Hannan--known as Copper-Counter to their face, and Copperfinger behind their back--was good with money. They were very good with money. No matter how small the imbalance, how insignificant the mistake in a ledger, it was said that Hannan could pluck out the truth. Many believed it was due to their quick eye and quicker mind, but Hannan always attributed their success to a mixture of diligence and their quiet but ardent faith in the Argent Prince.
Perhaps it was that faith in Mammon that led them to make their mistake. After all, the Grasping One advocated collecting wealth and enriching oneself, didn't he? His teachings said nothing about how that wealth needed to be obtained, and what was a couple gold pieces in the grand scheme of things from beings who could buy and sell the city Hannan worked in ten times over?
As it happened, the cost for their scheme was sleepless nights, nightmares, and waking up in a sweat. What if they were caught? What if they were dragged away from their desk and remade into a more useful drudge that carried to and from the vaults as an example to the others? Eventually these worries and, yes, some guilt, gnawed away at Hannan to the point that they handed in their letter of resignation. To their shock, rather than being clapped in irons and sent to a reanimater's table, they were thanked, paid, and offered letters of reference wherever they should wish to go.
And that was when Hannan realized that the entire ordeal had been a test by their lord. The worry, the guilt, they had all been for nothing. Wealth and power did not come to those who balked or cowered. It came to those who bided their time, who watched and waited, and when the time came they took. Thankfully Hannan now had the perfect excuse to make their own fortunes out in the world, perhaps banding with other like-minded individuals who dreamed of one day being able to buy and sell cities, and who could use a quick eye and a quicker mind.
(LE Nonbinary human, possibly dhampir, investigator with the empiricism methodology, leaning more heavily into taking useful out-of-combat skills to float between being a party's knowledge base or face as necessary, and who likely fights with a stiletto pen in some capacity because I think they're cool. Also gave myself an out for picking up something like cleric or oracle dedications juuuuuuuuust in case I couldn't bring myself to totally reject casting after all.)
Doppelganger: a more roguelike take on shapeshifting that's not about becoming the biggest brutest hulk, but about basically seamlessly shifting from one humanoid shape to another, infiltration, misrepresentation, impersonation. Maybe with a dash of body horror because a lot of people freak out when fighting themselves. More of a Dex-y martial than a Strength-y one.
Some good news on this front; doppelganger is going to be one of the monstrous ancestries Roll For Combat is going to be releasing. It's totally possible that it'll come with an archetype, if not a full class, so that's neat.
My first idea is a Theurge, a class that is like the Magaambya's approach to magic: the class. They straddle the line between two traditions that share an essence and then leverage that essence the traditions have in common to do some truly wacky things with their spells. Kind of like the tradition and essence Evolution feats Sorcerers get, but ramped up to 11, and with four slots per level along with some limitations on what those various spell slots can be. I sadly can't think of any other especially unique mechanics they might have, but I'd still like to see a class along these lines as a kind of logical end-point of the new emphasis PF2E puts on traditions rather than bespoke spell lists for each casting class.
The other class I have ideas for hasn't really got a name, but I invision as a kind of martial whose abilities allow them to toss out new things to litter the field. They don't summon, but rather create hazards or objects that grant benefits to allies or weaken enemies, perhaps also playing around with auras and relying a ton on the spatial elements of the game, perhaps both literally and figuratively, having a kind of space-warpy feel to it while also relying heavily on the fact that this game is played on a grid with objects that can be moved around.
Ironically this would make it basically unplayable for me, but I've always been a fan of the kind of character who likes to literally mold the battlefield to something that suits them better.
The fun thing is they're spoiled for choice when it comes to aberration-focused books to crib from. Golarion is lousy with them. The Necronomicon is there, though I'd rather see a more uniquely Pathfinder title make the cut.
Honestly, a book about different famous books in the setting would be cool. There are so many; books and information are big cornerstones of Golarion lore. There's one that I've always wondered about called Withered Footsteps of the Dire Shpeherd which is supposed to have some connection to daemons, but I've got no idea what it is, where it is, or who the Dire Shepherd might be.
