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Thank you ;D

Snotlord

Dear Paizo,

Please cancel my remaining subscriptions.

Best regards,
Snotlord

Can't believe nobody has brought up The Matrix yet.

Thank you.

Dear Paizo,

Please cancel my comics and player companion subscriptions.

Best regards,
Snotlord

My goodness, this sounds useful. The NPC Codex missed the mark as it was organized by class - this sounds much better.

Nice. I hope the core book is setting-light as Golarion never did it for me. I'm hoping for something I can use for a Doom-like game, so we can go blasting Balors with BFGs.
Also, it needs to 100% compatible with the existing Pathfinder stuff. I want to mix and match as I please - I really don't need a new game.

I just wished they hadn't killed of Davenport. It was nice to see him again, and he was perfect for his part.

None of my players likes point-buy, so we have not tested it any further. I use 10-point-buy for ncps, while the players roll three characters with 4d6 and drops the lowest, and picks the character they want.

This clearly gives the characters the advantage, which is fine as it softens the blow of less gear. It is also more interesting as it shifts combat from pure damage spells to a more varied selection.

IMO, Paizo-style low magic/fantasy gives casters a slight advantage as the magic available becomes more valuable. Spells like charm person become more valuable and npc buffs and gear become scarce.

Fighters are still essential to the groups' survival, rogues are needed for others reasons, and noone bothers playing monk. So nothing really changes.

However, Snotlord, I'm having a hard time finding the low-magic rules in my CRB - are you sure you aren't referencing a different paizo book?

No wonder you can't find it, it is hardly there. They are perhaps not rules at all, but more like balancing guidlines. Pazo also uses the term Low-Fantasy, I've always assumed they are the same, but I realise that may not have been the intention.

I use the following design guidelines for my games.

Page 398, NPC Gear Adjustments.
Page 399, Placing Treasure, halfway down the following page.
Page 453, regarding NPC gear and challenge rating.

The gist is that you cut NPC gear in half and lower NPC CR by 1. Treasure is cut in half. Character Wealth by Level is cut in half.

My conclusion from this is that it essentially works, but you have to consider the impact on Determining APL on Page 397.
Now clearly a different kind of low-magic than you looked for, but perhaps worth considering.

I try to stick to low magic as written in the Core Rulebook.

In my experience, Pathfinder characters are very powerful, and stripping away half of their assumed gear hardly makes a dent in their ability to steamroll over just about everything I throw at them at the assumed CR-level.

It is no more hassle than any other Pathfinder game. Pathfinder prep is what it is, and you just have to eyeball one or two levels lower than you otherwise would.
Just watch out for magic bullets like facing a Shadow at level 3 without a magic blade, or very high AC, and you should be fine.

Sean K Reynolds wrote a very good article on 3.x action economy back in the day. The article explain why this works way better than I ever could.

The main problem with low magic as written is that there hardly are any worthwhile rewards in the Core Rulebook at a low cost - so if you like magic, just want less of it, you and your players could get frustrated quickly. YMMV, and good luck

I have the same experience as the OP, but this is not about the bloat. My group of oldtimers mostly uses Core only, and they repeatedly break the game.
The problem is that high-level 3.x was slow and broken from day one, and Paizo has never adressed that properly.

My group want to keep Pathfinder, at the present, to keep all the options, so my current plan is to strip away spell buffs and use 5e-style magic items. As long as I make sure they have access to magic weapons to deal with DR, I'm hoping the CR system now actually will be balanced.

We'll see how that turns out. If its fails, I'm probably switching to Fantasy Age.

Damn, how did I miss this! I'll look into it once it goes live.

The maps looks really sweet - but I hope the placements makes more sense than the Known World. The placement of Ylarum still bugs me after more than 30 years. ;D

Traits. Awkward execution. Too fiddly for pointless bonuses. Really really poor design.

5e Background - or even 3.5 Forgotten Realms background feats - is a much more elegant way to add flavor.

I was sceptical for the same reasons as mentioned above, and believe this BG 1.5 is a good idea, if anyone feel they must make a new game.

