James, do you ever sleep? Admit it, you have either a ring of sustenance or are a construct! It is past midnight in Washington. Don't you need to get up for work in the morning?
*chuckles*
- Gauss
Don't be silly. Everybody knows Tyrannosaurus' only need 3 hours of sleep. [citation needed]
I slightly disagree with you on the rich enough part since my 20th level monk is spending all his 880,000 gp on dull gray ioun stones, translates to 35,200 stones, but since it orbits above my head it won't block my direct field of vision.
Now I can do what I've always wanted to do. Buy enough ioun stones to provide some shade and with a little prestidigitation from my wizard friend have enough swag to put the fanciest hat wearer to shame.
Turn heads in town. Give out a few here and there to curious street urchins. Bluff/Intimidate foes into thinking I'm some epic level adventurer with enough magic items to make the hordes of dragon gods seem meager.
Ummmm... you can do the same thing with a 1st level illusion spell if you want...
...never mind the fact that I'm not sure there are dull gray ioun stones in Pathfinder, unless they sneaked in somehow when I wasn't looking.
They were published in Seeker of Secrets and are used in the Ioun Torch, but don't show up in the PRD but do show up on PFSRD.
Okay, Who could I ask about game design from the staff? Do they have a thread like this?
Maybe you could give me a simple answer on this. Do you think it is a viable idea to have a single conjuration spell grant the caster a bonus to hit and damage. I am more worried about the viability of concept. If you can't answer, I understand.
Thank you
Where would I look to discover what lies south of Sargava? On that note, are we ever going to see a full-world map?
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Where would I look to discover what lies south of Sargava? On that note, are we ever going to see a full-world map?
There was a hand drawn map of the world in... one of the APs, Jade Regent I think? It showed the rest of garund, and the two not yet explored continents of Arcadia and Fantasy Australia.
This is likely not a James Jacobs question so I apologize in advance. I read most of my fiction on my kindle. Any chance of Pathfinder Tales becoming available through amazon in that format? Thanks for your time. Your dedication is appreciated.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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James,
I'm wondering if you happen to know the intent of the spell invigorate, as the text seems self-contradictory. First it says that it suppresses the penalties of fatigue conditions for the duration, suggesting that you still have the condition but just aren't taking -X to stuff. But then it goes on to say that when it runs out, the conditions "return", suggesting that they were actually completely gone (or else how could they return?) while the spell was active.
Would you happen to know which way it was supposed to be? Barbarians' bardic buddies want to know. ;)
Thanks!
Creative Director
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James, do you ever sleep? Admit it, you have either a ring of sustenance or are a construct! It is past midnight in Washington. Don't you need to get up for work in the morning?
*chuckles*
- Gauss
I'm almost always awake after midnight. My normal bedtime is about 2:00 AM these days. We get to set our own hours here at work, in any event—we need to be here for the "core hours" of 11 to 5, but beyond that, as long as you put in your 40+ hour week and get your stuff done... it's all good.
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Creative Director
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Okay, Who could I ask about game design from the staff? Do they have a thread like this?
Maybe you could give me a simple answer on this. Do you think it is a viable idea to have a single conjuration spell grant the caster a bonus to hit and damage. I am more worried about the viability of concept. If you can't answer, I understand.
Thank you
Asking professional game designers about game design is actually a tricky subject.
1) First of all, there's the issue of time—if a professional game designer opened himself up to providing feedback on all independent/ammeter game design questions, that could quickly bloom out of control as more and more requests come in, either forcing the designer to abandon the actual work he's supposed to be doing or forcing him to pick and choose who he helps, which can cause problems.
2) We take game design very seriously, and due to #1 above (the time issue), our feedback is quick and curt and to the point. There's no time to sugarcoat things. A person who's a professional freelancer and is getting paid is generally in the right mindset to accept this type of feedback... but in my experience, when you use this type of feedback on non-freelancers, or give the feedback in public so others can see, it ruffles feathers and damages egos. I see this every year in the RPG Superstar forums, especially in the ones I serve as a guest judge. My feedback to the final four contestants is generally pretty direct, and every year there's a lot of people who get offended by that. I'd rather not get embroiled in that kind of situation. (And even if someone THINKS they can take that type of direct feedback, they might not realize just how rough it can be... and even THEN it's not just that person if it's public feedback, but it's EVERYONE who has a chance to escalate things beyond mere feedback into defense-mode.)
3) Paizo has competitors. We give our rules away for free online, but we'd rather not give away our design skills for free. Any public feedback we provide could be used by a competitor. (This is, frankly, a pretty low concern on my list, since I feel that good game design is as much raw talent as it is learned skill, and as such having the skills "stolen" by the competition only releases a portion of the whole.)
