Creative Director
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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?
Often.
Alas, it CAN go the other way, and it's frustrating when it does so since artists who mess up and do a bad job on illustrating something tend to have a pretty good crossover with artists who don't send sketches for approval and/or don't get the art in to us until the last minute, forcing us to make a decision to cut the art (and thus possibly cut the text-related content) or print sub-par art.
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Creative Director
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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?
1) Or maybe I changed my mind?
2) Nope. I would do something ENTIRELY DIFFERENT for the alignment-based sub-domains, and guess what, I did with things like the Whimsy and Entropy domains you see in Inner Sea Gods. Linking those domains to a partial handful of outsider races, some of which aren't intellectual property we own and can only use due to the SRD (such as inevitables) was an awkward solution that, as you see, tends to cause more problems than it solves.
3) Sure.
4) I don't want to get into a "What about a sixth domain" rabbit-hole. We've published HUNDREDS of deities, and the more of those I assign a make-believe sixth domain, the more folks will want to know everyone else's sixth domains. And when I'm done, folks will want to know the seventh domain. So, not gonna answer this question, except to say "Ask your GM."
5) Same as #4 above, but thanks for justifying my fears about folks asking more and more about additional domains so quickly. ;-)
6) As appropriate as the domains he currently has, but since he only gets five domains, one of them has to go away. In this case, due to the fact that the English-language definition of the word "nobility" carries connotations that are NOT appropriate for someone evil, I'd say that's more than enough to slough that domain off the list of contenders since there are at least five (including the ones we DID assign) that are just as appropriate.
7) He's not. If I had assigned him the Earth domain, he would be. Perhaps in a way that's more akin to his incarnation of the god of caves and deep underground regions (AKA the Darklands) in my homebrew, or perhaps to double-down on the creepy crawly burrowing vermin aspect. But since he DOESN'T have Earth and DOESN'T have a sixth domain, none of that got into his flavor text because that's a version of Rovagug that doesn't exist in print.
1) If you were a PC adventurer class and race on Golarion, what would you be?
2) Which three folks would you take with you from the Paizo offices to go adventuring, assuming that they also got the PC class and race deal?
3) How about three members from the Dragon Age Inquisition Inner Circle? Which three would you take with you to go adventuring on Golarion?
4) Do you think a cool way to show how PC's are is to have them hear bard songs about them in taverns?
5) What alignment would Sera be? (I'm personally of the opinion of that she's right in between CG and CN, leaning towards CG.)
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Creative Director
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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?
8) As with your question about the non-sub-domain of Qlippoth, I think that naming domains "Arcane" and "Divine" was an error, because even way back then I was pushing us to do psychic stuff and add Psychic magic to the game (check out some of the content of "Into the Darklands" for my first tiny attempt to sneak psionic stuff into Golarion). I fought against those sub-domains being named such, but was obviously overruled. And now, we DO have psychic magic, and it looks like there's a missing sub-domain. Huh... who would have guessed? Oh right... I would have guessed. That does mean that a Psychic domain likely should exist, but I wouldn't bet on it being invented by us any time soon.
9) Not all churches have monk traditions. Pretty much all the lawful ones do, and some of the neutral ones, but none of the chaotic ones do. Why? Because we want to give the monk class and players of the monk class as wide a range of options as possible, especially since the class already limits you so much with that alignment limitation. As for where the class originated... we haven't said. Certainly monk traditions are VERY strong in Vudra and in serveral regions in Tian-Xia. Which one is oldest? That answer is unclear. Intentionally.
