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Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

So, Just Got Shattered Star 4. and there's this article, by a person who I've been assured is totally human and not at all a T-Rex in disguise, about Qlippoth. I have a few Questions.

Yamasoth. He was allied with Alanzist, right? (and earlier materials said he was a nascent demon lord who taught her how to make Sinspawn, and possibly the first demon ever). I noted you specifically refuted that he was a nascent Demon Lord.

1. What happened to Yamasoth's relationship with Alaznist? The article states it still existed, but in Rise of the Runelords it was stated that Alaznist encouraged her minions to worship demon lords and nascent demon lords. That doesn't seem like it would go over well with Yamasoth... So what is the story there?

2. If it wasn't Yamasoth, who was the First Demon?

3. Is Yamasoth still connected to the depths beneath Hollow Mountain (Gongorina) which were supposedly once his domain? If so, why did he leave, and why not enter Golarion again through those caverns rather than his most recent plot?

4. Why the changes?

Liberty's Edge

Gauss wrote:

Interestingly enough, a Cracked Vibrant Purple Prism Ioun Stone (2000gp, Spell Storing 1 spell level) can be used to bypass the whole potion issue. Hand Ioun Stone to wizard, wizard casts Shield into Ioun Stone and hands it back to the 2handed fighter. 2handed fighter can now cast Shield.

- Gauss

I know, I have seen what can be done with a ring of spell storing and that kind of trick in the 3.5.

A sorcerer sharing shapechange with most of the party is something that will unbalance most battles.
Thankfully that spell has been toned down in Pathfinder.

James, you have meet this kind of problem? People sharing spells that aren't meant to be easily shared, using some magic item that store spells?
How unbalancing it was in your experience?

James Jacobs wrote:
ulgulanoth wrote:
would you rule to add levels to the spells to make them potions? live truestrike at lv3?

No.

I would make them elixirs and have them be wondrous items.

My only problem with that is that there are already too many good wondrous items. There was a suggestion by a poster in another thread about redoing the magic item feats, dividing them into:

craft permanent items, craft use activated item, craft spell completion items and so on.
It wouldn't be feasible in Pathfinder, but you would consider it for a hypothetical Pathfinder 2.0?

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
Stratagemini wrote:

1. What do you think of for the Mythic Merisiel sketches in the Mythic Playtest?

1) It's okay... but I've put in a request for the final to have her chest reduced in size. Part of becoming mythic for Merisiel should not involve a boob job. Also, I'm glad they took my initial request to up the dagger count. Her initial sketch had her wielding fewer daggers than she does at 1st level. That was silly.

Thanks James, Marisiel is good as she is. I dislike the tendency of some artist to give female characters absurd chest sizes.

The number of daggers is good, but some are stored in awkward places. Maybe you can try to get them placed better?

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
(As another side note... summoner spell lists are kinda messed up and I've been kinda silently hoping they'd get errataed for a long time now, but that ship's mostly sailed, it seems...)

In too many way. Sigh. The idea for the class is nice, but the net effect is problematic. I have a large group (6 people) and the summoner is taking the stitch (it is the right therm) away from too many classes.

The eidolon is on par or better than most of the melee character. She can fly so she has a huge advantage there too.
With armor and shield she can get a very good armor class.
The summoner has a decent choice of spells so she can step on and usurp the spellcaster role often enough.
Wrong set of abilities for an encounter? Use evolution surge and give her what she need.
The end result is that after the end of this adventure the character will be remade and the class prohibited from my games.

You think that a summoner would be less problematic in a smaller group?

Liberty's Edge

Two missile weapons questions:

- bows: in the 3.X there was a limit to the maximum strength rating of bows (+2 for shortbows and +4 for longbows, I think). I don't find anything similar in Pathfinder.
A character with a strength of 26 can get a bow with a +8 strength rating? or the bow would snap for the high tension?

