Themes, personal preference, and individual module quality/execution are ultimately the biggest factor in whether I like an AP, but those aren't really what you're looking for, so I'll go through a list of things I've though hurt/helped APs overall in a closer-to-objective manner (though there will be people who disagree with these things and they aren't wholly-objective).
* Make sure your first module is strong. A strong first module can do a lot to help build up a path. It isn't everything, but most of the best paths (Curse of the Crimson Throne, Kingmaker, Iron Gods, Hell's Rebels) lead with a strong intro.
* Introduce or foreshadow the AP's villain early, but avoid direct encounters between them and the PCs until the end. Not introducing the villain early leads to a 'where did this guy come from' scenario and reduces overall path cohesion. Putting them directly next to the PCs too soon results in the PCs trying to fight them too soon. Carrion Crown, as written, suffers from not introducing the villain early enough. Adding the content the authors put on the board about introducing him earlier really helps things.
* Figure out your path's themes. Dial in on them tightly. Building on that: keep your setting within established bounds. Is your AP urban? Keep it urban unless you telegraph a departure from that well in advance. Is it planar? Make it planar from an early point. Don't suddenly make changes to the setting or themes compared to what's been happening for several parts. It *can* work (and I really like Skeletons of Scarwall and Sound of a Thousand Screams), but that requires particularly strong adventures to pull off; doing it is a big gamble.
* Is your AP set somewhere unusual? Are you in fantasy-Asia? Are you in a city at the center of the planes? Let the PCs be from there. Don't force the PCs to bring in outsiders to solve an area's problems if there's a valid population of locals. I'm not saying to mandate local PCs either, just to allow them.
* Are you giving the PCs extra power boosts? Make sure the villains' power accounts for this, or you end up with a cakewalk. I'm looking at Wrath of the Righteous here; this was one of its major problems (though some groups liked the feeling of power).
* Letting the PCs late in the path have some encounters with enemies they vastly outclass helps give them a sense of power and progression and enhances an AP. Having a whole module where the PCs outclass the opposition makes for an unfun experience bereft of general challenge.
* Include well-fleshed-out backgrounds for the three-or-so most notable NPCs in each part of the AP so that the GM has a wellspring of info to pull from, whether these are allies or enemies. The Pathfinder AP made a very good choice adding the section of stats/bios for the key NPCs at the end of the module.
* Make NPCs that are supposed to be allies to the PCs actually helpful, but don't overshadow the PC team with them. PCs (generally) will balk at working for NPCs once they pass a certain disagreeability threshold, and they (generally) won't want to be stuck following someone who outclasses them around.
* If your AP offers PCs the chance to join up with different factions, include content for all of those factions throughout the AP; don't just abandon the majority of them a module or two later. Serpent's Skull kind of drops the ball here.
* If you have a specific moment that the AP centers around, particularly if it's the PCs' initial goal/motivation, make that part the best module you possibly can. Serpent's Skull had finding and exploring the lost city at the center of the PCs motivation be the weakest module of the path, and the whole thing suffered a lot for it (despite having a very good opening module).
* Don't include abstracted mechanical subsystems that make PCs less effective than they would be in standard mechanics. Don't make fiddly subsystems a focus for part, but not all, of an AP, forcing groups to learn them and then abandon them later. The caravan rules would be an example of what not to do here.
* If you have a thematic or mechanical goal, state it in an AP's intro. There's audiences out there for APs that do weird things or break standard conventions, but it needs to be part of the initial buy-in. Want to make an AP with low-treasure and high difficulty? You can, but you need to say so. Your audience may be lower as a result, but catering to a niche audience can be a successful strategy sometimes.
* If you say in an early module that you're going to include details on something in a later module, make sure you actually include them in the later module. There will be people who specifically end up wanting whatever the thing was who will be upset if you forget to include it later like you said you would.
* Make sure the adventures are meaty enough. Shorter adventures make for weaker paths, generally. Make sure you include enough details on the places they're taking place in that they feel like they're in a setting with character as opposed to generic-no-serial-numbers-fantasy-land.
