>>Ask *James Jacobs* ALL your Questions Here!<<

[James Jacobs]

Cheapy wrote:

Where did humans originate from, if they're on so many planets? Will that ever be revealed?

We talked about doing this for Iron Gods, and while I have my own theory that's probably closer than anything else to canon, simply because of the fact that I'm the Creative Director... we decided to keep it secret. There are humans on Golarion and humans on Earth. That means if there's humans in 2 places in the multiverse... there's no doubt humans ALL OVER. Including XXXXXX which is where the XXXXXX came from before it crashed in Numeria.

[Cheapy]

Why must you tease us so......

How well known is Rovagug in solar systems other than Golarion's?

[Samy]

Thank you for the answers, James! I'm excited beyond belief about 1 and 2, so your strategy for building anticipation is definitely working. :)

[Samy]

James Jacobs wrote:

there's no doubt humans ALL OVER. Including XXXXXX which is where the XXXXXX came from before it crashed in Numeria.

HMMMMMM. So, the place (presumably planet) that the Numerian ship came from has humans...that explains androids' appearance...maybe androids were built as a replacement slave caste after humans rebelled...or maybe humans were nearly wiped out by an ecological disaster and they created the androids to continue as their legacy...or the androids *were* the ecological disaster, as in Skynet...or...or...can't wait for August!

[Non-Hobbyist]

Hello, I would like your input on a subject of a Witch Hex and Natural Attacks. If this is too long to read skip to the section at the bottom "Are these rules fair and legal?"

In picking a new hex for my witch I saw the Prehensile Hair hex and thought it was rather interesting and could be a lot of fun, but a few rules questions came into play.

Here is the description of the Hex:
Prehensile Hair (Su)
Effect: The witch can instantly cause her hair (or even her eyebrows) to grow up to 10 feet long or to shrink to its normal length, and can manipulate her hair as if it were a limb with a Strength score equal to her Intelligence score. Her hair has reach 10 feet, and she can use it as a secondary natural attack that deals 1d3 points of damage (1d2 for a Small witch). Her hair can manipulate objects (but not weapons) as dexterously as a human hand.
The hair cannot be sundered or attacked as a separate creature. Pieces cut from the witch’s elongated hair shrink away to nothing. Using her hair does not harm the witch’s head or neck, even if she lifts something heavy with it. The witch can manipulate her hair a number of minutes each day equal to her level; these minutes do not need to be consecutive, but must be spent in 1-minute increments. A typical male witch with this hex can also manipulate his beard, moustache, or eyebrows.

I will put questions in italics for the ones that I am really concerned with getting an answer for.

Can a humanoid ever only have one Natural Attack or do unarmed attacks count and thus negate a humanoid from ever having a secondary Natural Attack (such as Prehensile Hair Hex) used by itself as a "Primary Natural Attack".

From the chart these are all considered Secondary Natural Attacks:
Hoof, Tentacle, Wing, Pincers, Tail Slap and "Other"

So here begins my questions and observations about the Prehensile Hair Hex for the Witch class and Natural Attacks.

First is the wording about natural attack:
Most creatures possess one or more natural attacks (attacks made without a weapon). These attacks fall into one of two categories, primary and secondary attacks. Primary attacks are made using the creature’s full base attack bonus and add the creature’s full Strength bonus on damage rolls. Secondary attacks are made using the creature’s base attack bonus –5 and add only 1/2 the creature’s Strength bonus on damage rolls. If a creature has only one natural attack, it is always made using the creature’s full base attack bonus and adds 1-1/2 times the creature’s Strength bonus on damage rolls. This increase does not apply if the creature has multiple attacks but only takes one. If a creature has only one type of attack, but has multiple attacks per round, that attack is treated as a primary attack, regardless of its type.

The part I'd like to break down is this:
If a creature has only one natural attack, it is always made using the creature’s full base attack bonus and adds 1-1/2 times the creature’s Strength bonus on damage rolls.

So this is telling me that since I only have one "natural attack" I can do this.

This increase does not apply if the creature has multiple attacks but only takes one.

So this is telling me that because I could swing a sword, punch or whatever I do not get the increase even if I am only using the Prehensile Hair?

This is the sentence that confounds me the most because I would like to know this: Am I already considered to have two natural attacks because I have two hands that could punch? This is important for the next part of my question. I looked up attacks and while I have "unarmed attacks" these are not considered "natural attacks" I believe because of they are separately listed. I'll type what it says after the last part of that paragraph:

If a creature has only one type of attack, but has multiple attacks per round, that attack is treated as a primary attack, regardless of its type.

