Hey, James, I've got a question.
1) How common are catfolk in Tian Xia? Where might they be found?
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2) Gnoph-keh. Those three can't be reprinted without additional arrangement with Chaosium. The others COULD be reprinted. Whether or not we do reprint them... wait and see.I must have angered the Jacobs'aurus Rex at some point. That's the only explanation for why he's tantalizing me with the hope that the Colour Out of Space made it into Bestiary 4.
EDIT: Shattered Star is the cut-off point? But that means ... GUGS?!?!?!
Do my tears taste sweet to your dinosaur palette, James?
Gugs are in Bestiary 2. We first published them in Pathfinder #11.
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What counts as an intermediate, greater, and lower level deity for the purposes of contact other plane?
See the asterisked comment at the bottom of the table for the spell.
All deities for Golarion count as intermediate deities. On Golarion, you'll never use the lesser deity or the greater deity line for this spell. I argued for removing those lines, but the desire for as much 3.5 compatibility as possible back in the day saw me lose that fight. My concession was that asterisk.
All deities for Golarion count as intermediate deities. On Golarion, you'll never use the lesser deity or the greater deity line for this spell....
Interesting. I remember you'd answered some time ago that the main gods of the Golarian Pantheon would be equivalent to Rank 20 (greater) deities if done with the 3.5 Deities and Demigod rules. If you remember, ranks 11 to 15 were the intermediate powers. Assuming the Rank 20 estimate is still valid (and Sarenrae & co. can make planets, so I assume it is)...
1) Would you be rating the hypothetical greater deity as something higher than a rank 20 equivalent?
2) Is Rovagug such a hypothetical greater deity? That would explain in part why the Rough Beast is such a huge problem - it attained a level of power that the regular pantheon members simply can't match.
3) The Outer Gods are on even footing with the Golarian Pantheon, correct? I.e., Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, etc. are in the same weight-class as Sarenrae, Asmodeus, etc.
4) Does Pharasma actually predate Yog-Sothoth?
5) Milani's a demi-goddess who actually has a herald, Courage Heart. Am I mistaken in thinking that Milani's a demi-god? Or is she unusually powerful for a member of her status?
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All deities for Golarion count as intermediate deities. On Golarion, you'll never use the lesser deity or the greater deity line for this spell....Interesting. I remember you'd answered some time ago that the main gods of the Golarian Pantheon would be equivalent to Rank 20 (greater) deities if done with the 3.5 Deities and Demigod rules. If you remember, ranks 11 to 15 were the intermediate powers. Assuming the Rank 20 estimate is still valid (and Sarenrae & co. can make planets, so I assume it is)...
1) Would you be rating the hypothetical greater deity as something higher than a rank 20 equivalent?
2) Is Rovagug such a hypothetical greater deity? That would explain in part why the Rough Beast is such a huge problem - it attained a level of power that the regular pantheon members simply can't match.
3) The Outer Gods are on even footing with the Golarian Pantheon, correct? I.e., Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, etc. are in the same weight-class as Sarenrae, Asmodeus, etc.
4) Does Pharasma actually predate Yog-Sothoth?
5) Milani's a demi-goddess who actually has a herald, Courage Heart. Am I mistaken in thinking that Milani's a demi-god? Or is she unusually powerful for a member of her status?
1) We don't use Deities & Demigods rules for Pathifnder, so it's not really valid. It's pretty intentional that we aren't trying to rank the power of the gods and goddesses.
2) See 1 above.
3) Correct; they're all deities.
4) Pharasma was first. Doesn't mean she's the most powerful.
5) Milani is a goddess if she has a herald.
Have you ever heard of a group called Nox Arcana? They make a lot of gothic/horror music that is inspired by the works of people like Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe. I came across them in my search for mood music for Scarwall and they are just a brilliant source of scary/creepy music.
Could it be a chaotic neutral person?Not in my game. Once you say "I don't mind murder," you're evil. NOTE: I define murder as "killing someone for no other reason than the enjoyment of killing who doesn't really have much of a chance of fighting back."
And once you say "The whole world can burn and I wouldn't bat an eye," you're chaotic.
I'm with you on the chaos bit. I'm undecided on the evil bit (though the definition of murder clarifies things somewhat. Thanks.)
Would anything distinguish a neutral person's attitude to murder from a good person's attitude?
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1) Have you ever played any Starcraft game?
2) If you did, what do you think of Protos?
3) What do you think of re-skinning the High Elves as psionic aliens and giving them some of the Protos-like abilities (force shields, mind blades), and describing the common Elves as fallen from grace?
