Tzzarg's page

* more high-level adventures (especially ones you could run after finishing an Adventure Path)

These are hard to do, given that high level groups can diverge so wildly in abilities and power level, but I would love to see more modules set at levels 15+. The important thing to me is making them feel epic. Save the city or barony just does not cut it at these levels, the threat needs to feel larger than life and out of the ordinary.

* larger adventures, like "supermodules" (though we aren't sure how we'd fit that into the line, which currently only has 32-page adventures)

These I definitely would like to see (Slumbering Tsar would be a great candidate for this type of treatment), providing there is some way to do them profitably. The GDQ supermodule remains one of my favorites. I find the best modules mate a good story with an interesting location (which I can reuse later). So a supermodule set in the HQ of the Red Mantis, or ancient Azlanti magic research facility, or Test of the Starstone would grab me.

* prequels or parallel adventures relating to an AP, so your players (who may or may not be playing the same PCs you have active in that AP) get additional information or another perspective on the events of that AP

I find a lot of Japanese RPGs and Anime use this technique. If its done well, I think I would be interested in a side story to an ongoing AP. Many of them have hooks that are left to the DM to expand, it would be interesting to see Paizo take a few and run with them.

As for the other types, I might be interested, so long as the rail roading has an interesting hook. Forced to do something for the noble/ruler/king to avoid x is old, but something like War of the Wielded, while railroady in a sense, feels fresh and something my pcs would like.

Wolfgang's Livejournal site can be found at http://open-design.livejournal.com/ I did not find it all that hard to access. However, it's layout can be confusing to first time customers as some of entries posted on the Livejournal site are only visible to paid patrons of the varying Open Design projects.

For instance, if you are not a patron and you go to the Livejournal site now (7/8/09), you might see the journal entry Bruce Cordell Shares Some Psionic Psecrets and then the entry where he talks about the Far Realms. Paid patrons would see those entries, as well as patron-only entries about Encounter Areas, 4E Paragon Paths, and Epic Destinies for Halls of the Mountain King.

In a nutshell, you sign up and pay at KoboldQuarterly.com. The Livejournal site (once you become a patron) gives you peeks, updates and a chance to participate in the crafting of a project (depending upon your level of patronage and if you get in early enough).

Erol Otus and Jim Holloway. Nothing says "Oldskool" more to me than the art of those two.

Tzzarg

Although these are probably not what you are looking for, I have seen one or two high level mariliths statted over the years. Hope these provide some support on how to design Alistraria into a fearsome challenge.

Knightfall over on EnWorld came up with Doodvrouw (http://www.enworld.org/forum/homebrews/163952-knightfalls-fiend-lexicon-up dated-sept-22-07-a.html) a CR 25 marilith/half-vampire/mortal hunter 10. (see post #11)

Robert Wiese for the Fight Club feature over on the Wizards site came up with Aishapra, a marilith dervish, who was statted at cr 17, 21, and 24. (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fc/20050921a)

Good luck.

Post your thoughts and impressions of Second Darkness #5. How are Treerazor and the rest of the bestiary's monsters? The main and side adventures? The gazetteer of the Tanglebriar? Please hide anything spoilerish with a spoiler tag.

Dmrrostarr, Fluxx is a game that's both chaotic and great fun. You are dealt a hand of three cards and the basic rule of the game is "draw one, play one". In your hand are keepers, creepers (MP Fluxx has em, played immediately and don't count against your cards played), goals, rule cards, and action cards. The object of the game is to have the keepers and/or creepers in play (creepers are normally bad cards that prevent you from winning the game--unless altered by a specific goal or rule) that match the goal or goals currently in play.

Fluxx is a highly appropriate name for the game as almost everything about it can change on the play of a single card. The amount of cards you draw, the amount you play, how many cards you can have in your hand (aargh, hate that 0 hand limit rule), the goal you are striving for, whether cards harm or help you--all are highly mutable and altered from turn to turn.