10) If Cheliax had to fight against the Glorious Reclamation from within while simultaneously fighting against Andoran and Taldor, they would be in BIG trouble. They MIGHT win out in the end, though... Cheliax is indeed tough. Part of the reason the church of Iomedae is frustrated with the Glorious Reclamation is that they DID jump the gun and got that ball rolling before Taldor, Andoran, and many other nations (Isger, Varisia, Rahadoum, Druma, etc.) could join up against Cheliax as a united front. The Glorious Reclamation did no one but Cheliax a favor by being overly aggressive in this way. Which is the WHOLE POINT of the group, since the story we wanted to tell in that Adventure Path was NOT the fall of Cheliax, but of a group of evil anti-heroes (the PCs) rising up to stop a threat to the nation's government. If we wanted to tell a story of the fall of Cheliax we would not have done Hell's Vengeance at all.
11) The Chelish navy is indeed one of the strongest in the region.
12) kuh-SAND-ah-lee
13) The method to kill a spawn of Rovagug is not known. AKA: That's us giving permission to each and every GM to decide what works best for their home game. A spawn of Rovagug is a GREAT villain to use as a threat and theme for an entire campaign, with said campaign being focused on "spend levels 1 to 20 building up resources and researching methods to kill the spawn." If that means "summon a demigod to deliver the death blow" then there ya go... in that game, a demon lord can kill one. It's 100% left to the GM. If we DO ever do a "kill the spawn of Rovagug" campaign, then we'll decide then how that one particular spawn could be killed.
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Creative Director
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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.
The author we hire to write the spell designs the spell. That could be Jason Bulmhan... could be me, could be ANYONE at Paizo, could be ANYONE in the world. Often, the developer of a project that has new spells will decide what kind of spells should go into the book, in which case they'll give the freelancer some guidance like "Design 2,400 words of hunter utility spells" but usually in a lot more detail than that. In my experience, content is better when you give more direction rather than just tell a writer "Write us 6 new spells of your choosing."
The vast majority of new spells we create for the game come into print in one of two lines—the RPG Hardcover line, or the Player Companion line. If you want more spells of a specific nature, the best person to ask is a developer in either of those lines.
All that I've really said about Nightripper so far appears in Inner Sea Bestiary, Book of the Damned II, and a little tidbit coming up in Horror Realms's introduction. I don't want to say too much more about him at this point because he's a significant bad guy from my homebrew and because I'm not yet done porting him over to Golarion... but HOW I continue porting him over isn't something I've decided yet.
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Creative Director
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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
Check out druids. There's lots of spells that use plants as defense. You could even say this is flavor for barkskin. And for ranged grabby stuff, entangle.
I don't have anything CLOSE to an encyclopediac knowledge of spells in my head beyond those in the Core Rulebook... but the concept of using vines as armor is not all that unusual, and as such I'd be surprised if we HAVEN'T put something like that into a rulebook somewhere.
Was there any push for a psychic mythic path?
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Creative Director
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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
1) Nope. I've been playing the game longer than working as a game designer, so it's pretty easy for me to fall back on the old "gaming is fun" habits. The hard part isn't doing so during the game. The hard part is actually finding the time and energy and passion TO sit down and game. Once I start gaming, things are fun, but often it's tough to actually start gaming when you've been working on the stuff all day for days and all you wanna do is go home and watch as movie.
2) That isn't set in stone. At this point, someone COULD do a read-through of every thing we've printed and figure out who's the toughest, but since folks can't decide on whether any one feat is good or bad and arguments over rules are so popular, I think that the instant anyone nominates any one NPC as "most powerful," you'll see lots of posts of "You're wrong and here's why!" in various forms. So... Not too interested in officially saying "This NPC is the most powerful."
3) Dunno.
4) I have no idea. It could get worse. If you don't enjoy horror, you shouldn't watch horror.
5) Not sure... but the short list that immediately comes to mind are "Martyrs," "Paranormal Activity," "Alien," "The Thing," "Blair Witch Project," and "Se7en." Paranormal Activity was the last movie I saw that made me lose sleep, though, for what that's worth.
6) Also not sure... "Ringu" was the last book I read that gave me nightmares.
7) Aging.
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Creative Director
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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?
