Search Posts
Sven can see that, after the drop-off, the room continues for another 20' or so. The drop appears to be about 10' down, and there are more manacles down below. Also found are the goblins you were chasing. And some friends. 4 friends. As soon as Sven see the goblins down below, they spring into action, rushing towards two ladders leading up to the top level where the party is.
The little beasts get a head start in the dim light. They rush to the ladders on either side of the ledge, and one lets out a wretched wail and hurls a glass bottle up onto the higher floor. When the bottle hits the ground, it shatter, and the liquid inside bursts into flames.
The fire lands in the dead-center of the room, covering the bottom of the stairs in fiery liquid.
You proceed about 2 floors down the spiral stairs and find yourselves in the center of 30' square floor, walled in on the north, south, and west. To the east, the floor drops off abruptly and continues another 15' or so. You can't see the bottom of the lower area, so you can't tell how deep it is. However, you can immediately see that this room once served as some sort of laboratory, as there are tables, instruments, broken flasks, and various oddities laying about. There are also several sets of rusted, old manacles attached to the walls and tables, suggesting that the participants in these experiments were not all consensual. There are goblin footprints all over the dusty floor, but they are so mixed up that you can't tell which are fresh. You can tell, though, that most of them lead towards the drop-off.
Gulver notices, in the center of the room, there is a chute leading up through the ceiling. There is no ladder or other way to reach the chute. It's nearly 10' off the ground and appears completely smooth from your point of view. There does not appear to be any light source further in, so before you descend the stairs, a torch will likely be necessary.
The room at the end of the bridge is uncannily quiet, and, as your eyes adjust to the darkness, you see that the room is, in fact, empty of goblins. This room is long and narrow, extending only 5' to the left and right, but 40' to the opposite end from the bridge. In the far, right corner is the top of a spiral staircase leading down.
Gulver examines the bridge which extends about 40' across the gully. The anchors that hold the bridge to the walls are ancient and well-forged, but the bridge is clearly a recent goblin construction. It seems sturdy, but probably slow going for larger users as the handholds are low. You can't see anything on the other side of the gully because the goblins have disappeared into another dark doorway, made opaque by the sunlight.
Between Annie and Sven, the hole in the door is now large enough to shoot through or reach through to unbar the door. The goblins are now outside and have vanished into the bright light.
A significant chunk comes out of the door, making a hold big enough to see through, but not reach through just yet. Annie can see the two goblins running across the room about 20' to another door which they throw open, revealing the bright light of outdoors and a rickety rope bridge leading across the gully.
Gulver finishes off the downed goblin and finds an assortment of goblin-sized weapons and armor along with 6 gp all together. These goblins appear to be common rabble, and do not carry any items of significance.
Between Sven, Annie, and the Wee Bird, all three goblin in melee meet their demise. One is still squirming on ground, but he doesn't appear to have much to contribute to the fight. The two archers in the doorway, however, are still very much alive. One fires a parting shot as the other closes the wooden door with a thunk and the scrape of a bar on the other side. >> The last arrow hits Sven, but was shot with so little force that it leaves nothing more than a bruise. Left in the room are the trappings of goblin life, including a table, chairs, a few dishes, and some half-eaten meat of some sort.
Sven's powerful blow relieves one goblin of his over-sized head and very quickly draws the attention of the others. Annie's mark collapses to the ground and assumes the fetal position as it prepares to die a slow death.
The enemy archers fire again at Sven as he stands gaping at the scene before him. >>
Both both shots are absorbed by his armor. Lucky continues to take the brunt of the goblin's attacks, since he is blocking the way to Zander. >>
Two more land shots on Lucky. He looks like he's about to go down.
Goblin 1 (melee): 1
Gulver and Annie slip into the room and fire on goblins, both arrows finding their marks. Annie's target takes a shot to the chest, tumbles backward several feet, and doesn't get up. Gulver's arrow lands in a goblin's thigh, demanding a painful scream, but not ending the fight. Lucky barges into the room, weapon raised, and storms the nearest goblin. The blow misses, but the show attracts the attention of your enemies. Tondbert is unable to get his wits about him to act immediately. The remaining goblins, having grabbed up their weapons, move to attack. All three move to attack Lucky, perceiving him as the greatest threat. >>
One of the pests lands a solid blow on Lucky, but nothing life-threatening. At the same time, the door at the far end of the room bursts open and two more goblins with shortbows fire at Sven. >>
But, both shots miss wide and chip harmlessly off the far wall.
Sven barges into the room, swinging away, but finds only empty space, since this room is larger than expected, extending 40' ahead and 30' to the left. The goblins were crowded around a crude table playing some sort of game, but are now scrambling for weapons. Here's a simple diagram of the situation.
The opened door reveals downward stairs, made of the same packed clay, travelling about 15' downward before ending in an open doorway to the left. Now, with the heavy door open, anyone can easily hear the chattering of goblins from deeper within. Lucky, being able to understand goblin, can easily discern that they are loudly shooting the breeze and cackling, and have no idea that their friends outside are dead, nor do they realize how close at hand the party lies. You are able to estimate their number to be at least 3 but no greater than 8 based on the chatter.
