PepticBurrito |
So -- Is there any chance that anyone who has the book would be kind enough to drop a few crumbs for those of us who can't get it until late next week? I am really curious to find out more about that Half-Elf Summoner archetype, the Wild Caller. What are the general trade-offs made by that archetype?
Wild Caller. Summon Monster spells are not available and are replaced with Summon Natures Ally. Eidolon gets 1/4 bonus evolution points per level (rounded down to nearest integer), but at the cost of being restricted from certain evolutions found in APG and UM. At 19th level, Gate is replaced with Summon Elder Worm or Summon Froghemoth.
Stockvillain |
I'm seeing a lot of "they need to start on an ARG 2, because x race didn't get enough attention." I really don't think we need a second ARG; the short-shrift races are so niche that it would be a waste of resources to put together an entire book devoted to them. Now, a Paizo blog entry every few weeks or so would probably work out just fine. I'd really like to see a bi-weekly or monthly post devoted to expanding on one of the less common races. Maybe throw in some stuff that might've been cut from the final book due to space limitations, like the cantrips from UM.
Dragon78 |
ARG 2 would be cool in a couple of years too flesh out the non-core races, new races that were done after this book(Lashunta), and to flesh out the race creation section with more abilities(Regeneration, turtle shell, slimy skin, telepathy, etc.) and the Magical Beast type and any other creature type that would interesting. Also I would like to see more of a focus on feats, racial archtypes, and alternate racial abilities as opposed to mundane items, magical items, or spells.
Fredrik |
thebwt wrote:Reckless wrote:This is true, I was looking at half elves thinking of going into the drow noble feat lines... Specifically the drow paragon just says that it deals with the 'drow casting' stuff. It implies the part of actually being drow is taken care of.
Between the "typically" statement in the ARG and the "any" statement of Elf Blood, I would say that all the human and elf archetypes can apply to half elves as well.I wouldn't interpret it that way. Consider that in the Advanced Player's Guide there are feats that are allowed for Elves (e.g. Elven Accuracy), for Half-Elves (e.g. Shared Insight), and explicitly for both (e.g. Arcane Talent). If I were a GM, I'd be really annoyed with a player who wanted their Half-Elf to have Elven Accuracy. I'm fine with a character whose backstory includes both human and elven ancestors and who takes Elven Accuracy as a feat, so long as they use Elven mechanics for the whole build, but the player doesn't get to say "'Elven magic' is useless for my archer character and -2 Con +2 Int is also bad, so I'll pick Half-Elf, but that Elven racial ability is sweet so I'll take that too."
Or, another way, I don't think that "effects" in "effect related to race" mean feats or other factors in the character-building process, but rather stuff that happens in game, such as if you're hit by an arrow of elf-slaying, or if you're fighting a ranger whose favoured enemy is elves.
Half-Elf shouldn't be a "gestalt" race that gets to use human, elf, or half-elf mechanics in different parts of the build depending on which is optimal.
The meaning of "effects related to race" was clarified in the APG, via the Racial Heritage feat. It is clear from the wording of that feat that half-elves and half-orcs would be able to take it. The "and so on" means that it applies to basically anything except alternate racial traits (as opposed to race traits).
The argument based on some feats specifying elves and half-elves, and some just specifying elves, is a weak one. Since the feats were written by real people, let's go with a real example: in Oregon, it is illegal to make a U-turn in an intersection that is controlled by traffic signals. Let's say that you see two such intersections with signs saying "no U-turns", and then come across another such intersection without a sign, and so you make an illegal U-turn and get a ticket. The judge will not be sympathetic. It doesn't matter if some intersections over-specify the rules; those rules still apply just as much to the intersections where they aren't made so explicit.
Furry Grognard |
Oh the spoilers so far! I can't wait for June 20th!! (Actually, my FLGS gets its deliveries every Friday so I have to wait the the 22nd! *sad GM*)
So can anyone say how well the backgrounds on the races of Chapter 2 and 3 help us with our own campaign settings? What's the assessment on the "setting neutral-ness" so far -- how accommodating is the fluff? Any easy plug-in-and-use? Any a tad pigeon-holed demanding tweaks? Any inspirational backgrounds that leap out and scream for further development in our homebrew worlds? And lastly: any races that read like they'd fit perfectly in older D&D settings? (I'm really curious how these non-core races were treated.)
Alexander Augunas Contributor |
In my opinion, we need to wait a year or two before an Advanced Race Guide 2 becomes a good idea. Personally, I don't want to see [Paizo] continually beating a dead horse by giving more and more stuff to the Core Races. They don't need half of the amount of love that they get to make people want to play them, after all.
