Creative Director
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James Jacobs,
I would also like to know is does Augment Summoning work with:
a) Scrolls used and created by a player with said feat,
b) Scrolls used by a player with said feat but did not create,
c) All the above,
d) None of the above
e) Some thing i did not state that u would be kind enough to inform me about.
This is an interesting question, but it's one that's rules implications are important enough that it should be asked instead over in the rules forum so folks can FAQ the question.
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Creative Director
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I'm not sure Lorthact even knows about Sorshen apart from the general legends. He's more interested in modern Korvosa than ancient Thassilon.1. Eh? Sermignatto, who literally wrote the book on Sorshen, currently works for Lorthact (Pathfinder 12, p.58, 60). Why wouldn't Sermignatto tell Lorthact about the local snoozing runelord who's going to wake up any year now?
2. What would Sorshen do if she decides to take over the Academae?
3. If not the Academae, where else would Sorshen go to reestablish her wizardly power base?
4. Would a Sorshen AP be a sequel to Curse of the Crimson Throne the way Shattered Star is a sequel to the first three APs?
5. If the correct answer for a question asked through contact other plane is a name with two words, like "the Academae" or "Kaer Maga," will it count as a one-word answer?
1) Because knowledge is power, and because Sermignatto doesn't know that Sorshen's going to wake up any year now. No one knows that, really. ESPECIALLY if, as we assume in Curse of the Crimson Throne, the events in Rise of the Runelords haven't yet taken place.
2) Rebuild it and reorganize it to teach Thassilonian style magic with a focus on enchantment. Assuming she wants to share that knowledge, which she probably doesn't, so she'd be more likely to plunder the Academae of its secrets and magic and then turn the place into something else (such as a prison or a kennel) or maybe just let it fall into ruin as a show of her power.
3) She's likely got plenty of resources in her complex of rooms deep under Castle Korvosa to serve as a power base.
4) An AP that involves Sorshen would be a sequal to Rise of the Runelords first, Shattered Star second, and Curse of the Crimson throne third.
5) Depends on how stingy the GM feels, I guess.
We at Paizo find prophecy to be a pretty cliche and tired story element, and by coming right out and saying "prophecies don't work anymore" we're trying to encourage (or even force) our authors to not rely on that crutch for their stories. As a result, any prophecies that are still in existence are only accurate accidentally or by chance, which means the majority of them do not come true.How does this interact with Harrowing and divinations and other abilities PCs can invest in?Divinations and spells of the divination school are not prophecies.
A prophecy would be something like this;
"On the night of the third blood moon, a man born of beast shall take the sun in hand and strike down the darkness that hides behind the moon, and thus shall a new dawning of wonder bring plenty to all who worship the sign of the tripartite eye."
...written down in a book that claims to predict an event that will happen in the distant future.
So the difference between 'divination' and 'prophecy' is time (near future vs. generations or centuries)? Or scope (an individual's life vs. the fate of a people group as a whole)? Or both (i.e., a Harrower could divine something about an elf that might happen a century later or something about the Shoanti as a people that would happen within a few months but not the future of the dwarven race or the church of Abadar several generations from now)?
I've never really been clear on what the difference was or how Harrowers could be viable in an age in which prophecy is dead.
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Hello Mister Jacobs.
1) How close Sandpoint and Point Arena are ? I made a tour by google street view and became astonished as both cities seems alike.
2) Has anyone from Point Arena complained about something portraited in Sandpoint as offensive ?
3) Do the Varisian elements from Sandpoint represent Hispanic elements from Point Arena ?
4) Have you seen the Point Arena Devil ?
5) There was a Late Unpleasantness in Point Arena too ?
6) There are large fishing boats in Varisia ? How they preserve the fish to sell ?
7) Beside Fort Rannick, are there others forts from Magnimar protecting her side of Varisia ? Where ? Compared to Korvosan villages, Sandpoint seems awfully exposed.
I think my earlier question might've gotten lost in the Prophecy/Spelljammer discussion, so I'm just reiterating it in case:
James,What do you think the effective cohort level would be for a Clockwork Servant (Bestiary 3) created with the optional intelligent construct modifier in its construction entry?
I'm interested in building one with a character, then adopting it as a cohort with the intention of teaching it to take class levels as an understudy.
I realize a lot of that is in DM-fiat area, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on the matter.
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Creative Director
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So the difference between 'divination' and 'prophecy' is time (near future vs. generations or centuries)? Or scope (an individual's life vs. the fate of a people group as a whole)? Or both (i.e., a Harrower could divine something about an elf that might happen a century later or something about the Shoanti as a people that would happen within a few months but not the future of the dwarven race or the church of Abadar several generations from now)?
I've never really been clear on what the difference was or how Harrowers could be viable in an age in which prophecy is dead.
No... the difference between divination and prophecy is that, in game, divination has rules for how it works. It's a spell, for one. It's also an entire school of spells.
Prophecy is not a spell, nor are there rules in the game governing how they work. A prophecy in the game would be nothing more than flavor text, and were we not against using prophecies in our adventures and campaign setting, they'd be accurate or not as the writer decided, much in the same way a writer decides which of the randomly-generated rumors on a list in a town are accurate or not.
