Yes, or this could be an avatar of the big guy, so a much lesser CR monster in game then Mr Cthulhu himself in the flesh (sort of, and gelatinousby the way).
I think the game level for CC#2 will be about 4-6 level for PCs, so it just can't be the big guy himself ;)
Anyway, I've always had more fun in game to DM a cult looking to bring these back (with catastrophic results if the PCs do not stop them), than DMing the big guys themselves.
Joël
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That is actually exactly what Lovecraft spells out in several of his stories. Particularly in "At the Mountains of Madness.">.>
<.<well there can always be more Cthulu like beings out there... maybe a whole race of them....
Yay, star-spawn!
Something from the deep dark even the aboleth fear, maybe? :3 Dang uppity aboleth!
Wait... winter gear with LOTS of leg and cleavage showing?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
To rich... Now, just where is Valeros wearing nothing but a fullplate cod piece with fuzzy earmuffs for warmth?
Wait... winter gear with LOTS of leg and cleavage showing?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
To rich... Now, just where is Valeros wearing nothing but a fullplate cod piece with fuzzy earmuffs for warmth?
Well, above a certain level you really stop caring about the elements, thanks to a bevy of nifty spells that are out there. Certainly not a bad thing, I'd say :)
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Is that a star vampire in the ice?It's an Elder Thing, Matthew...
Go to Elder thing.
You know, as a fellow New Englander, that picture really brings home for me what Lovecraft was trying to evoke when he thought up the Elder Things. It's a space clam with wings and bananas on its head.
I have only one thing to say about this...
I
Want
It's
Stats!
Why!? Well, to make my players feel really epic and heroic when they take it down head on! Epic level glory and all! It's not fun unless, at some point, your characters can feel like a god...even if it's only for one battle. :D
Creative Director
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Wait... winter gear with LOTS of leg and cleavage showing?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
To rich... Now, just where is Valeros wearing nothing but a fullplate cod piece with fuzzy earmuffs for warmth?
Well... and I guess I can't point this out enough... endure elements lets you wander around in the winter naked if you want without much discomfort. It's a 1st level spell that lasts for 24 hours. It's fair to say Seoni and the Oracle both know that spell.
Which is handy because what you see is what we get when we ask artists to "have the Iconics wearing furs because it's cold."
A lot of artists like painting boobs, is what I'm saying.
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Creative Director
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I have only one thing to say about this...
I
Want
It's
Stats!Why!? Well, to make my players feel really epic and heroic when they take it down head on! Epic level glory and all! It's not fun unless, at some point, your characters can feel like a god...even if it's only for one battle. :D
Cthulhu has d20 stats in the d20 Call of Cthluhu game WotC put out several years ago.
He's CR 34.
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Wait... winter gear with LOTS of leg and cleavage showing?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
To rich... Now, just where is Valeros wearing nothing but a fullplate cod piece with fuzzy earmuffs for warmth?
Well... and I guess I can't point this out enough... endure elements lets you wander around in the winter naked if you want without much discomfort. It's a 1st level spell that lasts for 24 hours. It's fair to say Seoni and the Oracle both know that spell.
Which is handy because what you see is what we get when we ask artists to "have the Iconics wearing furs because it's cold."
A lot of artists like painting boobs, is what I'm saying.
It's the training.
To get good at drawing people you draw loads of nekkid folk, then when you're asked to draw people...
In a setting where there are spells like gate and interplanetary teleport... distance doesn't matter.If beings from other planes can influence events on Golarion, why wouldn't Cthulhu, Hastur, and Nyarlathotep do so as well.Well, how far away is Aldebaran from Golarion's solar system?
That also assumes a classical interperitation of the hastur mythos, which is frankly the less interesting approach. If paizo does stuff with Hastur, I would much prefer the hastur as nothing more than a name for the concept of entropy. Where understanding the implications of the laws of the universe itself are the damaging thing. See Delta Green countdown.
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Creative Director
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That also assumes a classical interperitation of the hastur mythos, which is frankly the less interesting approach. If paizo does stuff with Hastur, I would much prefer the hastur as nothing more than a name for the concept of entropy. Where understanding the implications of the laws of the universe itself are the damaging thing. See Delta Green countdown.
Hastur's role in Golarion is a mix of everything from Ambrose Bierce up to Lovecraft/Derleth, with a healthy dose of Robert Chambers thrown in. Basically... the same interpretation of Hastur in Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu game.
