James Jacobs's page

James Jacobs wrote:

Kelban Alenark wrote:

What would you use as stats for a Jumonji Yari spear, such as the one wielded by Yukimura Sanada in Dynasty warriors or Sengoku basara

Ummm... a normal spear won't work? AKA: I'm not really sure what you're talking about...

A Jumonji Yari spear looks very similar to a trident with long spear characteristics, like two handed and with reach and you can't throw it. Here is a picture of the spear. And here is the character from the anime/video game that the poster mentioned.

I would treat that as a ranseur.

uriel222 wrote:

If you never say what happened to Aroden, or even provide sufficient clues to guess, how is that distinguishable from you not knowing what happened to him?

Have you ever seen a series which has very good subplots, leaving some things unsaid but with hints everywhere? And then one day, a (presumably new) writer interjects something which is completely contrary to the previously provided details?

Upholding the internal consistency of the story is what separates great works from good works. As Mr. Jacobs knows what is going on, he knows what minor details other writers might create that should be rejected from becoming canon.

Edit: Also read Cthulhudrew's post, Mr. Jacob touches upon his purpose there.

As for clues, there are many. It would be a poor mystery without clues.

Correct.

There's a pretty huge difference between not knowing a secret and knowing one. In that if I know what the secret is, I can talk about and present ramifications of that condition so that if, some day, we DO decide to reveal it, it'll all make sense and folks will say, "OH! That's why that was that and why that happened!" rather than "Huh... that seems random and out of the blue."

That does means there are hints, and that does mean that if someone finds them all they might be able to figure it out... I'm actually not sure there's enough hints in print already to figure it out yet, and if someone does, I'm not gonna say whether or not they're right... but there IS a plan and a reason going on behind the scenes.

Quote:

"Share Spells (Ex): The druid may cast a spell with a target of “You” on her animal companion (as a spell with a range of touch) instead of on herself. A druid may cast spells on her animal companion even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the companion's type (animal). Spells cast in this way must come from a class that grants an animal companion. This ability does not allow the animal to share abilities that are not spells, even if they function like spells."

That range of "you" mean range of personal or "a spell that you can cast on yourself" with any effective range?

Especially with summoners and eidolons it make a lot of difference.

No... it means a spell with a target of "you." Nothing else really matters; you could cast spells like tree shape or meld into stone on your animal companion.

1)So there are only six (major) spawn of Rovagug, correct?

2)If two spawn encounter each other would they fight, work together, or ignore each other?

3)Will we ever see variant half celestial and half fiend templates based on each major type of celestial or fiend?

4)Could there be more major spawn of Rovagug? because 13 has a better ring to it then 6.

5)Other the six major spawn did he spwan "minor" ones?

6)What is the order of strongest to weakest of the spawn of Rovagug?

7)who or what is Gormuz?

8)Would it be unbalanced to have a racial feat chain to give Aasimar(or Tieflings) wings? Fast Healing? Immunity of some kind?

9)Of the CR20+ outsiders to apear in the innersea beastiary, are any of them not Evil aligned?

1) Something like that, yeah. Lots of minor ones though.

2) That would depend on the two spawn and the situation that brought them together.

3) No... not only is that a huge page count that immediately becomes non-all-inclusive the instant we print another fiend or celestial, but the two templates we have already pretty much do the trick. I could see us printing expanded half-fiend and half-celestial options some day, perhaps... but not specific templates for every one.

4) Six is what we're going with.

5) Yes.

6) Tarrasque is the toughest. Xotani is the weakest.

7) A secret. For now.

8) Not if the prerequisites for those feats were on an equal par with spells and other effects that grant the same type of effect.

9) Yes. Two of them.

What would you use as stats for a Jumonji Yari spear, such as the one wielded by Yukimura Sanada in Dynasty warriors or Sengoku basara

Ummm... a normal spear won't work? AKA: I'm not really sure what you're talking about...

James Jacobs wrote:

No kaiju template ever. I did it once before, back in Dragon Magazine several years ago, and it took up about 8 pages and still wasn't perfect.

We WILL do kaiju as monsters some day... but they'll be a type of monster, similar to how behemoths and linnorms and demons and angels are types of monster. Each one will probably be a unique monster as well.

