
Evan Tarlton |
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42, eh? We know 4: T-B, Old Mage Jatembe, the Hurricane Queen, and Abrogail Thune. That leaves 38. Who else do we think is going to show up? I expect that Sorshen and Baba Yaga are locks. Eando Kline as THE Pathfinder, Blood Mistress Jakalyn as THE Red Mantis. The bit about "distant past" could apply to Jatembe, but it could just as easily be applied to Nex. Geb is also a strong possibility. The "all around the globe" bit strongly hints at Ameiko Kaijitsu.

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From the office of expectation management:
There won't be stat blocks for any of the characters featured in this book.
Part of the reason for this decision is that we haven't nailed down the exact level/abilities of some of the featured characters as some of them are newer or even brand new. In other cases, we don't necessarily have the rules to support every aspect of a character (e.g. gun rules for characters who use guns or stats for characters higher than 25th level).
If and when these characters need stats, we will be providing them for the stories we want to tell. In the meanwhile, keeping them without stats allows GMs to use the stats that best fit their game. For example, if you decided that Jatembe has grown weaker since the last time he was seen, he can be a lower level for your particular game.
Rather than locking in stats and forcing stories to be told at specific levels, we wanted to keep things open for all groups (and ourselves!) to tell the stories that work best for their games. For now, you can expect a lot of information on the background, personality, and relationships of the featured characters with a healthy sprinkling of plot hooks. We're excited to see everyone's feelings and reactions on the format to see if it's something that might work for similar products in the future.
Once the book comes out (at GenCon!), let us know what you think!

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Any chance it'll feature Eziah? I'd love to learn more about him.
This book covers figures from the Inner Sea Region for the most part. Eziah would be perfect to add to a list of theoretical characters for a follow up to this book. I could totally see us doing another book in this vein that covers characters from greater Golarion and beyond if this does well enough!

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zer0darkfire wrote:Any chance it'll feature Eziah? I'd love to learn more about him.This book covers figures from the Inner Sea Region for the most part. Eziah would be perfect to add to a list of theoretical characters for a follow up to this book. I could totally see us doing another book in this vein that covers characters from greater Golarion and beyond if this does well enough!
Ah ok. I knew the dude lived on the sun, wasn't sure if if was from the inner sea originally or not. Thanks Luis!

Heine Stick |
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I'd love to see a book like this feature the iconics, including the iconics from classes that have yet to feature in Pathfinder 2nd Edition. It'd be cool to see them get a multi-page lore-specific treatment each.
For this particular book, I have to say that I'm tickled pink by the lack of stat blocks. The reasoning made by Mr. Loza makes a ton of sense, and it leaves more room for lore.

Mordine |
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I appreciate content, but it’s frustrating when stuff is released half cocked. No stat blocks because we haven’t made up the rules yet? The age of ashes pawns aren’t coming out for, presumably, 3 months after the final module. Maybe that’s normal, but it seems ridiculous. I’m pretty sure the bestiary pawns were scheduled for November until November then it jumped to January. The creative works being released are awesomely imaginative, but the schedule leave much to be desired.

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Yes, the pawns come in after the AP is finished because they need all the art made and actually existing to put on the pawns. Blank pawns aren't good sellers from what I'd imagine.
As for intentionally foregoing statblocks for such high end NPCs? That's a good thing, the system is still new with more stuff being added, let's get some of that and then get the stats, otherwise you make them fresh when there's little rules and they might end up bland.
Which is what happened with Mythic Realms in P1, all the legendary characters therein were rather bland, there stuff was just number boosts rather than hosts of cool abilities.

VerBeeker |
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VerBeeker wrote:My only question would be if Queen Gallifrey would count for this book or the beyond one since...isn’t it canon she’s ascended to her Iomedae’s Herald?Queen Gallifrey... isn't she from the constellation of Kasterborous?
I...have just now realized I've been spelling and saying her name wrong for years.

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Laughing Hyacinth please.
(I know they probably won't be in there.)
Can't wait for that book! And I'm kinda happy there won't be stat blocks. Better to have a detailed description of who they are, and letting us build them to fit our interpretation.
In PF1, there was lot of instances were a very old stat blocks created conflicts with later lore stuff/newer stat blocks (people mixing both together in their unreliable memories etc).

The Gleeful Grognard |
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I appreciate content, but it’s frustrating when stuff is released half cocked. No stat blocks because we haven’t made up the rules yet? The age of ashes pawns aren’t coming out for, presumably, 3 months after the final module. Maybe that’s normal, but it seems ridiculous. I’m pretty sure the bestiary pawns were scheduled for November until November then it jumped to January. The creative works being released are awesomely imaginative, but the schedule leave much to be desired.
They can't do the pawns until all the art is done, then it takes time to print and distribute...
And this book isn't a bestiary so I am not sure what your complaint is.

Steve Geddes |
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I appreciate content, but it’s frustrating when stuff is released half cocked. No stat blocks because we haven’t made up the rules yet? The age of ashes pawns aren’t coming out for, presumably, 3 months after the final module. Maybe that’s normal, but it seems ridiculous. I’m pretty sure the bestiary pawns were scheduled for November until November then it jumped to January. The creative works being released are awesomely imaginative, but the schedule leave much to be desired.
It is normal for Paizo (and for good reasons - there is such a lot of content coming out all the time and it's often quite inter-related. That means the alternative is releasing a few hundred dollars worth of product in one go then nothing for six months, then another few hundred dollars - which would be a nightmare cashflow wise for the company, not to mention extremely unpopular).
FWIW, it's nearly always a better outcome to wait until an AP is released before running it anyhow. The DM will be better prepared then and better able to judge how the AP is developing and what changes need to be made sooner rather than later - a serendipitous result of this approach is that pawns, mapsets and other such paraphernalia are generally out by then.
Another perspective worth considering is that APs remain being played for years - although the keen beans are not so well served by the necessity of Paizo's production schedule, they are in a pretty small minority. Delays of a book's launch by a few months feels terrible but in the big scheme of things is a pretty insignificant blip. There were plenty of staggered releases and even delays and release date slippages early on in PF1's life - at the time they seemed calamitous disasters....now I struggle to even remember which books came out late since it's all old history.
The problem of wanting to release creative material but not yet having the rules to support it is an intractable one (in the case of an ever evolving system like Pathfinder). They could release a witch NPC now....but the rules for witches are currently being playtested, so they'll be inconsistent in a few months time. They could similarly stat up these mega-powerful entities now....but when/if they get around to doing mythic rules in a few years those statblocks (which the fanbase will consider "set in stone" and canon) are suddenly all wrong.
There are gunslingers in Golarion but no rules for guns. There all kinds of rules elements which are needed to tell the stories Paizo tell and which aren't yet in existence. The gaps in the rules at any given moment are a fact of life it's worth reconciling yourself to, in my experience. By adopting the approach Paizo are in this book you at least know that when a rules element or statblock IS included, you can have more confidence it's going to remain largely unchanged.