I like the way that Delta Green handled it... but nowhere NEAR as much as I like the idea of Hastur being a specific Great Old One. That incarnation of Hastur is also not really in the public domain as much as the stuff from Lovecraft, Chambers, and Bierce is as well... nor did we arrange with Pagan to hitch our star to their creative genius like we did with Chaosium.
Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth are already doing a fine role personifying the unknowability of the universe and entropy and all that. No need to roust Hastur into that as well, in my opinion.
That is one of the best pics of Cthulhu I've seen in a long time. I'd buy it if Paizo sold it as a poster. Don't know where I'd hang it up (they might take offense to it at work) but that is really a great pic. I hate it when artists depict Cthulhu as all emaciated looking.
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Wait... winter gear with LOTS of leg and cleavage showing?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
To rich... Now, just where is Valeros wearing nothing but a fullplate cod piece with fuzzy earmuffs for warmth?
Well... and I guess I can't point this out enough... endure elements lets you wander around in the winter naked if you want without much discomfort. It's a 1st level spell that lasts for 24 hours. It's fair to say Seoni and the Oracle both know that spell.
Which is handy because what you see is what we get when we ask artists to "have the Iconics wearing furs because it's cold."
A lot of artists like painting boobs, is what I'm saying.
I'm no artist, but I'll gladly paint boobs if asked.
What?
Just sayin...
That also assumes a classical interperitation of the hastur mythos, which is frankly the less interesting approach. If paizo does stuff with Hastur, I would much prefer the hastur as nothing more than a name for the concept of entropy. Where understanding the implications of the laws of the universe itself are the damaging thing. See Delta Green countdown.Hastur's role in Golarion is a mix of everything from Ambrose Bierce up to Lovecraft/Derleth, with a healthy dose of Robert Chambers thrown in. Basically... the same interpretation of Hastur in Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu game.
I like the way that Delta Green handled it... but nowhere NEAR as much as I like the idea of Hastur being a specific Great Old One. That incarnation of Hastur is also not really in the public domain as much as the stuff from Lovecraft, Chambers, and Bierce is as well... nor did we arrange with Pagan to hitch our star to their creative genius like we did with Chaosium.
Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth are already doing a fine role personifying the unknowability of the universe and entropy and all that. No need to roust Hastur into that as well, in my opinion.
Oh well. You can't win them all. Why is it that you find the big boneless giant/squid thing interesting. I mean sure the corruption through art and strange beauty shtick is cool, but beyond that why the preference? I don't really get it.
"In a structure hidden beneath the black waves, the PCs discover the agent of the Whispering Way betrayed, and a congregation of eldritch things readying to unleash its foul lord, Shub-Niggurath."
To be sure, my group will refer to him as "Shub-Niggarath." We're very progressive and hip.
I have only one thing to say about this...
I
Want
It's
Stats!Why!? Well, to make my players feel really epic and heroic when they take it down head on! Epic level glory and all! It's not fun unless, at some point, your characters can feel like a god...even if it's only for one battle. :D
Cthulhu has d20 stats in the d20 Call of Cthluhu game WotC put out several years ago.
He's CR 34.
Hmm, I'll have to check it out then. I can't remember if that's pre or post 3.5 Hope it's post, then the Pathfinder conversion would be easier for me
Cthulhu vs. Godzilla?
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Creative Director
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Hmm, I'll have to check it out then. I can't remember if that's pre or post 3.5 Hope it's post, then the Pathfinder conversion would be easier for meI have only one thing to say about this...
I
Want
It's
Stats!Why!? Well, to make my players feel really epic and heroic when they take it down head on! Epic level glory and all! It's not fun unless, at some point, your characters can feel like a god...even if it's only for one battle. :D
Cthulhu has d20 stats in the d20 Call of Cthluhu game WotC put out several years ago.
He's CR 34.
It's very much pre 3.5. It was actually WotC's first stab at using the d20 mechanic for anything other than D&D. They chose to team up with Chaosium to present a d20 version of Call of Cthulhu because that game is SO different than D&D, that if they could use the d20 rules to create a workable version of that game, that would prove how versatile the d20 rules were.
I never felt that the D20 CoC quite hit the right tone.
But then I really only bought it for ways to inflict Lovcraftian horror on my D&D players
Cthulhu is doomed. Everyone knows the Big C's main weakness is BOAT-FU... and what are pirates without their ships?
I never felt that the D20 CoC quite hit the right tone.
But then I really only bought it for ways to inflict Lovcraftian horror on my D&D players
Same here, honestly.
