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Obviously we encourage everyone to buy the books as soon as they are available. :D
(If Paizo sells out again, we'll find SOME way of dealing with the work that creates for us, we promise!)
:)
M
Heck, maybe you could even add NEW material ... you know, in case there might possibly be a cool new class or something on the horizon ...
Just saying ...
:)
Thanks to the fantastic Paizo folks it's now back up for sale!
Hyrum.
Thanks to the fantastic Paizo folks it's now back up for sale!
And bought. Shew....I was starting to get the shakes.
Just out of curiousity are pre-orders for the other compilations going to include the Book + PDF combo?
bump.
Any news about pcgen support? I bought of a couple of pdfs to check it out, but it does not see any use, unless I have pcgen datasets. Its essential, as far as I am concerned.
I'm answering these from my phone sp please bear with me. :)
First, all future Genius Guide Compilations will be a print/PDF combo only available here through Paizo. The PDF's won't be available though until tje book ships from Paizo to you.
Second, we don't have PCGen support yet but we are nailing down the last couple details to get everything into Hero Lab.
Hyrum.
First, all future Genius Guide Compilations will be a print/PDF combo only available here through Paizo. The PDF's won't be available though until tje book ships from Paizo to you.
Awesome. Thanks for the info.
Any news about pcgen support? I bought of a couple of pdfs to check it out, but it does not see any use, unless I have pcgen datasets. Its essential, as far as I am concerned.
AFAIK, none of the volunteer data monkey's have expressed interest in this book. But then there's lots of books, and few data monkey's :)
If course if you are interested in helping out the project by making it yourself we'll be more than glad to include it :)
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if you have bought the PDF's individually already will there be an errata or update to reflect a change or addition to the product or do we have to buy the adventure handbook to get those?
Only reason why i ask is because i've bought most of them individually so far ^^;
Core
When we get the time all changes, updates, and expansions from AH will make it back into the original pdfs as free updates. We sadly cannot promise that it'll happen soon (I can't even promise it'll happen this year), but it will happen.
Hope that covers your question!
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So I have a question about one of the spells in the book, Spectral Eye, it is missing its spells description.
Actually that spell was SUPPOSED to be cut was back in the Genius Guide to the Death Mage, and should have been removed from the spell list. However, since now we've promised it to you, here it is. (It may well appear in the Genius Guide to Death Magic as well, possibly in a slightly different form.)
Spectral Eye
School: necromancy; Level: death mage 1
Casting Time: 1 round
Components: V, S
Range: short (25 ft. +5 ft./2 levels)
Effect: one spectral eye
Duration: 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: none; Spell Resistance: no
A ghostly eye formed from your life force materializes and moves as you desire, allowing you to observe your surroundings from a different point of view. On casting the spell you lose 1d4 hit points that return when the spell ends (even if it is dispelled), but not if the eye is destroyed. (The hit points can be healed as normal.)
For as long as the spell lasts, you can see through the spectral eye as if you were standing at its location. You can make Perception checks at -4 to see something in line of sight of the eye, but not in line of sight to you, and gain a +4 bonus to Perception checks made within line of sight of both you and the eye. The eye has any natural vision enhancements you have (such as low-light vision for elves), but gains no benefit from enhanced vision from spells or items. Each round as a swift action you can choose a location within range for the eye to see from. If the eye goes beyond the spell's range or goes out of your sight, it returns to you and hovers.
The eye is incorporeal and thus cannot be harmed by normal weapons. It has improved evasion (half damage on a failed Reflex save and no damage on a successful save), your save bonuses, and an AC of 20 (+8 size, +2 natural armor). Your Intelligence or Charisma modifier (whichever is better) applies to the hand's AC as if it were the hand's Dexterity modifier. The hand has 1 to 4 hit points, the same number that you lost in creating it.
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Looking to pick this up soon. Possibly quite soon. Just wanted to chime in and say, I think you guys at SGG could make a killing doing more of the compilations. I like adding 3pp material to my games, but really prefer having a good dead tree copy at the table. I'd especially love to see more of your classes compiled and put into print format.
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Looking to pick this up soon. Possibly quite soon. Just wanted to chime in and say, I think you guys at SGG could make a killing doing more of the compilations.
That is definitely part of our business plan. Print is, of course, more expensive. And we wanted to be available in game stores and normal distribution, so we didn't go the POD route. So to be on the safe side, we started with a single product and are seeing how sales go before we print more multiple-thousand copy runs of new compilation books.
That said, we've been *very* pleased by Adventurer's Handbook sales, so we know how we're going to proceed. So you'll be seeing more of these books from us, soon.
Now, I have to go whip our layout intern...
