Pathfinder Annual


Paizo Products


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

What are the chances that Paizo would publish an annual that would come out once a year (duh) that collects all of the character options (feats, archetypes, spells, items, etc...) that were published in adventures (APs, standalones, PFS, etc...) in the previous year? It would be great to have this data all in one place rather than scattered around 20 or more modules.

Silver Crusade

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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Ever heard of Archives of Nethys and d20pfsrd, which do exactly that?


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Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I'd say the chances are practically nil.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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I'd rather focus on doing new books rather than compilations, personally. Sometimes, options that showed up in the Adventure Paths (be they monsters or spells or magic items or whatever) will transition over into hardcovers, but that'll be on a curated basis.

That said, one of the things we're doing with the Adventure Toolboxes going forward is that this stuff is meant to thematically tie to the adventure, and making those options and rules part of the "core" diminishes their value as stuff you gain as a result of going on the adventure.

Archives of Nethys and other online compilation tools are the best place for something like this to occur, I think. This keeps the rules readily available in one place for GMs who want to use them as needed, but doesn't strip them of the value they have in supporting themes in specific adventures. It also helps to combat the implication of rules creep/bloat, so that folks don't feel like they HAVE to incorporate everything we publish into every game that they play.


It could be a cool tool to add to easy action library. The dev there has put in enough groundwork to make it possible and even output it to a formatted pdf.

Whether they want to do so is another matter though.


I love the fact that a lot of the rules and options in an AP are meant for that AP only. Not that you can't use them, but they're not entitled. (Also part of what I like about the rarity system)
When stuff gets just reprinted elsewhere, it makes me feel like my AP subscription is less valuable =( I love having all the articles and monsters and NPCs in the back half of the modules. When they're tied to a story, it makes them seem more special.


Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Barnabas Eckleworth III wrote:
I love having all the articles and monsters and NPCs in the back half of the modules. When they're tied to a story, it makes them seem more special.

I agree, but don't forget that not all of the material found in an AP volume actually shows up in the adventure.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Fumarole wrote:
Barnabas Eckleworth III wrote:
I love having all the articles and monsters and NPCs in the back half of the modules. When they're tied to a story, it makes them seem more special.
I agree, but don't forget that not all of the material found in an AP volume actually shows up in the adventure.

That's just growing pains. The goal IS to have all the new mechanics show up as much as possible, going forward. With Age of Ashes, it got a little sloppy since it was tricky getting those rules in there at the same time the rules were themselves being written, but going forward, the goal is to not put things in an Adventure Toolbox if they're not IN the adventure. I'm sure some cases will come along where there might be exceptions, but that's all they'll be—exceptions.

Liberty's Edge

Maybe some line stating that AP items listed as Uncommon, or only part of them if better, are Common within the confines of the AP? Say Circus weapons in the Circus AP for example.


The Raven Black wrote:
Maybe some line stating that AP items listed as Uncommon, or only part of them if better, are Common within the confines of the AP? Say Circus weapons in the Circus AP for example.

Or make sure when they put uncommon items in, that something in that AP also grants access to them? Something as easy as 'backgrounds from this ap grant access to Circus weapons' in the player guide or just a blanket 'circus based backgrounds grant access to circus weapons' or something.

That said, it'd be nice to get something that allows those outside the AP to use they too: seems a waste to have items made but have no way to use them outside Dm fiat. [that's why I'd prefer the later, as there are circus backgrounds outside the AP]


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James Jacobs wrote:
Barnabas Eckleworth III wrote:
I love having all the articles and monsters and NPCs in the back half of the modules. When they're tied to a story, it makes them seem more special.
fumarole wrote:
I agree, but don't forget that not all of the material found in an AP volume actually shows up in the adventure.
That's just growing pains. The goal IS to have all the new mechanics show up as much as possible, going forward. With Age of Ashes, it got a little sloppy since it was tricky getting those rules in there at the same time the rules were themselves being written, but going forward, the goal is to not put things in an Adventure Toolbox if they're not IN the adventure. I'm sure some cases will come along where there might be exceptions, but that's all they'll be—exceptions.

I can see someone saying they want all the stuff to go directly with the adventure at hand.

