Tales of Jackson, IL: For Whom the Bell Tolls

 It's April and I want to kick off a semi-regular feature on my Jackson, IL game for the NIGHT SHIFT^® RPG.

I want to talk about the characters and the adventures from my "Tales of Jackson, IL" game.

The NIGHT SHIFT^® Character Keeper!
The MUST-HAVE school supply for the 1986-87 school year!

For Whom the Bell Tolls

This first adventure, For Whom the Bell Tolls (all adventures will be named for songs from the 1980s) begins over the Fall of 1985. The large school bell, which hasn't worked since 1935, begins to ring. The problem is that only people and creatures of supernatural backgrounds could hear it. So PCs and some NPCs do. So do all the monsters in the nearby area, and they are all coming to Jackson. If that sounds uncomfortably like a "diner bell," then you would be right.

The antagonist of this adventure is/was "The Bell Ringer." His job is to announce the arrival of an even bigger bad guy later on. I have not hinted this yet, but this Big Bad is known as The Hollow King. He was pretty easy to deal with once found, but he had already done his damage.

I'll detail some of the player characters in future posts. One of the characters that was here for this adventure did not make it to later ones. No character death, just new characters. But I wanted to make this so that characters can come and go as needed. 

For levers, this is a Cinematic game, with Cinematic violence and healing. 

Look, I am wearing my influences here on my sleeve. This is Stranger Things meets Charmed meets Buffy meets Supernatural meets The Craft. But also a little bit of Dark, since I do pick up these characters many years later. 

Welcome to Jackson, IL!

The Cheerleader, The Outsider, and The New Girl

Jackson, Illinois, seems like the kind of town that blends in with a hundred others in the mid-west, at least until night falls. On the surface, it is all Friday night football, crowded school hallways, two local colleges that give the town just enough polish to feel more important than it is, and grown-ups going through the motions as if nothing is wrong. 

It is the 1980s in full neon color, with mixtapes, faded denim, old trucks, pay phones, greasy diners open too late, and gossip that never stays quiet for long. But under the steady pulse of small-town life, something far older and far stranger is waking up. Forces beyond understanding are creeping into the edges of everyday life, and the kids of Jackson are about to learn that coming of age can be just as frightening as anything lurking in the dark.

At the center of the story is a close-knit group of friends and families: outsiders, golden boys, first loves, brainy overachievers, and kids who have already seen too much. Each of them carries private wounds and hidden truths into the shadows. Some have never left Jackson. Some have only just arrived. Some already know that the town is not what it pretends to be. Together, they become the emotional core of the campaign, a web of teenagers and adults bound together by fear, loyalty, and survival in one deeply haunted American town at the tail end of the Reagan years.

What I want to do with this series, at least, is present some of the games we have played and the NPCs. The NPCs were where I started here because I wanted these halls to feel like they were filled with people, not archetypes like "The Jock." "The Wierd Girl," "The Cheerleader." I wanted them to have names and motivations. So I started building them based on characters I have posted here before, which gave me instant personalities and buy-in. But not every character I have is a god fit. Grýlka and Doireann, for example, are a lot of fun, but to fit them into this game, I'd have to take so many liberties with the characters that I might as well have started from scratch. So I used mine, and since I had a pack of Pathfinder minis sitting on my desk here, I started adding them as well. 

I also very specifically did not want to do a modern version of West Haven. West Haven does appear in the NIGHT SHIFT^® rules, but that is the future (or rather the present day). I wanted something smaller. Plus, I already have a NIGHT SHIFT^® version of West Haven going with Elowen. But that is not an ongoing game at the moment.    

I have teased some characters, but again, I want this place to feel alive. I think I owe that to the players. 

The Witches

I knew from the start I wanted three witches who look like they come from three different walks of life. I knew Larina was going to be one of them; in fact, I wanted to use the date I first created her, July 1986, as the time when this game starts. But I needed at least one summer break, so I pushed it back to 1985. Why are you so specific about the dates? One big reason. Music. Music was a big deal in your 1980s high school. So I wanted to build authentic playlists.

• 1985
• 1986
• Tales from Jackson, IL (Campaign playlist)

Of course, with three witches, they all can't be "the weird one," so I split that up a bit. Since Pathfinder was at hand, I adopted Feiya and Seoni as Faye and Stephanie, respectively. 

Everyone starts out at 1st level, but the girls here are just a notch higher in case they need to rescue anyone.

