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Dark Archive

How much leeway do gods have to punish hearsay. Let's say a worshiper of Pharasma strayed, I assume they would get hints of their displeasure like it is described in the gods book. Non-worshippers who commit blaspahmy however, would they also be subject to divine retributions, such as undead defacing her cathedrals and such. Or something even less, like some one cursing her name over the death of a love one.


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

Assuming one wanted a semi-blasphemous and irreverent name for a pirate vessel on Golarion, would "Pharasma's Laughter" be a solid choice? She doesn't seem to be the sort to engage in such displays.

Sovereign Court

James Jacobs wrote:
The Doomkitten wrote:
Is it implausible that a sect would worship both Dou-Bral and Shelyn, and work to redeem Zon-Kuthon?
It isn't implausible that such a sect could exist, but they would never succeed.

I'm planning out a Strange Aeons character who is a cleric of Shelyn but, as his evil past comes out, turns out to have once been a cleric of Zon-Kuthon.

I thought it seemed neat, but would Shelyn be into that kind of redemption-through-amnesia situation?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

loc wrote:
How much leeway do gods have to punish hearsay. Let's say a worshiper of Pharasma strayed, I assume they would get hints of their displeasure like it is described in the gods book. Non-worshippers who commit blaspahmy however, would they also be subject to divine retributions, such as undead defacing her cathedrals and such. Or something even less, like some one cursing her name over the death of a love one.

They have all the leeway they want, but in most cases they don't directly interfere and leave the "punishment" up to their faithful.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Cole Deschain wrote:
Assuming one wanted a semi-blasphemous and irreverent name for a pirate vessel on Golarion, would "Pharasma's Laughter" be a solid choice? She doesn't seem to be the sort to engage in such displays.

I wouldn't call that a blasphemous name, but it's certainly irreverent. It's like calling a ship "Death's Laughter" which is kinda intimidating too.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

GeraintElberion wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
The Doomkitten wrote:
Is it implausible that a sect would worship both Dou-Bral and Shelyn, and work to redeem Zon-Kuthon?
It isn't implausible that such a sect could exist, but they would never succeed.

I'm planning out a Strange Aeons character who is a cleric of Shelyn but, as his evil past comes out, turns out to have once been a cleric of Zon-Kuthon.

I thought it seemed neat, but would Shelyn be into that kind of redemption-through-amnesia situation?

Why wouldn't she? It would in large part depend how your character played it out though, of course, but having you start as a cleric of Shelyn after losing your faith at some point during your amnesia is a cool plot point—work with your GM to have them set things up for you to find out more as you game, I guess!

Silver Crusade

James, sorry about my last post, when I read about he change to the item it kind of threw the crazy switch in my brain and the post followed.
I am glad that you are so good at responding to my posts even if they are wacky some times.

Who on the rules team would you suggest that I ask about how magic item changes are made?

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

James, what level do you think the following spells would need to be:
1) Alter the course of a ley line?
2) Create a ley line?
3) Or would rituals be more appropriate? And if so, approximate DC to complete?
Mage's disjunction can potentially destroy one and it is a 9th level spell, so I am leaning towards 9th for creation.

The next Wayfinder issue is covering Numeria and I also have a few specific questions regarding ley lines there for an article:
A) What would the coloring of ley lines be around the areas of devastation caused by the Rain of Stars?
B) How would the Rain of Stars affected the ley lines in Numeria? I picture them as fractured, disjointed, and really ragged. And possible whole areas devoid of any, such as around the Silver Mount.

Thank you in advance and have a great day!


Of course I read Inner Sea Gods and Inner Sea Faiths. I have many quesitons about deities because those books didn't give me enough information about what I want to know or because I misunderstood or forgot what I read. Anyway, new questions.

1. I found that Rovagug has demon and protean subdomains, but not qlippoth subdomain, and there is no qlippoth subdomain in the game entirely. Why? It's pretty bizarre that Rovagug, who is very hateful toward demons, has demon subdomain, and qlippoth is not particularly friendly toward proteans, and there is nothing like qlippoth subdomain at all. Is it some kind of a mistake? That at first Paizo wanted to make qlippoth subdomain, but when you guys publish Inner Sea Gods, due to carelessness you missed that?

2. Which nations are the top 5 millitarily powerful nations in the Inner sea region? In my opinion, from the most powerful to the fifth powerful, that nations would be: Worldwound, Cheliax, Taldor, Andoran, Irrisen. If Worldwound cannot be counted as a nation, the top 5 would be: Cheliax, Taldor, Andoran, Irrisen, Galt. Am I right?

3. Rovagug was at first a qlippoth lord, and then became a deity. What about Asmodeus? Was he an archdevil from the start, and then became a deity?

4. Were Pharasma, Abadar, and Groetus a deity from the beginning of their life?

5. It's weird. Demon lords and great old ones are both demigods. But demon lords can be killed permanently by killing them twice a year or by a deity. But great old ones cannot be killed, no matter what. How can this be possible? They are of the same power level!

