RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
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You might want to reconsider the cloak's name... Darnassus is kind of "taken" in the mind of a rather large section of the gaming populace, I'd wager
The high cost on Thirst is definitely warranted. Wow, what a nasty piece of work. I'm leaning towards making it a minor artifact.
You might want to reconsider the cloak's name... Darnassus is kind of "taken" in the mind of a rather large section of the gaming populace, I'd wager
Darnassus really is an odd choice.
You might want to reconsider the cloak's name... Darnassus is kind of "taken" in the mind of a rather large section of the gaming populace, I'd wagerDarnassus really is an odd choice.
Not as odd a choice as any other part of it. But let's not get into that.
And who cares what cities are called in Warcraft.
Well, its about as odd as calling your your spaceship in the Star Trek RPG the USS Barad-dûr. Either you do it deliberately as an in-joke, or you'll meet raised eyebrows and confused looks quite frequently when talking about it.
Not being a Warcraft junkie, Darnassus sounds Arabic or Greek. Like Damascus or Parnassus. Hell, I played WoW for a little as a Night Elf and had no damn idea the city was called Darnassus.
Your comparison is false. Warcraft is a completely different RPG rift from D&D. Barad-dur is part of the founding mythology of all the current fantasy games. Not that most Warcraft junkies would know it. Besides, it's not like the name is "Pandaren" the huge panda race in-joke from Warcraft.
Ok, the cloak just bothers me. Maybe it's because I'm not familiar with intelligent items. Are they all that confounding?
Your comparison is false. Warcraft is a completely different RPG rift from D&D. Barad-dur is part of the founding mythology of all the current fantasy games. Not that most Warcraft junkies would know it. Besides, it's not like the name is "Pandaren" the huge panda race in-joke from Warcraft.
I think you underestimate the popularity of WoW. Darnassus has become one of the best known names in the fantasy genre. I think more people could tell you what Darnassus is than what Barad-dur is.
Anyway, it´s just a cloak. :)
Your comparison is false. Warcraft is a completely different RPG rift from D&D. Barad-dur is part of the founding mythology of all the current fantasy games. Not that most Warcraft junkies would know it. Besides, it's not like the name is "Pandaren" the huge panda race in-joke from Warcraft.
I think you underestimate the popularity of WoW. Darnassus has become one of the best known names in the fantasy genre. I think more people could tell you what Darnassus is than what Barad-dur is.
Anyway, it´s just a cloak. :)
I've never heard of Darnassus before this point in time. And I don't underestimate the popularity of Warcraft, I'm saying it has jack all to do with D&D because they are down different paths. Both paths of which descend from Lord of the Rings. Barad-dur is an in-joke in any high fantasy game. Darnassus is only one for Warcraft fan boys.
And the cloak still gives me a headache sans the name. I suppose the worst point of all is how they JUST introduced a new drawback in the last post "Uncaring" then DIRECTLY contradicted how it worked for the first item that has it. For some reason this cloak only has a -1 ego for Uncaring - for the EXACT same reason that the Uncaring drawback in general has a -3 ego. I don't understand the difference between Darnassus Uncaring and basic Uncaring.
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I think you underestimate the popularity of WoW. Darnassus has become one of the best known names in the fantasy genre. I think more people could tell you what Darnassus is than what Barad-dur is.
What the hell's Barad-dur? It's been a while. Some kind of dorf fort?
Also, so toying with the idea of dropping Thirst somewhere in our side game. :3
I think you underestimate the popularity of WoW. Darnassus has become one of the best known names in the fantasy genre. I think more people could tell you what Darnassus is than what Barad-dur is.
While I can tell you what both are, I would like Darnassus as an item name better if it meant something other than the Night Elf capital city... as far as I can tell, the word Darnassus is purely Blizzard's creation, and mutliple web searches failed to provide any other uses. Heck, even 'Stormwind' is the name of a fallacy as well as a capital city, and is a bog-standard compound word.
I think you underestimate the popularity of WoW. Darnassus has become one of the best known names in the fantasy genre. I think more people could tell you what Darnassus is than what Barad-dur is.
While I can tell you what both are, I would like Darnassus as an item name better if it meant something other than the Night Elf capital city... as far as I can tell, the word Darnassus is purely Blizzard's creation, and mutliple web searches failed to provide any other uses. Heck, even 'Stormwind' is the name of a fallacy as well as a capital city, and is a bog-standard compound word.
