herkles1's page

Personally, I think the best opition is to design it in the vein of NeverWinter Nights, the bioware game that is. What do I mean by that, I mean the following:

1.) have a toolset that allows one flexiblity and customization, especially with scripts. This will allow the players to create custom content for their modules(see below)

2.) allow player hosted modules. The NWN modules could be nearly anything. I have seen some based in homebrewed settings, various places in the Forgotten Realms, and even my current server of Ravenloft: prisoners in the mists. These are player ran, made, and controlled.

3.) allow a Game Master Client for the GMs; this goes with the previous mentioned things. This allows a GM to do what he/she needs to in order to run a module for his/her server/friends.

My wishlist is basicly take a look at Neverwinter Nights and then replicate something akin to that with Pathfinder online. Ie my wishes are:

1.) the ablity to host our own servers, like NWN can.
2.) the tool-set similar to what NWN has, this will allow for custom player made content for the players servers.

of course if this is going to be like all the other MMOs and not something akin to NWN, perhaps this is not the game for me; even though I do think doing something in the vein of NWN would be a good thing to do and I doubt I am the only one.

I still play NWN on a roleplaying server, Ravenloft: Prisoners of the Mists btw, and NWN is one of the few online games that actualy can simiulate roleplaying online like it could be on table top. IMO the advantages of NWN that allowed it to last so long are the following:

1.) the toolkit and the vast support for player content,see the CEP for a good idea.

2.) and the ablity to host individual servers. I have seen servers on the FR, custom settings and more, I even play on a ravenloft setting one.

3.) the multiplayer ablity: IMO NWN is a multiplayer game, I have -never- finished a single singleplayer module in NWN, not the campaigns or anything. it is the online experince that creates such a great community.

These two things IMO help contribute to the life of NWN even all these years later.

If the pathfinder game is going to be like this, then it has the chance of being awesome. However if it is going to be like other MMOs, I do not think I would be intrested in it, I guess wait and see though.

Well any person can follow any diety. As for inquistors, there are a number of ways to play them. your classic spanish inquistion type exists particularly in religions that allow for evil ones; though to be honest I dislike the alignment system but tis a tale for another day.

However in others particularly good ones they are more investigator types but for religious reasons. They will invistage things that may be against their deity's teachings and try to bring it to justice. They also would be about making sure their flock is safe, in evil religions this may be about making sure they worship their evil deity. However good religions would have them to make sure that their flock is taken care of. Particularly if there religion is surpressed I can imagine they would be providing a number of safe houses for them.

An inquistor of Caydean callian likely would be a lone individual who has no organzational backing at all. However he is not a priest but still a bit devoted to his god. He would be seeking out slavers and the like and meeting out justice to them.

I utimatly like to view inquistors, paladins and clerics with this symbolism. the sword is the paladin/divine warrior fighting the foes of the church/diety, the heart is the cleric preaching and dealing with spirtual matters for the diety and the inquistor is the sheild protecting the flock from danger.

question for james: as this is a pirate AP will the pirate goddess, besmea or however you spell her name; be given some more information?

I mentioned this a bit earlier but what I would enjoy seeing is a setting more baroque/renissance/early modern then your traditional fantasy setting.

For example, guns are more common, and armor is starting to be considered obsolete. The typical sword would be a rapier not a longsword. Pirates, of course would also be around. It would be with the technology of the 1600s and 1700s, the era of the musketeers. That I would enjoy playing in.

I would love if there was a completed article for each AP. so you buy the adventure path and when the AP is done being made and all, you get all the articles in one book. That would be so helpful to me to have them all in one spot. Are there any plans for something like this?

If they ever do make another setting, which I doubt they will do as goloarin seems to be going strong. I would love to see a setting based more on the renissance/early modern period, similar to the musketeers.

I do enjoy guns in my fantasy, of course, I would also love to play in setting based around the 1600s-1700s.

anyways I actually dislike numeria, and I use golarion, but my dislike is solved quite easily. i am just not intrigued by the sci-fi stuff, love super-science, just not the sci-fi stuff can't really say why. So instead I made the place di-vinci and steampunk in design instead much more pleasing asthestic to me

Non-combat Encounter Guidebook - The majority of the core focuses on combat scenarios; skill-based challenges are touched on, but that's all. I think this would be very helpful to burgeoning GMs that want to run something besides Horde-Killin'-Dragon-Slaying-Adventure-of-the-Week, yet have no idea where to begin and feel they must depend on published adventures. I remember Mr. Jacobs (I think, 90% sure) mentioning something about wanting to write How-To guides for romance, horror, and mystery campaigns; any of these would be of great interest to me.