6. I know deities are so powerful that cannot be statted up. But the rulebook authors are clearly more powerful than deities. And in Inner Sea Bestiary and Bestiary 4 it's mentioned by the authors that spawn of Rovagug and great old ones cannot be killed by any means. Does that mean the deities, even the mightiest Rovagug cannot kill his own spawn and the great old ones, because the authors said that these entities can never be truly killed?

7. At first, I thought Pharasma is the goddess of death. But It seems like she is not only in charge of death, but also in charge of rebirth as well, because one of her portfolio is rebirth. So, is it correct to regard her as the goddess of life and death? Or maybe the goddess of life cycle?

8. Abadar seems like the personification of everything that represents the civilization. Being a god of cities and wealth, he is clearly contrary to Gozreh, the personification of nature. So, is it correct to regard him as the god of civilization?

9. In Castrovel, there is a formian nation called the Colonies. Does that mean formians are native to this planet? In other words, are the formians originated in Castrovel, and then went to other planet? Or they are from the other galaxy entirely?

10. Are there many formians on Golarion?

11. The Great Beyond, A Guide to the Multiverse said that there are several factions seek to control what remains of the god Aroden's broken realm. Among them is Illorphia, a formian queen. When this book was published, Paizo was using 3.5 rule, and in that rule formians were outsiders, not aliens. So seeing them in Axis is very natural. But in Pathfinder rule, they are aliens, not outsiders. So, is the story about Illorphia still canon?

12. Apostae is a spacehsip. Then from when it was there? In other words, did ancient Azlanti knew of the existence of the planet Apostae?

13. Aucturn seems a Dominion Spaceship, not a planet. To prove this theory, we should know that if there was Aucturn before Earthfall. So, here's the questions. Did Azlanti knew the existence of Aucturn? Or did they not know that there is one last planet in the system at all? If the latter is the case, that would imply that Aucturn came to Golarion's solar system after Earthfall.


Hi James

Questions ahoy

1) what type of humor do you enjoy?

2) why do you think a lot of RPG players tend to enjoy Monty Python?

3) If you're a player and you feel the GM makes 'technical' mistakes like miscalculating XP or how things stack or whatever, what would you do?

4) what is the best part of answering questions in this thread?

5) which question do you feel has been asked the most?

Cheers


1)Any chance that B6 will have a dragon with more then 2 heads? more then 3?

2)How do you pronounce Rougarou?

3)Are any of the new B6 0HD races close to the power level of the Munavri?

4)What made you decide to make the Naiad a 0HD race?

5)Any chance that the Yaddithian is a aberration?

6)Is there more then one kind of two-headed dragon in B6? If so are they a related group?

7)Will there be any positive energy plane creatures in B6? Dimension of time? Dimension of dreams?

8)You said there will be no new trolls but what about ogres, cyclopes, or other giant related subgroups?

9)Is it safe to assume there will be new golems, terrain/element/themed giants, demons, devils(non-arch), dinosaurs, megafauna, and familiars, correct?

10)Will there be any new titans?


1)Roughly how many fey are we getting for B6: low(10 or less), moderate(11-19), or a lot(20+)?

2)I tried looking online but they give any real info so who/what is the Green Man?

3)I take it hivemind swarm is a template for swarms, correct?

4)Any chance of seeing those tiny prehistoric horses(proper name escapes me)?

5)Any chance of seeing stats for Cerberus, Talos, Arachne, Empousa, or other creatures from Greek Myth?

6)Is the Wild Hunt a single creature or a group of creatures that functions like a single creature like a troop?

7)Why would you describe them as "strangely sentient oozes" when we have had sentient oozes before?

8)Is Krampus bellow or above CR12?

9)What is a conqueror worm? Will there be more then one type?

10)Will there be any new hags?

Grand Lodge

James, got a question that might make you do a double take. Can an android spellcaster become a lich?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Lou Diamond wrote:

James, sorry about my last post, when I read about he change to the item it kind of threw the crazy switch in my brain and the post followed.

I am glad that you are so good at responding to my posts even if they are wacky some times.

Who on the rules team would you suggest that I ask about how magic item changes are made?

Anyone on the design team, but they're not super active on the boards because they're really busy. Furthermore, I really really REALLY suggest that if you DO ask about why magic items are made, you wait a half hour before sending the post, and before you do that, re-read it. Make sure you're not coming across as insulting or abusive. Because that doesn't help ever, and in fact, these boards have so much of that type of "entitled gamer rage" that it's kinda no wonder some folks here at Paizo or in other game companies are so hesitant to engage on messageboards.

Be nice.

Be polite.

Be open-minded.

