Kelseus's page

Mika Hawkins wrote:

Announced for November! Product images and descriptions are not final and are subject to change. :)

Very excited for this! Especially when it comes out as the pocket edition (hopefully?)!!!

I had a general question, about purchasing products, which will ultimately apply to this when it comes out.

Options for purchasing are to order it directly through Paizo, that mega huge website that we all know about, or getting it through a local game store. Generally, will the price directly from Paizo be about the same as through a local game store?

I know that, generally, the rule books are cheaper from that huge mega website, but I would rather not support them, if possible.

GOOD NEWS! Now you can't buy it from the Megastore! (See blog from July 2).

Yes, Paizo sells on the website for MSRP so as to not undercut the FLGS. But if you subscribe here you get a free PDF too.

Very (but happily) surprised to see the auth email come through last night. Excited! Missed the shipping discount by $3. *womp-womp*

How do we get the points for following on social? I rarely use my real name places if I can help it (looking at you Facebook 2004) and my user name here is not the same as elsewhere.

Deriven Firelion wrote:

Diamond isn't making the decisions any more if they declared bankruptcy. They have some arrangement with a court as to what they can do. That's why acting like they're thieves is thinking they have a say in the matter. Once you enter bankruptcy proceedings, you are relinquishing control to a bankruptcy court and the lawyers involved.

This appears to be chapter 11 bankruptcy and it sounds like they are already purchased and still basically in operation. It seems a lot more dubious to just claim and sell all the inventory from the consignors when they are still operating and selling stuff.

Actual attorney here. Some experience with Bankruptcy, but not a bankruptcy attorney.

Deriven is correct. Once you enter bankruptcy, CH 11 or otherwise, most of the decisions are made by the Bankruptcy Trustee. This is a Court official who acts to equitably distribute the assets of the (in this case) business to all the Debtors, as guided by Bankruptcy Law. The Debtor has to get the Court's approval to do almost anything, even pay their own lawyers.

Bankruptcies are usually referred to by a "chapter." It is a reference to the section of the bankruptcy code that regulates the type of debt relief sought. The three most common types of bankruptcies are Chapters 7, 11, and 13.

Chapter 7 is liquidation. This is for both businesses and individuals. The Court takes all the assets and sells them to pay what it can of the debts owed per the bankruptcy code. The whole point is there isn't enough money to go around so everyone is going to lose some money. Generally secured creditors are first in line. Your house is put of as "security" for your mortgage. So in a Ch 7, your Mortgagor gets your house. Now that may pay the full mortgage, but sometimes it doesn't. An unsecured creditor, usually a credit card or other line of credit, is usually out of luck for in a Ch 7. They get nothing, or pennies on the Dollar.

Chapter 11 and 13 are restructuring debt. Ch 11 is for businesses and Ch 13 is for individuals. Most creditors will take a hair cut and the terms of the debt repayment may be restructured, but the idea is that at the end the business emerges from bankruptcy in a stronger position to continue as a going concern moving forward. A company took out a loan expecting X% growth, that did not materialize or the market significantly changed so they are no longer as profitable, so they can no longer make the loan payments and payroll at the same time. If we can restructure the debt or adjust it, the company is still viable.

Sometimes a company starts in Ch 11, but when we start getting into the weeds it becomes clear that the company is not viable, and the Ch 11 is converted into a Ch 7.

Diamond is in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. You can find a lot of information from Diamond themselves on the website Diamond Comics Restructuring Information. They provide a copy of all the filings in the bankruptcy. They sold several divisions to other companies, with permission from the bankruptcy court. The proceeds go to pay down the debt. Ad Populum and Universal Distribution LLC purchased some divisions for $41 Million. But that only covers the cost of the loan Diamond took out ($41 Million) from JP Morgan Chase to keep the doors open during the bankruptcy.

If you are interested you can even pull the motion filed by Diamond to sell the consignment stock HERE.

This motion feels short sighted from my perspective. If you expect to continue distribution once Ch 11 is completed, this action would seem to be lighting your company on fire. Paizo and these other companies are going to think long and hard about working with Diamond again in the future even once Ch 11 is closed. I wonder if they are in worse financial condition then they initially thought and they may be looking at converting the remaining divisions to a Ch 7. Just speculation.

Diamond only affects availability at big stores like Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

For me this system will be better. I've never had more than 3 subscriptions going at once. Also I am not interested in the PFS scenarios, so that was little incentive for me to bump up to 4 subs. Getting gold on the other hand may incentivize me to buy a product or two that I was on the fence about.

