James with your epic knowledge of 3.5, was there any way a mortal could create a god? (not become a god, but make one from scratch)
Wasn't the ghoul-god Zhakata from Ravenloft made up by a human, then the Dark Powers brought it into existence? It's been too long since I read any Ravenloft lore.
Hi James,
The monastic legacy feat for multiclassed monks:
Benefit: Add half the levels you have in classes other than monk to your monk level to determine your effective monk level for your base unarmed strike damage. This feat does not make levels in classes other than monk count toward any other monk class features.
But how does it interact with Champion of Irori levels which state:
The class levels of a champion of Irori stack with monk levels for determining the effect of his AC bonus, flurry of blows, stunning fist, and unarmed strike class features.
Since a level in CoI is not a level in monk is it considered as a level in a class "other than monk" for the purpose of monastic legacy? (I.e. count 1/2 levels in CoI towards the monk unarmed strike progression)?
Cheers,
prototype00
Hi james...
The spell illusion of calm states
When casting this spell, you create an illusory double that takes the same space of you. That double makes it look like you are standing still, even when you are not. While under the effects of this spell, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you cast a spell, make a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, or move out of your first square during a move action. It does not hide ranged attacks made with any type of projectile weapon.
When a creature hits you with an attack of any type, it gains a saving throw to disbelieve the figment. On a successful saving throw, it successfully disbelieves and the spell’s effect ends for that creature.
This description seems simple but in practice leaves many open questions.
here are a few that spring to mind
- Is the spell mobile or anchored in place? if you walk does the spell move with you , stay in one place? or just vanish?
- If it moves does it move naturally? If it stays is it now an independent illusion that I can return to?
- does the spell mask any reasonable action? casting spells, drinking potions, shooting a bow, picking a lock, changing clothes? etc
- If I attack from an illusion of calm is the target flat footed?
- many many more
would you say this spell is worded clearly or do you think it could use a rewrite or clarification?
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I hide my question in a Spoiler from Carrion Hill!
Can the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth grapple more than one creature at a time? I mean come on. It's a gigantic eldritch horror spawned from the Cthulhu Mythos.
Also it has 4 limbs and each limb has grab...
Could the Spawn use two limbs to grab a creature without the -20 penalty, and then do it again at least, say, 3 more times (it would have 2 limbs each time, to try and grapple).
Also, if it could, could it spend a Standard Action to maintain multiple Grapples, or would it have to release 2 people?
If it couldn't do any of the above, could it at least try to grapple multiple people with its limbs at a -20 penalty to each attack roll?
Hi James,
I originally posted this in the rules forum, but it quickly got lost in the shuffle. Since you were the principle author of Souls for Smuggler's Shiv, I thought I'd try it again here:
Serpent's Skull Volume 37 has an undead creature named the tuyewera in its bestiary. Its stat block lists "vulnerable to sunlight" as its weakness. Maybe the obvious is escaping me, but what does that entail exactly in terms of gameplay? I can't find any further mention of this anywhere in its description.
Two other undead with "vulnerability to sunlight" have vastly different effects. For example, the vampire is staggered on the first round of exposture and destroyed on the second. A bodak takes 2d6 points of damage each round.
The bestiary here was written by James Jacobs and F. Wesley Schneider so I wanted to says thanks for developing a great monster, and if you guys are reading, I'd appreciate any help in this matter.
I have to pop in to say a local GM ran a great campaign about the party working to create a new god (their idea was that it would serve them - or at least be grateful - and make them awesome).
They toiled and adventured long and hard, building up the power of belief in this god by doing miracles in its name and claiming powerful artifacts for the growing church. Their bard wove an epic tale of the god's creation myth and role in the universe, a story so flawless and enchanting that those that believed it granted growing power to the forming deity and burgeoning priesthood.
When they finally finished, their god came into being fully formed. When they introduced themselves, it did not recognise them as it's creators. It had a fully fleshed out creation myth, after all. And now that myth was true.
Do the rare Drow monks worhip anything? I would guess the demon lords would be unsuitable.
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I did not see Mythic coming at all post Ultimate books, bravo on a nice new direction there.
But it raises a question: What sort of hardbacks are you looking to produce in a post Ultimate series of books? More NPC Codexs? Alternative game types like Mythic? Do you have a top 5 ideas that you'd love to explore down the line?
