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James Jacobs wrote:
Diego Rossi wrote:

Are you considering the idea of doing some book for the neutral outsiders?

I have always loved to hate the modrons in the older editions of the game. A in deep description of the LN-N-CN outsiders will have a lot of gaming potentials. For most groups the evil outsiders fall in the "always enemies" category, with the good outsiders the tendency is to always think that the good part of the alignment is predominant, so generally the possible conflicts linked to the law/chaos axis are downplayed.
The neutral outsiders give an interesting third option, as meeting them don't mean immediate battle but there are possible conflicts between the players goals and the outsiders goals.

One of the things that makes the Book of the Damned (and tieflings, for that matter) so compelling is that whether you go Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, or Chaotic Evil, there are a wealth of outsider races that, thematically, look pretty similar. Show a picture of a devil or a div or a daemon or a demodand or an asura or an oni or any of the others to an average person on the street and they'll tell you it's a picture of a devil or a demon or a monster—the actual features that we've decided make one be of one race and not the other are VERY "inside pool." As a result, you can take ALL these races as a whole and call them "fiends" and do fun stuff with them... like a line of books.

The neutral outsiders? They don't have that. They look SO different that they don't have any shared features in common. As a result... a big book of Neutral outsiders that included inevitables, proteans, aeons, and psychopomps would not have a strong central theme at all beyond the word "neutral" and that's not good enough in my opinion to build a book on. Because "neutral" isn't something you can brand in the same way as you can brand "fiends" (or "celestials" for that matter).

How about calling it "Book of Harmony" or "Book of Balance"?

Also, I really love the names of those Psionic classes. They feel a bit more like Asian/Middle Eastern mysticism and supernatural. I always felt that the psionics classes didn't quite feel... supernatural enough. I always felt that they should have a similar flavor to the monk, which is why I was okay with the Monk being a psionic class in 4th Ed. Any reason why you'd do Psionics like that over the current accepted model?

EDIT: And also, how would you differentiate a psionic way of casting versus arcane and divine? That is, divine has to pray and can access their whole list while arcane has to prepare and learn them as they level. What would a psionic have to do?


I'm not sure if you've seen this thread or if it would interest you, but...

Leaving aside that it might conflict with your interests in Golarion as the predominant PF setting, you're still probably the best person in the world to ask about creating settings that are writer- and adventure-friendly. So it couldn't hurt to ask: what would you suggest an "open setting" ought to have that would lead to people actually using it when writing 3rd party or just-plain-indy/fan material for Pathfinder?

Having an accessible pantheon of gods is obviously a must. How would you handle geography, and other concerns? What are the obvious world-building hurdles that such a device must clear, especially in light of its utilitarian purpose? Is there any level of "setting compatibility" that could be achieved with Golarion? I feel that Golarion itself is sort of "compatible" with iconic adventure content from other settings... would you welcome something like a generic bizzarro Golarion that would help indy publishers fit their adventures into your world?

I think everyone in that thread would value your opinion very highly.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Odraude wrote:

How about calling it "Book of Harmony" or "Book of Balance"?

Also, I really love the names of those Psionic classes. They feel a bit more like Asian/Middle Eastern mysticism and supernatural. I always felt that the psionics classes didn't quite feel... supernatural enough. I always felt that they should have a similar flavor to the monk, which is why I was okay with the Monk being a psionic class in 4th Ed. Any reason why you'd do Psionics like that over the current accepted model?

EDIT: And also, how would you differentiate a psionic way of casting versus arcane and divine? That is, divine has to pray and can access their whole list while arcane has to prepare and learn them as they level. What would a psionic have to do?

Meh... "Book of anything" is unlikely to work. The reason we went with "Book of the Damned" for that line is because we actually have an in-game artifact called the Book of the Damned.

Thanks; the thing that I like about names like those for psionic base classes is that they do the same thing names like "figter" or "cleric" or "wizard" do... they tell you in one word what the class is all about. That's more or less a requirement of base class names in Pathfinder. That, and they have to be 1 word long.

