Creative Director
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Is there anywhere in Golarion (or the other worlds or the multiverse for that matter) where there might be group of gnolls who don't follow Lamshtu, say a druidic sect that follows the Green Faith or really any other philosophy, or does Lamashtu pretty much have the monopoly on Gnolldom?
There's plenty of gnoll tribes who don't worship Lamashtu. "Legacy of Fire" is all about a tribe that worships Rovagug, for example.
There's not really any tribes of gnolls who don't worship "evil" deities or philosophies. There are certainly gnoll tribes who have druids as their priests rather than clerics, but they probably worship one of the Horsemen or some evil variant of the Green Faith, or even just a demon like Cyth-V'sug or Areshkagal.
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Is there anywhere in Golarion (or the other worlds or the multiverse for that matter) where there might be group of gnolls who don't follow Lamshtu, say a druidic sect that follows the Green Faith or really any other philosophy, or does Lamashtu pretty much have the monopoly on Gnolldom?There's plenty of gnoll tribes who don't worship Lamashtu. "Legacy of Fire" is all about a tribe that worships Rovagug, for example.
There's not really any tribes of gnolls who don't worship "evil" deities or philosophies. There are certainly gnoll tribes who have druids as their priests rather than clerics, but they probably worship one of the Horsemen or some evil variant of the Green Faith, or even just a demon like Cyth-V'sug or Areshkagal.
Legacy of Fire is one of my favourite APs and yet when I'm not actually reading it I forget those gnolls worship Rovy doh! :3
Hmmm what about any of the Eldest?
Nigel Findley passed away from a heart attack in 1995, I'm afraid.Awww... that's too bad! :(
That's awful news. Such is life.
I am glad Mr. Walsh is back in the swing of things again.
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Hey James (or is it Mr. Jacobs?)
I am currently running through ROTRL Anniversary.
I was curious if I could get your quick opinion on a little thought I had...
I noticed the Veiled Masters in the Inner Sea Bestiary, and thought it'd be a fantastic twist in the plot to have one *appear*. At first I thought him to just be a prisoner/denizen of Runeforge, but the more I read into them, they seem like they'd have enough foreknowledge of Starfall that they wouldn't get themselves stuck somewhere obvious.
My main thought is that somewhere along the adventure, one picks up Karzoug's scent/influence. As it tries to decide what to do, it notices the PCs being awesome and getting more and more powerful.
Would one be more likely to subtely help the PCs, keeping Karzoug from returning? Or would it be more likely to try to let him out, and return to his side as an "adviser"?
We're just now about 1/4 through Hook Mountain Massacre, so plenty of time to sneak him in as a helpful NPC or powerful spellcaster ally who shows up at key points (raid on Sandpoint, assault on Jorgenfist, etc.)
I'd love your spin on the Masters- they seem like absolutely FASCINATING beings to have sneaking about the world, and it seemed to me very likely that at least one would notice the Rise of a Runelord and act in /some/ way.
Also: Hey! Ben! Yeah you! No peaking, or your Inquisitor will meet a very bad end very, very quickly. :P
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Creative Director
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Hey James (or is it Mr. Jacobs?)
I am currently running through ROTRL Anniversary.
I was curious if I could get your quick opinion on a little thought I had...
** spoiler omitted **
Also: Hey! Ben! Yeah you! No peaking, or your Inquisitor will meet a very bad end very, very quickly. :P
I suspect one would probably...
Does the Paladin's resistance to Charms include Domination effects, or just Charm effects?
"I was assuming you were talking about an old comic, Mage. Was there something else you were talking about?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mage:_The_Awakening
1. What's your opinion of it?
"Thassilon wasn't all that open to diplomacy from other nations."
2. What about within Thassilon? How'd its domains handle diplomacy with each other?
3. What sort of facilities are needed for indoctrinating giants?
4. How did the runelords house their giants?
5. How did the runelords armor their giants, or did they not bother?
6. Under what circumstances would Sorshen use ugly/dumb giants?
7. How sadistic is Sorshen? Is she "merely" callous ("only" using torture for interrogation or brainwashing) or does she routinely torture for fun? Or somewhere in-between?
8. What're Sorshen's main weaknesses (besides her forbidden wizard schools)?
9. You can use planar binding to call petitioners, right? Did runelords ever use that as a form of revenge.
10. How do you personally feel about Hermea and Mengkare?
Have you ever created stat blocks for creatures in movies you've watched/books you've read/games you've played?
