Creative Director
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I can sympathise with that. It's not a question but, for the record, I can't think of a single example of a "terrible" James Jacobs adventure. Your first level adventures, in particular are always amongst my favorites.Hi James. Are you confident predicting which of your adventures will be well received by the public? Or is what tickles our collective fancy more of a mystery?Absolutely not. Pretty much every adventure I've written I kinda feel like is terrible and dread its release.
Aww... thanks!!!
I figured it would be best to direct this question to you because of it being about the Thassilonian Specialist.
The Thassilonian Specialist cannot prepare spells of their opposition schools, and treats them as not on their spell list.
The Pact Wizard from Haunted Heroes Handbook gets the Patron Spells ability, which allows them to expend their prepared spells to spontaneously cast patron spells.
The combination of the two would theoretically allow a Thassilonian Specialist to spontaneously cast very specific spells that are normally on their prohibited list, even though they can't prepare them. As written, I'm pretty sure this works. However, what I want to ask is this: does this make sense for a Thassilonian Specialist to do (and is it intended), similar to how a sorcerer can draw from their bloodline to cast spells not on their spell list?
2. Which other country's horror cinema is most to your taste on average?2) Japan. France comes in a close second.You gave this answer a while back to someone. Sorry I can't keep up with your thread. Any examples of French horror films that you've loved? I don't get to see nearly as much these days, although I love the genre and can't think of any I've seen from France.
(And thanks again for the excellent Cthulhu game at the last PaizoCon. It made the weekend.)
Some excellent French horror movies that come to mind would be the following... and WARNING. These movies are ALL incredibly extreeme and hard core in their content. They're absolutely not mainstream horror. Martyrs and Frontier(s) in particular, are among the most violent/gory movies I've ever seen. Actually... Martyrs IS the most violent/gory movie I've seen, but it might rank at #1 there because if you can endure the gore and violence and grim subject matter, it's also got a very disturbing and freaky and effective message to deliver about the nature of life and death and the meaning of it all. Very very bleak. Do not watch if you want to be happy.
Martyrs
Frontier(s)
High Tension
The Horde
Them
Fears of the Dark (this one is easily the least violent of the list)
Oh, dear God... Martyrs.
I saw that film in a nearly-empty arthouse theatre not knowing what I was walking into. It hadn't gotten a lot of buzz yet, and I thought it was going to be a psychological thriller. I like French cinema, but I'm not a huge horror fan. Honestly, if I'd known what it was, I would not have gone to see it.
Martyrs is easily the most disturbing film I've ever seen... although a close second would be Irreversible. (At least I knew what I was walking into when I saw that one!)
What's the most distrubing film you've seen?
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Creative Director
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I figured it would be best to direct this question to you because of it being about the Thassilonian Specialist.
The Thassilonian Specialist cannot prepare spells of their opposition schools, and treats them as not on their spell list.
The Pact Wizard from Haunted Heroes Handbook gets the Patron Spells ability, which allows them to expend their prepared spells to spontaneously cast patron spells.The combination of the two would theoretically allow a Thassilonian Specialist to spontaneously cast very specific spells that are normally on their prohibited list, even though they can't prepare them. As written, I'm pretty sure this works. However, what I want to ask is this: does this make sense for a Thassilonian Specialist to do (and is it intended), similar to how a sorcerer can draw from their bloodline to cast spells not on their spell list?
I wouldn't combine the two. Thassilonian traditions don't go well with other methods of wizardly spellcasting. If you are a Thassilonian specialist, you should not be a pact wizard.
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Oh, dear God... Martyrs.
I saw that film in a nearly-empty arthouse theatre not knowing what I was walking into. It hadn't gotten a lot of buzz yet, and I thought it was going to be a psychological thriller. I like French cinema, but I'm not a huge horror fan. Honestly, if I'd known what it was, I would not have gone to see it.
Martyrs is easily the most disturbing film I've ever seen... although a close second would be Irreversible. (At least I knew what I was walking into when I saw that one!)
What's the most distrubing film you've seen?
Irreversible is more disturbing to me than Martyrs, simply because its subject matter is more vile and horrible to me than the subject matter in Martyrs.
As for most disturbing... it would be one of the following:
Cannibal Ferrox
Cannibal Holocaust
Irreversible
A Serbian Film
Antichrist
Something like Human Centipede (to pick a popular culture obvious choice for disturbing film) doesn't even come close to the ones listed above, since Human Centipede is so campy and hard to take seriously. The ones I list above are disturbing for their subject matter, their graphic nature, and in the case of the two Cannibal movies, for their depiction of 100% real and 100% gratuitous on-screen animal cruelty.
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I'd love to get that, if only for the minis - I don't have anyone to play such games with. I don't know if I can afford it, though. :/
Would you recommend it, Mr. Jacobs?
