Creative Director
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Hi, JJ, I have another question about "Concordance of Elements (faction)".
I used to discuss the nature of this faction with other guys,and we got different conclusion.
The introduction of The Concordance said:"Its members believe that maintaining the equilibrium between air, earth, fire, and water is necessary for the stability of the multiverse" , so I guess it' similar like the Circle of Druid, or Prophecies of Kalistrade in Druma, or something like that.
But other guys said that The Concordance is something like fire department or NGO of animal protection, just because YOU declare that "The Concordance is not a Religion".
So here's the question:
1. What's the meaning of "maintaining the equilibrium between air, earth, fire, and water is necessary for the stability of the multiverse"? Some kind of philosophical ideas about the universe like Kalistrades, believe there's a logical relationship between personal wealth and celestial order, or just introducing the faction history with no meaning?
2. Introduction about The Concordance said that members believe "keeping the balance between elements is the key to stabilizing the multiverse", but someone told me "Beacuse JJ said The Concordance is not a Religion, so there's no FAITH or BELIEF factor about elemental balance in The Concordance"(yes, that's how they unscramble it), is that true?
U said "The Concordance is not a Religion", it just means no god and religious rites in The Concordance, or no faith and belief about elemental balance?HELP!!!
Well, first of all, this group was invented by the Pathfinder Society folks, not me. I've actually had VERY little input on this faction's lore, history, and development, and know very little about them at all. While I could certainly come up with answers to your questions, they'd be unlikely to mesh precisely with what work they've done on the faction. And since this is a player faction, I'd rather not muddy the waters and confuse everyone by making up brand new stuff for the group, since I'd be doing so from a position of ignorance (as a player faction, they have little use to me in detailing world content for NPCs, after all, which is a big part of why I don't know much about them as well).
So, I'd suggest you'd look into the Pathfinder Society resources. I hear tell that the recent Player Companion "Disciple's Doctrine" has a bit more information on the Concordance as well, but at this point it seems to me that you're likely a Pathfinder Society player, and as such I'm not in a position to give you the deep dive information dump that you're looking for. Sorry!
Dear James Jacobs,
With regards to our mutual (I'm assuming it's mutual) enjoyment of demon lords, would it be possible to have a NE druid circle that follows the seasons but hail instead a particular demon Lord?
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Dear James Jacobs,
With regards to our mutual (I'm assuming it's mutual) enjoyment of demon lords, would it be possible to have a NE druid circle that follows the seasons but hail instead a particular demon Lord?
It's possible but highly unlikely.
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Creative Director
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Am I understanding right that in Nidal the bargain is that Zon Kuthon controls the geographical region? If so, why don't people just up and leave?
It's not that simple. The upcoming book about Nidal explores the situation there in much more detail.
Hello James,
Have you got a chance to see Veronica and/or Ravenous on Netflix Yet? If so what did you think of them?
Hi James,
How did the Shory Empire compare to Azlant in terms of magical power?
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Creative Director
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Would Xanderghul be cooler/more important if he had been chased by a dinosaur recently?Did Jeff Godblum remind you of Xanderghul any?No... why would he? Xanderghul hasn't turned into a fly or been chased by a dinosaur lately.
He'd certainly think so.
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Mr Jacobs, I have one particular enquiry.
You mentioned you want to avoid the implications of having a dark-skinned people worshipping demons, but it appears the setting
will still retain the idea of certain light-skinned peoples being mostly devil worshippers (Cheliax) or fanatical and evil mutilation enthusiasts (Nidal). Doesn't that bring up the same undertones?
It does not, because we live in a society where white people have all the privilege and the power.
Devil/evil deity worshiping is a part of the setting. The problem isn't demon worshipers. The problem is a traditionally white-male dominated landscape (the gaming industry) setting up an entire group of dark skinned people as evil villains. It's a problem we've helped perpetuate through some ignorant/lazy choices we made early in the setting's creation and I want to do what I can to fix that now.
First of all, I want to thank you for taking positive steps in regards to how certain cultures etc are portrayed. We're in a pretty severe period of political realignment and it's always good to know your favorite game company isn't racist.
Anyway, my question is, since you have the Egyptian gods being worshiped in Osirion, were there ever talks to bring other real-world pantheons to certain corners of Golarion?
