gbonehead's page

Folks,

If this book sells the way I expect it to, we will add an "Advanced NPC Codex" that uses archetypes, classes from the APG and Ultimate Books, and more.

First things first. There isn't enough space to do all of that in one book, so we're going to space them out.

And we're going to get back to Bestiaries as well, so those mourning more monster books will not be missing them for too much longer.

The real reason is that Paizo knows that if they release a book that acknowledges the gunslinger class, the resulting nerdrage will consume the entire company and also a few other small businesses their HQ.

there is also the siege weapon type of fire Arm. aswell

"You enter into the smoothly carved dwarven long cavern. You notice it is a perficetly round as well." ... " After walking about ten minuets you hear this strange zizling sound." ... " BANG!!! "

I'LL CALM DOWN AS SOON AS YOU STOP STARING AT ME WITH THOSE BINOCULARS.

For a few seconds I was wondering what kind of "Polish Joke" is the word "Jetski"...

I think Paizo should kick their moderation policy up a little.

Even if that means more of my posts deleted.

Test of the Starstone revealed:

I shouldn't be telling any of you this but...

...it's math.

Here's some of the description text from the first and final room of the one-page dungeon:

"Your characters come through the doors into a darkened chamber, where a single beam of bright light shines from high above. There is a silhouetted figure there. The great golden doors boom shut behind you.

The hooded figure gestures to a number of small students' desks in the shadows just beyond the beam of light. They're dusty, and have carved-in graffiti from thousands of years. "Cayden Cailean wuz here" reads one of desktops.

The hooded figure throws back his hood, revealing he is none other than Asmodeus himself. He takes a seat at a large desk you didn't notice before. A large chalkboard wheels into view behind him. Upon it is a math question, an EPIC MATH QUESTION.

"You have one hour." Intones Asmodeus "Use a #2 pencil. Also, watch out for the badgers."

Your ankles are then attacked by badgers. Roll initiative.

In general we don't care that much about reviving old threads, though if the thread was several hundred grar-filled posts long, we'd usually prefer if it just stay dormant.

I'm not really big on technological fixes to human mistakes in general, actually. People who aren't paying enough attention to notice that they're posting a "hey me too!" comment on a years-dead thread probably wouldn't notice an "are you sure?" message either. More likely they'd just get annoyed at having to actually read what's on the screen in front of them, and our site has enough ways to annoy people already that I'd rather not add any more.

I have edition fatigue. I have settled on the game I enjoy, and I am playing it: Pathfinder. I do not have the time, energy or money to devote to another new game I may not enjoy and may not find players for - especially when I know the main reason for it's release is that WotC need to make another round of cash out of the D&D name.

Nobody picked up on the real problem with this post:

A friend and I bought a bunch of singles from Heroes & Monsters on the after-market, and 5 of them showed up broken. We've both been buying DDM since Harbinger. Over the grand total of DDM purchased - for both of us combined - we had 3 broken ones. Over half the minis purchased (DDM & Pathfinder) came from the same vendor, so their shipping and handling practices aren't the issue.

I hope this isn't going to be an on-going problem with the PF minis. Aside from that, I love them. Just thought Paizo should be made aware.

The Pathfinder minis are less bendable than DDMs to be sure, but the fact that the Kaven paint master broke actually has nothing whatsoever to do with the final minis, as the early outputs we use to create the paint masters are made of a completely different (and much much much more brittle) material than the final production run miniatures.

We're keeping an eye on the plastic rigidity for the production runs, and it may be that we need to alter the balance to make them more durable, but please do not correlate the two, because they are completely different things.

If the actual minis were made the the stuff the paint masters are made of, every single miniature ever would arrive broken, and you guys would have burned down the Paizo offices a long time ago.

Hey, Chris, can you...oh...thanks for taking care of that.

Robots are amazing!

.

I want to expand a little on my review.

I think if there is an urge to roast this book (unfairly, I might add), there really needs to some practical thought about the role of maps in these gazetteers.

And I'm loathe to APPEAR to bash one book in order to make this book look better. It might seem like I'm doing that, but believe me- that's not my intention. I just want to keep this real.

I love Sutter's Distant Worlds. It took an idea I was neutral on and really got me excited, and between that and City of Strangers I keep my eye out for his work now. That being said, Distant Worlds is not chock full of maps that I can instantly make encounters out of. Not by a long shot. What it gives me is some context to get me started, and the rest is on me. A lot is still dependent on me. But that's okay, because that's oretty much what I expect from a gazetteer of a big region.