I wouldn't make the monk into a psionic class at all, because traditionally in the game it's not, and because currently it's not.

A psychic spellcaster would probably meditate to prepare spells. In any case, whether you call it "praying" or "studying" or "meditating" or whatever... there's no real game mechanic difference.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Evil Lincoln wrote:

I'm not sure if you've seen this thread or if it would interest you, but...

Leaving aside that it might conflict with your interests in Golarion as the predominant PF setting, you're still probably the best person in the world to ask about creating settings that are writer- and adventure-friendly. So it couldn't hurt to ask: what would you suggest an "open setting" ought to have that would lead to people actually using it when writing 3rd party or just-plain-indy/fan material for Pathfinder?

Having an accessible pantheon of gods is obviously a must. How would you handle geography, and other concerns? What are the obvious world-building hurdles that such a device must clear, especially in light of its utilitarian purpose? Is there any level of "setting compatibility" that could be achieved with Golarion? I feel that Golarion itself is sort of "compatible" with iconic adventure content from other settings... would you welcome something like a generic bizzarro Golarion that would help indy publishers fit their adventures into your world?

I think everyone in that thread would value your opinion very highly.

In my opinion, settings that are headed by one or two or a very small number (less than 5) creators are less interesting than those created by "committee." An "open setting" should therefore have one person, or perhaps at most 4 people who work VERY CLOSELY together, who makes all the decisions about the world and "drives the car" as it were.

There should be, at minimum, the aforementioned pantheon of gods. There should be a large map with lots of blank spots on the map.

"Setting Compatibility" with Golarion, though, is dangerous territories. Although Golarion IS a pretty standard "kitchen sink" setting, I like to think it's a very well presented and well written one with a lot of really unique and unusual and interesting elements to it—elements that can't be legally copied becuase it's not open content. It is, in fact, the most valuable thing Paizo owns at this point. And as such, we can't really allow something that would be so close in flavor that it would be "compatible." The most compatible a world could really be would be something like Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms. Same type of world, but everything is different.

The closer you get to Golarion flavor, in other words, the more nervous I get. Because I don't want to be put into a position where I (aka Paizo) has to send out cease and desist letters, because we would (we'd have to!), and that often tends to be bad PR (which is frustrating, frankly).

In any event... I won't be directly commenting in that thread because I don't feel that it's ethically or intellectually or morally right for me to get involved in that kind of discussion on a creative level.


James Jacobs wrote:
Odraude wrote:

How about calling it "Book of Harmony" or "Book of Balance"?

Also, I really love the names of those Psionic classes. They feel a bit more like Asian/Middle Eastern mysticism and supernatural. I always felt that the psionics classes didn't quite feel... supernatural enough. I always felt that they should have a similar flavor to the monk, which is why I was okay with the Monk being a psionic class in 4th Ed. Any reason why you'd do Psionics like that over the current accepted model?

EDIT: And also, how would you differentiate a psionic way of casting versus arcane and divine? That is, divine has to pray and can access their whole list while arcane has to prepare and learn them as they level. What would a psionic have to do?

Meh... "Book of anything" is unlikely to work. The reason we went with "Book of the Damned" for that line is because we actually have an in-game artifact called the Book of the Damned.

Thanks; the thing that I like about names like those for psionic base classes is that they do the same thing names like "figter" or "cleric" or "wizard" do... they tell you in one word what the class is all about. That's more or less a requirement of base class names in Pathfinder. That, and they have to be 1 word long.

I wouldn't make the monk into a psionic class at all, because traditionally in the game it's not, and because currently it's not.

A psychic spellcaster would probably meditate to prepare spells. In any case, whether you call it "praying" or "studying" or "meditating" or whatever... there's no real game mechanic difference.

Fair enough. As another question, what would you consider the kind of roles those classes you made up (Telepath, Kinetic, Mesmerist, Fakir, Seer, Medium)? Which would be the 'wizard' or the 'fighter'?

EDIT: Also, unrelated, how did you get the names of the Asuras? Admittedly, I've been on a Hinduism kick after playing Asura's Wrath today so I've been curious about them.

