Gorbacz's page

Just proving the point that ignore script do more harm than good :)

I love how I've managed to become magnuskn's point of obsession. I guess I should send him some poster sized photos of me so that he can wallpaper his flat with them...

No. They're completely useless apart from the "oooh ahhh he/she is thaaat powerful ohmigosh ohmigosh that's gonna be so cool if I could get them to fight Batman and Chuck Norris and maybe also Optimus Prime" reactions which I left behind a good dozen years ago.

Eric Hinkle wrote:

Am I the only person hoping for an update on Falcon's Hollow in this book?

Annd I can honestly say, this is something that I'd never have asked for in a million years (because I figured the response would have been a resounding "No!") -- but now that it's coming I'm really looking forward to it.

Well... if we were going to update Falcon's Hollow, you'd think we'd go hire one of the folks who helped define that region in the first place.

Oh. Wait.

Who's that Longue guy on the author list, anyway? Never heard about...

James, you might want to considering doing a total full stop on any rules answer, because it's happening again.

James Jacobs' posts aren't official clarifications or errata. It's "how I'd run things".

And he's not creator of the class. If anybody, Jason Bulmahn is. James isn't even on the rules design team, and has pretty much zero to little to do with writing crunch.

Perhaps the Hidden Priest archetype from Inner Sea Magic?

Let's discuss why the tier system should exist in the place. Oh, wait, ninja'd by Icy.

Pathfinder 2.0, with catfolk, samsarans, dhampirs and grippli as core races, Warplock, Dark Shooter, Black Mage and Panzer Dragoon as core classes, mandatory subscription to Pathfinder Insider required.

In this context? Likely Milani.

On a positive note, it's not as bad as MMO/FPS forums :)

I wonder what Paizo staff members think when they read threads like this.

"I really don't envy the Web Team folks who get to wrangle with all those argumentative troublemakers on the forum" is likely the most common thought.

GO ASHIEL GO! (magnuskn has me on ignore, he needs to be taught a lesson).

Gorby, no love?

Are my verbose and basically neutral posts not easily reduced to a one liner? Or do you merely hate me?

You're just not exxxtreme enuff. Maybe if you were Evil Nixon or Evil Teddy Roosevelt...

I've slightly expanded my Typical Paizo Forums Balance Thread Matrix above. And yes Ashiel and Ciretose, I love you both to bits.

Ashiel: casters were nerfed!

Beckett/DA: no, only clerics were nerfed!

AvH: no, only druids were nerfed!

Shallowsoul: casters were always worse than martials anyway!

Anbody from The Den: PATHFAILURE = CASTER EDITION!

Ciretose: Since it's all Schroedinger, we will never know if those are nerfs or buffs.

3.5 Gitarist: Casters are fine, as long as you require the player to learn spells/pray/meditate 8h per day in real time, like we do. Honestly, does anybody even play this game in some other way?

TOZ: LOLWUT?

Kirth Gersen: My 235 pg PDF fixes everything.

Piccolo: Casters are fine, after all they need to rest 8h after casting each spell. What, that's not how it works? Really? Oh, must have been some obscure errata I missed.

Kthulhu: If you only reverted to 0E, all your problems would be gone. But no, you persist, mindless slaves of Monte Cook...

Gorbacz: American fascists! Errr ... wrong thread!

Sure you can build an interesting world while keeping away any elements that could get prude parents or religious fanatics at arm's length and the maturity rating "kids of all ages", but you can do so much more if you drop your fears of 80s D&D-is-Satan craze coming back and you shoot for something more like PG-13.

In a shocking turn of events, Hasbro fires off a lawsuit.

Pathfinder samurai are based more on historical tropes (such as the samurai art of yabusame and characters such as Seven Spears of Victory) and less on the popcultural/anime portrayal of barely-armored swordmasters, which had little in common with the historical developments up until late Tokugawa. Until XVI century, samurai were almost exclusively fighting from horseback, and infantry was considered a "lesser" form of warfare. The most famous stories of samurai battles are stories of cavalry charges and mounted warfare.