4) You've stated that you consider two-bladed sword to be silly weapon (and I agree), but what do you think about the staff-sword from the Dragon Age 2 cinematic trailer?
4a) Would that weapon be appropriate for Staff Magus and/or Bladebound Magus?
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Have you ever heard of a group called Nox Arcana? They make a lot of gothic/horror music that is inspired by the works of people like Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe. I came across them in my search for mood music for Scarwall and they are just a brilliant source of scary/creepy music.
I have indeed heard of them, and do indeed own some of their music.
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Could it be a chaotic neutral person?Not in my game. Once you say "I don't mind murder," you're evil. NOTE: I define murder as "killing someone for no other reason than the enjoyment of killing who doesn't really have much of a chance of fighting back."
And once you say "The whole world can burn and I wouldn't bat an eye," you're chaotic.
I'm with you on the chaos bit. I'm undecided on the evil bit (though the definition of murder clarifies things somewhat. Thanks.)
Would anything distinguish a neutral person's attitude to murder from a good person's attitude?
Not all killing is murder.
A neutral person's attitude would be that murder is wrong, but killing to survive is fine. Like how a grizzly bear or a shark thinks of it.
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1) Have you ever played any Starcraft game?
2) If you did, what do you think of Protos?
3) What do you think of re-skinning the High Elves as psionic aliens and giving them some of the Protos-like abilities (force shields, mind blades), and describing the common Elves as fallen from grace?
4) You've stated that you consider two-bladed sword to be silly weapon (and I agree), but what do you think about the staff-sword from the Dragon Age 2 cinematic trailer?
4a) Would that weapon be appropriate for Staff Magus and/or Bladebound Magus?
1) Yup. Played the original Starcraft. Hated it. Hated it so much that it pretty much removed my interest ever since to play any RTS video game ever since.
2) No opinion. I quit playing Starcraft at the start of the zerg campaign, and thus never got to the Protos.
3) Just make a new race. If you're going through that much work, reskinning is lazy.
4) I don't really recall it that much, so it didn't really impact me much, I guess.
4a) I much prefer magi to wield 1 handed weapons. The only time you'll see us do much with magi that wield 2 handed weapons is when there's an art misunderstanding we don't have time to fix. ;-P
James,
In your own games, how do you deal with regional spells (named spells, and those mentioned to be favored in specific areas)?
Are they available to everyone? Or do you treat them like AD&D 2e, and consider them rare?
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James,
In your own games, how do you deal with regional spells (named spells, and those mentioned to be favored in specific areas)?
Are they available to everyone? Or do you treat them like AD&D 2e, and consider them rare?
I generally don't deal with regional spells at all. A "rare" spell would be a spell I make up for an adventure, or one that's introduced in a published adventure, that the PCs can encounter or maybe even learn. I consider all hardcover spells that are published to be "common." Except for the few I don't like at all and don't let in my games (anthropomorphic animal, for example).
Can Extra Discovery be used at 1st level?
1) To your knowledge, does a feat already exist that makes flanking easier (e.g. allies only have to be adjacent to the enemy, not on opposite borders/corners)? If so, where?
2) To your knowledge, does a feat already exist that increases the bonus to attacks from flanking? If so, where?
3) Would a "rogue-only" feat strike you as weird? If so, why?
4) What monster was the hardest for you to stat up? If you can't think of just one easily, what are three of the hardest that come to mind quickly?
5) Do you think mortals can match evil outsiders in cruelty/general evilness?
6) I know it's not a question, but thanks for all your answers!
So what next expansions of the game in the hardcovers will we see?
I know you can't exactly answear that.
But how do any of these ideas sound to you...
-A book that supports high level play. Not so much more mechanics(though a few would be helpful) but more of a Gamemastery guide style of book...on how to.
-Theme Books...like a maybe City based games, or 'Darkland' campaign, or a military based one...or intrigue.
-A enviromental book
Also how would you introduce Psionics into the game? Would it get it's own Hardcover...or would you envision that hardcover having other things in it?
Anyway I guess Ultimatly my question is what hints can you give about what is next for the Hardcover line?
Was it a coincidence that, just now, within literally 5-10 seconds of beginning to read my first Lovecraft story ever, a spider (which have been my biggest fear ever since I was a child) skittered across the wall? Or do his stories have the power to make one's fears physically manifest? If so, I should probably stop reading now...
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Was it a coincidence that, just now, within literally 5-10 seconds of beginning to read my first Lovecraft story ever, a spider (which have been my biggest fear ever since I was a child) skittered across the wall? Or do his stories have the power to make one's fears physically manifest? If so, I should probably stop reading now...
You're lucky it was just a spider.
