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I just my hands on the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign setting, and I like the new Harrower PrC, so I've put together a couple of Harrowers. Feel free to drop these into your campaign wherever you want if you like them. Iozif Farezhadi
Background:Iozif is an unusual paladin by any assessment. Born into a typical Varisian caravan community, he spent most of his youth as typical Varisian does: running carnival games for outsiders, chasing pretty girls in the caravan and out of it, and generally embracing life as a series of thrills and pleasures. Then, at some point in his late twenties, he started feeling restless, like there was something more to his existence that he was throwing away or missing by wandering around chasing skirts and thrills. He ignored it for a while, and then went in for a harrowing that changed his life. The old harrower loudly chastized him for his immaturity, and then slammed her deck down in front of him, claiming he had "tainted" it by asking her for a reading. Shocked and shaken by this, he gingerly picked up the cards and left. Walking away dejected, he turned over the top card and the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. He vanished shortly thereafter and when he reappeared, he was a paladin of Erastil. As he gained experience as a paladin, he becan to realize that the harrow deck he'd kept wasn't through with him yet, and he began gaining unusual abilities he couldn't fully explain from it. Adopting an attitude of pragmatism, he refined these new abilities, and uses them in fight against evil.
Pafinil Gundrick
A lot of the new art in this thing is absolutely magnificent. (In particular, the art in the equipment and magic items chapters is particularly outstanding.) More! More more more. There's dozens of pages in the spells chapter with no art at all to break them up. Please toss a bit more art into the final version (which you may already be planning, anyway). You have some of the best artists in the industry, use that.
I'm looking through my beta and have noticed that there are no entries for war razors, weaponized scarves, klars, totem spears, temple swords or earthbreakers. Why? These are cool weapons! Put 'em in! At the bare minimum, put in the war razors. I can understand wanting to keep the others for specific groups, but every rogue player and their brother wants war razors. Being able to flick one of those out of your sleeve is much cooler than a regular dagger.
It can be useful to have examples for alignments. Here's the matrix I use as examples when my players are confused. I'd be interested to see what others think. One quick note: I've deliberately avoided using any historical people in their real context. I do use a few in their legendary/fictionalized context, such as Wyatt Earp or William Wallace specifically from the movies Tombstone and Braveheart. Fictional characters and legends are a LOT easier to pigeonhole into alignments than real humans. I'm also deliberately trying to keep any discussion of real-world religion and politics OFF of this list, so you won't see figures like Buddha or Satan on here, either. Basically the guides I've used for whether something is sufficiently fictionalized to use are: "Would the source material make a historian specializing in that particular period cringe?" and "Has the person been dead at least 75 years?" If the answer to both of those questions is yes, the characters are fair game. :) Finally, I've also disqualified any characters that came from RPGs or their settings. Lord Soth, Drizzt, Mordenkainen, Karzoug, Urza, Dunkelzahn, and Saulot will not be on this list, either (you'll see one questionable exception under Chaotic Evil). Aside from those rules, pretty much no type of media is off-limits. I've pulled characters from TV, movies, books, comic books, webcomics, and mythology. I've tried to come up with five for each. What do you all think? Are there better examples I can be using? Lawful Good
Neutral Good
Chaotic Good
Lawful Neutral
Neutral
Chaotic Neutral
Lawful Evil
Neutral Evil
Chaotic Evil
My PCs are going to be visiting a CE pirate haven area in the near future. I'd like to give the place some texture and play up the savagery and lawlessness. I've already got Blood Pig (arena sport) and Knivesies (bar game) from Pathfinder to work with. Anyone know of anything else similar I could use? I thought of two more gladiatorial events*, but I'm looking for more. *Bow rush: two teams, one armed only with shortbows, the other armed only with spiked gauntlets. Between them, a landscape not altogether unlike a paintball field, with numerous obstacles to hide behind. Last team with a surviving member wins. This is often the purview of professional gladiators. *Desperation: Starts out with two teams of equal size, armed with their choice of melee weapons. Once one team is defeated, it becomes a last-man-standing contest. The final survivor is usually shot to death by arena staff (typically while standing atop some sort of "winner's platform" to give the crossbowmen a good, clear shot). This is played only with prisoners or slaves who don't know what the game entails going in, hence the name. They're originally told that if their team wins, they get to live. Then the rules change while they're on the field.
