Creative Director
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James
How well do you think Thri-Kreen (or Mantisfolk in general) would fit into Golarion? I got this bizarre idea for introducing them as fleshwarped Red Mantis Assassins among other things but barring that what would be a good way to introduce them as a normal race?
They, like pretty much all the classic D&D monsters we can't touch, would fit in quite well. I'm not gonna go into where I think they'd fit though. That's up to you folks to decide for your home games as you see fit.
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Hi James. I have a question for you about the Planes:
I'm trying to determine the following:
1)Can a demiplane exist in the Abyss?
2) If a demiplane did exist in the Abyss, would that demiplane be coterminus and/or coexisting with:
the Ethereal Plane?
the Plane of Shadow?
the Astral Plane?
The Positive Energy Plane?
The Negitive Energy plane?
I'm having trouble sorting out my planar geography as you can see. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Hey James! Do the effects of the Spell "Trial by Fire and Acid" stack with itself when cast on the same creature multiple times?
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Perhaps this is a silly question... but if Runelord Sorshen were planning an overnight excursion to the Abyss to hang out with some friends, what are the first three things she would pack in her overnight bag?
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Can a Dhampir become a full vampire? Nothing specifically forbids this in the rules but it seems odd to me.
If the answer to the above question is yes, would the dayborn racial trait, vampiric empathy racial trait, or born in the light race trait affect this in any way? For example, would it be harder to turn a dayborn dhampir?
Furthermore, would the variant heritages affect this? Would a Ru-Shi, (born of the Chinese vampire), be immune to become a Moroi (the traditional vampire)?
If an alchemist or gunslinger PC attempted to "invent" the semiautomatic pistol or repeating rifle in Golarion, what Craft DC and gp cost for raw materials would you as GM assign to make a working prototype? How about a Gatling or Maxim gun?
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Got a Bard/Skald question for ya
lets say i have a String instrument with a command use of http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/alter-musical-instrument
on itsaid bard/skald has Versatile Performance and a perform String skill selection
if he uses the magic effect of the Instrument to make it sound like a Drum
Qa: does it shift from Perform string to Perform Percussion?
or even though it sounds like a Drum does it stay within Perform String?i ask because your still using the same Strings they just make a different sound
and if its the Latter
would it count as a Perform percussion but use the Strings perform?
im not trying to get around skills. its more of what i said before" Same strings, same Music sheet, different sound"
The sound might change... but it still performs the same, sot he Perform skill you need doesn't change.
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"Rome" is indeed excellent. That Tullo character, and the fight against the gladiators!
One of my top three favorite TV series, with "Band of Brothers", and on top 1: "Six Feet Under" (Rome and BoB are tied for the second place).to James: do you like movies about gladiator films?
and what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?^^
Yes.
I don't get the reference.
The sound might change... but it still performs the same, sot he Perform skill you need doesn't change.
yeah, I figured I wouldn't be able to do perform string to mimic perform percussions intimidate without the skill ranks in the latter
new question, what are you looking forward to most of Occult adventures?
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As usual, thanks for the last batch, and answering everyone else's questions.
As usual, I have more.
1.) Do the clerics of various deities retain their abilities outside of their normal neighborhoods? Reign of Winter seems to imply that a cleric a golarian deity functions entirely normally on say Earth.
2.) Is there any planar limitation? Such as Sheyln dwells on one plane and a cleric on another plane finds their powers diminished the further from that home plane they are?
3. Since Inevitables start going peculiar after fulfilling their initial function and being operational for longer times (this might be old fluff, so correct me if I'm wrong), is it possible for Inevitables to end up as different alignments? Inevitable paladins or hellknights?
4. Do any of the Inner Sea deities include in their mythologies references to neutrally-aligned: the aeons, inevitables, proteans or the like?
5. Since Aroden and Iyths prove that deities can die why have the various gods not gotten together to attempt to determine a more definitive method of let us say concluding Rovagug aside from the typical 'seal away the evil' thing?
6. Are we ever going to get definitive answers to the questions raised in Occult Mysteries, or is that stuff forever going to be plot bait for creative DMs?