1) The ability to detect alignment is supernatural, and as such would not be something an animal could do.
2) Improvise a new campaign that may or may not get back into the plotline I expected... but I've never had this happen, frankly, because I always let the players know what's coming so they can build characters to fit the campaign's themes and so that they DO want to play the game I've decided to run for them. That's kinda why we do Player's Guides.
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Creative Director
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1) If you were a PC adventurer class and race on Golarion, what would you be?
2) Which three folks would you take with you from the Paizo offices to go adventuring, assuming that they also got the PC class and race deal?
3) How about three members from the Dragon Age Inquisition Inner Circle? Which three would you take with you to go adventuring on Golarion?
4) Do you think a cool way to show how PC's are is to have them hear bard songs about them in taverns?
5) What alignment would Sera be? (I'm personally of the opinion of that she's right in between CG and CN, leaning towards CG.)
1) Elf bard.
2) Assuming a 5 person party, so 4 other choices? Jessica, Wes, Amanda, and Rob.
3) Sera, Dorian, and Cassandra.
4) Yes.
5) Chaotic neutral.
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Since there are male Dryads now, does that mean that there are female Satyrs as well? Are any likely to show up anywhere anytime soon, and would there be any significant differences in their stat blocks?
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Since there are male Dryads now, does that mean that there are female Satyrs as well? Are any likely to show up anywhere anytime soon, and would there be any significant differences in their stat blocks?
And can I write the first one, please? ^_^
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1. Hey James, what are some of your favorite classic dungeons and dragons adventures that you didn't have a hand in making?
2. Would you ever consider doing an adventure path that revolves around rescuing a princess from an evil dragon or some other dastardly evil?
3. If no, would ever consider playing around with that classic formula? Ex. Saving a dragon from an evil princess or saving a princes from an evil dragon.
How excited were you when you found out you got to develop B6?
Any particular reason why you are doing B6 now, since you don't usually work in the Pathfinder RPG line?
Have you had to learn or brush up on newer rules while writing B6, like new stuff from OA or HA?
1. Does that mean you think those outsider subdomains should not have existed in the first place? Like, delete the demon or devil or azata or aeon subdomains entirely from the game?
2. I think the fact that there are racial subdomains is very weird. First, it limits the subdomain choice for the gods. A demon lord has to chose demon as his subdomain under the evil domain because he is a demon, and so on. A dragon god has to choose scalykind domain and dragon subdomain because he is a dragon. Second, there is no subdomain for every race. For example, there is no human, elf, or dwarf subdomains. Why there cannot be these subdomains, when there are dragon and saurian subdomains? It's not equal. So, I think delete these race subdomains entirely from the game isreasonable. Do you think so?
3. Aeon subdomain is under the knowledge domain. Why? I know they are neutral, and because there is no neutral domain, they have to go elsewhere. But why knowledge? Is it because ther are more intelligent than other outsiders?
4. You said you opposed to name the two subdomains under the magic domain as arcane and divine. Then, what did you think the appropriate name for them would be?
5. It's surprising. You said that Cheliax is so tough that might win the two nations simultaneously. If they are so tough, then even if the evil pcs of Hell's Vengeance died during the adventures and so various settlements including Longacre and Kantaria started all-out rebellion and the Tathlum was never created and Citadel Dinyar and Westcrown was still at the Glorious Reclamation's hands, without foreign help, Cheliax surely can crush the rebellion eventually, right?
Have you seen that Stranger Things will get a second season?
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Since there are male Dryads now, does that mean that there are female Satyrs as well? Are any likely to show up anywhere anytime soon, and would there be any significant differences in their stat blocks?The existence of male dryads does not imply the existence of female satyrs.
:(
And can I write the first one, please? ^_^
Pleeeeeaaaassssseeeeeee?
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Creative Director
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1. Hey James, what are some of your favorite classic dungeons and dragons adventures that you didn't have a hand in making?
