Alright, it seems you missed my question. I guess I'll repost.
"Am I right in assuming that undead would not rot because of the negative energy coursing through their body (and thus killing bacteria and scavengers)"
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5) James, have you run or played in AP#14, Children of the Void?
There's a really awesome dynamic battle where ** spoiler omitted **
I haven't run it or played it, but I did work with Mike (the author) on how to set that scene up and helped him brainstorm it and several other encounters in the adventure, and I did develop the whole adventure, so I'm pretty familiar with it. ;-)
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Seriously? You're going with "It's magic!"? That's right up there with prophecy. From this and other answers you’ve given, I get the impression you seem to care about Story! more than plausibility. Don’t you think plausibility is important for a story to be appreciated? I can accept alternate physical laws being modded onto a primary baseline (i.e., magic), but there has to be a reason besides “we’re scared of the min-maxers!” for a venerable-aged human to not get attribute bonuses because they didn’t tough out their senescence.
Though admittedly, waiting until venerable age is more economical…
I do care about story.
I also care about simplicity.
Sometimes, one wins over the other.
And when it comes to fountains of youth and similar things... arguing for "plausibility" starts getting some shaky legs.
Frankly, the aging rules are pretty shaky as it stands, if you ask my opinion—increases to mental stats don't really model senility or the like quite well at all, and there's a lot of really strong, healthy, or agile elderly folks out there.
Also frankly, I think that if you want to handle the additional complexities to the paperwork of keeping track of your character's real age and the character's apparent age to figure out when those age categories WOULD have kicked in... I'd be fine with that too. For me, for sake of ease for editing and the like, I prefer not to.
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Alright, it seems you missed my question. I guess I'll repost.
"Am I right in assuming that undead would not rot because of the negative energy coursing through their body (and thus killing bacteria and scavengers)"
Undead actually recover from damage after resting, just like living creatures, unless they have no Int score, in which case they don't heal on their own.
An undead that heals on its own recovers from the rot and decay caused by bacteria and the like; it remains in a sort of balance thanks to its supernatural metabolism.
An undead that doesn't have an Int and thus can't recover from its own damage would decay over time. Probably a bit more slowly than a normal corpse, but that's mostly because of the importance for encounter design that often requires a room filled with zombies to remain an encounter after the passage of time.
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Hello James! Well in inner sea magic it mentions the Oenopion Fleshforges(nex) do fleshwarping but they are never really mentioned elsewhere. In bestiary 4 is treated like an exclusively monstrous thing. What is up with this? Is one or the other in error? :( I like human fleshwarpers. BTW is it "always evil"? The lesser variant?(with temporary modifications...I think called fleshcrafting) Also is it possible for a fleshwarper to create different combinations other than the normal ones? For instance a drow turned into a new creature instead of a drider by some high priest of haagenti or whatever.
Fleshwarping is indeed something that's mostly a bad-guy thing. The fleshwarping in Bestiary 4 is mostly stuff that comes from the drow or Thassilon. Its inspiration is in roots of things like David Cronenberg movies or the comic-book mutations you see inn post-apocalyptic settings—they're creatures spawned from the genre of "body horror" and aren't really intended to be viable or normal or common PC options.
Fleshwarping isn't inherently evil in and of itself, usually, but it IS associated with lots of pain stuff (which IS generally evil) and is practiced generally by evil NPCs in evil societies.
The drow fleshwarps are what they are; part of the nature of that particular process is that applying it to a race will always result in that race's fleshwarp. Note: this is DIFFERENT than the stuff going on in the Oenopion Fleshforges—that's not an area of fleshwarping we've actually done much with at all.
Seriously? You're going with "It's magic!"? That's right up there with prophecy. From this and other answers you’ve given, I get the impression you seem to care about Story! more than plausibility. [...]
[...]
Frankly, the aging rules are pretty shaky as it stands, if you ask my opinion—increases to mental stats don't really model senility or the like quite well at all, and there's a lot of really strong, healthy, or agile elderly folks out there.
