What's your opinion on a Skum vs Deep One Hybrid scenario?Meh.
Those are more interesting to me the less they overlap in game. They're so similar that I kind of prefer having only one in any one setting, and these days? I prefer deep ones over skum, if only because the deep ones have several decades of seniority.
Does this mean that going forward we're more likely to see deep ones than skum in modules and APs? Or is it going to come down to location? (Skum in/around Illmarsh, deep ones located on another coast elsewhere)
And speaking of deep ones, would a deep one hybrid character (with a 'traditional' origin involving a fishing village where the people have a shuffling gait) be a suitable PC for Strange Aeons? Feel free to ignore the 'sea longing' trait for the purposes of your answer if it would give anything away.
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Does monster Spell Resistance scale up as you add class levels normally? I'm building a lamia matriarch villainess and I'm wondering if that would go up. I must be blind because I'm not finding anything for or against. Matriarchs are some of the best terrors.
Normally, unless it specifically says so in the monster's description, spell resistance does not scale up.
Logically, it should, though.
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What's your opinion on a Skum vs Deep One Hybrid scenario?Meh.
Those are more interesting to me the less they overlap in game. They're so similar that I kind of prefer having only one in any one setting, and these days? I prefer deep ones over skum, if only because the deep ones have several decades of seniority.
Does this mean that going forward we're more likely to see deep ones than skum in modules and APs? Or is it going to come down to location? (Skum in/around Illmarsh, deep ones located on another coast elsewhere)
And speaking of deep ones, would a deep one hybrid character (with a 'traditional' origin involving a fishing village where the people have a shuffling gait) be a suitable PC for Strange Aeons? Feel free to ignore the 'sea longing' trait for the purposes of your answer if it would give anything away.
Not at all. In fact, skum and deep ones may be relatively similar in theme and all that, but they are both still part of the world.
A deep one hybrid character would be an interesting choice.
Hey James,
Have you seen the movies He Never Died, Final Girl, and/or The Babadook? If so what did you think of them?
hi James
i have a question about the Ekujae elves.
As elves they have weapon familiarity, being a more "Primitive" culture in the Mwangi expanse automatic proficiency with bows makes sense but would they still have the long sword and rapier training sinse they are more advanced weapons or should that be altered to say the Terbutje to replace the long sword and tepoztopilli to replace rapier (no real equivalent i could find)?
if the Ekujae keep the weapon proficiency would they make the weapons out of a more primitive material instead of metal like obsidian or bone? or Do the Ekujae have there own smiths and metal workers that have the skill and tools to craft such weapons, or do they trade with merchants and other explorers for the metal weapons (or pick them off of corpses)?
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Were any other names on the table for "deep one hybrid"? It feels a little clumsy.
Never. That's what they are. The point of the race is that they're human until they're not, and when they're not, they're deep ones. They aren't really a race that breeds true or can sustain itself or perpetuate its own society or culture, and thus there's not really a "race name" for them.
Feel free to shorten it to hybrid if you want to streamline it.
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I found reference to something about undead who used their unnatural state to escape pharasma's judgement being deeply screwed when she finally has them in their clutches.
Is there any place where the final fate of the undead souls is alluded to when they are finally dragged shrieking into the boneyard?
This has been one of the pieces of the golarion puzzle I have not been able to find in the literature besides aroden kicking the bucket, and how that happened.
Undead generally don't show up in the boneyard as undead. Rather, their soul shows up there once the undead has been destroyed. At that point, those who deliberately chose undeath to escape death are judged as they lived in life no differently than any other soul, since now, they have moved on from undeath. Pharasma herself remains neutral at this point; don't mistake the fact that most failed undead immortals end up being sent to somewhere unpleasant for Pharasma's revenge. They did that to themselves.
Once an undead is destroyed, its soul doesn't go "shrieking into the boneyard" any more than any other soul. There may be rare exceptions, of course, but a soul has very little self-will or identity.
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hi James
i have a question about the Ekujae elves.
As elves they have weapon familiarity, being a more "Primitive" culture in the Mwangi expanse automatic proficiency with bows makes sense but would they still have the long sword and rapier training sinse they are more advanced weapons or should that be altered to say the Terbutje to replace the long sword and tepoztopilli to replace rapier (no real equivalent i could find)?
if the Ekujae keep the weapon proficiency would they make the weapons out of a more primitive material instead of metal like obsidian or bone? or Do the Ekujae have there own smiths and metal workers that have the skill and tools to craft such weapons, or do they trade with merchants and other explorers for the metal weapons (or pick them off of corpses)?
