Creative Director
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James, off of the top of your head, can you think of any adventures that you guys have published that have bugbears and ettins with class levels? I think I remember a bugbear ranger, but I don't recall much else with regards to those two monsters.
The very first Pathfinder AP adventure, "Burnt Offerings," has a bugbear with class levels. Bugbears with class levels show up relatively often here and there, usually as solo encounters—there were some in Iron Gods, IIRC, and Fangwood Keep I think.
Ettins with class levels are much more rare, and I can't think of any but if it DID happen it probably did at some point during Giantslayer.
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Creative Director
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Will you be writing/have written any of the 3 remaining Villains backstories for HV?
Nope.
Last time I wrote a "Meet the Iconic" was for Jirelle, the swashbuckler. She was the first of the 10 in that book to get a Meet the Iconic, and I hit my wordcount, but then everyone else went over and I wish in retrospect that I'd doubled or tripled her story rather than follow assignment instructions. ;-P
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Will you be writing/have written any of the 3 remaining Villains backstories for HV?Nope.
Last time I wrote a "Meet the Iconic" was for Jirelle, the swashbuckler. She was the first of the 10 in that book to get a Meet the Iconic, and I hit my wordcount, but then everyone else went over and I wish in retrospect that I'd doubled or tripled her story rather than follow assignment instructions. ;-P
Yes, yes you should :3
Is there any legitimate/sanctioned trade between Cheliax and Andoren? Like can a ship from one just openly set sail for the other, sell stuff, buy stuff and then return (presuming the chelaxians didn't take any slaves/devils and so on)?
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Have you gotten to play The Old Hunters yet (sorry for bugging ya about this)?
I've been playing it a lot lately, in fact. It's quite fun, but since i finished the game, I have to play the new content on new game plus which, of course, makes the DLC even MORE fun. But so far, quite delightful. Just took out the first boss last night and might have finally found a weapon to replace my threaded cane, which I used pretty much from start to finish until now.
After your response to this thread, I would ask ...
Are there any areas of Golarion lore that would benefit from fan discussion?
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Have you gotten to play The Old Hunters yet (sorry for bugging ya about this)?I've been playing it a lot lately, in fact. It's quite fun, but since i finished the game, I have to play the new content on new game plus which, of course, makes the DLC even MORE fun. But so far, quite delightful. Just took out the first boss last night and might have finally found a weapon to replace my threaded cane, which I used pretty much from start to finish until now.
Yay!
And I love that weapon too, if it's the one I'm thinking of.
What do you think of the area designs and of Ludwig? Were you happy to finally meet him?
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Creative Director
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After your response to this thread, I would ask ...
Are there any areas of Golarion lore that would benefit from fan discussion?
I love it when fans talk about Golarion. And I often listen to that discussion and sometimes it inspires me to go in certain directions, or validates prior choices and encourages me to go even further into certain topics.
That said, the development of Golarion's lore is not a democracy and as with all creative processes like this does not benefit from being designed by committee. Brainstorming is handy but best in small focused groups, because in large groups, my experience is that the goofy and silly suggestions tend to get the most traction.
EXAMPLE: Back when we were publishing Dungeon, we'd always run a "Design an Adventure" seminar at Gen Con or other conventions where myself, Erik, and the other editor of Dungeon at the time who happened to be at the convention walked through the process of how an adventure was built and called upon the audience (usually around 50 or so folks) to throw out ideas, and we all kind of voted on the best ones and ended up with a final adventure. And every year, without fail, the goofier and more comedic/ridiculous/off-the-wall elements seemed to rise to the top. It always fascinated me that we never had a year where a serious adventure plot gained traction—the ones that did always seemed to associate with anachronisms or pop-culture references or puns or the like. I don't see a large-group development/brainstorm of Golarion lore going any different, and as such I'd rather not do it.
I am, overall, pretty protective of what does and doesn't make it into the lore of the world. It's kinda my job to do that though.
