Beholder

Amanda Plageman's page

RPG Superstar 9 Season Dedicated Voter. ****** Pathfinder Society GM. Starfinder Society GM. 271 posts (273 including aliases). 35 reviews. 13 lists. 1 wishlist. 40 Organized Play characters.


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I'd just like to point out that Lumketul was a major jerk. Bravo to Adrian Ng for creating such a horrible character! lol


5 people marked this as a favorite.
spectrevk wrote:
emky wrote:

Goblins shouldn't be core. Goblins shouldn't be core. (I don't like core alchemist either, but I can far more easily accept that.)

I hope you guys are balancing PF2e with the assumption that people will be banning goblin as a playable race at their tables!

Why does it matter if they're core or not? It only affects whether you have to buy a new book to use them or not. The more core races the better, IMO.

Why does it matter? It matters because PFS is a major aspect of Pathfinder gameplay, and if Goblins are in Core, it will be difficult or impossible to keep them out of PFS.

Goblins have no business being regularly available as PCs, but if they're in Core GMs won't be allowed to ban them from the table.

PC Goblins are a deal-breaker for a lot of players and GMs alike. Shoving them down our throats is one of the things making people hesitant about 2e.


11 people marked this as a favorite.
GameDesignerDM wrote:
I welcome all the nerfing. It's more in line with 5E and other recent trends of getting away from all the absurdly ridiculous high power nonsense that is from a dated age of design

..... But.... if I wanted to play 5E, I'd play 5E. It already exists, and is lovely in its own way.

Maybe I should have expected this, but I didn't. Pathfinder 1E was effectively D&D 3.75. But somehow I didn't expect that Pathfinder 2E would be D&D 5.5.

I guess I'll try to change my expectations and start going over it again....


1 person marked this as a favorite.
IceniQueen wrote:

So I got the email about Amazon shipping. Funny. I got an email back on July 13th that said this

Shipping Method Amazon Standard Delivery
Package Tracking Shipped Fri, Jul 13, 2018 (package 1110509)
Not trackable

SO... Who is telling the truth.

Still not gotten mine so Paizo jumped the gun?

I also got an email from Amazon, saying that the books had shipped (July 16th, in my case).

At this point, I think Paizo should press Amazon for free expedited shipping.

I appreciate Paizo stepping up and keeping us updated, but I expected much better from Amazon.....

4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I've kept every one I ever filled out (except for what I turned in at conventions).
It seems a little excessive, but I'm a little obsessive about record-keeping. At this point, I think I could wallpaper my entire house in sign-in sheets..... #MaybeIHaveAProblem

4/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Biter. Harsk can come along too, if he wants. ;-)

Also, Gom-Gom, with Yoon to carry him. With that owlbear's thousand yard stare, you know he's survived a bunch of tough spots.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Marco Massoudi wrote:

The minis now coming out on august 2nd 2018 (1 year delay) ARE the second product run (actually the first, since the others were prototypes).

The problem with these will be the price ($40 for four characters & $36 for three starships) & the non-availability for single starships of which more than one can be used (the tiny, small and medium ones).

It would be nice if these actually come out at GenCon, but considering that they're already a year late as well as being woefully overpriced, I'm not holding my breath.

I know WizKids isn't an option, but surely there must be some other company, somewhere, that can actually deliver products on-time and with tolerable customer service. I don't know how Ninja Division is even still in business. (I actually have a pretty good idea, but don't want to be ruder than I already have been.)

Like a lot of other folks, I'll believe these minis are available when they're actually in my hand with cash on the counter. And if I didn't think I owed my players the best possible experience when they play pregens, I would refuse to buy any NJ products ever, just based on all these issues.

4/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Harold Ervin wrote:
The game goes by so much quicker and smoother when you can file the first 33-50% of the game session off and get to the good stuff. ... I recommend it - if only for the look on everyones face when your wizard doesnt even roll a die when the knowledge planes check comes up.

While I'm not going to get involved in a #WrongBadFun argument here, please don't encourage other people to follow your example of ignoring a large portion of what being a Pathfinder is all about. The in-game Pathfinder Society is a group of people who, ultimately are seekers of knowledge.