Larina "Nix" Nichols

2nd-level Witch, Human

Strength: 9 (0)
Agility: 10 (0) 
Toughness: 11 (0)
*Intelligence: 18 (+3) P
Wits: 17 (+2) s
Persona: 17 (+2) s

Vit: 3 (1d6)
DV: 9
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +2/+1/+0
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +0
Saves: +3 to spells and magical effects

Special Abilities: Arcana, Casting 60%, Enhanced Senses, Arcane Bond (Steph and Faye)

Skills: Research (Int)

Languages: English, Latin, German, Greek

Spells
1: Magic Missile
2: Continual Flame

This is not witch queen Larina, or even really powerful Larina. This is "new girl in town" Larina. Normally, she is the "weird one," but here I am opting to make her "the smart one." She is the one with the research books and systematized knowledge. So if the PCs need help they can go to her.

Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue

Archetype: The New Girl
Quote: "I am sure I just read that somewhere..."
Quirks: Right-handed, wears her watch on her right hand.
Theme song: "Night Bird" - Stevie Nicks

Family: Her father, Lars Nichols, is a professor at MacAlister College. Mother died 18 months ago.

Faye Thorne

2nd-level Witch, Human

Strength: 10 (0)
Agility: 12 (0) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) s
Intelligence: 18 (+3) 
*Wits: 18 (+3) P
Persona: 17 (+2) s

Vit: 4 (1d6)
DV: 7 (leather jacket)
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +2/+1/+0
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +0
Saves: +3 to spells and magical effects

Special Abilities: Arcana, Casting 60%, Enhanced Senses, Arcane Bond (Steph and Larina)

Skills: Intimidate (Cha)

Languages: English, German

Spells
1: Chill Ray
2: Cause Fear

Fiona Voss, or as she is known now, Faye Thorne, is the creepy goth girl outsider. She lives with her two very strict and terrifying aunties (really hags in disguise), and hides under headphones, a leather jacket, and enough sarcasm to power a small city. She and Steph used to be best friends until their falling out a couple of years ago. Unlike Larina, Faye has learned all about witchcraft by doing it.

Hair: White
Eyes: Gray

Archetype: The Outsider
Quote: "Wow. You really think your opinion matters to me."
Quirks: Always wears headphones and a pentagram necklace. Loves super spicy food, scary spicy.
Theme song: "A Forest" - The Cure

Family: Her parents, the Vosses, died in a car crash when she was a toddler. She was raised by her aunties, who changed her name. Her aunties are really disguised hags hoping to use her natural magic.

Stephanie "Steph" Vale

2nd-level Witch, Human

Strength: 12 (0)
Agility: 14 (+1) s
Toughness: 13 (+1)
Intelligence: 13 (+1) s
Wits: 10 (0) 
*Persona: 18 (+3) P

Vit: 4 (1d6)
DV: 9
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +2/+1/+0
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +0
Saves: +3 to spells and magical effects

Special Abilities: Arcana, Casting 60%, Enhanced Senses, Arcane Bond (Larina and Faye)

Skills: Drive (Agl), Gymnastics (Agl)

Languages: English, French

Spells
1: Charm Person
2: ESP

To the outside world, Stephanie Vale is a ray of sunshine, but on the inside...yeah, she is pretty much the same. Stephanie is a nice girl who moves in and out of social situations with the skill of an adult twice her age. She just broke up with her long-time boyfriend, Val, and her mother and father wish she would start dating Andy Thompson. But Andy is so deeply in love with Rowan that Hallmark follows them around for ideas. She is captain of the Cheer team, but now she is involved with new girl Larina and Faye Thorne, of all people. 

Like many things, witchcraft comes naturally to Steph.

Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue

Archetype: The Cheerleader
Quote: "Alright, everyone! Teamwork makes the dream work!"
Quirks: Positive attitude hides a crippling desire to please everyone.
Theme song: "We Got the Beat" - The Go Go's

Family: Second-richest family in town (behind the town founders, the Thompsons). Father Arthur is a lawyer, and Mother Beatrice is a stay-at-home mom. She has an older brother in college, whom she thinks is the best ever, and a younger sister who spends a lot of time on a computer.

--

My NPCs are coming along. I will likely talk about the "nice" ones, since they are most likely to help the PCs. By halfway through the first quarter, watching Stephanie, Faye, and Larina always hang out together will be the stuff of talk and darker gossip. 

I will say this. These characters have been a blast to use, and I am so pleased with them.

Because I like to think of these things, I also have plans for everyone some years later. Just have not nailed all that down at all yet.

