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Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Have you seen this:Link?

Maybe some inspiration for new Fey? Or maybe something creepier?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

ulgulanoth wrote:
James have any big battles/heroes been revealed that took place/existed in the war between Taldor and Qadira and if so what/who where they? Also if a game where to be set in this time and region of Golarion how much fighting between the two would one expect to see, a battle a week, month, year?

Nope; not yet. There hasn't really been a BIG battle there. It's mostly skirmishes and smaller scale stuff.

As for actual mass combat stuff... not sure. It'd probably vary, but I suspect it'd all fit into the length of... say... something the size of an Adventure Path.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

j b 200 wrote:

Have you seen this:Link?

Maybe some inspiration for new Fey? Or maybe something creepier?

I have not! Interesting.


Dear James Jacobs,

My question is about the Deft Palm rogue talent from Ultimate Combat. What is its use ?

Deft Palm wrote:
A rogue with this talent can make a Sleight of Hand check to conceal a weapon while holding it in plain sight, even while she is being observed.

Can it allow Underhanded, another rogue talent from UC, to function ?

Underhanded wrote:
A rogue with this talent gains a +4 circumstance bonus on all Sleight of Hand checks made to conceal a weapon. Furthermore, if she makes a sneak attack during the surprise round using a concealed weapon that her opponent didn’t know about, she does not have to roll sneak attack damage, and the sneak attack deals maximum damage. A rogue can only use the underhanded talent a number of times per day equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 0).

Deft Hand would make the weapon concealed without the need to draw it in order to attack (it is in your hand), thus allowing to use the surprise round standard action to attack or charge, which wouldn't be possible if you had to draw your concealed weapon ?

Liberty's Edge

We need a list of all paladin gods.
I want to make a paladin of nethys, but cannot find anything about such a thing, I thought that it would be interesting. Same for like eighty other gods.


James, i really want to play an orc or half-orc beast rider cavalier! but everyone i talk to suggests against it in most campaigns, so i have a few questions:

1)can mounts not being... mounted fight indoors without me on them?
2)while i am mounted, lances say they can be wielded in one hand, not that they become one handed weapons, do they still apply 1.5 str?
2a) can i technically dual wield lances while mounted? how would this work?
3) i only started playing dnd/pathfinder a few weeks ago, but i grew up with warcraft and the like, and i like to believe that not all orcs HAVE to be mindless savage desroyers, should i just relearn my own idea of orcs? it seems like in dnd and pathfinder they are only really bad guys like undead.

Edit: what are the rules for point buy reguarding mounts? for example if the game is a high fantasy point buy, can i restat my mount with something like say half the normal point buy or so?

Edit: cleave while mounted? yay or nay?

Dark Archive

James are there large settlements or communities of non-humans (so elves, dwarves, halflings, ect) in Taldor?


Greetings James,

Firstly, thank you for maintaining this thread. The clarification you provide is immensely helpful. That said, onto the question.

As written, the Furious Finish feat doesn't apply to the Improved Vital Strike and Greater Vital Strike feats. Is this intended?

In addition, could you clarify which "damage dice" the Furious Finish feat replaces? Does it replace all damage dice to be rolled for the attack, sneak attack and weapon enhancements (flaming, frost, etc) included? Does it replace the damage dice specified by the Vital Strike feat only?

Links for convenience:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/vital-strike-combat---final
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/improved-vital-strike-combat---f inal
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/greater-vital-strike-combat---fi nal
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/furious-finish

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

Are any of the classes and other content from Occult Mysteries providing another piece of a Unspeakable Futures type RPG?

If so, combined with the technology guide, how much of a SF/future/apocalypse based Pathfinder game will be published in pieces? What pieces would be left to create to cobble together something similar to Unspeakable Futures?


Can a Mercane (or other creature with the Spell-like Ability Plane Shift) that has been to a Sanctum (Mythic Adventures) use their natural ability to Plane Shift to return to a Sanctum whenever it wants?

Would the Sanctum have to be active first for it to work?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Helderick de Brevoy wrote:

Dear James Jacobs,

My question is about the Deft Palm rogue talent from Ultimate Combat. What is its use ?

Deft Palm wrote:
A rogue with this talent can make a Sleight of Hand check to conceal a weapon while holding it in plain sight, even while she is being observed.

Can it allow Underhanded, another rogue talent from UC, to function ?

