Jason Bulmahn's page

I posted this little bit up over on my fanpage on facebook and thought I would share it here as well. Enjoy!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Heartsick Arrow
Aura moderate enchantment; CL 9th
Slot none; Price 1,848 gp; Weight 1/10 lb.
DESCRIPTION
This elegant arrow has a fine silver tip and bright red fletching. It is treated as a +1 silver arrow that deals nonlethal damage. When it strikes a living creature, it falls madly in love with the next target it sees, unless it succeeds on a DC 17 Will save. If there is more than one creature in range, determine randomly which creature it sees first. This functions as charm monster, with the viewed creature acting as if it charmed the creature hit by the heartsick arrow. If the viewed creature does not properly display its affection to the target of this arrow within one round, the charm ends and the creature goes into a rage as per the spell for 1 minute, seeking only to harm and attack the former target of its affection. If the affection is recognized and the target treated with kind words and loving suggestions, the charm remains in effect for 1 day. This is a mind-affecting effect.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor; charm monster, rage; Cost 928 gp

Hi there folks,

This thread is for you to propose new Racial Abilities that could get added to the document. Please be sure to list a point cost and the appropriate category.

Lets keep critique and discussion out of this thread so as to not obscure the ability posts (start another thread for that).

We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

This thread is for posting up your sample races.

POST ONLY SAMPLES HERE!

If you want to comment or critique a sample, please start a new thread using the race's name in the title (and copy that race to the new thread).

For races posted here, please be sure to give the race a name, simple description, total point cost, and a complete list of all racial abilities and decisions.

We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

This forum is here for you to post all of your ideas and feedback concerning the Race Creation rules which can be found here. Make sure to read the entire document before posting and please take a look through existing threads to see if your issue has already been addressed before starting another thread. Also note that there is a sticky thread for you to post all of your sample races built using these rules. Please use it to post up sample races only. If you want to critique a sample, start a new thread with that race's name as the title. This messageboard will be open for two weeks, until Tuesday, October 17th.

Thanks for participating in this thread. The design team looks forward to your feedback.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

To celebrate my fan page reaching 1,500 followers, I designed a custom monster for that follower. It can be found on my fan page, along with illo I did of the beast.

Fear the Orcish Warclops!

Jason Bulmahn
Game Designer

Hi there Everybody,

This is a thread for the players here at the Paizo office to chronicle their exploits as they play through the once a week lunchtime campaign - "The Vault of the Wailing Prince".

This thread is for the Thursday group, The Angels of Absalom, which includes:

Erik Mona
James Jacobs
Wes Schneider
Stephen Radney-MacFarland

With the occasional mercenary assistance from Sean K Reynolds.

I will let them introduce their characters.

Members of the Order of the Brazen Harlot should STAY OUT.

For more information on this campaign, including links to the GM notes, follow this link.

Enjoy

Jason Bulmahn
Master of Deadly Ceremonies

Hi there Everybody,

This is a thread for the players here at the Paizo office to chronicle their exploits as they play through the once a week lunchtime campaign - "The Vault of the Wailing Prince".

This thread is for the Monday group, The Order of the Brazen Harlots, which includes:

Rob McCreary
Mark Moreland
Hyrum Savage
Will Chase

With the occasional mercenary assistance from Sean K Reynolds.

I will let them introduce their characters. Remember guys, no spoilers until after the Thursday group has played.

Members of the Angels of Absalom should STAY OUT.

For more information on this campaign, including links to the GM notes, follow this link.

Enjoy

Jason Bulmahn
Master of Deadly Ceremonies

Hey there Everybody,

I just thought I would start a thread over here to talk about a side project I am producing for my fan page over on facebook. Its called the Weekly Grind.

Each week, I will add a new room to the dungeon that is drawn on a gigantic whiteboard surface on the wall of my office. After giving two groups here at work a chance to play through the room, I will post up a full writeup of the encounter over on my fan page. This is all being provided free of charge to fans of my page.

