I'm almost always the GM for my group, but for this campaign I finally get to be a player. That means two things:
- I'm playing a character I've wanted to play for years, rather than one that best fits the AP (specifically a Cleric of Shelyn).
- I don't mind making the GM's life hard, because he (like all my players) soundly deserves it.
So I'm not playing an Edgewatch Agent at all. I'm playing a local Cleric of Shelyn/Hobbyist PI, based (very, very loosely) on the character of Father Brown. I'll just coincidentally keep showing up where the actual Agents are and inserting myself into the investigation whether they want me there or not. Maybe I'll occasionally run off to do my own investigation and get myself captured.
One of my recent subscription orders was shipped while I was in the middle of a move (the order processed before I moved, but didn't actually ship until afterwards). It appears the shipment was returned to Paizo (no idea why mail forwarding didn't pick it up), and a replacement was shipped. However, the replacement was still shipped to my old address, rather than the updated address on my account, and it has yet to arrive. I was hoping that it would be possible to ship a replacement to my new address instead.
I tried sending an email about this a week or so ago, but haven't heard back, so I thought I'd try posting here as well.
I actually subscribed to the Twitch channel just so I could watch episode 6 without having to wait a week, and it only confirmed my feelings. This is the best new live play show to come along in a while. The characters are great, and they interact really well with each other. The story is engaging, with plenty of good twists and turns. I actually care about what happens next, which is something most shows like this never achieve. Heck, some of my own games never manage that!
That last part is kinda depressing xD
Sometimes the characters just don't click with each other or the story. We usually quit those games and move on to something else. All the games I'm currently running/playing in are great.
My group is doing the same thing, going to start the Age of Ashes AP with 3 players; a Thief Rogue, an Imperial Bloodline Sorcerer, and a Wild Shape Druid. Kinda concerned about the lack of a "tank".
For a less ridiculous restriction, what about setting up a campsite, cooking and eating dinner, and removing armor in order to sleep? Won't fatigue affect those?
Based on my own experience with fatigue, yes. I suggest requiring a will save in order to summon the willpower to cook dinner and get undressed. If you fail, you just lie down and sleep.
I actually subscribed to the Twitch channel just so I could watch episode 6 without having to wait a week, and it only confirmed my feelings. This is the best new live play show to come along in a while. The characters are great, and they interact really well with each other. The story is engaging, with plenty of good twists and turns. I actually care about what happens next, which is something most shows like this never achieve. Heck, some of my own games never manage that!
Up until now I've felt like the series was entertaining, but probably couldn't hold my attention beyond the limited run. After episode 5, I don't ever want this to end. You've got something special here, and I hope you can find a way to make more episodes happen in the future.
For me, the tough part isn't the monsters. I'm fairly confident I can figure those out with some trial and error. The thing I'm concerned about is treasure. The two editions have very different assumptions about how treasure works, and I'm not really sure how to convert from one to the other.
After reading the full library part, I do have a slight concern. After they discover the Handout, what's the motivation to go after the Architect?
The library hunt has so far a good arc, but after the handout I fail to see (except that the library points are still not 0) the motivation to dug on. Then they get the last piese from the dark library that would lead to the last one....however why bother. they now have a location of the heart. Even if they later can get the info that someone discovered something, I miss the point why the architect is important.
I would love any takes on this as well. My players are about to start the Vault of Hidden Wisdom, and I'm struggling to understand why they would feel motivated to go after the architect's tomb.
At this point, the players/PCs feel like their goal is to research the Mask with the hope of discovering how to destroy it. If they were to figure out the destruction method (which I believe begins with combining it with the other two parts), that would just be further motivation to go after the heart.
My understanding is that the purpose of going after the architect's tomb is to get information about Hakotep's tomb, but at this point that's nothing more than a historical curiosity for them. They don't know that it might be a threat (and if they did, they might still reasonably think that finding the heart is part of the solution).
So, if anyone can think of some information I can plant in the final library wing that will motivate them to actually seek out the architect's tomb, I would be very appreciative.
Name: Zed
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 6
Adventure: Shifting Sands
Location: The Dark Depository
Catalyst: Researching too greedily, and too deep.
