The Friendly Lich's page

I'm not holding my breath for a Game Master Guide to drop in 2019, but from the temperature of everything that's been said I'm thinking that this is where those rules will be published along with whatever re-tool they do for Haunts, Firearms, Chases, and Kingdom Building rules as well as HOPEFULLY a Paizo OFFICIAL (Read: Balanced/Tested) set of Gestalt Rules.

Why would firearms be in the Game Master Guide? Has that been officially announced or hinted at? Everything else that you list is what I would expect to be in a Game Master Guide - but in what way are firearms something specifically for the game master?

I know this will sound like an awfully specific niche request, but I‘ll say it anyway:

Planet Earth World Guide.

Based on what has been established in Rasputin Must Die (2013 publishing date = 1918 on Pathfinder universe Earth), now would be the perfect window of opportunity to publish Pathfinder material set in the golden 20s, before Pathfinder universe Earth will enter WW2.

I would love to have a book containing locations, creatures, and plot hooks based on real-world mythology (and based on 1E-Bestiaries I know that Paizo has an interest in these too) and also modern weapons and equipment rules for 2E.

Plus a matching Pawn set, containing 1920s era humans and mythological creatures.

Can we have EU-friendly shipping options for this campaign, please? (i.e. an option for European customers to have physical products shipped from within the European Union)

Oh, and one thing would really love to have as an addon or stretch goal is a Vincent Dutrait artbook.

Will there still be an option to download character sheets for free and without a watermark for second edition?

The Friendly Lich wrote:

Would it be possible to give each bestiary an explicit theme, after the first one?

Bestiary 1 will be „bread and butter fantasy monsters“ anyway. But beyond that, I would prefer if I could take for example only the „desert bestiary“ (if I am running a desert themed adventure) along with the „core bestiary“ - and have all momsters relevant to me, rather than having to bring Bestiaries 1 through 9 and only needing a few monsters from each.

To that end, I would be happy to have a bigger core bestiary and much thinner thematic bestiaries. I also wouldn’t mind if some monsters were reprinted across different thematic bestiaries.

Problem then is that, if you do a niche bestiary, less people may overall buy it, as they don't game in deserts, or seldom use fey, or never make it to high level. I would prefer a variety of monsters of different types, niches, and CR.

If there is a theme, I would prefer it to be vague enough to allow lots of types of monsters. Kind of like how the current bestiaries have subtle themes going through them.

From a commercial point of view you are probably right.

Personally, I would still prefer explicitly themed bestiaries (similar to the „... revisited“ series) to the subtly themed bestiaries of today, because I feel it would reduce the number of books I have to carry for a given adventure.

Would it be possible to give each bestiary an explicit theme, after the first one?
Bestiary 1 will be „bread and butter fantasy monsters“ anyway. But beyond that, I would prefer if I could take for example only the „desert bestiary“ (if I am running a desert themed adventure) along with the „core bestiary“ - and have all momsters relevant to me, rather than having to bring Bestiaries 1 through 9 and only needing a few monsters from each.

To that end, I would be happy to have a bigger core bestiary and much thinner thematic bestiaries. I also wouldn’t mind if some monsters were reprinted across different thematic bestiaries.

Let‘s talk about stat blocks and character sheets.

Here is my personal wish list for PF 2E:

I hope that PF 2E stat blocks will follow the same basic layout as PF 2E character sheets. This would make it much easier for novice players to figure out what is where when they are handed a stat block for the first time (e.g. a summoned creature).

I want to see at first glance which feats on a stat block provide an active ability (e.g. a special kind of attack that is not repeated anywhere else on the stat block) rather than just a passive bonus to something (which is already factored in in other parts of the stat block). Something to help novice (or lazy) game masters to prepare encounters, and make sure they are aware of all the special capabilities that a creature has.