If you are interested in following the action, you can check it out here. Just click on the notes tab over on the left side of the page for a summary of all the recent developments. The dungeon itself is schedule to begin next week.

Jason Bulmahn
Game Designer

For ease of reference:

Here is a link to the Announcement.
Here is a link to the Introduction.
Here is a link to a photo of Room 1.
Here is a link to the description of Room 1.
Here is a link to a photo of Room 2.
Here is a link to the description of Room 2.
Here is a link to a photo of Room 3.
Here is a link to the description of Room 3.
Here is a link to a photo of Room 4.
Here is a link to the description of Room 4.
Here is a link to the photo of Room 5. NEW
Here is a link to the description of Room 5. NEW
Here is a link to the Scoring System.
Here is a link to the Legal Declaration.

I will endeavor to update this list as rooms and summaries become available, but your best bet to get the content quickly is to add my fan page. Enjoy.

Every Tuesday, the blog will be used by the design team to investigate the rules of the game. While we have a host of interesting ideas and topics, we wanted to give you a chance to tell use what you would like to see explored in this weekly blog. Post your ideas here. Remember, this blog series will be looking at the rules of the game in a setting-neutral way. I look forward to seeing your ideas.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

The Round 3 playtest of the revised Magus has begun, so to avoid confusion, this board is closed. Please direct discussion of the revised Magus to the round 3 playtest and discussion forums.

Welcome to the final round of the Ultimate Magic playtest, looking at a revised version of the magus. This messageboard is for posting playtest observations concerning the magus. All other feedback, ideas, and concerns not based on actual play should go in the Round 3 Discussion board.

Like the previous round of playtest using the magus, I am interested primarily in the balance, playability, and clarity of this class. Update the magus in your game to this version, or introduce a new character to give it a try. Does the magus play an active role in most encounters? Does he steal the spotlight too often? Are his powers balanced with his fellow party members? Any other comments or feedback from the game table?

Make sure to post the level at which you are using the class and any relevant details about the game in which they made an appearance. Make sure to note the foes that they faced and the results of the combat.

This is the final round of playtest for this book and the playtest cycle will remain open for 2 weeks, until December 20, 2010.

I look forward to seeing your playtest feedback and comments. Remember that everyone here is on the same team, so play nice. I will see you all on the boards.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to the final round of the Ultimate Magic playtest, looking at a revised version of the magus. This messageboard is for general discussion concerning the revised version of the magus. Actual playtest feedback should go in the Round 3 Playtest board.

If you have any questions or comments about this process, we would love to hear them. Thank you for participating. It's great to have you on board.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

There seems to be some confusion about how this exactly works, so let me spell it out just so that it can be properly evaluated.

The feat allows you to sacrifice one spell slot each day to gain some floating points to add to other spells, allowing them to contain words whose total cost exceeds the normal limit for a spell of that level. There are some restrictions to how this works.

1. The spells that you add the points to must be of a level lower than the sacrificed spell.

2. This does not allow these spells to exceed the normal level restrictions.

Basically, it lets you get more bang out of a lower level slot or slots by burning a higher level spell.

Here is an example:

You are a 7th level wordcasting wizard with Word Burning. In the morning, you decide to sacrifice one of your 3rd level spell slots, giving you an extra 10 points to add to other spells. You could add all 10 to any o lv, 1st, or 2nd level word of power spell you prepare that morning, or you could break them up among all of your 0 lv, 1st, and 2nd level spells. Let say you go for raw power and put them all into one 2nd level spell slot (you cannot add them to any of your 3rd or 4th level spells). This gives you a 2nd level spell slot with a total of 17 point to spend. Note that you cannot add any target or effect word to this spell whose level is higher than 2, but you could add multiple 2nd level words to get a rather powerful combination. That said, all of the variables based off the spell's level (such as Save DCs) still treat the spell as 2nd level, despite it having more points. As a wizard you have to make these choices when you prepare the spells, but as a sorcerer with Word Burning, you could add the points on the fly, up to your total of 10 for the day.

