|
Hello James,
One quick series of questions
If the Grey Maidens were to organize a mounted aerial unit (to replace the disbanded sable company), what sort of flying creature do you think they would choose as their mounts? Could Wyverns or Drakes be recruited for this purpose without the use of compulsory magic? Would the Grey Maidens torture/enslave their mounts or would they form a symbiotic predatory relationship?
Creative Director
|
What is your definition of maturity?
For example, what makes a story mature?
Do you think a mature story is always better than a non-mature one?
I ask since I've become convinced that maturity is a rather subjective thing, especially considering the ever changing nature of our modern society as well as the wildly varying definitions of maturity people have.
My definition of maturity in a story is basically a story that requires a mature reader to appreciate and understand, both the complexities presented in the story and the concept that just because something is IN a story doesn't mean you should take that as permission to do the same in the real world. Maturity is a combination of being able to cope with violent or sexual or other content deemed by society to be too extreme for youth without reacting to the content in an immature or disrespectful way.
The easy answer as to what makes a story mature is violence or profanity or sexual content or drug abuse or something like that, of course. Some mature themes handle those themes immaturely, to be sure, but even that does have its place.
I do think a mature story is pretty much always better than a non-mature one, because as an adult, my sensibilities and ability to parse a story and to be challenged by a story is important to me.
Note that something doesn't have to have onscreen violence or sex or profanity to be a mature film. I"d say Bambi is mature in the way it handles the reality of death, for example.
But yes, it is subjective, that's for sure.
The short version of all that? I vastly prefer, on average, R-rated content to PG-13 rated content, and on down. Does this mean that I hate all G-rated movies? Absolutely not. But it DOES mean of all my favorite movies, most of them are R-rated, and the least of them are G-rated.
And what of PG-13 (or whatever) content that hide a mature message underneath?
Works of all rating ranges seem to have potential to be a deep and mature experience from what I have seen.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The iconic alchemist Damiel worships Norgorber. It seems an unusual choice because Damiel is Chaotic Neutral while Norgorber is Neutral Evil. That's more than one alignment step away.
What in particular drew Damiel to a religion in which on the surface it looks like he'd be such a poor worshipper?
Damiel is not a divine spellcaster, and so he doesn't have to be his deity's alignment. The fact that he's so far off of Norgorber's alignment is a good indication that while he worships him, he doesn't do so very devoutly at all. He mostly worships Norgorber in his capacity as a god of poisons; he respects Norgorber and Norgorber's faith in his role as an alchemist (the Blackfingers aspect).
|
Creative Director
|
And what of PG-13 content that hide a mature message underneath?
Works of all rating ranges seem to have potential to be a deep and mature experience.
Or PG or even G content that deals with mature messages. Those are all good. Bambi, again, is a great example.
Absolutely works of all rating ranges have potential to be deep and mature. But due to the way marketing works...
G movies tend to be for children..
PG movies tend to be for families.
PG 13 movies tend to be for teenagers.
Those three demographics do not represent MY demographic, nor do the movies that are produced and placed in those ratings generally appeal to me because they're too childlike, not challenging enough, or vapid/shallow.
But yes, there are MANY exceptions to those general rules. I can name plenty of movies in those categories that I would call mature or important, just as I can name plenty of R-rated movies that are childlike, not challenging, vapid, or shallow.
That's not the point. I'm talking generalizations here, not specifics.
It's all predicated on an underlying structure of a ratings system that is itself arbitrary and fundamentally broken anyway, because the MPAA is riddled with double standards and ridiculous guidelines when it comes to rating movies... so honestly, in actual practice, the ratings system is kinda useless and the more you dig into it beyond just generalizations and "theorycrafting" the more it breaks down.
Fair enough. I'll try to think of more questions tomorrow.
I've got a toothache and a few other things to take care of for now.
|
Creative Director
|
Hello James,
One quick series of questions
Spoiler:If the Grey Maidens were to organize a mounted aerial unit (to replace the disbanded sable company), what sort of flying creature do you think they would choose as their mounts? Could Wyverns or Drakes be recruited for this purpose without the use of compulsory magic? Would the Grey Maidens torture/enslave their mounts or would they form a symbiotic predatory relationship?
