Robert Brookes's page

Curiosity has gotten the better of me. Since the cover focuses on the Starstone deities, will this address the mystery of the 12 seals on the entrance of the Starstone Cathedral (of which only 3 are fulfilled)?

Cori Marie wrote:

Robert Brookes wrote:

Wasn't there supposed to be a map of the whole world in this?

All I'm seeing are lower-res version of the massive high-res maps that were originally in this thread as fan creations:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/85wy7j/i_made_a_giant_map_ of_golarion/

The world map is in the Core Rulebook

It is? What page?

Edit: Found it, p 418. I've read through this book a couple times and absolutely don't remember seeing it there.

Robert Brookes wrote:

Wasn't there supposed to be a map of the whole world in this?

All I'm seeing are lower-res version of the massive high-res maps that were originally in this thread as fan creations:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/85wy7j/i_made_a_giant_map_ of_golarion/

The world map is in the Core Rulebook

It is? What page?

Wasn't there supposed to be a map of the whole world in this?

All I'm seeing are lower-res version of the massive high-res maps that were originally in this thread as fan creations:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/85wy7j/i_made_a_giant_map_ of_golarion/

I just wanted to chime in here and say that, apart from the Qadira book from a while back, this is the the single best Campaign Setting book I've read for Pathfinder. It has interesting mechanical crunch in delightfully inventive monsters, it has an exciting and interesting look into an underloved country with fascinating storytelling potential, and it's just g####~n fun to read!

I wish we'd gotten more setting material books like this in 1st edition. If the whole line had been nothing but great deep-dives like this I'd have been immensely satisfied. It really makes Golarion feel [/i]alive[/i].

Hey folks! Thanks for many lovely years of content and customer service! Effective with the ending of Tyrant's Grasp/the release of the Druma book, please cancel all of my ongoing Pathfinder subscriptions.

Thanks, and happy trails <3

<3

You can come up with other fun fantastically engineered spores for the other damage types. Something engineered from brown mold for cold damage, etc.

When I originally wrote the archetype I intended for it to change the bomb base damage from fire to acid. However, I ultimately decided not to. Instead, it still deals standard bomb damage (fire). Imagine that the spores are pyrokinetic, and by exposing them to oxygen they ignite and propagate. Basically a kind of alchemically enhanced spore that only flowers when in extreme heat.

Much belatedly: Thanks so much Diego!

It might just be my being obtuse, but I can't seem to change my default payment methods for my two subscription lines.

I have a temporarily assigned payment method for order 7816027 that I would like to make default, but I can't seem to unassign my old card from those subscriptions in the Payment Method section of my account. Can you fine folks assist with that?

Intrigue Manual got pushed back but is still coming (eventually), Aethertech Manual was pulled from the schedule for the time being until I have a better idea of when that'll happen.

The Gold Sovereign wrote:

It sounds like an amazing AP.

I'm anxious to see what comes next, after we have "concluded" our fight against two of our greatest enemies (the Runelords and the Tyrant) one after the other.

Will the evolution of Pathfinder give us an even greater enemy to fear?

I hope so. It IS someone you folks already know, after all. Mwa ha ha.

I was wondering when we'd get the "Mengkare is Evil" adventure path

I think you were expecting Gothic Horror and you got Dias de Muertes meets Tim Burton.

Also it kind of behooves for the Knights of Awesome (Awesome. Ozem. C'mon, the Word of God confirmed that it's how the name came up) to end up, welp, not that Ozem after all. The more "infalliable do-gooders with Smite Evil", the less space for PCs to actually pick up stuff other people botched and make things right.

Yeah the selling on this was "survival horror" and I was thinking Dark Souls and got MediEval instead.

As for the Ozem stuff, it just doesn't make internal sense. You can have failures and good people not be as good as you'd expect, but the idea that a group led by paladins with a code of fo duct about honor and honesty would just cover up a guy's involvement in the death of a herald seems super unlikely. Paladin has to mean something with regards to behavior.

Like if they suspected him and didn't just jump to using magic to determine his guilt because they were afraid of his "honor" being besmirched they're not really like, paladins. And that's fine, but you can't build the expectation of how paladins behave and then choose to subvert it like that without the audience feeling a little cheated.

