Your Faith is Rewarded!

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Faith and religion are ubiquitous in Golarion, and some of the world's most fascinating divinities have also historically been its most mysterious. With the recent release of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Faiths, though, we're drawing back the curtains shrouding 15 of the Inner Sea region's lesser-known deities. From Milani, the valiant Everbloom, to Brigh, the enigmatic Whisper in the Bronze, to Zyphus, the Grim Harvestman, this divine goody bag is filled with lore and tools for faithful characters. Now, let's reveal some of its secrets!

For those who want to play a devout character with the Deific Obedience feat, this book offers obediences and boons for all 15 featured deities. There are boons available to characters with levels in the evangelist, exalted, and sentinel prestige classes (Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Gods 198-203); characters without levels in those prestige classes can access the exalted boons.

Like other obediences we've published, the obediences in Inner Sea Faiths are tightly tied to their deities' portfolios, concerns, and roles in the campaign setting. For instance, take Kurgess's obedience, as written by freelancer Patrick Renie:

Find the nearest boulder, log, or other unattended object that you can reliably lift over your head, and hold it up high for the duration of the obedience. If you are interrupted at any time by any creature or person, you must challenge your interrupter to a contest of strength, speed, or stamina, with the boulder or other object of your obedience as the main focus of the competition. Regardless of who wins, gain a +2 sacred bonus on Acrobatics and Climb checks.

For those more interested in how these faiths fit into Golarion's society at large, the book provides in-depth information about each divinity's priests—how they tend to approach their roles, what their lifestyles look like, and how they might interact with passing adventurers.

Each divinity's section also includes artwork of a priest of that faith. For instance, below we have priests of Achaekek, the Mantis God, whose section's author is Creative Director James Jacobs; Gyronna, the Angry Hag, whose section's author is Developer Crystal Frasier; and Sivanah, the Seventh Veil, whose section's author is Project Manager Jessica Price.

Illustrations by Kiki Moch Rizky, Jon Neimeister, and Firat Solhan

And, last but not least, I'd be remiss if I didn't share this totally metal opening piece of artwork for Zyphus's section.

Illustration by Jose Parodi

I'll leave you with a final hint: that section's remaining art? Just as metal, right down to the malevolent wraith standing beside the god himself.

Amanda Hamon Kunz
Developer

Illustration by Mattias Fahlberg

Hey, Who Turned Out the Lights?

Thursday, February 18, 2016

It had been a few years since we returned the classic "Revisited" line of Pathfinder Campaign Setting sourcebooks, so we were really excited to delve into the depths beneath the Inner Sea in Darklands Revisited. All we had to do was narrow down what ten monsters we were going to feature in the book—a scary proposition indeed!

In the end, we left out some favorites, in part because they're all our favorites, but also because we love them so much that they might get books of their own someday. What we landed on was a nice mix of classic subterranean foes like drow and duergar; pillars of the science fiction and fantasy genres like morlocks and gugs; icons from the game's history like intellect devourers, neothelids, and vegepygmies; and two monsters introduced to the game in Pathfinder—daemon-worshiping urdefhans and their good-aligned nemeses, the psychic munavri.

It's rare that a single author tackles an entire 64-page Pathfinder Campaign Setting book, but we were lucky to get the veteran Canadian, Thurston Hillman, to put down his poutine and curling broom long enough to breathe life and adventurous inspiration into all ten creatures detailed in Darklands Revisited. The result is one of the most exciting Pathfinder Campaign Setting books I've had the pleasure of working on. I think Game Masters and players alike are going to love this book.

Illustrations by Jon Neimeister, Daniel Lopez, and Dave Allsop

Check out some of the awesome art that brings the Darklands and their deep-dwelling denizens to life! Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Darklands Revisited invades the surface world next Wednesday.

Mark Moreland
Developer

Wrath of the Righteous—The Long-Awaited "Adventure 7"

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Of all the questions we get asked about the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, one gets asked most often. It first showed up when we were coming close to releasing the last adventure in Rise of the Runelords, "Are you making any adventures for my characters who completed Rise of the Runelords?"

And Vic said, "There are no immediate plans for an official set where you can use your characters that have completed an AP."

