a host of racial feats. This chapter even includes a number of high-level feats that duplicate a number of powers of the old 3.5 archmage prestige class. One feat of note is Shadow Strike, which allows a character to deal precision damage, even if the target has concealment, allowing rogues to finally be able to sneak attack a foe in a dark alley.

After feats comes equipment, which contains new tools, useable by nearly any PC, and a lengthy chapter full of spells. There are spells in this book for every spellcasting character, including new spell lists for elementalist wizards. All told, 57 pages of spells with new choices at every level of play. After spells comes the prestige class chapter, which includes 8 new classes. I previewed the Stalwart Defender during the banquet, which is an update of the 3.5 Dwarven Defender. The name change stems from the fact that you no longer need to be a dwarf to take levels in this class. The class also grants many new abilities that the defender can choose from as he gains levels.

The book is rounded out with a large magic items chapter, including new items from virtually every category. It starts with armor and weapons and wraps up with cursed items and artifacts. That chapter is followed up with the new rules chapter, which includes info on four new combat maneuvers (dirty trick, drag, reposition, and steal), an optional hero point system, and the entire traits system used by the Pathfinder Adventure Paths.

All of that, crammed into 336 pages between two beautiful covers. A detailed preview of the Advanced Player's Guide will start very soon. Keep your eyes here on the Paizo blog for more information on this exciting book.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Let Me Tell You about My Character...

Monday, March 29, 2010

It seems like I’m the guy who usually ends up running the game, so when Sean announced that he was going to run a high-level campaign where all the PCs would be demon-worshiping drow nobles, I jumped at the chance to play. After all, high-level play, demons, and drow are three of my favorite things! You got a first look into the mayhem of our first session last week when Sean showed off his creepy black light, but today I’m going to tell you about my character. Like it or not!

Photography by James Jacobs

Alivorah Azrinae (CE female drow noble bard 7/demoniac 6) is something of a troublemaker, even in drow society. She's gotten in hot water with the Azrinaes many times in the past for cavorting and fraternizing with other houses—she thinks of herself as a spy, and loves learning secrets about other people and organizations. Her main problem is that she doesn't follow orders well and doesn't like divulging secrets without learning a secret in return—a trait that makes her not very helpful as a spy to anyone but herself. As a demoniac, she bears the mark of Abraxas on her right shoulder as a pale tattoo-like marking. Currently, she's a bit agonized by the fact that she actually knew a few secrets about the attack on the Azrinae family—had she divulged them, she could have possibly saved her house from being exiled. Her main goal now is to see that the Azrinae family gets to return to Zirnakaynin in a greater position of power than before. And if she gets herself a promotion in the family to a position of greater power, all the better!

The attached picture features the miniature I’m using for Alivorah, standing next to her entry on the family tree chart that Sean provided us. The mini (which was painted for me by the always-awesome Stephen Radney-MacFarland, who’s mini-painting skills are SIGNIFICANT) is one I originally used for Jason’s campaign a year or so ago, but since Jason quit running that game, I saw this as a great opportunity to use my cool drow mini again, even though she doesn’t really match the type of gear Alivorah carries. Also, those with keen eyes will note that Alivorah is the sister of Rob McCreary’s character, and that Josh is playing her uncle and Crystal her aunt. Should make for some interesting dynamics around the table!

As for that bit about being a “demoniac,” well... that’s a prestige class I’m taking the opportunity to playtest during this campaign. Originally presented as the 5-level demonic initiate prestige class in Pathfinder Adventure Path #15, this class is being upgraded to a 10-level prestige class and renamed to “demoniac” (the noun definition of which is “a person seemingly possessed by a demon or evil spirit”—it’s not a prestige class for characters who make smart decisions regarding the well-being of their immortal soul). Full details on the demoniac prestige class will appear in the upcoming Lords of Chaos: Book of the Damned Volume 2.

And for those readers who don’t care about my new character (you’re dead to me!), here’s a quick preview of some of the content I’m working on for Lords of Chaos—the beginning of Abraxas’s entry in Chapter 1: The Abyss and its Lords! (Note! The following hasn’t even been through development yet—some elements are certain to change by the time it sees print later this year.)