I'm answering these from my phone sp please bear with me. :)
First, all future Genius Guide Compilations will be a print/PDF combo only available here through Paizo. The PDF's won't be available though until tje book ships from Paizo to you.
Second, we don't have PCGen support yet but we are nailing down the last couple details to get everything into Hero Lab.
Hyrum.
I know you are no doubt busy with being the Marketing Ninja for Paizo (congrats BTW,) but I was just wondering if you had any knowledge as to the status or ETA for the Adventurer's Handbook -> Hero Lab module was coming.
I'm slowly moving my entire group into Hero Lab / D20pro to speed up game play and before I tackle the rather daunting task of creating the Archon (the only one I need) I thought I'd check to see if you knew.
Alternately, if you knew who would be the person to ask at Super Genius Games and wanted to pass that on that would work too...
Cordially,
Learethak
*Edit* I just realized that Owen was also posting in this thread as well... so if any of the fine folks at Super Genius have an answer to the question feel free to chime in. I'd love an answer ...almost as much as I love the Adventure's Handbook. :P
*Edit* I just realized that Owen was also posting in this thread as well...
Hiya!
We still want an AH module for Hero lab. We don't have an ETA yet. We'll be happy to report if/when we make progress.
I'm a big fan of this product, and I was looking to pick up more collected volumes. I notice the other two forthcoming books have been taken down. Is that a restructuring decision of some kind, or our their currently no plans to do further compilations?
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I'm a big fan of this product, and I was looking to pick up more collected volumes. I notice the other two forthcoming books have been taken down. Is that a restructuring decision of some kind, or our their currently no plans to do further compilations?
As TriOmegaZero was so kind as to point you to, we're changing our print plans. I really, truly hope to have something to announce by the end of April or beginning of May, as we've been working hard on this nut. But this time we're making sure out ducks are in a row, know how to march, and are trained in their duties before we announce anything.
As TriOmegaZero was so kind as to point you to, we're changing our print plans. I really, truly hope to have something to announce by the end of April or beginning of May, as we've been working hard on this nut. But this time we're making sure out ducks are in a row, know how to march, and are trained in their duties before we announce anything.
Thanks to both you and TriOmegaZero. I love your stuff, and I look forward to your announcement!
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Was looking at picking up some of the original pdfs and discovered this existed. Does this have everything from the Earth Genius guide? Thank you!
Yes, everything from The Genius Guide to Earth Magic is included in the Adventurer's Handbook.
Any news about pcgen support? I bought of a couple of pdfs to check it out, but it does not see any use, unless I have pcgen datasets. Its essential, as far as I am concerned.AFAIK, none of the volunteer data monkey's have expressed interest in this book. But then there's lots of books, and few data monkey's :)
If course if you are interested in helping out the project by making it yourself we'll be more than glad to include it :)
Thank you for your reply. Its been a while, and I'm still hoping for pcgen support.
I'd love to help you out, but I would probably just let you down. My data monkey skills never got passed a few primitive prestige classes and races.
If you want to, there's this group for helping people code their own datasets http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PCGenListFileHelp/
Then when you get it polished enough give it to us and we'll vet it and include it in the regular releases. :)
Then you can get started on other books you own. :)
This book contains a feat named "acrobatic dodge." It is a terribly unbalanced feat and should not be allowed by any sane GM. Allow this book into your role-playing group with caution.
Part 2 of my review:
The next class up is the Shadow Assassin, who gets ¾ BAB, good ref-and will saves, 6+Int skills per level, d8 hit dice and no spellcasting, but a plethora of abilities, sneak attack surprisingly being not among them. Let me say flat-out that I tend to enjoy assassin-like classes, at least in theory. In practice I dislike the “study-foe-get-killing-strike”-mechanic. Why? While I do like the threat of being caught flat-footed and subsequently subject to a precise, killing hit, the assassin-PrC does not lend itself towards any kind of prolonged confrontation against enemies who succeed the manageable DC of the saving throw. The signature abilities of the shadow assassin would be his deadly focus (add WIS-modifier to atk and damage against a target) and later, greater deadly focus (double class level to damage). Beyond these tools to take out individuals, shadow assassins also get access to so-called shadow styles and shadow talents, the former being a selection of abilities somewhat similar to minor versions of ranger styles and mystical abilities associated with shadows, from special poison to enhanced agility. The latter, shadow talents, are somewhat similar to rogue talents some of which can be added to deadly focus attacks, while others e.g. grant you low-light vision, poison use etc.. Beyond these two modular selections of abilities, we also get linear ability-progressions with daggermaster (enhancing the lethality of light weapons) and shadowmeld (offering continuously improving benefits depending on controlling the shadows/lighting and leading up to a nice capstone) as well as evasion and improved evasion.) All in all, I really love the shadow assassin – it’s one of my favorite takes on an assassin who could justifiably be a useful part of an adventuring group. Nothing to complain here – The shadow assassin class is an excellent addition to just about any campaign.
