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As someone who has been a subscriber for quite some time and who has quite a bit of content already purchased (including the new pawns) I am really hopeful that you can link the assets I already have to the new VTT.
I received 2 packages for this order - which is fine. The first one containing 5 items was correct as listed on the packing slip. The second one, containing 2 items was incorrect. The flip-mat was correct.
. . . you will get more done :) I gave one of my players a list with information on it. He passed it on to another player because the other player's character was more suited to managing the conversation. As they are talking, I ask exactly how the information was shared... as in, was all of the information ont he list was shared... The PC says, "Nah, I edited out the stuff that wasn't important." I say "Carry on..."
If you never ask, you never receive: Mantle of Gainful Glamer
There are three versions of the mantle, increasing in potency, allowing more powerful spells to be affected. Construction
300 is a lot of words... And if you are writing a term paper - quality over quantity (as in, more quality, less quantity). I did just spend a good 30 minutes fretting over a couple of commas mind you... and I still am not sure I got it right. I make no promises of proper grammar in a post mind you.
I too hate the Holy Trinity system... I like options - there should be no 'perfect' setup for every instance (such as 2 DPS, 2 Tanks, 1 Healer, 1 other) This has always been one of those things that drove me nuts about several MMORPGs that I have played - if you weren't ideal, you just couldn't find a group that would play with you. I would love to see the games play tested with a variety of combinations - i.e. all fighters, all rogues, all clerics, all wizards etc. and various mixes. It should be possible to be successful with each method, though a different experience depending on how it is played.
There is nothing wrong with skill decay in theory - I think what people are debating is the implementations. The way I understood it to work as initially discussed would be more along the lines of you have to constantly use the skills you want to be good in - but time not logged in wouldn't count against that. It just means that you can't maintain every skill in the game at the highest level - you only maintain what you actually use. So, if you decide to stop sword fighting and instead start being a blacksmith, your sword fighting skill would degrade as your blacksmithing went up. It would make it a lot more fun for the casual player to be able to always be a good sword fighter when s/he logged in as opposed to only the person who devotes 20 hours a week to the game and maxes out every skill. I think the point of skill decay is actually to give the casual player a chance to compete in some areas.
All I ever wanted was a RAW way for a rogue to exit from hiding, approach a target that failed its perception check and get in a sneak attack. The way the skill has been re-written seems to accomplish that. I'm happy. Meh. Unless a creature has 'all around' vision I don't think it should get an auto-I-detect-you. I know there is no facing but it doesn't mean we have to treat everything as always being aware of everything in LOS. Heck, you can scan a crowd of people from five feet away and still not see your wife standing there looking pissed at you...
It's arcane only, you have to pick the dragon bloodline, speak draconic etc. Depending on stats, take a look at monk levels... this allows you to really max multiple boosts (sometimes be MAD can be a negative... sometimes is can be a positive...). You can get rid of INT, and on point buy hitting 13-14 isn't terrible. If you start your STR at 16+racial (Human) and then spread the love, you should be in a pretty good spot. You will find when you get up a bit your AC bonuses will be stacking quite high. Base 10, +2 Dex, +2 Wis, +4 mage armor, +4 shield, +1-3 nat, +1 monk, and that is without any deflection, feat, other nat armor, morale etc. bonuses to AC. Then you can stack on Cat's Grace and Owl's Wisdom for another +2 each. You won't be doing as much damage as the barbarian version, but you certainly won't be getting hit as much... It becomes a style question. Play the character he wants and flavour the additional levels to suit his style and still remain relevant.
Ok, this one has a one-liner in it... Another anecdote to amuse me... Our party was travelling through the woods tracking a bunch of goblins. Thrilling, I know. As usual, we had been drinking our adult beverages while we played, because gaming isn't gaming without it. There was plenty of the usual amusement to go around, and our PC's were generally being very successful. Our ranger, our glorious ranger, was doing some of the best tracking of his life. He rolled nothing less than 15 on the die, and was managing some incredible tracking scores. Since he was rolling so well, the DM was providing an abundance of information. This was not enough for our ranger though - he wanted more. He finally rolled a nat 20 and was asking every detail imaginable. The rest of us, having been playing for a while, but sitting and drinking for a lot of it since he started his sherlock-holmes-in-the-forest routine, were growing a bit rambunctious. Ranger "Do I find any tracks?"
