>>Ask *Mark Seifter* All Your Questions Here!<<


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Welcome Mark "Roge Eidolon" Seifter to the boards as Paizo's latest designer!

Mark, be careful what you wish for!

I'll start!

Mark, when you're not designing or playing RPGs, what do you do for fun and excitement?


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Well that was fast


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Great idea.

"Rogue Eidolon"

Designer

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Haladir wrote:

Welcome Mark "Roge Eidolon" Seifter to the boards as Paizo's latest designer!

Mark, be careful what you wish for!

I'll start!

Mark, when you're not designing or playing RPGs, what do you do for fun and excitement?

Most days I just hang out with friends, play board games, read, or watch TV. Rarely though, I will go on crazy trips, like the one in my blog picture. In those cases, I prefer visiting locations with rich historical sites rather than those only known for animals or natural beauty.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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Okay, I have to ask: what is the connection between between the name "rogue eidolon" and a picture of merfolk cleavage?

Designer

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Jiggy wrote:
Okay, I have to ask: what is the connection between between the name "rogue eidolon" and a picture of merfolk cleavage?

It's actually Lolth, apparently. When I picked the avatar, it wasn't clear who the heck it was (hadn't implemented the feature that tells you) and it was the only glowy blue looking thing I could find in my first hour of searching. When I found out it was Lolth and not some weird blue glowy person, I considered switching, but I had seen enough confusion when people who were recognized for their avatars switched that I decided to just go with it.

Silver Crusade

Woo! Thanks for setting this up, Haladir.

@Mark:

1. Do you maintain a personal "this might need an FAQ" list, or do you just rely on the messageboard flagging system?

2. If you do maintain a list of your own (and I believe you've stated elsewhere that you do), how many items are currently on that list?

Non-rules:

A. How do you like living in Seattle so far? Right now, as a newcomer, how does the city compare to Cambridge in your opinion?

B. Do you expect that you will continue to participate in PFS on a regular basis?

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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I remember seeing you talk like you were a dude, and wondering why you picked waterboobs for your avatar. But now I know! :)

Scarab Sages

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Would you be up for chipotle in about half an hour?
(Couldn't resist ^_^)

Designer

Joe M. wrote:

Woo! Thanks for setting this up, Haladir.

@Mark:

1. Do you maintain a personal "this might need an FAQ" list, or do you just rely on the messageboard flagging system?

2. If you do maintain a list of your own (and I believe you've stated elsewhere that you do), how many items are currently on that list?

Non-rules:

A. How do you like living in Seattle so far? Right now, as a newcomer, how does the city compare to Cambridge in your opinion?

B. Do you expect that you will continue to participate in PFS on a regular basis?

1&2) I have my own list, and only that for now. Some day soon I will also have messageboard flagging system. I have on the order of 50 items on my list right now, but realistically less than that number fall under the purview of the Pathfinder RPG Rules line, which are the most likely by far to be FAQable.

A) Redmond is really nice. It's more naturey, I suppose, and the random people on the streets seem nicer than in Cambridge.

B) If so, then not for a while (not counting teleconferenced home games, of which I've played 2 PFS scenarios since moving here). I generally want to play at Linda's table, and our list of scenarios played already is massive. Both of us can't GM the same table, so unless the local PFS bent over backwards to only offer the ones we can play, it's rarely going to match up until more scenarios start to appear. Add to that our home games on Saturday and Paizo's standard 10-6ish hours on weekdays and its basically Sunday or bust.

Designer

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Jiggy wrote:
I remember seeing you talk like you were a dude, and wondering why you picked waterboobs for your avatar. But now I know! :)

Yup, not really any intelligent design there. Just a hasty decision followed by inertia.

Also! It's spiderboobs, it seems, not waterboobs. Get your blue glowy boobs right!

Follow-up: Are all people named Jacob really dragons with scrolls in disguise as humans?

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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Mark Seifter wrote:
Follow-up: Are all people named Jacob really dragons with scrolls in disguise as humans?

Did you forget what thread you're in? You get to ANSWER questions, not ASK them!

Designer

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Jiggy wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Follow-up: Are all people named Jacob really dragons with scrolls in disguise as humans?
Did you forget what thread you're in? You get to ANSWER questions, not ASK them!

