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Paizo Employee Creative Director

The Golux wrote:

James,

I was surprised looking back at some older APs to find that Jade Regent was the first one to have a separate section in each volume for special items found in that AP. Was that something Paizo considered for a long time before implementing it? Was it coupled with an increase in the number of unique magical items in each AP?

It was originally something we tried to do in hopes of making the AP easier to build. Alas... it made it marginally harder to build, but I think it's worth the little bit of extra work it takes to orchestrate a deck of cards with the treasures and to build the extra info for the NPCs.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Could a hypothetical Shoanti character become a Paladin? Seems like, from what I've read, they'd view that as heretical, as most of the paladin gods were brought in by foreigners. Abadar, Sarenrae and Iomedae seem to have largely been introduced by Korvosans. Most of the more local gods that the Shoanti and Varisians share don't allow paladins, whether due to being Chaotic like Desna, or they're solidly Neutral like Pharasma. So...would a Shoanti paladin be viewed as some kind of culture traitor despite their honor and deeds?

There's no reason why a Shoanti can't become a paladin. Either one who's become a part of civilization, or one who is a member of a tribe but follows his own paladin virtues. You don't have to worship a deity if you're a paladin, remember...

It's certainly unusual, but less unusual than the typical PC.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ral' Yareth wrote:

Good evening James,

cavalier's challenge wrote:


Once per day, a cavalier can challenge a foe to combat. As a swift action, the cavalier chooses one target within sight to challenge. The cavalier’s melee attacks deal extra damage whenever the attacks are made against the target of his challenge. This extra damage is equal to the cavalier’s level. The cavalier can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day for every three levels beyond 1st, to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.

Challenging a foe requires much of the cavalier’s concentration. The cavalier takes a –2 penalty to his Armor Class, except against attacks made by the target of his challenge.

The challenge remains in effect until the target is dead or unconscious or until the combat ends. Each cavalier’s challenge also includes another effect which is listed in the section describing the cavalier’s order.

honor guard's sworn defense wrote:


At 1st level, whenever an honor guard issues a challenge, he can select one ally as his ward for the duration of the challenge. Whenever the honor guard is adjacent to his ward, he takes a –1 penalty to Armor Class, and the ward receives a +1 dodge bonus to AC.

This modifies the challenge ability.

My doubt is:

In, your opinion, how does the sworn defense ability modify the cavalier's challenge class feature?

Does the cavalier take a cumulative -3 on AC while adjacent to an ally (granting said ally a +1 to AC)?

Or does he take a -1 penalty to AC while adjacent to his ward?

As usual I don't really need an official answer; I am only after your opinion on the matter.

This is a better question for the rules forum... but my take is that it does indeed net the cavalier a –3 penalty to AC, since lowering his AC penalty and then granting an ally a +1 bonus is fundamentally better than the vanilla cavalier. If you get something better (the +1 bonus to ally AC), you have to balance that option. In this case, that means the cavalier's AC drops a bit more.

Similarly, penalties pretty much always stack since they very rarely, if ever, have types.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
The Drunken Dragon wrote:
If I wanted to create a construct similar to a Jaegar, what would you recommend as a starting point? Adamantine golem? Clockwork constructs? Some kind of elemental?

I'd stat it up as a kaiju construct with the robot subtype.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Luthorne wrote:

Ah, ghorans. Now I remember when I initially read about them I had a bunch of mental questions about them...

1) Based on what's said about the ghorus seed, it seems impossible that this form of reproduction could actually allow ghorans to multiply. Would I be correct in assuming that they can engage in both asexual reproduction (via the ghorus seed) and some other form of likely sexual reproduction that creates new ghorans, rather than just rebirthing an existing one, or is there some other explanation, like using cuttings or somesuch?

2) When reproducing/rebirthing using the ghorus seed, is the soul of the original ghoran the same as the soul that the new ghoran has, or is it a different soul with the memories of its progenitor?

3) If it is the same soul, can a ghoran live indefinitely in this manner as long as it doesn't get killed in some other manner, or is there a limit to how many times they can rebirth themselves with this method?

4) What is the natural life span of a ghoran if it doesn't expel and plant its ghorus seed? Short? Long?

5) About how long do most ghorans go before planting their ghorus seed without a pressing need (like, say, wanting to ensure their survival if they have reason to believe their seed will be safer than their body)? Is it something they do fairly regularly, or is it something they don't do lightly?

6) Do ghorans mind if their bodies are eaten? They were bred to be food, so I'm not sure if they're fine with that so long as they get a chance to plant their ghorus seed first, or do they actually resent being created as a food?

7) Do ghorans have some sort of society? They are intelligent beings, even if on average less intelligent than humans, but at the same time, they're plants, so I'm not sure if they would have a desire to exist in some sort social group or not...and if they did, how alien that social group might be.

