Creative Director
|
I know it's way early to be asking about Ruins of Azlant, but I reread the page for the first book and I got confused: I was under the impression that the PCs in RoA were Pathfinders sent from the Pathfinder Lodge in Andoran on an archaeological expedition. The page for The Lost Outpost one the other hand, indicates the PCs are being sent in an official capacity to investigate why a colony has gone silent. Did I just imagine the whole "PCs are Pathfinders" thing or something? I just remember reading announcements about this AP and going "SWEET! IT STARTS IN ANDORAN! FINALLY I HAVE AN EXCUSE TO PLAY AN EAGLE KNIGHT!" but now I'm wondering if that was just me being delusional.
You're right. It's way too learly to be asking about Ruins of Azlant. Furthermore, you're asking the wrong person. Beyond approving the outline and approving the final product once they start finishing up in a few months, I'm not really involved in Ruins of Azlant at all. Adam Daigle is; he's the one to ask.
My understanding is that the AP does not assume the player characters are Pathfinder Society members at all. We tried that once with Shattered Star and reader/customer reaction was so poor that we aren't eager to repeat that again.
The assumption for the PCs in this AP, as far as I know, is that they all want to go on a long trip together to investigate a strange silence from a colony. No other assumptions. An Eagle Knight would be a fine choice, but so would pretty much any other character concept as long as the whole party works together.
|
Hello James Jacobs I have a couple of questions regarding The Sisters of the Golden Erinyes! So how "nun" like are they being called devil nuns also what monk vows would they gravitate to if any and would any other classes be associated with them other than monks?
Finally given that they helped "rescue" the orphans of Isger during the goblin blood wars will they be featured in the upcoming Iron Fang AP?
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!!!
|
Creative Director
|
Hello James Jacobs I have a couple of questions regarding The Sisters of the Golden Erinyes! So how "nun" like are they being called devil nuns also what monk vows would they gravitate to if any and would any other classes be associated with them other than monks?
Finally given that they helped "rescue" the orphans of Isger during the goblin blood wars will they be featured in the upcoming AP?
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!!!
"Devil nun" is not something that they're called as far as I know. That's more of an our-world shortcut for gamers to refer to them as. We haven't explored them much yet to indicate what their vows or beliefs would be as far as I know. There is no upcoming Isger AP, so that's not going to be an issue.
Magic, patience, or luck.
How could a person's mind escape the time, place, and body of their yithian confinement
Good to know. So...
1. Are yithians not that worried about escape attempts?
2. What is a yithian interested in? Besides racial survival and intellectual pursuits, I mean.
And now for less rational subject matter.
3. How does Ileosa like being the center of attention? Chelish diva stuff? Something else?
4. What do Chelish divas do? Besides sing, and presumably have attitude problems?
|
Creative Director
|
Magic, patience, or luck.
How could a person's mind escape the time, place, and body of their yithian confinement
Good to know. So...
1. Are yithians not that worried about escape attempts?
2. What is a yithian interested in? Besides racial survival and intellectual pursuits, I mean.
And now for less rational subject matter.
3. How does Ileosa like being the center of attention? Chelish diva stuff? Something else?
4. What do Chelish divas do? Besides sing, and presumably have attitude problems?
1) Not really, no.
2) Knowledge and racial survival comprise an awful lot, but they're also interested in opposing their enemies and exploration and science and item crafting/creation. They are themselves purely mental creatures, and as such don't really get into physical stuff.
3) She's not a Chelish diva, but she's a narcisist and an egomaniac. She enjoys being the center of attention a lot.
4) The thing that makes Chelish divas similar is their archetype, which doesn't have really any personality or interest requirements really, so they are as varied as real-world opera stars are.
I just played a PFS Scenario with the Debate system which presumably from Ultimate Intrigue.
