The town of Sandpoint has been through a lot, whether it's goblin raids, dragon attacks, or crazed killers stalking the night. In Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Sandpoint, Light of the Lost Coast, this fan-favorite town is presented in rich and vibrant detail, including full stat blocks for the region's important NPCs, dozens of quests, and expanded information on every major location in the town and the hinterlands beyond. Sandpoint, Light of the Lost Coast also includes a double-sided, pull-out poster map of Sandpoint and the surrounding area, a region that has featured prominently in Pathfinder since the campaign setting's birth in 2007, including in the best-selling Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box and iconic Adventure Paths like the Rise of the Runelords. This oversized, 96-page campaign setting book is a guide to creating your very own campaign in Pathfinder's most popular town!
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Sandpoint, Light of the Lost Coast is intended for use with the Pathfinder campaign setting, but it can be easily adapted to any fantasy world.
Note: The fugitive adhesive holding the map to the back of the book can be quite robust. Use care when removing the map from the book or fugitive adhesive from the map so as not to tear the map.
ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-080-4
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
I've read the threads and the other reviews, and many suggest that there is so much material in this book, one could do an entire adventure in Sandpoint alone! Well, actually, it's 100% true. How do I know? I was in one. THE ONE.
I had the extremely good fortune of being one of the players in James's The Shadow Under Sandpoint . All the things detailed in this book...they were there. The Old Light? Yes. Chopper's Rock, and the ghost of Jervis Stoot? OH YES. Paupers' Graves? Yep! Even Goblin Squash Stables and Hosk's big pickled goblin in a jar (first thing I looked for, actually). The Pixie's Kitten? Ah, er...um...yes.
And all the characters, from Ameiko to Pillbug Pokider, Kanker (damn him), the Red Bishop. Plus MORE. There are lots of people and places that are even new to me (and some that I really wish we could have interacted with now that I see them!).
I am thrilled to get to read this, and I am equally thrilled that everyone else does now too! To have James pull back the curtain on such a great setting has been a real treat for me. Reading through the book has brought a smile to my face as I remember some wonderful roleplaying moments that I will treasure forever. I hope that the content of this book provides all of you with similar roleplaying experiences in the years to come. THANK YOU, JAMES.
The first order I ever placed with Paizo was for Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Korvosa. It immediately went to the top of my list of “gazetteer products” produced for any system and has remained there until this week, when I received Sandpoint – Light of the Lost Coast.
This book is an absolute gem. I struggle to find anything critical to say about it. There is a great poster map – the town on one side and the surrounding countryside on the other. There’s also a brilliant two-page illustration showing the town which will prove a godsend for helping players “get” the local geography (I hope this becomes a regular feature, going forward).
This focus on usability at the game table really shines through every page of the book. There are fifty two places of interest detailed within the town. In addition to the purpose/function of each location, they all come complete with an NPC, a rumor and a plot hook (generally tied to the NPC’s rumor). The whole book is structured to help the DM really make the place feel real to the players.
There are plenty of adventure sites sketched out – not enough to run an adventure out of the book but plenty to get you started creatively. Reading it feels like you could take PCs from 1st level all the way through to their teens without ever leaving the town. The adventure sites are all set securely within the history of the town – a brilliantly balanced plot hook that gives you enough that the players won’t know what’s yours and what’s “official” yet leaves plenty of scope to build exactly the adventures your group likes.
Although brief, the section on the Sandpoint Hinterlands really stood out to me. The “areas of interest nearby” sections of town/city RPG books are rarely very good, in my experience. They generally feel tacked on and incomplete. In this case, the care the author took in the first sections is still very much in evidence. It seems like no matter what bits of the setting pique my PCs’ attention, there’ll be plenty there to help me keep them entertained.
It’s difficult to articulate exactly why this book stands out to me, but I’ve been buying “campaign starting points” since Village of Hommlet and I can honestly say this is the best one I’ve ever seen. It’s my new favourite Paizo town/city book (and I suspect it’s going to take another ten years to dislodge it).
Mr Jacobs did a fantastic job detailing the iconic town of Golarion.
If you want to use it with the original Rise of the Runelords the current Return of the Runelords or in your own home-brew game you will have more then enough details for anything you want to do.
Fully fleshed out NPC's area details, adventure hooks and rumors all included for various levels of play.
Thank you for clearing up the issues that truly matter ;-)
No really thank you for the recommendation. I had a great time in Sandpoint during the fall while we awaited official PF2 material (now we're starting Extinction Curse). A special shoutout to the artist of the bird's view of the town, very colorful and attractive and the way it's faithful to the actual map! That's what sealed the deal as to me using Sandpoint as my sandbox' "starter town".
Between the NPCs already printed in GMG and adventures, you shouldn't have much trouble grabbing existing statblocks and slightly retooling them to approximate Sandpoint NPCs.
So many of them have NPC classes (expert, commoner), that that doesn't really do much. I'm looking more for how their backgrounds/stories fit into the new ways of doing NPCs, and not so much at making them combat ready.
So many of them have NPC classes (expert, commoner), that that doesn't really do much. I'm looking more for how their backgrounds/stories fit into the new ways of doing NPCs, and not so much at making them combat ready.
