Creative Director
|
This thread is primarily aimed at the Paizo staff, but anyone's welcome to contribute a story or two.
What's the single dumbest question you've ever fielded regarding the Pathfinder RPG? I don't mean questions that are genuinely ignorant of some aspect of the game, or that you've heard before...I'm talking about questions that are so obvious or off-the-wall that you honestly wonder if the person is pulling a joke on you.
For me, it was being asked "Is that for Pathfinder or 3.5?" regarding a Paizo product for the Pathfinder RPG. To be fair, I'm pretty sure this person knew that Paizo had been making 3.5 material under the banner of "Pathfinder" before the actual Core Rulebook was released, but still...this was just a few months ago, and I was talking about a brand-new rulebook from Paizo.
What's the dumbest question you've ever been asked, or overheard, about Pathfinder?
Aimed at us or not... I'm not sure us listing "dumb questions" is a constructive use of time to be honest. I'm curious to hear what non-staff people list here as dumb questions (provided they're not listed in a way that's designed to humiliate specific people, of course)... but I'm not interested in listing any myself.
Partially because I kind of believe that there are no such things as dumb questions.
"What's a platemail?" (from a guy who played D&D for 5 years at that point.)
You can tell I don't play with powergamers. But yeah, we bugged him for years about that. Actually, we still do. :)
I think the stupidest questions come from non-gamers, often in the form of:
- "Do you guys dress up when you play?"
- "Do you play with dolls?"
- "When a character dies in the game, do you kill a player at the table?". Yes, we f-ing kill people at the table moron.
This thread is primarily aimed at the Paizo staff, but anyone's welcome to contribute a story or two.
What's the single dumbest question you've ever fielded regarding the Pathfinder RPG? I don't mean questions that are genuinely ignorant of some aspect of the game, or that you've heard before...I'm talking about questions that are so obvious or off-the-wall that you honestly wonder if the person is pulling a joke on you.
For me, it was being asked "Is that for Pathfinder or 3.5?" regarding a Paizo product for the Pathfinder RPG. To be fair, I'm pretty sure this person knew that Paizo had been making 3.5 material under the banner of "Pathfinder" before the actual Core Rulebook was released, but still...this was just a few months ago, and I was talking about a brand-new rulebook from Paizo.
What's the dumbest question you've ever been asked, or overheard, about Pathfinder?
What's the dumbest Pathfinder question you've ever heard?
This thread is primarily aimed at the Paizo staff, but anyone's welcome to contribute a story or two.
What's the single dumbest question you've ever fielded regarding the Pathfinder RPG? I don't mean questions that are genuinely ignorant of some aspect of the game, or that you've heard before...I'm talking about questions that are so obvious or off-the-wall that you honestly wonder if the person is pulling a joke on you.
For me, it was being asked "Is that for Pathfinder or 3.5?" regarding a Paizo product for the Pathfinder RPG. To be fair, I'm pretty sure this person knew that Paizo had been making 3.5 material under the banner of "Pathfinder" before the actual Core Rulebook was released, but still...this was just a few months ago, and I was talking about a brand-new rulebook from Paizo.
What's the dumbest question you've ever been asked, or overheard, about Pathfinder?
I actually did not know the AP's had different rules. I thought they were all Pathfinder rules for a while, until I decided to consider buying one, and there are people that still don't know. There are also people just starting to look at pathfinder and these questions come up a lot, if not here then on other boards.
The silliest questions I get are from people trying to game the system.
There's a guy in my gaming group who regularly asks the same question repeatedly. I don't know if he's just a.d.d.ing out, or hoping for a different answer.
|
What's the dumbest Pathfinder question you've ever heard?This thread is primarily aimed at the Paizo staff, but anyone's welcome to contribute a story or two.
What's the single dumbest question you've ever fielded regarding the Pathfinder RPG? I don't mean questions that are genuinely ignorant of some aspect of the game, or that you've heard before...I'm talking about questions that are so obvious or off-the-wall that you honestly wonder if the person is pulling a joke on you.
For me, it was being asked "Is that for Pathfinder or 3.5?" regarding a Paizo product for the Pathfinder RPG. To be fair, I'm pretty sure this person knew that Paizo had been making 3.5 material under the banner of "Pathfinder" before the actual Core Rulebook was released, but still...this was just a few months ago, and I was talking about a brand-new rulebook from Paizo.
