psymin's page

The new draft of OGL 1.2 has been released.

They reserve the right to revoke the licence at their discretion.

This isn't compatible with free software as defined by the free software foundation.

I'm optimistic that the ORC will be much better than what Hasbro is willing to create.

As long as the ORC is compatible with Free Software (as defined by the Free Software Foundation) like the OGL 1.0a seems to be, risque 3rd party content will be allowed under the license.

I believe it is very important to have a license that is permissive in this manner like the OGL 1.0a is.

I want ORC to be a success.

As a mere consumer, how can I help?

I support this direction fully.

I hope the ORC, like the original OGL, is compatible with Free Software licenses as defined by the Free Software Foundation.

It sounds like that is the intent :) <3

The leaked OGL 1.1 definitely doesn't.

Looks like the domain expired, hopefully Lilith can renew it while its in the holding period.

If you want to chat before then, put this in your hosts file:

72.214.22.183 chat.dmtools.org

Staples is not allowing me to print a copy of the Web Enhancement without authorization from Paizo.

Do you have any advice on how I can get around this issue?

They requested a fax from the company, but perhaps a statement in the PDF itself would be easier.

Seems like both are 'Shipping' now, so I'm sure its too late to change the shipping method. I'll await them eagerly. Thanks :)

I believe that on Page 7 under 'Intelligence (INT)' the phrase 'bonus languages' should be used specifically since it is referred to that way elsewhere in the book.

Is there going to be a printer friendly version?

Its about the same price to print 408 pages and bind them as it is to buy the softcover Beta.

I'd recommend getting the softcover, its nicer than a printout anyway :)

So, did I dream this up?

I believe you get the free PDF only for newly shipped content for the service that you are subscribed to.

For example, when Second Darkness (Pathfinder #13) came out, I got access to its PDF, but when I bought back issues (Pathfinder #6) I didn't get the PDF.

I guess its incentive to keep current on your subscription.

Sorry for bumping your post back to the top ..

Its probably too late for me to upgrade the shipping on these, but if possible I think I'd like to get one day shipping, and maybe combine them ..

The goal is to get the Beta books ASAP :) .. and as long as I'm doing that, I might as well get the other stuff ASAP too :)

If I'm off my rocker, please let me know.

I think the Warchanter fig might be holding up this order. If the Warchanter (or anything else) is holding up the order, please feel free to remove the items and just apply the extra to my next month's AP subscription.

Gr4ys,

I've used PosteRazor to convert a number of these fan maps to PDFs with 1" scale grid.

I've printed them out as battlemats for Burnt Offerings and the players loved them.

Would it be acceptable to put them online for others to use?

Help! I can't copy pics from my PDFs anymore.

I'm able to copy from all the PDFs I've tried. Which PDF are you having trouble with?

I buy from Paizo over amazon because of the free downloads pdfs..

Yep, the PDF download is what seals the deal for buying from paizo.com versus a FLGS or from another website.

I don't mind paying a bit extra to get it from a FLGS since that greases all the wheels, but without the PDF version I cannot justify it.

If only there was some way to subscribe at the FLGS level and still get the PDF .. oh well ..

• I heard that item creation would be discouraged or forbidden in PFS. Is this true, and if so why? (I would assume economy concerns.)

• What costs would be involved for members of PFS? If the GM buys the pdfs, do the players need to pay anything additional?

• Is there any benefit for a GM to run a PFS game? (Aside from knowing that he/she is letting gamers have fun, and spreading the word of Paizo) Paizo swag perhaps? Forum recognition? Paizocon recognition? *shrug*

• I don't know anything about 'Living' campaigns, what are they and why do people play them?

• Will characters reset after Season 0 or will they be converted to Pathfinder RPG?

• I'm interested in GMing and getting FLGS support! Tell me what to do.

Well I guess it shipped. Nevermind. Sorry for being a pessimist :)

I placed an order on Friday, July 18th. This order contained a backordered product. Probably the 'Pathfinder: Sinspawn' figures.

