Pathfinder Superscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber. Pathfinder Society Member. 1,067 posts (1,111 including aliases). 7 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 6 Pathfinder Society characters. 12 aliases.
Boy, it sure does look like we've stirred up the hornets nest this time. Let me clear up a few things.
1. Everybody just take a breath. There is no need for the tone I am seeing in some of these posts.
2. Every single one of these FAQ posts and clarifications are discussed by the rules team. No matter who makes the actual post or clarification.
3. Concerning this particular issue...
The intent of this particular rule was to marry the flurry of blows ability to the Two-Weapon Fighting feat tree, so that we could easily control and correct any problems that came up, and to have those corrections universally apply to everything that interacted with it. That said, there was an exception built into the flurry rules to allow them to properly portray the monk ability to beat you to death with various body parts (hence unarmed strike). I will admit that the wording could certainly be better in this regard. Let me give it to you clearly as to what we intended...
Flurry allows you to make multiple attacks as if using Two Weapon Fighting. You can substitute any of these attacks with an unarmed strike if you choose, up to all of them. If a weapon or attack is different than the others, it was the intent to limit that to the maximum number of attacks you could normally take with said weapon while utilizing Two-Weapon Fighting (ie 2 at +6BAB, 3 at +11BAB and so on), with all of those attacks falling into the standard chain of reducing attack bonus (-5 cumulative for each additional attack). It was not the intent to allow you to make more than this using one specific weapon (not unarmed strikes), or to take all of the highest attack bonus attacks with that weapon. This makes the monks attacks, from a baseline perspective significantly better than that of a fighter, who must invest in twice the number of weapon to gain a similar benefit.
That said.. this causes some problems that came to light today as this bounced around the office, namely that it was not common knowledge that it was supposed to work this way and has gone to print without this change. This is obviously a concern and one that I intend to investigate. There is also the problem of the Zen Archer, which clearly does not work with these rules (or rather, it clearly, as its intent, violates these rules). There is also the concern that this system is a bit of a pain to figure out, which is something that does concern me greatly.
We will be evaluating this situation a bit further in the coming days and I would like to thank everyone here for pointing out some of the problems with this ruling.
I hope that clears this up a little for folks. I will see to it that we get to the bottom of this soon.
Kenneth wiped the sweat from his brow as he slowly poured the venom into his mother's chalice, careful to never spill a single drop least he ruin the delicate chalk lines that danced across Vandrae's seal. He lifted the chalice up slowly, his hands shaking as the cold metal touched his lips.
It won't hurt me, he thought. She won't let it kill me. He took the first sip and nearly gagged, as if every natural fiber of being was trying to warn him that what he was doing wasn't 'natural.' Kenneth knew it wasn't and drank deeply anyway.
It wasn't bad at first. However, the very moment that Kenneth allowed himself to feel a twinge of relief was when it started; violent, gut-wrenching pain seared his stomach as he clutched it, watching in horror as his blue veins pulsed an acidic green. The horrendous sight was too much for the occultist to bear; he vomited onto the seal that he had spent so much time drawing and perfecting. His bile was a dark, sickly black; the color of dried blood.
Wiping his mouth on his sleeve, Kenneth was sure that he had failed the ritual. That is, until he noticed something. Something repulsive. His bile had begun to faintly twitch in the faint candle light, slowly at first and growing faster and faster, until finally a large lump of black ichor complied in front of him. Roughly two feet tall, the ichor shaped and modeled itself; Kenneth fell back upon the moist ground, a testament to his prior sickness. Slowly the ichor bleed and molded itself as if it were nothing more then clay under the command of an invisible sculptor. The figure of an elf stood before him. A slit that could only be its mouth opened, speaking.
"Thou hath summoned Vandrae; state your bargain."
Forgotten Secrets have been unearthed ....
Radiance House invites the Pathfinder Community to partake in an event that, quite frankly, we're very excited for. Dario Nardi and myself have been working tirelessly for the past few months to bring something extraordinary back from the sands of time that buried it. I'm talking, of course, about Pact Magic.
What is Pact Magic? Pact Magic refers to the binding of otherworldly spirits onto the soul of a person that prepares a relatively simple ritual, often known as a binder. Texts referring to this particular form of magic date back to the 17th Century, featured the first section of the Lesser Key of Solomon. As a game mechanic, Pact Magic is a supplemental rules system that was made famous by the world's most popular roleplaying game in 2006 and was expanded upon further by Dario Nardi, owner and lead of Radiance House publishing.