4) This is the primary reason. There are legal complications regarding copyright and intellectual property theft that start to loom like malevolent specters in these situations—what happens if a game designer provides feedback to a fan's spell, and then 3 years later that game designer (or a different designer at the same company) publishes (either by coincidence or accident) that spell in a book? The original designer might have gone on to publish it on his own, or he might not, but in either case, he might be able to bring a lawsuit against the designer. This type of situation is in part why our boards have some legal language behind them to help protect Paizo should a situation like this arise, but I'd rather not encourage that type of possibility from ever happening in the first place. For the same reason, novelists generally don't agree to critique and give feedback to others who ask them for the same.
So, as a result, we don't have a thread where the staff helps design and critique and workshop new content created by anyone else. There's just too many weird complications that can arise... complications that for the most part go away entirely if you ask fellow fans for feedback.
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Creative Director
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Where would I look to discover what lies south of Sargava? On that note, are we ever going to see a full-world map?
There's nothing but ocean and ice at the south pole (similar to how Earth's north pole works). Beyond what we've mentioned in the Inner Sea World Guide, and perhaps a few more hints in the second Skull & Shackles book (which has a big article about the oceans of Golarion)... there's not much more in print about the south pole yet.
There IS a deliberately-inaccurate world map on page 204 of the Inner Sea World Guide. We're a LONG way away from providing that map in any sort of detail though.
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Creative Director
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This is likely not a James Jacobs question so I apologize in advance. I read most of my fiction on my kindle. Any chance of Pathfinder Tales becoming available through amazon in that format? Thanks for your time. Your dedication is appreciated.
I believe management's looking in to that possibility, but in the meantime and as far as I understand things, the way Amazon's kindle program works makes it pretty onerous for those who fall in between "independent self-published book" and "big publisher," like Paizo. I'm not sure exactly what those onerous bits are... but they're enough to make Paizo not comfortable yet publishing Kindle editions of fiction. I don't really have more insight into that can of worms though...
We'll see how things turn out though.
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Creative Director
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James,
I'm wondering if you happen to know the intent of the spell invigorate, as the text seems self-contradictory. First it says that it suppresses the penalties of fatigue conditions for the duration, suggesting that you still have the condition but just aren't taking -X to stuff. But then it goes on to say that when it runs out, the conditions "return", suggesting that they were actually completely gone (or else how could they return?) while the spell was active.
Would you happen to know which way it was supposed to be? Barbarians' bardic buddies want to know. ;)
Thanks!
The spell causes the fatigue and exhaustion conditions to stop causing penalties to you. Like delay poison, sort of. They hold off the bad effects, but the condition itself doesn't go away, and it comes back when the spell ends.
When it says "the conditions return" it's talking about "the penalties caused by the conditions come back in effect." But in a way that uses only 3 words instead of 10 words.
If you cast this spell on a barbarian, he won't suffer the penalties of fatigue or exhaustion, but he still has the condition. It's not a way to sneak in additional rages. Like calm emotions, it's not a good spell for a barbarian. Which is why it has a Will save to resist even though it's "harmless."
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This is likely not a James Jacobs question so I apologize in advance. I read most of my fiction on my kindle. Any chance of Pathfinder Tales becoming available through amazon in that format? Thanks for your time. Your dedication is appreciated.I believe management's looking in to that possibility, but in the meantime and as far as I understand things, the way Amazon's kindle program works makes it pretty onerous for those who fall in between "independent self-published book" and "big publisher," like Paizo. I'm not sure exactly what those onerous bits are... but they're enough to make Paizo not comfortable yet publishing Kindle editions of fiction. I don't really have more insight into that can of worms though...
We'll see how things turn out though.
There are ways of getting them onto Kindle from the ePub version though.
James, did everything go well in making last week's Gencon deadlines?
If so are you planning to take a (well deserved) vacation anytime soon?
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Creative Director
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James, did everything go well in making last week's Gencon deadlines?If so are you planning to take a (well deserved) vacation anytime soon?
Yup! This is actually the first year Paizo's made ALL of its Gen Con deadlines for all of our products. Always before, one or two products (usually in the Campaign Setting line, alas) got "sacrificed" to the schedule gods in order to get other books out, but this time we hit every single deadline.
I'm taking the 8th of June off to go see Prometheus, but apart from that I've no plans yet to take any time off anytime soon... as nice as that would be. It's kind of lame to push and push to get caught up, only then to take vacations and thus immediately fall behind. Maybe once I'm confident that we're on schedule or even (gasp!) ahead of schedule I'll think about vacations.
