revshafer's page

Are there restrictions on who can use what items? I was up late last night and my mind is fuzzy on these specifics...can only Wizards and Sorcerers use Wands? Is the breakdown around the type of magic? Can Rogue's use any magic type items?

For some reason the 3.5 stuff never made it to Japan. I've got a Player's Handbook, but no DMG or MM...so I think some of the answers might be in there. I'm also a bit confused by all of the reading between two books.

Thanks,

Scott

As I understand this...you can use one a round. So if I choose the Dodge feat I can use that every round until I choose another feat? So...every one of these feats gives the player's a combat choice every round, and they are reusable?

Thanks,

Scott

We had problems remembering all of our new abilities, especially the Cleric's new healing options. I thought about using old character sheets, but the clarity that we gained in combat would be obscured by all of the questions regarding skills. There's a lot of new information and it would be nice to have some help in organizing it.

The positives included a nice selection of abilities for all of the players to be using. The familiarity of D&D tropes, with a few little fixes here and there. The characters had enough hit points to not have to worry too often, but when they got hit hard they still got hit hard. They might have more hit points but their armor classes were low enough that they were in danger nonetheless.

Having to reference multiple books right now is painful. The new system is very good, but until its all out there are those wonderful moments of passing a binder around, then a Player's Handbook. How much more material in terms of page count will be released? Are we going to see mass changes in the spells? Even having to look up one spell in the new stuff and another in the old stuff takes up a bit too much time.

However, all in all...a very pleasant time was had by all.

Thanks,

Scott

Can we get a nice Pathfinder character sheet all ginned up?

Thanks,

Scott

I would like to know more specifics of when these new rules will be released. I don't need to know this, but I'd really like to. This is a very interesting game and I am greatly looking forward to the rest of it coming out.

Thanks,

Scott

Thieves with arcane abilities seems like something that could be done with multi-classing, but I kind of like that option being in the class. It reminds me of the Grey Mouser. At least in this iteration of Pathfinder it gives the player the choice of multi-classing or of using their own class ability. I prefer choices, and don't like arbitrarily taking this from the thief.

Thanks,

Scott

I agree that it would be nice to have a more printer friendly version of this document. It looks great but printing is a problem. Particularly for those of us without a Kinko's (none in Yokosuka as far as I can tell), and printing from work...well, let's just not go there. I am thankful that the full document will be printed by Paizo at the end of the Summer.

Thanks,

Scott

My youngest daughter wants Giants from Arcana Unearthed/Evolved.

Thanks,

Scott

I like this because it leads to another choice at character creation. My wife wanted to have a more combat heavy cleric, and left the charisma woefully low, which limited this power. Later in the adventure she really needed this ability, but had short circuited it through the choices that she made earlier. In a very simple and elegant way this simple change leads to more choices and consequences at earlier levels. I like that. You're character can be one thing or another, but not both. Heal your party, and your enemies...unless they're all undead and then you can have some evil melting fun with it.

Thanks,

Scott

I really like the healing/turning rule as written. There are tradeoffs with this ability. You can heal your party very well, and you might heal your enemies at the same time. This means more choices and consequences for the player...and I always like that. Outside of killing undead...just use it before or after a big fight and avoid healing your enemies. This is a very good idea that gives the cleric more flexibility than "medic!"

I also like healing that is centered upon the cleric. what I mean is this, if healing is centered upon the individual players and how they can only receive a certain amount of healing each day...that's more bookkeeping for the whole party. If healing is centered on the cleric...I know how many times that power has been used and how much is left. I do not have to remember that Dave has already been healed once, but Sara has not. For myself, this is easier to keep track of, and I appreciate that.

Thanks,

Scott

Absolutely right! My girls got their characters up much faster since they didn't have to monkey with skill points. There's nostalgia, and then there's needless complication. I truly enjoy the simplicity of this system!

Thanks,

Scott

No thanks, I'd rather see that material used to expand on the early levels, with the Epic material released in another book.

Thanks,

Scott

Dear Paizo Publishing,

I just wanted to thank all of you for doing an extraordinarily good job at customer service. In the Navy we say, “Bravo Zulu,” (BZ) when someone does a great job! You all have been doing a great job, so…BZ!!! I have not written before but really wanted to thank all of you.

Several months ago I had an order with you all that got seriously jacked. The details are irrelevant, except for one…I was about to give up on your customer service and stop doing business with you all all together, but your customer service never gave up. They kept plugging away, and made things even better than “right” to begin with.

As a consequence of your superior customer service I subscribed to Planet Stories! In recent days I have downloaded your Pathfinder game and been greatly impressed! So I have subscribed to your Pathfinder products!!! This has all happened because I have become more and more impressed with your products…but that foundation was built upon a great respect for your “Never Say Die” customer service.

Thank You All So Much, for making the ordinary extraordinary!!!

BZ,

Scott Shafer

I'm not in favor of these. Put me down as a "No!"

Thanks,

Scott

The family got together and made up the standard party of four (cleric, fighter, rogue and wizard). Initial hit points were constitution plus racial plus max initial, and the racial bonus for favored class. We're going through Hollow's Last Hope. Hit points haven't been a problem, and for the first time my "worrying" daughter turned down healing because she was only down one hp. They haven't sweated it at all, which has kept the adventure going at a nice pace.

The lack of skill points is great. Aside from the shopping for gear and spells, taking away the skill point figuring definitely sped up our play. I really appreciate that, and it enabled us to get characters and play through an adventure in a single day...with a trip to the commissary thrown into it!

The lack of spells, and how to get your characteristics (we used the 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 method) does slow things down. I hate having to juggle so many books. The layout of Pathfinder is much more open, and much friendlier to my old eyes.

The characters feel very competent for first level...and I like that. As a DM I am not having to worry as much about what is being thrown at them. Total Party Kills aren't really an option when the player's are our wife and two daughters. However, they can almost do too much and that is one of my gripes with 3.5. As a DM I have to know the game a bit better than what I have time for...that's a killer for active duty military. I don't have the time to prepare that I once had at another church. But the family is very excited by their competence and the options that they have to develop their characters. Increased numbers of feats enable them to break out their characters from the pack early and make something unique for themselves.

I would like to see spells broken out in the beta document along with a complete list of feats. I may have missed something, but it seems like there is a bit too much that is split between the playtest document and the originals. I know this is to be expected, but it is irritating nonetheless.

Overall, this is a blast! We haven't played 3.5 in quite a while and the Pathfinder game has really been a spark. I do like the idea of one book being released for the game. Game issues aside, I do not like WOTC releasing new sets of books every year. I rather like the way that Paizo is proceeding with their production schedule. They may produce as much paper as WOTC, but it just seems friendlier.

I like this game the way it is, and really appreciate a wonderful dungeon crawling game, that isn't some faddish video game remake. Thanks you very much for offering this game, and I will have a bit more to say after the girls have gotten through the monastery.

Thanks,

Scott Shafer