- I am thinking to allow the construction of crossbows with a strength rating. After all crossbows were more potent than longbows, the problem is that they were slower. You think it would be unbalancig,seeing how they are simple weapons?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Cheapy wrote:
Do the Gearmen visually resemble Brigh? Or her most common form.

No.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

PrinceDogWaterIII wrote:
Is there any reason why I can't put special bolts into a repeating crossbow case and fire them? Is it sealed in some way a gruff fighter type can never hope to open and close?

Nope; no reason at all, aside from the fact that it'll maybe make calculating your attacks with the weapon slightly more complex on a shot by shot basis.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

JMD031 wrote:
What is the most annoying rules question you have been asked?

The one that used the most words to ask what should have been the shortest question.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Stratagemini wrote:

So, Just Got Shattered Star 4. and there's this article, by a person who I've been assured is totally human and not at all a T-Rex in disguise, about Qlippoth. I have a few Questions.

Yamasoth. He was allied with Alanzist, right? (and earlier materials said he was a nascent demon lord who taught her how to make Sinspawn, and possibly the first demon ever). I noted you specifically refuted that he was a nascent Demon Lord.

1. What happened to Yamasoth's relationship with Alaznist? The article states it still existed, but in Rise of the Runelords it was stated that Alaznist encouraged her minions to worship demon lords and nascent demon lords. That doesn't seem like it would go over well with Yamasoth... So what is the story there?

2. If it wasn't Yamasoth, who was the First Demon?

3. Is Yamasoth still connected to the depths beneath Hollow Mountain (Gongorina) which were supposedly once his domain? If so, why did he leave, and why not enter Golarion again through those caverns rather than his most recent plot?

4. Why the changes?

1) Alaznist had alliances with several demon lords and nascent demon lords. Yamasoth was one of the extraplanar powers that Alaznist consorted with, and Yamasoth is kind of a "missing link" between the qlippoth and demons. Calling him a nascent demon lord was something of a misdirection and something of an error in Lords of Chaos, but he DOES kind of ride a narrow line between demons and qlippoth. Although he himself is all qlippoth, as his current modern-day stats reveal.

2) The rumor that Yamasoth was the first true demon was just that–a rumor. He's a qlippoth. But he DID have something to do with that "first demon" thing, and that's partially why he's got some crazy shapechanging powers.

3) Yamasoth's underground kingdom below Hollow Mountain is still linked, in a way, to his Abyssal Realm. He left at a point after Earthfall.

4) No changes. Just additional information building toward something later. AKA: The Yamasoth stuff in "Beyond the Doomsday Door" is foreshadowing. And the qlippoth article was already kind of slipping too far into being the Yamasoth article, so I kind of had to ramp back some of the Yamasoth stuff. More to come in the (likely somewhat distant) future, though!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Diego Rossi wrote:
Gauss wrote:

Interestingly enough, a Cracked Vibrant Purple Prism Ioun Stone (2000gp, Spell Storing 1 spell level) can be used to bypass the whole potion issue. Hand Ioun Stone to wizard, wizard casts Shield into Ioun Stone and hands it back to the 2handed fighter. 2handed fighter can now cast Shield.

- Gauss

I know, I have seen what can be done with a ring of spell storing and that kind of trick in the 3.5.

A sorcerer sharing shapechange with most of the party is something that will unbalance most battles.
Thankfully that spell has been toned down in Pathfinder.

James, you have meet this kind of problem? People sharing spells that aren't meant to be easily shared, using some magic item that store spells?
How unbalancing it was in your experience?

I've not met that problem outside of a ring of spell storing, and when that did happen, it wasn't unbalancing.

Diego Rossi wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
ulgulanoth wrote:
would you rule to add levels to the spells to make them potions? live truestrike at lv3?

No.

I would make them elixirs and have them be wondrous items.

My only problem with that is that there are already too many good wondrous items. There was a suggestion by a poster in another thread about redoing the magic item feats, dividing them into:

craft permanent items, craft use activated item, craft spell completion items and so on.
It wouldn't be feasible in Pathfinder, but you would consider it for a hypothetical Pathfinder 2.0?