Monty Python Fluxx is a great marriage of theme and rules. Just as Python can seem absurd and ludicrous at time, so can Flux. Although there are no mentions of the word spam (copyright concerns I guess), rabbits with pointy teeth, shrubbery, rules that encourage you to sing a Python song or talk with a fake accent, keepers like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch--all are in there.

Chess it isn't, but Monty Python Fluxx is a great filler and a good light game.

I'll fess up to going to see Yor: Hunter From the Future when it came out in the early 80's. It was so bad I walked out 30 minutes into the film. Exhibit A for a film school course in how not to make movies.

The other film that ranks among my dumbest ever filmed (even Val Kilmer could not redeem it with a memorable performance) was Willow. Story by George Lucas, directed by Ron Howard, great performance by the aforementiond Kilmer, and a cute baby that you get to see every 30 freaking seconds in the film, what could go wrong? How about a story that's so badly written and plodding it feels like swimming through molasses in a straightjacket? Or a vehicle that seems more a showcase for ILM to show off it's fx (hmm, anticipating the Phantom Menace perhaps), than actually present a coherent story with good dialogue.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have downloaded or received this, please post your impressions of the adventure here. Keep anything spoilerish behind a spoiler tag please.

I was impressed with Leati's The Champion's Belt for the Age of Worms AP, so I'm curious to see how he developed this one. Also, how are the Kazavon and Harrow Deck of Many Things articles?

"Casts resurrect on the thread." Woohoo, this finally came out (as of 7/30/08)! Thank you Mr. Logue for another splatterific mystery quest. Now to answer roguerouges questions from several months back:

"What're the selling points for this adventure?"
A jack the ripper like murderer terrorizing the streets of a city beset with alchemy run amock and deadly cults. Several new monsters and locations, that while city/urban specific can be dropped into any city in your campaign.

"How is the setting?"
Strong and weak at the same time. Logue etches a portrait of a city that is grim, dirty, and corrupt and laden with things best left alone. Yet its weak in that sense that the adventure can be slipped into almost any grimy city setting in your campaign. Greyhawk might be a stretch, but Lankhmar, New Crobuzon, and Freeport would be perfect places to set the locales in the module.

"How strong are the hooks? Weak? Apt? Railroad?"
The structure of the adventure is linear, but who you are up against and the nature of the foe does not become clear for most of the adventure. I have not run it yet, but just on an initial readthrough, it does not feel like a tournament module. For the "kill things, take their stuff" kinds of groups, Gorgon may not be an adventure that they'll enjoy. Groups that like intelligent villains, heavy roleplaying, intrigue, and a strong environmental element to their game will really like the module.

"How varied are the encounters?"
Very. Granted, Gorgon is an urban module with city oriented encounters, but there is a wide array of many different kinds of monsters the party may encounter

"What are some memorable characters?"

"How portable is it to an existing campaign?"
Its very portable. It must be set in a large town or city, and it is preferable that the city be run down and seedy, but other than that, it can be set anywhere. Just make sure your pc's are mature and have a taste for the macabre. There's no way WoTC would ever touch something like this with a ten foot pole--I'm very glad Wolfgang and Open Design did though ;)

More about Pat Pulling can be found in Michael Stackpole's Pat Pulling Report at http://www.rpgstudies.net/stackpole/pulling_report.html. Rpgstudies is kind of a cool site as well, it has a listing of academic papers both against and defending D&D and rpgs. I gotta say, the "questionaire" Ms. Pulling distributed to police departments was a hoot--talk about leading criteria and questions!

I wonder if those anti rpg attitudes of the early 80's have really gone away though. Sometimes it seems like they've more shifted towards video games (the hysteria after Columbine, etc.) than completely vanished.

As for the tendency of internet posters to attack and argue with each other--I suspect even had the anti-rpg hysteria of the 80's not occured, you'd still have folks going at it. It just seems human nature that the larger a community grows, especially on the net with its medium of non face to face communication, the more disputes break out.

*Casts resurrect thread*

Any eta on when this will be available Mr. Logue? Site says June but its now early July and Razor Coast appears to be mia. Any info you could provide would be appreciated.

