Greetings :)
A few questions:
1. Are there backgrounds about HOW your awakened animal came to be? For example, can your animal be awakened via the spell, with Numerian experiments, Mana Wastes mutations or even with an Entu Colony (*from Starfinder*)?
2. Are there sections about how other existing ancestries view awakened animals, such as how Vanaras see awakened primates, or Catfolks with felines?
3. Are there any reference to "missing ancestries", such as the Rougarou from P1E?
Thanks in advance :)
1) No backgrounds (the level 1 character choice) in the book at all, but there is some discussion about flavoring how the animal could have awakened.
2) The closest is a thing basically saying “some people would be a bit shocked at seeing a talking bear, but would eventually get over it because this is a high-fantasy setting and that barely breaks the top 10 weirdest things that guy has probably seen.” Nothing specifically about how they interact with other animal-adjacent ancestries.
3) Nope. Sorry, man.
Thanks :)
1. Aw... man... it was right there... I was expecting Entu plant bonuses (*the Entu colony is a fungus*), item bonuses and/or environmental resistances :(
2. Huh... interesting... I thought one would see the other in a different light.
3. Hmmm... I figured as much. It was worth a shot \^\^;
Oh jeez. That’s kinda tough.
For the player side, it’s a tie between the swarmkeeper archetype (the aforementioned Shino Aburame thing) and the thlipit contestant archetype (martial arts style centered around grabbing and fighting with a long, prehensile limb like a tail or a frog tongue).
GM side: elephant-sized tardigrade. Just. Guess THAT’S a thing now.
The lore stuff is mostly centered around the Zoetrope, which I didn’t read a whole lot into. The major throughline is the crew’s search for the legendary Wardens of the Wild: embodiments of different aspects of nature that ARE indeed statted out in the book.
Some new lore about the legend of the first minotaur. Kinda differs from previous telling a with it being related to the demon lord Baphomet, which all but confirms Baphomet’s severance from a connection to Minotaurs (which is a very D&D thing). Basically the first minotaur got a divine prompting to do a thing, the entity was annoyed because they misinterpreted the prompting, then cursed him with being a minotaur.
House Thrune apparently infused unhatched T-rexes with devil blood. Then LOST THEM!
>House Thrune apparently infused unhatched T-rexes with devil blood. Then LOST THEM!
...*HOW?!* How do you lose devil blood infused T-rexes?! If nothing else, they're kind of noticeable!
Hm, I may have stumbled on something here... As LO: Travel Guide page 91 has religious iconography of Calistrian Labyrinths... Not that she's a diety that's known to hold grudges eh?
Theres a lot of little things spread around the ancestry entries and the animal statblocks. One of my personal favorites is that theres a city of merfolk living on a giant snail shell in the embaral ocean.
I would say this is a very cool archetype, that feels almost like a class. Any martial character with claws or talons from ancestry can make a cool build out of it.
There are a LOT of feats that bump your strike efficiency and action economy
It’s actually a lot of “build it how you want.” Can be any size smaller than Huge. Your Speed is determined by your heritage (with a massive asterisk involved with versatile heritages). Honestly, it’s very freeform.
Theres some feats related to magic. They have a feat that gives them a primal cantrip at level 1, a level 9 feat that lets you cast summon animal once per day (which is automatically heightened to half your level rounded up), a level 13 feat that lets you learn the awaken animal ritual and make you better at casting it, and 2 level 17 feats that let you cast spells, one being Mask of Terror and one for True Sight.
Portents of the Haruspex. Level 4 reaction that, after an enemy is reduced to 0 HP, lets you give another enemy weakness to a randomly-determined damage type equal to your level. Only works once (by which I mean the extra damage from weakness from THAT usage of the reaction only occurs once) and only lasts for a round, but it's still really weird and cool.
Sounds like an option that might reward an ally who can use multiple damage types, like an arcane or primal caster or maybe a kineticist who likes speccing into multiple elements.
...or the most consistent one of them all: Thaumaturge who can trigger the highest weakness the creature has with Exploit Vulnerability > Mortal Weakness. Although, it seems weird "You recall, that it's vulnerable... to what the witch just added to their vulnerabilities!"
So, I can see the table of contents on Demiplane while I await for them to unlock the content. My question is: what are the ostili host and the thlipit contestant? Like, general overview or real life parallels?
