Creative Director
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Question about elves:
How is it that elves can view the shorter-lived races as rash and impulsive, yet they them selves are often chaotic, the rash and impulsive alignment?
Or are the elves just being hypocritical in that regard?
Because chaotic does not automatically mean "rash and impulsive."
Elves value personal freedom. Strictures and rules that limit this are often rebelled and spoken out against. Queen Telandia knows this very well about her people and struggles with bringing in more modernity in light of her country's native culture. Elves often, too, will stop in the middle of a project to pursue something else as well. Both those situations fit very well with the Pathfinder definition of chaotic.
Think of the US without several of the civil liberties issues we face. :) That said, they're still a very suspicious people. Reluctant to trust others, so on. And I'm rambling...
Hi James.
Now that the Al-mi'raj is such a big hit on Facebook, is there new hope for the other joke creature, the Drop Bear?
Almiraj really wasn't a joke creature though. It's from actual mythology and folklore, with its own stories from poetry, while the drop bear was just made as a joke to screw with tourists to make them put vegemite behind their ears and urinate themselves.
Then why is the DRop Bear in many folklore creatures of Australia' lists? Just like the Al-mi'raj is in the Arab versions of those lists?
I've heard somebody say that we have to wait a very long time before we saw Almiraj's in a paizo product, and yet here it is, so the same could go with the Drop Bear.
A few random questions, skewed towards reincarnation.
Would you say that the swashbuckler you envision is a mix of the fighter and rogue?I would say that the swashbuckler I envision is a full base attack class with a good Reflex save who doesn't wear armor and instead gains armor bonuses from his weapon via parrying type mechanics. A swashbuckler who fights with a primary weapon in one hand and uses a support thing in his off hand, like a cloak or a dagger or a buckler... or maybe even nothing in his off hand.
There's plenty of ways to design a class like that. They wouldn't gain sneak attack dice, nor would they gain much in the way of armor abilities.
1) Regarding the above quote, how workable would you say it would be to just make a swashbuckler sort of thing as an alternate class (i.e. antipaladin, ninja, samurai) for gunslingers? I mean yes, there's something very weird about a gunslinger archetype that doesn't actually use guns, but otherwise it's honestly pretty close to what you proposed there. BAB, saves, deeds are thematically perfect (although you'd need a new list). Maintaining the deed/grit terminology would let them benefit from the same feats and items. I just have to wonder if dropping all the firearm support for finesse-friendly weapons would leave it too generally weak (or too tempting for quick level dips). Thoughts?
2) Quite a few pages back, you mentioned "the theory that reincarnate creates a body drawn from the region's living societies." Every group I've ever been in tends to get bogged down with some of the bizarre questions reincarnate tends to raise. You're getting a new body from somewhere, and it's a nature themed spell so it'd be weird to just be a creation of pure magic. How do you tend to rationalize it? The spell just scans over people in the area and improvises along those lines? Two random unwilling people are selected as your new "parents" and a new body is created from randomly mashing their genetics together, with the result being an adult body? It seems to me there's some potential for odd plot hooks with that last one. Random recipients of reincarnation spells having enough resemblance to the local nobility to try and pass themselves off as distant relatives or surfacing bastards.
3) And still on the subject of reincarnation, I while ago I took a stab at an alternate reincarnation table that worked in as many generally PC-appropriate races while still heavily favoring humans and the rest of the core 7 races, but I came up one short for the reptilian subgroup (kobold, lizardfolk, troglodyte, vishkanya). Anything come to mind that would slot in well (besides nagaji, which I have in the far east/tien xia section)?
4) If you have time to give it a glance, does anything else jump out as particularly inappropriate to the general biome I gave it?
5) Androids and reincarnation- Science and nature don't mix, or they're a race like any other?
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The kaiju subtype in Bestiary 4 provides some answers to some of these questions... you're just gonna have to wait to see what they are though.
Good stuff, thanks for the detailed response. I had considered the wonkiness of a colossal creature perhaps ending up with a 'step' equal or superior to it's actual movement rate, but the higher ground, difficult terrain, etc. questions never even occurred to me!
