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Written by Robert Kendzie
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Wednesday, 28 October 2009 |
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First and foremost, I want to assure everyone that Dire Destiny is still up and runnig, despite the fact that it looks like no one has been at the helm for a couple of weeks. Mikolaj and I are recovering from varioius afflictions and we should hopefully have a new page up soon. Mikolaj has had the worst of it, I fear: his children got a really bad strain of the flu and so he has been more often at the hospital than at the art table. As for myself, I've been dealing with "crunch time" at work, preparing for a business trip which I am currently on. Despite these setbacks, we soldier on. Chapter three is now complete, and I am already making preparations for the new book, which will be published next year. I am very much looking forward to moving ahead with Chapter four, which should bring lots of answers to readers' questions about our characters, their histories, and the world that they live in. We thank you for your patience. |
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Written by Robert Kendzie
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Monday, 14 September 2009 |
I have just spent the last couple of days paging through the new Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook . This is Paizo Publishing's attempt to continue supporting the 3.5 edition of Dungeons & Dragons, which is the system most of their existing catalog of supplements and adventure modules are written for. I was very happy to hear about this, as I was not overly enthusiastic about the advent of 4th edition D&D and its radical rethinking of the core mechanics of the game. At the same time, there are elements of the D&D 3.5 system which many people have had issues with, and I was curious to see what changes Paizo was going to make. In perusing the book, I found that the changes were generally conservative, and that while some of the perceived problems have been addressed, others have not. Some have labeled this new system D&D 3.75, but at the risk of straining the metaphor, I would say this is closer to 3.6.
First, the production values of this book are amazing, especially for the price. $50 may seem steep at first, but for 576 pages in full color with numerous illustrations, I'm surprised that it's so cheap. The pages are heavyweight glossy paper, and the binding feels solid and tough enough to stand up to some abuse. The layout in general is almost identical to the old 3.5 books, but is slightly cleaner and just as well organized. The charts and examples given are helpful. The artwork and illustrations are slightly more fanciful than in the old books from WOTC - there's a little more of a "comic book" sensibility to the proceedings, and it's generally brighter and more dynamic. I really liked the way that each section begins with a beautiful two-page art spread. The illustrations are plentiful as well, although like its 3.5 predecessors the book is still dominated by text.
As far as content is concerned, this book basically combines the equivalent of a Players' Handbook and a Dungeon Master's Guide in one volume. I have not had a chance to read the entire book in-depth, but I did linger over numerous sections, most notably the Classes and Combat sections, where most of the changes appear to have been made. The rules content of the books is very much in the same dry style as the original 3.5 books, and parts of it seem to be re-using text from the D20 System Reference Document verbatim (or close to it).
The biggest and most obvious differences from the old system are in the character races and classes, as most people would expect. The demi-human races all gain +2 to two of their ability scores and -2 to one score. (Elves, for example, gain +2 Intelligence, +2 Dexterity, and -2 Constitution.) Humans, Half-Elves, and Half-Orcs all gain a basic +2 to one score of the player's choice. This means that every playable race gets a free +2 to an ability score somewhere, which I found curious, since it strikes me as having more to do with managing player expectations than with real game balance. Most of the other elements of the racial packages remain unchanged.
A more radical overhaul takes place with the various classes. Monks seem to have let their patent lapse on the "more weird powers than you can shake a stick at" business plan, because every class now seems to be bursting at the seams with new class features, powers, and options. For a start, feats come more frequently for everyone: There seems to have been a concerted effort to eliminate the phenomenon of "dead levels" where a character doesn't gain any interesting new abilities. Barbarians get new abilities tied to their raging. Thieves have new and interesting options for their sneak-attacks (including the ability to inflict a bleed condition). Paladins gain a significant boost to their ability to lay on hands, and can gain the ability to cure or mitigate a number of conditions. Sorcerers have a myriad of Bloodlines that they can now choose from, each with its own set of abilities. I would like to take a moment, however, to look at three of the "basic" classes: Clerics, Fighters, and Wizards:
One of the things frequently noted about 3.5 was the common wisdom that Clerics were the most powerful class. With their combination of weapon and armor proficiencies, decent hit dice, domain powers, and copious spellcasting abilities, clerics are well rounded characters with a lot going for them. I was curious as to whether Clerics would be somehow "nerfed" in this book, but Paizo seems to have taken the opposite approach and beefed up all of the other classes with new options instead. As a result, clerics are pretty much the only class to remain unchanged. The biggest difference is in the way they channel positive or negative energy for healing and damaging the undead. "Turning" has now become an optional feat.
Fighters in 3.5 were considered a bit underpowered at higher levels and uninteresting to use in combat. I feel that this will change under the Pathfinder system, for a couple of reasons: fighters have new abilities which allow them to improve with various classes of weapons over time, both in ability to hit as well as damage. They also gain improved proficiencies with their armor, allowing them to retain higher Dexterity bonuses in medium and heavy armor, and significantly reducing their armor check penalties. Their bonus feats are also structured now so that, in combination with their regular feats, fighters get to pick a new feat at every single level... and there are numerous new combat feats for them to try out. As such, any given fighter is going to have roughly twice the number feats of any other character, in addition to receiving a couple of new class features.