Kingdom Death is an absolutely gorgeous and delightful and fun and stressful and enjoyable game. One of my favorites! I absolutely recommend it. But just keep in mind that it's not inexpensive and it's as much a hobby as a game... the construction of the minis and the painting of them is a big time investment.
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DELIGHTED. Almost as much by that it's happening as it is to finally be able to talk about it... it's been in the works for quite a while.Are you excited?!?! How's Wes feeling about this? :3
Yay!
Aside from the Pathfinders which Monster are you most excited for? Sorry if this falls into not talking about favourites of stuff you're connected to territory.
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Also, since I'm not much of a Kickstarter-er...
How much would it cost to get the game and enough stuff to get the Pathfinder expansion? What about just the expansion (without the core game)?
I have no idea... I'm mostly on the fringe of the whole thing clapping in delight at more Merisiel stuff at this point.
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I have no idea... I'm mostly on the fringe of the whole thing clapping in delight at more Merisiel stuff at this point.Also, since I'm not much of a Kickstarter-er...
How much would it cost to get the game and enough stuff to get the Pathfinder expansion? What about just the expansion (without the core game)?
If I may, they've linked to the fan pledge calculator and pledge overview (it has links for each thing to it's corresponding update so it's easier to find them!) on the front page of the Kickstarter. So it's easier to sort through things.
What is a Fiend Keeper's (Medium archetype) spirit? It seems unlikely to be an astral echo like a standard Medium's (since each one encompasses all six legends as aspects of itself and it is indicated that the spirit is bound to a Fiend Keeper to keep them from causing further harm and to corrupt them toward good over generations, and I'm fairly sure that astral echoes don't have much ability to influence things on their own initiative).
Are they ghosts? Actual fiends like demons, divs, devils, etc?
Thank you for your time and consideration.
By the way: I really enjoy the archetype, so thank you to the ones who created it. It's a great piece of fluff and mechanics. :D
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Just looking at some of those prices... no way I can justify that at the moment. (I've got far too many unassembled/unpainted minis at the moment anyway.) It looks like a cool game, though. Hopefully they do another offering down the line (especially after a few more paychecks).
Thank you for the help! ^_^
It's absolutely possible (and even normal) for a failed good person to end up being punished in Hell or the Abyss or Abaddon.That's scary. Gimmie some examples of a failed good person.It's SUPPOSED to be scary. It's pretty much the very core of how most religions work... and WHY they work.
Fiction and real life are both FULL of examples of a failed good person. What exactly constitutes failure is, of course, a subject of endless debate among us mortals who don't see the big picture. The first example of a failed good person in Golarion that comes to my mind is Father Tobyn from the first Pathfinder Adventure, Burnt Offerings. He was a cleric of Desna, but his failure in raising his adopted daughter Nualia by being an overbearing father who didn't treat his daughter with respect and was overly protective in a bad way and so on eventually ended up with her becoming the main bad guy of Burnt Offerings. He did not go to a happy afterlife when he died.
Hm...
What of someone with what I'd call Obnoxious Paladin Syndrome? The guy idealizes doing good, but he just can't stop being an a$$#@!% about it. They're not professional comedians punching up at bullies, they're no-nothing know-it-alls talking down to everybody.
What about the lazy sympathizer? Someone who feels sorry for homeless while walking right by them. They're self-aware about it, to the point that they suspect such self-awareness my be just an attempt at karmic bribery.
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DELIGHTED. Almost as much by that it's happening as it is to finally be able to talk about it... it's been in the works for quite a while.Are you excited?!?! How's Wes feeling about this? :3
Yay!
Aside from the Pathfinders which Monster are you most excited for? Sorry if this falls into not talking about favourites of stuff you're connected to territory.
I can't afford to back this Kickstarter at this time, so I've actually not looked into the details that much, so I'm not looking forward to any specific monster at this time. They're all cool though. I fully intend to continue to depend on friends (WES!) to enjoy and play this game.
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What is a Fiend Keeper's (Medium archetype) spirit? It seems unlikely to be an astral echo like a standard Medium's (since each one encompasses all six legends as aspects of itself and it is indicated that the spirit is bound to a Fiend Keeper to keep them from causing further harm and to corrupt them toward good over generations, and I'm fairly sure that astral echoes don't have much ability to influence things on their own initiative).
Are they ghosts? Actual fiends like demons, divs, devils, etc?
Thank you for your time and consideration.
By the way: I really enjoy the archetype, so thank you to the ones who created it. It's a great piece of fluff and mechanics. :D
I have no idea. I'm not familiar with that archetype or the Medium class that much in the first place.
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Creative Director
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Hm...
What of someone with what I'd call Obnoxious Paladin Syndrome? The guy idealizes doing good, but he just can't stop being an a$$#@!% about it. They're not professional comedians punching up at bullies, they're no-nothing know-it-alls talking down to everybody.
