Dyvynarth's page

I'm fully wiling to give you and the rest of Paizo staff the trust you have richly earned Lisa :) Here's to the hope of a successful venture.

Will the racial information for the new races include APG style alternate racial abilities, alternate favored class bonuses, and racial traits?

I can't wait, I still remember The Glass Prison as an excellent novel.

Dyvynarth wrote:

lol, Crystal and Sara Marie rock. I hope they get a lot more random blogs :)

Ahh the fame! It's addicting! I think we're gonna have to do another one tomorrow.

I was quoted my someone famous! *swoon*

lol, Crystal and Sara Marie rock. I hope they get a lot more random blogs :)

Personally, I don't mind the idea of either a new leveling or another style of alternate advancement after 20. "Epic" play doesn't have to mean level 21+, it could just as easily mean new abilities to expand the options of a high level character.

Picked some of these at DragonCon. I'll be buying more through Paizo soon. All my friends get such a kick out of them that they try them out and I end up giving them a few. ;)

Perfect! I remember the old, blue 2nd edition Creative Campagining... or was it The Complete Villain's Handbook... had a very cool discussion of alignment along this line. I think it was the latter, as now that I'm thinking about it, I believe it was descriptions of villains of every alignment. Still, very cool, and always made me think that if you can have bad guys of good alignments, why can't you have good guys of evil alignments? I've always found those morally shady areas and characters most interesting.

Heh, actually, I owned both of those. A lot of my groups alignment system is based on those two books. The funny part is when we have a new player who says, "What alignment can I be?"

My immediate response is typically either, "I don't know, what alignment can you be?" or "Why are you asking me, I don't care what your alignment is" ;)

Franky, I wonder why I don't more often see the opposite of this question when it comes to the Hellknights. Why would a LE character ever join?

In my home game we added a bit more possibility to the different alignment descriptions. With Lawful Evil we have "the Lawyer" and "the Black Knight" as examples. While the Lawyer attempts to twist the law to their own ends, the Black Knight lives by a strict code of ethics, however, this code is about law and honor. There is little room for mercy in their brutal path.

Oddly enough, we've used that for a while, and it fits right in with the darker Hellknight orders.

True Sight. While I don't mind the concept, the actual spell completely rips apart an entire school of magic. Illusion specialists beware. I don't need it gone, just altered. A caster level check or spell level limit would be fine.

Nice, can't wait to see it, and I greatly hope we can see other organizations detailed too (hint, Hellknights and Riftwardens, hint) ;)

Psionics and alternative campaign settings. By alternative settings I don't mean minor variations to the standard medieval/dark ages sword & sorcery; rather, Vernesque settings, post-apocalyptic fantasy, etc. done in intriguing new ways

That I greatly agree with. I would love to see some Jules Verne-style, and some post-apocalypse fantasy by Paizo.

I'd like to see psionics, along with the different flavor of psi. I don't mean specific rules for manifesting, but rather such things as the use of crystal, special material crystals, psiskins, and unique culture. Example: in my group we added a bit of tibetan culture, and a few lower level psiskins.

Epic play would be great, but I don't think it needs to be right away.

New races and variants on existing races are something I would definitely like to see. New classes only if they fill a new niche or accomplish an existing role in a unique manner. No more "battle mages", those can be multiclassed/prestiged easily. Wild mage or shadowmage are good fits.

On prestige classes, I'm tired of endless variations of the same concept or great ideas with poor execution. Looking at you "Ghostwalker". A prestige class should be there for a reason other than just to be printed, such as focused abilities for specialists (dagger-fighter or priest of dream), or for organizations that do not fill the standard mold.

That all said, regardless of specific rules, have fun designing and we will all doubtlessly have fun playing. ;)

My take on Psi?

1) Crystals, Tattoos, Psiskins/ectoplasm: Psionics is different and alien (even if it is done with the same mechanics as magic). The different form items for psionic characters take, as well as for their prestige classes helps a lot with that. Ref. Crystal Master from the Mind's Eye.