8) Since ghorans are delicious enough for it to be a racial trait, I've got to ask...just how delicious are they, and what do they taste like? And what are the tasty bits? Is it all or mostly delicious, or are there a few fruits or parts that are especially savory, with the rest being discarded?

9) About how long would a ghoran's body last, food-wise, for a single person? A day's worth of food? A couple days? And how long would it keep for?

10) And finally, and most importantly, which are more delicious, ghorans or reefclaws?

The ghoran is Erik Mona's creation, and he's got a LOT more about them in his head than the paltry 500–600 words he got to talk about them in the book, so my response to all of these for the moment is: "Ask Erik, and/or wait for a chance for him to explore them more." Because he hasn't released most of that info out of his brain yet.

Shadow Lodge RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8

James Jacobs wrote:
1) Not at all or in the slightest. There are PLENTY of spell options you can use if you want to keep enemies alive. Even baleful polymorph, which you can dispel or break enchantment at a later point once you put the kitten into a cage or whatever.

Plus, you don't have to roll a caster level check to dispel your own spells, you succeed automatically. My transmuter did this a few times in Shattered Star.


To follow up Dragon78's question, does the Scarab (which I don't find to be a golarion specific creature all that much) ever has the chance to be in a normal bestiary?

The new Bodysnatcher plant monster isn't that much like the Moonflower? Or is it a very very different creature?

Are tooth Faeries evil or good in the bestiary? Or are there versions for both?

Are there many sea-based creatures in the bestiary?

Now that demon lords and other lords are in the bestiary, are there also creatures like Ahriman, Basileus and other such unique creatures in the bestiary 4?

Thanks


1)What did you like about Pacific Rim?

2)What did you not like about it?

3)Do you any other comments, ideas, etc. about the movie?


Can a character who has yet to have access to a weapon proficiency, take weapon focus in that weapon?
For example, can a Druid take weapon focus in a natural weapon, before having access to that natural weapon? (Via wildshape, multi-classing, etc.)

Sorry if this seems like a rule question. Just want to understand the game better.

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Could a hypothetical Shoanti character become a Paladin? Seems like, from what I've read, they'd view that as heretical, as most of the paladin gods were brought in by foreigners. Abadar, Sarenrae and Iomedae seem to have largely been introduced by Korvosans. Most of the more local gods that the Shoanti and Varisians share don't allow paladins, whether due to being Chaotic like Desna, or they're solidly Neutral like Pharasma. So...would a Shoanti paladin be viewed as some kind of culture traitor despite their honor and deeds?

There's no reason why a Shoanti can't become a paladin. Either one who's become a part of civilization, or one who is a member of a tribe but follows his own paladin virtues. You don't have to worship a deity if you're a paladin, remember...

It's certainly unusual, but less unusual than the typical PC.

I thought paladins had the same PFS restrictions as clerics?


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

...but bugging Erik Mona means it might take even longer to get a Balthazar write-up! Or a Nex book! Man, I really want a Nex book. And a Geb book. And a Numeria book. And a Vudra book. And...

...I'll stop there. At least it looks like Mythic Realms will give Geb some love. Other questions!

1) Was there a particular event or series of events that led to hobgoblins loathing elves and 'elf magic' so much?

Spoiler:
I've been kind of wondering since learning about the Castrovel thing if it might have been a first contact thing when elves originally arrived, or when they came back after the whole 'Golarion covered in darkness' thing ended...but elves are also long-lived, chaotic good, and pretty, while hobgoblins are short-lived, lawful evil, and ugly, so that's probably plenty of reason for them to get along like a house on fire, but I was wondering if there was something specific that started them off on the wrong foot, like elves initially arriving in what was hobgoblin territory at the time that they took for their own, or something else...

2) What prompted elves to colonize Golarion, anyways? Population pressure, need for resources, just plain curiosity or interest in studying another world? It's hard to imagine they arrived in a vacuum with no other inhabitants (even if they were only monsters), so I imagine it can't have been easy to settle on Golarion; Castrovel is a tough world too, and they'd have to send through resources initially to establish a new colony, I would think.

3) If you had an intelligent unholy weapon with an evil alignment, what would happen if you made it into a redeemed weapon, as described in Champions of Purity?

Spoiler:
(If you haven't seen it, essentially, for an extra +1 added on top of the +2, you can turn an unholy weapon into effectively a holy weapon with a few extras). Would the intelligent item's alignment change to a good alignment? Would it remain evil? If it did change to good, would that be ethical? Or would it not be possible to apply that enchantment to an intelligent item without converting the item itself to goodness in some way so that it wouldn't 'reject' the enchantment?

4) Can an intelligent item do anything about an enchantment being applied if they don't want the enchantment?