What about the lazy sympathizer? Someone who feels sorry for homeless while walking right by them. They're self-aware about it, to the point that they suspect such self-awareness my be just an attempt at karmic bribery.
What about them? Some will go to heaven, some will go to hell. (or wherever) It really depends on the sum total of their actions during their lives. In both cases their lack of true and honest faith is likely to skew them toward hell, but won't guarantee it.
All of these "What will happen to this thing when it is judged?" questions are more or less impossible for me to answer, since it's what that thing does for its entire life and how those actions impacted reality and the world and others and so on that help determine its fate.
AKA: It's really up to the GM to make those calls as best needs for the story. And sometimes, the same situation for two very similar things might even result in different fates for reasons that mortals can't understand. The gods move in mysterious ways.
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James, has Paizo ever thought about doing mats with Iconic character art on them similar in size to what the magic card mats are. I would rather buy Paizo products than Magic stuff.
This is more in your wheel house, could Paizo do a book on Arcadia and one on the Azlant Empire I think they would sell very well. Would Paizo consider doing a world book atlas on the entire world. What I am picturing is a book like the World book of Khass done by Monte Cook for Arduin. The Only reason I like Arduin better than Pazio world is a personal connection to the creator of Arduin. Material wise Paizo's is better.
Does Paizo have plans on releasing world content with Hero Lab's Realms works. Please do it would really rock.
Have a Happy New year James and also I hope this a great year for Paizo
the best game company.
I wouldn't combine the two. Thassilonian traditions don't go well with other methods of wizardly spellcasting. If you are a Thassilonian specialist, you should not be a pact wizard.I figured it would be best to direct this question to you because of it being about the Thassilonian Specialist.
The Thassilonian Specialist cannot prepare spells of their opposition schools, and treats them as not on their spell list.
The Pact Wizard from Haunted Heroes Handbook gets the Patron Spells ability, which allows them to expend their prepared spells to spontaneously cast patron spells.The combination of the two would theoretically allow a Thassilonian Specialist to spontaneously cast very specific spells that are normally on their prohibited list, even though they can't prepare them. As written, I'm pretty sure this works. However, what I want to ask is this: does this make sense for a Thassilonian Specialist to do (and is it intended), similar to how a sorcerer can draw from their bloodline to cast spells not on their spell list?
Is that because of the focus required on Thassilonian traditions, the fact that they're from very different time periods and therefore very different spellcasting styles, or some other reason? I guess this question would also extend to other archetypey-things.
I remember the Runelords of Wrath having a tradition of associating with demon lords and trying to traffic with them for more power, which would seem to be under the same bailiwick as the Pact Wizard, but perhaps I'm missing something?
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James, has Paizo ever thought about doing mats with Iconic character art on them similar in size to what the magic card mats are. I would rather buy Paizo products than Magic stuff.
This is more in your wheel house, could Paizo do a book on Arcadia and one on the Azlant Empire I think they would sell very well. Would Paizo consider doing a world book atlas on the entire world. What I am picturing is a book like the World book of Khass done by Monte Cook for Arduin. The Only reason I like Arduin better than Pazio world is a personal connection to the creator of Arduin. Material wise Paizo's is better.
Does Paizo have plans on releasing world content with Hero Lab's Realms works. Please do it would really rock.
Have a Happy New year James and also I hope this a great year for Paizo
the best game company.
We've thought about all sorts of peripheral products, but I've not really been a part of that brainstorming process for years now that Paizo's grown beyond the incarnation of "small company where everyone does every job." I'm not really sure what iconic character art mats would accomplish though—we prefer to produce content that has direct game application, and a mat with a picture of someone else's character isn't gonna help you play YOUR character. It feels more like something that we'd license to a company in the same way we licensed the goblin plushes and so on... in which case it'd be the other company's job to come up with something we think is worth licensing and also figuring out how to produce the mats. But yeah... wheras card games and board games are helped by having on-the-table guides as to where to put your components... for Pathfinder, that's not really necessary.
We could do a book on any of the continents of Golarion. The fact that we did Dragon Empires Gazetteer is proof of that concept. Whether or not we WANT to and whether or not a book, say, about Azlant or Arcadia makes sense given the themes of other products we're doing is what decides when and if we'll do one. We've talked about doing a world atlas as well, but at this point the work it would take to generate all those maps and the cost it would require for us to get them done up to our level of perfection and preference has made it something we haven't had the time or energy or resources to tackle yet.
No plans to release world content in Hero Lab. The world content is the part of what we do that has actual intellectual property value, and we're very very very specific and deliberate about how we let that info out into the world. AKA: We would rather you buy stuff from us to learn about Golarion than buy stuff from someone else.
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Is that because of the focus required on Thassilonian traditions, the fact that they're from very different time periods and therefore very different spellcasting styles, or some other reason? I guess this question would also extend to other archetypey-things.
