Creative Director
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I've got 4-5 ideas i'm trying to think though for character for runelords... we are using the society rules but will have crafting allowed and 3 trait rather than 2... right now in our party we have an paladin, a cavalier, and wizard... what i'm thing of building are a elvish cleric, elvish druid (the arch type that gets plants, gnome alchemist (rouge archetype), a gnome fire cleric, or a tiefling monk... most of the before 4th taking a level of rouge... our gm said we could take one of the pregens if we need it... so the question if you had to chose one of those which one and why... or if you can think of some thing better tell me what it is...
My advice for players wondering what character to make is to make the character THEY want to play. Then talk with the GM about it so the GM knows what's going on. A good GM can make a game work even if every player decides to play a fighter, I say!
If I were choosing an iconic character to play, I'd pick Merisiel, the rogue. Regardless of the adventure or the rest of the party's makeup.
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Is there any chance Words of Power will be expanded? I think it has potential, but it's pretty limited at the moment,Not much of a chance. It's not something we're including in Golarion, and it was never really intended to be more than a stab at a variant rules system. Anything's possible, though.
Well that's a little disappointing, but as long as there's a chance...
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Goblins don't want to learn how to write in fear of losing their souls, or worst... Could some of them reverse the idea and go: "If we read this, we might get the writer soul/powers/etc." ?
Can magical experiments create sorcerers? Like, doing magical rituals to give someone sorcerer abilities.
I wouldn't. They were originally intended to be single class fighters, and an example of how you can pile on some cool flavor for that class, which at the time (and arguably still is) gets a lot of flak for being "flavorless."James
If you were to make the Gray Maidens into a prestige class how would you likely handle going about what abilities they would get and what would they be?
...Challenge accepted, Dr. Jacobs....
Have you heard the team behind Dark souls is making another series to run along with the Souls games that will focus mostly on one on one duels and less dungeon crawls?
James answers your questions! He answers all the questions that you might have!
Who are your favorite comedians?
What do you think of Kyle Dunnigan's character, "Craig"? (Link provided above.)
Hi james was wondering if you ever read "way of king" the stormlght archive book one by brandon sanderson...its a doorstop of a book but a great one with alot of fantastic ideas
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Creative Director
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Would they have found Thassilon more or less receptive to their manipulations than Azlant? Would the way Thassilon was set up, and/or its rulers, give the aboleths particular problems? And were Xin and his students (Xanderghul, Sorshen and the rest, filtering on down in part to their successors) aware of the aboleth manipulation going on in Azlant to any great degree?How did Aboleth view Thassilon anyway? Were they largely ignored? considered part of an experiment gone out of control? Considered a threat?They viewed it as a curiosity, sort of like how a scientist might view an unexpected side effect of the main experiment that suddenly started being more successful than the original one. Had Earthfall worked as intended, it's likely that the aboleths would have turned to whatever remained of Thassilon to start over.
They would have probably found Thassilon less receptive, honestly. Since it's kind of "human empire version 2.0" after all. That said, it's also a lot younger than Azlant, and as such might be easier.
Really... it could go either way. Depends on the type of story you'd want to tell. It's not one WE are gonna tell, so I'm not all that eager to say one way or another and imply something that isn't worth implying.
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Creative Director
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Goblins don't want to learn how to write in fear of losing their souls, or worst... Could some of them reverse the idea and go: "If we read this, we might get the writer soul/powers/etc." ?
Some could, but that would make them the Einstin or Shakespeare of goblindom. AKA: this is a once a century (if that) special goblin.
Either that, or you just change the way goblins work in your world. Both are legit options.
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Creative Director
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Have you heard the team behind Dark souls is making another series to run along with the Souls games that will focus mostly on one on one duels and less dungeon crawls?
I haven't heard that. I'm not all that interested in a game like that, so I'm glad that I knew they were doing Dark Souls II first.
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Creative Director
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James answers your questions! He answers all the questions that you might have!
Who are your favorite comedians?
What do you think of Kyle Dunnigan's character, "Craig"? (Link provided above.)
My favorite comedians... hmmm. I'm not really all that into comedians. I quite like Bill Cosby's stand up stuff, and also Jim Gaffigan. And Seinfeld. And Sarah Silverman. And George Carlin. Beyond that... I don't know that I could even NAME a half dozen more comedians.
