Alright, I've decided to go with Marcallon as I've never done this type of character before. He should be very intriguing to play in this kind of campaign. He's not a loner type, and I'm not gonna play him as one, despite what you might think you read under his personality profile; He's more of a "desperately looking for people to appreciate him" kinda guy. Obviously this is going to make him properly loyal to those he befriends – hint: the other party members, or at least some of them. (I'm not gonna force friendliness on all the other characters, but I will force it a little on at least a few if neccessary)
Marcallon Lynch Appearance: The once pale skin of his Chelaxian heritage has been tanned a deep, rustic brown by countless hours outdoors, but many other typical Chelaxian features still shine through: a sharp chin, black hair and dark eyes. He's stocky and at least a few inches above 6 feet. Stubble covers his cheeks, but a proper 'stache lies like a fat larvae on his upper lip, matching his bushy brows.
Upon his brow sits a simple felt hat of an undecided brown color, casting a protective shade over his face. He wears a simple khaki shirt with a single breastpocket over the heart, and a pair of greyish-brown pants together with sturdy walking boots and a jacket in the same color. He also wears a shoulder bag and a canvas belt; the latter which holds his gun, a powderhorn, a bullet pouch and a machete.
Background: Born on his family's coffee farm, to parents maintaining their Chelaxian citizenship despite Sargava's break with Cheliax, Marcallon and his brother had an easy childhood of slave-funded luxuries. Time was spent getting educated, exploring or playing "hellknights and hoodlums" and similar games; generally, time was leasurely. However, Marcallon dreamt of becoming a Hellknight – a true champion of the Chelaxian ways – and did not waste too much time playing around.
With some help from what could well be called the Chelish Embassy in Sargava, and the family connections earned through selling a luxury ware such as coffee, Marcallon received a letter from Lictor Uro Adom of the Order of the Chain, accepting him as a Hellknight Armiger – a Hellknight initiate – in his order in Corentyn, Cheliax, once he reached 23 years; until such a time, he was permitted to train with the local Hellknights in Eleger called the Order of the Coil.
Upon receiving this news, Marcallon hurriedly went to Eleger to start his training with the Coil. However, despite the Lictor's letter, the Hellknights in Sargava refused to entertain the fancies of the young man, whom they considered nothing more than a pampered boy. Marcallon would not stand for such humiliation, and demanded at least the initiate garb and gear, which, maybe surprisingly, they granted him.
Returning home triumphantly, he had to show off to his family. It was a great show, out in the fields in the dry season. Until It came time to show off the Alchemist's Fire that was part of the standard gear. Marcallon doesn't remember what happened, it could have been the wind or a bad throw, but quite suddenly, a wild fire was blazing across the coffee fields. Capricious and volatile winds spread the flames wide and seperated the family, and Marc watched in horror, helplessly, as the fire consumed his nieces and his brave father, as he tried to save them.
Not only had the fire consumed Marc's nieces and his father, but also his sister-in-law, a score slaves and more than half the plantation.
At the funeral, Marc felt the blame palpably from his mother and brother. Like a swarm of biting mosquitoes on a humid, windless day. He decided then to leave; telling himself they would be better off without him, without him there to constantly remind them of the disaster HE caused. He would have to help them some other way.
Now, a few years later, with several get-rich-quick schemes gone wrong and some real-world experience under his belt, Marcallon Lynch finds himself anticipating the journey further south. Maybe there he will find forgiveness through success...?
Personality: Proud, arrogant and with a temper, you wouldn't think think to call Marcallon a popular guy. However, his gallows humor in the face of adversity, his natural leadership skills; his no-nonsense attitude and his willingness to be the first in the lion's den brings people to follow him despite his flaws.
People who have known him for a while may find him to be a simple man and easy to read, yet he holds depth enough to surprise even his old acquantances regularly.
In many ways, Marc can be considered a typical Chel. He's proud, arrogant, and values family and tradition. However, he is clearly shaped by his past mistakes and by the toll of the life on the savannah and in the jungles, and despite his arrogance knows that HE is the ONLY one that's going to turn his life around. After all, why should anyone else care to?
This all leaves Marcallon a fairly lonely fellow. He tries to numb his loneliness with drink, but this just serves to push even more people away, as he gets even more temperamental, even violent, when he's on the bottle.
Working on it. The writing part is a bit difficult with these characters, as there are so many angles I wish to explore. Piling it all up is an option, but that would be a weird character indeed.
I've settled on the names, and I'm about 75% done with the backgrounds. The character builds are still undecided, but has been boiled down to 2 and 4 options for both characters.
Marcallon Lynch is a brawler or an inquisitor. He has a firearm, and he was accepted to become a hellknigh initiate. Plans changed when he f!$+ed up and killed his brother's children and he went into a self-imposed exile.
Bandar (Subject to change) is a either a wild child brawler, a hunter of some sort, a druid or a shaman; for the companion and general fit into the "mystic tracker" theme. He used to work at the Lynch family's farm, but after a fire he saw his chance to escape.
For brevity, I'm entertwining their backgrounds, opening up a lot of themes to explore, depending on which character I choose to go with :)
I've been reading about Sargava and related topics, and I'm considering two options. The first is a Sargava-born Chelaxian on a sort of self-imposed exile because of family troubles. The second is a Zenj Mwangi slave on the run, trying to escape his masters and earn his freedom. Would either be problematic?
I'm envisioning the Chelaxian as a sort of big game hunter, maybe a bit stuck up and arrogant, but largely ignorant of the actual hardships of the world because he's from a well to-do family. He also has a temper, and expects to be listened to, especially when he has been drinking, which he does often, then he might even get violent. He probably has a firearm, but since you already have a gunslinger, he won't be.
The Zenj is probably a tracker or a a runner. After being alone in the wilds – On the savannah or in the jungle – for some time, his loneliness brings him back to civilization. Or at least a semblance of such. He's cautious and does not trust easily, but never tries to stab others in the back. He lives as he hopes others would. Maybe his loneliness brought him a companion of some sort, either in the shape of a familiar or an actual animal companion.
Alright, I've taken an approach mildly different from usual with Vance. Instead of writing out his full background, I've only detailed the crossroads that lead him to the beginning of the campaign. This allows for fluidity in his background details for the sake of the game. That said, if you'd rather have a full summary background, I can do that as well. It is my hope to do so in the end, but simply for character generation, this seemed a much smarter path.
An imp shrieked gleefully as it flew towards the startled horses. My whip cracked and its glee turned to anguish in a howl.
“What was that for you meanie!” it yelled in a high pitch. “I didn’t do nuffin!” It was an uncommonly ugly thing. Harelip and skin an irritated red, with nipples pierced by rings of a strange green metal. It had no horns, as was normal for its kind, but its bat like wings were the color of pig’s skin.
“Stop harassing my horses, or you’ll have worse than that.” Voice like ice, I tapped the blade at my hip lightly. “I hear your kind doesn’t take too well to silver.”
