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Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:
Rysky wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
knightnday wrote:
Will there be more revealed about flumphs and their role against the Dark Tapestry?
God I hope not. I think we've said enough about flumphs. I'd rather not spend more of Paizo's energy building up the lore of a goofy monster we can only use because of the SRD—if we're gonna build lore for a goofy monster, I'd rather it be something we made up ourselves.

Do you regret Flumphs being put into Misfit Monsters Redeemed?

MMF is where I first found out about Flumphs, and I thought they were really cool. So it's kinda disheartening when I see you and the others being so vehemently against using them.

Not in the slightest. The whole point of Misfit Monsters Redeemed was to give things like flumphs a chance at said redemption. That book's original genesis in a meeting was actually sort of a joke when we were brainstorming what next revisited book to do, but it gained traction almost immediately as the challenge of redeeming things like flumphs and flail snails really REALLY appealed to us.

Maybe some day we'll live in a world where the vast majority of gamers know flumphs only from Misfit Monsters Redeemed, at which point they'll TRULY be redeemed, but since the Internet loves dredging up old skeletons out of closets and content the designers might rather stay buried, I'm not too hopeful of that.

Anyway, don't let the fact that other folks don't like flumphs discourage you. They're not you and you're not them.

Okies, Thankies.


Howdy James! You probably get this all the time, but thanks for answering all my questions and those of everyone else!

1) I find keeping track of all the evil outsider groups' goals confusing. Could you tell me the goals of each group?

2) Are you dressing up for Halloween this year?


1. If you can had to pick a song that nicely captured the themes and beliefs of Chaotic Good, what would it be?

2. What's Erastil's opinion of the Eldest and the fey?

3. What's Desna's opinion of the Eldest and the fey?

4. Besides Sarenrae's dilemma with the misguided Cult of the Dawnflower is there any other Good-aligned that has major issues with schism?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Et cetera et cetera wrote:

Howdy James! You probably get this all the time, but thanks for answering all my questions and those of everyone else!

1) I find keeping track of all the evil outsider groups' goals confusing. Could you tell me the goals of each group?

2) Are you dressing up for Halloween this year?

1) Sure; here goes. But keep in mind that a lot of these fiends have very similar or overlapping themes; that's intentional. They arise, after all, from a diverse range of real-world cultures all of whom created these ideas out of the same basic fears and terrors we all share as humans.

Devils want to corrupt mortals and conscript them to servitude in Hell, either as damned souls to torment or as potential new devils.
Daemons want to consume all life and embody the worst ways one can die.
Demons want to encourage sin (so that sinful souls will spawn more demons) but also want to destroy everything mortals love and enjoy, be it society or life or love or flesh or home or whatever.
Rakshasas are evil spirits who spurn the gods becasue they think THEY should be the ones worshiped as gods and live out lives of decadence at the expense of all others.
Kytons see flesh and life as needing improvement and enjoy pain and torture in the way a mortal would enjoy a fine meal or a beautiful work of art.
Demodands want to destroy faith.
Qlippoth want to reclaim the rule of the Abyss and to destroy all non-qlippoth, but in particular want to destroy demons, but realize they cannot as long as mortal life continues to sin, so step one is to destroy free-willed mortal life to choke off the spigot that keeps demons being so fecund on the Abyss so that they can then clean up those pests and reclaim their home.
Oni are disimbodied spirits that failed as kami and manage to manifest a body on the Material Plane to ape a humanoid, after which they revel in the pleasures of the flesh at the expense of others.
Sahkils embody primal fears and seek to spread that fear and oppose those they fell from, the psychopomps.
Divs spawn from corrupt genies and seek to ruin and despoil things created by mortals; they're similar to demons in that regard but focus primarially on things built by mortals so that the mortals themselves can remain around to be distraught about the loss of their creations; they enjoy causing frustration and suffering.
Asuras are the manifestations of accidents made by gods, living blasphemies that seek to sow doubt among mortals and ultimately revenge themselves upon the gods for their own existence.

2) Nope.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Delightful wrote:

1. If you can had to pick a song that nicely captured the themes and beliefs of Chaotic Good, what would it be?

2. What's Erastil's opinion of the Eldest and the fey?

3. What's Desna's opinion of the Eldest and the fey?

4. Besides Sarenrae's dilemma with the misguided Cult of the Dawnflower is there any other Good-aligned that has major issues with schism?

