Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder Sneak Peeks (Old thread)

[freyar]

It's a nice mix of SRD and ToH critters, for sure.

Noticed one strange thing: there's no advancement information for any of the monsters that I saw. Is this an oversight or something new in monster customization rules?

 

[dm4hire]

A few observations about Pathfinder found in the Bonus Bestiary from FreeRPG Day as pointed out on Paizo’s boards:

They (slightly) changed the format for Poisons and Diseases.
Treasure is by money value.
Undead use a d8 for hit dice.

James Jacobs had this to say about the hit dice and other changes to the undead.

The basic idea is that for slow BAB you have a d6 HD, for medium you have d8 HD, for fast BAB you have a d10 HD. Barbarians and dragons are special cases, and thus get a d12 HD.

Undead do now get their Charisma bonus to HP rolls, and undead will generally have pretty good Charisma scores as a result. As a general rule, an average undead creature is about as tough as an average non undead creature. Many undead will have some form of damage reduction or other defense to model the fact that they're harder to kill than living things, though...

And this…

Things like monster advancement and the like will be detailed in the actual Bestiary book. There are more options for monster advancement in PFRPG than there were in 3.5, and those options are less restrictive as a general rule than they were in 3.5.

Jason Bulmahn added this comment:

Of all the monsters in the final book, undead have gotten the biggest makeover. The problems mentioned by James were pretty terrible at higher CRs making undead mostly unusable. I won't get into too many specifics, but undead on the whole gained hp, increased in BAB and generally became a bit cooler (the sample lich has over 100 hp for a creature of the same CR as the old sample Lich).

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

So will skeletons become more charismatic now? And Zombies?

I suppose they will model their toughness more with DR...

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

they may not change much as they were low CR canon fodder and not much else anyhow.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

The Bonus Bestiary is now up as a free download over at paizo.

 

[dm4hire]

James Jacobs reveals even more insight into PF undead.

As a general rule, undead are tougher in PFRPG than they were in 3.5, particularly the higher CR they get.

A 3.5 undead has an average of 6.5 hp per HD.

A PFRPG undead has an average of 4.5 hp per HD, but can gain bonuses per HD. Give an undead a CHA of only 14, and his average HP per HD is back up to 6.5. Give him a Cha of 12 and the Toughness feat and you're ALSO at 6.5 hp/HD.

For most undead, you can probably expect to see Charisma scores of 14 or higher as a result; mindless undead will generally have around 10 or 11 Cha (similar to how many mindless vermin have 10 or 11 Cha scores), but will have pretty good DR for their level (or the aforementioned Toughness feat). This does mean zombies and skeletons, essentially, are going to be a little less tough, but if that means you can throw a lot more at a low level party to get in the Horde of Undead kicks, that's good! It DOES mean that Charisma is not a dump stat for undead... I'd generally say that Wisdom's probably a better dump stat for them, since they're immune to mind-affecting effects anyway.

Let's look at 5 sample undead from the MM, and look at the difference in average hp in 3.5 and what they would be in PFRPG (assuming no other changes).

<b>Ghast</b>
3.5: 29 hp
PFRPG: 34 hp

<b>Mummy</b>
3.5: 55 hp
PFRPG: 60 hp

<b>Nightcrawler</b>
3.5: 212 hp
PFRPG: 212 hp

<b>Dread Wraith</b>
3.5: 104 hp
PFRPG: 184 hp

Certainly other undead do take a hit to their hp, but that's nothing that bumping up their charisma 2 or 4 points won't fix.

 

[dm4hire]

Paizo's Blog: The bard preview is up:

Lem
Male halfling bard 8
CG Small humanoid (halfling)
Init +4; Senses Perception +12
DEFENSE
AC 21, touch 17, flat-footed 16 (+4 armor, +1 deflection, +4 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 size)
hp 55 (8d8+16)
Fort +6, Ref +12, Will +7; +4 vs. bardic performance, sonic, and language dependent effects, +2 vs. fear
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee +1 short sword +7/+2 (1d4–1/19–20)
Ranged +1 thundering sling +12/+7 (1d3)
Special Attacks bardic performance (28 rounds/day), countersong, distraction, dirge of doom, fascinate (DC 18), inspire competence +3, inspire courage +2, suggestion (DC 18)
Spells Known (CL 8th):
3rd (3/day)—charm monster (DC 17), cure serious wounds, haste
2nd (5/day)—blur, glitterdust (DC 16), minor image (DC 16), sound burst (DC 16)
1st (5/day)—charm person (DC 15), cure light wounds, disguise self, hideous laughter (DC 15), lesser confusion (DC 15)
0 (at will)—detect magic, ghost sound (DC 14), know direction, light, read magic, summon instrument
STATISTICS
Str 8, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 18
Base Atk +6; CMB +4; CMD 20
Feats Combat Casting, Dodge, Extra Performance, Mobility
Skills Acrobatics +17, Escape Artist +15, Knowledge (local) +16, Perception +12, Perform (comedy) +15, Perform (wind instruments) +19, Stealth +19, Use Magic Device +15
SQ bardic knowledge (+4), lore master (1/day), versatile performance (comedy, wind instruments), well-versed
Languages Common, Elven, Halfling
Combat Gear lesser metamagic rod of extend, wand of cure moderate wounds (CL 3rd, 50 charges); Other Gear +1 shortsword, +1 thundering sling, 20 sling bullets, +2 leather armor, belt of incredible dexterity +2, cloak of resistance +1, mwk flute, ring of protection +1, wind fan

Points of interest:
Bard song, or Performance, now works a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + their Charisma modifier and gain an additional 2 rounds per day for every level beyond first.
Extra Performance feat grants additional uses.
Performance starts off as a standard action, then move action, and finally at higher levels can be done as a swift action.
Maintaining a performance is a free action, meaning that the bard can keep up a performance and still cast spells, move, and make attacks.
d8 hit points.
Bards get a spell without having to have a Charisma high enough to grant a bonus spell of a given level.
Bardic Knowledge now grants a bonus to all Knowledge skills equal to 1/2 the bard's level (minimum +1) and allows the bard to make any Knowledge skill check without having ranks in it.
Well-versed grants a flat +4 bonus on saves against other bardic performances, as well as sonic and language-based spell effects.
Lore master is granted at 5th level and it allows the bard to take 10 on any Knowledge skill check. In addition, once per day he can take 20 on a Knowledge skill check. As he gains levels, he can use this secondary ability multiple times per day as well.
Versatile Performance, gained at 2nd level, allows the bard to substitute his Perform bonus for the bonus of two other skills, depending on the type of Perform.

 

[mach1.9pants]

The bard preview is up:

I know you probably have it bookmarks but a link would be good
But thanks for the heads up

 

[dm4hire]

Funny thing is I just realized it and was getting ready to edit it when I refreshed and saw your post. Anyhoo, added the link.

So far I like the changes to performance.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I think that, of all things, NWN2 put the bard where it could shine much better, by separating songs into actual songs (one shot buffs, debuffs, effects, etc) from inspirations, inspirations being an always on aura that you could change. The result was, bards didn't have to worry about losing their passive increase to allies, and had awesome songs they could belt out in battle without worrying of limiting their, you know, core main feature. It also helped that they implemented some incredibly cool and versatile songs.