Underhanded wrote:
A rogue with this talent gains a +4 circumstance bonus on all Sleight of Hand checks made to conceal a weapon. Furthermore, if she makes a sneak attack during the surprise round using a concealed weapon that her opponent didn’t know about, she does not have to roll sneak attack damage, and the sneak attack deals maximum damage. A rogue can only use the underhanded talent a number of times per day equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 0).
Deft Hand would make the weapon concealed without the need to draw it in order to attack (it is in your hand), thus allowing to use the surprise round standard action to attack or charge, which wouldn't be possible if you had to draw your concealed weapon ?

Questions about how various different rulebook elements interact like this are best posed in the rules forums for an FAQ tag as needed.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
snickersimba wrote:

We need a list of all paladin gods.

I want to make a paladin of nethys, but cannot find anything about such a thing, I thought that it would be interesting. Same for like eighty other gods.

I'm not seeing a question here, but I'll comment anyway.

Paladins don't worship Nethys. He's neutral.

A "List of paladin gods" would just be a list of all lawful good deities, with an alternate list of all the neutral good and lawful neutral ones as less common paladin deities.

That is all.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Deathunseen wrote:

James, i really want to play an orc or half-orc beast rider cavalier! but everyone i talk to suggests against it in most campaigns, so i have a few questions:

1)can mounts not being... mounted fight indoors without me on them?
2)while i am mounted, lances say they can be wielded in one hand, not that they become one handed weapons, do they still apply 1.5 str?
2a) can i technically dual wield lances while mounted? how would this work?
3) i only started playing dnd/pathfinder a few weeks ago, but i grew up with warcraft and the like, and i like to believe that not all orcs HAVE to be mindless savage desroyers, should i just relearn my own idea of orcs? it seems like in dnd and pathfinder they are only really bad guys like undead.

Edit: what are the rules for point buy reguarding mounts? for example if the game is a high fantasy point buy, can i restat my mount with something like say half the normal point buy or so?

Edit: cleave while mounted? yay or nay?

1) They can fight just fine without someone riding them, but you'll need to use Handle Animal or wild empathy or speak with animals or something like that to direct their actions.

2) If you wield a lance in one hand, it does not apply 1.5 Str.

2a) Same as any other two-weapon thing, but with the worst possible penalties... assuming your GM allowed it anyway.

3) How orcs function in any one person's game is left to them. The baseline orc in Golarion, the official Pathfinder setting, is a savage evil murderer. There are absolutely exceptions, but the vast majority of them are monsters, much more akin to their role in Lord of the Rings and not Warcraft. The role of the non-murderous monster orc in Pathfinder is generally one more held by half-orcs. But again... the exact nature of how orcs work are left to the GM and are informed by the GM's choice of campaign setting. If you ran a Pathfinder game set on Azeroth, for example, orcs WOULD work the way they do in Warcraft.

Edit: Mounts build their stats according to the rules for animal companions—they have pre-assigned scores.

Edit: I'd allow cleave while mounted only if the mount doesn't move during the round.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

ulgulanoth wrote:
James are there large settlements or communities of non-humans (so elves, dwarves, halflings, ect) in Taldor?

It's possible, but unlikely. None immediately come to mind, but I've not read the Taldor Player's Companion in years, so I can't remember.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

midgardinruin wrote:

Greetings James,

Firstly, thank you for maintaining this thread. The clarification you provide is immensely helpful. That said, onto the question.

As written, the Furious Finish feat doesn't apply to the Improved Vital Strike and Greater Vital Strike feats. Is this intended?

In addition, could you clarify which "damage dice" the Furious Finish feat replaces? Does it replace all damage dice to be rolled for the attack, sneak attack and weapon enhancements (flaming, frost, etc) included? Does it replace the damage dice specified by the Vital Strike feat only?

Links for convenience:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/vital-strike-combat---final
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/improved-vital-strike-combat---f inal
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/greater-vital-strike-combat---fi nal
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/furious-finish

No problem!

Alas... this type of rules question is the exact type that needs to be asked and reviewed in the rules forums.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

JoelF847 wrote:

Are any of the classes and other content from Occult Mysteries providing another piece of a Unspeakable Futures type RPG?

If so, combined with the technology guide, how much of a SF/future/apocalypse based Pathfinder game will be published in pieces? What pieces would be left to create to cobble together something similar to Unspeakable Futures?

