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Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Alexander Augunas wrote:
Who's the most beautiful male character in Golarion?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so whoever I would nominate in that role might not be the one someone else would say. BUT if someone else nominated anyone other than Karzoug, they'd be wrong.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Jayson MF Kip wrote:

How often do you notice that someone on the boards is correct about some "mystery" on Golarion (IE: circumstances regarding Aroden) via random chance?

It happens now and then, but that's as much as because there's so many people out there guessing and/or reading well between the lines. No one's yet "guessed" the exact reason for Aroden's death though, I'm glad to say.


James Jacobs wrote:
Jayson MF Kip wrote:

How often do you notice that someone on the boards is correct about some "mystery" on Golarion (IE: circumstances regarding Aroden) via random chance?

It happens now and then, but that's as much as because there's so many people out there guessing and/or reading well between the lines. No one's yet "guessed" the exact reason for Aroden's death though, I'm glad to say.

It's because he slipped in the shower and cracked his skull isn't it? Pretty sure the other Gods would be embarrassed about it happening too.


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Dice time-

1: How many dice do you have?

2: What's the oldest die you have?
2a: Do you still use it? If not, what's the oldest used die?

3: What's your favourite/luckiest die? Any stories behind it?

4: What's the weirdest die you own?

5: What kind of dicebag(s) do you have? Or do you keep your dice in something else?


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James Jacobs wrote:
Jayson MF Kip wrote:

How often do you notice that someone on the boards is correct about some "mystery" on Golarion (IE: circumstances regarding Aroden) via random chance?

It happens now and then, but that's as much as because there's so many people out there guessing and/or reading well between the lines. No one's yet "guessed" the exact reason for Aroden's death though, I'm glad to say.

Do you realize how many possibilities you just ruled out?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Trigger Loaded wrote:

Dice time-

1: How many dice do you have?

2: What's the oldest die you have?
2a: Do you still use it? If not, what's the oldest used die?

3: What's your favourite/luckiest die? Any stories behind it?

4: What's the weirdest die you own?

5: What kind of dicebag(s) do you have? Or do you keep your dice in something else?

1) I have no idea; a rough estimate would be a hundred, I guess.

2) I still have some from the red box I got back in about 1982... but they're hardly in shape to be used.

2a) Nope; it's in bad shape. The oldest one? The one made out of allosaurus bone is my OLDEST die, but I don't actually roll it. I suppose the oldest one I still use regularly is about 20 years old.

3) I like my clear red crystal d20. I've decapitated many player characters with vorpal swords with it... including one particularly proud and arrogant PC who was convinced I wouldn't dare kill him... turns out, I would and did! Well.... not me, but the molydeus demon I sent after him.

4) The allosaurus bone die is probably the most unusual. The weirdest is probably the one that has little pictures of dinsoarus on it.

5) My main dice bag is a purple velvet one with the yellow sign on it. I have a plain black leather pouch for another set but I never use them and I'm not even sure where it's at...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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thegreenteagamer wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Jayson MF Kip wrote:

How often do you notice that someone on the boards is correct about some "mystery" on Golarion (IE: circumstances regarding Aroden) via random chance?

It happens now and then, but that's as much as because there's so many people out there guessing and/or reading well between the lines. No one's yet "guessed" the exact reason for Aroden's death though, I'm glad to say.
Do you realize how many possibilities you just ruled out?

Not NEARLY as many as remain.

And that assumes you believe me when I say no one's guessed correctly.


I have a character idea for submitting to PbP recruitments, I was wondering if you could tell me what APs take place heavily in the forest or jungle-type terrains.


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Hi James. My group has started to play in Golarion in the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path (No spoilers) some time ago. We learned the very basic of this world and mostly treated most stuff as a sort of "regular fantasy setting" for the time being, deciding we might expand on our study of the world if we do come to like it.

However, recently two of my players (One who is interested in fantasy religions, and one who seeks to defy the gods, maybe take some of their power, via the "Source of Divinity" universal path ability,) have taken an interest in divinity. I understood, that I have no idea how it is dealt with in Golarion! I started reading from various wikis (I don't have the books themselves), but I was wondering about the nature of divinity, faith, gods and portfolios in the world.

