Creative Director
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The thing with the succubus is that, more than ANY other demon, it's better to give her a mythic path than simply making her a mythic monster. In fact, my personal preference is to do this for ALL mythic monsters.There will be at least one succubus in WotR that is mythic... but there won't be a mythic monster version of them because they work better as tricksters or champions or marshals or whatever.
I'm curious about why you prefer this. In my opinion, a monster gains more from mythic ranks than tiers. Ranks give them:
- Extra natural armor equal to Rank. Monsters need this to survive against mythic characters.
- Special abilities (Rank +1), wich can be chosen from the monster abilities or from the mythic paths. This gives them versatility.
- Feats and Ability bonuses are the same.So if you want to create a mythic succubus, you can give her some ranks and select a few abilities from the paths you deem more appropriate.
Also, given your answer to my previous question about mythic demons, does that mean that most of the demon encounters in the AP are against non-mythic demons?
Thanks!
To a certain extent it's a matter of preference. I prefer the "mythic" versions of creatures to be either unique individuals, in which case those individuals are best built as advanced verisons of the base creature with mythic paths or templates, or to simply build a brand new monster. I would have built the First Owlbear as a significantly advanced monster with some mythic powers, for example. I'm just not personally a big fan of creating "mythic" versions of existing monsters, really.
All the things those mythic ranks give monsters are things we can already give monsters anyway just by advancing them or rebuilding them.
The vast majority of the encounters in Wrath of the Righteous are against non-mythic demons, yes. When mythic demons show up, they are almost ALWAYS going to be demons with tiers in a path. There's one or two exceptions, especially in the case of using a mythic demon from Mythic Adventures so that we can just use a short stat block, but for the most part, I prefer the mythic threats the PCs face to be unique builds.
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Creative Director
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1) Do you have a favorite range to play at? I know some people like to play 1st level and a bit lower, some people prefer at least 6th, and for others, it's not getting fun until at least 10th level...so, was just wondering if you prefer the high power stuff of higher levels or the desperate scrabble for survival at low levels?
2) What are some of your favorite non-Golarion fantasy settings? Doesn't have to be a pen and paper setting, a novel, a book series, a cartoon, a movie, a radio drama, a video game, or anything else along those lines is perfectly fine.
3) Of the Golarion deities that aren't one of the big twenty, but are still full deities and not demigods, which ones do you like the most?
1) I don't really have a favorite range to play at. My favorite, in fact, is starting a character at 1st level and playing that character up to high level, like 17th to 20th.
2) Westeros is high up there, as is Lovecraft's Dreamlands, Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique and other settings, Stephen King's Mid-world, Clive Barker's Imagica, Dragon Age, Mass Effect... the list goes on.
3) I'm a fan of Achaekek, Milani, Groetus, Ghlaunder, Zyphus, and Sivanah.
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Creative Director
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James, could we ever hope to see an Elementals Revisited book?
I suppose that's possible.
Were I to greenlight this book today, I'd probably do 10 chapters as follows:
Air Elementals
Fire Elementals
Earth Elementals
Water Elementals
Invisibile Stalkers
Mihstus
Sandmen
Magmin
hmmm...
There's actually not a lot of elementals out there. I'd be tempted to expand it to include salamanders and xorn but those aren't elementals.
And I'm not sure 16 pages on the 4 elementals is the best choice either, since those creatures are kinda simple and samey...
In the end, the subject COULD work, but I can think of many others I'd rather do first...
James, could we ever hope to see an Elementals Revisited book?I suppose that's possible.
Were I to greenlight this book today, I'd probably do 10 chapters as follows:
Air Elementals
Fire Elementals
Earth Elementals
Water Elementals
Invisibile Stalkers
Mihstus
Sandmen
Magminhmmm...
There's actually not a lot of elementals out there. I'd be tempted to expand it to include salamanders and xorn but those aren't elementals.
And I'm not sure 16 pages on the 4 elementals is the best choice either, since those creatures are kinda simple and samey...
In the end, the subject COULD work, but I can think of many others I'd rather do first...
