| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
It's been a long time since we had regular releases in the Talented Hero line of pdfs.
For those of you not familiar with these, each one takes a single class (through last year we had released pdfs covering the barbarian, cavalier, fighter, monk, ranger, and rogue) and redesigns it to have nearly all it's class features be broken into talents (like rogue talents) and edges (rarer selections of more powerful options). Each class also has a follow-up book of "More XX Talents", giving even more possibilities.
You can check out all the pdfs here! We have a LOT of 5-star reviews on these.
We then has a long drought, where we couldn't get any of these books out.
But now, the Genius Guide to the Talented Witch and the Genius Guide to More Witch Talents have come out, and we're ready for more!
Next month we plan to release the Talented Bard and More Bard Talents.
In May we plan for the Talented Cleric and More Cleric Talents.
In June we hope to release the Talented Druid, and More Druid Talents!
And after that my crystal ball gets hazy. :)
Yes! Glad to see these continuing!
Bard and Druid I am looking forward to seeing. Haven't had time or funds to pick up the Witch books yet though. Hopefully after payday.
I liked the Witch. Need to pick up the More for that one. I can't wait to see the take on Bard and Druid.
Drool...
This is great news. I am a big fan of the talented line. Is Paladin on the 2016 radar?
This is great news. I am a big fan of the talented line. Is Paladin on the 2016 radar?
It's certainly on the radar, but I can only plan so far ahead. without Stephen Rowe, Mark Gedak, and Steve Helt all stepping up in a big way, we wouldn't have T. Witch and be about to have T. bard.
I've got plans to continue leaning on freelancers for these (Rowe especially), but scheduling around the realities of life may make things difficult. So I don't want to overpromise, despite my strong hope that we'll be seeing a lot more Talented Hero material this year.
Of course obviously, the more people buy the existing books, the more likely it is I can get more made!
Sadly no gunslinger planned yet then....
I said it before and I'll say it again; I originally felt like the Talented series was more of a fix so I was more thrilled with classes getting talented than classes that I felt were strong enough.
With Witch and Ranger it's probably more of a matter of 'interesting enough' than strong enough but that was personal for me since those were my least favorite classes in terms of being interesting, but I still have to ask whats the criteria for becoming a talented class. When the unchained classes came out the first line of thinking was 'what else needs to be unchained and at some point each class ever had someone that wanted it unchained for one reason or another.
For the sake of my wallet, and having to keep track of products, where does it end? Is this indefinite where every class becomes talented as long as sales stay up or is there a definite reason to talent up a class?
Hopefully I'm not coming off of as a Debbie Downer but I thought it was a question that was good to ask.
Personally I would like to see every class become talented. It's just a better system.
For the sake of my wallet, and having to keep track of products, where does it end? Is this indefinite where every class becomes talented as long as sales stay up or is there a definite reason to talent up a class?
Hopefully I'm not coming off of as a Debbie Downer but I thought it was a question that was good to ask.
That's an entirely fair question, and one that doesn't necessarily have a pat answer.
Before each Talented Class book is written, I take a look at the class and ask myself some questions. for example with the witch I wondered "can a character have no hexes, and still feel like a witch? can a character have no spells, and still feel like a witch? Are their cool witch-like abilities that are neither hexes nor spells?"
When I answered yes to all those questions to my satisfaction, work began on the Talented Witch.
Heck, I originally suspected I'd *only* do fighter, monk, and cavalier. But after Talented fighter, the #1 request was doing a Talented rogue, even though rogues already *have* a talent system. But many fans of the first book felt that rogue archetypes were still too restrictive compared to logic. Why *can't* a rogue learn both trapfinding and whatever an archetype gives in its place? what if a rogue has no interest in sneak attack -- what becomes a good replacement for that? And when I looked at it, I decided there was a good design space left there.
Fort the next several books, we simply asked what class people would most want to see get the Talented treatment. I'd contemplate it, so far I'd always decide there was a good way to do it, and design would get starter. The same is true of the as-yet unreleased bard and cleric.
I've also already decided I feel the same way about all the core classes. So druid, paladin, sorcerer, and wizard are also in planning stages.
By the same token, I'm pretty sure we're NOT going to release talented versions of the hybrid classes. That's because I'd MUCH rather take the things the hybrid classes have, and add them as options (with appropriate prerequisites) to both parent classes. That will mean some revisions of existing Talented books of course, which might require me to seek crowdsource funds for a deluxe talented hero book that handles all the core classes, including all their hybrid abilities. And the magus way or may not get handled this way (it isn't officially a talented class, despite functioning like one).