That's even easier because PF2 non-combat NPCs don't even need a full statblock - you set their skills that are of relevance according to what level they are and you're .... done? NPC classes in PF1 never really made much sense anyway, a frail old master blacksmith could take a fireball to the face just because having enough skill ranks for his mastery in skills required that many levels of Expert.
What I would love right now is a PDF of the NPCs in this book, with their stat blocks converted to PF2.
Zapp wrote:
CrystalSeas wrote:
I'm looking more for how their backgrounds/stories fit into the new ways of doing NPCs
In what ways do you anticipate the "new way" of creating NPCs will change their histories?
(Genuine question - I myself would have thought the answer to be "not at all")
It helps if you read the full conversation. The stat blocks in PF1 are very different from the stat blocks in PF2. The stat blocks in PF1 have classes that are based on the background and history of the characters.
I'm looking for PF2 stat blocks for these characters that support their background and history in the same way.
I'll be honest, I never pitted the librarian and blacksmith in a fight against each other.
No me neither. The head scratching is how they survive environmental effects not battle. The octagenarian master of the Dewey decimal system is more robust than the physically fit apprentice in the prime of life.
It's just a pretty clear weakness of the "everyone follows a level based system, even the NPCs who don't need to" approach.
If you mean the posts made since you first made this request on Saturday, I didn't find any answers there. If you're thinking of posts made in the years since the thread was created, maybe you could be more specific?
Quote:
The stat blocks in PF1 are very different from the stat blocks in PF2. The stat blocks in PF1 have classes that are based on the background and history of the characters.
I'm looking for PF2 stat blocks for these characters that support their background and history in the same way.
If you're looking for "classed NPCs" I'm afraid Pathfinder 2 just doesn't work that way. NPCs are monsters that don't follow the restrictions placed on classed characters. That is, you can't look at a "Samurai NPC" and deduce how a Samurai class for player characters would work.
But maybe that's not what you were talking about? Maybe you could explain what about a NPC's "background and history" you feel are missing from existing NPCs in published PF2 adventure modules?
Don't get me wrong. Obviously I understand the sentiment "there is no level 4 Desna cleric NPC stat block and I need one for Abstalar Zantus". That part I get. (The GMG cleric is 6th level and for a different god, meaning that it's almost easier to whip up a PF2 Zantus from scratch than repurposing the GMG cleric)
What I don't get, and what I'm curious about, is what about their PF1 stat blocks you feel you aren't getting in the standard PF2 stat block format?
If I look at, say, Jabyl Sorn, she's a level 4 Monk in PF1. But when I look at her PF1 stats I'm struggling to find anything specific to her "background and history" that can't be represented in PF2?
Again, I am not aware of a good fit among existing PF2 stat blocks, so I fully understand a custom-made PF2 stat block would be a welcome addition. But as a NPC as opposed to a PC, she would likely have far fewer special abilities and instead have better offense and defense built in. Any character-specific quirks like history skills and languages would simply be added without worrying about keeping to the CRB limits on how many skills and languages a Monk player character could get. And so on...
I hope I have been able to better explain my query. Best regards Zapp
In PF2, you don't reflect the story of the NPC by class levels. Instead, you reflect it by their abilities, skills, and equipment. If your NPC is supposed to be a Cleric of Desna who used to work as basketweaver before she joined the clergy, in PF1 she would be "Cleric 3/Expert 2", in PF2 she's a Priest of Desna who happens to have high Crafting and Lore (basketweaving) modifiers on account of their old job. You build the statblocks top-down, not bottom-up, in other words.
Once you switch your thinking to the new way of building NPCs, it becomes much easier than the awkward class-based design of yore when you would end up with unkillable elderly seers or other anomalies.
What I would love right now is a PDF of the NPCs in this book, with their stat blocks converted to PF2.
Like, really really love to be able to buy one of those.
I guess I need to repeat myself, since people seem to think what I am asking for is advice. Nope, this is a product thread, not an advice forum thread.
There are more than 75 NPCs in this product, 50 of whom are fully statted. [This number does not include the custom adjusted monster entries.]
What I would like is a PDF with all 75 of those NPCs converted to PF2, including full PF2 stats for the characters that are fully statted in this book. And the custom monsters, too.
Thanks for all the advice and commentary, but what I want is to BUY a BOOK* that has these conversions (preferably done by James Jacobs himself).
*or PDF that reuses the old artwork and descriptive copy.
What I would love right now is a PDF of the NPCs in this book, with their stat blocks converted to PF2.
Like, really really love to be able to buy one of those.
I opened up my book seeing if existing NPC stats could be repurposed for this usage.
But then you wrote:
CrystalSeas wrote:
So many of them have NPC classes (expert, commoner), that that doesn't really do much. I'm looking more for how their backgrounds/stories fit into the new ways of doing NPCs, and not so much at making them combat ready.
This made me pause. Maybe you were after something else. I thought I'd better ask. If for no other reason than even if Paizo stood at the ready to fulfil your wish, if you're not looking for the PF2 way of doing NPCs you wouldn't be satisfied with the result...
Zapp wrote:
In what ways do you anticipate the "new way" of creating NPCs will change their histories?
(Genuine question - I myself would have thought the answer to be "not at all")
I'm afraid I still remain unsure what you're looking for.
How DO "their backgrounds/stories" fit into the "new ways of doing NPCs" according to you?
For instance, have you access to the non-combat NPCs of the GMG? Does that approach work for you?
