Adam B. 135's page

Happy PaizoCon weekend, everyone! And a blessed Memorial Day weekend to my fellow veterans and all of you active duty service members out there.

I was thinking about what the best way to get this PaizoCon kicked off right is and I decided that the thing that makes the most sense is to tell you how many firearms made it into the finished version of Guns & Gears and what all of their traits are!

Based on this list of traits, I think it is safe to assume we will be getting a return of firearms combined with melee weapons! Hooray!

Adam B. 135 wrote:

I am building a radiant and I was wondering what a good set of veils to shape at level 6 would be. I have a high Wisdom, high Dex build with low strength. I am focusing on party support, though I fully intend to have a companion veil shaped at all times. Character is good aligned as well.

The radiant, from City of 7 Seraphs is a buffer/healer akashic class, so like a lot of akashic classes, it's pretty flexible depending on exactly what you're wanting to do.

Since you're high DEX/WIS and want a companion veil always available, plus you're 6th level so you have a couple vivifications and Hands and Head binds....

Thank you for the detailed answer! You make an excellent point about companion veils. I will prepare notecards for multiple configurations of those companions.

I had completely forgotten about Spectacles of the Sheikh! That will be an excellent extra veil for levels to come past 6th. Glad to get another way to pump those skills besides items.

I am building a radiant and I was wondering what a good set of veils to shape at level 6 would be. I have a high Wisdom, high Dex build with low strength. I am focusing on party support, though I fully intend to have a companion veil shaped at all times. Character is good aligned as well.

The only changes to Lashunta that bug me are that they lost the universal intelligence bonus and that they gained that weird "everyone loves them" fluff. That stuff bugs me. I don't mind the dropping of the sexual dimorphism. Hopefully dimorphism will return in a non-core race that isn't humanoid. I think that would be rad.

I'm not saying that there might be the possibility of an akashic healer class in this book, but look at the veils I teased,...

huzzah! Implications are implied!

Thank you Adam! I'm usually not a fan of it myself, but I liked the idea of the iconic "speaking" the phrase in question. :D

You are welcome. I think you knocked this layout out of the park. If the whole book is like that sample it will be very impressive! I look forward to showing it off to my graphic design friends!

We love wonder. And reward it... she is up on today's blog!

This is an amazing reward. She is very very VERY cool! But I must ask. Is she wearing a funny hat?

I need the veryx in my life. I notice the art specifically calls out that veeyx as male too! Makes me wonder how females may appear.

Seeing the PDF preview for the Nexus, something I usually don't think about came to mind. The layout work is exceptional! I love the way the text sits in front of the smoke from the Nexus Iconic art. Usually art and text overlapping bugs me, but this was tasteful.

Well, the Nexus is at 50 veils right now and Akashic Mysteries only had 75...

Moar veils! MOAR! But in all seriousness, the Nexus pleases me. The class itself is pretty straightforward which lets me enjoy the complexity of veils more.

Also the preview art for the judow is my child I love.

Seriously its cool art. Anything you can reveal about their abilities? They look absa-tively deadly.

I got my copy from Patreon! Will be looking into it soon!

Why do people keep listing Solar Weapon as free? The crystals necessary to keep its damage competitive are just as expensive as weapons.

Well, soldiers really shouldn't be operating ships. I mean, they're grunts. You don't really want a grunt to fly a ship around. Or do anything on a ship except stand around waiting to get off so they can shoot things.

I dislike that opinion immensely. Ship combat may end up taking a significant amount of table time. If a soldier cannot contribute during this time, then the experience becomes less fun for the player of the soldier.

I really hope we can get some official word in here. Are these DCs meant for the captain to get at least 5 aid anothers from NPCs on the bridge?

Hello everyone, I apologize for the long silent period. There have been some major changes to the playtest document:

1. Released materials such as the atstreidi, eiremian and ethumion have been removed from the playtest document, as they are no longer in playtest (though if you spot any errors in those releases, you can let us know!).

