Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
If somebody wants to alter fate based on future knowledge (precognition, time travel, etc.), how likely is it Pharasma'll intervene, and what will she do?As likely as the GM wants it to be.
Keep in mind that Pharasma intervening is pretty much the very definition of deus ex machina, and players are unlikely to react positively to forced railroading like this from the GM, regardless of how much they might deserve it.
A better solution would be to let things play out as they stand, knowing as the GM (and thus as Pharasma) that the PC changing their fate was in fact their ACTUAL fate all along.
Hm...
That raises another question: how are fate and free will compatible?
Fate is what we make of it, in life or in game. Free will lets us make our own fate, and that fate is what we always deserved. Fate does not make us choose, it is the result of our choices.
A Vigilante has a LN alignment in her social identity, a NG alignment in his vigilante identity, and is a devout worshiper of Ng who does not seem to acknowledge worshipers and so is unlikely to intercede posthumously. What is is their most likely destination after death (other than reincarnation) and is this a tricky one for Pharasma?Not tricky at all for Pharasma.
A devout worshiper of Ng is most likely to be sent on to the First World.
Thank you. I didn't even know "your soul goes to the First World" was an option, I thought it was just outer planes, and I sort of conceived of faerieland as a place things come from not a place things end up.
Right James don't know if you will want to answer this fully or not, but here goes. What happened to the Patrons and Saints of Aroden after his death, since we know that Miliani ascended to become a full god and that council of thieves had his patrons still around. So what happened to the others are they localized, were they absorbed into other faiths, continue to exists in some state or did they die.
Thanks Arran
Hi James,
I wonder, is Queen Telandia Edasseril's position hereditary?
James,
Was it your intention to get Rush's Free Will stuck in my head all day?
Also speaking of free will and fate, did you ever play Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning?
If you haven't, I recommend it for the Fae writing alone.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Right James don't know if you will want to answer this fully or not, but here goes. What happened to the Patrons and Saints of Aroden after his death, since we know that Miliani ascended to become a full god and that council of thieves had his patrons still around. So what happened to the others are they localized, were they absorbed into other faiths, continue to exists in some state or did they die.
Thanks Arran
They either went crazy, lost their faith, stubbornly clinged to a dead religion, or found a new calling; most of them fall into that last category and have moved on to worship Iomedae. And most of them aren't NEARLY as significant as folks like Arazni or Milani.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi James,
I wonder, is Queen Telandia Edasseril's position hereditary?
No. The ruler of an elven nation selects their heir. Could be one of their children. Could be someone else entirely. We haven't detailed Kyonin enough to reveal more about that yet, though.
|
Creative Director
|
James,Was it your intention to get Rush's Free Will stuck in my head all day?
No.
|
Creative Director
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Also speaking of free will and fate, did you ever play Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning?
If you haven't, I recommend it for the Fae writing alone.
I haven't. Until last Monday, I didn't own a windows PC and hadn't really owned one of significance (save for a janky laptop that died in less than a year) for well over a decade. I just got a brand shiny new beast of a PC though, and have been gorging on old PC games that I've never been able to play. I'll check this one out; looks like it's super inexpensive on Steam today.
Are you going to catch The Black Panther this weekend?
"Varisians likewise have a well- developed sign language to accommodate their unusually high populations of deaf or mute children, which the Sczarni have appropriated into their own silent thieves’ cant." — Black Markets, p. 24
Is there some other canonical source for this assertion about deafness and muteness? I'd never heard it before, and I have no clue why it should be so.
Dear James,
did you intend for non-shapeable walls (such as wall of force) to be created only in pure straight lines, or did you intend for the caster to be able to make 90 degree corners or turns?
E.g. could you shape a primatic wall as an "U" or not in a single cast?
Thank you very much for you kind answer
Hi James,
Who originally came up with HellKnights.
Hopefully you're having a great extended weekend!
|
I played a PFS scenario recently that referred to one character selling another character's soul to a denizen of Hell (both were mortals), and I found that surprising. My instinct would be to think that a person could only sell their own soul (although that could just be an assumption of my real-world Christian milieu that doesn't apply on Golarion).
What are the general conditions under which someone can sell someone else's soul to a devil and/or Hell, if that is possible?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Varisians likewise have a well- developed sign language to accommodate their unusually high populations of deaf or mute children, which the Sczarni have appropriated into their own silent thieves’ cant." — Black Markets, p. 24
Is there some other canonical source for this assertion about deafness and muteness? I'd never heard it before, and I have no clue why it should be so.
There's not.
It's a cool idea, and I wish we had more sign language options front and center in the game. I put a few in Into the Darklands a while back but they never seemed to catch on
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Dear James,
did you intend for non-shapeable walls (such as wall of force) to be created only in pure straight lines, or did you intend for the caster to be able to make 90 degree corners or turns?
E.g. could you shape a primatic wall as an "U" or not in a single cast?
