Regarding the Duration of Shapeshifting, it's an easy fix: Make the duration in hours UNTIL you make an attack, at which time the remaining hours convert to rounds/minutes.
My playtest pregen was over 3 pages long. Compare to some other games where a character sheet can be effective on only an index card.
There are certainly some payers that HATE the new rules and they have made their opinions clear. But it seems to me that they are in the minority. I would say that those bothering to try to voice their opinion HERE are in the minority. But I think you are vastly overstating the number of people currently playing PF1 that intend to make the shift to PF2. Paizo WILL lose customers, but they are banking on picking up more than they lose. Furthermore, IMO, they started work on PF2 long before Starfinder, and the latter was intended as a testing ground for some PF2 ideas and as a funding bridge during the "dead year" between releasing the playtest and releasing the final product. They did sell a ton at GenCon 50, but I don't know anything beyond that. My gut feeling (based on my own reading of the SF material) is that SF isn't that popular in the greater RPG community, and may not be meeting the goal set as the lifeboat between editions. But I have nothing to back that up other than my own feelings, so take that for what it's worth.
The problem REALLY seems to be the wealth by level and the item cost scaling (and the assumption that players have total access to anything they can afford). Resonance doesn't touch this at all. It adds a clunky, arbitrary system to side step a problem rather than fix it, like a Band-Aid on a severed artery.
North Carolina and Georgia in one region, South Carolina in another? Ooo-kay...
Readying a shield to block an incoming attack is almost purely a reflexive action. Most notably, it requires keeping your eyes peeled for incoming attacks. Nocking an arrow requires properly orienting the fletching and LOOKING at the nock, taking your eyes off the combat, most every time. Further, you must seat the nock properly and hold it securely with your fingers before you can lift, draw, and aim. Yeah, there are YouTube videos of a guy shooting really fast, but there is absolutely NO WAY readying a shield should take MORE actions than loading a bow. If "Ready Shield" is enough to warrant one of your limited three actions in a round, there is more than enough justification to do the same for nocking an arrow. You may not agree, based on purely rules balance or gameplay issues, but in the real world, one is much easier to do than the other, and the easier of the two is the one that doesn't require fine motor manipulation and taking your eyes off of the battle and looking down at your weapon.
Make drawing and nocking an arrow an action (instead of a free action). Done. If "readying a shield" (which is literally just lifting your arm) is enough to qualify as an action, reaching into a quiver, pulling a long arrow out, putting it across your bow, and finding the string with the noc sure as hell shouldn't be free.
If removing the negative hp countdown clock is the goal, can't this be accomplished with the critical fail rule already mentioned? Go negative in hit points, roll to stabilize: Critical Success: Stop bleeding, stabilize, regain consciousness
Now you still have a simple, familiar system with an unpredictable timer. Doesn't this also meet the stated design goals?
This subsystem stinks on ice. Streamlining rules shouldn't lead to MORE per-day bookkeeping. If you remove the need for the Big Six, item slots work just fine. The problem before was this stupid arms race, where no one would give up their Big Six item in favor of a cool new item if it used up the same slot. If CLW Wands are the real problem, make wands limited per day, make them more expensive, and remove the magic item shops. Seriously, throw all that wealth by level and formulaic magic item pricing out the damn window. You can't abuse wands you don't have.
Honestly, I'd MUCH rather have points and a menu to choose from than classes that each have their own sub-menus of class specific mechanics. Some of the contortions some players use combining Feats, Traits, and Multiclass combinations to get some specific outcome boggles my mind. Buy off a list common to all and be done with it.
I have been a staunch supporter of HeroLab on these and other forums for YEARS, as a quick perusal of my posting history will attest. My group has used it and would never dream of NOT using it especially for high level play where recalculating buffs and temporary conditions could be a math nightmare. That said, I WILL NOT support a "software as a service" pricing model. We will not use any "online" version of character generation/game management software. Starfinder launched to great acclaim, and HeroLab was basically a no-show. Not because they couldn't have had it ready and out the door by launch, but because they used it as the test platform for their subscription model, and over 6 months later it apparently still can't do what the old version of HL can do. No thanks. This is one decade-long staunch supporter out the door.
Or, the Player handles the (potentially fewer) modifiers they can control and the DM handles the situational modifiers in the form of changing the target's AC?