Steph, Faye, and Larina at breakfast. Why is Larina wearing sunglasses? Photogray lenses? Maybe she is hungover.

--

Night Shift^® is a registered trademark of Elf Lair, LLC.

NIGHT SHIFT: Tales of Jackson, IL

 My son's group has been splitting their Sunday games up into two sessions lately. Usually, it is D&D 5e first, then dinner, then something else. Lately, the "something else" has been AD&D 1st edition (which they love), along with a combination of NIGHT SHIFT, Wasted Lands, and Thirteen Parsecs.

I got a chance to run some games with them. Since I was fresh off my "Stranger Things" high of this winter, I wanted to run a "proper 80s" style game with them. So I picked Jackson, IL, and set their adventure in 1986. The fun part was reminding them that no, there were no cell phones, no Internet, no Wikipedia, and if you wanted to call someone and you were not at home, you had to find a payphone. Cultural shocks aside, it also gave me an excuse to pull out some NPCs I have been dying to use.

Stephanie, Faye, and Larina

The players are all familiar with Pathfinder, and the various Iconics have made guest appearances in their D&D 5e games. Largely because we have the minis for them and they are all easily recognized. So I decided to have a little fun and fill the halls with characters they would recognize, but as high school students in 1986.

The big ones are Stephanie (Seoni) Vale, Fiona "Faye" (Feiya) Voss/Thorne (I'll explain later), and, naturally, Larina Nichols. They are likely the stars in their own tales, but here they are the NPCs. Everyone whispers that they are witches. Everyone is right.

Yeah, Larina is right-handed and wears her watch on her right hand. She was a weird kid.

Val (Valeros) is here as a super jock, as is RPG/LARPER dude Ed (Ezren), and more. Most of them just fill up the background of a school that has a lot of weirdness going on. But a few stand out.

Kyra is a sweet girl known as the "Preacher's Kid" and a star on the girls' track team. She is always hanging out with troublemaker Meriko (Merisiel). Kyra, though, thinks demons, devils, and other evil things are hiding in the shadows. She is also not wrong. Meriko dresses like a mid 80s ad for "Ninja culture" because she likes to irritate her conservative parents. 

Kyra and Meriko

Others include some originals. 

Rowan and Andy are the "it couple" at Jackson High and "were born dating," according to Faye. Rowan is the local horse girl who spends more time with animals than people. Andy is the star player of the football team, the son of a wealthy businessman, and an all-around nice guy.

Rowan and Andy. Aren't they adorable?

I have to admit, I was writing their background and got really carried away, and now I kinda love them both. 

They met when Andy's father, who owns the stables where Rowan's dad works, thought his son needed discipline, so he spent the summers cleaning the stables. Rowan, who always hangs out at the stables to ride the horses (she can't afford to be a member), showed Andy how to do the work she and her dad did. After friction, not liking each other, and even fighting, Rowan saw that Andy, despite everything, wanted to do a good job in hopes his dad would notice, and Andy saw how natural Rowan was with all animals, especially the horses. They fell in love in typical, even clichéd, 1980s Rom-Com fashion, including a special scene where Rowan has to enter the horse she loves into a show to win, or he gets sold. She loses because a rival cheats, and the horse is sold. TWIST: Andy buys the horse with his college money and gives it to Rowan!  They realize they love each other. Spoiler. They get married right out of high school and adopt a dozen pets. 

I said I spent way too much time on them. The irony? They haven't even shown up in the game yet!

The first "episode" adventure was called "The Midnight Bell For Whom the Bell Tolls" about the big school bell that was hung in the tower and has not rung since 1936. It rang and every supernatural creature heard it. The Big Bad (they don't know this yet) is "The Bell Ringer." He is a harbinger of more bad guys. I have a faerie lord slumming it at the high school who up to no good. Faye has two "Aunties" who are really Urban Hags. I also have some creepy kids, some fake-Satanists, some real Devil-worshipers, a hidden graveyard, tunnels under the town, and an abandoned mall filled with zombies. So yeah, basically shit from my own childhood!

I hope I get to do more with this. Plus, I am enjoying all the "cameos" I am throwing in. They love the time and keep asking how things were in the 80s. The oddest thing? These 20-somethings LOVE "Hall and Oates."  I am trying to play Iron Maiden, and they want to hear "Maneater."

Ah well. Maybe you all will enjoy my 1985 and 1986 playlists.