Thank you very much for you kind answer
The whole point of something being shapable is that the caster can adjust its shape. Something that's not shapable can't be adjusted. That's the whole point. If something's not shapable then no, you can't shape it.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hallo. How did the centaurs and harpies and minotaurs end up on the Isle of Kortos? Did Aroden drop them off with the humans or did they find their own way over on boats and things after he rose it from the sea
We haven't really done much at all with the Isle of Kortos; most of what we talk about there gets spent talking about Absalom. My guess is that those creatures got there by boat or flight or magic, though, at various points over the centuries.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Good morning sir. I have a question about the magus kensai archetype: at 9th level, i gain Critical perfection, but i cant' understand what the description of this feature intends as "prerequisite": the base attack bonuses or the critical focus?
This is a classic example of a rules question needing to be asked on the rules forums, not only so that they'll get FAQed but so the design team can see that there's some confusion and so that they'll be able to not only weigh in on the answer but use that going forward to avoid being confusing in that way in the future. The design team doesn't keep track on this thread as far as I know, and you can't FAQ things in here anyway, and folks get weirded out and territorial and confused if I answer rules questions here...
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I played a PFS scenario recently that referred to one character selling another character's soul to a denizen of Hell (both were mortals), and I found that surprising. My instinct would be to think that a person could only sell their own soul (although that could just be an assumption of my real-world Christian milieu that doesn't apply on Golarion).
What are the general conditions under which someone can sell someone else's soul to a devil and/or Hell, if that is possible?
** spoiler omitted **
You can't sell someone's soul unless they consent. Of course, you can always TRICK or FORCE someone into consenting to sell a soul; that's like the most basic central story folks tell about selling souls.
For example, if you sign an innocent looking contract to build a house and hidden in the fine print is "As part of this contract the signee agrees to allow the contractor 1 year within the signatory date the opportunity to sell the signee's soul to a devil," or the like, you give up your soul, potentially.
How it worked in this PFS scenario? I don't know... might have been an error, might be more information you aren't privy to.
"Varisians likewise have a well- developed sign language to accommodate their unusually high populations of deaf or mute children, which the Sczarni have appropriated into their own silent thieves’ cant." — Black Markets, p. 24
Is there some other canonical source for this assertion about deafness and muteness? I'd never heard it before, and I have no clue why it should be so.
There's not.
It's a cool idea, and I wish we had more sign language options front and center in the game. I put a few in Into the Darklands a while back but they never seemed to catch on
If one were to run with Varisians having a high number of mute and/or deaf children...
Which Runelord's influence (given Thassilon's huge role in shaping modern Varsia) would make the most sense for explaining this development?
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Varisians likewise have a well- developed sign language to accommodate their unusually high populations of deaf or mute children, which the Sczarni have appropriated into their own silent thieves’ cant." — Black Markets, p. 24
Is there some other canonical source for this assertion about deafness and muteness? I'd never heard it before, and I have no clue why it should be so.
There's not.
It's a cool idea, and I wish we had more sign language options front and center in the game. I put a few in Into the Darklands a while back but they never seemed to catch on
If one were to run with Varisians having a high number of mute and/or deaf children...
Which Runelord's influence (given Thassilon's huge role in shaping modern Varsia) would make the most sense for explaining this development?
None of them, really. I think you're overestimating Thassilon's role in shaping modern Varisia.
None of them, really. I think you're overestimating Thassilon's role in shaping modern Varisia.
Fair enough!
Are there any aspects of Varisian culture that you wish had more detail in print?
|
|
I played a PFS scenario recently that referred to one character selling another character's soul to a denizen of Hell (both were mortals), and I found that surprising. My instinct would be to think that a person could only sell their own soul (although that could just be an assumption of my real-world Christian milieu that doesn't apply on Golarion).
What are the general conditions under which someone can sell someone else's soul to a devil and/or Hell, if that is possible?
** spoiler omitted **
You can't sell someone's soul unless they consent. Of course, you can always TRICK or FORCE someone into consenting to sell a soul; that's like the most basic central story folks tell about selling souls.
For example, if you sign an innocent looking contract to build a house and hidden in the fine print is "As part of this contract the signee agrees to allow the contractor 1 year within the signatory date the opportunity to sell the signee's soul to a devil," or the like, you give up your soul, potentially.
How it worked in this PFS scenario? I don't know... might have been an error, might be more information you aren't privy to.
I'm not actually very concerned with the specifics of the scenario in question. It could just be an error, I could have missed where they covered that part in the scenario text I read or it could be that person A forced person B to sell their soul and the details aren't mentioned. That's okay.
The only reason I asked is that the implication in the part I did read seemed to be that person A sold person B's soul with no real interaction with person B and it seemed wrong. Thank you for answering the question.
|
Creative Director
|
I played a PFS scenario recently that referred to one character selling another character's soul to a denizen of Hell (both were mortals), and I found that surprising. My instinct would be to think that a person could only sell their own soul (although that could just be an assumption of my real-world Christian milieu that doesn't apply on Golarion).
What are the general conditions under which someone can sell someone else's soul to a devil and/or Hell, if that is possible?
** spoiler omitted **
You can't sell someone's soul unless they consent. Of course, you can always TRICK or FORCE someone into consenting to sell a soul; that's like the most basic central story folks tell about selling souls.
