James Jacobs's page

It does not, as far as I know.

James Jacobs wrote:

Omians wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

The Dragon subdomain is not inherently aligned to any alignment, in any event.

ok got a new question for you,

what would Apsu you have for Inquisitions?like in the list of Inquisitions it shows certain Deities that can be attached to it,

I had a concept for my inquisitor of being an agent to track down the worshippers of the chromatic dragons and of the Dark Tapestry

I would say that Justice, Order, Truth, and Valor all work pretty well for an inquisitor of Apsu... but inquisitions aren't really as tied down to deities as are domains. If you want another one you just need your GM's permission.

i guessed they are not as tied, i wanted to see if there could be takeable inquisitions with him, though i do like a breath weapon power heh

Any thought Of adding more weapon proficancys to inquitions like the black powder one that gives firearms?

Not really. Inquisitions are pretty much self-contained at this point. No plans to expand on them, really.

AH! I'd totally forgotten about the lashuntas. Yeah... they're an excellent example of full-on sexual dimorphism in a humanoid race. AND an excellent example of a good-aligned matriarchy.

James Jacobs wrote:

The Dragon subdomain is not inherently aligned to any alignment, in any event.

ok got a new question for you,

what would Apsu you have for Inquisitions?like in the list of Inquisitions it shows certain Deities that can be attached to it,

I had a concept for my inquisitor of being an agent to track down the worshippers of the chromatic dragons and of the Dark Tapestry

I would say that Justice, Order, Truth, and Valor all work pretty well for an inquisitor of Apsu... but inquisitions aren't really as tied down to deities as are domains. If you want another one you just need your GM's permission.

James-

If you could redo Golarion's economy, would you move away from a gold based system (a la the D&D legacy), or do you think things work fine as is, and the commonality of gold in the campaign world shouldn't be compared to our RW gold standard?

I probably would not. It's a system that us gamers have had decades to get used to, and changing it just complicates things, in my opinion.

AKA: Things work fine as they are. Gold pieces are one of the ways the setting feels "fantasy."

First, thank you very much for taking the time out to answer my question. Like just about everyone else I've got campaign settings in my underwear drawer, and I do sometimes stop to tinker around with them. I wanted to bring up the bolded sentence and ask you to expand on it a bit. There's a noticeable trend in RPG writing for blatantly gender-dominant societies - but especially matriarchies - to be portrayed as evil as well as, well, have Man Vision Problems (to wit, drow in D&D and its legacy systems tend to dress in outfits made of floss while their males invest in things like, say, armor). Any feelings or thoughts on how this has been treated for Golarion?

Not well enough.

There IS at least one good matriarchy on Golarion—the nation of Holomog is the largest and most powerful human nation on southern Garund... and possibly on all of Garund, and it's a good-aligned matriarchy. We haven't done much with Holomog yet simply because we haven't done much with southern Garund, but I do want to do something with it some day. I'm relatively sure there are others out there too.

James Jacobs wrote:

Deadmanwalking wrote:

Gnolls tend to be patriarchal as well (oddly enough)

That bit there's kind of an error we're working on fixing. Gnolls should be matriarchal.

So should people running Legacy of Fire just go ahead and swap in the Carrion Queen?

Nope.

The gnolls in that adventure path are already presented as unusual, in that they worship Rovagug and not Lamashtu.

Actually, is there a book that discusses gender roles and culture in general in deeper detail for the "average" Varisian, Andoran, Belkzen orc etc and how those vary with what their home is (big city, village, citadel or vagrant), dominant cults etc? I generally play my games by ear and try to avoid possibly offensive topics such as what the typical gender roles, stereotypes et cetera are, but I wouldn´t mind knowing just how common it is to be, say, a female sergeant in Ustalav and whether certain professions tend to be predominantly male or female held. "Notably more equal than medieval Earth" is a fairly wide concept, sadly :/ .

