Skeld's page

Leaving early isn't rude., but the manner in which you leave early could be.

-Skeld

We have companions for nations/region, races, lots on religion, equipment, animals, and the Pathfinders.

Can we get something with a focus that would be useful to the Bards and Rogues of Golarion? It doesn't have to be about Bards/Rogues, just a subject that favors those classes so we can get some goodies in there that aren't sprinkled across so may product lines.

Thanks for the consideration!

-Skeld

I served as an ENnies judge for 2 years (2010, 2011) and served with Megan in 2010. She and I didn't always see eye-to-eye, but I can say that she is a top-notch reviewer and an excellent judge. I have full confidence in her judgement.

Additionally, this whole think smacks heavily of sour grapes.

-Skeld

Personally, I found my required college classes in arts and humanities to be far, far more worthless than calculus. Then again, I'm an engineer and math is sort of an unavoidable part of my job (you could say it's integral...).

-Skeld

I'm basically done with this thread for now, 'cause I don't have the time to correct all the wrong opinions that I have an issue with...

Lolz. If you want to correct wrong opinions, might I suggest the Off Topic forum? You'll fit in perfectly.

-Skeld

There was some talk on the boards of a "Blood of the Chicken" book, which would include Tengu, Strix, and maybe one other feathered race. So its possible.

I would prefer they call it, "Birds of a Feather..." :D

-Skeld

...and (c) simple lack of height.

Hold on... short guys are considered creepy for no reason other than being short? Are fat people creepy, too? What do all the tall, skinny people think? The rest of us should have bought more tickets to the genetic lottery.

-Skeld

People are proud of their ideas and feel that sharing them may be helpful to you or someone else. People also get defensive when those ideas are dismissed out of hand because when you dismiss their ideas, you dismiss their contribution, and you are dismissing them by extension.

-Skeld

I'll tell you one thing I really liked - I don't have all the AP's, but like you I'm trying to fill them in as I can afford them... I got Legacy of Fire in its entirety when it was on sale and they had small mini-adventures they called 'set pieces' which could be inserted into any number of places in the AP, between books or not at all depending on the need of the group. I really thought that was added value and would love to see a continuation of that over the fiction that's included.

It's been mentioned before, by James Jacobs I believe, that set pieces didn't really work out for their intended purpose and that's why the were discontinued after LoF. They were a somewhat failed experiment.

-Skeld

EDIT: Here's JJ giving some explanation behind what happened with set pieces (origination post).

The set pieces won't be returning. They had the double kiss of death: they were relatively unpopular among the overall readership, and for the amount of room they took up they were VERY difficult to develop and edit (since adventures are among the most difficult parts of the game to write and develop and edit).

Also, it has ALWAYS been close to impossible to get authors to write short, 5000 or so word adventures. Authors just don't want to do that, in my experience, and it simply got to be too frustrating for us to wrestle with overwritten set pieces month after month after month. And on top of THAT... the Pathfinder Society Scenarios now pretty much fill the niche of "short adventure" for us (although they're about twice the size of a typical set piece).

The 9 levels of Wizard spells is a legacy D&D thing; previous editions had arcane Wizard spells split into 9 levels of power. When this was adapted into D&D 3rd edition, they had to spread the 9 levels of spells over the 20 levels of the Wizard class. They chose to allow access to a new spell level on odd numbered class levels.

Every edition of the game has certain elements the designers decide to bring forth from previous editions. These legacy elements have to mesh with the new elements that are added by the edition.

Look closely and you're see a great many things that appear arbitrary. Most of those things have some level of reasoning behind them. Some of that reasoning is carryover from previous editions of the game.

-Skeld

Kudos. This is the first poster map folio I've gotten (and I have the all as a long-time subscriber) where I've found all the maps useful. I especially appreciate the player-friendly map of Varisia.

I still think the slipcover (or whatever you call it) should have pockets to help keep the maps in place.

-Skeld

This sounds like change for the sake of change. There isn't any advantage to going from 6 seconds to 10 seconds, unless you want to then start arguing about how you should get more than 1 standard, 1 move, and 1 swift action in a single round.

-Skeld

Here is a helpful forum template.

Do the designers know anything about [my favorite weapon]?! Have they even looked at [my favorite weapons]? Its clearly better than [a weapon I consider inferior]. Obviously, [my favorite weapon] has a better [feature that causes damage] than [another random weapon]. Clearly, the game designers have something against people that use [my favorite weapon].