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
Diego Rossi wrote:

Are you considering the idea of doing some book for the neutral outsiders?

I have always loved to hate the modrons in the older editions of the game. A in deep description of the LN-N-CN outsiders will have a lot of gaming potentials. For most groups the evil outsiders fall in the "always enemies" category, with the good outsiders the tendency is to always think that the good part of the alignment is predominant, so generally the possible conflicts linked to the law/chaos axis are downplayed.
The neutral outsiders give an interesting third option, as meeting them don't mean immediate battle but there are possible conflicts between the players goals and the outsiders goals.

One of the things that makes the Book of the Damned (and tieflings, for that matter) so compelling is that whether you go Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, or Chaotic Evil, there are a wealth of outsider races that, thematically, look pretty similar. Show a picture of a devil or a div or a daemon or a demodand or an asura or an oni or any of the others to an average person on the street and they'll tell you it's a picture of a devil or a demon or a monster—the actual features that we've decided make one be of one race and not the other are VERY "inside pool." As a result, you can take ALL these races as a whole and call them "fiends" and do fun stuff with them... like a line of books.

The neutral outsiders? They don't have that. They look SO different that they don't have any shared features in common. As a result... a big book of Neutral outsiders that included inevitables, proteans, aeons, and psychopomps would not have a strong central theme at all beyond the word "neutral" and that's not good enough in my opinion to build a book on. Because "neutral" isn't something you can brand in the same way as you can brand "fiends" (or "celestials" for that matter).

Le Sigh.

It is evident I think mostly as a GM that like to expand his library of materials. Anything I buy can find some use, even if not immediately or exactly as intended, so I would buy this book.
You instead need to think about Paizo well being first, so about how much market a product has.

So I can only hope that some race of neutral outsiders will appear as an article in one of the AP, and I doubt we will see them in the Shackles AP. There is always a possibility that they will get an article someday in the the future. In the meantime I can still fall back to older sources.


James.
1. Is Nex still alive?

2. I have heard some critique of Golarion that many of the countries/regions seem to be not connected to the ones around them. I can understand that critique in some way, eg ustalav and belkzen seem quite unrelated neighbours. But in Europe many countries exist side by side each with their own strong identities. What is your view on this critique?

3. Golarion has quite a "realistic", lower fantasy feel than some D&D settings. (my take anyways). It seems to me however the ruleset is more geared, especially at above level 10 to fairly superhuman PCs. (compared to say 1st Ed). In a hypothetical 2nd Ed pathfinder game would you address this in some fashion, or you don't agree that it is an issue?

Dark Archive

Didja know that Tyrannosaurs may have had the most powerful bite of any land animal, ever?


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Alan_Beven wrote:

James.

1. Is Nex still alive?

IANJ, but Erik answered at PaizoCon that he is still "alive" somewhere in the Spire/Crux/Refuge of Nex.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

James Jacobs wrote:
Cheapy wrote:
Favorite Snack?
Depends on my mood. Right this second I'd say nacho cheese Doritos.

Best Doritos flavor!


James Jacobs wrote:

In my opinion, settings that are headed by one or two or a very small number (less than 5) creators are less interesting than those created by "committee." An "open setting" should therefore have one person, or perhaps at most 4 people who work VERY CLOSELY together, who makes all the decisions about the world and "drives the car" as it were.

There should be, at minimum, the aforementioned pantheon of gods. There should be a large map with lots of blank spots on the map.

"Setting Compatibility" with Golarion, though, is dangerous territories. Although Golarion IS a pretty standard "kitchen sink" setting, I like to think it's a very well presented and well written one with a lot of really unique and unusual and interesting elements to it—elements that can't be legally copied becuase it's not open content....

Thanks very much James, I'm quite pleased with that response.

If it sets your mind at ease, it would be essential for an open campaign setting not to copy the specifics of Golarion, or any other setting for that matter. It ought to be a lingua franca for indy publications to fit nicely into any setting, and so it should be a lowest common denominator of classic settings. I would never allow it to become a generic copy of Golarion's themes. No "Era of Misplaced Divinations" or things of that nature.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Odraude wrote:

Fair enough. As another question, what would you consider the kind of roles those classes you made up (Telepath, Kinetic, Mesmerist, Fakir, Seer, Medium)? Which would be the 'wizard' or the 'fighter'?

