James Jacobs, If you were a Paizo God what Domains would you grant? What would be your Favored Weapon? and would you sell holy water at a discount?... With subscriptions, of course!
Hello James,
I was wondering if you have ever read the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher? Were you a fan?
On related news, I know that you usually find Paladin's to be highly disruptive because of how they are roleplayed. Assuming you read up through the Dresden Files novel Grave Peril, do you think Paladin's would be less disruptive if their players RP'd their character like Michael Carpenter?
Thanks, and thanks for all the answers so far!
There is nothing in the rules that say undead or constructs are immune to bleed effects but logically they should. So are they immune or not?
So can you move and take a 5' step? I would say no but nothing in the rules to say no.
In real life snakes are deaf, can sense body heat and vibrations through the ground. So why didn't snakes get tremorsense? or some form of "infravision"?
Why stat up playable races that are outsiders but not for any other creature types other than humaniod?
Also even though you do not like the old Thundercats series, you should give the new one a try, who knows, you might like it.
So can you move and take a 5' step? I would say no but nothing in the rules to say no.
I'm not James, but I have this one covered:
Move
The simplest move action is moving your speed. If you take this kind of move action during your turn, you can’t also take a 5-foot step.
(Page 186.) So no, you can't move and take a 5-foot step.
And that there are no Mysteries linked to Shelyn or Calistria.. Hmm. Anyway, none of that is a question, or accusation, or anything, and so, requires no response. Meh.
The real issue is that those oracle mysteries shouldn't have deities listed with them AT ALL, because oracles are generally pantheonists.
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Maybe if you ever will do another GameMastery guide a stronger suggestion about adapting the weapon selection to the local customs could be a good idea. I see that a lot of people dislike to spend a feat for an exotic weapon if it don't give clear advantages, but on the other hand giving clear advantages to all the exotic weapons against the martial weapons would be a bad move.
So giving the GM an option to select a few weapons as "locally simple/martial/exotic" could be a reasonable compromise.
Sadly it could be applied only to home games, as doing that to Society play will generate a lot of problems.
With the exception of Bestiaries, we are very resistant to the idea of doing "sequels." A "Gamemastery Guide 2" is probably never going to happen.
The problem with exotic weapons in the game goes FAR beyond regional flavor, though. That's an entirely different can of worms.
And doing something like this for the Pathfinder Society would be a terrible idea, not only because it would give folks one more thing to (rightly, in this case) complain about, but also would add one more barrier to entry. There's already a lot of rules to learn if you want to join the PFS, even if you already know the Pathfinder rules very well. I'm very very very hesitant to add unnecessary additional hoops for folks to jump through, like "pick your weapon from this list of regions that you also have to pick from."
A big part of designing RPGs is knowing where to cut off the "realism simulation" and to let the game stay a game.
Heralds should have 18 HD, so that they can indeed be conjured by greater planar ally. That's the entire point of heralds.
That those two got 19 HD was an error. And alas, it's not a super simple one to fix, since lowering a HD changes a lot, but still. Error.
The problem is once your CRs hit those levels, you need a lot more HD to hit the AC, hp, save, and attack bonus benchmarks of the CR system. If you reduce its HD, you're going to miss some of those minimums... or inflate its ability scores to compensate, which can spill over to other problems. :/
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I'm a little bemused by some of the oracle mysteries presented in Ultimate Magic. I was surprised to see the Wood mystery (page 57) named Gozreh as an appropriate deity, as I thought Gozreh's area of concern was much more water, but I suppose this is because Gozreh is also (sort of) protrayed as being a general nature deity?
I can't see any rhyme or reason, however, for the Time mystery (page 56) to be associated with Gozreh. Time associated with Pharasma, yes, Nethys, maybe, but Gozreh???Finally (for now) on the subject of the Ultimate Magic oracle mysteries, I'm curious as to why isn't Desna listed for the Dark Tapestry (page 56)? I associate her with the stars and the places in between and travel across that place. Her herald's even some sort of giant interstellar butterfly, The Night Monarch. Is the Dark Tapestry mystery judged to be a bit too dark though for Desna worshipping oracles, and at some point will a 'brighter' Desnan counterpoint be along?