"Already too many good wondrous items" is a nonsensical problem; it's not something I think is a problem at all. "Wondrous Item" is supposed to be a catch-all category for magic items. In fact, I kind of think rings and rods should be rolled into that category. I would prefer LESS Craft Item feats instead of more.


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

1. What do you think of for the Mythic Merisiel sketches in the Mythic Playtest?

1) It's okay... but I've put in a request for the final to have her chest reduced in size. Part of becoming mythic for Merisiel should not involve a boob job. Also, I'm glad they took my initial request to up the dagger count. Her initial sketch had her wielding fewer daggers than she does at 1st level. That was silly.

Thanks James, Marisiel is good as she is. I dislike the tendency of some artist to give female characters absurd chest sizes.

The number of daggers is good, but some are stored in awkward places. Maybe you can try to get them placed better?

1) It's "Merisiel" with an e.

2) Part of being mythic is that I get to put the daggers in awkward places but still use them to stab folks fast and hard.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Diego Rossi wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
(As another side note... summoner spell lists are kinda messed up and I've been kinda silently hoping they'd get errataed for a long time now, but that ship's mostly sailed, it seems...)

In too many way. Sigh. The idea for the class is nice, but the net effect is problematic. I have a large group (6 people) and the summoner is taking the stitch (it is the right therm) away from too many classes.

The eidolon is on par or better than most of the melee character. She can fly so she has a huge advantage there too.
With armor and shield she can get a very good armor class.
The summoner has a decent choice of spells so she can step on and usurp the spellcaster role often enough.
Wrong set of abilities for an encounter? Use evolution surge and give her what she need.
The end result is that after the end of this adventure the character will be remade and the class prohibited from my games.

You think that a summoner would be less problematic in a smaller group?

I think the summoner's got rules problems and story problems. I'd rebuild it from the ground up if I had the chance—I'd make his spells map to the normal spell levels and completely remove the eidolon from the scene entirely, replacing it with an "outsider companion" that has rules more akin to how druids work; you'd pick a specific type of outsider like an archon or a demon or a devil or a protean or whatever and it would have a MUCH more narrow set of options. You wouldn't really build it from scratch; you'd build it in the same way a druid builds, say, a tiger companion.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Diego Rossi wrote:

Two missile weapons questions:

- bows: in the 3.X there was a limit to the maximum strength rating of bows (+2 for shortbows and +4 for longbows, I think). I don't find anything similar in Pathfinder.
A character with a strength of 26 can get a bow with a +8 strength rating? or the bow would snap for the high tension?

- I am thinking to allow the construction of crossbows with a strength rating. After all crossbows were more potent than longbows, the problem is that they were slower. You think it would be unbalancig,seeing how they are simple weapons?

There's no limit for maximum STR rating for a bow.

Giving crossbows a strength rating makes them too good to stay simple weapons.


James Jacobs wrote:
Googleshng wrote:
4. Alter Self can do everything Disguise Self can do (change your race/gender/specific facial features/full on impersonate someone), but it's transmutation (polymorph) in place of illusion, with the tradeoff being a shorter duration, right?
4) Well... alter self gives you boosts to your ability scores and actual physical abilities if the new form grants them... that's a pretty big advantage over a mere illusion...

The advantages are obvious. I was wondering more about limitations. It's a given that I can use Disguise Self to make myself look just like this elven guard I just killed and stuffed in a bag of holding before his friends come back, but I wasn't quite sure if alter self was just as good for that specific purpose, or had the unspoken restriction that it would make me look like a typical elf, not a specific one. Of course, the fact that you answered it that way would seem to suggest that's the case.

