Urgathoa and Zyphus. Death is the antithesis of Adventuring. Sure, I failed the saving throw and died but I'm not letting my team down just yet! Momma didn't raise a quitter, but she did raise daddy after those kobolds got him.
What deities of undeath that are mentioned in the book?Urgathoa, Charon, Kabriri, Orcus, Zura, and Set. Only Urgathoa gets a page to herself, the others are more around one paragraph with some additional lore in the bestiary. Ahem, the Grim Harvestman sees that the writers have purposefully left him out of this print, and denied him his place among the Deities of the lost and forlorn souls who stalk the world of the living in undeath. And they will rue this slight! Rue it! Thank you for the information.
Loved: All of it. Pathfinder First Edition was my first GMing experience, and apparently my friend circle enjoyed how I presented Golarion and allowed the most options and creativity. I have an enormous collection of the PDFs and hardback copies, which I can still use even after support for 1e has ended. Wanted: As a GM, more campaign setting books, and it appears Paizo will continue releasing them in a edition-neutral format, which means I can stay up-to-date. Hated: Having to add so many layers of defenses to the higher CR monsters so they last longer than two rounds in combat. My players always felt cheated when they'd do 400+ damage in a round to the enemy Sorcerer and he actually started gurgling out his final lines before expiring. But that's the nature of high level play in this game. Will Miss: Should I play 2e in the near future, I'll probably be soured on the fact that I've wanted to play an Occultist as my next character for some time, but I can't until such a class is reintroduced to the Second Edition.
It was a very easy mistake to make then. Dhampirs, Duskwalkers, and Shabtis are all able to be Player Races, and Mortics were included in the segment. But as a subtype, one would get all the benefits of playing a Human, and a Mortic, which is understandably too powerful.
I guess I was just tired when I read it. Specifically it says, " Mortics have racial Hit Dice and never substitute such Hit Dice for class levels like some humanoids do." I'm not sure what to make of this, but it's certainly... different. What are the other monsters in the bestiary (name, type, subtypes, CR and size)? There's the Bonewrought Willow, an extraplanar plant from the Boneyard, looks like a white willow tree, only large sized and CR 3. The Kaicharek, an extraplanar magical beast. A parasite of the Mantis God. Looks like.. a bloody Wizard's Shackle with claws. CR 4. But you won't see the faith of Achaekek conjuring them. There's the Mortic, with the Jitterbone and Anghuevore variants. Low CR Humanoids with the Mortic subtype, look like ghoulish halflings and elves, as those were the base race. And finally the Tooth Fairy Monarch. A small fey that looks like an over sized Tooth Fairy with more insect parts and a crown of teeth. CR 3.
PDFs are out, to my knowledge. Lots to read and review. The Mortic race is very interesting, with the appearance of a player character race, but they can't apparently take class levels? I was confused by the wording. I suppose once everyone has their copy a discussion will clear that up.
But at the same time, their thing in print is their propensity to be observed as being deathly -silent- to observers. This has been the way I play the Daemons. They do not speak to or acknowledge their victims, and the only time my Players have heard a daemon reply, was one of the players in the role of a superior, receiving a hollow confirmation from the conjured daemon. Even the Thanadaemons, (a favorite of my Players for being the taxi of the fiendish planes) doesn't speak, as it expects the PCs to already know the rules and it's fee per living soul that steps aboard its skiff. The only daemon I've had that took on a speaking role, was an Erodaemon masquerading as a captured sibling of one of the PCs. They never caught her, and went through so much trouble to keep her safe, which was hard for me to keep a straight face during play.
I'm rather impressed with the diversity of alignments in your companions! Especially since most games just give you a bland variety of five Goody Paladin/Wizard/Clerics, one Chaotic Neutral Rogue, and a single Evil Barbarian/Antipaladin that stands in the corner and doesn't have a single reason to even be in the same room as the rest of the party but they had to add at least ONE evil companion, but inevitably is programmed to betray you if you don't talk to them, which they never encourage you to do. Sorry, it always bothers me when evil Characters are an afterthought! They might be the majority of the foes you fight, but if they're well written they have their reasons for acting the way they do, or believing what they believe. When my Character becomes King/Queen, I want to hear all of the advice/opinions, not just those who match my own corner of the chart.