Abraxas

Master of the Final Incantation

Male demon lord of magic and forbidden lore

Cult

Temple libraries, reliquaries, vaults

Worshipers drow, sorcerers

Minions mariliths, xacarbas (see Pathfinder Bestiary II), serpentine creatures

Sacrifice spellbooks, magic scrolls, those who reveal secrets

Obedience Self-flagellate with a small whip or tree branch, punctuating each stroke with utterances of mystic words of power. Gain a +4 profane bonus on saves against written magical effects, such as sepia snake sigil or symbol of death.

Boons

1: Secret Lore (Sp) Gain one of the following spell-like abilities: identify 3/day, augury 2/day, or illusory script 1/day

2: Heretical Revelation (Su) Up to three times a day you can whisper terrible secrets to an adjacent target as a standard action. The target can resist with a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Charisma modifier). If the target fails its save, it is stunned for 1 round, then confused for 1d4 rounds, and then nauseated for 2d6 rounds. This is a mind-affecting effect.

3: Penultimate Incantation (Sp) You affect a single creature within 60 feet with a targeted greater dispel magic. Each spell or effect dispelled inflicts fire damage to the target equal to the result of your caster level check made to dispel the magic.

James Jacobs
Creative Director

Making the Scene

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

One of the neat peripheral elements of the GameMastery Guide—aside from 300+ pages of hardcore GM focused tools and rules—are new chapter openers. You know, the big pictures with the little stories next to them that start every section of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. Those. Our own Fiction Editor James Sutter is tackling these, and there's something really cool about finally getting a bit of a story to go along with some of the coolest scenes in the Pathfinder cosmology. For example, here's Chapter 6's opener, along with its companion, the cover to The Great Beyond.

"Sing the songs with us, O bastard prince!" The keketar's voice was high, euphoric. Several of the words formed shapes in the air, one turning to a centipede that writhed as it drifted away.

"Join us in the dance and we will remake you/make you so beautiful. We will sing the stars from the sky/sea."

"I'll pass," Seltyiel grunted. Beneath them, the islet was already crumbling. It wouldn't last another minute under the keketar's influence.

The hell with it. He'd only get one shot anyway. Summoning the last of his magic, Seltyiel leapt backward, out into empty space..."

And expect 8 more just like this in the upcoming GameMastery Guide!

Wes Schneider
Managing Editor

Illustration by Alex Aparin

One for the GMs

Thursday, February 11, 2010

My day... week... life as of late has pretty much been dominated by putting the final (-ish) touches on our next big hardcover, the GameMastery Guide. It's at that weird and exciting point right now where it's making that transition between a maddening number of .doc files and something at actually looks like a book. So between the dozens of tables, charts, stats, and hundreds of pages of advice, some pretty awesome art and incredible layouts are creeping in. While I'll save most of the really exciting parts for previews closer to this behemoth's release, I wanted to throw one of my favorite new half-page illustrations out there. For now, though, it's back to those endless tables. 100 dungeon features, here I come...

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #14

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook releases tomorrow at Gen Con and game stores around the country. Over the past 14 weeks, we have look at all of the core classes and one of the prestige classes that can be found in the book. We've taken a look at a host of feats, spells, and magic items, as well as a few other rules bits along the way. This week, we are investigating the most important rule in the game. Not surprisingly, it is also one of the first rules in the book.

This is your game.

The rules in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook are presented to help you tell the stories that you want to tell. They are organized to help speed up play and enrich your world. You might find that, through play, some of these rules do not suit your style of play or do not serve the story you are trying to tell. Feel free to change them. Sit down with your group and discuss what "house rules" you are going to use as part of your campaign. Add, subtract, or even polymorph these rules to fit your needs. If you are the Game Master, you should work with your group to determine what changes are appropriate. If you are a player, remember that the GM is the final arbiter, but do not be afraid to make suggestions or bring new rules to the table for him to review. When you play the Pathfinder RPG, we want to make sure that you have fun. The rules are there to serve that goal, not to stand in the way.

Since this is the last preview, I want to take just a moment to thank all of the playtesters that spent countless hours playing, reviewing, and critiquing the Beta version of the game. I think you will find that they had a large influence on the final design and deserve a great deal of credit for all of its improvements. It was a lot of work to weed through over 100,000 messageboard posts, but the final game makes all of that effort worth it. If you were part of the Alpha or Beta playtests, I would like to say thank you.

As of this posting, a number of folks have already received their rulebooks, and discussions are already taking place on our messageboards about the changes and additions to the game. So, instead of talking about the rules, I wanted to close this preview with a look at some of the fabulous art that you will find in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. The Core Rulebook is available in stores and at our booth at Gen Con starting tomorrow. See you on the boards.

