Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Treasures Revisited (PFRPG)

Mikaze wrote:

No Belt of Masculinity/Femininity?

That was a fun item to include at times, wasn't it? Even if it could lead to a pummeled DM.

*hee hee*

yoda8myhead wrote:

Oooo, who else is on the authors list for this one? I like who I've seen so far.

I don't want to spill anyone's beans, but I got to do the vorpal sword. And it was fun.

It was interesting, both in the mechanics and how the 'swinginess' of it works in game.

Special props for including the Balor, and the Final Blades :-)

Dark_Mistress wrote:

This was pretty cool, but now i have to ask. When do we get the book of Classic Cursed Items Revisited? :)

Oooh. I want one of those chapters :)

Dude that would be an awesome book to work on. :)

"And me? I'm truly happy that I got to be in this book in one of the sections. Though unfortunately it gave the impression that I might in some capacity be evil. Me? Evil? Bored at times yes. But Evil? Perish the thought."

*Tegresin's shadow -which distinctly does not match his manifested form- appears to cackle madly*

Meh, no Wand/Rod of Wonder. I weep.

I like the line up you do have though. Should be a great book.

Deck of Many Things. Muahahahahahaaaa...

Yes I too would hve liked to see what came out of that one. HEH HEH HEH

As a subscriber, when do I get to see A PDF?
'cuz it looks like some others have already.
Or do I imagine?

IIRC, subscribers get their PDFs when we've shipped their physical copy. As there are hundreds of subscribers, this process takes several days (the warehouse team has been doing April packouts all week), so some subscribers are going to get their PDF notification a few days earier than others, depending on what order the packing is done.

Any possibility of a related item card deck? Must feed addiction.

Poor Valeros gets let out?

Sajan gets a Scroll
Merisiel gets a Bag
Seltyiel gets a Cube
Harsk gets to Draw a Card
Lem gets someone's Goat
Seelah gets a Helm
Lini gets to blow her own Horn
Ezren Gets a Sphere
Seoni gets to invite all her artists to a Staff Party
Amiri gets to kill the Jabberwocky
Kyra gets to find the Well home

But Valeros gets nothing?
Unless that is him on the cover and he got a Girdle!

But Valeros gets nothing?

Unless that is him on the cover and he got a Girdle!

We'll go with that. He got a girdle, a vorpal sword, and a helm! Lucky gu.. girl!

Dark Psion wrote:

But Valeros gets nothing?

Unless that is him on the cover and he got a Girdle!

We'll go with that. He got a girdle, a vorpal sword, and a helm! Lucky gu.. girl!

Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity rules supreme.

Without a doubt you guys ROCK!!!

Mirror of Mental Prowess!

What do you guys have against that? It's not in the Big Book, either.

Or, did Wizards 'reserve' that one like they did Beholders and Mindflayers?

Mirror of Mental Prowess!

What do you guys have against that? It's not in the Big Book, either.

Or, did Wizards 'reserve' that one like they did Beholders and Mindflayers?

Wizards didn't reserve ANY of the magic items. The mirror of mental prowess didn't make it into the core book simply because we didn't have room, I guess.

Did the cover design for this change? I feel like it had a different look when it was up for pre-order.

Did the cover design for this change? I feel like it had a different look when it was up for pre-order.

When the a product is announced it generally gets a mock-up cover using a previous art piece from another product.

Closer to the products release, the cover is updated to match the final cover.

So I've just started reading this; I've read the bag of holding and cube of force chapters. I'm not as wowed as I hoped, but it's been pretty cool so far. In particular I like the extra flavor at the end of the chapters.

However, I have a question about the bag of concealment that was created for the book.

So it's a bag of holding that only one person (at a time) can be keyed to, and to everyone else it looks like a regular bag. And the cost is the same as a bag of holding, too. So far, so good.

Question is, what kind of an idiot is going to pick up an empty sack that weighs 25 pounds and think "nothing to see here!"

So I see three possibilities (I'm sure there's others):

1. This was overlooked during the item design. Unfortunate.

2. The bag of concealment actually weighs the same as a regular sack as well, rather than being ridiculously heavy for an empty sack - and yet costs the same as a bag of holding. In that case, sign me up! I'll carry like 50 of them :)

3. This was considered during item design and ignored, assuming that the owner would do something like have a friend fill the sack with rocks so that it seems to be correct. Of course, that means it's a huge pain to get the actual contents out. And any guard with half a brain is going to want to see what's hidden in those rocks ...