The door is made of heavy stone and defies even a careful listen. It obviously used to lock very securely and was able to be barred from the outside, judging by the hardware, but neither feature is still available, as the structure is ancient and the metal is rusted. There is evidence of traps, but they point inward, and have long since been activated and therefore lie dormant. Like the other hardware, the handle has rusted away, but has been crudely replaced with what appears to be an large, pewter serving spoon bent and bolted to the door.
As you each fall down the hole you land in a large room carved from the red clay underground. The quality of the excavation is likely human, not goblin, and the entrance obviously used to be much larger, but is now collapsed and grown over by roots. The room seems empty, except for some refuse and an ashy fire circle made of loose stone. The room is 30' square and you entered though the northernmost part of the western wall. There is another door in the southernmost part of the same wall. It is surrounded by a crude carving of a demon with the door appearing as a grotesque mouth. There is no light save for yours and the outside.
The tree has an very crude bit of brush camouflage covering what is surely a small passage leading underneath. There are no traps, and the goblins are equipped only with shortbows and leather armor suited for their size, along with some unpleasant snacks and trinkets. The passage under the tree is just big enough for one medium creature to squeeze through and it is dark underneath. A careful listen at the base of the tree allows you to hear goblin chattering, but it's muffled and dull, as if the noise is coming from a distant room.
50/50 chance. If you forget to roll, they're gone.
Yeah, I'm not worried about it this time. I allowed the surprise round because he said he shot before you moved out, but in the future we're going in order of post. I always forget the sneak attack range limit, but it isn't worth gong back and changing things this time. We'll remember for next time.
With the two goblins dispatched and toppling out of tree without even the chance to yell, the party is free to explore the area unabated.
Since you decided to fire instead of trying to sneak closer, I'll rule that you got your shot off before the goblins were alerted so you do indeed receive the surprise attack, which will kill either one. However, in the future, the order in which people post is the order their actions occur.
Yeah, he posted in the gameplay thread just a little bit ago. I'll put him in the middle of the order and 2nd watch.
Upon hearing Annie's footfall, the two goblins leap up and prepare to attack with shortbows.
Date: 34th day of spring (90 days per season)
From the path, and occasionally venturing into the forest a bit, the party seeks signs of goblins. In the early afternoon, the storms clear up, but the sky remains dark and cloudy, hinting at more to come. Around 2pm, the first sign of goblin tracks appears. A pattern of footsteps leads to the beginning of a shallow gully. As the gully extends deeper into the forest towards the river ENE of here, it quickly grows deeper until it is easily 50' deep, but only 20' across at the bottom, with very steep sides, likely un-climb-able without equipment. The goblin tracks grow thicker along the top, north edge of the gully, but not in it. Eventually, you reach a clearing in the forest about 100' in diameter along the northern edge of the gully. A large, dead tree stands in the clearing about 40' away from the edge of the gully. Even from a safe distance along the treeline to the SW, it is clear that the tracks lead directly up to the tree. Also, about halfway down the gully, at the same spot as the tree stands, there is a very rickety wooden bridge extending from one side to the other. From a safe distance, to can see that both sides of the bridge lead into the gully's face.
Perception DC 14: Two goblins are hiding in the branches of the dead tree. Your position makes it so that they don't see you but, once you move into the clearing, it will be almost impossible to hide.
This is what I will be using for logistics unless I hear otherwise: Wilderness marching order: Annie
Dungeon marching order: Sven
Watch order: 1st: Lucky, Zander
And yes, Zander, they take up 0-level slots but are used up after one use. Resource scarcity is part of the tension of a good wilderness crawl, after all. One last thing, I know it can be tricky to decide, but it would help to move more quickly if you established a spokesperson who would decide what direction you go at each juncture.
Date: 34th day of spring
The newfound party heads south along the road from Swiftwater, seeking adventure, riches, and glory. This area is said to contain a tribe of goblins, which can be defeated for a reward. Much further to the south on this road is a mining village, supposedly the site of dark religious practices. The mighty river is a few miles to the east, and it travels southeast.
Ok, going to use this space to sort out some logistics. Here's what I need:
This would be a good time to mention that the cleric spells "create water" and "purify food or drink" and any equivalents will function as level 1 spells. No infinite sustenance for adventurers!
Pretty close to it. All the regular rules apply, except I'm going to try to avoid grids unless absolutely necessary. Just say what you are trying to do. Like I said with the waitress thing, you have a lot of latitude with the game world. If, based on my description, you are reasonably sure that you are close enough to attack, go for it. Sometimes, you might be wrong. That's ok. In real life, I have to assume that, fairly often, an archer would fire a shot and have it fall short because he misjudged the distance. That's normal.
As you make introductions and steal/purchase beverages, a red-haired soldier walks into the tavern and nails a poster to a column. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the authority of Lord Mayor Tarset, let it be hereby known that any man presenting proof of the death of the goblin chieftan residing southwest of Swiftwater will be rewarded with 500 gold pieces. His tribe of goblins has caused loss of life and property to our logging outpost. His tribe is believed to contain approximately 15 fighting goblins and resides along a dry stream gully. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok, this is the absolute last chance. If you want to play, then head over to the gameplay and discussion threads and start playing. Recruitment is closed. Anyone who wants to play can join, but only if they start today.
