Thank you, Amber! Your terrific insights on Night Hags have given me some concept seeds to build off of for my hag-centric Golarion campaign. Cheers!
It's Friday, so that means it's time for monster blogging. Today, you get the inknull and voxvoid! These 2 creatures are absolute GENIUS. They will get table time at my Pathfinder game in the upcoming week. Thank you so much!
While I'd like to write-up a full-bodied review of 101 Spells for the Common Man ... this short one will have to do for now. This is a 5-Star PDF, folks. As a huge fan of Pathfinder & 3.5 (Paizo, WotC & all reputable 3PPs) spellbook tomes, this is one of the most creative & mechanically-sound 3PP spellbooks I've seen over the years. Ranking right up there with Dave Paul's recent terrain-centric spellbook series over at Rite Publishing. My players have been diving into this PDF with glee. We currently have a little over 20 of these spells that have already been cast (or written to character spellbooks) at our gaming tables over the last 2 weeks. As a DM, I love how info-packed yet streamlined/concise design of many of the spells. Clever, thoughtful titles, too. Props to Jeff Gomez for bringing all of these talented game designers together into a PDF that's easy to navigate and a lot of fun to read. For you demiurgic types, many of these spells can be subtly optimized for innovative application, too. Gosh, I wish I had time to list my Top 10 Favorites. But I will definitely say that Pleasing Facade brought me a whiplash smile and totally stroked my inner gothic sensibilities. I've never seen anyone capture The Picture of Dorian Gray in an RPG game mechnanic as elegantly this spell. Bravo!
I'd really like to see either a re-tooling/re-balancing of the Hag Coven mechanics. Or different options to allow for a reasonable party cooperative involvement in a Coven. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/monstrous-humanoids/hag/
This Hag-themed thread *here* ... is an incredibly comprehensive list of all the hag, hag-offspring and hag-related creatures in D&D 3.5, D20/OGL 3PP, Paizo PF and some 3PP PF. It hasn't been updated in a while. But still, the list entries are numerous and impressively comprehensive. I'm sure some of you hag-fans could update the list with some more up-to-date Paizo and 3PP hags if they so desire. That all said, I'm excited about Blood of the Coven! I hope we get at least a dozen more hags or thematically-related beasties included in this upcoming book.
The '101 Spells' series is phenomenal. Every ... single ... book. That said, I hope Dave Paul's run on this thematic series is still going on. My 2 groups use a significant chunk of spells from each of those books.
Hi Todd, Long-time fan of all your planar work. I was curious if you have ever done design work on planar-themed spells for PF (or 3.5). If so, I'd love to see them ... and perhaps you could list your published work on said spells? On a related note, if you were to create any new Pathfinder spells, what type would interest you? I'm guessing that spells with a Golarion-specific focus on summoning/binding/planar thematics would be in that mix? Thanks and best wishes! I look forward to seeing more of your awesome work published soon!
Lump Hag for Pathfinder from Fat Goblin Games. On a related note to the Lump Hag, it might be a good idea to start adding all the Pathfinder 3PP hag options to this thread. There's a ton of them from what I recall. From monster compendiums to witch sourcebooks. I'll work on that next week - hopefully some of you have some references along this line as well.
This is an outstanding hag reference thread. Wow. Thanks for all the terrific updates and chronological upkeep.
Hey Everybody. I was hoping one of you could help me get some clarity on the overarching entirety of Dreamscarred Press' psionic offerings for Pathfinder. I actually have *all* of their psionic books and/or PDFs (with help from my tabletop group). What I'm trying to get a handle on is how all of these books are interrelated for use as core, expansion and auxiliary sourcebooks. The reason I ask is that we recently converted from a 3.5~PF hybrid system to a full-blown PF system ... and we used to use a predominantly 3.5 psionics game mechanic for the rare foray into psionics. Now that my players (I'm the GM) are ramping up their interest in Dreamscarred Press' psionics systems, I want to boost my system mastery of their entire psionics product line for a better play experience for my players. But I need to understand how to properly utilize all their books (Psi Unleashed, Psi Expanded, Psi Embodied, Psi Augmented series etc.). I also have around 8 psionics-friendly PDFs from various quality Pathfinder 3PPs that I have to integrate as well. Thank you in advance for all your help!
