Joseph Mandato's page

Backgrounds from my party:

Human (Chelaxian) Cleric of Pharasma: Worked as a kind of funeral director at the chapel, before it bacame the cathedral. As such, he had lot of background knowledge about the Late Unpleasantness, and the many deaths that resulted from it.

Halfling Rogue: She is Bethana's (from the Rusty Dragon) daughter, so knows Ameiko as well.

Elf Wizard: I also went the "Thassilonian scholar" route - she is studying the Old Light with Brodert.

Gnome Sorcerer (Fey Bloodline): She is an herbalist and has travelled with Varisians, so she is acquainted with Madame Mvashti.

Human (Chelaxian) Paladin: He's the only non-local, but is from Magnimar, and knows the Foxglove family.

The Pathfinder RPG is not part of any subscription, but there will be ways that some folks will be able to get the PDF for free—we haven't finalized those details yet, though, so I can't say any more at this time.

I'm about to start the article about this saucy elven goddess. If there are things you want to know, now is the time to tell me. :)

Details about holy days and any rituals would be great, too!

Thank you for asking :-)

Give them some paper and let them write it out, if they feel like it.

If not ask them what their favorite aspect was, what they disliked the most and what they wanted from the session.

I'm not asking how to physically capture the information, but I'm wondering if Paizo is specifically interested in the feedback from newer players, vs. those of use who are converting from 3.5 or 4th edition. Do they want this broken out, or mixed in with the feedback from the veteran gamers who may (naturally) be comparing their Beta experience with the various editions of D&D.

There will be people in my game who have never looked at a 3.5 PHB, and have no idea that 4th edition even exists. If Pathfinder is to grow and thrive in the long term, it will be important to appeal to these people (a fact I'm sure Paizo understands :-).

Any other GMs out there using the Beta as an opportunity to bring new players into the game? Or bring back old players who haven't gamed in a while?

I'm doing a little of each, which will make for a larger gaming group than I'm used to, but I think it'll be worth it. My Beta group will be a mix of complete or relative newbies, and veterans who have been playing since the days you had to color the dice in with crayon.

Paizo guys: is it worth breaking out the feedback from new players, who haven't a clue what 3.5 or 4th edition are? Any other suggestions on how to capture/report feedback from newbies?

Joseph Mandato wrote:

I'm aboslutely thrilled with the changes to the cleric, and I can't wait to see how he plays at higher levels.

Without discussing channeling energy (which we all agree is fabulous), can you explain why the changes in the cleric class from 3.X to Beta have you so thrilled? Do you find that the changes to domain powers add to your excitement and/or ability to flesh out the character/roleplay?

I like the at-will abilities. My cleric can use the fire-bolt ability whenever he wants, but it is really just a nice back-up weapon for when I'm out of spells or for when wading into combat isn't an ideal choice or possible. The ability to conjure fire at will is a physical manifestation of my connection to the sun goddess, which can be used for dramatic effect in the right roleplaying circumstance. So, I've found this is not an over-powered ability, but one that I nonetheless choose (despite the x-bow being a better option at low levels) to use because it fits with the character.

The Rebuke Death at-will ability has come in handy, too - especially as a priest of Sarenrae in the beginning of CotCT. I've developed into a bit of a hospitaler, giving healing to any severely wounded guardsmen who need my aid, whenever I am at the Citadel (which has helped the party gain their trust, and led to roleplaying opportunities). I haven't even tried to use it against undead, yet.

Regarding the 2nd level abilities, it is nice to have access to both of my domain abilities, rather than just the one I chose to memorize at the beginning of the day. In 3.5, my cleric could have chosen Burning Hands OR Cure Light Wounds as his 1st level domain spell. In the combat I described above, he wound up using BOTH of those abilities. I still have to plan out my other spells at the beginning of the day (and I really obsess over those choices), so I get the best of both worlds. I'm looking forward to getting both Lesser Restoration AND Resist Energy at next level, rather than being forced to choose between the two.

Got to cut this short - need to prepare for a meeting in 15 minutes :-)

I've been playtesting the Alpha (and now Beta) rules with a cleric, which has long been my favorite class (since the aforementioned specialty priests in 2nd edition).

We had a lengthy battle in our last game, in which my 2nd level cleric (with Healing and Fire domains) really shined. He used both of his bonus spells (cure light wounds and burning hands), and at least three channel energies. Two of the channel uses brought up companions from negative hitpoints. And both of those companions were too far away to otherwise get to.

The side benefit of those channels was that I had more then enough hit points to stay in combat, relieving the other party members so they could swig potions after I got them up into positive hit points.

The BEST thing about all this is that I actually got to use my other spells in this combat (including a command spell which helped turn the tide). I'm finding that I'm only spontaneously converting one spell a day into a cure.

Of course, the fact that I've taken selective channeling as a feat allows me to make greater use of those 30' healing bursts in combat. As far as I'm concerned, that feat is a must-have for any cleric!

I'm aboslutely thrilled with the changes to the cleric, and I can't wait to see how he plays at higher levels.

The rules are not something a player should feel the need to swallow in one gulp.

I'm playing a cleric in a Beta campaign, and I'm picking up the new rules as I go along. I just got to third level on Friday - that's when I first took a look at the 2nd level spells. I won't glance at the 3rd level spells until I hit 5th. There's little reason to. Most of the other players in the group seem to be taking the same approach.

