Creative Director
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JJ,
I believe there are several (inconclusive) threads on this topic on the messageboards. So I was wondering if you could clarify something on the subject of summoning and how it works in Golarion:
1)If summoning an eidolon only summons an "aspect" of a creature, does this mean that the actual creature remains behind on its home plane?
2) Do items carried/worn by the creature representing the eidolon come over with it when it's summoned?
3) What about items that the eidolon is carrying when it's dismissed (or dies) and is sent back to its home plane?
4) If the answer to 3 is that they are left behind, does this mean the eidolon has to be re(equipped) every time it's summoned?
5) Do the answers to 1 through 4 above apply to summoned monsters as well?
6) And finally, are the answers to all the above questions Golarion-specific, or would they apply to the Pathfinder mechanic in general?
Thanks in advance!
Here's my take—how I justify and interpret the summoner.
1) The rules are unclear as to what happens to the source of a summoned creature, but basically, think of a summoned creature as a "reflection" of a creature on another plane... yet it's a real and physical creature, not just an image. It's likely that whatever the original creature on the other plane was never even realizes that it's "reflection" has been summoned to do the bidding of someone somewhere else. As for eidolons... my preference is to believe that they're not "reflections" of single creatures, but composites cobbled together from many different creatures. The summoner essentially custom-builds his eidolon from partial reflections from numerous different source creatures and then binds that specific combination together with metaphysical "glue" harvested form his own life energies (hence the shared magic rune between summoner and eidolon).
2) In the case of an eidolon, it initially comes over naked. Any gear or items given to it stay with it, vanishing into some inaccessible void when the eidolon is gone and coming back the next time it's summoned. Items can't be utilized while in this "void" but neither can they be destroyed.
3) Those items go with the eidolon, and come back the next time it's summoned. Creatures being grappled or otherwise detained by the eidolon do not vanish; they're released when the eidolon goes away.
4) Nope.
5) Summoned creatures are very different. The actual summoned creature itself has no existence before or after the summon monster/summon nature's ally spell is cast, and thus any items it's equipped with have nowhere to come from and nowhere to go. If a summoned monster is a creature that, in its actual stat block, has gear, that gear is with the monster when it arrives, but vanishes as soon as the monster or spell effect is slain/ends. And any additional gear given to a summoned monster drops to the ground as soon as the spell ends or the summoned monster is defeated.
6) I would say those interpretations should apply to the Pathfinder rules in general, because if they don't work that way, you open up a world of confusing possibilities that the rules don't currently offer solutions to. The interpretations above are the simplest and easiest to handle. If you want to interpret them in other ways, it increases the complexity beyond what the rules can currently adjudicate or cover. AKA: If you or your GM doesn't want to use these rules, he/she is going to have to do a little or a lot of work to explain things otherwise.
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Creative Director
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If you haven't picked up the Inner Sea Primer, though... that's probably the best bet since the contents of that one support ALL of the other ones.Got the Primer as a Christmas present. *dons +4 shades of coolness*
How's Magic of Golarion?
There is no Player Companion called "Magic of Golarion." There's a 64 page Campaign Setting book called "Inner Sea Magic" though... is that what you're thinking of? That book's got a LOT of player options; prestige classes, feats, spells, archetypes, and more... it's also got some campaign spoilers in it, though...
As for eidolons... my preference is to believe that they're not "reflections" of single creatures, but composites cobbled together from many different creatures. The summoner essentially custom-builds his eidolon from partial reflections from numerous different source creatures and then binds that specific combination together with metaphysical "glue" harvested form his own life energies (hence the shared magic rune between summoner and eidolon).
with it, vanishing into some inaccessible void...
Wowzers - that is a pretty awesome reply. Just so you know - your vision of how this works is really cool!