The imp’s yellow eyes narrowed. I might have talked big, but if this was someone’s familiar, I was in big trouble. This kind of work always but me on edge, and I hated it. Worse, I hated my father for putting me up to it over and over again.
“I daresay I’ve got the right man!” the imp exclaimed after a moment, breaking into a smile with teeth that reminded me of the tines. I shuddered. Smiling wider, the imp continued. “Say, do you know what you’re transporting?”
My mouth went dry, “No clue.” Sweat trickled down my back despite the evening cold. I did not know, but I knew it was some sort of contraband. This imp might just be the doom my father’s work was sure to buy me, although much sooner than I would have liked.
“That won’t do at all.” The imp said. “Why, I know, and I hafn’t even seen the box!” It shrieked that gleeful shriek again, looking me in the eyes as it circled the anxious horses.
A strange calm took hold of me. I realized that my choices were really very limited: Kill the imp, bargain with the imp, or end up on the tines. I recognized the calm as a sense of purpose. Bargaining was not my strong point, but with a little luck I could kill the imp without further incident. Hells, I really wanted to strike my blade into its twisted little heart.
“There are two hellknights heading your way. They haf sensed the thing in your carriage and are coming to investigate. If you want, I can vouch for your innocence.” The imp brought me out of my reverie. Panic almost took me, but then I grasped the imp’s words.
“What’s the price?” The imp had offered up a bargain on its own, I would be a fool to hesitate. Yet trepidation festered in the back of my mind.
“Why, the details are much too intricate to discuss before it is too late for you.” The imp hovered over the horses as it spoke “In short, though, you will offer your discretion and your serfices to my master in a simple matter in Cheapside.” It looked at me patiently, waiting for me to state my agreement to its terms. Seeing no other way out, I assented.
“Ah yes by the way, your accomplices are going to take the fall. Hope you’re ok with that.” It laughed and I saw the unmistakable shapes of two hellknights at the end of the street. I really hate devils.
Thus started my work for house Thrune, and I must say now, a few years later, that it sure beats working for my father. Lawful work keeps my conscience clear, and better monetary compensation keeps my pouch lined golden.
Background:
Vance's father, Lukain Magravi, is a Varisian of Scarzni heritage. Lukain makes a living in Egorian by working closely with Zandros and his Goatherd, as well as other criminals. Vance has tried to change his ways multiple times, but to no avail. Lukain is a staunch Desnan.
Vance's mother, Eudomia Tauranor, is dead, but she used to be a famous opera singer. His father has never revealed the details of her death to him, but Vance suspects that it has to do with his father's illicit activities.
Lukain and Eudomia met in Korvosa during Eudomia's first tour to the fringes of Cheliax and beyond. They fell in love, and Eudomia employed Lukain as her personal, designated coachman, and bought a beautiful Korvosan carriage to ride in. Lukain renounced his criminal ways to become her fulltime driver until the time of her death, moving with her to Egorian. This is the same carriage Vance drives now.
Notes:
The details of the imp and his master is left to the discretion of the GM, as I do not know of the details of the Adventure Path.
It could be interesting if Vance's father is on the other side of the conflict, and they clash at some point during the Adventure.
Vance doesn't like devils at all. He also doesn't particularly like House Thrune. However, as a second generation immigrant, he does what he has to to survive.
Any advice on how long one should wait before "reclicking" the download button after Personalizing the PG?
I've tried 1 minute, 15 minutes, 25 minutes and 30 minutes. None have worked so far. I attempted 45 and 60, but I got logged out before that and had to start over.
Well, I'd love to play an Eldritch Knight (Fighter/Wizard). His first level would be fighter, but he would go wizard from there, and eldritch knight when possible. Why that be passable for an arcane character? :)
I could not help but notice there is a Lore Warden up there. That archetype is PFS flavored. Will the flavors of such things not be required, for archetypes, feats, and Prestige Classes?
*Potential* lore warden – But good question.
At the moment I'm just considering my options, and those two character archetypes seemed to fit my concept the best. For now (still looking). I was also looking at the "Calistrian Hunter" fighter archetype, which is a poor fit by name, but not so much mechanically.
I will be writing up the following character idea:
Vance Magravi – a coachman – is tired of serving as a dispensable tool for various rich snobs, and decides to take an active approach to changing things up. When an opportunity presents itself (the start of the campaign—assumption) he takes it.
I'm not certain about much, but I am certain of this: He is half-chelaxian-half-scarzni, he is a coachman, he upholds the law stringently, and he has an unhealthy fascination with blood/gore/violence.
At this point I'm not even sure what class he is though, so I still have a good deal of work ahead of me.
reinventing my old character, I've brainstormed this thus far:
Daniel is born in Karcau, Ustalav.
His mother was an opera singer, and his father was a pharasmin priest.
He has a younger brother.
A clash between a cultist of the old gods, a scarzni werewolf and a vampire resulted in a heap of collateral damage: His brother was mentally addled by a failed attempt at possession, his mother was turned into a vampire, and he himself was afflicted with lycanthropy.
His brother has since been admitted to the asylum in Caliphas, his mother has disappeared, and his lycanthropy has been cured. However, his studies have revealed a way to call upon the curse through alchemy (Mutagen).
Daniel went to Lepidstadt university (Also where he was cured), where he studied mainly alchemy, engineering and medicine.
Daniel feels that in a world of magic, both divine and arcane, the common man without such should still have a means to protect and defend himself, and he believes firearms are the way to go. Thus, he is dedicated to spreading their use.
At his core, what drives him are 3 hopes: 1. To find a cure for whatever it is that ails his brother; 2. To arm the common man against the dark forces of the world and to cut out the corruption from within Ustalav (not the world, at current.), and; 3. To find and help his mother.
As an educated man with the title "doctor", he considers himself the surgeon that will cut out the taint and heal the land. As a hobby, he is creating a pair of homunculi to aid him.
There are a few incongruities and holes, but I believe I've got a good base :)
Since this is set slightly in the future, maybe we have some creative freedom in regards to the state of affairs in Golarion?
My first thought is to play a character I designed for a Council of Thieves game that died. He's an investigator (steel hound) with a deep fascination of the occult. He is also a liberal socialist and wants to bring guns to the people, at a profit, of course. Originally from Ustalav where he graduated from Lepidstadt university, he decided to move to Absalom for his business to flourish, and now runs the store "Steel Panacea" where he sells guns and alchemical creations. I imagine his efforts may have had an influence on the change in gun availability and pricing.
My second idea is a Dhampir (or maybe an oread) from Galt. He would have been an executioner – a Gray Gardener – that had to leave when the gray gardeners were no longer entitled their anonymity; OR because he believed the anonymity of the gray gardeners was a risk to a healthy devolpment of Galt, and was branded a traitor. Not quite set on this. I'm also thinking he used to be ignorant of the true horrors of the world, having seen only the monstrous acts of humans, and the other core races, but who had a rude awakening after a close-encounter with some undead or other horror from the dark. Maybe and Urdefhan believing him to be a vampire or something.
