Creative Director
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How do you picture the cult of Nurgal working and operating in Golarion, what are the goals and expectations of Nurgal for his cult, are there any places where he is worshiped in particular?
Beyond what I wrote about the cult in Lords of Chaos, I haven't actually done a lot of work developing or thinking about this demon lord. He's mostly worshiped in the northern deserts of Garund, but was a LOT more heavily worshiped back in Azlant. He was one of the core 20 deities of Azlant, in fact, if I recall correctly... their primary war god.
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Creative Director
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Dear JJ,
Lately some of us have been having a lengthy discussion involving arcane casters (particularly wizards) and healing. Clearly you folks at Paizo HQ haven't decided to simply throw open the healing spell floodgates for every caster, despite various exceptions, 'back door' tricks, and corner cases that allow arcane characters to heal.
But PF seems to lack any specific injunction against casters who want to research preexisting out-of-class spells in order to 'go against type.' I know that the 2e and 3.5 DMGs both specifically advise DMs to disallow spell research that would give clerics stuff like fireball and wizards stuff like cure wounds, and other DMGs probably have similar injunctions. Some fans are reading far into PF's omission of this injunction, so my question is: what did you folks intend?
1. Does PF also include this same injunction against 'going against type,' despite what others have told me?
2. Did you folks intentionally leave out the injunction, so that individual DMs feel more free to make their own call?
3. Or is it simply a case of "We didn't give it much thought because we figured the page space could be used for more fun/important stuff."
Thanks in advance!
1) What folks add to their games is up to them, frankly. I actually think that it's pretty cool if a GM adds and adjusts and changes things to suit their campaign, including making changes to who gets what kinds of spells. I do think that there's a value to NOT letting certain spellcasters research certain types of spells though... so in my games I wouldn't allow it. But not every game needs to be like my game.
2) Yes. It's up to individual GMs to make their calls.
3) Nope. GMs get to make that decision.
So, the point is that's needed to make differences between classes?
Sort of, yes. Without those differences, you'd just have a "spellcaster" class, and that's boring. It's more interesting to have recognizable roles, in the same way that it's important that fighting a barbarian should feel different than fighting a paladin.
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Creative Director
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Just got Inner Sea Combat, AND IT IS AWESOME! Thank you!
On that note, could Weapon Versitality be used to depict weapons with "add-ons" that deal different types of damage, like an axe with a spear-tip attached to the top of the haft (but as a one-handed weapon, not like a Halberd) or with a Halberd to make it like a poleaxe?
Don't thank me for that one; it was mostly Mark and his authors! I had very little to do with it apart from advice and approvals.
And yes, if you want it to, absolutely. If you're the GM, you get to make those kinds of calls. ;-)
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Creative Director
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Are you familiar with Folding@home? If so, do you know if there's a Paizo community team for it?
I'm not, but that's excellent!
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Creative Director
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James, I'm wondering, what do you think of Cathulhu?
I'm not really a fan. As a general rule, I'm not a fan of Lovecraft stuff that gets a little too comedic or silly or whimsical. The mix doesn't work for me.
Would it be fair to call a Dexterity-based fighter or rogue who worships Shelyn an artful dodger?
How do you picture the cult of Nurgal working and operating in Golarion, what are the goals and expectations of Nurgal for his cult, are there any places where he is worshiped in particular?Beyond what I wrote about the cult in Lords of Chaos, I haven't actually done a lot of work developing or thinking about this demon lord. He's mostly worshiped in the northern deserts of Garund, but was a LOT more heavily worshiped back in Azlant. He was one of the core 20 deities of Azlant, in fact, if I recall correctly... their primary war god.
Was he still a Demigod at that time? Do most "core pantheons" aside from the main inner sea one have demigods as major members?
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Creative Director
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Was he still a Demigod at that time? Do most "core pantheons" aside from the main inner sea one have demigods as major members?How do you picture the cult of Nurgal working and operating in Golarion, what are the goals and expectations of Nurgal for his cult, are there any places where he is worshiped in particular?Beyond what I wrote about the cult in Lords of Chaos, I haven't actually done a lot of work developing or thinking about this demon lord. He's mostly worshiped in the northern deserts of Garund, but was a LOT more heavily worshiped back in Azlant. He was one of the core 20 deities of Azlant, in fact, if I recall correctly... their primary war god.
He was more powerful at that time, but he was still a demigod. The inner sea pantheon has all deity-level gods... but that's not a rule. Azlant had a few demigods in there. Zura was there as well.
That said... it may be that the core 20 of Azlant didn't include Zura and Nurgal and the likes, but rather had them as commonly worshiped other gods.
Not sure yet, and I'm not ready to pin that down until the distant future if we DO nail down the core Azlanti deities of 10,000+ years ago.
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Creative Director
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1. How would you have a Mage Armor spell and Wall of Stone spell function when cast using Shadow Conjuration/Greater Shadow Conjuration/Shades ?
2. If the creator of a simulacrum dies and later comes back by resurrection spell/Lich's Rejuvenation/Mythic ability Immortal at 9th Tier or other such ability, does the creator regain full control automatically?