So this should be easy but just to clarify I assume it means that if you are a playing shark with your 1 bite attack your bite is primary because its all you have, if you had 2 bites they both would be primary because all a shark can do is bite you.

Go to Shark Reference

Here is where people could start to argue that a shark could use its tail to slap you, ram you with its body etc. and I'm wondering if that because it only has one WORDED Natural Attack that that is why it can do it, just like a human can head-butt, kick, punch, elbow, etc. it doesn't grant them additional Natural Attacks, its unarmed attacks unless they take a special feat or class like Monk.

Bite is listed on a the table for Natural Attacks as PRIMARY but just assume for the sake of argument that you had a creature that looked exactly like a Shark (Call it Thresher Shark - Go to Threscher Shark in action) with the same statistics except instead of biting it had a tail slap listed and that was it, would it be PRIMARY then even though on the chart its SECONDARY?

Now taking the Common Shark just change one line Melee bite +5 (1d8+4) to this:
Melee tail slap +5 (1d8+4)

And we could introduce a new Shark type that is in essence the same CR 2 Common Shark, save that it attacks in a different flavor. The tail slapping "Threscher shark" still has a big mouth of teeth but doesn't attack with them. The reason I'm listing that is to show an example of how the table could be "misleading" in specific instances and to compare it to Humans having all these limbs to attack with that are not "Natural Attacks". This also shows that an animal even though it has a mouth to bite with could use a different form of attack and as long as that is all it is doing in the round it would count as Primary.

I created this example to show how in the game world these monsters are the same exact thing mathematically and so nothing is being given some kind of unfair statistical advantage, Similar to a witch not using a weapon and the prehensile hair but just the hair.

Are these rules fair and legal?

Normally if you use the hair and a weapon attack its -5 and only 1/2 str bonus for the prehensile hair.

If I was the DM I'd allow the Witch (or anyone with any kind of Secondary Natural Attack) to use that attack without the -5 penalty as long as that is all they are doing in the round as this is not something that would break the game mechanics or overpower their class, it simply gives them an option to try something different that in most cases is less optimal then just casting a spell or using a hex.

Since the Witch would only possess ONE natural attack (not 2 unarmed strikes and a natural attack) if they only use the hair and do nothing else it shouldn't it count as a primary attack?

Now if that would be ruled against then logically that means that the Witch would have multiple "Natural attacks" and would qualify for the feat Multiattack to get the hair at -2 and be able to use it when attacking with a weapon and only have -2 to hit but still 1/2 strength. Is this a correct train of thought?

Obviously you can't cast a spell and use the hair as only the Magus can do that sort of thing as far as I know, this also means you could not HEX and Hair Attack either. The only exception might be Cackle since you do it as a move action.

Thank you for your time please let me know what you think.

[James Jacobs]

Cheapy wrote:

Why must you tease us so......

How well known is Rovagug in solar systems other than Golarion's?

Depends on the solar system. Golarion's system is certainly the one he's most well known in... but there are plenty others where he's got an influence. As to how many? Not gonna say.

[Samy]

1) In your career before Pathfinder #1, if you could have designed one thing differently, what would it have been and what would you have done differently?

2) Name three coolest (personality-wise) people, that you have worked with in RPGs, that you are no longer in contact with?

3) What are your three favorite villain races in D&D and/or Pathfinder?

4) Do you have any opinion on what went wrong with Maztica and/or Horde campaign settings? Do you think that if something had been done differently, TSR could've gotten more mileage out of them? If so, what? Or do you think that they pretty much got everything out of them that they could have, and that such ethnic sub-settings are inherently limited to being niche products?

5) Can you say something about how much in advance you work on things? Like, do you right now know what the next two Adventure Paths after Iron Gods will be? Next four? Do you know the entire project schedule for Campaign Setting and Player Companion through Dec 2014? Have you already hired whoever will write the first issue of Iron Gods? Have you already hired whoever will write the first issue *after* Iron Gods? Not asking any names, just curious about the timing of the process.

[James Jacobs]

Non-Hobbyist wrote:

Hello, I would like your input on a subject of a Witch Hex and Natural Attacks. If this is too long to read skip to the section at the bottom "Are these rules fair and legal?"...

Whew... that's a lot of text. For future questions... try to keep the posts as brief as possible, since I answer lots of questions here and taking a long time to answer one kinda makes me sour.

Non-Hobbyist wrote:

Can a humanoid ever only have one Natural Attack or do unarmed attacks count and thus negate a humanoid from ever having a secondary Natural Attack (such as Prehensile Hair Hex) used by itself as a "Primary Natural Attack".