2. Would you ever consider doing an adventure path that revolves around rescuing a princess from an evil dragon or some other dastardly evil?
3. If no, would ever consider playing around with that classic formula? Ex. Saving a dragon from an evil princess or saving a princes from an evil dragon.
1) I'll name my top five classic D&D adventures:
- Queen of the Spiders
- Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure
- Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
- Isle of Dread
- Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
2) No, because that's not a storyline that really carries enough weight to be the focus of an entire adventure path, and more to the point it's a bit too cliched. We did take a stab at this plot, sort of, with "The Dragon's Demand" although it wasn't a princess who was in danger.
3) I've heard that variation mentioned many times, and I've never really been interested in pursuing it since it's too self-aware.
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Creative Director
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How excited were you when you found out you got to develop B6?
Any particular reason why you are doing B6 now, since you don't usually work in the Pathfinder RPG line?
Have you had to learn or brush up on newer rules while writing B6, like new stuff from OA or HA?
I'm quite excited to be the driving force behind Bestiary 6. I've wanted to do a monster book since, well, forever, and it's liberating to be the one who finally gets to call the shots on what does and doesn't go in. I hope folks like it!
I'm doing B6 now because I've handed off my job duties, pretty much, as Adventure Path developer to others for the time being, and have moved on to developing and building bigger projects for Paizo. Curse of the Crimson Throne, for example, and now Bestiary 6. More to come!
Nope. Turns out that I've been working with monsters from day one. Developing adventures is one of the best ways to keep your monster building skills sharp. And that said, while I wasn't the lead developer for any previous Bestiaries, I was indeed one of the key developers who worked on all of them except for Bestiary 5 (which I didn't have the time to take much part in).
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Creative Director
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1. Does that mean you think those outsider subdomains should not have existed in the first place? Like, delete the demon or devil or azata or aeon subdomains entirely from the game?
2. I think the fact that there are racial subdomains is very weird. First, it limits the subdomain choice for the gods. A demon lord has to chose demon as his subdomain under the evil domain because he is a demon, and so on. A dragon god has to choose scalykind domain and dragon subdomain because he is a dragon. Second, there is no subdomain for every race. For example, there is no human, elf, or dwarf subdomains. Why there cannot be these subdomains, when there are dragon and saurian subdomains? It's not equal. So, I think delete these race subdomains entirely from the game isreasonable. Do you think so?
3. Aeon subdomain is under the knowledge domain. Why? I know they are neutral, and because there is no neutral domain, they have to go elsewhere. But why knowledge? Is it because ther are more intelligent than other outsiders?
4. You said you opposed to name the two subdomains under the magic domain as arcane and divine. Then, what did you think the appropriate name for them would be?
5. It's surprising. You said that Cheliax is so tough that might win the two nations simultaneously. If they are so tough, then even if the evil pcs of Hell's Vengeance died during the adventures and so various settlements including Longacre and Kantaria started all-out rebellion and the Tathlum was never created and Citadel Dinyar and Westcrown was still at the Glorious Reclamation's hands, without foreign help, Cheliax surely can crush the rebellion eventually, right?
1) I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I said. I think the outsider subdomains were a mistake, but not one that's of a magnitude that it breaks the game or is worth going back now and "correcting." It's not a WRONG choice, just not the choice I would have made in hindsight, and the game works fine with them as-is. Rovagug is a qlippoth, yes, but that's not what defines him. What defines him is the fact that he's a powerful chaotic evil deity, and as such he breaks rules. He allows his worshipers access to Protean and Demon subdomains not because he is a protean or a demon, but because those subdomains grant abilities that some of his worshipers prefer and can use to further his agenda. You don't HAVE to be a qlippoth or a qlippoth worshiper to worship Rovagug, any more than you have to be a dwarf to worship Torag or an elf to worship Calistria. His popularity and the strength of his faith far transcends his ancient, mostly forgotten beginnings.