1) Another Brick in the Wall

2) Wary and suspicious and frustrated and not trusting. Things to watch out for, but not things to crusade against.

3) She thinks they're mostly cute and fun and intriguing but also dangerous and unpredictable. Handle with care, but handle nonetheless.

4) Not to the extent that we see with Sarenrae. Mostly because I don't think complicating good religions in that way is something that benefits the game.


Do linnorm kings have to kill a linnorm alone or can they do so as a group?

Does it have to be in meelee combat or can they use magic or guile?

Are there any other 'rules' about the ascension of a linnorm king?

Radiant Oath

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

Would the best way to emulate the medieval handgun or arquebus be Pathfinder's culverin?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Would the best way to emulate the medieval handgun or arquebus be Pathfinder's culverin?

The firearms in Ultimate Combat are intended to emulate medieval firearms. Which one works best for which weapon is kind of up to the individual's tastes, I guess, but there are a lot of options to choose from. Especially if you branch out into Ultimate Equipment.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

TheHappyFlumph wrote:

Do linnorm kings have to kill a linnorm alone or can they do so as a group?

Does it have to be in meelee combat or can they use magic or guile?

Are there any other 'rules' about the ascension of a linnorm king?

Alone, but preferably with witnesses.

Whatever they want. And as White Estrid showed, you merely have to defeat the linnorm, not actually kill it.

Not really.


How do the Ulfen commonly see orcs and half orcs? Orcish and Ulfen culture seem mildly similar with the whole love of raiding thing so I'd imagine that they'd somewhat get along, right?


Say a hypothetical TV network approached you personally, offering to adapt an Adventure Path as a television series (with the official iconics for that AP as the main characters) and letting you pick which one, which would you choose?

(Assume this network has the budget and the reputation to suggest they could pull it off, and that they fully intend to keep things as exact to the text as much as possible barring maybe trimming a side-quest or finding a way to compress it to a montage or flashback for pacing purposes)


James Jacobs wrote:
Demons want to encourage sin (so that sinful souls will spawn more demons) but also want to destroy everything mortals love and enjoy, be it society or life or love or flesh or home or whatever.

What things does Nocticula want to destroy, besides other demon lords?

What does Socothbenoth want to destroy?

What does Lamashtu want to destroy?

What does the typical succubus want to destroy?

Veering off of Pathfinder, what does Graz'zt want to destroy?

The general thing I'm wondering is what do the demons who like to play with mortals for a while want to destroy, and why? I mean, if you destroy all the mortals then you can't play with them anymore.

Grand Lodge

What was Pathfinder trying to achieve with the original 6 new Base classes? Was it trying to fulfill character fantasies that were not yet fully realized with the original 11 classes or trying to fill gaps gameplay-wise that were left open?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Delightful wrote:
How do the Ulfen commonly see orcs and half orcs? Orcish and Ulfen culture seem mildly similar with the whole love of raiding thing so I'd imagine that they'd somewhat get along, right?

As monsters to kill.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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MythicFox wrote:

Say a hypothetical TV network approached you personally, offering to adapt an Adventure Path as a television series (with the official iconics for that AP as the main characters) and letting you pick which one, which would you choose?

(Assume this network has the budget and the reputation to suggest they could pull it off, and that they fully intend to keep things as exact to the text as much as possible barring maybe trimming a side-quest or finding a way to compress it to a montage or flashback for pacing purposes)

Hell's Rebels.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

AlgaeNymph wrote:

What things does Nocticula want to destroy, besides other demon lords?

What does Socothbenoth want to destroy?

What does Lamashtu want to destroy?

What does the typical succubus want to destroy?

Veering off of Pathfinder, what does Graz'zt want to destroy?

The general thing I'm wondering is what do the demons who like to play with mortals for a while want to destroy, and why? I mean, if you destroy all the mortals then you can't play with them anymore.

Demon lords are kind of above the rabble. They have their own agendas, as detailed in the Book of the Damned.

The typical succubus wants to destroy love and trust and lineages.

Demon lords do NOT want to destroy all mortals. New demons form from sinful mortal souls, after all, so they want to actually keep most mortals alive. They just want those living mortals to be super sinful and evil and all that, and by destroying their hope and dreams and aspirations and goals, they basically get just that.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

IDTheftVictim wrote:
What was Pathfinder trying to achieve with the original 6 new Base classes? Was it trying to fulfill character fantasies that were not yet fully realized with the original 11 classes or trying to fill gaps gameplay-wise that were left open?