I've been kind of busy in that regard, but you probably already knew that. =P
1. Which would you want to win the fight?
2. Which do you think would actually win the fight?
Does the Darklands change other races that live down there for to long like it changed the elves or is that something like how the elves are more in tune with nature?
I like this question! The answer may tell us something about the nature of elves. Specifically are they more susceptible to environmental changes than other races. Or, are they more adaptable, in such a way that does not suggest actual control of the adaptation.
If not, it may tell us something about the Darklands.
So on that notion, if Elves are that susceptible to the darklands... why aren't gnomes? Svirfneblin aren't anywhere near the drow in terms of corruption from the darklands, and yet gnomes are easily the most regionally morphic races in Golarion based on the descriptions in Gnomes of Golarion.
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Creative Director
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I'm not 100% sure Xanderghul was mythic tier 10. He might have been... but that's not a guarantee. He certainly WAS a 20th level illusionist though. As for how he "functioned," well......How % sure would you be, out of interest? Above 50%, above 70%, even above 80%?
How did interactions between Xanderghul and Sorshen change based on their long association? They were both apprentices of Xin, they were both the first and last Runelords of their respective sins... they must have had some sort of friendship/association/whatever that went above and beyond the "relationships" shared between other Runelords (who come and go, after all).
Sort of like two ancient enemies, where after a few thousand years you actually don't mind chatting with them, since they might be your enemy (and remain as such), but you know that they'll be around a thousand years from now, as will you, long after any other associates you have will probably be long dead. Yes, you're mortal enemies and might be trying to kill one another in a couple of months, but that doesn't mean you can't be civil.
I guess it sort of plays into how one might cope with such a vast lifespan. If you're effectively immortal, it will do things to your psyche, after all. You'll change, and maybe the few constants in your world will help you keep a grip on things. Did this sort of thing affect Sorshen and Xanderghul to any great extent? I have this weird image in my head of the two privately meeting up on rare occasion (or perhaps more often, depending on whether Sorshen was seducing/sleeping with Xanderghul at the time), just to chat and relive/remember old times.
That's a lot of deep-continuity not-yet-done design work on runelords and their histories and abilities. As such, I'm not ready to answer these types of questions yet in detail... but yes, Xanderghul and Sorshen did have a variable relationship that went from allies to enemies—more often as enemies though.
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Creative Director
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Additionally, who was originally responsible (germ of the idea, following through to execution if it was somebody else who took it and spun out the thread) for the conception and creation of Cayden Cailean?
(I ask because he's one of my favourite gods in the entire D&D setting. Especially the story of his ascension, which never fails to make me smile. Or his Herald and HER backstory.)
That was a mix of all of us. I think it was James Sutter who named him, but we all wanted a drunk hero deity.
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Creative Director
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"I was assuming you were talking about an old comic, Mage. Was there something else you were talking about?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mage:_The_Awakening
1. What's your opinion of it?
"Thassilon wasn't all that open to diplomacy from other nations."
2. What about within Thassilon? How'd its domains handle diplomacy with each other?
3. What sort of facilities are needed for indoctrinating giants?
4. How did the runelords house their giants?
5. How did the runelords armor their giants, or did they not bother?
6. Under what circumstances would Sorshen use ugly/dumb giants?
7. How sadistic is Sorshen? Is she "merely" callous ("only" using torture for interrogation or brainwashing) or does she routinely torture for fun? Or somewhere in-between?
8. What're Sorshen's main weaknesses (besides her forbidden wizard schools)?
9. You can use planar binding to call petitioners, right? Did runelords ever use that as a form of revenge.
10. How do you personally feel about Hermea and Mengkare?
1) Ah! No opinion. Never played it, read it, or even touched the book.
2) Varies between domains and changes with each runelord.
3) Homes for rune giants. If you control rune giants, they control all the giants you need.
4) They let the giants take care of that themselves.
5) Again... they let the giants take care of that themselves. The giants under runelord rule were not mindless drones.
6) When she needed them and didn't have better options. If you're making chocolate chip cookies and you realize you're out of chocolate chips but have a bag of carob chips... you use the less desirable chip if you don't want to go to the store.
7) She's sadistic. She tortures for fun as much as for anything else.