Gender roles are mentioned now and then when appropriate, but there's not a book that focuses exclusively to that. As a general rule, though, you're safe assuming a 50/50 split between genders throughout the Inner Sea. A simple coin flip or roll of the percentile dice can make the decision for a new NPC if you prefer.

Earth could learn a lot from some of the things we do in Golarion though.

I am actually quite curious - how many people would consider it a dealbreaker if there were (relatively minor) stat adjustments for males and females of all or most races? I think one of the early D&D editions had those... probably AD&D (the 1E version).

It'd be a dealbreaker to me.

Early editions of D&D didn't have stat adjustments for geneder, but they had something that's arguably worse—stat maximums based on gender, or more precise, stat maximums if your character wasn't a guy. A woman could never be as strong as a man in AD&D.

Probably the most important way the game has matured/evolved over the years is that it dropped that silly bit.

James Jacobs wrote:

Deadmanwalking wrote:

Gnolls tend to be patriarchal as well (oddly enough)

That bit there's kind of an error we're working on fixing. Gnolls should be matriarchal.

Personal question - how difficult have you found it to be in attempting to design Golarion with gender equality in mind? Is it hard not to include unintended mores from your culture in real life (not making any assumptions on what culture that is)? What does the term 'gender equality' mean for you in terms of setting design?

[notebook poised]

When I'm designing for Golarion, not all that difficult at all.

When I'm developing work from some authors, quite difficult, since some authors don't realize their male privilege is showing quite so blatantly when they write.

What "gender equality" means to me is kinda complex, but you can look at the gender mix in our deities or our iconics to get a sense of the tip of that iceberg. In terms of setting design, it basically means that it's important to look at every NPC and decide if that NPC needs to be a man or a woman or whatever, and to try to keep an equal spread of genders represented across all NPC types, be they villains or heroes, victims or persecutors, monsters or humans, etc. And as good as you think you can do, and as unbaised as you hope you are... you can always do better—and it helps to have folks other than yourself read and edit the work you do to bring new perspectives to things.

That said, there are cases where there is NOT gender equality, particularly in certain societies (drow, gnoll, orc), religions (Kostchtchie), races (harpy, hag, satyr, xill), and the like. In those cases, the gender dominance tends to be a key part of things and a defining element of that society, religion, or race. Writing about gender inequality is not the same as promoting or supporting gender inequality, any more than writing about depravity is supporting depravity. To paraphrase Ebert in his 4 star review of George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," "A movie can be about depravity without being depraved."

Personally, though, I tend to err on the side of more female NPCs in my writing than male NPCs, particularly when it comes to positions of power or prominence in a story line. Thus, for Burnt Offerings as an example, the mayor of the town is a woman, the primary villain of the adventure is a woman, the most significant PC ally is a woman, etc. Pretty much because I try NOT to fall into the trap of only writing from the viewpoint of a man writing in a society with a lot of male-dominated issues and influences. I like to think of myself as a feminist, I guess, but I kinda get nervous claiming that because I'm a man. It's complicated, in other words, and I hope that does at least a little good in there somewhere to answer your question.

I plan on creating a city for a homebrew soon. How do you go about creating the map of a city for a print product? Any tips for creating a new city or mapping in general?

Most of my notes on how to build cities and maps can be found in the GameMastery Guide and in a more extensive detailed version in Wizard of the Coast's "Dungeon Master's Guide II" for 3.5.

Basically, I start by sketching the basic shape of the terrain the city's located in on graph paper, then count up the squares to determine what scale makes sense for the proper population density, then I start drawing buildings and streets and features. Creating the map for a city takes a long time, but as I create it, I'm also deciding on what buildings are what and all that.

The printed in the product version is done by a professional artist/cartographer, working off of my map turnover... although my city maps tend to be pretty detailed, and often there's some detail lost in that transition, alas, in exchange for making the map pleasing to look at.

1)Will the "Bio-tech" found in the Iron Gods AP volume 4 be useable by the PCs( and humanoids in general)?