James,
If I wanted to, could I tour Paizo's facilities and meet you and the illustrious staff? I am planning on visiting the Port Angeles (there's a beach called Crescent Beach around there) and I'd love to schedule a stop and buy some lunch!
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A question about the spell Abundant Ammunition and Non-Magical Weapon enhancements. If you abundant ammunition some poison ammunition, or ammunition covered in weapon blanch (such as Ghost Salt Blanch), does abundant ammunition replicate the effects of those items as well?
1) As we are here, how it will work with adamantine arrows?
How do I know how many of the original arrows are left in a quiver (it can be important for costly ammunitions)? I will always use only 1 round of ammunitions?Example:
Let's say I have 10 adamantine arrow and met a golem. The friendly cleric cast abundant ammunitions on my quiver and I start firing 3 arrow each round.
The first round I use 3 real arrows, the next one they are replaced by replicas and I pick 3 random arrows from the quiver, so I have a 3/10 chance that I am using a replica arrow. next round the fired replicas vanish and all the arrow I used in round 2 are replaced.
That cycle repeat till the end of the fight or the end of the spell.
When the spell end how many real arrows are left?
The easiest way to manage this would be to use only 1 round of ammunitions for the whole fight but unless the arrow are somewhat marked I don't see how it would be possible.
2) This spell can be cast on a magical container as a Efficient quiver?
I don't see anything blocking that, but enchanting a extra dimensional container and affecting what is in it seem a bit strange.
Creative Director
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related to ancient osirion, what is the relationship between the modern osrionic speaking countries, particularly the garundi ones (not absalom)? do they see themselves all as different surviving strains of the ancient culture? was osironic adopted by some of them as a language, but not so much culture-wise? in particular, i'm interested in nex. also, does osirionic influence extend further, into southern garund, or other territories to the east?
about the state of the pathfinder game as a whole, what do you think of the precedent of 3.0->3.5? with the amount of world material that you have done, and plan to do in the PRPG system, would a 99.5% 'revised edition' update that doesn't disrupt those products (that are still in inventory and you want to sell, presumably) be the most likely future development of the PRPG core rules?
The first is a pretty huge and complex question, and not one I am ready to go into detail at this moment... but modern Osirion-speaking countries look at Ancient Osirion the same way modern Italy relates to ancient Rome, or the same way modern China relates to ancient China. It's something that would not only vary from country to country, but from region to region in a single country. As for Nex... I suspect it has a low opinion of anything pre-Nex.
As for the precedent of 3.0 to 3.5, I think that was a necessary addition to the game, but I think the way WotC handled its rollout was flawed. It's not something you spring on the customers without warning them in advance. Give folks time to adjust, and make them trust that the changes you're going to make are not going to invalidate their existing books. It's a tough, tough equation to solve.
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Creative Director
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Hi Jacobs:
I browsed the board with no luck. A Bag of Holding (regardless the type) is it hermetically sealed? Is it water proof? Meaning, if it falls underwater it will fill with it and explode? If so, is there a source for this rule?Thanks.
A closed bag of holding is hermetically sealed. If you open it underwater, it will fill with water but only until it's full; it won't explode.
There's no source for this rule. It's what I would file under a mix of GM Adjudication and Common Sense and personal preference.
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Creative Director
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I would also like to ask another question: what was the extent of Nyarlathotep's influence in ancient Osirion? I have gleaned that there were at the very least some cults and covens dedicated to him among some groups of arcane magic-users and witches (I mean, Narly having the Black Pharaoh as a Mask is rather telling, and I can't be sure if it's merely just a carryover from Earth, especially considering the Osirian culture of Golarion.) This, along with the hints of a connection between ancient Osirion and Aucturn, and other tidbits sprinkled throughout various books tying Osirion to the Dark Tapestry, leads me to believe that the ancient Osirians had relatively frequent dealings with some very dark, Chaotic, sanity shattering entities. Was perhaps one of the Pharaohs of Ancient Osirion actually a Mask of Nyarlathotep him/it/self? I've just been idly wondering on the possibilities...For now, I'm not ready to reveal what Nyarlathotep's influence over Ancient Osirion was. That's a secret that'll be revealed at some point in the future.Cool :) I really dig the Lovecraft crossover thing.
