I'm playing in a Hell's Vengeance game—we abandoned our Way of the Wicked game 2/3 through book 2 and restarted more or less with Hell's Vengeance after things kinda bogged down with book 2 of Way of the Wicked.
Why'd the game bog down?
On a related question, how was having a villain lair to work from?
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Thank you for your answers. They have been is really helpful.
I discussed with the catfolk player and we agree to go with catfolks being more common, around level of gnomes. Unusual, but not unheard of.
It would make it easier for her to equip her character, without spending most of her gp on a hat of disguise.
Just 1 more quick question; How common are catfolks in Tian Xia? That was where we assumed they were from originally. (Mainly due to the large number of animal-humanoids races from that region.)
Creative Director
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I'm playing in a Hell's Vengeance game—we abandoned our Way of the Wicked game 2/3 through book 2 and restarted more or less with Hell's Vengeance after things kinda bogged down with book 2 of Way of the Wicked.Why'd the game bog down?
On a related question, how was having a villain lair to work from?
It bogged down because the fortress management got too repetitive, and the fortress layout was too illogical (enormous rooms with random layouts made navigating the place when it got attacked a bear).
Gaining the villain lair was kinda dull too—there were barely any monsters or treasures to gain while exploring the huge place.
It would have been a lot more interesting if it was about half the size, was laid out with a more sensical floorplan, and had more intrigue type stuff going on with roleplaying options.
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Creative Director
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Thank you for your answers. They have been is really helpful.
I discussed with the catfolk player and we agree to go with catfolks being more common, around level of gnomes. Unusual, but not unheard of.
It would make it easier for her to equip her character, without spending most of her gp on a hat of disguise.Just 1 more quick question; How common are catfolks in Tian Xia? That was where we assumed they were from originally. (Mainly due to the large number of animal-humanoids races from that region.)
Catfolk are very uncommon in Tian-xia. The cat people there are likely more akin to much more humanoid with a few cat features (ears, tail and that's about it) if there are any at all, and they're more tied in to the spirit world a la kami or kitsune. In short, they'd be an entirely different race.
Aren't the Tian Xia catfolk down in the Valashmai Jungle? A.k.a, kaiju country?
James,
Lately I have been wondering about the city-states of Iblydos, and if a small Ptolemaic-esque (it was founded by osirion refugees) city-state would fit in there?
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How would hellknights react to someone wearing hellknight armor who isn't a hellknight? Is it correct to assume hellknight armor is pretty rare outside of Cheliax?
They would Not Approve.
It's relatively rare outside of Hellknights, which does mean it's pretty rare outside of Cheliax. Although Varisia, Isger, and a few other places do have Hellknight presences.
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James,
Lately I have been wondering about the city-states of Iblydos, and if a small Ptolemaic-esque (it was founded by osirion refugees) city-state would fit in there?
I've pretty much done zero thought on Iblydos. Distant Shores has an article about one of the cities there, and that's pretty much all that we've said about it so far. Not sure about your question off the top of my head, but it IS quite far from Osirion...
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James, I did have one semi-rules question if you have a moment. The Maneuver Master monk archetype gains the 'flurry of maneuvers' instaed of 'flurry of blows'. Does this count as 'flurry of blows' for the purpose of qualifying for feats and the like (specifically certain style feats, like Grabbing Style)? I would think any 'flurry' should qualify, since brawler's flurry does in the specific example of Grabbing Style.
Thoughts?
I"d say no.
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How would hellknights react to someone wearing hellknight armor who isn't a hellknight? Is it correct to assume hellknight armor is pretty rare outside of Cheliax?They would Not Approve.
It's relatively rare outside of Hellknights, which does mean it's pretty rare outside of Cheliax. Although Varisia, Isger, and a few other places do have Hellknight presences.
Can you clarify 'Not Approve'? Is that "We're going to kill you", or "We're going to lock you up for breaking X law", or just a lower starting attitude?