Related to the above, I would like both character sheets and stat blocks to show both the innate statistics (based on class, levels, feats, etc) and the current statistics (including temporary effects from gear, spells, raging, etc.). Today, Paizo tends to give some plain text notes as part of the stat block (something like „the statistics above assume such and such spell has been cast. If not use the alternative statistics below...“). This is already very helpful to figure out if an effect has already been incorporated, but I am hoping for a more elegant and less verbose solution. Also I noticed at my own games that players often forget where a certain bonus came from and whether it is still active or not.

Starfinder Pawns!

The Lexx (Lexx)
The Equinox (Start Trek Voyager)
That cruise ship from The 5th Element

Aboleth (or more general: deep sea horror)

Axis (or more general: planar locations)

Desna's home star

Dominion of the black

Can we get a pawn set for this book, please?

Oh, yes you are right. Missed that at first glance. But still, technically that only prevents you from taking more Paladin levels after becoming a LN/LG vigilante. It doesn't prevent you from becoming such a vigilante when you already have those Paladin levels - and it doesn't spell out whether you become an Ex-Paladin in one or both of your identities.

RainyDayNinja wrote:

I gotta say, I don't like the auto-undetectability of the secret identity. A level 20 diviner shouldn't be stymied by a first-level ability. I think something like a caster level check of 15+level would be more appropriate.

If your nemesis at 1st level is a 20th level character, I think you've got bigger problems to worry about. You could frankly use all the help you could get at that point.

Think of a Vigilante 1, Something-else 19 versus a 20th level character.

The way it is now, you essentially get the full effect of this ability with a 1 level dip.

2. You may want to address how other classes from multi-classing affect or interact with the social vs. vigilante classes, especially for classes with alignment restrictions or codes, such as a paladin.
(Because yet another reason for "the paladin falls" threads is probably not what you're looking for. Well, OK, maybe Stephen-the-anti-paladin-designer, but everyone else...)

Yes, this needs to be defined by the rules.

My favorite interpretation would be: since it can fool divination magic, it can also fool the gods. So you can be a fallen paladin / ex-cleric by day, and a paladin/cleric by night (or vice versa).

The vigilante can start each day in either of his identities, referred to simply as social or vigilante.

This causes a bit of ambiguity to me, where I'm not quite sure what the word vigilante means as a rules term (similar to how the word "level" might mean class level, character level, or spell level, depending on context).

It seems that the word "vigilante" alone usually means "vigilante class", whereas the other thing is referred to as "when he is in his vigilante identity". But I'm not quite sure, especially since the quote above seems to contradict that ("referred to simply as ... vigilante").

In general I would prefer two different words used for the class and the identity, to clear up any chance for ambiguity.

The poor, poor insane fool. I imagine he will begin to lose enthusiasm quickly...

The concept is thoroughly unsound. It fits though.

Poor insane fool indeed. It is settled, then. I'll start fleshing out the details.

@The Friendly Lich- Golarion, for simplicity sake

Sorry, what I meant was: where in Golarion are we? (Cheliax? Thuvia? Galt? etc.)

Additional Rules
Do not use the [dice=] equation. use instead. If you use [dice=] when quoted, the expression is broken.

Hide dice inside spoilers please,

I'm a bit confused by this. Firstly, how do I roll the dice then? [ooc]1d20 doesn't give me any dice result.

Secondly, if we are to put dice rolls in spoilers, breaking the formatting wouldn't matter anyway, because a spoiler that is quoted is turned into "** spoiler omitted **... " anyway.

I know you said this is homebrew, but if this house was situated in Golarion or on Earth, which area would it be standing in? Just trying to get a feel of the setting.

How about a bard, who comes to that place willingly, looking for a good story? (Will be super excited, note down everything spooky that happens, and will want to continue to investigate, until it is too late to turn around)

Thanks for the quick responses!

Awesome!

A few questions though:

Are human ethnicities and languages illegal in core?

Can I apply boons originally earned with a non-core character to a core character?

