Pathfinder #9, #10

[stolisomancer]

Pathfinder is what happens when a bunch of fans of Dungeons & Dragons decide they aren't down with the new edition of the game and go off to do their own thing. The comic book series from Dynamite, by Jim Zub (Skullkickers) with art by Jake Bilbao and Sean Izaakse, is set early in the careers of the games' signature characters (a.k.a. the "iconics") as they deal with a number of problems in and around the city of Sandpoint.

Word from on high is that the iconic characters of Pathfinder should all be considered bisexual until further notice. Such appears to be the case here.


The adventurers went out to see what was making off with a farmer's sheep and ended up in a fight with a juvenile black dragon. A cave-in ended the fight prematurely, but not before it did some damage. Specifically, it bit Meri, a "Forlorn" elf and one of the party's front-line fighters. Kyra, a relatively new recruit and a cleric of Sarenrae, managed to keep Meri intact on the way back to town.






In the next issue, with no proof the dragon they fought is dead, the adventurers take on a new job dealing with a bandit camp outside town.

Comments

Well huh...

[psylynce]

I'll be damned if that artist didn't just make a dragon bite look sexy!
Either that or there is something very wrong with me.

Re: Well huh...

[leoboiko]

It's never just you....

[crinos]

Yeah, I recently got back into Pathfinder/3.5, and I gotta say I love the shit out of it. Once I can get the hero lab files for Pathfinder, and I finish some of the three Mutants and Masterminds games I am running, I may start running a game of it.

Pathfinder is also the first rpg that features a transgendered NPC: http://screamsheet.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/of-half-orc-paladins-and-their-transgender-wives/

[donnblake]

Cool! I like Pathfinder because it's a fun system to run or play a game in, and the skill system is a bit more intuitive than 3.5 (also there's more available on their SRD, which is good for gamers on a tight budget!) It's nice to know that Paizo's also being LGBT friendly!

[lieut_kettch]

I've always felt that 3.5 was the best of the existing d20 rulesets. 2.0 was too complicated (THAC0? five different saving throws? whut?) and 4.0 is oversimplified for MMORPG players.

[crinos]

Yeah, and Pathfinder makes it even better, adding new classes, new abilities for existing classes, and the best part of it is most of the SRD online.

I've begun purchasing 3.0/3.5 books and older edition adventure modules to convert them to adventures later. (Got Castle Amber and The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga, both fun and crazy dungeon adventures).

A lot of the third party races in the SRD are neat too: They have Two Headed Elves, Caterpillars which eventually turn into other insects, Animal people who used to be old and dying pets given a second chance at life with a magic potion, Sentient Skeletons, its awesome.

[halloweenjack]

My RPG group is playing Wrath of the Righteous right now, and we just found out about that character. Kind of a neat little surprise.

[lieut_kettch]

The shading threw me off for bit back there... in the panel where Meri attempts to sit up I thought she'd turned into a Drow.

[q99]

Aww :) I'd seen the Pathfinder comic, but I didn't realize it had moments like this.


And, "Are you kidding? I wanna show people my scars and say 'check out this dragon bite!' " is a great line :)

[crinos]

Well yeah. I mean what's the point of fighting a dragon if you don't get a badass scar out of it.

[northstarfan]

I'm a fan of Sean's work and know he just came on, but how long has Jim been on the book? I picked up the first issue because I was curious about Pathfinder, but was entirely unimpressed. The writing here seems a definite improvement.

[stolisomancer]

As far as I can tell, Zub's been on the book since the beginning. I think it took him some time to find his feet, since this is a much more straightforward fantasy book than Skullkickers is.

[akodo_rokku]

When did Jim Zub start writing this series? 'Cause I remember picking up the first issue and finding it dreadful, but this is okay.

[grazzt]

Pathfinder also has a succubus who wears armour that actually provides protection.

http://static1.paizo.com/image/product/catalog/PZO/PZO9076.jpg

[mercia]

Hahahhahahahaha....holycrapyouwereserious.

WHY AM I NOT PLAYING THIS GAME?!

[shadur]

In fact, unless my memory is way off (office firewall being annoying so can't do an exhaustive check easily), pretty much all of the iconic characters for each class are dressed sensibly -- the melee classes that rely on armor have actual body-covering armor (the Monk being an obvious exception, but he rocks that bare chest, chinese pants and shouder pads so I don't think anyone minds), and the only one that I'd offhand describe as skimpy would be the sorceress -- and let's face it, if your spellcaster is down to having to rely on armor to keep her alive you're likely hosed anyway...

[drexer]

This is kind of an amazing timing because me and my friends just started playing last saturday Rise of the Runelords as our first campaign with me on the GM role. I'll have to look for those comics to see if I can better grasp the flavour of the world.

And maybe add enough options for cosmetically appealing scars as well.

[grazzt]

I would start with the TVTropes page for Pathfinder. However, from what I've seen, there's no one real flavour. Even amongst the official Adventure Paths, you have objectives as varied as settling/ruling a kingdom, escorting a caravan, and crewing a ship, each with its own little minigame (the kingdom one is especially popular). It can be massively bipolar. There's a god of pain inspired by Hellraiser (and an entire category of outsiders to take on the Cenobite role) on the one hand. On the other, there's a god of adventuring who was a mortal that attained godhood while drunk and can't remember how it happened. Still, it means there should be something for everyone, if you dig around enough.

[donnblake]

Also Revolutionary France, and a region best described as a UFO crashed into a Robert E Howard novel.

[crinos]

Yeah, the Cenobites demon are the Kytons, the chain wielding devils from DnD, who got expanded into an entire race on their own in Pathfinder.

[shadur]

On the other, there's a god of adventuring who was a mortal that attained godhood while drunk and can't remember how it happened.

Theoretically, everyone knows how it happened -- there's a city in the setting that holds something called the Starstone which is some kind of intricate, possible sentient, incredibly deadly labyrinth kind of deal.

Take (and survive) the Test of the Starstone, and presto - you're a god. Quite a number of people each year try their luck, but over a couple thousand years there have been less than a handful of people who have succeeded.

... And then Cayden Callian walked into the labyrinth on a drunken bet and when the smoke cleared the pantheon had a new, somewhat unkept and more than slightly hung over, member.

Reactions were understandably mixed. Especially from the female deities he started hitting on.

[dewinged]

The early issues of this comic take place in and around Sandpoint, actually.

The tag here: http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/tags/pathfinderComic has posts to view the first issue at no charge.