James Jacobs's page

James Jacobs wrote:

Kajehase wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

Does Golarion have a Santa Claus?

Nope.

Does it have a Christmas/Saturnalia-like festivity, though? (Midwinter, giving of gifts, big dinner with family and/or acquaintances).

Yes. More than one, in fact, depending on region and/or religion.

Does Golarion have any legends/myths similar to Sinterklaas/St. Nick (traditional versions, not the modern commercialized ones)?

What about a Krampus?

Could you be bribed to add a Mikaze-like Empyreal Lord of Generosity, Outcasts, and Acceptance? I've searched, and all three aspects appear to be unclaimed by the current Powers. Only semi-seriously, as I figure the answer is already No, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Not really.

Not really.

And at this point, we've got a LOT of Empyreal Lords. I'm not eager to add more.

Yeah; the good news there is that the guy pretty much only goes by "The Forever Man" these days, so there shouldn't be much confusion.

James Jacobs wrote:

Kairos Dawnfury wrote:

Does Crunch mode involve more skeletons than zombies?

More things that cause great mental anguish and madness than mere physical threats.

Sounds like there's a good reason you're so great at coming up with Demons!

Have you read about the new Expansion for Warcraft, the Warlords of Draenor? I believe you said you liked the Horde best when they were the bad guys, while it's a different horde, there will be lots of evil Orcs to kill.

I've heard a little about it. I'm not really looking into it a lot yet though. Would prefer to be surprised to a certain extent by the content.

James Jacobs wrote:

We might mention a few of the Tian Xia deities, but since they are by definition NOT Inner Sea Gods there won't be a lot. Probably nothing more or nothing new from Dragon Empires Gazetteer.

I know that there are reasons in the real world for the existence of multiple gods from culture to culture, and that there is sometimes "spillover" where two or more cultures intersect and borrow from one another (Rome and Greece being perhaps the most notable Western example).

While there is some of that in many fantasy worlds, such as Golarion (Shelyn stands out as one), but I've always kind of been curious as to the rationale for it in the minds of designers. In a world like our own, where there is little evidence of actual deific contact and interaction with the world (arguably), it is understandable that groups would create their own deities who may not necessarily be the same as other groups. But in most fantasy worlds, where evidence of such contacts are known to exist- both to us as players, but also to the people of the world, through clerical contacts, actual interaction, etc.- what would be the rationale for deities not having more of a global interest as a matter of course, and for the "spillover" effect of such deities appearing in more cultures on that scale, albeit with different names?

EDIT: I guess I'm looking more for your perspective specifically in the approach taken with Golarion, as opposed to just general speculation, as I'd imagine it varies not only between companies but probably between designers within them.

Spillover happens in the real world; that's enough of a reason to do the same in Golarion. But it also allows for some easy cultural "bridges" from one area to another, to help ease folks into a different region by giving them a few familiar faces along the way.

With the Golarion setting did you guys set out with the goal of creating real world analogs with the nations or is it something that just happened naturally?

Depends on the nation. Osirion is very much intended to be Fantasy Egypt, for example.

How do you think you'd modify Rise of the Runelords to support 8 players? Other than splitting groups.

Splitting groups is frankly the best bet.

The other option would be to add a LOT more fights to each battle; don't increase individual monster CR, but consider giving everything maximum hit points and adding more combatants to each fight; how much more you'll need to experiment a bit. You'll also want to consider simply making ALL of the advneture sites twice as big, so that you can physically accomidate all the player characters and additional monsters. And don't allow summoners. Require druids and rangers to take the non companion options. No Leadership feat.

Just wondering, will this book explicitly answer these mysteries, or will it just have hints or possible explanations for them. Or is it a bit of both?

A bit of both.

Two questions:

A) Did you see that MTV is partnering to produce a Shannara based series?

B) Are you a fan of the author and/or the Shannara books?

A) Nope.

B) Nope.

Do you have any tricks you use as a DM to figure out who triggers/is threatened by traps that occur outside combat?