8) Unrevealed. If there even IS a main weakness. She would consider her forbidden wizard schools to be a strength.
9) You could, but it's kinda pointless since petitioners are so weak. Further, they only have fragments of their memories of their lives before being a petitioner, so as a method of revenge, it's kinda pointless.
10) Intrigued, but in different ways than James Sutter. I'm intrigued by the idea of what is essentially a eugenics experiment run by a dragon on humans would be like—reminds me of several science fiction stories about genetics and also Hitler's attempt to breed the perfect German soldier. Which to me says that Mengkare is probably lawful evil. At BEST he's lawful neutral. He's NOT lawful good, because he's a type of slaver. The idea of a non-lawful good gold dragon in such a position of power is VERY interesting. Sutter, on the other hand, thinks he IS lawful good, but the way he's written him doesn't make any sense to me as that alignment. Alignment is not relative—it's not something you can trick with semantics. Alignment is a reflection of your deeds, and changes to match your deeds. If among your deeds you regularly force intelligent creatures to live a lifestyle of your design and force them to breed with people you select and aren't afraid of breaking up and mixing up families so you can produce a "perfect race," then there's no way that I'll ever let you get published with ANY good alignment.
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Creative Director
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Have you ever created stat blocks for creatures in movies you've watched/books you've read/games you've played?
I've been kind of busy in that regard, but you probably already knew that. =P
Yup; I've created versions of the alien from Alien for my game before. More recently, a lot of the monsters you see in Pathfinder are inspired in part or directly from movies and books—all of the Lovecraft monsters, for example, or the morlock or the jabberwock or the wendigo.
I generally don't do this for monsters that are brand new and invented whole-cloth for a book or movie though. Not unless they're also in the public domain.
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Creative Director
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Does it need to? Mythic characters as shown from the playtest, aren't exactly divine figures in power, and you can get some weird situations such as effectively third level/mythic tier 1 characters granting cleric spells they wouldn't themselves be able to cast.
I wouldn't suggest anything yet, because I haven't had a chance to look at the rules and confirm that the option exists. If it doesn't I'll make sure it does.
It needs to. Allowing mythic characters, be they PCs or NPCs, the ability to grant spells is important to me for numerous story reasons.
A 1st level character who becomes mythic enough to grant spells isn't a problem, since you can't worship yourself and grant spells to yourself. A mythic cleric capable of granting spells STILL needs to worship a different deity.
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Creative Director
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Does the Darklands change other races that live down there for to long like it changed the elves or is that something like how the elves are more in tune with nature?
Some other races change as well due to long exposure to the Darklands, but for different reasons. The derro, for example, used to be elemental creatures called pechs who turned into derro after generations of eating freaky fungus (among other things).
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Creative Director
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So on that notion, if Elves are that susceptible to the darklands... why aren't gnomes? Svirfneblin aren't anywhere near the drow in terms of corruption from the darklands, and yet gnomes are easily the most regionally morphic races in Golarion based on the descriptions in Gnomes of Golarion.
Because environment adaption in this manner is a feature of elven biology and spirituality. It's not a feature that gnomes share at all.
I'll have to double check the bit about being "regionally morphic" in Gnomes of Golarion—it's very possible the author screwed that up.
Have you ever made such stat blocks just for fun?
Also, I just read that evidently you planned on putting a kaiju template in Bestiary 3. I am sadface if this was a true, unsuccessful endeavor, but adding the giant template a bunch is also an option. Unless the kaiju template would have had more to it....
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Creative Director
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In a "world is in danger" situation, how do you answer a player who suggests "why dont we just contact [powerful good npc] who can scry, teleport in, take out the bbeg and teleport away in under a minute?"
By not allowing that combination to work that way. In my interpretation, scry lets you look at a person, not a location, and teleport needs you to know a location, not a person. They're close, but using scry to spy on a location and then teleport to it simply doesn't work in my games, and I assume it doesn't work in Golarion as well.
James: I believe Gnomes of Golarion goes to state how a gnome's appearance changes based on their experiences and where they live. Things like hair color, skin color and other traits vary based on where they reside, which -- if they live a life of boredom and isolation -- leads to the "bleaching" where they are sapped of all color and eventually perish (save for the few unusual gnomes who are born bleached).
I don't have my copy on hand here at work, so I'm paraphrasing.