And be patient.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:

James, what level do you think the following spells would need to be:

1) Alter the course of a ley line?
2) Create a ley line?
3) Or would rituals be more appropriate? And if so, approximate DC to complete?
Mage's disjunction can potentially destroy one and it is a 9th level spell, so I am leaning towards 9th for creation.

The next Wayfinder issue is covering Numeria and I also have a few specific questions regarding ley lines there for an article:
A) What would the coloring of ley lines be around the areas of devastation caused by the Rain of Stars?
B) How would the Rain of Stars affected the ley lines in Numeria? I picture them as fractured, disjointed, and really ragged. And possible whole areas devoid of any, such as around the Silver Mount.

Thank you in advance and have a great day!

I'm not familiar enough with how we've said ley lines work (I assume we HAVE talked abou them... in Occult Adventures maybe?) to answer these questions.

And I don't comment on Wayfinder questions. Wayfinder is not an official Paizo product—it's a product written 100% by fans, and as such its value is that it's 100% fan-created content.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Snowsarn wrote:

Hi James

Questions ahoy

1) what type of humor do you enjoy?

2) why do you think a lot of RPG players tend to enjoy Monty Python?

3) If you're a player and you feel the GM makes 'technical' mistakes like miscalculating XP or how things stack or whatever, what would you do?

4) what is the best part of answering questions in this thread?

5) which question do you feel has been asked the most?

Cheers

1) Dark humor. Witty humor. Humor that doesn't rely on hate and prejudice and misogyny.

2) Because it's really funny.

3) Talk to the GM about it after the game, and be respectful and open-minded and if the GM says something like "I'm doing it this way," then respect the GM's decision. If you as the player feel like a GM is REALLY doing a bad job, then the best solution is to leave the game rather than get in constant arguments that could disrupt the enjoyment of the other players.

4) Being asked a new or really thought-provoking question that surprises me.

5) Rules questions that I can't comment on because the way the question is phrased makes it sound like a player is fishing for "official Paizo rulings" to weaponize against their GM. :-P


How excited are you for N7 day?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Aenigma wrote:

Of course I read Inner Sea Gods and Inner Sea Faiths. I have many quesitons about deities because those books didn't give me enough information about what I want to know or because I misunderstood or forgot what I read. Anyway, new questions.

1. I found that Rovagug has demon and protean subdomains, but not qlippoth subdomain, and there is no qlippoth subdomain in the game entirely. Why? It's pretty bizarre that Rovagug, who is very hateful toward demons, has demon subdomain, and qlippoth is not particularly friendly toward proteans, and there is nothing like qlippoth subdomain at all. Is it some kind of a mistake? That at first Paizo wanted to make qlippoth subdomain, but when you guys publish Inner Sea Gods, due to carelessness you missed that?

2. Which nations are the top 5 millitarily powerful nations in the Inner sea region? In my opinion, from the most powerful to the fifth powerful, that nations would be: Worldwound, Cheliax, Taldor, Andoran, Irrisen. If Worldwound cannot be counted as a nation, the top 5 would be: Cheliax, Taldor, Andoran, Irrisen, Galt. Am I right?

3. Rovagug was at first a qlippoth lord, and then became a deity. What about Asmodeus? Was he an archdevil from the start, and then became a deity?

4. Were Pharasma, Abadar, and Groetus a deity from the beginning of their life?

5. It's weird. Demon lords and great old ones are both demigods. But demon lords can be killed permanently by killing them twice a year or by a deity. But great old ones cannot be killed, no matter what. How can this be possible? They are of the same power level!

6. I know deities are so powerful that cannot be statted up. But the rulebook authors are clearly more powerful than deities. And in Inner Sea Bestiary and Bestiary 4 it's mentioned by the authors that spawn of Rovagug and great old ones cannot be killed by any means. Does that mean the deities, even the mightiest Rovagug cannot kill his own spawn and the great old ones, because the authors said that these entities can never be truly killed?

7. At first, I thought Pharasma is the goddess of death. But It seems like she is not only in charge of death, but also in charge of rebirth as well, because one of her portfolio is rebirth. So, is it correct to regard her as the goddess of life and death? Or maybe the goddess of life cycle?

8. Abadar seems like the personification of everything that represents the civilization. Being a god of cities and wealth, he is clearly contrary to Gozreh, the personification of nature. So, is it correct to regard him as the god of civilization?

9. In Castrovel, there is a formian nation called the Colonies. Does that mean formians are native to this planet? In other words, are the formians originated in Castrovel, and then went to other planet? Or they are from the other galaxy entirely?

10. Are there many formians on Golarion?

11. The Great Beyond, A Guide to the Multiverse said that there are several factions seek to control what remains of the god Aroden's broken realm. Among them is Illorphia, a formian queen. When this book was published, Paizo was using 3.5 rule, and in that rule formians were outsiders, not aliens. So seeing them in Axis is very natural. But in Pathfinder rule, they are aliens, not outsiders. So, is the story about Illorphia still canon?