I'd also expect a bunch of nature-themed items. A return of magical plants, maybe, as well as more natural hazards. A bevy of new animal companion options, and perhaps new ways to augment and specialize animal companions as well.
While I imagine it'd be a smaller section, something dealing with ways to make stuff like survival and wilderness foraging more important and relevant in a campaign for those who want that kind of gameplay up into higher levels.
More nature-themed feats for various classes. The return of the Verdant bloodline, for example, or some more options for the Animal instinct barb. Come to think a section on polymorphing and expanded rules for things people can turn into would also not go amiss at all.
If they felt like supporting it, perhaps some spells specific to the Elementalist archetype in Secrets of Magic to make it more appealing.
I have said repeatedly that my view of the class is not “beat up members of the faith,” it’s “go hunt the enemies of your faith” - which is less fraught in Golarion when those “enemies” are things like undead, demons, and so on. You’re the wrathful left hand, not an Internal Affairs cop. Was the class ever presented as such in 1e? I don’t recall Imrijka beating up on other Pharasmins.[/quote[
Spoilering my response so that those as want to ignore it can keep talking about the main thrust of the thread.
Spoiler:
Actually, the plot of Death's Heretic, a novel starring a Pharasmin inquisitor--albeit a reluctant one--expressly has a Pharasmin priest who isn't toeing the line as the primary antagonist, though it's occluded until the end of the novel. So yeah, they very much can be internal affairs cops.
That's not what disinterests me in the idea of the class, though. I'm mostly uncomfortable with the idea that an inquisitor can somehow go against the tenets of their faith when convenient, as demonstrated in their class description.
Inquisitor wrote:
Grim and determined, the inquisitor roots out enemies of the faith, using trickery and guile when righteousness and purity is not enough. Although inquisitors are dedicated to a deity, they are above many of the normal rules and conventions of the church. They answer to their deity and their own sense of justice alone, and are willing to take extreme measures to meet their goals.
Emphasis mine. The fact that these agents are also still divinely empowered by their deity has some real uncomfortable implications, at least for me. It suggests that the edicts and anathema that gods are supposed to play by are more notional than actually important to the deity in question, and any reprehensible things inquisitors do in the services of their current goal are endorsed by that deity. This arguably fits some deities, I can easily see Milani advocating underhanded tactics when combating tyranny--though this example isn't especially compelling since "using underhanded tactics to combat tyranny" fits into Milani's default portfolio pretty neatly--but becomes a lot more problematic when dealing with other deities. The inquisitor of Iomedae from WotR comes to mind, though his name escapes me. The guy wants you to off members of a fellow goodly faith because they don't personally conform to what he thinks the war against demonkind needs, and still rocks Iomedae's power while carrying out the slaughter, or asking you to.
I get the same kinds of uncomfortable, squicky feelings considering implications like these as I do when considering that now-retracted passage about Erastil supporting "traditional--read misogynistic--family structures. If goodly deities are meant to be good, then why does a class exist expressly as an out for them to ignore the ideals that make them good when convenient? The 1E inquisitor always struck me as "loose cannon cop who doesn't play by the rules" the class, only replacing the implicit authority of the state with the tacit encouragement of a deity who, at least as Pathfinder presents them, should really know better than to play those kinds of mental gymnastics.
All that being said, get rid of that aspect of the class and turn them into something like a more offensively-minded champion and I'm fine. I'm not a big fan of divine classes as a general rule, but it's the exceptionalism and implied carte blanche to do horrible crap that I always objected to in the class rather than building a character who likes to bring the smite to baddie bad guys but also be smart about how they went about doing it.
Actually on-topic, I'll hope again for a totally martial class who focuses on coordinating allies and throwing around bonuses, like a non-empowered champion. I think that'd be a neat class space that we keep seeing hints of, the Martial archetype, lots of PF1E archetypes, etc., but hasn't ever fully become its own thing. I feel like it could also fold in the idea of the Defender/Guardian class that people are hoping for, too as a class path more focused on defensive reactions.