1) Yes. The physical distance from any one point to any other point in the Material Plane (AKA Universe) is infinitesimally small compared to the distance between any one point in the universe and any one point in the Outer Sphere. And anyway... a cleric's connection to her deity isn't impacted by distance at all.
2) Nope. No planar limitation. There was in 1st and 2nd edition, and it was terrible terrible terrible in game play.
3) I believe that's older, Planescape flavor, not Golarion flavor. I could be wrong. As with all outsider races, though, an off-alignment inevitable should be mind-bogglingly rare. And should be significant key plot elements.
4) Some do, yes. Not all. Pharasma, for example, is VERY tied into the psychopomps.
5) If we knew why, we would either be deities ourselves, or they would not be. Deities are, by their nature, impossible to fully comprehend. As the saying sorta goes... "Deities move in mysterious ways." The more we explain about them, their capabilities, the reasons they do what they do, and so on... the less they are about faith and the more they are about fact. And thus, no longer really deities.
6) To some of them? Yes. Some sooner than later. Some perhaps never. Some maybe ten or twenty or 100 years from now. There are certainly a few that I'm eager to explore, as are some other folks here, but I'm not gonna say which ones.
Some maybe ten or twenty or 100 years from now.
If Pathfinder, as a system, with Golarion, as a setting, continued for 100 years, I would be exceedingly impressed.
Confused. Worried about it's fidelity to the original vision. Probably dead. But Impressed.
Do you love your job?
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1) So what kind of setting book would contain information on every day life of commoners and festivals and other such stuff? I mean, as awesome as it is I don't see Paizo doing book that is all about festivals/celebrations/holidays so in what type of book would you guys include those type of stuff if you wanted to detail that sort of fluff?
2) Is it just me or is quote lot of Rise of the Runelords actually a horror campaign?
I mean, serial killer haunted house horror, hillbilly horror, lost in blizzard cannibalism horror...
3) So, if PCs(or someone else, like that ancient white dragon who can follow them through portal) open the portal in Runeforge letting inhabitants who can leave out of it, what would Runeforge inhabitants do once they have escaped the forge?
4) I might be little confused about the timeline, but if I understood right, those dwarf brothers who had expedition to Xin-Shalast died years earlier than when Mokumarian found the city? How would have things changed if expedition had been success and they would have reached the city?
Like, they probably couldn't have woken up Karzoug since they weren't wizards, so would discovery of city and it being made public would probably mean Mokumarian wouldn't seek the city out years later since its already discovered and probably being looted, but would someone else have eventually been enslaved by Karzoug or would is plans have been doomed in that scenario?
1) I've got some ideas, and once I convince management that such a book would be worth the effort and resource and expenditure to create and that it would make us money and thus be justified... it'll hopefully happen. In other words... it's the kind of book I've been trying to get us to do for many years. Maybe some day...
2) Nope; it's not just you. In fact, there's a fair amount of Horror in ALL the adventure paths. That's probably due to the fact that I've been the one in charge of them, but Wes being the one who helped perhaps the most getting them going with me surely didn't hurt! But ABSOLUTELY. I wanted to present the goblins in a sort of horror trope similar to the movie Gremlins and that whole genre that was so popular in the 80s. I told Rich Pett to, essentially, write a "Hammer Horror adventure." I told Nick Logue to, essentially, write a mid-70s gritty American exploitation horror adventure. All intentional, because I wanted to come right out of the gates with our first non-Wizards of the Coast AP and product line by boldly saying to the customers, "We're gonna go places that WotC might have been afraid to go... buckle up!" or the like. Greg, on the other hand, brought the cannibalisim and Lovecraft to his adventure all on his own.
3) They would trigger a very interesting high level adventure plot. Dozens of possible adventure plots. Which one is not for me to decide, since that's an event that is triggered not by us creating the adventure but by the players doing something unexpected. It's a case of "the GM gets to have fun!" and I"m wary about nailing down suggestions both to let the GM's imagination run wild, but also because I don't have time to develop an entire adventure based on this (certainly very interesting) plot possibility.
4) If the expedition found Xin-Shalast and reported it... Rise of the Runelords likely wouldn't have happened at all. Or if it did, it would be more about the PCs fighting dwarves than giants, I guess. It would be a VERY VERY VERY different adventure. IF it even happened. In fact, it likely wouldn't have been an adventure path at all, but just a single high-level adventure sandbox where the PCs explore a lost city.
