Well... if folks like those and we decide it was a good idea in hindsight, maybe we'll do something similar for the magus. Let us know! (But it's worth pointing out that the sorcerer's been around for over a decade, and has thus had a lot of time for folks to play various variations—the magus has been around for a few weeks; we want to let folks play the baseline before we start tinkering too much!)The Empyreal and Sage variant bloodlines from the Wildblooded (Archetype) do this for the sorcerer class (pg 70 and 72 Ultimate Magic). This also includes class abilities.Highly unlikely. Changing a spellcaster's key ability score is kinda beyond the limit of what an archetype can do. That sounds more like the realm of house ruling.Any chance we will see a Magus or Inquisitor archetype that is focused on charisma for casting and class abilities?
Thank you.
I would love to see the magus as Cha bassed. The hex variant would work well to let me re-create my hexblade. Intimidation and other social skills were important to the concept.
Woot! Ultimate Races. hate the name, but the concept is what I've been wanting for years. :)
Can you give out any details James? Or at least confirm when details will come out? I'm hoping it's not just a book of races, I'm hoping there's rules/guidelines for creating homebrew races, examples using that, how to build monster PCs in detail, etc. :) And I hope a big chapter of 'racial traits' and 'preferred class benefits' with lists of what races get what (and maybe guidelines on what type of races should get what). :)
EDIT : Woah, found a post by Erik Mona with all the gory details. Awesome! :)
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I have made some changes to Magus in my home game. Can you please tell me are they gamebreaking in your opinion?
1) Magus is now Cha based caster.
2) 6 skill points per level.
3) Spontaneous caster.
Yeah. That's a better bard, essentially...
If you don't fancy bards in your game, that's fine... but still, changing a class to step on another class's toes isn't really good design if you ever want folks to play the other class.
The fact that the magus eventually gets better armor than the bard and gets sexier spells and stronger combat options means that giving the magus the bard's advantages (more skills, spontaneous spells) is kinda cheesy.
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Woot! Ultimate Races. hate the name, but the concept is what I've been wanting for years. :)
Can you give out any details James? Or at least confirm when details will come out? I'm hoping it's not just a book of races, I'm hoping there's rules/guidelines for creating homebrew races, examples using that, how to build monster PCs in detail, etc. :) And I hope a big chapter of 'racial traits' and 'preferred class benefits' with lists of what races get what (and maybe guidelines on what type of races should get what). :)
EDIT : Woah, found a post by Erik Mona with all the gory details. Awesome! :)
I'm not ready to give out any more info than what's been said already—we'll be talking more about the book soon. (I'm not a big fan of the title either, but I'm pretty sure it's set in stone.)
EDIT : Woah, found a post by Erik Mona with all the gory details. Awesome! :)
Link please?
I'm not a big fan of the title either, but I'm pretty sure it's set in stone.)
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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We talked at the end of the con and you gave me your card. I want to apologize for slow speech and any incoherent rambling, I was running on no food and very little sleep. I really appreciate the advice you gave me and now I am looking through years of notes and material to find stuff I could submit to anyone and everyone for publication.
I have lots of maps that I have drawn throughout the years. I have a couple pirate ship maps that would be great for people to use in the upcoming AP. I don't expect Paizo to accept them or even want them, but I was wondering what would be the best way to submit and have those published by someone.
A few ideas I have for them include a small PDF full of ships of all sizes and types, a small adventure that includes one of the ships, or something on the different parts of the ship and crew as well as the different activities and traditions found on the high seas.
Any advice on that?
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I only just found out Super 8 is a PG movie. Tomorrow is cheap night at the theatre so I need to know if I should bother watching this. I have never ever seen a horror movie that was both PG and still be good, plus I absolutely hate kids in the theatre for horror and more mature action movies. Could you please tell me if I should bother at all with movie, especially since the posters our theatre is using show little kids as main characters? Remember, I am not going for a fun family kids coming of age movie with some creepy action. I want horror. If I want a coming of age movie, I will watch The Goonies.
