Herald's page

Gorbacz wrote:

nighttree wrote:

For the most part everyone has. Those that are disappointed (the majority as near as I can tell) have actually been more civil in their comments than those speaking out against the disappointment.

You mean the people who advocated for Paizo employees to be fired or the ones who threatened physical violence against the company? :)

There's nothing uncivil about advocating (not demanding) that an employee who shamed and embarrassed a company be let go to demonstrate a commitment to better values (e.g. Weintsteingate) or work product (Shiftergate) going forward.

WOW...the conflating of issues here is quite out of spectrum here. To compare the creators of the shifter class whom some posters believe have performed sub par to someone who has been accused (and in my personal opinion rightfully so) of multiple felonies is outrageous.

Even the concept of calling it "Shiftergate" is beyond the pale. The concept of adding "gate" to something is to indicate that a conspiracy has happened and someone tried to cover it up. I really don't see how Paizo did anything that rises to that level.

You may be disappointed in the work that was done, you can point to what you see as flaws in the class, but claiming that Paizo has done something criminal here is IMHO way beyond the pale.

Edit: Sorry for coming to the thread late. I see the apology, and accept it. I'm leaving my comments as I stand by what I said, but I piled on and should have read farther.

If you can't play games, please consider running games. Perhaps you can join an online game.

Moreover please take a moment to think about the tone in which your responses are being made. You have people making constructive suggestions to you . If they don't work for you that's understandable, but lashing out isn't going to get you into a new game faster.

I see your frustration, it sucks not being able to do what you love. I bet your not alone.

nicholas storm wrote:

It does have bearing, because you are comparing solarian to other classes that may be built sub-optimally for saves, but not for what their intended purpose was.

If you want to compare saves for your solarian that raises int and cha to other classes that also make choices to raise non save related stats, then it is relevant.

No, it doesn't have bearing.

It really doesn't.

You are talking about a class that is told, "Don't use one of your class abilities to the fullest."

Then another that says, "Also, don't raise your resolve stat really high. Yes, we know literally every other class does it, but you should't."

Charisma is their resolve stat, and while Charisma is problematic in general, it isn't automatically crippling as a resolve stat... See what I did with an Envoy...

You're telling people, "You don't want your primary stat to actually be your primary stat." With this class. That is the only class that has that issue.

And you may not see that as a problem, and you are welcome to believe that, but I do see it as a problem, and I think I have mechanically proved it is an issue.

I set out a clear set of expectations based on what all of the other classes *could do* and then put them against the benchmarks in the AA that Paizo created.

Only one of those isn't lining up.

And yes, you can ignore Sidreal Influence and make the Solarian work.

It is pretty much what Solarian players do actually.

As far as I am concerned my Solarian, for example, has 4 skills prior to level 15.

1. Mysticism
2. Diplomacy
3. Perception
4. Piloting

I already converted my build to avoiding any Solarian powers with saves. Save for Supernova, which I don't intend to use past level 9 anymore. So that I can go lower on Charisma. I'll have 16 Charisma until the character hits 20.

The thing is, I did that to keep up with all of the other characters, so I didn't mechanically fall behind.

I *can* make it work, but it isn't anywhere near as easy, or as...

Hwalsh,

deuxhero wrote:

Is there art of Yoon as the "towering juggernaut of strength in which he gets as much strength as possible while his burn mechanic damages the environment around him" archetype?

Yoon’s a lady, just a head’s up.

And now I have “Yoon looks like a lady” playing in my head....

It's designed to give you 8/8 casting. Allowing some more feats to metamagic wouldn't be OP.

Thinking back to the Alien Archive, there was a ooze that was a nanite manufacturer. I could imagine Anacites incorporating something like that into a symbiotic relationship for self repair.

Perhaps casting heal spells effects the ooze in side and allows them to heal the Anacite...

Or for that matter, allow the Anacite to reconfigure itself...

Mechanically tricky but interesting.

Another major issue is how to heal them (both undead and constructs)

Yep, but I'm excited to see what they can do in that design space. I presume that it will kinda be like Wyrwood race for Anacites.