I also want to say that I really appreciate Jim Butler jumping in and answering questions in the thread. Good customer service goes a long way.

Finally, is this a way to get us to spend more money with Paizo. Of course. Paizo is a business and if they can't make money selling books they will stop writing them.

*YEAH!!!!!* (battlecry)

Also SUPER pumped for the First (of many?) Starfinder Novel!!!!

While maybe not RAW, I would allow an Air kineticist to be able to target the WoW with their Extract Elements action. It is a spell (as all impulses are) but the clear intent of Extract Elements is to allow a kineticist to target a creature that would otherwise be immune to their impulses. The assumption is that they are immune to the elemental damage of the impulse and not impulses in genera, but I would allow it as RAI.

Fighting a Dragon in a cave or their lair isn't necessarily better. In tight quarters you are going to have trouble avoiding the 30 ft cone breath weapon.

Draconic Frenzy means they can hit 3 times and still move away from opponents.

Also their version of Reactive Strike and long reach means you can't close on them or cast a spell without provoking.

Forest 100%. Big forest sections in 2 books, maybe 3 depending on GM interpretation. Urban appears in 3-4 books (again depending on GM).

I am currently running SD for my group. We are getting to the end of Thorn's End. I decided to rewrite the Dark Fate as a ritual that a person intentionally engages in instead of a spontaneous event. The ritual culminates in the target engaging in a a final profane act of devotion to a Demon Lord.

For Hialin, his final profane act is the pulling of the Maleficus Spike to allow the demons to kill the inhabitants of Thorn's End. After the fight and the Spike is restored, I expect the PCs to go to Hialin's chambers and find the ritual instructions which he took from Allevrah.

i don't really like your comparison Is that most of the impulses you bring up are weak too in my book:

That is my point, none of these are super great, but I was comparing apples to apples.

-lightning Dash Is Simply weird AF by a design standpoint.

You turn to lightning and zip through your enemies with really good damage, what is "weird"? Also by saying it's weird, you can dismiss it out of hand without engaging in a substantive argument.

-lava leap Is 4 actions worth of stuff in two: stride that ignores difficult terrain, +2 circumstance AC, decent damage which It's only gonna use to proc the weakness anyway (plus deals bludgeoning damage too, which Is the best physical type in the game). Lava leap Is honestly the best composite impulse

I agree lava leap is good, but it also has its drawbacks. It's damage is on the low end of all of these and now you are stuck next to the enemy. Also it triggers reactions, whereas lightning dash doesn't.

-blazing wave: It does d8s, there's no One in this universe that's not gonna take pure Fire impulses without the impulse junction, It's basically Needed in this case.

Plus It has a much Better area and overall It's the best damage impulse It has.

You literally just said that forking the path is always better, that means you are much less likely to get the impulse junction than a mono-element. Also this is just damage. Everything else gives you something extra and damage.

I just want to jump in and say that Tumbling Lumber is not a bad impulse.

It's 2 actions, deals ok damage (2d8+d8/3), but has a large area of effect and doesn't have overflow trait. That means you can do it every round all day long, i.e. the equivalent of a cantrip.

At level 9, electric arc does 6d4 damage (average 15) to two targets. tumbling lumber deals 3d8 (average 13.5) to up to 12 targets. Plus it can push them back or knock them prone. It also removes natural difficult terrain.

Compare to other level 4 impulses:
Blazing Wave: A 30 ft. cone and does 4d6 damage, but it has overflow. Also fire is a common resistance.
Lava Leap: movement that deals 3d6 in a 10 foot emanation, but its a composite, has overflow and puts you next to your targets. Also it gets +1d6/3 levels, worse than Tumbling Lumber.
Lightning Dash: Pretty nice, 2d12 damage +d12/3 is the best damage yet and its a line and is a movement too. still it has the overflow trait.
Rain of Rust: good range 60ft, ok area 10ft burst, 3d6+d6/2 + persistent on a fail and clumsy 1. Downsides? Water Metal composite, overflow and 3 actions.
Whiling Grindstones: 3d6 fire damage, only 30 ft. range and single target but you can sustain it. It's a composite and it's increase +2d6/5!

Compared to the other damaging level 4 impulses, TL is on the lower end of damage, but has the second best area of affect, 4 of the other 5 have overflow and two are composites.

I would like to see more composite impulses. There are only 15 total and no higher then level 6.

If I have a dual element Kineticis, I want to be able to take 1/2 of my impulses as composites.

Give me a level 12+ composite with three elements!

Truthfully, even with a single element Kineticist, I often find that there are two or three impulses per level that I want to take, not including the general Kineticist feats. The class is already really strong.