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Many class abilities obtained through class features such as Sorcerer Bloodline or Cleric Domains grants the character spell-like abilities. However, many of these "... Ray" or "Touch of ..." don't emulate existing spells, but their descriptions also don't list what level of spell it should be treated as (such as Elemental Ray or Touch of Chaos) or what kind of effect type they carry (such as Vision of Madness).
I am not sure whether I missed something or whether this was intentional, since sometimes things come along like the Sage Bloodline's Arcane Bolt ability, which describes both the spell level and effect type for it. In any case, how should I determine the level or effect types for these abilities should they be subject effects like Spell Turning, Globe of Invulnerability, or Mind Blank?
Yeah, that's a problem that we didn't realize was a problem until too late. You'll note that when we do this now, such as for unique monster spell-like abilities, we assign effective spell levels.
It's not intentional.
The best way to handle it is to basically assume that spell-like abilities granted in this manner are equal to the minimum spell level a character of that level could cast. So if you get one of these things at 1st level, it's a 1st level spell. If you get one at 7th level, it's a 4th level spell. If you get one at 14th level, it's a 7th level spell. And so on.
@ Snappyapple, I recommend you check the FAQ first when you've got a question like this. ;-)
@ Snappyapple, I recommend you check the FAQ first when you've got a question like this. ;-)Many class abilities obtained through class features such as Sorcerer Bloodline or Cleric Domains grants the character spell-like abilities. However, many of these "... Ray" or "Touch of ..." don't emulate existing spells, but their descriptions also don't list what level of spell it should be treated as (such as Elemental Ray or Touch of Chaos) or what kind of effect type they carry (such as Vision of Madness).
I am not sure whether I missed something or whether this was intentional, since sometimes things come along like the Sage Bloodline's Arcane Bolt ability, which describes both the spell level and effect type for it. In any case, how should I determine the level or effect types for these abilities should they be subject effects like Spell Turning, Globe of Invulnerability, or Mind Blank?
Yeah, that's a problem that we didn't realize was a problem until too late. You'll note that when we do this now, such as for unique monster spell-like abilities, we assign effective spell levels.
It's not intentional.
The best way to handle it is to basically assume that spell-like abilities granted in this manner are equal to the minimum spell level a character of that level could cast. So if you get one of these things at 1st level, it's a 1st level spell. If you get one at 7th level, it's a 4th level spell. If you get one at 14th level, it's a 7th level spell. And so on.
Ah, thanks. I googled within paizo.com for the question before asking, but that page didn't turn up in the top results at the time.
P.S. On a related note in my question, not restricted to Spell-Like Abilities, is there a ruling on possible effect types that are missing from some of the Su and Sp abilities gained through class? Looking at things like Aura of Forgetfulness or Vision of Madness. Same situation again where I don't know if it's intentional since abilities like Adoration from the Love subdomain is modified to be mind-affecting.
Awesome about the coliseums! A completely unrelated question: will the Emerald Spire superdungeon include any Bestiary 4, Inner Sea Bestiary, or all new monsters?
James, are you a fan of:
1) Traps
2) Haunts
3) Cursed Items
And if you are a fan of any of those could you give your favorite example of each and your least favorite example of each?
Thanks!
Wait, Krune was killable in an adventure?! When?! Where can I buy this book?!
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So it was just a single adventure? No overarching plot or prior adventures leading to the confrontation?Wait, Krune was killable in an adventure?! When?! Where can I buy this book?!** spoiler omitted **
Yes there was an overarching Plot and prior adventures. It is part of Pathfinder Society Organized Play.
The whole season and its adventures were leading up to this climax.
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Creative Director
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Could you please explain this more to me? I've never really played a Chaotic character before.
The thought that a specific alignment only allows for one type of personality is the part that I was saying was wrong.
The chaotic nature of elves is more talking about their free spirits, their swift and often unpredictable creativity, their mood swings, their emotions, and their freedom. You can think of them, sort of, as hippies to a certain extent, or new-age mystics, or the like, as viewed from a much more conservative straight-laced society.