What happens to the souls of a gods worshipers that are more than one step away from there god's alignment?Damiel is not a divine spellcaster, and so he doesn't have to be his deity's alignment. The fact that he's so far off of Norgorber's alignment is a good indication that while he worships him, he doesn't do so very devoutly at all. He mostly worships Norgorber in his capacity as a god of poisons; he respects Norgorber and Norgorber's faith in his role as an alchemist (the Blackfingers aspect).The iconic alchemist Damiel worships Norgorber. It seems an unusual choice because Damiel is Chaotic Neutral while Norgorber is Neutral Evil. That's more than one alignment step away.
What in particular drew Damiel to a religion in which on the surface it looks like he'd be such a poor worshipper?
they are judged by The Lady of Graves
like everyone else i gues
What is the difference between a plane and a dimension?
|
Creative Director
|
Damiel is not a divine spellcaster, and so he doesn't have to be his deity's alignment. The fact that he's so far off of Norgorber's alignment is a good indication that while he worships him, he doesn't do so very devoutly at all. He mostly worships Norgorber in his capacity as a god of poisons; he respects Norgorber and Norgorber's faith in his role as an alchemist (the Blackfingers aspect).The iconic alchemist Damiel worships Norgorber. It seems an unusual choice because Damiel is Chaotic Neutral while Norgorber is Neutral Evil. That's more than one alignment step away.
What in particular drew Damiel to a religion in which on the surface it looks like he'd be such a poor worshipper?
What happens to the souls of a gods worshipers that are more than one step away from there god's alignment?
Does the soul go to the god's realm?
Usually it does go to the god's realm. I suspect these worshipers are more likely to merge with the realm rather than become outsiders.
What is the difference between a plane and a dimension?A plane is a physical location.
A dimension is not.
I'll bite. What is a dimension?
|
Creative Director
|
What if the god wants them to become outsiders?Usually it does go to the god's realm. I suspect these worshipers are more likely to merge with the realm rather than become outsiders.Damiel is not a divine spellcaster, and so he doesn't have to be his deity's alignment. The fact that he's so far off of Norgorber's alignment is a good indication that while he worships him, he doesn't do so very devoutly at all. He mostly worships Norgorber in his capacity as a god of poisons; he respects Norgorber and Norgorber's faith in his role as an alchemist (the Blackfingers aspect).The iconic alchemist Damiel worships Norgorber. It seems an unusual choice because Damiel is Chaotic Neutral while Norgorber is Neutral Evil. That's more than one alignment step away.
What in particular drew Damiel to a religion in which on the surface it looks like he'd be such a poor worshipper?
What happens to the souls of a gods worshipers that are more than one step away from there god's alignment?
Does the soul go to the god's realm?
Then the god gets what he or she wants.
|
Creative Director
|
I'll bite. What is a dimension?What is the difference between a plane and a dimension?A plane is a physical location.
A dimension is not.
Actually, in play... "dimension" is just a synonym for plane as it works out. My answer above was a more literal, pedantic one, but we HAVE called places like the Dreamlands the "Dimension of Dreams."
So in play... "Dimension" is just a synonym for plane.
|
Creative Director
|
1)Would you say that the only thing a deity can't do is stopping people from worshiping them?
2)Speaking of gods that have worshipers that are more than one step away from the god's alignment. Does Abadar have any Neutral good,Neutral evil or even Chaotic neutral worshipers?
1) There's plenty a deity can't do. Stopping folks from worshiping it isn't one of those things. Since we don't have rules for what a deity CAN do, we don't have rules (aka lists) of what they can't do. It's up to the story we want to tell to make those decisions as best suits the story's needs as they come up.
2) Probably. They're heretics or just giving lip service or not really serious about it. Like Damiel, frankly. Theyr'e CERTAINLY not divine spellcasters. They're probably a little bit crazy too. Like Damiel.
