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Have you ever been in a game (as a player or GM) where the players decide to deal with a group of bad guys with careful espionage and manipulation rather than just killing them all?
Idly got to wondering if you could deal with the Bastards of Erebus in Council of Thieves by tracking down their fences and getting them put away, allowing one of the PCs to infiltrate the Bastards as a new, high-end fence for them, able to safely move stuff too distinctive for their normal contacts to risk. Sure; it's not as quick and efficient as what the book assumes (a straight-out attack on their hideout, either stealthily or kicking in the front door), but it would be a hell of a lot more satisfying to lure them into a dotarii trap.
EDIT: Or have I just been watching too much Burn Notice and Leverage lately? :P
Yup... both as a PC and as a GM. My favorite was the game in which my character Shensen managed to convert a Red Wizard of Thay merchant/wizard from serving Thay to being under her thumb, so that she gained control of his enclave. That she later lost control of the enclave when another PC went kill-crazy with fire for no good reason is another (very frustrating) story.
But yes... taking down the enemy in a non combat way is perfectly viable, and the fact that the game isn't hard-wired to assume that's the only option is one of the benefits of having the actual game run by a human capable of rolling with the unexpected punches.
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Must a Bloodrager with Superstition roll saves against his own spells? Spells he "applies" to himself with greater bloodrage and arcane bloodrage? Would you even allow a Bloodrager to take Superstition from RP standpoint?
I have no idea. I've not read the bloodrager's rules and wasn't involved in its creation or development. If a player wanted to play one... or once one shows up in an adventure... THAT'S when I'll read about it. (I'm unlikely to ever play one since it's not a play style I enjoy as a rule.)
In any event, even if the above wasn't true, I'd answer the same. This is a rules question and it needs to be asked in the Advanced Class Guide forum for a FAQ tag so the design team can take action/note as appropriate.
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I always thought the less common TYPE of damage (Cold) might have been a factor as well. I mean, LOTS of things are immune to fire/lightning, less stuff has resistance to cold I think... No real direct mechanical benefit per se, but a potential tactical advantage. Plus, you can make snow in July, just point it up. Fun times.
I've never assumed that. If that were the case, why is there a cold damage cantrip and not a fire damage cantrip? I don't think the energy type matters at all, other than to give the spell one more way to feel different from other area effect damage spells.
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I also want to know. In the Darksun setting back in an earlier version of D&D, there were 'Muls'... human/dwarf hybrids... Kinda miss those...I noticed via a cursory thread-search (dude, this is WAAAY TL; DR to go through it all at this point) that there's no half-dwarves.
Why not? Not mechanical, but, in-world, why?
With half-elves, half-orcs, aasimars, tieflings, oreads, sylphs, undines, dhampirs, sulis, changelings, fetchlings, and ifrits ALL being descended from humans that banged outside of their species-type (not to mention the myriad of sorcerer and bloodrager bloodlines that result from watered down interbreeding), why is a half-dwarf so hard to believe?
Are we to believe humans, in all their diverse sexual conquests have never done the horizontal mambo with their shorter, broader compatriots? HA!
Or is it that, against all logic, humans are more compatible genetically with, for example, an ambulatory corpse than they are a creature that looks almost just like them but happens to be shorter and more dense? Is that why Dhampir but no Half Dwarf?
(My guess...they're so similar that a dwarf and a human just have either a dwarf or a human baby, kinda like the half-elf or half-orc with human conundrum. Moderate cop-out IMO, but still, it would be nice to know if there's another reason.)
We don't have space to give rules for every possible combination of words, basically. And as a subset of that, we don't have space to present all the various possible hybrid races. We have to pick and choose, and the ones we DO pick and choose are picked and chosen as a result of what's nostalgic and expected of the game's core assumptions (so, half-elves and half-orcs), and what we at Paizo are particularly interested and inspired by (so, things like aasimars, tieflings, changelings, fetchlings, and dhampirs). Half-dwarves have never been a key part of the game, nor is anyone at Paizo all that into them. Furthermore, the muls of Dark Sun are SO closely tied to that (non-open content) setting that we would rather NOT "poach" them from that game. That cheapens them as being unique elements of Athas, and lessens the flavor of Golarion by increasingly making it into a setting where anything and everything is possible. That's not the intent of Golarion.
You can define a setting as much (and sometimes more) by what you DON'T include in the game as by what you do include.
All of that said... part of the reason we created the Advanced Race Guide race builder rules was to enable GMs and players alike with the tools they need to build the races THEY want to play with, even if we have no plans to ever do anything with them.
