Eviljames's page

I failed to get into this completely. It sold out crazy fast. (Are they running fewer tables or something, I dont remember other games running along side this last year) what are the odds I'll be able to get in with generics? Good, possible, or am I just sol?

Ambassador, Animal Exemplar, Egotist, Prankster, and Soulbound are all new, I believe.

I'll have to take a look at those. I had thought about Mauler but I wanted to do that with my magus, and sage figment is what my crazy oracle is using.

Of the new ones, which ones do people think would work best with a surly drunken dwarf?

The spider works well with the protector archetype if the wizard would like a little extra defense. It has a dex of 21 and +7 to hit so that's plenty of opportunities to use the the loyal body guard ability should he find himself in a tricky situation. He would want to keep an eye on it's health though.

Were any new archetypes added in or was it just reprints of the ones in the folio?

I'm running a mythic game semi regularly and one of the characters (a ranger) contracted Lycanthropy, well actually Entothropy and is now an infected werespider. I found myself wondering, since true Lycanthropes/Entothropes are generally too powerful to be in a regular party, but what about a Mythic party?

So I'm looking for advice on that. I'm pretty sure the player would go for it if it was presented as an option. Could Lycanthropy be used in place of a path ability perhaps requiring mythic power to shift. Or is too much for that? I'm not really good at judging power levels on paper.

Any advice would be appreciated.

supervillan wrote:

Dear god, yet another hardcover full of nerfs.

There were like two. The Tumor Familiar can't be a Protector anymore, and Snowball now has "Spell Resistance yes". Both were due.

I actually disagree with both of those being due, but I don't think that it ruins anything. Just disappointed that I'll have to rework my concept.

You could always backwards compatible yourself up a 3.5 wildshape ranger they give up combat styles completely for wildshape at 4th level. Might take some tweaking, but if I recall it was a nice option so long ago.

Well Damn, this negates my PFS monk alchemists feat choices almost entirely and I never even got to use the familiar, because I don't get to play often. Had they simply said he can't protect while attached, that would have been very reasonable, but this is just a poor decision.

Oh well I kind of like the figment idea. Or maybe the mauler, make it an aggressive tumor. Or maybe I'll just retrain him. Or just consider it a loss and scrap the character altogether.

Tears to Wine works on liquids that aren't exactly water. Like oil. Or melted wax. A friend tried to argue he could use it on lava, but the whole table shot that down(despite it being funny).

Ya know I would agree that it works on lava, assuming it's a very liquidy lava. The problem is that it has a strict 10ft range limit, and getting within 10 feet of lava is generally very bad. Also, all the lava that doesn't get turned into wine would boil away the newly magicked spirit pretty quick.

Java Man wrote:

Vidmaster7 wrote:

Coidzor wrote:

Speaking of weirdness, IIRC, sponges would technically be a kind of plant.

kanonen wrote:

they would possibly fall under vermin

No, vermin are invertebrates. Bats and Dire Bats are mammals and have spines and the like.

Well rats are considered vermin in PF and they are also mammals.

This is news to me, could you point me to a citaion? I'm coming up empty trying to track it down.

Huh weird after doing a search on the pfsrd aparenlty its only fiendish and celestial rats (as well as every other celestial and fiendish small animal wtf?) also Sea Anemone and all sorts of crabs.

This is a bit late of a response, but they aren't vermin either, it's just that the PSRD filter doesn't filter them out ever. So even if you filter out all creature types those celestial and fiendish rats will still show up along with a few other things.

I would say the reach applies to either since we are going with a fantasy world and in stories (anime and such) the kama part is thrown even if real world it wouldn't work as well as the wieght. Even though it doesn't say it it I would assume that like the double chain kama, you lose the double weapon property when using the reach property.

Edit actually upon rereading it maybe you don't. Upon rereading I could see it meaning the ball has reach but not the kama but then you don't lose the double weapon property (although opportunities to use reach and attack with the kama at the same time are likely to be few I would think) Definitely worth a faq to see what the intent was.

MM, FB and DBFB were in AD&D1 and neither was capped, DBFB had improved damage though, in addition to the delay

I know they were in 1st ed. as well. What I meant was that the versions I was looking at were 2nd ed. (sorry I kept having to fix spelling errors and forgot to make sure my wording was clear.

