Fighting together like a famished piranha pack the Silver Ravens (but especially Orena and the shark named Val) utterly destroy the remaining shell construct. Whatever these things were doing here they proved no match for the untamed savagery of the avengers of the deep...
"Oh! For Shelyn's golden harp! Give me those oats!" so saying Bellona snatches the oats from Tresten and starts to get near the horse... "Hey boy! Do you remember me? Riiiight! The pretty lady from before wants to give you a gift! Something good to eat! Not like the dead people here wanting to eat you instead..."
I hadn't forgotten about Rome, but it's really a lot of stuff to write down and I don't know how to start. I'll try to keep this brief but feel free to ask for pointers and suggestions. Let's just say that all the warnings from above still apply but to a lesser degree than Naples (Rome's has several police and army check points, especially near monuments and the Vatican) it's also well patrolled. The things everyone sees when in Rome are the usual: The Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Saint Peter, the Vatican's museums, Navona's Square, Trevi's Fountain, Piazza di Spagna, the Pantheon and the Mouth of Truth. They are nice and they are also crowded as there's always a lot of turists there, all year long. Unless they happen to work near those monuments (or are really rich) you won't really find "real romans" there either. Less known but extremely nice places to visit in Rome are: the Galleria Borghese (make sure to book and get an audioguide in english, the ticket costs 15 euros and the guide is a few more) has incredible pieces of art inside (my favourite: Bernini's Apollo and Daphne), as does Doria-Pamphilj palace. The Capitoline Museums and Campidoglio's Square are also extremely nice with the added bonus of not being as crowded as other more famous spots. The Cestia Pyramid and the Aurelian Wall are also spots that are not so well known while the Villa del Priorato di Malta on the Aventine Hill is one of those slightly famous spots that give you the feeling you are actually dioscovering something that's just a bit "secret". There's much more of course but the important thing you need to get is this: you won't be visiting all of Rome in a few days of vacation, much less understand the city. It's better to see a few monuments/museums and really "get them" than to try doing everything to the risk of understanding nothing.
Eating: the caveat about tourist traps is doubly true in Rome. Try avoid eating near monuments and instead explore the city, don't fall for stuff that seems too stereotypical, that's actually a good sign it was done that way to give what you expect to see. As a general rule you can eat well in the Testaccio and Trastevere's neighborhoods as for spots I was personally suggested to visit by people who know their stuff, here's a list (some of these may be pretty costy but not as much as La Pergola which is a 3 Micheline star restaurant, and the costiest restaurant in Rome, requires you to book in advance and serves full course meals at 260 euros per client without accounting for the wine). Well then, if you have any questions just ask.
@everyone: Thanks for the answers I somehow missed the "strength" entry in the armor section of the CRB and I was convinced that the listed Str values were meant to be the requirement for wearing armor not to decrease or avoind penalties. Things make more sense now.
"Well well... waht a rowdy bunch of pathfinders!" a tall well armed (and heavily armored) man says as he enters the hall and approaches the rest of the assembled pathfinders.
In my opinion this was the best tale posted about Age of Lost Omens. The evil the dragon represents is very understandable and its victims are relatable on a human level. The encounter between a powerful old dragon commoners (a couple of experts perhaps?) and mid level heroes is well developed. The effects the dragonfear has on those unable to pass their checks (i.e. 90% of the population of Golarion)are well described as well. If I have a complaint is about the lack of subversion: we are told from the beginning who's smart and skilled and who's a boastful old fool. The baron dies an honorable yet ultimately meaningless death while the lady knight (probably a Lion Blade) survives and takes the commoner survivor under her wing to train and likely become the dragon slaying hero, a few hundred encounters later. This is predicatble. What if the old baron lived thanks to the Lion Blade sacrifice? Wouldn't that have been more inspiring on the future hero, more meaningful for his future development?
