Manxome foes all around!

All I can think of is Bladebeak the axe-chicken from Quest for Camelot. WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT CAN NON-FATALLY DECAPITATE YOU?! Now I'm imagining a whole storyline based around "The Quest for the Wizard's Head", proding a deafblind torso around trying to coax it into fireballing in the right direction.

So Geb and Absalom are entering into diplomatic relations… *turns and looks at the Knights of Lastwall and Nex* that certainly won’t have any long standing effects in this period of time that is apparently going to be known as the Inner Sea War.

Now that I think of it, Geb has prepped itself pretty well for far reaching, purely practical alliances should they get pulled back into war, just given how much of the Inner Sea's food they produce. If you were one of the largest cities on the planet, who would you rather ally with, the shifty cagey Wizrd country you have no particular relationship with, or the somewhat shiftier zombie country who's keeping your populace from starving? And if the region can't afford the moral highground when that fight kicks off, can Lastwall afford to lose those alliances to such posturing?

Ooh, so Monster Core 1's divine dragons were linked to Heaven and Hell, and Monster Core 2's are to Creation's Forge and the Void. Here we were all thinking the Boneyard and Abaddon, but they're going for more direct Opposites.

Scrolling down…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

There's a snack for you, big guy.

I had not pegged the Whisper Dragon as our first metallic remaster! From the art that's been posted around the brassy boys have been dieting!

So if I'm fighting a Rune Dragon, it will open its mouth, nothing will seem to come out, but a glowing symbol will appear on my body and then explode!? Like some Predator targetting laser?

How do you dodge that???

Can't wait for more of these previews!

Here I was citing the book and I didn't notice that! I Could see them turning up in either this or Tech Core alongside SROs.

Alien Core has another interesting mention of ** spoiler omitted **

Loving the Scrap Rats and Paradox 17 (very Magnus Archives), and GLaDOS! Dominion of the Black getting more stuff is also a real treat. This book is a treasure.

I mean, I guess from an editing standpoint it makes sense

There's so much open space where the character creation could intersect just waiting to be filled! Everything from a "Hacker" Rogue racket built around the Computers skill to an Exemplar Icon for area weapons. Spectra Eidolon, alien ranger companions, space-age Apparitions, zero-g Monk stances!

I have my copy if anyone has questions.

On a cursory flip through, do you have a favorite peice of art?

What categories of Fiends are described? Also if Asura show up are they all Spirits now like that one in the Myth-Speaker AP?

Are there new general adjustments or just the basic Elite/Weak?

So, on a whim, I scanned through my copy of Galaxy Guide for any specifically referenced Ancestries, and I found about 20. Could it be one-to-one? PROBABLY NOT but I'm out here with a corkboard and a ball of string NONETHELESS.

Aside from the hard confirmed (worlanisi, bartrid, novian) and soft-confirmed (izalguun, formian) to be in this book, mentioned are…

Ilthisarian, ethesk, ryphorian, copaxi, three Szandite Collective ancestries: phasorq, atraxid, and mecenaic; six Kazmurg's Absurdity ancestries: azhan, g'folian, invemian, madrosarai, seksaviaks, and voletti; urog, maraquoi, and nuar.

Less likely mentions include khulan and moyishuu (fey, though the latter had 1e stats), anacite (cannon souless automatons), kothama (size huge), jinsul, cardali (extinct except for one guy), hallajin (energy beings), and uplifted bear (arguably already has PF stats).

Okay that final cover is sick, that's a lot of fun. Very 80's gameshow which feels perfect for Zo!

Novian already?! They're really not messing around with that Cantina Feel. I look forward to playing a tiny ball of intsense light somehow holding a machine gun.
Gap-Touched versetile heritage is interesting. Do I have to be three hundred years old, or is it assumed I inherited my cosmic amnesia genes?

Sort of an odd idea that just occurred to me:

A Yaoguai or Tsukumogami Poppet that IS the legendary weapon (which also serves as their weapon Ikon).

The Spirit of Hei Feng's own sword, sent down to Golarion in the form of a mortal Tengu, their beak a Gleaming Blade, their Skin Hard as Iron, the rings set into their back Fetching Bangles.

Hell yeah.