*stunned* Eight pages for one template? Do I even wanta hint as to what was involved in this?

Well... there were 3 sample stat blocks... but the fact is that a template that not only moves a creature up to Colossal in size but ALSO gives it all sorts of weird new powers is gonna be complicated. If only because it more or less requires adding Hit Dice and multiple size category changes and other stuff... by which point you might as well just make them unique monsters for all the work you're asking someone to go through to build the template in the first place.

It's possible that even the developers don't actually know what happened to Aroden.

Actaully... I do know what happened to him.

Whether or not Aroden is connected to the Eye of Abendego, though... that's one of those mysteries we're deliberately leaving a mystery.

There's pretty much one reason why we haven't updated the warlock... it, like all the other classes WotC created for 3rd edition that were not in the Player's Handbook, is not open content.

We can do base classes for things like ninja and samurai, since even though those WERE classes that WotC built... they're based on real-world stuff. That's why our samurai and ninja classes are pretty different than WotC's.

Now... the word "warlock" is a real word as well, and one based on real world myth and legend. We could, therefore, make a warlock class, but it would have to be different than the one WotC created. We were VERY close to calling the magus a warlock, in fact, but we decided not to since we didn't want to "overwrite" a class that folks still perhaps wanted to use–even though we cannot legally build a 3.5 version of the WotC Warlock, folks can still use them on their own in their games since the rules are compatible. Had we named the magus the warlock, they'd still work but there would be confusion in home games... "Which warlock are you?" and all that.

What is your favorite Cartoon?

That changes from time to time, but currently: "Archer."

Out of pure curiosity: How would you implement rapidfiring firearms (I'm talking, assault rifle-like fire rate) in Pathfinder, given the way firearms have been handled thus far?

Using completely different rules that haven't yet needed to be published due to the fact that we haven't yet put machine guns in the game.

With the popularity of the Guide To the Guides thread, do you think that this would warrant a new product?

There's plenty of source material already in all the community created guides to pull from...

No, for 2 reasons.

1) I'd never heard of the "Guide to the Guides" thread, so it might not be as popular as you suspect.

2) We build the rules for the game. We do not want to tell you which ones are the "best." The whole "guide to building the best class" meme is a cool subject for a messageboard, but it's a TERRIBLE idea for an official publication from Paizo for a LOT of reasons. The biggest two being...

a) I honestly don't believe there IS one best choice for any one build. That's the fun of the game, building a character that YOU like. I'm not interested in tricking people into thinking that Paizo thinks that's not the case.

b) I would be bored stiff working on a project like that, and in my experience, when a designer/developer is bored stiff, it shows in print.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but was the Inner Sea World Guide a unique occurrence, due to the importance of the Inner Sea in Golarion, or can we expect hard cover books for the other continents at some point in the future?

Also, just out of curiosity, what is your process for creating names? I've just been reading some of the sample names in the aforementioned guide, and I can see some possible lingual similarities to Earth naming schemes (especially in Tian-Min and Chelaxian names), but the other seem sort of random. How did you come up with them? Is there a pattern?

Thanks in advance for your time.

The Inner Sea is the focus of the vast majority of our books and adventures and novels. As such... it deserved a hardcover. But getting that hardcover right the way we wanted it took about 4 years, and two previous attempts (one 64 page softcover and one 256 page hardcover). And since at this point every Golarion hardcover we do is an EXTRA hardcover added onto an already pretty full publishing schedule... chances of us going through all of that additional work for a region beyond the Inner Sea that we don't have the plans or resources to support to the extent that a hardcover would deserve are slim at best.

As for how I name things... all sorts of ways. Sometimes I'll use real-world names that sound right for a region. Sometimes I'll use variants of how those names are constructed, swapping letters around to mimic the SOUNDS those names make. And sometimes I just make up new names out of the blue.

Hi, sorry if this question is just been asked, but i need clarification about negative levels mechanic:

whena negative level is taken the pg take a series of malus and this is clear, is not clear for me what happen to spellcaster, if they loose speellcaster level to launch spell, they can homewher launch studied spells or not?
And day after they can study spells for what they no more have requisite due to negative level/s?