2. New races have been added to the document!
Liath: Drow/Elf hybrids who are quite excellent at raising spiders.
Saremir: The strong and graceful children of elves and orcs with a tranquil sort of rage.
Svartálfar: Children of elves and dwarves with a natural affinity for geomancy.

3. New stuff for old races:
Catfolk: Cheetah, manul, lion, lynx, jaguar and tiger catfolk variants.
Kitsune: The buda variant of kitsune and a tightening of wording to yokai.

4. New feats:
Bigfolk training: A feat to help small folk hold their own against big folk.

5. Traits:
Bakeneko: A race trait for catfolk to allow them to transform into cats.
Hot-Blooded: A trait to help make burn a little less punishing.

Thank you everyone for waiting for this new material and for all of the feedback you have given us so far!

The playtest document has been updated! In this update you will find clarified wording to many race's abilities such as the Coreid's Vital Core and Entoli's Entrancing Voice. There have been a lot of changes here. More than I can recount.

Additionally, there are two new Akashic race variants. The mighty Rosmaro and studious Vritrith. Walrus and salamanderfolk respectively.

We even have more Tiefling variants! Idol-Born spawned from Namuci and Meldspawn with Yatudhana origins. These have been submitted by Taveena. I would like it if we got feedback on them along with any of the newer content would be appreciated!

Atstreidi, Eiremian, and Ethumion are looking like they will be in the first Bloodforge Infusion release, so if anyone has any final feedback on them, it would be appreciated as well.

I am forwarding questions on coereid and atstreidi to the rest of the development team. Hopefully we can get an answer though. I can confirm that a coreid who takes the deceiver archetype gets to enjoy Terminator 2'ing it up!

As for the Coreid fighter FCB, that is being discussed internally. There are a few wording glitches leading to unintended RAW. Changes may be coming soon to it.

Good point on the Akashic subtype. I think it warrants reprinting.

For Entoli, the attack has to say its a ray to count as one. So like Ray of Frost, or Ray of Enfeeblement.

It begins. The (hopefully) long awaited playtest for more Bloodforge!

The first Bloodforge was a fun little book involving lots of crossbreeds, prestige classes, feats, and monster templates. Bloodforge Infusions will expand on a lot of ideas and themes presented in Bloodforge while also providing its own spin on things. The new races won't all be crossbreeds. In fact, most of them are not crossbreeds. Definitely less brain bleach required.

You can find the playtest document here!

Right now you'll find the following six new races:

Alafia—desert-dwelling superstitious viper folk with an Akashic connection
Atstreidi—a unique type of slime mold that grows sapience when it comes into contact with the psychic imprint left behind by a well-used suit of armor
Coreid—A psionic core that thinks its a real boy, building a body out of particulate matter from its surroundings.
Eiremian—Serene, detached planetouched with an affinity for negative energy.
Entoli—The entrancing offspring of maenads and sirens.
Ethumion—Supernaturally energetic descendents of ravids (somehow) and humans.

You'll also find variants for the sobek and suqur races from Akashic Mysteries, three new variant kitsune (and a universal alternate racial trait for them!), three new tiefling heritages, seven alternate tengu, a new rogue archetype, new feats including a psionic counterpart to Sanguine Sorcery & Spark of Divinity, and a new psionic power.

A lot of writer's hearts and souls went into this book, and we look forward to any feedback you all can provide. Thank you!

I want to see a veil that drains moisture from nearby, essentially making the area around you count as a desert (very strong for gamla!).

A veil that lets you swim in the ground would be cool too (Sobeks!)

New akashic monsters would be great too. I would want to see a wild Buraq, along with a few other non-daeva akashic monsters. As for Daeva, I want to see one that could be a familiar. The proposed akashic drake is definitely something I would want to see.

Archetypes for occult classes would be nice. I see a lot of potential with the spiritualist.

More variants of established akashic races would be great too.

I don't want to see additional binds added to old veils. That feels like too much book keeping.

