RPG Superstar 2013. RPG Superstar 6 Season Dedicated Voter, 7 Season Dedicated Voter, 8 Season Dedicated Voter, 9 Season Star Voter. Organized Play Member. 3,260 posts (4,715 including aliases). 2 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character. 24 aliases.
Creatures with Int 2 or lower definitely shouldn't have souls*. I think everyone understands the anathema and how it could apply to druid followers of the Four, but it makes zero mechanical difference to put druids in charge of their own ethos instead of having to say no.
The alternative risks relegating druids to a place where they actually can't be evil at all. If they represent the predatory side of nature, not evil. If they kill simply as a measure to restore balance, not evil. If they only work to undermine the spread of civilization, not evil. Druids need to be able to play the motivation their players want, until there's a version of druid that isn't a restrictive devotee.
But hey...maybe I can give us that.
Exception
Spoiler:
Obviouslt all dogs go to Heaven. Except chihuahuas. They don't count.
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.
I think the character is Seldzar Rhossaraghan. A former slave of House Rhossaraghan in the Underdark, Seldzar used the gifts of his fiendish heritage to escape captivity to the surface.
There he found himself employment with all means of treasure hunters, surfacing as he did in a kingdom of lost secrets and ancient ruins. His training and natural aptitudes made him the perfect guide for those who robbed the monuments of Mulhorand—long lost to the desert sands.
One thing Seldzar had not expected to find was a surface world dependent on the cruelty of slavery. Though not always with the barbarism of the drow, the tomb raiders and builders and armies and merchants all benefited from the work of slaves under a punishing hot sun, or deep in mines and buried temples. Seldzar remembered the lash of dark elves and deep dwarves and determined to punish those who profited from cruelty.
Today he makes his coin guiding vagabonds into the forgotten places of deserts and mountains, but his real business is disruption. A salvage team or even an owner who offers his slaves freedom and a share of treasure gain the benefit of his expertise. But abuse of one's workers carried the risk Seldzar might take him into an ancient tomb only to free his slaves.
I think the character is Seldzar Rhossaraghan. A former slave of House Rhossaraghan in the Underdark, Seldzar used the gifts of his fiendish heritage to escape captivity to the surface.
There he found himself employment with all means of treasure hunters, surfacing as he did in a kingdom of lost secrets and ancient ruins. His training and natural aptitudes made him the perfect guide for those who robbed the monuments of Mulhorand—long lost to the desert sands.
One thing Seldzar had not expected to find was a surface world dependent on the cruelty of slavery. Though not always with the barbarism of the drow, the tomb raiders and builders and armies and merchants all benefited from the work of slaves under a punishing hot sun, or deep in mines and buried temples. Seldzar remembered the lash of dark elves and deep dwarves and determined to punish those who profited from cruelty.
Today he makes his coin guiding vagabonds into the forgotten places of deserts and mountains, but his real business is disruption. A salvage team or even an owner who offers his slaves freedom and a share of treasure gain the benefit of his expertise. But abuse of one's workers carried the risk Seldzar might take him into an ancient tomb only to free his slaves.
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!
I am very interested in this game. Thing is I can play anyone. Escaped slave, risen servant of a long-passed Pharoah (an actual FR character I've played before), a Thayan Red Wizard tasked with commerce (played him in a long-running campaign. I can play a responsible LE), or anything else.
Just tell me what you'd like to see and I can make it work.
I wonder if there's any way to get in on this? Been a while since I played in a PBP game, and I've never played in a game based on a book I helped write!
I have several ideas for mythic characters, owing to having written a portion of the book and being in on WoI discussions.
What say you all?
EDIT I realize now this was for playtesting. Just got all excited at the prospect. If you open a new game for the book's release please let me know!
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!
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.
Hey, gang! As lead developer for this fun book, I wanted to chime in and give my thoughts.
There's a lot to love about Golarion. I'd prefer to see some of these very different cultures spread out over more continents, but it's a high magic world with tons of cool history, and Paizo did a great job of blending these old powerful detailed cultures when thrust together at their borders. So a quick overview on these races in Golarion and then some specific notes.