Illustrations by Jason Engle

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #13

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook is set to release in a little over a week, on August 13th, 2009, and in anticipation, we are releasing a preview of the game each week until the game hits store shelves. Since we’re done looking at the core classes, this week we’re exploring the heights of power with Seltyiel, the iconic eldritch knight.

Seltyiel
Male half-elf wizard 5/fighter 5/eldritch knight 10
LE Medium humanoid (elf)
Init +9; Senses low-light vision; Perception +21
DEFENSE
AC 25, touch 19, flat-footed 20 (+6 armor, +4 deflection, +5 Dex)
hp 174 (15d10+5d6+70)
Fort +18, Ref +17, Will +12; +2 vs. enchantments, +1 vs. fear
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +2 keen axiomatic shocking burst longsword +24/+19/+14/+9 (1d8+7/17–20)
Ranged ray +22 (by spell)
Special Attacks force missile (9/day), intense spells +2 damage
Spells Prepared (CL 15th)
7th—grasping hand, prismatic spray (DC 23), spell turning
6th—chain lightning (2, DC 22), disintegrate (DC 22), form of the dragon I, greater dispel magic
5th—cone of cold (2, DC 21), polymorph, teleport, wall of force
4th—dimension door, ice storm, stoneskin, wall of fire (2), wall of ice
3rd—dispel magic (2), fireball (4, DC 19), fly (2), haste (2)
2nd—invisibility (2), mirror image, scorching ray (3), see invisibility
1st—magic missile (3), shield (2), true strike (2)
0 (at will)—detect magic, mage hand, mending, ray of frost, read magic
Prohibited Schools: enchantment, necromancy
STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 23, Wis 8, Cha 10
Base Atk +17; CMB +19; CMD 38
Feats Arcane Armor Training, Critical Focus, Critical Mastery, Disruptive, Empower Spell, Greater Weapon Focus (longsword), Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Lightning Reflexes, Penetrating Strike (longsword), Power Attack, Scribe Scroll, Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Spellbreaker, Staggering Critical, Tiring Critical, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Specialization (longsword)
Skills Diplomacy +26, Fly +28, Intimidate +23, Knowledge (arcana) +29, Knowledge (planes) +29, Perception +21, Spellcraft +29, Stealth +25
SQ arcane bond (bat), armor training +1, bravery +1, diverse training, elf blood, spell critical, weapon training (heavy blades +1)
Combat Gear cube of force, potion of cure serious wounds (4), quicken metamagic rod, rod of cancellation, scroll of limited wish (2), staff of evocation, wand of lightning bolt (CL 10, 50 charges); Other Gear +2 keen axiomatic shocking burst longsword, +4 etherealness leather armor, belt of physical perfection +2, boots of teleportation, cloak of resistance +5, hand of glory, headband of vast intelligence +6, orange prism ioun stone, pearl of power (two spells), ring of protection +4, ring of regeneration, ring of wizardry (III), vibrant purple ioun stone (dimension door, shield)

Starting off, the eldritch knight prestige class works much as it did in 3.5, but we’ve added a few abilities to spice things up. The class provides Seltyiel with a fast base attack progression and nine levels of spellcasting (bringing his total caster level up to 14th, although the orange prism ioun stone puts his caster level at 15th). The class also grants three bonus feats, at 1st, 5th, and 9th. With these he can select any of the combat feats that he qualifies for (same as a fighter). In addition, starting at 1st level, Seltyiel gained diverse training, which adds his eldritch knight levels to both his fighter levels and his arcane spellcasting class’s levels for the purposes of qualifying for feats. This allows him to take feats that would normally be reserved for 15th-level fighters and wizards (but more on that later). Finally, upon gaining his 10th level in eldritch knight, Seltyiel gained the spell critical feature. Whenever Seltyiel scores a critical hit, he can cast any spell as a swift action without increasing the spell’s level. The spell does not provoke an attack of opportunity and must include the target of the critical hit as one of the spell’s targets or put him within the area of the effect. Its bad enough to be hit with a critical, but to add a cone of cold on top of it can truly be devastating.

