Malefictus's page

When Paizo moved away from the Chromatic/Metallic dragons, I had originally assumed they would bring back all of my favorite dragons from 1e, the Planar Dragons - as they are DEEPLY tied to Pathfinder's setting (I can't complain about what we DID get however, as I LOVE the new dragons - especially the Conspirator Dragon) and we DID get 2 updated versions of my favorite dragon set... but what I REALLY hope to see in this book is some of the others! I REALLY want to see what they will do with the Abaddon, Abyss, and the Maelstrom Dragons specifically!!

Re: Aroden's death

IIRC, Aroden wasn't a "god of prophecy" (that was Pharasma's gig), just a god of humans that was supposed to fill various prophecies about the "Last Azlanti."...

Have you read the lore? here are a few direct quotes "Prophecy is a prediction or the disclosure of information that is not known to the prophet by any ordinary means. While limited forms of divination work with varying degrees of reliability, all previously reliable and accurate means and sources of prophecy have failed since the death of Aroden on the date of his prophesied return to Golarion in 4606. The death of prophecy is the defining event of the Age of Lost Omens."

or this line in Aroden's bio "Not only did the god not appear, but the very power of prophecy, which had defined Aroden's life and spurred his personal accomplishments and ambitions, stopped functioning, ushering in the Age of Lost Omens."

or you could even look at his area's of concern "Humanity, Innovation, History, Culture, Fulfilment of destiny" its one of his core powers.

or even the entry on Pharasma herself "The death of Aroden, the first of the ascended deities, was not prophesied, and once he died at the end of the Age of Enthronement, most other prophecies in the world also went awry, leading to the current and so-called Age of Lost Omens. Many of Pharasma's priests have lost their faith or have gone mad as a result, but those who remain find that Pharasma's hold over prophecy is becoming less important, while her domains over death, birth, fate, and time are growing stronger." Pharasma literally lost her ability to see the future clearly, and even though she was one of the oldest gods in existence who had that power LONG before Aroden even existed.

My point being, that Prophecy was Aroden's whole schtick! He was also the god of humanity, sure, but de did so through Prophecy. Prophecy died with him, and I think he did that on purpose.

All of that is also why we're never going to reveal how Aroden died. That story element's power is IN the secrecy, and there's no way to reveal what happened without disappointing too many folks, even though I personally DO have in mind a story for how he died that maps logically to everything we've published. Because we have to know what the secret is to tell stories adjacent to it, even if we never intend to reveal it.

My headcannon is that is was Iomedae at the request of Aroden. As the God of Prophecy, what was seen was more or less set in stone... and every culture has looming apocalypse's hanging over their head, as well as ne'er-do-well's who's goals are inimical to life, such as The Whispering Tyrant, Mhar's 'birth', Daemon invasion (any of the horsemen), Zon-Kuthon, and perhaps worst of all, Rovagug, the Outer Gods, and Groetus (just to name a few examples). But by Aroden asking his *then* Herald to kill him and take his place, Iomedae would break prophecy, and then nothing is set in stone anymore. This doesn't mean there is any guarantee of success in averting these calamities, but it DOES mean there is now hope that didn't exist before. The Gods and even mortals can finally grasp their future in their own hands and make changes to what was supposed to happen. Fate becomes the preview of those who's will is the strongest. This would all be things that Aroden would have been aware of as a God of Prophecy, and he would 1000% do something like this for the sake of humanity's future in my opinion!

I think it'd be interesting to let players who had Gorum as their god 'feel' his death, but the rare few follower's are still able to cast the same spells and use their Gorum-specific abilities, but something about it feels slightly different to them... which they eventually learn is due to some other Deity(s) trying to claim Gorum's followers, so the follower might be drawing their power from something darker (like Szuriel) or perhaps from someone like Iomedae. But by doing it this way, with someone else just taking up the rein's as their new patron (with or without the consent of the follower) it would allow the player a valid in-game reason to keep feats or abilities uniquely tied to Gorum AND have interesting story implications if they don't know WHERE their spell casting is coming from anymore!