Kelseus wrote:

I feel for the Runelord anathema is to really stick to your gut reaction when you read it the first time.

When I read "manipulate minds" to me that means mental compulsions, like command, suggestion, dominate. Something that forces you to do something that you wouldn't otherwise.

That feels a bit too narrow- if somebody magically makes me feel unnatural fear, I'd definitely consider that "manipulating my mind" even if it's not a compulsion. The anathema isn't "controlling minds".

I can respect that.

I think of a Runelord's anathema differently than say a Cleric's or Champion's. A cleric that violates an anathema is violating their god's teachings, supposedly getting them upset.

For a Runelord I think of it more that the Runelord sees that type of magic as below them. They are too good to debase themselves to use low magic like manipulating minds.

I feel for the Runelord anathema is to really stick to your gut reaction when you read it the first time.

When I read "manipulate minds" to me that means mental compulsions, like command, suggestion, dominate. Something that forces you to do something that you wouldn't otherwise.

Only thing on my subscriptions is the rerelease of Gatewalkers that I don't want.

email customer service or open a support ticket with the "customer service" link at the bottom of the page.

nothing for me this month

Elfteiroh wrote:

(Also, they don't need to be the old associated color anymore. Like how horned dragons are not all green.)

Indeed. The horned dragon has one of my favorite designs among 2E dragons.

Now that rhe chromatic aren't evil by nature, I'm really curious as to how the blue dragons will turn out to be, if they ever get the same treatment as the greens.

I wouldn't expect to see blue dragons again at all. A desert dragon would be tan, brown or maybe burnt orange. And Conspirator dragons seem to fill the same manipulative, conniving, illusion loving aspect from blues.

If we get a dragon that is blue, I would expect it to be aquatic, a 180 from the desert dweller blue dragon.

Their best option is to have one dragon per plane.

One such thing is to have one dragon per elemental plane, like "expanding the Primal and Imperial Dragons from 4 or 5 to 6" :)

James Jacobs has said on several occasions that this is they type of symmetry that Paizo tries to avoid. Every plane doesn't need its own dragon and it's more interesting when they don't.

Do you all think that we are getting another of the chromatic dragons reworked? I saw somewhere else that there's a mention to a black dragon equivalent, but I can't remember the name it was given. Swamp dragon or something like that.

Would you like to see them all reworked?

Monster Core 2 is going to have a Cinder dragon. So red.

Do we know how big the softcover book is compared to the Hardcover?

Not to continue to derail this thread, but Ryangwy has it right.

Vampires are make believe creatures, they don't actually exists. They are a tool for telling a story, a metaphor or extended allegory. Twilight understands this and alters them as it sees fit to tell the story they want to tell.

Just like how Paizo has moved away from "there are 5 colors and 5 metals" to instead have the dragons e more closely linked to a specific magical tradition.

I was going to buy this anyways, cause I buy all Paizo's novels, but I LOVE the Wandering Star books.

Seconding the subscription, because that would be a no brainer.

I would expect Paizo to move away from the "there are 5 of them" theme for dragons.

Just as the evil dragons are red/white/blue/green/black, the "dragons come in groups of 5" is a D&D-ism. It is inseparable from the D&D product and its lore. It is an artificial constrain on monster design that I would expect Paizo is not interested in continuing.

I don't expect we will ever get a "here are the 5 chromatic dragons remastered." That is hueing too close to D&D.

That being said, the idea of a fire dragon or an ice dragon was not invented by TSR/WotC/Hasbro, and that is something Paizo can do and probably wants to.

The horned dragon is not really a Remasted Green, it's its own thing. I would expect the Cinder dragon to be equally distinct from the old red dragon.

My guess from the names of the 4 dragons we know, there is one per magic tradition.
Cinder - Primal
Rune - Arcane
Requiem - Divine
Despair - Occult

Although, requiem and despair could be swapped.

I am very excited for you guys. Even without a hard launch date, showing all this is lightyears past the prior "maybe someday" that we've had for the last couple years.

Edit: Wait...does MAP apply normally on the blazing streak attacks? It doesn't say it doesn't....so that would be bad.

MAP is a general rule that applies to all strikes after the first. Blazing Streak doesn't say you ignore MAP, so there is no reason to say it doesn't apply.

NorrKnekten has it right.

You are in both stances simultaneously, meaning you get all the requirements, benefits and drawbacks of both stances. If the two stance conflict, talk to your GM to see if they can be combined and how.

