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How many legs does a kithangian have? The description says it is part horse and part scorpion, and there isn't a picture or a (x vs. trip) beside his CMD. Also... kithangians are super icky.

Thanks for being so available to your many, many fans! I love this thread.

Grand Lodge

Jacobs,

Back in that gray-time after the mags were gone but before the Core Book was published, I remember Paizo published a list of Demon Lord names that were not developed for Golarion, merely named in a list and allowed forgotten (or used in Homegames). It was a great continuance of tradition that started in the '83 MMII (from where we got Socothbenoth and Nocticula among others years and years later).

One of those Deom Lords was named something like "Vaz'zt" or "Vhazzt" but I can't remember precisely and can't find it. For me it sounded a bit like Graz'zt and, of course, would not be developed further.

Can you name him here, please?


Hm... If the GM made a mistake and reported a session as non-Core, deleted the campaign and replaced it with a Core one, but our characters have still been infected by the disease of "Non-Coreness" should we wait for the mistake to be fixed before playing the character in more Core scenarios (which might effect some of us because we had games planned) or should we just continue to play normally?


Would you consider the Hunter more of a "combat role" or "skill role" class for monster NPCs? Or is it never a key class, like the monk and paladin?


Japan has accepted America's challenge for a giant robot battle!

Are you going to watch it?


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Just saw this post and thought, "Psychic Vigilante PC."

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Which version of this name feels better for a half-elf?

ORENDEL or ORENTIL?

I'd go with the first one. The second one looks like you tried (and failed) to write "oriental."

Good point. Thanks! :)

Sorta awkward question requiring images:

What kind of spears are these? I'm unsure as to whether they're spears or longspears.

Could be either. Look kinda short to me for longspears though.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Joe loves Rules wrote:

How many legs does a kithangian have? The description says it is part horse and part scorpion, and there isn't a picture or a (x vs. trip) beside his CMD. Also... kithangians are super icky.

Thanks for being so available to your many, many fans! I love this thread.

There is indeed a picture of it in the book, but I can't remember off the top of my head how many legs it has. Eight or ten? Not sure. Someone out there surely has a copy of the Worldwound handy to count it up...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

W E Ray wrote:

Jacobs,

Back in that gray-time after the mags were gone but before the Core Book was published, I remember Paizo published a list of Demon Lord names that were not developed for Golarion, merely named in a list and allowed forgotten (or used in Homegames). It was a great continuance of tradition that started in the '83 MMII (from where we got Socothbenoth and Nocticula among others years and years later).

One of those Deom Lords was named something like "Vaz'zt" or "Vhazzt" but I can't remember precisely and can't find it. For me it sounded a bit like Graz'zt and, of course, would not be developed further.

Can you name him here, please?

I'm pretty sure Paizo didn't publish that list. I believe you're remembering the list that appeared in Green Ronin's "Book of Fiends," which was in fact written in part by Erik Mona... but was not a Paizo product.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Alexander S. Modeus wrote:
Hm... If the GM made a mistake and reported a session as non-Core, deleted the campaign and replaced it with a Core one, but our characters have still been infected by the disease of "Non-Coreness" should we wait for the mistake to be fixed before playing the character in more Core scenarios (which might effect some of us because we had games planned) or should we just continue to play normally?

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Is this a PFS question? If so, you should ask the PFS folks. I'm not really all that involved in PFS at all.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Filby Pott wrote:
Would you consider the Hunter more of a "combat role" or "skill role" class for monster NPCs? Or is it never a key class, like the monk and paladin?

I'd treat it as a combat role, I guess. I'm not super familiar with the hunter and can't really say off the top of my head. When in doubt, though, just build the monster and look at its stats and compare the numbers to those on Table 1-1 in the Bestairy and just assign CR as that table suggests.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Tels wrote:

Japan has accepted America's challenge for a giant robot battle!

Are you going to watch it?

No plans to do so. I'll probably just check the internet the next day to see what happened. Dunno. It's months away still, isn't it? A lot can happen in that time...

Silver Crusade Contributor

James Jacobs wrote:
Joe loves Rules wrote:

How many legs does a kithangian have? The description says it is part horse and part scorpion, and there isn't a picture or a (x vs. trip) beside his CMD. Also... kithangians are super icky.

Thanks for being so available to your many, many fans! I love this thread.

There is indeed a picture of it in the book, but I can't remember off the top of my head how many legs it has. Eight or ten? Not sure. Someone out there surely has a copy of the Worldwound handy to count it up...

I had it two minutes after the question was asked... I didn't want to step on your toes, though. ^_^

The kithangian pictured is a biped. It stands on two horselike, hoofed legs. (Couldn't find the picture on the Web to link...)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Kalindlara wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Joe loves Rules wrote:

How many legs does a kithangian have? The description says it is part horse and part scorpion, and there isn't a picture or a (x vs. trip) beside his CMD. Also... kithangians are super icky.