2) If you think they're weird, delete them from your game. That's the great thing about tabletop RPGs. If you think something doesn't work for your game you get to change them. But at the same time, it's important to remember that what works for your game is not going to work for anyone else's game, and just because you think something needs fixing doesn't mean that it actually DOES need fixing in the grand scheme of things. It's fine to make suggestions, but don't expect everyone to agree with you... and when they don't, accept that difference of opinion gracefully without belaboring the point and crusading to change it.
3) It had to go somewhere, and apparently Knowledge was the domain the designer of that subdomain felt made the most sense. Wasn't me, so I can't enlighten you as to their thought process. I could spend a few hundred words justifying it, but that edges too close into design work, and I try really hard not to engage in design work on this thread. Both for time management reasons and to avoid confusing folks who mistake my posts on these boards for company-wide policy and official canon.
4) I would have picked two different domains entirely; would have taken Magic's subdomains in a totally different direction. Just off the top of my head, I would have done a "Offensive Magic" and "Defenssive Magic" type thing (but with better names) to map better to Nethys's themes.
5) Whether or not Cheliax can crush the rebellion is up to you when you run/play Hell's Vengeance. Our assumption, in house, is that the PCs of an AP always succeed, even if they're evil PCs. Furthermore, the EXACT implications of how it plays out are intentionally left to each table to decide for themselves, as a way to encourage folks to play the APs.
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Creative Director
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Since there are male Dryads now, does that mean that there are female Satyrs as well? Are any likely to show up anywhere anytime soon, and would there be any significant differences in their stat blocks?The existence of male dryads does not imply the existence of female satyrs.:(
And can I write the first one, please? ^_^Pleeeeeaaaassssseeeeeee?
Nope. There can certainly be female goat-legged humanoid-shaped monsters (and in fact, there already are in the game), but I think that there's actually value in retaining some monster/creature races as always male, some as always female, and some as always non-gendered.
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1. Hey James, what are some of your favorite classic dungeons and dragons adventures that you didn't have a hand in making?
2. Would you ever consider doing an adventure path that revolves around rescuing a princess from an evil dragon or some other dastardly evil?
3. If no, would ever consider playing around with that classic formula? Ex. Saving a dragon from an evil princess or saving a princes from an evil dragon.
1) I'll name my top five classic D&D adventures:
- Queen of the Spiders
- Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure
- Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
- Isle of Dread
- Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
2) No, because that's not a storyline that really carries enough weight to be the focus of an entire adventure path, and more to the point it's a bit too cliched. We did take a stab at this plot, sort of, with "The Dragon's Demand" although it wasn't a princess who was in danger.
3) I've heard that variation mentioned many times, and I've never really been interested in pursuing it since it's too self-aware.
3) I suppose that Curse of the Crimson Throne could be read as Paizo's subversion of that trope - a princess becomes evil due to the machinations of an evil dragon. Not saying that's what it is, obviously, since there's a lot going on in that AP, but it's there if people want to read into it.
Weird thing I noticed a few days ago - Xin-Shalast abbreviated is XS, which is a homophone for "excess," which is quite fitting for the City of Greed. Was this intentional, or a happy coincidence?
What would be the closest class/archetype approximation to a devout follower of Asmodeus whose main theme (or mechanic, if possible) is trying to present deals to enemy NPCs that work against them (obviously wouldn't want to do this to PCs or NPCs that the party wants to help, due to friction and whatnot)?
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Creative Director
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What would be the closest class/archetype approximation to a devout follower of Asmodeus whose main theme (or mechanic, if possible) is trying to present deals to enemy NPCs that work against them (obviously wouldn't want to do this to PCs or NPCs that the party wants to help, due to friction and whatnot)?
Anything that bolsters Bluff or allows mind control or illusions. There's not one "best choice," and I'm not a fan of the idea that for every character concept there can be only "one right option." I could see this character being built as a cleric or a bard or a mesmerist or an expert or a rogue or a sorcerer, etc.