There is no Player Companion called "Magic of Golarion." There's a 64 page Campaign Setting book called "Inner Sea Magic" though... is that what you're thinking of? That book's got a LOT of player options; prestige classes, feats, spells, archetypes, and more... it's also got some campaign spoilers in it, though...If you haven't picked up the Inner Sea Primer, though... that's probably the best bet since the contents of that one support ALL of the other ones.Got the Primer as a Christmas present. *dons +4 shades of coolness*
How's Magic of Golarion?
Oops! Yes, I was thinking of the Inner Sea Magic book. It sounds pretty awesome. I like reading Golarion's flavor, and sometimes I nab bits of it for my own setting (like the Dark Tapestry; I LOVED the idea behind it and I'm sort of hoping it gets a mention in Distant Worlds), but because I don't actually play in Golarion spoilers aren't a huge deal to me.
So ... yeah! Inner Sea Magic and Dragon Empires Primer. That just leaves one more open slot to fill. Is there anything combat oriented, like Inner Sea Fighting or something like that?
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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I am considering playing a Ratfolk witch in a Legacy of Fire game. I plan on taking the Duskwalker Agent trait. I haven't picked a second trait yet because I am trying to find out more about the ratfolk.
What religion would a ratfolk typically follow? Do they have their own rat god?
Are there any activities that some might think as wrong or bad, but the ratfolk view as normal and acceptable? I ask because I have this idea that ratfolk don't let things go to waste and as such they are alright with taking or eating things people consider to be trash, refuse, or junk.
Is there any other information outside of what can be found in the Bestiary 3 on Ratfolk? If not, is there anything else you can give me to help figure out how to play one?
A question concerning the false divine magic of the Razmirans, have the techniques from Inner Sea Magic been practiced by anyone before Razmir in the history of Golarion, or by any other groups currently active? On one hand there is the factor of pretending your magic is divine to create a sham religion, but there is also the factor of reverse engineering divine magic, which seems like it could fit for archivists or someone who tries to steal power from the gods.
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Creative Director
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So ... yeah! Inner Sea Magic and Dragon Empires Primer. That just leaves one more open slot to fill. Is there anything combat oriented, like Inner Sea Fighting or something like that?
We don't really have much in the area of pure combat yet... but one of the "Faiths of..." books might be a good bet if you're looking for some religious stuff. "Faiths of Purity" has more paladin stuff in it...
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Creative Director
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I am considering playing a Ratfolk witch in a Legacy of Fire game. I plan on taking the Duskwalker Agent trait. I haven't picked a second trait yet because I am trying to find out more about the ratfolk.
What religion would a ratfolk typically follow? Do they have their own rat god?
Are there any activities that some might think as wrong or bad, but the ratfolk view as normal and acceptable? I ask because I have this idea that ratfolk don't let things go to waste and as such they are alright with taking or eating things people consider to be trash, refuse, or junk.
Is there any other information outside of what can be found in the Bestiary 3 on Ratfolk? If not, is there anything else you can give me to help figure out how to play one?
The primary deities for the ratfolk are the sneaky thiefy types. They do have their own specific deity—she's mentioned in the Dragon Empires Gazetter and I can't remember her name for the life of me off the top of my head. There's a bit more about them in that book too... they're pretty much set up as bad guys though.
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Creative Director
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A question concerning the false divine magic of the Razmirans, have the techniques from Inner Sea Magic been practiced by anyone before Razmir in the history of Golarion, or by any other groups currently active? On one hand there is the factor of pretending your magic is divine to create a sham religion, but there is also the factor of reverse engineering divine magic, which seems like it could fit for archivists or someone who tries to steal power from the gods.
There's been religion on Golarion for well over ten thousand years, so the idea that it's only recently that the concept of false divine magic has popped up is kind of ridiculous. Sure, currently the primary practicioners of this in the Inner Sea region are Razmirins, but I suspect others have used similar magic in the past.
We haven't detailed any of these theoretical false divine cults to date though. And the concept of "stealing power from the gods" is interesting (and has been done before—see the Ur Priests of D&D's 3rd Edition Book of Vile Darkness), but that's something entirely different from false divine magic.