Spoiler:
I'm sure most don't have a problem with becoming more powerful, but if, say,you had a holy weapon with a good alignment, and a neutral owner wanted to add an unholy enchantment so it would be useful on both good and evil targets, could it do anything about it?

5) Have you used intelligent magic items much in your games? Any cool or amusing stories involving one?

6) Are boggards and grippli distantly related, or is the fact that they both look like frogs (albeit different kinds of frogs) just a matter of convergent evolution?

7) Kijimuna, from Tides of Honor, are noted to be goblinoids. Just how are they related to other goblins? Were there always four kinds of goblins, or did they evolve from some other group of goblins that moved to Tian Xia and changed their ways, evolving their obsession with fire to new levels? Are they related to Lamashtu and the barghest demigods in any way?

8) Would a follower of Brigh think an android was a sacred relic or something along those lines if they found out about their artificial origin? Or would it be too divorced from the clockwork mechanisms they're used to?

9) What race was the first magus on Golarion?

Spoiler:
A friend of mine and I were discussing it, and he said that in his opinion, the flexibility of arcane and melee made him think it was humans, and I said personally, I would associate those traits more with a bard than a magus, and that while it's likely that it was a human statistically, simply due to how many humans there are compared to most other races rather than due to innate flexibility, I could easily see it being an elf, noted for their studies of arcane magic as well as training with several martial weapons, and for all we know it could have been developed on Castrovel and imported to Golarion when elves arrived.

10) Where on Golarion are thriae colonies? Are they in a specific region in general, or are they kind of scattered everywhere? And what do other races tend to think about them?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sincubus wrote:

To follow up Dragon78's question, does the Scarab (which I don't find to be a golarion specific creature all that much) ever has the chance to be in a normal bestiary?

The new Bodysnatcher plant monster isn't that much like the Moonflower? Or is it a very very different creature?

Are tooth Faeries evil or good in the bestiary? Or are there versions for both?

Are there many sea-based creatures in the bestiary?

Now that demon lords and other lords are in the bestiary, are there also creatures like Ahriman, Basileus and other such unique creatures in the bestiary 4?

Thanks

Probably not, but we'll see. As the years go by, eventually Inner Sea Bestiary will go out of print, at which point if we decide not to reprint it, we may well transition some or all of those monsters to a hardcover. Or we might at some point do a hardcover version of Inner Sea Bestiary that's expanded to 320 pages.

For now, none of the Inner Sea Bestiary monsters are in Bestiary 4, though.

The Bodysnatcher got its name changed to Bodythief. It's similar to a mooonflower, except that if you get eaten, you spawn a minion for the monster to control

Tooth faeries are very very VERY evil.

There are quite a few, yes.

Bestiary 4's powerful CR 26+ unique creatures include 3 demon lords, 3 empyreal lords, 3 kaiju, and 3 Great Old Ones. That's all we had room for. But we'll ABSOLUTELY be doing more of these guys in the future.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Dragon78 wrote:

1)What did you like about Pacific Rim?

2)What did you not like about it?

3)Do you any other comments, ideas, etc. about the movie?

1)

Spoiler:
I liked the monsters and the robots. I liked Ron Perlman (as I always do). I liked the battles that actually took place in cities so that we got a sense of scale. I liked the direction when del Toro got to indulge himself and do some fun shots.

2)

Spoiler:
I hated the 3D—the glasses made the entire movie, which was already dark, super murky and hard to see what was going on. It's like watching a movie through a sheet of gray gauze in a theater filled with thin fog. Lame. I didn't like the writing—it was way too cheesy and corny. There were a lot of plot holes and logic fails as well that frustrated me. I didn't like how busy and overly complex the special effects were—there was a lot of "Transformers Syndrome" going on, where ILM put so much on the screen that it was impossible for the human eye to comprehend what was going on and actually understand things, a problem made more complex and frustrating by the 3D which prevents you from taking in the whole scene with ease by forcing you to focus on one spot at a time.

3) It was my least favorite Guillarmo del Toro movie. Perhaps I had too-high expectations; it's one of my favorite genres by one of my favorite directors, so I'd hoped for the best... but it felt like the things I like about Kaiju movies and del Toro movies were somewhat sacrificed in order to make the movie more "mass market" and less quirky/unique. I've given pretty much every other del Toro movie an A+, A, or A–... this one's a solid B.

The more I think of it, the more I think the 3D is to blame for it. I need to see it again in 2D.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Leafeater wrote:

Can a character who has yet to have access to a weapon proficiency, take weapon focus in that weapon?

For example, can a Druid take weapon focus in a natural weapon, before having access to that natural weapon? (Via wildshape, multi-classing, etc.)

Sorry if this seems like a rule question. Just want to understand the game better.