But it doesn't bother me at all if it doesn't. Part of this is a 13 year long attitude... but when Runelords came out after the magazines ended, I loved having half the issue be articles and half be the adventure. It was kind of like having an issue of Dungeon combined with an issue of Dragon.
We got Ecology of the [whatever]. We got stuff on deities. Overviews of entire cities. Pretty great.
Although, I guess with the PF2 rulebooks being more focused on Golarion and less generic, we'll probably get plenty of setting material in side books.


The biggest problem this would solve is for Pathfinder Society players who need to buy books to have access to options and can't just refer to online srds.

Some sort of Pathfinder Annual compendium would give society players who don't want adventure or gm or setting material a way to keep up to date with options they can use without having to buy every last book. It could be as simple as a very minimally edited pdf to a much more elaborate thing with articles and thoughts on the paizo year that was and a look forward at the paizo year to come.

I think that would be cool and I really think it's something that's missing from the lineup. I realize it's work but I think it's valuable for multiple reasons.


Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Fumarole wrote:
Barnabas Eckleworth III wrote:
I love having all the articles and monsters and NPCs in the back half of the modules. When they're tied to a story, it makes them seem more special.
I agree, but don't forget that not all of the material found in an AP volume actually shows up in the adventure.
That's just growing pains. The goal IS to have all the new mechanics show up as much as possible, going forward. With Age of Ashes, it got a little sloppy since it was tricky getting those rules in there at the same time the rules were themselves being written, but going forward, the goal is to not put things in an Adventure Toolbox if they're not IN the adventure. I'm sure some cases will come along where there might be exceptions, but that's all they'll be—exceptions.

I wasn't thinking of mechanics so much as monsters. So far in both Age of Ashes and Extinction Curse there are monster stat blocks in the Adventurer's Toolbox that don't show up in the adventure.

When you (casually?) mentioned on the forums that the tarrasque would be in Broken Promises some people (me included) got excited. When we ultimately learned it was simply as a stat block in the Adventurer's Toolbox that excitement deflated.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Fumarole wrote:

I wasn't thinking of mechanics so much as monsters. So far in both Age of Ashes and Extinction Curse there are monster stat blocks in the Adventurer's Toolbox that don't show up in the adventure.

When you (casually?) mentioned on the forums that the tarrasque would be in Broken Promises some people (me included) got excited. When we ultimately learned it was simply as a stat block in the Adventurer's Toolbox that excitement deflated.

We were still figuring it all out in Age of Ashes, and even a little in Extinction Curse. You'll note that the presentation format for the Adventurer's Toolbox changes a few times, for example, as we go forward, with the intro turning into a full page illustration and the NPCs moving to the back. Going forward, we're getting better and better about all the toolbox options actually having representation and "screen time" in the adventure itself. I suspect that we'll have some things now and then that show up in the Toolbox and won't be in the adventure, but they'll be less and less common events, assuming it all works out the way I thought.

The "deflated" element you cite about the Tarrasque not actually playing a part in the adventure is a great example of feedback that helps us course correct things, but we can't make those decisions until folks actually see the product and interact with it, by which time the next several volumes are already off to the printer. There's a time delay between what we print and what we change, for example. As I write this, for example, we're only a month away from the writing deadline for the Adventure Path that starts 2021.


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James Jacobs wrote:
Fumarole wrote:

I wasn't thinking of mechanics so much as monsters. So far in both Age of Ashes and Extinction Curse there are monster stat blocks in the Adventurer's Toolbox that don't show up in the adventure.

When you (casually?) mentioned on the forums that the tarrasque would be in Broken Promises some people (me included) got excited. When we ultimately learned it was simply as a stat block in the Adventurer's Toolbox that excitement deflated.

We were still figuring it all out in Age of Ashes, and even a little in Extinction Curse. You'll note that the presentation format for the Adventurer's Toolbox changes a few times, for example, as we go forward, with the intro turning into a full page illustration and the NPCs moving to the back. Going forward, we're getting better and better about all the toolbox options actually having representation and "screen time" in the adventure itself. I suspect that we'll have some things now and then that show up in the Toolbox and won't be in the adventure, but they'll be less and less common events, assuming it all works out the way I thought.