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First of all, I want to thank you for taking positive steps in regards to how certain cultures etc are portrayed. We're in a pretty severe period of political realignment and it's always good to know your favorite game company isn't racist.
Anyway, my question is, since you have the Egyptian gods being worshiped in Osirion, were there ever talks to bring other real-world pantheons to certain corners of Golarion?
Now and then, but I prefer to sprinkle (as in the case of Asmodeus and Lamashtu) rather than flood (as in the case of entire pantheons).
Mr. James Jacobs,
How common is the use of Raise Dead and Resurrection on Golarion?
Hello James,
So I read through some older comments and got a general idea that you wish you had the chance to redo the Death domain to make it less undead-centric. And by general impression, I mean you expressly said it several times :P
However, there are two Good aligned deities that grant the Death domain: Damerrich who is Lawful Good and Lythertida who is Neutral Good. And while I am absolutely a fan of the idea of good gods of Death, I'm wondering why do they give access to Evil spells that let you create Undead?
Would you recommend using the Pharasma-Friendly Death Domain for them instead? I remember reading that Anubis would not grant that revised domain, but I assumed that was because he was Lawful Neutral.
If not, so you have any suggestions to a lore reason they would offer such options to their clerics?
Dear Jacobs Jacobs,
Which as a character is more frightening to you, a horde of giants (mostly hill giants but some ogres along with a few trolls and ettins) or one red dragon that you're not sure about how old it is...
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Hello James,
So I read through some older comments and got a general idea that you wish you had the chance to redo the Death domain to make it less undead-centric. And by general impression, I mean you expressly said it several times :P
However, there are two Good aligned deities that grant the Death domain: Damerrich who is Lawful Good and Lythertida who is Neutral Good. And while I am absolutely a fan of the idea of good gods of Death, I'm wondering why do they give access to Evil spells that let you create Undead?
Would you recommend using the Pharasma-Friendly Death Domain for them instead? I remember reading that Anubis would not grant that revised domain, but I assumed that was because he was Lawful Neutral.
If not, so you have any suggestions to a lore reason they would offer such options to their clerics?
They grant evil spells becasue we weren't brave enough to change the Death domain from the 3.5 standard rules out of fear of scaring off customers for daring to move too far away from D&D's roots. I would absolutely recommend using the less evil version for good spellcasters, and for neutral ones as well.
There are no lore reasons for good or neutral deities to grant evil spells to their worshipers. It's a rules flub and it should be changed.
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Dear Jacobs Jacobs,
Which as a character is more frightening to you, a horde of giants (mostly hill giants but some ogres along with a few trolls and ettins) or one red dragon that you're not sure about how old it is...
Anything with rend is more frightening, so the giants, since there's at least a few trolls in there.
Rend is mostly fixed in Pathfinder, fortunately, but in 3.5, no one ever designed a rend monster with the additional damage in mind. And since it's automatic if the monster hits with its claws... it's basically doing double the damage a 3.5 monster should for its CR. More than half of my 3.5 characters died from rend. Close to 3/4 of them.
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The term is from Trailer Park Boys. Anyways, any good documentaries on the subject ofAre you familiar with the term Samsquanch?
Unrelated: I assume the disappearance of Golarion in Starfinder is its big mystery equivalent of Aroden's death. Are those big mysteries related? Ie. if we understood how Aroden died would that then make it clear why the gods whisked away the planet in Starfinder?
Nope.
I'm not really involved with Starfinder, but I would really REALLY prefer that the Starfinder team NOT tie Golarion's disappearance to Aroden at all.
samsquanchessasquatches you'd recommend?I've never heard of Trailer Park Boys so that explains that.
Best sasquatch documentary? "Legend of Boggy Creek."
Can't believe it took me this long to realize it, but is this documentary the reason why there is a Boggy Creek in the southern part of Sandpoint?
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Can't believe it took me this long to realize it, but is this documentary the reason why there is a Boggy Creek in the southern part of Sandpoint?The term is from Trailer Park Boys. Anyways, any good documentaries on the subject ofAre you familiar with the term Samsquanch?
Unrelated: I assume the disappearance of Golarion in Starfinder is its big mystery equivalent of Aroden's death. Are those big mysteries related? Ie. if we understood how Aroden died would that then make it clear why the gods whisked away the planet in Starfinder?
Nope.
