James Jacobs's page

Have you ever noticed that if your avatar and Odraude's avatar were to be put side by side, it looks like they're roaring at each other?

RARRRRGHH!

I did not say anything about Feminism. james said he would like to see all of the male superheroes be marginalized and to me that is not gender equality

That was intended to get people thinking about what it feels like to be marginalized, so that they don't unintentionally or unknowingly support a status quo that already does that same thing. If the idea of marginalizing male superheroes makes one uncomfortable, then in theory, they realize why gender equality (which is NOT the status quo yet, alas) is so important a goal to strive for.

IS there a good way for someone to stay true to their culture while adopting an outlander faith?

Yes. There are plenty of examples in the real world of people staying true to their culture while worshiping a faith from another culture.

James, did any pre-Worldwound Sarkorians include Iomedae in their local pantheons? Or is she regarded more as a "foreigner god" brought by the southern crusaders that's prejudiced against the Sarkorian way of life. Every time I look at this question I keep coming back to Iomedae as the best candidate (she IS the paladin goddess after all) but I struggle to figure out how a character could stay true to his Sarkorian heritage worshiping Iomedae when her crusaders in Mendev seem to regard the Sarkorians as demon-touched collaborators at worst and at best deluded fools who let the disaster happen right under their noses.

I suppose there'd be a few Iomedae worshipers in pre-Worldwound Sarkoris... but not a lot. She'd definitely be an outlander/foreign religion.

I guess I should follow this up with a question. When Arcadia comes to fruition, will we be able to see some ethnicities that are inspired by Latin American ethnicities?

IF Arcadia comes to fruition, yes, you can expect some ethnicities inspired by Native Americans and Latin Americans and so on.

James Jacobs wrote:

Tels wrote:

James, are there any other superheroes you would like to see undergo a similar gender change?

If you had to do a gender change of a major character in Golarion, who would it be and why?

Who would you be the least willing to change? Why?

I'd not mind seeing pretty much ALL the superheroes do a gender change, and make a world where the vast majority of superheroes are women and the superheroes who are men were mostly regulated to sidkick or eye-candy or marginalized status.

As for Golarion? I'd probably pick Aroden to gender chagne, because he's one of the core elements of the setting.

I'd be least willing to change pretty much any of the women characters to men, since despite our pretty progressive steps toward gender equality, we're still not quite there yet.

So you want to marginalize men and boys? Is that what gender equality is?

Aiming for a 50/50 representation is not marginalizing men at all, neither is gender equality.

Would a 10,000 year old azlanti that is only first level be a prime soul candidate to be added to the spire holding the boneyard up as an example of a 'failed soul?'

Not necessarily. Time is largely irrelevant on determining if you're a failed soul.

[QUOTE="Neongelion"Unless, of course, you fall victim to a certain clever trap in Shattered Star...but hey, that very same page in the World Guide did say that "Golarion is nothing if not a magical place", so who the heck knows? I'd probably allow it as GM if the +2 to all stats was only a +1 and the player came up with a damn good backstory, but that's a different discussion entirely.

I suppose the real problem would be anyone really believing you if you say you're a 10,000 year old Azlanti. Sure your eyes might be really purple, and you're unusually insightful in Azlanti culture and history, but you're probably just a very bright scholar who has deluded himself. So I guess one more question before I buzz off; would there be any way, magical or otherwise, for someone to prove without question (or at least almost without question) that they're an ancient Azlanti?

That's a great example of how one might end up with that kind of race, in fact. A powerful and unusual reincarnation.

And if you were a 10,000 year old Azlanti but only first level? What have you been doing with your life? ;-P

You were there for the first impromptu game of Throwing Stones, the only performance of Operation Banjo Thug, or recall the day the bird attacked the snake in the parking lot.

My assumption was that the Azlanti ethnicity found in the Inner Sea World Guide was comprised of humans who are the distant descendants of Azlant, or claim to have strong Azlanti blood, whether legitimate or not; while the "pureblooded Azlanti" described on that same page, ie giving a +2 to all stats, was a template of sorts. I'm confused now!

Nope; that +2 to all stats is not a template. Any more so than "Goblin" or "Drow Matron" or "Elf" is a template.