Unarmed attacks are not natural attacks and wouldn't count against them even if there were a limit. There's no limit as to how many natural attacks a creature can have, but giving a PC too many swiftly starts to break game balance.

Non-Hobbyist wrote:

This increase does not apply if the creature has multiple attacks but only takes one. So this is telling me that because I could swing a sword, punch or whatever I do not get the increase even if I am only using the Prehensile Hair?

You get the 1.5 times your Strength bonus if you make only one attack that round with a natural attack. If you make more than one attack of any type, you do not gain this ability. ONLY when you're just making a single attack with ONE attack would you gain it.

Non-Hobbyist wrote:

If a creature has only one type of attack, but has multiple attacks per round, that attack is treated as a primary attack, regardless of its type.

That's not a question. But there are exceptions to the rule. Some attacks, like a horse's hoof, are ALWAYS secondary. That's one way we balance the power of granting a natural attack to a PC.

Non-Hobbyist wrote:

Are these rules fair and legal?

Fair? Depends on the way your game is run. Legal? Depends on your GM. Note though that the game is not built with the expectation that PCs have lots of natural attacks... or ANY. It generally assumes you're attacking with manufactured weapons. And the more you go away from that assumption, the more powerful you get.

Non-Hobbyist wrote:

Since the Witch would only possess ONE natural attack (not 2 unarmed strikes and a natural attack) if they only use the hair and do nothing else it shouldn't it count as a primary attack?

If it were a monster's natural attack, yes. But since it's an ability granted to a PC, we wanted to tone down that power a bit, and as a result it's not a primary attack.

Non-Hobbyist wrote:

Now if that would be ruled against then logically that means that the Witch would have multiple "Natural attacks" and would qualify for the feat Multiattack to get the hair at -2 and be able to use it when attacking with a weapon and only have -2 to hit but still 1/2 strength. Is this a correct train of thought?

Multiattack requires multiple different attacks. It's for things like monsters with lots of tentacles or other limbs, frankly. It's not really meant to be one that a PC could or should ever take.

[James Jacobs]

Samy wrote:

1) In your career before Pathfinder #1, if you could have designed one thing differently, what would it have been and what would you have done differently?

2) Name three coolest (personality-wise) people, that you have worked with in RPGs, that you are no longer in contact with?

3) What are your three favorite villain races in D&D and/or Pathfinder?

4) Do you have any opinion on what went wrong with Maztica and/or Horde campaign settings? Do you think that if something had been done differently, TSR could've gotten more mileage out of them? If so, what? Or do you think that they pretty much got everything out of them that they could have, and that such ethnic sub-settings are inherently limited to being niche products?

5) Can you say something about how much in advance you work on things? Like, do you right now know what the next two Adventure Paths after Iron Gods will be? Next four? Do you know the entire project schedule for Campaign Setting and Player Companion through Dec 2014? Have you already hired whoever will write the first issue of Iron Gods? Have you already hired whoever will write the first issue *after* Iron Gods? Not asking any names, just curious about the timing of the process.

1) I would have saved Obox-ob for Golarion.

2) For the purposes of "no longer in contact," I'm going to say "Haven't talked to in more than a year apart from a few words at Gen Con." That list would be: Chris Perkins, Bruce Cordell, and Paul Bazakas.

3) Ooof... only three? That's tough! The first three that pop in my head, I guess, would be aboleths, drow, and demons. If "demons" doesn't count, then the 4th to pop in my head would be derros.

4) I think TSR put WAY too many campaign settings out at once. They had a set number of customers, and each time you publish a campaign setting, you're splitting that core set number up into increasingly small fractions; a campaign setting generally doesn't attract NEW customers, and the more you publish, the more likely a customer is to have found the one they want. Customers generally never bought campaign settings they aren't invested in, even well after the setting stops being actively supported. And so the more they published, the more expense they had to put out (launching a campaign setting is expensive, especially if you do so via box set), and the fewer customers there were to pick it up. Diminishing returns is what really plagued them.

5) I know what the next two APs after Iron Gods will be. We're currently outlining the one after Iron Gods, and have already assigned the 1st adventure in that one to an author. I have a pretty good idea what the next four APs after those will be. I know the entire project schedule for the rest of what we do through to 2014 in some cases, to 2016 in others. The author of the first volume of Iron Gods has already completed the adventure; he turned it in back in December, and I'm about 1-2 weeks away from being done with it and sending it on to be edited and laid out. As a general rule... we really start working on any one project about a year before it hits store shelves, but in some cases for more complex projects like hardcovers or rulebooks we start 18 months in advance.