I'd read the Core Rulebook and Bestiary first. Rogues being able to sneak attack undead is one of major Pathfinder changes, and if you didn't know of it until this thread, there might be more surprises there for you, and you'd rather catch them before the game, not during.

That's me, speaking from my worthless 22 years of experience as a GM ;)

That's why those are human wax candles!

Considering that some of the most prominent groups in Kaer Maga are golem crafting casters, bloatmages and shady criminal organizations of all sorts, I believe a Kobold might find lots of opportunities where brains > brawn. It's not a "brutal pit fighter" city, it's a "weird outcast" city.

Say, a Kobold who works for troll augurs to ensure that they regenerate properly after each "vision", or as a "maintenance manager" for one of unead brothels.

Well the problem is that after Hook Mountain Massacre was released there was a massive outcry (including, IIRC, the aforementioned phone calls) and ever since Paizo got tamer with their publications. Sure there are some elements here and there, but nothing ever again got close to the walls to balls gross-out gore level of Grauls.

I'm not arguing that gore for gore's sake is something that should appear in every AP, but the occasional shock and awe to remind the players why monsters are monsters and why evil is Evil, that's something I'd love to see more.

3.5L just has a 7 Cha is all. :)

Actually, his profile says Cha 5. Guy sure knows how to dump stats for optimization! ;)

Of course. I'm supper happya about sexual diversity, I'm a bit grumpy about female nipples.

There's a strong and vocal group of supporters for Distant Worlds AP on the forum. We're burning candles and holding a vigil every Saturday. Our prayers will be answered someday.

I hope it wasn't me...

Old school fans have little love for WAR since he reminds them of 3E and all the bad things that came with it. Black'n'white Erol Otus style is what floats their boats. So for starters, Paizo would have to develop new art direction, new writing style (one that's closer to OS "DM is a god" style) AND find a way to keep monthly Golarion setting output feasible for both product lines. That's quite a lot of work, and D&D Next, which by all indications will be an old school style game, is on horizon.

Well, I think that with such a spell list your other class features better be moderated! Sleep hex is actually borderline imba IMHO, because it synergizes with the "single humanoid opponent in a 10x10 room" design paradigm of many modules.

I really don't get how you can derp a full caster that has heal, teleport, black testicles, raise dead and restoration (among others) in one spell list, something that's normally possible only if you take the long painful road of Mystic Theurge.

No, really, hexes are just icing on the cake. That's your cleric/wizard hybrid everybody ever wanted, one Witch gets you covered on all the critical utility/support spells, what's not to love?

Gorbacz wrote:

Thanks for reinforcing my optimizers = anime fans idea, folks :)

Jamming a couple planks under the Golden Gate Bridge is 'reinforcing' too.

Given how many times it gets blown up in comics/movies, I AM ON TO SOMETHING!

Gorbacz wrote:

I'm running Reign of Winter soon. I'll ask folks to try multiclass characters and see where we get with that. It will take some time for me to get there, but I will let you know how did that work out.

You talkin' real life or PbP? I'd submit a PbP character for that!

Mostly real life, but since I've never given PbP a shot I might do a parallel online game (same prep, after all). I just need to learn how you pull that off.

Gorbacz wrote:

You're looking at the game purely from design perspective. That's neat, but a publisher must also look from business perspective.

I understand that, but don't have to like it! And, really, with a robust multiclassing system, Paizo could still publish "50 Awesome Multiclass Combinations" and make a huge profit from it -- even if the whole thing would, from a crunch standpoint, be redundant.

Oh, I feel you. There are dozens of publisher-side things I'd love to be done my way (say, a Numeria AP right now instead of having good guys vs. demons, or maybe a bigger book on Cheliax, or perhaps NPC Codex 2 instead of Bestiary 4, yadda yadda). But overall, I've gotten so much bang for my bucks here that I can live with some things that don't float my boat. Especially if I can always mine fan-based/3PP material for solutions. And as long as I can get my players' character concepts realized, I care little if they're running a Cleric/Rogue, some 3.5 PrC, or Inquisitors. Whatever you need to get the job done. If I'm fixing my car I don't care if I'm using Producer's Official Replacement kit or WD40 and duct tape as long as it drives.