Both classes we could call our own and show off our own design and creative processes beyond just simple conversions of existing classes, but also to fill niches in Golarion that needed filling. We had alchemists running Thuvia, witches running Irrisen, inquisitors running around in Cheliax and the Worldwound, cavaliers crusading all over, and oracles featuring heavily in many societies. The summoner was the only one that didn't really have a pre-built niche in Golarion.


Is prophecy broken across the material plane and the planes, or just on Golarion?


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

What's your "elevator pitch" for Yellowbrickroad? (Assuming you've seen it seems a reasonably safe bet at this point)

I love the movie, but I have a hard time telling people much about it.


Hey James,

I have a question about demons being vulnerable to Cold Forged Iron. Where did this come from? Is this just a legacy from D&D that used to show the difference from devils or is there some basis in mythology/religion? I know fey are vulnerable to it in myth...but we're demons ever were in myth or religion?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Belltrap wrote:
Is prophecy broken across the material plane and the planes, or just on Golarion?

It's pretty much broken in all the products we do, since we have no real interest in doing any prophecy-themed adventures or products. Which more or less means that, yes, it's broken across all of all of it.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Cole Deschain wrote:

What's your "elevator pitch" for Yellowbrickroad? (Assuming you've seen it seems a reasonably safe bet at this point)

I love the movie, but I have a hard time telling people much about it.

Saw it several years ago when it was making the limited theatrical run.

The pitch: A group investigates a mysterious wilderness trail that swallowed up a township in 1940 and finds more than they bargained for.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

John Kretzer wrote:

Hey James,

I have a question about demons being vulnerable to Cold Forged Iron. Where did this come from? Is this just a legacy from D&D that used to show the difference from devils or is there some basis in mythology/religion? I know fey are vulnerable to it in myth...but we're demons ever were in myth or religion?

It's mostly legacy from 3rd edition D&D, but there is some basis for iron having special properties against supernatural creatures.


Good Morning James!

How long ago was Ragathiel's ascension into an Empyreal Lord? Was it before Earthfall or later than that?


Another one,

Has black and red always been the imperial Chelish colors, or were they adopted post the ascension of the Thrune family/ Azmodean Church?

Radiant Oath

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

What type of armor do you think this guy is wearing?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Dear James Jacobs,

I am preparing a slightly abridged version of Carrion Hill as a Halloween special and I had an idea that I would like to run by you as both a fan of Lovecraft and a Pathfinder professional:

Spoilers for Carrion Hill:

So the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth is described as the essence of Yog-Sothoth forced into a humanoid creature. One of the characters in my party is a hungry ghost monk who devours spiritual energy to increase his personal power.
Now this gave me the idea to alter the adventure's climax a little: what if the Spawn, upon his destruction, senses what is basically an open receptacle for spiritual energy (the monk) and tries to possess him?

This opens up a few questions:


  • Is this a terrible idea to inflict another encounter on the (diminished) party after facing an already terrible foe?
  • What CR should the possessed monk be?
  • Is there any template or creature that you can think of that would be a good mechanical representation of what's going on?

    Do you have any experience with a situation like this? I'd love to hear some advice on this. I feel like a twist like this would be a lot of fun in a one-shot Halloween game. Especially if I make sure to build up the monks fascination with the esoteric lore found during the module.

    Oh, and I am aware of the problems that can come with player-vs-player situations and I would make sure that everyone is still enjoying themselves, especially the monk player.


Thanks for taking the time to read this and any advice would be very much appreciated!


What do you think of cosmic horrors in visual media who are portrayed... differently? I love when eldritch abominations are portrayed in a manner that hammers home their OTHERness.

In animated works, they use CG, or paper cutouts, or just a different animation style than normal for the show (examples include the witches from Madoka, the Angels from Evangelion, and Alucard from Hellsing).

In video games (generally 2D ones), they throw out 3D models, or more sophisticated sprites than the game has used up to that point (examples include the final bosses of Undertale, Earthbound and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow).

Live-action works use the same basic methods as animation (the Beast and Nestene Consiousness from Doctor Who, Cthulhu in the 2005 silent film of Call of Cthulhu, the film version of Ghost Rider, BOB from Twin Peaks).

