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What was the reason for making sunder, disarm, and trip attacks that can be used in place of an attack of opportunity vs the other combat manuevers? Which ones were chosen because it made sense and because of balance.


James Jacobs wrote:
xavier c wrote:

1)What do you think of a slavery in the inner sea book?

2)can a cleric be a hermit? and what would Shelyn or Abadar or Sarenrae think of one of there cleric being a hermit?

3)would Abadar support or be okay with one of his clerics owning a brothel?

4)would Sarenrae support or be okay with one of his clerics owning a brothel?

5)would Iomedae support or be okay with one of his clerics owning a brothel?

6)what 5 gods would support or be okay with one of there clerics owning a brothel where he/she would summon outsider prostitutes?

7)Have you given up on that romance of the inner sea book?

1) I'm not sure what you're asking here?

2) Yes. They would approve as long as said hermit was still faithful. Abadar less so.

3) Yes.

4) Yes, as long as the employees were fairly treated and protected and

5) Yes, as long as ownership was legal in the region, the employees were fairly treated and protected, and said ownership didn't impact other duties.

6) Norgorber, Abadar, Calistria, Cayden Cailean, and Asmodeus.

7) No, but our schedule is such that we work over a year into the future on certain lines, and we haven't yet come up to the next cycle of determining what books to do next. It'll take a fair amount of time, is what I'm saying, to even get to a point where we can start talking in-house about a book like that, and we won't discuss it outside of Paizo even when we do since we don't broadcast our plans like that so far in advance.

1)What do you think of a Campaign Setting book about slavery in the inner sea

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Noctani wrote:
What was the reason for making sunder, disarm, and trip attacks that can be used in place of an attack of opportunity vs the other combat manuevers? Which ones were chosen because it made sense and because of balance.

Not sure; that's a question for Jason.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

xavier c wrote:
1)What do you think of a Campaign Setting book about slavery in the inner sea

Sounds too limited in scope to be interesting.

I'd rather do something about fighting slavers than spend 64 pages talking about them.


James Jacobs wrote:
xavier c wrote:
1)What do you think of a Campaign Setting book about slavery in the inner sea

Sounds too limited in scope to be interesting.

I'd rather do something about fighting slavers than spend 64 pages talking about them.

What about a 64 page book talking about the 'dark side' of the Inner Sea? Like the slave trade, or drug trade and stuff like that?


Hansj wrote:
Wait - "can an eidolon take advantage of their summoner while the summoner has the dazed condition so the eidolon and the summoner have children" - would that add enough trolling?
James Jacobs wrote:
And a summoner who takes advantage of their eidolon in that way can indeed do so, but without the eidolon's consent, that's a chaotic evil act and it should have immediate alignment repercussions.

Umm... James? I think the question was the other way round, about the Eidolon taking advantage of their Summoner...

*ducks*


I'm not sure how much (if at all) you watch anime series, so:

1) How much, if at all, do you watch anime?

(Assuming you do. If not, is there a particular reason why not?)

2) What sort? Fantasy, sci-fi, or whatever.

3) Is there a series you particularly like?


Are "Must select X from Y" altering, changing, or replacing the ability for archetypes? What about if the class itself does that? Two situations I can see this coming up:

Pistolero+Gun Scavenger:
Pistolero Gunsmithing says you must take a pistol, while Gun scavenger obviously changes Gunsmithing.

Is the must take a pistol a change or a poke to the direction?

Cavalier: Order of the Paw + Beast Rider:
Order of the Paw (Order, class ability) makes you to choose a dog or wolf as the mount. Beast Rider changes and replaces the Mount Ability. Is the Order of the Paw's Mount ability still the original mount ability that could be replaced or is it something else?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Voltron64 wrote:
Will we ever get to see Magus stats for Seltyiel?
I suppose eventually, yes. Not sure where or when though. It's not high on anyone's to-do list as far as I know, unless they're pushing to get stats for all of the iconics out for PFS play, which is a question for Mike and John, not me.

