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questwriter · 7 years ago

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The Vate - Pathfinder base class

A recent post by the one and only Owen KC Stephens reminded me of a project I had several years ago, making a base class based on Celtic mystical paths. In researching the historical link between “bards” and “druids,” I found several references to mystical figures known as “vates” or seers. Many of these sources treated bards, vates, and druids as different initiates of the same rites, serving their people as sages, historians, judges, and seers. I decided to put a fantasy spin on the concept of the vate as seer and sage, diviner and protector. The base class that emerged from this found a home in my Reconsula campaign setting, where vates join with druids and bards to form primal circles that enhance their abilities. Powered by ogham magic, a Celtic-inspired system reminiscent of runes, these vates seek to unravel the mysteries of the world around them. The following base class is offered freely for your enjoyment; any feedback is always appreciated.

An image of what a primal circle might look like with a vate, a druid, and a bard. Original art by Jacob Blackmon, who has given me permission to use his work in this blog. If you like his work, consider joining me in backing his Patreon.

THE VATE — GAME RULE INFORMATION

Vates have the following game statistics:

Abilities: Intelligence controls many of a vate’s skills and several of his class abilities, including spellcasting. Since vates are limited to light armor, a high Dexterity adds to their defense, while constitution adds fortitude and resilience that the vate might otherwise be short on.

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d8

Class Skills

The vate’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Acrobatics (Dex), Craft (Int), Disable Device (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points per Level: 6 + Int modifier

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A vate is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the bolas, light hammer, longbow, shortbow, short sword, and throwing axe. Vates are proficient with light armor, but not with shields. A vate can cast vate spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. However, like any other arcane spellcaster, a vate wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component (most do). A multiclass vate still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.

Spells: A vate casts arcane spells, the same kind as sorcerers, wizards, and bards, which are drawn from the vate spell list (see below). Although a vate can cast any spell he knows without preparing it per se, he must have the appropriate ogham in his ogham pouch (see below). To learn or cast a spell, a vate must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a vate’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the vate’s Intelligence modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a vate can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Vate. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score. A vate is treated as a spontaneous spellcaster for any effect related to whether a caster prepares or spontaneously casts spells, including the addition of metamagic feats to spells.

Ogham: Vates are the holders of a secret arcane writing known as Ogham. This writing allows a vate to inscribe the details of a single spell on a piece of stone, wood, or other natural object. An object carrying an Ogham spell inscription is known as an ogham. A vate uses a sack containing his oghams as a focus for completing his spells in place of inexpensive material components (just as if he had the Eschew Material Components feat). Any arcane spell that normally has an inexpensive material component instead has an ogham focus when cast by a vate. Verbal and somatic components apply normally, and a vate must provide any material component or arcane focus worth more than 1gp. A vate may have any number of oghams in his possession, but he does not have access to all of them at any given time.

Each day when a vate recovers his spells for the day, he must spend one hour meditating on his oghams. He selects the spells that he wants to have access to that day and places their respective oghams in his pouch. The number of spells of each level that a vate can access and keep in his pouch at any given time is given in Table: Vate Spells Accessible by Level. Once a vate has established the spells he has access to for the day, he may later change one of them by spending ten minutes sorting through his pouch, replacing one ogham with another of the same level, and briefly meditating on the change. There is no limit to the number of times a vate may exchange one spell for another, but each exchange takes ten minutes.

A vate uses the pouch containing his oghams as an arcane focus, and must be in physical contact with the pouch or the specific ogham of the spell he wishes to cast. The pouch or ogham need not be presented directly, or even be visible (indeed, many vates keep their pouches tucked inside their clothes or armor for protection from light-fingered rivals), but it must be in contact with the vate and not in an extradimensional space. The vate channels his spell-casting power through his ogham, but the ogham is not consumed in the process, meaning that he is free to cast the same spell again, provided that he has a spell slot of the appropriate level available. An ogham is about the size and weight of a coin, with 50 oghams weighing one pound.

A vate begins play with four oghams containing cantrips of his choice and one ogham containing a 1st-level spell of his choice. He also gains a number of bonus oghams (containing cantrips and/or 1st-level spells) equal to his Intelligence modifier at 1st level. At each subsequent level, he gains one new ogham of a spell of the highest level he can cast and one new ogham of a spell at least one level lower than the highest level he can cast. The vate receives these oghams for free as part of his adventures and does not have to pay to craft them.