Just in case it wasn't clear, anyone who has posted yet is welcome. I didn't post a roster, so if you expressed interest, just start playing.
@Daniel & Vance - don't check out yet. Not very many folks have reported in yet. If a few more hours pass and we're still fewer than 5 players, jump in.
Southeast. With a little asking around, anyone can find out that the river is a primary passage from the northern kingdoms to the Southern ports. The ports are still a long ways down the river, but a lot of timber goes south to support the shipbuilding.
I have some bad news...your char sheet is blank. No worries, though. And the gameplay thread can be accessed from the top of this screen. There are tabs for each thread.
Ok, by my reckoning, we have something like 4-8 players ready to rumble. I'll go ahead and take more than I initially planned since some folks always drop out. Plus, the more hands on deck, the less chance of horrible deaths. Get your characters ready and go check in on the gameplay and discussion threads with. Everyone who is seriously playing needs to post something of substance once in each thread today. The first person in the gameplay thread sets the stage. I don't care how you do it, but explain how everyone is together. Sitting in a tavern, met on the road, answering a classified set out by one of the players, etc.
The party arrives in Swiftwater, having traveled from the civilized lands to the north and west in search of adventure, riches, and power in these frontiers. Swiftwater is constructed on wide terraces that run parallel to the river, each terraced being connected to the others via wide stairs, ramps and pulleys. The citadel occupies a middle position in the town. It is a three-story tower keep constructed of grey stone. The town is surrounded by a tall wall of grey stone set with many towers and a massive gate flanked by statues of giants carved from green malachite. The town’s buildings are mostly constructed of red brick with sloping roofs of beaten copper or slate. The town has no temples and no high priest, but rather a hundred or so competing shrines wherein all the gods of the region are represented by argumentative priests who put on displays of their power and wealth to herd the townsfolk into their shrines to make offerings. Swiftwater is a bustling center of commerce, its people making a living on the mercenary trade, timber, livestock and the drinking and smoking establishments that line the riverfront. You come to town with these rumors: Gregar is a mining village far south of here. Supposedly, the men of Gregar worship a dark divinity. (Hex 0125, connected to Swiftwater by road.)
Being Play by post, there will undoubtedly be plenty of quirks and oddities that we will have to work through, and that’s fine. I’ll just lay out some of the information I know will come up here, so that hopefully we can cut down on delays and keep the game rolling. First, please, please tell me exactly what your character does. It takes days to have a quick dialogue between player and GM, so I’m just going to take what you say and interpret it for time’s sake. For example, if you say, “I go in the door.” I’m going to assume you mean that you grab the handle, turn it, and push the door open. If there’s a trap in the handle, that sucks for you. If you actually wanted to stand to the side, turn the handle gingerly, while wearing gauntlets, you have to say so. We don’t have time to go back and redo stuff like that all the time. Don’t get the idea that I’m some sadistic killer, though, either. I want us all to have fun, I’m just trying to be efficient here. Also in the spirit of speeding things along, you can contact me on G+ (Jacob DeCourcey) for quick questions and such. I’m generally available M-F, 9-4 EST plus other times as internet access permits. Hit me up if you want to quickly discuss something without the hassle of a conversation over the forums. As for exploration, each hex is 6 miles across opposite sides. Movement rates are either 2 or 3 miles per hour (20’ or 30’ round movement, respectively). Therefore, either 3 or 4 hexes can be crossed in a day. However, more challenging terrain may decrease the rates unless there is a road or path to follow. It takes 1 whole day to thoroughly search a hex, guaranteeing that you find any non-hidden point of interest. Wandering monster checks will be rolled at a 1 in 8 chance every 4+-2 hours based on location and level of noise and caution. These rates include a reasonable level of care to ensure proper navigation. However, when exploring uncharted territory without a map, a guide, or at least a reasonable idea of where you are trying to go, chances to get lost will begin to arise. I’ll post the map as you go, just for ease of use. Your starting location is the town of Swiftwater in the top left corner of the map, hex number 01.01. Here's the initial copy of the map. Please ask lots of questions, either here or on G+. I really do want this to be a good game that we all enjoy.
@Versys - I only allow 3 sets of rolls. Don't worry if you don't have the stats you'd like. Your cleverness as a player has much greater influence on the success of your character. There are currently 7 people that have responded, so that will be all for recruitment. Report in tomorrow for the start. You'll be starting in a border town. To the west and north is nothing but civilized heartland with no adventure. But, to the south and east, there is frontier, ancient gold, monsters, and who knows what else. The land is dangerous and chaotic, with monstrous races and pitched battles over resources. Be prepared, or become yet another casualty of the untamed frontier.
@Big OM - I really don't care about alignment, however, in the case of the paladin, his profession requires that he be lawful, as he has a strict code of conduct. There is a huge range of personality that fits within those parameters. I'm really flexible, though, on the whole. Just make it work.
Absolutely, Cronax. And so it's settled. Tomorrow, I'll start up the game proper. More players are totally welcome. Just roll up a quick character.
You really could go either way. With pre-approved access to power attack and combat expertise, fighters have a much more interesting selection of choices at 1st level. If a third person chimes in soon with a confirmation, we'll officially start tomorrow.
