Oh God bless you Paizo! Once again they have raised the bar! Not only did they announce that the Advanced Race Guide is going to feature a rules system for creating your own races, they have just opened it up to open playtest! Here is a link to add the document to your downloads! It’s a point based system for creation and while not legal for Pathfinder Society play, it still looks very awesome! At the end in includes some breakdowns of the points for standard races and some of the monstrous races (as well as some that are going to be in Bestiary 3)! I’ll be adding some of my thoughts shortly!
Sep
29
Pathfinder Society Character Lab – Witch
Another new faction for Season 3 is the Sczarni, sort of like the Varisian mob. The Society recognizes sometimes, you need forged papers. Occasionally it just pays to know a guy. With that in mind, a Witch felt at home with the Sczarni. Many of their spells and hexes are intended to horrify their targets. “I can make it stop, if you do what the boss says.” That kind of stuff…
WITCH CR 2
Female Human (Varisian) Witch 3
CN Medium Humanoid (Human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +0
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DEFENSE
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AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10 (+2 Dex)
hp 20 (3d6+3)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +4
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee Dagger +1 (1d4/19-20/x2)
Ranged Crossbow, Light +3 (1d8/19-20/x2)
Special Attacks Evil Eye (DC 14), Misfortune (DC 14)
Witch Spells Known (CL 3, 1 melee touch, 3 ranged touch):
2 (2/day) Hold Person (DC 17), Lipstitch (DC 15)
1 (3/day) Burning Hands (DC 14), Beguiling Gift (DC 16), Delusional Pride (DC 16)
0 (at will) Daze (DC 15), Detect Magic, Guidance (DC 13), Light
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STATISTICS
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Str 10, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 17, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD 13
Feats Extra Hex, Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment, Spell Focus: Enchantment
Traits Bad Reputation, Varisian Wanderer: Sleight of Hand
Skills Intimidate +10, Knowledge (Arcana) +9, Knowledge (History) +8, Knowledge (Planes) +7, Sleight of Hand +9, Spellcraft +9, Use Magic Device +8
Languages Common, Infernal, Kelish, Osiriani, Varisian
SQ +3 to Hit Points, Cackle, Deliver Touch Spells Through Familiar (Su), Empathic Link with Familiar (Su), Share Spells with Familiar
Combat Gear Bolts, Crossbow (20), Crossbow, Light, Dagger; Other Gear Alchemist’s fire (flask), Backpack, Masterwork (5 @ 2.5 lbs), Bag, Waterproof (empty), Bag, Waterproof (empty), Bag, Waterproof (empty), Case, map or scroll (empty), Cloak of Resistance, +1, Flint and steel, Grappling bolt, Grappling bolt, Scarf, Pocketed, Scroll: Burning Gaze, Scroll: Glitterdust, Scroll: Lipstitch, Scroll: Mage Armor, Scroll: Mage Armor, Spell component pouch, Wand of Cure Light Wounds, Wrist sheath
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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+3 to Hit Points You gain the Alertness feat while your familiar is within arm’s reach.
Cackle Extend the duration of other hexes.
Deliver Touch Spells Through Familiar (Su) Your familiar can deliver touch spells for you.
Empathic Link with Familiar (Su) You have an empathic link with your Arcane Familiar.
Evil Eye -2 (6 round(s)) (DC 14) (Su) Inflict penalties with a glance.
Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment +1 to the Save DC of spells from one school.
Misfortune (1 round(s)) (DC 14) (Su) Target must take the lower of 2d20 for rolls.
Share Spells with Familiar The wizard may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a touch spell) instead of on himself. A wizard may cast spells on his familiar even if the spells do not normally affect creatures of the familiar’s type (magical beast).
Spell Focus: Enchantment Spells from one school of magic have +1 to their save DC.
Varisian Wanderer: Sleight of Hand +1 to Sleight of Hand checks, Sleight of Hand is always a class skill for you.
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TOAD FAMILIAR CR 1/8
Male Toad
NN Diminutive Magical Beast
Init +1; Senses Low-Light Vision, Scent; Perception +5
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DEFENSE
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AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 16 (+1 Dex, +4 size, +2 natural)
hp 10 (1d10-2)
Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +5
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OFFENSE
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Spd 5 ft.