Harrowers, and fortune tellers in general, are viable in the age because their primary purpose is to tell the fortune or future of a specific individual. Whether or not that fortune ends up being accurate or not can vary, but that fortune isn't pre-recorded or pre-written before the person getting his fortune told decides to get his fortune told. And whether or not the fortune works, and what effects it has in game, are covered by rules, be they the harrower's class abilities, the harrowing spell, or whatever. Those rules are quite specific on what sorts of in-game effects they can have on the target. And they do not make broad promises about the target's future in the form of mystical guarantees, such as "on the seventh eve of the seventh storm, you shall rise to claim your birthright as the lord of thunder."
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Creative Director
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Hello Mister Jacobs.
1) How close Sandpoint and Point Arena are ? I made a tour by google street view and became astonished as both cities seems alike.
2) Has anyone from Point Arena complained about something portraited in Sandpoint as offensive ?
3) Do the Varisian elements from Sandpoint represent Hispanic elements from Point Arena ?
4) Have you seen the Point Arena Devil ?
5) There was a Late Unpleasantness in Point Arena too ?
6) There are large fishing boats in Varisia ? How they preserve the fish to sell ?
7) Beside Fort Rannick, are there others forts from Magnimar protecting her side of Varisia ? Where ? Compared to Korvosan villages, Sandpoint seems awfully exposed.
1) Sandpoint is quite a bit larger than Point Arena. The map's similarities are there—Point Arena has a waterfront bordered by cliffs, for example, and the mirror outside of town ("Stop to see yourself as we see you") was actually posted outside of Point Arena in its early days. Point Arena also had visitors from Japan in a wooden boat, sailing across the Pacific Ocean back in the early 1910s, which is why I decided to have Ameiko be an important part of the town as a visitor from distant Minkai. There's a lighthouse, but it's not in the town limits–it's a few miles to the north. Other things, though, are either coincidences (subconscious or not)
2) As far as I know, no one in Point Arena has complained about anything portrayed in Sandpoint as offensive. I'm not sure anyone back in town knows about Sandpoint's inspiration, in fact, apart from my parents. I would certainly HOPE no one back home would be offended, because it's out of love and pride for my home town that I created Sandpoint in the first place.
3) Nope; the Varisian elements in Sandpoint are entirely fabrications—they're based on traditions of Romany travelers, and are one of several elements from other parts of the world I drew inspiration from. The Shoanti elements, though, are somewhat represented by the Native American elements in and around Point Arena.
4) Heh... Nope! The Sandpoint Devil is pretty much inspired by the Jersey Devil, not any indigenous/local legend from Point Arena.
5) Nope. Point Arena's never been stalked by a serial killer. There was a significant fire at one point, I believe, linked to the 1906 earthquake (Point Arena's pretty close to the San Andreas fault, which is the same one that caused so much trouble for San Francisco that year). I could be mis-remembering that fact though.
6) There are lots of fishing boats on the Varisian coast; fishing is one of Sandpoints big industries. The fishing boats range in size from 10 feet to 30 feet, for the most part, so not THAT big. They pretty much sell their catches the same day they're caught, so there's not a lot of need for preserving the fish.
7) The whole Varisian Gulf is pretty sheltered from raiders from the sea. There were raids to the north, with Brinewall being a significant anti-raid fort. Raids on Magnimar were somewhat common, but mostly because it's a bigger target. Raiders who want to sail into the Varisian Gulf would either have to sail close to Magnimar (which can defend against raiders pretty well), or would have to sail close to the island chain that borders the west side of the Gulf... where a fair amount of high CR monsters live. Traditionally, the Gulf itself has been pretty protected from raiders as a result... the targets along the Lost Coast are either not worth the trouble, or are well-protected. It's worth noting that the pirates of Riddleport are generally pretty good about NOT raiding the Lost Coast but elsewhere, because that way they can count on not getting war declared on them by Magnimar.
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Creative Director
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I think my earlier question might've gotten lost in the Prophecy/Spelljammer discussion, so I'm just reiterating it in case:
James,What do you think the effective cohort level would be for a Clockwork Servant (Bestiary 3) created with the optional intelligent construct modifier in its construction entry?
I'm interested in building one with a character, then adopting it as a cohort with the intention of teaching it to take class levels as an understudy.
I realize a lot of that is in DM-fiat area, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on the matter.
I replied to that on the previous page. Here's the response:
Compared to other CR 2 cohort-appropriate monsters like sasquatches and skeletal champions, I'd say 6th level is about right.
Regarding the augment summons question, Jason thought it was an excellent question too. So there's a FAQ on it: http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9n9y
Anything in the works for an Osirion based, pyramid tromping adventure path.I dunno.
Would folks like an adventure path like that?
If you guys could get the rights to that old Gary Gygax Egyptian adventure, that'd be super cool.