@Sir Gavvin - I'll stick with the (I guess standard) ruling that it only works on creatures that already have alignment subtype. I don't really have a need for traits or flaws. I'd rather the characters be defined by their actions rather that their stats when at all possible. @VanceMadrox - Yeah, it's PbP. I'm up for an occasional Google hangout if anyone wants, (Jacob DeCourcey on G+) but my internet situation limits when and how often I can do that.
@Sir Gavvin - I don't even know if the celestial template confers alignment. Honestly, I don't care a bit about your alignment, so you can do whatever works for you. @Cronax - Any humanoid except aquatic, monstrous humanoid, magical beast, animal, dragon, undead, vermin. There's a pretty good mix of stuff to find. @GypsyMischief - I'm indifferent to archetypes. So, who is seriously in on this and ready to play in a couple days?
Don't worry too much about the stats. How you play it will make all the difference. Plus, you'll have chances to make new ones.
Like this:
Then hit preview, check your scores, switch two if you want, and pick a class. I didn't like the first set, so I'll try again.
I'll take the last set, switch CHA and DEX, and be an elven wizard.
Absolutely. That entire blog rocks. I don't agree with everything, but you can't argue that it's very well-though out and written. Plus, I've played a game with the author on Google hangouts and it was sweet.
Anyone else weirded out about SSSS. Gridman? Like of all the things to make a revival its Superhuman Samurai Cyber Squad, and in anime form no less. It went under my radar mostly because my brain didn't even register it as a possibility.
The setting of Goblin Slayer is something that I read as tragic but realistic if adventurers are given free reign on quests in a frontier context. The guild isn't so much as an organization that manages adventurers but a brick and mortar Craigslist. They facilitate the gigs they recieve and collect reports on what happened but not much else. They probably get a cut of the reward and function as a business reference with the tiered dogtags. In that context a group of new adventurers, which are probably a dime a dozen, come in to accept jobs and the receptionists can discourage this but has no real authority to deny it to them. Especially since they're the only ones handling goblin requests which are put up by poor farmers rather than being subsidized by people investing in those farms. That's where it's important to note that this is a frontier situation where no one with actual resources are invested in anything being threatened due to dealing with problems from actual taxpayers and when some kind of goblin uprising actually threatens something they're invested in you'd see organized troops quashing it. In the meantime you have freelancers making money off settlements that are nothing more than private colonies that decided to make a living in less crown protected areas to cash in on the taxless gains. Another thing I noticed is that these events seem to be new. These settlements are probably date back to when they were very appealing because they could make money while the areas controlled by or lord or kingdom are busy fighting each other (The elf kingdom was reluctant to move on the goblins organized by another creature because mobilizing actual troops to deal with the problem would result in instigating things with their neighbors) but the recent development is the war between gods leading to more monsters appearing. In fully developed areas goblins are a non-problem. send in troops to exterminate them and be done with it but this presents problems for the frontier. Between fighting each other and the monsters that are a more immediate threat it gets expensive to lend support to poor frontier farmers when they have a problem that can be dealt with by groups of teenagers with attitude so they simply don't do it. The Adventurers Guild probably existed as a band aid that goes on well enough for what it is but the goblin situation seems to be increasing the same way an infection would. The more profitable farms that are easy to get to get protected because their taxes are indispensable and the weaker and more far out farms get left in the hands of plucky 15 year olds, which works for a while but each time they fail you get smarter goblins like resistant bacteria that appears when you don't complete your antibiotics. However combined together these problems become bigger but still hidden by the bandaid and it won't be until it becomes a larger threat that affects people with money that anything will be done about it with any organization and precision. The Guild can't do that because they don't have the authority to have that level of coordination. At best they can put a note on a board, and divvy out the cash to whoever completes it. The only way they could do better is what they did when there was a large scale attack, which was subsidize the reward to make it worthwhile, something they probably approved because they personally felt threatened by the outcome, or they could assert authority by assigning tasks with their tag level being on the line if they don't follow through allowing them to steer new adventurers to less dangerous work as a form of training. However I'm certain they haven't done these things because whoever is running the guild didn't have a reason to and this way is profitable for some reason. They probably have a monopoly on that kind of service because of how isolated the villages are and extra administrative and subsidizing costs is undesirable to them. This will go on until the threat of goblins gets large enough to pony up the cash to deal with it, competition arrives, or management steers in a direction for long term thinking rather than short term.
@Greylurker Some of those I need to check up on. I'm loving goblin slayer after going through the manga. The first episode is as squicky as the series gets but the main character is a genocidal psychopath against irredeemable goblins so the first episode is a good litmus test for whether or not the audience is okay with the rest of it so its perfectly okay to nope out. I'm just happy with my cute little murderhobo Pathfinder goblins by contrast. I love Overlord right now but the light novels have been a way better experience than the show.
I think Drop Dead Studios with spheres, Rogue Genius Games wit Talented series, and Legendary games have the most promising material for a 3.8 ruleset. DDS, RGG, and LG all have spectacular alternatives to core classes to the point that I wish they'd be their own system so they can be the default. Even if it's small scale and not meant to compete with Pathfinder 2.0 I would overwhelmingly support a Sphere system above a 2.0 conversion or rewrite. Oddly I can't say the same for Dreamscarred Press because they tend to produce things I want IN Pathfinder as opposed to replacement options.