The Gory Details:
The party made it to the second section of the Dark Depository despite some struggling (Zed spent the entire fight with the Death Hounds panicked and trying in vain to climb back up the ramp to the center of the entrance area). They made some excellent research checks, and Zed did the best of all, so he was the lucky one to find the Scrolls of Inquiry that they were looking for. He was less lucky when he tried to make his save against the Slay Living trap embedded in said scrolls, and dropped dead on the spot.
The party managed to scrape together the funds for a Raise Dead and Restoration, so Zed was able to resume adventuring with only a couple of days wasted.
Name of PC: Mira
Class/Level: Ninja/17
Adventure: Spires of Xin-Shalast
Catalyst: Viorian/Chellan
Story: The PCs made appropriate Sense Motive and Knowledge checks to realize that Chellan was an intelligent item controlling Viorian, and Mira decided that trying to disarm Viorian would be a good idea. She ran up, rolled her disarm check (taking an attack of opportunity in the process) and got... 24. That's just a little shy of Viorian's 44 CMD, meaning that not only did Mira fail to disarm Viorian, she also dropped her own weapon (not really important, but adds insult to the forthcoming injury).
Viorian happened to be next in initiative, and she had already taken her potion of Haste. She took a full attack, which I believe means 5 attacks with Chellan and two with her shield. Mira's AC is not great, so all 7 attacks hit, and Chellan's wide crit range made two of those hits into crits. Despite the party's paladin absorbing one of the crits, the total damage put Mira below -40 hp. She used a Hero Point to survive, but I'm counting it anyway.
Wait. "Updated illustrations of classic Curse of the Crimson Throne characters." Like Laori Vaus? Could this mean a mini is actually possible, now that some good art might happen?
I can't even describe how excited I am.... I got the RotRL hardcover when I was halfway through that campaign (and I'm still not finished o.O), and it was an amazing upgrade. I really want to run CotCT next, so I'm really happy this will be out before then.
Are there plans for Hero Lab and Realm Works integration? I would love to actually have all those tools right from the beginning of a campaign.
Is this only going to include PFRPG Adventure Paths, or is it possible to include some of the older APs? I desperately want to run Curse of the Crimson Throne once I finish my current campaigns, and I want to use Realm Works to organize it. If I could just buy that instead of filling it in myself, it would be wonderful.
A Pawn set would be nice too, but that's a different topic entirely. :P
I also wonder whether there's some in-world technological reason the space suit has to be corset-tight. That looks really uncomfortable and restrictive. I mean, all things being equal, why would anyone wear a suit that tight to adventure in?
Probably the same reason a lot of workout clothing is skintight; it stays out of the way. Loose clothing can get caught on things, or be used against you by an opponent. It can also rub and chafe during extended activity. Tight material across the chest could serve the same purpose as a sports bra, which is definitely something Lirianne appears to need. That much weight bouncing around freely would be painful and distracting. Sometimes, restrictive is a good thing.
As long as it is sufficiently flexible to allow movement - and offers enough protection - skintight is actually a great choice. Of course, for many of the same reasons, she should probably cut her hair, or at least tie it up in a way that's not so easy to grab and pull. And that scarf isn't a great idea either....
Other than that, I agree with many of the criticisms in this thread. The pose used is a fairly common one in fantasy and sci-fi art, and it does tend to look awkward and unrealistic unless the artist is very careful. Since the pose pretty much only exists to increase the sexualization of the character, it's usually a better choice to pick another pose rather than try to make this one work.
I still like the art, though.
That spacesuit isn't sportsbra tight. It's tighter. It individually, separately defines each breast. So, in that sense, it doesn't get anything at all out of the way. That fact, coupled with the strange pose, makes her look all wrong for adventuring. Just sayin'.
To be fair, the level of definition on the breasts is a function of both tightness and flexibility of the material. The right material might actually look like that when worn at the correct tension, especially if the tension was different from area to area (some compression clothes today do this). Clearly this is some kind of futuristic material designed to support, protect, and show off the body.
But in general, yeah, it looks a bit strange, especially when combined with the pose.
Basically, when it says that everyone loves Shelyn, does that mean that the Church of Shelyn believes that everyone loves her, or is it an actual "law of divine physics" or something?
That's the viewpoint of Shelyn's church. It's not the viewpoint of an unbiased impartial existence. It's not a divine law.
That said, deities break rules. It can be both incorrect and correct at the same time, in other words. It doesn't have to follow the rules of logic.
