In the Inner Sea World Guide, there are many minor deities that are briefly described, including the Lost Prince. Is there any information about this deity other than the description in the Inner Sea World Guide? I've been playing a cleric of the Lost Prince in PFS, but I don't even know what his holy symbol looks like.
Had an interesting discussion with a friend today when a thought entered my head.
D&D seems to have a color theme of Red. When I Google 'Dungeons and Dragons' I see the logo is red, red dragons, fire, etc. The color Red is associated with strength, violence, passion, aggressiveness, power, and love.
Conversely, when I Google 'Pathfinder RPG' I see a lot of Blue. The Golem is Blue, a lot of the writing on the website is Blue, the CRB has a Red Dragon surrounded by lots of Blue-Green-Grey colors etc. Blue is also a passionate color (though more associated with sadness or depression), but it's also symbolizes, success, friendship, peacefulness, intelligence, and life.
Is the use of Blue in Pathfinder intentional to contrast the Red of D&D? Or am I just seeing a coincidence?
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Nope. Oracles and witches do have associations with greater powers than themselves, be they patrons or mysteries. While a patron or a mystrey may be tied to a deity or other entity, they themselves are NOT entities. It would have mentioned something similar to the ex-clerics line in the core rulebook for clerics were that not the case.As you have not replied to my question in the middle post I will hope it was because you skipped it and I will repeat it:
In Golarion it is possible for a Oracle or Witch to lose some or all of his powers because he pissed off the entities that gave them to him?
So both are free to spam Miracle (Which is powerful even WITH the unwritten rule that using it wastefully results in falling)? Cool!
Can Masterwork Transformation be used on an Unarmed Strike? If no, why not?You can't have masterwork hands. This is a case where common sense needs to take over.But an Unarmed Strike isn't just hands, it's any attacks made with the body (including kicks, elbows, headbuts, tackles).
Also tell that to *insert professional athlete of choice*
Anyways...
1: Does using Masterwork Transformation on a weapon chosen for the (post errata) Heirloom Weapon trait break Heirloom Weapon (it no longer qualifies to be picked for the trait due to no longer being non-masterwork)
2: How do holy symbols of gods that are weapons (such as Chaldira Zuzaristan) work? A character removing a hand from his sword to grab a picture of a sword seems silly.
Bonus Answer 1: Miracle has the language of "you request this" written into the very text of the spell. It doesn't matter if you do or don't worship a deity—when you cast miracle, you're making a request of a deity and whether or not that happens depends on that. AKA: you can't dodge this element of miracle by not worshiping a deity.
Bonus Answer 2: A professional athlete of choice has skill and experience. He/she does NOT have masterwork hands. And regardless of what body part you use to attack, you don't get to masterwork that. This is not an argument pedantic double-talk can win.
1) Probably.
2) The holy symbol is assumed to be a tiny replica of that weapon on a necklace or something like that. But with the GM's approval, that holy symbol can also actually be the weapon. There's no big game balance worry about this, in any event.
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Creative Director
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In the Inner Sea World Guide, there are many minor deities that are briefly described, including the Lost Prince. Is there any information about this deity other than the description in the Inner Sea World Guide? I've been playing a cleric of the Lost Prince in PFS, but I don't even know what his holy symbol looks like.
The only other place we've talked about the Eldest is in the article about the First World in Pathfinder #36.
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Creative Director
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Had an interesting discussion with a friend today when a thought entered my head.
D&D seems to have a color theme of Red. When I Google 'Dungeons and Dragons' I see the logo is red, red dragons, fire, etc. The color Red is associated with strength, violence, passion, aggressiveness, power, and love.
Conversely, when I Google 'Pathfinder RPG' I see a lot of Blue. The Golem is Blue, a lot of the writing on the website is Blue, the CRB has a Red Dragon surrounded by lots of Blue-Green-Grey colors etc. Blue is also a passionate color (though more associated with sadness or depression), but it's also symbolizes, success, friendship, peacefulness, intelligence, and life.
Is the use of Blue in Pathfinder intentional to contrast the Red of D&D? Or am I just seeing a coincidence?
It's not intentional. It's merely the colors chosen by each company's respective art directors. And in any event, there's no blue in the Pathfinder logo—gold and red and brown there instead.