As an example of Stances that can't be fused: you probably can't combine Monastic Archer Stance (req: wielding a bow) and Peafowl Stance (req: wielding a sword).

Another example: Crane Stance and Mountain Stance do not have conflicting requirements (unarmord and unarmored and touching the ground), but if you use the leap or jump options from Crane Stance, you lose the stance because you are no longer touching the ground.

Is it just me or is this adventure plot somewhat similar to Second Darkness (except instead of the Drow (who aren't Pathfinder cannon anymore right?) now it's vampires correct?)?

Camazotz actually first appears in Second Darkness Book 6.

When I first read the anathema, I read it as no fire/acid/cold/electric/void damage. That is how I would run it for my players.

Mika Hawkins wrote:

Announced for April! Product images and descriptions are not final and are subject to change. :)

So, this goes from 1st-18th, interconnected (Pt. 1 is 1st-7th, Pt. 2 is 7th-18th, etc...), or starts at 1st and goes through 18th and maybe beyond? Just a little fuzzy about this from this description. Thank you!

I suggest checking out the main product thread as there is a lot of back and forth.

This is three adventures that are along the same theme, but are otherwise unconnected. The first is for PCs level 1-3. The second is for Evil PCs 7-8. The third is for PCs 18-20.

It's a matter of personal taste really. Because PF2e's slot system also boils down to your TOP 3 spell ranks, below that, with specific exceptions like Synesthesia, low-level ranks are simply ignored by most players, as they are usually not even worth the cost in actions. That's why I would like to see a variant rule.

I don't think this is true at all. While you aren't using your low level slots for damaging or incapacitate spells, the change in spells DCs make non-damage spell great even at high levels.

Bless is just as useful at level 19 as at level 1. Invisibility (R2) is still a strong option. Rank 6 Slow is great for a group, but Rank 3 is still just as effective against a single target. Rank 1 and 3 Fear is almost a must prepare for any spellcaster. Rank 2 tailwind (aka longstrider).

One of my favorite spells in the game is Goblin Pox. Rank 1 and gives sickened 1 on a success. That's arguably better than a failure, since they have to use an action to retch instead of a free save next round.

In a scenario where an enemy isn't currently a valid target for this turn (hiding around a corner or something), but it is expected that they will be available before your next turn, then spending the actions from this turn to get the benefit to be used for the entirety of next turn would be nice.

That's the thing, I can't really think of a scenario where you know the target exists (so you can use AW) but it is otherwise not a valid target. The feat does not require that you can see the target to use AW, just that you succeeded on RK previously. RAW I can use AW against a hidden or invisible target.

I just don't know what circumstances require the readying of this action, which really gets by spidey (GM) sense tingling.

I think there is an equally valid reading of "end of your turn" to be the end of the current turn. This is intentionally designed so that you can't carry over the effect into the next round. This is an attempt to cheese around that restriction.

I think that if you look at the full wording for ready, this is certainly not RAI. Ready has a sentence that states your MAP carries over to your readied Attack action. So it is clear that the designers did not want you to use Ready to avoid penalties from the current turn.

I think the more we dissect this decision by the player, the more it feels like an attempt to manipulate the rules for a benefit you couldn't normally carry over to the next round.

My question is: what is the trigger of the readied action? The PC already IDed the creature or Analyze Weakness wouldn't work. So what trigger do you set that doesn't immediately trigger? Why did he need to use two actions this turn to ready instead of using those two actions to analyze weakness and then strike? Or stride up and strike, and use analyze weakness next round? Per the wording of Ready, once you ready and set the trigger, your turn immediately ends, then the ready triggers and you can now get the benefit of Analyze Weakness on the next turn and still have all three of your actions.

Ready to me is more for something where you can't control the trigger. I ready to strike a flyer that comes into range or when the guard steps around the corner. Ready to catch my friend attempting to jump across the chasm.

ultimate Assurance is medicine. No rolling and hoping not to get a nat 1. really streamlines things.

The trigger for the Shield Block reaction is "you would take physical damage from an attack."

You would need to know if your resistance would reduce the damage to zero to know if it triggers shield block. I think it should be handles as less of an "apply resistance to the damage" and more of a "check to see if the damage would exceed your resistance."

First scenario: Opponent swings and hits, but they roll very poorly, only 4 slashing damage. That is below my 5 slashing resistance, I would take no damage so no trigger for shield block.

Second scenario: Opponent swings and hits. They roll closer to average damage 12. This exceed my slashing resistance of 5. If I use my shield block reaction, I take the shield's hardness off the damage, in this case 12. Because the total damage does not exceed the shield's hardness, neither I nor my shield lose hp.

