1. You keeps misunderstanding me. What I tried to ask is that if the Cheliax Covenant prevents Cheliax from invading other nations or not. Cheliax cannot invade Ravounel because the Cheliax Covenant grants Thrune the rulership of Cheliax only, and because Ravounel is not part of Cheliax, it cannot be invaded. Does this restriction also extend to other nations? Because other nations are not part of Cheliax either, the Cheliax Covenant effectively prevents Cheliax from invading other nations?
2. You said that devils serve Asmodeus willingly. Does that mean devils actually trust each other and be truly loyal to their superiors? That there would be no bickering or backstabing, and certainly not plotting to overthrow their superiors?
3. How about other outisders? Do the non-lawful outsiders like daemons, demons, qlippoths, psychopomps, proteans, agathions and azatas not loyal to their superiors and not trusting each other and certainly the order from their supreme gods(Lamashtu, Rovagug, Pharasma, etc) wouldn't affect demon lords, qlippoth lords and psychopomps ushers that much, right?
4. If the devils are truly loyal to their superiors, then it's strange. I thought that the adventure path Council of the Thieves is the story about a Mammonite plot to break free from Cheliax. Which means that Mammon secretly plots to defy Asmodeus. And the pcs suppressed the Mammonites and protected the rulership of Thrune as a result. Am I right?
5. It seems that worshippers of good or neutral deities like the halfblood with outsiders very much. So logically the half-fineds and tieflings should be loved in Cheliax and Worldwound. I'm not sure about Worldwound, but it seems that tieflings are not loved, but outright hated in Cheliax. Why did Vassindio Drovenge hated his son and killed his daughter-in-law for producing a tiefling, and his grandson for being a tiefling? Of course not every Chelaxians worships devils, but Vassindio is evil, and so he surley would worhsip Asmodeus right? And devil-worshippers like half-fiends and tieflings, right? Then why Vassindio not like tieflings?
6. In this page you said that good elemental lords are dead, and it seems that in earlier D&D there were only evil elemental lords. It's surprising, because I thought elementals are the forces of nature, and thus neutral. Why did Paizo make elemental lords evil? I also found out that in this page you said that there definitely is a reason for them being evil. I wonder why did Paizo and Wizards of the Coast make the elemental lords evil.
7. Artifacts & Legends page 42 said about Scepter of Ages. Saying, "The Scepter of Ages most recently appeared in -919 AR in the hands of a strange, beetle-like semi-humanoid who was promptly smashed by one of the harem guards of governor Haldazhai of the Ninshabur province of Azahoud."
Do you know what this beetle-like creature is? Was it ever included in published materials? Or did Paizo not decide which race this creature belongs to, and never will in near future?
8. I'm not sure what a party of high level characters can do in a large-scale warfare. For example, if Alexeara Cansellarion succeeded in persuading the heroes of Wrath of the Righteous to join her cause, how much these heroes can do? I mean, they even killed two demon lords by themselves! I doubt even the thousands of elite soldiers can do that kind of thing. So, do you think a party of five 20th level, 10th tier mythic heroes can break the balance of power and defeat even a mighty army and the Tathlum? Or even the mythic heroes who destroyed two demon lords cannot stand a chance against an army of thousands men?
9. If so, what if the Glorious Reclamation got the upper hand because of those mythic heroes of Worldwound? It would be unreasonable to assume that Lamashtu would order other demon lords or nascent demon lords to go to Worldwound and help Deskari, but would it be the case for devils? Would Asmodeus order other archdevils or infernal dukes to go to the Material Plane and kill the mythic heroes?
10. Is slavery legal in current Taldor, Korvosa, Magnimar, Kyonyn, the Five Kings Mountains, and the pre-Thrune Cheliax?
11. What's that bad with infernal Cheliax? In other words, what's that good with new Cheliax made by Glorious Reclamation? The current Cheliax grants freedom of religion, and the only significant changes after the Thrune Ascendancy would be the adoption of slavery and the rise of Asmodeus cult. I also found out that in Hell's Vengeance, although I forgot in which book and what page, the Glorious Reclamation will not forbid the Asmodeus worship even after it seizes Cheliax. Not to invade other nations any more would be another good change, but since the before-Thrune Cheliax was pretty expansionist nation, it's doubtful that the GR version of Cheliax would stop conquer other nations. So what would be the significant change after GR get the power? Abolishment of slavery? I thought they fight to eliminate the devil cults and all devil-worshippers. They fought that hard, just to abolish slavery?
12. It's mentioned that Brastlewark is the largest gnomish settlement in the Inner Sea region. But Wispil has clearly more population. Wouldn't that make Wispil the largest gnomish settlement in the Inner Sea region?
13. The leader of Brastlewark is King Drum Thornfiddle. The books didn't say it celarly, so I ask you. Was he the first king of Brastlewark? Or have there been several kings in Brastlewark even before the Thrune Ascendancy?