Speaking of which, have you worked Lovecraftian elements into a RotRL campaign before? If not, what do you imagine would be some great ways to bring a bit of Cthulhu to that AP?
There's already plenty of Lovecraftian elements for Rise of the Runelords, especially in adventures #2 (which has lots of ghoul stuff), #4 (which has Hounds of Tindalos and lost libraries) and #6 (which has a lot of Leng stuff and wendigos).
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Creative Director
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First Worlder plus Master Summoner. Would you allow them to stack? I understand they both modify the "normal" eidolon class feature of summoners? They both modify the ability, but in different ways
I would probably not allow them to stack. Both of those are very flavorful, and they are strongest when they're the only flavors.
Salmon and chocolate are delicious flavors. They don't mix well. Same goes for a lot of archetypes. The more you mix archetypes, especially COMPLEX archetypes that fundamentally change the nature of a class in significant ways, the more cluttered and unpalatable the result gets to me.
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Creative Director
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Vampires and vampire hunting has been on the brain of a couple people in my gaming group, what with Blood of the Night coming out on the 19th, and one of them recently brought up the idea of a Paladin of Pharasma, kind of a super undead hunter character.
Does Pharasma even have Paladins for this purpose? What might their code look like?
In canon, no. Pharasma has no paladins. Especially since a paladin who honestly served Pharasma would be neither good nor lawful, at which point he wouldn't be a paladin. And if he was good and lawful, or heck, even good OR lawful, he wouldn't be a very appropriate crusader for Pharasma.
Instead, the role of undead hunter is more or less played in Pharasma's church by inquisitors and/or rangers.
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Creative Director
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James with your epic knowledge of 3.5, was there any way a mortal could create a god? (not become a god, but make one from scratch)
By having an author write a story about it.
That type of thing is, in my opinion, better handled on a case-by-case basis, rather than having specific rules describing how you can do it. That cheapens the plot in my opinion.
That said, Deities & Demigods has rules for how people become a deity. Alas... they don't mesh well with the Epic Level Handbook... :-(
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Creative Director
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1) My players have loved the Lovecraft elements in Carrion Crown; would you ever consider doing an AP that is fully about mythos creatures involving themselves with Golarion? If so, I think it would be a hit.
2) If you did get an opportunity to make such an AP, which Elder Gods would be the focus/who would be the big bad?
3) Would you be interested in fully exploring some of the more established Lovecraftian "planes" like the Dreamlands in such an AP and associated products?
4) Are you familiar with Jason Thompson and his mythos comics? They're quite excellent.
5) Do you think Wrath of the Righteous will be more of a one-off or do you think it will become more of a common thing to have APs that delve into mythic tiers in a post-mythic adventures world (assuming Mythic Adventures is successful)?
6) Will Ultimate Campaign be expanding on Kingmaker's hex-based system for establishing a kingdom or will it be establishing a new system entirely?
7) Will it have any elements of the old Stronghold Builders Guide for determining the costs associated with players building their own keep?
1) I've been tempted to do an Adventure Path like this from day 1. Traditionally, including Lovecraftian elements in a fantasy RPG has been something that is more of a "dip the toe in the water" thing than a "dive in and make a big splash." Lovecraftian stuff can be VERY polarizing. That said, the reaction folks have had whenever we do Lovecraftian elements in our products has been on the whole more positive than negative... so, we'll see what the futures bring should those stars align...
2) Nyarlathotep or Hastur.
3) Yes. In fact, we do just that with Leng in Pathfinder #65.
4) Yup!
5) If folks like Mythic Adventures, we'll do more Mythic Adventure Paths in the future. At the very least, expect to see mythic elements show up in adventures now and then, just as you see witches, samurai, archetypes, and other non-Core rulebook elements showing up now and then.
6) It's expanding on Kingmaker's system.
7) It will have some similar content, but won't be compatible with Stronghold Builder's Guide, really, as Stronghold Builder's Guide is not open content and thus not something we can do anything with. We can explore the themes of building strongholds and hideouts and all that, but the rules will be different. And, I hope, more fun!