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Can you clarify 'Not Approve'? Is that "We're going to kill you", or "We're going to lock you up for breaking X law", or just a lower starting attitude?How would hellknights react to someone wearing hellknight armor who isn't a hellknight? Is it correct to assume hellknight armor is pretty rare outside of Cheliax?They would Not Approve.
It's relatively rare outside of Hellknights, which does mean it's pretty rare outside of Cheliax. Although Varisia, Isger, and a few other places do have Hellknight presences.
"Not Approve" would depend on the order, the nature of the person wearing the armor, and other elements. Could range from attack to arrest to scold.
I'm playing in a Hell's Vengeance game—we abandoned our Way of the Wicked game 2/3 through book 2 and restarted more or less with Hell's Vengeance after things kinda bogged down with book 2 of Way of the Wicked.Why'd the game bog down?
On a related question, how was having a villain lair to work from?
It bogged down because the fortress management got too repetitive, and the fortress layout was too illogical (enormous rooms with random layouts made navigating the place when it got attacked a bear).
Gaining the villain lair was kinda dull too—there were barely any monsters or treasures to gain while exploring the huge place.
It would have been a lot more interesting if it was about half the size, was laid out with a more sensical floorplan, and had more intrigue type stuff going on with roleplaying options.
By too large, do you mean each square was too big (10'x10' per square), or there were too many squares?
How exactly was the layout random? How would it have been more sensical?
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Creative Director
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I'm playing in a Hell's Vengeance game—we abandoned our Way of the Wicked game 2/3 through book 2 and restarted more or less with Hell's Vengeance after things kinda bogged down with book 2 of Way of the Wicked.Why'd the game bog down?
On a related question, how was having a villain lair to work from?
It bogged down because the fortress management got too repetitive, and the fortress layout was too illogical (enormous rooms with random layouts made navigating the place when it got attacked a bear).
Gaining the villain lair was kinda dull too—there were barely any monsters or treasures to gain while exploring the huge place.
It would have been a lot more interesting if it was about half the size, was laid out with a more sensical floorplan, and had more intrigue type stuff going on with roleplaying options.
By too large, do you mean each square was too big (10'x10' per square), or there were too many squares?
How exactly was the layout random? How would it have been more sensical?
To be honest I'm not really eager to get into it much more, since that starts to feel like me giving a professional analysis of another product. And that's not really the purpose of this thread, nor is it something I'm all that comfortable doing. Sorry!
O Most-Esteemed Dinosaur,
What is your favorite Hellknight order?
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Q: What is your favorite Golarion faith? (in terms of flavor, PC options, or deity portfolio... coolness can also be a factor).
Thank you!
That'd probably be Desna, with Sarenrae coming in a close second. Desna was in fact the FIRST deity I did much flavor creation work for in my campaign setting other than just having a name, so she's the one I've had my head wrapped around for the longest. TECHNICALLY the deity in my setting that's the absolute oldest (and was the first one I invented for my homebrew) was Yamasoth, who now exists in Golarion as a Qlippoth Lord.
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Hey JJ,
I want to preface that this is part looking to share and to seek critiques or at the very least your opinion on something that might have you facepalming.Spoiler:Years ago when I first read the few details about Geb, and there were scarcely any at the time, my head cannon started filling in things. As a fellow lover of the Souls series, I imagined Geb and it's conflict with Nex took a more noble-tragic route.
At the time, I recall that it was a plague that struck Geb's populace (or so I thought) and was slowly killing them off. In my head, Geb wasn't so malicious and in his attempts to save his people he turned to necromancy. At first, he went to completely-made-up order of knights and paladins, asking them to give up their lives to become more powerful. All of them agreed without questioned, and through a ritual became an order of Deathknights, called the Entombed. Spirits bound to their armor and weapons. But even that wasn't enough to save his people, and he proposed the same to his dying people. Out of anger, desperation, and all manner of terrible emotions most agreed. And so it went on, knowing that while he was prolonging his people's lives as it were, he was damning their afterlife to an extent.With such a force at his command, one of his last acts as a living leader had such a battle that it ended the war with the death of Nex. And in his grief, Geb then killed himself and rose unintentionally as a spirit, now dubbed the Mourning King. Today, Nex is a neutral city much as it is in canon, but has developed a culture surrounding paying homage to Undead (in whatever form) ancestors, who linger and protect and teach their living ancestors. To a point that it is often a great honor to become Undead and live on.