14. What's the difference between the dopplegangers and the faceless stalkers? They both are shapechanging monsters. I don't even understand why Paizo created the faceless stalkers in the first place. Their concepts are very similar.
Hi James
My group will be wrapping up our wrath of the righteous campaign soon and I have a couple questions mostly involving arovashnial.
Also would the xenophobic elves landara?in allow a group of non elf demon lord slayers into the heart of there county? Or would they fell that the have the problem in hand and don't need any outside help?
I know aravashnial left as kind of an outcast according to his story. The rest of the group is (including cohorts) an asamar' half elf, 2 humans, yaniel, nurah and arushalae. How would they be received by the elves especially if they just teleported into the middle of landara?
What part of kyonin is aravashnial from?
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Does this sound like a game that would interest you?
** spoiler omitted **...
No. Too frustrating and obnoxious to read with the constant inclusion of bracketed text. Have no idea what the game is about as a result of not enjoying the reading experience and giving up after a quick glance.
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Spoiler:So does that mean the Dagon-worshiping skum in Wake of the Watcher are heretics or something, as Illmarsh is basically Innsmouth? Or would it be better for GMs to swap them for genuine Deep Ones now that they're here?
It only means that the content you spoilered above was written before we had deep ones in the game, but yes, those deep ones would be regarded as heretics or weirdos or the like, and if I had my druthers and a time machine, then the skum in that adventure would be replaced 100% with deep ones and the aboleth with an elder deep one.
What you or any other GM does with that content is up to you though.
Aboleths have always been associated with psionics/psychic magic in my head, but you comment about wizard skum made me consider that while they're associated with psionics in D&D, aboleths might favor arcane magic over psychic in Pathfinder. Do they favor one over the other? Use them in equal measure?
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1. You keeps misunderstanding me. What I tried to ask is that if the Cheliax Covenant prevents Cheliax from invading other nations or not. Cheliax cannot invade Ravounel because the Cheliax Covenant grants Thrune the rulership of Cheliax only, and because Ravounel is not part of Cheliax, it cannot be invaded. Does this restriction also extend to other nations? Because other nations are not part of Cheliax either, the Cheliax Covenant effectively prevents Cheliax from invading other nations?
2. You said that devils serve Asmodeus willingly. Does that mean devils actually trust each other and be truly loyal to their superiors? That there would be no bickering or backstabing, and certainly not plotting to overthrow their superiors?
3. How about other outisders? Do the non-lawful outsiders like daemons, demons, qlippoths, psychopomps, proteans, agathions and azatas not loyal to their superiors and not trusting each other and certainly the order from their supreme gods(Lamashtu, Rovagug, Pharasma, etc) wouldn't affect demon lords, qlippoth lords and psychopomps ushers that much, right?
4. If the devils are truly loyal to their superiors, then it's strange. I thought that the adventure path Council of the Thieves is the story about a Mammonite plot to break free from Cheliax. Which means that Mammon secretly plots to defy Asmodeus. And the pcs suppressed the Mammonites and protected the rulership of Thrune as a result. Am I right?
5. It seems that worshippers of good or neutral deities like the halfblood with outsiders very much. So logically the half-fineds and tieflings should be loved in Cheliax and Worldwound. I'm not sure about Worldwound, but it seems that tieflings are not loved, but outright hated in Cheliax. Why did Vassindio Drovenge hated his son and killed his daughter-in-law for producing a tiefling, and his grandson for being a tiefling? Of course not every Chelaxians worships devils, but Vassindio is evil, and so he surley would worhsip Asmodeus right? And devil-worshippers like half-fiends and tieflings, right? Then why Vassindio not like tieflings?
6. In this page you said that good elemental lords are dead, and it seems that in earlier D&D there were only evil elemental lords. It's surprising, because I thought elementals are the forces of nature, and thus neutral. Why did Paizo make elemental lords evil? I also found out that in this page you said that there definitely is a reason for them being evil. I wonder why did Paizo and Wizards of the Coast make the elemental lords evil.
7. Artifacts & Legends page 42 said about Scepter of Ages. Saying, "The Scepter of Ages most recently appeared in -919 AR in the hands of a strange, beetle-like semi-humanoid who was promptly smashed by one of the harem guards of governor Haldazhai of the Ninshabur province of Azahoud."
Do you know what this beetle-like creature is? Was it ever included in published materials? Or did Paizo not decide which race this creature belongs to, and never will in near future?
1) The Cheliax Covenant only covers Cheliax, hence the name. It doesn't really have anything to say with other nations.
2) Yes, devils trust each other and are loyal to their superiors, as a general rule. There are exceptions, but not many. That's what being lawful does to a lawful evil race.
