So as we just announced over on Paizo Live on Twitch... the fourth adventure path for 2025, coming out this October–December, is "Revenge of the Runelords." This is a high-level mythic Adventure Path...
...and is the thing I've been hinting at for a while now at "What would be a great campaign to play after your players finish 'Seven Dooms for Sandpoint'".
So with Curtain Call, I tried to build an outline for an Adventure Path that would work excellent as a sequel for any low (1st to 10th) level Adventure Path. Now that this one's out, I'd love to hear your feedback on this experiment, and your preferences for how to link (or not link) high level Adventure Paths to low level ones to give a 1st to 20th level play experience similar to what we used to do with 6 part Adventure Paths for 2nd edition.
Do you prefer:
Direct Sequels
High level Adventure Paths that are sequels to specific low-level ones. This would make it pretty easy to present those two as a 1st to 20th level campaign, but would limit the usefulness of the high-level Adventure Path and would likely cause that one to sell less, which makes it the least appealing option financially (even as it's probably the most appealing creatively). This is the medium-difficulty option for us to produce, since the lead developer should be the one who developed the prequel, or they need to work hand-in-hand with that previous lead developer or spend a lot more time during outlining to get up to speed on an Adventure Path they aren't familiar with.
Indirect Sequels
High level Adventure Paths that are like Curtain Call, in that we present them as sequels for a wide range of low level Adventure Paths. This makes them more versatile, but does require more work on the GM's behalf to make them mesh well with their specific group's history. Of all these three options, these are the most difficult to create and write, since we have to spend extra time accounting for variables we can't control.
Not Sequels
High level Adventure Paths that are stand-alone stories of their own. A GM would potentially have to work hard to link this one's plot and themes to a previous low-level Adventure Path, and it might just be best to make new high-level characters. This is the easiest type of high level Adventure Path for us to produce, because the developer doesn't have to be an expert on the previous ones and doesn't have to spend extra time taking care of linked plot threads.
Looking forward to folks' responses! And remember, if you wanna cite specific plot elements that you felt worked well or fell flat in any Adventure Path, please spoiler that text. Thanks!
We've published Treerazer's stats. They're there for anyone to see in Monster Core over on pages 328–329. Whenever we publish stats for unique creatures like this, it's a fun exercise to imagine how a group of 20th level PCs might fare—in theory, a fight against Treerazer on his own against 20th level PCs would be beyond an Extreme 20 encounter and would likely end in a TPK.
But PCs do tricky stuff.
If you had the time to gather up a group of 4 20th level heroes to send them against Treerazer in a fight... what sort of heroes would you send and what would their tactics be?
At least, that's what my players took to calling the globster that they (bravely/foolishly) attacked last time we played in my Whispers in Ravounel campaign that I just started up. The globster was hiding in a shipwreck they wanted to loot and explore, and when it started spitting out chunks of itself at them, my description of it "sticking out a mottled, bristly tongue that it then bit off and flung" seems to have had its intended effect.
Anyway, thought I'd share the globster's stats here with you all, converted by me from its 1st edition incarnation. Have fun throwing these at 1st level PCs! (Note: This isn't a preview for an upcoming product—the globster's not gonna be in Bestiary 2, but I needed one to torment MY 1st level PCs for the new campaign I just started running on Wednesday nights here at the office.)
Globster Creature 5
N, Large, Amphibious, Mindless, Ooze
Perception +10; darkvision
Skills Athletics +13, Stealth +13
Str +5, Dex –5, Con +4, Int –5, Wis +0, Cha –5
AC 12; Fort +15, Ref +4, Will +7
HP 150; Immunities acid, critical hits, mental, piercing, precision, unconscious; Resistances slashing 10
Stench (aura, olfactory) 30 feet. A creature that enters the area must attempt a DC 19 Fortitude save. On a failure, the creature is sickened 1, and on a critical failure, the creature is sickened 2. While within the aura, the creature takes a –2 circumstance penalty to saves to recover from the sickened condition. A creature that succeeds at its save is temporarily immune to globster stench for 24 hours. When a globster is slain, it decays into a mass of goo that dissolves over the course of 24 hours, but during this time it maintains its stench effect.
Speed 15 feet, swim 30 feet
Melee [one-action] pseudopod +15; Damage 1d8+7 bludgeoning plus 2d4 slashing and Grab and nausea
Constrict 1d8+3 bludgeoning plus 1d4 slashing, DC 22
Create Spawn [three-actions] Frequency Three times per day. Effect The globster expels a smaller mass of half-digested flesh and bone that has partially integrated with its body. This causes the globster to take 2d6 points of damage, but creates a globster spawn that acts independently from its source. The globster can spit its spawn to any location within 30 feet or it can deposit the spawn in an adjacent square—if it spits its spawn, the spawn takes 15 points of damage as it lands.
Nausea (olfactory, poison) A creature struck by a globster’s pseudopod Strike must make a DC 22 Fortitude save or become stunned 1 from the horrific burning sensation and overwhelming stench of the attack. A character who succeeds at the saving throw is temporarily immune to this nausea for 1 minute.