To purposefully not only ignore but utterly dismiss a significant portion of that mandate does a disservice to the other players, the GM, the developers, the campaign coordinators, and ultimately the game itself.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Amanda Plageman wrote:
John Compton wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

Thanks, John! [/QUOTE

Out of curiosity, what does it mean when something is added to your downloads but isn't currently available for download? That's what Solstice C is doing for me.....


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BretI wrote:

What size (in squares on a map) are the vehicles?

Also, for those of us wanting to find/make special minis, do these vehicles have representation in the Core pawn set (It seems unlikely)? Can you share the basic structure of the vehicles, as well as their size: map squares?

Motorcycle frame perhaps? Dune buggys? Minivans? Forklifts?
:-)

4/5

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Kalindlara wrote:
I can't speak for MadSci, but I know that I felt extremely uncomfortable at my store when they hosted The City of Strangers scenarios, both because of the scenario's content and the players' reactions.

I'm sorry that happened to you.

It's amazing how differently those scenarios are portrayed. When I was first exposed to Miss Feathers, I didn't interpret her as trans at all! Nor was there anything offensive or silly in how she was portrayed. I just assumed she was a female impersonator/performance artist- no different than Lady Chablis or RuPaul. I thought it was pretty great that Paizo had put in a character that was willing to do their thing without fear or censure. I viewed Miss Feathers as one of the earliest attempts by Paizo to be inclusive. I still do, in fact, regardless of people's online reactions.

I realize that many/most people don't view Miss Feathers that way, and I respect that my experience doesn't invalidate yours (nor yours, mine). I just wanted to point out that Miss Feathers isn't universally despised. I realize that with all the hate she's drawn, she won't be showing up any more, but I'll miss 'seeing' her in Kaer Maga.

Also, only 1 time have I ever had a situation where a player reacted in a phobic way to Miss Feathers. I shut him down hard, and the session continued. That instance was the only time I've encountered any Miss Feathers hate- outside of these forums.


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If any GMs are looking for appropriately-sized, unpainted minis similar to what is on the cover, this is the best (also only) one I could find.

https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/prod.php?prod=403

(Tried to make a link out of this, but couldn't.)

4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
John Compton wrote:
The Additional Resources and Campaign Clarifications updates are now live, and we have numerous FAQs that should also be appearing shortly. These updates include all of the November products, including Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Wilderness, for which you should also see the Ultimate Wilderness FAQs. Most notably, though, these updates address two prevalent character options: the ring of seven lovely colors and the spell snowball.

Thank you so much for this!!!!! For all of this!

You've made my night! No, my week! No, my month!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Steve Geddes wrote:

WizKids were approached about Starfinder minis but weren’t interested (as were reaper).

FWIW, they also had some scheduling issues and slippages early in PFBattles’ evolution.

See? I knew there was a good reason!

Thanks! :-)

4/5

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Mahcahn, the Labradorite Sage

Spoiler:
Name: Mahcahn
Alignment: Neutral
Race: Wayang
Class: Psychic (Pain) 9/Fighter 1
Description: Macahn is a spidery-thin, pale wayang with fever-bright eyes. She rarely makes eye contact, but her gaze gives the impression that she's cataloging points of physical or mental vulnerability. She is constantly making jokes, but no one else seems to notice. Or find them funny.

Despite her devotion to psychic magic, Mahcahn enjoys a good fight,
often confusing enemies by engaging in mounted combat, from the shoulders of a half-orc.

Mahcahn is supporting a family of half-orcs in Absalom by regularly hiring the patriarch, Zarq the Not-So-Tall, to serve as her mount. She pays him a decent wage, covers his medical expenses, and doesn't require that he identify a joke when he hears it. He mainly communicates in long-suffering sighs. When the inscrutable beings that run the world she lives in lack a sense of humor, she sends Zarq home and rides her dog, Badger instead.

