Kelseus's page

I'm going to go with a completely different route than I think what anyone else has suggested (unless I missed it).

Gorum, in the midst of this war of the gods is having the time of his existence. This is what he was made for! But something happens, something that makes him realize that fighting, that combat, isn't the answer and shouldn't be what he's doing. And then he unmakes himself because a deity focused on fighting who suddenly realizes that fighting isn't always the answer is a contradiction that simply unmakes his existence.

I think someone or something killing him in combat is honestly way too boring and expected a death for a god of war.

I really like this idea. Kind of like a Obi-Wan on the Death Star kind of situation. he chooses to allow himself to be killed for a greater purpose.

Remaster Buckets:

Moderate + 0 for all age categories: mirage, omen, diabolic, adamantine
High + 0 for all age categories: empyreal, conspiracy, fortune
High + 1 for all age categories: horned and all linnorms

I think that it makes sense for the Dragons in each category.

Mirage, Omen, Diabolic and Adamantine dragons all have very strong defensive abilities. Mirage has reaction to gain concealment, Omen has reaction to force misfortune on an attack. These both make the dragons harder to hit, so you off set that with a slightly lower AC. Diabolic dragons are immune to fire, have reactive strike and frightful presence. All abilities that make it harder to hurt. Adamantine has straight resist all physical.

Horned and Linnorms are more in your face, hard hitting bag of HP monsters, so they have AC like a frontline melee monster.

TLDR; there are other things to look at than just AC when designing a monster.

Can we get a bit more info about these? Maybe a picture of them in the books?

Rage of Elements specifically calls out that there are locations where mortals can walk around.

The Plane of Earth is filled with infinite caverns and tunnels, but most are interconnected

The sections on the other Elemental Planes have similar language about locations your PCs can visit to avoid drowning/burning to death/etc.

You can read Diabolic Fire to already add the Unholy trait to the fire spells. That being said, I think it is fine not treating them as Unholy. The ability already allows them to bypass all fire resistance/immunity. It's already good enough as is.

I really like the idea of a giant crab monster with a camo ability.

Something like
Illusory Disguise [Illusion][Occult] <three actions> the Hider can squeeze itself into a 5 by 5 square. It then uses illusory magic to disguise itself as an innocuous object in the location, like a stalagmite in a cave, a tree stump, or normal household object like chest of drawers. The Hider receives a +4 circumstance bonus to its deception checks to avoid detection. This otherwise functions as illusory object.

Hidden Strike <reaction> Requirement The Hider is in its illusory disguise Trigger A creature approaches in reach of the Hider's Pincher attack and has not disbelieved the illusion Effect The Hider makes a Pincher Strike against the triggering creature. The creature is also off guard to this attack. If the Strike hits, it deals an additional Xd6 damage and the Hider can attempt an Athletics check to Grab the creature as a free action.

Stirges are already renamed Bloodseekers.

Kelseus wrote:

Do I remember correctly, that this is the last one for two weeks and then we find out who really dies? Or am I off by a week?

This was 8/10. We have two more weeks of reveals and then the stream to reveal who is actually dying.

Thanks.

My theory is the two more safes will be Lamashtu and Iomadea.

Do I remember correctly, that this is the last one for two weeks and then we find out who really dies? Or am I off by a week?

Even some of the D&D creatures may make a come back in one form or another.

Per James Jacobs, even a Drider could be in Remaster

Fleshwarps are all ours. Driders being called fleshwarps is something we did. But driders being so tied to drow means we'll need to do some adjusments, and at the very least rename them, but a "spider centaur" is not something that D&D can own, and the weird appearance we gave to our driders (which don't have sexy elf heads) are also ours. So it'll probably be limited to a new name and the scrubbing of the drow bit of flavor.

Some of these are just not in Monster Core. Others are so generic that you could easily recreate it with a different name.

Assassin Vine is just a level 3 plant creature. Snapping Flytrap (pg 154) is more interesting and does the same thing.

Efreeti are in the Monster Core as an Ifrit. They didn't even change the art.

Several Golems are reprinted, just without the Golem name. I expect many to make a return.