Lands of the Linnorm Kings has quite a few maps. It too is a great book. I don't just write adventures, I run them. I run published adventures. Most of those city maps get used one time for about three minutes tops. I show them to the players. It fires up their imaginations and gives them some context.. and they never get used again. Now I'm not going to kid you, seeing the lay out of the city and knowing what a city quarter is like (i.e. wealthy, crime-ridden, haunted) helps me to do a better and more accurate encounter. But again, it's not like I'm home free and kick back and not prepare an adventure. No, my work has just begun. Now, seeing the Seer's Home map really helps (its an unusual location)- its just I can't use that map in my game. I have to develop and draw another based upon it. See what I mean?

Its important to understand that I'm not criticizing the product line. My expectations are being met. Rather, I'm saying this book doesn't deserve the degree of criticism its receiving.

BTW I wouldn't let you cast masterwork transformation on an unarmed strike, mainly because there is no "masterwork equivalent" for a unarmed strike, which means the spell would have no effect.

I just read this and instantly though of David Duchovny's hand model character from Zoolander...

I removed a vulgar post. Be civil people.

Gorbacz wrote:

sunbeam wrote:

Winning or losing?

If you call completing an adventure successfully winning with no one dying, then that's what I'm all about. Winning you know.

And it kind of goes beyond the scope of a thread like this, but there are a couple schools of thought about what the mechanics of this game imply.

One such school of thought says if you are a fighter, you darn well better one-shot the Balor, because he can one-shot you, or at least render you useless.

Heck I don't think I've seen a version of Valeros with a flying item. And with all those feats sunk into his version of two weapon fighting he isn't much of a threat with ranged. I figure a creature with both Wisdom and Intelligence of 24 will suss that out at a glance.

Now I can hear the chorus now, it's not a solo game, etc. No one said it was. Most level 20 parties (well maybe not apparently) are perfectly capable of winning initiative and one-shotting a Balor. And they had better because if they don't things are going to get a lot more interesting for them.

There are communities out there where D&D is a two-round rocket tag, WBL and CR are set in stone more firmly than the Commandments and the Constitution are, optimization is assumed and all game designers are considered to be brainless monkeys.

This is not one of those communities.

Yeah. That is exactly where the game mechanics lead you. Two round, actually one round rocket tag.

That goes back a long time though. Same thing occurred in 1e. It's much worse in 3e/Pathfinder though.

If your game isn't two round rocket tag at higher levels though, that is good if you are having fun.

That requires your dm to run things in a certain way though, and avoid the typical opponents in a game using their abilities as they potentially could be used. There's just not much way around it when you get to the levels you toss 9th level spells around.

All I'm saying is that you'll find places where your play style is considered to be baseline, and where after giving an account of this thread the locals will pat you on the back and ask you to show them on the doll where the bad Paizils touched you.

Wow, I think my (now third level) sorcerer in PFS would make some people cry.

• No wand of CLW, 4 potions of healing instead
  
• Darkwood masterwork club.
  
• +1 Hakiri-maki
  
• sleep, snapdragon fireworks in his spell list.
  
• Lowest stat is an 11 wisdom, highest stat is his 17 int.
  

But he's fun.

I believe you're having what is refered to as "Bad Wrong Fun" and should attempt to immediately stop it. Perhaps a visit to your local physician may help.

Wow, I think my (now third level) sorcerer in PFS would make some people cry.

• No wand of CLW, 4 potions of healing instead
  
• Darkwood masterwork club.
  
• +1 Hakiri-maki
  
• sleep, snapdragon fireworks in his spell list.
  
• Lowest stat is an 11 wisdom, highest stat is his 17 int.
  

But he's fun.

TYPICAL PAIZO CUSTOMER, POLLUTING THE GENE POOL OF OUR SPECIES!

I had a character who didn't take Power Attack until 6th level. Am I a bad person?

You are just drawn that way.

I had a character who didn't take Power Attack until 6th level. Am I a bad person?

I can't have fun if I'm not right.

I bet this thread will end with all parties agreeing and shaking hands.

Now all we need is an "Ultimate Classes" book that gives us a system to create are own classes.

ka-BLAM

What was that?

...oh, just Jason's head exploding...

...again.

ciretose wrote:

The devs write the product well enough that we pay for it.

Well, y'all do anyway. :)

Complaining about product you spend no money on is so un-American. ;-)

But seriously, I can't think of a reason you'd need to appraise while in danger or distracted. Unless you're one of those roguish types who uses the chaos of combat to pinch valuables while everyone else fights..

The one that comes immediately to mind as a great example is Bilbo Baggins using the skill in Smaug's lair to pick out a nice bit of treasure.

Subscription is happening. Just working out the final details with Dynamite. Expect to hear about this shortly.

