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That said... would folks be interested in a book like "Rulers of Golarion" that presents stat blocks for a bunch of high level NPCs?
Something to be called 'Kingmakers, Kaiserins, Knights & Knaves'?
: )
Special request:
When such a 'Rulers' book is made a few years from now, how about a contest on the messageboards for all those who played through 'Kingmaker' and the winner getting thier set of lords and ladies as small part of the book.
I believe the NPCs presented in this book will be named NPCs or NPCs that have some connection to the campaign setting, such as Osirian snake tamer, House Thrune conjurer, etc. (these are just examples) whereas the stat blocks featured in the Gamemastery Guide will be very generic in nature (town guard, beggar, innkeeper, that sort of thing) and not connected to Golarion.
Keep in mind that the Gamemastery Guide (and indeed books in the Pathfinder RPG line in general) is setting neutral, whereas the books from the Pathfinder Chronicles line are written with Golarion in mind.
What Ravenmantle said. :)
NPC Guide has about 40 fully-described NPCs (name, history, outlook, boon, stat block) tied to most of the countries in the campaign setting (i.e., here's a named NPC from Absalom, here's one from Brevoy, etc.), many more "generic" Golarion NPCs (such as "Chitterwood Spider-Rider," "Belkzen Worg Rider," "Linnorm Kings Raider," etc.) that are just stat blocks, and writeups of the PCs in James Jacobs' "Shadow Under Sandpoint" campaign, who are presented like the 40 fully-described NPCs in the first part of the book (including boons).
Whereas the GMG's NPCs are more like "caravan guard," "village idiot," "innkeeper," and so on.
That said... would folks be interested in a book like "Rulers of Golarion" that presents stat blocks for a bunch of high level NPCs?
No, not at all. It would get so little use IMO. "Come here king of Taldor, I'm gonna school you with my Power Attack!"
The most I'd want to see is like the old Greyhawk boxed set that noted class/level in passing (Crispin Redwell, Human Ranger 9).
Now, I would like some miscellaneous high level NPCs, but it's the "Rulers Of" tagline that concerns me.
Isger and Molthune always get overlooked, so the absence of named NPCs from there isn't surprising to me, but no one from Osirion or the River Kingdoms? :-( It also looks like Jalmeray and Numeria are missing, too. I know there's only so much that can fit in a 64 page book, so I'm not complaining, just wondering how you decided which countries not to represent in the named characters?
Gotta admit, after playing through a few Pathfinder modules, I'm a little leery of the mechanical accuracy of Paizo's NPC blocks. More than a few times, I've seen NPCs wielding weapons they're not proficient with, or having tactics that can't be accomplished because the NPC doesn't actually have the spells available to perform them. I'd hope, in a product like this where the NPCs are the only data, that the editors could ensure a higher level of quality and accuracy, but I'm a little gun-shy about it. Any word on how rigorous the mechanics editing was?
Isger and Molthune always get overlooked, so the absence of named NPCs from there isn't surprising to me, but no one from Osirion or the River Kingdoms? :-( It also looks like Jalmeray and Numeria are missing, too. I know there's only so much that can fit in a 64 page book, so I'm not complaining, just wondering how you decided which countries not to represent in the named characters?
We couldn't put NPCs in there for every country is the raw rub of it. We had to pick and choose which ones were the most interesting AND which ones gave us the opportunity to do a good mix of NPC archetypes.
For the River Kingdoms, you're getting a 6-part adventure path FILLED with NPC stat blocks, though...
Gotta admit, after playing through a few Pathfinder modules, I'm a little leery of the mechanical accuracy of Paizo's NPC blocks. More than a few times, I've seen NPCs wielding weapons they're not proficient with, or having tactics that can't be accomplished because the NPC doesn't actually have the spells available to perform them. I'd hope, in a product like this where the NPCs are the only data, that the editors could ensure a higher level of quality and accuracy, but I'm a little gun-shy about it. Any word on how rigorous the mechanics editing was?
I checked all of them with our in-house stat block spreadsheet. And then Rob hand-checked them.
In a book with that many stat blocks, you're bound to get some errors, but we double-checked these. So any that slip through... blame Rob. :)
Skimmed through the book. Very cool stuff! I'm a little concerned though, there were opportunities to put other elements of the Pathfinder world into the book and while I'm by no means disappointed I was a little confused at the lack of use. A few examples include:
Skinsaw cultist: loved that particular adventure in the Rise of the Runelords AP but... well... where are the War Razors?
Shoanti Tribesman: Would have loved to see the use of a Klar or Earthhammer in this one.
Red Mantis Assassin: Only she isn't, she's a regular assassin, has she simply yet to take levels in said prestige class?
It's still good stuff, don't get me wrong, and hell... if I want that Tribesman to have an Earth Hammer then he'll have one so it's not an issue. Just sort of confused me is all.
Another question of curiosity, and I'll probably find the answer when I sit down to read the book more at a more in depth level, but this is about the Paizo Staff NPCs:
All of them are 4th level save one who's at 12th level, any particular reason for that? Maybe to show contrast or something or was this simply the level of all the PC's at the time of the books development?
Another question of curiosity, and I'll probably find the answer when I sit down to read the book more at a more in depth level, but this is about the Paizo Staff NPCs:All of them are 4th level save one who's at 12th level, any particular reason for that? Maybe to show contrast or something or was this simply the level of all the PC's at the time of the books development?