Here's another one that comes to mind though- Faiths of Purity lists the codes for paladins of Sarenrae and Shelyn, both of whom are NG and have a big redemption angle going on. So, for their paladins, alignment wise, you'd obviously want to play things fairly close to the LG/NG border, but when push comes to shove and you need an exact alignment for working out some Axiomatic/Entropic magical effect, do such paladins (in Golarion, specifically) get pushed into LG, because that's the stated requirement for paladins, or into NG, because it's more important to stay in keeping with their patron goddess' outlook on things?

The same applies to paladins of Abadar for good/evil purposes, and antipaladins with deities a step away from CE... although in those cases I'd be even more inclined to lean towards the deity's alignment since the process of becoming one is more of a personal thing, there's inherently less respect for formality being chaotic, and frankly it's hard to imagine Calistria specifically requiring certain followers to act in an evil fashion.

For that matter, why is the alignment requirement for antipaladins CE to begin with? I mean, the short answer is obviously "tradition" but it really only makes sense if you're one of those people who thinks LG is to NG as A+ is to A. If they were really the complete opposite of paladins in every way, they'd be CE arcane spellcasters, who back in the day were required to be any race but human and keep most of their stats under a 14. If they're really supposed to embrace a chaotic alignment, shouldn't they be breaking their official codes of conduct any time it's personally convenient?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Googleshng wrote:

Here's another one that comes to mind though- Faiths of Purity lists the codes for paladins of Sarenrae and Shelyn, both of whom are NG and have a big redemption angle going on. So, for their paladins, alignment wise, you'd obviously want to play things fairly close to the LG/NG border, but when push comes to shove and you need an exact alignment for working out some Axiomatic/Entropic magical effect, do such paladins (in Golarion, specifically) get pushed into LG, because that's the stated requirement for paladins, or into NG, because it's more important to stay in keeping with their patron goddess' outlook on things?

The same applies to paladins of Abadar for good/evil purposes, and antipaladins with deities a step away from CE... although in those cases I'd be even more inclined to lean towards the deity's alignment since the process of becoming one is more of a personal thing, there's inherently less respect for formality being chaotic, and frankly it's hard to imagine Calistria specifically requiring certain followers to act in an evil fashion.

For that matter, why is the alignment requirement for antipaladins CE to begin with? I mean, the short answer is obviously "tradition" but it really only makes sense if you're one of those people who thinks LG is to NG as A+ is to A. If they were really the complete opposite of paladins in every way, they'd be CE arcane spellcasters, who back in the day were required to be any race but human and keep most of their stats under a 14. If they're really supposed to embrace a chaotic alignment, shouldn't they be breaking their official codes of conduct any time it's personally convenient?

If they're paladins, they find a way to do their codes and stay Lawful Good.

Antipaladins are chaotic evil because that's the "opposite" of lawful good. And chaotic doesn't mean "crazy," nor does it mean "willfully breaks a code all the time." If there's a code a chaotic character likes and enjoys, he won't break it.

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
"Already too many good wondrous items" is a nonsensical problem; it's not something I think is a problem at all. "Wondrous Item" is supposed to be a catch-all category for magic items. In fact, I kind of think rings and rods should be rolled into that category. I would prefer LESS Craft Item feats instead of more.

Oh yes, I agree with this very much!

Then again, I sometimes long for the 'good old days' when you could create *any* magic item with the Enchant an Item spell.

Then I remember the saving throw charts and weapon vs. armor adjustments and segments, rounds and turns and the nostalgia goes away... :)


Set, I'm going to need you to save vs. Rods, Staves, and Wands at -7.

Shadow Lodge

James Jacobs wrote:
nohar wrote:

first a two-part question...in the advanced race guide the samsarans have a racial oracle archetype called the Reincarnated Oracle...one of its revelations, Location Memories, allows the samsaran to "search their past lives for memories of or insight about your current location"...among other things this grants the character low light vision...

crunch-wise, the samsaran already has low light vision as a racial trait, so should this be changed to darkvision or is it intended for races other than samsarans?

flavour-wise, since samsarans on golarion are from Tian Xia would this ability even work in the inner sea region?

unrelatedly...an earlier post got me thinking about the azlanti and their +2 bonus to all stats...did this bonus also to ancient thassilonians such as the runelords?...if so, when did humanity lose this racial trait?...during earthfall?...after?