3) The less lawful and less good a race is, the more likely it would be to act in chaotic and evil ways, such as betraying an ally or friend. Again, as a general rule. Chaotic evil creatures tend to generate stability and respect not from loyalty and tradition but from power and fear.
4) The Mammonites are mortals, men and women and thus not as "pure" an example of an alignment as are exemplar races like devils or angels or demons and their rulers. As such, and as with all mortals, they have the ability to get things wrong or misinterpret religious teachings or allow their beliefs to be colored by their own opinions and goals and desires. When a Mammon cult plots something like an attempt to break free from Cheliax, that does NOT mean Mammon wants to break free from Asmodeus. It means that the humanity that comprises the Mammon cult is exhibiting free will. And that element is very important to the gods. Gods don't force their followers to be absolutely loyal blind followers, because that does not result in faith. That results in slavery or mind-control.
5) Because of racisim, basically.
6) Elementals are forces of nature and are neutral, but to a certain extent that's somewhat boring. In original AD&D, there were elemental lords of evil, and a VERY popular adventure called "Temple of Elemental Evil" that involved those elemental lords and mixing with demon lords and the like. So, from the early days of the game's tradition, there's been elements of evil elemental lords. I am quite partial to that, both for nostalgia's sake, and because it's more interesting to have evil foes for PCs to fight, and thus having a category of evil elemental lords is both a nostalgia nod to AD&D but also a game element to provide for another category of evil for PCs to oppose. Further, I've long held the opinion that asymmetry is fundamentally interesting. It's boring to have everything have an equal opposite. Thus, with there being an active group of evil elemental lords, that creates an imbalance (no good elemental lords active) and that creates conflict, and conflict is what allows interesting stories to happen. Without conflict, stories are boring.
7) It's unrevealed. Often, we'll throw in lines of text like that that are nothing more than seeds for future expansion, and in many cases we DON'T have specific plans for that seed. Just as a lumberjack plants seeds for new trees when he cuts down a tree so that he will have a job in the future and so that the resources are sustained, whenever we print the answer to a mystery or describe an element of the world that had previously been undescribed (in this example, the Scepter of the Ages), we try to put in as many, if not more, new mysteries for folks to expand upon in the future.
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8. I'm not sure what a party of high level characters can do in a large-scale warfare. For example, if Alexeara Cansellarion succeeded in persuading the heroes of Wrath of the Righteous to join her cause, how much these heroes can do? I mean, they even killed two demon lords by themselves! I doubt even the thousands of elite soldiers can do that kind of thing. So, do you think a party of five 20th level, 10th tier mythic heroes can break the balance of power and defeat even a mighty army and the Tathlum? Or even the mythic heroes who destroyed two demon lords cannot stand a chance against an army of thousands men?
9. If so, what if the Glorious Reclamation got the upper hand because of those mythic heroes of Worldwound? It would be unreasonable to assume that Lamashtu would order other demon lords or nascent demon lords to go to Worldwound and help Deskari, but would it be the case for devils? Would Asmodeus order other archdevils or infernal dukes to go to the Material Plane and kill the mythic heroes?
10. Is slavery legal in current Taldor, Korvosa, Magnimar, Kyonyn, the Five Kings Mountains, and the pre-Thrune Cheliax?
11. What's that bad with infernal Cheliax? In other words, what's that good with new Cheliax made by Glorious Reclamation? The current Cheliax grants freedom of religion, and the only significant changes after the Thrune Ascendancy would be the adoption of slavery and the rise of Asmodeus cult. I also found out that in Hell's Vengeance, although I forgot in which book and what page, the Glorious Reclamation will not forbid the Asmodeus worship even after it seizes Cheliax. Not to invade other nations any more would be another good change, but since the before-Thrune Cheliax was pretty expansionist nation, it's doubtful that the GR version of Cheliax would stop conquer other nations. So what would be the significant change after GR get the power? Abolishment of slavery? I thought they fight to eliminate the devil cults and all devil-worshippers. They fought that hard, just to abolish slavery?
12. It's mentioned that Brastlewark is the largest gnomish settlement in the Inner Sea region. But Wispil has clearly more population. Wouldn't that make Wispil the largest gnomish settlement in the Inner Sea region?
13. The leader of Brastlewark is King Drum Thornfiddle. The books didn't say it celarly, so I ask you. Was he the first king of Brastlewark? Or have there been several kings in Brastlewark even before the Thrune Ascendancy?
14. What's the difference between the dopplegangers and the faceless stalkers? They both are shapechanging monsters. I don't even understand why Paizo created the faceless stalkers in the first place. Their concepts are very similar.
8) Since we don't really have rules that robustly cover how mass combat works, that genre of fantasy isn't one we really cover or detail in the game. When we tell stories via Adventure Paths that involve large-scale combats, we generally regulate the big battles to flavor in the background and focus instead on the PCs and them doing quests in ways that are supported by the rules.