Divine Immolation is good. Don't over think it either. Vitality Lash cantrip at rank 7 is 8d6 vitality damage with basic Fort. That's as good as a rank 4 or 5 slotted spell and almost as good as a level 7 heal (avg. 31.5 v. 28)

It appears that Paizo chose to be more intentional about avoiding the "hidden" immunities couched under other traits. In pre-Remaster, none of teh undead list bleed immunity. Not zombies, skeletons, wights, mummies, graveknights. Every one I looked at lacked that immunity.

In Monster Core ALL undead list bleed immunity. Even incorporeal undead like the ghost, shadow, and poltergeist have it explicitly listed.

The only exception is the Vampire. Considering all those things, I think it is pretty clear the intent was to intentionally allow vampires to be subject to bleed damage.

azrazalea wrote:

Vampires don't have bleed immunity listed. Every other undead creature does (I checked). The undead trait does not have bleed immunity listed.

This would imply vampires can bleed? Then Player Core states nonliving beings can't take bleed damage, so RAW it appears vampires can bleed but don't take damage from doing so?

That would mean they can use Blood Vendetta spell, DEINONYCHUS can cause them to be off guard from bleeding, KROOTH can track them better if they are bleeding, and the Bird support benefit of dazzling while bleeding would function. Anything else I'm missing that specifically works on bleeding targets would work. However, no damage would be taken by any of the bleeding?

Is this the RAI here? I think it makes sense.

Isn't the immunity to bleed damage in the bleed damage rules.

Book text
Another special type of physical damage is bleed damage. This is persistent damage that represents loss of blood. As such, it has no effect on nonliving creatures or living creatures that don’t need blood to live. Weaknesses and resistances to physical damage apply. Bleed damage ends automatically if you’re

So since they're non living theyre immune to bleed right?

The fact that the immunity is NOT listed should be read as intentional. I mean, a Vampire is an undead full of blood that it consumes to maintain its power. I think it is 100% appropriate for a Vampire to take bleed damage like a living creature.

Has anyone's actual Monster Core tracking number populated yet? I have the link for it but the tracker hasn't popped yet so far as I can see. It's still showing "tracking information is not available at this time" 3 business days after the email.

In my experience, the tracking numbers rarely work. I would get the book before tacking number populated.

The spell specifically says that you need to swim to traverse, so no walking through it.

I think you set the the DC at either 10 or 15. 10 because it is the same as Aqueous Orb, also a level 3 spell, but that seems really low. But Aqueous Orb can be rolled back onto a creature next round, where a wall is stationary.

My preference would be DC 15. Standard trained DC, nothing in spell's text to say that there is a current or anything to increase the difficulty. A level 3 Creatures trained in Athletics have about a +11, so succeed to swim through on a 4 or better. Even untrained creatures can move through on a good roll.

Did we lose the doppelganger and the rust monster?

Doppelganger was confirmed with its removal from the Remastered Beginner Box. Rust Monster is 100% invented by Gygax for D&D based off a toy set he purchased as stop gap minis.

Same pack that spawned the Umber Hulk, Owlbear, and Bulette.

Assembler wrote:

How does the immunity to divine immolatuon work? And is the fire breath the only thing the dragon can convert to spirit damage?

It literally says it is divine immolation and similar effects. IIRC the jaw attack can deal spirit damage instead of fire too.

I think that this is slightly ambiguous. Here is the applicable text:

A diabolic dragon is immune to the diabolic fire of other diabolic dragons, the fire from divine immolation, and similar effects.

Divine immolation states that if a creature would take more damage from spirit instead of fire, it is spirit damage.

So this could be read two ways, 1) they don't take fire damage from divine immolation but they can take spirit damage, or 2) they are immune to divine immolation.

Arguments for 1) if Paizo wanted them to be immune they would say so, also the spell is sanctified, so it could trigger the diabolic dragon's holy weakness. For 2) being immune to diabolic fire implies that they are immune to affects that would deal spirt instead of fire if it would be beneficial to the caster.

Hm. No ghast in here. Looks like the ghoul soldier replaces it. Yes? No?

All a ghast was was a level 2 ghoul. Only thing it had over a regular ghoul was stench, and now all ghouls get that.

I guess a question I have about these tradition-based dragons is:

Do they inherently have spells that relate to their various traditions? or is the tradition less about the magical essence of the dragon and more about their role in the world? Will we get lots of caster dragons that study different traditions of magic than is their core essence?