I've been so excited for this book and I hope it will have examples of the kinds of environments and threats the various planes have as a property of themselves. Like the danger of a grove in Nirvana that is so pleasant and peaceful, that should a mortal decide to rest there, they could lose themselves to the bliss and end up snapping out of it 1d12 days later! Or a patch of extremely unstable space in the Maelstrom where Adventurers could become trapped in the very geography as it transforms from gasses, to liquids, to solids all within moments. Or the edge of the outer planes themselves, following in the footsteps of the former god Dou-Bral and his journey to see the limits of existence and the horror of possibly becoming a Devourer in the process! I can't wait to get my hands on this book, combining it with the Book of the Damned should be everything I need for when my party reaches 15th level.
I'm going to have to agree with Hythlo. New players ask questions so they can learn, if a player keeps asking questions about the same topic over and over again it's probably because they need their teacher to approach the answer in a different way, since not everyone learns the same way. Or in the case of one of my former players, because they simply don't care to learn the material because they don't find it worth remembering if someone will always repeat the answer.
I'm trying to kill you, not give you a tummy ache. And if I wanted to whittle down your HP, I'd just pull out my dagger and start stabbing you in the open. I'm trying to be discreet here!
So if I poison your wine bottle, and you gulp down a cup, how is it supposed to harm you? I'm curious. If poisons don't take your character's attributes into account, then all the +0 wizards will be grinning at the +3 fighters and barbarians, since poisons no longer discriminate between the healthy and the frail.
I'll support a bigger Bestiary. My biggest hurdle to move to Path 2.0 is that Golarion will be the same, but suddenly 80% of it won't be accessible because Classes, Monsters, and Organizations that existed prior to the edition change will be gone until they are reintroduced. I'm already subscribed for $50-70 to Paizo every month, a little extra won't chase me away.
If I can't easily convert/transfer the three Pathfinder 1st edition campaigns I'm running into 2nd edition, then I have no use for a second edition. There's no reason to wipe out everything that came before, especially when it sounds like the setting is treating the change as no change at all. I want to support Paizo on this, but if I have to wait another several years to play an Occultist like I could do before, I'll just keep my money instead of investing it into this new system.
Gonna weigh in here as a Pathfinder Subscriber, to well.. a lot of Pathfinder Material. Yes when I read the news, I found myself in something of a panic. I've invested well over several hundred to maybe several thousand dollars into Pathfinder Books, Pathfinder PDFs, Pathfinder Pawns, Pathfinder Cards, all of it. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a Paizo fan through and through. I started RPG's later in life with 4e. Hated it, it felt like a board game, not a roleplaying game. Friends introduced me to Pathfinder, and I couldn't get enough. Other friends tried to get me to play 5th Edition with them. I was bored to tears after the variety I found in Pathfinder... 5th edition just felt hollow and empty, and I was horrified when I felt like there were limited viable kinds of characters I could make with the classes I chose. No two bards I've made for Pathfinder were anything alike. But I couldn't make more than two bards for 5e without them feeling the exact same. I've come into my own as a GM, and now run three current campaigns, (and finished two others, we play every single week) which all take place in Golarion, and all share the same timeline, with different parties crossing each other's paths and the plots interwoven between all three campaigns that it's all rather confusing to newcomers at the table, but my table is so enthusiastic about the game, that we immediately try and immerse the new players. Again, not trying to brag, just trying to explain my investment. After an evening to breath deep, I'm not frightened of Pathfinder 2.0. But I will list the things that will make or break the new system for me. 1) I play a 1PP game. My Golarion has little to no Homebrew whatsoever, I use all my hundreds of Campaign Setting books to boost my creativity by creating a pad I can launch my ideas off of. I'm so very happy to hear that Golarion isn't going to have some sort of "TIME OF TROUBLES" or other shakeup that completely invalidates former lore. I can handle Varisia being updated to reflect all the Adventure Paths that have taken place on it, no problem, my own Varisia simply has two 17th level adventuring parties vying for control after one defeated Karzoug, and the other Ileosa. So this means, Backwards Compatibility in regards to classes and characters is of the utmost importance to me. Because I don't expect 2nd Edition to