Good to know. Is that true of most/all of the information in the Deity articles, or are there parts that are intended to be facts?
Since I'm usually the GM for our group, I'm accustomed to reading things like adventures and campaign setting books, where the curtain is often pulled back and I can treat the presented information as fact (unless I want to alter it, of course). It's a bit of a challenge to shift my thinking away from that mindset. I guess as the GM, whichever parts I like best are facts. :P
Super excited for the mysterious avenger. I know a certain Curse of the Crimson Throne character who will be getting a rebuild before I run that campaign.
Stephen Radney-MacFarland wrote:
unless the wizard decides to do her a solid
Is that...actually something people say? I'm far too young to feel that out of touch. :P
Suma3da wrote:
Hmm...I hope the Gunslinger heavy version of Swashie comes back into play as an archetype.
The Gunslinger heavy version is the one they kept. The Fighter heavy one got tossed before the playtest, though I wouldn't be surprised if some parts of it are still around (or get put into archetypes).
A very good morning to you, I was just looking at the Shelyn writeup where it says
Quote:
Shelyn is in a unique position among
the deities in that everyone loves her and
wishes to please her...
And then goes into the various ways that the different deities might want to pay court. I was just wanting to know if this applied to ascetic deities as well, such as Irori, and what form the affection of a deity who disdain's worldly connections might take.
There is probably a religious text involved somewhere here. The 99 temptations of the Master or something.
prototype00
It does indeed apply to them, although it might not be a two-way street. The religious teachings of one deity don't have to be fact or true for another, and there are absolutely contradictions.
This statement has got me wondering. I had always viewed the whole "everyone loves Shelyn" thing as more of an inherent property of being a goddess of love, rather than as one of her teachings (or those of her church). I would contrast this with the idea of Calistria having slept with many other deities, which definitely comes across as rumor rather than fact.
In the various deity articles, is there any sort of line drawn (if not explicitly, then at least behind the scenes) between things that are fact versus things that are taught by specific deities or believed by their worshipers? Or is that left intentionally vague?
Basically, when it says that everyone loves Shelyn, does that mean that the Church of Shelyn believes that everyone loves her, or is it an actual "law of divine physics" or something?
Or, to make things more confusing, it is possible the contradictory teachings from different deities can all be true, despite apparent impossibilities? They are gods, after all.
*As a side note/response to the original question*: The idea of Irori loving Shelyn doesn't seem particularly strange or contradictory to me. Irori has never come across as uncaring, but rather as believing in individual self perfection. I would expect his love towards Shelyn to manifest as that of a patient teacher, encouraging her to improve herself at every opportunity.
I also wonder whether there's some in-world technological reason the space suit has to be corset-tight. That looks really uncomfortable and restrictive. I mean, all things being equal, why would anyone wear a suit that tight to adventure in?
Probably the same reason a lot of workout clothing is skintight; it stays out of the way. Loose clothing can get caught on things, or be used against you by an opponent. It can also rub and chafe during extended activity. Tight material across the chest could serve the same purpose as a sports bra, which is definitely something Lirianne appears to need. That much weight bouncing around freely would be painful and distracting. Sometimes, restrictive is a good thing.
As long as it is sufficiently flexible to allow movement - and offers enough protection - skintight is actually a great choice. Of course, for many of the same reasons, she should probably cut her hair, or at least tie it up in a way that's not so easy to grab and pull. And that scarf isn't a great idea either....
Other than that, I agree with many of the criticisms in this thread. The pose used is a fairly common one in fantasy and sci-fi art, and it does tend to look awkward and unrealistic unless the artist is very careful. Since the pose pretty much only exists to increase the sexualization of the character, it's usually a better choice to pick another pose rather than try to make this one work.
First-off, The Redemption Engine kicks all kinds of ass. The combination of Kaer Maga and the Outer Planes (especially as a reflection/explanation of each-other) was just so smart, and I've never read better explanations as to alignments. All of this coupled with a fun story and some exceedingly memorable characters!
Anyways, I did have a question: I'm curious as to your opinion on the life-cycle of petitioners, especially in regards to the "have no memories of their previous life" aspect. For more info see JJ's post or the Bestiary 2 entry.
To me it seems odd that a petitioner has no memory of their previous life. Their entire existence in the Outer Planes is affected by this: which court in the Boneyard claims them, what Plane they end up on, and - in most circumstances - what their physical form will look like.
