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A concept that's become a lot more viable with the Remaster that I'm not sure what to play it in but would love to give a try is a Conrasu Bard with a Dual-Weapon Warrior Dedication, using a pair of buugeng to create beautiful and precise illusions as well as deadly cuts and flourishes, all in time with a steady, orderly rhythm that seems to reverberate with the universe!
And I was thinking that Calistria was the goddess of the revenge. Wow, this made Calistria MUCH more interesting to me! I may need to play a Calistrian now! I always found the bit of lore that said Calistrians admonish followers not to lean to heavily on the admiration of wasps to be kinda disappointing, frankly. Wasps are cute and amazing creatures! Why WOULDN'T you admire them?! :P
Thinking of re-imagining a concept that I keep returning to but haven't actually played yet (an Aiuvarin dwarf whose dwarf dad and elf mom love each other very much, and helped him overcome his terrifying visions of dragonfire and death by teaching him fire's creative aspects) as a Warpriest multiclassing into Wizard, since Warpriests are now less MAD and you can get enough INT on one to make an INT-caster mutliclass viable!
I apologize for the repetition, but I would greatly appreciate some clarification regarding this. Do I need to submit anything if I did recieve the PDFs on schedule and am just waiting on the books, or do I just need to continue waiting?
I'd like to see the macuahuitl and the terbutje. Two very interesting and very eccentric weapons.Isn't the leiomano essentially a terbutje (or a macuahuitl with shark teeth instead of obsidian)? Yeah, that's the way I was treating it.
Where on Golarion do you think one might encounter the name "Gadeon?" (While it superficially resembles the name "Gideon" from Judges 6-8, it's actually the name of a king of Dumnonia, a kingdom that comprised modern-day Cornwall and the south-western part of modern England.) Does it sound more Taldan? Varisian? Elfy or Gnomish? Would I be able to get away with naming a character this or do you think people may look at the potential nickname of "Gad" and assume he's referencing the con artist from Mendev who's the protagonist of the Pathfinder Tales novel The Worldwound Gambit and novellas The Ironroot Deception and Sweet Ichor? For that matter, does it sound too much like "Gandalf?" Am I overthinking again?
I just stumbled across this quote from Ursula K. Le Guin's classic, The Lathe of Heaven, and I thought it was a great way to think about how someone who worships the Prismatic Ray may think, in its discussion of dreams (Desna), hope (Sarenrae) and emotion/imagination (Shelyn): You don't speak of dreams as unreal. They exist. They leave a mark behind. Hope is a slighter, tougher thing even than trust... . In a good season one trusts life; in a bad season one only hopes, But they are of the same essence: they are the mind's indispensable relationship with other minds, with the world, and with time. Without trust, a man lives, but not a human life; without hope, he dies. When there is no relationship, where hands do not touch, emotion atrophies in void and intelligence goes sterile and obsessed. Between men the only link left is that of owner to slave, or murderer to victim. . . . It is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception and compassion-. . . and hope. I'll definitely be keeping this in mind if I roleplay a Prismatic Ray aligned character going forward! I don't really have a point here, but I thought it'd resonate...
I'm interested in doing some light homebrew to update the shotel from its 1e incarnation to the modern Pathfinder, and am wondering just what collection of statistics and traits to put on it so it's balanced against other weapons. While it is an "exotic weapon" by 1e's rules, I don't think that necessarily correlates to it being an Advanced weapon, since some of the weapons in that same category, like the katana, are now classified as Martial weapons. But mostly I'm hoping to make the shotel martial for accessibility reasons, because as it stands there's no good reason to take an Advanced sword unless you're a tengu, a Fighter, or a tengu Fighter. The next question is the specific traits. Backstabber is likely essential, given the purpose OF the shotel was to reach around an opponent's shield to stab them on vulnerable spots like the kidneys or lungs. Most weapons with that trait are also some combination of Agile and or Finesse, like the Dogslicer or Fighting Fan, and accordingly do lower damage than the 1e shotel's 1d8, which I assume would push it over the line into Advanced weapon status. The Dogslicer does appear to be one of the closest equivalents to the shotel, along with the Lion Scythe. But the Lion Scythe unfortunately is a Knife class weapon, whereas the shotel is undeniably a type of Sword like the Dogslicer. In addition, should Versatile S be considered as a trait? While the 1e stats only have the shotel do piercing damage, real-life shotels did have a cutting edge, usually on the inner curve of the blade, making it function a lot like the sickle it evolved from. But again, that may be overdoing it. So I'm kind of lost as to how to gauge the number of stats to make the shotel balanced and I worry that to most accurately represent the weapon it'd HAVE to be advanced, meaning it'd be an inefficient weapon in the hands of a Rogue, a warpriest Cleric or a Magus. Any advice you homebrew gurus out there might have would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!