Third scenario: Opponent swings and hits. They roll above average damage of 16. This exceed my slashing resistance of 5. If I use my shield block reaction, I take the shield's hardness (12) off the damage. The remaining 4 damage is applied to both me and the shield. The shield then loses 4 hp, but I have 5 slashing resistance, so I take no damage.

Forth scenario: Opponent swings and hits. They roll max damage of 25. This exceeds my resistance to slashing damage. If I use my shield block reaction, I take the shield's harness (12) off the damage. The remaining 13 damage is applied to both me and the shield. The shield then loses 13 hp, but I have 5 slashing resistance, so I only take 8 damage.

I think this falls under the category of a rule that doesn't work as intended.

Generally yes you can't use unarmed attacks for a feat or ability that requires a weapon, but since your favored weapon is an unarmed attack, it would be fine for your GM to allow you to treat that unarmed attack as a weapon for feats and abilities that require you to be wielding or holding your deity's favored weapon.

Talk to your GM. If they agree with the above, great! If they don't, pick a different deity.

Kelseus wrote:

Where are the Devil or Deamon APs? Where is the Velstracs or Sahkils?

...I thought any AP that even remotely involved Cheliax automatically involved Devils.

That's the thing. They are Cheliax APs, while they have Devils in them, they're not really Devil APs.

I was looking for a D&D 3.5 game to join. I messaged a person looking for players on a RPG group finder website (I don't remember the name). That group was playing Pathfinder 1. A couple of the players even had their P1 playtest books. I joined that group and I have been Pathfinder ever since.

To follow up on this, I had never heard of Pathfinder before this group. The guy I was messaging with said they played it so I googled Pathfinder ahead of my first session.

I think part of the reason Demons feel more fleshed out in Pathfinder is several of the major designers for Pathfinder find them the most interesting. (I'm looking at you James!).

Just off the top of my head there are now 3 APs that have strong Demon themes: Second Darkness, Wrath of the Righteous, and Spore War. If I remember correctly all the Runelord campaigns also have strong Demon tie-ins.

Where are the Devil or Deamon APs? Where is the Velstracs or Sahkils?

As we get more adventures that center these types of monsters, we will get a more well rounded view of them as we have for Demons.

I was looking for a D&D 3.5 game to join. I messaged a person looking for players on a RPG group finder website (I don't remember the name). That group was playing Pathfinder 1. A couple of the players even had their P1 playtest books. I joined that group and I have been Pathfinder ever since.

I like this idea. Part of the reason I subscribe to the Adventures Line but not the AP line is because I like having these as "drag and drop" adventures ready to fill story gaps in a homebrew campaign or to help as a template to learn better adventure design for a home campaign.

There was a full thread about this section in the playtest forum. I can't seem to find it today.

I suggested that the language needs significant rewrite for more clarity.

It says it "functions as a staff..." Unless it says otherwise, why would the Bonded Weapon not use all staff rules?

During your daily preparations, you prepare your bonded weapon just like you would a staff, including allowing you to add charges to it by expending spell slots. The "with charges equal to the highest rank of spells you can cast" language is just restating the general staff rule.

It doesn't have any exclusory language like "except" or "unlike" etc.

If I am 8th level and prepare only my Bonded Weapon, it has 4 charges. I can sacrifice spell slot to add charges equal to that slot rank to the Bonded Weapon, up to a maximum of 8 charges, 4 because that is my highest spell rank and 4 for the sacrificed spell rank.

Next time I am in town I buy a Greater Staff of Fire. The next day, I prepare my Bonded Weapon and merge it with the staff. So now it has 8 charges, 4 for each staff as that is the highest spell slot I can caste. I can sacrifice a spell slot to add additional charges to the staff for a maximum of 12, 4 charges from the Bonded Weapon, 4 from the staff and 4 from the sacrificed spell slot.

Makes me think of Steve Jackson Games picking up the Wanderhome dev - indie designers are valuable, all of a sudden!

Steve Jackson Games is actually references in the article.

It appears that Paizo is using its mid-level size to help out smaller independent RPG publishers break into the larger market by helping with distribution and sales of their products through the Paizo Website and Warehouse. Link below for the story (subscription only, but only $1).

Paizo and R. Talsorian court indie designers for their next projects

I think this is a great move for Paizo. It is good business and I think it will help with general good will toward the mid-sized publishers. Helping the next guy is always preferable to ladder pulling.

Thanks Paizo!

WOW. I LOVE how these look! I might have to just buy this from my FLGS instead of subscribing.