Yup! This is actually the first year Paizo's made ALL of its Gen Con deadlines for all of our products. Always before, one or two products (usually in the Campaign Setting line, alas) got "sacrificed" to the schedule gods in order to get other books out, but this time we hit every single deadline.
HUZZAH!!!
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Yup! This is actually the first year Paizo's made ALL of its Gen Con deadlines for all of our products. Always before, one or two products (usually in the Campaign Setting line, alas) got "sacrificed" to the schedule gods in order to get other books out, but this time we hit every single deadline.
So we'll get to See Shattered Star in it's entirety there then? At least in Preview form?
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Creative Director
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Yup! This is actually the first year Paizo's made ALL of its Gen Con deadlines for all of our products. Always before, one or two products (usually in the Campaign Setting line, alas) got "sacrificed" to the schedule gods in order to get other books out, but this time we hit every single deadline.So we'll get to See Shattered Star in it's entirety there then? At least in Preview form?
You'll get to see the first volume of Shattered Star in its entirety there. Parts 2 through 5 were never intended to be Gen Con releases!
Forgive my lack of the latest world knowledge, oh James, Lord of Dinosaurs who replace humanity. Is there a leftover Greek or Roman-equivalent in Casmaron that have inherited the leftover divine power from their dead Pantheon? And can the Osirians worship their ancient beast cults from any of the Egyptian deities?
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No need. If you save the dinos, you won't have existed, and so won't be able to save the dinos.If a Mad Scientist Kidnapped you at gunpoint and Forced you to go back in time with his time machine and change one historical event, which would it be? and how would you change it?Ooof.... just one?
And can I do ANYTHING? Like, oh, I don't know... deflect the asteroid or whatever that killed the dinosaurs?
AKA: For the sake of humanity, someone else with this wish should be prepared to go back in time and prevent me from saving the dinosaurs...
No, he would create a parallel universe where the dinos survived and evolved. We would continue to live our lives in this universe, and the dinos would have theirs. The problem from James would be the return voyage. If he return to our universe nothing has changed, if he go to the modern day dino universe he will be out of job (unless there is a Paizo there selling a game about giant winged humanoids breathing flames [a dino version of a dragon, not demons], it could be called Heights and Humans).
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Creative Director
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Forgive my lack of the latest world knowledge, oh James, Lord of Dinosaurs who replace humanity. Is there a leftover Greek or Roman-equivalent in Casmaron that have inherited the leftover divine power from their dead Pantheon? And can the Osirians worship their ancient beast cults from any of the Egyptian deities?
Who says that a Greek or Roman-equivalent in Casmaron's pantheon has to be dead?
And it's certainly doable for there to be ancient beast cults in Osirion that map exactly to the Egyptian deities. In fact, that's EXACTLY what I'm doing in the office games set in Osirion I'm running now... although Set is replaced by Rovagug.
Dear James
So I kinda hit rock bottom as a collector today. I went through every DDM gallery and couldn`t find a single mini I don`t already own in significant quantity. I also did the same at Dwarvenforge.com and there is only one small set (the chasm set) that I want and it is currently out of stock. So I am literally to the point where only outside terrain remains. And I could have most of that finished (through purchase) in 6 months. I will soon be at a point in my collection where I can only collect stuff as it comes out. I already own all the paizo published products (I`ve been a subscriber since the beginning) and I already own all the Pathfinder PPMs and eagerly await my 3 subscription bundles and Rune Giants in August. I would collect pewter and lead minis if I had the patience and the skill to paint them. I am literally at a loss in 6 months time I will be at my wits end as a collector, what should I do?
P.S. I am the same poster who named their gaming room the Pathfinder Lodge, and pictures will be forthcoming in August with Rune Giant inhabitants :P.
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I just wanted to mention just how much I (and everybody else here, I'm sure) appreciate your continued vigilance on this thread. I'm constantly impressed by just how well you manage to keep up on the thread even though I know everybody at Paizo must be drowning in work. Thanks for keeping it up. :)
And it's certainly doable for there to be ancient beast cults in Osirion that map exactly to the Egyptian deities. In fact, that's EXACTLY what I'm doing in the office games set in Osirion I'm running now... although Set is replaced by Rovagug.
Cool.
So what games are kicking around the office right now? How often do you get to play, and for how long? (Don't worry, we're all ready to be insanely jealous.)
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Creative Director
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Does your Unspeakable Futures game use alignment the same as Pathfinder, or do you either modify how alignment works or jettison the concept entirely, to make more of a dark, gritty post-apocolypse world?