1) What is the nature of divinity? What differs it from Arcane magic? What's is it's source?

2) What makes a god... a god? What differs a divine being from a mortal, other than power? I know that there re 4 mortals who ascended to godhood through the Starstone trial. Are there any others? what about the non-previously-mortal gods, where do they come from?

3) What of the other divine beings? (In "divine being" I mean any being who can bestow divine power upon followers) Such as demon lords? How do they differ from the gods? Is there real distinction? Any other non-gods divine beings?

4) What of the planes? What relation do they have to divine entities? I know some demon lords for examples have their own planes, (As are the demon lords in the adventure Path, and also the mention of Iomedae herself in the 5th installment) is this the norm? What relations do the planes have between themselves?

5) What relation do divine beings have on Golarion itself? I understood there is a sort of "non intervention" clause, (Which I can't seem to find, but is important to the game) but I also understand that the god Aroden acted fairly freely on Golarion?

6) Any special laws/ guidelines/ pacts the gods follow? Any "game rules/ do-and-don't?"

Thanks in advance in shedding light on the matter. If you can't do it directly, but can point me to a (Hopefully free) source that can explain that would be great.

Till then,
Kol.


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James Jacobs wrote:
thegreenteagamer wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Jayson MF Kip wrote:

How often do you notice that someone on the boards is correct about some "mystery" on Golarion (IE: circumstances regarding Aroden) via random chance?

It happens now and then, but that's as much as because there's so many people out there guessing and/or reading well between the lines. No one's yet "guessed" the exact reason for Aroden's death though, I'm glad to say.
Do you realize how many possibilities you just ruled out?

Not NEARLY as many as remain.

And that assumes you believe me when I say no one's guessed correctly.

Did you lie when you said no one guessed it?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Unrelated questions to the above.

Whats the word on the Paizo Game Space? I was really excited when I heard it was in development, but I haven't heard anything about it in awhile. Was the idea shelved or is it still being worked on?

What are your favorite easter eggs you've found in games?

Silver Crusade

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Tels wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
thegreenteagamer wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Jayson MF Kip wrote:

How often do you notice that someone on the boards is correct about some "mystery" on Golarion (IE: circumstances regarding Aroden) via random chance?

It happens now and then, but that's as much as because there's so many people out there guessing and/or reading well between the lines. No one's yet "guessed" the exact reason for Aroden's death though, I'm glad to say.
Do you realize how many possibilities you just ruled out?

Not NEARLY as many as remain.

And that assumes you believe me when I say no one's guessed correctly.

Did you lie when you said no one guessed it?

Sorry for brief off topic, but felt this was appropriate...

Dead Ale Wives, Dungeons and Dragons II wrote:


Galstaff: Okay, detect magic.
DM: It's not magical.
Galstaff: Dude! He said it was a magical sword.
DM: He was lying.
Galstaff: He said he never tells a lie.
DM: He was lying when he said that.
Galstaff: Dude!!!


So last night I finally got around to watching Banshee Chapter, which I think you have said you watched and enjoyed

IF you haven't, don't click on the spoiler below :)

spoiler:

Is there anything that fills the equivalent "niche" of a banshee in Pathfinder? I was thinking probably some sort of denizen of the ethereal plane, but I can't think of any existing Pathfinder monster that fits the modus operandi of the movie monster. Xill are the closest, but they seem closer to xenomorphs than Banshees.

Silver Crusade

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Wait. I'm totally intrigued by this allosaurus bone die! So many questions...

1. How many sides does it have?
2. What does it look like? size? color?
3. Are the markings pips or characters?
4. I assume you meant that it is made from fossilized bone, how do you know that it is allosaurus?
5. Was it made in the modern age?
6. Where did you get it? Was it expensive?

Thanks! :)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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BigP4nda wrote:
I have a character idea for submitting to PbP recruitments, I was wondering if you could tell me what APs take place heavily in the forest or jungle-type terrains.