[Samy]

Derros? Wow, that's kind of unexpected, I don't hear a lot of talk about them. A quick check-up shows that they were included in Classic Horrors Revisited -- did you have to push that personally or were they going to be included anyhow?

As a follow-up question to your reply about Maztica/Horde -- is it an accurate reading of your reply that you think they should have picked one campaign setting at a time, pushed that until they had nothing else to say about it, then moved onto the next one and so on? As in, electrical engineering wise, they should have wired their campaign settings in series rather than in parallel?

How do you think that translates to Golarion, if at all? You did Jade Regent, Dragon Empires Gazetteer and Dragon Empires Primer, but then, you did Distant Worlds? Does that mean you're done with Golarion-Asia and are now moving on to Golarion-Planescape? Or is Tian-Xia still open? If we look at Golarion's sub-settings in the same light, what would you say is the currently open sub-setting in the series?

But then, you could say that just about every country in Golarion could be its own sub-setting. Shackles is Golarion-Pirates, Osirion is Golarion-Egypt, Qadira is Golarion-Arabia -- and they're all simultaneously open? Isn't that sort of the same thing as TSR's multiple settings open at once? In a way?

Do you think that there's some aspect of Golarion that you'd treat in a series-rather-than-parallel fashion? Like, is it a possibility that one day we're done with, say, Avistan, and we'll just permanently move on to having all products be all about, say, Casmaron? On what level would you apply the series paradigm to Golarion?

I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to put you on the spot or anything, I'm just being curious and shooting the breeze with (trying to have) a pondering tone. Also sorry for the length of this post. Feel free to ignore it if you don't feel like answering something this long.

[The NPC]

Mr. James Jacobs,

Say you have an aboleth descended magic user. As he (Because it is a he) progressed and leveled up his aberrant nature become more and more pronounced. Say he was mortally wounded and his human side died leaving the the aboleth side to emerge (Kind of like Heracles becoming a full god after he died), what do you think he would be?

An aboleth with class levels, a veiled master (assuming the campaign was the right level), or some variant form of aboleth?

Are there other variant forms of aboleth and how would the other aboleths view him?

[James Jacobs]

Samy wrote:

Derros? Wow, that's kind of unexpected, I don't hear a lot of talk about them. A quick check-up shows that they were included in Classic Horrors Revisited -- did you have to push that personally or were they going to be included anyhow?

As a follow-up question to your reply about Maztica/Horde -- is it an accurate reading of your reply that you think they should have picked one campaign setting at a time, pushed that until they had nothing else to say about it, then moved onto the next one and so on? As in, electrical engineering wise, they should have wired their campaign settings in series rather than in parallel?

How do you think that translates to Golarion, if at all? You did Jade Regent, Dragon Empires Gazetteer and Dragon Empires Primer, but then, you did Distant Worlds? Does that mean you're done with Golarion-Asia and are now moving on to Golarion-Planescape? Or is Tian-Xia still open? If we look at Golarion's sub-settings in the same light, what would you say is the currently open sub-setting in the series?

But then, you could say that just about every country in Golarion could be its own sub-setting. Shackles is Golarion-Pirates, Osirion is Golarion-Egypt, Qadira is Golarion-Arabia -- and they're all simultaneously open? Isn't that sort of the same thing as TSR's multiple settings open at once? In a way?

Do you think that there's some aspect of Golarion that you'd treat in a series-rather-than-parallel fashion? Like, is it a possibility that one day we're done with, say, Avistan, and we'll just permanently move on to having all products be all about, say, Casmaron? On what level would you apply the series paradigm to Golarion?

I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to put you on the spot or anything, I'm just being curious and shooting the breeze with (trying to have) a pondering tone. Also sorry for the length of this post. Feel free to ignore it if you don't feel like answering something this long.

Derros have a really intriguing real-world history, first of all. And I've put them in many adventures I've written, particularly "Into the Wormcrawl Fissure" and "Headless" back in Dungeon magazine. I made sure they had a role in the Darklands, and didn't have to push too hard to include them in Classic Horrors because that's what they actually are. The fact that I wrote the chapter in that book about derros helps, of course!

You'll note that we at Paizo do only one campaign setting at a time. We deliberately built the setting to contain a WIDE variety of different play styles, and we've never presented, say, Tian Xia, as a separate setting but as a part of the whole. Even the wilder books like Distant Worlds are all presented as part of Golarion, even though technically they're other worlds. This is all very much by design.