Yeah, "plausibility" and "PF/D&D aging rules" aren't concepts that go together for me. :)
See also this comic.
Hello James! Well in inner sea magic it mentions the Oenopion Fleshforges(nex) do fleshwarping but they are never really mentioned elsewhere. In bestiary 4 is treated like an exclusively monstrous thing. What is up with this? Is one or the other in error? :( I like human fleshwarpers. BTW is it "always evil"? The lesser variant?(with temporary modifications...I think called fleshcrafting) Also is it possible for a fleshwarper to create different combinations other than the normal ones? For instance a drow turned into a new creature instead of a drider by some high priest of haagenti or whatever.
Fleshwarping is indeed something that's mostly a bad-guy thing. The fleshwarping in Bestiary 4 is mostly stuff that comes from the drow or Thassilon. Its inspiration is in roots of things like David Cronenberg movies or the comic-book mutations you see inn post-apocalyptic settings—they're creatures spawned from the genre of "body horror" and aren't really intended to be viable or normal or common PC options.
Fleshwarping isn't inherently evil in and of itself, usually, but it IS associated with lots of pain stuff (which IS generally evil) and is practiced generally by evil NPCs in evil societies.
The drow fleshwarps are what they are; part of the nature of that particular process is that applying it to a race will always result in that race's fleshwarp. Note: this is DIFFERENT than the stuff going on in the Oenopion Fleshforges—that's not an area of fleshwarping we've actually done much with at all.
I want more! The beastmorph alchemist is probably the best fit as it is for a PC who fleshwarps himself but it is not perfect. Love the idea of a character who looks at how outclassed humans are compared to the dangers of the road and tries to assimilate those dangerous monsters abilities.edit:also thanks for the long answer!
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You said that Mythic Tier are more powerful then you originally thought has this changed the way you view. Mythic characters or has this changed the way you guys determine a Mythic character's CR level?
CR is not something that should ever be associated with a player character. CR is only a number associated with an NPC or monster.
In the end, a creature's CR should fall in on the Table 1–1 expectations, and going forward I'll be more likely to use that to assign ad-hoc CR scores that are more accurate rather than rely on a "doesn't leave room for variation" equation.
In the Dragon Empires Gazetteer it says that Gnomes and Wayangs don't get along. In fact it says "when gnomes and wayangs meet, insults and even violence are common results."
I haven't been able to find an explanation for this animosity between the two races, maybe it was left out? Would love to hear more about it.
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In the Dragon Empires Gazetteer it says that Gnomes and Wayangs don't get along. In fact it says "when gnomes and wayangs meet, insults and even violence are common results."
I haven't been able to find an explanation for this animosity between the two races, maybe it was left out? Would love to hear more about it.
In a lot of ways, the First World and the Plane of Shadow are opposites—they're like mirror reflections of each other on opposite sides of the Material Plane.
Gnomes trace their lineage to the First World, while the wayangs trace it to the Plane of Shadow.
That should get folks thinking in the right direction. We haven't had much more to say about the two races and their interactions yet though.
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What would the Alignment be of someone who forcefully redeems evil creatures to good by using force or powerful magic?
You can't forcefully redeem an evil creature. You can charm/dominate them into doing good things, but that doesn't redeem them; that just enslaves them. I suspect that the best alignment to match that would be lawful good.
Actually redeeming them is all about convincing the evil creatures to make the choice to become good using their own free will. Any of the good alignments can do that.
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1) Where would you put the line between a monstrous humanoid and a humanoid-shaped aberration, generally? They seem pretty similar in many respects, so I'm curious as to what you feel distinguishes them from each other...
2) What's the first monster that springs to mind for you for each alignment (LG, NG, CG, LN, N, CN, LE, NE, CE)? Just off the top of your head.
3) What was one of your favorite books for 3rd Edition D&D (or 3.5), and what did you like about it?
1) That's not a line. It's a wiggly path. It really comes down to a combination of how weird the creature looks combined with how supernatural it is. The weirder and more supernatural and more spell-like abilities it gets, or the less it's a physical bruiser and more of a manipulator or ambusher or creeper, the more likely it'll end up an aberration. But in the end, it's an ad-hoc decision made for aesthetic purposes and/or to keep the balance overall in the product variable as far as monster types.