Can I include a copy of a non-core chronicle from one character to the records of a core character? I'm talking about ...

Friendly Lich: Your character looks good thus far, does he or she have a name?

Not yet. But I might as well make one up right now:

Temeron

Along with some other stuff:

Titles: The Dreamer, Erratic Lord
Home: shadow plane
Symbol: a pouch filled with sand
Colors: all bright colors, especially red, purple and blue
Animals: moth, peacock, lionfish
Weapon: net

Does that answer your question?

Yes it does. Thanks.

Definitely interested! Here is my application:

Chaotic neutral god of art, beauty, night, sleep, dreams (including nightmares), amnesia, randomness, strangeness and misunderstandings. He is the patron of mortals' sleep. He gives them dreams, but he also the one who makes them forget about them when they wake up. He seeks to make the world a weirder place, because for him beauty emerges from randomness.

Domains: Chaos, Charm, Darkness, Madness, Trickery

How are you planning to handle the map-drawing aspect of the game?

But it officially is a season 5 scenario (5-99), isn't it?
Just wondering whether this is maybe intended as the last scenario you are going to play with your old faction.

I'm very eager to have one of my characters change from Grand Lodge to the Scarab Sages. Especially now that it is official that the faction will be led by my favorite dragon jewel sage. At what point in time will I be able to take my free faction change?

Can I do it right away?

Or do I have to wait till season 6 officially starts?

Or do I have to do it just before I play my first season 6 scenario?
(I.e.: if I'm going to play "The Paths we choose" in August, do I play that for my old faction or for my new faction?)

On June 15th I asked you to cancel my campaign setting subscription, before the map folio.
On June 28th I received an email from customer service confirming that my subscription was cancelled.

Despite that, today I received an order confirmation for that subscription.

Please cancel that order immediately!
I did not order that product and do not want it!

The Friendly Lich wrote:

Not to mention Aucturn, countdown clocks, and the dominion of the black.

My ideas, you stole them!

Do your ideas also involve mummified mi-go and neh-thalggu?

Wayfinder #12 is Egyptian themed. Mummies, pyramids and ancient ruins and tombs, scarabs, tomb raiding, sphinxes.

Not to mention Aucturn, countdown clocks, and the dominion of the black.

Two additional interesting facts I stumbled upon during my research:

1. While there is indeed no rule that prohibits dead characters from taking actions, there is a rule that prohibits the players of dead characters to do so:

This isn't in the PRD, but if you have the actual CRB, it says this:

When a PC dies, his player no longer has any input into the game [...]. That player has to sit at the table quietly, watching and waiting while everyone else continues to have fun with the game.

So, by RAW, players must sit still and are not even allowed to have fun while their charecters are dead (I need to start enforcing that rule at my table). Note that this doesn't apply to NPCs (so the GM could still make them act normally after they died) and that it isn't tied to the dead condition, but to the act of dying (so a player whose character gaining the dead condition via that family domain ability instead of by dying is still allowed to act and have fun - while the other player whose character doesn't have the dead condition anymore still hast to sit quietly without having fun. At least thats how I would rule it).

2. The Additional Rules chapter lists a few more "conditions":

"Hold portal" and "Arcane lock" are conditions that can be applied to objects (Just like with "broken", I assume objects unfortunately don't count as allies for the purpose that family domain ability)

"Favorable conditions" can double the weight one can push or drag (no examples given - by RAW I would have to assume that "favorable conditions" means invisible or incorporeal - and maybe prone while people are shooting at you).

Difficult terrain, obstacles, poor visibility, and impassable are conditions that hamper movement (probably conditions of the terrain, not of the character).

in a few cases such as 'raging', they're bonuses, but that penalties that aren't conditions are still possible.

Raging is a condition?

Thanks for the replies so far! There definitely are recurring characteristics among conditions, but there doesn't seem to be one simple definition that covers all of them:

Most conditions are penalties, but there are exceptions (e.g. incorporeal and invisible).

