Great Guru's page

I bought a copy of this some time ago and its last update was in 2010. Will there be an update for this product that updates it to the current cover and contents?

It's nice to know that having been away for awhile I can always come back and find serious threads on the messageboards about "boobplate armor." It's just a matter of time before somebody posts a thread about attack and skill penalties for a wearing a codpiece outside of his size category.

Anyone else spot anything here on the site that's boggles your mind lately? Maybe something really gonzo like Rob Kuntz actually publishing something?

Does anyone know of a legit source where one can get the original (2nd edition) Runequest rulebook?

Not to be confused with the Runequest 2 products put out by Mongoose, I'm talking about the red rulebook which has Rurik's advnetures, etc.

...drink the water.

...sit on any of the furniture.

...look at any mirror.

...walk in front.

...walk in back.

...ever ever use the only clean toilet in the latrine.

No offense to the original artist but the pawn version of the ankheg is a huge improvement over the Bestiary rendering.

I feel a little lukewarm about the ice devil, though...nyuk nyuk. ;p

This is the Internet after all....there's got to be more rules arguements to solve.

Now this is a blog! Thank you thank you thank you! I would love to see this become a regular feature. Love it! Thank you! Did I say thank you yet? I only ask because I know there will be a storm of posters wishing you had addressed other questions.

But from this one poster...thanks for now!

Only 10:54ish over here and the promo code wouldn't work for me. Tried to use it once before and it didn't work because the product I bought was a non-Paizo download but now it won't even work for a Paizo download (Jade Regent#2), which I've left in my shopping cart.

I know I'm not the only one with this problem because I followed a link posted by Liz to get here to make this post.

What,in your opinion, is the Adventure Path to rule all Adventure Paths? Why? I know there's a difference to running 3.5 vs Pathfinder and that is a factor but aside from game mechanics, what makes or breaks an AP for you and which one of them all have you most enjoyed (either as a player or a GM)? Which one did you least like? Why?

For myself, The Age of Worms reigns supreme. It stays on the Prime Material (i.e. no excursions to the Abyss), it features cameos and popups of some of our hobby's greatest names and locations, and featured some of the most memorable battles ever (Dragotha, Kyuss), and had an adventure with more hostile dragons per page than any other I've ever come across. It was epic in every sense of the word.

And for my money, has any other chapter of an AP had as high a kill count as Spire of Long Shadows?

Share your thoughts folks!

I'd like to see the alignment system disappear from Pathfinder. There are plenty of RPGs that deal with Good and Evil without the vagaries of an imposed ethics system like that which we have now (and how in the name of Gygax did he come up with this crap?).

The nice thing about getting rid of alignments: without Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil or whatever it would be easier to see which players are just being d!*$$eads in their roleplaying (i.e. paladins, "evil" characters). We already know they're being jerks but at least they wouldn't be able to justify their actions by basing them on "I'm just behaving according to my alignment."

Plus, there would be a helluva lot less paladin/alignment threads on these boards.

You talking to me?! You talking to me?! You must be talking to me...there's no one else here!

I know that some love for epic has been given with the neh-thallgu, the mu spore, the worm the walks, etc.

But it would be really cool to get some more. In particular, a low-level version of the gibbering orb (CR 11-13 or so). That sort of thing. Larval versions of the biggest of the bad so to speak. Lots of cool monsters still waiting their chance for the spotlight.

Cool art as usual, plus the promo code for 10% off an order doesn't hurt my feelings. Merry Christmas Paizo!

PS - Merisiel can guide my sleigh anytime.

I hate labels like "mythic", "epic", and "legendary." Do you want more content for levels 15-20? How about levels 21-30? If you want 20+ what would be a reasonable level cap?

James says that popular interest is what best guarantees the genesis of a product. Weigh in with your thoughts folks.

Another poster posed the question why use Ash Storm instead of Ice Storm? He clearly thought that Ice Storm was a superior spell. He also thought that Ash Storm was merely a reflavored version of Ice Storm.

That poster also thought that the genie bloodline was so thematically similar to the elemental bloodline to be indistinguishable.

Unfortunately he phrased those opinions with a bunch of vitriol and Gary nixed his thread. But I'm interested in what people actually think about the real questions he posed.

Was reading a bit about the Jade Regent AP. My greatest hope for this one is that Ameiko finally has some decent art to portray her instead of the abomination in Pathfinder AP #1.