I know I'm late to this discussion, but I was looking up ways to swallow whole for a build I was making... which luckily works out SUPER well with Tyrant Totem! I am making an Adaro Flesheater Barbarian named Bruce...he claims to be vegan, and has changed from his evil past... but anytime combat has started, the second he see's blood, his moto of "People are friends, not food" is forgotten and he turns into a psychotic shark-man trying to shove everything and everyone down his throat! At least until after combat where he becomes melancholy and promises to change and never do that again! hahaha it'll be a fun throwback to a great movie...

But anyways, the reason I was commenting was because I noticed no one mentioned an Archetype called Gingerbread Witch from 'Horror Adventures'... it gets things like the Child Scent Hex, the ability to make a Gingerbread familiar, she can make candy in her cauldron, and then at 12th level gets a bite attack with the grab ability as well as swallow whole (so long as it targets a creature at least 1 size category smaller then you)... so if it is paired with enlarge person it works out pretty well for medium sized creatures... although it is an archetype thematically tied in with eating children, so it would probably not work out very well in 99% of gaming groups, except as the antagonist of a story or something! But it IS an option that gives swallow whole if thats all you're after

I assume the Beast is a Qlippoth, similar to how Rovagug is a Qlippoth... The Qlippoth that are known are just the entities from the surface most portions of the lower Abyss... but in an infinite plane, the deeper you go, the more powerful and twisted things get! Rovagug was a God from the deeper portions that left the abyss for whatever reason... whos to say that there aren't things MUCH worse down there!

VerBeeker wrote:

Evan Tarlton wrote:

Wintergreen wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Evan Tarlton wrote:

Super excited for all of this! Also very intrigued by Zon-Shelyn, especially in the context of what we learned in the Pathfinder side of things.

I'm almost afraid to ask; what did we learn on the Pathfinder side of things, exactly?

I was wondering the same thing.

There's going to be a Drift Crisis syle event involving a divine war. One of the Core 20 is going to die.

WHAT?!

Excuse you?! The hell you mean?!

Where was this?!

GenCon Keynote presentation.

I think some lore from 1e is also worth mentioning... When Dou-Bral first returned to the system as Zon-Kuthon, despite his new horrifying condition and despite having already ripped their fathers skin off and turning him into a monster, Shelyn tried to hug Zon-Kuthon because she loved him and was just glad he was still alive. He attacked her and raked his claws across her face and then they fought a LONG brutal fight. Shelyn realized that the Glaive he held was emanating some evil corrupting power, so she wrestled it away from him, and then he just stopped fighting and left (to this day she has not put it down for fear that he will get it again and it will continue corrupting him - hence her favored weapon changing from dagger to glaive). After this there was that whole thing where Zon-Kuthon willingly agreed to be imprisoned in exchange for an item from Abadar's vault (choosing the First Shadow).

After he was freed, Shelyn frequently would go and sit with her brother and talk to him (never getting a word back)... but she was the only one he would allow to sit with him like that. She tried for a very long time to mend his mind, but no progress was ever made. Worth mentioning though, the Glaive that she never put down was always radiating an evil corrupting energy the made her feel sick...

with all this said, I think what happened was after holding it for SOOOOOOO long, it finally began to change her (or weaken her). and maybe she gave up, and gave back the Glaive to him, or maybe he was just biding his time and when she was weakened enough, he attacked... but once he had it back, it drove him to consume her.

Holy s&%&... way to get me excited!! I hope they expand on some of the stuff from 1e with the Kaiju dwelling in the Valashmai Jungle! That is one place I have wanted to explore in a campaign ever since Mythic Realms in 1e!

Oooo and I hope Igroon, the Dragon Eater has some more lore added! Thats my favorite Kaiju!

So... the new class is Ben10?