Please soo much this. I would buy this and pre-order it right away if this was to be done. I want more non-combat stuff and this would be helpful to the nth degree.Romance, horror and mystery would be great topics to cover in a gm's guide and I would buy them in heartbeat. yes I said that twice but I do love this product idea.

as a side note I am curious if other ranged weapons are scrutinized to the level of detail guns get for other weapons? such as bows, crossbows, swords and everything else.

All three of your proposals sound fantastic, EvilLincoln, and I would snap those up in a heartbeat were they to come out (whereas I am sometimes reluctant to pick up largely player option books).

I would also like to see a GameMastery World Builder's Guide. The GMG just brushes the surface of world and campaign building, and I would love to see something that really gets into the nitty gritty about building worlds, from small towns to huge metropolises to dark and scary wildernesses... and of course, the oft requested stronghold building guidelines. Special attention to how FANTASY elements effect world building--how does magic affect politics, espionage, commerce, etc.

I would love a world builder guide so much, particularly if it presented stuff on dealing with intrigue and politcs in a fantasy world. *nods*

I think that is a bit to simple Gailbraithe; though might work if you do not want shades of grey and want the 'evil' guys to be doing stuff for the evulz and good guys being obviously good.

However you do bring up an intresting thought, that all good creatures are good looking to some degree. So a cleric of Asmodeus could argue that 'good' clerics could pick on ugly people for the fiends are ugly thus ugly=evil and beauty=good; in additon one can argue that good people bind their souls to celestials just the same as one binds a soul to a devil save the celestial expects more and gives less.

Anyways from my reading of cheliax, I do not think they view him as a bad guy. on the opposite they view him as a good guy. His church after all brought order to the chaos of the civil war. Asmodeus is after all an ancient diety who helped forge the contract of the all-life. So serving him just means acknowlidgin the creator of life.

In additon they likely have a diffrent 'regional varation' on the deities. Particularly one like Iomedae who is viewed as to what a lawful chelish person can aspire to, she was cheliaxan afterall. In addition I do suspect the order of the Godclaw's view of her would gain popularity particularly with the goverment. that view is btw that she is a rightious crusader fighting against all that is choatic in the world if I read it correctly. they play down her good and play up her law and I like this little variation of her.

does a culture view it as evil? no, exhibit A: cheliax and the worship of asmadeus. They probaly view it as legal and lawful. Their priests/priestess probaly believe they are doing a good thing, they are following the state religion's orders and their god's orders.

However in a nation like Andoran they might disagree believing instead that it is a vile action. Not to mention a number of captured andoran freedom fighters likely wind up being sacrficed.

it all depends on the area, in one nation sacrfing a person is considered the lawful duty of the clergy and thus good to do. in another the exact opposite.

personally with any outsider blood race, ie tieflings and aasimar for example. I believe the player should select what type of ancestor they fiend/angel/devil/what ever, was. That IMO will effect the way they gain certain ablities and maybe some bonuses depending on what traits they pick up on. ie, a person whose ancestor was an eryines will be diffrent then someone whose parent was an ice devil.

btw is there a chart for aaismar on what their celestial traits may be? I beleive there used to be one for planescape for tieflings, not sure if there was one for the other outsider blooded races.

Jade regent is going to start in sandpoint if I am not mistaken before moving to the crown of the world and then tian xia. So you should get some time in varisa in the next AP.

Personally I have changed paladins slightly in my own games, and that is they are holy warriors of their diety; they still have a code of conduct that is tailored towards their deity. This is what they must follow, and they can be quite strict sometimes more so then the current paladin code, but it allows more flexiablity and uniqueness to paladins then the standard code, yes I allow evil and neutral paladins. they still need a code of conduct to follow that matches their diety.

anyways, on disruption I think anything can be disruptive in a party. It depends on what type of story you are wanting to tell.

oddly enough this was brought up in a youtube recently titled just the same thing, here it is. youtube video on the same subject.

anyways in Taldor, I believe searnea is outlawed in order to strike at the kelshite people due to the history there. I can easily see churches of chaotic deities being banned in Cheliax and Isger.

just some thoughts

I heard that one of the groups/npcs in the Rival guide is a pirate, not sure as I don't have that book, but thought I would throw it out there. Someone who has it can confirm it though.

I actually change it slightly, to thrune detectors, and those who may generally dislike or fear her, or do not live in cheliax, they would use the thrice damned house of thrune.

However in Cheliax, publicly everyone calls the house "The thrice bless of Asmodeus" It means a similar thing as above, but it makes Amadeus more promonit and it is a perspective flip. Thus instead of it being negative, it is positive.

as for what the three things, there are several ideas but my favorite is this one.