Negative levels do not actually reduce the number of spells you know or can cast.

The world's been building monsters for thousands and thousands of years. It's gonna take us more than 5 years to run out of folklore/mythological/fantastic monsters as a result... a LOT more.

But that's not what this book is about.

With the Inner Sea Bestiary, I believe that we're only looking to folklore for one monster... if that. The bulk of the monsters in this book are brand new inventions for Golarion, based on creatures we've mentioned in print, illustrated, or only implied in Golarion products... or in some cases, are ENTIRELY brand new.

Among them are creatures from Numeria... such as the big robot on the cover.

Folks interested in monsters from mythology/cryptozoology/fossil records/legend/etc. will continue to be served monsters of those types every month in the Pathfinder Adventure Path bestiaries.

Do Want.

With that out of the way, there are a few pieces of artwork for Paizo I've seen posted by artists here and there that have yet to match anything in a published book, so I'm keen on each announced book to see if they might be in it. This one? Maybe.

Seeing as how I just gave Sarah the art order for this a few days ago, and seeing how the art staff's been slammed with 600 pages of layout stuff over the past few weeks... I'm pretty sure no artists have started working on this book yet...

** spoiler omitted **

Next question is related to the above one. In the description of special materials, it usually states something along the lines of "40 hp per inch of thickness". How is that information useful if most items do not state how thick they are? Normally only doors and walls are stated the thickness that i have seen. I dont hardly ever see the thickness of weapons and armor for instance.

It may or may not be realistic... but you can basically assume that X amount of a material is enough to make an object that weighs X pounds. Thus... 15 pounds of any material is enough to make 15 pounds of objects, split up however you want.

The game doesn't bother tracking details beyond that.

Weapons and armor have their own hit points. When a material is listed as having a number of hit points per inch of thickness, that's generally just for doors and walls.

What's your favorite Villainous Character/organization in Golarion?

The Red Mantis.

James Jacobs wrote:

The kaiju template is a great example of this—it's something that we had in an early version of Bestiary 3, and mentioned it in an early bit of ad copy or something, but then when we got to developing it... I realized that it's fundamentally not possible to do a 2 page kaiju template that would live up to my standards and so I cut it from the book.

Will we ever get a Kaijuu template? Cause I totally wanna Unleash Godzilla on My PCs. Especially since I was planning on running a campaign utilizing Siege Engine and Vehicle Rules called "Golarion Rangers!"

The premise was a line spoken by Rovagug "After 10,000 years I'm Free! It's Time to Eat Golarion!"

But Right! Will we ever see Kaijuu rules?

No kaiju template ever. I did it once before, back in Dragon Magazine several years ago, and it took up about 8 pages and still wasn't perfect.

We WILL do kaiju as monsters some day... but they'll be a type of monster, similar to how behemoths and linnorms and demons and angels are types of monster. Each one will probably be a unique monster as well.

Eventhough the book isn't finalized, is the number of monsters set in stone at 46?

Absolutely not.

It's possible one of the monsters we have scheduled to be a 1 page entry just has to be a 2 page one, and in that case we might cut a monster in order to make things work.

It's possible that we get a piece of art in at the last minute and it's completely unusable, at which point we'd cut that monster from the book and pick another monster to "graduate" into a 2 page monster.

It's possible that a monster we've currently got scheduled to be a 1 page entry is a lot simpler than we anticipated, allowing us to do two stat blocks on that page and thus gaining 2 monsters.

And so on.

Currently, there's 46 monsters (and 3 templates... cant remember off the top of my head if we include those as "monsters" in the count of 46), and that's my best guess at the total. I'm pretty good at making those guesses these days, but not perfect at it.

A lot can still happen in the months to come.... but I'm probably about 99% positive that the monster count is solid.

Either that or James or another person can come in and edit the post so the information isn't revealed beyond those who got a glimpse at it.

That's not how the internet works.

Once it's on the internet, you can't undo it.

James Jacobs wrote:

Justin Franklin wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

7) Nope. There's two more months of products we haven't announced yet.

And what are you releasing in those two months?

More stuff.

What is going to happen when you let your guard down and Justin Franklin gets lucky with his attempts to wear down your defenses for spoiling some kind of future product?

