Desert Yeti's page

Just because this thread is every role player's dream where they get to "tell you about my character!"

Sebastian Seroch
CG Human Inquisitor (Infiltrator) of Cayden Cailean

1. His own personal freedom (he grew up as a slave)
2. The freedom of others
3. Andoran faction goals (generally directly related to #2)
4. Hedonistic pleasures such as ale, wine, and music, having had none of these things for many years.
5. PFS

Numbers 1 and 2 could be reversible if the martyrdom of sacrificing his own freedom would in some way truly free a great number of people, although he's pragmatic enough to recognize this is unlikely.

While PFS is mostly just a job, he recognizes that undertaking these missions will often put him in a position to further his other goals. Perhaps more often, even, than he could accomplish on his own, so it's good to serve as a Pathfinder in that respect.

I know this is old news now, but I'm getting ready to start running LoF now and thank all of your for great posts, *especially* those two Karl Sanders tracks...amazing, and chances are, unrecognizable by my players!

First, serious props to jeryst for his or her work on that version of the PFRPG rules in html format... looking great! And THANK YOU for offering a downloadable version usable offline!!! You rock!

To address the issue from Paizo's standpoint: I would HAPPILY pay for a fully functional and thoroughly cross-hyperlinked html version of the whole core rulebook (and eventually bestiary) on CD-ROM (or download) with a powerful search functionality. It would be faster than a pdf and take less space. They could enhance the package a bit with some other simple table-top utilities like a dice bot, spell and monster filters, etc, too.

Props to Paizo for offering the PRD as it is for free, I worship that, but jazz it up a little (not with slow-loading images, just clean up the format) offer a great built in search engine and sell the whole thing as a downloadable package and they would have no problem getting another $10 or $20 out of me!!

While this went pretty far afield from the original post, I feel compelled to offer comment.

I don't have a problem with "unique setting" books having new base classes. Because they're specifically oriented toward something other than the quasi-European core rules, it's easy to categorically disallow them in a game. Real bloat, IMO, happens when there are supplements that introduce new BASE classes masquerading as CORE classes.

But even more important than this, is avoiding rules bloat (and potentially very serious game balance issues) by staying away from entirely new mechanics. (think Incarnum, ToB:BoNS, etc). These sorts of things are where rules bloat gets ugly and I start to get disenfranchised with a system.

Now, while I'm not opposed to new setting specific base classes at all, I think there's a far more elegant way to handle it: The Alternate Class Feature. I really liked some of the variants in 3.5 to various base classes that were available by just trading one ability for another. This made thematically tailoring the base classes very easy without introducing a whole new system or new base classes.

Sure it might be a stretch to create the flavor of a Samurai using a Fighter as listed in the core rules, but a couple of alternate class features and you're easily there. Paladin (as someone else mentioned here) would work even better... just swap the "holy" abilities for alternate class features that are "fealty" and/or "social" abilities instead.

I'm all for some occasional new RULES. Even a few new base classes is ok with me, but I'm pretty strongly opposed to new RULES SYSTEMS, and new base classes sometimes involve new systems to differentiate themselves.

Yeah, I know (I have the pdf) but on my mildly old computer it's SO slow. And forget about doing a search of the entire text for anything! That's the glory of the html version...nearly instant results.

I'm know I'm sounding like a whiney (and ungrateful) putz now, so I'll shut up :)

Now if Paizo wants to really make my every fantasy come true, offer a downloadable offline version of this! ;) One of my usual gaming spots is one of the only wireless black holes for miles around and I'd love a copy on my hard drive!

This was my single biggest concern about Pathfinder RPG, almost from day one. I use the html version(s) of the d20 srd constantly and losing that as a tool was going to make me think twice about Pathfinder. Seriously.

Being able to read a spell description that involves a condition and just click on the condition to be taken to a description of that condition is one of the most useful tools ever dreamed up by gamers.

So what does Paizo do? They listen to the gamer community and put up an html reference document online the same week as the release of the the final game.

PAIZO EFFING RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(for those that stumble across this thread and haven't yet found the reference document: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/)

As long as the Beastiary addition is similarly cross referenced (clicking a spell-like ability in a stat block to bring up the spell description is perhaps the single most useful thing about html reference docs) I will gladly worship at the altar of Pathfinder to the end of my days!

Dude, this is AWESOME! The only real reservation I had about embracing PFRPG wholeheartedly was that I had become quite fond of (and very reliant upon!) the d20 SRD. Having quick access (read: not pdf) digital version of the PFRPG rules is FANTASTIC! Thank you!