I very much doubt we'll "move on" from the Inner Sea region as the core to focus all our effort on another part of the world. There's plenty to do in the Inner Sea region for a long time to come, and doing so doesn't STOP us from going beyond that map's borders as often as we want.

[James Jacobs]

The NPC wrote:

Mr. James Jacobs,

Say you have an aboleth descended magic user. As he (Because it is a he) progressed and leveled up his aberrant nature become more and more pronounced. Say he was mortally wounded and his human side died leaving the the aboleth side to emerge (Kind of like Heracles becoming a full god after he died), what do you think he would be?

An aboleth with class levels, a veiled master (assuming the campaign was the right level), or some variant form of aboleth?

Are there other variant forms of aboleth and how would the other aboleths view him?

He'd be a unique creature at this point. He wouldn't turn into an aboleth or anything like that. There are other variant forms of aboleths out there, but none like a half-aboleth; that's just not the way they work or do things. A character like this would be truly unique in Golarion, and how he'd be viewed by aboleths would likely be as good subject material for the vivisection table.

[Samy]

That makes sense, I thought about this some more while you were writing, too, and it seems to me that Golarion, or more precisely the way you're releasing Golarion, seems to be built in a way to support having "parallel" products in a different way than the Realms supported Maztica/Horde. Essentially, the way you're doing Golarion is, essentially, the FR1 Waterdeep and the North - FR2 Moonshae - type sourcebooks, and instead of doing separate boxed sets for Asia, Arabia and Africa, and setting them apart in such a way, you're folding them into the "FR series" on the same footing as every other corner of the world.

I guess it could be said that what TSR did wrong/differently from you is that they promoted Maztica/Horde (and Kara-Tur, Al-Qadim as well, even though it went better for those) as separate campaign settings and made separate boxed sets for them rather than just treating them the same as, say, Moonshaes or Bloodstone Lands and putting them in the main "Campaign Setting" series. That special promotion to a "stand apart" status is what created the perception and expectation that they needed to support their own sub-line. Without that separation, with the places folded into the main line, running many different places in parallel seems to be okay?

[James Jacobs]

Samy wrote:

Without that separation, with the places folded into the main line, running many different places in parallel seems to be okay?

Yup. I'd even say it makes the difference between an RPG company staying in business or not.

[xavier c]

James Jacobs wrote:

xavier c wrote:

1)Do the worshipers and celestial servants of a god treat a goding of that god differently

2)Do the worshipers and celestial servants of a god treat a (mortal herald) of that god differently

1) Worshipers treat the god as a god; they adore and respect it. Celestial servants treat the god as a boss. They can adore and respect it, but they might also resent it or love it or want to replace it or hate it and so on.

2) Worshipers treat the heralds as the mouth of their deity; something to be respected and followed and called upon for aid. Servants treat it as a high-ranking member in their organization; not the boss, but certainly something like a manager or captain.

I meant goding(as in the ilteral mortal child of that god)-mythic origins stuff

and how do marriages between celestials and mortals work

[Mythic Rysky]

James Jacobs wrote:

Douglas Muir 406 wrote:

2) To compel service from the creature, you make an opposed Charisma check. "The check is assigned a bonus of +0 to +6 based on the nature of the service and the reward." Is this a bonus applied to the creature's check, or to the caster's? We've been assuming it's the caster's, but the language is not completely clear

2) The better the reward you offer, the bigger the bonus you get to your (the caster's) Charisma check. It's easier to convince the daemon to work for you if you offer it a virgin's soul than if you offer it a bag of skittles.

Just an aside, I would find both an acceptable offering.

[James Jacobs]

xavier c wrote:

I meant goding(as in the ilteral mortal child of that god)

and how do marriages between celestials and mortals work

Oh; in that case... depends entirely on the godling's power and status. Might ignore it, might respect/worship it.

Marriages between celestials and mortals work identically to any other marriage, depending on local and religious customs.

[Odraude]

Question about the Worldwound, and I'm sure you've been asked this before.

So, we have a land where a demon lord and demons have invaded and are taking over. From an in-game narrative perspective, what is stopping an empyreal lord from doing a similar thing in response to the Worldwound? Especially when things go pear-shaped and the heroes fall?

[xavier c]

How does a Quasi-Deity(mythic character with the Divine Source mythic power) gain celestial outsider servants (without the Leadership feat)

How does a Quasi-Deity(mythic character with the Divine Source mythic power) gain worshipers

[Alexander Augunas]

James Jacobs wrote:

Alexander Augunas wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Mal_Luck wrote:

How difficult would it be to force or trick a creature to swallow something? I don't even know what kind of check that would be. I thought of a creative use for the Talisman of Pure Good and was wondering how feasible it would be to pull off...