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Have you gotten to play The Old Hunters yet (sorry for bugging ya about this)?I've been playing it a lot lately, in fact. It's quite fun, but since i finished the game, I have to play the new content on new game plus which, of course, makes the DLC even MORE fun. But so far, quite delightful. Just took out the first boss last night and might have finally found a weapon to replace my threaded cane, which I used pretty much from start to finish until now.Yay!
And I love that weapon too, if it's the one I'm thinking of.
What do you think of the area designs and of Ludwig? Were you happy to finally meet him?
I love the area designs and Ludwig was really cool and not at all what I expected. Cool encounter!
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Were there any concepts from the original homebrew that the world of Golarion is based on that were not able to make their way into pathfinder?
Yes. A hell of a lot didn't make it into Golarion. Be it the original name for Pharasma (Turthonir—I much prefer Pharasma) or the idea of four separate elemental-themed nature deities or the prior era where demons ruled the planet for several generations and much, much more.
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Creative Director
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Do you think anyone will ever be able to play a suave person with a crossbow without drawing comparisons to Varric (AKA Everyone's Favorite Dwarf) in the Dragon Age series ever again?
Yes. I don't think Dragon Age's Varric is that deeply seated in the zeitgeist of pop culture to forever influence crossbow fighting characters. He's not even CLOSE to how Driz'zt has influenced the concept of a two scimitar wielding character, for example.
I am, overall, pretty protective of what does and doesn't make it into the lore of the world. It's kinda my job to do that though.
Are there any examples of seriously proposed ideas that you've shot down in-house you would be comfortable with sharing?
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Creative Director
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Do you think any of those things might eventually make it into the current Golarion through future books or something?Were there any concepts from the original homebrew that the world of Golarion is based on that were not able to make their way into pathfinder?Yes. A hell of a lot didn't make it into Golarion. Be it the original name for Pharasma (Turthonir—I much prefer Pharasma) or the idea of four separate elemental-themed nature deities or the prior era where demons ruled the planet for several generations and much, much more.
Nope. The proverbial ship has sailed for most of that stuff. And in some cases, like the new name for the goddess of death and birth and fate, I think the change is a drastic improvement (Pharasma is a GREAT name—thanks Sutter!).
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Creative Director
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I am, overall, pretty protective of what does and doesn't make it into the lore of the world. It's kinda my job to do that though.Are there any examples of seriously proposed ideas that you've shot down in-house you would be comfortable with sharing?
No, because if I shot them down, it's in large part because the idea, as serious as it might be, was either flat out bad or wrong or actionable. I prefer to share good stuff and not share the bad stuff, because that makes Golarion overall better rather than worse.
EXCEPTION: Get hired here at Paizo and ask me and I'll talk your ear off!
EXCEPTION: Get hired here at Paizo and ask me and I'll talk your ear off!
...
Lemme check my resumé.
Or alternately, catch me on the Tuesday night chat AND in a particularly chatty mood while on the chat, I guess.
Which reminds me that I should take part in the chat tonight... haven't been there for many weeks.
Many, many weeks...
You mentioned in the introduction for Breaking the Bones of Hell that Crystal will be developing the Adventure Path following Strange Aeons. Does this mean Rob will be taking on other duties? Is the general plan to increase the amount of development time/resources each Adventure Path gets, or to increase the amount of material that is released each month?
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Or alternately, catch me on the Tuesday night chat AND in a particularly chatty mood while on the chat, I guess.
Which reminds me that I should take part in the chat tonight... haven't been there for many weeks.
What is this chat you speak of?
I may be running Savage Tide in a little while - do you have an opinion about where it fits best in Golarion?
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Have you gotten to play The Old Hunters yet (sorry for bugging ya about this)?I've been playing it a lot lately, in fact. It's quite fun, but since i finished the game, I have to play the new content on new game plus which, of course, makes the DLC even MORE fun. But so far, quite delightful. Just took out the first boss last night and might have finally found a weapon to replace my threaded cane, which I used pretty much from start to finish until now.Yay!
And I love that weapon too, if it's the one I'm thinking of.
What do you think of the area designs and of Ludwig? Were you happy to finally meet him?
I love the area designs and Ludwig was really cool and not at all what I expected. Cool encounter!