This book looks terrific and very thematically-appropriate to my current campaign. It's now officially added to my Shopping Cart for my next purchase. I do regret not getting the BoHR: Advanced Subscription. Especially since I've bought most of the separate race books piecemeal. Regardless, I highly recommend this outstanding series of racial showcase PDF's. I haven't run into a weak PDF yet. They're all useful, creative, information-dense content, as is usual with most JBE publishings.
Malwing, I would definitely be interested in reading future blog articles relating to your ethnicity and the gaming culture dynamics involved with it. My most profound and cherished RPG experiences have come from sharing game tables and PBEM's with people who were vastly different than me. As a result, I'm formed preferences for heterogeneous demographics with the Pathfinder groups that I GM. I hope that helps ...
Interesting thread from both a customer and publisher perspective. One other customer suggestion for the 3P-Publisher: When PDFs are updated/revised/clarified in some fashion (and re-posted for customer download at Paizo/OBS/OGS, etc.), it would be helpful to us customers to have some part of the PDF splash page or intro text note that this updated PDF is "Version 2.0" or "Revision #3 - June 16, 2015" or something helpfully descriptive like that. And please have it bolded, highlighted or easy-to-spot. This rarely ever happens (I speak from frustrated experience of owning countless "revised" PF 3PP PDFs ). While getting our beloved PDFs updated to resolve typos, add bookmarks or install errata/balance fixes are greatly appreciated by the original publisher, it's sometimes very hard to tell when looking at the original and revised PDFs ... as to which one is the newest one.
You had me at "weird roof-beam elementals", Thilo. :-P I think I'll pick this module up.
You're the gold standard when it comes to reviews, Thilo. I certainly try to model many aspects of my review process on how you do yours. Mike, I still have a good number of other Wererat-specific sourcebooks as well (primarily from the 3.X 3PP era). And I have to say, the Bite Me! Wererats is favorite of all of them!
I just posted a review of this book. My gamers and I very much enjoyed it! Also, I posted the review over at OBS as well.
My final revised order ... is probably going to be delivered to my house in a box the size of a large microwave oven. I already feel sorry for the delivery person who has to schlep it up to my doorstep.
I'm hoping more and more for a dedicated section on the Morlocks within this book. Since their introduction as the replacement for WotC's popular (yet IP-protected) Grimlocks, we haven't had much spotlight on them.
This will not be an easy task as I own dozens & dozens of Pathfinder 3PP products published in 2015. And to note, some of my favorite 3PP publishers will not be on this Top 5 list ... but by virtue of being one of my faves, they still wow me with the way they consistently issue title-after-title of very good-to-excellent products. Just to clarify my above quote .... I *bought* dozens & dozens of PF 3PP stuff in 2015. They weren't all necessarily published in 2015. Everything else I wrote is accurate. :-)
One of my friends just jumped on board this wonderful Kickstarter. Since he's also a GM, we now both get to play and gamemaster in Castorhage! Hooray! This makes me ridiculously happy. Although I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune as I struggle to stay alive after getting quietly garroted at the Old Mother Bore ...
