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Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
On that note, here's another elf question for James, the elfxpert. Bastards of Golarion established the premise of spireborn half-elves, whose elven parents hail from the Mordant Spire, usually born of human women whose fathers spirit them away shortly after they're born to be raised at the Mordant Spire. It has also been established in Second Darkness that the Mordant Spire elves do keep in touch with other elven communities, most notably Kyonin and the Mierani Forest enclave in Varisia, and in other sources I can't remember that they have diplomatic relations with the Pathfinder Society to grant permission to access Azlanti ruins and stuff. My question is this: would the Mordant Spire elves trust a spireborn half-elf with the task of being an envoy/liaison to these communities and organizations due to the more diplomatic nature of half-elves, or would they more likely send a full-blooded Mordant Spire elf as their representative?
They might. They might not. Depends on the story you want to tell, and where they're sending the representative, and what their actual goal is.
Perhaps to the Mwangi Expanse? To monitor the search for a certain lost Azlanti colony?
Doesn't change my answer.

So how do I know my PC is elfing correctly?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

IDTheftVictim wrote:
I have a player playing as a Ratfolk and every town the party enters he says he wants to meet the local Ratfolk enclave, to which I usually respond that they aren't common in the area and likely only come here in trade caravans (they are currently exploring Varisia.) However I would like for his character to run into others of her kind at some point, so what are some major Ratfolk settlements in the Inner Sea region?

I would hope that you explained to the player at the start of the campaign that ratfolk aren't common in Varisia and as such he can't expect to encounter many, if ANY at all. If you didn't, then that's kinda false advertising to the player. I suspect that the vast majority of those in Varisia will mistake ratfolks for wererats and thus react more hostilely to them than a ratfolk might expect.

There aren't a lot of ratfolk enclaves in the Inner Sea region at all. The regions where ratfolk are common enough that most folks won't immediately assume they're evil wererats are Numeria (where they're widely regarded as disreputable and sketchy scavengers and thieves) and eastern Garund (where they're considered nomads and wandering merchants). There are small enclaves in the Storval Plateau, and those ones MIGHT have bearing on Varisia as a result, but these ratfolk tend to be focused mostly in Kaer Maga or stay to their warrens and are mostly thought of as monsters.

That all said, feel free to adjust things as you want. You can have them be as common as elves and halflings in your game if you'd like, and if your player came into the setting expecting to meet other ratfolk, that might be the best overall solution.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
On that note, here's another elf question for James, the elfxpert. Bastards of Golarion established the premise of spireborn half-elves, whose elven parents hail from the Mordant Spire, usually born of human women whose fathers spirit them away shortly after they're born to be raised at the Mordant Spire. It has also been established in Second Darkness that the Mordant Spire elves do keep in touch with other elven communities, most notably Kyonin and the Mierani Forest enclave in Varisia, and in other sources I can't remember that they have diplomatic relations with the Pathfinder Society to grant permission to access Azlanti ruins and stuff. My question is this: would the Mordant Spire elves trust a spireborn half-elf with the task of being an envoy/liaison to these communities and organizations due to the more diplomatic nature of half-elves, or would they more likely send a full-blooded Mordant Spire elf as their representative?
They might. They might not. Depends on the story you want to tell, and where they're sending the representative, and what their actual goal is.
Perhaps to the Mwangi Expanse? To monitor the search for a certain lost Azlanti colony?
Doesn't change my answer.
So how do I know my PC is elfing correctly?

Ask your GM. Or compare it to information in books like Inner Sea Races. I can't be your PC approval person, considering how many characters you seem to build, and considering that I don't want to set a precedent of being a PC approval person, because that's stepping on the toes of GMs everywhere.

Put another way: I am perfectly comfortable answering all sorts of questions about Golarion and Pathfinder, but I'm not comfortable answering specific PC questions in specific campaigns where my answers might be used as leverage against a GM to try to "force" him/her to run a game that she/he doesn't want to run. I'm not saying YOU are going to use my answers to do this, but enough folks have done so in the past that when I get the vibe that someone's asking me questions they should instead be asking their GMs I get hesitant to answer.