I remember the Runelords of Wrath having a tradition of associating with demon lords and trying to traffic with them for more power, which would seem to be under the same bailiwick as the Pact Wizard, but perhaps I'm missing something?
It's because they're from different time periods and different thematic regions. Part of what defines a thing, be it a nation or a character or a monster or a religion or, in this case, a tradition of spellcasting, is defining what elements are present in that thing. As equally important is defining what existing elements are NOT present in that thing. If everything were an equal option for everything, there'd be no norm and every thing would be random and nothing would be organized into recognizable groups.
Matching in-world themes to game rules is tricky. Runelord Alaznist, the runelord of wrath, is very into demon/qlippoth stuff. That means we could build her and her armies all sorts of ways—as conjurer wizards, as sorcerers who focus on conjuring spells, as summoners, as clerics who focus on summoning spells, as mediums who channel spirits, as a new race of creatures with potent conjuration powers, and so on. And once we pick a theme, we then get to pick what elements of THAT them we focus on. If we went with summoner, do we focus on the abyssal bloodline or destined bloodline or make up a conjurer blood line or what? We decided to go with conjurer specialist wizards, and to expand on that, came up with new rules, Thassilonian specialization, to help set those wizards apart from others in the world.
Later, we built summoners and pact wizards and so on. Options that thematically fit, yes, but are not established traditions used by the group. Just because it's new doesn't mean it has to be forced into something old, and in fact, constantly adding new stuff to established groups like this tends to dilute the original vision and make it lose focus. This is why when I update an old Adventure Path to a hardcover edition I am VERY conservative about when and how I update NPCs and change class and build options for their stats to utilize new content.
So... sorta a long, drawn out answer, but I hope it clears up some of the whys as to why we do things the way we do.
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Is that because of the focus required on Thassilonian traditions, the fact that they're from very different time periods and therefore very different spellcasting styles, or some other reason? I guess this question would also extend to other archetypey-things.
I remember the Runelords of Wrath having a tradition of associating with demon lords and trying to traffic with them for more power, which would seem to be under the same bailiwick as the Pact Wizard, but perhaps I'm missing something?
It's because they're from different time periods and different thematic regions. Part of what defines a thing, be it a nation or a character or a monster or a religion or, in this case, a tradition of spellcasting, is defining what elements are present in that thing. As equally important is defining what existing elements are NOT present in that thing. If everything were an equal option for everything, there'd be no norm and every thing would be random and nothing would be organized into recognizable groups.
Matching in-world themes to game rules is tricky. Runelord Alaznist, the runelord of wrath, is very into demon/qlippoth stuff. That means we could build her and her armies all sorts of ways—as conjurer wizards, as sorcerers who focus on conjuring spells, as summoners, as clerics who focus on summoning spells, as mediums who channel spirits, as a new race of creatures with potent conjuration powers, and so on. And once we pick a theme, we then get to pick what elements of THAT them we focus on. If we went with summoner, do we focus on the abyssal bloodline or destined bloodline or make up a conjurer blood line or what? We decided to go with conjurer specialist wizards, and to expand on that, came up with new rules, Thassilonian specialization, to help set those wizards apart from others in the world.
Later, we built summoners and pact wizards and so on. Options that thematically fit, yes, but are not established traditions used by the group. Just because it's new doesn't mean...
A beautiful response that answers all my questions. Thanks!
James,
I'm running a Hell's Rebels campaign, and two of my four players are nobles, and another is the knight of one of said nobles. I'm planning to introduce more noble intrigue into the story, but in order to do that, I'd need more information on the noble families of Ravounel, specifically what and where their holdings are. I understand the situation regarding the Archduke position, but apart from that, I only have the name and rank of each noble family's head of house to work with. Even if the Archduke position is iffy, are there any Dukes in Ravounel at all? Where are they, what area do they control? Thanks in advance.
P.S. I realize that this is a very open-ended question, but I wouldn't ask it if I had more of an idea than I do. I've read the new Cheliax book, but it didn't tell me much regarding specific nobles. I'll go back through the rest of the AP, as I've kept most of my concentration to the first adventure.
1. You said Unity and Hellion are quasi-deities, but they have four domains and four subdomains. I thought only demigods have four domains and four subdomains, aren't they?
2. The book said that Unity ascends to full godhood if it wins. I thought the word full godhood means deity. Maybe you originally intended to write full demigodhood, but mistakenly wrote full godhood instead?
3. Can I assume that the AI Casandalee has no soul because her soul was judged by Phasrasma long ago, but when she becomes a demigoddess at the end of the adventure path, she gains a new soul?
4. If the Divinity Drive is not the central processing unit and thus not Unity, why does Unity guard it so seriously? And why does Unity bring the device into orbit, if it's not the core of Unity?