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1) To your knowledge, does a feat already exist that makes flanking easier (e.g. allies only have to be adjacent to the enemy, not on opposite borders/corners)? If so, where?
2) To your knowledge, does a feat already exist that increases the bonus to attacks from flanking? If so, where?
3) Would a "rogue-only" feat strike you as weird? If so, why?
4) What monster was the hardest for you to stat up? If you can't think of just one easily, what are three of the hardest that come to mind quickly?
5) Do you think mortals can match evil outsiders in cruelty/general evilness?
6) I know it's not a question, but thanks for all your answers!
1) I bet so... but I can't think of one. There's probably a teamwork feat that does it. There's also a 0 level spell called unwilling ally in the APG that can help.
2) Same. Not sure. I actually don't have a huge knowledge of the thousands and thousands of feats we've published.
3) Not weird at all. There's lots of feats that are effectively limited to one class. That said... it's generally better design to make feats available to multiple builds.
4) The higher CR ones are tough, simply because there's more numbers. The toughest thing I've ever had to stat up though for any game ever was a CR 60 fey I did for Dragon magazine back in the day. Turns out, it's Intelligence score was so high that even after it maxed out EVERY SKILL (including all the professions and crafts and performs listed in the book) it had like 200 skill points left. I ended up abandoning that stat block due to it being impossible and went with something else less insane.
5) Yes.
6) No prob!
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So what next expansions of the game in the hardcovers will we see?
I know you can't exactly answear that.But how do any of these ideas sound to you...
-A book that supports high level play. Not so much more mechanics(though a few would be helpful) but more of a Gamemastery guide style of book...on how to.
-Theme Books...like a maybe City based games, or 'Darkland' campaign, or a military based one...or intrigue.
-A enviromental book
Also how would you introduce Psionics into the game? Would it get it's own Hardcover...or would you envision that hardcover having other things in it?
Anyway I guess Ultimatly my question is what hints can you give about what is next for the Hardcover line?
I've been trying to get management and the design team to do a "Guide to high-level play" for years. AKA: Sounds great!
Theme books are better served in the Campaign Setting line, where we've been doing them for years.
Same goes with environment books.
I would introduce psychic magic into the game as part of a larger book that has more going on than psychic magic, in the same way we introduced guns in a book that had more going on than gun rules.
As for what's next in the Rulebook line after Bestiary 4... I know what's next, but I'm not going to say yet. That's a revelation for Paizo Con.
So what would be the books over all topic that included psychic magic?
1) To your knowledge, does a feat already exist that makes flanking easier (e.g. allies only have to be adjacent to the enemy, not on opposite borders/corners)? If so, where?
Gang up.
Except for the few I don't like at all and don't let in my games (anthropomorphic animal, for example).
Story time?
I'm curious as to why you don't like this spell.
Hello Mr. James Jacob,
Sorry to bother you again. This is yet another Synthesist question, which I know isn't your favorite, so I apologize, it is sort of mine.
So question please; while fused with your Eidolon do you still retain access the Synthesists supernatural abilities even if they grant a bonus to the physical body; like Aspect might for example? I understand getting the same bonus wont stack, like natural armor. Same bonus from the same source. But if you were to get a supernaturally endowed tail with aspect, would you still be endowed with that tail while fused.
Thank you,
-Hexen
4) The higher CR ones are tough, simply because there's more numbers. The toughest thing I've ever had to stat up though for any game ever was a CR 60 fey I did for Dragon magazine back in the day. Turns out, it's Intelligence score was so high that even after it maxed out EVERY SKILL (including all the professions and crafts and performs listed in the book) it had like 200 skill points left. I ended up abandoning that stat block due to it being impossible and went with something else less insane.
... that sounds awesome, even if made less insane in the end! Do you remember which Dragon issue this was?
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Except for the few I don't like at all and don't let in my games (anthropomorphic animal, for example).Story time?
I'm curious as to why you don't like this spell.
I don't like its mechanics or flavor. I get that it exists to allow Dr. Moreau style critters... but I'd rather have handled that with a new monster than a spell that opens more questions than it solves.
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... that sounds awesome, even if made less insane in the end! Do you remember which Dragon issue this was?
4) The higher CR ones are tough, simply because there's more numbers. The toughest thing I've ever had to stat up though for any game ever was a CR 60 fey I did for Dragon magazine back in the day. Turns out, it's Intelligence score was so high that even after it maxed out EVERY SKILL (including all the professions and crafts and performs listed in the book) it had like 200 skill points left. I ended up abandoning that stat block due to it being impossible and went with something else less insane.