I've been pondering the possibilities of playing an Exemplar in Starfinder, and while there are in-lore options--absorbed a bit of the Newborn's cosmic placenta (aucturnite chakram is solid for shadow sheath), offspring of an avatar of Weydan, Vesk descendant of a Battle Saint--the idea that really tickles me is just going for a full Jack Kirby New Gods vibe. Colorful geometric armor and a crazy pronged helmet.

Either of the ranged Icons works okay with lasers, Unfailing Bow I even thinks works well with an automatic weapon. (Nothing works with area weapons, unfortunately) And given the focus on ranged combat Gaze Sharp As Steel is a really solid pick. Could go human for an original Thor-as-a-regular-guy angle or Yaksha to be an outright spiritual being embodying nature and freedom.

For a slightly more setting agnostic concept, there's Frankensaint. As a once-noble church faces persecution from the war spreading across the land, brave nuns and priests escape into the night bearing the holy relics of long dead saints. At last cornered in a final standing monastery, the surviving faithful took stock, and realized they had enough saint bodyparts to make up a whole person.

So they did!

A frankensteinian amalgamation of gilded bones and pickled organs stitched together with silver wire and annointed with herbs, Frankensaint is the holy defender of the faith!

Created Fleshwarp, Sanctified Soul, Scar of the Survivor, choice of weapon.

I just finished watching Leverage and I think Christian Kane could work really well for Valeros. I don't know why but Valeros doesn't give the impression of being a really big dude, and Kane really sells being this hyper-competent combattant in that show.

Ooh, this is interesting! 49 troop statblocks in Battlecry!, four large pawns each, makes for a hefty box! The eight included Medium bases interest me… the image on the side implies the Followers will get pawns, but there are only five of those. Doubles? Maybe an Ulka? The archetypes?

Curious if we'll get to see anything like this for the other rulebook releases. One collection could probably cover the monsters from Book of the Dead, Howl of the Wild, Rage of Elements, and War of Immortals. The cover alone would be interesting to see!

Hell! Hell is for hell! Hell is for hell! Hell is for children!

Love a revolution arc, also glad to see that the shift to quarterly hardcovers isn't entirely doing away with the backmatter articles about the world.

This looks sick as… an apt comparison eludes me.

That's actually such a fun convergence of sci-fi and fantasy. Freaky many-limbed tentacle monster that grazes on the blue algae of a distant moon? It can think now because a druid in power armor fed it some enchanted berries, and it would like to weild a flamethrower.

I really enjoy the idea of putting the Captain archetype on an Awakened Animal, just for a reverse-familiar thing.

"Ah, a ruthless pirate and their pet parrot, a classic… what's that? The parrot is the one calling the shots? The parrot is in fact a master battle tactician? That adult woman with a falchion is in fact the parrot's sidekick? Totally lost without the parrot's guidance? Huh."

Ah, the busted DHD (Dial Home Device), classic Stargate plotline, fortunately Colonel Samantha Carter is here to…I'm sorry what's that? It's a rat? It's a little rat man with a mechanical turret? Is Teal'c at least there? Not even sure how you'd build him in this system?

I've just realized that, as written, the Shobhad Longrifle does not have the Analog or Tech traits, which means it's technically Not A Gun, and therefore doesn't apply to Operative's better proficiency, or the Sniper Shobhad's free arm-swap, which seems like the whole point of the latter. Easy typo to make, thing's got too many traits already.

SHOBHAAAAAAAAAAAAD! I HAVE AWAITED YOUUUUUUUUUU!
Man, you guys really weren't kidding about cramming ancestries into whatever possible.

"Chk Chk, were you in the audience the whole time?"
"Of course!"
"Why didn't you help?!"
"Help with what?"
"The fight!"
"Dae, I'm not an idiot, I'm not going to burst in on a choreographed openning act. Great special effects, by the way, it really felt like those Vesk were getting injured."

This does a great job of both illustrating what the deal might be with a Witchwarper, and exploring Zemir as a character. Still has the sweet tooth!

Sing, muse! Of my eagerness to find some folks to play this AP with! I didn't get into greek mythology as a kid because of Percy Jackson, I read Percy Jackson because I was already a mythology buff!