Instead, we need to wait for A) more 0-Hit Die races to be released via products like the Inner Sea Bestiary (and possibly a Bestiary 4, should it emerge); B) more of the hot topics, like psionics and mythic rules, to be addressed; and C) more regions of Golarion need to be revealed, after all, Tian Xia allowed four new races to enter the fold.
However, I think that an Advanced Race Guide 2 is something that could definitely happen in the future. Hopefully other 3PP will do something similar with their own home-made races (*waits expectantly for the latest Genius Guide on the topic* :-P).
Mikaze |
Managed to read the Core Races section more closely. Gonna write-up B3-style when possible.
There is going to be a lot of demand for new avatar pictures out of this book. I honestly feel for Gary Teter and crew, because every piece of art in here could be useful to someone.
Redeemer is still the best paladin ever. Whoever wrote that, I LOVE YOU.
To be completely fair, 99% of the fluff is rehash from other books. As it should be. This line is setting's neutral, so it has to portray the most commonly available stereotypes of a given race. You want good orcs? Write good orcs into your game!
That rather defeats the purpose of buying the book though. The thing is, I look up to Paizo's writers. I love the depth they give cultures in their setting and when they present a wide playground of ideas to build from. So after going through every D&D edition without any such deep development for non-always-evil takes on races like orcs(Eberron may have had them, but it certainly didn't deliver on the support or offer a level of depth present in Pathfinder for most of thier cultures), I had long hopes that finally we could get some of that eventually in Golarion. Then when the player's companion for Orcs was announced, I was sure some support was going to be there. Then when that didn't pan out and the possibility for future support was pretty much shut down for actual Golarion material, all that was left was the setting-neutral rules line. Namely the ARG. If the setting book that was supposted to be for players didn't have support, surely the setting-neutral line free of Golarion's baggage could, especially since this was supposed to be a worldbuilding tool for GMs.
Didn't pan out there either. :(
I've noticed for a "setting neutral" world the ARG still tends to make some pretty strong assumptions for how certain races should behave.
Tangential, but my homebrew world, NO humanoid races are always-any-alignment. There are broad trends amongst different groups of course, and cultures can have benevolent or harmful traditions, but it is a core assumption that if you are sentient, you have free will, and thus individuals' behaviors will vary widely. Orcs in particular are a major race in one of my world's nations--it is a brutal nasty magocratic nation (because of the dominant human culture), but as much as you could see a brutal slavering barbaric orc, you could also see an orc freedom fighter, etc.
If you play PBPs and wouldn't mind putting up with me as a GM, Mikaze, if I ever run a PBP here you're welcome to play as benevolent (or even just neutral) orc or half-orc as you like.
Thanks! Seriously, that means a lot. :) Unfortunately I'd be afraid to commit to a PbP game at the moment because I'm really not certain I'd be able to stay regular. But I would really love to be in such a game. I'll absolutely keep that offer in mind, if the door's open later down the line! Concepts already popped into my head reading those world details. Augh, now I really want to be in that game that much more. (and yeah, that's how I prefer my races working out too)
Yeah, the setting expectations didn't just bleed through in the flavor. A lot of the feats and whatnot seemed to be built around orcs defaulting to villainous. However, it turns out the Half-orc section picks up a lot the slack where the Orc entry was a letdown, both with some hints and implications in their flavor section* and in their feats(most of which weren't villainous by default) being freely available to both half-orcs and orcs. If I'm going to pull any material out of this book for my orcs, it's probably going to be coming from the half-orc section.
*Some very fun implications to build from at that.
Man, a strongly neutral write up a race would be boring.
Presenting a wider range of possibilities to work with doesn't default to being bland. Reading through the book more, it turns out the Hobgoblin entry does exactly that to a degree.
Mikaze |
I'm going to make an Aasamir Paladin in a few weeks for my first pathfinder game. Any details on the archetype they have for that?
IIRC, the Aasimar paladin archetype is based around peace and serenity, with some of its abiliities building off of Touch of Serenity from the APG and the general feel of the class seeming to be "y'all need to calm down".
....actually, one of those guys and a Redeemer would make one hell of an effective team.
The aasimar artwork opposite that page is really cool. I think that's our first unusual outside-the-norm aasimar so far.
Shadows_Of_Fall |
Tranquil Guardian (Paladin)
A tranquil guardian is a missionary of peace and tranquility, a soothing voice of succor in a violent and dangerous world.
That's the way it's listed in the book. I'm not gonna lie, I'm too tired to type the rest up. If I remember/have time I'll maybe post some more info tomorrow.