Cruch...cruch...cruch...
If a target is currently under the spell effect (e.g. 1 min/level), that required a willing target (e.g. Levitate), and they decide to no longer be willing, does the spell end?
Situation:
I cast Levitate on a companion, who willingly accepted the spell. I moved him, but he didn't like where I moved him and thus became an unwilling target for the spell.
1) Does the spell end and he fall?
2) Does the spell persist under the control of the caster?
Alt situation:
I cast Marionette Possession on a willing target. Time passes and the target decides they no longer want to be controlled.
3) Does the spell end and I get shunted by to my body?
4) Does the spell persist under the control of the caster?
Hey James have you heard of the green children of Woolpit? Apparently appearing in the 8th century and first written about in the 12th century by one William of Newburgh.
Here are the words written by Newburgh "The children were of a bright green color, they were dressed in an attire no one had seen before. They spoke a language no one recognized and refused all food given to them in the first few days despite being of the appearance of starvation.The children seemed not to know what food was when presented before them. Though I have not seen these children myself I have been convinced by such witnesses of quality who all agree on the tale."
What do you think these strange children were, found wandering in the woods near the town of Woolpit?
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Creative Director
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does the cost of adding silver to arrows and bolts or any special material for that matter, apply per arrow or is that added to the price of a whole quiver?
in other words is the math...
alchemical silver:
silver arrow 2gp (+2gp per arrow)
or
sliver arrow 1sp 4cp ([1gp quiver of 20 +2gp]/20)
The cost is added per batch of 20 arrows. It's unfortunate that magic arrows are priced in batches of 50.
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Cruch...cruch...cruch...
If a target is currently under the spell effect (e.g. 1 min/level), that required a willing target (e.g. Levitate), and they decide to no longer be willing, does the spell end?
Situation:
I cast Levitate on a companion, who willingly accepted the spell. I moved him, but he didn't like where I moved him and thus became an unwilling target for the spell.
1) Does the spell end and he fall?
2) Does the spell persist under the control of the caster?Alt situation:
I cast Marionette Possession on a willing target. Time passes and the target decides they no longer want to be controlled.
3) Does the spell end and I get shunted by to my body?
4) Does the spell persist under the control of the caster?
Nope. Once a spell effect is going, it goes until it's dispelled or its duration ends. Some spells have that (D) in their duration line, which means that the CASTER can dismiss the spell. But the target of the spell can't do that. If you're willing to have a spell cast on you, you'd better be willing to have that effect on you for the duration.
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Creative Director
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Hey James have you heard of the green children of Woolpit? Apparently appearing in the 8th century and first written about in the 12th century by one William of Newburgh.
Here are the words written by Newburgh "The children were of a bright green color, they were dressed in an attire no one had seen before. They spoke a language no one recognized and refused all food given to them in the first few days despite being of the appearance of starvation.The children seemed not to know what food was when presented before them. Though I have not seen these children myself I have been convinced by such witnesses of quality who all agree on the tale."
What do you think these strange children were, found wandering in the woods near the town of Woolpit?
Never heard of them.
I think they were probably one of the following:
1) Boggards
2) Demons
3) Kids covered in mud
4) Lepers or other sick folk
5) A tall tale
6) A hallucination
7) Lizard folk
8 Time travelers
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Creative Director
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Greetings JJ,
2 questions, one has probably cropped up in one of your campaigns and the other is more of an odd ball that I wanted to get your opinion on.
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First: Freedom of Movement and underwater movement. I've seen two schools of thought on this one. One still requires the person with FoM to roll swim checks to get around (which doesn't make much sense to me personally), and another is to treat a person with FoM, while underwater, as though they had a fly spell on them (although I'm not clear on whether this would then require fly checks in place of swim checks to get around, maybe perfect maneuverability?). How would you, or have you, ruled this in your own campaigns?
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The second question is more of an odd ball corner case. A heavy steel shield with the bashing enhancement deals 1d8 on hit (according to Hero Lab). If a ranger wielding that shield casts Lead Blades on himself, does the shield bash damage increase from 1d8 to 2d6? Or, to put it more straight forward, does bashing and lead blades stack? They certainly aren't the same type of increase (I don't think either one has a type of increase), which would lead me to believe that a bashing shield, with lead blades applied, does indeed deal 2d6. Thoughts?
