Patrick Renie's page

Great catch, Perpdepog! I asked my colleague Mark Seifter, aka the 2e Weapons Master, to help me answer your question.

In this case, the description is a bit misleading, since the rules as written are correct. Poi do not have the twin trait, while fire poi do. The reason for this is for game balance—poi would just be too good to be simple weapons if they also had the twin trait in addition to all their other traits.

(This could be justified in world by saying that the stakes for mishandling mundane poi are much lower than for mishandling fire poi. Hence someone who is trained in using fire poi is so good with these dangerous weapons that they can even wield two at a time with ease.)

Thanks for your question, and hope you're enjoying circus life so far!

—Patrick Renie, Developer

It was 2008 or 09. Similar to Erpa, I had just bought the entire 3.5 library when 4th edition was announced. Having no interest in abandoning my collection, my friends and I continued playing 3.5, and that winter my hometown GM (a D&D veteran of some 20 years) showed me some Rise of the Runelords volumes and mentioned that the same folks who wrote the D&D magazines were making their own 3.5-compatible game. I loved the AP volumes I saw and immediately jumped aboard the Pathfinder train. Been enjoying the ride ever since. Choo choo!

Hey folks! This will be kind of a 2e/playtest hybrid. Meaning you'll want to be familiar with the playtest rules, but we'll be using numbers from the final version of the rules. :)

Hi! How are you?

Ever thought of writing/designing more Clockwork/Steampunk/Alkenstar/Mana Wastes/Airships stuff (Campaign Setting, Player Companion, Modules, Adventure Path, etc.)?

Hi! Thanks for starting this thread! I'm belatedly flattered.

I like the Mana Wastes because I like the wasteland/everyone-for-themselves/survivalist vibes of steampunk and related genres. I'm also a sucker for low-magic settings, and this region fits the bill perfectly. There's so much to explore in Alkenstar alone that I think I could fill a few books with ideas just off the top of my head.

Thanks y'all! It's good to be back!

Can you share what your first projects will be?

Starfinder or PF 2.O?
Cheers from Germany!

I'll be getting my bearings by developing Pathfinder Adventure Path backmatter (monsters, gazetteers, etc.) for the foreseeable future. There's a lot of awesome stuff coming down the pipeline!

What spell does a Martyred Bloodline Sorcerer get at 11th level? It's missing from the Bonus Spells section.

As Fredrik suggested, the 5th-level bloodline spell for the Martyred Bloodline should indeed be serenity from Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic.

Hi!

First off, apologies for the long delay in an official reply to this matter.

Second off, after taking a look into this, I've found that yes, there are some issues with the variant dhampir racial ability modifiers from pages 20–21 of Blood of the Night.

To rectify some obvious oversights and make the ability modifiers of jiang-shi-born and vetala-born dhampirs more in line with their flavor text, use the following errata:

Jiang-Shi-Born (Ru-Shi): +2 Str, +2 Int, –2 Dex
Vetala-Born (Ajibachana): +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Wis

Interestingly, while jiang-shi themselves boast high Dexterity scores (representing their ability to hop around the battlefield quickly without being hindered by such obstacles as difficult terrain), jiang-shi-born lack this dextrous trait (and are indeed clumsier than most dhampirs), likely because they are able to walk on both legs and have some sort of physiological disconnect between their unique undead lineage and their mortal physicality. This is represented by the penalty to Dexterity.

A ru-shi's physical gifts do not manifest in a Constitution bonus (in fact, ru-shi are often even sicklier than most dhampirs as a result of their constantly rotting internal organs). However, ru-shi do manage to inherit some of the unnatural strength of their undead forebears, represented by the racial bonus to Strength.

Hopefully these corrections were worth the wait and clear up the discrepancies. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask here and I'll get back to you as soon as possible (much sooner than this long-overdue reply, for sure :]).

Happy dhampiring!

Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:

Personally, I kind of think the Celebrity might actually be a picture of Nualia from before the 'Late Unpleasantness', but again, I could simply be reading in & 'wish fulfilling'...

Nah, you're right. That's totally who that is. There's no way that isn't Nualia before the Unpleasantness. :)

Ding ding ding. Glad you like the easter egg. :] While developing the Celebrity section, I had a hard time thinking about anyone who fit the bill better than our most famous aasimar.

Are the regional horc and half-elf variants going to have different stat bonuses? Say +2, +2, -2 like other races?

Nope; we went a slightly different route with the variants this time.

Thoughts

There are a lot of "shadow"-themed items this year.

I've only seen one new figurine of wondrous power so far.

I vote with a sharp eye for proper use of rules language (i.e., mirroring the language of preexisting items).

Simpler items are tending to fare better. Items with multiple abilities are tending to do worse.

When I'm on the fence about an item, I take another look at its name. Sometimes a great/awful name can make/break an item.

Your sweat fuels my judgment engine.

Cheapy wrote:

Cheapy wrote:

Quick question, is Saline Purge right? Remove Curse has a caster level check in PF, when it didn't in 3.5. The item seems to be built assuming the 3.5 version, because an autosuccess remove curse is probably worth a few orders of magnitude more than 900 gp...