Mr. James Jacobs,
When it comes to the failure of prophecy i've always been under the impression that it applies to all prophecies up to the death of Aroden, but prophecies made after that point have the ability to be viable. Is this accurate?
Thank you.
Nope.
We at Paizo find prophecy to be a pretty cliche and tired story element, and by coming right out and saying "prophecies don't work anymore" we're trying to encourage (or even force) our authors to not rely on that crutch for their stories. As a result, any prophecies that are still in existence are only accurate accidentally or by chance, which means the majority of them do not come true.
I am a moderately well known reviewer, and one of my known faves is Fantasy. Just ONCE I'd like to see some prophecy uttered by a old crone or hermit at the start of a book to come out wrong, and when one of the protagonist asks "But, what..what about the Prophecy that Blind Jones gave us in the tavern?" Wise old wizard "Meh. He's always saying something like that. We don;t pay much attention to him.";-)
AND for some protagonist to be told "Whatever you do- don't open that mysterious door."- And they DON'T open it.
"Cliche and tired story element" sums up my opinion too.
"Cliche and tired story element" sums up my opinion too.
Greg
"Cliche and tired story element" sums up my opinion too.
** spoiler omitted **
Greg
Yep. Great. But still, the prophecy was upheld, nu?
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Mr. James Jacobs,
When it comes to the failure of prophecy i've always been under the impression that it applies to all prophecies up to the death of Aroden, but prophecies made after that point have the ability to be viable. Is this accurate?
Thank you.
Nope.
We at Paizo find prophecy to be a pretty cliche and tired story element, and by coming right out and saying "prophecies don't work anymore" we're trying to encourage (or even force) our authors to not rely on that crutch for their stories. As a result, any prophecies that are still in existence are only accurate accidentally or by chance, which means the majority of them do not come true.
1) How accurate are short term or localized prophecies in Golarion?
I am currently playing a Varisian Magus that studied at the Twilight Academy and is a member of the Harrowd society; he is particularly interested in the study of prophecy and the Harrow deck, so I would like to know how accurate is harrowing. [I know, it depend on the GM, ;-) but what is your vision of it?]
Edit: more or less you have already replied with later posts, but I am still interested in more informations, if you are willing to give them.
The Harrowed Society
Based in the town of Galduria, the Harrowed Society uses the Twilight Academy as a sort of “ front” for their true purpose: to decipher the mysteries held in harrow cards, the traditional Varisian fortune-teller’s tools. The Harrowed Society believes that if these mysteries can be deciphered, the true secrets of reality can be learned.
Location Galduria (Varisia)
2) I don't see mentions of the Harrowed society in Varisia, birthplace of legends, it is one of those things you have decided to put aside?
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To be fair the "goofy" cosmologies that you sometimes see in Spelljammer, like the idea of a flat world held by elephants sitting on a turtle were serious thoughts in a pre-scientific time. Spelljammer had your classic solar systems as well. And a little bit of self-mockery is a healthy thing. Paizo's goblins are full of it.I'm more referring to the fact that there were a lot of design choices made by the authors of the setting that seemed to indicate they didn't take the game seriously and saw it only as a venue for jokes and comedy. Giant Space Hamsters, for example. Or beholders named Luigi.
I don't really think self-mockery is a healthy thing... I think humility is, but that's different than self-mockery. I wouldn't say that our goblins are a form of self-mockery at all... if they were, we would have made them obviously caricatures of gamer stereotypes. Which they are not.
Do you read Goglins: life through their eyes?
What would Sorshen do if she decides to take over the Academae?Rebuild it and reorganize it to teach Thassilonian style magic with a focus on enchantment. Assuming she wants to share that knowledge, which she probably doesn't, so she'd be more likely to plunder the Academae of its secrets and magic and then turn the place into something else (such as a prison or a kennel) or maybe just let it fall into ruin as a show of her power.
1. Why wouldn't Sorshen want to turn the hapless Academae students into her minions? It's not like she'd be bad at indoctrination.
2. What exactly is there to plunder from the Academae? I thought it was just a wizarding school.
3. If Sorshen does take over the Academae, how much would that interfere with Lorthact's plans for it?
4. In what way would Sorshen's and Lorthact's plans for Korvosa differ?
5. What would be Sorshen's main worry upon awakening?
G'day!
Have you seen DreamWorks's How to train your dragon? Thoughts??
Have you (or will you) see Rise of the Guardians? I ask 'cause Del Toro was an executive producer for it! (Doesn't necessarily mean much, but...)
Note: Neither movie has any "spontaneous singing" involved, unlike most Disney faire (since you've stated a bias against musicals...).
Thank you!
-- C.
I think my earlier question might've gotten lost in the Prophecy/Spelljammer discussion, so I'm just reiterating it in case:
James,What do you think the effective cohort level would be for a Clockwork Servant (Bestiary 3) created with the optional intelligent construct modifier in its construction entry?
I'm interested in building one with a character, then adopting it as a cohort with the intention of teaching it to take class levels as an understudy.
I realize a lot of that is in DM-fiat area, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on the matter.