Maybe group all the "true" elementals together like gremlins in "Fey Revisited" or hags in "Classic Horrors Revisited", and expand the book to Inner Planar creatures in general? Like:
Elementals
Genies
Invisible Stalkers
Mephits
Magmin
Salamanders
Sandmen
Xorn
Or some similar lineup.
I have a (Not sure if well-placed)question regarding the common tongue in Golarion; is it based on a real world language? And if not; any idea on what it might sound like?
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So as per Lords of Chaos Nocticula and Soconbenoth are siblings and Nurgal is Soconbenoth's half brother. Has it been reveled yet who their parents are or how exactly these 3 are related (ie does this make Nurgal and Nocticula half siblings or is their something else at play that keeps that off the table)?Hasn't yet been revealed.
Is this something you plan to address in the near future? Also is this something that you have already figured out the answer to and just don't want to put to print yet or is it something that is still in development?
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James what's your oppinon on RTS games?Before Starcraft, I quite enjoyed them. I played the HECK out of Warcraft and a few others.
Starcraft "cured" me of the genre. My experiences playing Starcraft were so singularly unsatisfying, frustrating, annoying, and enraging that I've pretty much never played another RTS since.
Why/how was Starcraft different?
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Well...I'm not James Jacobs, or a linguist, but here's my theory.
Taldane is the common tongue used on Golarion, and Taldor was founded by Azlanti survivors of Earthfall. Now, considering that Azlanti has been stated to sound like a mix of Latin and Japanese, we can extrapolate that Taldane sounds like one of the Romance languages, most likely Italian, as well as Japanese (I'm no linguist, so I don't know if there are regional variants of the Japanese language). The presence of Latin-sounding names among Taldans and Italian sounding names among Chelaxians corroborates this theory.
Going into blind speculation here, I imagine that the Chelaxian accent of Common sounds more like French given the Chelaxian ethnicity is an intermingling of the Germanic-like Ulfen and Italian-like Taldans, similar to the intermingling of Frankish and Italian culture under Charlemagne. Galt's France-like nature hints at this too.
I would also speculate that the Varisian tongue has a similar, Italian sound due to Thassilonian being its root language, which in turn was an evolution of Azlanti, Xin and his followers being Azlanti expatriates.
Because it's been hinted at that the Kellids are the closest match to a Celtic people on Golarion, Hallit may have similar sounds to Gaelic and Welsh, meaning that in places where that language and Common mingled the accents would become more like British ones, such as in Mendev, Numeria, Brevoy and the River Kingdoms. Brevoy also exhibits some Slavic influences that may be explained by the introduction of the actual Russian language from Earth by Baba Yaga in her conquest of Irrisen.
Finally, given the statement in Dwarves of Golarion that words like "hammer" and "gold" originated in Dwarven and were adopted into Common, I posit that it too sounds Germanic, and may have influenced the development of Skald, as the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, from where the Ulfen hail, is home to one of the largest concentration of dwarves outside the Five Kings Mountains and neighboring Druma.
Varisia is another matter entirely. You've got the native, likely Italian-sounding Varisian mingling with the French-sounding Chelaxian Common, Skald coming from the neighboring Lands of the Linnorm Kings through trade, Dwarven spoken in Janderhoff, and I'm not even gonna get started on the complexities of Shoanti's evolution.
Amateur linguistics is fun!
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Creative Director
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Is this something you plan to address in the near future? Also is this something that you have already figured out the answer to and just don't want to put to print yet or is it something that is still in development?So as per Lords of Chaos Nocticula and Soconbenoth are siblings and Nurgal is Soconbenoth's half brother. Has it been reveled yet who their parents are or how exactly these 3 are related (ie does this make Nurgal and Nocticula half siblings or is their something else at play that keeps that off the table)?Hasn't yet been revealed.
Nope; it's not something that we'll be talking about in the near future, nor is it something I'm ready to delve into more about yet.
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Creative Director
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Why/how was Starcraft different?James what's your oppinon on RTS games?Before Starcraft, I quite enjoyed them. I played the HECK out of Warcraft and a few others.