Good on those two adventurers for identifying Grimmyr as an ally and not judging him on his size. My first assumption definitely wasn't that they were the villains of this story and were trying to rope our Guardian into holding the town hostage. Nope, I trusted them immediately as I should have it turns out.

Awakened Animal's pretty all purpose are far as these things go. Hunter turned into a stag and attacked by his own hounds, assorted other therianthropic cruelties, weird animal a god sent to mess a guy up, magical steeds, and of course any of Typhon and Echidna's rugrats (though it's hard to mechanically represent having two or three heads, might have to leave that to rollplay).

For more obscure options there's an Empusa, shapechanging man-eating seductresses with one metallic leg--call that a Yaoguai or other shapechanging ancestry with Sterling Dynamo. Throw on Dhampir if you wanna lean into the vampiric angle.

The Kobaloi may be the etymological origin of the word Goblin, could be a local tribe.

The Myrmidons, Achilles' tribe from the Iliad, were said to have originated as ants, could be a fun basis for a Beastkin--actually a lot of options there, just say some hero god seduced your mom in the shape of X animal.

I've also just discovered the hippalectryon, sort of a reverse-hippocamp that's horse in the front and rooster in the back. Behold my mighty steed!

They HAVE a Bluesky account, I'm not sure why it's not listed as an option.

"Stop admiring me! Even though I rescued your supply lines from horrors beyond imagining last week. And you, currently. Stop it I said, that's an order!"

Sequence of events felt a little confused in the beginning, but this was a lovely little character study! I'm always intrigued by how the writers extrapolate and expand upon a piece of art.

There is a fresh unboxing video on YouTube. I watched it with sound off and many pauses, you get a clear view of most pawns this way.

I was surprised to see the Razzle Dazzler gnome as a Medium pawn in CosmicIronyMagnet's list, but the video shows it as well. Maybe the big ego warrants a larger-than-usual pawn.

Huh, all the art for Orcs is different from the book, wonder why?

Eleanor, Michael, I'm sorry these comments are such a mess. This is a perfectly good microfiction, a solid exploration of guilt, trauma, and cycles of violence in a limited wordcount.

It also doesn't strike me as overly drawn out or open ended in comparison to any of the other pointedly general iconic backgrounds. Y'all think Valeros is blessed with specific goals? Does Nhalmika's decades-long military history preclude her from being 1st level?

We're obviously setting up a "Grizzled and war-hardened vet (who's already interacting with the skirmish rules) is forced to soften up and find genuine companionship with a Gentle Giant" arc. Leaving room for character growth and exploration is the whole point of these, and personally I enjoy a character with some issues to work through.

See, I'm not so sure about this choice of art piece, because how am I supposed to focus on these interesting class revisions when there's a sick ass Solar(?) Dragon blasting in my face?!

Three-dimensionality seems like it's gonna be a weird recurring problem for this sort of design space, with the greater allowance for flying creatures and characters and, eventually, exploration of space environments.

Minibots sound fun! A robotic equivalent to pets/familiars to match Drones as robotic companions. I'm immediately envisioning a Minibot Master archetype, surrounded by a halo of tiny drones.

Worf Voice: "Honor!"

This was a great read!

Dichen Lachman as Feiya?

Thank you, Lia. Probably not what I'd actually go with, just a funny concept. Like you, I want to live in the fantasy, not be an outsider to it.

For a centaur I'd actually be tempted to go monk. Take Ironhoof Centaur and Monastic Archer Stance, fit a kind of wild nude raider vibe while also being uncanny with a bow. It would take some swapping in and out of stances but I think it could work for that "Enemies are suddenly riddled with arrows and then trampled by a hooting beast person" deal.

I don't even have a group to play with, (yet?) but I'm a lifelong mythology buff and my mind is abuzz.

Since we know the adventure delves into the Iblydian Underworld, I like the idea of being a Duskwalker; maybe a long-ago Hero-God reborn, maybe just some guy, but destined to take up some kind of Charon/ferryman/life-death-rebirth god role regardless. Could go Animist, Monk, I like Caretaker's Calling for mythic. Take the Obari Wanderer background for Sailing Lore.
Chinostes being a Vampire Hero-God makes a Dhampir Exemplar a very tempting option, torn between the two cultic iterations of their father.
Part of me wants to be a Kineticist just to be contrary to all the people complaining that the class doesn't work with Mythic. I'm a prince who was tempered in the fire by a wandering Hero-God like Demeter and Demophon; a feral-child raised by dryads and blessed with the power of the forest; a Cyclops given a blessing by some now-dead smith hero-god that only truly awakened with the return of the plane of metal.
A Galatea-like statue Wished Alive, either a yaoguai or a reskinned android oread.
I also kinda want to be a Commander or Guardian purely to skin half-plate as a Dendra Panoply. I long for a boar's-tusk helm!

