Supine Arcanum

So, as I said in the last post, this one is one meant predominately for my players, a guide to some of the extra races that are both core to our home setting and common/associated enough with the area that they are options for players beyond what is in the Core Rulebook. That being said, I still think this is valuable to those outside my tiny group of players. For you, think of this as a window into some of the expansive things one can do with this system, a taste of how far one can go with the options for creatures one can play and/or interact in their own world with using these mechanics. Core Races: Feralfolk:  Feralfolk (aka the Skinwalker) are one of my top 3 favorite editions to the core racial options. Interesting mechanically, diverse in options, and unique in execution, there is nothing out there that plays like a feralfolk and is built to be played by players. You can play out your lycanthropic dreams without having to worry about murdering your teammates, you can be...

So, races. To start I'll clear up some things. For those of you totally new to Pathfinder and tabletops in general, the use of races in this context is something closer to species. It does not mean races as we tend to use them in real life and when the game does talk about other races within the game they tend to use the word ethnicity or ethnicities. I personally prefer just to call them ethnicities, species, or people to avoid the muddy complications that come about when we use the word race and to avoid the inaccuracies that it causes, but, for the interest of this walkthrough, when they talk about "races" in Pathfinder, this is what they mean. So, in Pathfinder, races are the various species or people that a player can select for their character to be. There are 7 in the Core Rulebook and dozens more throughout various bestiaries and other expansions Paizo has produced. For now, and in this post I'm going to be talking about the 7 that come with the CRB (Core ...

As stated previously, Ability Scores are broken down into 6 categories that represent the various physical and mental powers of your character and every other creature throughout the game. Now, I know some people can get confused by these so I feel like it's best to go over each one to get everyone up to speed and working from the same definition of each of these going forward. I cannot tell you the number of times I have seen problems at table come about because 2 people have differing definitions of what Ability X is supposed to cover. So, without further adieu, lets get into it. Physical vs. Mental:  Each character has 6 Abilities that can be broken down into 2 groups Physical and Mental. Physical Abilities or Stats, are abilities that are meant to represent your character's physical abilities such as how strong or nimble they are or how hardy they are and ease with which they can shake of diseases. If your character has superhuman strength or get's crippled and is lef...

The basics of the whole game, ability scores are the stats that govern every character and thing your characters are likely to do going forward with few exceptions. If you want to attack a monster with your sword, your Strength (Str) ability score is factored. Your Bard trying to remember what the hell a Lich is? That knowledge check uses Intelligence (Int) to figure it out. Your Rogue trying to barrel roll out of a massive explosion? That's a Reflex save (Ref) which uses your Dexterity (Dex). In short, every skill check, attack roll, and save you will make is effected by these numbers, and therefore it behooves me, to try and walk you through these stats as quickly and (hopefully) painlessly as possible. So, without further adieu, lets get to it. WTF is an Ability, and how do you Score it? An ability is one of the 6 basic stats that effect in one way or another, every part of your character sheet. These Abilities are... Strength (Str) Dexterity (Dex) Constitution (Con) I...

So for those stumbling in here for the first time or sent here via a link, I'm Tyler and this is my blog for teaching my players the Pathfinder gaming system and my houserules modifying it, and the rules to everyone else who might be interested. I'll probably be modifying this piece as I codify the greater visual key to show off what posts are what but for now, I hope you enjoy the content and that I hear from everyone who is interested.