Incidentally, this is what labradorite looks like:
Go to Labradorite.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Jorsalheim wrote:
It's out. ** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:

Oh! Oh, my. This might be the happiest I've been since being unable to successfully beg a skittermander boon. This might even be better than a skittermander. Maybe. It's definitely bigger than a skittermander. Or even 2-3 skittermanders stuffed into a walrus costume. Well done, O Purveyor Of The PC Space Walrus!!!

I can't wait to run this, so I can post a proper review!


6 people marked this as a favorite.
Kadasbrass Loreweaver wrote:

I am so looking forward to this scenario! But first a word from our sponsors.

Are you tired of your enemies getting the drop on you? DrowTek has you covered with the latest in advanced cloaking technology that will give you the edge against friend and foes alike.

Starfinder was filmed in front of a living-impaired studio audience in orbit.

I just hope I get to ask them pesky questions in between fights.

I really want to see this played live over twitch, with John as GM and (ideally) Thursty as a player. And I want actual people watching the livestream to be able to act as the reality TV orbiting audience in some way.

You've got several weeks. MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!!!

4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
pH unbalanced wrote:

I have two Scarab Sage characters. One is level 11.2 and started as Osirion and has played almost every Scarab Sage mission. The other is level 1.

I'd intended to have my high-level character go out by slow-tracking Words of the Ancients and the Waking Rune (since she's hit all the other Lissalla 7-11s in preparation), but now I think I need to slow-track Salvation of the Sages and then Waking Rune.

Really, don't spoil some 'needed' pre-Salvation player prep:
You asked for it. If you haven't played it already on this PC, play S06-04 Beacon Below (7-11) before you play Salvation. You'll be glad you did. Really.
4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
kevin_video wrote:
Bob Jonquet wrote:
kevin_video wrote:
In other threads he discussed his very tight work schedule, and the scheduled PFS games was about all he had time for.
Gotcha. Well, that is unfortunate, but in some cases, PFS or even any RPG gaming is not possible if the schedule is that restricted. I’m only saying that if someone has time to go play PFS, they could use that same time to play a non-OP RPG where their style of play can be supported.
He's tried. John Compton and others even got involved in looking for him as well. He's mainly looking for online groups that plays when he's available. I think it was 10 pm to 3 am his time.

CT: You know that 4-5 hours per session that you currently spend playing PFS? And how (according to you) that's the only time and opportunity you have to play at all? Then you've solved your own problem.

You have 4-5 hours at a time which you can use to design your own campaign. And when you've designed your own campaign, then you have 4-5 hours per session to recruit other players and/or GMs to play the campaign you've designed. And once you've recruited those players and/or GMs, you have 4-5 hours per session to play the campaign that you've designed, exactly the way you want it to be. At least until those other players/GMs decide they don't want what you want and outvote you, democratically. When they do, you'll have that 4-5 hours per session to recruit new players/GMs.

It'll be a lot of work, but since you'll be breaking it down into 4-5 hour work sessions, it shouldn't be too onerous. In fact, if I were in your place, I would be excited by the new opportunities stretching out before me! Designing something new is an amazing experience. I envy you, a little.

Or, maybe you don't want to do all that work. Maybe you don't feel up to it. That's understandable. With PFS, almost all of the work is done for you, already. But all this time that you're spending on these forums, making demands that we've been patiently explaining are as undesirable as they are impossible- well, that's time you could have been using to design your own campaign. Because I'm sorry, but the changes that you want PFS to make aren't going to happen. Not during the current campaign, and probably not ever.

Frankly, the developers have years more collective game experience than you do, and they have more experience with organized play specifically. (Even just a few of the developers have upwards of 50 years development experience between them, and your posting habits and syntax suggest that you're relatively young- nothing personal, just an observation.) They know what works for a large campaign like PFS better than you do, and their wisdom will carry the day.

So, to be blunt, you have some combination of three choices:
1. Continue to play PFS, accepting the fact that you will not like all aspects of it.
2. Quit PFS and use the time to design your own campaign or find a non-PFS group.
3. Continue to make demanding forum posts until everyone simply mutes your threads and ignores you.

Personally, I hope you choose either #1 or #2- either way you'll be happier.


