Creative Director
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1. How long it took for rakshasas in Arkona family to take over the Cerulean Society, local assassin cults (before Red Mantis) and Rat's Teat Boys in Korvosa, after they came to the city?
2. Is The Falling Runewheel and The Rune Mausoleum, from the article about Tassilon in 3.5 Rise of the Runelords, "rune-covered wheel of Gruankus" near Riddleport and Cenotaph in Belkzen?
3. From the same article - where and what are The Black Squares of Ungevick, The Dome Hive and Ygrath’s Pier?
1) I'd say they had that under control in a few months. Not more than a year, and probably not more than a half year.
2) Unrevealed.
3) Unrevealed.
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Are there plans for future contributions regarding Desna and the new dream material from OA? (e.g. existing or new spells and their interactions with Lucid Dreamer feat, like what was done with dream council spell; updated summon monster list for Desna-based casters; additional info on permanent dreamscapes that may exist out there; continued feat chain for Lucid Dreamer; new traits; new monsters; etc.)
Perhaps, but that's not what they wrote. If they wrote the wrong thing, they'll come back and re-ask.I believe they meant to ask about signifers, as they're often referred to as 'Hellknight Signifers' in books.Hmmm... spellcasting isn't common among Hellknights at all; it's more common among the signifers, and it varies there by order. I suppose overall, paladin is the most common hellknight, but paladins are actually kinda rare as hellknights.
Most hellknight order members would indeed possess at least a few levels of the prestige class once they're above 5th level.
My apologies, I did actually mean the most common class among signifiers.
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Creative Director
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Are there plans for future contributions regarding Desna and the new dream material from OA? (e.g. existing or new spells and their interactions with Lucid Dreamer feat, like what was done with dream council spell; updated summon monster list for Desna-based casters; additional info on permanent dreamscapes that may exist out there; continued feat chain for Lucid Dreamer; new traits; new monsters; etc.)
There's going to be a fair amount of Dreamlands stuff in the upcoming Strange Aeons Adventure Path, but it's taking that in a direction somewhat different than the dream material in Occult Adventures. No plans at this point do do much more regarding Desna and that stuff either, but there certainly could be some day.
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Creative Director
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My apologies, I did actually mean the most common class among signifiers.Perhaps, but that's not what they wrote. If they wrote the wrong thing, they'll come back and re-ask.I believe they meant to ask about signifers, as they're often referred to as 'Hellknight Signifers' in books.Hmmm... spellcasting isn't common among Hellknights at all; it's more common among the signifers, and it varies there by order. I suppose overall, paladin is the most common hellknight, but paladins are actually kinda rare as hellknights.
Most hellknight order members would indeed possess at least a few levels of the prestige class once they're above 5th level.
Probably cleric, with a fair number of inquisitors and wizards.
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Creative Director
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How come villain songs are always the best songs in a movie/show/etc?
Matter of opinion, really, whether or not the villain songs are the best. Five hero themes that I think are brilliant from movies, just off the top of my head, would include:
Batman
Lord of the Rings
Robocop
Conan the Barbarian
Darkman
Abby Thrune vs. Ozmyn Zaidow:
1. Who plays their cards closer to their chest?
2. Who's less trusting of their subordinates?
3. Who has more contempt for the idea that "information wants to be free"?
Abby Thrune vs. Ozmyn Zaidow:
1. Who plays their cards closer to their chest?
2. Who's less trusting of their subordinates?
3. Who has more contempt for the idea that "information wants to be free"?1) Thrune
2) Zaidow
3) Thrune
Was not expecting Thrune for that last one, given how Zaidow's organization is all about choking the flow of information like it's a treasonous baby. Interesting. Interesting.
How come villain songs are always the best songs in a movie/show/etc?Matter of opinion, really, whether or not the villain songs are the best. Five hero themes that I think are brilliant from movies, just off the top of my head, would include:
Batman
Lord of the Rings
Robocop
Conan the Barbarian
Darkman
I totally love the Batman theme too!
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Creative Director
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We don't do many APs that go to level 20 because the pagecount we have available combined with the time we have to produce them on a monthly bases combined with the fact that we really want to do 2 a year to keep folks engaged means that we're pretty much at the limit of how many encounters and story we can fit into 6 volumes. Due to the way XP was designed (it didn't have an AP progression in mind, alas, when we built Pathfinder), that more or less limits us to APs that go from 1st to 16th-17th or so. AKA: The rules of time and space, combined with choices we made during the game's design, limit us to what we've been doing.Is there any reason APs have to start at level 1?
