Tarondor's page

Rannarix claps and whoops as Aleksandr tells his tale

"Right," he says. "That's a good one. I ain't never fought no vampire, but I did fight a demon. Let me tell ya."

He gets up and springs off a tree trunk, landing on his knees with his hands wide out. "Let me tell ya about the time I was in Kyonin and we was attacked by demons!"

"So there I was. Creepy forest demons comin' at me..." he pauses and looks at Mister Snappers. "What?" he demands. The scorpion just stares at the kobold.

"Okay, okay. They was comin' at US. There was other Pathfinders there too. And Mister Snappers."

He looks at the scorpion. "Ya happy now?"

Rannarix takes a deep breath. "Now where was I? Oh, right, demons. Well, they was comin' at us and baby they was open for business! I grabbed one of 'em and bit it." He feigns biting something held in his grasp. "You know what I learned right then? Don't bite demons. It's a simple rule I now live by. They taste terrible!"

"Anyway.... they was leapin out'a the trees, like this!" He runs up a nearby tree and springs out, claws and jaws agape, imitating the threatening demons, and lands solidly in the dirt. It looks painful but the little kobold leaps up again smacks his palm into his hand. "But we smashed 'em."

"Turns out they wasn't the big demons. Turns out there were, whaddyacall, cannon fodder. So later, we meet this Tree Lady, and we talk to her and she talks back and we make nice, you know? So, there was demon bunnies and demon wolves, yadda yadda. Or maybe they were regular wolves, but those bunnies were bad news."

He looks at Mister Snappers for a moment before regaining the thread of his narrative. "Oh, right, right. So anyway, we chased this evil priestess lady and she runs right to this BIG demon. Now he was the real thing, and he starts off just killin' her right off the bat, and that's when we really threw down."

"So he's all 'I'm the biggest, baddest, evilest guy here,' the whaddyacall...monologue. Right. He's monologing. And I'm like BAM!"

Here Rannarix leaps straight forward towards his audience, looking very much like he's on the attack, landing just a foot or so away.

"BAM!" he repeats. "So I grab him. You shoulda seen the look on that guy's face when I put him in an arm bar and said 'Nuh, uh, Chuckles. You ain't goin' nowhere'."

He stops again and looks at Mister Snappers. "Who's telling this story, me or you? You wanna tell it? No? Then let me tell it."

The scorpion makes a little "get on with it" gesture with its pincer.

"Thank you," says Rannarix primly.

Then, with renewed enthusiasm. "So I got him like this and I'm twisting his arm and our paladin...was he a paladin? I think maybe... anyway, he's all like POW and there's fire and lighting and whatnot whizzing around all over the place, because you know, Pathfinders, and this demon is howling for me to let go. But I ain't lettin' go, right?"

"So he throws me pretty good. I'll give him that." And with this, Rannarix leaps back, striking the tree pretty hard. "I hit the wall and Mister Snappers was like, 'oh no you don't!' and he stings that demon right on the face!"

The little kobold gets up and dusts himself off. "And then we met some muckety-mucks and got prizes. The end."

Athletics: 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 14 + 2 = 18
damage taken: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 6) = 8

Boo! Hero Point Reroll!

Athletics: 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 14 + 2 = 29

I've updated my guide to Bards for the Remaster. You can find it HERE.

I've run free games consistently since 1977. I'm never going to charge for my services and I'm never going to pay for someone else's (convention tickets aside, of course).

BUT, I don't care if others do. I make a decent living on my own and don't need the cash. Maybe others -do- need it. Who am I... or you... to judge?

Ive also updated my character sheet

Your header still says "Bard 1."

Wait..Tarondor's on here? o.0

Yeah, man! They don't keep me in a cave where I write those guides! I'm a GM and player, too!

Oh, by the way, the kid won and (with his three teammates) will represent the USA in the International competition in Johannesburg in August.

Okay, fixed the median thing.

Nope, you're right. Well, a fix for another day, then! Soon, but probably not today!

Would you believe I got an "A" in statistics? It's been a while, but I did!

Here it is!

Tarondor's 2025 Guide to the Pathfinder Adventure Paths

Please enjoy.

Soooo when will the results come out?

I'm still running my daily "Rate the AP's" over on Reddit. They'll be done by this weekend. The thing is mostly written now, but I'm still editing it based on new comments. And I'm still trying to read through Triumph of the Tusk so I can review it.

Anyway, my update to Tarondor's Guide to the Pathfinder Adventure Paths should be out in under two weeks.

Interesting. Your new analysis should be interesting. We'll see how much recency bias comes into play.