It was in the 3-teens, I believe. The epic level issue. Came out the same time as my companion adventure, "The Razing of Redshore" did in Dungeon.
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Hello Mr. James Jacob,
Sorry to bother you again. This is yet another Synthesist question, which I know isn't your favorite, so I apologize, it is sort of mine.So question please; while fused with your Eidolon do you still retain access the Synthesists supernatural abilities even if they grant a bonus to the physical body; like Aspect might for example? I understand getting the same bonus wont stack, like natural armor. Same bonus from the same source. But if you were to get a supernaturally endowed tail with aspect, would you still be endowed with that tail while fused.
Thank you,
-Hexen
Again... those are questions for the rules board and a FAQ... sorry.
An unrevealed topic that I'm not ready to speak more about yet.So what would be the books over all topic that included psychic magic?
Now I am really looking forward to the Summer Con announcements.
Again... those are questions for the rules board and a FAQ... sorry.Hello Mr. James Jacob,
Sorry to bother you again. This is yet another Synthesist question, which I know isn't your favorite, so I apologize, it is sort of mine.So question please; while fused with your Eidolon do you still retain access the Synthesists supernatural abilities even if they grant a bonus to the physical body; like Aspect might for example? I understand getting the same bonus wont stack, like natural armor. Same bonus from the same source. But if you were to get a supernaturally endowed tail with aspect, would you still be endowed with that tail while fused.
Thank you,
-Hexen
Thanks
1) To your knowledge, does a feat already exist that makes flanking easier (e.g. allies only have to be adjacent to the enemy, not on opposite borders/corners)? If so, where?1) I bet so... but I can't think of one. There's probably a teamwork feat that does it. There's also a 0 level spell called unwilling ally in the APG that can help.
As mentioned upthread, Gang Up, from the APG.
2) To your knowledge, does a feat already exist that increases the bonus to attacks from flanking? If so, where?2) Same. Not sure. I actually don't have a huge knowledge of the thousands and thousands of feats we've published.
The teamwork feat Outflank, also from the APG.
An unrevealed topic that I'm not ready to speak more about yet.So what would be the books over all topic that included psychic magic?
Is it just me or does this strongly imply that Paizo is planning a psionics book?
On an unrelated note: do you expect to do any books expanding on the material from Distant Worlds, maybe even a AP that travels to Castrovel or Eox?
What is your favorite possession?
Would anything distinguish a neutral person's attitude to murder from a good person's attitude?Not all killing is murder.
A neutral person's attitude would be that murder is wrong, but killing to survive is fine. Like how a grizzly bear or a shark thinks of it.
I appreciate the distinction you're making. I was just curious on what you see as the different views a neutral vs good person would generally have about murder specifically.
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Now I am really looking forward to the Summer Con announcements.An unrevealed topic that I'm not ready to speak more about yet.So what would be the books over all topic that included psychic magic?
That's fine... but that's still not gonna be a point where I'm ready to speak more about psycic magic yet.
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An unrevealed topic that I'm not ready to speak more about yet.So what would be the books over all topic that included psychic magic?
Is it just me or does this strongly imply that Paizo is planning a psionics book?
On an unrelated note: do you expect to do any books expanding on the material from Distant Worlds, maybe even a AP that travels to Castrovel or Eox?
Just you.
What it implies is that I'm eager to do a book about psychic magic, but that's been the case for several years so far.
Part 4 of Reign of Winter is set entirely on Triaxus, and has a double-sized support article about the planet. So... yes, I expect it! ;-)
Pretty neat. You really love Lovecraft! Also, is that original WAR art?
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Pretty neat. You really love Lovecraft! Also, is that original WAR art?
I do indeed. Lovecraft's my favorite author.
And yup; it's the original Wayne Reynolds Merisiel.
I also own the hunting horror he did for the d20 CoC game, and the cover to Burnt Offerings, and the cover to the last Age of Worms adventure.
1) how prevalent is Pharasma's worship on the material plane?
2) are there other deities that fill her role as judge of the dead, or is her control over that role pretty secure?
Do any shory still live?
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1) how prevalent is Pharasma's worship on the material plane?
2) are there other deities that fill her role as judge of the dead, or is her control over that role pretty secure?
1) Quite prevalent.
2) She's in charge in most worlds. Some areas, other deities fill in for her role, but they all report to her.
That's fine... but that's still not gonna be a point where I'm ready to speak more about psycic magic yet.Now I am really looking forward to the Summer Con announcements.An unrevealed topic that I'm not ready to speak more about yet.So what would be the books over all topic that included psychic magic?
Not guessing that you will announce the book with Psychic Magic, just curious what the 2 books you are planning to announce this summer.