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Fromper wrote:
onlin wrote:
I'm not sure whether or not this would be a good place to ask, but would it be legal now if my character wants to switch his patreon deity to Roidira?
As far as I know, she's not listed as a PFS legal deity in any book in the Additional Resources. Which makes sense, both in game and out of game. We don't have her alignment or domains, so how could you choose her as a patron for a cleric or other divine caster? And in game, the events of this adventure make me think that she "left" Golarion, and is no longer accepting worshipers.

I think we'd need an AR update or something similar to worship her with mechanical benefits (like Cleric/Paladin spells, etc). But there's nothing to prevent a non-Deity-dependent PC from worshiping her (with no mechanical bennies).

My Rahadoumi Spiritualist has actively converted to her worship after this exposure. Roidira is her kind of Goddess! ;-)

4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
ChaosTicket wrote:

Well all that you tell me is that the Pathfinder Society is basically made redundant compared to video games.

I tried getting into tabletop RPGs 2 years ago to see something different from a videogame. The Society uses extra rule sto make it more like a videogame than and is a just a downgrade to the ideal of Pathfinder being an open Roleplaying world. You make a choice and it has consequences, not prepared scenarios.

Because of that I play even more videogames now as my only choice is hoping the Society will stop emulating a videogame. I dont have to wait a week to put a Final Fantasy game disc in.

Well, it sounds like you've decided that PFS isn't for you, and that's ok. People change. What works for them at one point in their life isn't what works at another point. If you prefer videogames to PFS, that's fine. There's room enough for all kinds of gamers in the world.

I wish you all happiness in your future endeavors.


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Andre Roy wrote:

A bit less than 8 hours to go. :)

It's crunch time!

Just sent my submissions in (1 archetype and 1 side quest seed). This'll be my first attempt at publication in nearly 15 years, so let's hope they pass muster!

4/5

9 people marked this as a favorite.

RIP Lore Warden.
As much as I disagree with the final decision not to grandfather the old version, I appreciate the style and grace with which the development team handled this highly polarized issue.

Now to see if there's any way to salvage who my poor LW was as a person and a character....


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JohnF wrote:
A quick look at the comment section for the kickstarter does seem to suggest that delays are pretty much what folks have come to expect from Ninja Division. There's certainly enough doubts raised to make me want to take a closer look before putting any of my money on the line.

Truth. Soda Pop/Ninja Division's history of poor communication, delayed fulfillment, and non-fulfillment means that I'll be staying far away from that kickstarter.

Hopefully Paizo added some kind of penalty clause into their license agreement with NJ to try and keep those problems to a minimum....

Hoping I'm wrong about this.

4/5

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Bob Jonquet wrote:

We need your feedback to know what is working and what isn't in order to continue to approve. Please drop your comments here. I will try to answer any questions about the logistical operations, and will record all your feedback into a comprehensive report for Tonya to review. The decisions we make to improve your experience at furniture Gen Con comes from your reported experiences.

I really enjoyed my first GenCon!

* Being at the same table as much as possible was a huge help!

*The use of the overhead projector for general messages was helpful.

*Mustering under this or that Iconic is great, but when the banners and standees are all Iconics, and the banner doesn't match the standee, it breeds confusion. Please either make sure that the standees are under their Iconic banner, or move the standees outside the main room. Being told 'muster at Sajan' doesn't help when the Sajan banner is in the center of the room on the right, while the Sajan standee is in the far left corner. When I asked various HQ staff 'Does the mustering mean under the banner or the standee?' I invariably got a deer-in-the-headlights look from the poor volunteer.

*I would have appreciated being able to volunteer for more than just one part of the experience. Maybe instead of only being able to select one of PFS, SFS, ACG, PSA, or HQ, enable the form to record multiple selections? I would have happily volunteered for PFS, SFS, and HQ (but not ACG or PSA) if I could; but chose PFS since the form only allowed a single option.

Thanks again for making my first GenCon great!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
thzero wrote:
John Compton wrote:


This is a fun adventure from many perspectives...
Fun would not be an adjective I would use for this scenario.