I am vaguely curious whether the new name is because "half-orc" was feared to be an infringement on WOTC or because the devs felt they just deserved their own name. A little bit of both, I imagine: the term's common enough in the RPG-space that there probably wouldn't be grounds to call infringement, but Paizo also wanted a way to make their own interpretation of them stand out more and shed some of the more...antiquated...notions calling someone a "half-"anything implies.
One minor peeve that isn't all THAT bad in the grand scheme of things, but was a bit disappointing to me: The remastered changeling indicates that the "sweet hag" is NOT, in fact, a new kind of hag inspired by the witch in Hansel and Gretel, but rather just the new name for green hags, indicating the "sweet" part of their name is in reference to their love of seduction and deceit and has nothing to do with gingerbread houses. :P
The text of the Syncretism feat specifies different benefits depending on which Cleric doctrine you follow. Given if you multiclass via the Cleric Archetype, you don't actually pick a doctrine, where does that leave a character who picks Syncretism up via Basic Dogma (especially since the only prerequisites for Syncretism are "you follow a deity?" Would it make more sense to just say Syncretism can only be taken if Cleric is your character's initial class, or to homebrew some third option, like the feat suggests if the Cleric is neither Cloistered nor Warpriest but another secret third thing?
This would literally solve 99% of my problems with 2e as it stands. I just wanna be able to use an advanced weapon for style or thematic reasons that isn't tied to a specific ancestry without being a Fighter or a tengu. I don't care about the DAMAGE of the weapon or performing on par with a character who has those proficiencies right out of the box! It just feels bad if I play a Human Bard with a falcata because he's from Taldor and was taught the traditional rondelero dueling style and have that falcata end up basically being only for show because his proficiency with it won't be able to keep up with the enemies advancing in power, and there's no "Cultural Weapon Familiarity" feat line to act as a band-aid! It can be a full-on nerf, I'm USED to nerfing my character for style! I just don't want to be nerfed so hard it's effectively a punishment for "not playing the game optimally TM."
I know, but at least produce flame could keep up with it, so it was more a choice between Honeycrisp apples and Pink Lady apples. Now it's more like comparing Honeycrisp apples to Red Delicious apples. Only way I could think it applies would be...like, one of Green Arrow's boxing-glove trick arrows, but with a bagh nahk on it?
Kinda jacked asf, the hell? Idk, I really didn't want to play a magus to not do elemental damage with my sword Exactly!
A pretty good change, I say! It makes it clearer why Lamashtu would curse you by making you...conventionally attractive! D: To a person who finds beauty in what makes them different from others, being made to look just like everybody else would be quite devastating...
I personally rather use ignition over gouging claw Really? According to this analysis here ignition is one of the worst damaging cantrip options...
I don't like that Gouging Claw is even more a mandatory cantrip for Magi. If I'm playing a Magus, I want to do magic with my SWORD, not a shapeshifted unarmed strike! And casting it through a weapon just seems SILLY! What, your sword shapeshifts into a claw that you swing like a backscratcher with a bad attitude?!
I recommend the old AD&D method: Gallus domesticus. Buy a whole bunch of them and you have a handy way to detect traps and scout for danger. Plus, you can eat them afterwards!
I had a good laugh when I noticed the canned atmosphere on pg. 160! XD Love love LOVE this book!
I feel like other player at the table have such cool character sometime, I would like to know if anybody else have similiar exprience. To clarify, are you asking for examples of player characters that we've seen other people play that we were impressed by? Or for examples of character concepts we ourselves have come up with but have not actually played (at least as of yet)?