Also, a mechanical question: Would the investigator be able to take the alchemist discovery "Promethean Disciple"? He would like to craft homunculi, but there is no good way for an investigator to do so.
I have a concept that might function in such a game.
A once shepherd on the hunt for a dragon. Said dragon ate all of the shepherd's sheep, and now he seeks vengeance together with his aging ram. First, however, he has to learn the secrets of dragon slaying. This would be (part of?) his story.
I imagine him as someone of viking-ish heritage of the hunter class wielding a shepherd's staff (quarterstaff)
So far he only knows that he will need allies. His only source on dragon slaying mentions a "sword/lance" a "shield" and a "mount" – allegory for companions.
Aesthetically:
I think a "signature" for each alias would be nice; a place you could dump all the things people currently put in the tagline, and more. I'm not a fan of using the taglines for this at all. I think it's a solution that works, but is aesthetically unpleasing.
I would also like it if the different tabs had the same rules in regards to code-prose. Some tabs follow different rules that I think look dumb. Examples like line distance and lists that don't jump into the post for clarity. (like in the gameplay tab, god that's frustrating)
Quality of life:
spoilers within spoilers.
Macros. Instant paste-in of saved text you use often, such as attack and damage rolls, saved to your alias. This could stand in completely for the signature idea above.
You decided against running The Price of Immortality trilogy? Anyway, I'm interested in this as well :)
In summary: I'll be applying with Jason Lynch, the Dungeon Delver. Jason is a taldan occultist from Qadira seeking a long lost osirian artifact said to allow safe passage to and fro the Akashic Record. Not for himself, but for the Scarab Sages faction of the Pathfinder Society. While not above heroics and self-sacrifice when it comes to his friends, he is more motivated by uncovering lost knowledge and antiquities than any greater good.
"Unlock the Wisdom of the Past for a Brigther Future"
My submission will be the human paladin Harn Serenada, sacred servant of Shelyn sworn against grotesquery. (image)
Character choices:
I've chosen the Zealous drawback for an additional trait. I thought it would fit well with a young, maybe slightly naive, paladin that may be trying too hard.
Traits: Signature Moves (social), Sandpoint Faithful (campaign) and Unswaying Love (religion)
The masterwork item from Signature Moves is a gold-plated greatsword.
Feats: Fey Foundling and Weapon Focus
Adventuring skills: Bluff, Diplomacy and Knowledge (Religion)
Background skills: Artistry (woodcarving) and Linguistics
Using the above, I've written a background and a personality profile. (I'm not an amazing writer so this is the best I could do on short notice. I'll try to improve upon it continuosly. Make it more concise.)
Background:
The circumstances of Harn’s birth is a mystery. He was found as a babe, in a wicker basket hanging from the branches of a grand apple tree decorated with hundreds of small, lit candles by the old painter Tino Benani, who discovered the fey scene on his pilgrimage to one of Shelyn’s temples.
Tino brought the boy child with him to the temple, intending to leave him in the care of the priests there. However during the journey, Tino had come to care for the child, and he could not bear to leave him. Instead Tino offered to serve as a priest at the temple, and adopted the boy himself. He named the boy Harn Serenada in loving memory of his wife and child who had both died, prompting his pilgrimage in the first place.
Harn’s life in the temple mirrored in many ways that of an ordinary priest. He was educated in worldly matters, and on the teachings of Shelyn. However Harn, who had experience with only a few of the many facets of love, struggled. He understood the love towards a parent, and that kindness begot kindness, but the rose-colored love depicted in many a work of art, or the self-sacrificing love described in plays or literature eluded him.
It was not until he was 16, and well on his way to becoming a paladin in the service of Shelyn, that Harn finally understood.
As a temple dedicated to Shelyn, the temple had many visiting couples come pledge their love before Shelyn, and receive her blessing as they spoke their vows. One such couple arrived on a beautiful spring morning as Harn sat in the garden, working on a carving of the temples appletree. The young woman immediately caught Harns attention.
Harn was captivated. Not only by her beauty, but by her grace, her kindness, and her faith. Unfortunately, she was just as enraptured with him. Drunk with love, They broke her recent vows in the gardens underneath the brances of the appletree as the sun sat.
Her husband, enraged by grief and heartbreak, challenged Harn to single combat in hopes of regaining at least a sense of honor. Tino and the priests, furious that Harn’s actions might have compromised the sanctity of the temple, threatened dismissal.
Confronted by the anger, frustration and grief of the husband, Harn finally grasped the depth of his malfeasance. Dawn the day of the duel, Harn showed up wielding but a single thorned rose. In the temple gardens, kneeling before the husband, Harn begged forgiveness. The husband struck him down, but just as he was about to deal the finishing blow, he crumbled in tears. The woman, only a spectator at that point, rushed to Harn’s side, tearful and wailing, but suddenly she did not seem so lovely. Harn sensed something. Something he had not sensed before. A strong evil presence emanated from the woman, and Harn was repulsed by her very touch. Snarling, the woman revealed herself; tiny horns, bat-like wings, and a sinuous tail betraying her demonic nature.
Holy fire filled the gardens as the succubus escaped towards the sky, laughing at the futile efforts. Harn’s rage burned within him, a golden flame of righteous fire. In one motion he drew his father’s sword and, with a strength fuelled by the divine will of Shelyn herself, threw it. The sword burst into a white blaze as it pierced the flying succubus. There was no scream as the demon fell to the ground, only a silent sigh as the succubus disintegrated into the breeze.
As a reward for his valor and heroism, Harn was awarded a golden sword, crafted in the likeness of his own wooden training sword, as well as a holy symbol cast in solid silver.
Now, 4 years later and a full-fledged paladin in Shelyn’s service, Harn has come to Sandpoint to celebrate the consecration of the new Sandpoint Cathedral. Maybe sell a few carvings too, if he is lucky.
Personality profile:
After the ordeal with the succubus and his own infraction, Harn's dedication to Shelyn has been unwavering, albeit a bit zealous. He puts a great deal of faith in his god, and as such tend not to worry too much. Harn often meditates on the paladin's code as he carves fine objects of wood, and the thought that his creations and actions might bring joy to others makes him genuinly happy.
Having spent the majority of his life up til this point in the temple, He can appear a bit naive. Harn is aware of this, and actively works toward bettering himself in that regard.
Appearance:
Harn (pronounced Arn) has a sturdy and muscular, but rather small frame. He has slightly tanned skin and short, golden blode hair. His brown eyes are kind, and reveal a green hue under the right light.
He wears a typical varisian scarf over a simple suit of aging but well maintained armor. A sword, with a blade seemingly of gold, is secured along his back with a set of leather straps spanning his torso, going down and fastening at a simple, thick leather belt with a large wooden belt buckle, emblazoned with the holy symbol of Shelyn, from which hangs a single dagger and a belt pouch.
