Creative Director
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Was Paizo satisfied with how the Monster Codex turned out? Is it likely that we will see a Monster Codex 2 in the future?
Personally? I would have rather had another bestiary, but overall we're satisfied with how Monster Codex turned out, yes.
And we don't announce books that far in advance. We've not yet said anything about a Monster Codex 2, but we have yet to do a "2" for ANY book other than a Bestiary and I'm in no big rush to change that.
What kind of plans are there for Alternate Racial Traits for Bestiary 4 and closed content races? Are there any such plans? If so, when?
What kind of plans are there for Alternate Racial Traits for Bestiary 4 and closed content races? Are there any such plans? If so, when?No plans.
No plans as in, not interested, or no plans as in some day, but not soon?
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James, hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
The Core Cleric has a sentence in the description “While the vast majority of clerics revere a specific deity, a small number dedicate themselves to a divine concept worthy of devotion — such as battle, death, justice, or knowledge — free of a deific abstraction. (Work with your GM if you prefer this path to selecting a specific deity.)”
Pathfinder has several examples:
- Diabolism
- Green Faith
- Ichimeiyo
- Pao-Lung
- Sangpotshi
- Tamashigo
- The Philosophies of Kalistrade
- The Whispering Way
Q: Was the sentence from the cleric class 1) a holdover from 3.5 (missed in editing); 2) a rules decision; 3) a creative decision; 4) a mistake; 5) other (please explain)?
Q: Is the answer to "Can a cleric have a divine concept instead of an actual deity?" different when asked from a creative perspective as opposed to a rules perspective?
Q: Are divine concepts limited to those published by Paizo or can a PC design a concept (with GM approval)?
What are you hoping to get for Christmas this year?
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What is the worst that could happen?
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Creative Director
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No plans as in, not interested, or no plans as in some day, but not soon?What kind of plans are there for Alternate Racial Traits for Bestiary 4 and closed content races? Are there any such plans? If so, when?No plans.
Not interested. The contents of the bestiaries are primarily meant for GMs, not players. We might now and then do some stuff with unusual zero-HD races for PCs in the Player Companion now and then, but otherwise no.
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Creative Director
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James, hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
The Core Cleric has a sentence in the description “While the vast majority of clerics revere a specific deity, a small number dedicate themselves to a divine concept worthy of devotion — such as battle, death, justice, or knowledge — free of a deific abstraction. (Work with your GM if you prefer this path to selecting a specific deity.)”
Pathfinder has several examples:
- Diabolism
- Green Faith
- Ichimeiyo
- Pao-Lung
- Sangpotshi
- Tamashigo
- The Philosophies of Kalistrade
- The Whispering WayQ1: Was the sentence from the cleric class 1) a holdover from 3.5 (missed in editing); 2) a rules decision; 3) a creative decision; 4) a mistake; 5) other (please explain)?
Q2: Is the answer to "Can a cleric have a divine concept instead of an actual deity?" different when asked from a creative perspective as opposed to a rules perspective?
Q3: Are divine concepts limited to those published by Paizo or can a PC design a concept (with GM approval)?
That's a rule I fought hard (and lost) to scrub from the Core Rulebook; we left it in mostly due to fears that removing it would be a step too far for folks who prefered 3.5 (we were, in my opinion, to timid in our changes to the game when we updated to Pathfinder, but that's 100% hindsight in action).
On Golarion, and thus the assumption for all of our content we publish for Golarion, clerics MUST worship a deity.
If you want to be a divine spellcaster who follows a philosophy instead, oracle is the best bet.
To answer your questions specifically:
Q1: Holdover maintained to preserve backward compatibility.
Q2: Yes. (In my opinion, a cleric who doesn't worship a deity is both less interesting AND loses the whole point of the class flavor.)
Q3: A player can design a new deity if he/she wants and has the GM approval, but in my opinion... that's the GM's playground, NOT the player's. It's kinda disrespectful in my opinion if a player wants to make their own deity, frankly. It's kinda like saying to the GM "Your creations aren't good enough and I can do better!" That MAY be the case, but if it is... then the player should be the GM.
Q3:
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I get it that some folks would like to see Pathfinder be a game that presents mindless undead as non-evil, but that's not the game I'm the Creative Director of.If you want non-evil skeletons or zombies, the solution is to transform a body into an animated object or other construct. Things like carrion golems, flesh golems, and bone golems, for example, or simple animated objects made from dead bodies are mindless but not evil. Another variant that's not evil would be the "zombies" created by yellow musk creepers.