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4. Is pimpin' easy?4) Lame question.
1. I'm taking it you were not a Chappelle Show fan? (Note - I almost went with "Is Rick James right vis a vis cocaine and it's drug status?" instead.)
2. Do you lament the loss of Futurama, and the fact that you will never join it's list of prestigious guest stars, such as Gary Gygax? (Gary Gygax - "I am..." *rolls a d20, looks at the results* "PLEASED to meet you." Al Gore - "Gary, put the dice away, or I'm taking them away!")
3. Your favorite dragon? Type? Oh, type within specific subtype (i.e. favorite metallic, favorite chromatic, etc) And specifically, your favorite named dragon from lore (your own lore counts)?
4. I have read you guys don't wanna do an anniversary edition of all the APs, cause you're concerned people will wait and not buy the originals. Makes total sense. But what about an updated, Pathfinder-RPG-ized version of the first few APs that were created for 3.5? Or the super old-schools, like Age of Worms and Savage Tide? You guys own that stuff, right? I'm sure there's a lot of us that would love to play that quality product without having to do a ton of conversions. Can we at least get an update of the 3.5 stuff to PF?
1) Nope; I'm not a fan of the Chappelle Show, but knowing that you're quoting that makes me MUCH less annoyed than me thinking you were just implying I was a pimp of anything.
2) Futurama had a GREAT run... and I'd rather see it end strong than linger for ages and become irrelevant or self-mocking or tired. I never even considered the idea or possibility of being a guest star on the show, in any event.
3) Chromatic: Red
Metallic: Bronze
Primal: Brine
Imperial: Forest
Outer: Void
4) The concern of folks not buying the APs as they come out because they choose to wait for a compilation is a significant one... but so is the fact that compiling an AP is NOT an easy task. It's not something we can really do every year anyway, and as a result, since we do two APs a year, the laws of time and space pretty much make it a truth that we'll never do compilations of all our APs. We may do a compilation again... time will tell... but we haven't announced any plans to do so yet.
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Sorry, more dragon questions. You shouldn't have made Dragons Revisited such an interesting read if you didn't want them. :-P
So, since dragons can reproduce with almost anything, it seems reasonable that they can with each other outside of their type, no?
Given their similarities in so many means, their unified interests, and their long-term relationships as mentor-protoge, are silver-gold unions a frequent, or even somewhat common thing? If not...really?! They're more apt to mate with a totally different base-species than someone with slightly different color scales? It's the hot-cold thing, isn't it?
What's the progeny of such a union? Flip a coin, or a hybrid of some kind that you're never going to stat up?
Oh, and I forgot in my earlier "what's your favorite dragon" set of questions...What's your favorite non-true dragon?
This is one of the things the half-dragon template is for.
My favorite non-true dragon is the pseudodragon.
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Electrum is a gold-silver alloy, and the word has a history with D&D, so I would suggest an electrum dragon. :)
We've already done metallic dragons, and when we do true dragons, we do them in groups of 5. Both reasons why "electrum dragon" isn't something I think we should or would ever create.
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Why didn't you tell me there was an Iblydan item in Lost Treasures?!
Because I didn't know there was. As we do more and more products, I'm involved in fewer and fewer of them overall. I haven't actually interacted with Lost Treasures much more than to give it a quick look through during the approval phase to ensure that from a view from the mountain top that it did the job.
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James, what's your favorite cantrip and why? Have you used it in a novel creative way?
Prestidigitation, because it's very open to application, but mostly because you can use it to clean up after things get messy. I've used it to clean off hazardous spores and slimes. Very handy.
Because I didn't know there was. As we do more and more products, I'm involved in fewer and fewer of them overall. I haven't actually interacted with Lost Treasures much more than to give it a quick look through during the approval phase to ensure that from a view from the mountain top that it did the job.Why didn't you tell me there was an Iblydan item in Lost Treasures?!
I figured as much. :D
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What is the drug that is made out of ground up mummies and what book is that in? I think it is mumra but that might be the villain from Thundercats.
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What is the drug that is made out of ground up mummies and what book is that in? I think it is mumra but that might be the villain from Thundercats.
Fielding this one for James: It's called 'mumia', and you can find it in two varieties. Genuine mumia is from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Kingdoms, and the synthetic version is from Pathfinder Player Companion: Undead Slayer's Handbook.
What's something you're dying to play, but no GM has let you (something crazy, like an Awakened Monkey Gunslinger)? What's your favourite race and class?