1.) delievering your soul and descendents soul to Hell
2.) delievering the nation's souls to hell
3.) encourging and promoting the worship of Asmadeus thus making the world's souls go to hell or attempt to drag them to hell anyways.

I generally change paladins to be holy warriors of their deities, including evil and chaotic, but that is besides the point. I personally think the anti-pally, should allow for LE as well CE, I honestly find the concept of a paladin/holy warrior of asmadeus intresting and fun to play over one such as ravagug, but that is just me.

I do suggest though that your gm tailors the code to what ever diety you follow. It makes it more fun and unique IMO.

indeed I play on ravenloft: prisoners of the Mists, quite a fun server. The custom content is though one of the draws to the server and NWN. Having the custom content available allows for a wealth of opprotunities for new things to create.

that is why I want to see a nwn styled pathfinder game, and like wolf munroe, this game introduced me to table top roleplaying and is a medium unto itself in telling stories even more so then the campiagns it gives you.

That is the problem with the monk, it is based on shaolin style monks. as posted above, all monks know kung fu. I do allow 'monks' to be any class, titles are just that titles, and can be earned.

I do think other more european style martial arts should be considered, like greek style boxing and wrestling and what not. diffrent style of martial arts besides just asian shoalin style would go further to making the class more intresting and appealing to me IMO

anyways fighter seems to be the most apporpaite for this type of character.

I like to imagine that servents of dieties appeare in a form that is most fitting to the person they deal with. Ie, callistra when dealing with elves will be an attractive lustful elf, but when dealing with humans her servants will be human looking but still attractive and lustful.

this of course goes for the servents of other dieties, take torag. to dwarves he is a master smith, to humans a hardy and yet noble looking black smith, to elves, a fletcher and forger of elven weapons. things like this does make it more intresting IMO.

I agree as well, how some NPCs react while captured would vary quite a lot IMO as to who they are. So +1 from me as well.

I love politics, and thus I would love to see a throughly rich political ap. That is the one I am looking for to seeing the most.

I also would enjoy seeing a nex/geb/mana wastes ap myself.

depends on the diety the church is dedicated to. For example, a good diety of healing is likely going to have less of a price, if any then say the god of merchants' church would. Just my thoughts

I personally prefer to just call paladins, holy warriors. for that is what they are, holy warriors of their diety. I also view their codes of conduct diffrently. Their code of conduct is not based on their alignment but of their diety. for example you are a paladin of Asmodeus, one of your sins would be to break a contract you signed and agreed to. abusing and using loop-holes is not breaking it, but if you outright break a contract you sign, that is a sin in their eyes. After all, Asmodeus is the god of contracts and laws.

I have thought of implementing the so called nine path of failure. based off the fact their are 9 hells. Each level you fail brings you closer and closer to outright losing ablities. this means for example something minor which would be a rank 1 sin is only going to minorly harm you, but you would be encourged to atone right away if you were really devoted to your diety. 9th level sins are pretty much 'you are no longer a paladin' this allows for more flexiablity yet still keep the whole fact if you go against your oath you lose stuff.

what do others think of the 9 path concept?

I would love if Paizo made a computer game similar to the baluder's gate games/planescape torrent. But what I truelly would support and love is a pathfinder version of Neverwinter Nights, with the module capablities, and toolset to design servers, it thus allows mutiplayer capablities without being mmo. I play on a NWN server set in ravenloft, and I think this type of game would be awesome and fun.

Me I personally remove it for mortal charachters, ie non outsiders. Thus allowing things to be more dependent on roleplaying and what not. However the spells still exist and work. take smite evil, it works just like it is writen; however the only things that are evil are evil outsiders as they are made of the essence of evil.

This fits alignment for me well enough. Planar beings are composed of an essence, such as devils literally being composed of the essence of evil and law. thus they are evil in my setting.

curious to know how this taint mechanicism might work though.

funny thing about the monk that has been a bit of a bother to me is that IMO a base line monk is your asian inspiared kung fu monk. because All Monks Know Kung Fu.

I could be wrong though, but I am hoping for in ultimate combat to have more mixed martial arts and other styles besides just shoalin inspired, I mean even look at the name of their ablities.

I am not a big fan of dungeons, mega or anyways, but that is because they feel just specificly designed for the adventuring party to adventure through them. What I prefer for dungeons are places that are designed to be used by other groups/monsters.

for example a dungeon that is an armory but now occupied by deamons or other evil outsiders of your choice. Said armory could be large and huge, but it has a purpose beyond just "adventuring place" That sort of thing is what I would want out of a 'dungeon ap'

thankfully though the APs are just half adventure, they also have some setting information that can be helpful, as well as some more monsters which are always nice.

here is some ideas for the inquistors.