GM, would a paladin suit your game? I can't quite glean whether it would be appropriate, considering the fact that they get their spells at 4th level. However, it seems someone rolled up a bloodrager, which is why I'm asking :)
Edit—Nevermind, I missed the part about 4th level spellcasters. Writing a paladin up now.
5-08 The Confirmation (1-2)
6-10 The Wounded Wisp (1-2)
I had my eyes on both of those actually. I was quite fond of the fact that they had the same NPC appear in both, so I was wondering: Are there any other scenarios that share NPCs in that way? Without them being directly linked, that is.
I'm on the board for a small tabletop association, and we've recently decided to try our hands at running a few Pathfinder Society events. Of course, for us to play we need to have the scenarios, and I was wondering which scenarios you would recommend? I've read some reviews, but most of them are somewhat unfulfilling, if not downright bad.
For now the most important scenarios are the ones that can be played through by level 1 characters, but higher tier scenario recommendations are welcome as well.
And I think that I'll select based solely on the basic information I asked. I haven't tried this approach yet and figure it's as good a time to try as any.
I won't discourage anyone from making the character sheet/posting up character information but it won't give you an advantage.
In that case, would you prefer something a little more concrete than the loose base I provided initially?
For reference:
Runge wrote:
Dunstan Hook-hand, human or oread brawler of some sort.
Are you going to be picking with only the basic information you asked for in the OP, or do you want more as we go along? I thought up some stuff for the character base I submitted, but if you'd rather wait with any more information until after you've made your pick, I won't post it yet :)
For consideration: Dunstan Hook-hand, human or oread brawler of some sort. A cruel grip rather than a literal hook hand is the story behind Dunstan's nickname, so he would have some grappling feats.
He could do extremely well as a navy officer, a sky pirate or just a tough sailor on a merchant ship, so he's fairly versatile in that regard.
I hope you will accept my deepest and sincerest apologies.
Some time ago, I was in a fairly small scale accident at work. It's not quite clear what happened, but apparently I had been overworking myself for far too long, and my body finally gave in. I passed out and woke up in hospital, having forgotten a great many "non-essential" things. I had developed a medium-mild case of amnesia.
It is only just a few days ago I started to remember about these PhP games I participated in, and according to my psychiatrist, they were most likely part of the issue.
Unfortunately I won't be picking up the game just yet. My psychiatrist has a hard time evaluating how much energy I put into a PhB game, so he can't condone me spending any energy on it at all. This is somehat of a cop-out on my part as well, as I'm not sure how much energy it takes for me to play online either, and in an effort to avoid a similar experience again, I'm taking the safe route for now.
I hope you will accept my deepest and sincerest apologies.
Some time ago, I was in a fairly small scale accident at work. It's not quite clear what happened, but apparently I had been overworking myself for far too long, and my body finally gave in. I passed out and woke up in hospital, having forgotten a great many "non-essential" things. I had developed a medium-mild case of amnesia.
It is only just a few days ago I started to remember about these PhP games I participated in, and according to my psychiatrist, they were most likely part of the issue.
Unfortunately I won't be picking up the game just yet. My psychiatrist has a hard time evaluating how much energy I put into a PhB game, so he can't condone me spending any energy on it at all. This is somehat of a cop-out on my part as well, as I'm not sure how much energy it takes for me to play online either, and in an effort to avoid a similar experience again, I'm taking the safe route for now.
I hope you will accept my deepest and sincerest apologies.
Some time ago, I was in a fairly small scale accident at work. It's not quite clear what happened, but apparently I had been overworking myself for far too long, and my body finally gave in. I passed out and woke up in hospital, having forgotten a great many "non-essential" things. I had developed a medium-mild case of amnesia.
It is only just a few days ago I started to remember about these PhP games I participated in, and according to my psychiatrist, they were most likely part of the cause/issue.
Unfortunately I won't be picking up the game just yet. My psychiatrist has a hard time evaluating how much energy I put into a PhB game, so he can't condone me spending any energy on it at all. This is somehat of a cop-out on my part as well, as I'm not sure how much energy it takes for me to play online either, and in an effort to avoid a similar experience again, I'm taking the safe route for now.
In our group I played a druid/storm kindler, and when I used Wild Shape to turn into something with a slam attack, I used that damage rather than my unarmed strike, as per the Whirlwind Universal Monster Ability. Don't know if it's legal, but it makes sense?
You should update your Dex to damage houserule. In your CoT recruitment thread, you mentioned that it's only for melee weapons that are finessable. Might be ideal to clarify this earlier than later :)
Daniel R. Peterson is in the works. He's a steel hound investigator who's rather distrait, which I've emulated with the Oblivious drawback. I'm not quite certain of his third trait yet, but for now I've given him Black Powder Fortune. I'm working under the assumption that the archetype replaces Poison Lore rather than the non-existent Poison Use.
I'm not quite there yet in the background and personality profile, but I can summarize before I finish: Daniel is a Liberal Socialist who wants to bring guns to the people – At a minor profit, of course. However, his business concept met an unexpected amount of resistance in his homeland, Ustalav, so he has recently moved to the homeland of his now deceased parents: Cheliax. Strangely, he feels a sort of nostalgic connection to the country, even as all he ever knew of it was the stories his parents told him.
He's a graduate of the University of Lepidstadt, Ustalav, where he studied mainly alchemy and engineering, but also a bunch of other subjects.
--Dexterity to attack and damage is free, 100%. This is for all classes, and this goes for both melee AND ranged combat...
So does this mean that bows, crossbows, firearms and thrown weapons all get Dex to damage?
That is correct. If you are using a bow, crossbow, or a thrown weapon, you can use the higher of your Strength or Dexterity for damage. Firearms can only add Dexterity, for the obvious reasons.
Perfect game for my Steel Hound Investigator then! I'll read up on the Player's Guide and post him if he fits :)
Alchemists and investigators can craft with the Master Craftsman feat. What are you looking to craft? I could possibly see getting rid of the limitations on what crafting feats you can take.
I'll just explain my, as of yet unpolished, character concept:
A shoanti investigator (steel hound) of the Sklar-Quah. She is no longer with her Quah, as her fascination with the ancient thassilonian civilization was considered wrong and unhealthy by the tribe's leaders. She was given a choice: stop seeking things that ought not to be sought, or leave the Quah. She chose to leave. Her fascination started as a child, when she found a pistol close to one of the Thassilonian monoliths, and mistakenly thought the two were connected. She still believes so, but she might learn different over the course of the campaign (I expect so at least). The pistol broke down after she learned how it functioned, but she has kept it ever since. In game terms, she has the gun at level 1, but she only figures out a way to make it work again by level 2.
She is still spiritual, and wears small totem-like beads as jewelry, and makes a new one everytime something big happens in her life. So far she has 3-7 (depending on what my background story reveals). Unfortunately, she also has a fair amount of unhealthy habbits: Alchohol, smoke, maybe even drugs, those kinds of things.
I plan to take the traits "Scholar of the Ancients" and "Shoanti Steed".