The "deflated" element you cite about the Tarrasque not actually playing a part in the adventure is a great example of feedback that helps us course correct things, but we can't make those decisions until folks actually see the product and interact with it, by which time the next several volumes are already off to the printer. There's a time delay between what we print and what we change, for example. As I write this, for example, we're only a month away from the writing deadline for the Adventure Path that starts 2021.

I actually preferred the old style with the NPCs right after the adventure, then various articles, then the bestiary at the back. With the Age of Ashes Adventurer's Toolbox, I spend a lot of time flipping through the back trying to find what I'm looking for.

(Of course, I also seem to be in the minority on disliking how PF2 Bestiary 1 is formatted; I preferred the PF1 style there as well.)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Bluescale wrote:

I actually preferred the old style with the NPCs right after the adventure, then various articles, then the bestiary at the back. With the Age of Ashes Adventurer's Toolbox, I spend a lot of time flipping through the back trying to find what I'm looking for.

(Of course, I also seem to be in the minority on disliking how PF2 Bestiary 1 is formatted; I...

Interesting feedback, since one of the main reasons we decided to move the NPCs to the end was to make flipping back and forth EASIER... it's simpler, in theory, to flip to the back of the book than to somewhere in the middle. Maybe this is a manifestation of growing pains in getting used to a new format? Still good info to hear, though!


James Jacobs wrote:


Interesting feedback, since one of the main reasons we decided to move the NPCs to the end was to make flipping back and forth EASIER... it's simpler, in theory, to flip to the back of the book than to somewhere in the middle. Maybe this is a manifestation of growing pains in getting used to a new format? Still good info to hear, though!

Put me down for loving npcs being at the back, saves me from having to remember random page numbers, especially if I am digging information up 2 books later.

Big fan.

I also noticed that gods and magic underwent some pretty big format changes too.

One request I will make is that the APs keep to having readable page backgrounds first, artistic flair second. Age of ashes was lovely with its black text on near white, extinction curse becomes a tad more difficult with its black on yellow (thankfully it is a very smooth texture so it is still legible, but it does cause more eyestrain).


Tbh there is only one thing I'd like to be reprinted - material from APs that is not specific and gets referenced in rulebooks, such as the Toil domain from AoA.

Currently it's the only AP content that appears as a reference in rulebooks (Gods&Magic). I understand SRDs exist, but AP-exclusive content should stay AP-specific rather than generic.

just my 2 cents.

Silver Crusade

The Gleeful Grognard wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


Interesting feedback, since one of the main reasons we decided to move the NPCs to the end was to make flipping back and forth EASIER... it's simpler, in theory, to flip to the back of the book than to somewhere in the middle. Maybe this is a manifestation of growing pains in getting used to a new format? Still good info to hear, though!

Put me down for loving npcs being at the back, saves me from having to remember random page numbers, especially if I am digging information up 2 books later.

Big fan.

I also noticed that gods and magic underwent some pretty big format changes too.

One request I will make is that the APs keep to having readable page backgrounds first, artistic flair second. Age of ashes was lovely with its black text on near white, extinction curse becomes a tad more difficult with its black on yellow (thankfully it is a very smooth texture so it is still legible, but it does cause more eyestrain).

I also like all the NPCs being grouped together.

Horizon Hunters

Put me down as another one who prefers it all at the back, rather than flipping through trying to find it one alternate for the PDF is maybe putting a link in the text where it says "find NPC on page blah blah" that goes directly to that page. It's not much but a little convenience goes a long way with ePlayers :p

And while we're at it maybe make it so you can hide individual rooms on the interactive map somehow? Though I guess that could be hassle...


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Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I think important NPCs (especially ones the PCs are likely to fight) being in the back of APs makes more sense, but ultimately I'd be fine with them anywhere so long as they have their own pages and aren't grouped in with adventure text. For lesser monsters it's not a big deal and I can refer directly from the adventure itself. But big boss type NPCs? Definitely keep them the way they are, please.

This is because I print out these pages and put them into their own section of my campaign binder. If the info is all together on one page without other extraneous content this makes it easier to reference during combat. Monsters that have their stats across multiple pages, whether in APs or the Bestiary, are more of a hassle for me as I end up printing more pages and flip around in my binder during combat.

To summarize: Having everything I need during combat on one page is best, though of course when the Battle Cards come out this will be less important as I will be using those (and creating my own for AP-specific monsters and NPCs).

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