Shaun Kelso's page

3e may have been a godsend for us, but it was terrible for the store owners because of the glut of products it created. Back in the day, D&D occupied about 90% of the RPG 'shelf space', and the 'also rans' the other 10%. After 3e, it was about 50-50. When you're a small business owner, stocking all of that means thousands of dollars just sitting around collecting dust - thousands most of them can't afford.

I'm sure with 4e, they thought the 'unification' in the market place would help lessen their burden, and to some Paizo's efforts appear to be a threat to that supposed 'lessening'.

That's an excellent point I hadn't thought of. I can see how increased diversity of product makes it harder for brick and mortar stores. They can't compete with the internet's price or selection and it probably makes them kind of bitter.

I was thinking of the fact that increased product diversity increases sales (it does), but the increased sales don't keep up with the increased cost of stocking all that diversity, especially when added to the cost of stocking things that don't sell.

Dread (uses Jenga tiles for fortune mechanic)

Now I have to look that one up!

Maybe I'll start a Wraith PbP on the boards here. Have the players make two aliases for it: One of their PC and one of another PC's Shadow. Naturally, the Shadow alias would post only in spoilers. Could be fun. This would require other people with intimate knowledge of Wraith, however, and would require me to shake the dust off my own knowledge.

If you do, I'd be interested in participating as a PC or whatever. Send me an email: shaun.kelso at gmail daught com.

I would go with Co (as in coworker) shay (ends like day) and forget about the nuances of pronouncing the russian sh sound correctly...

In my uneducated opinion, I like this one because it sounds well-reasoned and easy to pronounce.

Also, I have a strong bias against proper names with several syllables in a row that don't contain vowels. Koldoon's pronunciation allows me to ignore a bunch of 'em.

Here are two sets of stats I generated yesterday. I used both the old 32 point buy and the new 20 point buy to generate similar stats. The new system forced both sets I made to be slightly lower.

These stats do not include racial adjustments.

Remake of old Barbarian/Sorcerer
Old 32: Str 15, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 14
New 20: Str 15, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 7, Cha 13

Wizard who dumps everything but Dex, Con, and Int
Old 32: Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 8, Cha 8
New 20: Str 7, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 7, Cha 7

Thanks for the crunch, Zynete. It really puts things in perspective for me. Question though: Are those scores all listed prior to adding racial bonuses? If they are human, the old system would get no adjustment, but the new system gets to add a +2 to something. Maybe you already factored that in, I don't know.

Personally, I've always insisted on point-buy in the games I run. I'm not entirely sure I understand what the concern about the point-buy is. That's not a criticism of the complaint mind you; I'm just not sure whether the complaint is about how the point-buy is resolved or that there is a point-buy at all.

If the complaint is that the new system is not good, well, I understand. Though I admit I've grown comfortable with the standard 3.5 system, I'm really not sweating the difference in the two. One seems to be about as good as the other.

I like how every class has something big to look forward to at every level. I've never understood why some classes have "Dead" levels.

I'm just about to wrap this one up with my players. I'm curious how a particular encounter I describe in the spoiler played out with others. In the last session...

I have the Pathfinder Modules subscription and I really enjoy being able to browse the PDF as soon as each one ships. I've started working on ordering back editions of the Gamemastery Modules, but I don't get the PDFs when they ship. I recently ordered several modules and they arrived a few days ago, but still no PDFs. Is this a mistake, or do we only get free PDFs when we receive the items through subscription?

Thanks.

This was interesting to read. I hope you keep posting.

I made a post yesterday to state that though I like all the changes and might even houserule a lot of them back into the game at some point, I feel that they should be scaled way back for basically the reasons you list above. I advocate including them in the published book as optional rules. That way, DMs who like them and are willing to do all the conversion work can do so, but everyone still has a resource for 3.5 games.

BTW, I'm a huge planescape fan. I have virtually all of the original materials, except for Hellbound. The one time I saw a copy in a store, it was in pretty bad shape. Now, I can't make myself spend $100 for a copy off of ebay that's probably in just as bad a shape.

Though I like Armor as DR rules in a general sort of way, I think they make the game more complex than necessary, so I'm kind of against including those rules in the final copy, except as an optional houserule.

Here's how I'd do a house rule like that:

Damage from Bludgeoning, Slashing and Piercing weapons would be treated differently.

Bludgeoning - Armor counts as DR only, so a Breastplate would give no armor bonus against it, but give DR 5.

Slashing - Armor splits the bonus between AC and DR like in the Unearthed Arcana.

Piercing - Armor bonus is entirely AC. Either you hit a soft spot, or you miss.

Most of the things I'm about to say have been said many times on this message board, but now that the initial flurry of Alpha release posts has died down a little, I'd like to take a moment to "cast my vote" so to speak.

I'm pretty much committed to Pathfinder, so regardless of how it turns out, I'll still be buying a copy. I'd just like to write out my wishlist for the project for whatever that is worth. Thanks for reading.

