Do any of the new Starfinder deities particularly tickle your fancy?
Is Desna also from your homebrew? Is the starknife your invention?Desna is in fact the fourth deity I invented for my homebrew, and was the first GOOD aligned deity in my homebrew (she is predated by Yamasoth, Treerazer, and Obox-ob, whose name I got from the 1st edition Monster Manual II's "other demon lord list"). She's got the most history of all the core 20 deities who weren't also mythological (Asmodeus and Lamashtu), and the starknife has been her weapon of choice in my homebrew since the early 90s' (the starknife itself being inspired by the glaive from Krull).
Awesome :)
Has she changed at all, moving from your game into pathfinder?
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The two things that the unchained version fixed was to make the summoner's spell list work better with things like magic items (so that you can't do a wand of teleport, for example), but far more important to me, it grounded the summoner's eidolon in a way that makes eidolons fit into the mythology and flavor of the setting.
How does this mesh with the God Callers, who didn't call specific types of creatures(like Inevitables, for example) and where already in the setting thanks to Sarkosis?
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Thank you as always for your answers. On the subject of simulacra, they explicitly cannot be healed except through an expensive laboratory procedure (in many cases more expensive than just making a new one). Can they, however, benefit from fast healing effects? This somewhat impacts whether or not it makes sense to use them for guards and the like.Nope. Fast healing (and regeneration) are both "healing effects" and thus don't work on a simulacrum.
It's probably easier to just make a new one when the old one gets too beat up.
RAW/RAI: If you made a simulacrum of a creature who had "wish" on it's spell list (Solar?) couldn't you just have it wish itself up to full HP?
You said Deena was the 4th god of your creation in your homebrew, when did you. Create Pharasma?
Question about geography! Yyyyyaaaaayyyy?
Also, pretty big AP spoiler below for Giant Slayer:
At the end of Giant Slayer, it's possible for the apace to end up with a cloud castle. In order to keep that cloud castle, it's suggested it's effectively required that you go to a cloud giant living in the... Ruins of Azlant (tm) *said in the 1950s serials spooky voice*!!
So where, geographically, is that? Obviously, it seems like it's not in the same area as the AP Ruins of Azlant, but is it close by? are they within-
Sorry, trying to keep this to one question.
Ah...
"Where are the locations of the AP Ruins of Azlant, and the cloud giant engineer from the end of Giant Slayer both in relation to each other, and to, say, Andoran and/or Varisia (or, if you prefer or it's easier, two different nations, probably on the Western shore of either Avistan or Garund)?"
If I had to guess, I'd guess RoA takes place roughly parallel to Nidal/Andoran, while the cloud giant tales place roughly parallel to Varisia/the border of Last Wall/Ustalav, but I'm not sure, and was just wondering what the intent was.
I wasn't sure how much you were avoiding spoilers from GS, and anyone else here might be, so I put it in spoilers. If you're avoiding it, that's fine! Thanks!
Oh! Also: do you have a vague quasi-guess as to the rough approximation of the population of giants living in the Mindspin mountains or even the north-western part of Avistan? How about orcs in Belkzen? If not numbers of individuals, what about numbers of tribes/families/etc.?
Oh! In your opinion, in general, if it were possible (say by mind-altering or whatever) to instantly cause ogres to shed their evil ways, would it be possible to "fix" them (either by magic or over time), or are they so genetically corrupted that the only real option is their destruction?
Related: is there a way to cure ash Giants?
Why is a human supremacist nation like Azlant labelled as Lawful Neutral instead of Lawful Evil? Isn't racial supremacy evil? The same question applies to Sargava, which is Neutral even though its a colonist state where the native Mwangi are treated as servile second class citizens.
Hope this doesn't sound accusatory, but I am curious as to why neither are Evil.
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Do any of the new Starfinder deities particularly tickle your fancy?
I'm delighted that they pulled Nyarlathotep in to the core 20, but he's hardly a new deity.
I haven't read the book, remember, nor have I worked on the setting, so I'm not familiar with any of the actually new deities yet.
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Is Desna also from your homebrew? Is the starknife your invention?Desna is in fact the fourth deity I invented for my homebrew, and was the first GOOD aligned deity in my homebrew (she is predated by Yamasoth, Treerazer, and Obox-ob, whose name I got from the 1st edition Monster Manual II's "other demon lord list"). She's got the most history of all the core 20 deities who weren't also mythological (Asmodeus and Lamashtu), and the starknife has been her weapon of choice in my homebrew since the early 90s' (the starknife itself being inspired by the glaive from Krull).Awesome :)
Has she changed at all, moving from your game into pathfinder?