The fact that they live for hundreds of years also builds into most elves a sense of patience—they interact with time differently. Faced with a castle that an elven army might need to besiege, they likely wouldn't resort to catapults and rams like humanity would, but might instead just wait out the castle... maybe use slowly-growing ivy to creep up and weaken the castle walls or let erosion be their ally. They have the time to think things through before they act on them. Doesn't mean that no elf ever is rash and impulsive—in fact, those traits are quite common among the Forlorn, but those are simply not traits that are common among the standard elf.
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Creative Director
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Hi James.
Now that the Al-mi'raj is such a big hit on Facebook, is there new hope for the other joke creature, the Drop Bear?
Not new hope, no.
The problem with the drop bear is that it's in the same category as the snipe. It's not a monster that rises from mythology or an attempt to explain the unexplainable or anything like that. It's a monster that rises from a desire to mess with the heads of visitors or the ignorant. It's a prank monster. I'm not fond of prank monsters being turned into Pathfinder monsters.
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Creative Director
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1) Regarding the above quote, how workable would you say it would be to just make a swashbuckler sort of thing as an alternate class (i.e. antipaladin, ninja, samurai) for gunslingers? I mean yes, there's something very weird about a gunslinger archetype that doesn't actually use guns, but otherwise it's honestly pretty close to what you proposed there. BAB, saves, deeds are thematically perfect (although you'd need a new list). Maintaining the deed/grit terminology would let them benefit from the same feats and items. I just have to wonder if dropping all the firearm support for finesse-friendly weapons would leave it too generally weak (or too tempting for quick level dips). Thoughts?
2) Quite a few pages back, you mentioned "the theory that reincarnate creates a body drawn from the region's living societies." Every group I've ever been in tends to get bogged down with some of the bizarre questions reincarnate tends to raise. You're getting a new body from somewhere, and it's a nature themed spell so it'd be weird to just be a creation of pure magic. How do you tend to rationalize it? The spell just scans over people in the area and improvises along those lines? Two random unwilling people are selected as your new "parents" and a new body is created from randomly mashing their genetics together, with the result being an adult body? It seems to me there's some potential for odd plot hooks with that last one. Random recipients of reincarnation spells having enough resemblance to the local nobility to try and pass themselves off as distant relatives or surfacing bastards.
3) And still on the subject of reincarnation, I while ago I took a stab at an alternate reincarnation table that worked in as many generally PC-appropriate races while still heavily favoring humans and the rest of the core 7 races, but I came up one short for the reptilian subgroup (kobold, lizardfolk, troglodyte, vishkanya). Anything come to mind that would slot in well (besides nagaji, which I have in the far east/tien xia section)?
4) If you have time to give it a glance, does anything else jump out as particularly inappropriate to the general biome I gave it?
5) Androids and reincarnation- Science and nature don't mix, or they're a race like any other?
1) It would be workable.
2) Do you say it's "nature themed" simply because it's a druid spell? There are plenty of spells that druids cast that aren't overwhelmingly "nature themed" in that case. The reason it's on the druid list is because it's been on the druid list since 1st edition D&D, where druids were the right choice to associate reincarnation with (clerics were VERY much more modeled off the idea of a crusader type character who follows a belief pattern that when you die, your soul goes to Heaven or Hell, so it didn't make sense back in the day to let clerics cast a spell that breaks that belief system). In any event, if you find that reincarnate isn't working for your group and that it's causing more questions than it answers, just remove it from your game and give druids raise dead as a 5th level spell.
3) I still say that a reincarnate list should be drawn from similar races from the region in which it is cast.
4) I generally try to avoid getting into feedback or co-design or the like of content for legal reasons and time-management concerns—sorry! Even something as relatively small as a single table—I'd prefer not to set a precedent of "If it's 500 words or less" (or whatever) "Then James will review it and provide feedback." I'd rather keep that at 0 words or less... sorry!
5) Science and nature DO mix. Science is all ABOUT nature. Biology. Botany. Chemistry. Physics. Astronomy. Geology. It's all the study of the nature of nature. Androids have souls, and as such can be reincarnated, but I would say you can't be reincarnated INTO an android.