Okay, not the exact weapon I was thinking of but I love that one too! Chainsaw Pizza Slicer of Awesome Death!
Yeah, Ludwig definitely came out of left field compared to the other beasts, glad you're enjoying the game!
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You mentioned in the introduction for Breaking the Bones of Hell that Crystal will be developing the Adventure Path following Strange Aeons. Does this mean Rob will be taking on other duties? Is the general plan to increase the amount of development time/resources each Adventure Path gets, or to increase the amount of material that is released each month?
Rob will indeed be doing some more "Senior Developer" type stuff in the future. He and I have been doing APs for many years, and rather than burn us out, Paizo wants to get some more folks up to speed so we have more than just two folks capable of doing APs. What he and I will be doing in the meantime... you'll have to wait and see.
It has nothing to do with increasing material per month whatsoever, and more to do with us finally shifting into a world where we're giving folks the actual amount of time that's needed to get things done, rather than grind things down to nubs forcing folks to scramble on a never ending series of relentless deadlines.
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Creative Director
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What is this chat you speak of?Or alternately, catch me on the Tuesday night chat AND in a particularly chatty mood while on the chat, I guess.
Which reminds me that I should take part in the chat tonight... haven't been there for many weeks.
Was gonna answer, but someone beat me to it, so instead... I'll just go get a glass of water.
Mmmmm.
Water.
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Creative Director
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I may be running Savage Tide in a little while - do you have an opinion about where it fits best in Golarion?
Yup. Just as in Greyhawk, put it at the bottom edge of the map. I'd put Sasserine in as the new major coastal city of Sargava... or maybe just south of it. It'd also fit into the Shackles pretty well. The Isle of Dread and Scuttlecove work best WAY off map to the southwest.
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Creative Director
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Have you gotten to play The Old Hunters yet (sorry for bugging ya about this)?I've been playing it a lot lately, in fact. It's quite fun, but since i finished the game, I have to play the new content on new game plus which, of course, makes the DLC even MORE fun. But so far, quite delightful. Just took out the first boss last night and might have finally found a weapon to replace my threaded cane, which I used pretty much from start to finish until now.Yay!
And I love that weapon too, if it's the one I'm thinking of.
What do you think of the area designs and of Ludwig? Were you happy to finally meet him?
I love the area designs and Ludwig was really cool and not at all what I expected. Cool encounter!
Okay, not the exact weapon I was thinking of but I love that one too! Chainsaw Pizza Slicer of Awesome Death!
Yeah, Ludwig definitely came out of left field compared to the other beasts, glad you're enjoying the game!
After playing a bit with that pizza slicer... not sure I like it. Back to the threaded cane.
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It has nothing to do with increasing material per month whatsoever, and more to do with us finally shifting into a world where we're giving folks the actual amount of time that's needed to get things done, rather than grind things down to nubs forcing folks to scramble on a never ending series of relentless deadlines.
Excellent news. Not sure my wallet could take "more" but I definitely like the sound of "better", although the quality of what you're already doing is excellent. And I definitely relate to the need to slow things a little to prevent burnout, happens at my work if things aren't properly managed (totally different industry, though). I look forward to seeing what you're working on, and wish you every success with it!
Oh, a question, to keep things on topic. Is there anywhere on Golarion that has a "lost world" feel to it? That is, somewhere untouched by man and populated by dinosaurs? I'm planning to run Serpent's Skull soon, and thought this could be fun to add somewhere near the end of the journey in Racing to Ruin.
I know dinosaurs feature in a lot of your adventures, but haven't yet found anything where dinosaurs are the main focus. I'm guessing that's because they're ultimately just big animals, and difficult to do anything interesting with after a few encounters. Any ideas on how to make this kind of adventure interesting?
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After playing a bit with that pizza slicer... not sure I like it. Back to the threaded cane.Have you gotten to play The Old Hunters yet (sorry for bugging ya about this)?I've been playing it a lot lately, in fact. It's quite fun, but since i finished the game, I have to play the new content on new game plus which, of course, makes the DLC even MORE fun. But so far, quite delightful. Just took out the first boss last night and might have finally found a weapon to replace my threaded cane, which I used pretty much from start to finish until now.Yay!