I've been skimming the Archives of Nethys 2E rules, and so far I gotta say there's nowhere near enough customization yet to tempt me into a purchase. If I read correctly, the *only* archetype material available in the core rulebook are the multiclass feats, which—I hate to say this—strongly, strongly reminded me of 4E D&D's multiclass feat thing, which I hated. I keep hearing talk of this debut being packed with content, and if what's meant by this is that the fundamental rules are different then sure. But insofar as depth of variety and customization? It's a boilerplate set of classes and races. That's fine for new players, but until there's substantially more content (and something to judge the new archetype system by that isn't just the crappy multiclass structure) I'm nowhere near to making a purchase. It's a CORE Rule Book. You can't expect the customization of PF1 at the end of the edition. Try to recall the PF1 CORE Rule Book, not a great deal of customization back then. Archetypes were not a thing for example and if you had played 3e D&D (not even 3,5) chance is the system differences would be too small for you to notice. That said, keep in mind the more you make something "customizable" the more the game system risks to be broken and things suddenly start looking all very similar DESPITE the potential for customization.
I was reeady to read my copy of the 2E CRB... then I found out I need to purchase the pdf separately or wait until my copy is delivered... XD
It's not that. I understand you wanted the APs to be aknowledged, I fully respect the notion actually and I've completed a couple of APs so I'm happy my efforts were accounted for. The problem I see is these previews you are giving us are not showing threats comparable to those that were defeated. Sure, the Whispering Tyrant gets to rule the Island of Terror and becomes a threat for the central part of Avistan but you yourself just pointed out in this very same thread he's not as powerful as other NPCs out there who are not on the side of evil (a certain redeemed Runelord for example). And all things considered, the Worldwound seemed like it was a bigger threat.
What I'm not seeing is new threats, new NPCs who might be a challange for legendary heroes and the fact most evil nations or organizations seem to have been weakened or defeated. Sure, Tar Baphon is a big bad lich (but even him is where he is AFTER getting ultimately beaten), but him aside I don't see challanges comparable to those present in 1st ed, and I see a lot of redeemed former opponents, defeated threats and not so scary anymore evil empires, which in my opinion is not good for adventuring. That said, I guess all I'm saying is: give GMs new toys!
Too many things in the updated setting seem to be like "good is winning". That's not a good thing in my book, games need challanges, heroes need horrible evil to vaniquish triumphing against all odds... instead too many things seem to have gone far too well in the world. Irrisen is not an evil place anymore now? The mammoth lords don't need to defend themselves against external threats anymore? Orcs are mostly focused on defying the Whispering Tyrant? And I could go on for quite a long time, considering all we have seen until now. I get the PCs had successes and that has to be accounted for, but I'm strating to feel like the "new challanges", when presented pale in comparison with what came before.
Chests:
The first chest contains 388 pp, 2,345 gp, 6,590 sp, 14,400 cp, and various art objects, gems, and jewelry worth an additional 4,200 gp.
The second chest is lined with padded velvet, and contains eight potions of cure moderate wounds, four potions of lesser restoration, four potions of neutralize poison, four potions of remove curse, four potions of remove disease, two vials of lich dust poison, six vials of medium spider venom, a single vial of wyvern poison, and a ruby vial (worth 3,500 gp) containing a single dose of oil of life (distilled from the quicksilver of a philosopher’s stone but never used by the guild). The third and final chest contains a cloak, a folded boat, four rings, a wand, a battered, leather-bound book looks like an aged and heavily worn notebook and a robe. Kurlunn passes one ring through the bars but then he causes the trapped door to trigger. → Suddenly several razor-sharp disks lance out of the door to saw and slice away at the phantom almost cutting him to ribbons!
He has to be, right? Look at how adorable he looks in his portrait! That's the face of a sweetheart! Seems like he just stepped on one of his "experiments" by mistake... "Whoops! Sorry! It wasn't really my fault, you know... I wanted to test human reaction to high pressure and he just died on me! He obviously was flawed. We need more testing! Bring me another human!"
