Creative Director
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Evening James,
Would you consider this sword as a rapier with the piercing and slashing quality? or a longsword with the slashing and piercing quality?
How would it be treated in the hands of a swashbuckler?
"Thrust" sword says piercing to me. That answers the swashbuckler question.
Also! HA! Page 1,000!
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Creative Director
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Good evening James! It's been a while (new jobs soak up time), but I've finally got around to being back on the forums, and thought up a few new questions.
1. Would Goka be the only place in Tian Xia to have a small chance of finding tech items?
2. Though it's setting neutral, going off Bezravnis' bestiary entrance I'd wager he's in Shaguang. Is that a smart bet?
3. If you guys ever get to make a Kaiju based AP, do you think you'd be able to do a Kaiju per book for the end-of-the-book bestiary?
4. Kind of a weird question, but is there outer space in the shadow plane? Is planet hopping to shadow planets possible via spaceship?
5. Do you have a favorite Daemon?
6. The story of the Hyalopterous Lemure art is one of my favorite M:tG stories. Ever have an art mix-up where the art was good, but it was incredibly far off from what you'd envisioned?
7. If there's setting information that contradicts information in other books (for example, an AP book says one thing but the Campaign Setting book says another), do you have a general rule on which way to lean? Or in this case should one just go with the info they feel works best?Thanks once again for your time, and best of luck with whatever you're working on!
1) No. Numeria's the place to get high-tech items. Beyond Numeria, finding tech items for sale is pretty uncommon, but you've a better chance in larger cities. And proximity to Numeria helps... Absalom has a better chance than Goka as a result.
2) The kaiju in the Bestiary are presented as setting neutral, but they're 100% Tian-xia compatible. As for their locations, that's deliberately obfuscated at the moment.
3) That'd certainly make a lot of sense. And we wouldn't need to necessarily wait for a "kaiju AP."
4) No. The shadow plane is smaller than the material plane. Outer space is pretty much a Material Plane phenomenon.
5) Yes. Piscodaemon.
6) Relatively often, in fact. Mostly in pretty minor ways, but often we rebuild monsters due to a weird art glitch or unexpected addition.
7) As a general rule, the Inner Sea World Guide is the first authority. From my standpoint, the AP is the next tier down. Books I've had a chance to personally vet or take a dev pass on rank at the same level as the AP. Beyond that, I tend to go with what works best.
Do you have any particularly interesting or funny instances of monsters changing due to art mixup that you'd be willing to share?
1- What's your favorite (Pathfinder) Kaiju?
2- As a GM, do you do anything to make battles against colossal enemies (such as Kaijus) different from simply attacking a creature that has greater reach and lots of HP? (e.g.: making the PCs have to climb it or attack specific body parts)
3- What's your 3 favorite film Kaiju? Any special reason for your choices?
Congrats on reaching page 1000.
Do you think a game where people play a cleric, warpriest, and a inquisitor of the same deity would be a interesting game?
Wait, black is an eye color?What are the most common eye and hair colors among the Shoanti?They usually shave their heads bald, but when they don't they tend to have darker hair colors. Eyes tend to be brown or black.
Yes, my dad's eyes were black, or so very dark brown you'd have to be very close to see they weren't.
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James, I know you're not a Star Wars fan so to speak, but there are others in the company who are.
Since I've been playing Star Wars, the old republic (MMO game), since it realeased, I was wondering if any one at the office was playing it too?
Have you tried it?
Finally, what type of computer game are you hoping comes along in the near future to grab your attention for a while?
Cheers
So James this might have been answered by you before,but how do rural communities feel about the Pathfinder society?
To me, it seems like they would hate a group of pathfinder society members traipsing around their town an surrounding area looking for adventure and "hidden treasures". A Pathfinder discovering something near a town could have serious social, economical, and environmental change in the area.
Some areas don't want too much attention, or do not want their livelihoods endangered by what someone finds and then prints about what is in their area.
Its just my prerogative, but in my home games the Pathfinder society tends to be unwanted and mistrusted in many places.
Any thoughts?
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Creative Director
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1- What's your favorite (Pathfinder) Kaiju?
