In Know Direction Pathfinder Podcast 99, we talk about what to expect in 2015 and 2016 for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
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News/Banter
- 2015 Predictions – An annual tradition. What’s in store for the next year for Paizo and Pathfinder? What will be announced for 2016?
2015:- When will we get the Strategy Guide? http://paizo.com/products/btpy99sk?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Strategy-Guide
- Pathfinder Unchained http://paizo.com/products/btpy97vo?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Pathfinder-Unchained-Hardcover
- Occult Adventures http://paizo.com/products/btpy9a0h?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Occult-Adventures-Hardcover
- Monster book?
- Inner Sea Races
- Thoughts on Giantslayer? http://paizo.com/pathfinder/adventurePath/giantslayer
- Hell’s Rebels
- Other upcoming releases http://paizo.com/paizo/about/schedule
- Campaign Setting
- Player’s Companions
- Modules
- Tales
- Miniatures/Pawns/Peripherals
- Comics
- ACG
2016 Announcements:
- RPG hardcovers
- Adventure Paths
- Other upcoming releases
- Campaign Setting
- Player’s Companions
- Modules
- Tales
- Miniatures/Pawns
- Comics
- ACG
Know Questions
Avenka Thalma asks via knowdirection@hotmail.com:
I have a situation and I don’t know how to deal with it : one of the players in my campaign is a rogue, fine. We play in an adventure path in which the party is expected to stay for a long time in a town and help them overcome many problems. The party is composed mostly of neutral people, so you know, mercenaries, not heroes nor evil people.
In that kind of setting, where pcs are supposed to work for the town, what if the rogue wants to steal people in the streets ? It’s ok as long as he doesn’t get caught, but if he is, what do you do then ?
I simply told my player that he could not steal in this campaign, because it would ruin it if he got caught, but I’m sure I could have come up with something better to deal with his class and let him do his thing.
Ben Adams via facebook.com/knowdirection
In the Pathfinder campaign setting what happens to the soul of a powerful character when they pass to the great beyond? Would a mythic BBEG be able to cut a swath through the lower planes even after death
David Gibson via facebook.com/knowdirection
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/brawler
Creating a shield brawler for PFS. My inner Captain American fan I guess. But upon reading the shield brawler I’m left questions:
- Is the shield champion proficient with shields as weapons?
Normal brawlers are proficient with the close weapon group, so brawlers are proficient with shields as weapons but not as shields. The shield champion changes proficiencies to: “A shield champion is proficient with all simple weapons. She is also proficient with light armor, and with bucklers, light shields, and heavy shields. This replaces the brawler’s weapon and armor proficiencies.” It doesn’t specify the shield proficiency as a weapon, so it would just be the armour proficiency. That means by RAW the brawler archetype that fights with a shield takes a non-proficiency penalty on attack rolls with shields. That doesn’t seem right.
2, Are brawlers considered to have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat?
At 11th level the shield champion gains Shield Master as a bonus feat. However, they must meet the prerequisites. And one is Two-Weapon Fighting. However the class feature brawler’s flurry says: “Starting at 2nd level, a brawler can make a brawler’s flurry as a full-attack action. When doing so, a brawler has the Two-Weapon Fighting feat when attacking with any combination of unarmed strikes, weapons from the close fighter weapon group, or weapons with the “monk” special feature.” A brawler would get no benefit from a Two-Weapon Fighting as any time they attack with two weapons they gain the feat. But it doesn’t say they gain the feat for meeting pre-requisites and they don’t have the feat when not attacking or just making a single attack.
3. Does the brawler get its AC bonus when using a shield as a weapon?
The ability reads: “At 4th level, when a brawler wears light or no armor, she gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC and CMD. This bonus increases by 1 at 9th, 13th, and 18th levels. These bonuses to AC apply against touch attacks. She loses these bonuses while immobilized or helpless, wearing medium or heavy armor, *using a shield*, or carrying a medium or heavy load.” It looks like using a shield in any way causes them to lose the bonus, even if not gaining AC from it.
4. Does a thrown throwing shield with spikes apply its spike damage?
A throwing shield says: “Neither a shield’s enhancement bonus to AC nor its shield spikes apply on your attack or damage rolls.” But the throw shield ability says: “The thrown shield deals the same damage as a shield bash, and any damage increases from shield spikes apply to this attack.” Which is the specific in this case?
