Creative Director
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Hey James,
I really love Shelyn (obviously), but I'm puzzled by her Air domain. As far as I can read (Inner Sea Gods), she doesn't really seem to prefer any one element over the others; did I miss something?
I'd appreciate any sort of insight you can give on Shelyn's design, really.
When assigning domains, I tried hard to make sure that several deities got domians that were unusual or unexpected. It's the only way we had in the core rulebook to give them personality.
For Shelyn, as the goddess of music, she has the domain of air to represent the fact that song and sound is carried on the wind. And when someone sings or issues declarations of love, it is through the use of speaking, and those words and poems and songs are carried on their breath... aka on the air. Plus her favored animals are birds, which are creatures of the air.
I'm not sure it is just me or everyone feels the same, but the illustration of Arlantia in the cover of Prisoners of the Blight looks like a very low resolution picture to me. Did Paizo make a mistake of putting a wrong picture in the book, or it was the right picture and I deluded myself?
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I'm not sure it is just me or everyone feels the same, but the illustration of Arlantia in the cover of Prisoners of the Blight looks like a very low resolution picture to me. Did Paizo make a mistake of putting a wrong picture in the book, or it was the right picture and I deluded myself?
Sometimes, we make mistakes, and that includes the accidental publication of low-resolution art.
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The article Ecology of the Vault Builders in Vault of the Onyx Citadel satisfied me a lot. But it also raised several questions. It said that those xiomorns who gave their mythic essence to Ayrzul became the Vault Keepers. Then, if a Vault Keeper somehow acquire mythic power, would it transform into the Vault Builder again?
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The article Ecology of the Vault Builders in Vault of the Onyx Citadel satisfied me a lot. But it also raised several questions. It said that those xiomorns who gave their mythic essence to Ayrzul became the Vault Keepers. Then, if a Vault Keeper somehow acquire mythic power, would it transform into the Vault Builder again?
No. That was more or less a one-time event.
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Ayrzul showed the xiomorns a vision of a future in which they saw themselves as a race ceasing to exist, their entire collective conscious obliterated by a mental invasion of alien mind-swapping creatures called yithians. Was this vision true, or just a ruse intended to make the xiomorns giving up their mythic essence in exchange for the secret of the Vault Seeds?
When did King Gaspodar's reign in Cheliax begin?
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Chill touch is a weird spell. The touch attacks it grants do not function as "held charges." They don't disappear if you cast another spell, and the spell is pretty vague on how long the effects last—in theory, you could cast the spell on a Tuesday and still have some touches left over on Friday, for example, as long as you haven't made more touches than your level. Re-casting the spell when you still have charges left doesn't add to the existing charges—it merely resets your total available touches to its maximum.A question about chill touch and similar spells with an istantaneous duration and multiple touches.
The touches after the first round count as held charges and so disappear if you cast any other spell?
If you cast frost bite as well could you discharge one use of chill touch and one use of frost bite on one touch? and could you cast chill touch and use two weapon fighting and unarmed or natural attacks to deliver multiple chill touch in one round? ^^
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Ayrzul showed the xiomorns a vision of a future in which they saw themselves as a race ceasing to exist, their entire collective conscious obliterated by a mental invasion of alien mind-swapping creatures called yithians. Was this vision true, or just a ruse intended to make the xiomorns giving up their mythic essence in exchange for the secret of the Vault Seeds?
Whether or not it was a real vision, it did the job, so does it matter?
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If you cast frost bite as well could you discharge one use of chill touch and one use of frost bite on one touch? and could you cast chill touch and use two weapon fighting and unarmed or natural attacks to deliver multiple chill touch in one round? ^^Chill touch is a weird spell. The touch attacks it grants do not function as "held charges." They don't disappear if you cast another spell, and the spell is pretty vague on how long the effects last—in theory, you could cast the spell on a Tuesday and still have some touches left over on Friday, for example, as long as you haven't made more touches than your level. Re-casting the spell when you still have charges left doesn't add to the existing charges—it merely resets your total available touches to its maximum.A question about chill touch and similar spells with an istantaneous duration and multiple touches.
The touches after the first round count as held charges and so disappear if you cast any other spell?
Let's redirect the rules questions over tot he rules forums now that you're compounding and complicating questions and answers with what-ifs.
You once said that xiomorns have gender. But Vault of the Onyx Citadel said that xiomorns are genderless. Which is correct?
Is Telandia Edasseril the queen of Sovyrian as well as Kyonin?
How much knowledge of Azlant has survived to modern times?