Most people have all of their modifiers pre-calculated, so getting an actual total shouldn't be hard. I would assume that part of the streamlining effort going into PF2 would be cutting down on the minute modifier details. Adding/subtracting 10 is just moving the 10's place digit up or down by one. Not really enough to consider actual "math".
I have been a MAJOR supporter of HeroLab in play and on these forums and others. I see zero compelling reasons to migrate to HLO. This whole "software as a service" movement that Adobe, Microsoft and others have begun moving to in recent years is troubling to me, and I don't particularly want to support it, whether it's HeroLab or Photoshop or whatever. If my tabletop RPG is so complex I need a computer (and internet connection) to play it, it's time to rethink my game of preference.
Sundown? The Final Sundown? (Cue Europe...)
If the BBEG is hacking the peasants and their thatched-roofed cottages to bits with an adamantine battleaxe and everyone KNOWS this, and then the GM describes the NPC as wielding an adamantine battleaxe when in reality it is carrying a feather duster and the DM KNOWS this because he has a PICTURE of it then it's blatantly a set-up. He has a valid concern. Even more disturbing is the prospect that the local VC is using bribes to cover it up. Both of these issues are completely worthy of discussion and not an immediate sweeping under the rug as many here have suggested. "Hear no evil" does nothing to fix problems like these.
There are a couple of frost giants at Jorgenfist negotiating to join the army. If they don't go to Jorgenfist, then let the negotiations be successful and add several tons of frost giants to the next raiding party to hit Sandpoint....
He's dead Jim. Would have been better to let the True Resurrection work if they tried it after 3 rounds or so.
A bunch of jaded, cynical CN sellswords is where the fun is at. Conan, displaying his successful Read Languages % roll.
From Shore to Sea has a very Innsmouth feel to it as well.
Oh yeah, I forgot: The list telling us where to marshal should have been super clear about banner vs stand-up. Since the stand-ups didn't have the character's name on them, I figured they meant banner, but there was a moment of confusion there. And a suggestion: since GenCon made Paizo move into the ballroom and out of the hall, there was nothing outside to indicate what was going on inside the Sagamore. Maybe a big banner over the entry doors or something? I know they don't want us mustering outside, and that problem has been dealt with excellently, but maybe add some advertising/exposure to the outside of the room.
Poor Karzoug, a slave to the power of death. Nice recap! I look forward to sharing ours in the next 6 months or so.
I didn't say "fansite". SF has dozens of those. I said "Web Magazine", which is to say over two dozen PDF issues that are available in commercial streams, not just their own site. You can get them at Drivethru RPG, for example. It's not the same as Life magazine (or Mad magazine, for that matter) but it's a whole lot more than a blog. And most of the content is reader-submitted, so it's not just one lonely fan with a computer cranking out his houserules.
Iron Gods: Thundaar! In Pathfinder! Finally!! Rise of the Runelords: Grumpy (very) Old Man thinks all of Varisia is his lawn. Get off it. Giantslayer: Giantslaying.
Sir, the private's weapon is named "Charlene" Sir!!
There's enough of a current fanbase to support a web magazine, at least up until a couple of years ago, over 30 years past its release date.
I feel your pain Fromper, we've been playing this AP since Sept 2009! We started with the 3.5 versions and got through about half of the AP before the AE came out. I had already been converting everything to Pathfinder, but still, it was a lot. We only play maybe 4-6 times per year, so a lot of things get fuzzy between sessions. I have the luxury of having plenty of time to bone up on a section, and often tweak NPCs via HeroLab, so I get a little more involved in the tactics than just rereading, but yeah, definitely reread the next book before you finish this one. My group has no idea HOW Big K survived Earthfall, so when they got to Xin Shalast they had no idea where to go or what to look for. They have 2 of the rings, but have no idea that they need them or why they need them. They are about to find out the hard way, I think...
Sure would have been nice if the Jingasa was changed to "once/day when subjected to a critical hit/sneak attack, the attacker must reroll the attack and abide by the results of the second roll" instead of "LoL once ever for 5kgp ROTFL sucker!!" PFS players have multiple ways to get a 1/session reroll for their characters, not so much when it comes for ways to force the GM to reroll attacks against their characters.
