I definitely second the thought about new deities. It would be fantastic if every new deity introduced had the same level of detail as a "Core Beliefs" article!
I like the summoning lists. I also wanted, when it got to dragons, in the back matter, a list of what each part can be used for - used to reduce cost of crafting items, potions, and then I figured, why limit it to dragons? For many, most, or even all monsters, I want to know what the dead ones might be used for - who would want the parts and why? What are the economics of creature (animal, mosters, magical beasts, etc.) parts? I think having these things be worth something is one more reason for people to undertake the dangerous career of adventuring.
Unrelated to the above, when you use older dragons, make their hoards big! The hoard size in the rules as written just doesn't seem to have the "we just took out a dragon!" factor as back in the day when I played basic, 2e Greyhawk, and so on.
I really liked the planar allies from core beliefs. This may work better after pathfinder has built itself up a collection of critters.
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The uses for the monster body parts included in ecology articles would be cool. I actually have a player who just revealed to me his desire to use the choicest(sp?) parts of certain creatures as reagents to help power and augment his spells. Now I will have to hop over to the Dragon forum and see if anyone can remember any articles in past issues along these lines.
Tam
Creative Director
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Scavanging body parts from monsters is not likely to be something Pathfinder is going to support. Mostly because it kind of wreaks havoc on the game's economy. If a basilisk's eyes are worth 6,000 gold, then you can't realy justify giving it any treasure, for example. Suddenly, each wandering monster table becomes a wandering treasure table.
I want History, A reason for everything being there. I want to be able to answear all those stupid bard questions.
Material that encourages active roleplaying. Maybe its just me, but it seems like 95% of the PHB is for the roll-playing aspect of the game. You get a bit of stuff to work with under the description of each race, and alignment helps- when its not creating arguments. Umm...then there's height, weight and go off of. Oh yeah, religion/gods. Hmm. Well, Unearthed Arcana allows Flaws & Traits! And I'm sure the PHB II has something too!! :P
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but by & large, most of the core books are filled with pages of what essentially are dice modifiers for various actions.
I'd like to see things that really 'breathe life' into this world we're reading about. Give the players that which they can draw upon for truly better roleplaying and give the GM the resources to have their players interact with a true world.
Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt
I'd like to see things that really 'breathe life' into this world we're reading about.
Yeah, mechanics that support the world and not vice versa, or worse, mechanics that just sort of sit there and are supposed to be cool enough to stand on their own.
One of my chief design goals for Pathfinder is that the flavor should drive the crunch.
This heads right to the root of the questions on prestige classes, affiliations, and whatnot. PrCs were originally intended to represent story-specific roles, not just represent high-powered class options. If Paizo goes back to the original intent (fingers crossed), you'll see less prestige classes, but the ones you do see will be more dynamic and intriguing.
Of course, that assumes they can create anything that's intriguing and dynamic. The jury is still out on that one... goblins? Ha!
/me ducks
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Creative Director
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This heads right to the root of the questions on prestige classes, affiliations, and whatnot. PrCs were originally intended to represent story-specific roles, not just represent high-powered class options. If Paizo goes back to the original intent (fingers crossed), you'll see less prestige classes, but the ones you do see will be more dynamic and intriguing.
That's absolutely the way I'll be treating new prestige classes in Pathfinder. Although you can expect to see some from the SRD and OGL/d20 products popping up now and then too, as the story demands.
I actually disagree with that last point (shocker, eh?). I've found it annoying, honestly, that Dragon had been offering fewer and fewer prestige classes as of late. If I wanted to be entertained, I'd read a novel, or kick back with Faiths and Pantheons. Crunch > Fluff in a magazine (but then, I guess Pathfinder is going to be a book, but still). I guess a lot of it goes to my favorite part of Unearthed Arcana that I haven't really seen expanded anywhere: generic classes (I love the ability to just take a blank slate and run with it). I'm aware of what the original design of Prestige Classes "was," but you can't put ten gallons of poop back into a five pound bag (or maybe you can? Stinking weights and measures....). Time to either expand the definition, or make something new that is a subset of the original intention.
I wish there were a Pathfinder-DM screen and character sheets!
I wish there were a Pathfinder-DM screen and character sheets!
Bah, you just want that cause it'd be covered by WAR art.
er . . . Hmm . . . replace "you" with "we"!
Yay!
I confess! But stop torturing me with a long waiting period for it!
it would be cool if every issue had one page of a new lair for some random monster like the old book of lairs; one page that detailed a monster in a lair with some treasure and how the mob affects the area around its lair, or even two pages; then at the end of the year you could release those pages in a bound supplements called your book of lairs for that year for those non subscribers.
