Anathema in PFS.

[Blake's Tiger]

And it's not like anyone has said anything worse than, "Dear OPC, we, as GMs, have recognized this might cause a problem at our tables, since you have the final rules as of yesterday, would you be sure to address this? Thank you."

Might be an unproductive use of my time, but they don't even have to read it if they don't feel the need.

[BigNorseWolf]

Bill Baldwin wrote:

I am hoping that the arguments here are strong enough that, if sufficient changes have not already been made, they will be. Once the rules are released, it's too late.

There's always an organized play rule to cope with the additional problems of organized play.

[keerawa]

Having RP'd a devout Pharasman wizard in PFS 1st ed, I can confirm that it led to more interparty conflict and trouble than the paladins I role-played. Pathfinders are accused of being tomb-robbers in polite society, with good reason!

[Justin Norvegicus]

keerawa wrote:

Having RP'd a devout Pharasman wizard in PFS 1st ed, I can confirm that it led to more interparty conflict and trouble than the paladins I role-played. Pathfinders are accused of being tomb-robbers in polite society, with good reason!

rolls a 1d10 and gets a 5. reads

" Five. Its not tomb robbing when you have a degree. Its archeology "

[Michael Sayre]

Blake's Tiger wrote:

And it's not like anyone has said anything worse than, "Dear OPC, we, as GMs, have recognized this might cause a problem at our tables, since you have the final rules as of yesterday, would you be sure to address this? Thank you."

There's a fairly significant difference between something shipping off to the printer and us actually having that in a useable format. I don't know that anyone in org play has actually had an opportunity to read through that massive tome yet, particularly considering we don't yet have a bookmarked PDF or print version available.

That being said, the design team did revisit anathemas and review related feedback data during the post-playtest phase, and made changes accordingly. Those of us on the org play team have been having ongoing discussions about anathema, have worked with other developers to try and guide the structure of anathema to be as conducive to organized play as is reasonable and possible, and have had ongoing conversations about keeping this as a point of consideration. When we have the opportunity we'll be reviewing the specific anathema that were included in the final version of the CRB and keeping an eye out for anything that might need a campaign clarification to avoid potential issues.

[Kate Baker]

Thanks, Michael! It’s good to hear that you all have an eye on it.

[Blake's Tiger]

Yes, thanks for that update. It was unexpected and appreciated.

...and I hope you realized in the quote you included that the implied scale of time was not immediate or even necessarily weeks.

[Michael Sayre]

Blake's Tiger wrote:

Yes, thanks for that update. It was unexpected and appreciated.

...and I hope you realized in the quote you included that the implied scale of time was not immediate or even necessarily weeks.

I gotchya, no worries ;)

[roll4initiative]

Thank you, Mr. Sayre, for your post. I'm sure that Anathema issues will be handled appropriately with fair players and GMs.

[Timur7]

In my homebrew campaigns, I have long used a system similar to Anathema.

Generally party decisions are handled by vote of the players (who do regularly adopt contrary philosophies). But if the vote goes against a player's behavior restrictions, he can avoid negative (divine) consequences (loss of access to spells, atonement, et al) by adopting "antipathy" against the players that voted for the decision.

If he has antipathy vs a character, he must make a will check to cast a helpful spell on the offending character or stand within 5 feet of the character in combat. He can still freely do damage to the enemy. And if it is really important to cast that cure, he might take a few rounds to do it, but he can marshal the will eventually (ie: roll well) to cast that cure.

Thus Anathema conflicts hinder combat effectiveness of the group, but do not require interparty fights, or situations where a player must act against the groups interest through secret action (which can be a real pain to gm).

I also used the same system if a player's "hated enemy" ended up including another player's character.