When our Iron Gods group (from this very forum, GMed by the dedicated and clever Brainiac!) reached Starfall, we elected to force Kevoth-Kul to abdicate rather than ally with him against the Technic League, and one of our own party, the young skald Kaska of Red Talons, ascended to become the new Black Sovereign. This occurred right when Kaska's player made the decision to depart from the campaign, so it was a convenient way to have a great sendoff for her! Kevoth-Kul was allowed to remain in Kaska's new court as an advisor while he underwent rehab. My own character, Fireday (an android warpriest of Iomedae with a literally lifelong vendetta against the Technic League), also volunteered to remain in Starfall to advise Kaska after the party defeated Unity and the campaign came to an end. He used his position to aid the newly formed church of Casandalee, strengthen ties with the Mendevian crusaders of Castle Urion (his hometown), and eventually collected money for and organized the construction of a grand ecumenical cathedral in Starfall, one where all the gods who'd aided them in their quest (Brigh, Casandalee, Desna, Gorum and Iomedae) were all worshipped in equal measure, resulting in Fireday becoming known into the future as the Saint of Starmetal!
I've had a few ideas for this AP percolating in my head since the Player's Guide came out, but I've been too busy to actually write them down until now: The Silvermist Scion: The concept for this character is that they're an Aiuvarin Outskirt Dweller descended from one of the elven adventurers who founded the Silvermist Lodges, and practices a syncretic faith combining the Tien deity Tsukiyo and the elven god Ketephys (both of whom have shrines in Willowshore) into a uniquely half-elven moon god, balanced between life and death, civilization and wilderness. In addition to tending the shrines, they go on night hunts in the wilderness outside Willowshore, and have some skill with both bow and polearm (specifically resembling the fangtian ji made famous by Romance of the Three Kingdoms' Lü Bu and the bishamon yari of Japan), both to protect against dangerous animals and in case they are forced to put the dead to rest in a more forceful way, a reality becoming increasingly close-to-home in the new Shenmen.
Class-wise, I was initially leaning towards Warpriest, since you have to be a cleric to really get any benefit from the Syncretism feat, with maybe a multiclass into Ranger to reflect their background in hunting, though I'm uncertain at the moment with the Remaster's adjustments to Warpriest still hazy, and debating whether leading with Ranger and multiclassing into Cleric may be the better option. The Ambitious Underemployed: This Northridge Scholar was a child prodigy, taking and acing the Imperial Examination...just in time for Imperial Lung Wa to fracture, causing the civil service to fall apart. Before they'd had plans to travel to Changdo and rise through the ranks to make life better for all, but now not only were they stuck in what was already regarded by most of the Empire as a backwater, but a backwater overrun with ghosts and monsters who had little use for bureaucrats or poets. Swallowing their disappointment, they decided to put the skills they'd learned to use in Willowshore, their hometown. While privately they have grand dreams of founding an academy that would become a beacon of education and public service to light the way for Shenmen as a whole, they realize that such a dream must grow from a smaller seed, such as re-establishing public education, something both Northridge and Southbank would greatly benefit from. They deeply respect Heh Shan-Bao, whose efforts to protect Willowshore from the chaos unfolding in the wider world have allowed them this chance. They also are friends with Luo Xi Yang, who shares their fondness for civil service and Jubei of Mother's Coil, whom they admire for carrying on her education to honor the late Anjal.
