Adventurer's Addendum 1 (or DC writes a pathfinder book)

DragonChild · Post by **DragonChild** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 3:01 am

I recently sat down and decided to write a pathfinder supplement, which just went on sale.

Adventurer's Addendum 1 contains three classes and 14 feats that introduce new and unique mechanics into any Pathfinder game.

Artificers are those who study the magic of item creation and enhancement, specializing in magic of warding, physical creation, or physical alteration. Knowing the entirety of their large but niche spell list, artificers change the battlefield to support their allies and cage their foes. Skilled crafters and item creators, artificers also learn to use and make alchemical and magical gear to greatly expand their options.

Seers are experts at manipulating and reading the strands of fate to predict events before they occur, and either change them or ensure they happen. Rather than standard magic, a seer instead uses special powers focused around divinations and manipulating fate. A skilled seer will need to predict the events of battle before they happen in order to manipulate them to their greatest advantage.

Wardens embody nature's pure, unbridled strength. By tapping into wild forces, wardens are able to control their forms and shapeshift at will, turning into all sorts of natural creatures - and unnatural chimeric or elemental beasts - customized to the needs of each individual warden. Their connection to nature also provides them with a variety of powers, allowing them to command elemental forces or heal the wounds of their allies.

The book can be bought from the d20pfsrd or through drivethrurpg.

This book was a testrun for me - I wanted to learn how to layout a book, how to use LaTeX, how to give art direction for cover and interior art, how to handle an online store, and figure out how much people are willing to pay for this stuff. Hopefully, you guys will be interested.

If the book goes well, I intend to put out more in the future. I'd be happy to answer any questions about my experience getting this out, or the material within.

Bigode · Post by **Bigode** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 3:56 am

Technical side (layout, art): good. At a glance, it looks not so much better balanced than standard Pathfail: the artificer may be not as dominating as cleric/druid/wizard/oracle/witch, but seems clearly best, and the warden is no fighter, but seems sub-rogue; were you trying for better than Pathfail (if yes, where)? Having just used the store, I can say: how about one that doesn't suck all the barrels (the registering is counter-intuitive, and I could only download from the e-mail, not from ... my actual account)? Comment before thorough reading for the store suggestion. Finally: for the price in question, at least, I'd buy other classes from you.

DragonChild · Post by **DragonChild** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 4:09 am

The goal was basically to aim for "high rogue" level balance. Playtesting shows the Artificer and Seer meet it pretty well. The warden, being a melee dude, is... tricky. I was overall happy with how it felt in playtesting, but I had to walk a fine line between stuff that would be accepted by PF fans in general and stuff that met my own personal level of balance. With decent ranged options, buff options, and flight, the Warden turned out pretty OK, especially as there's a lot of scary feat trees they can go for. I was actually pretty nervous about their current power level, but didn't want to feel like I was punishing them just for being a melee dude.

For the store, pfsrd gives the best commission rate by a decent %. My plan is to stick with them for any initial advertising, and then post to drivethrurpg/rpgnow. If you have any other suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.

DragonChild · Post by **DragonChild** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 1:31 pm

One thing I also want to comment - reviews on the store also really, really help. Even just a couple increase the book's visibility by a lot.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Tue Oct 01, 2013 1:09 am

Is material from this book going to appear in the third-party section of the main d20pfsrd site?

DragonChild · Post by **DragonChild** » Tue Oct 01, 2013 2:10 am

I do not believe so - at no part during the upload process was that discussed, nor do I even know how to apply for such a thing, or if I should. I was considering putting the Seer, without the Seer-specific feats, on the dnd wiki though.

DragonChild · Post by **DragonChild** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 5:18 am

Having just used the store, I can say: how about one that doesn't suck all the barrels (the registering is counter-intuitive, and I could only download from the e-mail, not from ... my actual account)

Having seen this, I've decided to submit my book to drivethrurpg earlier than planned. The commission rate isn't as good, but it's much more customer friendly.

Bigode · Post by **Bigode** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 2:21 pm

DragonChild wrote:
Having just used the store, I can say: how about one that doesn't suck all the barrels (the registering is counter-intuitive, and I could only download from the e-mail, not from ... my actual account)
Having seen this, I've decided to submit my book to drivethrurpg earlier than planned. The commission rate isn't as good, but it's much more customer friendly.

Well ... do you think you might influence them with regards to the registering boxes and downloading from the account page? Because it's totally in their interests and they should be working on those already (they're recent AFAIK, so maybe it's understandable), besides being good for your margins. BTW, do you know their legal situation now? And, as for place suggestions, I'm happy with buying from either DTRPG/RPGNow or e23 (I, specifically, have bought just GURPS there, but they do sell Pathfinder).

DragonChild · Post by **DragonChild** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 3:31 pm

I doubt I'll be able to do any sort of influence, but I can try bringing it up on the publisher forums. Overall, they are a far smaller operation than a lot of the already established stores. I had thought the legal situation was cleaned up.

DTRPG/RPGNow I've applied to, and I'll look into e23 later tonight.

Bigode · Post by **Bigode** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 4:25 pm

DragonChild wrote:Overall, they are a far smaller operation than a lot of the already established stores.

No doubt (choosing to devote to one (arguably subdivision of a) system helps ...), but fixing the registering fields, at least, is ... more trivial than I have words to describe (to the extent that it obviously shouldn't have been done wrongly in the first place).

DragonChild · Post by **DragonChild** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 5:17 pm

The book is now available on drivethrurpg, with a preview of the Seer class.

codeGlaze · Post by **codeGlaze** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 2:23 am

Bought it on DT, would have signed up for PFSRD if I had read further, first, though.

Looking through it now...

DragonChild · Post by **DragonChild** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:45 am

Honestly, the margin difference is small enough that I would rather people be happy with the download service rather than worry about the difference of cents I'd be making. I can see the advantages to drivethru, as a customer.

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Sun Oct 06, 2013 3:33 am

Instabought. Reading now.