Brass Pigeon's page

Great read, again. I must say I didn't know Paizo had gone through these kind of rough times.

First off, thank you for all the kind messages on this blog. It is appreciated.

I wanted to comment on this post. I worked very hard to make sure that our struggles weren't known outside of Paizo. Heck, I don't think that many of our employees knew how hard the struggles were, because I kept that info confined to the top ranks. No sense having everybody worrying all of the time. I think that is why Erik's closed door meeting mentioned in Jason's sidebar was such a shock. People didn't really see it coming. They possibly had a hint or two or three, but not all the details. And we definitely didn't want the public to know.

Two Christmases ago, I ended up telling the whole company and their spouses the two hours story of Paizo at our annual holiday party. I didn't sugar coat or leave anything out. They got the whole gory story. The ups and the downs. That was cool.

These blog posts are pretty much my attempt to do the same thing now for you guys. You deserve to know now. Without you, we wouldn't have made it to where we are today.

So enjoy!

-Lisa

Good is about the results.

Ah, so many burn in hell that said those words. Good is about intention, method AND results. Good is the hard path to walk, not the easy one. Good is NOT killing the hostage when you have justification because no matter what somebody else did, HE didn't do anything to you (not this specific example perhaps, I hasten to add). Good is by definition about saving life, not taking it.

"The ends justifies the means" is the line used by every person committing almost every atrocity in the world, and some of them had (from their point of view) very noble goals in mind indeed.

Everybody thinks that they are the good guy, that they are right and justified. The ones who are Evil are the ones claiming it's 'good' to kill, torture, maim, murder innocents etc. because after all, isn't our goal pure and our ideals strong? Isn't God on our side?

Is it good to kill a cruel, murderer, and bandit? Yes it is.

Wrong! It is not 'good' to kill a murderer. It is sometimes not even justified to do so, depending on how you do it. Good is justified in taking life to preserve and protect more life, but it does so out of necessity, not desire, frustration or (especially) pleasure. If you kill in self defence it is justified, but it isn't good. If you kill for revenge, it may be justified as serving the greater good, or it may not.

The game makes that clear. No more people will be victimized by this evil goblin son. A good deed was done.

Not the game I play.

Is it honorable to slay him in front of his own father? Oh heavens no it isn't, but when has a chaotic character cared about honor? Doing dishonorable acts for the greater good is what chaotic good is all about. In D&D they called it the rebel alignment. Rebels don't fight fair.

Chaotics CAN have a sense of honour, it's just not codified and held to rigidly.

"And in this thread we have learned why it was an explicit design decision to give max hp at first level."

I would say we have learned how scared people are of playing less then good characters, but you know potato, patato.

Dear Paizo,

Ever since the announcement of 5th edition DND. Many roleplayers speculate that it is going to be a pathfinder clone. Many believe the product will fail. I for one hope that happens. If it does,and the company has the funds and the retained earnings you should look into acquisitioning the DND brand from WOTC. I believe the Paizo staff out of any group in the roleplaying industry is the most competent to hold that brand.

Posts like this can't help but add to the general impression that gamers, especially fan gamers make lousy buisnessfolk.

(I am going to refrain from telling you to reroll. If you choose to do that, that's fine, but you didn't come here to be told to do something you already know you can do, I don't think.)

Anyone else find it silly that a person with <2 HP> and <6 CON> is recommended to take <Toughness> as a feat? (purely from a thematic standpoint, anyway)

Despite this, it is definitely a very good choice for you to have. It's more than doubling your current HP, and it'll just keep on giving.

I would also consider Improved Initiative. You're not wanting to ever be anywhere near melee combat under anyone else's terms (see below), and if you can help it, wanting to shield yourself from any ranged abilities (magical or otherwise).

If you are playing a melee, -=AC!=- You will need as much as this and saves as you can get. Get the best armor you can, grab the first cloak of resistance that drops (surely your team won't care that much). If you go first and think you can immediately remove some threats, do so, but don't get surrounded. If there is a big baddie around, wait to engage him with your party - the less time you spend in threatened area, the better, so you will need superb focus fire from your party.

If you are playing a ranged martial (archer, thrower, etc.), then you are looking at wanting to keep moving in the earlier levels. Keep lots of distance, use your range advantage constantly. When you start to get multiple attacks per round, hopefully you will have some decent gear, so you can consider full attacking, but weigh that option carefully.

If you are playing any sort of a caster, then defensive spells are your best friend. Most arcane casters can boost their defenses respectably, though with limited duration, so consider when you might need a spell and when you might just need to sit a fight out to conserve your resources.

Most importantly, make sure to talk to your party and let them know that you are going to be a scrawny little bugger and will need to lean on them for support. You can still pull your weight, but they need to understand what your weakness is so that they can help you overcome it.