I'm not really involved with Starfinder, but I would really REALLY prefer that the Starfinder team NOT tie Golarion's disappearance to Aroden at all.
samsquanchessasquatches you'd recommend?I've never heard of Trailer Park Boys so that explains that.
Best sasquatch documentary? "Legend of Boggy Creek."
It absolutely is. There are a LOT of elements of "things that inspired me as a kid" in the names of regions in and around Sandpoint.
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Dear James,
When I played a cleric in Forgotten Realms I found Eldath the most interesting goddess for my cleric to worship. What would be the closest equivalent and why?
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Dear James,
When I played a cleric in Forgotten Realms I found Eldath the most interesting goddess for my cleric to worship. What would be the closest equivalent and why?
There's bits of Sarenrae in there, along with the Green Faith, but I think that the closest you'll find to a neutral good deity of water and peace would probably be an Empyreal Lord like Korada or Ylimancha.
Dear James Jacobs,
With regards to Artifacts and Legends, I was curious if there would be a precedent for a Hellknight using St. Cuthbert's mace and what ramifications might that be.
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Dear James Jacobs,
With regards to Artifacts and Legends, I was curious if there would be a precedent for a Hellknight using St. Cuthbert's mace and what ramifications might that be.
No precedent.
Ramifications when artifacts are involved, regardless of what they are and who is involved, should be significant enough to fuel an entire adventure plot, if not a campaign.
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It absolutely is. There are a LOT of elements of "things that inspired me as a kid" in the names of regions in and around Sandpoint.Can't believe it took me this long to realize it, but is this documentary the reason why there is a Boggy Creek in the southern part of Sandpoint?
Best sasquatch documentary? "Legend of Boggy Creek."
I assume the Sandpoint devil is based on the Jersey devil. Can you give more examples of those elements making their way into Sandpoint's design? Or will that be included in the upcoming Sandpoint book?
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I assume the Sandpoint devil is based on the Jersey devil. Can you give more examples of those elements making their way into Sandpoint's design? Or will that be included in the upcoming Sandpoint book?It absolutely is. There are a LOT of elements of "things that inspired me as a kid" in the names of regions in and around Sandpoint.Can't believe it took me this long to realize it, but is this documentary the reason why there is a Boggy Creek in the southern part of Sandpoint?
Best sasquatch documentary? "Legend of Boggy Creek."
It won't be part of the Sandpoint book, but there is a LOT of real world elements in there, mostly revolving around my home town of Point Arena. Some examples:
1) Point Arena's original name, "Punta Arenas," is Spanish for "Sandy Point."
2) There was a sign with a mirror on it that said something to the effect of "See yourself, traveler, as we see you," on the road into Point Arena in its early days in the late 18th century.
3) The town's original dump was off the side of the cliff into the ocean right next to the lighthouse, just like in Sandpoint.
4) A Japanese ship made the voyage across the Pacific to land at Point Arena, bringing travelers from Japan to the town in its early days, which inspired the presence of the Kaijitsus from Minkai in Sandpoint.
5) Schooner Gulch Road is the name of a road near where I grew up.
6) Despite being a town with a population of about 450, Point Arena has a big theater that kinda seems out of place in a small town.
As a note, the Sandpoint Devil was NOT my creation. That one came from Wes Schneider, who grew up on the east coast where the Jersey Devil was doing its thing.
Hi James,
Most extraplanar outsiders don't sleep naturally, but if they are forced to sleep via magical or chemical means, do they dream?
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Mr Jacobs, I have one particular enquiry.
You mentioned you want to avoid the implications of having a dark-skinned people worshipping demons, but it appears the setting
will still retain the idea of certain light-skinned peoples being mostly devil worshippers (Cheliax) or fanatical and evil mutilation enthusiasts (Nidal). Doesn't that bring up the same undertones?
It does not, because we live in a society where white people have all the privilege and the power.
Devil/evil deity worshiping is a part of the setting. The problem isn't demon worshipers. The problem is a traditionally white-male dominated landscape (the gaming industry) setting up an entire group of dark skinned people as evil villains. It's a problem we've helped perpetuate through some ignorant/lazy choices we made early in the setting's creation and I want to do what I can to fix that now.
On a related note, does this mean that PF2E drow will have completely unnatural skin tones, such as deep indigo or purple, in order to avoid the "black=evil" trope?
