Robert Jordan's page

The First Edition era is coming to a close, at least from a 1st party standpoint, and over the past years there's been a lot of good and bad that's happened with this game. For me it's been mostly good and I love PF1e, I will not be joining folks on the mechanical side of things for 2e, but I look forward to the continue fluff and setting information as it comes out.

Despite collecting all of PF 1e there's a few things that I wish we'd gotten that had me really hyped and then never came to fruition.

1) The Medium. I really really really loved the Playtest for the Medium using the entire Harrow collection as spirits was not only an impressive undertaking but a massively deep and complex idea. According to multiple posts the class was complete and designed that way, but they reworked it a bit before release as it would take too much space in the final product. Over the years there have been calls and requests to have the original vision of the Medium come out, but the answer has been no. I hope one day we get to see this beautiful monster, PAIZO TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE.

2) Bastardhall Mega Dungeon written by F. Wesley Schneider. Ustalav is his pet area of Golarion and Bastardhall is his baby. I was lucky enough one Paizocon to sit in on him running part of Bastardhall, I believe it was the gate and gardens area. I want more! I was really hoping that it'd be somewhere in the production line, but then a parting of ways seemed to doom that dream. I still hold out that a Bastardhall megadungeon or AP comes out to showcase this cursed keep.

There's been a lot to love though! All the variety in available races, feats, spells, and magic items. The Adventure Paths, even the ones I have no intention of running gave me good fodder for encounters and pre generated NPCs for almost any situation. I've especially loved the variety in the APS all the different styles of adventure have been amazing to read through and even run some of. I'll never forget cracking open AP 1 for the first time and reading through and the feelings and inspiration I got from it.

I know I'll miss the support for 1E from Paizo, I do hope that backwards compatability/converting isn't too difficult, and if that's the case I may start picking up the occasional rulebook for 2E to pillage. I'll miss the massive amounts of 3rd party support. While it will still exist the offerings will dwindle as time goes by, even now some things I've seen that intrigue me are 5E oriented as they wait to see PF2 and design for that over PF1.

Of the things I've hated I'll openly admit it's mostly been errata decisions that I can ignore at my own table. Which is incredibly minor in my reckoning.

I'm curious to see what others in the community feel were highlights or missed opportunities! Let's put on our rose colored classes and let the nostalgia whisk us away.

What you write in a fugue state, stays in a fugue state.

Very much alive still. I haven't even read any of the Wheel of Time.

So I was looking at the Alternate Profession Rules, and I cannot seem to find any benefit to having more than the minimum number of Employees once you have a Medium or Large size business. It seems that all they do is provide a penalty once you hit a certain point, is there something missing that got cut?

Took me a week, but I realized I meant to put that in the Pathfinder Unchained product forum. Not Ultimate Campaign woops.

So I was looking at the Alternate Profession Rules, and I cannot seem to find any benefit to having more than the minimum number of Employees once you have a Medium or Large size business. It seems that all they do is provide a penalty once you hit a certain point, is there something missing that got cut?

So now that I'm about to be on the player side of the screen again for the first time in forever I've begun looking at options and things again and I've got a couple questions about the Attack Action. If multiple things affect the Attack Action they stack, except when they don't. Is that the gist of it?
For instance I can combine Blooded Strike and Fatal Thrust. If I were to Full Attack I wouldn't get the benefit of either am I correct in that?
Following from combining Attack Action things could I combine Dual Attack with Advancing Carnage and get 2 attacks on every target I "cleave" to? What about Mobile Striker and Dual Attack? I guess I'm confused about how many things you can stack onto an Attack Action if they don't specifically contradict each other.

While I don't post on the forums all that often I do tend to view them regularly if work isn't overwhelming during the week. So it was very jarring to discover the new website after being away from a computer for almost a week. I'm not sure I'm a fan. It looks sleeker, but I miss my sidebars where I could see what was trending. I LOVE the monthly release ticker. I do feel I somehow missed the Companion line going bimonthly and I can't find the announcement. Overall I want to give it some time to see how I feel about the redesign but I'm currently in the not a fan camp.