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As always, stay classy San Diego!
First: If you're underwater with freedom of movement, you no longer have the penalties associated with being underwater for combat and the like... but you're still in the water. You still have to roll Swim checks to get around. I would likely house rule that existing currents no longer matter, so that you'd always have a DC 10 check for being in calm water regardless of the condition of the water... but that's a GM call. Allowing a PC with freedom of movement to move around underwater as if he were flying is a nonsensical leap of illogic.
Second: Lead blades and the bashing enhancement should probably not stack. They're essentially doing the same effect—increasing the effective damage die for the shield as if it were bigger than it actually was, and while it's not specifically called out as such, this is more or less a size bonus. I would say that these two effects wouldn't stack... mostly because of how that effect compares to other weapons and damage scaling assumptions in the game.
A question that came up last Friday. Someone used Color Spray on some bad guys and they turned unconscious. Can you "wake" someone up from being unconscious?
A question that came up last Friday. Someone used Color Spray on some bad guys and they turned unconscious. Can you "wake" someone up from being unconscious?Nope.
Unconscious is not sleeping.
Fair enough thanks. That's how I ruled it so I'll stick by it. Thank you again! My gnolls will probably not be happy though :)
In the Inner Sea World Guide, there are many minor deities that are briefly described, including the Lost Prince. Is there any information about this deity other than the description in the Inner Sea World Guide? I've been playing a cleric of the Lost Prince in PFS, but I don't even know what his holy symbol looks like.The only other place we've talked about the Eldest is in the article about the First World in Pathfinder #36.
Thanks James! Even though it's something that hasn't been published, would you happen to know what the Lost Prince's holy symbol is?
The second question is more of an odd ball corner case. A heavy steel shield with the bashing enhancement deals 1d8 on hit (according to Hero Lab). If a ranger wielding that shield casts Lead Blades on himself, does the shield bash damage increase from 1d8 to 2d6? Or, to put it more straight forward, does bashing and lead blades stack? They certainly aren't the same type of increase (I don't think either one has a type of increase), which would lead me to believe that a bashing shield, with lead blades applied, does indeed deal 2d6. Thoughts?Second: Lead blades and the bashing enhancement should probably not stack. They're essentially doing the same effect—increasing the effective damage die for the shield as if it were bigger than it actually was, and while it's not specifically called out as such, this is more or less a size bonus. I would say that these two effects wouldn't stack... mostly because of how that effect compares to other weapons and damage scaling assumptions in the game.
Does that mean that shield spikes and lead blades don't stack?
Also, this is a question I've asked before on the rules forum, and there doesn't seem to anything preventing these effects (shield spikes, bashing, lead blades) from stacking. Is saying these effects are size bonuses (and therefore don't stack) a house rule?
Also also, if you consider these effects to be size bonuses, does that mean they don't stack with enlarge person?
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Creative Director
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Thanks James! Even though it's something that hasn't been published, would you happen to know what the Lost Prince's holy symbol is?In the Inner Sea World Guide, there are many minor deities that are briefly described, including the Lost Prince. Is there any information about this deity other than the description in the Inner Sea World Guide? I've been playing a cleric of the Lost Prince in PFS, but I don't even know what his holy symbol looks like.The only other place we've talked about the Eldest is in the article about the First World in Pathfinder #36.
Not yet, nope.
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Creative Director
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Does that mean that shield spikes and lead blades don't stack?
Also, this is a question I've asked before on the rules forum, and there doesn't seem to anything preventing these effects (shield spikes, bashing, lead blades) from stacking. Is saying these effects are size bonuses (and therefore don't stack) a house rule?
Also also, if you consider these effects to be size bonuses, does that mean they don't stack with enlarge person?
Shield spikes are baseline weapons, so lead blades works fine on them. The bashing quality is NOT a baseline weapon, which is why that's a concern.
What prevents the bashing ability from applying to a shield spike is that bashing is something you put on a shield, NOT a shield spike.
