Creative Director
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Aasimar or tiefling, I suppose. They don't really have much ties to the storyline (although with the demon stuff later on, a tiefling's a better choice than the aasimar, I suppose), but both are established races that live in Varisia, and that's a region that certainly would draw outcasts like this.Honestly, the best race to play in Second Darkness if you want to mesh with the storyline would be elf.
Aren't you biased on the point of Elves? It's well known you're an elf Apologist. You even created an Iconic Elf.Some elves are in on it. Most are not.
It's not wrong at ALL to play a race that plays a strong role in a campaign. Actually, to be specific, it IS metagamey, but in a great and productive and positive way.
Playing an elf gives you +1 more reason to want to go on the Second Darkness adventurers, in fact. Even if it's only "I want to find out the truth of the rumors."
We don't have an "iconic elf."
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Hi James, I have a question on why there is such a disparity between the magic level of the characters presented in pazio fiction [which is very good IMO. I have bought all of the novel except the pirate novel. ] and the magic level of the AP's?
I wish Pazio would make the magic level of the AP's the same as the magic level of the fiction and give the characters the means acquire to the high magic that is presented so well in the Pazio fiction.
Do you have any plans to write in the Fiction line?
Because fiction and game have different needs, despite being set in the same world, there are differences in things like "magic level." What's great for a novel is not always great for an RPG product, and in fact is often TERRIBLE for an RPG product. And vice versa.
Furthermore, as a general rule, the people who write the novels are different than the people who write the game, and therefore there will be differences anyway.
I would love to write more fiction, including fiction for Pathfinder Tales... but finding the time to write that tends to be impossible given the amount of time I need to spend writing for the game side.
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Creative Director
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What are some good starting points or examples for the kind of mindset you get as a forlorn elf? I know Merisiel is one, but she's unique.But how does such a character start out? I thought part of Second Darkness' plot revolved around the fact that the characters are outside help recruited by the elves, rather than working FOR the elves right from the start.Just starts out as an elf, just like in any other campaign. Elf is a core race; you don't need to do much extra work to justify the choice in-world for ANY adventure path, including Second Darkness. The fact that the player knows it's an elf-themed AP doesn't matter.
There are PLENTY of elves who aren't part of the secret societies (lantern bearers or Winter Council) working against the drow. In fact, MOST elves aren't part of those societies. Just play an elf who doesn't start out as a member of one of those secret societies and you're fine. Forlorn elves, in particular, are a strong choice, since they don't even have ties to elven society at all.
In fact, I suspect that given all other equal options, the lantern bearers would rather hire elves to help them than any other race of adventurer they find in Riddleport.
Read the "Ask Merisiel" thread, frankly. She's the perfect starting point for that mindset. Picking a different forlorn elf is kind of ridiculous, since they're all unique as well, and none of them have anything CLOSE to the amount of personality work I've done for Merisiel on that thread.
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1)Does Charisma represent a creature's appearance,Physical beauty and inner beauty and Sexual attractiveness?
2)Would a creature that had a Charisma score of 1000 have an effect on the creatures around them. Such as if that creature where to walk into a city would everyone that looked at such a creature instantly fall in love with the creature or instantly start lusting after the creature?
1) That's one of the several things Charisma represents, but it's not the only thing; the other abilities influence appearance as well, but the thing that influences it the MOST would be the eye of the beholder.
2) In earlier editions of the game (1st and 2nd edition D&D), having an unusually high or an unusually low Charisma would cause awe or horror. In that game, stats rarely if ever went above 18 for PCs, and they all had different absolute maximums and minimums. Charisma's maximum was, if I recall correctly, 25; it's minimum was –7. It was the only stat that went negative. In any event the game abandoned the "you affect people just by having a high Charisma" score well over a decade ago with 3rd edition. In Pathfinder, the way you affect people in the way you speak is with skill checks. Most of those you use to affect how others see you are Charisma based, but that's as far as it goes.
