|
Do people from Golarion use (a) different word(s) for marriage?
I'm wondering because "marriage" means a lot of different things in a pantheistic setting.
Shelynite marriages would be for the love of the couple (or group) more often than not.
Abadaran marriages would be closer to business arrangements, meant to ensure two families' wealth was concentrated. Love might be present, but it'd probably be a secondary concern.
Erastilian weddings would be all about the family and the community, making sure close family bonds were kept and that the community could continue.
Asmodean marriages would be power games, meant to shore political influence. I've no doubt marriages into the Thrune family are a prized commodity.
A Norgorborite wedding would have no witnesses in an undisclosed location on a day known to no one. Not even the couple.
Creative Director
|
Do people from Golarion use (a) different word(s) for marriage?
I'm wondering because "marriage" means a lot of different things in a pantheistic setting.
Shelynite marriages would be for the love of the couple (or group) more often than not.
Abadaran marriages would be closer to business arrangements, meant to ensure two families' wealth was concentrated. Love might be present, but it'd probably be a secondary concern.
Erastilian weddings would be all about the family and the community, making sure close family bonds were kept and that the community could continue.
Asmodean marriages would be power games, meant to shore political influence. I've no doubt marriages into the Thrune family are a prized commodity.
A Norgorborite wedding would have no witnesses in an undisclosed location on a day known to no one. Not even the couple.
Nope. They use the word marriage, regardless of the details or faith.
Just to make sure I understand this correctly, if my character's INT bonus is +2, and he gets "INT+4" skill ranks per level, then each time he levels, he gets 6 skill ranks to use (and must, I suppose, use them at once — or can he save them up?) If he gains enough Intelligence to increase his INT bonus to +3, now he's entitled to 7 skill ranks per level. If he does this at level 4 (first time he can increase his INT through leveling specifically) he gets 10 skill ranks, including 1 extra one for levels 1-3. Is that right?
I know this is a rules question, James, but you opened the door. :-)
|
Creative Director
|
Just to make sure I understand this correctly, if my character's INT bonus is +2, and he gets "INT+4" skill ranks per level, then each time he levels, he gets 6 skill ranks to use (and must, I suppose, use them at once — or can he save them up?) If he gains enough Intelligence to increase his INT bonus to +3, now he's entitled to 7 skill ranks per level. If he does this at level 4 (first time he can increase his INT through leveling specifically) he gets 10 skill ranks, including 1 extra one for levels 1-3. Is that right?
I know this is a rules question, James, but you opened the door. :-)
Your character has a number of skill ranks each level equal to the base number for your class plus your Intelligence modifier. If your Intelligence goes up, the total number of skill ranks goes up too. When your Intelligence increases, you should allocate the new skill ranks immediately. You don't get to save them up unless your GM is okay with that additional amount of clutter and paperwork.
In your case, your character starts out with an Int bonus of +2 and gets Int + 4 ranks per level, at 1st level you have 6 skill ranks. At 2nd level you have 12. At 3rd level you have 18. Then at 4th level your Int bonus increases to +3. At 4th level you have a total of 28 skill ranks as a result. Which means when you become 2nd and 3rd level, you have to allocate 6 ranks. When you become 4th level, you have to allocate 10 skill ranks.
What is your experience with or opinion of games where combat is vastly reduced or completely removed in favour of other forms of challenge?
Is combat an inherent and necessary part of Fantasy as a genre?
Combat is always a hefty and highly detailed part of any rules system. I've always wondered if a game could be just as fun if the same level of detail was put into, say, social situations.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What is your experience with or opinion of games where combat is vastly reduced or completely removed in favour of other forms of challenge?
Is combat an inherent and necessary part of Fantasy as a genre?Combat is always a hefty and highly detailed part of any rules system. I've always wondered if a game could be just as fun if the same level of detail was put into, say, social situations.
The only thing that's a necessary part of ANY genre, or any STORY for that matter, is conflict. Without conflict, stories are boring. Whether or not this conflict is presented as a fight, or a diplomatic argument, or a chase, or a competition between suitors for a lover, or a mystery, or whatever is kind of irrelevant.