Thanks for being so available to your many, many fans! I love this thread.

There is indeed a picture of it in the book, but I can't remember off the top of my head how many legs it has. Eight or ten? Not sure. Someone out there surely has a copy of the Worldwound handy to count it up...

I had it two minutes after the question was asked... I didn't want to step on your toes, though. ^_^

The kithangian pictured is a biped. It stands on two horselike, hoofed legs. (Couldn't find the picture on the Web to link...)

Ah; there ya go. That's why it doesn't have a modifier to its CMD then! All is well and good!

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

How long would army training in Molthune take? My closest comparisons in both ancient and modern armies seems to be that you're trained in a matter of weeks or months, but the starting ages in Pathfinder indicate that fighters spend at least one or more years in training depending on dice rolls and race (given the random starting age modifiers, a half-elf like I'm working on right now could spend two years training to be a fighter or as many as twelve). I'm confused as to what a character would be doing between boot camp and actually gaining their first class level, as combat experience (how a soldier gets promoted), would also cause a character to level up, which a character CAN'T do before taking their first level.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

How do you feel about the Kickstarter for the new edition of Blue Rose?


Ideal portrait for a highly ranked Asmodean priest or Chelaxian official or not?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
Kalindlara wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Joe loves Rules wrote:

How many legs does a kithangian have? The description says it is part horse and part scorpion, and there isn't a picture or a (x vs. trip) beside his CMD. Also... kithangians are super icky.

Thanks for being so available to your many, many fans! I love this thread.

There is indeed a picture of it in the book, but I can't remember off the top of my head how many legs it has. Eight or ten? Not sure. Someone out there surely has a copy of the Worldwound handy to count it up...

I had it two minutes after the question was asked... I didn't want to step on your toes, though. ^_^

The kithangian pictured is a biped. It stands on two horselike, hoofed legs. (Couldn't find the picture on the Web to link...)

Ah; there ya go. That's why it doesn't have a modifier to its CMD then! All is well and good!

Oops! You're right. There is totally a picture there. For some reason I didn't connect that it was same critter because I was imagining something on lots of legs. Thanks! :)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
How long would army training in Molthune take? My closest comparisons in both ancient and modern armies seems to be that you're trained in a matter of weeks or months, but the starting ages in Pathfinder indicate that fighters spend at least one or more years in training depending on dice rolls and race (given the random starting age modifiers, a half-elf like I'm working on right now could spend two years training to be a fighter or as many as twelve). I'm confused as to what a character would be doing between boot camp and actually gaining their first class level, as combat experience (how a soldier gets promoted), would also cause a character to level up, which a character CAN'T do before taking their first level.

Starting ages are mostly just for PCs, frankly. An NPC can take longer or shorter as story requires. Furthermore, XP are only for PCs. NPCs level up when the GM wants them to.

All of which means that you have a lot of flexibility in deciding how long a PC was in "basic training".

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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AlgaeNymph wrote:
How do you feel about the Kickstarter for the new edition of Blue Rose?

I threw in a pledge the day it launched... that's how I feel. AKA: Glad it's happening and that it's doing so well!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kajehase wrote:
Ideal portrait for a highly ranked Asmodean priest or Chelaxian official or not?

Not nearly enough pentagrams or Chelish crosses.


How many applications of poison are there in a vial of it? Does say, drow sleeping poison, bought from an alchemist, cover any more pieces of ammunition than it does melee weapons?


James Jacobs wrote:
I'm Hiding In Your Closet wrote:
What do Wayang voices tend to sound like?
Raspy and soft, like a piece of fine-grain sandpaper learned how to whisper.

Would Bryan Adams be a good example of this? (Link is Everything I Do, from Robin Hood)


Should I be worried about two aasimar in the same group?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Icyshadow wrote:
Should I be worried about two aasimar in the same group?

Nope. In fact, the more players who are aasimars, the better from a balance standpoint. It's a LOT easier to keep party balance when everyone's the same race.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

DoomedPaladin01 wrote:
How many applications of poison are there in a vial of it? Does say, drow sleeping poison, bought from an alchemist, cover any more pieces of ammunition than it does melee weapons?

