James Jacobs's page

It also feels like it's been a while since we've seen Valeros.

I've noticed that too... ;-)

Almighty Dinosaur, a while back there was a monster book that included stats for the Coatl, which was a Good outsider. I think it was in 3.5, and I am quite fuzzy on whether there is a Pathfinder version or what book it would be in. Might I call upon your superior knowledge base to identify the 3.5 sourcebook and answer whether or not there has been a Pathfinder version of the creature?

The couatl is in the Bestiary itself, and we devoted a chapter to it in Mythical Monsters revisited. Both of them are Pathfinder versions. So... yeah.

PRD link.

Who keeps Atlantis off the maps?

We do.

Do you think it would be appropriate for the PCs to encounter Qlippoth while in the Abyss in WotR?

** spoiler omitted **

There's a qlippoth runestone in Midnight Isles, so... yeah. It's absolutely appropriate. Not appropriate enough for one to show up in the adventure though. But add them as you wish!

That said... they're pretty rare in regions ruled by demons, since they are basically at war with demons. A demon lord wouldn't tolerate many of them in his/her realm. So if you DO add some... add them in out of the way areas and not in great numbers.

1.) At any point in the future are there plans to enshrine in canon the results of certain APs? IE: Will there be development on golarian to represent say the establishment of a new hurricane king?

a.) If so, how would you determine the 'canon' response based on the amazing level of variation and individual adventures?

2.) I might be eating my foot on this one, since the last AP I finished reading through was the beginning of Wrath, but is there any plan for an AP that takes place entirely on the planes?

3.) I've noticed APs tend to be tied in with new pathfinder mechanics or elements (kingmaker and kingdom rules, iron gods with the tech guide, skull and shackles with ship to ship combat, etc). Is this intentional, or just a side effect of always trying to make the APs feel distinct?

4.) You've indicated in this thread that you aren't a huge fan of adventurers coming from the non-core races (goblin, kobold, etcs). Can you expound on that?

5.) As a DM, do you prefer the villains growing up along side (when you guys turned level 5, he went to level 9) the PCs from low levels or be already established high level baddies the party builds up to?

1) We'll see.

1a) We'd generally assume the PCs won and make some executive decisions as to what results would be the most interesting for the world, which would conflict with the way it works out in your home games in some ways. Which is why we've been so hesitant to do so so far. Would folks LIKE us to do this? I honestly don't know.

2) We're hesitant about completely abandoning Golarion. It's served us VERY well so far. An AP that has more of a planar theme to it is possible, but I doubt very much it would abandon Golarion entirely.

3) It's intentional when we come up with an idea for a story that needs new rules. In pretty much all cases so far, the AP has been the driver of those rules being published.

4) I'm human. I identify with humans and understand the human condition. So are/do you. As does everyone else. The further from humanity your character gets, the less the adventure becomes about what you're doing on the adventure and the more it focuses on what YOU are. It takes the unusual and makes it ordinary, in other words, and creates a sort of "arms-race" when you have to come up with unusual plots for those increasingly outlandish characters, and it loses any touch with a baseline we can all relate to. Furthermore, the game itself is built assuming most player characters are human shaped and human sized. From magic items to the shape of doors to the size of a dungeon grid and beyond. The further you deviate from that and expand into strange options, the more complex your game needs to grow, and the less you can actually DO with the game. I prefer, in other words, to use the game to tell stories rather than simply keep building new player character options.

5) Both are compelling. I prefer a mix.

@BigP4nda, Deadly Range has just been addressed by the rules team.

Thanks for saving me a "That's a question you should ask the rules forums for an FAQ" response.

What rule do you feel is one of the most misunderstood or misused?

The one where the GM is free to adjudicate rulings as best fit her/his game.

Close Runner Up: The rule of common sense.

James if a fallen evil empire left its secrets to an evil humanoid race which race would better fit this purpose, fire giants, hobgoblins or some other race and why?

I can't answer that question since the fallen evil empire you mention could be ANYTHING. It's thematically best if the heirs of a fallen empire are similar in size and shape though, so they can use the tools left behind by their predecessors more easily.

Druids are guardians of nature, more or less, and nature is neutral, so a druid needs to stay somewhat neutral in order to remain connected to nature.

Dryads dwell in nature and are very nature compatible... but they're not druids. They're fey, and they come not from nature, but from the First World, which chaotic, not neutral. Same goes for nymphs; their ability to cast druid spells is honestly more of a shorthand than us saying they have druid levels. Rather than create a special nature-themed spell list for nymphs, letting them cast spells as a druid gets the idea across in a few lines of text rather than several dozen pages (or more). Nymphs don't gain all the other powers a druid gains, in any event.

It's to elementals that you'd likely want to look for a supernatural, otherworldly type of druid-themed ally, frankly, not to the fey. Although a lot of fey ARE druid compatible... a lot are not.

In any event, druids and dryads are very different creatures, and thus have very different alignments.

James, is Pazio going to do anything related to casmorn in the nex two years?

I have a geographical/topographical question for you. Does the northern boundaries of Tien-xa meet the northern boundaries of avistan or is their a polar region in between?

I am thinking of plunking a new race in the most northern eastern portion of Minkai.
The gazetteer says Minkai is on the verge of a civil war I was woundering how you would think the populace would react to a highly milirstsic matriarchy lawful evil in nature appearing in their neighborhood?

Maybe... maybe not. We generally don't announce books further out than 6 months, with a few exceptions and those exceptions generally get announced at Gen Con or Paizocon. So... Not gonna say at this point if there's anything related to Casmaron in the next two years.

There is an entire continent that connects northern Avistan with Northern Tian-Xia. The Jade Regent Adventure Path is all about that, in fact, and Pathfinder #51's adventure, "The Hungry Storm," takes place on that continent, the Crown of the World. That volume also has a gazetteer of that continent.