In order to have this order be released from the 'Pending' state, I assume that I should have the Sinspawn figures removed.

If that is done, perhaps the extra payment could be applied to my Adventure Path subscription.

Yay Pizza! Has it gotten there yet?

These are some of your loyal fans who deserve numerous brownie points for contributing :)

Fatespinner, yoda8myhead, psymin, DMReckless, Lilith, Uzzy, Pygon, Karelzarath, Urza, cpt_kirstov, Archgamer, Zaister

Enjoy!

Chunks of letters are missing

Are you using Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the file?

I also use linux, and wouldn't mind having the PDFs work better in another viewer :)

They work fine for me in acroread, so I'll continue using that one.

1. Agree, I'd love to buy a box of pre-painted figs for RotR or CotCC :)
2. meh
3. meh

When at -2 you'd need 9hp to be restored to .. 0 or 1?

-2 + 9 = 7HP :)

Maybe the disabled zone would look more like this:

EDIT: .. on second thought that would really break healing. Yeah they'd need to be HP.

when at -2 with 7 bonus disabled HP, you'd need 9 HP to be at 0 :)

Another EDIT: How about having those special HP healed last? Once you are healed to full, then those HP start healing .. then healing would work just fine. Alright .. no more posting for me today. Resting instead.

Upon further thought, here is another similar method:

Nyles is a level one human fighter.

10HP = Standard starting HP (max)
+1HP = Favored Class
+6HP = Racial Bonus

So Nyles has 10HP with a bonus of +7HP

A chart of his HP could look like this:

So if Nyles takes between 10 and 17 points of damage, he would be at 0 HP and disabled. At that point if he takes any strenuous action, he would lose one HP (now at -1HP) and become dying.

This would help compatibility since -10 is still dead.

Nervous Jester has another suggestion in this thread which helps to address this issue.

I'm going to add it to the list of options here.

• Expand the disabled range rather than adding bonus HP

doesn't the 'pathfinder RPG uses its own way of figuring out appropriate encounter levels and experience' chapter kind or work like a disclaimer?

Yes, the section of the book on conversion does function as a disclaimer, but I think there are better methods available for balance than upbalancing the older 3.5 material.

Yeah I'm gonna try it out too with a low level adventure. I'm totally glad Nervous Jester brought this idea up :)

disabled from 0 till -17(or whatever)

Slight modification. Nyles would be disabled at 0 to -7 and then dying at -8 and dead at -17.

How about any bonus HP that a character gets is instead the amount of negative HP that the character could be at and still be disabled as opposed to dying.

Example:

Nyles has +1 HP for favored class (level one sorcerer) and +6 HP for a racial bonus (human) so Nyles can reach -7 and still be disabled rather than dying.

We should probably change death to 10 less than their disabled range as well. In this case -17 for Nyles.

What do you think? Keeps players alive and adds a buffer of excitement and intensity when things are rough. They'd thank their lucky stars when the cleric blows one of her many positive energy channels as well.

As an option instead of extra starting hit points, what if the Disabled track was extended?

As it stands, a character is only Disabled exactly at 0 Hit Points, but being disabled is really a cool status to have. It seems a shame to have it only come up so rarely.

I really like this idea a lot.

Rather than have bonus HP at first level, we can extend the disabled status range.

I think this idea deserves consideration.

EDIT: If monsters also had this ability it would help upbalance older 3.5 material in an easy and fun way.

I'm not trying to nitpick any specific classes or races. I'm just taking the following statement from the book on conversion to heart:

Monsters and NPCs will be slightly less powerful than their Pathfinder RPG counterparts

So far I've heard these suggestions for helping ensure that encounters are balanced and/or that the power level of the game isn't too far out of hand for people who like low power or low level games.