There's way to do what they did, but I'm not sure the way they did it works. Especially not as what amounts to mostly inconsequential flavor text on a location.

Ok the shield stuff isn't quite as wtf after reading the back pages.

That said there is one thing I'm legitimately excited about:
Huge spoiler

The radiant fire hook is a brilliant solution that completely fits with 900 years of angry planning. I can't wait to run this.

900 years and the best plan involves blowing 50% of the power source in one go and not considering that the holy relic might backfire? I mean this is a guy who got locked inside his own house, but...

This entire part of the adventure feels like it was cut out of a module that took place in the First World and somebody tried to file off the serial numbers.

I'm actually kind of frustrated here. There's an opportunity to set an entire adventure in the Boneyard and I'm about fifteen pages into a fey-filled romp with weird puzzles and tooth fairies. Like, I enjoy these monsters but the tonal dissonance from this is astounding.

Rather than focus on thematically appropriate outsiders or other related creatures there's a huge focus on fighting fey? I mean the way I'm looking at this... I'm on page 36 and there's been mites, tooth fairies, wasp swarms, yeth hounds, giant fleas, and stirges as enemies that feel out of place. I mean maybe you can make a case for the yeth hound.

None of the above really feels like it meshes thematically with what the adventure is actually trying to sell. There's not even an explanation. The PCs can ask about the fey and it boils down to an answer of "I have no idea dude."

I can't wait to see how this book wraps up.

Oh my god I just got to the chalkboard math puzzle.

What am I even reading?

I had to add: On page 26 there's art of a tooth fairy (this one is Small) with an esobok psychopomp sitting at her side. But the esobok is like... tiny? It's the size of like a small dog. But it's a Medium sized monster and as an outsider isn't subject to spells that could shrink it (reduce person) and that isn't reflected in the text either anyway.

I really had high hopes for the last 1E adventure but this is showing a lot of really rough seams in places it shouldn't, like development and art direction. This might actually be sloppier than Return of the Runelords. I'm worried too much focus was on PF2 toproperly quality control stuff...

So I got my subscriber copy and skimmed some stuff and holy heck this is kind of a mess. Just from a world-lore perspective the history of the campaign is just weird and confusing, especially the parts about the Shield of Arnisant.

There's also this bit which isn't really spoilery as it's just some background text, but it shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the world:

"Before Roslar’s body was placed in his tomb, rumors of his involvement in Arazni’s death surfaced. The Knights of Ozem, reluctant to call shame upon one of their own, conducted a lackluster and inconclusive investigation."

Because you know what an organization run by lawful good paladins is known for? Coverups and deceit of the sketchy actions of one of their own.

Any other group I could understand. But the leadership of the Knights of Ozem (and most members) are both honorable and righteous if not outright paladins with a demanding code of conduct. This flies so hard in the face of that.

I'm literally only 4 pages in and kind of surprised. Maybe the rest of it will be better but like, not off to a stellar start.

That's not even bringing up the kludgey way the PCs are brought together (it's just a coincidence!) but also that it's very similar to the intro to Wrath of the Righteous.

Just a heads-up: Sorshen, Arushalee, Nocticula, Casandalee, Shensen, etc are all James Jacobs characters regardless of who wrote the particular AP. You can probably just ask him about these characters in his ask JJ thread. You have the fortune of all of them being created by the same guy in this particular instance.

Even more suspicious as to why it created 12 (or possibly 13) spaces and what their placement means!

From the makers of who is really a veiled master comes a new tinfoil hat discussion thread:

SECRETS OF THE STARSTONE CATHEDRAL

To get everyone on the same page, let's talk about what the Starstone Cathedral is.

Arguably the holiest location in all the world, the Starstone Cathedral is a monument to divinity. The massive structure was created by Aroden when he raised the Starstone from the depths of the Inner Sea in 1 AR, and the relic is believed to rest within to this day.

So, here's the big takeaways. It was created by Aroden when he raised the fabled Starstone from the sea, houses the Starstone, and people who enter and pass a series of supernatural ordeals ascend.

Now, who's ascended?

Arguably, Aroden. Absolutely Iomedae, Cayden Cailean, and Norgorber. So, four.

There were four bridges leading to the Starstone cathedral, one for each ascended god. Aroden's bridge collapsed following an earthquake after his death.