Serpent's Skull and Kingmaker both have a fair amount of jungle and forest respectively. Jade Regent has a lot of forest in some of the adventures, particularly the 4th one. There's forest and jungle here and there in Runelords, Skull & Shackles, and Carrion Crown.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
meir dumbrava wrote:

Hi James. My group has started to play in Golarion in the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path (No spoilers) some time ago. We learned the very basic of this world and mostly treated most stuff as a sort of "regular fantasy setting" for the time being, deciding we might expand on our study of the world if we do come to like it.

However, recently two of my players (One who is interested in fantasy religions, and one who seeks to defy the gods, maybe take some of their power, via the "Source of Divinity" universal path ability,) have taken an interest in divinity. I understood, that I have no idea how it is dealt with in Golarion! I started reading from various wikis (I don't have the books themselves), but I was wondering about the nature of divinity, faith, gods and portfolios in the world.

1) What is the nature of divinity? What differs it from Arcane magic? What's is it's source?

2) What makes a god... a god? What differs a divine being from a mortal, other than power? I know that there re 4 mortals who ascended to godhood through the Starstone trial. Are there any others? what about the non-previously-mortal gods, where do they come from?

3) What of the other divine beings? (In "divine being" I mean any being who can bestow divine power upon followers) Such as demon lords? How do they differ from the gods? Is there real distinction? Any other non-gods divine beings?

4) What of the planes? What relation do they have to divine entities? I know some demon lords for examples have their own planes, (As are the demon lords in the adventure Path, and also the mention of Iomedae herself in the 5th installment) is this the norm? What relations do the planes have between themselves?

5) What relation do divine beings have on Golarion itself? I understood there is a sort of "non intervention" clause, (Which I can't seem to find, but is important to the game) but I also understand that the god Aroden acted fairly freely on Golarion?

6) Any special laws/ guidelines/ pacts the gods follow? Any "game rules/ do-and-don't?"

Thanks in advance in shedding light on the matter. If you can't do it directly, but can point me to a (Hopefully free) source that can explain that would be great.

1) Divine magic works pretty much the same as arcane magic. ALL magic comes from the same "source" (including the upcoming psychic magic)—what makes it different is how a character accesses the magic. As a general rule, arcane magic is accessed by study and investigation, divine magic is accessed via faith and belief, and psychic magic is generally accessed from within the self. In the end, though, the differences between the three magic types is largely one of flavor; the rules mechanics treat the way those spells resolve all the same.

2) The ability to grant spells, in a nutshel, is what makes a god a god. Furthermore, the power they wield is what differentiates them from mortals. We actually don't have rules to support full-on deities, by design. So you could say, what makes a full-on deity is the fact that they DON'T have rules or stat blocks, and can thus do anything they want. Demigods are the next tier down; they are generally CR 26 to CR 30 foes who can grant spells and can be killed by powerful (or lucky) mortals and who do have stats. Below demigods are the quasi deities—these can be any CR but generally aren't above CR 25; they're things who can grant spells (often via the Mythic Adventures power of Divine Source) but are a shadow of the power of even a demigod. As for where they come from... it varies per god. Inner Sea Gods gives a lot more information on this topic; there's hundreds of deities active in Golarion, and I can't even really start to detail them here.

3) See #2 above. To reiterate... there are three categories of god/goddesses: Deity (the most powerful; this includes the core deities like Desna and Norgorber, but also many others), Demigod (the middle tier; this includes demon lords and the like); and Quasi Deities (this includes creatures of CR 25 or lower who can grant spells, such as Treerazer).

4) Most deities and demigods have realms on the outer planes. As for the nature of the planes themselves... that's also a huge topic. The Great Beyond covers the planes in a lot of detail, but barely scratches the surface.

5) The "non-intervention" clause isn't written down, but nor does it really need to be. The basic gist is that if one god comes down to Golarion to interfere, then the others will too, and suddenly ALL of the gods are directly intervening, and there's no way a mortal realm can survive being an arena where gods bicker and fight. The Gods understand this, and they thus avoid direct intervention on a mortal realm since it's an everyone loses prospect. Demigods, like demon lords, aren't bound by this rule, but then again, they CAN be killed by mortals, so going to Golarion and messing with things in person is a risk.