Starcraft "cured" me of the genre. My experiences playing Starcraft were so singularly unsatisfying, frustrating, annoying, and enraging that I've pretty much never played another RTS since.
It was more frustrating and felt like the computer cheated and wasn't as pleasant to look at and was too hard and wasn't really a world that interested me.
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I have a (Not sure if well-placed)question regarding the common tongue in Golarion; is it based on a real world language? And if not; any idea on what it might sound like?It's not. I imagine it sounds like English though.
Aw, well there goes my armchair-scholarly, overly-complicated speculation on linguistic drift! :P
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Creative Director
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What is the thought process behind Soconbenoth having a quarterstaff and the Travel domain? I'm interested to know how those 2 fit that particular demon lord thematically.
Quaerterstaff: Because it's a phallic symbol.
Travel Domain: Because he gets around, and goes a lot of places to indulge in his exotic lusts and interests. And because giving him that domain gave him a unique spin among demon lords, who don't normally give that domain out.
Can you clear up the status of Fetchlings in Pathfinder for me? Are they half-breeds like Ifrits or Undine, or are they an established race?
James, with Mythic Adventures out, I'd like to ask your perspective again on creatures granting spells to themselves. :)
1. If you have the Divine Source mythic ability, can you be your own cleric?
2. ... or an Oracle, druid, inquisitor or something else fuelled by your own semi-divine status?
3. If so, do you need to actually worship yourself as a patron, and if so, what could that entail?
4. Can a mythic witch with Divine Source be her own Patron?
5. For a creature which is part divine (ascended/transformed/godling born), and which is born with spellcasting ability fuelled by its divinity, what class would be most appropriate? Sorcerer? Oracle? Something else?
6. For mythic creatures with innate divine spellcasting, e.g. mythic Solars or Nymphs; can/does those creature grant themselves spells if they have the Divine Source ability?
Thank you for continuing to enrich our lives. :)
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Yup; very cool!Have you seen this?
(Guillermo del Toro's sketchbook)
Too bad when showing the open book, it appears to be turned to the exact same page every time...
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Creative Director
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James, I noticed King of Chaos has "Wrath of the Righteous" printed on the back cover. Does this mean the story comes out before, during, or after the AP? Like the AP, are events in the book not considered part of the official Golarion timeline?
The events of King of Chaos begin at the same moment that the first adventure, "The Worldwound Incursion," begins. The events of King of Chaos come to an end sometime during the 3rd adventure, "Demon's Heresy."
The events in the book are not considered part of the official Golarion timeline... UNTIL you start Wrath of the Righteous, in which case they start unfolding in parallel with the AP on the other side of the region.
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Creative Director
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There are a few other elementals than you mentioned...I think the current list of elementals that have been published by Paizo in one book or another is air elementals, belkers, crysmals, earth elementals, fire elementals, ice elementals, invisible stalkers, lightning elementals, magma elementals, mihtsus, mud elementals, mudmen, sandmen, thoqquas, and water elementals...
...that said, while there are technically enough, I can't say as I'd necessarily want a book on them myself at the moment. Elementals tend to be...well, pretty elemental. I mean, if an interesting twist can be done on them, I guess that could be interesting. Personally, though, I'd like to see a nice big book on the planes with a nice padded bestiary to add some more elementals and other such, or just go for the inhabitants of the elemental planes rather than just the elemental planes themselves. Primal dragons and genies and other such could help pad that out a bit, even if they aren't technically elementals. I'd really like that book on the planes, though...I think the elemental planes as locations are more interesting than most elementals themselves seem to be. But that could just be me!
That tangent aside...
1) How do you come up with all these fantasy names, anyways? Do you usually pick some sort of naming ethnicity for various places, like Greek names or something, and mangle them a bit to be properly fantasy-ish? For some reason coming up with a name for my character almost always winds up being the thing that gives me the most trouble...
2) Chronicle of the Righteous mentions several deities have celestial elementals as minions. I'm a little curious, how do you think a celestial elemental would form?