I suspect a LOT of gamers feel the same way.
What's great about that book, besides the Lovecraft elements, is that it has a lot of information on firearms, from the Lovecraft era to present. What I didn't like about the book was how they tried to convert over 3rd edition feats. For example, the 3rd edition feat, "Ride by Attack" became "Drive by Attack" in the book. How many times did you read about drive by shootings in Lovecraft? One of these days I'm going to actually run d20 CoC with a "Night of the Living Dead" theme.
"In a structure hidden beneath the black waves, the PCs discover the agent of the Whispering Way betrayed, and a congregation of eldritch things readying to unleash its foul lord, Shub-Niggurath."
To be sure, my group will refer to him as "Shub-Niggarath." We're very progressive and hip.
Isn't Shubbie a girl? Usually?
endure elements lets you wander around in the winter naked if you want without much discomfort. It's a 1st level spell that lasts for 24 hours. It's fair to say Seoni and the Oracle both know that spell.
I like this idea of the iconics being these vain people that just walk around blowing money on scrolls of endure elements (at lower levels when they need those 4 level 1 slots) and thus are forced to a life of crime where they kill people and steal their stuff simply to pay for their scrolls/wands of endure elements. I can just a scene where the goblins have surrendered and the wizard turns to the others and shakes his head "We're 3 copper short we need for our next wand of endure elements. If we kill them and take their smallclothes it'll push us over though."
Then again, I don't have a very positive attitude towards adventurers.
Isn't Shubbie a girl? Usually?"In a structure hidden beneath the black waves, the PCs discover the agent of the Whispering Way betrayed, and a congregation of eldritch things readying to unleash its foul lord, Shub-Niggurath."
To be sure, my group will refer to him as "Shub-Niggarath." We're very progressive and hip.
Ia! Ia! Shub-Niggarath, black goat of the woods with a thousand young!
The common term uses is 'she', but gender utterly fails to apply really, and some ideas for what it has beenhave been far more masculine (those arn't tenticle man!!!).
I never felt that the D20 CoC quite hit the right tone.
But then I really only bought it for ways to inflict Lovcraftian horror on my D&D players
Same here, honestly.
I suspect a LOT of gamers feel the same way.
+1
That version of the shoggoth is way nasty since there isn't a Reflex save to avoid engulf, which every other engulf that I can recall does have. One of the reasons I still use the CoC shoggoth as well as the Pathfinder shoggoth. And they're excellent candidates for either of the pseudonatural templates.
Wait... winter gear with LOTS of leg and cleavage showing?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
To rich... Now, just where is Valeros wearing nothing but a fullplate cod piece with fuzzy earmuffs for warmth?
Well... and I guess I can't point this out enough... endure elements lets you wander around in the winter naked if you want without much discomfort. It's a 1st level spell that lasts for 24 hours. It's fair to say Seoni and the Oracle both know that spell.
Which is handy because what you see is what we get when we ask artists to "have the Iconics wearing furs because it's cold."
A lot of artists like painting boobs, is what I'm saying.
Codpiece of Endure Elements... Nuff said. :oP
Ooh... I forgot to mention this because I had to rush to write the blog post, but I'd like to give the awesome folks at Chaosium a HUGE thank you for letting us play in their eldritch pond! Lovecraft's writings are, of course, in the public domain, but Chaosium and their Call of Cthulhu game have done an INCREDIBLE amount of work keeping his writing popular and accessible, particularly among us gamers, and if it weren't for the incredible work they've been doing over the past 3 decades plus, this volume of Pathfinder would likely have been a completely different thing altogether. So... Huzzah for Chaosium!!!!!
+1000
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Creative Director
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What's great about that book, besides the Lovecraft elements, is that it has a lot of information on firearms, from the Lovecraft era to present. What I didn't like about the book was how they tried to convert over 3rd edition feats. For example, the 3rd edition feat, "Ride by Attack" became "Drive by Attack" in the book. How many times did you read about drive by shootings in Lovecraft? One of these days I'm going to actually run d20 CoC with a "Night of the Living Dead" theme.I never felt that the D20 CoC quite hit the right tone.
But then I really only bought it for ways to inflict Lovcraftian horror on my D&D players
Same here, honestly.
I suspect a LOT of gamers feel the same way.
