A Game of Boons

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Alright, it's time to start kicking these Starfinder Society blogs into hyperspee... errrrr, speeds you'd expect while travelling through the Drift! Today's blog is going to touch on two things that people frequently ask about: boons and new races in the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild.

Illustration by Maichol Quinto

Boons and Boon Slots

As previously announced in interviews and at our PaizoCon panel, Starfinder Society is changing up the Roleplaying Guild's handling of boons. Boons are non-standard rewards granted on the Chronicle sheets you get for completing Starfinder Society scenarios and sanctioned content. For all you Pathfinder Society veterans out there, the current boon system involves finding special boons on a Chronicle sheet and mentally keeping track of them throughout the course of your character's career. The existing system allows for a character to accrue a lot of boons over the course of her career, but it also requires a lot of tracking on the player's end. Did you remember that your second Chronicle sheet gave you a +1 circumstance bonus to negotiating with gnolls from western Katapesh? (John likes using that one as an example, a lot. He also wants me to remind Pathfinder Society players, that six seasons later, that boon is still relevant!)

To ease player record keeping burdens, as well as to give the development team some flexibility on ensuring that boons remain relevant throughout the campaign, Starfinder Society introduces boon slots. Each boon slot represents an available space in which a player can activate one of their earned boons; if you've slotted a boon, it's active for that adventure, and if you didn't slot one of your boons, it's dormant. Every Starfinder Society character has six boon slots, and each of which corresponds to a different type of boon. Most boons now include a corresponding boon type, so you can slot a Social boon into your Social boon slot, but not into your Faction boon slot. This means that with the exception of the occasional untyped boon, you'll only be tracking up to six boons during a session—not sorting through stacks of paper in the middle of the game.

In previous announcements, we've talked a little about boon slots, but today we're going to go over each of the six types of boons.

Ally: Ally boons are boons that represent an ally actively assisting the PC. This could be a temporary hireling versed in a specific skill, an ammunition porter, or even a less physical presence (such as the digital imp we discussed in our previous blog). Ally boons generally represent an additional 'body' on the team, or the presence of a creature that affects combat or general skill checks.

Faction: Every faction offers a boon that allows characters to champion that faction. Characters slotting these boons earn Reputation with the associated faction, effectively allowing the character to swap out what factions she works for on a scenario-by-scenario basis. The entry-level boon for a faction's referred to as the champion boon, and that can improve as your character gains more and more Reputation.

Promotional: Promotional boons are unique in that they often represent out-of-game acquisitions that translate to in-game benefits—Pathfinder Society veterans might think of this as the "shirt reroll" slot. One example of a promotional boon, would be a boon designed around bringing a Starfinder Player Character Folio to use at the table. If you're concerned about only being limited to benefiting from one promotional item during an adventure... well, let's just say there's a faction that has your back!

Social: These boons encompass agreements or alliances with in-game organizations or NPCs. For John's sake, this is where you'll slot that lovely ‘gnolls from western Katapesh' boon! A common example of a social boon would be forging a relationship with an organization, and in future scenarios that organization returns and reacts differently based on whether you've slotted this boon.

Starship: We sure have starships and starship combat in the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. The starship boon slot allows characters to customize some of the standard hulls available to field agents. Expect a future blog post to touch on exactly how starships work in Starfinder Society.

When does a player decide to lock-in his boons for an adventure? Well, Starfinder Society scenarios, much like their Pathfinder Society counterparts, include mission briefings. Each briefing now ends with an instruction for the GM to inform the players to select their boons. This gives players some time in-game to select what boons they think will be most appropriate to the mission at hand, based on the information they received from the briefing. If you're wondering about missing out on slotting story relevant boons, don't worry! The boon slotting section of the adventure will also give GM a list of especially relevant boons from previous Chronicle Sheets, letting the GM know to inform the players that these boons could have a significant effect on the game if they choose to slot them.

Illustration by Hugh Pindur

New Races

The most frequent question I've heard about Starfinder Society—not counting head-in-jar joke questions—is how we'll be handling the multitude of available races. With the recent release of Starfinder First Contact and the announcement of the Starfinder Alien Archive, the Starfinder team is certainly delivering on its promise of adding a wide variety of playable races beyond the core seven races. So how will Starfinder Society play handle the ever-expanding list of alien species?

Oh... hmmmm... did I miss one of the boon slots? OH! Well, isn't that fortuitous timing! Let me just take a quick detour from this talk on alien species to fix that omission.

Personal: Personal boons represent a wide variety of special boons available in the campaign. Unique races, typically those found beyond the core races of the Starfinder Core Rulebook, commonly occupy this slot. The personal slot often requires associated boons (such as new race options) be permanently slotted, so that the slotted boon does not change on a scenario-by-scenario basis. However, this also means that characters with this boon slot available can use it for other purposes...

Well, that certainly explains a bit, doesn't it? Yes, non-standard species will be made available by permanently slotting that race's boon in the Personal boon slot. This doesn't mean that every new race will be immediately available for use. We're rolling out new races in a controlled fashion, such as through convention or special event boons, as well as through some unique new distribution plans that we're adding into the campaign. Not quite ready to go into all the details on how these boons will be released, but stay tuned for more info!

Ok, fine, I'll answer one more common question—only because you're all great fans. How will Starfinder Society handle the legacy races from Pathfinder? Can you play a halfling starship pilot, or a half-orc solarian? How does one get access to play legacy races? Well, here's a hint: Pathfinder Society has this cool thing called a "Regional Support Program" and Starfinder Society will have one too!

Alrighty, enough spilling of beans from my end. I need to get back to work before John and Tonya find out I've spent all this time on an extra-long blog post!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

'Tis the Season of Plundered Tombs

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Illustration by Maichol Quinto
Look, these tombs aren't just going to plunder themselves.

The Season of Plundered Tombs is upon us! Season 3 of the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild just kicked off last week, so it's a good time to discuss the many horrible fun things we have planned for it!

To integrate the Adventure Card Guild with the Roleplaying Guild as part of the overall Pathfinder Society, the ACG players are now Pathfinder agents, as explained in the introduction the season, authored by John Compton:

Among the region's most influential archaeological operations is the Pathfinder Society, an international league of explorers and adventurers dedicated to discovering and chronicling the world's mysteries. You recently completed your training as a Pathfinder agent in Absalom and set out for Osirion, dreaming of the ancient secrets buried beneath the sands and stone.

The archaeological wealth of all Osirion will be yours to explore. What you uncover might not just change your fortunes; it could change the world!

You're going to get a chance to interact with many groups and characters familiar to the Pathfinder Society. First among these is the Aspis Consortium, a mercantile organization known for its ability to sniff out amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities without all the burden of scrupulous practices. The Mummy's Mask Base Set includes several cards that have the Aspis trait, so you'll get a chance to take full advantage of these extremely useful (and sometimes costly) allies.

PFS players might recognize these Aspis agents from Destiny of the Sands.

