Scarablob's page

So the location-based setting sourcebooks all have a tradition of introducing at least one new ancestry (azarketi in Absalom, and poppets in Grand Bazaar by technicality; anadi, grippli, gnolls, conrasus, shisks and golomas in Mwangi Expanse; who-knows-what in Impossible Lands), and I'd expect such a book to follow as well.

Now, there are two obvious candidates for inclusion here - the alien lashuntas that the crash-landed Divinity scooped up from Castrovel and brought along in cryo-sleep, and the more enigmatic but likely similarly transported kasathas, both elevated in popularity by way of Pathfinder's science-fantasy cousin game.

On top of these two, the river kingdoms would be the perfect place if they ever want to introduce boggard as playable ancestry, as they are very commonplace here. I want to hope for bog striders too, but them not being fully humanoid, as well as being very bound to a specific type of terrain make it very unlikely unfortunately.

Likewise, mendev/sarkoris/the remain of the worldwound could lead them to introduce mongrels as a flexible heritage, altho fleshwarp may already fit that slot.

Honestly tho, the thing I'm the most curious about for a broken land book is the river kingdom. I know that pretty much everyone that played the kingmaker created a very different kingdom, so they have to not elaborate on it much, but some part like pitax or the fae presence had too much importance to simply be glossed over, and I want to see what they decide to do with it. Also, I like swamp, and for me the river kingdoms are the perfect setting to adventure into.

Though the first book of Serpent's Skull was really good - probably my favorite first book of any AP.

As far as I'm aware, it's pretty much the consensus for serpent's skull. The first book is absolutely amazing and maybe the best module/first part of an AP paizo ever produced, the rest is at best a hot mess that take a lot of rewritting to make fun.

One of the advice I see most often about SS is to only run that first module, and then connect it to the skull and shackle AP (who happen to be a well liked AP with a first module that is considered pretty weak).

I know lost omen books are lore first and mechanic second, but the thing that hype me the most about a darkland book would be the return of the fungal pilgrim druid. Really, any shroom oriented druid archetype/order/build would be great (likewise for any other class, but druid take priority in my mind for that), it's just that the fungal pilgrim flavor just feel right, and isn't really there at all in PF2 yet (but then again, it came really late in the first edition life cycle). I would also have said a return of the vermin rider cavalier, but PF2 did away with cavalier as a class so it's not possible (but thanksfully, it also did away with treating invertebrate as lesser and needing to make archetype just to accomodate them, so not having bug focussed archetypes isn't really a problem anymore, we can ride giant bettles without them).

Lorewise however, I must say that none of what I saw in pathfinder 1e darkland really appealed to me. I never really liked the drow, altho I understand that they are very iconic to that region, and never cared much about any other darkland specific ancestries. But then again, I didn't really cared about the mwangi expanse before the lost omen book about it, So I know paizo could pull it offand make me interested in these people. It would be rather challenging and demand a lot of retcon tho I think, because it's pretty much the one place of the setting where human are the exception rather than the norm, and also because a lot of the darkland races can be summed up as "evil slaver folk that want to rise from the depth to conquer/enslave the surface but can't do it because the sun scare them".

Likewise, while I love the idea of an entire underground world, whith an entirely different kind of challenge and environment than what we see on the surface, I feel like most of what we saw here (and most of what we see of DnD darklands too) is focussed on gigantic open caverns, which function exactly like the surface would, the only difference being the absence of day/night cycle, and the fact that the sky is replaced by a ceiling. What interest me the most in these kind of setting would be the rather alien environment, more focussed on narrow, claustrophobic passageway, and on the climbing skill as the most usefull type of movement. I would like a darkland book to be less focussed on these "big cavern place", or at least that devellop more the network of tunel that constitute most of the darkland.

The more I think of it, the more I love the concept of the Soul Cage.

The Lich does heinous things just to become an undead and exist forever. And then they are shackled to an object that has the potential to ensure their final destruction.

I think that is enough to make the sanest person a raving paranoid. If they want to keep on surviving, which is the goal for which they gave everything, they have to expect the worst from anyone and anything.

Forever.