Super 8 is actually a PG-13 movie.
I'm going to see it in about 3 hours and 10 minutes, so I can't say if it's good or not yet.
But just for comparison—"The Ring" and "Insidious" and "Jurassic Park" were all PG-13 and had some pretty excellent tension/horror elements to it.
And Jaws was PG.
And the original Haunting was G.
Times change, of course, but get the right story going and you can do effective horror with any rating.
Of course... I'm not so sure if "Super 8" is a horror movie at all.
Anyway, I'll post my recommendation here in about 6 hours.
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I'm not a big fan of the title either, but I'm pretty sure it's set in stone.)Or not.
Yup; good news!
And confirmation that Erik's brain often is in relatively good sync with my own.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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What can we know about "Skull and Bones?"It's about pirates, it won't be an easy Adventure Path for paladins who aren't willing to be flexible, and will have a lot of naval stuff and even some Kingmaker style elements in it.
More information will be coming in the blog in the days to come.
James, you could save yourself some development time in Skull and Bones by talking to Lou Agresta, using the secret phrase "'Fire As She Bears' naval combat system".
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you hinted earlier that we would eventually get a cat person race. Might ultimate races be the place for it? Also will they have a place in golarion and which region are you feeling? Southern Garund or Arcadia would be my guesses.
Ultimate Races will include all 0-HD races from all three Bestiaries.
A lot of folks want us to do a catfolk type race.
There will be 0-HD races in Bestiary 3.
Those are all the hints I'm allowed to give out today.
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The Dinosaur Cultist prestige class from the Bastion Press book Villains: Rebirth by one James Jacobs has been converted to Pathfinder and posted over at www.d20pfsrd.com. In the original, both the Gift of the Saurian class ability option frenzy of the saurian and Savagery gave a + 2 morale bonus to damage with unarmed or natural attacks. Since morale bonuses from multiple sources do not normally stack, is this an exception to the rule, or would it be better to change one of the bonuses to a different type (ie: Racial bonus for the Savagery class ability as has been done in the conversion?)
HA! Awesome.
I would change one of those bonuses to a competence bonus.
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We talked at the end of the con and you gave me your card. I want to apologize for slow speech and any incoherent rambling, I was running on no food and very little sleep. I really appreciate the advice you gave me and now I am looking through years of notes and material to find stuff I could submit to anyone and everyone for publication.
I have lots of maps that I have drawn throughout the years. I have a couple pirate ship maps that would be great for people to use in the upcoming AP. I don't expect Paizo to accept them or even want them, but I was wondering what would be the best way to submit and have those published by someone.
A few ideas I have for them include a small PDF full of ships of all sizes and types, a small adventure that includes one of the ships, or something on the different parts of the ship and crew as well as the different activities and traditions found on the high seas.
Any advice on that?
No worries at all about slow speech and rambling! I totally understand that—conventions can be overwhelming and crazy! It's all good. No need for an apology at all.
If you've just got some pirate ship maps you'd like to share, the best way to do that, I think, would be to just put them on a photo-sharing website. We don't really have that kind of resource here on the boards, alas.
Compiling them as a PDF for a bunch of ship maps is an interesting idea, but I'm not really the one to talk to about self-publishing stuff—I actually don't know a lot about that, but if you post the question elsewhere on the boards I'm SURE you'll get a bunch of advice.
Dear Mr Jacobs
Reading that you worked on Pathfinder Adventure Path #49: The Brinewall Legacy are any of the 4 monster races in it's monster section usable as PCs? like the Changling in Carrion Crown's Haunting of Harrowstone.
And do you know when the Jade Regent Player Guide comes out?
Thanks for your time.
Signed AZ.
