Dear Magnanimous King Tyrant Lizard,
Based mostly on your enthusiasm, I picked up Dark Souls. I'm about 20 hours in and I love it. It's probably the single most frustratingly beautiful game that I've played in a very long time. It's reawakened my love of dungeon crawls again. It's a shame about all that free time I had though...
Out of curiosity, what type of character did you play? Class/Gift/Combat Style? What was your favorite thing about the game?
Mortis got me curious about Dark Souls again. I just got the armor of Fervor/Favor(?) that Lautrec wore and ended up dropping my Steel armor for it, even though it is clearly inferior.
For you, what's more important, Fashion or Function? That is, would you drop better armor for stuff you think looks cooler?
Does this differ in video games vs. Table-top? I'm sure you Paizo guys can make anything effective...
If the Editorial Pitt challenged the Development Team to a dodgeball match, how long would the game last before the Warehouse staff pulled an amazing prank on both Pazionian departments?
For a real question, Ultimate Equipment introduces angel skin as a craftable armor type and I was thinking about asking my GM if I could use rakshasa skin as part of a disguise I am crafting. Does a creature's skin retain DR after it has died? Not in terms of giving me special defenses, but basically "Do I need a skinning knife that can overcome DR / evil and piercing in order to skin a rakshasa?"
Creative Director
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Dear Magnanimous King Tyrant Lizard,
Based mostly on your enthusiasm, I picked up Dark Souls. I'm about 20 hours in and I love it. It's probably the single most frustratingly beautiful game that I've played in a very long time. It's reawakened my love of dungeon crawls again. It's a shame about all that free time I had though...
Out of curiosity, what type of character did you play? Class/Gift/Combat Style? What was your favorite thing about the game?
Yup! It's a really REALLY cool game.
I started with a thief, cause I wanted the master key. I took the old witch ring as my gift. My combat style was GOING to be swashbucklery, but turned into a super armored sword and board. These days, it's back to swashbucklery with a katana and miracles with medium armor.
My favorite thing about the game is hard to nail down, but probably one of the following:
1) The open and constantly expanding nature of the world, and how it's all one giant level that loops back on itself as you explore more and more.
2) The art direction.
3) The feeling you get after defeating a boss.
4) The way it feels like a good old 1st edition D&D game, down to and including the 9 covenants that map onto the 9 D&D alignments.
5) The variety and detail of the monster designs.
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Creative Director
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Mortis got me curious about Dark Souls again. I just got the armor of Fervor/Favor(?) that Lautrec wore and ended up dropping my Steel armor for it, even though it is clearly inferior.
For you, what's more important, Fashion or Function? That is, would you drop better armor for stuff you think looks cooler?
Does this differ in video games vs. Table-top? I'm sure you Paizo guys can make anything effective...
I generally do a combination of both—whatever looks good AND works better. Often I'll switch my fighting styles to adopt a particularly cool looking new set of armor, and other times if a suit of armor or weapon looks awesome but I'll never use it, I keep it anyway. The reverse isn't true... if a weapon looks ugly and has good stats I generally don't keep it around.
It kinda holds true in tabletop games as well.
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Creative Director
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If the Editorial Pitt challenged the Development Team to a dodgeball match, how long would the game last before the Warehouse staff pulled an amazing prank on both Pazionian departments?
For a real question, Ultimate Equipment introduces angel skin as a craftable armor type and I was thinking about asking my GM if I could use rakshasa skin as part of a disguise I am crafting. Does a creature's skin retain DR after it has died? Not in terms of giving me special defenses, but basically "Do I need a skinning knife that can overcome DR / evil and piercing in order to skin a rakshasa?"
Editorial Pitt? Is this BRAD PITT working as an editor? That would change the following answer.
Assuming it's not Brad Pitt, then probably 3d4 hours.