9) There's that "What If" again. What if? Well, you'd have a different campaign entirely, and not one that we wrote. I'm not gonna write it for you. :-P
10) Yes, No, No, No, No, Yes.
11) What's bad? The evil part is bad. If you don't see things like selling your soul, slavery, abuse of power, human sacrifice, racisim, misogyny, and all the other myriad evils that Cheliax personifies, maybe you're lawful evil, in which case you'd probably find Chelaix a nice place to live.
12) Turns out when you do something for 10 years and have dozens of different writers building content for that thing, you can create contradictions. That said... "population" includes everyone, gnome and otherwise. It's possible Brastlewark has more gnomes or is physically larger than Wispil, even though Wispil has more people (including non-gnomes) in its population.
13) I have no idea. Beyond what we've said in the books about Brastlewark, that's more or less all there is. It's not one of the elements that was imported to Golarion from a homebrew setting.
14) The difference is that faceless stalkers are evil agents of aboleths who drink blood, whereas doppelgangers are neutral shapechangers who are in it for themselves rather than being a genetically engineered minion race. But also, if the real world can have tigers and lions in it at the same time (two animals that are very similar in a lot of ways, but still exist simultaneously regardless of that similarity), then our make-believe world can have more than one shapechanging monster. And when you get down to it, there are a LOT more differences between the monstrous humanoid doppelgangers and the aberration faceless stalkers than there are between lions and tigers.
As for why we created faceless stalkers? Because we want to build Paizo's brand and the world of Golarion, and because ecologically and sociologically, faceless stalkers fill a different niche than doppelgangers. And because monster books sell well. And because new monsters have always been my favorite part of any RPG.
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Aboleths have always been associated with psionics/psychic magic in my head, but you comment about wizard skum made me consider that while they're associated with psionics in D&D, aboleths might favor arcane magic over psychic in Pathfinder. Do they favor one over the other? Use them in equal measure?
I favor wizards over our psychic because I'm more comfortable and familiar with the wizard. Had we had the psychic from day one, that would likely be different, and I would have likely said skum are more in sync with psychics. But as it stands, aboleths and skum have a lot of non-psychic inertia in our game (simply because Occult Adventures is so recent), and I'm not a fan of suddenly introducing new content into a world simply because we just wrote a rulebook. It feels awkward to me.
But go for it if you want!
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I know that human-wise Numeria is largely populated by Kellids.
Are the Technic League mostly Kellids as well? I realized I was picturing them as primarily Taldan or Chelish without any backing I could find
I've been running a werewolf themed campaign, where the main antagonists are a group of Jezelda worshiping lycanthropes (inspired by the Demon Wolves from the Carrion Crown adventure path). The leader of this group has been granted demonic powers by Jezelda, and I'm going to use this mini to represent him.
Do you know of a monster in any of the bestiaries (or elsewhere) that I could use for him? The party will be level 9 or 10 when they face him. If not, do you have any tips for building unique monsters? I've never done it before...
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Sending any of these three to another plane is only gonna distract them for a few rounds if they really want to get back to you and mess with you.
Follow up: Now thinking in the shoes of an archmage who say, dumped one of those guys to the Abyss, is there a way you're aware of that you could track down the destination of said archmage, say, three rounds later after he made his Greater Teleport or Interplanetary Teleport escape? (i.e. throughout the years I've looked several times for such a method in-game, like looking at the wording of residual magic auras in the description of the detect magic spell, but nothing I can think of at this point, perhaps with the exception of OA's dream travel which *I think* can land you at the foot of someone you're thinking of, regardless of dimension/time/distance... but I'm not sure about this one in regards to being a sure-fire / quick 'recent teleport locator' method)
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4) The Mammonites are mortals, men and women and thus not as "pure" an example of an alignment as are exemplar races like devils or angels or demons and their rulers. As such, and as with all mortals, they have the ability to get things wrong or misinterpret religious teachings or allow their beliefs to be colored by their own opinions and goals and desires. When a Mammon cult plots something like an attempt to break free from Cheliax, that does NOT mean Mammon wants to break free from Asmodeus. It means that the humanity that comprises the Mammon cult is exhibiting free will. And that element is very important to the gods. Gods don't force their followers to be absolutely loyal blind followers, because that does not result in faith. That results in slavery or mind-control.
Wisdom 17+
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I've been running a werewolf themed campaign, where the main antagonists are a group of Jezelda worshiping lycanthropes (inspired by the Demon Wolves from the Carrion Crown adventure path). The leader of this group has been granted demonic powers by Jezelda, and I'm going to use this mini to represent him.
Do you know of a monster in any of the bestiaries (or elsewhere) that I could use for him? The party will be level 9 or 10 when they face him. If not, do you have any tips for building unique monsters? I've never done it before...