I mean, this item up against Baba Yaga's curses...this one would win. Which seems weird for a CL 5 item.

I'd like to reiterate this question...It seems problematic on a few levels.

I'm on the fence about this one as well, Remove Curse seems rather odd for an item that thematically is supposed to purge the body. If Remove Curse was actually Remove Disease, I'd have no problem with it.

This item should call for a caster level check to remove curses and poisons. Change the text for the last sentence of saline purge to the following (bold emphasis mine):

"Whether or not this save is successful, the imbiber may make an immediate caster level check, using the saline purge's caster level as his own, to cure any poisons or curses affecting him as his body purges the ill effects."

Question: Why does "Order of the Penitent" say that it adds Sense Motive to the cavalier's class skills? It is already a skill for the cavalier.

Whoops! That's an error. Replace "Sense Motive" with "Sleight of Hand." Sorry about the confusion!

I mean seeing someone even as feral as Wolverine suddenly turning into a more bestial version of himself would be pretty frightening.

I highly encourage house rules that fit with the flavor and feel of your game, and am happy to see people suggesting alternative ways to use skinwalkers' racial traits.

The penalty on Charisma-based skill checks and whether or not that should include Intimidate checks was a carefully thought-out decision from a rules perspective. I agree that it may be difficult to integrate this penalty into the flavor and roleplaying associated with a skinwalker's transformation, but I think with a little creative storytelling it can quickly be justified.

At the end of the day, disassociating the skinwalker penalty with Intimidate checks will probably not affect gameplay overly much for most groups; some groups, however, may find that skinwalkers become noticeably more powerful in this case.

Am I the only thing that thinks being Bestial would make them more intimidating regardless?

Many animals have ways of communicating to one another that is much different from the way humans communicate. The skinwalkers' penalty on Charisma checks and Charisma-based skill checks while interacting with humanoids during their transformation is not meant to represent their lack of fearsomeness or inability to inspire awe. Rather, it is meant to represent the disparity between animal-level communication and humanoid-level communication.

An example: when a human is trying to intimidate another human, they can do so much more effectively than a bear trying to actively intimidate a human (emphasis on actively). Likewise, when a bear is trying to intimidate another bear, it can probably do a much better job than any human trying to do the same. It's more a (body) language thing than anything else.

At least, that's my spin on it from a flavor perspective.

Wouldn't you be able to split it into 4 books? Scoundrels of Golarion (thief), Champions of Golarion (fighters), Miracleworkers of Golarion (Clerics), Elrditch Practitioners of Golarion (wizard)?

Following the 4 archetypical roles, of course.

We've definitely thrown around the idea, and have, at least for the foreseeable future, decided that rather than attempt any sort of class-based Player Companion line, we find it far more feasible (and interesting!) to do Player Companions like Dungeoneer's Handbook and Undead Slayer's Handbook—books that focus on a specific aspect of adventuring or a specific kind of character concept that isn't locked into a certain set of classes. After all, it's a lot more practical to cover a number of classes in a book about a particular concept (exploring dungeons! slaying dragons!) in 32 pages than it is to cover the gamut of character concepts (which are nigh infinite) for four or five different classes in the same space, if that makes sense.

Diego Rossi: Hey. So, after talking it over for some time with other rulesy Paizo folks, we came to the conclusion that the Surprising Combatant feat in this book—while well-intentioned and not without its merits—doesn't really work as-is. The more we tinkered with it the more convoluted it became, so we decided to rework the feat from the ground up. Here is what the full text of the Surprising Combatant feat should actually look like:

Surprising Combatant (Combat)

You can get the drop on foes by tricking your opponents into overlooking you as a combatant.
Prerequisites: Improved Initiative, Bluff 3 ranks.
Benefit: At the beginning of a combat in which you would normally be able to act in a surprise round, after initiative is rolled but before the surprise round begins, you can attempt a Bluff check as a free action. The DC of this Bluff check is equal to 15 + the CR of the encounter. If you succeed at this Bluff check, you may treat the result of your Bluff check as your initiative result for the surprise round. If your Bluff check fails, you cannot act during the surprise round. Regardless, you use your normal initiative result to determine initiative for the remainder of the encounter.

Sorry about the confusion!

Anything on Mongrelmen?

Yep.

As the lead developer for Blood of the Moon, I can weigh in on this issue.

It was an error for this ability to slip into the book without some explanation of how it should work and some caveats for its use. I apologize for the mix-up and hope we can work through this relatively painlessly.

Under Bestial Features, the third bullet point down should read as follows:

(Let's assume for the sake of this correction that we had infinite space on that page for text. :P)

Thanks for your patience in clearing this up!

Cheapy wrote:

...and the book could have some encrypted text in it that you had to use a fold-out decoder ring to read!

4
18
9
14
11
0
13
15
18
5
0
15
22
1
12
20
9
14
5

Want to crack the code? Just mail in four UPC proofs-of-purchase labels from boxes of Pathfinder-O's to Paizo Publishing, LLC for your free decoder ring!