1. Can you sum up what makes:
A. A good GM? B. A good player?
2. Will the Pathfinder MMO use the rules set from the tabletop game for character generatioon and play, similar to how NWN2 used 3.5?
If so, do you plan to start core only?
Fielding this one for James: It's called 'mumia', and you can find it in two varieties. Genuine mumia is from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Kingdoms, and the synthetic version is from Pathfinder Player Companion: Undead Slayer's Handbook.
Synthetic ground mummy? That raises its own questions.
1. What's your favorite Christmas Carol?
2. Where would you say is the worst place to be on Christmas Day?
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What's something you're dying to play, but no GM has let you (something crazy, like an Awakened Monkey Gunslinger)? What's your favourite race and class?
A half-demon!
Favorite race = three-way tie between human, elf, and tiefling.
Favorite class = three-way tie between cleric, rogue, and bard.
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Hi James,
Sorry if it's been asked before and I missed it, but just curious if you were able to say what you contributed to the 5th Edition DMG? I was just having a look at my copy and noticed a James Jacobs under the additional contributors.
Huh.
Really!
Guess I need to get a 5th Edition DMG and look and see! My guess is something they picked up from something I did for 3rd edition... I didn't actually help work on the book itself.
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1. Can you sum up what makes:
A. A good GM? B. A good player?2. Will the Pathfinder MMO use the rules set from the tabletop game for character generatioon and play, similar to how NWN2 used 3.5?
If so, do you plan to start core only?
A) A good GM = a good combination of creativity, ability to improv, and being open to learning and improving the skills.
A good player = someone who respects the game the GM is running, respects the other players, and doesn't surf on his/her phone/tablet during the game.2) Nope. It's using its own rules. Partially because of complications with the rules and OGL and how that interfaces with video games, but also because Pathfinder MMO is focusing on different things and game play elements than the RPG does.
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At what age did you start playing table top RPGs and what was the first system you played? Ever play Mordheim?I started playing RPGs with the 1977 edition of D&D in 5th grade in 1982; I was 10 years old at the time.
I've never played Mordheim.
My parents had that, although they never played it. Theirs was a later printing that didn't have dice and came with "In Search of the Unknown". I can remember as a kid sitting on the floor for hours just examining the map for that module. When I got around to playing, I was probably around 12 and used that map in our first game.
So, when are you going to start working on that megadungeon AP?
Are you familiar with the series Berserk? Given how you like dark fantasy, you might be interested.
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At what age did you start playing table top RPGs and what was the first system you played? Ever play Mordheim?I started playing RPGs with the 1977 edition of D&D in 5th grade in 1982; I was 10 years old at the time.
I've never played Mordheim.
My parents had that, although they never played it. Theirs was a later printing that didn't have dice and came with "In Search of the Unknown". I can remember as a kid sitting on the floor for hours just examining the map for that module. When I got around to playing, I was probably around 12 and used that map in our first game.
So, when are you going to start working on that megadungeon AP?
Probably not anytime soon. Got a bunch of things I need to do before that.
Why is/was Aroden listed as a LN deity? He seemed pretty proactively good, especially towards humans, and Iomedae agreed to be his herald, which doesn't seem like something she'd do for someone she didn't think was a solid dude. I mean, he protected nations, went out of his way to fight demon-lords, and even personally gave Tar-Baphon a whoopin'. How is/was he not considered good in the face of all that? Did he kick babies when nobody was looking?
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Why is/was Aroden listed as a LN deity? He seemed pretty proactively good, especially towards humans, and Iomedae agreed to be his herald, which doesn't seem like something she'd do for someone she didn't think was a solid dude. I mean, he protected nations, went out of his way to fight demon-lords, and even personally gave Tar-Baphon a whoopin'. How is/was he not considered good in the face of all that? Did he kick babies when nobody was looking?
Because he was lawful neutral, and was as much a patron of evil humans as he was good humans. And because you don't have to be good-aligned to have a rivalry with a lich. Nor does a non-good creature have to kick babies to be non-good.
Humanity is in and of itself netural overall, after all; that's why he's neutral as well.
Good afternoon James, hope things are fabulous for you today.
If you were going to take one of the castaway NPCs from Souls for Smuggler's Shiv out on a first date, which would it be and what would you take him/her to do?
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I searched over internet and can't find decisive answer. Do tiny creatures provoke attack of opportunity when they make a 5 foot step into opponent's square. Under rules it says 5 foot never provokes, but entering does provoke. Does NEVER trumps that?? Thanks for an answer in advance!
Good question for the rules boards, the design team, and a FAQ tag.