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
The monastic legacy feat for multiclassed monks:
Benefit: Add half the levels you have in classes other than monk to your monk level to determine your effective monk level for your base unarmed strike damage. This feat does not make levels in classes other than monk count toward any other monk class features.But how does it interact with Champion of Irori levels which state:
The class levels of a champion of Irori stack with monk levels for determining the effect of his AC bonus, flurry of blows, stunning fist, and unarmed strike class features.Since a level in CoI is not a level in monk is it considered as a level in a class "other than monk" for the purpose of monastic legacy? (I.e. count 1/2 levels in CoI towards the monk unarmed strike progression)?
Cheers,
prototype00
It doesn't interact well, because they are both different solutions to the same question. Pick which one you prefer for each character, as makes sense for each character.
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Creative Director
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Hi james...
The spell illusion of calm states
When casting this spell, you create an illusory double that takes the same space of you. That double makes it look like you are standing still, even when you are not. While under the effects of this spell, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you cast a spell, make a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, or move out of your first square during a move action. It does not hide ranged attacks made with any type of projectile weapon.
When a creature hits you with an attack of any type, it gains a saving throw to disbelieve the figment. On a successful saving throw, it successfully disbelieves and the spell’s effect ends for that creature.This description seems simple but in practice leaves many open questions.
here are a few that spring to mind
- Is the spell mobile or anchored in place? if you walk does the spell move with you , stay in one place? or just vanish?
- If it moves does it move naturally? If it stays is it now an independent illusion that I can return to?
- does the spell mask any reasonable action? casting spells, drinking potions, shooting a bow, picking a lock, changing clothes? etc
- If I attack from an illusion of calm is the target flat footed?
- many many more
would you say this spell is worded clearly or do you think it could use a rewrite or clarification?
The spell moves with you, but makes it look like you're simply sliding over the ground. It masks what you're really doing. It's not meant to trick folks into thinking you're not doing anything as much as it is meant to simply mask what you ARE doing. It masks any action, and therefore prevents folks from making attacks of opportunity; it's kind of a "poor man's invisibility" spell in a lot of ways. Foes are not flat-footed against your attacks.
The spell's pretty specific in what it does. Don't let the flavor of the spell's name or its in-game description trick you into thinking it does anything more than what it does—prevent attacks of opportunity when you cast a spell, make a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, or move out of your first square during a move action.
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Creative Director
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I hide my question in a Spoiler from Carrion Hill!
Spoiler:Can the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth grapple more than one creature at a time? I mean come on. It's a gigantic eldritch horror spawned from the Cthulhu Mythos.
Also it has 4 limbs and each limb has grab...Could the Spawn use two limbs to grab a creature without the -20 penalty, and then do it again at least, say, 3 more times (it would have 2 limbs each time, to try and grapple).
Also, if it could, could it spend a Standard Action to maintain multiple Grapples, or would it have to release 2 people?
If it couldn't do any of the above, could it at least try to grapple multiple people with its limbs at a -20 penalty to each attack roll?
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
I originally posted this in the rules forum, but it quickly got lost in the shuffle. Since you were the principle author of Souls for Smuggler's Shiv, I thought I'd try it again here:
Serpent's Skull Volume 37 has an undead creature named the tuyewera in its bestiary. Its stat block lists "vulnerable to sunlight" as its weakness. Maybe the obvious is escaping me, but what does that entail exactly in terms of gameplay? I can't find any further mention of this anywhere in its description.
Two other undead with "vulnerability to sunlight" have vastly different effects. For example, the vampire is staggered on the first round of exposture and destroyed on the second. A bodak takes 2d6 points of damage each round.
The bestiary here was written by James Jacobs and F. Wesley Schneider so I wanted to says thanks for developing a great monster, and if you guys are reading, I'd appreciate any help in this matter.
That simply means that spells that have additional effects on monsters adversely affected by sunlight, such as sunburst or searing light, have their additional effects on the tuyewera. It also avoids sunlight if it can, but isn't destroyed or damaged by sunlight.
"Vulnerability to sunlight" isn't a universal monster rule—as you mention, it means different things to different creatures. In the tuyewera's case it just means that sunlight-based spells and effects have their greater effect on it.
First Worlder plus Master Summoner. Would you allow them to stack? I understand they both modify the "normal" eidolon class feature of summoners? They both modify the ability, but in different waysI would probably not allow them to stack. Both of those are very flavorful, and they are strongest when they're the only flavors.