We found it a less than satisfying experience as it seems that removes the roleplaying from what should be a roleplaying encounter. There seems to be a push towards infusing more mechanics to replace roleplaying. Was that the intent?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You're right. That is a deranged question. Ask your GM.hey Mr. Jacobs, deranged question for you.
is there a fleshy character in pathfinder that is into robosexuality ie likes to sleep with androids....
is Ask your GM your version of ask your mother?
How does Ileosa like being the center of attention? Chelish diva stuff? Something else?She's not a Chelish diva, but she's a narcisist and an egomaniac. She enjoys being the center of attention a lot.
All right, erroneous assumption on my part regarding what Chelish divas are like, thus using them as a personality shorthand.
That still doesn't answer my question, though. What (pre-CotCT, anyway) does Ileosa do to get attention? Sing? Dance? What kind? What else?
|
My understanding is that the AP does not assume the player characters are Pathfinder Society members at all. We tried that once with Shattered Star and reader/customer reaction was so poor that we aren't eager to repeat that again.
That's...surprising, actually, at least to me. How come people didn't like that in Shattered Star? I did. I mean the organization GAVE the setting it's name, after all.
|
Creative Director
|
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
I just played a PFS Scenario with the Debate system which presumably from Ultimate Intrigue.
We found it a less than satisfying experience as it seems that removes the roleplaying from what should be a roleplaying encounter. There seems to be a push towards infusing more mechanics to replace roleplaying. Was that the intent?
I have no idea in that case; I'm not involved in creating PFS Scenarios beyond approving the general plots. Personally, I think that systems from Ultimate Intrigue should support rather than replace roleplaying. Just as you don't require your players to actually climb a rock wall when their characters do so, or don't have them stab a dragon when they do in game, it's not great to make them debate a point or diplomacize an NPC without giving their characters a chance to roll the dice. Just as we play characters who can fight and cast spells better than we do in real life, we often want to play characters who are more eloquent or smarter than we are in real life. It's not good gaming to make players have to rely only on their own personal experience to solve an in-game puzzle or do a debate in game. The rules are there to support your characters. If they weren't you wouldn't need characters at all and it'd just be you all sitting at the table telling stories, no dice involved.
Whether or not the author was up to presenting these rules in the adventure, or your GM was up to the task of running a complicated debate, I can't say.
|
Creative Director
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
is Ask your GM your version of ask your mother?You're right. That is a deranged question. Ask your GM.hey Mr. Jacobs, deranged question for you.
is there a fleshy character in pathfinder that is into robosexuality ie likes to sleep with androids....
It's more like, "Save that kind of talk for private meetings, not out in the public like this."
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What (pre-CotCT, anyway) does Ileosa do to get attention? Sing? Dance? What kind? What else?
Throw parties and then look magnificent when hosting them. Demand her inferiors to tend to her however she wants. The fact that she has ranks in perform (oratory, sing, string, and wind) automatically gives her four ways to get attention, of course.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
My understanding is that the AP does not assume the player characters are Pathfinder Society members at all. We tried that once with Shattered Star and reader/customer reaction was so poor that we aren't eager to repeat that again.That's...surprising, actually, at least to me. How come people didn't like that in Shattered Star? I did. I mean the organization GAVE the setting it's name, after all.
My guess? We spent too long in PFS presenting the leaders and quest givers in PFS scenarios as unpleasant antagonistic jerks who didn't respect the players and who betrayed them once too often, combined with too many PFS GMs taking up the classic "GM vs. Players" mindset in playing these NPCs and making them even MORE unpleasant to interact with.
It surprised me too, but mostly because I don't play PFS and haven't been exposed to some of the ways a massive multiplayer campaign can cause toxicity to bleed out into other venues.
Since then, we've worked to make the PFS NPCs your characters work for in the org play campaign be more friendly... at least, that's my understanding.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
In Wrath of the Righteous, would it be safe to conclude that while it wasn't the focus as much as Mendev, Numeria and especially the Mammoth Lords were getting pretty substantial demon attacks at the same time?
