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Paizo Employee Creative Director

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YttriumDervish wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
YttriumDervish wrote:
The Archer archetype of Fighter, Trick Shot ability, lists feint. I've tried searching for this with no avail (most threads are over 4 years old anyway): Feint does not use your CMB to determine success, and is not technically a combat maneuver, so is there no penalty for using it with a bow, or does the -4 apply to your Bluff check instead?
This needs to be a post to the rules forums so it can be FAQed. I'd just ignore the mention of feint in my games.

I did (I think), and went to change it when I noticed I was in the wrong place, and then learned of the edit/delete time limits on the posts, etc., etc.

But here's a question more suitable for your expertise (and this topic): Aroden's immortality.

Unless there's a particular bit I'm missing (as well as the pfsrd and any other site/post/whatever I've found during my searching), you state that Aroden was an immortal descendant of the Azlanti, and yadda yadda did stuff for thousands of years until finally raising the Starstone and becoming a God.

What I don't see clarified, or expounded upon, or mentioned any more than this passing bit, is that Aroden was immortal long before he achieved divinity. With Nex and Geb, there's at least a blurb of elixirs and ungents and the like; similarly with the Sun Orchid Elixir. But no mention of how Aroden became immortal, which seems like it should've been a point of intense interest among his (former) worshipers.

So...any details regarding his immortality before his apotheosis?

We've got a big article about Aroden coming up in Pathfinder #100. There's LOTS of ways for folks to extend their lives though. The Sun Orchid Elixir is but one of them. Anyway... until that article's out, I'm not gonna say much more on the topic... it's coming soon!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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j b 200 wrote:

Since you created Pharasma, did you invent the idea of Psycopomps?

What do you think of the Sahkil, the corrupted Psycopomps announced to be in the Beastiary 5?

Psychopomps are a real-world mythological idea. Turning them into a neutral race of outsiders akin to angels or demons was a mix of myself and Wes Schneider. I haven't seen the sahkil yet so I don't think anything about them yet, other than to agree that the notion of a corrupted psychopomp is pretty interesting; elements of that theme will be in "Hell's Rebels."

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Kalindlara wrote:

I knew there was something I'd been meaning to ask!

In running Carrion Crown, I've considered both daemon and qlippoth allies for the Whispering Way. The upcoming sahkil sound like they'd be perfect.

How do qlippoth feel about the Way? Would they see the Way's eventual goal of a stagnant paradise as more acceptable, since birth and death would end and no more sinful souls would come to the Abyss?

How appropriate are the sahkil going to be as allies of the Whispering Way? 100%? Or just 90% or so?

Would the sahkil be servants of Urgathoa with any regularity?

Thank you! ^_^

Again, I have no idea what the sahkil are. The first I've heard about them was the previous post. So at this point, I'm in the same boat you are regarding what they are and how they'll work. That said, if they ARE indeed a monster in Bestiary 5... that's world neutral, so don't expect them to be spelled out as agents of the Whispering Way or Urgathoa.

Silver Crusade Contributor

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James Jacobs wrote:
Kalindlara wrote:

I knew there was something I'd been meaning to ask!

In running Carrion Crown, I've considered both daemon and qlippoth allies for the Whispering Way. The upcoming sahkil sound like they'd be perfect.

How do qlippoth feel about the Way? Would they see the Way's eventual goal of a stagnant paradise as more acceptable, since birth and death would end and no more sinful souls would come to the Abyss?

How appropriate are the sahkil going to be as allies of the Whispering Way? 100%? Or just 90% or so?

Would the sahkil be servants of Urgathoa with any regularity?

Thank you! ^_^

Again, I have no idea what the sahkil are. The first I've heard about them was the previous post. So at this point, I'm in the same boat you are regarding what they are and how they'll work. That said, if they ARE indeed a monster in Bestiary 5... that's world neutral, so don't expect them to be spelled out as agents of the Whispering Way or Urgathoa.

Sorry, I assumed you knew more about them. (I knew the Bestiary would be world-neutral, by the way; that's why I asked you.)

Can I ask again later? ^_^


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Any chance we'll get more detailed information on Queen Abrogail in the upcoming adventure paths?


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Are the Bestiaries more Mr. Schneider's thing?

Now that I've said that, he's the person in charge of those, isn't he?

Dark Archive

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Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Geez, sorry if I was being rude there ._.

Anyway, so something I'm slightly curious about: Does every planet in Golarion's solar system have same(as Golarion) amount of world ending threats, or is Golarion special in that regard?