A great reason to motivate the party to head to Shatterhorn might be a mention of the Cagewright's backup plan to wreck vengeance on the heroes - one of them is going to cast Apocalypse From the Sky (BoVD) and finish what they started with the partial destruction of Cauldron.

Everyone had something from the Alpha/Beta they liked that got the axe. Others have suggested alternatives to existing class features.

Alternate class features are part of the OGL. Has Paizo considered putting out a "Player's Option" book or something like that primarily devoted to alternate class features or alternative options to rules?

I was actually watching the credits roll and I noticed that the Lead Creature Designer's name is James Jacobs. Coincidence or are we talking about our very own monster desinger extraordinaire?

Also, at the end of the movie when the Na'vi are overseeing the exodus of the humans I could swear one of the dudes hobbling along the line is Mick Foley.

Maybe I missed an announcement somewhere. What happened to the threads for the Shackled City, Age of Worms, and Savage Tide APs? If they are gone forever you've definately lost me as a fan. Those APs were great and shouldn't be cast out like old smelly socks.

I was really amazed to see the long list of creatures that manticores can breed with and produce hybrids. Amazed....and perversely intrigued.

Tell me I'm not the only one to instantly imagine an adventure that takes on a manticore and its entire harem of concubines.

Will the upcoming new base classes be OGL and therefore usable by other publishers in their products?

Awesome! I'm so glad that PFRPG has kenk...uh...tengu! I love these guys! The sword thing is really cool, as is the Linguistics thing.

Don't know what I'm talking about? It's in the free Bestiary preview.

...is a thing of wonder. I especially like all the little linkies scattered around in it. Very helpful, especially the ones found in the spell lists that take me right to the spell description. Uber cool.

No more stupid or ugly half-orcs (unless you want them to be). Hello half-orc bards, sorcerers, and wizards!

Awesome!

I refer of course to the new and improved half-orc of the PFRPG Core Rules. Bravo!

How do you adjudicate the skulks' peerless camouflage ability in regards to combat. The description says they can move and run while Hiding. Would this then imply that if a PC can't make a Spot check vs. a skulk's Hide check (and most never will make this) that an attacking skulk would at least have concealment (20% miss chance) during combat? Or even total concealment (50% miss chance).

Kind of like the predator with his cloaking device active.

I'm just wondering if this is why the wimps are CR 2.

I'd like to make maps for my homebrew. I like the stuff I've seen in the pages of Dragon and the ones in the Ptolus products. Anyone recommend an easy-to-use quality map-maker compatible with a PC using Windows XP?

From Just After Sunset, titled "Graduation Afternoon".

The thing that creeped me out was a sentence out of the liner notes in the back of the book: This could happen. And sooner or later it almost certainlywillhappen.

All the Seoni/Santa fuss shows us how much attention the iconics can garner. There are enough iconics that you could do one per month plus a "group photo."

Of course, it should be a swimsuit calendar. ;p

So...everyone likes sex. More or less. So why is anyone still surprised when it's used as a marketing tool? Oodles of studies have proven its effectiveness.

So why not just get over it already?

My wife picks out most of the fantasy art around our house and aside from about a gazillion dragons her other favorites are hot fantasy chicks. Especially by Royo. The picture she drew of her first elf character (AD&D) was a hot chick.

I think hot sexy art rocks. Whether it be hot chicks, dragons, hot guys, or beholders in swimsuits.

Bring it on!

Kudos to all the Paizo staffers. Consistenly great quality in all things including art.

This was a rant. Thank you for your time.

I think a quick fix for monsters that rely on Improved Grab is to grant them a size-based racial bonus to their grapple checks. This effectively grants them a double size bonus to grapples and restores some of the "oomph" they've lost in the transition.

Similarly, a creature such as the wolf, which has Improved Trip (is it a bonus feat? can't remember) should receive a racial bonus to this CMB for this maneuver only. As a side note (a little off topic): wolves should also take advantage of flanking and aid another--anyone who's watched them make a kill can see them doing it.

Sorry if either idea isn't original to me...just was thinking it over.

Can we expect anything like this? In light of all the things in the errata threads (especially harridans and kuchrimas supposed to have SLAs) wouldn't this be a great product?

Rise of the Runelords: the Director's Cut. I'd shell out moolah for that.

I started a thread that suggested the equipment section was not really worthy of discussion. Some obviously don't agree and that's okay but after two posts the thread was locked by Jason Buhlman.