Minkai's civil war is also a major element of the Jade Regent Adventure Path. We've said an awful lot about Minkai and how the nation would react to trouble in the government already, in other words... I'd suggest you check out that AP for more. ;-)

It's always a difficult line to walk when writing text for marketing purposes. You want that text to be exciting and compelling... you want not only to entice potential customers into wanting to play the adventure, but ALSO to entice buyers, distributors, retailers, and the like to actually pick UP the product to put on shelves so potential customers will even have the CHANCE to buy it.

Furthermore... it's possible to keep too many secrets from players. If instead we said something like "Led by a mysterious leader from within an icy crypt" or "can ally with unusual companions" or "sent to an elite academy run by mysterious trainers" or the like... they'd cut back on the spoilers a bit... but at what cost? It's more exciting to know some teasers in lots of cases. That's why they call some movie trailers "teasers"—they're meant to tease people and get them excited about seeing a movie.

And just like movie trailers... it's absolutely possible to reveal too much in the marketing text. But weighed against the risk that what you talk about ends up being so boring that people lose interest... I'm afraid I'd have to side on the spoiler-heavy option purely on the business side of things.

Of course... there's other things that we haven't mentioned that ARE still secret—never fear!

But in the end... if you're a player who wants to play in an adventure path and you're worried about spoilers... you might want to practice not reading the back covers or advertising blurbs and all that for those adventures anyway. I've done that with movies before—when I know I want to see a movie I'll deliberately NOT check out the trailer for it.

And in any event... sorry for the spoilers in this one's description. As I said above, it's a constant give and take in creating these blurbs. We'll try to avoid doing too much more "give" in the future... but I can't PROMISE a spoiler-free future. (Especially since I'm not personally writing any of the Giantslayer blurbs!)

James Jacobs wrote:

Awesome NPC Stuff

Thanks for the response, it's really helpful!

So when creating a random encounter table, and one of the encounters is 1d6+3 goblins, each goblin would have approximately 260 gp of stuff (perhaps having 3 or 4 different packages of stuff to add some variety between goblins)?

Thanks again!

Pretty much. Although in most goblin-themed adventures, you'll be throwing LOTS of goblins at the PCs. And that can end up giving out too much treasure overall. You'll want to keep an eye on the total value you hand out over the course of a level to make sure the PCs wealth stays in the band you're comfy with.

And that said... it seems like lots of folks tend to not bother looting goblins, if things on other threads on these boards are to be believed... so maybe go ahead and give them nice things! :-P

For the entirety of the Adventure Path line, you have had the pattern of 2-3 Avistan adventures, then 1 Garund adventure. Rinse and repeat four times over. And now we're possibly in the fifth cycle.

Has that pattern been intentional, or is it just a coincidence? (I'm not asking if the pattern will continue to hold in the future, just whether it's been intentional in the past.)

Coincidence.

1. How much would you like to do a Qlippoth AP? (Not "is there a Qlippoth AP coming" or "tell me when the Qlippoth AP is coming, c'mon man." I'm sure you'd like to do a dinosaur AP but that's probably not coming for a long time)

2. What's your stance on a mythic character with Divine Source becoming their own Mortal Herald? Dumb, hilarious or working as intended?

1) I'd love to do a qlippoth themed adventure path... but frankly, having just done an entire AP with Abyss stuff... I'm kinda okay doing other things for now. AKA: don't expect a qlippoth AP anytime soon.

2) It's illogical. The whole point of a herald is that it's some one who serves as your messenger. If that's you... then that means you don't need a messenger in the first place because you obviously have time to do your own footwork there. And thus, by definition, are not a herald.

What hardness and hit points should Unity's turrets have? It seems like they're just as likely to be attacked as disabled, if not more so. Does hardness 15, hp 30 seem reasonable?

I'd probably go with hardness 15, hp 90.

Question(s) about how you do NPC treasure for either AP development or your home game.

1) Assuming standard fantasy and Medium XP advancement, chart 14-9 on page 454 of the CRB indicates that the standard goblin from the bestiary (1st level warrior) should have a total gp value of 260 gp. Am I interpreting this correctly?

2) Assuming that is correct, and considering that is a lot more value that equipment listed in the bestiary, do you like to adjust the NPC's equipment to reflect the value, or do you take that extra gp and place it with some kind of treasure hoard? This question is primarily in reference to nonrecurring NPCs (random mooks, etc.).

3) What gp value would you recommend for a 1st level NPC in a game that uses the Slow XP advancement track? (The CRB recommends that Slow XP games should use a value as though the NPC were one level lower. Unfortunately, the table doesn't go any lower for 1st level NPCs on the Slow track).

4) For settlements, does the Base Value and Purchase limit reflect a standard fantasy campaign? Would it be reasonable to half these values in a low fantasy game (conversely, double in a high fantasy game)? What about the availability of Minor, Medium, or Major magic items: would these amounts be adjusted accordingly, as well?

Thanks.

1) Correct.

2) Sometimes. I prefer to give NPCs the gear they need for the story I want to tell. Usually I can make that fit with their budget. Sometimes I can't, and the NPC is poorer or richer than you'd expect, in which case I try to balance things out by adding or removing treasure from elsewhere in the adventure.

3) NPCs don't use an XP advancement track. Doesn't matter. They have the same amount of baseline gp value regardless of what XP track you use for your adventures. A 1st level goblin warrior is still a CR 1/2 creature regardless of how fast you hand out XP, and as such should have the same amount of gear on average regardless of how fast you hand out XP. This DOES go against what the rulebook says, I get it, but giving NPCs gear is part of what helps you make those NPCs hit their expected statistic values by CR. Using the core rulebook method, an NPC in a slow-advancement game is less powerful than one that's in a high-advancement game, and as a result, the PCs will expend fewer resources on average defeating the NPC and combats will on average be shorter, and thus on average the PCs will have more encounters and thus end up gaining XP faster than someone gains XP on a faster track. A better solution would be to keep an eye on OVERALL treasure handed out for slow advancement. You don't want to overly nerf your NPCs by reducing their treasure, but you don't want to overload the PCs with too much gear. THAT SAID... if you wanna go by the rules... then just cut the gp value in half for a 1st level character.