12. Apostae is a spacehsip. Then from when it was there? In other words, did ancient Azlanti knew of the existence of the planet Apostae?

13. Aucturn seems a Dominion Spaceship, not a planet. To prove this theory, we should know that if there was Aucturn before Earthfall. So, here's the questions. Did Azlanti knew the existence of Aucturn? Or did they not know that there is one last planet in the system at all? If the latter is the case, that would imply that Aucturn came to Golarion's solar system after Earthfall.

Your question lists are exploding into giant walls of text again. For you, I'd say limit your posts to 3 questions at a time if possible; makes it a LOT easier for me to manage them.

1) There's no such thing (yet) as a qlippoth subdomain, and there's unlikely to ever be one. In this case, because he has two of his 5 domains used up by alignment domains (which, in the way their subdomains are designed, really limits choices for subdomains), we had to fake it and give him those domains. Further, at the time the design team was creating subdomains, they weren't as tuned in to the world-lore of the deities, so at times there are disconnects between how the rulebooks present information on them and how they SHOULD be presented via Golarion lore. It's a problem we're working to get under control, but back in the Advanced Player's Guide days, it was a bigger problem. Further, I'm not interested in willy-nilly swapping/changing out a deity's domains after they're published, because doing that immediately puts published NPC clerics of that deity in danger of being suddenly wrong, and also immediately puts long-established PC clerics of that deity in danger of being wrong. And that's a sure-fire way to piss people off, so we don't do it. There was never an intention to create a qlippoth domain in Advanced Player's Guide as far as I know, in any event.

2) We don't actually have rules for mass combat and statting up full national armies, so "ranking" the top 5 national armies out of a list of 45 some nations isn't something I'm comfortable in doing. Especially since there's not really a NEED for it to play Pathfinder, since we DON'T have robust warfare rules.

3) That's intentionally mysterious.

4) Pharasma yes. Abadar, probably. In my homebrew, Groetus was a human at one point. I'm not sure off the top of my head if we retained that in Golarion; it'd be in his article in Shattered Star though.

5) They're of similar CR scores, but that doesn't mean they're the same power level when it comes to death. The fact that Great Old Ones are tougher to kill than any other demigod is an INTENTIONAL rules element that I put in there to make them feel all the more alien and powerful and frightening. CR is ONLY a measurement of how a monster functions in combat against other monsters, and quantifies the monster's ability to last in a combat. It has nothing to do with whether a monster can be killed permanently or not. In the case of the Great Old Ones, when you defeat them, they generally can't just immediately get back up and continue a fight, which is what CR is interested in.

6) Deities can kill the spawn of Rovagug. Whether or not a deity can permanently kill a Great Old Oone or not is unclear. I do have an in-world reason WHY Great Old Ones can't die, but I"m not quite ready to reveal that yet, because I actually think that NOT knowing that reason makes them more compelling, interesting, and frightening. One thing that is a double-edged sword about giving a creature stats—many players immediately start looking for ways to kill that statted monster. I really REALLY do think it's valuable to have stats for Great Old Ones and demon lords and the like, but once you stat it up, a certain mindset of player stops being "afraid" of the monster's concept because he/she becomes convinced that they can build a character to defeat the monster. You can think of the Great Old Ones' immortality as an evolution of the Demon Lord resurrection rules—as my attempt to have my cake and eat it too. This way, I can present stats for powerful and infamous monsters and still have the "If it has stats I can kill it" mentality confounded. As for WHY Great Old Ones have it and demon lords don't? I guess you can chalk that up to the fact that Lovecraft's my favorite author, and that might be my way of honoring him in my own way.

7) She's the goddess of death AND the goddess of birth, which sort of makes her the goddess of the life-death-birth cycle.

8) Yes, but not the only god of civilization.

9) In the real world, the formians were invented as creatures in a series of pulp stories that live on Venus. For Pahtfinder, we pay homage to that by NOT making them outsiders. As far as I'm concerned, yes, they're natives to Castrovel, although I'm not sure we've nailed that down as such in print.

10) No.

11) If we go back and do more with that content, my preference would be to replace the formians there with something else. At this point, I wouldn't call Illophia cannon.

12) Unrevealed.

13) Unrevealed.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
kevin_video wrote:
James, got a question that might make you do a double take. Can an android spellcaster become a lich?

Doesn't make me do a double take at all. I've said that androids can become undead from day 1. That includes liches.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:

1)Any chance that B6 will have a dragon with more then 2 heads? more then 3?

2)How do you pronounce Rougarou?

3)Are any of the new B6 0HD races close to the power level of the Munavri?

4)What made you decide to make the Naiad a 0HD race?

5)Any chance that the Yaddithian is a aberration?

6)Is there more then one kind of two-headed dragon in B6? If so are they a related group?

7)Will there be any positive energy plane creatures in B6? Dimension of time? Dimension of dreams?

8)You said there will be no new trolls but what about ogres, cyclopes, or other giant related subgroups?