Eviljames wrote:

PAthfinder didn't cap the d6's on those spells or Magic missile. Those were capped in D&D as well. There was I hight level version of Magic missle that allowed more missles and delayed blast fire ball had a higher cap that fireball. but they all had caps. it just didn't matter as much because everything had fewer hit points until 3rd ed.

Uh, I distinctly remember that in AD&D 1st ed spells like Magic Missile and Fireball were definitely uncapped... do you remember if it started with 2nd ed or with 3.0?

I never played 1st much so if they weren't capped there they were definitely capped in 2nd. Part of the reason for delayed blast fireball was the improved damage, and I was just looking at the higher level Magic missile that would be pointless if the Magic Missile didn't cap. These were 2nd ed spells.

Eviljames wrote:

Lady-J wrote:

Eviljames wrote:

ChaosTicket wrote:

Well what spells stay useful from start to finish?

Magic Missile could be pretty useful if you gained another shot every level. Many spells gain +1d6 per level but have a cap in Pathfinder so everything ends up obsolete.

Without some very powerful spells than the entire system of limited spells per day is sort of pointless.

The original point of spells and spellcasters is that they are not practical or even powerful early on but once you do reach the higher levels then you have the ability to One-shot many enemies but even then you have to be careful or else youll be without spells.

NPCs would be more dangerous as they wouldnt need to concern themselves with conserving spells.

PAthfinder didn't cap the d6's on those spells or Magic missile. Those were capped in D&D as well. There was I hight level version of Magic missle that allowed more missles and delayed blast fire ball had a higher cap that fireball. but they all had caps. it just didn't matter as much because everything had fewer hit points until 3rd ed.

ooo what was the higher level magic missile?

Hang on, let me dig out my old Wizard's Spell compendium.

It was Improved Magic Missile (real obvious name)It was a 3rd level spell and it operated exactly like magic missile except that the cap was at 10 missiles. Even though you could cast it at 5th level it wasn't really useful until 11th level when you capped out the 1st level version. It was a spell from the Mystara Campaign setting even though it lacked that setting's typical long flowery spell names.

so it was sort of like pathfinders mythic magic missile

Yeah pretty much, which kinda makes sense, if you consider that the spell is from the Mystara setting and Mystara was the OD&D campaign world updated for 2nd ed and in OD&D becoming an Immortal godling was part of your progression.

Eviljames wrote:

ChaosTicket wrote:

Well what spells stay useful from start to finish?

Magic Missile could be pretty useful if you gained another shot every level. Many spells gain +1d6 per level but have a cap in Pathfinder so everything ends up obsolete.

Without some very powerful spells than the entire system of limited spells per day is sort of pointless.

The original point of spells and spellcasters is that they are not practical or even powerful early on but once you do reach the higher levels then you have the ability to One-shot many enemies but even then you have to be careful or else youll be without spells.

NPCs would be more dangerous as they wouldnt need to concern themselves with conserving spells.

PAthfinder didn't cap the d6's on those spells or Magic missile. Those were capped in D&D as well. There was I hight level version of Magic missle that allowed more missles and delayed blast fire ball had a higher cap that fireball. but they all had caps. it just didn't matter as much because everything had fewer hit points until 3rd ed.

ooo what was the higher level magic missile?

Hang on, let me dig out my old Wizard's Spell compendium.

Well what spells stay useful from start to finish?

Magic Missile could be pretty useful if you gained another shot every level. Many spells gain +1d6 per level but have a cap in Pathfinder so everything ends up obsolete.

Without some very powerful spells than the entire system of limited spells per day is sort of pointless.

The original point of spells and spellcasters is that they are not practical or even powerful early on but once you do reach the higher levels then you have the ability to One-shot many enemies but even then you have to be careful or else youll be without spells.

NPCs would be more dangerous as they wouldnt need to concern themselves with conserving spells.

PAthfinder didn't cap the d6's on those spells or Magic missile. Those were capped in D&D as well. There was I hight level version of Magic missle that allowed more missles and delayed blast fire ball had a higher cap that fireball. but they all had caps. it just didn't matter as much because everything had fewer hit points until 3rd ed.

I probably wouldn't bring any save or die's over but there are few utility and fun spells in Second Ed that I may have to try and port over.
Namely Nemicron's Transference that let you switch the properties of one material with the properties of another. Things like hardness, melting point even edibility (not sure how that last one worked but it doesn't matter, it's never come up) It was a easy way for characters to make cool looking gear like swords made of ice and what not.

