The Genie Binder

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I am a little late, but :
- Merry Christmas everyone !
- Please excuse my english

I am trying to figure on which planes live the gods worshipped in Tian-Xia.

There are the easy ones :
- Fumeiyoshi --> Abaddon
- General Susumu --> Hell
- Irori --> Axis (but not mentioned in the Great Beyond)
- Kofusachi --> Elyseum
- Lady Nanbyo --> Abyss
- Qi Zhong --> Nirvana
- Shizuru --> Heaven
- Tsukiyo --> Heaven
- Yaezhing --> Hell

There are the ones on the "I am not sure" wing :
- Hei Feng --> boundary between the elemental planes of Air and Water ?
- Lao Shu Po --> Abaddon ? (it does not fit very well her portfolio)
- Sun Wukong --> Elyseum or Maelström ?
- Yamatsumi --> Earth ?

And there this 2 who are totally problematical for me :
- Daikitsu --> ???
- Nalinivati --> ???
That's my only real problem with the Great Beyond : there is neither a neutral plane (apart from the boneyard) nor a "nature plane". Would there be one of those, it would be fine.
So, where live the goddess of agriculture and the goddess of fertility ?

(and I'am still trying to figure why Gorum live in Elyseum and not in Maelström, considering his/its nature)

I will be glad if anyone answer to my questions, but it will be greater to have an official answer from James Jacob, Todd Stewart or any other Pathfinder planar specialist.


Hi everyone !

First at all : Please excuse my english, I am a french native speaker. Please feel free to highlight my mistakes, because I want to improve my english skills.

For many monks/years, I have rejected the all Great Beyond stuff. Not because of the ideas behind it, but because I am in love with Planescape. I discovered RPG with Planescape Torment and had the Planescape setting box before the Player Handbook (AD&D 2). I have a lot of original Planescape's material and all "planar books" of the third edition (manual of planes, planar handbook, book of exalted deeds, fiend folio, fiendish codex 1 & 2). For me, Planescape is jewel of originality and depth. So, for a long time, in my eyes, the Great Beyond has been a "Planescape of the poor", an unnecessary remake without the greatest stuffs protected by WotC's ID : Sigil (its Lady, and its factions...), githzeraï...

But, after 10 years of DMing in Planescape stories and the (almost) end of my two and a half years Planescape campaign (centered around The Great Modron March anthology), I was starting to think differently about the way to tackle the multiverse with players. Obviously, for lots of players, Planescape is mixing really too much things. Too much pantheon, too much planes, too much layers, too much philosophies to handle... I like it but I now understand that it can be sdometimes indigestible for players. So, now, I think I need a Planescape-lite. Maybe it's the time for me to move on Golarion's Great Beyond ? It will make the thing easier for explaining planar stuff in a campaign on Golarion. But... dilemma... I don't want to discard all my old planescape material..!

Several days ago, I finaly decided to purchase The Great Beyond Campaign Setting Book. Nice book, nice ideas in it. Much much easier to handle and to explain. Todd Stewart : thank you !
I am still reading it, but some stuff in The Great Beyond quite bother me. And furthermore I really miss several Planescape features.
So, I want advices/answers from Todd Stewart, James Jacob, or others, to put some aspects of Planescape in Golarion.

- The most important thing for me is to keep SIGIL and its factions (I think I will always play in a pre-faction wars multiverse).
Where can I put Sigil ? Above the Spire's end the Ossuary ?
I don't really like the OUTLANDS and now, the MAESTROM is everywhere, functionnaly replacing it.
Is the SPIRE a plane on her own ? With ossuary on the summit of the spire, rilmani cities on Spire's sides and Sigil above all of that ?
Is it important to keep AXIS near the Spire ?

And I want githzeraï cities (like Shra'kt'lor) and the spawn stone, with slaadi in my MAELSTROM. For me, slaadi lords used the stone to turn chaotic proteans in something more controlled.

Lots of Planescape's planes disappear in the Great Beyond, like all with a mixed-alignment (Arcadia, Bytopia, Beastlands, Ysgard, Pandemonium, Carceri, Gehenna, Acheron, Outlands). But are they importants ?