When you think about it, it's not even really "an object that has the potential to ensure their final destruction", destroying the soulcage in itself don't really affect the lich, it just remove it's "always come back" power. The nuance may not seems really important, but when you look at it this way, a lich whose soul cage was destroyed is still immensely powerfull and immortal magician, the only difference is that now, it die if you kill it. It don't destroy them, it don't even remove half of the power they gained upon becoming a lich, it just make them less invincible, which is still enought for most lich to go completely paranoid at the thought of losing their soul cage.

I do think the sacrifice they have to make to become a lich is a big factor of why they obsess so much over protecting the soul cage, even if most lich aren't conscious of it. In a way, the soul cage is the embodiment of everything they sacrificed to come this far, so the thought that it may be "all for nothing" if the cage is destroyed might be a big drive to protect it so much. Kind of a sunk cost fallacy in a way "I already did so much to create it, why shouldn't I go even further to protect it?".

Even better if the lich is only mildly evil. Keeping its phylactery protected is effectively a form of paying rent - making sure that it's always far enough down on the priority list of the "crusading goodguys" as a whole.

The turn to lichdom might even have been fueled (in part) by a desire to "continue the watch". If they're the last remainning member of their family, with no heir, they may have interiorised it as "well, I can't die and leave the McGuffin unchecked, if I become immortal, then I'll be able to protect it forever". Of course, there would still be some kind of arrogance tied to it, because even if they're the last of their family, they could just try to find someone willing to accept the charge, so it would be in part fueled by the idea that "only them are strong/righteous enought to keep it".

Actually, it may not just happen because their last of the line, but because they deem their successor (which would probably be their own child) unworthy of the task, and thus they simply "had" to become immortal. The lich ritual require the sacrifice of something of very great importance for the lich... The sacrifice of the chosen successor (once again, probably their own child) would fit the bill perfectly.

And once undead, it's pretty easy to imagine how the lich would start slipping further "just to protect the MacGuffin, honest". Drive the living away by any mean necessary because "they might want it", search and plunder for secret and powerfull magic "to protect it better"...

An idea that would be fun for a lich would be a twist on that usual story :

"Many generations ago, a great evil was sealed, yet not completely defeated. If the MacGuffin that was used to put an end to it's reign of terror was to be destroy, it would rise to plague the world once again. To make sure this never happen, the MacGuffin was entrusted to a familly of guardian, that will protect and hide it, generations after generations."

The lich is the last member of that familly and decide to make the macguffin itself it's soul cage. That way, it's actually deeply tied to who the lich is, but it's also some kind of dead man switch : if the soul cage is destroyed, then an (apparently) bigger evil than the lich will return. It force the protagonist to be creative, or to face the consequences of their recklessness if they destroy the cage.

I have the concept of a paranoid lich whose phylactery is their own body, but for the moment, I was never able to use it in any of my adventures (as a villain, I'm DMing way more than I play).

The basic idea is that of a powerfull wizard wanting to achieve immortality, but due to unforceen problem during the ritual, his soul wasn't trapped within the book he wanted it to be, but inside of his own ossature. So of course, now he's paranoid, because he know that unlike the other lich, he don't get a second chance if he get destroyed. Ironically, when he was alive, he never really cared about being in danger, but becoming a lich really made him conscious of his own frailty (compared to other lich that is) and thus fearfull. Altho in my draft of the character, his first line of defense was trying to bluff by announcing to his foe that they can never hope to defeat him unless they first destroy his philactery, hoping that they'll search for it instead of facing him head-on.

If I were to see any antagonist in Rahadoum, my first vote would be the algollthus, but Achaekek is a comfortable runner-up.

If I'm remembering it correctly, Achaekek don't actually seems to mind about rahadoum (while on the other hand, the red mantises seems quite a bit miffed at being kicked out of their home country). So once again, it appear to be a bigger problem for the mortal follower of the god than it is for the god himself.