Darran Caldemeyer via chat
Do you guys think we may see a return of the special product for PaizoCon? Much like the blue GM Screen
Matt Harris via chat
Will Paizo Game Space ever come out?
Wrap Up and Shout Outs
Know Direction 100?! January 28th, 2015
PaizoCon 2015 – May 22-25, 2015, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport
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Its important to not have everything be “Of Golarian”. I am much more likely to buy Advanced Race Guide than Races of Golarian. As is my brother. As are the rest of the members of our group.
We play Pathfinder, but in our own worlds. The only “Golarian” books any of us buy are either Players Companion which come in my subscription, or a few which have a lot of crunch– and then only after exhausting other non-Golarian books. (Inner Sea Combat and Magic I both bought– Inner Sea Gods is languishing at the bottom of my want list.)
They’d have lost several hardcover sales from each member of my group if there were no Pathfinder Roleplaying Games (non-Golarian) offerings, and I am sure there are many other groups like that.
Its not just your group. There are campaigns I play in that are not in golarion. And specifically responding to Perram, it actually is a big deal to try and strip out the flavor if its put there.
As of now, the rpg line books has very general flavor. Yes, goblins are pyromaniac, lunatic, crazies. But that is a very general set of characteristics that doesn’t really cause any issues creating your own setting. If however the entry for goblins also talked about the Licktoad Tribe, and had special racial traits for them and their rival birdcrunchers, you are now entering the realm of setting material.
A homebrew gm is likely not going to want that. And aside from the fact that there is material in a book you cant use, its one of communicating things with your players. If setting material and rpg material was combined, then homebrew gms would have to go through books and list out option by option what works in their setting.
Again going back to the races, right now, a gm could say something like, there are humans, elves, goblins, and kobolds in my setting. You may use the options for each race from the advanced race guide to create your character.
If it was all combined, you would have to say, there humans, but dont use the snow tribe human traits, or the fire eater feats. They dont really fit my setting. Also theres no tribe of mammoth riders, as this world is primarily a tropical setting, so the mammoth rider archetype for the cavalier isn’t appropriate….
Theres also the fact that as of right now, theres still a difference in the design philosophy between the campaign setting books and the rpg books. The campaign setting books are first and foremost meant to invoke the setting. The rpg books are first and formost meant to provide a good game.
As an example, in the technology guide (a setting book), the technologist feat is a complete feat tax. But it is there because there is supposed (in golarion) to be a bumpy path into learning about and using advanced tech. In addition, all of the rules are designed around keeping everything tied to several artifact level devices (laboratories and power generators). Both of these things are meant to tie into the fact that despite all this stuff being here for a long time, it hasn’t spread throughout golarion. If it is an rpg book, it probably wouldnt have that kind of barrier, and it would be left up to the gms to sort out integration into their worlds. After all a gm could be using that book to build a world with lazer guns on every street corner, where people are currently at the tech level to develop and manage this stuff. It makes the book much harder to use to create your own world, because the assumptions of the technologist feat and the dependance on rare artifacts to create and keep tech functioning is baked into their function.
For a new monster book, the most important book for the creation of Pathfinder’s first bestiary, other than the D&D monster manual 1? Green Ronin’s Advanced Bestiary. They used a lot of the templates to make more interesting monsters. Well GR put out an updated edition with a bunch of new stuff. They could do a new book applying the new techniques/technologies in the GR book to the best of the prior monsters.
Some of us notice the non-campaign vs campaign stuff. Golarion flavored stuff is usually a lot less interesting to me than the Golarion books.
I think towards the monster book that maybe they go the Unchained route, create cleaned up fast and easy to run versions of iconic monsters with abilities and powers instead of just building them to player rules. like an Alternate bestiary… bestiary unchained? I don’t think its likely but it might be something people would want… also hopefully announce a Daemon AP!!
Ha! I probably should have listened to the whole Podcast instead of just jumping on the gun.
Although what about a Location book? Encounter book? Lairs and strongholds? a books of places to have awesome fights with monsters? Rooms and areas that could be dropped into dungeons and adventures with cool rules and unique features?