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A Modest Proposal

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3/5 *

No, this thread isn't about how to deal with starving children. It's about an idea I had upon shopping in the Paizo store and looking over the additional resources.

There are a number of books in the AR with many, many allowed mechanical benefits. There are also a number that contain very few, albeit potentially good, choices.

Let's consider City of Strangers. That book has some GREAT setting 'fluff'. The city is fascinating, and were I running a home game, this book would be on my short list of books to get. For PFS it offers the Bloatmage, a great PrC, and.... well really that's it. It offers a single feat meant to support the Bloatmage.

While I admit the Bloatmage is a very tempting PrC, the PDF carries a $14 price tag. For a PFS player, not much else will be useful in the book. If my character doesn't have Knowledge (Local), I can't even know any of the cool stuff in the book. For a PFS GM, maybe a touch more is useful if they run the right scenarios.

But what if.... each book you purchased gave you a way to use that 'fluff'? My idea is to have books unlock a downloadable boon (like the ones that come for novels) that could be applied to a single character of your choice. A minor ability, nothing too powerful, aimed at letting you use the more informative parts of the book. For our example book, the boon could be something like "You can make untrained Knowledge (Local) checks involving Kaer Maga. You get a +1 competence bonus on such checks."

I think this option will not only make some of the books more marketable for PFS than they currently are, but more importantly will also help bring more of the setting and feel of Golarion into the game on the players' end of the table.

I'll admit this is a spur of the moment idea, but it seemed interesting to me and I thought I'd get feedback from the forum-goers. Thanks for reading my Modest Proposal.
Grand Lodge 4/5
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I just use the fluff to inform my roleplay of characters from there.
Shadow Lodge *
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

It's not a bad idea, and as a multi-subscriber, I'd sure get a lot of use out of it.

However, I think it's unlikely to happen because of the work involved.

What you're basically suggesting is something like the Pathfinder Tales boons, and look at how far behind they are in keeping those up to date.
3/5 *
pH unbalanced wrote:

It's not a bad idea, and as a multi-subscriber, I'd sure get a lot of use out of it.

However, I think it's unlikely to happen because of the work involved.

What you're basically suggesting is something like the Pathfinder Tales boons, and look at how far behind they are in keeping those up to date.

True, but these could be much more formulaic. Generally speaking a +1 to a relevant knowledge, and the ability to use that knowledge untrained, only for use with a specific topic thematic to the book. Or something similar, perhaps. Might become a bit much.. unsure.

Dark Archive
1 person marked this as a favorite.

It's still a suprisingly huge amount of work to impliment something like that. I'd rather they spend their time on new product and scenarios.

Remember, there's more to playing PFS than just mechanical benefits. Setting "fluff" can be a great tool to have a lot of fun roleplaying at a PFS event. They enjoyment you get out of it is probably a lot more value for your money than +1 to knowledge local about a particular city state.
Silver Crusade 5/5

How about a free reroll while in the associated locale that stacks with shirt rerolls?
3/5

I wanted to read about eating babies!

I bought a book for a trait pesh addict just for fluff for my character. Although I still get to read and enjoy the rest of the book.
Dark Archive
Finlanderboy wrote:

I wanted to read about eating babies!

I bought a book for a trait pesh addict just for fluff for my character. Although I still get to read and enjoy the rest of the book.

Yeah, I have to admit that I was also pretty disappointed this thread had nothing to do with eating babies.

Shadow Lodge *
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Finlanderboy wrote:

I wanted to read about eating babies!

I bought a book for a trait pesh addict just for fluff for my character. Although I still get to read and enjoy the rest of the book.

Hey, I made a character with that trait, too!

BTW, giving an addict Sorcerer Polypurpose Panacea as one of their spells is either the most awesome or stupidest thing you can do -- depending on how you feel about blowing all your spell slots on back to back to back hallucinations.
3/5
1 person marked this as a favorite.
pH unbalanced wrote:
Finlanderboy wrote:

I wanted to read about eating babies!

I bought a book for a trait pesh addict just for fluff for my character. Although I still get to read and enjoy the rest of the book.

Hey, I made a character with that trait, too!

BTW, giving an addict Sorcerer Polypurpose Panacea as one of their spells is either the most awesome or stupidest thing you can do -- depending on how you feel about blowing all your spell slots on back to back to back hallucinations.

I have that too I am a barbarian rage chemist. As fluff I snort my extracts and mutagens, and then try to get my fellow PCs hooked on my enlarge extracts.

Silver Crusade 4/5
Finlanderboy wrote:
pH unbalanced wrote:
Finlanderboy wrote:

I wanted to read about eating babies!

I bought a book for a trait pesh addict just for fluff for my character. Although I still get to read and enjoy the rest of the book.

Hey, I made a character with that trait, too!

BTW, giving an addict Sorcerer Polypurpose Panacea as one of their spells is either the most awesome or stupidest thing you can do -- depending on how you feel about blowing all your spell slots on back to back to back hallucinations.

I have that too I am a barbarian rage chemist. As fluff I snort my extracts and mutagens, and then try to get my fellow PCs hooked on my enlarge extracts.

"It'll get you really high, man. Twice as high as you are now. That's like 6 feet!"

Liberty's Edge 5/5

I like how the Pathfinder Society is branching out from just being murderhoboes into being addicts and pushers. :)
The Exchange 3/5
Fromper wrote:
Finlanderboy wrote:
pH unbalanced wrote:
Finlanderboy wrote:

I wanted to read about eating babies!

I bought a book for a trait pesh addict just for fluff for my character. Although I still get to read and enjoy the rest of the book.

Hey, I made a character with that trait, too!

BTW, giving an addict Sorcerer Polypurpose Panacea as one of their spells is either the most awesome or stupidest thing you can do -- depending on how you feel about blowing all your spell slots on back to back to back hallucinations.

I have that too I am a barbarian rage chemist. As fluff I snort my extracts and mutagens, and then try to get my fellow PCs hooked on my enlarge extracts.
"It'll get you really high, man. Twice as high as you are now. That's like 6 feet!"

Hey man, you look a tough guy. I figured you might like to put a little more muscle behind that arm of yours. You see... I got this stuff that will make you bigger and stronger. You know you can always be stronger....

5/5 5/55/55/5

I thought this was trying to get the clothing counting vs encumbrance rule changed so pathfinders would wear pants again.
Silver Crusade 4/5
1 person marked this as a favorite.
BigNorseWolf wrote:
I thought this was trying to get the clothing counting vs encumbrance rule changed so pathfinders would wear pants again.

But then everyone could see us!

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