In terms of class, this character was originally conceived as a Wizard, inspired by the upcoming School of Civic Wizardry teased for the Remaster, though now I've been pondering whether the character should be single class, or if I should mix Investigator in with it as well, which would be a great way to emulate famous scholars who also participated in battle, like Lu Zhi, Kong Rong and Zhuge Liang. Bard is another class that'd work well, especially to emphasize their poetry hobby, and because Bards are now getting full martial proficiency with the Remaster. Their ancestry would most likely be human, though there's nothing in this concept tied down to a specific ancestry the way the previous one is. The Fire Lancer: This bold and possibly reckless Inventor has Close Ties with Huo Tian-Zhe of the Second Best workshop. While the Player's Guide does caution that Gunslingers may struggle to find weapons and other materials in Season of Ghosts as written, there is one firearm that is well-known in Tian Xia: the humble fire lance. This character seeks to improve and iterate upon its design, and use it to protect their friends and neighbors in Willowshore as Shenmen grows more dangerous by the day. In their mind, mystical protections against ghosts and monsters are reliable and have their place; they just think the addition of SCIENCE! would be just the thing to tip the balance in the ordinary person's favor. Most of Willowshore, however, sees their project as a wasteful and occasionally destructive obsession. Even Tian-Zhe has become concerned, especially since such a weapon is rather impractical for the needs of Willowshore's watch. Once again, likely human in ancestry. And while it may not be practical for the kind of campaign Season of Ghosts is, I wanna add Cavalier as an archetype to complete the image of a fire lancer! Yes, admittedly this concept is more a gimmick that'd require an understanding GM, but it's one I've wanted to do for a Tian Xia character since Guns & Gears came out! The Kawa Tengu: Inspired by the kawa tengu, this character is a laid-back fisherman who can usually be found contemplating the river under an umbrella or entertaining the local children with their Mariner's Fire. But calm waters can quickly give way to raging rapids, and the umbrella they hold conceals a sharp blade! I hadn't really had a class in mind when coming up with this concept, since the folklore on tengu treats them as beings of inherent power rather than mere mortals, but Monk would be a potentially interesting choice, eschewing more formalized monastic studies and drawing inspiration from nature. Eldritch Trickster Rogue would be another good one, to add some actual illusion spells to the mix. In terms of their background, both Southbank Traditionalist and Close Ties (specifically to Zataku) work great! The Wielder of the Heavenly Way: This Willowshore Urchin, unlike the Ambitious Underemployed, was a dropout. Failing the Imperial Examination didn't matter much when said empire broke and became even more meaningless to Shenmen than it already was. Still, they wished to help people in Willowshore, finding work collecting herbs in the forest for You So-Jin of Graveside Manners and occasionally making deliveries to Doctor Dami at the Hand of Spring. They felt frustrated at their seeming inability to do more to help the people of Willowshore and Shenmen as a whole. One day, while they were brooding on this, they were approached by a stranger who asked why they sighed and scowled so. Upon receiving the answer, the stranger smiled and asked the youth to follow them. Curious, they followed, and were led out of Willowshore to a cave in the nearby mountains. Within the cave was a seemingly ancient bamboo book, and upon reading the first few words, something in it resonated in their mind. This text, the stranger explained, was the Book of the Heavenly Way, and they had been chosen to spread its knowledge and use it to help others. They tried to ask the stranger who they were, but they had already vanished.
Returning to Willowshore, they began studying the Book and found it contained a great many things: philosophy, practical information on medicine as well as spiritual treatments, esoteric knowledge of monsters and spirits and more, all in a way that was much easier for them to grasp and understand than the dry ten volumes of the Imperial Compendium. This knowledge enabled them to become a Thaumaturge with the Book of the Heavenly Way as their Tome implement. As they grow in skill and power, they may adopt the Chalice implement to serve as a healer or the Bell implement to ward against the dark spirits threatening Willowshore. This character was primarily inspired by the story of Zhang Jue, the Taoist mystic who inspired and led the Yellow Turban/Scarf rebellion that kickstarted the fall of the Han Dynasty, as described in the first chapter of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. While obviously this character isn't as "revolutionary" as the Zhang brothers, Season of Ghosts is a ghost story, not a political drama, the idea of a charismatic warrior-healer tickles my paladiny sensibilities. Especially after watching this trailer for Total War: Three Kingdoms depicting Zhang Jue much more sympathetically than most other adaptations of his story do.
Making a witch from Wanshou is on my radar.....now how do I make my cephalopodal-familiar not silly? I dunno, I think you could lean into the silly and still have it be creepy! As Bogleech (aka Jonathan Wojcik) so eloquently put it recently: This is one of those things where I get anxious and upset that it exists because I can't protect it from disappointment. And yet I also eat octopus, and octopus would eat me if it could. This is a hyper evolved killing machine. Everything that makes it adorable is, like a cat, part of an adaptation for pure murder efficiency. It even has a venomous bite. It's not just the blue ring octopus that has venom, they all do, the blue ring just has the most potent. This is a primordial death monster and it's so precious I want to find whoever in the world cares about it the least and beat them up for it.
