Creative Director
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5) Is there anything the Dominion of the Black actually fears? Magical Ponies? Magical Caring Bears? Their Mother-in-Laws? Competing organizations that mass produce whatever the Dominion of the Black is selling, in a china factory like way? (The last is a stereotype)5) Yes. They fear other things in the Dark Tapestry, such as the Lovecraft elements. They also fear some powerful enemies on various worlds who have risen up against them. They fear Desna.Wait... a min...
1) Why would the Dominion of the Black fear Desna?
2) Is Desna an early "Iron God"? ** spoiler omitted **
3) If so, does this explains why Desna is usually present in the material world and not the outer planes? Cos she started as a material being? Maybe as a giant spaceship's AI?
4) In Chronicle of the Righteous, Black Butterfly's entry states that "Legend tells that at the dawn of creation, Desna placed the stars in the sky."
Does this meant to mean that Desna mapped out the universe (as a spaceship), actually created the stars (more like a world maker) or in a mythical sense(aka it's just a saying)?
5) Is something like a yah-thelgaad or Chyzaedu Paladin even possible?
6) How does Flumphs protect worlds or fight against the Dominion of the Black or similar Lovecraft elements?
1) Because she's a powerful deity who has actively opposed their actions in the past.
2) No.
3) She predates humans and thus predates human technology (and in fact predates pretty much ALL mortal technology) so this isn't really a possibility.
4) It isn't meant to mean that at all. It's meant to mean that according to Desna's faithful, Desna is the one who created the stars out of sheer god power. Whether or not that's true, or whether Desna's just the first to TRAVEL to those stars, or whether it's just a story is unclear... but the fact remains that Desna's been around long enough for her personal history to now have transformed in part into true mythology and legend... as with all other deities who predate mortal life.
5) Anything is possible, I guess, given GM permission. I would never allow something like that, because the mindset to become a paladin requires sanity and humanity and mortal frame of mind... three things the agents of the Dominion lack the ability to have. Furthermore, I think that "humanizing" the Dominion in this way ruins them and makes them less interesting to the point that I'd rather just excise them from the game.
6) As best they can, which is not that great, so it's mostly limited to desperate attempts to warn more powerful denizens of the planets they're on of the dangers and hope their betters can take care of the situation.
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Creative Director
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You'd still use the normal Knowledge checks, but just with higher DCs. If, for example, your player characters transpose into a parallel Golarion with an entirely different history, that's not all that different than them transposing into the Forgotten Realms or the Star Wars Universe or whatever. It's still plain old Knowledge checks. After a time spent in the new universe I'd lower the DCs to account for the PCs becoming familiar with their new world (I'd probably say after the PCs are in the new world long enough to gain 1-2 levels is enough).Thanks!
Btw, how much time each day do you spend on this thread?
As long as it takes to answer questions so that things don't get too far ahead of me. Usually that's about 15 to 20 minutes a day. Some days more, some days less.
To James Jacobs!
Happy Birthday to us, James!
My day was good. How's your day been?
Happy hatching day to our favorite T-rex!
So I'm not super far in Fallout 4's main story (I just finished the quest "Institutionalized"), so please answer my question in Spoiler brackets without spoilers:
Do you think Fallout 4's Institute is Evil?
Long story short, one of mine players, after party took control over Runeforge, wants to sell the protoflesh from Halls of Wrath on black markets. How much can he get if he finds buyers?
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Happy belated birthday!
Quick! Ask him questions about Aroden's death while he's hungover! (kidding of course)
A few random questions:
*Am I correct in assuming that elves are originally native to Castrovel?
*Where is the Starstone from?
*Are there equivalents of the Starstone on other planets out there and other gods who have passed equivalent tests or is it a Golarion only thing?
*Have you read "Philosophy and D&D"? It's mostly system neutral so the arguments in it apply to Pathfinder as well.
How do you pronounce...
1)Aballon?
2)Castrovel?
3)Golarion?
4)Akiton?
5)Verces?
6)Diaspora?
A)Damiar?
B)Iovo?
7)Eox?
8)Triaxus?
9)Liavara?
A)Arkanen?