Nope. I'm actually not all that involved at all in Occult Adventures. None of my Unspeakable Futures stuff is informing Occult Adventures, really, at all, despite the fact that I do have an Esper class in Unspeakable Futures.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Gordrenn Higgler wrote:

Can a Mercane (or other creature with the Spell-like Ability Plane Shift) that has been to a Sanctum (Mythic Adventures) use their natural ability to Plane Shift to return to a Sanctum whenever it wants?

Would the Sanctum have to be active first for it to work?

Yes... but they'd have to first visit the plane via another method to "attune" itself to that possibility.

Shadow Lodge

are you planning to release a updated ARG (including races from people of the stars, the alternate abilities and heritages for aasimars and tieflings from blood of angels/fiends, more on the races from the ARG, new exotic weapons created by those races, etc.)?????


Will there ever be a book like The Stronghold Builders Guidebook for Pathfinder ?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Haldelar Baxter wrote:
Will there ever be a book like The Stronghold Builders Guidebook for Pathfinder ?

Ultimate Campaign.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

equinoxmaster wrote:
are you planning to release a updated ARG (including races from people of the stars, the alternate abilities and heritages for aasimars and tieflings from blood of angels/fiends, more on the races from the ARG, new exotic weapons created by those races, etc.)?????

Races of the Inner Sea might have some elements of this.

Liberty's Edge

Thanks james for putting up with me, have a kitten that poops gold and creates fat free, healthy snacks that taste decent out of thin air

Radiant Oath

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

I'm starting to wonder if maybe I'm starting to lose my ability to enjoy video games. I'm working more than 40 hours a week, and I'm finding that I look more forward to sleeping than playing video games. What should I do?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
I'm starting to wonder if maybe I'm starting to lose my ability to enjoy video games. I'm working more than 40 hours a week, and I'm finding that I look more forward to sleeping than playing video games. What should I do?

It helps to set aside specific times to enjoy gaming; make a habit of it, and if you can, make sure that work doesn't interfere with it. That said... the older you get, the less time there is in a week to do the things you like doing. It's kinda just the way life works, I guess.

Radiant Oath

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

I was afraid of that. *sigh* I'm never going to get through my backlog at this rate.

What would be some good sorcerer/bloodrager bloodlines that best fit the themes and ideas discussed in Curse of the Crimson Throne, as that AP was released for the OGL before Pathfinder's rules were written?


Actually got time to race through 'Fires of Creation' and am seriously digging the Android fluff. Very nice. I love the 'Ecology of the Android' intro by Kariand, It offers intriguing futures.

I am going to otherwise follow tradition by not reading an AP until I can binge read.


You mentioned a few questions ago that the orcs in Golarion are almost exclusively CE and along the lines of Lord of the Rings Orcs rather than Warcraft orcs mentally (though physically I think they're more warcraft).

You did say that there are rare cases of good orcs, and one I immediately thought of is Irabeth's father in Wrath of the Righteous. I was wondering if there was any more backstory on him and how he escaped Belkzen than is what is detailed in Irabeth's history accompanying her statblock?


Hey James,

two of the players in my Iron Gods game use firearms. One is the gunslinger, who has taken the techslinger archetype. The other, a barbarian, has taken the Savage Technologist archetype. I know that...

Iron Gods Spoilers

Spoiler:
You get the inferno pistol and a stun gun in Fires of Creation, but I'm a bit nervous about these two characters reaching the levels where they unlock abilities that they can't use because lack of firearms, especially the techslinger, who at level 4 (the level the players are at in the end of FoC) selects a tech weapon to use the Technic Training ability.

Should I offset this by giving them the ability to purchase Golarion-native firearms in Torch (at the 20% discount provided by Dolga)? If you don't mind me asking, how soon will the PCs be able to acquire, via purchasing or otherwise, tech firearms?


James, my homebrew campaign setting is a modern day technology setting where all the gods but one were killed by humans (the gods totally deserved it). This last remaining god wants to slowly make life worse and worse for humanity as revenge, but is unwilling to enter the materiel realm again, because he knows he would be killed. So he corrupts humans to use as his minions against civilization, and they create shadowy cults in nice urban and suburban neighborhoods that cause all sorts of trouble. My question is whether you think the upcoming Occult Adventures book would likely prove useful in designing encounters based around this god's minions and the cults they form. So far I like the sound of the Kineticist, but I'm not sure I'd like a straight up psion class, and I wouldn't allow communication with the dead. Those things aside, is there likely to be a lot I could find use for?