I'm pretty cold on a prospective of an inquisitor, but a kineticist playtest, and all the attendant planar stuff that would come along for the ride, would be amazing. It's a big ask but one of my dream product lineups would be a planar-focused book along with a plane-hopping campaign to really get a feel for all the inventive extraplanar cities and locations that don't usually get page space. I mean I know why, it's tough to showcase the Golarion setting while not on Golarion, but still.
I'm also pulling for some kind of Book of the Dead-style book for next year, but focusing on some other creature type. Aberrations would be my personal favorite, or constructs, but I could also see a fey-focused book showing up as well. I'm not as interested in the fey, just aesthetically they've never grabbed me in anything, but Pathfinder's are the most interesting ones I can remember reading about.
That and their writers have a knack for changing my mind on things viz what's personally interesting.
I noticed that too. It makes it easier to grab in the moment, downloading from these blog posts is faster than downloading from the downloads page, but it is a little bit of a headache when you're trying to find all your materials related to the AP.
On the balance I like this method better, though. It's also easier to send out to any prospective players. Throw up the link and let them download the guide themselves, rather than having to download the guide, load it to a file sharing site, and then give it out that way. I suppose having everyone make Paizo accounts to get the guide in their downloads page was also an option but it was likewise clunky.
Yeah, that arm-tearing addition shocked me the first time I'd read that. Oh, but you can save them, never mind the trauma.
It's not the trauma. People can work through trauma. It's that they're profoundly crippled in an unrecoverable way. This is all off of a CR2 monster, after all, which means that you almost certainly don't have access to regen effects or high-end prostheses. Given the situations that Musk Creepers thrive in, you're probably saving peasants, tribesmen, and woods folk - not the kind who can afford much on their own. So yeah. You saved them. They're alive and back in their right mind... and utterly incapable of pursuing their prior profession or (in most cases) making much of a living at all. Yeah. you saved them. Too bad you weren't just a *little* faster or better in how you saved them and now their life is basically ruined and they have no way to recover. Way to go, heroes.
Well the good news is we have mad prosthetic options now, although I think most are probably uncommon.
The first two are Uncommon more because of the clockwork powering them, I suspect, like how the last is Rare because of the Stacian tech integrated into its frame.
One small detail I love is that the Chalice works with negative healing, because that implement is perfect flavor for a dhampir/vampire character.
Also, assuming you can get an implement and its initiate feature by level 4 or 6 on a multiclassed character, what implements are the best for other classes? Mirror seems phenomenal on a Rogue, allowing you to set up sneak attack by yourself easily. Chalice and Amulet seem good for any front liners with a free hand, notably fighters who don't mind giving up a shield. Tome is a straight upgrade for any Raise a Tome Magus.
It makes me want to play a skeleton pirate thaumaturge and just constantly sip/drink from chalice as stuff just flows over my bones haha.
Don't forget to also have your tricorn as part of your mystical pirate's regalia. The powers they gain are from telling anyone (and I do mean ANYONE) who will listen about the legendary exploits of Captain Skullbeard.
I love the small moment of cultural exchange in this story.
Vourinoi: Sooooooooo, we suspect magic, but don't know what kind.
Rahadoumi: Oh, he's psychic. Let us teach him; we've got classrooms and acadamies and all sorts.
Vourinoi: Appreciate it, but could we just get some textbooks to take home?
Rahadoumi: Oh sure. We got you fam.
I like to imagine that, while Thaleon was quite possibly the first psychic among his people, he's far from the last one. Likewise I imagine there is some Rahadoumi youth out there who just doesn't get the strict rules of the local psychic tutors, but understands the more freeform approach to education the elves have. It's heartwarming to see helpful cultural exchanges like that.
I'm having difficulty coming up with a character who isn't a caster for this AP. I like casters, but all the characters I have played so far have been casters and I feel like I should try a martial.
Also, apparently the site ate my edit, but I also mentioned that I love how Common is a different language in this AP. That's a cool touch I haven't seen before, though I assume it's in Strength of Thousands as well.