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Creative Director
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P.S. On a related note in my question, not restricted to Spell-Like Abilities, is there a ruling on possible effect types that are missing from some of the Su and Sp abilities gained through class? Looking at things like Aura of Forgetfulness or Vision of Madness. Same situation again where I don't know if it's intentional since abilities like Adoration from the Love subdomain is modified to be mind-affecting.
My suggestion would be to make them Supernatural abilities.
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Creative Director
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James, are you a fan of:
1) Traps
2) Haunts
3) Cursed ItemsAnd if you are a fan of any of those could you give your favorite example of each and your least favorite example of each?
Thanks!
1) Yes. I'm a fan of traps that arise in places you would expect and that utilize the environment or magical spells/effects in creative ways. My least favorite traps are those that the designer puts into a room where there's no possible way or reason for the players to suspect a trap, because when they're hit with a random trap because they stepped on a random square in a huge room... the game tends to grind to a halt as the players then turn the dungeon into a square by square search for traps on everything that drags play to a halt.
2) Yes, since I'm the one who invented haunts for "The Skinsaw Murders" in the first place! :-) My favorite haunts are the ones that are spooky and moody and advance the area's storyline. My least favorite ones are the ones that don't have any background whatsoever and are just traps and nothing more.
3) Yes, but only as traps or as story elements or as weapons used by bad guys... NOT as nothing more than "here's a way to trick a player character into sucking ha ha ha I'm the best I win at GMing!" My favorite cursed items are those that allow for the telling of new story elements, like how the robe of powerlessness makes for an excellent item to use on imprisoned spellcasters, or in an old adventure I wrote for Dungeon, how it can be used to make an ogre magi docile so you can strap it to a table in a violent tavern and allow customers to practice their artful surgery techniques on it—since it regenerates, it's always back to square one for the next knife-wielding performer.
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Creative Director
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A couple of questions about some modules, specifically Witchwar Legacy and Academy of Secrets/Lorthact (and a little on Baba Yaga), if you're able to answer!
1) Getting Witchwar Legacy out of the way. In what time period relative to Reign of Winter does it take place? Specifically how long prior, and how long after other Adventure Paths may have taken place? Baba Yaga normally would have shown up in 4713 - was Witchwar Legacy a few years as far back as around the end of Rise of the Runelords, or closer to the events of Shattered Star in timeframe?
2) Rasputin was attempting to drain his mother's mythic power to claim it for himself, using the World Engine. Have similar methods of stealing mythic power/mantles on a permanent basis been done by others? Does Lorthact have access to this sort of thing through the resources of the Acadamae? I would imagine that mythic power could be a great boon to him.
3) If a group of mythic individuals (let's say capable of finishing the Academy of Secrets module and thereby ruining some of his plans) were to join up at the Acadamae, would Lorthact attempt to get rid of them fast ("too dangerous to risk"), or turn them to his own use?
4) What is Lorthact's overall opinion regarding Ileosa's attempt to use Sorshen's Everdawn Pool and so on and so forth in Curse of the Crimson Throne? To what extent did he see it as a risk to his own plans?
5) I think you've mentioned before that Lorthact doesn't know much, if anything, about Sorshen, since he was concerned more with the present than the very distant past. Since Ileosa's attempted use of the Everdawn Pool, Karzoug's reappearance and death, and now Krune's reappearance and death at the hands of the Pathfinder Society (in PFS play), along with the Sihedron and Xin's city later on, has his attention been drawn towards these events? Might he be keeping an eye on them or attempting to investigate them himself? I would imagine that signs of Krune (who was a master of Sloth/Conjuration) could be of interest to him.
5) Does Lorthact know much about Baba Yaga? If so, what does he think of her in general?
6) Given Baba Yaga's penchant for being the "testing witch" of legend, and given that she created Kostchtchie (a demon lord) in a certain sense, has Treerazer (a nascent demon lord) considered attempting to reach out to her or otherwise contact her to ask for her help in reversing his exile and allowing him to get back home? Right now, he isn't extraplanar, so if he dies on Golarion, he may not reform, after all...