*psst* I am pretty sure the "Stormwind fallacy" is named because of the city in Warcraft.
EDIT: In some indirect way at least.
I had to google it to find out - Sindarin for "Dark Tower."
And I only learned by reading this thread exactly what Darnassus was. I don't play WoW and doubt I ever will.
*psst* I am pretty sure the "Stormwind fallacy" is named because of the city in Warcraft.EDIT: In some indirect way at least.
My understanding is that the fallacy is named after Tempest Stormwind... and I would hesitate to say that his name is 'from' Warcraft, simply because the name is such a common trope, and I believe Tempest Stormwind has been on the net longer than WoW has been in existence (but not necessarily longer than Stormwind has been a Warcraft city)
My understanding is that the fallacy is named after Tempest Stormwind... and I would hesitate to say that his name is 'from' Warcraft, simply because the name is such a common trope, and I believe Tempest Stormwind has been on the net longer than WoW has been in existence (but not necessarily longer than Storwmind has been a Warcraft city)
*psst* I am pretty sure the "Stormwind fallacy" is named because of the city in Warcraft.EDIT: In some indirect way at least.
That's probably right then.
The naming debates, really don't matter. What's in a name, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
How about some discussion of how to CREATE intelligent items. I would love to be able to create intelligent items for one of my item crafters. He is a bit crazy and talks to objects anyway.
I think you want Part 2. Unless you mean create as in "craft" then that's probably sketchy because I don't necessarily think you are supposed to be able to make intelligent items. It's always some one else that made them in the past.
You might want to reconsider the cloak's name... Darnassus is kind of "taken" in the mind of a rather large section of the gaming populace, I'd wager
Ok... sad I had to look it up.. but yeah, I'd heard the name too.
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I think you underestimate the popularity of WoW. Darnassus has become one of the best known names in the fantasy genre. I think more people could tell you what Darnassus is than what Barad-dur is.
What the hell's Barad-dur? It's been a while. Some kind of dorf fort?
Also, so toying with the idea of dropping Thirst somewhere in our side game. :3
Barad-dur is from the Lord of the Rings.
Oh, and I don't know if I neccessarily agree with the comment "Darnassus has become one of the best known names in the fantasy genre. I think more people could tell you what Darnassus is than what Barad-dur is."
I certainly had never heard of Darnassus before in my life and I don't think I know more than 1 or 2 people that play World of Warcraft.
I know a LOT of people that have read the Lord of the Rings though.
I guess much depends on your own personal experience.
I think you underestimate the popularity of WoW. Darnassus has become one of the best known names in the fantasy genre. I think more people could tell you what Darnassus is than what Barad-dur is.
What the hell's Barad-dur? It's been a while. Some kind of dorf fort?
Also, so toying with the idea of dropping Thirst somewhere in our side game. :3
:D I highly recommend cracking open the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien if you wish to know what Barad-dur is. (with a hat over the u)
Unless you are joking, in which case, ignore this. Nothing to see here. Carry on as you were.\edit: Ninja'd by Marc and by the boss who chose to walk in as I was attempting to type the previous.
Creative Director
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Hmmm... yeah. Darnassus is not an appropriate name for this item. I'll see about getting it changed to something else. (Actually noticed it late last night when I had no powers to fix it and said to myself... I bet the FIRST blog post calls us out on that—thanks for not disappointing me!) :-)
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Creative Director
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You might want to reconsider the cloak's name... Darnassus is kind of "taken" in the mind of a rather large section of the gaming populace, I'd wagerDarnassus really is an odd choice.Not as odd a choice as any other part of it. But let's not get into that.
And who cares what cities are called in Warcraft.
The Creative Director does, as it turns out. Not only because he's not interested in taunting other companies into legal action against Paizo by poaching their very-well-known intellectual property (even if it is "just a name"), but because part of my job is to make sure that the "flavor" of Golarion and the rules is up to our standards. This one slipped through the cracks, but in my mind its just as silly and inappropriate had we named the cloak "Seattle" or "America" or "Middle Earth."
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Creative Director
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And as an aside... this is a delightful example of parallel development. It happens a lot, in fact. Even down to people coming up with the same made-up name.
Back in the Dungeon days, it was weird to see this in action. For example, one week we might get five adventure proposals from five different people all about humanoid bugs looking to assimilate a desert village and make them into insect slaves.
There's something to be said for the idea of a collective unconsciousness, perhaps?