5. So, where is the core(aka CPU) of Unity? I cannot sleep peacefully if I odn't destroy the CPU because if I don't do that Unity would eventually rebuild itself and attack the world again. Page 16 of the book said that "to carry itself and the Divinity Drive into space". What is this 'itself'? Maybe the Overlord Robot is Unity's core?
6. If Unity wins, it would eventually need a herald. If Unity decides to designate one of its servants as its herald, who would be the most suitable candidate? Maybe Bastion, the commander of the robot army? Or maybe Deacon Hope, who was created to serve as Unity's avatar?
8. Then if you found out Occult Realms used the word mnemovore as the name of a demiplane before the publication of the book, would you have tried to request the developers of that book to change the word into something else?
9. There's no local authority in Felldales? I'm surprised. I thought Aaramor or Castle Urion can be considered the seat of the local authority. Shouldn't they at least pay some attention to the well-being of the locals? Turns out they are not interested in bringing peace and order to Felldales?
10. You said that if I upload my mind into a computer using a neurocam, the AI me still retain my class levels and thus spellcasting abilities. But can this AI cast spells without silent spell or still spell feat? Well, maybe the silent spell won't be needed if the computer has a speaker, but without a hand, it would be very difficult to cast a spell.
11. Anyway, no matter how many levels this AI me has, it still has no soul, right?
Would Calistria and Nocticula get along or do they see themselves as being lust portfolio rivals?
13. Is Unity a quantum computer?
14. What was Furkas Xoud's original alignment? He's neutral evil now, but I'm not sure if it's because of his undead state or not. I ask this because I wanted to resurrect him but I couldn't be sure if he would become a villain that harasses the locals or not.
15. I found that in the last book of Ironfang Invasion, Vault of the Onyx Citadel, the PCs visit an ancient fortress in Plane of Earth constructed eons ago by the mysterious Vault Builders. Wow! Does that mean we can finally see the vault seed and an article of the ecology of the xiomorns?
16. I found that the dungeon maps in Thornkeep and the Emerald Spire Superdungeon are of the exactly same size. They all are horizontally 100 feet and vertically 150 feet. It's like somebody wanted to make them fit exactly into one page. Is it intentional?
17. Anyway, I think the maps of the Emerald Spire are too small. Compared to other dungeons, the spire is definitely much smaller. It's like it should be called the Emerald Spiore Minidungeon instead. I know there's no chance for Paizo to revisit the spire, but do you think the dungeons in the spire are too small either?
19. What is the spell Baba Yaga is casting in page 4 of Maiden, Mother, Crone? It looks like shoking grasp, but I'm not sure.
20. You said that Deskari can hinder discern location spell even though he is not a deity. I'm curious. Do you think the description of that spell should be changed so that it would specify that not only a deity, but also a demigod can hinder the effect of discern location? Maybe you would change it if you can take a time machine to go back to 2007?
21. If the PCs kills Deskari for good at the end of the campaign, what would the resurrected(and thus now a nascent demon lord) Areelu do? Would she become the new leader of the remaining force of Deskari and become the lord of the Rasping Rifts? Or would she become a new minion of Nocticula because she's a succubus and Nocticula is the rler of all succubi?
22. In this page you said that the Hellstorm Flume is 115 feet tall. But the map of Sandpoint depicts the diameter of the Old Light as 150 feet, which is longer than 115 feet, which means the Hellstorm Flume's width is longer than its height, which makes it looks silly. And the illustration in page 68 of The Dead Heart of Xin showed an Hellstorm Flume, and its width doesn't look like 150 feet to me. What do you think? Do you think the width of a Hellstorm Flume would be 150 feet?
23. I found out my posts which I posted two days ago became... I don't know the proper word, but... spoilered? I saw in Kryzbyn's now deleted post which telling me that my posts contain numerous spoilers, but I couldn't do anything because after one hour passes, I cannot edit my own posts. But now they are all spoilered. Maybe you did that? The last post wasn't even related to Iron Gods after all.:(
24. First, can they do that? I mean, the time between the attack on Kenabres and the start of Sword of Valor is not very long. Three to five days, I presume. Do you think it would be an enough time for these nations to raise a huge army and send them to the faraway Mendev?
25. Second, will they do that? Even though the demonic hordes would be a serious threat to the world, the Worldowund is still a faraway place. I suspect it more likely that the rulers of these nations simply regard the fall of Kenabres and Mendev as other people's problem and don't want to expend their army for other people. What do you think?
26. Third, how many soldeirs can they send? At first I was about to say these five naions sent roughly 100,000 soldiers(30,000 for Taldor, 20,000 for Andoran, 15,000 for Kyonin, 20,000 for the Five Kings Mountains, and 15,000 for Molthune) to Mendev, but it seems too many considering the general population of the Inner Sea region. Do you think this number is reasonable?