* Is there going to be something in a later adventure that certain character types just won't work well with? Announce it at the start of the AP. It's fine if Paladins / evil PCs / Druids / members of Faction-X don't work as PCs, but you need to be upfront about it so that people don't get surprise-stung halfway in.
* For published APs: Are you including a new monster? Include a picture for it. Is someone a major NPC? Include a picture for them. Is the whole AP in a particular town? Add a picture of it (and a map too). Stuff without art has less of an impact (particularly weird new monsters), and good art (and cartography) is pretty much required to get past a certain AP-module-quality threshold.
* Give the PCs direction and reason to move to the next module. PCs left adrift in a non-sandbox will end up in the wrong places at the wrong times. Don't railroad, but make sure there's a hook from each module directly into the next (and that there isn't a hook leading from module 1 straight to module 5 that overshadows the hook to module 2).
* Don't have the villains auto-beating the PCs in a cut-scene unless it's part of the upfront module buy-in (and even then, be careful). Don't give the villains powers in cut-scenes that they don't have in their stats. Do feel free to give the villains cool additional narrative powers as formally-statted things, though.
One of the Obedience Feats is here, but I don't see the deity/demigod-specific boon lists; those may not be on there due to the individual deities being product identity (or they may be in a different section that I missed).
One resource that might be more useful for the Commoner-party than a normal group would be Occult Rituals. They'd give you a way to cast magic without having any actual casting classes; you'd still have to make sure you had enough skill ranks in the right skills to cast them, and they don't have the speed advantage of normal casting, but it's a well of magic for you to draw on.
Divine/Fiendish boon feats would be an alternate way to get everyone a few magic tricks that they could pull / special abilities they could use.
Would anyone like to share any info on the Sakhil Tormentors?
They are mainly based out of Xibalba, which is a Silent-Hill-like realm of terrors built from nightmare-matter. It exists in the Ethereal Plane at the point where it is metaphysically closest to the Plane of Shadow. Its above-ground realms are varied and unsettling, and the caverns are vaster and even worse.
Some of them initially appear friendly (Dachzerul, Ozranvial), whereas others are fairly monstrous (scaling up towards Ziquiripat, who is disgusting and overtly omnicidal). Shawnari is almost imperceptible, even to demigods, and is (while still Evil and fear-based) working against the other Sakhil Tormentors subtly.
Wow, so Folca is finally getting full worshiper stats and an illustration? Paizo is really pulling the trigger on this one huh?
So what does he look like? Cause my headcanon is he looks like Slenderman. How close am I?
He, like the other Harbingers and rest of the 'other fiends' groups, is getting a lean version of the worshiper stats that includes an obedience, three spell-boons that it grants, and info-paragraph as opposed to the larger boon-blocks and two-page spreads the more-major beings get.
Folca appearance:
You're pretty close. Slenderman is a good base-idea for what he looks like. Replace the classy suit with slightly grimy, worn leathers, give him pointed, black nails, and give him a bloody, lumpy sack. His face, like Slenderman's, is featureless, but you can see tiny children's hands pressing on it from the inside, like they're trying to get out. He's carrying a bright, red candy-cane that really pops from the rest of the picture and draws the eye.
How much use would you say this book is for gameplay at levels 1-5?
Not a ton is specifically aimed at those.
The various Petitioners, the Nucol Sahikl, and the Deinochos Qlippoth are fightable at those levels. The Bushyasta Div, Sepsidaemon, and Najikai Oni would be usable at the upper end of the range. A few of the magic items could be used in that range too.
Beyond that, there's a paragraph or two of info on each of the existing Devil/Daemon/Demon types, as well as info on what their preferred sacrifices are.
The obediences and demigod info-blurbs could be mined for ideas on how cults would operate.
I'd say that the meat of the product starts kicking in around Level 7, which is when the Obediences start kicking in and the prestige classes enter play.
Lord Gadigan can you describe Ardad Lili and Socothbenoth please?
Ardad Lili:
Ardad Lili is a black woman with gray-brown eyes wearing a long, green dress with fluffy white trim (the trim-type you'd see on a Santa outfit, for lack of a better comparison) and fingerless gloves in the same style as the dress; she is barefoot. She has wings made of serpent tails that look somewhat like tentacles. She is holding a stiletto and touching its point. She is smiling in a wry, dangerous manner.