Since the Moon domain wasn't open content, when we built the setting back when we were using the OGL days, I chose to downplay her role as the world's official moon goddess of the pantheon, but she IS still the patron of the moon. It's just not talked about in our books. That's probably the biggest thing, I guess. She made the transition over VERY intact, overall, in part because she was the first one we did a deity article about in Pathfinder, and back then I was much more involved with all that stuff's translation into print.
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The two things that the unchained version fixed was to make the summoner's spell list work better with things like magic items (so that you can't do a wand of teleport, for example), but far more important to me, it grounded the summoner's eidolon in a way that makes eidolons fit into the mythology and flavor of the setting.How does this mesh with the God Callers, who didn't call specific types of creatures(like Inevitables, for example) and where already in the setting thanks to Sarkosis?
The God Callers now call outsiders of specific outsider categories. You still have a large amount of leeway to present those outsiders, so their role in the setting remains unchanged.
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RAW/RAI: If you made a simulacrum of a creature who had "wish" on it's spell list (Solar?) couldn't you just have it wish itself up to full HP?Thank you as always for your answers. On the subject of simulacra, they explicitly cannot be healed except through an expensive laboratory procedure (in many cases more expensive than just making a new one). Can they, however, benefit from fast healing effects? This somewhat impacts whether or not it makes sense to use them for guards and the like.Nope. Fast healing (and regeneration) are both "healing effects" and thus don't work on a simulacrum.
It's probably easier to just make a new one when the old one gets too beat up.
Rules questions need to be asked on the rules boards.
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You said Deena was the 4th god of your creation in your homebrew, when did you. Create Pharasma?
In my homebrew, Pharasma was named Turthonir and was Lawful Neutral. I actaully much prefer her as Neutral Pharasma, and if/when I play my homebrew again, she'll be Pharasma.
But yeah, once I set about actually codifying my setting into a document, I made up the whole initial pantheon at once. I'm relatively sure Turthonir was among that initial group, since she was intended to be my version of Wee Jas. That would have been in 1990 or thereabouts.
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So reading about Eodred II's perma death made me wonder, in which situations GM should decide that character has already been judged by Pharasma so that not even true resurrection or miracle than bring them back from death?
All situations. That's pretty much precisely the GM's job; determining things about her setting, roleplaying deities, etc.
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Question about geography! Yyyyyaaaaayyyy?
Also, pretty big AP spoiler below for Giant Slayer:
** spoiler omitted **
I wasn't sure how much you were avoiding spoilers from GS, and anyone else here might be, so I put it in spoilers. If you're avoiding it, that's fine! Thanks!
I have no idea. Rob created Giantslayer, and Adam created Ruins of Azlant. I don't know enough about either to answer your question.
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Oh! Also: do you have a vague quasi-guess as to the rough approximation of the population of giants living in the Mindspin mountains or even the north-western part of Avistan? How about orcs in Belkzen? If not numbers of individuals, what about numbers of tribes/families/etc.?
It's enough to support any adventures and stories we want to tell in the region about giants or orcs and stuff, so as a rule, pinning down hard numbers is unnecessary until then, could limit potential story ideas, and isn't really something that needs to be in the game anyway, since it doesn't really impact play all that much.
AKA: If it becomes necessary in your game, feel free to make up the number that makes the most sense for you. Make it YOUR campaign.
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Since the Moon domain wasn't open content, when we built the setting back when we were using the OGL days, I chose to downplay her role as the world's official moon goddess of the pantheon, but she IS still the patron of the moon. It's just not talked about in our books. That's probably the biggest thing, I guess. She made the transition over VERY intact, overall, in part because she was the first one we did a deity article about in Pathfinder, and back then I was much more involved with all that stuff's translation into print.Is Desna also from your homebrew? Is the starknife your invention?Desna is in fact the fourth deity I invented for my homebrew, and was the first GOOD aligned deity in my homebrew (she is predated by Yamasoth, Treerazer, and Obox-ob, whose name I got from the 1st edition Monster Manual II's "other demon lord list"). She's got the most history of all the core 20 deities who weren't also mythological (Asmodeus and Lamashtu), and the starknife has been her weapon of choice in my homebrew since the early 90s' (the starknife itself being inspired by the glaive from Krull).Awesome :)
Has she changed at all, moving from your game into pathfinder?
Very nice. I hope you don't mind these questions, I'm just a sucker for lore :)
I've seen alot of character concepts for them, and plan to play one, but in regards to warpriests of Desna, how into violence in her name or on her behalf is she? She seems to be one of the nicer gods, or am I missing something?| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi James,
Welcome back. I want to say I really appreciate you opening up the thread again, even though I certainly respected your need to close it.
On to the question.
Have you read much Joe Hill? I just finished NOS4A2, and liked the references to King's work. Do you have a suggestion for a good second Hill book?
Thanks again.