This will not be an easy task as I own dozens & dozens of Pathfinder 3PP products published in 2015. And to note, some of my favorite 3PP publishers will not be on this Top 5 list ... but by virtue of being one of my faves, they still wow me with the way they consistently issue title-after-title of very good-to-excellent products. *** In no particular order: 1. 101 Shadow & Darkness Spells (Rite Publishing) 2. Path of Shadows (Ascension Games) 3. Mythic Monsters #32: Shadow (Legendary Games) 4. The Reign of Terror (Four Dollar Dungeons) 5. Letters of the Flaming Crab: Wheel of the Year (Flaming Crab Games) 6. Lovecraft Fantasy Gaming Toolkit (Purple Duck Games) ***** Yes, there is a connected theme here with the first 3 titles. That's because of the aggregate playing styles/preferences of my 2 gaming groups and I for the majority of 2015. As for why I chose a Top 6 over a Top 5 ... well, let's just chalk that up to me being a contrarian. :-)
As I stated on another related thread of this sort, I'll be writing considerably more 3PP reviews this year. It'll likely be a 50/50 mix of reviewing ones that I've already bought ... to comp'ed PDFs I've received from a 3PP in return for a promised review. So far, I see Flaming Crab Games, Purple Duck Games and Four Dollar Dungeons all represented in this thread. And I can say with absolute 100% certainty, I have a quite a lot of each of their spectacular releases.
The only city I've ever been able to successfully run as a multi-year campaign was Waterdeep from the Forgotten Realms (which I did from '02 to '08). It was fun, but it certainly had its inherent limitations. When I look at all the collected spotlight profiles and descriptive updates that Richard has provided us regarding Castorhage, I'm already feeling like this city ... is one that I could easily GM with extreme inspiration and fervorous awe ... for the next 20 years. This city matches my GM'ing style to the "T". I just hope that my typically strong storytelling and gamemastering prowess can do justice to Richard Pett's magnificent prose and world-creation. I'm definitely gonna have to up my game! After all these years I've been gaming, I'm stunned at the level of dynamic anticipation I'm getting from this new campaign tableau. I truly hope that we Kickstarter patrons can help steamroll through a boatload of the Stretch Goals. Because I'd really like to get as many of these sordid, evocative goodies into my hands ASAP!
PM sent to Christina. I highly recommend y'all check out the Bite Me! Lycanthrope line that Christina has developed for Misfit Studios. There's a good number of products that they've published to evolve these improved rules for enabling PCs to play as *playable* lycanthropes (or, to be more technical, therianthropes). I'm running a NPC at the moment that is a weremantis using these alt-rules ... and it's a significant upgrade over Paizo's core lycanthropy rules.
Letters from the Flaming Crab: Wheel of the Year has been reviewed. An excellent Holiday Season accessory for Pathfinder GMs. Thanks again, J Gray! This was a fun giveaway!
Letters from the Flaming Crab: Wheel of the Year reviewed. An excellent Holiday Season accessory for Pathfinder GMs.
Congrats to all! And huge, HUGE props to Taig (Mike Welham) and all the awesome Pathfinder 3PP folks who contributed to Taig's T.D.o.T.P.! It's generous contributions to the PF community like this that make me go and re-inspect all the cool products offered by the kind 3PP folks who offered to give goodies away. To help celebrate me winning Flaming Crab Games "Wheel of the Year" (review to be posted shortly!) and to celebrate my love of the Winter Solstice and Newtonmas, I'm gonna make a big PDF purchase that will include at least one title from each of the 3PP companies that participated (and also from Taig/Mike Welham and Ambrosia Slaad/Sarah Counts). Cheers and Happy Gaming! - Crai P.S. I think I already own everything that Mike Welham has authored. Lol. And I just wrote up a ton of his giant material from his most excellent book "Larger Than Life" for my players upcoming delve into the Hungry Mountains of Ustalav (in Golarion).
I hope that anyone who is on the fence about this KS gives it another look. The sheer quantity and quality of this creative Fey endeavour looks to be absolutely off the charts. Plus, it's all All-Star cast of designers and developers working on this project. While $ is kinda tight for everyone this time of year, this KS was an absolute no-brainer for me. Scott Gable's prior Fey-themed projects for Pathfinder rules gives me a strong indication that this project will be truly epic in scope.