Yeah. It seems reasonable that draconic options will expand with future products. Assuming all the PF1E true dragon types are ported over we still have more to see make their way into the game in the form of Esoteric, Outer, and Planar dragons. I wouldn't be at all surprised if more options came out to reflect that.
And I also can't think of a balancing point between the Draconic and Wyrmblessed bloodlines that would preclude the Wyrmblessed's options from being retroactively applied to the Draconic bloodline.
I didn't want to say too much before since we're in the rules forum, but if you're the GM, and your gut is telling you that everything should be fine, and your player is on board with having this neat slightly tweaked thing then I say go to. I can't think of any stumbling blocks you really need to worry about. The thing to look out for most would be the damage type and resistance, and Mental isn't the most worrisome damage type on the list.
I'm super excited for this AP now. I was a little torn before, a pro-undead adventure sounds like something I'd love, but I've gotten seriously burnt out on horror-themed games and wanted a change.
The intrigue focus in this AP, rather than a strictly horror focus, sounds like it's exactly the middle ground I didn't even know I was looking for until I read it.
The only input I can offer is that, no, I don't think you would change the tradition of the bloodline. Gold and silver dragons are already divine casters, but nevertheless offer arcane spells with their bloodline.
Beastkin needs one of those level 1 feats that grants you an unarmed attack, I feel.
No need to: the Change Shape ability grants you a natural attack.
The issue is that you don't choose which natural attack you get. You cannot select a claw, slam, horn, sting or tail attack instead of a bite, let alone picking the damage type.
I'm sorry, but if I'm shifting into a Brontosaurus, Stegoraurus or Ankylosaurus (all 3 eligible with Dinosaur Form), I'd like to be able to whip, skewer or hammer with my tail :P
Yeah, and feats are better at granting that level of variety than the heritage itself is, which was why I suggested it. A feat would also allow the damage die for a natural attack to be higher than a d4, which IMO would be weird to see on something like a brontosaur's tail. Similar feats for ancestries like Fleshwarp offer a range of effects to pick from, and if the model is already there then why not use it?
That seems pretty in line to me, too. Being Quickened also places limits on what that action can be used for, so it's not a one-to-one refutation of the curse's effects in any case, even after considering they are expending some resource to do so.
Divine Access is going to feel fairly manditory on that kind of character though, more so than it already feels with a fair number of oracles, which is a bit of a shame. At least Haste is an easy spell to find.
I read "elf pilgrim" in the posts and now all I can think of is an elf in old-timey clothes fighting with a flintlock and a big axe or sword. Likely a gunslinger for the easier synergy.
As far as I can tell your GM was correct. The spell is cast beforehand, which is where its manipulate and concentrate actions come into play. After that it's just delayed until it goes off. I'm not sure why the actions would need to happen again in that case, and like people pointed out, Contingency does allow for spells to trigger when the character themself is otherwise incapable of acting. The required reaction is there primarily as a balancing factor, because otherwise Contingency would effectively grant someone two reactions whenever its used, which is a potent ability that not many classes gain access to.
I was also going to point out that the reaction is abalancing factor against triggering multiple contingencies at once, each playing off the previous' activation, but those kinds of spells can only be used one at a time so eh.
I hope we get more items that form sets. It was something touted a lot during the playtest, illustrated by the Boots and Cloak of Elvenkind, but we haven't really seen any afterwards.
I like the idea of items synergizing and empowering each other, and I've always enjoyed a character who dresses to a theme.
Funnily enough the very thing that's being discussed happened to me with GURPS. It was evangelized at me so hard and so often that it's completely killed any possible interest I have in picking up the system.
Well, that and the fact that one of the evangels kept bragging about how there were five books in GURPS dealing with grappling rules. I still have flashbacks of dealing with the flowchart; I don't need that madness in my life.
I keep on trying to find a way to incorporate the dark archive into the thaumaturge by making a skeleton thaumaturge but nothing is firing up the ol' neurons. Seems like there should be an idea there, right?
The skeleton is actually a composite, composed of the bones from a small community that was destroyed in one of the Whispering Tyrant's attacks, whose collective psychic presence pulled the bones together into one body. Now it uses the few keepsakes left over from the town's destruction as its implements, relying on its own latent psychic resonance to invest them with power.