The only way to make a true BGIII is to make the game about the city and Bhaal somehow, and leave the Ward of Gorion as a part of the backstory.
BBII, only bigger, will not make sense - and hopefully wotc realize that.

This may have some answers:

Link.

Best of luck to Sean and Jodi. Sean's FR stuff is still among my all-time favorite RPG books. A real loss for Paizo.

I would prepare a couple of generic encounters is case the players derail the plot - perhaps a band of low-level pirates or lizard folk - to buy you time.
Create new generic encounters as the characters advances in level. In time you will have a nice little library of encounters to recycle.

Also, keep a prepared list of npcs names handy.

This should help you maintain the illusion of being in control of the story.

As for balancing a small party, throw in some extra loot and bonus encounters to get the characters ahead of the xp curve.

Backed on ... day two I think? I loved the concept, the artwork and the designers has worked on some of all-time favorite game books. I hope this gets funded.

After development, Wardens actually goes to 15th, and a party that gets every possible bit of XP will be about halfway to 16th.

If we were to do more 16+ level adventures, what sorts of stories would folks like to see? It's a completely different realm at that level in terms of what sorts of things PCs are capable of and what they expect to face, so I'm curious what specific adventures people would like to see in this level range.

My high-levels games are often set in large scale wars, backed by outsiders, powerful summoners, evil gods and their like.

Basic dungeon crawls: a prophet’s hidden tomb, a lost archmage’s library, a vault/demiplane of an imprisoned demonlord/demigod/demilich.

A metropolis is besieged by a demon-backed army and the characters must organize the defenses and deal with a number of bosses.

A team of high-powered assassin are terrorizing the city/kingdom and the characters must draw them out and defeat them, then strike into enemy territory to defeat the assassins’ masters.

A villa/castle/guildhouse with hidden defenses powerful enough to deal with high-powered intruders.

Basic stuff really, but with really powerful opponents, tricks and traps.

... but it seems a lighter version of PF with optional rules and complex negligible mechanics (such as life points recovery) just to give the sensation things have changed.

Any input?

If so, there is nothing wrong with that. Perhaps PF needs a light version.

Check this out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_of_Norrath

I think a megadungeon needs several entrances, to allow rival monsters/organizations to enter independently/unnoticed. Some entrances should also be secret.

Otherwise, make sure it is self-sustained in a logical manner.

One thing I don't get is why people cancel their subscription just because they don't like the theme of the AP.

Oh, I get it. I'm one of Gorbacz conservative gamers who prefer my fantasy somewhere between FR, Tolkien and George RR Martin. I cringed at the thought of linking my beloved homebrew with WW1 Europe, so if I intended to play all the gaming stuff I buy, I would certainly cancel. I would in fact have done it a long time ago.

Luckily for Paizo, I enjoy reading the APs, even if I don't play them. The only APs I have regretted buying was Rise of the Runelords (gross) and Shattered Star (dull), oddly enough two of the AP closest to my preferred type of fantasy.

I've quite literally blown my mind with Mystara. There is so much stuff that I dunno where to begin, let alone how to begin converting the setting, particularly the Immortals.

If in doubt, start with Treashold in Karameikos. Create a local dungeon and some rumors. Read up on Kelvin, Spekularum, Black Eagle Barony, and the basics on Selenica and Thyatis would be helpful.

Not sure about the immortals. The clerics was pretty generic in the system used with Mystara, or at least in the earlier products.
I would check with the players what kind of divine casters they want to play before putting any work into it. Maybe you dont have to worry about it.

If you want old-school rules, I would use one of the retroclones instead of hacking PF. I went down that path with my old AD&D game, and it was a timesink with little reward.
I am seriously considering Swords and Wizardry for a faster game.

If you want PF old-school feel
1) Go low magic, specifically drop the ability boosters.
2) Consider dropping a few of the combat options, especially attacks of opportunity.
3) Reintroduce danger. PF/3e feels very safe and balanced if you play it by the book. Throw in a few encouters the players cannot win if they insist on fighting head on. You play with guys in their fifthies, they can take it.
4) Present the quests as you see fit, but let the players choose their own path. Prepare to improvise.
5) Read up on Tolkien if you like world-shaking epics, or Howard and Lieber if you like a darker sandbox style of game.