He looks pretty similar to a glabrezu demon. You could simply use glabrezu stats for him. or if you want to get a little more into it, make it a half-glabrezu werewolf (the half-glabrezu template is in Demons Revisited).
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Sending any of these three to another plane is only gonna distract them for a few rounds if they really want to get back to you and mess with you.Follow up: Now thinking in the shoes of an archmage who say, dumped one of those guys to the Abyss, is there a way you're aware of that you could track down the destination of said archmage, say, three rounds later after he made his Greater Teleport or Interplanetary Teleport escape? (i.e. throughout the years I've looked several times for such a method in-game, like looking at the wording of residual magic auras in the description of the detect magic spell, but nothing I can think of at this point, perhaps with the exception of OA's dream travel which *I think* can land you at the foot of someone you're thinking of, regardless of dimension/time/distance... but I'm not sure about this one in regards to being a sure-fire / quick 'recent teleport locator' method)
Maybe not so much an issue for Bokrug, but certainly for Cthulhu and Hastur, their Intelligence scores are INCREDIBLY high. The best way to simulate such overwhelming intelligence in game with an NPC is to be increasingly free with allowing them to act on what should be out-of-game knowledge. AKA: How did Hastur know where the archmage fled to? He used his Intelligence 35 to run the numbers and make some educated guesses and decided that the most likely place the archmage went was, as it turns out, where the archmage went.
Check out the TV show Person of Interest for a great example of what people/entities with super high intelligences can do. It looks like magic to us dumb humans.
Or alternately, keep in mind that all great old ones can attack people via dreams, so they don't even have to be next to you or even on the same plane to wreck you.
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4) The Mammonites are mortals, men and women and thus not as "pure" an example of an alignment as are exemplar races like devils or angels or demons and their rulers. As such, and as with all mortals, they have the ability to get things wrong or misinterpret religious teachings or allow their beliefs to be colored by their own opinions and goals and desires. When a Mammon cult plots something like an attempt to break free from Cheliax, that does NOT mean Mammon wants to break free from Asmodeus. It means that the humanity that comprises the Mammon cult is exhibiting free will. And that element is very important to the gods. Gods don't force their followers to be absolutely loyal blind followers, because that does not result in faith. That results in slavery or mind-control.Wisdom 17+
The wisdom comments are cute and funny, but let's please keep posts to this thread to actual questions; thanks!
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The wisdom comments are cute and funny, but let's please keep posts to this thread to actual questions; thanks!4) The Mammonites are mortals, men and women and thus not as "pure" an example of an alignment as are exemplar races like devils or angels or demons and their rulers. As such, and as with all mortals, they have the ability to get things wrong or misinterpret religious teachings or allow their beliefs to be colored by their own opinions and goals and desires. When a Mammon cult plots something like an attempt to break free from Cheliax, that does NOT mean Mammon wants to break free from Asmodeus. It means that the humanity that comprises the Mammon cult is exhibiting free will. And that element is very important to the gods. Gods don't force their followers to be absolutely loyal blind followers, because that does not result in faith. That results in slavery or mind-control.Wisdom 17+
Is there any way to make you deviate from that Lawful Neutrality of yours? :P
Who, in real-life Earth, is history's greatest badass? (Hannibal of Carthage for me.)
Hi JamesMy group will be wrapping up our wrath of the righteous campaign soon and I have a couple questions mostly involving arovashnial.
wrath of the righteous spoilers:
my party has taken out baphomet and I have no doubt that they will take down deskari and finish I'm off. In arovashials back story he left home to gain lknowledge and power to free his people from the blight of treerazer and his demons in tanglebriar. Would it be beyond his personality to ask his super powerful group of friends who he has been with and fought beside since they fell in kenebrie, and even fell in love with one, to help him kill one more demon lord?
Also would the xenophobic elves landara?in allow a group of non elf demon lord slayers into the heart of there county? Or would they fell that the have the problem in hand and don't need any outside help?I know aravashnial left as kind of an outcast according to his story. The rest of the group is (including cohorts) an asamar' half elf, 2 humans, yaniel, nurah and arushalae. How would they be received by the elves especially if they just teleported into the middle of landara?
What part of kyonin is aravashnial from?
Think my question got lost between walls of text
My copy of Horror Adventures arrived in the mail, and once I'd managed to stop alternating between capering about the room in manic glee and avidly scouring its contents, the following question occurred to me-
Which of the broader horror sub-genres as described in the book do you think best cross-pollinate with one another?
Who, in real-life Earth, is history's greatest badass? (Hannibal of Carthage for me.)