I don't know that I'd have time to help with any of the major overhaul when the final rules are released next week, but I'd be willing to help out down the road with cross-linking...one of the things I liked best about Jans' setup was that if a spell creates a condition, one click takes you to the condition. If a monster has a spell-like ability, one click takes you to the relevant spell. THAT'S what makes these things uber-useful, but it's also what takes FOREVER to do!

I'll stay in touch via your site. Again, well done, I say!

Target has great dinosaurs that are pretty close to scale. As mentioned above, just hot-glue them to bases.

I used gnoll claw fighters for Skinwalkers...not perfect, but they're cheap and plentiful and I did this on a budget.

I used blackscale lizardfolk for the large kopru. Again, not perfect, but big, reptilian, and cheap.

Congrats on finishing!

Just to add to the data here about timing, our group started STAP in April of 2007. We just played session #55 which saw the PC's just arriving at Divided's Ire.

My group is really intent on being the uber-good guys and I can already see they're not going to wheel-n-deal with anyone in the Abyss, which will probably prove their undoing by the end.

I'm really impressed with this AP... love it!

Some of the stuff by Midnight Syndicate is pretty good. Granted, it's "generic" game background music, but Gates of Delirium in particular seems well suited.

Our group tends to just use a large collection of everything from Conan to classical (all instrumental) on random at a background volume.

I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with 3.5 Power Attack. The broken builds discussed earlier in this thread weren't broke based on PA alone.

It also seems like most of the objection is based on high level characters. If the only major complaint is PC's loading up at +10 or higher on the PA, just make it a feat progression.

Leave Power Attack as it is in 3.5, but limit it to BAB OR +5, whichever is less. Then introduce the rest of a tree like Improved Power Attack that allows use of up to +10 and then Greater PA which steps up the max to +15 (or go for +20 at that point).

Fighters wielding a 2 handed weapon SHOULD do significantly more damage than those who are doing Sword and Board. The "shield is weak" arguments don't work because even without using non-core feats, at the sort of levels we're talking here, the shield isn't just +1 or +2... it's an easy way to stack on another +7 (+5 enhancement) to your AC that stacks with virtually everything else. At lower levels, a +1 heavy shield is a BARGAIN for 3 pts of AC. IMO, that's all the balance sword and board guys need against the x2 PA guys.

As for the variable bonus, I completely agree with previous posters that getting to make a decision each round is part of what makes the feat cool and what can make playing the meat shield interesting compared to casters.

Leave it as is in 3.5 please!

Why do we need to limit multi-classing any more than in 3.x? Granted, there are power gamers who will find a way to abuse any system, but 3.x multi-classing was beautiful because it was super simple. It's an elegant solution to an age-old problem of class-based rule systems and it allows virtually infinite customization of your character.

Having a wide selection of character options and the ability to create a unique character are what 3.x is all about. If I wanted to limit or homogenize this system, I'd be playing WotC's new game.

I think that the BAB of a rogue 1/wizard 1/sorcerer 1/bard 1 SHOULD indeed be zero. That's what keeps you from doing that. The system already limits the ridiculous combinations to a certain extent by this. Granted, it's a heavy-handed limiting device, but it maintains the elegant simplicity of the "just add everything up!" rule.

And I think that that elegant simplicity should be preserved.

While I don't have a strong opinion on the technicality of the rules, I agree that there's not much harm in letting it work as far as game balance is concerned. By the time a fighter gets GC, it's reasonable that he has a way to thwart a 2nd level defensive spell. If mirror image were a "big gun" spell, I might feel differently, but casters just need to know that Mirror Image doesn't always negate the need for Mage Armor and Shield!

I agree that a Pathfinder hypertext document is an essential ingredient in my willingness to play the system. And to those who say "It's already available digitally as pdf!" I say bah!

Even IF you have a super-fast machine that doesn't lag when you turn the pages of a pdf, and even IF that pdf is thoroughly boommarked, it doesn't even come close to the functionality of a well built html version with lots of cross linking. Got monster with a spell like ability? Great, just click on the name of the ability to bring up the spell it approximates. This is not to mention (as others have pointed out) the ability to have many pages open at once in tabs (firefox, chrome) or windows (IE).

Now, if you're a hardcore hard-copy book person, I can understand... a couple of guys in my group are like that and I will ALWAYS own the books too. But if you're interested in electronic resources and are arguing that Paizo's planned pdf is as useful as a hyperlinked html version, that's simply not true.

So, I think there is a large demand for a well-built html reference work. If Paizo wants to do it themselves (or contract it out) and then sell it, I'm ok with that, I'd be happy to pay a reasonable price for such a tool. If they want to "officially" allow a quasi-OGL version that leaves out a few tidbits like character advancement (like WotC did) that's fine too. But doing nothing to engage the "laptop gaming crowd" and the "I work on games at work crowd" will, ultimately, hurt a great game that I really want to see succeed!