Creative Director
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Does that mean that outsiders (and other beings that can plane shift) have just as easy a time accessing the deep regions of the Dark Tapestry as anywhere else?I have a question concerning the cosmological structure of the universe. Are there parts of the material plane that are "further away" from other planes? To clarify, it seems there is a lot of spillage and plane shifting between Golarion and other planes, but are places deep in the Dark Tapestry (like where Elder Gods might be) harder to access, from other planes as well as on the material plane?Not really. Places like the Dark Tapestry are hard to access because of the physical distance involved and that's about it.
It does... although Plane Shift is hardly an exact science, and you can't teleport onto something that is incapable of supporting your weight, so for most creatures, teleporting into deep space isn't allowed.
You still have to also KNOW where your'e going if you do that, and, well, deep space (AKA the Dark Tapestry) is a vast region with little landmarks...
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Hmmm. Can creature with starflight teleport into deep space, though?
Huh. Do you require teleporting creatures to come in at ground level, even if they can fly?
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Creative Director
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Hmmm. Can creature with starflight teleport into deep space, though?
Huh. Do you require teleporting creatures to come in at ground level, even if they can fly?
The way the rules are written, yes, a teleporting or summoned creature must appear standing on a surface that can bear its weight. A flying creature can fly, of course, and thus can be borne aloft, but the rules themselves are silent on if exactly this is a legitimate option... but if it were, in this case, you'd need starflight or a similar ability to teleport into space.
A good question for the Rules FAQ in fact.
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If someone royally ticks off an archdevil, how much leeway would they have to pursue their vengeance? I'm guessing Moloch can't just send an army to Golarion if someone kills one of his best generals...
They could, but that type of thing tends to start arms races. If Moloch did that, an empyreal lord or 5 might just do the same to defend the PC, and then Asmodeous might get involved, and then Desna, and so on. Suddenly you've got an escalation that ends up destroying a lot more people than anyone wants.
And so they have to be subtle. This type of thing is EXACTLY what a deity's faithful are for. A character ticks off an archdevil (or anyone else of that power or more) would certainly find themselves hunted by the church of that archdevil, and the strength of that church determines how big a deal that is. There are, of course, members of any church capable of casting spells like planar ally or even gate, which itself may just be able to call in Moloch. Once a mortal calls such a deity to the world... that's "legit" and doesn't result in divine arms races.
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Creative Director
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Isn't the planetary surface a limit even for Greater Teleport? After all if you can use the standard Teleport spells to go into space, what's the point of having a 9th level Interplanetary Teleport spell?Hmmm. Can creature with starflight teleport into deep space, though?
Huh. Do you require teleporting creatures to come in at ground level, even if they can fly?
The way the rules are written, yes, a teleporting or summoned creature must appear standing on a surface that can bear its weight. A flying creature can fly, of course, and thus can be borne aloft, but the rules themselves are silent on if exactly this is a legitimate option... but if it were, in this case, you'd need starflight or a similar ability to teleport into space.
A good question for the Rules FAQ in fact.
It's a bit of a back-end patch, but greater teleport has sort of been ret-conned so that it's basically limited to the planet you are on. Interplanetary teleport is the one you use to teleport between planets, and even then, you need to "land" on the planet.
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Creative Director
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Speaking of teleportation, have you read Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination"? Among it's story conceits are a society where teleportation has become as common an ability as literacy, maybe even more so. Alfred Bester is whom one of Babylon 5's serial villains was named for.
I have not read it.
My favorite story about teleportation is Stephen King's "The Jaunt."
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Which of the occult classes changed the most from the playtest? Which the least?
If you had a new occult campaign comming, which occult class would you use?
Who is your favorite occult iconic?
Does psychic spellcasting let's you qualify for PrC like arcane thief or eldritch knight?
Do you use any house rules or 3rd party in your home games, or Paizo only?
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Creative Director
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King's title is an homage to Bester's novel. Jaunt is derived from "jaunte" the word used for teleportation as the process was named after it's discoverer.