Ooh, I love that the Witch's Broom feat works on polearms! It means I can successfully roleplay THIS!!!
Qi Zhong is a Tian deity, Sangpotshi is a Tian spiritual belief system.Link found on Reddit HERE!There's a good chunk of technical difficulties as they try to ask Sen questions, since her camera wouldn't work half of the time during the Q&A portion. Damn!Need to note about I have no idea who or what Sangpotshi, Midwifery, Qi-Zhong are. I know Jorogumo being part of spider shenanigans. And midwifery is the skill of assisting with the care and health of pregnant people and newborn children, most commonly associated with the actual delivery of babies during the process of birth, but also encompassing prenatal and post-partum care.
AND canonize "Aribeth de Tylmarande was corrupted by her time in Hell and now she's tearing around the Sword Coast like some deranged fanfiction mashup of Marvel's Ghost Rider, DC's Two-Face and Elric of Melniboné!" >:(
WaitaminuteWHAT?! He's in Absalom?! SINCE WHEN?! What book is that in? Why would he be showing up in public implying he's going for it when his whole scam is predicated on a claim that he already completed the Test? Wouldn't that make people suspicious?!
My only question is this; Razmir already was too cowardly to take the Test of the Starstone before. That's why he set up the whole scam with Razmiran and his church in the first place. That's why he's been desperately trying to get his hands on the Sun Orchid Elixer to keep himself going. What about the gods infighting would actually make the actual Test any easier? The gods dont administer the Test or anything, it's essentially something Aroden set and seems to tailot istelf to whover makes it to the Starstone itself. And Razmir was at the peak of his power when he STARTED Razmiran, there's no indication he's done anything but stagnate. So what reason would Razmir have to actually try this time? Especially since it'd expose his lie for what it is? Even if he DID now have actual divine power his reputation would be ruined.Possibly desperation. If he's having no luck getting his hands on Sun Orchid Elixir and at an age where he's likely to run out the clock soon, he's got nothing to lose. True, but that feels like it'd be a disappointing payoff to the implied plotline of Razmir developing a vendetta against Artokus Kirran for seemingly snubbing his (allegedly) winning bid at the most recent Sun Orchid auction, complicating Artokus' possible plans to help Thuvia stand on its own without Sun Orchid Elixer as the sole support of its economic stability since the initial agreement he had with Pharasma on when he'd end his immortality is now up in the air with the death of prophecy, and he (at least from my interpretation of Lost Omens: Legends) seems to want to finally pass away, and it's overdue. Razmir seems to be exactly the kind of petty that'd fall into the sunk cost fallacy and go after the Elixer even harder on principle, possibly even sending agents to sabotage Thuvia out of spite, maybe get desperate enough to come out of hiding to travel to Thuvia and attempt to bully Kirran in person, but him instead growing a spine and abandoning that goal AND that slight would make that plotline feel like a red herring. Chekhov's Gun and all that, you know?
My only question is this; Razmir already was too cowardly to take the Test of the Starstone before. That's why he set up the whole scam with Razmiran and his church in the first place. That's why he's been desperately trying to get his hands on the Sun Orchid Elixer to keep himself going. What about the gods infighting would actually make the actual Test any easier? The gods dont administer the Test or anything, it's essentially something Aroden set and seems to tailot istelf to whover makes it to the Starstone itself. And Razmir was at the peak of his power when he STARTED Razmiran, there's no indication he's done anything but stagnate. So what reason would Razmir have to actually try this time? Especially since it'd expose his lie for what it is? Even if he DID now have actual divine power his reputation would be ruined.