Sometimes I'll just assume it was whoever seemed to be most likely to trigger that kind of trap, but in a case where it could have been anyone in the party, I usually either:

1) Ask the players what their characters are doing and where they are, and then decide who makes the most sense as to who set the trap off then.

or 2) Just determine who set the trap off randomly.

Will we learn more about individual Eldest in any upcoming books? I read death's heretic & read the recent fey book. Very powerful creatures!

That'd be cool, yeah? We'll see!

My guess is we aren't getting info on the veiled masters of the aboleth race. This looks to be about secret societies, cults, etc. - aboleths aren't any of those things. I've been dying to get more info on them and really hope they get their long overdue time in the spotlight, but I just have a feeling this book won't be it.

Well... if that's the case, I'll have to retract the section I wrote for the book about the veiled masters then! ;-)

Well, the big thing is that the vast majority of people are going to be level 1-4, your 'elites' are going to be 5-8. The problem here is level 9, when you start being able to afford Raise Dead, and hang around with others who can cast it.

once you have access to that spell, your survivability, and the power you will rise to, increases dramatically. Before then, not so much.

So, you can almost lump 9+ into a category by itself, simply because the power to bring someone back from the dead (in the field) is really going to increase the number of post-9th people around.

That would really skew the distribution.

Then add on all the wizard/alchemists 20th that decided to become immortal, and that skews things further..

==Aelryinth

The ranges we use for Golarion & Pathfinder are a bit wider. We group things in bands of levels 1–5, 6–10, 11–15, and 16–20 for the four power levels.

James Jacobs wrote:

In theory, I suppose the CLOSET you could get to "official" numbers would be to read every product and adventure we have ever published and build your numbers off those findings... only to have them change every month.

There is another source of data points that might prove helpful beyond the ISWG and trying to brute-force the question from adventures. The community sizes in the Gamemastery Guide suggest that, for example, it takes a population of at least 25,000 to have reliable access to 8th level spells (and, by extension, 15th level casters). That doesn't tell you how easy it is to find, say, 15th level fighters, but it does suggest to me at least that 0.5% is probably too high, possibly by a couple orders of magnitude.

True... but those numbers weren't built with "numbers of high level spellcasters per population" in mind, but merely as a way to ensure that higher level spellcasting is generally available. Keep in mind, in other words, that once you get the ability to teleport or wind walk or numerous other fast travel spell options, you don't have to live in the city where you sell your magic.

So basically what best (and entertaining) way can this work, and then go horribly wrong?

That's basically asking for adventure design, frankly. I can't really say what the "best and most entertaining" way would be without knowing the setup, the plot, the situation, the characters involved, and so on.

I was looking at distant words and a thought came to me...

What would it take to set up life support (breathable air) for a ship in space or perhaps a colony/worksite?

A pressure suit uses gust of wind and is good for 3 days. Including endure elements it costs a total of 4000 gp.

For 48000 gp, one could make a continuous use activated gust of wind magic item.
2 (spell level) x3 (caster level) x2000 (constant) x4 (spell has duration in rounds, one round)

That could make an item that just casts gust of wind at will indefinitely or, IMO, make an item that could continuously supply/refurbish air similar to the pressure suit.

spell description:
"This spell creates a severe blast of air (approximately 50 mph) that originates from you, affecting all creatures in its path."

How many medium creatures would you rule that as able to sustain if made into such an item (rather than merely continuously blasting out enormous quantities of air)?

Have any other ideas on how to make life support using the rules?

TIA

There's a HUGE number of ways to do this, frankly. Use bottles of air. Portals to the elemental plane of air. Necklaces of adaption. Technology. The list goes on. If I were writing an adventure set in an area like this, the solution I would use would depend on the nature of the location and the adventure.

For the medals, do the players get the non-ability bonus only when it is activated or is it constant?

It's constant.

Does Crunch mode involve more skeletons than zombies?

More things that cause great mental anguish and madness than mere physical threats.