My Spheres of Might book came in today and got me thinking. Pathfinder is a pretty complete game.with what's out there I can spend a lot of time before I get bored so I don't need a new game that's more of the same. Out of all the third party stuff, Spheres of Power/Might have been the most well received items in terms of straight replacement options. I haven't had enough time with Might but Power has been more fun and more flexible than most magic systems in Pathfinder and the only book where I bought multiple copies for myself to support it at my table and copies for strangers just to convince them that it's good. I would fully support a sphere based RPG built on an altered Pathfinder chassis. Not even all the martial and magic spheres need to make it, or even the classes. Just enough to build a core rulebook recreate the Fighter as a full practitioner and the wizard as a flexible high caster and fill in grids from there.
If the PF1 books are still being printed and the srd is still online, you could reasonably just extend the life of PF1 by buying a backlog of third party books. There's enough of that to represent another decade of PF1 releases and that's just the objectively good ones. The only thing desirable from Paizo would be Campaign Setting books and PF2 and PF1 can just share those since they're mostly Golarion fluff.
I think the implication that shield actions can potentially give your allies DR is huge. That means that shield wielders are naturally annoying if you're trying to drop the caster or archer forcing you to have to go toe to toe with them quickly in order to keep you from flying in the sky. And since the rogue can avoid reactions rogues are very important for accomplishing this without having to deal with the fighter. I'm seeing a bit of rock, paper scissors design.
Also nobody is trying to copy Marvel. They think they are but they aren't. Make movies like comic books (singular titles that intersect at Eve talk and crossovers), and don't show utter contempt for the source material. Universal made a universe before making individual titles so messed it up already, and they also look like they haven't even seen the source material as evident of making non horror movies. Disregarding that those characters have been in a successful cinematic universe TWICE in the past. DC likewise have writers who have not only displayed a contempt for the source material but the fans and mostly creatively driven by a director that didn't 'get' comic books until he read one that was a cynical deconstruction of superheroes written by a wizard that adds 300% more r*pe in his stories than what's necessary. The failures of other cinematic universes has more to do with a lack of competence so it's a poor example.
The lack of opposed rolls makes things very different. To the point where I understand less about what's going on. It's really hard to determine if this is good or bad.
Only partially what I expected. Since weapons are involved I thought it would go by BAB paradig. Untrained is 1/2 level, trained is 3/4 level, expert is full level and so on. The numbers here are way flatter but it's hard to evaluate if functionality is locked behind proficiency levels. That may make things fine or make it unreasonably difficult to ad hoc DCs for functions not specified in the book. On the other hand after spending ten or twenty levels trekking the wilderness and fighting monster I somewhat expect the stupid Wizard to be able to climb a fticking rope. Likewise after twenty levels of adventuring and the Barbarian still doesn't know what an owlbear is unrealistic. I really need to see this in action because as I'm imagining it, this solves issues and also causes new wierdness. Everyone is comparing a lvl 1's bonus to lvl 20 characters, but that's not very fair. How much does a trained first level character really know? Sure a wizard can study how demons work and is this trained but a 20th level untrained figher has surely heard legends of, met and punched demons in the face. He must know something, probably more than the wizard but not specifics. Like the wizard knows what kind of demon it is and what it does because he's trained but the fighter knows that flaming swords definitely do not work. If a legendary in survival let's you live without air what does legendary with martial weapons do, cut into the future. What city are skill ranks? Mark mentioned it and got all silent about it. How many factors are going into permanent bonuses for skills? Something is not being told that makes everything better or worse.
Don't forget that it's the only other guy that needs Int in core. I've had home game where the wizard was ignored so they had a really hot party that was dumber than a sack of rocks. Also alchemists give prescedence for alchemical items.
As I said in another thread; The immediate consequence of this is that magic items are potentially hardcore given that they share a resource.
I don't think that this is worth getting into. That situation sucked in the first place and tossing the only weapon back and forth to jump it is goofy but I would have done it if I could. I went in there as a lvl 1 Halfling Cavalier with no magic items along with three other people that had no way to deal with ghosts. If you don't wan't 'line stabbing' to be a thing then don't make that kind of situation. Also I'm pretty sure I've seen this happen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural or something.
My issue in this case is that the change is permanent except by an atonement spell. Just the atonement spell is kind of bunk because it admits that doing something out of your control can change your alignment. That part doesn't make sense to me. The effect itself is okay in the sense that turning under magical compulsion is a common trope to play around with but this functionally renders that character an NPC given that it messes with the player's agency.
Well, they're changing that so... /thread?
I feel like I'm the only one that has played an evil character in the same party as a paladin and it was a positive experience. I also have a recurring PC that plays around with the concept of good and evil and alignment shifts. Why on Earth would there be water that made you evil without immediately giving you powers from being full of profane energies that would cause such a thing or render the PC an NPC? That's a terrible example. In fact I was witness to a similar situation where the effecton the paladin was not "You are now evil. Enjoy" because that's not an alignment shift that's gold kryptonite. Instead the player was rewarded with powers for evil deeds encouraged by a voince in hiss head. Of course the Paladin fell and wasn't butthurt about it because we all knew good and well what this was leading to. A surprise forced alignment shift is not something that makes sense or is fair. I'm going to say that the only time I've seen a freakout over alignment was the player that thought LG should not be in the party because it would be a straightjacket to being murderhobos and always goes for CN as an "I can do whatever I want and alignment can't stop me". I don't care what you do regardless of alignment but if you murder the friendly barmaid because the mead was terrible your character is a psychopath and cosmic entities lean to peg you as an agent of entropy and death.