Globster Spawn Creature 2
N, Medium, Amphibious, Mindless, Ooze
Perception +5; darkvision
Skills Athletics +8, Stealth +8
Str +3, Dex –5, Con +2, Int –5, Wis +0, Cha –5
AC 10; Fort +12, Ref +0, Will +5
HP 90; Immunities acid, critical hits, mental, piercing, precision, unconscious; Resistances slashing 5
Stench (aura, olfactory) 30 feet. As globster, but DC 15 Fortitude save.
Speed 15 feet, swim 30 feet
Melee [one-action] pseudopod +11; Damage 1d6+2 bludgeoning plus 1d4 slashing and Grab and nausea
Constrict 1d4 bludgeoning plus 1 slashing, DC 18
Nausea (olfactory, poison) As globster, but DC 18 Fortitude save.
With 2nd edition, our Adventure Paths are going to hit 20th level each time as the norm. As such, the concept for a "Continuing the Campaign" article at the end of a volume makes little sense, because at this time, 20th level is the capstone of the game and there's not much else to go on to accumulate for PCs beyond that point.
Currently, the plan is to close out each Adventure Path with information similar to what we've done in prior APs that hit 20th, like Wrath of the Righteous or Return of the Runelords, in the "Beyond the Campaign" articles. These articles would discuss ramifications of the adventure path on the world at large and could present stat blocks for future foes that you could use in your game that we'll be unlikely to follow up on in future publications.
But I'm not sure how useful that would be.
Which brings me to this question—what sort of information would you like to see in the very last volume of an Adventure Path, in place of the "Continuing the Campaign"? I'm about to work on the first one of these for Age of Ashes in a few days and I have my own ideas (as indicated above) but would love to hear some more from you all in the meantime.
So, there's no way I can ask this without making folks start to speculate and wonder... so speculate and wonder away.
What part of Golarion (preferably the Inner Sea region) would your 18th or higher-level character want to go explore and learn about? If you also have areas beyond Golarion (other planets or planes), feel free to list them too, but ONLY if you first list a place ON Golarion that you'd like to see more about!
Three locations you can't nominate:
Starstone Cathedral
Gallowspire
Pit of Gormuz
Because I already know folks are interested in those locations! :-P
So! Now that the cat's out of the bag, and the hardcover version of Curse of the Crimson Throne is announced, I just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to post feedback and criticism and suggestions in this forum. When I first started working on this project many, many months ago, I combed through all of these threads and extracted a LOT of really helpful and useful advice. Now, I'm about a week away from being done with the development of the book, at which point it gets handed over to the editors and opportunities for significant new revisions or additions are more or less cut off, but I'm confident that what folks have observed and reported on over the past nearly 10 years have covered the critical parts and lots of the other warts and blemishes as well.
And it wouldn't have been possible without all your feedback, so thanks again, everyone! And I hope you check out and enjoy the new book when it's out later this year!
If you get a chance once you get into this event, I'd love to see you post here and talk about what sorts of characters you'll be building for the game. I promise not to use this information against your characters when the game begins.
Hey there, folks! Looking forward to inflicting some mayhem on your poor, defenseless investigators!
I'll be using the new 7th edition Call of Cthulhu rules for this game, but never fear... if your'e familiar with earlier editions, you'll find the differences are pretty easy to adjust to.
BUT! If you were to play a chaotic good rebel fighting against House Thrune in Hell's Rebels... what would be your number-one choice for archetype to take for your character?
So... you know how on the first page of an Adventure Path installment, on page 6 of each volume, we put a table of contents for the adventure along with a sentence or two of description for each part of the adventure?
Well... it strikes me that those annotated tables of contents on page 6 do a MUCH better job at providing an adventure summary than the actual Adventure Summary section we put in each adventure.
To the extent that I'm considering cutting the "Adventuer Summary" section entirely, starting with Wrath of the Righteous, and letting the much easier-to-navigate and process much more quickly version of the summary on page 6 do the job on its own.
What do folks think about this? I can't really think of a compelling idea to keep the dedicated "Adventure Summary" section when we've got those page 6 annotated tables of contents... but I could be missing something.
(AND: no, this would not mean I'm removing the Adventure Background section. That stays there. I'm specifically talking about the section that begins "Adventure Summary" and ends [typically] right before Part One going away.)
As many of you may have heard, next Gen Con, in 2013, at August, we'll be launching a new adventure path set in the Worldwound.
This adventure path will...
...be one where you fight a lot of demons, and may or may not get to face off against a demon lord... or maybe even demon LORDS...
...be a great opportunity for players to play GOOD guys... especially good aligned clerics and paladins and the like...
...have strong themes of redemption...
...strongly utilize elements from the upcoming Mythic Adventures rulebook, and will give you a chance as players to play mythic characters and a chance as GMs to run mythic villains...
...and will have MUCH MUCH MORE!