I believe that both Primacy (Rise of the Runelords) and Recency (Season of Ghosts) play a factor in the polls, yes.

I won't get into edition wars. I'll just say that the professionals at Paizo spent a lot of time and money designing a new system for some reason. :-) I started with white box D&D in 1975, and have played 1st, 3rd, 3.5, PF 1 and many others and to me PF2e is by far the easiest to GM even with all its rules. To me it removes the ambiguity of past rules systems.

From my experience trying to make it behave like other d20 systems is the downfall of liking the game or not.

I don't think either system is "Better" but 2e is better for me. I drug my players screaming and crying into it, but after adjusting that's all they want to play.

Cripes, Scranford, I thought I was the old guy here. I started with the same white box in 1977. Anyway, I agree with you in every particular here.

Hey, KingTreyIII:

I want to express my admiration for your work and the way you're working through adversity. As the author of Tarondor's Guides, I know what it's like when the motivation gets low!

Wrath of the Righteous dearly needs a good PF2e conversion and yours is excellent, so I want to encourage you to keep it up at whatever pace suits you. Keep up the good work!

The poll (now with nearly 650 respones) reveals that some APs which were previously fan favorites are no longer front-runners while some new front-runners have emerged.

Abomination Vaults went WAY down in the polls. Rise of the Runelords fell several places. Season of Ghosts is the new #1 and Wardens of Wildwood is the new last place. I'll post the details in the new Guide when it comes out.

'Scuse my absence please. Combination of dealing with the big storm and dealing with sick kids.

My guides to the Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard have all been updated.

Tarondor’s Guide to the Pathfinder Second Edition (Remastered) Cleric
Tarondor’s Guide to the Pathfinder Second Edition (Remastered) Fighter
Tarondor’s Guide to the Pathfinder Second Edition (Remastered) Rogue
Tarondor’s Guide to the Pathfinder Second Edition (Remastered) Wizard

After the holidays I'll update my guide to the bard and then probably move on to a new one about the Champion.

I hope this is an okay place to put this request.

I'm running a PF2e campaign loosely based on Ruins of the Grendleroot and I have some an issue that's bothering me and I wonder if you'd mind helping act as my brain trust.

Here's the issue, with as few spoilers as I can manage:

It's an Underdark campaign wherein the ultimate bad guys are

What I want help with is why she doesn't take a more active part in the story? Why isn't she blasting minions and giving the heroes gigantic buffs?

I think part of the reason is that if the bad guys know she's around, they'd pay much closer attention and join up to stomp her. But there has to be more. She's not off doing something altruistic, that's for sure. So what's stopping her from being more active (and ruining the game by taking over for the PC's)?

Hey nerds!

I'm working on a revision of Tarondor’s Guide to Pathfinder Adventure Paths and I have created a poll where you can give me your opinions of the various Adventure Paths. Please give it a look:

Tarondor's Second Pathfinder Adventure Path Poll

Hey nerds!

I've redone my guide to rogues for the Remastered rules. You can find it here:

Tarondor's Guide to the Pathfinder Second Edition (Remastered) Rogue

There's also this: Tarondor's Guide to the Pathfinder Second Edition Bard.

Thanks, GM Rainzax!

"We are Pathfinders," says Elidathas. "Ragtag is an art form for us."

"No, mate," says Rannarix. "Your running days are over. C'mere!"

1. Hunt Prey on Rindle.
2. Stride.
3. Grapple.

Athletics (Grapple) vs. Fortitude DC: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 13 + 1 = 20

_______________________________________________________________________
To: The Dicebot

Dear Sir. It has come to my attention that you are a fickle, evil, low-down, no good shiftless, worthless electronic disappointment to the AI race. Your mother was an abacus and your father was a cord with some dirty knots tied in it. Also, you suck, dicebot!

Love, Rannarix.

Alchemical Poisons

1 Interact action. 2 hands.

M͓̭͗̿͘ͅi̪̥͛̉̏͢s͈̤̏̋ţ̐͆͜ȩ̳̔̉ř̛̦̭̆͟ ̜̎͗͟S̏ͅn̫̘͐͡app̛̳͍̀̓͜e̻͎̙͒̉̊r̓̄͜ͅş̗̞͛̄̍!̰̦̓̍̚͢ ͓̝̏͆I̗͆ ̡̰̭̍̓́d͍̑̊͜ó̘̪̋̀ͅn̝̮͂̃'͕͎̍̈̽͢t̬̅ ̛̺͔̙̈͘f̪͙͋̎eě̛͎̮͈̑l̻͊ ̠̿w̙͖̩̽̐̽e̖͒l̯̯͖̎͌͑ļ̻̜̆͗͡.̭͓̋̓ ͖̫͐̾ says Rannarix, struggling with being, you know, a mere mass of glyphs.

I ͕͌̀͢t̟͘h̭͊in̫̜͌͌k̜͈̦̈́̚ ̝̣̓͝I̱̼͉̋͊̄'̛̮̤̞̿̈m̠͔̎͛ ̗̭͉́́͘g̲̐o̗̚i͍͔̾̇ṇ̩̏̉g̛̟͚͐ ͎̩̦̅̇̀t͔̰̒̈o̯͞ ͖͐h̗̓u̢͎͎̓̾̕r̙͚̻̐͐͞l̨̓.̺̓.͓̱͐̕͟͡.͉͈́̀

<There's a talking glove, too?> thinks Hornbori. <Well, a talking glove, chest and shield, all in one day. Life in the Pathfinder Society, I guess.>

<But if the outhouse starts talking, I'm quitting.>

Thanks for the update.

I add a table of contents to my docs. Unfortunately the outline is not available when published.

I did that in my earliest guides but found I preferred having the links available on the left hand side.

Okay! I tried something new and it didn't work. "Publishing" the document seems to remove the table of contents along the left side, so I'm going back to just the link to the "unpublished" work like before:

Tarondor's Guide to the Pathfinder Second Edition (Remastered) Fighter

Hey folks!

I've edited my guide to the Pathfinder Second Edition fighter. Here it is:

Tarondor's Guide to the Pathfinder Second Edition (Remastered) Fighter

This should probably be updated to take into account the changes from Player Core 2, i.e. stuff like Dangerous Sorcery not being a thing anymore you can get with the Sorcerer archetype.

Eventually it will be, but that's not a thing that gets done in a weekend. Right now, I'm updating my Fighter guide.

At GenCon, Paizo announced plans to release at least two more books dealing with the Divine over the next 18 months. I think I'll wait for those to come out before starting over. There's other stuff I'd like to do.

Paizo Handle: Tarondor
Character Name: Dinardin of Longshadow
PFS / Character Number / Faction: 2405-2006 / Radiant Oath
Character Ancestry / Background / Class / Level: Human Champion (Justice) 3
Downtime Skill / Task Level / Task DC / Die Result / Outcome: Warfare Lore (Trained): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20

DOT.

Curious why you don't rate Focus Powers

like Draconic Barrage and Ephemeral Hazards that highly? Aren't they both stellar?

I think I addressed those adequately. I rated Ephemeral Hazards "Green" which means it is a good choice for anyone.

"Draconic Barrage" is decent damage at very low levels in exchange for one action plus a MAP penalty. It doesn't scale particularly well. I could honestly see it shading into Green, but pure damage spells aren't as good as spells that do damage plus something else.

Hello Tarondor,

Firstly, I really enjoy your guides.
My issue is with your Runemaster build for Wizards. In it, you recommend skill-ups for Occultism, but at level 14 onwards you suggest going 'Expert Cleric Spellcasting' which requires Religion. I wanted to point this out as I don't see how this build worked.
Thanks.
Harlequin381

Well, that probably came from our "It Was a Late Night" Department. But it could be from our "I Have an Infant Daughter and Don't Sleep" or "Just Plain Screw-Ups" departments.

I'll check it out.

So with Player Core 2 coming out are you going to go back through this to update it with the changes to everything or is that going to happen after you have updated your other guides?

Yes, I will definitely edit it, but I'm not certain when. I'm re-writing my Fighter guide right at the moment, so it'll wait that long, at least. And definitely not until the Player Core 2 changes are up on Archives of Nethys.

Okay, fellow guide-writers, then answer me this: Do you get people requesting permission to edit your guides? I mean, at least once a month I get these weird requests.

I'm not sure whether it's a breathtaking hubris on their part or a startling lack of self-awareness. "Okay, guy I don't know on the Internet, I just spent 200+ hours researching, writing and editing this and my name is on it, but sure, you go ahead and screw around with it now. I'm sure you know what's best."

The number reading your 4 year old rogue guide is impressive. Rogue is an amazing class that you can build effectively in a ton of different ways. You should update it for the Remaster since they have some key improvements that made them even better.

I plan to redo all of them, in the order I wrote them. I'm redoing the Fighter guide now. Then rogues, then bards.

I've toyed around with the idea of maybe a guide to GMing. I can lose any admirers in one fell swoop!

It's interesting. When you have a Google Doc, you can see how many people are looking at your page at any given time. Not who, just how many and whether they're active or idle. For the first two days after I put a guide out, I typically see 30-60 people reading it at any one time. But by day three, that number drops way off.

I have no idea if these numbers are at all significant, but right now these are the numbers reading my guides:

Wizard (3 days old) - 7
Cleric (2 months old) - 5
Bard (10 months old) - 6
Rogue (4 years old ) - 6
Fighter (4 years old) - 2

I've already seen fifty short guides on this forum that summed it up in one line: "Don't play it!!!!!!"

I'm going to guess this is 400 pages before opening it.

(Checks.)

Should have bet the under, but not by much.

I was shocked myself. Perhaps I'm getting terse in my old age.

By the way, PLAY IT!!! Wizards are so much fun! I've never been at a loss for something fun to do when playing a wizard, and I usually have an answer for whatever problem besets the party. Need something blasted? I can do that. Need a door unlocked? I can do that. Need to get from here to way over there? I can do that!

Eh, what's a little derailment amongst friends?

I assume by "silver bullet spells" you mean spells specialized for a limited set of circumstances?

If so, I cover that in my tactics section. A wizard is first and foremost -smart- and should make use of that. The player should seek information before permitting their party to go into danger. You're playing a genius, so act like it. Gather information about your opposition. Study dusty tomes and question local hunters and guides. Seek the opinions of oracles and sages. Then and only then will you be able to select the most useful spells for whatever mayhem you're walking into.

All spellcasters, but especially the smart ones (witches and wizards, mostly) should have at their disposal not only a set of generally useful spells in their spell slots, but a selection of must-have spells in wands and a selection of what you call silver-bullet spells (I call 'em black swan spells) on scrolls.

For example, I play a wizard in PFS. He's currently 9th level. In addition to his spell slots, he's got -more- spell slots because he took the bard archetype. Then he's got -more- spell slots because he carries seven wands of commonly-used spells and ten scrolls of spells I know I'll need "someday." Plus he's got healer's gloves, goggles of night and a wayfinder of rescue for what amount to even more spells. It's possible you can catch him unready, but you're going to have to work for it. In short, you don't have to choose. Take them both!

I hope that answered your question!

Hey folks:

I've updated my guide to PF2e wizards. It's at the same address as always:

Tarondor’s Guide to the Pathfinder Second Edition (REMASTERED) Wizard

Tarondor, Really appreciate these guides. Wish there was a way to support you in building these.

You just did!

I rated the spell Green.

Blindness, by the way, doesn't put people off-guard. It blinds them unless they critically succeed on their save, and that's a lot more effective than merely being Off-Guard!

Is there a way to mitigate the War-and-Peace length of the Ancestry section, and before that, is that even a problem worth solving (for all I know this really is just a "me problem," but I wanted to at least open the question to consideration)?

Either way, all the time you've put in pays off, and this reader appreciates it.

Thanks. One other person did mention it on Reddit for my last (bard) guide. But for all I know, that was you. :-) But several other people, usually those new to the system, have contacted me to say how they appreciated the completeness of the guide and how it helped them understand how to build a character of that sort.

So it may not only be a "you" thing (believe me, I'm going through the Ancestry portion of another new guide now, and it's daunting), but it does help at least some folks, so it's worth doing. I do sympathize with trying to read that behemoth on your cell phone. That's got to be awhile in loading!

I find it interesting that you included low-level Blindness spells on the example loadouts even though they're very likely to do nothing, and usually otherwise just off-guard the target until the start of their turn. Is that really worth it, especially on warpriests with their low DC?

Well, there's no doubt in my mind that making a foe off-guard is useful if you have a fighter or barbarian or rogue standing by to take advantage of it.

I noticed for any deity with a staff as a favored weapon, you mentioned going for the Staff of Divination (or rather Unblinking Eye) for Sure Strike, but RAW you can't cast spells from a staff if that spell isn't on your list. I know there's the implication that a cleric can pick up an archetype to have the ability to cast the spell, but I think it'd be helpful to be more clear with that, if that is the case.

Good point.

I've just released Version 1.1 of the guide based on many comments I've received here and on Reddit. Same URL as before. Thanks for all the help, folks!

Thank you for your thoughts. There's a lot in this post, but I'm just going to address a few of the points.

Ostilli Host is only for Surki, a rare ancestry, so not something I'd include here.

I definitely don't want to include 3rd Party materials. Where would I ever be able to stop? Nope, sharp bright line on Paizo stuff only!

I ranked Dex warpriest as Orange, not low. Orange is "good utility for some strategies." Like archers.

I will do that.

Look at Lost Omens Ancestry Guide Additional Clarifications and Errata

Occasionally Paizo drops an errata update and they are very quiet about it.

Thanks, I will!