When did King Gaspodar's reign in Cheliax begin?I have no idea off the top of my head, and if we haven't written that down (maybe check the timeline in the Cheliax book) I'm not sure it's mattered so much to us that we've had to yet decide.
Thanks James! One other timeline question (which may also have the same answer): Would Adavarine II have been the Grand Prince of Taldor when Iomedae ascended? He was 9 years later when the Treaty of Wildwood was signed, but that is the only date he has to his name that I can find in the new Taldor book.
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Thanks James! One other timeline question (which may also have the same answer): Would Adavarine II have been the Grand Prince of Taldor when Iomedae ascended? He was 9 years later when the Treaty of Wildwood was signed, but that is the only date he has to his name that I can find in the new Taldor book.When did King Gaspodar's reign in Cheliax begin?I have no idea off the top of my head, and if we haven't written that down (maybe check the timeline in the Cheliax book) I'm not sure it's mattered so much to us that we've had to yet decide.
Same answer.
I thought that the illustration in page 72 of Vault of the Onyx Citadel depicts a female Vault Builder. But after finding out they are genderless, now I'm curious. What is the creature? It resembles a Vault Builder, but it looks pretty different from the normal Vault Builders to me.
At least three NPCs in The Lost Outpost speak Azlanti. How and where did they learn it?
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I thought that the illustration in page 72 of Vault of the Onyx Citadel depicts a female Vault Builder. But after finding out they are genderless, now I'm curious. What is the creature? It resembles a Vault Builder, but it looks pretty different from the normal Vault Builders to me.
I wasn't super involved with that article or art order. I created the Vault Builders and helped with some of the preliminary brainstorming for that Adventure Path and that article, so I can't say for sure... but just because something is genderless doesn't mean it can't look feminine.
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Dear Dr. Jacobs,
Will we be seeing more Proteans in the future?
Yours truly,
A person on the internet
You will if you buy the right books.
If you're specifically asking "Will Paizo publish brand new proteans at some point?" I suspect that yes we will, but of the next several months' of announced products I'm pretty sure there are no new proteans in there... but there are certainly proteans.
It appears that "Ioun" is an Azlanti word. What does it mean?
You once said that xiomorns have gender. But Vault of the Onyx Citadel said that xiomorns are genderless. Which is correct?I guess they're genderless since I didn't say otherwise in print in time.
Actually, you said that on this thread, not in print. Maybe your comment on this thread is not as canonical as your comment in the book?
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Actually, you said that on this thread, not in print. Maybe your comment on this thread is not as canonical as your comment in the book?You once said that xiomorns have gender. But Vault of the Onyx Citadel said that xiomorns are genderless. Which is correct?I guess they're genderless since I didn't say otherwise in print in time.
Comments in this thread are ABSOLUTELY NOT canonical compared to what gets printed, regardless of whether I was the one who wrote what was printed or it was someone else.
The Vault Builders have hands, but the Vault Keepers only have claws. Wouldn't it make them inconvenient? They cannot grab things without a hand. They don't even have spell-like abilities that can be used to grab or move objects.
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The Vault Builders have hands, but the Vault Keepers only have claws. Wouldn't it make them inconvenient? They cannot grab things without a hand. They don't even have spell-like abilities that can be used to grab or move objects.
Vault Keepers don't need hands to do their jobs. Think of their four claws as four large fingers if you wish; they can use the four to manipulate or carry things when they need, but they don't need to type or wield weapons or wear rings or draw pictures or do pretty much anything else a hand requires to do what they need to do.
There is an illustration of a green emerald in page 75 of Vault of the Onyx Citadel. Is it the famous Vault Seed?
I made a slight change in The Emerald Spire Superdungeon. In my campaign, the Vault Builders combined the power of several Vault Seeds to create the Emerald Root, which acted as a fount of mythic power. They used the Emerald Root to grant the Vault Keepers, delvers, and pechs mythic power so that they can fight the alghollthus more efficiently. Later Iluchtewhar tried to build a new vault which centers around the Emerald Root but failed and created the Emerald Spire instead. So, how many Vault Seeds would be needed to create a fount of mythic power, you think? Three, maybe? Perhaps ten?
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Why does Soralyon's write-up call his holy symbol a "stone spire covered with astronomical signs" but the art of the holy symbol is instead a flat stone spiral with signs? Did the artist misread the word? And why is the symbol so lame? It's the only thing holding me back from making my paladin follow him instead of Torag.