Any insight from Jacob on this one? Can someone poke him and check? I don't recall seeing him on the boards all that often.

Ruki the Drunken Master wrote:

Mirror of Mental Prowess!

What do you guys have against that? It's not in the Big Book, either.

Or, did Wizards 'reserve' that one like they did Beholders and Mindflayers?

Wizards didn't reserve ANY of the magic items. The mirror of mental prowess didn't make it into the core book simply because we didn't have room, I guess.

To expand on that answer slightly, there are 300 wondrous items in the PFRPG book (100 minor, 100 medium, 100 major), just like in the 3.5 DMG. But Pathfinder added a new type of wondrous item (belts/headbands that enhance two or three stats), so some old items got bumped to make room for those new items in the list.

However, I have a question about the bag of concealment that was created for the book.

Ah, the dreaded default weight of the bag of holding, how strange you are....

Here's my answer.

When held by someone not keyed to it, the bag does still have the default weight (frex, 15 lbs. for type I). Yes, that does mean that an apparently empty bag is actually very heavy. This actually has two positive effects for the person whom it's keyed to. (1) The person holding the "empty" bag is not going to want to carry around a bag that weighs 15 pounds, even if they're so cheap as to just want it as a free "nonmagical" bag. Thus, they drop it. (2) For a person who knows about magic items and knows that a bag that's always heavy is probably a magical bag, they're likely to mistake it for a bag of devouring ("hmm, it must have just eaten, no way I'm putting my magic items in it!") or even a generic cursed bag that was supposed to be a bag of holding but instead is just really heavy all the time ("hmm, some loser failed his crafting roll, who knows what other negative side effects this thing has"). In either case, they're going to ditch the bag.

So it's always heavy (just like a regular bag of holding), but as non-keyed people still can't access the contents, they're not likely to carry the thing around if they manage to steal it from you.

However, I have a question about the bag of concealment that was created for the book.

Ah, the dreaded default weight of the bag of holding, how strange you are....

(snip)

... or even a generic cursed bag that was supposed to be a bag of holding but instead is just really heavy all the time ("hmm, some loser failed his crafting roll, who knows what other negative side effects this thing has"). In either case, they're going to ditch the bag.

HAHAHAHA!

I love it. A bag of excessive weight :)

Have to drop a few of those around.

I don't have this one yet, and I'm debating which Pathfinder book to get next. How does it stack up against tomes like 'Classic Horrors' or 'Cities of Golarion'?

I'm especially interested in the Well of Worlds. It just sounds like it's got so much potential for GM deviltry.

It's excellent. If you are choosing between Cities, Classic Horrors and Classic Treasures you are truly spoiled for choice :)

The Well of Worlds chapter was written by The Gender-Confused Aracanoloth...erm, I mean ... by King of Crosstrade ... no, scratch that ... it's ... Shemeska the Marauder, also known as Todd Stewart. I don't think you need anything more to know that it's made of pure awesome.

It's excellent. If you are choosing between Cities, Classic Horrors and Classic Treasures you are truly spoiled for choice :)

The Well of Worlds chapter was written by The Gender-Confused Aracanoloth...erm, I mean ... by King of Crosstrade ... no, scratch that ... it's ... Shemeska the Marauder, also known as Todd Stewart. I don't think you need anything more to know that it's made of pure awesome.

Well, if Shemeska/Todd wrote it, then it's got to be good in that "you'll be sorry your PCs ever saw it" way. *grins evilly*

I'm especially interested in the Well of Worlds. It just sounds like it's got so much potential for GM deviltry.

Yes, yes it does.

And it also has material on a very specific -dare I say cursed?- Well linked to and including some added details on this particular alt of mine. ;)

Trust Paizo to hand over writeups of most easily abusable items (Well and Sphere) to a person(?) who is an expert on making PCs sorry they ever asked about them. :)

The Well of Worlds chapter was written by The Gender-Confused Aracanoloth...erm, I mean ... by King of Crosstrade ... no, scratch that ... it's ... Shemeska the Marauder, also known as Todd Stewart. I don't think you need anything more to know that it's made of pure awesome.

*blush* I'm seriously happy that you enjoyed the two items that I wrote up! Thank you very much! I seriously enjoyed working on this one.

But for anyone considering this book, it really truly is a gem. I especially enjoyed the "Bag of Wonders" in the bag of holding chapter, the Azlanti/precursor Cube, and the staff of the Hawthorn Witch. Each item has a section regarding the role/appearance of that item or items on Golarion and the lore written for each is very very awesome and it's the sort of thing that I adore (lots of fun references to remember for later, references to events or persons from earlier books, tons of inspiring plot hooks and campaign ideas, etc).