The reason combat is so highly detailed in Pathfinder is because its roots are in wargaming, which is 100% about combat and not about story at all.
There are plenty of other games with minimal rules for resolving combat (such as Dread) that can still have just as much battle in their stories as a Pathfinder game. Likewise, you can do an entire adventure in Pathfinder without any combat whatsoever (although this can catch players by surprise since so much of the expectation IS the fights).
I often try to include non-combat situations and encounters in adventures I develop or write. MANY such examples appear in the current Adventure Path, particularly in #99's "Dance of the Damned" which features a banquet and a masquerade ball. Even the adventure I wrote for that AP, "A Song of Silver," which is all about a city-wide revolution, has significant scenes involving non-combat conflicts.
So yeah, I think that combat is not a requirement of the genre, but it is certainly a very traditional element.
what would you do in the monster baby dilemma?
Just to make sure I understand this correctly, if my character's INT bonus is +2, and he gets "INT+4" skill ranks per level, then each time he levels, he gets 6 skill ranks to use (and must, I suppose, use them at once — or can he save them up?) If he gains enough Intelligence to increase his INT bonus to +3, now he's entitled to 7 skill ranks per level. If he does this at level 4 (first time he can increase his INT through leveling specifically) he gets 10 skill ranks, including 1 extra one for levels 1-3. Is that right?
I know this is a rules question, James, but you opened the door. :-)
Your character has a number of skill ranks each level equal to the base number for your class plus your Intelligence modifier. If your Intelligence goes up, the total number of skill ranks goes up too. When your Intelligence increases, you should allocate the new skill ranks immediately. You don't get to save them up unless your GM is okay with that additional amount of clutter and paperwork.
In your case, your character starts out with an Int bonus of +2 and gets Int + 4 ranks per level, at 1st level you have 6 skill ranks. At 2nd level you have 12. At 3rd level you have 18. Then at 4th level your Int bonus increases to +3. At 4th level you have a total of 28 skill ranks as a result. Which means when you become 2nd and 3rd level, you have to allocate 6 ranks. When you become 4th level, you have to allocate 10 skill ranks.
I see. I think. Thanks. :-)
what would you do in the monster baby dilemma?I would ask for more clarification, as I do not understand the question.
the baby monster dilemma is as 137ben said above you slaughter the monsters (ex orc goblin ogre)camp and you hear crying you rush in and discover a baby of a nearly always evil race what do you do. its usually a paladin trap because if the dm dosent agree with what you do you fall. theirs a funny picture of the iconic samurai surrounded by goblin babies after such a senario.
|
Creative Director
|
How does a caryatid column work? Its artwork shows it with a column top and base included. Does that mean the column top and base (above its head, below its feet) are part of the caryatid column creature? Or are they just for context's sake?
Depends. In some cases, the top of the column remains attached to the creature (kinda like a hat), but in others the top remains attached to the ceiling as the caryatid column steps out of the column to attack. Either works, and neither version impacts its stats whatsoever.
|
Creative Director
|
...wrote about killing babies...
Depends if I'm the PC or the GM.
If I'm a PC, it'll depend ENTIRELY on context—both who my PC is, what the monster is, and what's going on surrounding things at the time. As a general rule, my PCs will probably push to find safety for most monster babies, but often cedes her opinion to the group as well... but yeah, it'd vary GREATLY.
As a GM, I love putting complex issues like this before the players. I don't decide what to do at all—that's the PCs' job!
|
Creative Director
|
Are there any NPCs in Magnimar that could use a class update? Like there is one rogue 8/ assassin 3, or something like that. Would slayer make more sense? if not her, I do know that there are quite a number of fighter/rogues in Magnimar. Would magnimar have any kind of trade with Numeria? I would doubt the technic league would give them any favorable deals that grobaras would be fond of. Does Toth Bhreacher worship or revere any particular god? Would the Forever Man try to stop the Midnight Dawn if he found out about what they were doing?
No.
I'm not a fan at all of the "class update" thing. When an NPC is published, and her/his class and levels are set, circumstances have to be VERY unusual or compelling for me to want to "update" that class build to a newly published option. It's disruptive to the world verisimilitude if every time a new book comes out, every NPC in print gets rebuilt and changed around. Not a fan of that at all.
