Zaister's page

While I usually frown at Zaister's "purism" when it comes to fantasy themes ...

I think you misinterpret my preferences. And the "furry" statement I made above doesn't even have anything to do with fantasy. :)

Don't be too worried about what people say in regards to monstrous humanoids and the classification of "furry." There's some magical white line in the collective childhoods of 90s kids where suddenly any and every anthromorphic animal becomes a furry. Ask most of the furry haters whether or not they think Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, etc. are furries and you'll usually get one of two responses. #1 - A strong 'no' along with some weak reasons as to why a separation is in order or #2 a factitious 'yes' that is easily translated into personal uncertainty.

While I'm not a fan of the fandom and things like 'yiff talk' freak me out, most of the work is harmless (there's always that 1% vocal minority that is applied to everything else that is similar. The only furries I acknowledge are those whose artists or creators have directly stated that their work should be identified as such. For example, I would consider the Fursona PDF a furry work since the authors clearly stated that theme as their intent, but nowhere did James Jacobs or any of the other Devs say that kitsune, lycanthrophes, or the agathions are furries so therefore they're not.

Actually, for me the answer is a clear "yes". With "furry" I'm not referring to what you call fandom; I know there are people dressing up and acting out and maybe even using this as a sexual fetish. That's not what I was referring to. I was using the term as a catch-all for any kind of anthromorphic animal. Personally, I despise stories - or movies, or whatever - with any kind of talking or anthromorphic animals. It turns me off even for otherwise fine stories. And yes, that includes Bugs Bunny and the like as well. I don't really like animation of any kind anyway. So there you are.

I wonder, how is Ravengro supposed to be pronounced/stressed? Does the name have anything to to with ravens?

Most Favorite: Wayne Reynolds, Kemim Beyit
Least Favorite: Vincent Dutrait (sorry, Vincent!)

(In my defense, I used the word "alliteration" because I was firing of a quick reply to Zaister, who used the word alliteration in his own post, and so the error crept in by subconscious messageboard hypnosis, which after midnight, becomes more effective on my increasingly sleep-addled mind.)

Guilty as charged. In my defense, though, I don't have a degree in English, and it's a second language for me, too.

I know it's easy to jump on waltero, but to make it clear, I was at his table and he is giving you the facts. The character went from full hit points to dead on one hit due to a 31 point non-empowered shocking grasp delivered by a magus. The GM rolled an awful lot of 5's and 6's on his damage roll too, which didn't hurt.

Please explain, how do you get 31 points of damage from a non-empowered shocking grasp, when the spell is capped at 5d6?

Interesting fact: the spell cold ice blast form the very same book goes directly against this design principle. Functionally, the spell is identical to a quickened cone of cold, in fact it is even better as it has no components whatsoever. And it's outrageously "cheap", being a 6th-level spell only, when the quickened cone of cold would be 9th level. And on top of that, it's available to clerics. For the first time I'm wondering, what were they thinking?

What happened to the Crossbones is that our Pirate Region doesn't have crossbones on the flag; it has crossed shackles.

Also, "Skull and Shackles" sounds better to me due to the alliteration.

Also also, "Skull and Shackles" is more unique, and less generic.

And it's abbreviation is SAS, not SS.

Ah, well, I guess I can live with that. Just a matter of getting used to it.

We've altered the title of the next AP a bit—it's gonna be the "Skull and Shackles" Adventure Path.

Hm. So, what happened to the Crossbones? "Skull and Shackles" doesn't really evoke pirates at all for me, unless you know enough Golarion lore to know about the Shackles. To me, this is a worse title than the original "Skull and Bones". It sounds awkward, despite having an alliteration. Also, it duplicates SS as an abbreviation (and even one of the words is the same). Hm.

Ordered!

Maldollen wrote:

Preston Poulter wrote:

So if you fire a +3 arrow from a +1 Keen, Humanbane longbow... what happens?

Best of both:

+3 Keen Humanbane damage is done by the arrow.

One minor correction: I don't believe you can Keen a ranged weapon. Maybe the ammunition, but not the weapon itself.

That is correct, only piercing or slashing melee weapons can be made keen.

I'm guessing the gunslinger will get a class ability that'll allow her to take feats usually reserved for fighters, similar to the magus's Fighter Training ability.

Don't you balk at all at the repetition of the "skull" which just appeared in an AP title with "Serpent's Skull"? If not, I'm all for "Skull and Crossbones".