And I love that weapon too, if it's the one I'm thinking of.
What do you think of the area designs and of Ludwig? Were you happy to finally meet him?
I love the area designs and Ludwig was really cool and not at all what I expected. Cool encounter!
Okay, not the exact weapon I was thinking of but I love that one too! Chainsaw Pizza Slicer of Awesome Death!
Yeah, Ludwig definitely came out of left field compared to the other beasts, glad you're enjoying the game!
Aww, poor pizza slicer.
Have you found any other weapons that you like?
I may be running Savage Tide in a little while - do you have an opinion about where it fits best in Golarion?Yup. Just as in Greyhawk, put it at the bottom edge of the map. I'd put Sasserine in as the new major coastal city of Sargava... or maybe just south of it. It'd also fit into the Shackles pretty well. The Isle of Dread and Scuttlecove work best WAY off map to the southwest.
Thanks very much.
So what movies have you seen lately? and what did you think of them?
Rob will indeed be doing some more "Senior Developer" type stuff in the future. He and I have been doing APs for many years, and rather than burn us out, Paizo wants to get some more folks up to speed so we have more than just two folks capable of doing APs. What he and I will be doing in the meantime... you'll have to wait and see.You mentioned in the introduction for Breaking the Bones of Hell that Crystal will be developing the Adventure Path following Strange Aeons. Does this mean Rob will be taking on other duties? Is the general plan to increase the amount of development time/resources each Adventure Path gets, or to increase the amount of material that is released each month?
Are you and Rob still doing the initial Outline for the APs? What about the 10k word treatment? I assume as Creative Director you will still be involved in "this is a Pathfinder AP or isn't" kind of decisions.
Do you (and Rob if you know) take suggestions from other employees about AP topics? Or from some of your more used Freelancers like Wolfgang or Crystal (before you hired her that is)? Have you actually ever used one for an AP or incorporated it into another AP?
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Oh, a question, to keep things on topic. Is there anywhere on Golarion that has a "lost world" feel to it? That is, somewhere untouched by man and populated by dinosaurs? I'm planning to run Serpent's Skull soon, and thought this could be fun to add somewhere near the end of the journey in Racing to Ruin.
I know dinosaurs feature in a lot of your adventures, but haven't yet found anything where dinosaurs are the main focus. I'm guessing that's because they're ultimately just big animals, and difficult to do anything interesting with after a few encounters. Any ideas on how to make this kind of adventure interesting?
There's lots of "lost world" locations on Golarion, and many more potential ones. The one that immediately comes to mind is Deep Tolguth, under the Realm of the Mammoth Lords in Orv in the Darklands.
And Saventh-Yhi is intended to feel kind of "lost world" in and of itself; there's certainly dinosaurs there, and it's all about being discovered by modern humans for the first time. I suspect that you can just add a bit more dinosaurs to The middle third of Serpent's Skull and you'll already have the lost world trope right there in your game; no need to add it in near the end of Racing to Ruin because it becomes the whole point of the rest of the campaign.
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Well James I have had a rough day, and can't sleep, so... I'm building Pathfinder characters...
Yeah I'm a dork, but hey, keeps me sane.
I'm trying to build a character and...
Well this may seem optimiz-y but...
Why is it so hard to make double weapons work?
If I want to make a character who dual weilds rapiers... No biggie... I can tie the Attack and Damage to dexterity with the right dip.
Making a good Double Weapon Fighter? For example, a Staff Fighter? It's super hard.
Typically that kind of character would be (in movies etc) some kind of Kung Fu using Monk, or some such...
Trying to get it to work well in Pathfinder is a nightmare. You are unarmored? You need a high dex. You are a monk? You need wisdom. You want to dual wield? Dex again. Want to hit things with your stick? You need Strength for Attack and Damage.
Try to build a Staff Magus, its downright cringe-worthy.
So... I guess the question is... Why no shortcuts for double weapons like there are with others?