Since Paizo has (awesomely!) embraced the idea of using material from all over the Open Gaming Movement in their APs, why not put a list of recommended resources in the back of the PRPG? Some no-brainers would include: Tome of Horrors Revised & II
All of the above have already been referenced at least once in either the RotRL or CoCT APs. Some that haven't been, but probably would be good to include: Tome of Horrors III
This could be in addition to a list of recommended fiction and movies (since RotRL in particular has obviously gotten its inspiration from those). As an added bonus, this list of recommended reading & viewing will give the book a nice "old-school" feel.
The arsenal for Pathfinder just keeps getting cooler. Starknives and war-razors were awesome enough where they found their way into my homebrew setting almost immediately. The Klar and Eartbreaker weren't far behind. However, I think my favorite one right now is the Totem Spear, nestled away in a sidebar on page 35 of PF10. I now have the irresistible urge to make a Shoanti Barbarian/Bard who uses one of those.
Everybody wants to be the good guys. Andoran is pretty unambiguously the good guys. Therefore, it would follow that most players would play for Andoran, which means that Andoran is going to get a lot of traction in the world. If this is your aim, hey, that's fine. I think Andoran's ideology could use some spreading, but aren't they supposed to be the underdog, here?
I'm working on a pair of villains: the Lexicon and the Librarian, for my campaign. It's Pathfinder where I can use it, straight 3.5 everywhere else, and gestalt. The Lexicon is finished. He's a level 10 Sorcerer//Truenamer Illumian Unholy Scion with all of the Power Word spells up to level 5 (Races of the Dragon), dark speech, etc. His schtick is the use of language as a weapon; he's a spellcasting enemy. His meat shield is going to be his mother, an Illumian warrior of some kind (since Unholy scions are pretty much constantly in control of their mothers, I figured I'd make her the meat shield.) He's a thin, robed and hooded figure that floats off the ground (thanks to the fly spell) and is covered with glowing runes. The claws that come from the unholy scion template actually manifest as letters that trail off his fingers into jagged points of magical energy. It's the Librarian I'm having trouble with. Any ideas for an evil female warrior who zealously protects knowledge? I've thought of monk, duskblade, and warblade, and I may indeed use those, but I thought I'd solicit some of the great creative minds around here for help. One thing I am totally stumped on is what weapon to have her use. A flail, hhopesh, or spiked chain for its versatility? A bastard sword for the skill involved? Something else? And any ideas what she should look like? It may just be fatigue, but I've gone utterly blank.
I purchased (against my better judgment and at a 40% discount) a 4e PHB today. I'm trying to decide whether to keep it as a curiosity or just take it back and exchange it for something I'll get more use out of. First of all: 4e is not a bad game. It's slick, fast and pretty as hell. I can imagine it would be a great way to blow a few afternoons. I might play in a 4e game, but I'll never run one, because... ...unfortunately, it doesn't even begin to hold a candle to 3.5, and can't even glint dimly around the PRPG alpha. One of the biggest joys of 3.5 for me is customizability. I can take five levels of any of the 11 core classes and make any number of different characters, and they will feel radically different. Pathfinder fosters this even more. 4e does not appear to make that possible. And then theres the loss of prestige classes. I know PrCs aren't everybody's thing, but I love 'em, and not only are they gone, there's no way to get them back. Leveling is handled SO differently in 4e, that there's no way you'd pull it off. I think, however, the biggest loss is the spells. Whether you like vancian spellcasting or something more like Midnight or GURPS, it won't matter. The spellcasting in 4e is so different as to be unrecognizable. And that's too bad, in a way. I could go on, but I'll leave it at this: I (genuinely!) look forward to the 4e computer games, but for tabletop, I am sticking with 3.5/Pathfinder.