The other silly idea I had was essentially an Iomedaean Missionary. "I hear your gods are dying out. Would you like to hear about an ascended mortal who will never abandon you?" And then the plot happens and it's like "Oh, oh no, I've become one of the pagan idols. Oh dear."

Seltyiel feels like the best match for Riff Raff. Eddie I could see Valeros, or Alain if we're allowing 1e iconics. We need somebody hunky and shirtless for Rocky, and while Sajan's an option, I'm inclined towards Nahoa. He's happier. Brad and Janet I'm just not sure about.

25speedforseaweedleshy wrote:

are those gauntlet made of crab shell

need more crustacean shell armor

Spider Exoskeleton, actually. Speaking of the Iivlar, I hope we get them as animal companions for Jotunborn rangers, druids, and the like

From the art they look more like horseshoe crabs, silk production aside. Plus they're apparently herbivores. And if they are companions, you won't even need to stray out of Battlecry! for one, from the sound of it the Commander has a companion feat.

The way that Wayne Reynolds can paint a brutish giant man wearing seventeen breastplates and you can still see the kindness in his eyes, I swear to Shelyn.
Him and Ulka, two lost travellers with no way back home. Quite the pair, can't wait to see the two of them in action.

Arkat wrote:

This really should be a 1-20 AP or AT LEAST an 11-20 AP.

We have a whole separate other Mythic Adventure Path that will be 12-20. If you want, you can even combine the two together. Just gotta skip over level 11, I guess.

You can homebrew level 11 as your trek up to New Thassilon. Little naval travel up the Obari, capsize off the Impossible Lands, run afoul of some arclords, so on and so forth. A real odyssey.

I really appreciate the blurb about reskinning existing ancestries to fit the Greek Mythology setting, i.e. Strix->Harpy or Jotunborn->Cyclops. Something we all knew people were gonna do anyway, but it's nice to get an official recommendation.
Other possibilities!:
Using Goloma's focus on vision to represent a character like Argus Panoptes, the man with a hundred eyes all across his body.
An Automaton as a bronze Hephaestian construct like Talos (the mythological robot, not the versetile heritage).
Anadi switched to reference Arachne instead of Anansi.
Various greek autochthons (the original inhabitants of a region literally "born from the earth") are described as having draconic features, such as Erichtheus/Erichthonius, mythic founder of Athens who was reptillian below the waist and invented the chariot because he couldn't walk well--an excellent inspiration for a Dragonblood.
You could represent Spartoi--artificial humans grown from dragon's teeth sown in the ground--also using Dragonblood, and/or as a Skeleton in reference to the work of animator Ray Harryhausen.
Sacred Nagaji Lamia.
Call a Kholo a Cynocephalus.
And of course, the ol' reliable, Fleshwarp for Whatever Weird Thing. Blemmyes, Monopodes, have at thee.

in Starfinder Second Edition tech equipment follows an improvement system we like to call CTASEUP. Most characters start out with commercial gear, but gradually upgrade to tactical, advanced, superior, elite, ultimate, and paragon versions.

See, all I can think is if you had reversed Tactical and Advanced, it could have been pronounced like "catsup".

Love the art previews, looking forward to checking out the finalized game!

Some people just want to find something to complain about. She has the same proportions as the male Orc from Player Core! Her design doesn't specifically match up with trolls in this game, or several others that spring to mind, she just has more prominent tusks than in a lot of other art. And the Mignola-shoulders are actually pretty consistent across Wayne Reynolds' Orcs and Half-Orcs, look at Droven! Or 1e Oloch!
It's a unique silhouette whose inhuman proportions distinctly identify the character as the first iconic Orc, rather than just another Half-Orc, and play to Reynolds' stylistic strengths wonderfully.