Normally a creature's skin does not retain any properties after it dies. Angel skin has to go through special processes and the like to do what it does. In theory, I suppose you could do something similar with other creatures... but I'd rather not go down that road in print since the addition of valuable trophies to monsters not only adds a kinda icky element of "Mutilation is good!" to the game, but also destroys the game's economy of how much treasure to give a monster.
Typically when I notice a problem with my players vastly overpowering foes I do an audit of the characters. Usually I find a rule here or there that my players haven't been following and that usually fixes the problem.
Recently, the two spell casters kept seven frost giants dazed(Dazing Spell) for seven rounds as the fighter and monk whittled away at there HP.
This was mostly possible because Snapdragon Fireworks and Fireball require a reflex save and many of the high level creatures have low reflex saves.
They are high level characters so they should feel good destroying high level monsters. I certainly don't want to take that away from them, but I was looking at the other Monsters they will fight throughout the rest of this last AP and most of them have low reflex saves.
Yes they are using high level slots for their spells but they seem to have plenty and there isn't anything stopping them from whisking back to town to rest.
Others have suggested that I simply boost the Monsters using spells so that there spells don't work. I can see the logic to that. the Monsters aren't in a vacuum they can change a little, but that also seems like it would be specifically taking away my players new toy right when they got a chance to use it.
This is a long post, but I'm frustrated. I'm on the last Book of Kingmaker. It hasn't been a very hard campaign so far I was hoping that this last bit would be a little more dangerous.
I just want it to be fun for everyone. Me included.
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Creative Director
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James, reading the Starstone description in Mythic Realms, I got a little bit confused.
Could explain why Aroden, Iomedae, etc... became Gods using it? My guess is that they already had 10 mythic tiers before reaching it.
Aroden didn't become a god by using the Starstone. Part of him becoming a god involved him raising it and the entire Isle of Kortos up from the sea to make it an island—THAT was a big act that helped cement his role as a god.
As for the 3 ascended deities who DID take the test of the Starstone... we are deliberately unclear about how many mythic tiers they had (if ANY) before they went in to take the test of the Starstone. Completing the test certainly and absolutely involves finishing several mythic trials, and I suspect that you'll gain multiple tiers as part of your test in the cathedral. It's different for every one.
When they came out... they could grant spells to their followers. This could well mean that as part of the test, they became 3rd tier and took the Divine Source universal path ability... or maybe even went from lower tier up to 9th tier and took Divine Source 3 times. We don't say.
When these three emerged from the cathedral, they were gods. Demigods, to be precise. Over the centuries that followed, they rose in stature and power swiftly, likely as a combination of the Starstone and their own convictions and destinies, and it was during that rise that they became full deities.
Furthermore... it's possible for someone to go into the Starstone Cathedral and ascend to mythic power and NOT become gods. That's pretty rare too, and the results of that, while powerful, are vastly overshadowed by the three who DID come out gods.
Hope that clears up some confusion?
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Typically when I notice a problem with my players vastly overpowering foes I do an audit of the characters. Usually I find a rule here or there that my players haven't been following and that usually fixes the problem.
Recently, the two spell casters kept seven frost giants dazed(Dazing Spell) for seven rounds as the fighter and monk whittled away at there HP.
This was mostly possible because Snapdragon Fireworks and Fireball require a reflex save and many of the high level creatures have low reflex saves.
They are high level characters so they should feel good destroying high level monsters. I certainly don't want to take that away from them, but I was looking at the other Monsters they will fight throughout the rest of this last AP and most of them have low reflex saves.
Yes they are using high level slots for their spells but they seem to have plenty and there isn't anything stopping them from whisking back to town to rest.
Others have suggested that I simply boost the Monsters using spells so that there spells don't work. I can see the logic to that. the Monsters aren't in a vacuum they can change a little, but that also seems like it would be specifically taking away my players new toy right when they got a chance to use it.