Ditto on what Insert Neat Username said. The gazetteer is more aimed at players, with a summary and some flavor text for each country. The campaign setting will more be aimed at dms. Although exact specifics haven't been given out (no table of contents...yet) I suspect you will see statted npcs, more detailed country write ups, adventure hooks, and country "secrets", none of which are in the gazetteer. Its also likely that you may see a few prestige classes, magic items, and spells (or am I confusing the cs with the Pathfinder RPG hardback).

For those of you lucky enough to download or get this in the mail, what are your Impressions of the mod? I'm curious to see how the adventure path transitions from an urban to a wilderness setting.

Given the great job that Kortes did with Entombed with the Pharoahs, how does the mod handle the party and its pursuing groups (Red mantis?, Grey Maidens?). Please hide anything spoilerish with a spoiler tag.

My question, however, is who do I ask permission from? Paizo or WotC? And more importantly, would either one care as long as it wasn't making me any money and not reprinting material that must be purchased (as opposed to being downloaded for free)?

Back to the subject at hand, good luck getting a response from Wizards. Other fans have tried and either not received any response at all or gotten boilerplate. Maybe one of the Paizo folks can tell you the specific person at Wizards to contact?

Something like you are proposing has been tried before. Go to http://dungeonmagazine.pbwiki.com/FrontPage and poke around. In the wiki's site case, its not so much existing material that's being reprinted, but material that got cut from the adventures for space considerations. I'm not sure as to its legality, but Wizards has not had it taken down--something I appreciate ;)

Woohoo! A new Dungeon adventure by Nicholas Logue. You can find it at
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/duad/20080509. Although set in Eberron's Stormreach, with a little bit of conversion, you could use it in many a ruined city/urban setting.

The adventure has an action/gore vibe to it. I was especially fond of

Wizards got the author description wrong though--Mr. Logue is definitely no longer a 1st level unemployed ;)

Good Lord Nic, do you never stop? Paizo Ap, Pathfinder Society, Sinister Adventures, side projects and now this. Wow.

Try contacting Bill or Clark at Necromancer Games (www.necromancergames.com). I have a copy of Bard's Gate as well and there should be a fold out poster map by Ed Bourelle in the back (at least my copy came with one). Good luck.

The thing that strikes me most about your party is the lack of dedicated "pure" divine or arcane casters. Yes, you have a bard and a multi class sorceror, but as your group goes to mid and high levels, the lack of dedicated casters (and their access to higher level spells) is going to tell. Try convincing one of your players to play a cleric, favored soul, or combination of classes that will provide divine caster levels. A wand of clw and potions can cut it at low levels, but not so much at high levels.

I will not give away spoilers in this thread, but the folks here at Paizo have a very good grasp of the 3.5 rules system and some of the combats can be brutal. Plan your group accordingly.

Whoa! Pett and Logue writing an adventure together? I will have to take a look at the Ebon Shroud when it comes out.

Best of luck Mr. Logue, I hope your firm is able to make a go of it.

One question, who will be doing the cartography for the Razor Coast and Ebon Shroud?

EN Publishing, which has been putting out its War of the Burning Sky adventure path over the past 15 months is looking for side adventures for their AP. Perhaps taking a page from the RPG Superstar contest, they have decided to hold a writing competition for side quests.

You can find the announcement and contest rules at http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=4125547#post4125547.

Quick summary--if it gets published it gets paid, deadline date is 4.30.08, and the minimum (no maximum) entry length is 2000 words (make sure you read all the rules first if interested).

I'd be curious to see if any of the Cabbages and other Superstar finalists from these boards give it a go.

Way to go Christine! Having read the adventure proposal, I can't wait to see this in print.

Check out the cool module by Stephen Greer that Wizards just posted on their website today (2/11/08). You need to be registered with Wizards/Gleemax to get it, and you can download it from http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/duad/20080211.

While I'm not likely to have pc's high enough to play it for some time, should they survive to 18th level, I'd love to give it a shot.

