Creative Director
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Why does Pathfinder have rules for jet packs and guns but not bicycles?
Because jet packs and guns are more interesting to adventure with. Because jet packs and guns are part of the science fiction elements to the game, and bicycles are too mundane and normal to bother with; they belong to a slice of time that's too modern to be of much interest for inclusion to the game's interests.
Also bicycles aren't really built to handle full plate fighters with greatswords...
Also bicycles aren't really built to handle full plate fighters with greatswords...
James, did you ever play jousting on bicycles as a kid? If yes, how much did it hurt?
Is calling/summoning an evil creature an inherently evil act or does it depend on the goal like say you plan on killing it or plugging it for information?
My interpretation is that neutral good and neutral evil are indeed more than 2 steps removed. I would consider that an error. Whether or not the design team would agree is not my call.(Could someone delete the above two posts please? I don't like having my mistakes displayed for the whole world to see just because I misclicked.)
I found this in Ultimate Intrigue (emphasis mine):
A vigilante’s two alignments cannot be more than one step
from each other on a single alignment axis. For example, a
vigilante with a lawful neutral social identity could have a
vigilante identity that is lawful good, lawful neutral, lawful
evil, neutral, neutral good, or neutral evil.Were the other two neutral alignments an error, or am I missing something?
I added emphasis to "on a single alignment axis." Does that change your opinion? I.e. Lawful neutral is only a single step removed on the Chaos-Law axis from Neutral Evil, and only a single step removed on the Good-Evil axis from Neutral Evil, so it works. The practical effect is that as long as you don't have any opposite alignment components (Chaos/Law, Good/Evil) between your two identifies, you're ok.
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Hi James,
On pg 395 of the new release "curse of the crimson throne" updated version, I noticed some new wording not in the original part 6 "crown of fangs"! It states in the section on continuing the campaign that "Runelord Sorshen is an incredibly dangerous foes, one of the most powerful wizards to have ever ruled on Golarion, and facing her might require heroes of mythic power. In fact, she may feature in a prominent role in an upcoming Pathfinder product, so if you'd rather hold off on the return of the Runelord of Lust in your game until then, using her vampiric minions......"
So does this mean that Paizo are preparing some new module or adventure path involving the mythic rules and Sorshen and if so will you give any further details - like when we might look forward to seeing this?
Very excited by the prospect
Tim
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On pg 395 of the new release "curse of the crimson throne" updated version,How the heck did he get that book so soon? :P O_O O_x
He paid for it and the nice folks at Paizo delivered it with their usual efficiency - its not far from Seattle to the UK!! That's how :o)
Nope. Never did.Also bicycles aren't really built to handle full plate fighters with greatswords...James, did you ever play jousting on bicycles as a kid? If yes, how much did it hurt?
You chose wisely.
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Creative Director
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I added emphasis to "on a single alignment axis." Does that change your opinion? I.e. Lawful neutral is only a single step removed on the Chaos-Law axis from Neutral Evil, and only a single step removed on the Good-Evil axis from Neutral Evil, so it works. The practical effect is that as long as you don't have any opposite alignment components (Chaos/Law, Good/Evil) between your two identifies, you're ok.My interpretation is that neutral good and neutral evil are indeed more than 2 steps removed. I would consider that an error. Whether or not the design team would agree is not my call.(Could someone delete the above two posts please? I don't like having my mistakes displayed for the whole world to see just because I misclicked.)
I found this in Ultimate Intrigue (emphasis mine):
A vigilante’s two alignments cannot be more than one step
from each other on a single alignment axis. For example, a
vigilante with a lawful neutral social identity could have a
vigilante identity that is lawful good, lawful neutral, lawful
evil, neutral, neutral good, or neutral evil.Were the other two neutral alignments an error, or am I missing something?
I guess, technically, that makes the alignment restrictions as listed legal. It also makes them needlessly complex and kinda obnoxious—why not just remove that restriction entirely at that point? I would have preferred to keep it within one step, which is the way it works for every other similarly worded class.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
On pg 395 of the new release "curse of the crimson throne" updated version, I noticed some new wording not in the original part 6 "crown of fangs"! It states in the section on continuing the campaign that "Runelord Sorshen is an incredibly dangerous foes, one of the most powerful wizards to have ever ruled on Golarion, and facing her might require heroes of mythic power. In fact, she may feature in a prominent role in an upcoming Pathfinder product, so if you'd rather hold off on the return of the Runelord of Lust in your game until then, using her vampiric minions......"
So does this mean that Paizo are preparing some new module or adventure path involving the mythic rules and Sorshen and if so will you give any further details - like when we might look forward to seeing this?
Very excited by the prospect
Tim
Interesting tidbit, eh? All I have to say about that at this point is what I put in print there on page 395. Make of it as you will.
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He paid for it and the nice folks at Paizo delivered it with their usual efficiency - its not far from Seattle to the UK!! That's how :o)On pg 395 of the new release "curse of the crimson throne" updated version,How the heck did he get that book so soon? :P O_O O_x
I'm in Canada!!! where's mine, Commonwealth masters?? :P
Interesting tidbit, eh? All I have to say about that at this point is what I put in print there on page 395. Make of it as you will.Hi James,
On pg 395 of the new release "curse of the crimson throne" updated version, I noticed some new wording not in the original part 6 "crown of fangs"! It states in the section on continuing the campaign that "Runelord Sorshen is an incredibly dangerous foes, one of the most powerful wizards to have ever ruled on Golarion, and facing her might require heroes of mythic power. In fact, she may feature in a prominent role in an upcoming Pathfinder product, so if you'd rather hold off on the return of the Runelord of Lust in your game until then, using her vampiric minions......"
So does this mean that Paizo are preparing some new module or adventure path involving the mythic rules and Sorshen and if so will you give any further details - like when we might look forward to seeing this?
Very excited by the prospect
Tim
you tease, you!
1. In The Emerald Spire Superdungeon, I found some odd illustrations. The female hellknights in page 4 and page 6 both have strangely pale faces. They both look human to me, and no human have that pale skin color. What's wrong with them?
2. There is a large tower raised by Nhur Athemon which is made of green glass harder than stone in the surface floor of the Emerald Spire. What is this green glass? Is it literally a glass with green color? If so, it would be inappropriate to build a tower with glass because glass is so fragile.
3. The book said that Iluchtewhar believes it must cleanse this new era of contaminants before restarting a fresh vault free from impurities. I thought the xiomorns are righteous and benevolent race. Why does it hate us so much? Is it normal for all xiomorns? Or only Iluchtewhar hates humanoid races because it is crazy?
4. The book said that Iluchtewhar seeks to eradicate all life in the region above. How vast this region above would be? Does it include Thornkeep and Fort Inevitable? Maybe does it encompass all the settlements that were shown in the Echo Wood map in Thornkeep book like Fort Riverwatch and Thelsterex's cave? Or maybe it encompasses the whole River Kingdoms?
5. The book said that "One is the Vault Keeper Iluchtewhar, a victim of aboleth warfare that left its mind unstable and twisted." What does this mean? Was Iluchtewhar captured and tortured by aboleths? So it became crazy and vengeful?
6. In this page you said that the xiomorns have gender and we should call Iluchtewhar 'he'. But the book keeps calling Iluchtewhar 'it'. Which is correct? Maybe you decided that the xiomorns have no gender when you write the book, and later you forgot it and accidentally answered wrongly?
7. The page 154 of the book said that "An emerald automaton uses a shard of crystal from the Emerald Spire as the main battery." I thought the spire is composed of emerald, because its name is the Emerald Spire. But this sentence clearly said that a shard of 'crystal' from the Emerald Spire. And there's more. The construction requirements of a spire transport token is: a small shard chipped from the Emerald Spire. But the description of this item says that: This small token is a thumb-sized cylinder of unbreakable greenish glass. So I have to ask this. Of what material the Emerald Spire is composed? Emerald? Crystal? Glass?
8. The page 159 of the book said that the Vault Builders have a special ability called 'Secret of the Vault Seed'. Among that section I found this sentence: "This process includes finding the raw crystals the seeds are formed from on the Plane of Earth." Does that mean a vault seed is made of crystal, not emerald?
9. Is the color of a vault seed green?
10. The illustration in page 159 shows several green gems floating around the vault builder and the vault builder is holding two green gems and two green sticks in its hands. Are these green things the vault seeds? I personally don't think so, because you said they are pineapple sizaed in this page, and the green things in the illustration doesn't resemble a pineapple.
11. The Emerald Spire has been chipped very much(like for making a battery of an emerald automaton, or a transport token). Did it make the power of the spire diminish somehow?
12. The emerald automatons use the crystal shards as the battery. Does that mean this crystal battery will run out of power and the automaton will be deactivated, and to reactivate them a new crystal shards should be put into the automatons? Or the crystals are permanent batteries and thus we do not need to exhange the batteries?
13. There is a pech sorcerer called Eriniell who betrayed Iluchtewhar. I'm curious, because the Emerald Root is not a big place, and Eriniell is very eager to attack Iluchtewhar, but why does she still live in there? I mean, shouldn't she flee or be killed by her former master already? Maybe she wants to kill Iluchtewhar badly but too afraid to confront her master alone, and so Iluchtewhar still doesn't know she is not loyal anymore?
14. Do the xiomorns and pechs have infinite lifespans? I ask this because there are two pechs who served Iluchtewhar before the creation of the spire and still alive.
15. I'm not sure a CR 14 monster can pose a serious threat to the settlements around the Echo Wood. Iluchtewhar only has an army of a few loyal monsters. So even if the PCs didn't come to the spire, Iluchtewhar still would be defeated by the combined forces of Thornkeep and Fort Inevitable, never to be able to exterminate the humanity around the Echo Wood, right?
16.
17. The book said that the Vault Builders have long looked to Ayrzul as patron more than a god. What does Does this mean the ximorns didn't worship Ayrzul devotedly?
18. The book said that after the PCs killing Iluchtewhar, the planar conjunctions common in the area diminish or cease, and consructs powered by the Spire shards exhaust their reserves of energy and deactivate. Does that mean all the emerald automatons will stop working, and the Emerald Spire will be a mere giant green tower, stripped of all eldritch magic?
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7. The page 154 of the book said that "An emerald automaton uses a shard of crystal from the Emerald Spire as the main battery." I thought the spire is composed of emerald, because its name is the Emerald Spire. But this sentence clearly said that a shard of 'crystal' from the Emerald Spire. And there's more. The construction requirements of a spire transport token is: a small shard chipped from the Emerald Spire. But the description of this item says that: This small token is a thumb-sized cylinder of unbreakable greenish glass. So I have to ask this. Of what material the Emerald Spire is composed? Emerald? Crystal? Glass?
Science is cool! Emerald is a crystal, which looks very much like green glass.
James, any cool science news you enjoyed reading or were excited to learn, recently? Are you or anyone you know interested in becoming a citizen of Asgardia?
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Creative Director
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On that note, I was wondering: Are they all part of the cult of Norgorber? The sample one in the Inner Sea NPC Codex is an Inquisitor of Norgorber, and they're divine spellcasters, but PoP doesn't specify any deity. So are they all Norgorberites, or are there followers of other deities (such as Achaekek) in there as well?Oh! Probably because of an error of omission in building the prestige class.This came up in another thread so I was curious, why doesn't the Gray Gardener prestige class have an Evil Alignemnt restriction? Or at the very least a "any non-Good"?Because the gray gardeners are an evil organization that, among other things, seeks to catch souls in guillotines and remove them from the cycle. It's adjacent to the type of evil that creates undead.Yes, they're definitely evil. That's why I'm curious why they don't have any alignment restrictions?
Edit: Thankies Cole :3
They are not.
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Creative Director
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I'm in Canada!!! where's mine, Commonwealth masters?? :PHe paid for it and the nice folks at Paizo delivered it with their usual efficiency - its not far from Seattle to the UK!! That's how :o)On pg 395 of the new release "curse of the crimson throne" updated version,How the heck did he get that book so soon? :P O_O O_x
You might want to ask someone in the customer service thread. I don't have any insights into shipping.
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Creative Director
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1. In The Emerald Spire Superdungeon, I found some odd illustrations. The female hellknights in page 4 and page 6 both have strangely pale faces. They both look human to me, and no human have that pale skin color. What's wrong with them?
2. There is a large tower raised by Nhur Athemon which is made of green glass harder than stone in the surface floor of the Emerald Spire. What is this green glass? Is it literally a glass with green color? If so, it would be inappropriate to build a tower with glass because glass is so fragile.
3. The book said that Iluchtewhar believes it must cleanse this new era of contaminants before restarting a fresh vault free from impurities. I thought the xiomorns are righteous and benevolent race. Why does it hate us so much? Is it normal for all xiomorns? Or only Iluchtewhar hates humanoid races because it is crazy?
4. The book said that Iluchtewhar seeks to eradicate all life in the region above. How vast this region above would be? Does it include Thornkeep and Fort Inevitable? Maybe does it encompass all the settlements that were shown in the Echo Wood map in Thornkeep book like Fort Riverwatch and Thelsterex's cave? Or maybe it encompasses the whole River Kingdoms?
5. The book said that "One is the Vault Keeper Iluchtewhar, a victim of aboleth warfare that left its mind unstable and twisted." What does this mean? Was Iluchtewhar captured and tortured by aboleths? So it became crazy and vengeful?
6. In this page you said that the xiomorns have gender and we should call Iluchtewhar 'he'. But the book keeps calling Iluchtewhar 'it'. Which is correct? Maybe you decided that the xiomorns have no gender when you write the book, and later you forgot it and accidentally answered wrongly?
1) That's likely just the color the artist chose to depict a white person. What's "wrong" with them is that it was a poor choice of illustration style.
2) I have no idea, and it's unfortunate that the book is that vague about it.
3) As with so many other responses to "Why does Ilucthewhar do this" before... this one remains the same. He's broken, crazy, and off-center; he's not like other vault keepers.
4) The region would include Thornkeep and Fort Inevitable, and if he managed to eradicate them the region would continue to expand until he's stopped or finds something else to do.
5) It means that he suffered life and mind-changing torments and tortures and mind-wreckage and much, much more while he was under aboleth torment.
6) He is correct. They have gender. I didn't develop or edit the book though. I may have the title "creative director" attached to my name, but as the amount of content we produce increases and the amount of me in fact DECREASES, there's more and more that we print that I have little or even no oversight on, and as a result NO one has oversight on, and as a result things start to get kind of sloppy.
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Creative Director
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7. The page 154 of the book said that "An emerald automaton uses a shard of crystal from the Emerald Spire as the main battery." I thought the spire is composed of emerald, because its name is the Emerald Spire. But this sentence clearly said that a shard of 'crystal' from the Emerald Spire. And there's more. The construction requirements of a spire transport token is: a small shard chipped from the Emerald Spire. But the description of this item says that: This small token is a thumb-sized cylinder of unbreakable greenish glass. So I have to ask this. Of what material the Emerald Spire is composed? Emerald? Crystal? Glass?
8. The page 159 of the book said that the Vault Builders have a special ability called 'Secret of the Vault Seed'. Among that section I found this sentence: "This process includes finding the raw crystals the seeds are formed from on the Plane of Earth." Does that mean a vault seed is made of crystal, not emerald?
9. Is the color of a vault seed green?
10. The illustration in page 159 shows several green gems floating around the vault builder and the vault builder is holding two green gems and two green sticks in its hands. Are these green things the vault seeds? I personally don't think so, because you said they are pineapple sizaed in this page, and the green things in the illustration doesn't resemble a pineapple.
11. The Emerald Spire has been chipped very much(like for making a battery of an emerald automaton, or a transport token). Did it make the power of the spire diminish somehow?
12. The emerald automatons use the crystal shards as the battery. Does that mean this crystal battery will run out of power and the automaton will be deactivated, and to reactivate them a new crystal shards should be put into the automatons? Or the crystals are permanent batteries and thus we do not need to exhange the batteries?
7) It's made of emerald-colored crystal that doesn't have a real-world analogy.
8) Emerald is a crystal. The vault seeds are emerald-colored crystalline objects.
9) Yes.
10) No.
11) No.
12) Probably, but not in any amount of time that matters to the GM running the adventure.
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Creative Director
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13. There is a pech sorcerer called Eriniell who betrayed Iluchtewhar. I'm curious, because the Emerald Root is not a big place, and Eriniell is very eager to attack Iluchtewhar, but why does she still live in there? I mean, shouldn't she flee or be killed by her former master already? Maybe she wants to kill Iluchtewhar badly but too afraid to confront her master alone, and so Iluchtewhar still doesn't know she is not loyal anymore?
14. Do the xiomorns and pechs have infinite lifespans? I ask this because there are two pechs who served Iluchtewhar before the creation of the spire and still alive.
15. I'm not sure a CR 14 monster can pose a serious threat to the settlements around the Echo Wood. Iluchtewhar only has an army of a few loyal monsters. So even if the PCs didn't come to the spire, Iluchtewhar still would be defeated by the combined forces of Thornkeep and Fort Inevitable, never to be able to exterminate the humanity around the Echo Wood, right?
16.
Spoiler:It seems some kind of cheating to me! I mean, of course he's a demigod and can affect the world directly, but if a demigod starts resurrecting his dead worshipers, other demigods will soon do the same and the world will not be a good place for the PCs to adventure, because the evil overlords will be resurrected immediately after death. And even if the PCs killed Iluchtewhar the second time, Ayrzul will still resurrect it again, right? It's so frustrating.After the PCs killing Iluchtewhar, the Fossilized King Ayrzul resurrect Iluchtewhar and let the PCs fight again.
17. The book said that the Vault Builders have long looked to Ayrzul as patron more than a god. What does Does this mean the ximorns didn't worship Ayrzul devotedly?
18. The book said that after the PCs killing Iluchtewhar, the planar conjunctions common in the area diminish or cease, and consructs powered by the Spire shards exhaust their reserves of energy and deactivate. Does that mean all the emerald automatons will stop working, and the Emerald Spire will be a mere giant green tower, stripped of all eldritch magic?
13) She lives there because she, like Ilucthewhar, is crazy. (And because of the awkward space limitations imposed on the size of the dungeon because it had to fit on a flip mat made some of the story elements harder to swallow.)
14) Yes; they're very long-lived.
15) Maybe, maybe not.
16) Turns out, PCs have to face off against encounters that are tough sometimes. It's not cheating; it's challenging. And no, he won't get resurrected if he's killed a second time. Nothing in the text suggests that.
17) It means they see him more as a boss than a god.
18) It's left to the GM, but yes, that's the implication. Once he's killed, the dungeon he built gets "killed" to a certain extent as well.
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Creative Director
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James, any cool science news you enjoyed reading or were excited to learn, recently? Are you or anyone you know interested in becoming a citizen of Asgardia?
Yes. No.
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Creative Director
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James, what did you buy in preparation for the storm? Is there an office betting pool on whether the weather will cancel work on Monday? Is your kitty afraid of bad weather?
Nothing; I have plenty of flashlights and water. I'll probably hit Trader Joe's or somewhere this evening to stock up on a little bit more food.
No
No.
James, any cool science news you enjoyed reading or were excited to learn, recently? Are you or anyone you know interested in becoming a citizen of Asgardia?Yes. No.
What recent science interested you particularly? The recent cometary and Pluto missions? Or in some other field?
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Creative Director
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What recent science interested you particularly? The recent cometary and Pluto missions? Or in some other field?James, any cool science news you enjoyed reading or were excited to learn, recently? Are you or anyone you know interested in becoming a citizen of Asgardia?Yes. No.
That latest batch of well-preserved dinosaur eggs.
All the crazy new super-powerful telescopes that are in the works.The various mission to Mars stories.
What recent science interested you particularly? The recent cometary and Pluto missions? Or in some other field?James, any cool science news you enjoyed reading or were excited to learn, recently? Are you or anyone you know interested in becoming a citizen of Asgardia?Yes. No.That latest batch of well-preserved dinosaur eggs.
All the crazy new super-powerful telescopes that are in the works.
The various mission to Mars stories.
Did you know that NASA published the raw film strip images taken by every camera that was aboard the Apollo missions on Flickr? You can check them out in the Apollo Archive I'm not sure whether they are contact prints or scans of the film strips taken by the Hasselblad cameras they carried.
1. Then can I assume that only Iluchtewhar hates humanoid races, and normal xiomorns would be righteous and benevolent?
2. Hmm. Does that mean when you wrote the Emerald Root you originally used the word 'he', but somehow the editors thought otherwise and changed all the pronouns?
3. Can I assume that the material that composes the Emerald Spire does not exist in the real world?
4. English is not my native language and I'm not good at science. So I'm curious. Are emerald and crystal synonyms after all?
5. You said that the spire's power didn't diminish a bit even though it has been chipped for a very long time. Can I assume that the spire regenerates the chipped part very quickly(near instantly maybe) and its magical power is literally infinite?
6. So does Iluchtewhar know Eriniell is living in the Emerlad Root but thinks she's still loyal to him? Or does he not now she's in the Emerald Root at all?
7. What I wanted to ask was that, doesn't Ayrzul's act somehow violate the non-intervention treaty? If a god(even though he's just a demigod) starts resurrecting his dead worshipers, wouldn't other demigods use it as their excuse to do the same?
8. You said that the xiomorns see Ayrzul more as a boss than a god. What does Ayrzul think about this? Does he think this attitude is not devote enough?
9. When did Nhur Athemon find the spire and became a lich? More specifically, was it before the foundation of Thassilon?
10. The book refered to Nhur Athemon as the prince several times. Does that mean Nhur Athemon was a son of the emperor of Azlant?
11. The page 127 of the book said that "As Azlant deteriorated, the weakened authorities hunted down known enemies of the empire, and Nhur Athemon's name rose to the top of the list." I don't get it. What's the decline of Azlant got to do with chasing the enemies of the empire?
12. The Knights of the Ioun Star killed Nhur Athemon but actually he became a lich long ago. Then why didn't they notice it? Distinguishing a human and a lich is kid stuff. Even if Nhur Athemon used disguise self or alter self, the knights would have found it out after they destroyed his body.
13. Why did the Azlanti who killed Nhur Athemon not colonize the land around the Emerald Spire? Azlant was very eager to colonize more and more land, and the mystical spire surely be very fascinating to them.
14. The Emerald Spire stands in the broad clearing called the Spire Glen. The trees don't grow in there like there is an unseen border, and nothing larger than a sapling grows in the Glen. What's the reason of this phenomenon? Looks like it's because of the eldritch magic of the spire. Does that mean magic is inherently harmful to organic health?
15. There is a strange device called the godbox which long ago came from another part of the universe to explore planar rifts caused by the spire. Where did this box come from? Androffa? Or you don't know the answer because this part was written by Frank Mentzer and thus he's the only one that knows the answer?
16. Is the godbox purely scientific and not magical?
17. It's also mentioned that the heightened magical fields surrounding Golarion transformed the probe's artificial intelligence into an antimagic spirit. Were there magical fields surrounding Golarion? I didn't know that. I couldn't find a reference in Inner Sea World Guide and Distant Worlds about the fields. So what's this fields? In other words, do the fields somehow block or hinder the spaceships or meteorites?
18. The page 135 of the book said that when the spire came into being, even in the Eternal City of Axis its creation energies were felt. The axiomites went to investigate and concluded that what they found at the deepest point was something capable of making vast change to Golarion that might tip planar balance. But the vault seed already used all its power in raising the spire. The spire itself is not even a fount of mythic. How can it be that important a place?
Does prosthetic makeup exist in Golarion? Might seem anachronistic, I know, but I'm trying to understand how a human can pull off looking like a convincing orc, drow, catfolk, etc without magic.
Hello James, I have a little question for you.
Black Book Editions, the editor that translates Pathfinder in french, has released recently a pocket version of the core rule book and the 1st bestiary.
It is great when you want to play away, but hélas, it only exists in french version. I'm the kind of player who prefer to use the original version to avoid any mistake in the interpretation of rules.
Does Paizo have plans for similar products ??
Can aquatic elves breed with gillmen, the way land elves can with humans?
Also, can orcs breed with elves? Both can hybridize with humans; logic would dictate that they can with each other.
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Creative Director
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1. Then can I assume that only Iluchtewhar hates humanoid races, and normal xiomorns would be righteous and benevolent?
2. Hmm. Does that mean when you wrote the Emerald Root you originally used the word 'he', but somehow the editors thought otherwise and changed all the pronouns?
3. Can I assume that the material that composes the Emerald Spire does not exist in the real world?
4. English is not my native language and I'm not good at science. So I'm curious. Are emerald and crystal synonyms after all?
5. You said that the spire's power didn't diminish a bit even though it has been chipped for a very long time. Can I assume that the spire regenerates the chipped part very quickly(near instantly maybe) and its magical power is literally infinite?
6. So does Iluchtewhar know Eriniell is living in the Emerlad Root but thinks she's still loyal to him? Or does he not now she's in the Emerald Root at all?
1) Not at all. They don't have to be polar opposites. Typical xiomorns are not benevolent at all; they're cold, heartless, dispassionate manipulators of the rest of life.
2) Go ahead and call it an it, since you seem to be getting hung up on things.
3) You can, since there are no Emerald Spires or Orvian Vaults in the real world. It's in the same category as mithral and darkwood. Like so much in the game, it's made-up fantasy.
4) Emerald is a type of gemstone AND a color. Gemstones are crystals. All emeralds are crystals, but not all crystals are emeralds.
5) I guess you can. By this point, you've put FAR more thought into the whole thing than me—all I did was write one level and help brainstorm the initial concept. Again, I was not involved in the actual creation of the entire project beyond that one level.
6) He/she/it doesn't know.
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Creative Director
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7. What I wanted to ask was that, doesn't Ayrzul's act somehow violate the non-intervention treaty? If a god(even though he's just a demigod) starts resurrecting his dead worshipers, wouldn't other demigods use it as their excuse to do the same?
8. You said that the xiomorns see Ayrzul more as a boss than a god. What does Ayrzul think about this? Does he think this attitude is not devote enough?
9. When did Nhur Athemon find the spire and became a lich? More specifically, was it before the foundation of Thassilon?
10. The book refered to Nhur Athemon as the prince several times. Does that mean Nhur Athemon was a son of the emperor of Azlant?
11. The page 127 of the book said that "As Azlant deteriorated, the weakened authorities hunted down known enemies of the empire, and Nhur Athemon's name rose to the top of the list." I don't get it. What's the decline of Azlant got to do with chasing the enemies of the empire?
12. The Knights of the Ioun Star killed Nhur Athemon but actually he became a lich long ago. Then why didn't they notice it? Distinguishing a human and a lich is kid stuff. Even if Nhur Athemon used disguise self or alter self, the knights would have found it out after they destroyed his body.
13. Why did the Azlanti who killed Nhur Athemon not colonize the land around the Emerald Spire? Azlant was very eager to colonize more and more land, and the mystical spire surely be very fascinating to them.
7) It doesn't. As a demigod, and thus as something with stats, and thus something that can be killed by mortals, and thus something that has limitations on its power, his limitations on interacting with the mortal world are much more relaxed. Consider the fact that he doesn't resurrect Iluchtewhar more than once an indication of his limited powers, I suppose.
8) He's okay with it. He has plenty of other full-on worshipers.
9) I have no idea. Probably after Thassilon was founded though.
10) No clue. That's an Erik Mona question.
11) It means that as Azlant began to fall apart into decadence in the years leading up to Earthfall, the authorities were increasingly worried about their enemies taking advantage of the weakening nation due to its decadence and began to seek out those enemies to take them down before they could cause problems.
12) No idea. That's an Erik question.
13) Because it was too far away from anything of important to them, I guess. Again, that's an Erik question.
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Creative Director
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14. The Emerald Spire stands in the broad clearing called the Spire Glen. The trees don't grow in there like there is an unseen border, and nothing larger than a sapling grows in the Glen. What's the reason of this phenomenon? Looks like it's because of the eldritch magic of the spire. Does that mean magic is inherently harmful to organic health?
15. There is a strange device called the godbox which long ago came from another part of the universe to explore planar rifts caused by the spire. Where did this box come from? Androffa? Or you don't know the answer because this part was written by Frank Mentzer and thus he's the only one that knows the answer?
16. Is the godbox purely scientific and not magical?
17. It's also mentioned that the heightened magical fields surrounding Golarion transformed the probe's artificial intelligence into an antimagic spirit. Were there magical fields surrounding Golarion? I didn't know that. I couldn't find a reference in Inner Sea World Guide and Distant Worlds about the fields. So what's this fields? In other words, do the fields somehow block or hinder the spaceships or meteorites?
18. The page 135 of the book said that when the spire came into being, even in the Eternal City of Axis its creation energies were felt. The axiomites went to investigate and concluded that what they found at the deepest point was something capable of making vast change to Golarion that might tip planar balance. But the vault seed already used all its power in raising the spire. The spire itself is not even a fount of mythic. How can it be that important a place?
14) It's a mystery, but it seems pretty apparent that the proximity of the Emerald Spire and its powerful magic inhibits plant growth to a certain extent. It doesn't have that effect on "people" obviously since "people" (non-plant living creatures) live there.
15) It did not come from Androffa. It came from some outer space location that Frank came up with and I'm pretty sure we'll never do much more with it. So, where it came from is left 100% to the GM. Frank loves leaving those types of story starters for GMs and not explaining origins in print.
16) 100% up to you to decide.
17) The "heightened magical fields" merely talk about the fact that Golarion has lots of magic on it (as opposed to a place like Earth), nothing more.
18) Because the author got a little hyperbolic, I guess, and because the axiomites misinterpreted the energies and overreacted?
A lot of your questions arise from the fact that this was a sort of "exquisite corpse" type product—one that was created outside of Paizo's regular process (it was created by Goblinworks to help fund the MMO kickstarter); we had a lot to do with parts of it, but oversight on it was done by folks who weren't 100% caught up on Golarion's canon, and also were including elements from Goblinworks' Pathifnder Online, which also has non-canonical to the tabletop game elements. And since it had so many different people developing it and working on it, it has a lot of weird parts that don't quite fit right. The more you dig into it, the more contradictions you'll find, and that's frustrating but it's not something that can be changed at this point.
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Creative Director
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Does prosthetic makeup exist in Golarion? Might seem anachronistic, I know, but I'm trying to understand how a human can pull off looking like a convincing orc, drow, catfolk, etc without magic.
It does. The basics would be included in a disguise kit. How good you were at applying it depends on your Disguise skill.