I'll probably get scolded/yelled at by Erik or Vic or Lisa, I guess. And perhaps inadvertently give a competitor a chance to scoop us on a product or otherwise harm the launch of the product in question.

Turns out, we keep the announcements close to the chest for a lot of good reasons.

James Jacobs wrote:

......do not adhere to the internet cult of bacon......

Ack! Do you at least eat bacon?!?

Now and then, yes. I don't always select it when it's an option, and sometimes specifically avoid it.

James Jacobs wrote:

We do actually run stat blocks through something like herolab... but errors still creep through. When you publish hundreds and hundreds of stat blocks a year... errors happen.

My suggestion is to change the falchion to a cutlass. (Even though factors like "spacing" and "cramped conditions on a ship" don't actually play into the rules, and so a falchion is as workable a choice for weapon as any melee weapon on a ship... it's the lack of proficiency that would make me think that the intention was a cutlass. Perhaps confused by the fact that a real-world falchion is not a giant two-handed scimitar...)

As for the lack of Profession (sailor) ... that's actually not a HUGE thing since that need on a ship can be handled by captains and officers. Even though they're called "sailor pirates" the idea is that this stat block should work for any poor sap you might find on a pirate ship, many of whom are NOT sailors... they're press gang victims or volunteers eager to learn the trade.

Still, if you want to give him profession (sailor) ranks... I'd swap his Escape Artist ranks over, I guess. But again... not 100% necessary.

Cutlass is a martial weapon, he's hitting at -2 still.

(heavy sigh)

Fine. Rapier.

James Jacobs wrote:

Yeah... turns out that on closer inspection to the original source, one of those two is actually the size of a crocodile and so there'll be a bit of development adjustments going on there. The result of which = no longer a good choice for familiar, alas.

I can't remark further publicly, but I was the one that actually brought that to your attention myself. Yet... it's not that simple. The creature is a rare one in that it can vary from Tiny to Large, depending if it is encountered in captivity or in the wild (i.e. that is what the source material specifically says when I read it over a couple times). So I tried to account for that. We'll see if you approve. Sorry, I won't contradict you again in public. :)

No worries!

But this is a good example of why it's best to resist temptation and not talk about the contents of a book too much before it's published—it's why I often try to be cagey or obscure in my answers since sometimes, something might get cut from a book or otherwise change.

The kaiju template is a great example of this—it's something that we had in an early version of Bestiary 3, and mentioned it in an early bit of ad copy or something, but then when we got to developing it... I realized that it's fundamentally not possible to do a 2 page kaiju template that would live up to my standards and so I cut it from the book.

We do actually run stat blocks through something like herolab... but errors still creep through. When you publish hundreds and hundreds of stat blocks a year... errors happen.

My suggestion is to change the falchion to a cutlass. (Even though factors like "spacing" and "cramped conditions on a ship" don't actually play into the rules, and so a falchion is as workable a choice for weapon as any melee weapon on a ship... it's the lack of proficiency that would make me think that the intention was a cutlass. Perhaps confused by the fact that a real-world falchion is not a giant two-handed scimitar...)

As for the lack of Profession (sailor) ... that's actually not a HUGE thing since that need on a ship can be handled by captains and officers. Even though they're called "sailor pirates" the idea is that this stat block should work for any poor sap you might find on a pirate ship, many of whom are NOT sailors... they're press gang victims or volunteers eager to learn the trade.

Still, if you want to give him profession (sailor) ranks... I'd swap his Escape Artist ranks over, I guess. But again... not 100% necessary.

Wind and ocean patterns and currents would be cool... but since we don't have any meteorologists on staff to ensure we did it right, it's not something I'm eager to try.

James Jacobs wrote:

7) Nope. There's two more months of products we haven't announced yet.

And what are you releasing in those two months?

More stuff.

I kind of regard Arcane Strike as important to bards and magi as Natural Spell is to druids... to the point where I almost wish it was a class ability. It's also a great feat for monsters that can cast spells... like dragons.

