Steven T. Helt's page

Nature is definitely not personified and not all living things have souls. At least not on game terms.

The rationale for a PC is relevant. It's a PC class. The PC's story is literally the only thing that matters.

SKR did a little series not long after leaving Paizo about minimizing absolutes. The game should never be about using an interpretation of one rule to lock a character idea out of a story.

Let me first say I thoroughly enjoy these kind of conversations. The beauty of a great roleplaying system is we can conjure any character we wish with the right rationale and play their story out.

When I designed the Apocalypse Rider, I wanted any character from any background to have a chance to take up the cause of Paizo's coolest bad guys. Sure, they need to have mounts and be ineffably evil. But you can get there from any class, and start with almost any motivation.

I think nature inherently includes death, and those aspects of nature devoted to killing are not concerned with the idea of balance. I also don't believe the game ever references a benign nature entity that deletes parts of nature. There are gods and elemental forces. As I understand, the balance of nature was struck by them after they forged the First World.

The Horsemen and their daemonic host serves to disrupt that balance and end everything. If you see them as an essential part of existence (some give life, some preserve balance, some must bear the office of taking that life away), then it's still fine for them to enact their part of that balance. They can do everything in their power to end all life because someone else out there is tasked with stopping them. Failure to pursue extinction is the violation of the druid's anathema because not murdering everyone is the same as allowing life to thrive. This becomes paradoxical because the strain on natural resources inevitable ends in famine of one or more types.

But I think it's more compelling to say that druids wield the power of nature and are not beholden to it. If that means we need an apocalypse druid that doesn't have the anathema than sobeit. But I'm not for telling any class they can't conceive a way to play the mythic destiny they want. And I'm not telling the Four there's a class out there that can never serve them. : }

Supposong I told you guys that some of my friends and I made a list of about a dozen we're gonna develop and sell as a 3PP. What kinds of things would you wanna see?

I'm def not gonna betray our list but they are really damn juicy.

unless you're a martial who can't resist boringly curb stomping fools with Eternal Legend.

Uh....sure. An Apocalypse Rider totally can't curb stomp fools. No, that class is only about narrative. : p

Steven T. Helt wrote:

What parts did you work on, if I may ask?

I will talk about this book and the genius of Mike's vision all damn day.

I was fortunate to be asked to write the Apocalypse Rider, the Weaver of Webs, and the section on mythic rituals.

So if a PC on a black horse with a heavy flail destroys your consumables and blesses your harvest with locusts, you're welcome!

Or if your pirate-ship is sucker punched by, you know, the ocean, you know who to blame.

I'm pretty proud of this book. I'm not sure why there's any negativity at all, but i appreciate a thread devoted to the silver linings.

I just think this whole cloud is mithril. It was so mch fun to write!

I have always suspected that Paizo favors daemons over other evil outsiders, or perhaps over all the other outsiders (perhaps because daemons are entirely Paizo's creation?), and now it is proven!

Oh, gosh no, my friend. The daemons are reflections of the old school yugoloths. Theyvwere more ir less ignored among fiend whike the ba'atezu and...you get it...got all the attention.

Paizo gave them the rubrick of each type representing a kind of death, but daemons have been around forever.

Now to be clear, they are absolutely *my* favorite!

What a nice Halloweeny thing to get.

Oh, we got some Halloween fun for you, alright....

If anyone needs help remembering the colors of the Riders' horses, some roaring 1970s prog rock has you covered.

I am very much a prog rock snob and I am grateful you shared this.

some things

With respect, my friend, all are welcome here and I hope there are no hard feelings. I'm sorry if you felt mocked and it's totally reasonable you didn't detect I was working a bit. No one reads every single post and it was for sure a minute since I was a daily commenter. I miss those old superstar contest days when there were thousands of us pouring over all the entries!

I look forward to reading your favorite parts of the book!

I....yes. Yessir. I know that.

Sooo...on to a new joke, then!

Seriously, though. I enjoyed my carve-out for this book. I am definitely using material from it in my homebrew game.