2)Will the Technology guide book have rules for space ships? If so will it have different kinds of space ships?

3)Will the last hardcover of the year be revealed at Paizo Con, Gen Con, or before those two?

4)When will we find out more about the People of the Stars book? Is it a race book, or a general players guide, or both?

5)Are we getting any more monster revisited books this year?

6)Are Kaiju born, created, or both? Do Kaiju ever form mated pairs or reproduce asexually?

7)Will Warpriest have to choose a deity like clerics?

1) Maybe. Not without disadvantages, I suspect. It's certainly not intended to be something most humanoids would desire.

2) Nope. Space travel enables Iron Gods, but is not a PART of Iron Gods. What we do with space ships will be largely handled as part of the adventure backgrounds and location features, not as specific rules PCs can use.

3) Probably Gen Con, but the actual timing of that is up to Erik, not me.

4) We'll have more about it later, but you can infer plenty from the fact that it uses the same naming scheme as something like "People of the North" and NOT "Blood of the Moon."

5) We haven't announced any yet, but the office of expectation management suggest you not anticipate any more monster revisited books anytime soon.

6) It varies from kaiju to kaiju.

7) In the core rules, no. It's worded like the cleric is in the core rules. On Golarion, yes, I hope tehy will. Another battle lost by me.

What's the deal with Merfolk in Golarion?

They have a plan. They don't know it though.

More to the point, I have a plan for them but I'm not ready to reveal all those details quite yet.

James Jacobs wrote:

SnowJade wrote:

Tels wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Tels wrote:

SnowJade wrote:

What does it say about me that I'd rather read The Mouse That Roared than Of Mice and Men?

I take it you always rooted for Jerry in Tom and Jerry cartoons?

I was going to answer this, and then I realized it's not directed at me, and that made me cranky since it tricked me.

It's Cosmo's fault.

Oooohh, good save, Tels! As for rooting, whose avatar is feline?

No kidding, James, have you really read Of Mice and Men? What's it like?

It's very VERY good. Devastatingly depressing. Extraordinarily well-written. Much deserving of its place among classic literature.

Ah. What actually prompted my original comment was the fact that Crazy and I went to see "Under the Skin" on Saturday, and I couldn't make heads or tails of screenplay, so I decided to read the book (I love my Kindle.) It's very much in the "classic" mode; beyond the obvious elements of the plot, the author is exploring the universal (oh, all right, pun intended) themes of, well, alienation, dislocation, gender bias, etc. Which made me wonder if, in your opinion, classes on literature in high school would be more productive if books like Under the Skin, Dune and Stranger in a Strange Land were taught as well as the old standbys?

My high school english class was my favorite class, actually. I don't think it's the mix of books that makes a class productive or not as much as it is the teacher's personality and attitude mixed with the students' attitudes (in my high school, the ONLY "honors" class was the english class, so I guess that helped too, since the students in that class generally wanted to be in the class...).

Mr. James Jacobs,

What is Irori or Irori's faith opinion on those who seek to perfect themselves through body modification, grafts, super science implants, etc.?

That's cheating.

Cr500cricket wrote:

I'm starting to feel bad for Cosmo... All the hate heaped on him

Don't feel bad for him, check who favorites everyone of those blame Cosmo posts.

James, what do you blame Cosmo for?

Nothing at all. Cosmo is my missing gall bladder buddy.

Tels wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Tels wrote:

SnowJade wrote:

What does it say about me that I'd rather read The Mouse That Roared than Of Mice and Men?

I take it you always rooted for Jerry in Tom and Jerry cartoons?

I was going to answer this, and then I realized it's not directed at me, and that made me cranky since it tricked me.

It's Cosmo's fault.

Oooohh, good save, Tels! As for rooting, whose avatar is feline?

No kidding, James, have you really read Of Mice and Men? What's it like?