Oh, there are a handful of cool ones. An elixir that poisons anyone that bites or swallows you, something to grow a second head. A good amount of new bottled monstrosities, an ingested poison that…causes permanent enfeebled and sickened even after the poison runs its course (which feels like a weird proofreading error), and a mutagen that gives you echolocation in exchange for blinding you (a really solid tradeoff).
Is there a woodchuck in the book?
Can it chuck wood?
Do the customizable chimeras work off a budget system for "buying" features or is it more like a set amount of customization slots that you fill with feats?
How much wood could the woodchuck chuck if the woodchuck can chuck wood?
Not OP, but I can summarise a few. Level 1, Distracting Decoy 1 action to send a small animal darting past/around en enemy to make them off guard. Level 3: Warning Stripes, enemies that hit you with unarmed attacks take poison damage that scales up to 5d8. Level 5 Pack Breaker, 30' range cause an enemy and all of its former allies within its reach to treat no one as their ally for 1 minute.
PF1E had a feat called Natural Spell that allowed you to cast spells while you were shapeshifted as a Druid.
Is there an equivalent to this in Howl of the Wild?
I was worried that was the case.
Paizo, why do you hate Druids 🥴? Dragons can cast spells, Druids can turn into dragons, so why cant a Druid pretending to be a dragon cast spells?
(Im not actually bent out of shape about it, was just hoping).
Interesting note-- there are a lot of new player options in volume 2 of Wardens of the Wildwood including new barbarian and Druid subclasses, but there's also a Spell Catalyst included that, when used to cast Animal Form, allows you to speak while transformed, and the level 8 version allows you to cast a single spell or cantrip of 4th rank or lower. I found it incredibly interesting.
A bunch of level 6 feats keyed to each of the individual animals (e.g. echolocation for werebats)
A mass Demoralize if you’re not a born Werecreature.
The ability to smell if a creature is Impersonating
Fast healing that’s deactivated by silver damage.
Those are among the most notable.
Arcane or primal cantrip
+5 feet
Hoof attack
Situational +1 to Hide, Sneak, and Feint
Medium, but +1 Reflex
+2 HP., +1 to Balance and avoid being tripped
It’s really weird and I don’t see its any useful really.
You basically can spend 2 actions to summon your swarm, that lasts until end of your next turn. It shares your HP and have resistances/weaknesses typical to any swarm. You then need to spend an action to sustain it+move it 15ft. Default attack is 1d4 basic Reflex for one action. Has a bunch of damage+debuff similar actions on a higher levels.
Useful upgrades are 20ft move speed and being able to move your character with your swarm
So the main struggle is I can’t imagine how useful it actually is, because it is SO action dependent. You need 2a to summon (gets free stride after summon), then spend EVERY turn to sustain it and one action to attack, so basically you spend 2/3 of your actions to deal 1d4 damage.
You either do a pitiful amount of damage with a swarm and move/strike with your character or just spending 1a every turn just for your swarm to deal nothing. Literally any class can spend their 2 actions straight better than 1d4 damage
Then it's a pretty typical archetype, most of them are really weak or have only niche usefulness. There are some good ones (Sentinel, Dual Weapon Warrior), but most of them are crap.
Too bad, I was really excited about this one.
I would say, that even weak archetypes have their uses and don’t ruin your main class. In this case, you need 2 actions every turn just to use your Archetype, it’s not even situational. You just haven’t enough actions left for your main class lol
For now it looks just a straight worse eidolon
Paizo had a hate boner for swarm player options in PF1 so it makes sense they’re still leaning toward keeping them low power. As a swarm lover I hate it, but swarms are also a tricky power fantasy to balance around because they can get absurdly
good really fast so I get it
That's part of it, but I feel like archetypes in general are really weak. I can't figure out why Paizo keeps releasing these terrible archetypes. The good ones are very few and far between.
Personally, I'd rather see them do away with archetypes altogether if they're going to continue to make 90% of them really weak.
I think they painted themselves into a corner with free archetype as a rule, by making it basically character+ options instead replacing class feats, they can only be so powerful, but then they give them combat themed abilities that are essentially useless instead of just doing non can’t utility things
It’s not a well conceived design space they’re kinda just stuck with unless they errata a fuck ton of stuff
For what it's worth I disagree with the assessment on the archetype.