Still saying Apocalypse Rider sounds like post apocalyptic road trip movie also that they should get cooler mounts than horses if horseman part is dropped ;p

I suppose we could all drive Mustangs. I have a buddy with a Mach E, and it is irresponsibly fast.

I've always loved the idea that the Horsemen ride a unique nightmare, or even a dragon that carries a Famine or Pestilence theme or whatnot.

Does that mean there will be no playtest for the mythic rules?

Perhaps the cover art implies that Szuriel will be a deity in Pathfinder Remaster?

Over several dead bodies.

(This is a Horseman rivalry joke and not actual book content. I mean...why all this Szuriel love? Famine is where it's at.)

Steven T. Helt wrote:

Terevalis Unctio of House Mysti wrote:

love this cover!

Ha! It's perfect of course. Just a little Four Horsemen rivalry. I prefer my mounts pitch black.

love this cover!

I mean it's great, but that horse is the wrong color.....

Greetings, old friends. I was pleased to be a part of this project and I think you'll all love it.

The only class that is inherently evil is the antipaladin. Everything else comes down to the choices a character might make in terms of abilities and how he uses them. Some abilities are evil. Some spells are evil. But the inclusion of a sinister-seeming option doesn't make a class evil at all. I can make a very effective lawful good witch right now. The existence of child scent or cook people doesn't make the witch class evil any more than the existence of unhallow and create undead makes cleric and evil class.

All I wanna know is if a witch can take a shaman hex. Since some spirit hexes seem more powerful than regular witch hexes, and no language specifically says they can, I guess the answer is no. Sad face.

As unofficial Herald of my friends at Playground Adventures, I just wanna say I'm excited about this. I listened to a mentor recently describe how his mother ran a game for he and his friends, tying homework and research into the story and making education fun. So I think this line of products is brilliant and way overdue!

Looks like Victoria Jackzo's dhampir paladin archetype got axed at some point in development.

Yeah..over the course of putting this massive book together, we weren't able to keep everything we liked. It'a a sad truth of publishing that sometimes space, art, or other requirements forced quality content out of final versions. Usually we just hang onto those (especially if we've paid for them already) to use later on in a more focused product. In this case, my friend Jazz broke off several cool archetypes and the paladin went onto the self. It's not her fault (she turned over a fine bit of design). Just didn't make this cut this time.

When you've had things left out of a book because too many things started with the same letter, you start to understand Marc's job is a tough one.

Alas, no, Painful Blow is the only combat feat in the book. The rest are all typeless.

Hmmm....I know for a fact I typed all of my feats.

If Archetypes can now grant full spell-casting,

it just seems ridiculous to insist they can't alter HD, BAB,
or alter existing (base) spell casting progression...

So...there was design space available for some badass to tinker with the basic chassis of the game like you're talking about.

Until Stephen Rowe and the Four Horsemen got ahold of it. Now it's written and waiting for a certain event to get out there to the public.

Soooooon.

What does the Rogue lose for being an Eldritch scoundrel?

The scoundrel onlt gets 5d6 sneak attack over his progression, and half the normal rogue talents. In addition, he only gains uncanny and improved uncanny dodge if he spends a rogue talent slot on them. He loses armor proficiency and only gets 4 skill ranks per level.

In exchanges, he gets decent spellcasting and replace trap sense with a n internal alarm that registers nearby magical traps.

Hehe. That isn't the most consistent thing, and I know that so I should have been clear. Sorry.

Yeah..the scoundrel casts spells on the same progression as a magus, including cantrips. But he draws spells from the wizard list.

I really dig that dude. He gets things done.

Hope you're all enjoying the book!

I think this book will take you from "conjurer of cheap tricks" to "transmuter of bling". But..I wrote most of the bling parts so I could be biased.

I absolutely think you can accomplish the adventure in the time allotted, or maybe even a little less. Just remember: Tristeza House is an intentional meat grinder. There are a lot of combats, but they run one after another and can even bleed into each other if the PCs are anything less than super efficient and clever. It might be easy for the party to explore the whole house in half the time ypou've allotted, but it will hurt.