It's very VERY good. Devastatingly depressing. Extraordinarily well-written. Much deserving of its place among classic literature.

Gnolls tend to be patriarchal as well (oddly enough)

That bit there's kind of an error we're working on fixing. Gnolls should be matriarchal.

SnowJade wrote:

What does it say about me that I'd rather read The Mouse That Roared than Of Mice and Men?

I take it you always rooted for Jerry in Tom and Jerry cartoons?

I was going to answer this, and then I realized it's not directed at me, and that made me cranky since it tricked me.

What does it say about me that I'd rather read The Mouse That Roared than Of Mice and Men?

Just that you have different tastes than I do.

What is the most professionally satisfying product you've had a writing credit on?

Most difficult?

Most disappointing product after it passed through the editors?

Pathfinder #1.

Whatever project I happen to be working on right now.

No comment, other than to say it wasn't a Paizo product.

I have to say that I find it kind of odd that Saventh is listed as 'only' a fighter 20/champion 6 considering that she basically defeated a god single handedly. At least, the more recent descriptions of Ydersius make him sound like a god rather than a demigod.

NPCs get to do things PCs can't.

Mr. James Jacobs,

The Fleshwarper prestige class from 3.5's Lords of Madness requires the craft graft flesh feat. Now if you take the differences between the editions of the skill systems into consideration the feat in pathfinder would require 7 ranks of heal to qualify for, thus having the prestige class 1st level usually be a characters 8th character level.

Now my question: If you were to play a fleshwarper or have a player play a fleshwarper would you keep the requirements for the feat and thus the class as is or considering the power differences between 3.5 and pathfinder would you be willing to lower the required ranks down to 5?

I'd keep them the same. Not every prestige class needs to be something you can get at 5th level.

So James, where do I submit my resume

That information is posted here, on our boards, as job openings come up.

Note that we currently don't have any job opportunities up, but that won't stay that way. (We just hired a developer, for example, and the application window for a new designer just closed.)

EDIT: Changed my post. Wasn't worth it.

Make of Sandpoint what you will to work best in your game.

Looks like this also confirms that Rovagug a Qlippoth.

I'm pretty sure that was already confirmed.

James far be it for me to tell you how to run Paizo, BUT if you don't do a follow up book to this one you are an insane person who hates money.

I've been called worse.

Do you have any advice for the people entering the Heroes of Magnimar contest?

Nope. That's one of the differences between writing freelance material I hire you to write and writing material for a contest.

someone putting together an Aklo grammar and word guide.

Thought you might be interested in :3

Hmm... Not sure how I feel about that. I think Aklo's one of those things that gets less interesting and less compelling the more we know about it.

James Jacobs wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Which of the ancient empires would you associate the most with Carthage? I'm not sure whether the Jistka Imperium or Tekritanin League would be more accurate, especially given that Jistka's where the Hellknights got their naming conventions from, so they may be more Roman...

None, really. Unless it's Iblydos, which we haven't really done anything with.

Rats. Thanks, all the same though.

Were there any ancient empires that didn't have horribly evil skeletons in their closet (Azlant had the aboleths and demon worship, Osirion had dealings with the Dominion of the Black, Sarkoris and Ghol-Gan had demon worship too, Jistka had...whatever caused their downfall and madness, and Thassilon, well, it was Thassilon). Were there any GOOD ancient empires that collapsed not because of some cancer at their heart but through circumstance or whatever?

All empires have evil skeletons in their closet. That's kinda what makes them interesting. Golarion's not that big into "good empires." Makes it more adventurery.

So, it's up to PCs to found them, is what you're saying? ;)

Perhaps.

Will you guys be releasing any details on the technomancer (core abilities, prerequisites, etc.). I want to figure out if I should spec an npc towards it, and want to figure out if it's appropriate.

We're still a few months away from even starting to consider how we're going to preview this book... and in the grand scheme of things, the technomancer is one of the less outlandish and unusual elements of the book, so that may mean it's less appropriate to preview and thus get folks's expectations for how things like lasers work managed right.