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Creative Director
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Have you ever gotten inspiration for a character, whether PC or NPC, from a song or piece of music you heard? If so, what was the inspirational piece?
Only once.
I was inspired to make a character for Dark Sun named "Gunthor," who was a super-strong wizard. He was partially inspired by watching a shotput olympian do his thing (the guy's name was Gunthor), and partially inspired by a really frantic orchestral piece of music that was from, of all things, a Cheer commercial. I've tried to find that music for decades since (the commercial ran in the early 90s... probably 1992-1993) but haven't been able to track down what it was.
Hi JJ, some Shax (demon lord) questions.
Does Shax have Stymphalidies Birds minions?
What does Shax think about them?
What are his favorite minions?
Sorry forgot about something:
1: What do you think about the Leshies of pathfinder?
2: Are there more Leshies in bestiary 4?
...a really frantic orchestral piece of music that was from, of all things, a Cheer commercial. I've tried to find that music for decades since (the commercial ran in the early 90s... probably 1992-1993) but haven't been able to track down what it was.
Was it Latura's Theme by Randy Edelman from Daylight, perhaps? The frantic part picks up at about 1 minute and 20 seconds. Here is a similar piece.
Thanks for the info on Shelyn's rainbow-feathered songbird! I really like the idea of them being from Azlant.
1) How would you allow a Shelynite PC to reintroduce the birds to Golarion? Perhaps they go on a mythic journey to the ruins of Azlant, to try and find a still-living population - perhaps sealed away in a hidden island valley or archaic temple of Shelyn? Or maybe they create beautiful sculptures or paintings of the birds and bring them to life with a miracle spell?
2) Acavna is mentioned as an ancient Azlanti goddess devoted to the moon and battle, who is said to have vanished shortly before Earthfall. What would you guess her alignment was? Is there any other info you might could reveal about her (holy symbol, what her followers were like, etc)?
3) What monster in Pathfinder would you say is most similar to a xenomorph / xenomorph queen from the Alien series? Perhaps the astradaemon? Or maybe they would be Old God related?
4) I'm thinking about going as Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas for Halloween, like this! Cool, creepy, disturbing, or what? :)
I haven't heard that. I'm not all that interested in a game like that, so I'm glad that I knew they were doing Dark Souls II first.
Have you heard the team behind Dark souls is making another series to run along with the Souls games that will focus mostly on one on one duels and less dungeon crawls?
I went back to find the article and discovered I completely misread it.
Another company is making a high fantasy game with similar combat to Dark Souls and in the demo, they only got to see one on one duels.
My assumption is you prefer the grim fantasy of Dark Souls to High Fantasy, correct?
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Have you ever gotten inspiration for a character, whether PC or NPC, from a song or piece of music you heard? If so, what was the inspirational piece?Only once.
I was inspired to make a character for Dark Sun named "Gunthor," who was a super-strong wizard. He was partially inspired by watching a shotput olympian do his thing (the guy's name was Gunthor), and partially inspired by a really frantic orchestral piece of music that was from, of all things, a Cheer commercial. I've tried to find that music for decades since (the commercial ran in the early 90s... probably 1992-1993) but haven't been able to track down what it was.
Was it this commercial?
Ack, scratch the above! I think you might've been referring to the Cheer laundry detergent, and not the beer. There are several commercials on Youtube, sorry I couldn't be of more help!
What actually did happen to her was revealed in one of the two mythic books that just came out. I think it was Mythic Settings.
Oh wow, thanks for that!
Also: Note that I didn't mention the summoner on the list above. That's a good example of us having a disconnect between the rules line and Golarion—in hindsight, we probably should have built the summoner to be something more along the lines of an outsider-summoning class and not one based on an entirely new concept that didn't have any gravity or presence in Golarion yet... but we didn't, and as a result, for better or worse, summoners are by and far the rarest base class in Golarion.
I've never played a summoner, but I like the class in theory, although I do tend to agree that an outsider-summoning aspect would have made more sense conceptually.
That said, do you think there is any sort of fix that can be made to the class as is that would bring the concept more in line with that concept without requiring a total reworking of it, or is that cat out of the bag?
(Not looking for a technical breakdown, just an opinion.) Thanks!
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Creative Director
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Are there any plans to speak more on the realm of Jandelay, beyond that mysterious poem:
"Jandelay, proof against the Maelstrom
Jandelay, of green fields and faultless spires;
No sane soul dares trespass fair Jandelay
For the Oliphaunt guards you always."It certainly sounds like an interesting (idyllic?) place, with an immensely powerful guardian (the Oliphaunt), and spires of some description.