To this day, he can't ask that question without someone laughing...
I know, not exactly one liners... This little anecdote is about how sometimes the DM is too good of a story teller... Our brave band of merry folk, having defeated several challenges that faced us, were feeling quite good about ourselves. We had defeated a couple of sub-bosses and uncovered some of the larger plot (at least we thought we had) and were on our way on the next leg of our adventure. We were merely travelling from point A to point B at this time, with nothing planned by us in between. The next part of our quest awaited us in a defined place (at least to our characters) and we were promptly heading there by the most direct route - which happened to be a main road between two towns. We started feeling ill about something in the environment, but even in our alerted state, we could detect nothing. We travelled on several more hours and were getting near dark. This is when most groups of adventures would pull of the road at a safe place and make camp. So we started to look for a good place. We noticed a road heading north into a small valley, and with the sun setting decided this might be a good place. Except when we reached the road, our eerie feellings intensified and we looked up the road to see... mist. Our nature savvy ranger decided that a good roll would be able to tell us whether this mist was a natural occurrence based on the prevailing wether conditions or something else. He rolled rather well and it was determined that this could not possibly be "normal" mist. It was getting dark. Our options were limited. But there might be xp down that misty trail... Or there might also be something more sisnister than xp - the things you have to defeat to earn it. We had defeated everything thrown at us. We weren't on a serious in-game time crunch. This should be a piece of cake. A no-brainer decision. And we definitely fit that description. It was clear from the description that our DM had given us that this was some serious mist. So we ran away. From mist. And the DM took a pile of papers from behind his screen and promptly threw them over his shoulder. Most PC's at least look at what is out there before making the decision to cut and run... heck, some of them even get into the fights that are over their heads. We need no such lessons - we clearly know when we are outmatched...
We had been campaigning for a few years by this point and were middling level, just really starting to fight demons. We were working in a city on the border of Tethyr and Amn called Riatavin, trying to restore some order to the area as the city was in a struggle after ceding to Tethyr from Amn. One of our compatriots, a half-elven ranger who I will not name to protect his identity... had broken off during a patrol looking for an assassin as I recall and encountered several minor demons. He fought off and chased a group of the little ones and was pursuing them when he encountered some of the noble city guard. Since we were all sworn special constables of the city, he enlisted the two human guards to head down into the sewers with him to finish fighting these demons. The trusting human guards immediately followed him into the dark and scary sewers to battle unknown demons, so bold and brave were they. Since they were both armed with swords and shields, our archer ranger held the torch so that they could see in the dark, lonely, scary sewers. As humans, their eyes were not as good in the darkness as the bold half-elf's. So off they go traipsing through the fetid darkness, whence they encounter a somewhat larger and scarier demon. The brave and loyal and trusting human guards immediately engage the foul creature, counting on the support of the brave hero of the city. The brave hero who shoots the demon to no effect with his rather normal arrows. The brave hero who realizes that he can not readily harm the demon. The brave and good-aligned hero who sees another demon approaching from the other direction. The brave hero who takes the torch and flees up out of the sewer... leaving the two brave and trusting and loyal human guards to be swallowed by the absolute darkness of the sewer that would quickly be their bloddy grave. To this day, I still won't let him carry the torch.
Did anyone look into how long it takes to a create a 'masterwork' sword in the real world? I get that this is fantasy, but so many questions are framed in comparison to how it is in 'the real world' that I think we sometimes forget this is a game. A real master sword-smith would only make about 4 blades a year... 6 weeks seems like a good deal to me... We also often think of things only from a PC perspective - how many master blacksmiths exist in Golarion? Someone did the math a while ago about the number of population of X level and it comes as no surprise that there are not a lot of high level folk out there. And how many of them are smiths instead of scholars or adventurers? Based on that, I would imagine there would even be a waiting list for MW swords to be used by wizards to create magic items from.