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Hi James. I have a question for you about the Planes:
I'm trying to determine the following:
1)Can a demiplane exist in the Abyss?
2) If a demiplane did exist in the Abyss, would that demiplane be coterminus and/or coexisting with:
the Ethereal Plane?
the Plane of Shadow?
the Astral Plane?
The Positive Energy Plane?
The Negitive Energy plane?I'm having trouble sorting out my planar geography as you can see. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
1) Yes.
2) Not normally. Unless there were unusual circumstances. And unusual circumstances are kinda the whole reason to make demiplanes for adventures in the first place.
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Hey James! Do the effects of the Spell "Trial by Fire and Acid" stack with itself when cast on the same creature multiple times?
I have no idea where that spell is from. A better bet would be to ask this question in the source book's thread.
But... my gut says that if a player thinks it should... it probably shouldn't. ;-)
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Can a Dhampir become a full vampire? Nothing specifically forbids this in the rules but it seems odd to me.
If the answer to the above question is yes, would the dayborn racial trait, vampiric empathy racial trait, or born in the light race trait affect this in any way? For example, would it be harder to turn a dayborn dhampir?
Furthermore, would the variant heritages affect this? Would a Ru-Shi, (born of the Chinese vampire), be immune to become a Moroi (the traditional vampire)?
A dhampir is a living creature; a humanoid with the dhampir subtype.
The vampire template "can be added to any living creature."
So... absolutely yes.
A dhampir turned into a vampire would have a lot of its racial abilities negated or rendered obsolete. Heritages wouldn't affect it at all, other than to vary the base creature.
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Perhaps this is a silly question... but if Runelord Sorshen were planning an overnight excursion to the Abyss to hang out with some friends, what are the first three things she would pack in her overnight bag?
Amulet of the planes
Iron flaskIron bands of binding
But only because I assume she'd be wearing and/or carrying the things she thinks she'd really need.
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If an alchemist or gunslinger PC attempted to "invent" the semiautomatic pistol or repeating rifle in Golarion, what Craft DC and gp cost for raw materials would you as GM assign to make a working prototype? How about a Gatling or Maxim gun?
1 gp more than the PC had or could ever afford.
The less-snarky response would be that I wouldn't have to, since I've got stats for those in my Unspeakable Futures game, from which most of the technological gear in Technology Guide came. I'd have to re-look at how they work and do lots of number crunching, and that's not something I'm willing to do to provide an answer to this question at this time. :-P
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Some maybe ten or twenty or 100 years from now.If Pathfinder, as a system, with Golarion, as a setting, continued for 100 years, I would be exceedingly impressed.
Confused. Worried about it's fidelity to the original vision. Probably dead. But Impressed.
Do you love your job?
Usually. Not always.
Perhaps this is a silly question... but if Runelord Sorshen were planning an overnight excursion to the Abyss to hang out with some friends, what are the first three things she would pack in her overnight bag?Amulet of the planes
Iron flask
Iron bands of bindingBut only because I assume she'd be wearing and/or carrying the things she thinks she'd really need.
An emergency escape tool and some bondage gear certainly seem like good choices, (essentially the equivalent of keys and chains from George Carlin's list of essential Stuff) but I find myself wondering whether she'd be taking an empty iron flask with the intention of filling it up, or one that was already full.
What are your thoughts on wizards coming up with spells like unseen chef so that they can have gourmet food prepared on their whim without ever worrying about being poisoned, or an hours/level version of levitate so they can stop trying to find a perfectly comfortable bed to sleep in at night?
The non-rules content.
Also, can I just say that the non-rules content of Paizo literature is truly awesome and always worthwhile. At least half the books I've bought from you guys would have been worthwhile purchases even if I never once played using the Pathfinder system. (In my opinion, at least. Also, the GameMastery Guide has got to have been one of your best offerings EVER.)
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Perhaps this is a silly question... but if Runelord Sorshen were planning an overnight excursion to the Abyss to hang out with some friends, what are the first three things she would pack in her overnight bag?Amulet of the planes
Iron flask
Iron bands of bindingBut only because I assume she'd be wearing and/or carrying the things she thinks she'd really need.