Aren't the drow corrupted for other reasons than their location? And as I recall. the big baddie of Second Darkness became a drow despite the fact that she wasn't a darklander at all. As I understand it, any Elf who's evil enough can go drow regardless of where they live. I always figured it was more of a racial curse, or perhaps the fact that Elves are alien to the planet, after all.So on that notion, if Elves are that susceptible to the darklands... why aren't gnomes? Svirfneblin aren't anywhere near the drow in terms of corruption from the darklands, and yet gnomes are easily the most regionally morphic races in Golarion based on the descriptions in Gnomes of Golarion.
Because environment adaption in this manner is a feature of elven biology and spirituality. It's not a feature that gnomes share at all.
I'll have to double check the bit about being "regionally morphic" in Gnomes of Golarion—it's very possible the author screwed that up.
An earlier answer from James says that non-evil Darklands elves would end up looking somewhat similar to the Drow, IIRC.
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Creative Director
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Aren't the drow corrupted for other reasons than their location? And as I recall. the big baddie of Second Darkness became a drow despite the fact that she wasn't a darklander at all. As I understand it, any Elf who's evil enough can go drow regardless of where they live. I always figured it was more of a racial curse, or perhaps the fact that Elves are alien to the planet, after all.So on that notion, if Elves are that susceptible to the darklands... why aren't gnomes? Svirfneblin aren't anywhere near the drow in terms of corruption from the darklands, and yet gnomes are easily the most regionally morphic races in Golarion based on the descriptions in Gnomes of Golarion.
Because environment adaption in this manner is a feature of elven biology and spirituality. It's not a feature that gnomes share at all.
I'll have to double check the bit about being "regionally morphic" in Gnomes of Golarion—it's very possible the author screwed that up.
The primary source of drow corruption is demonic influence, NOT the Darklands. The Darklands had a relatively minor role to play in all of that, in fact. Demonic influence and the influence of Rovagug and other elements basically caused that change to happen instantaneously. It can happen instantaneously today even, but only when an elf is already significantly evil and chaotic.
It's not a racial curse or anything like that... it's just what happens when a race that's capable of unusually swift evolution, essentially, is exposed to potent chaotic evil energies.
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Creative Director
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James: I believe Gnomes of Golarion goes to state how a gnome's appearance changes based on their experiences and where they live. Things like hair color, skin color and other traits vary based on where they reside, which -- if they live a life of boredom and isolation -- leads to the "bleaching" where they are sapped of all color and eventually perish (save for the few unusual gnomes who are born bleached).
I don't have my copy on hand here at work, so I'm paraphrasing.
Ah; that makes more sense. Has to do with the bleaching, not where they live. The fact that gnomes must stay interested in the world means that most of them combat bleaching by moving around a lot... but that's not the thing that makes their hair and skin color and traits shift.
In a "world is in danger" situation, how do you answer a player who suggests "why dont we just contact [powerful good npc] who can scry, teleport in, take out the bbeg and teleport away in under a minute?"By not allowing that combination to work that way. In my interpretation, scry lets you look at a person, not a location, and teleport needs you to know a location, not a person. They're close, but using scry to spy on a location and then teleport to it simply doesn't work in my games, and I assume it doesn't work in Golarion as well.
:-0 Wow. I really like that. My players once had a plan to do a similar (but not the same) thing using a powerful NPC to defeat a foe. The NPC was reluctant, but they convinced her, and she ported in, killed the BBEG and took the treasure. The PCs got zero XP or loot and their initial glee was soon turned sour. Would you do something like this, or generally arrange things so the NPC avoids the conflict?
What would happen if a group of elves lived in the Underdark but did not go all CE? Terms of appearance, mostly.The Darklands are as much responsible for turning elves to drow as anything else; other elves that lived down there too long would probably change appearance to look quite similar to drow, but would not go evil.
Well, this is what you said when I asked. :P
My questions got skipped...again...from the last page.
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Creative Director
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:-0 Wow. I really like that. My players once had a plan to do a similar (but not the same) thing using a powerful NPC to defeat a foe. The NPC was reluctant, but they convinced her, and she ported in, killed the BBEG and took the treasure. The PCs got zero XP or loot and their initial glee was soon turned sour. Would you do something like this, or generally arrange things so the NPC avoids the conflict?In a "world is in danger" situation, how do you answer a player who suggests "why dont we just contact [powerful good npc] who can scry, teleport in, take out the bbeg and teleport away in under a minute?"By not allowing that combination to work that way. In my interpretation, scry lets you look at a person, not a location, and teleport needs you to know a location, not a person. They're close, but using scry to spy on a location and then teleport to it simply doesn't work in my games, and I assume it doesn't work in Golarion as well.