I'm starting this based on another thread that discusses what makes high-level play challenging. I think that is great, but it means I have to infer a solution to the implied problem. I’m lazy. The highest my group has ever reached organically was level 12, and we didn’t last long there. I have a standing DNR (Do Not Raise) order on the PC’s I play, so death is kind of a big deal. I also make it painful for PC’s I run for to get raised (especially since none of them has the power required to do it themselves yet). Now that I am running a game that is just hitting 8th level, I am starting to work on plot for a higher-level group. What are some good stories for high-level PC’s? -I think for myself, in regards to any ‘save the person’ plots, I am going to make it known that the person in question is someone who has made it clear that they will refuse resurrection (wanting to be with their deity or something like that) and that the reason you need them alive is that someone wants something from them that they can’t achieve if they are dead. Thoughts? How can they be done in a way that is both fun and not overly taxing for the GM? -I am going to lean heavily on Paizo material here. There are many books that provide NPC’s fully stat’ed out, right out of the book, and I think using them will help, but I also want to focus as much as possible on the big monsters in the Bestiaries, especially the kind that don’t have a ton of (or any) treasure. Everyone likes demons and devils right? How would you address your high-level casters’ abilities to do incredible things, without taking the fun out of the game for them? -This one I think will be a little harder to hand-wave, but I was going to try requiring them to use as many long-effect spells as I could to get to the encounters. I have a mystic theurge in my group and I routinely have him provide ‘comfort’ spells to the party (endure elements, etc) that allows him to be useful, and reduces his in-combat arsenal. I don’t think that will be enough at higher levels though… so I’m looking for some other suggestions so that I don’t have to think of them on my own.
Yes, it's not cheap, but I don't feel ripped off for having spent the money for every package. Keep in mind though, it does not replace the books. You still need to have the actually book to reference the specific wording of the spells & abilities. A 'fer instance' would be that it tends to not tell you what type of bonus a spell or ability grants in the description (which is important to know) but it does calculate the bonus accurately for you.
We have a house rule that all packs have quick-release straps. One free-action tug and it drops from your back, along with all the weight and encumbrance penalties associated. Of course, you need to carry stuff you may want to access in a fight, somewhere other than in your 'pack.' We have just found it somewhat tedious micro-managing the pack to keep your encumbrance penalties minimized.
Yes, do not, under any circumstances, use UPS to ship from the US to Canada. The brokerage fee is a minimum of $10, plus a 100% chance of duty. I have had items arrive with more brokerage and duty that the item itself cost...
I never said they shouldn't make them in the first place. I said I shouldn't have to purchase them to get to the ones I actually want. And as for making flumph minis, if that is what people ask them to make, then by all means, make them and sell them, just don't bundle them up such that I have to buy a flumph to get a guardsman or an orc.Although, I agree in principle that you should only have to buy the minis you want, if they don't do random packs they will never make a number of the creatures in the bestiaries. I would really like to have a set of all of the outsiders (angels, aeons, proteans, devils, demons, daemons, etc), and they will never be able to make all of those without some sort of collectible mini line. Now, I do really hope that we see things like a clamshell pack of 6 to 10 goblins, where you can see every sculpt in the pack. I looked at some of the Whizkids minis this weekend and I like the way they did the mix between random packs and visible sets. I'm not a fan of reality, but I get that the 'random route' is a way to increasing quantity of minis. It may be that a compromise will be attempted, which at the very least to me would be an improvement. I myself don't want 1 of everything - but I would desperately love more 'staple' minis. I saw it mentioned in the thread about doing every miniature from an AP - that wasn't what I was going for though. There are some things you can hand wave to an acceptable standard, such as goblins, orcs, guardsmen, bandits, etc. You don't need to have exactly the right one for everything, but some sort of mixer pack is a great idea. I hadn't considered it to be honest. And I wasn't even aware Reaper was doing pre-painted plastic minis until this thread, so thanks for that whoever pointed it out. I just know for myself that I will likely skip most of the line of minis if I don't know what I will be getting. This has been a good discussion for me though. I feel more knowledgeable for participating in it. (I can't say the same for many of the threads I have seen though...)