EDIT: Also, unrelated, how did you get the names of the Asuras? Admittedly, I've been on a Hinduism kick after playing Asura's Wrath today so I've been curious about them.

Beyond simple names that relate to specific real-world ideas, I haven't put ANY thought into what ones of those would be "wizards or fighters." Although I suspect that there would NOT be a "fighter" analogue, since that would just be a fighter.

The names of the asuras were come up with via a combination of fiddling with real world myths, words, and stuff we made up completely out of the blue.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Diego Rossi wrote:

Le Sigh.

It is evident I think mostly as a GM that like to expand his library of materials. Anything I buy can find some use, even if not immediately or exactly as intended, so I would buy this book.
You instead need to think about Paizo well being first, so about how much market a product has.

So I can only hope that some race of neutral outsiders will appear as an article in one of the AP, and I doubt we will see them in the Shackles AP. There is always a possibility that they will get an article someday in the the future. In the meantime I can still fall back to older sources.

They have before and will do again.

We introduced the proteans in Pathfinder #22 and The Great Beyond. The 3 big ones each got a 2 page bestiary entry spread between those two books, and we published a 10 page article about proteans by Todd Stewart in Pathfinder #22, and proteans played a SIGNIFICANT role in that volume's adventure.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Alan_Beven wrote:

James.

1. Is Nex still alive?

2. I have heard some critique of Golarion that many of the countries/regions seem to be not connected to the ones around them. I can understand that critique in some way, eg ustalav and belkzen seem quite unrelated neighbours. But in Europe many countries exist side by side each with their own strong identities. What is your view on this critique?

3. Golarion has quite a "realistic", lower fantasy feel than some D&D settings. (my take anyways). It seems to me however the ruleset is more geared, especially at above level 10 to fairly superhuman PCs. (compared to say 1st Ed). In a hypothetical 2nd Ed pathfinder game would you address this in some fashion, or you don't agree that it is an issue?

1) That's still a secret.

2) That was, to a certain extent, by design. We wanted to allow the Inner Sea's regions to be easy for anyone to ignore—if you like every region in there but, say, Numeria, you can run your version of the world relatively fine while replacing the spot labeled "Numeria" on your map with anything else you prefer. My view on the critique is that it's worth noting and keeping in mind, but at the same point it doesn't completely apply. We're not building a REAL world, but a GAME world. Just as hit points aren't meant to completely model real bodilly injuries, neither is Golarion meant to completely model a fully realistic collection of nations that share borders. In any case, as we do adventures and sourcebooks that further develop nations, we HAVE started to work on how the nations interact with those nearby... that information isn't part of the Inner Sea World Guide that much, but if you want it, it's there. You just have to pay more money to see it, basically. ;-P

3) I don't think this is an issue, frankly. And I tend to feel that Golarion's magic level is equal to Greyhawk's, and that realm was all about 1st edition D&D. If you were running a 2nd edition game in Golarion, I wouldn't bother changing a thing to the world, since I just don't think it's an issue.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Set wrote:

Didja know that Tyrannosaurs may have had the most powerful bite of any land animal, ever?

Of course I did.


Do you have any favorite modules or scenarios for playtesting things in?

Liberty's Edge

Coridan wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Coridan wrote:

I would think you guys are almost to the point where you could set up your own printer. Hell CatFancy magazine prints its own stuff.

We're not even CLOSE to the market saturation and resource levels that Cat Fancy has. I doubt Wizards of the Coast is close to that level of resources.
I had a job interview with them two years ago. They arent doing so well. Less than two dozen employees and their printer was one old dude running an equally old machine

No offense, but are you sure that's true? Perhaps you misunderstood what that "old dude" did.

I worked in the magazine publishing industry for more than 12 years (as in, a company that published a LARGE number of pretty popular national titles). I've also worked in the commercial printing industry for about twenty years, including a large company that printed a huge number of magazines, so I'm pretty familiar with the industry.