With all due respect, James, another solution is to not really give a damn what the Creative Director thinks about what you do at your own personal table. If a group decides that mindless undead are non-evil, I somehow doubt you'll appear at their doorstep to tell them that they are DOINGITWRONG, and demand that they stop having BADWRONGFUN.
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Creative Director
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So the dark side of an Arshean nation would be expressed by beauty pageant moms?
By building a society with open sexuality, fluid gender roles, lots of freedom, and lots of emphasis on beauty.
Ha. No.
The dark side would be ugly or even plain people being forced into second-class citizen positions. The fact that Arshea is good and her worshipers should be good as well SHOULD prevent that sort of classism and segregation from getting too far out of hand, but people are imperfect and get religion wrong all the time.
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Creative Director
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With all due respect, James, another solution is to not really give a damn what the Creative Director thinks about what you do at your own personal table. If a group decides that mindless undead are non-evil, I somehow doubt you'll appear at their doorstep to tell them that they are DOINGITWRONG, and demand that they stop having BADWRONGFUN.
I get it that some folks would like to see Pathfinder be a game that presents mindless undead as non-evil, but that's not the game I'm the Creative Director of.If you want non-evil skeletons or zombies, the solution is to transform a body into an animated object or other construct. Things like carrion golems, flesh golems, and bone golems, for example, or simple animated objects made from dead bodies are mindless but not evil. Another variant that's not evil would be the "zombies" created by yellow musk creepers.
My assumptions when folks ask me questions on this forum boil down to two:
1) They're asking about Golarion, and thus the answers I provide will be "how it works on Golarion."
2) They're asking for my opinion, and thus the answers I provide will be "How I'd make it work in my home game."
In pretty much all cases, all of those answers will be identical, because my home game pretty much IS the world of Golarion, with a few minor exceptions. That's kind of the whole point of my job and what I get paid for, frankly. It's a pretty unique situation.
Of COURSE I won't show up at your house and tell you you're playing the game wrong. That's not something I'm interested in at all. You know what's fun for your table, and that doesn't have to be the same as what's fun at mine. That's the beauty of the game, frankly; it's infinitely customizable in that way to adapt to each group's preference.
But if folks (and this includes anyone who wants to write for Paizo or is already writing for us) want to know my take on how it works in Golarion, I'm gonna tell them. See above.
So, I'll turn it back to you, and say with all due respect, if you don't agree with my opinions or answers here, that's fine, but keep in mind that's what folks WANT to hear on this thread. If you don't give a damn what the Creative Director thinks... I'm really not sure why you're interested at all in this thread, and have no idea what you might be getting out of it other than a chance to have an internet argument. Wouldn't you find more enjoyment spending time on another thread?
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Creative Director
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What would you say are the most famous tragedies in Golarion's literature? Who are their "Tristan and Isoldes," "Romeo and Juliets" or "Anakin and Padmés?"
I'm looking to play a bard who references such star-crossed couples in song.
"The Conception Exception" is probably the most famous of them; it ended up getting its author being the first confirmed Red Mantis victim, in fact.
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Creative Director
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Can firearms be made of obsidian/stone?
Can they be made of obsidian or stone in the real world? Not really.
Neither in Golarion.
You can make one out of stone or obsidian and then use magic to make it work better, but at that point it's the magic that matters, not the material. At that point, it might as well be a gun made of leather or cotton candy or teeth or snakes. The magic is what sets the properties of the weapon at that point, likely using the material as inspiration for its abilities, but the material itself on its own isn't gonna cut it.
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"The Conception Exception" is probably the most famous of them; it ended up getting its author being the first confirmed Red Mantis victim, in fact.What would you say are the most famous tragedies in Golarion's literature? Who are their "Tristan and Isoldes," "Romeo and Juliets" or "Anakin and Padmés?"
I'm looking to play a bard who references such star-crossed couples in song.
What IS "The Conception Exception" anyway? A play? A poem? A political manifesto? I'm wondering just HOW it pissed someone off so much that they went to the Red Mantis.
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Creative Director
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What IS "The Conception Exception" anyway? A play? A poem? A political manifesto? I'm wondering just HOW it pissed someone off so much that they went to the Red Mantis."The Conception Exception" is probably the most famous of them; it ended up getting its author being the first confirmed Red Mantis victim, in fact.What would you say are the most famous tragedies in Golarion's literature? Who are their "Tristan and Isoldes," "Romeo and Juliets" or "Anakin and Padmés?"