Relatively early in the season, you'll interact with the Aspis trader Falsin Deek. Traders have a special role in Adventure Card Guild scenarios:

We like you so much, we wrote the trader rules TWICE.

This change is great for the Adventure Card Guild because it lets you start each scenario with a card that's not in your class deck, and helps you bring the flavor of Mummy's Mask to your Class Deck. This is particularly important given the curses, the triggers, and the scads of elemental damage—all things for which your deck might not be entirely ready.

There are a couple other interesting ways we get to play with mechanics from Mummy's Mask. For example, have you wondered about that Defensive Stance card in the Base Set box? It will be a while yet before you'll use it in the Mummy's Mask Adventure Path, but you'll get to use it early in Adventure 2 of Season of Plundered Tombs. Are you getting used to defending against poison damage in Mummy's Mask? Well, the enemies in Season of Plundered Tombs are a little more chaotic and destructive, so are ready to use all kinds of damage types to trigger nasty scourges.

One of the most contentious tasks for the Pathfinder Society and Adventure Card Game teams in development of this season was in choosing a name. Initially, we assumed it'd be "Season of the Mummy," to match up with the name of the box set. But it turns out the story we wanted to tell, while full of Osirion goodies, wasn't really about mummies in particular. We also want to move away from one-word season names—we certainly don't want any more season names to be abbreviated "SotR" after Season of the Righteous and Season of the Runelords! (Always helpful, Mike suggested "Season of Thundered Rooms.")

We went back and forth on a number of names, but the decision eventually came down to simple planning for the future. We want to make a lot more seasons, so switching to two-word season names gives us a lot more room for expansion. Also, the extremely wise guys at Lone Shark Games immediately stumbled onto "PluTo" as a useful shortening of Plundered Tombs, which lets us be happy with it as an endearing animated pet and once-planet.

Honestly, Liz Spain, Paul Peterson, and Gaby Weidling are a lot more inventive (read: crazy) than I am, so I'm not sure I'll be able to measure up to the zany and bewildering antics of some of their scenarios such as [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and [REDACTED] from Adventure Deck 3: Shifting Sands, but gosh darn it, I'm going to try! Thankfully, Organized Play Coordinator Tonya Woldridge conscripted a crack crew of legendary Paizo writers to help generate crazy ideas and write the tasty story bits, in the form of John Compton, Amanda Hamon Kunz, Mark Seifter, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.

Season of Plundered Tombs contains six adventures with five scenarios each. Adventure titles and expected release dates follow:

1. Serpents in the Deep
2. Secrets below the Sands
3. In Search of a Sage
4. Tomb of the Godless Host
5. The Sepulcher Soars Anew
6. Destruction Descending

As with earlier seasons, scenarios will be released weekly to retailers participating in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild program, as well as to Pathfinder Society Venture-Officers, before becoming available for general sale as compiled adventures.

Here are the planned Venture-Officer and retailer early release dates for each scenario:

11/9/16: Scenario 3-1C
11/16/16: Scenario 3-1D
11/23/16: Scenario 3-1E

11/30/16: Scenario 3-2A
12/7/16: Scenario 3-2B
12/14/16: Scenario 3-2C
12/21/16: Scenario 3-2D, 3-2E

12/28/16: (Holiday)

1/4/17: Scenario 3-3A
1/11/17: Scenario 3-3B
1/18/17: Scenario 3-3C
1/25/17: Scenario 3-3D
2/1/17: Scenario 3-3E

2/8/17: Scenario 3-4A
2/15/17: Scenario 3-4B
2/22/17: Scenario 3-4C
3/1/17: Scenario 3-4D
3/8/17: Scenario 3-4E

3/15/17: Scenario 3-5A
3/22/17: Scenario 3-5B
3/29/17: Scenario 3-5C
4/5/17: Scenario 3-5D
4/12/17: Scenario 3-5E

4/19/17: Scenario 3-6A
4/26/17: Scenario 3-6B
5/3/17: Scenario 3-6C
5/10/17: Scenario 3-6D
5/17/17: Scenario 3-6E

Here are the planned dates for when each Adventure will be available for purchase from paizo.com for everyone:

11/30/16: Adventure 3-1
1/4/17: Adventure 3-2
2/8/17: Adventure 3-3
3/15/17: Adventure 3-4
4/19/17: Adventure 3-5
5/24/17: Adventure 3-6

Enjoy the tomb plundering!

Keith Richmond
Adventure Card Game Designer

Expanding the Ranks of Hell

Friday, June 17, 2016

Illustration by Leonardo Borazio

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Path of the Hellknight hits this month! Ready to learn more about the legions you'll be joining or commanding once you've picked up the definitive guide to this deadly order?

This time around let's focus on the Hellknights' lesser-known orders, small but driven organizations ready to accept new members or that might come to oppose your wild adventuring.

Lesser Hellknight Orders

Beyond the seven well-known orders of Hellknight—Chain, Gate, Godclaw, Nail, Pyre, Rack, and Scourge—there are several minor orders. Among these are the vicious Order of the Coil, revenge-obsessed Sargavan interlopers, the Order of the Pike, a band of renowned monster hunters, and the Order of the Glyph, who you might already know from the Hell's Vengeance Adventure Path. Some of these fringe groups number among the most heroic and villainous of the Hellknight orders, but heretofore little has been said about them. The Lesser Orders section of Path of the Hellknight changes that. While these orders hold a great deal of interest and potential, especially with some of their niche focuses, they have less of a footprint in the Inner Sea Region, and, appropriately, in this book. But I didn't want to leave readers gravitating toward these orders adrift. As a result, each of these orders references which major Hellknight order it's most similar to. This guidepost points readers toward an analogous major order with options to crib from. It's a quick fix, but it opens the door to a variety of options for Hellknights of these minor orders. Beyond this, you'll find plenty of new details, histories, and options for these orders. To show off a bit of that, here's a few snippets from one, the Order of the Wall.

Illustration by Damien Mammoliti

Order of the Wall

Symbol crenellated skull

Headquarters the Gnashing Wall, south of Khari

Leader Master of Blades Atlan Essebar (LN male human fighter 8/Hellknight^ISWG 5)

Members Chelaxians born in Rahadoum, soldiers

Armor Features angular mantle, cylindrical, castlelike helm

Favored Weapon lucerne hammer (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Equipment 19)

Reckoning repeatedly strike bricks or stone

Analogous Order Rack

Today, the order has grown from 50 members to nearer a hundred, most of whom are lawful neutral. Technically subordinate to the Order of the Chain, the Order of the Wall has no lictor, as master of blades is its highest title. In practice, though, the order functions with near autonomy. The order's mandate to defend Chelish fronts south of the Arch of Aroden has broadened over the years. Now, members stand watch at several borders—not just Chelish ones—defending civilization's frontiers. Despite the order's Chelish origins, Garundi—and specifically Rahadoumi—soldiers comprise most of the order's Hellknights. While their defense of the Gnashing Wall remains an almost religious duty, many travel across northern Garund, serving as guardians of all sorts.