2- As a GM, do you do anything to make battles against colossal enemies (such as Kaijus) different from simply attacking a creature that has greater reach and lots of HP? (e.g.: making the PCs have to climb it or attack specific body parts)
3- What's your 3 favorite film Kaiju? Any special reason for your choices?
1) Mogaru, although I invented all of them so it's kinda hard to choose one for sure... ;-P
2) Yes; usually a creature that big is treated in my games as a force of nature rather than a creature you fight, but it hasn't happened that often recently.
3) Godzilla (because he's the classic). The Cloverfield monster (because that movie was excellent). Gigan (because he's a cyborg alien kaiju with a buzzsaw for a torso/belly!).
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Creative Director
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James, I know you're not a Star Wars fan so to speak, but there are others in the company who are.
Since I've been playing Star Wars, the old republic (MMO game), since it realeased, I was wondering if any one at the office was playing it too?
Have you tried it?
Finally, what type of computer game are you hoping comes along in the near future to grab your attention for a while?
Cheers
It's not available for Mac, so no, I haven't played it. I do have a PC now, but I've got other games I'd rather spend my time playing on it. I'm not sure if anyone in the office played it, actually.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is the next game I'm really looking forward to, with the new Warcraft expansion a close second, but in the meantime I've got a LOT to finish first.
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Creative Director
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So James this might have been answered by you before,but how do rural communities feel about the Pathfinder society?
To me, it seems like they would hate a group of pathfinder society members traipsing around their town an surrounding area looking for adventure and "hidden treasures". A Pathfinder discovering something near a town could have serious social, economical, and environmental change in the area.
Some areas don't want too much attention, or do not want their livelihoods endangered by what someone finds and then prints about what is in their area.
Its just my prerogative, but in my home games the Pathfinder society tends to be unwanted and mistrusted in many places.
Any thoughts?
For the most part, rural communities are pretty self-supporting and insular; how they'd treat outlanders or visitors depends very much on the community. For the vast majority, there's not really an immediate difference between whether someone's just an adventurer or a Pathfinder Society member. Look at all the adventures we've published where adventurers arrive at a small town—that's the gamut of how they'd react. It really REALLY varies and depends on the situation and location.
I think that the "unwanted and mistrust" is better served aimed at the Aspis Consortium; that's kind of their purpose. The Pathfinder Society is supposed to be the PC friendly one, and making every village untrusting and not wanting PCs gets tiresome very very very quickly. As a GM, it's your job to make the PCs feel like they've got places to live and places to defend and places to be welcome, unless you WANT to run a game where the PCs are fugitives or scoundrels, of course, and that's not really the intended purpose of the Pathfinder Society.
1- What's your favorite (Pathfinder) Kaiju?
2- As a GM, do you do anything to make battles against colossal enemies (such as Kaijus) different from simply attacking a creature that has greater reach and lots of HP? (e.g.: making the PCs have to climb it or attack specific body parts)
3- What's your 3 favorite film Kaiju? Any special reason for your choices?
1) Mogaru, although I invented all of them so it's kinda hard to choose one for sure... ;-P
2) Yes; usually a creature that big is treated in my games as a force of nature rather than a creature you fight, but it hasn't happened that often recently.
3) Godzilla (because he's the classic). The Cloverfield monster (because that movie was excellent). Gigan (because he's a cyborg alien kaiju with a buzzsaw for a torso/belly!).
1- And did a great job with them. The Kaiju are my favorite creatures from Beastiary 4.
2- Oh, now I'm curious! How do you do it? Do the PCs have to gather armies? Or are the kaijus basically unstoppable and the PCs' job is to deal with the destruction and save as many lives as possible?
3- "because he's a cyborg alien kaiju with a buzzsaw for a torso/belly!" is probably the best reason I ever heard for having a favorite monster!
James was Echidna a source of inspiration for Lamashtu?
James was Echidna a source of inspiration for Lamashtu?
And was she an inspiration for the Drakainia (in some ways) in B4?
James. I may have failed to find it myself. But has there been an updated ruling in spirited charge and vital strike being used together?