But who built these bridges?

Crossing the chasm into the Starstone cathedral is a task that leads to the test. Did the city of Absalom commission these bridges? Dis a construction crew risk proximity to the cathedral to build these? Why didn't they repair Aroden's bridge?

But that isn't even the greatest mystery. To get onto that topic, we have to revisit two pieces of official art of the Starstone.

The first piece, from the Guide to Absalom

The second piece, from Champions of Purity

In both of these pieces, zoom in and look at the framework around the primary entrance. You'll see there are six circular recessions flanking the door with a larger, thirteenth recession above the entrance. You'll note that three of these circles are filled with engraved symbols: Iomedae on the left, not at the top or in a particular order. On the right, you'll see Cayden Cailean's symbol followed by the mask of Norgorber.

If these were made by mundane hands, why are they in erratic places instead of from top to bottom or in order of ascension? Why is Aroden's symbol not present? If they aren't handmade, what divine force crafted them?

Why is there a finite number of spaces?

The position of the symbols isn't by alignment as there are only 9 alignments.

Is it by month of ascension? Did Iomedae ascend in Calistril?

If this is the case, does that mean there can only be 12 (possibly 13) ascended deities?

What happens when they all ascend?

WHAT ISN'T THE CHURCH TELLING US?

WHAT DID ARODEN KNOW?

There's some maps in this adventure that don't appear to have grids in my physical copy (the multiple maps on page 15). They show up in the PDF version but it doesn't look like they printed. Are other people experiencing that with the print copy too?

Hey folks, I just wanted to share some variant horror-themed rules I put together in time for Halloween. I wasn't ever really satisfied with what Horror Adventures did for the fear rules (the levels are a little too kludgey) and the "madness" stuff is kind of tasteless and tacky.

So, what I've done is hacked up those fear rules, incorporated elements from Sword & Sorcery's Ravenloft core book, a little of the stress mechanic from Blades in the Dark, and some of the stress/trauma analog from Darkest Dungeon.

Hope you find it fun!

Variant Horror Rules

This is also a good time to revisit the "make a request" table and look at how reasonable (in perspective) it seems to the charmed NPC, etc.

This charm makes a humanoid creature regard you as its trusted friend and ally (treat the target’s attitude as friendly)

You're hanging out with a friend, you do something so unthinkable that they wind up and slap you across the face (nonlethal damage).

Likely Initial Reaction: Indignation/confusion "What the heck!?"

Likely Response: Person who did the slapping explaining themselves and their position. Probably resulting in a Diplomacy check (made easier vis-a-vis charm person).

Likely Followup Reaction: 1) "Oh, yeah, you're right I was kind of being an ass." 2) "Why are you LIKE THIS? Ugh."

Boiled down outside of the joke above, context is going to be king here. This seems like an ability that works best when you swoop in and slap a villain as they're about to commit villainy, and try and talk them down out of it.

Probably not great for walking up and sword-slapping the vizier across the face, unless you've got a great cover with Diplomacy behind it.

It's the end of an era. I'm going to miss your Pathfinder work so much, Crystal. You remain one of the best and brightest designers in the whole industry.

Just popped in to say I'm really happy with how folks have received the parts I worked on in this book. The aphorites and axis were passion projects of mine long before this book got started, and it was cool to be able to bring that all full-circle.

That said, as I'm seeing the full product now, I am legitimately surprised there's not a single archetype or new base form for summoner!

I'm really happy this book is getting a positive reception. It was the first time I'd written any out-and-out gaming materials, and I wasn't altogether sure we'd hit the brief. But hey, looks like it came out all right after all. :)

I thought Lyz did a really amazing job with the adventure locations, btw. Lots and lots of neat game ideas nested into each of those.

I hardly post on here anymore, but I wanted to step in and say that this is my favorite CS book since Qadira. It's so well thought out and easily could've been twice as long and still kept me as interested. I read it cover-to-cover in a single, eager sitting.

Excellent work, Liane and co. Truly excellent.

Thanks, Sharaya!

I placed this order in my sidecart without realizing this month's subscription shipment had already gone out. Could you please move the order from the sidecart to ship independently?

Thanks!

NSM:

I'd handle it like any class feature that changes your creature type: Don't change anything. Skill points wouldn't change, etc.