Does that clear things up?

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

So,

One of the things I want to do as a sort of blind test on this system is to determine if we are hitting all the necessary word families (like Body, Fire, Meta, etc...).

So, that is what this thread is for. No need for extra comment, just list the families you would like to see and a brief description of what sort of effects they should cover (feel free to use existing spell effects as shorthand). Please keep these brief and please look through the ones that are already posted to prevent this thread form becoming overly long and full of repetition.

I want to be able to compare this list against the planned list to make sure I am covering all the bases.

Thanks.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there Everyone,

I just thought I would put up a quick note about this playtest as it is a little unlike the previous playtests we have done.

The playtest of the words of power system is specifically targeted to examine the underlying mechanics and to get at some of the power balance concerns we have. As a result, we decided not to include all of the classes or even all of the words. While we wanted to give a representative sample, what we really want to focus on is the Sorcerer/Wizard words and the power that one can achieve just looking at some of the more potent words at their disposal. So, that means you are seeing a lot of straight damage words along with other words to give flavor to the overall system.

I just thought it might be a good idea to lay that out for all of the playtesters, so that you know where we are coming from. We hope that this methodology will get us the type of feedback we need to refine this system into its final form.

Enjoy and I look forward to seeing your feedback.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to the second part of the Ultimate Magic playtest. In this round, we are going to be looking at the Words of Power alternate spellcasting system. This messageboard is general discussion of the system.

The purpose of this messageboard is to give playtesters a place to discuss their observations, concerns, and ideas concerning the system. While not as valuable to the process as actual playtest data, this board will ensure that everyone’s ideas are heard. While we expect many playtesters to be passionate about their ideas, please be mindful that not everyone shares the same view point and that we are all working toward the same goal. Be respectful and be civil.

If you have any questions or comments about this process, you can ask them here or in the Ultimate Magic general discussion forum. Thank you for participating. I look forward to seeing your ideas.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to the second round of the Ultimate Magic playtest. In this round, we will be looking at the Words of Power system of alternate spellcasting.

This messageboard is for the posting of actual playtest feedback and reports. We are looking for information on how this system actually responds to play conditions. Is it balanced? Is it simple to use? Does it slow down play? Is it easily understood? Discussion based solely off observation and speculation belongs in the Words of Power: Discussion forum.

I look forward to seeing your playtest feedback and comments. Remember that everyone here is on the same team, so play nice. I will see you all on the boards.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Hey there Everyone,

As of this moment, the playtest of the Magus class is drawing to a close. Although we had some contentious moments there, this playtest had generated a great deal of useful information. In the coming weeks, I hope to release a revised version of this class for a small window of additional work, but as of now, I must move on to other priorities.

The forums will remain open for continued discussion but my attention to them will be diminished for a time. I would ask that folks keep remain civil and respectful during this time, and if not, you know where the report buttons are.

In a few weeks we also plan to launch a playtest of the Words of Power alternate spellcasting system. Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement on that playtest as we draw closer to its launch.

Thanks again for all of your hard work and effort working with the Magus.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there Everyone,

As of this moment, the playtest of the Magus class is drawing to a close. Although we had some contentious moments there, this playtest had generated a great deal of useful information. In the coming weeks, I hope to release a revised version of this class for a small window of additional work, but as of now, I must move on to other priorities.

The forums will remain open for continued discussion but my attention to them will be diminished for a time. I would ask that folks keep remain civil and respectful during this time, and if not, you know where the report buttons are.

In a few weeks we also plan to launch a playtest of the Words of Power alternate spellcasting system. Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement on that playtest as we draw closer to its launch.

Thanks again for all of your hard work and effort working with the Magus.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there all,

If you've got an idea for a new Magus Arcana, this is the place to put them. We have some room to add a few more to the class, so I want your ideas. Lets just stick to ideas in this thread. No feedback or replies necessary.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there Everyone,

Our new FAQ system is now up and running. At the top of every post, you will now note a link that says "FAQ". Hitting this link will make a note on that particular message, indicating that we should look at it for possible inclusion into the FAQ. Every message that gets flagged in this way will be brought to our attention (although those with more flags will rise higher on the list).