We'll see though!

James Jacobs wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Which of the ancient empires would you associate the most with Carthage? I'm not sure whether the Jistka Imperium or Tekritanin League would be more accurate, especially given that Jistka's where the Hellknights got their naming conventions from, so they may be more Roman...

None, really. Unless it's Iblydos, which we haven't really done anything with.

Rats. Thanks, all the same though.

Were there any ancient empires that didn't have horribly evil skeletons in their closet (Azlant had the aboleths and demon worship, Osirion had dealings with the Dominion of the Black, Sarkoris and Ghol-Gan had demon worship too, Jistka had...whatever caused their downfall and madness, and Thassilon, well, it was Thassilon). Were there any GOOD ancient empires that collapsed not because of some cancer at their heart but through circumstance or whatever?

All empires have evil skeletons in their closet. That's kinda what makes them interesting. Golarion's not that big into "good empires." Makes it more adventurery.

James, as you create monsters do you ever sit and think to yourself, "when we cross the line to the boundless and hideous unknown—the shadow-haunted Outside—we must remember to leave our humanity and terrestrialism at the threshold..." ?

Nope. Usually it's more like "Oooh... this monster is really cool!" when it gets that far out there.

Sorry James, I think I asked a lot of dumb questions. I'll keep it succinct.

1) I meant 3:47, sorry about that. It's a female character angrily saying "...I'm coming for you, demon f***s!"

11) But I mean, what generally? We already established earlier that Hobs don't rape people (that's more of an Orcish thing), so they don't have pleasure slaves. I would imagine mostly manual labor of different kinds?

12) It's just that you said about ten pages back that if a mortal fails in their deities worship, they get significantly less rewards in the afterlife, especially in the case of evil deities. I've tried to characterize my Hobgoblins as a bunch of pro-Moloch crusaders. I guess the real question I'm trying to ask is: does Moloch look down on soldiers who are not "at the tip of the spear" on the frontlines?

1) Ah... Maybe Yaniel, then.

11) It's mostly labor.

12) He probably would.

1) Would the line of dialogue at 4:47 in this video be something that Anevia, Irabeth, Yaniel, or Galfrey would say?

2) I know I tend to ask a lot of questions about Hobgoblins and Moloch, but that's only because Moloch-worshiping Hobgoblins are the main villains of my campaign. Book of the Damned states that Moloch is more willing then other evil deities to intervene in somewhat direct ways, provided he is honored by those calling him. To what extent would he support a loyal Hobgoblin army? Devil-divisions? Raining down fire from the sky?

3) How similar or different would Hobgoblin's worship of Moloch be compared to the human Moloch-cult from PFS Citadel of Flame?

4) Would Hobgoblin Moloch-worshipers burn people alive in brazen bulls?

5) Would they try to impart their worship of Moloch on humans in any form?

6) Would Hobgoblins have their own twisted version of West Point where they teach strategy and conquest to aspiring warlords?

7) Besides Goblins and Bugbears, what other species do Hobgoblins ally with?

8) Does their society have marketplaces and an economy beyond just warring?

9) Do they ever build cities or practice agriculture?

10) If Hobgoblins write their unit numbers or titles on standards, would their goblin minions/slaves freak out?

11) What exactly do slaves do in a hobgoblin settlement? Building, mining, et cetera?

12) Lastly, and I know I'm really pushing this...If two-thirds of Hobgoblins aren't fit for military duty and end up in their servant caste (Classic Monsters Revisited), would they be failing Moloch in their worship and given crappy-petitioner status where they can't even become devils?

1) Considering that the video you linked only goes to 4:43, I'd say no.

2) As much as is needed for your campaign. It's your campaign, after all, not mine. That means you get to decide how much support Moloch would give his hobgoblins.