A vate may also create oghams from scrolls that he finds in his travels or from the oghams of other vates. He crafts his oghams in much the same way that a wizard scribes pages into his spellbook. The magical inks or dyes needed to complete the ritual and infuse the spell information into the ogham costs the same amount as scribing a spell of the same level into a wizard’s spellbook. With the exception of pages in a spell book (all oghams take up the same size item regardless of spell level), the same rules apply to adding spells to a vate’s ogham collection and adding spells to a wizard’s spell book, as well as writing new spells on an ogham and writing new spells into a spell book. See the chapter on Magic in the associated Core Rulebook for more information on wizards’ spell books.

Vate Spell List: Vates are arcane casters with a preternatural sixth sense that reveals things unseen and protects them and their allies from harm. The vate spell list includes all divination spells, regardless of whether they are normally arcane or divine, up to 6th level; the vate may learn these spells at the lowest level they are available to any spellcaster. Additionally, vates have access to all abjuration spells up to 6th level found on the sorcerer/wizard, bard, or druid spell lists. Finally, vates have access to any spell that appears on both the druid and bard spell lists at the lowest level at which it is available to either class.

Cantrips (Sp): Vates learn a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, and may include these in their daily spell selection. See Table: Vate Spells Accessible by Level for the number of cantrips a vate has access to at any given time. Unlike other spells or spell slots, a vate’s cantrips are not used up when cast and may be used again.

Detect Magic (Sp): A vate has the ability to detect magical auras at will. This functions as the detect magic spell (caster level equal to the vate’s class level). The vate may suppress or resume this ability at will as a free action.

Trapfinding: Vates, like rogues, can find and use the disable device skill to disarm both magical and non-magical traps. This ability functions as the rogue’s trapfinding ability; add a vate’s level to his effective rogue level (regardless of whether or not the vate has actual levels in rogue) to determine any level-dependent benefits to finding and disarming traps.

Vatic Vision: A vate can extend and attune his senses through the fabric of reality to view locations and discern information beyond the scope of mortal vision. He can use this ability for a number of minutes per day equal to 4 + his Intelligence modifier. At each level after 1st a vate can use vatic vision for 2 additional minutes per day. Vatic vision is measured in one-minute increments, and using a vatic vision ability consumes at least one minute of this ability, even if the actual duration of the effect is less.

Beginning a vatic vision is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, but it can be maintained each round as a free action. A vatic vision cannot be disrupted, but it ends immediately if the vate is killed, paralyzed, stunned, knocked unconscious, or otherwise prevented from taking a free action to maintain it each round.

At 7th level, a vate can begin a vatic vision as a move action instead of a standard action. At 13th level, he can begin a vatic vision as a swift action.

Vatic vision refers to a vate’s ability to invoke a variety of supernatural or spell-like divinations, all of which draw on a mystic insight into reality.

Discarnate Eye (Sp): A vate’s simplest use of his vatic vision allows him to create a magical sensor that extends his vision beyond its normal range. This ability functions as the spell arcane eye, except as noted here. The sensor is created in the vate’s space and cannot move more than 60 feet from the vate until he reaches 8th level; at 8th level, the sensor can move up to 120 feet from the vate, at 14th level, the sensor can move up to 240 feet from the vate, and at 20th level, the limit on the distance between vate and sensor is removed, though they must remain on the same plane.

“Detect” Anything (Sp): A vate of 3rd level may use his vatic vision to imitate the effect of any 0th or 1st level divination spell with the word “detect” in its name.

Bonded minds (Su): A vate of 6th level has the ability to telepathically link his mind to the mind of a single willing ally. This ability allows telepathic communication between the vate and the subject of the link. Initiating a bonded mind is a standard action that requires that the vate touch the subject. The distance between the vate and the subject of this ability is limited just as a discarnate eye, and the ability ends if the subject goes out of range. While bonded, the vate and his subject can communicate silently. Additionally, the subject may use the vate’s base will save instead of his own if it is higher, as well as the vate’s ranks in any Intelligence or Wisdom based skill. The subject still uses his own ability scores, feats, and other modifiers on any uses of these abilities. This does not allow a character to make a skill check that he would not normally be able to make, such as a raging barbarian making a knowledge check.

Arcane Sight (Sp): A vate of 9th level may use his vatic vision to imitate the effect of an arcane sight spell. A vate’s detect magic ability is effectively superseded by this effect for its duration.