What I'm NOT 100% happy with right now, though, is the Adventure Path's title—currently, we're calling it "The Demonblight Crusade." Not a terrible title, but I'd rather call it something else. I've got a few ideas bumping around in my head... but I figured we have a whole messageboard of brilliant, creative people... so why not use that as well!
So!
I'm looking for suggestions as to what to call this Adventure Path! Post your suggestions below! If something comes up that I like, I'll let folks know and lock the thread so things don't continue forever (we DO have to settle on a title sooner or later, after all!). But until then... suggest away!
For reference (and so folks don't propose Adventure Path titles that accidentally use constructions and elements from one of the specific adventures), here are the names of the six parts of the adventure path. These titles are solid—I'm not looking for new suggestions here, just for the name of the adventure path as a whole.
This is the campaign journal thread for Rob McCreary's "Skull & Shackles" campaign, a game he started up here at the office. The game happens more or less every other Friday after work—we've got a session this evening, in fact! Several of us are keeping campaign journals, so you'll be able to see different viewpoints from the different characters.
And it should go without saying: ARRRH! THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD! Don't read this campaign journal if you want the contents of the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path to be a surprise!
The cast of characters:
Sasha Dracktus—female human rogue
Slivikin—male human cleric of Besmara
Madrid—female undine sorcerer
Klarg—male half-orc fighter
So... I just did the preliminary stats for the revised Xanesha for the Rise of the Runelords hardcover, updating this much-beloved NPC to the Pathfinder rules while toning her down quite a bit from her over-the-top incarnation in the original adventure. So I thought as a quick preview for folks... I'd throw her stats up on these boards!
Spoiler:
Xanesha CR 9 XP 6,400
Female lamia matriarch rogue 1
CE Large monstrous humanoid
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +2
Defense AC 25, touch 16, flat-footed 18 (+1 armor, +7 Dex, +8 natural, –1 size)
hp 123 (13 HD; 12d10+1d8+53)
Fort +8, Ref +17, Will +10; +2 vs. poison
Immune mind-affecting effects; SR 19
Offense Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft., swim 40 ft.
Meleeimpaler of thorns +17/+12/+7 (2d6+8/19–20/x3), touch +11 (1d4 wisdom drain)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks Wisdom drain, sneak attack +1d6
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12th; concentration +19)
At will—charm monster (DC 21), ventriloquism (DC 18)
3/day—deep slumber (DC 20), dream, major image (DC 20), mirror image, suggestion (DC 20)
Spells Prepared (CL 6th; concentration +13)
3rd—cure serious wounds
2nd—invisibility, scorching ray
1st—alarm, cure light wounds, magic missile, sanctuary (DC 18)
0—acid splash, dancing lights, detect magic, ghost sound (DC 17), mage hand, mending, prestidigitaiton Statistics Str 20, Dex 25, Con 19, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 25
Base Atk +12; CMB +18; CMD 35 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Extend Spell, Improved Critical (spear), Power Attack, Silent Spell, Vital Strike
Skills Acrobatics +23 (+27 when jumping), Bluff +23, Climb +29, Diplomacy +14, Knowledge (arcana) +17, Knowledge (local) +20, Sense Motive +18, Spellcraft +17, Swim +29
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Thassilonian
SQ change shape (fixed Medium humanoid form, alter self), undersized weapons, trapfinding +1
Other Gearimpaler of thorns, medusa mask, Sihedron medallion, snakeskin tunic, -26,610 gp
Enjoy! Hope she's still mean, but not as mean as she used to be! (I'm thinking she MIGHT still be too powerful... but that there might be some new ways you can do things before in the adventure to prep yourself against her...)
Just a quick heads up... we've settled on the final AP title for this outing:
"Skull and Shackles" Adventure Path!
Thanks to everyone for their feedback on the 99% (but not 100%) name for this pirate-filled AP, and I'm pleased that we've got a name for this AP that not only has no hits on Google for previous products, but ALSO has an obviously Golarion feel to it (since the flag for the Shackles is the skull and shackles, after all).
So! Folks can redirect their energy now from the name of the AP to furious predictions and requests for what kind of things they'd like to see us cover in the AP.
When we started Pathfinder several years ago, one thing that folks really really wanted us to do was to provide statistics for our various iconic characters. We've been doing that every month since the first Pathfinder module and the first Adventure Path as a result, using the last page of every module or pages 90–91 of every Pathfinder AP for that very reason.
What do folks think about us no longer doing this? Instead, the pages currently taken up by pregenerated iconics would be absorbed into the body of each book (likely adding a page or two of content to the adventure as a general rule). Stats for Merisiel and Sajan and Lini are already all over the place, and as we're gearing up for our EIGHTH adventure path, I'm starting to wonder if the usefulness of those pages has outstayed its welcome.
So... let me know! Would removing the pregenerated characters from our Adventure Paths and modules break your heart? Would replacing these pages with more precious words of adventure fill you with joy? Let us know!
