Are things and people in Pathfinder made out of real-world atoms?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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Ventnor wrote:

I'm of the opinion that there are 4 main subatomic particles in the pathfinder universe: good, evil, law, and chaos. They're mixed fairly evenly in most mortals, but outsiders are composed heavily of one or two kinds of said particles (except for Aeons, because they're weird like that).

If alignment is objective in the Pathfinder universe, it would make sense that it was baked into the very building blocks that make up everything.

If particles of evil were several orders of magnitude more massive than particles of good, this would certainly explain the ease of falling into wickedness compared to the difficulty of ascending to goodness...

The model might be amended to include very light particles of neutrality. Neutralinos, if you will.


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Dang it.

XD


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Scientific Scrutiny wrote:
Neutralinos, if you will.

The Neutralinos...HAVE MUTATED!

AND THEY ARE SHAKING UP THE ALIGNMENT CHART!


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Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Scientific Scrutiny wrote:
Neutralinos, if you will.

Relevant


I wonder what happens if you split a Good atom? Or an Evil atom?


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They become free-floating Semigood and Semievil atoms, which seek out other Semiatoms to bond with. If they find Good or Evil, respectively, they return to being simple Good or Evil atoms. If they bind with Semilawful or Semichaos atoms, they become Lawfulgood, Chaoticgood (etc.), and if they bond with their opposites, they become Neutralos.


Hmmm... Holy atomic bomb....


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Ciaran Barnes wrote:
The Chemist Inquisition wrote:
If it were made out of real-world atoms, we would expect there to be 118 different kinds of elementals. And that's assuming no wizard managed to reach the valley of beta stability.
While that would be amusing, the elements present in RPGs are inspired more by the classical "elements" that those of real world chemistry. I'd love to know what special powers a potassium elemental has.

To heck with that, I want my Titanium and Chlorine elementals.


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Snowlilly wrote:
To heck with that, I want my Titanium and Chlorine elementals.

Oooo, what if there were Neon elementals that illuminate a 5-foot area for each die of electricity damage they would have taken? Imagine if they were summoned and bound into signs for businesses? It would be like... having a neon sign. That sounds way easier than discovering neon gas and... making a neon sign.


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*Summons 1d3 ⇒ 3 uranium elementals.*

Oh crap! Critical ma—


Earth exists in Pathfinder, we go there in Reign of Winter. Assuming that this is in fact our Earth and our version of events that we remember just conveniently leave out the exploits of the heroes from another world, then everything on Golarion must be made of atoms.


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I am the honest king of the xenon elementals. I am a noble noble noble elemental.


JDPhipps wrote:
Earth exists in Pathfinder, we go there in Reign of Winter. Assuming that this is in fact our Earth and our version of events that we remember just conveniently leave out the exploits of the heroes from another world, then everything on Golarion must be made of atoms.

Or we Earthlings are actually the ones kidding ourselves and not understanding how real physics work?


"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." -Richard Fenyman (probably)


Purple Overkill wrote:
JDPhipps wrote:
Earth exists in Pathfinder, we go there in Reign of Winter. Assuming that this is in fact our Earth and our version of events that we remember just conveniently leave out the exploits of the heroes from another world, then everything on Golarion must be made of atoms.
Or we Earthlings are actually the ones kidding ourselves and not understanding how real physics work?

I think it's pretty clear that if Golarion exists in our world, that we don't have any real idea how physics (or anything else) works.


thejeff wrote:
Purple Overkill wrote:
JDPhipps wrote:
Earth exists in Pathfinder, we go there in Reign of Winter. Assuming that this is in fact our Earth and our version of events that we remember just conveniently leave out the exploits of the heroes from another world, then everything on Golarion must be made of atoms.
Or we Earthlings are actually the ones kidding ourselves and not understanding how real physics work?
I think it's pretty clear that if Golarion exists in our world, that we don't have any real idea how physics (or anything else) works.

That's not true! we can read the PF rulebooks!


Pizza Lord wrote:
Snowlilly wrote:
To heck with that, I want my Titanium and Chlorine elementals.
Oooo, what if there were Neon elementals that illuminate a 5-foot area for each die of electricity damage they would have taken? Imagine if they were summoned and bound into signs for businesses? It would be like... having a neon sign. That sounds way easier than discovering neon gas and... making a neon sign.

Titanium Elemental.


I'm enjoying the convo, but in an attempt at helpfulness...

What I'm doing for my game set in Varisia (a frontier of Golarion's Inner Sea region) is to look at what RL European & American advances we had in science, industry, and philosophy by the end of the 18th century. I've said that the heights of RL development before 1800 are available somewhere in the Inner Sea, as well. Now just who made the advance (Taldans, dwarves, elves, wizards, clerics of some deity, or others) depends on just what it is. And then, of course, I have to figure out if it would have spread to Varisia, the area of my game.

(I picked the 1700s from running Jade Regent, after I had the shock mid-session of discovering that Varisians use stoves without blinking. That takes a lot of metallurgy!)

This is still helpful for me, because I can eliminate advances that took us in RL until 1800 or later -- unless, of course, it's easier in a world rife with magic. For instance, I have a much easier time believing that 1800's work in electricity has been accomplished than the ability to separate very minor components out of air, given that a highly scholarly group like wizards can cast Shock Shield & Lightning Bolt repeatedly but not a "Disintegrate Element." (And you know they'd have come up with that spell if they knew what elements were!)

This gives me an admittedly slightly fuzzy line for saying yea or nay to inventive players. But better than nothing!

For the OP: neon wasn't isolated RL until 1898, I read here. And there's no references to anything but the classical elements like "Air" in our spells. {Clarification: when it comes to isolating or manipulating neon...} NAY!

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