Speaking of teleportation, have you read Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination"? Among it's story conceits are a society where teleportation has become as common an ability as literacy, maybe even more so. Alfred Bester is whom one of Babylon 5's serial villains was named for.
I have not read it.
My favorite story about teleportation is Stephen King's "The Jaunt."
Huh; interesting!
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Creative Director
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Which of the occult classes changed the most from the playtest? Which the least?
If you had a new occult campaign comming, which occult class would you use?
Who is your favorite occult iconic?
Does psychic spellcasting let's you qualify for PrC like arcane thief or eldritch knight?
Do you use any house rules or 3rd party in your home games, or Paizo only?
I have no idea; I didn't take part in the playtest, nor have I read any of the classes themselves. And furthermore, now is not the time for me to reveal that information even if I could; the book's only a few months away and I don't want to steal its thunder.
Medium.
Either the Medium or the Psychic.
Not gonna say.
I use very few house rules, since most of the rules you see in Pathfinder were informed by my (and others here at Paizo) house rules. The two that immediately come to mind that I use:
Versatile Performance: When a bard gains a new versatile performance, I let the bard completely reallocate her skill ranks, and I let things that modify those skills also work with perform (so a dancing bard can gain the advantage of boots of elvenkind, for example).
Breath of Life: This spell is called cure deadly wounds in my games, so that clerics can swap spells out to cast it.
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Hi James,
What is the largest named Diamond on Golarion called?
Where do the majority of high premium diamonds come from on Golarion?
Is there any jewel more valuable than a Diamond on Golarion?
Bonus question, who is historically the greatest known jewel thief on Golarion?
I played RotR twice now and as a player I noticed that Burnt Offerings was inspired by Gremlins and other suburban critter movies, but it wasn't until I was tasked to GM the AP and read through both the 3.5 version and the AE in preparation, that I noticed how much like Twin Peaks Sandpoint could be.
Now, I certainly didn't intend to build up on that similarity that much, in fact, I GM RotR very close to the books with only small changes so far (giving Shalelu another entrance to the story and including Katrine Vinder and Banny Harker more and sooner to get a bigger impact later on) and didn't include anything specifically Twin Peaksy as far as I knew.
But yesterday, after the fourth session, one of my players told me how much she likes that the AP is basically Twin Peaks in a fantasy setting, so obviously I either did subconsciously GM something closer to the series that I intented OR the similarities between Sandpoint and Twin Peaks are closer than I even noticed.
Long story short and to finally come to the question: Were those similarities intended? I don't see them mentioned elsewhere.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
What is the largest named Diamond on Golarion called?
Where do the majority of high premium diamonds come from on Golarion?
Is there any jewel more valuable than a Diamond on Golarion?
Bonus question, who is historically the greatest known jewel thief on Golarion?
Unrevealed.
Probably Garund.
Yes; Nahyndrian Crystals come to mind, although they're not really FROM Golarion...
Unrevealed
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Creative Director
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I played RotR twice now and as a player I noticed that Burnt Offerings was inspired by Gremlins and other suburban critter movies, but it wasn't until I was tasked to GM the AP and read through both the 3.5 version and the AE in preparation, that I noticed how much like Twin Peaks Sandpoint could be.
Now, I certainly didn't intend to build up on that similarity that much, in fact, I GM RotR very close to the books with only small changes so far (giving Shalelu another entrance to the story and including Katrine Vinder and Banny Harker more and sooner to get a bigger impact later on) and didn't include anything specifically Twin Peaksy as far as I knew.
But yesterday, after the fourth session, one of my players told me how much she likes that the AP is basically Twin Peaks in a fantasy setting, so obviously I either did subconsciously GM something closer to the series that I intented OR the similarities between Sandpoint and Twin Peaks are closer than I even noticed.
Long story short and to finally come to the question: Were those similarities intended? I don't see them mentioned elsewhere.
That's interesting, considering I've never seen any episodes of Twin Peaks (I know... it's a character flaw). The fact that Sandpoint is based pretty heavily on my home town of Point Arena and that those inspirations might evoke a Twin Peaks vibe amuses me though.