Nate Z wrote:

Sometimes....I think they watch these parts of product threads and giggle at our impatient suffering...

We're actually pretty frustrated, because we *want* to be able to talk about the awesome stuff in the new releases, and share the details, but can't until it's starting to release to customers. :(

This is mostly true, but I do revel in the squirming as well.

A big book of random table for character generation. I loved the tables from Koblods of Golarion.

Quests & Campaigns has exactly this, and would be worth checking out if you're into random character generation. :]

Not a lot for PFS play then I guess...

I assure you, there will be plenty of options for PFS players.

I was kind of hoping for an Uatilavian flavor as well, but I can see why they made this based in Arcadia. Skinwalkers fit well with the theme of that area. I just hope that there will be a good number of them in the inner sea as well ;)

Rest assured, there is plenty of love for Ustalav fans in this book. ;)

Patrick Renie wrote:

ChaosDoughnut wrote:

“People of” and “of Golarion“ stuff for Tian-Xia would be pretty cool. Kitsune, Nagaji, Wanshou, Hongal, Minkai... there are plenty of good topics to take a stab at.

Actually, you might take a look at the Dragon Empires Primer, which is pretty much exactly what you're talking about.

I think you might be misinterpreting ChaosDoughnut here, Patrick. He's saying that we could use some expansion on those topics. Two or three paragraphs about the kitsune will NEVER satisfy me! D:

Ha! Fair. This is not the first time I have seen people asking for more info on the races of the Dragon Empires. :]

Still hoping for some details on Alahazra's mythic upgrade...

Think mythic + Aztec inspirations. ;]

Tournament Handbook. Dealing with jousting, courtly intrigue, dueling, etc.

Hmm! Would this differ significantly from Knights of the Inner Sea? If so, how? Perhaps "Nobles of the Inner Sea" or something to that effect? I like the idea of giving more details on where tournaments are held within the Inner Sea region (including all sorts of bloodsports, coliseums, and arenas) and perhaps building off of the performance combat rules in Ultimate Combat. What else could go in here?

I would also like to see something on making constructs, clockwork items, creatures (and prosthetics?). "Artificer's Handbook"?

Now this is interesting! I can see a book like this tying easily into some of the Inner Sea's most fabled locales, like the Golemworks in Magnimar or Quantium in Nex. Sort of a how-to-build-it guide for adventurers. Hmm!

I've seen talk on these boards of potential Player Companions you all would like to see and we even had a panel at PaizoCon partially dedicated to this topic, and so far your input has been great! I'd like to use this space to compile your ideas and come up with some more as we come closer to 2014 and continue to iron out our schedule. Your ideas could inspire or even lead to the next Player Companion!

So, the question is: What Player Companion books would you like to see in the future?

It'd be great if we could come up with some ideas for books that fit into the sublines we've already created in the Player Companion line—series like the "Blood of...", "People of...", "...of Golarion", and "...Handbook" books. That said, if you have other ideas too, for sure shout 'em out!

So far, we've established the following "sublines" within the Player Companion line.

Blood of...
What kinds of "Blood of" books haven't we covered that you'd like to see? I've seen mention on the boards of some interest in a "Blood of Dragons" and a "Blood of Elements" book, as well as significant talk about a "Blood of Chicken" book of some sort, but are there any others you'd like to see?

People of...
One of the coolest ideas I've seen on these boards is a People of Magic-type Player Companion that focuses on the nations on the eastern side of Garund. I personally would love to see such a book, what with Alkenstar being near and dear to my heart. The linked thread also has a bunch of other awesome ideas, including people from Absalom (People of the City?) and people from the Mwangi Expanse. We've made it kind of a theme to cover about three nations in each of these books, so what other interesting groupings can you think of? Or is there some other way we could use this line?

...of Golarion
We recently released Kobolds of Golarion, much to many readers' delight, and I'm curious what other sorts of creatures deserve the full Player Companion treatment! We've already hit all the core races (or will have with Bastards of Golarion) as well as goblins, but what else do you think would fit in one of these books?

...Handbook
New rules and tips for slaying monsters are always useful, and the Handbook series (including Dungeoneer's Handbook, Dragonslayer's Handbook, and the forthcoming Undead Slayer's Handbook) has been great at providing new character options centralized around these themes. Are there other monsters, environments, or obstacles that you'd like to see given the Handbook treatment?

Other Ideas
What about something completely new? A new subline could be cool, as would a Player Companion that could stand all on its own. With Magical Marketplace and Alchemy Manual just over the horizon, there's plenty of room for more of these themed books chocked full of new items and character options.

For all of the above, what kinds of things would go in the Player Companion you'd like to see? New rules? New rules subsystems? Flavor? Expanded lore? Unusual art? New maps? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Whoever wrote the Iomedaen religious propaganda pamphlet is my hero.

I believe you have the ever-talented and hilarious James Sutter to thank for that gem. :]

Rob: I'd pick a nightgaunt over a shantak any day, because not only will it fly you around, but it'll also tickle you when you're feeling down.