First, hopefully there's enough detail for the races in the ARC that you can just drop them into any setting. Remember that different cultures may have a different history. Not a lot of sages are gonna know what the darakhul history is and what they're up to, so even departures from Golarion's official timelines can slide seamlessly into the world most of the time. The best approach to integrating a culture is just to put it into your setting laterally, meaning let the people and cultures of Golarion stay and include the new race right alongside them. Ustalav might have a higher concentration of dhampir, a bunch of dour humans just waiting to be murdered by undead, and heroes manning Lastwall, but a city of civilized ghouls trading for living foodslaves fits thematically. Sahaguin tribes might make war the same palces as human pirates. They might also absolutely despise aboleths and cyclopes becuase some sahaguin inherit memories. The diabolical sahaguin might have a pct with Cheliax as that power tries to regain its naval supremacy. Anyhoo, you get the ideas.
So...some remarks on where I'd place specific races you mentioned:
Darakhul Darakhul are absolutely my favorite race in the book. I love thinking of them as faux civilized...looking and acting like human aroistocracy and soldiers, but having that undead savagery juuuust underneath. Above ground they could be anywhere, working to undermine mortal civilization or deeply involved with cultures that allow slavery. But they probable find the most purchase in Ustalav, Nidal, Geb, and Nex. A cool twist might be a growing tribe of cannibals that are actually ghouls, expanding across the Mwangi. That's actually a whole damn adventure path. Dibs. Obviously they could be anywhere in the three levels of the Darklands. I'd arrange oit so above ground they look and act human and fit in well, and below ground they keep no secrets and are more savage than even the drow.
Dragonkin For sure good dragonkin might have a small population in Hermea and evil dragonkin might hail from the Land of the Linnorm Kings. The Four Horsemen wrote a book that included some options for linnorm half-dragons and that might be fun to play with. Also dragonkin might be even more common on the Tian Xia continent.
Gearforged are perfectly at home in Numeria and maybe could be found in neighboring countries as well. Maybe a good twist would be for them to be very science-oriented and have a strong contingent in Rahadoum, where religion is banned.
Jinnborn Jinnborn are described as being disparate and not having a really strong unified culture. So they could be anywhere in a world where elemental magic is manipulated at the highest levels. In terms of strongholds, jinnborn might be most common in Qadira, Osirion, or Jalmeray (which also means Vudra). I also like the idea of air- and water-based jinnborn pirates spawned from the Eye West of Garund.
Shadow Fey Shadow fey are just sooo awesome. Especially if your campaign makes a lot of use of Ultimate Intrigue, because they should be the bosses of social combat. Obviously Nidal had ties to the shadow plane, and has close proximity with ancient elven kingdoms. I'd also consider putting shadowfey courts in Ustalav and maybe a contingent in Irrisen.
Tosculi I might consider a variant tosculi that has some sort of synergy with the Red Mantis worshipers on Mediogalti. A tropical variant might populate the Mwangi. You could also put them in the Mana Wastes between Geb and Nex or that prison island to the East where all the magical experimentation has gone wrong (I forget its name).
Trollkin I think the best use of these guys is in the Hold of Belkzen. Orc and half-orc tribes might venerate Lamashtu by breeding trollkin. Careful how you handle delivering human slaves to troll and ogre sires and all that, but it fits and makes that place even more dangerous. Maybe check out Jazz's Superstar adventure and see if there's room to add them. The old school hobgoblin adventure path coming out offers some promise here, too.
Werelions could go lots of places. Noble werelions ruling thesavannahs of Tian Xia. Perhaps a kingdom of them from a vast luch plain as one of the Impossible Kingdoms of Vudra. But I think the most exciting place for them has to be as nomadic tribes offering to lead high-paying caravans past the gnolls of the Brazen Peaks from Katapesh to Osirion. If I can have lion people and hyena people n the same world, I'm putting them directly into conflict with each other.
Hope these ideas are helpful. We're really glad you're enjoying the book!
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.
This product is sooooo overdue. Congratulations to my friends at Playground Adventures.As a group we've failed over and over to focus on growing the hobby and its market and this is the coolest most positive idea in that wheelhouse I have seen.