I personally would prefer adventure paths that go from from 4th/5th to 20th over the typical range
Becuase the vast majority of the customers want them to start at level 1, and because the vast majority of Paizo employees (including me) want them to start at level 1.
Starting at 4th or 5th level would let us maybe hit 18th level. In order to reach 20th, we'd probably have to start an AP at 10th level or thereabouts, due to the realities of how much room higher level adventures take up word-count-wise due to the combination of larger stat blocks and the necessity of covering SO much more material due to the fact that PCs have so much more options available for solving things.
Some conspiracy questions:
1. Guide to Korvosa says that political opponent of Arbus Arabasti, from the family of Porphyria, suddenly died at his own support rally. Was death caused by natural causes?
1.2. If not, was Lorthact involved in this?
2. Was madness that stroke Eodred I nephew and next King of Korvosa, Cardraith, natural one or somebody caused it artificially?
3. In what year Red Mantises decided to settle in Korvosa?
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Creative Director
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Some conspiracy questions:
1. Guide to Korvosa says that political opponent of Arbus Arabasti, from the family of Porphyria, suddenly died at his own support rally. Was death caused by natural causes?
1.2. If not, was Lorthact involved in this?
2. Was madness that stroke Eodred I nephew and next King of Korvosa, Cardraith, natural one or somebody caused it artificially?
3. In what year Red Mantises decided to settle in Korvosa?
1) Unrevealed
1.2) Unrevealed
2) Unrevealed
3) They don't until Curse of the Crimson Throne begins—they're specifically "invited" to the city by Ileosa very early in her reign. They arrive at a point during the 1st adventure, so the year that they come to Korvosa is tied directly to whatever year you decide to place the events of Curse of the Crimson Throne in.
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It wasn't an AP. It was a module, "Beyond the Vault of Souls." There were a few monsters from the Tome of Horrors that we gave super short stat blocks to and folks did not approve. So... never again!
But wouldn't that disapproval have come from the fact that Tome of Horrors isn't available online like Bestiaries and NPC Codex are? If you just used stats from stuff that you have available on the PRD, wouldn't that prevent if from being "pay to play" and thus remove the objection?
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Creative Director
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It wasn't an AP. It was a module, "Beyond the Vault of Souls." There were a few monsters from the Tome of Horrors that we gave super short stat blocks to and folks did not approve. So... never again!But wouldn't that disapproval have come from the fact that Tome of Horrors isn't available online like Bestiaries and NPC Codex are? If you just used stats from stuff that you have available on the PRD, wouldn't that prevent if from being "pay to play" and thus remove the objection?
Exactly. And we DO use short stats for Bestiaries and NPC Codex. Which are on the PRD. We do not use short stats if we use something from a non-hardcover-rulebook that isn't in the PRD.
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Right, so I do wonder about Purple Dragon Knight's original question:
About the space-intensive nature of high level adventures: would Paizo consider doing a high level AP without stat blocks for high-level monsters and NPCs, and just point to a page in another book?
This was the question to which the reply was that the people rioted and you're never trying it again. But as long as you kept to PRD materials, would Paizo consider doing a high level AP just pointing to PRD materials as a space-saving measure instead of having tons of large statblocks?
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Creative Director
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Right, so I do wonder about Purple Dragon Knight's original question:
About the space-intensive nature of high level adventures: would Paizo consider doing a high level AP without stat blocks for high-level monsters and NPCs, and just point to a page in another book?This was the question to which the reply was that the people rioted and you're never trying it again. But as long as you kept to PRD materials, would Paizo consider doing a high level AP just pointing to PRD materials as a space-saving measure instead of having tons of large statblocks?
The frequency at which we produce higher level installmetnts of APs combined with the comparatively small amount of CR 14–CR 20 monsters in the Bestiaries means that we can't do as you suggest. That relatively small number of monsters to choose from grows even smaller when you consider that so many of them are outsiders or dragons, or are Large or larger, two things that often limit a monster's usability in an adventure.