Diego Rossi wrote:

Patrick Renie wrote:

Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:

edit: Since I've got you here, sort-of, the feat Versatile Spontaneity (pg. 9), mentions being able to prepare a spell in your list from either scrolls or spellbooks. Does that mean, for instance, that a Sorcerer could carry a spellbook with them to prepare a spell from that? Or does that mean the Sorcerer would have to convince a Wizard or Magus to let them read from their (i.e. the Wizard or Magus') spellbook?

Correct, if a sorcerer stumbled upon a spellbook, she could use this feat to prepare a spell from that, assuming she meets the prerequisites.

The "you may opt to prepare one spell you don't know in place of a daily spell slot 1 level higher than the prepared spell's level." part mean that you can prepare only 1 spell this way when you prepare your spells, or you can swap multiple spontaneous spell for the same number of prepared spells?

Just one spell, period, from what I'm reading.

Correct, just one spell per day when you regain spell slots. So on Wednesday, you could do this with magic missile from your buddy's spellbook, while on Thursday, you could do this with burning hands from a scroll (or whatever). But you can't prepare more than one spell per day with this feat.

a couple more questions about the mammoth rider...

1) on the colossus hunter ability does the initial +1 apply to creatures bigger than huge or do you get no bonus at all to gargantuan+ until the +2 at 8th lvl?

2) the valiant devotion ability at 5th lvl grants a +4 morale bonus to charm, compulsion, and fear effects...a prerequisite for the mammoth rider is animal companion effective druid lvl 6...this includes the devotion ability which already grants a +4 morale bonus to enchantment effects, which covers all charm and compulsion effects...were these meant to stack or is this ability just an unnecessarily-worded +4 vs fear effects?

1) The +1 bonus applies only against Large and Huge creatures. You have to wait until 8th level to get a bonus against Gargantuan and Colossal creatures.

2) This bonus does not stack with devotion, so for most mammoth riders, it will just grant the animal companion a +4 morale bonus on saves against fear effects. That said, if your animal companion has an archetype applied to it (such as from those in Pathfinder Player Companion: Animal Archive) that grants your animal companion a different ability in place of devotion, then the valiant devotion ability of the mammoth rider prestige class would grant your animal companion the benefits of devotion as well as a +4 morale bonus on saves against fear.

Will there be loving for elves from Kyonin?

If you're asking whether or not Tanglebriar is addressed in this book, the answer is yes. ;]

Any discussion of the difference between "Neutral = ambivalent," almost non-aligned, and "Neutral = actively seeking balance"? A lot of people are Neutral, but most aren't actually seeking to balance the forces of law and chaos, or good and evil.

This book will very much hit on the themes you've described.

What is the aasimar on page 13 supposed to be exactly?

The art on that page is of an evil aasimar who has not only shunned his celestial birthright, but has embraced the foul teachings of Zon-Kuthon. The burning hatred within his heart has manifested itself through his halo, which now glows a crimson red, and he's clipped and stained his wings so he no longer need suffer stares or accusations of celestial kinship from his newfound allies among the Church of the Midnight Lord. The spiked chain he wields is the favored weapon of his patron deity, and it has seen him through many battles against paladins, crusaders, and even celestials.

There's a sentence of fluff on Kroina on page 53 of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Chronicle of the Righteous. But that's all we've said about her.

So far... ;]

I've not been able to find the answer to this anywhere, so here goes:

In the Animal Archive, on page 10, there's a list of all the current (at time of release) familiars and special abilities their master gets. I've noticed that there's no listing for rabbits, or their special abilities. Is it "Master gains a +3 bonus on Acrobatics checks" (rabbits' jumping ability), or some other bonus? Any help would be swell.

Ah yep, looks like we forgot to include the rules for spellcasters who choose the rabbit (on page 31 of Animal Archive) as a familiar.

The following line should be added to the table on page 10 of that book:

Rabbit: Master gains a +3 bonus on Acrobatics checks.

Amber Scott wrote:

mark kay wrote:

Just to ask, as it didn't really get a clear answer I think, was Ragathiel's obedience intended to be full out ritual sacrifice? Would full out ritual sacrifice qualify for it despite being, well, full out ritual sacrifice of someone likely bound and helpless for it? My own takeaway had been that killing someone appropriately evil in the course of battle as it might come up would qualify, along with requisite ritual prayer after.

It was intended to be the latter--the mystery cultist comes across Evil Person, slays Evil Person, and gets boons. Not all the obediences would necessarily take an hour, but none should take longer than an hour. For example, Black Butterfly's obedience of doing an anonymous act of charity could involve leaving some gold on a doorstep, knocking, and running--no need to turn it into an hour-long ritual.

I see under Celestial Obedience on page 5 it says the rituals are "typically an hour" but for the feat it says "only an hour." The former was my intention. I'm guessing the discrepancy occurred when the feat text was aligned with the Demonic Obedience feat. (I am only the author though and don't have the 'official' answers :) ).

Whoops, missed the reply, just wanted to thank you for taking the time for it, and for what is one of my favourite books released for Pathfinder at this point.