Woohoo! I got a Natural 10 tonight! I'll PM JGray tonight to request his recently published (and appropriately thematic for the current Holiday Season) ... Letters from the Flaming Crab: Wheel of the New Year In appreciation of Flaming Crab Games' generous gift, I'll post a review of it by 12/25 (all of my previous 3PP reviews have been posted within the time frame that I promise). This release looks very, very cool! Plus, I've been on a Flaming Crab Games roll lately having recently picked up a bunch of their über-goodies (Haunted Places, Summon Undead, Spell Staff, etc). ***************** Also, a quick heads-up for y'all. Mike Welham (aka Taig, the Original Poster of this thread) is one of my fave Pathfinder 3PP designers. Coincidentally, I PM'ed him about 3 weeks ago to talk about 2 PDFs he wrote for Rite Publishing ... #30 Manuals of Improvement and #30 More Manuals of Improvement. He was a pleasure to talk with and very helpful in answering my questions. I highly recommend you check-out both of these well-balanced and creatively-designed supplemental books. Even the esteemed Endzeitgeist rated them at 4+ stars. Happy Holidays to all of you!
Jawdroppingly beautiful prose, Richard. But if that's your Castorhage entry for a Fodor's Travel Guide handbook ... you may not be employed for that much longer. :-)
Thanks for picking that up, Oceanshieldwolf. Yes, big props, too ... to Pyromaniac Press. And Forest Guardian Press as well!
At $47,913 with 32 days remaining. Please spread the word wherever you can. Is the word out at all the other prominent RPG forums too? Like EnWorld, GitP, Reddit, etc?
In addition to the kind-hearted Mike Welham (taig) starting off this ambitious holiday venture, it's really cool to see all the other magnanimous contributions from the other 3PP community stalwarts ... like Sarah Counts, Ben McFarland and the head honchos from Rogue Genius Games, Flaming Crab Games and Legendary Games (did I miss anybody??). Congrats to all the winners so far! And I hope all this holiday-giving spawns a new surge of 3PP reviews, too. Just so we can get new intel on a lot of the new goodies that have published in 3PP-Land as of late.
Beyond the fact that the crunch-&-fluff content of this KS looks absolutely amazing and perfect for my gaming groups and I .... I'm also extremely impressed with the roster of the designers & developers participating in the project. Many of my 3PP favorites are in that All-Star group. And Shemeska/Todd to boot! I'm stoked to see this thing get funded and beyond.
I already posted "I'm in!" earlier in the thread ... but I'd be happy to review this complimentary gift. I'm due for another round of reviews anyway.
What a generous & sweet Santa Badger you are, Mr. Welham. :-) Or if you prefer, a Krampus Badger or Festivus Pole Badger. I'm definitely in! Good luck to everyone!
This thread is intended to showcase & spotlight the vast, myriad array of magic spells that have been published in all of Paizo's non-core books and "smaller softcover" books (Player Companions, Campaign Settings, etc). When people choose-&-use magic spells for their spellcaster characters, the majority of spells chosen are usually core spells found in the CRB. After all, not only do players have more familiarity with them ... the core spells are also pretty darn good at accomplishing a vast majority of the PC's adventuring objectives. What I liked to do is to give y'all the forum to analyze, evangelize or criticize a key magic spell (or a few) from the lower profile Paizo books. Yes, your first inclination may to go talk about spells from the hardcovers that supplement the Core books (like UM, UC, ACG, ARG, etc). And that's fine. But I'd like for you to prioritize the showcasing of spells from the softcover books (Campaign Setting, Player Companion, etc). You know ... the rare and exotic spells. :-) One's we haven't heard of much but deserve the spotlight in some fashion. I'll bring up a few of mine a little later. But thanks for your time & attention!
Very cool and intriguing sample, Richard. Thank you! *** I was re-reading your Kickstarter intro to The Blight. And I had noted where you talked about Castorhage being the location of your own home campaign (along with the past licensing issue regarding The Styes). Could you share with us a little of the history and/or dynamics of having Castorhage as the primary campaign setting for you and your friends?
Deep Magic holds such a unique position in my beloved PF 3PP library. Such a breathtakingly diverse, innovative and visionary book of magic spells in concept and flavor thematics. But, boy howdy ... we are *still fixing* a huge chunk of the mechanics of these spells to get them properly balanced. I too, would love to see Deep Magic #2 be published. With the caveat that way more attention be paid to playtesting and comparative game-mechanic analysis.