We simply don't have enough high CR monsters in our PRD to make this a viable solution is what I've been saying. It gets a little better with each Bestiary, but we don't do one of those every year and thus we tend to "catch up."
Furthermore, it's kind of the nature of the game that we WANT foes you encoutner in high-level adventures to be unusual, unique, and memorable. At low levels, it's no big deal to face a bunch of samey monsters over and over, but at high levels, when things are supposed to be over the top and epic (using the english language use of the word, not the 3.5 D&D use of the word), generic monsters and characters don't cut it.
We'd hoped that the NPC codex would help here, and it has now and then, but the fact that Golarion is humanocentric and NPC codex is not has significantly limited the opportunities for us to use NPC Codex stats as short stat blocks.
If it would have worked, trust me, you would have seen us doing what you suggest years ago.
How come villain songs are always the best songs in a movie/show/etc?Matter of opinion, really, whether or not the villain songs are the best. Five hero themes that I think are brilliant from movies, just off the top of my head, would include:
Batman
Lord of the Rings
Robocop
Conan the Barbarian
DarkmanI totally love the Batman theme too!
If you're going outside the mOvies, the Superfriends theme song and the justice league theme song both rock. Especially the former.
==Aelryinth
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Creative Director
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What narrative ideas and themes would you say Iron Gods explores as a story?
The primary one is "religion vs. science," but less of a "let's see what happens when they fight" and more of "let's see what happens when they work together!"
Minor themes would be "magic vs. tech" and "nature vs. artificiality."
What constitutes life/having a soul is a theme that pops up a lot as well.
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So anyway, got comics from humble bundle, tons of cool bonus statblocks & stuff I'd like to ask about, (like will trailgaunt monster show up anywhere else?) but I'm mostly here to point out "Aww man, no stats for Big Gugmut here :'D" unless I missed it somehow
So assuming he isn't in any other product, what would you stat him as? Medium goblin fighter 4?
Anyway, yeah, also cool how some of them have stats for sandpoint npcs :D Those are nice to have
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Creative Director
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So anyway, got comics from humble bundle, tons of cool bonus statblocks & stuff I'd like to ask about, (like will trailgaunt monster show up anywhere else?) but I'm mostly here to point out "Aww man, no stats for Big Gugmut here :'D" unless I missed it somehow
So assuming he isn't in any other product, what would you stat him as? Medium goblin fighter 4?
Anyway, yeah, also cool how some of them have stats for sandpoint npcs :D Those are nice to have
Some of the elements in the comics that I wrote back-matter stuff for WILL end up being expanded on someday, yeah. Maybe including the trailgaunt... maybe not. We'll see.
As for Big Gugmut, not sure yet. He's the most powerful of the Mosswood goblins, so once I nail down his level, that capstones every other goblin in the area, so I'm not eager to do that anytime soon until I'm sure of where I want to go, 100% certain, with the Mosswood Goblins.
Fighter 4 is way too low level though. We know that Wortus is a 6th level cleric, after all. Gugmut's tougher than that. How much tougher? Dunno... but tougher.
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Creative Director
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What's the job split between the AP showrunner and the individual installment writer?
Does the showrunner decide which monsters show up? Did you decide that there was going to be a
** spoiler omitted **
The developer of an AP (the "showrunner") designs the story for the entire AP and builds the outline for the whole thing. An AP outline is generally around 20,000 words (about the size of a 32 page book). As part of the overall outline are individual outlines for each adventure. The developer generally picks the monsters and what not for the main villains and allies and gives lots of suggestions, but then turns that over to the author.
The author writes the adventure.
The developer then develops it, and this often includes a fair bit of re-writing to make the adventure mesh better with the other 5 adventures and with Golarion itself. In this cases, the developer often changes monsters around.
Since Iron Gods is inspired in large part...
The mihstu was placed by the author, if I remember correctly.
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Creative Director
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1) Given Calistria's social nature, does she prefer eusocial wasps over solitary ones, or are both equal in her eyes?
2) Which do you prefer, vampires, or werewolves?
3) Which do you prefer, mummies, or zombies?
1) Both are equal, since both have different uses for different reasons.
2) Vampires.
3) Zombies.
The answers to 2 and 3 above is 100% influenced by the fact that there are a LOT of great vampire and zombie movies, and a relatively low number of great werewolf or mummy movies.
