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You've mentioned before that the statement in Faiths of Purity that Apsu does not grant spells to clerics and paladins is incorrect, and that humanoids can be clerics or paladins of Apsu like they can for any LG god.
How rare are paladins of Apsu? Where would be the most likely place an Apsu worshiper to come from or for a character to learn the tenets of Apsu's faith? And which AP would a paladin of Apsu fit best in (I tend to feel that different paladin gods fit better in different APs due to local belief systems, for example Sarenrae works better in Curse of the Crimson Throne and Legacy of Fire than Iomedae does due to the fact that she's prominent in Korvosa where a character growing up could be exposed to the faith and learn about them, and because she's a desert goddess in the latter, while Iomedae is more appropriate for Council of Thieves and Carrion Crown due to the former taking place in her homeland and the PCs allies being organized by one of her priests, while in the latter due to her connections to the Whispering Tyrant's story, and that Abadar and Erastil are better than both for Kingmaker due to the Erastil related plots in the campaign and because a big part of it is about rulership and spreading civilization)?
Couple random questions based on answers you just gave other people oddly enough-
1) Reading that whole Star heavens reincarnation bit (which apparently oracles and shamans both get now), aside from being forced to really wonder about what a "star child" is, makes a lot more sense than how the reincarnate spell is written. Which in turn made me recall that I tried asking this once and you ducked it- Assuming it's ever come up, how do your groups generally handle where the new body comes from with Reincarnation? Suddenly there's someone standing next to their own corpse except distorted to the general proportions and ear-pointiness of their new race? Doctor Who style radically altered appearance, genetics be damned? A baby popping out of nowhere (or really interrupting a random woman's day) and rapidly aging up to adulthood like a faster version of the heavens mystery? Something else? Never come up for you?
2) Being way too invested in testing Swashbucklers lately, I'm just plain curious- When you tried it out, what level were you playing at, and how'd you set your stats up?
3) I suppose I should also ask, if I'm being that nosy- What did you think of it?
Mr. James Jacobs,
How well do Arshea and Kofusachi get along? How about Arshea and Calsitria?
Wards, you say? Interesting. Does this mean Jatembe and his Magic Warriors have some connection to the Riftwardens?None at all.
It just means that was the off-the-cuff spur-of-the-moment don't-read-anything-into-it reply I had. If I had plans to make him into a demigod, I would refresh my memory as to what we've actually said about him and the traditions we started. Since there are no such plans, I felt it was okay to reply. Guess not.
(shrug)
Considering he was statted up as a Mythic character when demigod rules existed, if you had plans to make him a demigod, wouldn't you have just made him a demigod?
So I read this today:
"Frank Darabont is apparently involved with developing The Mist [TV] series, based on his movie adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, in what’s described as a “10-part series,” owing to the story’s necessarily short timeframe that would surely be abandoned if the show became popular."
I think it's still in the planning stages, but what do you think? I think I remember you saying that you liked the movie; are you excited for a possible TV adaptation?
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Currently running Rise of the Runelords, about to begin Chapter 3. As a fellow H.P.L. devotee, perhaps you can answer a few like-minded questions for a DM always looking to insert a bit more in the background?
1) Given Varisia's proximity to Leng, would it be reasonable to allude (but probably never answer) a connection between the Sandpoint Devil and Shantaks? Given that one of my party is a witch, I was thinking about introducing a spectral 'witch-cult' hidden in the lowlands in much the same vein as 'Dreams in the Witch House', connections to the Leeds family and the scattered notes of a Hellknight in far over his head as he realizes that these witches are not talking about 'The Prince of Law' when they cavort with the Black Man among lonely ruins. Thoughts?
2) If you could run the campaign (Rise) again for one of your personal group and wanted to insert some more Lovecraftian horror into it, what sorts of things could you see yourself cooking up?
3) In your opinion, Would any of the Bestiary 4 monsters make suited encounters in Rise of the Runelords?
Thanks for your time and hard work.
How would you handle a horde of enemies under PF rules?
Basically, a few heroes mowing down dozens, or even hundreds of enemies with sheer force of awesome.
Think Dynasty Warriors, Ninety-Nine Nights, Gunstar Heroes or anything on this page.
James,
How do you feel about using hexagons instead of squares for map design? I think the biggest problem with it is that it doesn't line up well with most buildings, and that we usually think of directions in terms of cardinal directions, which hexes don't work well with. But on the other hand, they're a bit better at modeling circles and distances that aren't at right angles.