True Seeing (Sp): A vate of 12th level may use his vatic vision to imitate the effect of a true seeing spell (on himself only).

Greater Arcane Sight (Sp): A vate of 15th level may use his vatic vision to imitate the effect of a greater arcane sight spell. A vate’s detect magic ability is effectively superseded by this effect for its duration.

Foresight (Sp): A vate of 18th level may use his vatic vision to imitate the effect of a foresight spell (targeting either himself or an ally). If targeting himself, the effect consumes only one minute of vatic vision per hour of active effect.

Original art by Jacob Blackmon, who has given me permission to use his work in this blog. If you like his work, consider joining me in backing his Patreon.

Discern Scroll (Su): Vates use their magic to understand the world around them, including forms of magic that they do not typically employ. A vate of 2nd level may activate any scroll that he has already deciphered, casting the spell on that scroll as if the associated spell were on his spell list (regardless of whether the scroll is arcane or divine). The vate must still have a caster level high enough to cast the spell, or succeed on a caster level check to activate the scroll as normal. This ability is usable a number of times per day equal to 3 + the vate’s Intelligence modifier.

Art by Brian Brinlee, used under a non-commercial license through the Purple Duck Collective Patreon program.

Bonus Feats: At 4th level and every three levels thereafter, a vate gains a bonus feat from the following list: Combat Casting, Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration, or any Item Creation feat. The vate must meet all prerequisites to take a feat.

Ritual Ogham: A vate of 5th level is able to use his understanding of magic to ritually cast a spell without consuming a spell slot. The vate must have the appropriate ogham to serve as a focus for the casting and must perform a ritual taking ten minutes per level of the spell (plus the casting time of the spell itself, if it has a casting time longer than one minute). This ability is usable a number of times per day equal to 3 + the vate’s Intelligence modifier.

Expanded Ogham: At 11th level, a vate’s ability to use oghams extends to spells he cannot normally cast. The vate may make an ogham of any spell regardless of whether or not it is on his spell list. The spell must be of a level no higher than the highest level vate spell he is able to cast. Once the vate has an ogham of the spell, he can use it as a ritual ogham and cast it as described under Ritual Ogham above. Moreover, he may treat the spell as one he knows for purposes of using an Item Creation feat, meaning that the vate can craft magical items that require spells not otherwise on his spell list. This does not allow him to cast the spell using a spell slot.

Ogham Unbound: A vate of 17th level can make an ogham using his expanded ogham ability regardless of the spell’s level or the spell list it is on. Casting a spell of a level higher than 6th using his ritual ability takes 8 hours, but during this 8 hours, he may also work on a magic item that requires the spell be cast as part of its creation.

#Pathfinder #Pathfinder RPG #base class #vate #diviner #seer #playtest

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kansascityhappenings · 5 years ago

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Mass shootings transform how America talks, prays, prepares

CHICAGO — Pardeep Singh Kaleka has surveyed the landscape of an America scarred by mass shootings.

Seven years ago, a white supremacist invaded a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and killed six worshippers — among them Kaleka’s father, who died clutching a butter knife he’d grabbed in a desperate attempt to stop the shooter. Now, whenever another gunman bloodies another town, Kaleka posts a supportive message on social media. Then later, either by invitation or on his own initiative, he’ll journey to the community to shore up others who share his pain.

He’s been to Newtown, Connecticut. Charleston, South Carolina. Pittsburgh. “We’ve become kind of a family,” Kaleka says.

It’s true. The unending litany of mass shootings in recent years — the latest, on Friday, leaving 12 dead in Virginia Beach, Virginia — has built an unacknowledged community of heartbreak, touching and warping the lives of untold thousands.

All the survivors, none of them unscathed. The loved ones of the living and dead. Their neighbors, relatives and colleagues. The first responders, the health care workers, the elected officials.

The attacks have changed how America talks, prays and prepares for trouble. Today, the phrases “active shooter” and “shelter in place” need no explanation. A house of worship will have a priest, a rabbi or an imam — and maybe, an armed guard. And more schools are holding “lockdown drills” to prepare students for the possibility of a shooter.

Post-traumatic stress disorder was once largely associated with combat-weary veterans; now some police and firefighters tormented by the memories of the carnage they’ve witnessed are seeking professional help. Healing centers have opened to offer survivors therapy and a place to gather. Support groups of survivors of mass shootings have formed.