Edit: Ninja'd
Anyways, mostly focuses on Touch of Serenity (APG) and increasing its effectiveness. Oh and calm relaxing auras and such.
Oh and does anyone know why the next page has Erastil on it? Lol why the random god instead of an Aasimar? If anyone has an answer, would love to hear it. So confused over the image >_< Was really hoping for another awesome Aasimar (unless it's an Aasimar who worships Erastil and dresses in his image...but the horns and blackened hands seem to suggest it's not an Aasimar)
PepticBurrito |
I'm going to make an Aasamir Paladin in a few weeks for my first pathfinder game. Any details on the archetype they have for that?
Also, were the tiefling and aasemir bloodlines from Blood of Fiends/Angels in here?
You're not going to be impressed. It's a Paladin that's centered around Touch of Serenity and converting confirmed critical hits to non-lethal damage as a free action. If you want to take captives, it's great. If you want to kill the evil king, no so much.
Shadows_Of_Fall |
Also, is it just me or does the Serene Strike ability contradict itself? Touch of Serenity sacrifices damage to pacify the enemy for 1 round, so why does it even bother changing the damage to non-lethal? Or would it deal damage AND do Touch of Serenity (which would contradict either the feat or the level 3 ability depending on whether it did or didn't do damage).
That said I don't think I would ever use Touch of Serenity simply because IMO damage is often better or at least nice to have versus MAYBE stopping their next attack X times per day.
Akin DT |
Akin DT wrote:You're not going to be impressed. It's a Paladin that's centered around Touch of Serenity and converting confirmed critical hits to non-lethal damage as a free action. If you want to take captives, it's great. If you want to kill the evil king, no so much.I'm going to make an Aasamir Paladin in a few weeks for my first pathfinder game. Any details on the archetype they have for that?
Also, were the tiefling and aasemir bloodlines from Blood of Fiends/Angels in here?
Everyone who replied, thank you.
What is replaced? I assume somehow the archetype is incompatible with Oath of Vengeance? ;P
Also doing nonlethal damage? Isn't their a weapon property called "merciful" for that? I may possibly be the only full BAB in the group (2 different monks, a synthesizer or w/e, and 2-3 more players) so I dont know...
PepticBurrito |
PepticBurrito wrote:Akin DT wrote:You're not going to be impressed. It's a Paladin that's centered around Touch of Serenity and converting confirmed critical hits to non-lethal damage as a free action. If you want to take captives, it's great. If you want to kill the evil king, no so much.I'm going to make an Aasamir Paladin in a few weeks for my first pathfinder game. Any details on the archetype they have for that?
Also, were the tiefling and aasemir bloodlines from Blood of Fiends/Angels in here?
Everyone who replied, thank you.
What is replaced? I assume somehow the archetype is incompatible with Oath of Vengeance? ;P
Also doing nonlethal damage? Isn't their a weapon property called "merciful" for that? I may possibly be the only full BAB in the group (2 different monks, a synthesizer or w/e, and 2-3 more players) so I dont know...
It replaces smite evil, courage, aura of resolve, aura of justice and holy champion.
Akin DT |
BREAKING NEWS: Archetype that's about peace and serenity replaces an extremely violent class ability. More details after the talking bag.
... which I have no problem with, it's just the feat it's based off of didn't look impressive at that job. But of course, I haven't read the text for this archetype yet so I wouldn't know how good it is at it's intended purpose.
David knott 242 |
looks at the past few pages
Nope, no one is kind enough to drop some crumbs.
I was tempted to say, "I ate those crumbs days ago, when they were dropped, and I'm hungry again!" -- but instead I will thank everyone for those additional spoilers. This is going to be a long week ahead, waiting for that book to reach the stores.
Dennis Baker Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 |
Akin DT |
Shifty wrote:6 pages for each, so quite a bit. Though tieflings get nothing about being a specific type of fiend here.So is there much for Aasimar and Tielfings in this book?
With BoF and BoA, I was wondering whether they still gave these two races much space in this guide.
Thank you very much. i can infer that the 6 alternative statblocks for Aasimar aren't in here and I'll have to wait for Blood of Angels for it.
Did tier 2 races get support concerning alternative advancement for favored class or whatever?
Dennis Baker Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 |
I was wondering if anyone can share if the half-orc barbarian archetype looks any good and if it can be used with invulnerable rager archetype. Please and thank you!
They both replace Improved Uncanny Dodge so they can't stack.
Hateful Rager gets a slightly reduced version of favored enemy in exchange for less rage/ day. The more favored enemies they drop, the longer they can rage.