Forgot to add this on but I couldn't edit my prior post, tarnation!

More Iron Gods spoilers

Spoiler:
Would it be reasonable to assume that the PCs can discover the name of the spaceship, Divinity, from the module ship in Fires of Creation?

Liberty's Edge

A while ago you guys talked about replacing the fiction in the APs with something else. Did you guys announce with what and when it is going into effect yet? If you did would you repeat it here? I seem to have missed it.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

I was afraid of that. *sigh* I'm never going to get through my backlog at this rate.

What would be some good sorcerer/bloodrager bloodlines that best fit the themes and ideas discussed in Curse of the Crimson Throne, as that AP was released for the OGL before Pathfinder's rules were written?

If you at least open up your video games once and play it for at least 5 minutes... you'll be ahead of me. I've bought video games that I've never played before I moved on to a different console.

Any would work, but I suppose the best bets would be bloodlines that tie thematically to the Harrow in some way. Or the Destined bloodline.

Shadow Lodge

hi, what is the plan for inner sea races

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Nargemn wrote:

You mentioned a few questions ago that the orcs in Golarion are almost exclusively CE and along the lines of Lord of the Rings Orcs rather than Warcraft orcs mentally (though physically I think they're more warcraft).

You did say that there are rare cases of good orcs, and one I immediately thought of is Irabeth's father in Wrath of the Righteous. I was wondering if there was any more backstory on him and how he escaped Belkzen than is what is detailed in Irabeth's history accompanying her statblock?

Nothing more about him than what's in print.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Neongelion wrote:

Hey James,

two of the players in my Iron Gods game use firearms. One is the gunslinger, who has taken the techslinger archetype. The other, a barbarian, has taken the Savage Technologist archetype. I know that...

Iron Gods Spoilers

Spoiler:
You get the inferno pistol and a stun gun in Fires of Creation, but I'm a bit nervous about these two characters reaching the levels where they unlock abilities that they can't use because lack of firearms, especially the techslinger, who at level 4 (the level the players are at in the end of FoC) selects a tech weapon to use the Technic Training ability.
Should I offset this by giving them the ability to purchase Golarion-native firearms in Torch (at the 20% discount provided by Dolga)? If you don't mind me asking, how soon will the PCs be able to acquire, via purchasing or otherwise, tech firearms?

One of the entire points of Iron Gods is...

Spoiler:
... that the PCs get high-tech firearms, so don't be TOO nervous about this if you wanna run Iron Gods! :-)

The ability to purchase technological firearms, as written in the adventure, doesn't really kick in until adventure #5, and even then, it's regulated by the black market. Iron Gods is built to hand out guns and the like, not really to let PCs shop for them, or really even to build them themselves. If you want to allow shopping for guns or gun creation, that's easy enough for you to adjust and change, but the adventures themselves expect there to be a slowly but steadily increasing number of weapons to be found as treasure or NPC gear.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Zoe Oakeshott wrote:
James, my homebrew campaign setting is a modern day technology setting where all the gods but one were killed by humans (the gods totally deserved it). This last remaining god wants to slowly make life worse and worse for humanity as revenge, but is unwilling to enter the materiel realm again, because he knows he would be killed. So he corrupts humans to use as his minions against civilization, and they create shadowy cults in nice urban and suburban neighborhoods that cause all sorts of trouble. My question is whether you think the upcoming Occult Adventures book would likely prove useful in designing encounters based around this god's minions and the cults they form. So far I like the sound of the Kineticist, but I'm not sure I'd like a straight up psion class, and I wouldn't allow communication with the dead. Those things aside, is there likely to be a lot I could find use for?

Yes. Yes it will.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Neongelion wrote:

Forgot to add this on but I couldn't edit my prior post, tarnation!

More Iron Gods spoilers

** spoiler omitted **

When the PCs discover...

Spoiler:
...the name Divinity is more or less left to you. They don't gain much advantage over the plot by learning the name, but it CAN be a very satisfying discovery nonetheless, so time it for a dramatic moment. The adventures themselves don't expect the PCs to learn the name until #4, "Valley of the Brain Collectors."
Paizo Employee Creative Director

Coridan wrote:
A while ago you guys talked about replacing the fiction in the APs with something else. Did you guys announce with what and when it is going into effect yet? If you did would you repeat it here? I seem to have missed it.