Hired by Prince Stavian III for a 1 year term in his Ulfen Guard, I was exposed to riches beyond imagining and cultures undreamed of. Standing at his side as thousands of diplomats, viziers, courtiers and courtesans paraded in front of the Emperor, I was privy to knowledge on hundreds of topics and secrets of every stripe. This wide array of tidbits has served me well over the years. At the end of my term of service, the treasure I chose from his vaults was a copy of the Pathfinder Chronicles, which I took to Absalom and used to secure a place among their ranks. Now I use my strong axe-arm and treasure trove of obscure knowledge in the service of the Pathfinder Society. They send me to the most fascinating places and let me cleave the skulls of the most interesting of foes!
I think half of the people against the idea only read the subject line and none of the OP's suggestions. Bonekeep was massively popular for this very reason. I'm in favor of a hard mode option, have been for years, and myself suggested several of the options you listed. I would add "maximize the Hit Points of every foe encountered" to the list as well. It doesn't have to be complicated to implement, nor take very much time to do so by campaign HQ. The ONLY reward for doing so I feel is appropriate is a "bragging rights" gold star (flaming skull?) collection for your message board avatar.
Big M can see through their fog. But honestly, I ditched the whole "I'm a stone giant and I love fluffy clouds!" theme. I had him drop a Wall of Force diagonally between the pillars and leave a 5' gap at the bottom. He could then target a Fireball at the base of the gap and still get a nice spread, or use column spells like Stone Call or Ice Storm over the top, all the while anything directly targeting him has no line of effect, so arrows and rays and such can't get to him. Made the fight last a lot longer. I also have him a ton of stone-themed spells. Because.
I watched their actions in the campaign, but I also started everyone off with a point or two based on their class and race. The dwarf got a greed point, the summoning druid got a sloth point, the elven wizard blaster got a pride point and a wrath point, etc etc.
Just got in myself. Sad there are more 5E pledges than PF pledges :P I see it like this: 5ed needs a quality campaign setting, whereas Pathfinder already has one!
I use HeroLab on a Surface Pro. I also have PDFs of all of my sources used for my character on the Surface. I take notes with the stylus and OneNote during play. I have a hand-painted mini for my character and I roll dice hand picked to represent said character. I also print out a copy ONCE per character level and leave it in my folder along with my chronicle sheets. If asked to provide a paper copy, which is the current rule, I can and will. But under no circumstances am I going to use scratch paper and pen to track my spells, buffs (I run a cleric and a bard), hit points, temp mods, or my character as a whole. I use HeroLab because it's a good product and does what it claims to do, and is licensed by Paizo. I don't try to use it in place of a rules referrence (I have those separately, in PDFs) and I'm not using it as a "crutch". It's a time saving convenience. Refusing to seat me because of a program on a device smaller than my core rulebook is a dealbreaker. THAT most assuredly falls under the "don't be a jerk" clause.
Glen Cook apparantly took this tack when naming characters and cities in The Black Company. At least for the original trilogy. All the members of the company had nicknames ("Raven", "Croaker", "Goblin", "Silent") and the bad guys had titles ("Soulcatcher", "Shifter", "The Hanged Man"). Even the cities were named after gems ("Beryl", "Jasper", etc). He really kept the exotic names to a minimum.
There is a Psychic Phrenic Pool power that gets around this. What grinds my gears is that all of the really good psychic-flavored foes are almost universally immune to mind affecting. I understand originally it was so you can't charm/dominate then interrogate these master manipulaters, but now it means that if you are getting ramped up for a big Occult-themed campaign and you make a mind-bending psychic, you'll then see that you can't use hardly ANY of your new toys. "I Mind Thrust the serpentman occultist!" "He's immune." "Ok, I start a Psychic Duel with him!" "He's immune." "So what you are telling me is that in order to be effective in this Occult-themed campaign full of horrors beyond time and space I should have made a barbarian?" "..."
Trogdor? Seriously? LoL
Most architects build doors so that they open into a room, so that it is possible to block or bar the door in the case of intrusion. Sticking to this rule of thumb will give you the best answer 90% of the time.
News Flash: Amazon's release dates for RPG/Gaming products are wrong more often than a stopped clock. Not a joke, just a fact of life.
Ah, so no new abilities like "Glows like a torch" or has DR bypassing attacks or a free feat (a la "Diehard"). I was kinda hoping for better, actually. I have a certain Slothful devotee of Jubilex I was hoping to use this with, and now I dunno. Thanks for the info!