I replied to that on the previous page. Here's the response:
Compared to other CR 2 cohort-appropriate monsters like sasquatches and skeletal champions, I'd say 6th level is about right.
Totally missed that back there! Thanks, James.
James, I am participating in the mythic playtest and I am impressed with the increase in character power even at the lower levels. The power of a wizard 20 archmage 10 is incredible. My question for you is where do these mythic individual fit into the Inner Sea region? I can see a fighter 6 champion 3 quietly living in a small village or town; Achilles that didn't sail to Troy. Someone like the Whispering Tyrant would be a wizard 20 archmage 10.
My impression is the Inner Sea region is composed of mainly low level characters, with very few truely high level characters. Can you give me some insight on how mythic characters integrate into the region?
James, does a mounted charge require that both mount and rider spend their full-round actions to charge? Or only the mount needs to spend his full-round action to charge, while the rider still has a move action and a standard action to use?
For example, could a rider spur a mount as a move action and attack as a standard action during a mounted charge?
James, can you tell me...
1) For level 20 paladins, can they opt to NOT use banish when they smite an evil outsider?
2) Can alchemists choose to end their mutagen early? It's a supernatural ability and I think the answer for those is usually 'Yes', but then that rationale doesn't necessarily make sense when looking at their extracts which are supernatural BUT behave exactly like spells.
3) Can daemons feed on the souls of things that technically don't have "souls", like fey?
4) Do atheists that arrive at Pharasma for judgement ever get presented by her with a choice of where they might want to go? For example, say a neutral good atheist who always felt torn between being free (chaotic) and doing what was best for the society as a whole (lawful) being allowed to go to Heaven or Elysium? Also, does she dislike atheists to some degree, being obviously a god with real-world power yet they never acknowledged her and, if so, would that affect her likely-hood at offering them a choice concerning their destination?
5) Is the fact that there was a somewhat higher concentration of summoners in Sarkoris before Aroden's death at all related to the fact that that's where the Worldwound opened up?
6) You mentioned that the Abyss might have been the source of ALL life? Do you mean all life on all planes? If so, would that include the first gods? Can you expand on those answers as far as how they might relate to a potential Golarion multi-versal creation mythos?
7) When constructing dungeons, what elements do you always try to include to make them fun, challenging, and memorable?
Thanks in advance.
Can Mage Hand turn somedody floating in water over (to prevent drowning)
The mage hand spell says it can manipulate things of a certain weight. Is this to be seen as a absolute "magical" limit or as an indication of the strength it can exert? There are a lot of situations where a small force can affect a large object - I picked the above becayse it came up last session.
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Creative Director
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Anything in the works for an Osirion based, pyramid tromping adventure path.I dunno.
Would folks like an adventure path like that?
If you guys could get the rights to that old Gary Gygax Egyptian adventure, that'd be super cool.
You mean "Necropolis?" I'm actually running that for several folks here at Paizo every other Thursday. It's pretty deadly... but it's not nearly big enough to be an Adventure Path. Furthermore... we've not yet used an Adventure Path to update a previous company's adventure, so that'd be weird in and of itself.
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Creative Director
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Mr. James Jacobs,
When it comes to the failure of prophecy i've always been under the impression that it applies to all prophecies up to the death of Aroden, but prophecies made after that point have the ability to be viable. Is this accurate?
Thank you.
Nope.
We at Paizo find prophecy to be a pretty cliche and tired story element, and by coming right out and saying "prophecies don't work anymore" we're trying to encourage (or even force) our authors to not rely on that crutch for their stories. As a result, any prophecies that are still in existence are only accurate accidentally or by chance, which means the majority of them do not come true.
1) How accurate are short term or localized prophecies in Golarion?
I am currently playing a Varisian Magus that studied at the Twilight Academy and is a member of the Harrowd society; he is particularly interested in the study of prophecy and the Harrow deck, so I would like to know how accurate is harrowing. [I know, it depend on the GM, ;-) but what is your vision of it?]
Edit: more or less you have already replied with later posts, but I am still interested in more informations, if you are willing to give them.
2) I don't see mentions of the Harrowed society in Varisia, birthplace of legends, it is one of those things you have decided to put aside?The Harrowed Society
Based in the town of Galduria, the Harrowed Society uses the Twilight Academy as a sort of “ front” for their true purpose: to decipher the mysteries held in harrow cards, the traditional Varisian fortune-teller’s tools. The Harrowed Society believes that if these mysteries can be deciphered, the true secrets of reality can be learned.
Location Galduria (Varisia)
1) Short term/localized prophecies are as accurate as long term/regional ones. AKA: They're randomly accurate by chance.
2) Varisia's 32 page book had not many pages to cover one of the largest and most detailed areas in the Inner Sea region; as a result, a LOT of elements had to get glossed over. The Harrowed Society still exists in Galduria. It just didn't get mentioned in the player's guid to the region. Partially because they're kinda a secret society, so it's sort of a spoiler to talk about them in a book aimed at players in the first place...
