I see over on Amazon that Paizo's own Mike McArtor and Wesley Schneider are co-authors of Complete Scoundrel, a D&D acessory to be released in early January.
Congrats on the assignment and the author creds, guys. Condolences on the post-X-mas release. Any chance it'll move up?
(Not that it would fit in my Christmas stockings, but having Mike and Wes under my Christmas tree would be nicer than having them show up for the Super Bowl. But I guess, being scoundrels, that's the way it's gotta be.)
Other than it being a Complete look at Scoundrels that lists at $29.95, any hints as to its contents? I assume it goes without saying there'll be new feats, equipment, spells and core classes. But what else?
(Like a chapter on how to run a really, really scoundrel-like campaign? What do you do if your DM is a bigger scoundrel than anyone sitting round the table? )
C'mon, Mike and Wes, be a scoundrel. A REAL scoundrel would ignore that non disclosure agreement and spill the beans. It'd be just between us. I promise not to tell anyone else. :)
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C'mon, Mike and Wes, be a scoundrel. A REAL scoundrel would ignore that non disclosure agreement and spill the beans. It'd be just between us. I promise not to tell anyone else. :)
Ha! :P
I can tell you that its contents will be 100% compatible with the 3.5 rules set, that Wes is a great writer and fun to work with, and that I think players of scoundrelly characters will enjoy the book. :)
Let's start a random, wild and false rumor:
"Actually, it will be one of the first books for 4.0. The Bard class has been revised, stripped of its singing abilities and is now named Scoundrel. With 4.0, you'll need to buy a book for each separate class, the PHB will not exist as such any more."
;-)
Bocklin
PS: More seriously, it sounds like a potentially interesting book. I wonder how it will be different from Complete Adventurer, though (which I thought was the book for roguish/scoundrelish characters; but then again, I thought that Complete Arcane was the book for wizards and now you have a Complete Mage coming out...)
This is probably a book that was WAY overdue. All of the more powerful character classes got their due, now its time for the shifty-eyed masses to revel.
Rogues need all the help they can get.
I'm still waiting for someone to write Complete Peasant and Complete Habberdasher. Including recommendations on what to take as your single simple weapon proficiency (dagger or quarterstaff?), what kind of ploughs are good for different climates, crop rotation levelling schemes. Complete Habberdasher will include options for making different styles of hat that will effect one's disguise bonus, hat based prestige classes (Hmm, I was gearing up for the Cowboy PrC, but Shriner is starting to look good...) and the long awaited errata on the grossly unbalanced craft (habberdasher) skill.
C'mon, guys. The way things are going, you'll have Complete Multi-classed, Complete Classes We Made Up In the Other Complete Books With New Classes We Made Up Based On Those and all kinds of other redundant character options. I would think Complete Adventurer sounds an awful lot like Complete Scoundrel.
Adventurers and scoundrels are quite different. The flavor of the two books, CV and CS, should (logically) follow suit.
I wonder how it will be different from Complete Adventurer, though (which I thought was the book for roguish/scoundrelish characters; but then again, I thought that Complete Arcane was the book for wizards and now you have a Complete Mage coming out...)
My guess is that the differences will be more evident once we see the material for Complete Mage and understand its relationship with Complete Arcane.
Just idly wondering how the ninja-loving creator of the late Vyth the Unspeaking got tabbed to write a book about Scoundrels.
I mean, aren't Pirates a sort of scoundrel?
Question: Would Compl. Scoundrels come in handy in the upcoming third Adventure Path?
neat find! :)
And November will see the release of "The Complete Mage." What else is going to go in the Complete series?
Actually, October.
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Just idly wondering how the ninja-loving creator of the late Vyth the Unspeaking got tabbed to write a book about Scoundrels.
Well, you know, ninjas can be scoundrelly. They are, after all, hidden and unseen and use mystical abilities. :)
I mean, aren't Pirates a sort of scoundrel?
Pirates. Pshaw.
Question: Would Compl. Scoundrels come in handy in the upcoming third Adventure Path?
Complete Scoundrel will come in hand in every campaign, in every setting, for every RPG rules set. Ever. Every player should buy two. In fact, every player should buy three: two for himself and one for his grandma. You know, the grandma who bakes cookies. Because Complete Scoundrel is gonna be like cookies. It's gonna be sweet.
Although, I might be slightly biased...
Have you ever considered a career in advertising, Mike? ;)
Well, you know, ninjas can be scoundrelly. They are, after all, hidden and unseen and use mystical abilities. :)
Hidden? They wear more black than Johnny Cash. They stick out like sore thumbs.