B)Halas?
C)Melos?
D)Nchak?
E)Osoro?
10)Bretheda?
A)Dykon?
B)Kalo-Mahoi?
C)Marata?
D)Thyst?
E)Varos?
11)Apostae?
12)Aucturn?
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So I know that androids can have sex. What's interesting is that they are immune to fatigue. Does this mean that androids don't have a limit with that kind of stuff?
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So I know that androids can have sex. What's interesting is that they are immune to fatigue. Does this mean that androids don't have a limit with that kind of stuff?
O.o
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Just some questions that popped up while discussing character creation (for Golarion)
1) Do Hellknights that are Lawful-Good go to hell in their afterlife?
2) CAN Hellknights that are Lawful-Good go to hell in their afterlife, if they really want to? (Assuming they really believe the in the clause.)
3) Can souls change alignment? and...
3a) If so, do they get "resorted" to their proper alignment afterlife plane?
4) (Asking for a friend) Are there really Goblin Paladins in Golarion? Like the in Paizo artwork?
4a) If so, which deities are these goblin paladins likely to worship?
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You mentioned Cheliax/Thrune as something/someone we 'love to hate.' I'm assuming this is where Hell's Rebels came from. Any chance of a similar chance to do something about Rahadoum? To be honest, reading about that nation gives me a much stronger urge to go in there and knock some heads together to knock sense into them than Cheliax does. Is this meant to be a common reaction?
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Creative Director
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So I'm not super far in Fallout 4's main story (I just finished the quest "Institutionalized"), so please answer my question in Spoiler brackets without spoilers:
Do you think Fallout 4's Institute is Evil?
I just finished Fallout 4 yesterday, and...
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Creative Director
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Long story short, one of mine players, after party took control over Runeforge, wants to sell the protoflesh from Halls of Wrath on black markets. How much can he get if he finds buyers?
I'd roleplay it out. In a case like this, where it's unclear what something might be worth, the best bet is to look at table 12–5 in the Core Rulebook and use the value per encounter per the PC's level. So if your party was an average level of, say , 14th at the point they emerged from Runeforge and looked to sell the protoflesh, I'd cost it at about 13,500 gp (which is the value for an encounter at 14th level on the fast XP track, which Runelords uses).
But it's weird stuff. I'd also use the event to set up a subplot later on, with the person who eventually got the protoflesh using it (or being used BY it) to become something the PCs have to deal with.
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Creative Director
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Happy belated birthday!
Quick! Ask him questions about Aroden's death while he's hungover! (kidding of course)
A few random questions:
*Am I correct in assuming that elves are originally native to Castrovel?
*Where is the Starstone from?
*Are there equivalents of the Starstone on other planets out there and other gods who have passed equivalent tests or is it a Golarion only thing?
*Have you read "Philosophy and D&D"? It's mostly system neutral so the arguments in it apply to Pathfinder as well.
Elves on Golarion originally came from Castrovel, yes... but they may not be NATIVE to Castrovel.
The Starstone's origin is detailed in Mythic Realms. Short version...
No. It's a Golarion specific thing, as its genesis was unique and singular.
Nope; haven't read it.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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How does knowledge skills interact with mythic creatures? Can you identify a creature as mythic with a knowledge check, and if so, how do you determine what mythic abilities they have in addition to the baseline abilities you can identify using the knowledge skill?
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Creative Director
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How do you pronounce...
1)Aballon?
2)Castrovel?
3)Golarion?
4)Akiton?
5)Verces?
6)Diaspora?
A)Damiar?
B)Iovo?
7)Eox?
8)Triaxus?
9)Liavara?
A)Arkanen?
B)Halas?
C)Melos?
D)Nchak?
E)Osoro?
10)Bretheda?
A)Dykon?
B)Kalo-Mahoi?
C)Marata?
D)Thyst?
E)Varos?
11)Apostae?
12)Aucturn?
Many of these are pretty obscure words, and some of them are ones I actually don't recognize off the top of my head, in which case I sound them out and pronounce them phonetically.