Protoman |
Protoman wrote:I was wondering if anyone can share if the half-orc barbarian archetype looks any good and if it can be used with invulnerable rager archetype. Please and thank you!They both replace Improved Uncanny Dodge so they can't stack.
Hateful Rager gets a slightly reduced version of favored enemy in exchange for less rage/ day. The more favored enemies they drop, the longer they can rage.
Ah interesting. Thank you very much.
Jason Nelson Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Anyone know where the Pure Strain spell listed in the Imperious bloodline bonus spells is located?
Alas, it doesn't exist. It was cut during development. The spell was essentially a polymorph effect that got rid of "half-" templates and/or turned a half-orc or half-elf into a full human or a full orc/elf. I can see the reason to cut it - that's an awfully messy retcon of the target's stats - but I thought it was a fun idea.
Presumably errata will be forthcoming to give an alternate bloodline spell. As a completely unofficial suggestion, something like geas/quest, mass suggestion, or legend lore would all fit the themes of the Imperious bloodline; of these, I think legend lore would probably fit the best.
EDIT: The spell may have been removed because it was just too similar (and broader in scope) than the half-blood extraction spell that is still in there for half-orcs. That's one thing hard to control: Authors turning in similar stuff. You have to decide what to keep and what to cull.
Urath DM |
Oh and does anyone know why the next page has Erastil on it? Lol why the random god instead of an Aasimar? If anyone has an answer, would love to hear it. So confused over the image >_< Was really hoping for another awesome Aasimar (unless it's an Aasimar who worships Erastil and dresses in his image...but the horns and blackened hands seem to suggest it's not an Aasimar)
That's not Erastil. That's a male Aasimar follower of Erastil (so has Erastil's holy symbol on his armor). If looks like each entry in that section has art for both a male and a female of the race.
Alexander Augunas Contributor |
Shadows_Of_Fall |
Shadows_Of_Fall wrote:That's not Erastil. That's a male Aasimar follower of Erastil (so has Erastil's holy symbol on his armor). If looks like each entry in that section has art for both a male and a female of the race.
Oh and does anyone know why the next page has Erastil on it? Lol why the random god instead of an Aasimar? If anyone has an answer, would love to hear it. So confused over the image >_< Was really hoping for another awesome Aasimar (unless it's an Aasimar who worships Erastil and dresses in his image...but the horns and blackened hands seem to suggest it's not an Aasimar)
I assumed so but it just doesn't look like it fits. The burned hands, almost purple skin (IIRC) and horns. Especially the horns. It looks natural. But I suppose it could also be showing variety within the Aasimar race.
thebwt |
I'm new the pathfinder so I have no idea how things work but will the information from this book end up on the PRD and roughly how long after release would it be?
They've been getting faster, Bestiary 3 was only a month later. As was Ultimate magic. bestiary 2 took a bit longer.
I'd say july 25thish
Alexander Augunas Contributor |
I'm new the pathfinder so I have no idea how things work but will the information from this book end up on the PRD and roughly how long after release would it be?
They typically wait a month or two as a courtesy to Paizo.
Personally, I'd rather own the book / PDF because I find it to be faster and much more aesthetically pleasing to look at. The PSRD is nice when I am trying to quickly build characters, though.
thebwt |
Pretender wrote:I'm new the pathfinder so I have no idea how things work but will the information from this book end up on the PRD and roughly how long after release would it be?They typically wait a month or two as a courtesy to Paizo.
Personally, I'd rather own the book / PDF because I find it to be faster and much more aesthetically pleasing to look at. The PSRD is nice when I am trying to quickly build characters, though.
I thought he meant the prd, not pfsrd :p
Personally I like the prd way more than pfsrd. Can look up rules so quick in that (and how bout dat tablet interface!)
Pretender |
Alexander Augunas wrote:Pretender wrote:I'm new the pathfinder so I have no idea how things work but will the information from this book end up on the PRD and roughly how long after release would it be?They typically wait a month or two as a courtesy to Paizo.
Personally, I'd rather own the book / PDF because I find it to be faster and much more aesthetically pleasing to look at. The PSRD is nice when I am trying to quickly build characters, though.
I thought he meant the prd, not pfsrd :p
Personally I like the prd way more than pfsrd. Can look up rules so quick in that (and how bout dat tablet interface!)
Yeah, I was talking about the PRD, thanks for the replies
Alexander Augunas Contributor |
Alexander Augunas wrote:Pretender wrote:I'm new the pathfinder so I have no idea how things work but will the information from this book end up on the PRD and roughly how long after release would it be?They typically wait a month or two as a courtesy to Paizo.