Hopefully a quick and easy question, since I'm a person from Australia I am an Australian. A person from Mendev is a Mendevi? Just curious what people collectively call people from Mendev (assides from "Hey Templer!"). Also I'm thinking of borrowing the idea of the Night's Watch and having them be a bulwark against the Worldwound, do you think it's a decent idea? If it is what would you call such a group(Honestly I hate coming up with names)?

I'm not sure what the adjective form of Mendev is... that's something the editors keep track of. Mendevi or Mendevian both sound right...

As for the Night's Watch... probably the closest thing we have to them are the Black Arrows from central Varisia—they're detailed in part 3 of Rise of the Runelords. Although the Blackravens from the Lands of the Linnorm Kings are close as well.

In any event, the Worldwound's already got a bulwark—the Mendev Crusaders, so I'd just go with them.

1)The Blood of the night book sounds like it will have more focus on full up Vampires then Dhampir, so will this book be like the Tiefling/Aasimar ones or will it something very different?

2)Wich movie are you most interested in seeing? 1)The Hobbit 2)Promethius 3)The Dark Rises or 4)The Avengers

3)What are odds in the next couple of years might we see more Great beyond type books but more focused or specialized?

4)What are odds of having one book that has the stats to all the Heralds to the 20 main gods/goddesses?

5)Will you ever see American Reunion, The Three Stooges, The Raven, Dark Shadows, or Abraham Lincon Vampire Hunter?

6)What are the odds that we might see some Fey focused books next year?

7)Have you guys announced all the products that will be released this year? I know that the NPC Guide is the last Hardcover for this year.

1) Blood of the Night will be after we re-organize the format for the line, so appearance-wise it will look VERY different. Not sure what exactly's gonna be in it yet.

2) No contest whatsoever—Prometheus. I've been more or less waiting for Prometheus for 30 years. Alien is my favorite movie, and the fact that its director is coming back to do a "prequel" is in some ways a dream come true. I'm looking forward to those other 3 movies, but I'm taking a day off from work for Prometheus.

3) High.

4) High.

5) No, No, Yes, No, Maybe.

6) High.

7) Nope. There's two more months of products we haven't announced yet.

So, the Thursday blog made me go back and look at some old threads, and I noticed one where Erik Mona says that the next adventure path (Age of Worms) is planned to have one adventure for each level up to 20. With a few years of doing adventure paths, how insane would that have been on a scale of 1-10?

(Not trying to claim Erik is insane or anything like that, just finding it funny how some things sound in hindsight.)

It turns out that it would have been a 16 on your scale of 1–10.

James,

What are the chances of seeing stats for the Bacon Golem?

Since the two people who are most responsible for being the gatekeepers of what does and doesn't make it into the game, myself and Wes, do not adhere to the internet cult of bacon...

...chances of a bacon golem appearing approach zero.

James Jacobs wrote:

I generally don't bother with encumbrance in games I run.

I usually don't either. But when my group started finding dragon hordes and then talked about teleporting to town and back before handling the remainder of a dungeon/quest to spend 60,000 coins of various values and sell off many magic weapons and armor, I had to call shenanigans. I've noticed the more I GM, the more I want the stories told at the table to reflect what feels right for a story and encumbrance occasionally enhances that (also enables effects like floating disks and ant haul to be useful). Have you run encumbrance in the past and gotten sick of it or have you never used it? Additionally, does it bother you when somebody has a low strength (like 7-9) and outfits themselves like a traveling merchant?

I generally let the PCs self-police their encumbrance. If a case arises where they try to carry off 60,000 coins (1,200 pounds of coins, according to the Core Rulebook), I'll ask them to explain to me HOW they handle that. But for the most part, I don't bother with encumbrance. It's a MUCH better mechanic for a computer game... in fact, I find that encumbrance is actually a quite enjoyable element of computer RPGS, as it adds a fun bit of tactical management type stuff to what you can carry around.

And when I play the game, I generally do the same with my characters—I track what they're carrying encumbrance wise, but don't worry about the other players.

Now and then, when I get the notion that a PC is carrying around too much, I'll do an encumbrance audit and that PC usually needs to drop the extra 10 suits of plate mail he's carrying. It'll also come into play in scenes where the PCs are supposed to be attending a costume ball or a fancy banquet or will be traveling on a boat or going through a one-way portal. But for the most part I don't worry about it.