The final new class is the War Master (d10, 4+Int skills, full BAB, good ref- and will saves, proficiency with all armors and martial weapons), who can be considered as a warrior-like class designed to lead, also offering tactical advantages via his signature ability “battle tactics”, which mechanically scales somewhat similar to bardic performances. The tactics can be used 4+CHA-mod rounds per day, +2 per class level after 1st. Before you start to groan and complain that you don’t want a linear progression and look for versatility/customizability, rest assured that you may choose from a selection of war master talents. The talents, not too surprisingly, center on leading other people, morale boosts, strategic planning etc. and offer some rather nice, balanced ideas. While the War Master may not be for every campaign, it’s a great, balanced class offering for a nice play-style and while not specifically built-in, I think that e.g. Kingmaker or diplomatic-heavy campaign will benefit greatly from the inclusion of this class. Well done!
This brings me to the next section of this compilation, the chapter on the feats of subterfuge, battle and spellcasting. “Armor Focus (heavy/medium)” rank among my favorite new feats, as they grant a minor form of DR to the wearers of the armors. Unfortunately I don’t have anything positive to say about some of the feats (from the subterfuge book, I gather): There is one that lets you negate attacks with acrobatics-skill-checks and one that lets you substitute ref-saves for fort or will-saves 3+Dex-bonus times per day. Unfortunately, there are some feats like this that are just plain over-powered in my humble opinion, which is a pity, as e.g. Bushwhack (use your stealth-skill to conceal allies), is a feat that has been houseruled in my campaign for quite some time.
The feats that expand upon the abilities of the new classes are nice as well and there are some gems here. With regards to the feats of spellcasting, though, I’m not that sure. While there are some feats that let you exchange damage potential for lingering effects (nice idea!), there also are some feats that give new meaning to the word clunky: There is a whole slew of feats that expand upon your spell-list and work via benefits you gain for spending marks you e.g. get for “killing enemies of CR no lower than your level-3” or “whenever you make a successful bluff check and can’t take 10”. This adds not only a new way players will try to collect marks at any cost and metagame as hell, but also expands upon the bookkeeping and is a terrible mood-breaker. All things said and done, there are some feats herein you might enjoy, but personally, I’d read them carefully indeed and wouldn’t buy the book for the feats.
The next big section of the book, the one on the new magic, is a blast to read: From acidic earth spells and new [stone]-descriptor spells to a slew of new ice magic spells, two painfully neglected sub-divisions of elemental magic get their due. Additionally, new spells for the death mage as well as spell-lists for the new spells are provided.
Finally, the book also offers us some new class-options: Ice and Earth-centered bloodlines, 2 new specialist schools (again, Ice and Earth), two new domains (Cold Iron and Ice), 4 new templates (quick arctic template, Cold Iron Elemental and Ice Elemental as well as the Ironskinned template) and a new subtype, the unbreathing subtype. It’s a shame, though, that we don’t get sample creatures for these templates.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant glitches beyond the very sparse punctuation glitch. Layout adheres to the two-column standard and is very clear and easy to read. The b/w-artworks range from fair to rather unimpressive. The pdf is bookmarked, though not as extensive in the feat or spell-section as I would have liked - there is no way to jump to the individual feats/spells for quick reference. While I did like the new spells and the archon, the shadow assassin and the war leader, I was not too impressed by the Death Mage and just don’t consider the SGG-Magus sufficiently exciting to rouse my interest. The feat-section is very inconsistent in quality and offers a variety of needlessly complicated or flat-out broken feats that necessitate you as a DM scanning through the book with the utmost attention to detail before you allow them indiscriminately in your campaign. All in all, I did enjoy the book and it contains one of my most favorite classes ever. Unfortunately, it also includes some my most abhorred feats ever. It all comes down to whether you own the Ice, Earth, Shadow Asssassin, Death Mage, Archon and Warmaster-pdfs: If you do, you have no reason to buy this book. The more of these, rather good ones you already own, the lesser your incentive to buy this. If you don’t own any of them, you might get quite some bang for your money and subsequently, I’m settling for a solid average score of 3 stars – Excellent books mixed with some rather average and sub-par ones, especially in the feat department.
Endzeitgeist out.
Reviewed here and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!
This book contains a feat named "acrobatic dodge." It is a terribly unbalanced feat and should not be allowed by any sane GM. Allow this book into your role-playing group with caution.
I do NOT get the hate for Acrobatic Dodge. I've been using it for more than a year now, and it's never been a problem.