BTW, our newspaper ran a feature on Grand Master Masaaki Hatsumi -- the last living master of ninjutsu.
Master Masaaki's advice?: "Always be able to kill your students."
Nice guy.
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Let's start a random, wild and false rumor:
"Actually, it will be one of the first books for 4.0. The Bard class has been revised, stripped of its singing abilities and is now named Scoundrel. With 4.0, you'll need to buy a book for each separate class, the PHB will not exist as such any more."
Please don't give those greedy b@$t@rds at WotC any ideas.
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And November will see the release of "The Complete Mage." What else is going to go in the Complete series?
????!!!! What will that have in it that isn't in Complete Arcane? Sounds more like the Complete Cash-in. Or completely slaughtering the cash cow. Ah well, it might be great for all I know......
The only details I've seen about Complete Mage so far is that it'll be a companion book to Complete Arcane. I'm looking forward to learning more about it at GenCon actually.
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So answer me this: How is it that a company, whose sole purpose for being is to generate profit, is greedy? My guess is, the company you work for also exists to make profit. That doesn't make it greedy, that makes it a company. Nobody is making you buy the new D&D books. Wizards of the Coast is making them available to those who are interested in them. If you don't want to buy them, don't. It's that easy. :)
I think the 4.0 Player's Handbook should be randomized. You can buy the basic pack for $29.99, which gets you a 3-ring binder and 20 random pages of core 4.0 PH rules.
Then you can buy 10 page booster packs at $9.99 each, and eventually work to get the entire 224-page collection in your binder!
Yay!! :)
So answer me this: How is it that a company, whose sole purpose for being is to generate profit, is greedy? My guess is, the company you work for also exists to make profit. That doesn't make it greedy, that makes it a company.
Heh. I don't know how many times I've had this argument about life in general. I work for an insurance company, and our members seem to think that we exist to bankrupt ourselves so that they don't have to pay medical. ;0
Same with gaming. WotC sees a potential market (something, IMO, they are good at). WotC sells to that market. If it picks up, good. If it doesn't, darn. Let's try another market...
I love gaming. I'd love to be paid to create game systems. If I was doing it for a living, I need to be either a) paid or b) independently wealthy. If there aren't new revenue streams, then there won't be more money. See a) in the last sentence. =)
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So answer me this: How is it that a company, whose sole purpose for being is to generate profit, is greedy? My guess is, the company you work for also exists to make profit. That doesn't make it greedy, that makes it a company. Nobody is making you buy the new D&D books. Wizards of the Coast is making them available to those who are interested in them. If you don't want to buy them, don't. It's that easy. :)
Hey, I'm just going with the flow. Don't you know that every company that makes a profit is a greedy corporation that wants to build mini-malls where poor people live, wipe out all the spotted owls so that I can have a new feather duster, and basically destroy humanity for the sake of a few billion dollars.
I say "Earth First!...We'll strip mine the other planets later."
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I think the 4.0 Player's Handbook should be randomized. You can buy the basic pack for $29.99, which gets you a 3-ring binder and 20 random pages of core 4.0 PH rules.
Then you can buy 10 page booster packs at $9.99 each, and eventually work to get the entire 224-page collection in your binder!
Yay!! :)
That would work great for the Monster Manuals. No more numerical designation. One big binder (or a couple of small ones), and then just keep adding booster packs.
Sweet!
Sounds like the 2.0 Monstrous Compendium. ;)
Sounds like the 2.0 Monstrous Compendium. ;)No no, it would be completely different! It would be collectible, with three different rarity levels! The tarrasque, for example, would be rare.
My brain....leaking....and .... yet....valid business model....
*thud*
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So answer me this: How is it that a company, whose sole purpose for being is to generate profit, is greedy? My guess is, the company you work for also exists to make profit. That doesn't make it greedy, that makes it a company. Nobody is making you buy the new D&D books. Wizards of the Coast is making them available to those who are interested in them. If you don't want to buy them, don't. It's that easy. :)
Ah Mike, very few of us (especially me) object to the profit motive. But I think most of us object to poor product. Dare I say it, but not all of the products issued by WotC are of equal quality. Sometimes, they have been known to issue supplements that were actually a bit poor, derivative, and pointless. Sometimes it is bad luck, but often a supplement like that has been poorly conceived in the first place and rushed out thoughlessly. Why? To make a quick buck off the unsuspecting public. That isn't just the profit motive - that is abuse of the customer base.