If you had a bashing shield with shield spikes, you would have two options to attack when you attack with that shield—you could shield bash and get the benefit of the bashing enhancement, or you could use the shield spikes and NOT get the bashing enhancement (you could, however, put any of the weapon qualities like keen or flaming on those spikes).
They would stack with enlarge person, since that's a physical increase to the size of the weapon. Similar to how natural armor bonuses and enhancements to natural armor bonuses (AKA a monster's racial natural armor and the effects of barkskin) tack.
If all of that is confusing... that's because it IS. The honest truth is that I don't believe that the rules for shield spikes, lead blades, and the bashing quality were ever designed with the idea that they would all work together at once. The simplest solution may just be to pick which you like more and drop the rest.
Depends on the GM's whim, I guess.
James, couple of questions:
1. Where are the wine growing regions in the Inner Sea?
2. How do Hellknight's feel about alcohol? Do they partake or abstain?
3. What are their views on sex?
Thanks!
Nope. Once a spell effect is going, it goes until it's dispelled or its duration ends. Some spells have that (D) in their duration line, which means that the CASTER can dismiss the spell. But the target of the spell can't do that. If you're willing to have a spell cast on you, you'd better be willing to have that effect on you for the duration.Cruch...cruch...cruch...
If a target is currently under the spell effect (e.g. 1 min/level), that required a willing target (e.g. Levitate), and they decide to no longer be willing, does the spell end?
Situation:
I cast Levitate on a companion, who willingly accepted the spell. I moved him, but he didn't like where I moved him and thus became an unwilling target for the spell.
1) Does the spell end and he fall?
2) Does the spell persist under the control of the caster?Alt situation:
I cast Marionette Possession on a willing target. Time passes and the target decides they no longer want to be controlled.
3) Does the spell end and I get shunted by to my body?
4) Does the spell persist under the control of the caster?
Hi James,
I have an interest in the conversation as I originally disallowed the tactic harmor was trying to use in this conversation pending confirmation from a developer. Here is what he wanted to do:
Cast marionette possession on someone unconscious (at negative hitpoints perhaps, or maybe the target of a slumber hex), since according to the CRB someone unconscious is always willing when it comes to being the target of a spell. My problem with the tactic is that once the target became conscious, I felt he would be unwilling and the spell should end. What I am reading here suggests that is not the case, but I just wanted to clarify. Thanks!
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Someone on Facebook wants to know if golarion has anything like the Olympics.
Edit:
never mind! i found the answer!
There's the Ruby Phoenix Tournament. There's even an adventure for it!Dear J.Jacobs-
Is there an Olympics on Golarion? If not, could there be?
I have the Olympic fever!!!!!
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Question about the last battle in RotRL:
First of all, bully job on the hardcover! I've read through it and I can't imagine how in the hell any PC could survive that final battle...it's going to be AWESOME!
Now, does that Blue Dragon have a name? He's been locked up with Karzoug playing "I spy with my little eye" for the past 10,000 years. He's jealous that the giants get cool titles: "Warden of Runes", "Warden of Thunder". He's just "Adult Blue Dragon". He's just a little blue that he's being treated no better than a no-name red-shirt. ;-)
Dear James: Today I was watching the news and the bicyclers were talking about how rumble strips installed on our national highways were ruining the "beautiful cycle paths" and I thought he said "beautiful psychopaths". Do people with hearing imparements have more fun?
A question that came up last Friday. Someone used Color Spray on some bad guys and they turned unconscious. Can you "wake" someone up from being unconscious?
IANJ, but
There are items that seem to give at least a chance to wake up from that Color Spray effect prematurely.
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So, I'm curious about the game's baseline assumptions.
When I run a game, the monsters have a tendency to use their useful treasure against the PCs (for reasons of logic), many people say that this should raise their CR...and I can see where they're coming from, though I obviously don't entirely agree with them.
So, my question is what's the basic intent there?
Should a Succubus with a Headband of Charisma +2 and a Mithral Chain Shirt (roughly her treasure allotment) be higher CR than one sans useful treasure?
What about a Marilith with the majority of her theoretical 64k in combat gear? A total that allows for +10 or +11 AC easily with less than half of it, just for example.
I'm not talking about more than the standard amount of treasure or anything, just what's listed, actually used in combat.