Socothbenoth:
Socothbenoth looks like a bishonen elf man with black eyes and long, brown hair. He has a white robe-coat with cream-gold trim that he's holding open, showing his unbuttoned shirt (which is silky-looking and has a cream-gold grain-design on a rich red color) and white pants (with cream-gold belt and red cut-in lines on the sides of the legs); his shoes are gray. He is wearing a moderate amount of jewelry, with multiple earrings, rings, and metal balls implanted under the skin of his bare chest. He has three white snakes wrapped around his feet and lower legs.
Samy wrote:
Are there any overland maps, encounter tables, sample dungeons or the like that a DM could use to put together an adventure?
There's a section on the Book of the Damned's interior that may qualify as part of what you're looking for. It has stats for some stuff in there.
By and large, though, no. This is more of a monster/villain resource than a direct adventure base.
Who are the minor fiendish demigods that got illustrations? Did any of the Qlippoth Lords get new arts?
Asura Rana - None
Daemon Harbinger - Folca, Vorasha
Div Lord - Ahriman has a two-page spread (His art has appeared before.)
Infernal Duke - Ruzel
Kyton Demagogue - Sugroz
Malebranche - Alichino, There's an unidentified sketch-style picture on another Malebranche page that I think might be Rubicante
Nascent Demon Lord - Treerazer (Appears twice, I *think* that the first one might be a new picture, but am not sure.)
Oni Daimyo - Inma
Qlippoth Lord - Yamasoth (Has two pieces of art, both of which appeared before.)
Queen of the Night/Whore Queen - All four appear and get two-page spreads (The Eiseth art has appeared before. Mathathallah's art I'm unsure on.)
Rakshasa Immortal - Ravana
Sakhil Tormentor - Zipacna
Tabris also gets a new, high-detail piece of art as the opener for the appendix. Not entirely sure where to categorize him.
My favorite of the bunch is Sugroz (though Folca and Alichino are also quite well-done). Her piece is one of the better new ones in the book, and she manages to look both appropriately creepy and ethereally serene.
Description of Sugroz:
A giant, kite-like skinned face hanging by chains between two hooked pillars that form the upper part of a pyre-assembly that skeletons are bound to the bottom of. A black emptiness is visible in her mouth and eyes, one of which weeps blood. I would call her expression almost happy; the skeletons chained to the pyre base are screaming, though.
I'm quite pleased with the Kyton info overall and am having trouble conclusively picking a favorite Demagogue. The Oitos also got really good art.
Check your Device Manager for yellow ! symbols for device conflicts. If something (even something you're not actively using, like a thumbprint scanner), has somehow started conflicting with the keyboard, that might be the issue.
Meanwhile, Oaur-Ooung has figured out a way to turn mortals directly into Qlippoth (completely missing all of their former memories) and *is* working to shore up the qlippoth numbers.
The Kikituk looks like a whale skeleton bound with lots of twine-like sinew, with arms (complete with big bone-webbed claw-hands) and legs affixed to it and scrimshaw carvings on its body. It gives a looming, lurching, almost crocodilian vibe.
It can jump around with dimension door, turn invisible, enervate, bite (with double STR bonus), trample, and cast spells inscribed into it at-will. The inscribed spells can be taken out using Erase, and taking them all out causes it to enter berserk-mode and lose some unholy protection that it normally has. It is CR 13 and costs 145,000 Gold.
Cipactli - Gargantuan Magical Beast - CR 21
Deathsnatcher - Medium Monstrous Humanoid - CR 18
Empyreal Lord, Arshea - Medium Outsider (Angel, Extraplanar, Good) - CR 29
Fen Mauler - Large Monstrous Humanoid - CR 10
Great Old One, Rhan-Tegoth - Large Aberration (Aquatic, Chaotic, Evil, Great Old One) - CR 28
Psychopomp, Esobok - Medium Outsider (Extraplanar, Psychopomp) - CR 3
Solifugid, Duneshaker - Colossal Vermin - CR 18
Solifugid, Razormouth - Huge Vermin - CR 11
Thessalhydra - Gargantuan Aberration - CR 18
I think the Deathsnatcher is probably the most-likely polymorph target here, with 50' flight, fire/cold resistance, scent, a bite, four claws, and a sting with a DC 28 poison on it that does CON Drain. Depending on how your GM rules things, I could see it possibly also giving darkvision, negative energy resistance, and rend (as it has things that are really close to those, but not exactly them).