So that's a bit of what you can expect in the chapter on lesser Hellknight orders. But to get back to the major orders, here are glimpses of what you can expect from the fanatical Order of the Godclaw and the frontier scouring Order of the Nail.

Illustration by Damien Mammoliti

Order of the Godclaw

Symbol five-pointed iron star

Headquarters Citadel Dinyar, in the Aspodell Mountains

Leader Lictor Resarc Ountor (LN male fighter 4/cleric 2/Hellknight^ISWG 6)

Members crusaders, religious zealots

Armor Features breastplate with clawlike vambraces, clawlike helm

Favored Weapon morningstar

Reckoning Flagellate yourself with a five-tailed lash. Whenever you are the target of a lawful divine caster's spell that heals hit point damage, you heal 1 additional point per die rolled. Additionally, if you cast divine spells, you can use the holy symbols of Abadar, Asmodeus, Iomedae, Irori, and Torag interchangeably.

Not content with seeking divine approval for their knighthood's righteous path, the Order of the Godclaw's members have sculpted their beliefs from the harshest, most exacting philosophies of five lawful deities: Abadar, Asmodeus, Iomedae, Irori, and Torag. Remade as five stern, armored paragons, the deities of this pantheon are known collectively as the Godclaw. The Hellknights follow revised doctrines to stamp out disorder, particularly its divine embodiments and beings of absolute chaos, with religious zeal. Rather than targeting the faiths of prominent religions, the order sets its eyes on supporting lawful crusades (such as the wars fought by Molthune and Mendev) and being at the vanguard of battles against the forces of chaos. No land is beyond the lawfulness provided by Hellknights—a fact the Order of the Godclaw endlessly seeks to prove.

Members of the Order of the Godclaw can also expect to learn much more about the formation of their unique order, their pentamic faith, their holdouts (and escape routes) near Citadel Dinyar, and a new Godclaw oracle mystery—for your most devout, polytheistic signifers.

Illustration by Damien Mammoliti

Order of the Nail

Symbol thick nails forming a sunburst

Headquarters Citadel Vraid, near Korvosa

Leader Lictor Severs "Boneclaw" DiViri (LE male fighter 4/rogue 2/Hellknight^ISWG 4)

Members frontiersmen, settlers, victims of barbarian and monster attacks

Armor Features breastplate emblazoned with a fiendish face, horned helm

Favored Weapon lance or halberd

Reckoning Pierce your flesh with sharp metal. Gain a +4 bonus on Knowledge (geography) checks. Additionally, if you are trained in Knowledge (geography), you automatically succeed at attempts to use that skill to identify a creature's ethnicity or accent, as long as you are familiar with that ethnicity or accent.

To certain dogmatic, rigid-minded individuals, civilization seems under siege. Beyond the bulwarks of cities and national borders lies an endless expanse of wilderness populated by those who, all too often, shun the rules of settled, lawful societies and follow their own callings. To the Order of the Nail, these beings enviously prey upon the children of the law, seeking to draw civilization into a regressive mire. The Order of the Nail stands staunchly against what it views as barbarity.

Illustrations by Caio Maciel Monteiro and Maichol Quinto

Those who throw in with the Order of the Nail can also expect to learn more about the order's harsh ideals, their tri-part citadel, a number of famous Hellknights, the circuit judge cavalier archetype, and an array of deadly magical brands. There's also a pretty neat little glimpse of the Order of the Nail's Mistress of Blades, Maidrayne Vox, slipped into the illustration of Citadel Vraid.

That's it for today's peek into Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Path of the Hellknight, but our final preview is coming soon. Keep your eyes peeled!

F. Wesley Schneider
Editor-in-Chief

Mind Beasts Hunger for Your Dreams!

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Gather close to learn a harrowing secret of the hidden world of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game development! One plan was to include occult monsters—psychic vampires, duergar, and advanced aboleths, among others—in the Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures hardcover. During that book's development, however, we discovered that we wanted to explore more occult themes than would fit in a single book, and thus Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Bestiary was born. Containing all the creatures originally intended for the pages of Occult Adventures as well as dozens more, Occult Bestiary provides GMs with nearly 50 new monsters with which to populate any occult-themed campaign, many of which use the new rules presented in Occult Adventures.

The monsters in the book can be easily broken into three categories. The first of these is the monsters that were going to appear in Occult Adventures—reimaginings of monsters that would have used psychic magic rules when they first appeared, had we had such rules at the time. These include aboleths, neothelids, seugathi, intellect devourers, and so forth. When they were going to appear in a hardcover rulebook, that seemed like a fine way to do it. But in a book set in the Pathfinder campaign setting, we needed to distinguish between a "normal" aboleth and a "psychic" aboleth. So instead of making an alternate aboleth, we created a new, CR 18 aberration in the same family: the omnipath.

Illustrations by Yigit Koroglu, Maichol Quinto, and Ben Wootten

The second type of monster in the book are those that come from real-world occult beliefs. Many of these are templates like the prana ghost (think Obi-Wan Kenobi in Empire and Jedi), the alter ego, and the psychic lich (whose phylactery is held safely within a mindscape). Others are standalone creatures like the boggart or the tattoo guardian. These were even more fun to concept than the first type of monster!

Illustrations by Audrey Hotte and Jason Juta

Finally, we have my favorite group: the monsters we just made up or that have existed in the Pathfinder campaign setting for years but that we never got to stat up. These include the potential familiar psyche serpent, the Lashunta's shotalashu mounts, new rakshasa and dark folk, and even Kalervo Oikarinen's RPG Superstar 2015 monster entry!

Illustrations by Yigit Koroglu, Kim Sokol, and Ben Wootten

I always know a bestiary is ready when reading the entry for a random monster within inspires a new adventure that would let me use it; every monster in Occult Bestiary had me champing at the bit to throw it at unsuspecting PCs! What occult horrors are you most excited to subject upon your players?

Mark Moreland
Developer

More Inner Sea Monsters!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Ever since we released Pathfinder RPG Monster Codex last fall fans have been asking for an Inner Sea version, covering monsters unique to the Pathfinder Campaign Setting. Soon, those fans will get their wish, as the Inner Sea Monster Codex debuts in just a couple short weeks! The 64-page book presents ten monsters iconic to the Inner Sea region, including charau-ka, gillmen, and strix, each with four sample creatures filling a variety of combat and social roles. To support these monsters, the book also includes new rules, such as archetypes, oracle mysteries, alchemist discoveries, traps, spells, feats, and magic items. Here are two of the new rules found in the book, a minotaur spell and a gillman magic item, as a little sample, as well as a few choice pieces of art to whet your monstrous appetites.