OH! quick reminder.
Night Shift® is a registered trademark of Elf Lair, LLC. 2026

Mail Call Tuesday: ReAction D&D Figures

A little over 3.5 months later, I finally received my ReAction D&D Figures in the mail, just in time for Father's Day.

They are pretty cool. As you can see, these are the ones from Super 7.

Of the three the Sorceress (as she is properly known) is my favorite.

She is roughly the same size/scale as the classic Kenner Star Wars figures (this is by design of course). She even has holes in the bottom of her feet to put into action scenes.

She is a little taller than the other D&D Figures out last year. 

Maybe Skylla has a bit of elf in her.

She does not come with the green fireball though.

All the figures look pretty cool to be honest.

The font on the cards is closer to the Mentzer Basic books than the AD&D or Moldvay books. 

Yes, I took them off of their cards. 

Now the Efreeti actually will see some use in games I am sure. He is a good size to be an efreeti amir or pasha or something similar.

Compared to the mini from the Classic Monster Manual line maybe he is the long-lost "Greater" Efreeti.

All three of these figures have also, in one form or another, have had premium statues made of them. The Efreeti and the Githyanki from Wizkids and the Sorceress, in her modern guise of Seoni, from Dynamite.

The figures are fun, and I am glad I grabbed them.

I do have another Sorceress on the way that I am hoping to do a little modding on. 

Not Yet a Mail Call Tuesday: ReAction D&D Figures

 Well...not exactly a Mail Call Tuesday today. Though it will be sometime in June/July.  But I had to mention these.

ReAction, the company that makes action figures for various properties in the style of the old Kenner Star Wars figures (3.75" scale), has a new series coming out.

Wave 1 of their Dungeons & Dragons line has some very familiar faces.

There is the Sorceress (D&D Moldvay Basic), the Efreeti (DMG), and the Githyanki (Fiend Folio) in the first wave for preorder now.

Damn it. Just when I was in a good place NOT to give WotC any money out of protest for the OGL shenanigans. 

Anyway. As someone who really went hardcore with D&D with the Moldvay Basic (my first proper D&D) and writes so much about witches, I am morally obligated to buy the Sorceress.  I owe it to that 11-year-old I once was. Besides, she is certainly popular.

The other figures also look great.

The Efreeti also has another advantage. At 3.75", that translates to 18.75' in D&D 3/4/5 scale.  So I could use it as the Efreeti Pasha. It would have a certain level of "street cred" to use the same figure as the front of the DMG for it.  Everyone in my current gaming groups knows all about 1st Ed AD&D, so to them, pulling this guy would have the same effect as pulling out Tiamat or Orcus.

All three of these figures have also, in one form or another, have had premium statues made of them. The Efreeti and the Githyanki from Wizkids and the Sorceress, in her modern guise of Seoni, from Dynamite. These figures are a lot cheaper.

You should be able to preorder these anywhere.

I am getting mine from Super7, which has better shipping. But I have seen them at Entertainment Earth as well. They will likely be on Amazon soon.  Of course you could order them from your FLGS or FLCS.

These are not the same scale as the new D&D Cartoon figures, but they are close to last year's NECA Skyla and Kelek figures. Come back around in June/July, and we will see.

Review: Pathfinder 2nd Edition

All month long I have been talking about, but more appropriately around, D&D. For the rest of this week I want to talk about D&D's, now adult, younger cousin. Pathfinder 2nd Edition.

This won't be a full review. The Pathfinder Core book is massive and absolutely packed. Plus there are plenty of reviews out there.  Instead, I am going to look at some of the changes, updates, and innovations of the game and compare and contrast it to Pathfinder 1e, D&D4, and D&D5.

A bit of history first. Pathfinder 1st Edition was published by Paizo Publishing in 2009.  It was an immediate success with the core book selling out at it's appearance at Gen Con.  Don't quote me, but I think it was some sort of record.  Since then Paizo has always had a huge presence at Gen Con.  Paizo had been one of the 3rd party publishers of choice back in the 3.x days 2000-2008. It had a license to publish Dragon and Dungeon magazines and its support products for 3e were some of the best on the market. When Wizards of the Coast shifted direction and released D&D 4th Edition with no OGL backing, Paizo saw their opening.  They released Pathfinder to a huge public beta testing and took in all sorts of feedback. The Core Rules, which combined what had normally been the Player's book and the Game Masters' book into one massive tome.