But the point of a map is to find things on it, not just be pretty art of an archipelago. Like I say, I can understand that on the islands, but the mainland is a big lump of green, the other coastal cities couldn't go on there?

It's about the Isles of the Shackles. We made a conscious decision to focus 100% more or less on the islands, and that is reflected in the mainland portion of the map.

Given that these creatures are made specifically to fit on Golarion, I'm curious if the creature names (and other flavor text) will be made Open Game Content?

That is, if a third-party publisher wanted to use a lashunta stat block in one of their books, would the name "lashunta" be available to use?

Obviously existing Product Identity (e.g. Rovagug, Golarion, etc.) won't be open - I'm just curious about new monster names and descriptions.

They're open game content. We've done the same for the monsters that appear in Pathfinder Bestiaries.

That said, the FLAVOR text of these monsters won't be open content. If you want to use lashuntas in your third-party product, they can't be from Castrovel. You could make them denizens of a weird cloud city or planar creatures or even elf-replacements... or anything else... but their specific story role in Golarion is closed content.

Cool critters that serve as advanced spellcaster familiars too. edit: I see James commented on this already. Yes, at least one, but I wrote two. They're not normal critters, and are worthy of the Improved Familiar Feat

Yeah... turns out that on closer inspection to the original source, one of those two is actually the size of a crocodile and so there'll be a bit of development adjustments going on there. The result of which = no longer a good choice for familiar, alas.

Two Spawn of Rovagug??? Kickass!! My guesses for the active ones are Volnagur the End Singer and Chemnosit the Monarch Worm. Do I win?

Anyways, put me up as one of those who will definitely pick up this book. Any chance we'll get revised versions of the heralds that appeared in APs 1-24? Even if not, I'm still getting this just for the world ending terrors within...

We won't be printing a single herald in this book. They're not really appropriate for the book, if only because the've already been statted up—ALL of the monsters in this book are brand new, stats-wise. Or more to the point... they're MORE appropriate for an entirely different kind of book.

The reason we gave the qlippoth tieflings a penalty to Intelligence is because qlippoth spawn are observant (Wisdom) and frightening (Charisma) but not all that good at focusing their mind on intellectual concerns. They're more primal, instinctual, and emotional in their outlooks on life than they are calculating, logical, and intellectual.

A question about shields and flat footed/paralysed characters.

If I get it right the rules say that a flat footed or paralysed character get the full bonus from their shield. That seem odd to me. If you can explain the reasoning behind that decision it would be a great kindness.

If it seems odd, change it in your game. The reason it works that way is that a shield still remains a block of metal or wood that could deflect or block an attack even if the shield user isn't actively directing the shield.

A question was brought up to me earlier about Changelings. Changeling's are listed as humanoid, but have no subtype. This is odd, as all other humanoids have a subtype.

The question is specifically about the Bane property. Is there no way for a Changeling to be affected by the Bane property as they are missing the subtype? Or are they affected by all Humanoid Bane weapons, whether they are Human, Dwarf, Giant, Elf etc?

It is odd. Changelings should have a subtype. Hopefully the Advanced Race Guide clears that up, but in the meantime I'd say they had the changeling subtype and just go with that.

James Jacobs wrote:

Sean Terrill wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Sean Terrill wrote:

Hey james! question regarding goblins!

their racial favored class benefit for rogues is either +1 skill rank in stealth or ride, this seems odd to me because the standard favored class bonus is either +1 rank to a skill of your choice. Was this meant to allow more than the skill cap allows? or should it have been errata'd that they don't have a favored class for rogues?

Not sure what that design was about, honestly. (shrug)

What book are you getting that from?

'

Goblins of Golarion; page 31. Under Favored Class Options
Rogue: Add +1 skill rank—this skill rank must be spent
on Ride or Stealth.

Hmm. That seems silly. But then... goblins are silly too at times.

HAHAHA that they are :) just wondering if you had a Point of View on the subject.

That point of view would be that it's not the way I would have designed it, since it doesn't grant anything a goblin can't do normally, but that doesn't mean it's broken or needs errata. I would recommend waiting a month or so to see what Advanced Race Guide offers.