Looks up to the title.

[tongue in cheek]Clearly, by rules as written, the thread is only guaranteed to have people asking me all their questions but not guaranteed to have answers. After all, it isn't called "Mark Seifter Answers All Your Questions Here." Having me answer your questions would be a fine houserule though.[/tongue in cheek]

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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Ah, but now you're moving the goalposts - how did we go from YOU trying to ask ME a question, to talking about whether or not you're required to answer questions asked of you?

;)


Since this is in the off-topic forum I'm not quite sure if this is a place to ask informal rules questions or just general craziness, so I'll offer a bit of both!

How does spells with a 10-ft radius emanation (such as Antimagic Field) work with large casters? For example a gargantuan red dragon has larger footprint than the antimagic effect.

What's on your Netflix watch list?

Designer

I'm happy to answer rules questions, but they're just my off the cuff answers, especially since they're here in the Off-Topic forum.

AMF: The effect should emanate out 10 feet from each corner of a large or larger creature; the AMF is not inside the dragon's belly

Netflix: That's like a queue of things you want to watch next on Netflix, right? I have no such queue at the moment. Usually when I watch something, it's spontaneous or on someone's recommendation, rather than preplanned on a list by me.

Silver Crusade

Feel like I've seen discussion of this somewhere, figure you'd be aware of it!

Lunge:

PRD wrote:
Benefit: You can increase the reach of your melee attacks by 5 feet until the end of your turn by taking a –2 penalty to your AC until your next turn. You must decide to use this ability before any attacks are made.

Does Lunge increase my threatened area and allow me to take AOOs into spaces 10 ft away, or is it "active only not reactive"—I lunge out to 10 ft on my turn with my attacks, but don't threaten those squares when I'm done.

The natural reading seems to be the former (increased reach and threatened area) but I could swear I'd seen a pretty solid statement that it was the latter, and I can't find that now...

EDIT: d'oh! Disregard, I see the obvious now—until the end of your turn. :-)


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Mark Seifter wrote:
Netflix: That's like a queue of things you want to watch next on Netflix, right?

Yup! The netflix list is handy for things you want to "save for later" - when you browse their shows and movies and think "I really want to see that, but maybe not right now".

You've worked at Paizo for two(?) weeks now - how has the experience been? Were there flowers and muffin baskets waiting on your desk when you first stepped into your shiny new office?

...Did you get an office?

...Did you get a desk?

Designer

Joe M. wrote:

Feel like I've seen discussion of this somewhere, figure you'd be aware of it!

Lunge:

PRD wrote:
Benefit: You can increase the reach of your melee attacks by 5 feet until the end of your turn by taking a –2 penalty to your AC until your next turn. You must decide to use this ability before any attacks are made.

Does Lunge increase my threatened area and allow me to take AOOs into spaces 10 ft away, or is it "active only not reactive"—I lunge out to 10 ft on my turn with my attacks, but don't threaten those squares when I'm done.

The natural reading seems to be the former (increased reach and threatened area) but I could swear I'd seen a pretty solid statement that it was the latter, and I can't find that now...

EDIT: d'oh! Disregard, I see the obvious now—until the end of your turn. :-)

Yeah, you got it. Now, it's possible for enemies to provoke on your own turn, in which case, it can help your AoOs.


What's your top 5 books and/or series'?


So besides the job at Pazio what else did you get for selling your soul?
;)

Designer

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Kudaku wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Netflix: That's like a queue of things you want to watch next on Netflix, right?

Yup! The netflix list is handy for things you want to "save for later" - when you browse their shows and movies and think "I really want to see that, but maybe not right now".

You've worked at Paizo for two(?) weeks now - how has the experience been? Were there flowers and muffin baskets waiting on your desk when you first stepped into your shiny new office?

...Did you get an office?

...Did you get a desk?

No flowers or muffins, but I did have a desk with a computer in the office with the design team!

Designer

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Rynjin wrote:
What's your top 5 books and/or series'?

When I was younger, I was pretty into the Wheel of Time, and I still look back fondly on those books. I enjoyed the thoroughness, the foreshadowing, and the many connections.