I'm looking to play a bard who references such star-crossed couples in song.
"The Conception Exception" is a play with a LOT of allegory/satire/snark written into it. We haven't revealed much more about it yet, other than that it's author was a halfling who had some VERY cutting and snarky and justified opinions about humanity and, in particular, Aroden.
What level is the spell "Teleport"?
If it's 4th level, are Wands of Teleport possible?
Can a caster use Greater Teleport to go to another planet in Golarion's system? Another planet somewhere else in space? Not talking about other planes, but this does raise another question: Is Earth in or on the same Material Plane as Golarion?
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Creative Director
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Heralds don't have free time. They don't WANT free time. They serve their deity pretty much 24/7.1)What does Holy Sunlord Thalachos do in his free time?
2)What does The Night Monarch do in it's free time?
3)What does the Spirit of Adoration do in her free time?
1)What are 7 different ways Sunlord Thalachos serves Sarenrae?
2)What are 7 different ways The Night Monarch serves Desna?
3)What are 7 different ways Spirit of Adoration serves Shelyn?
AKA: What are 21 different paragraphs of information about 3 of 20 (or more!) characters? Sorry... that's too close to design work, and I need to focus my design work on projects that I get paid to do! :-)
Inner Sea Gods has PAGES of information about these deities though, and that's filled with enough information about how someone (be they a mere cleric or a herald) can serve said deity.
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Creative Director
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What level is the spell "Teleport"?
If it's 4th level, are Wands of Teleport possible?
Can a caster use Greater Teleport to go to another planet in Golarion's system? Another planet somewhere else in space? Not talking about other planes, but this does raise another question: Is Earth in or on the same Material Plane as Golarion?
Teleport is 5th level.
It sneaked in as a 4th level spell for the summoner but that was pretty much an error, unfortunately. And it's not something I'm keen to propagate by allowing wands of teleport into print. In fact, it's something I've been keen on officially errataing but that's a slooooow boat for lots of reasons.
Greater teleport cannot go to another planet; that's the purpose of interplanetary teleport. Greater teleport is pretty much meant to only cover going anywhere on one planet.
Earth is indeed in the same Material Plane (aka universe) as Golarion.
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Creative Director
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1)How do Psychopomps help Pharasma as a goddess of birth?
2)Can outsiders get pregnant? as in the inner sea gods book the write up on Pharasma's herald is said to show up at "celestial" and half-celestial births by Pharasma's other(outsider?) servants and that she has no interest in procreating her self. This would suggest that outsiders can give birth or procreate.
1) Psychopomps are more about helping with death. That's what "Psychopomp" means. On Golarion, they focus on guiding souls from life to death... there are some who help with the source to birth bit, I suppose... I'd have to read up on them more to remember which ones they are. Wes would be able to answer this off the top of his head, I suspect.
2) Depends on the outsider, but most can; that's one way that half-fiends and half-celestials come about, in fact. In some cases, such as succubi, we specifically provide details about how they can get pregnant. In fact, in Demons Revisited, I talk about how all 10 demons can procreate.
Hi, James!
I was curious, what were the drow like in your homebrew world of Baria? Were they much different than Golarion's drow?
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Creative Director
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Hi, James!
I was curious, what were the drow like in your homebrew world of Baria? Were they much different than Golarion's drow?
What you see in Golarion is pretty much the role played by Baria's drow, including the element of secrecy (but not the "elves turn into drow" bit—I came up with that for Golarion exclusively).
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Can firearms be made of obsidian/stone?You can make one out of stone or obsidian and then use magic to make it work better, but at that point it's the magic that matters, not the material. The magic is what sets the properties of the weapon at that point, likely using the material as inspiration for its abilities, but the material itself on its own isn't gonna cut it.
So a +1 stone pistol is legal, and may as well not be stone for purposes of drawbacks?
Are you ready to see the last hobbit movie?Yes.
I'm even more ready for Peter Jackson to go back to making horror movies though... ;-)
What is Peter Jackson did a film version of Rise of The Runelords? Would you wait for that to be done before he can go back to horror movies?
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Creative Director
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So a +1 stone pistol is legal, and may as well not be stone for purposes of drawbacks?Can firearms be made of obsidian/stone?You can make one out of stone or obsidian and then use magic to make it work better, but at that point it's the magic that matters, not the material. The magic is what sets the properties of the weapon at that point, likely using the material as inspiration for its abilities, but the material itself on its own isn't gonna cut it.
It's legal if your GM says so.