Ekujae elves live simple lives compared to urbanites, but that isn't the same as being "primative." There might be some sort of race option in the dozens of pounds of rulebooks we've printed for "wild elves" or the like to change out their racial weapon choices, but it's not really built into the Ekujae. Swapping out their favored weapons is an interesting idea, but it's not part of the setting as written as far as I know.
But they know how to work metal and all that if they want to.
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The value is based off the full price, but we generally put in twice (or more) the amount indicated to account for the fact that PCs will sell some stuff and not find other stuff and break or give away some stuff.
Ultimately, what's "balanced" varies greatly, and is influenced much more by your table's play style, your experience as a GM, and your players' experience, so determining what works best for your group is something you'll need to determine for yourself during play. We aim at the baseline, though, as a shared common goal, and that expects that there'll be SOME crafting and selling of magic items, but not an extensive amount of it.
If you "ban" crafting feats, you need to be a LOT more permissive on what the players can buy, and should also strongly consider tailoring published adventure treasures to fit your group.
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Also, does wealth by level necessitate finding *everything*? If you don't find everything, will you be short of wealth by level? If there is excess in order to compensate for not finding everything, is there a general rule for how much? Like, if the party finds everything, they will be at 130% wealth by level or something? Or does it vary by adventure, no general guidelines? Some authors might put in 200%?
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Also, does wealth by level necessitate finding *everything*? If you don't find everything, will you be short of wealth by level? If there is excess in order to compensate for not finding everything, is there a general rule for how much? Like, if the party finds everything, they will be at 130% wealth by level or something? Or does it vary by adventure, no general guidelines? Some authors might put in 200%?
The not-so-secret secret is that "Wealth by Level" is a starting point. What works for your game is not going to be exactly the same. Start there, and be willing to adjust to your play style.
The way an elven farm looks and functions as compared to a gnome farm or human farm or dwarf farm or whatever farm is not something we've done a lot of design for, other than to generally assume that the nature of these endeavors would in some way match the nature of the race. Since elves are so in tune with environments, to the extent that over centuries they physically change to mesh better with those environments, their farms would be in tune with the environments as well; they'd grow crops in naturalistic ways that to the average human would likely be relatively indistinguishable from wilderness or natural growth, in other words. Harvesting crops from tended wild stock, in other words, in a way that impacts the environment in a positive way. There's not really a real-world analog to point to for an example, since we don't have elves and to simply say "it's like this human practice" kind of means it's a human practice, not an elven practice.
Not even the apete "forest islands" of the Kayapo? I've read here and there that the rainforests were gardened.
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The way an elven farm looks and functions as compared to a gnome farm or human farm or dwarf farm or whatever farm is not something we've done a lot of design for, other than to generally assume that the nature of these endeavors would in some way match the nature of the race. Since elves are so in tune with environments, to the extent that over centuries they physically change to mesh better with those environments, their farms would be in tune with the environments as well; they'd grow crops in naturalistic ways that to the average human would likely be relatively indistinguishable from wilderness or natural growth, in other words. Harvesting crops from tended wild stock, in other words, in a way that impacts the environment in a positive way. There's not really a real-world analog to point to for an example, since we don't have elves and to simply say "it's like this human practice" kind of means it's a human practice, not an elven practice.Not even the apete "forest islands" of the Kayapo? I've read here and there that the rainforests were gardened.
Maybe. Dunno what you're talking about though.
Hi James
How you would stat up Native american pipe bone armor? They were usually worn either bare chested or over a leather shirt.
to me it kinda looks like a bone chain shirt: AC +3, max dex 4, ACP -1 (taking the ACP reduction from the bone studded leather as bone light armor)
The armor/shield bonus of bone armor is reduced by 1, but in the case of studded leather, the armor check penalty is also reduced by 1 (to 0).
or count it as studded leather armor as a whole suit, with the pipe bone counting as the "studs" but since it offers more protection then bone studs its just basically normal studded leather.
not really sure how to handle this one.
Hi james,
Do you think that the swordlords of restov would oppose the opening of a sanctuary/church to asmodeus in their city?
Consider that IMC (kingmaker) the PC high priest is an asmodean. He said he is looking forward to have an estabilishment in several closeby nations.