2) An enlightened feel: Even the most corrupt psi should have a solid understanding of body and mind, think calm and creepy rather than spittle-flying rage. Ref. the Quori from Eberron

3) Mind and Body: Understanding the full depths of the mind brings with it an understanding of the body. I'm not looking for every psi to be a monk, but rather enhancing their body (temporarily or permanently) with their mind. Ref. Half the feats in XPH ;P

4) Compatible with the tone and feel of the Kalashtar (Eberron) and with Dark Sun.

5) Mark Jindra, Bruce Cordell, or Troy Denning being consulted for ideas. I can hope ;)

My deal breakers?

1) Speaking of Troy Denning, I'm a Dark Sun fan. If it can't be adapted to the setting, or if the rules would cause major problems with it, I won't allow them in my campaign.

Bonuses

1) Some unique organizations and flavored prestige classes for them. Each with a definite "feel".

2) Interesting monsters, I still have my Dark Sun issues of Dungeon and Dragon magazine, and I'm always happy to have a strange psi-critter crawl, hop, or fly out of the wastes at my unsuspecting players ;P

Thanks, and I can't wait to see what Paizo puts together for Psi. Oh, and one last thing for my wish list: Continued support, Psi doesn't have to be in a core book, it would just be nice for it not to be the hated, illegitimate step-child of Pathfinder... as it often has come across in D&D.

The Robot novels by Isaac Asimov
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson

This alteration seems unnecessary to me and I find a little bit of possibility for abuse. Halflings, in particular, would presumably get bonuses to skills associated with their favored class (rogue) as well. Imagine a rogue with a +4 size bonus to Hide, max ranks for his level, a Skill Focus in Hide, and your +2 'racial' bonus at 1st level. Assuming a 14 Dexterity, you've got a +15 bonus to Hide at level ONE. The Skill Focus might be a little extreme, but even without it you've got a +12 skill modifier on a 14 Dex and, let's face it, with a +2 racial Dex bonus and rogue as a favored class, most Halfling rogues will do better than 14.

I would caution you to choose your skills carefully when bestowing these bonuses if you intend to go through with this alteration. All in all, I don't really think it's necessary to throw out the normal favored class rules regarding XP penalties, but it's your game. Just be aware of the potential consequences.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. We have had a few people in the past who attempted to multiclass as many classes as possibly, but they ran into problems at high level, namely a lack of higher level spell and feat access. I'm quoting Fatespinner because his post was the most constructive. My plan should we do this is to give bonuses on class related skills, but to stay away from racial bonuses, for example, a halfling rogue would gain +2 on Sleight of hand and Gather information checks with perform as a class skill.

One of the changes that we are considering for our group is favored class. As written, it is more of a penalty than a bonus. Our change is to add a +2 bonus on 2 skills at first level with an additional +1 every 5 levels as well as an additional class skill. For example, elven wizards gain a bonus on Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft with Balance as a class skill. Humans may choose any skills.
I would greatly appreciate feedback on this idea, both from the staff and community.

Thanks,
Dan

I have them too often too recount the most recent, but my two biggest geek moments were:

1) I rarely get sick, but three years ago I was too sick to stand by myself without vomiting. I made two phone calls, I called out of work, then called my friends to help me out to the car so we could still play our scheduled D&D game.

2) In boot camp we were all ordered to read a map, when asked how I learned to read a map so well, my immediate response to the Drill Instructor was, "I play D&D, and if you can't find the dragon, you can't slay the dragon!" Man, did he give me some weird looks. ;)

Personally, I would like to see a "world-tree" setup similar to Yggdrassil, with the lawful planes near the roots (where the tree is more stable) and the chaotic planes in the branches. The world-tree could be coexistent in the astral, ethereal, and shadow.

Absolutely.

--Erik

Excellent! Thanks!

Orthodox and what?

Granted, I hate it when i have to admit I need a dictionary, but if I can assume heterodox means what I think it means, then this would be a situation where I can site that Eberron did something right in regard to religions. By removing alignment restrictions in regard to which deities one may follow. I mean we can take two people one of LG and one of CE alignments, and have them both worshiping the same god. Both of their views are different, but both of their views are still valid.