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Kind of like saying that just because the CIA is an American agency, being American doesn't automatically make you a member?But how does such a character start out? I thought part of Second Darkness' plot revolved around the fact that the characters are outside help recruited by the elves, rather than working FOR the elves right from the start.Just starts out as an elf, just like in any other campaign. Elf is a core race; you don't need to do much extra work to justify the choice in-world for ANY adventure path, including Second Darkness. The fact that the player knows it's an elf-themed AP doesn't matter.
There are PLENTY of elves who aren't part of the secret societies (lantern bearers or Winter Council) working against the drow. In fact, MOST elves aren't part of those societies. Just play an elf who doesn't start out as a member of one of those secret societies and you're fine. Forlorn elves, in particular, are a strong choice, since they don't even have ties to elven society at all.
In fact, I suspect that given all other equal options, the lantern bearers would rather hire elves to help them than any other race of adventurer they find in Riddleport.
Exactly like that.
Are you going through the Dark Portal again on Thursday?
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Creative Director
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2)I was talking from a more flavor view point like what would a creature with a Charisma score of 1000 be like or look like or act look in your opinion?(By the way a Charisma score of 1000 would give you an Ability Score modifier of 495)
2(b)Will i was not born then so why did the later editions of the game abandoned the "you affect people just by having a high Charisma? I like the the idea of an Aura of awe
Any ability score of 1000 is so high that it's ridiculous to contemplate, frankly. That's not the kind of game I'm interested in working on.
If you want to add that type of effect into your game; go for it. In my opinion, that type of effect is best modeled by spells or supernatural abilities.
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What's the general opinion in elven culture about eating meat? Do they prefer a vegetarian lifestyle, like some caricatures depict them, or are there elves just as obsessed with bacon as the Internet seems to be? Do elves practice large scale agriculture, and if so, what's their preferred staple food crop?
Hello James! It's super-remarkable that you're still doing this thread; thanks for that.
In your opinion, what happens when a creature specified to be of a particular sex (for example: harpy, medusa, satyr, etc.) undergoes (willingly or otherwise) magical sex re-assignation (via girdle of opposite gender, elixer of sex shifting, or the like)? Is it even possible for a mono-sexed species to be effected by this sort of magic? Does it have any impact on their abilities? Is this something that a Paizo product has ever addressed in an official capacity?
Thanks in advance for any insights you could provide.
Any chance some of the Inner Sea Bestiary content will become PFS legal? I was hoping it'd roll in with all of the season 6 stuff, but no dice. Fungus Queen is a very neat option for plantshapers (who don't have much to pick from as it is).
Today I have mainly some lore questions:
Where do the Chelish get all of their slaves from?
Do any of the Chelish slaves live rather decent lives under wealthy, and less evil nobles?
I know the Chelish believe strongly that every member has a sort of contract to society, in that slaves and slave owners have a responsibility to society to preform their duties. How does the Chelish government evaluate that if a slave owner decided to be nice, relative to others of similar stature?
Is Abrogail II considered a mythic character in Golarion lore?
1- How do gods battle each other? Do they go head-to-head or do they prefer to settle things using their worshipers, avatars, servants, etc?
2- What do gods think of creatures that are able to use divine power without worshiping a deity, like Oracles?
3- What Pathfinder Tales novel would you suggest to...
3a- Someone who knows well and enjoys Pathfinder and Golarion.
3b- Someone who plays Pathfinder, but knows little about Golarion.
3c- Someone who played Pathfinder/D&D in the past but is mostly unfamiliar with the rules and the setting.
4- What fantasy books are you currently reading?
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Creative Director
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What's the general opinion in elven culture about eating meat? Do they prefer a vegetarian lifestyle, like some caricatures depict them, or are there elves just as obsessed with bacon as the Internet seems to be? Do elves practice large scale agriculture, and if so, what's their preferred staple food crop?
Elves are omnivores. I'd probably say that, over all, dwarves lean toward more meat and elves lean toward more vegetarian, but they're not so off the baseline that they're notably different than humans on average.