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Oh! In your opinion, in general, if it were possible (say by mind-altering or whatever) to instantly cause ogres to shed their evil ways, would it be possible to "fix" them (either by magic or over time), or are they so genetically corrupted that the only real option is their destruction?
If you're the GM, you can do whatever you want.
I wouldn't do this, because it's important to have a large mix of villains in a game to serve as foes and create conflict, and ogres are more interesting as bad guys.
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Why is a human supremacist nation like Azlant labelled as Lawful Neutral instead of Lawful Evil? Isn't racial supremacy evil? The same question applies to Sargava, which is Neutral even though its a colonist state where the native Mwangi are treated as servile second class citizens.
Hope this doesn't sound accusatory, but I am curious as to why neither are Evil.
There are shades. Being proud of your race isn't evil. Being prejudiced and bigoted and oppressing other races is evil. There are evil racists in Sargava, and there were evil racists in Azlant, but in both nations there are non-racists as well. When we say a nation is an alignment, we're talking about the nation's "AVERAGE" alignment, taken overall.
I suspect that in old Azlant, there were DOZENS of different nations, just as there are in Avastan or Garund. Some of those nations are good and some are evil, but the continental average is probably best set as "lawful neutral".
I would say that the "average" alignment for the Inner Sea Region is probably "neutral." Even though that includes Kyonin (chaotic good) and Cheliax (lawful evil) and Andoran (lawful good) and the Worldwound (chaotic evil).
Taking Sargava as an example, if we wanted that nation to be completely just focused in on being nothing more than an oppressive colonist state that's only interested in that, then yes, we would have probably made them one of the evils. But the nation is more complex than that. There are good elements in Sargava as well as evil elements like racisim; it's a complex setting (like many of those we present), and by saying something like this is "Neutral" we're telling you, in one word that fits in a stat block line without bloating the text, that "Sargava is a complex nation that has good and bad features, lawful and chaotic features, and is still trying to find its soul and deal with a troubled past and some mistakes and some bad ideas and some chances for hope in the future."
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I've seen alot of character concepts for them, and plan to play one, but in regards to warpriests of Desna, how into violence in her name or on her behalf is she? She seems to be one of the nicer gods, or am I missing something?
She's a nice god, but she's VERY emotional and quick to react. She and her worshipers are more likely to jump to conclusions or to act on the spur of the moment in those emotional passions to lash out at foes, where a worshiper of Sarenrae or Iomedae (for example) might be more level-headed and think about a non-violent solution before simply punching the dude in the face.
That said, sometimes a punch to the dude's face is the right call, because if you take the time to consider all options, that dude can do a lot more damage.
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That said, sometimes a punch to the dude's face is the right call, because if you take the time to consider all options, that dude can do a lot more damage.
Especially if it's an ash giant that doesn't want to be cured. :p ;)
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Hi James,
Welcome back. I want to say I really appreciate you opening up the thread again, even though I certainly respected your need to close it.
On to the question.
Have you read much Joe Hill? I just finished NOS4A2, and liked the references to King's work. Do you have a suggestion for a good second Hill book?
Thanks again.
I've read his four novels, his anthology, and several other short stories. He's a great writer!
NOS4A2 is my favorite of his novels, and not only do they have ties to his dad's stories, they have ties to each other.
I'd go with Heart Shaped Box next if I were you. Of his four novels, it's thematically the most alike to NOS4A2 (but a totally different plot).
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James, I know you aren't involved with starfinder, but was it influenced in any way by Unspeakable Futures?
The Technology Guide, which I wrote, and the initial design for the gunsligner class, which I created, were both VERY heavily influenced by Unspeakable Futures.
I've been told that the Starfinder team used the Technology Guide as a starting point for some of the equipment in the game, so in that way, Unspeakable Futures influenced it, I guess.
But none of the Starfinder team has ever played Unspeakable Futures or seen the documents for the game, and spiritually and thematically it's a VERY different game, so overall I'm confident in saying "No, Starfinder was not influenced by Unspeakable Futures."
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That said, sometimes a punch to the dude's face is the right call, because if you take the time to consider all options, that dude can do a lot more damage.Especially if it's an ash giant that doesn't want to be cured. :p ;)
Again... don't clutter this thread. Keep it to questions for me. This thread is not a place for back and forth discussions. That's what the rest of the messageboards here are for. Thanks!
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You said Deena was the 4th god of your creation in your homebrew, when did you. Create Pharasma?In my homebrew, Pharasma was named Turthonir and was Lawful Neutral. I actaully much prefer her as Neutral Pharasma, and if/when I play my homebrew again, she'll be Pharasma.
But yeah, once I set about actually codifying my setting into a document, I made up the whole initial pantheon at once. I'm relatively sure Turthonir was among that initial group, since she was intended to be my version of Wee Jas. That would have been in 1990 or thereabouts.
I think she works better neautral too.