Nope. Weapon Focus has "proficiency with weapon" as a prerequisite. Note that druids start play being proficient with all natural weapons, so they can still take Weapon Proficiency (bite) or whatever even if they don't have a bite attack naturally.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Could a hypothetical Shoanti character become a Paladin? Seems like, from what I've read, they'd view that as heretical, as most of the paladin gods were brought in by foreigners. Abadar, Sarenrae and Iomedae seem to have largely been introduced by Korvosans. Most of the more local gods that the Shoanti and Varisians share don't allow paladins, whether due to being Chaotic like Desna, or they're solidly Neutral like Pharasma. So...would a Shoanti paladin be viewed as some kind of culture traitor despite their honor and deeds?

There's no reason why a Shoanti can't become a paladin. Either one who's become a part of civilization, or one who is a member of a tribe but follows his own paladin virtues. You don't have to worship a deity if you're a paladin, remember...

It's certainly unusual, but less unusual than the typical PC.

I thought paladins had the same PFS restrictions as clerics?

Nope.

While the vast majority of divine spellcasters on Golarion worship deities, only clerics must worship deities.

Most paladins on Golarion worship a deity, but there are a few who do not.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Luthorne wrote:

...but bugging Erik Mona means it might take even longer to get a Balthazar write-up! Or a Nex book! Man, I really want a Nex book. And a Geb book. And a Numeria book. And a Vudra book. And...

...I'll stop there. At least it looks like Mythic Realms will give Geb some love. Other questions!

1) Was there a particular event or series of events that led to hobgoblins loathing elves and 'elf magic' so much?

** spoiler omitted **

2) What prompted elves to colonize Golarion, anyways? Population pressure, need for resources, just plain curiosity or interest in studying another world? It's hard to imagine they arrived in a vacuum with no other inhabitants (even if they were only monsters), so I imagine it can't have been easy to settle on Golarion; Castrovel is a tough world too, and they'd have to send through resources initially to establish a new colony, I would think.

3) If you had an intelligent unholy weapon with an evil alignment, what would happen if you made it into a redeemed weapon, as described in Champions of Purity?

** spoiler omitted **...

Including spoilers does make a wall-of-text series of questions less intimidating, but as you can see how it looks when I quote your questions above... it makes it even more complex to answer. I'll have to answer these separately below.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Luthorne wrote:

.1) Was there a particular event or series of events that led to hobgoblins loathing elves and 'elf magic' so much?

I've been kind of wondering since learning about the Castrovel thing if it might have been a first contact thing when elves originally arrived, or when they came back after the whole 'Golarion covered in darkness' thing ended...but elves are also long-lived, chaotic good, and pretty, while hobgoblins are short-lived, lawful evil, and ugly, so that's probably plenty of reason for them to get along like a house on fire, but I was wondering if there was something specific that started them off on the wrong foot, like elves initially arriving in what was hobgoblin territory at the time that they took for their own, or something else...

1) There was, but this isn't something we've done a lot of investigation into or discussion on yet in print. There's some information in Classic Monsters Revisited, but it was something that we had to try to adjust and fix at the last minute before going to print, and I'm still not 100% happy with how that turned out. Someday we'll do more stuff on hobgoblins and explore this in greater detail.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Luthorne wrote:

2) What prompted elves to colonize Golarion, anyways? Population pressure, need for resources, just plain curiosity or interest in studying another world? It's hard to imagine they arrived in a vacuum with no other inhabitants (even if they were only monsters), so I imagine it can't have been easy to settle on Golarion; Castrovel is a tough world too, and they'd have to send through resources initially to establish a new colony, I would think.

3) If you had an intelligent unholy weapon with an evil alignment, what would happen if you made it into a redeemed weapon, as described in Champions of Purity?

(If you haven't seen it, essentially, for an extra +1 added on top of the +2, you can turn an unholy weapon into effectively a holy weapon with a few extras). Would the intelligent item's alignment change to a good alignment? Would it remain evil? If it did change to good, would that be ethical? Or would it not be possible to apply that enchantment to an intelligent item without converting the item itself to goodness in some way so that it wouldn't 'reject' the enchantment?

2) They didn't colonize Golarion, really. They colonized small parts of Golarion. As for why they originally first came to Golarion... this first happened probably before Azlant. A LONG time ago. Maybe even near the end of the Age of Serpents—In fact, I kind of like the idea that the Age of Serpents ended and the Age of Legend began at about the point elves came to Golarion. That's not something we've really explored at all yet though. Their reason for visiting was likely mostly curiosity.