Mayors, doctors, police and other leaders who’ve endured these crises are paying it forward — offering comfort, mentoring and guidance to the next town that has to wrestle with the nightmare.

Former Oak Creek Mayor Stephen Scaffidi, who’d been on the job just four months at the time of the 2012 Sikh temple attack, remembers a call that night from the mayor of Aurora, Colorado, where 12 people had been fatally shot at a movie theater less than three weeks earlier. “He gave me the best advice I could ever receive in that moment: ‘Be calm. Reassure your community. And only speak to what you know. Don’t speculate, don’t pretend to be an expert on something that you’re not,’” Scaffidi recalls.

Last year, two days after the fatal shooting of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Christine Hunschofsky, mayor of Parkland, Florida, met the mother of a 6-year-old killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School who offered a road map into the future.

“She forewarned me of many of the things that we would encounter,” Hunschofsky recalls. “She said at first it will seem like everyone comes together. Then it seems like a tsunami that hits the community. People become very divided. This is all normal after a mass trauma.”

Three months later, it was Hunschofsky’s turn. She sent a message to the incoming mayor of Santa Fe, Texas, where a school shooting left 10 dead. “She told me this is not going to be the hardest day and harder days are coming,” recalls Mayor Jason Tabor. “‘Prepare for that.’ She was 100 percent right.”

The two mayors have since become fast friends and Hunschofsky visited Santa Fe. “We’re bonded for life,” Tabor says.

Mass shootings account for a tiny percentage of homicides, but their scale sets them apart. In 1999, the Columbine shooting shocked the nation with its unforgettable images of teens running from the school with their hands up — scenes repeated in other similar attacks years later. Today, the public sees and hears about these events as they unfold, through live-streamed video or tweets.

Each tragedy is horrifying, but the sense of it-can’t-happen-here has worn off.

“We’re a desensitized society,” says Jaclyn Schildkraut, a criminologist at the State University of New York at Oswego.

“There is an element of mass shooting fatigue where we’ve gone from ONE MORE,” she says, her voice rising with exasperation, “to add another one to the list. Everybody immediately goes for the gun argument … and maybe throw a little mental health in there, but we really don’t have a consistent, prolonged conversation about these events and how to prevent them.”

Studies have offered some hints of their emotional wallop. The National Center for PTSD estimates 28 percent of people who have witnessed a mass shooting develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and about a third develop acute stress disorder.

Laura Wilson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia conducted a meta-analysis — an examination of data from 11 studies of PTSD symptoms among more than 8,000 participants who ranged from those who’d witnessed shootings to those who just lived in the communities in a 20-year period. She found the greater the exposure — someone who was at the scene or who lost a friend or family — the greatest risk of developing PTSD. But, in her work, Wilson has found other factors, too, including previous psychological symptoms and a lack of social support, also played a role in increasing the likelihood.

“Mass shootings are a different type of trauma,” Wilson says. “People are confronted with the idea that bad things can happen to good people. … Most people have a hard time reconciling the idea that a young, innocent person made the good decision to go to school, was sitting there, learning and was murdered. That does not make sense to us. … It just rattles us to our core.”

And yet, some people don’t fully appreciate the lasting psychological wounds of those who escaped physical harm.

A study conducted by a University of Nevada-Las Vegas professor after the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting that left 58 people dead found PTSD levels for those at the concert remained elevated at least a year later. Most of these people had a friend, family member or co-worker asking — as early as 1½ months after the event — why they were still troubled.

“Almost everyone had someone say, ‘Get over it. Why are you letting this bother you?’” says Stephen Benning, a psychology professor who conducted the research. Those kinds of remarks were associated with increased levels of PTSD, which lasted longer than depression.

April Foreman, a psychologist and board member of the American Association of Suicidology, likens exposure to mass shootings to a flu epidemic that affects the entire community in different ways.

“When we have these mass casualty events it’s like an outbreak of a virus,” she says. “Some people might be immune or not susceptible to that strain. Some people are going to get a little sick, some people are going to be very sick. Some people might have compromised immune systems and if they’re exposed they have a very high risk for life-threatening illness. Suicide is like the extreme outcome.”

In one week in March, two student survivors of the Parkland school shooting killed themselves. Around the same time, the father of a 6-year-old killed girl in Newtown died of an apparent suicide. He had created a foundation in his daughter’s name to support research on violence prevention.