Hello James
First off I want to thank you for taking the time to answer all our questions :-) I love how you guys and gals at paizo interact with the community.
Onwards to the questions:
How many times have you experienced a total party kill? Either GMing og as a player?
How have you dealt with it?
I GM mostly and for more than a decade I never had a TPK, but then when we started running Adventure Paths, we've had a couple happen.
Our Council of Thieves ended with at TPK at the end of the 4th book.
Now on Rise of the Runelords, Thistletop almost turned into one and the Shadow Clock did become one.
As a GM it really bummed me out, and the CoT campaign ended because of it, but we decided to power through RotR.
Any advice for dealing with TPKs?
I hope none of my players read the next part, but they shouldn't spoil RotR for themselves ;-)
Speaking of RotR and TPKs, Am I terrible for wanting my players to fall against Karzoug in the end? It is just because reading the entry on what happens if he wins, and how he becomes fantastically difficult to defeat really make me run an, eventually, mythic campaign with new heroes to take up the mantle and beat him at his strongest, with all his ancient armies
Thanks for any insights you may offer :-)
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Hi James
How you would stat up Native american pipe bone armor? They were usually worn either bare chested or over a leather shirt.
to me it kinda looks like a bone chain shirt: AC +3, max dex 4, ACP -1 (taking the ACP reduction from the bone studded leather as bone light armor)The armor/shield bonus of bone armor is reduced by 1, but in the case of studded leather, the armor check penalty is also reduced by 1 (to 0).or count it as studded leather armor as a whole suit, with the pipe bone counting as the "studs" but since it offers more protection then bone studs its just basically normal studded leather.
not really sure how to handle this one.
Your solutions all work fine... but the easiest is to say it's functionally identical to studded leather and be done with it.
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Hi james,
Do you think that the swordlords of restov would oppose the opening of a sanctuary/church to asmodeus in their city?
Consider that IMC (kingmaker) the PC high priest is an asmodean. He said he is looking forward to have an estabilishment in several closeby nations.
One look at Brevoy's alignment in the Inner Sea World Guide is all the proof I need to say "Yes absolutely they would oppose it and would probably kill/imprison/runoutoftown any Asmodeans who tried to do so publicly."
If you have an Asmodean PC in Kingmaker, having them have to deal with riled up and worried Brevic soldiers is a good way to expand the scope of the campaign.
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I know you're probably sick of questions regarding the CotCT omnibus, but I have to wonder if we'll get to see more of Majenko the adorable pseudodragon (aka the REAL star of CotCT! :P )?
You won't get to see more of him, really; his role in the campaign is a tiny footnote, but there IS a little bit more about how he can help folks out if they befriend him.
Oh... and spoiler...
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Hello James
First off I want to thank you for taking the time to answer all our questions :-) I love how you guys and gals at paizo interact with the community.
Onwards to the questions:
How many times have you experienced a total party kill? Either GMing og as a player?
How have you dealt with it?I GM mostly and for more than a decade I never had a TPK, but then when we started running Adventure Paths, we've had a couple happen.
Our Council of Thieves ended with at TPK at the end of the 4th book.
Now on Rise of the Runelords, Thistletop almost turned into one and the Shadow Clock did become one.As a GM it really bummed me out, and the CoT campaign ended because of it, but we decided to power through RotR.
Any advice for dealing with TPKs?I hope none of my players read the next part, but they shouldn't spoil RotR for themselves ;-)
Spoiler:Speaking of RotR and TPKs, Am I terrible for wanting my players to fall against Karzoug in the end? It is just because reading the entry on what happens if he wins, and how he becomes fantastically difficult to defeat really make me run an, eventually, mythic campaign with new heroes to take up the mantle and beat him at his strongest, with all his ancient armies
Thanks for any insights you may offer :-)
I've had a total party kill as a GM several times in Call of Cthulhu. More than I remember, but at least a dozen times over the past 30 years I've been playing that game. As a GM of d20 based games, I've had a couple of TPKs. One where the campaign ended. One that I turned into a "PCs are captured and have to work for the enemy" type thing that turned what I'd planned to be a one-shot adventure into a mini-campaign that ended up laying a LOT of the groundwork and inspiration for Thassilon and the Runelords... so I'm glad that TPK happened. I've been in a few as a player too... the two most recent were in a lunchtime game Jason ran a few years ago and more recently in Rob's Skull & Shackles. That was frustrating, because I adored my character. In Jason's case, we just ended that campaign and never played again. In Rob's case, we just started up a Mummy's Mask game the next session instead.