You need MUCH more than one old dude running ANY kind of machine to produce a national magazine. Even huge titles like Time and Sports Illustrated are printed at large commercial printing facilities ...

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:

James,

Will we ever see an AP (or, perhaps a mutli-part module series) that deals heavily with the Plane of Shadows?

Would you LIKE to see one like that?

You might also want to keep an eye out for The Shadowfall mini campaign setting series of books from Jon Brazer Enterprises, coming out soon, which deals with exactly that!

Check out the first book in the series HERE


"James Jacobs wrote:


2) You just have to pay more money to see it, basically. ;-P

3) I don't think this is an issue, frankly. And I tend to feel that Golarion's magic level is equal to Greyhawk's, and that realm was all about 1st edition D&D. If you were running a 2nd edition game in Golarion, I wouldn't bother changing a thing to the world,...

My money is on the way!! :-)

For the record I was asking if you made a 2nd edition of the Pathfinder RPG would you tone down higher level play and some of the more story breaking magic? For example in 2ed PFRPG instead of the anti-teleport mcguffin in Jade Regent your system could have some mechanics to say in this story we don't have the following effects. All long distant travel spells are nerfed

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Cheapy wrote:
Do you have any favorite modules or scenarios for playtesting things in?

Nope.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Marshall Fundaburk wrote:
was Sasserine discovered and founded by land or sea?
Dungeon #139—aka Me, wrote:

Sasserine began not as a city, but as a woman. Over 700 years ago, a cleric of Wee Jas named Sasserine woke one night after a particularly vivid dream of a hidden cove, protected from the sea by vast cliffs and from the land by steaming swamps and jungle. In this vision, she beheld a thriving city and a glittering spire of scarlet stone, and knew Wee Jas had visited her with a prophecy. Sasserine called together her followers, including her lover Teraknian, a soldier and worshiper of Kord, and set out to find this hidden cove. Diseases, accidents, and monsters took their toll, and near the end, despair gnawed at Sasserine's pilgrims. Finally, their numbers reduced to less than a quarter of their initial strength, these pilgrims emerged into a bounteous stretch of land with fertile soil and fields of exotic plants sheltered by twin shoreline cliffs. Sasserine recognized the landscape at once, but Wee Jas had not warned her of the black dragon that had taken the cove as his territory. Mere hours after the pilgrims had thankfully fed on the abundant plants and had only just begun to hope they had found their new home, the dragon Zelkarune struck. Enraged at this final trial, Sasserine stood her ground against the dragon and defeated it—at a terrible cost. For in delivering the final strike, Sasserine had been forced to step between Zelkarune's claw and Teraknian; the blow meant for him instead laid her low, just as she called down a bolt of fire from the sky to slay the dragon.

In the days to follow, the survivors turned to Teraknian for leadership, who vowed to found a city in Sasserine's name. It was the year –124 CY, and over the seven centuries to follow, Sasserine would mature into one of the great hidden wonders of the south.

So... by sea.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Alan_Beven wrote:

My money is on the way!! :-)

For the record I was asking if you made a 2nd edition of the Pathfinder RPG would you tone down higher level play and some of the more story breaking magic? For example in 2ed PFRPG instead of the anti-teleport mcguffin in Jade Regent your system could have some mechanics to say in this story we don't have the following effects. All long distant travel spells are nerfed

OH! I misunderstood. (Take that, if you will, as indication of how far from my mind the actual idea of Pathfinder 2nd Edition is from today...)

If I/we were to do a 2nd edition of Pathifnder, making high level play less problematic would be one of the top 5 marching orders. Perhaps the TOP marching order.

That said... "story-breaking magic" is only "story breaking" if you try to tell a story that's existing outside of it's comfort zone. Long distance travel adventures are better served at low and medium level anyway—you'll note that even though Jade Regent DOES have a teleport blocking mcguffin, by the time the PCs are 9th level, they're already pretty much in Tian Xia in the first place and the adventure path shifts from a focus on journey at that point to things like exploring ancient ruins or political stuff.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I have a question of maybe unusual nature.
It goes like this:

Society Field guide lists an interesting feat called Equpiment trick rope.
Being proficient with a whip or spiked chain opens up many interesting possibilities with this feat. You can effectively substitute a lenght of rope as named weapons.