3) Redeeming a weapon is something we cover in greater detail in Pathfinder #75, "Demon's Heresy." The redeemed weapon quality you're talking about is a LOT more specific, though, in that it only works on once-unholy weapons. If you did this to an intelligent weapon, the intelligence would not be redeemed, but it would be enraged. You'd need to use the redemption rules on pages 18–19 to redeem the evil intelligence, which would likely take a long time.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Luthorne wrote:

4) Can an intelligent item do anything about an enchantment being applied if they don't want the enchantment?

I'm sure most don't have a problem with becoming more powerful, but if, say,you had a holy weapon with a good alignment, and a neutral owner wanted to add an unholy enchantment so it would be useful on both good and evil targets, could it do anything about it?

5) Have you used intelligent magic items much in your games? Any cool or amusing stories involving one?

6) Are boggards and grippli distantly related, or is the fact that they both look like frogs (albeit different kinds of frogs) just a matter of convergent evolution?

7) Kijimuna, from Tides of Honor, are noted to be goblinoids. Just how are they related to other goblins? Were there always four kinds of goblins, or did they evolve from some other group of goblins that moved to Tian Xia and changed their ways, evolving their obsession with fire to new levels? Are they related to Lamashtu and the barghest demigods in any way?

8) Would a follower of Brigh think an android was a sacred relic or something along those lines if they found out about their artificial origin? Or would it be too divorced from the clockwork mechanisms they're used to?

4) They can attempt to win a battle of wills and control the person attempting to add the unwanted effect, and can trigger the weapon powers against the person if they want.

5) Yes. Quite a lot over my 30+ years of gaming. I've had a fair number of players who ended up having weapons that were smarter than them, for example.

6) No more so than dwarves and orcs are related.

7) Unrevealed at this point.

8) Followers of Brigh like clockworks, but they aren't "clockworks ONLY" types. They have an interest in all sorts of creations, be they constructs or robots or clockworks or mechanical devices or traps or whatever. Androids are of interest to them.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Luthorne wrote:

9) What race was the first magus on Golarion?

A friend of mine and I were discussing it, and he said that in his opinion, the flexibility of arcane and melee made him think it was humans, and I said personally, I would associate those traits more with a bard than a magus, and that while it's likely that it was a human statistically, simply due to how many humans there are compared to most other races rather than due to innate flexibility, I could easily see it being an elf, noted for their studies of arcane magic as well as training with several martial weapons, and for all we know it could have been developed on Castrovel and imported to Golarion when elves arrived.

10) Where on Golarion are thriae colonies? Are they in a specific region in general, or are they kind of scattered everywhere? And what do other races tend to think about them?

9) As a general rule, we don't reveal who was the first of any class. Magi are certainly not as OLD a class as, say, the fighter... but they've been around for a long, long time. I suspect that the first magus was an elf, but that's only because of the decades of tradition this genre of RPG has that elves are fighter/magic-users.

10) Unrevealed, but I suspect there are some in Southern Garund.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

James,

Do wordcasters (users of words of power, from ultimate magic, pg. 162) exist in Golarion? What about the Inner Sea Region?

If yes, where would you say they are the most common?

Thank you very much!

Dark Archive

I feel your pain James. I can't stand 3D movies, and I don't understand why they have to make them. Doubly annoying is the fact that I live in a smallish town that only has one movie theater, and they almost always choose to air movies in 3D. It's just a gimmick that should have died during the 1950's.

Anyway speaking of movies, which is you favorite Del Toro movie?

Have you seen Hellboy/Hellboy 2? If so what did you think of it?

Are the tooth fairies in Bestiary 4 anything like the tooth fairies in Hellboy 2?


James Jacobs wrote:
Karse wrote:

Damage from a Lance and/or Spirit Charge is an extra damage that is multiply, so if this works just like critical hits then....

Can a creature immune to critical or that has some % of Fortification can negate the Lance x2 (or x3 with Spirit Charge)?

I would say yes. But that's a better question to ask over on the rules boards than here.

James if you send someone to the rules question forums to ask the question there, do you expect him to do so?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ral' Yareth wrote:

James,

Do wordcasters (users of words of power, from ultimate magic, pg. 162) exist in Golarion? What about the Inner Sea Region?

If yes, where would you say they are the most common?

Thank you very much!

Player character wordcasters can certainly adventure in Golarion, and if the GM allows them, he'll probably want to introduce NPC wordcasters.

But as presented, wordcasters themselves do not exist on Golarion. That's a kind of magic that isn't officially part of the campaign setting. Primarily because it's nature makes it really difficult to stat up spellcasters in a succinct format that doesn't end up limiting the whole point of the versatility of wordcasting, but mostly because the flavor of wordcasting doesn't really fit with Golarion's themes for magic.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Atrocious wrote:

I feel your pain James. I can't stand 3D movies, and I don't understand why they have to make them. Doubly annoying is the fact that I live in a smallish town that only has one movie theater, and they almost always choose to air movies in 3D. It's just a gimmick that should have died during the 1950's.

