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Funny you mention that it would be interesting: I'm playing a kitsune samurai who has w crush on Ameiko!
And I meant prior to the jade regent AP, has a non human ruled Minaki?
James, is this one of your not-yet-announced projects? Or had it already been announced before today and I just missed it?
Are all Erinyes actually fallen angels, or is that just the race's origin, or just a thematic/visual element?
Creative Director
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James, is this one of your not-yet-announced projects? Or had it already been announced before today and I just missed it?
That was announced last year at Gen Con. I'm really not involved in it at all; other projects have me not being involved in it. Which is honestly stressing me out because I feel like I could really help improve the book. I'll be looking through it all here shortly, and I hope that's not too late to address changes that might need to happen, but at this point it's all about me trusting the rest of the company to handle the subject.
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Creative Director
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Are all Erinyes actually fallen angels, or is that just the race's origin, or just a thematic/visual element?
It's the origin of the race. Very few today are fallen angels. Most became what they are the same way all devils become what they are; promotion from a petitioner or lesser devil.
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Dear James,
About the Mutagenic Mauler: Their "Mutagen" would not, in fact, happen to be a can of spinach that lets out crazy music when opened, would it?
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James, don't halflings and gnomes seem absurdly short to you? My brother brought his kids over recently and they were around 3 feet tall, same as gnomes and halflings, and I noticed they don't even reach my belt line, and I'm not particularly tall to begin with.
I just don't see how they would function in everyday society, at that size their strength should be severely limited by their mass and their small hands and short arms would give them a severe disadvantage in most forms of manual labor.
And how would they even work in combat? My arms are a little bit longer than 2 feet, so I would have a massive reach advantage against a halfling in a fight. And then there's the weight, 30-40 pounds? A man my size would have about 25 pounds of skeleton, and 60-70 pounds of muscles (or more if he was very well trained). How could a halfling even compete with me?
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I have seen previous comments seeming to indicate that Paizo gets a lot of its profits from subscriptions and that Tian Xia hasn't been aggressively developed because it didn't sell well.
How do these factors interact? Did a lot of people drop their subscriptions when the original Tian Xia materials came out? Or did subscription revenues stay about the same, but non-subscription sales of Tian Xia materials were much lower than normal?
I'm wondering if it isn't something of a self-fulfilling state... that is, fewer people bought the Tian Xia setting materials because they didn't think it made sense to do so for just one AP... so little additional material has been developed... so there is little reason for people to buy the setting materials.
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Creative Director
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Dear James,
About the Mutagenic Mauler: Their "Mutagen" would not, in fact, happen to be a can of spinach that lets out crazy music when opened, would it?
I had nothing to do with that class. But no, it's not spinach.
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Creative Director
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James, don't halflings and gnomes seem absurdly short to you? My brother brought his kids over recently and they were around 3 feet tall, same as gnomes and halflings, and I noticed they don't even reach my belt line, and I'm not particularly tall to begin with.
I just don't see how they would function in everyday society, at that size their strength should be severely limited by their mass and their small hands and short arms would give them a severe disadvantage in most forms of manual labor.
And how would they even work in combat? My arms are a little bit longer than 2 feet, so I would have a massive reach advantage against a halfling in a fight. And then there's the weight, 30-40 pounds? A man my size would have about 25 pounds of skeleton, and 60-70 pounds of muscles (or more if he was very well trained). How could a halfling even compete with me?
They are indeed short, but if I can accept a dragon the size of a whale flying in the sky, I can accept a short halfling or gnome.
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Creative Director
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Since we're on the small races anyway. James, why is it that you don't like dwarves?
Because I don't. My reasons would only frustrate and annoy those who do like dwarves and compel them to try to convince me I'm wrong, and I'm tired of that. I just don't like them.
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I have seen previous comments seeming to indicate that Paizo gets a lot of its profits from subscriptions and that Tian Xia hasn't been aggressively developed because it didn't sell well.
How do these factors interact? Did a lot of people drop their subscriptions when the original Tian Xia materials came out? Or did subscription revenues stay about the same, but non-subscription sales of Tian Xia materials were much lower than normal?
I'm wondering if it isn't something of a self-fulfilling state... that is, fewer people bought the Tian Xia setting materials because they didn't think it made sense to do so for just one AP... so little additional material has been developed... so there is little reason for people to buy the setting materials.