Having gotten the chance to do my initial look-throughs, here are my favorites from this bestiary:
1. Blights - The new ooze group is a home-run on my end. They're a cool new creature group that lets a traditionally-underused creature type have some time in the spotlight.
2. Mountain Giant - This thing is freaky in an excellent way. I heartily approve of the sneaky, slasher-ish giant that other giants fear as legend.
3. Archdevils - I like getting stats for assorted demigods, and the archdevils are one of my favorite groups. The little touches like Barbatos not being a Devil help seal the deal on them.
4. Oblivion - This thing is a powerful, ominous negative-plane-based creature (which I've been looking for more of), and it's an ooze to boot.
5. Quintessence Golem - My favorite of the new golems, both in art and thematics.
6. Whisperer - A strong fae that comes with creepy thematics and gives a being-type to create environments that are eerie and alien, but not aberrant and against-nature.
7. Mosslord - I like that we're getting some options for dangerous plant villains. This one is my favorite of the set.
8. Sakhil - We've got another strong, creepy showing from the Sakhil.
9. Viridium Golem - Another cool new golem, with the toxic theme being an interesting space for the construct.
10. Entothropes - It's good to finally have an official were-vermin.
Runners up, in no particular order:
The new Kaiju, The Olethros Psychopomp, the Green Man, the Horsemen, the Qlippoth and Qlippoth Lords, and the Yaddithian.
I also put forth a general statement of support for the addition of prehistoric creatures and sea creatures, even if they aren't the most individually exciting bestiary entries. The slow build of them over time is creating a strong base of animals to pull from. Ditto for the slow conversion-over of all the 3.5 stuff that hasn't previously been updated to the PFRPG yet, like the Cutlass Spider.
I'm happy to see the Transformation Sequence popping up as a Vigilante Social Talent. That really opens up some options for less-pet-focused Magical-Child-type characters.
I'll lead off with saying that I'd rather see another Gazeteer a bit more than than Distant Shores II. Distant Shores was a book I enjoyed, but I'd like to see continents and nations get detailed in the broad scale before zooming in on more cities. Having said that, I'd still enjoy Distant Shores II and would likely be jazzed by whatever world-snapshots show up in it.
I want to see something on Casmaron. My mind goes first to Kelesh since it's the huge empire that hasn't been shown in detail. Ular Kel was pretty awesome, though (and ended up being the surprise favorite of Distant Shores for me). In light of that, I think I'll put out a blanket 'somewhere new on Casmaron' request instead of a specific one.
I want to see something on Tian Xia. The nation I'm most interested in is Shenmen, but the city of note that I can think of there is the spider witches' capital, and it seems weird having Tian Xia represented by evil-capitals twice in a row. The city I'm most interested in over there is Goka, but Goka is massive like Absalom and would need an entire book to do it justice. That moves things over to Nagajor. I think it'd be cool to get a city from there. I'll add that to my list. (Minata would also be cool, but I'm sticking with Nagajor as my actual pick).
I want to see something on Arcadia. I want to go somewhere other than Degasi's trade coalition. Three Craters sounds cool, but I'm going with a place in Razatlan since 'Hispanic / Latin American nation' is one of the three main nation-types that seem to be missing for PC backgrounds in things I've run and seen run (the other two being 'British Isles' (with knights being somewhat filled by Taldor, but no obvious analogue for Irish/Scottish-background PCs) and 'Steampunk nation' (which would be kinda wonky on the surface of Golarion and might do better in a truly massive Darklands vault or something).
I want to see something from an active/rising nation in the ruins of Azlant. Azlant was huge, and I'm figuring there's *something* going on there besides ruins, aboleths, and independent island-places like the Sun Temple Colony. Maybe we could fit some British-Isle-equivalent in here amidst the waves and ruins?