My vote would be Belisarius... or, you know, Genghis "conquer most of friggin' Asia" Khan. But I second this question! (I presume the selection of Hannibal implies military badassery, rather than other forms thereof)
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Is there any way to make you deviate from that Lawful Neutrality of yours? :PThe wisdom comments are cute and funny, but let's please keep posts to this thread to actual questions; thanks!4) The Mammonites are mortals, men and women and thus not as "pure" an example of an alignment as are exemplar races like devils or angels or demons and their rulers. As such, and as with all mortals, they have the ability to get things wrong or misinterpret religious teachings or allow their beliefs to be colored by their own opinions and goals and desires. When a Mammon cult plots something like an attempt to break free from Cheliax, that does NOT mean Mammon wants to break free from Asmodeus. It means that the humanity that comprises the Mammon cult is exhibiting free will. And that element is very important to the gods. Gods don't force their followers to be absolutely loyal blind followers, because that does not result in faith. That results in slavery or mind-control.Wisdom 17+
Calling it lawful neutral behavior is probably your best bet. That said, no, there's not much you can do to make me deviate from that if you want me to keep answering questions here.
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Think my question got lost between walls of text
Hi JamesMy group will be wrapping up our wrath of the righteous campaign soon and I have a couple questions mostly involving arovashnial.
** spoiler omitted **
I did answer it, but either the site ate my answer or it posted somewhere else.
But, if you portray your elves in a non-xenophobic way, you're actually portraying them as I as the creative director of Paizo PREFER them to be portrayed. The idea of elves being xenophobic is super-ingraned in gamer culture as a result of D&D and Tolkien, and it's an element I've tried NOT to embrace or even have in print in Pathfinder, but it's such an ingrained part of how we see elves that most of our writers and a fair number of our developers and editors assumed that was true for Golarion and elements of it keep creeping into print... more so at the outset than recently.
So ABSOLUTELY you should have the elves be open and welcoming.
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My copy of Horror Adventures arrived in the mail, and once I'd managed to stop alternating between capering about the room in manic glee and avidly scouring its contents, the following question occurred to me-
Which of the broader horror sub-genres as described in the book do you think best cross-pollinate with one another?
They all do.
He looks pretty similar to a glabrezu demon. You could simply use glabrezu stats for him. or if you want to get a little more into it, make it a half-glabrezu werewolf (the half-glabrezu template is in Demons Revisited).I've been running a werewolf themed campaign, where the main antagonists are a group of Jezelda worshiping lycanthropes (inspired by the Demon Wolves from the Carrion Crown adventure path). The leader of this group has been granted demonic powers by Jezelda, and I'm going to use this mini to represent him.
Do you know of a monster in any of the bestiaries (or elsewhere) that I could use for him? The party will be level 9 or 10 when they face him. If not, do you have any tips for building unique monsters? I've never done it before...
That model is actually of a Glabrezu (though the much more slender D&D art instead of the more imposing PF art).
For the question: When you're running a campaign do you ever start making a story or encounter based on getting to use a cool miniature or map?
If so, what was your last plastic muse?
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Calling it lawful neutral behavior is probably your best bet. That said, no, there's not much you can do to make me deviate from that if you want me to keep answering questions here.Is there any way to make you deviate from that Lawful Neutrality of yours? :PWisdom 17+The wisdom comments are cute and funny, but let's please keep posts to this thread to actual questions; thanks!
Understood. Do you mind if I track your Wisdom via my profile?
Hi James,
As always, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions.
Do you think there is a difference in the way a GM or designer should approach designing a whole setting as compared to designing a town or a other piece of a setting?
What would you say those differences are?
What books would you recommend to a GM designing their own setting?
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Creative Director
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For the question: When you're running a campaign do you ever start making a story or encounter based on getting to use a cool miniature or map?
If so, what was your last plastic muse?
Nope. The reverse is usually the case; I have an idea for an encounter and then seek out a mini specifically for it, but I generally don't approach gaming from a viewpoint of "minis first, story later" I guess.
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Creative Director
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Understood. Do you mind if I track your Wisdom via my profile?Calling it lawful neutral behavior is probably your best bet. That said, no, there's not much you can do to make me deviate from that if you want me to keep answering questions here.Is there any way to make you deviate from that Lawful Neutrality of yours? :PWisdom 17+The wisdom comments are cute and funny, but let's please keep posts to this thread to actual questions; thanks!
I don't mind that at all. Track away!
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
As always, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions.
Do you think there is a difference in the way a GM or designer should approach designing a whole setting as compared to designing a town or a other piece of a setting?
What would you say those differences are?What books would you recommend to a GM designing their own setting?
Just in a matter of scale. Designing a town is a lot less work than designing a setting. It takes longer. For the most part, if you're designing your own setting, you should NOT try to fully design the entire setting before you start playing. You should instead start small, with a single town, perhaps, and then aim to design as you go, expanding a few sessions ahead of the game so that you can build what you need. Then, as you run campaigns in your setting, you'll get more used to the process and figure out what parts of setting design are the most fun and will be able to organically forge ahead from there.