Check out the entry for Kingsburg on boardgamegeek.com. It has several images of the game itself.

Having played several games of Kingsburg myself, I consider it a good middleweight game that plays well with 3-5 players. Luck is a part of the game, but it can be balanced by building certain structures and a good strategy.

Paizo did an excellent job with Rise of the Runelords and I am quite pleased with it. I'd love to continue subscribing, but I have more 3.5 adventure paths than I know what to do with.

Please cancel my Pathfinder Subscription.

So what you see in the adventure is actually MORE information about Xin-Shalast than we were originally going to present. If it feels like stuff was cut... that's just because it's a big place and even if we had a 200 page Pathfinder we wouldn't have enough room.

In any event... what you see in Pathfinder 6 is pretty much all we've got on Xin-Shalast right now. There's certainly a LOT more adventure to be had in the city, though, and a "return ot Xin-Shalast" type adventure would seem to practically write itself at some point in the future...
Thanks for the quick reply Mr. Jacobs. I hope you folks get around to returning to Xin-Shalast one day. If 4th edition is going to incorporate terrain and environmental factors to the extent that some of the previews indicate, than a cyclopean stone ruin with musty vaults of horrors and knowledge that man was not meant to know would be the perfect place for a high level adventure.

Many thanks to Mr. Vaughan, Jacobs, and the rest of the Paizo crew for this memorable Cthulhuesque adventure.

While there's quite a bit of stuff in Xin-Shalast that an inventive dm can work off of and flesh out, it feels at times as if fluff and further description was cut to shrink the city part of the module to publication size.

Are there any further pieces information available on the Hypogeum, the Artisan District, or Temple Row or the rest of the city? If not, no problem, perhaps I read a bit too much into the module description's "
its secrets and treasures and dangers can provide for many more sessions of excitement after Karzoug is defeated."

I too, respectfully disagree with the previous posters. I see Pathfinder as a kind of swiss army knife publication for dm's--you may not be able to use everything or everything at once, but sooner or later you find uses for most of what's in it.

Mr. Greer, thanks for taking the time to post and respond to folks questions. Being able to talk to and get feedback from module authors is something I've always liked about Paizo and its messageboards.

Last but not least, although I suspect a web enhancement is out of the question due to time and money constraints, why not put "cut" material online at something for Pathfinder like http://dungeonmagazine.pbwiki.com/ was for adventures in Dungeon Magazine. The additions page to the adventure Dread Pagoda of the Inscrutable Ones (of which Mr. Greer was one of the authors) was great and really helped to fill out holes or what seemed sketchy parts in the adventure (you can find it at http://dungeonmagazine.pbwiki.com/Dread%20Pagoda%20of%20the%20Inscrutable%2 0Ones). I know authors are very busy folks, but I'd love to see a wiki page up for Sins of the Saviors like there was for Dread Pagoda (Mr. Jacobs and the Paizo crew permitting of course).

I suspect this will ship so late in January that it will probably arrive in mailboxes in February. The first supplement in Curse of the Crimson Throne is scheduled for March, so it would be odd of Paizo to leave a hole in their schedule for February.

For those of you lucky enough to have gotten the pdf or physical copy of this, please post your impressions here. Try and keep it spoiler lite if you could (or use spoiler tags).

I liked Gallery of Evil and his various adventures in Dungeon, so I'm curious to see how Mr. Greer's contribution to Pathfinder turned out.

Takasi,

With more than six months to the official launch, its a bit premature to be predicting anything. As an oldschool player (started in 82), some of the things being done with 4th edition make me twinge, but the same I could have said about 3rd edition before it came out. I don't know if I'll make the transition (I'm happy with 3.5 as is) but Wizards does not seem to be going for my age cohort at all anyway, rather the younger crowd, which is what they need to do to have a future for the game.

As for fallout, an edition failure (something I'm certainly not anticipating) would be very bad for the D20 tabletop sector and bad for overall tabletop roleplaying sector as well. Wizards, for better or for worse, is the 800 pound gorilla of those segments, and as Wizards goes, so goes the market.