A number of the existing iconics never got approved for PFS play, the Alchemist, the Magus, the Witch, the Summoner, are the ones off of the top of my hat that still don't have approved pre-gens. It would not suprise me if not all, or possibly not any of the ACG classes make the cut.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

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James Jacobs wrote:
Ross Byers wrote:

The modern Abyss can be likened to a bottomless pit - Level after level of increasingly inhospitable insanity, spewing demons and corrupting into the maelstrom. That is, it has only one endpoint.

But what was the Abyss like before it erupted into the Maelstrom?

An infinite tube? (And if so, what happened to the other 'half' when part of it because the 'top'?)

A loop or ouroboros? If so, does that mean the Abyss has a bottom somewhere from where the loop was broken?

Or has it always been a gaping maw with an infinite digestive track, consuming one plane at a time? (Meaning that it and the qlippoth digested a different multiverse before breaking through into ours.)

In Golarion's Great Beyond, there IS a bottom to the Abyss. No one knows what's down there below the qlippoth for sure though. But the thing that defines the outer planes for our game is that they're overwhelmingly vast... yet for all that vastness, finite in size.

Interesting. Now I have an image in my head of the Abyss emerging into the Maelstrom as the result of the Qlippoth equivalent to the Quest for Sky. Thanks!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Tels wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
xavier c wrote:
1)What do you think of a Campaign Setting book about slavery in the inner sea

Sounds too limited in scope to be interesting.

I'd rather do something about fighting slavers than spend 64 pages talking about them.

What about a 64 page book talking about the 'dark side' of the Inner Sea? Like the slave trade, or drug trade and stuff like that?

That would be more interesting.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Midnight_Angel wrote:
Hansj wrote:
Wait - "can an eidolon take advantage of their summoner while the summoner has the dazed condition so the eidolon and the summoner have children" - would that add enough trolling?
James Jacobs wrote:
And a summoner who takes advantage of their eidolon in that way can indeed do so, but without the eidolon's consent, that's a chaotic evil act and it should have immediate alignment repercussions.

Umm... James? I think the question was the other way round, about the Eidolon taking advantage of their Summoner...

*ducks*

Wouldn't change my answer.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Alleran wrote:

I'm not sure how much (if at all) you watch anime series, so:

1) How much, if at all, do you watch anime?

(Assuming you do. If not, is there a particular reason why not?)

2) What sort? Fantasy, sci-fi, or whatever.

3) Is there a series you particularly like?

1) Barely at all, because I've got a pretty full entertainment schedule already consisting of other stuff.

2) I prefer horror.

3) Haven't watched enough to have a favorite series.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kaapelikala wrote:

Are "Must select X from Y" altering, changing, or replacing the ability for archetypes? What about if the class itself does that? Two situations I can see this coming up:

Pistolero+Gun Scavenger:
Pistolero Gunsmithing says you must take a pistol, while Gun scavenger obviously changes Gunsmithing.

Is the must take a pistol a change or a poke to the direction?

Cavalier: Order of the Paw + Beast Rider:
Order of the Paw (Order, class ability) makes you to choose a dog or wolf as the mount. Beast Rider changes and replaces the Mount Ability. Is the Order of the Paw's Mount ability still the original mount ability that could be replaced or is it something else?

If they clash in any way, you can't take both. Unless the GM says it's okay. Archetypes aren't intended to be things you can get a lot of.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

LazarX wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Voltron64 wrote:
Will we ever get to see Magus stats for Seltyiel?
I suppose eventually, yes. Not sure where or when though. It's not high on anyone's to-do list as far as I know, unless they're pushing to get stats for all of the iconics out for PFS play, which is a question for Mike and John, not me.
A number of the existing iconics never got approved for PFS play, the Alchemist, the Magus, the Witch, the Summoner, are the ones off of the top of my hat that still don't have approved pre-gens. It would not suprise me if not all, or possibly not any of the ACG classes make the cut.