Most conditions are continous, but there are exceptions (e.g. prone - which should be the same type of thing as kneeling, sitting, or squeezing).

Many non-conditions are relative (e.g. flanking and higher ground), but there are exceptions (e.g. kneeling, sitting, or squeezing).

Conditions are standardized effects that can come from different sources, but so are some non-conditions (e.g. concealment).

For example: "grappled" and "pinned" (from the grapple rules) are conditions (listed in the appendix under conditions), but "tied up" (also mentioned in the grapple rules) isn't a condition in itself - it merely "works like a pin effect".

Also, the tables for attack roll modifiers and damage roll modifiers list liberally mixes conditions (dazzled, entangled, ivisible, ...) and non-conditions (behind cover, concealed, squeezing).

Are there any mechanical effects that distinguish between conditions and non-conditions? (e.g. anything that can affect conditions but can't affect non-conditions)

Are "non-conditions" even a thing? Or would it be okay by RAW to call e.g. "squeezing" a condition, even though it isn't listed in the appendix?

Yeah, the name of this thing being the "Sky Key" is interesting. It raises the question of what unlocks. Maybe the Elves are not the only race with a bunch of magical teleportation devices around.

An interesting name indeed. Especially when you consider this:

traditionally that convention debuts the thrilling conclusion of one season of Pathfinder Society Organized Play and lays the groundwork for the exciting story arc that begins a month later at Gen Con . The Pathfinder Society is poised to march to Jormurdun, a lost dwarven Sky Citadel

(Emphasis mine)

Perhaps dwarves and their quest for the sky, sky citadels, sky keys, and numerian spaceships are all related somehow.

A module about shutting down the Chapel of Rent Flesh.

It could be the adventure about Kytons we've all been waiting for - and it would be the perfect tie-in module for Iron Gods.

Can we have a tie-in adventure module about shutting down the Chapel of Rent Flesh?
Please?

1.Earth: humanity started in West Africa, this world had some form of magic on it that slowly disappeared before the 20th century. during the 20th and into the 21st century humanities technological abilities advanced faster and faster. without divine magic behind it the religions of the world had less control of governments(mostly) which led to many nations separating church from state.

Is there any evidence that magic on pulp earth was stronger in the past than it is in the present time of 1919?

I always assumed it was not so much a matter of magic disappearing from earth over time, but a matter of fictional earth having more magic than real earth. Just like the fact that Cthulhu and Santa Clause don't really live on the earth today doesn't mean global warming made them disappear during the 20th or 21st century.

Well, we know humans on Earth come from West Africa. So, it's possible that, at some point, Leng had a connection to a physical location in that area and that Leng slavers originally dumped humans there. So, it's entirely possible that humans are native to an entirely different planet than Golarion or Earth, and equally possible the Numerian ship was built by humans from that world.

Definitely.

If that theory is true, then the Golarion equivalent to West Africa (as the origin of humans on that planet) should be Varisia.
Which actually makes a lot of sense, because Azlant was relatively close to Varisia.

This thread is awesome.

There are some correct guesses here. Not 100% correct... but you folks are, in at least one instance here, pretty good at the sleuthing.

Hah, I knew it! So when are you going to announce the Disney deal officially?

Problem is, the same ways we know that are the ways we know humans evolved here on earth and are genetically related to the rest of the life on earth.

Good point.

For this reason, my pet theory is that humans (along with dogs, pigs, horses, and cats) originally evolved on earth.

Orcs and Dwarves on the other hand are native to Golarion. Fun fact: orcs and dwarves as we know them today are a pretty recent innovation here on earth. Probably Tolkien based his middle earth mythology at least partly on eye-witness reports from people who had seen Imrijka when she visited earth in 1918.

On Golarion people wouldn't care so much about a common ancestor for all life on the planet. Why would they, in a world where outsiders and magical beasts exist?