Notice, though, how specific my verbiage is--roleplaying is for more than just the tabletop sector nowadays. Console and online roleplaying would not be effected at all (no insult meant to DDO players, but most folks online play Warcraft, EQ, Guildwars, LoTR and other non WOTC mmorgs). And tcg's/ccgs (which have some crossover with fantasy rpgs--take the backstory of MTG for instance) would likely not be that effected either.

I'm not sure if a new big player would emerge in the tabletop sector, with so many things pulling at rpg players attentions nowadays, whatever it was would have to have something special going for it (but if anyone could do it, I'm sure Paizo, Necro, Malhavoc (if Monte decided to take a stab at rpgs again), or Goodman could).

Most of the surviving D20 companies would probably try and capture as many existing players and bring in new ones as they could with new product and/or new rule systems, shift to other sectors (such as boardgames or tcg's/ccg's), or go out of business (I'd hope they try the first two before the third ;)

FLGS's would be negatively effected, but not as bad as one would think. For a variety of reasons (I leave it to those more familiar with the workings of the FLGS sector to comment on this) the number of primary rpg stores has been declining for the last several years (there's several threads about it on rpg.net--there were 2000-3000 in the late 90's down to about 1000 now, maybe less). Many of them have either gone out of business or changed their product emphasis from rpgs to sportscards, tcg's/ccg's, comics, and/or boardgames. An edition failure would likely accelerate the trend and decrease the amount of shelf space devoted to pen and paper rpgs.

As for my table, there would be little effect, at first. I have all the books I can use (and then some) from 3.5 and enough adventures and adventure seeds to run games for years. The real negative effect would be in the future, with the diminishment of the number of younger folks potentially interested in playing tabletop rpgs. Without a D&D to draw them in, their interests and hobbies will likely go in other directions.

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If you look on page 50 under the description of the Inner Sphere of the Greater Caverns, it says that if you do a successful spot check and then a strength check on the bottom of the bier that Drelzna is initially resting on, you can lift the heavy stone "bottom" and find the beginning of a circular stairway that goes 500 feet down to the beginning area of the Horn.

The answer to your question has a variety of factors Goroxx. As I understand it, Hasbro became interested in Wizards due to primarily Pokemon and Magic (Wizards had the rights to publish the Pokemon Cardgame, Hasbro had the rights to produce the Pokemon toy line--though Pokemon sales now are a shadow of what they were in the late 90's, back then they were selling like gangbusters). I suspect Hasbro would have been interested in Wizards based on the success of Pokemon alone, but Hasbro has a history of growth through mergers and acquisitions and the chance to also acquire the Magic card line and D&D and the highly profitable D&D book lines were sweeteners in the pot. Take a look at the Wikipedia article on Hasbro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasbro) and look at the long list of current and former divisions. Most of those companies were separate entities at one time or another and were snapped up or acquired. There's little doubt the strategy has payed off handsomely for the company and its shareholders, as they are now one of the largest toy companies in the world with 2006 revenues of more than 3 billion dollars.

There were other motives on Wizards end. In a 2002 Gamingreport interview with Peter Adkison (former CEO of Wizards) at http://www.gamingreport.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&fi le=index&req=viewarticle&artid=42, Mr Adkison stated, "Nope. While it was difficult to sell Wizards of the Coast, it was clearly the right business decision. Pokemon was so hot and our revenues were so high that I knew I’d never get that sort of opportunity again. If it would have been entirely my own company and I wouldn’t have had investors and option holders to answer too, then I could have sat on it and weathered the post-pokemon storm without a problem. But when you have investors your first responsibility is to them and you have to put personal preferences aside."