Enjoy!

I'm just wondering what people think about the +2 ability score bonus you get every two mythic tiers. I haven't had a chance to playtest this yet, but it seems like they are really unnecessray.

I agree. It adds to the complexity of the high-level game, in terms of creating npcs and possibly monsters. Also, the bonus is not significant (+10 at MT10?) compared with 3.0 epics, so it just "fiddling" with the score. Thus should be scrapped IMO.

Same with the initiative bonus.

I really enjoyed this book. Personally I would have prefered to have the stats organized by theme - like "thieves guild", "elven village", and so on - but still a very useful tome.

Looks perfect.

Looks good. Bring on the Super Creeps.

My list:

* how to make diablo-style weapon/armor gems

* clarify the alcemist and crafting

* more on slapping on extra abilities - a vampiric belt of dexterity, a champion's cloak of resistance, and so forth... again, see diablo

* more on holy/unholy relics, how and why should anyone want to craft such an items (the extra feat seem wasted as it is)

* items with unlockable abilites - like Weapons of Legacy, but without the feat tax

* item sets, combined wih unlockable abilites

* clarify what kind of items can grant skill bonuses

* more abiliets for rarely used slots

...

I miss vanilla WoW when warlocks and pallys had to quest for their mounts and other classes had specific class quests what would net an item or armor or something. Now everything just get's handed to you...

Damn kids...

Get off my lawn!!!

Bah, in my day - Baldur's Gate that is - we had to WALK all the way.

*grumble* ...whippersnappers... *grumble*

I dunno, but I just got a similar error with equipment using 5164. Several reinstalls later, I updated pcgen to the recent 51717 beta, and that fixed the problem.
I usually stick to production releases, but so far I am really pleased with the new release.

Close enough ;D

The Eldritch Mr. Shiny wrote:

The Traveling Wilburys, featuring Prince - "While My Guitar Gently Weeps (live)" (cover)

Woah. I didn't realize such a thing existed.

EDIT: I think this performance needs more Prince.

Not sure if this qualify as the Wilburys without His Bobness, but thank you for the tip. Fantastic!

@Snotlord: You should check out the discussion in this other thread, which is discussing mythic rules.

Thanks you gbonehead! I am aware of the other thread. Few new mechanics was actually my suggestion, so I put it here.

By "new mechanics" I mean alternate ways to handle criticals, mythic points when we already have hero points, traits when we already have racial traits, a class feature when a specific use of a skill is more appopriate - everything that makes the game more complex.

A new supernatural ability, feat or spell does not necessarily add to the complexity, it add options. I suggest the mythic rules should be about more options and power, not complexity, and I hope the designers agree.

I'm hoping for as few new mechanics as possible. The high-level game is a tough sell as it is, I want more powerful options, not added complexity.

Just now, Fever Ray "Keep the streets empty for me".

About the mythic points thingy... Maybe this should be an extension of the existing hero points system from APG (?). I imagine it would be awkward to use both systems.

Whoa big topic... here is my immediate wishlist:

I'm hoping to be able to create immortal non-casters with some supernatural abilities, like plane shift, mind blank, create demiplanes and such. This is for characters that approach divinity, but are not demigods yet.

T'm hoping to see mostly templates for the monsters to maximize utility and mileage. Unique mythic monsters should IMO be setting specific anyway.
Check out the Super Genius Simple Monster Templates for ideas. An excellent source!

Don't make mythic items feat dependent, or require sacrificing characer abilities to use. Use the pc/npc gear value and reward systems for balancing.

I hope we'll see a chapter section on how to create mythic adventures, and maintain setting integrity.
The "Beyond..." articles in the APs is always my favorite section - something like that, not a cheesy Galactus-of-the-week random table. Myths are after all great stories, which usually is Paizo's greatest strength.

Oh, and I wholeheartedly support more elven fortresses hidden behind a waterfalls, and other ideas mined from BECMI.