Sorry, a heterodox faith is one that follows what the main body of the faith considers to be a heresy. For instance, in my home campaign all of the churches say that pact magic (Tome of Magic) is evil, except for an offshoot of the God of Honor's church who claim that while their diety has no control over vestiges he oversees ALL oaths, contracts, and pacts. Multiple beliefs within the same faith that don't really get along. ;)

Dyvynarth wrote:

Personally, while I sorrow for the loss of my favorite magazines, I'm also very excited by Pathfinder. My largest question is will the Pathfinder setting take into account such things as Raptorans and Swordsages?

No, because those are Wizards of the Coast IP. You're certainly welcome to add them to your campaign at home, but we cannot touch them. In the same vein, you won't see beholders, mind flayers, umber hulks, yuan-ti, or any other creature, class, feat, or spell that isn't in the SRD.

Understood, and sorry for the bad phrasing. What I should have said was, will there be the supporting areas and cultures that would make such additions from the non-core WOTC books easy to "plug-in"?

As the campaign setting fleshes out I would like to see orthodox and heterodox factions within the same faith.

All that I can say on the subject is that I'm in for the long-haul. I have seen the previews, and I'm impressed, it really seems as though the wonderful folks at Paizo are keeping with the "new-gamer" style of intricate back story and plot while injecting some "old-school" ancient civilizations and discovery. I've glad to see a bit of Borroughs' style mixed with a rich and detailed world and campaign.

Single Male
Marietta, GA
Age 29
Interests: D&D, WoW, Magic, general sci-fi, fantasy and horror
Perks: Former Marine, well read
Drawbacks: Getting a bit pudgy without the enforced PT, really odd sense of humor.

www.myspace.com/dyvynarth

Personally, while I sorrow for the loss of my favorite magazines, I'm also very excited by Pathfinder. My largest question is will the Pathfinder setting take into account such things as Raptorans and Swordsages?

Another vote for a poster map of Athas.

The title says it all. With both Paizo and Wizards proclaiming 2006 as Io's era, I wouldn't be surprised if it's already in the planning/writing stages but can't be confirmed just yet as a hush-hush project.

That would be great! Hopefully with epic progressions for dragon PCs, and write-ups for the 'other' dragons.

Dan F.

Has anyone else read Jim Butcher's the Dresden Files? The adventures of a modern day wizard in Chicago. I must admit that I read the first in the series (Storefront) and I was hooked immediately.

I have. I'm a big fan of the Dresden Files and am waiting on number 8 (Proven Guilty).

Dan F.

Never mind, just after I posted the preorder sign vanished. Just my luck to send a useless post. Thanks.

Dan F.

I hope that I'm posting this in the correct place, and apologize if I'm not. I want to order the Hound of Tindalos, but I'm moving in a month. The site says that the current status is 'preorder' but doesn't give a release date. I was just hoping that you might know an approximate date so I know whether to order now or wait until after the move. Thanks for having this area to post in.

Dan F.

So if you want to see more dragon progressions in Dragon, marshal your troops.

I'll enlist. I would be overjoyed to see gem dragons leveled out, and an epic progression would be excellent.

Dan F.

I vote for more information too. (fluff and crunch hopefully)

Dan F.

I'm impressed. I'm also happy to see the diopsid and tesseracts. I'm mildly dissappointed that I didn't notice any of the escaped creatures from the Barrier Peaks (might have been there, I had to look quickly),the variant druids for other environments, or official updates of the sheen. Oh well, maybe in volume 2, maybe in volume 5, I can still hold out hope.

Great work guys,
Dan F.

Okay, I had the time to look over it more carefully, and saw at least two Barrier Peaks critters. I feel even happier now.

Dan F.

I'm impressed. I'm also happy to see the diopsid and tesseracts. I'm mildly dissappointed that I didn't notice any of the escaped creatures from the Barrier Peaks (might have been there, I had to look quickly),the variant druids for other environments, or official updates of the sheen. Oh well, maybe in volume 2, maybe in volume 5, I can still hold out hope.

Great work guys,
Dan F.

I just wanted to inquire as to whether there was any chance of the 'sheen and machine mages being updated to 3.5? I was also wondering if an article for steam and clockwork tech would have any chance, the psuedo-magic of most systems of D&D tech irk my groups sensibilities. Thanks.