Creative Director
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You've mentioned before that the statement in Faiths of Purity that Apsu does not grant spells to clerics and paladins is incorrect, and that humanoids can be clerics or paladins of Apsu like they can for any LG god.
How rare are paladins of Apsu? Where would be the most likely place an Apsu worshiper to come from or for a character to learn the tenets of Apsu's faith? And which AP would a paladin of Apsu fit best in (I tend to feel that different paladin gods fit better in different APs due to local belief systems, for example Sarenrae works better in Curse of the Crimson Throne and Legacy of Fire than Iomedae does due to the fact that she's prominent in Korvosa where a character growing up could be exposed to the faith and learn about them, and because she's a desert goddess in the latter, while Iomedae is more appropriate for Council of Thieves and Carrion Crown due to the former taking place in her homeland and the PCs allies being organized by one of her priests, while in the latter due to her connections to the Whispering Tyrant's story, and that Abadar and Erastil are better than both for Kingmaker due to the Erastil related plots in the campaign and because a big part of it is about rulership and spreading civilization)?
Paladins of Apsu are very rare, and there's not an organized paladin knighthood of Apsu.
The most likely place for an Apsu worshiper to come from, frankly, would be anywhere; there's not a single best spot. The deep wilderness is a good option, as are large cities since those are places where all sorts of variety congregates.
As with any paladin, Wrath of the Righteous would be the best fit for a paladin of Apsu. If we some day do an AP that's all about an evil dragon Big Bad, that would become more appropriate.
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Creative Director
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Couple random questions based on answers you just gave other people oddly enough-
1) Reading that whole Star heavens reincarnation bit (which apparently oracles and shamans both get now), aside from being forced to really wonder about what a "star child" is, makes a lot more sense than how the reincarnate spell is written. Which in turn made me recall that I tried asking this once and you ducked it- Assuming it's ever come up, how do your groups generally handle where the new body comes from with Reincarnation? Suddenly there's someone standing next to their own corpse except distorted to the general proportions and ear-pointiness of their new race? Doctor Who style radically altered appearance, genetics be damned? A baby popping out of nowhere (or really interrupting a random woman's day) and rapidly aging up to adulthood like a faster version of the heavens mystery? Something else? Never come up for you?
2) Being way too invested in testing Swashbucklers lately, I'm just plain curious- When you tried it out, what level were you playing at, and how'd you set your stats up?
3) I suppose I should also ask, if I'm being that nosy- What did you think of it?
1) A new body is magically created by the spell or effect when reincarnation occurs. It just fades into appearance, like a Star Trek transporter arrival, more or less.
2) I was playing 6th level. My stats were Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 7, Cha 18.
3) I enjoyed it, but had a lot of feedback. I played a version of the class that's 2 steps adjusted from the public one, so I can't say much more about it for the moment.
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Creative Director
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2 things that might be of minor interest to you.
Star Trek Online's latest battle ground is a Dyson Sphere on the edge of the Delta Quadrant. (reached there by a gateway located close to the New Romulus system). It's being contested for ownership by the Voth. The sentient Dinosaur species from Voyager who deny their Earth ties as a matter of Doctrine. (and yes they say it with a capital D)
2nd item... The Mac Client for STO is now in open beta.
Oooh!
and OOooh!
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Creative Director
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Mr. James Jacobs,
How well do Arshea and Kofusachi get along? How about Arshea and Calsitria?
Arshea and Kofusachi don't really interact much.
And Arshea and Calistria don't get along well at all. Their personalities are way too different. Arshea basically finds Calistria to be too mean-spirited, while Calistria finds Arshea to be too tentative with pushing her limits and to distracted by worrying about being nice.
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Creative Director
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Wards, you say? Interesting. Does this mean Jatembe and his Magic Warriors have some connection to the Riftwardens?None at all.
It just means that was the off-the-cuff spur-of-the-moment don't-read-anything-into-it reply I had. If I had plans to make him into a demigod, I would refresh my memory as to what we've actually said about him and the traditions we started. Since there are no such plans, I felt it was okay to reply. Guess not.
(shrug)
Considering he was statted up as a Mythic character when demigod rules existed, if you had plans to make him a demigod, wouldn't you have just made him a demigod?
Absolutely.