Part of your problem is that you're having trouble decoupling the concept of a flavorful character build with the competitive element of "building the best possible damage dealing character." A two weapon type character isn't really so much about dealing the most damage as it is about giving you more chances to land a hit in a combat. You won't be doing as many points of damage on any one hit, but since you'll be making more attacks, the penalty for missing (no damage at all) is less than if you're only wielding one weapon.
Try focusing on NOT the damage side of things, but stuff that triggers regardless of damage. Combat maneuvers, effects that trigger when you hit other than damage, or things like intimidating foes or distracting them so that a different PC who DOESN'T have the number of attacks you do has a better chance to land their limited number but stronger hits.
Furhtermore, monks are not really "high damage dealing" types of characters. They're not a great offensive combat class, but they're an excellent defensive one. The monk might not kill something as quickly as, say, a barbarian, but the monk will, played properly, be in the fight a lot LONGER than the barbarian becasue she's mobile and rather than standing there and making full attacks is taking advantage of that mobility to peck away at foes while minimizing her own risks.
Now. On to the double weapon build... I think part of the reason you're finding few options is that this type of fighting style isn't really based so much on traditions of real-world fighting as it is on Darth Maul from the Phantom Menace. The introduction of double weapons in 3rd edition D&D came about at about the same time as The Phantom Menace. During the creation of 3rd edition, that movie wasn't yet out but everyone had seen the trailers and was freaked out about Darth Maul's double lightsabre. I don't know for sure, but I'm really pretty convinced that the inclusion of double weapons in that game was a late addition to the rules that was strongly influenced by Darth Maul and the fact that folks working on D&D hadn't yet seen the Phantom Menace... just the super exciting trailers for the movie. (I was at WotC during the creation and playtest of 3.5 D&D and my memories support this theory, but it remains a theory.)
So, since there's not a lot of real-world examples of "double weapons" to inspire folks, and since the primary source of the classification of weapon ended up being a movie that we all malign and have TERRIBLE memories and associations with means that we game designers have much less of any sort of inspiration to build more options for double weapon builds. I know that personally I think double weapons are silly and avoid using them for PCs or NPCs or anything if at all possible. And the fact that the quarterstaff was lumped in with double weapons (which I can understand on one level, I guess) was a bad move, since it took one of the most simple of weapons and made them something that folks feel guilty about using ONLY as a club.
TL; DR: No shortcuts because double weapons don't have many fans among us game designers.
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After playing a bit with that pizza slicer... not sure I like it. Back to the threaded cane.
Aww, poor pizza slicer.
Have you found any other weapons that you like?
The moon sword thing could be cool, especially considering it shoots things, but I've not really tried it out in combat much yet and haven't enhanced it up high enough to play with it yet.
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So what movies have you seen lately? and what did you think of them?
The 5th Wave: Lame
Bone Tomahawk: ABSOLUTLEY INCREDIBLE. One of the best westerns I've ever seen, but that's mostly because it's also a horror movie with an incredible cast headed up by Kurt Russell.
Final Prayer: Surprisingly good found footage movie about a team from the Vatican researching claims of a haunted church.
Fortitude: Not a movie, but a very good series on Amazon Prime.
The Revenant: Incredible movie and if it wins Best Picture instead of Fury Road, I'll be only slightly disappointed.
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Are you and Rob still doing the initial Outline for the APs? What about the 10k word treatment? I assume as Creative Director you will still be involved in "this is a Pathfinder AP or isn't" kind of decisions.
Do you (and Rob if you know) take suggestions from other employees about AP topics? Or from some of your more used Freelancers like Wolfgang or Crystal (before you hired her that is)? Have you actually ever used one for an AP or incorporated it into another AP?
I've done the initial outline for Strange Aeons and for the one after that, yes, but the vast bulk of the work on an AP is during its 8 or so months of actual development. That's the portion that's getting increasingly spread out between more than two people.
And even beyond that, in a future where someone else entirely outlines an AP, I'll still be reading it, revising it, and getting final approval over it. Same as for all our books.
We do take suggestions from other employees about AP stuff all the time. Freelancers get their input as well; that's why we hire them, after all. But actual ideas for the actual story of an AP? Nope; those have, to date, all come from someone in a senior position at Paizo—at this point, that means me, Rob, and Wes (who did Carrion Crown's outline).