In other visual media, the creatures are drawn completely differently (like the Snarl from Order of the Stick, or Coyote from Gunnerkrigg Court).

That's the sort of thing I mean: a complete trip-fest that breaks from the medium's visual norms, and leaves you with a feeling of "What... IS that!?"


Okay, here are some assorted questions...

1) If I remember correctly, you mentioned that if Nocticula were to turn into a Chaotic Neutral goddess, her areas of concern would be artists, outcasts, and the glories of midnight.
Now, in the long line of "how would deity X react" - Going by Lyrakien Azata, Azata in general, and her Deific Obedience, Desna cares at least somewhat for art (though probably more about "performance" as in song and dance, not as much about statues and painting), outcasts and travelers are demographics with a rather large overlap, and midnight is part of the night, and the one potentially redeemable succubus in APs started her way due to Desna's divine intervention, so... Would Desna and Nocticula interact? And if so, then how? Wary, but potential allies?

2) How tall are Lyrakien Azata? I know they're Tiny, but "Tiny creature" could be anywhere from two feet to half a foot 'tall'. (My headcanon currently has them around 6 to 7 inches small.)

3) I hope this doesn't come across too confrontational, but... Why daemons? Mostly, why use that name? It's so easy to confuse with demon. What is the benefit of creating this kind of potential confusion?
(And because I can't hold back *all* the snark - feel free to ignore this part: Are we going to see lawful evil daimons any time soon, to complete the set?)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Ral' Yareth wrote:

Good Morning James!

How long ago was Ragathiel's ascension into an Empyreal Lord? Was it before Earthfall or later than that?

Unrevealed, but I suspect it was after Earthfall. He's relatively "new" to the scene.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ral' Yareth wrote:

Another one,

Has black and red always been the imperial Chelish colors, or were they adopted post the ascension of the Thrune family/ Azmodean Church?

Those have been the Imperial colors from the start.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
What type of armor do you think this guy is wearing?

Banded mail.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Nullpunkt wrote:

Dear James Jacobs,

I am preparing a slightly abridged version of Carrion Hill as a Halloween special and I had an idea that I would like to run by you as both a fan of Lovecraft and a Pathfinder professional:

Spoiler:
So the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth is described as the essence of Yog-Sothoth forced into a humanoid creature. One of the characters in my party is a hungry ghost monk who devours spiritual energy to increase his personal power.
Now this gave me the idea to alter the adventure's climax a little: what if the Spawn, upon his destruction, senses what is basically an open receptacle for spiritual energy (the monk) and tries to possess him?
This opens up a few questions:

Is this a terrible idea to inflict another encounter on the (diminished) party after facing an already terrible foe?
What CR should the possessed monk be?
Is there any template or creature that you can think of that would be a good mechanical representation of what's going on?
Do you have any experience with a situation like this? I'd love to hear some advice on this. I feel like a twist like this would be a lot of fun in a one-shot Halloween game. Especially if I make sure to build up the monks fascination with the esoteric lore found during the module.

Oh, and I am aware of the problems that can come with player-vs-player situations and I would make sure that everyone is still enjoying themselves, especially the monk player.


Thanks for taking the time to read this and any advice would be very much appreciated!

Spoiler:
It's kind of a bad idea to use a player character's abilities to punish them that way. If you go ahead with this, the PC should have at the very least a save to resist it. I would ACTUALLY treat it like a curse that takes several days to fully manifest so that the PCs could have a chance to fix it, even if that meant going on another adventure of your own design to seek out a cure... but that's kind of anticlimactic and doesn't work well with abridging a game since it makes it even longer. That said, if you're running this as a one-shot adventure and your players are open to potentially not having everyone live, having the character transform like this could be an interesting and spooky ending. I wouldn't go so far as to do PVP; I'd instead leave that part unsaid, with the infected character running off into the night and then, over the next few months, rumors spread. Having that information be, essentially, read-aloud text you inform the PCs of at the end of the adventure is a creepy way to put a spooky coda at the end of a one-shot adventure; I do this a LOT in one-shot Call of Cthulhu games.

If you're going to have the possessed monk be a single foe that faces the PCs, his CR should be Average Party Level +2 or +3.

There's actually a template coming in a few months in the Strange Aeons AP that would be perfect for this... the Child of Yog-Sothoth (which is the template that lets you make Wilbur Whatley, the more human-looking twin brother of the original Spawn of Yog-Sothoth).