All except James Jacobs' was from the Shadow Under Sandpoint campaign that he's running for the staff. James' character was one of his favorites from a prior campaign. There's a short write up about the characters right before their first one in that section. It was kind of neat reading I thought.
Skimmed through the book. Very cool stuff! I'm a little concerned though, there were opportunities to put other elements of the Pathfinder world into the book and while I'm by no means disappointed I was a little confused at the lack of use. A few examples include:
Skinsaw cultist: loved that particular adventure in the Rise of the Runelords AP but... well... where are the War Razors?
There's only so much space (in fact, we had to cut about 2 pages worth of stat blocks
Shoanti Tribesman: Would have loved to see the use of a Klar or Earthhammer in this one.
Red Mantis Assassin: Only she isn't, she's a regular assassin, has she simply yet to take levels in said prestige class?
We don't have an official conversion for the RMA prestige class, and didn't want to confuse people by (1) presenting her with an unconverted class (for one, the skill prereqs would be wrong), and (2) didn't want to do a "stealth" conversion and have her look like we got the class wrong compared to the campaign setting.
All of them are 4th level save one who's at 12th level, any particular reason for that? Maybe to show contrast or something or was this simply the level of all the PC's at the time of the books development?
Because James Jacobs is running the game in which the low-level PCs appear, and thus doesn't have a *PC* for that game, so he picked his fave PC from another campaign.
That said... would folks be interested in a book like "Rulers of Golarion" that presents stat blocks for a bunch of high level NPCs?No, not at all. It would get so little use IMO. "Come here king of Taldor, I'm gonna school you with my Power Attack!"
The most I'd want to see is like the old Greyhawk boxed set that noted class/level in passing (Crispin Redwell, Human Ranger 9).
Now, I would like some miscellaneous high level NPCs, but it's the "Rulers Of" tagline that concerns me.
I would be interested in a "Rulers of Golarion," but not if it meant it was going to be filled with the king of Taldor, the ruler of Cheliax, or other NPCs that really don't seem intent on shifting soon.
On the other hand, I would be happy to see a stat block for the Whispering Tyrant, the current and upcoming rulers of Galt, and otherwise other stat blocks similar to the big bad evil villians at the end of 'Rise of the Runelords', 'Curse of the Crimson Throne', 'Second Darkness', and 'Legacy of Fire'. Leveled creatures that currently rule a chunk of Golarion or likely to take control a piece of it given the chance.
Skimmed through the book. Very cool stuff! I'm a little concerned though, there were opportunities to put other elements of the Pathfinder world into the book and while I'm by no means disappointed I was a little confused at the lack of use. A few examples include:
Skinsaw cultist: loved that particular adventure in the Rise of the Runelords AP but... well... where are the War Razors?There's only so much space (in fact, we had to cut about 2 pages worth of stat blocks
Shoanti Tribesman: Would have loved to see the use of a Klar or Earthhammer in this one.
Red Mantis Assassin: Only she isn't, she's a regular assassin, has she simply yet to take levels in said prestige class?We don't have an official conversion for the RMA prestige class, and didn't want to confuse people by (1) presenting her with an unconverted class (for one, the skill prereqs would be wrong), and (2) didn't want to do a "stealth" conversion and have her look like we got the class wrong compared to the campaign setting.
All of them are 4th level save one who's at 12th level, any particular reason for that? Maybe to show contrast or something or was this simply the level of all the PC's at the time of the books development?Because James Jacobs is running the game in which the low-level PCs appear, and thus doesn't have a *PC* for that game, so he picked his fave PC from another campaign.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. :-)
Sounds like a good idea, you'd think somebody would have done something like this sooner!
Sounds like a good idea, you'd think somebody would have done something like this sooner!
That link didn't work for me, but from the words "Otus" and "Rogues" in there I would guess you're referring to the old 1st Ed. Rogue's Gallery? I also remember a product that came with the RuneQuest boxed set called "Foes", which was a similar kind of thing.
Of course, I can't claim that the idea was a novel one (which actually stemmed from an ENWorld discussion about why doesn't somebody make a book full of NPC stats ready to use), just saw the opportunity for a quick plug ;)
Dark_Mistress
(Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Adventure Path, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules Subscriber)
Did any one else find it interesting that James' Character...
** spoiler omitted **
As we all know, Cheliax is the supreme empire, the mightiest nation that has ever existed on Golarion! Ergo, this is a foolish, unattainable goal, and I'm a bit surprised that James would choose such a hopeless cause for his character.
DONE! As long as having a significantly-sized chapter in the Gamemastery Guide counts as a sequel, that is.Awesome, Simply awesome!
Sight unseen I'm going to suggest Paizo make sequels of this, can never have enough premade NPCs.
Are they higher than CR 9??? I will certainly use many of these NPC's in future campaigns, but I could REALLY use the Villains of Golarion!!! We've been skewing toward higher levels of late and 7th to 15th level baddies are what I need most in my tool box!!!
--Vrocket wrench set
DONE! As long as having a significantly-sized chapter in the Gamemastery Guide counts as a sequel, that is.Awesome, Simply awesome!
Sight unseen I'm going to suggest Paizo make sequels of this, can never have enough premade NPCs.
Are they higher than CR 9??? I will certainly use many of these NPC's in future campaigns, but I could REALLY use the Villains of Golarion!!! We've been skewing toward higher levels of late and 7th to 15th level baddies are what I need most in my tool box!!!
--Vrocket wrench set
The NPCs in the GameMastery Guide range from CR 1/3 to, I believe, CR 14 or CR 15.