Someone claiming to be pureblooded Azlanti but who isn't is just one of the other ethnicities in the game with the standard human race features.

Someone who IS a pureblooded Azlanti is an NPC, frankly, and is likely a character who's been in stasis for 10,000 or so years or is undead or the like. It's not a really good choice for a PC, both because it's too powerful and because it doesn't make sense lore-wise.

James Jacobs wrote:

Linguz wrote:

Hello James. I've got a question for you, specifically for Pathfinder Society.

Could someone take the amateur gunslinger feat and get the first level deed of an archetype of the gunslinger (such as the Mysterious Stranger's Focused Aim)?

I don't make rulings for Pathfinder Society. That's a question for Mike or John.

But as far as I know, they don't have any thread to ask them anything. :(

Regardless, thanks. Off to ask them things!

They do not. And in fact, I'm not sure HOW folks get rulings for things like this, to be frank.

My suggestion if you can't get a ruling would be to set that option aside for a home game and choose something less complicated for your PFS character.

Hello James. I've got a question for you, specifically for Pathfinder Society.

Could someone take the amateur gunslinger feat and get the first level deed of an archetype of the gunslinger (such as the Mysterious Stranger's Focused Aim)?

I don't make rulings for Pathfinder Society. That's a question for Mike or John.

James Jacobs wrote:

As for Golarion? I'd probably pick Aroden to gender chagne, because he's one of the core elements of the setting.

Well thanks to Avatar, Desna as a boy is already covered :) He's one half of a pair of androgynous twins. (He is really that hard to tell from his sister, save when the latter is in a water bending raging tear.)

Huh.

That character didn't show up in the M Night movie, so it doesn't really count for Avatar canon.

Mwa ha hah.

James Jacobs wrote:

zergtitan wrote:

While I know that you don't wish to reveal anything about the Adventure path after Giantslayer until Gencon, may I ask for one clue?

will it take place north or south of the Inner Sea? (the stretch from the Arch of Aroden to Absolam as a guideline)

You can ask, but I won't give one.

Ah! So it takes place under the Inner Sea. Well played!

Not seeing a question mark there... so I'm not sure what this comment's trying to do here...

JaC381 wrote:

It seems showing up on the Material Plane is actually pretty risky for a god.

If that's the reason I'm fine with it. I'm just interested in hearing from the creative director (the lead storyteller) as to what that reasoning is.

Let's move the discussion to another thread, please, and keep this one to the questions.

Hey James,

Did you guys use the pureblooded Azlanti template for statting out the Runelords that have appeared in print? Would it be spoilers to ask if you used the template for any other NPC in published material?

There is no "Pureblodded Azlanti template." There's an Azlanti ethnicity, but that's not a template. And yes, the runelords we've statted up in print were Azlanti. There's been other Azlanti who have appeared in the game as well now and then, and we haven't hidden the fact that they were Azlanti, nor have we done a "stealth Azlanti" without telling the GM about it.

Keeping secrets from the GM is generally not a good idea, unless the whole point is that the secret is a secret, in which case you keep it from EVERYONE and never build an adventure that's crippled or hampered due to that.

James, are there any other superheroes you would like to see undergo a similar gender change?

If you had to do a gender change of a major character in Golarion, who would it be and why?

Who would you be the least willing to change? Why?

I'd not mind seeing pretty much ALL the superheroes do a gender change, and make a world where the vast majority of superheroes are women and the superheroes who are men were mostly regulated to sidkick or eye-candy or marginalized status.

As for Golarion? I'd probably pick Aroden to gender chagne, because he's one of the core elements of the setting.

I'd be least willing to change pretty much any of the women characters to men, since despite our pretty progressive steps toward gender equality, we're still not quite there yet.

As a question about hindsight/retrospect, are there any secret societies of Golarion or similar things that you would have liked to see in Occult Mysteries, but which had to be left on the cutting room floor, for one reason or another?

Not really. Turns out, when you're one of the people who gets to decide what goes in a book and what doesn't, you get to cut the things you DON'T want to see in the book! :-)

That said... I guess I would have liked to see more stuff about the Old Cults, but that would have meant I would have had to write more and I didn't have time to do more than the 6 pages I did write... so the Old Cults stuff has to wait. Doesn't hurt that I already did a fair amount about them in Carrion Crown #4, though...