His mention of having investors and option holders to answer to is important as TSR, to say the very least, has a somewhat tortuous and convoluted ownership history (I'll see if I can find the link to where Mr. Adkison talks about that, I do remember a discussion or two several years back). Although Wizards acquired TSR, many of the stockholders and dispersed ownership problems came along with the acquisition. While the Wizards acquisition may at times stink from a fan point of view, it was a good and sound business decision, enabling employees to join a firm that was on a much sounder financial footing (TSR was in serious financial straits when Wizards bought it, there was a stretch of several months to a year in the late 90's where nothing (including Dungeon and Dragon magazines) was released because TSR could not pay its printers) and enabling stockholders to cash out of an industry that while having meteoric hits at times, can go through stretches of stagnant and declining sales.

[Edit} Aargh, must type faster, four people responded in the time it took to type my reply ;)

Snagged chapter 1 of the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth at 6:30 pm eastern on 10/12. I'm going through it now. My hats off to Ari so far on his twisted take on an old classic. The decision to add taint seems a good one--it turns a what could have been a retread into something dangerous and different. Chapter 1 though stops at the entrance to the Lost Caverns, we'll have to wait until 10/19 to see what the update of them looks like.

Hmm, Ungoded or a staff member normally fields these, but they haven't gotten to this one yet.

I don't know about getting a copy of Pathfinder #1, which shipped back in August, but Pathfinder #2 will not be shipping until early to mid October. Apparently, GenCon caused a whole bunch of printing and shipping delays and Pathfinder #2 is either cruising onboard a container ship at the moment or waiting to clear customs. Just be patient and you'll get your copy. They'll mail you the pdf at the same time they mail out your physical copy.

According to Dragonmount.com, Mr. Jordan passed away over the weekend.
Sir, rest in peace. I do not think we will see your like again. Thanks for providing one heck of an epic tale.

Fenrat,

Hmm, Ungoded normally seems to field inquiries like this, but he hasn't gotten to this one yet. Paizo personnel (I think it was Vic Wertz) posted awhile back that delays caused by Gencon has pushed back ROTRL 2 to October. It is either at the printer right now or on a slow container ship from China (where the Adv. Paths are printed). My guess is sometime within the first half of October is when it will finally arrive in your mailbox. The delay is no fun, but at least we'll be getting two issues in November and then it will be back to one a month.

Mr. Logue,

Excellent module and what I've come to expect from one of the fiendishly clever trio of Vaughan, Logue, and Pett. It looks like Hell's Heart will see print for 3.5. If you go to the Wizards website (which is very dodgy right now with the massive crush of people wanting to find out more about 4E), and click on the "Dungeon" tab, this is what you get:

Starting in October, this is your destination for
the best in D&D adventures. Coming in issue #151,
we’ll be wrapping up a three-part Eberron series,
which began with “Chimes at Midnight” in issue #133,
as well as returning to a classic 1st Edition
adventure, updated for D&D 3.5.

So, soon we'll find out what Mr. Logue cooked up for the conclusion of the trilogy. I look forward to it.

Hmm, Ungoded hasn't gotten to this one yet, so I'll do my best to answer.

Hopefully this week, maybe next. If you check some of the other threads on the board, Vic Wertz, Gary Teeter and the rest of the Paizo staff that have not headed off to GenCon have been physically boxing up the Pathfinder #1's and creating the mailing labels to stick on them (hopefully they'll get a fulfillment service or machine to help them as time goes on). At a minimum, we're talking thousands of Pathfinders (hopefully tens of thousands), so that's a lot of boxes/envelopes to pack. They're at least halfway there with the boxing, so they should (fingers crossed) finish this week. Since the digital watermark system and delivery server are complete (thanks Gary), pdfs should go out pretty quickly after Pathfinder is finally mailed.

Mr. Lacefield or other Paizo sales reps,

The player's guide is $2.00, correct? I was somewhat flumoxed because I spotted FRP Games selling it for $15.98! (http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=38004) I know Paizo is limited in its ability to influence what others sell Paizo's product for, but that price for a 16 page guide sounds a wee bit high.

Wouldn't it be better to adjust the adventures to suit the party's strengths (flexibility, requiring different skills for jobs, creative solutions to problems - general jack of all trade kinda stuff) instead of declaring it unplayable and unsurvivable?