While I understand why there was such a huge firearms section in that bok (it was WotC's first attempt to detail firearms like that with d20 rules; it was sort of a "practice run" for d20 modern), the huge firearms section is, in my opinion, the books greatest fault. Guns have a role in Call of Cthulhu, but that role is NOT worth spending pages and pages and pages talking about. It's, in fact, my favorite example of how RPGs can get derailed and bogged down in unnecessary "gun porn," with the designers losing sight of what's good for the game's pacing and getting all caught up in writing a gun encyclopedia instead.
It's, in fact, my favorite example of how RPGs can get derailed and bogged down in unnecessary "gun porn," with the designers losing sight of what's good for the game's pacing and getting all caught up in writing a gun encyclopedia instead.
Though to be fair, the original Call of Cthulhu game set that precedent by publishing stats for just about every imaginable gun in every frikkin' caliber variation over the years in various resources, many times with very little difference, if any, between (for example) a Walther PPK and a Browning Hi-Power. I always thought that gave players too much credence to worry about the gun their investigator carried, when they needed to be more worried about the book of spells in their satchel that they hadn't bothered to flip through. Those charts were pretty tiny print, though! =-)
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Creative Director
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It's, in fact, my favorite example of how RPGs can get derailed and bogged down in unnecessary "gun porn," with the designers losing sight of what's good for the game's pacing and getting all caught up in writing a gun encyclopedia instead.Though to be fair, the original Call of Cthulhu game set that precedent by publishing stats for just about every imaginable gun in every frikkin' caliber variation over the years in various resources, many times with very little difference, if any, between (for example) a Walther PPK and a Browning Hi-Power. I always thought that gave players too much credence to worry about the gun their investigator carried, when they needed to be more worried about the book of spells in their satchel that they hadn't bothered to flip through. Those charts were pretty tiny print, though! =-)
While that's true... they didn't take up more than a few pages at most in their core rules; they left the actual gun porn for later, supplementary books.
Guns are one of those topics like sailing—since they are a popular real-life hobby with real-world histories and lots of real-world facts to get neck deep into, when you have someone who likes RPGs and who likes guns (or sailing, or whatever), they tend to want to treat both hobbies with equal attention to detail.
We don't have dozens of different crossbow brands in the game, in other words, so there's no reason to have dozens of different submachinegun or revolver brands in the game. That is to say... if we DO... they should be in their own books so that fans of the base game don't have to be sad that their core rulebook has a huge chunk in it that they have no interest in.
This is why we're putting firearms rules into something other than our core rules, for example, and why we haven't tackled a nautical/ship rules set yet. That topic needs its own book also.
What's great about that book, besides the Lovecraft elements, is that it has a lot of information on firearms, from the Lovecraft era to present. What I didn't like about the book was how they tried to convert over 3rd edition feats. For example, the 3rd edition feat, "Ride by Attack" became "Drive by Attack" in the book. How many times did you read about drive by shootings in Lovecraft? One of these days I'm going to actually run d20 CoC with a "Night of the Living Dead" theme.I never felt that the D20 CoC quite hit the right tone.
But then I really only bought it for ways to inflict Lovcraftian horror on my D&D players
Same here, honestly.
I suspect a LOT of gamers feel the same way.
While I understand why there was such a huge firearms section in that bok (it was WotC's first attempt to detail firearms like that with d20 rules; it was sort of a "practice run" for d20 modern), the huge firearms section is, in my opinion, the books greatest fault. Guns have a role in Call of Cthulhu, but that role is NOT worth spending pages and pages and pages talking about. It's, in fact, my favorite example of how RPGs can get derailed and bogged down in unnecessary "gun porn," with the designers losing sight of what's good for the game's pacing and getting all caught up in writing a gun encyclopedia instead.
Yeah, it probably wasn't a good design choice, but if ever need to know everything about guns, man, that is the book. If you have the book, check out p. 282. There's a pretty cool picture of Cthulhu taking on the 3e iconics.
Any thought of making your Cthulhu picture into a poster? It is awesome.
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Um I just want to make sure that people are not living under rocks here. Great C'thulhu Is the beast on the right. In case you were unfamiliar with the writings of H. P. LovecraftBut James has said multiple times that Cthulhu exists on Earth, not on Golarion... but, it is for the forward, so not being part of Golarion proper is okCthulhu does indeed exist on Earth. He's still there. The fun part about all the forewords in Carrion Crown is that we, essentially, get to do thematic "movie posters" for that adventure's themes that don't necessarily equate to what's going on in the adventure.
That said... I did find a way to allow Cthulhu to influence things on Golarion in a way that doesn't break established canon that he's actually in R'lyeh on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean on Earth.