Abadius 20—The wind is making a creepy howling sound as it blows across the eastern slopes of the Hills of Nomen. At least, I hope it’s the wind howling, and not some sort of hungry wolf monster. Not that I’ve seen anything like that so far to support fears of wolf monsters, but we’re not in Brevoy anymore. Desna alone knows what sort of monsters lie in wait for us to the east!
But I’m not frightened. I’m too excited to be frightened. I’m further away from Restov than I ever remember being, but this isn’t my first time in Iobaria. I was born here, according to the orphanage I grew up in. According to what little I’ve been able to learn or remember about my parents. From what I’ve been able to piece together, father died fighting a giant, and mother from some sort of sickness. I can remember mother, vaguely, but I have no memories of father at all.
I hadn’t really thought much of them at all, truth be told, for many years. The chapel of Desna on the outskirts of Restov has been my home its few priests my family ever since I left that horrible orphanage so many years ago—every time I think about that place the stump of my left pinky hurts all over again. But when I saw my mother’s maiden name, “Arasti,” on a flyer tacked to one of the town messageposts, it felt like my whole world got turned upside down.
It wasn’t about mother, though. It was about someone named Pezhvak. Who, apparently, was my uncle. I’d never met him before. Never even knew he existed. Now, it turns out, he’s dead, and I’m the only one left of the family line. And according to this flyer, Pezhvak left behind a keep, and that if his heir or heirs don’t come to claim it soon, the keep will revert to the Prince of Orlov.
I’ve never owned a keep. I think I’d like that.
So I went to the Murdered Manticore to look for Bribri and her friend Markus. Bribri didn’t usually hang out in the city much, but since she started hanging out with that quiet, intense-looking half-orc, they’ve been at the Manticore pretty often. I figured that if I was going to go all the way into Iobaria, it’d be a good idea to bring along a friend or two. They were there, complete with Bribri’s collection of pet sparrows, and when I told them about the notice and my plan to go to Iobaria, they seemed interested. And they each had some friends of friends there with them. And all of a sudden, there were seven of us heading over to speak to the Iobarian Ambassador here in town.
Aside from Bribri and Markus, there were four others—each of whom seemed to carry with them their own collection of strange histories and secrets. There was Derrith, a good-looking-in-a-rugged-sort-of-way Kellid, bristling with weapons and about as talkative as any of them. And then Natasya, a woman who, although she looked Vudrani and dressed quite fancy, carried a dueling sword that glowed and had a horse-drawn cart. And with her was a little halfling woman with a burn scar who only referred to herself as “Z” and rode on an elk she named Zachirah—I’m unsure if the fact that her name is the same as her elk’s first letter means anything at all. And finally, an exceptionally beautiful elven woman dressed in studded leather—this was Magda. Several of these folks... most of them, as far as I could tell, seemed to be pretty rough and, maybe, even kind of “bandity,” but I figure that also means they’re capable of taking care of themselves in the wild. Which can only help.
Anyway, all of that was eight days ago now. I filed my claim for the land with the Iobarian ambassador, found out that the keep... MY keep... was in a place called the Finadar Forest, and then set out for adventure! Well, we set out as soon as the rest of the group bought themselves some overly bulky winter clothes. I’ve got Desna’s magic to keep me warm—saved me some money, which was fortunate since buying the journal I’m writing in now used up the last of my coins. Hopefully my uncle’s keep comes with a fully stocked treasury!
Oh yeah! We had our first fight this morning. Not with each other. With a bunch of goblins that had set up some sort of ambush on the western approach to the Maw of Karth. One of the goblins was riding a nasty-looking scabby dog thing and had a big blue goblin-troll-ogre-something that seemed to be his pet or slave. Magda took care of that one, stabbing it with such violent precision in the back of its neck that the entire thing just vanished in a burst of blue smoke! The rest of the goblins were easy to mop up after that—I even got to stab a couple with my starknives! If goblins are the worst that Iobaria has to throw against us, I should be sitting in front of a roaring fire and sipping wine in my very own keep by the end of the month!
Use this thread to ask questions about the mass combat rules presented in Pathfinder Adventure Path #35. I'll do my best to answer them in a timely manner.
To kick things off, let me clear up a little bit of confusion regarding "Combat Value" (mentioned in the hp rules on page 55) and "CR."
All mentions of "Combat Value" should actually refer to "CR." Combat Value was an early number we used to represent an army's power, and we decided to standardize that terminology to match "Challenge Rating (aka CR)" but missed making the change in the hp rules on page 55, alas.
In the pursuit of publishing an Adventure Path that goes from 1st to about 18th level, we were going pretty well. In parts 1 through 4 of Kingmaker, your PCs are pretty likely to earn 3 levels each.
But that's dropping to 2 levels in part 5's "War of the River Kings." Why's that? Because the mass combat rules not only took up about 5 pages of content, but also because mass combat elements ended up not being as high XP rewards as standard play. This was a conscious decision, because while I wanted there to be an element of mass combat in Kingmaker, I didn't want it to be the focus, since the mass combat rules are super simple and fast but they're not really all that robust like the core game's rules for combat. And because mass combat kind of puts the PCs on the sidelines. It's better for adventure paths to focus on the PCs, after all... so XP gained from mass combat is a bit low.