That should help with similar posts on the future.

-Skeld

Now that sounds rather ominous...

Didn't Liam Neeson say something like that?

-Skeld

...the fiction IS of value.

I think that's the debatable part. Some people like it, others don't. In the past, Paizo hasn't been very willing to entertain the idea of removing it, but it looks like that has changed since there are multiple official sources of Paizo fiction these days.

I used to love the fiction, but I'm to the point now where I don't even look at it.

-Skeld

I'm also a software engineer by profession. I've written eCommerce code; getting the user into a safe HTTPS session without exposing their session token, securely storing their credit cards in the database, securely NOT storing the CVV in the database, and integrating with transaction processors.

Witchcraft, I say.

-Skeld :P

This topic comes around periodically. I used to be on the side of keeping the fiction, but honestly, I haven't been able to "get into" any of it since Eando Kline signed off (yeah, since AP18, I think). Now, I think I fall into the "don't care" category with regard to the fiction articles.

Maybe it's time to re-evaluate them. Back when Pathfinder first came out, there was no other PF/Golarion fiction source. Now, we have a weekly fiction blog that seems longer than what appears in the AP and we have novels. If you want Pathfinder fiction, it's easy to get for free from the blog or to purchase in novel form. The AP fiction seems woefully lacking in comparison.

However, my opinion would be heavily swayed by what replaced it. miniature scale maps would be a terrible idea. They're too small to be of much use and you would still have to print them or mutilate an AP to use them. Another article would be probably be the best bet.

-Skeld

Skeld wrote:

Looting dead enemy combatants is pretty common.

-Skeld

Ummm, as a member of the US military, I can tell you that it is not. It is, in fact, punishable by the Uniformed Code of Military Conduct and in addition, your fellow soldiers would label you as an undesirable person to be around.

I have serve over 10 years with the brave men and women of the US Military and NO ONE I have served with would loot a dead enemy.

You guys don't police up enemy weapons off the battlefield or check fallen combatants for intelligence? Granted that's kinda institutional looting as opposed to individuals looting for personal gain.

-Skeld

This just in: when someone feels insulted by you, they are less likely to do you favors or cut you some slack.

How can anyone with a straight face say it doesnt look like naked thighs?

I can. It never crossed my mind until weeks after I got mine and saw all the ZOMG!! in this thread.

-Skeld

Skeld wrote:

It's hard to believe that level 20+, hyper-intelligent wizards who have lived for hundreds of years would make choices that are sooo sub-optimal as to waste a feat on polearm proficiency. Shouldn't they know better???

One of them is even a blaster for crying out loud.

-Skeld

It's not a wasted feat. It doesn't make them sub-optimal. It gives them character, and affords them access to a cool and unusual weapon. In ALL cases, that weapon, in the runelord's case, is also an artifact, so if you think of it as "I'm spending this feat so I can be a little better at using an artifact," it's not bad at all.

Not every feat needs to be hyper-optimized to make an NPC as better as possible. That's boring. That route leads to sameness. Pass.

James -

I posted in jest, but I do appreciate the serious answer since I share your thoughts on "wasted feats." Just because 3e/PF lends itself to optimization doesn't mean that every character creation decision needs to be optimized. I rather prefer that characters are what they are for story reasons than because that's what someone's (flawed) math dictates. That's one of the many things I like about Pathfinder.

-Skeld

I am really curious how, or if at all, these will be incorporated in society play.

I would prefer that they leave PFS out of this and the APs completely and focus on making good adventures instead of trying to shoehorn a PFS Chronicle into every adventure product.

-Skeld

Skeld wrote:

Theorycrafting the official rules versus discussing houserules is a pretty thin distinction. One is "this is how I handle it" and the other is "in theory, you could handle it like this." That seems to be a pretty thin distinction.

It's the difference of making hypothesis and theories vs. implementing them on a practical level. Ask any scientist if that's trivial or not.

Keeping them in the same forum allows posting the theory and the application in the same place instead of different places. It's kinda handy to have them in the same forum.

Also, I'm a scientist. Nothing here is like science. ;)

-Skeld

Spells are the problem. There are too many and every new spell that comes out is a net increase to the Wizard's power (and nearly every new book has new spells).