This sounds good. I eagerly await the playtest rules.

Dragon Age are computer games, yes. They sound a bit like LOTR/Conan rehashes, but I like them. The composer is Inon Zur, but not credited on spotify. Search for EA Games Soundtrack.

I mostly use Dragon Age, Dracula and the Dark Knight for my games.
LOTR and Conan are too familiar, and become distracting.

Ruslana was a joke. I like the song, quite catchy, and very distracting. It was used in GTA IV with great effect, hence the joke.

Diamanda Galas on the other hand is a very serious artist, better experienced. I used her for my V:tM games back in the day. Very effective.

A fine list, but you missed Bram Stoker's Dracula. I'd consider the game soundtrack to Dragon Age and DA2 as well, and Diamanda Galas Plague Mass and The Divine Punishement/Saint of the Pit for horror stories.

...and perhaps Ruslana Wild Dances for horse chases around Absalon. ;D

Sad news indeed.

Wanna know one of the reasons that high-level, much less "epic"-level content is so rare? Because by that level, like Snorter said, it's hard to think up plots that actually stand up to the least bit of scrutiny.

Either the players should use their high-level powers to make the "threat" a non-issues rather easily, or the BBEG should use his high-level powers to make the threat happen long before the characters get wind of it.

This I believe is true.

Paizo has said repeatedly - if I recall correctly - what they will support the mythis rules, if they produce them. I fail to see how, so I would not worry to much about opportunity cost.
Mythic tales require a setting that support it - like Mazalan, Melnibone or the Forgotten Realms. Mona wrote something about setting integrity (regarding Greyhawk), so Golarion fans should not worry either. Paizo is unlikely to wreck Golarion just because they can with any new rules.

Also, a 32 page one-shot is IMO a contradiction in terms. A mythic one-shot? Really? Mythic adventures needs more space, and probably a fair bit of handwaving, and is thus hard to do in a marketable format.

I still want epic rules, but Paizo need to carefully consider just what they want to do with them, and of course opportunity cost.

I think the ELH and the Legendary Levels rules both made the mistake of making the game more complex. I'm hoping for a solid hardcover that over levels 15-36. I hoping for a lean and mean rules set with no new subsystems, based on e20, with 100+ epic feats (the campaign feats from Ultimate Campaigns sounds like a fine building block to me), and a handful of epic level templates for monsters.

This would give us tools to create our own stuff and more time to play with our munchkin characters (Waldorph! anybody? anybody?), James Jacobs could finally stat up demon lords, Paizos loss would be minimized if the book flops, the book works as a reference for "normal" campaigns, and the rules would be fairly manageable compared to the current rules.

(Almost) everybody wins!

Pretty much. There is just one problem...eventually it would take so much xp that you would have to start destroying worlds to advance (surely by then your character would be old and grizzled...lol

Perhaps I'm stating the obvious, but there is always story xp. I would award xp for four CR 20 encounters pr session even if it did not feature a fight worth actually fighting.

I would go for a higher wisdom. Don gets people, except perhaps himself. Alignment would be LN or LE.

Great news! I'm eagerly awaiting the new production release.

Interesting article, despite the Greyhawk bias. Greyhawk certainly have the dubvious "benefit" of being left along by the publisher for a couple of decades, everything published back in the day seem to be good, judging by comments here and elsewhere.

Personally i hope Elminster's Forgotten Realms is a huge success, for obvious reasons, but also because as I would like to see something similar for Greyhawk. Gygax' Greyhawk back in print with modern production values would be insanely cool.

To ACTUALLY ANSWER THE OP'S QUESTION....

Companies don't release any time frames until they're actually about to launch a product.

LOL, good one.

That said, I hope Paizo consider a long playtest period on this one. Release what you got, let us play around with it, and give it, say a year?

I think mythic rules makes more sense for paizo than ever, since D&DN seem to take the retroclone route. Paizo failed to make 3.5 easier to play (my opinion), they might as well finish the job.

...and just to be clear: I want this to happen! I still have level 36 npcs in my campaign, and eagerly await proper rules to use them.