This is a long post, but I'm frustrated. I'm on the last Book of Kingmaker. It hasn't been a very hard campaign so far I was hoping that this last bit would be a little more dangerous.
I just want it to be fun for everyone. Me included.
I've often seen people claim "If the players are having fun playing the game, then you don't actually have a problem." I disagree. The GM needs to be having fun too. The trick is that the GM's fun should NOT be running a game that makes it not fun for the PCs... and that can be tricky.
It sounds like you have a legitimate concern, in any event.
Since your'e running Kingmaker and about to start or have started the last adventure, one thing you can do is adjust how the blooms and the influence of the First World works, particularly regarding the fact that the boss of the adventure has likely been watching the PCs grow in power all along. If the party has been showing off a killer tactic that they've been using over and over and over... it's in her best interests to find a way to combat that.
So make that change, but don't just do it stealthily. When the PCs start facing foes from the First World who work for the boss... they should have resistance or even immunity to dazing. And when this first shows up, the monsters should gloat and brag about how their Mistress has given them a gift or power or item to protect them, and that their one-shot tricks are useless, etc. This should not only give the players even MORE of a reason to hate the bad gal and fear the bad gal, but if you start laying hints that there might be something they can seek out and destroy or sabotage in the final part of the book to remove this defense... that gives them one more reason to explore and go on.
THAT SAID... In my personal opinion, Dazing Spell is way too good. You might want to consider another option... talk to your party and point blank say "Turns out this feat is better than anyone thought, and I need to ban it from the game. Go ahead and rebuild your feat choices and other things you've focused on to support the feat for free."
and the influence of the First World works
My players are already in the First World which I described as a hard drive that someone did a quick format on.
One idea I had was that they couldn't easily teleport back to the gate where they entered. This is Nyrissa realm so it makes sense that a Teleport and magic hut wouldn't work right. Right.
The criticism of Metamagic is that you have to use higher level spells so you spend your high level slots off and are left with lower level spells.
It's and it's hard to sleep in Thousandbreaths.
The players could of course sleep in area F, but it will take them some time getting there and they don't know where they are going.
Also they have minutes to pass through the gate does that mean that when it's closed they are stuck inside until they uproot Thousandbreaths?
Which brings us nicely to my question: When are Balazar, Reiko, and Lirianne gonna get to star in an AP?Stay tuned!
I think Lirianne's trigger finger is itching to fire some pulse blasters in Numeria. :)
Furthermore... it's possible for someone to go into the Starstone Cathedral and ascend to mythic power and NOT become gods. That's pretty rare too, and the results of that, while powerful, are vastly overshadowed by the three who DID come out gods.Do you have any individuals of that kind in mind specifically, as something you might be talking more about in the near or far future?
Additionally, given the nature of the Starstone and what everybody believes that it does ("the god-rock that makes you a god"), I would imagine that people who successfully used the Starstone (as opposed to the failures, who end up with spots in Absalom's shrine of the Failed or whatever it's called) but didn't become gods would still become very well-known.
Or did they likely/usually take pains to avoid being noticed by anybody when they emerged from the Cathedral with their mythic power, in order to avoid the status thing?
It might also be that those that entered, and failed to become Gods, are ashamed, even though they left vastly more powerful and/or richer than they went in.
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Creative Director
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Thanks James!
Another question, do worshipers influence the power of a god?
and in Golarion, a demigod is anyone that grants spells to followers, or, say, a 10th/mythic 3 character with divine source would be in a "lesser tier" of divinity?
Nope; the amount of worshipers a deity has does not influence that deity's power.
A demigod is basically: "Any creature that has the ability to grant spells to worshipers AND who can have a stat block." This can range from a 1st level commoner who's somehow gained 3 mythic tiers and took the Divine Source path ability on up to a CR 30 demon lord.
Obviously, that's a SINGIFICANT range in power, but they're all technically demigods if they fulfill the above two qualifiers.