-Skeld

If you are using the storyline to determine when your PC's gain a level, how do you determine that they have had enough actual experience to learn anything new? Do you require an in character, story-relevant reasoning to have gained new class knowledge (i.e. leveled up)? Do you not rob your players of some of the challenge and verisimilitude of the world setting by always giving them enough "power" to face every encounter?

I generally set plot goals for leveling. These are campaign milestones and/or achievements. Literally, reach milestone, earn level.

An example literally taken from last Friday's RothRL-AE session:

It's literally that easy.

-Skeld, literally.

Skeld wrote:

Paizo's forums have never been a place where it's cool to tell people to keep their comments to themselves.

-Skeld

I remember a few topics where the moderators told people to do just that. Pointless negativity should be kept to yourself on the Paizo forums and everywhere else. It's not inspiring people, it contains no useful suggestion, and therefore it is useless.

Thanks for your input. :D

-Skeld

Skeld wrote:

it doesn't make sense to try and motivate people to invest in a kickstarter by telling them to ignore the point of the kickstarter.

-Skeld

I dont really follow. I figured the point was that there's a sensational deal being offered for TTRPGers: $200 nets you a whole bunch of PDFs, nine repainted minis from wizkids, two unpainted lead minis from reaper, a 144+page hardcopy + PDF, half a dozen flipmats, a novel and a deck of cards. (You'll also get a bunch of MMORPG stuff to ignore).

It makes sense to point that out doesnt it?

There's nothing wrong with pointing that out. I still don't know what's wrong with saying that I'm not interested in the MMO and don't feel the need to support the kickstarter regardless of what TTRPG carrots get dangled in front of me.

I dont agree with suggestions that a TTRPGer who decides not to support it is "wrong", spiteful or anything else. Nonetheless - there may well be enough goodies there for it to be worth supporting, no matter what one's views on the computer game (there is for me).

Thanks. This can be a tough board sometimes when you don't support the majority opinion or are critical of a decision Paizo has made.

-Skeld

...if you take the MMO out of the picture you could still solely back this for the SuperDungeon and get some great value at the same time.

You can't take the MMO out of the picture because the whole point of the kickstarter is supposed to be the MMO (and the point isn't even to make the MMO, but to accelerate the schedule). If you did take the MMO out, you're left with a million dollar kickstarter for some PDFs and a project Paizo could pull off without kickstarter if they really wanted to.

-Skeld

They've been spamming information about the kick starter because they're concerned it won't meet it's minimum funding goal.

-Skeld

As per my OP even if you don't care about the MMO (which should inevitably bring in more customers to the tabletop scene) just the PnP rewards are a great deal!

I have no interest in the MMO.

But I am with Orthos... I might have backed the Emerald Spire as a KS project. However, I'll go on to say that I'm glad Paizo doesn't use KS to fund their projects (even one-offs like the RotRL-AE); they can leave that to GW.

-Skeld

I see potential cultural effects for people of several nations. We may between us find social equilibrium using that product as part of its medium and further develop an emergent transnational identity.

O.o You realize they're making a video game, right?

It seems like a significant cultural shift has happened when it is considered illogical for people to contribute to a project they may never actually use. It is as if people cannot wrap their minds around non-selfish motivations. Once, but it was long ago, people thought helping others out was a generally good thing to do. Now people are just bewildered unless everyone is only in it for whatever they can loot.

People sometimes limit themselves by their preconceptions. If you cannot imagine donating to a cause purely for the sake of that cause then you may have limited your ability to understand your world and the people therein.

I thought Goblinworks was a business offering a product. When did they become a charity case?

.....

Mine basically nails my thoughts exactly. I'm not supporting the Kickstarter and I didn't support the last one because, well, I don't care about MMOs (Pathfinder or otherwise). It doesn't have anything at all to do with my home group and our tabletop game though.

-Skeld

Why are you talking to "us" rather than "him"?

Because talking to the dad and telling him his kid is ugly... err, distracting, is going to be difficult and uncomfortable.

-Skeld

Early on in the 3e days, I think the intent behind this skill was slightly different. I remember getting the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and at least one statted NPC had this skill listed as Knowledge (Dalelands) or somesuch. I'll have to dig that book back out and check. It seemed that, at least originally, characters were expected to put ranks into Knowledge for a specific region. Since then, "Local" has come to mean "anywhere you happen to be at the moment."