Now, I'm not condemning the Complete Scoundrel - like I say above, it might be great. But it will need to be, because it really sounds a lot like the Complete Adventurer. If it cannot distinguish itself as a decent product (I remember Champions of Ruin v Lords of Darkness - the latter made the former seem like a pointless, cheap and nasty cash-in full of padding and game designers' offcuts, rather than a coherent product) it will merely irritate the reading public.
So there is nothing wrong with the profit motive. There is a lot wrong with treating the gaming public as a bunch of shmucks who will buy any old crap. And that, funnily enough, is bad for business.
So answer me this: How is it that a company, whose sole purpose for being is to generate profit, is greedy? My guess is, the company you work for also exists to make profit. That doesn't make it greedy, that makes it a company. Nobody is making you buy the new D&D books. Wizards of the Coast is making them available to those who are interested in them. If you don't want to buy them, don't. It's that easy. :)
But it's NOT that easy- it would be, if WotC wouldn't keep sending clerics of Waukeen into my room at night and casting spells compelling me to buy whatever they publish. (Scowls) I'm on to you.
Complete Habberdasher will include options for making different styles of hat that will effect one's disguise bonus, hat based prestige classes (Hmm, I was gearing up for the Cowboy PrC, but Shriner is starting to look good...) and the long awaited errata on the grossly unbalanced craft (habberdasher) skill.
I recently came upon some prerelease information on the long-awaited Complete Haberdasher, and frankly, it's what D&D should have been from the beginning. I'll share with you some of what I've acquired:
Complete Haberdasher - Chapter 3-3/4: Prestige Classes
The Mad Hatter
All haberdashers are by nature a little nutty (who uses a hat as their primary means of offense and defense?), the mad hatter takes this to an extreme. Fops make great mad hatters, and fop/bards enjoy unique advantages. Dandies may also consider taking levels in mad hatter, but gallants and milliners will have trouble meeting the prerequisites.
Setup
d6. BAB 3/4. Fort 1/3. Ref 1/3. Will 1/3. BSP 4.
Prerequisites
Alignment: Any non-lawful
Skills: Craft (haberdasher) 2 ranks, Disguise 4 ranks, Knowledge (nobility and royalty) 6 ranks
Haberdashery: Access to 3 or more foppish hats of 2nd level or higher.
Special: Must have worn a hat with the {mercury-lined} descriptor for 1 full week.
Special Abilities
Lvl Special Abilities Haberdashery
1 hatter's insight, madness +1 hatter level
2 twitchery, madness +1 hatter level
3 madness, truth in madness -
Hatter's Insight (Ex): Though mad hatters are by definition off their rockers, they can sometimes come to a sort of perfect clarity. Once per round, a mad hatter may add his Charisma modifier as an insight bonus to any saving throw (minimum +1). This ability must be used before the roll is made. This ability may be used a number of times per day equal to the mad hatter's madness score.
Twitchery (Ex): For reasons no one has yet determined, mad hatters gain this ability at 2nd level. Mad hatters gain a dodge bonus to AC equal to their class level. In addition, a mad hatter may once per round make a madness check (1d20 + madness score) against a DC of 10. Success grants the mad hatter a +2 dodge bonus to all Dexterity-based rolls that round. Failure penalizes the mad hatter on those rolls by the same amount. This ability must be used before the mad hatter makes any rolls for that round.
Truth in Madness (Su): The mad hatter's mind has shattered by this time. Against any spell or ability with a mind-affecting effect, he gains a second saving throw (at the same DC) to avoid the effects. In addition, anyone attempting to discern his thoughts through any means (detect thoughts spell, illithid skull cap, etc.) must make a saving throw (DC 15 plus the mad hatter's Charisma modifier) or become confused (as the spell).
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Unfortunately, skills and the critical information about the madness ability are missing from this prerelease document (but perhaps that is for the best!). Enjoy!
TK
Paizo: Your ONLY source for Complete Haberdasher prerelease information.
So now that the Wizards catalog announcement is out ... can we get some teasers out of Mike or Wes?
Surely, that information is inside and just bursting to get out -- sorta like the worm in John Hurt's belly in "Alien."
Give us a taste of what your vision for Complete Scoundrels can be. (whiney voice) Pretty please ...
I'm still waiting for someone to write Complete Peasant and Complete Habberdasher. Including recommendations on what to take as your single simple weapon proficiency (dagger or quarterstaff?)