Also the Special Effects spell. It's only purpose was to allow wizards the abilty to have various permanent non harmful special effects like glowey eyes or hands, constantly wind blown hair and what not. It was a kind of silly one but it allowed for your characters to make quite an entrance.
There were a few others, but these were the ones that showed up the most when I played 2nd Ed.

Keith Richmond wrote:

I wouldn't assign much importance to the class traits chosen for the cards. Especially since we tend to assign only one class for multiclass characters.

This was an early mandate of mine, because I didn't want to open the door for (say) Varian getting five class traits. I let it go with the rogue/monk Tsuto Kaijitsu, and I regretted it almost immediately as people started asking about missing traits on other multiclass individuals. So, one class per card.

With Drelm, I don't recall him even thinking about casting spells. But then it's been a while since I read Plague of Shadows and I haven't read the second book.

But overall it is a minor concern.

Looking at the Mummy's Mask add on Deck.... Since when was Drelm a cleric in Plague of Shadows? I thought he was just a devout fighter.

Other than that, I like the idea of this.

Unusual eyes are easily handled in story I would think.

You had things that you had to cut but left Jason X on the list? I will forgive you because I see Wayne Barlowe on there. Wayne Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials was basically a childhood reading guide for me. From there I read Childhood's End and Larry Niven's Neutron Star. But then again, I don't see Outlaw Star or John Christopher's Tripod trilogy.

Some of my additional influences when I begin running this.
Soldier, Ask Not - Gordon R Dickson
I Have No Mouth and I must Scream
"Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman - Harlan Ellison ( I saw some influence from "I Have No Mouth..." in Pathfinder and hope to see some here as well)
The Darfsteller - Walter M. Miller jr
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Stranger in a Strange Land Robert Heinlein

I'm afraid my influences from other media doesn't expand beyond what's listed though.
Actually, now that I look through the list, I'm a bit suprised not to see the original Transformers series on there. I mean, I see Silverhawks (and I am super happy to see that) But no Transformers, no He-man, no She-ra and no Exo-Squad (I loved me some Exo-Squad)

Eviljames wrote:

That's why you came to me, isn't it captain? Because you knew that I could do those things that you weren't capable of. Well it worked. And you'll get what you want. A war between the Vesk and the Swarm. And if your conscience bothers you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Pact system! And all it cost, was the life of one Vesk Senator, one criminal,and the self respect of one Exo-Guardian officer. I don't know about you, but I'd call that, a bargain.

Easily my favorite episode of Star Trek.

Not QUITE what I intended for the Exo-Guardians... but now I'm tempted.

Well I assumed that that line wouldn't be standard practice, but it is what comes to mind for me when "tough decisions" and "how far would you go" get mentioned. I could see the possibility of scenario happening at least.

Also, easily one of the best episodes ever.

I know I'm really late to this party, but this might be relevant to people who want miniatures for some of the more obscure mythological monsters. There is a company called Paymaster games that makes miniatures based on Native American and Pacific Islander mythology and history. They are currently in the process of making a miniature for Cipactli, the multi mouth crocodile monster in this book. Check em out. They are pretty small right now, I think they only have an Ebay store and do Kickstarters occasionally.

In a setting without paladins as a core class, the Exo-Guardians are somewhat more flexible in terms of what they are willing to do to protect the Pact Worlds from external threats. The Exo-Guardians let us explore some tough questions, like how far would you go to protect your home from external threats?

That's why you came to me, isn't it captain? Because you knew that I could do those things that you weren't capable of. Well it worked. And you'll get what you want. A war between the Vesk and the Swarm. And if your conscience bothers you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Pact system! And all it cost, was the life of one Vesk Senator, one criminal,and the self respect of one Exo-Guardian officer. I don't know about you, but I'd call that, a bargain.

Eviljames wrote:

danielc wrote:

While I like these Minotaurs, I do have to ask when will we get some of the simple things like a mule with supplies on it? I mean there has been a mule in almost every adventure I have ever played and yet it has not showed up at all in PPM.

I love the quality and work Paizo puts into the PPM line so I would love to see them do a mule.

Reaper just today released a pack donkey in unpainted plastic if you are interested.

They have a camel with luggage and stuff as a separate piece too.