Radiant Oath

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

That's both understandable and fair. I apologize.

Grand Lodge

James Jacobs wrote:
IDTheftVictim wrote:
I have a player playing as a Ratfolk and every town the party enters he says he wants to meet the local Ratfolk enclave, to which I usually respond that they aren't common in the area and likely only come here in trade caravans (they are currently exploring Varisia.) However I would like for his character to run into others of her kind at some point, so what are some major Ratfolk settlements in the Inner Sea region?

I would hope that you explained to the player at the start of the campaign that ratfolk aren't common in Varisia and as such he can't expect to encounter many, if ANY at all. If you didn't, then that's kinda false advertising to the player. I suspect that the vast majority of those in Varisia will mistake ratfolks for wererats and thus react more hostilely to them than a ratfolk might expect.

There aren't a lot of ratfolk enclaves in the Inner Sea region at all. The regions where ratfolk are common enough that most folks won't immediately assume they're evil wererats are Numeria (where they're widely regarded as disreputable and sketchy scavengers and thieves) and eastern Garund (where they're considered nomads and wandering merchants). There are small enclaves in the Storval Plateau, and those ones MIGHT have bearing on Varisia as a result, but these ratfolk tend to be focused mostly in Kaer Maga or stay to their warrens and are mostly thought of as monsters.

That all said, feel free to adjust things as you want. You can have them be as common as elves and halflings in your game if you'd like, and if your player came into the setting expecting to meet other ratfolk, that might be the best overall solution.

Thanks. About your concerns the player seemed to have pick the Ratfolk more for stats and appearance reasons than to be social with other Ratfolk, but even I wasn't aware they were that rare. I'll show your concerns to him and work out how to run this with him. Where are Ratfolk common then? Tian Xia? Casmaron? Southern Garund? Another planet?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

IDTheftVictim wrote:
Thanks. About your concerns the player seemed to have pick the Ratfolk more for stats and appearance reasons than to be social with other Ratfolk, but even I wasn't aware they were that rare. I'll show your concerns to him and work out how to run this with him. Where are Ratfolk common then? Tian Xia? Casmaron? Southern Garund? Another planet?

Inner Sea Races is the best resource for folks who want to know more about how the numerous zero HD races exist and where they are in Golarion. Ratfolks are more common in Tian Xia (there, they're one of the major races of the Darklands), and not as uncommon in Casmaron. There's a LOT more of them on the planet Akiton.


Wow Hunter Spoiler

Spoiler:

Would it motivate you to find out that your Hunter on reaching 110th level, can recruit Pathfinders, which are an upgrade from Trackers. And as the most epic Hunter in the world, you become the leader of the Order of the Unseen Path.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
Wow Hunter Spoiler ** spoiler omitted **

Neat!

And too late on the motivation. I caved in and bought Legion and reactivated my subscription and am now playing again! :-P


James Jacobs wrote:
johnlocke90 wrote:

What is the purpose of the River Styx?

It flows through all the planes, but I don't see what purpose it is serving.

Traditionally, the purpose of the Styx was to wipe away memories of life so that the dead can go on to do their thing in the afterlife. In Golarion, that role is performed by Pharasma, and thus that leaves the River Styx instead as a sort of thematic connection between the three evil planes. It's purpose is mysterious, but it has something to do with uniting the three forms of evil while allowing Charon some influence across all three planes (Hell, Abaddon, and the Abyss). We may have said more about the Styx here and there in various products... I think we talked about it in the first and third Books of the Damned so that might be a good place to go for more research.

Funny enough, I asked because I am reading Book of the Damned. Its pretty vague. Charon lives there and uses it.It also touches Axis and the Maelstrom.

It seems like it should be important, but I wasn't clear why. And its not clear why Hell or the Abyss don't do much with it or at least dam it to stop Charon from having a domain in their territory.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
johnlocke90 wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
johnlocke90 wrote:

What is the purpose of the River Styx?

It flows through all the planes, but I don't see what purpose it is serving.