3. If a simulacrum of a Solar were created where would you start on converting it and which abilities would you remove or reduce ?
4. Can a Limited Wish spell duplicate a Plane Shift spell ?
5. Would a simulacrum of a Lich/Bloody Skeleton/Graveknight simply function as if they didn't have their respective Rejuvenation/Deathless power and would die permanently after being reduced to 0 hit points ?
6. Are simulacrum capable of reproduction ?
7. Is the telepathic communication from a Profane Gift (Succubus or otherwise) two-way or one-way and would it be limited to the same plane or across planes ?
8. Would a magic item that grants abilities when carried still grant those abilites when stored in a Glove of Storing ? Examples:Gun with No Name (Mythic Adventures)which grants immunity to scrying when carried or Legendary item with the Everlasting ability.
9. Can a weapon with the Called ability still be called when shrunk by a Glove of Storing ?
10. Would a Refuge and Instant Summons spell cast as a spell-like ability act simularly to the Mercane's Secret Chest ability ?
Where no material item is required to call the item all that is needed is to say the special word to discharge the spell ?
1) Mage armor would be only 1/5 as strong with shadow conjuraiotn, so it'd grant a +1 armor bonus. With greater shadow conjuration it'd go up to +2, and with shades up to +3. With wall of stone, the hardness and hit points of the wall created would be reduced, so greater shadow conjuration would create a wall of stone with hardness 5 and 10 hp per inch of thickness. Shades would make one with hardness 7 and 13 hp per inch.
2) Yes. It says "at all times" it remains under your control, and post-resurrection is a time, so once you come back to life, you'd regain control of your simulacrums.
3) That's a super complicated question. I'd probably start by rebuilding it at half HD and then remove any of its abilities and spells and the like that would feel outlandish for a creature of that halved CR though.
4) Only if it's duplicating the divine spellcaster version of plane shift.
5) I probably wouldn't allow those types of simulacrums simply because of that weird sort of complexity; a creature that must exist linked to something outside of itself (such as a lich or a graveknight) can't really exist without it, after all.
6) No.
7) It's two-way, as is all telepathy. Whether or not it works across planes depends on the source, but for a succubus, it specifically says "across any distance," which would by definition include across planes.
8) Yes, unless the ability granted required it to be manipulated or be visible or the like.
9) Yes.
10) More or less, yes.
Would a simulacrum have any awareness that it's creator died ? or would it just keep doing whatever it was doing last and slowly over time deviate to do it's own thing ?
Would it still have to fulfill any last orders it's creator gave?
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Creative Director
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Would a simulacrum have any awareness that it's creator died ? or would it just keep doing whatever it was doing last and slowly over time deviate to do it's own thing ?
Would it still have to fulfill any last orders it's creator gave?
The simulacrum gets to do what it wants when its creator dies, but I suspect most would keep doing what the creator wanted.
Contributor
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I always had you pegged as an Ultharian, James. Could a less whimsical, more Cat's Eye-ish game work - a horror story that reflects a pet's p.o.v?
Anyway, here's some Goblin Shark news.
Hi James,
what is an Otyugh able to do on aoo's?
There are tree possibilities:
1. Aoo
2. Aoo + grab + constrict
3. Aoo + grab + constrict + release
Not a question but you might like this. A T-Rex needs to eat a person every two days.
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Creative Director
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I always had you pegged as an Ultharian, James. Could a less whimsical, more Cat's Eye-ish game work - a horror story that reflects a pet's p.o.v?
Anyway, here's some Goblin Shark news.
I love "The Cats of Ulthar" and cats in general. But for RPGs, I prefer playing humans and humanoids.
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Creative Director
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Not a question but you might like this. A T-Rex needs to eat a person every two days.
Yup; sounds about right.
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Creative Director
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Can you give a simulacrum a unique appearanceNot really... that's not the point of the spell or the word.will What about hear color and eye color?
simulacrum means similarity or likeness/ to philosophers it means two kinds of image making which are a faithful reproduction, attempted to copy precisely the original or is intentionally distorted in order to give the copy an appearance pleasing to the viewer
Not really... you can change them afterwards, I guess, but remember... simulacrum is about making a copy of a creature, not a unique brand new creature. There are other spells for making brand new creatures... or entire classes, even.
I'd like to run the "Nascent Sphere" mythic campaign idea from Mythic Adventures for my group. What might be a good geographic location in Golarion to place the Nascent Sphere?
Thanks!
so I just found out reign of winter introduced the mighty Wolliped.
Can we hope to see more fantastic animals in the future? I've kind of missed that in the bestiaries so far. The most fantastic animals were always just unusually large versions of ordinary real world animals
James, I am interested to know.To date which AP (besides Mummy's Mask) sold the fewest number of units and why do you think it wasn't as popular as other APs?
Are there any creatures from first or second edition D&D that were not in the Tome of Horrors but is still open content?
Do simulacra dream of snow angels?