Well, he's a gold dragon, isn't he? Sure... does that make him LG by default though? :P
So... Mengkare is "benevolent" now? :P
This is a good story to give readers the feel of Absalom's streets near the cathedral but I would not put to much attention on this Synarr fellow. He's an old and rich dude who thinks he has a chance at godhood, which undoubtedly mekes him the same as thousands of others before him, no more no less. It's there to give the reader a point of view which happens to be somehow unpalatable (a rich and arrogant guy). As for the 4 mortals who took the test of the starstone: -Aroden was already a wizard powerful enough to raise Absalom from the depths (so possibly even mythic). -Of Nagrober we don't know much, except he was Taldan. It seems likely he was a rogue of great skill and/or possibly an assassin. He spent a lot of effort obscuring his past so nothing is really certain. -Cayden Cailean was a Taldan sellsword and freedom fighter working out of Absalom. While mortal he was well known, which means he was probably an accomplished hero on his own (high level fighter, possibly multiclassed?). -Iomedae was an high level paladin and general of the Shining Crusade companion of general Arnisant himself (he was a lvl 20 cavalier), this means she was likely lvl 20 herself. All in all it seems like those who passed the test of the starstone were all exceptional individuals. None of them passed by mere chance, not even Cayden.
"The lesson being do not allow yourself to be paralyzed by the evil eye curse. It's quite viable as a suggestion, actually. Demons do this sort of thing ALL of the time, you know? Be smart. Don't let the demon with the evil eyes paralyze you and then STEAL your SOUL!" Thor translates Abaal's words to the wolves. He actually seems to believe what he's saying to be great consuel for them...
Thror glares at the adorable little kitten... "Feline menace... beware! You won't find Thror to be as easy a prey as the plant you just befouled!" *************** Once the pathfinders reach the Rose and Rake Tavern Thror doesn't seem to share the Varisian's enthusiasm for swapping ghost stories... "Ghost stories? No, I don't have any. But I have plenty of demon stories. They usually end in cleansing fire... Such foul subjects should not be used as pastimes... they risk tainting the mind and souls of those who listen to them!" Thror proclaims.
With a well placed strike, possibly born of her sudden need for the substance known as flayleaf, Valrani destroys another ghosts. Only one is left now... Round 03 - Bold may act Elurius
Lirotha
@DM and everyone else: Thanks for running and playing! It was not what I expected but helped get a better feeling of how the new system works!
Elurius tries to subtly convince the manager to part with the apartment's spare key.
She has no problem influencing the woman who gives her the key without complaints. The plan seems to have worked like a charm (literally...) but Elurius did not account for a factor. Wex the clockmaker changing or perhaps "upgrading" the lock. The complex mechanism guarding the door does not seem to work with the manager's key at all!
Left with only their original solution to the problem in front of them the Ravens send Talon to watch for Wex's return while they prepare to enact the rest of their plan.
... 1. Because this game has classes. If some options are so much better than other options then, inevitably, the "less powerful options" will be less appealing than the "powerful" ones. On these same boards we have people who kept posting stuff like "rolling a martial is suboptimal. They can't carry their weight! Play a caster instead!". Classes need to have their identity and their strong and WEAK points. Making classess that can do everything well is not going top make the game good. 2. Saying that's fine to have an imballanced system because the GM can always enforce ballance is not a solution. Especially because those players who want to be able to do whatever they want and build whatever they feel like with no restrictions are usually the same people who then make a fuss when the DM says no to them. 3. This is a cooperative game but you also want the freedom to build characters with no limitations and therefore able to solve any problem on their own? So why do you need to cooperate with other players? Why not solve everything by yourself? Why do you need those other people if not to witness your greatness while you vanquish every challenge and win at D&D???
I read the blog post and I think:"Damn, the developers really love spellcastrs! Now we'll get wizards keeping full caster progression and poaching martial stuff as well!" Then I read the comments and I realize a good part of the fanbase is irritated because said poaching has a few limitations set in place and they want none at all... I'm extremely worried by this choice. I fear the game will end with everyone being casters and people that choose to play a pure martial character will be left far behind in the powercurve. Which is exactly THE problem D&D 3.X had (so including PF1).