An emergency escape tool and some bondage gear certainly seem like good choices, (essentially the equivalent of keys and chains from George Carlin's list of essential Stuff) but I find myself wondering whether she'd be taking an empty iron flask with the intention of filling it up, or one that was already full.
What are your thoughts on wizards coming up with spells like unseen chef so that they can have gourmet food prepared on their whim without ever worrying about being poisoned, or an hours/level version of levitate so they can stop trying to find a perfectly comfortable bed to sleep in at night?
The non-rules content.Also, can I just say that the non-rules content of Paizo literature is truly awesome and always worthwhile. At least half the books I've bought from you guys would have been worthwhile purchases even if I never once played using the Pathfinder system. (In my opinion, at least. Also, the GameMastery Guide has got to have been one of your best offerings EVER.)
Regarding the iron flask, sometimes you want to get things to go. Also... it's a handy thing to have on you just as a warning to troublemakers.
I think spells like unseen chef make sense; they WOULD exist in the world, after all. At this point, those types of spells are more interesting to me than new ways to do hit point damage.
Dear James,
What do you do, and how can I do it? Seems like being the creator of a world/game system like this would be a dream job for a Level 3 Aspiring Writer with the 'ADD' Template like me.
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Do the all the threads on this site about "class XYZ sucks or is too good" and "I can prove beyond all reasonable doubt that such-and-such is stupid to do/stupid not to do using 6th-grade math" influence your thinking at all?
Yes, but not in a particularly positive way, alas. As a result, I tend to avoid reading those threads entirely.
I think spells like unseen chef make sense; they WOULD exist in the world, after all. At this point, those types of spells are more interesting to me than new ways to do hit point damage.
Have you considered stealthily adding those sorts of spells via the Adventure Paths? Occasionally adding a flavorful spell here and there that can be easily explained in just a short little block of text by comparing it to an existing spell so that casting time, duration, etc don't need to be spelled out? It certainly seems like it might be a place you could get away with it every now and then...
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Dear James,
What do you do, and how can I do it? Seems like being the creator of a world/game system like this would be a dream job for a Level 3 Aspiring Writer with the 'ADD' Template like me.
I should write this up in detail and post it on my profile here, I guess! :)
For now, the short version is:
I've been playing RPGs for over 30 years, and have been writing longer than that, and have been reading longer than that. I started submitting my work to Dungeon magazine at about 14 years old and kept at it, on and off, up through college, where I majored in English with a creative writing emphasis. When I was 23 years old and graduated from college, I moved to Seattle with the intent of pursuing a job at Wizards of the Coast, and then proceeded to luck out when they bought TSR (which was the company I really wanted to work for, but not so much that I wanted to move off the West Coast). I ended up working lots of temp jobs at WotC and was eventually hired to be an order processing sales assistant there. I continued to work on freelance stuff for the magazines, and eventually got offered opportunities to write parts of hardcover D&D books. I applied for design and editing positions in D&D R&D and the Periodicals department every chance that came up, and was finally hired to work at Paizo.
So... it took over 3 decades of dedication to writing and gaming, an 800 some mile move, college, luck, and stubbornness to get here. So... it wasn't easy... but so far, it's been worth it! :-D
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I think spells like unseen chef make sense; they WOULD exist in the world, after all. At this point, those types of spells are more interesting to me than new ways to do hit point damage.Have you considered stealthily adding those sorts of spells via the Adventure Paths? Occasionally adding a flavorful spell here and there that can be easily explained in just a short little block of text by comparing it to an existing spell so that casting time, duration, etc don't need to be spelled out? It certainly seems like it might be a place you could get away with it every now and then...
No. That's not my design philosophy. For adventures and other products, I've always adopted a "do the story first, then use the rules to support the story, and if the rules won't do it for you, THEN make new rules." The realities of space and time constraints often limit opportunities to include frivilous but fun spells like you speak of, unfortunately.
Are dirty jokes the best jokes?
If not, what kind of jokes are the best jokes?
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Jokes that make you laugh are the best ones. Some of them are dirty.Are dirty jokes the best jokes?