There are principles though in place concerning mindless undead, and being as at peace with the living as much as possible, and not tolerating malicious undead. This still puts them at great odds with most nations and beliefs though, and that by nature they are Evil aligned, but not so much in deed if that makes sense.
I wanted to know your opinion on such a setup, though I realize it grates on the issue that Undead is Evil, with capital E at all times. And that it doesn't sit well with Pharasma at all, among who knows how many potential enemies. And if there is anyway that you think it would fit more within Golarion.
No facepalming here at all. That's a fine set up, and again, taking cues from the Souls series for Geb is pretty spot on as far as I'm concerned. It's a fine set up for a region—it's obviously not the same as what we've got going on in canonical print Golarion, but if it works for YOUR Golarion, by all means go with it!
That'd probably be Desna
A major factor in my lack of interest in her Chaotic Good homeboy Cayden Cailean...is that Desna gives me just about everything I want out of a CG deity,and she does it with style.
Are there any deities in the setting that, in hindsight, you wouldn't have included or would have altered heavily? Not talking about Paladins of Asmodeus or the Erastil dust-up. but just basic conceptual stuff.
1) Hypothetically speaking, if there was combat between the Silver Ravens and Dottari in Vilegre park, and the one surviving Dottari took a young woman hostage and threatened to kill her unless the PCs let him escape, and he ended up going through on his threat, and an angry mob tore him apart...what would be Barzillai's reaction? Double down and get harsher towards the people? Or try to disassociate from it?
I just wanted to know your opinion since that happened last game.
2) Regarding the watchtowers along the Kintargo wall...
2a) How tall are they?
2b) How many floors are they?
2c) How many people do they intern in the jail cells, on average?
2d) How would the Dottari respond to them being raided?
I'm starting a new game tomorrow with three players out of six brand new to tabletop and excited to play with a nice role play heavy group.
What would you say are the most important things to convey to new players outside of the rules?
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That'd probably be DesnaA major factor in my lack of interest in her Chaotic Good homeboy Cayden Cailean...is that Desna gives me just about everything I want out of a CG deity,and she does it with style.
Are there any deities in the setting that, in hindsight, you wouldn't have included or would have altered heavily? Not talking about Paladins of Asmodeus or the Erastil dust-up. but just basic conceptual stuff.
Not really. I'm pretty pleased with how it all played out.
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I'm starting a new game tomorrow with three players out of six brand new to tabletop and excited to play with a nice role play heavy group.
What would you say are the most important things to convey to new players outside of the rules?
The top five things:
1) Don't be afraid to try things that the rules don't cover.
2) Respect the GM's call on how rules work.
3) Work together as a team—you and your fellow player characters should be allies. You don't have to be FRIENDS, but you should be allies.
4) Don't interrupt other players, and don't distract other players, and pay attention (don't surf Facebook on your iPhone when it's not your turn).
5) Take notes! At the very least, write down the names, races, genders, and clasess of your fellow PCs until you know who they are.
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1) Hypothetically speaking, if there was combat between the Silver Ravens and Dottari in Vilegre park, and the one surviving Dottari took a young woman hostage and threatened to kill her unless the PCs let him escape, and he ended up going through on his threat, and an angry mob tore him apart...what would be Barzillai's reaction? Double down and get harsher towards the people? Or try to disassociate from it?
I just wanted to know your opinion since that happened last game.
2) Regarding the watchtowers along the Kintargo wall...
2a) How tall are they?
2b) How many floors are they?
2c) How many people do they intern in the jail cells, on average?
2d) How would the Dottari respond to them being raided?
1) I doubt a Dottari would take someone hostage. Even working for Thrune, the Dottari remain, in theory, the city cops. That'd be out of character for the Dottari to take that sort of tactic. Barzillai's reaction to this would likely be to blame the Silver Ravens for driving one of the city's fine Dottari to madness and that rebellion only brings out the worst in everyone, so don't rebel!