2) LG Couatl
NG Phoenix
CG Lillend
LN Marut
N Froghemoth
CN Chaos Beast
LE Pit Fiend
NE Night Hag
CE Succubus
3) The Monster Manual, because it brought demons back to D&D.
Hey James,
-You mentioned somewhere that Unspeakable Futures takes place on our world after some catastrophe. do you let your players know it's set on post-apocalyptic Earth or do you slowly reveal that facet of the setting (ie ending of Planet of the Apes) as time goes on? Is it even called Earth in-game? I dunno if you're familiar with Adventure Time's backstory, but I really like the idea of our modern age being considered the "work of the ancients" by the survivors of some great catastrophe many centuries in the future.
-have you ever played cross-gendered characters (ie playing a character whose gender is different from your irl one)? If so, why? I have the fortune of playing with folks who don't really have a problem with what my in-game gender is, but I've heard a story of a GM at PFS who demanded to a player he didn't know to change his characters gender to male because he's "had to deal with shenanigans involving people playing opposite-gender characters in the past"; I'm positive I'd never game with that kind of GM, especially at Society.
The plot-line of the first campaign I ran for Unspeakable Futures about a decade ago (oof) was about the PCs slowly discovering and finding out just what happened to bring about the apocalypse... but the players knew it was set on Earth. They didn't know exactly where it was set for a bit, but that started to become clear once folks started the hexploration of the region and discovering locations and ruins and the like.
It's called Earth in game. In fact, Gaia worship is the fundamental core of one of the 9 character classes. But languages and religions in the world are the same as they are now, more or less.
The game itself is only set about 50 years or so after the apocalypse, so there's still lots of oral history and even a few survivors out there who remember the old world.
And I think you just gave me quite a few ideas. Thanks!
One other question: What's the main human ethnicity in Alkenstar? I'm gonna guess Garundi, but what's the primary language after Taldane?
Will we ever get more on Ihys than the brief mentions in Occult Mysteries and the story in Book of the Damned? That whole conflict is really interesting to me.
What do you think of monsters that have specific weaknesses to certain tactics?
For instance, a monster with a mechanic that allows for attacks that deal precision damage to deal additional damage/bypass DR?
Or they take bonus damage when flanked?
Or something like when subject to a sneak attack, they take additional damage equal to the number of sneak attack dice?
Just examples of possible 'weaknesses' to different tactics.
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What would the Alignment be of someone who forcefully redeems evil creatures to good by using force or powerful magic?You can't forcefully redeem an evil creature. You can charm/dominate them into doing good things, but that doesn't redeem them; that just enslaves them. I suspect that the best alignment to match that would be lawful good.
Actually redeeming them is all about convincing the evil creatures to make the choice to become good using their own free will. Any of the good alignments can do that.
Can a Miracle or wish do it? or are there any spells that fill a creature with regret or remorse for all there evil deeds
what about creatures with the evil subtype(they cant change there Alignment naturally)can a Miracle or wish change there Alignment?
Atonement helps to facilitate things, so a miracle or wish used to duplicate atonement would certainly help.
You can't force a creature to redeem itself though. That's missing the point.
Creatures with the evil subtype can be redeemed as well—see Wrath of the Righteous. No miracles or wishes needed, just exceptional circumstances required.
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What do you think of monsters that have specific weaknesses to certain tactics?
For instance, a monster with a mechanic that allows for attacks that deal precision damage to deal additional damage/bypass DR?
Or they take bonus damage when flanked?
Or something like when subject to a sneak attack, they take additional damage equal to the number of sneak attack dice?
Just examples of possible 'weaknesses' to different tactics.
I think that's sound game design. Monsters that reward special tactics are good for the game, ESPECIALLY if they bolster normally sub-optimal tactics.
See Robots as an example; in order to keep robot versions of constructs from being too powerful once they gain feats and skills we gave them a few disadvantages.