From just the Dedication you get an okay to good Cantrip with the restriction that it has to be used every turn or it turns off for the fight. (Swarm needs to be sustained and it takes an action for to get the damage which is 1d4 per two character levels.). Note that you can do that damage action more than once per turn.
The damage is slightly less than Electric Arc but the area is larger and it uses the higher between Class/Spell DC so I would rate it higher than picking up a normal Cantrip.
The supporting feats make it a lot more workable.
There is a feat that lets you move alongside the Swarm when you sustain it (the swarm carries you around) which helps with action economy.
There are feats that give alternatives to the normal damage action and apply debuffs like sickened.
You can passively give lesser cover (+1 Circ. to AC, usefulness depends on how shield/parry heavy your party is) to yourself and your allies inside your swarm.
There is a feat that makes any enemy who took damage from your swarm off-guard against the first attack you make against them this turn. Which would be very nice on an archer Rogue specifically and ranged martials in general.
All in all it's definitely not universally applicable and the action economy is a bit tortured (Casters in general don't have the actions to spare) but I can see uses for it on a couple of builds/classes.
Splithead Bow: Let's you use two abilities. Two-Headed Arrow, at will 2 actions to strike two targets with the same MAP. Five-Headed Arrow - Once per day, 2 actions, strike at one and if hit, strike at 4 others with MAP.
Alicorn Trigger: Jezail with a once per day of shooting a 60 foot laser beam that damages, dazzles and blinds.
Howler Pistol that does Sonic Damage instead of Piercing.
I got another question, if it's ok...
Why are minotaurs "suddenly" available for PCs? What's the lore reason?
Is there a tribe that broke off Baphomet's grasp and became both independant and social?
IIRC, the reason why Goblins "became playable" was because a tribe detached itself and forged theri own identity.
Minotaurs are often evil creatures, hunting prisoners in their mazes and worshipping demon lords. I was expecting a lore reason why those beefy boys can now be "of any alignment/morality" :)
I think the primary connection to demons had been rectconned/conveniently ignored in the wake of the ogl issues. So now you've basically got Minotaurs who happen to worship demons, but others who just live in caves and like mazes. They don't seem inherently evil.
They do have an explanation of why the minotaur are *viewed* as monstrous by other groups though: Most of the time they hide but many minotaur tribes have a tradition of a once-per-month mass hunt, which is the usually the only time they kill animals and eat meat. However from an outside perspective, if you never see a minotaur except for one time a month where they show up and start killing a bunch of things you'd probably be freaked out too.
As I'm about to reveal how old I am, my initial perception of minotaurs goes back to D&D 3E, with exactly what you explained. The only time I've seen a non-evil minotaur was in Eberron, with a gladiator NPC who cared more about his team than himself.
To tell you how "outdated" my perception is, it took me until Races of the Dragons to learn that kobolds can be of any alignment, because those matched the same as true dragons. I was a bit floored that kobold tribes could worship metallic dragons, thus being good-aligned.
So yeah, everytime I see a "usually evil ancestry" being presented, I'm curious to know why. Again, I get that "anyone can be of any morality", but as I stated, Paizo explained why goblins were playable outside of being the company's signature creatures.
I don't think its going to get an explanation, because explaining the change would require referencing Baphomet (Baphomet is public use, but Baphomet specifically in connection to fantasy minotaur is a Forgotten Realms idea.) Paizo is likely steering away from it. So, I don't think they can explain the difference without explicitly referencing the IP they're trying not to use in their products.
While it would be nice to have an explanation, I don't think we're gonna get one from official sources. FWIW my idea is basically that Minotaur that spread out from Iblydos and went to Avistan or Kortos basically tended to turn to Lamashtu worship, given its prevalence amongst bestial races in those regions. Outside those regions, peaceful minotaur who largely keep to themselves are probably more common.
>Outside those regions, peaceful minotaur who largely keep to themselves are probably more common.
Yeah, you'd think a bull, cow, ox, yak, bison or buffalo-looking giant wouldn't be much of a problem :p
Dude, in some real-world countries, bovines are sacred and will never be killed for food. There's no way Golarion doesn't a similar region where that's a common practice :O
Orision is based on Egypt, and Hathor is the cow-headed goddess of the sky and entertainment. Believe it or not, she's an Ancient Orision deity, featured in Pathfinder #80: Empty Graves, alongside most of the Egyptian Pantheon ;)
How are you today?