Edit: I too am curious to how you handle kaiju and at what level you feel the PCs could handle one or a dozen bwahahaha. Assuming party of 5.
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Creative Director
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1- And did a great job with them. The Kaiju are my favorite creatures from Beastiary 4.
2- Oh, now I'm curious! How do you do it? Do the PCs have to gather armies? Or are the kaijus basically unstoppable and the PCs' job is to deal with the destruction and save as many lives as possible?
3- "because he's a cyborg alien kaiju with a buzzsaw for a torso/belly!" is probably the best reason I ever heard for having a favorite monster!
2) The one time I really did this was when I had the PCs infiltrate Treerazer's domain; at that point, he dwelt in a tower-sized golem and the PCs had to adventure through the various dungeon levels inside the golem to shut it down from the inside.
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Creative Director
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James. I may have failed to find it myself. But has there been an updated ruling in spirited charge and vital strike being used together?
Edit: I too am curious to how you handle kaiju and at what level you feel the PCs could handle one or a dozen bwahahaha. Assuming party of 5.
That's a question for the rules team.
And see my previous answer for how I handled a kaiju-sized golem in one game I ran.
1) Moloch and Gorum are very similar. What do they think of each other, and have they interacted in the past?
2)What does Moloch thing of Szuriel and vice versa?
3)What does Moloch's voice sound like?
4)What might be an example of something Moloch might say?
5)Who is Moloch's most hated adversary?
6) What do Milani and Cernunnos think of Ragathiel and vice versa?
7) Is this what one of Baphomet's cultists could look like?
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Hi, I wanna ask questions, some relate to campaign I'm probably going to run in distant future(never gm'd before) and some just because I'm curious, sorry if these are "Someone already asked thousand times" type of ones, also sorry that I have lot of them
1) From which nations gunslingers are from anyway? How easy it is to access gunsmithing material outside of those nations?
2) Assuming its not a secret, is Aucturn actually the Ghroth? Or at least inspired by it?
3) Does Inner Sea Races feature only the core races or does it expand upon other ARG races? What about races like Trox, Syrinx, those plant people from Nex whose name I can't remember and such?
4) Speaking of which, why don't trox, wyrmwood, gathfailn and wylvarans have rp cost listed in Bestiary 4? Did you guys drop race points? I'm kinda curious about it since trox character entry recommends adding cr if player uses them, but wyrmwood mentions nothing despite being rp 20 in ARG
5) If I would make monsters based on Silent Hill monsters, wouldn't they pretty much be kytons? In term of appearance I mean
6) Speaking of which, if I want to run "sort of Silent Hill"(so more aesthetic thing <_< Since I don't think I can do such psychological horror type of story) themed campaign, what monsters besides kytons would be good fit for it?
7) If I want to run dark tapestry/dominion of the black campaign without using cthulhu mythos creatures much, what material would you recommend?
8) One of my potential players seems to entertain idea of creating a flying cauldron as vehicle, is that actually possible?
9) Just checking, Shinigami is a psychopomp right?
10) Are you interested in Pillars of Eternity?
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Hello James,
1. I was wondering if there is any reason the character art for Dr. Davaulus (from Curse of the Crimson Throne: Seven Days to the Grave) looks so much like Nicholas Cage? Do writers ever request that a commission looks like a real life people or does this kind of thing just happen by accident?
2. We've already seen a pirate based AP; will we ever see a campaign focused on subterfuge, stealth, assassins and sneakiness?
Thanks, XD
James, here to harvest your brain for a bit:
-Has Baba Yaga ever visited Androffa? Has she ever interacted with its inhabitants in any meaningful way?
-How does Baba Yaga view highly advanced technology (ie brain uploading, nanotech, interstellar travel)?
-It's mentioned in Witch Queen's Revenge that Baba Yaga is actually able to basically hang out with demon lords and archdevils since she's not quite a demigod, only an extremely powerful, mythic-infused witch. Has she ever communicated in a similar fashion with the Dominion of the Black?
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Creative Director
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1) Moloch and Gorum are very similar. What do they think of each other, and have they interacted in the past?
2)What does Moloch thing of Szuriel and vice versa?