We don't have plans. So we didn't. Which is why the original question was kinda silly. He's not a demigod, and going forward I'll not be answering "what if" questions like this since when I reply to them, I seem to give them more gravitas than they deserve. I don't want to imply things that aren't needing implications.
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Creative Director
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what would happen to a demon if it lost its head to the final blades of galt? would its essence be trapped in it or would it respawn in whatever layer it hailed from???
It would be trapped in the blade.
Demons who die on the Material Plane die. They don't "respawn" unless they have specific power to do so, as in the case of a demon lord.
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Creative Director
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So I read this today:
"Frank Darabont is apparently involved with developing The Mist [TV] series, based on his movie adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, in what’s described as a “10-part series,” owing to the story’s necessarily short timeframe that would surely be abandoned if the show became popular."
I think it's still in the planning stages, but what do you think? I think I remember you saying that you liked the movie; are you excited for a possible TV adaptation?
Well... seeing as how "The Mist" was one of the best King adaptations, is my favorite Frank Darabont movie, and seeing how the last show he developed for TV became one of the most popular shows out there... I'm VERY excited about this.
I hope his experience on "The Mist" is more rewarding and less frustrating/heart-breaking than it was with "The Walking Dead" though.
I just hope that the show ends up on cable, and NOT Network TV.
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Creative Director
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Currently running Rise of the Runelords, about to begin Chapter 3. As a fellow H.P.L. devotee, perhaps you can answer a few like-minded questions for a DM always looking to insert a bit more in the background?
1) Given Varisia's proximity to Leng, would it be reasonable to allude (but probably never answer) a connection between the Sandpoint Devil and Shantaks? Given that one of my party is a witch, I was thinking about introducing a spectral 'witch-cult' hidden in the lowlands in much the same vein as 'Dreams in the Witch House', connections to the Leeds family and the scattered notes of a Hellknight in far over his head as he realizes that these witches are not talking about 'The Prince of Law' when they cavort with the Black Man among lonely ruins. Thoughts?
2) If you could run the campaign (Rise) again for one of your personal group and wanted to insert some more Lovecraftian horror into it, what sorts of things could you see yourself cooking up?
3) In your opinion, Would any of the Bestiary 4 monsters make suited encounters in Rise of the Runelords?
Thanks for your time and hard work.
1) That could be an interesting genesis for the Sandpoint Devil. Not one I'd use, given the differences between the Sandpoint Devil and a shantak's powers and alignment, but interesting nonetheless.
2) I'd give Hook Mountain a MUCH more Dunwich feel, and would introduce a spawn of Yog-Sothoth in the role of Black Magga. And would change the Skinsaw Cult into a Hastur cult. And would have a lot more denizens of Leng; might even set Runeforge on Leng.
3) Yes. Plenty.
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Creative Director
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Dear James Jacob,
I read that you like dinosaurs. I hope it is alright with you if I put forth some fictional dinosaurs (created by me) to your attention;The creatures are as follows;
1. Mwangisaurus rex (Mwangi Lizard King) - a smaller yet ferocious species of Tyrannosaur found in Mwangi Expanse.
2. Brontoceratops (Thunder Horn-Face)- an enormous ceratopsian with thick skin and formidable nose-horn.
3. Igneodon (Fire Tooth) - a quadrupedal lizard like beast that spews forth burning acid at its foes.
4. Brutehorn - A large reptile that looks like a cross between a ceratopsian & brontothere.
5. Blade-Claw Raptor - a descendant of the Deinonychus adapted to hunt in the dangerous realm of Deep Tolguth in Orv
6. Manasaur - a mysterious dinosaur infused with powerful magic. A magical beast with semi-intelligence.
7. Smashtail Lizard - A large species of ankylosaurus.
I would like to now your opinion.
Mukundan
For time-management and legal reasons I can't provide feedback on game design. Sorry!
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Creative Director
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How would you handle a horde of enemies under PF rules?
Basically, a few heroes mowing down dozens, or even hundreds of enemies with sheer force of awesome.
Think Dynasty Warriors, Ninety-Nine Nights, Gunstar Heroes or anything on this page.
Via the troop rules from the penultimate Reign of Winter adventure, "Rasputin Must Die."
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Creative Director
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
James,
How do you feel about using hexagons instead of squares for map design? I think the biggest problem with it is that it doesn't line up well with most buildings, and that we usually think of directions in terms of cardinal directions, which hexes don't work well with. But on the other hand, they're a bit better at modeling circles and distances that aren't at right angles.