PUZZLE BOX

School enchantment (compulsion) [curse^UM, mind-affecting]; Level bard 2, sorcerer/wizard 3, witch 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels) or touch; see text
Target one creature or one object up to 5 lbs./level
Duration 1 round/level or permanent; see text
Saving Throw Will negates or none; Spell Resistance yes

This spell causes even commonly used objects to become conundrums. When cast on a creature, the target loses all weapon and shield proficiencies. The target also forgets how to use all spell-completion, spell-trigger, and use-activated magic items, as well as any mundane items used as part of a skill check, imposing a –5 penalty on all ability and skill checks attempted with such items. These effects last for 1 round per level. As a move action, the target can attempt a skill check to negate the effects of this spell for one object. Weapons, shields, and mundane objects require a successful Craft skill check of the type required to craft the item in question, with a DC equal to the spell's save DC. Magic items require a successful Spellcraft or Use Magic Device skill check against the spell's save DC.

Alternatively, this spell can be cast on a single touched object that weighs up to 5 pounds per the caster's level. Use of this object becomes a puzzle even to those previously familiar with it. Any creature attempting to use an item affected in this way is treated as though the creature was the target of puzzle box for that item only. When cast on an object, the duration of this spell is permanent.

BATHING BASIN

Price 6,750 gp
Slot none CL 5th Weight 5 lbs.
Aura faint conjuration and transmutation

This heavy bronze bowl, etched with outlines of waves, feels cool to the touch. Once per day as a standard action, the bowl can be commanded to grow in size and fill with 25 gallons of cool, fresh water. In its enlarged state, the basin can accommodate a Medium or smaller creature. The basin remains enlarged for 1 hour or until the user commands it to shrink. All water in the basin disappears when the item shrinks, and any creatures or objects that don't fit in the shrunken bowl are expelled into an adjacent square.

Construction Requirements

Cost 3,375 gp
Craft Wondrous Item, create water, shrink item

Illustrations by Milivoj Ćeran and Wayne England

Illustrations by Aleksey Bayura, Maichol Quinto, Chris Seaman, and Jaime Martinez

Mark Moreland
Developer

Strategy Guide Art Preview!

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

With the Strategy Guide shipping out to players at long last, it's time to take a look at a few pieces of the fantastic art contained within its pages.

The conjurer, a wizard theme, summons extraplanar creatures to aid and defend his party, augmenting their fighting capabilities with magic.
Illustration by Mark Molnar

The stargazer cleric uses divination to predict threats she might face, prepare her spells as needed, and employ her magic to deadly effect.
Illustration by David Alvarez

The trickster is an expert in appearing to be something she's not and hiding in plain sight, and this rogue uses magical performances in battle to win the day.
Illustration by Maichol Quinto

The smasher is a barbarian whose destructive rage lets her bash down otherwise insurmountable obstacles.
Illustration by Mark Molnar

Each theme has an associated icon that appears throughout the text to indicate theme-specific character building ideas and other tips.
Illustration by Bryan Sola

Combat tips and tricks enable players get the most out of their character's class, skills, and even size.
Illustration by Tim Kings-Lynne

Ideas for better roleplaying and storytelling offer players and GMs a spectrum of tools for making their game richer.
Illustration by Bryan Sola

Discussion of narrative play situations such as solving mysteries, meeting important NPCs, and exploring help players find ways to let their characters shine both in and out of combat.
Illustration by David Alvarez

Check out all the options and more excellent artwork in the new Pathfinder RPG: Strategy Guide by ordering a copy today!

Jessica Price
Project Manager

10 Things You Didn't Know Were in the Strategy Guide

Thursday, February 19, 2015

There have been a lot of questions and speculation on the messageboards about what's going to be in the upcoming Strategy Guide, but now that it's set to (finally!) hit shelves next month, you'll get to see for yourself. In anticipation of its debut, allow me to present a sneak peek into 10 different features I bet you didn't know were in this book.

1. Themes:
A theme gives you a ready-made character concept, and a roadmap for building that character using the options available in the Core Rulebook. If you want to play the sort of mysterious druid who can call upon the land to rise up against her foes and the sky to strike down those who threaten the natural world, the Fury theme will take you, step-by-step, through building a character who can do those things, advising you on everything from which race and feats to choose to which starting gear to purchase. If, on the other hand, what attracts you to the druid class is the idea of playing a character who shares an unbreakable bond of friendship and trust with a wild creature, the Animal Friend theme will provide you with the advice you need to create that character.

Illustration by Maichol Quinto

See the paw-print Animal Friend icon in the upper right-hand corner of the image? Keep an eye out below for a glimpse into how it gets used throughout the Strategy Guide.

2. Character Quiz:
Not sure what type of character you'd like to play? This light-hearted quiz will help you determine which theme best matches your play style and interests.

3. Class-Specific Introductions to Spellcasting:
Get a basic overview of how magic works for your character class, advice on which spells to choose, and a walkthrough of how to cast a spell.

4. Tactical Advice for Combat:
Not sure what to do on your turn? Check out this advice on where to focus your attention and on actions you can take to make the most of the circumstances in which you find yourself.

5. Overviews of Non-Combat Roleplaying Situations
Solve mysteries, explore, meet important NPCs, scout, and divide the spoils of your adventures with flair and confidence using these guides.

6. How To Start Running Your Own Games:
Aspiring GMs can find the pointers they need on where to get started if they'd like to try their hand at running their own campaign.

7. Character Sheet Help:
Get easy-to-follow instructions on how to fill out your character sheet, and a handy diagram of what goes where.

8. Beginner's Guide to Reading Spell Descriptions and Other Mechanics Text:
A step-by-step walkthrough of how to read spell descriptions, feats, and other rules-heavy text helps you choose options for your character with full understanding of what they'll do for you.

9. Detailed Instructions for Leveling Up:
Class-specific leveling guides go over everything from reminders about adding hit points to suggestions on the best feat choices from your themes.

Remember that paw-print Animal Friend icon? It's present throughout the druid class guide and other sections of the book, giving you theme-specific guidance and insight into building and playing your character.

10. Pointers Toward Further Exploration on Nearly Every Page:
Whether it's providing tips for more advanced play, suggesting alternate ways to use skills, or guiding you to where in the Core Rulebook to find more information on a combat maneuver, the Strategy Guide's page margins are packed with jumping-off points to make your gaming experience richer and get the most out of your character.

Stay tuned for more Strategy Guide sneak peeks next week!

Jessica Price
Project Manager

The Giants Are Coming!

Thursday, January 22, 2015

It's nearly February, which means it's almost time for the next Pathfinder Adventure Path, Giantslayer! And it all kicks off with Pathfinder Adventure Path #91: Battle of Bloodmarch Hill. Fans of the orc hold of Belkzen should get kick out of this first installment, which starts in the human town of Trunau in Belkzen, and while you'll see plenty of orcs at the beginning of this Adventure Path, we move into giantslaying territory pretty quickly. In fact, the PCs will have to face their first giant before the Battle of Bloodmarch Hill is finished!