On the subject of the Night Monarch, it was written up (in Pathfinder #5 I think) for the 3.5 rules. For PFRPG shuld it have the starflight ability, and if so to what extent?
Edit:
Thanks for continued answers.
First of all, Gozreh is our nature god. Wood comes from nature, so that makes sense. Gozreh is depicted as a duality between the sky and the sea, but everything on land is under his/her watch as well, as part of the fact that he/she is the world's primary nature deity. As for why time was associated with him... I suspect because the designers wanted more than one god associated with the mystery, and after Pharasma, we don't have many time-associated deities.
Honestly, I wish we hadn't associated deities with mysteries or oracles at all. I asked that we didn't but got overruled. Oracles aren't deity worshipers. They're pantheon worshipers. We should have listed Pantheons (like "war gods" or "death gods" or whatever) instead of deity names for them.
The night monarch should have full starflight. Like a shantak.
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James Jacobs, If you were a Paizo God what Domains would you grant? What would be your Favored Weapon? and would you sell holy water at a discount?... With subscriptions, of course!
Umm... woah. Weird question.
Uh... I would grant Animal, Good, Knowledge, Luck, and Water, probably. Favored weapon would be longbow, I guess. And no, full price holy water. Gotta get paid!
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James Jacob, will you be at Dragoncon as well? Is there any info yet on a panel for Pathfinder or some sort of scheduled meeting?
I (James Jacobs) will not be at Dragoncon. Can't say for James Jacob, since I don't know the guy.
Nor do I have any information about Paizo's presence or lack thereof at Dragoncon. I tend to avoid conventions, given the opportunity.
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Hello James,
I was wondering if you have ever read the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher? Were you a fan?
On related news, I know that you usually find Paladin's to be highly disruptive because of how they are roleplayed. Assuming you read up through the Dresden Files novel Grave Peril, do you think Paladin's would be less disruptive if their players RP'd their character like Michael Carpenter?
Thanks, and thanks for all the answers so far!
Haven't read any of the Dresden Files at all. I'm too busy reading Lovecraft, Stephen King, Dan Simmons, George Martin, Ramsey Campbell, Clark Ashton Smith, horror anthologies, Larry Niven/Jerry Pournell, sci-fi anthologies, Call of Cthulhu supplements/adventures, Clive Barker, horror novels from the horror boom of the 80s, and stacks of other books as well.
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The problem is once your CRs hit those levels, you need a lot more HD to hit the AC, hp, save, and attack bonus benchmarks of the CR system. If you reduce its HD, you're going to miss some of those minimums... or inflate its ability scores to compensate, which can spill over to other problems. :/Heralds should have 18 HD, so that they can indeed be conjured by greater planar ally. That's the entire point of heralds.
That those two got 19 HD was an error. And alas, it's not a super simple one to fix, since lowering a HD changes a lot, but still. Error.
Although we've managed to hit those numbers for the other 15 or so heralds, haven't we?
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There is nothing in the rules that say undead or constructs are immune to bleed effects but logically they should. So are they immune or not?
So can you move and take a 5' step? I would say no but nothing in the rules to say no.
In real life snakes are deaf, can sense body heat and vibrations through the ground. So why didn't snakes get tremorsense? or some form of "infravision"?
Why stat up playable races that are outsiders but not for any other creature types other than humaniod?
Also even though you do not like the old Thundercats series, you should give the new one a try, who knows, you might like it.
Bleed was a new addition to the rules... and a relatively late one at that. As a result, it kind of got forgotten when we were initially building the rules for the monster types. It has since been errataed, so now constructs and undead are all immune to bleed effects along with their other standard immunities.
If you move any distance, you can't take a 5' step (see Cynarion's reply above).