Damn, I always hear Elvis in my mind when I read "Flaming Sword"...

Although with Kingmaker and Carrion Crown both in my personal GM's bullpen, it isn't as if I don't have plenty of stuff I am excited about running to play with in the meantime. =]

Same here, I've only just started both new Kingmaker and Serpent's Skull campaigns, and my Legacy of Fire campaign is just nearing the conclusion of its chapter 4, so Skull and Bones seems to be long way off for me. Still I look forward to it.

The Council of Thieves campaign I'm playing in is in chapter 6 now, so we'll probably finish it in the near future, and out GM has indicated he's interested in following this up with Jade Regent, so no Skull and BOnes there for me either. (Well, the journey element and the whole escort-the-princess set-up are interesting enough so I could put up with 2 or 3 adventures in Tian Xia, so I'm OK with this, especially since he's most definitely not a weeaboo.)

Speaking of which wasent the cover shown at Paizocon? Really hoping to see it soon.

Yes, please!

I like "Crossbones", too. At first I thought when I heard about the new AP title, "shouldn't it be 'Skull and Crossbones'?", but just "Crossbones" works very well I think.

I disagree, I would rather have Ninja and Samurai as base classes and why the Cavalier was the base for the Samurai was the last choice that I would have picked.

To me, it's the only sane choice.

Are there ANY APs where the PCs are set up to be unambiguously heroic, without being forced to go through or get in bed with hell to do it?

Why don't you think that Rise of the Runelords or Curse of the Crimson Throne don't qualify? Or Age of Worms, for that matter? I'm playing Council of Thieves (we've started Chapter 6) and I haven't seen that symptom there either yet.

By the way. I'd love to see a Worldwound Crusade AP - like you have described a while ago - some day.

They said the Gunslinger is a base class now but I haven't heard anything about the Ninja and Samurai being base classes.

Which is good - they are perfectly done as archetypes/alternate classes.

Awesome!

Oooo pretty.

Who is it on the cover there?

The cover currently displayed is still the mockup. The final cover will feature Shalelu Andosana.

Also hoping kaiju is a template. It makes more sense as a template.

What's a kaiju? Where's that from?

OMG, an AP that isn't standard fare Western Medieval fantasy type and Zaister likes. Something's wrong with the universe! ;-)

Hey, I never said I only like "standard western medieval fantasy" - far from it! :)

+1 on this post. Very disappointed about a pirate-themed AP. Sigh.

Well, for me, as an example, it was like that when Carrion Crown was announced, and again with Jade Regent. Both themes don't hold much interest for me. Pirates I like, so finally again something to look forward to.

The name is a bit,... well, .....um, .....I am not sure if "Ultimate Races" is a title I want people to read on my bockshelf

Hm, indeed, might call up the wrong images. Maybe Paizo should re-think that title.

bigkilla wrote:

Based on the tweets out of PaizoCon, its basically "Savage Species" for Pathfinder, with a bunch of races with level based progressions.

Booooo!!!

I interpreted what I read as something altogether different from Savage Species, specifically detailing options for 0-HD races like tieflings, aasimars, dhampirs or the elemental races from Bestiary 2 and to so, and not races with racial hit dice.

Think I'll reserve my excitement until I know more. The AP after Age of Worms was piratey...but not, and Serpent's Skull was piratey...but not, so as much as I would love to see Paizo do a piratey AP, I want to KNOW it's happening before I break out the rum and cutlass...

Serpent's Skull was never called out as "piratey", in fact the Player's Guide clearly spelled out that it is in now way a maritime campaign. And I'm reasonably sure that Savage Tide was also never advertised as a "pirate campaign". This however seems to be explicitly just that.

deinol wrote:

It's supposed to be a sandbox like kingmaker, with infamy and plunder subsystems.

ok, now THAT rocks the house!

Just awesome.

Zaister wrote:

Is there an estimate as to whne the print product will be available?

I don't have an exact date, but I can tell you the book (and several others) are being printed now, will go to directly from the printer to our fulfillment agency, then to the distributors and finally the retailers.

Thank you for the information!

Ah thank you, as we don't have PFS over here in Germany, this kind of stuff gets lost somewhat.

Who is this guy?

Huh. Surprised that Seoni is not in this set.

Preordered though.