I just joined the Kickstarter, Scott! And I agree 100% with Wolfgang ... Zombie Sky Press' prior Faerie titles (as well as their other PF work involving spirit magic and alien/interstellar play) are all must-haves for those who want to enjoy & implement premiere quality fey material into their Pathfinder gaming endeavours. I constantly use ZSP's Faerie Ring: Along the Twisting Way material in my Forgotten Realms Pathfinder campaign world. It's all excellent crunch, fluff, art and concept work. So I can't wait for this Kickstarter to be funded!
As a $5 pledge level Patreon member of Raging Swan Press, I very much enjoy the investment benefits of said membership. And while I've posted a lot of monologues about a number of excellent PF 3PP publishers as of late on these very forums, there's good reasons why Raging Swan continues to be my all-time favorite PF 3PP. Those reasons are numerous and have everything to do with RSP's consistent publishing of breathtakingly inspiring gaming products with painstaking attention to quality control. Yet it's all topped-off in Creighton's very overt intent to compel yet even more world-class writing talent into his already stellar label by working hard to offer higher pay rate to talented & creative authors. A few of my Raging Swan reviews on my profile offer more of a glimpse into my love of RSP. My apologies if I sound too much like a fanboy dripping in honey over here. Lol. But my passion for Raging Swan goodies are pretty much unrivaled within my small sphere of influence. It all probably became rooted from the positive feedback I received from all my players (in both my tabletop groups) who truly love the Raging Swan adventures that I've GM'ed for them. Anyhow, it's also a fun Patreon to belong to. Creighton goes out of his way to interact with his Patreon folk. All in all, a terrific experience. Cheers!
While I still 100% stand by my Top 10 entries that I posted earlier today ... I have to give special mention to a publisher who has successfully accomplished (over a long time) the overarching objective of Malwing's intent for this whole thread. That being Legendary Games. I have been so in love with the entire line of Mythic Monster Plug-Ins ... that as soon as I bought & read a given title, I would sit there and think of how much I NEED MORE of this product (i.e. the title of this thread), but with a different race-or-theme of monsters. And time after time, Legendary Games delivered. But it sure was a tease. Because I've gone through this routine with 31 of their Mythic Monster titles ... and I just keep hoping that *ALL* of them will one day show up at the Paizo Superstore in a nice handy hardcover manual. Lol. And that's no disrespect to their partial accomplishment of that wish of mine - the awesome Mythic Monster Manual. ******* And to Malwing, I kinda interpreted this intended thread of yours to be primarily about crunch and game-mechanic books ... not so much adventures, modules, campaign settings and GM aides. Because I could see a whole new roster of 10 titles filling that gaming niche right there.
Great thread theme! Here's my list - although these are in no particular order. ***
01. Akashic Mysteries (Dreamscarred)
*** My group can't get enough of the above titles. Even though some of them are quite comprehensive and expanded in scope.
Thank you for the synopsis overview of Castorhage, Richard. Booktown, the Artists' Quarter ... and especially the Sinks ... intrigue me the most. I like too, the fact that you have a dedicated section of vast darkness *Underneath* the city as well. That multiplies the adventuring possibilities in Castorhage by a factor of 2 right there alone. I just hope there's a top-tier coffee shop or 2 somewhere in the Blight. To loiter about on a cold, gloomy afternoon and blissfully eavesdrop on the heavily-caffeinated gossipmongers ...
Right off the bat, I see 5 Add-Ons I'll be purchasing as well (via the Backer Kit). It's a good thing I've got a strong heart. For I fear the massive cardiac hysteria I'll be experiencing from the moment I open up my parcel of Blight goodies. And Richard ... I can't tell you how thrilled I am that possibly *more* adventures, modules, etc. will be published as well (assuming the demand makes such things viable). One of my two Pathfinder groups has already stated they will gladly commit to a long-term "The Blight" campaign once I receive the Kickstarter goods and finish my GM prep. The majority of this group still has fond and lingering memories of The Styes. We're really, really stoked! 2016 is going to be a great year!