Nope. The people of those other regions aren't as holy and righteous and good and lawful and infected from within with corruption in the form of sin; those nations souls are much less fertile spiritual soil for demons to do their things to.
What (pre-CotCT, anyway) does Ileosa do to get attention? Sing? Dance? What kind? What else?Throw parties and then look magnificent when hosting them. Demand her inferiors to tend to her however she wants. The fact that she has ranks in perform (oratory, sing, string, and wind) automatically gives her four ways to get attention, of course.
How does one look magnificent when hosting parties, in general?
What kind of parties do Korvosan high society types have?
Dear James Jacobs,
I have a slightly metaphysical/physical question: If say Sarenrae some how died or had been removed as a Sun goddess, would that cause the Sun to die or not?
|
Creative Director
|
What (pre-CotCT, anyway) does Ileosa do to get attention? Sing? Dance? What kind? What else?Throw parties and then look magnificent when hosting them. Demand her inferiors to tend to her however she wants. The fact that she has ranks in perform (oratory, sing, string, and wind) automatically gives her four ways to get attention, of course.How does one look magnificent when hosting parties, in general?
What kind of parties do Korvosan high society types have?
By wearing expensive outfits.
Fancy parties with masquerade balls, banquets, and opera/play/musical events.
|
Creative Director
|
Hi, James.
Have you gotten a chance to play Exploding Kittens?
If not, do so! It's a hoot!
I haven't.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
James,
What's your favorite class in Mass Effect? You play with the female Shepard, right?
Always play female characters if it's an option, regardless of game. And often I deliberately do not buy/play games that don't give me that option (Halo, Gears of War, Assassin's Creed Unity, etc.).
The "classes" in Mass Effect never really made an impression on me. I play whatever one seems to be the best choice to make a diplomatic sniper who's good at sneaking and skullduggery.
Clarification on that nope perhaps?
|
Creative Director
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Clarification on that nope perhaps?
I'm not sure what clarification you need.
Sarenrae is a goddess of the sun, but also of other things. She is not THE sun. She is also worshiped on multiple worlds. Many of those worlds, Golarion included, have other sun gods or goddesses.
A deity in Pathfinder is a metaphor for something in its area of concern, but is NOT its area of concern. Likewise, faith does not power a deity; a god or goddess with no worshipers has no cult and thus no real direct influence over a region, but isn't intrinsically less powerful than another deity who DOES have a lot of worshipers.
So no, if Sarenrae died, Golarion's sun would not explode. Likewise, if Golarion's sun exploded, Sarenrae would not die.
All of which is quite succinctly summed up as "Nope."
Clarification on that nope perhaps?I'm not sure what clarification you need.
Sarenrae is a goddess of the sun, but also of other things. She is not THE sun. She is also worshiped on multiple worlds. Many of those worlds, Golarion included, have other sun gods or goddesses.
A deity in Pathfinder is a metaphor for something in its area of concern, but is NOT its area of concern. Likewise, faith does not power a deity; a god or goddess with no worshipers has no cult and thus no real direct influence over a region, but isn't intrinsically less powerful than another deity who DOES have a lot of worshipers.
So no, if Sarenrae died, Golarion's sun would not explode. Likewise, if Golarion's sun exploded, Sarenrae would not die.
All of which is quite succinctly summed up as "Nope."
That's all the clarification I wanted, Mister Jacobs. Thank you!
I always thought that deities powers came from worship but that isn't true in Golarion then right? So is a deities powers completely self-contained within the deity?
|
Creative Director
|
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
I always thought that deities powers came from worship but that isn't true in Golarion then right? So is a deities powers completely self-contained within the deity?
The concept that faith powers a deity is an element of D&D, and in particular I believe it's something that came to prominence in Forgotten Realms and has since spread through all D&D settings (I may be wrong there... it may have been a part of the game as early as 1st edition's Deities and Demigods).