I've posted a veritable diatribe in response to this question in the Ask Wes Schneider Anything thread. I've pasted the relevant parts of the post below for convenience and visibility.

Ragathiel's obedience was meant to be pretty intense, to be sure, but it shouldn't be an outright obstruction to players who want to be a worshiper of him and collect on his boons every day. Before I get into logistics, however, I'd like to provide some reasoning for my decision to leave this obedience in during development:

Reasoning
One of the big ideas behind Ragathiel's obedience was that since you worship Ragathiel, you'll probably be out on the field slaying evildoers pretty often, since that's what Ragathiel would want of you. Ragathiel doesn't want his worshipers to work at the soup kitchen for extended periods of time, even though that's definitely a good deed; he wants them to go out on the field of war non-stop and wrestle a giant serpent for 16 years straight, just like he did. Just like Arshea doesn't really care if you're slaying archdevils, Ragathiel is pretty single-minded in what he rewards his followers for.

Another aspect of the reasoning behind his obedience was that his boons are almost solely combat-related, so if you're in town doing investigation or espionage, a bonus with slashing weapons isn't going to do you much good (or, if it would, you're likely slashing some evildoers anyway, so you'll get your boons soon as long as you slay said evildoers in the name of Ragathiel). The humble wandering cleric who goes into town every now and then and hangs with the laity for a couple days probably wouldn't be a follower of Ragathiel—or at least she wouldn't put a lot of stock in the combat boons he grants his worshipers. An evil-hunting, butt-kicking demon stomper traveling into the heart of the Worldwound, however, could probably do worse than to worship Ragathiel and perform his obedience as often as possible.

Using the Obedience as Written
I don't want this to sound like a zero-sum game for players who want to play a Ragathiel worshiper in an urban or low-combat campaign, though. No doubt there are still plenty of creative and evocative ways to worship Ragathiel in such settings. I've been toying with one possible way to play this just in my head the past couple days:

• Take up a side-job as the town executioner. Obviously the criminals you're executing are technically "proven wrongdoers". In the instance that you accidentally execute a wrongly accused criminal, you'd probably know right away that something isn't right when you don't receive your boons for that day (which could open up all sorts of cool plot hooks).

If you plan to run the Ragathiel obedience as written, any player that takes the Celestial Obedience feat/mystery cultist prestige class with the intention of following Ragathiel should be made expressly aware of the implications of this choice, including how difficult it might be during certain segments of the game. Of course, a GM so willing might do well to work with the player/adjust the campaign to come up with a viable way for said PC to achieve her boons at least when she would most need them.

Adjusting the Obedience
I'm also of the opinion that you can absolutely change Ragathiel's obedience to more suit the style of your game/campaign. Other posters have suggested switching it out for Dammerich's obedience, which I believe is a more than fair compromise. Some other possible alternatives to running the obedience as written:

• Montage/Behind-the-Scenes: At higher levels and in larger settlements, the obedience could be handwaived as much as any of the other obediences are. After all, there's not really a point in running a combat encounter between a 1st-level warrior NPC who's been murdering innocent townsfolk and a 7th-level paladin PC of Ragathiel; it's pretty clear who's going to win, and it would be a pretty cool display of the paladin's powers/character/background if he went out at the crack of dawn every day to stop some local evildoer in the sewers/outskirts of the city/bad side of town. How cool would it be if while everyone else is picking up camp in the morning, the Ragathiel worshiper is just coming back and solemnly cleaning his sword?
  
• Powers Earned During Battle: As others (including the author of the book, Amber Scott) have postulated/mentioned, the intent of this obedience was not to be "ritual sacrifice." Rather, the idea behind it was that as long as you perform the necessary hour-long prayers to Ragathiel in the morning, you'll automatically "unlock" your boons for the day the first time that day you slay a proven evildoer in the name of Ragathiel. This is a more-than-appropriate way to play a character who relies on performing the obedience to gain his boons/powers.
  
• The Grittiest Good: For groups seeking a darker, grittier style of play, actually treating Ragathiel's obedience as a necessary ritual sacrifice could be pretty sweet. While it's probably the darkest way to play good ever, I can definitely see a stoic crusader of Ragathiel keeping a band of unrepentant demons caged up to sacrifice as the days go by on the frontlines of the Mendevian war effort. Maybe the heroes are awaiting much-needed reinforcements before they march back into the throbbing heart of evil that is the Worldwound; they're haggard and worn down, and most can only look away as the crusader carries out his unsavory but necessary task so that he may use his god-given powers to keep the ramshackle border camp safe in the meantime. (As a side-note, can anyone guess that I'm really excited for the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path?)

Hopefully this post will help explain the reasoning and thought process behind Ragathiel's obedience and provide some solutions to some possible issues that arise because of it.

tl;dr Ragathiel's intense!

I've posted a veritable diatribe in response to this question in the Ask Wes Schneider Anything thread. I've pasted the relevant parts of the post below for convenience and visibility.