I GM-&-play for 2 Pathfinder tabletop groups. Both groups, probably due to my charismatic influence (Lol), are extremely 3PP-friendly and welcoming of just about everything published in 3PP for PF and 3.5. That doesn't mean everything gets accepted. We do some hardcore vetting with emphasis on game-mechanic design balance and thematic appropriateness. So as a result, we modify a lot of 3PP stuff to fit our unique campaign parameters. The words "ban" and "nerf" are non-existent at our game tables. For if a player or GM really, really wants something for a good reason, we'll make it work even if it's broken or sucks. :-) I can't stress to you enough how important game-mechanic balance is to us. Just in case you might think we sound like we run "free-for-all"-style gaming tables. It really helps that we have a lot of 1 and 2 decade experienced players - most equally adept at mechanical optimization and creative role-play aesthetics. The beauty of being an "Accept Nearly Everything 3PP" group is that we have a lot of 'Player Surprise Syndrome' at things their fellow players are capable of and actions they perform. For those of you who have memorized all the Core Books and a good chunk of the Player Companions & Campaign Setting books, you may think that nothing can surprise you anymore. Well, bringing in a metric tonne of 3PP classes, archetypes, feats, magic, gear and what-not will help bring a fun sense of wonder, unexpectedness and uncertainty to players of that ilk. Most of our players like that they only know hints and small chunks of what their fellow players can do or are capable of ... until they actually adventure, converse & enter-battle-together with them. And yes, as a GM, all this added game material is challenging to vet, modify, integrate and memorize ... but I've gotten used to it and I use a lot of helpful tools to ensure game-play never gets stalled or impeded when in progress. Plus, my players are extremely helpful and patient because they appreciate this extremely permissive & expansive game-material environment. We literally have many hundreds of 3PP PDFs & Paper Books available to our 2 gaming group players. Let it be known, we don't participate in unethical file sharing shenanigans or do anything that hurts the 3PP's incoming revenue. That would be like biting the hand that feeds you. Most of our folks are fairly well-off and find the prices that 3PPs charge to be extremely reasonable for the wonderful return of play enjoyment that we all get. Yeah, there are some stinkers out there, but nothing that causes us to complain about the industry as a whole. The roster of 3PPs that we love the most are extensive. And I'm probably not going to do justice in listing even a majority of them in the following list. But all these folks do mean a lot to us: Rite, Rogue Genius, Dreamscarred, Frog God, Zombie Sky Press, Fat Goblin, Purple Duck, Little Red Goblin, Everyman, Total Party Kill, Misfit Studios, Necromancers of the NW, Adventure A Week, Lou Porter, Legendary Games, Interjection, Ascension, Jon Brazer, Drop Dead Studios, Flaming Crab, 4 Dollar Dungeon, Kobold Press etc., etc. and so on. Plus a ton of defunct 3.5 3PP labels that we still do conversions on when we get the chance (Mongoose, AEG, Atlas, etc.).
I was reading Matt Finch's excellent "Weird, Not Modern" Update on the Kickstarter page ... and of course, it excites me even more about the entirety of The Blight. For example, this deliciously creepy quote: "The city's reality is infused with a nasty, creeping dimensional connection, and parts of the city even seem to intersect with distant places, receding again to their original lairs, like frustrated mold incursions." Which leads me to ask ... are there certain magic types in Castorhage that are more prominent, more uncontrolled or more amplified in effect? Such as conjuration magics that summon or call? The city sounds like it's located at a planar nexus or crossroads of some sort. I hope this isn't asking for too much of a spoiler!
Lol. I'm imagining the Castorhage census-takers walking up to the doors of the homes of the 7,000 undead and asking them questions regarding demographics. I imagine that would make for some quite stressful moments for said census-takers.
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