My preferred way to deal with TPKs is to head them off before they happen by handing out plot twist cards or other "get out of jail free" type cards, so that when random die rolls do something unexpected, the PCs have resources to bail themselves out. And when that doesn't work and a TPK does happen, I judge the players' reactions to make decisions. If I feel like the players have gotten tired of the campaign then I'll let the TPK stand and work with them to determine what happens next. Otherwise, I'll use it as a "You aren't killed but you ARE captured and now you have to escape from prison" type thing.
Be careful fostering that sort of attitude because the game's not supposed to be a competition that pits the GM against the players... If it happens, let it happen naturally, not because you forced it!
Maybe. Dunno what you're talking about though.The way an elven farm looks and functions as compared to a gnome farm or human farm or dwarf farm or whatever farm is not something we've done a lot of design for, other than to generally assume that the nature of these endeavors would in some way match the nature of the race. Since elves are so in tune with environments, to the extent that over centuries they physically change to mesh better with those environments, their farms would be in tune with the environments as well; they'd grow crops in naturalistic ways that to the average human would likely be relatively indistinguishable from wilderness or natural growth, in other words. Harvesting crops from tended wild stock, in other words, in a way that impacts the environment in a positive way. There's not really a real-world analog to point to for an example, since we don't have elves and to simply say "it's like this human practice" kind of means it's a human practice, not an elven practice.Not even the apete "forest islands" of the Kayapo? I've read here and there that the rainforests were gardened.
It was in the context of this post. I was offering a possible human equivalent of elven agriculture.
So...is it comparative enough?
JJ,
Since you brought up Skum and Deep Ones...
How do those two races interact? Both being derived largely from humans...but with very different masters.
And how do aboleths and their society interact with things like Dagon, and the Great Old ones? Given they set up an event that ended up wiping out two gods, I don't expect them to be very afraid of such powers...
==Aelryinth
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Maybe. Dunno what you're talking about though.The way an elven farm looks and functions as compared to a gnome farm or human farm or dwarf farm or whatever farm is not something we've done a lot of design for, other than to generally assume that the nature of these endeavors would in some way match the nature of the race. Since elves are so in tune with environments, to the extent that over centuries they physically change to mesh better with those environments, their farms would be in tune with the environments as well; they'd grow crops in naturalistic ways that to the average human would likely be relatively indistinguishable from wilderness or natural growth, in other words. Harvesting crops from tended wild stock, in other words, in a way that impacts the environment in a positive way. There's not really a real-world analog to point to for an example, since we don't have elves and to simply say "it's like this human practice" kind of means it's a human practice, not an elven practice.Not even the apete "forest islands" of the Kayapo? I've read here and there that the rainforests were gardened.It was in the context of this post. I was offering a possible human equivalent of elven agriculture.
So...is it comparative enough?
Not really. That forest is certainly cool, but it's still built by humans, not by a race that lives centuries longer and is actually supernatural to a small effect in how it interacts with the environment. It could be a good starting point I guess for developing and exploring how elven farms and agriculture work, perhaps. I'd have to read up more about the topic and I don't have the time or energy to do that until I'm writing "Exotic Farms of Golarion" which isn't gonna be anytime soon, or likely, any time ever.
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JJ,
Since you brought up Skum and Deep Ones...
How do those two races interact? Both being derived largely from humans...but with very different masters.
And how do aboleths and their society interact with things like Dagon, and the Great Old ones? Given they set up an event that ended up wiping out two gods, I don't expect them to be very afraid of such powers...
==Aelryinth
I suspect they'd react with violence. Deep Ones are very religious as a rule, and skum are created by atheists/scientists and are thus NOT prone to being religious. That = fighting, if us humans have anything to say about it through our actions.
Aboleths do not approve of the worship of gods. The idea of faith is alien to them. They simply don't understand it. And what they don't understand, they tend to break or destroy. Aboleths are also not stupid; they understand the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods exist, and they themselves do not have any "immunity to fear." I suspect aboleths are very much afraid of the Great Old Ones and their power, but would also say that they also fear the "normal gods" themselves and that's a big part of why they threw rocks.
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Why would the aboleth not consider star spawn and their ilk to be a stepping stone/obstacle to their own ambitions for power/apotheosis?