Austin Eubanks, a Columbine student who was shot and watched his best friend die in the school massacre, died last month, possibly of an overdose. He struggled with opioid use after the attack and later became an addiction recovery speaker. A memorial fund established in his name is seeking funds for a trauma-informed program for families and victims of mass violence.

After the Parkland suicides, Hunschofsky says, many people sought mental health help for the first time. “They just told me, ‘I thought I was OK, but after this happened, maybe I’m not. Maybe I do need to talk to someone.’” The community’s wellness center, established after the Parkland shooting, extended its hours.

A similar program, the Resiliency Center of Newtown, is an informal gathering place for those grappling with anxiety, depression and PTSD. Though the school attack occurred 6½ years ago, the center still gets new clients and after every mass shooting, more people stop by.

“Your heart hurts every time a new tragedy happens because you know what those people who are impacted are going to have to go through and what the community is going to go through, and that’s hard,” says Stephanie Cinque, the center’s founder and executive director. “You don’t just get over it and move on.”

In Florida, Orange County Sheriff John Mina, Orlando’s police chief during the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub, realized that when he reached out to law enforcement peers — former chiefs of Aurora and Newtown — afterward. “‘What do you think I should be doing six months, a year from now?” he asked. “They said, ‘John, you’re not going to be dealing with this a year. You’re going to be dealing with this five or 10 years. That was like a punch in the gut.”

There were some immediate lessons learned, he says. Among them: improved communications with the fire department and better equipment. After the Pulse shooting, officers were given Kevlar helmets and an extra layer of body armor that will stop rifle rounds.

Mental health debriefings were held six months and a year after the shooting rampage for Orlando officers who went to the nightclub that morning.

Some have reached beyond the department to UCF RESTORES, a clinic at the University of Central Florida that helps trauma victims. It was originally designed to serve the military, but has expanded to include first responders and sexual assault victims, among others.

Deborah Beidel, the clinic’s director, says first responders called to mass shootings face trauma similar to those in combat. About 50 firefighters, police and paramedics who were at Parkland and Pulse have been treated, most in a three-week outpatient program that exposes them to the sounds, smells and sights they encountered that caused their PTSD.

For those inside the Pulse, Beidel says, “the sound of cellphones ringing and ringing and ringing and no one answering them became a trigger for many people. Afterward, any time they heard a cellphone, particularly that Marimba ring on the iPhone, they would have a flashback.”

Beidel says the goal isn’t to make workers forget but to “put that memory in a file where it no longer affects every other aspect of their life, so that they no longer are restricted in what they can do because … of flashbacks or panic or whatever they might be experiencing.”

Jimmy Reyes, a 35-year-old Orlando firefighter, enrolled in the program about five months after Pulse. He’d been haunted by the memory of tending to more than two dozen bloody, wounded people carried from the club, sprawled over a parking lot, screaming in agony.

After more than four stressful hours caring for the wounded, not knowing who’d live or die, he returned home. As he and his wife watched the TV news, he began sobbing. She held him. “We did the best that we could,” he told her.

Less than a week later, Reyes had a panic attack while working a second job — he was on a safety team in a jet ski race. “I couldn’t breathe,” he says. “I kept telling myself, ‘You’ll be fine. It’ll pass.’” It didn’t. He dreaded another big call at work.

Firefighters, he says, “kind of bury a lot of stuff. It gets put in a file in the back of your head. That’s what I thought this was going to be.”

But it didn’t stay there. He was short-tempered with his family. He had little interest in doing anything but sitting at home. Finally, Reyes decided to seek help.

For three weeks, he relived his experiences, answering questions from a therapist as he told his Pulse story over and over, recalling everything he saw, including one man talking on his cellphone who’d been shot in the head and another critically wounded who asked, “Am I going to die?” At certain points, the therapist would cue up sounds he’d heard — gunshots from inside the club, the wail of the sirens, an explosion.

At first, he says, he cried. By the end of the sessions, he was dry-eyed and calm.

Reyes is better now and remains a firefighter. He never considered quitting. But he’s changed.

“I felt like I was normal before Pulse,” he says. “I was a very happy guy, no problems, no issues with mental health. Now I still deal with depression. I still deal with anxiety. … I look back at those days. … June 11th, I was normal. Then June 12th happened. I’m a completely different person.”