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On a related note, does this mean that PF2E drow will have completely unnatural skin tones, such as deep indigo or purple, in order to avoid the "black=evil" trope?
I'm not answering any 2nd edition questions here yet, but the answer for this is the same as my current standing in the current edition of Pathfinder.
My preference would be to make sure that drow have purple skin, and to never ever call them "dark elves." This will also help us to distance a bit from the D&D version, and the fact that they are already so associated with D&D in the first place means I kinda don't have the urge to do much at all with drow at all anymore. I kinda got that all out of my system with Second Darkness.
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On a related note, does this mean that PF2E drow will have completely unnatural skin tones, such as deep indigo or purple, in order to avoid the "black=evil" trope?I'm not answering any 2nd edition questions here yet, but the answer for this is the same as my current standing in the current edition of Pathfinder.
My preference would be to make sure that drow have purple skin, and to never ever call them "dark elves." This will also help us to distance a bit from the D&D version, and the fact that they are already so associated with D&D in the first place means I kinda don't have the urge to do much at all with drow at all anymore. I kinda got that all out of my system with Second Darkness.
Cool. That all makes sense. Thanks!
Second darkness is a drow themed AP, correct?
Are there any other drow themed APs or modules?
Drow are my favorite humanoids, though so far, the drow of Drowtales are my favorite, but I don't actually know anything about what Golarion does differently in regards to them. Could you give a few highlights please of differences?
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Second darkness is a drow themed AP, correct?
Are there any other drow themed APs or modules?
Drow are my favorite humanoids, though so far, the drow of Drowtales are my favorite, but I don't actually know anything about what Golarion does differently in regards to them. Could you give a few highlights please of differences?
We've had drow pop in here and there in adventures, but not often and never in a really signifcant way, really. Second Darkness is absolutely drow themed, though.
Elves in Pathfinder tend to adapt over time to match their environment. So elves in the woods tend to grow a bit taller and more slender (like thin trees), while elves in the snow tend to be very light colored, and elves in a desert tend to have very warm coloration. The drow adapted to the darkness of the Darklands and have deep purple coloration as a result. The first of them also had an adaption to their souls as well—they went too deep and were exposed to the proximity of Rovagug and demon lords and other evils deep underground, which corrupted their souls and made them into evil demon worshipers.
And that transformation can spontaneoulsy affect ANY elf who is particularly evil and worships a demon; they can turn into a drow. It doesn't happen often, but it's a big deal with it does.
Drow are still matriarchal, and still chaotic evil, and still have societies filled with backstabbing and treachery. But they also have a lot of elements of shaping flesh and stone with magic, both to make their cities and also to make slave races; driders are the most well known but there are fleshwarps of other races as well.
They ALL worship demons, pretty much, but there's not one demon that's the obvious most powerful one; there's no "Lolth" analog as the leader of their kind.
When we initially did Second Darkness, that was the first time we mentioned drow at all in Golarion, and going into that AP the idea was that they were regarded as "made up boogeymen" and a big reveal of the first adventure was that yes indeed we have drow in our game. We really overcorrected on the "ALL DROW ARE EVIL" bit in those early days too, because at the time we wanted folks to know we weren't trying to cash in on the Driz'zt craze, which polarizes about 98% of gamers it seems.
Since then we've dialed it back. There can be non-evil and even good drow. They're unusual (and no, they don't change color if they go good), but they can exist. There are a few examples of them in the Adventurer's Guide.
That's pretty much the nutshell version.
(They're not THAT different from D&D... particularly the 1st edition Greyhawk version of them. Not so much the Forgotten Realms version.)
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Why does a regular elf rarely turn into drow when they turn evil and worship a demon?
Because that lets us have plenty of evil elves who aren't drow, and because that lets us have most of the drow be biologically born as drow, and because that was required for the plot of Second Darkness, and because in order for this transformation to happen, it has to be an EXCEPTIONALLY evil elf who was super into demons, and even then it might not always happen.
And because if it DID happen more frequently, it would have happened before 4708. Since we wanted this to take place more or less for the first time in a "public" way so that Second Darkness could start out with that plot element, that meant it can't have happened before in a public way for the past 10,000 years plus. Which meant it had to be an INCREDIBLY rare event.
Will Planar Adventures answer the question of why spellcasters don't visit the celestial planes more often? If not, then...why don't they?