My hope was to be able to craft Homunculi at some point, which requires Craft Construct. This homunculi would act as the Doctor Watson to my Sherlock Holmes. At the very least, I assume there won't be any firearms as loot, so I'd take Craft Magic Arms and Armor under any circumstances. Alternatively I would take a leadership type feat and gain a cohort that can act as my Doctor Watson instead. 4 feats is a hefty price for a homunculus after all.
1) A book about how to create a more modern version setting for Pathfinder (like a version of d20 Modern), allowing you to run Urban Fantasy style campaigns (like Earthbound, Dresden Files, Like A Dragon, Persona, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Dimension20's Fantasy High). Something to act as an in-between for Pathfinder and Starfinder.
I stan for Streetfinder.
I'd be down for that too. I think I can make my big time travel campaign work these days given the compatibility of Pathfinder and Starfinder, but I'm sure there's more design space there...
I'll throw my hat in for the hybrid book series too. I've been beating the drum for a while for a time traveling adventure similar to Chrono Trigger, though that would might require a modern setting as well to really nail, or at least a modern equipment book...
I'd be okay with buying the ability to start higher with achievement points, even because you have to run or play Pathfinder to get them. I routinely start off my characters at higher levels because of GM chronicles. For a ton of folks, that wouldn't be an issue. But for a public game day, that's where you'll have problems. It's the brand new player who wants to try the cool blog build or someone who's trying "basically 5e" for the first time that worries me. The only way I can see to screen for "I have a solid understanding of the rules of the game" is making it achievement point gated. Even then, you'll have issues, just not as many, I don't think.
I know this isn't probably what you're referring to, but I think I like the idea of having certain achievement point gates for character building. When you start out players can build a level one character, and if you get a certain number of lifetime achievement points earned you have the option to build a character at first or second level. At another threshold you get the option to build first through third level, and so forth. After they're built, characters continue to progress with XP normally.
This gives an options for experienced players to skip the low level grind only after they prove they've got the systems knowledge to do it, and doubly rewards GMs because they're probably (hopefully) much more familiar with the system than players are.
Not sure how it would work in practice, but I know it can be a drag grinding through those first few levels. It would also be helpful if we are having a narrower band to let experienced players build low level (but not first level) characters to fit into a particular level band.
Not sure how this would work in practice, but I like the idea.
I wonder, could there be an option to add the Foundry module to the subscription? My issue with the current changes is to keep the subscription and then add the Foundry module is approximately $35, assuming I have the enough gold to keep my discount with the new store it would $51 for the sub and the module. If there was an option to subscribe and get everything for $35ish. I at least would look at doing that.
It doesn't help with those who decide to run it later, but it would at least be something.
I'd be down for this. A foundry & pdf adventure subscription would ease a lot of the issues I'm having with this transition, and I don't think I'm alone in that.
Yep, I'll add in my .02 also. I've recently had to cancel my subscriptions due to not needing the physical product any more...and now having to buy both the pdf and the foundry module make me reconsider things even more. Hopefully there's some new solution soon, or there's some way to at least bundle the foundry module with the pdf...
Indirect sequels can be a lot of fun, but they strike me as hard to do well. The characters in the APs could have done any one of a half dozen or more different things and having to account for all of that...it leads to a bit of dilution. Curtain Call worked well from a readthrough perspective because it is all about the previous AP, but I don't think I would like that as a regular thing.
My personal preference would be to see APs set in specific regions, or around specific themes, without having to be a direct sequel. For instance, let's take a hypothetical AP around a group of PCs being a group of Eagle Knights in service of Andoran, who go around the inner sea poking Cheliax in the eye before finally defeating a corrupt governor and ending their adventure at tenth level. This one could be a bit campy, a bit Saturday Morning Cartoon with a small group and slightly comical villains.
The next AP set in Andoran starts with a war between Cheliax and Andoran, and in the beginning of the AP mention is made that one of the reasons might be the actions of the PCs in the previous AP, but it might be any one of a half dozen reasons as well. So, the players could pick up the second AP as a group of 10th level patriots or mercenaries who come to join Andoran's plight, or they might be the same group of Eagle Knights from before. Tone is darker here, and the stakes are certainly higher. Both stories have a beginning and an ending that could link together, or could be separate.
I'll edit to say that I think this might also be a good place to look at the adventure line, especially with the new anthologies. A short 'bridge' adventure to bring the heroes to Absalom and then a second short bridge adventure to take the heroes from...
Heh, reading the description of the two APs this is not as direct a prediction as I first thought, but it sure has echoes of what wound up being the direction Paizo went.
it should also be easier to release pawns once more for each AP :)
Sadly, if Erik Mona's recent comments on Reddit are anything to go by, AP pawns will likely remain a thing of the past.
Personally I'm hoping Paizo makes a go of tokens instead of pawns, and that doing so changes the cost structure enough to allow AP token packs to become a thing.
I'll highlight this for my hope as well. I've even played around with making token stickers from foundry tokens. I can extract token images from the foundry sets, print them out on a sheet of sticker paper then cut them out with my co-worker's cricut. From there it's a fairly simple process to stick them on 1" wooden rounds I buy from Amazon, scaling up for larger creatures.
I think it would be dirt cheap for Paizo to make these sticker sheets for APs...after all, they're already making the token art for the foundry release...and market them along with some blank plastic or wood tokens to stick them to. The blank tokens would be able to be used for every AP and the sticker sheets could be bundled in cheaply enough. When your party wraps up the AP just remove the stickers and they're ready for the next AP. Maybe do a 'premium AP' subscription that includes the hardcover and the token sticker sheet sent together.
Myself, I'm very excited for the change. Hardcover books tend to hold up a bit better in my experience, so when I want to take a book to a table I think it'll hold up to transport a bit better I think. I'll echo other sentiments that I'm hoping this works out to be a more coherent story vs the monthly installments. When running adventures I always had to spend some time meshing volumes together.
Hopefully this also means that APs are easier to keep in stock. I'm trying to build a complete collection of APs and there are two or three where I'm missing a volume or two. Having them all combined would make collecting a lot easier.
Cutting it to the wire this time. I've been hitting the shipping lottery for the past few months but it seems my luck has ebbed a bit. My watch continues.
I think I'm pretty good with this. Quick question, would foundry purchases count toward gold/tiers, or only books/pdfs? Can gold be spent to purchase foundry scenarios?
I got my copy in the mail today and I've been resisting reading through it. The group I'm in is due to fight the final boss on Thursday, and I don't want to get ahead of myself.
I know that this AP was panned for being a long escort quest, but I've had a lot of fun in it. Once we wrap things up this week I'm looking forward to cracking open the original books and the remaster to see the differences and what my GM added to the story.
Just putting this for interest sake, but i would be interest in a foundry module for it as all of my current campaigns are run through there.
Thank you for letting us know you'd want it! I'll pass this on!