We will be letting this system build up for a bit before we begin answering any of the FAQ issues and will probably not get to it until after GenCon, but the launch is now so that folks can start flagging topics they think need to be included.

That said, here are a couple of things to keep in mind.

- Use the FAQ flagging system responsibly. This is a tool that will benefit us all if used correctly to identify issues with the rules that are unclear.

- As issues are added to the FAQ, the flags on the individual message will reflect this.

- Not every issue will rise to the level of the FAQ. What does and does not get added is up to us. As issues get resolved, one way or the other, the flags will be swept away.

- The FAQ will be viewable through the product page.

That is all for now. Get out there and start flagging!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there Folks,

Due to a small error, I am in need of one more volunteer to help run Fight Club on Friday, from noon till 5pm. You must be capable of running Pathfinder, possess a vast well of cruelty, and burn with the desire to deal pain to others.

Apply to this thread and try to impress me with tales of your cruelty. One post per applicant please. I will pick an assistant on Monday.

You will be rewarded.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

This concludes the playtest of the Advanced Player's Guide classes.

I want to thank everyone who contributed to this process. I feel that with your help, we have refined the six classes set to appear in the book quite a bit. I am sure that you will be pleased with the final results.

In the coming months, I hope to preview the final classes along with some of the other great content coming together for this book. You will find this content on the Paizo Blog.

Thanks again for all of your insightful help and feedback.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there all,

I am making a few small changes to the classes that were rereleased on Monday, February 1st to correct a number of issues. To help ease the download rush, here are the exact changes.

Pg 6: The grand mutagen ability was changed so that is provides an alchemical bonus, not an enhancement bonus.

Pg 7: The sticky bomb discovery was changed. On the round after a direct hit it now deals damage equal to its splash. It does not repeat the full damage.

Pg 13: All three of the Order of the Sword abilities were altered. By My Honor now forces the cavalier to pick an alignment. As long as he keeps that alignment, he receives a +2 morale bonus to a saving throw of his choice. The first sentence of Mounted Mastery was changed to allow the cavalier to ignore the ACP for Ride skill checks, no matter what creature he is riding. Finally, Knight's Challenge now allows the cavalier to add his Cha bonus to attack and damage rolls and gives him a +4 circumstance bonus on crit confirmation rolls against the target of his knight's challenge.

Pg 25: Spontaneous Symbology lets an oracle use her available slots to cast symbol spells, even if she does not know them.

Pg 35: The location of the Ability Score Increases on the eidolon's chart were changed to arrive at every 4 HD. Improved Evasion was dropped down one level.

Pg 36: The text of the claws evolution was changed to allow one set of claws to be placed on a limbs (legs) evolution. The rest must go on arms.

Pg 40: Notes were added to the Large evolution concerning reach. A Large biped eidolon gets reach 10 feet. All Huge eidolons get reach 10 feet.

That is all aside from a few page reference fixes. If you have already printed this, substituting out the above pages should bring you up to date.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to the final playtest of the base classes set to appear in the Advanced Player's Guide. Thanks in part to the valuable feedback and ideas you have posted up over the past two months, we are happy to share some of the revisions to the base classes with you. This will be the last revision to these classes before the books hits store shelves in August. Since there are changes to all six of the base classes, we have decided to keep the playtest window open for another two weeks to give you time to read over these classes and to use them in your games. All feedback for these classes should be placed in this forum. Feedback that is placed in the older forums may go unnoticed. To help us sort through these posts, please be sure to place the name of the class that you are commenting on at the beginning of all of your forum posts.

Like the playtest of the core rules, I am looking for feedback concerning the mechanics and flavor of these classes. As with all of the previous rounds, actual playtest feedback is of the utmost importance. Raw speculation and musings are useful, but playtesting is the most valuable feedback we can get at this stage.

