That actually sounds interesting...I say beards (and mustaches) need to make a come back;)If I recall from an AMA, the whole "only nobles can have beards" thing was deemed unrealistic, even though in context it makes perfect sense and doesn't go particularly off the deep end. Plus it gives the nation a sense of identity: the dirty unwashed masses with their scraggly beards stand under the shadow of the leaders who have impeccably groomed facial hair. As opposed to just "these are the dirty unwashed masses and these are the nobles who rule over them" with no other distinctive features.
Didn't Peter the Great put a tax on beards in an effort to get Russians to act more European? It doesn't seem that out there.
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I suspect it was easier to get rid of the rule than to make sure every Taldan is accurately bearded or not bearded in every piece of art.
I suspect it was easier to get rid of the rule than to make sure every Taldan is accurately bearded or not bearded in every piece of art.
I dunno, even with fairly minimal art orders adding "has a beard" and "doesn't have a beard" seems easy enough. Plus going back to the original bit of text about the Bearded/Unbearded, the lower class can still have facial hair. It's just that when it's well-groomed it's taken as a sign that they're attempting to rise above their station, and that's what causes the issue.
Downloading...
EDIT: Reading...
Are there any player options within the book?
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Is it true that there are no maps & settlement stat blocks in the book?
Yes. Between the War for the Crown AP and previously published material, there are no major cities that do not/will not have a full stat block and city map published elsewhere.
Are there any player options within the book?
No. This is very much a GM book.
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Is it true that there are no maps & settlement stat blocks in the book?Yes. Between the War for the Crown AP and previously published material, there are no major cities that do not/will not have a full stat block and city map published elsewhere.
Thanks for the quick reply, Mark.
Is there at least an overview map of Taldor on the inside cover?
Although i'll be buying this book & all the APs, i find it unfortunate that a nation sourcebook has no maps in it and would strongly advise against it for future issues.
That's by no means a personal critique against the developers, but my preference when using a sourcebook for adventure creation. ;-)
I guess there are clues like: "For a map of X look to AP#Y?"
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Can you share the bestiary with type & CR?
Cassomir stray CR 4: What happens when derro experiment on stray animals.
Ginever CR 5: Perpetually drunk humanoids that are a mean drunk.
Grogrisant CR 16/MR 6: Mythic six-eyed Huge golden lion that appears singly in Taldor in times of upheaval and requires a hero to rise up and slay it.
Nobles’ quarries—animals bred specifically for nobles to hunt.
Can be used as animal companions, but rule-wise would be the same as their standard animal companion counterpart, just with some fancy appearances.
—Fading fox CR 2: Fox with chameleon camouflage.
—Emperor stag CR 3: Nimble stag with a truly ludicrous number of points on its antler rack.
—Titanboar CR 6: Boar with barbarian rage... O.O
Redkind CR 2: Childlike fey with the ability to manipulate shadows to create fear.
Roofgarden CR 7: Canopy dwelling predatory plants that throw seed pods that explode like fire bombs.
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Is it true that there are no maps & settlement stat blocks in the book?Yes. Between the War for the Crown AP and previously published material, there are no major cities that do not/will not have a full stat block and city map published elsewhere.Thanks for the quick reply, Mark.
Is there at least an overview map of Taldor on the inside cover?
Although i'll be buying this book & all the APs, i find it unfortunate that a nation sourcebook has no maps in it and would strongly advise against it for future issues.
That's by no means a personal critique against the developers, but my preference when using a sourcebook for adventure creation. ;-)
I guess there are clues like: "For a map of X look to AP#Y?"
There is a nice map on the inside cover, very well detailed.
And while I definitely understand the reasoning behind leaving out the community maps and stats, collecting them from all the various places can be a right pain.
EDIT: ...and yes, there are references directing people to where they can get more info, including the upcoming AP.
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Can you share the bestiary with type & CR?** spoiler omitted **
Ooh. I look forward to seeing how they turned out. ^_^
(Full disclosure: I didn't have anything to do with those last two.)
What powers does the Grogrisant have? Alignment?
What powers does the Grogrisant have? Alignment?
His coat reflects sunlight, and he has a number of abilities tied to it, inlcuding his brilliance giving him total concealment from creatures at a distance and adding his natural armor bonus to his touch AC (from people being unable to see him properly within the light.)
He has one at will attack spell-like ability connected to this brilliant light and has a powerful claw/claw/bite routine (especially the bite).
What powers does the redkind have? Alignment?
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Although i'll be buying this book & all the APs, i find it unfortunate that a nation sourcebook has no maps in it and would strongly advise against it for future issues.