Since it's open content, here it is:
Acrobatic Dodge
Prerequisites: Dex 15, Acrobatic.
Benefit: As an immediate action when you would normally be hit with a melee or ranged attack roll, you may make an Acrobatics check to avoid being hit. The DC for this check is equal to the attack roll that hit you. You gain a free 5.foot step as part of this Acrobatics check, and must take it. (If you cannot take your 5.foot step, you cannot use this feat. The movement doesn't count against any other movement you are taking, and does not provoke an attack of opportunity.) You may only use this feat when you have an armor check penalty of 0, are carrying no more than a light load, and are not wielding a two.handed weapon or shield. You may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Dexterity bonus.
So if you spend 2 feats, are in very little armor (armor check 0) and free to move about, you can make a skill check to dodge an attack 1ce/round for a limited number of times per day. Okay, let's compare this to official Paizo feats, shall we?
Is there a feat that lets you negate attack rolls with skill checks? Yep, it's called Mounted Combat.
Is there a feat that allows you to negate ranged attacks? Yep, it's called Deflect Arrows.
Is there a feat that allows you to deflect melee attacks? Yep, it's called Crane Wing.
And here's the big one. Snake Style. Look it up. It does what Acrobatic Dodge does (skill check to dodge an attack) AND gives you a +2 bonus to the skill used to dodge an attack (Sense Motvie) AND there's no limit to how many times/day you can use it, or what armor you can be in when you do so.
So why the hate for Acrobatic Dodge?
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This book contains a feat named "acrobatic dodge." It is a terribly unbalanced feat and should not be allowed by any sane GM. Allow this book into your role-playing group with caution.I do NOT get the hate for Acrobatic Dodge. I've been using it for more than a year now, and it's never been a problem.
[snip]
And here's the big one. Snake Style. Look it up. It does what Acrobatic Dodge does (skill check to dodge an attack) AND gives you a +2 bonus to the skill used to dodge an attack (Sense Motvie) AND there's no limit to how many times/day you can use it, or what armor you can be in when you do so.While there are some crucial differences (Dex is a more useful combat ability for most characters than Wisdom, so Dex-based skill checks will generally be higher than Wisdom-based skill checks for combatants), I'd agree Snake Style is a good official comparison feat when looking at Acrobatic Dodge. Snake Style can't be taken until 3rd level and requires ranks in 2 skills as well as a prerequisite feat, so there's a bit more of a limitation in gaining it, but given it's generally more powerful I think that still shows Acro Dodge to be in the same ballpark.
Of course Snake Style didn't exist when we wrote Acro Dodge, which may be where some of the dislike comes from.
I consider both Crane Wing and Snake Style just as broken and disallow them in my game as well. :)
I consider both Crane Wing and Snake Style just as broken and disallow them in my game as well. :)
Fair enough, and I'd argue (and did) that Arcobatic Dodge is actually significantly LESS broken that either of the other feats. but there is a HUGE difference between "This 3pp book has broken feats no one should use it" (which was the comment made before your review I was specifically replying to) and "This produce has feats that are almost, though not quite, as powerful as official feats produced by Paizo itself. I find the Paizo feats overpowered, so these give me pause as well"
In fact, what you said (I think it was you) in one of the 110 Spell Variants seemed really fair -- "These are based on spells from Ultimate Magic, which I consider overpowered, and thus some of these spells seem overpowered." No such proviso was granted in your comment on feats in the AH review.
But as I said, it was really the earlier comment I was responding to.
In fact, what you said (I think it was you) in one of the 110 Spell Variants seemed really fair -- "These are based on spells from Ultimate Magic, which I consider overpowered, and thus some of these spells seem overpowered." No such proviso was granted in your comment on feats in the AH review.
Yeah, because the feats in the AH don't have the prerequisite of being a variation of something broken - I tried to take that into account when reviewing Another 110 Spell Variants. Thanks for acknowledging my desire to be fair. :)
My review of the AH was prefaces by being "unfair", because I reviewed it a long time AFTER APG; UM and UC were released, although it was released prior to them. I wanted to write a review to reflect how well it has aged and it aged quite well - in spite of the feats and classes I didn't like, it still scored a solid 3-star rating, with the addendum that if you don't own the component pdf, you get a lot of bang for your money. I try to be fair, even when writing "unfair" reviews.
Recently bought the 'Owen Bundle'
A question that was asked, but not fully answered:
I did note one thing with Shadow Style... Text states a new style is gained at 6, 11, 15, and 19th level. While the chart lists 6, 11, 15, and 20th level.
I'm assuming the text is correct here?
Checked my copies of The Adventurer's Handbook and The Genius Guide to the Shadow Assassin and they are both the same.