They have the trait associated with their assigned tradition: Adamantine has primal, conspirator occult, etc.

They don't have spells as a default, but there is a sidebar for adding spells to each of the dragon types. I am only 100% on what spells are in what tradition, but on quick glance the suggested spells seem to follow their tradition assignment, as above.

3) Do undead, demons, or devils do extra damage to holy enemies like sanctified Clerics.

Some Celestials do additional damage to Unholy targets. Tabellia (angel) deal 1d4 spirit with their warhammer, 2d4 v. unholy target. Rekhep (shield archon) has the same.

Quetz Coatl's venom is treated as a curse for unholy creatures, its radiant wings have an additional affect against unholy targets on a crit fail.

All demons, devils, daemons, and Rakshasas have holy weakness.

Coarti's (devil) Despairing Shriek causes holy creatures to also be frightened 2 on a fail.

Holy creatures treat their save vs. the Diabolic Dragon's Hell's Sting ability as one step worse.

Herexen's Strikes deal extra 1d6 spirt to holy creatures.

That seems like a good clarification, Kelseus. I think it was the universal monster rule that caused confusion. And thanks as always to JJ for weighing in!

Even the Bestiary itself doesn't follow the rule. Dero stalker doesn't have an agile or finesse attack, but has sneak attack (pg 84).

In the monster core there is no "Sneak Attack" universal monster ability. However are still 29 monster with the Sneak Attack ability. The language for each is nearly identical.

"Sneak Attack The [Creature]'s Strikes deal an additional XdY precision damage to off-guard targets."

The only thing that changes is the name of the creature and the dice amount, which ranges from 1d4 to 3d6, with 1d6 being the average amount.

The language quoted above appears in the Bestiary, but its not in B2 or B3 or Rage of Elements either. Looks like after the Bestiary that language was abandoned.

Did the Will-o-whip pick up any elemental traits?

YES! It has the Air trait. While Extract Elements is still a spell (all impulses are spells) I would allow it, but YMMV.

Howl of the Wild product description states that it contains "A menagerie of Golarion’s animals and beasts for GMs to unleash on players..."

What are aeons like now? Did they fully absorb inevitables?

The Arbiter, which was an Inevitable, is now an aeon.

What do the saving throws for the golem replacements look like? Is there a status bonus to saves against magic, or do they only resist damaging spells now?

No bonus to saves against magic. What they have is "Resistances physical XX (except adamantine), spells XX (except YYY)".

This is identical to the Brass Bastion from Rage of Elements.

I think the reasoning is that as mindless constructs they already have a ton of immunities, so it would be unnecessarily punishing to also give them high saves so they always succeed or better on their saves.

Have the algollthus been changed much?

Only 2 appear. The faceless stalker is identical, except for change of tounges to truespeech.

Veiled Master loses the Slim ability. They exchanges Mucus Cloud for Numbing Light (dim light, save v. stupefied). Consume Memories does mental damage now. Gain new ability Shape Flesh, rider on claw Strike. Save v. permanent clumsy or enfeebled 2 or -10 speed.

Have their sizes been altered to make them at least huge in size instead of some of them being large? That kind of always bugged me as we have official Frost Giant art of them being taller than old arctic forest pine trees.

Also have the Frost/Fire Giants been given any cold/fire based damaging abilities?

Cloud is huge, Rune gargantuan, the rest are large, same as always.

Frost/Fire giants' ranged attacks (icicle and "fire" respectively) deal cold/fire damage. Those are new. They also have fire and cold attacks that are the same as in the Bestiary.

What stands out about the Empyrean and Omen Dragons?

Empyrean- reaction to give itself resistance if hit with a crit. Breath is spirit damage, has holy trait.

Omen- reaction to give misfortune on attack roll. Attacks and breath weapon do mental damage.

Are there any animals? Dinosaurs/pterosaurs especially? (The pterosaurs from the Bestiary need a serious rework IMO)

yes, no surprises. Pteranodon is essentially unchanged, 10 fewer hp.

Imp is no longer a devil but an all purpose level 1 Fiend.

Like rats infesting cities, imps litter the

fiendish Outer Planes—Abaddon, the
Outer Rifts, and most especially Hell.