Herald wrote:

I have a feeling that we will see something in Pact Worlds. Nothing to back that up, just a feeling.

That is sort of what I am expecting as well like the eoxians seems like they probably get added the pact world books.

Their main playing issue is going to be they are pretty designed for solar collection so curious how well you could use them elsewhere possibly designed to run off of other power sources in a pinch or something.

Well, considering that we have character races that are water breathing, walking around in environment suits, I'm certain that something could be worked out. It would seem to me that those that emulate to be like the "first ones" would have solved that with some sort of battery pack.

I have a feeling that we will see something in Pact Worlds. Nothing to back that up, just a feeling.

Herald wrote:

Actually there are precedence in Golarion of instilled patriarchy in Taldor. Taldor has never had a ruling queen, due to patriarchal rules and that is part of the plot in the upcoming AP line, where the party is trying to place Stavin's daughter on the throne.

This is actually a really interesting thing that I hadn't considered before. Thanks, Herald!

It's worth noting as well that Taldor, in-setting (at least as of PF), isn't evil. So... that's very interesting.

Ikiry0 also makes a good point: that it's neither associated with Erastil, nor clearly indicative of a broader trend in-setting. Hm.

Sorry didn't mean to invalidate a point. Merely wanted to add to the conversation.

Actually there are precedence in Golarion of instilled patriarchy in Taldor. Taldor has never had a ruling queen, due to patriarchal rules and that is part of the plot in the upcoming AP line, where the party is trying to place Stavin's daughter on the throne.

So I went back to read the entry on the Drow planet and while it does state that they houses still control the Drow population, they are more or less broken up into city states. (I my minds eye, kinda like the Italian states were for quite a long time.) They are still Matriarchal, and all the top positions are Drow only.

But they aren't isolationist. People go to them for weapons and armaments, and they also go to them for fleshcrafting. I would imagine that there are others that go to them for other more base reasons as well.

So the Drow has a chance of becoming more relevant than the Elves in the new order of things.

Herald wrote:

Ikiry0 wrote:

No, a given adventure is only as combat heavy as you make it. You can pretty conclusively work out what percentage of the rules are combat-related.

I also stand by my point that if you make a purely non-combat Starfinder adventure, you are not using the game remotely to it's strengths and will be leaving characters out of the game/non-contributing. Much like how you COULD make a combat-focused Gumshoe game but it's a waste of the system.

That's your opinion. But its not up to you how to tell others how to play the game.

It's not an opinion that making a Starfinder campaign without any combat is a poor use of the system. It invalidates the combat classes and Starfinder doesn't have enough social systems to do anything beyond the basics of roleplaying. That's a fact.

No one's saying you're not allowed to run that campaign, but don't act like it's somehow a subjective opinion that the rules of Starfinder support a purely social game just as well as it does a combat game.

And your misquoting me to make your point. So no, your not dealing in facts. You cannot dictate what is fun to anyone. So don't pretend like your an authority on how the game is played.

Herald wrote:

That was not the thrust of your argument and your making assumptions on what is or isn't fun. The facts are that you can make adventures without combat.

Bypassing a combat encounter that you don't have to have is often worth the experience points in and of itself in most Paizo written adventures.

The facts are that there are many play styles supported by the rules. presenting your opinion as fact doesn't make it so.

The thrust of my argument? I think you are mistaking me with the other person you are talking to.

And I can very much say that Starfinder is a combat heavy game, design-wise. It can be forced into other shapes but if you have even a single Soldier in the game and you try to make it entirely non-combat it's going to be a miserable experience for them as their class is entirely combat focused.

Once again the facts don't bear that out. The game is only as combat heavy as you make it.

