Organized Play Lead Developer
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Additional Resources and Campaign Clarifications should be going live this week, including updates for June, July, and August products.
There are also several bookkeeping updates to the Additional Resources document, including some grammatical and formatting tweaks as suggested in the Additional Resources Updates thread. We’ve also opened up catfolk options in the Advanced Race Guide now that catfolk are a more widely playable race. You’ll also likely see a few curiosities among the updates, so I’d like to highlight a few of those and head off some anticipated questions.
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Aquatic Adventures
This book considerably expands on the rules of underwater combat. That’s fantastic for those who have the book, but it presents a conundrum in organized play. To provide as fair an experience as possible, we’re not adopting these rules whole cloth until such a time as they appear on the Pathfinder Reference Document for all to use, and when we want to highlight a particular expanded rule, we’ll reprint it directly into a scenario. That said, GMs can certainly use these rules as guidelines for how to adjudicate any ambiguities, and players can use these rules as shorthand for resolving character options that cite them directly (e.g. an ability that modifies buoyancy can change how something rises or sinks without needing to implement detailed buoyancy rules for the whole group).
Pathfinder Player Companion: Adventurer’s Armory 2
There are several options in this book—particularly weapons—that we’ve disallowed, but we already have plans to provide some access to them with an upcoming Chronicle sheet in the next several months. The current strategy builds in some flexibility in choosing what to unlock and to whom the reward applies, but we’ll be locking in those details as we get further along in that adventure’s production.
Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Sea
This book presents lots of new rules for locathahs, gillmen, merfolk, and a host of other creatures that aren’t playable races in Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild—at least not at this time. Rather than ban large portions of the book, we’ve opened up many of these race-specific options for any PC whose race grants a natural swim speed, such as naiads and undines. Should we later introduce other such races, they would also qualify.
September and Beyond
We’re already much of the way through September’s review process, and the current projection’s that we’d be finishing that process at about the same time that we’re handling our October reviews. If that goes according to plan, we expect to have those two months’ updates ready in mid-October. As we continue to review products, our goal is to provide more timely updates that land around the same time as a product’s street date (or even before).
Looking forward to seeing what's there.
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Organized Play Lead Developer
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On the first night of optionmas john compton gave to me
Some claws for the pretty kitty.
One the second night of Optionmas John Compton gave to me:
More Undine options!
The process also involves Linda; a rotating team of venture-officers who help us review products; the authors who write the content in the first place; and the developers and designers who outline, assign, and refine that content.
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The process also involves Linda; a rotating team of venture-officers who help us review products; the authors who write the content in the first place; and the developers and designers who outline, assign, and refine that content.
... can't fit that into the meter sorry.
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Organized Play Lead Developer
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Will the Undine/Naiad access to Blood of the Sea racial content also include skinwalker heritages who gain a swim speed (Scaleheart/Crocodile and Seascarred/Shark)?
It's good to see things are soon to be updated, thank you John!
The wording cites a swim speed granted by one's race, so naiad and undine are just examples, not an exclusive list.
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Awesome Work on the AR and the CC - hopefully that has cleared a bit of space on the desk at least ;)
Just to check in - any idea if the PRD update is on the near horizon? I think this one will be of an impact on whether character need to be rejigged (trying to plan for attending cons and when i need to plan to fix a couple of the expected changeS)
Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha
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Approve everything, if it's too powerful for an organized play campaign why is it being printed in the first place?
Because Pathfinder is written for the General Public / Home Brew players.
We have decided to play Pathfinder in an Organized Play mode.
I personally like the Organized Play mode. I know that other players will not be 3rd level and have a +5 holy avenger because one GM was super nice to the party of three character who killed an ancient red dragon at 3rd level (Really happened long ago in 2nd AD&D game I played in when I was much younger).
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Approve everything, if it's too powerful for an organized play campaign why is it being printed in the first place?
In some cases, many of these books are written as though they are in a vacuum, without considering all the other books that have gone before. As far as many of the Campaign sourcebooks and the Player's Companion sourcebooks, this makes a certain modicum of sense, because many of them are regional in nature and/or tied to specific APs. So the campaign book Mendev and the companion book on Knights aren't overly powerful if you just consider them together with some of the hardback RPG books. But if you start combining every last book together, then it creates a whole that has unintended consequences rules wise.
This is why, in a home game, I'm likely to only include the Hardbacks (no Occult, unless the theme of the game is conducive to that), ISWG, Inner Sea Gods, the regional campaign book pertinent to the start of the AP, possibly a player companion if it makes sense to the theme or region of the AP, and then each player gets to pick one other book (for those who want to use Ranged Tactics Toolbox, for example.)