3) I'm not familiar with that scenario (beyond approving outlines, I am not involved in PFS scenario writing or development or editing at all), so I can't say.

4) I would say yes.

5) That's up to you and what stories you want to tell.

6) Again... up to you.

7) A lot of these answers are up to you... if you're going to do something significant with hobgoblins, you should feel free to make the choices as best fits your campaign. I'm not comfortable making those choices for you.

8) If they have cities or villages, yes. If they subsist entirely on raiding, then no.

9) See # 8 above.

10) Yes.

11) Whatever the hobgoblins want them to do.

12) Serving Moloch and serving hobgoblin society don't need to be the same thing. It'd depend on the situation.

Would the Empire from Star Wars be able to conquer Golarion or would magic be the deciding factor? Now, this is conquest, not destroying (so basically no superweapons). I could see a couple of(meaning at least a dozen) AT-ATs taking on the Tarrasque or maybe Treerazer, although Cthulhu might take orbital bombardment to clear up. Would those foes even be able to be killed by Imperial technology?

That depends on who was paying the bill to produce the crossover. If it were me, then no, the Empire would fail miserably and be crushed by Golarion.

If your coworkers decided that they wanted a Magitech realm on Golarion, what kinds of things would that realm have? Hypothetically speaking of course.

The closest would be the super-science elements in Numeria, and we'll be doing a LOT of stuff about that coming up with Iron Gods and its support books.

Which of the ancient empires would you associate the most with Carthage? I'm not sure whether the Jistka Imperium or Tekritanin League would be more accurate, especially given that Jistka's where the Hellknights got their naming conventions from, so they may be more Roman...

None, really. Unless it's Iblydos, which we haven't really done anything with.

James Jacobs wrote:

Davick wrote:

So James, would the concept of a Genomancer (Gene-manipulating Wizard) be available in Golarion. Are genetics something at all understood or even known about? As a follow up, how would you feel about such a wizard trying to circumvent conjuration and divine magic's monopoly on healing through researching transmutation or even necromantic methods? Is such a thing possible in Golarion? Or is any healing de facto conjuration?

Whether or not genetics are understood or not is kind of irrelevant; that kind of class or archetype isn't appropriate flavor for Golarion (including one based in Numeria). You can do the same type of class by using the concept of bloodlines.

And wizards can't heal. I'm pretty supportive of that. It's one of the things that really sets the flavor of how magic works. If you want to play an arcane spellcaster who casts healing spells... play a bard or a witch. Don't play a wizard and complain about it. That smacks of the problem of playing a rogue or a monk as a fighter and then complaining that your character isn't valid.

That being said, what's your feeling about the Infernal Healing spells, or is the fact that they make the recipient "ping", a suitable balance for breaching that divide?

I think that they push the boundary right up to the line. The fact that they're thematically tied to Asmodeus, the master of interpreting rules right up to the line, is what makes them okay for print, in my opinion.

James Jacobs wrote:

"Bloodline" is fantasy-speak for genetics. It covers the same type of thing, but without using words that create a science-fiction vibe or theme.

Ah I see, you weren't saying anything about the possibility of using sorcerer bloodlines.

So you're saying that even though evolution occurs on Golarion, it's not something that is at all understood by "mortals"? No genetics, no natural selection, change over time, etc?

All of that starts to edge out of the fantasy genre and into science-fiction genre. If you're comfortable with that in your game, by all means go for it. But in print, you won't see a Golarion wizard say:

"This turtle's genetics predispose it toward carnivorous habits evolved over the course of years on this strange island."

You might see the wizard say:

"This turtle's bloodline predisposes it toward carnivorous habits developed over the course of years on this strange island."

The end result, a meat-eating turtle, is the same in either case.

James Jacobs wrote:

Jiggy wrote:

James,

I'm working on the background for my new Mummy's Mask PC. I'm thinking he was expelled from an arcane spellcasting school of some sort, but I want to pick a specific one from the world of Golarion rather than making it generic. What are some Inner Sea magical academies from which one might be expelled after one too many accidents?