- ACHERON : It is a lawful neutral(-evil)plane of meaningless battles (or lost meanings)... lawful neutral(-evil), really ? Meaningless battles for me = Gorum --> chaos. Furthermore, Acheron has lost its main feature for me with the change of the orcs' aligment between 2nd and 3rd editions. So definitely, I can deal without this planes.

- BYTOPIA : The traditionnal peaceful labouring rural philosophy behind Bytopia is found in Erastil faith, whose realm is in Heaven. Futhermore, Bytopia involve gnomes' gods realms but Golarion gnomes are very different from D&D classical gnomes... not really compatible. So, no need for Bytopia too.

- GEHENNA is a different matter. Never loved this volcano planes but I think I can understand why it was created. I my opinion, I don't need a whole Gehenna plane. But I want yugoloths in my game - greedy and manipulative fiends, so I want a place where live yugoloths.
I am surprised with the location of Norgorber's domain. Why is it under Axis ? Do you think a place like GEHENNA willl be great for Norgorber portfolio ? Could we imagine a GEHENNA featuring Yugoloths and Norgorber's domain as a part of ABADDON (= GRAYWASTE) ?

- PANDEMONIUM : He is a plane of insanity. Ok, chaos, a bit evil and insanity... The Abyss fill most of the role I think, except for one important planescape feature that I want to keep : the Bleak Cabal (and its Madhouse). Can we imagine the PANDEMONIUM not like a plane, but as a one of the big Abyssal chasm, a border between the maelström and the entrance of the Abyss. A plane owned by the Abyss but nor really tainted by evil (but really tainted by chaos) ?

- YSGARD : I want to add it to the Great Beyond. I want to keep olympian, norse and egyptian pantheon alongside with golarion's one. And I want an Yggdrasil !

- ARCADIA : Arcadia is now a term to designate a Golarion's continent. How confusing ! --> I will banish it (as I will banish the term Elysium : for me Elysium/Nirvana is Nirvana, and Arborea/Elysium is Arborea).
I want to keep the Harmonium training camp and Heliopolis, the egyptian pantheon'god. That's all. I thing I will create a plane named HELIOPOLIS.

- CARCERI (= TARTARUS) : I like the idea of a jail plane. I want to have a place with evil titans and gehreleths/demondands that is not the open Abyss. For me, Rovagug's dead vault is even a part of CARCERI.Is it ok ?

- BEASTLANDS : A plane with petitioner with animals form, planes of nature, away from everything. I am hesitating to keep it. Does Gozreh can lived there ? If I do, it will be a neutral plane, and not a good and chaotic one as in the 2nde edition.

Furthermore, I want to add Regulus, the modrons' realm, under Axis. In this case, is it better to keep Axis near the spire or to make a whole plane with Axis+Regulus far from it?

Last question, I want to add MOUNT OLYMPUS, with the greek pantheon. But... where ? In the mountains of Arborea/Elysium (like in Planescape)or do I create an OLYMPUS PLANE ?

So, it will had to the Great Beyond :
- HELIOPOLIS
- YSGARD
- CARCERI
- BEASTLANDS ?
- OLYMPUS ?


Hello everyone (and please excuse my bad english),

I have a question, especially for James Jacobs, but anyone can answer too. :)

I'd like to know some "official rules" or at least have some suggestions to make a balanced PC gnoll race with no racial hit dice.

The 3.5 rules for PC gnoll were something like that :
- 2 racial HD
- +4 strength, +2 constitution, -2 intelligence, -2 charisma
- +1 to natural AC
- darkvision

Except the +4 in strength, nothing terrific and overpowered.

I tried to make a balanced PFRPG conversion of this race :
- +2 strength, +2 constitution, -2 charisma
- +1 to natural AC
- darkvision
- immunity to pugwampis' unluck aura

But the race is now weaker than the core PC races and almost flavorless. I want the gnoll to be as attractive as an elf or a dwarf. It lacks several things compared to other 0-HD races published so far : a bonus to 1 or 2 skills par exemple or a bonus to save throw.

So, what do you suggest me for this race ?

Does anyone has played a PFRPG with a PC gnoll one day ? (I am thinking of a gnoll PC in Legacy of Fire for exemple...)