4) Yes; those values HAVE to represent a standard fantasy campaign, because even if they didn't... they would since that's the baseline everyone would build their own games off of. I think rather than just adjusting values for low or high fantasy you'd do better to simply throttle or expand the magic available for purchase. If you wanted to do a campaign where everyone was poor and destitute, THEN you'd reduce the base values, I'd say... but a "Poor people" campaign is not always the same as a "low fantasy" one.

EDIT: I just noticed you asked about my home game. My answers above are mostly for "how you should do it in a core game." In my home games, I tend to give out a lot more treasure than the core game recommends, because I like giving my players' characters an edge in combat so that they're more likely to succeed. I'm more interested in seeing their characters have a complete arc through a campaign than having that arc cut short by a bad roll and a sudden death. The answers above still mostly work for me though.

As usual, thanks for the answers on the previous questions. My apologies if I've been a pain with these.

Sorry if I seemed mean about the mi-go, I meant the question from an 'in universe' perspective. I figured insanely clinical fungus men from Pluto probably aren't ones to gather the biggest fanbase. I think every DM likes brain stealing fungal space jerks. :)

1.) Every DM I've seen seems to have types of monsters they like and dislike (Gygax and oozes springs to mind.) Is there a type that you feel is overused? Underused?

2.) From a dramatic perspective, how do you usually justify or mythologize the typical rpg situation where a group of doughty adventures gang up and kill foes who outclass them, but who they in turn outnumber?

3.) Do you ever see Paizo doing a splat book for adventuring in the hey-day of the Runelords?

4.) Do you personally prefer travelogue adventures with a wide variety of different locales and personalities or location based dungeon crawly stuff? IE: Say Reign of Winter style stuff vs the old AD&D Undermountain.

5.) What's your opinion on PCs who lose focus on 'adventuring' as a career or 'being a hero' as a vocation and become more focused on stuff like investments, running businesses and the like?
(a)Would you attempt to move them back towards 'adventure?'
(b)Or if they're enjoying it would you keep adjudicating as they built a financial empire?

Thanks for the answers. If I'm being a pain with these questions just PM me and tell me so.

1) Half-dragons are over-used. Qlippoth and dinosaurs are underused.

2) By assuming that the adventurers have luck, destiny, and skill on their side.

3) I kinda find the phrase "splat-book" offensive. It feels dismissive and diminishes the value of the book. "Splat" is a noise that something you don't want makes when you discard it. THAT SAID... a book that presents the world as it was before Earthfall would be, in extent, an entirely new campaign setting. One that we'd not really support, but would require as much work to create as was the Inner Sea World Guide. Not sure that's a great use of time and resources, unfortunately. But! Who knows what the future might bring?

4) I prefer location-based adventures that allow you as the player to get to know a region. Adventures that have you traveling all over the place I kinda call "Star Trek" adventures. Each adventure (episode) is in a different spot (planet) and that means that you have to abandon what you know about the setting to allow new stuff in. There's a reason folks often prefer the "mythology-heavy" episodes of a show like Fringe or X-Files or Buffy over the "monster of the week" episodes. Adventures that take place in familiar territory are more fun because they allow the story to grow, whereas campaigns that essentially shift campaign worlds each adventure feel too sporadic. They feel not so much like a single campaign as they do a bunch of short ones strung together.

5) If you want to be a banker or a baker, that's fine. But if you want to play in my game, that can, at best, be your second job. I ADORE when PCs start businesses or whatever in the down time between adventures, and often incorporate those elements INTO adventures... but the moment a PC says, "I can't go on the adventure because I prefer to stay at home and invest my money and run my business," well... that player's playing a different game than the one I want to run. If the WHOLE POINT of the campaign is "build a mercantile empire" or whatever, that's a different story; that one would have adventures built into the process.

Do you plan on seeing Second Son and/or Jupiter Ascending next weekend/near future?

What is the process for putting together the fiction in the APs? Do you have a broad outline for the story and give that to the selected Author? Or is it more of a "I want a story about pirate/snake people etc." and just send them on their merry way? Do you/Rob as the AP developer select the AP fiction or is that somewhat separate from your job developing the adventure (say a editor or someone is in charge of putting it together)?

Are you excited about the new content for Pathfinder Unchained? Have you gotten to see the changes to the classes (I think you referenced the summoner rewrite upthread)? Do you think you will prefer the "new" rogue/monk etc in your games or keep the old ones, or allow both?

At this point, I plan on seeing both of those movies. Reviews will adjust my expectations, as will which ones do and do not show up at iPic, since I really don't enjoy going to the cinneplex-style theaters these days.

I'm actually not heavily involved in building the fiction for the APs; that's mostly handled by Adam, James Sutter, and/or Chris Carey. They're pretty well outlined though, as is my understanding; it's not a "write whatever you want as long as it's about robots (or whatever)."

I've read through the changes to the rogue, and it's more powerful than the previous rogue, so of course I like it better! (I've always believed that the rogue is fine as-is, just that it's a difficult class to play due to the tactics involved, and if you have a jerk GM or an inexperienced GM it's even harder to play.) Only glanced at the others. There's a few really interesting elements I'd like to try out in Unchained as well.

Yes i will see the encounter from a balancing point of view when i have a better understanding of my party's capabilities. Now i wanted to know the essence of the adversary, sure it's a LE solar angel that doesn't really exist because it's just digital information but what else is it? isn't it a vast intelligence that has managed to touch divinity as well? isn't it a programm also?

The battle with the avatar of unity is supposed to be the closing scene of the adventure, that's why i am trying to understand what that encounter is, in order to present it as something more than "you fight a LE angel that has a bunch of other LE angels with him".

The best way to think of it is that the angel is, essentially, a physical illusion. The closest magical analogue would be a simulacrum that's at 100% capacity, rather than 50%.