This is NOT a part of Pathfinder.
In Pathfinder, there exist a category of deities known as "Forgotten Gods." These gods have no worshipers, yet they still exist, and should a mortal learn about a Forgotten God and start praying and become a cleric of that deity, they work just as well as if they worshiped a well-known deity. A forgotten god's powers are in theory as great as a widely worshiped deity (although in actual play, this is mostly irrelevant since Pathfinder doesn't have rules for deities).
A deity's power is a part of what makes it a deity, in the same way a mortal is the sum total of his body, mind, and soul.
In this way, it's kind of akin to the concept that elves don't sleep but instead "trance." That's also a Forgotten Realms thing, and is not true for elves in Pathfinder, who sleep like any other humanoid (they're just immune to magical sleep effects).
I know you're the developer for Adventurer's Guide and Bestiary 6. Are there any other announced but unreleased products that you're working on or have a major role in?
How many unannounced projects are you developing right now? Can you give us any hints at all about them?
James, will we be seeing more setting specific PrC's? And on that note will we see more class specific PrC's (I.E. Winter Witch)?
- E.K.
P.S. Will we ever see a book LIKE Deities and Demigods for Pathfinder; because regicide is always a fun fantasy concept.
Huh. Weird though that just went through my head.
Are capital E Evil Outsiders (Devils, Demons and other Evil subtype outsiders) capable of feeling love, possibly even for mortals? I'm guessing it's either actually impossible or as good as impossible (and if it happens anyway, the expression of said love might not be welcomed by the average non-evil mortal)...
I doubt this question is ever going to be actually relevant to me, but I'm curious, and the topic said ALL my questions...
What kind of parties do Korvosan high society types have?Fancy parties with masquerade balls, banquets, and opera/play/musical events.
So stuffy stuff, like the one on Carowyn Manor (CotCT, p.103-109)?
What sort of things would Korvosan high society consider improper? What would scandalize them?
|
Creative Director
|
Worship would matter more for non-how-personally-powerful reasons, right? Like, influence on the world, and how many your planar servitors are (devils, demons, and so on), since they're made from souls.
It just doesn't matter for stuff like fights (Dahak is super powerful and not actively worshiped by many, for one that comes to mind), or granting of spells?
Correct.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I know you're the developer for Adventurer's Guide and Bestiary 6. Are there any other announced but unreleased products that you're working on or have a major role in?
How many unannounced projects are you developing right now? Can you give us any hints at all about them?
There are several unannounced projects I'm working on, and in fact just finished development duty on a big one yesterday and started another. No hints yet though.
Of the current unreleased projects other than the ones you just mentioned that have been announced, I don't really have a strong involvement in any of them.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
James, will we be seeing more setting specific PrC's? And on that note will we see more class specific PrC's (I.E. Winter Witch)?
- E.K.
P.S. Will we ever see a book LIKE Deities and Demigods for Pathfinder; because regicide is always a fun fantasy concept.
Adventurer's Guide has a lot more setting specific prestige classes.
We have no plans and no interest in doing a Deities and Demigods book. The closest you'll get is stats for demigods like empyreal lords, Great Old Ones, archdevils, demon lords, Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the like in monster books like the upcoming Bestiary 6. We have no interest in building stats for true deities like Sarenrae or Desna.
|
Creative Director
|
Huh. Weird though that just went through my head.
Are capital E Evil Outsiders (Devils, Demons and other Evil subtype outsiders) capable of feeling love, possibly even for mortals? I'm guessing it's either actually impossible or as good as impossible (and if it happens anyway, the expression of said love might not be welcomed by the average non-evil mortal)...
I doubt this question is ever going to be actually relevant to me, but I'm curious, and the topic said ALL my questions...
It's possible but incredibly rare. When it happens, it needs to be a significant part of a campaign—see Arueshalae in Wrath of the Righteous for example.
|
Creative Director
|
What kind of parties do Korvosan high society types have?Fancy parties with masquerade balls, banquets, and opera/play/musical events.So stuffy stuff, like the one on Carowyn Manor (CotCT, p.103-109)?