Ragathiel's obedience was meant to be pretty intense, to be sure, but it shouldn't be an outright obstruction to players who want to be a worshiper of him and collect on his boons every day. Before I get into logistics, however, I'd like to provide some reasoning for my decision to leave this obedience in during development:

Reasoning
One of the big ideas behind Ragathiel's obedience was that since you worship Ragathiel, you'll probably be out on the field slaying evildoers pretty often, since that's what Ragathiel would want of you. Ragathiel doesn't want his worshipers to work at the soup kitchen for extended periods of time, even though that's definitely a good deed; he wants them to go out on the field of war non-stop and wrestle a giant serpent for 16 years straight, just like he did. Just like Arshea doesn't really care if you're slaying archdevils, Ragathiel is pretty single-minded in what he rewards his followers for.

Another aspect of the reasoning behind his obedience was that his boons are almost solely combat-related, so if you're in town doing investigation or espionage, a bonus with slashing weapons isn't going to do you much good (or, if it would, you're likely slashing some evildoers anyway, so you'll get your boons soon as long as you slay said evildoers in the name of Ragathiel). The humble wandering cleric who goes into town every now and then and hangs with the laity for a couple days probably wouldn't be a follower of Ragathiel—or at least she wouldn't put a lot of stock in the combat boons he grants his worshipers. An evil-hunting, butt-kicking demon stomper traveling into the heart of the Worldwound, however, could probably do worse than to worship Ragathiel and perform his obedience as often as possible.

Using the Obedience as Written
I don't want this to sound like a zero-sum game for players who want to play a Ragathiel worshiper in an urban or low-combat campaign, though. No doubt there are still plenty of creative and evocative ways to worship Ragathiel in such settings. I've been toying with one possible way to play this just in my head the past couple days:

• Take up a side-job as the town executioner. Obviously the criminals you're executing are technically "proven wrongdoers". In the instance that you accidentally execute a wrongly accused criminal, you'd probably know right away that something isn't right when you don't receive your boons for that day (which could open up all sorts of cool plot hooks).

If you plan to run the Ragathiel obedience as written, any player that takes the Celestial Obedience feat/mystery cultist prestige class with the intention of following Ragathiel should be made expressly aware of the implications of this choice, including how difficult it might be during certain segments of the game. Of course, a GM so willing might do well to work with the player/adjust the campaign to come up with a viable way for said PC to achieve her boons at least when she would most need them.

Adjusting the Obedience
I'm also of the opinion that you can absolutely change Ragathiel's obedience to more suit the style of your game/campaign. Other posters have suggested switching it out for Dammerich's obedience, which I believe is a more than fair compromise. Some other possible alternatives to running the obedience as written:

• Montage/Behind-the-Scenes: At higher levels and in larger settlements, the obedience could be handwaived as much as any of the other obediences are. After all, there's not really a point in running a combat encounter between a 1st-level warrior NPC who's been murdering innocent townsfolk and a 7th-level paladin PC of Ragathiel; it's pretty clear who's going to win, and it would be a pretty cool display of the paladin's powers/character/background if he went out at the crack of dawn every day to stop some local evildoer in the sewers/outskirts of the city/bad side of town. How cool would it be if while everyone else is picking up camp in the morning, the Ragathiel worshiper is just coming back and solemnly cleaning his sword?
  
• Powers Earned During Battle: As others (including the author of the book, Amber Scott) have postulated/mentioned, the intent of this obedience was not to be "ritual sacrifice." Rather, the idea behind it was that as long as you perform the necessary hour-long prayers to Ragathiel in the morning, you'll automatically "unlock" your boons for the day the first time that day you slay a proven evildoer in the name of Ragathiel. This is a more-than-appropriate way to play a character who relies on performing the obedience to gain his boons/powers.
  
• The Grittiest Good: For groups seeking a darker, grittier style of play, actually treating Ragathiel's obedience as a necessary ritual sacrifice could be pretty sweet. While it's probably the darkest way to play good ever, I can definitely see a stoic crusader of Ragathiel keeping a band of unrepentant demons caged up to sacrifice as the days go by on the frontlines of the Mendevian war effort. Maybe the heroes are awaiting much-needed reinforcements before they march back into the throbbing heart of evil that is the Worldwound; they're haggard and worn down, and most can only look away as the crusader carries out his unsavory but necessary task so that he may use his god-given powers to keep the ramshackle border camp safe in the meantime. (As a side-note, can anyone guess that I'm really excited for the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path?)

I encourage readers with questions/thoughts on the gray areas of morality within the Pathfinder universe to seek out James Sutter's thread, if only because he's our resident "moral ambiguity" expert. :]

I'm sure Wes will have an opinion on this subject, but hopefully this post will help explain the reasoning and thought process behind Ragathiel's obedience and provide some solutions to some possible issues that arise because of it.

tl;dr Ragathiel's intense! The feint of heart need not apply! (But talk to your GM.)