3)What does Moloch's voice sound like?
4)What might be an example of something Moloch might say?
5)Who is Moloch's most hated adversary?
6) What do Milani and Cernunnos think of Ragathiel and vice versa?
7) Is this what one of Baphomet's cultists could look like?
1) They might have similarities in appearance and goals, but they're more opposites than anything. Think of one as a lawful dutiful general in a great army (Moloch) and the other as a chaotic berserking barbarian chieftain of a great army (Gorum). They do not get along, and have in fact probably clashed against each other in the past, but probalby not much since Gorum is MUCH MUCH MUCH more powerful than Moloch, and Moloch is keenly aware of this.
2) I suspect he's entertained by how close Szuriel is to falling from grace.
3) Deep and resonant and rumbly.
4) Not sure. That might be a better question for Wes.
5) Unrevealed.
6) Haven't put much thought into that whatsoever.
7) That looks more like a cultist of a horseman or something. We've illustrated a LOT of Baphomet cultists in Wrath of the Righteous.
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Creative Director
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Hi, I wanna ask questions, some relate to campaign I'm probably going to run in distant future(never gm'd before) and some just because I'm curious, sorry if these are "Someone already asked thousand times" type of ones, also sorry that I have lot of them
1) From which nations gunslingers are from anyway? How easy it is to access gunsmithing material outside of those nations?
2) Assuming its not a secret, is Aucturn actually the Ghroth? Or at least inspired by it?
3) Does Inner Sea Races feature only the core races or does it expand upon other ARG races? What about races like Trox, Syrinx, those plant people from Nex whose name I can't remember and such?
4) Speaking of which, why don't trox, wyrmwood, gathfailn and wylvarans have rp cost listed in Bestiary 4? Did you guys drop race points? I'm kinda curious about it since trox character entry recommends adding cr if player uses them, but wyrmwood mentions nothing despite being rp 20 in ARG
5) If I would make monsters based on Silent Hill monsters, wouldn't they pretty much be kytons? In term of appearance I mean
6) Speaking of which, if I want to run "sort of Silent Hill"(so more aesthetic thing <_< Since I don't think I can do such psychological horror type of story) themed campaign, what monsters besides kytons would be good fit for it?
7) If I want to run dark tapestry/dominion of the black campaign without using cthulhu mythos creatures much, what material would you recommend?
8) One of my potential players seems to entertain idea of creating a flying cauldron as vehicle, is that actually possible?
9) Just checking, Shinigami is a psychopomp right?
10) Are you interested in Pillars of Eternity?
1) Mostly from the Mana Wastes (focusing on Alkenstar), but a few are from Numeria. PCs, of course, can come from anywhere, since they're outliers by nature.
2) Groetus is inspired by Ghroth. Aucturn is not; at best Aucturn and Ghroth are both inspired by the same concepts in a bit of parallel development.
3) It focuses on the core races, but touches upon all the races that have a presence in the Inner Sea region. Trox, for example, are not part of that region, and are thus not mentioned. Many others are.
4) Because they forgot to include an RP cost, and because that RP cost already exists in a previous hardcover, and because the Bestiaries are meant primarily as GM tools and NOT as player character books.
5) Perhaps. I see kytons more as the agents in the Hellraiser movies though, and Silent Hill's foes as much more varied. Mostly as undead or aberrations, not outsiders.
6) Undead and aberrations, but when you describe them, describe them as if they were Silent Hill monsters.
7) Pathfinder #88 and Occult Mysteries.
8) Anything is possible with the GM's permission.
9) No. It serves a similar purpose, but is not itself a psychopomp. All psychopomps are true neutral. Shinigamis are lawful neutral.
10) Yes.
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Creative Director
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Hello James,
1. I was wondering if there is any reason the character art for Dr. Davaulus (from Curse of the Crimson Throne: Seven Days to the Grave) looks so much like Nicholas Cage? Do writers ever request that a commission looks like a real life people or does this kind of thing just happen by accident?
2. We've already seen a pirate based AP; will we ever see a campaign focused on subterfuge, stealth, assassins and sneakiness?