AB-a-lawn
CAST-row-vel
go-LAIR-e-in
AK-a-tawn
VER-cees
dahy-AS-per-uh (this is a real word; click to go to dictionary.com to hear it spoken out loud)
DA-me-ar
eye-OH-voh
E-ox
try-AX-us
lee-ah-VAR-ah
ARK-a-nen
HALL-as
MEE-los
CHAK
oh-SOR-oh
BREATH-ah-duh
DYE-kon
ka-low-ma-HOY
mah-RAH-tah
THIST
VARE-os
ah-POS-tay
OK-turn
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Creative Director
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So I know that androids can have sex. What's interesting is that they are immune to fatigue. Does this mean that androids don't have a limit with that kind of stuff?
I suppose it does, although the emotional part of it doesn't work as well, so they'd probably get bored or lose interest or get distracted before long anyway.
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Creative Director
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Out of curiosity, I was looking through the Advanced Race Guide height & weight tables, and I noticed that while almost all of the females are shorter than the males - barring drow and elves - that samsaran females are listed as being taller than samsaran males, on average. Is there a particular reason for this? I'll admit I do like the idea of more races where the females are taller than the males, or at least of the same height, but samsarans aren't really the race I would have picked for that...
The reason is that I made up those numbers and didn't have to stick to any established lore or canon and thus was free to make things up and I was sick and tired of races where men were taller than women.
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Creative Director
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Just some questions that popped up while discussing character creation (for Golarion)
1) Do Hellknights that are Lawful-Good go to hell in their afterlife?
2) CAN Hellknights that are Lawful-Good go to hell in their afterlife, if they really want to? (Assuming they really believe the in the clause.)
3) Can souls change alignment? and...
3a) If so, do they get "resorted" to their proper alignment afterlife plane?
4) (Asking for a friend) Are there really Goblin Paladins in Golarion? Like the in Paizo artwork?
4a) If so, which deities are these goblin paladins likely to worship?
1) If they fail/sin/do things wrong, yes. If they do well at being lawful good, no. They go to heaven, barring any worship of specific deities who may be located in adjacent planes like Axis or Nirvana or elsewhere.
2) If they "WANT" to, then they're not lawful good.
3) Souls don't have alignments, because souls aren't creatures. Once a soul is in a body or IS a body, then yes, but it's easier to alignment change IN a body than AS a body.
4) No. Not that I know of. Not that I want there to be.
4a) A paladin of ANY race would worship a lawful good deity (or rarely a lawful neutral or neutral good one). Racial deities at this point don't enter the picture, especially if the race's deities don't include any appropriate alignments for the paladin.
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Creative Director
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You mentioned Cheliax/Thrune as something/someone we 'love to hate.' I'm assuming this is where Hell's Rebels came from. Any chance of a similar chance to do something about Rahadoum? To be honest, reading about that nation gives me a much stronger urge to go in there and knock some heads together to knock sense into them than Cheliax does. Is this meant to be a common reaction?
I would LOVE to do an AP where the PCs all have to play clerics and Rahadoum is the bad guy. I don't think that it was designed to make that reaction (as the people who did the most designing it tend to see them almost as good guys), but it's certainly the way I view the region.
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Creative Director
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How does knowledge skills interact with mythic creatures? Can you identify a creature as mythic with a knowledge check, and if so, how do you determine what mythic abilities they have in addition to the baseline abilities you can identify using the knowledge skill?
The rules are silent for how they interact, other than the fact that mythic creatures are higher CR than non-mythic ones, and as such the DC to learn about them using a Knowledge check is higher.
Learning about their mythic abilities works the same as learning about non-mythic abilities; make the Knowledge check and if you make the DC, depending on how MUCH you make it by the GM gets to ad-hoc decide what you do and don't discover.
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Creative Director
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Returning to alternate realities: is there any group (or individual) on Golarion who has knowledge of alternate realities, the means to get to one, or any sort of experience with them beyond mere speculation? If not, any groups who would be close? How about the Androffans?
Probably, but we haven't done much with them yet because we haven't done much with alternate realities.
Androffa is from the same universe as Golarion, and therefore they are in the same boat as Golarion as far as knowledge of alternate realities.