Currently, alignment is not in Unspeakable Futures. That DOES, in most games I've played, result in PCs essentially playing chaotic neutral... but for a postapocalyptic game, I'm okay with that.
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Creative Director
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And it's certainly doable for there to be ancient beast cults in Osirion that map exactly to the Egyptian deities. In fact, that's EXACTLY what I'm doing in the office games set in Osirion I'm running now... although Set is replaced by Rovagug.Cool.
So what games are kicking around the office right now? How often do you get to play, and for how long? (Don't worry, we're all ready to be insanely jealous.)
I'm not sure about the games I'm not involved in, although there are many of those...
The ones I GM:
1) Serpent's Skull every 1st and 3rd Saturday (although this one has been canceled more often than not for various annoying reasons)
2) Masks of Nyarlathotep on Sunday now and then (although not NEARLY as often as I want)
3) Sands of the Scorpion God (Necropolis): This I run every other Thursday after work
4) Sands of the Scorpion God (The Lost City): I run this every other Wednesday on the weeks I"m not doing the Necropolis one
The ones I'm a Player in:
1) Skull & Shackles: Rob McCreary's the GM for this one; it happens every other Friday
2) Lords of Absalom: This one happens in "seasons" that consist of Thursday sessions that run in short bursts separated by breaks; Erik Mona's running this one
3) Erratic Episodes: Wes Schneider runs weirdo games now and then. We've got a Mass Effect Pathfinder game going now
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3) Erratic Episodes: Wes Schneider runs weirdo games now and then. We've got a Mass Effect Pathfinder game going now
Wait, how does that work? Is it set in space with magic and pathfinder rules but with advanced guns and light speed travel? or is it the mass effect setting all on one planet and revised to fit fantasy doctrine?
Given the sucess of Dervish Dance as a feat, nearly every dex build uses a scimitar and this feat, is there any chance we will see a similar feat but for the rapier?
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Creative Director
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Wait, how does that work? Is it set in space with magic and pathfinder rules but with advanced guns and light speed travel? or is it the mass effect setting all on one planet and revised to fit fantasy doctrine?
3) Erratic Episodes: Wes Schneider runs weirdo games now and then. We've got a Mass Effect Pathfinder game going now
It uses the Pathfinder rules mixed with my Unspeakable Futures rules and some other 3.5 sci-fi stuff Wes cobbled together. And since it's only one two part adventure mostly located on a single complex on a planet, he doesn't have to worry about things like space travel.
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Creative Director
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Given the sucess of Dervish Dance as a feat, nearly every dex build uses a scimitar and this feat, is there any chance we will see a similar feat but for the rapier?
Since Dervish Dance exists mostly to enable a specific type of in-world build associated with a specific deity and type of fighting popularized by her followers... it's unlikely we'll do the same for rapiers or any other weapon.
In fact... if "Every Dex build" is indeed taking the feat, that argues to me that it's too good of a feat in the first place and should probably have tougher prerequisites.
In fact... if "Every Dex build" is indeed taking the feat, that argues to me that it's too good of a feat in the first place and should probably have tougher prerequisites.
Well, not quite every dex build uses it. Some of them go for the Agile weapon enchantment instead. It just works very well for the Magus class since they always have a free hand.
Some of the the silliest things I've seen are druids and feral mutagen using alchemists using amulets of mighty fists (agile) to totally dump strength. From a "moderate optimization" PoV, there isn't much a reason to use strength builds anymore unless you're using a two-hander.
And this touches on something I've been wondering for a while. Now, I'm aware that the subset of people who post on the forums is very small compared to the number of people who play in Golarion or play PF. But I'm curious if there's ever been, or will be, a reflection of the players and popular builds incorporated into Golarion? For example, perhaps Sarenrae's followers start to win some more battles due to the very high number of people trained to dextrously damage foes. Or perhaps there's an in-canon reason for why the rarest class of them all, summoners, flock to the Pathfinder Society (especially those synthesists).
...that brings up another question! Do you have final say over the in-game Pathfinder Society? Or do you, Mike, and Mark all discuss and agree on the direction it's going? Are the PFS scenarios and their lore under your most assuredly benevolent gaze?
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Creative Director
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Some of the the silliest things I've seen are druids and feral mutagen using alchemists using amulets of mighty fists (agile) to totally dump strength. From a "moderate optimization" PoV, there isn't much a reason to use strength builds anymore unless you're using a two-hander.