If someone's a rogue 8/assassin 3, they should stay that.
Newer classes are intended to be rarer, after all, and that's reflected in the fact that they're not in print products that were published before they existed.
Magnimar has very little trade with Numeria, but there IS a little, particularly up in the Golem Works or one of the tinkers. There IS a Numeria easter egg in the Magnimar book—one of the characters in Magnimar (I forget who off the top of my head) has a "mechanical spider" or the like from Numeria on a desk or something... But no, there's not any robust trade going on with Numeria. It's too far away.
Toth Bhreacher worships Nethys, but isn't super religious.
The Forever Man knows about the Midnight Dawn. He's fine with letting them do what they do, because A) he's not threatened by them, and B) they distract the city's heroes from what he's up to.
...wrote about killing babies...Depends if I'm the PC or the GM.
If I'm a PC, it'll depend ENTIRELY on context—both who my PC is, what the monster is, and what's going on surrounding things at the time. As a general rule, my PCs will probably push to find safety for most monster babies, but often cedes her opinion to the group as well... but yeah, it'd vary GREATLY.
As a GM, I love putting complex issues like this before the players. I don't decide what to do at all—that's the PCs' job!
Is this not the perfect answer? (Credit to Lemmy for the idea:) Get a holy weapon and help the baby to grip it. If it dies from negative level, it was destined to be evil, and the GM is the one who decided they were evil, not you, so there's no morally grey area, and the paladin cannot possibly fall. If it lives, go find help.
...wrote about killing babies...Depends if I'm the PC or the GM.
If I'm a PC, it'll depend ENTIRELY on context—both who my PC is, what the monster is, and what's going on surrounding things at the time. As a general rule, my PCs will probably push to find safety for most monster babies, but often cedes her opinion to the group as well... but yeah, it'd vary GREATLY.
As a GM, I love putting complex issues like this before the players. I don't decide what to do at all—that's the PCs' job!
Since we're on the topic of goblin babies, what would Shalelu do with a bunch of them?
|
Creative Director
|
makes sense. I just wanted to be sure about the class stuff. Makes sense for Toth. Wouldn't the Midnight Dawn take his best potential marks though? Would it make sense for the Aspis Consortium to conspire with the Forever Man? Does the Forever Man have a right hand man? Are his actions considered heretical to Norgorber in anyway? I know he CONTROLS all the aspects of Norgorber, but he doesn't seem to actively partake? And would he be favored by Norgorber in anyway for his vast criminal network? Would he have taken the Deific Obedience feat from Inner Sea Gods or even be an Evangelist of Norgorber (I know you just said that classes were what they were, but Evangelist seems like a little more flavor on top considering it has the aligned class feature.)
The Midnight Dawn is still very much in "proof of concept" phase for their plots, and as such they're focusing mostly on victims who won't be missed. They're not dumb; they won't go all-out at snatching up minions of someone who will notice they're gone and who can certainly do something about it. Both the Forever Man and the Midnight Dawn operate best when there's NOT someone after them as secret society type stuff, and while they do know a bit about each other, that's mostly just enough for them to avoid stepping on each other's toes.
Put another way... you COULD have the Midnight Dawn and the Forever Man go to war... but then that robs Magnimar of two cool adventures that could have been PC triumphs.
The Aspis Consortioum would indeed want to conspire with the Forever Man, and he'd do a great job at playing them for fools and using them to bolster his own resources without giving the Consortium what they want. He absolutely has minions, but they're not really detailed yet. He might have taken Deific Obedience, but he's not an evangelist.
|
Creative Director
|
gotcha. I'm not great at writing plots all the time, so how might the PCs stumble upon the Midnight Dawn that doesn't immediately lead them to making a knowledge check or discovering an intellect devourer? Maybe someone comes the adventurers and asks them to help investigate the new drug hitting the street? I know Vert Klydus is the alchemist who runs the Dreaming Dryad and he has been running his own investigation, but he might try to find out too much and is pursued, thus coming to the adventurers through a third party? That make sense? and that leads them to find that ghouls are working in the basement?