James Jacobs wrote:

Azu wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Azu wrote:

How can I suggest to the devs my own content in such a way that it might be printed in an official pathfinder book?

You pretty much can't.

Unless we hire you to write for us.

*crys an needs a hug* i_i

also... Dont you have work tomarrow? Goto bed! XD

I do have work today. But I don't start work until 11:00 AM, so staying up till 2:00 AM is pretty normal for me.

So let me get this straight.... Not only do you have one of the best jobs in the world, you also don't have to be to work until 11am? How unfair is that?

Well... I generally don't get home until about 7:30 or 8:00 PM, and often don't get days off at all when we're in crunch mode... so it balances out. Trust me.

Side note, have you ever heard of the game Eldritch? My blinkfeed for PCGamer just informed me it's coming out with a Mountains of Madness add on.

I haven't.

What type of underwear do people on Golarion wear? ( sorry for the unusual question)

Depends entirely on the nation, the people, and their personality. Just like in the real world. Ask "What type of underwear do people on Earth wear?" and you'll get the same answer. And weird looks.

So, how would i go about politely letting Wes know that there's - whoa! Earthquake! BRB.

Okay, that wasn't a bad one. As I was saying, how do I politely let Wes know that there's a ROFLer of a misprint in Artifacts and Legends?

Woo! Earthquake.

If you find a misprint in a softcover book, the best place to note it is in that book's product thread, I guess. We rarely ever reprint these books, and as a result we don't have an official "errata/typo" program for them... especially since the rate at which we produce them would make such a program increasingly impossible with each passing month.

James, I've been thinking of the level distribution in Pathfinder from a population perspective (meaning how large a percentage are a certain level).

This is the possible distribution I came up with:

L1-5: 80%
L6-10: 15%
L11-15: 4.5%
L16-20: 0.49%
L21+: 0.01%

21+ would be anyone with sufficient mythic tiers to push them over the normal limit I suppose, if you aren't using epic level rules.

I did all the levels percentage individually in a spreadsheet, but it is too big to post in it's entirety. Also tried to turn it into a graph, but as it would be a very steep curve I had to use an algorithmic scale to make it less "messy", and I'm not a big fan of those.

Basically assuming there are 200 million people in the world (roughly what Earth had around 1AD), there would be 1 million people over level 15 on the planet. 0.5% might seem a bit high, but it is believed that around 1% of the population has a Ph.D (or some other form of doctorate, like a MD or JD) so maybe not.

What do you think of this level distribution? Do you agree with my estimates?

If that distreibution works for you, go for it! I specifically try to avoid nailing down things like this that might come back to bite me in the ass and fuel internet pedantry, frankly. If we continue publishing Adventure Paths for 30 years, after all, then we'll have 30 more years of high level adventures filled with high level foes that, eventually, would put the lie to anything like an official distribution chart.

And in the end... I just don't see the value of something like that, frankly. It just seems like a needless complication to the design of adventures of any level, but more so the higher level you get.

In theory, I suppose the CLOSET you could get to "official" numbers would be to read every product and adventure we have ever published and build your numbers off those findings... only to have them change every month.

So... again, if you like those spreads of percentages, go ahead and use them. I'm going to refrain replying to them so as to not create a false impression that there's anything like a hidden distribution chart we follow when determining levels for NPCs in Golarion. The closest you'll get from us for this would be the entry for "Power Levels" on page 253 of the Inner Sea World Guide.

I'm currently running my campaign across Absalom and the Isle of Kortos, but I'm quite interested in having the party venture into the Darklands at some point. While it certainly wouldn't be hard to relocate them into the Darklands anywhere in Golarion, I was just wondering if there's been any information made available about if there is a Darklands presence beneath Absalom/Isle of Kortos? I checked the Campaign Guide and the Guide to Absalom and nothing jumped out. Anyone any recommended reads or advice on they they would or have dealt with this?