There were indeed entries in the 1st ed DMG for THAC0 in the table for monsters. That's hardly "late" in the life cycle, it was a full 10 years before 2nd ed. 1st ed was a giant quilt of patches and patches of tables for everything. 2nd ed streamlined a lot of it, ditching a ton of these scattered tables and niche rules, and then proceeded to make tons more of them in the new format. It seemed like a HUGE change back then, now... not so much.
I think Taldor might actually be getting stronger. They didn't do so well in Season 4, but lately they've been gathering forces for a trip up North. One of their claims to greatness came in the founding of the Shining Crusade. What better way to return glory to the empire than to send a massive force north to push back the demonic hordes (in theory, at least)? This very notion is the character concept for my first PFS character. Made at Gen Con 2009, he's a Taldan cleric of Iomedadae, fresh from the crusades, trying to get the Pathfinders to work with Taldor to return that nation to glory so they can close the Worldwound with one last Grand Expedition. He switched to the Silver Crusade when he could, but sad to say, he's just now 8th level and hopefully will see some great things out of both his old and his new faction come August!
If churches didn't have to deal with splinter sects that corrupt the true nature of the faith, why is there enough demand to make an entire PC class around the Inquisitor??
Add a few of these minis out in front of the shops and you're good to go... Skeletons and Hooked Horrors??
I hear Windsong Abbey has a standing bounty on all evil magic stuff on the market. They'll buy it and dispose of it and pay fair market value to whomever turns it in. I think they are also starting an outreach program in Sandpoint and Magnimar, where representatives of the local churches can make the exchange for you, and pay in gold or scrip. Just a rumor. Maybe.
I see you misspelled "Babylon 5".
Usually if you mouse over a number, HeroLab will tell you at least the types of bonuses it used to calculate the final result (i.e. Armor Class has base + dex + dodge + deflection etc etc). It's YOUR job to know when situational modifiers apply, such as when you are making an attack you get a bonus for (i.e. Sundering with Improved/Greater Sunder). Every Feat, Trait and Spell (and gear too, I think) has a reference noted in it's entry, so you can tell what book it came from. It's YOUR job to make sure you own it outside of HeroLab. Clicking the "Pathfinder Society Organized Play character" box in the "Configure Hero" menu should usually show you everything that's currently legal for PFS play. If you don't own the data package for a book, obviously it won't show up. You can manually click on boxes for every book that you DO own the data set for in the same menu. It's YOUR job to make sure your clicked boxes coincide with books you actually own. Finally, a data set is a lot cheaper than the accumilated costs of the PDFs for the books contained in the data set. Saying "I'd rather buy more PDFs" is disingenuous, because you can buy 5 PDFs for over $50, or one data set that contains the HeroLab files for the same 5 books for $5, less if you get it in a bundle. AND you could just use the included editor to code it all in yourself for FREE if you want. The data sets do cost more money, but the money spent has value and it is not necessary. Try coding in some data yourself and see if your time is worth more than the $5 it costs to just buy the set.
My group took the Black Arrows along, plus Orik (who was sentenced to join the rangers, and transporting him there was the tie in from book 2). They came up from under the fort through the shocker lizard caves, which they bypassed thanks to the druid and the smoke advice, and ran right into Lucretia. She promptly did her "welcome home, Kaven, and thanks for delivering the last of the Black Arrows to me" speech. Upon hearing that, all eyes turned to him, he started to sputter a denial (piss-poor Bluff check) and Jakardros blew his top and turned from the lamia to attack Kaven! Kaven, who was "bringing up the rear" anyway turned and fled back down the tunnel, and by the time the party had dispatched Lucretia and went looking for him, he was nothing but a barbecued shocker lizard meal.
Geralt: No. Telepathy is communication only, nothing about it grants control of any kind. And being mindless, the skeletons can't be contacted with telepathy anyway. Slayer: I posted a link in this forum somewhere, possibly earlier in this very thread, that connects to an open Flikr gallery of my raid on sandpoint set up, complete with cardstock buildings and minis. If I get time, I'll repost the link. EDIT: Found it. Here you go: Raid on Sandpoint
I'll bet if you could flip the Starmount over and clean off a section of hull, it'd have the word "Warden" written on the side... |