(edit: Dang edited sahkil explanation out <_<; My bad for skimming other people's posts X-x; Hopefully nobody actually read it before I edited it out)


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Aelryinth wrote:

Just in game, he could use the Wiz/20 discovery, and later on, Mythic/10 does the same, FYI.

==Aelryinth

Why thank you. I hadn't delved that far into it, to be honest.

That still begs the question, though, of why it is never mentioned. "Aroden was an immortal descendant..." is usually the best we get, and it just seems a bit open-ended. God of Taldor (and Cheliax) [and all of humanity] who created/harnessed the only current known way of ascending mortals to divinity, walked Golarion itself after his ascension, blah blah awesomeness, should have had a large chunk of lore attributed to him. It's only been a little more than 100 years since his death, so it wouldn't be as though records of his deeds had been lost to time yet. And surely some one of his companions (either from after his raising of the Starstone or prior to) would have said, "Hey, Aroden ol' chap, how is it you're at least 5200 years old anyway?"

...I suppose I'll wait for #100.


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So small? I really had impression that elves, even not being land grabbing, had a big domain (not confused with high population to fully control it). Even if it was only forrest terrain/outposts that they guarded from incursions of other races.

Other questions:
1. Where elves exploring Darklands before Earthfall?
2. What was their opinion of Thassilon and Azlant?
3. What were their relations (if they had them) with Serpentfolk, Lizardfolk and Cyclops?


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YttriumDervish wrote:
Aelryinth wrote:

Just in game, he could use the Wiz/20 discovery, and later on, Mythic/10 does the same, FYI.

==Aelryinth

Why thank you. I hadn't delved that far into it, to be honest.

That still begs the question, though, of why it is never mentioned. "Aroden was an immortal descendant..." is usually the best we get, and it just seems a bit open-ended. God of Taldor (and Cheliax) [and all of humanity] who created/harnessed the only current known way of ascending mortals to divinity, walked Golarion itself after his ascension, blah blah awesomeness, should have had a large chunk of lore attributed to him. It's only been a little more than 100 years since his death, so it wouldn't be as though records of his deeds had been lost to time yet. And surely some one of his companions (either from after his raising of the Starstone or prior to) would have said, "Hey, Aroden ol' chap, how is it you're at least 5200 years old anyway?"

...I suppose I'll wait for #100.

when 5200 years old do you reach.. talk about it, you do not. ;)

Radiant Oath

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

What would you say the narrative themes and ideas in Kingmaker are besides the obvious struggle between civilization and the natural world?

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

When Aroden reached 800 years old, did he look as good as Yoda?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kalindlara wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Kalindlara wrote:

I knew there was something I'd been meaning to ask!

In running Carrion Crown, I've considered both daemon and qlippoth allies for the Whispering Way. The upcoming sahkil sound like they'd be perfect.

How do qlippoth feel about the Way? Would they see the Way's eventual goal of a stagnant paradise as more acceptable, since birth and death would end and no more sinful souls would come to the Abyss?

How appropriate are the sahkil going to be as allies of the Whispering Way? 100%? Or just 90% or so?

Would the sahkil be servants of Urgathoa with any regularity?

Thank you! ^_^

Again, I have no idea what the sahkil are. The first I've heard about them was the previous post. So at this point, I'm in the same boat you are regarding what they are and how they'll work. That said, if they ARE indeed a monster in Bestiary 5... that's world neutral, so don't expect them to be spelled out as agents of the Whispering Way or Urgathoa.

Sorry, I assumed you knew more about them. (I knew the Bestiary would be world-neutral, by the way; that's why I asked you.)

Can I ask again later? ^_^

You can indeed. I'm unlikely to know more for several months though.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Andrew Crossett wrote:
Any chance we'll get more detailed information on Queen Abrogail in the upcoming adventure paths?

Not a lot in Hell's Rebels, but a fair amount in Hell's Vengeance.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Zhangar wrote:

Are the Bestiaries more Mr. Schneider's thing?

Now that I've said that, he's the person in charge of those, isn't he?

They, like all the rulebooks, are a Design team thing. Wes has for the past few helped out with the art order and the monster selection though.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

CorvusMask wrote:

Geez, sorry if I was being rude there ._.

Anyway, so something I'm slightly curious about: Does every planet in Golarion's solar system have same(as Golarion) amount of world ending threats, or is Golarion special in that regard?