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you hinted earlier that we would eventually get a cat person race. Might ultimate races be the place for it? Also will they have a place in golarion and which region are you feeling? Southern Garund or Arcadia would be my guesses.Ultimate Races will include all 0-HD races from all three Bestiaries.
A lot of folks want us to do a catfolk type race.
There will be 0-HD races in Bestiary 3.
Those are all the hints I'm allowed to give out today.
This right here is as close as James has ever come to breaking news in this thread. Mark your calendars! He's slipping! THERE ARE CRACKS IN THE DAM!
James, no question for me today, just wanted to say thanks for putting on a great convention. I didn't get a chance to introduce myself - and I imagine you wouldn't remember me if I had, and I wouldn't blame you one iota - but I had one of the more memorable weekends of my recent past.
It was interesting playing in Ed Greenwood's 2e game, and it really reinforced a vibe that I've sort of inferred from this thread over time - that rules should be entirely second to story. I'm really going to start running my games that way.
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Dear Mr Jacobs
Reading that you worked on Pathfinder Adventure Path #49: The Brinewall Legacy are any of the 4 monster races in it's monster section usable as PCs? like the Changling in Carrion Crown's Haunting of Harrowstone.
And do you know when the Jade Regent Player Guide comes out?
Thanks for your time.
Signed AZ.
Nope.
We've got a new demon, a new critter (who can double as a familiar and will be recognizable to Lovecraft fans), some new giant bugs, and a new oni. No PC races.
How long until you buy an iPad?
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...a new critter (who can double as a familiar and will be recognizable to Lovecraft fans)rat-things?
That was delightfully quick.
We're calling them ratlings though. But yeah; as of Pathfinder #49, your wizard (or more appropriately, your witch) can get Brown Jenkin as a familiar.
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...a new critter (who can double as a familiar and will be recognizable to Lovecraft fans)rat-things?That was delightfully quick.
We're calling them ratlings though. But yeah; as of Pathfinder #49, your wizard (or more appropriately, your witch) can get Brown Jenkin as a familiar.
Lol, well the size factor gave it away. Sounds like a nice addition to the mythos bestiary.
I hope you keep those polyps and nightgaunts in mind Mr. Jacobs, maybe the polyps will make their appearance somewhere in the wastelands of the windswept north in the upcoming AP. Possibly in some ruins up near the "Crown of the World"?
Is there a story about the guy with the dagger and hourglass on page 237 of the Ultimate Magic book?
Very good art work, gave me a bunch of ideas, just wondering if there is a story behind it.
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Is there a story about the guy with the dagger and hourglass on page 237 of the Ultimate Magic book?
Very good art work, gave me a bunch of ideas, just wondering if there is a story behind it.
Nope; just a spooky dude with a knife.
(It might be from the Carrion Crown adventure path, but I can't say for sure... we ordered a lot of spooky dudes with knives for that one...)
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Is pathfinder society the same way? Because if not, I will be hunting for a group to play with online.
Nope; Pathfinder Society adventures allow you to loot and use treasure during an adventure. When the adventure ends, you get a gp award that you can then spend to buy stuff that you recovered from the adventure (or you can save up money and buy it later).
Is there any possibility of Paizo working on a psionic class or archtype?
There's a possibility, yes, but not in the near future.
Which makes more sense for a follower of the old ones, a cleric or a wizard? My DM is telling me wizards get more out of them from spells and summons due to things like planar binding, but I keep telling him Clerics make more sense due to cultists and getting power from otherworldly beings that they consider godlike.
Both make fine sense. The article I wrote about the cult of the old ones in Pathfinder #46 talks about the differences between cleric worshipers and wizard worshipers (and lots of other classes). Both are good choices—it depends on what you want to play—a cleric, or a wizard.
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As for Super 8... it's quite good.
It's not a horror movie, although it has some spooky spots in it.
If I were to pick four movies that, if you sent them through Brundle's telepods, they'd probalby come out combined together into something kind of like Super 8, those three movies would be:
All in all, a fun movie! I liked it a lot! That said, I also went to it in a fancy no-kids theater that serves booze and all that, which is standard operating procedure for me whenever I can.