Still strange that human-orc hybrids are possible. But then again, so are human-elf hybrids (elves are from a planet without native humans), human-outsider hybrids, human-dragon hybrids, and so on.

Yeah, I think the culture that built the spaceship were completely unaware of the existence of magic (or at least was incapable of utilizing it).

Hmm, in that case there really could be a correlation between magic and technical evolution:

The Numerian-spaceship-civilization had the most impressive technological evolution - in an environment devoid of magic.

Earth has shown a slow but steady technological evolution - in a world with some magic (There is some magic on Golarionverse pulp earth, e.g. Baba Yaga and everything from Rasputin must die)

Golarion has a very high level of magic, and human technology there has been stagnant, despite the jump start it was given by the aboleth.

Insofar, I actually revise my opinion and agree with MagusJanus' original assumption now: magic does seem to hinder human technological advancement!

Something else the denizens of Leng are known for?

Slavery.

The denizens of Leng enslaved a group of primordial humans who migrated from prehistoric earth to the dreamlands - then sold them to the aboleth of Golarion, who used them as a plaything for their cultural experiment.

I like that idea!

Some more theories on what could have caused the spread of humans:

Desna - she is a weird bug alien from space, but she also is good aligned and takes an interest in mortal life. Plus, one of her domains is travel. What if she systematically spreads specimens of promising species to other planets with compatible environmental conditions?

Leng - Leng is reachable from the earth dreamlands, but also connects to the Mhar Massif in Varisia. Maybe some of the first humans on earth migrated into the dreamlands and from there reached Varisia (and presumably also another world in "a distant galaxy") via Leng.

The Ilee / Apostae - maybe they colonized the universe in their slow moving generation ships. Maybe in "a distant galaxy" there was an unbroken technological advancement over the millennia, from the Apostae-type spaceships to what crashed in Numeria. (There certainly are similarities between the two: both seem to collect weird specimens on their spaceships - and both are using robotics)

So too much magic isn't good for human evolution - but not enough magic isn't good, either?

While we're at this:
Has anything been revealed yet about the magic-level of the ship that crashed in Numeria?
So far I didn't find any indication that they use any magic at all (for example, all the special abilities in the bestiary section of the Numeria book are Ex - there are no Su or Sp abilities).

I was more thinking about lots of character portraits for technology themed Kytons and their test subjects, for example. But if you feel the urge to experiment with environment scenes, I certainly wouldn't mind either.

... If that entity got out, that means the space ship was running away from it and crashed on Golarion, ...

Judging by all the specimens from different ecosystems that the ship brought to Golarion, my impression was that it was more of a science vessel.

But if they were indeed running away from something, my bet would be on the dominion on the black:

Don't know if the dominion has been officially confirmed yet to be featured in Iron Gods, but: The dominion didn't have any prominent role in the current Osirion AP, despite the strong ties that Osirion has with the dominion. There are of course several possible explanations for this. But one possible explanation would be that the dominion would play a prominent role in Iron Gods - and they didn't want it to show up in two APs in a row.

It also makes sense if you look at the in-universe timeline:
A human spaceship flees from an expanding dominion and crashes on Golarion in -4363 AR.
The dominion slowly but relentlessly expands and its influence sphere eventually reaches Golarion around -1498 AR (start of the countdown clocks: source: Occult Mysteries).

Maybe the presence of magic and a significant number of other species competing for the same space has been a roadblock to human technological advancement on Golarion.

Compared to Golarion, sure. But how would you explain the slow evolution on pulp earth? (even slower than Golarion, in fact)

Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:

What I want to know is, why are Golarion and Earth so identical in their astronomical features? Exactly the same year and day length, axial tilt, size and orbit of moon...

Well, I think the official answer is "because we want Golarion to be as Earth-like as possible so GMs don't have to worry about the planetary effects of having different axial tilts/gravity/planet size/a closer moon/etc."