I want to see something from Southern Garund. Droon is tempting, but I feel like it'd be weird having it in the same book as Nagajor (if Nagajor happens), so I'm going with a city in Nurvatchta instead. Spiders are fun!
That hits all the unmapped continents except Sarusan (which I feel abnormally fine leaving a mystery for now compared to other parts of the world since that's kind of its 'theme'; I'll likely want to know more eventually, though), and it leaves one pick. I considered Vudra, but I think there's something else I'd rather see. I'm going to go with Visheksrad. I'd like to see more of the Crown of the World, I'd like to see another dwarf culture, and Visheksrad is the largest city I can find up there on the Crown. The more I think of putting it in there, the more I like the idea.
So, formatted, ordered into a preference list, and pared down for quicker reading:
1) A city in Casmaron that we haven't heard much of
2) A city in Nagajor
3) A city in Razatlan
4) Visheksrad
5) A city from Azlant (alternatively a city from *wherever* that's British Isles themed)
6) A city from Nurvatchta
The obedience is to meditate, either on nothingness or on the lines of The King in Yellow, either in a richly-furnished area (value scaling to character level, with character clothes counting towards the value requirement) or in the presence of a Yellow Sign.
Bonuses across the three sets of boons include:
* Perform bonus
* Various emotion/mind-affecting spells, various charismatic/disguising spells, various death/curse spells
* Control confused creatures
* Create a Yellow Sign 1/day
* Self-disguise with an unsettling, fear-based, init-increasing return-to-true-form
* Charisma-to-AC when in fine clothing but not armor
* Confusion/insanity immunity except against Hastur and greater servants of him
* Death/petrification immunity with inbuilt 1/day effect-reflection
The Attic Whisperer with the outfit made of the child's drawings managed to get a 'd'aww' from me and is quite well done. Kudos to whoever made that creepy thing so cute.
Interesting idea. I'd consider potentially putting them in part 3 instead. It takes place in the dreamlands, and there's already an alt-Lowls created from a splinter of his psyche gone-Yellow-King. It also involves the being Lowls traded the PCs minds to and the PCs hunting for their memories (and would probably be a place in the AP that'd jive more with the PCs levels before they lost their memories, as opposed to the end, which'd be for much higher-level people).
PC Background Spoilers Responding to Captain Battletoad:
It doesn't specify so far as I see. Lowls was researching relevant topics for 'months', so I'd probably pick a few months as a reasonably safe bet that material in the adventures could likely be adjusted to match if it turns out to be different in part 2.
=================================================
Thomas Seitz wrote:
Gad,
Where exactly does Briarthorn reside?
Briarstone is on an island in Versex County (with the island in question being named Briarstone Isle).
"The PCs awake in a cell beneath Briarstone Asylum with no memory of how they got there or who they are."
"each PC realizes that he also doesn't recognize anyone in the room, including the other PCs. Even if the characters have interwoven backgrounds or intimate connections, they have no memory of those experiences or relationships."
The preview blurbs for future adventures in the path indicate that they'll be experiencing stuff related to their past in module 2 and will be working to get back their lost memories as the goal of module 3.
Major PC Background Spoilers:
The PCs were agents of Count Lowls. He sacrificed their minds in a bargain with a being called the Mad Poet in exchange for forbidden lore and then pawned their memory-free bodies off as a gift to one of his allies.
The PCs used to be terrible people, but the mind-wipe combined with Dreamlands-related effects give them the chance to sculpt themselves into new, better people (who still have to deal with the fallout of what they did before, particularly during Part 2, where they go to a town where they were acting as Lowls's agents).
Page 63 has him as CN. Page 68 has him as CE. That's where I picked up the Evil from. I think I just assumed 'Evil' as a domain as a result of that while quickly looking things over. It looks like he has Chaos, Destruction, Earth, and Fire as his domains, which means the CN is probably right, and the Evil domain is probably wrong.
Is there any art for the other Old Ones/Elder Gods? If so then who/what?
Mythos Deity Art:
Ithaqua looks like a gaunt, pale-blue-skinned giant wearing hides and bones, pushing a tree aside with one of its long-clawed hands as it stalks through a frozen woodland. Its eyes glow bright red, and its entire lower face is a big, toothy mouth.