• Standard 1st level HP (max+con) rather than the higher options
  
• Fewer starting attributes (example: fewer points in point buy system)
  
• A 3.5 EL to PRPG EL system where 3.5 EL is less than PRPG EL for using old 3.5 content
  
• Upbalancing old 3.5 content so that its EL is on par with PRPG
  

I'd prefer a method that doesn't involve changing the older content much. I'm not really sure why. I'm leaning toward option #3 there though, since it keeps the power level of PRPG the same for those who like it and it allows old content to work without hitch.

Any other options I'm missing?

I do think the alternate hit point systems deserve a sidebar, for the same reason that alternate mechanisms for generating ability scores deserves a sidebar. Just because I don't use them doesn't mean nobody should. But if we're presenting multiple options, the "default" should be the most backwards compatible one, and the original is, by definition, backwards compatible. ^^

I wholeheartedly agree. Two thumbs up.

1. Danger. Mistakes can kill 1st level PCs. They can also kill higher-level guys, if they pick the wrong part of the map to wander in.

As of Alpha 2, the danger level for 1st level PCs has been significantly reduced. Be sure to throw them up against more difficult encounters, or nerf the players in some way.

4. Compatible with 3.x encounters, maps and treasure. I plan to recycle loads of those so I can run games at the drop of a hat.

Regarding compatibility with 3.x encounters, be aware that 3.x material is going to be easier for Pathfinder characters. If you have some material that you want them to encounter, have them encounter it at lower levels than you would for 3.x party.

Alpha 3 should be out in May I'm guessing, so all of this info is subject to change by then :)

What imbalances have you seen in your playtesting so far?

It seems to me that the classes and races are now more balanced in reference to eachother. A wizard at level one is a good match against a fighter at level one using the Pathfinder RPG Alpha 2 rules.

In the old 3.5 system, a wizard at level one was in no way a match for a fighter at level one.

I'm in favor of them being balanced, but this does pose an issue regarding the use of older 3.5 material and older 3.5 monsters.

At any rate, I haven't seen a significant increase in power so far except for levels 1-3 (say) where the few extra hp and new at-will powers for spellcasters will make a difference.

The low levels are the ones that I'm currently concerned about, since I'm an oddball and find that those levels very entertaining. :)

Based on my limited testing last night, I would say that level one casters in Pathfinder (especially wizards) are about as effective as level two casters in old 3.5

I'm going to make some wild and crazy assumptions here, so hold on for a moment :)

I think that the 3.5 system of EL and CR and all that was balanced assuming that a party consisted of a balanced four player group. I'll say (for ease of math) that this group has two casters in it of some type.

This party would now have the power of two level one characters and two level two characters.

(According to the DMG, two level 2 monsters is EL4, and two level one monsters is EL 2, and four level 1 monsters is EL4 .. so using those numbers the EL of the party will most certainly be greater than 4)

If they run into a monster that was balanced for four level one characters, you can easily see that this isn't going to be nearly as difficult as it would have been.

Its probably going to be easiest to come up with some function relating to old 3.5 CR and EL .. where you reduce it by 25% maybe? CR 4 becomes CR3 in the new system? More elaborate testing is certainly needed though.

EDIT: It looks like another recent thread probably covers this topic in faaar more detail: this one

EDIT #2: Nevermind about that link. It digresses into a flame war.

I saw the increase in power to races and classes as a way to off set magic items. Now your character can still be at X level and hold their own against X without looking like a christmas tree. So whole lot less gloves of, headband of, belt of necklace of...

I think that is valid, but it doesn't prevent you from looking like a Christmas tree if you want .. which means an old-style tree vs a new-style tree is going to get pwned :)

Another suggestion for the backwards compatibility of EL would be to just accept that the Pathfinder stuff is more powerful, and to find a formula to convert EL(x) into APL+(y).

I'll do some testing tonight and see what I can come up with.

True, but given that most people AFAIK use splatbooks, and that the stuff in the splatbooks make the 3.5 core classes essentially useless, I fully support adding interesting options for the core classes in pathfinder.

I'm sure many people do use splatbooks, they are also probably the people who spend the most on books so I can fully understand catering to that audience.