In real life, this is most definitely the case.

But in-universe, Midnight Lurker's theory has some appeal.
After all, as a matter of fact Numerology does work in the Golarionverse (source: Occult Mysteries).

Are you by any chance planning to draw things that thematically fit the adventure sites described in the new Numeria book?
(Particularly: the chapel of rent flesh, crowhollow, and the hollow garden?)

I love fantasy conspiracy theories!

We can probably safely assume that Lovecraftian monsters are everywhere on the material plane in the Golarionverse.

The spaceship crashed in -4363 AR (Source: the new Numeria book).
4713 AR on Golarion is 1918 CE on pulp earth (Source: Reign of Winter).
So humans humans from "a distant galaxy" were capable of interstellar flight, while it was 7158 BCE on pulp earth, which puts us deep in prehistoric times.

Much too recent to coincide with the appearance of homo sapiens on pulp earth (the civilization who created the ship that crashed in Numeria probably didn't seed human life on pulp earth).
But also much too early to coincide with most popular "ancient aliens" theories (the people who crashed in Numeria probably didn't bring civilization to the humans of pulp earth either).
(Also, this is long before Baba Yaga was even born on pulp earth.)

On Golarion, humans were already civilized at this time, but perhaps only because of the aboleths' involvement.

There are two questions I am asking myself:

1. Who has been seeding human life on (at least) three different worlds on the material plane?
(can't be the Lovecraftian monsters, because their whole "thing" is that they don't care about humanity)

2. Why did one of them advance at a much faster pace then the other two? (much faster than it should have?)
Did they have their own equivalent to the aboleth, who taught them how to use technology?
Or did they evolve on their own?

Wait a second...

Was that vote to pick the head of the faction?

I thought it was to pick the head of a prestigious but secret *non-Society* organization.

I would have voted differently if I'd thought I was voting for faction leadership.

No it wasn't a vote to pick the faction head.

If a certain dragon lady was going to seize control of the Osirion faction, one of my characters would be more than happy to defect his current faction in order to join her cause.

All that said. Do you guys and girls realize how many classic masterpieces of fantasy art would have never existed if political correctness had had its way back then ? Censorship is not conducive to creation.

Art direction is hardly censorship.

I can't help but notice one small detail on the final cover: it doesn't just say "Iron Gods", but "Iron Gods TM".

Wouldn't that make it the first trademarked AP title ever? Almost as if Paizo wants to make more with the phrase "Iron Gods" than just a single AP. Like a whole spin-off game where Androids and AIs are fighting the Dominion of the Black in space...

(Note to Paizo: even if that hadn't been your plan all along, I absolutely wouldn't mind at all if you stole that idea from me now.)

Hi,

on May 15 I ordered a Campaign Setting subscription (to be started with Occult Mysteries).

On May 16 I received a notification that there was a problem with my payment method.
(When I originally ordered, the website only asked me for my credit card number, but not for the type of credit card - visa or master card - I assume that was the cause of the problem)
I went back to the website and re-entered my credit card data (this time it did ask me for the type).

Since then I haven't heard back from you in any way.

On May 22 I sent you an e-mail concerning this - but didn't receive any reply.

On my subscriptions page, Occult Mysteries shows up as "currently pending" under Example Subscription Shipments, but as "Payment method declined" under My Subscriptions.

Can you confirm that everything is okay now with my order?
When do you think Occult Mysteries will be shipped to me?

A natural 20 on an attack roll always hits, even when the result is lower than the AC.

A natural 20 also is a critical threat.

But can you confirm a critical threat with a natural 20, even if the result of the confirmation roll is lower than the AC?

This is what the CRB says on the matter:

If the confirmation roll also results in a hit against the target's AC, your original hit is a critical hit.

Is the phrase "a hit against the taget's AC" supposed to imply that you have to beat the AC to confirm the critical?