Hahaha but at least D&D isn't like the ridiculous number of Magic card expansions. I'd hate to have to buy a new expansion every couple months just to stay current. Complete Whatever books are easy to make fun of but at least there's new scoundrel ideas for the masses. And go with the dagger and wondrous hat creation feat :)
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So now that the Wizards catalog announcement is out ... can we get some teasers out of Mike or Wes?
Surely, that information is inside and just bursting to get out -- sorta like the worm in John Hurt's belly in "Alien."
Give us a taste of what your vision for Complete Scoundrels can be. (whiney voice) Pretty please ...
I don't want to scoop ourselves, as Dragon is about to talk about Complete Scoundrel in First Watch. (I say "about to" because we're currently working on the issue in which that particular snippet will appear.)
Once I've seen the write-up for CS, I'll be able to talk more freely about what's going to be inside.
I mean, we all know it's going to be full of awesome, but then I can tell you a little more about which sweet and delicious flavors of awesome it will contain. ;D
Yeah, Complete Mage is pretty cool, but Complete Scoundrel will be even better!*
But I'm certainly not biased. ;D
* This unsubstantiated claim brought to you by Cloak and Dagger brand gadgets. Cloak and Dagger: For all your scoundrelly needs.
I can't friggin wait. I love playing scoundrels. Scoundrels are the only truly interesting heroes in my book. Episode I, II, and III sucked monkey balls for many reasons, but the biggest reason - no scoundrels. No Han Solos, No Lando Calrissians. Sad.
I'll bet this book is tastylicious!
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I can't friggin wait. I love playing scoundrels. Scoundrels are the only truly interesting heroes in my book. Episode I, II, and III sucked monkey balls for many reasons, but the biggest reason - no scoundrels. No Han Solos, No Lando Calrissians. Sad.
I'll bet this book is tastylicious!
I've always enjoyed good-guy scoundrel characters in movies and books (Han Solo is still my favorite SW character) but I've never been much for playing them in D&D. That's changed quite a bit since I wrote this book, but although I now am far more likely to play a roguish character I'm afraid I don't play them very well. Most just end up as psychopathic murderers. :\
But yeah, I hope the book is as tastylicious as you hope it is! :D
I'll take 4.
Woot! WotC might actually sell a half-dozen, then. ;D
And since we all know you're a Ninja fan, I hope there's some Ninja goodness in Complete Scoundrel. :D
Complete Mage was pretty awesome, and I hope CS is along the same lines, if not better.
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And since we all know you're a Ninja fan, I hope there's some Ninja goodness in Complete Scoundrel. :D
Ninja support? Oh my yes. About half of what I wrote for ninjas got cut, but there's still plenty of ninja-lovin's. :)
Complete Mage was pretty awesome, and I hope CS is along the same lines, if not better.
I agree 100%! :)
I've already pre-ordered mine. As soon as I heard about Complete Scoundrel I began to figure out how to make it mine. After I succeeded on several diplomacy checks against my wife (despite her Control Gaming Spending (Su) ability), I was able to place my order.
El Skootro
P.S. Pirates are cooler than ninjas. Unless they are Gnome Gninjas.
Mike or Wes:
Please .... drop .... hints .... soon .... :-)
I'm an in-complete scoundrel without them.
(BTW, mine's already on order with my FLGS. A little post-Christmas present. Ka-ching.)
After I succeeded on several diplomacy checks against my wife (despite her Control Gaming Spending (Su) ability), I was able to place my order.
Your wife and mine must belong to the prestige class, cuz mine has that ability too! Unfortunately, my diplomacy never beats here sense motive check!
I already ordered 5! 3 for me, and 2 for grandma!
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A comprehensive list of feats and detailed writeups of all the prestige classes sounds like a good place to start ;)
Ya know, hints.
Oh sure, I gotcha. Well let's see... there's the Fat Chance feat, in which I tell get to tell you that I can't reveal that much information; the Not Likely feat, wherein I chuckle at your post and respond in an absurd and non-useful manner; the I Can't Do That feat, which grants me the ability to cop out of answering by declaring it would violate my NDA... and so on and so forth... ;D
I will tell you this much: There are a couple of new systems in the book and each one gets some support from feats and prestige classes. Also, more support for classes from Complete Adventurer as well as for bards (yes, bards) and rogues.
Oh, and something in there inspired by an article Hal Maclean wrote for Class Acts. As if we really needed to reiterate Dragon's importance to D&D. ;)
What kind of hints would you like to know? :)
You are such a tease ...
Oh, and something in there inspired by an article Hal Maclean wrote for Class Acts. As if we really needed to reiterate Dragon's importance to D&D. ;)
Must check back issues ...