Also, Cthulhu hasn't ALWAYS been on Earth. And who's to say that the "now" of Golarion is the same as the "now" as early 21st century Earth?
Even if you do say that that's the way it is, Cthulhu is just one member of his race. Nobody says "You can't have humans in China! Humans live in the USA."
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That also assumes a classical interperitation of the hastur mythos, which is frankly the less interesting approach. If paizo does stuff with Hastur, I would much prefer the hastur as nothing more than a name for the concept of entropy. Where understanding the implications of the laws of the universe itself are the damaging thing. See Delta Green countdown.Hastur's role in Golarion is a mix of everything from Ambrose Bierce up to Lovecraft/Derleth, with a healthy dose of Robert Chambers thrown in. Basically... the same interpretation of Hastur in Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu game.
I like the way that Delta Green handled it... but nowhere NEAR as much as I like the idea of Hastur being a specific Great Old One. That incarnation of Hastur is also not really in the public domain as much as the stuff from Lovecraft, Chambers, and Bierce is as well... nor did we arrange with Pagan to hitch our star to their creative genius like we did with Chaosium.
Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth are already doing a fine role personifying the unknowability of the universe and entropy and all that. No need to roust Hastur into that as well, in my opinion.
In my opinion, the four true gods of the Mythos (Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, and Nyarlathotep) work well as the embodiments of certain principles (although I like them to also exist physically).
Anything else, I generally just look at as an alien of varying power.
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It's, in fact, my favorite example of how RPGs can get derailed and bogged down in unnecessary "gun porn," with the designers losing sight of what's good for the game's pacing and getting all caught up in writing a gun encyclopedia instead.
Hell, I think even the core rulebook went too far. I'd be perfectly happy if they had limited it to the general types of gun (pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun, SMG, etc).
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Well... and I guess I can't point this out enough... endure elements lets you wander around in the winter naked if you want without much discomfort. It's a 1st level spell that lasts for 24 hours. It's fair to say Seoni and the Oracle both know that spell.
Call me conservative, but if I'm playing a spellcaster, and there's a way to take care of a need like that with mundane gear like a coat, I'm gonna use that and save the spell slot for something that might be more pressing.
Well... and I guess I can't point this out enough... endure elements lets you wander around in the winter naked if you want without much discomfort. It's a 1st level spell that lasts for 24 hours. It's fair to say Seoni and the Oracle both know that spell.Call me conservative, but if I'm playing a spellcaster, and there's a way to take care of a need like that with mundane gear like a coat, I'm gonna use that and save the spell slot for something that might be more pressing.
Cold weather gear is heavy. Very heavy, it reduces your manual dexterity and it only just works well enough. Having done my fair share of hill walking, if I were a fifth level wizard, in an environment like north Wales or the highlands, I would use that spell rather than several layers of environment appropriate clothing, and changes there off. That would go double for any snow gear.
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Cold weather gear is heavy. Very heavy, it reduces your manual dexterity and it only just works well enough. Having done my fair share of hill walking, if I were a fifth level wizard, in an environment like north Wales or the highlands, I would use that spell rather than several layers of environment appropriate clothing, and changes there off. That would go double for any snow gear.
Except that, RAW, the only difference between a cold-weather outfit and most of the other outfits is a couple of pounds. Realistically, it should be akin to armor, with a Maximum Dex Bonus, Armor Check Penalty, Arcane Spell Failure Chance, and reduced speed. But that's not how it is in the rules.
Cold weather gear is heavy. Very heavy, it reduces your manual dexterity and it only just works well enough. Having done my fair share of hill walking, if I were a fifth level wizard, in an environment like north Wales or the highlands, I would use that spell rather than several layers of environment appropriate clothing, and changes there off. That would go double for any snow gear.Except that, RAW, the only difference between a cold-weather outfit and most of the other outfits is a couple of pounds. Realistically, it should be akin to armor, with a Maximum Dex Bonus, Armor Check Penalty, Arcane Spell Failure Chance, and reduced speed. But that's not how it is in the rules.
Firstly:
And what is the most efficient thing to do under the RAW is not the only consideration one can or should take into account. The rules are a tool nothing more, and if it makes more sense in character to do one thing than another, then screw the rules.Secondly:
The RAW is not sacred does something stupid, change it. Simple.
Thirdly: Cold weather clothing actually doesn't work very well at all, in any kind of cold enviroment, endure elements is a much better choice, unless you have a stonking fort save.