Kelseus wrote:

Just got my PDF, willing to answer questions.

What changes to the fiends and celestial lineups? Are there replacements for things like lillends, pit fiends, and solars?

Angels mostly same, Astral Deval -> Tabellia,

For Archons, they are more of a redesign than a renaming, but clearly a 1 to 1 replacement.
Lanturn -> Zoaem , Horned -> Qarna (has 4 heads facing different directions, great art), Legion -> Aesra.

Kelseus wrote:

Just got my PDF, willing to answer questions.

What changes to the fiends and celestial lineups? Are there replacements for things like lillends, pit fiends, and solars?

It seems for Demon and Devil, they are leaning into their own original creations, Gylou, Phistophilus, Sarglagon for Devils; Shemhazian, Serapsis, Omox, Brimorak for Demons.

Renamed: Dretch -> Pusk, Lemure -> Ort, Pit Fiend -> Nessari.

2 brand new Devils: Coarti- celestials enslaved by infernal contracts, Vordine - soldier devils.

No new Demons.

Kelseus wrote:

CynDuck wrote:

Kelseus wrote:

Just got my PDF, willing to answer questions.

Are there any changes to the giant lineup? I'm curious if they got hit by the OGL stuff like dragons and hags did.

Marsh, Stone, Frost, Fire, Cloud, Shadow, and Rune.

Just glancing at Frost Giant, they loose Catch Rock and Throw Rock, gain Nature Skill and Reactive Strike. Otherwise same.

Similar changes for Stone Giant. No Catch Rock and Throw Rock, but get reaction to swat away a projectile, and can create a rock and throw as a single action.

Do they have new art?

No Marsh art. Shadow Giant is new.

Kelseus wrote:

Just got my PDF, willing to answer questions.

Any creatures that seem to be the direct replacement for the Mimic? Or the Owlbear?

Not that I have seen yet, but I am still scanning through myself.

Kelseus wrote:

Just got my PDF, willing to answer questions.

Are there any changes to the giant lineup? I'm curious if they got hit by the OGL stuff like dragons and hags did.

Marsh, Stone, Frost, Fire, Cloud, Shadow, and Rune.

Just glancing at Frost Giant, they loose Catch Rock and Throw Rock, gain Nature Skill and Reactive Strike. Otherwise same.

Similar changes for Stone Giant. No Catch Rock and Throw Rock, but get reaction to swat away a projectile, and can create a rock and throw as a single action.

Just got my PDF, willing to answer questions.

It'd be super cool if I could get my copy of Monster Core in time for my Friday game.

**fingers crossed**

Can't Wait!!!

Unclear if they have stopped doing the shipping threads for each month, but I wait with bated breath for the order authorization email, whenever it may come.

Captain Morgan wrote:

E

Yeah, we'll do conversions as the time and resources and demand and interest suggests.

But those conversions are about more than just swapping out rules. Fundamental changes in how XP works between editions means that content amount needs to shift and adjust. Things that customers and fans have pointed out as errors or missed opportunities need to be fixed or seized upon. And adding a new adventure or two to a conversion helps to keep a much older product fresh and new and enticing to purchase. On top of that, most of those older 1st edition or 3.5 Adventure Paths didn't go to 20th level, and I feel very strongly that they should. 2nd edition's XP rate was designed to make it possible to do a 1st to 20th campaign in a six part Adventure Path, something that 1st edition wasn't about since it didn't make big changes from 3.5.

So when we convert 3.5 or 1st edition Adventure Paths, we have to rebuild things for that too. All of which makes for a LOT more work, and not just something we can responsibly throw onto a schedule that's already full and expect to happen without problem.

Those big conversions will need to be handled as "new products" for our schedule, as a result, and not add to the big books of the year but replace them. And... well... as fun as conversions are and as much as some folks want them, replacing a book with lots of new lore or lots of new player options that'll sell to all players with a converted Adventure Path that only a subset of GMs will by isn't something we can do often.

As someone who is trying to run Second Darkness for 2nd edition I can attest to this. Its pretty common starting in the 3rd book to need to completely scrap or redesign entire encounters to work with P2E experience rules.