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Creative Director
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To be fair the "goofy" cosmologies that you sometimes see in Spelljammer, like the idea of a flat world held by elephants sitting on a turtle were serious thoughts in a pre-scientific time. Spelljammer had your classic solar systems as well. And a little bit of self-mockery is a healthy thing. Paizo's goblins are full of it.I'm more referring to the fact that there were a lot of design choices made by the authors of the setting that seemed to indicate they didn't take the game seriously and saw it only as a venue for jokes and comedy. Giant Space Hamsters, for example. Or beholders named Luigi.
I don't really think self-mockery is a healthy thing... I think humility is, but that's different than self-mockery. I wouldn't say that our goblins are a form of self-mockery at all... if they were, we would have made them obviously caricatures of gamer stereotypes. Which they are not.
Do you read Goglins: life through their eyes?
Nope; never heard of it.
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Creative Director
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Do you have any plans on dealing with the martial/caster disparity in pathfinder or do you think it's not a wide enough gap to be worried about it?
I think the martial/caster disparity is mostly present in the view of folks who favor martial characters who are jealous of casters, or from the point of view of folks who favor caster characters who are jealous of martial characters.
AKA: I don't think its as big a deal as the internet makes it out to be. In my games, casters and non-casters tend to be equally valuable to the party, and equally dangerous in various situations as enemies. I've seen parties get into big trouble when their only strong spellcaster wasn't at the game, and I've seen them get into big trouble when their only strong non-spellcaster wasn't at the game.
To a large extent as well the responsibility to keep things fair and fun for all involved lands on the GM's shoulders. If every single fight is against flying creatures that use ranged attacks, the characters who focused on melee stuff are going to be cranky. Likewise, if every single fight is against golems or high SR foes, the spellcasters are going to be cranky.
It's a balancing act.
You mean "Necropolis?" I'm actually running that for several folks here at Paizo every other Thursday. It's pretty deadly... but it's not nearly big enough to be an Adventure Path. Furthermore... we've not yet used an Adventure Path to update a previous company's adventure, so that'd be weird in and of itself.Anything in the works for an Osirion based, pyramid tromping adventure path.I dunno.
Would folks like an adventure path like that?
If you guys could get the rights to that old Gary Gygax Egyptian adventure, that'd be super cool.
I'd be in for an Osirion AP.
Would it be possible to do an update like that in the Modules line? Or just as a special project? Not that you don't have enough to do with the Emerald Spire added onto your workload.
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Creative Director
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What would Sorshen do if she decides to take over the Academae?Rebuild it and reorganize it to teach Thassilonian style magic with a focus on enchantment. Assuming she wants to share that knowledge, which she probably doesn't, so she'd be more likely to plunder the Academae of its secrets and magic and then turn the place into something else (such as a prison or a kennel) or maybe just let it fall into ruin as a show of her power.1. Why wouldn't Sorshen want to turn the hapless Academae students into her minions? It's not like she'd be bad at indoctrination.
2. What exactly is there to plunder from the Academae? I thought it was just a wizarding school.
3. If Sorshen does take over the Academae, how much would that interfere with Lorthact's plans for it?
4. In what way would Sorshen's and Lorthact's plans for Korvosa differ?
5. What would be Sorshen's main worry upon awakening?
1) Because they're not up to her standards. Because they specialize in conjuration mostly. Because she's arrogant enough to not want to wallow in something lesser that someone else built, and because she might be right to have that opinion. Because it's pretty small potatoes compared to most of her other major plans.
2) Any time you have a strong concentration of spellcasters, especially in a school, you have research going on and item creation going on. There's certainly a lot of treasure and money and magic items and spells hidden away in there.
3) They'd probably ruin his plans.
4) Sorshen doesn't really have plans for Korvosa. She has plans for Varisia... for Golarion as a whole. So in that way their plans differ in that Lorthact's plans are pretty regionalized and localized and small-scale.
5) That other runelords woke up before her and have a head start on reclaiming and rebuilding their power base.
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Creative Director
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G'day!
Have you seen DreamWorks's How to train your dragon? Thoughts??
Have you (or will you) see Rise of the Guardians? I ask 'cause Del Toro was an executive producer for it! (Doesn't necessarily mean much, but...)
Note: Neither movie has any "spontaneous singing" involved, unlike most Disney faire (since you've stated a bias against musicals...).
Thank you!
-- C.
I've seen "How to Train your Dragon" and loved it. And then I found out it was done by lots of the same folks who did Lilo & Stitch, my all-time favorite Disney animated movie, and my delight for "Dragon" made more sense.
Haven't seen "Rise of the Guardians." I might see it some day. Del Toro's touch pretty much means I'll love a movie, though. He's one of the only directors who's never directed a movie I didn't like.
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Creative Director
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To your first sentence, I would reply with the two words, Jon Stewart, especially if you saw his Three Ghosts of Christmas segment. To the second I always thought that your goblins were subtle forms of tongue in cheek. I can think of a fair number of players, the characters (both PC and NPC) of "We Be Goblins" remind me of. In that haven't you ever had something of that classic "Evil Player raid on Hommlet" in your gaming career?