The prices listed are for a single dose.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Tels wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
I'm Hiding In Your Closet wrote:
What do Wayang voices tend to sound like?
Raspy and soft, like a piece of fine-grain sandpaper learned how to whisper.
Would Bryan Adams be a good example of this? (Link is Everything I Do, from Robin Hood)

Eew. No.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Umm, so continuing from my previous problem with PFS shenanigans, is it bad idea to send PMs to you guys? I mean, are you people too busy to read them at all(or have too many private messages sent by fans) or have paizo employees pms disabled by default? ^_^;

Maybe I should just try creating a thread about it, but I'm not sure if that is correct way of doing it... Ah well, maybe I'll eventually get reply to the email I sent...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

CorvusMask wrote:

Umm, so continuing from my previous problem with PFS shenanigans, is it bad idea to send PMs to you guys? I mean, are you people too busy to read them at all(or have too many private messages sent by fans) or have paizo employees pms disabled by default? ^_^;

Maybe I should just try creating a thread about it, but I'm not sure if that is correct way of doing it... Ah well, maybe I'll eventually get reply to the email I sent...

Our PMs are not disabled.

I can only speak for myself—when people send me PMs, I try hard to reply to them as soon as I notice them.

That said, I can't really help with PFS problems, since I'm not really involved in that part of the business.

Email also works if you want to contact someone; all our emails are public here on the site.

Silver Crusade

Thanks again for the answers in the past!

1. I know you chimed in briefly over on the 'why aren't the drow extinct' thread, but I was somewhat curious. You provided the Doylist explanation for the continued survival of the drow despite having a somewhat crazy backstabber culture, what do you view as the Watsonian explanation?

2. I've noticed that the challenge rating of fey tends to result in creatures who are principally threats to low level parties (CR 3-), an occasional mid level one that operates solo, and high level fey. What would your suggestions for a campaign (APL 1-20ish) that heavily involved fey antagonists be?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Spook205 wrote:

Thanks again for the answers in the past!

1. I know you chimed in briefly over on the 'why aren't the drow extinct' thread, but I was somewhat curious. You provided the Doylist explanation for the continued survival of the drow despite having a somewhat crazy backstabber culture, what do you view as the Watsonian explanation?

2. I've noticed that the challenge rating of fey tends to result in creatures who are principally threats to low level parties (CR 3-), an occasional mid level one that operates solo, and high level fey. What would your suggestions for a campaign (APL 1-20ish) that heavily involved fey antagonists be?

1) Explain what you mean by a "Watsonian" explanation?

2) That's an artifact of 3rd edition D&D's design philosophy, and one we're trying to slowly move away from. The last few bestiaries have had several powerful fey in them, such as the norns. That said, fey are EXCELLENT monsters to bolster with class levels—we did this very thing with at least one Adventure Path I can think of off the top of my head for a campaign villain, and another for a module. Give the fey lots of class levels and presto... excellent villain!

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:


1) Explain what you mean by a "Watsonian" explanation?

Oh, its an old thing relating to Sherlock Holmes that got applied to larger fiction.

I don't have the exact option but if say people wondered why Sherlock managed to survive a fall off of Richenbacher Falls the Doylist (as in Arthur Conan Doyle) answer is 'I wanted the character to live,' the Watsonian answer (as in Holmes' friend Watson) would be 'Holmes managed to grab onto some of the rockface and then faked his death while recuperating in turkey.'

Basically Doylist is the out of character reasons. Watsonian is the in universe explanation.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Spook205 wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


1) Explain what you mean by a "Watsonian" explanation?

Oh, its an old thing relating to Sherlock Holmes that got applied to larger fiction.

I don't have the exact option but if say people wondered why Sherlock managed to survive a fall off of Richenbacher Falls the Doylist (as in Arthur Conan Doyle) answer is 'I wanted the character to live,' the Watsonian answer (as in Holmes' friend Watson) would be 'Holmes managed to grab onto some of the rockface and then faked his death while recuperating in turkey.'

Basically Doylist is the out of character reasons. Watsonian is the in universe explanation.

The in-universe one is becasue they have been protected by their demonic patrons, and because they're more able to survive the cruelties of the Darklands—Drow nobles have better stat mods and abilities than pretty much all other zero-HD races, after all, if the Race Builder Guide is to be believed.


Hey James,

Since you are a big fan of horror what are some of your favorite Horror RPGs?

Lantern Lodge

1) If a Talden human noble is to marry a Tian or Vudrani human noble, would other Talden nobles object or find such a union scandalous?

2) Or it doesn't matter as long as both are nobles? (And rich. :P)

3) What about the nobles from other inner sea countries? Would they have any objects to their fellows marrying nobles or commoners from other human ethnicities?


Which deities most strongly oppose and/or are opposed by Nyarlathotep?

Dark Archive

I am not sure, is this lady trying to cos play Merisiel?

Dark Archive

James how do you go about incorporating a new player to an established game?