So is Las Vegas trauma surgeon Dave MacIntyre.

He talks in a rapid-fire, breathless way about the chaos 19 months after the Route 91 shooting. More than 90 severely injured patients in 113 minutes. He repeats that phrase as if it still hasn’t completely sunk in. After 20 years, he’s now a part-time trauma surgeon looking to get out of the operating room completely. MacIntyre enrolled in January in an executive MBA program for doctors, with plans on becoming a consultant for helping hospitals deal with similar challenges. He’s trying meditation, too.

MacIntyre didn’t realize he had PTSD until an MBA program coach picked up on his symptoms — anxiety, stress, short temper, avoidance. His marriage has suffered. His work, too. “I find it very hard to talk to family members and give them bad news … much more so than before,” he says.

After the shootings, his hospital brought in therapy dogs and counselors for the staff but not everyone participated. “As physicians we’re not going to want to show weakness. We’re not going to want to go into an auditorium full of people or get on the floor and pet dogs,” he says. “A lot of physicians internalize. You get to the point where it’s unbearable.”

It was different for Brian Murphy. He says he didn’t have any psychological trauma after the shootings at the Sikh temple.

Murphy, the first officer on the scene, was shot 15 times. His face, hands, arms and legs were riddled with bullets. One bullet remains lodged in his skull; another in his throat after slicing one vocal card and paralyzing the other, leaving him with a permanent rasp.

Medically retired from the Oak Creek police department, Murphy completed the master’s degree in criminal justice administration he’d started before he was injured.

He now works for the company that makes the bulletproof vest that stopped three rounds that struck him that August day. He counsels other wounded officers, talking about something deep in his DNA — resiliency.

Murphy gets injections in his throat every three months to stop scar tissue from tightening and has some trouble swallowing, but he has no complaints, noting he was first told he’d never talk or eat on his own. “Once I knew I wasn’t going to die, everything else was butter,” he says.

He credits his family’s support for rebounding. And he refuses to let the shooting dominate his thoughts.

“It’s not like I wake up and say, ‘I can’t believe this happened.’ It’s just life now. I don’t think there’s a tremendous amount of good that comes from looking behind.”

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/06/02/mass-shootings-transform-how-america-talks-prays-prepares/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/06/03/mass-shootings-transform-how-america-talks-prays-prepares/

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kayawagner · 7 years ago

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The Future of Pathfinder Seminar from Gary Con 2018–An Overview

The original Pathfinder roleplaying game beta launched at Gen Con in 2008. At the time, I was one of the volunteers for the brand-new Pathfinder Society, and attended the “Future of Pathfinder” seminar held that year. Now, in 2018, I was at Gary Con, when it became clear that the “Future of Pathfinder” event being held there was going to be a seminar on the direction of the 2nd edition of the Pathfinder roleplaying game. It seemed fitting to attend.

The event was hosted by Paizo Senior Designer Stephen Radney-MacFarland and Paizo Director of Game Design Jason Bulmahn. This was a two-hour seminar, which was about half presentation, half question and answer. The summarized information on the design directions of Pathfinder 2nd Edition is organized into broad themes that developed from the discussion, rather than being presented in the chronological order in which the information was presented.

The Look of Future Products

Wayne Reynolds, the artist that worked on the original Pathfinder core rulebook, as well as many other products, will be returning to detail key images for Pathfinder 2nd Edition. Paizo has often used named iconic characters to illustrate various classes, as well as using them as the “stand in” adventurers for illustrations in adventures. There were a few details given about the iconics going forward.

Seoni, the iconic sorcerer character, will have a redesign that will be “less salacious,” but will highlight her signature tattoos more prominently

Characters like Valeros and Harsk will be given different gear to highlight how new class features work (for example, Harsk has two axes and Valeros will be carrying a shield)

An iconic goblin alchemist is being added to the core lineup, to highlight that both goblins and alchemists will be in the core rulebook

Playtest Schedule and Products

The playtest will start in August of 2018, at Gen Con. A PDF of the rules will be made available, as will a PDF of a playtest adventure, and a PDF with a selection of monsters available, which will not be included in the playtest rulebook. The playtest document will be similar in size to the 2008 playtest for 1st edition Pathfinder.