Tangentially: is there any 3PP multiclassing alternative out there?

Gorbacz wrote:

That depends on your definition of "viable", "dead weight", "challenges" and "contribution" are. As usual in this case, you're trying to get the entire discussion done on your parameters. Which is the easiest way to win it, I suppose.

OK, let me set things more clearly. If we pick up an AP and have 4 PCs of the appropriate level, and a DM that allows the dice to fall where they may (I'd consider that as "appropriate challenges")... then do we all die and/or pretty much auto-fail if some of us multiclass as I've outlined? If so, then it's not "viable" and we're "dead weight."

I'm not interested in whether the concept works with Story Hour, where the DM outright ignores most of the game rules and/or warps the hell out of things, pulls punches, ignores dice rolls, and/or arbitrarily lessens or adulterates the written AP simply in order to give you a sporting chance.

I'm running Reign of Winter soon. I'll ask folks to try multiclass characters and see where we get with that. It will take some time for me to get there, but I will let you know how did that work out.

Also, knight-troubadour = Battle Herald PrC from APG.

I understand that multiclassing is not the most stellar part of 3.5e design, but throwing that away would bork backwards compatibility all over. And if you *did* throw that away and come up with new system, an obvious question would be why stop there and not change the game even furtheoh wait, it's now so far from 3.5 that it won't sell to anybody and end up as another FantasyCraft/Trailblazer/4E.

You're looking at the game purely from design perspective. That's neat, but a publisher must also look from business perspective. From a business perspective, with experiences of 4E and aforementioned "we'll make a better d20" games, there's little to none encouragement to move away from familiar comfort zone of 3E players.

That depends on your definition of "viable", "dead weight", "challenges" and "contribution" are. As usual in this case, you're trying to get the entire discussion done on your parameters. Which is the easiest way to win it, I suppose.

Thanks for reinforcing my optimizers = anime fans idea, folks :)

It's buried somewhere in the LoF forum, IIRC. Basically James said they wanted to make an EoD that didn't look beholderish, that didn't exactly work, and in the end decided that it's pretty much not in line with their "we're not going to make Eyestalk Orbs, Teleportation Cats or other almost-but-not-quite copies of WotC IP" policy.

Yeah, but neothelids are totally different from illithids in appearance, whereas EotD is just a beholder with claws, and it's really hard to do an artwork of one and making it NOT resemble a beholder.

IIRC Erik or James did say that Eye of the Deep was a bit too close for comfort to Beholder and won't be used again.

On the other hand, if the party wants to play an all-full-or-almost-caster (Paladins and Rangers are not eligible) game with Summoner you don't have to double think if not having a meat shield was a good idea. There, here's your beatstick.

Can you squeeze (cheap pun intended) a redeemed Shoggoth in there, too? My Skull'n'Shackles party just met a shoggy, and they want to make Monster in the Darkness out of it (him/her? Shoggoth gender and sexual orientation makes me dizzy).

Mikaze, I want your morphgendered tentacled Celestial slashfic so badly.

Gorbacz wrote:

What "focus"? The only "focus" I can see is that recently we found out who is the homosexual iconic. That's about as much "focus" as that we recently found out what the real fate of Baba Yaga's daughters is. Or where the Elves really come from. Or what's the next AP.

Count the pages of "homosexuality in golarion" now how many treads combined talk about any other major facet of character like race or religion. do the combined THREADS compare well to the PAGES on gay characters?

Ah, I see what your actual issue is. Your problem is that people enjoy debating sexuality. Well, sorry, no way you're going to thought police people around here, folks like talking about it, folks will talk about it. But that's nothing that Paizo is responsible for, unless your argument is "Paizo should exclude sexuality because including it makes people discuss it and I don't like seeing it discussed".