Then we got asked it again as we came close to completing Skull & Shackles. "Are you making any adventures for my characters who completed Skull & Shackles?"

And Vic said, "There are currently no plans for additional content for characters that have completed an Adventure Path."

And for the most part, that was true. But I said, as quietly as I could, so no one could hear, "Okay, but I might have some plans." In fact, it was...

A Cunning Plan That Cannot Fail

My plan was for my design team to do some shenanigans with the power curve on Wrath of the Righteous. Developer Chad Brown talks a lot about it in this blog on power curves. They have different curves: Rise of the Runelords is character-linear and difficulty-parabolic, while Skull & Shackles is difficulty-linear and character-parabolic. But both of them end in roughly the same place: a character who can go toe-to-toe with Karzoug the Claimer has a roughly similar chance against the Hurricane King. When you complete adventure 6 in either of those APs, you are a mighty hero indeed.

Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

The thing is, those sets couldn't just keep climbing, because they had maxed out their story progression. There wasn't anything more we could add to the cards in those sets other than more dice and higher difficulties, and eventually, that would be unsatisfying. Sure, it's fun to roll 12 dice once in a while, but if you're doing it on every turn, the high will soon mellow out.

You would need something else to build a spike in difficulty beyond where we were at the end of those APs. Thankfully, Wrath had "something else" in spades. It had cohorts, it had a d20, and it had Corrupted cards. All of those tweaked the power level without increasing the number of dice rolled. (You may notice I left something off that list. We'll get to that.)

And as we designed it, we realized that Wrath is a perfect place to bring your conquering heroes from the first two adventure paths, maybe using some of that nifty loot you got from completing those final adventures. You just need a few small tricks and a whole lot of gumption.

Illustration by Diego de Almeida

How to Use Wrath as "Adventure 7"

First, finish another Adventure Path, whether it's Rise of the Runelords, Skull & Shackles, Season of the Shackles, or one of the many homebrews. Record the state of your character on your downloadable character sheet, if you like. If you haven't finished an AP, go to the Conquering Heroes thread or the Conquering Pirates thread and copy some of the ones you find there.

That's what we did, anyway. We grabbed Hawkmoon269's Ezren, Aolhelm's Kyra, and isaic16's Merisiel and Seelah. (Check out that not-so-paladinly weapons list!) Note that these were not optimized characters: Merisiel has some items that only work in Skull & Shackles, Ezren has a Divine spell, and so on. Where there was only one of something, we replaced it. (I particularly liked swapping the angel Ayruzi out for the demon Zuvuzeg on Seelah's list.) Otherwise, they went in as-is.

Second, get the Wrath of the Righteous Base Set and adventures 2, 3, and 4, plus the Wrath Character Add-On Deck if you have more than 4 characters (or just because you want to). Dump them into the box and then remove all the Basic cards. However, if there are Basic boons you specifically want to keep, do so. (I highly recommend keeping all the Blessings of Ascension. Trust me on this.)

Third, you know those mythic path cards I pointedly forgot to mention when I talked about Wrath's power curve? Yeah, screw 'em. You don't get mythic paths, because you're not the mythic heroes that blew up the wardstone in Wrath. You're the guys who beat Karzoug, for Pulura's sake. You don't need no stinkin' mythic paths.

But here's a tip: Even though you don't start with any mythic charges, you can still use them. Those Blessings of Ascension are great for generating charges, and every time you kill a mythic bane, you'll get one too. So when you find a Terraform or Anarchy Hammer, you can still power it up. Just get yourself some charges along the way. (A very small number of cards, like Lend Mythic Path, won't work at all. If you hit one of those, chuck it aside and draw a new card of the same type.)

Illustration by Jon Neimeister

Fourth, start with scenario 4-1: The Abyss Gazes Also. You're going into the Abyss! After defeating Karzoug or the Hurricane King, you were drawn through a magic portal that chucked you into the pits of despair. Will you find your way home? Run through adventures 4, 5, and 6 and find out!