1) Are those spires in the poem naturally formed, or evidence of a civilisation? The Oliphaunt's abilities (created to live and guard Jandelay, punishment for stealing it, specific wards and protective magic bound into it at the moment of creation...) all point to it being created by somebody, but I couldn't help but notice how little information there was on them. Perhaps deliberately.
2) Additionally, I always thought it was Xanderghul who summoned it, not a predecessor to Karzoug. Was this past Runelord of Greed a mythic one? I'm guessing so, but I thought I'd check.
3) Did that Runelord know what Jandelay was in truth?
4) Did other Runelords beyond Alaznist know? Did Xanderghul, for example? And did this require specific research, or was it slightly more widely known during the time of the Runelords?
5) Do or did people like Baba Yaga and Jatembe know about the Oliphaunt and/or Jandelay? If tracked down (and alive in Jatembe's case), would they be able to provide much (if any) information on the place? Baba Yaga in particular makes a habit of traveling about the place to all kinds of different planets and planes, so it seems like she might know something about Jandelay.
6) If one were to travel to Jandelay, what might they find besides a waiting Oliphaunt?
7) Is the Oliphaunt protecting Jandelay from invaders? Or could it possibly be protecting everything else from whatever is in Jandelay and serving as a jailer? It seems like there are two possible ways one can take the poem...
We ONLY JUST revealed some hints about Jandelay. I'd like to let those hints (and the others we mentioned) sit for a while before I start answering them in detail... but I'll see what I can do with these:
1) Unrevealed.
2) It's entirely possible that previous runelords were mythic, yes. And something like an oilaphant summoning is not only something that kinda needs a mythic caster, but is also something that could undo a mythic caster enough to backfire i the long run...
3) Yes... but still underestimated it.
4) Some of them. And still underestimated it.
5) Probably not more than as a legend from a far-off land.
6) Unrevealed.
7) Unrevealed.
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Creative Director
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Hi JJ, some Shax (demon lord) questions.
Does Shax have Stymphalidies Birds minions?
What does Shax think about them?
What are his favorite minions?
No. (If they were, they would be intelligent and chaotic evil. They are instead unintelligent and neutral.)
He considers them to be kinda pointless animals below his interest.
Shax's favored minions are fiendish animals (particularly great cats, birds, dogs, and rats... there might be some fiendish stymphalidies there, but they're mixed in with the rest), shadow demons, babaus, chokers, derros, drow, evil nobles, serial killers, and torturers.
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Creative Director
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...a really frantic orchestral piece of music that was from, of all things, a Cheer commercial. I've tried to find that music for decades since (the commercial ran in the early 90s... probably 1992-1993) but haven't been able to track down what it was.Was it Latura's Theme by Randy Edelman from Daylight, perhaps? The frantic part picks up at about 1 minute and 20 seconds. Here is a similar piece.
Thanks for the info on Shelyn's rainbow-feathered songbird! I really like the idea of them being from Azlant.
1) How would you allow a Shelynite PC to reintroduce the birds to Golarion? Perhaps they go on a mythic journey to the ruins of Azlant, to try and find a still-living population - perhaps sealed away in a hidden island valley or archaic temple of Shelyn? Or maybe they create beautiful sculptures or paintings of the birds and bring them to life with a miracle spell?
2) Acavna is mentioned as an ancient Azlanti goddess devoted to the moon and battle, who is said to have vanished shortly before Earthfall. What would you guess her alignment was? Is there any other info you might could reveal about her (holy symbol, what her followers were like, etc)?
3) What monster in Pathfinder would you say is most similar to a xenomorph / xenomorph queen from the Alien series? Perhaps the astradaemon? Or maybe they would be Old God related?
4) I'm thinking about going as Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas for Halloween, like this! Cool, creepy, disturbing, or what? :)
Oh God no! Latura's Theme is WAY WAY WAY to mellow.
1) That's up to the Shelynite and the GM. I'm not gonna design that whole epic storline here for ya! :-)
2) Chaotic good. And nope; not ready to say much more about her.
3) Astradaemon probably looks the closest, but xills are the closest thematically and ability-wise.
4) All three! Do it!