Traditionally, the purpose of the Styx was to wipe away memories of life so that the dead can go on to do their thing in the afterlife. In Golarion, that role is performed by Pharasma, and thus that leaves the River Styx instead as a sort of thematic connection between the three evil planes. It's purpose is mysterious, but it has something to do with uniting the three forms of evil while allowing Charon some influence across all three planes (Hell, Abaddon, and the Abyss). We may have said more about the Styx here and there in various products... I think we talked about it in the first and third Books of the Damned so that might be a good place to go for more research.

Funny enough, I asked because I am reading Book of the Damned. Its pretty vague. Charon lives there and uses it.It also touches Axis and the Maelstrom.

It seems like it should be important, but I wasn't clear why. And its not clear why Hell or the Abyss don't do much with it or at least dam it to stop Charon from having a domain in their territory.

It's important mostly in the same way that an interstate is important—it allows for relatively swift travel between planes and between different areas in those planes. If you know how to navigate the Styx, traveling from one Abyssal realm to another, or from Hell to Abaddon, or whatever combo you want, is something you can do relatively swiftly rather than having to resort to gate or plane shift or the like.

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

James, do you prefer prepainted or unpainted minis when you get new ones? What material is your favorite for minis? Have you seen the new unpainted minis from Wizkids yet?


Hi James, I hope this evening is treating you well. I noticed recently that that many aspects of Ravounel (geography, natural resources, fierce independent streak etc) are really similar to the Basque country. Was that deliberate?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Handsome Gracchus wrote:
Hi James, I hope this evening is treating you well. I noticed recently that that many aspects of Ravounel (geography, natural resources, fierce independent streak etc) are really similar to the Basque country. Was that deliberate?

!

Too bad we're nearly done, if I ever GM it again I am TOTALLY adding an oak tree as a major cultural touchstone... one more thing for Barzillai to go after.

Are there any dastardly deeds of AP villains planned that were cut for space? And if so, could you share them?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:
James, do you prefer prepainted or unpainted minis when you get new ones? What material is your favorite for minis? Have you seen the new unpainted minis from Wizkids yet?

I prefer unpainted, but then I never end up painting them, so I kinda suck at minis.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Handsome Gracchus wrote:
Hi James, I hope this evening is treating you well. I noticed recently that that many aspects of Ravounel (geography, natural resources, fierce independent streak etc) are really similar to the Basque country. Was that deliberate?

Not on purpose. I've never been to Basque country.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Cole Deschain wrote:
Handsome Gracchus wrote:
Hi James, I hope this evening is treating you well. I noticed recently that that many aspects of Ravounel (geography, natural resources, fierce independent streak etc) are really similar to the Basque country. Was that deliberate?

!

Too bad we're nearly done, if I ever GM it again I am TOTALLY adding an oak tree as a major cultural touchstone... one more thing for Barzillai to go after.

Are there any dastardly deeds of AP villains planned that were cut for space? And if so, could you share them?

Nope. It's all in there as far as I know. My subconscious might have tricked me though.


Hi James

I'm curious about what kind of lives the good outsiders live. Do they have free will like mortals do or are they bound to serve a god?

Do they do anything for fun or do they just live to fulfill their purpose based on type and to combat the forces of evil?

What kind of intra personal relationships do they have with each other? Is their concept of friensip and romance the same as ours or different?

If they fall in love with a mortal( it must happen time to time given half cilestials and asimar) how free are they to asume a human form, if they have that ability, and live amongst mortals with that person?

If they can plane shift, and do have some mortal friends, how much freedom do they come to the material plane and pop in for a drink or two or just hang out and have fun?

Grand Lodge

Dear JJ,

Just need a bit of advice with a dog-themed PFS character I'm making...

If you were to make a character with a Tiny-sized dog familiar for PFS (say, a pug, since I recently got a miniature for one off Reaper Mini and inspiration struck like a lightning bolt!), would you "re-skin" another animal's stats (if so, which one?) or just modify its stats down as though a Small dog had a size reduction?

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
'd like to say "Finishing off my Temple of Elemental Evil" game and setting the stage for the transition to the Slavelords game,

How far did your party of players get to in the old grand ToEE James?

Were you able to throw some cool plot twits at them?

What were their most noteworthy accomplishments?