The Giantslayer Adventure Path features an almost bewildering variety of Brobdingnagian foes for your PCs to battle and slay, from old favorites like hill giants, stone giants, frost giants, fire giants, cloud giants, and storm giants, to less common colossi like cave giants, marsh giants, slag giants, and ash giants, not to mention cyclopes, ettins, ogres, trolls, and more. We've even got a couple of all new giants—the mongrel giant and the tomb giant—making appearances in Giantslayer, so be sure to take a look at the bestiaries for this AP.

Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

Illustrations by Dmitry Burmak, Miguel Regodon Harkness, Maichol Quinto

So get ready! In just a few short weeks, the Giantslayer Adventure Path arrives! And keep an eye on this blog for the Giantslayer Player's Guide, which will be here soon, featuring a gazetteer of the town of Trunau (previously featured in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Towns of the Inner Sea) and all sorts of tips and tricks to make the best giantslaying character out there! Until then, check out some of the art that will appear in the Giantslayer Adventure Path.

Rob McCreary
Senior Developer

2014 Art Review

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

As we close out 2014, I wanted to end on a high note and give you one last year-end blog. I went to our Managing Art Director Sarah Robinson and Senior Art Director Andrew Vallas to get some help rounding up some favorite illustrations from the past year. Seeing how great their selections were, I also asked various members of our editorial team to pick a few of their own favorites to add. So here are some of our best illustrations from 2014!

Let's start off with some covers! The above are selections were made by Andrew, Sarah, and Developer John Compton.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Monster Codex Illustrated by Wayne Reynolds, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Treasures Illustrated by Igor Grechanyi,
Pathfinder Module: Plunder and Peril Illustrated by Kiki Moch Rizky, and Pathfinder Player Companion: Alchemy Manual Illustrated by Kerem Beyit

Monsters and gods are up next! The above selections were made by Andrew, Sarah, and Designer Stephen Radney-MacFarland

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Monster Codex Illustrations by Subroto Bhaumik and Jason Rainville, Pathfinder Adventure Path #80: Empty Graves Illustration by Johan Grenier,
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Mysteries Illustration by Ralph Horsley, and Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Gods Illustration by Yu Cheng Hong

Brigh and Zyphus are two of the many Golarion deities featured this year. The above selections were made by Adam Daigle and myself.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #86: Lords of Rust Illustration by Johan Grenier, and Pathfinder Adventure Path #89: Palace of Fallen Stars Illustration by Matias Tapia

And to round out this art blog, some portraits of deities, monsters and important characters of 2014!
The above selections were made by Andrew, Associate Editor Judy Bauer, Editor Ryan Macklin, Developer Rob McCreary, and Managing Editor James L. Sutter

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Monster Codex Illustration by Tim Kings-Lynne, Pathfinder Adventure Path #80: Empty Graves Illustrations by Ekaterina Burmak,
Pathfinder Adventure Path #84: Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh Illustration by Johan Grenier, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Gods Illustration by Maichol Quinto, and
Pathfinder Tales: The Redemption Engine Illustration by Eric Belisle

What was your favorite piece of Pathfinder art from 2014?

Mark Moreland
Developer

Confessions of a Recovering Paizo Blog Addict

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Hello. My name is Mark, and I'm a recovering Paizo Blog addict.

When the Paizo Blog first started back in spring 2007, I was new to the Pathfinder fan community, and to be honest, Pathfinder wasn't even a thing. I rarely read it, because I wasn't quite sure what the people who made my favorite magazines thought they were doing making D&D content that wasn't officially approved and licensed as canon and therefore allowable in my game (yeah, I was one of those gamers). I read the blog occasionally, but that was it.

Then I started working (rather obsessively, I might add) on Pathfinder Wiki, and suddenly the blog was really useful, super exciting, and checking it daily became a big priority. Big isn't even the right word. I used to check religiously every day at blog time for the latest update so that I could add any newly revealed hints or secrets to the wiki, whether that was a spoiler about the monsters that were going to appear in a new Pathfinder Adventure Path volume or an image of Aroden creating Absalom.

Now, it should be noted that at this time, blogs were scheduled to go live at midnight. I was then living in New York City, so that was 3 AM where I was. And like the dedicated fan-boy I was, I stayed up until 3 to be the first to comment on each one, then I'd go promptly to bed. When there wasn't a blog or it wasn't on time, I got upset that I'd waited all night and forgone sleep for nothing. So entitled was I that I created an alias called Blog Police to remind the fine folks at Paizo that they'd "forgotten" a blog or neglected to include art in it that I could use under the Community Use Policy.

Oh how things change!

All this is to say that today's blog is being written after it was supposed to go live at noon. I'm sorry if anyone in Sydney has been waiting for a 3 AM blog. Here it is! And it's got art! And it's a preview of an upcoming book, Pathfinder Adventure Path #87: The Choking Tower by Ron Lundeen! Plus, a bonus wallpaper for download!

Illustrations by Maichol Quinto and Wayne Reynolds. Download the widescreen version of the wallpaper here.

Illustrations by Johan Grenier, Maichol Quinto, and Miguel Regodón Harkness

Ron's been a staple of many Pathfinder lines for several years now, but this is his first adventure path volume. Here are a few of the choicest pieces of art from the book, selected by yours truly based on which I like the most and/or feel would be most useful to the wiki. Enjoy!

Mark Moreland
Developer

PaizoCon 2014 Announcement Round-Up

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Missed the annual PaizoCon Preview Banquet? Enjoyed too many cocktails while there to remember what we showed off? This post is your one-stop shop for all the important announcements you may have missed!

After a brief greeting from company founder Lisa Stevens and an introduction of the staff by Publisher and Master of Ceremonies Erik Mona, Lead Designer Jason Bulmahn took over the podium to share some juicy details on upcoming books in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game line.

Advanced Class Guide

Jason kicked things off with an overview of August's Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide, the RPG line's major release of 2014. The book contains 10 new base classes, each of which combines two existing classes to create a new hybrid that better serves a given character concept. The brawler, for example, mixes mechanical elements of the monk and fighter to create a scrappy martial fighter without all of the mystical elements or armor focus of its parent classes.

Jason's tour took us through eight spreads of the book, revealing details on the shaman class as well as arcanist archetypes like the elemental master, occultist, school savant, spell specialist, unlettered arcanist, and white mage. He also gave a preview of the book's numerous skald rage powers, a look at its feats, spells, and magic items, and finally a glimpse at the character class design guidelines included in the volume.

Monster Codex

He then continued with a tour of the Pathfinder RPG Monster Codex, a treasury of stat blocks, cultural details, and special rules for 20 of the Pathfinder RPG's most commonly encountered creatures. After a look at the fire giant chapter, Jason showed off several illustrations of the various creatures represented within, which are reproduced below.

Illustrations by Jason Rainville

Check out more monsters from the Monster Codex!