That's pretty much only because building stats for iconics takes a LOT of time, and if there's one thing the PFS folks don't have, it's time. The ravenous appetite for scenarios more or less has them working beyond capacity already. Has nothing to do with PFS not liking those classes, and a lot to do with the demand for MORE ADVENTURES!!!! that we keep hearing.


do the people of Nex still eat Ghorans? Do Ghorans have rights? Are they allowed to leave?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

ikarinokami wrote:

do the people of Nex still eat Ghorans? Do Ghorans have rights? Are they allowed to leave?

Some do. Not a lot. Not really.


Question our dear Tyrant Lizard King,
Is Obsidian Be Developing a Pathfinder Video Game?

Apparently, Adam posted something on facebook that hints at this

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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RHMG Animator wrote:

Question our dear Tyrant Lizard King,

Is Obsidian Be Developing a Pathfinder Video Game?

Apparently, Adam posted something on facebook that hints at this

Interesting photo, isn't it?

Stay tuned! :-D


I'll take that as a Yes.
Sweet, a new RPG to play.

Can you release any small tidbits of info here?

Guessing the cat got out of the bag a bit earlier than expected?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

RHMG Animator wrote:

I'll take that as a Yes.

Sweet, a new RPG to play.

Can you release any small tidbits of info here?

Guessing the cat got out of the bag a bit earlier than expected?

Not yet... but it's out of the bag as much as we expected it to be. A giant banner is hard to miss.


What kind of hammer would Thor's hammer Mjolnir be considered to be stat-wise?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

What was your favorite of Robin Williams' roles?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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I'd stat it up as an artifact warhammer with, among other things, the throwing and returning abilities.


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Can a Valkyrie choose a Xanthos for a mount ?

Can a Valkyrie use her Plane Shift ability while in a Howdah ?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Shadow_Charlatan wrote:

Can a Valkyrie choose a Xanthos for a mount ?

Can a Valkyrie use her Plane Shift ability while in a Howdah ?

Valkyries are free to utilize whatever mount they can get ahold of.

Yes, but anyone other than herself in the howdah gets left behind.

Shadow Lodge

How do ghorans taste?? I am hungry

Shadow Lodge

will a ghoran mind if I take a little nibble???

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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equinoxmaster wrote:
How do ghorans taste?? I am hungry

Like watermelon.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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equinoxmaster wrote:
will a ghoran mind if I take a little nibble???

I suspect so.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Misroi wrote:
What was your favorite of Robin Williams' roles?

The serial killer from Insomnia.


Since I am in possession of a quasit familiar, and I am not particularly inclined to be transformed into a writhing soul larvae and carried into the depths of the Abyss by my quasit so that he can rise in demon society by trading me to a more powerful demon should I end up dying, do you think a soul gem would provide a sufficient stand-in for my soul? I have a dragon soul gem on hand I acquired(don't ask). Do you think he would take that instead of...well...my soul? I kind of need my soul, and it would be kind of hard for the party cleric to resurrect me when I'm being traded off in the Abyss, unless he zombified me.


Hello again James!

Doing some prepwork for my next session and got intrigued by the Xill and wanted to use them. Started researching the Ethereal plane, their home, and got some basic information. Very misty, can peer into the shadow or material planes as if through a pane of glass, no gravity, etc.

My questions for you regard a bit more detail on it. Are there structures there and what sort would Xill inhabit? With no gravity how do most things get around on it? Guess I'm mostly having some trouble on picturing how it would work so some of your own interpretations on it would be a big help!

Thanks for your time!


Browsing through the Blood of Angels book, I noticed that among the variant aasimar abilities is this:

"You can channel 1d6 points of positive energy once per day as a supernatural ability."

1) Was that intended to work like the channel energy class feature (except it's only 1/day, obviously)?

1a) Would you allow feats or items (e.g. phylactery of positive channeling for +2d6, or Extra Channel for more per day) that improve channel energy to work with it?

2) Do you have to choose between healing others and harming undead when you use it?

3) It's a supernatural ability, so is the DC, I assume, supposed to scale off your Hit Dice?

Shadow Lodge

where in the inner sea would arcanists come from?