In my opinion, it'd be a waste to just say it's a "stone" pistol that's no different than a +1 pistol. It'd be FAR more interesting if, say, it were a "Stonegrip Pistol" that was a +1 pistol that gave you some earth/stone related power when you used it. Say... the ability to criticaly hit earth elementals or something unusual and unique.
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Creative Director
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What is Peter Jackson did a film version of Rise of The Runelords? Would you wait for that to be done before he can go back to horror movies?Are you ready to see the last hobbit movie?Yes.
I'm even more ready for Peter Jackson to go back to making horror movies though... ;-)
Yes. Of course. Although I'd want creative control to reign in his goofy side and would force him to make it R-rated, which would probably mean we'd all lose money. I'd much rather have the creative team behind Game of Thrones/HBO tackle Runelords, to tell the truth.
I'd much rather have the creative team behind Game of Thrones/HBO tackle Runelords, to tell the truth.
I'd pay good money to see that!
On a tangentially-related note, have you seen the trailer for The Bandidook? It looks super-creepy!
What level is the spell "Teleport"?
If it's 4th level, are Wands of Teleport possible?
Can a caster use Greater Teleport to go to another planet in Golarion's system? Another planet somewhere else in space? Not talking about other planes, but this does raise another question: Is Earth in or on the same Material Plane as Golarion?
Teleport is 5th level.
It sneaked in as a 4th level spell for the summoner but that was pretty much an error, unfortunately. And it's not something I'm keen to propagate by allowing wands of teleport into print. In fact, it's something I've been keen on officially errataing but that's a slooooow boat for lots of reasons.
Greater teleport cannot go to another planet; that's the purpose of interplanetary teleport. Greater teleport is pretty much meant to only cover going anywhere on one planet.
Earth is indeed in the same Material Plane (aka universe) as Golarion.
:5th level:" good! :-)
Greater teleport being limited to one planet makes sense, but then the description should say "distance: anywhere on the planet you start on" or some such.
"Interplanetary Teleport:" this one threw me, because I didn't know about it. I'd looked up "teleport" in the prd and found that, "teleport, greater," "teleport object," and "teleportation circle" all in the same place, but I didn't see "interplanetary teleport" there and it didn't occur to me to search elsewhere. I wonder what else I've missed? :-)
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"The Conception Exception" is a play with a LOT of allegory/satire/snark written into it. We haven't revealed much more about it yet, other than that it's author was a halfling who had some VERY cutting and snarky and justified opinions about humanity and, in particular, Aroden.What IS "The Conception Exception" anyway? A play? A poem? A political manifesto? I'm wondering just HOW it pissed someone off so much that they went to the Red Mantis."The Conception Exception" is probably the most famous of them; it ended up getting its author being the first confirmed Red Mantis victim, in fact.What would you say are the most famous tragedies in Golarion's literature? Who are their "Tristan and Isoldes," "Romeo and Juliets" or "Anakin and Padmés?"
I'm looking to play a bard who references such star-crossed couples in song.
That's awesome, but not quite what I was looking for. I'm interested more in sad romances where the lovers end up dying in each other's arms and whatnot. Stuff Naderi would get all misty-eyed over, you know?
On an unrelated note, would an earthbreaker be the best way to simulate a maul in-game, or would that diminish its uniqueness as a Shoanti specialty?
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Creative Director
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I'd much rather have the creative team behind Game of Thrones/HBO tackle Runelords, to tell the truth.I'd pay good money to see that!
On a tangentially-related note, have you seen the trailer for The Bandidook? It looks super-creepy!
I have. It showed at SIFF earlier this year, but I missed it due to being in California for the last week of the festival, alas. Looking forward to seeing the movie soon!
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Creative Director
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Well, from a PFS standpoint. The reason for it is it is significantly cheaper.Can firearms be made of obsidian/stone?
So a +1 stone pistol is legal, and may as well not be stone for purposes of drawbacks?
It's legal if your GM says so.
In that case, then no, absolutely not, you can't make stone guns.
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Creative Director
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That's awesome, but not quite what I was looking for. I'm interested more in sad romances where the lovers end up dying in each other's arms and whatnot. Stuff Naderi would get all misty-eyed over, you know?
On an unrelated note, would an earthbreaker be the best way to simulate a maul in-game, or would that diminish its uniqueness as a Shoanti specialty?
Ah; then no, we haven't made up any of those yet that I know of.
And I thought the maul WAS in the game; hmm. Maybe not. Yeah, that'd work then.