2a) The towers are each 100 feet wide, but they're only about 60 feet tall. They're pretty squat, as far as towers go.
2b) Each floor has a 10 foot high ceiling, with a fair bit of infrastructure between floors, so I'd say that each tower has 5 floors and a roof.
2c) The typical tower keeps its prisoners on the 3rd floor (so that a potential escapee has equal amounts of adjoining floors to flee through, thus maximizing chances for them to get caught before exiting the tower), but not the whole floor is cell space—I'd say no more than half of each floor has cells. Let's guess that means about 15 10-foot-square cells. Pre-thrune, these cells would normally be used for minor criminals and drunks and what not, and would usually be pretty empty, but once Martial Law happens, I'd not be surprised to see them full. You could probably say that during the AP's first 4 adventures that the typical tower holds 2d10 prisoners at any one time.
2d) Increased patrols and increased guards at the towers. They'd likely end up recruiting Hellknight help, and if the PCs got really pushy, Barzillai might approve adding bearded devils or erinyes helpers.
1) Hypothetically speaking, if there was combat between the Silver Ravens and Dottari in Vilegre park, and the one surviving Dottari took a young woman hostage and threatened to kill her unless the PCs let him escape, and he ended up going through on his threat, and an angry mob tore him apart...what would be Barzillai's reaction? Double down and get harsher towards the people? Or try to disassociate from it?
I just wanted to know your opinion since that happened last game.
2) Regarding the watchtowers along the Kintargo wall...
2a) How tall are they?
2b) How many floors are they?
2c) How many people do they intern in the jail cells, on average?
2d) How would the Dottari respond to them being raided?
1) I doubt a Dottari would take someone hostage. Even working for Thrune, the Dottari remain, in theory, the city cops. That'd be out of character for the Dottari to take that sort of tactic. Barzillai's reaction to this would likely be to blame the Silver Ravens for driving one of the city's fine Dottari to madness and that rebellion only brings out the worst in everyone, so don't rebel!
2a) The towers are each 100 feet wide, but they're only about 60 feet tall. They're pretty squat, as far as towers go.
2b) Each floor has a 10 foot high ceiling, with a fair bit of infrastructure between floors, so I'd say that each tower has 5 floors and a roof.
2c) The typical tower keeps its prisoners on the 3rd floor (so that a potential escapee has equal amounts of adjoining floors to flee through, thus maximizing chances for them to get caught before exiting the tower), but not the whole floor is cell space—I'd say no more than half of each floor has cells. Let's guess that means about 15 10-foot-square cells. Pre-thrune, these cells would normally be used for minor criminals and drunks and what not, and would usually be pretty empty, but once Martial Law happens, I'd not be surprised to see them full. You could probably say that during the AP's first 4 adventures that...
Thank you, sir.
1) The guy was in "Oh @#%^, I'm gonna die!" mode and was willing to get very ruthless to escape the situation.
2e) How many Dottari might be on-site, and who would command the tower?
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2e) How many Dottari might be on-site, and who would command the tower?
Those numbers are left vague so that you can adjust them as needed to provide the challenge you need for your party, but at minimum I'd say that there'd be a CR 2 worth of Dottari on each floor (so, three 1st level Dottari Guards per floor). For leaders, I'd go with the stats for the Menador soldier on page 29 of "Dance of the Damned", or even a Dottari captain from page 27 of "A Song of Silver."
Feel free to mix and match as you need, though!
I was just reading Demons Revisited and came upon the mention of a half-succubus and saw the template. Can a half-succubus be any alignment?
According to Mythic Realms catfolk were one of the many slaves races that the Valashmaians had.
1)Were catfolk taken from southern Garund or another planet?
2)If catfolk were taken from another planet then how and why did so many catfolk leave valashmai jungle to go to southern Garund?
3)If catfolk were taken from another planet was it from the Golarion's solar system or somewhere else?
4)Are the catolk from Garund and catfolk from Tian Xia the same species?