If you have any questions about the adventure, feel free to drop me a PM and let your players know you're conspiring against them with the author!

This adventure is a great debut for an exciting new company. Written by a designer I hired for a project earlier this year, developed by my friend and fellow Horseman Stephen Rowe, and published by my friends at Playground Adventures!

Full disclosure: I received a copy of this product for free as part of a portfolio so I can evaluate a designer's work for future freelance hiring.

I have to tell you, I will be hiring Kelly Pawlik for design work soon. The writing is smooth. The product fills a need in a professional way. You can immerse your players in different tavern scenes, roleplay locals to give the players favorite hangouts, and of course have those all important meetings with contacts, employers, or desperate townsfolk in need of a hero. Trio of Taverns makes your job as GM easier. Also, if you are a player with a business in mind, pick up this supplement and get to know the new front for your adventuring career!

The talented bestiary you mentioned sounds interesting. I don’t think I have heard about it before so can you tell us a bit about it?

Good to see you again, Griffin!

We are really proud of the Talented Bestiary. The book presents a system for creature design that allows GMs and players to craft new races and monsters from the ground up.

Suppose you wanted to play a PC that has a few racial HD, like building one from the ARG but a little more meatier with racial HD? Or suppose you want your dragons to be unique, or you want to build a mind flayer or beholder for Pathfinder for your home game? By declaring a role and key combat abilities for the creature, you can swiftly build anything you want, and even mix and match types or subtypes to get the flavor you need for your encounter or PC.

That's the Talented Bestiary. We cast aside assumptions about creature types and static abilities, and give you the power to make absolutely anything. And once you know the system, it's actually wicked fast.

That book isn't quite ready for layout, but we anticipate a final turnover within the next few weeks and then we'll begin marketing in advance of its release. It's a big book, featuring a re-imagined version of almost every creature in the Pathfinder Bestiary.

Keep an eye on it!

So..my kid saw the web site, played with puzzles, and printed coloring pages of your adventure art. I dunno where else a young roleplayer can do all that, so kuds for those very cool ideas.

My friend and RPG Superstar Top 16, BJ Hensley, is a total polymath. In addition to fun Pathfinder design, she does web design, cartography, editing, and is a well-connected marketer. She also acts as herald to my writing group, the Four Horsemen.

It is my great pleasure to herald her for a change. BJ's new line of adventures falls under the brand Playground Adventures, and she's launched a new web site to bring us family-friendly adventuring suitable for roleplayers of all ages.

Please drop by and check out her site. Also, come back here and bump the thread. Tell her how much you need family adventures in your life and thank her for making that vision happen!

I am so very proud of my angler fish hydra. Tim's illustration could not make a more perfect cover for The Depths of Desperation!

The Four Horsemen design team (Tim Hitchcock, Steven T. Helt, Stephen Rowe, and Dan Dillon) has had a great year. We've individually and jointly worked with a lot of companies, including Paizo, Rogue Genius Games, Legendary Games, Kobold Press, and more!

Today, we partnered with our friends at Rogue Genius Games and d20pfsrd.com to launch the Four Horsemen Blog. Every week, we'll bring you advice and tips regarding your home game. Available topics include current events that might inspire homebrewed adventures, ongoing campaigns and how to keep them alive, treatments for your PCs, advice for those behind the screen, and more.

It's October, so we kick off the blog with a horror theme! This week Stephen Rowe (Pestilence) discusses strategies for making monsters scary for even seasoned adventurers! Check it out, and then come back and talk it over!

coming together to form a rather tired, middle-aged human male's face.

J...John? John Reyst?

A good map makes you want to role up characters and get your hands dirty. Dayum! I don't think I have seen a map that made me want to get into an adventure so fast. When a map elicits an emotional response, like Return to the Tomb of Horror's city of Moil or the Fanes and tunnel maps from Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, or (to get away from adventure with "Return to" in the title) the cyclops stronghold map from...last year?