What I'm asking for here is an good method for using an optional rule to maintain backwards compatibility for EL with existing 3.5 material.

It just doesn't make sense having core classes that are boring and highly sub-optimal. Besides, it's simply more fun to get something at every level.

I agree with you. I love what Pathfinder does to keep the classes fun at every level.

I'm a bit worried that splatbooks are going to continue this 'arms race' and produce books that provide even more powerful abilities and races. I don't really want the base Pathfinder RPG to be a splatbook (I just discovered that term, can you tell?)

I'm resigned to knowing that it must evolve along the path of (guess what I'm going to say here ..) splatbooks.

It would help my ability to sell my friends on the concept of Pathfinder RPG if there was a simple and officially supported method, for bringing the power level of the game down a notch. Preferably down to the level where a level one 3.5 human fighter is on par with a level one Pathfinder human fighter.

I'm not asking you to like the concept. I'm just asking people to help me come up with a house rule, that might potentially become an official optional rule.

Thank you for your interest and for your input. I'll post some more suggestions later, when I flesh them out.

I've just created a few polls on grupthink regarding the Pathfinder RPG.

Here is one of them:

What do you like best about Pathfinder RPG Alpha?

I also created a group for the RPG, the Pathfinder RPG grup

(if I could use the [img] BBCode tag I could show the results here in real-time)

I'm sure the monsters will get upgraded once they do the monster book. Backwards compatibility is second to Improving the Game and Adding Options.

It seems to me that having to upbalance monsters is an unnecessary hassle, although it would help to ensure overall balance and is therefor a viable solution. I am certainly eager to check out the monster book.

The increase in power is to keep you wanting to play that class, not always reach X level and then multiclass.

I understand that some changes have been made which allow greater flexibility and allow players greater incentive to continue using the core races and classes. I have no problem with these changes.

I think that it would be very valuable for the PRPG team to keep balance and backwards compatibility in mind when they flesh out the character creation rules.

----

I want to make it very clear that I am in full support of the PRPG and I will most certainly be buying the Beta when it comes out regardless of how it is balanced.

Please allow me to elaborate on my motivation for a moment.

I don't necessarily want to up the power level of my game just because I'm embracing the PRPG and the OGL.

I would be quite thrilled if there was an easy method to ensure that an old-style EL1 encounter would have the same difficulty when encountered by a new style party. If the method were suggested in the PRPG book, in the same manner that the DMG suggests altering party attributes to adjust to different levels of difficulty, that would be sufficient.

----

Since it appears that most every race receives an additional +2 bonus to an attribute, it would probably be easy to give the characters less points during creation when using the points system. About enough points to reduce the overall sum of attributes by 2. This would effect all races whether base or using a 3rd party book, since they were created using the PRPG books.

This wouldn't completely reverse the upbalance, but it would help ensure backwards compatibility regarding EL at least.

It does appear that the base classes and races have received some very exiting options to bring them on par with non-standard races.

My concern is that it raises the power level of a game that would normally only use the core rulebooks.

There are a number of options that could downbalance every character evenly across the board so that a party of level one adventurers created with this system have the same difficulty versus a CR1 encounter as a party of level one adventurers created using the SRD would.

I know that I am not alone with this concern, but I am very likely not with the majority.

I think that its very important to keep this balance facet in mind when working on the Pathfinder RPG product. Perhaps it could be included as an optional feature.

Please, everyone, if you have ideas to help downbalance the system fairly and across the board I'm all ears.

Since the base races and classes seem to have been upbalanced a bit, I would prefer a attribute system that was slightly downbalanced.

My preferred method is using the Point Buy system. The DMG recommends 25 points when using this system. Perhaps 20 points would be appropriate? Or another take on a point buy system that ended up with attributes that are balanced to the old 3.5 material already in existence.

If this isn't the recommended method, I would probably be using something like that as a house rule when playtesting.

I plan on picking up both. I'd like to support my local gaming store, is it possible for the stores to preorder them?