Do Simulacrum dream? If they dare to dream, can they arise as a Mythic Simulacrum, eventually gaining freedom from his master?
Not a question but you might like this. A T-Rex needs to eat a person every two days.Yup; sounds about right.
Glad you like it, here's some more dinosaurs. :)
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Creative Director
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I'd like to run the "Nascent Sphere" mythic campaign idea from Mythic Adventures for my group. What might be a good geographic location in Golarion to place the Nascent Sphere?
Thanks!
Dunno. I'm not sure what the Nascent Sphere is. (AKA: We publish more stuff than one creative director can read...)
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Creative Director
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so I just found out reign of winter introduced the mighty Wolliped.
Can we hope to see more fantastic animals in the future? I've kind of missed that in the bestiaries so far. The most fantastic animals were always just unusually large versions of ordinary real world animals
Now and then, as it makes sense, yes. AKA: when we do alien planet stuff.
There's some alien animals coming up in Iron Gods, for example.
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Creative Director
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James, I am interested to know.To date which AP (besides Mummy's Mask) sold the fewest number of units and why do you think it wasn't as popular as other APs?
We don't publicly discuss sales numbers... but I'm not sure "least units sold" = "least popular." Especially when subscriptions are involved. As a general rule, the "least units sold" is usually the most recent AP, only because it's new and hasn't been around as long as the ones that came before it.
But yeah... sales numbers aren't public.
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Creative Director
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Are there any creatures from first or second edition D&D that were not in the Tome of Horrors but is still open content?
Nope. Because open content didn't exist for 2nd edition.
There's certainly monsters in 2nd edition based on mythology or the like that are from public domain sources and as such can be recreated for Pathfinder as whatever... but that's not the same.
Well... I guess an exception is some of the critters in the Epic Level Handbook or the Expanded Psionics Guide.
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Creative Director
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What spells can make new creatures and classes?Not really... you can change them afterwards, I guess, but remember... simulacrum is about making a copy of a creature, not a unique brand new creature. There are other spells for making brand new creatures... or entire classes, even.Can you give a simulacrum a unique appearanceNot really... that's not the point of the spell or the word.will What about hear color and eye color?
simulacrum means similarity or likeness/ to philosophers it means two kinds of image making which are a faithful reproduction, attempted to copy precisely the original or is intentionally distorted in order to give the copy an appearance pleasing to the viewer
Wish. Miracle. Polymorph any object. Spells that haven't been invented yet. The summoner (The eidolon is all about creating unique brand-new creatures.)
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Creative Director
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Do simulacra dream of snow angels?Do Simulacrum dream? If they dare to dream, can they arise as a Mythic Simulacrum, eventually gaining freedom from his master?
They can dream. They cannot become mythic. I suppose a mythic version of simulacrum the spell could exist, and that could create mythic simulacra, but event hey would be limited to their creation and can't gain power.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
what is an Otyugh able to do on aoo's?
There are tree possibilities:1. Aoo
2. Aoo + grab + constrict
3. Aoo + grab + constrict + release
And noting the backlash and mayhem me answering this question caused over on the rules boards once again heightens my desire to not answer rules questions on this thread for a while.
And noting the backlash and mayhem me answering this question caused over on the rules boards once again heightens my desire to not answer rules questions on this thread for a while.Hi James,
what is an Otyugh able to do on aoo's?
There are tree possibilities:1. Aoo
2. Aoo + grab + constrict
3. Aoo + grab + constrict + release
It'll be okay, big guy. Just have a human smoothie and it'll be okay.
James, I am interested to know.To date which AP (besides Mummy's Mask) sold the fewest number of units and why do you think it wasn't as popular as other APs?
We don't publicly discuss sales numbers... but I'm not sure "least units sold" = "least popular." Especially when subscriptions are involved. As a general rule, the "least units sold" is usually the most recent AP, only because it's new and hasn't been around as long as the ones that came before it.
But yeah... sales numbers aren't public.
Interesting, but you guys have a way to gauge customer response to different products I'm sure. If so, was there a product you were involved with that didn't get the response you were expecting? If so what was the product?
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Creative Director
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Interesting, but you guys have a way to gauge customer response to different products I'm sure. If so, was there a product you were involved with that didn't get the response you were expecting? If so what was the product?James, I am interested to know.To date which AP (besides Mummy's Mask) sold the fewest number of units and why do you think it wasn't as popular as other APs?
We don't publicly discuss sales numbers... but I'm not sure "least units sold" = "least popular." Especially when subscriptions are involved. As a general rule, the "least units sold" is usually the most recent AP, only because it's new and hasn't been around as long as the ones that came before it.
But yeah... sales numbers aren't public.
We have several ways to gauge customer response. Feedback on these boards and reviews are not insignificant, and are the most public of them.
At this point, I'd say the penultimate Wrath of the Righteous got a response I wasn't expecting—folks focused WAY too much on how Iomedae treats troublemakers and disrespectful PCs and lost sight of the big picture, in my opinion, but I also took away from that the idea that I need to be more plain in describing some stuff in print.