Amiri

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As the rules are written, and considering the discussion that 'Creating a Diversion to Hide' as written in this round of playtesting conflicts with the feint combat maneuver and the improved feint feat, why not replace the entire 'Creating a Diversion to Hide' paragraph in the stealth rules with a reference to feint and integrate feint properly with the new hidden condition?

Adjust feint in the following way:
Expand:
"If successful, the next melee attack you make against the target does not allow him to use his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). This attack must be made on or before your next turn."
To something like:
"If successful, you gain the hidden condition until the end of your next move or standard action. It will not last beyond the the end of your turn, but then the target still loses their dexterity bonus to AC (if any) against your next melee attack so long as this attack is made on your next turn."


There are some dream roles for stereotypical player archetypes. In general, I notice players want full control over (or recognition from) the popular fantasy or mythology associated with their class and essentially be ruler over their own domain of interest.

Combatants will want the supreme position responsible for the army.
Most wizards will want a reclusive tower, with an absence of responsibilities (and possibly accountability).
Most rogues will want a position able to shape the underground, such as a guild master (possibly outside of publicly known rulership).
Nature themed classes often want control over the ungoverned wilds or more specifically recognition from it, such as the mythological creatures in a large forest.
Religious classes want to design a significant temple to their diety from the ground up, and not reform an existing building.
There may be some that do not want to be associated or recognised at all, but have unbreakable ties to the rulership regardless. Assassins or spies for example.
There may be players that just want to be in the center of the social spotlight (being a prince, princess or a consort, having servants or handmaidens).
There are those that just want to own and live in a significant landmark building. (Providing the location for a pathfinder lodge might be thematically appropriate)


TDLofCC wrote:

And the -4 penalty will be turned into a -2 penalty as soon as I switch from hitting with my sword first to my shield bash as a first attack.

And using 2 shields ... would also look somewhat ... off ...

Again, with emphasis to point out the limitations;

Heavy Shields: "You can bash an opponent with a heavy shield, using it as an off-hand weapon. Used this way, a heavy shield is a martial bludgeoning weapon. For the purpose of penalties on attack rolls, treat a heavy shield as a one-handed weapon."

Light Shields: Identical, except for: "For the purpose of penalties on attack rolls, treat a light shield as a light weapon."

Shield Master feat: "You do not suffer any penalties on attack rolls made with a shield while you are wielding another weapon."

Thus a heavy shield will always count as a one-handed weapon in the off-hand, with the associated penalties. The shield master feat eliminates this penalty for the shield, but not for the main hand. A light shield is a light weapon in the off-hand, and thus carries milder penalties.

However, there is nothing preventing you from using the shield bash as the attack of choice when limited to a single action.


Heavy Shields: "You can bash an opponent with a heavy shield, using it as an off-hand weapon. Used this way, a heavy shield is a martial bludgeoning weapon. For the purpose of penalties on attack rolls, treat a heavy shield as a one-handed weapon."

Light Shields: Identical, except for: "For the purpose of penalties on attack rolls, treat a light shield as a light weapon."

Shield Master feat: "You do not suffer any penalties on attack rolls made with a shield while you are wielding another weapon."

Mithral: "In the case of weapons, this lighter weight does not change a weapon’s size category or the ease with which it can be wielded (whether it is light, one-handed, or two-handed)."


James, perhaps this is something for the GameMastery Guide instead of a future revision to the Campaign Setting?

I've seen a few good generic examples of numbers and descriptions in this thread that would lend themselves well to fill in the blanks on any fantasy setting, Golarion included.
Total population numbers aren't too useful, since what people are really after is information to create locales for exploration or open world game play.

For example if you take three types of country; Low, medium and highly urban (5%, 10% and 20% respectively), then follow it with a collection of descriptions that are appropriate for various sizes of total population but actually give you the information you can use.
Sizes of the capital city, number of cities, villages and towns, their sizes, farming and hunting structure, amounts of guards, physical defenses, etc.
And ofcourse the most important detail: Can the party find an arcane or divine caster of sufficient level to cast that one spell which they are looking for in a given place!


The Pathfinder Campaign Setting will give you most of the information to either create a homebrew campaign, or to fill out on background information for the player races and regions.
Gods and Magic gives you and the players all the information needed to fully roleplay a follower of one of the Pathfinder dieties.
Both books are pre-pfrpg, but contain almost no rule material, so they're excellent choices to fill in the details on the Golarion setting which the other product lines take place in.

Pick up the current volume of the adventure path line, or module if you want a smaller scale adventure.


Jadeite wrote:
There's no rule saying that the barbarian has to rage for at least one round.

"Starting at 1st level, a barbarian can rage for a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + her Constitution modifier."

The first rule in the entire rage power description defines rage duration to have a base unit of 'rounds'.


If your goal is to introduce the game to new players, wouldn't it be better to write a low level adventure that serves as an introduction to the gameplay, and has all the rules relevant to the adventure integrated into it as part of the narrative?

That said, I wouldn't mind a soft bound version of just the spells chapter from the core rule book for quick reference.


Thraxus wrote:
You can never have too many dragons.

The most interesting dragon I've put into play as an opponent was a deep dragon from 2nd edition. Not particularly because of what they are, but because they are the only evil dragon to be able to indefinitely assume a human or humanoid form - making them a perfect powerful surprise adversary for the players.


tharian wrote:

Consider yourself lucky. Mine not only doesn't show a status of shipping for the Core Rule Book (though my Adventure Path book does), it has even adjusted from an August ship to a September ship estimate.

I'm not sure what's up with that.

You might have had the issue I encountered. If you had no subscriptions yet, and you started a Pathfinder RPG subscription at the same time as an Adventure Path subscription with #25 as the first issue, then when you change it to 'ship with next adventure path' it set everything to wait for the September adventure path issue (#26, The Sixfold Trial).


Concerning the tiefling variations chapter, is this designed to expand upon the race as defined in the 3.5 planar handbook, or will the upcoming Pathfinder bestiary provide these base racial traits for player characters as well?
It would be nice to have a source that doesn't include a level adjustment component and favored class for playable monster races.


Humans and demihumans.

It may not sound terribly exciting like that, but the majority of actual challenges a group of adventurers encounters consists of more of these than any of the rare, mythical beasts.
In a dangerous fantasy world most intelligent (demi)humans respond potentially hostile to a group of unfamiliar battle-hardened adventurers that try to go places they were not invited to.

Guards, patrols, scouts, bandits, mercenaries, thugs and pirates are a few examples of groups of people that are encountered with some frequency.

Besides the obviously different demihuman races, Golarion has almost a dozen distinctly different human cultures. On top of that there are quite a few factions.
Compositions of encountered groups vary with each culture and faction, as do their weapons, equipment and skills.
Mounts and other accompanying animals can be diverse as well.

Since unlike monsters each group likely has one or multiple classes, each with levels, placing such a group when needed is often significantly more effort than just looking up a context appropriate monster, especially at the higher levels. Which is a shame since they can bring more surprises than a well known monster.

What I would love to see for each of the different human and demihuman races and subraces is:
Short, anonymous, pre-generated statblocks with typical classes, equipment and skills for each of the cultures and types of encounters (such as a guard, or a pirate), for a comprehensive range of levels.
Short descriptions of appearance, to ensure diversity of humanoid encounters.
Tables with group compositions, referenced against the CR they represent.

But perhaps this is something suited for the GameMastery Guide.