Are scrolls of high level spells easily available in Golarion? Or are they rarities sought after and rarely found in stores?
For example can scroll of miracle be found in Magnimar or Absalom? Or one should travel to City of Brass to buy it? Essentially where a person can freely buy such scroll?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

John Kretzer wrote:

Hey James,

Since you are a big fan of horror what are some of your favorite Horror RPGs?

Call of Cthulhu is hands down my favorite RPG to use for horror games.

Second favorite these days is Dread.

Third favorite is Pathfinder, because I know the system well enough that I can ad lib things as needed and use the rules in weird and unexpected ways to disturb players and make them unsettled.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Secane wrote:

1) If a Talden human noble is to marry a Tian or Vudrani human noble, would other Talden nobles object or find such a union scandalous?

2) Or it doesn't matter as long as both are nobles? (And rich. :P)

3) What about the nobles from other inner sea countries? Would they have any objects to their fellows marrying nobles or commoners from other human ethnicities?

1) Many would, yes. Because they're bad people.

2) Being rich would help a lot more than being a noble from another society.

3) Some would, some would not.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Chrysanthe Spiros wrote:
Which deities most strongly oppose and/or are opposed by Nyarlathotep?

Desna and probably Sarenrae.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

baron arem heshvaun wrote:
I am not sure, is this lady trying to cos play Merisiel?

I'd say no.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

ulgulanoth wrote:
James how do you go about incorporating a new player to an established game?

By having the player talk to the other players well before the game starts to determine what kind of character works best for the party, then having the new player build that character with wealth about equal to the party average (I usually take this opportunity to level off and address any existing huge disparities in established PC wealth). I then try to work the character organically into the adventure—having the new PC be a prisoner that the PCs just found in the dungeon is a classic intro. Often I'll encourage the new player to work with an existing player to establish a relationship; the new character might be a cousin or friend or lover or rival or student or mentor or something of an existing PC.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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TheTheos wrote:

Are scrolls of high level spells easily available in Golarion? Or are they rarities sought after and rarely found in stores?

For example can scroll of miracle be found in Magnimar or Absalom? Or one should travel to City of Brass to buy it? Essentially where a person can freely buy such scroll?

That's more or less left to each individual GM to determine for his/her game. The baseline assumption is that scrolls are readily available (75% of the time) in any city where their base GP value is high enough. So for example, in Magnimar, which has a base gp value of 12,800 gp, any scroll that expensive or less has a 75% chance of being available at any one time. That's above the cost of a miracle spell, so yes, there's a good chance you can find one for sale in Magnimar.

In my games, though, I tend to limit access to scrolls to a city's spellcasting stat. In this case, Magnimar is at 8th level, so scrolls of miracle would NOT be readily available. Furthermore, I do try to keep scrolls above a level at which the PCs can cast being easy to get—those types of scrolls serve better in my opinion as lucky finds or discoveries while adventuring.

It's worth remembering that miracle, while relatively inexpensive for what it does, has some roleplay limitations as to its capabilities. Since when you use a scroll, you're using a spell that's been stored by the scroll's creator and NOT your own magic (it's a spell completion item, not a spell trigger item), using a miracle scroll prepared by someone of a different faith might be tricky, since you're asking for the direct intervention of a deity or higher power.

Lantern Lodge

If you are running an adventure path and an intelligent weapon is listed as a plot important loot for your party, but no one in the party has the right alignment to properly wield this weapon. How would you resolve this issue? (Without having the weapon become effectively a useless loot.)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Secane wrote:
If you are running an adventure path and an intelligent weapon is listed as a plot important loot for your party, but no one in the party has the right alignment to properly wield this weapon. How would you resolve this issue? (Without having the weapon become effectively a useless loot.)

Before the PCs find the weapon, I'd make sure to change the weapon from whatever it was into a weapon that'd best be used by the PC in the party who's the most about weapons, and/or change the alignment of the weapon if needed to fit that PC. The transformative weapon quality helps too. Further, I'd hopefully KNOW about said weapon before hand, and would encourage the players to play that alignment before hand. Either by flat out saying "If you are a neutral good scimitar fighter... it'll pay off!" or by being tricky and saying "This campaign has a Sarenrae feel, so plan accordingly." If, for example, the weapon in question was a NG scimitar.

If you have a specific AP or weapon in mind, of course... you'd do better to not beat around the bush and flat out ask me specifically about your specific case, though.

Radiant Oath

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

What if the weapon is BEEEEEEEEEEEEEES?!

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Can a sylph rogue with the Cloud Gazer feat sneak attack a target within 15 feet in an obscuring mist or fog cloud spell?


Mr. James Jacobs,

I forget if I have asked you this and with the coming Occult Adventures it must be asked again:

Considering that Nethys and his priesthood only care if you have magic power, be it arcane or divine, does this extend to psychic magic as well?

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