I wanna force feed the Talisman of Pure Good to Baphomet which, assuming a Demon Lord counts as an evil divine spellcaster, would caused 8d6 points of damage per round to him.

Bluff check, if the creature is smart.

Let it bite you, if the creature has swallow whole.

OR Grapple the creature and use a Dirty Trick combat maneuver... maybe 2 or 3 of them (one to get the thing in the monster's mouth and 1 to get it to swallow).

Force feeding a talisman of pure good to a creature is a creative stunt to pull, though.

At that level, Polymorph Any Object with a True Form contingency could help.

Nope. Polymorph any Object specifically does NOT work on magic items. We should have probably renamed it to polymorph any nonmagical object I guess... ;P

D: !

Plan B: magic aura + a big-ole slab of something tasty!

[xavier c]

James Jacobs wrote:

xavier c wrote:

I meant goding(as in the ilteral mortal child of that god)

and how do marriages between celestials and mortals work

Oh; in that case... depends entirely on the godling's power and status. Might ignore it, might respect/worship it.

Marriages between celestials and mortals work identically to any other marriage, depending on local and religious customs.

how do celestials view Marriages between celestials and mortals. which group of celestials is Marriage between celestials and mortals most common

[James Jacobs]

Odraude wrote:

Question about the Worldwound, and I'm sure you've been asked this before.

So, we have a land where a demon lord and demons have invaded and are taking over. From an in-game narrative perspective, what is stopping an empyreal lord from doing a similar thing in response to the Worldwound? Especially when things go pear-shaped and the heroes fall?

The fact that doing so would create an arms race of sorts... add one Empyrial Lord and then you'd have more demon lords rising up to oppose, and then where does it stop.

Also, the fact that while the Worldwound is a big deal in the Inner Sea region, it's not a big deal on a Multiverse scale, and that's what Empyreal Lords have to deal with; they've got troubles all over.

Also, the fact that if the gods, be they demigods or full deities, always stepped in to save mortals, then mortals would never learn how to fend for themselves and what, then, is the point of being a free-willed mortal?

Also, because that makes for a much less interesting story for your PCs, who would be regulated in such an event to bystanders rather than heroes.

Also, because there are divine mandates against direct intervention; the Empyreal lords ARE helping, but they're doing so via minions and agents. You'll note on the other side that Deskari is not the main dude in the Worldwound, nor is he the guy who actually opened the Worldwound; pretty much ALL of that is as a result of his powerful minions, from Areelu on down to the lowest dretch.

[Squeakmaan]

1) Are you familiar with the song Lola Montez by Volbeat? Link if you're not. Does it make you think of Nocticula like it does me, specifically the imagery of her molten-iron oozing hooves.

2) If I were to start a thread to gauge messageboard interest in a book dedicated to the great powers of the multiverse, elemental lord and such, where should I put it?

[Cthulhudrew]

Samy wrote:

HMMMMMM. So, the place (presumably planet) that the Numerian ship came from has humans...that explains androids' appearance...maybe androids were built as a replacement slave caste after humans rebelled...or maybe humans were nearly wiped out by an ecological disaster and they created the androids to continue as their legacy...or the androids *were* the ecological disaster, as in Skynet...or...or...can't wait for August!

Or maybe the androids are being created from the humans kidnapped by the Annihilators in an attempt to recreate the humans that originally piloted the starship in the first place?

Okay, so question time, to lead off of this-

Will there be any treatments of races other than the core (and, possibly, androids) in the Player's Guide for Iron Gods? Apologies if its premature to be asking this.

[James Jacobs]

xavier c wrote:

How does a Quasi-Deity(mythic character with the Divine Source mythic power) gain celestial outsider servants (without the Leadership feat)

How does a Quasi-Deity(mythic character with the Divine Source mythic power) gain worshipers

The GM gives them to the quasi-deity, either because the quasi-deity is an NPC and the GM gets to do that, or because the quasi-deity is a PC and went on a series of quests that reward the quasi-deity with celestial outsider servants. OR the quasi-deity uses spells like planar ally to recruit aid.

Once you take the Divine Source mythic power... you gain worshipers. How many? You need to roleplay that out and go out and gather them; once the momentum starts, your faith gathers more worshipers on their own... but at this point since there's no mechanic for tracking how quickly your faith grows nor is there any game benefit for having 1 worshipper versus a billion worshipers, that's all best handled as flavor text from the GM.