Now, Dario and I want to bring pact magic to more roleplayers then ever before, through the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game community. After some in-house playtesting, Dario and I would like to invite anyone who is interested in playtesting the new rules for the first installment, Secrets of Pact Magic, before its upcoming release.
About Secrets of Pact Magic
This book is NOT just a rehash of the original Secrets of Pact Magic book. The Pathfinder version of this book features all-new content; everything from the core of the rules to the spirits themselves have been tweaked and altered to bring them in line with the modernized philosophy of roleplaying games, as made standard by Paizo Publishing. Here's a small (i.e. not comprehensive) list of material that you'll unearth in this book:
A new base class, the occultist, as well as an occultist archetype.
Archetypes for the 11 core classes.
New abilities such as a new cleric domain, barbarian rage powers, rogue talents, an oathbound paladin oath, and more!
A new type of feat to modify your pact magic, known as occult feats.
Binder Secrets; special abilities that can be taken by an occultist in place of a feat.
Constellation aspects; effectively 0-level spirit powers that allow you to increase the binding DC of a spirit in order to gain an additional granted ability.
32 spirits, ranging in level from 1st to 9th. These spirits have been compiled from both of Dario's books, Secrets of Pact Magic and Villains of Pact Magic.
And much more!
When Is This Being Released?
Right now, Dario and I are planning to officially release Secrets of Pact Magic at PaizoCon this year; that means that we don't have a whole lot of time to get this open playtesting started!
What Can I Do to Help?
If you are interested in helping out with the Beta Testing of these rules, you need to do no more then announce your interest here. Here's how you do this:
#1 - Leave a post in this thread clearly voicing your interest. You get bonus points if you include a short remark as to what interested you in this playtest; it can be anything from "I used the original books!" to "You caught me at Playtest!"
#2 - I'll send you a PM with a link to the playtesting document. Its really that simple!
I'm something of a forum lurker, so if you post, there's a fairly good chance that I'll get to you reasonably quickly.
How long will playtesting last and what are you looking to have tested?
Excellent question! As publisher, Dario has informed me that he needs the book shipped out to places like the editor and eventually the printer in the month of June. This means that we only have about two weeks, maybe three to really get this show on the road.
As to what I'm looking for? Go wild with the playtesting and theorycrafting. I want to see and hear everything you people have to say. Please keep all of your comments in this one thread, however.
Send me as many impressions as you can muster; does this look too good? Does this look not good enough? Did you find a potentially broken combination of spirits / abilities? Tell me everything!
As I mentioned before, I'm something of a lurker, so I'll do my best to respond as frequently as I can; however, I can't promise that I'll respond to every question I receive. Just most of them :). Any questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, whatever can all be posted here in this thread and I think Dario himself is planning on stopping by and chatting when he can.
Now that you have printed out your color maps, protect them for easy storage (multiple posters will fit in one ACP sheet protector) and during play with these wet erasable, ziplocked blueprint protectors.
They will also hang flat for storage using this blueprint protector.
First off let me apologize for my long absence from the Internet. I don’t use it for anything beyond work email these days and I am about as far out of the electronic loop as is humanly possible – my own fault, and my undoing on many levels.
I deeply apologize for the debacle that was Sinister Adventures – I can honestly say there has been nothing in my life I regret more than attempting to run my own publishing company. I have done severe damage to my own finances over the past several years, ruined my reputation as a game designer, and transformed a hobby that used to be the most enjoyable part of my life into my own personal mire of misery and shame. But most importantly I have alienated a host of lovely people who love RPGS. I used to take great joy in communicating with my former fans, and felt a growing camaraderie with several of the people who enjoyed my work, or even hated my work, but just downright enjoyed this great hobby. I let those people down, betrayed them, and damaged their enthusiasm for the game, not to mention lost the hard-earned money they entrusted to me through pre-orders.
I dealt with the avalanche of problems Sinister experienced ineptly to say the least. The failure of this company combined with crushing stress from my 90 hour-a-week day job of the last three years shook the foundation of my sense of self. This led to a downward spiral of alcoholism and depression.