6) Not really; they're left to you to decide for your game. But again, Inner Sea Gods will help. For the vast majority of cases, they'll let their worshipers proxy for them in in-world conflicts.

In closing, I suspect the best book to start with would be Inner Sea World Guide. It has a lot of information about the world of Golarion, including a sizable chapter about the gods and the outer planes.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Tels wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
thegreenteagamer wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Jayson MF Kip wrote:

How often do you notice that someone on the boards is correct about some "mystery" on Golarion (IE: circumstances regarding Aroden) via random chance?

It happens now and then, but that's as much as because there's so many people out there guessing and/or reading well between the lines. No one's yet "guessed" the exact reason for Aroden's death though, I'm glad to say.
Do you realize how many possibilities you just ruled out?

Not NEARLY as many as remain.

And that assumes you believe me when I say no one's guessed correctly.

Did you lie when you said no one guessed it?

That's an excellent question! I might have. I might not have. I'm not here to make it easier for folks to figure it out, and in fact, I'm eager to take steps to make it HARDER to figure out.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Tels wrote:

Unrelated questions to the above.

Whats the word on the Paizo Game Space? I was really excited when I heard it was in development, but I haven't heard anything about it in awhile. Was the idea shelved or is it still being worked on?

What are your favorite easter eggs you've found in games?

I don't know what the word is there. I'm not really involved with Game Space at all; you'd have to ask someone on the Tech Team, I guess.

My favorite easter eggs? Hmmmmm... I actually can't think of one that stands out. As a general rule, when I see an easter egg, I'm amused a little by it but also a little annoyed since if I notice it, it breaks the verisimilitude to me. I much prefer in-world easter eggs, I guess.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

MMCJawa wrote:

So last night I finally got around to watching Banshee Chapter, which I think you have said you watched and enjoyed

IF you haven't, don't click on the spoiler below :)

** spoiler omitted **

The Pathfinder banshee is very much a different creature (it's in Bestiary 2). In fact, the creature from "Banshee Chapter" isn't what I'd call a banshee at all... it's a weird title, but a cool one. It's been too long since I saw the movie so I don't recall the specifics of the monsters... but if I recall correctly... I'd do something like morlocks with blink and displacement effects.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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The Fox wrote:

Wait. I'm totally intrigued by this allosaurus bone die! So many questions...

1. How many sides does it have?
2. What does it look like? size? color?
3. Are the markings pips or characters?
4. I assume you meant that it is made from fossilized bone, how do you know that it is allosaurus?
5. Was it made in the modern age?
6. Where did you get it? Was it expensive?

Thanks! :)

1) 20

2) It's about a half-inch across, brown, with red numbers. Like this.

3) Characters.

4) Yes, it's from a fossil. I know it's allosaurus because that's what the packaging claimed and indicated. For all I know, it's made of dirt... but whatever it's made of certainly LOOKS like fossilized bone.

5) Yes.

6) Got it as a gift.


James Jacobs wrote:
MMCJawa wrote:

So last night I finally got around to watching Banshee Chapter, which I think you have said you watched and enjoyed

IF you haven't, don't click on the spoiler below :)

** spoiler omitted **

The Pathfinder banshee is very much a different creature (it's in Bestiary 2). In fact, the creature from "Banshee Chapter" isn't what I'd call a banshee at all... it's a weird title, but a cool one. It's been too long since I saw the movie so I don't recall the specifics of the monsters... but if I recall correctly... I'd do something like morlocks with blink and displacement effects.