You retain: your HD, mental ability scores, feats, skills, etc.

You gain: Initiative based off Intelligence, the ability to control your sweet new robot body, creature type treated as "AI" (and Construct, when inhabiting a robot) for purposes of spells and effects that effect creatures by type.

I can't see anything except the Eberron font used in the title

Bump, as I couldn't find an answer anywhere else.

I'm going to make this brief:

Not removing Folca from the PDF isn't a great choice. Pathfinder is already widely pirated and extremely easily accessible in pirated formats (including brand new releases that have only gone out to subscribers). Removing Folca won't incentivize that any more than it already is. That makes "we don't want to make it a rare, pirated item" sort of a cop-out of responsibility.

Because what do you think will happen if Folca is removed from reprints? Either you care more about a non-issue that doesn't help fighting piracy, or you care about not profiting off of child abuse.

Yes, it takes a lot of resources to do layout again. Maybe if you hadn't put incentivized child abuse in the book in the first place, or if it had been caught in the several steps of development/editing/copyfitting you wouldn't have to make this choice.

The consequence of screwing up is fixing the mistake. Not just apologizing and continuing to draw in revenue off of a book that features incentivized abuse of children.

Probably some kind of kineticist, honestly. More likely air for lightning stuff. I've always liked that kinda' thing.

I really like the Nature Bonded Magus, but loosing Arcane Pool hurts a lot.

It definitely does. The plant companions rules weren't fully written when I completed my work, so the idea was that the companion was supposed to mitigate some of the loss from losing arcane pool.

(gunslinger) Commando

(bard) Filidh, Cultivator
(monk) Water Dancer, Wasteland Meditant, and Menhir Guardian

Okay; limiting it just to these: tell me eeeeeeeverything - where the name comes from, the basic idea, if you have any group/organization concepts, and so on!

Commando is basically the gunslinger version of Rambo. They can make traps, fight in the wilderness, and generally ruin somebody's day. It's a gunslinger that is less Wild West and more wilderness warrior.

Filidh was a request from the design team and is closely hewn to the real-world idea of a filidh. They're divination-focused bards who can see into the future.

Cultivator bards are all about affecting plants with their magic and cn make vegetation grow to aid them. The name is just a "makes sense" once you think of their role. They cultivate and nurture nature!

Water Dancer is one I'm really proud of. They're a monk who eschews unarmed combat for kineticist water blasts. They can even walk on the surface of water to avoid enemies. Part of my inspiration was Chinese fantasy movies and a strong dose of Avatar the Last Airbender.

Wasteland Meditant is a hermit-like monk who gains a lot of powers that help them survive in desert environments and can turn their enemies into literal pillars of salt.

Menhir Guardian is a monk that protects things like druid circles and sacred sites. Their unarmed strikes pack a punch and can send enemies flying.

Aldo, if folks wanna discuss archetypes I designed for Ultimate Wilderness I did:

Elementalist Shifter (shifter)
Fiendflesh Shifter (shifter)
Oozemorph (shifter)
Rageshifter (shifter)
Verdant Shifter (shifter)
Weretouched (shifter)
Commando (gunslinger)
Feral Champion (warpriest)
Filidh (bard)
Water Dancer (monk)
Wasteland Meditant (monk)
Menhir Guardian (monk)
Cultivator (bard)
Nature Bonded Magus (magus)

I wrote other parts of the book, too, but those are probably the most fun to talk about at the moment!

:D AWESOME!

And yeah, the Dark Matter/Farscape comparisons were... not lost on me, either.

I've only seen the first three Rebels, but it's really good andn I hear it's only getting better.

Have you seen the "Lost Episodes" (13 episode "season 6"?) of Clone Wars?

Those were some of the best episodes!

Dark Matter is great! I'm extremely bummed it was apparently cancelled after a cliffhanger season finale, though. Reminds me of Farscape.

I've watched nearly all of Clone Wars and a handful of Rebels. I plan on catching up with Rebels once it finishes its last season and just binge it all.

As a gigantic Star Wars fan I've seen all the movies, and am currently doing my best porg shriek in anticipation of Last Jedi!

I think the easiest thing for this is to allow Pummeling Style line to work with morphic weapons, describing it as that "one BIIIG LIMB".