Thanks, XD
1) Coincidence, I suppose. I suppose the artist might have made that decision to do so on their own. Artists do that now and then.
2) Maybe.
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Creative Director
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James, here to harvest your brain for a bit:
-Has Baba Yaga ever visited Androffa? Has she ever interacted with its inhabitants in any meaningful way?
-How does Baba Yaga view highly advanced technology (ie brain uploading, nanotech, interstellar travel)?
-It's mentioned in Witch Queen's Revenge that Baba Yaga is actually able to basically hang out with demon lords and archdevils since she's not quite a demigod, only an extremely powerful, mythic-infused witch. Has she ever communicated in a similar fashion with the Dominion of the Black?
1) Yes, but she was born long after Earthfall, and thus was born long after Divinity launched and crashed. The Androffa she visited is VERY different from the one that was capable of building a spaceship.
2) With amusement.
3) No.
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Creative Director
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James, is it possible for classes to take the alternative abilities of other classes? For example, the urban ranger gives up woodland stride for push through, but the druid who also has woodland stride doesn't get push through for any of the archetypes.
That's exactly what archetypes are for—to allow a class to dip into other purposes and experiment. If there are no archetypes that let you do what you want to try, talk to your GM about adjusting an existing one or creating a brand new one.
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Creative Director
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2)What does Moloch thing of Szuriel and vice versa?
2) I suspect he's entertained by how close Szuriel is to falling from grace.
Whazhuh?!?!?
Szuriel is probably the angriest and least understanding of the empyreal lords. You don't get to be a jerk without skirting that edge.
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Creative Director
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I think that the "unwanted and mistrust" is better served aimed at the Aspis Consortium; that's kind of their purpose. The Pathfinder Society is supposed to be the PC friendly one, and making every village untrusting and not wanting PCs gets tiresome very very very quickly. As a GM, it's your job to make the PCs feel like they've got places to live and places to defend and places to be welcome, unless you WANT to run a game where the PCs are fugitives or scoundrels, of course, and that's not really the intended purpose of the Pathfinder Society.Maybe you should let the folks running PFS know that. I can't recall the last mission I went on for the Society that that did not have the caveat in the briefing "Don't flash your wayfinders around." I'm beginning to feel that Absalom itself is the only safe place to openly admit that you're a Pathfinder.
We're starting to hide our wayfinders by reflex these days.
That's something I've been trying to get the PFS folks to fix for years, ever since I was gobsmacked and blindsided by folks' negative reactions to Shattered Star #1's expectation that you get to ally with or become Pathfinders.
Sounds like I need to push harder on PFS to fix the problem... although if the problem is actually a fair number of GMs who resent the Pathfinders and are thus letting their personal opinions influence the material as written, there's unfortunately not a lot I can do.
It's one of the things that frustrates me the most about PFS, frankly.
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Szuriel is probably the angriest and least understanding of the empyreal lords. You don't get to be a jerk without skirting that edge.
2)What does Moloch thing of Szuriel and vice versa?
2) I suspect he's entertained by how close Szuriel is to falling from grace.
Whazhuh?!?!?
Um... Szuriel's the Horseman of War.
Did you mean Ragathiel?
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Creative Director
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Szuriel is probably the angriest and least understanding of the empyreal lords. You don't get to be a jerk without skirting that edge.
2)What does Moloch thing of Szuriel and vice versa?
2) I suspect he's entertained by how close Szuriel is to falling from grace.
Whazhuh?!?!?
Um... Szuriel's the Horseman of War.
Did you mean Ragathiel?
Oh.... Right.
Moloch has no real opinion of Szuriel.
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More questions! I'm not annoying you, am I?
1) I know Ustalav is Wes' baby, but what's YOUR favorite part of that fog-shrouded land?
2) Where would the most prominent Osirionologists outside Osirion itself be?
3) If I wanted to pick out some good Varisian-sounding names, what real world language would be the best starting point? Hungarian? Italian? Polish?
4) Speaking of naming conventions, which Golarion linguistics would produce the names we might see in medieval literature like Gawain, Dinadan, Chantecleer, etc?