I think it's explicitly cannon that orcs vary a lot in appearance, the Matanji of the Mwangi Expanse explicitly looking more human-like and less "broadly muscular" than other ethnic groups, for example, despite being full Orcs.

Also cannon!

Lot of new info came out in Friday's Hellbreakers stream I haven't seen anyone post about!
Skirmish Encounters-- You lead a troop, and are assumed to occupy all of its spaces for squad vs. squad (typically, there's guidance to pit your troop against a bigger monster) combat! Morale rules establish guidance for routing enemy troops and being routed, which is easier to avoid with a PC or NPC leader. You can also spend time to train with your troop to get a skirmish bond, ranging from increased discipline to granting your troop class focuses such as stealth or spellcasting. Also includes guidance for 1/2 scale mapping and 20 pages of new troops, including a Chorus of Angles, Xulgath dinosaur calvalry, druid circles, monks and more.
Commander-- They get new tactics, such as the expert command Alley-Oop! (sp?) which allows your allies to toss supplies between one another using either free actions or reactions. If it's special ammunition, the catcher can also use it to reload. That's all we got! Presumably they didn't change much from the playtest.
Guardian-- All expenses were taken to make them as tanky as possible. They are up to 12 HP! And gain resistances at level one unrelated to armor specialization so long as they are wearing Med or Heavy armor. Taunt has also been tweaked.
Jotunborn-- Despite what I myself had speculated, Joturnborn do in fact originate from a brand new reality, a "sub-planar realm" called The Fray (sp?) just underlying the Universe. They were placed there millennia ago by the gods as "Custodians of the Universe" and due to the Godsrain have just come to Golarion but are finding it harder to go back. They are characterized as "in tune with the universe" and "wanting to help people". The beetle/horseshoe crab-like creatures they get their silk and armor from are called "ivlars" (sp?). The Jotunborn are described as ancestors or descendants of Titans (I believe both were used, one was presumably misspoken). They are large and their feats often center around that largeness, such as pushing and throwing people, but also feature some inherent plane-hopping and teleportation. There are also new Jotunborn weapons, such as a maul-spade, a half-moon polearm similar to the blades from the TOS episode "Amok Time", and the Blade-sweeper, three human-scale greatswords lashed to a large handle.
Other Stuff--
New vehicles such as the air-cycle, siege dragon, medical wagon, necro-roamer, and the ironclad and steam turtle sea vehicles.
Battle focused options for classes such as Sorcerer and Thaumaturge.
Remastered and new equipment, such as the battle-lute.
Archetypes! Field Propagandist is focused on persuading people and can eventually play with "technical truth"; a remastered Aldori Duelist with some new feats; Crossbow Infiltrator, a remastered Drow shootist, also with a couple new feats; Warmage; something like "Necrologist" loosely tied to the Impossible playtest Necromancer; and more!

VerBeeker wrote:

Well... with Dragonkin from Starfinder in at Large, Dragonbloods being able to niche into medium, Kobolds being Small, I wonder if Dragonets will be Tiny to round out the size categories.

Given we do have a fey dragonet as the 2e version of the faerie dragon, I imagine the dragonet may be expanded out to a full category to include the smallest of dragonkind, like Korvosa's house drakes or the tidepool dragon. It'd definitely be interesting (and cute) if that was the case. "No more of this familiar nonsense, we're PCs now!" >:3

FINALLY, they can join the Poppet, Awakened Animal, and Sprite ancestries to round out my "All Former Familiars" Campaign.

Woo! One more for my collection! Tzitzimitl ain't got nothin on me!

Dinosaurs! Tzitzimitl! Whatever those other guys were called! Wayne knocked it out of the park on this one!
Yet another thing I'm super eager to get my hands on, you're bleeding me dry, Paizo.

This one's a debate for me. I already have the physical sketch cover (even if the binding's getting a little warped). And I have a bunch of the other stuff from other bundles, and physical copies of the Tian Xia World and Character Guides because I can't help myself. But I do like the charity, and having the APs around is nice even if I'm in no particular rush to run them. I've got a few days to think on it, it honestly might hinge partly on how this confusion around Treasure Vault shakes out.

Hellknights have taken Citadel Altaerein?! I do believe some rather powerful people might be upset about that at some point. And they have means of getting backup, too.