We all know from a certain point on characters rely on enhanced weapons.
#Is it legal to enchant a lenght of rope as a weapon?

#How long can this lenght of rope be? Standard weapon lenght? Standard listed rope lenght?

But then, rope lists a price per 50', you can buy 1000'.

Can i enchant 10000' rope as one weapon?
Then just cut it in pieces and for example use it as a whip,choose greater whip mastery, then grapple and hogtie someone with it, just draw the next piece of rope and go on?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Hayato Ken wrote:
#Is it legal to enchant a lenght of rope as a weapon?

Nope.

Hayato Ken wrote:
#How long can this lenght of rope be? Standard weapon lenght? Standard listed rope lenght?

At least 15 feet, the reach of a whip. If your rope is longer, you hold the rest in a coil. If your rope is shorter, I suppose you could still use it as a whip, but your reach will be lessened as appropriate.


Just curious.

How much time of your work day do you spend answering fan questions in this thread?

Oh, thanx for rescuing D&D 3.5 by bringing out PF.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

DarkOne the Drow wrote:

Just curious.

How much time of your work day do you spend answering fan questions in this thread?

Oh, thanx for rescuing D&D 3.5 by bringing out PF.

Overall, I'd guess probably 15 to 30 minutes... with another 30 minutes or so when I'm not on my work day... like right now.

(Maintaining a messageboard presence is part of the job duties, actually...)

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:


(Maintaining a messageboard presence is part of the job duties, actually...)

Wow, so I guess some of us have been unofficially working for you guys over the last couple of years.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Hayato Ken wrote:
#Is it legal to enchant a lenght of rope as a weapon?

Nope.

Hayato Ken wrote:
#How long can this lenght of rope be? Standard weapon lenght? Standard listed rope lenght?
At least 15 feet, the reach of a whip. If your rope is longer, you hold the rest in a coil. If your rope is shorter, I suppose you could still use it as a whip, but your reach will be lessened as appropriate.

So can i pimp the attack with weapon focus whip and amulett of mighty fists?

Any other ways you could suggest?

Can the rope be made of special materials other than silk or spider silk, like adamantine or mithril?

How about a magic item like gloves of rope whipping?

Magic fang works quite good as wand, but greater magic fang is really expensive and also im not sure how that would work as a wand. Can i emulate the higher caster level with UMD?


James Jacobs wrote:

One of the things that makes the Book of the Damned (and tieflings, for that matter) so compelling is that whether you go Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, or Chaotic Evil, there are a wealth of outsider races that, thematically, look pretty similar. Show a picture of a devil or a div or a daemon or a demodand or an asura or an oni or any of the others to an average person on the street and they'll tell you it's a picture of a devil or a demon or a monster—the actual features that we've decided make one be of one race and not the other are VERY "inside pool." As a result, you can take ALL these races as a whole and call them "fiends" and do fun stuff with them... like a line of books.

The neutral outsiders? They don't have that. They look SO different that they don't have any shared features in common. As a result... a big book of Neutral outsiders that included inevitables, proteans, aeons, and psychopomps would not have a strong central theme at all beyond the word "neutral" and that's not good enough in my opinion to build a book on. Because "neutral" isn't something you can brand in the same way as you can brand "fiends" (or "celestials" for that matter).

*Imagines an aasimar with an agathonian bloodline.*

Heh. Now I REALLY want to see the Blood of Angels or whatever the book is going to end up being called! I got all my players pumped for the tiefling book as it is ...

I know both products are rather far away, James, but will the Blood of Fiends book have any overlap with the Advanced Race Guide in terms of the options and rules it provides for the tiefling race?


How did Iomedae cross the gap to get to the Cathedral of the Starstone?