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Voyd211 wrote:

What do you think of cosmic horrors in visual media who are portrayed... differently? I love when eldritch abominations are portrayed in a manner that hammers home their OTHERness.

In animated works, they use CG, or paper cutouts, or just a different animation style than normal for the show (examples include the witches from Madoka, the Angels from Evangelion, and Alucard from Hellsing).

In video games (generally 2D ones), they throw out 3D models, or more sophisticated sprites than the game has used up to that point (examples include the final bosses of Undertale, Earthbound and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow).

Live-action works use the same basic methods as animation (the Beast and Nestene Consiousness from Doctor Who, Cthulhu in the 2005 silent film of Call of Cthulhu, the film version of Ghost Rider, BOB from Twin Peaks).

In other visual media, the creatures are drawn completely differently (like the Snarl from Order of the Stick, or Coyote from Gunnerkrigg Court).

That's the sort of thing I mean: a complete trip-fest that breaks from the medium's visual norms, and leaves you with a feeling of "What... IS that!?"

My favorite example of this is in the excellent movie, Die Farbe, a German film adaptation of "The Colour Out Of Space." In that movie, which transplants the storyline to Germany but keeps most of everything else the same, is filmed in black and white but the Colour itself, when it shows up, is in lurid magenta/pink/red full color. It's a really fantastic and incredible way to show something that is of a color that doesn't exist in the natural world.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Rajnish Umbra, Shadow Caller wrote:

Okay, here are some assorted questions...

1) If I remember correctly, you mentioned that if Nocticula were to turn into a Chaotic Neutral goddess, her areas of concern would be artists, outcasts, and the glories of midnight.
Now, in the long line of "how would deity X react" - Going by Lyrakien Azata, Azata in general, and her Deific Obedience, Desna cares at least somewhat for art (though probably more about "performance" as in song and dance, not as much about statues and painting), outcasts and travelers are demographics with a rather large overlap, and midnight is part of the night, and the one potentially redeemable succubus in APs started her way due to Desna's divine intervention, so... Would Desna and Nocticula interact? And if so, then how? Wary, but potential allies?

2) How tall are Lyrakien Azata? I know they're Tiny, but "Tiny creature" could be anywhere from two feet to half a foot 'tall'. (My headcanon currently has them around 6 to 7 inches small.)

3) I hope this doesn't come across too confrontational, but... Why daemons? Mostly, why use that name? It's so easy to confuse with demon. What is the benefit of creating this kind of potential confusion?
(And because I can't hold back *all* the snark - feel free to ignore this part: Are we going to see lawful evil daimons any time soon, to complete the set?)

1) They'd likely be wary but potential allies.

2) They're about 20 inches tall.

3) Because of gaming tradition. It was first used in early 1st edition in the Vault of the Drow; they first showed up in print in the Fiend Folio and got a lot more into Monster Manual II. They've thus been a part of the game's tradition for about 35 years, and despite the similar name to demon, they've always had a very interesting niche in the game.


What made you choose Magnimar as the location of the Cult of the Redeemer Queen, rather than, say, Kaer Maga, a city of outcasts?

Can Szuriel and/or Trelmarixian's mortal origins be traced back to Golarion? Or is it possible they're from another planet somewhere in (on?) the Material Plane?


In Legacy of Fire (specifically Pathfinder #24: The Final Wish, p.22), Nefeshti, a noble djinn, is able to grant three wishes a day. However, the description for the noble djinn says "can grant three wishes to any being (nongenies only) who captures them."

So, if a noble djinn grants wishes to someone willingly, is it 3 per day or 3 per person?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Belltrap wrote:

What made you choose Magnimar as the location of the Cult of the Redeemer Queen, rather than, say, Kaer Maga, a city of outcasts?

Can Szuriel and/or Trelmarixian's mortal origins be traced back to Golarion? Or is it possible they're from another planet somewhere in (on?) the Material Plane?

Magnimar is a city from my homebrew and one that I've put a lot of work into. I have a LOT of ownership over many of the elements in Magnimar (with the help of Wes, of course, who added a lot of his own work in Pathfinder #2 to the city). I also wrote the Magnimar book.

Kaer-Maga is 100% James Sutter's creation; it was never a part of my homebrew. Although I do like Kaer-Maga, it's not "mine" and I don't really have the interest in personally adding to it.