One thing that a lot of GMs forget (and that players almost always "conveniently" overlook) is that cohorts and followers are clearly stated to be NPCs.

Who makes NPCs? The GM.
Who controls NPCs? The GM.

At best, the player taking the feat should be allowed a brief description of what kind of cohort and followers they are trying to attract, such as "an artificer" or "a thieves' guild for me to run" or "xenophobic human cultists."

NPCs also have crappier ability scores and generally start with far less gear than PCs. Sure the PCs can equip their cohort with better stuff, but then that's gear that isn't going to the party.

Balance with leadership can be maintained. You just gotta not break the rules.

Admittedly I don't have much of an issue as both a player and a GM with Leadership and it's uses, including making money and having the craft wizard. I like giving my players the chance to make organizations and guilds. It's why I make use of the Stronghold Builder's Guide and why I love Kingmaker so much. I feel that the players should get more than shiny gold and gems and headbands of +2 intelligence.

Like it's been said before, the GM should at least make the NPC for the player. I personally control my player's cohort since they are still NPCs, but I treat them as friendly. Here's an example of a craft wizard I had in a game about a year ago.

His name was Olwyn the Rune Forger. He's a burly dwarf that has taken to the art of making magic items. It's a tough job so sometimes, he takes a week off. It's great money too so he can afford the good life for himself and his clan. He works with the PCs as a personal blacksmith and, because he likes them, he makes them the items and sells it to them at 75% of the cost. Hell, a dwarf's gotta eat, right?

With your Crafting Wizard, remember these key points:

- Crafting items cost half, but no one said that the NPC only charges half. Give them a discount, sure, but don't give them half off. Of course, let the players know that before they invest in Leadership.

- If you decide that the craft wizard will charge full price for it, let the players know before they invest in Leadership. It's a bit more on the harsh side, but the players still get the benefit of it being made while they are off adventuring.

- Wizards are people too. They might want to go traveling and go on holiday. I mean really, who wants to stick around in a stuffy smith all their life?

- Lower the amount of treasure they find accordingly to make up for the value of magic items they are getting.

Ultimately, talking to your player is the best idea. But taking away the cohort and punishing the player will not work and they will hold it against you. And man, can an angry player ruin a game :)

I tried to stay away and couldn't

Name: Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged

Country: You mean planet--Planet of origin unknown.

Appearance: Wowbagger has a pecuiliar alien tallness, a peculier alien flattened head, peculiar slitty little alien eyes, extravagantly draped golden robes with a peculiarly alien collar design, and a pale gray green alien skin that has that lustrous sheen about it that most gray green races can acquire only with plenty of exercise and very expensive soap.

Recent family history–Most of those who are born immortal instinctively know how to cope with it, but Wowbagger was not one of them. Indeed, he had come to hate them, the load of serene bastards. He had his immortaility inadvertantly thrust upon him by an unfortunate accident with an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of rubber bands. The precise details are not important because no one has ever managed to duplicate the exact circumstances under which it happened, and many people have ended up looking very silly, or dead, or both, trying.

To begin with it was fun, he had a ball, living dangerously, taking risks, cleaning up on high-yield long-term investments, and just generally outliving the hell out of everybody.

In the end, it was Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in at about 2:55 when you know you've taken all the baths you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.

So things began to pall for him. The merry smiles he used to wear at other people's funerals began to fade. He began to despise the Universe in general, and everybody in it in particular.

This was the point at which he conceived his purpose, the thing that would drive him on, and which, as far as he could see, would drive him on forever. It was this:

He would insult the Universe.

That is, he would insult everybody in it. Individually, personally, one by one, and (this was the thing he really decided to grit his teeth over) in Alphabetical Order.

When people protested to him, as they sometimes had done, that the plan was not merely misguided but actually impossible because of the number of people being born and dying all the time, he would merely fix them with a steely look and say, "A man can dream, can't he?"

And so he had started out. He equipped a spaceship that was built to last with a computer capable of handling all the data processing involved in keeping track of the entire population of the known Universe and working out the horrifically complicated routes involved.

Now that he is done with this, rather than die of boredom, he attends the murder mystery.

Why would an assassin want to kill him? Wowbagger insulted everyone in the universe once (enough said). He actually just insulted Arthur Dent twice.

In my main campaign (in which I'm a player), my DM allowed us to take the Leadership feat with a warning not to abuse it. She allowed us to pick a cohort and design the character with the requirement that we write up backstories and find a way to implement the cohort into the current story (cohorts can't just "poof" into existence). Cohorts come in with standard PC WBL since they are PC classes, use a 25-pt-buy (or 4d6 drop lowest), are controlled in combat by the player, and roleplayed out of combat by the player. Cohorts CANNOT take Leadership.