Let me start by saying that I loved the changes. Every one of them. But I'm the kind of person who loves change for no other reason than to have change. I'm realistic enough to know that most people don't feel that way and, in fact, most people hate change. Therefore, I grudgingly vote to have as few changes as possible to maximize backward compatability.

Races - pp. 4-7
As much as I love them, I vote to scale back the changes to the races. Many seem to feel the half-elf is underpowered compared to the rest of the races, and I see what they are saying, but in the games I run, half-elf is the most popular PC choice for race for some reason. If most people really think it's necessary to give the half-elves a boost, then fine, but I'd prefer the races get scaled back to PHB 3.5.

I would, however, like to see some additional Pathfinder-influenced races added. PHB gnomes should probably originate from some other continent, but Varisian gnomes should have more fey-like abilities, like maybe a +2 to Charisma instead of Con and other, different flavor abilities.

I'd like to see some kind of Shifter-like race (a la Eberron) that originates primarily from the Lycanthrope town of Nybor.

I'd like to see some kind of Warforged-like race, recently discovered in a comatose state in ancient (Sloth) Thassilonian ruins.

I'd especially like to see an LA+0 Planetouched race or races. Devil-blooded people might originate from "Devil-haunted Cheliax" while Genie-blooded people might originate from Qadir. I've seen plenty of opportunity for other types as well. Nualia was an aasimar. There seems to be mention of Rakshasa crossbreed in Korvosa, so there are plenty of possibilities.

In all, I like the changes too much to throw them away, but I think it would be better to leave the races mostly unchanged, but include an Appendix at the back of the book or chapter titled something like "Option: More Powerful Races" with all of these changes in them.

Classes - pp. 8-19

Again, beautiful work here, excellent ideas. But also again, I'd like the classes left mostly alone, maybe with a few things added to fill out the "Dead Levels." Maybe give the Fighter just a little extra attention more than the others. Then throw in an appendix "Option: More Powerful Classes."

I would like to see additional Pathfinder-themed Base Classes. Really, the more the better. Not really a fan of Prestige classes. In fact, I kind of hate them, but a few carefully chosen ones may not be inappropriate.

Skills - pp. 20-31

The combining, adding and subtracting of skills that's been done seems fine to me. I don't see any reason to backtrack on that one. I don't see a reason for the fly skill, but then I don't think I know the full story on that one. However, I feel very strongly that the skill point assigning method of the PHB 3.5 is really the way to go here, but please include the skill assigning rules listed in the Alpha documents as an optional rule.

Feats - pp. 31-39
I haven't studied the feats enough to form an educated opinion on them one way or another. But I know I really like some of the new ones!

Combat - pp. 40-45

Many of the combat rules certainly needed some work and there's some good ideas here. The only one at this point that I wish was scaled back is the Cover rules. I don't really like variable cover rules and thought it was a good change when they got rid of them in the move from 3.0 to 3.5. If you are engaging in any kind of combat, you have to come out from behind cover to a certain extant to participate, so regardless of amount of cover, you just get a +4. The only exception to this is something like an Archer's slit. Okay sure, that should probably provide more cover, but I've always ruled that they still just get +4, but you can't really see them, so attacking them gets a %50 miss chance for full concealment and that pretty much balances out to a more realistic chance of missing an archer behind a slit.

Spells - pp. 46-59

Some of this falls under the purview of changes to Class. It pains me to say, but the domain and specialist powers may need to be relegated to optional rules, as much as I love them. I've heard several convincing arguments that spellcasters were nerfed in the change from 2nd to 3rd edition, so, I don't know, maybe keep them, but only after long and careful consideration of who might be alienated by such drastic changes to the class.

The Spells themselves certainly need fixing. I don't feel I've given sufficient time and study to what you've done here to say for sure that the changes are appropriate, but my initial impression is very good.

Conclusion:
I'm pretty much married to Pathfinder at this point, so almost no matter what's been decided, I'll come along like a good fanboy. I would love to see lots of new content added. However, I hope that great restraint is exercised when determing to change something to protect backward compatability as much as possible. Thanks for making a product that gives my passion for the hobby a renewed vigor.

I also made sure there was a callback to the boar hunt; the entire party thought he was an Upper Class Twit, especially when he started the hunt with a "tally ho!"... which was repeated, in a much more sinister and sarcastic air, when he began to hunt the PCs.

Genius.

Though I agree that you don't necessarily need to make the cleric's turns less effective somehow, I would still recommend...

It sounds like the specific advice is pretty much covered. Also, if you hunt around in here, there are a number of posts along the lines of "I just finished Burnt Offerings and here are my thoughts." You might give those a browse. I would give you some more general advice though.

If you know your players well, make sure you focus primarily on developing only those things that your players will pursue.

There's nothing more frustrating than spending hours developing plot, characters and backstory for a town and all your players want to do is sell treasure and re-equip before heading back to the dungeon.

Also, it's a little embarrassing when you've spent all your prep time on monster combat strategy and your players are trying to get involved with the finer points of city politics. I've had things go both ways.

I certainly enjoyed reading your report on how it went. I haven't had a chance to playtest anything myself. Thanks!