As for the Green Thumbs veil, its base size is 20 by 20? does that mean it is gargantuan sized for the spell arboreal hammer? If so then I think that spell might actually start getting used.

What characters does everyone want to play? This is my list!

Male Angelkin Aasimar (or Ganzi or Shabti) Desire (love) Daevic
Male Vanara Vayist Guru
Female Reborn Samsaran Seer Vizier
Female Vishkanya Eldritch Scion (arcane) Snake Charmer Magus
Dromite Swarm Master Dread
Male Nisr Suqur Rogue or slayer

It also sounds like a party already!
@Ssalarn, would you let the magus use Cha for her veilweaving? since eldritch scion already changes Int bailities to Cha. I would have prefered a snake-y blood line but since eldritch scion uses bloodrager's... well.

Nice list! Vishkanya Snake Charmer sounds like a blast!

I want to multiclass Daevic and Guru with a Solhofaat. Beat people up with a crimson totem and have a decent amount of self healing.
Sobek Rageshaper too. There is just something awesome about being a big rampaging croc.
Nameer Veiled Lord.
Tiefling Swarm Master.
Kobold rogue/slayer using those akashic talents. I love playing as a spider-man rogue.

Now that the book has been out for a couple weeks, I'm curious what people's reactions are; how's the class and the new grappling options and such played at your table?

We love it. Being able to get immediate results from grappling made it a significantly more attractive option. I am planning a big wrestling event in my next campaign because of this.

Your best use of your actions is generally going to involve moving around and using a standard action grapple, or charging grapples with Aerial Takedown, and then getting your damage and debuffs or whatever you're focusing on through triggered abilities that let you better leverage your swift/immediate actions and attacks of opportunity. You get to move a lot without giving up your effectiveness and get to really occupy and impact a lot of real estate in combat...

This is another big reason why its fun. Getting to actually move and do your stuff is great.

Pretty excited! I look forward to seeing this book's contents.

I like releases that include new classes or support for existing (both 3rd and 1st party) classes. DDS's rogue book was cool, as was the war dancer. I love the Luchador too. More releases like that, with a bit of spheres in each one, would be fantastic.

A raccoon and a tanuki ("raccoon dog")? Huh.

I guess I think of a raccoon as being a North American animal, and yokai as Japanese, so this surprises me. Not that it's a bad thing.

Raccoon dogs aren't actually raccoons. They just look kinda similar.

Melech Gidon wrote:

The more I look at the Secret Police, the more I feel like there is more to explore for the class. I know the luchadore has some awesome wrestling type moves, but would it be possible to give the Secret Police some Monk-like unarmed combat bonuses or abilities? I'm picturing Jason Bourne, Agent 47 or Kato from the Green Hornet.

I think those are really great ideas, and Adam and I have been talking about ways we'd like to make the Secret Police archetype more accessible, so I will absolutely look into that. I think Kato and Jason Bourne are really great examples of where we could go with that.

Also, The Luchador is now available in its own stand-alone playtest doc, with a ton of new materials added in (and more on the way!). Let me know what you think!

This is pretty sweet! I see that the luchador has undergone some changes since I have last seen it.

Luchador:I am a pretty big fan of breaking down the Stable benefits into talents. I would like to see a few more generic Stable talents, including some acrobatics support, combat maneuver feats, and perhaps a talent to gain bonus CMB against larger creatures. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, right? The new unarmed strike damage is pretty nifty too. I doubt this will cause any problems considering this guy is medium BAB. It wasn't a problem on the monk, brawler or unchained monk, so I doubt it will be here. The loss of bonus feats is a little disappointing, but there is also a lot of good choice available now.

Dancing Dervish: I am iffy on the Dancing Dervish's AC bonus. I can see it getting out of hand, but at the same time it will drain the user's swift action every round. I believe I would need to test it to be sure. Whirlwind Strike does worry me however, since it essentially gives out pounce at something more accurate than full-BAB and without taking the penalty to attacks for iterative. My apologies if I read it wrong, but this sounds quite powerful. Also, how does Momentum Strike and Whirlwind Strike interact with power attack?