Did they get to reach the nodes?
Did they free the trapped prince?
Did they free Zuggtmoy, and who was your Golarion stand in for Iuz?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Alundrell wrote:

Hi James

I'm curious about what kind of lives the good outsiders live. Do they have free will like mortals do or are they bound to serve a god?

Do they do anything for fun or do they just live to fulfill their purpose based on type and to combat the forces of evil?

What kind of intra personal relationships do they have with each other? Is their concept of friensip and romance the same as ours or different?

If they fall in love with a mortal( it must happen time to time given half cilestials and asimar) how free are they to asume a human form, if they have that ability, and live amongst mortals with that person?

If they can plane shift, and do have some mortal friends, how much freedom do they come to the material plane and pop in for a drink or two or just hang out and have fun?

Outsiders don't really have much free will—they're driven by their alignments. That's why it's so rare to see an outsider of an unexpected alignment; those are the very rare few outsiders who manage to escape their nature. Outsiders don't need to eat or drink, either. Their lives are VERY different than mortal lives as a result. For the most part, what they do is what's detailed in their description—they do that more or less all the time, and to them, doing what they were made to do IS "fun" for them. Some of them can have relationships with others, but relationships outside the norm of their themes would tend to be unusual.

For example, a hound archon is a soldier and a sentinel. He may well have buddies who are also soldiers and they might share battle stories or the like, and enjoy each other's company in the way soldiers do, but they would be unlikely to have a family they'd go home to since heaven's army IS their family. On the other hand, a lillend is a tale-teller and artist, so she'd likely spend her time studying about art history or seeking out new performances or art to admire or creating them herself, perhaps sharing that time with fellow artists seeking inspiration. She'd be unlikely to have "war stories" and probably does have a small group of particularly inspiring friends that help her with her art.

Falling in love with a mortal does happen for outsiders, but it's very rare, and as such tends to be the type of thing significant stories are told about or that have long-term repercussions on things both from the outsider and the mortal side of things.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Torvald Nom wrote:

Dear JJ,

Just need a bit of advice with a dog-themed PFS character I'm making...

If you were to make a character with a Tiny-sized dog familiar for PFS (say, a pug, since I recently got a miniature for one off Reaper Mini and inspiration struck like a lightning bolt!), would you "re-skin" another animal's stats (if so, which one?) or just modify its stats down as though a Small dog had a size reduction?

PFS is not a great place to do things like this, frankliy, where the game demands so much exact rules. You might get a GM on day one who's okay with your reskinned tiny dog, but the next day your GM might think you're tyring to pull some sort of fast one and won't allow your dog, and on day three you might have a GM who doesn't care but hits your party with a fireball and kills your dog outright, not knowing (or even not caring) how much of an attachment you've formed with the dog.

I would save this character concept for a non PFS game, or if you MUST do it, just say you have a pet pug but he stays at home and doesn't show up on screen in the game.

(If this was a game I was running, I would ABSOLUTELY just have you size down a Small dog to Tiny, and be done with it. But I can't vouch for how any one of any number of random PFS GMs might respond to the situation, and there aren't specific rules in the game for Tiny dogs, so you're kinda out of luck.)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

baron arem heshvaun wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
'd like to say "Finishing off my Temple of Elemental Evil" game and setting the stage for the transition to the Slavelords game,

How far did your party of players get to in the old grand ToEE James?

Were you able to throw some cool plot twits at them?

What were their most noteworthy accomplishments?

Did they get to reach the nodes?
Did they free the trapped prince?
Did they free Zuggtmoy, and who was your Golarion stand in for Iuz?

They got to nearly the end. In fact, tonight is the last session, and they're going to finish it off so that in 2 weeks they'll be starting on Slave Lords.

My goal for the game was not to do too many adjustments or tweaks to the game, but to present it as-is, with as little adjustment to the story as possible. There's plenty of cool plot twists in the adventure, obviously, but I didn't create any new ones really. There have been some fun unexpected combat results (such as Rob using his wand of a wonder to create a tree in the middle of a fight with a demon and using that as a "throne" of sorts to pump up party morale so that rather than flee they fought the hezrou and, with the aid of a stack of plot twist cards, managed to win the battle), but nothing that I've intentionally added to the plot to deviate things from the text as written.