Furthermore, an unusual group like the Cult of the Redeemer Queen is more interesting in Magnimar than it is in Kaer Maga, where weird is the norm. Adding another outlier group to Kaer Maga wouldn't have the same effect, and they'd just get lost in the shuffle. In Kaer Maga, weird is normal, which is a flavor I've always kind of not liked that much, frankly.

But the main reason? The Cult of the Redeemer is my invention, so I wanted to put it in one of "my" cities.

Unrevealed for Szuriel and Trelmarixian's mortal origins—that's the type of deep continuity I'd rather not reveal until it's important for a story element. That said, it's more likely to be the case for Trelmarixian, since he's 100% made up for Pathfinder, while Szuriel is from real mythology to a certain extent.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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AlgaeNymph wrote:

In Legacy of Fire (specifically Pathfinder #24: The Final Wish, p.22), Nefeshti, a noble djinn, is able to grant three wishes a day. However, the description for the noble djinn says "can grant three wishes to any being (nongenies only) who captures them."

So, if a noble djinn grants wishes to someone willingly, is it 3 per day or 3 per person?

Legacy of Fire used D&D's 3.5 rules. I don't remember off the top of my head how it worked in that game, but in Pathfinder, a noble djinn can grant 3 wishes per person if they're captured—it can do this as often as it wants, but only if it's captured and only up to 3 times per captor. Which is a really weird limitation, but also a neat and flavorful one.

This does mean that a noble djinn can't grant wishes to someone willingly; the conditions are really weirdly specific and pretty limiting.

I suspect that the ability WANTS to work more like it does for an efreeti: 1/day grant 3 wishes to a non-genie, and that's probably the best way to interpret the rules if you're in non-pedantic, rules-as-intended mode, I suppose.


Hey James Jacobs Creative Director!

1) Could you tell me the goals of each good outsider group?

2) And while your at it, could you tell me the goal of each neutral outsider group?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Et cetera et cetera wrote:

Hey James Jacobs Creative Director!

1) Could you tell me the goals of each good outsider group?

2) And while your at it, could you tell me the goal of each neutral outsider group?

1) I don't have as strong a grasp on the good outsiders, but here goes.

Archons are soldiers and defenders who seek to protect Heaven and mortal life from fiends.
Angels are agents of the good gods and act as messengers or generals.
Agathions embody peace and enlightenment, and seek to serve as diplomats and work to keep law and chaos friendly in being good.
Azatas want to party, and want you to have fun partying with them.

2) Aeons embody dualities, and seek to maintain the balance in the universe between the various dualities.
Kami are spirits that protect things in the Material Plane that cannot protect themselves.
Innevitables are living machines built to seek out and destroy agents of chaos.
Proteans are beings of pure chaos that help to keep the Maelstrom churning by functioning as the plane's "immune system" against order and law.
Psychopomps escort and guard and protect the souls of the dead as they travel to the Boneyard to be judged, and help to fight against those forces that would prey upon or corrupt souls.

Silver Crusade

EnWorld links to a ICv2 announcement of an Adventurer's Guide. It sounds like a campaign hardcover, but the picture has the RPG line logo.

1. Which line is it in? Is it an Adventure Path like the ACG with so much material they forgot the adventure?

2. Will we get an announcement on the Paizo boards/site soon?

3. Was this a secret project?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Ajaxis wrote:

EnWorld links to a ICv2 announcement of an Adventurer's Guide. It sounds like a campaign hardcover, but the picture has the RPG line logo.

1. Which line is it in? Is it an Adventure Path like the ACG with so much material they forgot the adventure?

2. Will we get an announcement on the Paizo boards/site soon?

3. Was this a secret project?

The art is placeholder. The logo is correct. As for the actual questions... hopefully I'll be able to talk about them tomorrow—Erik is out sick today, and he's the one that gets to decide when we talk publicly about things like this... even when the timing of releasing information is kinda messed up.

So... ask me again tomorrow.


Hello james,

I just need your quick interpretation!.

A bouda's gaze can bestow ill fortune on her enemies. This hex can affect a creature within 30 feet that the bouda can see. The target takes a –2 penalty on one of the following (bouda's choice): AC, ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. The hex lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the bouda's Intelligence modifier. A successful Will saving throw reduces the duration of the hex to 1 round. Once per day when the bouda uses this hex, she can impose two different penalties on the target instead of just one. If the bouda takes the evil eye hex, it increases the number of different penalties she can impose on the hex's target by 1.