Art also appears for:
* Cthulhu (in an article header)
* Abhoth
* Azathoth
* Chaugnar Faugn
* Hastur
* Mhar
* Nhimbaloth
* Nyarlathotep (as the Black Pharaoh)
* Rhan-Tegoth
* Xhamen-Dor
* Yig
* Ithaqua gets a second art piece fighting the Iconic Psychic and Cavalier
I'm heading off for the night, but my general first impression of the adventure is quite positive. I'm probably not going to read the full thing until I get my hard copy (particularly since I'm still finishing Hell's Vengeance and my reread of Council of Thieves), but it seems like a strong start to the AP with the right mix of creepy and weird for its overall atmosphere.
Mortal-turned-Outsider thanks to being cursed with a tiny planar-breach within their body. They breathe forth magical mist that flows through the breach as their body slowly fails thanks to the strain.
I'll try to answer more questions after I get back from dinner if someone else hasn't fielded them by then.
With some of my old picks having been covered or looking to be covered soon, here are my current top preferences:
* Something that takes place entirely in Tian Xia (Shenmen is my preferred location, but I'd be happy with all sorts of places, Goka, Minata, and Nagajor being other notable favorites)
* Something that takes place over on Casmaron (Vudra being included in this as an option I'd be pleased with)
* A planar AP (based in Galisemni, perhaps?)
* Another kingdom-building AP set somewhere other than the River Kingdoms; alternatively a war-and-conquest AP that expands some existing nation with kingdom-building and the like being involved in that (the tribal Kingmaker mentioned upthread also sounds potentially interesting)
* An urban crime-empire AP, set in Vyre (alternatively Goka or Daggermark), where the whole AP is set up like the first couple books of Second Darkness with no veer-off away from the mob/crime themes. (Alternatively, something where the PCs are explicitly law enforcement personnel working to stop some major crime syndicate / clean up a city, with the syndicate being more threatening than the Council and the PCs being explicitly on the side of the law instead of quasi-not-quite-rebels.)
* Something focused on the Jistka Imperium and its ruins
* Something relating to Kytons (Nidal would be cool, but I'd almost rather see something over in Numeria)
* Something with a Darklands focus (Orv in particular)
* Nex/Geb/Mana Wastes
* Something over in Arcadia or Southern Garund, though I tilt away from a 'travel there from the Inner Sea' AP
Great Old One, Ithaqua (CR 28)
Gremlin, Drexin (CR 2)
Indescribable Swarm, Pallid Wiggler Swarm (CR 2)
Indescribable Swarm, Patchwork Insect Swarm (CR 1/2)
Indescribable Swarm, Swimming Eye Swarm (CR 4)
Oneirogen (CR 2, variants attached to various planes)
Great Old Ones and Outer Gods:
Abhoth, Source of Uncleanliness (Outer God)
Atlach-Nacha, The Void Weaver (Great Old One)
Azathoth, The Daemon Sultan (Outer God)
Bokrug, The Water Lizard (Great Old One)
Chaugnar Faugn, The Horror From The Hills (Great Old One)
Cthulhu, The Dreamer In The Deep (Great Old One)
Ghatanothoa, The Eternal Source (Great Old One)
Hastur, The King In Yellow (Great Old One)
Ithaqua, The Wind-Walker (Great Old One)
Mhar, The World Thunder (Great Old One)
Mordiggian, The Charnel God (Great Old One)
Nhimbaloth, The Empty Death (Outer Goddess)
Nyarlathotep, The Crawling Chaos (Outer God)
Orgesh, The Faceless God (Great Old One)
Rhan-Tegoth, Herald Of The End Times (Great Old One)
Shub-Niggurath, Black Goat Of The Woods (Outer Goddess)
Tsathoggua, Father Of Night (Great Old One)
Xhamen-Dor, The Inmost Blot (Great Old One)
Yig, Father Of Serpents (Great Old One)
Yog-Sothoth, The Key And The Gate (Outer God)
They don't describe it in this book, but there's an illustration of the lictor in Scourge of the Godclaw. His helm has a winged serpent motif, and there's a pattern of serpent scales throughout the entire armor.
can anyone give some information on the Order of the Glyph ?