I get that as a GM, I can do what I like, and as a player, what the GM says goes...but I'm interested in the intent of the people writing the game and the adventures.
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Creative Director
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Did anyone ever actually fire a weapon (hand or long gun) before writing up the Gunslinger ?
The noise and smoke from a muzzle loading weapon is pretty substantial, fire one of these in close combat 5 or 10 feet from behind an ally without modern hearing protection and see what happens. Tinnitus anyone ?
The fouling factor alone will render any weapon useless after so many shots without cleaning depending on powder quality.
Not that I'm aware of. We didn't actually cast spells before writing up the oracle, or mix alchemical mutagens and bombs before writing up the alchemist, or spend time as a demon before writing up stats for Treerazer either.
We made a specific choice with guns and the gunslinger to NOT try to 100% accurately model what guns do, and to instead embrace the pulpy fiction of what guns to in fantasy settings instead.
Pathfinder is not a game about modeling realisim. If it were, we wouldn't use hit points.
People seeking roleplaying games with hyperrealistic rules for guns should probably look elsewhere.
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Creative Director
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James, couple of questions:
1. Where are the wine growing regions in the Inner Sea?2. How do Hellknight's feel about alcohol? Do they partake or abstain?
3. What are their views on sex?
Thanks!
1) Druma, Cheliax, likely elsewhere. The regions' exports and imports aren't something we've really bothered to nail down for sure yet.
2) Depends on the order. Some do, some don't.
3) Same as 2 above.
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Creative Director
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I have an interest in the conversation as I originally disallowed the tactic harmor was trying to use in this conversation pending confirmation from a developer. Here is what he wanted to do:
Cast marionette possession on someone unconscious (at negative hitpoints perhaps, or maybe the target of a slumber hex), since according to the CRB someone unconscious is always willing when it comes to being the target of a spell. My problem with the tactic is that once the target became conscious, I felt he would be unwilling and the spell should end. What I am reading here suggests that is not the case, but I just wanted to clarify. Thanks!
Well... once the target becomes conscious, he's kinda out of luck. Serves him right for going unconscious around enemies or pranksters in the first place!
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Creative Director
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Dear James: Today I was watching the news and the bicyclers were talking about how rumble strips installed on our national highways were ruining the "beautiful cycle paths" and I thought he said "beautiful psychopaths". Do people with hearing imparements have more fun?
Depends on what they hear, I suppose.
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Creative Director
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So, I'm curious about the game's baseline assumptions.
When I run a game, the monsters have a tendency to use their useful treasure against the PCs (for reasons of logic), many people say that this should raise their CR...and I can see where they're coming from, though I obviously don't entirely agree with them.
So, my question is what's the basic intent there?
Should a Succubus with a Headband of Charisma +2 and a Mithral Chain Shirt (roughly her treasure allotment) be higher CR than one sans useful treasure?
What about a Marilith with the majority of her theoretical 64k in combat gear? A total that allows for +10 or +11 AC easily with less than half of it, just for example.
I'm not talking about more than the standard amount of treasure or anything, just what's listed, actually used in combat.
I get that as a GM, I can do what I like, and as a player, what the GM says goes...but I'm interested in the intent of the people writing the game and the adventures.
Give two GMs identical monsters, identical resources to pick feats and skills, identical point buys for stats,a nd identical gp values to outfit the monsters, and I'll show you two completely different monsters with different effective power levels that could change again depending on the exact mix and skill level of the player characters they face. Yet despite ALL of this, they'll still have the same CR.
AKA: if a monster spends its money to gear up, then no, that does not change the monster's CR. But if you happen to be the type of GM who is REALLY GOOD at buffing a monster by bending rules... it's probably not a bad idea to take your finalized monster, compare its numbers to Table 1–1 in the Bestiary, and then re-assign its CR if you cheesed it up into a higher category.
I mean... most monsters you can just spend a tiny fraction of their gold to put them into a suit of full plate and increase their AC WAY too high for their CR.
That's not playing the game, though. That's gaming the game. My reccomendation is to resist that. If you want to pile cool gear onto your monsters... you should give them a few class levels and make them into unique and memorable NPCs, not just mooks with toys.