No one on Golarion is as obsessed with bacon as the Internet.
Elves don't really do large-scale agriculture, because they don't have the large-scale populations humans do to require that. They're also much better at living in sync with their environments than humans are.
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Hello James! It's super-remarkable that you're still doing this thread; thanks for that.
In your opinion, what happens when a creature specified to be of a particular sex (for example: harpy, medusa, satyr, etc.) undergoes (willingly or otherwise) magical sex re-assignation (via girdle of opposite gender, elixer of sex shifting, or the like)? Is it even possible for a mono-sexed species to be effected by this sort of magic? Does it have any impact on their abilities? Is this something that a Paizo product has ever addressed in an official capacity?
Thanks in advance for any insights you could provide.
A creature like that is affected normally as any others, and it doesn't impact their abilities. We've addressed it in an official capacity by NOT addressing it—therefore, the standard rules for how this applies to most creatures applies to them as well.
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Any chance some of the Inner Sea Bestiary content will become PFS legal? I was hoping it'd roll in with all of the season 6 stuff, but no dice. Fungus Queen is a very neat option for plantshapers (who don't have much to pick from as it is).
Very unlikely. Some of the zero-HD races might some day (and in the case of androids, I believe already are) part of PFS... but the rest of the book is not really intended to be for players. The monsters will and do show up in the adventures now and then, but that's the norm. They're not really meant to be PC options at all, and I actually think condoning them as options lessens their value and impact as monsters.
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So you finally got around to watching Hannibal? What do you think of it?Top five that come to mind first:
Game of Thrones
Walking Dead
Hannibal
American Horror Story
True Detective
Just finished season 2 a few weeks ago.
I obviously think quite highly of it since I listed it on my top five current TV shows.
I think it's actually quite brilliant at all levels, from acting to effects to story to writing to bravery. Love it. And I'm stunned that it actually got a 3rd season greenlit, and not just because it's super gory, but because its such a complex show. Gives me hope that network TV is finally starting to catch up.
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Today I have mainly some lore questions:
Where do the Chelish get all of their slaves from?
Do any of the Chelish slaves live rather decent lives under wealthy, and less evil nobles?
I know the Chelish believe strongly that every member has a sort of contract to society, in that slaves and slave owners have a responsibility to society to preform their duties. How does the Chelish government evaluate that if a slave owner decided to be nice, relative to others of similar stature?
Is Abrogail II considered a mythic character in Golarion lore?
All over. Some are born and raised as slaves in Cheliax. Others are imported from around the world.
Many of the slaves live comfortable lives, yes. A miserable and broken slave is not a good worker, after all. That's part of what makes it all so insidious, after all.
The government doesn't evaluate slave owners that way. As long as they continue to support society, pay their dues, and follow the laws, the government lets slavers treat their slaves how they wish. Of course, a slaver who mistreats slaves enough to cause and/or allow a rebellion to break out and impact society would be punished. Which is why those who regularly mistreat their slaves do their best to overpunish slaves to prevent them from being in any condition to rise up.
Abrogail II is not a mythic character. She, along with many other spellcasters in the world, had her level revealed back in Inner Sea Magic. She's an aristocrat 2/sorcerer 16. More or less because that puts her in the exact right place to serve as a big-bad-end-gal for an AP should we choose to go that route some day.
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1- How do gods battle each other? Do they go head-to-head or do they prefer to settle things using their worshipers, avatars, servants, etc?
2- What do gods think of creatures that are able to use divine power without worshiping a deity, like Oracles?
3- What Pathfinder Tales novel would you suggest to...
3a- Someone who knows well and enjoys Pathfinder and Golarion.
3b- Someone who plays Pathfinder, but knows little about Golarion.
3c- Someone who played Pathfinder/D&D in the past but is mostly unfamiliar with the rules and the setting.4- What fantasy books are you currently reading?