More recently, my little brother convinced me to read the Dresden Files. It wasn't an easy sell because I'm not really a fan of most urban fantasy, but Butcher won me over with his sense of humor and his fun take on the fey.

I guess that isn't five series, but each of those series is massive and full of many books.


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Two personal favorites of mine as well. Butcher's Codex Alera is really good too if you need something to read after.


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

Is Cosmo really an avatar of the Elder Gods?

Designer

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John Kretzer wrote:

So besides the job at Pazio what else did you get for selling your soul?

;)

This lousy t-shirt.


Salt?

Liberty's Edge

Starfinder Superscriber

Here's something that maybe is written up somewhere that I just haven't found.

When writing a statblock, is there an algorithm for figuring out what goes under "Special Attacks", what goes under "SQ", and so forth? I know that some things explicitly specify it. But, for instance, when listing all the mythic abilities of a character, there are a whole bunch of things that could reasonably go a few different places.

I realize this doesn't matter all that much, as long as one finds what one's looking for. But, just in case one wanted to be anal and follow the spec, what is the spec?

Designer

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Evan Tarlton wrote:
Is Cosmo really an avatar of the Elder Gods?

Honestly, I don't usually go over that far on that floor...but when I do, I bring an elder sign.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

I'll start off with an easy one!

Can a multiclassed Cleric-Wizard spontaneously heal with his wizard spell slots?

If necessary, here's a thread on the subject.


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What was your reaction when you received word that you got the Designer job?

What was your wife's reaction?

Were you allowed to tell your friends/family in the area or did you have to keep it under wraps. Kind of a, "I can't tell you if I did or didn't get the job, but I can tell you I'm moving to Seattle" kind of thing?

Designer

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rknop wrote:

Here's something that maybe is written up somewhere that I just haven't found.

When writing a statblock, is there an algorithm for figuring out what goes under "Special Attacks", what goes under "SQ", and so forth? I know that some things explicitly specify it. But, for instance, when listing all the mythic abilities of a character, there are a whole bunch of things that could reasonably go a few different places.

I realize this doesn't matter all that much, as long as one finds what one's looking for. But, just in case one wanted to be anal and follow the spec, what is the spec?

An excellent question and one I will investigate, since it's bound to help me too. For now, my extremely random guess is that even things that aren't "attacks" but need to be activated like rage go in Special Attacks.

Designer

Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan wrote:

I'll start off with an easy one!

Can a multiclassed Cleric-Wizard spontaneously heal with his wizard spell slots?

If necessary, here's a thread on the subject.

Remembering that this is just my off-the-cuff answer, so it isn't official--it's just how I'd run it in my games until a FAQ:

I would say No. Based on the definition of spontaneous casting, you shouldn't be able to spontaneously convert cures from your wizard slots any more than a wizard/oracle could spontaneously cast oracle spells from wizard slots (without the mystic theurge ability combined spells).

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

gtg, thanks Mark, I'll go back to that thread and let them know we got an official developer ruling on the subject!

Designer

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Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan wrote:
gtg, thanks Mark, I'll go back to that thread and let them know we got an official developer ruling on the subject!

Please don't do that--there is no official designer ruling on the subject. As I said two posts ago, that isn't official. It's my personal opinion as a GM.


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Just a reminder, those types of questions were what caused Jason to throw up "All Your NON-RULES Questions" in his thread title :)


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What has been your favorite restaurant so far in Redmond, and Seattle at large?

Designer

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Cheapy wrote:
Just a reminder, those types of questions were what caused Jason to throw up "All Your NON-RULES Questions" in his thread title :)

I am actually happy to give my take on rules questions. But I've mentioned several times before that it's always just my opinion and holds no official weight. I will have to consider revoking my decision to weigh in if people claim these answers as official when they are not, so I'll be watching carefully. If you want more rules answers here, please don't go elsewhere and claim it's official.

Dark Archive

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What are your thoughts on when [REDACTED] is used with [REDACTED] by a [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in Katapesh?

;)

On an unrelated note, how're y'all settling in?

