Abashima's page

In tonight's Pathfinder playtest, a goblin seemed intent on communicating to us. So my character, a 1st-level wizard, cast comprehend languages so we could find out what was going on.

That's when I discovered that comprehend languages is one-way—making the spell effectively useless in communicating with someone verbally. Despite the spell being in full effect, we had to resort to a game of Pictionary to understand what the goblin was talking about. In short, the spell might as well not have been cast in the first place.

Here's the problem: Since it's unavoidably a personal and direct interaction with someone else, the spell should also allow speaking the language, not just hearing. You have to touch the person you're speaking with, so it's not like watching a movie and getting subtitles and it's not eavesdropping on a secret conversation—it's directly interacting with someone, and in that situation it's effectively useless not being able to speak with the person you're directly interacting with.

It's only for 10 minutes. That's not game or genre-busting. There's still a reason to take additional languages.

Corollary: The difference between speaking and not speaking with someone is not five whole levels' worth of difference. No. That's ridiculous. That means either comprehend languages just as it's written without any changes needs to go up in level to be closer to tongues or tongues needs to be a second level spell across the board.

I tried to call customer service but Paizo wouldn't let me.

I dialed (425) 289-0060 and pressed 0. Then there was a shrill beep and I was asked if I needed anything else and told goodbye in the same breath, then disconnected.

In an Alternate Earth, Paizo doesn't do anything with 4 and since 3 core books are no longer being printed they realize they can't do that either.

So they come out with their own system instead.

What's that system like, I wonder aloud?

What do you want to change, what do you fear will change?

I went looking to buy Pathfinder and ended up having to search, carefully, for a way to buy it.

Why doesn't Pathfinder have its own category in the top level of Paizo's own section of its own store?

When I finally found it, I was in the process of buying an individual copy--but your site hung on "Send to this address" in the shopping cart. Good thing--because I was IMing with a friend who told me there were subscriptions.

Subscriptions?

I went back to try to find it and, well, had to dig for it. There didn't seem to be a place to actually buy a subscription--because there's no button. There's only a text link, unlike all the other buttons for all the other Pathfinder products.

When I selected subscription, under that line item, the total was -blank-. There was a grand total at the bottom, but I couldn't tell from your site how much the Pathfinder subscription was actually costing.

Also, buying a subscription to Pathfinder was $17.99, but buying them individually was $27.99. Since subscriptions offer only a 30% difference in price, why is buying them individually so dramatically more expensive?

And: Why is the subscription monthly for infinity? No six month or yearly subscriptions available?