It is hard to appreciate just how successful Pathfinder was.  When sales of D&D 4 spiked, but then dropped suddenly, Pathfinder took over the throne of best-selling fantasy RPG from D&D.  D&D didn't just sit on that throne, they built it, often from the bones of vanquished enemies like DragonQuest. So successful that many people began to call it D&D 3.75 and even the rightful progression of D&D 3.x.  

Pathfinder was a success and really would have been a success even without D&D4 underperforming (make no mistake D&D 4 still sold better than pretty much everything else combined). 

Fast Forward to 2012-13. Wizards announce they are holding public playtests for what they are calling D&D Next. The playtests are similar to Pathfinder's.  In 2014 D&D 5e is released to critical and commercial acclaim.  D&D retakes its throne and stays there.  Meanwhile by 2014 Pathfinder is moving along with a 14-year-old system (the 3.0 OGC). It survived the d20 boom and glut and still is the game of choice for many.  But sales are low and the true money maker of any RPG are the core books.  So in 2018 Pathfinder releases their 2nd Edition Playtest book.

It does not go over as well as the first playtest, this is the third time the market has seen this from the Big 2, but it is enough that Paizo releases Pathfinder 2nd Edition at Gen Con 2019.  That brings me to today, Pathfinder 2nd Ed in 2022.

Pathfinder Second Edition

Pathfinder 2nd Edition (PF2e here on) is the update to the best-selling, award-winning Pathfinder RPG. For this review/overview I am considering the Special Edition hardcover from my FLGS.  The book is 640 pages with full-color art.

Let's just start from the top. This book is gorgeous. The art is what you have come to expect from Pathfinder and this one does not skimp on it. 

There is an evolution here that is very interesting. It is something I call my "Modula-2 Experience."  Back in my undergrad days, I learned to program in Pascal. Not uncommon really, lots of people did that then. But later on I picked up other languages. I had already learned BASIC and Fortran so I picked up C and Modula-2.  C is very different than Pascal so keeping the syntax straight was an issue at first but then became easier. Modula-2 is almost identical to Pascal with some odd bits here and there. Picking up the syntax was a lot easier, but became harder to keep them separate as I went on.

Pathfinder follows the Modula-2 path from D&D's Pascal.  To extend the metaphor more, D&D 3 is Pascal, Pathfinder 1 is Modula-2, D&D 5 is Object Pascal/Delphi and Pathfinder 2e is Oberon. To extend my metaphor to breaking Original D&D is ALGOL.

Exploring PF2e is fascinating. There is a game here that I easily recognize and yet looks new at the same time.  All of the same abilities are here, many of the same races (now called "Ancestries & Backgrounds), and classes.  In fact, the first 240 or so pages read like D&D 3 or 5 or Pathfinder. It's when you delve into the details that differences become apparent.  

1 Introduction

This chapter introduces us to RPGs in general and the Pathfinder 2nd Edition in particular. It (and the rest of the book) features the main text and sidebars to explain the text or put it into context. For example, the text on page 7 mentions dice and the sidebar shows a picture of dice with the standard die nomenclature. 

This covers the basics of character creation such as deciding on your concept, rolling or assigning your six abilities (the classic six), figuring out your character details, and more.  We have six ancestries and twelve character classes.

Now I will say this. While I appreciate a good character sheet breakdown, the PF2e sheet is ugly as hell. For all the great art in this book that is one garish sheet. Wow. I'll stick with the black & white one.

2 Ancestries & Backgrounds

Modern RPGs are moving away from the concept of "race" and instead are going with Ancestries. I rather like this approach, to be honest. While "race" might be a good term, there are enough negative connotations to it (see my discussions of 19th Century Race Theory) to make it less than desirable. Plus Ancestries and Background help parse out what you get via your parents (eyes, pointy ears, and more) and what you get growing up in a culture.  

Ancestries are what older games call "race" it helps determine your ability score bonuses and sometimes penalty, your size, your speed, and what languages you might know. It also gives you "traits" and who well you see in the dark.  Heritages are sub-specialties of the Ancestries.  My favorite ancestry for PF2e right now is Goblin. Yes, you can play a Goblin in this game! The heritage I like the most is the Ironguy Goblin. You can eat anything.  I love Pathfinder goblins. 

Each ancestry gets an ancestry feat (PF2e is crazy with feats) at the first level. This helps define your character. For example, one feat is Goblin Song where you sing annoying goblin songs to distract your enemies.  You can get additional ancestry feats at 5th, 9th, and 13th levels. Some have pre-requisites. So you can't take "Very, Very Sneaky" at 13th level unless you took "Very Sneaky" before.