We haven't said much at all about the Darklands below the Isle of Kortos. Certainly, when Aroden rose the island, that did a LOT of damage and upheaval to the region of the Darklands below the isle, and thousands of years before THAT the impact of the Starstone did even greater damage. As a result, the Darklands below the Isle of Kortos is almost entirely cut off from the surrounding Darklands—there ARE ways to travel to out of it, but they're super hard to find.

In "Into the Darklands" you'll note that there are no tunnels indicated in Nar Voth, nor any connections between Avistan or Garund's Nar Voths. This is because those connections were either destroyed or rendered obscure by Starfall.

Going deeper, to Sekamina, you'll see a big "C" shape under the Isle of Kortos, which is surrounded by an undersea lake. This lake is what remains of Sekamina after Earthfall, and the raising of the Isle of Kortos is what more or less created the "C" shape there.

Going down to Orv, you'll see that there's still nothing below the Isle of Kortos, but that it comes pretty close to the Midnight Mountains.

I suspect that as a result, the Isle of Kortos's Darklands is a microcosom, with its own Nar Voth and its own Sekamina layers that drift down and finally connect to the Midnight Mountains in Orv.

Eventually we WILL have more to say about the Darklands below the isle... but for now, that's about all there is.

I think James is mixing his rules a little.

A level 20/tier 10 NPC is CR 24. Throw PC wealth and it's CR 25. Essentially, though, a party of 20/10 characters is APL 25, which makes Cthulhu an APL+5 challenge, which translates into "the bad guy should win" (see the thread on a GM's Guide to Challenging Encounters, but APL+4 is basically meant to be a coin toss on which side wins).

Well... keep in mind that CR is used to measure the power level of a monster or NPC. It's really not appropriate to use it to measure a PC's power. It's better to use just the PC's level (or the party's average party level) for that measurement, increasing level by +1 for every 2 tiers of mythic power.

And of course, using more than 4 players, using higher than 15 point buy, and running for experienced players further adjusts the expected power curve as well—that's where you the GM have to step in and use your personal knowledge of your players to do the last fine-tuning adjustments to any encounter to make it an appropriate challenge.

James Jacobs wrote:

We'll be talking SPECIFICALLY about the topic of what it means to world canon in the last WotR I suspect, since it's going to have some significant changes on the world no matter what the PC's level of success is.

But yes. Basically...it's only canon to YOUR would once your group plays the adventure. No other adventure is assumed to have occurred in Golarion yet, which means that someone who comes to Golarion today has only to buy the Inner Sea World Guide to be ready to go with pretty much ANY of our other products. That new customer doesn't have to read through 6 years of books to get caught up. And perhaps more importantly for us developers... neither do new freelancers.

Does that include Society adventures? I kinda got the impression that PFS had an ongoing storyline from Season 0 right up to the current season?

Pahtfinder Society is not YOUR world. It's a specific incarnation of OUR world... and not the baseline. It's a campaign where the GM is, basically, Mike Brock, and he has countless minion GMs working for him to run the thousands and thousands of games. But the whole thing is encapsulated in its own instance—what occurs in the PFS game does not impact anyone's home game or the baseline of Golarion anymore than my home games should change canon in PFS or any one else's home game and so on.

PFS does have an ongoing storyline, and that DOES make it increasingly difficult and intimidating for not only new players and new GMs, but also for new authors and for us as well in managing things. We have an entire department here at Paizo to manage all of that, and even then it can get overwhelming, so we try to keep the ongoing storyline not TOO complicated. But by the same extension, we also try to keep that storyline "quarantined" in the PFS program. It builds off of what we do in our other books, but for the most part that's a one-way flow of information.

Just realized it says that the bestiary will include the final demon lords to be featured in this AP..meaning there's more than one!!! Is this a typo?

Typo. Only one demon lord is statted up in each volume of Wrath of the Righteous.

James Jacobs wrote:

It's mostly because Deskari's shape would end up covering up most of the artwork in the background. Pathfinder covers work best with human-shaped figures.

Also...

** spoiler omitted **

That is one awesome piece of art. I really hope Areelu gets a mini based on that artwork. Well done mr Reynolds. Now mr Jacobs ** spoiler omitted **

About Deskari...