Salmon and chocolate are delicious flavors. They don't mix well. Same goes for a lot of archetypes. The more you mix archetypes, especially COMPLEX archetypes that fundamentally change the nature of a class in significant ways, the more cluttered and unpalatable the result gets to me.
Though I agree with the conclusion, I debate the analogy. I have had Salmon Jerky dipped in dark chocolate with cayenne pepper seasoning. It actually was surprisingly tasty.
Greg
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Creative Director
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Do the rare Drow monks worhip anything? I would guess the demon lords would be unsuitable.
A drow monk is already so far off the standard model for drow that it can also be completely off model for who it worships. AKA: it would worship anything that was appropriate. It could even worship a demon lord if it wanted, although that seems unlikely—more likely, the drow would worship Zon-Kuthon, Asmodeus, or even perhaps one of the lawful evil deities from Tien Xia. Or maybe even nothing at all.
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Creative Director
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I did not see Mythic coming at all post Ultimate books, bravo on a nice new direction there.
But it raises a question: What sort of hardbacks are you looking to produce in a post Ultimate series of books? More NPC Codexs? Alternative game types like Mythic? Do you have a top 5 ideas that you'd love to explore down the line?
At this point, I'd LOVE to explore alternative game types like Mythic. I actually have something more like a top 20 ideas for new hardcover books, but I'm not gonna list them here, since some of them are already going to happen but just haven't been announced.
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Creative Director
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James,
If I wanted to, could I tour Paizo's facilities and meet you and the illustrious staff? I am planning on visiting the Port Angeles (there's a beach called Crescent Beach around there) and I'd love to schedule a stop and buy some lunch!
That's something you'd have to organize with Customer Service. We've done stuff like this before... but lunch is generally not involved since we're usually pretty busy at the office and whether or not we have time to go to lunch at "lunch time" or if we skip it or just eat at our desks varies by person and by day.
Thanks for the invite, though, but yeah—we usually don't have time to do stuff like this. Partially because we don't want to set a precedent for it—it's one thing to go out to lunch with one visitor, but we can't possibly do something like this for everyone who asks.
ANYway... yeah. It'd be something to chat with Customer Service about.
Fair enough, I understand skipping or eating at the desk type lunch. Thanks!
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Creative Director
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A question about the spell Abundant Ammunition and Non-Magical Weapon enhancements. If you abundant ammunition some poison ammunition, or ammunition covered in weapon blanch (such as Ghost Salt Blanch), does abundant ammunition replicate the effects of those items as well?1) As we are here, how it will work with adamantine arrows?
How do I know how many of the original arrows are left in a quiver (it can be important for costly ammunitions)? I will always use only 1 round of ammunitions?Example:
Let's say I have 10 adamantine arrow and met a golem. The friendly cleric cast abundant ammunitions on my quiver and I start firing 3 arrow each round.
The first round I use 3 real arrows, the next one they are replaced by replicas and I pick 3 random arrows from the quiver, so I have a 3/10 chance that I am using a replica arrow. next round the fired replicas vanish and all the arrow I used in round 2 are replaced.
That cycle repeat till the end of the fight or the end of the spell.When the spell end how many real arrows are left?
The easiest way to manage this would be to use only 1 round of ammunitions for the whole fight but unless the arrow are somewhat marked I don't see how it would be possible.
2) This spell can be cast on a magical container as a Efficient quiver?
I don't see anything blocking that, but enchanting a extra dimensional container and affecting what is in it seem a bit strange.
1) Ok; looking more closely at the spell it's important to note that this spell doesn't actually target the ammunition. It targets the CONTAINER the ammo is in. Essentially, it duplicates the ammo you take out of the container and you don't actually draw any "lasting" ammo from the container. Weapon blanch does not affect the container—just the ammo, and any ammo duplicated by this spell would not carry on the weapon blanch or silversheen or whatever.
For sake of balance, I would rule that it creates not only nonmagical ammo, but also NORMAL ammo. One of the things that keeps things like adamantine and mithral and cold iron ammo from being the norm is that it costs more. A 1st level spell shouldn't allow you to get around that fact. A quiver full of adamantine arrows would, in my opinion, create an endless supply of normal arrows for you to shoot—but you wouldn't deplete your adamantine arrows.
Admittedly, the spell itself is vaguely worded in this regard. It specifically says it can't duplicate magic arrows, and so I suspect that the intent of this restriction to limit expensive arrows should also apply to poisoned arrows or adamantine arrows or any arrows that are augmented in a per-arrow basis.