The fact that it grants low-light vision is an error, alas. It should increase their low-light vision to double the effect, probably. Like how dragon senses work.

The ability works regardless of where the samsaran is... unless the GM says otherwise.

continuing the samsaran questions...i saw in other threads that they reincarnate spontaneously and generally near samsaran settlements...

is there a rough timeframe between the death of a samsaran and when it reincarnates?

also is there any tendency for them to reincarnate within a certain distance of where they died or is it random?


Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Jiggy wrote:
Why can't I make a potion of see invisibility? Or a potion of true strike, mirror image, divine favor, false life, or longstrider? Those all seem like exactly the type of spells one would expect to exist as potions, yet the rules won't let them be potions. Why?
Because those spells are balanced at their level assuming that only the caster can use them. If anyone can use them, they'd be much more powerful than their current level.

Well, the alchemist is watering down that restriction. He can give out see invisible, true strike and false life as infusions.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Given Amodeus's stance on women, I think the term unrepentant misogynist was used, is there friction between the leadership of Amodeus's church and Queen Abrogail?


James Jacobs wrote:


I think the summoner's got rules problems and story problems. I'd rebuild it from the ground up if I had the chance—I'd make his spells map to the normal spell levels and completely remove the eidolon from the scene entirely, replacing it with an "outsider companion" that has rules more akin to how druids work; you'd pick a specific type of outsider like an archon or a demon or a devil or a protean or whatever and it would have a MUCH more narrow set of options. You wouldn't really build it from scratch; you'd build it in the same way a druid builds, say, a tiger companion.

James, that sounds like it would make a pretty good class variant (spellcasting issues aside) with just the alternate "eidolon" presentation. Potentially it could make a good alternate class, provided that enough flavor/fluff could be devised for it. Designing/including something like that in time for Wrath of the Righteous would be... well... righteous.


James, I have 5 players each with a level 20 character. Are there any specific scenarios you'd like tested for Mythic, and if so, at what tiers?


What were some of the alternate names for the magus that were bandied about the office?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Cheapy wrote:
What were some of the alternate names for the magus that were bandied about the office?

Street Rumor says "Phil" was pretty popular.

Arcanis had some good ones that they used for classes and PrC's

Like "SpellBlade" and "Battlestaff Mage"


James Jacobs wrote:
bishop083 wrote:
Have you contemplated an alias named Senor Jacobs? Would it look just like James Jacobs, except the T-Rex would have a mustache, and possibly a sombrero? Should such a thing be allowed to exist?
That's silly. They don't make sombreros that big.

Do you think they should?


James Jacobs wrote:


I think the summoner's got rules problems and story problems. I'd rebuild it from the ground up if I had the chance—I'd make his spells map to the normal spell levels and completely remove the eidolon from the scene entirely, replacing it with an "outsider companion" that has rules more akin to how druids work; you'd pick a specific type of outsider like an archon or a demon or a devil or a protean or whatever and it would have a MUCH more narrow set of options. You wouldn't really build it from scratch; you'd build it in the same way a druid builds, say, a tiger companion.

That sounds like a great idea. The main problem with the summoner is the “build your own”, not only can that be very powerful, it’s very easy to accidentally make a mistake and have a super-pet.

That being said, I’d also make it easier for the summoner to heal his eidolon.

Liberty's Edge

Merisiel Sillvari wrote:


1) It's "Merisiel" with an e.

I cut the errant left pinkie in shame. With a very sharp dagger.

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
"Already too many good wondrous items" is a nonsensical problem; it's not something I think is a problem at all. "Wondrous Item" is supposed to be a catch-all category for magic items. In fact, I kind of think rings and rods should be rolled into that category. I would prefer LESS Craft Item feats instead of more.