And this touches on something I've been wondering for a while. Now, I'm aware that the subset of people who post on the forums is very small compared to the number of people who play in Golarion or play PF. But I'm curious if there's ever been, or will be, a reflection of the players and popular builds incorporated into Golarion? For example, perhaps Sarenrae's followers start to win some more battles due to the very high number of people trained to dextrously damage foes. Or perhaps there's an in-canon reason for why the rarest class of them all, summoners, flock to the Pathfinder Society (especially those synthesists).
...that brings up another question! Do you have final say over the in-game Pathfinder Society? Or do you, Mike, and Mark all discuss and agree on the direction it's going? Are the PFS scenarios and their lore under your most assuredly benevolent gaze?
It's important to keep in mind that while there are tens of thousands of players who are playing in Golarion... in any one version of Golarion, there's only 4 or 6 or so actual player characters. Not nearly enough to change an entire region in that way.
I do have final say over the in-game of Pathfinder Society, although for some time I've not had the time to be as involved in the Pathfinder Society that I want and so some things have "snuck in" that I would have rather not had happen. Going forward, I'm trying to be more involved.
1) Skull & Shackles: Rob McCreary's the GM for this one; it happens every other Friday
Speaking of this, will there ever be any more campaign journals? I was really enjoying the adventures of Sasha Dracktus and her failed Diplomacy checks.
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Creative Director
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1) Skull & Shackles: Rob McCreary's the GM for this one; it happens every other FridaySpeaking of this, will there ever be any more campaign journals? I was really enjoying the adventures of Sasha Dracktus and her failed Diplomacy checks.
I'm still writing them in-game... but since we're only 2 days into the post-Gen Con printer madness, I've not really had much of a chance to get back to the thread. I'll do so sometime though.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Yup! This is actually the first year Paizo's made ALL of its Gen Con deadlines for all of our products. Always before, one or two products (usually in the Campaign Setting line, alas) got "sacrificed" to the schedule gods in order to get other books out, but this time we hit every single deadline.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Visions of WAR was this year's sacrifice. (It was originally solicited for May.)
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Yup! This is actually the first year Paizo's made ALL of its Gen Con deadlines for all of our products. Always before, one or two products (usually in the Campaign Setting line, alas) got "sacrificed" to the schedule gods in order to get other books out, but this time we hit every single deadline.Sorry to burst your bubble, but Visions of WAR was this year's sacrifice. (It was originally solicited for May.)
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I wanted the pretty pretty artworks!
Yup! This is actually the first year Paizo's made ALL of its Gen Con deadlines for all of our products. Always before, one or two products (usually in the Campaign Setting line, alas) got "sacrificed" to the schedule gods in order to get other books out, but this time we hit every single deadline.Sorry to burst your bubble, but Visions of WAR was this year's sacrifice. (It was originally solicited for May.)
Buzz kill man, seriously. That's just cruel.
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James,
How much more would it cost us paizites to have printed in the U.S.A. instead of printed in China on your products? Strictly speaking from a business point of view of course... (Yay U.S.A. ooops sorry that slipped) Hope you and the rest of the staff had a blessed Memorial weekend.
Dinkster the Dinkmeister
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Creative Director
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James,
How much more would it cost us paizites to have printed in the U.S.A. instead of printed in China on your products? Strictly speaking from a business point of view of course... (Yay U.S.A. ooops sorry that slipped) Hope you and the rest of the staff had a blessed Memorial weekend.
Dinkster the Dinkmeister
I'm not sure of the exact numbers (that's more of a Jeff Alvarez question), but I suspect it'd do something pretty significant and drastic. Like double the price of the books.
Not sure how many people would line up to pay 40 bucks for a volume of Pathfinder. Or 25 bucks for a 32 page module.
This is something that's pretty much unclear in the Rules, but how do you PERSONALLY handle the DC for:
Noticing a Conversation (/words spoken/etc) but NOT any Details? -5 DC?
Noticing an Argument/Yelling/etc? -10 DC? (which could stack with above)
Do you increase the DC to notice specific visual details of a character?
In Korvosa, there's a Conjuration-based university (whose name I cannot recall) that hosts the breaching festival. They focus mainly on conjuration, so would they accept Summoners for training, or would they still only allow wizards to join?
I've always imagined that when it came to conjuration, the summoner was that kid that was really good at playing baseball but no one wanted to pick him for his team because he had snot rolling down his nostils or something.
In this metaphor, the eidolon is the snot. :-P
In Korvosa, there's a Conjuration-based university (whose name I cannot recall) that hosts the breaching festival. They focus mainly on conjuration, so would they accept Summoners for training, or would they still only allow wizards to join?
Already answered by JJ here.