Sorry that i am asking so many questions for my own world. I just want it all to make sense. Also what would a NE follower of Brigh be like?
One way is to just let the PCs explore Magnimar and let the discovery of elements come naturally. This doesn't guarantee the PCs will learn about the Midnight Dawn, though, so if you're eager to do stuff with this group, that approach won't work well. But using the elements in the book like you suggest are in fact the best ways to get the PCs on the right track—that's the whole point of a book like Magniamr.
A NE follower of Brigh would be a heretic, first of all, since her alignment doesn't match Brigh's. Whether or not she's a loner or part of a heretical sub-cult is up to you, of course. As for what she'd be like? Well... there's countless ways that could go—it really depends on what story you want to tell. The simplest one that comes to my mind is a character who thinks that animated constructs are true life and seeks to transform life into clockworks all under her command to "save them" from the perils of the flesh... and enjoys the killing aspect that results quite a lot.
|
|
James, what books in the country books line are going to released in 2016? Do you know if countries like Galt, Molthune and the countries in the Kelshite empire are going to get books?
What is your favorite country that has not been covered in print yet?
Has there been any thought for an evil NPC Codex? It would be nice to have bad guys pre-made. Would it be possible to get a large book 128 pages on organizations like the Aspis Consortium and other nare do well
organizations.
James Have a Merry Christmas and Happy new year as well as all of your fellows at Pazio.
|
Creative Director
|
Cool. thank you. I was thinking that for the NE follower of Brigh. I personally like the heretic concept a lot. How does a NG follower of Brigh act? Would that follower be less heretical? I know that you have said that certain religions have a breakdown of 75% being the exact alignment, 15% being another, etc.
Are Necromancers in Magnimar? I know the Pharasmans seem to be pretty diligent about checking the graveyards.
Would Darvengian being trying to convert himself into a Demon, sacrificing those he has with him in the Hell's prison? Maybe just half fiend or fiendish? Would it make sense for him to try to escape and turn Magnimar into his personal playground or is he enjoying the hedonism available to him without interruption inside prison?
ANY worshiper of a deity whose alignment isn't exactly matching the deity is a heretic to some extent. That's kinda what being a heretic means—not worshiping the way that most do who's at odds with the teachings of the church, but not to an extent that their belief is compromised. I'm not sure where I said the religious breakdown is 75% and 15% and 15%, but today I'd say that on average it's more like 90%/5%/5%.
There are as many necromancers as you need there to be in Magnimar, as long as they stay pretty subtle and quiet about what they're up to.
Darvengian isn't trying to become a demon. He's too proud of his humanity to want to shed his soul and flesh in that way. He was entirely inspired by Hannibal (of the TV show, Silence of the Lambs, and so on), so look to those shows and movies and books for more inspiration on how to play him. He's not interested in escaping the prison or turning Magnimar into his "playground," since he's pretty much IN CONTROL of the prison, to the extent that it's more like a fortress for him that protects him from his enemies.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
James, what books in the country books line are going to released in 2016? Do you know if countries like Galt, Molthune and the countries in the Kelshite empire are going to get books?
What is your favorite country that has not been covered in print yet?
Has there been any thought for an evil NPC Codex? It would be nice to have bad guys pre-made. Would it be possible to get a large book 128 pages on organizations like the Aspis Consortium and other nare do well
organizations.James Have a Merry Christmas and Happy new year as well as all of your fellows at Pazio.
I have a pretty good idea of ALL the books that are coming out in 2016 (and 2017 and beyond as well) but this thread's hardly the place to make announcements about them. We have mechanics in place to reveal these books—blog posts, convention seminars, and the like. Keep an eye on the blog for future announcements, in other words!
My favorite country that's not been significantly covered in print yet would be Mediogalti Island. I'd love to do more with Kyonin and Thuvia too.
As for an "evil NPC Codex"... maybe, maybe not. In the meantime, we publish like a dozen evil NPC stats every month in the Adventure Path line...with many of them getting twice as much of the page count we'd be able to do in an "Evil NPC Codex" every volume... Just because an NPC plays a part in an adventure doesn't mean you can't use those stats elsewhere, after all.