What sort of things would Korvosan high society consider improper? What would scandalize them?
Yes.
Mixing of economic class is scandalous. Mixing of Shoanti and "civilization" is also somewhat scandalous. And things like necrophilia and undeath of course.
James, have you heard about the T-Rex running a D&D game?
Is Godzilla a Spawn of Rovagug?
Who got Aroden's record-collection?
Godzilla's even more off limits than beholders. (And if he weren't, he'd be a free agent—he probably fights against the spawn of Rovagug though!)
Aroden made sure to break all his records before he died.
Ha! Because Mogaru exists, do we get beholders now?
What kind of parties do Korvosan high society types have?Fancy parties with masquerade balls, banquets, and opera/play/musical events.So stuffy stuff, like the one on Carowyn Manor (CotCT, p.103-109)?
What sort of things would Korvosan high society consider improper? What would scandalize them?
Yes.
Mixing of economic class is scandalous. Mixing of Shoanti and "civilization" is also somewhat scandalous. And things like necrophilia and undeath of course.
By mixing of economic class, you mean among the guests, right? What I'm asking here is: does the entertainment have to be "aspiring Chelish opera" at a minimum? I'm guessing not, since Carowyn Manor hired a (gasp!) Varisian.
Any entertainments that Korvosan high society would consider improper, or scandalous?
How does Korvosa's high society differ from that of Cheliax?
|
Creative Director
|
Adventurer's Guide has a lot more setting specific prestige classes.We have no plans and no interest in doing a Deities and Demigods book. The closest you'll get is stats for demigods like empyreal lords, Great Old Ones, archdevils, demon lords, Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the like in monster books like the upcoming Bestiary 6. We have no interest in building stats for true deities like Sarenrae or Desna.
I'll comment I've been satisfied with the trickle of X Lords, Great Old Ones, etc. in bestiaries, adventure paths, and so on.
I'm hard pressed to think of when I'd need Sarenrae or Desna in a game, and if I did, I'd abstract it out.
Please limit your posts to questions in this thread.
|
Creative Director
|
Ha! Because Mogaru exists, do we get beholders now?Is Godzilla a Spawn of Rovagug?
Who got Aroden's record-collection?
Godzilla's even more off limits than beholders. (And if he weren't, he'd be a free agent—he probably fights against the spawn of Rovagug though!)
Aroden made sure to break all his records before he died.
No.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What kind of parties do Korvosan high society types have?Fancy parties with masquerade balls, banquets, and opera/play/musical events.So stuffy stuff, like the one on Carowyn Manor (CotCT, p.103-109)?
What sort of things would Korvosan high society consider improper? What would scandalize them?
Yes.
Mixing of economic class is scandalous. Mixing of Shoanti and "civilization" is also somewhat scandalous. And things like necrophilia and undeath of course.
By mixing of economic class, you mean among the guests, right? What I'm asking here is: does the entertainment have to be "aspiring Chelish opera" at a minimum? I'm guessing not, since Carowyn Manor hired a (gasp!) Varisian.
Any entertainments that Korvosan high society would consider improper, or scandalous?
How does Korvosa's high society differ from that of Cheliax?
If it's not mixing among the guests, then it's not mixing, so yes. The entertainment does NOT have to be Chelish opera, and in fact opera isn't as overwhelming a thing in Korvosa as it is in Cheliax. Korvosa is VARISIAN, not Chelish. It has Chelish flavor, but as much Varisian and Shoanti flavor mixed in there as well, along with dwarves and elves and the rest. It's not "little Cheliax."
Yes. Anything that's obviously evil, for starters. The gory and freaky entertainments provided by Pilts Swastel in Old Korvosa is a great example.
It's MUCH more tolerant and MUCH less evil.