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Give two GMs identical monsters, identical resources to pick feats and skills, identical point buys for stats,a nd identical gp values to outfit the monsters, and I'll show you two completely different monsters with different effective power levels that could change again depending on the exact mix and skill level of the player characters they face. Yet despite ALL of this, they'll still have the same CR.
AKA: if a monster spends its money to gear up, then no, that does not change the monster's CR. But if you happen to be the type of GM who is REALLY GOOD at buffing a monster by bending rules... it's probably not a bad idea to take your finalized monster, compare its numbers to Table 1–1 in the Bestiary, and then re-assign its CR if you cheesed it up into a higher category.
I mean... most monsters you can just spend a tiny fraction of their gold to put them into a suit of full plate and increase their AC WAY too high for their CR.
That's not playing the game, though. That's gaming the game. My reccomendation is to resist that. If you want to pile cool gear onto your monsters... you should give them a few class levels and make them into unique and memorable NPCs, not just mooks with toys.
Cool. That mostly sounds like what I'm already doing (and wasn't going to be changing notably), but it's always good to know what the intentions of the rules are so you can break, bend, or change them in an informed fashion.
Thank you very much for providing the information. :)
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Why would that even matter?Should clarify if that means "female Hellknights" or something else.
3. What are their views on sex?
I believe the intent here is that the question "What are their view on sex" could be interpreted in one of two ways:
1) Do Hellknights accept both males and females to their ranks?2) Are Hellknights allowed to have sexual intercourse?
In which case, to the best of my knowledge, the answears are:
1) yes
2) varies from order to order
You know nothing, Lord Snow.
(Please ignore this. My silly bone took over for a few seconds.)
Grapple question. If I am reading it right when multiple creatures grapple a single target only one creature makes a check with a +2 per creature aiding it. So far so good. The section says once you are grappling a foe a successful check maintains the grapple and one of the options is that you can automatically damage the grappled target. Does this mean only the grappler making the check can damage the target, or can all of the creatures aiding also do automatic damage.
What is the most recent awesome moment from one of your games? It can be yours or another player's.
Greetings again,
A question concerning concealment, miss chance and large weapons came up and I was wondering if you could share your opinion on the following scenario.
A party in an old castle is fighting an invisible stalker in the main room. Since it's invisibility is natural, it doesn't show up under Detect Magic and See Invisibility isn't available for whatever reason, thus the entire party is forced to deal with the 50% miss chance every attack. Also, for the sake of argument, the stalkers intentionally stay near the party to discourage the use of area of effect spells.
With Rules-As-Written (and again without), what would be the result of the two members of the party successfully pulling a LARGE tapestry down from wall on top of the invisible stalker as well as 10' in all directions? Or a resourceful member used Create Water over the invisible stalker as other used Prestidigitation to soil the water?
(In short, what purely mundane methods are there to negate miss chance?)
Would a game like calcio fiorentino* (Source) be played in Cheliax?
*Thanks Cracked.
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Hello James,
So, ranged sneak attacks. Let's say that you are stealthed against your opponent, and you make a full round ranged attack. Does just your first attack gain sneak attack, or does every iterative attack that round gain sneak attack? And, at the end of the round, you are no longer stealthed?
One of my players is building a ninja who throws many many shuriken, and I want to make sure that I am understanding it right.
Thanks!
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Greetings. I have a question about Detect Evil spell(or any other alignment spell) I've searched forum topics and everyone speaks different about the thing. CRB states that evil creatures(not clerics, anti-paladins, undeads, outsiders etc.) with 4 HD or less have no aura at all. However, Detect Evil spell description says caster can detect "presence or absence of evil" in the first round. Also paladin's detect evil spell-like ability says, "A paladin can, as a move action, concentrate on a single item or individual within 60 feet and 'determine if it is evil', learning the strength of its aura as if having studied it for 3 rounds."
Let's say we have a level 1 CE Fighter.
1-) A cleric casts Detect Evil and look at the direction where the Fighter stands. Does the Cleric see the Fighter as evil or not?
2-) Paladin casts Detect Evil and concentrates on the Fighter. Does the Paladin see the Fighter as evil or not?
Thanks!