What would the Alignment be of someone who forcefully redeems evil creatures to good by using force or powerful magic?You can't forcefully redeem an evil creature. You can charm/dominate them into doing good things, but that doesn't redeem them; that just enslaves them. I suspect that the best alignment to match that would be lawful good.
Actually redeeming them is all about convincing the evil creatures to make the choice to become good using their own free will. Any of the good alignments can do that.
Can a Miracle or wish do it? or are there any spells that fill a creature with regret or remorse for all there evil deeds
what about creatures with the evil subtype(they cant change there Alignment naturally)can a Miracle or wish change there Alignment?
Atonement helps to facilitate things, so a miracle or wish used to duplicate atonement would certainly help.
You can't force a creature to redeem itself though. That's missing the point.
Creatures with the evil subtype can be redeemed as well—see Wrath of the Righteous. No miracles or wishes needed, just exceptional circumstances required.
Xavier, you might be interested in reading The Redemption Engine. "Forced redemption" is the central plot point.
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Huh. Given your past experience with the Four-Armed Render I figured you would have chosen the latter.Charau-ka.What is more Evil, a Charu-ka or a Girallion?What are the first three jungle type monsters that come to mind?Charu-ka
Kongomato
Moklele-mbembe
When you ask about "evil," my brain doesn't interpret that as "Mean" or "Unfair." It interprets it as the alignment. And girallons are neutral, whereas the charau-ka are chaotic evil demon worshipers.
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Is there a Shadow reflection of the City of Absalom in the Plane of Shadow, and if so, does it also contain reflections of the Pathfinder Society and the Starstone Cathedral, or is there just a Broken Pattern within said cathedral? :)
Unrevealed. But probably not. Shadow reflections aren't exact.
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What are exceptional circumstances?What would the Alignment be of someone who forcefully redeems evil creatures to good by using force or powerful magic?You can't forcefully redeem an evil creature. You can charm/dominate them into doing good things, but that doesn't redeem them; that just enslaves them. I suspect that the best alignment to match that would be lawful good.
Actually redeeming them is all about convincing the evil creatures to make the choice to become good using their own free will. Any of the good alignments can do that.
Can a Miracle or wish do it? or are there any spells that fill a creature with regret or remorse for all there evil deeds
what about creatures with the evil subtype(they cant change there Alignment naturally)can a Miracle or wish change there Alignment?
Atonement helps to facilitate things, so a miracle or wish used to duplicate atonement would certainly help.
You can't force a creature to redeem itself though. That's missing the point.
Creatures with the evil subtype can be redeemed as well—see Wrath of the Righteous. No miracles or wishes needed, just exceptional circumstances required.
Exceptional circumstances are like those that appear in Wrath of the Righteous. Situations unusual enough that they need and demand a significant story element/involvement in a campaign.
Xavier, you might be interested in reading The Redemption Engine. "Forced redemption" is the central plot point.What would the Alignment be of someone who forcefully redeems evil creatures to good by using force or powerful magic?You can't forcefully redeem an evil creature. You can charm/dominate them into doing good things, but that doesn't redeem them; that just enslaves them. I suspect that the best alignment to match that would be lawful good.
Actually redeeming them is all about convincing the evil creatures to make the choice to become good using their own free will. Any of the good alignments can do that.
Can a Miracle or wish do it? or are there any spells that fill a creature with regret or remorse for all there evil deeds
what about creatures with the evil subtype(they cant change there Alignment naturally)can a Miracle or wish change there Alignment?
Atonement helps to facilitate things, so a miracle or wish used to duplicate atonement would certainly help.
You can't force a creature to redeem itself though. That's missing the point.
Creatures with the evil subtype can be redeemed as well—see Wrath of the Righteous. No miracles or wishes needed, just exceptional circumstances required.
Thank you, Ross! Yeah, this exact question is the heart of Pathfinder Tales: The Redemption Engine. :D
In the Dragon Empires Gazetteer it says that Gnomes and Wayangs don't get along. In fact it says "when gnomes and wayangs meet, insults and even violence are common results."