Maybe it's just me, but it seems kind of off to tailor the party to suit the game and thus limit what people are able to play.

~ Bryon ~

Getting back to ericthecleric's and Paz's posts, i think their ability to tailor the game instead of the party is a function of how much spare time they have. If they're a 30 somethings like me, with a full time job and social obligations during the week and weekend, extensive conversion is possible but improbable. If they're still in college, or have a substantial amount of free time, then your advice Byron is spot on.

Personally, I recommend tailoring the party to the modules. For one, switching out a character or two is a lot easier than having to rewrite or substantially alter 12 modules. There are a few dm's I've known who could wing it on the fly, but if you do not have the time, alter the party.

Not being able to play a character that you want blows at times, but I've found that being sometimes forced to play outside your default character or character archetypes can broaden one's horizons and give an appreciation for other classes that was not there before. Go with a core of 3-4 specialists (tank, divine, arcane, face/rogue) with the rest support/jack of all trades and the group should go far.

Most of my gaming experience has been with the RPGA, which (in my region) tends to be combat heavy and story/rping lite. I agree somewhat with your other DM--your group is very playable at low and mid levels (1-10,11) but starts losing steam at higher levels. However, I disagree that all characters need to be specialists--most of the party should be, perhaps, but a party that also has support characters and a jack of all trades or two around a core of specialists tends to make the best mix.

I recommend that the players with divine and arcane casting ability take a combination of classes and prestige classes that do not cause them to sacrifice levels of casting ability and spell access in their initial core class. The additional spells from mystic theurge are nice, but it can't make up for the loss of high level spells. I have no wish to spoil the AP for you, but from what I've seen in SCAP and AoW, high level combats can be very brutal and you need access to as many high level spells, summons, healing, and buffs as you can get. I also question why the party has two dragon shamans. A dedicated support buffing caster or a knight might be better in place of one of the shamans. Best of luck.

I'm with Onrie on this one, FFXII is a great game. The cg, voice acting, fx and overall "feel" of the game is very polished and very professional.

For me, the best way to describe FFXII is with an oxymoron--its a single-player mmorg. It's obvious Square took their experiences with Final Fantasy Online (FFXI) and applied them to this game. If you've ever played EQ or WoW and liked them, you'll like FFXII, if you didn't like them, you may want to find something else.

Most of the battles are non random in that you can see the critter or critters you're going to engage--for me this was a plus as some zones contain critters that are designed to challenge far above the level you first hit the zone(like the entites, aiyee those suckers are tough). However there are many battles that are unexpected--undead will erupt from the ground, creatures will fly in, things in dungeons will drop from the ceiling. The cool thing is that the surprises happen in a matter that's consistent with that type of creature--no sudden "screen freezes", jump to a different screen and start smacking down like previous ffs.

One seemingly minor thing about this game that I like, is odd as it sounds, the weather. Certain zones will change appearance depending upon the weather cycle (The Westersands and the Giza plains being among the more dramatic) and certain monsters will only be able to be found during certain weather conditions. Its a seemingly minor feature, but it really helped with the game's verisimilitude.

As for the game challenge, I will say that once you figure out how to structure the gambits, equipment, and techniques for your party, many of the latter battles beyond the first few levels in the main storyline are moderately challenging. That does not mean there aren't any controller thrower fights ;), it's just that you have the option of engaging in them or no. If you do get the game (and I think you should) do the Clan Centrio quests--if you're looking for tough fights, many of them will fit the bill.

One final aspect of the game (and its a strength or weakness depending upon how you view mmorgs) is that there is a bit of grinding to be done. Your party will enter a zone and sometimes will have their head handed to them, yet if you come back in 3-5 levels the zone will be manageable and 10-15 levels will be quite easy. If you don't like spending some time just running around slaughtering stuff, you may want to find something else. I haven't found it to be all that boring, and since slaughtering creatures is tied to generating money (which is very tight in this game) by the items the creatures drop (the mixing of which is a subgame in itself) to upgrade spells, techniques, and equipment, the grinding has stayed involving.