We're doing an experiment with a 96 page Campaign Setting book coming soon, "Inner Sea Faiths." And of course, Pathfinder #100 is 128 pages long. We'll be waiting and seeing and watching how these play out—the price increases (a necessary result of bigger books) have already hit some folks with sticker shock, and the fact that they weigh more messes a little with shipping, but if folks like their books bigger... we'll see what we can do.
|
Creative Director
|
What types of people would be held in the Abadar Prison in the Osprey piling? The gull, the rat, the gecko, and the harpy all are named and shown their position, but are the other six up to interpretation on which one is which? are there more pilings underwater or further out to sea that might be accessible or did most of them get destroyed during earthfall?
Edit: just checked. the crow is labeled as the farthest out one that is on the side of beacon's point
The prisoners in the Osprey would mostly be people who tried to damage Magnimar in some way or who were notorious thieves.
There are pilings all the way out to Hollow Mountain, but most of them are underwater. A few are still standing on some of the islands along the way though, along with portions of the bridge deck itself.
We're doing an experiment with a 96 page Campaign Setting book coming soon, "Inner Sea Faiths." And of course, Pathfinder #100 is 128 pages long. We'll be waiting and seeing and watching how these play out—the price increases (a necessary result of bigger books) have already hit some folks with sticker shock, and the fact that they weigh more messes a little with shipping, but if folks like their books bigger... we'll see what we can do.
Cool. I somehow missed that experiment. Glad it's in the 'religion' sphere - Golarion's pantheon is terrific. I can't get enough "Gods Info".
I have no idea if I'm asking this in the right place, and if I should be asking this elsewhere, I apologize. I haven't been able to find an answer to this yet, but perhaps my Search/Perception modifier is too weak.
Kineticists access their powers via a connection to the Ethereal Plane as a transitive plane to access the Elemental Inner Planes. If a kineticist were to find themselves on a plane not coterminous to the Ethereal, would they lose all supernatural and spell-like kineticist class features?
|
Creative Director
|
The prisoners in the Osprey would mostly be people who tried to damage Magnimar in some way or who were notorious thieves.There are pilings all the way out to Hollow Mountain, but most of them are underwater. A few are still standing on some of the islands along the way though, along with portions of the bridge deck itself.
Would any dragons live in or around Magnimar, like that of brass dragons, who are described as staying near cities to hear gossip and news?
Ever play Darksiders II? If yes, opinions of the four horseman's portrayals, specifically Death?
Dragons in Golarion do not hobnob with humans or make a practice of hanging out among them in human form as a general rule. There are some notable exceptions (Kazavon being the big one), but for the most part, dragons doing that is more of a D&D thing than a Pathfinder thing, and as such it is a VERY deliberate design choice to help differentiate our setting from Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and other D&D settings that often run with the "dragons living among humans unseen" trope.
That said, there are certainly dragons living in the vicinity. There's a black dragon or two living in the Sandpoint hinterlands, along with a bronze dragon (who inspired the name for Ameiko's bar, The Rusty Dragon), and all 3 of those are technically close enough to interact with Magnimar. I'm sure there are green and black dragons in the Mushfens as well.
None of them would stay near cities or have any interest in gossip or news.
Never played Darksiders II.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I have no idea if I'm asking this in the right place, and if I should be asking this elsewhere, I apologize. I haven't been able to find an answer to this yet, but perhaps my Search/Perception modifier is too weak.
Kineticists access their powers via a connection to the Ethereal Plane as a transitive plane to access the Elemental Inner Planes. If a kineticist were to find themselves on a plane not coterminous to the Ethereal, would they lose all supernatural and spell-like kineticist class features?
No, because "losing your class powers because you got high enough level to visit an exotic distant plane" is not a Pathfinder design goal. For the same reason we abandoned D&D's earlier rules that as clerics travel out into the outer planes they start losing access to their spells... a ruling that never made sense to me since going to the outer planes actually puts you CLOSER to your deity than you ever were on the Material Plane...