As far as followers go, those have to be NPC classes with the heroic NPC stat layout. We can design those as well but they don't get traits. Each follower that we design must have a backstory. Important followers can have PC levels following level 3 (so 3 npc levels and a max of 3 pc levels).

So I have a Cleric cohort who follows my Paladin around, both have the same deity, their backstories actually place them together (they may as well be brothers). This creates interesting situations where if one is in trouble, the other will dive in to save him.

Summary through Post 114

Frequently Unknown Rules (through post 114)
Link to this thread

Change from SRD/D&D to Pathfinder

1. Bardic abilities no longer based on Perform skill other than Countersong and Distraction.
2. Many Shot and Rapid Shot can now be used together.
3. Spiked chain no longer has reach.
4. Anything that improves attack rolls improves CMB, including weapon feats if using weapon for the special attack.
5. Paladin double of smite against some creatures is on first attack only.
6. Sneak attack and critical damage applies to many additional creatures, including undead and constructs.
7. Magic item creation no longer uses XP.
8. Characters can draw a weapon during a charge, but can only charge a single move distance.
9. Magic item creation vastly changed.
10. Dodge applies to all opponents, not just one specified opponent.
11. Improved Trip and Improved Disarm split into a feat tree (Improved and Greater)
12. Grapple works differently.
13. Weapon enhancement bonus (the plus portion, not the cost equivalent) overcomes various DR at different DR than just magic
14. Elves sleep, but are still immune to magical sleep.
15. Concentration is no longer a skill. New mechanic makes it tougher for multi-classed characters.
16. Many save-or-die and save-or-suck spells have re-saves or more limited effects.
17. Cantrips are at-will.
18. Indentification of magic items changed significantly (see detect magic, identify, and Spellcraft)
19. Power Attack, Cleave, and Greater Cleave all different.
20. Clerics don’t get heavy armor proficiency, get proficiency with deities favored weapon, and need a feat to turn undead.
21. Fighters can retrain bonus feats.
22. Scrolls take a standard action, but longer if the spell contained has a longer casting time. (This may have been added in D&D add-on material as well, such as Rules Compendium).
23. Feats at every odd level instead of 1, 3, 6, 9, etc.

Always like this, but frequently misplayed or subject to oversight
1. Inspire courage is free action to continue once having started.
2. Animal companions can be dismissed at will and replaced with 24 hours; note that new companion requires training other than bonus feats.
3. Ranged attacks suffer from cover from objects, enemies, or allies. Allies often overlooked. Applies to reach weapons as well.
4. Weapons and armor must have +1 enhancement prior to gaining additional enchantments.
5. Readying an action is a standard action. One can move first, and then ready. The readied action itself can be a standard, move, free, or swift action. (Note: could not explicitly be swift in SRD 3.5; swift was not in the SRD.) Can include 5’ step as part of the readied action if no other movement in either the readied action or prior to the readied action during regular turn.
6. Lesser Restoration is a three round casting time. Usually, this means it isn’t used during combat. Potion of lesser restoration is good for in combat, tho.
7. Immunity to cold/fire gives vulnerability to opposite.
8. Elementals are immune to flanking and critical hits.
9. Enlarge person has a 1 round casting time.
10. Sneak attack and other precision damage applies to every attack in a round, not just once per round.
11. Characters who use the run action lose Dex bonus to AC, and thus are subject to sneak attack.
12. Dimensional anchor has no saving throw, just spell resistance.
13. Spells can crit if they have an attack roll.
14. Creatures can often overcome the DR that is needed to hit them (magic, epic, etc.)
15. Characters and creatures can charge a single move distance as a standard action if limited to a single action, such as during a surprise round. This doesn’t mean you can opt to only charge as a standard action if you have a full round of actions available.
16. Coup de grace can be performed against a creature with total concealment, such as invisibility, by using two full round actions.
17. Ride-by Attack is still a mess.
18. Empower spell only applies to the rolled portion of the effect.
19. Harm….does what?
20. Rules for tying up a character are in Grapple section.
21. Summon spells have 1 round casting times, even from wands.
22. Grease can be used to disarm.
23. Fear effects stack or escalate; characters can become more fearful.

OP here. I originally meant for this to be for PF rules, but I'm interested in things that are leftovers from 3.5 that most don't know. I just wanna get a better mastery of the rules!

I'll start.

A Bard doesn't need the Perform skill. The only performances that require it are Countersong and Distraction. Inspire Courage et al don't mention it at all, and you don't even need to use your primary artform when using it. It was intentionally left ambiguous so bards didn't have to keep on playing their instrument while using the performances. It's a free action to continue the performance.

BTW, i think instead of selfish/socialist, which have negative implications, you should you individualism and communitarianism.

I knew that one of these decades that workplace relations course would come in useful. i can now consign it to my brain dumpster.