James Jacobs wrote:

Mark Hoover wrote:

So Thor's a girl; your thoughts?

About time!

AKA: I approve.

Kinda been done already.

PS I love Earth X and think the end bit with Galactus should be official Marvel stance. Did you ever pick it up?

So what if it's kinda been done already. It needed to happen again.

And no... I actually don't read superhero comics much at all... despite having spent a summer working as a color guide prep for comic books.

What's a good source for learning about the mathematics behind game design? Aside from college.

Talking to Stephen Radney-MacFarland or Jason Bulmahn or Jonathan Tweet or other game designers who've worked on mathmatics-based games. There's also plenty of books out there that talk about it. The first few pages of the 1st edition AD&D DMG had some good stuff. There's also been a LOT of interesting articles about it through the decades in Dragon magazine.

Is it worse for the vast majority who were never mortal at all?

Some could say that. You could also say it's better.

James Jacobs wrote:

xavier c wrote:

1)why does Olheon look so mean?. she is always glaring in her art

2)why doesn't Iomedae ever smile?

1) Because she's not a happy deity.

2) Because she doesn't have a lot to smile about; she's not a friendly happy deity either. She's a hard case who is very serious and isn't here to be your friend.

Good does not mean Always Cheerful. In the same way Evil doesn't mean Always Angry.

Who are some evil deities who are usually cheerful or friendly?(if there are any. The possibility I find intriguing at least.)

Nocticula comes to mind. As does Asmodeus; he's usually trying to be nice. Or so he'd have you think.

I get all that, but why?

Is there no in setting reason to explain why the gods don't show up in person anymore? I understand ruining the story for PCs, and thats a completely valid reason not to have the gods constantly showing up and taking care of business. But why don't they do so?

Is there no in setting reason at this time? Are there plans to ever cover that sort of information? Or is the only justification because it would be bad for the game from the perspective of players?

Because the game is about non-deity player characters, that's why.

You CAN NOT have deities popping in to save the day or otherwise be meddling and tinkering directly in a game without making the players of the game feel marginalized and useless. We don't want a game where the players don't feel like they're needed.

A game world where the gods DO get involved would HAVE to be a game where the players play the gods.

And there is an in-game reason why the gods don't do this. It's free will. That's important to the gods that the mortals have it, because without free will, you can't have faith, and without faith, you don't have worshipers, and without worshipers, you don't get souls coming to your realm to bolster your realm's size and strength. Furthermore, when one god intervenes, another steps in to counteract that, and then another, and it turns into an arms race that results in mutually assured destruction, or at the very least, total change.

Gods are, in a way, like nuclear bombs. Just as the real world has avoided nuking itself into oblivion (so far), the gods of Goalrion have avoided turning the world into ash and cinder while they bicker and fight over it.

And on top of that... the gods don't think the same as us. They move in mysterious ways.

James Jacobs wrote:

Paladinosaur wrote:

James, how do you roleplay a paladin's immunity to fear effects? Does it mean he feels no fear at all?

That's exactly what it means. No fear at all. She understands the nature of a situation that causes fear, and will retreat from combat or a situation if it seems prudent, but not from fear.

Would you compare them to Green Lanterns then?

No, because all I really know about the Green Lantern is that it was a pretty terrible movie with a lot of silly-looking aliens in tights.

Paizo isn't a big fan of prestige classes

That's a generalization. There are those of us at Paizo who quite like prestige classes.

I wouldn't allow it to be held in the tail, since it's not prehensile and thus cannot be used to deliver things. The druid would have to hold the charge in a paw, I'd say. Simply walking around wouldn't discharge the spell, I'd rule—he'd have to attack normally with it.

James, how do you roleplay a paladin's immunity to fear effects? Does it mean he feels no fear at all?

That's exactly what it means. No fear at all. She understands the nature of a situation that causes fear, and will retreat from combat or a situation if it seems prudent, but not from fear.

James, why are you chasing those two poor explorers on page 128 of the Inner Sea World Guide?

Someone just asked this a few pages back...