I don't really think self-mockery is a healthy thing... I think humility is, but that's different than self-mockery. I wouldn't say that our goblins are a form of self-mockery at all... if they were, we would have made them obviously caricatures of gamer stereotypes. Which they are not.
Not really.
I've never really thought of goblins as adventurers at all. They're equally interested in robbing stuff as they are being sadists. A goblin who attacks a caravan and ends up burning it down and scaring a horse off a cliff so it can caper on its body while its legs are broken but the horse is still alive probably counts the raid more successful than if it had only come away with a bag of gold.
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James, I am participating in the mythic playtest and I am impressed with the increase in character power even at the lower levels. The power of a wizard 20 archmage 10 is incredible. My question for you is where do these mythic individual fit into the Inner Sea region? I can see a fighter 6 champion 3 quietly living in a small village or town; Achilles that didn't sail to Troy. Someone like the Whispering Tyrant would be a wizard 20 archmage 10.
My impression is the Inner Sea region is composed of mainly low level characters, with very few truely high level characters. Can you give me some insight on how mythic characters integrate into the region?
The Inner Sea region is indeed built with the assumption that it's a Core setting for 1st to 20th level play, but there ARE parts of it that can relatively easily provide challenges for more powerful play. The Worldwound is one obvious location.
But really, once you become super powerful, you'll be spending more and more of your adventuring time elsewhere than in the Inner Sea Region. Maybe in Orv. Maybe on other planets. Maybe on other planes. Etc.
Wrath of the Righteous is, at this point, going to be an Adventure Path that goes to 20th level and tier 10 mythic power—whether or not it stays with that plan remains to be seen, but at this point, a significant part of that Adventure Path will be taking place on the Abyss as an example of how the increased power opens up new adventuring locations.
As for examples of mythic NPCs currently alive and operating in the Inner Sea region, you need look no further than pages 5–7 of Inner Sea Magic. Any character in there with a "+" after their level is a mythic character (we just couldn't use the word "mythic" yet since we weren't public with what that word officially meant).
That includes:
Three of the runelords
Arazni, Queen of Geb
Artokus Kirran, inventor of the sun orchid elixir
Baba Yaga, founder of Irrisen
Elvanna, ruler of Irrisen
Geb, ruler of Geb
jakalyn, leader of the Red Mantis
Jatembe, mythical Mwangi wizard
Kortash Khain, ghoul and ruler of the underground city of Nemret Noktoria
Nex, ruler of Nex
Tar-Baphon, the whispering tyrant
It's certainly not limited to those folks.
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Creative Director
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James, does a mounted charge require that both mount and rider spend their full-round actions to charge? Or only the mount needs to spend his full-round action to charge, while the rider still has a move action and a standard action to use?
For example, could a rider spur a mount as a move action and attack as a standard action during a mounted charge?
Mounted combat, charges, and all related topics are great nominees for rules forum questions so folks can FAQ them.
(In my games, no, if your mount charges, you only get a standard action because that's how charge works.)
A goblin who attacks a caravan and ends up burning it down and scaring a horse off a cliff so it can caper on its body while its legs are broken but the horse is still alive probably counts the raid more successful than if it had only come away with a bag of gold.
That's messed up.
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Nope; never heard of it.To be fair the "goofy" cosmologies that you sometimes see in Spelljammer, like the idea of a flat world held by elephants sitting on a turtle were serious thoughts in a pre-scientific time. Spelljammer had your classic solar systems as well. And a little bit of self-mockery is a healthy thing. Paizo's goblins are full of it.I'm more referring to the fact that there were a lot of design choices made by the authors of the setting that seemed to indicate they didn't take the game seriously and saw it only as a venue for jokes and comedy. Giant Space Hamsters, for example. Or beholders named Luigi.
I don't really think self-mockery is a healthy thing... I think humility is, but that's different than self-mockery. I wouldn't say that our goblins are a form of self-mockery at all... if they were, we would have made them obviously caricatures of gamer stereotypes. Which they are not.
Do you read Goglins: life through their eyes?
I should remember to check what I type, it is:
Goblin: life through their eyes
initially the drawings are a bit rough, but it is a nice comic.
James, I am participating in the mythic playtest and I am impressed with the increase in character power even at the lower levels. The power of a wizard 20 archmage 10 is incredible. My question for you is where do these mythic individual fit into the Inner Sea region? I can see a fighter 6 champion 3 quietly living in a small village or town; Achilles that didn't sail to Troy. Someone like the Whispering Tyrant would be a wizard 20 archmage 10.
My impression is the Inner Sea region is composed of mainly low level characters, with very few truely high level characters. Can you give me some insight on how mythic characters integrate into the region?
The Inner Sea region is indeed built with the assumption that it's a Core setting for 1st to 20th level play, but there ARE parts of it that can relatively easily provide challenges for more powerful play. The Worldwound is one obvious location.
But really, once you become super powerful, you'll be spending more and more of your adventuring time elsewhere than in the Inner Sea Region. Maybe in Orv. Maybe on other planets. Maybe on other planes. Etc.