So...you just let me know what level, how many mythic tiers, and when we're playing whatever adventure Paizo decides to use this for.

And uh...let me write some encounters for it, too.

You should drop the mic. Most exciting map I've seen in this contest in any round of any year. Go make monsters.

My keep list has never made it to 32 in any year, so I am pleased to say this item was in my top 24.

I was impressed with it's cinema. I think majestic hero standing in the snow. I think about mammoth lords snarling at aggressors and getting ready to get their hands dirty.

Good luck and congratulations!

I am sure BJ is working her map now, and it's generally frowned on for contestants to remark about their entries during the contest. EVen though votes were cast and such, it's a good policy to refrain from more than "Thank You" until the whole contest is over.

I can't answer for her, but I can speculate that the nausea is a reference to the distraction ability of swarms. If you think of it as a swarm, then the effort to not breath in or swallow a bunch of butterflies (or termites or spiders) simulates nausea. Most swarms I know of have this exact same effect.

Anyhoo..congrats, BJ! Looking forward to your map!

I have had a pretty good track record of predicting the Top 32 over the years, and I posted my personal keep list of 24 items that are pretty likely to make it in over at our Facebook page (facebook.com/fourhorsemenofficial)

I don't generally approve of cake.

EDIT—Ugh. That was supposed to post as "Four Horsemen—Famine". Every year it gets me.

Wait? My incutilis lord gets a mini?

*swoon*

Thanks so much for your support! I have already done some monster design and outlined the adventure. Now I'm off to expand my plans and give you the very best I can. I think the tough choices and tough encounters will please you all. Unless you reeeally love that PC who just died. Sorry about that*.

Please tell your friends, split up the cost of increasing your pledge with your gaming group, or whatever you can to help unlock my good friend Tim Hitchcock's adventure. Everyone knows Tim's adventures are unique and rich in story, and you don't want to miss it!

*Disclaimer

Hey, folks! Just dropping in to say it's exciting to see a game gearing up for the adventure path!

As author for one of the adventures, I was invited to run the special kickoff event at PaizoCon so I could get a taste and it was a blast. It was not easy and the players were great sports about the AWFUL AWFUL things I did to them, but it was a great time and set the stage for a fantastic adventure.

Please reach out if we can help you prepare for your game, and please go back us if you haven't already. In the next week or so the KS will start to pick up as time starts to run out, and about that time we'll be funding my adventure The Depths of Desperation.

...for which I want you all to know..it's truly nothing personal. : )

You folks are always welcome to send me messages here or on Facebook. I'd be happy to help with ideas that with help bridge the game for your table or find a way to improve a bit that just didn't quite get there.

A couple of bits from this thread (and be patient with me on minute details, it's been a while since I write it):

Hope's Hollow is utterly broken. There's no going to the authorities. In fact the previous leadership is dead and now everyone hates and suspects one another. The nurses don't care because they suffer the same miasma as everyone else. Everything sucks. Nothing is fair. This job is doomed. They personify the jaded nonchalance that should permeate Hope's Hollow and Cassomir.

The use of the lacridaemons to slow the party is right on. The text says the harry the PCs and they should be able make their life difficult until the PCs pull a pretty boss move, or the game starts to drag and its time for the next encounter.

In the adventure's beginning, the two members of the Watch are infirm and old and happy to send the PCs to look in on Dern. But when Flinn sends the missive to let them know where he is, it's an emergency. They care for their friend, can't reach the PCs, and behave rashly.

Hopefully that explains some of the thinking or helps move the game forward. I wish I'd sen this thread before just now.

Please let me know if you want to talk about the game!

With only 8 tickets to go, time is running out! The publishing partners will boost the signal in a few days, so get your team organized and get those tickets soon!

NPC Codex! Complete with appendices, Apocalyptic antagonists, and yes...even a weresheep!

Congratulations to our friends at Kobold Press, and congratulations to those of you who pledged for this magnificent book!