Note that this is the final round of the playtest of the Advanced Player's Guide classes. The playtest window will remain open until the February 15th.

Thank you for your participation in this process and I look forward to seeing your reports.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to 3rd and final round of the Advanced Player's Guide playtest. As with the first two rounds, we are going to be reviewing two of the six classes set to appear in the Advanced Player's Guide: the Alchemist and the Inquisitor. This messageboard is for posting specific feedback and playtest observations concerning these classes. All other feedback should go on the appropriate board.

Like the playtest of the core rules, I am looking for feedback concerning the mechanics and flavor of these classes. Since these are brand new classes, however, actual playtest feedback is of the utmost importance. Raw speculation and musings are useful, but playtesting is the most valuable feedback we can get at this stage. In particular, I am looking for feedback on how each of these classes work at various levels. Were any of the powers or special abilities too good or not good enough? Are the powers and abilities clear in their presentation and language? Do they function they way they are intended and if not, what are the ramifications? How do these classes work as NPCs or villains?

Make sure to post the level at which you are using the class and any relevant details about the game in which they made an appearance. Make sure to note the foes that they faced and the results of the combat.

Note that this is the final round of the playtest of the Advanced Player's Guide classes. The playtest window will remain open until the end of January. I am hoping to post up some revisions to the classes in early to mid January, time permitting.

The first two rounds of the playtest has provided some great feedback and I look forward to seeing the results in this round. Thank you for all of your assistance making these classes the best they can be.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there all,

I have been going through a great deal of playtest feedback and speculation over the past few days. It has become obvious to me that there needs to be a few adjustments made to the summoner for balance reasons. Although I would not say that these changes are final, from this point onward, they are part of the class for playtesting purposes (this includes the Pathfinder Society Organized Play). I need to implement these changes to get a bit more productive feedback, since the issue seems to be skewing results a bit too heavily.

Feel free to post comments and feedback concerning this rules change in this thread, but leave other issued out of this discussion please.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Eidolons and Equipment
Eidolons are limited in the amount of gear and equipment they can use. Their forms tend to shift over time, making certain types of gear impossible to use properly. Eidolons with the proper training and the limbs (arms) evolution can wield weapons. They suffer the normal penalties for wielding more than one weapon, regardless of the number of arms they possess. Eidolons cannot wear armor, due to their shifting form, but those that take the proper feat can use a shield. Eidolons can use some magic items. Each eidolon can wear up to two rings, if it has the limbs (arms) evolution. Each eidolon can wear a single magic item in the following slots: eyes, head, neck, and shoulders. An eidolon with the limbs (arms) evolution or the tentacle evolution can drink potions.

Any magic items possessed by the eidolon fall to the ground when the eidolon is sent back to its home plane, regardless of the reason. If this includes cursed items, the items immediately return to the eidolon when it is summoned again.

Rules Changes
In addition to the above language, the following changes are made to the summoner.

- Delete the sentence from the Summon Monster I class feature that reads: He can cast this spell as a standard action and the creatures remain for 1 minute per level (instead of 1 round per level).

- Add the following sentence to the Summon Monster I class feature: The summoner can have no more than 1 summon monster or gate spell in play at one time using this ability. If an additional ssummon monster or gate spell is cast using this ability, the first one immediately ends.

- Delete the Armor Training evolution.

To help folks use them in their games and to see what sort of imaginations lurk out there in the lands of the playtesters, this thread is for the posting of sample eidolons.

Couple of rules...

1. Sample Eidolon's only. Lets leave the feedback and comment about the rules out of this thread.

2. Make sure to post the summoner's level along with the eidolon's stat block.

3. Make sure to pose up a bit of text describing what the eidolon looks like.

That is all... go to it.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to round 2 of the Advanced Player's Guide playtest. As with the first round, we are going to be reviewing two of the six classes set to appear in the Advanced Player's Guide: the Summoner and the Witch. This messageboard is for posting specific feedback and playtest observations concerning these classes. All other feedback should go on the appropriate board.