That would also be the time to tackle unchained options.
That leaves alchemist, gunslinger, inquisitor, magus (maybe), oracle, summoner, kineticist, medium, mesmerist, occultists, psychic, and spiritualist.
IF I decide to do any or all of those, I'll almost certainly tackle the base classes first, and then the occult ones.
And one or more may not pass my conceptualization test.
And the heat death of the universe might beat me in the timeline.
And poor (or even "just average") sales would possibly but a stop to things.
I hope that covers your question. :)
Personally I would like to see every class become talented. It's just a better system.
Thanks!
I'm pretty proud of it. :)
Whelp. Time to get my wallet out.
I've also already decided I feel the same way about all the core classes. So druid, paladin, sorcerer, and wizard are also in planning stages.
I don't know if you can or would like to answer this at this time, but as far as the paladin goes has there been talk of opening the Talented Paladin up to all alignment types even though Pathfinder has not done this in an official capacity (yet; as far as I know)?
By the same token, I'm pretty sure we're NOT going to release talented versions of the hybrid classes. That's because I'd MUCH rather take the things the hybrid classes have, and add them as options (with appropriate prerequisites) to both parent classes.
I totally agree with this design choice. I've already been hoping that the Investigator abilities would just be part of the hopefully inevitable Talented Alchemist. Applying this design style to the Magus seems like it would be rather challenging since the Wizard and Fighter are so different in build (particularly with the difference in BAB), but I guess the same can be said about the Bloodrager.
Although I would prefer it if all of the pre-occult classes were taken care of first and included in it, I'll definitely support a crowdfunding campaign for a deluxe talented hero book in whatever form it takes. Good luck in tackling everything!
I know I want all the core classes done, since that would make a logical point to try to come up with a plan for a deluxe compiled and expanded version.
Base classes are a bit trickier. We already have the cavalier and witch. Doing ALL the rest before tackling any occult classes leaves folks who love the new occult material in the very, very back of the line.
OTOH, I might have a huge yummy nugget for them already in the works... so maybe that's okay.
And I'd LOVE to have Talented Prestige Classes, where meeting prerequisites just opens up new edges and talents you can select with your classes' normal options... but that may also be way down the road.
Yeah, that's definitely understandable. A book of 18 or 19 Talented class, plus the abilities of 10 hybrid classes would probably be gigantic and needing to wait for 5 or 6 more classes to be tackled in addition to the 6 core classes that need to be finished up would make the wait for a Deluxe compilation much longer. Also, if this compilation is restricted to just the core classes (leaving out the Cavalier, Witch, and any other classes that might be done before the Deluxe book is ready to go live) that would provide some standardization and you wouldn't have to worry about working on the abilities of the Shaman hybrid class yet.
And Talented Prestige does sound like a really cool idea. It's great getting to watch the Talented Hero Line evolve. This is the perfect system for advanced players who want to have every bit of customization possible when they build their characters.
You should do a talented line for Dreamscarred Press' psionics classes.
This is terrific news. I'm a *huge* fan of the Rogue Genius "Talented" line of PDFs. Nearly all of them have had plucked material show up in either a GM or player character appearance in both my gaming groups over the years. And it looks like the upcoming publishing schedule is covering some classes that are popular with my group's demographics.
One thing I noted that was interesting. There doesn't seem to be a Talented Wizard book - one of the most popular classes in PF. Not that the Wizard needs any more amazing goodies. :-P And too, it seems that Rogue Genius does have peripheral wizardly support in Arcane Archetypes, Feats of Spellcasting, etc.
The expanding Talented Hero line adds another talented core class!
The Genius Guide to the Talented Bard and {url=http://paizo.com/products/btpy9mbq?The-Genius-Guide-to-More-Bard-Talen ts]The Genius Guide to More Bard Talents[/url] are available now!
That means we have covered the barbarian, bard, fighter, monk, ranger, and rogue! (As well as cavaliers and witches, among the base classes).
I have drafts going through development and editing for clerics and druids, as well!
And, of course, the Talented Bestiary Kickstarter is in full swing, having already raised more than $10,000 and covering topics like template creation rules and playable talented monsters!
The Genius Guide to More Bard Talents
Lemme fix that for you. :-D
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think it could be time for a "Even More Talents" supplement series. Even More Fighter Talents, Even More Rogue Talents, and so on.
Plus, Talented Oracle please.