1) Have you seen QuickDraw?
it's on Hulu if you haven't, a great show


1) What are the chances of F. Wesley Schneider checking up on the server room when the ACG download goes live and then being dramatically hurled through the air in slow-mo when the servers explode from overheating (but it's a 2009 Sherlock Holmes explosion so he's okay)?

2) But seriously, do you think the servers will crash?


Hi James,
I'm building a half-orc sorcerer who fled Belkzen (I guess being a witch-doctor didn't work out? Still working on the backstory) and ended up in Kaer Maga. His AC is pretty abysmal, so I was thinking about picking up a haramaki. My question is, would it make sense for him to have acquired one, such as a crude orcish approximation? Or am I grasping at straws to get armor without arcane failure or a check penalty?


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Good evening James! Hope all is well. Just a few questions I've been thinking on...

1. If someone encountered a disease that made their soul sick, would it be a fortitude save or a will save to not contract it?
2. Which creature type do you find is the most difficult to design a new creature for?
3. Do you have a favorite wondrous item?
4. Do the four Horsemen gain abilities from being in their realms like demon lords do in theirs?
5. Is there any paizo created race (like Aeons, Daemons, etc.) that you were surprised with how the community took to them?
6. How far south does it snow in Avistan? Not including mountaintops.
7. Seeing as Asmodeus isn't really worshipped in Tian Xia in any large capacity, are devils measurably rarer there than in the Inner Sea Region?
This last question has potential spoilers (I think), so allow me to pop it into a tab…

Potential Spoiler:

8. After reading through Mythic Realms and then Wake of the Watcher, I noticed what I think is a correlation. Is Xhamen-Dor the thing that is making Goroyasa the way it is today? His entry in AP46 and the Goroyasa info seem to match up…

Best of luck at Gen Con!


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Someone shared this on Facebook: If Gamers wrote about cookbooks like they do RPG books.

Radiant Oath

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Starting off, I just got my copy of Fires of Creation, and I must say it's a real tour-de-force. I was initially skeptical of Iron Gods and Numeria in general, but now I'm absolutely hooked and can't wait to see the rest of it! You guyz are awesomesausages!

Now that I've got that out of the way, on to questions:

1) What do you imagine the Sarkorian "deity" summoned by the god-callers of Clan Neverhome, Sturovenen the Dragoneagle and his dawn-feathered children, look like? Fluffy dragons? Scaly eagles? Coatls? Archaeopteryxes?

2) I know the new shaman class is at its base a hybrid of oracle and witch, but do people become shamans "randomly" like oracles, or do you HAVE to learn how to be a shaman like a cleric would? I get the idea that oracles are spontaneously produced, and an oracle may never know who gave him/her this power and why, but witches DO seek to learn and make a pact with an otherworldly entity to draw their power. So where do shamans fall on that continuum?

3) Since Shamans technically get familiars through their spirit animal features, will they be able to get Improved Familiars too? I think a shaman with a badass-adorable little pseudodragon would be REALLY AWESOME!

4) Is there a way to play someone who worships Gorum besides "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOOOOODDDDD!!!" Because Gorum's all-fighting-all-the-time, I find it hard to imagine Gorumites as anything but axe-crazy.

5) On that note, who would be a good deity to write on the sheet of a LN mercenary: someone who follows contracts and sticks with them, and prefers orderly formations of soldiers and tactics, but whose business is war and conflict? Abadar's views value peace and stability more, and Asmodeus, while a patron of contracts, seems too mystical.

6) What would you say is the scarier of two horror setups: Where the horrific events occuring are a response to some covered up or repressed truth and forcing people to confront it is what makes it stop, or where there's just no real reason for the horrific thing to have happened and its victims were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the thing either wins or simply loses interest and disappears?

Silver Crusade

An interesting proposition, dontcha think?

Shadow Lodge

Spoiler:
What year did Alder Vishki, Sandru's little brother and Ameiko's love interest die?


Spells added from other books and expansions such as the advanced classes guide or similar, will Cleric spells be considered also being added to the spell pool of the Oracle?