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What makes you angry? What events going on in the world, or ideas that keep floating around, genuinely fill you with wrath? Make you want to speak out or shout in indignation about just how WRONG it is. For example, outright rejection of science whether through religious indoctrination or the deception of hip new age alt-med, REALLY piss me off.
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Creative Director
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I've got 4-5 ideas i'm trying to think though for character for runelords... we are using the society rules but will have crafting allowed and 3 trait rather than 2... right now in our party we have an paladin, a cavalier, and wizard... what i'm thing of building are a elvish cleric, elvish druid (the arch type that gets plants, gnome alchemist (rouge archetype), a gnome fire cleric, or a tiefling monk... most of the before 4th taking a level of rouge... our gm said we could take one of the pregens if we need it... so the question if you had to chose one of those which one and why... or if you can think of some thing better tell me what it is...My advice for players wondering what character to make is to make the character THEY want to play. Then talk with the GM about it so the GM knows what's going on. A good GM can make a game work even if every player decides to play a fighter, I say!
If I were choosing an iconic character to play, I'd pick Merisiel, the rogue. Regardless of the adventure or the rest of the party's makeup.
The fact that you front for her on the 'boards, wouldn't have anything to do with it, would it? :) I've noted your dislike for Ezren due to the way a certain play played him, I'd assume that given your feelings about the class, you'd probably not be that interested in Balazar, how do you feel about running the others?
Speaking of Iconics, they do seem to be tiered as far as prominence. Are the ones we see in the book descriptions like Seelah, Seoni, Alein, and Lem the primary iconics while others like Balazar the Suummoner iconic,or the unnamed Anti-Paladin, secondary or even tertiary?
The fact that Merisiel is my favorite Iconic is the reason why I'd play her and why I front her here on the boards.
My second favorite is probably Kyra. My third favorite is probably Lirrianne. My fourth favorite is probably Lini. Not gonna say who my least favorite are.
The reasons you see Valeros, Seoni, Merisiel, and Kyra so often is that they're the ones we did first. They've been around the longest. They have seniority.
The antipaladin isn't named because he's not an iconic.
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Creative Director
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Have you ever gotten inspiration for a character, whether PC or NPC, from a song or piece of music you heard? If so, what was the inspirational piece?Only once.
I was inspired to make a character for Dark Sun named "Gunthor," who was a super-strong wizard. He was partially inspired by watching a shotput olympian do his thing (the guy's name was Gunthor), and partially inspired by a really frantic orchestral piece of music that was from, of all things, a Cheer commercial. I've tried to find that music for decades since (the commercial ran in the early 90s... probably 1992-1993) but haven't been able to track down what it was.
Was it this commercial?
Nope. It was that guy, doing some crazy detergent antics, but it was a different commercial. I've scoured you tube and the internet for it and haven't found it yet. Thanks, though!
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Creative Director
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Also: Note that I didn't mention the summoner on the list above. That's a good example of us having a disconnect between the rules line and Golarion—in hindsight, we probably should have built the summoner to be something more along the lines of an outsider-summoning class and not one based on an entirely new concept that didn't have any gravity or presence in Golarion yet... but we didn't, and as a result, for better or worse, summoners are by and far the rarest base class in Golarion.I've never played a summoner, but I like the class in theory, although I do tend to agree that an outsider-summoning aspect would have made more sense conceptually.
That said, do you think there is any sort of fix that can be made to the class as is that would bring the concept more in line with that concept without requiring a total reworking of it, or is that cat out of the bag?
(Not looking for a technical breakdown, just an opinion.) Thanks!
My "fix" for the class would be to rearrange its spells so that it gets the touchstone spells at the proper levels (so that they can't make wands of teleport, for example), and then to abandon the entire Eidolon concept and replace it with something closer to how the druid animal companion works, but rather than species of animals, the summoner would pick outsider types like angel or fire elemental or demon, and would then build out their "pet outsider" that way. The summoner would still have some lattitude in customizing the pet, but not NEARLY as much as it currently does; this would reign in the complexity and the overpowered stuff and at the same time ground the character in the assumed world so that suddenly you don't have the implication of player characters creating world content, which should be the GM's job.
That level of reworking isn't currently doable.
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Creative Director
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What makes you angry? What events going on in the world, or ideas that keep floating around, genuinely fill you with wrath? Make you want to speak out or shout in indignation about just how WRONG it is. For example, outright rejection of science whether through religious indoctrination or the deception of hip new age alt-med, REALLY piss me off.