3) Since the Golarion universe is ostensibly our universe, given that Earth is in it and all, does the fact that the universe is expanding mean that the Material PLane is expanding, or is the direction our universe is expanding in a different dimension than the direction you would have to go to to get to another plane?
Sure, there's a few other elementals... but that shouldn't automatically give them the honor of a six page entry in a Revisited book.
1) I've been making up fantasy names for close to 30 years, so practice is a big part of it. Sometimes I spell words backwards. Other times I use online name generators. In both of those cases, I jumble letters here and there to make the words sound right when spoken aloud. And other names I just make up, drawing upon my experience over the past 30 years of reading countless books and adventures and watching countless movies, combined with my knowledge of how words are constructed in the English language and how vowels and consonants work together and all that to make something up entirely new. That all said, naming a character (PC or NPC) is often the hardest part of creating it.
2) By being an elemental that spends a lot of time or simply forms on a good-aligned plane. Same way fiendish elementals form on the other side of the sphere.
3) Yup. There's PLENTY of room for the universe to expand through the Astral Plane before it comes even close to touching the Outer Planes.
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Creative Director
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James, with Mythic Adventures out, I'd like to ask your perspective again on creatures granting spells to themselves. :)
1. If you have the Divine Source mythic ability, can you be your own cleric?
2. ... or an Oracle, druid, inquisitor or something else fuelled by your own semi-divine status?
3. If so, do you need to actually worship yourself as a patron, and if so, what could that entail?
4. Can a mythic witch with Divine Source be her own Patron?
5. For a creature which is part divine (ascended/transformed/godling born), and which is born with spellcasting ability fuelled by its divinity, what class would be most appropriate? Sorcerer? Oracle? Something else?
6. For mythic creatures with innate divine spellcasting, e.g. mythic Solars or Nymphs; can/does those creature grant themselves spells if they have the Divine Source ability?Thank you for continuing to enrich our lives. :)
1) Up to your GM. In my games and in Golarion, no. You still have to worship a deity, but you can replace that deity's domains with your own if you wish.
2) Yes, other characters who pick up this ability (note that you don't have to be a divine spellcaster... ANYONE can become a demigod) can worship themselves, although that would be unusual and, I would posit, a character flaw on par with the mightiest sinners of pride.
3) Most who take Divine Source do NOT worship themselves, because that level of pride and arrogance is not something most people engage in. It's kind of missing the whole point, in my opinion. When you're a demigod...UNLESS you're a cleric... you run the show. You don't work for the show.
4) No. Patrons are not deities, nor do they grant spells. A patron is more mysterious than that.
5) Depends entirely on the creature's personality and the story you have in mind for the creature.
6) Again, if they worship themselves, yes. And again, that should be pretty rare.
Contributor
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Hey, more illustrated notebooks (this is actually an envelope)... this is Lovecraft's.
His and del Toro's work look like grimoires, or maybe the Voynich manuscript to me: a great player handout for a sci-fi horror game.
Can you clear up the status of Fetchlings in Pathfinder for me? Are they half-breeds like Ifrits or Undine, or are they an established race?Half-breeds are established races.
Fetchlings are half human, half shae.
I think you misunderstood what I meant. By "established race", I meant a race with culture, society, and history. From their description, undine and the like don't have that. Do Fetchlings?
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Creative Director
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1) Does that mean that the elemental planes are expanding along with our universe...or at least getting pushed outward further into the astral plane?
2) If we ever managed to go to the farthest edge of our unimaginably huge universe, then, in the Golarion setting would you enter the Plane of Air? Or is there a barrier, membrane, or something like that?
3) What do you think some of the most fun or interesting Mythic path abilities are, just on a personal level? I think Divine Source is really interesting myself, just because of the possibilities...
1) Maybe. They might just be growing thinner.
2) You'd first enter the plane of Air, then you'd hit water, then you'd hit earth, then you'd hit fire. Think of it as akin to coming in from space to a water covered planet. Which means from outside the whole thing in the Astral, the Inner Sphere looks like a single immense star.