(edit: Dang edited sahkil explanation out <_<; My bad for skimming other people's posts X-x; Hopefully nobody actually read it before I edited it out)

If it's a place where PCs can adventure, there's enough world-ending threats to keep the players interested. Golarion is the focus of our game, so it has many more threats simply because it has the most stories set there.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ashkar wrote:

So small? I really had impression that elves, even not being land grabbing, had a big domain (not confused with high population to fully control it). Even if it was only forrest terrain/outposts that they guarded from incursions of other races.

Other questions:
1. Where elves exploring Darklands before Earthfall?
2. What was their opinion of Thassilon and Azlant?
3. What were their relations (if they had them) with Serpentfolk, Lizardfolk and Cyclops?

They have a whole continent on Castrovel. They don't have human expansonistic grabby hands when it comes to "owning land."

1) No.

2) They had a cold war/periodic hot war with Thassilon. Same with Azlant, but less hot more cold.

3) No significant contact with serpentfolk or cyclopes. They were guarded allies with lizardfolk.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
What would you say the narrative themes and ideas in Kingmaker are besides the obvious struggle between civilization and the natural world?

How love can make you do bad things.

That beauty does not mean you're good.

Being a leader draws good and bad attention.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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LazarX wrote:
When Aroden reached 800 years old, did he look as good as Yoda?

A lot better, in fact.

Liberty's Edge

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Which bad guys in the Golarion setting are former PCs of yours, if any?

Liberty's Edge

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How much of Distant Worlds (as a general setting, not necessarily of the book itself) is from your head? 100%, 50%, 0%?

I'm going to assume that the lashunta aren't going to be mentioned a whole lot in Occult Adventures and related products, if at all. Given that we probably won't have anything/much in print, can you give us any fluff regarding the relationship between lashunta and psychic magic? Did they play any sort of part in its discovery? Or are they big utilizers of it?


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If Cheliax had conquered the Shackles at the end of Skull and Shackles, how drastically would that change the world?

Is Lissala going to return her attention to Golarion anytime soon? Perhaps whenever the next Runelord AP happens?

Lastly how does it feel to know you've helped to create a world where hundreds of thousands of people play in everyday?


James Jacobs wrote:
DrakeRoberts wrote:
James, is there a compilation (or rule of thumb to follow) showing which regions do(n't) allow the owning and/or selling of slaves? At the moment my particular interest is in Ustalav. Thanks!

The best you'll get is that countries with alignments of "good" listed in the Inner Sea World Guide likley do not allow slaves. The closer you get to evil (particularly lawful evil) the more likely slaves are a part of the nation.

There are a few exceptions. Slavery's not a big thing in the River Kingdoms (which is chaotic neutrual) or Varisia (which is neutral) and it's a HUGE thing in Katapesh (which is also neutral).

So then it's probably at least a thing (if not necessarily a BIG thing) in NE Ustalav?


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You've mentioned before that adventuring in the upper planes would be boring for a party of good aligned characters. But what about roleplaying chances. Will you be going into much more detail on the upper planes in future books?

Will there be chances of a return of the relationship rules?

Keillor there be a chance of the main story of the group of the iconic characters returns?

Scarab Sages

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Now for a comparatively banal question that isn't worth starting a thread for: What category of traits are the horoscope traits from Occult Mysteries? It doesn't say - are they perhaps their own category? That would make sense.


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Hey James,

I am currently planning an occult themed adventure for my group in the fall, but as of right now I am trying to look for the best location to stage such an adventure. Naturally I have a few questions on the subject. I understand if future book releases may prevent you from answering some of these, but anything helps.

1. Does Ustalav have a large amount of occult activity?
2. Where in the inner sea would one find the largest concentration of psychic magic users?
3. Is necromancy considered occult at all?
4. If you had to stage an occult game where Golarion would you choose to place it?
5. Does the church of nethys have many psychic magic users?

Thank you in advance!


There still seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for a Sandpoint boxed set. How do you feel about it?


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James Jacobs wrote:
LazarX wrote:
When Aroden reached 800 years old, did he look as good as Yoda?
A lot better, in fact.

Only, from a certain point of view, this may be.


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James Jacobs wrote:
Ashkar wrote:


1. Where elves exploring Darklands before Earthfall?

1) No.

But what about the elven gate from Sekamia (Second Darkness AP) that leads to Kyonin? Was it built by elves, before they transformed in Drow, and forgoten?

Other questions:
1. Did Ulfen culture appear after Kellid? Was it a mix between varki and kellid?
2. What was in place of Inner Sea before Earthfall? Was there anything interesting, like some cyclop lands? Or it was populated predominately by primitive kellids?