This is only an issue for me, because if I love the playtest and 2nd Edition, I'm not going to restart my campaigns from the ground up, I'm simply going to port them over. But with a fraction of the options available, they'll have giant holes called, "INSERT PSYCHIC CHARACTER HERE WHEN AVAILABLE." I bought all the books I could get my hands on for 1st Edition because I don't have the time to build my own rules and classes.. and if I have to do that in order to play, it will frustrate me to no end, and saving my money and just playing 1st Edition will be my preference. *-*-*-* 2) Simplifying the Monsters. I understand that it's hard to remember all the neat abilities of the oodles and oodles of monsters Pathfinder has now with 6 bestiaries. Lord knows I forget them now and then, and some monsters I put on the table in front of my players die before they can even begin to show off their unique abilities... But I will be extremely disappointed if the only difference between a Kobold and a Goblin in 2nd Edition is their weapon of choice. If all monsters of the same CR have the same statline, and same general HP, and the same saves...Yes, I'm talking about Starfinder's approach to enemies. I'm not a fan at all. Some of my most beloved encounters I've created for my players involved taking something as basic as a troll, and adding templates and class levels to him to turn him into a monstrosity whose powers took the PCs completely by surprise when they expected a big dumb troll. But if Trolls can't be Wizards because the monster rules and the class rules go together like Oil and Water, I'll seriously consider dropping 2nd Edition. *-*-*-* Those are really my only two fears. Otherwise I don't feel 2nd Edition invalidates all the fun 1st edition gave me, so long as I can smoothly continue with it, and not feel like I'm starting all over.
Given that Arazni is a CR 24 if memory recalls, I sure hope she doesn't show up in any adventure for players of 9th level except as a statue or illusion. The best information on the nation of Geb comes from the Inner Sea World Guide as well as the book Mythic Realms, which describes in detail the capital of Geb, Mechitar- and has Arazni's statblock.
I'm just here to dot this thread for all the wonderful ideas. Ive got a mythic PC Archmage Wizard running around Golarion pretending to be the second-coming of Aroden and I've been looking for the kinds of combos that will remind him that he still bleeds. Avasculate, man... What a spell.
The truth. Paizo has learned to dial back on spells for the most part. Only the legacy spells of yesteryear still haunt the ever-desired "balance" of the game and they can all be found in the Core.
Another successful bestiary full of absolute monstrosities and paragons of goodness. I know it's a little early to say this, but I can't wait for the next one. Every book leaves me wanting more!
Such a well-written adventure. I even got bittersweet emotions to well up upon reading of poor Erich Zann's fate, making the best life of the worst possible situation. I'm once again in awe of the creativity and work put into these Adventure Paths, and now that I have all six books I'm eager to begin the campaign. Count Lowls has already made a memorable appearance at my table in search of lackeys for his unknown goals, so now I'm guaranteed an exciting reveal when we switch to this AP.
That's a neat idea, Simeon. Definitely has twisted tones that echo the Hades and Persephone myth. Agreed. This is exactly why it's my favorite canon romance. The metaphysical beings that represent Romantic Melancholy and Existential Grief walking hand in hand can inspire all kinds of stories, even if most of the written material focuses instead on Naderi fleeing from Shelyn. does anyone have any thoughts who Pharasma would pine for? Honestly, the Urgathoan Cleric in my campaign likened Pharasma to an ancient spinster librarian whose only love in existence is snuffing out the joys of mortals. And frankly I agree with that assessment.
What an unfortunate turn of events, seems my work here is done. This is what you all get for mocking me!
Our story is rather atypical, but it does its best to depict our foray into the world of Golarion, and Pathfinder as a whole. It starts rather bare-bones, and full of errors, but over time, we've watched it grow into a wonderful story. Golarion is a fantastic and wondrous place, and we dived in eager to immerse ourselves. We learned lessons, made mistakes, and continue forward, always eager for more. You may have seen it before, as the pictures have circulated now and then when the internet catches a glimpse. This thread is to give the lovely people of the Paizo Forums a regular thread to check for updates. The story begins in the remote region of Icemark in the Lands of The Linnorm Kings. A strange phenomenon believed to be the result of a clash between powerful spellcasters has driven out all the wildlife, forcing the native Varki to flee the land or starve. Left barren, the land is believed to be cursed and the remaining Linnorm Kings refuse to claim the land for themselves. The sole structure that breaks the horizon of the cold wastes is a mansion, standing prominently as it defies the environment's attempt to scour its magical blight away. Ulfen traders spread tales of the mansion across Avistan, claiming the building holds the wealth of a sorcerer king, or mastery over the ley lines of the world. Within a handful of years, strange and foreign powers venture to the land to battle for control of the region and its secrets.