My biggest problem with Golems is that Golem Anti-magic is so vague. Do weapon runes work? They're magic? Does your frost rune trigger the GA weakness? What about alchemical? What does it mean for them to be immune to spells that create an effect without a save? Is the golem immune to the hole in the ground? Can they see through all magical fog since the fog is affecting the light in the room and not the golem itself? What does "targeted by" mean? Do I have to roll to hit? Does the golem get a save to see if it crit succeeds (i.e. is unaffected?

All these issues go out the window with the Bastion. My options with a golem are either spamming my Ray of Frost to cheese the encounter or ripping my hair out because I didn't pick it. Now I actually have to use my rank 6 and 7 spells against the level 14 creature. I don't know about you but spamming cantrips isn't really why I choose high level play.

D_GENNEXT wrote:

Will PC 2 and MC have sketch cover versions as well? I really liked those on PC and GMC.

Yes. There'll be sketch covers for Monster Core, Player Core 2, and even Howl of the Wild.

I think this is something they are doing for all hardcovers moving forward as an incentive for gaming stores.

You just compared a kineticst impulse damage when save is made to a fighter who hit. That's apples to oranges. If you compare "attack succeeds" to "save fails" like you should, then both the kineticist using a big impulse and the fighter using maxed weaponry can be expected to do about 30s-something hits.

To build off this, a Brass Bastion has a high AC, but a low reflex and a terrible will save.

Your level 14 Fighter is hitting on a 6, all other martials, including the kineticist, on an 8. Your reflex save impulses have a DC of 33, means the bastion fails 50% of the time.

While the Metal kineticist will be fine and the fire kineticist was already fine, the wood, water, air, earth, and any other kineticists they may add latter are not fine. Better, but still very much not fine.

As written now, these kineticists can't do anything to a golem unless they have the right element. Golem anti-magic makes them 100% immune to all impulses, even if you are doing physical damage. At least with the Bastion setup, you can at least try to muscle through the resistance.

Brass Bastion is level 14 creature. Even in a level +4 fight, your level 10 kineticist is dealing at least 3d6+5 (average 12.5) with a ranged blast. They can do 3d8+9 (avg 22) with a two action melee blast. So you can at least do something.

And that is just with the standard blast. There are plenty of impulses can get you even higher damage. Elemental Artillery and Lightning Dash will each do 4d12 (avg 26), shard strike does 5d6 (avg 17.5), etc.

This also avoids all the weird corner cases where we have to decide if the golem can see through a darkness spell, or can walk through a wall of force, etc.

WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?

Came here to say this.

I can't find it in the store, so I'll ask directly: will this bad boy be getting a pocket edition like previous "themed" rulebooks?

Pretty much all Paizo's rules line books get a pocket addition, about 3 months after release.

This is a May release, and they only just announced their June/July releases. Since pocket Ed would come out in August, that's why you can't find it yet.

Who else took a minute to realize the dragon is Seoni?

GOOD CATCH!

Just wanted to throw this cherry on top:

Even if there is no listed heighten effect for a given spell rank, such as with the aforementioned 6th rank jump, it still might be worth heightening on occasion, as it makes such spells harder to dispel with counteract effects.

So if a spellcasting guard saw the party using magic to jump over a parameter wall, and attempted to dispel the jump spell upon the intruders, it would be much harder to dispel a 6th rank jump than a 3rd rank jump.

This might have other rank based effects too, such as a light spell's ability to overcome darkness effects, or vice versa.

In short, there's always a benefit to heightening a spell, though the amount of benefit varies widely from spell to spell and from situation to situation. (A spellcasting spy who absolutely cannot be discovered, for example, might use their highest level spell slots on disguise or stealth magic and anti-divination magic in order to benefit from higher effects and to better ensure that their wards cannot be ended prematurely in the middle of their mission.)

I hope that helps.

To piggy back off of RD's comment, if a spell has the incapacitation trait you will usually want to cast it at your highest spell slot, even if it doesn't change the effect. Incapacitation spells give the target a result on their save one higher than rolled (failure to success, success to crit, etc.) if the spell rank is less than half the target's level.

For instance, Charm has the same effect if you cast it at rank 1 or rank 10. But since it has the incapacitation trait, if you are targeting a level 10 creature, they are much more likely to avoid the effect if you cast Charm below a rank 5 slot.