Also, the virtual reality that Unity creates is not just a program. It is, in fact, another dimension. The PCs traveling there are more akin to a group using astral projection to travel from Golarion to Hell than a more sci-fi "it's all in your mind" kinda thing. Closer to Tron than the Matrix.

James Jacobs wrote:

leo1925 wrote:

How much should we change the prepared spells for the planetars and the solar (other than swap the good spells for evil ones)?

I am sure that this would depend on each one's group but any guidelines? for example should we allow the planetars and the solar (unity's avatar) prepare spells from Unity's domains?

Feel free to adjust the angels' spells as you need; the ones right out of the book should work fine if you don't have time, though... EVEN if you don't swap out good spells for evil ones, since these monsters have FAR more spell options to choose from then they'll ever need in a single combat; they could easily go a whole fight just using their spell-like abilities, after all.

In any case, they don't get domain spells, since they're not clerics.

About the domain spells:

I wasn't talking about the planetars' spell list, i was talking about the Unity's avatar the solar's spell list, my thinking was that since the solar angel is Unity's avatar in the digital world it might make some sense for the avatar to have some spells from Unity's domains.

In the same line of thinking, does Unity's avatar have access to Unity's mythic feats, mythic powers, mythic spells etc.?

That avatar has plenty to do, but it's still a solar. If you want to give it domain spells... that's fine, and probably not game breaking, but it IS a difference.

The avatar has access to all the things it has in the book. Giving it more than that makes it tougher, and you should consider what that might do to the balance of the encounter.

James Jacobs wrote:

LazarX wrote:

Ross Byers wrote:

Short of finding a high level Abadarite to cast commune, how would you get a paternity test?

Isn't this one of Pharasma's portfolios as the goddess most concerned with births?

Perhaps... although childbirth is not the same as lineage. Childbirth is a part of the life/death cycle, while lineage is largely a social construct, and as such that's more of a thing that a deity of cities or society or civilization would be interested in promoting.

Let me rephrase then, the wife of an important noble or king in the Inner Sea is about to give birth. Who is most likely to be called into midwife, and who to record the birth and it's lineage, and are they necessarily different people?

Depends on the society she's a part of. Might just be the one midwife. Might be a midwife and a clerk. Might be a cleric. Might be a cleric and a midwife and a clerk.

It depends. Make the choice as best fits the story you want to tell. I don't expect us to publish "Births of the Inner Sea" or something like that anytime soon... but a book that covers all of the day-to-day stuff for the Inner Sea would be pretty cool... not sure it'd be pretty appealing to management is the thing. It's hard to sell a book about the day-to-day things that happen when instead you can use that time and energy to try to sell a book about fighting monsters.

Now that the message boards goblins have retreated I'm going to try again. I'm still going to cut out most of the message I wrote yesterday because it was just replies to some of what you said and cut to the follow up question. I'm going to use +1 equipment as a baseline here. SO how common would magic items be? Are there enough craftsmen with the ability to make +1 items they would be considered mass produced and therefore for sale at shops in most villiages or are they still rare enough that you have to travel to a fairly good sized city in order to find a few various items with the +1 enhancement?

Magic items are not common enough to be considered to be "mass produced." A +1 weapon takes a MINIMUM of 2 days to build, and requires a pretty skilled person to do so—you pretty much have to be 5th level, regardless of the route you take to get the feat you need. Therefore... they're not that common at all.

Adventurers get a skewed look into this, since they don't lead common lives, and immerse themselves in those relatively rare situations where magic items ARE more common. But as far as the world itself goes, they're pretty rare overall.

You'll note that a +1 weapon of ANY type (barring ammunition, of course) is, at minimum, a 2,300 gp purchase. Looking at Table 15–1 in the Core Rulebook, we see that means that it takes a small city to even have something like that for sale in enough quantity to have a 75% chance of being available; in anything of Large town size or smaller, the only magic weapons for sale will be the ones you, the GM, place there for sale (perhaps as one of the town's specific minor, medium, or major items).

In other words, you'll need to be in a settlement with a population of AT LEAST 5,001 people before you can expect to see magic weapons show up for sale in shops. And even then... those weapons will be sold at only a few shops, not EVERY shop.

Hello,

I had a question about Paladins and their Weapon Proficiency.
Now I had a discussion with someone on my own specific question board and they laid out why it was done but I was curious why not give Paladins their gods favored weapons?

I mean now, I know in core the favored weapons where all martial or simple and the class gains both freely. But with the new Inner Sea Gods and so forth, would it be reasonable to give a Paladin proficiency in their gods favored weapon?

Because paladins get plenty of stuff already, and because unlike clerics, paladins don't HAVE to worship a deity. I'd say most, probably 95%, do... but those who don't worship a deity shouldn't have a penalty in not getting a free weapon proficiency.

Furthermore, the bulk of the weapon proficiencies a paladin would get by such a power would be wasted bonuses anyway, since paladins already have full access to simple and martial weapons.

Also, unlike a cleric, who can't take an Exotic Weapon Proficiency at 1st level, a paladin CAN take that feat at 1st level.

This has probably already been asked so i do apoligize. What are the steps needed to take to ensure a future job at paizo? Preferably on the design team

It has indeed been asked before, but not for a while. No apology needed!

First... keep in mind that it's a VERY small industry, and that means that there's a lot of people out there who want the position, so competition for paid jobs at any RPG publisher is pretty intense. The following advice will skew toward "working for Paizo hints" but you can apply it toward "working for an RPG company" pretty easily by filing off "Pathfinder" and replacing the name of whatever game you hope to work for, of course.

I'll spoiler the following wall of text to keep this post's footprint down.

I came across something in the Wake of the Watcher Old Cults article which surprised me, which was that only three entities (Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Hastur) have cults of witches serving them. Or is it just that other Old One/Outer God witch cults are (even) rarer?

There are plenty other Old Cults who have witch cults serving them, but among those whom we talked about in that article, there's only three. There are absolutely lone witches who serve all of the deities, but a single witch, or even a single coven, does not make a cult.