James,
You've said that for a Qadira and Taldor/Sarenite Schism Adventure Path, you'd have a requirement that all the PCs worship Sarenrae. Are there any other adventure paths that have requirements of a similar magnitude for PCs?
|
Creative Director
|
James,
You've said that for a Qadira and Taldor/Sarenite Schism Adventure Path, you'd have a requirement that all the PCs worship Sarenrae. Are there any other adventure paths that have requirements of a similar magnitude for PCs?
Skull & Shackles requires the PCs be pirates.
Jade Regent requires the PCs to be friends with several local NPCs.
The upcoming Hell's Rebels requires the PCs to be rebels.
None of those, I feel, are of a similar magnitude to requiring the PCs all worship the same deity though—we haen't yet done an AP with that level of restriction. I would like to think that folks would be accepting of such a restriction, especially considering there's so many other APs to play if that proves too much... but I fear that wouldn't play out like that, so I remain hesitant to do an AP such as this one. For now.
|
Creative Director
|
1)Would you say that the only thing a deity can't do is stopping people from worshiping them?
2)Speaking of gods that have worshipers that are more than one step away from the god's alignment. Does Abadar have any Neutral good,Neutral evil or even Chaotic neutral worshipers?
1) There's plenty a deity can't do. Stopping folks from worshiping it isn't one of those things. Since we don't have rules for what a deity CAN do, we don't have rules (aka lists) of what they can't do. It's up to the story we want to tell to make those decisions as best suits the story's needs as they come up.
2) Probably. They're heretics or just giving lip service or not really serious about it. Like Damiel, frankly. Theyr'e CERTAINLY not divine spellcasters. They're probably a little bit crazy too. Like Damiel.
1) Are you sure? don't you think the Outer Gods would have did it by now.If there was a way to stop people from worshiping them?
This was more of a flavor question
1) Yes, I'm sure. The closest the deities have come at this point was the attempt to seal Rovagug away from his worshipers; that lasted for a while, but eventually the Star Towers failed and his faith spread once again.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
James, Golarion has a Norse settlement in America. Any chance of getting a Vikings and Indians Adventure Path? I would give Paizo so much money.
If it were anything like the movie Pathfinder, I'd not.
If it were anything like the movie Pathfinder, I'd not.
James Jacobs would never fail us in such a manner.
|
James, I would like your interpretation of how you would run the following rules interactions.
***
The character in question is a rogue that focuses on non-lethal damage and uses an Earthbreaker.
***
Feat: Sap Master (Combat)
Benefit: Whenever you use a bludgeoning weapon to deal nonlethal sneak attack damage to a flat-footed opponent, roll your sneak attack dice twice, totaling the results as your nonlethal sneak attack damage for that attack.
***
Rogue Talent: Offensive Defense**
***
Dodge Bonus:
**
**
The interaction I am seeing is when you have sap master, you roll sneak attack dice twice. With offensive defense, you get a +1 dodge bonus for each sneak attack dice rolled in a round. Using 3d6 at level 5 as a reference, would the sap master doubling make the offensive defense a bonus of +6 dodge AC per hit connected in that round. So if he got hasted and had 2 attacks, would he get +6 from first hit, +6 from second hit, +1 from spell, for a total of +13 AC for 1 round? The wording says rolls your sneak attack dice twice on the sap master, so maybe the dice are still seen at 3 for the above example for rules interactions?
The characters are currently level 4 in the Iron Gods AP, and I am willing to allow the doubling of dice to add to the talent, but I have concerns about how that scales. I know the flat-footed is a pretty big limiting factor, but with greater invisibility and such, this could become an issue maybe.
|
Creative Director
|
If a Lawful neutral worshiper of Iomedae dies and goes to Heaven. Will they look like the Petitioners of Heaven or will they look like the Petitioners of Axis.
Depends on how devout that worshiper was. The more devout the worshiper was, the more likely she will be to change to lawful good on becoming a petitioner and become one of the elect of Heaven.
If the soul was more lawful neutral, chances are good that soul will end up becoming one of the remade of Axis and won't go to Iomedae's realm at all.