Melee Unarmed Strike +0 (–5/20/x2)
Space 1 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
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STATISTICS
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Str 1, Dex 12, Con 6, Int 7, Wis 15, Cha 4
Base Atk +1; CMB -2; CMD 3 (7 vs. Trip)
Feats Skill Focus: Perception
Tricks Come [Trick], Fetch [Trick], Perform [Trick], Seek [Trick], Stay [Trick], Track [Trick]
Skills Climb +1, Fly +7, Intimidate +0, Perception +5, Sleight of Hand +4, Spellcraft +1, Stealth +21, Swim +1, Use Magic Device +0
Languages
SQ Come [Trick], Fetch [Trick], Improved Evasion (Ex), Perform [Trick], Seek [Trick], Stay [Trick], Track [Trick]
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Come [Trick] The animal will come to you on command.
Fetch [Trick] The animal will get a specific object.
Improved Evasion (Ex) No damage on successful reflex save; half on failed save.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Perform [Trick] The animal will perform tricks.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ feet by sense of smell.
Seek [Trick] The animal moves into an area and looks around for anything that is obviously alive or animate.
Stay [Trick] The animal will stay where it is.
Track [Trick] The animal will track a scent.
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The Breakdown
In order to get the most out of what I feel this Sczarni Witch should be I focused on the Enchantment side of things, gave her a little Charisma for Intimidate and Use Magic Device as well as making Sleight of Hand a class skill via a trait. The Patron choice is indeed Enchantment, but I didn’t feel overly compelled by the choice honestly. None of the additional spells granted really spoke to me for any Patron. The toad was chosen for the hit point bonus, and being tiny hopefully can be kept out of harms way. Plus, toads are gross. The hexes I chose are pretty standard debuff hexes for the Witch to hopefully aid the party in a combat encounter, you could go with Charm which still may be a good choice but since it doesn’t benefit from the Spell Focus feats Evil Eye and Misfortune seemed like better choices. I also want to give a shout out to Beguiling Gift. I love this spell, and it can be used in some pretty awesome ways. Two-handed fighter in your face? Here, hold this dagger. Better yet, here is a set of manacles my pretty…you know what to do with them. A potion of Inflict Serious or Critical Wounds can go a long way as well. Yummy! Another spell that I’m seeing first hand just how broken it is is Lipstich. This spell is nothing short of amazing in my opinion. It’s incredibly powerful at shutting down enemy casters, and difficult to deal with. It might be worth taking Spell Focus (Necromancy) to boost the DC. I’m sure there are probably enough other Necromancy spells on the Witch’s spell list to make this a good investment. I did the typical 2 PP spend for a Wand of CLW, but you might want Mage Armor (or even both).
Another new faction for Season 3 is the Sczarni, sort of like the Varisian mob. The Society recognizes sometimes, you need forged papers.
Sep
26
Pathfinder Society Pregen Character Credit
With the inclusion of pregenerated characters at 1st, 4th and 7th level, the ability to earn credit for playing them originally was not an option. While the inclusion of pregens made it easy for new players to ‘taste test’ the game, the lack of earning credit for doing so felt a little punitive. With the release of the 4.0 Guide to Organized Play this was relaxed slightly, so that if you played a 1st level pregen you could earn a Chronicle sheet and apply that to whatever perma
nent character you created.
Today the new Campaign Coordinator posted these purposed changes to the way pregen credit could work, and is looking for community feedback for the next week. Stop by, give them a read, and give your thoughts!
Sep
16
Pathfinder Society Character Lab – Lore Warden
Since the start of Pathfinder Society Organized Play some players have wanted to “just be Pathfinders”, and not worry about the Inner Sea politicking so much. The addition in Season 3 of the Grand Lodge faction now fully supports this choice. The Lore Warden, a Fighter archetype from the Pathfinder Society Field Guide, is interesting and a great fit for
the Grand Lodge faction.
