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Hey what's at the bottom off this barrel...SCRAPE...SCRAPE.
Sorry guys but you have lost me with this one. I'll be skipping it( and any product like it in the RPG range).
For me, this is probably my most anticipated book of the year. The best among several other greats. What's at the bottom of the barrel you ask???
TREASURE!
I could not agree more. ARG is at the top of my list but followed close behind by the NPC Codex!!
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Love the concept, love the cover, I cannot wait to get this book. The GM inside me dances with Glee!
Well, best of luck at Nationals!
Because I run 3 games on these boards and play in 5 and I'm a PFS member.There are products I can use and products I can't the next three in the RP line fall into the latter..Not that I actually have to justify myself to anyone in truth.
Well, not every rulebook they make can be useful to everybody. That's just the way it is. To me, for example the new Advanced Race Guide is a book, I will probably not use much if at all. Its first half (core races) looks like nothing but optimizer fodder for me and the second half is full of - to me - ridiculous circus freak races I just cannot and will not see as party members in my games, so the book is mostly useless to me.
I you don't care for the book, just don't buy it. I'm not a fan of the idea either, and I'd have preferred a Bestiary 4 this year instead, but I know that Paizo will most certainly fill this book with interesting NPCs.
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If your group won't play Pathfinder, why do you care what products are released for Pathfinder?? I could not give a rip what's coming out for World of Synnabar this year for the same reasons.Because I run 3 games on these boards and play in 5 and I'm a PFS member.There are products I can use and products I can't the next three in the RP line fall into the latter..Not that I actually have to justify myself to anyone in truth.
I agree that you dont have to justify yourself to anyone at all about your purchases.
But when you pop into a thread to take an unnecessary swipe at Paizo for scraping the bottom of the barrel? I think that the responses that you get in return are warranted.
You know what I do when a product that I dont care for comes out? I IGNORE IT and let people who actually will enjoy the product actually ENJOY THE PRODUCT. It takes less effort to do that than to be snarky about why I cant or wont be able to use the product. Even just saying "This product would be of very little use to ME because of X, Y and Z" is civil enough and understandable.
But implying that just because you cant use something that it's useless PERIOD (and that's where your scraping the bottom of the barrel comment was heading) is just childish.
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I have reservations about an NPC codex that focuses primarily on the core classes through levels 1 to 20.
To qualify that, I don't mind that its just the core classes - but I do mind that archetypes aren't thrown into the mix. As a GM I want to see a large variety of builds and concepts - things that give flesh to ideas. Rather than 20 levels worth of core barbarian, I'd prefer 20 levels of varying barbarians (drunken rager, urban rager, savage, etc).
I know this was posted awhile ago, but I want to say I actually really like that it sticks to core classes for 2 reasons:
1. Not everyone runs campaigns that uses the non core base classes or archetypes (or only some but not others). When a book is full of content that someone doesn't use, it becomes less valuable to that person. But pretty much everyone uses the core classes, thus everyone can use this book without feeling like they wasted money on several pages that don't apply to them/their campaign.
2. With core builds, it's easier to swap in your own archetypes to make your own variant builds. It's hard to look at a statblock of a character built with an archetype and remember what ability swaps out for what. But you can look at a core statblock and see what you need to swap out pretty easily. I'm sure some of the builds won't work well for swapability but I think it still makes for easier customization on the GM's part.
That said, I'm cool that if this sells well, the 2nd codex that might result would have more classes and archetypes (now, I'd be less likely to buy it because there are base classes and archetypes I don't use, but I'm cool with that happening and indeed hope the NPC codex sells well enough that a second one can be made!).
Anyway, generally speaking, REALLY looking forward to this -- this is exactly the kind of product as a GM I've been hoping for for a long time, and means I'll be keeping that RPG subscription going longer than I'd planned.... damn you Paizo, forcing me to give you all my money...
But implying that just because you cant use something that it's useless PERIOD (and that's where your scraping the bottom of the barrel comment was heading) is just childish.
Bingo.
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I cannot wait for this book! As a regular GM, this book will see much use.