Isn't an adamantine rope a rod?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Hayato Ken wrote:

So can i pimp the attack with weapon focus whip and amulett of mighty fists?

Any other ways you could suggest?

Can the rope be made of special materials other than silk or spider silk, like adamantine or mithril?

How about a magic item like gloves of rope whipping?

Magic fang works quite good as wand, but greater magic fang is really expensive and also im not sure how that would work as a wand. Can i emulate the higher caster level with UMD?

Nope; weapon focus whip applies only to whips, not ropes used like whips. An amulets of mighty fists apply to natural attacks, and a rope used like a whip is not a natural attack.

If you want to go crazy with your rope whip... talk to your GM for options like things like gloves of rope whipping. The feat itself isn't intended to let you build an entire character around using a rope as a weapon, though—it's intended to let you do fun stuff with your rope in addition to the rest of what your character can do.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Golden-Esque wrote:

Heh. Now I REALLY want to see the Blood of Angels or whatever the book is going to end up being called! I got all my players pumped for the tiefling book as it is ...

I know both products are rather far away, James, but will the Blood of Fiends book have any overlap with the Advanced Race Guide in terms of the options and rules it provides for the tiefling race?

Blood of Angels is indeed what that book is called.

I'm not sure if there'll be any overlap between those books and the Advanced Race Guide. I suspect that if there is... said overlap will be pretty minor.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Khonger wrote:
How did Iomedae cross the gap to get to the Cathedral of the Starstone?

By being badass.


1) Between Merisiel Sillvari, Shensen, Tyralandi, and Zulshyn, which one would you like to have as a girlfriend? 2) As a "friend with benefits" if different? 3) As a Paizo employee? 4) As a Maid? 5) As a cook? 6) As a bodyguard? 7) As someone employed to stop me from asking these question?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Belle Mythix wrote:
1) Between Merisiel Sillvari, Shensen, Tyralandi, and Zulshyn, which one would you like to have as a girlfriend? 2) As a "friend with benefits" if different? 3) As a Paizo employee? 4) As a Maid? 5) As a cook? 6) As a bodyguard? 7) As someone employed to stop me from asking these question?

1) HA. Ummm... that's a tough choice. Tyralandi, being a cleric, would probably be handier throughout life. But Shensen is more entertaining. And Zulshyn can beat up my enemies. And Merisiel would quickly make me rich. Polygamy is overrated anyway.

2) Roll 1d4.

3) Tyralandi; she's the least likely to cause a disaster.

4) Zulshyn, because she's strong enough to lift up couches to clean under them with her free hand.

5) Shensen, cause she's got the most class of the four of them.

6) Merisiel, because she's probably the most observant and the fastest of them all, and would do the best of them all avenging me if someone ganked me.

7) Roll 1d4 4 times. Re-roll duplicates.


When it comes to choosing a girlfriend, I wouldn't touch Merisiel with a ten foot pole.

Did you have anything to do with designing Paizo's gun archetypes?


James Jacobs wrote:
Belle Mythix wrote:

1) Between Merisiel Sillvari, Shensen, Tyralandi, and Zulshyn, which one would you like to have as a girlfriend? 2) As a "friend with benefits" if different? 3) As a Paizo employee? 4) As a Maid? 5) As a cook? 6) As a bodyguard? 7) As someone employed to stop me from asking these question?

1) HA. Ummm... that's a tough choice. Tyralandi, being a cleric, would probably be handier throughout life. But Shensen is more entertaining. And Zulshyn can beat up my enemies. And Merisiel would quickly make me rich. Polygamy is overrated anyway.

2) Roll 1d4.

3) Tyralandi; she's the least likely to cause a disaster.

4) Zulshyn, because she's strong enough to lift up couches to clean under them with her free hand.

5) Shensen, cause she's got the most class of the four of them.

6) Merisiel, because she's probably the most observant and the fastest of them all, and would do the best of them all avenging me if someone ganked me.

7) Roll 1d4 4 times. Re-roll duplicates.