I LOVE using hexagons for overland maps.
For city maps and dungeon maps I hate it. Not only do hexagons not help as guidelines for drawing the map, bu they're pretty much useless when it comes to running a combat for Pathfinder, which uses grids.
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So I read this today:
"Frank Darabont is apparently involved with developing The Mist [TV] series, based on his movie adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, in what’s described as a “10-part series,” owing to the story’s necessarily short timeframe that would surely be abandoned if the show became popular."
I think it's still in the planning stages, but what do you think? I think I remember you saying that you liked the movie; are you excited for a possible TV adaptation?
Well... seeing as how "The Mist" was one of the best King adaptations, is my favorite Frank Darabont movie, and seeing how the last show he developed for TV became one of the most popular shows out there... I'm VERY excited about this.
I hope his experience on "The Mist" is more rewarding and less frustrating/heart-breaking than it was with "The Walking Dead" though.
I just hope that the show ends up on cable, and NOT Network TV.
Do you like the TV adaptation of "The Dome"? For the matter, did you like the book? specifically, how do you feel about the rather unusual ending?
And how does "The Mist" make sense as a TV series? as a movie it was EXCELLENT (I watched it 3 times and loved it more every time I did), and as a story I think it's one of the best King has ever done. But a TV series? I guess they'll have to continue the story where the book left off, making up their own continuation...
Last questions - why was Walking Dead fraustrating/ heart breaking for you? And did you play the computer game by Telltales Games? It's amazingly good!
Via the troop rules from the penultimate Reign of Winter adventure, "Rasputin Must Die."
Will there be any more details on these going forwards? It is not evident to me how to stat up a troop of say orcs using those rules.
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Creative Director
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Do you like the TV adaptation of "The Dome"? For the matter, did you like the book? specifically, how do you feel about the rather unusual ending?
And how does "The Mist" make sense as a TV series? as a movie it was EXCELLENT (I watched it 3 times and loved it more every time I did), and as a story I think it's one of the best King has ever done. But a TV series? I guess they'll have to continue the story where the book left off, making up their own continuation...
Last questions - why was Walking Dead fraustrating/ heart breaking for you? And did you play the computer game by Telltales Games? It's amazingly good!
I loved the book version of "Under the Dome." I watched the 1st episode on TV and was underwhelmed; the entire season's been sitting unviewed on my TiVo for months. I might get around to watching the rest later.
And "The Mist" would make sense as a TV series in the same way "The Walking Dead" does... just exchange zombies for monsters and you're good to go.
Walking Dead isn't frustrating/heartbreaking for me... I love the show. It was frustrating/heartbreaking for Frank Darabont, who had his creation more or less taken away from him in what sounds like a nasty "break up" between him and the show's producers back around season 2. I own the computer game, but it bugged hard after playing through the 1st episode and I basically have to replay it to go on now and I haven't had the desire to do so yet.
Via the troop rules from the penultimate Reign of Winter adventure, "Rasputin Must Die."How would you handle a horde of enemies under PF rules?
Basically, a few heroes mowing down dozens, or even hundreds of enemies with sheer force of awesome.
Think Dynasty Warriors, Ninety-Nine Nights, Gunstar Heroes or anything on this page.
Just my opinion, but I feel that Rasputin Must Die is a must-own AP, not really for the adventure itself (which is quite good, actually), but for the new bits of rules crunch that were written for it. I've built troops with the new troop subtype rules at least four or five times now.
Its up there with the fourth installment of Carrion Crown pre-Bestiary 4. (Even post Bestiary 4, its still worth it. Doesn't it have some critters that can't be reprinted due to legal reasons?)
Oh and not for sure what your opinion on the series is but in the newest Generation of Pokemon there is now a T-Rex one that you can get from a fossil.. and one of those that worked good in water and had very long necks ... don't recall off the top of my head what species it is.
Aurorus is an Amargasaurus.
Wards, you say? Interesting. Does this mean Jatembe and his Magic Warriors have some connection to the Riftwardens?None at all.
It just means that was the off-the-cuff spur-of-the-moment don't-read-anything-into-it reply I had. If I had plans to make him into a demigod, I would refresh my memory as to what we've actually said about him and the traditions we started. Since there are no such plans, I felt it was okay to reply. Guess not.