So if I have evil eye hex, it only increases by 1 the number of different abilities I can affect with Bouda's gaze in general? Or this increment only works only when I use the "once per day ability"?


James Jacobs wrote:
Ajaxis wrote:

EnWorld links to a ICv2 announcement of an Adventurer's Guide. It sounds like a campaign hardcover, but the picture has the RPG line logo.

1. Which line is it in? Is it an Adventure Path like the ACG with so much material they forgot the adventure?

2. Will we get an announcement on the Paizo boards/site soon?

3. Was this a secret project?

The art is placeholder. The logo is correct. As for the actual questions... hopefully I'll be able to talk about them tomorrow—Erik is out sick today, and he's the one that gets to decide when we talk publicly about things like this... even when the timing of releasing information is kinda messed up.

So... ask me again tomorrow.

Oooo! Exciting. :)


James which class is your favorite and why?

Who created the alchemist? Was it mainly your idea? Do you play alchemist often?

Radiant Oath

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

Excited for the upcoming Obsidian game, Tyranny? Did you play Pillars of Eternity, and if you did, what did you think of it?


Hey Jacobs.

Do you use a point buy system for your games? How much?

Do you allow every class in the game in your campaign? Even Occult ones?

If you don't, Which classes you usually don't allow?


I know it's been a while, but do you recall whose idea, and whose work, was it to bring the Jabberwock, the Bandersnatch, and the Jub-Jub bird, to Pathfinder? Assuming it was you, or you were at least familiar with the process, a follow-up question:

A bit of research turns up that the Bandersnatch and the Jub-Jub bird, beyond passing mentions in Jabberwocky, also turned up in The Hunting of the Snark. They still weren't given much in the way of detail, so I'm curious as to how their abilities and powers were decided upon.

Along the same vein, who was the mad genius who interpreted the Jabberwock's "eyes of flame" as heat vision?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Nullpunkt wrote:

Dear James Jacobs,

I am preparing a slightly abridged version of Carrion Hill as a Halloween special and I had an idea that I would like to run by you as both a fan of Lovecraft and a Pathfinder professional:

** spoiler omitted **
Thanks for taking the time to read this and any advice would be very much appreciated!

Spoiler:
It's kind of a bad idea to use a player character's abilities to punish them that way. If you go ahead with this, the PC should have at the very least a save to resist it. I would ACTUALLY treat it like a curse that takes several days to fully manifest so that the PCs could have a chance to fix it, even if that meant going on another adventure of your own design to seek out a cure... but that's kind of anticlimactic and doesn't work well with abridging a game since it makes it even longer. That said, if you're running this as a one-shot adventure and your players are open to potentially not having everyone live, having the character transform like this could be an interesting and spooky ending. I wouldn't go so far as to do PVP; I'd instead leave that part unsaid, with the infected character running off into the night and then, over the next few months, rumors spread. Having that information be, essentially, read-aloud text you inform the PCs of at the end of the adventure is a creepy way to put a spooky coda at the end of a one-shot adventure; I do this a LOT in one-shot Call of Cthulhu games.

If you're going to have the possessed monk be a single foe that faces the PCs, his CR should be Average Party Level +2 or +3.

There's actually a template coming in a few months in the Strange Aeons AP that would be perfect for this... the Child of Yog-Sothoth (which is the template that lets you make Wilbur Whatley, the more human-looking twin brother of the original Spawn of Yog-Sothoth).

Thanks so much for the answer, I think I know how to proceed now! One more thing though:

Spoiler:
Even though the PVP won't be a problem in itself for my group, I think it can leave a sour taste for one side to "lose" the module in the final fight against (one of) their one. So I will take your advice and just plant the seed of corruption into the monk ("You gasp as you feel a breath of air as cold as the void between the stars enter through your mouth and nose.") and leave him only slightly disturbed but not worse for wear.

And next time I get together with the group for another one-shot with new characters, they will face that very same monk as the villain!

I'm sure that template you mentioned will then be very, very helpful.

Now to close with another question: From your knowledge of the Modules and AP line, is there any adventure that would lend itself well to have the villain be swapped out for said monk? Maybe even that Strange Aeons chapter with the template in question?
I find writing my own material from scratch daunting and if there was anything out there I could use as a starting point, I'd be happy to take it.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts on this!

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