1) I believe the assumption is that Witchwar legacy took place a few years before Reign of Winter begins, but the AP gives advice in there somewhere on how to have the adventure take place during or after. That's more of a Rob McCreary question.
2) Rasputin's technique for stealing mythic power is unique to him. There are other methods by which characters have sought to absorb and gain mythic power—we cover some during Wrath of the Righteous, but Rasputin and his world engines are intended to be unique to him and that adventure. Lorthact has not yet tried any mythic power type stuff, mostly because he simply doesn't have access to that type of power at this point, and as such he's focusing on other things—AKA: Lorthact is intended to be a core storyline, not a mythic storyline.
3) He would try to control them and then gain their power for himself to become an arch devil, I suspect.
4) As written, Lorthact has no role to play in Curse of the Crimson Throne. If you want to write him into that plot, I'd say that he would be surprised at Ileosa's move. He would dangerously underestimate her until it was probably too late, at which point he'd be playing catch-up to try to get influence over her... but there's a better chance that Ileosa would turn the tables on him and use him as her pawn. She may be lower CR than Lorthact, but she should be better at villiany than him.
5) Assuming all three of those things come to pass (we do not assume ANY of those three things have happened yet), then yes, Lorthact would probably become much more interested in the Runelords, and would likely seek out some old Thassilonian powers himeself rather than continue to focus on his current projects. Lorthact is a powerful devil, yes, but he's not omniscient or omnipresent. His interests really do focus pretty tightly on Korvosa and the Acadamae.
Bonus 5) He's heard rumors about Baba Yaga but doesn't really care much about her. She's hundreds of miles away, after all, and her project in Irrisen doesn't impact his in Korvosa.
6) Nope. Again, she's VERY far away. Treerazer has other things and plans for his return to the Abyss, and does't want to involve a character more powerful than he is in those plans. He's something of a control freak when it comes to Tanglebriar and the like. And the thing about being a native outsider—if he dies, he can be brought back to life pretty easily via things like raise dead.
Faced with a castle that an elven army might need to besiege, they likely wouldn't resort to catapults and rams like humanity would, but might instead just wait out the castle... maybe use slowly-growing ivy to creep up and weaken the castle walls or let erosion be their ally.
They're like Professor Chaos!
*meanwhile the shorter-lived inhabitants are bringing in supplies, pruning or carefully cultivating the ivy to get that 'ivy-covered halls' look - or simply pruning it if it would cause problems, conducting normal maintenance on walls, and generally going about their daily lives rather than being passive in the face of this*
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
I have spent 2 hours navigating threads about grapple/fly-by attack w/ conflicting results (including the resent post on May 2013 on this forum).Monster:
A huge dragon w/ the Imp Grapple and Fly-by Attack feats and a fly speed of 200'. NO Snatch feat.Setting:
it spots a medium size humanoid. The dragon begins its move 80' away from the humanoid. It reaches the humanoid and takes its standard action (attack w/ one claw or bite) (including appropriate fly skill checks). It hits and in addition it succeeds on a grapple.1) What is next? Can the dragon finish its move (120') due to fly-by taking the humanoid with it??
2) The grapple condition, as you know, allows the grappler to move half its speed. So, does it mean that of the 120' left of movement the dragon only has 60' left?
3) The grapple is done with what? Bite? One claw? Two claws? (No Snatch feat).
4) Can the dragon attack with its other free appendages not used in the grapple in this example? Or the Snatch feat is needed for this?
Thanks.
I'm not going to be able to offer a magic bullet to solve your grapple problems... or if I can, It's not going to solve the internets (and these boards') problems with them. Because the rules are there for you to use as you wish—use the solution to a confusion rule that works best for you and your game and don't worry if it's right or wrong... because if it's the one that works best for your game, it IS the right way to use the rule.