What is Shalelu's deity/religion?
Do kitsune portray Shelyn as kitsune or human?
How does Shelyn view Daikitsu the goddess of kitsunes and Nalinivati the goddess of the nagaji? How do they view her?
Do nagaji and kitsunes get along?
Is Calistria worshiped in Tian Xia?
What about Iomedae? Is she worshiped in Tian Xia?
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Creative Director
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What is Shalelu's deity/religion?
Do kitsune portray Shelyn as kitsune or human?
How does Shelyn view Daikitsu the goddess of kitsunes and Nalinivati the goddess of the nagaji? How do they view her?
Do nagaji and kitsunes get along?
Is Calistria worshiped in Tian Xia?
What about Iomedae? Is she worshiped in Tian Xia?
Desna
Both
Unrevealed
Depends on the individual. They don't really have any significant national contact with one another in any event.
Not extensively.
Less so than Calistria.
What do non-Inner Sea cultures generally make of the Ascended? Are they just regarded as more weird gods from somewhere else, or does some of Irori's belief that they took shortcuts on paths made by others bleed into their attitudes?
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Oh yeaaaaaaah, forgot about Wortus ._. Soo yeah, at least level 7 as minimum... Sounds like however strong he is, I kinda need to make it clear players won't go for him this early then :'D
So anyhoo, got first part of Jade Regent and read Sandpoint Hinterlands material. Is Red Bishop involved with Pazuzu somehow if it is involved with Stoot's descend to madness somehow?
I read more on article in comic with Sheriff's & Priest's statblocks and noticed the adventure hook on Old Light/Hellfire Flumes' lower floors. One of player characters was interested in that, so that would be cool to use. I was thinking of having Hellcat encounter there, but besides that, I have no idea how deep the "basement" would go or what is there since I don't know much about Hellfire Flumes :'D So yeah, what would be underneath Old Light's ground floor? Magic stuff related to how Hellfire Flumet works?
At least one of players in general seem to be into sin & virtue stuff judging from their reaction to minor runewell. How should I play up sin & virtue stuff if I go on that route?
Speaking of minor runewell, pcs deactivated well and Erylium run out of spells so I had her runaway. I was thinking of having her return with Attic Whisperer after players have completed Thistletop, but come to think of it, wouldn't she go to Nualia first and crash there until players ruin that place too?
And so he used "virulent spell"(not sure what that means) from Leng to send Haphrama's & Vhage's soul into "void between the planes". Does that mean that their souls are still in that void? I'd imagine they have been twisted into something else by now, but I still find that interesting :D
And finally, so was Haphrama stronger than Karzoug since he needed help from Leng? How was he compared to Karzoug now in his prime?
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Creative Director
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What do non-Inner Sea cultures generally make of the Ascended? Are they just regarded as more weird gods from somewhere else, or does some of Irori's belief that they took shortcuts on paths made by others bleed into their attitudes?
Since non-Inner Sea cultures encompass everything else, they make of the Ascended as many different ways possible. As a general rule, it all averages out to not treating them any different than the other gods.
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Creative Director
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Oh yeaaaaaaah, forgot about Wortus ._. Soo yeah, at least level 7 as minimum... Sounds like however strong he is, I kinda need to make it clear players won't go for him this early then :'D
So anyhoo, got first part of Jade Regent and read Sandpoint Hinterlands material. Is Red Bishop involved with Pazuzu somehow if it is involved with Stoot's descend to madness somehow?
I read more on article in comic with Sheriff's & Priest's statblocks and noticed the adventure hook on Old Light/Hellfire Flumes' lower floors. One of player characters was interested in that, so that would be cool to use. I was thinking of having Hellcat encounter there, but besides that, I have no idea how deep the "basement" would go or what is there since I don't know much about Hellfire Flumes :'D So yeah, what would be underneath Old Light's ground floor? Magic stuff related to how Hellfire Flumet works?
At least one of players in general seem to be into sin & virtue stuff judging from their reaction to minor runewell. How should I play up sin & virtue stuff if I go on that route?
Speaking of minor runewell, pcs deactivated well and Erylium run out of spells so I had her runaway. I was thinking of having her return with Attic Whisperer after players have completed Thistletop, but come to think of it, wouldn't she go to Nualia first and crash there until players ruin that place too?