9)Is it safe to assume there will be new golems, terrain/element/themed giants, demons, devils(non-arch), dinosaurs, megafauna, and familiars, correct?

10)Will there be any new titans?

1) Unlikely.

2) It's a real-world word. I'm not 100% sure it's 100% correct, but I say "RUE-ga-rue"

3) The munavri are in the book... so at least one of them, the munavri, are!

4) The fact that the game could use a 0-HD fey race based on mythology, and the fact that the undine and other 0-HD water races don't currently fit the niche of a nature-fey role.

5) Of course there's a chance. A quite good one, in fact.

6) Nope. Just one.

7) No time stuff, as far as I know. The others? Maybe.

8) No ogres or cyclopes. There are some creatures with the giant subtype though.

9) Not all. Some.

10) No.


Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Who designed the Occult Rituals?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:

1)Roughly how many fey are we getting for B6: low(10 or less), moderate(11-19), or a lot(20+)?

2)I tried looking online but they give any real info so who/what is the Green Man?

3)I take it hivemind swarm is a template for swarms, correct?

4)Any chance of seeing those tiny prehistoric horses(proper name escapes me)?

5)Any chance of seeing stats for Cerberus, Talos, Arachne, Empousa, or other creatures from Greek Myth?

6)Is the Wild Hunt a single creature or a group of creatures that functions like a single creature like a troop?

7)Why would you describe them as "strangely sentient oozes" when we have had sentient oozes before?

8)Is Krampus bellow or above CR12?

9)What is a conqueror worm? Will there be more then one type?

10)Will there be any new hags?

1) Not gonna say. Ask me again closer to the book's release.

2) The Green Man is a real-world mythological figure. There's LOTS of info about him.

3) Wait and see.

4) Eohippus. Not in this book, but they ARE cool.

5) Not them, but perhaps others...

6) It's a category of creature.

7) Because "strangely sentient" has lovely assonance and is pleasing to read and say aloud. AKA: It's more interesting than simply typing "new ooze monsters."

8) Wait and see.

9) Also wait and see.

10) Nope.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

The Doomkitten wrote:
How excited are you for N7 day?

Not at all. I don't know what that means. I assume it's something to do with Mass Effect.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Mogloth wrote:
Who designed the Occult Rituals?

Dunno.

Liberty's Edge

James,
Do your homebrew have a core pantheon? How many gods does it have? And which golarion gods/demigods come from it?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
9)What is a conqueror worm?

Based on an Edgar Allen Poe poem- or at least the name...

Also the U.S. release title of Witchfinder General, which includes Vincent Price at his most intensely, subtly evil.

I am intrigued.

Are you a fan of Vincent Price, O Mighty T-Rex? And if so, what's your favorite role he ever played?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Paladinosaur wrote:

James,

Do your homebrew have a core pantheon? How many gods does it have? And which golarion gods/demigods come from it?

My homebrew does indeed have a core pantheon. It's about 65 deities strong, or thereabouts.

The Golarion deities and demigods that I picked up from my homebrew and are ones that Golarion folks would recognize are...

Abadar
Desna
Erastil
Gorum
Norgorber
Pharasma (renamed from Turthonir)
Rovagug
Sarenrae
Urgathoa
Zon-Kuthon
Achaekek
Ghlaunder
Groetus
Milani
Sivanah
Ydersius
Zyphus
Cyth-V'sug
Treerazer
Nightripper
Yamasoth
Xhamen-Dor
Nhimbaloth
Menxyr
Murnath
Ovonovo
Shamira

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Cole Deschain wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
9)What is a conqueror worm?

Based on an Edgar Allen Poe poem- or at least the name...

Also the U.S. release title of Witchfinder General, which includes Vincent Price at his most intensely, subtly evil.

I am intrigued.

Are you a fan of Vincent Price, O Mighty T-Rex? And if so, what's your favorite role he ever played?

I'm absolutely a fan of Vincent Price, and a fan of "Witchfinder General" as well, which MIGHT be my favorite role he's played. Most recently, saw him in an obscure but delightful movie called "Diary of a Madman." Also quite like "The Fly"... that one's probably the BEST movie he's been in.

Oh... wait. I think maybe "The Haunted Palace" is my favorite. For I would think obvious reasons...

Radiant Oath

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

Almost everyone's familiar with the most common trick mimics will employ to tempt prey, disguising themselves as treasure chests to entice greedy adventurers. My question is, can mimics disguise themselves as living things, whether as a harmless animal or a damsel in distress to lull adventurers into a false sense of security, or are they limited to inanimate objects? Also WHY HAVEN'T THEY TAKEN OVER GOLARION YET?! I imagine the PC races would quickly fall in the face of a worldwide furniture uprising...XD

Grand Lodge

James Jacobs wrote:
kevin_video wrote:
James, got a question that might make you do a double take. Can an android spellcaster become a lich?
Doesn't make me do a double take at all. I've said that androids can become undead from day 1. That includes liches.