Seems like pathfinder would have long story arcs so they would have a lot of npc's in use; I would like to see the major ones written up on character sheets at the end of the publication for ease of play and copying so I wouldnt have to constantly flip back and forth through the issue while running and adventure; and additionally, a complete list of minor npc's like an index or on a table with a short reminder blurb about their purpose and attitued. I like to have all my in depth npcs on sheets and papercliped to my dm screens so I have all their info right in front of me; who knows; maybe you could also release at the end of the year; a book of NPC's for given year; lot of peeps need npcs of every level, craft, class, whatnot; this might be a handy resource.
hehe I could probably write ideas like this for an hour so I better stop now.
What I would like would be side-trek locations in each Pathfinder book that can easily be transplanted into any campaign in any setting. I understand that the Pathfinder series are going to be generic enough to be transposable just about anywhere, but I would appreciate new twists on old ideas for the short adventure, and a single-map snapshot that can easily be used anywhere would be priceless.
Since we won't be getting 3 adventures across all levels anymore, I think that this is necessary to maintain issue to issue relevance for most gaming groups. For instance, it would be nice to have a low or mid level adventure locale in a high level Pathfinder issue - something for the cohorts to blow through or for the high level heroes to obliterate. This locale can be referred to in later Pathfinder series to boost levels or treasure where necessary and would attract buyers even from group who do not like to play high level.
Likewise, it would be nice to have a mid to high level locale even in a low level adventure Pathfinder in order to lend verisimilitude to the world. The group can always stumble onto it later in the series when it becomes level-appropriate, and it creates a "status quo" feel to the adventure setting.
The 3 adventure format has been successful for Dungeon these past months, and I think that it's something that most if not all people appreciated.
One thing the authors did with the Ravenloft 3e line was very clever: instead of just showing background story for let's say a town or a NPC, they added many "adventure hooks" in the form of short sidebars.
Those adventure hooks and what-if "Dread Possibilities" (as they are called in RL books) are cool option adventure leads, that DM can easily develop for his game (as sidetrek, or adventure optional chapters). This way, a DM can tailor his campaign by adding these to the Path.
This gets the whole text much more rich AND useful.
A suggestion for Pathfinder!
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Can we have an horror October issue? :D
Joël
One of my chief design goals for Pathfinder is that the flavor should drive the crunch. If there's crunch just for crunch's sake, all you have is uncooked noodles.
Worst Analogy Ever.
But you get the point. Flavor > Crunch.
*lol*, but I'm for it too (not the analogy, but the flavor focus :)
D&D is about stories, not combat rules for the sake of it.
Joël
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My main hope for the setting is that it doesn't try to shoehorn all of their deities into groups of pantheons. One of my favorite D&D products in the last few years has been Faiths of Eberron simply because of the diversity of the religions...a couple pantheons, a monotheistic religion, a few cults of personality, a naturalist religion, etc...
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What I would love to see is the maps be removable from the book. Thus you're not flipping back and forth through the product to find the information you need for some room.
That and stat blocks at their appropriate place. I would rather like to have all the forshadowing and motivation of the encounter before I need to get to the protagonist of said encounter.
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I would like to have the stat-blocks in the accompanying PDF actually to be in the back of the file, and single stat-blocks not spreading over two pages, so that it's easier to print and use them!
I would like to have monster tokens again!
I would like to have a DM screen!
I would like to as much art as you can squeeze into it, because handouts are so cool to have. Don't start explaining how people of Magnimar look like, show them!
I would like to have more ideas of what I would like to have in Pathfinder... ;)
I just read yesterday's blog and this got my hopes up on convertibility (is that even a word?... yes, I just looked it up):
Gods and Demons: Similar to my feelings on monsters, I think that gods and demons (somewhat interchangeable terms in our world) are the most fun when they have engaging stories...
(Emphasis mine)
This idea sounds awesome, and is pretty much the way I treat gods in my campaign. Makes regional gods possible without upsetting other parts of the world.
So I guess, wish granted to me!
I would like to have monster tokens again!
Man, I almost forgot tokens. Always nice to have.
Man, I almost forgot tokens. Always nice to have.
I would like to have monster tokens again!
I used my tokens in the ground, I would still be using them If I did not lose them in a move.
I'll pay someone a bright shiny english pound if they post 'no Nic Logue adventures...
ok two pounds
Ten pounds then...
OK, twenty pounds, twenty pounds...
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
OK, let's try this one, I'll pay someone a bright shiny english pound if they post 'no Greg Vaughn adventures...
erm, three pounds...