I'd build the character as a bard or rogue, mostly because I like those classes the most lately.
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3. Aeon subdomain is under the knowledge domain. Why? I know they are neutral, and because there is no neutral domain, they have to go elsewhere. But why knowledge? Is it because ther are more intelligent than other outsiders?
As the designer, I can answer that. Two reasons: 1) Aeons are taken from the real-world religion Gnosticism which is all about Knowledge. 2) Knowledge is a domain several neutral deities have (in particular Nethys and Sivanah).
And to keep things on track, a question for James: On the topic of female horror writers, have you read any Daphne du Maurier?
Any chance in the near future that we will have a campaign setting book for the rest of the Kaiju? Thank you for your time :)
1. It is said that Androffans didn't know magic(be it arcane or divine) when they launched the Divinity. Then what about Kasath(the home planet of kasathas)? Did they not know magic at that time too? If so, what about now? Do kasathas in Kasath still not know the existence of magic?
2. It's already mentioned that Androffa was devastated by the gods. Then what happened to Kasath? Did it also get devastated by the gods, so that those kasathas on Golarion became the only kasathas in the universe?
3. Where is the Dark Tapestry? Is it in Golarion's galaxy? Or is it in Androffa's galaxy?
4. What is the shape of Golarion's galaxy? Is it elliptical? Spiral? Lenticular? Or irregular?
5. Valley of the Brain Collectors said very little about the god of the Dominion of the Black. Will Paizo say more about their god eventually?
6. Page 37 of Occult Mysteries said that, "...strongly suggesting that the countdown clocks are counting down to early 4718 AR." Which means the so called day of harvest is set in 4718 AR. Does this mean that in 2018 there will be a Dominion of the Black adventure path that covers this incident?
7. If so, it would be a mythic adventure, right? A planetary invasion by the space-faring empire... it should be mythic!
8. The Pathifnder wiki described The-Five-Who-Speaks-As-One as a massive organic spaceship. But Valley of the Brain Collectors said that it is 'an entity that supposedly exists on an organic vessel the size of a small moon.' I think what this sentence wanted to say is that The-Five-Who-Speaks-As-One is on board the spaceship, and it is not the spaceship itself. Am I right? And the description of the Pathfinder wiki is wrong?
9. Valley of the Brain Collectors said that the Dominion was fascinated by the Divinity's technology and hoped to capture it. Why? I thought the Dominion's technology vastly surpassed that of Androffa.
10. Did Androffans know the Divinity was attacked by aliens who called themselves as the Dominion of the Black and fled to another galaxy and landed on a planet? Or did they not know anything, because the Divinity couldn't send any report after it was attacked by the Dominion? If so, it's surprising that none on the Divinity tried to send a distress signal to Androffa.
Knowing your favorite divinity from the Greyhawk pantheon is Wee Jas...
1. Favorite Forgotten Realms divinity?
2. Favorite Eberron religion?
3. Favorite Planescape faction?
4. Favorite deity from the Egyptian pantheon?
5. Favorite demigod (including archdevils, empyreal lords, demon lords, and so on)?
James, question for you.
Undead, as per RAW get: Immunity to death effects, disease, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.
Now when it says stunning, I assume that means undead cannot get the stun condition. But what about daze? Is daze a weaker version of stun and as such any undead is immune to daze as well? Would appreciate the clarification, thanks in advance.
A) I was looking at the map folio from Hell's Vengeance. It would appear as if Citadel Dinyar is located rather deep in Isger; namely on the other side of Chitterwood. Wouldn't this pose a problem? Would they have to crash through a bunch of goblinoids on their way to Cheliax?
B) Seeing as how Isger is under the thumb of Cheliax and would prefer to be independent (the borders article says as much) why doesn't the GR march into Elidir? They could cut off Cheliax's trade route to Druma. The army won't oppose the GR; or will only pretend to.