Can you please tell me what policy I violated that would result in such an arbitrary decision? Or does my opinion not really matter?

Seriously. How much playtesting do we need for the equipment chapter? In all the years I've been playing I can't remember any threads on any forums that spent time on this subject.

Although I can see a host of posts already. Sheesh. Is this really a subject that needs to be nitpicked through?

...I'm supposed to be working on my campaign right now but I keep getting caught up in various threads trying to catch up to the flow of conversation. Before I know it, Poof! Three hours gone and no stat blocks generated, maps drawn, or deviousness plotted.

You guys are distracting me!

Maybe it's too late in the game for a major overhaul but it seems to me that Spell Focus is only good for certain schools of magic. My friend was lamenting to me because in order for his wizard to qualify for the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil prestige class (Complete Arcane) he had to take both Spell Focus (abjuration) and Greater Spell Focus (abjuration) and felt that he would be wasting two feat slots this way.

Why does Spell Focus work the same way for every school? Wouldn't it make more sense that for Spell Focus (abjuration) to grant a +1 to the DC to dispel the caster's abjurations?

Spell Focus (conjuration): wouldn't it be better if it made the monsters summoned harder to dispel/dismiss?

Spell Focus (necromancy): maybe it should grant +1 turn resistance to undead animated/created by the caster.

In other words: don't you think that the mechanics for Spell Focus should differ with each spellcasting school?

And why does any class have more than one? Are these Achilles' heels necessary? Should it really be so easy to turn the heroic fighter into the villain's patsy?

How would one simulate Conan's stubborn will by playing a barbarian in 3.5/Pathfinder? I know barbarians get a boost when raging but what about when that charm person gets tossed out by surprise before he goes berserk?

Would a "moderate" save be a better idea?

In Pathfinder RPG you've given us more feat slots to play with but...I also note a trend towards breaking up some feats into Basic, Improved, and Greater versions.

Does the net effect end up being using more feat slots to do what you could do with just one feat in 3.5? By extension I'm also asking if the improved and greater feat versions are worth spending feats slots on.

Obviously my own opinion. I've started Power Attack threads before and I don't believe I'm a minority opinion. 3.5 Power Attack was fine as is and I'd like to see it put back that way for PFRPG.

Looking just at PHB II classes as a comparison (especially the duskblade), would it be all that unreasonable to allow monks good BAB with unarmed strikes, special monk weapons, and combat maneuvers?

I'm going to try it out.

Do you think it's really that unbalancing? Especially if I also open up sneak attack against constructs and corporeal undead?

I am a 3.5 purist. Which means I houserule anything that doesn't suit me. ;)

I'm seeing a new policy reminder at the bottom of my pending posts and was wondering if this is a new thing for everyone or have I crossed the line somewhere in one of my posts?

How much can be changed in Pathfinder before backwards compatibility is abandoned?

For how many of you would no or little backwards compatibility be a dealbreaker in terms of adopting the PFRPG?

How attractive will PFRPG be to other game developers with a lot of their work invested in 3.5 (as in those who aren't making the jump to 4E)?

How much of Pathfinder do you want to stay "3.5"?

Just some thoughts I've been thinking about a lot.

So...what modules do you want to discuss? What're your favorites? I've currently only got two: Seven Swords of Sin and The Demon Within.

By which I mean...can it leave 3.5 too far behind and still remain viable as an independant rules system?

To further clarify...if PFRPG changes too much or the changed go to far and create a lot of work for DMs wanting to use all their 3.5 resources, will said DMs buy into it?

I love the Pathfinder world. I love the APs. I'm not so fond of some of the design decisions being proferred in the Beta Playtest.

This is a pretty open topic so dive right in. Politely, please.

Assuming Core/OGL rules only, has the fighter indeed become irrelevant or the weakest link in the chain?

Savage Species has a 1-20 level progression that allows you to play a ghaele eladrin from 1st level. It's supposed to spread out the powers, granting them at appropriate levels.

My wife is going to play one.

Whilst auditing the class and making some changes to update it to 3.5 I noticed that at 7th level these things can become incorporeal globes of light. Incorporeal.

Plus, a gaze attack that affects 1 HD evil creatures that forces them to save or die. Save or die. And even if they save they are affected by fear.

Part of me screams "broken"! But the part of me that enjoys my wife's love is determined to forge ahead and make do.

My request for this post is A) I know that it's broken so don't go on about it; and B) Help me think of ways to deal with/overcome this challenge.

All input appreciated.