Sooo..... I've begun to prep this scenario for this weekend. So far, I am really impressed by this. So looking forward to running it! If this is what Season 9 is going to be, we are in for a season-long treat!!!

I think I will be providing my players with a slightly spoiler-ish warning. This is not a scenario for murderhobos (thank goodness!). I'll be giving them a 'heads up' warning, advising them to bring PCs with strong skills and RP options, rather than the usual combat wombats. I gave similar warnings for Ungrounded But Unbroken and Bid For Alabastrine, and I think it helped to set expectations, which otherwise might be a problem with these non-standard adventures.

Suggestion for other GMs running this:
Instead of simply reading/paraphrasing the visions at the end, consider printing them out, and sharing each vision only with the PC who views it. That way, during the final debriefing there's more RP as PCs share the visions they saw with the other PCs, as well as the NPCs. That way, players will be less likely to skip the RP by just saying, "yeah, we tell her what we saw". Just a thought.

It's a shame that this scenario doesn't have a higher rating (right now). I look forward to giving it a very positive review after I've actually run it! I suppose that any scenario that steps outside the box like this one does risks polarizing ratings, though.

This is the first time that Katherine Cross's name has come to my attention, but after this, I'll definitely be watching for her work! I love her style!

4/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Rambone wrote:
Seeing that it is not chained vs. unchained LW there probably will be no grandfathering. There is only one Lore Warden and history is they always use the latest printed version.

There are two Ringleader Bard archetypes (one in UI and one in AG), and they've gone out of their way to make both of them PFS legal per Additional Resources. That's what I want for Lore Warden. If folks want the new one, great! Let them have it. But keep the old one as well.

Rambone wrote:
I have a feeling some didn't like that it outshined the Brawler as the master of maneuvers.

I too detected an undercurrent of someone didn't like the LW and had the opportunity to 'fix' it. But if it's difficult to read tone in email and forum posts, it must be doubly difficult to read it in actual published material. So I could easily be misreading the tone.

4/5

7 people marked this as a favorite.
Tyler Reid wrote:

All I gotta say is that I'm going to miss Caspian (my lore warden). I put a lot of effort into learning how to talk like a "country hick" that had more than a middle school education. He was the only character I had that had never done lethal damage to a living creature. I put his Intelligence on par to his Dex (dex based fighter) so he could identify the bad guys and show off all the knowledge he had gained from reading books during his down time at the farm.

I'm not even sure if I want to rebuild him at all or just retire him. He has been lack luster during combats the last few scenarios where the majority of the enemies were immune to his maneuver, but boy was he fun to roleplay.

I'll support leadership either way in this, I just wish I had more time to play Casper.

Exactly. My LW was a person, not a collection of combat maneuvers and attacks. And the person that she was can't exist under the new LW rules. I'd be better off retraining into Slayer, but again, that's not who she is. Adoption of the new LW is effectively murdering one of the people I most enjoyed pretending to be. And that makes me sad. And angry.

Not angry at John and the development team. It makes me angry at the Problem Players who have once again made us unable to have nice things. More and more, when I see changes made to mechanics, especially in PFS, they come as a result of Problem Players abusing rules, exploiting loopholes, etc. The problem isn't (usually) in the rules. The problem is the Problem Players who exploit and twist the rules. Changing rules and nerfing beloved options doesn't actually solve anything, since the underlying problem is still in place: the Problem Players who caused the problem in the first place.

When a Problem Player's current abuse gets nerfed, he posts a nasty comment on the forums, then promptly moves on to abuse some other mechanic, triggering more complaints about 'broken' mechanics- and the cycle begins again. But all the non-Problem Players have been punished for what the Problem Players have done. The only ones who don't suffer are the ones who caused the problems in the first place.

TL;DR
Mechanics aren't the problem. Problem Players are the problem, and no amount of changes to the mechanics of the game will fix what's wrong with some players.

4/5

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Mimo Tomblebur wrote:
My seeker is a 14th level Lore Warden/Duelist. He will probably only get to play in one scenario a year. How can that be worth the effort of a total rebuilding? He certainly isn't stealing the spotlight from the other seekers.