Talking about combat is actually very important in terms of both Starfinder and Pathfinder because they are combat games. Yes they are called roleplaying games but there is no mechanic in the rules that rewards roleplaying, it's not part of the default reward structure. I could run two homebrew games using only the rules provided, one with 5 fully fleshed out characters with backstories and motivations, the other with just the character sheets and no story. At the end of those two sessions, even if the roleplaying was phenomenal in the first session, by the base rules of the game both parties will have the exact same amount of experience. The other aspects of the game may be valuable to certain groups, but the rules value the combat effectiveness so building effective characters is very much important. I'll add that I am someone that values roleplaying and story over mechanics and often introduces reward structures for good character moments, but if we're speaking in terms of the rules of the game, roleplaying and story has no actual effect. With all that being said, I think both builds have their own uses and a utility build can be mechanically effective provided the circumstances are right, but in most cases will lose out to a damage focused build. This will likely change in the future as more Solarian revelations are released, but as it stands the damage focused build is probably gonna feel more satisfying to play in general since CC is far more situational and there may be a lot of encounters where you just aren't useful. As for the save issues, I would like to see how it feels to play, but a buff from a revelation may be useful down the line.

I can write a adventure with nothing but skill checks and no combat and still give out experience points with rules as written. Your point is not borne out by the facts.

While all of these concepts, (matriarchal, patriarchal and the like) are all a big thing to mine ideas, I think we do a disservice trying to compare it to much to real world concepts. Real world politics run the risk of making people uncomfortable, and I think that the thread has some very interesting ideas, I just don’t want to see it locked.

I was never a fan of the "NPCs can do things PCs can't, all other things being equal," method of game design. Totally kills immersion and suspension of disbelief.

I'm on that other side of that argument. NPCs are a literary device to me and that's all I really want with that. YMMV.

So far from what I'm reading here in the post, I really like the Drow. I see nothing wrong with have one of the few remaining Matriarchal societies still existing in this setting. Beside some inetersting things can happen when females have such power. Now if you excuse me my Drow Mistress requests me to return to bed.

>.>

The way I have always imagined Drow society working (and this is in the Pathfinder/D&D sort of way) is there are cults of personalities that lead the Drow houses. The Drow Nobles are attractive, charismatic and clever if not out right intelligent. The rank and file of drow society live in a dangerous environment and are forced to work together to survive. They build a society that tells them that they are better than all the rest which is why they can survive in such are desolate place. The rank and file want to learn and emulate those with power because it takes that to thrive in their environment and society. Their religions (filled with Demons) pretty much back that up.

Why do I need my neighbor, because I might need them to keep out the outsider with me, but if I have too, I'll sacrifice him to keep myself alive.

Drows IMHO are like demented objectivists. Think Bioshock and then turn it up to 10.

The Drow of Starfinder however could still be matriarchal, but I hope they drop the house idea as whole corporations. I could still see the houses existing, as sort of a legacy family line that one could be born from like the Vanderbilts or the Hiltons, but I'd rather see whole new corporations built where Drow use cloak and dagger secrecy to elevate themselves to the board room rather than just killing of their relatives.

And now that they are no longer in their Dark underworld, it would be fun to see issues where younger Drow just aren't feeling the whole finger steepled, evil chuckling manipulators and want to expand out into something different. I'm sure that plenty of them are traveling the stars, dropping off guns somewhere and thinking, maybe I won't go home...

Cole Deschain wrote:

I kinda preferred the former inhabitants of Apostae, and their status as members of the Pact Worlds kinda makes for a head-scratcher, but if the elves are going to be isolationist jerkwads, having the drow as accepted commerce partners is kind of fun.

I'd rather have seen them as another wildcard element in the Diaspora, truth be told.

Totally agreed. Ilee were a really fascinating race that would have been perfect for Starfinder. Seeing them extinct was immensely disappointing.

Drow are a race I really want to love as they look cool and their genesis in Pathfinder makes them somewhat sympathetic (they refused to abandon Golarion during Earthfall). But they're just so boring. They're not much more than a matriarchal society of jerks. Hopefully they'll play up the commerce thing as making them akin to private military contractors.

As earlier stated, they aren't dead just hiding in plain sight.

The only thing (and to be honest, it might show up in the pact worlds guide) that I miss is the fleshcrafting concepts. This however might still be part of them being weapons merchants. I like that being part of their MO and think it could lead to interesting story lines. (Cybernetic Drider anyone?)

I would also like to see a group of Drow that seems to be bucking the system, not necessarily good guys, just disaffected members trying to make their way in the multiverse without their typical societal backing.

Drow Punks just seems like a thing to me. Kinda like Downer, but less comic book-y.