When the spell ends, all your arrows are left, in any event.
2) Yes.
In what regions of Golarion are you most likely to find Rocs?
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How would you suggest Antagonize be run so as to not piss off GMs? After one rough PFS mod, I am kinda regretting the feat despite the fact I took it to be heroic and pull baddies off my allies.
My thoughts:
1) Only works in combat.
2) GMs should take a very loose translation of the Intimidate option and not putting themselves in danger. This would include leaving favorable positioning.
One contentious example involved most of the party being in a Tieflings Darkness with the Barbarian exposed. Would the Intimidate option force the sniper pinning us down to take a very poor shot against someone she couldn't see instead of the easy target? What if this was exacerbated by multiple ranged opponents waiting for her to expose herself to take a shot?
RAW, she need only hear me and not put herself in direct danger to shoot at me. Neither of which would technically apply in the above situation.
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Creative Director
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How would you suggest Antagonize be run so as to not piss off GMs? After one rough PFS mod, I am kinda regretting the feat despite the fact I took it to be heroic and pull baddies off my allies.
My thoughts:
1) Only works in combat.
2) GMs should take a very loose translation of the Intimidate option and not putting themselves in danger. This would include leaving favorable positioning.One contentious example involved most of the party being in a Tieflings Darkness with the Barbarian exposed. Would the Intimidate option force the sniper pinning us down to take a very poor shot against someone she couldn't see instead of the easy target? What if this was exacerbated by multiple ranged opponents waiting for her to expose herself to take a shot?
RAW, she need only hear me and not put herself in direct danger to shoot at me. Neither of which would technically apply in the above situation.
Antagonize got errataed, I believe. It went to print WAY too good. I'm not sure where that errata lives right now, though...
In any event, yeah. It's not a feat suitable for play in its initial in-print version, alas.
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Well I did use the errata'ed rules. Before, you could make a magic user or ranged character attack you in melee. I think the problem now, is that while a mage can attack you with a spell, they are still forced to do something. The whole forcing someone to do something is very 4E, and while I didn't hate it there since it was integral to the system, it's not very PF.
Sorry to nag, but you didn't really answer the original question. Say you were running a game and had a player that wanted to use it. How would you hope they used it so as to not piss you off.
So as a religion nerd, I see a lot of different inspirations in Pharasma from many different gods/religions in history.
I was wondering what specific things/gods/stories inspired her creation for you guys?
Thanks!
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.
James also said here that a feat to add Dex to finesse weapon damage was too good.
Dervish Dance is a VERY good feat, and in this case, as far as scimitar use is concerned, the Weapon Finesse prerequisite is almost a tax. You can still use Weapon Finesse on other legal weapons, of course, but Weapon Finesse NEVER directly helps you with a scimitar. Dervish Dance is the only feat in that short chain that actually helps you with scimitar fighting.
Weapon Finesse isn't useless to your character, since you can still use it on things like daggers or rapiers or other Weapon Finessable weapons, but yes, it's no use for your scimitar fighting at all other than to help you qualify for the feat you want.
allowing a melee character to concentrate ALL of his mojo on Dex rather than splitting that between Dex and Str is relatively huge. A feat like this NEEDS to have a price, in other words.
EDIT: The scimitar is not a weapon finesse item. I think in 3.0 it was, but honestly, I really do not remember 3.0 very well anymore :P I think folk get confuzzled by the dervish dance feat.
Greg
1. How does the harem of Sorshen in the days of Thassilon compare to that of the current Padishah Emperor of Kelesh?
2. How would Korvosa react to a wizard who could, ostensibly for the city's benefit, command giants?
3. You said that Sorshen might not to deal with devils. Does that imply she didn't get along with them in general?
4. What would Sorshen do with the Sable Company: disband, replace, or corrupt it?
5. Would Sorshen want to make the whole world forget Korvosa even existed, secreting all history and records into a memory hole, or would she not care as long as she can reestablish her nation and culture?
6. Do question influence your decisions or inspire you in any way?
7. If a monster has a spell-like ability that would otherwise cost gp (e.g., a solar's permanency), will it still cost gp?
8. On p.93 of Ultimate Equipment, the price of saffron is listed as both 1 gp and 15 gp per pound. Am I correct in thinking the lower price a typo?