LORE WARDEN CR 2
Male Human (Garundi) Fighter (Lore Warden) 3
NG Medium Humanoid (Human)
Init +5; Senses Perception +0
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DEFENSE
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AC 20, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+5 armor, +4 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 31 (3d10+6)
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee Rapier +7 (1d6+1/18-20/x2) and
Sickle +7 (1d6+1/20/x2) and
Unarmed Strike +7 (1d3+1/20/x2)
Spell-Like Abilities Light (At will)
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STATISTICS
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Str 12, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +3; CMB +9 (+11 Tripping); CMD 21 (23 vs. Trip)
Feats Agile Maneuvers, Combat Expertise +/-1, Combat Reflexes (5 AoO/round), Dodge, Improved Trip, Weapon Finesse
Traits Absalom Hotspur, Vagabond Child (urban): Disable Device
Skills Climb +5, Disable Device +13, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +6, Knowledge (History) +6, Knowledge (Local) +8, Knowledge (Religion) +6, Linguistics +5, Spellcraft +7, Survival +4
Languages Common, Kelish, Osiriani, Undercommon
SQ Wayfinder, Standard (empty)
Combat Gear +1 Mithral Chain Shirt, Rapier, Sickle; Other Gear Adventurer’s Sash (empty), Alchemist’s fire (flask) (2), Backpack, Masterwork (empty), Bag, Waterproof (empty), Bag, Waterproof (empty), Manacles, masterwork, Potion of Cure Light Wounds, Potion of Shield of Faith, Potion of Shield of Faith, Thieves’ tools, masterwork, Wand of Cure Light Wounds, Wayfinder, Standard (empty)
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Absalom Hotspur You gain a +1 trait bonus on Initiative checks and Knowledge (local) checks.
Agile Maneuvers Use DEX instead of STR for CMB
Combat Expertise +/-1 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Combat Reflexes (5 AoO/round) You may make up to 5 attacks of opportunity per round, and may make them while flat-footed.
Improved Trip You Trip at +2 and don’t cause an attack of opportunity.
Wayfinder, Standard
The Breakdown
The Lore Warden is a smart fighter. They trade medium and heavy armor proficiency and shield proficiency for 2 more skill ranks each level. These skill ranks must be spent on Intelligence-based skills, and all Intelligence-based skills become class skills! As a Pathfinder, you are expect to know things about the world around you. You are up to your eyeballs in ancient cultures and this gives you some great flexibility to focus on some areas of interest. My experience in PFS play lead me to pick the Knowledge skills I thought would be of the overall most utility, you can obviously season to taste and it was a bit of a tough call between Arcana and Religion. By picking a non-Cheliaxian, non-Talden human ethnicity you’ll get another bonus racial language, and putting a rank in Linguistics on top of having an Intelligence bonus means you have a fair number of language choices. While writing this up I realized that Spellcraft isn’t going to be as useful as I thought without Detect Magic, you could reallocate those points to another Knowledge skill if your choice pretty easily.
The Lore Warden is also a Combat Maneuver fighter. They get Combat Expertise as a bonus feat at 2nd level, and get a +2 bonus to their CMB/CMD at 3rd level. This is begging for them to use Improved (Something) and be really good at it! Having given up all but light armor proficiency it seems that a high Dex is a good way to help offset that trade, so I looked for other ways to maximize my combat effectiveness via Dex. Weapon Finess and Agile Maneuvers play right into this. You aren’t going to hit for a ton of damage this way unlike your greatsword/Power Attack counterparts, but if you are moving around the battlefield knocking all your enemies prone via trip? Well that just seems like a bit of fun, especially when you have 5 Attacks of Opportunity yourself to use each round! The great thing here with the Lore Warden again is you can really season Improved (Something) choice to whatever you’d like! I wanted to get Mobility in there as well, but you can still pick it up as the 4th level bonus feat or 5th level feat.
For the 2 traits I took Urban Vagabond and Absalom Hotspur. Picking up Disable Device as a class skill could be very useful to a table as Rogue characters have been pretty scarce at my tables. Not having Perception as a class skill hurts a little to me for how I see this character, but getting it in PFS via a trait is difficult. Currently the only choice is via the Osirion faction trait Tomb Raider, but I expressly want the Grand Lodge for this Pathfinder. Absalom Hotspur seemed like a good flavorful choice as well. EDIT: I’ve managed to overlook the Observant trait which is, in fact, a Grand Lodge faction trait that grants Perception as a class skill. Oh the irony.