Oh no I understand that the Pathfinder banshee (or for that matter the folkloric Banshee) isn't the same creature as the denizen of Banshee Chapter. I suppose Morlocks would work for the final result, but My interpretation was that the banshees were some sort extraplanar creature that "hollowed" out humans that were receptive to them, and wore them as "suits"

Anyway....on to a related question

Will the Occult Bestiary include some new monsters for the Ethereal and Astral Planes? Feels like many horror movies make use of "dimensions" somewhat like these planes, and they seem kind of underpopulated in Pathfinder with monsters compared to the outer planes.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

MMCJawa wrote:
Will the Occult Bestiary include some new monsters for the Ethereal and Astral Planes? Feels like many horror movies make use of "dimensions" somewhat like these planes, and they seem kind of underpopulated in Pathfinder with monsters compared to the outer planes.

I suspect it shall!


Thanks. That answers most of my questions. The rest (More philosophical and metaphysical questions about the divine) I will need to think up with my players.
I will look for those sources you mentioned.
Thanks again!


James, How do you feel about weapons being [Alignment]-Outsider-Bane as opposed to Kyton-Bane or Protean-Bane or Elemental-Bane? The alignment subtypes are probably more broadly useful, but I think using subtypes based on kind is more flavorful sometimes.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

The Golux wrote:
James, How do you feel about weapons being [Alignment]-Outsider-Bane as opposed to Kyton-Bane or Protean-Bane or Elemental-Bane? The alignment subtypes are probably more broadly useful, but I think using subtypes based on kind is more flavorful sometimes.

The alignment types are more useful. Especially since they automatically grab any new outsider races we might create in the future.

Radiant Oath

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Upon learning that Disney is apparently doing a remake of Pete's Dragon I was struck with a realization: Pete and the titular dragon, Elliot, would be a pretty good representation of how a summoner and their Eidolon work, wouldn't they?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Upon learning that Disney is apparently doing a remake of Pete's Dragon I was struck with a realization: Pete and the titular dragon, Elliot, would be a pretty good representation of how a summoner and their Eidolon work, wouldn't they?

So would Jimmy Stewart and Harvey I guess.

Silver Crusade

HI James, I have a company related question for you. Who at Pazio handles Hero Lab Licensing questions?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Lou Diamond wrote:
HI James, I have a company related question for you. Who at Pazio handles Hero Lab Licensing questions?

Mike Kenway is our licensing guy... but I'm not actually sure what you're asking for. Hero Lab is not a Paizo product, so if you want to license it for something, you'd have to talk to Lone Wolf, the owners of Hero Lab.

Grand Lodge

It's a hypothetical in Golarion that you may not care for but I just gotta ask for my future Giantslayer campaign,...

IF Mokmurian were alive, surviving despite having his plans in RotRL thwarted by PCs, what do you think his relationship with Volstus would be?

Why I'm asking

Thanks for any insight!

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Upon learning that Disney is apparently doing a remake of Pete's Dragon I was struck with a realization: Pete and the titular dragon, Elliot, would be a pretty good representation of how a summoner and their Eidolon work, wouldn't they?
So would Jimmy Stewart and Harvey I guess.

Who are they?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

W E Ray wrote:

It's a hypothetical in Golarion that you may not care for but I just gotta ask for my future Giantslayer campaign,...

IF Mokmurian were alive, surviving despite having his plans in RotRL thwarted by PCs, what do you think his relationship with Volstus would be?

Why I'm asking

Thanks for any insight!

I'm not familiar enough with Giantslayer to answer that, frankly. I don't even know who Volstus is, off the top of my head.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Upon learning that Disney is apparently doing a remake of Pete's Dragon I was struck with a realization: Pete and the titular dragon, Elliot, would be a pretty good representation of how a summoner and their Eidolon work, wouldn't they?
So would Jimmy Stewart and Harvey I guess.
Who are they?

Click!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hmmmm... I've been thinking about the answers to my previous questions about Divinity and so on. I'd like to refine some questions if I may:
1) While divine magic and arcane magic work the same in crunch terms, what makes them different in flavor terms? Why is healing only available to the divine? In most of it's forms? How does divine magic differs in it's ESSENCE from the arcane energies of the world? What is the source of power that the gods tap into and enable to grant their worshipers? There are certain themes in divine magic that feel different than arcane. What is the essence, the core, the source of this difference in Golarion?