Because aboleths are to a certain extent xenophobic. Because they don't understand faith. And because monsters that are immune to or resistant to mind control AND are much more powerful than the standard aboleth would have very little problem crushing an aboleth to paste. Therefore, aboleths do not consider the star spawn of Cthulhu a wise thing to ally with at all. AKA: Common sense kicks in for the aboleths.
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I have been trying to get someone to define what the Liberation Domain does. I say it is just like Freedom of Movement but only vs magical effects. Others have a variety of different interpretations, all of them seem to make interpretation of this more complicated.
The easiest way is to say it works like freedom of movement. That's my preference.
Given her free choice of any class/career to follow within the Crusade, which one would a redeemed Arueshalae choose?
Our group is very small (only 3 PCs) so she's a major character. She's been helping us mostly by scouting and providing privileged information about demons/the Abyss; we don't use her as a spy per se since we don't want to subject her to potentially traumatic experiences. Due to the terrible dangers we face, the group pooled a lot of resources to provide her with protective magic items and bring her closer to our power level.
The GM is fine with us running Arueshalae as a fourth PC, and offered us the possibility of rebuilding/retraining her. I've been tasked with doing just that, but I'd rather provide an organic evolution of her concept than just an optimal mechanical choice.
So far I've been leaning towards Ranger (which includes themes of exploration/travel, slight divine magic and demon favored enemies but I'm open to ideas.
So, what are the chances of an AP featuring Xenomorphs?
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Can we hope for new additions to the Eldest pantheon anytime soon (including at least one Good-aligned one, since presently they're all Neutral save for one Evil one)?
Also: Given that the Elder/Outer Gods are illegal for worship in Pathfinder Society (and yet the Four Horsemen are legal? What's up with that???), what would your personal suggestions be for Lovecraftian or semi-/vaguely/tip-of-the-hat-to Lovecraftian Society characters to worship?
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Spoiler:Dear JJ,Given her free choice of any class/career to follow within the Crusade, which one would a redeemed Arueshalae choose?
Our group is very small (only 3 PCs) so she's a major character. She's been helping us mostly by scouting and providing privileged information about demons/the Abyss; we don't use her as a spy per se since we don't want to subject her to potentially traumatic experiences. Due to the terrible dangers we face, the group pooled a lot of resources to provide her with protective magic items and bring her closer to our power level.
The GM is fine with us running Arueshalae as a fourth PC, and offered us the possibility of rebuilding/retraining her. I've been tasked with doing just that, but I'd rather provide an organic evolution of her concept than just an optimal mechanical choice.
So far I've been leaning towards Ranger (which includes themes of exploration/travel, slight divine magic and demon favored enemies but I'm open to ideas.
Ranger works, especially if that works for your group.
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Can we hope for new additions to the Eldest pantheon anytime soon (including at least one Good-aligned one, since presently they're all Neutral save for one Evil one)?
Also: Given that the Elder/Outer Gods are illegal for worship in Pathfinder Society (and yet the Four Horsemen are legal? What's up with that???), what would your personal suggestions be for Lovecraftian or semi-/vaguely/tip-of-the-hat-to Lovecraftian Society characters to worship?
Dunno, regarding the Eldest.
Not sure what's up with that. I'd think the Four Horsemen would be illegal too. Seems arbitrary.
Any CN member of the Elder Mythos would be the best bet for PC worship, but still... I'd probably not say that's a good idea.
*looks at the clock and notices the time...*
Just what are your normal hours... by my reconing, it is currently 11:30pm (central)... shouldn't you be in bed by now?
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No, I mean, given that the Mythos pantheon is illegal in Society play, what Society-legal deities would, in your judgment, make the best substitutes for characters who might otherwise have gravitated to Mythos deities were they legal?
I don't really keep track of which ones are legal and which ones aren't, so I dunno. Groetus maybe? Frankly... PFS players shouldn't play their "destruction entropy Lovecraftan deity worshiper" characters for PFS anyway. Cheating that by building a character who worships a replacement is kinda lame. Save that character build for home games I say.
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There are other kinds of Lovecraftian deity worshippers though - weirdo magicians, Randolph Carter-types, misanthropes who see more value in that part of nature which is not human-hearted (to paraphrase Lao Tzu), non-Evil lunatics, etc. (as I've heard it said, you don't find religion, religion finds you).
Regarding that Arueshalae question, could I bother you for any other suggestions? I'd like to offer some to my group so we can decide on it.