I'm not including the nodes, after some consideration. That whole section of the adventure is very much set up as a "Now do the rest of this yourself; have fun!" which on one level is very cool for a GM who has lots of time and the energy and will to make the last four huge regions his/her own... but that's not of much interest to me. I want to show the players the original 1st edition feel and have fun glorying in nostalgia, and the nodes don't have that since they're not actually detailed in print.

They haven't found the trapped prince. I doubt they will.

The Zuggtmoy stuff happens tonight. My Golarion stand-in for Iuz is Lamashtu.


James Jacobs wrote:
Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
Wow Hunter Spoiler ** spoiler omitted **

Neat!

And too late on the motivation. I caved in and bought Legion and reactivated my subscription and am now playing again! :-P

If you have any problems with how the artifact weapons look, they can be transmoged. I'm thinking of transmogging the beastmaster artifact weapon into the Ironfeather bow I picked up from my adventure into the Kaldorei past in Cataclysm.


James Jacobs wrote:
Alundrell wrote:

Hi James

I'm curious about what kind of lives the good outsiders live. Do they have free will like mortals do or are they bound to serve a god?

Do they do anything for fun or do they just live to fulfill their purpose based on type and to combat the forces of evil?

What kind of intra personal relationships do they have with each other? Is their concept of friensip and romance the same as ours or different?

If they fall in love with a mortal( it must happen time to time given half cilestials and asimar) how free are they to asume a human form, if they have that ability, and live amongst mortals with that person?

If they can plane shift, and do have some mortal friends, how much freedom do they come to the material plane and pop in for a drink or two or just hang out and have fun?

Outsiders don't really have much free will—they're driven by their alignments. That's why it's so rare to see an outsider of an unexpected alignment; those are the very rare few outsiders who manage to escape their nature. Outsiders don't need to eat or drink, either. Their lives are VERY different than mortal lives as a result. For the most part, what they do is what's detailed in their description—they do that more or less all the time, and to them, doing what they were made to do IS "fun" for them. Some of them can have relationships with others, but relationships outside the norm of their themes would tend to be unusual.

For example, a hound archon is a soldier and a sentinel. He may well have buddies who are also soldiers and they might share battle stories or the like, and enjoy each other's company in the way soldiers do, but they would be unlikely to have a family they'd go home to since heaven's army IS their family. On the other hand, a lillend is a tale-teller and artist, so she'd likely spend her time studying about art history or seeking out new performances or art to admire or creating them herself, perhaps sharing that time with fellow artists seeking inspiration....

is that why outsiders with their mortal memories so rare? They seem to be a bit of a wild card, would those rare outsiders still possess there mortal free will? Or would they mostly behave like the outsider they are but just remember their former life?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
Wow Hunter Spoiler ** spoiler omitted **

Neat!

And too late on the motivation. I caved in and bought Legion and reactivated my subscription and am now playing again! :-P

If you have any problems with how the artifact weapons look, they can be transmoged. I'm thinking of transmogging the beastmaster artifact weapon into the Ironfeather bow I picked up from my adventure into the Kaldorei past in Cataclysm.

Yup; been tinkering a little bit with transmogs but then immediatley found better gear so for the moment I'll be holding off on that. That said, I can't imagine replacing my bow, so maybe I'll get it fancied up... not sure yet.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Alundrell wrote:

is that why outsiders with their mortal memories so rare? They seem to be a bit of a wild card, would those rare outsiders still possess there mortal free will? Or would they mostly behave like the outsider they are but just remember their former life?

Nope. It's rare for an outsider to retain mortal memories because that's not the norm, and in almost all cases the process of going from mortal to soul to outsider is so potent that it wipes things clean.

An outsider that DOES retain its memories is much more likely to behave in more familiar ways and forge more relationships outside of their expected role; these outsiders tend to be movers and shakers among their kind as a result, but also tend to attract enemies faster as a result as well.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
baron arem heshvaun wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
'd like to say "Finishing off my Temple of Elemental Evil" game and setting the stage for the transition to the Slavelords game,

How far did your party of players get to in the old grand ToEE James?