The main weakness I see here is the Will save and lack of Perception as a class skill. Not having a bonus from Wis is going to hurt you some. There are some ways you could offset this via Iron Will and/or Cloak of Resistance. I feel like this Lore Warden would be a great benefit to any table he sits at. He’s got something he can contribute to combat, he’s got several things he can contribute out of combat. Overall this seems like a very interesting Fighter that I’d like to play, and there are several ways you can take the character to make it your own! I welcome any feedback on the build, or play experience people have as a Lore Warden already!
Sep
13
Pathfinder Society – Character Labs
Over the next few weeks we will be posting some character builds for Pathfinder Society characters, specifically builds that we feel represent the factions they are a part of. Up first, I thought we’d start strong with the new Grand Lodge faction. What does it mean to be a Pathfinder who believes so strongly in the Society? While your peers are getting entangled in Inner Sea politics, you want to server the Society! Beyond just the numbers, we will also go into the reasons why we made the choices we did. There will be a level of optimization in them, obviously, but hopefully you will also get a level of flavor. These are not going to be the highest DPS fighters, or the uber-healing cleric but hopefully a character that has a role and clearly fills it. Enjoy!
Sep
12
Pathfinder Society – New Venture-Captains and Region Map
Today, Paizo announced 6 new Venture-Captains for their organized play program! They include the Atlanta replacements for Mike Brock who is moving to Seattle to join Paizo as the PFS Campaign Coordinator, Boston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Iowa City and Washington DC. Congrats to all the new Venture-Captains!
I’ve also added a page which links to a regional map showing the contact name and email for the existing Venture-Captains as well as the regions which are still looking for qualified applicants. Enjoy!
Sep
12
Speak out with your geek out!
When I was 9 years old, I was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons, Red Box style. I feel in love instantly. I was spending the night with my cousin’s cousins. When I returned home, I feverishly tried to recreate the character sheet from memory so I could start making up my own games. It was glorious! 
For my 11th birthday I got a Red Box of my very own, even though my parents were highly dubious about the whole thing. I was reading fantasy fiction like a madman though, so they didn’t complain too much. Plus, if my grades weren’t good they could always take it away from me (not that it ever came to that :eyeroll:).
By the time I was 12 I had recruited my younger brother into playing. I had all the colored box sets, but I think the Blue Box (Expert Set) was always my favorite. The Red Box is the heart swelling nostalgia for the game, but the Blue Box I think is the sense of accomplishment of moving up.
By the time I was in high school I was firmly one of ‘those’ role playing geeks, metal, jean jacket, school library and Dungeons & Dragons. It was glorious! I was learning about computers at the same time, and a driving factor in my curiosity and exploration of computers was “how can I make this thing do Dungeons & Dragons?” It was time for 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and we took the plunge into the ‘Advanced’ pool with both feet!
After high school I had started my first really serious effort at creating my own campaign world. Sure there had been earlier proto attempts, but the Eternal Empire was serious. I was reskinning Cormyr in the Forgotten Realms into my own vision of what the game should be. Of course it was ultimately derivative for Star Wars following Clarke’s 3rd law – “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It was glorious! When I went into the Air Force I got to spring this campaign on a new group of suspecting geeks, and it matured.
I became involved in Multi-
User Dungeons (MUDs) then, as another way to express my fantasy world. Programing and world building in CircleMUD taught me many, many things that would be useful later in life as an Information Technology professional. This lead me into discovering such fantastically helpful skills as: debugging, troubleshooting, server setup, backup and recovery, webservers and how to manage customer (player) requests for improvement.
Then something bizarre happened, I stopped. Oh sure I played Magic during this time (a lot), but that wasn’t the same. With each set of cards released it became harder and harder to ignore my role-playing roots. There are many great evocative people, places and things in the Magic universe. Some of those stories are just begging to be lived through the eyes of a group of 4-6 of your friends. Life just sorta got in the way. I wasn’t really sold on 3rd Edition, and finding players seemed like a chore I didn’t want. Plus, I could log in to the MUD and scratch most of my itches anyway.