It's because they shot arrows into my neck. Wouldn't you chase someone, given that situation? If only to give them back their arrows?

James Jacobs wrote:

xavier c wrote:

1)why does Olheon look so mean?. she is always glaring in her art

2)why doesn't Iomedae ever smile?

1) Because she's not a happy deity.

2) Because she doesn't have a lot to smile about; she's not a friendly happy deity either. She's a hard case who is very serious and isn't here to be your friend.

Good does not mean Always Cheerful. In the same way Evil doesn't mean Always Angry.

For all that, she does have her rare moments... including one I've gone through in Wrath. Because she's overall so grim, those moments are that much more special.

Would it be fair to say that the price of becoming a deity, is that you become a bit less of a person, because of the all consuming focus of your portfolio? Like the Elders in Marvel Comics, the Collector, the Gardener, the Gamemaster, each of whom is immortal because of their overwhelming singular focus? That Iomedae is Iomedae because she is first and foremost a Crusader?

Yes. Becoming a deity does make you less of a "person" and more of a force. You give up something of your humanity if you become a deity.

So Thor's a girl; your thoughts?

About time!

AKA: I approve.

James Jacobs wrote:

Glutton wrote:

Are Gripplis purposely pushing the boundaries of Tiny size?

Ummm... Grippli are Small, not Tiny. SO I guess they are pushing that boundry.

Sorry my computer went crazy and the rest of my post had to be snipped off. I was wondering About the normal tiny size ("1 to 2 feet") and the fact the average male Grippli is 1 ft 11 inches, while females clock in at 1 ft 9 inches. Is this kind of thing frowned upon in the design department, much like a medium race over 8 feet tall?

In Bestiary 2, we say "A grippli stands just over 2 feet in height and weighs 30 pounds."

In Advanced Race Guide, we say "Gripplis stand just over 2 feet tall..." at the start of the grippli entry on page 190.

Which tells me that whoever built Table 5–9 on page 250 of the book messed up, frankly. That's something that should be flagged for errata. I'd suggest moving the male base height up to 1' 11" and the female base height to 1' 10".

Mr. James Jacobs,

Does Zon-Kuthon like Kool Aid or its Golarion equivalent?

Nah.

There's also a really cool art gallery of fan-submitted artwork for the entire saga... some of it is really good!

Are there Celestial/Inevitable/Protean equivalents to Nascent Demon Lords/Daemon Harbingers/Infernal Dukes/etc.? Do they have names yet or is that more an "If you want to include these things, you come up with names for them" idea?

I suspect there are. They don't have names yet.

1)can a outsider be terrified of a mortal? (like running away screaming scared)

what would make a outsider that terrified of a mortal anyway?

2)can a dragon be terrified of a human? and what about the human would make a dragon run away screaming

1) As long as the outsider isn't immune to fear, yes.

Depends on the outsider. Just as different things make different people frightened.

2) Same.

1)why does Olheon look so mean?. she is always glaring in her art

2)why doesn't Iomedae ever smile?

1) Because she's not a happy deity.

2) Because she doesn't have a lot to smile about; she's not a friendly happy deity either. She's a hard case who is very serious and isn't here to be your friend.

Good does not mean Always Cheerful. In the same way Evil doesn't mean Always Angry.

Which three Golarion deities would you use if converting Thee Faces of Evil from the Age of Worms AP?

I was thinking of Zon-Kuthon, Norgorber, and Rovagug.

Sounds good to me! I'd consider replacing Rovagug with Urgathoa, but I like how your choices cover the 3 alignments of evil.

Hello Mr. Jacobs!

I hope today finds you well! I have a few questions for you today.

1. I read somewhere before that you were not too keen on the Blood War between the evil outsiders back in the 3.5 days, why is that?

2. I am also curious how do the devils, demons, and daemons get along with each other? Do they stay strictly separate or are they capable of working together to kill some good outsiders?

3. Lahmashtu has stolen from the devils, killed a horseman of the apocalypse, but what do the devils and daemons do in retaliation?

4. In your homebrew game, what happened to the necromancers(the proto-runelords) that your party woke up?

5. Also what became of Xanderghul in your home game?

Thank you for your answers!