Yeah I noticed most of the spheres that grant skill ranks were changed to 5 from base sphere then +5 per talent. Not sure I like that change makes things more complex for some of my less skilled players. I also noted in the update Rapid Shot is still an associated feat with Barrage. I am super sad by the Sphere Specific Drawbacks that didn't lock in your choice of extra talent now lock in that choice. I liked the flexibility that Spheres of Power had on some of it's specific drawbacks where you got to pick instead of being locked in. Is there any chance we might see that for this system?

I finally had time to check out archetypes and at first I was super stoked for the Magus archetype, then I got sad. Delaying Spell Combat to level 8 is rough as it's the core functionality of the Magus class. I like most of the Magus archetype, but I was kinda sad that it doesn't play nice with most other Magus archetypes that already exist. Is there any chance of light archetypes, that take away a few things but just add a Combat talent progression?

Well the Jingasa got hit with the nerf bat. It used to negate a crit once per day.

With Custom Training from the Equipment sphere if you are a race that has Weapon Familiarity and therefor treat an exotic weapon with X in it's name as martial does it count as an Exotic weapon using 2 weapon slots from Custom Training? Or does it count as 1 weapon as it is Martial for your race?

No problem you guys always deliver. Barrage and Sniper are the two spheres i paid the most attention to during the llaytest, while my wife will be sad about not being able to drop army slaying salvos at level 6 I am glad it was just an editing error.

SoM seems much easier to just blend in than SoP does to me. I still have confusion on how some things work for SoP that I'll eventually need to figure out, but SoM is pretty straightforward for the most part

In addition to my Associated Feat question for Cone of Death, Barrage adv talent, does it no longer have the scaling BaB requirement? Being able to take it 3 times pre lvl 10 is amazing and terrifying.

With associated feats, if I take the Barrage sphere I get two basic things. First I get PBS then I get the Barrage ability that has Rapid Shot as an associated feat. Do I still need to take Rapid Shot as a feat if I would like to take a Full Attack to take advantage of a Haste spell and the extra shot from Rapid Shot? Or by virtue of having the Barrage sphere I can opt to either; Attack action Barrage or Full Attack with Rapid Shot?

With the lens focus flaw you lose the base ability of the light sphere. Do you get 2 lens talents? One from selecting the light sphere and one from the flaw's bonus talent?

stuff

Sounds good! I just wanted to make sure it was intentional and wasn't like how Deadly Aim originally didn't work with firearms till they fixed it. The rationale makes sense and I can accept it even if I don't personally agree. Thanks for taking the time to keep us in the loop and respond to our questions I am super excited for this product!

Man what is with all the folks leaving this year making me sad over here. Good luck in your future endeavors!

Thanks Ssalarn! I never worry about how long it'll take to get a response you guys always respond when you find time with your crazy schedule. Did you see my previous post about the Deadly Shot and Firearms in regards to the bonus damage dice?

I'm pretty certain you can't, but could you use Barrage with Shot on the Run?

Edit: is there going to be a way to tack on spheres of might to existing classes? Something in the same vein as Spheres of Power where you just replaced casting with the spheres system?

So it'd been a while since I last checked the playtest. I enjoyed seeing how this project evolved over time and I am really excited to see it when it finally comes out! I've made no effort to hide that the Sniping sphere is the one I am most excited about and I liked a lot of what's come of it, but I am slightly confused about Deadly Shot now. Why is there a damage die difference between normal AC and Touch AC? Wouldn't an attack that hits Touch AC bypassing armor be more devastating than one that has to impact armor first? If it is like Deadly Aim in that the damage adjustment only applies to touch spells and not firearm attacks that makes more sense, but to punish firearm characters seems odd.

1) If the negative levels finished her off, she rises as a vampire spawn.

2) Up to you, but I would argue that her soul has not actually left her body.

3) She gets the Vampire Spawn template initially. When her creator is destroyed, she is automatically freed and becomes a full vampire. Also, her creator can choose to release her at any time. I believe the vampire can choose to create her as a full vampire, but she's still under the control of the creator until its destruction (or it grants freedom).

I was leaning that way for #1. I was also thinking that her soul was stuck for #2 as she isn't quite undead yet but she's like on the precipice of rising. For #3 I agree that the death of the master raises them to full vampire, but in CC there is an example of a released spawn who has been promised full vampire status and hasn't received it yet. I'm curious how it can be granted or if it's just DM fiat at that point, which is fine by me I'd just rather not have missed it.