ACT I: The Enemy Within 3) Our first venture into the Mansion, and another Hero joins the team! 6) The Mansion didn't work out, so lets play the blame game. 7) Oh yeah, the real villain is still out there. 8) We're hiring! And back to being heroic! 9) I think the GM's trying to kill us. 10) This was done without a single argument at the table! 11) Create your own Villain: Just add motivation!" 12) No you can't sell him for gold. 18) A New Adventure. (Currently being redrawn) 19) What can put fear into the dead? 21) Gothic Horror meet Cosmic Horror. 22) The mere mention of Gugs now terrifies our table. 25) Abandoned ruins are never actually abandoned. 26) It's man devouring man my dear! More to be posted as they're finished, so feel free to check in whenever! Hope you enjoy them.
Remember that at a certain power level deities are going to take note. What stops a level 20/tier 10 character from liberating Cheliax singlehandedly?Asmodeus - "Do you have a permit?" Not to worry, I have a permit.:
After reading through the adventure, I have to say, with all the little details and hidden information, this is one of the most terrifying adventures I've read in a long time! Definitely needs to be played with the lights dimmed, and at night!
As a subscriber who has read this section of the book, I was so pleasantly surprised by its thorough explanation of the spells and skills, and I would have bought the book for these alone. It also taught me I've been giving far too much information away as a GM when my players wield Divination against me.
Eh, exes, I'd say - Brigh wanted to make things, Zyphus wanted to to them explode near people.Hey, opposites attract. If things don't spontaneously break in spectacular ways for no reason, what's the fun in figuring out how to fix them? It's not like Brigh particularly cares about meatbags anyway. Nah, everyone knows Zyphus rents a bedroom at Urgathoa's house, and is crushing hard on Naderi.
Hi James! I'd appreciate your input for my longest-running campaign! In a long-coming turn of events, I have a villainous protagonist who is now seeking a relic stashed away by the in-setting Pathfinder Society in the Grand Lodge in Absalom. I have the Seekers of Secrets book in hard copy, but I believe I have read that you took issue with the book due to how it portrayed the faction. Illustrated Campaign Synopsis:
The Villainous PC is currently attempting to join the Pathfinder Society in order to gain access to it's vaults. With that out of the way, I ask this: Seeker of Secrets makes it sound like the Pathfinders will take anyone, but surely they have had previous attempts by villainous individuals to infiltrate the society and steal their artifacts? How likely are they to sniff out the Evil Cleric before he's able to make his attempt on their vaults? And on that note, since I have portrayed the Pathfinder Society as force of "Mostly Goodness" upon Golarion, what kind of difficulty should such a heist be? Should the PC expect to go up against the Golarion Justice League/Avengers or what other kind of defenses would you place in the way of stealing from the Decemvirate? At this time I'm prepared to throw the entire Iconic list at him, leveled at an appropriately difficult challenge.
Competently played Diviner Wizard. I faced one of these. At times, he felt more like a co-GM rather than a player at the table. Nothing was secret, nothing was hidden, and when I started placing the usual defenses against his spells, instead of getting upset, he got smart. The other players eventually abandoned him in his moment of triumph since they had come to the conclusion that he was actually the puppetmaster, and the Villain was just his red herring.
It really did seem that way, no matter how I go back and read it. Otherwise reasonable people suddenly demanding Iomedae be reduced to a super-humble, apologising, timid little girl, because their big-bad mythic characters entered the scene. There was only one area where I could make out a chance for a misunderstanding, that could prick the egos of the party, but I still think everyone was imagining Iomedae as their equal, not their superior. Paizo did a fine job James, and the Adventure Paths shouldn't have to be designed around appeasing the problematic mindset players at our tables. Thats the GMs job should he or she so choose.