1) Because it shifts the primary interest and compelling story reasons for fiends to be fighting other fiends, rather than letting them focus on fighting mortals, aka fighting the PCs. The Blood War made PCs a distraction to the story rather than the focus. But also, with Pathifnder, abandoning that concept allowed us to not step on intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast while also building up our OWN intellectual property.

2) They don't always get along, but in most cases they're not 100% antagonistic. There are exceptions. Qlippoth, for example, hate demons... but even then, that element is set up in a way to involve the PCs and mortals—the qlippoth hope that by wiping out mortals with the free will to sin that they can wipe out demons, who NEED sin to be created. But for the most part, fiends tend to stick to their own. You can have a devil working with a demon if the story is compelling; there's nothing hard-wired into our canon to prevent that... but it's not the norm.

3) Turns out, Lamashtu's kind of a bad-ass, and retaliation against her is something that the devils and daemons HAVE tried, and been defeated.

4) There were 5 of them in all. The 5th one, the leader of the old empire, was named Cyrus, and the PCs defeated him. We didn't include him in Pathfinder at all because his name is, today, compromised by Miley Cyrus's fame, of course—that wasn't an issue for me two decades ago. The other four necromancers (Belimarius, Krune, Nocticula, and Janus) all established their own new nations throughout the world. (Nocticula ended up being something entirely different in Pathifnder, and there's no Janus at all since his name is stolen from a Roman god and I didn't want to do that in Golarion.)

5) Xanderghul wasn't a necromancer in my game. He was a powerful paladin who fell from grace and was corrupted by Obox-ob into the most powerful death knight in my setting. He ended up getting a shot at redemption during the PCs' war against Cyrus and was slain after managing to atone for all the misdeeds he did; his sidekick, Karzoug, became more powerful and was put down by a different group during a trip to Baba Yaga's hut.

James, as the creative directive of the setting, can you discuss why in narrative reasoning the gods keep a fairly hands off approach to Golarion? Why is their not more defific interference?

I understand that the narrative of campaigns would then become to focused on the actions of the gods, instead of mortals (like the PCs) which would ultimately make for a poor game/story for us to play. It's fine as a myth or story to read, like Zeus killing Cronus, or the gods gifting fire to man, or whatever. But for players it sucks because you feel like a bit player in the story.

But what has actually happened between deities that the don't regularly show up and kick ass.

Did they all just literally agree (with perhaps some exceptions like Rovagug) that they would not directly intervene on the material plane after eons of destructive activity of doing so?

Yeah. It's primarily for the same reason we don't have a huge number of high level, powerful, good guy NPCs. Because the job of being the heroes of Golarion is the job of the player characters. And if the gods took a more active role in protecting Golarion... then it becomes more us telling the story of the world, rather than your characters telling the story of the world.

If we were developing Golarion as a shared world for novels or video games or the like, for a genre that removes a lot of the player's control as world shaping and world-saving... perhaps we would have taken a different tack.

The Deities DO show up to kick ass... but more so in the history, not the present. So you have things like Sarenrae and Asmodeus and the others teaming up to defeat Rovaggug. Aroden coming in to defeat Deskari. Desna invading the Abyss to avenge the death of a favored worshiper. And so on. Stuff that happened in the past, not the present, where the PCs do that job.

James Jacobs wrote:

xavier c wrote:

1)why did Desna not help Count Andachi drive back the orc horde after he prayed to her several times? eventhough he worships her

2)why did Zon-Kuthon aid him after he prayed to him once? eventhough he did not worship him

3)why do gods answer some prayers and not others?

1) Who says she wasn't providing aid? She likely was, but he wasn't wise enough to figure it out.

2) Because he sensed an opportunity and struck while the proverbial iron was hot.

3) Because they move in mysterious ways, and often those who pray aren't faithful or wise or perceptive enough to understand an answered prayer if it bit them on the nose.

1)so how was she aiding him then?

3)what are some of the mysterious ways a god would answer a prayer

1) Unrevealed. And not the point of his story, really.

3) Omens, dreams, portents, luck (bad or good). Inner Sea Gods lists lots of ways the gods can show their favor or disfavor.

James Jacobs wrote:

xavier c wrote:

1)What is the best way to get a outsider cohort? do you have to go to the outer planes?