27. Fourth, how can they go there? I mean, the army has to pass through Numeria to reach Mendev. To whom they need to ask for permission? Simply asking for permission of the Black Sovereign would be enough? Or they need to ask for permission of the chieftains of the various tribes along the way? I'm not sure if the chieftains loyally obey the Black Sovereign's order and let the army pass through or not.
28. Fifth, can they be granted permission? I highly suspect that the Black Sovereign or the Technic League don't want several tens of thousands soldiers pass through their land.
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Do you think it's possible that Paizo will ever write an adventure path that takes place before the Age of Darkness? One where you get to play agents of one or more of the Runelords, working to destroy your lord's enemies. Or perhaps you're an agent working for one of the other ancient empires and have been dispatched to assassinate a Runelord who is warring with your homeland.
As this adventure path would start with a significant power curve, perhaps it could start at level 11 and only be three books long, and take the PCs to level 21 so that the players can revel at playing all the way through level 20?
If Nocticula turned CN and becomes the goddess of Midnight, Artists, and Outcasts, would she still have the whole lust aspect going on?
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The first example of a failed good person in Golarion that comes to my mind is Father Tobyn from the first Pathfinder Adventure, Burnt Offerings. He was a cleric of Desna, but his failure in raising his adopted daughter Nualia by being an overbearing father who didn't treat his daughter with respect and was overly protective in a bad way and so on eventually ended up with her becoming the main bad guy of Burnt Offerings. He did not go to a happy afterlife when he died.
I thought to myself this reminds me of RL. This led me to wonder, has anyone ever asked you if some character you've written is based off a person you know?
I have heard of this happening in a pfs module. I wonder what you think of that, the portrayal not being flattering.
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James,
Have you watched Moana? If yes, what did you think?
I did watch it. I appreciated the fact that it had a strong female lead and drew upon Polynesian mythology and it looked beautiful... but plot wise I'm pretty worn out/tired of the old Disney singing princess plotlines, I guess.
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Creative Director
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James,
I'm running a Hell's Rebels campaign, and two of my four players are nobles, and another is the knight of one of said nobles. I'm planning to introduce more noble intrigue into the story, but in order to do that, I'd need more information on the noble families of Ravounel, specifically what and where their holdings are. I understand the situation regarding the Archduke position, but apart from that, I only have the name and rank of each noble family's head of house to work with. Even if the Archduke position is iffy, are there any Dukes in Ravounel at all? Where are they, what area do they control? Thanks in advance.
P.S. I realize that this is a very open-ended question, but I wouldn't ask it if I had more of an idea than I do. I've read the new Cheliax book, but it didn't tell me much regarding specific nobles. I'll go back through the rest of the AP, as I've kept most of my concentration to the first adventure.
This wasn't really intended to be a significant part of the AP; the expectation was that the PCs would mostly be a ragtag group from all walks of life. There's information about the local nobility spread out through all six of the APs but you'll need to mine them for that info; it's MOSTLY contained in books 2 and 5 if I remember correctly. Don't forget to check the inside covers for NPC info! Beyond that, there's no official information; feel free to do what makes sense for your own game though.
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Creative Director
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Spoiler:1. You said Unity and Hellion are quasi-deities, but they have four domains and four subdomains. I thought only demigods have four domains and four subdomains, aren't they?2. The book said that Unity ascends to full godhood if it wins. I thought the word full godhood means deity. Maybe you originally intended to write full demigodhood, but mistakenly wrote full godhood instead?
3. Can I assume that the AI Casandalee has no soul because her soul was judged by Phasrasma long ago, but when she becomes a demigoddess at the end of the adventure path, she gains a new soul?
4. If the Divinity Drive is not the central processing unit and thus not Unity, why does Unity guard it so seriously? And why does Unity bring the device into orbit, if it's not the core of Unity?
5. So, where is the core(aka CPU) of Unity? I cannot sleep peacefully if I odn't destroy the CPU because if I don't do that Unity would eventually rebuild itself and attack the world again. Page 16 of the book said that "to carry itself and the Divinity Drive into space". What is this 'itself'? Maybe the Overlord Robot is Unity's core?
6. If Unity wins, it would eventually need a herald. If Unity decides to designate one of its servants as its herald, who would be the most suitable candidate? Maybe Bastion, the commander of the robot army? Or maybe Deacon Hope, who was created to serve as Unity's avatar?
2) "Full godhood" does not mean "Becomes a deity." We use the word deity when we mean deity. "Godhood" in this case talks about him becoming a demigod. Feel free to change that in your game to deity if you want of coruse.
3) The original Casandalee's soul has been judged. The AI one does not have a soul, but she gains one as part of becoming a demigod at the end, yes.
4) Unity guards it because he needs its power to help fuel his transition to demigod. It's not the ship's central processor or source of power, just a VERY powerful reactor/power source.