Wrath of the Righteous is, at this point, going to be an Adventure Path that goes to 20th level and tier 10 mythic power—whether or not it stays with that plan remains to be seen, but at this point, a significant part of that Adventure Path will be taking place on the Abyss as an example of how the increased power opens up new adventuring locations.
As for examples of mythic NPCs currently alive and operating in the Inner Sea region, you need look no further than pages 5–7 of Inner Sea Magic. Any character in there with a "+" after their level is a mythic character (we just couldn't use the word "mythic" yet since we weren't public with what that word officially meant).
That includes:
Three of the runelords
Arazni, Queen of Geb
Artokus Kirran, inventor of the sun orchid elixir
Baba Yaga, founder of Irrisen
Elvanna, ruler of Irrisen
Geb, ruler of Geb...
Thank you for your reply. Even though I am no longer a GM I will have to pick up Wrath of the Righteous just to see how Paizo integrates it.
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Creative Director
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James, can you tell me...
1) For level 20 paladins, can they opt to NOT use banish when they smite an evil outsider?
2) Can alchemists choose to end their mutagen early? It's a supernatural ability and I think the answer for those is usually 'Yes', but then that rationale doesn't necessarily make sense when looking at their extracts which are supernatural BUT behave exactly like spells.
3) Can daemons feed on the souls of things that technically don't have "souls", like fey?
4) Do atheists that arrive at Pharasma for judgement ever get presented by her with a choice of where they might want to go? For example, say a neutral good atheist who always felt torn between being free (chaotic) and doing what was best for the society as a whole (lawful) being allowed to go to Heaven or Elysium? Also, does she dislike atheists to some degree, being obviously a god with real-world power yet they never acknowledged her and, if so, would that affect her likely-hood at offering them a choice concerning their destination?
5) Is the fact that there was a somewhat higher concentration of summoners in Sarkoris before Aroden's death at all related to the fact that that's where the Worldwound opened up?
6) You mentioned that the Abyss might have been the source of ALL life? Do you mean all life on all planes? If so, would that include the first gods? Can you expand on those answers as far as how they might relate to a potential Golarion multi-versal creation mythos?
7) When constructing dungeons, what elements do you always try to include to make them fun, challenging, and memorable?
Thanks in advance.
1) I suppose so... but if they waste a chance to banish the foe and then the foe escapes and goes on to wreak more chaos and evil, the paladin would have a lot of remorse that I could easily see lead to a fall from grace. It's a calculated risk, in other words... ESPECIALLY if the main reason they don't try to banish the foe is fueled by greed (aka: I don't want to banish that bad guy because he'll take all the treasure I'm due when I defeat him away).
2) That's not covered in the rules. I'd say it's up to the GM, but I wouldn't let them do so in my games, because thems the risks when you Mr. Hyde out.
3) Fey have souls. All living creatures have souls. In the case of outsiders, the soul is merged fundamentally with the body, but they still have souls. And no, you can't eat a soul from something that doesn't have them... which would mean most constructs and undead.
4) In theory, the "choosing where you go in the afterlife" is a choice you make by living your life in a specific way. Once you're dead, you've made that "choice" in how you lived, and you can't go back and choose differently. You may not LIKE what choice you made. Whether or not you're an atheist doesn't matter.
5) Yes, in a roundabout way.
6) Yes. And no, I'm not ready to expand on that answer. Yet.
7) I try to make the map look neat. I try to make the logic of the dungeon make sense. I try to mix up the types of foes so they're not repetitive. I try to make sure there's lots of roleplaying encounters. I try to make sure there's lots of mini-quests to do.
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Creative Director
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Can Mage Hand turn somedody floating in water over (to prevent drowning)
The mage hand spell says it can manipulate things of a certain weight. Is this to be seen as a absolute "magical" limit or as an indication of the strength it can exert? There are a lot of situations where a small force can affect a large object - I picked the above becayse it came up last session.
It's an absolute limit. Mage hand is only a cantrip. It has to be limited in power. A more accurate way to express it's limits would be to use the word "mass" instead of "weight," but using the word "mass" would feel out of place poetically since "mass" isn't really traditionally used in fantasy settings.
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Creative Director
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A goblin who attacks a caravan and ends up burning it down and scaring a horse off a cliff so it can caper on its body while its legs are broken but the horse is still alive probably counts the raid more successful than if it had only come away with a bag of gold.That's messed up.
I know. I hope the goblin who ignored the horse and the flammable wagon and only ran off with gold met a messy end as well. All those lost opportunities!
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You mean "Necropolis?" I'm actually running that for several folks here at Paizo every other Thursday. It's pretty deadly... but it's not nearly big enough to be an Adventure Path. Furthermore... we've not yet used an Adventure Path to update a previous company's adventure, so that'd be weird in and of itself.Anything in the works for an Osirion based, pyramid tromping adventure path.I dunno.
Would folks like an adventure path like that?
If you guys could get the rights to that old Gary Gygax Egyptian adventure, that'd be super cool.
I'd be in for an Osirion AP.