I don't actually have deep knowledge off the top of my head of our sales figures, but generally speaking, the subscription rates don't fluctuate that much. They remain pretty solid regardless, with changes being slower and more deliberate. Thus, subscription numbers being relatively stable, we can use them to set very good estimates for print run totals and know that we can make a profit off the line. What sells into distribution beyond the subs is what varies more, as far as I understand, and it's THOSE numbers that, for Dragon Empires, weren't as good as other products.
It's nice to have the subscriptions there, of course, but since folks who subscribe tend to be collectors and/or completionists, those numbers aren't as useful to us in judging the success of any one single product. They're better for judging the success of an entire line of products.
I just don't like them.
As someone with similar distaste for various popular things... how do YOU politely disengage from offline conversation when someone tries to convince you that you should totally like this thing because reasons?
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They are indeed short, but if I can accept a dragon the size of a whale flying in the sky, I can accept a short halfling or gnome.James, don't halflings and gnomes seem absurdly short to you? My brother brought his kids over recently and they were around 3 feet tall, same as gnomes and halflings, and I noticed they don't even reach my belt line, and I'm not particularly tall to begin with.
I just don't see how they would function in everyday society, at that size their strength should be severely limited by their mass and their small hands and short arms would give them a severe disadvantage in most forms of manual labor.
And how would they even work in combat? My arms are a little bit longer than 2 feet, so I would have a massive reach advantage against a halfling in a fight. And then there's the weight, 30-40 pounds? A man my size would have about 25 pounds of skeleton, and 60-70 pounds of muscles (or more if he was very well trained). How could a halfling even compete with me?
for halfling or gnome, now sub in'human'. For human, now sub in 'hill giant'.
Obviously, humans could never present a threat to the true giants, right? After all, relatively speaking, humans are even smaller and weaker then halflings!
One of the things I really miss from the early Paizo years (when you had Dungeon Magazine) was the respect and reverence in which you treated the Greyhawk line (which has been considerably marginalized, if not outright ignored!) by the emergence of the Forgotten Realms and various unnamed gaming worlds. Assuming your control of Greyhawk had remained is there any thing else you would have liked to have covered that you did not have the chance to get to (loved that you stated Iggwilv, and all the other classic cookies you included- like getting a sphere of Annihilation from the Tomb of Horrors and Brazzemal being the guy in charge in one of the instalments of Age of Worms)? As a side note, I tend to enjoy, on the rare occasions I am player and not DM, playing halflings... although your distaste of dwarves is well documented.. I don't recall your views if any, on halflings... can you share them?
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Will the Hell's Vengeance adventure path address, in some fashion, the what if of the Council of Thieves heroes fates? I know the events of the adventure path are not considered cannon and in many regards are not even considered chronological. But with a group of good aligned characters who have completed and controlled Westcrown for a few years.. how will the occupation of the Glorious reclamation affect those characters (who do not seem interested in upsetting what they have gained) or worse yet what would their fate be when the evil characters from Hell's Vengeance be? I understand the theory of Adventure Paths not being cannon, but when they intersect in this way... I hope guidance is provided. Thanks for your insight?
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How does Gods' portfolio and domains and such work? Like, does it get assigned to them on some kind of cosmic system or can they on some effect choose what they want?
Like, if god wanted to be god of waffles for some reason, is that possible or is it impossible because "Waffle" portfolio isn't part of the cosmic balance thing that hands out them?
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If there are things that are unassociated with any god (like waffles), does that mean that no god wanted to be god of waffles? If there are waffle-worshipping mortals out there (and there are a lot of weird mortals out there), then no god wanted to claim them? That there are topics that no god wants to touch, so to speak?
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Creative Director
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I just don't like them.As someone with similar distaste for various popular things... how do YOU politely disengage from offline conversation when someone tries to convince you that you should totally like this thing because reasons?
By just telling them I'm not interested in debating and changing the subject, and if that doesn't work, I just stop talking and/or walk away. Depends on the situation, the topic, and the person.
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One of the things I really miss from the early Paizo years (when you had Dungeon Magazine) was the respect and reverence in which you treated the Greyhawk line (which has been considerably marginalized, if not outright ignored!) by the emergence of the Forgotten Realms and various unnamed gaming worlds. Assuming your control of Greyhawk had remained is there any thing else you would have liked to have covered that you did not have the chance to get to (loved that you stated Iggwilv, and all the other classic cookies you included- like getting a sphere of Annihilation from the Tomb of Horrors and Brazzemal being the guy in charge in one of the instalments of Age of Worms)? As a side note, I tend to enjoy, on the rare occasions I am player and not DM, playing halflings... although your distaste of dwarves is well documented.. I don't recall your views if any, on halflings... can you share them?