An interesting note here. Half-elves and Half-orcs are not an Ancestry. You take Human as your ancestry and then half-elf or half-orc as your heritage. The rule implication here is clear.  You can have mixed ancestry and heritage as the rules allow, you just need your GM to be ok with it. 

Backgrounds are chosen like a feat but are akin to the Backgrounds of 5e.  Akin, not the same.  These usually give some sort of skill, skill boost, or feat. 

Languages come from your Ancestry, heritage (sometimes) and background (sometimes).  

Your HP at level 1 is based on your Ancestry and not your class.  This is a good change since it can also apply to monsters and level-0 NPCs.

3 Classes

Here we get the classes we know from 3.x, more or less. There is the new Champion class, which replaces the Paladin (a Paladin is a type of Champion) and the new Alchemist. 

Each class has an ability boost, HD for leveling up, saves, attacks, and what skills they have access to. They are constructed very similarly to D&D 3.x/PF1e classes. Each class also has a series of feats they can take at various levels. These include Class Feats (specific to class) and General Feats (used by all). You take a Class Feat at 2nd level and every even level after. General feats are taken at 3rd level and every four levels after. There are also skill increases, ability boosts and other powers/abilities so that there is something happening at every level for all classes.   There are also sample variations on each class; these are done with the choices you make in powers, skills, and feats.  For example a Paladin is a Lawful Good Champion and Dancer is a Bard that takes ranks in Acrobatics and Perform (among others).  So customization is through the roof and no two characters of the same class need to look or feel the same. 

To add to this there are even Archetypes to define your character or at 2nd level you can take a multiclass feat to add some abilities of another class to your current one. Much like D&D 4e used to do.  There is just so much to do with these classes.   No surprise then that classes take up almost a quarter to a third of this book.

I do miss the Prestige Classes from 3.x/PF1e though. Though with this level of customization they can be "thematically" folded into the existing rules here with no issues.  Want to be an Arcane Archer? I am sure there is a good skill/feat options that allow you to do that. 

4 Skills

There are 17 skills for PF2e. They are well described and include things you can do untrained and things you can do trained. There are also specific examples of things you can do with each skill and whether or not these are move actions, require concentration or other modifiers. For example, Climbing is a type of Athletics check and it is a Move action. 

5 Feats

Pathfinder isn't Pathfinder without Feats. Love them or hate them they are baked into the system here more than D&D or PF1e. And there is a lot of them. Again though great for character customization, bad for GMs needing to keep track of everything.

6 Equipment

Covers the shopping list. But also has premade Class Kits you can buy which have all the basic gear a class is likely to take. 

7 Spells

The next largest section (about 120 pages) is Spells.  All the same, schools are here, but now magic is divided into Arcane (Wizards), Divine (Clerics), Occult (Bards), and Primal (Druids) Spells.  So seeing a bit of PF1e's later material and D&D4e DNA here.  There are Spell Slots from 0 to 10 (yes 10th-level spell slots) and spells of level 0 (Cantrips) to 9. So you can heighten a spell to higher slots or sometimes a spell might need a higher slot depending on a feat. Similar to 3.x certainly but also a little feel of 5e's spell slot system.  So for example there is no Monster Summoning I to IX. There is only Summon Animal (or Construct or Fiend or Fey etc.) and you can heighten the spell at higher spell slots. So taking Summon Animal at a 7th level Spell Slot lets you summon a level 9 or lower animal. 

Spells are all listed alphabetically and tagged with various descriptors like "Cantrip," "Divination," or "Mental" and more. The description also lists what tradition(s) they belong too, Arcanes, Divine, Occult and/or Primal. 

There are also "Focus" spells that are unique to a particular Class.  Bards, Champions, Clerics, Druids, Monks, Sorcerers, and Wizards all get their own lists unique to them. Yes monks get "Ki" spells.  

Like past versions, but mostly like D&D 4e there are also Rituals. these take longer and have certain requirements that need to be met. 

8 Age of Lost Omens

This covers the very basics of Golarion, Pathfinder's game world. It includes a little history, the lands, and the gods. 

9 Playing the Game 

This is mostly the Game Master's section but there is still plenty here for players.  Covers all the rules needed to play with an emphasis on the basic d20 roll and checks. Note there is no "Natural 20 = critical hit" here, BUT score 10 higher than their DC/AC then you do have a crit! So that is kinda cool. 

10 Game Mastering

This is the Game Master's chapter. Lots of advice here on how to run PF2e games (and some of it applies to any d20-based game.)  There is a lot here yes, but obviously more could be said since there is a Game Mastery guide out as well. 