Since there's so much that goes into designing a setting, I recommend that GMs read LOTS in MANY subjects, but the best way to design a setting is to immerse yourself in a setting that's already designed. Pick your setting, then study it and how it's put together, and go from there.
Think my question got lost between walls of text
Hi JamesMy group will be wrapping up our wrath of the righteous campaign soon and I have a couple questions mostly involving arovashnial.
** spoiler omitted **I did answer it, but either the site ate my answer or it posted somewhere else.
But, if you portray your elves in a non-xenophobic way, you're actually portraying them as I as the creative director of Paizo PREFER them to be portrayed. The idea of elves being xenophobic is super-ingraned in gamer culture as a result of D&D and Tolkien, and it's an element I've tried NOT to embrace or even have in print in Pathfinder, but it's such an ingrained part of how we see elves that most of our writers and a fair number of our developers and editors assumed that was true for Golarion and elements of it keep creeping into print... more so at the outset than recently.
So ABSOLUTELY you should have the elves be open and welcoming.
Did you have any dissonance on playing a Night Elf in Warcraft, given they seem to have been drawn on those tropes?
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Creative Director
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Did you have any dissonance on playing a Night Elf in Warcraft, given they seem to have been drawn on those tropes?Think my question got lost between walls of text
Hi JamesMy group will be wrapping up our wrath of the righteous campaign soon and I have a couple questions mostly involving arovashnial.
** spoiler omitted **I did answer it, but either the site ate my answer or it posted somewhere else.
But, if you portray your elves in a non-xenophobic way, you're actually portraying them as I as the creative director of Paizo PREFER them to be portrayed. The idea of elves being xenophobic is super-ingraned in gamer culture as a result of D&D and Tolkien, and it's an element I've tried NOT to embrace or even have in print in Pathfinder, but it's such an ingrained part of how we see elves that most of our writers and a fair number of our developers and editors assumed that was true for Golarion and elements of it keep creeping into print... more so at the outset than recently.
So ABSOLUTELY you should have the elves be open and welcoming.
Not at all. Warcraft is awesome despite the fact that it wallows HARD in all the fantasy cliches and peppers a lot of (to me) exceptionally annoying "yuk yuk" pop culture "humor" references into the game. It's the gameplay and the interaction with other players that really appeals to me with Warcraft, not the immersion in world lore, which isn't something that an MMO really has the luxury of presenting due to the basic nature of how people play them.
Have you ever played any MUDs?
How common are dinosaurs in golarion? I know you can find some in the Mwangi Expanse, Mediogalti Island, and the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, but are there other places to find them? Or are they relatively all over the place, just rarer than wolves, foxes, etc?
Not at all. Warcraft is awesome despite the fact that it wallows HARD in all the fantasy cliches and peppers a lot of (to me) exceptionally annoying "yuk yuk" pop culture "humor" references into the game. It's the gameplay and the interaction with other players that really appeals to me with Warcraft, not the immersion in world lore, which isn't something that an MMO really has the luxury of presenting due to the basic nature of how people play them.Did you have any dissonance on playing a Night Elf in Warcraft, given they seem to have been drawn on those tropes?Think my question got lost between walls of text
Hi JamesMy group will be wrapping up our wrath of the righteous campaign soon and I have a couple questions mostly involving arovashnial.
** spoiler omitted **I did answer it, but either the site ate my answer or it posted somewhere else.
But, if you portray your elves in a non-xenophobic way, you're actually portraying them as I as the creative director of Paizo PREFER them to be portrayed. The idea of elves being xenophobic is super-ingraned in gamer culture as a result of D&D and Tolkien, and it's an element I've tried NOT to embrace or even have in print in Pathfinder, but it's such an ingrained part of how we see elves that most of our writers and a fair number of our developers and editors assumed that was true for Golarion and elements of it keep creeping into print... more so at the outset than recently.
So ABSOLUTELY you should have the elves be open and welcoming.
Last question on Warcraft for awhile I promise.. Are you on an RP server, and do you rp with others within the lore. (It's a fairly big thing on Earthen Ring which is where I play)
Who was Shensen's patron deity in the Forgotten Realms campaign she originated in if she had one?
Was the scimitar her weapon of choice in her FR incarnation?
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Creative Director
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How common are dinosaurs in golarion? I know you can find some in the Mwangi Expanse, Mediogalti Island, and the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, but are there other places to find them? Or are they relatively all over the place, just rarer than wolves, foxes, etc?
They don't live everywhere but just as you can find a tiger in Seattle (at the zoo, or in a private collection of someone who keeps exotic/illegal pets, or in the woods after one escapes) you can encounter dinosaurs anywhere that the story needs them to be encountered.
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Creative Director
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Who was Shensen's patron deity in the Forgotten Realms campaign she originated in if she had one?
Was the scimitar her weapon of choice in her FR incarnation?