I'm glad it didn't make you do a double take. When I asked that question before I only got hard stares like I was from space. But it being capable of becoming undead is great information. Thanks muchly.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Almost everyone's familiar with the most common trick mimics will employ to tempt prey, disguising themselves as treasure chests to entice greedy adventurers. My question is, can mimics disguise themselves as living things, whether as a harmless animal or a damsel in distress to lull adventurers into a false sense of security, or are they limited to inanimate objects? Also WHY HAVEN'T THEY TAKEN OVER GOLARION YET?! I imagine the PC races would quickly fall in the face of a worldwide furniture uprising...XD

Their ability to change form is pretty precise in laying that out—it's called "Mimmic Object" after all.

Living things are not objects.

That's what doppelgangers and their ilk are about.

Mimics are about mimicing non-living objects.

They haven't taken over Golarion because they don't want to take over Golarion. Part of being an aberration is being aberrant in mind and personality and goal. The human drive to "conquer" is not something that everything shares. In the case of the mimic, they just aren't interested in that.


James Jacobs wrote:
Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Isabelle Lee wrote:

Did the Androffans aboard Divinity have any awareness of magic as a "real" thing, or was it just something from stories and such for them (much like Earth)? I've always gotten the impression that they were 100% mundane and relied on technology, but I'm not sure if that's confirmed anywhere in text.

(There are some magic weapons in The Divinity Drive, but those are explicitly called out as being acquired by the crew rather than created. That's the closest thing to them using magic that I know of.)

Thank you! ^_^

Androffa wasn't 100% mundane. It had magic, but at the time Divinty launched, magic was in the background and behind the scenes and dormant. It was slumbering. It woke up BIG shortly after Divinity fled the Dominion to Golarion, though. And certainly by the time the Divinity encoutnered the Dominion they'd re-introduced themselves to magic here and there.
Presumably because by that time, they'd lost all their super tech and mot of their history as a highly developed civilization? If I remember, Divinity was constructed at the height of that civilization's power and things went rapidly downhill afterwards.

Nope. There was an end-of-the-world event as a result of a sudden return of divine magic—Androffans weren't ready to embrace faith and as a result bitter demigods (who then were themselves banished by the actual gods who were aghast at how things worked out) destroyed civilization. The world went post-apocalyptic, and during that era arcane magic was also re-introduced (via the Necronomicon and meddling from Nyarlathotep) that saw the rise of a ruling caste of necromancers who ruled the world for a while until they were finally overthrown, and now thousands of years later Androffa is a lot like Golarion.

One of the big themes of that pre-fall era of Androffa was humanity's hubris and arrogance—they thought they were gods. Hence the name of the ship, Divinity.

Is that why you consider the nation of Rahadoun so much in the wrong? That they are redoing the path that undone Androffa? I'm also a bit confused about the order of events. Didn't Divnity flee to Golarion, AFTER they encountered the Dominion?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:

Is that why you consider the nation of Rahadoun so much in the wrong? That they are redoing the path that undone Androffa?

Nope. I consider Rahadoum to be a bad guy nation because they're so full of intolerance. Any region whose laws and setup make an entire category of character classes "illegal" is not a great place for most PCs to hang out.


Was the the Divinity's encounter with the Dominion something like "Event Horizon" on a larger scale?


Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Was in Barnes and Noble tonight. There seems to be a lot of new stuff in the Cthulhu Mythos/Lovecraft vein in there. Good thing? Bad thing? Some of each?


I’ve some questions about Alushinyrra, and related topics, that you’ll hopefully be able to answer. Hope the 10-batch isn’t too much.

1. How do you pronounce Alushinyrra?

2. Besides the usual suspects, lust demons and their spawn, what other demons make up the majority of Alushinyrra population?

3. How does Alushinyrra get its food? Mortal slaves need to eat, after all.

4. Where do citizens of Alushinyrra get their money from?

5. What other cities does Alushinyrra trade with?

6. Wouldn’t Raknus Island (Pathfinder #76, p.72) have something going on, given it was made from the demon lord of alleyways, thievery, and urban decay?

7. What happens to the soul of someone who dies in Alushinyrra (or the Midnight Isles, or anywhere in the Abyss for that matter)?

8. How powerful, or lustful, does one have to be to become a succubus (or incubus) when they die?

9. Are there any other type of lust demon? I don’t mean in Pathfinder, but possible in existence.

10. Assuming a chaotic evil alignment, what would happen to an exceptionally powerful and lustful wizard when she finally gets killed. Based on my question history, I’m sure you know who I’m talking about. ;)


James Jacobs wrote:
Rob C wrote:
Have any Pathfinder monsters been named or given characteristics of any specific Paizo staff members? That is, a kind of honorary acknowledgement to them.
No.

not even the T-rex? XD


1)Will there be any more Tane in B6?