This only proves Paizo does listen. The Agents of Evil antipaladin archetype perfectly captures some of what was asked for in this very thread. It can be any evil alignment and is selfish to the core, while maintaining the theme of the vile knight. I cant wait for this AP.
Very nice, these are going straight into my notes.
In another thread in this subforum we're posed the question which god we would worship if we were to live in Golarion. Unsurprisingly very few people answered with evil deities. That made me wonder how those gods get their worshippers-- As one of the individuals who answered that they would worship an evil god, (Zyphus specifically) I believe I can help you answer this conundrum. The answer is simple. Look at the lives we live on earth, the trials and tribulations. Look at the simple prejudices and predispositions that each and every human faces daily. The stresses of our lives, that inner source of contempt for the challenges we didnt ask for: being turned down for our dream jobs, the sudden unfair bill or collateral damage, the possibility each and every day of something going terribly wrong and flipping our worlds completely topside-down. Fear, anger, hatred, these things are infectious. Surround a person with enough of it and like a emotional disease, they will inevitably be worn down by it and accept it. The same cannot be said for hope, happiness, and tolerance. They're fleeting, or have to be trained, it's far harder to hold yourself to their standards. Because deep down, youre always going to to respond negatively first and rationalize your positive feelings afterward. Now imagine the negativity had power, real power. When you cut off that other person in traffic, someone pats the back of your mind and comforts you. "They deserved it, next time dont even feel sorry, it's not like you need their forgiveness." And each and every time you make your day better and someone else's day worse, you get a gold star. And at the end of your life, (and no, you dont get to choose the exact time, place, or feelings you'll have when it ends) if you collected enough gold stars, you get a comfortable eternity with only the knowledge that you were right. What could be better than that? Zyphus understands, he knows the game is rigged. You should choose to try and flip that rigged table, not place your chips down and gamble your life.
"There is only one god, and his name is Zyphus. And what do we say to Zyphus? Not today, I have work to do."
Keep them coming, these are fantastic and really helping me with my own creativity for designing haunts. At this point, I wonder if Paizo could get Brandon to take a look at good ole mechanical/magical Traps and improve them to be in line with their haunt cousins.
Dotting this!!!
Zyphus. There is only one god, and his name is Zyphus. And what do we say to Zyphus? "Not today. I have work to do."
My personal experience has been that it is the good characters that end up betraying the evil ones in my campaigns. This series of pictures depicts one of our campaigns. Evil characters done right can add a lot to a game, and I highly recommend playing one if you think you can pull it off. It's quite a balancing act, but think of the benefits! When that Demon casts Blasphemy you're immune!
My own circle of players are fairly mature on the subject of sexuality, just as they are mature on the immediate ending of sentient life that is a core part of the gameplay. (We're all 27+ with two parents and two former-military) Usually sexuality in our game is used to add a little extra description to a NPC or a PC as it can elicit so many different responses based upon the sum of knowledge that the table has about the character. Usually a single sentence is used when appropriate for behavior in the bedroom and has a lasting impression. Such as one PC Barbarian whose brutality in combat was considered disturbing by his adventuring cohorts managed to gain sympathy when his bedroom behavior was leaked in that he treated his partner like a fragile porcelain doll. Or another promiscuous female PC whose rampant trysts got under the skin of of one of her companions, a pious Oracle. But only after several years of adventuring together (Many many many sessions) revealed to the Oracle she was the wife of a Taldorian Noble, but fled from him when it was revealed she was barren, fearing for her life since women of her station unable to have children usually ended up "falling off of balconies." Or two pragmatically ruthless evil Clerics who marry (A Zyphen and an Urgathoan) and reserve all outward displays of emotional and spiritual weakness for the bedroom where they feel safe and alone. There's plenty of other examples, but Golarion is a diverse place, so you should be able to find just about any kind of situation or person.
When the Commoners get tired of their level 15 overlords, they group up into Gargantuan-sized swarms that do automatic damage within reach and attempt to grapple and pin the overlord. Not saying they'll succeed, but every Overlord worth her salt would do well to avoid creating these swarms.
Yes! Yes! Yes! You have won my continued loyal Subscription sir! My glorious Evangelist of Zyphus will show the world the folly of the mortal condition! And my Sentinel of Milani will lead the mob that will tear down the Infernal oppressors! |