I never miss an opportunity to plug Narrative Declaration, hosted by former Paizo Social Media Producer Payton Smith (aka Zoran the Bear). Originally called "WarHams" and acting as a TTRPG spinoff to the popular Warhammer 40,000 parody series, If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, using the game Wrath and Glory and played by Zoran along with other producers and voice-actors from the show like SpeakerD, Earndil and HulkyKrow, with Paizo's very own THURSTON HILLMAN as the GM! When Games Workshop released their new, much more restrictive, fan content policy, prompting Alfabusa to put TTS on indefinite hiatus, WarHams rebranded to Narrative Declaration (after a mechanic in W&G) and pivoted to Pathfinder 2e, Zoran and Thurston collaborating to create the Soulsborne-esque world of Tyne, where they now have two ongoing campaigns: Rotgrind, GMed by Thurston; and Rotgoons, GMed by Zoran. Zoran is also running Abomination Vaults as a separate campaign in the standard Golarion setting and Thurston is gearing up to run a Starfinder game as well! Why do I enjoy Narrative Declaration? Well, first and foremost it can shift between funny and horrifying on a dime, and I greatly enjoy that juxtaposition. If you're a fan of TTS or Ogre Poppenang's new productions like Hunter: The Parenting and Half Life: Zero Viscosity, you'll enjoy the work Narrative Declaration does! In addition, the worldbuilding Zoran and Thurston do is exquisite, and it's a great showcase of how to run Pathfinder 2e without Golarion attached to it. They also offer PDFs of that world-building as well as homebrewed rules and character archetypes on their Patreon.
it's almost guaranteed to be Asmodeus. Even though he is from real world mythology/religion his current incarnation is too close to the OGL, so he probably has to die, and this does give them an opportunity to make the lost omens hell more distinct from the D&D hell.Would it? I thought D&D hell was currently in a war of succession or something according to BG3? I could be wrong as I haven’t yet played BG3 yet nor D&D in a while As far as I'm aware, the event that would kick off that war... Baldur's Gate III SPOILERS!:
...Raphael getting his hands on the Crown of Karsus thanks to the player character... ...is an optional outcome that may or may not occur based on what you as the player decide. Unless future D&D releases canonize any specific decisions from the game, it's open to an individual DM's interpretation.
Having taken a closer look at Animist, I got an idea that'd probably require a bunch of GM buy-in, but would still be pretty cool: Combine Animist with the Time Mage archetype and flavor the character's apparitions as future and alternative versions of themself, kind of like the Echo Knight Fighter subclass from 5e D&D. They'd have a sort of character arc gimmick with the character slowly changing physically over the course of their adventuring career to resemble whichever apparition they bond with most often, as their timeline stabilizes and the future they've chosen most often becomes their present! Now that I think about it, Thaumaturge with a mirror implement would be a good chassis for this concept too, using Chronoskimmer instead (though that'd require more GM buy-in, since Chronoskimmer is Rare, while Time Mage is not)!
I'm not very good on actual play-testing in the rules, but reading the stuff in it, part of me kind of feels like the Age of Ashes character concept I've had for a few years would make a GREAT Exemplar. This class may be just the battle-focused non-Battle-Oracle concept I've been looking for! While Dahak isn't DEAD yet (I'm not sure if War of Immortals is when Exemplars first start appearing on Golarion, or if there have been ones in the past that just didn't have this specific label yet), his avatar being forcibly separated from him could be a great excuse for a shard of Dahak's divinity to get lodged in this poor Aiuvarin dwarf and give him the horrifying nightmares of fire and death that motivate him to learn how to be an adventurer: Mournful [insert first name here] Oreflame, Born of the Bones of the Earth, Teacher of Heroes! Throw in a Draconic bloodline Sorcerer multiclass for some fire-themed arcane spellcasting and it'd be perfect!
As a matter of fact, I have a character already for a Crypt of the Everflame game that only got a little ways off the ground: Betzolte Ironhame, local smith's daughter and aspiring wizard (angling for the Eldritch Knight prestige class though that's beyond the scope of the Everflame's max level)! I'll just touch her up to get her in line with the recruitment's parameters and answer the GM questions this evening!
Yeah, that's the thing. Groetus doesn't really have feelings one way or the other about the end of the world. He's just there to do his thing when the time comes and not much else after. The only reason people are scared of him is because of what he represents (and causes flashbacks for Majora's Mask players).
Whoa, I did NOT see that response before! Please disregard my previous speculation regarding this affair. And frankly, it makes sense since it would be INCREDIBLY out-of-character for Shelyn overall. Having a deity do something out of character not only disrupts the lore, but potentially disrupts the PCs of any player whose character worships that deity, in a similar way to suddenly saying "Rapiers are now two-handed weapons" would mess up players who assume that rapiers would remain finesse/swashbuckly weapons. Besides, two-handed swashbuckly weapons are what estocs are for! ;)
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