But yeah... things like Junk Beach, Schooner Gulch, the mirror sign, the "Japan" link, the presence of a theater in a small town where you might not expect a big theater, and a lot more are direct inspirations from my home town ported directly into Sandpoint.
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Are there any really 'famous' crimes, like daring robberies, or jewel heists, that have taken place and are talked about for ages on Golarion?
If so, can you name any?
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Hi James, I have timeline question. Why is the timeline static. Is it so products don't become dated? It would be nice IMO for events too resolve and progress.
In PFS it would be nice if the pathfinders could effect society as a whole by their actions. It would also be nice if the agents were recognized socially for their that benefit their home nations or the nations that their actions benefit, by recognized I mean being granted peerage in that nation.
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Mr. Jacobs,
Ad and some fellow players were discussing the finer details and mechanics behind magics such as Summon Monster. Now, we are well aware of how they function on Golarion according to your rulings, however that has led us to a question.
What of the other "Summon X" spells such as "Summon Nature's Ally"? Do they just create some kind of magical mold and fill it with magical nature juice to create a generic copy? Are they summoned from actual animals? Or is there ay other reason?
Also as a side note: Why is Summon Monster a Conjuration(summoning) effect when, according to your rulings, it would make more sense to be a Conjuration(creation) effect since you are creating a brand new copy of the outsider from scratch into the world?
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Creative Director
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Hi James, I have timeline question. Why is the timeline static. Is it so products don't become dated? It would be nice IMO for events too resolve and progress.
In PFS it would be nice if the pathfinders could effect society as a whole by their actions. It would also be nice if the agents were recognized socially for their that benefit their home nations or the nations that their actions benefit, by recognized I mean being granted peerage in that nation.
It's because we don't want every single product we produce to add that many pages to the amount of words GMs or our authors need to be an expert on in order to write for the game or run games. It's also because we don't want to set up an implication that in order to get the full use out of the 45th Adventure Path or the 87th Campaign Setting that you HAVE to buy the ones that come before. It's a way to combat the "buy in" to the game to the new customer.
As for the PFS organized play campaign, this is precisely what the prestige point system for factions is meant to emmulate, but beyond that, due to the nature of the campaign, which is akin to a MMO with tens of thousands of simultaneous players who may or may not interact at any one game it's effectively impossible to grant any one player a modicum of agency over world change. That's something that works a LOT better with home games.
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Creative Director
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Mr. Jacobs,
Ad and some fellow players were discussing the finer details and mechanics behind magics such as Summon Monster. Now, we are well aware of how they function on Golarion according to your rulings, however that has led us to a question.
What of the other "Summon X" spells such as "Summon Nature's Ally"? Do they just create some kind of magical mold and fill it with magical nature juice to create a generic copy? Are they summoned from actual animals? Or is there ay other reason?
Also as a side note: Why is Summon Monster a Conjuration(summoning) effect when, according to your rulings, it would make more sense to be a Conjuration(creation) effect since you are creating a brand new copy of the outsider from scratch into the world?
Any spell effect that summons something and has the (summoning) subschool works that way; essentially summoning an archytypical personification of the ideal. You're summoning a manifestation of the wolf when you use summon nature's ally to summon wolves, not a real wolf that has a life before or after the spell ends. It has nothing to do with the nature of the creature's type.
They're not (creation) spells because those spells are more about creating non-living effects or material, and often the things that a creation spell creates last forever, or for a long time. Summoning spells are meant to be short-lived things that manifest life for a very short period of time.
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Contributor
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Speaking of teleportation, have you read Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination"? Among it's story conceits are a society where teleportation has become as common an ability as literacy, maybe even more so. Alfred Bester is whom one of Babylon 5's serial villains was named for.
I have not read it.
My favorite story about teleportation is Stephen King's "The Jaunt."
Longer than you think...
Do you think a shining child would work as the entity in Room 1408?
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I have a question, due to a situation that came up in my Runelords game.
How many gnomes (approximately) are living in the Sanos Forest?
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Who would win in a fight:
CHUCK NORRIS vs Cthulu
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CHUCK NORRIS is Cthulu
His beard hides the tentacles.
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Creative Director
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I have a question, due to a situation that came up in my Runelords game.