Doesn't this lack of memories undermine the specialness of the rewards or punishments that await the soul? All those horrible tortures in Hell based on the specific nature of the mortal's crimes seem far less horrible when the soul in question doesn't actually remember committing those acts. There's no way for the soul to feel guilt, remorse, or any of those other lovely feelings that require memories.
Also, if this information were to leak somehow into the mortal world, wouldn't it cheapen the rewards/lessen the fear of the afterlife? Depending on what you consider a person (how much of it is their memory), I'm sure Evil-aligned people could easily justify their actions with saying: "Well, I won't remember this when I'm dead, so it won't really be me suffering for it in Hell/Abaddon/The Abyss."
Thanks for asking this. I've wanted to ask similar questions for a while, but I haven't gotten around to typing them up yet.
If I had to guess, I'd say the other store probably still has the placeholder cover art displayed online. The books should be identical, though. I don't think Paizo prints multiple covers for their adventures.
Correct. (We did do alternate covers for GenCon releases of Pathfinder #1 and Pathfinder #13, but we don't do them anymore.)
I always wondered why there seemed to be two different versions of those when I looked on Amazon. That explains it!
Kytons are probably my favorite evil outsider race (does that make me weird?). I loved the full writeup for the Ostiarius Kytons in Shattered Star, and I want to see more stuff like that. What are your thoughts on a campaign setting book about Kytons?
I noticed that Mummy's Mask books 3 through 6 are on another online store with different cover art. Is there any difference in content, and what's the reasoning behind the different covers? The store has books 1 and 2 with the same art that Paizo has.
If I had to guess, I'd say the other store probably still has the placeholder cover art displayed online. The books should be identical, though. I don't think Paizo prints multiple covers for their adventures.
I love the research rules in this book so much. I think I'm going to try using them in my Rise of the Runelords game (in the Jorgenfist library, to begin with). If that works, I might add more libraries for research later in the game, since there's a fair amount of hidden knowledge to acquire in that AP.
I also love:
Spoilers for Shifting Sands:
The methods suggested for locating the final wing of the library. The idea of building a scale model of the tower and adding it to the model of the city is cliche in all the right ways. Gives the adventure a fantastic Indiana Jones vibe.
Before this adventure, I had happily categorized this AP as "fun to read, but I probably won't run it", which is my favorite category of AP, since it wouldn't compete for time with all the others I want to run. Now that I've read this one, though, I keep looking at my shelf wondering what I can cut/delay in order to run this....
Man, this makes me wish I had been crazy enough to pledge that much money to the kickstarter. :P I wouldn't even have to drive hundreds of miles! And of course I'm out of town for Paizocon, so I can't hope to join the game there either. Maybe next year.
Name: Feyla, Queen of Britland
Race: Aasimar
Class/Levels: Paladin of Sarenrae 9
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Throne of Bones (Vordakai's Throne Room)
Catalyst: Cyclopean Graveknight Antipaladin
The Gory Details:
I have a party of 6 players, so I use the excellent 6 player conversions available on these very forums. Despite this, my party tends to steamroll through a lot of encounters. Through clever sleight of hand, I actually managed to make them scared enough of Vordakai and his minions that they didn't notice they were mostly steamrollering this dungeon as well, with the exception of when Feyla was drained to 1 wisdom by a trap followed by soul eaters. The party managed to repair that damage by barricading themselves in a stairwell overnight while the Wizard teleported himself and Feyla home for healing.
So when they reached Vordakai's room, they were properly terrified that they would be killed. They buffed themselves thoroughly and headed in. The 6 player conversion suggests putting a Graveknight Antipaladin with Vordakai, so I did just that. The Wizard put up a Wall of Force to separate big V from the fight, and the lich was arrogant enough to sit and watch for a few rounds (his casual attitude towards the wall probably scared my players more than any spell he could have cast). The Graveknight started by attacking the rogue, since she was the first into the room, but then Feyla charged in and layed down the smiting. The Graveknight's next turn consisted of smite good plus a full attack on Feyla. Only one attack hit, but it was a critical. 110 points of damage later, Feyla was packing her bags to visit Sarenrae. The party's bard was lucky enough to be carrying a scroll of Breath of Life, though, so Feyla lived to fight another day.