Anyway speaking of movies, which is you favorite Del Toro movie?

Have you seen Hellboy/Hellboy 2? If so what did you think of it?

Are the tooth fairies in Bestiary 4 anything like the tooth fairies in Hellboy 2?

My favorite is, hands down and no question, "Pan's Labyrinth." Close runners up include "The Devil's Backbone" and "Hellboy" and "Mimic."

I loved both Hellboy movies. I liked the 1st one better, since it's got more Lovecraft stuff in it.

The tooth fairies from Hellboy 2 very much had an influence on our design, but our tooth fairies are still kinda different than that.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Jose Suarez 916 wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Karse wrote:

Damage from a Lance and/or Spirit Charge is an extra damage that is multiply, so if this works just like critical hits then....

Can a creature immune to critical or that has some % of Fortification can negate the Lance x2 (or x3 with Spirit Charge)?

I would say yes. But that's a better question to ask over on the rules boards than here.

James if you send someone to the rules question forums to ask the question there, do you expect him to do so?

Yes, because if the person wants the question answered and/or wants to let us know it's a concern, I'm not going to be able to help beyond telling them where to go in order to GET that help... so that if the person asking really wanted to know, I would expect them to take that information and go to the rules forums with the question.


Is Grendel a Unique creature or a race of monsters?

Is Argus a Titan or a Giant or something completely else?

What are the empyreal lords about? What are they??

Thanks

Silver Crusade

Consider the possibility of a file amongst the NSA titled "Aroden", inside which lists the secrets surrounding him including the secret of his death. Thoughts?


James Jacobs wrote:


Bestiary 4's powerful CR 26+ unique creatures include 3 demon lords, 3 empyreal lords, 3 kaiju, and 3 Great Old Ones. That's all we had room for. But we'll ABSOLUTELY be doing more of these guys in the future.

Awesome. Though that does pose a couple of questions. Not sure what sorts of unique CR 26+ creatures we'll be getting in the Mythic Adventures hardcover so these questions may be a little off-base but here they go:

1) With 6 Demon Lords being included in the Wrath of the Righteous AP (understandably) and another 3 being detailed in Bestiary 4, bringing the count to 9, are there any plans to detail any of the Archdevils or Horsemen any time soon?

I completely understand if you can't answer #1, so my follow-up is:

2) Not everyone buys the APs, so obviously at least one Demon Lord needed to be included in Bestiary 4 since it's assumed not everyone will have access to the stats of the other six. But with room in Bestiary 4 for 6 Evil Demigods (3 Demon Lords and 3 Great Old Ones) was there a specific reason why the Archdevils and Horsemen were excluded rather than doing, say, one of each? Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I'm more than grateful to get even more Demon Lord stats and a few Great Old Ones. Just curious.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sincubus wrote:

Is Grendel a Unique creature or a race of monsters?

Is Argus a Titan or a Giant or something completely else?

What are the empyreal lords about? What are they??

Thanks

Now's not the right time for more Bestiary 4 spoilers/previews. Those'll need to wait for a few months until we're closer to the book's release, when these types of hints and reveals will work better to build anticipation for the book's release.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Xzaral wrote:
Consider the possibility of a file amongst the NSA titled "Aroden", inside which lists the secrets surrounding him including the secret of his death. Thoughts?

I'm pretty sure they'd be wrong.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

The Block Knight wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


Bestiary 4's powerful CR 26+ unique creatures include 3 demon lords, 3 empyreal lords, 3 kaiju, and 3 Great Old Ones. That's all we had room for. But we'll ABSOLUTELY be doing more of these guys in the future.

Awesome. Though that does pose a couple of questions. Not sure what sorts of unique CR 26+ creatures we'll be getting in the Mythic Adventures hardcover so these questions may be a little off-base but here they go:

1) With 6 Demon Lords being included in the Wrath of the Righteous AP (understandably) and another 3 being detailed in Bestiary 4, bringing the count to 9, are there any plans to detail any of the Archdevils or Horsemen any time soon?

I completely understand if you can't answer #1, so my follow-up is:

2) Not everyone buys the APs, so obviously at least one Demon Lord needed to be included in Bestiary 4 since it's assumed not everyone will have access to the stats of the other six. But with room in Bestiary 4 for 6 Evil Demigods (3 Demon Lords and 3 Great Old Ones) was there a specific reason why the Archdevils and Horsemen were excluded rather than doing, say, one of each? Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I'm more than grateful to get even more Demon Lord stats and a few Great Old Ones. Just curious.

1) No plans yet, but eventually, yes. The time is right at this point for demon lord info, due to Wrath of the Righteous. In the future as it makes sense, we'll stat up more demigods.