1) Any way they want. There are no rules governing those fights, by design. A clash between the gods is basically an open invitation to an adventure or story writer to do whatever they want, rules be damned. Check out any of the countless examples of gods fighting in the last several thousand years of mythology and entertainment for examples.
2) Depends on the god, but for the most part, those concerns are far below the scope and range of something that most gods would even notice.
3) Those are better questions for James Sutter.
4) Lately, my reading has pretty much focused on horror short stories, and I am eager to start reading Stephen King's new novel ASAP. I actually don't read a lot of fantasy at all, frankly—George Martin is in fact the only fantasy I've really read much of all of for the past few years.
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What's the general opinion in elven culture about eating meat? Do they prefer a vegetarian lifestyle, like some caricatures depict them, or are there elves just as obsessed with bacon as the Internet seems to be? Do elves practice large scale agriculture, and if so, what's their preferred staple food crop?Elves are omnivores. I'd probably say that, over all, dwarves lean toward more meat and elves lean toward more vegetarian, but they're not so off the baseline that they're notably different than humans on average.
No one on Golarion is as obsessed with bacon as the Internet.
Elves don't really do large-scale agriculture, because they don't have the large-scale populations humans do to require that. They're also much better at living in sync with their environments than humans are.
How do elven cities grow enough food to feed everyone, then? It seems like if they're not big on agriculture they'd never move past nomadic hunter-gatherer type societies.
That's always something that's bothered me about elven cities in fiction. Sure, you can get a lot of food from nature and stuff, but there's thing like winter storage, animal migration, local disasters and scarcities. If elves were nomads that would be a non-issue, since if food became a problem in one area, they can simply go somewhere else. People living in cities can't really do that, and so they depend on farming and animal husbandry to compensate. If elves have a large enough population to have achingly beautiful metropolises in the trees, and a standing army to maintain a constant war with Treerazer, where are the fields and farms to sustain them?
Come to think of it that's a problem with almost ALL races in fantasy literature. Humans and the odd halfling or two are the only ones you ever see doing any actual farm work!
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Creative Director
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What's the general opinion in elven culture about eating meat? Do they prefer a vegetarian lifestyle, like some caricatures depict them, or are there elves just as obsessed with bacon as the Internet seems to be? Do elves practice large scale agriculture, and if so, what's their preferred staple food crop?Elves are omnivores. I'd probably say that, over all, dwarves lean toward more meat and elves lean toward more vegetarian, but they're not so off the baseline that they're notably different than humans on average.
No one on Golarion is as obsessed with bacon as the Internet.
Elves don't really do large-scale agriculture, because they don't have the large-scale populations humans do to require that. They're also much better at living in sync with their environments than humans are.
How do elven cities grow enough food to feed everyone, then? It seems like if they're not big on agriculture they'd never move past nomadic hunter-gatherer type societies.
That's always something that's bothered me about elven cities in fiction. Sure, you can get a lot of food from nature and stuff, but there's thing like winter storage, animal migration, local disasters and scarcities. If elves were nomads that would be a non-issue, since if food became a problem in one area, they can simply go somewhere else. People living in cities can't really do that, and so they depend on farming and animal husbandry to compensate. If elves have a large enough population to have achingly beautiful metropolises in the trees, and a standing army to maintain a constant war with Treerazer, where are the fields and farms to sustain them?
Come to think of it that's a problem with almost ALL races in fantasy literature. Humans and the odd halfling or two are the only ones you ever see doing any actual farm work!
Elven cities aren't that common, first of all, but they DO use agriculture to feed their citizens. Elven agriculture is much more in tune with the natural world than human (or anyone else) agriculture though; what to a human might seem to be a thick tangle of blackberries is in fact an elven blackberry farm, for example.
Furthermore, elves simply don't eat as much as humans, and MUCH less than dwarves. They have slower metabolisms, and might only eat once a day or every few days even. Note that this isn't taken to the extreme of "elves starve slower than anyone else."