That's by no means a personal critique against the developers, but my preference when using a sourcebook for adventure creation. ;-)
It's always a fine balance to reach. When we publish things in multiple places, we get dinged for selling people the same material twice, so it's often a puzzle trying to figure out where the best location for a given map/stat block is. In the case of material needed to run specific adventures we're publishing, putting the maps and stat blocks in a different book from the adventure content makes those adventures harder to run. While it would be nice to have city maps and stat blocks in a setting book, it's entirely possible to run a complete homebrew campaign without them.
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What powers does the redkind have? Alignment?
Strangely, if you can't see it, it has a hard time seeing you. You get partial concealment by closing your eyes, and full concealment by covering yourself with a blanket...much like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal! :D
(OK, much like a monster-under-the-bed, so rather cool!)
Keep in mind that the very first Taldor book was written by a guy whom Paizo parted ways with and who is probably now hoping that everybody forgets about him, which likely made following up any of his ideas rather difficult.
Okay now I'm curious, can someone pm me details. Thanks. :)
/end derail
On topic, not sure how I feel about the beard thing. I don't think I care one way or the other.
Taldor is not on my list of top favorite places in Golarion but I am interested in the War for the Crown AP. It sounds very intriguing.
Which brings up the question of how nessesary this book is to play the AP? Thanks. :)
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Keep in mind that the very first Taldor book was written by a guy whom Paizo parted ways with and who is probably now hoping that everybody forgets about him, which likely made following up any of his ideas rather difficult.Okay now I'm curious, can someone pm me details. Thanks. :)
Changing or downplaying specific elements from past products is not the same as holding a personal or professional grudge against the person or people responsible for that content. Not everything Paizo printed in the first few years of the game and campaign setting necessarily fits the company's current vision for the world, and as such, sometimes we need to course correct.
In the earliest years of the game, there wasn't a lot of communication between the developers in charge of different product lines, which meant that conflicting visions of various elements made it into print, which we now have the opportunity to clarify or morph into something that meets our and the setting's needs.
In the case of some of the early Taldor content, nothing in this book outright calls anything from previous publications incorrect or invalid, we just don't necessarily build on some things. But if you want to run with any aspect of "Old Taldor" that you like, feel free to in your campaigns. If you read the blog I posted last week, I talked a bit about trying to balance our respect for existing canon (and the real-world history of Taldor is about as complicated as the long history of the nation in-world) and making a book that was engaging for readers, inspiring for game masters hoping to create their own adventures, accurate to the shared vision of what Taldor is among Paizo's developers and Creative Director, and which successfully set the stage for our forthcoming Adventure Path, War for the Crown.
One of the things I quickly discovered when talking to folks at PaizoCon was that for every fan of "the bearded," there was someone who thought Taldor was a huge joke. And the last thing the campaign setting needs is a nation that exists to be a punchline. So we worked hard to downplay some of the buffoonery and foppishness (which, admittedly, some people saw as the core of what made Taldor what it was) in exchange for a sense of real, legitimate pride that Taldans could have for their homeland, if not in its present state, then at least in its history. We emphasized the potential for intrigue over the promise of surface-level frills. Hopefully that comes through in the final product, but as with anything, tastes will vary.
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Changing or downplaying specific elements from past products is not the same as holding a personal or professional grudge against the person or people responsible for that content.
Thanks for the heads-up. I'm past bored with controversy and outrage, so I was hoping it was a big nothing-burger.
For those that have read the whole book, does it talk about any new/unstated monsters, races, artifacts/magic items, or other such hidden gems?
Is Princess Eutropia or her dad statted in here?
Nope. They get micro stat blocks (ie. we list their alignment and class levels) but not full stats. Those appear in the War for the Crown AP, however, where both NPCs make prominent appearances.
Thanks for the info, Mr. Moreland!
Think you could spoil what classes and alignments they have? Pretty please.
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Nope. They get micro stat blocks (ie. we list their alignment and class levels) but not full stats. Those appear in the War for the Crown AP, however, where both NPCs make prominent appearances.Thanks for the info, Mr. Moreland!
Think you could spoil what classes and alignments they have? Pretty please.
Stavian III was said to be an aristocrat/wizard in Inner Sea Magic. I don't know if this changed or not
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If i remember correctly, this is the very first "Campaign Setting" book on a nation which doesn´t have at least a map of it´s capital inside.
"Qadira" had only a very crude one on the inside back cover, but none at all is the wrong decision imo, even if the same art appears somewhere else.
This limits the possible top review rating for me to 4 stars, even if everything else inside is good (which i have no doubt about).
Please refrain from doing this in future books that cover a nation ("Nidal, Land of Shadows" in april 2018 is the next i think), otherwise the usefulness of a nation book, at least for me, will be too small to buy it, as i already buy all the AP issues.
