Pathfinder Reference Document: Now 20% Cooler with Indexes

Thursday, November 24, 2011

The new PRD has been out for a while now, but a new feature may have gone unnoticed by some. Recently, we've added a set of indices to the PRD (look toward the bottom of the menu on the left-hand side of the page). These indices were originally created as mobile content so that anyone trying to look up a single reference on their phones would have an easier time doing it. It quickly became obvious that we should also give the people on their desktops and iPads similar capabilities. We had all of the data right there, but we just needed to apply it a little differently. At first we only offered feats and spells, but eventually we were able to add magic items and spell lists. Each addition has been a little more complicated than the last.

The first two, feats and spells, are alphabetical indices with filters that allow the user to sort data by book. Originally, this was the only data really available to us and was sufficient for those lists, but the magic item index gave us reason to develop that a little further. Knowing that people often like to browse through the magic item index looking for a particular type of item—such hunting for a new suit of armor or filling in an empty ring slot—we created our index filters for that page with this in mind.

After that, most of our requests for these types of indices came in two forms: spell lists and monsters. And though we've not yet created a monster index, this is certainly something we’re considering for the future. Spell lists, however, have been tackled, and you can now pick from any class and then filter spells by book and spell level. This has become a valuable resource and probably useful for a lot of people, especially those not as familiar with spells in the more recent books, like Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat, but who would like to give them a try.

The indices are still evolving, and we appreciate all of your feedback and hope that everyone gets a lot of use out of them!

Lissa Guillet
Assistant Software Developer