The Creative Director does, as it turns out. Not only because he's not interested in taunting other companies into legal action against Paizo by poaching their very-well-known intellectual property (even if it is "just a name"), but because part of my job is to make sure that the "flavor" of Golarion and the rules is up to our standards. This one slipped through the cracks, but in my mind its just as silly and inappropriate had we named the cloak "Seattle" or "America" or "Middle Earth."You might want to reconsider the cloak's name... Darnassus is kind of "taken" in the mind of a rather large section of the gaming populace, I'd wagerDarnassus really is an odd choice.Not as odd a choice as any other part of it. But let's not get into that.
And who cares what cities are called in Warcraft.
The statement stands by itself in that, were there not any legal implications, who cares? Darnassus, other than being a non angl-saxxon sounding proper noun, isn't any weirder or obviously taken from any other fantasy genre than anything else. I already pointed out how it sounded Greek or Arabic.
Your latter argument against doing it just doesn't make any sense. You will probably be hard pressed to never name an item something that no one ever named something else. Both America and Seattle were named for people.
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Creative Director
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Your latter argument against doing it just doesn't make any sense. You will probably be hard pressed to never name an item something that no one ever named something else. Both America and Seattle were named for people.
I don't know what to say to that, honestly. Actually, that's a lie... I know exactly what to say.
A big part of my job is making sure that the "flavor" elements of everything we do is up to standards. If someone names a high level evil wizard in their adventure something like "Spot" or "Pickle Tickle," my job is to make sure that gets changed to something that fits in with the theme of the world. Likewise, it's not cool to name things in Golarion after famous other things in other fantasy worlds. If the author named his evil wizard "King Arthur" or "Sauron" or "Darth Vader," that'd get changed as well.
Because when I don't do that, or when things slip through the cracks, the whole point of the content is lost or distracted. Witness this thread: Instead of talking about the items, there's a lot of noise about the name "Darnassus." That in and of itself is SOLID proof as to why I should care about things like this.
Honestly, it sounds like you're (once again) arguing with me just to argue. And I feel kind of annoyed that I got roped into it again.
Anyway... let's drop the subject. This is not the correct place to get into this coversation. Let's get things turned back on the topic of talking about the post's ACTUAL content. I'll be deleting off-topic posts from here on out—if you want to talk about Paizo's policy of naming things, start up a new thread.
Since we aren't going to talk about how making non anglosaxon names doesn't guarantee, necessarily, a unique result, can I get an explanation of why the Lord's Cloak only has a -1 to its ego from Uncaring compared to a -3 for the base Uncaring presented in the last blog despite no difference I can discern?
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Director of Games
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So, a few notes
The name is being changed as we speak. End of topic, sorry for the mix up. I happened to invent the same name as something else and did not have time to run the blog past anyone else who would have caught it. My bad.
Second, this is not necessarily a new format for intelligent items. I am just playing around with some more interesting ways of presenting the information.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
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Director of Games
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Can I get an explanation of why the Lord's Cloak only has a -1 to its ego from Uncaring compared to a -3 for the base Uncaring presented in the last blog despite no difference I can discern?
Because it is not going to come into play that often when worn by most PCs, who by there very nature the cloak is going to consider bound for greatness. Of course, this is subject to your campaign so you might want to change it back to a -2 or even -3.
These rules are a bit flexible. Just playing around with concepts.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
Can I get an explanation of why the Lord's Cloak only has a -1 to its ego from Uncaring compared to a -3 for the base Uncaring presented in the last blog despite no difference I can discern?Because it is not going to come into play that often when worn by most PCs, who by there very nature the cloak is going to consider bound for greatness. Of course, this is subject to your campaign so you might want to change it back to a -2 or even -3.
These rules are a bit flexible. Just playing around with concepts.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
Yes, but that doesn't sound any different than how Uncaring works anyway. The item only functions for people who do things to further the item's goals - for instance, this cloak has delusions that people care about great people's cloaks - but it only occurs as a -1 for this particular item?
I mean, I don't understand the difference between why the two are different. Shall Uncaring be -X instead (subject to DM arbitration)?
I for one love these two items in this blog post. I love the concepts and am VERY glad you decided to post them for us all to read and make use of if we so choose. In fact I have an idea for that very sword, so if any of my players are reading this, find a way to wipe your memory! It fits wonderfully into the hands of a needed villain in my campaign some time way in the future. I plan to SHAMELESSLY steal it. Thanks very much! You guys don't get enough thanks for all the grief you get.