2) Frankly... putting non-adventure content into the APs is specifically intended to entice folks to buy them even if they don't want to run the adventure. It's 100% by design.

The specific reason we didn't do one of each is that each of these types of demigods comes with its own special rules, in the same way that demons and azatas and daemons have traits and shared information. Each will have a one-page introduction, in the same way those monsters do. And once we do that, doing only 1 or 2 is somewhat underwhelming—3 is what we decided was the minimum amount of creatures to do for a new grouping of monsters.

As for why we chose Great Old Ones, Empyreal Lords, Kaiju, and Demon Lords... that's primarily because I was the person on staff who was pushing the hardest to get these types of creatures into the book and to get rules support for. The desire to see these types of super-powerful creatures statted up isn't 100% across Paizo. And so since I was their champion, basically, I ended up putting my money where my mouth was and volunteering to write the vast majority of them. And since I was the one who would be designing them, I got to choose what categories of demigod/high CR creatures go in the book—so I chose four of my favorites (even if I ended up not being the one who designed the Empyreal Lords in the end).


1) Demon Lords in Bestiary 4... Orcus, Pazuru (sp?) and one other? (< since they are kinda part of the OGL)

2) I missed that shot by how much?


James Jacobs wrote:


2) The specific reason we didn't do one of each is that each of these types of demigods comes with its own special rules, in the same way that demons and azatas and daemons have traits and shared information. Each will have a one-page introduction, in the same way those monsters do. And once we do that, doing only 1 or 2 is somewhat underwhelming—3 is what we decided was the minimum amount of creatures to do for a new grouping of monsters. . . [other awesome and interesting facts]

This makes perfect sense. I should have figured it was something like that. I had a feeling that the reasoning behind including Kaiju, Demon Lords, and Great Old Ones was due to your championing - it was mostly the quantity that had me curious. Though I didn't realize that to carry through on your championing, you had to write 9 of those stat blocks yourself. Wow, now I'm even more excited to see the end result.

Also, you may as well come clean now, there are two of you, right? That's the only way you could possibly have found the time to take on the stats for 9 Demon Lords, 3 Kaiju, and 3 Great Old Ones on top of everything else that you do. So I guess my next questions are:

1) When did you clone yourself?

2) How did you clone yourself?

3) If you didn't clone yourself, then please tell me the secret behind not requiring sleep ever, because I could really use it.


Bestiary 4 questions

1)Did any Japanese myth creatures make it in to the book?

2)Did we get at least 15 non-fungus/mold based plants creatures?

3)Will there be more or less then 20 fey?

4)Will the Kaiju, Great Old Ones, Empyreal Lords, and Demon lords be the only CR26+ creatures?

5)How are the Demon Lords and Empyreal Lords not Golarion specific?

6)Will the Fey have a larger CR range this time?

7)Will creatures with the elemental subtype get more love in this book?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Belle Mythix wrote:

1) Demon Lords in Bestiary 4... Orcus, Pazuru (sp?) and one other? (< since they are kinda part of the OGL)

2) I missed that shot by how much?

1) I believe so far we've only confirmed Pazuzu. We've not revealed who the other two are yet.

2) Stay tuned!


Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Could a hypothetical Shoanti character become a Paladin? Seems like, from what I've read, they'd view that as heretical, as most of the paladin gods were brought in by foreigners. Abadar, Sarenrae and Iomedae seem to have largely been introduced by Korvosans. Most of the more local gods that the Shoanti and Varisians share don't allow paladins, whether due to being Chaotic like Desna, or they're solidly Neutral like Pharasma. So...would a Shoanti paladin be viewed as some kind of culture traitor despite their honor and deeds?

There's no reason why a Shoanti can't become a paladin. Either one who's become a part of civilization, or one who is a member of a tribe but follows his own paladin virtues. You don't have to worship a deity if you're a paladin, remember...

It's certainly unusual, but less unusual than the typical PC.

I thought paladins had the same PFS restrictions as clerics?

You're both actually right. In the base game, paladins do not need deities.

In PFS, paladins need deities. It's one of their houserules.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

The Block Knight wrote:

Also, you may as well come clean now, there are two of you, right? That's the only way you could possibly have found the time to take on the stats for 9 Demon Lords, 3 Kaiju, and 3 Great Old Ones on top of everything else that you do. So I guess my next questions are:

1) When did you clone yourself?

2) How did you clone yourself?

3) If you didn't clone yourself, then please tell me the secret behind not requiring sleep ever, because I could really use it.

There's just one of me. I do sleep, generally from about 2:00 AM to about 10:00 AM... so normally about 8 hours a night.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Dragon78 wrote:

Bestiary 4 questions

1)Did any Japanese myth creatures make it in to the book?