For those of you who like Disturbed, their new CD will not disappoint. There's a lot of 6s and 7s and several 10s on it. They have retained their style but keep getting more and more polished with every release. The title track, Inside the Fire, Perfect Insanity, Divide, and The Night are particularly good.
Recently I've started getting into RPG podcats (I usually work alone in a room at my job; I have lots of time to listen to stuff). I've discovered several that I like, and I thought I'd share. Sons of Kryos: I'll start with what I consider to be the best first. The Sons of Kryos are, to put it bluntly, flat-out awesome. Jeff & Judd (and later, Storn) are really serious about their fun. I have gained tons of great ideas from their podcasts. They don't play much d20 (well, Jeff does, but Judd & Storn don't, though Storn does post his art on the art forum over on the WotC boards), but it really doesn't matter much; the advice they dispense works well for pretty much any roleplaying. You can find them here. Animalcast: A little bit lighter and more meandering, topically-speaking, than some of the others, this is still a fun podcast. These guys play Pathfinder, and have interviewed James Jacobs on one of their shows, which is pretty cool. You can find them here. 3.5 Private Sanctuary: These guys focus on a topic near & dear to many of our hearts: keeping 3.5 going. They've interviewed Wolfgang Baur, and have spent multiple shows going over the Pathfinder Betas. You can find them here. These are the three that I've listened to multiple episodes of and enjoyed, and that I feel I can recommend right now. There will probably be more in the days & weeks to come.
We all have our own opinions about which WotC products are the best to use. Some of us love various products, other of us hate them, but it seems to me there's precious little time given to some of the better third-party products out there. That, plus the sheer, staggering volume of such products means that I think a lot of us GMs have some cool little gems in their collection that they love. Why don't we start sharing some of those that fit particularly well with Pathfinder and enhance the experience for all of us? Since I'm starting this exercise, I'll go first. Path of the Sword, Path of Faith, Path of Magic, and Path of Shadow
The Tome of Horrors Series (Revised, II, and III)
That's seven books already, but I'll have more later in the thread.
We all have our own opinions about which WotC products are the best to use. Some of us love various products, other of us hate them, but it seems to me there's precious little time given to some of the better third-party products out there. That, plus the sheer, staggering volume of such products means that I think a lot of us GMs have some cool little gems in their collection that they love. Why don't we start sharing some of those that fit particularly well with Pathfinder and enhance the experience for all of us? Since I'm starting this exercise, I'll go first. Path of the Sword, Path of Faith, Path of Magic, and Path of Shadow
The Tome of Horrors Series (Revised, II, and III)
That's seven books already, but I'll have more later in the thread.
This has to be one of the coolest ideas I've seen in some time. I found out about it while listening to a Sons of Kryos podcast. For those that don't feel like following links blindly: it's a way of keying Xp to who the PCs are and their goals, rather than just killing stuff.
I'd love to see a sequel to classic monsters revisited. In my perfect world of imagination, I'd like to see one each for demons, devils, celestials, and undead, and then one that covers: Barghests
Okay. It's been a while, so I think I can go here at this point. It may seem like heresy, but I'd rather have Pathfinder than the "official" mags. No, really. Pathfinder is ad-free, has a setting I actually care about showcased, and has top-notch editing and production values. The monsters are unique and cool, the setting is both fresh and familiar, and the whole thing is just so much more compelling. I'm glad Paizo didn't decide to just publish "wyvern" and "labyrinth" for instance. Because what we got was far superior.