11 Crafting & Treasure

Modern gamers love to make things. I blame Minecraft. This chapter covers making things (great for the alchemists) and treasure. This is also a fairly large chapter.

We end with the Appendicies. 

--

This book is huge and it is packed with information.  The index is great and very useful. In fact, the entire design of the game allows ease of access to all information. This is one of the things that made 4e a well-designed game (not the same as "playable") and we see it live on in OSE as well. 

Who Should Play Pathfinder Second Edition?

Anyone who loves to play D&D in its myriad forms and also loves deep character customization.  In fact, if you love building characters and don't have a game going at the moment then Pathfinder has a lot to keep your character-building hobby very busy.

It is not a lite game. It is very, very crunchy.  While the differences between PF1e vs D&D4 were very pronounced there is less obvious differences between PF2e and D&D5 at least in terms of the types of games you can play.  I will say that if you were to play something like "Keep on the Borderlands" the differences in play between D&D5e and PF2e would be minimal and all resting on the mechanics of the game. Still, you are going to roll initiative, roll to attack an orc, roll a d20 to see if you hit, and then roll damage as indicated by your weapon type. At higher levels, these mechanical differences will become further apart, but essentially they both still have the same DNA linking them back to D&D 3 and before.

There is a lot to like about this game. There is a lot of game here too and that might not be to everyone's taste.

I can something like the Ancestries, Heritages, and Backgrounds making their way to D&D proper. It is so useful and gives so much more customization that looking back it seems like a no-brainer.

Seoni, Pathfinder Iconic Sorceress, B/X style

Seoni might arguably be the most popular of the Pathfinder iconic characters. She is certainly one of my favorites.  She might not exactly be a witch, but she is close enough.

A few things have come together over the last couple of weeks to make me want to do this post.
First,  there is the new Seoni statue Kickstarter that I posted about this morning.
Secondly, I have really been getting interested in B/X again (as if my interest ever waned) thanks in large part to Gavin Norman's B/X Essentials line which looks like so much fun.

With the Art & Arcana book out I went back to the cover of D&D Basic which was the inspiration for the Pathfinder Core Rules book cover that introduced us to Seoni in the first place.

I also did stats for Feiya so long ago, so it seems right to me to also convert Seoni as my "second favorite" Pathfinder Iconic.

The witches three. Larina, Feiya, and Seoni

So I thought it might be fun to see how Seoni converts to B/X era D&D.  Of course in Pathfinder she is a Sorceress a class that B/X doesn't have.  But they do have the Magic-User which the ancestor of the Sorcerer class.  But I am contractually obligated to provide Witch stats too! ;)

For fun, I will do the Magic-User stats using only Gavin Norman's B/X Essentials: Core Rules, B/X Essentials: Classes and Equipment, and B/X Essentials: Cleric and Magic-User Spells.

For her witch stats, I will use D&D Basic and Expert with my Basic-era Witch book.

I took her ability scores from her 1st Level iconic version to represent her stats as "rolled" but will base these off of here 12th level iconic version.  In the case of her Magic-user stats I rearranged her Int, Wis, and Cha to better fit the magic-user rules.  For her Witch stats I left them as-is.
For her other items like equipment and feats I tried to convert or perserve those the best I can within the rules of B/X D&D.

Seoni
12th level Magic-User

Abilities
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 10
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 12
Charisma: 13

Saves
Death Ray or Poison:  9
Magic wand or devices: 10
Paralysis, Polymorph or Turn to Stone: 9
Dragon Breath: 12
Rods, Staffs and Spells: 11

Hit Points:  26
Alignment: Lawful (Lawful Neutral)
AC: 3 (unless using spells to protect herself more)
To Hit AC 0: 14

Familiar:  Blue Skink ("Dragon") (Basic Magic-users did not have a way of gaining a familiar. So this is a DM-fiat).

Spells
First (4): darkness (light, reversed) magic missile, read magic, shield
Second (4): continual darkness, detect invisible, invisibility, web
Third (3): fire ball, haste, lightning bolt
Fourth (3): charm monster, dimension door, wall of fire
Fifth (3): cloudkill, pass-wall, wall of stone
Sixth (2): control weather, death spell

Equipment: Amulet of Natural Armor +3, Ring of Protection +3, backpack, potions of cure wounds, scroll of fly, wand of magic missiles (32 charges, 7th level), staff of wizardry, dagger

So not exact copies of all the spells are found in the B/X era, but enough that I am fairly happy with this magic-user build.