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Hey James
So, I have always wanted to make my own campaign setting. Using the Pathfinder system, I've begun to do exactly that. However, my biggest problem tends to be based upon how I should handle religion and Gov't. What are tips when designing those two that would help me get a better grasp of creating the two.
-Sincerely Nenkota "The Acid Man" Moon
Will there be dwarves to kick in Hell's Vengeance?
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Creative Director
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Hey James
So, I have always wanted to make my own campaign setting. Using the Pathfinder system, I've begun to do exactly that. However, my biggest problem tends to be based upon how I should handle religion and Gov't. What are tips when designing those two that would help me get a better grasp of creating the two.
-Sincerely Nenkota "The Acid Man" Moon
Read about how other campaign settings AND how the real world handles the mix of government and religion. Study history books. Study current events. And don't limit that study to just the nation you live in or the time you live in. And keep an open mind and try to see things from every angle to understand WHY things happen. Do that for years, and as you do, continue to design setting material and never ever be afraid to go back and change something you designed in the past when you realize you could do things better.
Hi James.
Do devotees of single Gods still tend to cede other Gods their respective dominions? To illustrate:
If my PC was a devout Pharasmin and was caught in a terrible storm or somesuch, would he think "the Goddess sent this trial" or that Gozreh did it? Or both? Or does it vary too much worshiper to worshiper to even be a tendency?
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Creative Director
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Hi James.
Do devotees of single Gods still tend to cede other Gods their respective dominions? To illustrate:
If my PC was a devout Pharasmin and was caught in a terrible storm or somesuch, would he think "the Goddess sent this trial" or that Gozreh did it? Or both? Or does it vary too much worshiper to worshiper to even be a tendency?
Generally, a devotee of a single deity would cede to their chosen deity, but it would indeed vary. A Pharasmin caught in a devastating storm would be more likely to see it as just his fate to be caught in the storm (as Pharasma is a goddess of fate) than he would as a test from Gozreh or punishment from Rovagug or whatnot.
Ah, I see. Thanks. Another misunderstanding clarified.. :)
I apologize if this has been asked before, but...
At the height of his power, did Aroden rival Pharasma for "most powerful divinity worshiped on Golarion"? Or in the greater scheme of things, even if his worship was more influential and pervasive throughout the Inner Sea region in his heyday than Pharasma has ever been, was Pharasma still top dog?
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2) CAN Hellknights that are Lawful-Good go to hell in their afterlife, if they really want to? (Assuming they really believe the in the clause.)
2) If they "WANT" to, then they're not lawful good.
1) What if someone who is truly LG or at the very least truly, totally Good, wants to go to hell for the sake of another? An example reason being the person they love most and who does love them in return is going to/in hell and they want to join them.
2) How does hell or the good planes for that matter handle such cases?
-----------------------
3) I read in one of the Pathfinder Tales of angels called the Redeemed(?), who are former devils turn angels. Aka they are the opposite of fallen angels.
Are such beings individually unique? Each having their own looks, stats, abilities?
And therefore don't conform to any of the known celestial angel/races types?
4) Which core deities are the most likely to have or gain an addiction to korean love dramas?
5) Which iconic characters are the most likely to have or gain an addiction to korean love dramas?
6) What inner sea nation has the most "soft power"? As defined as the ability to shape the preferences of others through appeal and attraction.
7) What would you do if you found out that a product that you made was culturally insensitive?
8) Are the humans of Golarion originally from another planet/world/plane? Or or are the humans of Golarion and other planets in the solar system the result of parallel evolution on their own planets?
9) With so many other non-human races to be racist against, how racist are the human races of Golarion to each other?
10) How do anti-paladins of Calistria handle the fact that that their goddess's home is on a goodly plane?
11) Do Flumphs have their own deities?
12) Are there fairy godmothers in the Golarion multiverse?
12a) Do they exist/operate on Golarion?
Hi, James.
I just stumbled across Richard Pett's Kickstarter for his swords & sorcery urban horror campaign setting, "The Blight."
This setting really seems like your cup of tea. Are you a backer?