Well looks like my opinions are not longer welcome in the products section therefore I will refrain from making comment on anything in future.
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If you don't bother to support your own supplements, then they wither and die. I wasn't overly thrilled with the decision to do a book of NPCs even when I thought it might support the full line....the fact that it will only support the Core Rules makes me even less inclined to ever bother with the print version.
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If you don't bother to support your own supplements, then they wither and die. I wasn't overly thrilled with the decision to do a book of NPCs even when I thought it might support the full line....the fact that it will only support the Core Rules makes me even less inclined to ever bother with the print version.
Not really getting the not support your own suppliments comment since they use most of the other things in there modules, AP'S, and pathfinder society scenarios. (In fact I suspect that is one of the reasons for having the Iconics all statted up at various lvl's in this product is so they can be used as the new pregens for Pathfinder society)
Onto the book itself as the first book of it's kind on the line it makes sense to focus on the core classes much as the first Bestiary focused mostly on the core monsters. I expect much like the bestiarys if they make future ones they will expand into the other rarer classes
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Well looks like my opinions are not longer welcome in the products section therefore I will refrain from making comment on anything in future.
A fun feature of discussion forums is that when you post your opinion, someone might disagree with it. That's what discussions are about! You can ignore those responses (protip: good idea if somebody is mean and rude to you), you can answer them, you can stand by your original position, you might alter it, but the absolutely worst thing to do is to go "hrrrmpf people challenge my opinion, so I'm leaving!".
Your opinions are not "unwelcome" (that would happen if a Paizo staffer would tell you to drop your position, because it's not welcome due to violating board policy), they were challenged. It happens all the time with my opinions, do I go elsewhere just because somebody told me "Gorbacz, you're wrong on oh so many levels". Nope!*
*actually, I thrive on adversity, so responses along the line of "Gorbacz is right!" do leave me somewhat unsatisfied. But hey, that's me.
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A fun feature of discussion forums is that when you post your opinion, someone might disagree with it. That's what discussions are about! You can ignore those responses (protip: good idea if somebody is mean and rude to you), you can answer them, you can stand by your original position, you might alter it,
Or answer with a absolute nonsense response which is what I like to do. That even works when you do it randomly for no reason at all. :)
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Well looks like my opinions are not longer welcome in the products section therefore I will refrain from making comment on anything in future.
On the contrary, you are quite welcome to your opinion just as the rest of us are. I was actually quite pleased by your initial post as the flood of dissenting opininions assures Paizo of the popularity of products like this and assures that we will get more like it in the future...
Thank you!
The backlash on the Free RPG Day pregen makes me seriously worried about the success of this book. Many people seem to have some funny ideas about what makes an NPC/PC "useless", and a lot of it seems to revolve around the gap between the elite array and the higher point buys...
Thankfully Paizo will probably ignore the nay-sayers and stick to their guns and give us great NPCs like we see in the Adventure Paths. :)
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The problem is that the adventure uses the good old Paizo pregens, including Valeros with his infamous Will save +0, among other things.
Now, as long as such sub-optimal pregens are an optional throwaway in an AP/module I'm fine, but since they are meant to be used to be actually used to run the module during an event, I'd be pretty pissed if I got a sub-standard character.
That being said, dear Paizo: are you going to take the opportunity that this book provides and re-build Valeros (and others) not to be laughing stock for min-maxers? I mean, I can live with a pregen TWF Fighter, but that Will save and feat loudout (Skill Focus [Perception]? C'mon...) hurts my eyes.
If you don't, I can pretty much see this product thread becoming a field day for our local optimizers in poking fun at how "Paizo fails @ designing characters hurhurhurhurhur".
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The problem is that the adventure uses the good old Paizo pregens, including Valeros with his infamous Will save +0, among other things.
Now, as long as such sub-optimal pregens are an optional throwaway in an AP/module I'm fine, but since they are meant to be used to be actually used to run the module during an event, I'd be pretty pissed if I got a sub-standard character.