2)if you guys do a temples of the inner sea book will you make the churches of the gods joinable organization like in Occult Mysteries?

3)who was the angel that Ordellia Whilwren prayed to to save Magnimar?

1) Take Leadership as your feat, tell your GM, and your GM will figure it out for you.

2) Dunno.

3) Soralyon

3)he came to save Magnimar himself. he must really like Magnimar. is it rare for a god to do that.

3) It's absolutely rare... but more common for demigods to get involved than deities. You'll note, of course, that Soralyon is the god of monuments (among other things) and that Magnimar is called the "City of Monuments" and has lots of powerful magic monuments in it. That's not coincidence.

James Jacobs wrote:

Kairos Dawnfury wrote:

Did you ever pick up Bound by Flame? I can grab it for a huge discount through a work program and would love an opinion on it before I did...

I did. I got it for a discount via the Steam Sale and then played it for about 20 minutes and it looked good ... but then got distracted by Divinity Original Sin and other stuff. So... don't have a strong opinion yet.

Is the new Divinity game good? I played a demo of the last one and couldn't get into the combat.

Edit: On looking up the game, I think I'm thinking of a different series...

It's quite fun! It's really hard but in a good way. The magic and stuff really works in an interesting way with the environment. For example, poison clouds are flammable. Some monsters are tough in that they breathe out or generate clouds of poison, and if you can light them on fire, they blow up.

Do you have any suggestion on what/which entity that might be the mystery of a Time Oracle with the Neutral Good alignment?

Mysteries aren't "entities" really. And keeping them mysterious is part of the fun. I'd let your GM run with it and see what she/he comes up with.

(If it were my game, though... it'd be something involved with Brigh.)

Did you ever pick up Bound by Flame? I can grab it for a huge discount through a work program and would love an opinion on it before I did...

I did. I got it for a discount via the Steam Sale and then played it for about 20 minutes and it looked good ... but then got distracted by Divinity Original Sin and other stuff. So... don't have a strong opinion yet.

James Jacobs wrote:

xavier c wrote:

I saw your secret message in the wrath of the righteous aventure path.so

when will we be getting this demon lord redeeming Adventure Path

When I decide the time is right.

I missed it. Could you please point out where the message is?

Bottom of the credits page, after all the legal text and the "Printed in China" bit, in every 6th AP volume.

One more question about Nocticula.

Let's say she did ascend into divinity and neutrality, what would her Obedience be? Or would she retain her Lust domain and have the same Deific Obedience as her current Demonic Obedience?

On a different note, how many times have you played or run Rise of the Runelords? How many people has Xanesha killed in games you've been a part of?

Her obediences would change. That's about an hour of design work for me, more or less, so I'm not gonna do it until I need to.

I've never played and never run Rise of the Runelords. I've run several parts of Burnt Offerings as a playtest, but never as a whole adventure, alas... the point at whcih I was writing it was crazy busy—I was launching Pathfinder at the same time as I was finishing up the last half dozen or 8 issuses of Dungeon at the same time, after all...

1)why did Desna not help Count Andachi drive back the orc horde after he prayed to her several times? eventhough he worships her

2)why did Zon-Kuthon aid him after he prayed to him once? eventhough he did not worship him

3)why do gods answer some prayers and not others?

1) Who says she wasn't providing aid? She likely was, but he wasn't wise enough to figure it out.

2) Because he sensed an opportunity and struck while the proverbial iron was hot.

3) Because they move in mysterious ways, and often those who pray aren't faithful or wise or perceptive enough to understand an answered prayer if it bit them on the nose.

1)What is the best way to get a outsider cohort? do you have to go to the outer planes?

2)if you guys do a temples of the inner sea book will you make the churches of the gods joinable organization like in Occult Mysteries?

3)who was the angel that Ordellia Whilwren prayed to to save Magnimar?

1) Take Leadership as your feat, tell your GM, and your GM will figure it out for you.

2) Dunno.

3) Soralyon

do inevitables have emotions

Yes.

Do you get as excited about reveling new products to us (the fans of Paizo) as we get waiting for the reveal?

Judging by the passion on these boards... we get excited, but not that excited! :-)