2)Will there be any Linnorms?

3)Any new Behomoths?

4)Since giant roaches didn't make it in how about new giant crabs, jellyfish, centipedes, sea anemones, sea urchins, and/or solifugids?

5)Any new Sphinx?

6)Any new Colossi?

7)Any new Manasaputra?

8)Will there be any Megafauna?

9)Other then the monkey goblin, will be any new creatures with the goblinoid subtype?

10)Will there be any tiny size or smaller monstrous humanoids and/or humanoids?

Grand Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
Turns out we've had pretty good luck paying artists to make pictures of monsters for us over the past few years.

I have to say that writing an art order when I had the opportunity to create a monster in an other games Bestiary made me incredibly nervous. However, thanks to the great artist we had it that line it came out far better than I expected. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind but it came out so much better.

Are there any particular creatures that struck that nerve with you?


1. In my previous question you said that the oldest doesn't mean the most powerful. But in this page you clearly said that she is the most powerful! Maybe you forgot?

2. If you can take a time machine and go back to 2007, would you make sure pathfinder includes qlippoth subdomain and give Rovagug that subdomain? And would you make sure to delete his demon and protean subdomains from Rovagug's subdomain list entirely?

3. And, what do you think the appropriate subdomain to replace the protean subdomain? Maybe entropy?

4. What do you think the appropriate sixth domain of Abadar, Irori, Lissala, Sivanah, and Ydersius would be?

5. What do you think the appropriate fifth domain of Mephistopheles, Dispater and Hastur would be?

6. Asmodeus is the leader of a pantheon, and he seems to be the embodiment of everything that represents aristocrats. So do you think it is appropriate to give him noility domain?

7. You said that Rovagug's sixth domiain would be earth. I don't get it. The only thing that slightly relates him to the earth is that he is buried deep under the earth. Why is he related to the earth?


8. There are three kinds of magic: arcane, divine, and psyhcic. There are two subdomains under the magic doamin: arcane and divine, but there is no psychic subdomain. Is that because Occult Adventures was published after Inner Sea Gods? That if Inner Sea Gods was published after Occult Adventures, there would be the psychic subdomain under the magic domain?

9. It seems that all churches have monk tradition among them. Is the monk class originated from Vudra? In other words, at first there was nothing like monks in the Inner Sea region, and then after Vudranis settled in Jalmeray and started spreading their culture, the monk class was finally known to the Inner Sea region?

10. I asked the top 5 nations because I'm not sure if cheliax is more powerful than Taldor. So I will ask more clearly this time. If the Glorious Reclamation was more persuasive and Taldor and Andoran agreed to engage in a large-scale war with Cheliax, can Cheliax fight them on even ground? Or even the mighty Cheliax cannot fight the two nations simultaneously?

11. Chelish navy is called the Chelish armada, which seems to be an intimidating and terrifying name. And the coastline of Cheliax is much longer than that of any other nations in the Inner Sea region. A longer coastline means a more demand for the naval power. Which implies that Chelish navy is the most numerous in the Inner Sea regions, and certainly the most powerful. Am I right?

12. How should I pronounce Casandalee?

13. Spawn of Rovagug cannot be killed, but you said that deities can kill them. Then what about demigods? Can demon lords or great old ones or empyreal lords kill spawn of Rovagug?

Silver Crusade

James, who designs new spells for new products.
would it be possible to add some utility spells to the hunters list?
Spells like hunters tree fort, makes a temporary Hunters Tree fort like the magic item. Secure Shelter [just add to the hunters list.] Desent removes sent from a number of people equal to hunter's caster level.

On a different topic could you tell us about Nightripper? The name sounds so juicy and evil just the right god for the homicidal Halfling Vigilante [serial killer] that I am creating for a bad guy for our high level campaign.


Are you aware of any rules that allow for a kind of vine battle suit, where by a pc could move within vines providing a defense of a kind and a method of ranged/grappling combat.
Think those vines benders in Avatar the last air bender if that helps xD
Or a spell that allowed a player to become like a bundle of sentient vines. Like elemental body but vines I suppose.

I'm not completely sure this is impossible with some complex plant control + wall of thorns type thingy but that seems awkward.

Just wondering since it seems a nifty thing for a druid to do. :P


Hey James

1) When you play the game is it/has it been difficult for you to get out of the "game-designer headspace" and enjoy the game without thinking of design stuff?

2) Who is the most powerful humanoid melee-combatant on Golarion? (Maybe a weird phrasing but I want exclude monsters and not fixate on one class like Fighter)

3) What class/level is he/she?

Having just watched Stranger Things for the 80'ies references, especially Dungeons and Dragons, I've found that while I enjoy the stories very much, I'm just not very good with horror. I get scared to easily and have trouble sleeping :-(

4) Does it get better the more horror one watches?

5) What is the scariest movie you've seen?

6) Scariest book you've read?