I am asking since one of my characters seeks to take the "divine source" path ability, and thus gain access to divine magic, but she seeks to do so without having any connection to the gods themselves. A sort of "Thief/ trickster" of divinity. I am trying to understand divinity and arcane magic in order to try and find an interesting, flavorful and world consistent explanation and experience.

2) For the same reason, I'd like to understand the hierarchy of the divine beings better. Not their respective power levels. While that is helpful, it is a game terms approach, but I seek more of a flavor one. If A mortal, quasi or semi god wishes to ascend to the next "level", what core changes do they need to go through? What essential changes in their definition, being, makeup, spirit, soul or such do they need to go through?

In terms of flavor, and not just power, how do mortals, quasi, semi and full gods differ?

These re fantasy metaphysical questions, and I'm aware they may not be any answers. I'm asking out of interest, intrigue, and to provide my player with such an experience upon their "Ascension".

Thanks in advance,
Meir.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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meir dumbrava wrote:

Hmmmm... I've been thinking about the answers to my previous questions about Divinity and so on. I'd like to refine some questions if I may:

1) While divine magic and arcane magic work the same in crunch terms, what makes them different in flavor terms? Why is healing only available to the divine? In most of it's forms? How does divine magic differs in it's ESSENCE from the arcane energies of the world? What is the source of power that the gods tap into and enable to grant their worshipers? There are certain themes in divine magic that feel different than arcane. What is the essence, the core, the source of this difference in Golarion?

I am asking since one of my characters seeks to take the "divine source" path ability, and thus gain access to divine magic, but she seeks to do so without having any connection to the gods themselves. A sort of "Thief/ trickster" of divinity. I am trying to understand divinity and arcane magic in order to try and find an interesting, flavorful and world consistent explanation and experience.

2) For the same reason, I'd like to understand the hierarchy of the divine beings better. Not their respective power levels. While that is helpful, it is a game terms approach, but I seek more of a flavor one. If A mortal, quasi or semi god wishes to ascend to the next "level", what core changes do they need to go through? What essential changes in their definition, being, makeup, spirit, soul or such do they need to go through?

In terms of flavor, and not just power, how do mortals, quasi, semi and full gods differ?

These re fantasy metaphysical questions, and I'm aware they may not be any answers. I'm asking out of interest, intrigue, and to provide my player with such an experience upon their "Ascension".

Thanks in advance,
Meir.

1) What makes them different is, basically, arcane magic is logic (aka "science") while divine magic is faith (aka "belief"). Arcane magic is Intelligence. Divine magic is Wisdom. Oversimplification, perhaps, but a good starting point.

2) And we simply don't really quantify what it takes for a god to shift power levels. That's an area of the game we want to solely keep to story and flavor. AKA: It can be anything you want it to be.

These answers are unlikely to satisfy, I fear... and while I certainly COULD go into great detail (I do have quite a lot of ideas on how this all works)... now is neither the time nor the place to go into it. I'd rather reveal that information, if we ever do, in a way that it's had the proper time to go through development and editing.


Thanks anyway. I pretty much expected this to be left to the gaming group, just wanted to see if there re any cannonical concepts inherent to the world.

Thanks for the prompt response.


Which villain do you prefer, Lex Luthor or the Joker?


James Jacobs wrote:

1) What makes them different is, basically, arcane magic is logic (aka "science") while divine magic is faith (aka "belief"). Arcane magic is Intelligence. Divine magic is Wisdom. Oversimplification, perhaps,...

But what about Oracles and Sorcerers? They received their power neither through wisdom nor faith, yet their sources are different. How, then, does their source differ, if continuing to follow that same logic? Neither a bloodrager, nor sorcerer, nor eldrich scion magus seek their abilities, yet they are still labeled "arcane". If psychic power comes from within, why aren't those psychic?


What are the odds any of the Archdevils or infernal dukes is given stats in the upcoming Hell's Rebels?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Icyshadow wrote:
Which villain do you prefer, Lex Luthor or the Joker?

The Joker... mostly because he's associated with Batman and not Superman.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

thegreenteagamer wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:

1) What makes them different is, basically, arcane magic is logic (aka "science") while divine magic is faith (aka "belief"). Arcane magic is Intelligence. Divine magic is Wisdom. Oversimplification, perhaps,...