Eilistraee, of course. She was a drow for a fair amount of her life until she got reincarnated at about 15th level into a (roll randomly) half-aquatic elf.
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Creative Director
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Last question on Warcraft for awhile I promise.. Are you on an RP server, and do you rp with others within the lore. (It's a fairly big thing on Earthen Ring which is where I play)
I'm on a PVE server. I do enjoy roleplaying in character regardless, but it's more fun with others who are into it.
It seems that you guys are moving away from mythic rules will there be any more support for mythic play? not just monsters but mythic options for new character classes? i've heard it didn't go over as well as you all would of liked but i'm a fan.
To prove my innocense that I wasn't asking "what if" question again, I ask you more clearly this time.
1. Are Asmodeus and Lamashtu concerned seriously about Cheliax and the Worldwound? That if the Glorious Reclamation and the Mendevian Crusade fought so well that the infernal Cheliax and the Worldwound faced very dire situations, what would they do? Would they just cackle and do nothing? Or would they order their servants to go to the Material Plane and help Cheliax and the Worldwound, even risking the Great Planar War between Good and evil?
2. What would the proper response of the archdevils, infernal dukes, and demon lords would be when Asmodeus and Lamashtu order them to go to the Material Plane and help Cheliax and Worldwound? Maybe devils would obey, but what about demons? Would they just ignore? Or would they obey?
3. What would the proper response of heaven would be? I mean, seeing that archdevils and demon lords came to the Material Plane and helping their mortal worshippers, would Iomedae order powerful outsiders and empyreal lords to go to the Matrerial Plane and help those Iomedaeans?
And other questions.
4. I have never played the Council of Thieves, and didn't quite understand the story of the adventure path even after read it. So I ask you, what the Drovenge siblings want? Are they devout worshippers of Mammon, and they want to wage an war of independence against Cheliax? Wow, if that's the case, they seem to be good guys.
5. Maybe the reason that tieflings are treated as second-class citizens in Cheliax is because the majority of Chelaxians don't worship devils at all? I mean, it seems that the majority of citizens don't worship Asmodeus at all, just paying lip service to him. And so they don't like tieflings, because they don't worship devils. In short,
1)The majority of Chelaxians worhsip non-evil gods like Iomedae or Abadar, and don't worship Asmodeus at all.
2)Those devil-worshippers surely like tieflings very much, but because the majority of Chelaxians don't worhsip evils, tieflings are treated as second-class citizens.
6. If the answer to the above question is No, and Asmodeans are truly the majority of the Chelish population, then what about this assumption? The reason that Chelaxians don't like tieflings, even though they worship Asmodeus very sincerely, is that Cheliax is full of human supremacy. Because they are proud of being human, and tieflings are not human, they think tiefling are inferior race that don't deserve respect. Am I right?
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Creative Director
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It seems that you guys are moving away from mythic rules will there be any more support for mythic play? not just monsters but mythic options for new character classes? i've heard it didn't go over as well as you all would of liked but i'm a fan.
We'll still do mythic content now and then as it makes sense, but for the most part at this point that content will be skewed toward mythic threats to face PCs of all levels.
7. What is the origin of the dopplegangers? Who created them? Aboleths? Azlanti? Thassilonians? Unrevealed? Or you didn't think about it?
8. You said devils trust and help each other. Wow, it's surprising. It seems that they are not that bad after all, right?
9. You said several times that Cheliax don't participate in the Mendevian Crusade and even want Worldwound exists as long as possible, because thanks to Worldwound, Iomedaeans have no time to invade Cheliax. But City of Locusts said that, if Deskari wins and Worldwound expands, even Cheliax will make a move and fight the demons(thought I don't remember it clearly). Does that mean the only reason that Cheliax is very eager to use Worldwound as a decoy is that it cannot directly threaten Cheliax? And if the Worldowund opened near Cheliax(maybe Molthune or Druma?), then Cheliax will think the demonic threat very seriously and do her best to fight off demons?
10. Are the Hellknights allowed to join the Mendevian Crusade? Maybe the Iomedaeans there distrust the Hellknights?
11. You said that slavery was legal in Taldor. Does that mean Taldor has vast slave markets and Roman style slavery? Or does that mean Taldor has serfdom like standard medieval nation, and has no Roman style slave markets and slavery?
12. What do Andoran think about serfdom? Do Andorens think serfdom and slavery are one and the same and should be abolished and actively ask Taldor to abolish it? Or do they think serfdom is not that bad and ignore it?
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If a cleric of Seranrae dies and goes to Nirvana, (assuming they were NG) could an evil cleric feasibly plane shift to Nirvana and kill their soul? If so, what would happen to the dead cleric's soul? When you die, do you gain the outsider subtype so you cannot be brought back? If you don't gain the outsider subtype and you die, would you simply appear somewhere on the plane where you were to spend eternity?