What does this mean?
Not much, for fans of high level play, fortunately. While it does mean that the last adventure, "Sound of a Thousand Screams," will assume PCs start at 15th level, I still expect this last adventure to bring PCs up 3 levels. Your PCs will probably be 17th level by the end of the AP (I'll know for sure late this evening or sometime tomorrow, depending on when I finish developing the adventure), which is still pretty high-level.
Just keeping everyone up-to-date, since I know level ranges are important to lots of GMs.
Okay! Let's use this thread to ask questions and get rulings for building kingdoms and cities using the rules in Pathfinder Adventure Path #32. These rules could impact more than just "Rivers Run Red," so it deserves its own sticky thread.
What's your FAVORITE prestige class that we've published in a Pathfinder product for Golarion. The prestige classes in the Core Rulebook don't count! And you can only pick one!
In the upcoming Kingmaker Adventure Path, the PCs get put in charge of a kingdom. But there can be only one King, and there's usually 4 to 6 players in a group. As a result, Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #32 will present a dozen or so roles for player characters to assume to help rule the nation. One of those roles will be King/Queen. The others? I've got 11 more picked out, hopefully so that they'll give ANY PC a couple of attractive options to take up the role of.
But I might be forgetting some.
So! Use this thread to let me know what your favorite character's DREAM JOB would be if he were part of the leadership of a kingdom!
I thought I'd create this thread to find out what everyone's favorite level to play and adventure are at! Please drop in a post here and answer the following questions if you're interested:
1) What's your favorite experience level?
2) Why is that your favorite experience level?
3) What's your favorite adventure, and what level was it for? Why is it your favorite adventure?
So in several of our products, we mention weird new monsters that don't yet have stat blocks. In some cases, like the linnorms from the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, these monsters might have stats from closed-content d20 sources, while in others, like the d'ziriaks of the Shadow Plane in "The Great Beyond" have no stats at all yet.
I want to eventually make sure that all of these monsters have stat blocks in some place... but before I start to address that, I need to collect them all up.
SO! If there's a statless monster from ANY Pathfinder product you'd like to see stats for, post it here! When you do, please post the monster's name, the book it is mentioned in, and the page number it appears on in that book.
I just finished statting up the big bad end boss of "Legacy of Fire." As I did, I realized that this stat block (a CR 17 wish-fueled menace) is very likely to be the LAST 3.5 stat block I ever have to build/develop. It's all PF RPG statblocks from here on out.
So, after several false starts, I finally got my first Pathfinder RPG game off the ground earlier this evening after work... the one I mentioned back in my foreword in Pathfinder #18, for those who first heard of it there. This campaign is, in theory, going to serve two purposes: it gets us in the Editorial Pit at Paizo playing our game and learning our rules, and it lets me get to talk in a funny goblin voice now and then.
All we've done so far is create characters; the players are Erik Mona, Sean Reynolds, James Sutter, Wes Schneider, Chris Carey, and Jason Bulmahn. Of course, Jason didn't show up for this first game, because he apparently had some BETTER game to go to tonight, but he only missed out on character creation so he's not behind in XP.
Yet.
Anyway, I'm creating this thread to give the players somewhere to post journals, record funny quotes, and so forth and so on. I'll post more about the game now and then as well... but so far, there's nothing to report on yet...
...except that a pretty interesting group of heretics, cryptozoologists, violent crusaders, undying thugs, and creepy woodsfolk just walked into Sandpoint 3 years after the big goblin raid at the Swallowtail Festival.
So, let us assume that there will be dinosaurs in the Pathfinder Bestiary. A relatively safe assumption, since every edition of the game's core monster book has had them since 1st edition, yes?
So, working on that assumption, I would love to hear folks answer the following questions:
1) How many dinosaurs is the right amount to do a good show of it?
2) What four dinosaurs would you hope to see in the book more than any other?
3) How important is it to maintain all five dinosaurs from the MM? Can we get away with just one dromaeosaurid (probably the deinonychus), with the assumption that one can make a megaraptor by simply advancing the deinonychus?
4) If #3 above is true, would it better to replace the deinonychus with the velociraptor? Velociraptor is more well-known these days, and it's easy enough to say that a velociraptor advanced up one size category is a deinonychus.
5) Dinosaurs don't have to be boring. They don't have to simply be hit points and a bite attack. Currently living animals have a wide range of biodiversity, with special attacks like poison, constriction, electricity generation, stunning attacks, ranged attacks (like tarantulas flicking poison hairs, archerfish spitting balls of water, or cobras spitting poison), and the like. Would it be too strange to give some dinosaurs a bit more flavor by giving them attacks that aren't necessarily supported by the fossil record?
6) Is there anything in particular with how dinosaurs have been stattud up in the game before that rubs you the wrong way that you'd like to see changed?