Thanks!

Any of them, honestly. I'd pick one from Osirion though, to keep it local.

I was more asking what some such schools might be; I'm not as well-versed in Golarion as you are and didn't know where to start. :)

Best place to start, then, would be Inner Sea Magic. There's several schools listed there.

James Jacobs wrote:

Whether or not genetics are understood or not is kind of irrelevant; that kind of class or archetype isn't appropriate flavor for Golarion (including one based in Numeria). You can do the same type of class by using the concept of bloodlines.

How can it be both irrelevant and inappropriate? I don't understand. I also don't follow your meaning on bloodlines... ?

James Jacobs wrote:

And wizards can't heal. I'm pretty supportive of that. It's one of the things that really sets the flavor of how magic works. If you want to play an arcane spellcaster who casts healing spells... play a bard or a witch. Don't play a wizard and complain about it. That smacks of the problem of playing a rogue or a monk as a fighter and then complaining that your character isn't valid.

Actually, a bard would be a great way to play the character. As a professor of transmutation it would make sense for him to excel at perform (oratory) and profession (scholar), and it only makes sense he would practice the conjuration (healing) spells to better understand them.

The point of the character isn't to circumvent divine healing, it's more just a logical avenue for the character to go down. Even if it is ultimately impossible. That's why i was asking. His true aim is to show how genes combined with magic are sufficient to explain a vast number of the occurrences of Golarion and even the multiverse up to and including the deities, who either don't understand this themselves or who do and don't share it, either one bringing their divinity into question. Finding a sort of "Law of Magic" that bars healing through transmutation means is either evidence that the gods placed it their to keep mortals beholden to them, or it is the beginning of an even bigger mystery.

The character isn't my attempt at a wizard who heals, but at the most logically consistent version of a skeptical atheist Golarion has ever seen! So that's why I was wondering if a genomancer could be a thing or if it would be too much like being an aircraft mechanic, a thing that makes sense but just couldn't be there.

PS: I love playing character's with ideas and goals that end up getting shattered by the time they're done. So the point is also not to try and flip or distort any Golarion canon.

"Bloodline" is fantasy-speak for genetics. It covers the same type of thing, but without using words that create a science-fiction vibe or theme.

James,

I'm working on the background for my new Mummy's Mask PC. I'm thinking he was expelled from an arcane spellcasting school of some sort, but I want to pick a specific one from the world of Golarion rather than making it generic. What are some Inner Sea magical academies from which one might be expelled after one too many accidents?

Thanks!

Any of them, honestly. I'd pick one from Osirion though, to keep it local.

Hello, and nice easter!

Once again, I hace some rather un-related questions, if I may...

1) Are merfolk equally at ease in both seawater and freshwater, or do they react in any way to being in water which has a radically different mineralisation from what they were bred in?

2) An Inquisitor of Desna, an Inquisitor of Cayden Cailean and an Inquisitor of Milani in Cheliax: How would their goals (and probably, methods) differ from one another?

3) Does Nocticula have any canonical children? If so, do any of them have a mortal parent?

4) In the rule books, changelings are defined as being hags' offspring, the differences between changelings born to annis, green and sea hags being defined as racial traits. With the addition of more types of hags to the Bestiaries (e.g. blood hag and winter hag)... are we going to see racial traits for changelings descended from those?

1) They are, but they don't normally go into fresh water.

2) Completely... since those three worship very different deities. The presence of Thrune would compel them to work together, though, and they'd probably find common cause and something to bind them together for a common goal in being rebels.

3) Unrevealed.

4) Maybe some day.