While I agree that there are too many crafting feats, my problem is that the Craft wondrous items is the feat that rule them all. With it and a GM that allow the crafting of new items you can "fake" almost all other crafting feats.

In the 3.5 I rolled together Craft wand and Craft staff. After all crafting a stick that contain 1 spell isn't so different from crafting a stick that contain multiple spells.

Currently most new magic items are wondrous items. Sure, the variety of spells will allow plenty of different scrolls (and wands or staves), but they are all the same, a container for one or more spells. Wondrous items have all kind of shapes and powers and are the most used kind of magic items, so a crafter with that feat is the one that get the greater benefit from his feat.


Just a comment: I like the sketch of Mythic Kyra in the playtest document. Is this the first piece of Kyra artwork depicting her with her hair down?

Liberty's Edge

Cpt. Caboodle wrote:
Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Jiggy wrote:
Why can't I make a potion of see invisibility? Or a potion of true strike, mirror image, divine favor, false life, or longstrider? Those all seem like exactly the type of spells one would expect to exist as potions, yet the rules won't let them be potions. Why?
Because those spells are balanced at their level assuming that only the caster can use them. If anyone can use them, they'd be much more powerful than their current level.
Well, the alchemist is watering down that restriction. He can give out see invisible, true strike and false life as infusions.

About infusions:

PRD wrote:


Infusion: When the alchemist creates an extract, he can infuse it with an extra bit of his own magical power. The extract created now persists even after the alchemist sets it down. As long as the extract exists, it continues to occupy one of the alchemist's daily extract slots. An infused extract can be imbibed by a non-alchemist to gain its effects.

Unless I am mistaken this mean that the infusion would last beyond the 24 hours duration of a regular extract.

James, as I am not completely sure of my interpretation I would like a clarification from you.

A infusion last only 24 hours, like a extract, or it last forever, tying down a alchemist extract slot until it is used?


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Haladir wrote:
Just a comment: I like the sketch of Mythic Kyra in the playtest document. Is this the first piece of Kyra artwork depicting her with her hair down?

Page 31 of The Jackal's Price from the Legacy of Fire AP. It is of Ezren, Valeros, Kyra, and Merisiel at a public bath. Not a great picture of her per se(her back is mostly to the viewer's perspective)—most people see the figure in the shadows and a certain naked (naughty bits carefully obscured) female elf rogue.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Diego Rossi wrote:


In the 3.5 I rolled together Craft wand and Craft staff. After all crafting a stick that contain 1 spell isn't so different from crafting a stick that contain multiple spells.

Except unlike the wand, the big stick can host more powerful spells, and factors in your caster level, caster stat, and relevant feats to the spells unleashed to it.

Staves are FAR more than glorified wands.

Dark Archive

I was wondering if you would have any suggestion on what a female redcap looks like (Only description I can find is of a male one.)

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

James,

Possibly going to be DMing a new homebrew campaign here in a few months. I just wanted to ask if you had any general advice and/or handy tips for someone who's only done this in limited quantities years ago.

Also, I've been wondering: what tricks and favored enemies did Merisiel and Harsk take? I'd ask about Seoni's bloodline, but since I think UM stated she has a tatoo familiar I think that means she's arcane.

Many thanks!


Around what Challenge Rating range should one of the Whore Queens or Malebranche fall into?


Diego Rossi wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Stratagemini wrote:

1. What do you think of for the Mythic Merisiel sketches in the Mythic Playtest?

1) It's okay... but I've put in a request for the final to have her chest reduced in size. Part of becoming mythic for Merisiel should not involve a boob job. Also, I'm glad they took my initial request to up the dagger count. Her initial sketch had her wielding fewer daggers than she does at 1st level. That was silly.

Thanks James, Merisiel is good as she is. I dislike the tendency of some artist to give female characters absurd chest sizes.

The number of daggers is good, but some are stored in awkward places. Maybe you can try to get them placed better?