Were you able to throw some cool plot twits at them?

What were their most noteworthy accomplishments?

Did they get to reach the nodes?
Did they free the trapped prince?
Did they free Zuggtmoy, and who was your Golarion stand in for Iuz?

They got to nearly the end. In fact, tonight is the last session, and they're going to finish it off so that in 2 weeks they'll be starting on Slave Lords.

My goal for the game was not to do too many adjustments or tweaks to the game, but to present it as-is, with as little adjustment to the story as possible. There's plenty of cool plot twists in the adventure, obviously, but I didn't create any new ones really. There have been some fun unexpected combat results (such as Rob using his wand of a wonder to create a tree in the middle of a fight with a demon and using that as a "throne" of sorts to pump up party morale so that rather than flee they fought the hezrou and, with the aid of a stack of plot twist cards, managed to win the battle), but nothing that I've intentionally added to the plot to deviate things from the text as written.

I'm not including the nodes, after some consideration. That whole section of the adventure is very much set up as a "Now do the rest of this yourself; have fun!" which on one level is very cool for a GM who has lots of time and the energy and will to make the last four huge regions his/her own... but that's not of much interest to me. I want to show the players the original 1st edition feel and have fun glorying in nostalgia, and the nodes don't have that since they're not actually detailed in print.

They haven't found the trapped prince. I doubt they will.

The Zuggtmoy stuff happens tonight. My Golarion stand-in for Iuz is Lamashtu.

Good luck to the intrepid adventurers! Death to the Demon Queen of Fungi!

As for Slavelords, are you converting the collected volume over? And if so, any interesting ideas on how to handle the party at Dame Gold's?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Misroi wrote:

As for Slavelords, are you converting the collected volume over? And if so, any interesting ideas on how to handle the party at Dame Gold's?

I haven't 100% decided yet. I have the recent hardcover reprint from WotC and might just use that, but I might use the brown-cover compilation that came out after Temple, if I can find my copy.

As with the previous one, I'll be running it as close to as-is in print as I can. Unlike Temple or Queen of the Spiders, though, I've actually NEVER run the Slavers adventures and haven't read them in ages, so I have no idea what the "party at Dame Gold's" is referring to off the top of my head. So, no interesting ideas at this point.


James Jacobs wrote:
Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
Wow Hunter Spoiler ** spoiler omitted **

Neat!

And too late on the motivation. I caved in and bought Legion and reactivated my subscription and am now playing again! :-P

If you have any problems with how the artifact weapons look, they can be transmoged. I'm thinking of transmogging the beastmaster artifact weapon into the Ironfeather bow I picked up from my adventure into the Kaldorei past in Cataclysm.
Yup; been tinkering a little bit with transmogs but then immediatley found better gear so for the moment I'll be holding off on that. That said, I can't imagine replacing my bow, so maybe I'll get it fancied up... not sure yet.

In Legion instead of going through infinite weapon replacements, you'll be just using one weapon per spec. I've obtained the artifact weapon for two of my specs and will soon be going for the third and last.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
In Legion instead of going through infinite weapon replacements, you'll be just using one weapon per spec. I've obtained the artifact weapon for two of my specs and will soon be going for the third and last.

Yup, and in my case only ever using the bow, since I'm not all that into switching specs.


James Jacobs wrote:
Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
In Legion instead of going through infinite weapon replacements, you'll be just using one weapon per spec. I've obtained the artifact weapon for two of my specs and will soon be going for the third and last.
Yup, and in my case only ever using the bow, since I'm not all that into switching specs.

I assume that your prefered spec is Marksman than. There's a lot of lore for the Marksman weapon, you should enjoy it.... and the NPC reactions to you having it.

It's a great time to be an elf, either night or blood.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
In Legion instead of going through infinite weapon replacements, you'll be just using one weapon per spec. I've obtained the artifact weapon for two of my specs and will soon be going for the third and last.
Yup, and in my case only ever using the bow, since I'm not all that into switching specs.

I assume that your prefered spec is Marksman than. There's a lot of lore for the Marksman weapon, you should enjoy it.... and the NPC reactions to you having it.