P.S. I'd tell you to not listen to the nay-sayers, but I suppose you have to. Fortunately, I don't! :D
I'm also confused why Thirst only bestows negative levels on a coup de grace? Because that is especially evil or because PCs generally won't be doing that a lot?
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Director of Games
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Yes, but that doesn't sound any different than how Uncaring works anyway. The item only functions for people who do things to further the item's goals - for instance, this cloak has delusions that people care about great people's cloaks - but it only occurs as a -1 for this particular item?
I mean, I don't understand the difference between why the two are different. Shall Uncaring be -X instead (subject to DM arbitration)?
This is true. In retrospect, the circumstances by which the item cares should probably be taken into account, meaning that -X might be more appropriate, between 1 and 3. I will keep this in mind should these rules find their way into a book.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
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Director of Games
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I'm also confused why Thirst only bestows negative levels on a coup de grace? Because that is especially evil or because PCs generally won't be doing that a lot?
Because it is a more rare mechanic that will generally only get used by evil characters or when the sword is in control. If it was tied to every time you kill a creature or some more common mechanic, then it would turn you a bit too quickly. Hmm, it could be tied to the enervation ability, but I think that might also make it happen a bit too quickly to serve as a story device.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
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Director of Games
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I for one love these two items in this blog post. I love the concepts and am VERY glad you decided to post them for us all to read and make use of if we so choose. In fact I have an idea for that very sword, so if any of my players are reading this, find a way to wipe your memory! It fits wonderfully into the hands of a needed villain in my campaign some time way in the future. I plan to SHAMELESSLY steal it. Thanks very much! You guys don't get enough thanks for all the grief you get.
P.S. I'd tell you to not listen to the nay-sayers, but I suppose you have to. Fortunately, I don't! :D
By all means, steal all you like. That is half the point of this article series, to give you tools and tips to use in your game.
Glad that you could use this bit.
Jason
I'm also confused why Thirst only bestows negative levels on a coup de grace? Because that is especially evil or because PCs generally won't be doing that a lot?Because it is a more rare mechanic that will generally only get used by evil characters or when the sword is in control. If it was tied to every time you kill a creature or some more common mechanic, then it would turn you a bit too quickly. Hmm, it could be tied to the enervation ability, but I think that might also make it happen a bit too quickly to serve as a story device.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
You could make it any time you kill a creature with critical hit, which I think technically includes coup de graces. That would be between only when coup de grace and on any kill.
I'm actually curious to find out the stats on the vampire that is currently wielding Thrist, bet he is one badass do.
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Actually, Players can make intelligent magic items.. Check out page 532 in the PF Core rulebook. Right column.
enjoy...
lol
This column gives no rules to modify the rules in making a magic item. Using it as the only guidelines it can be argued that a 3rd level wizard with disguise self and craft wondrous items can make an intelligent hat of disguise with the special purpose dedicated power, item can use true resurrection on wielder once per month, only needing a 6 on the spellcraft check to make it, if he had the money.
What caster level would you use to set the DC? What spell can you use to give an item life (raise dead, reincarnate, clone, others)? Are there any other rules?
In no way do I think this should be done before 10th level
Thirst bestows a negative level, which means... it gains 5 temporary hit points.
I know the language isn't the same and it likely doesn't function that way, but I think it's kind of brilliant that the vampiric weapon could sap it's wielder's energy to heal itself.
Because it is a more rare mechanic that will generally only get used by evil characters or when the sword is in control.
Wait, what? Coup de grace is something only evil characters typically do?
I've got a party of good-aligned characters who had early experiences with regenerating creatures in the Catacombs of Wrath, and as a result routinely either coup de grace an opponent who's below 0 hp, or make a point of hacking bodies to pieces after combat.
I love this sword, BTW, and would gleefully plant it as is for a certain unwary Fighter to pick up -- but I know from experience he'd drop it as soon as the vicious quality manifested. It absolutely makes sense for Thirst to have that quality, but the player I have in mind won't be willing to take damage in order to deal it.
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Hey there Everybody,
As one of the few staff members who has never played WoW, let me assure you the name was a coincidence. I will get it changed once I am in the office.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
Thats retarded, don't change it. Who gives a crap about wow. Its not like you stole it, it has no connection to WOW in any way and i think crap like wow has stolen enough from us to warrant not being offended don't you think?
anyway nice items :)