...we have the Red Mantises. These guys are the real deal; the Red Mantis Assassin PrC is better than the standard assassin prestige class in a number of ways, which means that non-mantis assassins are less scary than the mantises, which is, I suspect, the point. Nicely done. The background and flavor text also made the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Okay, I've gone over the sorcerer class in some depth and here's my thoughts, pre-playtest (and things I'd like to test out in playtest) First of all, the poor sorcerer class definitely needed a boost, so thanks for tossing in the bloodline mechanic. Also, a quick note: Jason has mentioned on another thread that sorcerers will get unlimited cantrips just like the rest of the primary spellcasters. For the sorcerer, I assume they get the advantage in flexibility on this, which I'm all for. Giving the sorcerer access to 6 cantrips at will instead of four does a lot to distinguish them from their wizard colleague. It just seems like a good fit that those with power in their blood as opposed to in their brains might be a tad more flexible. As far as the bloodlines themselves go, I've noticed some similarities between a number of them, which is fine. That'll make them easier to playtest. I figure if someone tests an arcane bloodline, someone tests a destined, and someone tests pretty much any of the ones with a touch attack, a big attack, and flight, it'll give a pretty solid picture of how the new variant works. The d6 hit die is also a nice change, but we got that with the wizard, too. A few quick questions I'd like to see resolved in the final version of the product of a more "flavor and feel" variety. 1. Since Sorcerers are the "witch" class, is there some way they can aquire a familiar, since that's where the whole familiar thing started in legend? 2. When tacking sorcerer levels onto, say, an incredibly deadly CR 10 lamia matriarch that hangs out in a bell tower, what bloodline should I use? 3. Pure curiosity: is Seoni a celestial bloodline sorcerer? She's got white hair, blue runes, blue eyes, and is from a culture that tends good-aligned.
I've sat down and written some old PCs up under the new rules in the PRPG, and I've noticed two things: not only are they charcters cooler and seem like they'd be more fun to play, they're also closer to the original concept. Case in point, my grim, tragic paladin, Michael Nemerov. Michael was a very hard-bitten kind of paladin. He had little patience for banners, shiny armor, or high-minded ideas about fighting. When he got into combat, he took his enemies apart with ruthless precision and any resources he had at hand, including his fists if need be, but he was also a master of improvised weapons. For example: once after he cut his way out of a metal net that he'd been thrown in a cell still wrapped in, he wrapped his arms with the remains, jagged metal prongs facing out. Old Michael:
New Michael:
Now THAT'S the "pious freight train" I had in mind when I made him!
Let me say, I love this so far. I heartily approve of the changes made to the barbarian, paladin, and sorcerer. Now on to the druid, which I haven't checked out in depth yet. One thing I can say is that you've probably almost completely killed multiclassing for a lot of players. Who wants to bail out of one of these awesome classes?
Paizo's gotta be getting pretty close to the time where they'll have to shoot the PRPRG Beta off to the printer. How much time does that leave in the alpha playtest? I realize that a lot of the layout & design work is probably already at least partially done, but if Paizo's going to have copies of the PRPG beta at Gencon in August, isn't time a-tickin'? EdiT: this shouldn't be seen as a shameless way of putting pressure on Paizo to get the next few alpha releases out sooner or anything. I would never do such a thing. ;)
Disclaimer: this is NOT intended to be flamebait! I figure enough time has passed where this can be discussed somewhat rationally. My reaction to the 4E announcement when I saw it was a mix of shock and disappointment. It's not that I would have always minded a 4th edition, I just felt (and still do; I'm going with Pathfinder) that 3rd edition had a lot more life in it, and I would have liked to have seen WotC "finish" a few of its sub-lines before moving on. For example: 3 final "complete" books, one for incarnum, a second one for warrior types, and a guide to multiclassing (since it's such a popular option in 3e), a Fiendish Codex III on Yugoloths, and similar books on celestials, fey, constructs, and giants, a "races of" book for orcs and goblinoids, environment books for forests(including swamps and jungles in this one would have been fine with me) and mountains, BoVD/BoED book or books for Law & Chaos (combine the two or do one for each; either way I'd have been happy), and a "Heroes of Intrigue" book (similar to the Horror & War books) on running espionage/political games. In other words, about another year's worth of product. If they'd put all of that out I would have had an easier time accepting that the current edition was tapped and it was a logical time to move on. I still might not have, but at least the shock would have been diminished. As it turned out, I wound up feeling something like one feels when you find out a good friend is moving halfway across the country on short notice; it's not like you'll never see them again, but it's jarring and the relationship is altered. This feeling was a large part of why I was so excited about the Pathfinder RPG release. I'm just now, at a level of approximately one bookcase of material, getting really, truly comfortable with the current rules. I have more than I strictly need, but the excess allows me greater creative freedom than I'd have otherwise, and I'd be loath to go from over 200 books to draw on back down to 3.