So, over the next couple of days, I'll be finishing off the writing and development for Into the Darklands. The book is mostly written, but there's still some stuff left to go in there. I'm trying to hit all of the deep underground tropes in there, not just drow and Lovecraft stuff and Journey to the Center of the Earth stuff and morlock stuff. I'm pretty sure that I've got most of the major bases covered, but as the time to turn it over to art for layout nears, I'm getting paranoid that I'm leaving something out.
SO! Is there anything that you think absolutely has to be in a book that talks about what's going on in the deep underground world in a fantasy setting? (Keep in mind that kuo-toa, mind flayers, and umber hulks are all closed content that we can't use...)
We're in the home stretch here with the Pathfinder Campaign Setting hardcover. I'm currently working on the pronunciation guide that's going into the appendix, and there's one word in particular that is a little vexing to me...
Kostchtchie.
I know how I say it. But I'm having a hell of a time, for some reason, finding a pronunciation online.
SO! By now, folk have seen the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide and the Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide. Here at Paizo, we're gearing up to start work on the Second Darkness Player's Guide (which is, in fact, the first Pathfinder Companion). We've got more room in this one than the previous two...
Which brings me to this question. Is there anything that you feel was missing in the first two Adventure Path Player's Guides we've done so far? Anything we did include that you felt we gave the short-shift to and should expand upon? Anything you think we did include that we SHOULDN'T have included?
Ran another installment of Savage Tide for my D&D group today. They're in the middle of "Serpents of Scuttlecove," and the party's barbarian/druid who has the Destructive Rage feat single handedly tore down and knocked over the Birdcage, taking out a city block in the process and having to spend a Hero Card to avoid being crushed by the collapsing building (which wouldn't have killed her, but it WOULD have broken her gargoyle crown).
The concept of a fungus that turns a living creature into a sloppy fungus-like monster is nothing new for the game... things like vegepygmies and yellow musk creeper zombies come to mind (even though a yellow musk creeper isn't technically a fungus...)...
SO! What about other, more obscure monsters from d20 sources who are fungus monsters? What's your favorite?
This is a more than reasonable response. The training, survey, and heightened sensitivity towards transphobia should be more than enough to correct the hostile environment, which does NOT seem widespread to begin (notably, most Paizo employees are as shocked and horrified as us).
I've been at a company that had a hostile culture similar to this and we instituted similar policies. Additionally, we created a liason team between managers and the employees (I was one such employee). It solved our culture problem within a year or two, requiring that management took it seriously.
I tend to stick with reform over punishment when referencing accountability and this is a big step in the right direction.
It is impossible to make an unbiased judgment on her claims.
I will say that I do not appreciate that the piece reads like a gossip column, which undermines the real claims. That being said, that doesn't invalidate the very serious allegations.
I will watch to see how Luis, Mark, Eleanor and other staff behave following the departure (and if they stay).
Is this the first 2e adventure that seems to really shake anything up in the setting?
Feel like all of the APs and modules thus far have been defending the status quo.
Malevolence will shake things up if the PCs fail to succeed. ;-)
That said, I'm really eager for the stand-alone adventures to be bigger deals, and to focus on larger events. They won't all be things like "Gray Death" that can change regions, but some certainly will. Sorta like how not all Adventure Paths cause big changes, but some will.
I've long felt that the best way to reveal big secrets or to advance the world's plot is to do so "on screen" in an adventure, and the standalone nature of this line should let us do more of that, not less.
I will buy, not only because it is awesome, but because I'm ready for more juicy secrets.
Witch is the most conservative of the new classes and the most boring. It didn't capture the essence of the 1e witch and its decided shtick (familiar) isn't that interesting.
The witch should get way better scaling hex cantrips and more of them introduced as they level. Focus powers are what everyone else does.
Such a disappointment.
EDIT: This can be fixed by feats; than God the core system is so good.
It's the biggest failing of the witch class that they can't accrue multiple cantrips (let alone how lackluster they are). It's no surprise that the dedication also misses out on what makes a witch a witch.
After all, I firmly believe the devs don't need to confront the truth when it is repeatedly and consistently attacked and questioned. (If you want to know which posters I have in mind, I bet you can just watch who will be replying to this post).
I'm most certainly not one of those posters (I lurk), but I find the entire accusation offensive. People who disagree with you are not Paizo apologists trying to subvert the truth. Perhaps balance is a bit subjective and there isn't some universal truth?
Blasting being weaker than previous is not consensus. It both scales better and benefits massively from the new critical rules. There also a larger variety of blasts across classes, and mental blasts are a thing.
Spell slots should not feel limited to the point you should run low on blasts unless you go all out every fight.
Largely, it feels much better to me excepting extremely gamey Crossblooded or similar schemes in PF1E.
Sure, if you want to exclude traits and feats and archetypes you feel are "gamey" and "min/max", you're right. Of course, if you don't, it's not even close and the OP is right.
I get that there are players who enjoy mega-dungeons, but that is the minority in my experience.
These people enjoy the mechanics of the fights, but don't enjoy the story elements of role-playing as much, which is fine for them, but not enough for people with 35 years+ of playing rpgs.