I have a question about Ragathiel:

In order to practice Ragathiel's obedience and gain his boons, you are required to slay a wrongdoer every single day. I find this obedience...problematic. How would a devout follower of Ragathiel meet this commitment in, say, an urban-based campaign like Curse of the Crimson Throne or Council of Thieves, without being treated like a serial killer? Every day, someone in the city is killed to appease a wrathful celestial being. I imagine in places like these (especially since they're strongly aligned with devil-worshiping Cheliax), the law would come down pretty hard. Not to mention that for a Lawful Good faith, this sounds a lot like human sacrifice, something that most paladin-types object to. While its true that the Adventure Paths have no shortage of unrepentant villains to slay, this obedience requires you kill an evil person every. Single. Day. How does this account for stretches of downtime where a PC might not be out for villain slaying? What if you're in a place where villainous people are hard to find (especially if you're cleaning up the town anyway)? Are you required to run an extra encounter where you track down and kill an evildoer every day? Most of the other Empyreal Lords aren't nearly as demanding in terms of their obediences, even if some DO seem equally strange or excessive (Arshea demands you have sex every day, for example, but that's nowhere near as demanding as Ragathiel, who asks you to kill people).

I'm not Wes, but as the developer of Chronicle of the Righteous, I can weigh in on this topic, which has already been touched upon by both other readers in this thread and myself in this one.

Ragathiel's obedience was meant to be pretty intense, to be sure, but it shouldn't be an outright obstruction to players who want to be a worshiper of him and collect on his boons every day. Before I get into logistics, however, I'd like to provide some reasoning for my decision to leave this obedience in during development:

Reasoning
One of the big ideas behind Ragathiel's obedience was that since you worship Ragathiel, you'll probably be out on the field slaying evildoers pretty often, since that's what Ragathiel would want of you. Ragathiel doesn't want his worshipers to work at the soup kitchen for extended periods of time, even though that's definitely a good deed; he wants them to go out on the field of war non-stop and wrestle a giant serpent for 16 years straight, just like he did. Just like Arshea doesn't really care if you're slaying archdevils, Ragathiel is pretty single-minded in what he rewards his followers for.

Another aspect of the reasoning behind his obedience was that his boons are almost solely combat-related, so if you're in town doing investigation or espionage, a bonus with slashing weapons isn't going to do you much good (or, if it would, you're likely slashing some evildoers anyway, so you'll get your boons soon as long as you slay said evildoers in the name of Ragathiel). The humble wandering cleric who goes into town every now and then and hangs with the laity for a couple days probably wouldn't be a follower of Ragathiel—or at least she wouldn't put a lot of stock in the combat boons he grants his worshipers. An evil-hunting, butt-kicking demon stomper traveling into the heart of the Worldwound, however, could probably do worse than to worship Ragathiel and perform his obedience as often as possible.

Using the Obedience as Written
I don't want this to sound like a zero-sum game for players who want to play a Ragathiel worshiper in an urban or low-combat campaign, though. No doubt there are still plenty of creative and evocative ways to worship Ragathiel in such settings. I've been toying with one possible way to play this just in my head the past couple days:

• Take up a side-job as the town executioner. Obviously the criminals you're executing are technically "proven wrongdoers". In the instance that you accidentally execute a wrongly accused criminal, you'd probably know right away that something isn't right when you don't receive your boons for that day (which could open up all sorts of cool plot hooks).

If you plan to run the Ragathiel obedience as written, any player that takes the Celestial Obedience feat/mystery cultist prestige class with the intention of following Ragathiel should be made expressly aware of the implications of this choice, including how difficult it might be during certain segments of the game. Of course, a GM so willing might do well to work with the player/adjust the campaign to come up with a viable way for said PC to achieve her boons at least when she would most need them.

Adjusting the Obedience
I'm also of the opinion that you can absolutely change Ragathiel's obedience to more suit the style of your game/campaign. Other posters have suggested switching it out for Dammerich's obedience, which I believe is a more than fair compromise. Some other possible alternatives to running the obedience as written:

• Montage/Behind-the-Scenes: At higher levels and in larger settlements, the obedience could be handwaived as much as any of the other obediences are. After all, there's not really a point in running a combat encounter between a 1st-level warrior NPC who's been murdering innocent townsfolk and a 7th-level paladin PC of Ragathiel; it's pretty clear who's going to win, and it would be a pretty cool display of the paladin's powers/character/background if he went out at the crack of dawn every day to stop some local evildoer in the sewers/outskirts of the city/bad side of town. How cool would it be if while everyone else is picking up camp in the morning, the Ragathiel worshiper is just coming back and solemnly cleaning his sword?
  
• Powers Earned During Battle: As others (including the author of the book, Amber Scott) have postulated/mentioned, the intent of this obedience was not to be "ritual sacrifice." Rather, the idea behind it was that as long as you perform the necessary hour-long prayers to Ragathiel in the morning, you'll automatically "unlock" your boons for the day the first time that day you slay a proven evildoer in the name of Ragathiel. This is a more-than-appropriate way to play a character who relies on performing the obedience to gain his boons/powers.
  