Were the Knights of Ozem really named so because they needed a Truly Awesome name?

According to Jason, who named them... yes. (rolls eyes)

James Jacobs wrote:

Azu wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Azu wrote:

How can I suggest to the devs my own content in such a way that it might be printed in an official pathfinder book?

You pretty much can't.

Unless we hire you to write for us.

*crys an needs a hug* i_i

also... Dont you have work tomarrow? Goto bed! XD

I do have work today. But I don't start work until 11:00 AM, so staying up till 2:00 AM is pretty normal for me.

so nu hugs? i_i

No hugs! You'll need to go to another thread for those! ;-)

Been a while James :)

Could you name a few ways that a humanoid (human, elf, dwarf, etc..) could permanently acquire the advanced creature template? I assume being born "perfect" is a way, but others?

Depending on the GM... a miracle or a wish could do the trick. As could divine intervention or exposure to powerful magical effects. An artifact could do it as well. Basically... any of the classic origins for a superhero would do the trick.

I love the Grey Wardens in Dragon Age, that elite fighting force everyone seems to recognize by name. Which organization would you say is most like them on Golarion? Or are there a couple different which are similar?

There's not really a good choice for a "Gray Warden" replacement in Pathifnder. I suppose the best choice would probably be the crusaders of Iomedae. Maybe the Knights of Ozem.

But as a lump of stats...well a typical (core+) level 26+ party would defeat him rather easily. Add mythic or epic rules and it'd be ridiculously easy unless you pulled GM fiat.

First off... the game as it currently exists doesn't allow a level 26+ party. Level 20 remains the level cap. A level 20, tier 10 character is the equivalent of a CR 24 creature, so a party of level 20/tier 10 heroes should still have their work cut out for them against something like Cthulhu.

I would LOVE to hear how some sample fights against Cthulhu with a level 20/tier 10 group went!

1)In your opinion, is the world of Golarion on a fixed or mutable time-stream? Meaning, are all events in history fixed and unalterable or does the possibility of time travel allow for the participation and possible clanging of events in the past? (Canonically speaking)

2) Does this in any way interact with the Age of Lost Omens?
3)Unrelated- What would be the equivalent of Dragotha on Golarion? (high-end, undead dragon)

1) Any time PCs are involved in ANYthing... the answer has to be mutable time stream. Canonically speaking though... I'm not gonna make that decision until we do an actual time travel adventure.

2) Only in that the "death of prophecy" is to a certain extent us acknowledging that PCs break prophecies (aka go off the rails) all the time.

3) Kazavon.

Will we ever learn about Dou-Bral before he became Zon-Kuthon

Probably not. We'll see.

So how does Calistria feel about non-consentual sex?

She is not a fan of it.

James Jacobs wrote:

The NPC wrote:

Mr. James Jacobs,

How do I make the/some forums more welcoming and inviting? I've already got the "Be polite myself part" down and I already don't mention social/political issues because that just asking for trouble.

That's a good start. It's also a good idea to avoid getting caught up in flame wars or edition wars. But just be friendly.

James, have you ever heard of an edition flame war that sees which edition of the books burn the best?

For fastest burners, I would have to place my money on the D&D basic, as there was less ink per page. Unless ink burns really well...

When it comes to best flame colors, I bet Paizo has that one in the bag!

Cute... but even joking I'd rather keep edition wars out of this thread.

James Jacobs wrote:

Azu wrote:

How can I suggest to the devs my own content in such a way that it might be printed in an official pathfinder book?

You pretty much can't.

Unless we hire you to write for us.

*crys an needs a hug* i_i

also... Dont you have work tomarrow? Goto bed! XD

I do have work today. But I don't start work until 11:00 AM, so staying up till 2:00 AM is pretty normal for me.

Did you miss my zoo question?

I did.

There's lots of zoos on Golarion. Some more famous than others. There's one in Magnimar, at the very least. I believe there's at LEAST one in Absalom. Other cities doubtless have them as well.