I quite enjoyed "The World's Largest Dungeon". There can be opportunities to RP in a dungeon. I would reconsider declaring what other players enjoy; I, a player of 25+ years, enjoy a good hack and slash every now and then.
I would love a Castlemaker AP and I know my players would as well.
Honestly, I thought most of the archetypes were unimpressive, especially when compared to the core class archetypes. I think Student of Perfection is the only one I could foresee myself using.
I assume they meant that it makes the weapon a "simple weapon" for you, and Wizards are the only class that aren't trained in "all simple weapons", so it doesn't make it trained for you. But like you say, that's what the Fighter Dedication is for.
I know what they meant. However, according to their claim, this makes Sorcerers and Cloistered Clerics always Battle Sorcerers and Battle Cloistered Clerics, because they don't need to pay this extra tax.
Actually, your claim was that it was useless. I showed you this was not the case.
Then you moved the goal posts and said you didn't want a feat tax.
Now you're trying to argue semantics about what we call classes to prove your point? The fact is, it's not useless.
Yeah, the Wizards are really nerfed in this edition. Ha well, what can you do.
I find it almost comical just how many nerfs they get, including truly minor things. For example, did you realise Humans Feat Unconventional Weaponry is useless for a Wizard? :D https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=72
How is that useless?
To help you, weapon proficiency and fighter multiclass exist if you want battle wizard.
I think for right now they've made thing feel way too generic between the classes with Fighter, Barbarian, and Monk just kind of all looking like different flavors of hit that thing really, really hard. And yes I know that's kind of the point of melee classes but it just feels like limiting the combat feats by class has removed an element of zany fun and locked things into very ridged rolls.
The game also looks very Rocket Tag to me now.
I like what they did with spells though I'm already missing snowball just for nostalgic reasons if nothing else. But at the same time everything just seems high damage, low utility. The idea of making one spell scale with level is nice but kind of gimps the spontaneous casters for really no good reason. They should have just taken the psychic's under cast / over cast idea and made that the standard instead of making it a build playstyle.
Also are AC tanks just not a thing now?
I was going over Fighter and Champion on the web and outside the very strange thing they are doing with shields I don't see anything that really boosts your AC. No Combat Expertise, no doge, no armor focus, no shield focus, no mobile bulwark style (yes I know that came after the core but still).
As you say, melee classes are all about hitting things. Maybe you're looking for something like the Book of 9 Swords? The danger then becomes melee being too similar to magic. I, personally, wouldn't mind the option, though. As for class locking feats, they'd feel even more the same if everyone had access to the same feat pool.
Monk with crane style and shield has pretty high AC, as does anyone with expert armor. Anyone could take this style by level 4 wth multiclassing.
Read the CRB over the weekend. I really appreciate the design philosophy of the game. My first pf2e session is on August 17th and I'm really looking forward to it.
I really have never been into "E-RPG", until I heard GCP with Jason and Erik at Paizocon. Because that was so amusing, I will probably give this a try!
Nobody likes me, everybody hates me
I think I'll go eat worms!
Big fat juicy ones
Eensie weensy squeensy ones
See how they wiggle and squirm!
Down goes the first one, down goes the second one
Oh how they wiggle and squirm!
Up comes the first one, up comes the second one
Oh how they wiggle and squirm!
I bite off the heads, and suck out the juice
And throw the skins away!
Nobody knows how fat I grow
On worms three times a day!
Nobody likes me, everybody hates me
I think I'll go eat worms!
Big fat juicy ones
Eensie weensy squeensy ones
See how they wiggle and squirm!
No one has to try Coke's newest orange flavor, despite all the hype surrounding it.
Well, yes, but the argument is based on "should" one get the system, not compulsion. The rest of your post addresses that, but this statement is out of place. :)
As far as the argument goes, contentment is a perfectly good reason to stay the same. However, the person might be missing out on an even better experience (I believe this is the crux of Seisho's thought process).
I don't think it's a watered down version. I think it's different and new. Because it's new, it will naturally have less content available.
Just a few of my favorite changes:
3 Action + Reaction System: More intuitive, more versatility in combat, more room to "power up" abilities by "charging" them with more actions.
Monsters: Most monsters have unique abilities that make them more interesting than standard PF1 fare.
Items: Previewed items show some really neat and interesting effects. Wands are changed from spell sticks to "1/day w/ cool extra effect" sticks. Weapon choice is no longer the highest crit range or the most damage - they have cool abilities now.
Class Feat System: You are not forced to take lame or useless class abilities anymore. You can choose which class abilities you want via class feats.
Multiclass System: Rather than taking different levels than your core class, you can multiclass using your class feats. Effectively, the core feature of the class still levels (such as spellcasting), but you can dip into other classes' abilities.
Cantrips: Cantrips scale now; my players always wanted an "auto attack" option for their casters and this will work nicely.
It still keeps PF1's customization (and surpasses it, imo), while introducing a lot of neat features.
do they go out on july 8th? or do the orders get processed on that date?