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Creative Director
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Furthermore... it's possible for someone to go into the Starstone Cathedral and ascend to mythic power and NOT become gods. That's pretty rare too, and the results of that, while powerful, are vastly overshadowed by the three who DID come out gods.Do you have any individuals of that kind in mind specifically, as something you might be talking more about in the near or far future?
Additionally, given the nature of the Starstone and what everybody believes that it does ("the god-rock that makes you a god"), I would imagine that people who successfully used the Starstone (as opposed to the failures, who end up with spots in Absalom's shrine of the Failed or whatever it's called) but didn't become gods would still become very well-known.
Or did they likely/usually take pains to avoid being noticed by anybody when they emerged from the Cathedral with their mythic power, in order to avoid the status thing?
I don't have any individuals of that kind in mind at all. That's basically code for "if your PCs go into the cathedral and don't become gods but come out mythic... that's them."
It also covers anything we might want to do in the future with a plot like this—the starstone's been around for well over 4,000 years, and that's a lot of time for things to happen and then be forgotten and then come back and be remembered.
Did I just get trolled about a spelling mistake by Paizo's Creative Director? D:
I don't have any individuals of that kind in mind at all. That's basically code for "if your PCs go into the cathedral and don't become gods but come out mythic... that's them."
It also covers anything we might want to do in the future with a plot like this—the starstone's been around for well over 4,000 years, and that's a lot of time for things to happen and then be forgotten and then come back and be remembered.
Interesting.
Since PCs can take Divine Source to become demigods from any path (since its universal, after all), doesn't that technically mean that via the Starstone, they can become gods on their own recognisance without needing the patronage of an existing deity that the Starstone implies is necessary for its particular method?
Additionally, if a person crossed one of the bridges (rather than the chasm) and entered the Starstone Cathedral that way, what would they see inside?
That's what Irori did. Ascended into godhood on his own accord. Nethys also did it without the Starstone, as did Urgothoa.
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Creative Director
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I don't have any individuals of that kind in mind at all. That's basically code for "if your PCs go into the cathedral and don't become gods but come out mythic... that's them."
It also covers anything we might want to do in the future with a plot like this—the starstone's been around for well over 4,000 years, and that's a lot of time for things to happen and then be forgotten and then come back and be remembered.
Interesting.
Since PCs can take Divine Source to become demigods from any path (since its universal, after all), doesn't that technically mean that via the Starstone, they can become gods on their own recognisance without needing the patronage of an existing deity that the Starstone implies is necessary for its particular method?
Additionally, if a person crossed one of the bridges (rather than the chasm) and entered the Starstone Cathedral that way, what would they see inside?
Yup. As mentioned in the previous post by Odraude, there's plenty of examples of other mortals becoming deities via various non-Starstone routes.
As for what someone would see inside the Cathedral... we're not ready to say quite yet.
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I'd make that toad a trickster. Because, hey... who would have expected that?You mentioned a while back that the most hilariously awesome classed and awakened animal would be a toad sorcerer with the Destined bloodline.
Let's go beyond that and make him an Archmage.
You should totally make one the boss of a comical module.
Is this still hilariously awesome?
Dont know how many comic book fans are on the board but i just flashed thor toad..about 15+years ago from marvel lol
Are Kurgess and Ghlaunder still considered demigods, or have they been bumped up to full deity status like Achaekek?
Do you plan on adding archtypes and prestige classes that will tie into Iron Gods? To allow players to play characters that can get the most out of the setting?
Have you been looking over the player's posts on he Iron Gods board for their ideas?
Technology based bloodlines and mystery?
James, last year you said that the starting ages for Aasimar in the ARG are wrong and will be getting changed in an errata. I'm wondering if the same change will be made to Tieflings? Or any of the other native outsider races? Creating backstories for planetouched PCs is made somewhat more difficult when they're older than much of the recent history of whatever city or country they're starting out in. (I'm also wondering if there's going to be a new printing of the ARG to allow such errata to be released anytime soon.)