(shrug)
Considering he was statted up as a Mythic character when demigod rules existed, if you had plans to make him a demigod, wouldn't you have just made him a demigod?
Absolutely.
We don't have plans. So we didn't. Which is why the original question was kinda silly. He's not a demigod, and going forward I'll not be answering "what if" questions like this since when I reply to them, I seem to give them more gravitas than they deserve. I don't want to imply things that aren't needing implications.
It's still valuable input for anyone who's running an adventure in which Jatembe, for some reason or another, becomes a demigod. I like hearing your and the other designers' opinions on that kind of thing, but I understand the difficulty of some people taking them with more gravity than they're offered with.
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Creative Director
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Its up there with the fourth installment of Carrion Crown pre-Bestiary 4. (Even post Bestiary 4, its still worth it. Doesn't it have some critters that can't be reprinted due to legal reasons?)
Not legal reasons. Licensing reasons. We only got permission from Chaosium to print them, not to open them up.
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Creative Director
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Oh and not for sure what your opinion on the series is but in the newest Generation of Pokemon there is now a T-Rex one that you can get from a fossil.. and one of those that worked good in water and had very long necks ... don't recall off the top of my head what species it is.
I approve of the inclusion of a T-rex, but beyond that, my appreciation of Pokemon is purely for the giant bonus checks it got me for the two years that impacted Wizards of the Coast employees before Hasbro bought them out and changed the bonus structure. ;)
So NPCs often fall behind monsters on hit points and other base statistics at higher levels. I have a couple of questions related to this:
1) Should you give them templates or special qualities to make up for it (like Baba Yaga)?
2) Old Mage Jatembe, at CR 24, has only 210 hit points which is about 9-10 CRs below target. As a spellcaster, it makes sense that he would have a somewhat low hit point total. However, this seems really low and not in line with other spellcasters like Karzoug who has a lot more hitpoints despite being lower CR. Can you explain the design process here?
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Creative Director
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So NPCs often fall behind monsters on hit points and other base statistics at higher levels. I have a couple of questions related to this:
1) Should you give them templates or special qualities to make up for it (like Baba Yaga)?
2) Old Mage Jatembe, at CR 24, has only 210 hit points which is about 9-10 CRs below target. As a spellcaster, it makes sense that he would have a somewhat low hit point total. However, this seems really low and not in line with other spellcasters like Karzoug who has a lot more hitpoints despite being lower CR. Can you explain the design process here?
1) That's certainly one way to do it! Other methods include giving them feats like Toughness, lots of ability boosting magic, and just a few ad-hoc bonuses.
2) Spellcasters always have lower than expected hp. They rely on their magic and other defenses to help make up for that fact. As for the specific design of Old Mage... I don't have any insight, since I neither wrote nor developed him. Likely the author and developer felt that he wasn't someone who needed to worry about his hp since he's got other ways to deal with problems... such as by having 10 magic warriors on hand to help in fights.
Hello again!
While we are at question about relations between gods... how do Calistria and Nocticula get along, if at all?
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I'm curious if it's referenced anywhere how Asmodeus regards the Worldwound. I was thinking of going with a Witch for the Wrath of the Righteous AP, and thought it might be interesting to have a pact with Asmodeus, on the assumption that he probably wouldn't be terribly happy with Demons rampaging through his potential worshippers. I know that Golarion Devils aren't typically portrayed as caring about Demons, but he has to be somewhat concerned about the destruction of some potentially useful souls/worshippers, at least?
How would you adapt a troop into an army?
I'm thinking a troop that covers a much larger area. A massive mob of mooks, meant to be fought by Mythic characters. (that was going to be more alliterative, but I didn't know any synonyms for "fight" and "character" that started with M) Like Ninety-Nine Nights, where evidently you can have upwards of 1000 enemies trying to mob your face in.
3) The Dimension of Time is still out there, as are the other ones, but for now we're not doing much with them.4) Todd Stewart came up with the bulk of them. The Dimension of Time's been in the game for decades though.
Just chipping in here. Some of the demiplanes from 'The Great Beyond' were mentioned in 'The Inner Sea World Guide' in its sample listing of demiplanes in the cosmology section.
The Prison of the Laughing Fiend also appears in the Well of Many Worlds chapter in 'Classic Treasures Revisited' in conjunction with the cursed variant well 'Tegresin's Devouring Well', and its appearance on Golarion in the past and current day.
Also, to James, it was so much fun working on those. Thank you! :D