Personally, I'd rather own the book / PDF because I find it to be faster and much more aesthetically pleasing to look at. The PSRD is nice when I am trying to quickly build characters, though.
I thought he meant the prd, not pfsrd :p
Personally I like the prd way more than pfsrd. Can look up rules so quick in that (and how bout dat tablet interface!)
He did. My mistake.
Since no one has spoken much about it, I'll spoiler a bit on the Race Builder chapter.
First impressions (after all, its a lot of material to go through):
They kept the three "power levels;" standard, advanced, and monstrous. They did, however, go through and re-evaluate the rp costs somewhat, as the core races have something akin to a spectrum to them (the lowest, I believe, is half-orc with 8 rp and the highest is dwarf with 11 rp. Humans are at 9). Looking through the Featured / Uncommon race breakdown, the most expensive is the drow noble at 41 rp, followed by the svirfneblin at 24 rp, and then the fetchling is king of "races-your-GM-might-actually-consider-letting-you-play" at 17 rp.
The RP breakdown per power level is the same as it was in the Playtest; 3-10 is Standard, 11-20 is Advanced, and 21+ is monstrous. This does lead to a hilarious situation where the dwarf is technically an advanced race while the deurgar (with only 8 rp) is an advanced race with the same amount of RP as the lowest standard race. There are traits that are associated with each category, but I have noticed that there are far fewer traits in the advanced and monstrous categories then there were in the playtest; the traits in these categories are usually significantly more powerful than Standard traits, which is good. Most of the natural attack traits are advanced, though.
Ultimately, I like the race building section. Whether or not it was intentional that a core race was stated into an advanced race or not, I think it is a pretty good means by witch to convince wary GMs that advanced races are only as powerful as you make them; personally, I would have rather seen the entire category system simply go away, but it is what it is.
Notes to mention, lizardfolk and gnolls are advanced races with less RP than standard humans when you remove their racial hit dice. Who didn't see that coming? :-P
Overall, its a very cool tool that appears to be built with guidelines in mind rather than restrictions; there's even a line that says that a GM should feel free to rename traits and ignore racial prerequisites when it is appropriate for their race.
thebwt |
I can't wait to see the shadow caller crunch. Can it be Wednesday yet?
Is their eidolon essentially the same with more options? Dex instead of Str based?
Is that shadow caller supposed to be distinct from Nidallese casters graduated from the dusk hall....
Shadows_Of_Fall |
ThatEvilGuy wrote:I can't wait to see the shadow caller crunch. Can it be Wednesday yet?
Is their eidolon essentially the same with more options? Dex instead of Str based?
** spoiler omitted **
Is that shadow caller supposed to be distinct from Nidallese casters graduated from the dusk hall....
And:
2-Point EvolutionsShadow Blend (Su): In any condition of illumination
other than bright light, the eidolon disappears into the
shadows, giving it concealment (20% miss chance). If
it has the shadow form evolution, it instead gains total
concealment (50% miss chance). The eidolon can suspend
or resume this ability as a free action.
Shadow Form (Su): The eidolon’s body becomes shadowy
and more indistinct. This shadow form grants the eidolon
constant concealment (20% miss chance), and its melee
attacks affect incorporeal creatures as if it had the ghost
touch weapon property. The eidolon’s melee attacks deal
only half damage to corporeal creatures.
I actually dislike Shadow Form as it seems *mostly* useless/more harmful than it is good. In 99% of the battles I've fought in my Tabletop RPG career, the enemies have been corporeal. And since Shadow Blend but not Shadow Form can be turned on/off, you would be stuck dealing half damage to most creatures.
Alexander Augunas Contributor |
I actually dislike Shadow Form as it seems *mostly* useless/more harmful than it is good. In 99% of the battles I've fought in my Tabletop RPG career, the enemies have been corporeal. And since Shadow Blend but not Shadow Form can be turned on/off, you would be stuck dealing half damage to most creatures.
Except, of course, your eidolon now takes 50% less damage in return, as most foes are corporeal and therefore would only deal half damage to your minion.
Give it an okay Intelligence, skill ranks in Linguistics, Intimidate, and Diplomay, the Antagonize feat, and yup. Your eidolon just turned into a tankolon.
Berdache |
So the racial ability of Samsaran called Mystic Past Life.
"You can add spells from another spellcasting class to the spell list of
your current spellcasting class ... The spells must be the same type (arcane or divine) as the spellcasting class you’re adding them to."
So as a magus I can learn other arcane casters spells ie Wizard / Witch / Bard / etc spells.
Does that mean I could learn Cure Light Wounds (Bard)?