aceman67's page

Bit of a Class Retraining/Boon question here...

So last night, I completed Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-25 "Orders from the Gate", and received the following Boon:

(No Spoilers, Removing the lore/story elements of the boon, and posting only the part relevant to me)

Hellknight's Respect: You may cross off this boon from your sheet to Retrain Levels into the Hell Knight Prestige Class, for free so long as you would qualify for the prestige class (Heavy Armor Proficiency, BAB +5, Kill a Demon with a higher hit dice than your own in front of a hell knight); so you could not retrain a character into a Hellknight 8 with no other class levels. You may also freely retrain as many feats and skill ranks as is necessary in order to qualify for the prestige class.

Here is my character sheet as it stands now:
Google Drive Link

Here's what I want to do, Retrain levels 6-9 into a Hellknight, which would require me to remove 10 overspent skill points, and redistribute 1 point into K.Planes to qualify for the class.

But without the Evangelist prestige class, Deific Obedience is not longer needed.

My question is this: Is it kosher when changing the skill points to remove one point from K.Religion (Deific Obedience requires 3 ranks) to disqualify myself for the feat so that I have to change it out for one that I am qualified for (I want to take Critical Focus in its place).

The Boon does state that I can freely change skill points so that I can qualify, so does that include disqualifying myself for a feat I already have since I'm removing the Prestige class that feat was a pre-requisite for?

I may not be a retailer, but I do know what it takes to run a business from being an assistant manager of a local restaurant when I was going through college.

You have to buy the product from the supplier up front, and then rely on sales to make that money back.

There's also other things you have to concider as well

Employee wages
Workers Comp insurance premiums
Rent
Utility bills
Taxes and licences (local, provincial/state, federal)
Upkeep and maintenance
And much more

If the product doesn't sell, product mind you thats already been paid for, you're stuck in the red until it does. Until then, all the above still has to be paid for.

Having product sit unsold on shelves costs money every day it goes unsold. Lights have to be kept on, employees have to be paid.

Then something like the bundle happens and demand for that product is gutted.

That hurts.

Then the supplier tells you it won't happen again.

Then it does.

That hurts even more.

Paizo's bread and butter is selling physical product, I'm pretty sure of that, otherwise they wouldn't go to treat lengths to make their books as quality as they are.

FLGS are the main sellers of those products, so undercutting them by hundreds of dollars, that hurts Paizo's relationship with retailers, and in turn retailers won't stock as much stock in case it happens again, especially if they've lied too.

It comes from reduced demand. Physical retailers have to purchase the product (at a reduced cost from buying in bulk so they can make a profit). At this point, paizo had their money.

With a mark up, the stores sell, and make their money.

It something happens to demand, and they can't sell the product, they are stuck holding the bag.

Let me give you an idea of the kind of money stores lost out on from potential sales here from the last Bundle. Its not a full list, prices aren't accurate, but you'll get it.

Core $50
U.Magic $50
U.Combat $50
U.Equipment $50
Unchained $50
PFS Season 6 $100
Hells Rebels 1-6 $150
Beginners Box $50
Total $550

With the exception of PFS Sean 6 and Hells Rebels, my FLGS had multiple copies in stock.

Retailers pay for product up front, paizo gets their money first and the store makes theirs //IF// it sells.

He would wind up having to sell them at a loss at last year's local comic expo.

That's how reduced demand hurts retailers.

This post isn't saying that you guys shouldn't have done this second Bundle, donating to charity is a good thing, but I seriously have to ask, why?

You are hurting the brick and mortar stores by doing this, you're literally biting the hand that feeds you. The stores sell your product, sometimes at a loss to them, and then you sell hundreds if dollars of product for a mere fraction of the physical cost. That drives down demand and the stores can't sell what they have in stock.

Now, I admit, I bought the last Humble Bundle, it got me into Pathfinder, and I love it, the two FLGS I go to lost a lot of potential sales from the reduced demand. When I realized that, I immediately bought a physical core rule book and a beginners box despite getting both in the bundle. One owner was even told directly by a Paizo rep that you guys didn't anticipate that it would hurt retailers so much and would not do another Bundle again.

He believed you, and after a few weeks, things got better sales wise, and attendence for PFS is strong (we sit two tables of 5-6 people every week).

But the morning of the new humble bundle, he felt betrayed, and not just that store, but the only other one in town too.

Now they aren't keeping your product stocked anymore save for the core book and beginners box, the rest being special order.

You guys knew this would hurt the retailer, so again, why?

I'll be frank: Asking more for shipping than what the MSRP is for the product is bad business, regardless of the circumstances. Pure and Simple.

If you can't offer a product at a fair price, shipping included, don't offer it, especially if you want to ship internationally.

When converted to CAD, the shipping is $62, for something that I wound up getting at my local store today for $40. So if the cross-border shipping price is that bad, then how is my local store, a privately run business, able to sell it at MSRP?

And Basara549, don't get me started on cross-border taxes. I live in Alberta, the whole "Country of Origin Labeling" fiasco drove the price of beef from $2.99/lb to $6/lb. And that's in Alberta, the largest producer of Beef in North America. 6 times out of 10, I guarantee that the steak on your plate is either descended from, or came directly from livestock raised on an Albertan's ranch. The US is just as bad as Canada, if not worse, in this regard.

I bit the bullet and bought the whole bundle, then was totally shocked to find that the shipping price for the beginners box was $45 USD.

That's obscene. Especially when I can get the Beginners box at my local game store where I usually play Magic and Table Top games for less than that. Something that I fully intend to do.

It does not cost that much to ship something from the States to Canada. I've bought things significantly more expensive and heavier and had it shipped through USPS and it did not come out to that much.

Hell, that's a price I would expect to ship something from Canada to the UK, something I do quite regularly. There's no reason for it to cost that much.

I would be more inclined to have paid more on the humble bundle itself, if the shipping was included in the original price then to be shocked when it came to paying for the shipping.

If that is the norm for your shipping outside the US, you will not have me making purchases to your online store for physical merch.