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Mark Seifter wrote:
Cheapy wrote:
Just a reminder, those types of questions were what caused Jason to throw up "All Your NON-RULES Questions" in his thread title :)
I am actually happy to give my take on rules questions. But I've mentioned several times before that it's always just my opinion and holds no official weight. I will have to consider revoking my decision to weigh in if people claim these answers as official when they are not, so I'll be watching carefully. If you want more rules answers here, please don't go elsewhere and claim it's official.

Text is clearly an imperfect method for communicating sarcasm, and thus my apologies. I did see in your post that we shouldn't consider your responses as official. SKR made similar claims as well. Authoratative maybe, but not official, until they're out in a FAQ.

Really, I understand!


Tels wrote:

What was your reaction when you received word that you got the Designer job?

What was your wife's reaction?

Were you allowed to tell your friends/family in the area or did you have to keep it under wraps. Kind of a, "I can't tell you if I did or didn't get the job, but I can tell you I'm moving to Seattle" kind of thing?

Designer

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Tels wrote:

What was your reaction when you received word that you got the Designer job?

What was your wife's reaction?

Were you allowed to tell your friends/family in the area or did you have to keep it under wraps. Kind of a, "I can't tell you if I did or didn't get the job, but I can tell you I'm moving to Seattle" kind of thing?

Yep--headed down that way next!

I was extremely excited. I had initially considered that the designer job would go to someone who had a bigger name than mine in the industry, but after the interview, I really thought I stood a chance. Even so, I was totally nervous until the phone call (note--I am weird and get nervous after things like interviews, when there is no longer anything in my power to do, rather than during). As to nondisclosure, I did have to keep things under wraps. You may notice some amusing posts of mine during this intervening time though, like the little joking exchange between myself and Vic in the last design post is really old thread.


Alright, enough of the easy ones, here's a hard question. =p

So, in your unofficial opinion...what constitutes wielding? It seems pretty inconsistent in the rules (alternately being holding, or actively using it seems like).

Designer

Cheapy wrote:
What has been your favorite restaurant so far in Redmond, and Seattle at large?

I honestly haven't gone out to eat very often. Restaurants are a bit of a commute from here. What I had was not bad cuisine but probably also not something I would be endorsing to others. But if anyone here has any suggestions, I'm certainly listening!

Designer

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Justin Sluder wrote:

What are your thoughts on when [REDACTED] is used with [REDACTED] by a [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in Katapesh?

;)

On an unrelated note, how're y'all settling in?

The problem is when you do that with a [REDACTED] [REDACTED], you're going to wind up drawing an aluum's attention. You'll want to swipe a charm of aluum control from a local Zephyr Guard.

We're settling in well. Mostly got all the boxes unpacked, so the place is looking more like a home these days.


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Mark Seifter wrote:
Justin Sluder wrote:

What are your thoughts on when [REDACTED] is used with [REDACTED] by a [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in Katapesh?

;)

On an unrelated note, how're y'all settling in?

The problem is when you do that with a [REDACTED] [REDACTED]...

Isn't that illegal pretty much anywhere? With the possible exception of Nidal?


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Mark, what's best in life?


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Kajehase wrote:
Mark, what's best in life?

Answer.

Designer

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Rynjin wrote:

Alright, enough of the easy ones, here's a hard question. =p

So, in your unofficial opinion...what constitutes wielding? It seems pretty inconsistent in the rules (alternately being holding, or actively using it seems like).

Unofficially, there's just so many examples that do weird things either way that it leads me to suspect that there were a bunch of ability writers who held each view, all while thinking that everyone held the same view and using "wield" to mean their own view. This leads me in my home games to define it on a case-by-case basis. Does it let you trade out something that only matters if you use it but important if you use it for something extremely good? Then it probably means use. Does it give you a passive benefit that would be useless if it only worked when you used it? Then it probably means hold in hand.

Unfortunately, this is a messy way to do it when it comes to a FAQ, so I don't suspect it will be FAQed that way, but I think in your own games that it leads to the most harmonious results.

Designer

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Orthos wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Justin Sluder wrote:

What are your thoughts on when [REDACTED] is used with [REDACTED] by a [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in Katapesh?

;)

On an unrelated note, how're y'all settling in?

The problem is when you do that with a [REDACTED] [REDACTED]...
Isn't that illegal pretty much anywhere? With the possible exception of Nidal?

What happens in Nisroch...stays in Nisroch.

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