FYI: While you can keep all of your cards from the previous AP, treat any card in your deck that has an adventure deck number higher than the adventure deck number of the current scenario as if it had the adventure deck number of the scenario. (So when you're playing chapter 4 of Wrath, treat those cards from RotR or S&S 5 and 6 as if they're from Adventure Deck 4.) Why did your hexing suddenly drop in power, Feiya? You're in the Abyss! Things are crazy there.

Fifth, when you get a reward, claim it! But hey, what about when you've already checked your last card feat or power feat and you're awarded another one? Just make it a skill feat. We've done the math, so you're good there. When you're done with the final scenario of Wrath 6, your set of feat boxes will be real close to entirely filled in. Now that's a hero.

It's possible some of your power feats won't be particularly great in Wrath. (I'm looking at you, Pirate Queen Jirelle.) Well, life's tough in the Abyss. But if you want to make some mods, swapping out a trait like "Pirate" for one like "Aberration," fine. Just don't make a habit of it. The idea is that you're taking your characters from those adventures into the Abyss, so it's up to you to see how you survive. If you want to play a character that's built for Wrath of the Righteous, then start a character (be it Ezren, Jirelle, Sajan, or Lini) anew and enjoy it. This is explicitly for people who want to see what their Rise of the Runelords or Skull & Shackles conquerors would do if they pushed on to even more perilous heights (or depths, as the case may be).

Oh, and hey, now you have something to do with that loot you picked up at the end of the previous Adventure Path!

So that's "adventure 7." If you haven't picked up Wrath of the Righteous and you're wondering what to do with your Runelords or Shackles characters now, give Wrath a try. You asked for a chance to adventure beyond set 6, and we've given it to you. It's your choice to take the plunge into the Abyss.

Don't say we didn't warn you.

Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Designer

Beyond the Labyrinth

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Last time we talked about the adventure in Pathfinder #77: Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth, so this time around on the blog I’m going to share a bit about some of the other features.

Demodands have always seemed like the gross cousins of the other fiends. Fueled by hubris, the thanototic titans tried to make their own servants and worshipers, but only created twisted, foul creatures. In this volume of the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path, we explore the ecology of the demodand in an article by Amanda Hamon. Sean K Reynolds provides a look into the demon lord Baphomet and Robin D. Laws continues Sweet Ichor in the Pathfinder’s Journal. Among other Abyssal threats, the Pathfinder Bestiary contains stats for Baphomet, protectors of the Ivory Labyrinth, and a disgusting new demodand! Everything in the back half of the book can heighten the experience of the adventure, so pick up Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth now!

Illustrations by Johan Grenier. Ekaterina Burmak, and Jon Neimeister.

Adam Daigle
Developer

Campaign Cards of the Reborn Forge

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Since Golarion is mostly a fantasy world, it's not every day that Paizo brings in new treats for the gear-and-steam set. If you're looking for something a little more scientific, a little more modern, and a little more sooty and gritty, look no further than Pathfinder Cards: Wardens of the Reborn Forge Campaign Cards! Though this set is made specifically to go with Pathfinder Module: Wardens of the Reborn Forge, it's plenty useful for anyone who wants to run a steampunk-themed or Western-themed game. We'd love it if everything took place around Alkenstar—and hey, the module has a write-up of the city to help you out—but we won't judge if you send your Pathfinders off to Victorian England or the Wild West! (If you send them to the Wild Wild West, we might judge you a little bit. But only a little bit.)

The folks featured on the set's 23 face cards in the set range from the fancy elites of Alkenstar to the dusty workers well suited to an industrial location. We see a couple of their cards down below, and there's a little bit of Clint Eastwood in... well, both of them really! Like the rest of our face cards, these have names and short descriptions on the back, plus plenty of space for writing notes.

Illustrations by Jon Neimeister and Daniel Warren

The 16 item cards from the set include three different firearms, like the sword cane pistol shown below. The magical bombard isn't a cannon per se, but we won't tell the people it blows up if you don't!

Illustrations by Tim Kings-Lynne

Rounding out the rest of the set are the 15 quest cards tied specifically to the events of the module. So whether you're snagging these Campaign Cards to make running that adventure more vibrant or to bring some steam into your own campaign, the Wardens of the Reborn Forge Campaign Cards will treat you right!

Logan Bonner
Developer