3) Divine Source is one of my favorites, and it's in there mostly at my request since it opens up so many cool stories. Another favorite is Path Dabbling.
3) Divine Source is one of my favorites, and it's in there mostly at my request since it opens up so many cool stories. Another favorite is Path Dabbling.
I'd have to say that my favorite is the Trickster ability that allows you to whisper suggestions into peoples' ears if they can't see you. Doubly so because its extraordinary. And who says martials can't ever have nice things?
Do you ever find it strange that you have your own wikipedia page? Or that your boss doesn't?Often.
Do you find it strange that I learned everything in your wikipedia entry from you on this thread?
They could really shorten the citations by just linking this.
Woo, Swashbuckler! Fighter/Gunslinger would not have been a combination I'd seen coming (I thought the Swashbuckler more of a Fighter/urban Ranger with a focus on acrobatics), but I'm sure what you guys come up with will be great. And if it isn't, I'll complain in the playtest. :p
Thanks for sticking up for this class, James! :)
Woo, Swashbuckler! Fighter/Gunslinger would not have been a combination I'd seen coming (I thought the Swashbuckler more of a Fighter/urban Ranger with a focus on acrobatics), but I'm sure what you guys come up with will be great. And if it isn't, I'll complain in the playtest. :p
Thanks for sticking up for this class, James! :)
Wait, has the swashbuckler been confirmed?
never mind, checked the blog. Cool! I kinda figured they go with the gunsling since he has the Grit mechanic.
Wait, has the swashbuckler been confirmed?Woo, Swashbuckler! Fighter/Gunslinger would not have been a combination I'd seen coming (I thought the Swashbuckler more of a Fighter/urban Ranger with a focus on acrobatics), but I'm sure what you guys come up with will be great. And if it isn't, I'll complain in the playtest. :p
Thanks for sticking up for this class, James! :)
Check the blog. :)
What's the next significant deity you plan on focusing on in the next AP?
Are there any plans for Cayden Cailean in the imminent future? seems like his faith doesn't really get that much exposure despite being one of the core deities.
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Creative Director
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3) Divine Source is one of my favorites, and it's in there mostly at my request since it opens up so many cool stories. Another favorite is Path Dabbling.I'd have to say that my favorite is the Trickster ability that allows you to whisper suggestions into peoples' ears if they can't see you. Doubly so because its extraordinary. And who says martials can't ever have nice things?
Who says? A lot of folks who want to play spellcasters but for whatever reason end up playing non-spellcasters and then being flummoxed that the class doesn't play the way they want it to play.
Congrats on the Swashbuckler!!! For a question, are you going to be involved in the developer side of the Swashbuckler class or is it going to be someone else's? Since it's your baby, do you have nay say at all?
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Creative Director
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Do you ever find it strange that you have your own wikipedia page? Or that your boss doesn't?Often.Do you find it strange that I learned everything in your wikipedia entry from you on this thread?
They could really shorten the citations by just linking this.
Nope. The internet is full of things. ;-)
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Creative Director
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British, American, or Indonesian? :)I have a (Not sure if well-placed)question regarding the common tongue in Golarion; is it based on a real world language? And if not; any idea on what it might sound like?It's not. I imagine it sounds like English though.
Whatever works for you! In my head, it's American. It'll sound more British, for example, in the audio dramas coming out later this year though, since Big Finish is a British company.
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Creative Director
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What's the next significant deity you plan on focusing on in the next AP?
Are there any plans for Cayden Cailean in the imminent future? seems like his faith doesn't really get that much exposure despite being one of the core deities.
No plans for Cayden Cailean in the imminent future. That should probably change, because yah, he does seem to be left out.
The next AP is Mummy's Mask; that'll focus on a lot of the old gods of Osirion, but also on Pharasma and Nethys with a dose of Areshkagal as well.
Iron Gods, next year's Gen Con adventure, will focus a little on Brigh and Zyphus, but will have some new gods as well... the eponymous IRON gods!!!!!!!