5)Do the catfolk of Garund or the ones from Tian xia have any racial memory of where they came from?
6)Will we ever find out any more about the Valashmaians?
7)Will we ever find out what other slave races the Valashmaians had that left the valashmai jungle or are extinct?
Obviously you like cats, and I think I remember you saying you're not terribly fond of dogs...
...how do you feel about:
Ferrets?
Birds?
Small rodents?
Monkeys?
Snakes?
Iguanas or other reptiles?
Fish?
Any other animals you're fond of or don't particularly like?
So a buddy wants to play a Ulfen wizard with a puffin familiar. Do you think it is acceptable to just use the raven stats and give it a +3 swim check (seabird that spends most of its time on the water)?
So a buddy wants to play a Ulfen wizard with a puffin familiar. Do you think it is acceptable to just use the raven stats and give it a +3 swim check (seabird that spends most of its time on the water)?
At the risk of stepping on James' toes... check Page 11 of the Reign of Winter Players' Guide. It's got a Puffin!
Who came up with having Zon-Kuthon be Shelyn's brother? It really adds to the appeal of both deities for me...
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I was just reading Demons Revisited and came upon the mention of a half-succubus and saw the template. Can a half-succubus be any alignment?
As with any half-demon, a half-succubus is more or less under the same restrictions as any half-fiend. The vast majority of them are evil (chaotic evil in the case of half-demons like this) but there can be exceptions.
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According to Mythic Realms catfolk were one of the many slaves races that the Valashmaians had.
1)Were catfolk taken from southern Garund or another planet?
2)If catfolk were taken from another planet then how and why did so many catfolk leave valashmai jungle to go to southern Garund?
3)If catfolk were taken from another planet was it from the Golarion's solar system or somewhere else?
4)Are the catolk from Garund and catfolk from Tian Xia the same species?
5)Do the catfolk of Garund or the ones from Tian xia have any racial memory of where they came from?
6)Will we ever find out any more about the Valashmaians?
7)Will we ever find out what other slave races the Valashmaians had that left the valashmai jungle or are extinct?
1) Southern Garund.
2) N/A
3) N/A
4) Yes, but probably a different ethnicity
5) No more than humans. They likely have a deity or a religion or the like that helps them understand their source, but we've not explored that much at all.
6) Maybe
7) Maybe
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Obviously you like cats, and I think I remember you saying you're not terribly fond of dogs...
...how do you feel about:
Ferrets?
Birds?
Small rodents?
Monkeys?
Snakes?
Iguanas or other reptiles?
Fish?Any other animals you're fond of or don't particularly like?
I love cats, but don't hate dogs.
Ferrets are kinda smelly; not super fond of them.
Most birds birds are awesome. Crows and ravens are SUPERCOOL.
Small rodents are fine, and rats are awesome when they're not being pests.
Monkeys are noisy and smelly.
Snakes are GREAT.
Iguanas and all other lizards are tied with cats as my favorite animal.
Some fish are cool, most are DELICIOUS.
Along with cats and lizards, add tuataras and crocodilians and octopodes to my favorites.
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Hey James!
I recently started playing "Pathfinder: Mummys Mask" with a group of friends and so far i love it!
I tried to search before asking, but didn't find any answer that was verified by a dev.
I got 3 Questions:
1. How much dmg. would a Fireball with Intensified+Maximized+Empowered and Orc Bloodline +1 per die do?
2. Can you use wands to put spells in spell storing items? like a Vibrant Purple Prism (Ioun Stone)?
3. Can you put "Personal" spells in spell storing items?Thanks!
1) That's a good question for the rules forum for clarification. I'm not familiar with some of those feats and effects to say off the top of my head on a weekend. ;-P
2) I'd say no, but would allow spell completion items like scrolls to do so.
3) yes
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So a buddy wants to play a Ulfen wizard with a puffin familiar. Do you think it is acceptable to just use the raven stats and give it a +3 swim check (seabird that spends most of its time on the water)?At the risk of stepping on James' toes... check Page 11 of the Reign of Winter Players' Guide. It's got a Puffin!