5) The core CPU is detailed in the last adventure; it's one of the areas the PCs explore. Carry "itself" means the overlord robot or the storage drives it ends up having to use if the robot is destroyed.
6) Deities don't have to have heralds, and very few demigods have them at all. Designating a herald is not something Unity will be doing anytime soon.
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Creative Director
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Spoiler:7. So, are all mnemovore sentient holograms, or only Deacon Hope is a sentient hologram?8. Then if you found out Occult Realms used the word mnemovore as the name of a demiplane before the publication of the book, would you have tried to request the developers of that book to change the word into something else?
9. There's no local authority in Felldales? I'm surprised. I thought Aaramor or Castle Urion can be considered the seat of the local authority. Shouldn't they at least pay some attention to the well-being of the locals? Turns out they are not interested in bringing peace and order to Felldales?
10. You said that if I upload my mind into a computer using a neurocam, the AI me still retain my class levels and thus spellcasting abilities. But can this AI cast spells without silent spell or still spell feat? Well, maybe the silent spell won't be needed if the computer has a speaker, but without a hand, it would be very difficult to cast a spell.
11. Anyway, no matter how many levels this AI me has, it still has no soul, right?
8. I would have, but it's not a big deal at all to me that it worked out the way it did.
9. The felldales are mostly wilderness, and as such there is no local authority with the power to deal with it all. They try to pay attention, but those leaders aren't the nicest folks even IF they had the power and time and resoruces to watch over such a huge swath of land.
10. It's complicated, and requires GM adjudication. It's not something that's an intended part of game play.
11. Correct. You keep your soul.
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Creative Director
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Spoiler:12. If Unity can control any robots, then if Unity wins the PCs and starts a war to conquer the world using its robot army, the Technic League's robots would be no use against this invasion because the League's control of the robots would be snatched by Unity almost immediately?13. Is Unity a quantum computer?
14. What was Furkas Xoud's original alignment? He's neutral evil now, but I'm not sure if it's because of his undead state or not. I ask this because I wanted to resurrect him but I couldn't be sure if he would become a villain that harasses the locals or not.
15. I found that in the last book of Ironfang Invasion, Vault of the Onyx Citadel, the PCs visit an ancient fortress in Plane of Earth constructed eons ago by the mysterious Vault Builders. Wow! Does that mean we can finally see the vault seed and an article of the ecology of the xiomorns?
16. I found that the dungeon maps in Thornkeep and the Emerald Spire Superdungeon are of the exactly same size. They all are horizontally 100 feet and vertically 150 feet. It's like somebody wanted to make them fit exactly into one page. Is it intentional?
17. Anyway, I think the maps of the Emerald Spire are too small. Compared to other dungeons, the spire is definitely much smaller. It's like it should be called the Emerald Spiore Minidungeon instead. I know there's no chance for Paizo to revisit the spire, but do you think the dungeons in the spire are too small either?
13. I don't know what you mean by that.
14. It's easiest to assume it was still neutral evil.
15. Probably no vault seed stuff. That was mostly part of the Emerald Spire's plot. There's MUCH more to these creatures than that but yes, that AP will explore Vault Builders and Vault Keepers more.
16. Both of those books were part of a kickstarter campaign and part of that campaign was a promise that every dungeon would be published as a flip mat. So every dungeon level did indeed end up the same size, because of a kickstarter promise and the physics of how big a flip map is. Has nothing to do with in-world construction goals of the dungeons.
17. I do indeed, but it was a requirement of the kickstarter campaign.
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Creative Director
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Spoiler:18. At first I thought that the strange planar environment of the Inelectable Prison prevented Alderpash from growing old and dying. But then I found out that he's an undead. So I'm curious. If Alderpash was not an undead, would he have died long ago?19. What is the spell Baba Yaga is casting in page 4 of Maiden, Mother, Crone? It looks like shoking grasp, but I'm not sure.
20. You said that Deskari can hinder discern location spell even though he is not a deity. I'm curious. Do you think the description of that spell should be changed so that it would specify that not only a deity, but also a demigod can hinder the effect of discern location? Maybe you would change it if you can take a time machine to go back to 2007?
21. If the PCs kills Deskari for good at the end of the campaign, what would the resurrected(and thus now a nascent demon lord) Areelu do? Would she become the new leader of the remaining force of Deskari and become the lord of the Rasping Rifts? Or would she become a new minion of Nocticula because she's a succubus and Nocticula is the rler of all succubi?
22. In this page you said that the Hellstorm Flume is 115 feet tall. But the map of Sandpoint depicts the diameter of the Old Light as 150 feet, which is longer than 115 feet, which means the Hellstorm Flume's width is longer than its height, which makes it looks silly. And the illustration in page 68 of The Dead Heart of Xin showed an Hellstorm Flume, and its width doesn't look like 150 feet to me. What do you think? Do you think the width of a Hellstorm Flume would be 150 feet?