What's the dumbest question you've ever been asked, or overheard, about Pathfinder?
I agree, the one in the title of the thread makes it for me.
One that seems to crop up from time to time:
Why can't I get the pdf of a book when I've purchased it somewhere else than Paizo?
The Dumbest Question I've Asked
When given the opportunity to finally do something about the alignment nonsense of 3.5, and return to the more logical standpoint from 3E, why didn't they? It must be a dumb question, because it's never gotten an answer.
In previous editions (1E-3E), mindless creatures do not have alignments. If it has "Int —" it has alignment "Neutral". This very rationally made sense of the fact that mindless creatures were incapable of morality, and since you're incapable of morality, you're incapable of being good or evil.
Meanwhile, creatures that are made of a particularly aligned force (like Lemures which were in 3E) could easily have the appropriate subtypes, which were outside of their actual alignment.
Closely related is, why are mindless creatures evil? This is especially true with skeletons and zombies which have, forever, been incapable of thought or decisions, and stand around or follow the last orders they had in use. It was like this from 1E-3E. The designers for 3.5 said they just made their moral alignment "always evil" so Paladins could smite them (what an amazingly lazy game design), and changed the rules to say "mindless creatures are usually neutral".
Closely related is, the endless arguments over the logic behind this crap, and dealing with inconsistencies with positive and negative energy, and the general fact all the 3.5 "patch-fixes" trying to explain these poor mechanical design decisions and how none of them make any sense, or have ever fixed what was broken with the 3.5 change.
So I guess, my stupid question was, "why, when they had the opportunity to fix such an easily fixable thing, didn't they?"
Anything and everything involving Vital Strike.
Seriously people. Stop it.
Well since what the book says is not what the book means I can't really pick on that on. It seems I have to provide a link to a developer response to the intent at least once every 2 weeks.
One that seems to crop up from time to time:
Why can't I get the pdf of a book when I've purchased it somewhere else than Paizo?
I'd love to know why if I buy a hardcover book, I don't get the PDF!
Maybe it is that way, and I'm just oblivious...
Well since what the book says is not what the book means I can't really pick on that on. It seems I have to provide a link to a developer response to the intent at least once every 2 weeks.Anything and everything involving Vital Strike.
Seriously people. Stop it.
What is the intent, by the way? I got the impression that this feat is supposed to allow you to make one attack in a round and add only your weapon's die to damage one extra time for each level of the feat you have.
What is the intent, by the way? I got the impression that this feat is supposed to allow you to make one attack in a round and add only your weapon's die to damage one extra time for each level of the feat you have.Well since what the book says is not what the book means I can't really pick on that on. It seems I have to provide a link to a developer response to the intent at least once every 2 weeks.Anything and everything involving Vital Strike.
Seriously people. Stop it.
The intent AFAIK is to let someone take a move action, and still be able to do a lot of damage.
So instead of moving to an enemy and swinging once, you move to them and swing REALLY hard once.
Y U NO MAEK ARKANE PALIDAN?! >:O (Or some variation of the question.)
I'm so sick of the "Pathfinder needs a full-BAB+full-arcane spell progression class" threads (or some variation of that concept). I like the Magus a lot and was fine with the Eldritch Knight. The idea that every single combination of HD/BAB/Skill Points requires a Martial/Arcane/Divine variant from 1-20 irritates me.
What is the intent, by the way? I got the impression that this feat is supposed to allow you to make one attack in a round and add only your weapon's die to damage one extra time for each level of the feat you have.Well since what the book says is not what the book means I can't really pick on that on. It seems I have to provide a link to a developer response to the intent at least once every 2 weeks.Anything and everything involving Vital Strike.
Seriously people. Stop it.
As written the feat could be combined with a charge or spring attack, but it can not by the developer's clarification work that way. It even exist that way in an official publication which caused as issue for a while.
Partially because I kind of believe that there are no such things as dumb questions.
Agree!
No offense to those this applies to, BUT:
I know it sounds heartless, but I am beginning to get annoyed with all of the threads devoted to these subjects.
|
Not exactly Pathfinder question and you really don't get this sorta stuff any more but, back in ye olde early 80's, I can remember the looks I'd get if I mentioned that I played D&D. I can remember Geraldo Rivera actually saying that some teen that did something bad played, "...the medieval death game, Dungeons & Dragons."