Put another way, pretty much ALL souls who go on to Iomedae's realm in heaven become lawful good petitioners.
|
Creative Director
|
What do Petitioners do? such as in Iomedae's realm do you have an idea of what the Petitioners do there? do Petitioners in Erastil's realm farm all day?
Petitioners don't actually do much, but what they DO do depends on their realm and goal and faith and who they serve. A petitioner in Erastil's realm could be a farmer or hunter. A petitioner in Iomedae's realm could be a soldier. A petitioner in Norgorber's realm would probably be a thug or thief. They're basicall the outer planes equivilent of the 1st and 2nd level NPCS who populate the Material Plane—the commoners and experts, essentially.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
James, Golarion has a Norse settlement in America. Any chance of getting a Vikings and Indians Adventure Path? I would give Paizo so much money.
That's certainly a possibility... although if we do an Arcadia AP, there's a LOT more going on there than that.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
James, I would like your interpretation of how you would run the following rules interactions.
***
The character in question is a rogue that focuses on non-lethal damage and uses an Earthbreaker.
***
Feat: Sap Master (Combat)** spoiler omitted **
***Rogue Talent: Offensive Defense** ** spoiler omitted **
***
Dodge Bonus: ** spoiler omitted **
**
**The interaction I am seeing is when you have sap master, you roll sneak attack dice twice. With offensive defense, you get a +1 dodge bonus for each sneak attack dice rolled in a round. Using 3d6 at level 5 as a reference, would the sap master doubling make the offensive defense a bonus of +6 dodge AC per hit connected in that round. So if he got hasted and had 2 attacks, would he get +6 from first hit, +6 from second hit, +1 from spell, for a total of +13 AC for 1 round? The wording says rolls your sneak attack dice twice on the sap master, so maybe the dice are still seen at 3 for the above example for rules interactions?
The characters are currently level 4 in the Iron Gods AP, and I am willing to allow the doubling of dice to add to the talent, but I have concerns about how that scales. I know the flat-footed is a pretty big limiting factor, but with greater invisibility and such, this could become an issue maybe.
I would allow the doubling to affect dodge and thus make the rogue's AC higher than you expected whenever the rogue does manage to pull this trick off. That absolutely fits with the rogue's design philosophy of having to use tactics to excel, where as someone like a fighter doesn't necessarily need tactics to maintain a good AC.
But at the same time, I'd let the player know that you might later rule the combo's too good and you might later ramp back the doubling to AC.
Play it out for a few sessions, basically. See if it fits your game table style and make a decision there.
It's not like rogues are already breaking games, right? And it's not like folks don't seem to think they could stand to have nice things!
James, I would like your interpretation of how you would run the following rules interactions.
***
The character in question is a rogue that focuses on non-lethal damage and uses an Earthbreaker.
***
Feat: Sap Master (Combat)** spoiler omitted **
***Rogue Talent: Offensive Defense** ** spoiler omitted **
***
Dodge Bonus: ** spoiler omitted **
**
**The interaction I am seeing is when you have sap master, you roll sneak attack dice twice. With offensive defense, you get a +1 dodge bonus for each sneak attack dice rolled in a round. Using 3d6 at level 5 as a reference, would the sap master doubling make the offensive defense a bonus of +6 dodge AC per hit connected in that round. So if he got hasted and had 2 attacks, would he get +6 from first hit, +6 from second hit, +1 from spell, for a total of +13 AC for 1 round? The wording says rolls your sneak attack dice twice on the sap master, so maybe the dice are still seen at 3 for the above example for rules interactions?
The characters are currently level 4 in the Iron Gods AP, and I am willing to allow the doubling of dice to add to the talent, but I have concerns about how that scales. I know the flat-footed is a pretty big limiting factor, but with greater invisibility and such, this could become an issue maybe.
I would allow the doubling to affect dodge and thus make the rogue's AC higher than you expected whenever the rogue does manage to pull this trick off. That absolutely fits with the rogue's design philosophy of having to use tactics to excel, where as someone like a fighter doesn't necessarily need tactics to maintain a good AC.
But at the same time, I'd let the player know that you might later rule the combo's too good and you might later ramp back the doubling to AC.