The "July 8th" date listed is a lie, from what I've read. They're scheduled to arrive somewhere around August 1st AFAIK.
where is that stated? :(
By some dev somewhere on these boards. I'm sure someone else can link the post, but I'm honestly just too lazy with my free time today. :)
Dansome may be thinking of this post, which states that PDFs will not be granted to subscribers until August 1st, regardless of when the order ships. That doesn't affect preorders, however.
Well, that's cool news. Happy to be proven wrong, but unhappy that I'm going senile.
You have become my favorite poster on these boards, tqomins.
As I did not participate in the playtest, I'm curious. How quickly do you get feats? How easy/quickly can you enter an archetype? Do you gain dedication feats specifically for this purpose (or investing in a dedication in your main class)?
Now this is a real stretch I know but I want a dedicated class for.... with lack of a better word... creature.
Like a Summoner Eidolon, but as a stand-alone class.
I always feel there's a lack of non-humanoid representation among playables.
There's all sorts of tricks to get something truly weird and exotic such as Awakening but that requires a lot of workarounds as is.
Golarion, and most fantasy settings have so many non-humanoid creatures with equal or even better int scores than humans that could make for very interesting and unusual heroes.
A class that helps explore such design space would be a dream come true.
You want a monster, with a class that levels up the monster's abilities? — kind of like how Dragon PCs from 'In the company of Dragons' works?
I know I suggested it thinking of something based on the Synthesist looking for a shifter class, but a Synthesist that can't turn off and only has one fixed shape that improves with levels could maybe work for this also?
Or perhaps Savage Species from 3.5? Also, Dreamscarred Press has released a number of supplemental materials for monster races in PF 1e; Astral Deva comes to mind. I, too, would love monster classes again.
Reminds me of when I played a Gestalt Minotaur Fighter in the World's Largest Dungeon.
"I'm not locked in here with you! You're locked in here with me!"
Saying 'MMO' is basically a rallying cry to an internet argument but I'll admit I'm having a hard time working out how to describe the equipment system otherwise. It gets a little comical when a late game pistol punches through stuff an early-game rocket launcher can't touch so you need to keep constantly upgrading weapons and armour to the newest tier of gear. It does hurt the heroic feel when so very, very much of your function is defined by having a purple gun or armour.
It feels like, rather than having weapons scale basically...not at all, a better system would have been to build more inherent scaling into the base system. If you got +level to your armour values for example, the amount needed to go between various gears gets a LOT smaller rather than having a mid-range light armour provide more protection than early-game power armour.
That sort of inherent scaling worked well in Star War Saga (Another thing Owen K. C. Stephens worked on) and was also demonstrated (on the weapon front) pretty well with 4e's X[W] system. Where a 1d8 sword could do 7d6 before too long because the person personally using it is better at swording.
It reminds me of this moment portrayed by the eminent actor, Willard Carroll Smith Jr.
In the Flame Blade Dervish feat (from Paths of the Righteous), it states that you add Charisma to the damage of your flame blade. Would this portion of damage from flame blade benefit from empower spell?
Empower Spell wrote:
Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by half including bonuses to those dice rolls.
Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables.
"Complete sections for 20 villainous organizations, including an arcane society, brutal slavers, carnival troupe, corrupt guard, cruel musketeers, death cult, demon knights, diabolical church, fang monastery, merchant caravan, merry outlaws, nature’s scourge, regal court, ruthless brigands, savage marauders, scandalous pirates, secret society, sinister cult, slayer’s guild, and a thieves’ guild. "
Maybe the "sinister cult?"
Though this is a core book, not a setting book, and while they do use the same gods the Cult of the Eye seems much more setting tied. So I doubt it.
Yep, it won't have any Golarion-specific organizations. However, as you mention, we do have the Sinister Cult, and it wouldn't be too hard to use the Sinister Cult as an even-more-sinister offshoot of the Cult of the Eye (interested in the devastation of the deluge more so than protecting themselves from harm by sacrificing others).
Thanks to you both, I am very excited to see what I have to work with!
Eric Hinkle wrote:
What is this "Cult of the Eye" people keep mentioning?
A cult mentioned within "Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Isles of the Shackles".
They believe the Eye of Abendego is the birth pangs of a new god (which they call the "Deluged God"). They offer sacrifices to be saved from the mass floods that will undoubtedly come once their deity arises.
Paizo, I've really disliked what you did with the Advanced Class Guide and now in Ultimate Equipment. Please use errata to finish incomplete sentences, increase clarity, fix charts, etc. Please, don't use errata to balance the game.
The majority of the changes in the Ultimate Equipment errata (e.g. Sleeves, Mithral, AoMF, Courageous, weapon table, et cetera) were exactly the kind you suggest... there were only a handful of 'game balance' adjustments (e.g. Jingasa, Brawling, et cetera).
Unfortunately, the most relevant changes for my gaming group are the handful of game balance adjustments that basically removed several items from the game. :)
Creative Director