And if you want a more militaristic bent you can swap out the notion of a small town with that of a military company, the skeleton being piloted by the ghosts of the squad.
I, for one, am glad that the color scheme of the robe of the archmagi has been updated.
Same. I'm also going to propose the alteration happened during our adventures, because my LN summoner was rather looking forward to wearing some professional-looking gray robes once they got to high enough level, but their blue dragon eidolon thinks gray is boring, blue is cool, the summoner is allergic to fun, and they should totally have a matching color scheme.
Yeah I'm glad Scare to Death isn't as auto-picky as it used to be while still being useful.
I'm also fine with nimble companions not having as much of a lead over other types as they used. I kind of wish it'd been achieved by buffing savage companions, but it is what it is.
Though I wonder how this will impact indomitable companions.
They have made some major clarifications and changes.
Battle forms are now limited in their strikes not attacks. So wild shaped Druid gorillas can now shove and grapple. Something I have been complaining about since the start, and everyone did anyway. So thankyou.
Resolving the animal companion AC by errata to lower the AC of Nimble Animal Companions is not what I would have done. I think that has really stuffed them up. I expect a lot of complaints on this.
Leshy Rogues can now sneak attack with their seedpods
I'm anticipating some grumbling as well viz animal companions. I'm also expecting some grumbling over Scare to Death; people don't like when stuff gets nerfed.
I'm also slightly confused on how clerics and druids are going to be doing their casting now. Can they just pick their spells from anywhere or are they still limited to the CRB, or wha?
Oh neat. I didn't even know we'd gotten a new batch. Thanks for the heads-up.
I'm kind of bummed that Flanking only works with melee attacks now. I thought it was kind of cool to flank as a caster and smack with spell attacks.
Also, not to be that guy, but... they missed one.
The Wand of Slaying has the Illusion trait rather than Necromancy while containing a Necromancy spell.
Also, I like that little flavor change for Robes of the Archmagi. I appreciate little touches like that being added in among other mechanical errata.
Actually, mummies in general have those kinds of auras, and span a range of levels, so they may all be useful.
In general, you want to think of a bonus or penalty being twice its stated value because it both increases the chance of the thing happening, and increases the chance of that thing being critical in some way.
I don't think I want to make it exactly like the mummy guardian, since it's caused by sadness rather than fear. Would drained or stupified be better?
Stupefied might capture the feel you're going for in that case. Don't forget to include how long it's meant to last if you go the Stupefied route since IIRC those conditions don't leave on their own. I'd recommend that it happen as long as they are in the aura, and limit it to Stupefied 1.
Oh, and also keep an eye on what kind of penalty it offers. Penalties come from the same sources as bonuses, Circumstance, Item, and Status, and they don't stack. It's important to remember in case you try to Frighten a character who has been Stupefied, for example. The effects don't stack, since they are both status penalties.
Actually, mummies in general have those kinds of auras, and span a range of levels, so they may all be useful.
In general, you want to think of a bonus or penalty being twice its stated value because it both increases the chance of the thing happening, and increases the chance of that thing being critical in some way.
The idea of book cover art you don't like being "the beginning of the end" for a company is very funny. The blocking for the fight in the background is rather stiff and awkward, but generally I don't show the book covers to my players anyway (maybe at the end of the book) so I don't particularly care. I'm more worried that the halfling doesn't look particularly evil, and I personally hope that the party is working for someone evil / at least the vast majority of Blood Lords are.
But evil comes in all forms, and the quality of the actual maps, NPC illustrations, etc. matters most to me!
Wait... wearing human body parts as accessories isn't considered evil for you?
... o_o
:P
They might be ethically sourced! When in Rome, y'know? ;)
Geb's new Surprise Donor Program is ethical as heck. 5/5 Blood Lords agree it's their most progressive and forward-thinking policy implemented in the last two centuries!