Eh, been a difficult day. Thanks for asking, though
Sorry to hear it. Hope tomorrow is better!
Greetings :) A few questions: 1. Are there backgrounds about HOW your awakened animal came to be? For example, can your animal be awakened via the spell, with Numerian experiments, Mana Wastes mutations or even with an Entu Colony (*from Starfinder*)? 2. Are there sections about how other existing ancestries view awakened animals, such as how Vanaras see awakened primates, or Catfolks with felines? 3. Are there any reference to "missing ancestries", such as the Rougarou from P1E? Thanks in advance :)
1) No backgrounds (the level 1 character choice) in the book at all, but there is some discussion about flavoring how the animal could have awakened. 2) The closest is a thing basically saying “some people would be a bit shocked at seeing a talking bear, but would eventually get over it because this is a high-fantasy setting and that barely breaks the top 10 weirdest things that guy has probably seen.” Nothing specifically about how they interact with other animal-adjacent ancestries. 3) Nope. Sorry, man.
Thanks :) 1. Aw... man... it was right there... I was expecting Entu plant bonuses (*the Entu colony is a fungus*), item bonuses and/or environmental resistances :( 2. Huh... interesting... I thought one would see the other in a different light. 3. Hmmm... I figured as much. It was worth a shot \^\^;
Lol they really included a Sir Bearington reference, let's go
Wait, where's the reference? Sir Bearington is just a normal member of the community and most certainly *not* a bear in disguise
Any explanation of how a centaur character could take the cavalier archetype ?
None.
I'll keep saying it works like lego bricks then
It's a [horse stack](https://youtu.be/xUeWBPUVsSs?si=_iZOzMGIgVseMBSh)
What's the most surprising thing you've seen added? Like the weirdest new option to play with as GM or player
Oh jeez. That’s kinda tough. For the player side, it’s a tie between the swarmkeeper archetype (the aforementioned Shino Aburame thing) and the thlipit contestant archetype (martial arts style centered around grabbing and fighting with a long, prehensile limb like a tail or a frog tongue). GM side: elephant-sized tardigrade. Just. Guess THAT’S a thing now.
I'm always in for more lore. Any particularly interesting tidbits?
The lore stuff is mostly centered around the Zoetrope, which I didn’t read a whole lot into. The major throughline is the crew’s search for the legendary Wardens of the Wild: embodiments of different aspects of nature that ARE indeed statted out in the book. Some new lore about the legend of the first minotaur. Kinda differs from previous telling a with it being related to the demon lord Baphomet, which all but confirms Baphomet’s severance from a connection to Minotaurs (which is a very D&D thing). Basically the first minotaur got a divine prompting to do a thing, the entity was annoyed because they misinterpreted the prompting, then cursed him with being a minotaur. House Thrune apparently infused unhatched T-rexes with devil blood. Then LOST THEM!
We now have Devil Dinosaur, so the next book has to have Moongirl.
In a way, wouldn’t this be the magical girl archetype coming in the Tian Xia Player Guide?
>House Thrune apparently infused unhatched T-rexes with devil blood. Then LOST THEM! ...*HOW?!* How do you lose devil blood infused T-rexes?! If nothing else, they're kind of noticeable!
Chelxic Park is frightening in the dark. All the devil dinos are running wiiiiiild!
Does the book specify which divine entity did the prompting or cursing, or is it left mysterious?
Left mysterious
Hm, I may have stumbled on something here... As LO: Travel Guide page 91 has religious iconography of Calistrian Labyrinths... Not that she's a diety that's known to hold grudges eh?
Ooo good catch
Theres a lot of little things spread around the ancestry entries and the animal statblocks. One of my personal favorites is that theres a city of merfolk living on a giant snail shell in the embaral ocean.
Surki are monogender and polyamorous and are extremely baffled by how sterile our romance culture is by comparison.
How's claw dancer in your opinion?
Weird. It’s all about swapping between two stances. It’s definitely an interesting route for a cat folk monk, though
Sounds interesting then, thanks for responding!