Like the playtest of the core rules, I am looking for feedback concerning the mechanics and flavor of these classes. Since these are brand new classes, however, actual playtest feedback is of the utmost importance. Raw speculation and musings are useful, but playtesting is the most valuable feedback we can get at this stage. In particular, I am looking for feedback on how each of these classes work at various levels. Were any of the powers or special abilities too good or not good enough? Are the powers and abilities clear in their presentation and language? Do they function they way they are intended and if not, what are the ramifications? How do these classes work as NPCs or villains?

Make sure to post the level at which you are using the class and any relevant details about the game in which they made an appearance. Make sure to note the foes that they faced and the results of the combat.

The first round of the playtest has been providing some great feedback and I look forward to seeing the results in this round.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to the playtest of the Advanced Player's Guide.

Over the next few months, we will be looking at all of the base classes, starting with the Cavalier and Oracle in round 1, the Summoner and the Witch in round 2, and finally the Alchemist and the Inquisitor in round 3. We will be releasing two classes each week, via free pdf files that can be downloaded here at paizo.com. These forums will remain open until January 31st, 2010.

This board is for announcements and general discussion about the Advanced Player's Guide. Feedback on the classes themselves should go in the messageboards dedicated to those classes.

I look forward to seeing all of your feedback and opinions. Now get your dice out and play!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to the start of the Advanced Player's Guide playtest. To get things started, we are going to be reviewing two of the six classes set to appear in the Advanced Player's Guide: the Cavalier and the Oracle.This messageboard is for posting specific feedback and playtest observations concerning these classes. All other feedback should go on the appropriate board.

Like the playtest of the core rules, I am looking for feedback concerning the mechanics and flavor of these classes. Since these are brand new classes, however, actual playtest feedback is of the utmost importance. Raw speculation and musings are useful, but playtesting is the most valuable feedback we can get at this stage. In particular, I am looking for feedback on how each of these classes work at various levels. Were any of the powers or special abilities too good or not good enough? Are the powers and abilities clear in their presentation and language? Do they function they way they are intended and if not, what are the ramifications? How do these classes work as NPCs or villains?

Make sure to post the level at which you are using the class and any relevant details about the game in which they made an appearance. Make sure to note the foes that they faced and the results of the combat.

I am looking forward to working with the community to refine these classes into a seamless part of the game. Now go and roll up some characters.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there folks,

I have a question for the community and I would love to hear your opinions.

What are your favorite 3rd party rules supplements from the 3.0 and 3.5 eras? What parts of that product were best? What specific rule or mechanic saw the most use in your game (ie, spell, feat, magic item, piece of gear)?

Now for a couple of caveats...

1. Open Content products only.
2. 3rd Party only please.
3. Skip monster books, that is not what I am currently interested in.
4. This thread is not for discussion. Please post up your favorite products only.

That is all. Thanks for your suggestions.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there all,

I just have a couple of quick announcements before I get rolling here today.

1. GenCon was truly fantastic. I want to give some thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth to pick up a copy, grab an autograph or two (or a dozen), and were generally a great bunch of folks. You guys made for a great show, one that will go down as one of the best in Paizo history I am sure.

2. I am going to be heavily on the boards for a while answering questions and resolving issues. This is going to take me a while, so be patient if I do not get to your thread or question right away.

3. There will be a blog post tomorrow (hopefully) giving some detail to the new classes that will appear in the Advanced Player's Guide. We are really excited about these additions to the game and I am pretty sure that you will be too once we have had a chance to explore the concepts with you.

4. It has finally been confirmed and announced that I will be attending GenCon Australia next month in Brisbane. Although my schedule at the con is not yet fully worked out, I hope to announce some additional details soon. It is going to be a blast.

That is all for now...