Ki Striker: Ridiculously cool. Time for some Great Saiyaman action. Surge fist says that it replaces the Stable talent at 5th level. Probably a type for 7th level talent? Besides that, everything about this archetype is awesome. Just to be sure, the Surge Fist and Annihilating Surge Fist are resolved as melee attacks despite the range, correct?

Lichador: Top tier naming. Lichador? Soul Contender? This is the best. My only complaint is that Soul Contender feels like its only useful for slaying undead. The Ghost Touch part of it should at least work on anything incorporeal instead of just incorporeal undead, if nothing else.

Masked Beast: "truly, he was a beast in the ring."I love it. Early on it feels like they are missing out, since they will be using Totem Beast for one encounter. Later on though, it will provide an excellent amount of versatility, as I have seen hunters exhibit. I am unsure if losing the 7th level stable talent is necessary since the base stable benefits are permanent effects (mostly. Oil is almost permanent), and tend to scale. As I am reading it, if the Masked Beast wishes to deal nonlethal damage with their Beastly Weapons, they must take the -4 penalty to attack rolls for attempting to deal nonlethal damage with a deadly weapon. Do you mind adding some clarifying text? This feels like a glitch. Additionally, since the Masked Beast loses the unarmed strike feature, they have to take improved unarmed strike to gain access to the cool new feats. Any chance of Beastly Weapons counting as improved unarmed strike for prereqs? Call of the Wild is perfect. That ability will be a lot of fun to use!

I look forward to the Rudo and Mysterious Grappler. Their concepts sound solid.

Wrestling Races was quite the section. I especially like the links between the half-orc and orc descriptions. Cuazaj are "perhaps the most unlikely of luchadors" while elves are "Perhaps the least likely of the races to take up the luchador’s arts" and godlins are "perhaps the only race less likely to engage the luchador’s arts than elves." This is a little awkward. Though now I must know, who is less likely to don the mask? Cuazaj or Goblin?

Feats: Love them. Especially Shoulder Roll and Nosebreaker, as those will come up a lot.

Melech Gidon wrote:

I love that I can see iconic heroes in every one of the archetypes in the guide. Just about everyone is there in some way or another.

That was definitely the goal!

And it looks like we have Green Arrow now! Pretty neat with all the trick shots this new Uncanny Archer archetype is capable of. Don't forget to include the name of which book that ranger archetype it draws its tricks from is in.

By the way, what inspiration did you draw from when designing the Marine? I kinda get Fury Road vibes from it, but I want to be sure.

Today is Endy's birthday - Bring Endy to Indy!

And +1 to Owen's amazing bundle too!

Oh wow!

Endzeitgeist if you read this, happy birthday!

What do people think of the name "Inspiring Vigilante" for that archetype? Would "Living Flag/Symbol/Banner" be better?

I think Living Symbol is the best choice, but Banner is great too.

So the Sky Marine sounds pretty awesome. What was the inspiration behind it? I am feeling some Mad Max going on, but I get the feeling there is something more. Very cool though. Airship support in a skybourne book is a must! Glad to see it here. The Sky Marine's Companion Ship table lists "enchantment" at 13th level. What is this? Also, Skilled Pilot is not on the table.

Overwatch is a pretty simple archetype, but its simply awesome. Getting a bird with a gopro is excellent. Being compatible with the Inspiring Vigilante is a plus! Having a pet eagle is super inspiring.

This close reading is going slowly, but I intend to continue again tomorrow. I look forward to what I read next.

Patching CMB/CMD has been stated as not an option since PoW 1 I believe. Instead, we get a variety of mechanics that do similar things in a more balanced manner. I'd rather have grasp than be told that combat maneuver characters might as well pack up and go home unless they pull serious jank past 15th level.

The way I see it, there are plenty of ways to be various mythological figures, from Merlin to... Merlin to... other big named spellcaster guy?