Edit: Oh I get it. They match the pre-gens in the beginner box. hehe silly me.

It's the classic adventuring party of fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue.

However you are right, smalles marges, smaller fonts, less images, and you could make a compact book.

Compact, yes, but much less readable, for sure.

Pre-ordered! We need more of this!

Just curious are you guys going to be offering a print/PDF bundle?

That would make me buy this again (I already have the original PDFs).

There should be a live web stream! Or CNN should be covering it live. After all, these are momentous events!

No, that's how the preorder print/PDF bundles work—we charge you for the product when you place your order, and you get the PDF immediately. When the print product arrives at our warehouse, then we charge for shipping and send it to you. If it's in your sidecart, it'll stay there until it comes into stock, then we'll ship it out with that month's subscription shipment.

Thanks Gary, that's comforting.

Is there an estimate as to whne the print product will be available?

It seems my print version from order #1650437 is still resting in my sidecart, while the PDF is accessible to me. Is something wrong here?

The opinions we've gotten (here and on FB) have been strong -- but the old cover has a slight lead.

So, we're going to go with that one -- HOWEVER, we're going to use the other image as the back cover image. It's too good not to use.

Cool, and cool!

I think, I'd have preferred the original art. It captured the post-apocalyptic abandoned-city-look well, while the new one is just some kind of generic "guys with guns" picture, and a little bit too much on the comic-book-style side. Anyway, the contents is what matters!

Zaister wrote:

Anthropomorphic animals (or just talking anmals) on the other hand, is another thing I really can't stand.

Does that include minotaurs, lizardfolk, guardinals, gnolls, centaurs, lycanthropes (to be fair, only half-furry), serpentfolk, locathah, and other staples of fantasy roleplaying?

My statement was about general fiction, not just RPG. Concerning the game, the creatures are OK with me (even though guardinals/agathions are pushing it), but they are not PC races, which is an important distinction. PC races are supposed to be generally accepted in normal civilized surroundings, minotaurs etc. usually are not. (Yes, I know about the DragonLance continent, and I don't care for it.)

Just curious, why do you think shapeshifters are bad? Changlings (Eberron) are fun to play for me.

And is it possible to have an anthropomorphic race you'd not call a 'furry'?

I don't know exactly, but I think it's too good an ability for characters to have right from the start, and I wouldn't like to have to arbitrate it. Also, aside form RPGs, it's a trope I really dislike, for example, in fiction.

You know, all PC races are "anthropomorphic", because that's just Greek for "human-shaped". Anthropomorphic animals (or just talking anmals) on the other hand, is another thing I really can't stand. I refuse to watch movies or read books having those, it's just too silly for my taste. However, I only call them "furry", when they're ... well, furry.

I think shapechanger PC races are a bad idea. Ah, well. And furries on top of ninja and Samurai... *sigh*

Infernal Healing says you DETECT AS Evil, but you aren`t ACTUALLY Evil,

i.e. a Cleric of Good Diety wouldn`t lose their powers.

A cleric of a good deity can't cast infernal healing at all, as this spell has the evil descriptor.

Also, it's deity. Go write that on the blackboard 40 times! :)

Please not that incorporal creatures, most of which are undead, are still immune to critical hit and sneak damage

I see. Good to know I haven't missed anything.

from what I recall, those who pre-ordered through Adamant's site got the PDF when the final proof shipped to printers, and the Print copy when they shipped to distributors. Kind of like the Paizo setup.

Hm, I didn't get anything like that, and I pre-ordered over the Adamant site as far as I can tell.

Gareth, can you check that, perhaps? My name is Stefan Radermacher.

Hm... did I pre-order this? I can't remember. :)

Edit: Ah, yes, I did, back in August. Good. Can't be long now...

Do we get print and PDF by any chance?

Eldritch Heritage feat in Ultimate Magic lets them pick up a first level bloodline power, although you count as your level -2.

Snag Arcane and you get Arcane Bond, which is how you get a familiar.

You need Cha13, to be at least level 3, and have Skill Focus: Knowledge (any) to get it, though. (Which skill you need Skill Focus for changes based on which bloodline you're after.)

Ah, that would be the correct Pathfinder solution, with the problem that she'd actually have to take two feats - this one, and Skill Focus (Knowledge (arcane)) - to make this happen. Hm. Thanks for the tip. I'll bring it up in the game tonight.