Because the Perception skill specifically covers all five senses, so if you're deaf, the skill can still work. Tremorsense is, gameruleswise, a pretty good ability, and giving it to a monster that can already poison or constrict you while it's got a really low CR is a bit much. So instead, we fudged things a little and just gave the snakes scent and a racial bonus on Perception checks.
We only give the "Monster as Characters" entries for creatures that have no racial Hit Dice. As such, there's no "baseline" for the creature, and in order for it to have stats at all, it HAS to have a class level. And if we give you, say, stats for a 1st level rogue tiefling, but you want to build a tiefling fighter, if we didn't give you the "Tieflings as Characters" information separately you'd have to manually back out the rogue stuff and then reapply the sorcerer stuff and that'd be super complicated and annoying. And since, to date, ALL of our zero-HD races have been either humanoid or native outsiders, that's why you only see this treatment for those creatures.
I've already got plenty of TV to watch without giving reboots of old shows I hate a chance.
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And that there are no Mysteries linked to Shelyn or Calistria.. Hmm. Anyway, none of that is a question, or accusation, or anything, and so, requires no response. Meh.The real issue is that those oracle mysteries shouldn't have deities listed with them AT ALL, because oracles are generally pantheonists.
oh... yeah. I shoulda read down the page I guess to see Sean had that part covered. NINJAED BY SKR!
James Jacob, will you be at Dragoncon as well? Is there any info yet on a panel for Pathfinder or some sort of scheduled meeting?I (James Jacobs) will not be at Dragoncon. Can't say for James Jacob, since I don't know the guy.
Nor do I have any information about Paizo's presence or lack thereof at Dragoncon. I tend to avoid conventions, given the opportunity.
Yeah sorry about missing that last s in your name, maybe my dyslexia acted up again. Thanks for the info, was hoping to see you there, oh well.
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(Ultimate Magic - again)
Does Irori (LN) have paladins? If so, I'm curious as to how his paladins were left off the lists for Oathbound paladins (pages 60-63)?
If Irori does have paladins would the Chastity and Loyalty oaths make sense for them for the archetype? (I'm going here on the basis of my impression that Irori's about self-discipline and maybe word-keeping.)Also on Oathbound paladins, would the Oath of Charity have been appropriate for Shelyn's paladins, and the Oath of Vengeance (okay, this one may be a bit of a stretch, but the flavour text of the oath moves me to suggest/ask this) for Sarenrae's paladins?
Whilst the Oath against the Wyrm is available to paladins of Abadar, Iomedae, and Torag (these are all deities with interests in battle and/or civilisation, I think) would it have been appropriate for maybe paladins of Sarenrae and/or Erastil (deities who have monster hunting/wild-beast hunting slants to the activities of some of their agents) to officially have access to it as well?I'm also a bit unclear on why paladins of Erastil miss out on the Oath of Loyalty and why paladins of Sarenrae were added to the Oath of Chastity group (unless in the latter case it's something to do with Sarenrae being a former/ascended angelic spirit?)
Apologies for dumping all of these on you. I think this is about it for content in Ultimate Magic with Golarion specific flavour which I see it as making sense to put some questions your way, in hope of answers... :D
Technically, Irori could have paladins. But he doesn't have an organized "knighthood" of paladins, as do Torag, Abadar, Erastil, Sarenrae, and Shelyn. A paladin of Irori would be a lone wanderer type, I suspect. Further complicating things, of course, is that the paladin is kind of a class that expects you to wear heavy armor and fight with manufactured weapons, while Irori is primarily served by monks who do the exact opposite. That's the primary in-game reason we didn't give Irori a paladin knighthood.
I had no inpunt on the Oathbound paladin, and tying those into Golarion's deities was, I suspect, closer to an afterthought than anything else. And as such, just as you saw with inquisitions, the matches might not work out the way someone more into Golarion's deities would expect.