As for fantasy literature... turns out that in most cases, the author is simply more interested in telling a story than building agriculture plans for his/her world. Because in most all cases, authors are authors, not agriculture experts. And when it comes to elves, the fact that they do it differently helps to make them not feel just like humans with pointed ears.
When you have the time and resources to present a limited amount of information about a topic (which is ALWAYS the case with books, because you only get a finite number words on a page (less if there's art) and have a limited number of pages), the writer pretty much always needs to focus on the stuff that the writer feels is more important to the situation. For a fantasy game like Pathfinder—that means focusing on the adventure content and the "adventure adjacent" content. If we talk about elven agriculture, it needs to be justified by having an adventure play a significant part of the whole... or it needs to be in a big 64 page Campaign Setting book about agriculture or elven society (neither of which we've done).
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If we talk about elven agriculture, it needs to be justified by having an adventure play a significant part of the whole... or it needs to be in a big 64 page Campaign Setting book about agriculture or elven society (neither of which we've done).
So, when can we look forward to the "Farmville on Castrovel" AP? ;-P
What were the roles of Obox-ob,Demogorgon, Orcus and the other WotC owned demon-lords in your homebrew setting?
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Creative Director
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What were the roles of Obox-ob,Demogorgon, Orcus and the other WotC owned demon-lords in your homebrew setting?
Obox-ob played the role of primary antagonist deity. He was sort of a combination of how Rovagug and Lamashtu work in Golarion.
Demogorgon, Orcus, and the others were more or less unchanged, but if you want full details, check the various Demonomicon of Iggwilv articles I wrote for Dragon... or the demon lord information in Hordes of the Abyss, which I also wrote.
What's a favorite game night snack that you and your group enjoy?
Is the coffee in Seattle as amazing as they say?
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Creative Director
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Is the coffee in Seattle as amazing as they say?
It is. And beyond that, it's easy to get at any hour of the day. One of the larger culture shocks I have every year at Gen Con is seeing a Starbucks close before 2:00 in the afternoon on a Sunday.
But yeah... the coffee here is plentiful and wide ranging in its options.
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Creative Director
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I have a problem with writing plots and I'd be interested in your feedback. Whenever I try to write a plot where characters are faced with an interesting challenge - whether it's morally good or bad - I find myself getting too caught up in how the characters solve that problem, rather than how to turn that problem into a story.
For example: the ambassador's house is too well guarded so the bad guys can't sneak in and murder them; or if the diplomat is murdered the bad guys do it professionally and don't leave any clues behind. I can't seem to come up with an out in these situations without making it seem cheap.
Is this a writing difficulty you've ever encountered, and if so how do you deal with it?
Practice is, alas, the answer here. The more you write adventures and the more you see how your particular group plays the encounters out and the more you learn from that playing out, the better you'll get in the future at writing encounters.
Reading published adventures is a close second to practice. Reading published adventures gives you concrete examples how other people build encounters, and you can use the construction of those encounters provided by professional game designers to hone your own skills. In the same way that reading novels makes you a better writer.
So James, any chance of another batch of misfits getting the redemption treatment? Varghouilles? Brain-Moles? Myconids? Some further exploration into the Gelatinous Cube?
Mr. James Jacobs,
Say someone took all of an AP and fleshed it out into novels or an audio play. Assuming it was good and ready to go right then what would you or the person in the company who would handle such matters do with it?
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Do you know any good ways to take characters with a similar trait and make them play out differently? If there's one thing that's really making character writing hard for me, it's the old "their races and classes may be different, but all these people act and behave the same way!" problem. I really want to diversify the characters I play so I'm basically not playing each AP as the same personality or attitude, and I've probably asked some variant of this question to you in the past, but it's a big creative roadblock for me.
What will be the monster themes for Giantslayer AP and the Hell's Rebels Ap's coming out next year? (talking about the bestiaries in those AP's)
Will we get 1 giant each AP? And also mythological creatures in the mix? Or does it have a very strick no-myth theme?
And does the Devil-AP only have devil-like creatures in it? Or a fresh mix?