How many gnomes (approximately) are living in the Sanos Forest?
As many as make sense for the particular story you want to tell.
If, off the top of my head I had to decide on a number, I'd say 500, though. Maybe 1,000. It's not really something I've given much thought to though.
I have a question, due to a situation that came up in my Runelords game.
How many gnomes (approximately) are living in the Sanos Forest?
As many as make sense for the particular story you want to tell.
If, off the top of my head I had to decide on a number, I'd say 500, though. Maybe 1,000. It's not really something I've given much thought to though.
Thanks. Maybe THAT will convince him he can't drain the lake by building canals through the Kreegwoods and the Shimmerglens.
Sigh....
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Creative Director
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I have a question, due to a situation that came up in my Runelords game.
How many gnomes (approximately) are living in the Sanos Forest?
As many as make sense for the particular story you want to tell.
If, off the top of my head I had to decide on a number, I'd say 500, though. Maybe 1,000. It's not really something I've given much thought to though.
Thanks. Maybe THAT will convince him he can't drain the lake by building canals through the Kreegwoods and the Shimmerglens.
Sigh....
That's the question you SHOULD have asked: "What's stopping someone from draining the lake?" The answer is there's a LOT of dangerous fey and messed-up evil spirits in the Shimmerglens that would take offense at that. And then, of course, you could always have a giant turtle come out of the lake, roused from its slumber by the advance of industry and compelled to crush the canals. As seen in pretty much every nature-run-amok movie from the late 70s.
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The way the rules are written, yes, a teleporting or summoned creature must appear standing on a surface that can bear its weight. A flying creature can fly, of course, and thus can be borne aloft, but the rules themselves are silent on if exactly this is a legitimate option... but if it were, in this case, you'd need starflight or a similar ability to teleport into space.
A good question for the Rules FAQ in fact.
So no teleporting to the middle of a lake, or the ocean? Rats. I had this idea... but never mind.
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Speaking of teleportation, have you read Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination"?
Gully Foyle is my name,
And Terra is my nation.Deep Space is my dwelling place,
The Stars My Destination."
"Cogito, ergo Jaunteo."
:-)
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I'm sure there are, but I"m not remembering any off the top of my head.Are there any really 'famous' crimes, like daring robberies, or jewel heists, that have taken place and are talked about for ages on Golarion?
If so, can you name any?
This is an interesting idea though, would you guys ever do a Heists of Golarion type book? Detailing vast vaults of treasure and rumors, myths and legends of daring thieves that broke them open? I envision this book would be similar to how you guys did Dungeons of Golarion?
Will Hell's Vengeance be about undoing what the PCs in Council of Thieves did?
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That's the question you SHOULD have asked: "What's stopping someone from draining the lake?" The answer is there's a LOT of dangerous fey and messed-up evil spirits in the Shimmerglens that would take offense at that. And then, of course, you could always have a giant turtle come out of the lake, roused from its slumber by the advance of industry and compelled to crush the canals. As seen in pretty much every nature-run-amok movie from the late 70s.I have a question, due to a situation that came up in my Runelords game.
How many gnomes (approximately) are living in the Sanos Forest?
As many as make sense for the particular story you want to tell.
If, off the top of my head I had to decide on a number, I'd say 500, though. Maybe 1,000. It's not really something I've given much thought to though.
Thanks. Maybe THAT will convince him he can't drain the lake by building canals through the Kreegwoods and the Shimmerglens.
Sigh....
That actually WAS my plan. He was expecting gnomish druids to aid him because his backstory said he'd saved a settlement of gnomes form an (unidentified) threat and they thought of him as almost god-like. I was hoping to have a number to persuade him that not every gnome there was a friend.
Turns out to be not necessary, as he quit the game when I pointed out that even if he managed it - which would take almost a year, even with magic - that doubling the outflow from the lake would cause flooding (hey, I'm 63, I grew up in Pittsburgh, I know river floods) and he (and the rest of the group) would be held responsible for the damage, probably even having it regarded as a criminal act.
Sigh...