Although quite capable in melee combat, Seltyiel has a wide variety of powerful spells at his disposal as well. Grasping hand can grapple foes with a +26 bonus on its combat maneuver check. Form of the dragon I allows him to take on the shape of a Medium dragon of any color, gaining its attacks, breath weapon, and a host of resistances and other abilities. Polymorph mimics a host of other spells that allow him to change shape, allowing him to become an animal, humanoid, or even an elemental. Although not incredibly powerful for a 20th-level character, four fireball spells are nothing to overlook.

Beyond spells, Seltyiel has a vast number of feats which increase his combat prowess. Many of these feats are for fighters only, but Seltyiel qualifies thanks to his diverse training class feature. Arcane Armor Training allows Seltyiel to spend a swift action to reduce his armor spell failure chance by 10%, which eliminates it altogether in his case. Critical Mastery is a fighter-only feat that allows Seltyiel to apply the effects of two critical feats to a successful critical hit. In his case, that means that anyone who is struck with a critical hit is both staggered (can only take a standard action each round) and fatigued, thanks to Staggering Critical and Tiring Critical. This is, of course, in addition to the 1d10 electricity damage from the sword and a free spell (thanks to spell critical). Seltyiel also possesses the Disruptive feat (another fighter-only feat), which makes it harder for spellcasters to cast on the defensive while he is adjacent (+4 to the DC). To top it off, he has Spellbreaker (fighters only, once again), which allows him to take an attack of opportunity against foes that fail on their check to cast defensively. Finally, Seltyiel has the Penetrating Strike fighter-only feat. This feat allows him to ignore 5 points of damage reduction with every attack made with his longsword (except for DR/—). Greater Penetrating Strike ignores 10 points of DR (and 5 points of DR/—), but Seltyiel couldn’t quite qualify for this feat, which requires you to be a 16th-level fighter.

I should also spend a moment talking about Seltyiel’s specialization. Being an evoker, he gains intense spells at 1st level, granting him a bonus on damage spells equal to 1/2 his wizard level (in this case, only 2 because the levels of eldritch knight don’t count). He also gains force missile, which acts like a magic missile that he can fire one at a time, up to 9 times per day, adding his bonus from intense spells to each missile. Seltyiel is also a half-elf, which comes with a +2 bonus to one ability score of his choice, the Skill Focus feat for free, and the ability to pick two favored classes (in this case, fighter and wizard).

Finally, lets take a look at Seltyiel’s potent magic items. At this level, Seltyiel has around 880,000 gp of magic items, but much of that is spent on a number of particularly expensive items. Both his armor and his sword take up nearly a quarter of his total value, but items like the quicken metamagic rod, staff of evocation, and ring of wizardry (III) eat up a fair amount as well. Of note is his ring of regeneration which now restores 1 hit point per round and makes him immune to bleed damage. It’s certainly useful, allowing it to regain all of his hit points in just over 17 minutes, but costs 90,000 gp.

There’s only one more preview left before the release of the Core Rulebook! Accordingly, next week on the day before the game releases, we’re going to take a look at the most important rule in the game...

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Snagged from the Vault: Genie Binder

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

From upcoming Pathfinder #22 we bring you the mighty genie binder, whose dark magic commands the awesome might of the djinn, depicted here by artist Kevin Yan...

While any spellcaster capable of casting planar ally, planar binding, and binding spells can conjure and bind genies, the true genie binder is a spellcaster who has devoted his life to the pursuit of this practice. Most genie binders study the works of Sulesh the Great religiously, but the best of them understand that even Sulesh wasn't infallible, and use his works as stepping stones to further perfect the act of genie binding.

While most genies abhor the act of binding and bottling, many have an odd appreciation and respect for actual genie binders. Nothing delights an efreeti more than to see a djinni ensnared, for example, and the jann are quite pleased to see their elder brothers and sisters brought low.

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

The Great Beyond

Friday, February 13, 2009

In The Great Beyond, A Guide to the Multiverse, we get an in-depth tour of what lies beyond the borders of life and death, of reality and entropy, and of good and evil in Golarion. Here, Wayne Reynolds's incredible cover shows us not only a view of the Maelstrom (the chaotic neutral outer plane) but also one of its indigenous menaces—a protean. A CR 17 keketar protean, to be precise. Here's hoping poor Seltyiel's ready to handle some quickened confusions, a lawful weapon, and a good fortitude save to resist all those transmutations when the monster invariably claws him up. And for Desna's sake, Seltyiel... don't try to teleport when that keketar's that close to you!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief