Blastoguy's page

What classes are good for this adventure path? I was thinking paladin or druid.

Assuming I'm a wizard or cleric, what are some spells to consider taking. Starting the campaign at level 1, can expect it to last at least long enough to level up into early/mid teens, perhaps longer.

What classes do well in organized play? I'd like to get away with playing an alchemist or inquisitor if possible.

^Topic

Wondering why wizards are objectively better than sorcerers.

1. The default assumption is that advanced firearms are not allowed (they don't exist in PFS), their stats are included for the sake of completeness.

2. You're talking about something being OP in a game where the wizard and druid exist. Just want to remind you of that.

So the more I read about alchemist the more I like it; it seems like you can excel at one role while being able to perform every other role at least adequately. (I like inquisitors and bards for similar reasons)

What are some good races/feats/archetypes for the class? I've heard very good things about the vivisectionist. Confirm/deny?

Con penalty really stops you from excelling at anything unless you have VERY good racial abilities to make up for it (Mystic Past Life on Samsarans). If they had darkvision instead of low-light, they would be good Rogues, but they don't so eh.

If pressed, I'd go with something like Zen Archer (ignoring the question of how they hell you fire a bow with claws), with Empyreal (Seeker) Sorcerer and Arcane Archer added to taste.

Yeah the con penalty sucks. :/

Generally don't play a race with a con penalty... although elves rock at being mages and such.

What's so great about Mystic Past Life?

Might just say to hell with it and make a tiefling magus for PFS.

Kinda want to play a Tengu for my first PFS game... what classes (if any) are they amazing at?

Want: Nagaji

Have: A birthday on October 1st, gratitude... *sigh* and money.

Human: Heart of the fields

Elf: Darkvision

What's the deal? What's so out of line with these two traits that they're not legal?

New to Buffalo area, trying to get my fix. :)

Any games in progress accepting new players?

Kind of in the mood to play a catfolk/dhampir/undine/oread.

Any of those available via boons yet?

How does one go about acquiring a boon?

They seem to be on par with their surface kin, SR is good, especially early in a drow's career, but can be a bit of a double edged sword.

What do you guys think?

Ideally on par, balance wise with the other races? Thinking of doing it myself. Probably balance the Diopsids dual-wielding two handers with some racial feat progression.

While we're talking about the compendium, has anyone converted orange, purple, and yellow dragons?

Someone tell me where Sovyrian is... please?

Also does this book shed any light as to where the Numerian wreckage came from?

Brainiac58 wrote:

Scott Andrews wrote:

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

James Sutter wrote:

Don't worry, there's some extensive weirdness coming down the line. :)

I now want an Ultimate Weirdness hardcover.

Seconded.

I would buy that in a minute!

Count me in as well ;)

Any my axe!

Seriously though, more weird stuff; there's enough western fantasy content on the shelves to last a life time. My kingdom for dragon empires and solar system hardcovers; I'd pay full tag for Distant Worlds: The Green Planet, Distant Worlds: The Red Planet, and Distant Worlds: Beyond the Line. Ideally with two to three new xeno player races in each.

Now I still haven't got my copy of this tome in my hands yet, and I have a question that has been eating at me... WHERE IS SOVRYIAN LOCATED? (inb4 Castrovel)

I remember one were these makes reptilians, another was some plant thing, then there was a small, dark fey race, and the last race were sentient constructs created by gnomes for lulz.

If anyone knows the article I'm talking about please point me towards the issue so I can have it on hand. (Or if they're in the compendium, lemme know, picking that up anyway for tibbits and yellow/orange/purple dragons)

Can someone sum up the dominant races/factions of the various planets for me while I wait on my copy? I'd like to get an early start on stating out alien race options for my players.

(Also how the hell do you travel from one planet to another?)

I'll sum up my opinions on this book in three words: A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. At the very least I expected racial stats for the Lashunta. This is going into the trash bin.

Oh god don't do that, send it to me I'll pay for shipping.

In the mood to pump out some level 1 PCs so I have 'em on hand. What's a good (ideally free) online resource to accomplish this?

Ultimately, the problem is not with alignments, but with player motivations. Normally, the "no evil alignments" clause in a game means two things:

• We expect your PC to be heroic.
• We expect you, the player, not to be disruptive.

Many times (but by no means all times), players want to play evil characters so they have an excuse to backstab other players, kill any NPC they don't like, and in general act out any power fantasy without regards to the other players' fun or the GM's fun. Sometimes, Chaotic Neutral is used for the excuse if Evil isn't available. In either case, this is not a good way to play, and should be curtailed.

Evil alignments work fine in a group that is fully aware of the potential drawbacks. If anything, the burden of making it work lies with the player of the Evil PC, who needs to understand that it's not carte blanche to disrupt the game.

If you've had trouble with Evil PCs in the past, feel free to ban them. If you feel that the players need some boundary to keep them from being disruptive, it's a good idea. And beware people who immediately say, "Well, if I can't be evil, I'll be CN."

I'm probably going to go with a policy of "play what you want, but know that the group isn't bound by the will of the plot to keep you around. Worst case scenario, I have no problem invoking a precison rocks fall scenario and making you reroll a non-evil, non-CN character."

Starting up a new game with a new group, about to post character generation rules on our site, and I'm weary of allowing an evil character. Simply because they've been problematic in the past.

On the other hand, if I get a good concept I don't want to say no, and ideally I don't want anyone seeing what the other players have on their character sheets; I don't want people judging each others actions by "his character is evil, gotta disagree," I want them assessing actions by their own merit, asking themselves how their character feels about something and acting accordingly.

tl;dr- Evil alignments ok in a mixed alignment party?

Blastoguy wrote:

James I have to be honest, this information made me cancel my preorder, and it's the type of thing I'd expect from WotC, but not you guys. Frankly, I was pretty worried when I noticed you omitted the kitsune feats from Dragon Empires Gazetteer (which would have amounted to 3 paragraphs, tops) and this "we didn't stat these alien races out here... BUT YOU CAN TOTALLY DO IT YOURSELF WITH THE UPCOMING 40$ BOOK RELEASED AROUND THE SAME TIME" only confirms my fears.

This is the kind of thing that is killing our hobby, you're not giving us our money's worth. I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd trade the "special thanks" on page 3 of Dragon Empires Gazetteer for the kitsune feats, or that I'd trade a page or two of vague, not at all helpful blips of fluff from obscure moons with no plot relevance for properly statted alien races. Just saying.

I don't feel the comparison is fair. The thing I like about these books is that you get .exactly. what it says on the cover.

This is a Campaign Setting gazetteer, after all. It's mostly fluff; notable places, npcs and story hooks. With a book dedicated to races already scheduled to come out, writing more races to put in here would be making you buy both if it's races you are interested in.

I will agree that the argument could go both ways. Personally, I like how each product line focuses on its own thing. When I get the Campaign setting books, I'm hoping for maybe a prestige class or a very world-specific monster. But a race belongs, in my personal opinion, in the Core line.

I was really looking forward to exotic, secular options racewise. :(

Besides, there's really no reason not to include them, and seeing as like the Lashunta for example are the dominant race (barely) on their planet, it's kind of relevant.

Dragon78 wrote:

How many monsters/creatures are there in this book?

Are there any playable races?

Anything that can be used as an animal companion or familiar?

Do we find out what familiar/known monsters exist on these other planets that live on Golarion?

If I recall correctly, there are 6 fully statted-up monsters, plus dozens more that are described but not statted up. There's also a discussion of familiar monsters from Golarion and their roles on other planets, as well as advice on easy ways to reskin familiar monsters for an interplanetary campaign. The statted-up monsters include one that wouldn't *quite* be an animal companion, but might interest you if you enjoy that sort of character. And while there aren't any playable race write-ups, many of the races described could easily be built using the rules in the forthcoming Advanced Race Guide!

James I have to be honest, this information made me cancel my preorder, and it's the type of thing I'd expect from WotC, but not you guys. Frankly, I was pretty worried when I noticed you omitted the kitsune feats from Dragon Empires Gazetteer (which would have amounted to 3 paragraphs, tops) and this "we didn't stat these alien races out here... BUT YOU CAN TOTALLY DO IT YOURSELF WITH THE UPCOMING 40$ BOOK RELEASED AROUND THE SAME TIME" only confirms my fears.

This is the kind of thing that is killing our hobby, you're not giving us our money's worth. I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd trade the "special thanks" on page 3 of Dragon Empires Gazetteer for the kitsune feats, or that I'd trade a page or two of vague, not at all helpful blips of fluff from obscure moons with no plot relevance for properly statted alien races. Just saying.

Gnome, Halfling, or Wayang? Lets compare, shall we?

Gnome: Bonuses to con and cha, paladins are smiling. Skill bonuses are nice, especially when perception is involved. You'll pretty much always want to trade out defensive training and hatred unless you plan on fighting a lot of giants/etc. for 20 levels. Penalty to strength hurts. Spell like abilities are situational but useful.

Halfling: Bonuses to dex and cha are nice, bonus to all saves, even higher bonus against fear effects (be sure to swap out fearless for an alternate racial trait if you're a paladin). Solid bonuses to skills, the +2 to perception is especially delicious, and if you take the outrider alternate racial trait you can swap out climb and acrobatics for ride and handle animal. Again, a penalty to strength stings.

Wayang: Bonus to dex and int, which is ok I guess, could be better, but it's not what Wayangs get that's important, it's what they don't lose; namely, str. Perception bonus is nice but it's for all practical purposes +1 due to the racial penalty on wisdom. Like the gnome, spell like abilities are situational but useful, pass without trace being especially attractive for someone with a mount.

Overall I'd say... they're pretty much dead even. Comes down to slight advantages depending on build. Maybe I'm missing something here but I think it's hard to go wrong as long as you're small, for either class.

Question: Does this have any new art for the Dragon Empires player races or is the same stuff from the gazetteer? Very curious as to what female nagaji look like, as this is the first time I'm actually HOPING a female reptilian humanoid has mammaries. (due to their close association with naga)

Also, any racial feats/traits for races other than Kitsune?

This isn't world of warcraft, you don't need a "healbot" and devoting a character solely to healing is in fact, something of a waste. Play what you want, and if your party is insistent on having a second character who can heal I suggest-

1. Go druid and abuse the hell out of shapeshifting.

2. Go witch and take the cauldron hex. Maybe the healing hex(es).

3. Go bard, archaeologist if you also need someone who can disarm traps.

Actually you might be able to, cause it says "Similar abilities"

Quote:

Whenever a ronin is the target of a challenge, a smite, a quarry, or similar effect, and he issues a challenge against that character in return

Would Judgments count? How about many Hexes? Mind you of course, you can still Challenge people and do damage to them.

Personally though, I'd go with Cockatrice or Ronin. With ronin, while the challenge bonus may not happen often, Something that happens really often is Will saves. Being able to roll, not once, not twice, but up to four times for many things that require will saves is very nice. (two uses of resolve for each save roll.)

I dunno, can we get the dinosaur in here to clear this up?

Torn between supporting my FLGS for the full price tag of 40$ (ouch) or supporting my wallet by ordering Bestiary 3 from Amazon for 27$. What do? :(

When I designed a Samurai, I took human, cause of

Heart of the Wilderness: Humans raised in the wild learn the hard way that only the strong survive. They gain a bonus equal to half their character level on Survival checks. They also gain a +5 bonus on Constitution checks to stabilize when dying and add half their character level to their Constitution score when determining the negative hit point total necessary to kill them. This racial trait replaces the skilled racial trait.

I also took Ronin.

The overall Idea was to create a samurai who would be near impossible to kill (at least impossible when compared to other characters)

Power attack, Furious Focus and the like are great feats.

But personally, I would never dump int. I'm not sure how strict your DM is, but personally, I hate when I'm the smart guy at the table, and I'm playing a dumb character, mean while our smart pc is being played by a relatively slower individual. (Like our wizard who thinks melee is the place for him to be before casting buffs like mage armor and sheild.)

Ronin seemed interesting, but the thing is that challenge effect? You'll never get to use it like... ever. That is a good combo though, HotW and Ronin.

What are some of the better orders for Cavaliers/Samurai?

I wanted to make a group of kobold cultists who worship Jubilex, Demon Lord of Ooze, and their leader. I wanted to make the leader an oracle but nothing seemed to fit. Best I could come up with for the leader is a cleric with the demon and ocean subdomains, describing water spells as slime. Can anyone come up with a better class or archetype?

Sorcerer of some kind?

Looking for more input.

As the title asks, I am looking for the official stat block of an inquisitor and witch character. It's the specific formatting that I am trying to find. Does anybody know where these are located?

Advanced Player's Guide?

I absolutely abhor this lame-ass trend of keeping the titles vague to lure people in. Cut it out, all of you.

Sorry you're not enjoying yourself Bardbro, but I've having a ball.

You like CD's?

Oh you.

Your answer is here.

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

New wallpaper: YAY!

New bestiary: YAY!

Wait...a tanuki illustration that doesn't show off his infamous attribute? BOO!

;-)

Yeah... turns out, a tanuki with a giant bulge in his pants would cause more problems for us than it would solve, since we're an American company after all... :-(

That said... the tanuki DOES have a slam attack that he can use when his hands are full with weapons. How that slam attack looks when he attacks, we leave up to the GMs of the world.

And yes, the third one is a ki-rin. And not a weird looking one—just one we wanted to look different than the one that's been in D&D all these years (we generally try to put our own spin on monsters we present who have long traditions in D&D).

Glad they left the "slam" attack in, but it still pisses me off how devs are censoring themselves more and more to appease the bible belt.

As ballsy as the grievance-expression may be, there's a bit of false equivalency there.

Orientation, and the complications and entanglements that it entails, are a far more complex and significant subject matter than whether or not our esteemed tanuki has the full 8-tatami measure, and while most gamers are aware of the significance of said, those who are neophytes or making their way in from other games and activities are going to be less concerned unless they are min-maxers who want the detachable 'drums' to be used as a melee weapon.

That's kind of the entire point, the next time a PC is a problem I want them to be beaten to death with a pair of giant testicles.

Paizo just didn't want to go there...

Why not, they can openly declare every other NPC/deity to be gay but we can't talk about testicles?

Have comically large testicles?

Whoa! Acting troupe please call off your attack and return to your basements; obviously I plan on roleplaying if I'm trying to figure out how I can not be dead weight as a particular race.

Anyway I think empyreal wildblood sorcerer/cloistered cleric/mystic theurge would do well.

Can't help but think a negative to charisma would have fit the race better... ah well.

Looking at Samasarans they're imho the worst race in the game, I was wondering if they had a niche that they excel at which I'm missing.

Is your DM using traits? Best way to balance races like Aasimar and Tiefling is to give PCs who chose a standard race two traits and planetouched none.

At least that's how I've always done it.

Finn K wrote:

Golden-Esque wrote:

I agree with this 100%. Especially when the Dragon Empires Primer includes the kitsune which is, gasp, another "animal-headed humanoid with little to no lore."

I know that if you told me, personally, that I could play a kitsune or a ratfolk (which currently has the same amount of in-world lore, if not less) but not a catfolk, I'd be annoyed (though to be perfectly honest, I find the kitsune far more fascinating than the catfolk in the first place).

The one thing I do have to give (reasonable) defenders of Kitsune but not catfolk, is that in the "real world", Kitsune have a very long 'history' (lots of stories and lore about them) in Japanese Mythology. Catfolk are a fictional creation... although, as others have already pointed out-- they have a long and colorful history in Anime, there's 'Cats' (the Musical, and the T.S. Eliot poems the musical was based on), the Kilrathi, the Chanur, and more than a few other examples scattered throughout fiction (outside of what non-Furries consider 'Furry').

Since we pull so much else in the game straight out of fiction without requiring mythological roots to back it up, I still don't see a problem with catfolk because they lack the legendary roots that Kitsune have (particularly since Kitsune in Japanese mythology are a lot different from the way they are portrayed in PF-- then again, Kitsune in the mythology probably wouldn't make good PC's, game balance would be thrown off).

Why does a race have to have a real world analogy? It is a fantasy game, hell the more choices the better.

A lot of people like Anthromorphs and play them quite well.

>Playing anthromorphs

Pick one.

You know what? Fine. I'll let her be a catfolk. Moment the f@**!#ry starts though she's getting swarmed by Akatas.

TriOmegaZero wrote:

James! It's the weekend! Stop working! :)

No such thing as weekends when snow wreaks havoc!

How many new races in Distant Worlds.

O_O How. Many?

Blastoguy wrote:

deusvult wrote:

Blastoguy wrote:

Kitsune and Tengu have more lore/weight in the setting that "cat head, human body, *lick* :3 "

Besides, I've held to my policy of "if it ain't core/Dragon Empires, then no" for awhile, I'm not gonna break now because the moment I do is when people start asking to play half-dragons again.

I feel ya on the Tengu and Kitsune... there's plenty of eastern myth and lore that they're based on to draw upon even if paizo's stuff isn't as deep.

I do gotta snipe a bit tho.. what about those snakeheaded humans :D

See it's a fine line, Nagaji aren't so much snakeheaded humans, they're humanoids with vaguely serpentine features, and there's more to them than "snaaaaake people, snaaaaaaaaaaaaaake people, look like snake, talk like people." They have lore, they have a purpose and a role in the setting. Same with Kitsune and Tengu.

Catfolk? They're literally just people that look like cats. Their NAME is catfolk; is that really what they call themselves? See that's what bothers me.

Is that really any worse that three core races whose names are Half-elf, Half-orc and Halfling?

Wat.

Blastoguy wrote:

deusvult wrote:

Blastoguy wrote:

Kitsune and Tengu have more lore/weight in the setting that "cat head, human body, *lick* :3 "

Besides, I've held to my policy of "if it ain't core/Dragon Empires, then no" for awhile, I'm not gonna break now because the moment I do is when people start asking to play half-dragons again.

I feel ya on the Tengu and Kitsune... there's plenty of eastern myth and lore that they're based on to draw upon even if paizo's stuff isn't as deep.

I do gotta snipe a bit tho.. what about those snakeheaded humans :D

See it's a fine line, Nagaji aren't so much snakeheaded humans, they're humanoids with vaguely serpentine features, and there's more to them than "snaaaaake people, snaaaaaaaaaaaaaake people, look like snake, talk like people." They have lore, they have a purpose and a role in the setting. Same with Kitsune and Tengu.

Catfolk? They're literally just people that look like cats. Their NAME is catfolk; is that really what they call themselves? See that's what bothers me.

Change the name. Work with your player to add a small bit of cool lore.

Just a little bit of work really. Shouldn't be that hard.

Yeah but I'm essentially going the extra mile to accommodate something I'm not happy about to begin with.

Fact is, I know that since catfolk have no lore all she wants is to look like a cat and... that's it. She might say otherwise, but the proof is in the pudding. I'm saying no.

Blastoguy wrote:

Kitsune and Tengu have more lore/weight in the setting that "cat head, human body, *lick* :3 "

Besides, I've held to my policy of "if it ain't core/Dragon Empires, then no" for awhile, I'm not gonna break now because the moment I do is when people start asking to play half-dragons again.

I feel ya on the Tengu and Kitsune... there's plenty of eastern myth and lore that they're based on to draw upon even if paizo's stuff isn't as deep.

I do gotta snipe a bit tho.. what about those snakeheaded humans :D

See it's a fine line, Nagaji aren't so much snakeheaded humans, they're humanoids with vaguely serpentine features, and there's more to them than "snaaaaake people, snaaaaaaaaaaaaaake people, look like snake, talk like people." They have lore, they have a purpose and a role in the setting. Same with Kitsune and Tengu.

Catfolk? They're literally just people that look like cats. Their NAME is catfolk; is that really what they call themselves? See that's what bothers me.

Blastoguy wrote:

Finn K's little tirade reminded me why I don't allow "animal head, human body, no lore" races. Told my player after further consideration the answer was no, absolutely not, and as always the policy re: races is "core and dragon empires only."