So I'm running Carrion Crown and one of my players was just killed by a vampire. There's a couple issues I've run into I haven't quite found the answer for.

1) The final blow that killed her only dealt 2 negative levels and that's what actually killed her. Does that qualify as "killed by energy drain" for purposes of create spawn or do you have to be drained completely, in this instance 11 negative levels, before it counts?

2) If it does count when exactly does she count as Undead for the purposes of Raise Dead and otherwise? Is it when she first rises or is that checked for the moment she's drained of energy and the vampire decides to create spawn?

3) If a vampire decides to create vampire spawn instead of a full vampire how does one transition the spawn to a full vampire? Does it happen automatically when the master is killed or does the master or another full vampire have to do something special to make that happen?

Thanks Ssalarn!

Where do I find Greater Barrage?

I'm so excited to see the Aldori stuff.

This is sad news :(. I'm guessing this means we won't see a Bastardhall mega module.
I remember getting to meet Wes when he let me sit in on his Bastardhall game a couple years back. I didn't win a slot at the table but he let me sit and observe anyways. My wife and I were then lucky enough to join his table at the Paizocon banquet that year. Thank you for everything you've done for the setting, and for tolerating my questions at the banquet table. It was a pleasure getting to speak with you and you will be missed.

Thanks Ssalarn. The Dead Shot deed always screamed Sniper at me, but sniping just doesn't work with it at all. I do really like the Vital Strike approach I think it gives a really good place to use a feat tree that many have mixed feelings about. This project is super exciting.

Stop healing them. If they're actively stealing your things just don't heal them until the item is returned or start charging for the service. From the information provided it seems that they're taking advantage of you and your character that issue needs to be dealt with. A Cleric can be plenty broken without too much work by focusing on the spells you're preparing each day.

Is the issue only in game with the characters only or is there an issue out of game with the players as well?

I was hoping to see some sort of sniping option in the Sniping sphere that synergized well with the Dead Shot deed for gunslinger who wanted to be a sniper. With stealth after a ranged attack requiring a move action kinda kills that whole dynamic.

This thread is magic to me.

I am inclined to concur with Claxon, but I can also see the argument being made for it applying in the instance of piercing two opponents with a lance in a line. I would probably approach it on a case by case basis.

I subbed back in Aug 2007, but I didn't get the charter tag for some reason.

Thank you so much! You guys are rockstars, next time I make it to Paizocon I owe you a drink.

I meant to change my payment method before this upcoming shipment and somehow failed to do so till I received my pending email. I just changed it to the new card but I'm hoping to make sure that it changed over successfully for both the books shipment and the minis shipment. It should be using the one ending in [redacted].

Live in the Charleston, SC area. I stayed home the wife took our son up to her mom's house in Columbia. Storm basically blew itself out before it got here the wind did some damage around town and knocked power out in places for a day or so based on where you were. Strangely enough my side of the street has power but only half of the other side of my street does.

Yeah that's how I interpreted, just kinda sad that a really nice armor focused option doesn't work with an armor focused archetype to make a hyper focused armor character. Since armor is kinda lackluster mid-late game.

edit: minus a few things where I feel stacking should have been relaxed to let a character who dedicates themselves to a rather sub-optimal route become mega badass at it this book has been rather ok. It's got some cool things in here I know my table will definitely use, but I'm getting pretty tired of seeing "This DR option doesn't stack with any similar DR thing ever!" just feels unnecessary to prevent nice things from becoming nicer.

Am I correct in interpreting that the Advanced Armor Training option Armored Juggernaut would actually do nothing for an Armor Master Fighter? That'll make one of my players very sad since it looks like they can't be stacked.

I couldn't find it on the searches I tried, but a player recently asked me if the Primal Hunter still got the bonuses to Strength and Constitution when in a Focused Rage. The way it reads to me and the way I ruled it was that yes they do, the bonus on ranged attack rolls only replaced the bonus to Will saves that a normal rage gave. I was wondering if that was the intent.

Chris Lambertz wrote:

Announced at GAMA Trade Show and now available for preorder! Cover is very close to final, but may change when we go to print. Description is not final.