Then I suggest you stay away from rule-34 sites in particular and "Fan"-art sites in general.

@ JJ: do Elvan females tend to be "less endowed" than Human Females?


James Jacobs wrote:
Xethik wrote:
Has any progress been made on improving the RAW Stealth since the Playtest? I heard it had to be hugely delayed, but any news on it?

No.

The idea to tinker with possible adjustments to the rules in the format of a mini playtest on the blog was an experiment. A failed one, in my opinion.
Furthered by the fact that I've NEVER had a problem with the stealth rules in my games or in games I play in. Perhaps because with the application of a little common sense, they work fine as they are.

Would Paizo issue Errata to just make the current RAW more clear?

As is, different sections of the rules contain contradictory info, or at least it's massively confusing and causing some sections to become basically superfluous (e.g. the multiple sections that say 'concealment' allows for stealth (i.e. including blur), while another section says that only dim lighting allows for stealth basically making the other concealment references superfluous (since dim lighting itself is concealment, thus it's not really useful to be told that any type of concealment can work, except that only works when dim lighting concealment is in place). MANY people just see the rules as straight-up contradictory, and will rule one way or the other basically by GM fiat.

Why can't all relevant restrictions be stated in the Stealth skill itself? (hopefully not contradicting itself) I'm not expecting (at this point) to see ALL the changes of the Stealth Blogs, specifying the 'duration' of Stealth effect, etc, but just cleaning up what the rules currently say would improve the rules alot. Of course, it also seems pretty simple for Stealth to actually say what it does on a succesful check, e.g. make you unobserved. This type of thing would seem in line with what Paizo do put out as Errata, not the deeper change as seen in the Blog Posts.

Or just having a FAQ/Blog Post describing how the current Stealth RAW is meant to work, covering these controversial areas, would be a help.


What exactly is the pathfinder definition of "interaction" when it comes to illusion magic.

most illusion magic offers a will save once a person "interacts" with the spell.

suppose some one casts a major image and controls it from hiding.
the image is standing 30 to 60 feet from the target.

I assume that physical contact of any kind falls under interaction...

but what about tossing a rock at it (which the controller directs the image to sidestep)

what about a conversation (the caster has a conversation with the target via the major image)

what about if there is no conversation the caster simply directs the image to be a man running down the road saying "run for your life the dragon is coming"

If there is no current definition would paizo consider defining it?


I'd like to stat up Sorshen for the playtest, either for GMs to pit against PCs or to pit against monsters. However, I understand that you're going to be the one to stat her up officially.

If you do give me permission to stat her up, will that legally prevent you from stating her up similarly if my idea comes close to yours? (I hope not!)


can constant supernatural abilities such as a graveknights auras be repressed at will?


What sort of classes do you have in your Unspeakable Futures games?

Do you use prestige classes and archetypes in Unspeakable Futures?

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

So, I just pitted some PCs against their first mythic encounter, and it occurs to me, there really aren't all that many High CR/MR Mythic foes for me to Playtest Higher Level/tier PCs against.

Can you give us some High CR Mythic foes to pit Hapless PCs against? The Simple Templates and Mythic Subtype are only so useful and while Agile Simple Template terrasques are absolutely Hilarious to Pit the PCs against, the fact that the terrasque can't actually die makes Playtesting it Problematic.

To add to that, there's only one monster over CR 25 I know of in Pathfinder, and The Red mantis God is from 3.5.

So, yeah, some CR 25+ foes would be super useful in my attempts to playtest Level 20/Tier 10 PCs.


Stratagemini wrote:

So, I just pitted some PCs against their first mythic encounter, and it occurs to me, there really aren't all that many High CR/MR Mythic foes for me to Playtest Higher Level/tier PCs against.

Can you give us some High CR Mythic foes to pit Hapless PCs against? The Simple Templates and Mythic Subtype are only so useful and while Agile Simple Template terrasques are absolutely Hilarious to Pit the PCs against, the fact that the terrasque can't actually die makes Playtesting it Problematic.