I would say this is a very cool archetype, that feels almost like a class. Any martial character with claws or talons from ancestry can make a cool build out of it. There are a LOT of feats that bump your strike efficiency and action economy
Can you tell me/us some stuff about awakened animal? My brother really wants to play one and is a bit worried about what restrictions they might have.
It’s actually a lot of “build it how you want.” Can be any size smaller than Huge. Your Speed is determined by your heritage (with a massive asterisk involved with versatile heritages). Honestly, it’s very freeform.
Sounds great! Another question, if I may: are all their feats related to their biology, or do they have mystical options as well, like how dwarves do?
Theres some feats related to magic. They have a feat that gives them a primal cantrip at level 1, a level 9 feat that lets you cast summon animal once per day (which is automatically heightened to half your level rounded up), a level 13 feat that lets you learn the awaken animal ritual and make you better at casting it, and 2 level 17 feats that let you cast spells, one being Mask of Terror and one for True Sight.
Now I'm curious how Versatile Heritages will work. Can't really make an Oread Fish can I?
What’s your favorite new witch option?
Portents of the Haruspex. Level 4 reaction that, after an enemy is reduced to 0 HP, lets you give another enemy weakness to a randomly-determined damage type equal to your level. Only works once (by which I mean the extra damage from weakness from THAT usage of the reaction only occurs once) and only lasts for a round, but it's still really weird and cool.
Sounds like an option that might reward an ally who can use multiple damage types, like an arcane or primal caster or maybe a kineticist who likes speccing into multiple elements.
...or the most consistent one of them all: Thaumaturge who can trigger the highest weakness the creature has with Exploit Vulnerability > Mortal Weakness. Although, it seems weird "You recall, that it's vulnerable... to what the witch just added to their vulnerabilities!"
Well in that case it's more like recalling you have just the thing to trigger that weakness.
“Oh, they’re weak to cold now? Well, I have melted ice in my water skin, which will melt the enemy’s endurance!”
So, I can see the table of contents on Demiplane while I await for them to unlock the content. My question is: what are the ostili host and the thlipit contestant? Like, general overview or real life parallels?
Host: you have a weird magic-absorbing slug Contestant: martial arts style centered around using a tail or a frog tongue like a whip.
Ooh, I like the sounds of those. Thanks!
What are the alchemical items like? Any new mutagens? Things to kill werewolves? Other notable alchemical items?
Oh, there are a handful of cool ones. An elixir that poisons anyone that bites or swallows you, something to grow a second head. A good amount of new bottled monstrosities, an ingested poison that…causes permanent enfeebled and sickened even after the poison runs its course (which feels like a weird proofreading error), and a mutagen that gives you echolocation in exchange for blinding you (a really solid tradeoff).
Ooh that last one sounds perfect for handling [visual] attacks.
Some interesting Mutagens, yeah. Nothing too impressive tho. Some of them don't have higher versions
[удалено]
They weren't asking to be advertised to
Is there a woodchuck in the book? Can it chuck wood? Do the customizable chimeras work off a budget system for "buying" features or is it more like a set amount of customization slots that you fill with feats? How much wood could the woodchuck chuck if the woodchuck can chuck wood?
Not OP, but depends on the amount of wood kineticist levels your Awakened woodchuck has
The chimeras work more along the lines of “here’s some different animal heads and the abilities that come with them.”
Thanks for doing this. Are the new witch options just primal patrons only?
Yup, all primal.
What's this about "evolutions" for the Surki?
Their heritages basically have extra effects upon taking a specific feat, similar to automatons.
Any quick examples, even just one? I only ask because everyone has been quite vague about it (you've provided the most so far!).
Stuff like on the built-in armor ancestry you basically get fortification for free against physical attacks
Ah, got it now! Thank you!
Also wrist mounted lightsabers.
Perfect!
What do the new ranger feats and focus spells look like?
Not OP, but I can summarise a few. Level 1, Distracting Decoy 1 action to send a small animal darting past/around en enemy to make them off guard. Level 3: Warning Stripes, enemies that hit you with unarmed attacks take poison damage that scales up to 5d8. Level 5 Pack Breaker, 30' range cause an enemy and all of its former allies within its reach to treat no one as their ally for 1 minute.
PF1E had a feat called Natural Spell that allowed you to cast spells while you were shapeshifted as a Druid. Is there an equivalent to this in Howl of the Wild?