Oh I see - I SEE! Right, that's the way it's going to be is it - right, right, that's it then - the new Logue/Vaughn monthly - I see
sniff...
No Nic Logue adventures!!!
...the things I do for you Pett.
Now, where's Nic's money?No Nic Logue adventures!!!
...the things I do for you Pett.
LOL!
Good looking out Tessius! :-)
Hey Pett, you're supposed to take that medication THREE TIMES A DAY!
Some random things I would like to see:
Concerning form: A cardboard collectors case for every AP, complete with poster maps (perhaps one of the country and one of the main city or whatever the main feature is), a DMs screen with some cool art on the outside (Wayne Reynolds?) and smaller DMs maps and AP-related info on the inside (don´t give me some odd combat tables here).
Concerning content: Try to make it usable for other settings as well (can you say conversion notes?).
As others have said, if you introduce new gods or other elements, please explain them well, as in the core beliefs or demonomicon articles.
Give background information that counts for the story, so that all these nice skills have some practical application. As James stated, the flavor should drive the crunch.
Definitely collect some ideas that DMs can build upon, and print them as further adventure hooks.
Player handouts - maps, portraits of possible PCs and major NPCs, scenes and settings.
Monster tokens until we can get the minis :-)
And no collectible (as in randomly packaged) stuff whatsoever!
Wait... didn´t I say that I will give it a try, rather than dive in headlong? Oh, what the hell...
Stefan
I don't actually want to see new classes: Ever since they started showing up in the Miniatures handbook (or was it earlier than that), I felt that they were stupid. The whole reason PrC's exist was that, combined with the deliberately generic base classes you could make any character achetype you wanted, without changing the core. AThey are pretty much all mechanically needless (Ninja and scout, for example, are multiclass rogues), or just dumb(Marshalls have auras! No, this isn't just a setup to make what we want in the minis game.) The Psionic base classes were tolerable, but alot of the psionic mechanics still seemed tacked on.
Also, as a M, I am familiar witht he unbounded power level problem, which new bases classes exerbate. Broken multiclassing options get easier the more things that can be done at low levels. Also, challenge rating stops working properly when you step too far away from the traditional adventuring party.
I understand that there are others who will disagree with me, so if Paizo wants to stick the odd base class in, I won't get upset (I just wont use it at my table). I would greatly prefer prestige classes to base classes, though.
Okay. Deep breath.
The PDF is a goldmine of opportunity.
I have a few suggestions that may be unlikely to bear fruit, but I intend to lay them out here just to spread some memes around.
Often, the main stat block is long, because it needs to explain and clarify rules, abilities, feats, special attacks and similar.
Have a supplementary combat block for each creature that is about half an a4 page. Include a sheet that is the same size for a DM record of the PCs.
The cards can then be used to keep track of initiative. HP and conditions and modifiers can be written directly onto the cards. As each participant takes their turn, their card can be put at the back.
If the cards are standard, they will become as easy to read as character sheets are now.
Added value for customers could come from releasing the code to make the cards for our own games.
The treasure in an adventure is also the cause of a bit of a bookkeeping chore. What of having something like Treasure cards for the stuff in the AP. An illustration of the item on one side and stats on the other. Again, it would be printable from a pdf, so the cards could have checkboxes for charges, lines for command words. Put the wow factor back in that magical shortsword, and make the players happy.
If there is a recurring villain, Like Vanthus, the illustrations could be a full body shot with an inset head shot. As the villain develops, new stat cards could easily modify the artwork to show the changes the villain has undergone. Same easily applies to N.P.Cs and other significant others.
The tactics block usually includes round by round strategies for BBEGs and monsters. In a PDF statbook, you could have a standard format with checkboxes as actions are taken. I know that is restrictive, but there is no print cost unless someone chooses to use it.
Give more options, give the stuff that was edited out as source.
Crowdsource. We are here.
Get enough sleep. Yes you! Creativity needs dreams.
I'd wish for a not as fast level advancement compared to the Dungeon magazine adventures. The Pathfinder adventures seem meaty, so this might well be the case.
Would any of the authors bother to chime in and tell us about this?
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I'd wish for a not as fast level advancement compared to the Dungeon magazine adventures. The Pathfinder adventures seem meaty, so this might well be the case.
Would any of the authors bother to chime in and tell us about this?
Uh, the Dungeon magazine adventures use the standard rewards to give regular advancement. Add up the XP for the various monster encounters and do the math yourself. Anything involving similar numbers of monsters and challenges would go just as fast.
Of course, your speed may vary, based on group size, since the Dungeon stuff is optimized for four players.