Well, the fact that it ban al gods don't mean that all gods are equaly against them, or against them at all. Evil gods are used to having their worship illegalised and their cult working in clandestinity, so it's not much different for them, and they never ally to take down the other countries that ban them (especially since some of them really can't stand each other, like lamashtu and asmodeus). Most good god want to help mortals, but allow them to self-determine, they mostly want to advise them and protect them from evil gods/outwordly presence, so once again, as long as something like a worldwound don't open in the middle of rahadoum, it'll be left alone. Neutral gods all have different views on their worship, some (like abadar) might be miffed to be banned, while other simply won't care.

So even if all the gods who do care about being banned wanted to form a cohalition to take down rahadoum, it will be a minority, the cohalition will instantly fall because they can't work with each other, and they would make the good gods form their own cohalition in defense of rahadoum (as they value mortal lives more than their worship).

In truth, rahadoum is a bigger problem for the gods followers than it is for the gods themselves. a cleric of sarenrae that live nearby may lament all the people of rahadoum the dawnflower could help but that are denied that help, but the goddess herself will see countless other mortal in far more dire situation, and who unlike the people of rahadoum, haven't deliberately chosen to shield themselves from her help. Unless the country or the laws of man start expanding greatly, what happen in rahadoum shoudln't really be that much of a concern for the gods.

I know It's pretty unlikely to happen, but as far as "organisation book" go, I would like one on the bellflower network. It being very halfling and slavery focussed mean it have very little chance to be made, but the network was always one of the most interesting part of cheliax for me, and I usually find the basic "good guys society" too bland for my taste.

There was something about that network that I find really captivating tho, and I really want to see more of them.

In addition to what the other said here, if we get a golden road book similar to the mwangi expanse one, I would like the new ancestries to be a bit more fleshed out fluff wise.

It was my biggest (or rather, my only) problem with the mwangi book, the chapter on anadi, conrasu and the like was almost solely about their mechanic, and we didn't have an in depth view of how their society work and where they are situated, like the various elves culture were for exemple.

Squiggit wrote:

Reminded that Golarion has a chaotic good deity of racial supremacy and traditionalism in that same sphere too.

Really feels like there was a huge disconnect somewhere in the process of creating that section of the world.

I mean, somehow Torag's "anathema: show mercy to the enemies of your people" survived into 2e, despite him being "Lawful Good." It's pretty deeply frustrating.

Especially given his place in the Godclaw, I don't see why he isn't LN.

I'm pretty sure that anathema is misinterpreted by most people. The way I see it, it's a more flexible version of the fairly common "show the villain no mercy" rule that being such as Ragathiel have.

Basically, to me at least, that anathema say "you can only spare villains if they don't threaten your peoples", which fit with Torag views on responsability and the like. You can show mercy to a personal nemesis or someone that threaten people you have no responsibility over, but if they threaten "your peoples", then it's your responsibility to put an end to their exaction for good. Torag is okay with you letting a villain get away if the one that may suffer from it is only you, or only peoples you have no responsibility to protect, but once it involve "your peoples", you shouldn't value that villain redemption over their lives, because in torag's eyes, your duty to protect them is more important than the life of whatever is threatenning them.

It seems that lot of people interpret the "ennemies of your people" as somehow encompassing whole races or nations (probably because for a long time and in lot of setting, dwarves had "racial hatred" toward goblin, orcs or other such races), and interpreted like that, it's indeed not good at all (basically being a call to genocide), but I see no indication that torag would indeed see things this way. That an hobgoblin soldier raiding your tow is an "ennemy of your people" is pretty obvious, but it doesn't mean that his son, or "random other hobgoblin of the region" also is. That an army of a neighboring nation attacking you is the "ennemy of your people" is clear, likewise for that nation government, but there is no indication that this apply for every citizen of it.

To me at least, that anathema basically say, "you can grant mercy to your foes at your discretion, exept when said foe threaten those you have a duty to protect, in which case you shall grant them none".

I only have two main wishes, and they would be :

Lost Omen : The Golden Road

Basically the mwangi expanse book, but set in another region of golarion. I want it for all the important regions at the end, but the golden road is the one I'm anticipating the most.

Fairy Tales and Fae Adventures

I like the lore we already have about the first world, I like the fae and their alien morality, I just want more of them, and with maybe a number of fae and first world related archetype, ancestry and the like.