But what about Oracles and Sorcerers? They received their power neither through wisdom nor faith, yet their sources are different. How, then, does their source differ, if continuing to follow that same logic? Neither a bloodrager, nor sorcerer, nor eldrich scion magus seek their abilities, yet they are still labeled "arcane". If psychic power comes from within, why aren't those psychic?

Exceptions to the rule, and had we had psychic magic on day one, there's a chance they MIGHT have been psychic magic characters, not divine or arcane.

But we didn't, and so the distinction gets muddied a little.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

VoidHerald wrote:
What are the odds any of the Archdevils or infernal dukes is given stats in the upcoming Hell's Rebels?

Pretty much zero.


...but...we can't kill deities. The closest thing we get to deicide in Pathfinder is demigods! How then will we play out our desire to destroy the nigh unkillable if not through them?

Does WotR at least let you curb stomp a demon lord, since we can't go to town on an archdevil?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

thegreenteagamer wrote:

...but...we can't kill deities. The closest thing we get to deicide in Pathfinder is demigods! How then will we play out our desire to destroy the nigh unkillable if not through them?

Does WotR at least let you curb stomp a demon lord, since we can't go to town on an archdevil?

You're not supposed to be able to kill deities. That's kinda the whole and entire point.

But likewise, the fact that we DO give stats to demigods like demon lords, well... you CAN kill them. That's the whole point of that category of god. It's tough killing them though; they're CR 26 to CR 30 after all.

As for WotR...

Spoiler:
During the course of WotR you encounter, face to face, 3 different demon lords. The campaign expects you to kill at least one of them.


So, I had an idea of a campaign involving a powerful, malevolent entity abducting the players (maybe others) into its own demiplane (the size of a country or so) to torment them and pit them against other abductees.

Do you have any tips on how to balance an ongoing story and sandbox-y gameplay?

Liberty's Edge

Do you enjoy hexcrawl type campaigns or do you prefer a story focused campaign?

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
xavier c wrote:
If you could add 25 gods from the Forgotten Realms setting to the pathfinder setting who would those be?
I wouldn't. That'd make Golarion into a weird Golarion/Forgotten Realms hybrid that would do neither setting any favors.

I tend to agree with that (although the Realms gods were already kind of a mish-mash, including some from real world mythology, like Loviatar and Mielikki).

I've seen you mention Wee Jas as a favorite god from Greyhawk. What are some of your other favorite gods from Greyhawk and / or the Realms (or other settings I'm forgetting)?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

HangarFlying wrote:
Do you enjoy hexcrawl type campaigns or do you prefer a story focused campaign?

I prefer story in my campaigns.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Albatoonoe wrote:

So, I had an idea of a campaign involving a powerful, malevolent entity abducting the players (maybe others) into its own demiplane (the size of a country or so) to torment them and pit them against other abductees.

Do you have any tips on how to balance an ongoing story and sandbox-y gameplay?

Study published adventures that you've enjoyed playing or running and emulate the way they do things. Read lots of books and watch lots of movies/shows for inspiration. Don't be afraid to supplement your game with material pulled from other adventures... if the PCs decide at the last minute to visit a castle you didn't expect them to go to, grab an adventure with a castle in it and use the map at the very least if the encoutners themselves are too much or too little.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Set wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
xavier c wrote:
If you could add 25 gods from the Forgotten Realms setting to the pathfinder setting who would those be?
I wouldn't. That'd make Golarion into a weird Golarion/Forgotten Realms hybrid that would do neither setting any favors.

I tend to agree with that (although the Realms gods were already kind of a mish-mash, including some from real world mythology, like Loviatar and Mielikki).

I've seen you mention Wee Jas as a favorite god from Greyhawk. What are some of your other favorite gods from Greyhawk and / or the Realms (or other settings I'm forgetting)?

I quite like Wee Jas and Eilistraee, and all of the demon lords. Moander is cool too. Tharizdun, of course.

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