It seems to me that if the Barbarians get a d10 hit die and then the improved toughness feat at maybe 2nd or 3rd level. That might slightly decrease the one level dip thing in addition to making the hit die rules more internally consistent.

I'm not a terribly theatrical DM, unfortunately. I can't really give you advice on that sort of thing. However, I've just finished this adventure with my group, and I can give you one piece of advice that I wish someone had given me before running the encounter with the Skinsaw Man. Beef him up. I tried to make him creepy, and it worked pretty well, but then my players killed him in 2 rounds. You might consider giving him a template, or some extra levels in Rogue or some buffing potions to drink because it's pretty embarrassing when this villain that you've been building anticipation for gets knocked down in 12 seconds. My players thought it must have been some kind of elaborate trick after all the foreshadowing and buildup.

Weren't the Sahagin the race that were sometimes born looking like Sea Elves.

They could take something like that and run with it. Make some kind of Deep One infiltrator that looks like an elf. It may or may not be evil. Though the original Sahagin did not work this way, maybe these could shapeshift between Sahagin form and elf form and would have water breathing and a swim speed in Sahagin form, but would have a massive penalty to Charisma. Just a thought.

I really like the Goliaths. If they made some kind of Shoanti/Giant half-breed. I don't think they can just use Goliaths, but maybe some kind of watered-down LA+0 version of them, that could be cool.

So if someone could explain to me why fighters, who have the best BABs, hit points, and feat selection (and how!) are weak compared to the other classes, I'll then be more effective in figuring out how to contribute to the PRPG. (Note: I play in a Tome of Battle game, which everyone says the classes are infinitely superior to fighters. I'll have to play a fighter one day to compare the two to find out. I admit, though, I find the stances/maneuvers very spell-casty :) )

Fighters, in my opinion, are not as weak as everyone makes them out to be. They may not be as powerful as the Tome of Battle classes, but still, I'd say Fighter is one of the best classes in the PHB.

Often, when people complain about the fighter, they are complaining about their ability to stand up in a one-on-one fight with other classes, or to solo. Okay, sure, Druids can solo better and clerics can cast a few spells to have the same attack bonus and better strength. However, D&D is a team sport. The cleric could cast those spells on himself and sometimes that's warranted, but he should be casting a lot of them on the party's fighter. A fighter with all of his feats and the party's best buffing spells can stand up front and do his job of absorbing most of the damage and dealing some decent damage as well while the rest of the party fulfills its various roles a few feet behind.

I just finished running the Skinsaw Murders for four players. I really loved it, but I have a few thoughts for DMs who have not yet finished it. I particularly want to share things that I wished that I had done.

I wish that I had made Aldern A LOT tougher. There's a massive amount of fun build-up to meeting him again as a ghoul and it was a real let down to my players when they killed him in 2 rounds. If I did it over again, I might add levels or give him potions to drink that would have extended his staying power so that he could have lived up to expectations.

There's some cool mechanics for fighting at the bottom of the Seven's Sawmill that my players missed entirely because they decided to enter the mill at the 2nd floor and work their way up. I think if I did it over, I'd redraw the map so that they would have had to go through every level. Also, I think I would have made the Cultists tougher. The party's fighter was killing two per round whenever they stood next to each other. If I could have gotten them into position, they might have gotten a few flanking sneak attacks in, but they just killed them too quick. Another level or two of Rogue might have been in order.

Xanesha was just way, WAY too hard. If I did it over, I'd either make her easier by changing her spell selection so that she had less buffs at her disposal and maybe more spells having to do with seduction. Or I would have given broad, obvious hints at just how tough she was going to be and what sort of tactics she would be using if she has time to prepare. It was a near TPK the firt time the PC's attempted to fight her (one PC death with the rest fleeing badly wounded.) They defeated her the next time with only limited trouble because of massive preparation that included lots of buffs, plus the use of the Silence spell and Invisibility potions to get them to her chamber without alerting her so that she would not have time to prepare.

I might have changed the way treasure is distributed throughout the adventure. There actually is enough treasure in the adventure, but the PC's don't get the better part of it until the end IF they kill Xanesha and get her stuff, plus the 6000 gold each from the lord-mayor. I think I would have spread that out a little more so the PC's would not have been a little bit poor when they went to meet the massively difficult final boss.

Thanks for reading, anything you wished you had done differently?

Scribbling Rambler wrote:

Where I need opinions is:

** spoiler omitted **

I was going to suggest Sloth, too. I've considered adding Warforged as a playable race to my campaign, but having the back story be that all warforged were discovered in Thassilonian ruins. They awoke from millennial slumber with knowledge of Thassilonian (and not Chelaxian common), but no memory of their lives prior to reawakening.

I share your concern. If everything is changed a little, then we won't really know what stays the same and what gets modified unless they specifically mention it. However, they could easily update all playable races with a 2 page pdf once everything gets ironed out. Just a one paragraph entry per race with stat adjustments and a mention of what abilities are being dropped and what are being added will get us all up to speed in no time.