It's said in the Worldwound book that lilitu demons serving certain demon lords are unique in appearance, generally reflecting their sins more physically than others of their kind (examples of lilitu serving Jubilex being covered in slime, or lilitus of Xoveron are morbidly obese). However, what about a lilitu in service to Socothbenoth or Nocticula? They're described as "eyeless, horned, snake-tailed but otherwise beautiful women" in their natural form as it is, so what would render the ones serving them different? Particularly Nocticula - would they look more like succubi and pick up eyes, wings and the like?

Lilitus of Nocticula are pretty much baseline lilitus. As are those of Socothbenoth, although the Socothbenoth ones are more likely to be adorned with piercings or tattoos or body modifications.

James Jacobs wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

So what you're saying is that the cleric is the only divine spellcasting class that explicitly HAS to have a deity?

On Golarion? Yes, that is correct.

So what determines such a character's domains? If an inquisitor does not specifically NEED a deity, then what's to stop a person from just picking any random domain regardless of the context of which deities have sway over what? How do you play an inquisitor divorced from the concept of "an agent of the church?" And why doesn't everyone just go inquisitor if they can be free of a deity's strictures by doing so? Why does anyone WANT to be a cleric?

And, as you state you don't like the Synthesist Summoner, what would be a good substitute setup for a character who shares their body with some sort of outsider. You've played Dragon Age, so I know you'll have context for this: how would you portray Anders or other abominations without using the Synthesist summoner?

The GM gets to approve the inquisitor's domain choices. And frankly, I probably wouldn't play a non-deity worshiping inquisitor, because that's not really of interest to me. I can't answer why the people of the world have different interests than me or you. They just do.

As for doing something like Anders? Monster templates. Half fiend, for example, adjusted by the GM to do what needs to be done.

I thought templates weren't generally something first-level characters have access too?

Templates aren't generally something ANY character has access to.

But if you're going off-model for what is and isn't a character, the GM gets to break those rules if needed.

1) You've said before that the starting ages for aasimar and tieflings in the Advanced Race Guide are not canonical for Golarion, and that they have a more human-like maturation process...in that case, which maturation age would you tend to recommend? Human? Perhaps half-elf to represent a bit slower of a maturation? Or even half-orc or orc for a quicker maturation? I'm curious as to which you think would be most appropriate for an off-the-cuff solution?

2) I know you're a fan of elves, and I saw someone talking about the versions they preferred (Norse), and I know you've said you're not a huge fan of some aspects of Tolkien-esque elves, so now I'm curious...what are your favorite representations of elves and elven society, either in books, television, movies, games, pen and paper RPG settings, or whatever, and what did you like about them?

3) If you had the time and the money to do so, what are some of the places here on Earth that you'd like to travel to and visit, and why? Presuming you like travel, at least!

1) Human.

2) It's not that I don't like Tolkien's elves. I do. It's just that I want Golarion's elves to feel different, like they're Golarion elves, not taken from another author. The thing I like best about elven society is the way they're carefree and artistic, I guess. And pointed ears are cool.

3) Antarctica, Loch Ness, Lake Okanagan, Rhode Island, and Japan would be my top 5 list.

James are there half-hobgolins in Golarion?

Nope.

James Jacobs wrote:

I'm actually not all that well-versed on the summoner or its archetypes. I don't have a lot of interest in the class, to be honest. If you want more "rulsey" rulings for it, you'll need to ask elsewhere. My take would be to knee-jerk rule in the least-advantageous way for synthesists, though, since they are, in my opinion, too overpowered and too complex.

The Dragon subdomain is not inherently aligned to any alignment, in any event.

ah i see, i had read some stuff Sean K R had talked about it and kind of points to that they do work but i wanted to ask your take on it

thank you for replying to my questions on it
but i have a different one now

how do you feel on Non Lethal type of combat? love it, hate it?
I've loved the idea of the Sap Master Rogue Line for awhile now, very over powered if you can get your target flat footed

i've generally always floated to the idea of non lethal if i had the option in games to knock out the enemies or kill them

Nonlethal combat is a perfectly viable option and, in fact, often allows for more interesting stories. Best is a mix, though.