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!
Today I recorded a ROundtable podcast with James Intracaso, where I talked about the next two stretch goals of the Talented Bestiary, among other things. As soon as there's a link to the show Monday I'll post that link here.
We are looking for at least $9000 in the next ten days, so please tell your friends, gaming groups, web sites and everyone else. Let's add the creature abilities from Bestiary 2!
Glad to have you on board, Rainzax! I think the system is a little less labor intensive once you know it, certainly fast once you have a little practice, and one other thing.
I believe the Talented Bestiary tool is the most fun I've ever had creating creatures, and the Four Horsemen have created a loooooot of creatures, even without playtesting this book.
I can't wait til future stretch goals so we can design daemons and other goodies!
Hey gang, our first update after funding offered a list of all the creatures created in the book. The system allows creation of anything you can imagine, and to prove it we made a couple hundred monsters to test that system. You get them with the book including color art.
I thought I'd publish a partial list here so we can talk about which creature is coolest. The short answer is...all of them!
aboleth, savage
solar, fallen
basilisk, pandemonium
cat swarm, carnivorous
cockatrice, crossbred
darkmantle, nightmantle
balor lord, Drozuum
devil, ayperobos swarm
imp, advocate
pit fiend, Duke Alastor
tyrannosaurus, vindicator
dolphin, maraka
doppelganger swarm, myriad
dragon, Turrakeron
eel swarm, flying electric
flytrap, blackflower giant
gelatinous cube, reflector
efreeti, moltenblade
frost giant, wasting
iron golem, iron maiden (EXCELLENT!)
green hag, innkeeper
bison, white
linnorm, fey
mimic, mansion
mummy, peat
nightmare (death, famine, pestilence, war)
nymph, warrior
phase spider, singularity
rakshasa, gunslinger
rat, hive
spectre, dethroned
tarrasque, armageddon
tiger, autumn reaper
troll, infected
wyvern, axetail
Great question, Teiidae! The sahuagin of Midgard have a looong history of mysticism, with a religion so ancient their own origins are a mystery. Every so often, a malenti is born to lead her fellow sahuagin in the subjugation of her neighbors. The influence of diabolical pacts or elemental beings makes this more than a mere mutation. Malenti are wholly different from sahuagin. They have savagery and conquest in common, but malenti look, act, and think differently. We typed them as native outsiders to reflect this. Mechanically this also has the advantage of giving sahuagin-focused adventures more diversity. Creature types affect mechanics, like favored enemy or some spells. A combat with a dozen sahuagin is easier on the PCs (and harder on the villain) if every bad guy is a magical beast. Make the boss and outsider, surround her with monstrous humanoids, and throw in some animals (I'm thinking......sharks?) and you have a more diverse encounter that lets PCs shine in combat, but without encounters being easy or redundant.
If you think of malenti as a bizarre mutation that results in a comely monstrous humanoid changing the malenti's type doesn't necessitate changing her other traits. You can certainly swap in monstrous humanoid for outsider, toss the native subtype, and proceed with villainy.
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.
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.
Dagger:
Attack: +2 (+1 BAB, +1 Dex)
Damage: 1d4, slashing or piercing
Crit: 19-20, x2
Range: 10 ft
Feats:
Spellsong
Weapon Finesse
Traits:
Jenivere Crew (Swim +1, class skill)
Heirloom Weapon (Whip, +1 trait bonus to attack with heirloom)
Red Mantis Training (+1 Reflex Save)
Special Qualities:
Geisha Knowledge (+1/2 level to Diplomacy, Knowledge (nobility), Perform (sing))
Bardic Performance:
Duration (2 + Cha + 2/level): 8 rounds/day
DC (10 + 1/2 level + Cha): 14
Countersong
Distraction
Fascinate (target becomes fascinated, sits down, does nothing, -4 to reaction checks like perception, Will safe negates)
Inspire Courage (all allies+bard, +1 morale vs fear and charm, +1 competence on attack and damage rolls)
Backpack (2):
Game, cards (marked) (1)
Mirror, small steel (0.5)
Perfume, common x3 (-)
Soap (0.5)
Pouch, belt (0.5)
Waterskin (4)
Pouch, spell components (2)
Bag,waterproof (0.5): (in camp)
Bedroll (5)
Blanket, common (1)
Clothing, entertainer x3 (12)
Clothing, Explorer (8)
Clothing, Scarf (0.5)
Musical Instrument, common (flute) (3)
TOTAL WEIGHT: 63.5 (33.5 on her)
Carrying Capacity:
Light: 33
Medium (-3): 66
Heavy (-6): 100
Lift: 200
Push/Drag: 500
Money:
Starting Money: 105 gp
Starting Equip: 84,91 gp
Current Money: 20,09 gp
Magic Items:
None
Physical Description:
Allia is a young human woman in her late teens or early twenties. Most people would describe her as quite beautiful, and she certainly knows how to present herself from the best side.
She is of average height, and rather slender and athletic looking. Her dark hair falls down over her back, and contrasts well with her skin and her green eyes.
Her lips are full and usually carry a smile, and usually she wears at least a bit of makeup.
Her outfits are usually made to catch the eyes, often colorful or cut low so they reveal a bit more than what most people consider decent. Even then, the way she carries herself and moves, only emphasises every curve and every shape of her body, making even a normal outfit look good on her.
Background/History:
Allia has been born in the city of Katapesh as the child of a slave to a rich nobleman. She never knew her father but rumors around the house had been that it had been that nobleman himself, but of course he never acknowledged her as his.
From an early age she has been trained in different forms of entertainment. By now she's familiar with many different styles of dances, ranging from formal ballroom dances over seductive belly dances to some extremely exotic ones. She has learned to sing many songs as well as play different instruments, or recite the epics of famous heroes.
But there were always the rumors about her true heritage, and especially the Lady of the house and her children hated her for this, seeing her as a threat. It was one day, when her husband was away, that she sent the houseguards to fetch Allia, 8 years at that time, from the slave quarters and she was dragged down to the harbor's slave market. There she was sold to a slavetrader bound for the far Kingdom of Rahadoum. It was a harsh journey, but since the slaver recognized that she would grow to be a beautiful woman with alot of talent, and therefor would be worth alot, and so he did not keep her chained up in the cargohold with the rest of the slaves, which most likely saved her life.
Here she was sold into the household of a rich merchant, Merilis Jaorva, where her education was once again continued. Once she was a bit older that also included the art of seduction and pleasing both men and women, as well as getting them to tell her their secrets. But many more years passed before she had to put this knowledge to the test.
It was also here that she first learned to use a whip to make an impressive performance. Over the years she mastered the use of it. The whip she used mostly had a hilt, ornated and inset gemstones, even though she always suspected those were fake and cheap.
A bit over a year ago, Merilis took a lucrative business deal away from an influential noble, who swore vengence. So he started to spread the rumor that Merilis was infact the secret head cleric of the church of Abadar, and it was only due to this that he could wrestle this deal from him. Allia was just accompanying him to a business partner, when the news reached them, that the Pure Legion had raided his mansion and arrested everyone. He knew that they would not have taken this step, if there was not some sort of "proof" of his guilt planted by his rival already, and so decided to not take his chances and to leave the city on the first ship that left port, which was the trading vessel Jenivere, which was headed north to Varisia.
Unfortunately he had barely any coin on him, due to his hasted departure, and Captain Kovack was not willing to risk taking a potential fugetive aboard for just a few silver coins. That was when Merilis offered him Allia in exchange for passage, if they leave immediately, claiming she would sell for good money on any slave market that he passes.
That's how she ended up on the ship. But instead of selling her, how it was maybe his plan in the beginning he has kept her around for over a year now. Aboard the Jenivere she tends to the captain's needs mostly, be it serving him his food, keeping his cabin cleaned or doing his laundry, as well as providing company at night. Sometimes she helps in the kitchen, but since she's not a very good cook, she's usually used for menial work there. From time to time the captain has her entertain the crew with her songs and dances, to provide a morale boost after long weeks at sea.
RPG Superstar 2013