[James Jacobs]

xavier c wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

xavier c wrote:

I meant goding(as in the ilteral mortal child of that god)

and how do marriages between celestials and mortals work

Oh; in that case... depends entirely on the godling's power and status. Might ignore it, might respect/worship it.

Marriages between celestials and mortals work identically to any other marriage, depending on local and religious customs.

how do celestials view Marriages between celestials and mortals. which group of celestials is Marriage between celestials and mortals most common

Depends on the celestial in question.

[James Jacobs]

Squeakmaan wrote:

1) Are you familiar with the song Lola Montez by Volbeat ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPJ1KIMArWA if you're not? Does it make you think of Nocticula like it does me, specifically the imagery of her molten-iron oozing hooves.

2) If I were to start a thread to gauge messageboard interest in a book dedicated to the great powers of the multiverse, elemental lord and such, where should I put it?

1) Not familiar. And no... it's too masculine and not subtle enough to remind me of Nocticula.

2) Dunno. Pick somewhere you think there's lots of other folks who are interested in world books and the like who hang out, I guess? The Campaign Setting thread might work.

[James Jacobs]

Cthulhudrew wrote:

Will there be any treatments of races other than the core (and, possibly, androids) in the Player's Guide for Iron Gods? Apologies if its premature to be asking this.

Nope. We'll talk about androids in the player's guide, and will likely reprint the "Android Characters" text block from Inner Sea World Guide in the player's guide, and will perhaps give some advice on how GMs can handle the power imbalance if you let a player character be an android... but the rest of the AP assumes the players are all core races.

[LazarX]

James Jacobs wrote:

Squeakmaan wrote:

Should you ever do another Mythic AP, could it please, please, pretty-please be about kaiju and the Valashmai Jungle? I'll send you a light-up Godzilla action figure.

Turns out I've loved kaiju since I saw Godzilla bout 35 years ago, and Valashmai Jungle is from my homebrew setting and is itself about 25 years old. I'm a huge fan of both. Make of that what you will.

Have you ever seen the original Gojira? i.e. the BW Godzilla without Raymond Burr bolted onto it. It's subtitled on Huluu if you haven't.

[James Jacobs]

LazarX wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Squeakmaan wrote:

Should you ever do another Mythic AP, could it please, please, pretty-please be about kaiju and the Valashmai Jungle? I'll send you a light-up Godzilla action figure.

Turns out I've loved kaiju since I saw Godzilla bout 35 years ago, and Valashmai Jungle is from my homebrew setting and is itself about 25 years old. I'm a huge fan of both. Make of that what you will.

Have you ever seen the original Gojira? i.e. the BW Godzilla without Raymond Burr bolted onto it. It's subtitled on Huluu if you haven't.

Of course! I went to see it on the 50th anniversary of Godzilla, in an actual movie theater. That was a really cool experience. And of course I own it on disc. In fact... I believe I own a DVD and a Blu-Ray copy...

[Samy]

What are the specs of your home desktop computer, if any? :D

[xavier c]

1) How do the gods in general feel (or view) about atheism

2) How do the empyreal lords in general feel (or view) about atheism

3) How does Desna feel about (or view) atheism

4) How does Erastil feel about (or view) atheism

5) How does Iomedae feel about (or view) atheism

6) How does Sarenrae feel about (or view) atheism

7) How does Shelyn feel about (or view) atheism

8) How does Abadar feel about (or view) atheism

9) How does Asmodeus feel about (or view) atheism

10) How does Pharasma feel about (or view) atheism

[Destinar Orion 3]

Dear mr Jacobs,

I want to first say that I am enjoying the wrath of the righteous storyline and I think the fights are going to be fantastic fun for my party members. What I am worried about is that at around 13th level the damage that they do with the insane amount of feat combinations there are will make the monsters, even the demonlord way to easy. Not tactics wise but damage wise. One casting of a mythic time stop or huge vital strike and the battle is all over. In your experience how did you deal with players who "pimp out their characters to the max". Also Has paizo ever thought about releasing a revised/alternative bestiary 1 with variant monsters designed to be extra extra deadly with a bit more HP. Sort of what Gary Gygax did with his super insane crazy dungeon module, where even the most expert level adventures could be destroyed?

Also on a side note, how does one get to work at paizo?

[Belle Mythix]

James Jacobs wrote:

zergtitan wrote:

Which Iconic or NPC would you date/marry if they existed in our reality?

Merisiel, obviously!

Aside from elves, and if you had immunity to energy drain and the like?

[xavier c]

Do gods ever look down and think these mortal do such silly things

[James Jacobs]

Samy wrote:

What are the specs of your home desktop computer, if any? :D

It's a 27" 2011 iMac.