Finally in 2009 it happened. I had been talking with a co-worker about all kinds of shared geekery including our role-playing pasts. He knew some guys, there was some interest from everyone, and it was agreed that we’d play the new hotness, Pathfinder. They had this Organized Play thing that would make it easy for everyone to play and take turns as GM. As a long time (and usually only) DM, the idea of playing a little and then being able to swap in as GM was beyond intriguing. After playing my second game I started formulating a campaign of my own, it was still over a year in the making but I was in. Hardcore. I started playing a lot of Pathfinder Society around town, helping to get other gamers off the bench and into stores in my wake. My home campaign became my longest running game to date (14 months!), and while it didn’t end in the happy hero victory everyone wanted, it served as a great learning experience for me. I started GMing Pathfinder Society. I started organizing. I attended my very first Gen Con! It was glorious! Now I’m the regional coordinator for Indianapolis and have continued to make new friends in town, across the country and around the world.
With a love of fantasy, sci-fi, comics, movies, games and role-playing I cannot imagine where my life would be today without having all of these things feeding into who I am and who I have become. Be proud of your hobbies and don’t be ashamed to proclaim your love of them! If you are ever in Indy and want to throw some dice, let me know!
Sep
08
Pathfinder Society Organized Play Manager announced!
Today, Paizo announced they are bringing on board Mike Brock as the new head of their organized play program! Having been a Venture-Captain for the Atlanta area, Mike has headed up some explos
ive growth in the Atlanta area! It is awesome to see Paizo hiring yet another strong community member officially into the company.
Having met Mike at Gen Con 2011 this year, it was a pleasure to work with him and get some ideas and feedback on some of the things that work in the Atlanta area for him. Personally, I’m looking forward to working with Mike to continue to shape Pathfinder Society play into the biggest and best organized play program out there!
Sep
08
Pathfinder Society – Pre-Season 3 Adjustments
There are a few small changes with the release of the Guide to Organized Play v4.0 which affect the way you run pre-season 3 scenarios that you need to be aware of. Prior to the start of Season 3 there were only 5 factions, and now there are 10. This means if you are playing any pre-season 3 scenarios you, as a GM, may have to make some minor adjustments. Like what faction mission does the Lantern Lodge get? There is also some potential questions on how to handle the Prestige awards.
Let’s break down the faction map:
- Grand Lodge – Osirion
- Lantern Lodge – Qadira
- Sczarni – Taldor
- Shadow Lodge – Cheliax
- Silver Crusade – Andoran
If you have two members of mixed factions at the table (for example Qadira and Lantern Lodge) if either of them accomplish the mission, both are considered successful.
Since most of the Season 0 scenarios only had 1 faction mission, many players and GMs skip over some of these gems in favor of a Season 1 or 2 scenario that offers 2 Prestige. There was an addition to the new Guide which allows these Season 0 scenarios to be played with a possible 2 Prestige offered now. This is accomplished by having the faction mission count as normal, and the over-all mission given at the start of the scenario given by the Venture-Captain count as the second.
These changes will help you get more mileage out of your pre-Season 3 scenarios, enjoy!
Sep
07
Pathfinder Beginner Box Preview!
In the Paizo Blog yesterday we were treated to some sneak preview downloads for the upcoming Beginner Box, which include monster stat blocks as well as the character sheet layout for Kyra!
The monster stat blocks look great! Indicating in the melee portion, for example, what attack you can perform for a Standard Action and what you get for a Standard + Move Action. The attributes are also now listed in their bonus/penalty form (like skills) rather than just listing the numbers. There is also reference to random treasure tables, and who doesn’t love random treasure tables? Looks like they are getting 4 stat blocks on a page. For those of you who already use index cards (or similar) these could be easily adapted to such a use. Nice.
The Character Sheet looks to be a two page fold booklet, and it’s very nice. The front page shows some great artwork of Kyra in action, as well as helpful text the kind of roles Kyra can play. This can help new players understand what role they are trying to fill in the party dynamic. The back page gives Kyra’s background story to help players get a feel for her personality, great stuff! The inside pages though contain the real treasure. The sheet is labeled with lettered sections, with sidebars for each letter going into more detail. Of particular use to new players is the section for letter ‘D’ which contains ‘What can you do on your turn’ breaking down Standard, Move and Free actions you might take, with section reference for more detail on that action.
One thing that I love so far about the Beginner Box buzz is just how excited so many RPG veterans are about this product. They are eagerly waiting to share this with someone. A sister, a cousin, a friend, a child. Someone is going to get this for Christmas and have a wonderful introduction into the world of role playing we all love!