It really has nothing to do with rarity, in any event. And in truth, if I were to revise that article, I might add witch cults to Yog-Sothoth and CERTAINLY to Shub-Niggurath.

Could you explain more about why cosmo is treated like hes such a psychotic lunatic? I actually want to understand more about the paizo staff. Explain your coworkers as best as possible, before I accidentally offend one of them.

I apologize for offending you if I have ever done so.

Also, pathfinder needs some more comedic moments, like, how the iconics know eachother/what they do in there downtime and how they interact.

Mostly I just want to see merishiel beat the crap out of valereos

Perhaps because he has a weird name? Perhaps because of the way he comports himself on the internet? He's not really treated like a lunatic in the real world. It's mostly some sort of internet phenomenon that I honestly don't really fully understand the history of, since Cosmo is an upstairs person, and what happens upstairs is often hidden from the eyes of us downstairsers.

No worries!

I do enjoy including comedic moments in our products now and then. In fact, I think that's part of why the goblins are so popular. But comedy is the HARDEST thing to write for an RPG. It's easy to do it wrong so it's just stupid (at best) or disrespects the game and us gamers (at worst), and I'd rather not do it unless it's great. There are very very very very few authors I've worked with who are consistently capable of producing true and excellent comedy. Rich Pett and Crystal Fraiser are two of them. There's maybe a few more. Maybe.

There's no "h" in Merisiel's name, and why would she beat up Valeros? They're friends!

Who's cooler, Visigoths or Ostrogoths?

It's been about 20 years since I've had my head in the Visigoth/Ostrogoth space... that was back in college (my minor was in Medieval Studies). Since then, my Visigoth and Ostrogoth lore has been eroded away by two decades or so of similar stuff, ranging from movies to RPGs to novels.

SO. I had to look back to the internet to remind me who they were.

If I remember correctly... the Visigoths.

James,

Been reading over Towns of the Inner Seas and some of the earlier adventure modules from way back when. What are the chances we're going to see an adventure path centered in Andoran in the next few years?

Falcon's Hollow has received a lot of development over the years, seems like it would be the perfect setting to start off. Especially considering a lot of the groundwork has already been laid out what with the history being flushed out for both the town and a many of its inhabitants. Would cool to see some more familiar NPC's (Ralla, the kobold children, Jeva, etc.) and what's become of them over the years.

Chances of an Andoran adventure path in the next few years are slim. You might see some Andoran themes or elements pop up here and there... but it's not something that's particularly high on either of our (Rob and I) lists of campaigns we're eager to present as Adventure Paths. We generally prefer to focus our Adventure Paths on areas or concepts that either haven't been well explored yet in print.

Is there anything in particular that's meant to happen if the Black Sovereign is cured of his addiction?

"See the beginning of Part 3 for details on how these events impact Starfall, or how the Black Sovereign acts if he’s cured of his addiction."

I looked in Part 3, but beyond "unrest" caused by him being killed/defeated/cured, I don't see anything additional that happens for him still being alive and cured.

Oops... that's a minor error. We didn't have room in the adventure (this one was a particular bear to fit, actually), and moved that advice over to Kevoth-Kul's NPC entry. You can find some advice on what to do if he's cured on page 57 of the book. There's not much more there, though.

In short, if the PCs cure the Black Sovereign, he could well become a full-on ally of the PCs. Having him accompany the PCs into the Technic League compound is plausible, but I'd only recommend that if you think your PCs need a little help along the way. It's a bit unconventional but you could even have a PC take over playing him as a PC if you want; this works particularly well if you have a PC death in the last bit of the adventure.

The best way to handle Kevoth-Kul's presence once he's cured, though, is to simply describe to the PCs how he's taking control of the situation again. In this case, it's not so much chaos in the city that scatters and distracts the Technic League, it's them defending their slipping grasp on power against an increasingly outraged group of barbarians. You can have Kevoth-Kul or some of his minions crash into the Technic League compound as the PCs adventure there, either as window dressing in the background to their own fights or as a way to swoop in and rescue the PCs if they get in over their head.

Essentially, curing Kevoth-Kul gets the PCs a "get out of peril free" card, more or less. It's a pretty cool backup plan/reward; if the PCs are about to face a TPK, then you can have Kevoth-Kul and his allies come rescue them, and it'll feel less like you pulling a deus ex machina to salvage a TPK and more like the PCs gaining the benefits of their good work and excellence earlier in the game.

Hope that helps!

How much should we change the prepared spells for the planetars and the solar (other than swap the good spells for evil ones)?

I am sure that this would depend on each one's group but any guidelines? for example should we allow the planetars and the solar (unity's avatar) prepare spells from Unity's domains?

Feel free to adjust the angels' spells as you need; the ones right out of the book should work fine if you don't have time, though... EVEN if you don't swap out good spells for evil ones, since these monsters have FAR more spell options to choose from then they'll ever need in a single combat; they could easily go a whole fight just using their spell-like abilities, after all.

In any case, they don't get domain spells, since they're not clerics.

Good evening James! Hope work is going well. Just a few questions that have been on my mind here...

1. I imagine Kobold and Imperial Dragon interaction is rare in the extreme (unless there are kobolds in Tian Xia, just doesn't feel like there would be), but how do the two species view each other?
2. Is there any really classic tabletop monster you've just never actually fought?
3. Were any of the runelords we know married?
4. How would you describe the architecture/art style to be found in Pan Majang (the clockwork necropolis in the darklands of southern Tian Xia)? I'm kinda picturing Thai or Balinese.
5. Where does Jubilex stand on the CR scale?
6. If you could build any golem in reality, which one would you pick and why?

Thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to answer questions like you do! It's very much appreciated. Have a good night!

1) Their interaction is rare enough that there is no racial view really. It'd be on a personal, case-by-case basis.

2) None come to mind. I have been playing the game for over 3 decades though...

3) Nope. Some certainly had consorts, but marriage implies an equality with another, and none of the runelords were into that.