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've wondered this for a while: In Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition, did Paizo remove or change anything because it was no longer 3.5 and as such couldn't use some material that wasn't under the OGL in 3.5?
I have both the original and anniversary edition and can't find anything.
No, because the original 3.5 Pathfinder content, including Rise of the Runelords, was never in a position to use anything that wasn't in the OGL in the first place. Everything we had access to during the original creation of Runelords, as a benefit of it using the OGL, remains 100% accessible to us today, and will be forever, due to the way the OGL is constructed.
|
|
Ok, that last question spawned another question.
The words sake and sake are homographs. I always think of this when I see the former in print and chuckle when I mentally replace it with the latter. ("For Pete's sake!" "For Christ's sake!" "For goodness sake!" "For the sake of children everywhere.")
Are there any homographs that you can think of that similarly amuse you?
|
Creative Director
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
James, let's assume for the sake of argument that the OGL is the greatest thing to ever happen to the RPG industry. What is the second greatest?
Dungeons & Dragons is the greatest thing to ever happen to the RPG industry. The OGL is probably the 2nd best. Which, in my case, would mean Call of Cthulhu would be the third greatest, because it not only popularized a style of RPG play that diverged SIGNIFICANTLY from the "kill monsters and take their stuff" but is one of two things that prevented Lovecraft from falling into obscurity (the other being Arkham House).
|
Creative Director
|
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Ok, that last question spawned another question.
The words sake and sake are homographs. I always think of this when I see the former in print and chuckle when I mentally replace it with the latter. ("For Pete's sake!" "For Christ's sake!" "For goodness sake!" "For the sake of children everywhere.")
Are there any homographs that you can think of that similarly amuse you?
Taint. Ha.
No, because "losing your class powers because you got high enough level to visit an exotic distant plane" is not a Pathfinder design goal.
Thank you!
Is there an In Character explanation for this or is it a flaw in the prevailing In Character theory regarding the use of the Ethereal Plane to access the Inner Planes?
|
Creative Director
|
No, because "losing your class powers because you got high enough level to visit an exotic distant plane" is not a Pathfinder design goal.Thank you!
Is there an In Character explanation for this or is it a flaw in the prevailing In Character theory regarding the use of the Ethereal Plane to access the Inner Planes?
I'd categorize it as a minor flaw in the class's flavor text clashing slightly with implied rules, but there's nothing built into the rules that say it has to work the way you are interpreting it.
Kinda like how we don't ever say in print that "It's a rule that if your body and soul are one thing, you can't be brought back to life via raise dead or resurrection." We DO say this is the case for the outsider creature type, but we don't say that in the fey creature type, despite the fact that we've introduced flavor text that suggests this very thing by saying fey may not have souls or that their souls may be one with their bodies or the like.
It IS kinda frustrating to me when rules get designed that neglect to properly take into account the implications of flavor and story text, but it's not actually an error.
I think you missed my earlier question. What would Shalelu, who's serious about goblin hunting but also chaotic good, do if she were to find some goblin babies?
|
Creative Director
|
| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
I think you missed my earlier question. What would Shalelu, who's serious about goblin hunting but also chaotic good, do if she were to find some goblin babies?
She'd probably leave them to fend for themselves. Which almost gives them a better chance at survival than leaving them in the care of goblins.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
James, let's assume for the sake of argument that the OGL is the greatest thing to ever happen to the RPG industry. What is the second greatest?Dungeons & Dragons is the greatest thing to ever happen to the RPG industry. The OGL is probably the 2nd best. Which, in my case, would mean Call of Cthulhu would be the third greatest, because it not only popularized a style of RPG play that diverged SIGNIFICANTLY from the "kill monsters and take their stuff" but is one of two things that prevented Lovecraft from falling into obscurity (the other being Arkham House).
Pathfinder has got to be the fourth greatest, because when D&D pulled a paper bag over its head, started babbling incoherently and crashed its car into a tree, Pathfinder picked up most of its passengers and got them back on the road (in a somewhat nicer, sportier car than D&D's old beater).
D&D's back behind the wheel again but their tires are a little wobbly and they keep mumbling stuff about "advantage" all the time.