Is there something wrong with being able to manhandle a monster larger than you like this? Hercules did it. I want to be him. Nothing in Pathfinder lets me, or anyone else, be this kind of hero. I see nothing wrong with being able to toss big creatures around at the level you'd be fighting a tarrasque.

This class is mega cool. Glad I had the chance to read it.

Will the sale still be up tomorrow?

Reviewed. Nice work guys!

How many treants were harmed in the printing of this book?

Based on their stats, perhaps you should ask how many lumberjacks were harmed in the making of this book.

I am loving my hardcover. I think this is the prettiest book I own.

This is pretty funny. I love how MAD that monk is.

I have some advice on starting up initiating, but I will be heading to class soon. I did make a thread about DMing tips for PoW a while back, so hopefully this can provide some help till I can write up advice more specific to your questions.

thread on PoW DM tips

I am pretty hyped.

That was pretty cool! I do appreciate the suggestions you placed in the new Akasha section. There was solid advice in there. Glad to see you back in action Ssalarn!

I am gonna request baboon, hyena and ram. Are we open to write them? Because I wanna take a shot at it.

Letting apes use tools is an awesome idea!

I guess the two big things I am worried about are the fact that teamwork feats seem to be largely regarded as being fairly terrible, and the class itself getting boring to play after a while. I like the Akashic classes because I rarely take the same action twice in the same combat, and if I get bored playing a class one way, I can switch up my veils and play a very different style.

What makes the Battle Lord better than a Cavalier or another class that gets Tactician? How do Specialties compare to the Cavalier's Orders? How flexible is the class itself, both during an adventure and between one adventure and the next?

I won't disagree. Teamwork feats are hard to build around in most cases, due to requiring the whole party to use them. They are incredibly strong however, when you have good class features to support them (or give them out for free), such as solo tactics, or the Battle Lord's Combat Drills. Combat Drills take a move action to start, and share a teamwork feat with everyone participating in the Combat Drill. However, the drill also gives a scaling bonus to something, such as Blademaster's Drill, which grants a +2 morale bonus to melee damage that scales upwards, while also giving the participants the Precise Strike teamwork feat (+1d6 damage when flanking). At 8th and 16th level, they get the ability to maintain 2 and 3 drills at a time, allowing even more bonuses and feats to be shared. There are drills that benefit the party in most combat situations, providing mobility, defenses, and ranged/melee offense to the party depending on what you need.

Out of combat, there are also plenty of Auras, which are non-combat drills. They provide scaling skill bonuses to the entire party, and even provide pretty powerful effects such as the Diplomat's Aura, which gives a scaling diplomacy bonus and also does the following: creatures within this aura must make a Will save (DC 10 + ½ the battle lord’s class level + his Charisma modifier) or have their attitude towards the battle lord instantly improved by one step. This step can only be improved once per individual. Quite a few of the later auras and drills also grant powerful magical effects. It is quite handy.

As far as the class goes, its probably the most flexible "non-magic" classes I've seen. It also has an archetype to get some spells.

This is much better than tactician because it is a move action, it gives additional bonuses, can give more feats at the same time, and has no daily limit of uses.

The specialties always give the class more options, instead of just making them better at what they already do. Medic Specialty for instance can heal a decent amount of HP per day, but also can remove almost all the status effects you'd need a cleric for (even drain and curses are covered). Artillerist Specialty allows the Battle Lord to competently use fire arms, gaining int-based grit, proficiency, and even gaining intelligence to damage with siege weapons and firearms. Additionally, the Artillerist specialty gains all the required tech to use siege weapons. The Soldier Specialty becomes increasingly durable and better at combat maneuvers, gaining CMD, CMB, save, and AC bonuses.

I like this topic! Here are my 10.

10. New Paths
9. In the Company of X
8. Call to Arms
7. Bravery Feats
6. Bloodforge
5. Third Dawn
4. Everyman Unchained
3. Lords of the Night
2. Bloodforge
1. Akashic Mysteries

Anything that fits with an ancient Aztec/Mayan theme? I'm looking for some settings/classes/anything inspired by that mythology

Red Goblin Games did something for that actually. Heroes of the West. DSP's Tzocatl is in playtest too. Tzocatl is getting a huge rework and update soon, so I recommend watching it and waiting for that update.