Illustrations by Roberto Pitturru

Illustrations by Alexandre Chaudret

Illustrations by Ben Wootten

Illustrations by Maichol Quinto

Illustrations by Jason Engle

Pathfinder Unchained

The big announcement for the RPG line came when Jason pulled back the curtain on Pathfinder Unchained, the spring 2015 hardcover that will take Pathfinder into exciting new directions. This tome of optional rules revisits the barbarian, monk, rogue, and summoner classes with entirely revised versions designed to improve their overall play at the table. The book also will include an optional (and much simpler) action economy for the game, as well as new ways of designing monsters and treasure on the fly that we think players are going to love. We'll have much more to say about this book going forward, but for now it's probably enough to say that we've been conducting some mad experiments here at Paizo Central, and we can't wait to share them with you!

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Following Jason's presentation, we were joined by Pathfinder Adventure Card Game designers Mike Selinker and Tanis O'Connor, who revealed more details about August's Skull & Shackles Base Set and the upcoming Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild Organized Play program. The highlight of the card game presentation was Mike's announcement that the NEXT Adventure Card Game base set will be Wrath of the Righteous, scheduled for a February 2015 release! We'll have full product pages for the whole path up shortly!

Sketch by Wayne Reynolds

Giantslayer Adventure Path

Following the Adventure Card Game presentation, Erik announced the name of the next Pathfinder Adventure Path: GIANTSLAYER! More details about the campaign will be announced at the Adventure Path team's Sunday seminar, and will hit the Paizo Blog in short order.

Licensed Products

Following the AP talk, I focused on a raft of upcoming Pathfinder licensed products, most so new that they do not even have product pages on paizo.com yet! They are:

• A metal Sihedron Medallion from our partners at King of the Castle/Campaign Coins.
• A look at the upcoming Rise of the Runelords soundsets from Syrinscape.
• Pathfinder Comics hardcovers for Volume 2: Tooth and Claw and the popular Pathfinder: Goblins! limited series.
• Pathfinder Iconic Heroes Minimates figurines.

Pathfinder Battles: The Lost Coast

The next section of the Preview Banquet focused on the Pathfinder Battles line of prepainted plastic figures we produce in cooperation with WizKids. In addition to showing off several of the already-revealed figures, Erik finally revealed the set's titanic case incentive figure—the mighty Shemhazian Demon.

Pathfinder Online

Following the annual presentation of our Volunteer of the Year Award (co-awarded to PaizoCon UK founders and masterminds Dave Harrison and Rob Silk), we invited Pathfinder Online executive Ryan Dancey to close out the ceremony with a look at the Alpha version of Pathfinder Online, which went live just last week. It's still very much a work in progress, but there has been a TON of progress in recent months, and it's been really cool to see people playing the game and having fun with it. Ryan and his team have been running demos all weekend, and it's become a great part of the PaizoCon experience to see the game grow from year to year.

Here's a look at the video.

And that's it for new announcements this year! We'll have a lot more to say about these products in the weeks and months to come. If you're at PaizoCon, it's been fantastic getting a chance to chat with and game with you. If you couldn't make it this year, here's hoping you get a chance to attend in the future!

Keep rolling 20s, everyone!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Want More Adventure Card Game? We've Got That.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Attendees at this year's GAMA Trade Show and PAX East conventions got a sneak peak at some Pathfinder Adventure Card Game goodness that Paizo's got planned for later this year. Though the final details are still being worked out, I want to share the basic concepts with our loyal blog readers.

Class Decks

In August, we're debuting a new type of PACG accessory: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Class Decks. The initial offerings will include seven 109-card decks that each contain all the cards one character needs to play an entire PACG Adventure Path from start to finish. Each deck contains four playable characters of the same character class, and each character will have two unique roles to choose from. Meet Olenjack, a new character from the Rogue Class Deck:

Illustration by Maichol Quinto

Olenjack is the master of a guild of... merchants. He rarely feels the need to use the pair of long-handled daggers in his belt, but when he does, the wounds they leave behind are invariably fatal. Olenjack's ties to a variety of less savory communities hint at complex schemes and delicate manipulations. (Pathfinder RPG fans may recognize Olenjack—and many of his Class Deck compatriots—from the NPC Codex.)

The seven Class Decks premiering in August will showcase the bard, the cleric, the fighter, the ranger, the rogue, the sorcerer, and the wizard. Each deck will feature a mix of familiar and new cards, and can be used in your home games or in our new organized play program!

Organizing Your Play

With an amazing segue like that, who wouldn't want to find out more about the organized play program we'll be debuting at Gen Con ? Details are still being worked out, but here are the basics.

Season 0, as we're calling it internally, will consist of around 30 weekly scenarios that will be made available in PDF form. Scenarios will initially be offered exclusively to major conventions and retailers participating in the organized play program. Each month, the previous month's scenarios will then be bundled together and offered for sale to all paizo.com customers.

Season 0 will feature themes and stories inspired by the Skull & Shackles Base Set. To play, each participant will need to have a Class Deck and a Pathfinder Society number, and each table will need a copy of the Skull & Shackles Base Set plus all of the Skull & Shackles adventure decks released to that point. Play will be similar to the game you've already come to love, but when the time comes to improve your character deck, you'll do it with cards from your Class Deck. After the game, participants can report the results online to keep track of what you've played and how you've done.

If you're interested in helping coordinate or run the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game at a store or convention near you, please contact your local Pathfinder Society Venture Officer. We'd love to have you aboard. We're not quite ready for retailers to sign up for the program yet, but we'll have an announcement about that very soon.

There will be a variety of other fun things to share with you as we firm up details and dream up new concepts, but I can't get into specifics now. I can say that players who already participate in the Pathfinder Society organized play program might find the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game OP program worth checking out.

We'll be back with more information on both the Class Decks and the organized play program as a whole as August draws nearer.

Until then, go play some games!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

Pathfinder Legends: A Visual Companion

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Right after the debut Pathfinder Legends full-cast audio drama was released, my wife and I got stuck in an unexpected traffic snarl (which shouldn't have been too surprising, living in Seattle, and all). To kill the time, I put on the CD, and my wife—Shelyn bless her—obliged me by listening. It didn't take very long before she was getting into the story and following closely. There were a few instances when she made me pause playback, however, so that I could explain what certain locations, creatures, and characters looked like. It hit me then that not everyone listening to Pathfinder Legends may play Pathfinder or be familiar with some of the fantasy tropes that those of us who've been playing D&D or variants thereof for decades can sometimes take for granted. One of the reasons the audio drama is so captivating is that it doesn't include a lot of exposition dumps or narration, meaning some of the physical descriptions one might expect in a novel or RPG experience just aren't there.

Thus, I put together this quick visual guide for listeners new to the Pathfinder universe to aid you in acclimating to some of the elements encountered in Burn Offerings. The following images and descriptions could be considered a spoiler, so if you aren't familiar with the Burnt Offerings story, I recommend scrolling down the page as you're listening to the audio drama.

First up we have the town of Sandpoint, where the adventure begins. This is a settlement of about 1,200 people in the nation of Varisia, in a coastal wilderness region known as the Lost Coast.