Inquistors: These are the men and women tasked with watching and keeping the safty among their churches. In evil religons they tend to act as tortures rooting out any who dissagree with their belief of church doctrine.

however in other less evil religions they tend to play a diffrent role, that of detective, and watch guard. They are there to find threats that harm the faithful. Where as the cleric is the preacher and teacher, and the paladin and other holy warriors are the sword of the church, inquistors are its sheild. In good religions they seek to provide help to their faithful, providing needed supplies and intel to them when they need it. In lands where their faith is persecuted, they tend to operate safe houses for their followers.

Here is a question for you james, for evil deities, or any other deities that demands sacrifices of any sort, would their holy animal be off limits or preferred animal to sacrifice in honor of the deity?

thanks I have checked out some of the council of theievs books, and there was one, I think it is the 5th part, that dealt with Asmadeus that I found really helpful.

but here is a question that I have been thinking about, in early books there was a group called the darklight sisterhood, but I have not seen much info on them even in the cheliax compaion. Are they removed from canon or what not?

This should be the upcoming release schedule for Pathfinder RPG:
1. Ultimate Combat
2. Bestiary 3
3. Advanced Race Guide
4. book of order: the guide book to being orderly and lawful
5. book of chaos: the guide book to playing chaotic and anarchy characters.
6. skills book: a guide book for skills.
7. gamemastery guide 2: with a focus on running a social/urban/political game
8. guide to gadgets and technolgy: a book that focuses on all sorts of tech stuff, from clockwork and steampunk to superscience and more.

I would love to see a mendev AP, weather it is shiny white hatness of good or greyish heros. Funny thing about the world wound is that I can conceivable create a PC who is an LE follower of Asmadeus who is there for killing demons, as Asmadeus is a devil and devils hate demons.

but Mendev is cool, a crusading lands are always neat. Though to be honest I am not excited about the jade regent AP, not because it is asian themed, but because there are so many regions yet unexplored, ie geb/nex/mana wastes, taldor, last wall, and so on. I want to see APs set there!

Though a pirate AP is intresting

well cheliax, empire of devils; does not have what I am looking for, that is actual laws. It does give me ideas on laws, the chart on bribery is helpful indeed. However, specific laws are sort of what I am looking for.

-herkles

Here are concipersy theories I thought of.

1.) Agents of Cheliax are keeping the red revolution going in Galt to keep people always worrying about what it would be like if there was no order

2.) the Aspis Consortium controls the lumber consorium as well as other trade companies across the world and thus controls the world.

3.) clerics of Rovagug are fueling the red revolution of Galt

4.) All the members of the Andoran elite are wealthy nobles/merchants control all of androan and the 'democracy experment' is just a shame by people who hate house Thrune. the only reason they support anti-slavery is because you can tax people where you can't tax slaves.

Hello,

I have read the Cheliax companion book, which has filled me with a bunch of ideas for some games in Cheliax, though more information can be helpful;

1.) how is the church of Amadeus organized; being a highly lawful evil deity, I imagined it might be similar to the catholic church in the middle ages in hierarchy, but perhaps it is organized differently?

2.) are there any saints, prophets, and holy men that are apart of the Church of Amadeus? I might make some up for my own games, but wondered if there is any canon info?

3.) What sort of Sacrifices does Amadeus desire? James Jacob said in another thread that the goat is his sacred animal, so maybe goats? or perhaps slaves but they could also be not 'worthy' enough. I would imagine that prisoners of war, like captured rebels/terrorists and other assorted criminals might be killed off that way.

4.) What are the laws of Cheliax and the Church? One of my players has mentioned to me the concept of playing an inquisitor of Amadeus, so knowing the laws might be helpful.

5.) how does Cheliax view the new base classes added in the Advanced Players guide?

6.)is there a map somewhere that has the detailed maps of both isger and Cheliax together from the inner sea world guide? As Isger is a land in thrall to Cheliax, it would be nice to have a map of the whole Cheliax empire.

7.) What type of names are typical for cheliaxians? I know there is the list of names in the inner sea world guide and humans of goliarian, but still I would like more info on what type of names are typical for them. I have read some where in the forums that some use romans, others use typical fantasy, and others use italian names. I am curious which might be best?

sincerely,

-herkles1

Nex is a magocracy of sorts, as is geb though it is more of an undead thing but necromancers are prominit. Hope that helps