Interesting. If emulating the Ur-Priest flavour in Golarion, would the best way to go be to just make them Oracles?
Is Ihys(Asmodeus supposedly dead brother) going to get any more information put out or is that something us GM's will have to handle on your own?
Either way is fine. I am just curious.
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Creative Director
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Is Ihys(Asmodeus supposedly dead brother) going to get any more information put out or is that something us GM's will have to handle on your own?
Either way is fine. I am just curious.
That's more of a Wes question... but I doubt we'll say much more about him in the future. Nothing planned that I know of.
But that said, ANYTHING we mention in print could potentially some day come back with more information. GMs who are inspired by some fragmentary mentioning like of Ihys who then do a lot of work developing that character more or less have to be at peace with the fact that their work might some day in the future get contradicted by something we do... at which point the GM gets to decide if he likes his version better or instead wants to adopt the "official" version.
(This happened to me several times, in fact. For example, a Greyhawk campaign I ran in college was set in Diamond Lake and revolved pretty heavily around the Doomgrinder—a creepy stone windmill up in the hills. Several years later, WotC put out an entire adventure focused on the Doomgrinder, and took it in a MUCH different direction than I (or even the original entry) did. At that point, my Greyhawk campaign was long over, so it didn't matter, but if I were to run that campaign again, I'd have to decide which version of the Doomgrinder I wanted to use.)
In the forward to Jade Regent you said that Ameika Kaijitsu was originally one of your PCs. Is the same true about Shalelu (being any employee's former PC, not necesarily yours), or was she created for Burnt Offerings?
1. Any chance of alternate summon options for the Dark Tapestry, as with the other expanded religion entries? I noticed none were presented in Wake of the Watcher, but most regular summon options don't really have that Lovecraftian feel.
2. If unlikely this will be published, do you have any suggestions for what would be suitable Tapestry summon options?
Have you ever played in a primarily seafaring campaign?
Would you?
Will Paizo ever release workable rules for this outside of the coming AP, or should I just use a Seafarer's Handbook/Seas of Blood mashup for my seafaring rules?
Why are the Ultimate Combat vehicle DCs so prohibitively high?
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Creative Director
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1. Any chance of alternate summon options for the Dark Tapestry, as with the other expanded religion entries? I noticed none were presented in Wake of the Watcher, but most regular summon options don't really have that Lovecraftian feel.
2. If unlikely this will be published, do you have any suggestions for what would be suitable Tapestry summon options?
1) If we ever do a book about the Dark Tapestry, perhaps.
2) I'd say that chances of a Dark Tapestry or similar type book being published by us at some point are VERY good. If we do publish it and we don't include alternate summoning suggestions, though, let me know and I'll help out then.
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Creative Director
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Have you ever played in a primarily seafaring campaign?
Would you?
Will Paizo ever release workable rules for this outside of the coming AP, or should I just use a Seafarer's Handbook/Seas of Blood mashup for my seafaring rules?
Why are the Ultimate Combat vehicle DCs so prohibitively high?
Yes.
Yes.
Maybe. I believe that there'll be rules for seafaring stuff in the Skull & Shackles player's guide to a certain extent, and that'll be a free PDF...
Not sure; I've actually not looked much at those rules at all, other than to think they're a bit complicated for my tastes...
Do you enjoy seafaring campaigns?
I'll take a look at the player's guide when it comes out.
I own Seafarer's Handbook and Seas of Blood, and can pull rules from them. Have you ever owned these books?
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Creative Director
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Do you enjoy seafaring campaigns?
I'll take a look at the player's guide when it comes out.
I own Seafarer's Handbook and Seas of Blood, and can pull rules from them. Have you ever owned these books?
I do enjoy seafaring campaigns. You'll note that in most adventures I write, there's an ocean and/or a boat involved or nearby.
I might own Seafarer's Handbook, but I don't think I own Seas of Blood. My RPG library is... pretty big. I'm about halfway through cataloging it.