But again... it's not a horror movie. It's science fiction, done in a cool 1980s style with modern effects. It's PG-13 for...
Is there any way I can read what you wrote on the old ones and the classes without reading the book? Only asking because my DM will not allow players to read the adventure paths at all until we play and beat them, but we are still in kingmaker and serpent skull simultaneously.
This is incredibly silly and obsurd and seems to be a common complaint. Here's what I would do: purchase the pdf, read what your interested in, then delete the file from your computer. I highly doubt your GM will go through your computer, but just in case, u've gotten rid of the evidence. Then you lie if it ever comes up.
EDIT : Woah, found a post by Erik Mona with all the gory details. Awesome! :)Link please?
This is what you are looking for.It was news from Paizocon...
I will try to find the source again. I'll be mighty embarrassed if it turns out I imagined the whole thing. James Jacobs responded to a question about it in his Q&A thread.
So is it bad my first reaction upon hearing about the upcoming Skull and Bones AP was, "Wait so their doing an AP about ninjas followed by an AP about pirates *facepalm* the rivalry continues"?
Well, not really - ninjas came first. Obviously.
This may have been asked before, but what was your personal favorite moment of PaizoCon?
James,
Just a note on something that happened at the con. Since it's hitting the board, I wanted you to know. This is especially disturbing considering all the pain getting FAQ entries put in (the whole them being lowest priority for everyone).
:( :( :( :( :( :( :(
Could you tell me which Paizo employee told you they didn't want to answer rules questions or advance the FAQ?It was a conversation with Hyrmm and Mark. They did say my questions were more rules questions and I should post them on the forums. To which I replied, that I've been posting them and FAQ'ing them for years with no result. That then turned to I guess them offering up a reason my questions are as of yet unanswered "it would alienate those that don't agree".
I was rather depressed by the conversation and I didn't do as they suggested:
take my questions to JB/SKR/etc.But all my questions should in their in-boxes, as they all have been FAQ tagged in the past.
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James, my theatre made a mistake then and has it listed as PG, as shown here http://www.geocastle.com/terrace/tillicum.htm . That place always gets kids and the bathrooms suck. They have those kinds of sink fixtures where if you let go of the handle, it shots off immediately. Not even a wind down, just let go and it is off so you can not really wash your hands. Could you either give me a lift to the theatre that you go to, or possibly convince them to open one up here? A theatre made for adults sounds awesome, and I am not talking about "adult" theatres.
Is there any way I can read what you wrote on the old ones and the classes without reading the book? Only asking because my DM will not allow players to read the adventure paths at all until we play and beat them, but we are still in kingmaker and serpent skull simultaneously.
My advice? Find a different theater.
As for the articles about the great old ones that appears in Pathfinder #46... nope. You pretty much have to buy it, or borrow it from your GM.
There's very little in the article that "spoils" the adventure, though, so there's no reason apart from being overly stingy with the information for a GM to not let a player read that particular article. Hopefully your GM trusts you enough to read the article and not read the adventure. If he doesn't... not sure what to say there.
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This is incredibly silly and obsurd and seems to be a common complaint. Here's what I would do: purchase the pdf, read what your interested in, then delete the file from your computer. I highly doubt your GM will go through your computer, but just in case, u've gotten rid of the evidence. Then you lie if it ever comes up.
Is there any way I can read what you wrote on the old ones and the classes without reading the book? Only asking because my DM will not allow players to read the adventure paths at all until we play and beat them, but we are still in kingmaker and serpent skull simultaneously.
There's a certain element of trust involved in the player/GM relationship.
The player trusts the GM isn't cheating the system to ruin game play, while the GM trusts that the player isn't cheating the game by reading the adventure. Going behind a GM's back and then lying about reading the adventure isn't the way to go.