This is my first PC death in a very long time, so I think I accomplished my goal of making the Vordakai fight feel like a major accomplishment. The funny thing is, I actually forgot to apply the smite bonuses and the additional fire damage from the Graveknight's weapon. If I had remembered those, Breath of Life might not have been sufficient for her to become conscious again.
Pally drops a spell I totally forgot about on the presmitten dragon called Litany of Righteousness. Yeah, if you don't know about that spell, and you have a pally in your group, go take a look at it. I'll wait.
Did you take into consideration that Litany takes a full round to cast?
Was the dragon a spellcaster? Did he identify the spell being cast on him? He should fly right away with a litany and a curse on him, debuff himself, and just breath on them every other d4 rounds.
Unless the dragon was really cocky and was nearly at full health.
Let me add this though,
That was pretty epic and i bet the players had fun. Good job!
Litany of Righteousness ISN'T such a great spell actually, I think there was a misplay here since this spell has a 1 round duration. I doubt your dragon would have taken as much dmg taking that into consideration.
All that damage seems to have happened in a single round, so the spell would have worked for all of it.
I also have a Paladin in my party for this campaign, and he definitely took out that dragon fast. Against evil creatures, Paladins are pretty much insane.
The real question is: when do we get a "Lords of Madness" book in this style? This books sounds awesome and all, but I want more info for Aboleths and other awesome aberrations!
From the Department of Expectation Management:
This book is not going to be a "Lords of Madness" style book in the first place. It's going to be a lot closer to NPC Codex. It's not going to have a lot of in-depth world content; it's a world-neutal book that focuses pretty heavilly on stat blocks and rules, not so much on ecologies and the like... there'll be some elements of that in here, but if you're looking for that kind of info, we've already published books for these monsters in the various Revisited books.
Thanks for the clarification! I still want a book like this one about Abberations, though. :P
And a true "Lords of Madness" type of book would be awesome too, but I don't think I need to tell you that.
If you're actually curious, the reason it doesn't count as price-collusion is that they don't control the supply, and they can't actually force the price to be that high. If you or I wanted to sell our copies for $20, they couldn't stop us. They're also probably not actually colluding. So in this case it's just regular old market forces making prices silly.
But yeah, if anyone wants my copy for $120, I'd be happy to sell.
The real question is: when do we get a "Lords of Madness" book in this style? This books sounds awesome and all, but I want more info for Aboleths and other awesome aberrations!
Not even that. What I'm saying is someone who isn't even optimized has a 50/50 shot of starting an encounter from that far of the distance. And yeah, any idiot can come up with scenarios and tricks to confound the range issues or have the HP to survive an attack from ranged combatants. This doesn't address the issue that most desert combats are going to have far more ranged fights that any other. Using monsters at low level that can survive and attack and move fast are not always what's written into the AP; Legacy of Fire sure isn't written that way at all. I'm not talking about what a DM can come up on their own to deal with deserts, I'm talking about the need to address a possible issue that may play out in a desert themed AP, as its written.
I know this is a few months old at this point, but I just wanted to mention that the DC of 21 is only for the distance. That assumes that the enemies are just standing out in the open, charging wildly across the dunes, or something similar. Add stealth checks to the mix, and the difficulty of spotting the enemies goes way up. Even an untrained character with no bonuses or penalties to stealth will add an average of 10 to the Perception DC. At that point, even your Zen Archer has less than a 50% chance of spotting them at that distance.
Downloaded my PDF today. This book brings me so much happy! I was never particularly excited by Gods or divine classes when I played in other settings, but somehow the Golarion pantheon is a never ending source of enjoyment to me. I actually want to play religious characters in Pathfinder!
Incredible art. As a huge Shelyn fan (you might even say I worship her... ha ha ha?) the Shelyn/Zon Kuthon piece is my favorite. Lamashtu is truly terrifying, and Gozreh is pretty awesome as well.
I don't suppose you guys would be interested in selling prints of these? I would love to have some awesome Pathfinder art on my wall.
Mikaze wrote:
MrVergee wrote:
I had been wondering lately when the art department would finally get some of its well-deserved time in the spotlight. We've been getting so much wonderful art from Paizo, that we're totally and utterly spoiled, while I don't really know who at Paizo deserves (at least part of) the credit for this. And it's not just the art work, but the complete lay-out of the modules and books that is just fantastic. You guys come up with amazing covers for the AP's as well, that mark these products as top of the bill! I'm very excited to see that you'll be getting a monthly blog. And even if you guys don't draw the art yourselves, do know that the extraordinary quality of your work defines Paizo products as the best in the market. So, a big thank you!