It's a great time to be an elf, either night or blood.

Yup; I've preferred Marksman since day one, more or less. I played a little bit with Beastmaster back in one of the first expansions since it let you tame Devilsaurs, but got tired of it and went back to Marksman. I've never enjoyed survival. If I wanted to do melee, I would have played a rogue.

Radiant Oath

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

What would you say are the best APs for elf PCs?


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

Good afternoon,
I'm DMing a Wrath of the Righteous campaign and the party is in the final chapter. The paladin failed a save to an imprisonment spell and was imprisoned "deep beneath the ground" but then that ground in IZ collapsed into a rift. My question is two fold: 1 Does the imprisonment globe go even deeper to be underground or was it deep enough to begin with? And 2. since a freedom spell needs to be cast in the area that the imprisonment occurred that seems to mean some method of flight is now necessary for both the liberator and the imprisoned character to be freed as nothing indicates they are freed in the nearest safe location or nearest solid surface(at least that is where I am leaning)?

Radiant Oath

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

Another question. When Aroden was alive, and before he became a god and stuff, what kind of wizard was he? A specialist or universalist? If he was a specialist, what school did he specialize in?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
What would you say are the best APs for elf PCs?

Second Darkness and Ironfang Invasion I guess. That said, they're all pretty good for elves (or dwarves or gnomes or whatever—that's part of being a core race).

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Another question. When Aroden was alive, and before he became a god and stuff, what kind of wizard was he? A specialist or universalist? If he was a specialist, what school did he specialize in?

Universalist.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Jareth Elirae wrote:

Good afternoon,

I'm DMing a Wrath of the Righteous campaign and the party is in the final chapter. The paladin failed a save to an imprisonment spell and was imprisoned "deep beneath the ground" but then that ground in IZ collapsed into a rift. My question is two fold: 1 Does the imprisonment globe go even deeper to be underground or was it deep enough to begin with? And 2. since a freedom spell needs to be cast in the area that the imprisonment occurred that seems to mean some method of flight is now necessary for both the liberator and the imprisoned character to be freed as nothing indicates they are freed in the nearest safe location or nearest solid surface(at least that is where I am leaning)?

1) Imprisonment goes as deep as it needs go go. I've always assumed that it's below the Darklands even. In any case, easily deep enough to not be impacted by the collapse of Iz.

2) Yup; you need to be in the basic area where the effect first came into being. In this case, a fly or levitate or similar spell would be required... but the wording is kinda vague, so in theory, and at the GM's whim, the "locale" could either refer to the 5-foot-square where the paladin was last standing or simply the area—so you could be standing on the new ground where Iz collapsed to or on a cliff's edge looking over the new chasm.


Mr. James Jacobs,

In your estimation is there a way to do a Shadow Over Innsmouth type story set in the modern day while keeping the classic prejudices out of it?

Sovereign Court

James Jacobs wrote:
It's important mostly in the same way that an interstate is important—it allows for relatively swift travel between planes and between different areas in those planes. If you know how to navigate the Styx, traveling from one Abyssal realm to another, or from Hell to Abaddon, or whatever combo you want, is something you can do relatively swiftly rather than having to resort to gate or plane shift or the like.

Would you as a GM allow Lore: Styx River checks to properly navigate* the Styx and travel through the lower planes, Axis, Maestrom? (Lore is a new Int-based skill outlined in Unchained)

*Only for navigation checks (i.e. you'd still need someone else with Profession: Sailor or Boater to actually control whatever Styx-worthy vessel you may use for this.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

The NPC wrote:

Mr. James Jacobs,

In your estimation is there a way to do a Shadow Over Innsmouth type story set in the modern day while keeping the classic prejudices out of it?

Yes.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Purple Dragon Knight wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
It's important mostly in the same way that an interstate is important—it allows for relatively swift travel between planes and between different areas in those planes. If you know how to navigate the Styx, traveling from one Abyssal realm to another, or from Hell to Abaddon, or whatever combo you want, is something you can do relatively swiftly rather than having to resort to gate or plane shift or the like.