C) What is the fate of Misarias in the campaign? It's not mentioned, but since Misarias has a strong Chelish military presence and is on the border of Isger it seems like it would be a prime target.
If I'm creating a sex-themed demon lord (i.e., a CR 26+ succubus), does one of the ares of concern have to be about sex?
Yes, this should be something I can figure out on my own, but you know how fussy RPG rules can be.
What did you think of Stranger Things?
Don't think you answered this before, so: who would win in a fight, Harsk or Varric?
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1. It is said that Androffans didn't know magic(be it arcane or divine) when they launched the Divinity. Then what about Kasath(the home planet of kasathas)? Did they not know magic at that time too? If so, what about now? Do kasathas in Kasath still not know the existence of magic?
2. It's already mentioned that Androffa was devastated by the gods. Then what happened to Kasath? Did it also get devastated by the gods, so that those kasathas on Golarion became the only kasathas in the universe?
3. Where is the Dark Tapestry? Is it in Golarion's galaxy? Or is it in Androffa's galaxy?
4. What is the shape of Golarion's galaxy? Is it elliptical? Spiral? Lenticular? Or irregular?
5. Valley of the Brain Collectors said very little about the god of the Dominion of the Black. Will Paizo say more about their god eventually?
1) It is actually said that magic wasn't well known of or believed in by the people of Androffa, but some of them certainly did know about it. They would have been discounted as crazy people for the most part. Kasath is a very different world than Androffa; more primitive and primal, and they absolutely know about magic there.
2) What happened to Kasath is unrevealed. It might actually be fine. The kasathans that the Divinity's crew abducted have no idea; the descendants etc. of those abductees are the only kasathans on Golarion, and they may believe that they're the only ones in the universe, but that's their belief based on a limited view of the world born out of a lack of omniscience. Doesn't mean there's no other kasathans elsewhere. Kasath is fine, in other words. Or maybe not. It's not something we've explored much yet.
3) The Dark Tapestry is Pathfinder-speak for "deep space" more or less. It's all of the parts of the universe where the truly alien/scary/monstrous entities and dangers lurk. It's the "Here there be dragons" realm of outer space. It's not in any one place, but all over.
4) Unrevealed, but as with all such questions about this, my gut reaction is to say that things like this are more or less identical to Earth. Which is why Golarion has one moon and one sun and its position in the solar system is the same as Earth's. Because I don't want to spend all my time figuring out how a weird moon placement (or multiple moons) affect things like tides or lycanthropes or visibility at night or the planet's atmosphere or weather patterns or any number of other complex issues. The way a world with multiple moons is affected in these ways is VERY interesting, but not appropriate for a world like Golarion where the focus of interest is elsewhere.
5) Maybe, maybe not.
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6. Page 37 of Occult Mysteries said that, "...strongly suggesting that the countdown clocks are counting down to early 4718 AR." Which means the so called day of harvest is set in 4718 AR. Does this mean that in 2018 there will be a Dominion of the Black adventure path that covers this incident?
7. If so, it would be a mythic adventure, right? A planetary invasion by the space-faring empire... it should be mythic!
8. The Pathifnder wiki described The-Five-Who-Speaks-As-One as a massive organic spaceship. But Valley of the Brain Collectors said that it is 'an entity that supposedly exists on an organic vessel the size of a small moon.' I think what this sentence wanted to say is that The-Five-Who-Speaks-As-One is on board the spaceship, and it is not the spaceship itself. Am I right? And the description of the Pathfinder wiki is wrong?
9. Valley of the Brain Collectors said that the Dominion was fascinated by the Divinity's technology and hoped to capture it. Why? I thought the Dominion's technology vastly surpassed that of Androffa.
10. Did Androffans know the Divinity was attacked by aliens who called themselves as the Dominion of the Black and fled to another galaxy and landed on a planet? Or did they not know anything, because the Divinity couldn't send any report after it was attacked by the Dominion? If so, it's surprising that none on the Divinity tried to send a distress signal to Androffa.