I'm not understanding why this is horrible, I feel like the other way was more unrealistic.

Hey cool, I found an Easter egg!

At this point I would like to just cheer on the folks at the warehouse getting shipments out. There are a lot of us getting products ordered and their more than likely breaking their backs trying to get it out the door to all the various shippers that deliver it to all of us.

So tot he folks in Customer Service, the Warehouse staff and all the fine folks who staff the Web Store, keep up the good work.

Aww, no playable anacites is a disappointment. Fingers crossed for Pact Worlds I guess.

I'm bummed to and will do the same.

Anyone else hear "Sympathy for the Devil" while reading this???

I think that he is referencing this:

Muted_God

An interesting plot might be that he is gunning for lichdom, but needs the right sort of circumstances to make it happen. Like plunge a nation into war and be killed by a righteous hero...

Is it weird that I’m more excited about the rules to make creatures more than the actual creatures?

How about Kingmaker meets Babylon 5?

I was toying around with the idea of making a character who comes from a line of mechanics. When one is ready to move on, it uploads part of its personality to the exocortex and it becomes a parental AI that guides the new android through life. The exocortex doesn't really have it's own true intelligence, but it is a comforting echo of what has come before.

Well the PRD says they range from coal black to dusky purple so I did miss out on that, my mistake. But black Drow are still a thing.

So I am wondering, Drow used to be black, but those on Apostae are Purple. S I have to wonder if moving to that world changed them? It's been mentioned that elves commonly take on color characteristics of their environment, or what the story was.

Azih wrote:

the mostly forgotten is though. RIP Ozymandias, uh I mean Aroden.

Is it? I never got the impression PF people spent a lot of time or thought about Aroden. A few Historians and iomedeans who feel a bit guilty for taking over his old churches, but to most folks there isn't any relevance.

There are the Knights of the Ioun Star, and more than likely a few mystery cults, but not on a whole lot of people.

I just thinking that it might have been a neat Easter egg if Aroden was totally missing in any way shape or form from the setting.

I like this quote from starfinder page 430.

"On some worlds, however, scholars use the preexisting local calendars for events before the Gap. Those researching the cultures from Golarion, for instance, sometimes uncover documents referring to dates in ar or “Absalom Reckoning,” a measurement believed to have been used for nearly 5 millennia, starting with the ascension of a now-dead and mostly forgotten god of humanity named Aroden."

Hence the "What if...."

What if the only thing about Aroden that could be remembered that there was a god of humanity, but Iomedae succeeded that deity and that individual's name is lost to antiquity...

Would that make the whole "Gap" thing more mysterious to Pathfinder players?

I'm considering using this in my game.

Oh god, Tar-Baphon now becomes the Master in this equation,...Mwhahahahahahahh

Somehow in my head canon, Aroden is playing Dr. Who. He died, (because that's what time lords do.) and eventually came back, saw some risk to the universe and absconded with home world to a unknown location (like Dr. Who did with Gallifrey)

As to whether Torag is now traipsing around in time with Aroden as his companion is still up to conjecture.

It might be easier to ask which ones didn't make it off the planet, but as soon as that list is created, someone it going to create the "last one of their race" character.

So, it's the shadow lodge....

I'm kind thinking of making a Starfinder Modern game where it would be a fantasy curent day earth thing.

Owen,
One of my most favored of Paizo's work was the Guide to Absalom. How much work was based of of Erik's and how much of it was your material?

If you could go back and expand on one of the sections of the book, what would you choose and why?

The Varlokkur are listed as judges and ministers, but also investigators. This doesn't necessarily conflict each other, but is a little confusing. Am I to take it that the Varlokkur are more or less a "Magical Justice Department" where there is a division between the investigative side, the Prosecuting side and another side for judges, or are Varlokkur merely all in one, investigator and judge?

What is your favorite section of the book?

And finally (and thank you for your time.) what do you like writing the most, settings material or rules material?

I'd love to play a character that was similar to a summoner with eidolon but was more of a Alchemist or wizard with construct. Sort of a character that was constantly fiddling with creation. His construct would evolve with upgrades.