Order of the Glyph:
They're a small order created secretly by House Thrune and unsanctioned by the Council of Lictors. They are responsible for maintaining backup copies of all of the historical lore House Thrune redacts and destroys so that House Thrune has a hidden reference copy of the true material available for its own use. They have Geryon as their patron, and are based in the Archive of Redacted Histories, though they have a few other, smaller library-bases hidden in major Chelish cities.
Hell's Vengeance:
The order makes a major appearance in Part 5 of Hell's Vengeance. Majestrix Abrogail II determines that the material in the Archive of Redacted Histories his outlived its potential usefulness and serves as a greater potential liability (for example, if someone like the Glorious Reclamation captured it) than insurance asset, and she orders the PCs to destroy it in a formalized sacrifice of history to empower an artifact superweapon they're building. The Order of the Glyph takes its oaths to Abrogail I and Geryon seriously, and it defends the archive. You get a full writeup of their main library-citadel, a statblock for their standard members, a statblock for their lictor, Maritas Clandegar, and a sidebar that gives them a new Discipline that lets them each maintain a Glyph of Warding.
* Picks an area, gains bonuses to Intimidate, Knowledge: Local, Sense Motive, and all law-related skill checks while in that area. The area expands as the judge gains levels, and they get to pick other areas. Replaces Tactician line.
* Gains a 1/day ability to hit a target with a sentencing that applies an Inquisitor judgment. Replaces challenge.
There's also the Order of the Ennead Star, which focuses on enforcing the law and fighting chaos.
* Revelation options include a boon from each of the Godclaw deities.
* There's a boon in there that makes *every* one of your damage-dealing spells that includes a save auto-inflict shaken for a number of rounds equal to spell level upon failed save.
* There's a revelation in there that gives you Divine Obedience as a bonus feat, but lets you swap out some of the additional boons for other Godclaw deities' base obediences if you so desire.
* One of the revelation gives you heavy armor proficiency and lets you teleport armor on/off as an immediate action.
* The capstone is a mixed bag of mini-powers, several detects at-will, armor-penalty-removal, max DEX bonus increase, 1/day crushing hand.
* Gives heavy armor proficiency.
* Makes identity switch dependent upon donning/removing a particular helmet and armor, the items selected can be changed once per month.
* Improves the vigilante's ability to don/wear plate armor, removes speed and skill penalties.
* Gains a third, 'fictional' identity that can be within one alignment step of the social or vigilante ID (allowing for it to be an opposed alignment to one of the two); this identity is designed for infiltrating organizations and can be changed each month (provided it changes to infiltrating a different group). It gains powers that make it harder to ID and let it better-infiltrate the chosen group.
* Improves intimidate and demoralization.
* Loses several talent picks.
I like what it brings to the table as options, particularly the new ID-switch method and the can-be-changed-over-time infiltration-ID that allows a two-steps-away alignment.
This book contains what I think is one of the shortest but most-effective side-notes illustrating how differently the planes can act compared to the prime material.
One of the symbols of the Order of the Gate is Xiv. It comes from Axiomite mathematics and approximately is used for denoting equations that have solutions on planes of absolute law, but not on the Material Plane.
I tallied up results to create a general list of which classes are in the lead.
Notes about how this was put together:
* I gave each first-place 3 points, each second 2, and each third 1.
* I didn't include ties on a list.
* If someone voted the same class into multiple spots on their list, I included it at its highest spot but not the others.
* I didn't include honorable mentions or picks past the top three.
* I only included Paizo classes.
* If someone picked an archetype, I grouped it under the base class it belongs to.
* I folded the Unchained and Alternate classes in with their base versions since not everyone would specify which version they intended on their list.
* Ties on my list are sorted alphabetically.
Aboleths say that, but I don't believe it's been confirmed. The aboleths are responsible for raising the Azlanti civilization up from barbarism, but I don't believe it's been shown that they are telling the truth about creating humans.