The right way to go is to try to convince your GM that you're so interested in the game he's running that you want to read more information ABOUT the game he's running. Most GMs I know LOVE it when players are so involved in their game that they go above and beyond with their character, and reading support material to help them get even more "in sync" with the adventure can only help that type of situation. Personally, I think that a lot of GMs are too stingy with teasers and spoilers and withhold FAR too much information from players. You can tell if a player wants to read something because they want to make a better character for the adventure and a player who want to read something because they want to cheat... especially if you know your players already.
So how about it, GMs? Your players trust you to provide a balanced and fun game. Why not trust them to build characters better suited for your game in the first place?
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This may have been asked before, but what was your personal favorite moment of PaizoCon?
Losing my keys and then finding them inside my car, safe and sound, with unlocked doors but without anyone having stolen the car.
Close runners up:
1) Revealing the map of Tian Xia.
2) Revealing the art for the first few Jade Regent covers.
3) Running Call of Cthulhu and running Unspeakable Futures.
4) Meeting Clark Peterson.
5) Chatting with freelancers and fans.
6) Signing a 4th edition D&D book (the Demonomicon). Ha!
Hey Mr. Jacobs,
Will Jade Regent be free enough of spoilers that I would be able to GM it without spoiling my enjoyment of playing in Rise of the Runelords?
Thanks again for answering all these questions.
Losing my keys and then finding them inside my car, safe and sound, with unlocked doors but without anyone having stolen the car.
...and may I add that this "safe and sound" cost me a fortune.
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James,
Just a note on something that happened at the con. Since it's hitting the board, I wanted you to know. This is especially disturbing considering all the pain getting FAQ entries put in (the whole them being lowest priority for everyone).:( :( :( :( :( :( :(
I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but try to keep in mind that all of you outnumber us by tens of thousands of people. We do our best to try to keep up on these boards, keep up to date on rules questions and FAQ questions and all that, but we're human too. We get depressed and cranky and fed up and frustrated as well... especially when we might WANT to do something but simply CAN'T due to a lack of time or resources or whatever. As frustrated as you might get at us being snippy or short or dismissive... try to remember we get the same when customers deluge us with requests and questions and comments.
Especially if someone does so in an antagonistic or insulting way—I'm not saying YOU did this, but if we get, say, 100 questions about a topic, and 1 of those questions is annoying or insulting... that colors the entire batch of questions. Which is why it's SO IMPORTANT for customers to exercise patience and understanding and be polite. When you're not, your actions DO have a negative repercussion on your fellow customers, as much as we at Paizo try to not let that happen.
Part of the reason I'm on a personal crusade to encourage GMs to make their own decisions regarding rules is precisely because of that—as a GM, you HAVE to be comfortable making decisions about rules interpretations, because no one at Paizo is your personal rules expert.
A lot of us here at Paizo try to help out as best we can, but "Answer rules questions" is no one's number 1 job responsibility here. Simply put: It Can't Be.
So encouraging GMs to loosen the dependance on things like errata, FAQ, and direct input from overworked game designers is a good and worthwhile goal.
As for folks not answering questions at PaizoCon... we're not the walking rules encyclopedias a lot of folks think we are. We simply ARE NOT COMFORTABLE answering super complicated rules questions without having the time to think through the ramifications and without having the books at hand to look through them.
Ambushing a designer at a convention with 13 rules questions is a great way to get a brush off, because chances are good that designer doesn't have a stack of rulebooks at hand to answer your questions. Chances are good he doesn't want to set up a precedent that it's okay for one person to ask 13 questions because then he kinda says its okay for hundreds of people to do the same thing. Chances are good he's just come out of a seminar and has only a minute or two to get to the next one on his schedule, or has to go run a game, or has to go get lunch at 5:00 in the afternoon. Maybe the designer just got out of an extraordinarily awkward and frustrating conversation with a fan, coworker, or supervisor 10 seconds before you ambushed him with your questions. Maybe the designer was sick with the flu. Maybe the designer just found out a friend or family member died. There are countless things that you can't know about when you approach a designer at a convention to chat, and if they seem brusk or distracted or rushed, don't take it as an insult to you. And if they DO get snippy at you and actually insulting to you, I suppose the proper way to handle that is to inform our customer service department or perhaps track down a supervisor in person or via email. Messageboards or other public venues are not a good place to do this.