So I'd follow up the look with a, "Yeah, I used to only play on the weekends but since killing my family and feeding their souls to Satan, I've got a lot more free time."
Amazingly enough, most of the time, that line was an ice breaker. They'd be like, "Oh, so you know what we know and you're joking about it? That's cool." and we'd actually talk about the game.
Partially because I kind of believe that there are no such things as dumb questions.Agree!
I hate to disagree, but as a retired military man, I can say that there are plenty of people that will prove you wrong on that statement.
The title of this thread answers its own question.
For those who doubt this thread is a bad idea, note that at least five posters (myself included) have already used this thread as an excuse to deride specific threads posted on these boards. Any invitation for board members to insult the intelligence of each others' thread topics is a train wreck waiting to happen.
I think that just because one person understands/remembers something that does not mean others will, is lost on some people. I think that as "silly" questions are shown to not be so silly people may realize this, but then again maybe not.
I'm not a fan of the term "stupid question" because people assume that it also means "stupid person." That being said, I find some questions to be pointless when the answer is explicitly laid out in the rules. For example (and this is not one that I have seen, I am intentionally not going to use a real example), "can I take Extra Rage if someone casts the Rage spell on me?" or "Can someone explain to me why I would want to take the Fleet feat?" These types are simple and take less than a moment to answer without having to waste other people's time.
"Wait, where are we again?"
(Asked mere minutes after I and the other players have just finished summarizing the story so far and working out a course of action.)
I remember a session where the group went into a 15 minute discussion about how they were going to tackle an issue. As soon as they are done one player says, "Now that you are done talking how are we going to handle (goes on to list things that had already been discussed)........?"
They laughed at first because they thought he was joking. They became unhappy when they realized he was not joking.The group had a habit of going off topic at the worst time so he assumed they are going off-topic again, and zoned out.
I'm not a fan of the term "stupid question" because people assume that it also means "stupid person." That being said, I find some questions to be pointless when the answer is explicitly laid out in the rules. For example (and this is not one that I have seen, I am intentionally not going to use a real example), "can I take Extra Rage if someone casts the Rage spell on me?" or "Can someone explain to me why I would want to take the Fleet feat?" These types are simple and take less than a moment to answer without having to waste other people's time.
Someone is going to ask that now. :)
Someone is going to ask that now. :)
Pretty sure someone already did. Of coarse it was in one of those oh so fun "Lets see if I can get someone to agree with my wildly twisted interpretation of the rules" Topics that pop up from time to time{ or a whole damn lot , all in the week) If I recall.
1. "I found the path, does that mean I win?"
2. "After I find the path, what do I do with it?"
"500+ pages, and not a single wiring diagram for my Nissan 4x4... What the hell kind of shop manual is this?"
In all seriousness, I just can't think of a stupid question... This game is so vast and open, anything is plausible.
I tend to disagree there are stupid questions...or as a comedian once said(or maybe it was a line from a movie...or maybe from somewhere else...I have forgotten it's orgin...)
'There are no stupid questions just stupid people'
But anyway the questions I find pointless are the one like 'I find x to be stupid(or broken, or pointless etc) does anybody agree with me?'
|
For me, it was being asked "Is that for Pathfinder or 3.5?" regarding a Paizo product for the Pathfinder RPG. To be fair, I'm pretty sure this person knew that Paizo had been making 3.5 material under the banner of "Pathfinder" before the actual Core Rulebook was released, but still...this was just a few months ago, and I was talking about a brand-new rulebook from Paizo.
Was the person aware it was a brand new book? Out of interest what book was it? Did it have the 3.5 OGL Compatible logo on it? If it did he may have assumed it would be Pathfinder RPG, but that logo may have caused him to question that assumption.
Of all the dumb questions out there, that doesn't sound very dumb to me.
|
|
For me, it was being asked "Is that for Pathfinder or 3.5?" regarding a Paizo product for the Pathfinder RPG. To be fair, I'm pretty sure this person knew that Paizo had been making 3.5 material under the banner of "Pathfinder" before the actual Core Rulebook was released, but still...this was just a few months ago, and I was talking about a brand-new rulebook from Paizo.Was the person aware it was a brand new book? Out of interest what book was it? Did it have the 3.5 OGL Compatible logo on it? If it did he may have assumed it would be Pathfinder RPG, but that logo may have caused him to question that assumption.