Here you go: Bote that I was uncertain about crossing out a couple of things. Once I finished the CS I found out I should have crossed away the Bloodsoriette's entry and the Nox entry (as you killed Bloodsoriette while Nox ran away and remained alive during our game). Please do it yourselves on your CS, you can do it since it's not a GM signed part of the CS. Oren CS
These ones work a little bit differently. You will have to update them yourselves when you get new CS as the possible bonuses depend on what happens in game. Oren - Bonus CS
Got a little surprise for you: thanks top a bit of friendly advice I've finally been able to procure the Chronicle Sheets for this Adventure Path. As soon as I have the time each one of you will receive the PFS chronicles for "In Hell's Bright Shadow". I don't know if you play or have PFS characters (well, in Valrani's case I know) but getting a free CS for a lvl 2-4 character cannot hurt. We'll keep doing this as long as this game will continue. Player's Name:
I'm going to run #9-13 The Lion's Justice at high level tier (10-11) in Gameday B. Currently is shows as The Rose Street Revenge because of a mistake I made when posting the information but I hope to get it fixed soon (thanks to Hmm for her help!). If you want to apply right here and right now here's the link though.
Showing remarkable ability you all manage to avoid Dottari Patrols and get back to the Scourge of Belial without no one noticing. As you board the ship, Lieutenant Nones moves swiftly into action, hustling you and Marquel into the captain’s cabin. Within, the halfling Hopgut plays his violin while Captain Sargaeta sits at his desk, sipping tea and reading poetry by lamplight. He looks up as you enter, but Marquel speaks first, rushing into Sargaeta’s arms. “Here’s your answer, Cassius!” The two embrace and exchange a tender kiss, Sargaeta actually weeping. “Ah, my darling!” the captain cries. “Marquel, my sweet, impulsive boy!” The lovers finally part and Sargaeta looks at you, his eyes awash with gratitude and his stern demeanor for a few moments gone away. "I am in your debt now and as I am a man of my word you shall have what I promised". He tells you then finishes his tea, and hands the teacup to Rocco and asks him to drop it on the wooden floor below.
"Six fragments! Lucky devils. The fragments of this cup represent the number of favors I owe you,” says Sargaeta once the shards are gathered “Anything—short of outright public treason to the queen—I’ll do for you. Simply write your request on a scrap of paper and use it to wrap a shard of the teacup. Deliver it in person, or perhaps via one of your silver raven trinkets. And know that you have earned a friend tonight.” he states. Sargaeta's Favors:
Examples of favors that the captain can easily provide include accompanying you on a single day’s adventures (or sending his first mate in his place); allowing you the use of his crew during a rebellion action (the crew can serve as a bonus infiltrator team in this case); a gift of 2,000 gp (it takes the captain 1d4 days to round up the money); or transporting you, free of charge and under cover, to a neighboring port. Of course you are also free to suggest different favors as well "Ah! One last thing! I had my men ask around for the matter of the kidnapped children and something came up... Have you ever heard about a palce called Lucky Bones?"
Good thing they can eliminate the speed bump that was the Test of the Starstone, right?Good thing the PC's are exceptions to the normal populace of lvl 1-5 commoners right? I wanted to adress this because I find it terribly disingenuous: getting to do SOME exceptional and/or supernatural acts at high level DOES NOT turn a character into a god. It just makes them incredibly good at something very specific. Gods in D&D and Pathfinder are a whole different story powerwise, and exaggerating the issue claiming that a character getting a few legendary feats when he/she reaches high level automatically turns them into gods appears to be just an attempt to manipulate the issue with false assumptions.