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Creative Director
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Out of curiosity, I was looking through the Advanced Race Guide height & weight tables, and I noticed that while almost all of the females are shorter than the males - barring drow and elves - that samsaran females are listed as being taller than samsaran males, on average. Is there a particular reason for this? I'll admit I do like the idea of more races where the females are taller than the males, or at least of the same height, but samsarans aren't really the race I would have picked for that...The reason is that I made up those numbers and didn't have to stick to any established lore or canon and thus was free to make things up and I was sick and tired of races where men were taller than women.I definitely empathize there! Like I said, just thought it was unusual but interesting for it to be innate to the reincarnating race, rather than a more natural one. I hope we get some more fleshing out of the samsaran race sometime, Inner Sea Races provided a little info, but not much, and they've always been a fascinating race to me...
1) What do you think are the best ways to get a player more invested in their character?
2) Have you ever been in a game where you feel like your character isn't connected to the rest of the party much, or been in a game where someone else seemed to feel the same way? If so, do you think it's a problem when it does, or just something that sometimes happens?
3) Have you ever had a game where one or more of the players wanted to advance society, either by wanting to use Knowledge and Craft to come up with more advanced nonmagical technology, or by creating magical items or enchantments that would help people, such as continual light for streetlights, decanters of endless water for water supplies, and other such things? If so, how did you handle it? Go along with it, try to get them to focus more on the plotline you had in mind?
1) Depends entirely on the player, but in most cases, tying game mechanics to flavor is a good trick. Sort of like how we built traits. Or use something from the character's history as a key element in an adventure. But also, keep in mind that not all players CARE about their characters in the same way; some players enjoy the numbers and combat simulation and level advancement and don't care at all about character personality. Make sure you know what the player wants before trying to get them "more invested."
2) Yes. In fact, I've retired a character I was playing from a campaign after realizing he was the only good guy in the group and the other players were essentially ignoring their alignments and playing evil characters. Since the game is a team based game, if one character/player isn't into the game or the group, it damages the entire dynamic. It can be a huge problem, and it can end campaigns in the worst-case scenario.
3) Not really. My players have pretty much always been into the story and the adventure rather than trying to transform a fantasy setting into something that feels less fantastic and more modern/plain.
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Creative Director
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Portfolio/domain questions:
It seems to be a given that gods of a certain domain have power over their spheres/areas of interest, such as Sarenrae and the Sun, Desna and the stars, etc.
If the gods are not exerting their influence, said aspects of reality continue acting normally.Three questions arise:
1: Other than possible compromised interests, is there a cost for causing a cataclysm for a deity? Does it cost any of the god's influence or personal power?
2: Are cataclysms (when a god acts to perform them) required to be related to the domain of the deity (solar flare for Sun/great floods for Water/inability to die for Death, etc.).
Can a water god, for example, influence the sun, even if they have no power over it?3: If a god wishes to cause a cataclysm (or even a minor blessing) related to their domain, does their ability to perform the act diminish if another god (who has the same domain) opposes them?
For instance, currently speaking, five gods rule over the Sun domain in Golarion:
Aldinach (CE), Iaozrael (LE), Iomedae (LG), Sarenrae (NG), and Shizuru (LG).
If Aldinach wished to use her power over the sun domain to scorch the world and bring on eternal summer, could she be stopped if more sun gods oppose her than aid her? Do the cold/winter gods have say in this?
1) Depends entirely on the cataclysm. A deity that wipes out an entire planet not only damages his faith by wiping them out, but also many other faiths and that would get him in trouble with the other deities and maybe exiled or killed or whatever—Rovagug tried to do this, and look what that got him, for example.
2) A god who doesn't invoke a cataclysm at least somehow associated with his areas of influence is doing it wrong and acting off-model. They wouldn't do this. Whether or not they can or can't is irrelevant.
3) Not really, but it might be opposed or even impossible if the other deity(s) have more power than them.
Keep in mind that in Golarion, the gods themselves generally do NOT cause direct cataclysms like this—they tend to work their wonders and devastations on the material plane via minions or the like. When a star goes supernova... that's just as likely to be a deity triggering it as it is just the star's time to go supernova... in the end, to the creatures on the planet, it doesn't make much of a difference I guess.