Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but the reason as to why I kept a silence on my blog post-‘Mulan-2020’ is…because of it, really. Our TV/cable box, (sponsored by Rogers™!), has died, we tried to replace it, and may now replace our TV instead, because it is that old. It is a huge heavy thing, and I do not envy the task of getting it out of our home, because I will be the one doing it, most likely. …Getting rid of the TV, that is. Did I mention that real life sucks, already? Anything else?
We have been trying our luck with Pathfinder™, and by Pathfinder™, I mean that we are
making our own 1E campaign, to use their terminology. In it, our PCs were
commissioned to go down to the Mwangi jungles to capture an okapi, (it is a
real life animal – look it up on the Wiki), for their patron. Not the most
intense motivation, but hey, when you are playing for yourselves and for your
own enjoyment, you can live with it.
…You do need some villains to spice up the game, and so,
enter ‘Nature’s Scourge’ from the 1E ‘Villain Codex’ – a collection of various
villains, all of whom have some connection to nature. Pause.
On the topic of the 1E Pathfinder™, the NPC Codex was just a list of stats of the 10
primary classes from 1 to 20, plus the matching 10 prestige classes, plus the
NPC classes, all delivered in the same layout. (Plus the appendix, but we are
deliberately ignoring it). The Monster Codex contained info on 20 different
monsters/monster races, plus some paraphernalia – class archetypes, feats,
spells, etc., all of which are appropriate to ‘their’ monster – gnolls,
serpentfolk, lizardfolk and so on – in order to make them more derived and
challenging. And the Villain Codex?
…And the Villain Codex tried to do something similar, but
since most of the characters presented there, are humans, or at least
humanoids, who do not have too much in common with each other, this makes the
paraphernalia part more tricky… Pause.
NPC Codex was simple – here is a list of rogues, rangers,
monks, etc. from the lowest to the highest, Villain Codex was more complex as
each organization – whether it’s the aforementioned ‘Nature Scourge’ or, say,
the ‘Brutal Slavers’ – is quite heterogeneous, plus they’re… generic.
The speciality of prestige classes is that they give
something unique to the characters, something that the base classes by
themselves just can’t, plus by choosing to eventually invest in a prestige
classes, the players behind to mould their characters appropriately, by
choosing the proper feat(s), which may have their own prerequisites, by
designating a certain amount of skill ranks to a specific skill, and so on,
which results in a more unique character than an average character would be.
…Unfortunately, team Pathfinder™ had its’ own issues with the prestige classes to
begin with. Oh sure, they were there; there was, in fact, an entire
supplementary rule book titled ‘Paths of Prestige’, dedicated precisely to this
topic, but somehow, you could tell that their heart wasn’t in it.
This brings us to archetypes. In the D20 Modern system,
there were ‘talent trees’ or something similar – i.e., you could choose what
special abilities and qualities your character would have, not to mention that
instead of rangers, rogues and bards, the characters of the D20 Modern system
were differentiated from each other by their strength, speed, toughness, and so
on. As I’ve written way back, the (1E) Pathfinder™ was more influenced by the D20 Modern than by
D&D, (despite their own similarities), so not surprisingly that they had
something similar – the archetypes, which were, fundamentally, the various
special abilities and qualities of rangers, rogues, bards and etc., that
replaced some of the others – they were called substitution levels in the 3.5
D&D. So what?
Therefore, the team Pathfinder™ had some issues with the prestige classes – they practically
never used them in their adventure paths and co. Even in their later days, when
they pushed more and more info about their exalted, evangelist and sentinel prestige
classes, they’ve never actually used them in the canon, and any RPG material
that isn’t used in a RPG canon is practically stillborn, (pardon the not quite
appropriate imagery). Prestige classes were never very widely used in the 1E
Pathfinder™,
(though there was quite a lot of them, to be fair), and the various archetypes,
(i.e., a ‘regular’ rogue is different from a rogue with a ‘poisoner’ archetype,
for example), just were not the same.
…Yes, the 3.5 ed. D&D also had archetypes, especially in
the ‘Complete Champion’ sourcebook, but we are not talking about this angle
right now. What we are talking about is how the source in the Villain Codex was
a tangled mess at worst and a heterogeneous one at best, and ‘Nature’s Scourge’
is one of the better one – an evil organization dedicated to reclamation of civilization
by nature via occult rituals and what else have you; but what the point?
The point is that Pathfinder-1E never knew where it was
going as a franchise. For a while it prospered, but now it seems to have
collapsed, as Pathfinder-2E appears to be a lot less grand with a lot less
material to offer its’ fans – mostly the various monster conversions, and that
just isn’t the same. Still, we are enjoying playing our own campaign, (we still
have not come up to our elusive jungle giraffe, eh), and it helps us get away
from the concept that real life sucks, and this is also the reason as to why I’ve
stayed away from my blog for the time being.
PS: Here is a poacher from the NPC codex with a bestial
simple template (Lost Treasures 17)
for old times’ sake:
POACHER CR 2
XP 600
Bestial human ranger 3
CE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception +7
DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +1 Dex, +1
natural)
hp 30 (3d10+9)
Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +2
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 mwk handaxes +6 (1d6+3/×3) or
2 claw attacks (1d4+3) and 1 bite attack (1d3+1)
Ranged mwk heavy crossbow +5 (1d10/19–20)
Special Attacks favored enemy (animals +2)
STATISTICS
Str 17, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 6
Base Atk +3; CMB +6; CMD 17
Feats Double Slice, Endurance, Quick Draw, Two-Weapon
Fighting, Weapon Focus (handaxe)
Skills Climb +9, Intimidate +2, Knowledge (geography) +3,
Knowledge (local) +0, Knowledge (nature) +4, Perception +7, Stealth +7,
Survival +5
Languages Common
SQ favored terrain (forest +2), track +1, wild empathy +2
Combat Gear potion of bull's strength, potions of cure light
wounds (2), potion of hide from animals; Other Gear masterwork studded leather,
masterwork handaxes (2), masterwork heavy crossbow with 20 bolts, 63 gp.
What do you think? Comments, criticisms are welcome.
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