I like what I see here. Legendary seems fine to me. Think about what Lvl 15+ represents. There's justy a handful of people in the whole world who can reach this level. They are basically superhuman and can do things "normals" cannot hope to mimic. As for the in game reason, they are just that good. Much like you rationalize the bearded guy with the tinfoil hat altering reality by snapping his fingers because he's read a book and burned some stuff you can rationalize someone so impossibly skilled that he's able to precisely dissipate the kinetic energy of any fall he takes without being injured. He's just that good, period. Think of legendary characters (Pcs and NPCs) as supernatural. You have no problems with having dragons in your games, right? Then you should have no problems with legendary characters being able to survive falling from any height. P.S. Legendary skills as shown are actually pretty mild powerwise. They compare to low level spells at most. Yet some people feel like this is way out of line. If PF2 were to keep non casters (even high level ones) firmly anchored to "reality" while giving casters the usual pass ("Because magic!", "There's a spell for that!", "Non casters cannot do their job, better build a wizard!") PF2 would completely fail to fix one of PF1 most glaring problems imo.
Is he? He first showed up in the early 90s, didn't he? And 3.0 didn't even come out until 2000. I think it's pretty clear he was intended to represent 2.0 (although I don't know much beyond the early stuff so it's possible the nature of his portrayal changed after 3.0/3.5.)ElminsterWell he is a 3.P caster, so he can't be a counterpoint. Doesn't matter when Elminster was introduced, he was and always will be its creator's self insert and the epitome of a Mary Sue (Gary Stu?) character. According to Greenwood Elminster is a fighter/cleric/rogue/wizard/archmage/chosen of Mystra. He's supremely powerful with his magic, immortal, has bedded the Goddess of Magic, got her to do his bidding more than once, slept with a few of the 7 sisters, which he was supposedly the guardian of.Elminster would be THE poster child for the CMD if it were not for the fact he's such a blatant self insert that he's well beyond the concept of CMD and in a whole category of his own.
The game can be played without a 20 in a starting attribute now and I'm confident it will be possible to play it without a 20 in starting attribute in PF2. P.S. In PF1 you can easily play a dwarf wizard with a starting int of 18 and 16 con.
Thanks for reading and commenting everyone.
Edit: @ Iron_Matt17: Yes a Chaotic character can "fall" (or "raise" in certain cases). For example the "Liberator" outlined above would fall if he forced someone to do something against his or her will, if he could free slaves but chose not to do it and so on. The matter is these aspects embody and are powered by an alignment. The moment they start acting against it they start losing their powers. Since a character can act contrary to the Chaotic ideal he can also lose the power bestowed upon him. Yet the Paladin is not a "chassis" is a very specific class. Reducing it to a "chassis" is just making the Paladin generic instead of specific and I for one absolutely don't want that.
As expected the recent blog about the PF2 paladin stirred up quite the debate.
Here's my take on the 9 alignment "aspects" then: LG → The Paladin → This is basically the guy we all know and love. He fights evil, defends law, respects authority, and generally speaking he tries to lead by example.
NG → The Benefactor → This guy aims to do good above all. Whenever he encounters evil he fights it. He may not be as obvious or as bold in his actions as the Paladin is, he may even choose stealth in order to accomplish evil's defeat because making good is the most important thing. He doesn't have strong feelings towards law or authority. If they are good he follows them, if not he opposes them but the system holds a limited appeal for him, obviously evil laws need to go but having good people are more important than having good laws.
CG → The Liberator → To the Liberator Freedom is Good and Good is Freedom. This aspect fights against evil but he's suspicious of the system, doesn't care about laws and does not respect authority even if those in power are good people, because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. He may trust people who shared his battles but this has to be earned with actions he will never put faith in someone because of his title or social position.
LN → The Enforcer → Law is absolute and must be obeyed without question says the Enforcer. He doesn't care for good or evil, just for following the law to the letter because for him that's its own reward. The Enforcer will work for the system and violently oppose those who threaten it. Morality is an alien concept for the Enforcer unless the act of following the rules and authority figures could be considered moral, which he probably does.