Of all the dumb questions out there, that doesn't sound very dumb to me.
BLATANT FLAMEBAIT MODE ON:
But Pathfinder is 3.5 :)
BLATANT FLAMEBAIT MODE OFF.
Partially because I kind of believe that there are no such things as dumb questions.
I really, honestly appreciate that response James.
This thread is primarily aimed at the Paizo staff, but anyone's welcome to contribute a story or two.
What's the single dumbest question you've ever fielded regarding the Pathfinder RPG? I don't mean questions that are genuinely ignorant of some aspect of the game, or that you've heard before...I'm talking about questions that are so obvious or off-the-wall that you honestly wonder if the person is pulling a joke on you.
For me, it was being asked "Is that for Pathfinder or 3.5?" regarding a Paizo product for the Pathfinder RPG. To be fair, I'm pretty sure this person knew that Paizo had been making 3.5 material under the banner of "Pathfinder" before the actual Core Rulebook was released, but still...this was just a few months ago, and I was talking about a brand-new rulebook from Paizo.
What's the dumbest question you've ever been asked, or overheard, about Pathfinder?
This one ;P
I really, honestly appreciate that response James.
Partially because I kind of believe that there are no such things as dumb questions.
Very diplomatic, but I fear that I have to disagree.
I will agree that many questions that are called stupid aren't.
'Ok. I found torch on the equipment list, but there is no entry for batteries.' 'How much do AA batteries cost?'
|
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
|
I hate to disagree, but as a retired military man, I can say that there are plenty of people that will prove you wrong on that statement.Partially because I kind of believe that there are no such things as dumb questions.Agree!
"There are no stupid questions... simply stupid people asking them."
And yes I know the irony of saying this, since I work customer service.
This thread is primarily aimed at the Paizo staff, but anyone's welcome to contribute a story or two.
What's the single dumbest question you've ever fielded regarding the Pathfinder RPG? I don't mean questions that are genuinely ignorant of some aspect of the game, or that you've heard before...I'm talking about questions that are so obvious or off-the-wall that you honestly wonder if the person is pulling a joke on you.
For me, it was being asked "Is that for Pathfinder or 3.5?" regarding a Paizo product for the Pathfinder RPG. To be fair, I'm pretty sure this person knew that Paizo had been making 3.5 material under the banner of "Pathfinder" before the actual Core Rulebook was released, but still...this was just a few months ago, and I was talking about a brand-new rulebook from Paizo.
What's the dumbest question you've ever been asked, or overheard, about Pathfinder?
Aimed at us or not... I'm not sure us listing "dumb questions" is a constructive use of time to be honest. I'm curious to hear what non-staff people list here as dumb questions (provided they're not listed in a way that's designed to humiliate specific people, of course)... but I'm not interested in listing any myself.
Partially because I kind of believe that there are no such things as dumb questions.
Are you a real dinosaur? [/sarcasm]
'Ok. I found torch on the equipment list, but there is no entry for batteries.' 'How much do AA batteries cost?'
Better yet are those who are to translate fantasy games and translate torch to mean flashlight. In a medieval-style fantasy game.
Killing is too good for them.
'Ok. I found torch on the equipment list, but there is no entry for batteries.' 'How much do AA batteries cost?'
In the same vein:
"And now I've found bullets. Are those full metal jacket bullets? Hollow point?"
"Bolt of cloth. Are they priced for heavy crossbows or light ones? What do they do?"
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
|
Anything and everything involving Vital Strike. Seriously people. Stop it.
Well since what the book says is not what the book means I can't really pick on that on.
All right. I'm apparently beat a dead horse here, but as someone who's played the rule as written, what am I doing wrong?
--+--
From someone who's been playing a Pathfinder rogue for over a year now: "We can sneak attack undead?"
What's the dumbest question you've ever been asked, or overheard, about Pathfinder?
"Is it any good?"
:)
"Wait, where are we again?"
(Asked mere minutes after I and the other players have just finished summarizing the story so far and working out a course of action.)
This.
which class is best.... (talk about a loaded question)