James Jacobs wrote:

Arshea and Calistria don't get along well at all. Their personalities are way too different. Arshea basically finds Calistria to be too mean-spirited, while Calistria finds Arshea to be too tentative with pushing her limits and to distracted by worrying about being nice.

1. Would their respective worshippers feel the same way about each other?

2. Is this what Merisiel meant when she said Arshea is "too safe?"

3. What limits does Calistria feel Arshea should be pushing?

4. Besides non-consentual sex, what does Arshea consider taboo?

5. What other gods and demigods would Arshea feel strongly about?

5-10. What's the relationship (not that kind, but how they get along) between Arshea and…

6. Abadar?

7. Desna?

8. Iomedae?

9. Sarenrae?

10. Torag?

1) Depends on the worshipers. Everyone is different.

2) She sometimes says things just to vex people, you know...

3) Not a topic I can really discuss on these boards. Use your imagination! ;-)

4) See #3 above.

5) Unrevealed at this time.

6) No relationship.

7) Friends.

8) No relationship.

9) Friends.

10) Unfriendly.

Kind of a crazy couple of questions out of the blue, but related to the upcoming Iron Gods AP...

1. Would you let PCs take androids as cohorts?
2. Would you allow a gearsman as a follower? If so, what level (4 hd, CR 4)?

1) Yes.

2) No.

Mr. James Jacobs,

How do I make the/some forums more welcoming and inviting? I've already got the "Be polite myself part" down and I already don't mention social/political issues because that just asking for trouble.

That's a good start. It's also a good idea to avoid getting caught up in flame wars or edition wars. But just be friendly.

How can I suggest to the devs my own content in such a way that it might be printed in an official pathfinder book?

You pretty much can't.

Unless we hire you to write for us.

James Jacobs wrote:

Alexander Augunas wrote:

Its up there with the fourth installment of Carrion Crown pre-Bestiary 4. (Even post Bestiary 4, its still worth it. Doesn't it have some critters that can't be reprinted due to legal reasons?)

Not legal reasons. Licensing reasons. We only got permission from Chaosium to print them, not to open them up.

What's the difference between legal reasons and licensing reasons?

Ummmm... the spelling?

...does Areelu have a quasit familiar wearing spiky metal armor?

Nope. It's more like an executioner's leather suit.

Awesome cover art, but I kind of have to wonder how it came to be decided that Deskari is not going to be the big character in front... maybe they wanted to show the iconics fighting him? Or maybe it's that he's not really a humanoid?

It's mostly because Deskari's shape would end up covering up most of the artwork in the background. Pathfinder covers work best with human-shaped figures.

Also...

Is Asmodeus a fallen celestial The Chronicle of the Righteous seems to suggest he is.

Beyond what that book and other books have implied... not gonna say yes or no on that one.

Will the gods get to grant boons in the Inner Sea Gods Hardcover?. Will this be different then the way Demon Lords and Empyreal Lords grant boons?

Good question! You'll have to wait and see! :-)

James Jacobs wrote:

Midnight_Angel wrote:

Hello again!

While we are at question about relations between gods... how do Calistria and Nocticula get along, if at all?

Better than you might think.

Is it a bad thing that I heard Barry White's voice say "Ahhhhhh yeaaaaah," while reading this?

Yes. Because Barry White is anachronistic.

More to the point... we need the art for them to do anything with them, and that art is still being created, so at this point, there's nothing to show off anyway.

How would you adapt a troop into an army?

I'm thinking a troop that covers a much larger area. A massive mob of mooks, meant to be fought by Mythic characters. (that was going to be more alliterative, but I didn't know any synonyms for "fight" and "character" that started with M) Like Ninety-Nine Nights, where evidently you can have upwards of 1000 enemies trying to mob your face in.

I wouldn't.

Once you're talking armies, you're talking true mass combat, and at that point I'd build an entire book's worth of rules to handle it if I didn't want to use the simpler mass combat rules from Ultimate Campaign.