Intolerance and hate and the unfortunate things it breeds: misogyny, homophobia, racism, etc.
I don't mind the outright rejection of science, since I prefer to be open-minded about things. But when someone in a position of power makes the mistake that their beliefs, be they in science or faith or whatever, are the ONE TRUE TRUTH and then makes decisions on how to use that power over a large number of people who don't necessarily share that person's beliefs... THAT can make me angry.
But the fact that a person can voice those different beliefs and, in theory, do so without AUTOMATICALLY being afraid of being arrested or shot or whatever is pretty great.
Goblins don't want to learn how to write in fear of losing their souls, or worst... Could some of them reverse the idea and go: "If we read this, we might get the writer soul/powers/etc." ?Some could, but that would make them the Einstin or Shakespeare of goblindom. AKA: this is a once a century (if that) special goblin.
Either that, or you just change the way goblins work in your world. Both are legit options.
So a goblin witch would face some real difficulty teaching her familiar spells, or is it ok for the familiar to munch/consume the scroll (seems a bit too high-brained for goblins...but) ?
And how do Goblin alchemists deal with recipes ? A series of pictograms ? one large illustrated schemata ? Or do... goblins, just have an incredibly detailed memory ( beggar the thought ) ?
Last : are Goblin by default immune to Snake Sigil and possibly Explosive Runes ?
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And how do Goblin alchemists deal with recipes ? A series of pictograms ? one large illustrated schemata ? Or do... goblins, just have an incredibly detailed memory ( beggar the thought ) ?
Scratch-n-sniff recipe books.
"Now there's a yellow blob." <lick> "Blech! Tastes like sulphur! A pinch of sulphur. And next, three lines of something green." <sniff> "Metal." <taste> "Copper! Three pinches of powdered copper!"
And how do Goblin alchemists deal with recipes ? A series of pictograms ? one large illustrated schemata ? Or do... goblins, just have an incredibly detailed memory ( beggar the thought ) ?Scratch-n-sniff recipe books.
"Now there's a yellow blob." <lick> "Blech! Tastes like sulphur! A pinch of sulphur. And next, three lines of something green." <sniff> "Metal." <taste> "Copper! Three pinches of powdered copper!"
That sounds like a harsh apprenticeship... Let's not try any recipes with poisonous stuff. hmm, this bluish stuff...oh cyanide ! (keels over)
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Creative Director
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The antipaladin isn't named because he's not an iconic.Sooooo the position is open yes?
HA!
I suppose so... but not for people who use avatars of NPCs who happen to be Pet NPCs of mine who are already statted up and have established roles in the world!
(AKA: You're the iconic Darklands Pathfinder Explorer!)
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Creative Director
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Even if what they say is grounded in empirical, observable evidence? I don't think people who base their views on that have EVER been in power.
I'm not interested in diverting this into an argument about politics or religion or belief.
But I will say this. How reliable is "observable evidience" if we don't even fully understand how the brain interprets the world around us in the first place? There's a LOT of ways to trick perception—any episode of Brain Games will show you that.
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Creative Director
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Goblins don't want to learn how to write in fear of losing their souls, or worst... Could some of them reverse the idea and go: "If we read this, we might get the writer soul/powers/etc." ?Some could, but that would make them the Einstin or Shakespeare of goblindom. AKA: this is a once a century (if that) special goblin.
Either that, or you just change the way goblins work in your world. Both are legit options.
So a goblin witch would face some real difficulty teaching her familiar spells, or is it ok for the familiar to munch/consume the scroll (seems a bit too high-brained for goblins...but) ?
And how do Goblin alchemists deal with recipes ? A series of pictograms ? one large illustrated schemata ? Or do... goblins, just have an incredibly detailed memory ( beggar the thought ) ?
Last : are Goblin by default immune to Snake Sigil and possibly Explosive Runes ?
A goblin witch, magus, wizard, or alchemist would use drawings and other non-writing methods of recording their spells... but yes... those four classes are perhaps the rarest (but more common than paladin) classes for goblins to take due to the reading requirements.
They're not immune to things like snake sigils or explosive runes at all... but their superstitions might make them less likely to fall for such traps.
James, did you watch the Mortal Kombat Legacy web series? Season 2 is now up and 2 episodes in and I'm loving the take Kevin Tanchaeron has put on it.