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There's a chapter 8!? All kidding aside, pI liked the creature and religion sections of chapter 8 of the core rulebook and was hoping for something like them in the world guide. With that said, are the dark lands no longer a core part of golarion? They're not given a section in either book.
If you find out, please tell us!
SPOILERS! Don't read if you're in a campaign. Spoiler:
So, Lamond Breachton, or should I say Mengkare? A kindly wizard preaching utopian self-sacrifice who built a town that basically worships him. I'm getting flashbacks to Starlight Glimmer from My little Pony, and I definitely plan to play him like her when my Players meet him. Anyone else seeing the similarities? I wonder if Paizo took inspiration from her for this?
Details for Achaechek, Arazni, Casandalee, and Nocticula will all be showing up in Lost Omens Gods & Magic. It feels really weird that I have to Wait until next year to get the information needed to get access to the Red Mantis Assassin Prestige. As far as I know Sawtoothed Sabers are Uncommon with no access method to get trained beyond being a Cleric of Achaekek? Without the cleric info the archetype is basically only useful for GMs. Now, In this case I am a GM and can fudge the rules (I need the info for a GM character for Age of Ashes to shore up my all melee party of 7 players, none of whom have thievery or religion trained, because I have lost all common sense) but it effectively locks out players, doesn't it?
Is it a Spoiler:
Spawn we've seen statted out in 1E or the Pre-1E days? Or is it an entirely new Spawn? By the way? I really like the new Downtime actions. Are downtime and Exploration going to be as big a component of the following APs as they are in this Module?
So, I just got my Digital sub. It comes with a Seperate Inner Sea Poster map. Each section has a more thorough map of the region at the front of the section, and the back of the section is a 2 page spread of Backgrounds on the left page and an archetype on the right (student of perfection, red mantis assassin, lion Blade, Living Monolith, those sorts of archetypes). Scattered about the book are little crunch bits like the Sun Orchid Elixir (now a rare level 20 consumable, not an artifact), Aldori Dueling Swords, and the Final Blades of Galt (still artifacts). Also some spells and feats, like Snowball. Each region has its own timeline as does the inner sea as a whole, and each country has its own blurb in the region write up. They also include head shots of Important NPCs in each region (usually the new rulers). And for those who played Pathfinder: Kingmaker? Jubilost, Lander Lebda, and Jamandi Aldori all have art in the book.
We're trying to get everyone's favorite ancestries into second edition as quickly as possible, but that will be an ongoing process for a while. Let us know what ancestries you want to see and we'll do our best to get them in as soon as we can! Grippli! Seeing them riding a giant dragonfly in Age of Ashes book 2 makes me want them So much now!
Some of the items were really cool. I'd like to see one of the Wyvern Wondrous Figurines make it in, or the magical quivers that enchant arrows drawn from them! For the Kingdom system: I really loved the way that different advisors would give you different reactions for various events. The first time I read about Harrim as High Priest conjuring a Manifestation of Groetus to make my citizens more faithful? I was absolutely blown away! I loved A lot of the prologue, especially the Jamandi's Cache puzzle and although I don't think there's a way to simulate the surprise of suddenly being attacked by mimic oozes after ten or twenty encounters with the cache out of the blue after you install a new DLC? I'd love it if you can manage that too. I really enjoyed Lostlarn Keep from DLC 2 as a sort of optional side dungeon, as well as basically every part of Varn and Cephal's characterizations in that DLC. Linzi is the best, and I hope you include her and develop the hints in the subtextual hints that we get in the game that she's attracted to women. And while it's kind of controversial when she steals some BP to buy a printing press? That sort of thing is a lot more fun in a Tabletop RPG where players can react without the constraints of programming. As for encounters: I LOVED the Crag Linnorm near that one broken Bridge hiding in a cave available early on. And The Kobold/Mite shared dungeon is so much more fun than the original version of those two factions. I also loved The Lonely Barrow. The way that the door locked you in until you went through the first floor to the other entrance? And the fact that there was a Lich that was sealed hiding underneath the entry floor that you needed to kill all these other enemies to unlock, but that you could also teleport past the barrier and fight him that way? That was really fun. I also liked Ratnook Hill. On a more personal note, I'd love it if Tiger made it into the Tabletop adaptation the way he did for the CRPG, but that's more personal for me than something I think is of wide appeal.
Making her more sallow-looking doesn't really evoke "Russia" so much as it does "Undead", I think. I'm not a fan of the new complexion. Especially considering how much exposed skin she has and how much time she spends outdoors, she should at least have a bit of a tan? I do like the outfit changes though!
The next adventure path after this one looks to have more Runelord goodness in store. Ladies and gentlemen, New Thassilon needs you! So spoilers for Return of the Runelords, but apparently: Spoiler: Shoshen woke up right after Karzoug got axed, so she's actually been in play this whole time. She's been slowly amping up for her return.
Alaznist got free in 4716 AR thanks to the events of the Hollow Mountain comics and promptly murdered Xanderghul. She then immediately starts f@!&ing with Time because nothing bad ever happened because someone f!*!ed with time. Xanderghul survived teh ranseur to the head due to Mythic shenanigans and is recovering in the Temple of the Peacock Spirit. Belimarius was trapped in a timeloop Crystilan which gets broken by the heroes from either Rise of the Runelords or Shattered star, if they died? Her timeloop doesn't get broken. Krune got Ganked by pathfinder society people around the same time as Shattered Star was going on. Assuming the PFS people are doing their jobs? That still happens because it wasn't an AP. He's resurrected by Cultists of Yamasoth so that they fleshwarp all of Golarion with the polymorph plague (the illness, not the Qlippoth Lord, though also the Qlippoth Lord... Qlippoths are weird like that). Zutha got resurrected by Varian Jeggare in Lord of the Runes, and ganked at his spawn point. His Phylactery's still around and he gets resurrected again in Return. Karzoug even if he dies in the fighting of the apocalypse, would be somewhere in the Boneyard awaiting Judgement.
1. Dragon Disciple - First and Foremost, I'd probably make Dragon Disciple into an Archetype instead of a Prestige. If Archetypes can modify any class, it makes sense to have an archetype that can trade out class features for being more of a dragon. 2. Tattooed Sorcerer - (Sorcerer) Tattooed Sorcerer had some really cool things going for it. The craft tattoo feat wasn't the best implemented part of Pathfinder 1E, but it was extremely flavorful. I loved that it gave you basically a living tattoo as a familiar, and I'd love to see a version of the Archetype that let you invest resonance each day into tattoos that grant various cool abilities. 3. Archeologist - (Bard) I like the idea of being able to turn another character into a more trap focused sort of whip wielding Indiana Jones, trading class features for self-buffing and trap-dodging abilities. 4. Empyreal Knight - (Paladin) - The idea of being a holy and warrior who slowly becomes more Angelic riding out on a Majestic Flying steed was really fun. I liked how it made the Paladin more of a minion focused class with it's summoning ability, and it was a very different take from the standard Flaming Sword and Board Paladin. 5. Saurian Shaman - (Druid) Everything is better with dinosaurs. Everything. And it was super fun to be able to have a dinosaur themed Druid who can take on aspects of Dinosaurs without shifting all the way into wildshape. Totem Transformation was great, and the Bonus feats really let you play the Druid in a more Combat Focused kind of way. I also Like Iroran Paladin a lot, But the list would be too long.
Rise of The Runelords did a couple of things really well and a couple of things badly (that were mostly fixed in the Anniversary edition). On the good side it was pretty epic in scale, it leaned in on a lot of fantasy tropes (hidden cities, an Ancient Evil awakening, a cult devoted to bringing an ancient evil back to life, goblins, sea monsters (well lake monsters), undead, golems, serial killers, ogres, giants, hidden fortresses of knowledge, all of that was there and interpreted in a way that drew you into the world in a way both familiar and new. You got a lot of steps reminiscent of the Hero's Journey, there's the Call to adventure in the Swallowtail festival. We got Supernatural aid from Shalelu, we cross the first threshold into Thistletop, we get the descent into the underworld at Runeforge, we get boons in the form of Runeforged Weapons... Some of the stages repeat, but it's all very much a traditional adventure done very well. It also brought you all around Varisia in a way that showed off the most accessible and central part of the setting at the time. But I think the most important thing that Runelords did that very few APs do is that it made Sandpoint a setting that you're attached to, then it threatened it multiple times, making you save and come back to it. You grow in stature and the NPCs around you see and appreciate it. You go from being Heroes of Sandpoint to being Heroes of Varisia, but you never quite lose your attachment to Sandpoint. The biggest issue was that there wasn't enough foreshadowing in early modules as to what would happen in later modules. For the first 2E adventure path I want something similar. I want the path to give me the visceral terrified thrills that the Goblin attack did (Complete with creepy song!). I want it to give me stakes to care about. Not "the world will be covered in eternal winter" like in reign of winter, something smaller and personal, like the Sandpoint NPCs, somewhere I can return to multiple times to save. I want it to show off the setting; Kaer Maga, maybe (there really isn't enough Kaer Maga in the Modules around now), or a town near Absalom, or a small village in the River Kingdoms. Somewhere new and interesting, but where we can come back to with comfort. I want the adventure to show me familiar problems (like Goblins and Ogres) with new twists (orcs maybe? Haven't seen much of them). And I want a memorable villain who gets to taunt me and throw endless minions at me. Someone I can put a face to and whose behavior fills me with a burning desire to punch that face. The Whispering Tyrant is actually pretty good for all of that (hordes of Orcs and Undead, whispering way cultists, some occasional horror monsters like werewolves), except that he was Mythic in 1e. So they'd need something to deal with that discrepancy. Maybe make the villain an Heir to the tyrant instead? Someone trying to fulfill their legacy and conquer the world. Another good villain would be someone assembling the pieces of Kazavon to bring him back to life.
0: Prestidigitation (Perfect hair, every day? Never need to do dry cleaning again? Hell yes.)
Historically, diplomats have given heads of state exotic animals as gifts/pets (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_pets). Calvin Coolidge alone had A wallaby, A duiker, and a Pygmy hippopotamus. My question is this:
Wait, was Varisia connected to Azlant by a land bridge?
Yes to most but not to all. Your Avatar is wrong. You're not a dinosaur, you're a troll.
All of that sounds sensible. Ergo, he must be the Starfinder equivalent of a Witch! Burn Him! Burn the Deep-Space Witch! More seriously though, I would like some Archetypes that are geared specifically for Caster classes and Non-Caster classes respectively.
You know he was in contact with them but you don't know they were behind his transformation, or at least our group didn't find out that piece of information. It's all in the note to him. They instructed him on the Murder ritual, and it's just shy of outright stated that they killed him and turned him into the Ghast he is. Were you playing the collector's edition? That's what I was GMing. Might be a change there. Anyway. We're getting a bit off topic. We should probably stick to Starfinder AP 1 Module one rather than Pathfinder AP 1 Module 2.
Shooting someone, because they most likely are involved in something evil, is never a good reason not even in Pathfinder with a more black and white look. Whats coming next, he looked evil?Uh, yeah it is. There's several parts of APs where you are retaliating/preemptively going after Evil groups. This is the whole point of book 2 of Rise of the Runelords, going after the Skinsaw Cult. Except there, You know that they were actively involved in Evil. Spoiler:
By the time you go after them, you know that they murdered a man just to turn him into and undead serial killer that murdered people in Sandpoint as part of a ritual for their cause, caused an outbreak of Ghouls and Ghasts, and stalked a PC. And that they helped someone cover up the murder of his wife. Basically, you know that the Skinsaw cult is both super evil and committing horrific crimes by the time you go after them. Compared to that? The Ambassador is basically a saint (at least in volume 1 anyway).
Starfinder is a different game, with a different Creative Director. And while I totally respect James's opinion and see where he's coming from, I've always wanted to play more with undead that aren't necessarily evil. So in Starfinder there have been some fundamental shifts to make that more feasible. (Exactly what prompted those shifts in-world hasn't been addressed in print yet, but a lot can happen in thousands of years.) LIES! If there were a different Creative Director, there would be more Grippli (possibly with a name change like the ratfolk got) wouldn't there be! I contend that you are actually James Jacobs in disguise!
A competent GM will talk to their players about character creation during Session 0. You don't actually need a Player's guide. They're nice, but not necessary. Like Maps. I wish Starfinder's APs came with Maps like Pathfinder's do...
In the Bestiary at the end (of module 1), there's a monster that was genetically engineered by Aboleths... which is also an Aboleth. Maybe we should be thinking of Aboleth less as a Species name and more like an infraorder, like Simians?
That's happened to me a couple of times in Paizocon and Gencon months. It's infuriating. On the other hand, This month I got my PDF on the 7th! So yeah, luck.
Thank you. I'm not sure how I feel about the change from a lore perspective, but it makes sense, and opens more player options. I still think there should be a sexually dimorphic alien race because Sexual dimorphism is awesome in animals in real life (Lion Manes, male anglerfish, the beautiful tails of male peafowl...)
This book is so so much easier than the Pathfinder Core Rulebook to read. Edit: Weren't Lashunta Sexually Dimorphic Pre-Gap? What changed? Double-Edit: When Will Starfinder be getting its own Direct Link on the Sidebar and when will we see PDF character sheets we can use?
That's not actually true. You can blaspheme by going against a deity's area of concern/tenets, without it being opposed by alignment. For instance, her rebellion against beauty was the Blasphemy, it wasn't that doing so was Good, Evil, Lawful, or whatever, just that she didn't want to be judged on her looks, she wanted to be accepted based on her talents instead. That's arguably a good act, just one which was very anti-Shelyn. Yeah, but you're forgetting she was a paladin in-training. Which meant she was Lawful Good. The fact that she's now Lawful Neutral is what informed my statement that the act was either Evil or super Neutral (those damned Neutrals!). What we know is that somehow she slipped from Lawful Good and worshiping Shelyn to lawful Neutral and not worshiping Shelyn and at least one large blasphemy was involved in that shift. Thus my theory.
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