Play it out for a few sessions, basically. See if it fits your game table style and make a decision there.
It's not like rogues are already breaking games, right? And it's not like folks don't seem to think...
Would you rule the same way if a character were built around Sap Master?
Sap Adept is a pre-requisite to Sap Master which gives you a +2 damage bonus per sneak attack die when making a non-lethal sneak attack with a bludgeoning weapon. Another feat, Knockout Artist, gives a +1 damage bonus per sneak attack die on non-lethal sneak attacks with an unarmed strike.
Your above ruling would imply that, since Sap Master rolls double the dice, you also increase the damage bonus. So 3d6+9 becomes 6d6+18 (with Offensive Defense granting either a +3 or +6 dodge bonus).
The big limiting factor, is of course, Sap Master itself, which requires flat-footed opponents, as opposed to just sneak attacks. With there being only a handful of ways of making an enemy flat-footed in the game, it can be fairly difficult (and very feat intensive) to pull this off.
|
Creative Director
|
Would you rule the same way if a character were built around Sap Master?
Sap Adept is a pre-requisite to Sap Master which gives you a +2 damage bonus per sneak attack die when making a non-lethal sneak attack with a bludgeoning weapon. Another feat, Knockout Artist, gives a +1 damage bonus per sneak attack die on non-lethal sneak attacks with an unarmed strike.
Your above ruling would imply that, since Sap Master rolls double the dice, you also increase the damage bonus. So 3d6+9 becomes 6d6+18 (with Offensive Defense granting either a +3 or +6 dodge bonus).
The big limiting factor, is of course, Sap Master itself, which requires flat-footed opponents, as opposed to just sneak attacks. With there being only a handful of ways of making an enemy flat-footed in the game, it can be fairly difficult (and very feat intensive) to pull this off.
Absolutely. My preference is to let players try out strange new builds in play and see how they work out. I let my players know ahead of time that if something ends up being broken, I'll ask them to rebuild the character, but usually things work out pretty well.
And frankly, rogues are SUPPOSED to do big damage in sudden spurts to single targets. That's really what they're about, whereas wizards are more about damage to large groups and fighters are about sustained damage.
And on top of that... rogues are a tough class to play anyway due to all the ways their powers tend to be so situational, so I'm a lot more forgiving of rogue tactics.
|
Creative Director
|
I don't get it.. I thought Andoran was the America expy, which is why so many folks signed up for that PFS faction. I would appreciate some enligntement on my confusion.James, Golarion has a Norse settlement in America. Any chance of getting a Vikings and Indians Adventure Path? I would give Paizo so much money.That's certainly a possibility... although if we do an Arcadia AP, there's a LOT more going on there than that.
Arcadia is roughly analogous to North/South America BEFORE it got colonized.
Andoran is more inspired by the conflict between the colonies and the British, and not really all that much by what came before that.
Hello, James.
How far have you gotten in Dragon Age Inquisition?
Which nation of the Inner Sea has the most similar culture to Orlais (the masks, courtly intrigue, assassination plots, etc)?
|
Creative Director
|
Hello, James.
How far have you gotten in Dragon Age Inquisition?
Which nation of the Inner Sea has the most similar culture to Orlais (the masks, courtly intrigue, assassination plots, etc)?
I'm about 90 hours into Dragon Age Inquisition. I believe I'm about halfway through the game.
Hmmmmm... there are several nations that could stand in for Orlais, but none are dead on. I'd say the top five choices would be Cheliax, Qadira, Taldor, Katapesh, or Nex.
Hi James
2 questions from me today.
1. If a player is using Bastards of Golarion to build his PC, are the languages listed under the various half-elf and half-orc heritages meant to be added on as extra bonus languages, or replace the original bonus languages, or something else?
2. Been doing some digging through various paizo pathfinder material, and time after time a throwaway reference in one adventure or product will turn out not be a throwaway reference at all, pointing to a yet deeper layer of Golarion reality - it seems like everything is interconnected, tying into everything else. How do you all do it? Do you memorize everything, or have a massive spreadsheet of loose plot ends to be tied up, or what?