I read the part about including Iconics in APs that was in the Haunting of Harrowstone discussion and most of the comments; I think I understand why most companies don't stat their Iconics; because the stats would clash with the "characters as drawn" and the "characters as written".
Stats for Iconics would be easier if "you" started with the stats, then went with the drawing and the examples in the books... Do you agree?
... Did I make any senses?
Side Note: maybe there should be an apparence stat independent from the point buy and such...
Do you enjoy seafaring campaigns?
I'll take a look at the player's guide when it comes out.
I own Seafarer's Handbook and Seas of Blood, and can pull rules from them. Have you ever owned these books?
I do enjoy seafaring campaigns. You'll note that in most adventures I write, there's an ocean and/or a boat involved or nearby.
I might own Seafarer's Handbook, but I don't think I own Seas of Blood. My RPG library is... pretty big. I'm about halfway through cataloging it.
I love seafarer's Handbook and Seas of Blood.
I actually have little experience with published adventures. I have a limited budget, so I buy rulebooks and homebrew everything else. I use Golarion a bit, but as a player and not a GM.
I happen to love seafaring campaigns myself. There is a reason I joined the Navy and not the Army, after all.
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Creative Director
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I read the part about including Iconics in APs that was in the Haunting of Harrowstone discussion and most of the comments; I think I understand why most companies don't stat their Iconics; because the stats would clash with the "characters as drawn" and the "characters as written".
Stats for Iconics would be easier if "you" started with the stats, then went with the drawing and the examples in the books... Do you agree?
... Did I make any senses?
Side Note: maybe there should be an apparence stat independent from the point buy and such...
Actually, locking the iconics' gear in by placing their stats as the control over the art, rather than retaining the art as the control, is not a good idea. Art is a lot more expensive and a lot harder to change than words, and since the primary goal of the iconics is to "brand" our game and to provide our artists with models for the various types of characters in the game, the stats for them end up being, at best, a third tier concern.
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Snoutsnuffers.AKA: I'm not sure, if "wolffolk" isn't an option. And it shouldn't be, since that's a terrible name.
(Not JJ But...)
Catfolk isn't specific, it's general. Otherwise it would be tigerfolk, leopardfolk, lionfolk, etc.
So why not dogfolk? Then if someone wants to make a character from another breed of dog instead of a wolf, they have the option.
Or youknow, Snoutsnuffers. that's pretty awesome.
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1) Make it a prestige class.2) Cut it from the game entirely. Replace it with an entirely new class called something like a "Templar" or a "Crusader" that perhaps had similar powers (a divine-casting martial character who gains abilities based on his alignment or deity), but I would NOT call it a paladin. Because, as far as the game is concerned, such a class is not a paladin.
I like both off these approaches, and as for published materials, I thought "Genius Guide to the Templar" was quite good.
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James, could you please answer whether I can or should be able to do this? It seems reasonable to me, but the RAW is silent.
That's a Duelist Class Feature.
In my games I just give that feature to everyone for free, because I want my players to try cool stunts.
But that's a houserule.
Have you ever played in a primarily seafaring campaign?
Would you?
Will Paizo ever release workable rules for this outside of the coming AP, or should I just use a Seafarer's Handbook/Seas of Blood mashup for my seafaring rules?
Why are the Ultimate Combat vehicle DCs so prohibitively high?
Again not JJ, but Do you have stormwrack? that's my goto seafaring book I use when running a pirates & pathfinders game.
James, do you enjoy the Total War series of video games by Sega and Creative Assembly?
I love them, especially Empire (set in the 18th century). Empire by itself is awesome, but there is a mod that reskins everything and sets it in the American Civil War, and it rocks. I'm a gigantic Civil War buff, and the mod is fairly well done for a video game. That mod is at the top of my favorite video games.
Again not JJ, but Do you have stormwrack? that's my goto seafaring book I use when running a pirates & pathfinders game.
No, I don't. I use Seafarer's Handbook and Seas of Blood.