It´s inconvenient enough to have to leaf back and forth through the pages of a book to look at a map of settlements i am reading about on another page, but if i have to pull out other books and leave through their pages too, it will get on my nerves very fast.
That´s why i love using the poster map folios - i can pause and take look at the nation and one or two of it´s settlements while reading about them.
I mean, i get this kind of decision with "Lands of War", the book about Nidal and Molthune, which describes and shows only the settlements that do not appear in the "Ironfang Invasion" AP, as that book has to cover two nations (and still has lot´s of cool maps inside).
The only way i could accept the lack of settlement maps in a campaign setting book, is if it has maps of all it´s adventure sites which are no settlements inside.
A campaign setting book with only a nation map is pretty unnecessary, as i already have these in the "Inner Sea World Guide".
I hope this is a one-off and doesn´t become a trend.
Again, this is not meant as a personal criticism, i just try to explain why i don´t like it. ;-)
IMO, "Atlas Golarion" would be a good project for Paizo to take on. :-)
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I don't know about anyone else (especially those who went with 4e) but Karen Wynn Fonstad's Forgotten Realms Atlas (1990) is still my go-to reference for FR geography. Geography changes pretty slowly. Mountain ranges, forests and bodies of water are fairly constant. Settlements largely stay stable, although there's the possibility of one being razed, but that's a pretty corner case. Political borders are the most changeable one, but aside from Hell's Rebels I don't off-hand remember too many Golarion events that redrew political borders.
I don't know about anyone else (especially those who went with 4e) but Karen Wynn Fonstad's Forgotten Realms Atlas (1990) is still my go-to reference for FR geography. Geography changes pretty slowly. Mountain ranges, forests and bodies of water are fairly constant. Settlements largely stay stable, although there's the possibility of one being razed, but that's a pretty corner case. Political borders are the most changeable one, but aside from Hell's Rebels I don't off-hand remember too many Golarion events that redrew political borders.
Yeah I am very pissed I can't find my copy of the FR Atlas. I think it would be great if Paizo did one too....I do not know why it would be out of date a month after publication though....unless they are planning a GSE....
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Just finished reading this and it is absolutely fantastic. Thanks very much to Mark and Crystal (and Violet and Isabelle) for turning out such a terrific addition to the Campaign Setting line.
I've been waiting for "the Taldor book" since the Gazetteer pretty much, so I was primed for disappointment that this wouldn't live up to my unreasonable expectations. However, it was everything I hoped for (and included only a tiny part that I didn't need).
In my opinion, in attempting to create a clearly distinct cultural feel of a place, some of Golarion's nations have drifted into caricature (or even almost parody). This book manages to create a culture which feels different from other Golarion countries yet without getting too heavy-handed. Varisia is my favorite location for adventures in Golarion, but thanks to this book Taldor is now my second favorite.
In terms of quality it's right up there with the Qadiran book, in my view. It's great to see such an important part of the setting get such a high quality treatment.
Thanks very much for doing it so well!
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What powers does the redkind have? Alignment?Spoiler:Neutral Evil Fey, they can change shape into a cat, child, snake, or spider. They morph shadows around them into disturbing shapes that can cause observers to be shaken. They have spell-like abilities that let them find out what you are afraid of and create that image. Their primary weapon is their claws and they occasionally hang out with a bogeyman.Strangely, if you can't see it, it has a hard time seeing you. You get partial concealment by closing your eyes, and full concealment by covering yourself with a blanket...much like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal! :D
(OK, much like a monster-under-the-bed, so rather cool!)
I still don't have my copy of this one, but I am so very happy to hear that the
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I still don't have my copy of this one, but I am so very happy to hear that the ** spoiler omitted ** survived the editing process.What powers does the redkind have? Alignment?** spoiler omitted **
Ha! Love it. Fey are some of my Fa(y-)ves because they can be this silly and interesting!
I still don't have my copy of this one
Shame on you? :)
I highly recommend it.
For those wondering who's writing this one:
** spoiler about Wario omitted **
Sorry I didn't have better news to reveal. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Mark!
That nugget about Aroden and its 'arcane' clerics... I want to stat one up (obviously) so what would you recommend? I'm looking for the 'spirit of the concept' as opposed to full-fledged stat suggestions... also, I'm looking for an upcoming PrC or archetype or something... :P :P :P
I know you're baiting me Rysky, and I'm not falling for it. You may go back to your other battles now... :)
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I know you're baiting me Rysky, and I'm not falling for it. You may go back to your other battles now... :)
I believe he was referring to the fact that Ms. Hargrave is the author of said monster, and thus does not have a copy of the book yet because she's awaiting her contributor copy from Paizo.
As for your question regarding arcane Arodenite "priests", there's no further information on them from a mechanical standpoint, so you can pretty much make them however you want. Think of them as non-evil versions of the priests of Razmir.