Now. What if Seoni were a witch?  Valeros certainly thinks she is...

"I wonder about that witch and her schemes."
- Valeros, companion, friend and erstwhile lover of Seoni.

Seoni
12th level Witch, Dragon-blood Tradition* (Blue)

Abilities
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 13
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 12
Charisma: 18

Saves
Death Ray or Poison:  8
Magic wand or devices: 9
Paralysis, Polymorph or Turn to Stone: 8
Dragon Breath: 11
Rods, Staffs and Spells: 18

Hit Points: 26
Alignment: Lawful (Lawful Neutral)
AC: 3
To Hit AC 0: 14

Occult Powers (*the Dragon-blood tradition is something I have been playing around with for a couple of years now. Not ready for prime-time yet.)
Familiar:  Blue Skink ("Dragon")
Minor: Draconic Magic: Lightning Bolt (once per day Seoni can call on her draconic patron to cast Lightning Bolt).

Spells
Cantrips (6): dancing lights, detect curse, false glamor, flare, mend, spark,
First (4): burning hands, darkness, minor fighting prowess, spirit dart
Second (4): burning gaze, invisibility, produce flame, spell missile
Third (3): continual fire, dispel magic, fly,
Fourth (3): charm monster, intangible cloak of shadows, magic circle against evil 10'
Fifth (2): hold monster, primal scream, waves of fatigue
Sixth (2!): mass agony, wall of roses

Equipment: Amulet of Natural Armor +3, Ring of Protection +3, backpack, potions of cure wounds, scroll of fly, wand of magic missiles (32 charges, 7th level), dagger,  Staff of Enchantment

Witch-Seoni has a totally different feel to her than Magic-user-Seoni.  I would say that as a Dragon Witch her spells manifest in ways that remind one of a dragon.  Primal Scream, for example, would be the roar of a dragon. Produce Flame would be a spark of electricity that creates fire,  Mass Agony would come out as electricity like a blue dragon's breath, and so on.

I am pretty happy though with both builds.

Don't forget to check out the Seoni statue Kickstarter ending really soon.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Pathfinder Seoni Statue

This is a different one, but still pretty cool.  Seoni is the famous (or infamous) cover-girl of the Pathfinder core book.  Well, now you can have your own Seoni, at least a 12-inch version of her.

Pathfinder Limited Edition Statue

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dynamiteent/pathfinder-limited-edition-statue

I have to admit, I like iconic characters and Paizo did it right for their characters.  They made them interesting and while they are not the subject of novels like Eminster or Driz'zt they still were/are characters that people get invested in.

Of course, my particular fascination with Seoni is because this cover:

Is Wayne Reynolds' homage to this cover:

Are they the same people? Are they their descendants? Who knows.

The cover is popular enough to give us a statue and a 3D render.

Now you can get a Seoni of your own.  I have a Merlin, a Morgan LeFey and a Tarot Witch of the Black Rose as statues.  Maybe getting a Seoni would be nice.

The Iconic Witches of D&D

No game this past weekend. I wasn't feeling great and my son was at a birthday party.

I was thinking about Friday's post on the witches of Rahasia and of Ravenloft and it occurs to me that D&D lacks in iconic witches.  There are great examples of Vampires, Liches, Wizards, Priests, Paladins, Rangers, enough Thieves to fill a guild, even Bards.

The witches in Rahasia are one thing, but the ones in Ravenloft don't even have proper names really.

Pathfinder does a good job with their iconics.  Feiya is a proper witch, but even the sorceress Seoni is often referred to as a witch.  Not to mention all the witches to be found in Irrisen like Queen Elvanna.

The witches three. Larina, Feiya and Seoni

I have my iconic, Larina.  But she appears mostly in my Pathfinder books.

Who do we have for D&D?

Well for starters and maybe the most iconic is Iggwilv, the Witch-Queen. We also have Elena the Fair, Witch Queen of Summer. Also, while not as a well know or even explicitly a witch is Skyla.

There is also one witch that both D&D and Pathfinder share, Baba Yaga.

There was also Koliada, the Winter Witch. a Level 26 Solo Skirmisher from the 4th ed era adventure "Winter of the Witch". But there is not a lot out there about her.  Interestingly Pathfinder also has a lot Winter and Cold related witches.

Dungeon Crawl Classics gives us Lady Kyleth, The Witch Queen.

Personally I'd love to see more.  There might be more, I just haven't found them all yet.