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Alright folks,

I am heading to Indianapolis in the morning and will be off the boards until Wednesday of next week. I will try to pop in on occasion to catch wind of the general reaction, but otherwise I will be relatively quiet. Be good to one another. Go out there and get your copy of the book. Give it a good read. Enjoy.

If you are going to GenCon, make sure to stop by the booth and say howdy.

See you all at the show.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Its big. Its red. Its mean. Its my new Avatar (and its all mine)!

I am done with that Beta cover. The new book comes out in just over a week!

Edit: I would be remiss not to thank the Post Monster for this fine piece of work!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

That is tomorrow...

Just a friendly reminder. You might want to take a look at all the fine products up for awards...

Some of them seem familiar...

Vote HERE!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there folks,

Just thought I would post up a quick announcement. Paizo has decided to sponsor dungeonaday.com and as a result I will be posting up a blog over there about once a month to talk about using the massive dungeon that is under construction with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

I am really excited about how things are developing and I hope you will check it out.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hi there Everybody,

The Beta Playtest of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is officially closed. What started on March 18th, 2008 with the release of the first Alpha playtest documents has now come to its successful conclusion, after 6 months of playtesting the Beta rules. As of this date, there have been over 45,000 downloads of the rules and well over 100,000 posts to our boards with a lot of great feedback, criticism, and praise.

While all of the Alpha forums and the Beta Playtest forums are now closed to comment, the Announcement, Playtest Reports, and General Discussion forums will remain open until the release of the final game on August 13th, 2009 (the first day of the GenCon Game Fair). The pdf of the Beta Playtest version of the rules will remain available until that time.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for contributing your feedback throughout this lengthy process. I see this project as a joint effort between the design team and you, the thousands of folks who have given their time and energy to make this a better game. Over the next few months, I look forward to showing off some of the game that you helped shape. Check back with the Paizo Blog for updates and previews of the final game.

It is my hope that you will check out the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game when it is released and give it a try. I am sure that you will find it packed full of helpful revisions, simplified rules, and inspired ideas, all of which you helped to create.

Thank you again

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hi there Everybody,

The Beta Playtest of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is officially closed. What started on March 18th, 2008 with the release of the first Alpha playtest documents has now come to its successful conclusion, after 6 months of playtesting the Beta rules. As of this date, there have been over 45,000 downloads of the rules and well over 100,000 posts to our boards with a lot of great feedback, criticism, and praise.

While all of the Alpha forums and the Beta Playtest forums are now closed to comment, the Announcement, Playtest Reports, and General Discussion forums will remain open until the release of the final game on August 13th, 2009 (the first day of the GenCon Game Fair). The pdf of the Beta Playtest version of the rules will remain available until that time.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for contributing your feedback throughout this lengthy process. I see this project as a joint effort between the design team and you, the thousands of folks who have given their time and energy to make this a better game. Over the next few months, I look forward to showing off some of the game that you helped shape. Check back with the Paizo Blog for updates and previews of the final game.

It is my hope that you will check out the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game when it is released and give it a try. I am sure that you will find it packed full of helpful revisions, simplified rules, and inspired ideas, all of which you helped to create.

Thank you again

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

This is your 2 hour warning mark.

The Beta Playtest of the Pathfinder RPG closes in just two short hours, at 11:59 am PST. If you have any last minute comments, now is the time to make them. All of the Playtest Forums will close at that time (but the Announcements, Playtest Report, and General Discussion Forums will remain open).

Thanks again

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there everybody,

This is your friendly reminder that the Beta playtest of the Pathfinder RPG comes to a close in just under 48 hours, on Monday at 11:59am PST. All of the playtest forums will be locked at that time. The announcement, playtest, and general discussion forums will remain open.

Thank you again for all of your feedback on this ambitious project.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hello everyone,

I have one last assignment for all of you fanatical playtesters out there. In this thread, I would like to hear the ONE thing that you would change in the rules if you had the power to do so. Since I want to keep this thread nice and orderly.. here are the rules.