So many strong feelings for alignment that I'll never understand because it's never had a negative impact on my games. Well once from someone that insisted we were doing alignment wrong but that was more their problem than ours.
I agree with Caleb. One of my first thoughts was if the Big 6 are mostly gone and magic items use up a daily resource then magic items must be hardcore. I immediately thought of flaming weapons that got more powerful with more resonance so you don't have to throw it away for something better when you level. Starts off as a sword on fire and at high levels it's a lightsaber that shoots lava.
We avoided making class features that use Resonance Points unless they're directly tied to items. Resonance is a resource for items thematically and specifically. If you have abilities from a bloodline, you'll have to pay for those some other way...I just realized that Resonance is basically a universal Mana pool. Do Cha based casters tap into this for faster metamagic?I was actually thinking about this earlier. These players will have more Resonance than other players automatically, so having class abilities that tap into their resonance pool shouldn’t feel oppressive I think. It could be something that they would normally only need like once a day but in extreme circumstances they could use it several if they have the Resonance. Like a Sorceror Bloodline Blast as a spell-like ability or a Bard having a special captivate or charm ability. I feel like that's missing out on some design space. Unless charisma casters have some native abilities to generate magic items like the Bladebound Magus or a Wizard's bonded item. Not that that's far-fetched, a Bard's musical instrument, the Paladin's Divine Bond, a Sorcerer's scepter are all things that could be a class feature that interacts with resonance as an item.
Erik Mona says they break immersion, therefor we all must accept that they break immersion. Then let's have stamina in PF2. Because the reliace on full hour bars seems to be the real sticking point against resonance.
Question: Are CLW wands a problem? Do they screw up the math of healing or is it because they break immersion? If we're so reliant on having full hp before every battle wouldn't it be best to have full healing between fights or a separate HP pool like Starfinder? Either that or treat HP as an actual resource with some limit so that having healing abilities have an impact. I personally like Resonance because it solves tracking daily powers across multiple items, give charisma something to do, limits Christmas tree effects,feels really flavorful to me (a more experienced person can get more use out of an item using more force of will), and opens up some design space. However most objections seem to be around our relationship with healing, to the point where I kinda want Stamina in the game.
Currently in Pathfinder there's a lot of x-per day things that aren't even class features that I have to keep track of. It's to the point where character sheets I use are more annoying unless there's some sort of tracker in the item box. In fact I printed out a universal thing tracker for all the junk I have to keep up with. Any change that reduces this to fewer pools of numbers is fine by me. Plus it gives charisma something new to do. Just make it interesting, like items that increase in power the more you resonate with them so you can keep using your flaming sword you like longer because now it's a lava sword at higher levels.
Make the main civilized goblin faction a Samurai clan. Remember, the iconic Samurai raises a group of goblin babies in Ultimate Campaign. Japanese goblins in alchemical Mecha is something I want to see.
I'm hoping that new classes get introduced according to type and subgenre/theme so it's easier to ban stuff to preserve flavor. A gaslight book of advancing technology would have Cavalier, Gunslinger, Psychic, Mesmerist, Brawler, Vigilante for example.
Wouldn't it just be a matter of finding the equivalent stat block and adjusting numbers/loot? PF2 seems unlikely to contain creatures that haven't been done or at least approximated by PF1. Unless there's a wild difference in CR theres 6+ books worth of enemies you can just slot in. One of those has to be close enough to not have to do anything else.
Cool,now my wife can stop calling them "Gatorade Wizards".
If goblins started moving up in society that would explain how they got into space.
From what I gathered, not readying a a shield gave shield AC but had more AC and the block button on an action. But yeah, sounds like it sucks a bit but lose your weakest attack for DR is pretty good. Heck, I might actually use a shield.
I'm sure pets will be around but I do hope there's a separate"companion section instead of having to refer to the druid but with x exceptions each time. Having a universal chassis with class specific specifications would help down the line when it comes to weird companions and can be used to play out cohorts without breaking the game.
The real answer to the penalties is that multiple attacks at the same attack bonus inflates the numbers on armor and hp and the standard across RPGs is that multiple actions in a single turn gets less likely to succeed. Another bonus is design space for avoiding the penalties
Some of us have since Unchained embraced some of the Alternate rules past the classes. My favorites were the consolidated skills and the new action economy so most of this isn't new for me. I see a lot of concerns that we haven't really seen. Sure some problems occur when translating old routines exactly on the same amount of turns, but I think this action economy is the smartest move for 2e.
I feel like Paladins should exist but should choose Law or Chaos and Evil or Good or just Beall around neutral. Different powers for each choice.
It depends on what 2e looks like. If it's as simple as D&D but more options then D&D is dead to me and I'll be playing to work Pathfinders. If it has the same capacity to go as Gonzo as 1e then I have some books to sell. That's assuming it's to my liking but so far it looks pretty promising. If that's the case anyone wanna buy some books?