Illustration by Noah Bradley

Among the personalities the heroes encounter during the Swallowtail Festival are Mayor Kendra Deverin, Sheriff Belor Hemlock, and Lonjiku Kaijitsu (all pictured below).

Illustration by Andrew Hou and Maichol Quinto

Lonjiku's daughter, Ameiko, has a prominent role in the adventure, serving as their hostess at the Rusty Dragon, Sandpoint's finest inn and tavern (she appears on the cover of the third Pathfinder Legends release, The Hook Mountain Massacre). Her half-brother, Tsuto, also makes an appearance. It's pretty clear from the dialogue in the audio drama that he's a half-elf—here's what he looks like.

Illustration by Eric Belisle

One of my wife's most pressing questions toward the end of the adventure was, “what's a bugbear?” The character Bruthazmus plays a large role in the adventure's conclusion, as does his boss, Nualia Tobyn. They're both depicted here. He's a large-yet-sneaky goblinoid (bugbear), while she's a demon-tainted human with angelic ancestry (making her both beautiful and ugly at the same time).

Illustration by Eric Belisle and Eva Widermann

That should take you right up to the adventure's end. Does having images to accompany the audio heighten your listening experience? We can't add visuals to the audio itself, but if this is the sort of thing listeners like, we may make a habit of this sort of blog for future Pathfinder Legends releases. Comment on this blog and let us know your thoughts, both about this visual companion as well as Pathfinder Legends in general.

Mark Moreland
Developer

Art Blog: Inner Sea Gods

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Welcome to the first monthly blog post directly from the art department. This first preview is for Inner Sea Gods coming out soon. Enjoy!

Illustrations by Roberto Pitturru

Illustrations by Yu Cheng Hong, Jorge Fares, Maichol Quinto

Sarah Robinson
Managing Art Director

Lost in the Labyrinth

Thursday, December 19, 2013

This month's volume of the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path comes from the mighty Wolfgang Baur! Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth pits the heroes of Kenabres against more demonic forces as they journey once again into the Abyss. This time the PCs take the fight against Baphomet's cultists to their front door as they siege the Ivory Labyrinth to rescue the herald of Iomedae. At this point in the Adventure Path, the PCs are going to the highest level that we've ever had in a volume of the Pathfinder Adventure Path, and this adventure shows it with its encounters. If you're playing in this campaign, good luck. If you're running this campaign, keep your hyena-like laughter to a minimum—that's just rubbing salt in the wound. I'll leave you with a few pieces of art to whet your appetite until you can get your hands on Pathfinder #77: Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth!

Illustrations by Roberto Pitturru, and Maichol Quinto

Adam Daigle
Developer

Mayhem in the Mana Wastes

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Illustration by Chris Seaman

With the release of Pathfinder Module: Wardens of the Reborn Forge, there's no shortage of monsters and mutants eager to kill some characters! Not only are there dangerous constructs like the one you see here taking on Lirianne, but even regular beasties end up nastier and weirder.

Illustration by Maichol Quinto

Because scorpions weren't scary enough already, right? They really needed a sabosan with a sword and a gun to be a threat. We're not going to say much more about this NPC; this image speaks for itself!

Illustration by Dieter Miller

Now, you might expect a good many folks carrying firearms in Alkenstar and beyond, but in the Mana Wastes, even the oozes are filled with gunpowder! This gunpowder ooze makes fights more volatile with its explosive residue.

Pathfinder Module: Wardens of the Reborn Forge will be available for purchase approximately December 18, 2013

Pawns of Winter

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Fall may be here, but winter is right around the corner—just in time for the Reign of Winter Adventure Path Pawn Collection! With more than 100 individual cardstock pawns, this Pathfinder Pawns collection brings to life 90 key monsters and NPCs from the Reign of Winter Adventure Path for use in your campaign. All of these allies and enemies appear in the Reign of Winter Adventure Path, but the Reign of Winter Adventure Path Pawn Collection also includes pawns for characters who have never been illustrated before. To whet your appetite for these tiny cardstock figures, here's a preview of some of the brand-new art for these characters!

Illustrations by Dieter Miller, Maichol Quinto, and Aaron J. Riley

Rob McCreary
Developer

Back to the Abyss with You!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Illustration by Maichol Quinto

From pesky quasits to fiendishly handsome incubi, grotesque dretches to cunning glabrezu, all of the foulest denizens of the Abyss continually show that they are in dire need of slaying. To this end, countless groups and organizations across the Inner Sea train in the art of hunting, defeating, and slaying demons that crawl forth onto the Material Plane. Alternatively, these daring adventurers delve into the heart of the Abyss itself, taking the battle to the demons' home plane while performing harrowing missions to retrieve valuable treasures or rescue captured victims. Both of these themes are the focus of Pathfinder Player Companion: Demon Hunter's Handbook—a volume no demon-slaying adventurer should miss!

In addition to all the usual goodies readers have come to expect from Player Companions (including new magic items, feats, spells, and more), one of my favorite parts of Demon Hunter's Handbook is a section called "Innovations of the Crusades," which details a slew of inventions and items used by the demon hunters and Mendevian soldiers fighting in the Worldwound. In addition to the holy fountain firework, deity-specific portable altars, and new alchemical items useful for slaying fiends from shadow demons to omoxes, the following new item can be a crucial aid to intrepid heroes delving head-first into demon territory.

Angel Quill Arrowhead

Price 10 gp

Weight —

Illustration by Francesco Graziani

This barbed, cold iron arrowhead is alchemically treated to inflict additional harm while embedded in creatures that are vulnerable to cold iron. For every angel quill arrowhead that damages a target with DR/cold iron, the target's damage reduction decreases by 1. Up to five angel quill arrowheads can affect a single target at any one time, reducing the target's DR/cold iron by up to 5 (additional arrowheads have no effect aside from dealing damage as normal). An affected target can pull out a number of arrowheads equal to her Dexterity modifier (minimum 1) as a full-round action with a successful DC 15 Heal check. Alternatively, the application of any magical healing causes all angel quill arrowheads embedded in the creature to instantly fall out.

Angel quill arrowheads of silver and adamantine are also available for the same price, and affect creatures with DR/silver or DR/adamantine, respectively. Crafting any type of angel quill arrowhead requires a successful DC 25 Craft (alchemy) check.

In addition to being useful for any party that might run afoul of extraplanar baddies, this book is a perfect aid for groups playing the forthcoming Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path. Adventurers need wait not much longer for the chance to expand their demon-slaying arsenal and bring the fight to the heart of the demonic incursion, because Demon Hunter's Handbook hits shelves this August!

Patrick Renie
Developer

Ultimate Campaign Art Preview!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The release of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign is getting ever closer. Whether it's kingdom-building or leading an army, starting a business or crafting magic items, Ultimate Campaign is for all of the adventures that take place outside of the dungeon. The pages of the newest Pathfinder Roleplaying Game hardcover provide all kinds of useful information for your campaign, but many fantastic illustrations are contained within! Check some of them out!