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Will skinwalkers actively transform like shifters or will they have some other method?
I'm not ready to spill more about skinwalkers yet; but I can say that "replacing the shifter" was never a part of their design philosophy. They come from a similar inspiration, and may well be able to fill the role of a shifter easily, but that'd be by coincidence, not by design.
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Creative Director
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Are Kurgess and Ghlaunder still considered demigods, or have they been bumped up to full deity status like Achaekek?
The easiest way to tell if a god is a deity or a demigod is to count the domains they grant.
Deities grant 5 domains.
Demigods grant 4 domains.
This means that Ghlaunder and Kurgess are both deities. The only demigods among the other deities listed on page 229 of the Inner Sea World Guide are Gyronna and Hanspur.
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Do you plan on adding archtypes and prestige classes that will tie into Iron Gods? To allow players to play characters that can get the most out of the setting?
Have you been looking over the player's posts on he Iron Gods board for their ideas?
There might be some archetypes and prestige classes along the way, but I wouldn't call them "load bearing design requirements" for us to get the Adventure Path out there.
Remember... kind of the point of Numeria is not that the PCs play starfighter pilots or robot technicians or nanite wranglers. The point of Numeria is that the PCs are fantasy characters thrown into a sci-fi setting. "Getting the most out of the setting" does not require technological archetypes or prestige classes.
I've been watching the boards, yeah... but the authors are already well into the writing of the adventure path, so things are already in motion.
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Creative Director
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James, last year you said that the starting ages for Aasimar in the ARG are wrong and will be getting changed in an errata. I'm wondering if the same change will be made to Tieflings? Or any of the other native outsider races? Creating backstories for planetouched PCs is made somewhat more difficult when they're older than much of the recent history of whatever city or country they're starting out in. (I'm also wondering if there's going to be a new printing of the ARG to allow such errata to be released anytime soon.)
The change to starting ages, frankly is just as important to tieflings (due to the underlying structure of the plot of Council of Thieves) as it is for aasimars.
When and where this errata will finally be publicized I can't yet say.
After reading your response talking about Dark Souls, and then the talk about the Starstone, I now associate the Anor Londo Cathedral with the trial of the Starstone.
Do you think an extradimensional megadungeon the size of Dark Souls, or at least a part of it would be a suitable challenge for godhood?
Do Mythic monsters look any different from their normal counterparts? Aside from the Mythic medusa, that is.
Now that we have the stats for Grendel I have a burning question...
How would you stat up Beowulf?
Do you plan on adding archtypes and prestige classes that will tie into Iron Gods? To allow players to play characters that can get the most out of the setting?
Have you been looking over the player's posts on he Iron Gods board for their ideas?
There might be some archetypes and prestige classes along the way, but I wouldn't call them "load bearing design requirements" for us to get the Adventure Path out there.
Remember... kind of the point of Numeria is not that the PCs play starfighter pilots or robot technicians or nanite wranglers. The point of Numeria is that the PCs are fantasy characters thrown into a sci-fi setting. "Getting the most out of the setting" does not require technological archetypes or prestige classes.
I've been watching the boards, yeah... but the authors are already well into the writing of the adventure path, so things are already in motion.
If not for the starting PCs, for NPCs and replacement PCs (if they are needed)?
I read the book (more than once) as a kid and have been interested in the story for decades... I'm really looking forward to the dramatization. It looks really cool!6) Prisoners (theater), Kon-Tiki (disc), American Mary (streaming)I just caught Kon-Tiki a few weeks ago. It was a really interesting documentary. I highly recommend it. I can't say anything on the 2012 dramatization, though.
Not having seen any promos, I have to ask - is this the story about Thor Heyerdaal (sp?)?