My recent move back to Hawaii has restored a great deal of the vitality and psychological well-being I lost over the last few years and I am finally in a place to take serious action against the start-up gaming company that has become my personal nemesis.
I have lost over $15,000 personally on this endeavor through my gross ineptitude as a publisher. I paid for a great deal of top quality art, web design and other start up costs and then as problems arose that siphoned off more funds, I found the company wallowing in destitution. As the problems piled up, I eventually lost any ability to deal with them and kept attempting to tell myself I would “get around to it soon” once I was able to save up more funds and free up more time. I grappled with the idea of bankruptcy, but didn’t want to end up not giving those who trusted me their money back.
Fortunately I have been able to shift some funds around recently and replenish Sinister’s coffers enough to get everyone their money back. To ensure this happens in a timely fashion I will not trust my own dire worthlessness with the task. Instead the heroic Lou is once again stepping up to bat.
Through the invaluable assistance of Louis Agresta – one of the truest friends a man could ask for – I am now in a position to refund all and sundry for their pre-orders to Sinister. Lou has very kindly offered to assist me yet again, this time pooling through my mangled attempts at record keeping to ensure all of you who have not yet been refunded get your money returned.
Lou has posted instructions and details above.
Now allow me to move off my own dire failures as a businessman and human being and move on to a more salient point.
Paizo Publishing is a true gem - A company full of caring individuals who are entirely the opposite of Sinister Adventures. They care deeply about their fans, their authors, and the hobby. From my close contact with them for years, first as a rabid fan and aspiring writer, then as a go-to freelancer, then as a brief employee I have a unique view of the fine people of Paizo inside and out. They are compassionate, professional, creative, enthusiastic, and possessed of a deep well of forgiveness and generosity. They don’t just uphold high standards of how companies should operate – they set the standards as far as I’m concerned.
It hurts me deeply that their remarkable feat of kindness and an attempt to rehabilitate the degenerate hobbyist and writer I have become over the last few years could result in any sort of backlash. These fine upstanding people pour their love, blood and sweat into their company daily.
To those of you hurt by the Sinister fiasco: I implore you to keep the sights of your (righteous) anger focused entirely on me. I will happily give ample opportunity for those of you slighted (or worse) by my mistakes and failures a chance to redress the wrongs you suffered at Sinister (and my) hands. I will gladly listen to your anger, apologize, and try to make amends as best I can at Paizocon. I will attempt to run games for those of you who suffered from Sinister’s flop, languishing in limbo while awaiting news or refunds from me.
I humbly apologize for the long and resounding silence and for thinking I could get things back on the rails.
Thank you for your time and patience. Please follow the instructions and details Lou posted above on how to FINALLY get your money back.
Remember to get greater grapple on that bad boy to grapple as a move action to do the damage, then make a grapple attempt as a standard action to do it all again.
You would need to invest in a few more feats,improved unarmed strike, improved grapple,greater grapple but the results can be really nice.
Purchasers should get no to very few duplicate figures in a brick. Buyers who purchase factory-sealed cases should get a nearly complete set of figures. (As with any randomized product, collation is not guaranteed.)
As Cases of Pathfinder Battles: Heroes & Monsters miniatures will soon be arriving at your doorsteps (and mine) I'm interested in finding what your experience is with your case(s) purchase. How accurate is the Paizo/WizKids description? The only way to really know is to do some data collection.
This is what I'm asking. As you open your case(s), please keep track of which miniatures you get out of each case. If you have two or more cases, please tally them separately. Hopefully we'll all "get a nearly complete set of figures."
How successful Paizo/WizKids are at meeting that goal will greatly influence my decision to purchase future cases.
Ideally, you could take any feat you want, but couldn't use it unless you meet its Prerequisites. I think it's one of those unnecessary restrictions we inherited from 3.5; we got rid of a lot of them, but there are still some buried here and there.
In other words: If you're willing to pay for the cost of a feat, even if the Prerequisites mean you can only use it sometimes, you should be able to learn the feat, because you're paying the cost to learn the feat.
If I'm willing to spend $100,000 to go through NASA's astronaut training, even though I'll never be an astronaut, let me spend that money--and who knows, maybe I'll be the one passenger on the spaceship who can land the thing when the pilot has a heart attack. :p If a fighter who normally wears half-plate and carries a tower shield wants to put ranks in Acrobatics, nobody says, "you'll never be able to make an Acrobatics check because of your armor check penalty, therefore you aren't allowed to put ranks in Acrobatics, dummy."