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I made a slight change in The Emerald Spire Superdungeon. In my campaign, the Vault Builders combined the power of several Vault Seeds to create the Emerald Root, which acted as a fount of mythic power. They used the Emerald Root to grant the Vault Keepers, delvers, and pechs mythic power so that they can fight the alghollthus more efficiently. Later Iluchtewhar tried to build a new vault which centers around the Emerald Root but failed and created the Emerald Spire instead. So, how many Vault Seeds would be needed to create a fount of mythic power, you think? Three, maybe? Perhaps ten?
Up to you. Whatever number seems right for the game you want to run. (I prefer to avoid getting into any sort of collaborative campaign design stuff here, for sake of time management, and because I think a person's campaign is better the more of them goes into it, rather than stuff from my own head; if you're using a Paizo product as part of it, youv'e got more than enough of my ramblings! :P)
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Why does Soralyon's write-up call his holy symbol a "stone spire covered with astronomical signs" but the art of the holy symbol is instead a flat stone spiral with signs? Did the artist misread the word? And why is the symbol so lame? It's the only thing holding me back from making my paladin follow him instead of Torag.
I have no idea about the spire/spiral thing. As for it being lame... that's a matter of personal taste. There's literally DOZENS of paladin god options in the game, so it's pretty much a given that for any one person, one option will be their least favorite.
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HI James, I have a question on the Warpriest Class. All other divine casters pray to get their spells. It seems that Warpriests memorize spells from a spell book like arcane casters. Where do Warpriests spells come from?
Their deity. Same as a cleric.
Monsters are categorized into combat, skill, special, and spell roles. These roles indicate what types of character classes are treated as key classes for each monster. Then to which role the Vault Builders and the Vault Keepers belong? The Emerald Spire Superdungeon didn't say a word about it.
can a witches patron take away their spellcasting or is it like a gift once given it cant be taken back?
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can a witches patron take away their spellcasting or is it like a gift once given it cant be taken back?
Nope. Patrons aren't "things" with that sort of power. The word "patron" wasn't the best choice, I think, since the definition of the word implies that the witch is working for a specific creature. Instead, it's a "theme." If a witch were a college student, her patron would be her major, not her professor.
A better word might have been "focus" or even "tradition."
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Monsters are categorized into combat, skill, special, and spell roles. These roles indicate what types of character classes are treated as key classes for each monster. Then to which role the Vault Builders and the Vault Keepers belong? The Emerald Spire Superdungeon didn't say a word about it.
Vault keepers are in the combat role. Vault builders are combat and spell roles.
In this page you said that you have very specific plans for the Vault Builders. Was The Emerald Spire Superdungeon the plan? Or Ironfang Invasion, perhaps? Maybe Paizo didn't publish these plans about the Vault Builders yet?
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In this page you said that you have very specific plans for the Vault Builders. Was The Emerald Spire Superdungeon the plan? Or Ironfang Invasion, perhaps? Maybe Paizo didn't publish these plans about the Vault Builders yet?
I'm pretty sure that I ended up ceding my plans for the vault builders/keepers to Ironfang's plot. Certianly, Ironfang's plot wasn't something I knew was coming back during the Emerald Spire days, nor was Emerald Spire the original plan. Including Vault Builder stuff in Emerald Spire was more of a bribe to myself to make me more interested in writing for that product.
And there's certainly a possibility that we'll do more about them in the future. Ironfang and Emerald Spire only scratch the surface.
I'm not sure it is just me or everyone feels the same, but the illustration of Arlantia in the cover of Prisoners of the Blight looks like a very low resolution picture to me. Did Paizo make a mistake of putting a wrong picture in the book, or it was the right picture and I deluded myself?Sometimes, we make mistakes, and that includes the accidental publication of low-resolution art.
I thought that Paizo would republish the book with the correct cover art once it finds out the error but it did not. Will there be any chance for us to see the original, high-resolution cover art of Arlantia?
How would an extremely powerful psychic (~L20) who doesn't know about their powers discover them?
I asked this in Mark Seifter's thread, and he said you and James Compton were the lead developers on this book, so I'll ask you:
In regards to the Adventurer's Guide Lore Warden: What was the logic behind excluding Appraise from their class skills? It's already one of the least-used skills in the game, so it doesn't seem like it would have been a balance issue, and the skill actually seems flavor-appropriate in that Pathfinder agents ought to be able to recognize the correct MacGuffin they're searching for. It seems odd that the only Int-based skill excluded from their list was Appraise, so I'm assuming there was a reason to single it out.