Good luck with that. Closing your eyes does not make things go away.

What "focus"? The only "focus" I can see is that recently we found out who is the homosexual iconic. That's about as much "focus" as that we recently found out what the real fate of Baba Yaga's daughters is. Or where the Elves really come from. Or what's the next AP.

Perhaps your problem is that we're even discussing sexuality of the characters? Well, if that's a problem for you, it's a problem, but it's just your problem. Why should I care?

Gorbacz wrote:

Andrew R wrote:

Gorbacz wrote:

Hey Andrew R, why aren't you offended by the fact that so many iconics are religious? I mean, by your logic one religious person among iconics is enough to cover all those christianislamjewsihwhatever out there, why shove religion down our throats? :)

If a large number of them were of one real religion i might start to wonder what they were pushing, same if the vast bulk were very anti religion. Instead they are a variety. And you may notice but not one is taking on a real life religion....

So, variety in religion is fine, variety in sexual orientation is bad?

It is when they are making that the sole defining characteristic. We do not have an iconic character that happens to be gay we have a GAY iconic that happens to be anything else. The iconics religions are nothing compared to the racial and sexuality that are being used to define them. for that matter it is starting to feel more like a party of token X, to say hey look we got x in our game look see.

Kyra, Valeros, Ezren, Seelah, Imrijka are all heavily influenced by religion. Heck, Valeros is carrying around a holy symbol of his deity, and he's just a Fighter.

Tirisfal wrote:

Andrew R wrote:

Tirisfal wrote:

Andrew R wrote:

Gorbacz wrote:

Hey Andrew R, why aren't you offended by the fact that so many iconics are religious? I mean, by your logic one religious person among iconics is enough to cover all those christianislamjewsihwhatever out there, why shove religion down our throats? :)

If a large number of them were of one real religion i might start to wonder what they were pushing, same if the vast bulk were very anti religion. Instead they are a variety. And you may notice but not one is taking on a real life religion....

So the iconics should have make-believe sexualities and genders to make you happy?

So they must be all forms of gender/gay combos to make you happy? I want room to go beyond just this one facet of identities.

No, I'm telling you that:

Black =/= hispanic, asian, pacific islander, etc

Just as:

Gay =/= lesbian, bi, transgender

Got it now?

Yet there is no hispanic, pacific islander, etc iconic either so why not include them? and if you can claim gay is different than lesbian then black woman is not the same as black man so they are still excluded....

Because, as a creative choice, Golarion doesn't have all the ethnicties of our world. It has several ethnicities and most of them are represented by iconics (Sajan, Alahazra, Kyra, Feiya, Reiko, Seelah). Look, if you're trying to claim that human iconics are not ethnically diverse, that's just untrue.

Yeah, but obesity at worst is connected to social stigma. Nobody is going to jail you, throw stones at you or deny you a pension because you're fat (corner cases aside).

But all the above might happen due to race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, political views, having/not having children, etc. etc.

Gorbacz wrote:

Hey Andrew R, why aren't you offended by the fact that so many iconics are religious? I mean, by your logic one religious person among iconics is enough to cover all those christianislamjewsihwhatever out there, why shove religion down our throats? :)

If a large number of them were of one real religion i might start to wonder what they were pushing, same if the vast bulk were very anti religion. Instead they are a variety. And you may notice but not one is taking on a real life religion....

So, variety in religion is fine, variety in sexual orientation is bad?

Hey Andrew R, why aren't you offended by the fact that so many iconics are religious? I mean, by your logic one religious person among iconics is enough to cover all those christianislamjewsihwhatever out there, why shove religion down our throats? :)

Also, by the way.

Obese heroes? Bloatmages.

Furry fans? Lini has this covered on the "wildshapes into a big cat to snuggle her best friend big cat" level.

People with physical disabilities? Alahazra, the iconic Oracle, is blind.