Dark Archive

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James Jacobs wrote:
There's LOTS of ways for folks to extend their lives though.

James what form of immortality would you rather come true?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Samy wrote:
Which bad guys in the Golarion setting are former PCs of yours, if any?

None of them. I was usually the GM in my history of gaming, so many of the bad guys of Golarion are former NPCs, but I really don't have a large stable of PCs to draw from. And since I've classically played good people, it makes little sense to transform them into villains.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Samy wrote:

How much of Distant Worlds (as a general setting, not necessarily of the book itself) is from your head? 100%, 50%, 0%?

I'm going to assume that the lashunta aren't going to be mentioned a whole lot in Occult Adventures and related products, if at all. Given that we probably won't have anything/much in print, can you give us any fluff regarding the relationship between lashunta and psychic magic? Did they play any sort of part in its discovery? Or are they big utilizers of it?

Pretty close to 0%. It's mostly James Sutter, building off of some of Erik Mona's ideas.

We'll have other products in the campaign setting line that'll contextualize Occult Adventures in-world, so let's wait till those books, like Occult Realms, are out before I start trying to fill in gaps.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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KaiserBruno wrote:

If Cheliax had conquered the Shackles at the end of Skull and Shackles, how drastically would that change the world?

Is Lissala going to return her attention to Golarion anytime soon? Perhaps whenever the next Runelord AP happens?

Lastly how does it feel to know you've helped to create a world where hundreds of thousands of people play in everyday?

As drastically as you want it to change the world. I really REALLY prefer to let individual GMs make that call rather than to imply a Paizo Preference for them.

Maybe! Did you see the PFS scenarios? She and her cult had a pretty strong presence in the scenarios a few seasons ago.

And it feels pretty exciting! It's weird to go to a convention and see someone cosplay a character you created 30 years ago, that's for sure!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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DrakeRoberts wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
DrakeRoberts wrote:
James, is there a compilation (or rule of thumb to follow) showing which regions do(n't) allow the owning and/or selling of slaves? At the moment my particular interest is in Ustalav. Thanks!

The best you'll get is that countries with alignments of "good" listed in the Inner Sea World Guide likley do not allow slaves. The closer you get to evil (particularly lawful evil) the more likely slaves are a part of the nation.

There are a few exceptions. Slavery's not a big thing in the River Kingdoms (which is chaotic neutrual) or Varisia (which is neutral) and it's a HUGE thing in Katapesh (which is also neutral).

So then it's probably at least a thing (if not necessarily a BIG thing) in NE Ustalav?

Correct.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

SCKnightHero1 wrote:

You've mentioned before that adventuring in the upper planes would be boring for a party of good aligned characters. But what about roleplaying chances. Will you be going into much more detail on the upper planes in future books?

Will there be chances of a return of the relationship rules?

Keillor there be a chance of the main story of the group of the iconic characters returns?

No plans yet.

No plans yet.

Not sure what your're asking in the last question.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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I'm Hiding In Your Closet wrote:
Now for a comparatively banal question that isn't worth starting a thread for: What category of traits are the horoscope traits from Occult Mysteries? It doesn't say - are they perhaps their own category? That would make sense.

They should be magic traits.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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a2fan wrote:
There still seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for a Sandpoint boxed set. How do you feel about it?

Kinda tormented. I would LOVE to do one, but there's no way I can given my other job responsibilities at this time. It's really really really frustrating.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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C.J. Withers wrote:

Hey James,

I am currently planning an occult themed adventure for my group in the fall, but as of right now I am trying to look for the best location to stage such an adventure. Naturally I have a few questions on the subject. I understand if future book releases may prevent you from answering some of these, but anything helps.

1. Does Ustalav have a large amount of occult activity?
2. Where in the inner sea would one find the largest concentration of psychic magic users?
3. Is necromancy considered occult at all?
4. If you had to stage an occult game where Golarion would you choose to place it?
5. Does the church of nethys have many psychic magic users?

Thank you in advance!

1) Absolutely.

2) Jalmeray.

3) It can be.

4) Varisia or Ustalav.

5) Not particularly.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Ashkar wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Ashkar wrote:


1. Where elves exploring Darklands before Earthfall?

1) No.

But what about the elven gate from Sekamia (Second Darkness AP) that leads to Kyonin? Was it built by elves, before they transformed in Drow, and forgoten?

Other questions:
1. Did Ulfen culture appear after Kellid? Was it a mix between varki and kellid?
2. What was in place of Inner Sea before Earthfall? Was there anything interesting, like some cyclop lands? Or it was populated predominately by primitive kellids?