Exactly. My 13.2 LW rarely even makes full attacks or combat maneuvers because I'd rather spend my combat time helping other players do cool things. The old LW was flexible enough that I could do a lot of useful things other than lay out ridiculous amounts of damage every round. If I retrain into the new LW, I lose the entire flavor and flexibility of the character. But I'd be able to lay down even more ridiculous amounts of damage every round. I just don't want to.

By making the LW 'less powerful', you have actually increased my damage output while making me unable to do anything but damage.

Forcing the change to the LW harms any player who chose the archetype for its flavor and RP, while making it even easier to powergame- which seems to be exactly what the update was trying to avoid.

In 20+ years of gaming, I have never requested grandfathering, as I find the process extremely distasteful. I'm asking for grandfathering now.

4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

As I now have a permadead PC, I have added her.
RIP, VC Ernsti Blakros.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Folks have given a lot of good advice for handling this issue both IC and OOC.

I was going to suggest that instead of asking the problem player what they want done with their PC (since they respond badly to that), instead ask the other players- but the posting of the Other Player somewhat answered that. Somewhat.

It seems like the rest of the group is willing to accept or at least tolerate the continued presence of the Problem Player, but it still might be worthwhile to ask the rest of the group specifically how they would like to handle the missing character (not the player).

The other thing I'd like to suggest is a book. Stop Walking On Eggshells by Paul Mason and Randi Kreger. It's intended not for people with Borderline Personality Disorder, but for the non-Borderlines who regularly interact with them. Your friend's psychological complications are none of our business, but this book is an excellent read for anyone who regularly deals with... complicated people. Not just Borderlines.

Here it is: link.

4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
The Toaster wrote:
they hand out business cards with a list of alchemical items created on them, with spots to check off the items as they are used. Players that game with me have started calling them "party favors". Players give me the cards back at games end and I have a list of what items got used.

That is an amazing idea. I am *so* stealing that.

4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rysky wrote:
It's a responsibility of the Society of they force you to work with Necromancers. If I join the Silver Crusade and want to go help people I'm not under the impression that I would be working with people who outside of PFS I would be killing on sight for creating Undead.

Not all Necromancers are evil. Not all Necromancers create undead.

And even if they were, simply 'being evil' isn't a good enough reason by itself for killing someone. In every non-PFS game I have ever run, a Paladin killing someone simply because they 'pinged' to Detect Evil would result in instant loss of Paladinhood. Even in a PFS game, if a Paladin killed someone who had 'pinged' but had taken no evil action that the Paladin had witnessed I would warn the player (as required by PFS) that this will be considered an evil act. If they did it anyway, *poof* your Paladin is now an ex-Paladin.

I have never seen a PFS scenario where a Paladin's fall was 100% unavoidable. I have never seen a PFS scenario where the mission was impossible to complete successfully without compromising a Paladin. I have seen a (very) few where a Paladin's code might cause them to lose the 2nd prestige, but even those are extremely rare. The PFS developers have been really good about building options for creative responses into the scenarios. It may be more difficult to succeed without the Paladin falling, but it is never impossible.

If a Paladin falls from grace during a scenario, it's because s/he either chose the expedient option over the good option, didn't examine all the angles of the situation, or simply wasn't paying attention. It's part of the roleplay of a Paladin. Paladins are 'varsity level RP' for a reason- playing one successfully is playing the game on 'hard mode', but that doesn't mean the Paladin is any less responsible for his consequences.

The Society has no more business paying for a Paladin's atonement than it does in raising its members from the dead when they can't afford it, and their party can't/won't help pay for it.

Bob is right. Part of the atonement process is owning your own consequences. If anything, I would argue that expecting the Society to cover the cost of Atonement would indicate that the Paladin isn't truly remorseful, and therefore the Atonement would auto-fail.
(Of course, that isn't my call to make in PFS, but that's exactly how I would handle a Paladin expecting someone else to pay for his Atonement in a home game...)


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hmmmm....
I thought Paizo had said the Vigilante was going to be the last class for awhile. Color me... intrigued.

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