My takes on your answers:
1) It has to wait for its next turn to move away; it can carry the PC along if it maintains its grapple as a standard action, then takes a move action to fly away. If the dragon has the grab ability and can thus make a grapple attempt as a free action as part of an attack, then it CAN swoop in, make a flyby attack, and then fly off. Most dragons don't have grab, though, so they have to do the swoop in and standard action grapple solution, which ends their turn.
2) Assuming it has grab or another method of establishing a grapple check as a free action, then yes, it's speed is halved. In this case from 200 ft. to 100 ft. Since the dragon's moved 80 feet already, that means it can move a further 20 feet.
3) The grapple can be done with anything capable of grabbing. I'd say it can grapple with its bite, claws, or tail. NOT its wings.
4) Attempting a grapple is a standard action, which means that unless you have the grab ability (or in this case the Snatch feat), an attempt to grapple replaces your normal attack and removes the option of a full attack entirely for that round.
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Creative Director
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Mr. Jacobs,
Can the onset time of a any poison be changed from rounds/minutes to 1 or more days? If so, what would the DC on Craft be?Thanks.
Currently, the only way to do this in the game is via delay poison. There are a few types of poison that have built in onset delays as well. Your best bet would be to invent new poisons with onset delays, or if you're a player, asking your GM if that's cool to invent new poisons.
James, the Holy Bomb discovery for alchemists out of Champions of Purity, what was the intent of that discovery? Should its staggering effect work on undead, similarly to how the Celestial Poisons discovery from the same book lets you poison undead AND evil outsiders? Because as written, since the Fort save isn't for a harmless effect, undead are immune. If that's the case, coupled with the higher level needed to take it, this just seems like an inferior version of Frost Bomb, which at least can stagger any target in general and not just evil ones.
Benefits: When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it deal good divine damage. Evil creatures that take a direct hit from a holy bomb must succeed at a Fortitude save or be staggered on their next turn. Against neutral creatures, holy bombs deal half damage, and such targets are not affected by their staggering effect. Holy bombs have no effect on good-aligned creatures.
Benefit: When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it inflict cold damage. Creatures that take a direct hit from a frost bomb are staggered on their next turn unless they succeed on a Fortitude save.
I'm not going to be able to offer a magic bullet to solve your grapple problems... or if I can, It's not going to solve the internets (and these boards') problems with them. Because the rules are there for you to use as you wish—use the solution to a confusion rule that works best for you and your game and don't worry if it's right or wrong... because if it's the one that works best for your game, it IS the right way to use the rule.
My takes on your answers:
1) It has to wait for its next turn to move away; it can carry the PC along if it maintains its grapple as a standard action, then takes a move action to fly away. If the dragon has the grab ability and can thus make a grapple attempt as a free action as part of an attack, then it CAN swoop in, make a flyby attack, and then fly off. Most dragons don't have grab, though, so they have to do the swoop in and standard action grapple solution, which ends their turn.
2) Assuming it has grab...
Great answers to a difficult question.
But my problem has always been with Fly-by, grab & drop. Is the drop part a free action and can the dragon do it the same round? Can the adventurer resist being dropped by hanging on, and if so, how?
Are undead immune to the damage from the Vicious weapon property? I could swear, that the weapon originally did negative energy damage, which made it good for undead as it healed them.
Dear Magnanimous King Tyrant Lizard,
As an acknowledged Lovecraftian expert on the Paizo boards, what are the top five stories that you would recommend to someone who had never read his work before?
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Yes there was an overarching Plot and prior adventures. It is part of Pathfinder Society Organized Play.So it was just a single adventure? No overarching plot or prior adventures leading to the confrontation?Wait, Krune was killable in an adventure?! When?! Where can I buy this book?!** spoiler omitted **
So...I missed it, then.
So...I missed it, then.Yes there was an overarching Plot and prior adventures. It is part of Pathfinder Society Organized Play.So it was just a single adventure? No overarching plot or prior adventures leading to the confrontation?Wait, Krune was killable in an adventure?! When?! Where can I buy this book?!** spoiler omitted **
Not really, I'm pretty sure you can still buy the Scenarios and play them for yourself.