23. I found out my posts which I posted two days ago became... I don't know the proper word, but... spoilered? I saw in Kryzbyn's now deleted post which telling me that my posts contain numerous spoilers, but I couldn't do anything because after one hour passes, I cannot edit my own posts. But now they are all spoilered. Maybe you did that? The last post wasn't even related to Iron Gods after all.:(
19. Dunno.
20. It's fine. You're getting a bit to hung up on semantics.
21. She'd probably focus on building up her own Abyssal realm and power, and would not really be interested in following in Deskari's footsteps. She'd certainly NOT try to pick a fight with PCs poweruful enough to kill a Demon Lord. She would not become anyone's minion.
22. Something is off on those numbers, so yeah, the Flume should be taller, but I'm not interested at this point in nailing its height down. Sorry.
23. Yup; you should spoiler any questions that involve talking about plot points of our adventures. I didn't do it; I suspect Chris or someone did it for you.
Mr. Jacobs, Our Glorious Leader,
Would you rather fight one hundred duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck?
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Creative Director
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Spoiler:I planned to say "Just before the PCs begin their march to Drezen, words came that the army of Taldor, Andoran, Kyonin, the Five Kings Mountains, and Molthune arrived in Nerosyan and fended off the demonic hordes." to my players, mostly for flavors. But then I found some problems.24. First, can they do that? I mean, the time between the attack on Kenabres and the start of Sword of Valor is not very long. Three to five days, I presume. Do you think it would be an enough time for these nations to raise a huge army and send them to the faraway Mendev?
25. Second, will they do that? Even though the demonic hordes would be a serious threat to the world, the Worldowund is still a faraway place. I suspect it more likely that the rulers of these nations simply regard the fall of Kenabres and Mendev as other people's problem and don't want to expend their army for other people. What do you think?
26. Third, how many soldeirs can they send? At first I was about to say these five naions sent roughly 100,000 soldiers(30,000 for Taldor, 20,000 for Andoran, 15,000 for Kyonin, 20,000 for the Five Kings Mountains, and 15,000 for Molthune) to Mendev, but it seems too many considering the general population of the Inner Sea region. Do you think this number is reasonable?
27. Fourth, how can they go there? I mean, the army has to pass through Numeria to reach Mendev. To whom they need to ask for permission? Simply asking for permission of the Black Sovereign would be enough? Or they need to ask for permission of the chieftains of the various tribes along the way? I'm not sure if the chieftains loyally obey the Black Sovereign's order and let the army pass through or not.
28. Fifth, can they be granted permission? I highly suspect that the Black Sovereign or the Technic League don't want several tens of thousands soldiers pass through their land.
25. See 24 above. Part of the fun about running an AP is changing it to fit your own preferences.
26. Up to you. Mass combat like that isn't a big part of the game or the campaign, and we don't track and aren't really INTERESTED in tracking total numbers of solders like this. It's not really the point of a game that focuses on single character group adventures.
27. By marching. You're extending your game well beyond the plot I worked on, and are in your own territory now. Honestly, I'd recommend NOT spending so much time worrying about armies and the like; that's not the point of Pathfinder. Keep it in the background.
28. See above.
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Creative Director
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Do you think it's possible that Paizo will ever write an adventure path that takes place before the Age of Darkness? One where you get to play agents of one or more of the Runelords, working to destroy your lord's enemies. Or perhaps you're an agent working for one of the other ancient empires and have been dispatched to assassinate a Runelord who is warring with your homeland.
As this adventure path would start with a significant power curve, perhaps it could start at level 11 and only be three books long, and take the PCs to level 21 so that the players can revel at playing all the way through level 20?
Probably not. Historical APs are weird and tricky, since the further back we go, the fewer of our own books we and you can use to run the game. It's like setting an AP in a new campaign... one that might not have the same deities or classes or races as options.
There is no level 21+ in Pathifnder, in any case.
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Creative Director
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The first example of a failed good person in Golarion that comes to my mind is Father Tobyn from the first Pathfinder Adventure, Burnt Offerings. He was a cleric of Desna, but his failure in raising his adopted daughter Nualia by being an overbearing father who didn't treat his daughter with respect and was overly protective in a bad way and so on eventually ended up with her becoming the main bad guy of Burnt Offerings. He did not go to a happy afterlife when he died.I thought to myself this reminds me of RL. This led me to wonder, has anyone ever asked you if some character you've written is based off a person you know?
I have heard of this happening in a pfs module. I wonder what you think of that, the portrayal not being flattering.
I don't generally base characters I create off of real world people. That tends to be kinda sketchy and weird and potentially insulting, so I don't do it, and I ask those who write for me to not do it. It happens, and when/if I find out, I ask that author to refrain from it in the future. If they don't... they can expect me to stop asking them to write for me.