That being said, dear Paizo: are you going to take the opportunity that this book provides and re-build Valeros (and others) not to be laughing stock for min-maxers? I mean, I can live with a pregen TWF Fighter, but that Will save and feat loudout (Skill Focus [Perception]? C'mon...) hurts my eyes.
If you don't, I can pretty much see this product thread becoming a field day for our local optimizers in poking fun at how "Paizo fails @ designing characters hurhurhurhurhur".
I would rather they did NOT optimize any of the NPC's, at least the core pregen's. The Pregen's were never meant to be optimized but a 15 point buy in not a 20. with stats like 15, 14, 13, 12, 10,and 8 is not great for optimization and they should be kept that way to show that not everything is optimal in a game like this and I am glad for that myself. Forget the naysayers like min/maxers.
Valeros' feats seem to change all the time, but the one constant seems to be Combat Expertise with none of the followup feats (Meanwhile his Two Weapon Defense feat offers a better trade if he's fighting defensively... hrm...). It irks me to NO end, but its something I can easily replace with something more appropriate. Say, combat reflexes or catch off guard, hell... even animal affinity. Anything but combat expertise.
HOWEVER, this is something I can change myself anyhow, and one persons "fail at optimizing" is another persons "interesting". I dig that Ezren has such a low dex and that Harsk sports a crossbow, and I'd much rather see Valeros take Combat Expertise than have this book cross the line and see Harsk put down his crossbow.
I'm looking forward to see what the writers can milk out of the Core Rulebook. Who knows? Maybe they'll make a Lem that can do something other than cast, this time... :P
I don't mind the sound of this book, the more I think of it the more I can find uses for it, but I just feel that they have so much more that they could be making right now.
For instance: The thing I would love to see more than anything else for a tabletop RPG right now is a digital character creation device for the visual representations of our beloved characters. I cannot draw, but I would pay good money for a program that could allow me the ability to visually represent my characters. I am also willing to bet that there are others who would pay for such a thing as well.
I dunno, mayhaps I am alone in this, but after the ARG (which i was/still am In love with), these advanced "fill in the blank" guides just feel like a step back.
Anyway there are my two cents. Disagree if you will. Have a good one and enjoy Pathfinder.
*actually, I thrive on adversity, so responses along the line of "Gorbacz is right!" do leave me somewhat unsatisfied. But hey, that's me.
You must be a laywer...
Anyhoo, I'm kinda looking forward buying this and I think it will be my first pdf-only buy.
The idea behind that book fits our games very well, since we use only CRB in our games.
Do we know, if the PrC will be mixed in, or will we have multi-class NPCs?
Ruyan.
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So I know we won't see this, since its Core Rulebook only, but as far as those far-away mentions of a possible NPC Codex II if this sells well, a book that would hopefully incorporate the Advanced and Ultimate books, would it be too much to request maybe an updated adept spell list featuring a smattering of the spells from those books?
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Creating NPCs is time consuming and I am ecstatic about this book. I am thrilled that it is focused on the core rulebook.
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I'm looking to start a Pathfinder Core Rulebook campaign in January - currently using the Beginner Box. I love NPCs, but I hate 'building' 3e/PF NPCs above 1st level, so this product seems pretty much perfect for me! :D
Anything but combat expertise.
What's the problem with Combat Expertise?
I predict the "X says they're overwrought with powergaming, Y says they're made of fail laced with fail and failure, nobody else cares much" level.
Gorbacz, you're wrong on oh so many levels.
Which ones? 2nd, 6th, 13th, and 17th?
*chuckles This made my day.
It's essentially a feat tax. A prerequisite to feats that are actually worth a damn.
I'm not all that well versed in Advanced Cheese and Minmaxing, so are you saying that Combat Expertise in and of itself is a worthless feat, then?
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It's essentially a feat tax. A prerequisite to feats that are actually worth a damn.I'm not all that well versed in Advanced Cheese and Minmaxing, so are you saying that Combat Expertise in and of itself is a worthless feat, then?