Dan F.

While I would love a great underdark adventure against horrific aberrations such as Night Below, I also hope for 'A Return to the Barrier Peaks'. That said,
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any chance on seeing revised 'sheen info since they where referenced in the Clockworks?

Dan F.

An AP with Far Realms monstrosities woul be cool, especially with a strong illithid presence.

Dan F.

I'll jump in on this one as well. There were a lot of interesting ideas in the shadow city.

Dan F.

There is the FR Underdark book, and the drow issues of Dragon. That said, I would really like to see an issue, or series of articles, dealing with the Underdark. Very little is covered about the Deep Below, although we see a bit about the middledark. Info on the odder portions of the middledark would be fairly cool as well.

Dan F.

Thanks ASEO!

I liked it quite a bit. Would you mind if I used the base idea (a large portion of the world devastated) for an eventually campaign? I'll likely modify quite a bit, but I still believe in being polite and asking when possible.

Dan F.

I've got an idea for substition levels and a metamagic feat for chaos-themed wizards. I might just have to write up a query...

Dan F.

So let me know what you have in mind! :)

You asked for it! ;)

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy Class Acts, and if it stays the exact same I won't complain a bit, however since this forum is here for everyone's two cents here are mine.
Flaws and Feats which give flavor for specific prestige classes or methods of playing the character (examples; feats to help Shadowbanes and other 'vigilante' rogues or Wild Mages and other wizards bent towards Chaos).
Alternate Improved Familiars (loved the swarm familiars by the way).
New 'niche' Domains (such as the ones found in the environmental books).
New substitution levels. If you tie those in with previous ideas, then coolness!
Thanks for listening, and as I already stated, if nothing comes of this then no problem. I still like Class Acts and will wait with excitement for any other UA style info.

Dan F.

There are many prestige classes that I like, but my favorite has to be ..... Wild Mage. I know that one seems odd, but I really enjoy roleplaying the off-kilter wizard, slightly mad, fairly cunning, really worrisome. LOL

Dan F.

I can't seem to do this when I DM, but for Many years I played a 2E wild mage. Not only did I seem to roll near constant nat 20, but the DM would roll 1 trying to hit me (and some of the surge results I received had him foaming at the mouth) ;)

Dan F.

I'm also curious from this conversation to know if people use the multi-class experience point penalties for disparity of levels in a non-favored class (PHB 3.5 p.60). The examples of characters leaving off a certain class at level 2,3,4 or whatever didn't mention race, but the 20% penalty is pretty severe. I'm not bound to all the rules. I'm a believer in house rules so that everyone has the most fun. I do happen to use this particular rule and I was just wondering if others do or not.

I don't enforce the multiclass penalties in my game. I'm more interested in a 'balanced' party and interesting character concepts than the fantasy archetype party.

Dan F.

I find the articles with flaws (or other hard stats like the alternate cleric holy symbols) see FAR more use in my games then ever will an advice article

I would much prefer to see a list of flaws, feats specific to the class, alternate rules, etc. than a list of why someone might want to multiclass.

I concur. However I wouldn't mind seing ways to break stereotype, or variants.

I can see why some people would want to defend the editors etc. from paizo for the stupidly long delay on this supplement. They're fan-boys (or girls) that dont want to bite the hand that feeds them. Or else they're "up-and-coming" RPG writers that don't want to bite the hand that feeds them. Or, they're softies that have never had to make noise about a company's (albeit unintentional) shoddy practices.

I understand why you're upset, I can't claim to be overjoyed myself. My viewpoint, however is that not only would I wish for some understanding in similar circumstances, but also that we are a community in a very real way. Roleplayers have been heavily ostrasiced for a long time. Things are getting better, but most of us on these boards can likely remember what high-school was like 'back in the day' for those who read sci-fi and fantasy, much less played RPGs. My point is, families fight, but they remember that they ARE family.

Dan F.

I second the motion, including the pat on the back for the other folks at Paizo. Thanks!

Also, Downer Rulez!!!! ;)

Dan F.