4) Like the inside of a complicated clock expanded to city scale by Guillarmo del Toro. So... the underground complex from Hellboy.

5) Hmmm. Don't have my list handy here at work, but I think I've got him set at 27. Maybe 28.

6) Fossil golem. Because it's the closest we've come yet to dinosaur golem.

is there going to be an Ap centered arround the culture and people of the mwangi expanse

Maybe someday!

WHY MUST GOBLINS BE SO MEAN!?!

'Cause you be food!

4)So One" is the best answer. If it was a mythic miracle or wish how many lifeforms(like angels) would you say someone can create?

As many as made sense for the story I wanted to be told.

You're getting into the realm of "things deities can do." And that's also the realm of "We don't put limits or quantify exactly what deities can do, because that's not the point."

James Jacobs wrote:

But be wary that players in this age get tired of that pretty quickly, especially if you turn the idea of gearing up into what amounts to busywork before they're allowed to actually get back to playing the game.

I would have figured you would use such events as an opportunity to move the story forward, having the shopkeep mention offhandedly that she heard about an item like that turning up in Kaer Maga... which just happens to be where the party needs to head to continue the campaign.

Not every GM is created equal, though. And I wasn't talking about me. I was trying to warn all the GMs out there to be careful at replacing things that most players actually quite enjoy with things that most players won't enjoy.

James Jacobs wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Yeah, I was going for Forlorn with the character. Thanks for the advice!

Are there elven enclaves in Taldor?

Elves absolutely live in Taldor. Some live among humans. There are probably a few villages here or there of predominantly elven population, although nothing that significant. They don't call them "enclaves" though.

Taldor seems, at least on first glance, to be relatively stable, in the sense that villages aren't wiped off the map every other week due to things like war or monster activity. Are there instances where stuff like this happens? I tend to get the impression that the big nations of the Inner Sea, like Taldor, Cheliax, Andoran, Qadira and Osirion are "peaceful" in the sense that the kinds of tragic backstories like villages burned to the ground by marauding armies of insane cultists generally don't happen.

I'm trying to figure out why the elf I'm working on would be orphaned and thus become Forlorn, yesee.

Also, what happens to Ulfen who fail the Ulfen Guard? Are they executed because given their close proximity to the emperor it's kinda like treason, or would they just be fired?

All of the Inner Sea is relatively stable, but you can have bandits or monsters or the plague or whatever swoop in and destroy small villages or towns anywhere therein. That can happen pretty much anywhere. It's what happened to Kyra, for example. Galt's probably the best nation for you to have this happen in, I suppose, and it's right next to Taldor. But it can absolutely happen anywhere in the Inner Sea.

Failed Ulfen Guards... dunno. Haven't really put much personal thought into them at all. I suppose they'd be exiled and/or shunned at best. WHY they failed would influence their fate.

James, what would you do if you walked into the office to find blood smeared all over your desk, chair and walls?

Theres also a fully grown grizzly bear in the break room

** spoiler omitted **

I'd turn right around and check to see if anyone else in the office could tell me what's going on. The police would be called at some point.

And the break room's all the way in the warehouse. Not worried. They can handle grizzly bears in there. They handle worse than that daily!

James Jacobs wrote:

Jeffrey Swank wrote:

Hi James,

Would the syrinx typically view ratfolk as food, potential slaves or vermin to be eradicated?

Why not all three? I would think that'd be a personal preference. :P

I prefer that they think of us as gods to be worshipped.

Now for my question. Any suggestions for combating the "Magic Mart" syndrome? Back in my old school days of gaming magic items were something we won in a hard fought combat after marching three days barefoot through the snow, uphill I might add. We never found a +3 sword of awesomeness just laying about gathering dust in a shop. Even in some of the bigger cities a plus 1 item was about the best we could expect to find. Or should I just give in and accept that times have changed and even the smallest hovel will have Discount Dan's Armor Clearing House where you can find racks and racks of armor of all sizes, materials, and enchantments.

*Edit I know that there are rules dealing with this in the core rulebook but I'm really wondering more about combatting the mindset that most of my players seem to have these days that if it has a gp vaule by it then it must be available pretty much anywhere items are sold.

Rebuild the entire game to divorce magic items from gold pieces for one. That means you need to engineer an entirely different way to quantify a magic item's power, unless you also want to remove player character magic item creation from the game as well, in which case you can simply say "No magic shops and no item creation in my game—you get what you find!" and then role-play out each and every time the PCs decide they want to sell their stuff and work out a different way to balance how much magical gear any one NPC owns.

In other words... if your're playing Pathfinder, you kinda have to be comfortable with the idea of PCs (and NPCs) being able to buy magic items in your world.

My favorite method of handling this is to custom build the items that are for sale in any city. Roll up or arbitrarily assign what items the PCs can buy, perhaps with a minimum value below which there's enough for sale all the time if you wish. This way, when the PCs go shopping, you can turn those trips into roleplay encounters, use them to sneak in details about your city, or seed adventure hooks. You also get to control exactly what items are and aren't available. It's a HELL of a lot more paperwork and bookkeeping on your behalf as the GM, though.

My personal preference is to build specific load outs for each shop the PCs have access to at the start of a campaign and adjust those offerings manually for the first few levels, but once the PCs hit about 5th to 7th level or thereabouts, letting them go to the "big city" and simply shop to their hearts' content can be a good reward to the PCs.

I used to play in those supposed "good old days" as well, and frankly... I didn't like it. The fact was that player characters ended up with a ridiculous amount of magic stuff that they didn't use, but didn't want to throw away. A +1 longsword had value, but not if you had a +2 longsword, but if you couldn't sell the +1 longsword... what do you do with it? Logically, in world, it MAKES SENSE that there would be a way to sell that sword.