I'll throw in my interest as well, but I'm a sucker for anything foundry. Being able to choose a level, click and generate a level appropriate item would be super rad for those random treasure chests...especially if it generated the item with all the magical effects already loaded onto it with a nice token and dropped it into a loot actor. May be a bit beyond the scope of just a foundry version of the deck, but a guy can dream.
It'd be super cool to have these maps as a Foundry VTT release with Journal notes pointing to content about each place from the books
The team says this is definitely something they've considered and may consider again depending on how things shake out with other products!
Queue me up as a purchaser for this as well from Foundry. Running a sandbox game in Golarion would be so much easier if we had maps available with preloaded journal entries, especially for the cities. For larger cities I feel like it would help to even have district maps with shops prepopulated that the PCs can visit.
Glad to know I'm not too far off. I use 2mm chipboard because my mother's cricut can cut it reliably and cleanly, with glossy printable vinyl stickers for the artwork. I pre-cut the chipboard on the cricut, cut the artwork out roughly with scissors, stick the chipboard cutout onto the back of the artwork, and use a razor blade to trim the artwork to fit the chipboard. So far it's worked well and allows me to print off some out of print or custom pawns, but I'd really rather just buy them myself... Not that I get to play in person much anymore, I've moved far more online these days.
I'm excited for Starfinder 2e, especially with rules compatibility. I've said before I'm excited to run a Chrono Trigger style time traveling campaign and it's great that the players can be from different times and still play together well. I'll have to reign in some things from the Starfinder end (early flight for example) but for the most part it makes it so easy to run this style of campaign.
Got this one specifically to get the sketch cover and a few maps that I didn't have. Still a great deal, and it's always a good idea to have a spare copy or two of the player cores for the table!
I'm really glad to see a return to a pdf guide for organized play.
Amen to that. Having something to hand to new players and go, "Read this. It'll give you enough info to get started," is something I've been sorely missing. Having a couple of those printed out and bound will be really nice.
I must admit I'm excited about this, but I'm curious about the new Loyalty program. I'll wait for the next blog post, but I'm hoping getting to that top tier for the 15% discount isn't too rough...
If you were a halfling you could take helpful halfling to get +3 at level 9 with a crit success. It also removes the chance of giving your ally a -1 with a crit fail. That's the best one I can think of though.
Problem is: the game changes drastically from low levels to mid levels. my point is that 1-5 pathfinder is a COMPLETELY different game than 7-20 pathfinder mathematically speaking
I just want to highlight this one as one of my biggest problems with the system. I stepped my players through the beginner box, and though it did GREAT in explaining the very basics of the game such as attacking, combat, skill checks and etc I feel like it did not prepare them for any game beyond about 3rd level.
One thing I would love to see is some higher level skill builder adventures, for lack of a better term, to help players learn some skills that don't come up in lower level play. Along with these, you'd need some higher level pregenerated characters that have a paragraph or two highlighting what they're good at, their common combos, and how they interact with their companions.
That level 9 halfling gathered lore psychic? In addition to blasting the enemy with a cool ally ignoring AOE (Shatter Mind), once they activate unleashed psyche they can use occultism to give the magus a +4 aid bonus on their spell strike as an action and a reaction, likely triggering a crit, especially if the investigator used Shared Stratagem to make the enemy off-guard earlier in the round. And, because the investigator used strategic assessment as part of their devise a stratagem, the magus knew to use needle darts to trigger the creature's weakness to cold iron.
The level 6 druid that just got fireball? They can't drop that damage as easily if the front line charges in, but if the party delays to stay in a cluster with the justice champion near the center there's a good likelihood that there will be enemies clustered on one side of the party for a juicy multi-hit. The rogue that just got gang up also has a good reason to stick with their buddy, as now the enemies are vulnerable to sneak attack damage. Conversely, if they're facing spellcasters or breath weapons that's probably a bad idea!
For most experienced players thinking like this probably comes as second nature, but having it pointed out in a brief 'blurb about your character' in the beginning of the adventure would really help new players, I think. Once they see it in action they can hopefully go into the rulebooks proper to see WHY certain actions are good and start thinking of ways to synergize with their allies in ways that lower level adventures just don't cover very well.
I'm really excited for this new adventure format! I've run through the beginner box probably 5-6 times with various family members on family trips because it feels like a board game. Having alternatives that work the same way, with all the pawns and maps ready, seems like a big win!
I will say that if this does well I hope you branch out to higher levels in future products...a 5th level adventure would be a great level for a lot of players that aren't absolute newbies. The pregens have their first ability score bumps, spellcasters get their 3rd rank spells (fireball, anyone?) and everyone should have their striking runes so they feel a lot more powerful.
I like this idea. Part of the reason I subscribe to the Adventures Line but not the AP line is because I like having these as "drag and drop" adventures ready to fill story gaps in a homebrew campaign or to help as a template to learn better adventure design for a home campaign.
I still use my old dungeon magazines for this on occasion, since it's so easy to build encounters for 2nd edition...use the maps, characters and ideas from the magazine and quickly build encounters that fit the theme. I spoke in this thread before but I would love to see more linked adventures in this theme, and I really hope this one is successful.
id prefer age of ashes or agents of edgewatch, SoG is really good as is
Hear, hear! Season of Ghosts is already amazing. Age of Ashes was an incredible globe trotting adventure that was spoiled for a lot of people by lack of experience in the system and overtuned combats. Mellowing the combats out, tightening up the story beats a bit and releasing it all as a single book and foundry module would make it very well received I think. Agents of Edgewatch may be a little too hot to handle right now, considering everything, but I think Strength of Thousands and Outlaws of Alkenstar would benefit, also.
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Wrath of the Righteous converted to pf2e
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Just bringing some attention to this. This conversion is in progress in the Wrath of the Righteous forum by KingTreyIII! Go and check it out, he does awesome work and he's releasing all the work he's doing as he completes it.
I'd like to suggest Paizo creates a premium module that has a high resolution map of Golarian, complete with scene notes full of lore on each location.
I moved over from 5e 2 years ago, and the biggest problem i've had is understanding the lore and what locations should look like. I know you can homebrew it up, but i'm a loyalist and think this module would be used in almost every campaign.
Just a suggestion!
I would LOVE this as a foundry pack that I could upload and let my players explore.
After having misread a description of Gatewalkers as an escort quest AP, I now demand an escort AP. With the long-awaited attending LO book : Dancing Halls of Golarion.
(The below is written with tongue firmly in cheek.)
Could you fit a full AP out of that? Maybe you need to do a book of pub crawls first. Cayden Cailean would approve! Then you can do the Escort Book, then a Golem (the card game) book. I could certainly see my players having a good time.
Glad to see you're already 33% funded! I really think you should move some of the basic info about what's in the book to the front page - as is, the front page of your campaign essentially gives 0 information about what's inside it. You don't even explain what psionics are except at the very bottom of the FAQ page! You've gotta try and appeal to people who don't know anything about this kind of obscure 3.5/pf1e bonus ruleset.