Would you as a GM allow Lore: Styx River checks to properly navigate* the Styx and travel through the lower planes, Axis, Maestrom? (Lore is a new Int-based skill outlined in Unchained)

*Only for navigation checks (i.e. you'd still need someone else with Profession: Sailor or Boater to actually control whatever Styx-worthy vessel you may use for this.

I'm not familiar with the Lore mechanic in Unchained, but I'd certainly allow Knowledge (planes) to do this or even Profession (sailor) at a much higher DC.

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
What would you say are the best APs for elf PCs?
Second Darkness and Ironfang Invasion I guess. That said, they're all pretty good for elves (or dwarves or gnomes or whatever—that's part of being a core race).

Well, I know what I'll play for Ironfang Invasion now! Thanks, James! :D

Elves in Nirmathas'd be Forlorn, right?


James Jacobs wrote:
The NPC wrote:

Mr. James Jacobs,

In your estimation is there a way to do a Shadow Over Innsmouth type story set in the modern day while keeping the classic prejudices out of it?

Yes.

Any hints in that regard?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
What would you say are the best APs for elf PCs?
Second Darkness and Ironfang Invasion I guess. That said, they're all pretty good for elves (or dwarves or gnomes or whatever—that's part of being a core race).

Well, I know what I'll play for Ironfang Invasion now! Thanks, James! :D

Elves in Nirmathas'd be Forlorn, right?

Elves are Forlorn when they are raised by non-elves. An elf can be raised by elves in any region of the Inner Sea Region, or by non-elves in any region of the Inner Sea Region. Whether or not your elf is forlorn is up to you, in other words.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
The NPC wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
The NPC wrote:

Mr. James Jacobs,

In your estimation is there a way to do a Shadow Over Innsmouth type story set in the modern day while keeping the classic prejudices out of it?

Yes.
Any hints in that regard?

Not really, since I don't really see Shadow Over Innsmouth as having any "classic prejudices" in it (unlike, say, Horror at Red Hook).

There's been more modern movie adaptations of Shadow Over Innsmouth as examples—Roger Corman's "Humanoids from the Deep" and Stuart Gordon's "Dagon" both come to mind immediately. Looking to our own products, I suppose "Wake of the Watcher" and "From Shore to Sea" would be the best examples of a Pathfinder version of this story.

And of course, it's one of Lovecraft's most famous books, and there's been a LOT of other authors expanding on the themes of Shadow Over Innsmouth over the years. In fact, there are entire anthologies about this very topic. In particular, the follwoing three anthologies:

Shadows Over Innsmouth

Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth

Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth

There's LOTS of examples in those books on how to do the story differently.


James Jacobs wrote:
The NPC wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
The NPC wrote:

Mr. James Jacobs,

In your estimation is there a way to do a Shadow Over Innsmouth type story set in the modern day while keeping the classic prejudices out of it?

Yes.
Any hints in that regard?

Not really, since I don't really see Shadow Over Innsmouth as having any "classic prejudices" in it (unlike, say, Horror at Red Hook).

There's been more modern movie adaptations of Shadow Over Innsmouth as examples—Roger Corman's "Humanoids from the Deep" and Stuart Gordon's "Dagon" both come to mind immediately. Looking to our own products, I suppose "Wake of the Watcher" and "From Shore to Sea" would be the best examples of a Pathfinder version of this story.

And of course, it's one of Lovecraft's most famous books, and there's been a LOT of other authors expanding on the themes of Shadow Over Innsmouth over the years. In fact, there are entire anthologies about this very topic. In particular, the follwoing three anthologies:

Shadows Over Innsmouth

Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth

Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth

There's LOTS of examples in those books on how to do the story differently.

Thanks you :)


James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Another question. When Aroden was alive, and before he became a god and stuff, what kind of wizard was he? A specialist or universalist? If he was a specialist, what school did he specialize in?
Universalist.

So did he do that Hand Of The Apprentice thing with his sword?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Another question. When Aroden was alive, and before he became a god and stuff, what kind of wizard was he? A specialist or universalist? If he was a specialist, what school did he specialize in?
Universalist.
So did he do that Hand Of The Apprentice thing with his sword?

He could have if he wanted. But. He had better things to do, being a powerful wizard, than that.

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