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Developer
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Some options are also too DMs cally for organized playApprove everything, if it's too powerful for an organized play campaign why is it being printed in the first place?
What Wolf said here is right on the money. Plenty of options also great for NPCs. And there are plenty of banned options that are balanced but easily broken. And some of those options, when broken, completely overwhelm the table.
And some options are being reserved for Chronicle Sheets, which is equal parts flavorful and a great way to have desireable chronicles without filling up player's binders with chronicles full of boons they have to remember they have in order to use mid-game.
Think of it in terms of Magic: The Gathering cards. Once in a blue moon we actually get a ban. Maybe 3:500 cards designed. But about 100:500 cards designed can't even be played in Standard. They are in supplemental sets designed for niche players who play games like Archenemy, Planechase, Commander or the Eternal Formats.
Of course, you could argue that the sets are clearly labeled. You know when you buy Archenemy Nicol Bolas which cards in the set will be legal for Standard. And there is a simple solution for that: buy your product after the Additional Resources comes out. Personally, I enjoy reading things that don't make it in because I love game design and the lore of Golarion.
But I think I'm already at my "TLDR" limit for this post.
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The wording cites a swim speed granted by one's race, so naiad and undine are just examples, not an exclusive list.Will the Undine/Naiad access to Blood of the Sea racial content also include skinwalker heritages who gain a swim speed (Scaleheart/Crocodile and Seascarred/Shark)?
It's good to see things are soon to be updated, thank you John!
Do they have to be born with the swim speed? What about racial options that grant a swim speed after level 1? For instance, a grippli ranger who takes the racial favored class bonus from the Advanced Race Guide eight times (not a hypothetical question - I have a PC heading in that direction).
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Yep,
This book presents lots of new rules for locathahs, gillmen, merfolk, and a host of other creatures that aren’t playable races in Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild—at least not at this time. Rather than ban large portions of the book, we’ve opened up many of these race-specific options for any PC whose race grants a natural swim speed, such as naiads and undines. Should we later introduce other such races, they would also qualify.
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Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Sea
This book presents lots of new rules for locathahs, gillmen, merfolk, and a host of other creatures that aren’t playable races in Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild—at least not at this time. Rather than ban large portions of the book, we’ve opened up many of these race-specific options for any PC whose race grants a natural swim speed, such as naiads and undines. Should we later introduce other such races, they would also qualify.
Nixie, reporting in! I am as happy as a splash to see this!
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Organized Play Lead Developer
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No Songbound Oracle curse? But... but... I want to sing! I am crossing my fingers that this opens up on a future chronicle! This would be the most amazing of amazing oracle curses for me!
Hmm
I wouldn't hold your breath on this curse, above or below water. Our assessment was that a curse that compels a player to shout and sing is far from promoting a consistently positive play experience when gaming with strangers and or in a public play environment.
Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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Alas... In Play-by-Post it would be amazing.
Sigh. I concede your point for in person play, though. Filking on demand can be tough. I'll just have to convince some GM to run a set of modules for me Campaign Mode at some point. The world can never have too many PbP musicals, John.
Thank you for the quick answer, even if it wasn't what I wanted to hear.
Hugs,
Hmm
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Poor Butchering Axe ;_;It's only crime was delivering an extra 3.5 damage on average for the cost of a feat :(
I think that it's more the issue of size increasing. Speaking as someone running around with a oversized impact chainsaw that I go enlarge with, as you go up in size the leaps in dice start getting bigger, and starting off closer to that is a HUGE help. There are also other feats and things that modify things based on number of dice being rolled, and getting to roll the extra is really good.
I'm super hoping it shows up on a chronicle later though, it's such a flavorful weapon.
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Gloves of improvised might are legal! Rejoice for today improvised weapon builds are finally viable!The important question is whether the bonus applies to the quality of the grog in the barrrel. That swill you lug around tastes like ogre feet.
Dare not insult the quality of my brew! The cask I carry is for my own inebriation with a taste so fine and harsh that none can stomach it save for myself. The last man who dared to try it passed out for an hour and dreamed he married a morbidly obese leprechaun.
But worry not as I carry plenty of ale to share to my comrades!
Just make sure not to put the corrosive quality on your gloves. That could get messy.Gloves of improvised might are legal! Rejoice for today improvised weapon builds are finally viable!The important question is whether the bonus applies to the quality of the grog in the barrrel. That swill you lug around tastes like ogre feet.
The best grog hurts when it goes down!