You have multiple points in your post, so I will break them apart to respond. 'over 200 sculpts... 'bad minis'...as well.' Yes, to me, those would be bad. And I should have the option of not buying them in the first place. 'I bet... redeemed.' I never said they shouldn't make them in the first place. I said I shouldn't have to purchase them to get to the ones I actually want. And as for making flumph minis, if that is what people ask them to make, then by all means, make them and sell them, just don't bundle them up such that I have to buy a flumph to get a guardsman or an orc.
Right hereI might point out that you can purchase individual miniatures on this very site. So if you are interesting in giving Paizo money directly, well you don't get much more direct than that.Pre-painted individual miniatures? Thanks for sharing - but they are still 'rarity' priced. And also largely unavailable. But, still, thanks for pointing it out.
Don't get me sucked into this ;) I'm a gluttonous consumer, and I am also capable of rationalizing (despite many studies to the contrary) that something better is still better, even if it isn't ideal. I want more control over what I get for my purchase. I hate the random minis because it was always a crap-shoot. I ended up buying the ones I wanted on the internet as re-sale specifically so that I could get them, and it was always less convenient than just getting what I wanted in the first place. I don't want to be in the position of collecting "rare" minis that only truly benefit the resellers. I would rather hand my money to Paizo for what I want than to some dude who makes his business up out of buying 80 cases and then picking out the rare ones and charging a ridiculous mark-up. I don't have any of those in my collection because I refuse to pay $30 bucks for a single miniature - it's ridiculous. Just make what we bloody well want instead of telling us what you think we should want. If they put forth the proposal for miniatures and then made what the demand actually was, I would figure we would all benefit. Sooner or later we will get the 3d printers working with colour and then everyone will be happy, but until then, all we can do is vote with our dollars. And my vote is - no random or I won't buy it.
Complete encounters was just that though - complete encounters. By definition, a one-shot. I am not a player of the PFS adventures - I love the AP's though, and this is what I would like to see expanded upon. You often get to use a single location (or type of location - i.e. jungle/desert/tundra) more often in an AP, or the same creature/NPC more often - having a mini for them would be awesome. Even if designers would consciously decide to plan their encounters using maps many people already have (like the ship flip-mat, or the tavern, or the keep, etc.) it would add to the experience. It just kind of kills me that I only get use out of all of those flip-mats in my home-brew, but not in the AP's.
I am a fan of the Pathfinder AP's (even though I don't have nearly enough time to play them as quickly as I buy them...) and I love the flip-mat products. I have a feeling I will like the new pre-painted minis too. I would like to know why I haven't seen more cross-overs in the map territory, and I hope to see cross-overs in the mini territory. I loved how in Kingmaker, the first encounter used the fort flip-mat. It was awesome. My players really liked it, I really liked it as the GM, and the encounter just seemed more exciting for it. I know it would be very expensive to have all locations and encounters done to this extent, but if the authors could find a way to merge the product lines into their stories, I think we would all benefit from it. I think Paizo would sell more product, and my experience would be more enjoyable if I had to prep less, plus I think the players would enjoy the settings in all of their colourful glory. Even if full minis weren't done, but tokens or even more of the paper minis. or instead of the high-quality flip-mats, lower-stock double-sided paper ones... (it works great for Gamma World IMO) 2 cents.
But if we suspend the subscription, we would lose the benefits of subscription (PDF included in price, discount across other products, etc.). Are you saying that you would hold our shipments but still give us access to the digital copies or are you saying we would be SOL? |