I haven't been able to find an explanation for this animosity between the two races, maybe it was left out? Would love to hear more about it.
In a lot of ways, the First World and the Plane of Shadow are opposites—they're like mirror reflections of each other on opposite sides of the Material Plane.
Gnomes trace their lineage to the First World, while the wayangs trace it to the Plane of Shadow.
That should get folks thinking in the right direction. We haven't had much more to say about the two races and their interactions yet though.
See I get the feeling that just saying they hate each other just because they're Shadow Plane and First World is opening up a can of worms, just how far does this go?
What about Fetchlings? What about Gathlain? What about the various shadow and fey creatures? Do they all instinctual hate each other? Should we expect Fey and Shadow bloodline sorcerers to not get along?You don't have to answer those questions, they're just things I can see my players asking. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with for the two races in the future though. Thank you.
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How about tricking one into wearing a helm of opposite alignment? ;)Exceptional circumstances are like those that appear in Wrath of the Righteous. Situations unusual enough that they need and demand a significant story element/involvement in a campaign.
What are exceptional circumstances?
Sutter and I were just talking about that.
That's not redemption. But it is certainly a gateway into redemption. I'd say that at some point after the alignment change, the victim should be given a choice to go back or stay the new alignment, and if he chooses to stay that alignment, then redemption happens.
There's also some pretty detailed rules for redemption in the Wrath of the Righteous player's guide (Picked up from Champions of Purity, I believe...).
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In the Dragon Empires Gazetteer it says that Gnomes and Wayangs don't get along. In fact it says "when gnomes and wayangs meet, insults and even violence are common results."
I haven't been able to find an explanation for this animosity between the two races, maybe it was left out? Would love to hear more about it.
In a lot of ways, the First World and the Plane of Shadow are opposites—they're like mirror reflections of each other on opposite sides of the Material Plane.
Gnomes trace their lineage to the First World, while the wayangs trace it to the Plane of Shadow.
That should get folks thinking in the right direction. We haven't had much more to say about the two races and their interactions yet though.
See I get the feeling that just saying they hate each other just because they're Shadow Plane and First World is opening up a can of worms, just how far does this go?
What about Fetchlings? What about Gathlain? What about the various shadow and fey creatures? Do they all instinctual hate each other? Should we expect Fey and Shadow bloodline sorcerers to not get along?You don't have to answer those questions, they're just things I can see my players asking. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with for the two races in the future though. Thank you.
It'll go as far as we want it to... which is pretty far... but I'm not ready to start exploring that relationship yet. Gnomes and wayangs are generally separated by thousands and thousands of miles; they don't interact that often. Furthermore, exploring the FIrst World and Plane of Shadow and their relationship is VERY interesting and filled with neat possibility... it's not something I'm ready to get into here in this thread. We'll have more to say about it eventually, though, I promise.
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It'll go as far as we want it to... which is pretty far... but I'm not ready to start exploring that relationship yet. Gnomes and wayangs are generally separated by thousands and thousands of miles; they don't interact that often. Furthermore, exploring the FIrst World and Plane of Shadow and their relationship is VERY interesting and filled with neat possibility... it's not something I'm ready to get into here in this thread. We'll have more to say about it eventually, though, I promise.
Both races are neat in that they are more-or-less unwelcome visitors to Golarion, whose ties to their original planes manifest in the obsession with Dissolution, for one, and the Bleaching, for the other.
Would it be accurate to assume that, as the gnomes find Golarion to be kind of pale and flavorless and muted, by comparison to the riotous energy and vibrancy of the First World, many wayang find Golarion to be too-bright, too-hot, too-loud, too-emotional and too-excitable/feverish, by comparison to their own quiet and dim and shadowy home plane?
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Would it be accurate to assume that, as the gnomes find Golarion to be kind of pale and flavorless and muted, by comparison to the riotous energy and vibrancy of the First World, many wayang find Golarion to be too-bright, too-hot, too-loud, too-emotional and too-excitable/feverish, by comparison to their own quiet and dim and shadowy home plane?
Probably.