There will be pre-orders for soft-cover, hard-cover, and commemorative leather-bound copies of the rules, as well as physical copies of the adventure and map sheets specifically highlighting locations in the adventure

The adventure will have specific surveys asking directed questions about the parts of the game highlighted in various sections, to make feedback more directly actionable

There will be further playtest adventures as the playtest continues, with their own surveys

The playtest timeline will assume play of a specific section, and will move on to a new section approximately every two weeks

Each section of the starting adventure is predicted to take about 6-8 hours to complete

Guiding Principles of Design

Both presenters mentioned that it is very important to Paizo to capture the proper feel for the game, and for it to meet the expectations that players already have for the game. They mentioned cases where the game is not intuitive in its design, such as with skill points or in some sub-systems that only affect certain classes. All the classes and what were previously known as races will be in the core 2nd edition rulebook, with the addition of goblins and alchemists, due to their popularity.

They noted that many players enjoy the system mastery elements of a more complex system, so their goal is to design a game that is complex, but logical, where multiple systems work in a similar fashion, while still allowing players to enjoy building characters based on “corner cases.”

Core Rules and Resolution

The core gameplay experience of the game will still be the same, with characters taking actions and resolving those actions by rolling a d20 and adding a bonus to measure against a difficulty number, but the way actions work, as well as the range of bonuses and difficulties, will be changing.

Instead of having a move action or a standard action, characters will now have three actions they can take per round, to do any action they wish, although repeated attacks with have penalties

All characters will have a reaction, which may trigger under different circumstances and do different things, based on class

Some characters may have multiple reactions that they may set up by taking a specific type of action on their turn

Difficulties and armor classes will have their ranges shifted to a different range of numbers—it was specifically noted that a wizard with some armor bonus would still have a statistically relevant benefit from that bonus within the new range, which is not currently the state of the game at higher levels of play

Modes of Play

The game was stated to always have multiple modes of play, but the new edition with quantify those different modes of play with different rules to support them, and to give the GM more guidance in how to move between them. In addition to the modes of play, a bit more time was spent discussing structured encounters and initiative resolution.

Encounter mode will be in structured time, with rounds that take approximately six-second intervals, and characters keeping track of initiative order. Exploration mode will be any time where characters are taking more specific action, investigating, and moving, but not in a manner that requires strict turn order. It was stated that the GM has more freedom to state time intervals based on the requirements of the adventure in exploration mode. Downtime mode is the time between adventures, where adventurers state the way they spend this time and various kinds of training and crafting that they might engage with.

Some critical social encounters may be run in encounter mode, with an initiative order

Initiative is now primarily determined by perception, which is a score which all characters have and is no longer a class-specific skill

Depending on what the character was doing in exploration mode, they may use different skills to determine initiative (such as a rogue that is scouting using stealth as initiative, or a bard using perform when they attempt to assassinate a noble at a gala)

The core rulebook may give a suggested amount of downtime to award at each level, and specific adventures may call out specifically expected downtime allotments as well

One downtime activity will be retraining, so that characters are not permanently locked into the decisions that they have made at a particular level

One reason for increasing the importance of downtime is to alleviate the feeling that characters go from low-level characters to being among the most powerful adventurers in the world in a few months’ time

Classes, Ancestries, and Character Creation

At the seminar, it was stated that both the witch and the oracle nearly made it into the core book, but the alchemist was added so that the alchemy rules could be added as rules that anyone can interact with, not just members of that class. Alchemical items will scale over levels, and alchemist will be using their own system instead of defining their abilities in terms of spells. Alchemists will still have bombs and mutagens as other abilities are added to them.

Races will now be referred to as ancestries, and goblins will be added to the list of core ancestries. It is noted that player character goblins will most likely be outcasts from goblin society, so that the core concepts of goblins as monsters do not change.

Character creation was stated as following ABC, picking ancestry, background, and class. Backgrounds will be replacing the trait system that was previously introduced in Pathfinder products, and in addition to backgrounds in the core rulebook, there may be adventure path specific background available to tie a character more closely to a storyline.