So wait a Catfolk is not okay but a Fox person, a bird person (both wou unlike the catfolk literally are animal headed races) but a catfolk is a no-no. I mean at the end of the day it is your choice but it seems somewhat erratic to me

Kitsune and Tengu have more lore/weight in the setting that "cat head, human body, *lick* :3 "

Besides, I've held to my policy of "if it ain't core/Dragon Empires, then no" for awhile, I'm not gonna break now because the moment I do is when people start asking to play half-dragons again.

Now that you-know-who is preparing for a marketing blitz around 5th edition, I think it's time for Pathfinder 2nd ed. Mostly, I think this would be a good way to capitalize on a larger marketing budget, but I could see some real value coming out of it.

Some things I think would be required:

1) Everything is backward compatible: Pathfinder has too much source material to just invalidate it all.

2) Focus on extracting common elements. For example, unify all the Wis casters into a single class with existing variations like Oracle being specific builds of the generic base.

3) Generic treasure rules are key. Make magic items a sort of character that you can build from a set of basic attributes modified by additional features.

4) Create a richer system of specialization for skills

5) Bring psionics and firearms into the core (maybe coordinate with an Adventure Path that does the same for Golarion?)

6) Demote what doesn't work well from the core, out into a new APG and move what works best from the existing APG into core.

7) Make a "as Characters" book as part of the basic set of rules books which collects all of the playable races.

The thing is, 3.5 was fine the way it was; the switch to 4E was an unneeded and purely arbitrary cash grab. The system itself is very poor, and not four years later they're putting the nail in it's coffin by saying "hey, you guys that actually bought stuff for 4E? Yeah, all twelve of you? Yeah, you got punked, your books are now useless, we're changing the rules again." I swear, Gygax must be rolling d20s in his grave.

Likewise, Pathfinder is FINE. There is nothing wrong with the system as is, there is absolutely no reason to change to a new ruleset, and any motions to do so will be seen as the shameless cash grab it is. D&D is dead. Mark my words, DEAD. If Paizo were to try some "Pathfinder 2.0" crap, especially this early into the ruleset's lifespan, it'd be more or less the death of pnp RPGs. The hobby is losing a LOT of players to MMOs/consoles as is, and it's not hard to see why; it's expensive, and it requires five people to coordinate their schedules around meeting semi-regularly. You add "core rules are a revolving door" to the mix and people say "f@@! it" and reinstall WoW.

I have played many catfolk characters over the years from Red Box D&D to the tail end of 3.5. My favorite was a lascivious catfolk bard in a Spelljammer campaign. The DM asked me to stop trying to sleep with all of the npcs and I replied:

"In the tradition of the Honorable Captain James Tiberius Kirk it is my moral imperative to seduce any and all willing females that I meet provided they have the necessary plumbing to do the deed."

The whole time he thought "Tiber" was a bad play on "tiger"...

My most recent was a Triani smuggler in a Star Wars SAGA game.

I've always loved cats and I have fun trying to play their attitude as a character. When I was in elementary school waaaaaaaay back in the 80s the teacher read "Puss in Boots" to us. Needless to say, that was who I was playing on the playground until everyone saw Star Wars and then I became Han Solo.

"The Secret of N.I.H.M." cartoon makes me want to play a ratfolk character but I've never seen the race done properly.

"The Velveteen Rabbit" doesn't make me want to play a bunny but "Watership Down" sure as hell does.

The point is to not judge your players for their character choices but to work with them to make the character they WANT to play that has a role in the party. I've had more trouble with dwarves who were either too drunk all the time or just complete jerks, elves who wanted to run free in the wilds in a city based game or sanctimonious paladins. Those tired-to-the-point-of-exhaustion cliches are part and parcel of the "Traditional Core Game" and they make me cry a little inside.

It's your game and you can allow or disallow anything you like but I've found that by working with players to build their characters I lessen my workload by building in plot hooks that I can use.

Of course, YMMV.

SM

Yeah see, more of what I don't want at my table.

(P.S. For "ratfolk done right" read Mouse Guard and Redwall. Thinking of doing an all ratfolk campaign now.)