As I said, the problems with drow and kender put together. But Goblin is a logical choice since Paizo has sort of made them their own. A distinct look, a Gremlins-like attitude and relationship with technology.
Yeah, I'm in the camp that thinks a lot of base and hybrid classes being archetypes. Especially since they're baked in now. Gunslinger is one of them.
So what I'm seeing is that people are concerned that Goblins will present the same problems as drow and kender at the same time as a core race. Although it may just work out like the goblin on Harmonquest. Then again I've seen a game inplode because a goblin PC acted like a goblin.
I knew it. Back when the technology guide came out I figured Pathfinder was a few adjustments away from a sci-fantasy campaign. I even ran one long before Starfinder came out. Heck, before it was announced I mentioned that the technology guide was testing the waters for some sort of Space Adventures book and now we have Starfinder. Before that, Pathfinder Unchained seemed to have some things that development wanted to have but edition purity wouldn't allow that so they're now optional rules. I remember it's being accused of being an elaborate Secret Pathfinder Next playtest. Therefore I hereby accuse Paizo of planning this for years and have been releasing material to test our tolerance. Hybrid classes are there specifically to test Pathfinder 2e class features for core classes. Other releases have systems that are secretly new versions of class features. Anybody else with me? Any other ok men's of 2nd edition from PF1?
I mean, when you can just learn how to build a rocket launcher or an ice gun, why bother just figuring out a spell that can do it...twice a day?I'm imagining a guy huddled up in his room with piles of books raving about how he'll show them all one day, they called him crazy but who'll be laughing when he's wished all his enemies into the sun! Who'll be laughing then! Just you see! You still have to train for it and casting can't be Mass produced by a machine. Why go to wizard school to learn to do something that's a trip to Abadar-Mart away? That's like learning to start a fire without modern supplies now. Sure it's a neat trick but really there's a dozen devices to do such a thing and even then most of the time you're not even in a position to need to in the first place. Or how Voldemort wouldn't have gotten far if he attacked the American school, he would have gotten shot.
I don't get 5e's popularity either, but mostly because for what it is, there are a ton more games that do the job better and are less clunky. about the only real merit I really see that differentiates from other similar RPGs is that enough of it lines up with Pathfinder that you can easily run adventure pathswith it only faster and less complicated. But for anything else I have True 20, Tri-stat, OVA, Savage Worlds, FATE, all things I'd prefer to go with.
I couldn't care either way. Aside from APs I kind of became 'done' with Pathfinder, in the sense that I feel like I have everything I need and more from Paizo and third party that can be played easily with the Pathfinder chassis so I won't be going out of my way to get more. The Adventure Paths are the only thing that holds any interest for me and even there I don't run enough games to play the stuff I have let alone keep a subscription of these things. Because abandoning the trove of material that does exist in favor of a new edition would benefit newer players than older ones so there's only two kinds of Pathfinder 2.0 that I would find useful at all: Pathfinder lite; Something I mentioned before. Basically a 20 level version of the Beginner box that's basically diet Pathfinder. It could be played for entire campaigns by newer players and players that don't want all the crunchy bits but can be quickly upgraded to normal Pathfinder if they get board with that. Keep it at three books and be done with it. Then you have a sleek and simple gateway drug to Pathfinder proper that can still be a full on game. Dimensionfinder; A genericized Pathfinder resembling a mix of d20 Modern and True 20. You get around six chassis as classes and packages that resemble Starfinder/Pathfinder/Cavefinder/Dojofinder/SecretOriginfinder/Streetfinder classes. Then you can run any game you want with a streamlined system and import creatures and stuff from Pathfinder and Starfinder.
At first glance there are a number of things I found that look weird and are probably typos. Cleric is a full BAB class? The Ranger headline in the top right corners goes on for a few classes. The cleric's spells per day chart is kind of messed up. Also does the cleric seriously not get first level spells until 4th level? and why does the cleric have two spells per day charts? I was going to assume that it was a spontaneous caster now but I guess that's not the case. Overall I'm a bit annoyed with the cleric because so much time is spent on domains. That couldn't have been condensed? It eats up so much of the page count. Spellstrike doesn't strike with spells. Seems like it could use a different name. And okay, so the Magus attacks with full BAB AND can do attack and damage rolls with INT instead of STR. Isn't that overboard? There isn't that much X instead of Y to Z in Starfinder so Spellstrike seems kind of weird. There aren't that many straight bonuses too so I feel a bit uncomfortable with those being thrown around with stuff like Studied target. It leans towards damage instead of attack bonus so its not that bad but it does feel weird. I'm not in love with the Paladin having so many X/per day abilities. I felt like Starfinder had way fewer things that instigate short adventuring days. Magus spell per day chart is a bit messed up. Actually I think everyone's spells per day chart is wrong. I feel like this was an opportunity condense and advance a lot that wasn't taken. Like, does a Paladin still need to be the smite evil holy warrior? I feel like more alignments could have been folded in and called it some catch all divine warrior like 'Paragon' or something. Translated classes are nice and all but Bard and Magus and Ranger seem out of place in the new world since they effectively have counterparts that can represent similar things (Envoy, Soldier and Operative) so it would make more sense to me to bolster their options rather than port over so that there's more spellcasters. The product (looking past the typos and weird stuff) isn't exactly bad but the choice of classes to port feels more like nostalgic gridfilling than pieces that fill in holes in Starfinder's concepts.