If not, what kind of jokes are the best jokes?
Do you think there's any truth to what Groucho Marx said?
"Anybody can tell a dirty joke and make it funny, but a real comedian can tell a clean joke and make it funny."
A couple of vampire related questions for something I'm working on.
1. Do vampires suffer any negative effects from not eating?
2. Do vampires suffer any negative effects from not sleeping?
2a. Do vampires have to sleep in there coffin?
3. Can vampires eat normal food? Does it taste the same as at use to?
4. Could a vampire wizard with high enough level make a magic item that acts as a permanent protective penumbra? Would you as a DM allow protective penumbra to be affected by permanency?
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They, like pretty much all the classic D&D monsters we can't touch, would fit in quite well. I'm not gonna go into where I think they'd fit though. That's up to you folks to decide for your home games as you see fit.James
How well do you think Thri-Kreen (or Mantisfolk in general) would fit into Golarion? I got this bizarre idea for introducing them as fleshwarped Red Mantis Assassins among other things but barring that what would be a good way to introduce them as a normal race?
I gave their cousins the tohr-kreen an empire on Castrovel close to the formians and said the thri-kreen are exiles living on Golarion and Akiton.
A lighter variant of Skull and Shackles might be a great idea, or Kingmaker (though that AP is exceedingly different in many ways from the standard APs).
Are you planning on running it solo, or with a group?
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Jokes that make you laugh are the best ones. Some of them are dirty.Are dirty jokes the best jokes?
If not, what kind of jokes are the best jokes?
Do you think there's any truth to what Groucho Marx said?
"Anybody can tell a dirty joke and make it funny, but a real comedian can tell a clean joke and make it funny."
No. Not anyone can tell a dirty joke and make it funny; some people just fundamentally lack the charisma and comic timing to deliver ANY sort of joke and have it end up funny.
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A couple of vampire related questions for something I'm working on.
1. Do vampires suffer any negative effects from not eating?
2. Do vampires suffer any negative effects from not sleeping?
2a. Do vampires have to sleep in there coffin?
3. Can vampires eat normal food? Does it taste the same as at use to?
4. Could a vampire wizard with high enough level make a magic item that acts as a permanent protective penumbra? Would you as a DM allow protective penumbra to be affected by permanency?
1) Not officially, but depending on what additional rules or what other vampire stories you take for your inspiration, they could.
2) Same as 1 above.
2a) Only to heal
3) Nope.
4) In theory, yes, a vampire could do that. There are elements of that in Council of Thieves, if I remember correctly.
You might want to check out Classic Horrors or Blood of the Night for more info on vampires.
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I have never run an adventure path, nor played in one for that matter. What AP would you reccomend for new players? I want to get my nephew into pathfinder and would like his first game to be exciting and relatable. Any advice?
I'd recommend the Beginner Box to full-on new players. It presents the rules better and is more digestible and doesn't require a year or more of devotion to see the whole story through to the end. If your nephew hasn't played any RPGs before... the Beginner Box is a great option.
But if you and your group already know you love the game and are ready to try something as significant as an adventure path, I"d suggest the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary edition book. It's the least expensive option overall, and has everything you need in one book, and serves as both a good introduction to Golarion, but also a good introduction to the typical types of stories and themes we tell in an AP.
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Mr. James Jacobs,
Are there any good examples of spoken aklo on the internet I can reference?
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Mr. James Jacobs,
Are there any good examples of spoken aklo on the internet I can reference?
Not that I know of, although I'm now intrigued! The language's inventor, Arthur Machen, never built it as an actual language in the way Tolkien did with his creations, so I'm relatively sure there's not an actual language that exists for people to learn. And in fact, authors who use it in their writing (particularly its inventor) deliberately do NOT put any of the words in print, to help make it feel even more like a forbidden language.
Which is a good thing, considering what Aklo can do!
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Godd evening James!
1)Within the city of Magnimar, how common would you say are polyamorous relationships?
2)Would you say this kind of relationship is more common among common people within the nobility?
3)Are there specific factions that you can think of that would actively oppose such practice?
4)How different would those answers be in regards to Korvosa?
Thank you so much.