For example, if you sign an innocent looking contract to build a house and hidden in the fine print is "As part of this contract the signee agrees to allow the contractor 1 year within the signatory date the opportunity to sell the signee's soul to a devil," or the like, you give up your soul, potentially.
How it worked in this PFS scenario? I don't know... might have been an error, might be more information you aren't privy to.
I'm not actually very concerned with the specifics of the scenario in question. It could just be an error, I could have missed where they covered that part in the scenario text I read or it could be that person A forced person B to sell their soul and the details aren't mentioned. That's okay.
The only reason I asked is that the implication in the part I did read seemed to be that person A sold person B's soul with no real interaction with person B and it seemed wrong. Thank you for answering the question.
No worries, but also try to keep posts in this thread to questions; thanks!
Fate is what we make of it, in life or in game. Free will lets us make our own fate, and that fate is what we always deserved. Fate does not make us choose, it is the result of our choices.If somebody wants to alter fate based on future knowledge (precognition, time travel, etc.), how likely is it Pharasma'll intervene, and what will she do?As likely as the GM wants it to be.
Keep in mind that Pharasma intervening is pretty much the very definition of deus ex machina, and players are unlikely to react positively to forced railroading like this from the GM, regardless of how much they might deserve it.
A better solution would be to let things play out as they stand, knowing as the GM (and thus as Pharasma) that the PC changing their fate was in fact their ACTUAL fate all along.
Hm...
That raises another question: how are fate and free will compatible?
Hm...
To clarify, what is fate?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
If you can't wait for an official response, ask around for other gamers' opinions, I guess, and report those to your GM, and let your GM make the call.Sorry for the late. Unfortunately, I'm the GM, so I think I need to see if it "sounds good" to me. Anyway, thank you for your time :)
That's not unfortunate at all. As the GM, you should embrace the fact that you get to make these calls; it's a big part of the responsibility and fun of being a GM in the first place.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Does Pharasma send souls to demi-planes too or are only major planes viable for soul passage?
She does indeed. Cynosure, the Dead Vault, Xibalba, the Dreamlands, Leng, and the Immortal Ambulatory are all demiplanes that have souls that become petitioners as just a handful of examples off the top of my head.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Does she ever send souls back to the Material Plane?The Negatvie Energy Plane. There's no deities there and souls don't do well there.So Pharasma can send souls to the First World if the soul was a worshipper of The Eldest.
Are there any planes where Pharasma doesn't send souls to?
Yes. Gozreh, for example, is a Material Plane deity.
Hi James, can we expect a pathfinder unchained 2? I see a lot of inexpressed potential in PFU, like you had a lot more to write, but obviously, you can't because space reasons. I'm really have the feel that the unchained has a lot more to say than we get with only one book.
So the Negative Energy plane is like the Positive in that deities can not enter it, correct?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hi James, can we expect a pathfinder unchained 2? I see a lot of inexpressed potential in PFU, like you had a lot more to write, but obviously, you can't because space reasons. I'm really have the feel that the unchained has a lot more to say than we get with only one book.
I doubt it.
1) We generally prefer NOT to do books that have numerical annotations to them if the book isn't a Bestiary.
2) Pathfinder Unchained is better off as a one-shot. We could make "Unchained" books forever, since the nature of the game allows one to iterate and expand and rework the rules forever, but that would only further confuse customers more and more with each Unchained book as to what the "official" rules are. Unchained was something of an experiment, and one that I don't think it's healthy for us to do more than once. It's better for us to focus our efforts on official rules and official expansions rather than experiments that we can't assume you'll use and which every GM will have a different acceptance for.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So the Negative Energy plane is like the Positive in that deities can not enter it, correct?
Not what I said at all. Souls are turned into undead by negative energy (typically wraiths) and so Pharasma won't send them there.
All this planar talk will be discussed a LOT more in the upcoming Planar Adventures book, though, so for the moment let's focus our questions elsewhere; once that book is out I'll be more than happy to answer more questions about this stuff then.
Hi James,
For the longest time I figured that Earthfall hit Azlant straight-on, similar to what happened in the Dragonlance settings' Cataclysm, but I just realized:
Did the Starstone struck Azlant at an angle and then proceeded to skid eastward along Golarion's surface, quite literally gouging the Inner Sea out of the earth around it and then finally stopping where Absalom now is?
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hi James,
For the longest time I figured that Earthfall hit Azlant straight-on, similar to what happened in the Dragonlance settings' Cataclysm, but I just realized:
Did the Starstone struck Azlant at an angle and then proceeded to skid eastward along Golarion's surface, quite literally gouging the inner sea into existence around it and then finally stopping where Absalom now is?
Earthfall wasn't one single hit—it was more like a shotgun blast than a rifle shot. The Starstone was a chunk that hit on the eastern edge of the whole, with other strikes happening all over Avistan, Garund, and Arcadia, but with Azlant being in the center and thus taking the brunt of the individual falling star strikes.
The Starstone itself created the crater surrounding the Isle of Kortos, but the rest of the waterways were already there as large, narrow lakes or river basins that were widened by the Starstone's impact.