Removing this sort of restriction also allows players to plan ahead. Frex, if you have Str 12, you could take Power Attack at level 3 because at level 4 you're going to put your +1 into Str. Likewise, a monk who's close to the BAB breakpoint could take PA because he's going to take some fighter levels. If a sorcerer wants to put ranks in Fly at level 1, even though she won't be able to learn fly until level 6, that's fine--and no more world-absurd than her suddenly putting a bunch of ranks into Fly at level 6 as soon as she gains the spell.
In other other words, it's okay to let players make character choices that don't have a direct, immediate mechanical benefit. In the real world, it's common to teach people things that they won't use for months or years, or let them learn things that they'll never have a practical use for.
What is U-Con?
The U-Con Gaming Convention is a gathering of gamers and companies from all over. You can meet new people and participate in many different events. We have events that are sure to pique the interest of the most avid gamer, as well as those new to the hobby. We offer a wide variety of role-playing events, as well as many board and war games. We also offer Live Action RPG's and collectable card game tournaments and events. We are one of the largest gaming conventions in Michigan.
Aside from gaming, we have an exhibitors hall filled with a wide variety of exhibitors selling everything from swords to dice, shirts to games, and a number of other unique and interesting items. And what convention is complete without an auction? Of course we have one!
If you are interested, here is a way to check your dice for rolling bias. I found it in issue 73 of Knights of the Dinner Table magazine, and was originally written by an Anthony Roberson. Just want to make sure I give credit where it is due. Warning, it involves rolling the dice a lot and a bit of math.
Dice Bias Test:
Roll the die a number of times equal to 10*N, where N is the number of sides (so a 4-sider gets rolled 40 times, an 8-sider gets rolled 80 times, and the mighty 20-sider gets rolled 200 times). Keep track of how many times you roll each number, lets call it T.
Take the number of times each number is rolled and subtract 10 from it, recording the number (also known as T-10). Then take this number and square it (so (T-10)^2). Record this value.
Add the values for all the (T-10)^2 together, and then divide by 10 (For ease, lets call this number Z). Compare to the following numbers:
# of sides-------.10 value-----.01 value
4------------------6.251----------11.341
6------------------9.236----------15.086
8------------------12.017----------18.475
10-----------------14.684----------21.666
12-----------------17.275----------24.725
20-----------------27.204----------36.191
If Z is less than the .10 value, the die is sufficiently random. If Z is greater than the .01 value, the die has significant bias towards one or more numbers and should probably be retired. If Z is between the .10 and .01 values, then the die may be somewhat biased and can be retired, used, or retested at your discretion.
I really hate how this keeps coming back to my item.
This really isn't about why or why I didn't get rejected.
The reason it keeps coming back to you—and it's you much more than your item—is that you came onto our boards, trashed our judges and employees, and called us a bunch of glorified copy-and-pasters, with posts dripping in sarcasm and attitude, painting yourself as the victim all the while.
I'd especially point out these parts:
Vistarius wrote:
...looking over the stuff [Clark's] company has published and the comments he's made before, and listening to his stuff here, I just don't see how his opinion is worth anything.
And in your very next post, you state:
Vistarius wrote:
Now nothing I said so far has been inflammatory...
Either you don't understand how you come across, or you don't understand the meaning of the word "inflammatory."
And then you write this:
Vistarius wrote:
I think you should realize that you are representing yourself and your company to your audience, the people that buy your stuff.
You know, you also need to realize that people are judging you by the things you say, and though you called Clark a "a giant, over-glorified troll," well, I'll just note that the trolling being done here is all by you.
I'll tell you this: if Paizo *had* ever given you an assignment, after seeing the way you conduct yourself on our forums, I'd ensure that we never gave you another one.
Vistarius wrote:
I don't look forward to the next contest knowing he is a judge.
I hope you follow through with the indications you've given that you won't be entering. You'd be wasting everyone's time, because you're disrespectful, and in comportment, you're as far from an RPG Superstar as you can be. I'm glad you think highly of Neil, because you could learn quite a lot from him—and I'm talking about in life, not just in game design.
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