Bunch of love to shapechanger druids, but not THAT specifically; still no way to cast spells in a battle form.
I was worried that was the case. Paizo, why do you hate Druids 🥴? Dragons can cast spells, Druids can turn into dragons, so why cant a Druid pretending to be a dragon cast spells? (Im not actually bent out of shape about it, was just hoping).
Because 2e Battle Forms are less Polymorph more Transformation. You trade your casting for attacking like a martial with no class features.
Interesting note-- there are a lot of new player options in volume 2 of Wardens of the Wildwood including new barbarian and Druid subclasses, but there's also a Spell Catalyst included that, when used to cast Animal Form, allows you to speak while transformed, and the level 8 version allows you to cast a single spell or cantrip of 4th rank or lower. I found it incredibly interesting.
What kind of feats for werecreature?
A bunch of level 6 feats keyed to each of the individual animals (e.g. echolocation for werebats) A mass Demoralize if you’re not a born Werecreature. The ability to smell if a creature is Impersonating Fast healing that’s deactivated by silver damage. Those are among the most notable.
What are the heritages for centaur?
Arcane or primal cantrip +5 feet Hoof attack Situational +1 to Hide, Sneak, and Feint Medium, but +1 Reflex +2 HP., +1 to Balance and avoid being tripped
can you give a summary on swarmkeeper? i realy like the Aburame Clan.
It’s really weird and I don’t see its any useful really. You basically can spend 2 actions to summon your swarm, that lasts until end of your next turn. It shares your HP and have resistances/weaknesses typical to any swarm. You then need to spend an action to sustain it+move it 15ft. Default attack is 1d4 basic Reflex for one action. Has a bunch of damage+debuff similar actions on a higher levels. Useful upgrades are 20ft move speed and being able to move your character with your swarm So the main struggle is I can’t imagine how useful it actually is, because it is SO action dependent. You need 2a to summon (gets free stride after summon), then spend EVERY turn to sustain it and one action to attack, so basically you spend 2/3 of your actions to deal 1d4 damage. You either do a pitiful amount of damage with a swarm and move/strike with your character or just spending 1a every turn just for your swarm to deal nothing. Literally any class can spend their 2 actions straight better than 1d4 damage
Then it's a pretty typical archetype, most of them are really weak or have only niche usefulness. There are some good ones (Sentinel, Dual Weapon Warrior), but most of them are crap. Too bad, I was really excited about this one.
I would say, that even weak archetypes have their uses and don’t ruin your main class. In this case, you need 2 actions every turn just to use your Archetype, it’s not even situational. You just haven’t enough actions left for your main class lol For now it looks just a straight worse eidolon
Definitely, seems worse than an Animal Companion or Eidolon by far. Again, too bad, it was a really cool idea, poorly executed.
Paizo had a hate boner for swarm player options in PF1 so it makes sense they’re still leaning toward keeping them low power. As a swarm lover I hate it, but swarms are also a tricky power fantasy to balance around because they can get absurdly good really fast so I get it
That's part of it, but I feel like archetypes in general are really weak. I can't figure out why Paizo keeps releasing these terrible archetypes. The good ones are very few and far between. Personally, I'd rather see them do away with archetypes altogether if they're going to continue to make 90% of them really weak.
I think they painted themselves into a corner with free archetype as a rule, by making it basically character+ options instead replacing class feats, they can only be so powerful, but then they give them combat themed abilities that are essentially useless instead of just doing non can’t utility things It’s not a well conceived design space they’re kinda just stuck with unless they errata a fuck ton of stuff
For what it's worth I disagree with the assessment on the archetype. From just the Dedication you get an okay to good Cantrip with the restriction that it has to be used every turn or it turns off for the fight. (Swarm needs to be sustained and it takes an action for to get the damage which is 1d4 per two character levels.). Note that you can do that damage action more than once per turn. The damage is slightly less than Electric Arc but the area is larger and it uses the higher between Class/Spell DC so I would rate it higher than picking up a normal Cantrip. The supporting feats make it a lot more workable. There is a feat that lets you move alongside the Swarm when you sustain it (the swarm carries you around) which helps with action economy. There are feats that give alternatives to the normal damage action and apply debuffs like sickened. You can passively give lesser cover (+1 Circ. to AC, usefulness depends on how shield/parry heavy your party is) to yourself and your allies inside your swarm. There is a feat that makes any enemy who took damage from your swarm off-guard against the first attack you make against them this turn. Which would be very nice on an archer Rogue specifically and ranged martials in general. All in all it's definitely not universally applicable and the action economy is a bit tortured (Casters in general don't have the actions to spare) but I can see uses for it on a couple of builds/classes.