I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't have "scry & fry" be an option at all ever, because it robs us all from the joy of playing an adventure.
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Creative Director
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Well, this is what you said when I asked. :PWhat would happen if a group of elves lived in the Underdark but did not go all CE? Terms of appearance, mostly.The Darklands are as much responsible for turning elves to drow as anything else; other elves that lived down there too long would probably change appearance to look quite similar to drow, but would not go evil.
Yup. Turns out that I can change my mind.
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Creative Director
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1)Will we ever find out what Zon-Kuthon's original domains, ideals, area of focus was before he got corrupted?
2)Are any of the following gods older then Aroden...
A)Abadar?
B)Irori?
C)Nethys?3)I noticed few of the core 20(21) Deities were born/created as deities, is there any reason for this?
4)Was Urgothoa an undead first or a goddess who became an undead later?
5)Are there any gods older then Pharasma?
6)Who is your favorite god and goddess in Pathfinder?
7)Are there any deities that you wish you could have used for pathfinder but couldn't for legal reasons?
1) Maybe. Not anytime soon.
2) Abadar—yes. Irori—probably not. Nethys—yes.
3) Yes, because we wanted a wide range of deity genesises.
4) She was undead first. She was, if the stories are to be believed, the FIRST undead anything.
5) No.
6) Desna. Sarenrae and Calistria and Rovagug and Zon-Kuthon and Norgorber and Pharasma all tie for 2nd place.
7) Yes. Obox-ob would have been the primary chaotic evil deity of the setting, but I'd already sold him to WotC, and so his role basically got split up between Lamashtu (as the ruler of demons) and Rovagug (as the imprisoned uber-bad god).
Are Pharasma and Groetus the same age then?
Do you think you'll ever introduce a new god to pathfinder's setting, by starstone or any other means?
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10) Intrigued, but in different ways than James Sutter. I'm intrigued by the idea of what is essentially a eugenics experiment run by a dragon on humans would be like—reminds me of several science fiction stories about genetics and also Hitler's attempt to breed the perfect German soldier. Which to me says that Mengkare is probably lawful evil. At BEST he's lawful neutral. He's NOT lawful good, because he's a type of slaver. The idea of a non-lawful good gold dragon in such a position of power is VERY interesting. Sutter, on the other hand, thinks he IS lawful good, but the way he's written him doesn't make any sense to me as that alignment. Alignment is not relative—it's not something you can trick with semantics. Alignment is a reflection of your deeds, and changes to match your deeds. If among your deeds you regularly force intelligent creatures to live a lifestyle of your design and force them to breed with people you select and aren't afraid of breaking up and mixing up families so you can produce a "perfect race," then there's no way that I'll ever let you get published with ANY good alignment.
Since none of that was printed in the text, which describes Hermea as populated by volunteers who have been recruited to join the 'Great Experiment,' would a version that stuck entirely to the printed word, and didn't include any of this slavery stuff or forced breeding programs or other stuff that doesn't exist in the published material, retain a good (or at least non-evil) alignment?
I kind of like the published version, which seems totally compatible with a good alignment, as Golarion really isn't lacking in non-good (or flat-out evil) nations or societies.
Is there room in Golarion for good guys?
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Creative Director
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Since none of that was printed in the text, which describes Hermea as populated by volunteers who have been recruited to join the 'Great Experiment,' would a version that stuck entirely to the printed word, and didn't include any of this slavery stuff or forced breeding programs or other stuff that doesn't exist in the published material, retain a good (or at least non-evil) alignment?
I kind of like the published version, which seems totally compatible with a good alignment, as Golarion really isn't lacking in non-good (or flat-out evil) nations or societies.
Is there room in Golarion for good guys?
Of course there's room in Golarion for good guys. There's LOTS of examples of them in the Inner Sea World Guide.
The published version is VERY cagey about how it presents Hermea. James Sutter is a VERY good writer, one of the best at Paizo, and I've often accused him (half-jokingly) of being able to break rules by writing things that are so excellent that the rules have no option but to bow down before his words.