N → The Equalizer → Excesses of any kind are bad, moderation in all things is the way to go. The Equalizer sees himself as something of a necessity, someone tasked with stopping extremist alignments to unbalance creation. If good or evil, law of chaos rule the land he will oppose them and try to establish balance between opposing forces by whatever means necessary. Once the scales are balanced he will try to keep them that way even if this could very well be a futile endeavor and his work never truly done.
CN → The Anarchist → The Anarchist embodies absolute freedom of the self and resents those who would try to impose rules on others. The Anarchist is not malevolent, he does not go out of his way to hurt people in order to get what he wants but he does not feel compelled to help others as well. The Anarchist believes governments, laws, authority figures are wrong by themselves, that they are dangerous and need to be erased, so he will violently oppose them whenever possible.
LE → The Tyrant → Laws are needed and authority must be respected. A working, functional system is something precious that should be cherished... and exploited for personal gain by those that can master it. Superiors should be respected... until you can prove yourself better than them and take their place within the system. Subjects are inferior because they deserve it, their lot is unquestioning obedience. They should be grateful for being allowed to be a cog in the Machine you keep well oiled and functional. Rebellion and defiance must be stomped out and punished severely. The Tyrant will make use of other people in order to increase his personal power with little regard for their safety. To him they exist to serve but as long as they know their place he will not act against them although he Tyrant will feel the need to put them in their place. He will also prove a relentless foe to those who threaten the system he works within.
NE → The Malefactor → The Malefactor will go out of his way not only for personal gain but also to make sure other people suffer and the conditions are right for evil to triumph. This aspect actually worships evil and wants its malevolent rule to spread. In order to do so he tries to cause people to suffer and to work against each other rewarding the most heinous and depraved of acts. To further this agenda rules and laws may be useful but ultimately the system is not important by itself. What counts is that people do evil onto each other. Fortunately the Malefactor is there to ensure this will happen. The Malefactor can be subtle or flashy with his actions, he's a pragmatist and will do things the way he thinks is best to get to his goals.
CE → The Antipaladin → To the Antipaladin life is simple. The strong shall do as they please and the weak shall suffer the consequences. Law and order are just lies, chains forged to keep the strong to rule and therefore they need to be destroyed. A true sociopath, the Antipaladin doesn't care for anyone else but himself and proves no remorse for his actions, no matter how heinous. The Antipaladin may solemnly give his word to an ally and then betray him an hour later because he thinks he will gain something by doing so. The Antipaladin rules and leads others because of his personal strength and the fear he inspires. He knows and enjoys this and may resort to torture and murder just to remind everyone why he's boss.
This is what I think these "aspects" should be thematically. It goes without saying everyone of them should have different mechanics and different ways to "fall".
If thats the type you play with it makes sense you need strict rules to beat them into submission with.I loathe the absolutist gamer. Things like anathema just fuel them. Id prefer if instead of always/never statements they would say what the deity favors. Like, "Shelyn looks favorably on those that use diplomacy before resorting to hostility." Then, instead of stripping powers when characters dont follow the tenets, they get a boon for fulfilling them. It's not about the people I play with. It's about people asking no rules or limitations of any sorts over their actions. It's very simple: unlike a paladin a cleric is someone who is always granted power by a deity. This superior being gives fantastic abilities to its most devout followers in exchange of their faith and devotion. If such followers act against the requirements of their deity in a sustained or particularly blatant way the deity notices. Depending on the nature and gravity of the offense it can warn its sinning follower, punish him or even strip him of his powers. This is nothing new and the GM has the power to implement such "punishments" if he sees fit. This doesn't mean the GM should do so lightheartedly or arbitrarily, of course but a player should not expect to play a cleric and be allowed to act against his deity's tenements with no retribution incoming.Asking for codes of conducts to be removed "because unscrupolous GMs may use these rules to stip away a cleric's powers" is not even an argument. A bad GM already has the power to do that, code of conduct or not. |
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