Thanks, Jason!

My long-running 3.5 Forgotten Realms campaign just reached a conclusion, and we will be starting a new campaign using the Beta rules and running RotR. I can't wait to get started!!! I have a feeling I will be running only Pathfinder games set in Golarion from here on out. Paizo forever!

Not midnight. No way. I plan to be asleep then.

The Beta PDF will replace the Alpha PDF in your digital assets sometime tomorrow morning.

Id be willing to bet closer to 125% then 10-20%.

Why?

In my household we have 2 PM and 2 DMG's for 3.5

Im willing to bet Im not alone.

I own almost every Forgotten Realms book since the original grey boxed set which I picked up in the late 80's, but I will not be buying the 4th edition campaign setting. Although I do not intend to play 4th edition, I would have continued to purchase 4th edition FR products had they not made the wholesale changes to the Realms that they did.

Planescape

Godfather II. The flashback scenes give it the edge over Godfather I. The book is even better than the movies, though.

I have a fairly big one of a Viking style deer, taken from a the door of an old stave church in Norway (see lower left corner of this pic: http://i.pbase.com/u32/andreagruber/large/20735238.P8190140.jpg).

I'm in two gaming groups now. In the first one, I think there is only one person who isn't tattooed or actively pursuing getting one. Several of the people who have been in this group would be considered "heavily tattooed" (between half a dozen and a dozen each). In my other group, I don't think anyone is tattooed. Not in a visible area, at least.

Tarren Dei wrote:

'Insular'? I thought the Shoanti had been colonized to some degree? We would expect to see greater racial diversity amongst a colonized people. I'm not familiar with all the published history of Golarion so far but to the extent that there has been massive migrations, cataclysms, war, colonization, exploration, and trade their is going to be greater genetic diversity.

I suppose I might be missing something, but as I read them they appear to have warred with pretty much every other culture they come into contact with; they dislike Varisians, they hate the Chelish, they hate the Nolanders, they hate the Linnorm-Landers... Their standoffishness is a large reason they're so hated in Korvosa, IIRC.

From the RotRL player's guide:

"[The Shoanti are] a turbulent people adhering to traditions unchanged in hundreds of years...The Shoanti once held all of Varisia as their own, sharing it only with the Varisians, whom they coldly accept as distant cousins. The coming of explorers and colonists from Cheliax changed all this, though, sparking an age of bloody warfare."

"The essence of "Shoanti" is more of a set of warrior traditions than it is a true racial group"

"The Shoanti are not one people but many"

"Shoanti possess widely varying skin tones, reflecting the broad diversity of their ancestry"

It goes on, and on, and on... you get the idea :-).

This is awesome. Welcome, Sean!

This weekend, I played the Alpha rules for the first time and went with a cleric. I could see at-will orisons such as Virtue, Resistance and Guidance bogging down play a bit. Why wouldn't the cleric cast Guidance before every skill check every party member ever made? With a duration of 1 minute, why wouldn't he kick off 4 Virtue and 4 Resistance spells (given an average party size) to buff the entire party before they open any and EVERY door in a dungeon just in case there was an enemy? Assuming he does, then someone has to keep track of who got the spells in what order, since they'll all wear off at different times.

This isn't unbalancing (it is only a +1), but that kind of frequent buffing reminds me too much of an MMORPG.

One suggestion would be to say that a spellcaster can only have 1 orison/cantrip in effect at any given time. That would fix Virtue and Resistance, at least.

Voted for Pathfinder. Yee-ha!

6

It's hard for me to pin down my feelings here, but I feel like a real castle has been demolished to make room for a theme-park castle.

I manage the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) department for a large publishing company.

Yes... and unfortunately, that's not really an option for us at this time. We can't simply blow up the maps to minis-scale; their pixels would show. And paying to have maps done at that scale is WAY out of our budget range. And to be honest, simply providing a duplicate untagged map for download is a bit out of our capabilities resource-wise right now too. There SHOULD be a way to extract the maps without tags from the PDFs though... I seem to remember someone was able to do that, at least... not sure where I read about that though.

Being able to print up the maps without tags is awesome in and of itself, even if they're not blown up.

Thank you for the quick response! You guys really spoil us, you know that? :-)

I blow up these maps to scale to use with minis, and it's so much easier editing out the numbers when they in a single square.

-DM Jeff

Has any thought ever been given to providing online, larger scale versions of the kinds of maps DM Jeff refers to? Maybe as downloads available to anyone who has purchased the product? Unmarked city maps would make great handouts, and larger scale dungeon maps could be printed and laid on a table as rooms were explored.

(and yes, CotCT is awesome so far!)

Totowa, New Joisey

I'll definitely pick up the finish product when it is out, but won't spend anything on the Beta. I'm already giving Paizo WAY too much of my money ;-).

SirUrza wrote:

Welcome! You're not the only Realms Refugee around here. The Gazateer is definitely your best way to get a look at the world.

Definetly not. I'm another of those.

Marc Radle 81 wrote:

There is a chance I will be transferred to Rockaway NJ for work and I was curious if there are any gamers there. Does anyone on these boards live in or near Rockaway?

Thanks

I'm in Oak Ridge - that's pretty darn close! I'm looking at getting a group together myself.

Dave

E-mail me at mandato@att.net if you're interested.