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. It was originally going to be what we did in Dungeon #112, but when it became obvious it was too big for a single volume, we switched to Maure Castle.
I quite adore halflings. Gnomes too. Which is why I jumped at the chance to write the big articles about both of them that showed up in Dragon back during the early 3rd edition days.
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Creative Director
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Will the Hell's Vengeance adventure path address, in some fashion, the what if of the Council of Thieves heroes fates? I know the events of the adventure path are not considered cannon and in many regards are not even considered chronological. But with a group of good aligned characters who have completed and controlled Westcrown for a few years.. how will the occupation of the Glorious reclamation affect those characters (who do not seem interested in upsetting what they have gained) or worse yet what would their fate be when the evil characters from Hell's Vengeance be? I understand the theory of Adventure Paths not being cannon, but when they intersect in this way... I hope guidance is provided. Thanks for your insight?
It will, I believe, but that's more of a Rob question.
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Creative Director
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How does Gods' portfolio and domains and such work? Like, does it get assigned to them on some kind of cosmic system or can they on some effect choose what they want?
Like, if god wanted to be god of waffles for some reason, is that possible or is it impossible because "Waffle" portfolio isn't part of the cosmic balance thing that hands out them?
We don't quantify those rules (or many rules at all, for that matter) for deities or how they work. They just are the way they are.
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Creative Director
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If there are things that are unassociated with any god (like waffles), does that mean that no god wanted to be god of waffles? If there are waffle-worshipping mortals out there (and there are a lot of weird mortals out there), then no god wanted to claim them? That there are topics that no god wants to touch, so to speak?
Depends. In some cases, the missing concept just isn't all that important to the region. In others, like waffles, the concept is just too minor or minuscule or silly to be that important on a divine level.
Contributor
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I quite adore halflings. Gnomes too. Which is why I jumped at the chance to write the big articles about both of them that showed up in Dragon back during the early 3rd edition days.
I mostly remember the cover art from the halfling issue...
As for the gnome issue, I remember something about the gnomes' preference for red pointy hats. That seems a little too silly for your work, though. did that happen in development, or were you having a bit of fun? Or are my decade-old memories playing tricks on me?
Thank you! ^_^
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Creative Director
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I quite adore halflings. Gnomes too. Which is why I jumped at the chance to write the big articles about both of them that showed up in Dragon back during the early 3rd edition days.I mostly remember the cover art from the halfling issue...
As for the gnome issue, I remember something about the gnomes' preference for red pointy hats. That seems a little too silly for your work, though. did that happen in development, or were you having a bit of fun? Or are my decade-old memories playing tricks on me?
Thank you! ^_^
That was all about me. I love the idea of pointy hats for gnomes; it's a part of gnome tradition, after all. Gnomes are intended to be fun and whimsical, after all.
It's obviously not the direction we took Pathfinder's gnomes, of course, but in D&D, gnomes for too long were "smaller dwarves who could use magic." That article was me trying to move them away from being that and being their own thing, and making them pleasant and fun and happy and capricious and frisky and all that was a big part of the "un-dwarfening" of the gnome.
Since some angels are made of amalgamations of souls (like solars), is it possible for angels to absorb souls?
Since some angels are made of amalgamations of souls (like solars), is it possible for angels to absorb souls?Not if they want to remain angels, because "absorbing souls" is not a good action, really.
Not even if the soul consents to be absorbed? Or if the soul wants to merge with the angel? I'm not talking about daemonic soul-eating here, I'm thinking more along the lines of how solars are created (from several souls), except the process continuing after the solar's creation.
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Not even if the soul consents to be absorbed? Or if the soul wants to merge with the angel? I'm not talking about daemonic soul-eating here, I'm thinking more along the lines of how solars are created (from several souls), except the process continuing after the solar's creation.Since some angels are made of amalgamations of souls (like solars), is it possible for angels to absorb souls?Not if they want to remain angels, because "absorbing souls" is not a good action, really.
Souls don't really have that capacity to "consent." They can't make decisions or choices, really, when they're not in a mortal body, undead, or merged with a body as an outsider.
Beyond that, there's no mechanical advantage, game speaking wise, for an angel to absorb a soul.
And beyond THAT... angels just aren't into absorbing souls. That's just not a good act, because a soul can't consent or do anything like that; it doesn't have stats, and that means no Intelligence or Charisma and that means it's not self aware and thus cannot give consent... see above.
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No, not at all. That's entirely not the point of the spell.As a GM, would you allow a character with life bubble be immune to certain breath weapons, such as those from a gorgon?