Who came up with having Zon-Kuthon be Shelyn's brother? It really adds to the appeal of both deities for me...
Ah; thought so! Thanks!
That was Mike McArtor's idea. Shelyn was mostly his invention at the start but has since been expanded upon significantly by the rest of us. Zon-Kuthon was mine from the start.
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James, what are the differences between 6E and 7E Call of Cthulhu? Worth buying a new set of books over or just using the previous ones?
The shift between 6th and 7th is the largest shift in the rules the game has ever had, throughout all it's editions. It still plays very close to the previous ones, but the new rules represent an update that adds some excellent new game elements to one of the oldest RPG systems on the market. You can still play old adventures and use old supplements with the new rules with ease, but I'd absolutely say the new books are worth buying!!!! DO IT!!!
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James, I've been reading a lot about the royal lines of medieval/renaissance Europe lately and the inbreeding they did (especially the Habsburg dynasty) and I got to thinking about how it works in Golarion. Is inbreeding practiced among the Inner Sea nobility?
If they do I'd imagine they would eventually produce some royal members that are supremely unfit to lead, much like the real world king Charles II of Spain.
The final end of the Spanish Habsburg line, with a really convuluted family tree, his parents were uncle and niece.
He couldn't walk until he was four, couldn't talk until he was eight. They didn't give him any schooling because they thought it would be too much for him and didn't even expect him to wash. Serious physical and mental degradation in other words, he had such an extreme case of "the Habsburg jaw" that he could barely talk or chew food. Luckily he was infertile so the inbreeding finally ended with him.
But how would you represent an individual such as this in game terms? He is a human so he would have class levels, but with his physical and mental problems he couldn't learn any real skills, weapon proficiencies or any kind of feat that requires much in the way of effort or mastery. Being a king he would most likely take aristocrat levels, but how would you show his lack of physical or mental aptitude beyond giving him massive penalties to his stats? Aristocrats do come with a far bit of skills, armor and weapon proficiencies after all, that doesn't seem to fit.
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James, I've been reading a lot about the royal lines of medieval/renaissance Europe lately and the inbreeding they did (especially the Habsburg dynasty) and I got to thinking about how it works in Golarion. Is inbreeding practiced among the Inner Sea nobility?
If they do I'd imagine they would eventually produce some royal members that are supremely unfit to lead, much like the real world king Charles II of Spain.
The final end of the Spanish Habsburg line, with a really convuluted family tree, his parents were uncle and niece.
He couldn't walk until he was four, couldn't talk until he was eight. They didn't give him any schooling because they thought it would be too much for him and didn't even expect him to wash. Serious physical and mental degradation in other words, he had such an extreme case of "the Habsburg jaw" that he could barely talk or chew food. Luckily he was infertile so the inbreeding finally ended with him.But how would you represent an individual such as this in game terms? He is a human so he would have class levels, but with his physical and mental problems he couldn't learn any real skills, weapon proficiencies or any kind of feat that requires much in the way of effort or mastery. Being a king he would most likely take aristocrat levels, but how would you show his lack of physical or mental aptitude beyond giving him massive penalties to his stats? Aristocrats do come with a far bit of skills, armor and weapon proficiencies after all, that doesn't seem to fit.
Inbreeding in royalty isn't really something we do much in the game, honestly. There certainly could be some going on though, but it's not something we focus on. As for ANY deformity, regardless of the source, I'd handle it with custom rules or maybe something as simple as a low ability score. There is, in fact, just such a character in the third Hell's Rebels adventure as an example.
Ciao, James! I'm reading Hell's Rebels right now, and it's GOOD!
Do you know what the (Elven? Chelish?) word "Lacunafex" means? And what happens in the 'Marquel Affair' part of Turn of the Torrent if one of the PCs is an Aulorian?
As a rough guideline, how many evil spells should be cast to shift someone’s alignment towards evil (from good to neutral or neutral to evil)?
I understand that it may vary from situation to situation, but I don't want to be arbitrary and shift ones alignment for casting 1-2 evil spells, or counting till the caster reaches hundred or more casts.