James Jacobs wrote:

Sean Terrill wrote:

Hey james! question regarding goblins!

their racial favored class benefit for rogues is either +1 skill rank in stealth or ride, this seems odd to me because the standard favored class bonus is either +1 rank to a skill of your choice. Was this meant to allow more than the skill cap allows? or should it have been errata'd that they don't have a favored class for rogues?

Not sure what that design was about, honestly. (shrug)

What book are you getting that from?

'

Goblins of Golarion; page 31. Under Favored Class Options
Rogue: Add +1 skill rank—this skill rank must be spent
on Ride or Stealth.

Hmm. That seems silly. But then... goblins are silly too at times.

What is your system for the weight of currency? As in how many gold coins equal 1 pound of weight?

I generally don't bother with encumbrance in games I run.

If the weight of a pile of coins becomes important for some other reason though, the weight of a standard coin is about a third of an ounce (50 coins is a pound). (Pathfinder Core Rulebook, page 140)

Not a question. I would like to thank you for the existence of this thread, and your vigilant stand to answer all our questions.

YAY!

Hey james! question regarding goblins!

their racial favored class benefit for rogues is either +1 skill rank in stealth or ride, this seems odd to me because the standard favored class bonus is either +1 rank to a skill of your choice. Was this meant to allow more than the skill cap allows? or should it have been errata'd that they don't have a favored class for rogues?

Not sure what that design was about, honestly. (shrug)

What book are you getting that from?

As with most of the locations in Dragon Empires... what you see is pretty much all there is. This is certainly the case for the Clicking Caverns and Pan Majang. I'm pretty pleased with both of those locations, and would love to see these sites expanded upon, for one thing.

(Quick History Lesson: When we first decided to do this book, we had a huge brainstorm meeting where everyone called out all the Asia-related tropes and elements they wanted to see in the book. One suggestion was "clockwork necropolis," which may or may not have been inspired by Hellboy. In any event, that was one of the dozens and dozens and dozens of suggestions I really liked, and the result is Pan Majang and the Clicking Caverns.)

What the clockworks of Pan Majang are, though, are those creatures we've statted up in Bestiary 3... but with intelligence scores, since they're possessed. They have feats and skills. No template necessary; just give a clockwork an Intelligence of 10 and pick feats and skills and you're good to go.

What they're raiding is living prisoners. That's where they get the souls for "new" clockworks, after all. By eating living creatures they can digest souls and infuse them into new clockworks—eating living creatures is kind of how they reproduce.

As for who the original inhabitants of Pan Majang were... that's not a secret I'm prepared to reveal more of quite yet.

Hey, so what's the deal with the map in Isles? It doesn't have a lot of the locations on it. Like Port Peril is the only one of a bunch of listed coastland locales that is even on the map.

I can understand minor locations not being on the little islands on the map, but what looks to be "capitals only" on the map makes it of little use. Did those get left off accidentally (in which case a pdf update would be nice)?

The deal is that we didn't want to overly clutter up the map with location tags. The map's already pretty cluttered as it stands with all the island names on there.

Can you please tell me who is the person depicted on the Face Cards: Enemies # 45? I have gone through all my books, and put names to all the cards from Enemies, and Urban NPC's, and the only one i have left is Enemies # 45.

Dunno off the top of my head; could be from Darkmoon Vale or an early module.

James Jacobs wrote:

Von Marshal wrote:

Can the Black Blade granted a Blade Bound Magus be futher enchanted with perminate properties like spell storing?

Nope. Unless your GM says it's okay.

Is this true, even if you Black Blade is a shield as well, like a Black Blade Klar?

Yup.

James Jacobs wrote:

The Thing from Beyond the Edge wrote:

James,

Was there some particular reason the Samurai was given (3d6)x10 gp starting wealth, like the barbarian, instead of (5d6)x10 gp starting wealth like all the other martial classes (including the cavalier which it is a variant of)?

Not being the one who wrote those rules, I can't say if there was a reason or not. If there WAS a reason, my guess would be that samurai aren't supposed to care that much about money.

Ha, but what if they (and perhaps I should say their players...) care about buying weapons and armor?

They should go on adventures then to earn themselves some money.