Seafarer's Handbook and Seas of Blood are good. Stormwrack is expensive and I've heard bad things about it, so I'd rather snap up a copy of Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved or Heroes of Horror.
i have a question in regards to feinting in combat vs foresight. We were in the air, thinking that you KNOW that you are going to be attacked, but you can't defend yourself because it isn't specific, just letting you know you are in danger. how do you feel on this one?
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As for eidolons... my preference is to believe that they're not "reflections" of single creatures, but composites cobbled together from many different creatures. The summoner essentially custom-builds his eidolon from partial reflections from numerous different source creatures and then binds that specific combination together with metaphysical "glue" harvested form his own life energies (hence the shared magic rune between summoner and eidolon).
This is the first time the summoner class has captured my imagination. Mostly it's because I've seen this idea before. In Lucretius' De Rerum Natura he posits the conflation of disparate but real simulacra in the human imagination as the source of mythical monsters that never physically existed. With those metaphysical implications, I can see the mechanics of the summoner class being really cool.
Marketing Lesson: Always connect your new rules content to ancient philosophy! This will help you sell books to me (and only me).
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I happen to love seafaring campaigns myself. There is a reason I joined the Navy and not the Army, after all.
Navy, huh? Nice to know that there are more veterans (and/or currently serving military personnel around here). I missed that in reading your other posts that I've seen, but I haven't been around the Paizo boards all that long. I'm Army Reserve, Retired-- get to keep that status for life after all the years (active and reserve) that I spent in uniform.
Navy, huh? Nice to know that there are more veterans (and/or currently serving military personnel around here). I missed that in reading your other posts that I've seen, but I haven't been around the Paizo boards all that long. I'm Army Reserve, Retired-- get to keep that status for life after all the years (active and reserve) that I spent in uniform.
I happen to love seafaring campaigns myself. There is a reason I joined the Navy and not the Army, after all.
I got discharged due to medical issues before I got the chance to actually do anything, so I don't call myself a veteran. There are, however, a pretty fair number of current or former service members on these boards. I had a thread about it a while back.
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Seafarer's Handbook and Seas of Blood are good. Stormwrack is expensive and I've heard bad things about it, so I'd rather snap up a copy of Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved or Heroes of Horror.
I haven't had many problems with Stormwrack. Also I picked it up at my FLGS for $12, because well, it was $12 and I was about to start a seafaring campaign. lol. Heroes of Horror is pretty good, and I use it as well. Arcana Evolved had some good ideas, but I dont know If I'd ever use it as my main rulebook. Medium Save Progressions are a cool idea though. One I implemented a a houserule before I learned Monte cook thought of the same thing.
Stormwrack's pretty good, IMO-- but it's 3.5, not PF... so you'd have to do adaptions anyway.
The Legends and Lairs stuff was mostly 3.0 - so it required even more adaptations.
trouble finding places in raids...
That one, my good man, is less due to the abundance of DPS and more due to the... er, unique reputation of night elf hunters.
@Kelsey regarding vehicle DCs: I like the high DCs myself, it means you have to get a lot of competent dudes and have them all aid another.
@JJ
I have recently began a most devious plan- one of the groups that I GM are playing Serpent's Skull, and a new player has joined, taking the role of Sasha. I have secretly made plans with the player to have her betray the party just before the conclusion of the AP, which the
The idea is for this to happen just prior to the last few hours of the AP, to shock and weaken the players just before the final fight.
What do I do if she somehow succeeds?
Is there anything in particular that would help in foreshadowing and executing the betrayal?
(This particular group, I am certain, will not mind it, and in fact will likely greatly enjoy the surprise)
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Creative Director
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i have a question in regards to feinting in combat vs foresight. We were in the air, thinking that you KNOW that you are going to be attacked, but you can't defend yourself because it isn't specific, just letting you know you are in danger. how do you feel on this one?
Foresight is a 9th level spell. Feinting is something that anyone can do. My take is that foresight should protect you against feints as much as it does ANY kind of surprise (and feinting is thematically a surprise, after all).