Is there a chance of having Paizo releases future Mythic Path(s) more suitable to the Psychic Magic users characters?
I mean, Arcane classes have Archmage, Divine classes have the Hierophant ecc.
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Is there a chance of having Paizo releases future Mythic Path(s) more suitable to the Psychic Magic users characters?
I mean, Arcane classes have Archmage, Divine classes have the Hierophant ecc.
There's always a chance, but as far as chances go, chances for this are pretty low indeed.
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The moon sword thing could be cool, especially considering it shoots things, but I've not really tried it out in combat much yet and haven't enhanced it up high enough to play with it yet.After playing a bit with that pizza slicer... not sure I like it. Back to the threaded cane.Aww, poor pizza slicer.
Have you found any other weapons that you like?
The Moonlight Greatsword was the weapon I was originally thinking of :3
Speaking of what did you think of the fight once Ludwig broke it out in an inversion of other boss fights where the boss got more feral and berserk as the fight went on?
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The moon sword thing could be cool, especially considering it shoots things, but I've not really tried it out in combat much yet and haven't enhanced it up high enough to play with it yet.After playing a bit with that pizza slicer... not sure I like it. Back to the threaded cane.Aww, poor pizza slicer.
Have you found any other weapons that you like?
The Moonlight Greatsword was the weapon I was originally thinking of :3
Speaking of what did you think of the fight once Ludwig broke it out in an inversion of other boss fights where the boss got more feral and berserk as the fight went on?
Ah. Yeah, haven't played with the Moonlight Greatsword much at all yet, but am in the process of powering it up and might try it out in a not-as-dangerous area for a bit to grind for blood or bullets for a while tonight.
I thought that was a neat inversion. AND thought that being able to chat with his severed head a bit after the fight was creepy in a cool way also.
Hey James,
I was wondering what your thoughts are for a player who would like to be a Paladin of Desna. Is such a thing workable?
I already explained to the player that for such a thing to work, he'd have to be a heretic of some sort, and having any sort of code wouldn't exactly make sense. But, he'd really like to play a paladin and Desna is the only deity that would make sense for him.
He's really flexible about it, and we both agree he wouldn't have access to any Lawful spells. (though I'm not sure if that's fair?)
And if it helps at all we're playing Wrath of the Righteous, starting Demon's Heresy now. He's not aware of story line of that book and does read this thread (though he'd respect spoiler tags if the response warrants them).
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Hey James,
I was wondering what your thoughts are for a player who would like to be a Paladin of Desna. Is such a thing workable?
I already explained to the player that for such a thing to work, he'd have to be a heretic of some sort, and having any sort of code wouldn't exactly make sense. But, he'd really like to play a paladin and Desna is the only deity that would make sense for him.
He's really flexible about it, and we both agree he wouldn't have access to any Lawful spells. (though I'm not sure if that's fair?)
And if it helps at all we're playing Wrath of the Righteous, starting Demon's Heresy now. He's not aware of story line of that book and does read this thread (though he'd respect spoiler tags if the response warrants them).
Nope. Desna is Chaotic Good, and thus cannot have paladins. A worshiper who is devout to Desna would be chaotic and thus not a paladin. A worshiper who was lawful would NOT be devout to Desna and would not be faithful or adhering to her teachings, which is not a lawful act, and thus would not be a paladin. Chaotic deities cannot have paladins. Even as a heretic it won't work.
Instead, he should play a warpriest of Desna, or perhaps an inquisitor of Desna, or maybe just a cleric/fighter multiclassed character who worships Desna.
Obviously, you can do what you want in your game, but you won't get "permission" from me to allow a paladin of Desna.
I'd talk to the player and drill down on what makes him want "Paladin" + "Desna." There are lots of lawful good empyreal lords to choose from and perhaps one of them is close enough to whatever elements of Desna attract him to work? Or perhaps you can figure out what elements of being a paladin he really desires and then, through a combination of legal choices and archetypes and prestige classes figure out how to do something similar with a chaotic good character.
Or maybe he should just play an atheist wizard.