Enemies don't have stamina points as it is. It's just a PC thing. With Starfinder it's amazing how much me and Paizo have been on the same page.
The hp buffer is a big deal for gameplay though. I ran a space campaign using Pathfinder rules all last year and free force fields became a free staple because damage had a purpose and a danger but going for more than two battles wasn't certain death. If we instead had easy healing the danger and purpose is gone.
The vacuum of space deals damage? As far as I can speculate having two hours pools means that you can; 1, have more direct damage that bypasses stamina to emphasize it's danger or flavor. 2, Have an easily recharged hp buffer so combat has danger and general wear and tear but you don't have 12 min workdays like in Pathfinder. 3, New triggers that abilities can key off of.
Part of my issue with it's controller stuff is that the radius is so very small and it doesn't keep people there once it pulls them. Starfinder works under different assumptions to Pathfinder, a big one being 'A lot of dudes use guns'. Getting people close enough to catch a few people in your AOE radius is very tricky when it's centered on yourself. If the enemy have the sense to not try and cluster together in perfect 'Throw grenade here' zones you'll have a hard time catching them with a Solarian. This one bugs me a lot. Anyone witin 20 feet and it's easier to just cleave them than use a standard action to pull them.thonly way I can see using this is if I'm tagteaming will someone who has cleave, which is a waste of a full BAB dude.
Before the book is fully out I've been seeing a lot of speculation as to how the Solarion and the Envoy stack up, along with what's working and not, and I wanted to give a little input before we get into the fully swing of class comparison and the roles in Starfinder, especially since half the criticisms seem to be about how efficient of a murderbot classes are and aren't. I tried running Pathfinder in space for a little over a year and one thing I want to urge people to remember is that the setting change is really relevant. Skill diversity matters as much if not more than skill strength due to the amount of situations that the characters end up needing skills. Even reducing the skill list and making skill ranks easier to come by and spread out there were still gaps left behind because everyone was operating on Pathfinder logic and bad times were had by all. Everyone tried to trick out their combat beasts and many failed to harbor some basic equipment or preparations to handle weird diverse alien monsters and the environment that will likely kill you if you blow up the wrong hull. I think to further speculation in a useful way we really need to establish what the new paradigm is since we're working with a new setting. For example; diplomacy and social skills are great but maintaining relationships is a whole new level of importance due to corporate ties and increased communication, and in my case required a spreadsheet to keep track of. I haven't fully absorbed the book so I'll have more meaningful things to say later but for now lets analyze the new status quo while looking at how the new classes and rules stack up so that we can approach the game for being Starfinder, not Pathfinder 2.0.
Now that I have read the PDF, I want to add psionics classes and a mad scientist class that's capable of bioware (or biomechanic/technomancers). I think those are the only real holes missing. I don't even need a full gamut of psionics. Two or three classes would do the trick.
Paizo has clearly been spying on me. Over a year ago I started a space pathfinder game that started with fighting akata in a deserted space ship connected to a mining station so i think time travel and corporate politics will be involved if they continued to spy on my games. If the if theres a psionic hybrid akata or a flumph secret agent I want money.
From a mechanical backbone standpoint Starfinder is looking like the Pathfinder 2.0 that everyone interested in such a thing wanted. The resident martial has a good will save and more skills. There seems to be a universal archetype and grit system. Numerical bonuses are replaced with interesting effects. I imagine that people would be more interested in backwards conversion rather than trying to fit Pathfinder stuff to Starfinder. But there are still plenty of options to make Pathfinder with more scifi. Between Aethera, Anachronistic Adventures, Starjammer, and the Technology Guide there's a lot to work with. But... last year I've been running a Pathfinder in space and the backbone of Pathfinder doesn't exactly work, or rather a lot of things get fugly. Handing out advanced stuff at level 1 is very overpowered very early, touch AC, when combined with flat-footed AC, energy damage gets hard to keep track of. Everything technically works but its a pain in the butt to deal with. Actually one thing that makes me happy is that so many of the changes I had to make with Pathfinder in space seems to be winding up in Starfinder. All the different Armor Classes got annoying and difficult to deal with so we just got rid of it. Skills got cumbersome so we just used a modified consolidated skill list. The action economy got weird so we used a version of the Revised Action Economy. We used a lot from Anachronistic Adventures so most everyone shared a universal archetype system and had a point pool. I feel that if you do Pathfinder in space you'll have to tweak things to be closer to what Starfinder is looking like anyways just to reduce the amount that you have to keep track of
Yes and no. It's steeped in misogynistic and misandric Ideas of humanoid sexual dimorphism taken to an extreme with the female side feeling more tired because the fantasy races usually have sexy women no matter how monstrous the males are. If they looked like the new roach-like race only one was bigger and one was more social, no one would notice. On the other hand I've never really rejected a trope wholesale for being tired and would rather have fun poking at it. And it's close to something we explored on our own in my sci-fi game (in the reversed way. The women were Amazonian space pirates and the males were smaller better looking and charismatic) and nobody batted an eyelash. Leo in dealing with weird aliens my tolerance for exploring these kind of hats increases to a degree.
|