Again: the hardcover rulebooks are not meant to include any Golarion specific content, and an unfortunate side-effect of that you're seeing is that there are a fair number of weird contextual things happening whenver the rulebooks DO touch upon Golarion specific content. And since the only Golarion specific content you'll ever see in the rulebooks are those 20 deity names... it's no surprise that you're seeing weirdness pop up there. Frankly, your best bet for that is to basically just ignore those things if you're big into Golarion continuity and wait for us to address the issue or similar issues in a Golarion product.
Or maybe another way would be to have me do a full pass on every rulebook... but that would basically mean destroying the schedule for most of our other product lines that I manage.
I'll answer what I can, but if it's that important to you, you should just post this question in the rules forum. There's plenty of folks on those boards who have great insight into the rules; you don't have to be employed at Paizo to have that ability.
Listed
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Listed
I'll answer what I can, but if it's that important to you, you should just post this question in the rules forum. There's plenty of folks on those boards who have great insight into the rules; you don't have to be employed at Paizo to have that ability.
Listed where? Is this some fancy new internet jargon I'm not aware of yet? Did I just get FARKED?
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Listed where? Is this some fancy new internet jargon I'm not aware of yet? Did I just get FARKED?Listed
I'll answer what I can, but if it's that important to you, you should just post this question in the rules forum. There's plenty of folks on those boards who have great insight into the rules; you don't have to be employed at Paizo to have that ability.
I'm going to bet he means that he clicked the List button just to the left of the Reply button.
I'm going to bet he means that he clicked the List button just to the left of the Reply button.Listed where? Is this some fancy new internet jargon I'm not aware of yet? Did I just get FARKED?Listed
I'll answer what I can, but if it's that important to you, you should just post this question in the rules forum. There's plenty of folks on those boards who have great insight into the rules; you don't have to be employed at Paizo to have that ability.
This is correct. Now I have to go and google FARKED.
Let me refrase the question why as a type are Outsiders ok as player races when Monstrous humaniod and Fey(as 0 hd race) wouldn't be any more "unbalanced"? I can understand not having Undead, Constructs, and Plants because of immunities and some other reasons. I can understand not having Animals, Vermin, and Oozes for many reasons. Magical beast and Dragons would be interesting but since they are not(usally) humaniod in shape there is that problem.
I know this is a wierd question but If you were a paizo diety what subdomains would you grant?(APG)
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This is correct. Now I have to go and google FARKED.I'm going to bet he means that he clicked the List button just to the left of the Reply button.Listed where? Is this some fancy new internet jargon I'm not aware of yet? Did I just get FARKED?Listed
I'll answer what I can, but if it's that important to you, you should just post this question in the rules forum. There's plenty of folks on those boards who have great insight into the rules; you don't have to be employed at Paizo to have that ability.
HA! I successful fought fire with fire!
And hmmm... turns out sometimes new features get added to the website here that I either don't notice or willfully ignore, I guess.
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Let me refrase the question why as a type are Outsiders ok as player races when Monstrous humaniod and Fey(as 0 hd race) wouldn't be any more "unbalanced"? I can understand not having Undead, Constructs, and Plants because of immunities and some other reasons. I can understand not having Animals, Vermin, and Oozes for many reasons. Magical beast and Dragons would be interesting but since they are not(usally) humaniod in shape there is that problem.
NATIVE outsiders are okay as zero HD races. That's a pretty huge qualifier.
As for why other races aren't okay... no reason other than design philosophy at this point. There were examples of zero HD plants, monstrous humanoids, fey, and others in 3rd edition. That's just not a place we've gone yet with Pathfinder, and I'm not sure it's a place we WANT to go.
Mostly because our baseline game is intentionally focused on humans. Note that all those zero HD outsider races share one thing in common—they're half human.
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I know this is a wierd question but If you were a paizo diety what subdomains would you grant?(APG)
Equally weird as the previous question, so not the weirdest on the thread.