The first issue is scheduled for an August 8th release, just in time for Gen Con!

I'm looking over the book for final approvals right now, and it's GREAT!

Huh.

'Cuz I was wondering what to do with that huge pile of money I wasn't already dedicating to this hobby. Errr.

Just think of us as problem solvers.

I've played more 1st level characters than 20th level characters. I need to fix that.

Because it's so awesome a post, and because it demonstrates just how broken Antagonize is currently, here's a great description of the results of how it works currently:

I try not to think about that night.

We were hired to defend this small village on the border from this warlord that had been tearing across human and orc territory alike. We were expecting trouble, eventually, but we had handled petty orc warlords before.

The villagers were as ready as they could be as well. They had lived their entire lives near the border, they knew the risks. And they did everything we suggested to bolster their defenses.

But then they actually came. Everything went to hell.

These hulking brutes just stomped forth out of the night, shouting vile insults and horrific threats. They made no attempt to hide themselves. They practically announced their presense.

We might have actually been able to halt their advance, but the villagers...gods.

They started to run towards the buildings we had prepared as shelter. But as they ran, as they heard the calls of those orcs....I swear most of them were half-orcs...they stopped in their tracks. Men. Women. Children. The old. They all just turned around and charged towards their own deaths.

Most of them didn't have any weapons. Those that did were hardly of any real quality. But still they turned and charged right into the midst of the enemy to be cut down.

There was an old woman...I never even learned her name....she always seemed to be bringing us food and thanking us for our work. So sweet natured and I never learned her name. I remember calling out to her to run towards safety. She just turned and ran into some orc's axe.

Faris, our mage....he couldn't do anything. Everything he had planned fell apart in an instant when the villagers ran into the orcs' midst. Almost everything he could have done would have killed the people were were there to protect. So he ran.

He didn't get very far. An orc stepped out from behind a house, holding a struggling child in one arm. The brute shouted that he would use Faris' skull as a bowl.

Faris seemed as if he was about to torch the orc right then and there. I saw him glance at the child. He just charged. Faris was a good man...he deserved better.

It all happened so fast...we began to pull back. It wasn't a fight to protect the village anymore. We were all just running, to save as many lives as we could. I was carrying a man I had to knock unconcious to keep him from running towards his own death. He had been weeping, screaming for the wife and children cut down before his own eyes.

I ran past Phaera. She was kneeling over Revik, trying to stop his bleeding. The man was dying, but she had never been one to leave behind those in need. A more loving soul I had never known. She was practically her goddess made flesh by my account.

She was just about to whisper her prayers when one of the bastards called out to her, laughing at her attempts and promising as painful a death as those we had witnessed in the dozens already that hour.

I screamed at her to cover her ears. To run with me.

I don't know if it was fear or rage in her eyes as she stood and ran to her death.

I try not to think about it.

I hear the war's getting closer still. I really thought things would turn around once we started making those muffling helmets for our soldiers. That brought new problems all on its own, but then the bastards learned how to use body and sign language.

Wizards're saying that whatever is happening, it isn't magic. People are just going crazy whenever that horde shows up.

My advice? Keep moving west. Don't look back. Don't listen. Just keep running.

Me? I'm going to stay right here and drink myself blind and deaf. At least then...I might be able to die as myself.

Removed some unnecessary Edition War baiting and responses. Please do not do this thing.

TOZ wrote:

Flurry works like TWF in that they both grant extra attacks at a -2 penalty. And that's about all they share in common.

That's my take on it, based on the wording etc. That's how most people took it...

Yesterday, flurry troubles seemed so far away

I'm just implementing 3.5 Mirror Image into any future PF games I run, if any. It was WAAAAAY WAAAAAAY WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more balanced and well thought out than this disgusting drivel.

For the benefit of those who'd like to see how to keep the essence of the spell the same, but make it less stupidly powerful (but still pretty good for a level 2), behold the glory:

Bolded the particularly well thought out, balanced bits. Like whichever one you end up randomly rolling to attack is your defined target. Or how you can move the images on YOUR TURN but out of turn, if an enemy finds the real you, all his buddies get to ignore the images until your turn comes back up (every DM I've had in PF has ruled that by removing this text, PF intended that you can never target the caster automatically if an ally strikes true, the images shift around even out of turn, or something else like that). Or how the image AC is pitifully easy to hit.

For yet still more of a respite from the insanity, check out this awesome quote from p. 62 of the D&D 3.5 FAQ:

What PF did with Mirror Image is abominable. It should be made clear: If you think MI is overpowered, this is not how it always was! This is solely a Paizo created problem. THEY are the ones who wanted Mirror Image to make fighters suck. THEY are the only ones responsible for it.

never liked the man

list of monsters he wants

No.