-Ant, Giant (I use the D&D minis ant people for this, or the Large Celestial beetle)
-Bat (there are 2 D&D minis and a Pathfidner Battles mini for this. Wizkids' familer packs for the unpainted deep cuts has a bat as well. Reaper 77176: Familiars pack also has one unpainted)
-Boar (we have a small/medium pig and a large boar, I don't think we need more.)
-Cat (Reaper 77176: Familiars pack has this, and its a really easy thing to paint)
-Dolphin
-Eel-Reaper item 02948:Familiar Pack VII ($13.99 - metal unpainted) has this
-Monkey
-Octopus-Reaper item 02948:Familiar Pack VII ($13.99 - metal unpainted) has this
-Squid
-Toad
-Viper - There are lots of various snakes minis that cover small/medium including vipers in Heros and monsters, and at least 43 I can think for from D&D minis)
-Weasel (Reaper 77176: Familiars pack has this, and its a really easy thing to paint, There is also a Dire weasel in the D&D mini set angelfire)

Oh yeah forgot about the camel. I don't think it was released singularly yet, but it should be soon.

I like the cleric the best. All three are cool.

I find it interesting that many minotaurs in D&D are large, but some of were mediums.

In Pathfinder are they all larges?

Minotaurs were only medium if you were playing Dragonlance, and then only if you were playing 3rd ed. (Possibly 4th as well, I'm not sure) In previous editions Minotaurs were large no matter what world they came from.

While I like these Minotaurs, I do have to ask when will we get some of the simple things like a mule with supplies on it? I mean there has been a mule in almost every adventure I have ever played and yet it has not showed up at all in PPM.

I love the quality and work Paizo puts into the PPM line so I would love to see them do a mule.

Reaper just today released a pack donkey in unpainted plastic if you are interested.

Can poppets be created with craft construct if a character already has that?

We are the Moonanites and our culture is advanced beyond anything you can understand.

I can get on again so yay! Shortly after I said that last time, nothing worked for me me once again. Couldn't go to the main page, couldn't go to the prd, couldn't even get to the message boards to say, "Hey, I can't get to anything!" I'm here now and I hope it lasts.

Yay! I can finally access this site. Couldn't access anything at all accept the first page of the Prd since sunday and only because the prd main page was still in my cache. After I cleared that I ended up with nothing. Too bad I don't remember why I was trying to access the site any more. :(

Vic Wertz wrote:

(Also, "Scorpionproof" would make an excellent name for a pepper-infused vodka.)

Step 1: Drink enough vodka to clear space in the bottle, and to ease any doubts you may have that proceeding to step 2 might or might not be a good idea...

Step 2: Chop two to three North Carolina Reapers into bits small enough to fit through the bottle neck. If you've done Step 1 properly, you should have no qualms about leaving the seeds in.

Step 3: Insert the peppers into the bottle. (EDIT: I had assumed this step was implied, but I remembered my audience, and figured I'd rather not have to FAQ it later...)

Step 4: Re-cap and leave on the counter for 3 to 4 weeks.

Step 5: Prepare to cast Fire Sneeze...

Now now, if your going to do this, I must insist the pepper be Trinidad Scorpion Peppers otherwise, it just doesn't work.

I know I'm a little late for this, but some one said to avoid giants at the low levels. On this I disagree, You can totally kill the giants and mammoth easily that our just outside Whiterun and you can do so at first level. First get there attention. Then run like hell, occasionally stopping to fire an arrow at them. Make you way as fast as you frantically can to the tower that the Jarl sent you to defend. Then go inside and stand just inside the doorway and shoot or hack at the giant or mammoth to your heart's content (mammoths are a bit trickier this way since they seem a bit smarter than the giants and are less likely to just stand in the doorway.) If this seems to cheap and exploity for you then you can just run around and dodge through the rubble outside the tower and otherwise use the terrain to your advantage to kill them. You can also do this with the giants just north of that tower.

Personally I'm an orc archer that uses summons and occasionally destruction. I had planned melee and still do it but sneaking and archery are just so good in this game.

Bluenose wrote:

Why would a Vesk imagine that aliens would be just like them in terms of biology and in this case fashion? And for that matter, why is fashion in Starfinder-verse assumed to be like modern western fashion?

I bet you are an absolute DE-LIGHT at parties.

Dying is easy. Comedy is hard. :)

The red ones act somewhat differently that European standards yes, but still pretty close to something we can identify. Sci-fi is written that way because we as the reader still needs to identify and relate in some fashion to the main characters. At any rate, your question kinda answers itself,

Why would a Vesk imagine that aliens would be just like them in terms of biology and in this case fashion? And for that matter, why is fashion in Starfinder-verse assumed to be like modern western fashion?