I am still hoping we see a Classic Cursed Items revisited down the road a bit.

I've found cursed items to be so much less fun once parties have access to analyze dweomer.

Eric Hinkle wrote:

Mikaze wrote:

No Belt of Masculinity/Femininity?

That was a fun item to include at times, wasn't it? Even if it could lead to a pummeled DM.

Can't promise what makes it to the final cut, but I believe it will be there in spirit with a brief cameo of sorts.

It finally showed up in the APG as I recall. Poor Ezren.

It's February of 2011. We've had the Core Rulebook and APG come out now. What appeal would this book have for me as a DM? Wouldn't all of these items be replicated in the APG or Core Rulebook anyway?

That depends, really.

If the mechanics are what you're after then yes, they should be covered in the core book.

However, if you're interested in background material (fluff) to breathe some life into the treasure then this book offers a hell of a lot more than what's found in the core book. Each item gets 5 pages (as is the case with all entries in the Classics Revisited books).

Also, each section in the book features variants of the items.

I wonder if we will have a Classic treasures revisited 2?

I seriously don't understand the point of a book like this. 10 items?

I'm sitting here looking at my four encyclopedia magica for 2nd edition with well over a thousand magical items in it, many detailed. Now thats what I could use. A book with unique items with a couple paragraphs of history on each one. A book like that can save a lot of work for a GM and add a lot to the game at the same time.

But wasting a whole book on 10 items just seems like ...well... a waste. I mean, even the book of artifacts in 2nd ed had way more than 10. Honestly this book seems like stuff that should have been added to other books.

I really like a lot of the pathfinder stuff, but then there seems to be times that I feel like I'm in a cash shop for an MMO or being sold half a video game and expected to pay for DLC that should have already been included.

I seriously don't understand the point of a book like this. 10 items?

I'm sitting here looking at my four encyclopedia magica for 2nd edition with well over a thousand magical items in it, many detailed. Now thats what I could use. A book with unique items with a couple paragraphs of history on each one. A book like that can save a lot of work for a GM and add a lot to the game at the same time.

It's the difference between a dictionary entry and an encyclopedia entry. To give you an example, here's the outline of the Cube of Force section:

• Base Item (standard writeup)
  
• Utility (clever ways to use it)
  
• Related Items and Spells (comparison and differentiation with similar things)
  
• Campaign Role (strategies for GMs such as storytelling aspects of the item's use )
  
• Variants (six alternate cubes, in full stat form)
  
• Cubes of Force on Golarion (history and culture, with some story seeds)
  
• A Precursor Cube? (a specific legendary cube variant)
  
• The Eight Cubes of Nex (eight specific legendary cube variants)
  
• The Azlanti Cube (a specific legendary cube variant)
  

Honestly this book seems like stuff that should have been added to other books.

In which other book would a five-page article on the Cube of Force really make sense?

You may be right that it's not for you, but it has its place for some folks (as evidenced by the five-star review average...).

I am wondering if errata is needed? The minor bag of holding. Says 50 lbs and 6 cubic feet on the inside. The bag is 2 foot by 4 foot correct? assuming diameter 2 feet of a cylinder and a height of 4 feet, a three dimensional volume. doesn't a regular mundane bag have 12.56 cubic volume? Volume = pi. R squared times height? 3.14 x 1 (squared) x 4?

The minor bag of holding has a smaller dimensional pocket than the actual bag. Am I messing this equation up? Or making wrong assumptions?

A friend pointed out that despite the cubic volume issue their its really nice carrying around 50lbs inside of something that only weighs 3 lbs.

A friend pointed out that despite the cubic volume issue their its really nice carrying around 50lbs inside of something that only weighs 3 lbs.

Yeah that's the biggest thing that matters

I was thinking this very same thing today (odd considering the age of the thread how we both think of the same thing within 24 hours)
What's interesting to know though, is that assuming the bag is flat —since it stated only 2 measurements— the diameter wouldn't be 2 ft, but rather the circumference would be 4 ft (making the diameter 1.27 ft)
That would have the total volume be only 5 cu ft which is such a huge difference (well that's maths for ya); still smaller than the inside volume, but not by much.

Overall though,
Considering sacs are normally spherical/teardrop shaped (or tapered at the bottom like modern bags/pillows), just the method of indicating it's dimensions are flawed, let alone the numbers.