Just out of curiosity (not as a 3pp publisher, as a player)- I see a lot of folks talking about subsystems and classes, do people use 3pp races? (I know I've used them from other publishers :-D )

I do! I use them a lot in fact. Buying 3rd party races will inevitably lead to having more than you can ever use, but I consider it worth it. Even if you only use 1/3rd of the races, you still got fun from them. Heck, using 1/3rd of a crunch book is still quite noteworthy. I know I usually end up using less than that in most cases. Everyone picks favorite stuff from every book. Though I do believe race themed books are more likely to appeal to GMs than to players, since NPC building is something we do a lot.

I love 3PP races because they tend to break the mold in some way, or allow a previously unplayable core monstrous race (Centaur, dragon, medusa etc.) to be played. That is always a good thing.

I only really use 3rd party races if they tie into the mechanics of a new subsystem.

This is definitely a big reason to use them. I wouldn't consider it the only reason, but it is a very strong reason. Core races have large advantages when using core systems. Lots of bonuses vs core magic effects, racial traits that buff up spellcasting, and awesome access to racial feats and traits that enhance spellcasting.

I see nothing wrong with 3PP races supporting their companies subsystem, and I commend DSP's psionic races in particular for finding balanced ways to do this. Core races still have reasons to run psionic classes, but psionic races do get very cool extra goodies.

Simple answer: to have fun.

Long answer: They provide new ways, or more interesting ways of doing things. I really enjoy making characters, making NPCs and using weird monsters to challenge players. Thankfully, 3PP materials specialize in this. They are allowed to be experimental and to break boundaries that would be too risky for Paizo.

I don't like how boring many fighty-type characters play, so books like Ultimate Psionics, Path of War, Akashic Mysteries, Alternate Paths: Martial Characters and Dragon Tiger Ox are premium to me. With these kinds of books it is easy to make the exact martial character you envision. You can also find support for cool subsystems, such as performance combat (from Ultimate Combat)in Alternate Paths: Martial Characters.

Similarly, there are many options to enjoy magic. There are magic alternatives that are quite well built, such as Spheres of Power, Akashic Mysteries, Psionics, or Strange Magic. Pathfinder's magic system is also supported very strongly, but in ways that feel balanced. New Paths Compendium provides new concepts for spellcasting such as a good aligned necromancer, and the coveted full 1-20 Theurge class.

Nowadays, every player has easy access to every monster paizo publishes, and even if not intended, meta-gaming will happen at some point. With 3rd party bestiaries and monster templates this is not really an issue. The mystery or sense of wonder from facing a new foe is preserved, since the the player is fighting stuff they never had a way of knowing. Everyone knows what an orc, dragon, or ankheg is. They expect those. A verizal on the other hand? What even is that? Based on its appearance, you'd expect it to start savagely tearing apart the party with gores, bites and tentacles. Instead, you get acid breath, mind control, and offensive teleports.

I am having a hard time finding it in Occult Adventurers, and searching the forum didn't give me any answers.

Does anyone know how it works?

Don't forget to give the modern human a -4 save penalty against Illusion (Pattern) effects!

That is great news! Axes and Picks has excellent tone and style, so it makes me happy to know that the others will be similar. Keep on keeping on. I look forward to seeing what you write for this line.

This is my first purchase of the Call to Arms line, and I am very happy with it. Review incoming.

I approve of this message. I am trying to catch up on my review backlog.

Won't be the first softcover I bought from DSP, and it won't be the last.

In the Company of Harpies. With Minotaurs, Medusas, and Giants, you have a lot of cool Greek mythos monsters covered. I would want to see more of that theme.

By the way, seeing Kaidan get a full campaign setting book makes me very giddy. Thank you for doing that!