Their is no reason to assume that they would other than as has already been said, because we do. (Also the fashion assumptions in this particular joke were likely to avoid making up words and to have it be understood by a modern audience) Also, it was a joke.

Because I couldn't help myself, I just spent a number of hours over the last couple of days looking for a compatible figure, as a Vesk WILL be my first character for Starfinder. Every repilian race I have found a mini for has a pronounced muzzle....anyone else had any luck ?? If there is nothing out there, I hope Paizo get a license with Reaper ASAP ;)

I have a couple minis that work well enough that came from a paint n take a few years ago, but they are from Badger games, which seems to be a hobby operation that goes to a few conventions a year and whose website has been under construction for about a decade :(. So that's not really gonna help.

I really need to stop trying to make jokes late a night, just before bed. They are never as clear as I think.

Eviljames wrote:

Lemartes wrote:

Lukewarm on this race. Seems too much like the Jem'Hadar.

The art is good, especially the skirt. Not too crazy about the mid-riff armour as that makes little sense to me. Otherwise well done.

Is there much difference between males and females? I'm going to assume we are looking at two males?

TerminalArtiste mentioned variants...I think that might make me more interested.

Awaiting the final race. :)

Midriff armor is how you know that it's female.

I like them. I see that a number here do not, but I like them. One reason being, that I already have minis for them. They are even already painted.

My wife was disappointed that they're tall though, she has a short lizard alien mini with a big gun that want's to play at some point.

Play as a youth or a character that was stunted somehow that rejects Vesk society?

That might work for her. Or perhaps some of the suggested variants could work. Those might even make them hit the "different enough" button for some who currently don't like the Vesk.

Eviljames wrote:

Lemartes wrote:

Lukewarm on this race. Seems too much like the Jem'Hadar.

The art is good, especially the skirt. Not too crazy about the mid-riff armour as that makes little sense to me. Otherwise well done.

Is there much difference between males and females? I'm going to assume we are looking at two males?

TerminalArtiste mentioned variants...I think that might make me more interested.

Awaiting the final race. :)

Midriff armor is how you know that it's female.

I like them. I see that a number here do not, but I like them. One reason being, that I already have minis for them. They are even already painted.

My wife was disappointed that they're tall though, she has a short lizard alien mini with a big gun that want's to play at some point.

Is it female? Not sure if you're joking about the midriff. I like females with armour that makes sense.

*sigh* I had assumed it was an obvious joke. That's what I get for assuming. Probably should have put a ":p" after it. Yes, armor should make sense. Fantasy female armor often doesn't, hence the joke.

Lukewarm on this race. Seems too much like the Jem'Hadar.

The art is good, especially the skirt. Not too crazy about the mid-riff armour as that makes little sense to me. Otherwise well done.

Is there much difference between males and females? I'm going to assume we are looking at two males?

TerminalArtiste mentioned variants...I think that might make me more interested.

Awaiting the final race. :)

Midriff armor is how you know that it's female.

I like them. I see that a number here do not, but I like them. One reason being, that I already have minis for them. They are even already painted.

My wife was disappointed that they're tall though, she has a short lizard alien mini with a big gun that want's to play at some point.

If anybody is interested in some Aztec warriors and unusual monsters, then they should check this out. They've run several kickstarters before and haven't had any issues. Check it out.

Quote:

or electronic access to the Pathfinder Reference Document along with a screenshot of your My Downloads page proving that you own the source of the material.

The spines of many convention going nerds thank you.

Proper lifting techniques my friend. All convention going nerds need to know proper lifting techniques. It should be their knees thanking the staff.

Painting is lots of fun though. Making the mini look just like I picture my character. I love being able to put a mini down and be able to say, "This is what he looks like." Pre paints are great for monster squads though as I may or may not have time for that depending on how prepped I am for a game. I'm a little surprised that it's Soda pop/ninja division handling these rather than Wizkids.
Soda pops pretty good though, as I said before, I have some of their Relic Knights minis so I know they can handle science fantasy

As miniatures and monsters. I just hope there there are oni in space. So I have an additional use for my Relic Knights Noh forces.

Oceanshieldwolf wrote:

Is that a kasatha iconic?

Well... the OTHER two figures on the cover have been revealed to be Iconics...

Sooo that's a no then?