9. How's Way of the Wicked going so far?
10. Are you familiar with the current generation of My Little Pony?
Do you have any tips on how to blend real world analogies with fantasy elements?
I've been trying to tinker and experiment with things in regards to my homebrew campaign setting.
Hi james...
The spell illusion of calm states
When casting this spell, you create an illusory double that takes the same space of you. That double makes it look like you are standing still, even when you are not. While under the effects of this spell, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you cast a spell, make a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, or move out of your first square during a move action. It does not hide ranged attacks made with any type of projectile weapon.
When a creature hits you with an attack of any type, it gains a saving throw to disbelieve the figment. On a successful saving throw, it successfully disbelieves and the spell’s effect ends for that creature.This description seems simple but in practice leaves many open questions.
here are a few that spring to mind
- Is the spell mobile or anchored in place? if you walk does the spell move with you , stay in one place? or just vanish?
- If it moves does it move naturally? If it stays is it now an independent illusion that I can return to?
- does the spell mask any reasonable action? casting spells, drinking potions, shooting a bow, picking a lock, changing clothes? etc
- If I attack from an illusion of calm is the target flat footed?
- many many more
would you say this spell is worded clearly or do you think it could use a rewrite or clarification?
The spell moves with you, but makes it look like you're simply sliding over the ground. It masks what you're really doing. It's not meant to trick folks into thinking you're not doing anything as much as it is meant to simply mask what you ARE doing. It masks any action, and therefore prevents folks from making attacks of opportunity; it's kind of a "poor man's invisibility" spell in a lot of ways. Foes are not flat-footed against your attacks.
The spell's pretty specific in what it does. Don't let the flavor of the spell's name or its in-game description trick you into thinking it does anything more than what it does—prevent attacks of opportunity when you cast a spell, make a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, or move out of your first square during a move action.
... OK
so what If I am under the effects of illusion of calm and the guy across the room from me takes a readied action to attack me if I cast a spell. on my next turn I start casting a spell... does he get his readied action?
in other words I guess what i am trying to say is, Is it the intention that illusion of calm be a spell that is basically disconnected from its description? It does a few specific things and thats it, the spell effects is unrelated to the flavor?
I understand that spells dont always make logical sense... fireball does not burn everything in it range, cleave does not pop multiple mirror images etc. but for this spell there seems to be a huge disconnect.
I can avoid AoO from casting spells, throwing a weapon, or movement... but not drinking a potion?
I can avoid the AoO from the guy standing next to me but not the readied action of the guy 100 feet away?
the description of a masking illusion makes it a bit confusing.
to be honest I am asking this as a GM. I know that I can rule the spell differently if I chose but if my view is too far off from the intent It may be unfair for, or cause debate with, the players. I am trying to figure out if I can reconcile the spell as intended or if I should make any house rules to bring it in line (like bumping it up to level 2 or changing the description to better fit what the spell actually does.
THXHi Jacobs:
I browsed the board with no luck. A Bag of Holding (regardless the type) is it hermetically sealed? Is it water proof? Meaning, if it falls underwater it will fill with it and explode? If so, is there a source for this rule?Thanks.
A closed bag of holding is hermetically sealed. If you open it underwater, it will fill with water but only until it's full; it won't explode.
There's no source for this rule. It's what I would file under a mix of GM Adjudication and Common Sense and personal preference.
Now I want to throw a bag of holding into a river and destroy an ecosystem :)
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So upon reading the monster ecologies book that just arrived in my mailbox I see that you were the one who wrote the kaotri for the D&D fiend folio to which, after I say thank you for an incredibly fun monster I've been aching to use more I have to ask. Do you have any plans to do a kaotri esque race for pathfinder anytime soon? I would love to have a pathfinder brand kaotri to bring to bear on my party.
So upon reading the monster ecologies book that just arrived in my mailbox I see that you were the one who wrote the kaotri for the D&D fiend folio to which, after I say thank you for an incredibly fun monster I've been aching to use more I have to ask. Do you have any plans to do a kaotri esque race for pathfinder anytime soon? I would love to have a pathfinder brand kaotri to bring to bear on my party.
Kaotri plus Ethergaunts were some of my favorite "new" monsters that were released in 3.5 D&D.