Would it be possible to do an update like that in the Modules line? Or just as a special project? Not that you don't have enough to do with the Emerald Spire added onto your workload.
It'd have to be a special project, and not only that, it'd have to be a change to Paizo's philosophy. We're still pretty devoted to spending all of our creative energies in directly supporting our own intellectual properties. Updating something like Necropolis would not support Golarion, and if we rebuilt it to be in Golarion, it would no longer be Necropolis but something else entirely.
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Do you have any plans on dealing with the martial/caster disparity in pathfinder or do you think it's not a wide enough gap to be worried about it?I think the martial/caster disparity is mostly present in the view of folks who favor martial characters who are jealous of casters, or from the point of view of folks who favor caster characters who are jealous of martial characters.
AKA: I don't think its as big a deal as the internet makes it out to be. In my games, casters and non-casters tend to be equally valuable to the party, and equally dangerous in various situations as enemies. I've seen parties get into big trouble when their only strong spellcaster wasn't at the game, and I've seen them get into big trouble when their only strong non-spellcaster wasn't at the game.
To a large extent as well the responsibility to keep things fair and fun for all involved lands on the GM's shoulders. If every single fight is against flying creatures that use ranged attacks, the characters who focused on melee stuff are going to be cranky. Likewise, if every single fight is against golems or high SR foes, the spellcasters are going to be cranky.
It's a balancing act.
Sometime I think that part of the problem is the easy access (low cost) to metamagic rods. In my games I have substituted them with books that allow you access to a metamagic feat for 24 hours as if you had it, at the expense of a longer preparation time when you memorize your spells or recover your slots.
I feel that not having to spend the higher level spell slot to benefit from a metamagic effect is a big boon.
Another factor is that when a new spell is added a caster can generally get it while when a new feat is added a martial character has to trade something away to get it.
So, if you continue to add stuff without limitations it is easier for a spellcaster to get a boost in power than for a martial character.
In my gaming group we tend to moderate that kind of power accumulation and casters aren't generally more powerful than martial characters, they both have their areas of competence.
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Creative Director
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Any chance to see these guys stated up soon?Is there anywhere published the stats for Abrogail Thrune II or Khemet III or Xanderghul as a character sheet?Nope.
Yes... if by "soon" you mean "Within the next few years." Especially once Mythic Adventures is done, which will be required for Xanderghul at the very least.
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Mounted combat, charges, and all related topics are great nominees for rules forum questions so folks can FAQ them.James, does a mounted charge require that both mount and rider spend their full-round actions to charge? Or only the mount needs to spend his full-round action to charge, while the rider still has a move action and a standard action to use?
For example, could a rider spur a mount as a move action and attack as a standard action during a mounted charge?
It's still saddening to me to have to see this message every time questions come up, as I've long since hidden the Rules forum due to the rude and disrespectful behavior of many of the posters there. Count me in the list of people unhappy about this new questions limitation, even if there's not much else to be done about it.
Hello, James! Thank you for the previous responses. Dusk elves from Nidal sound very neat, while ones that have fled that nation definitely have redemption potential. Could make some neat character history for PCs!
As for questions...
1) What are the chances we will get an article on Nocticula's cult and a gazetteer of the Midnight Isles in the upcoming Wrath of the Righteous adventure path?
2) What are your thoughts on gender requirements for Prestige Classes? On one hand, I think gender requirements irk my sense of fairness due to real life bleeding over, but on the other, I can somewhat see it as flavor for the world. I remember the Thrall of Malcanthet Prc had such a requirement, and it always bugged me a little that only females could enter it, as it was a pretty cool and flavorful class.
3) Is there a possibility for a more Nocticula-specific PrC besides the Demoniac?
3a) If so, do you think its likely there will be a gender requirement for such a prestige class?
As always, thank you for your time and the responses!
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Creative Director
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1) What are the chances we will get an article on Nocticula's cult and a gazetteer of the Midnight Isles in the upcoming Wrath of the Righteous adventure path?
2) What are your thoughts on gender requirements for Prestige Classes? On one hand, I think gender requirements irk my sense of fairness due to real life bleeding over, but on the other, I can somewhat see it as flavor for the world. I remember the Thrall of Malcanthet Prc had such a requirement, and it always bugged me a little that only females could enter it, as it was a pretty cool and flavorful class.
3) Is there a possibility for a more Nocticula-specific PrC besides the Demoniac?
3a) If so, do you think its likely there will be a gender requirement for such a prestige class?
As always, thank you for your time and the responses!
1) Those looking for more information on the Midnight Isles and Nocticula and her cult WILL want to purchase part four of Wrath of the Righteous.
2) I was the one who wrote & designed the Thrall of Malcanthet prestige class, so I'm obviously a fan of gender requirements... when they make sense! For that prestige class, and considering Malcanthet's personality, it made sense to put that limit in there. If I remember correctly, the Thrall of Kostchtchie had a males only requirement, but I could be mis-remembering that...
3) There's certainly a possibility.
3a) Probably not. A Nocticula-specific PrC would PROBABLY be a sort of assassin/seducer class. Black widow type themes and all that.