:P

I generally assume so. I look at it as when you get a wolf and it reaches that level and you take the large option then it's "whoops! Looks like, what you thought was just a regular wolf was actually a dire wolf cub all along." And if you don't make it large then it's just a regular wolf.

In fact I'm pretty sure the dire wolf monster entry said something about wolves and dire wolves using the same stat block for animal companions. I could be imagining that though.

For the record, fey aren't immune to poison or cold, but Nereids specifically are. So She could use the poison tactic, but many probably don't think it necessary since they are a fairly tough monster on their own as it is.

I don't think the Nereid gets to choose what she puts her soul into, I think the shawl is something they come into existence with.

You need to think less about bodies, and more about souls.

When a mortal on Golarion dies, ordinarily their soul enters the Astral Plane and joins the river of souls headed for Pharasma's Boneyard. Undeath interferes with that, yanking the soul back into its body and polluting it with negative energy.

Fey are not part of the cycle of souls in the same way that mortals are, but they do have a soul which does depart their body when it perishes. So I see no reason why undeath wouldn't work 100% normally in their case. The only thing that has changed is that the soul has been yanked back from reforming on the First World instead of from the Astral Plane.

This was for the most part already understood. Although some of the names of places are helpful for future things. Although I was assuming that there was some sort of corruption with mindless undead as well.

Worse, I suspect an undead fey creature who dies on the First World probably [i]reforms as an undead fey[/url]. The soul is still polluted with negative energy. So maybe you stake that vampire satyr, cut off his head, and spritzed him with holy water. So what? The soul has no place to go, and therefore reforms as an undead satyr the next day. Permanently getting rid of such a creature would be really, really hard.

Naturally the above applies to intelligent undead. Mindless undead lack souls. So you could totally kill off a satyr, raise him as a zombie, and then the re-formed normal satyr could show up to fight his own zombie a couple days later.

I really like this idea it would make for a daunting foe indeed and an awful fate for the pixies he's been kidnapping

I like option B myself. The vampirism short-circuits the fey immortality but once the vampirism ends, the fey immortality comes back online.

I would go with option C only if it were some kind of mindless undead. I think it's interesting if the body can become mindless undead and the creature can also be revived, but only if the personality only exists with the living creature.

Option A still makes perfect sense. Perhaps undeath is a major form of permanent death within the First World. Saying that changes the behavior of the First World substantially though.

Option B changes the First World the least, I think, while still giving plot hooks like "kill the undead fey so it can be alive again."

Option B does allow the party to have a happy ending with rescuing the fairies. Which is always nice.

So a general consensus so far is that C only for mindless undead. I didn't think it was an idea that would get much traction but felt it was worth mentioning.

I'm running a campaign that has entered into the first world and will be there for a level or two. One of the next villains the players are going to face is a tribe of chaneque, lead by a vampire chaneque monk that has been kidnapping lots of other fey, as chaneque do.

On the first world, fey are effectively immortal their bodies reforming the next day after they are killed under most circumstances.

My question then, is: how does that interact with undeath? Their are no rules for it that I have seen so I'm collecting opinions on what will happen when the PC's eventually defeat and slay the monster. My players have already encountered and experienced this aspect of the First World and are definitely the types to be curious about the outcome.

A couple of possibilities come to mind.

a. The simplest solution is undeath bypasses the immortality just like being killed off the First World. and the villain is now dead forever.

b. Another simple solution is that the fey immortality comes back online once the vampire form is slain and the chaneque reforms as normal

c. An interesting possibility is that upon becoming undead the body still reforms the next day and their are now two versions of the villain. One a vampire and one alive.

d. Other possibilities might be results of whether or not the vampirism came as a result of a journey to the Material plane or not. Perhaps if he became a vampire on the Material it means (a.) but if he had been turned in the first world then (b.) or (c.)

e. Or something else entirely that I haven't thought of

Thoughts?

So this did not come out in any of my local comic shops on the 16th and I didn't see it at the one i went to today either. Has there been a delay?

Animal companion stats don't fully line up with their associated animal stats in the bestiary.
Also many of the bestiary animals are intended to be able to stand in for a variety of similar creatures with minor modifications such as templates or simply adding or removing an ability.
Animal companions are like this as well in a way but you can't add templates to them normally.
I think the designers were probably thinking chimp and gorilla when they wrote it out, but it's just called ape so it's can be any ape you want it to be. just make it large if it's a big one or keep it medium if it's not.