Anyway, I would adjust the above domains to Good, Knowledge, Luck, Scalykind, and Water, and then I would grant the subdomains of:
Agathion, Curse, Fate, Saurain, Ice, Oceans
Let me refrase the question why as a type are Outsiders ok as player races when Monstrous humaniod and Fey(as 0 hd race) wouldn't be any more "unbalanced"? I can understand not having Undead, Constructs, and Plants because of immunities and some other reasons. I can understand not having Animals, Vermin, and Oozes for many reasons. Magical beast and Dragons would be interesting but since they are not(usally) humaniod in shape there is that problem.
It is not about the creature type, but more about what that specific creature gives to the player.
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As for why other races aren't okay... no reason other than design philosophy at this point. There were examples of zero HD plants, monstrous humanoids, fey, and others in 3rd edition. That's just not a place we've gone yet with Pathfinder, and I'm not sure it's a place we WANT to go.
This made me want to run a Vegepygmy game, just because.
I know this is a wierd question but If you were a paizo diety what subdomains would you grant?(APG)Equally weird as the previous question, so not the weirdest on the thread.
Anyway, I would adjust the above domains to Good, Knowledge, Luck, Scalykind, and Water, and then I would grant the subdomains of:
Agathion, Curse, Fate, Saurain, Ice, Oceans
Scalykin?! Where is this scalykin you speak of?!
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Scalykin?! Where is this scalykin you speak of?!I know this is a wierd question but If you were a paizo diety what subdomains would you grant?(APG)Equally weird as the previous question, so not the weirdest on the thread.
Anyway, I would adjust the above domains to Good, Knowledge, Luck, Scalykind, and Water, and then I would grant the subdomains of:
Agathion, Curse, Fate, Saurain, Ice, Oceans
Scalykind is one of two additional domains (the other being Void) that we have in the Inner Sea World Guide. They're there to support several minor deities active in Golarion that are not mentioned in the core rules.
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reading [snip] horror novels from the horror boom of the 80s,
Have you ever read The Keep or the The Tomb, by F. Paul Wilson?
Both are pretty awesome books, and the best by that particular author, IMO.
There's a movie version of The Keep, but it's the sort of movie 'adaptation' that causes physical pain to fans of the book.
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reading [snip] horror novels from the horror boom of the 80s,Have you ever read The Keep or the The Tomb, by F. Paul Wilson?
Both are pretty awesome books, and the best by that particular author, IMO.
There's a movie version of The Keep, but it's the sort of movie 'adaptation' that causes physical pain to fans of the book.
Like Stephen King and Dean Koonz and Clive Barker, I was introduced to F. Paul Wilson by my grandma. I read The Tomb in a ravenous glut during one visit one summer, and loved it. And ever since, F. Paul Wilson's been one of my favorite authors, and I feel kind of ashamed that I left him off that list I wrote earlier. But yeah... I have a fancy collection of the Adversary Cycle, all numbered and autographed, sitting on a shelf at home, so yeah. I am a Wilson fan.
"Nightworld" is my favorite of Wilson's stories, and I'm avidly awaiting the revised version of that book due out next year.
I also actually sort of like movie version of "The Keep" although it's the type of movie that I know I shouldn't like. The movie does about 60% of its stuff PERFECTLY, I think, but then 40% of it is just completely messed up. I really REALLY wish they'd remake it. It certainly had a kick ass cast, though—Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen, Jurgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne, all of whom I suspect I mangled name spellings...
I apologize if this has been asked before, but I've been thinking about starting to use 3rd party products based on your advice in another thread. Anyway, I wanted to see if you'd post a top 3 or 5 of your favorite 3rd party pathfinder products, so that I can review and perhaps buy the best that's out there. Thanks.
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I apologize if this has been asked before, but I've been thinking about starting to use 3rd party products based on your advice in another thread. Anyway, I wanted to see if you'd post a top 3 or 5 of your favorite 3rd party pathfinder products, so that I can review and perhaps buy the best that's out there. Thanks.