Would you elaborate please? While I agree with your opinion, the players in my group indicate the spell's description would suggest otherwise, since it specifically mentions spell effects. Is it because a breath weapon is a supernatural ability?
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Lately I've run into a bit of frustration where essentially I want to play characters with more skills than they actually get from their class. Sort of like "Okay, Perception and Diplomacy are important for this character, Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft cuz he's the party's spellcaster but I want him to be able to DANCE too!"
I suspect you don't run into this problem as often since rogues are one of your favorite classes, and they get more skills than anyone, but I can't help but feel stuck. Maybe it's because I'm so used to single-player games where your custom character has to do EVERYTHING on their own and stuff, but it's still frustrating. Am I Pathfindering wrong?
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Creative Director
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No, not at all. That's entirely not the point of the spell.As a GM, would you allow a character with life bubble be immune to certain breath weapons, such as those from a gorgon?
Would you elaborate please? While I agree with your opinion, the players in my group indicate the spell's description would suggest otherwise, since it specifically mentions spell effects. Is it because a breath weapon is a supernatural ability?
The point of "life bubble" is to allow adventuring in certain hostile and dangerous environments that no other spell specifically grants protection from, particularly deep water (where no other spell specifically grants protection or immunity to pressure damage) or outer space. The very first sentence of the spell's description lays this out: "You surround the touched creatures with a constant and movable 1-inch shell of tolerable living conditions.
Now that said, a little bit further down, it does say that it makes you immune to inhaled diseases and poisons, then calls out stinking cloud and cloudkill as specific examples of spells that create inhaled poisons.
The spell already does a LOT of good stuff, in other words.
And since a gorgon's breath weapon doesn't say it's a disease or poison effect, it doesn't get grandfathered in like stinking cloud or cloudkill. It WOULD, on the other hand, protect from an iron golem's breath weapon for example, since that specifically calls that out as "POISONOUS" gas.
However you rule things in your game is of course up to you, but don't keep it secret from the players. If they know, for example, that they'll be facing gorgons and make it clear that they wish to use life bubble, tell them at the outset that it won't work. Don't let them make assumptions because that just creates frustration and builds friction between the GM and players.
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Creative Director
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Lately I've run into a bit of frustration where essentially I want to play characters with more skills than they actually get from their class. Sort of like "Okay, Perception and Diplomacy are important for this character, Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft cuz he's the party's spellcaster but I want him to be able to DANCE too!"
I suspect you don't run into this problem as often since rogues are one of your favorite classes, and they get more skills than anyone, but I can't help but feel stuck. Maybe it's because I'm so used to single-player games where your custom character has to do EVERYTHING on their own and stuff, but it's still frustrating. Am I Pathfindering wrong?
I don't run into this problem really because when I make characters who want lots of skills, I play classes that grant lots of skill points, not because I like bards and rogues. If you want a highly skilled character, don't force that character into a fighter. Alternately, the game DOES grant you ways to get more skill points. Use your favored class bonus for skill ranks, not hit points. Don't dumpstat Intelligence. Play a human. Take the skill-enhancing feats.
If you have a character who you feel needs Perception and Diplomacy, but also Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft AND you want him to dance... you want to build a bard, not a wizard. OR you want to build a wizard who's deliberately off-model, and need to be comfortable with the fact that the character sacrifices some of its core competency for unusual flavor.
A single player game is a tough thing to do, PARTICULARLY for the GM. She needs to make sure she adjusts the campaign to not put a reliance on skills the player's character doesn't have, and to focus on those the character DOES have, and/or play allied NPCs to round out the character's skills. It's not fair to expect a single player character to be able to do everything. The game simply Does Not Work That Way, and a GM who doesn't get that shouldn't be running a single-player game.
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the "un-dwarfening"Is there a tattered, yellowing screenplay in the bottom of your desk drawer titled THE UNDWARFENING?
And why not?
No. Because if I'm gonna write a screenplay it's gonna be about something positive that I'm passionate about, not something that I'm not all that into. I'm not into dwarves, and I"m not into trying to make dwarf fans not like dwarves, and I"m not into trying to force people who like playing dwarves to play other types of characters.
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Lately I've run into a bit of frustration where essentially I want to play characters with more skills than they actually get from their class. Sort of like "Okay, Perception and Diplomacy are important for this character, Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft cuz he's the party's spellcaster but I want him to be able to DANCE too!"
I suspect you don't run into this problem as often since rogues are one of your favorite classes, and they get more skills than anyone, but I can't help but feel stuck. Maybe it's because I'm so used to single-player games where your custom character has to do EVERYTHING on their own and stuff, but it's still frustrating. Am I Pathfindering wrong?