James, last year you said that the starting ages for Aasimar in the ARG are wrong and will be getting changed in an errata. I'm wondering if the same change will be made to Tieflings? Or any of the other native outsider races? Creating backstories for planetouched PCs is made somewhat more difficult when they're older than much of the recent history of whatever city or country they're starting out in. (I'm also wondering if there's going to be a new printing of the ARG to allow such errata to be released anytime soon.)The change to starting ages, frankly is just as important to tieflings (due to the underlying structure of the plot of Council of Thieves) as it is for aasimars.
When and where this errata will finally be publicized I can't yet say.
I agree about the tiefling starting age causing issues for CoT. I had three different tiefling character ideas that I didn't use because their age would conflict too much with Westcrown's history. (On the other hand, my Undine Druid's high starting age worked well for his background.)
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Creative Director
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After reading your response talking about Dark Souls, and then the talk about the Starstone, I now associate the Anor Londo Cathedral with the trial of the Starstone.
Do you think an extradimensional megadungeon the size of Dark Souls, or at least a part of it would be a suitable challenge for godhood?
Yup! Especially considering how hard Dark Souls is. In fact... setting up the entire game as one possible Test of the Starstone is pretty cool!
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Creative Director
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Do Mythic monsters look any different from their normal counterparts? Aside from the Mythic medusa, that is.
Yes; you can see a lot of these changes in the Mythic Adventures books. Mythic minotaurs, for example, have glowing runes on their horns. In some cases, the difference is subtle though; the mythic version is just more powerful looking, more impossible to ignore.
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Creative Director
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Do you plan on adding archtypes and prestige classes that will tie into Iron Gods? To allow players to play characters that can get the most out of the setting?
Have you been looking over the player's posts on he Iron Gods board for their ideas?
There might be some archetypes and prestige classes along the way, but I wouldn't call them "load bearing design requirements" for us to get the Adventure Path out there.
Remember... kind of the point of Numeria is not that the PCs play starfighter pilots or robot technicians or nanite wranglers. The point of Numeria is that the PCs are fantasy characters thrown into a sci-fi setting. "Getting the most out of the setting" does not require technological archetypes or prestige classes.
I've been watching the boards, yeah... but the authors are already well into the writing of the adventure path, so things are already in motion.
If not for the starting PCs, for NPCs and replacement PCs (if they are needed)?
There'll certainly be options for NPCs and the like, and we'll absolutely be including a lot of new rules. Those rules are still being outlined though, so I can't say for sure what they'll include. I'll know more in a few months, and the world will know more when we start making more product announcements to support Iron Gods sometime next year.
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Not having seen any promos, I have to ask - is this the story about Thor Heyerdaal (sp?)?I read the book (more than once) as a kid and have been interested in the story for decades... I'm really looking forward to the dramatization. It looks really cool!6) Prisoners (theater), Kon-Tiki (disc), American Mary (streaming)I just caught Kon-Tiki a few weeks ago. It was a really interesting documentary. I highly recommend it. I can't say anything on the 2012 dramatization, though.
Yes.
Can animals not be Mythic?
Yes.Not having seen any promos, I have to ask - is this the story about Thor Heyerdaal (sp?)?I read the book (more than once) as a kid and have been interested in the story for decades... I'm really looking forward to the dramatization. It looks really cool!6) Prisoners (theater), Kon-Tiki (disc), American Mary (streaming)I just caught Kon-Tiki a few weeks ago. It was a really interesting documentary. I highly recommend it. I can't say anything on the 2012 dramatization, though.
Cool. I actually never read that one, but I read his story about investigating Easter Island a few times.
What do you think would be a scarier Mythic monster: A half-red dragon iathavos qlippoth, or a half-fiend (let's say mama's a qlip) great red wyrm?
Dear James,
a few months ago you vented the oppinion, that: "dazed" should be something that undead are immune to.
How do you think about 'feint'? Since the terms of who is immune to it are so very close to the terms of who is immune to 'mind-affecting'.
Can one feint intelligent undead at your table?