Actually, I'm not all that familiar with the 3rd party Pathfinder products. I suspect I'll be using a lot of the new Tome of Horrors, but most of the 3rd party books I use are 3.5 ones.
The fourth party I've run RotRL for since it came out finished Burnt Offerings recently. The dwarven inquisitor felt terrible at the end when the party's hellknight-in-training chose to coup-de-grace the unconscious, beaten
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The fourth party I've run RotRL for since it came out finished Burnt Offerings recently. The dwarven inquisitor felt terrible at the end when the party's hellknight-in-training chose to coup-de-grace the unconscious, beaten ** spoiler omitted ** I just wanted to pop in and say thanks for a great adventure. You've given myself and the numerous party's I've run through it many hours of fun and a truly memorable villian.
Yay! Thanks!
And poor Nualia!
Hey James,
Was wondering with your love of cryptids and where you grew up and still lived ever had a Big Fott sighting? Or anyother encounters with other cryptids?
Edit: corrected a typo
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Hey James,
Was wondering with your love of cryptids and where you grew up and still lived ever had a Big Fott sighting? Or anyother encounters with other cryptids?
Edit: corrected a typo
Alas, no. No bigfoot sighting for me so far. I should get out hiking or fishing more I guess.
One day, I'll make that road trip up to Canada to look for Ogopogo too.
"OOC" question this time:
What do you think is a really good threshold for a group, in terms of putting up with a problematic player, before the group (or the GM) should ask that player to leave?
Is it ... the number of disruptive things that player does, or how often that player does it? Does how much other players' enjoyment is reduced matter? Should the player get a certain number of sessions to 'mend their ways'?
Kind of curious what your personal feelings are on this ... everyone has different answers, and I've read lots of them.
No doubt this question has been asked before, but where is the equator in Golarion? I can't see it on the maps of the inner sea region. the reason I ask is because I want to know whether the sun would be in the northern sky or the southern sky in Katapesh. thanks and apologies if this has been asked before or if I'm just missing something obvious.
That is indeed something that has been asked before; the equator runs somewhat to the south of the area shown on the Inner Sea Region maps.
The closest we've been given to a world map so far is this (the proportions are a bit off, I seem to recall), which some crafty half-elf managed to liberate from the vaults of Cheliax.
That is indeed something that has been asked before; the equator runs somewhat to the south of the area shown on the Inner Sea Region maps.
The closest we've been given to a world map so far is this (the proportions are a bit off, I seem to recall), which some crafty half-elf managed to liberate from the vaults of Cheliax.
That's really helpful, thanks. So someone standing in the brazen peaks (northern Katapesh) would see the sun to the south - right?
Yup. It would rise in the east, and move south before dropping beneath the horizin in the west. Unless, of course, Golarion is rotating around its axis in the opposite direction to Earth. ;)
The fourth party I've run RotRL for since it came out finished Burnt Offerings recently. The dwarven inquisitor felt terrible at the end when the party's hellknight-in-training chose to coup-de-grace the unconscious, beaten ** spoiler omitted ** I just wanted to pop in and say thanks for a great adventure. You've given myself and the numerous party's I've run through it many hours of fun and a truly memorable villian.Yay! Thanks!
And poor Nualia!
Did you like the new artwork for Nualia? ;)
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Hey James,
Was wondering with your love of cryptids and where you grew up and still lived ever had a Big Fott sighting? Or anyother encounters with other cryptids?
Edit: corrected a typo
Alas, no. No bigfoot sighting for me so far. I should get out hiking or fishing more I guess.
One day, I'll make that road trip up to Canada to look for Ogopogo too.
Just FYI apparently there are bigfoot sightings up in Canada as well.
What is the plural of Decapus? Decapodes? Decapuses? Surely not Decapi...
What is the plural of Decapus? Decapodes? Decapuses? Surely not Decapi...
If it's the last one, would a decapus leader be The capo di tutti decapi?
Decapoodles?