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Creative Director
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What do I do if she somehow succeeds?
Is there anything in particular that would help in foreshadowing and executing the betrayal?
(This particular group, I am certain, will not mind it, and in fact will likely greatly enjoy the surprise)
I've never really had a good experience with "GM Plants" among the players. As a result, my advice would probably have to be something between "Just let things develop as they will and try your best to remain flexible," and "Don't do it."
Have you seen any of these movies: "Battle beyond the stars", "Forbidden world", "The Bride", "Galaxy of Terror", "Curse of the crimson altar", "Barbarian Queen", "Deathstalker"(1 or 2), "The Swordsman and the Sorceress", "Battle beyond the stars", or "Inseminiod"? if so did you like them?
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I got discharged due to medical issues before I got the chance to actually do anything, so I don't call myself a veteran.
At least you enlisted and gave it a try. You can hold your head up for that-- getting 'medicaled' out is not something to hold against yourself, or anyone else.
Also, look on the bright side-- you escaped spending time in some of the "garden spots" around the world, many of which (IMO) are really over-rated.
(Well... actually Kosovo would have been great, if it wasn't for the totally F'ed up unit I was there with...)
(Iraq utterly sucked from the beginning all the way to the end of the trip, and I was with a really good unit for that deployment!)
Beckett: Noticed you posted about being deployed in Afghanistan-- if you're still there, stay safe and come alive! If you've redeployed already, welcome home!
Hey James,
If someone is a player in Curse of the Crimson Throne would you recommend that person not to DM Shattered Star since it assumes certain events have happened in CotCT?
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Creative Director
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Have you seen any of these movies: "Battle beyond the stars", "Forbidden world", "The Bride", "Galaxy of Terror", "Curse of the crimson altar", "Barbarian Queen", "Deathstalker"(1 or 2), "The Swordsman and the Sorceress", "Battle beyond the stars", or "Inseminiod"? if so did you like them?
Yes, yes, yes, yes, no, no, no (neither 1 or 2), yes, yes (you listed that one twice), and yes.
Of them all, I believe I liked Forbidden World the best, but they were all fun in one way or another.
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Creative Director
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Hey James,
If someone is a player in Curse of the Crimson Throne would you recommend that person not to DM Shattered Star since it assumes certain events have happened in CotCT?
I've run Adventure Paths for people who developed those APs. I've played in Adventure Paths that I've developed.
It depends, therefore, on the player and GM's preference. There ARE some elements of Curse that are revealed in Shattered Star, but not the entire thing.
Snoutsnuffers.AKA: I'm not sure, if "wolffolk" isn't an option. And it shouldn't be, since that's a terrible name.
(Not JJ But...)
Catfolk isn't specific, it's general. Otherwise it would be tigerfolk, leopardfolk, lionfolk, etc.
So why not dogfolk? Then if someone wants to make a character from another breed of dog instead of a wolf, they have the option.
Or youknow, Snoutsnuffers. that's pretty awesome.
Couldn't you move the bar up one degree higher and do caninefolk? :-P
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While I play video games James, I believe you have more eclectic tastes in that medium than I do, have you seen the new 'I Am Alive' clip?
In case you missed the earlier cinematic trailer from 2008.
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Couldn't you move the bar up one degree higher and do caninefolk? :-P
Snoutsnuffers.AKA: I'm not sure, if "wolffolk" isn't an option. And it shouldn't be, since that's a terrible name.
(Not JJ But...)
Catfolk isn't specific, it's general. Otherwise it would be tigerfolk, leopardfolk, lionfolk, etc.
So why not dogfolk? Then if someone wants to make a character from another breed of dog instead of a wolf, they have the option.
Or youknow, Snoutsnuffers. that's pretty awesome.
Just call them 'Vargr'.
(oh wait-- I think that might be some other game's copyright for a canine-related race... I would like to play them in PF though.) :)