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.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Snagged from the Vault: Sepid Div

Friday, May 8, 2009

As my foolhardy companion and I limp away from our latest excursion into the vault, we leave for you as a weekend preview the sepid div, a terrifying entry in the Bestiary of the upcoming Pathfinder Adventure Path #23: The Impossible Eye, as depicted here by Jason Engle.

Four curling horns sprout from is giant's head and an inhuman tongue flickers among sharply filed teeth. Covered with pale, pockmarked and spiky flesh, this monstrous warrior stands fully twice the height of an average human and assumes a confident stance as it effortlessly hefts a sword large enough to cleft a horse in twain.

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

Snagged from the Vault: Dark Markets—A Guide to Katapesh

Friday, March 6, 2009

Once again, fellow Paizonians, my colleague and I have managed to pilfer a spectacular sneak glimpse into the vault. Behold the Zephyr Guard, illustrated here by Jason Engle...

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

Though the Pactmasters are rarely seen outside their palace walls, they are keenly alert of all that transpires within Katapesh through their network of spies and active patrols of the Zephyr Guard. The Zephyr Guard is made up of diverse ethnic groups and races, but mostly humanoids such as humans, half-elves, and half-orcs. Their unifying feature is their expertise in combat and the precision with which they carry out their duties. A Zephyr Guard squad is usually composed of five elite soldiers (LN fighter 4) and their squad leader (LN fighter 6). Each squad leader carries a charm of aluum control, which is magically bound to them, making it useless to anyone else. Aluum are powerful golems created to maintain order in Katapesh when other forms of authority fail (see the Appendix for statistics). Dormant aluum are scattered through the city in key locations for the Zephyr Guard. They stand silent vigil at street corners, in the shadows of buildings, around busy squares, and throughout the numerous bazaars. No matter where one goes in Katapesh, an aluum is never far away.

Look for the full article on the Zephyr Guard in the upcoming product, Pathfinder Chronicles: Dark Markets—A Guide to Katapesh!

Illustrations by Jason Engle

Katapesh Fashion Show

Monday, January 12, 2009

One of the fun things about moving out of Varisia and into a new land for the Adventure Path is that the NPCs end up looking quite different. While generating art orders, I suspect we've spent days surfing the net looking for more and more exotic outfits and apparel to clothe our characters in. The upcoming Dark Markets: A Guide to Katapesh bears the fruit of those hours of Internet research—pictured here are three of the NPC portraits that appear in the book, each representing a different type of character you might encounter during an adventure in the region, be they surly half-orc merchants, graceful but deadly swordfighters, or even a desperate young child who MIGHT just grow up to be a world-famous iconic paladin!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief