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Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Disk Elemental wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Disk Elemental wrote:
No. It's harder to be good than evil.
Celestial and Infernal healing are the exact same spell, with their descriptors switched, why does one push you towards an alignment extreme but not another?

I don't think we should have created celestial healing in the first place, frankly; asymmetry is better in this case because it devalues and lessens the interesting points of the existing spell to have an opposite.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Rysky wrote:

Have you bought any of the Dark Souls Design Works (bigass art books + commentary + storyboarding)?

The Japanese version of the Bloodborne Design Works came out some time last month so hopefully the English version will be available soon.

Nope. Haven't bought them.

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:
Rysky wrote:

Have you bought any of the Dark Souls Design Works (bigass art books + commentary + storyboarding)?

The Japanese version of the Bloodborne Design Works came out some time last month so hopefully the English version will be available soon.

Nope. Haven't bought them.

I really enjoy my copies of Design Works I & II :3

Hmm, probably should have asked if you really like art books (I believe you've mentioned a really nice Lovecraft one before), and if you'd be more interested in the art or the Director interviews.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Rysky wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Rysky wrote:

Have you bought any of the Dark Souls Design Works (bigass art books + commentary + storyboarding)?

The Japanese version of the Bloodborne Design Works came out some time last month so hopefully the English version will be available soon.

Nope. Haven't bought them.

I really enjoy my copies of Design Works I & II :3

Hmm, probably should have asked if you really like art books (I believe you've mentioned a really nice Lovecraft one before), and if you'd be more interested in the art or the Director interviews.

I love art books. One of the most expensive books I own is an art book. And I just got 2 art books I kickstarted (One for Cthulhu Wars and one from Clive Barker). And I really do enjoy the art design and look of the souls games. Just never really felt the urge to add those books to my collection, I guess.

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:
Rysky wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Rysky wrote:

Have you bought any of the Dark Souls Design Works (bigass art books + commentary + storyboarding)?

The Japanese version of the Bloodborne Design Works came out some time last month so hopefully the English version will be available soon.

Nope. Haven't bought them.

I really enjoy my copies of Design Works I & II :3

Hmm, probably should have asked if you really like art books (I believe you've mentioned a really nice Lovecraft one before), and if you'd be more interested in the art or the Director interviews.

I love art books. One of the most expensive books I own is an art book. And I just got 2 art books I kickstarted (One for Cthulhu Wars and one from Clive Barker). And I really do enjoy the art design and look of the souls games. Just never really felt the urge to add those books to my collection, I guess.

Ah, I see, and I completely understand (has one bookshelf for novels, the other for art books).

And yes! That's the book I was thinking of!

Liberty's Edge

Regarding the hard mode AP idea.

Aren't encounter CRs currently (for the most part) assigned with the expectation that the party will go through several of them in a day? So you could have like, four CR +0 encounters?

But if you assume resting to full between every single encounter, wouldn't you have to bump the CRs in order to have the same challenge level?

So you could have an adventure that has a "rest as much as you want" mechanic as the base premise, and then you could just do every encounter at CR +2 or more, without actually upping the challenge. The challenge level would be the same because the party would come to each fight fully rested instead of having to deal with daily attrition.

Wouldn't this take care of the page count problem? You could have all encounters bumped up in CR without increasing the challenge by having no time crunch.

Liberty's Edge

James, are you familiar with Eberron? What did you think of the Undying and the Undying Court of the elves in that setting?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Samy wrote:

Regarding the hard mode AP idea.

Aren't encounter CRs currently (for the most part) assigned with the expectation that the party will go through several of them in a day? So you could have like, four CR +0 encounters?

But if you assume resting to full between every single encounter, wouldn't you have to bump the CRs in order to have the same challenge level?

So you could have an adventure that has a "rest as much as you want" mechanic as the base premise, and then you could just do every encounter at CR +2 or more, without actually upping the challenge. The challenge level would be the same because the party would come to each fight fully rested instead of having to deal with daily attrition.

Wouldn't this take care of the page count problem? You could have all encounters bumped up in CR without increasing the challenge by having no time crunch.

Correct. A "hard mode" AP would increase encounter CRs across the board by 1 or 2 or even 3, and would likely NOT have a "rest as much as you want" mechanic.

The tricky thing is, of course, that there are a LOT of attacks and effects and situations that are keyed to CR with the level expectation that you'll be able to deal with it, and if you do too many high CR stuff, the game starts to do things like hit you with petrification stuff when you're not ready or able to deal with it, for example.

But still... hard mode is the most likely way that we'd be able to pull off a 1st to 20th level AP. It would require a skilled hand and some luck to write and develop though, and even if it works as intended, would likely annoy a fair number of folks, which puts it into the same category as Iron Gods, Skull & Shackles, Wrath of the Righteous, and Hell's Vengeance—the "experimental AP" category that won't appeal to nearly as many potential folks as something like Runelords or Hell's Vengeance or Mummy's Mask would.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Paladinosaur wrote:
James, are you familiar with Eberron? What did you think of the Undying and the Undying Court of the elves in that setting?

I'm quite familiar with Eberron. Dungeon magazine published a LOT of adventures for Eberron—more adventures than WotC ever published. And I played in an Eberron game Jason ran... long enough that I liked one of my PCs (I went through about 5) enoguh to immortalize him in Hell's Rebels (Chuko the tengu!).

I was never really a big fan of the setting though. A lot of its elements changed a lot of the things I really really like about D&D and fantasy stuff in general, and there were a lot of other creative decisions that I wasn't that keen on. Not my favorite. I didn't think much of the Undying or the Undying Court.

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

James Jacobs wrote:
I love art books. One of the most expensive books I own is an art book.

I love the art inside. Also, great to have around in case of zombie apocalypse to brain them.

Do you enjoy the works of Brom and Giger?

Scarab Sages

James Jacobs wrote:
Disk Elemental wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Disk Elemental wrote:
No. It's harder to be good than evil.
Celestial and Infernal healing are the exact same spell, with their descriptors switched, why does one push you towards an alignment extreme but not another?
I don't think we should have created celestial healing in the first place, frankly; asymmetry is better in this case because it devalues and lessens the interesting points of the existing spell to have an opposite.

Well, since good spells do not move your alignment but evil spells do... what about law and chaos spells and effects?

Shadow Lodge

James Jacobs wrote:
I don't think we should have created celestial healing in the first place, frankly; asymmetry is better in this case because it devalues and lessens the interesting points of the existing spell to have an opposite.

That doesn't answer my question....

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:
Do you enjoy the works of Brom and Giger?

Very much.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Lorewalker wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Disk Elemental wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Disk Elemental wrote:
No. It's harder to be good than evil.
Celestial and Infernal healing are the exact same spell, with their descriptors switched, why does one push you towards an alignment extreme but not another?
I don't think we should have created celestial healing in the first place, frankly; asymmetry is better in this case because it devalues and lessens the interesting points of the existing spell to have an opposite.
Well, since good spells do not move your alignment but evil spells do... what about law and chaos spells and effects?

I didn't say that at all. Good spells will affect your alignment, as will law and chaos spells. How MUCH they affect your alignment is not part of the game; that's left to each and every individual GM to decide.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Disk Elemental wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
I don't think we should have created celestial healing in the first place, frankly; asymmetry is better in this case because it devalues and lessens the interesting points of the existing spell to have an opposite.
That doesn't answer my question....

They both push you toward a specific alignment. Evil does so faster in games I run. How it works in your game is up to you or your GM. It might not push an alignment at all, but in that case, I kinda think you should just remove the "Good" or "Evil" or "Law" or "Chaos" descriptors entirely since they're kinda pointless if they don't have alignment repercussions.

Alternately... limiting these spells ONLY to characters who have that actual alignment component works. This in fact might be the better solution, since that means that it's not the spells that affect your alignment, it's your alignment that allows access to the spells, and if you drift from that alignment you just can't cast those spells anymore.


One way to take an AP party to level twenty would be to publish one of the "continuing the campaign" ideas as a followup module -- one of the long ones, like "Feast of Dust" or "Wardens of the Reborn Forge." It would have to be playable on its own, but even the adventures that make up an AP can potentially be played singly, if the GM is willing to make some adjustments. Would you ever consider that, or would that be too much of a co-option of the Pathfinder Modules product line?


how does the spell reincarnation work with children/early teens does reincarnation turn them into young adults like everyone else or does it leave them in a body their age/new races equivalent?

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Did you get a chance to read Wes' chapter on consent in horror games for Horror Adventures? (I am looking forward to reading it.)

Tangentially related: Whether you have or have not read it, do you think that the existence of such a chapter (unprecedented according to my new-blood knowledge) will have an effect on the dialogue around gaming?


I notice that little by little we are seeing more love for Kyonin in the player campanion books. Might we be seeing a Kyonin campaign setting book in the future? I understand if this is one of those questions you can't actually answer. Spoilers on upcoming products and what not.


James Jacobs wrote:
Lorewalker wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Disk Elemental wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Disk Elemental wrote:
No. It's harder to be good than evil.
Celestial and Infernal healing are the exact same spell, with their descriptors switched, why does one push you towards an alignment extreme but not another?
I don't think we should have created celestial healing in the first place, frankly; asymmetry is better in this case because it devalues and lessens the interesting points of the existing spell to have an opposite.
Well, since good spells do not move your alignment but evil spells do... what about law and chaos spells and effects?
I didn't say that at all. Good spells will affect your alignment, as will law and chaos spells. How MUCH they affect your alignment is not part of the game; that's left to each and every individual GM to decide.

What about these rules?

According to them, changing alignment either way is a matter of 1-3 minor aligned acts, such as killing an orc prisoner out of practical reasons. I assume that includes spells. Source: Ultimate Campaign.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kavren Stark wrote:
One way to take an AP party to level twenty would be to publish one of the "continuing the campaign" ideas as a followup module -- one of the long ones, like "Feast of Dust" or "Wardens of the Reborn Forge." It would have to be playable on its own, but even the adventures that make up an AP can potentially be played singly, if the GM is willing to make some adjustments. Would you ever consider that, or would that be too much of a co-option of the Pathfinder Modules product line?

Folks have brought that possibility up before and it's not a great solution for a lot of reasons, but the two main ones are we prefer our modules to be stand-alone so that folks aren't all "I didn't play this AP so I can't use this module," combined with the fact that we'd probably need two or maybe even three modules to wrap up that AP, and that doesn't even touch the complications about how folks who only have one subscription line to those two lines would react to being "forced" into buying products outside of their line.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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wabbitking wrote:
how does the spell reincarnation work with children/early teens does reincarnation turn them into young adults like everyone else or does it leave them in a body their age/new races equivalent?

Depends entirely on that reincarnated child/teen's fate/karma/destiny. AKA: GM's whim. But it's probably best if they come back at roughly the same age stage as when they died.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

7 people marked this as a favorite.
Alayern wrote:

Did you get a chance to read Wes' chapter on consent in horror games for Horror Adventures? (I am looking forward to reading it.)

Tangentially related: Whether you have or have not read it, do you think that the existence of such a chapter (unprecedented according to my new-blood knowledge) will have an effect on the dialogue around gaming?

He actually asked me to read/proof the entire chapter to make sure it covered all the bases—there's more than "consent" in that chapter. It's about all sorts of things you need to do when running a horror game, including a discussion on seven genres of horror and ways to make a moodier and creepier game and more. It's my favorite chapter in the book, in fact. SO much more useful in running a horror game than a pile of feats or spells! :D

I hope it does help. Gamers can be pretty blind/callous to things like this, and I suspect it's because the topic HASN'T been covered in print. Gamers who feel threatened by the concept that others might not be into the same things as them are bad for the hobby.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Naive Wolf Joshua wrote:
I notice that little by little we are seeing more love for Kyonin in the player campanion books. Might we be seeing a Kyonin campaign setting book in the future? I understand if this is one of those questions you can't actually answer. Spoilers on upcoming products and what not.

Kyonin is one of the areas sorta exported from my homebrew setting, and part of the reason we don't do a lot more is because it's one of the areas I'm kind of precious about wanting to save to do something for myself, but then I also don't have a lot of time or energy or inspiration to write much game stuff these days... so it's sort of a catch-22. We'll see, though.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Mashallah wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Lorewalker wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Disk Elemental wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Disk Elemental wrote:
No. It's harder to be good than evil.
Celestial and Infernal healing are the exact same spell, with their descriptors switched, why does one push you towards an alignment extreme but not another?
I don't think we should have created celestial healing in the first place, frankly; asymmetry is better in this case because it devalues and lessens the interesting points of the existing spell to have an opposite.
Well, since good spells do not move your alignment but evil spells do... what about law and chaos spells and effects?
I didn't say that at all. Good spells will affect your alignment, as will law and chaos spells. How MUCH they affect your alignment is not part of the game; that's left to each and every individual GM to decide.

What about these rules?

According to them, changing alignment either way is a matter of 1-3 minor aligned acts, such as killing an orc prisoner out of practical reasons. I assume that includes spells. Source: Ultimate Campaign.

Feel free to use those if you want. That's why we publish them.

Feel free NOT to use them if you don't want. That's one of the powers a GM has.

Scarab Sages

Did you read the Pro-Rovagug propaganda I handed you at Paizo Con? And if so did you enjoy it?

Radiant Oath

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

Why do you think people get so hung up on the whole "Paladins of Asmodeus" thing despite what you and the other devs have repeatedly said, namely that the introduction of that idea in the original Asmodeus article was a mistake, and has since been retconned to non-paladin classes calling themselves Paladins to lend a veneer of divine authority to their deeds and largely being an act for the gullible peasants?


A wizard in my party has an issue with the Evolved Summon Monster referencing Evolutions

1. If this feat is taken twice does it allow for a single summoned monster to get two instances of a 1 point evolution such as Improved Natural Armor (Ex) that stack? Total of +4 Natural Armor.

2. Is a creature that has no limbs, but slam attacks allowed to take the 1 point evolution slam to gain another attack?

3. In an extreme example could you take the feat four times and give four extra slam attacks to a greater negative energy elemental?


If Paladins of Asmodeus are such a non-starter (which I completely agree with), shouldn't the same be true for Paladins being Hellknights, serving and defending a regime that's at least nominally worshipping Asmodeus, but more importantly, devoted to evil, that carries out slavery, torture, oppression, and devil-consortation on a daily basis?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Gnorm wrote:
Did you read the Pro-Rovagug propaganda I handed you at Paizo Con? And if so did you enjoy it?

OH! I didn't get a chance. Now I need to figure out where I stashed it... Paizocon is kind of a blur...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

7 people marked this as a favorite.
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Why do you think people get so hung up on the whole "Paladins of Asmodeus" thing despite what you and the other devs have repeatedly said, namely that the introduction of that idea in the original Asmodeus article was a mistake, and has since been retconned to non-paladin classes calling themselves Paladins to lend a veneer of divine authority to their deeds and largely being an act for the gullible peasants?

Because despite the fact that Pathfinder is a team game where you work together with other PCs, a lot of gamers want to be the "main character" and the star of the show, and one way to do that is to try to get all the attention by being the most outlandish, odd, strange, flavor-breaking character they can possibly be.

Or because they like to bend/break rules to feel strong?

Or because they like to throw dirt in the eye of alignment?

Or because they want to play a character who worships an evil deity but their GM won't let them play evil characters?

Or because they're trying to get me so fed up that I quit Paizo?

Lots of potential reasons.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Detoxicity wrote:

A wizard in my party has an issue with the Evolved Summon Monster referencing Evolutions

1. If this feat is taken twice does it allow for a single summoned monster to get two instances of a 1 point evolution such as Improved Natural Armor (Ex) that stack? Total of +4 Natural Armor.

2. Is a creature that has no limbs, but slam attacks allowed to take the 1 point evolution slam to gain another attack?

3. In an extreme example could you take the feat four times and give four extra slam attacks to a greater negative energy elemental?

1) If an evolution normally stacks when taken multiple times, this spell won't make that not happen.

2) Nope.

3) If your GM allows greater negatvie energy elementals in the game, then maybe. You'd have to ask her or him.

Frankly, I wouldn't allow this feat at ALL in my game, since it would cause game play to crash each time someone summons a monster. Summoning spells already slow combat to a crawl, and if you're letting the wizard build custom monsters via evolutions in the middle of a fight, that's lame for all the other players. At the very least, I'd require the wizard to build a few pre-built monsters to summon, maybe even make him research monster types. I'm not a big fan of letting players design monsters though, becuase too many players don't treat monster design with respect.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
SirCasimir wrote:
If Paladins of Asmodeus are such a non-starter (which I completely agree with), shouldn't the same be true for Paladins being Hellknights, serving and defending a regime that's at least nominally worshipping Asmodeus, but more importantly, devoted to evil, that carries out slavery, torture, oppression, and devil-consortation on a daily basis?

No.

Hellknights can be lawful good. See Hell's Rebels, particularly part 2, for a LOT of examples on what a lawful good Hellknight is like. (Hint: It's nothing AT ALL like a worshiper of Asmodeus.)

Hellknights are mercenaries. Some work for Thrune, some work AGAINST Thrune, but none of them are FORCED to work for Thrune.

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:
SirCasimir wrote:
If Paladins of Asmodeus are such a non-starter (which I completely agree with), shouldn't the same be true for Paladins being Hellknights, serving and defending a regime that's at least nominally worshipping Asmodeus, but more importantly, devoted to evil, that carries out slavery, torture, oppression, and devil-consortation on a daily basis?

No.

Hellknights can be lawful good. See Hell's Rebels, particularly part 2, for a LOT of examples on what a lawful good Hellknight is like. (Hint: It's nothing AT ALL like a worshiper of Asmodeus.)

Hellknights are mercenaries. Some work for Thrune, some work AGAINST Thrune, but none of them are FORCED to work for Thrune.

Just like to chime in and add that they've also been around a LOT longer than Thrune :3

*offers T-Rex tummy wubs*

Radiant Oath

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

If a drow mage were looking to harness the magical power of blood, she'd most likely worship Zura, correct?


Which of the following are we most likely to see as central antagonists in a future AP, to a similar degree of prominence as drow in Second Darkness, genies in Legacy of Fire, oni in Jade Regent, demons in Wrath of the Righteous, giants in Giantslayer, or devils in Hell's Rebels:

• Aboleths
• Daemons
• Dragons (With kobolds as introductory enemies, of course.)
• Fey
• Inevitables
• Kytons
• Proteans
• Psychopomps (For a Geb-based evil AP? Eh, probably too narrow a niche. Might work as a module, though.)
• Qlippoth
• Rakshasas (For an AP set in Vudra? Please, one of these years?)

It strikes me that the core premise of Jade Regent -- escort the secret heir back to their homeland to reclaim their birthright -- would have worked about equally well for Vudra as for Tian Xia, with rakshasas in place of oni as the usurpers. Since that's been done now, though, I expect the Vudra AP, if it ever happens, will be something completely different.


James Jacobs wrote:

Hellknights can be lawful good. See Hell's Rebels, particularly part 2, for a LOT of examples on what a lawful good Hellknight is like. (Hint: It's nothing AT ALL like a worshiper of Asmodeus.)

Hellknights are mercenaries. Some work for Thrune, some work AGAINST Thrune, but none of them are FORCED to work for Thrune.

Would the Order of the Torrent continue to call themselves Hellknights after Kintargo and Ravounel win their independence from Cheliax, or would it make more sense for them to rename themselves? However independent Hellknights as a group really are, I would think that name would still carry the stigma of association with Thrune and the Asmodean church in the minds of a lot of Ravounel's citizens.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

Since the First World exists as a "first draft" of the material plane, the announcement of Starfinder made me wonder what the First World's version of deep space was like. Any thoughts on what space/other planets are like in the First World? Or does it not have them?


Is there a good writeup on the first world anywhere? So far as I'm concerned, fae make amazing antagonists.

My favorite is when a character looks at the seelie/unseelie/summer/winter/insert two opposing groups here and literally cannot figure out which is the lesser evil.

Big fan of old world tales of the Sidhe.


James Jacobs wrote:
Naive Wolf Joshua wrote:
I notice that little by little we are seeing more love for Kyonin in the player campanion books. Might we be seeing a Kyonin campaign setting book in the future? I understand if this is one of those questions you can't actually answer. Spoilers on upcoming products and what not.
Kyonin is one of the areas sorta exported from my homebrew setting, and part of the reason we don't do a lot more is because it's one of the areas I'm kind of precious about wanting to save to do something for myself, but then I also don't have a lot of time or energy or inspiration to write much game stuff these days... so it's sort of a catch-22. We'll see, though.

No worries, already in midst of a lengthy campaign (three years and still going, woot!) based on the information at hand and all seems to be well at the moment. Thanks for letting me know.

Also quick follow up question. Since Kyonin is an export of your homebrew setting can I assume there are elvish Tyrannosaurs?

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Would it be more or less correct to say that "Hellknight" as a title could conceivably be exchanged for another moniker? As in, how separate but functionally identical organizations can have different names? EX: Two fruit stores are called Fruits of our Labor and Come to Fruit-ition?

I think we're getting held up on the correlation between Cheliax being ruled by Diabolists and "Hell" being a part of the Hellknight name.

I know next to nothing about the Hellknights, so the origin of their name could have been explained somewhere, but if they predate Thrune's reign, maybe it was a coincidence?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
If a drow mage were looking to harness the magical power of blood, she'd most likely worship Zura, correct?

Correct. Or possibly Haagenti, as the demon lord of alchemy.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kavren Stark wrote:

Which of the following are we most likely to see as central antagonists in a future AP, to a similar degree of prominence as drow in Second Darkness, genies in Legacy of Fire, oni in Jade Regent, demons in Wrath of the Righteous, giants in Giantslayer, or devils in Hell's Rebels:

• Aboleths
• Daemons
• Dragons (With kobolds as introductory enemies, of course.)
• Fey
• Inevitables
• Kytons
• Proteans
• Psychopomps (For a Geb-based evil AP? Eh, probably too narrow a niche. Might work as a module, though.)
• Qlippoth
• Rakshasas (For an AP set in Vudra? Please, one of these years?)

It strikes me that the core premise of Jade Regent -- escort the secret heir back to their homeland to reclaim their birthright -- would have worked about equally well for Vudra as for Tian Xia, with rakshasas in place of oni as the usurpers. Since that's been done now, though, I expect the Vudra AP, if it ever happens, will be something completely different.

All of those are potentials... but then again so are all the other monsters in the Bestiaries.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Kavren Stark wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:

Hellknights can be lawful good. See Hell's Rebels, particularly part 2, for a LOT of examples on what a lawful good Hellknight is like. (Hint: It's nothing AT ALL like a worshiper of Asmodeus.)

Hellknights are mercenaries. Some work for Thrune, some work AGAINST Thrune, but none of them are FORCED to work for Thrune.

Would the Order of the Torrent continue to call themselves Hellknights after Kintargo and Ravounel win their independence from Cheliax, or would it make more sense for them to rename themselves? However independent Hellknights as a group really are, I would think that name would still carry the stigma of association with Thrune and the Asmodean church in the minds of a lot of Ravounel's citizens.

Yup. Hellknights are not a Cheliax only thing. There's Hellknights in Isger, Varisia, and even as far as the River Kingdoms or Mendev/Worldwound. In world, "Hellknigt" does not carry a particular stigma of association with Thrune or Asmodeus; that's largely a product of folks on these boards misinterpreting them. The Hellknight book coming soon will have PLENTY of examples of Hellknights that aren't particularly Thrune associated or Asmodeus associated.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

JoelF847 wrote:
Since the First World exists as a "first draft" of the material plane, the announcement of Starfinder made me wonder what the First World's version of deep space was like. Any thoughts on what space/other planets are like in the First World? Or does it not have them?

No thoughts.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

3 people marked this as a favorite.
BreakinStuff wrote:

Is there a good writeup on the first world anywhere? So far as I'm concerned, fae make amazing antagonists.

My favorite is when a character looks at the seelie/unseelie/summer/winter/insert two opposing groups here and literally cannot figure out which is the lesser evil.

Big fan of old world tales of the Sidhe.

There will be this November. When we release a 64 page book about the First World. Until then, the article in book 6 of Kingmaker is the best place to look.

We very specifically did NOT embrace a seelie/unseelie element for fey in Golarion.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Naive Wolf Joshua wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Naive Wolf Joshua wrote:
I notice that little by little we are seeing more love for Kyonin in the player campanion books. Might we be seeing a Kyonin campaign setting book in the future? I understand if this is one of those questions you can't actually answer. Spoilers on upcoming products and what not.
Kyonin is one of the areas sorta exported from my homebrew setting, and part of the reason we don't do a lot more is because it's one of the areas I'm kind of precious about wanting to save to do something for myself, but then I also don't have a lot of time or energy or inspiration to write much game stuff these days... so it's sort of a catch-22. We'll see, though.

No worries, already in midst of a lengthy campaign (three years and still going, woot!) based on the information at hand and all seems to be well at the moment. Thanks for letting me know.

Also quick follow up question. Since Kyonin is an export of your homebrew setting can I assume there are elvish Tyrannosaurs?

Nope. Turns out, as much as I like dinosaurs, they don't figure prominently in everything I do.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Alayern wrote:

Would it be more or less correct to say that "Hellknight" as a title could conceivably be exchanged for another moniker? As in, how separate but functionally identical organizations can have different names? EX: Two fruit stores are called Fruits of our Labor and Come to Fruit-ition?

I think we're getting held up on the correlation between Cheliax being ruled by Diabolists and "Hell" being a part of the Hellknight name.

I know next to nothing about the Hellknights, so the origin of their name could have been explained somewhere, but if they predate Thrune's reign, maybe it was a coincidence?

The whole point of the groups using the word "Hell" in their name is because it's scary and intimidating, and they sought to capitalize upon that in building their reputation. There's long been elements of the infernal in Cheliax; Thrune predates the Age of Lost Omens, as does the church of Asmodeus, both of which were prominent for CENTURIES in Cheliax before they got power. The first orders of the Hellknights choosing to use Hell as a way to kickstart their ferocious reputation is not that outlandish of a choice for them to have made.

We've spoken a fair bit about Hellknights before, particularly in the Inner Sea World Guide and in two lengthy articles back in the middle of Council of Thieves, and again... there's a whole book about them coming out soon.


James Jacobs wrote:
Naive Wolf Joshua wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Naive Wolf Joshua wrote:
I notice that little by little we are seeing more love for Kyonin in the player campanion books. Might we be seeing a Kyonin campaign setting book in the future? I understand if this is one of those questions you can't actually answer. Spoilers on upcoming products and what not.
Kyonin is one of the areas sorta exported from my homebrew setting, and part of the reason we don't do a lot more is because it's one of the areas I'm kind of precious about wanting to save to do something for myself, but then I also don't have a lot of time or energy or inspiration to write much game stuff these days... so it's sort of a catch-22. We'll see, though.

No worries, already in midst of a lengthy campaign (three years and still going, woot!) based on the information at hand and all seems to be well at the moment. Thanks for letting me know.

Also quick follow up question. Since Kyonin is an export of your homebrew setting can I assume there are elvish Tyrannosaurs?

Nope. Turns out, as much as I like dinosaurs, they don't figure prominently in everything I do.

You sir have saved my players from a tyrannosaurus... for now.

Scarab Sages

Given the recent decision that slavery is an inherently evil act... what is your take on the spells "Summon Monster" and "Planar Binding"? Or what about golem production considering that involves stealing the will of an elemental for the animation process?
Is dominate now inherently evil since it is a form of slavery no matter how you choose to use the power?
How about the Manacles of Cooperation?

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