As well, do you have any previews of content?
I have to agree. Had I not been familiar with Psionics from 1e/3.5 and your work with Alluria I probably would have passed on this one. Beef up that main page for more casual traffic! I've already pledged and I would love for it to fund so we an get our books.
Thank you. (and yeah my phone autocorrected DSP for some reason).
I wanted to be sure given how out-of-the-public-eye they've been these past few years.
I understand and appreciate that, and I know they would as well. Game design can be a labor of love, and life and stress take their toll. While communication is limited, Alluria Publishing wants to honor the memory of those past contributions to the Psionics theme as much as possible, in a respectful and honorable way.
Well, I for one am excited to see how this plays out. I was a big fan of DSP's work in the past, and I'm excited to see your take on adapting it to PF2e. More options are almost always a good thing!
So, I don't know if anyone has brought this up yet or not, but I want to say I REALLY appreciate the links in the front of the PDF in the table of contents. They really help when you're looking up a rule quickly. Now, if only we could get links on the right page ribbons to jump directly to where you're looking for, that would make the PDF much quicker to reference than the physical book at the table for me.
I would love to see an AP that sees a single town or building develop over time. Maybe bringing back those development rules from Ultimate Campaign in a revised, refined form. I'm a fan of having a base of operations, and building it being an integral part of the story is very attractive to me. I am, however, totally not a fan of "kingdom building" as seen in Kingmaker.
Apart from that, I'm always up to face against post-colonial and neocolonial powers.
I'm with you on the single town kind of adventures. One of my favorite adventures back in the dark ages was Gamemastery W1, Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale. Part of it, I'm sure, is nostalgia. That adventure was the start of a wonderful campaign I was in, but the thing I most enjoyed was the play after the module ended.
Our GM played it that we were given a kind of split control of the vale, with the local lord that was there at the beginning (I forget his name, it's been 10 years since I played in that group) managing civilian affairs while we managed military defense. We got a monthly stipend from merchants traveling through, set up patrols of hirelings with a series of watchtowers we built, and commanded the armies of the vale when a marauding horde of hobgoblins invaded from the mountains to the north. We built a keep to defend against them using the rules from Stronghold Builder's Guidebook of the 3.5 era, and spent a lot of downtime there training, crafting and roleplaying.
We were also local celebrities. We participated in archery tournaments with notables of the area, hosted parties to influence the local landowners, and dealt with the fallout of the miller's son falling in love with the pond nymph who lived in the millpond, though I think he might have stolen that last bit from another adventure. Kingmaker scratched a lot of the same itch for me, but it was too...grand a scale for what I remembered. We spent too much time worrying about the Kingdom as a whole to worry about a tiny corner of it like we did with the Bloodsworn Vale. In a smaller setting like that we were able to name the guardsmen we had working with us, or sit and smoke a pipe with our librarian some cold winter night.
I'd love to see an adventure path like that, maybe spread over several years of in-game time. Something where you can just exist in the world and make it yours. Not sure how feasible it would be to write it all out, I'm sure a lot of it was strictly ad-libbed, but it would be fun to see it.
Given that the AP is (presumably) 1-10 and is called "Hellbreakers", I assume it is going to have something to do with the Hellbreaker's League in Isger that was mentioned on page 92 in War of Immortals.
*Somewhere behind the scenes in Paizo* "Dangit, they weren't supposed to figure that out yet!"
Increasingly for non-combat locations I've been yearning for location art that I can use to set the scene on the VTT.
Don't get me wrong I love the iconics in fights and action scenes!
But more and more I want art of "bustling street in Elven town" and "Ballroom full of guests at a fantasy party" or "Interior: Temple of [deity], ancient and crumbling"
That I can drop in as a background, and show off NPC/Challenge/Chase Cards as players interact with people in Roleplay situations and exploration challenges.
Without resorting to generative AI, as I'd rather an artist get paid for such scenes.
(Actually including the art pack as jpegs separately along with the PDF would be really useful for roll20 VTT users like me.)
Is there a particular reason why using Paizo's map packs or flip mats (or just borrowing maps from other adventures) isn't a better option than resorting to generative AI? Remember, the players haven't read the adventure, so if it says "this negotiation takes place in a castle" and you have a great tavern map, you can say "this negotiation takes place in a tavern" and they'll never know.
For me, one reason that comes to mind is that reusing the same tavern map over and over starts to break verisimilitude, and having bespoke maps for every location helps to fight that. But that's also part of why I've collected adventures for so long and love when they have great maps. I'll never RUN all of these adventures, not even 5% of them, but having such a huge library of maps to draw from in adventures I'll never run is a great resource for situations like this.
Oh, I'm more than happy to reuse maps, I have multiple patreons for maps.
I'm talking about art that sets the scene on the VTT.
I'll throw my hat in the ring to say this would help a lot for me also. Especially in influence sections, I'll spend some time making what I call an influence board for VTTs- a large scene setting image to one side and a series of frames to one side showing the NPCs the players can be talking to. The players move their tokens to who they're talking to for each round, and it enables me to track influence points and actions easily in a very visual format. The hardest part of making the board is finding good art for the scene setting.
I adore Strength of Thousands, so I'd be up for an organization AP. The only snag is that an AP centred around one of the bigger organizations should probably be a six-parter.
I'm all for more six-part APs, but this just isn't true. Judging by their leaderships, any number of organizations "top out" at the mid- or mid-high levels; and extremely low-level content can be handwaved by saying the PCs were doing their organization's initiation/onboarding process, such that they start the AP at level 4 or 5.
You could even do it as a hardcover module. To beat the drum again, perhaps a 1-3 module about joining the Eagle Knights of Andoran followed by a Cheliax vs Andoran AP from 4-14, similar to how Rusthenge and Seven Dooms fit together.
It's also easy for someone to say "this organized play thing has too many extra rules and isn't worth the hassle" and just stop going. Most folks doing it want to play at a con, they're not die hards. It's already more work than a normal game with tracking chronicles, different lists of whats allowed (which aren't that easy to find for a casual player if it's not on AoN), etc. Piling stuff like this on it doesn't help those of us trying to get people to try it out.
Just want to highlight this for visibility. I've been doing organized play as a way to meet new people with similar interests and I'm willing to put up with the rules because of it, but it's exhausting to track everything down. Especially now that I'm starting to play around with running games and reporting them, bringing new players in can be a little rough. I'm a bit of an old grognard in my way and I really miss the collected PDF guide. I wish we could get a PDF guide to organized play including options and a PDF errata guide that so I can hand it out and say 'Here you go, read this and you're set!'
Gladiator AP! Unashamedly rip-off the first movie.
Book 1: Players are soldiers or great empire, fighting barbarians or whatever. Somehow end up on bad side of the wicked ruler.
Book 2: Players made to fight in colliseum, ally with other gladiators, perhaps garner attention of a noble patron.
Book 3: Break out of colliseum, lead revolution to depose wicked ruler.