The presence of a Darklands gate only means they knew about the Darklands, not that they explored it extensively. I suspect they started that one relatively late in the process, or perhaps even built it after they returned to Golarion and wanted to investigate the drow.

1) Ulfens are their own ethnicity; they are parallel to theKellids.

2) Mostly plains and lowlands occupied by Kellids and Garundi and halflings. There was a land bridge between the two continents but no real water connection between the Obari and Arcadian oceans.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

baron arem heshvaun wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
There's LOTS of ways for folks to extend their lives though.
James what form of immortality would you rather come true?

I'm not sure nature would work well with ANY of them, save perhaps digital immortality, so that one.

Liberty's Edge

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Where in Golarion would be the best place for a MacGyver/X-Files type Pacific Northwest forest with heavy rainfall, cool temperatures and tall pine trees? Where bigfeet and ancient evils might lurk far beyond civilization's reach? Is the Grungir forest the closest I can get?


James Jacobs wrote:
SCKnightHero1 wrote:

You've mentioned before that adventuring in the upper planes would be boring for a party of good aligned characters. But what about roleplaying chances. Will you be going into much more detail on the upper planes in future books?

Will there be chances of a return of the relationship rules?

Keillor there be a chance of the main story of the group of the iconic characters returns?

No plans yet.

No plans yet.

Not sure what your're asking in the last question.

Fishsticks and fudge brownies! Stupid iPhone spellchecker!

Sorry about that. I was asking were y'all going to bring in other groups of the iconics for the comics like mix them up or something?

And when is the cavalier going to star in the comics!?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Samy wrote:
Where in Golarion would be the best place for a MacGyver/X-Files type Pacific Northwest forest with heavy rainfall, cool temperatures and tall pine trees? Where bigfeet and ancient evils might lurk far beyond civilization's reach? Is the Grungir forest the closest I can get?

The forest of Varisia. The Grungir Forest works too though, but that always feels more like the forests of Norway and Sweeden and other northern european woodlands to me. Varisia is really very much inspired by the Pacific Northwest and northern California, and fits in VERY well with those types of woodlands.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

SCKnightHero1 wrote:
And when is the cavalier going to star in the comics!?

No plans at this point to have the cavalier show up in the comics.

As for what's next after the current line of comics... I'm not sure we've actually made that public yet so I'm not gonna say much more there.


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James Jacobs wrote:
baron arem heshvaun wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
There's LOTS of ways for folks to extend their lives though.
James what form of immortality would you rather come true?
I'm not sure nature would work well with ANY of them, save perhaps digital immortality, so that one.

Even that might not be possible if the laws of thermodynamics(The Heat Death of the Universe) are true.


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What are the alignments of all the iconics including the occult classes if you can reveal that?


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So Bestiary 5 will have new angels.

1)But will Bestiary 5 have any new Agathions or Archon or Azata in it?

2)With Hell's Vengeance coming out next year will Bestiary 5 and the Hell's Vengeance AP bestiaries have more good monsters in general?


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James Jacobs wrote:
baron arem heshvaun wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
There's LOTS of ways for folks to extend their lives though.
James what form of immortality would you rather come true?
I'm not sure nature would work well with ANY of them, save perhaps digital immortality, so that one.

What do you mean by nature not working well with most of them? Do you mean not physically possible, or something else?

Liberty's Edge

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James Jacobs wrote:
Varisia is really very much inspired by the Pacific Northwest and northern California, and fits in VERY well with those types of woodlands.

Okay, thanks a lot! I'm going to have to work on very heavily adjusting my image of Varisia. For some reason I had totally pictured it as a much drier region.


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James Jacobs wrote:
DrakeRoberts wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
DrakeRoberts wrote:
James, is there a compilation (or rule of thumb to follow) showing which regions do(n't) allow the owning and/or selling of slaves? At the moment my particular interest is in Ustalav. Thanks!

The best you'll get is that countries with alignments of "good" listed in the Inner Sea World Guide likley do not allow slaves. The closer you get to evil (particularly lawful evil) the more likely slaves are a part of the nation.

There are a few exceptions. Slavery's not a big thing in the River Kingdoms (which is chaotic neutrual) or Varisia (which is neutral) and it's a HUGE thing in Katapesh (which is also neutral).

So then it's probably at least a thing (if not necessarily a BIG thing) in NE Ustalav?
Correct.

Awesome, thanks so much!

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