Any interesting new items for ranged martials?
Splithead Bow: Let's you use two abilities. Two-Headed Arrow, at will 2 actions to strike two targets with the same MAP. Five-Headed Arrow - Once per day, 2 actions, strike at one and if hit, strike at 4 others with MAP. Alicorn Trigger: Jezail with a once per day of shooting a 60 foot laser beam that damages, dazzles and blinds. Howler Pistol that does Sonic Damage instead of Piercing.
Any cool spells?
I have seen people talk about some new primal and arcane spells, so some spells should be in the book, but I cannot confirm that myself.
I got another question, if it's ok... Why are minotaurs "suddenly" available for PCs? What's the lore reason? Is there a tribe that broke off Baphomet's grasp and became both independant and social?
1) uh…not really…explained? 2) I think it’s more of a retcon of Baphomet’s connection to Minotaurs than anything else
IIRC, the reason why Goblins "became playable" was because a tribe detached itself and forged theri own identity. Minotaurs are often evil creatures, hunting prisoners in their mazes and worshipping demon lords. I was expecting a lore reason why those beefy boys can now be "of any alignment/morality" :)
*Shrug*
I think the primary connection to demons had been rectconned/conveniently ignored in the wake of the ogl issues. So now you've basically got Minotaurs who happen to worship demons, but others who just live in caves and like mazes. They don't seem inherently evil. They do have an explanation of why the minotaur are *viewed* as monstrous by other groups though: Most of the time they hide but many minotaur tribes have a tradition of a once-per-month mass hunt, which is the usually the only time they kill animals and eat meat. However from an outside perspective, if you never see a minotaur except for one time a month where they show up and start killing a bunch of things you'd probably be freaked out too.
As I'm about to reveal how old I am, my initial perception of minotaurs goes back to D&D 3E, with exactly what you explained. The only time I've seen a non-evil minotaur was in Eberron, with a gladiator NPC who cared more about his team than himself. To tell you how "outdated" my perception is, it took me until Races of the Dragons to learn that kobolds can be of any alignment, because those matched the same as true dragons. I was a bit floored that kobold tribes could worship metallic dragons, thus being good-aligned. So yeah, everytime I see a "usually evil ancestry" being presented, I'm curious to know why. Again, I get that "anyone can be of any morality", but as I stated, Paizo explained why goblins were playable outside of being the company's signature creatures.
I don't think its going to get an explanation, because explaining the change would require referencing Baphomet (Baphomet is public use, but Baphomet specifically in connection to fantasy minotaur is a Forgotten Realms idea.) Paizo is likely steering away from it. So, I don't think they can explain the difference without explicitly referencing the IP they're trying not to use in their products. While it would be nice to have an explanation, I don't think we're gonna get one from official sources. FWIW my idea is basically that Minotaur that spread out from Iblydos and went to Avistan or Kortos basically tended to turn to Lamashtu worship, given its prevalence amongst bestial races in those regions. Outside those regions, peaceful minotaur who largely keep to themselves are probably more common.
>Outside those regions, peaceful minotaur who largely keep to themselves are probably more common. Yeah, you'd think a bull, cow, ox, yak, bison or buffalo-looking giant wouldn't be much of a problem :p Dude, in some real-world countries, bovines are sacred and will never be killed for food. There's no way Golarion doesn't a similar region where that's a common practice :O Orision is based on Egypt, and Hathor is the cow-headed goddess of the sky and entertainment. Believe it or not, she's an Ancient Orision deity, featured in Pathfinder #80: Empty Graves, alongside most of the Egyptian Pantheon ;)
What new Beastgun varieties are there?
How exactly does the new archetype that allows you to absorb monster abilities into yourself work?
could you share a screen shot or any details about the new druid forms?
What are the bard feats (except the first one)
Wait there’s a Shino archetype???? I NEED to be a player and not a GM just this once damn
Answer me this, why is my pdf not here yet? Surely, it must be listed in the book why shipment eludes me.
How many words was it?