I wanted to add my thanks for the feats that simulate wealth and power that come with being higher class. I have always wanted a way for player to be able to be able to live like a nobleman, but not break the player wealth per level guidelines.

They don't go quite as far as I like, but they allow me to extrapolate from there.

Herald wrote:

Yakman wrote:

Herald wrote:

Yakman wrote:

Aroden's church under the Taldans didn't take over Varisia, iirc.

So, if you are reading Rise of the Runelords, of course, Aroden's influence isn't felt. But his footprint is all over Cheliax.

Well we know that the Runelords knew who he was so there was some influence.

And who could say how much influence was had there. The Runelords and much of their people were of the same racial (Azlanti) stock.

The Runelords were long slumbered by the time Taldor and their Aroden Church began marching all over Avistan.

Aroden had no power in Thassilon. Taldor never conquered Varisia. Cheliax was beyond Thassilon and it was firmly under the grip of the Arodenites.

Aroden was known to the Runelords prior to Earthfall. It's been established in the Pathfinder comics. He wasn't worshiped, but he was considered powerful figure. The knew of his resistance to those who wanted to become emperor of Azlant but he deemed to week to have the Diamond Sword and the throne.

The Runelords in Thassilon knew of him at the time. But he was over in Azlant. Then Earthfall happened, and the Runelords went underground.

Aroden came to Avistan and did his thing, and the Taldans conquered most of Avistan and set up his church pretty much everywhere they went. But they didn't get to Varisia. The Cheliaxans later settled some of southern Varisia, but that's about the extent of Aroden's church in the country.

My point is that Aroden's just not that important in the Varisia material, because he's not important, canonically, to Varisia. He's really important in other places, as has been highlighted in the three Cheliaxan based APs.

I'm not sure you can say that as the Azlanti refugees started washing up on those shores right after earthfall. At best I think you can say its not revealed yet, Aroden was the wanderer. As for his religion, no I don't think that it made an impact. But for the man himself, thats for the story writers to decide.

Herald wrote:

Yakman wrote:

Aroden's church under the Taldans didn't take over Varisia, iirc.

So, if you are reading Rise of the Runelords, of course, Aroden's influence isn't felt. But his footprint is all over Cheliax.

Well we know that the Runelords knew who he was so there was some influence.

And who could say how much influence was had there. The Runelords and much of their people were of the same racial (Azlanti) stock.

The Runelords were long slumbered by the time Taldor and their Aroden Church began marching all over Avistan.

Aroden had no power in Thassilon. Taldor never conquered Varisia. Cheliax was beyond Thassilon and it was firmly under the grip of the Arodenites.

Aroden was known to the Runelords prior to Earthfall. It's been established in the Pathfinder comics. He wasn't worshiped, but he was considered powerful figure. The knew of his resistance to those who wanted to become emperor of Azlant but he deemed to week to have the Diamond Sword and the throne.

Aroden's church under the Taldans didn't take over Varisia, iirc.

So, if you are reading Rise of the Runelords, of course, Aroden's influence isn't felt. But his footprint is all over Cheliax.

Well we know that the Runelords knew who he was so there was some influence.

And who could say how much influence was had there. The Runelords and much of their people were of the same racial (Azlanti) stock.

Herald wrote:

But Aroden actually wanted to advance Humanity and yet very little stands as a testament to his work. Yet the Runelords have dams and crumbling bridges and arcs that still stand.

I'm all for learning more about Aroden and how his death shaped Golarion. But it's not fair to say very little of his work remains. He raised the Starstone. The existence of multiple gods is a direct result of Aroden's actions, as is the existence of the largest city in the Inner Sea. Additionally, there are plenty of churches, monuments, art, and other miscellany in Cheliax [at least] from Aroden's time.

The Starstone is not something that the average person can see or interact with. As far as most people could say, it might not even exist. His largest church in Absolom is now an Chellish embassy, and Chelliax is overwriting his history on a daily basis with "Alternative History".

And while its true Absalom is more than likely second largest achievement, creating Taldor was more than likely his greatest. Even still we don't really see that many monuments to the god.

And before I go on, this is my opinion, based on my observations.