Ok, moving on to requests that DON'T suck...

Abominations
Byakhee
Clockwork Creature (template)
Demon, Golgothan Excremental [Dogma]
Demon, Candarian [The Evil Dead]
Dhole
Flying Polyp
Grue [Zork]
Hunting Horror
Lavawight
* Metroid
Metroid, Alpha
Metroid, Gamma
Metroid, Zeta
Metroid, Omega
Metroid, Queen
Nightgaunt
Paragon Creature (template)
Pseudonatural Creature (template)
Shadow of the Void
** Shan, Insect from Shaggai
Shape of Fire
Umbral Blot

Hazard: Flux Slime

Oh, and every monster from the SRD that hasn't been converted yet.

* Yeah, metroids are Nintendo's IP. But something that's "inspired by" could be pretty cool.

** Unsure on the legal status of Shan.

Wait... they aren't my personal walking rules-encyclopedias?

I'm also bothered by those who DO get answers and then trash the developers after they took the time to explain something.

My much abused wallet thanks you for the confirmation.

While I can't promise anything, let me just say that the idea of a Distant Worlds player companion has been heard, and is busy percolating... I'll see what I can do....

James Sutter wrote:

Our top folks are working on getting that resolved as we speak.

Who?

Top... folks.

This is one of the reasons I subscribe. I have had it for several days. Read the entire thing and have a PDF. Another reason I subscribe is I do not have to worry about missing anything as it comes out. Much like the Tome of Horrors Complete that so many people did not hear about until the first preorders were on the street, I do not want to miss anything. I want my Paizo gaming goodness (PGG) when it comes out without having to search the products to make sure I am completely informed and sometimes something just shows up that I did not realize was being released.

Don't worry, there's some extensive weirdness coming down the line. :)

I now want an Ultimate Weirdness hardcover.

To Berselius and other folks who were disappointed by the fact that this wasn't a rules book: I'm sorry you were unhappy. I really tried my best to warn people that this was a campaign setting gazetteer, not a rulebook.

That said, we were already planning to stat up the lashunta in another upcoming product, so you'll see that soon (including stats for using them as a playable race). For the bestiary section of this book, I tried to make sure we had a fairly diverse spread of creatures from various worlds--I just couldn't bring myself to cut the robots and space whales for another pretty humanoid. :D

This book is in the Campaign Setting line, not the Companion line, so mechanics don't filer into the scene as much. Also, it deals with a WHOLE SOLAR SYSTEM and not just a city or nation. There's just not enough space in a book this size to do everything everyone wants it to do. Consider Distant Worlds a taste of what can happen if enough folks are interested in (and buy) a product like this.

august is a sexy month for a book like this WOOT WOOT!!!

do yourselves and us a favor by standardizing terminologys in the book. have a formula for creating discriptions so they will not be misinterpreted or misused. if you guys would impliment a series of key words it would cut down on the need for errata.

It repeats the core rulebook stuff, but a lot of it has been rearranged by magic item "slot." We agonized over this, but eventually sided with making this book a more useful reference by including pretty much everything.

And thank you for that :) I know you're going to get complaints from people about paying for old material again, but from me a big thanks. It's such a pain having to search through four different rulebooks for the thing you want. After having just done similarly for a Wizard character (except with spells) I'm hoping you're planing to do a Ultimate Spells at some point with updated Class Lists :)

So who has completed their time machine so I can hand over my money now?

You can find it on page 262.

...Sure, in a game like Kingmaker a Seige Master is going to be useful....

...and that is why it exists. Not every option we publish is going to be useful in every campaign, but every option should be useful in *some* campaign. That's not a "trap" in any way.

That will be true for this book as well.

Since its in the Campaign Setting line, i suspect a mix of PC and NPC targetted PrC's.

This.

As an adventure writer and developer, one of the things that frustrates me most about the game as it currently stands is the fact that if I want to give a monster prestige classes... there's not a lot of choices. There will be some classes in here that, while they're built for specific groups... will also work pretty well for some monsters. Like putting assassin levels on a succubus, for example, or loremaster levels on a guardian naga.

Some of the prestige classes in this book are SPECIFICALLY named after archetypes, becasue they might require taking that archetype in order to qualify for the prestige class. Not sure that's what the Aldori Duelst or whatever it ends up being called will do... but it's absolutely what's going on with the Winter Witch prestige class.

The kobolds decided to better word their next wish for 'more magic items'.

I have now a picture of a Gargantuan golem wrapping soft, tender handwraps around his car-sized fists.