Anyway. They way you combat the idea that "if it has a gp value then it must be available anywhere" is to train your players from the start. From the VERY FIRST adventure. When they go shopping for items, have them make Diplomacy or Knowledge (local) checks if you want so they'll get a list of stores, then when they visit a store, hand them a "menu" of what items are for sale at that store. Let them shop from that menu, and if there's nothing they want, they can go look for a second or a third or whatever store. Each of which you'll give them menus for. And if they're specifically looking for one item in particular... then they either need to take the item crafting feat and make it themselves, find an NPC with that feat and hire the NPC to make it for them, or search city after city for a shop where the item is for sale. You can turn that into a pretty strong adventure hook—"The item you want is for sale in Korvosa, but you're in Magnimar now, and that means an overland journey along the Mushfens!"

But be wary that players in this age get tired of that pretty quickly, especially if you turn the idea of gearing up into what amounts to busywork before they're allowed to actually get back to playing the game.

And finally... if you DO do away with free-for-all shopping... don't be a jerk. YOU know what items and weapons and gear your players' characters want and need. Put them in the adventure for them to find! If you have one fighter in the group and he uses a longsword and no one else in the group uses martial weapons... then put a magic longsword in the giant's treasure, NOT a magic warhammer.

is there a book detailing the different wizard schools of golarion?

also barring the earth breaker is there something similar to a two handed war hammer? if a medium character finds a large warhammer could he take the hammerhead and mount it on a different handle creating a two handed weapon apropiate for his size and so loosing the penaltie for different sized weapons?

Inner Sea Magic talks a bit about some of the Academies, but not in great detail. We've also detailed a few even more, such as the Academie in Korvosa (which has an adventure set there).

The earth breaker is essentially the two-handed warhammer. It's got the exact same stats such a weapon would have, so there's no need for a separate entry for that weapon.

Whether or not a character could jury-rig a two-handed hammer like that is up to your GM and that character's Craft skill check (or however he manages to do it). In the end, the result would still have the same stats as an earth breaker.

Yeah, I was going for Forlorn with the character. Thanks for the advice!

Are there elven enclaves in Taldor?

Elves absolutely live in Taldor. Some live among humans. There are probably a few villages here or there of predominantly elven population, although nothing that significant. They don't call them "enclaves" though.

James Jacobs wrote:

Seannoss wrote:

When you have PCs start a rules sub-system, like a skill challenge or something that can be outside the norm, do you explain everything ahead of time? Or try to lead them and their ideas to see what happens?

I explain it to them ahead of time. It's not cool to "trick" the players into stumbling along blind and making mistakes based on knowledge they should have... ESPECIALLY when, in game, there's no reasonable in-game reason why their CHARACTER wouldn't know how to handle the situation. The character doesn't care what rules are used to resolve a situation, and so if you introduce a complex sub-system for resolving how to counterfeit coins, a player's rogue character who's got an in-world history of being a con-artist would know how to go about it whether or not you used your complex sub-system or simply had the player make a Craft check.

I agree, I don't want to trick or fool my PCs as that isn't nice. But it always feels like an odd transition. Even more unusual after saying what skills can do what. But I like emphasizing skills at times too, to reward other types of characters.

Hmmm... I need a question. Do you think there's a chance that magic items and/or crafting ever get revamped in PF? I think its one of the weakest parts of the system.

Keep in mind that first and foremost, it's a game. Don't let the fact that the game has a compelling story to propel it along get in the way of that. The players are there to play the game, and that means roll dice and shift stats and do all that. And The only way the players have to directly interact with the world you're running is via those rules, so hiding them from the players is kinda the same as hiding the story from them. Just as it's fun to let the players see the plot and world and NPCs you've created by letting them interact with them, it's just as important and fun to let the PCs see the new subsystems you (or the adventure's designer/developer) have created.

I believe that Pathfinder Unchained presents some variant rules for people to play around with and try out... but a full-fledged official "revamping" of the system isn't something that can or should happen until we switch editions, since SO much of the game is interwoven at that point. Once you touch the game's economy, that starts impacting treasure, encounter design, XP awards, monster strength, weapon balance, spell balance.... it spirals out of control fast.

Hi James,

Would the syrinx typically view ratfolk as food, potential slaves or vermin to be eradicated?

Why not all three? I would think that'd be a personal preference. :P

When you have PCs start a rules sub-system, like a skill challenge or something that can be outside the norm, do you explain everything ahead of time? Or try to lead them and their ideas to see what happens?

I explain it to them ahead of time. It's not cool to "trick" the players into stumbling along blind and making mistakes based on knowledge they should have... ESPECIALLY when, in game, there's no reasonable in-game reason why their CHARACTER wouldn't know how to handle the situation. The character doesn't care what rules are used to resolve a situation, and so if you introduce a complex sub-system for resolving how to counterfeit coins, a player's rogue character who's got an in-world history of being a con-artist would know how to go about it whether or not you used your complex sub-system or simply had the player make a Craft check.

Thanks for the earlier answers.

Time for more goofball questions.

1.) In your opinion. How common should say CR 13+ monsters be? The general ethic I've encountered is that's the point where you're getting legendary, but usual table experience seems to have higher level parties encountering progressively more and more of the big guys.

2.) Do nations like Cheliax and the like account for the location of dragons into their defense plans? Akin to treating say a red dragon as a natural hazard along one's border?

3.) How conversant is the average golarianite regarding the monsters in his world? Like, is it 'weird green football head people' or 'goblins!'

4.) How do the river kingdoms maintain any external trade when they're essentially kleptocracies ruled by arbitrary whim? Why would people do business with kingdoms who literally might just beat me senseless and steal my stuff if they have a bigger club? Its not like they seem like they have really high demand commodities there.

5.) Does anyone like the mi-go?

1) Depends entirely where you're at. On Golarion? Not common at all. On the Abyss? Quite common. In any event, there's ALWAYS enough to populate the encounters you need for your adventure. It's important to keep in mind that adventures aren't the only part of the world. Just because they're the bulk of what we do with Golarion doesn't mean they're the rule. This is one of the reasons so many high level adventures take place in remote locations or on other planes though.