I read "The River of Souls" article in Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh, and have questions.

So fey born in the First World have souls now, not only the ones born on the Material Plane? And new souls pass through it. Does this mean the First World is no longer treated as "behind" the Material Plane, outside of the modern multiverse?

If soul energy is recycled by the Maelstrom and the Antipode, will Pharasma's end, when the last soul is judged, ever come?

What happens to the raw power of souls destroyed by daemons or other means of soul consumption? Most daemons don't appear to be drastically increasing in power as if they had absorbed it all. Is it eliminated from the multiverse, eventually draining the River of Souls dry, as the daemons seem to hope? Or does digested soulstuff merge with Abaddon, potentially still being recycled by the Maelstrom?

Does Pharasma's Spire itself get eroded by the Maelstrom, or do failed souls contribute the the end of the cycle by becoming stuck forever?

Silver Crusade

Hey James, how's GenCon? :)

Recently, my group switched to playing Pathfinder without grids. A thread over on the PFS boards discusses using hex-grids, which I have also done (especially for caves and caverns). It got me wondering: in your home games, do you use only square grids? hex grids? gridless? mapless? 3d terrain? I'm sure it's probably some combination of all of those, but what I really want to know is if you have a favorite?


Hey James, I own, and have ran, the Seven Swords of Sin module for my players in Curse of the Crimson Throne.

Would it be appropriate for the technology in the module to be stolen from Numeria? [Edit] Having further read the PRD entry on generators, could it be stolen, or even modified? Maybe even attempts at magical copies of it?

I'm considering starting an 'after-story' for Curse with the Technomancers of Numeria wanting to recover the technology in the area. My PCs have recovered the area and are using it as a base, especially since they've learned how to tap into the Stones in area 35 and can use them as kind of spell batteries. They can only use it within a small area and only if they are using a special item. I thought it would be good for the players to have something really unique and cool for themselves at this point.

Could the Generator Station in are 12 be used to recharge technology? [Edit] Referring to my above edit, could this, possibly, be an attempt at a magical generator by the Council of Truth?

Would it make sense for the Recycler in area 15 to be a damaged or malfunctioning Rebirthing Chamber?

Could the nanites in the Clean Room (area 20) be used to repair the Recycler into a functioning Rebirthing Chamber? Assuming it is one of course.

Just trying to find a way to squeeze some technology into my games, and since I've got Seven Swords and have already ran it, it seemed an appropriate place to do so.


Separate questions:

Assuming the Seven Swords of Sin module isn't retconned (a possibility considering it's origin as an attempt to build the room with the highest kill count), are the Council of Truth related to the Technic League of Numeria?

Could they be a rival group that attempted to secure technology and then those from Numeria wiped them out?

Possibly even a splinter faction of the original Technic League that got driven out?

Is there any chance that the Council of Truth is involved with Iron Gods?

Or do you think the Council of Truth should be retconned out of Golarion to be replaced with the Techninc League?

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

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Hi James!

My playgroup just picked up the Technology Guide—which is awesome, by the way—and we've been inspired to use it to run a full-fledged space opera campaign. If I'm not mistaken, the pricing of the items assumes a game run in/on Golarion (and rightly so, given that the book is a Campaign Setting supplement), but would you recommend adjusting the prices for a game where these sorts of weapons would be commonplace like they might be among aliens in the far reaches of space? And if so, how much would you generally suggest adjusting those prices?

Have a great Gen Con!

Shadow Lodge

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Mikael Sebag wrote:

Hi James!

My playgroup just picked up the Technology Guide—which is awesome, by the way—and we've been inspired to use it to run a full-fledged space opera campaign. If I'm not mistaken, the pricing of the items assumes a game run in/on Golarion (and rightly so, given that the book is a Campaign Setting supplement), but would you recommend adjusting the prices for a game where these sorts of weapons would be commonplace like they might be among aliens in the far reaches of space? And if so, how much would you generally suggest adjusting those prices?

Have a great Gen Con!

I had the same idea after finding out about the book and then watching guardians of the galaxy

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