3) Yes, but only as traps or as story elements or as weapons used by bad guys... NOT as nothing more than "here's a way to trick a player character into sucking ha ha ha I'm the best I win at GMing!" My favorite cursed items are those that allow for the telling of new story elements, like how the robe of powerlessness makes for an excellent item to use on imprisoned spellcasters, or in an old adventure I wrote for Dungeon, how it can be used to make an ogre magi docile so you can strap it to a table in a violent tavern and allow customers to practice their artful surgery techniques on it—since it regenerates, it's always back to square one for the next knife-wielding performer.
Personally, I prefer curses when they're used to give personality to an intelligent item. For example, my GM handed my samurai a cursed katana. Its curse is that the weapon is a spellstoring weapon that loathes arcane spells; it hates their "taste," so the weapon refuses to let me store arcane spells within it. It is certainly a downside, but ultimately the flavor shines through over the very real mechanical penalty.
Question: What do you think of a system that allows a crafter to apply certain weapon special qualities that make sense to weapons, such as paying extra gold to apply the brace quality to a weapon that normally doesn't possess it?
I always thought it was weird that certain weapons which can clearly be finessable or braced or used as trip weapons in real life don't have the capacity to be granted those qualities in the game, even at a cost.
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Creative Director
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James, the Holy Bomb discovery for alchemists out of Champions of Purity, what was the intent of that discovery? Should its staggering effect work on undead, similarly to how the Celestial Poisons discovery from the same book lets you poison undead AND evil outsiders? Because as written, since the Fort save isn't for a harmless effect, undead are immune. If that's the case, coupled with the higher level needed to take it, this just seems like an inferior version of Frost Bomb, which at least can stagger any target in general and not just evil ones.
Benefits: When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it deal good divine damage. Evil creatures that take a direct hit from a holy bomb must succeed at a Fortitude save or be staggered on their next turn. Against neutral creatures, holy bombs deal half damage, and such targets are not affected by their staggering effect. Holy bombs have no effect on good-aligned creatures.Benefit: When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it inflict cold damage. Creatures that take a direct hit from a frost bomb are staggered on their next turn unless they succeed on a Fortitude save.
I wasn't involved in the writing or development of that book so I can't really say what the "intent" was.
Undead, though, are not generally subject to Fortitude save effects; this is no different. Holy bombs look to me to be primarily things you'd use against living evil foes. It's not inferior to frost bomb at all, since there's quite a lot of creatures that are immune to or resist cold damage, but as far as I know, we've not yet invented ANY monsters that resist or are immune to "divine" damage. In fact, against evil outsiders, holy bombs are MUCH better choices than frost bombs.
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Creative Director
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I'm not going to be able to offer a magic bullet to solve your grapple problems... or if I can, It's not going to solve the internets (and these boards') problems with them. Because the rules are there for you to use as you wish—use the solution to a confusion rule that works best for you and your game and don't worry if it's right or wrong... because if it's the one that works best for your game, it IS the right way to use the rule.
My takes on your answers:
1) It has to wait for its next turn to move away; it can carry the PC along if it maintains its grapple as a standard action, then takes a move action to fly away. If the dragon has the grab ability and can thus make a grapple attempt as a free action as part of an attack, then it CAN swoop in, make a flyby attack, and then fly off. Most dragons don't have grab, though, so they have to do the swoop in and standard action grapple solution, which ends their turn.
2) Assuming it has grab...
Great answers to a difficult question.
But my problem has always been with Fly-by, grab & drop. Is the drop part a free action and can the dragon do it the same round? Can the adventurer resist being dropped by hanging on, and if so, how?
Drop is a free action, yes. The rules don't anticipate this tactic, though, so they have nothing to say about it. I'd rule that if someone wants to not get dropped, they'd be able to make a grapple check to hang on, but that means they basically stay grappled for free by the monster which in many cases might be worse than just getting dropped.
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Creative Director
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Are undead immune to the damage from the Vicious weapon property? I could swear, that the weapon originally did negative energy damage, which made it good for undead as it healed them.