Being a ruler has many responsibilities, but also many rewards.

Eidolons and other companion creatures are more fun when treated as a separate character rather than an obedient stat block.

Retraining rules allow you to replace a feat, change an ability score increase, or improve your hit points.

The quest to find a missing family member is a driving force for many heroes.

The section on marriage talks about how a spouse (or any relationship) can be an ally or an adversary.

Illustrations by Sam Burley, Eric Belisle, Lydia Schuchmann, and Maichol Quinto

Kingdom-building rules allow PCs to control their own country—or be the power behind the throne.

Followers, apprentices, and similar companions can be positive or negative plot hooks for a PC.

A character's lineage is a chain of characters linking a PC to the history of the campaign setting.

Illustrations by Denman Rooke, Jim Nelson, and Grafit Studio

Ultimate Campaign releases this May, preorder your copy today!

Sarah Robinson
Senior Art Director

Illustrations by Damien Mammoliti and Maichol Quinto. Widescreen version here.

Deep, Dark, and Deadly!

July 15, 2011

It's been awhile since we've had a wallpaper, and this one's a doozie. Featuring some stunning artwork by Damien Mammoliti and Maichol Quinto, and themed around Dungeons of Golarion, it showcases Alain venturing into the Red Redoubt of Karamoss, a massive siege-fortress outside Absalom constructed by a combination of the machine-mage Karamoss's mechanical minions, powerful magic, and Numerian technology.

In the forefront is the leader of the kobolds living in the Candlestone Caverns, deep beneath rural Andoran. You definitely want to watch out for him!

Hyrum Savage
Marketing and Organized Play Manager

Golarion Day: Field Guide Art Preview

Friday, July 1, 2011

In the buildup to our print deadline for Gen Con, we saw a fair amount of book schedules get a bit of "compression," with books that should be being worked on (and thus previewed) a month apart being separated by a few weeks. Or in this case... ONLY a week. Last week we previewed some art from Dungeons of Golarion, but the Pathfinder Society Field Guide is right on its heels! And what kind of field guide would it be if it didn't have a section that talked directly about the things eager new Pathfinders might face in the field? Challenges like daemon-spawning portals, angry dinosaurs, and vengefully violent six-armed animated statues?

Well... no one ever said that being a Pathfinder was easy, I guess.

Illustrations by Maichol Quinto and Florian Stitz

James Jacobs
Creative Director

Golarion Day: Report From Kintargo—Dungeons of Golarion

Thursday, June 23, 2011

If they weren't such an excellent place to make quick money, I doubt I'd ever want to go into an actual dungeon. As it stands, I try to make it a practice to only venture into the ones that are worth the trouble. I'm not a fan of slinking through sewers, skulking about in guano-reeking caves, or sneaking through a ruin that's been picked over by thousands of lesser explorers. Give me a megadungeon any day, though. Not only are these things immense (and thus filled with immense amounts of treasure), but they also tend to be dripping (sometimes literally) with history and lore and stories that can date back hundreds or even thousands of years. When you get skunked in a dungeon in the treasure department, it's nice to at least come out of there with a wider appreciation of ancient Thassilonian art, experience with strange Numerian technology, or tales of close calls with primeval wonders and horrors.

The Egorian vaults have a fair amount of information about the megadungeons of the Inner Sea region, but there are six of them that someone seems particularly interested in. Hollow Mountain in Varisia, the Red Redoubt of Karamoss just outside of Absalom, the lost dwarven mines of Zolurket, Andoran's Candlestone Caverns, the mysterious Pyramid of Kamaria in Osirion, and, of course, Gallowspire. The files include several maps of specific levels found in all six of these megadungeons, along with sketches of cutaway views of the complexes as well. And extensive notes on the monsters, traps, and (oh yes!) treasures said to be found within.

Some neat stuff. So of course I stole it all. I've sent the notes on to a contact in Magnimar, and she's going to see to it that they're bound and distributed. They should be arriving soon—within the month. Until then, though, I thought folks would be interested in perhaps a few images of some of the critters said to dwell in the dungeons.

I don't know about you, but they certainly look like the type of monsters who would keep a lot of treasure in their lair! I've got my fingers crossed!

Illustrations by Emile Denis, Maichol Quinto and Damien Mammoliti

Shensen
Old Cheliax Shall Rise Again!

The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play Part XI: Pick Your Pace

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Well, loyal Pathfinders, I have returned from a weeklong adventure in which I conducted an ancient ritual at the prophesied time to eternally bond me with an intelligent magic item of incredibly high Charisma that now occupies my left ring slot. And whether the Rapture came or not, I'm in heaven (though there's little time to take in the sights as we scramble to get the finishing touches on all the great new Pathfinder Society material debuting at PaizoCon in little more than a week).

But enough about me and my new cohort (or am I the cohort?). Let's talk about one of the biggest changes coming to Pathfinder Society Organized Play next year: variable advancement tracks!

Illustration by Maichol Quinto

Currently, all Pathfinder Society PCs level at the same rate: 3 XP to level up, which breaks down to three scenarios per level, or at the most 37 scenarios between character creation and retirement after a completed 12th-level adventure arc. For someone playing only a handful of scenarios a year at large conventions, this means they can play the same PC for years and years and still feel like they're actually getting something out of those few sessions they play at Gen Con or PaizoCon annually. But for players who participate in the campaign on even a bi-weekly basis, they will have leveled a character from inception to near retirement in just over a single year.

We’ve listened to the feedback, and feel there's a simple solution already present in our rules system. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game includes several different advancement tracks to allow GMs to run their campaigns at the pace that works best for them and their players. While most of our products to date assume the medium advancement track, some groups prefer using the fast or slow progressions to move more quickly to higher-level play or to savor each step along the way to 20th level. Pathfinder Society Organized Play will be implementing a similar optional advancement track beginning in Season 3.

Players who enjoy the three-scenario-per-level pace don’t need to do anything. For you, nothing will change. But for those who want a slower progression, you can opt instead to move at half-speed, earning only 1/2 XP, 1/2 the total maximum gold, and a maximum of 1 Prestige Point per scenario. Because the net gain per level will be the same whether you use the slow track over six adventures or the normal track over three, PCs will be able to choose which progression they'll use for their next level each time they gain a level.

In addition to allowing individuals to operate at their own pace, this plan should allow small home groups or even growing store and convention groups to cooperate to ensure that higher-level PCs slow down enough for new players or replacement characters to catch up, condensing the level spread to make things easier for event coordinators. I'm sure there are other benefits to these new options that we haven't even thought of in-house yet. What most excites you about this new development?

Be sure not to miss next week's Monday blog for a look at the fifth of the existing factions: the decadent empire of Taldor. Anyone who's already played The Dalsine Affair likely already has an idea of at least one change that will be coming to this faction—a change that players of the four new scenarios at PaizoCon are likely to notice right away.

Mark Moreland
Developer