And now we know why James got pulled off Strange Aeons. I hope Shattered Star, Second Darkness and one to two more of the older paths (I hope either Carrion Crown, Serpents Skull or Skulls and Shackles) go this way in a year or two. I love that you guys update them and add some new material. Great call!

I'd personally like Legacy of Fire and Second Darkness before they revisit any of the actual Pathfinder APs. The 3.5 ones should get priority imo.

Robert Jordan wrote:

Will there be a deluxe edition?

We have nothing to announce on that front at this time, but leaning to likely "no" as the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Deluxe Edition was a pretty special 10 year anniversary product.

Sounds good! I got both the Deluxe special of Rise of the Runelords and the standard hardcover of it as well, which look fantastic next to the 1st print run of the orginial AP volumes. Figured I would check before offering my bank account as offering to the purple golem.

Will there be a deluxe edition?

Is there a reason the Immortal archetype doesn't synergize with the Armored Defense and Arnor Mastery talents or with Adamantine?

Is Blood Vengeance capable of stacking with itself? For instance, let's say a Barbarian is raging and a worthy ally drops triggering the increase of +2 to their existing rage. After 2 rounds another ally goes down, does it increase by another +2? It reads like it does and it makes a certain kind of sense that you'd get angrier and angrier the more of your allies that drop. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't misreading it.

In all fairness the odds of it proccing more than once a combat is rather rare or at least it is at my table.

I really hope this gives me what I hoped for in Blood of the Moon. Blood of the Night focused pretty heavily on Vampires as a PC. I expected the same from Blood of the Moon and got something completely different. Some things I'd love to see in regards to lycanthropy include but are not limited to the following.

Alignment, how do? For instance the Paladin becomes infected because it's a curse and therefor he's not immune, he shifts on the night of the full moon and goes on a murder spree, he awakens sans powers right? He did go all murder crazy, or does it count as "not him" and he's good. I'm of the opinion that it's still you and therefor powers go bye bye. Does your alignment permanently change to the alignment of your WereX side if you willingly shift to it instead of resisting it like in 3.5? Or can you shift in and out of it and maintain the separate alignments?

Controlling the shift. I don't mind the ability check over 3.5's skill check in regards to shape shifting. But can you ever get better at controlling it without just being gifted with a high Constitution or the right phase of the Moon? Is there anyway when you involuntarily shift to maintain control and not lose your personality?

Infection. Will taking a hit of wolfs bane always cure it no matter how long after you were infected, even after the first change? I always assumed it followed the same rules as a Heal or Remove Disease spell within 3 days at CL 12+. Is there any nonmagical way to tell you're infected or is it always a "Welp I got bit time to munch some poison." Personally I've always run it as PCs just don't know till the first shift, as a DM it's one of the few Saving throws I took away from my players. It takes a bit of the fear away if your PC rolls a 20 and goes "Yup I'm good!" or rolls above a 10 with a +5 or higher Fort bonus, those tend to succeed at a lot of the flat DC challenges.

These are just a few of the things I'd love to see covered in this book, which will be amazing to have as my group is at the end of Broken Moon in Carrion Crown.

Bummer I missed that last line of Startoss Style first time I read it. That not being able to use it if wielding a weapon in the offhand is a real mood killer. Poor starknife dual wielders need not apply.

Has there been any word on the Jade Regent set?

One of the things I was a little confused by. The Blade Meditation. I assume that where it says "...to grant herself all her remaining witheld maneuvers, then immediately expend them in a raging cadence of arcane power." doesn't mean that they actually initiate every maneuver they were just granted does it? The way it's written to me reads that they are granted all their remaining maneuvers and initiate all of them, but I'm pretty certain that the intent is that action economy prevents that from happening.

I'm curious if the chapter openers going forward are going to be the same as they are in this book. I really really liked the in character chapter openers the hardcovers have had that coincided with the artwork. It really helped bring the setting and the iconics to life. I will admit I was disappointed those snippets of fiction are missing here.

Robert Jordan wrote:

For instance the sheer blowback on Crane Style and Scarred Witch Doctor looked to me that the issues seen in those options were much more of a PFS issue.

Scarred Witch Doctor was never PFS legal.

My mistake I just assumed it had been a PFS option. I made an assumption that there weren't that many Orcs rolling around as PCs in that many games to make it an issue. Though technically a Half Orc qualifies since they count as an Orc.