2) per Hour? Per day? Per week? per month? per year?... 1d4 ⇒ 4

7) Will they ravish me?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Theropod Cultist wrote:

When it comes to choosing a girlfriend, I wouldn't touch Merisiel with a ten foot pole.

Did you have anything to do with designing Paizo's gun archetypes?

Do you mean gunslinger archetypes?

In either case, I helped here and there with the actual design for a few of the guns (see what appears in Inner Sea World Guide's equipment chapter for which ones) and took the first stab at the gunslinger class itself (much improved by SRM), but that's about it.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Belle Mythix wrote:


2) per Hour? Per day? Per week? per month? per year?

7) Will they ravish me?

2) Actaully... one can have multiple friends at once, so nevermind that die roll.

7) Probably, yes, no, and no.


No, I meant gun archetypes for classes other than the Gunslinger, like the Holy Gun.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Since base classes should be one word:

If you had to add a rope whipper as a base class, what would you call it?

Any idea what the capstone ability might be?

Liberty's Edge

A couple of regeneration (monster ability) questions:

- when it is applied? In Pathfinder I apply it at the start of the creature turn, but don't recall seeing a specific rule.

- more important, how long will it stop working when suppressed?

To make clear what I am asking I thing an example will help:

At initiative count 20 the troll is damaged by acid. I thick off his regeneration ability.
At initiative count 5 the troll get to act. He is still alive as he hasn't got fallen under his constitution value in negative hit point.
As his regeneration is ticked off he don't regenerate any hit point, but his regeneration resume functioning normally.

It is the right way to go?

The words "Certain attack forms, typically fire and acid, cause a creature's regeneration to stop functioning on the round following the attack." are a bit unclear. One of my players had the doubt it was meant to say that the regeneration, in the above example, was blocked from initiative 20 to just before initiative 20 of the next turn.
Perfectly reasonable but a bit messier to keep track of.

As far as I can see I don't think it will penalize the players, as at worst it will require the application of one more attack to stop the regeneration (the creature will die if the regeneration is stopped and it is at -con in hit point, so what matter is to bring it there and apply the acid/fire/ecc. damage, not suppressing the regeneration ability constantly).


Belle Mythix wrote:
1) Between Merisiel Sillvari, Shensen, Tyralandi, and Zulshyn, which one would you like to have as a girlfriend? 2) As a "friend with benefits" if different? 3) As a Paizo employee? 4) As a Maid? 5) As a cook? 6) As a bodyguard? 7) As someone employed to stop me from asking these question?

IANJ....but my answear would yes, 'all of them' for all the questions....except the 7th one....I don't care what you ask James.


Okay, you have stated that the shadowdancer's hide in plain sight ability can be used in melee. This has lead to the following questions amongst my group:
1. Since hide in plain sight requires stealth, does the shadowdancer have to move to activate it? Is this activation a move action, a 5' adjustment, or a free action?
2. You cannot hide in your own shadow, but can you hide in the shadow of your melee opponent?

Contributor

Khonger wrote:
How did Iomedae cross the gap to get to the Cathedral of the Starstone?

According to the Acts of Iomedae, she cast out her cloak and it stretched out to a solid bridge for her.


James, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Charisma being the ability stat attached to Will saves. Charisma represents the strength of personality, and it seems to me that a strong personality would be harder to dominate and control than a weaker one.

I want to houserule that Charisma is attached to to Will saves instead of Wisdom. But my question is this: The game was written with Wisdom attached to Will saves so just how unbalancing do you think it would be to make this change?

Also, if you're willing, I'd love to hear how you would defend Wisdom being attached to Will saves, just for my own understanding. Many thanks, as always.


Is space and time the main reason useful langauges for the ap are not in the players guide?

Would you understand a game master regretting not telling his players what langauges would be useful?

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4

2 people marked this as a favorite.

James,

You have often said that aspiring adventure designers should read lots and lots of adventures and study the ideas, techniques, and tricks the writers use.

If someone has limited time or resources, can you recommend some modules, APs, or even specific chapters of APs that stand out as good examples, or having noteworthy qualities? Sort of, "If you can't read everything, then make sure you do check these out" sort of list?

Thanks!

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