To add to that, there's only one monster over CR 25 I know of in Pathfinder, and The Red mantis God is from 3.5.

So, yeah, some CR 25+ foes would be super useful in my attempts to playtest Level 20/Tier 10 PCs.

Take some monsters and add Hit Die or templates to boost them higher, along with Mythic Templates.

For instance, a Solar with the Advanced Template and 4 additional Hit Die nets a +5 increase in CR. Then you add the Mythic Template and you've got yourself a creature to challenge the PCs with.

If you're just playtesting the raw data, then it doesn't have to make sense in a storytelling fashion for PCs to be fighting them, as long as you can test the data itself.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

nohar wrote:

continuing the samsaran questions...i saw in other threads that they reincarnate spontaneously and generally near samsaran settlements...

is there a rough timeframe between the death of a samsaran and when it reincarnates?

also is there any tendency for them to reincarnate within a certain distance of where they died or is it random?

The timeframe between a samsaran's death and reincarnation is left to the GM, in the same way that the time it takes between a person's death and their judgement at Pharasma's hands in the Boneyard is left up to the GM.

When a Samsaran reincarnates after death, the point at which it reincarnates is also left up to the GM.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Cpt. Caboodle wrote:
Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Jiggy wrote:
Why can't I make a potion of see invisibility? Or a potion of true strike, mirror image, divine favor, false life, or longstrider? Those all seem like exactly the type of spells one would expect to exist as potions, yet the rules won't let them be potions. Why?
Because those spells are balanced at their level assuming that only the caster can use them. If anyone can use them, they'd be much more powerful than their current level.
Well, the alchemist is watering down that restriction. He can give out see invisible, true strike and false life as infusions.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about being able to cast certain benchmark spells, like haste or teleport, at a lower level than intended. We don't intend for there to be wands of teleport, for example, but the summoner error to their spell list allows that, alas.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Squeakmaan wrote:
Given Amodeus's stance on women, I think the term unrepentant misogynist was used, is there friction between the leadership of Amodeus's church and Queen Abrogail?

That is an appropriate term for Asmodeus. There is friction between the Thrunes and the chruch of Asmodeus... but the misogyny in the church is only one of the reasons.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Lucent wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


I think the summoner's got rules problems and story problems. I'd rebuild it from the ground up if I had the chance—I'd make his spells map to the normal spell levels and completely remove the eidolon from the scene entirely, replacing it with an "outsider companion" that has rules more akin to how druids work; you'd pick a specific type of outsider like an archon or a demon or a devil or a protean or whatever and it would have a MUCH more narrow set of options. You wouldn't really build it from scratch; you'd build it in the same way a druid builds, say, a tiger companion.
James, that sounds like it would make a pretty good class variant (spellcasting issues aside) with just the alternate "eidolon" presentation. Potentially it could make a good alternate class, provided that enough flavor/fluff could be devised for it. Designing/including something like that in time for Wrath of the Righteous would be... well... righteous.

I'd rather it be a class replacement, not a variant. And I'm not interested in half-measures for this situation.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Cheapy wrote:
James, I have 5 players each with a level 20 character. Are there any specific scenarios you'd like tested for Mythic, and if so, at what tiers?

As many as you can do.

I was on vacation last week, but hopefully in the 3 days I'm in the office next week, I'll try to post a few super-high CR stat blocks for folks to play with.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Cheapy wrote:
What were some of the alternate names for the magus that were bandied about the office?

I don't remember many of them. The main one I remember was warlock—that was the one I liked the most, even though doing so could have caused some friction in the community with folks who still played 3.5 warlocks in Pathfinder.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Threeshades wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
bishop083 wrote:
Have you contemplated an alias named Senor Jacobs? Would it look just like James Jacobs, except the T-Rex would have a mustache, and possibly a sombrero? Should such a thing be allowed to exist?
That's silly. They don't make sombreros that big.
Do you think they should?

Probably.

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