The change to the fiction happened in Mummy's Mask, when we shifted to something that's more closely tied to the themes and story of the AP itself rather than just unattached fiction. We also upped the amount of art and added maps to the section. It's not a HUGE change, but it is indeed a change.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
equinoxmaster wrote:
hi, what is the plan for inner sea races

To have it for sale next Spring, and to collect the Golarion-specific information for the core races and add information and rules for other races that first appeared in books like "Elves of Golarion," many of which are or are close to being out of print.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
LazarX wrote:
Do you have any advice for dinosaurs who accidentally swallow time machines and find themselves in the river Thames?
Learn to swim quick! Then eat some Brits!

Spoiler:

Interestingly enough, as it turns out in the Season 8 debute episode, the T-Rex winds up getting killed by the Villain of the Week (who may become the villain of the Season), without harming a single soul, becoming literally the biggest case of spontaneous combustion in history. Although mostly that's because of some quick action by London's resident Silurian detective.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Are you upset that the Alliance lost the Azeroth Chopper contest? And are you getting the next expansion?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

LazarX wrote:
Are you upset that the Alliance lost the Azeroth Chopper contest? And are you getting the next expansion?

Nope. I've not been keeping up with Warcraft lore, so I don't know what the chopper is... wait. That's the motorcycle? I do not miss it. I'm not a fan of the silly anachronisms that creep into Warcraft.

I'm absolutely getting the next expansion... although I've managed to get the past expansions for free thanks to Paizo/Blizzard contacts, so I'm hoping that tradition endures...


should we exterminate the closet clowns?

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

I was afraid of that. *sigh* I'm never going to get through my backlog at this rate.

What would be some good sorcerer/bloodrager bloodlines that best fit the themes and ideas discussed in Curse of the Crimson Throne, as that AP was released for the OGL before Pathfinder's rules were written?

If you at least open up your video games once and play it for at least 5 minutes... you'll be ahead of me. I've bought video games that I've never played before I moved on to a different console.

Any would work, but I suppose the best bets would be bloodlines that tie thematically to the Harrow in some way. Or the Destined bloodline.

What bloodlines would you say tie into the Harrow best besides Destined? I could use other bloodlines for other Varisia-based APs.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Head closet clown exterminator wrote:
should we exterminate the closet clowns?

Wouldn't that just release more clown spores?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

I was afraid of that. *sigh* I'm never going to get through my backlog at this rate.

What would be some good sorcerer/bloodrager bloodlines that best fit the themes and ideas discussed in Curse of the Crimson Throne, as that AP was released for the OGL before Pathfinder's rules were written?

If you at least open up your video games once and play it for at least 5 minutes... you'll be ahead of me. I've bought video games that I've never played before I moved on to a different console.

Any would work, but I suppose the best bets would be bloodlines that tie thematically to the Harrow in some way. Or the Destined bloodline.

What bloodlines would you say tie into the Harrow best besides Destined? I could use other bloodlines for other Varisia-based APs.

Any of them could tie in, frankly. There are, after all, 54 Harrow cards, and each one is FILLED with symbolisim that have multiple ways that they could be tied into a bloodline. If I were building a character like this for Crimson Throne, I'd shuffle a harrow deck and do a reading and then use the results to inspire my choice for bloodline.

That said... you might want to check out page 28 of "The Harrow Handbook." Which might just have a Harrow bloodline for sorcerers...

Contributor

James Jacobs wrote:
equinoxmaster wrote:
hi, what is the plan for inner sea races
To have it for sale next Spring, and to collect the Golarion-specific information for the core races and add information and rules for other races that first appeared in books like "Elves of Golarion," many of which are or are close to being out of print.

I *think* that Elves and Dwarves were both done in 3.5, right? Would that Material be updated to Pathfinder?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Harkening back to last page's discussion of gods from Earth on Golarion, what is it about Earth that makes it inhospitable to divine beings? They all seem to have left for one reason or another.


Mr. James Jacobs,

Could fleshwarping as presented in Inner Sea Magic be used to change a person's gender or restore their youth?

Also, how does fleshwarping interact with androids?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Misroi wrote:
Harkening back to last page's discussion of gods from Earth on Golarion, what is it about Earth that makes it inhospitable to divine beings? They all seem to have left for one reason or another.

To quote Captain Kirk when Apollo asked that question.

"We only need the One."

"We've out grown you. You asked for something we could no longer give."

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