You may also want to get rid of the aura. A -4 is huuuuuuuuuuuuge, especially for a relatively lower-level monster. That's all but guaranteeing that the party are all going to be slowed and crit fail their saves against its abilities, not to mention that the penalty is untyped, so it stacks with all other penalties, like the status penalty from being Frightened.
I'd recommend changing Slowing Claws. Slowed is a dangerous condition, particularly if this threat is higher level than the party fighting it, and slowing for a minute on a failure is really powerful. As a comparison, the Cornugon, a.k.a, Horned Devil, only slows on a critical success with a strike, and that creature is level 16 where PCs have more options for working around losing a third of a turn.
Perhaps forcing the save on a critical success, as per the horned devil, or requiring the technique require multiple actions to perform and only slowing for a round would be more in line with the power level of level 10.
I'm not sure what role the monster is meant to play, but I'm getting the vibe of something that is supposed to tie up the party while other creatures do the damage. Its attacks don't do a whole lot of damage, and its only damaging option is Cone of Cold. If that's what you're going for then awesome. Otherwise I'd consider what other tricks it could potentially do aside from prolonging the fight and debuffing enemies, since most of what it seems to do is take actions and options away, which can be frustrating to deal with.
Playing an uncharismatic Summoner sort of counts? Placing those extra points into physical stats means the Summoner is more likely to survive mixing it up in combat alongside their eidolon, and they have the same avenue as other casters by picking spells without DCs. Fun if you want to fight with a giant battle-beast or plant-monster.
List of a bunch of random ideas/ wants I've had rattling in my head:
** spoiler omitted **...
Since you mentioned Starfinder in your spoiler I don't feel it's too off-topic to point out that a few of those ideas exist in SF already. Not saying they wouldn't be cool in PF2E, just that if you play both games and you're itching to be some of those things they already exist. (I'd post some of them now but it be late and Perp requires sleep.)
That is an odd cover. If the current image is the cover, the skull on the staff blocks a lot of the main picture. Also, she's all happy to be there, ya know...blood lords...zombie feast. Huge disconnect.
Isn't she meant to be a Blood Lord? Things are probably pretty great if you're a Blood Lord in the Blood Lords AP.
Carrion Crown works because it's also very accommodating to different kinds of characters. All the party needs for their initial meetup is to have known the professor whose funeral they're attending, and care enough to help out his daughter after the fact. Past that the monster of the week-style plots will pull the party along nicely.
I also like to plug that adventure path because its second volume, Trial of the Beast, might be my favorite adventure path, period.
I don't remember who originally suggested it, but someone suggested a beetle-like or scarab-like ancestry and I've been quietly jonesing for one of those ever since.
Yeah, and as such I think it was one of the more daring choices Paizo made in terms of AP material. Most of their adventures, especially in 1E, dealt with a genre, cosmic horror, gothic horror, wilderness survival, savage superscience, etc, or leaned heavily into a mechanical theme like hexploration or the subsystem de jour, but still didn't stray far from the framework of "there is a thing, you should fight the thing."
Then War for the Crown shows up and all bets are off, or so the public perception seemed to be. There was a sense that, rather than being an adventure with talky bits, it was primarily a talky political story with adventure bits thrown in. If the group liked that kind of adventure, then great! If not, it could easily turn potential groups from digging deeper into the meat of the adventure to learn more.
I will say that what little I've heard about the adventure has been more slanted to the positive, at least.
By RAW? No, a player can't create a hazard. The closest you can get is crafting snares and poisons which I suppose you could rig up like hazards, but hazards haven't got associated costs or crafting DCs, so there isn't really a way to make one as a player without heading into homebrew territory.
Carrion Crown and Strange Aeons both lend themselves to roleplay, I'd say. They both have long stretches that are more about investigation and inquiry than straight-up combat. Of the pair I believe CC has more, and the characters are less constrained by the adventure suggesting what sort of adventurers they should be.
I think Ruins of Azlant has some good roleplay bits in it as well, though I might be just expanding the few that I remember across the adventure because they were really good. I'd hope that War for the Crown would have lots of opportunities for roleplay, considering it's meant to be the political intrigue AP.