Its sad that I couldn't make it this year... hopefully next year I can go IRL!! This looks like Heaven for a nerd like me!

Wow, I already love Xhokan!! I am SOOOO putting him in when I start running this campaign (hopefully within the next few weeks)!

So its like the Summoner's Eidolon in 1e, but you choose upgrades to add to yourself at each level? Sounds kinda cool!

Is this possibly about the Kaiju Igroon, the Dragon Eater? There is practically no info on this kaiju from 1e... although the fact that it mentioned petrified remains of whatever this creature is makes it unlikely to be this Kaiju... unless it died a while back and these are instructions to revive it! haha a freshly revived kaiju rampaging across the Impossible Lands would be an amazing event to try to stop in an AP though!!

Malefictus wrote:

A male Changeling!?!? Is this a common thing now for changelings in 2e, or is this just some unique situation!?

PF2 APG, p.30 wrote:

Changelings can be any gender, but women in particular are vulnerable to the Call, a psychic influence that urges them to abandon their mortal life, join the hag's coven, and eventually become a hag. Changelings who understand their heritage often fear the Call and work to resist its pull. Those who remain ignorant of their origin may find themselves subject to a terrible compulsion without knowing why.

PF2 Bestiary p.62 wrote:

The fact that the Call disproportionately targets female changelings has led to a widespread misunderstanding that all changelings are female, while in fact male changelings are simply assumed to be members of their paternal ancestry.

So, both happen, but males often don't "realize" they are a changeling because they don't always hear the call as often or as loudly as female ones.

So that quote you posted is from 2e here is the 1e quote from the ARG (p.184) "Changelings are the offspring of hags and their lovers taken through magic or madness. Dropped off on doorsteps of prospective foster parents, changelings are raised by strangers. Typically tall, slender, dark haired, and attractive, changelings otherwise resemble their fathers’ race. They are always female, and their mismatched colored eyes and abnormally pale skin hint at their true heritage."

so it IS new for 2e, and honestly a welcome change! I've wanted to play a changeling for a long time, but personally don't get much satisfaction with playing female characters... the last time I played one in 1e I had my backstory that I was affected by a Girdle of Opposite Gender at some point in my past which is why I was a male changeling! lmao Although I was still an evil character born from an Ash Hag in an amazing playthrough of Hell's Vengeance! Hellknight Signifier in the Order of the Pyre is surprisingly fitting for a LE pyromaniac Cleric!

A male Changeling!?!? Is this a common thing now for changelings in 2e, or is this just some unique situation!?

I hope Paizo excelerates the timetables on the Bestiary's... going from 6 to 1 is going to suck, but most of the content can be updated pretty seamlessly, i'd think... plus there's all those other cute little cuddly critters in the AP's to draw from... but so long as we can get up to at least 3 Bestiary's within the first year and a half, I'll be cool with it.

I just hope 2E puts out another Core book shortly after this big release that introduces more of the classes I love into the new system.

Occult Classes

EVERY ONE GETS ITS OWN CLASS.

Sorry, that was my bias showing. I love these things and I want to see them all in full glory, updated and refined.

YES!!!!! I think they will all do nicely in the new system, but I'm super excited for the Kineticist, it's versatility make it one of the biggest stapples in my games. I can't wait to see what 2E will (hopefully) do with it!

I would really like to see some of the places i've been drooling over for YEARS, like Geb, Brevoy, and Razmiran in 2E... But, i'd also kinda like a rehash of some of the older Campaign Settings that cost a boatload to get now, like Absalom, Katapesh, and The River Kingdoms... I mean they can just copy/ paste most of the info into a new Campaign Setting, and just update it a bit based on the current date...

If they're doing less frequent hardbound books instead of Campaign Settings, does that mean the '10 geographical regions' will each get a book?

My biggest concern is that 2E will do what Starfinder has been doing, hardbound books half the size of their pathfinder equivalents, but for the same price! I want the full size hardbound books, ESPECIALLY if there will be less books droping per year!