For what it's worth, though, I'd say yes, they provoke.
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Good afternoon James, hope things are fabulous for you today.
If you were going to take one of the castaway NPCs from Souls for Smuggler's Shiv out on a first date, which would it be and what would you take him/her to do?
Sasha! Somewhere nice that didn't have sharp knives.
Mr, James Jacobs,
I thought of a premise and thought it would make for an interesting reality TV show...
What should I do for penance?
I hope you have a very merry christmas..this first christmas without my wife has been sad and strange....ive fallen behind on so many books in the last few months..just wanted to let you know that i think glorian is the greatest of all the currently published rpg worlds
James what are the requirements for Pummeling Style? Do you have to have +6 BAB in addition to Flurry of Blows or does having Flurry of Blows mean you don't need the +6 BAB?
Pummeling Style (Combat, Style)
You collect all your power into a single vicious and debilitating punch.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike; base attack bonus +6, brawler's flurry class feature, or flurry of blows class feature.
Benefit: As a full-round action, you can pool all your attack potential in one devastating punch. Make a number of rolls equal to the number of attacks you can make with a full attack or a flurry of blows (your choice) with the normal attack bonus for each attack. For each roll that is a hit, you deal the normal amount of damage, adding it to any damage the attack has already dealt from previous rolls (if any). If any of the attack rolls are critical threats, make one confirmation roll for the entire attack at your highest base attack bonus. If it succeeds, the entire attack is a confirmed critical hit.
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James,
How do you feel about the movie A Christmas Story?
Would you be jealous if I told you my brother and I went to a Quote-Along Screening last night?
Might you be jealous if I told you the same theater was going to have a Monty Python's Holy Grail quote along on January 2nd?
It's entertaining, but not in my top 100 movies.
Nah. In fact, I don't really enjoy watching movies with outher people talking during them AT ALL, unless they're professionals at it and make MST3K or Riff Trax.
Nope. In fact, the idea of watching a movie I DO like and IS in my top 100 while a theater of people talk along with it kinda makes me queasy. ;P
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James what are the requirements for Pummeling Style? Do you have to have +6 BAB in addition to Flurry of Blows or does having Flurry of Blows mean you don't need the +6 BAB?
Pummeling Style (Combat, Style)
You collect all your power into a single vicious and debilitating punch.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike; base attack bonus +6, brawler's flurry class feature, or flurry of blows class feature.
Benefit: As a full-round action, you can pool all your attack potential in one devastating punch. Make a number of rolls equal to the number of attacks you can make with a full attack or a flurry of blows (your choice) with the normal attack bonus for each attack. For each roll that is a hit, you deal the normal amount of damage, adding it to any damage the attack has already dealt from previous rolls (if any). If any of the attack rolls are critical threats, make one confirmation roll for the entire attack at your highest base attack bonus. If it succeeds, the entire attack is a confirmed critical hit.
It says base attack bonus +6, so why wouldn't it require that? Of course it requires that.
It says base attack bonus +6, so why wouldn't it require that? Of course it requires that.James what are the requirements for Pummeling Style? Do you have to have +6 BAB in addition to Flurry of Blows or does having Flurry of Blows mean you don't need the +6 BAB?
Pummeling Style (Combat, Style)
You collect all your power into a single vicious and debilitating punch.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike; base attack bonus +6, brawler's flurry class feature, or flurry of blows class feature.
Benefit: As a full-round action, you can pool all your attack potential in one devastating punch. Make a number of rolls equal to the number of attacks you can make with a full attack or a flurry of blows (your choice) with the normal attack bonus for each attack. For each roll that is a hit, you deal the normal amount of damage, adding it to any damage the attack has already dealt from previous rolls (if any). If any of the attack rolls are critical threats, make one confirmation roll for the entire attack at your highest base attack bonus. If it succeeds, the entire attack is a confirmed critical hit.
I think it's because it lists Improved Unarmed Strike with a semicolon following it, but the following requirements are only listed with commas.
I think it's because it lists Improved Unarmed Strike with a semicolon following it, but the following requirements are only listed with commas.It says base attack bonus +6, so why wouldn't it require that? Of course it requires that.James what are the requirements for Pummeling Style? Do you have to have +6 BAB in addition to Flurry of Blows or does having Flurry of Blows mean you don't need the +6 BAB?
Pummeling Style (Combat, Style)
You collect all your power into a single vicious and debilitating punch.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike; base attack bonus +6, brawler's flurry class feature, or flurry of blows class feature.