I like the look of this. It'll provide the sci-fi / sword-and-planet stuff I've wanted to see in Golarion's system while keeping the other lines open for filling in Golarion itself. I'm quite pleased that it's staying compatible with PF too.
I'd say it's the Manasaputras. They're generally-humanoid in shape even if they do have extra limbs and faces, and the greatest of them come from a prior iteration of the multiverse, reincarnating into this one after the last one ended. This isn't the most helpful answer as to where the form first came from, since we don't know much at all about prior iterations of the multiverse, but I think they still qualify as the general answer.
I'm agreeing with the Captain on that party art. The AP as a whole has had mixed art success, but that piece is a gem. The villain iconics look sharp in it.
I'd suggest going with Varisia for this. It's got ancient wizard-tyrants returning from an age-old slumber, tribes of goblins, giants, and other humanoids, city states rather than a major centralized government, lots of wilderness terrain ranging from frozen mountains to deep forests to blasted wastelands of ash and cinder, and ruins aplenty.
Taldor also could be pretty good if you wanted more of a knights-and-empires thing going on, but Varisia is my knee-jerk reaction here.
Have only glanced through it, but my initial impressions of this are positive. Things I noticed:
* The Summoner archetype applies to both Chained and Unchained Summoners. I'm pleased to see them both getting support instead of just the Unchained one.
* Libraries! Nifty!
* Lots of schools. It's good seeing that system expanded with new options.
* Building upgrades! Line your walls to block divination (or all magic)!
* Anaphexia fit with Vigilante well.
* Gadgeteer-styled alchemist! Glad to have one of those. Might be a bit of a money-sink if the item-tinkering gets used too much, but it's good to at least have the fast-crafting versatility, limited and costly though it may be.
Edit:
Galt:
Just noticed that Galt's leader is a Mesmerist. That has interesting implications.
Avernus Razorback - Hell boar that can devour both body and soul, has delicious-yet-addictive meat.
Xiuh Couatl - Psychic couatl wreathed in lightning and radiant fire.
Lapsudaemon - Daemon of death-by-falling, looks like a large ball of body parts and faces, rolls about with deadly momentum, knocks things out of the sky, controls wind, and is generally more in-your-face than subtle.
Ixion Worm - A creature from the gears of Phlegethon, formed from the souls of those who betrayed their kin, taking the form of a cyclopean face stretched wide across one wide of a wheel of metal and bone. Their eyes have hypnotic properties and they are favored by Belial.
I have only just briefly looked things over so far, but I was pleased with what I noticed in the soul pact with Abrogail:
Soul Pact:
She's using a soul-escrow trick to prevent souls from going directly to Asmodeus, so divine-focused characters with non-Asmodeus patrons don't lose abilities from the pact and don't have resurrection issues. The PCs also get their souls back if they successfully complete the overall mission of defeating the Glorious Reclamation and only have to forfeit them if they lose or betray the cause.
Gyronna -> Spend half an hour making someone else's life worse, let them know you're involved, and make a demand of them before doing so to avoid your hostile actions (it can be an unreasonable demand/price, though). Gives an Intimidate bonus.
Gyronna's Herald is one of her daughters; Gyronna devoured her at one point (along with six other daughters), she burst forth from one of Gyronna's boils in a hideous form, and she is capable of twisting the forms of others (particular unborn children) into horrid shapes. Following her transformation, she became the only individual Gyronna loves.
(Added, related info: The other six daughters also did the boil-burst thing, but they became night hags who could hide their ugliness with magic. She crushed her next seven daughters, who Pharasma took mercy upon and turned into psychopomps. Her daughters after that she cast down into mortal form as changelings, though several of those, through wickedness, were accepted back by Gyronna and turned into hag progenitors.)
Am I missing something on the Metamorph? I like what I've seen of the book in general, and shapeshifting-alchemist is something I've wanted, but I feel like it's giving up *way* too much for rather-limited shapeshifting.
Upgrade to Improved Familiar, re-choose form a couple times when new Improved Familiar options open
Change Shape into four different forms
DR/Magic equal to Magical Child's level
Replaceable body for easier resurrection
Startling Appearance / Frightening Appearance / Stunning Appearance, using either its CHA mod or the Magical Child's
Vengeance Strike