--
3 part Goblin AP that really leans into how utterly ridiculous a Goblin AP should be.
Oh the Gladiator one sounds like fun! Don't think Paizo would do that now that they have abolished slavery across the inner sea and and are not mentioning it elsewhere, but I may have to homebrew it.
I tend to follow the rarity guidelines. Common is allowed, uncommon and rare with permission. Uncommon is generally good to go unless there's a compelling reason for it not to be allowed, and rare is generally not allowed unless there is a compelling reason for it to be allowed.
Actually, not even "morally gray." Within Norse culture of the time, Vikings were upstanding heroes.
Very true, but I'm sure the monks would not appreciate that distinction. One of those instances where there are certainly different definitions of honor.
The last time I played a magus was in a 1-20 Free Archetype conversion of the Hell's Rebels 1e AP. Herod was an Aiuvarin sparkling targe magus, but that was not 100% the core of his identity. I leaned heavily on the Champion Archetype with the Paladin (at that time, Justice today) cause, follower of Ragathiel. That gave me heavy armor, an awesome spammable focus spell (deity's domain, fire), spot healing (lay on hands), and a great reaction by level 8, after sacrificing a few class feats to get extra champion abilities. At 8, I picked up the Psychic Archetype and took the message cantrip. I also specced into the Investigator archetype (via Multitalented at 9), and picked up devise a stratagem as a bootleg true strike before making those big hits. (Free Action DaS for the win!)
Later on I wound up spending most of his class feats boosting spellcasting through psychic, and the Champion line to pick up handy things to go with his reactions. He was all about big fiery hits and wound up playing more like a champion than a magus, with the ability for a really big smite. Herod was a lot of fun to play and really struck fear into the hearts of Thrune loyalists, but he really didn't play like a typical magus in a lot of ways. I always spent a round or two at the beginning of combat getting ready before making my first spell strike, and may only make one or two per combat.
I would agree that there are some limitations on the current magus, but where I felt it the most was arcane cascade. I had left Intelligence at 10 and focused on Charisma instead, but that meant I really didn't cast any spells directly at enemies anymore, and buff spells for arcane are few and far between. I wound up using either an amped message cantrip (allowing one of my allies to move or attack) or lay on hands as a way to leave an action for myself to activate it. I would prefer to see the wording required for activation to be either 'You are in combat' or 'You have cast a spell or used spell strike this combat'.
Another issue, as you can see from the number of archetypes I had, was there were a lot of levels where I just didn't feel there were any feats good enough to justify their use. Swapping out class feats for more archetype feats should feel like a big decision, but the magus made it easy a lot of the time, and not just for flavor reasons.
I'm not a designer, but if I were changing things I'd look at doubling the arcane cascade damage bonus, to +2, +4, and +6 damage respectively, without majorly impacting the power of the class, but making it more worth it to spend a turn triggering the cascade instead of doing something else useful. I would also be tempted to improve the class feats a bit, to make them more of a must-take. Some action compression with feats, blending skills with spell strike recharge like Magus' Analysis or adding riders based on the Hybrid Study would help. For example, a nice feat that I often wished existed was something to raise a shield and recharge a spell strike or enter arcane cascade at the same time.
All in all, I would say that the class is a great chassis to work with. High level spells give you a lot of versatility and spell strikes can be BIG damage boosts, especially if you know you're going to roll a Nat 20 on the boss. Hopefully the pain points can be smoothed over in another pass.
I guess I'm in the minority. I appreciated the baseball references, though I could see where it would be confusing out of the US. I'm playing a 6th level Silent Whisper Psychic in a Gatewalkers campaign and I certainly don't feel underpowered, even though I'm playing against the caster meta.
One spell you might bring up for the psychic in particular and occult in general is 'Biting Words'. It doesn't benefit from Unleash Psyche but it is a wonderful 3rd action spell. My typical start of combat is move away from danger and cast Biting Words on the first round of combat, unleash psyche at the start of the second round and cast Shatter Mind, hopefully catching all the enemies in the area, then use the single action activation of biting words as a third action. Great for picking off low HP enemies or trying to whittle down some HP on the boss, though generally I find I do more good on 'boss' monsters (PL +3-4) using gathered lore to aid our fighter in his first attack.
I’m still waiting for that data that was promised in your previous posts about this topic. You said you had some sort of big picture we couldn’t see.
I mean... there's a LOT of big-picture data that, as an employee of Paizo, I can see that isn't public. We don't normally make this information (such as sales figures or subscription numbers) public, but we did recently do a more in-depth targeted survey that I hope to see the results of soon. Whether or not those results are also made public is, I think, the call of the publisher and the marketing team, not me, but in any event that information will hopefully help guide our way further into the future.
I for one am hoping that data becomes public, at least in broad strokes. Makes my inner data scientist happy. I do understand, though, that it's not your decision. Here's to hoping!
So, I would agree with other comments here that a direct sequel sounds like the 6 part AP under another name. Not a bad thing, but books in the same AP can already be a bit disjointed, so I can only imagine what it would look like with two separate teams working possibly years apart.
Indirect sequels can be a lot of fun, but they strike me as hard to do well. The characters in the APs could have done any one of a half dozen or more different things and having to account for all of that...it leads to a bit of dilution. Curtain Call worked well from a readthrough perspective because it is all about the previous AP, but I don't think I would like that as a regular thing.
My personal preference would be to see APs set in specific regions, or around specific themes, without having to be a direct sequel. For instance, let's take a hypothetical AP around a group of PCs being a group of Eagle Knights in service of Andoran, who go around the inner sea poking Cheliax in the eye before finally defeating a corrupt governor and ending their adventure at tenth level. This one could be a bit campy, a bit Saturday Morning Cartoon with a small group and slightly comical villains.
The next AP set in Andoran starts with a war between Cheliax and Andoran, and in the beginning of the AP mention is made that one of the reasons might be the actions of the PCs in the previous AP, but it might be any one of a half dozen reasons as well. So, the players could pick up the second AP as a group of 10th level patriots or mercenaries who come to join Andoran's plight, or they might be the same group of Eagle Knights from before. Tone is darker here, and the stakes are certainly higher. Both stories have a beginning and an ending that could link together, or could be separate.
I'll edit to say that I think this might also be a good place to look at the adventure line, especially with the new anthologies. A short 'bridge' adventure to bring the heroes to Absalom and then a second short bridge adventure to take the heroes from Absalom to a new AP may be a good way to mesh disparate APs. The key there I think would be to have a way to move the heroes to and from a common location, so it all meshes together.
So, I'm pretty hyped for this one. One of the things I really liked for 3.5e/1e was the sheer number of short adventures available in Dungeon Magazine and the short modules produced by WotC and Paizo. It allowed me to easily built a sandbox by dropping leads/rumors/wanted posters to half a dozen short adventures as rumors in the local tavern/guildhall and letting my players decide which way they wanted to go. I've been using Society scenarios, but they're typically a little short for what I'm looking for. Here's to hoping many more of these are made.