7) Scariest thing you've experienced in real life?

Cheers

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
Was the the Divinity's encounter with the Dominion something like "Event Horizon" on a larger scale?

No.

The Dominion is a Material Plane entity, not things from Hell or some worse dimension.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ed Reppert wrote:
Was in Barnes and Noble tonight. There seems to be a lot of new stuff in the Cthulhu Mythos/Lovecraft vein in there. Good thing? Bad thing? Some of each?

100% good thing.


1. For an alignment-detecting animal, what would Good, Evil, Chaos, and Law smell like for it? Let's say that the animal is a bear.

2. What do you do when the PCs unintentionally completely throw the adventure off the rails at the very beginning?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
AlgaeNymph wrote:

I’ve some questions about Alushinyrra, and related topics, that you’ll hopefully be able to answer. Hope the 10-batch isn’t too much.

1. How do you pronounce Alushinyrra?

2. Besides the usual suspects, lust demons and their spawn, what other demons make up the majority of Alushinyrra population?

3. How does Alushinyrra get its food? Mortal slaves need to eat, after all.

4. Where do citizens of Alushinyrra get their money from?

5. What other cities does Alushinyrra trade with?

6. Wouldn’t Raknus Island (Pathfinder #76, p.72) have something going on, given it was made from the demon lord of alleyways, thievery, and urban decay?

7. What happens to the soul of someone who dies in Alushinyrra (or the Midnight Isles, or anywhere in the Abyss for that matter)?

8. How powerful, or lustful, does one have to be to become a succubus (or incubus) when they die?

9. Are there any other type of lust demon? I don’t mean in Pathfinder, but possible in existence.

10. Assuming a chaotic evil alignment, what would happen to an exceptionally powerful and lustful wizard when she finally gets killed. Based on my question history, I’m sure you know who I’m talking about. ;)

1) al-oo-shi-NEAR-ah

2) Succubi, incubi, shadow demons, cambions, alu-demons, glabrezus, lilitus, mariliths, and babaus I suppose would be the norm, but the city's big and varied enough that you could encounter pretty much ANY kind of demon there and it wouldn't be that unusual overall.

3) Most of those who live in the city don't eat, since they're outsiders. Whether or not any one slave keeper decides to feed its slaves or just work them to death and get new ones when they die is up to them, as is HOW they get food, but there's plenty of options ranging from hunting to feeding slaves the dead slaves to magic like create food and water to forcing them to eat filth to just buying food at a market to more.

4) Same places any city denizens get money from... but focusing mostly on theft and looting.

5) Other Abyssal cities, of which we've done very little beyond Lamashtu's city, but also planar trade with places like the City of Brass and also numerous Material Plane cities... most of which have no idea the weird merchant is from anywhere as strange as the Abyss.

6) Maybe. As you may have noticed, the article wasn't long enough to get fully detailed. But also, most of the dead demon lords don't really have much of a presence any more, being dead and all.

7) Same as any other soul; it goes on to the Boneyard to be judged.

8) No rules govern that. It's 100% up to destiny (and the whim of the GM).

9) Of course it's possible. The multiverse is more or less infinite. And once you say "not Pathfinder" then the implications of the word "Demon" as it regards a chaotic evil outsider from the Abyss go right down the toilet. Things like vampires and the like can absolutely be regarded as lust demons.

10) It would depend on that wizard's destiny. Could become a succubus, could end up being tormented for eons in the Abyss, could get turned into raw quintessence and become part of an Abyssal landscape, could become a larva petitioner, could spend ages in limbo in the Boneyard, could become a ghost, could be eaten by astradaemons... AKA: It's 100% up to destiny/the GM. No "rules" govern what you become after you die.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Vidmaster7 wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Rob C wrote:
Have any Pathfinder monsters been named or given characteristics of any specific Paizo staff members? That is, a kind of honorary acknowledgement to them.
No.
not even the T-rex? XD

Nope.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:

1)Will there be any more Tane in B6?

2)Will there be any Linnorms?

3)Any new Behomoths?

4)Since giant roaches didn't make it in how about new giant crabs, jellyfish, centipedes, sea anemones, sea urchins, and/or solifugids?

5)Any new Sphinx?

6)Any new Colossi?

7)Any new Manasaputra?

8)Will there be any Megafauna?

9)Other then the monkey goblin, will be any new creatures with the goblinoid subtype?

10)Will there be any tiny size or smaller monstrous humanoids and/or humanoids?

I'm gonna put a hold on replies about Bestiary 6. I've given out enough info about the book already, and while it's 99% set in stone, there's 1% that could still shift, and I don't want to set false expectations by continuing to answer these types of questions so much that the internet can crowd-source the book's entire contents by using compilations of my answers to figure things out with some sort of sciency thing.

You'll just need to wait until closer to next Spring when the time is right to ACTUALLY start previewing content for the book to build excitement for its release.

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