Vicious weapons add to the damage done by the base weapon; this extra damage is the type of damage caused by the base weapon. AKA the "disruptive energy" is flavor text, pretty much.
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Creative Director
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If the Mythic rules and Wrath of the Righteous are a major hit with folks, what are the chances of a Treerazer AP? What about a Test of the Starstone module? How about a module (or AP) dealing with fixing whatever is wrong with Iobaria/Mana Wastes/Eye of Abendego?
Treerazer never needed mythic rules. That's the WHOLE POINT of a nascent demon lord—they can be statted up using the core rules, and represent the end boss of a full campaign where everyone hits 20th level. We could have done an AP where the PCs face Treerazer from the day we first statted him up if we wanted. No mythic rules needed. Whether or not we do a Treerazer adventure or whatever... we'll see. He's kinda one of my pet bad guys... he's been around for over 25 years in my homebrew setting.
The Test of the Starstone, on the other hand, IS something we couldn't really do until the Mythic Rules came along... so we'll see there as well.
And as for fixing what's "wrong" with Iobaria/Mana Wastes/Eye of Abendego, I'd say in order "maybe, very unlikely, and no."
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Creative Director
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When do you think the right time will be to create another "Drow heavy" AP will be?
Is that on the cards for the future?
At this point I wouldn't say "never," because never say never... but it's CLOSE to never.
We'll use drow now and then in our adventures, but there's no plans at all at this point to do another drow-themed Adventure Path. There's too many other stories we want to do first.
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Creative Director
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So...I missed it, then.Yes there was an overarching Plot and prior adventures. It is part of Pathfinder Society Organized Play.So it was just a single adventure? No overarching plot or prior adventures leading to the confrontation?Wait, Krune was killable in an adventure?! When?! Where can I buy this book?!** spoiler omitted **
Nope. The adventures are still available for purchase and you can still use them whenever you want.
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Creative Director
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Dear Magnanimous King Tyrant Lizard,
As an acknowledged Lovecraftian expert on the Paizo boards, what are the top five stories that you would recommend to someone who had never read his work before?
My favorites are not the same as the "best for someone who's never read his work," since my FAVORITE, "At the Mountains of Madness," is best read once you're familiar with his work.
I'd say the best 5 to start out with would be, in the following order:
1) The Dunwich Horror
2) The Shadow Over Innsmouth
3) The Colour Out of Space
4) The Call of Cthulhu
5) The Thing on the Doorstep
After that... if you're into him, go on to read some of the longer ones, like Mountains of Madness, Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, Shadow Out of Time, or Charles Dexter Ward.
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Creative Director
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Question: What do you think of a system that allows a crafter to apply certain weapon special qualities that make sense to weapons, such as paying extra gold to apply the brace quality to a weapon that normally doesn't possess it?
I always thought it was weird that certain weapons which can clearly be finessable or braced or used as trip weapons in real life don't have the capacity to be granted those qualities in the game, even at a cost.
I think that having a method to add weapon special qualities to weapons that don't normally have the quality is an interesting idea... it's certainly something that could be a cool minor magic addition. It's also an interesting idea for a feat or class ability. I'm kinda not thinking that it's a good mundane addition to the weapons though, since that erodes a basic weapon's "niche."
I know I'm in kind of an odd rules area as I'm mixing templates, but I have a question regardless.
The Undead Lord Template (Tomb of Horrors Complete) and the Graveknight template (Bestiary 3) are what I'm using. The Undead Lord gives the Create Spawn ability and spawns undead of the same type as the base creature. The base creature, in this case, is a Graveknight. Does that mean the Undead Lord Graveknight can create other Graveknights, or should I swap that out for a different type of undead?
If you recommend swapping them out, do you think I should use Skeletal Champions/Zombie Lords as alternatives? Or just go with regular Skeletons/Zombies?
The Lunar Naga in its illustration in Bestiary 3 as well as the ones i found on the blog have a much different shape than all other naga, in that they have a humanoid (albeit still armless) torso rather than an all-snake body with only a humanoid head.
Was this intended by the design team, or did the illustrator's preference lay into that?
