iOS, Android, PC/Mac •
Last night an update arrived for our beloved, yet seemingly beleaguered, Pathfinder Adventures. The update brought more content, which is good, but also completely changed prices for IAP in the mobile version, which is good news too, I think? I don’t know, the future of Pathfinder has seemed foggy since Obsidian wrapped up the Rise of the Runelords campaign, and changing their pricing and whatnot at this point seems like a bad sign that, maybe, Pathfinder isn’t doing as good as Obsidian or their new overlord, Asmodee, had hoped. Or maybe I’m full of crap. It’s happened in the past, and I definitely have no insight into what’s going on in the darkened back rooms of Obsidian. With that in mind, let’s focus on what we do know about, the latest Pathfinder Adventures update.
First and foremost, there is new content to play with. A Fighter’s Tale is the new scenario pack, and it revolves around the fighter, Valeros, and his quest for the poutiest face or something. It’s called a “side quest”, so I’m not sure if you have to solo it with Valeros or can take a party or how it works. Luckily, Obsidian isn’t telling us either. All we know is that the new content involves 5 new scenarios, a new characters (a gnome fighter!), new villains, henchmen, and loot. Pretty much everything you’d want in a new Pathfinder adventure.
The new update also includes the usual litany of bug fixes, the amount of which is kind of staggering considering how long the game’s been available. As we’ve mentioned before, however, even with bugs Pathfinder is a pretty amazing game.
That leads us to the price changes. Most of the prices for IAP have been lowered or dropped altogether. For example, on mobile there is only one dice package available now instead of the dozen different packs they had before. They’ve also removed the ability to use gold to buy a lot of the IAP content, making some packages cash only, albeit at a reduced price. Here’s a list of all the price changes:
The base game on mobile, meanwhile, remains free to download. If you haven’t done so yet, pick it up. It’s awesome, and you can now get all the content for a lot less than I paid for it! Hooray you!
- Pathfinder Adventures for iOS Universal, free
- Pathfinder Adventures for Android, free
- Pathfinder Adventures for PC/Mac, $25
The Fighter’s Tale quest is a 5-scenario adventure that seems to be tucked away on the RotR map, so you actually need to start or continue a RotR campaign to access it. You can take a full party as long as Val is part of it.
Thanks. I bought it and couldn’t figure out where it was.
Yeah, I was expecting a menu option, like the Goblins expansion. I found it by pure luck after closing the app a few times thinking that might prompt the game to show me my purchase.
It seems I now own the alternate Val, when I didn’t before. So maybe I just stink at reading, but his alt was a bonus of the quest pack that I was not expecting.
That leads me to think that if they follow suit with the other characters, releasing a small quest bundled with a new character and a character alt, I will gladly pay the $3 a pop as I this game that much and that price is reasonable to me for the content.
And yet at BGG folks are complaining because Obsidian took away their ability to grind and never have to pay anything.
Just kill me.
Considering how you often post the same news here and there (as opposed to Brad posting there and you here, for example), I do find the difference between the responses to the articles here and there to be quite interesting.
I don’t know if anyone other than Dave will even read this or care, but I just ran through the complete RotR adventure with all the new characters and thought I’d give some impressions.
My party was Lem, Poog, Ranzak, and Tontelizi. I didn’t have too much difficulty throughout the adventure, though I was woefully lacking in INT and my STR wasn’t super. Overall, this certainly was not the worst party I’ve ever had. As for the new characters:
Poog was pretty underwhelming. In fact, he was downright boring for me. His shot in the arm ability is absolutely amazing. Basically, once points are put into it, if another character uses a blessing to help Poog, that character heals 2 and Poog heals 1. It’s a good thing he has this ability, though, because he doesn’t seem to be great at much else and I found myself throwing blessings his way constantly.
Tontelizi was fun, but mainly because I like polearms with their re-roll abilities. He plays similarly to Valeros, though his rolls are weaker and his teamwork ability cannot be upgraded as far as Val’s. He’s got a nice defensive ability that acts like teamwork but shields all allies at a location from damage. This was highly useful later in the adventure against banes that damage all characters at a location. Tont teamed up well with Lem. I don’t know that there is a reason to take him over Val, unless you just want to thematically.
Finally Ranzak. Wow. This goblin was incredible. Upgraded, his abilities give him modifications to rolls to acquire boons, and then once acquired he has a 67% chance to explore again for free! Ranzak can burn through locations very quickly. Plus, with a good DEX stat he was no slouch in the ranged combat department or at defusing traps and barriers. Also, for some reason I didn’t quite understand, he has a high CON die. I think CON is a rather lame stat in the game, so I don’t focus on it much and that usually comes back to haunt me a bit when I need it. Ranzak filled that gap for me. I think Ranzak is easily one of the best characters in the game.
I probably shouldn’t do that, eh? Too many contacts via BGG that I’m loathe to give it up completely, though.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t do that.
I’m all in favour of it.
I just find the contrast in the responses really interesting.
It looks like there was another small context expansion in the form of another scenario goblin adventure as well as a new character for the same. That’s about the extent of my info but I fully plan on exploring this all weekend.
Let me know how it goes. I circle back here from time to time, but the hardest expansion (5?) breaks my balls
I never got around to trying but I’d like to.
I’ve beaten the Rise of the Runelords adventure multiple times, even on legendary difficulty, but I am struggling with the first goblin scenario. Considering that I need to beat it before I can use any of the new content, I’ll need to find the time to work on that first.
The new goblin character is a pyromancer (I think) that is charisma-based. I don’t know how he differs from Seoni since she is also a charisma-based caster, but I’ll give him a try as soon as I get there.
Since I’m talking about expansions, I also want to point out that the Valeros mini-expansion is tough. Some of the locations have effects that really make it difficult for me, at least with the parties I’ve been using. I did beat the scenario, but I don’t know if I’ll ever even try at higher difficulties.
As promised, I finally got around to playing Tup. He’s a charisma-based goblin pyromancer and for the life of me I cannot figure out why anyone in their right mind would ever choose him over Seoni. Tup has an ability like Seoni’s where he can turn any card into a spell, but where Seoni has to discard it, Tup banishes it. Interestingly, Tup has an ability like Lem’s that lets him add to another character’s roll, but Tup’s comes with the drawback that when he uses it, all characters at that location receive 1d4-1 fire damage. You absolutely must have damage mitigating items at all times with Tup around. I don’t really like him.
That sounds horrible.
I’m so sorry. That sounds like complete shit.