I'm not intimately familiar with the grey hawk pantheon but as I understand it Wee Jas isn't a super major big deal god?
I know she's not minor but compared with Pharasma she is relatively small time, no?
What made you decide to elevate her?
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You said Deena was the 4th god of your creation in your homebrew, when did you. Create Pharasma?In my homebrew, Pharasma was named Turthonir and was Lawful Neutral. I actaully much prefer her as Neutral Pharasma, and if/when I play my homebrew again, she'll be Pharasma.
But yeah, once I set about actually codifying my setting into a document, I made up the whole initial pantheon at once. I'm relatively sure Turthonir was among that initial group, since she was intended to be my version of Wee Jas. That would have been in 1990 or thereabouts.
I think she works better neautral too.
I'm not intimately familiar with the grey hawk pantheon but as I understand it Wee Jas isn't a super major big deal god?
I know she's not minor but compared with Pharasma she is relatively small time, no?What made you decide to elevate her?
Wee Jas was one of the deities featured in the core rulebook for 3rd edition D&D, and was a non-evil death goddess, and all that meant she was indeed a pretty big deal.
The way D&D handled deities is different than the way Pathfinder does, so it's sort of weird comparing them, in any event.
But that said, what inspired me was the idea of a non-evil death goddess. The rest of Turthonir/Pharasma is VERY different from Wee Jas, who is the goddess of magic AND death AND vanity.
The idea of Turthonir/Pharasma being the oldest deity just made sense to me, since she's the goddess of birth and death (in my homebrew, she's also the goddess of time), things that start and end cycles of existence. It's just logical that the goddess of birth is the first, and the goddess of death is the last.
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I would say that the "average" alignment for the Inner Sea Region is probably "neutral." Even though that includes Kyonin (chaotic good) and Cheliax (lawful evil) and Andoran (lawful good) and the Worldwound (chaotic evil).
Andoran's neutral good. Where'd you get the idea that they're lawful?
I actually have a question (and follow-up), though. Can petitioners gain class levels? If not, who does the high-level expert work in the afterlife?
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I would say that the "average" alignment for the Inner Sea Region is probably "neutral." Even though that includes Kyonin (chaotic good) and Cheliax (lawful evil) and Andoran (lawful good) and the Worldwound (chaotic evil).Andoran's neutral good. Where'd you get the idea that they're lawful?
I actually have a question (and follow-up), though. Can petitioners gain class levels? If not, who does the high-level expert work in the afterlife?
I'm old and forget things, I guess, but that information is irrelevant for my original point—swapping "Neutral Good" in for "Lawful Good" keeps the argument the same.
Any creature with an Intelligence of 3 or higher can gain class levels.
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Why did you take time off her?
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Why did you take time off her?
That was a decade ago and I'm not sure it was my decision. I wasn't the only one to create Golarion, remember. I suspect we decided to shift her from time to fate in order to fit a role tied to the "death of prophecy" that is one of the underlying themes of Pathfinder though.
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Have you ever hung up (or otherwise displayed) prints or originals of Pathfinder artwork in your home?
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Why did you take time off her?That was a decade ago and I'm not sure it was my decision. I wasn't the only one to create Golarion, remember. I suspect we decided to shift her from time to fate in order to fit a role tied to the "death of prophecy" that is one of the underlying themes of Pathfinder though.
Makes sense I have to say the fate aspect of her portfolio does make me feel personally feel like she is weighted more towards death than birth. Not that that's a criticism.
In my own homebrew there is no time god, but there is a woman of time.
I've seen people draw comparisons between Pharasma and the lady of pain. What do you think about those comparisons, I can see why personally but don't think they're particularly apt.
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Have you ever hung up (or otherwise displayed) prints or originals of Pathfinder artwork in your home?
Yes.
At home I've got two Steve Prescott originals from Age of Worms (Abelard and Tyralandi messing with a giant gross egg, and Tyralandi versus a blood monster), the Wayne Reynolds original of the cover of Dungeon Magazine for the last installment of Age of Worms, and Wayne Reynold's original painting of Merisiel. Also the original Wayne Reynolds of a hunting horror attacking a church from the interior of the d20 Call of Cthulhu book, but that was a WotC piece, not a Paizo piece. Same goes for the signed canvas print of Tiamat from Wayne Reynolds.
Here at work I've got the goblin attack on Sandpoint from the cover of Burnt Offerings, the blue dragon fight from the cover of Pathfinder #100, and Shensen from the cover of Pathfinder #100, also all three the original paintings from Wayne.
I've also got an original (unpublished) sketch of Shensen by Andrew Huerta on my wall at home, a sketch of Merisiel from Jim Zubkavich here at the office on display, and this original illo of Merisiel by Eva Widermann that I haven't yet framed but hope to do so soon.