PS: I would be interested in seeing how you guys put together the cover of a product or even how you integrate art in the text on a page, or the tricks you have to pull to make the text fit a page. Maybe we can see some examples of your technical brilliance in a future post.
I think it's Art/Layout Department Appreciation Time!
Also, so much of that equipment art is very similar in style to the equipment art that would show up in manuals and guides for console RPGs back then. It feels like coming home in a lot of ways. :)
The Campaign Traits have definitely made me even more interested in playing this one. I just hope I can get the other GM in our group to run it for me....
It does seem odd to me that the "Blood of Pharaohs" trait lets you take Ancient Osiriani as a bonus language, but "Devotee of the Old Gods" doesn't.
PM sent. I just figured I would note this so that you don't get 5 other people sending you a PM on the subject.
Thanks! I actually wouldn't mind if other people PMed me. I have seen that item, but it's been a while (it was probably in my first hour or so of voting), so if anyone has the full description, I'd love to see it. I'd also be interested to see if other people are thinking of the same item. I don't remember the description of that one very well, but I don't think it struck me as particularly "intimate", or otherwise 50 Shades like. I might have been too hung up on the title to notice.
Of course, I haven't actually read 50 Shades. I have read Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series, though, so maybe my Kink-o-Meter is calibrated differently from other people in the thread. :P
I've now heard from two different people, and gotten 3 different suggestions of what item people are referring to. At least one of them seemed likely, but apparently it isn't completely obvious.
When I re-read my quoted post, it got me wondering what I would expect if someone said they had seen a Kushiel's Dart item. Naturally, I had to make one. I only spent like 10 minutes on it, so it probably has some glaring flaws, but it was a fun exercise.
Sangoire Cloak:
Sangoire Cloak Aura moderate enchantment [emotion], transmutation, and abjuration; CL 10th
Slot shoulders; Price 20,000 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
This soft, velvet cloak is dyed a deep blood-red. When worn, it transforms pain into pleasure, granting the wearer immunity to pain effects (such as symbol of pain).
Any time the wearer takes damage (including ability damage) or is targeted by a pain effect, she gains a +2 morale bonus to Saving Throws and Charisma-based skill checks for one round as ecstasy ripples through her. If the damage taken is from a bleed effect, this bonus increases by 1.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, delay pain, eagle’s splendor, resistance; Cost 10,000 gp
PM sent. I just figured I would note this so that you don't get 5 other people sending you a PM on the subject.
Thanks! I actually wouldn't mind if other people PMed me. I have seen that item, but it's been a while (it was probably in my first hour or so of voting), so if anyone has the full description, I'd love to see it. I'd also be interested to see if other people are thinking of the same item. I don't remember the description of that one very well, but I don't think it struck me as particularly "intimate", or otherwise 50 Shades like. I might have been too hung up on the title to notice.
Of course, I haven't actually read 50 Shades. I have read Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series, though, so maybe my Kink-o-Meter is calibrated differently from other people in the thread. :P
Hey, I finally caught up on this thread. That's what I get for not starting to vote until after the cull, I guess.
I've seen a lot of the items mentioned in this thread, both good and bad. Still haven't seen the 50 Shades item(s?), and I'm kind of curious. Anyone want to PM me the name of the item (or the whole thing, if you have it)?
I'm kind of glad I didn't end up entering this year; I was going to submit a lantern that affected undead. :P
2) What would motivate someone to worship Ahriman anyway? Would you have to be insane or something?
3) Ahriman is CR 26. Akhans are CR 20. Couldn't a bunch of them gang up on him and take his position? Eh tu, Akhan?
4) I know that Ahriman, the Divs, and the Usij are taken from the ancient Persian faith Zoroastrianism. What sources were used to research and adapt them to PF?
5) Ahura Mazda, the main god-figure in Zoroastrianism, isn't in PF but Ahriman is. if he was, what domains and favored weapon would he have?
I'm no James, but a really good (and flippin' disturbing) source of inspiration for Ahriman-worshipers is the third of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books: Kushiel's Avatar.
*Shudder*
I love the series, but that book was among the most disturbing things I've ever read.
