Pathfinder Unchained includes "replacements for all [rogue talents] in the Core Rulebook, along with selected revised rogue talents from other sources." However, outside of PFS, the status of rogue talents beyond those in the CRB is uncertain; some talents like Charmer or Fast Picks have been obviated by unchained talents, while others deserve revision or clarification to bring them into balance with the new unchained talents.
I've adapted the entire current list of rogue talents for the unchained rogue, which I thought might be handy for other GMs looking to expand the list of potential rogue talents available in their home games. You can find the document here:
Lords of Chaos and Chronicle of the Righteous gave us fantastic writeups of demon lords and empyreal lords (I, personally, think Chronicle is one of the best Campaign Setting books Paizo has yet released.) The Bestiary 4 and the Wrath of the Righteous AP gave us even more information (and stat blocks!) for demon lords, empyreal lords, and even Great Old Ones. But the list of demigods extends far beyond the ranks of celestials and fiends.
This is a thread to show support for a book that introduces these divine beings -- some of which other books have alluded to, or even mentioned by name -- in more detail. Every outsider race has its deific paragons, each with their own domains, realms, followers, and agendas. As the most powerful mortal movers and shakers in the multiverse, every one of these entities can be a divine patron, mysterious benefactor, or campaign-ending mythic foe.
Demigods that could be featured in such a book include:
primal inevitables
protean lords
the axiomite god-mind
psychopomp ushers
infernal dukes (yes, Lorthact, I see you there)
kyton demagogues
rakshasa immortals
elemental lords
the Eldest
AND MUCH, MUCH MORE! (No, seriously, there's much more. It's rumored that the ancient Eoxians might have achieved independent apotheosis; the inscrutable race of aeons may be able to manifest powerful, as-yet-unnamed agents of monad; the veiled masters answer to mysterious entities even greater than themselves that lurk under the waves. The possibilities are endless.)
If you'd be interested in a Campaign Setting book dedicated to the demigods of Pathfinder, voice your enthusiasm in this thread!
Collectively, the forums have generated hundreds of pages of discussion about the fighter: whether it is comparatively over/underpowered, can contribute to the party outside of combat, lacks narrative power relative to spellcasting classes, is overly wealth/magic-dependent, suffers from an overabundance of critical weaknesses, et cetera.
So far there appears to be no consensus whatsoever about what should be done (suggestions range from "nothing" to "only a total remake of the class, or even the basic rules of the game, will suffice"). But the biggest disagreement exists between those players who say the fighter is basically fine, and those who say the fighter is not effective or enjoyable in its current state and must be changed.
My question for the forums: Has anyone engaged in extensive playtesting using a "fixed" fighter? Although characters may vary significantly in their builds (and effectiveness) from table to table, and from game to game, perhaps we could gain some ground in these discussions by gathering empirical playtest data, in much the same way that the Advanced Class Guide classes received mass playtests before their impending final release. Other games release frequent "patches" or revisions to adjust game balance and maximize the enjoyability of play; even a cooperative, narrative-driven game such as Pathfinder could perhaps benefit from iterative changes (even unofficial ones), tested among numerous players over time, that experiment with elements of the game rules in order to facilitate a fun experience.
It seems to me, however, that the most reasonable and least intrusive way to approach a fighter "fix" is to make the fewest possible number of changes, in order to avoid disrupting the functionality of existing archetypes, feats, items, and other rules. With this in mind, I propose a minimalist list of changes to the fighter based on some of the most commonly suggested and least intrusive ideas that I have seen on the forums.
Class Skills: Add Perception and Sense Motive to the fighter's list of class skills.
Skill Ranks Per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Saves: Good Fortitude and Will saves.
So, has anyone tried playing a fighter with these or similar changes to the class? How does it compare to the existing fighter class? Do the changes break the game, or do they make the fighter feel more useful and fun to play? Post your thoughts and experiences here!
A historical question: is there any information yet in canon about the invention of the printing press -- when and where it was invented, who invented it, or how the technology spread across Golarion?
I'm aware that page 257 of the Inner Sea World Guide has a few paragraphs that confirm its existence in a few nations, and Towns of the Inner Sea mentions a rather...unique printing press in the Chelish town of Pezzack, but does anything exist elsewhere that mention its origins?
A question for those more familiar with the gods of Golarion than I: Are there any chaotic good deities or demigods with the Knowledge domain?
A religious order of archivists in my setting, rather than worshiping a single god, pays homage to a pantheon of knowledge deities, each representing a different aspect of knowledge -- the "Nine Gods of Lore." I had hoped to have one representative from each alignment, but curiously enough, I can't find any chaotic good deities with that domain.
Have I missed one? And if none in fact exist, does anyone have ideas for what such a deity might be like?
Pharasma is said to be the ultimate arbiter of souls -- as one of the oldest deities, she determines the eventual destination of souls on the Outer Planes. As far as we've been led to believe, she judges each and every soul that passes through the Boneyard.
If this is the case, however, what role do other deities of death (Charon, Osiris, etc.) play in the process of the afterlife? Are these sundry "supplementary gods of death" part of Pharasma's court, weighing in on an arbitration process over which the Lady of Graves presides? Do some souls never reach the Boneyard to be judged -- sent off to secret tribunals by longstanding agreement, snatched away by the Horseman of Death, or just lost in a cosmic shuffle? Or are all death deities simply fragments of a multifaceted uber-deity, of which Pharasma is the oldest and greatest?
Death is a mysterious thing in Pathfinder, I know. But this question has some serious implications for the powers, status, and worship of all those other gods of death, whose roles are called into question by the alleged primacy of Pharasma.
After reading through The Dragon's Demand, and the monsters contained therein, I have a new hypothesis about the enigmatic entities that comprise the Dominion of the Black...
Dragon's Demand spoilers:
They're mi-go.
The neh-thalggu in the module is identified as "one of the Dominion's scouts," but that leaves open the question of who the real movers and shakers of the Dominion are. Mi-go, as scientifically minded colonists, would make ideal technicians and bioengineers for the Dominion, and natural allies of the brain collectors. Mi-go and neh-thalggu both work with brains; no one's quite sure what the neh-thalggu do with the gray matter they harvest, but we do know that mi-go might well be able to make good use of them. The neh-thalggus' "living ships that swiftly decay when they land upon a new world" could certainly be mi-go technology.
What's more, the brand-new yangethe is said to be bred by the Dominion, which both fits the modus operandi of mi-go (their mastery of strange biotech) and suits their strategic purposes (not only do yangethe make a great interplanetary teleporting vanguard for invasion, their psychic arsenal has no effect on their fungoid creators).
Finally, the other new Dark Tapestry creature we see in Dragon's Demand (the grioths) are sworn enemies of the Dominion of the Black, as well as worshippers of Nyarlathotep. While we don't know much about the relationship, if any, between Nyarlathotep and Shub-Niggurath (the chosen deity of most mi-go), it's not surprising that the grioths would resist the mi-go's attempts to colonize their frozen homeworld.
Your thoughts? Plausible theory, or farfetched conspiracy?
