New Pathfinder Release, 10/18

[Mathias]

Version 1.9 of the Pathfinder files was released over the weekend. The big item was adding arcane familiars. We've also made some improvements that should hopefully reduce the processing time for classes.

I also added animal tricks (the ones you can train with handle animal). To see them in use, go to the Other tab in Hero Lab, and add a guard dog, or a horse, and take a look at their feats tab (oh yeah, everything in the Other tab should now be correct with this update). Animal Tricks are currently only available if your racial INT modifier was -8 or -9, which would give a default starting INT of 1 or 2 (animal intelligence), and if your current intelligence is 1 or 2.

Oddly enough, donkeys and mules aren't in the Bestiary (we have a pdf of the full version, along with the preview), even though they're available for purchase on pg 159. So, the unchanged SRD stats been placed in the new SRD Animals setting, along with the majority of the animal races, since I haven't finished updating them yet.

Animal Companions are currently in progress, but were commented out for this release, since they're not done.

[Mathias]

I just came across a pair of bugs I managed to introduce in 1.9;

In the list of class specials on each class tab, most class specials that appear more than once will display incorrect values. For example, on the Paladin specials, all instances of Smite Evil are currently displayed as "Smite Evil (0/day)". The final values (as seen on the special tab/in-play tab/printout) are correct, though.

If a class special is gained from more than one class, it will only calculate its level using one of the classes, rather than by summing the levels of all the classes that grant the ability.

These will both be fixed in the next update, and I apologize for introducing them.

In the code, values that both of those things depend upon are calculated in a single script. That script requires searching through all class specials on the character, and runs on the first copy of every class special, which starts adding up to a lot of processor time when you have multiple classes. So, I added an extra condition that restricts the number of times that search needs to run - and then looked for the opposite of the condition I wanted to. Fortunately, the defaults that are set if the search isn't run are correct for most situations, so it didn't affect too many specials.

[rdevelyn]

How long do you think it will take to get the Bestiary in place?

Richard

[Mathias]

Unknown. I'm finishing up the companions now, then on to the adventure paths, then I'll decide whether to work on my list of small things or the bestiary. I'm more likely to spend a few days on small fixes and visual improvements so that I can have one book done before I move on to the other.

Oh, and this will not be the complete bestiary - it will be the races with level adjustments, the races with companion stats, the templates, and the monster feats.

[rdevelyn]

Ok.

Just on the matter of adventure paths, are you doing all the monsters for them or just the NPCs?

I ask because I am currently running ROTR and CotCT (joined up) and I'm wondering what I should put in myself.

Richard

[JimGroves]

Originally Posted by Mathias

Unknown. I'm finishing up the companions now, then on to the adventure paths.

Bless you! I'm waiting on the Adventure Paths.

Just as a reminder.. I think it's very logical if you choose to do Council of Thieves first, because it's native to the rule set.. But please do Runelords after that.. and the others in order of their release..

1.) Runelords
2,) Curse of the Crimson Throne
3.) Second Darkness
4.) Legacy of Fire
5.) Council of Thieves (unless you make this first).

[Mathias]

In terms of what's in the adventure paths, go to the d20 files. You can do this even if you'll only be opening them in demo mode. Select an adventure path in the settings, then go through the menus you're interested in, looking at what's there. All I'm going to do for the old adventure paths is to change the details of how they're defined so that they'll work in Pathfinder. The pre-generated PCs will not be brought over from the old paths, but starting with 25, I'll be entering those pre-generated PCs into the Pathfinder files, like I did for the d20 adventure paths. There are entirely too many NPCs, often using non-core books as source material (take a look at the OGL section at the back of a few issues and see how many books they cite), to enter them. If you meant the monster entries at the back of the book, only the ones that might have utility as a playable race, a companion, or a familiar were entered.

Since I currently have issues 1-23 entered, I'll enter 24 into the d20 files, then the council of thieves player's handbook, then 25 and 26. Once I'm done with that I'll work on converting the old stuff, and might as well do those in release order. 80% of the conversion work will hopefully be search-and-replace, so I'm hoping the conversions won't take more than a day or two, so you're going to see all or none, anyway.

[JimGroves]

Excellent, thank you!