6) Maybe, maybe not.
7) Nope. I'm not too fond of mythic adventures at this point. If we did a dominion-themed AP it would be a standard non-mythi Adventure Path. Which also makes sense given that all the stats we have built so far for Dominion elements are non-mythic.
8) The Pathfinder Wiki is not an official information source, and it is not vetted by Paizo. In cases like this where the wiki and printed products differ, the printed product is correct.
9) Dominion's technology is great, and mixes magic and science, but there are elements of Androffan tech that the Dominion lacked. The big one in this case was the Divinity Drive; the Dominion didn't have anything like it, which is why Divinity was able to escape the Dominion by firing up the Divinity Drive. The Dominion was able to track the Divinity, but had to rely on their own fast but not nearly as fast ships; it took them several thousand years to approach Golarion, which is why the Dominion presence in Numeria is only now starting to manifest.
10) Divinity's encounter with the Dominion was so fast and brutal that they didn't have time to send distress calls, AND the Dominion attacks caused wide-scale madness among Divnity's crew and the ship's AI, so even if they could send distress calls to Androffa, they might not think of it. They could well even have feared revealing to the Dominion the existence of Androffa by calling for help as well.
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Knowing your favorite divinity from the Greyhawk pantheon is Wee Jas...
1. Favorite Forgotten Realms divinity?
2. Favorite Eberron religion?
3. Favorite Planescape faction?
4. Favorite deity from the Egyptian pantheon?
5. Favorite demigod (including archdevils, empyreal lords, demon lords, and so on)?
1) Eilistraee.
2) Don't have one. Never really got into Eberron enough to form favorites.
3) Sensates.
4) Bast.
5) Hastur.
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Creative Director
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James, question for you.
Undead, as per RAW get: Immunity to death effects, disease, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.
Now when it says stunning, I assume that means undead cannot get the stun condition. But what about daze? Is daze a weaker version of stun and as such any undead is immune to daze as well? Would appreciate the clarification, thanks in advance.
Stun is not daze; they're different conditions. Being immune to stun doesn't grant any particular resistance to daze. That said, there's not a lot of effects that daze creatures, and the main two that come to mind, daze and daze monster, are both mind-affecting so they can't affect undead anyway.
And of course, there can exist effects that inflict conditions on things normally immune to them, but those are exceptions covered by specific rules.
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Creative Director
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A) I was looking at the map folio from Hell's Vengeance. It would appear as if Citadel Dinyar is located rather deep in Isger; namely on the other side of Chitterwood. Wouldn't this pose a problem? Would they have to crash through a bunch of goblinoids on their way to Cheliax?
B) Seeing as how Isger is under the thumb of Cheliax and would prefer to be independent (the borders article says as much) why doesn't the GR march into Elidir? They could cut off Cheliax's trade route to Druma. The army won't oppose the GR; or will only pretend to.
C) What is the fate of Misarias in the campaign? It's not mentioned, but since Misarias has a strong Chelish military presence and is on the border of Isger it seems like it would be a prime target.
A) I'm pretty sure Hellknights aren't too worried about goblins, especially in a place like Isger where the organized goblin force is anything BUT organized.
B) Because the Glorious Reclamation is obsessed with retaking Cheliax itself, and doesn't want to waste time fooling around with non-Cheliax targets. This obsession in the leadership is one of the many flaws in the organization that gives Thrune (and thus the PCs) a better chance to fight against them. If we wanted to tell a story from the Glorious Reclamation's side and focus on PC agents of that group instead, we may well have done something with Isgeri trade routes, but that wasn't the point of the story.
C) Dunno. I actually wasn't all that involved in the creation of Hell's Vengeance; this is a better question fro Rob. I believe there was a "What's happening beyond the borders" article in there somewhere though...