Archetypes will still be part of the game, and there will be archetypes introduced from the start

When asked about multi-classing, the response indicated that you would be able to get “things” from other classes—the importance of sticking to a theme instead of cherry picking rules elements was mentioned

Background will grant a specific Lore, which is similar to a specialized knowledge skill, such as Lore—Alcohol being granted to a character with barkeep as a background

Classes will have abilities that highlight what they do—specific examples given were that spellcasters will be impressive on their own turn when casting spells, rogues will have surges of damage dealing, and fighters will be able to “lock down” opponents

Gear

When discussing gear, a “dent system” was brought up. Shields are specifically being designed to take damage and to be more disposable, but also more functional. The dent system is not likely to interact with all gear, but only gear that might have specific rules interactions outside of a single purpose. The encumbrance system is also going to be reworked to measure bulk, and to be more directly based on the strength score, rather than a separate chart.

One of the previously mentioned actions that might “load” a specific kind of reaction is readying a shield to absorb damage as part of a reaction

The encumbrance system was mentioned as being similar in concept to how the topic is handled in Starfinder

The terms “light bulk” and “heavy bulk” were used, but not further examined

In some circumstances, a character may have “signature gear” that they choose which can level up with them

Some downtime activity may relate to repairing “dented” items

Skills

Skill point calculation was stated as being one of the most complex aspects of the game, and one of the least intuitive to process. A future blog post on Paizo’s site will be dealing with the skill system in more detail, but skill points are “kind of” gone.

Still a limited range of skills to pick for starting characters

Characters will likely pick some skills to have access to them, and pick other skills that they want to improve over time

Spells and Spellcasting

There was a broad discussion of some aspects of spellcasting, and the role that spellcasters play in the campaign. Questions were asked about whether the game addresses the usefulness of spellcasters versus non-spellcasting classes, as well as how spellcasting will specifically work.

Cantrips will be more broadly useful across the life of the character

Shield is a cantrip, and can be “loaded” for a reaction in a manner like physical shields, and can react to magic missiles

Most spells will cost two actions to cast—they may get an extra boost to power if another action is added, and some will only cost one action to cast

Spellcasting actions are related to what is currently listed as spell components—if a spell has a verbal and somatic component, it will take a verbal action and a somatic action to cast

The intent is to make spellcasters “cool on their turn,” then let the spotlight move

Some changes will be made so that spellcasters have limited ability to encroach on the niche of other classes outside of their turn in combat

Monsters

The game will aim to make monsters easier to create on the fly, and to make the underlying math simpler. Examples of what a monster should have for stats at various levels will be given, as well as adjustments based on the creature’s role (for example, making a monster that is hard to hit, but goes down quickly, and how those stats should be adjusted).

Monsters will have unique reactions native to them. For example, if fire magic is used near a red dragon, they may use a reaction to control the fire magic. Jason Bulmahn also stated that he created a reaction on the fly in a game where a serpent creature received a reaction to strike anyone moving next to it regardless of turn order, because it felt appropriate to the creature. The goal is to create monster reactions that will be logical for the monsters, but will make them fresh and surprising to use in a game.

Influences

It will be interesting to see what problems are isolated as the most important to address, and what the solutions to those problems might be.

During the question and answer portion of the presentation, a question was asked about games that may have been an influence on the design direction of the new game rules. It was stated that the team looked at many games, not just roleplaying games, to help develop their direction. They also did not look at any game for rules inspirations, but for ideas on what problems they were addressing and how they handled elements like narrative structure or rules presentation.

Some specific games were mentioned, including the following:

Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition was not an influence, beyond seeing what problems were being addressed in that game and where similar problems overlap with Pathfinder, but they are aware of the game and interested in solving those problems in their own way

Stephen Radney-MacFarland mentioned being a fan of Shadow of the Demon Lord and friends with Robert Schwalb

The original white box edition of Dungeons and Dragons was mentioned as a source that the team consulted as they developed design goals

Magic the Gathering was stated as a game to look at for how to present rules and rules interactions

Historical miniatures games were also cited as something the team looked at, analyzing rules and how the various games resolved combat and movement

Tales from the Loop and Star Trek Adventures were both mentioned as games that the team looked at to see how they utilized narrative structures

In the next year, there should be ample opportunity to participate in the playtest and have the chance to shape the game going forward. It will be interesting to see what problems are isolated as the most important to address, and what the solutions to those problems might be.

Now that you’ve seen the roadmap that Paizo is following in this new edition of Pathfinder, what do you think? I’d love to hear from you, and if you are going to follow along with the playtest, participate, or wait for more news. If you left the game, are you going to come back? Looking to check it out for the first time? Let me know in the comments below, and thanks!

The Future of Pathfinder Seminar from Gary Con 2018–An Overview published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

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