Wizards look very similar on the surface, but there have been a number of subtle changes. First, along with Sorcerers and Rogues, they have received an improved hit die, so they are no longer quite so fragile. Second, there no longer appears to be an XP cost for making magic items, which means that it finally makes sense for wizards to create their own scrolls, potions, and wands on a regular basis. The most dramatic change has to do with specializations: as before, if a wizard chooses a specials school, he must also suffer having two "forbidden schools". In 3.5, this meant that he could not learn or cast spells from those schools at all. However, in the Pathfinder system spells from those schools merely become more difficult to manage, and preparing such a spell requires using two spell slots instead of one. This allows wizards to retain a degree of versatility and makes specialization a much more attractive option. In addition to this, every school of magic (including the default "universalist" school) comes with its own special abilities and powers. The end result is that while the wizard’s spells-per-level remains unchanged from the 3.5 edition, it is easier for the wizard to have access to a greater number of spells.
This brings us to two more major changes, both of which impact the spellcasting classes. The first is a change to 0-level spells. Cantrips and Orisons now function differently in that they are never considered "expended". They still need to be prepared, but once prepared they can be used over and over again, so that a spellcaster is never truly "out of spells". The other change has to do with animal companions and familiars.
Animal companions and familiars now fall under a new class feature heading called a "Bond". Every class that has this feature (Druids, Rangers, Wizards, etc) now has the option to choose either the animal companion or else to express the bond in a different fashion. Wizards, for example, can bond to an item like a wand, staff, amulet, etc, which grants them some minor additional spellcasting ability.
Getting away from classes, there have been a few changes to combat, but they are minor. The most notable is the addition of what are termed "Combat Maneuver Bonuses" and "Combat Maneuver Defense" to handle things like grappling, tripping, sundering, etc. The grappling rules of 3.5 were frequently complained about for their complexity. While I don't think the problem has been solved entirely, progress has been made. Almost all of these "combat maneuvers" are handled the same way. Every Character has a Combat Maneuver Bonus which functions rather like a "To Hit" bonus, and every character has a "Combat Maneuver Defense" bonus which functions very much like a new form of Armor Class. Since the combat maneuver bonus is modified by high strength and feat selection, I suspect that fancy combat maneuvers will be primarily the domain of dedicated Fighters, which not only makes sense, it also makes fighters more useful and encourages them to take new actions in combat other than swing/hit/roll damage.
As far as new background material is concerned, there are really only tantalizing hints in this book. The listing of deities for clerics comes from Paizo's own already developed properties, and any references to the old TSR/WOTC background are purged. There are a few interesting differences to note in the racial section: Elves are tall again (around 6 ft), dwarves are short again (around 4 ft), and Half-orcs (and presumably orcs) are Green again.
There are many other changes in the book too numerous to go into here. However, apart from the heavy work done on the classes section, this edition seems to be more of a fine-tuning of the 3.5 rules than a complete overhaul. Paizo hasn't really gone back to the drawing board, so much as they have simply re-framed a classic. Since that is what a lot of fans of 3.5 fans have been clamoring for, it's no wonder the first printing completely sold out.
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Written by Robert Kendzie
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Monday, 24 August 2009 |
I'm back from Gen Con 2009 and back at work and the insanity and excitement are now behind me. :(
It was great! I got to meet some folks who previously were only names on a webforum to me. Thanks for stopping by the booth, guys! On Saturday we were supposed to have a Call of Cthulhu game going, but a couple of minor disasters derailed it: the other couple joining us got stuck waiting for a table for dinner and ran way late, and then just as we were about to find some more players the fire alarm went off in the convention center, so we were swept up in the Great Geek Exodus of '09.
On the sales floor, I sold lots of Dire Destiny books. Most people bought the chapter 1 & 2 books together, which was nice. I turned a modest profit for myself and Mikolaj, although I spent most of my share right there at the con. I got some out of print Call of Cthulhu sourcebooks and a copy of Axis & Allies D-Day at the con auction. I also got a village house from Miniature Building Authority and a mess of miniatures from the Reaper booth for my daughters and I to use with our old copy of Heroquest.
I also got to meet Alina Pete, who writes and draws Weregeek , which is a webcomic I enjoy -she was in the booth just across the aisle from me. At the table next to me was author Jennifer Brozek , who's husband wins the "nice guy of the century" award. I had stepped away from my table to hit the bathroom, leaving it un-manned for a moment. While I was gone some people came up to look at my books, and not only did he step up and try to sell them for me, but when I returned I found him in the middle of repeating my sales spiel almost verbatim!
On Friday night I was hanging out in the RPG hall and got asked to join a pickup game of D&D 4th ed. It was my first game with the new system and I had fun - the DM was quite good and had prepared a really good game. I'm still not sold on 4th ed as a system, though. I'm going to have to give the new Pathfinder rules a try, I think.
There was an interesting new game there called Exillis which combines tabletop miniatures (like warhammer/war machine) with a computer game that is apparently going to be something like an iPhone app. I'm not sure it's really going to fly as a game, but their miniatures are VERY nice. I was intruiged to hear that they were 100% digitally sculpted: no greens, no lead, etc. They were designed digitally and the molds for the plastic were created right from the data. I tried to buy some individual sprues from them, but the guy there wouldn't break any of the game boxes.
I took a quick gander at Champions Online. It looks absolutely amazing, and I would definitely have bought the lifetime subscription if it wasn't for the the fact that I am an MMO-aholic and have sworn off them cold turkey. If I signed up for that, nobody would see me for months. :P
Finally, I spent some more time drooling over the stuff that the Geek Chic guys brought to the show. I soooo wish I could afford their stuff. It looks beautiful. I might have to get that convertible dining table at some point. :D |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 24 August 2009 )
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