1. You can only post to this thread ONCE. If you post a second time, I will delete your post. This includes sock puppets.

2. Only ONE idea in a post. If you want to change channel energy, that is your one idea. Do not add domains to the pot as well. This means that if you want to talk about a class, you should probably limit it to one aspect about the class.

3. Don't bother commenting on someone else's post. I want to hear your idea.

4. Reread rule #1

5. I would like for all of the playtesters to post to this thread once with their idea. This is both an informal poll and a simple census of the current number of active playtesters.

6. EDIT: Please do not start any new threads to talk about specific ideas in this thread. Lets let folks post without having to worry about other comments and feedback. Just ideas... that is all I want.

Thanks for participating in this thread.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to the final stage of the open playtest for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Over the past 6 months, we have gone over every chapter of the book in some detail. This is the last week of playtesting and I would like to open the floor to general comments. Although I want this to remain an open forum for your ideas and musings, there are a couple of guidelines. If a topic has been discussed extensively in a previous forum, then it probably does not need a review here. Please try to keep your thread focused on a single topic. This forum will do me very little good if every thread contains 50 topics. Try to focus on the things you find most problematic with the rules. I will chime in to let you know if the issue is being addressed if possible so as to avoid any unnecessary retreads. When discussing topics in this playtest, start your thread title out with the general topic, followed by the issue you want to discuss. For example, if you wanted to talk about the mitrhil items, your thread subject might read: Mithril: What should it do? As an aside, all of the design forums will be closed and locked at the end of the playtest cycle on Monday, February 23rd at 11:59 AM PST. The Announcements, Playtest, and General Discussion Forums will remain open.

I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for the stellar job you have done throughout this lengthy open playtest period. Despite some hiccups, we have gotten a terrific amount of feedback that I believe has truly led us to a better game. Over the coming months, I hope to show you the fruits of this labor through a number of preview blogs here at pazio.com. This game is really starting to take shape, and I am truly proud to have worked with all of you to make this the game we all want to play.

Thanks again.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Hey there everybody,

Due to Paizo being closed tomorrow, the final playtest cycle will start on Tuesday.

Sorry for the delay.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to the Errata and Typos thread for the Magic Item portion of the playtest. If you spot any typos or rules that need errata in this section, please post them to this thread. Note that this is not a thread for discussing rules changes, only obvious mistakes or unclear rules. We have done our best to make these chapters as clean as possible, but 10,000 eyes are better than 12. Thanks for your help.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Welcome to the penultimate stage of the playtest for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. We have now wrapped up the first twelve stages of the playtest, which took a look at the Ability Scores, Races, Skills, Feats, Prestige Classes Equipment, Combat, Spells, Additional Rules, High Level Play, and all of the base classes. Over the next two weeks I would like to take a look at magic items, including the item creation rules, cursed item rules, artifact rules, and the intelligent item rules. These rules are included in Chapter 15 of the Beta, as well as the magic items in the Beta Web Enhancement (which can be downloaded along with the Beta files) and the Magic Item Addendum (which is located here). As a general note, if the rules would not be placed in this chapter, then it should probably be placed into the correct playtest forum. When discussing topics in this playtest, start your thread title out with the general topic, followed by the issue you want to discuss. For example, if you wanted to talk about the a specific the animated shield armor enhancement, your thread subject might read: Animated Shields: Are they Broken?

Here are a few thoughts to kick off the discussion.

- Which magic items are too good for their price? Which ones are not good enough?

- Are there any magic items that cause a game or character to break?

- Do the changes to the cursed item rules make you more or less likely to use a cursed item in your game?

- Are intelligent items simpler to design? Are they evocative of what you think an intelligent item should be?

- Do the revised item creation rules make item creation a more attractive option for PCs? Do they make them too attractive?

This is the second to last playtest. In two weeks we will be opening up a free-for all forum before we wrap up the playtest. The previous playtests have all been very useful and I look forward to seeing the results of this playtest.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing