Tebbo's page

Some kind of Ultimate Tech book.

A book about all the technological things in the Golarion system (including other planets).

Something like Ultimate Locations which details a bunch of different sites across Golarion with maps, background info, adventure ideas, etc. creature ideas or encounter suggestions. stuff like that.

Ultimate Villains would be cool too. A book about evil stuff with a huge NPC gallery of different villains at a variety of levels (like 3, 6, 10, 15, 20).

I loved when Polyhedron was on the back of Dungeon. It was awesome. Shackled City was one of the first series of adventures I ran with any kind of continuity.

Dungeon was awesome. APs so far, just buying and reading them with the eventual intention to run them (if I can wrangle my group) are awesome.

Personally I would kill to see Polyhedron in print from Paizo. It was and still is my favorite RPG related thing. I LOVED seeing new games every other month/every month. The value of those magazines is enormous I think. You got so much in one issue it was amazing.

Epic would be totally fine if it was considerably different from the first 20 levels. Then it might be really exciting as its own part of the game.

If it isn't though, that's just not very exciting and I'd rather see that time and money spent on more interesting rules products.

I have no place being here. However,

Shouldn't the magic-users be more powerful than the guys swinging swords around? I mean one guy can summon other worldly beings, shoot fireballs, summon storms and generally warp reality. Wouldn't he be pretty powerful?

Why should that get in the way though. In everything I play I prefer to be something fighteresque. The wizard can have all the glory, who cares, I play the guy who just has some gear, his talent and a good BAB.

It adds variety to playstyle and complexity to have such varied classes. Making everything even would just be like having every class be bland grey porridge (4E).

Let the wizards have their fun. They always look really doofy anyway.

Fozbek wrote:

James Wilber aka The Magus wrote:

The only people who have more fun at 20th level than 1st level are the rules monkies. People who live to destroy everyone else's fun by finding that combination loop-hole that is totally unstoppable.

Your first two paragraphs were at least reasonable. This one is just insulting, to everyone. You might as well call everyone who wants epic/mythic rules (which includes at least some of Paizo's staff) racists for all the logic and thought you put into this position; it's pure hate speech.

People who want epic content are a separate race?

It seems humor escapes you entirely.

As for Epic. Certainly don't need it. Much rather see things other than rules glut; more interesting fluff or extensible ideas (like say those nifty harrow cards).

I recently discovered the upcoming chronicles book about the pathfinder solar system. Sounds tremendous! Imagine a book just like the Inner Sea Guide for each planet? Examples and explanations for developing things in a more sci-fi direction and the like.

Possibly backwards engineering a base system of which pathfinder is a derivative. I know such a book exists but I'd love to see the Paizo take on it. Something like Alternity, a system which can really be used for anything of which PFRPG is simply a flavor.

There are so many directions other than epic to go that would be much more exciting.

This is true.

I'm a hideous ghoul and my girlfriend is a babe.

And yet combats were still faster than under d20 (either 3e/PF or 4e).

We 'simplified' the rules so we could spend more time at the battle-mat?

S.

In 3E our combats were incredibly fast. In part because we didn't always use a grid and often times larger decision points mattered a lot more than the small stuff. I can see things being insanely annoying for rules lawyers and those types of players but for everyone else; we make do when doing needs making.

I've actually had this happen recently. Some friends and I wanted to smoke while we played so we moved into the backyard onto my covered patio to enjoy the air while we gamed, but the humidity here in Missouri got to my Bestiary rather quickly, all the pages becoming wavy and warped the way you described until we packed it up for the night. Later, after having it out of the humidity, they straightened up, i also used the weight of other books on top of the Bestiary to help in that regard.

They seem to soak up humidity at a ferocious rate, but it seemed to only happen to the book I was using the most at the time, the Bestiary. If you're in a humid environment, try putting 'em someplace dry and see if they straighten out, but if they remain in that condition for too long, I fear it'll become permanent.

Thanks for the response. I live in a pretty humid area but I tend to keep my books in the drier areas of the house just as a precaution.

It's just very surprising how quickly they became distorted. Never experienced it before and I'm disappointed. Thankfully it isn't too bad but it's still kind of silly. Oh well, I'll make sure to treat any future PF books with extreme caution.

I checked around to see if there was a more appropriate place for this and couldn't find one (although I could have easily missed the right place).

I own many RPG books, mostly from 3E/3.5, some 4E and Pathfinder. My pathfinder books have wavey page edges in most cases to some degree. None of my 3E books have this issue and I've owned them for a good deal of time in most cases.

Some of my Pathfinder books aren't even a month old and yet sitting in the same room alongside other older books they have developed wavey page edges. Thankfully it doesn't get in the way of using the books at all but it bothers me simply because they're lovely books and who wants their books to have issues?

Has anyone else had an experience like this or know where I could direct any questions? I love the game but gosh, the paper can't handle anything but optimum conditions? It's not like I live in a swamp and I haven't had this issue before EXCEPT with some 4E books (which have poor quality paper/ink so it isn't surprising).

James,

Thanks a lot for the response. Your personal campaign sounds really interesting. Do you sneak bits of that into Golarion? :)

Ah this is maybe something you can't answer but does Paizo use only in-house graphic designers or do you also use freelancers remotely?

James,

Is Pathfinder a system that may see expansion (say into sci-fi or modern, or different settings within fantasy (outside golarion))?

Or is the Pathfinder RPG and the Pathfinder APs tied together for the forseeable future?

Wisdom applies to a lot of things both in the real world and in the game world.

Wisdom in a way is knowledge or understanding of the basic principles of existence. If you're wise it means you can understand the reason for things in a way that is more intuitive.

It makes sense for Wisdom to be connected to perception as someone wise would likely perceive things on a deeper level than someone who isn't. A wise person gleans more information from the same scene compared to an unwise person.

Likewise it makes sense wisdom is connected to divine magic and realms beyond the material because they 'understand' greater truths about the universe and it's fundamental structure.

I think of intelligence as being about knowledge and memory. The ability to use things like complex formulas without having to think hard.

Charisma is exactly what it says but I think it also relates to self perception. Which is why I personally think it seems fine for things like sorcerers or paladins who's power (in my mind) is based around how virtuous or powerful they imagine themselves to be.

Just some thoughts.

You've been very lucky, then, Tebbo, or your players just aren't complaining to you.

DMing for an unbalanced party is much, much, MUCH harder than DMing for a balanced party. With a balanced party, every party member is threatened roughly the same amount by a given challenge. With an unbalanced party, that isn't true, which means that you have to jump through a lot more hoops to provide everyone a reasonable challenge.

As a player, if the DM doesn't jump through those hoops, you're going to wind up with everything being A) too easy (if you're above the power level the DM is targeting), B) too deadly (if you're below it), or C) just right but wrong for everyone else (if you're right at it but the rest of the party isn't).

Also, people do play in PFS.

Yeah for people playing in PFS I understand why these things are very important and I respect that. But for anyone else I really don't understand that angle. If you can't make things work with the tools you're given as a DM, you and your players aren't really working very well together.

It's a shame because I like the idea of PFS but I don't really believe this kind of game is meant to be played in that environment. I think it's important to have a good established relationship with your group before you've even played a game. Maybe I'm in the minority.

But if you're playing in PFS you are probably already concerned with these things are are picking optimal builds. So then what is the issue really? The fear that you might pick something sub-optimal and bring the party down? Certainly I wouldn't want to do that. If I played in PFS I would definitely try to make a strong character that's as capable as I can. Are people simply that intense in PFS?

I read "9-11 is what you're going to roll most often" and stopped reading.

I'm glad your D20s are special.

Thinking like that is terribly misleading. That number doesn't represent actual play. That's misrepresenting statistics to meet your needs. You're not going to 'most often' roll 9-11 at all. Those individual numbers are not any more likely than the others.

As for the crafting thing. That's really odd, I wonder what the specific reason was for not having a craft check.

Argh. I will never understand peoples' obsession with 'balance'.

I've had extremely powerful and very weak characters in the same party without so much as a peep of complaining. Why? Because they're playing what they want to play and they're all on the same team. The DM is on their team too so I don't really understand this.

As for power creep in general and the idea that they're trying too hard to keep things in line, I don't agree. The Pathfinder team has found two excellent methods of limiting possible combinations and still allowing interesting choices. Archetypes and alternate classes. I am thrilled to see very few prestige classes in the game. Prestige classes should be saved for things like organizations the players can join or transformations of some sort. Otherwise everything can be covered with base classes using archetypes and alternate classes.

If it isn't organized play with people you don't personally know I don't see how any of this detracts from the game at all. It's just the same old argument phrased differently.

Some options aren't mechanically as strong as others. So what? Would you rather an attempt at flat balance and progression *cough* 4E *cough*.

I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea of a 'trap' option. So it's a trap if not every option is equally useful in every situation? Get out of here. That's just a ridiculous perspective. 'traps' aren't intentional, they're there for the people who will like them (not anyone who calls them 'traps' obviously).

That's basically spitting on someone's decision because it's not optimized in your mind.

If you're so concerned with character classes being restrictive (fighter fights well, no skills/magic, rogue does skills, wizards cant really fight, etc.) multiclass.

In my games multiclassing has always been the norm because people have ideas larger than the classes can satiate alone. A fighter is supposed to be someone focused solely on the art of combat. He gives up his time studying, learning acrobatics, picking locks, etc. to be supreme at combat. If your characters don't simply want to dominate combat then they shouldn't be taking every level in fighter.

Beyond that if you want more skills then make a high int fighter.

The classes aren't designed to be balanced against each other. They're just designed to each do something the others basically can't. They don't really have clearly defined roles either, they're just each their own thing.

Most of my players make well rounded characters and end up multiclassing. I'd rather have classes be restrictive in and of themselves but allow characters to multiclass freely than have a more homogenous assortment of classes. As things are we get the extremes, that's a good thing but it doesn't help balance. 2 vs 8 skill points. no spells vs any/all of them. a feat every level vs no bonus feats.

A single character can't do everything well. Just like a person. Everyone will have their specialties but most skills many people can contribute to in some way.