Spoiler:Was there a way for players to learn of Karzoug's backstory? I'd imagine Karzoug wouldn't have his full history in Jorgenfist's library.And so he used "virulent spell"(not sure what that means) from Leng to send Haphrama's & Vhage's soul into "void between the planes". Does that mean that their souls are still in that void? I'd imagine they have been twisted into something else by now, but I still find that interesting :D
And finally, so was Haphrama stronger than Karzoug since he needed help from Leng? How was he compared to Karzoug now in his prime?
The Red Bishop...
Until we publish more about the chambers below the Old Light, what you put in there and how deep they go is up to you. That's the fun part about being a GM. I'm not gonna say much more about it yet because I'm not 100% sure myself... only 96% sure, and I want to leave that 4% opportunity to change my mind if I want.
If your players are into it... you should in fact openly track their sin and virtue points. Having players get into that theme is actually good for the campaign!
What Nualia does is also up to you... but if the PCs are vexed by her escaping, I'd try to make her be a recurring villain for as long as possible.
It's left unclear and vague what happened to the souls.
And just because you need someone's help doesn't mean they're more powerful to you. The power levels there are left vague as well; they don't really relate to the adventure at hand, so it's something you get to decide on if you want to run with that thread in your game!
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Creative Director
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Kind of expected that with Hell's Rebels. It's a shame I feel but makes sense in the long run. It would be to oversaturated. Any PFS scenarios or plans for one in that area?
The rate at which we put out PFS scenarios is far too fast for me to keep track; that's a John or Linda question.
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Ah, ok, cool :D
Also, cool! Just asked in case you guys are planning product with Hellfire Flumes sometimes in future and I'll be like "Aww man, now I have to explain why this is completely different from what I did" xD
I'm actually tracking them in open, but I got feedback from player that made me think they might be disappointed since sin theme won't directly come up after catacombs of wrath in a long time <_< (they noted that they would find it cool if runewell had permanent lingering effect on the another player's pc who tested touching it. I did find the idea cool(I'll probably give that pc nightmares), but I'm not sure if the suggestion of having player to play character as permanently somewhat wrathful be a good idea) But maybe I'm worrying too early for nothing ^^;
Ah, I asked about what would Erylium do, not Nualia :'D I have already plan if Nualia escapes(though I will be kinda lost what to do if pcs capture her and send her to jail. I'm halfway between having Ironbriar breaking her out or just having him let her rot)
And thank you for answers on spoilery questions :D
I hope I'm not asking anything that is too secret.
But, if Hell's Vengeance is 'A' and Strange Aeons is 'B', how far down the alphabet are you all at various stages of planning for future Adventure Paths?
Note - I'm not asking for any info giving them away.
Mr. James Jacobs,
In your estimation how well would a demon mole in the PC group work in Hell's Rebels?
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Creative Director
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I hope I'm not asking anything that is too secret.
But, if Hell's Vengeance is 'A' and Strange Aeons is 'B', how far down the alphabet are you all at various stages of planning for future Adventure Paths?
Note - I'm not asking for any info giving them away.
We are currently working on Adventure Path C, and have Adventure Paths D, E, and F more or less in various stages of planning.
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Creative Director
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Ah, ok, cool :D
Also, cool! Just asked in case you guys are planning product with Hellfire Flumes sometimes in future and I'll be like "Aww man, now I have to explain why this is completely different from what I did" xD
I'm actually tracking them in open, but I got feedback from player that made me think they might be disappointed since sin theme won't directly come up after catacombs of wrath in a long time <_< (they noted that they would find it cool if runewell had permanent lingering effect on the another player's pc who tested touching it. I did find the idea cool(I'll probably give that pc nightmares), but I'm not sure if the suggestion of having player to play character as permanently somewhat wrathful be a good idea) But maybe I'm worrying too early for nothing ^^;
Ah, I asked about what would Erylium do, not Nualia :'D I have already plan if Nualia escapes(though I will be kinda lost what to do if pcs capture her and send her to jail. I'm halfway between having Ironbriar breaking her out or just having him let her rot)
And thank you for answers on spoilery questions :D
I suspect that some day we'll do more with Hellfire Flumes but not anytime soon. If yours is different, you don't have to explain it at all though; yours takes precedence over ours unless you like ours better.