2) Not as natural hazards, no, but as potential allies or enemies, yes.

3) That's covered by knowledge skill checks. Most folks aren't skilled in Knowledge skills, so they wouldn't know much more than common knowledge. For something like a gobliin... those are commonplace enough that folks know what they are and call them goblins. For something like a isitoq, that's a lot more obscure and folks would generally be ignorant of it. It is, of course, ENTIRELY regionalized. It's possible that in an undead-heavy place far from goblin tribe lands, like Geb, that the locals would know what an istoq is on sight and have no idea what a goblin was.

4) That's covered in the River Kingdoms books. They're NOT "kleptocracies" ruled by "arbitrary whim." It's not 100% banditry. Add to that the fact that the kingdoms are located in the core of Avistan's most extensive watershed and presto... you have trade going ALL OVER the place between Taldor and Mendev, between Lastwall and Galt, between everywhere else.

5) Yes. I do.

James Jacobs wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

I think my last question might have gotten lost in the recent shuffle (it happens *shrug*) so I'd like to repeat it here:

As the elfxpert on the site, in your opinion, would an elf (especially a Forlorn) be creepy if they fell in love with a human they'd known since the human was born, basically?

If the elf fell in love after the human was all grown up, no.

I was thinking more along the lines of teenagers (the elf in question is basically an elf "teenager" at this point, like he was only 20 years old or something when the human was born).

Adults involved in romantic relationships with underage people is creepy in my opinion. Not sure what more there is to say on the subject, other than get in a big argument about what is and isn't "underage."

Honestly, there's no real adults in this scenario. Both the elf and human would be considered "teens." It's that the elven definition of "teenager" is a lot older than the definition of it for a human. I guess part of its just that elf adolescence seems very hard for me to comprehend. Can you offer any insight into that?

In a case like this... it's biological and physical maturity that matters. Ignore ages. They're irrelevant when you're no longer talking just about humans.

As for insight into how an elf's adolescence is the span of a human lifetime? It tends to mess them up if they spend time with humans. Hence the Forlorn. Your scenario is probably the number one cause of elves becoming Forlorn.

So our Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign is coming back after losing a few players to real life problems, we're introducing 2 new players near the tail end of book 3 (we had just finished the encounter with Cindermaw before the break). How should we go about introducing them?

We've already decided to D-Door to Kaer Maga to sell loot, so we could run into them there.

If it helps, one of the players was hoping to be a Hellknight.

tl;dr What's a good way to introduce new players and characters near the end of Curse of the Crimson Throne?

I've always preferred to let the player of the new character help come up with a reason why they're joining the group, and prefer to help guide them by weaving them into the particulars of how the rest of the group works and where they're at. Not knowing everything about your group I can't really help the way I would in my game. Further, your post is quite confusing... you say that you're introducing the characters at the end of book 3, but Cindermaw is near the end of book 4, and then you finish off by asking how to introduce new characters near the end of the entire campaign, which is book 6.

My suggestion for the Hellknight would be that the PC is a member of the Order of the Nail; the group that's got the most interest in Varisia and is stationed near Korvosa, and who would have a vested interest in seeing the queen removed.

What do Linnorms sound like when they talk? Deep and regal like Bebedict Cumberbatch or creaky and ssssnake like?

What does Fafnheir sound like?

They sound like thunderstorms that found a voice.

Fafnheir sounds like a hurricane during an earthquake that found a voice.

AKA: Loud, deep, and primeval. Not creaky, not snakelike, and CERTAINLY not regal.

James Jacobs wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

I think my last question might have gotten lost in the recent shuffle (it happens *shrug*) so I'd like to repeat it here:

As the elfxpert on the site, in your opinion, would an elf (especially a Forlorn) be creepy if they fell in love with a human they'd known since the human was born, basically?

If the elf fell in love after the human was all grown up, no.

I was thinking more along the lines of teenagers (the elf in question is basically an elf "teenager" at this point, like he was only 20 years old or something when the human was born).

Adults involved in romantic relationships with underage people is creepy in my opinion. Not sure what more there is to say on the subject, other than get in a big argument about what is and isn't "underage."

Ross Byers wrote:

Short of finding a high level Abadarite to cast commune, how would you get a paternity test?

Isn't this one of Pharasma's portfolios as the goddess most concerned with births?

Perhaps... although childbirth is not the same as lineage. Childbirth is a part of the life/death cycle, while lineage is largely a social construct, and as such that's more of a thing that a deity of cities or society or civilization would be interested in promoting.

James Jacobs wrote:

messy wrote:

what can you tell me about this?

if you were to compare iggwilv's personality to that of a well-known person (real or fictional), who would it be?

Ha! Villains was my first published book. I had a blast writing it; it's filled with a LOT of crazy freaky bad guys and bad gals, many of whom were somewhat inspired by my home campaign setting. As a result, if you read through Villains, you'll see NPCs who bear more than a striking resemblance to, say, Queen Illeosa, and you might see a few familiar names, such as "Sandpoint" or "Krune," although used in different ways than they ended up being used in Golarion.

Iggwilv's personality would probably be closest to ... hmmmm ... maybe a combination of Baba Yaga, Cersei Lannister, and Ailester Crowley, I guess?

The only time I've ever seen Iggwilv expressed as a character, was in Gygax's Gord books. Did you read those?

I did, and loved them.

Iggwilv was, as it works out, kinda my favorite NPC from Greyhawk, and I've actually had probably more of a hand in establishing her character than anyone other than Gygax himself—I wrote many Demonomicon of Iggwilv articles for Dragon Magazine (each of which carried bits and pieces of Iggwilv's character, as the supposed writer of the non-rules portion of those articles), and included her in the Savage Tide Adventure Path (in which I did a LOT of work building up her personality and character and history, based on Gygax's work before, and with Wolfgang Baur's help), and then did even more with her in my portion of Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk.

So yeah... I'm pretty knowledgable about Iggwilv.

Named my warlock in World of Warcraft after her, even!