5) What would you say is the best way to accommodate a character who wants a snake tail instead of legs? Most of the snakey transformations I can find in the rules only offer shifting between completely snake and completely humanoid, such as the serpentine bloodline, druid's wild shape, etc.
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James, is it possible for classes to take the alternative abilities of other classes? For example, the urban ranger gives up woodland stride for push through, but the druid who also has woodland stride doesn't get push through for any of the archetypes.That's exactly what archetypes are for—to allow a class to dip into other purposes and experiment. If there are no archetypes that let you do what you want to try, talk to your GM about adjusting an existing one or creating a brand new one.
Okay. I'm sure we're on the same page on this. So basically if a ranger has an archetype that swaps out something for another ability, and druid does not despite having the same ability just not the archetype, you can still swap. GM rule 0 in the end though.
The Illustrious Mr. Jacobs:
Have you ever read Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series?
If so, were the lobstrosities (Book II: Drawing of the Three) the inspiration for the reefclaw?
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Creative Director
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More questions! I'm not annoying you, am I?
1) I know Ustalav is Wes' baby, but what's YOUR favorite part of that fog-shrouded land?
2) Where would the most prominent Osirionologists outside Osirion itself be?
3) If I wanted to pick out some good Varisian-sounding names, what real world language would be the best starting point? Hungarian? Italian? Polish?
4) Speaking of naming conventions, which Golarion linguistics would produce the names we might see in medieval literature like Gawain, Dinadan, Chantecleer, etc?
5) What would you say is the best way to accommodate a character who wants a snake tail instead of legs? Most of the snakey transformations I can find in the rules only offer shifting between completely snake and completely humanoid, such as the serpentine bloodline, druid's wild shape, etc.
1) Pretty much all of Versex.
2) Absalom or Katapesh.
3) Hungarian works. I generally go with a mix of East European or Romany names and then adjust them by a couple of letters.
4) I suppose Taldan/Common.
5) By using the race builder guide and making sure the player understands that they'll be missing out on a fair amount of magic treasure.
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Creative Director
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Who is responsible for creating the Gorilla King? I fell in love with Golarion when I saw "one enraged gorilla king" listed as one of the forms of government in the Mwangi expanse.
Me. I invented him long before Golarion came about, actually; he was one of the villains in one of our early "Compleate Encounters" minis.
Glad you like him!
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Creative Director
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Okay. I'm sure we're on the same page on this. So basically if a ranger has an archetype that swaps out something for another ability, and druid does not despite having the same ability just not the archetype, you can still swap. GM rule 0 in the end though.James, is it possible for classes to take the alternative abilities of other classes? For example, the urban ranger gives up woodland stride for push through, but the druid who also has woodland stride doesn't get push through for any of the archetypes.That's exactly what archetypes are for—to allow a class to dip into other purposes and experiment. If there are no archetypes that let you do what you want to try, talk to your GM about adjusting an existing one or creating a brand new one.
OH! I did misread your question.
No... as written, you have to be of the archetype's class to take that archetype. A druid could not take a ranger archetype, or vice versa.
(This is why we sometimes duplicate archetypes for different classes—there's a fighter Dawnflower Dervish and a bard Dawnflower Dervish, for example, that do quite different things, but in-world theyre both part of the same outfit.)
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Creative Director
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The Illustrious Mr. Jacobs:
Have you ever read Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series?
If so, were the lobstrosities (Book II: Drawing of the Three) the inspiration for the reefclaw?
I have indeed read those books, and loved them.
Mike McArtor actually invented the reefclaw, I believe, and he to my knowledge has not read the Dark Tower, so that's just parallel development there.
Strange Idea: what about classes whose abilities are based on other types, monsters' abilities, etc...
Like, Based on True Dragons: D12, Full BaB, 3 good saves, 6 + Int modifier, good amount of class skills, Darkvision, low light Vision, scaling breath weapon, "Dual Typed" (count both as your usual type and as Dragon for spells, favorite enemy, etc.), + other things.
Good or Bad idea?
Dear JJ
Have you watched any of the Evil Dead / Army of darkness movies and what do you think of them?
If you could take a system/mechanic from 1st or 2nd Edition what would it be?