2)Did we get at least 15 non-fungus/mold based plants creatures?

3)Will there be more or less then 20 fey?

4)Will the Kaiju, Great Old Ones, Empyreal Lords, and Demon lords be the only CR26+ creatures?

5)How are the Demon Lords and Empyreal Lords not Golarion specific?

6)Will the Fey have a larger CR range this time?

7)Will creatures with the elemental subtype get more love in this book?

I'll be vague on these, since again... I don't want to start really building up hype for the book until we're closer to its release, but...

1) Yes

2) No

3) Can't remember

4) I believe so.

5) The same way anything else in a bestiary isn't Golarion specific—we strip out the world-specific stuff and get all vague on those counts, or focus on other parts of the creature. But by picking creatures that also have roots in real-world myth, we can draw upon that lore without worry.

6) Same—ranging from below 1 to 20 or higher, I believe.

7) Yes.


I had some questions about the rakshasa. It's mentioned in their write-up in 'Escape From Old Korvosa' that when they die they're reincarnated to continue their life of sin and debauchery as a new rakshasa. But that same source mentioned, in very rare circumstances, a good-aligned rakshasa. Would such a creature still be reincarnated, even if it worshipped a god? This ties in with my next question: a sorcerer with the rakshasa bloodline eventually becomes something like a lesser rakshasa. Are they now subject to the reincarnating of true rakshasas? I'm sorry for the long question, it's just that I have a character with that bloodline and I'm wondering what his ultimate fate would be.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Barong wrote:
I had some questions about the rakshasa. It's mentioned in their write-up in 'Escape From Old Korvosa' that when they die they're reincarnated to continue their life of sin and debauchery as a new rakshasa. But that same source mentioned, in very rare circumstances, a good-aligned rakshasa. Would such a creature still be reincarnated, even if it worshipped a god? This ties in with my next question: a sorcerer with the rakshasa bloodline eventually becomes something like a lesser rakshasa. Are they now subject to the reincarnating of true rakshasas? I'm sorry for the long question, it's just that I have a character with that bloodline and I'm wondering what his ultimate fate would be.

A good aligned rakshasa already breaks lots of rules, so it can pretty much do what the GM wants as far as genesis and the like.


What in the Nine Hells is the point of half-plate armor?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Myzer Rivermoon wrote:
What in the Nine Hells is the point of half-plate armor?

Starter armor for low-level characters who can't yet afford full plate. Or armor that looks different so the GM can have his monsters look different.

Contributor

James Jacobs wrote:
Myzer Rivermoon wrote:
What in the Nine Hells is the point of half-plate armor?
Starter armor for low-level characters who can't yet afford full plate. Or armor that looks different so the GM can have his monsters look different.

I've always found it funny how many players try to buy full plate at 1st level before realizing that they can't. Even if I start you off at 2nd level, a suit of full plate leaves you almost no money for anything else.

Grand Lodge

James, how many times can a person take the Toughness feat? Once? Twice? Unlimited? This goes for NPCs as well because there's a few templates that give you the feat as part of the package.

Dark Archive

Dear James-

Will we see an Armies of Golarion book anytime in the near future?


Alexander Augunas wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Myzer Rivermoon wrote:
What in the Nine Hells is the point of half-plate armor?
Starter armor for low-level characters who can't yet afford full plate. Or armor that looks different so the GM can have his monsters look different.
I've always found it funny how many players try to buy full plate at 1st level before realizing that they can't. Even if I start you off at 2nd level, a suit of full plate leaves you almost no money for anything else.

Perhaps its just me that prefers taking scale mail or banded mail over half-plate. I'll go with what James said at the end there.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

the Haunted Jester wrote:

Dear James-

Will we see an Armies of Golarion book anytime in the near future?

Chances of a book like that increase dramatically once we have a really robust system for mass combat. We have the start of something there, with the troop rules from "Rasputin Must Die!" and the narrative mass combat rules in Ultimate Campaign... but I don't think we're at a point yet where Armies of the Inner Sea or somesuch book would be doable.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

kevin_video wrote:
James, how many times can a person take the Toughness feat? Once? Twice? Unlimited? This goes for NPCs as well because there's a few templates that give you the feat as part of the package.

Once.

If you get Toughness as a bonus feat from a template or prestige class or whatever, it doesn't stack and that bonus feat essentially is wasted.


James Jacobs wrote:

Chances of a book like that increase dramatically once we have a really robust system for mass combat. We have the start of something there, with the troop rules from "Rasputin Must Die!" and the narrative mass combat rules in Ultimate Campaign... but I don't think we're at a point yet where Armies of the Inner Sea or somesuch book would be doable.

Jumping off that, would you prefer to create new rules for detailed mass combat, or expand upon the existing system?

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