• The Grittiest Good: For groups seeking a darker, grittier style of play, actually treating Ragathiel's obedience as a necessary ritual sacrifice could be pretty sweet. While it's probably the darkest way to play good ever, I can definitely see a stoic crusader of Ragathiel keeping a band of unrepentant demons caged up to sacrifice as the days go by on the frontlines of the Mendevian war effort. Maybe the heroes are awaiting much-needed reinforcements before they march back into the throbbing heart of evil that is the Worldwound; they're haggard and worn down, and most can only look away as the crusader carries out his unsavory but necessary task so that he may use his god-given powers to keep the ramshackle border camp safe in the meantime. (As a side-note, can anyone guess that I'm really excited for the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path?)

I encourage readers with questions/thoughts on the gray areas of morality within the Pathfinder universe to seek out James Sutter's thread, if only because he's our resident "moral ambiguity" expert. :]

I'm sure Wes will have an opinion on this subject, but hopefully this post will help explain the reasoning and thought process behind Ragathiel's obedience and provide some solutions to some possible issues that arise because of it.

tl;dr Ragathiel's intense!

Will we be seeing some Golarion specific character history tables?

Yes. Many, in fact!

Will this adventure feature a map of Alkenstar in it?

Yes.

It was run last year during Paizocon. I didn't win a seat at the table, but 2 people who had didn't show up and I was allowed to roll a character real quick and join the fun. It was a good time, there were hiccups on my end with the Gunslinger class but the adventure itself for the parts we saw was a lot of fun and promised to be a great time. I got to pick Mr. Renie's brain a bit about Alkenstar, but there wasn't that much he could talk about as it didn't seem to be fully nailed down at the time.

I think this adventure could do a lot for those of us who love the Alkenstar area so we'll have to show our support by purchasing this product in the hopes that we'll get more attention in that area of the world. I for one plan to buy this module for just that reason. After all Alkenstar is the hold out of the Browncoats don't ya know.

'Tis true, a part of this module was run at PaizoCon 2012 as a sort of playtest, with Robert and several other of our beloved customers serving as guinea pigs to my first crack at a lengthier adventure (putting aside the couple PFS scenarios I've written). The players from that game will no doubt recognize some significant revisions from the version they played (all for the better, I assure you), and the whole experience was very rewarding, since it allowed me to see what worked and what could be improved upon, and I like to think it gave the players a sneak preview of what was planned for Alkenstar as well as the opportunity to give me input into what they'd like to see in this side of Golarion in general. In the future, I would like to host an even more casual seminar or informal gathering where we (I and possibly several other members of the staff as well as any fans interested) can talk about the implementation of technology into a fantasy campaign setting such as Pathfinder's, what sorts of implications and opportunities such technology presents, the steampunk tradition in fantasy games and what kinds of deviations from that formula people might like to see, and more.

This project has very much been a labor of love, and it wouldn't be what it is today without the fans that played with me at last year's PaizoCon as well as the many other Paizo fans who have an appreciation for steampunk and doing something a little different. :]

Secondly, Vinetrap, it looks like someone swapped design directions at some point in the spell and forgot to change everything to match. It's an area effect spell, yet the flavor text acts like it's a single target spell; furthermore, it takes ten minutes to cast and lasts for hours, yet the flavor text presumes (despite having 'trap' in the name of the spell) that you will actually have a 'subject' while you are casting it. It's very confusing, and I'm honestly not sure what direction it's supposed to go in.

Oops! That was definitely a copy/paste mistake on my part during development. The upper portion of the vinetrap spell should actually look like this:

VINETRAP
School conjuration (creation); Level cleric 5, druid 5
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF
Range long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Target one creature
Duration 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw Reflex negates; Spell Resistance yes

The rest of the spell's text remains the same. Sorry about the confusion!

Does Alkenstar create and use scattershot firearms?

Yes, the city of Alkenstar does produce scattershot firearms (such as the blunderbuss), typically in the Gunworks or another major firearm factory. Shieldmarshals aren't generally equipped with scattershot firearms, however, due to their chance for inflicting collateral damage and general unreliability.

Are there going to be any empyreal lords that would work for an alchemist?

Yes.

Sutter: ...shame pig!
Judy: It's not a shame pig—it doesn't judge!

Quote:

Sutter's spirit animal, Patrick Renie

... there's a story here, I can smell it.

That's probably just the llama you're smelling.

Patrick Renie wrote:

Just so people are aware, I am still in the process of evaluating the Charger/cavalier discrepancy (as well as other potential errata posters have pointed out), and am formulating an official response. Since we've got a lot of projects going on right now, I haven't been able to devote as much time to these issues as I'd like, but rest assured they are being considered and should be addressed within the next few weeks.

Until then, Jason's excellent suggestions should more than suffice for players and GMs running home games. :]

It has been about a month since this post, has there been any follow up on this issue, or a clarification given?

The simplest and fairest solution to the charger archetype issue is to remove the last sentence from the charger archetype's mounted challenge ability and replace it with the following: "This ability replaces link."

Reasoning: Finding a mount that is bred to ride into battle clad in armor and bearing a heavily armored rider would no doubt be a dauntless task, and these war horses are likely more obstinate than their less-outfitted counterparts. As such, a cavalier who gains a charger as a mount would need to have ranks in Handle Animal to make the most of such a wild and powerful breed.

Rob: "Like cookie monster, but with blood instead of cookies."