In closing: we try really hard to make our products, our conventions, these boards, and all that a fun and enjoyable place for gamers to go and hang out. But we have bad days too, and just as we roll with the occasional insulting messageboard thread (not a lot here, but go check some other gaming websites if you're interested in seeing some nice examples of Paizo hate) and try to let the bad roll off our backs. While I'd love to say we don't ever mistreat folks or annoy/insult/underwhelm customers... it happens. When it does, all I can ask is that you understand that we're humans too and that we can make mistakes as well.
That all said... if something like this is a recurring problem, rest assured it'll be addressed. If you've got a specific issue you'd like to talk to me about, email me at james.jacobs@paizo.com and I'll look into things.
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Hey Mr. Jacobs,
Will Jade Regent be free enough of spoilers that I would be able to GM it without spoiling my enjoyment of playing in Rise of the Runelords?
Thanks again for answering all these questions.
Yes. The spoilers for Rise of the Runelords are mostly contained in the foreword to Pathfinder #49, and it lets you know where to skip reading.
There'll be a few minor spoilers for the characters of Ameiko Kaijitsu, her family, and maybe a little about Shalelu, but their overall roles in Rise of the Runelords are incidental, honestly.
Jade Regent will spoil less than Rise of the Runelords than would most movie trailers spoil their movie's contents.
Lots of stuff...
Hey James, just to set the record straight, I wasn't the guy with 13 questions, just read it on the board and was depressed at the answer he got.
I very much understand that people are busy, and if I'd heard the story and it was 'Sorry, we aren't the guys to ask about that' or 'Hey, gotta get to lunch, no time, con is busy, FAQ it', then that would have been me responding 'Hey, what did you expect'. To hear employees of the company respond with 'Hey, if we rule on it, people will be unhappy they were wrong' is the part that bothered me.
I have absolutely no problems houseruling (I've done so to several things SKR and JB and the others have FAQd). I have no issue ruling without an FAQ. However, the rules are, as a whole, something intended to be consistent, and if I'm houseruling something I like to know when I am, so I can add it to my houserule document, so players aren't surprised. That's all. And while I understand it's not your highest priority, being told it's a negative priority is a bit troubling. I'm glad you and Vic Wertz cleared up that it wasn't company policy, just two employees giving their reasons per PFS logic. I could care less if something is official in PFS, it's not really PF, it's a subset of PF with rulings that are actually violations of the core rules. :) Basically a company sponsered homebrew. :)
Thanks again for clearing that up.
Is there any way I can read what you wrote on the old ones and the classes without reading the book? Only asking because my DM will not allow players to read the adventure paths at all until we play and beat them, but we are still in kingmaker and serpent skull simultaneously.
As a subscriber who would like to actually play someday, I only read about every other adventure path. However, since I get the PDF I can download the split into chapters version of the PDF. Then I read the fiction and support articles without spoiling the actual adventures.
Of course, you need some level of trust between yourself and your GM/future GM for this to work.
I also have printed out deity articles to hand out to divinely interested players. Ask your GM to do the same if he's got the PDF.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
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Will the Bestiary 3 contain, any Oni, Youkai and or other oriental folklore creatures like: Yuki-onna, Nurarihyon, Kitsune, Kappa, Gagoze, Amanojaku, Gyuki, Inugami, Zashiki Warashi, Gumiho, Zhen, or Bakeneko.
Not James, But...
If you check the product page, you can see a pair of Kappa on the cover. :D