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Creative Director
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So no teleporting to the middle of a lake, or the ocean? Rats. I had this idea... but never mind.The way the rules are written, yes, a teleporting or summoned creature must appear standing on a surface that can bear its weight. A flying creature can fly, of course, and thus can be borne aloft, but the rules themselves are silent on if exactly this is a legitimate option... but if it were, in this case, you'd need starflight or a similar ability to teleport into space.
A good question for the Rules FAQ in fact.
No conjuration spells at all to do that, including summon monster spells. UNLESS you can stand on the water.
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Creative Director
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I'm sure there are, but I"m not remembering any off the top of my head.Are there any really 'famous' crimes, like daring robberies, or jewel heists, that have taken place and are talked about for ages on Golarion?
If so, can you name any?
This is an interesting idea though, would you guys ever do a Heists of Golarion type book? Detailing vast vaults of treasure and rumors, myths and legends of daring thieves that broke them open? I envision this book would be similar to how you guys did Dungeons of Golarion?
Probably not. That sounds more interesting as an adventure. We've done some heist type adventures before...
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Creative Director
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Will Hell's Vengeance be about undoing what the PCs in Council of Thieves did?
No. If the PCs of Hell's Vengeance do their job right, they'll restore Westcrown, which will change during the AP from what the PCs did regardless of how they finished Council of Thieves. Whether or not you want to undo what your Council of Thieves AP resulted in will mostly be left to you and your players, I suspect. That said, there's a LOT more going on in Hell's Vengeance... it's MUCH bigger in scope than Council of Thieves.
And of course, as with ALL APs, we won't be assuming anything about Westcrown at all for those who haven't played this AP or Council of Thieves.
Hello James, a quick question on tieflings.
So I get how some evil outsiders just love messing with mortals, and others really on mortals for reproduction, but how do creatures like daemon-spawns or qliphoth-spawn come to be? Those outsiders are not very likely to search for love or make their way with humans, is it just crazy magic, taint and experiments then?
So I've come to terms with the fact that I'm REALLY bad at outlining adventures and campaigns, both for my home games and for my writing. Do you have any tips for someone looking to improve their ability outline and built more cohesive storylines?
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Creative Director
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Hello James, a quick question on tieflings.
So I get how some evil outsiders just love messing with mortals, and others really on mortals for reproduction, but how do creatures like daemon-spawns or qliphoth-spawn come to be? Those outsiders are not very likely to search for love or make their way with humans, is it just crazy magic, taint and experiments then?
There's always folks willing to conjure up outsiders to use them to make their own half-fiends. It's not always the fiend looking to cause the situation, in other words. IN fact, I suspect it's more often the non-fiend side looking to initiate things. And when planar binding and other spells are in effect... the outsider generally doesn't get to make the choices as to why they've been conjured.
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Creative Director
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So I've come to terms with the fact that I'm REALLY bad at outlining adventures and campaigns, both for my home games and for my writing. Do you have any tips for someone looking to improve their ability outline and built more cohesive storylines?
Keep at it; practice is important. And study published adventures—how they're set up, organized, and presented. Make some reverse-engineered outlines of adventure to see what one would look like, perhaps, by summarizing a published adventure into a 500 word or 1,000 word bullet point list?
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Will Hell's Vengeance be about undoing what the PCs in Council of Thieves did?No. If the PCs of Hell's Vengeance do their job right, they'll restore Westcrown, which will change during the AP from what the PCs did regardless of how they finished Council of Thieves. Whether or not you want to undo what your Council of Thieves AP resulted in will mostly be left to you and your players, I suspect. That said, there's a LOT more going on in Hell's Vengeance... it's MUCH bigger in scope than Council of Thieves.
And of course, as with ALL APs, we won't be assuming anything about Westcrown at all for those who haven't played this AP or Council of Thieves.
Would you say that a group could run Council of Thieves after Hell's Vengeance as easily as HV after CoT?
(Thanks for getting away from the S'sS, S&S, SS initials here lately, btw!)
James,
In the Pathfinder setting, to what extent are intelligent undead the same entity they used to be, and to what extent are they a new, malign entity that is based on the memories and personality of the original?