If you take Feral Combat Training (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/feral-combat-training-combat/) you can apply pummeling style to natural attacks.

Since Mark brought up the shifter archetypes, I wanted to note that I never really intended for the fiendflesh shifter to be evil only. Maybe any nongood, but I didn't originally have any alignment restrictions in there because I wanted everybody to be able to play with it (especially PFS folks).

That said, I can absolutely see why they chose to make it that way because of the nature of emulating all manner of fiends. But for a non-PFS game, GMs shouldn't worry about removing the alignment restriction (or modifying it to any nongood) for their players. It wouldn't upset mechanical balance in any way.

Robert Brookes wrote:

graystone wrote:

As written, it replaced shifter claws not modified, so it doesn't get anything from claws. Robert is the only one that can say if that's what he intended though.

The oozemorph's natural attacks don't scale in damage and weren't intended to. Their natural attacks start at 1d6 and don't scale unless their size does (giant form and beast shape II, etc), which was intended to balance out their scaling DR.

What if I combine the Natural Attacks into one big oozy fist?

That's one thing I wish I'd thought to include in the archetype: A way to sacrifice number of natural attacks for higher natural attack damage. Basically going from multiple limbs to one BIIIG LIMB. Kinda' Green Lantern big green fist style.

For GMs running at their home (sorry PFS folks) my house rule would be increase die size by one step for each natural attack you could have that you choose to sacrifice. So like, when you form your natural attacks if you only form 1 instead of 3 your damage die for that one attack goes up by two steps. Probably not optimal but it gets the idea across.

Robert Brookes wrote:

Ahh. Yeah, unlike monster oozes the oozemorph can't benefit from any item that requires it being held, worn, wielded, etc. So really ioun stones or ioun-like items.

Looks like Inscribe Magical Tattoo is going to be important then. They aren't "held, worn, wielded, etc."

Magical tattoos seem like a great idea. Eldritch glyphs floating in protoplasmic masses, glowing veins throbbing inside of the ooze, connected to the symbols.

There are plenty of things that don't require hands/holding. For example, a horse pull a wagon, a bird could flip a switch with a beak, a pig can push open a door [not work a round knob though maybe hit a lever type], ect. it all depends on how fine the manipulation needed is. For me, 'can't hold' doesn't equate to 'can't flip switch'. At worst a Oozemorph could 'attack' the switch with morphic weapons dealing nonlethal damage. The impact doesn't inflict damage to an object but has force.

I could see a case being made for letting the oozemorph push stuff around and do things like open doors if their natural weapons would permit that kind of manipulation. But since they can't wear equipment they can't pull a cart, since they can't wear the bit/bridle/harness ;)

As such, the blob should be able to climb a ladder at 1st. If it's impossible, climb speed doesn't do much.

The intention is that they can't climb at all until 4th when they get the climb speed.

Robert Brookes wrote:

Wei Ji the Learner wrote:

So oozes (in your estimation) when they have magic items they can use it's considered a property of being 'fully ooze' rather than a fringe benefit, Robert?

I'm not sure I follow that question. Could you reword?

Some oozes out there can benefit from having magic items in their goop. Is that too much of a niche for our 'average oozenaut'?

Also, did I miss the answer about whether they do damage like an ooze (ie, acid) somewhere up the thread?

Ahh. Yeah, unlike monster oozes the oozemorph can't benefit from any item that requires it being held, worn, wielded, etc. So really ioun stones or ioun-like items.

Also they don't do any additional acid damage, just natural attacks that can change damage type (s/p/b) as the oozemorph desires. This includes having like three bite attacks if they want, or what not.

As written, it replaced shifter claws not modified, so it doesn't get anything from claws. Robert is the only one that can say if that's what he intended though.

The oozemorph's natural attacks don't scale in damage and weren't intended to. Their natural attacks start at 1d6 and don't scale unless their size does (giant form and beast shape II, etc), which was intended to balance out their scaling DR.

Question on gear melding when in ooze form. Since you end up in ooze form when in AMF, is your gear completely inaccessible when in AMF or does it de-merge?

Given the very specific call-out of how AMF and fluidic form works, it'd stay merged into your fluidic form and inaccessible until you're out of the AMF.