I don't run into this problem really because when I make characters who want lots of skills, I play classes that grant lots of skill points, not because I like bards and rogues. If you want a highly skilled character, don't force that character into a fighter. Alternately, the game DOES grant you ways to get more skill points. Use your favored class bonus for skill ranks, not hit points. Don't dumpstat Intelligence. Play a human. Take the skill-enhancing feats.
If you have a character who you feel needs Perception and Diplomacy, but also Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft AND you want him to dance... you want to build a bard, not a wizard. OR you want to build a wizard who's deliberately off-model, and need to be comfortable with the fact that the character sacrifices some of its core competency for unusual flavor.
A single player game is a tough thing to do, PARTICULARLY for the GM. She needs to make sure she adjusts the campaign to not put a reliance on skills the player's character doesn't have, and to focus on those the character DOES have, and/or play allied NPCs to round out the character's skills. It's not fair to expect a single player character to be able to do everything. The game simply Does Not Work That Way, and a GM who doesn't get that shouldn't be running a single-player game.
I think I wasn't clear, and I apologize. When I said single-player I was referring more to video game RPGs like Dragon Age, Fallout or The Witcher series. The actual Pathfinder games I've played in have all had relatively decent-sized parties, though I still struggle with that "single-player" instinct which manifests in these cases more as a "I can't trust random strangers to fill essential roles in the narrative so I gotta do it myself" sort of thing...
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I think I wasn't clear, and I apologize. When I said single-player I was referring more to video game RPGs like Dragon Age, Fallout or The Witcher series. The actual Pathfinder games I've played in have all had relatively decent-sized parties, though I still struggle with that "single-player" instinct which manifests in these cases more as a "I can't trust random strangers to fill essential roles in the narrative so I gotta do it myself" sort of thing...
Well... when you said "Am I Pathfindering wrong?" that kinda made me assume that you were talking about Pathfinder, not a video game.
The best advice I have for video games is to do research before you play, I guess. For a game where you make 1 character and bolster that character with NPCs, figure out what classes and skills those NPCs bring to the table and make a character to complement them.
Many of the A-list video games these days are actually very good at presenting multiple ways to play the game, be it stealth or brute force or dialog or whatever, so you don't have to be good at everything. I know for sure that the ones you list above are great at this, particularly the Bethesda games. Pick your favorite style of play and go for it!
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I think they might have meant that they are so used to single player games that when they play pathfinder, they have instinct to want to do every skill check roll themselves even when they don't play a skill monkey <_< Maybe I misunderstood wrong though ^^;
Anyway, I'm kinda curious about Ultimate Intrigue. Have you guys have considered an AP that is less about adventuring and monsters and more about political intrigue? I mean, sure a book about intrigue doesn't mean you guys are planning an ap that uses the systems from book, but my curiosity is easy to awaken
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Creative Director
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Anyway, I'm kinda curious about Ultimate Intrigue. Have you guys have considered an AP that is less about adventuring and monsters and more about political intrigue? I mean, sure a book about intrigue doesn't mean you guys are planning an ap that uses the systems from book, but my curiosity is easy to awaken
Check out Hell's Rebels, particularly some of the stuff from part 3 and part 6. An AP that drops combat as a major part isn't really something we have plans for though.
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So James,
Any chance we'll learn more about the Empyreal Lord Smiad?
He had an awesome blurb but... Nothing beyond and I'm curious...
I don't even recognize the name of that one off the top of my head. Which means that as far as I know, there are no plans anytime soon or thereafter to do much more with him/her/it.
Not even if the soul consents to be absorbed? Or if the soul wants to merge with the angel? I'm not talking about daemonic soul-eating here, I'm thinking more along the lines of how solars are created (from several souls), except the process continuing after the solar's creation.Since some angels are made of amalgamations of souls (like solars), is it possible for angels to absorb souls?Not if they want to remain angels, because "absorbing souls" is not a good action, really.Souls don't really have that capacity to "consent." They can't make decisions or choices, really, when they're not in a mortal body, undead, or merged with a body as an outsider.
Beyond that, there's no mechanical advantage, game speaking wise, for an angel to absorb a soul.
And beyond THAT... angels just aren't into absorbing souls. That's just not a good act, because a soul can't consent or do anything like that; it doesn't have stats, and that means no Intelligence or Charisma and that means it's not self aware and thus cannot give consent... see above.
What about petitioners (which is more along the lines of what I was thinking)? Can they opt to merge with angels, or other celestials, out of a desire for increased intimacy?