I'd love to see annual or even semi-annual collections of all the monsters from the previous year's (or years') monsters in one place. In fact, I'd like to formally beg for such a product at this time. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease? EDIT: I love the monthly pathfinder volumes, but lugging all 8 around because I need (for instance) the stats for monsters out of 4 or 5 different volumes... ...not as convenient as one book. Plus, I hear new monsters pop up in pathfinder modules, too. Oh, and before I forget, if the pathfinder powers that be want to throw some of their cooler OGC creations in (particularly using NG contenet since the companies are pretty tight) that would also be cool. Critters like the Headless Lord and The Hidden Beast are intensely cool and should be considered for inclusion. :)
So we've got goblin songs, what about an ogre song? If I may, I humbly submit the following tasteless claptrap. I will kill you
I'll beat you in the beating place
Now which of those is the (single) verse and which is the chorus is up to the reader to decide...
I've just skimmed the bestiary, forward and adventure of PF #8. This is one scary-looking issue. I can't wait until my print edition shows up and I can digest it in more detail, but kudos to F. Wesley Schneider; this issue's giving me those foreboding chills you get when you know something really, really bad is on the horizon, and I haven't even dug into it in depth yet. The gray maidens are eerie as hell, too.
Spoiler: The queen's evil. Korvosa leans evil. So why on earth isn't Trinia given the Guy Fawkes treatment and the crucified instead of just being hauled in front of a headsman? A beheading is an AWFULLY merciful punishment for regicide, especially from a monarch that's supposed to be as bad as Ileosa. Furthermore, her capture/escape seems a little bit tame as well. It wouldn't strain believability at all for me to have Hellknights just butcher their way to her, and then burn down the entire neighborhood she was hiding in (taking care to minimize escapes) in order to send a message. If Ileosa is going to be the villain of this AP, she and anyone working for her need to be worse than Gaedren in terms of sheer malevolence. Right now she's poisoned someone and ordered a beheading. Gaedren feeds living children to an alligator. Slowly. Huh?!
I'm just kinda curious what everybody else likes the most out of the new monsters in Pathfinder, now that there's 7 volumes out and there's something to pick from. My personal favorites would have to be: Shining Child of Thassilon: A really innovative, flavorful, and creepy monster. I have plans for these. Oh yes. The mid-range CR of 12 means it'll be useful across a fairly broad spectrum of levels of play, too. Hound of Tindalos: Lovecraftian monsters are always neat, but it's the cool suite of abilities that'll keep PC off-balance that I liked. Scanderig: Fortress of the stone giants was a good monster issue for me, I guess. I'm always on the lookout for more steam-fantasy adaptable creatures and this fit the bill nicely. Reefclaw: Simply for being the most terrifying-looking CR 1 creature ever. That's probably the only time I've ever gone "What the hell is THAT thing?!" and then laughed at myself because it was CR1. Carrionswarm: This started a creative cascade in my mind that eventually produced the lord of the Flock, a nasty vampiric raptoran famine horseman necromancer. Night Monarch: Giant celestial butterflies are awesome. Attic Whisperer: One of the creepiest CR 4 undead I've ever seen. Soulbound Doll: Neat idea. One of my players is all psyched to make some now.
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