I have PC's taking it from time to time. It is a good feat if you need a little extra defense at times. Better exchange rate than fighting defensively gives you. Plus it is a prerequisite for some good feat's later.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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Back on topic:
This product is not for me, won't be buying it or any more like it (have GMG, NPC Guide & Rivals guide). So I will be cancelling my subscription after the Equipment Guide comes out and will have to see what the follow up products are before I decide to renew or not.
Just wanted to let you know not ALL of your subscribers are supporters of this type of product. As you can see I am a subscriber to both the APs and the modules -which are consistently awesome- , so I mostly run published adventures and don't have a great need for this type of product.
Thanks for listening to your customers Paizo.
~R
PS. The cover art is sweet though!
Back on topic:
This product is not for me, won't be buying it or any more like it (have GMG, NPC Guide & Rivals guide). So I will be cancelling my subscription after the Equipment Guide comes out and will have to see what the follow up products are before I decide to renew or not.
Just wanted to let you know not ALL of your subscribers are supporters of this type of product. As you can see I am a subscriber to both the APs and the modules -which are consistently awesome- , so I mostly run published adventures and don't have a great need for this type of product.
Thanks for listening to your customers Paizo.
~R
PS. The cover art is sweet though!
The follow-up product is Ultimate Campaign in Spring 2013. The GenCon book for next year is usually announced at GenCon the year before, so expect the name of the 2013 GenCon book in the next week or so.
My guess is either a Psionics book or a Mythic-level book, but I'm also optimistic. ;-P
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My guess is either a Psionics book or a Mythic-level book, but I'm also optimistic. ;-PI wouldn't bet on a psionics book. I personally think they should just license Psionics Unleashe + Psionics Expanded from Dreamscarred Press.
Time and time again they've said that no one at Paizo is a Psionics champion and that they have no interest in Psionics. Also they aren't a fan of the current Psionic rule set, and seem happy to just let Dreamscarred live in that corner of the universe.
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I'm wondering what format is going to be used now. Been thinking about the GMG's NPC Gallery lately and how it was laid out. That's a lot of NPCs to fill a hardcover. But on the other hand an "NPC per page" route would also lend itself to more depth and movable/optional parts. Or maybe it's a mix between chapters?(any guesses how those will be arranged? By class? By typical campaign use?)
I'm really looking forward to this one. I hate creating npcs, so this will save me a lot of time. Sure I will probably have to adapt some or all of them on the fly while I run my game, but when my other (realistic) choice is just making stuff up from scratch on game day, this will be great!
How can one not find this book of use if you run your own campaign?
For all the nay-sayers, those that "prefer" to build their own NPCs, or even those that want to optimize and/or use archtypes: this is a "time-saver". Copy, Paste, and Make Changes. Still saves time from doing it all from scratch.
For anyone else, having level-appropriate stats on the fly is a win.
With a busy lifestyle, this is worth it's weight in gold to any GM unable to devote the little precious time they have in campaign prep for making NPCs or suitable NPC opponents.
I have it on good authority that Orcus approves of this one.
Stay on topic....
Vic Wertz for "Don't be a diii....hmmmm...dingleberry. Yeah, a dingleberry. Don't be a dingleberry."
This may be Core only, but that doesn't mean that another Codex may not be released in the future that includes the other Base Classes. I can't wait for Hero Lab to add this to their program. Now THAT will be a time saver.
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Time and time again they've said that no one at Paizo is a Psionics champion and that they have no interest in Psionics. Also they aren't a fan of the current Psionic rule set, and seem happy to just let Dreamscarred live in that corner of the universe.My guess is either a Psionics book or a Mythic-level book, but I'm also optimistic. ;-PI wouldn't bet on a psionics book. I personally think they should just license Psionics Unleashe + Psionics Expanded from Dreamscarred Press.
Actually, you're only partially correct. They are interested in psioics, but none of the designers champions the old Power Points system. What they've said time and time again is that if they ever do a psionics system, they will be building a new psionics system from the ground up.
I am really looking forward to this one, being a fan of the NPC gallery in the GM Guide. Even if I don't get a lot of use out of it myself I'm sure the others folks in my group who GM games will. It'll be very nice for the impromptu games we like to have on days when no is session planned.