-Skeld

The problem (well, I think it's a problem) is with spells that make fights longer, countermeasures or no countermeasures.

Or that make combats just needlessly complicated (without the reward of extra fun).

Sean K Reynolds posted to this thread and it was mysteriously deleted with no explanation. Coincidence?

-Skeld

You might consider this metagamey and it doesn't necessarily speak to your particular situation, but if I may... The problem here isn't a matter of tactics as it is the inclusion of instant gratification "I win" spells like greater invisibility. Awesome advantages, very few drawbacks.

I try to limit these types of spells in my campaigns, usually with houserules. For example, there is no greater invisibility (or I make it a higher level than 4, maybe 7 or 8). Fly can be speed-limited to the character's base speed (usually 30') and/or duration limited to rounds/level. Teleport is another one I dislike. The 100 mile range/level is far, far too much (I remember the affect it had on my STAP campaign once the PCs could just teleport back to Sasserine on a whim).

Just some thoughts.

-Skeld

It would be ironic if we deleted his posts asking about his deleted posts.

-Skeld

I hereby request an illustrated commentary on my deleted posts, complete with Wayne Reynolds art prints, insider commentary from James and Erik, foreword by Gary and Liz, cartography by Rob Lazzaretti and a personal doodle from SKR.

I second this request, but submit that it will take at least 3 years to compiles a list of Gorbi's deleted posts.

-Skeld

Probably the first step past letting everybody with a PaizoCon 2012 badge will be letting those people invite others to play in their games.

How about Charter subscribers? ;)

1. Thread title could have been better. Even if it was not RD's intention, I cans see why it came across as hostile.

Agreed. A thread's title goes a long way to setting the tone of the discussion. A contentious title tends toward a contentious discussion.

-Skeld

Steve Geddes wrote:

Marc Radle wrote:

Umbral Reaver wrote:

I think it's important to understand that Paizo's general reputation on the forums may not be the same as their general reputation as a publisher in the market and amongst players that don't use the forums.

Um ... huh?

I'm the only one in my group who knows there's a "monk problem". I presume he meant something like that.

What is the problem?

Greg

That there is a Monk class in the game.

-Skeld

I'm disappointed that there isn't a scantily-clad iconic on the card this year, but only because the ensuing "Paizo is sexist!" blogs and threads are entertaining.

-Skeld

A single issue of Paizo's adventure path costs the same now as it did 5 years ago...

-Skeld

Every Monk thread makes me hate monks a little bit more.

If his question/concern had been phrsed like this:

I recently downloaded a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game manual from Paizo Publishing and my antivirus flagged it, quarantined it, and then deleted it. Is Paizo Publishing including a spyware program in any their downloads?

.....he probably wouldn't have gotten any responses from the peanut gallery. Instead, he included that bit about ruffling feathers and demanding "an honest answer," which is about the best way to guarantee a bunch of comical answers. The tone of the OP set the tone of the thread.

Also, he did get an honest answer from a Paizo employee at the earliest opportunity. It just didn't happen until a few personalities had some fun with him (and each other).

Meh.

-Skeld

Things to keep in mind:

1) Many things in 3.5/Pathfinder are counter-intuitive or not realistic. Keep in mind that we're playing an imaginary game where we pretend to be elves fighting dragons with magic, so reality isn't a good jumping off point, per se.

2) Reach weapons (out of the box) can't attack any adjacent squares (adjacent mean "next to," which means squares touching the square you occupy). You can attack diagonal squares that are 2 squares away. Otherwise, you would have a weird situation where you could walk up to an opponent with a reach weapon if you approached them diagonally.

3) reach weapons can't attack adjacent squares for purely game balance reasons. If they could attack adjacent and reach squares, they would be waaay better than non-reach weapons to the point where non-reach weapons would be meaningless options (or non-options, really).

-Skeld

Did anyone tell the OP that a Fighter should maybe carry bow? 'Cause, if not, someone should mention that.

-Skeld

You're not bringing up anything new (even by your own admission). The same general mechanical issues of 3.5e remain in Pathfinder (although some have been mitigated to a degree).

Seeing that backward compatibility was the number 1 design goal of PF, none of this should be a surprise.

-Skeld