3.1 GHz Intel Core i5 processor.
8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024 MB graphics card
2560 x 1440 built in display, with a 23-inch Cinema Display (1920 x 1200) off to the side as a 2nd screen
1 TB hard drive

And off to the left, my PC notebook. But you didn't ask about notebooks, just the desktop.

[James Jacobs]

xavier c wrote:

1) How do the gods in general feel (or view) about atheism

2) How do the empyreal lords in general feel (or view) about atheism

3) How does Desna feel about (or view) atheism

4) How does Erastil feel about (or view) atheism

5) How does Iomedae feel about (or view) atheism

6) How does Sarenrae feel about (or view) atheism

7) How does Shelyn feel about (or view) atheism

8) How does Abadar feel about (or view) atheism

9) How does Asmodeus feel about (or view) atheism

10) How does Pharasma feel about (or view) atheism

All gods pretty much don't like atheism.

[James Jacobs]

Belle Mythix wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

zergtitan wrote:

Which Iconic or NPC would you date/marry if they existed in our reality?

Merisiel, obviously!

Aside from elves, and if you had immunity to energy drain and the like?

Well then... Nocticula! She'd solve a LOT of problems. A girlfriend who can cast miracle once a day is pretty awesome.

[James Jacobs]

xavier c wrote:

Do gods ever look down and think these mortal do such silly things

I can't imagine they wouldn't.

[James Jacobs]

Destinar Orion 3 wrote:

Dear mr Jacobs,

I want to first say that I am enjoying the wrath of the righteous storyline and I think the fights are going to be fantastic fun for my party members. What I am worried about is that at around 13th level the damage that they do with the insane amount of feat combinations there are will make the monsters, even the demonlord way to easy. Not tactics wise but damage wise. One casting of a mythic time stop or huge vital strike and the battle is all over. In your experience how did you deal with players who "pimp out their characters to the max". Also Has paizo ever thought about releasing a revised/alternative bestiary 1 with variant monsters designed to be extra extra deadly with a bit more HP. Sort of what Gary Gygax did with his super insane crazy dungeon module, where even the most expert level adventures could be destroyed?

Also on a side note, how does one get to work at paizo?

Well.. no two groups are identical, and when you stack Mythic on top of all the rest... it does get harder to predict. You should stay flexible and be willing to just adjust things as you go. THAT SAID... it's not a bad thing at all if, now and then, the PCs do finish a fight with one shot or otherwise dominate an encounter. That's what players remember!

All you need to do to have a "revised bestiary with tougher monsters" is to put the advanced template on them. If that's not enough... put the advanced template on them twice, or three times, or more!

As for working at Paizo... keep an eye on our job openings here on the website! Note that we don't do remote stuff... if you work here, you have to physically be here!

[Samy]

That's a badass machine, James! I imagine you play games since that's somewhat overkill for just Word and Safari. :D What games do you play?

[Cheapy]

Are any Paizo staff writing adventures for Iron Gods? I assume you are, but any other than you?

[Rysky]

So I just found out their is a Lego movie soon to be out. Your thoughts?

[MagnusXL]

Are there any plans to make the boomerang not strictly worse than the chakram in every way? I know that you went for realism on this one, but there hardly seems to be any incentive to use an exotic weapon proficiency for what is effectively a club with a 30 range increment.

[Samy]

What's the difference between Old Ones and Outer Gods? According to Wikipedia they're both sub-categories of the Lovecraft mythos, but I'm not clear on their difference. Is the answer different for the Lovecraft versions and the Pathfinder versions?

[LazarX]

Samy wrote:

That's a badass machine, James! I imagine you play games since that's somewhat overkill for just Word and Safari. :D What games do you play?

Keep in mind that he doesnt' choose to exercise his option to run windows on that unit. That tends to severely limit the games that can be played on it.

From past posts, we know he plays a Night Elf Huntress on World of Warcraft. :)

[LazarX]

James Jacobs wrote:

It's a 27" 2011 iMac.

3.1 GHz Intel Core i5 processor.
8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024 MB graphics card
2560 x 1440 built in display, with a 23-inch Cinema Display (1920 x 1200) off to the side as a 2nd screen
1 TB hard drive

What's your working use of the two displays? Do you put all your editing controls on the smaller screen? And what is your professional software kit? Adobe Creative Studio? QuarkXpress?

[xavier c]

do the god listen to each individual prayer how do they handle 100000 different prayers at the same time

[Rysky]

Found you an awesome Dinosaur Tattoo