Benefit: As a full-round action, you can pool all your attack potential in one devastating punch. Make a number of rolls equal to the number of attacks you can make with a full attack or a flurry of blows (your choice) with the normal attack bonus for each attack. For each roll that is a hit, you deal the normal amount of damage, adding it to any damage the attack has already dealt from previous rolls (if any). If any of the attack rolls are critical threats, make one confirmation roll for the entire attack at your highest base attack bonus. If it succeeds, the entire attack is a confirmed critical hit.
Manny interpret that statement to mean "Improved Unarmed Strike and any of the following: BAB +6, brawler's flurry, or flurry of blows."
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Manny interpret that statement to mean "Improved Unarmed Strike and any of the following: BAB +6, brawler's flurry, or flurry of blows."I think it's because it lists Improved Unarmed Strike with a semicolon following it, but the following requirements are only listed with commas.It says base attack bonus +6, so why wouldn't it require that? Of course it requires that.James what are the requirements for Pummeling Style? Do you have to have +6 BAB in addition to Flurry of Blows or does having Flurry of Blows mean you don't need the +6 BAB?
Pummeling Style (Combat, Style)
You collect all your power into a single vicious and debilitating punch.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike; base attack bonus +6, brawler's flurry class feature, or flurry of blows class feature.
Benefit: As a full-round action, you can pool all your attack potential in one devastating punch. Make a number of rolls equal to the number of attacks you can make with a full attack or a flurry of blows (your choice) with the normal attack bonus for each attack. For each roll that is a hit, you deal the normal amount of damage, adding it to any damage the attack has already dealt from previous rolls (if any). If any of the attack rolls are critical threats, make one confirmation roll for the entire attack at your highest base attack bonus. If it succeeds, the entire attack is a confirmed critical hit.
This is particularly true given that it's successor Feat Pummeling charge has the prerequisites of:
Improved Unarmed Strike, Pummeling Style; base attack bonus +12, brawler level 8th, or monk level 8th.
Which make vastly more sense if you read the last three as 'you need any one of the following', at least to most.
Yes. That pesky semicolon has created an entire build around level 1 Sacred Fist take Pummeling Style due to having the Flurry of Blows class feature, Level 2 take Master of Many Styles to take Pummeling Charge.
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Nope. In fact, the idea of watching a movie I DO like and IS in my top 100 while a theater of people talk along with it kinda makes me queasy. ;P
+1 to this.
Even worse is going to a concert (I'm a classical music fan) and having the guy next to you hum along. I came to hear the performers, not your off-key singalong!
I may be anti-social, but I also get extremely annoyed when the entire audience starts clapping along with music. (E.g., "Stars and Stripes Forever" is a rousing march, but, damn, you can never hear the thing anymore. I did once see John Williams conducting the Boston Pops, and he did a great job managing that. When the big loud march part started, and the audience started clapping, he turned around and encouraged it. Which I sighed at... but, then, when it got quiet again, or it was the part where it's all about the piccolo and not the loud brass, he turned around and cut off the audience, and they stopped clapping. I don't like the clapping at all, but if you have to have it, Williams handled it perfectly.)
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Manny interpret that statement to mean "Improved Unarmed Strike and any of the following: BAB +6, brawler's flurry, or flurry of blows."I think it's because it lists Improved Unarmed Strike with a semicolon following it, but the following requirements are only listed with commas.It says base attack bonus +6, so why wouldn't it require that? Of course it requires that.James what are the requirements for Pummeling Style? Do you have to have +6 BAB in addition to Flurry of Blows or does having Flurry of Blows mean you don't need the +6 BAB?
Pummeling Style (Combat, Style)
You collect all your power into a single vicious and debilitating punch.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike; base attack bonus +6, brawler's flurry class feature, or flurry of blows class feature.
Benefit: As a full-round action, you can pool all your attack potential in one devastating punch. Make a number of rolls equal to the number of attacks you can make with a full attack or a flurry of blows (your choice) with the normal attack bonus for each attack. For each roll that is a hit, you deal the normal amount of damage, adding it to any damage the attack has already dealt from previous rolls (if any). If any of the attack rolls are critical threats, make one confirmation roll for the entire attack at your highest base attack bonus. If it succeeds, the entire attack is a confirmed critical hit.
Ah.... yup! That's correct. You only need one of those three things to qualify. Monks and brawlers qualify early, but other folks need to wait.
If that's not good enough, of course... it's time to take it to the rules boards for an FAQ. But that is indeed what's written.
If you could take anyone in the Pathfinder universe out to dinner, who would you take and why?
And where would you take them?