Hello good Sir Jacobs.
I have a spoilery question about Hell's Rebels, an AP which I believe you were heavily involved in. I was hoping you could provide some insight into a matter. I'll put it in a spoiler, since it's definitely spoilerific.
Near the end of book 1, you mention 'Trailblazer Huni' whose name is actually an anagram for Barzillai Thrune. I'm super curious, was Barzillai's name based off Trailblazer Huni? Or perhaps vice versa? Or was it just a really neat coincidence that you were able to come up with the anagram? Thank you in advance for your answer!
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Hello good Sir Jacobs.
I have a spoilery question about Hell's Rebels, an AP which I believe you were heavily involved in. I was hoping you could provide some insight into a matter. I'll put it in a spoiler, since it's definitely spoilerific.
Spoiler:Near the end of book 1, you mention 'Trailblazer Huni' whose name is actually an anagram for Barzillai Thrune. I'm super curious, was Barzillai's name based off Trailblazer Huni? Or perhaps vice versa? Or was it just a really neat coincidence that you were able to come up with the anagram? Thank you in advance for your answer!
When it comes time to do the anagram thing, I generally go to one of many anagram generators on the internet. If you have a relatively long name like "Barzillai Thrune" it's pretty easy to find something you can work with, especially if you're pretty open/creative/willing to go where the anagram possibilities suggest and don't have preconceived notions in mind.
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Are there any games you're playing right now or are looking forward to?Nope.Do you have any interest in playing it?Have you played Monster Hunter World?Nope.
Playing right now:
The SurgePillars of Eternity II
Divinity Original Sin II
Conan Exiles
7 Days to Die
The Long Dark
State of Decay 2
Dark Souls Remastered (I just finished it a day ago but might be doing a NG+ run)
Looking Forward To:
Call of Cthulhu (and the various other HPL games in production)
Metro: Exodus
The Last of Us II
Fallout 76
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1. What about the CR of Chaugnar Faugn, Cyth-V'sug, Jubilex and Shiggarreb?
2. Are the ilee likely to get statted soon? Would they be considered aberrations or something else?
1. Spitballing here, so when/if we do these, don't expect these to stay as-is:
Chaugnar Faugn: 28Cyth-V'Sug: 29
Jubilex: 26
Shiggarreb: 21 (bonus round: Shiggarreb already has stats for 3.0 in Green Ronin's excellent Book of Fiends, so I'd start there if I were converting her to Pathfinder and Golarion)
2) Ilee are very unlikely to be statted in Pathifnder, ever. They've a better chance for this in Starfinder, and may have already been statted... I'm not 100% up to speed on Starfinder content.
James: did you realize that your thread was being turned into a neural network?
Long live the Jamesbot! :D
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James: did you realize that your thread was being turned into a neural network?
Long live the Jamesbot! :D
I did not know this.
Are you planning on following it’s progress (and probable descent into madness, if the FaWtLbot before it was any indication... of course, that was FaWtL, so madness might just have been par for the course), or ignore it?
Did you know it’s the esteeemed erstwhile Postmonster General who is running the Neural Networks - some of them are pretty interesting results!
He has done two novels, ever-smaller pieces of FaWtL until it no longer broke his computer to do so, and now your comments from this thread! I’m looking forward to the silliness (it’s already been pretty great - even “quoted” me at one point)!
Also, James, if you could get a single creature or spell or class idea into Starfinder, what would it be and why?
If you could reverse that and get something from it into Pathfonder, what would it be, and why?
I've noticed a lot of Paizo products featuring morally ambiguous (i.e. not good or evil) planar content lately. Any particular reason?
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Are you planning on following it’s progress (and probable descent into madness, if the FaWtLbot before it was any indication... of course, that was FaWtL, so madness might just have been par for the course), or ignore it?
Did you know it’s the esteeemed erstwhile Postmonster General who is running the Neural Networks - some of them are pretty interesting results!
He has done two novels, ever-smaller pieces of FaWtL until it no longer broke his computer to do so, and now your comments from this thread! I’m looking forward to the silliness (it’s already been pretty great - even “quoted” me at one point)!
I'm not planning on following it, no.
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Who wrote the bastion archon? That's a really neat concept for the CR 20 archon, and feels incredibly fitting for Heaven.
Also, Planar Adventures is really good. You and your contributors should be proud.
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How old are Rovagug, Pharasma, the proteans and Azathoth in relation to each other?
In order of oldest to youngest:
Azathoth
Pharasma
Rovagug
...
...
(lots more of things over the course of spans of time mortals cannot comprehend)
...
...
proteans
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Who wrote the bastion archon? That's a really neat concept for the CR 20 archon, and feels incredibly fitting for Heaven.
Also, Planar Adventures is really good. You and your contributors should be proud.
Joe Pasini.
And thanks for the kind words! I like how the book turned out.
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Hi James,
I am DMing the Seprents Skull AP and we are currently running "Racing to Ruin". My players took on the Rival Faction Agents on p34 and it was a battle royale. At the end of the battle the PCs analysed the poison the Agents were using and realised it was Spider Vine Poison. The only description I can find about it is in "Heart of the Jungle" page 6. My PC's would like to try to harvest some of the poison from the plant to use (they have craft alchemy, survival and can use poisons so I do not have a problem with it).
My question is - how common is the Spider Vine in the Mwangi Jungle? For example, If they are travelling the Route to Tazion, would they easily come across it somewhere on the journey (if they were keeping an eye out for it) or would they need to take time out from their race to Tazion to specifically look for it? I would like to know if I need to make a side adventure about the hunt for the spider vine or they just come across it in their travels.
Also just wanted thank you or 10 years of awesome PF1, the innovation of the different APs and the stories you and your team have told have been nothing short of fantastic!
Thanks
Blackcat
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Hi James,
I am DMing the Seprents Skull AP and we are currently running "Racing to Ruin". My players took on the Rival Faction Agents on p34 and it was a battle royale. At the end of the battle the PCs analysed the poison the Agents were using and realised it was Spider Vine Poison. The only description I can find about it is in "Heart of the Jungle" page 6. My PC's would like to try to harvest some of the poison from the plant to use (they have craft alchemy, survival and can use poisons so I do not have a problem with it).
My question is - how common is the Spider Vine in the Mwangi Jungle? For example, If they are travelling the Route to Tazion, would they easily come across it somewhere on the journey (if they were keeping an eye out for it) or would they need to take time out from their race to Tazion to specifically look for it? I would like to know if I need to make a side adventure about the hunt for the spider vine or they just come across it in their travels.
Also just wanted thank you or 10 years of awesome PF1, the innovation of the different APs and the stories you and your team have told have been nothing short of fantastic!
Thanks
Blackcat
Feel free to make it as common or as rare as you want. Ultimate Wilderness has some more rules on harvesting poisons and herbs and the like you can perhaps use to help round things out, but really, this type of thing is a perfect example of something that's best left to a GM to adjust to their game.
AKA: It's been over half a decade since I've had my head anywhere close to the details of Serpent's Skull, and so I don't really have much more information off the top of my head to add to this without potentially misremembering or saying something confusing.
BUT also, thanks for the kind words, and it's always nice to hear folks are enjoying the campaigns!
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Hello James. Over in the Thrushmoor Terror GM reference thread, there's been discussion on switching the skum out for deep ones and having them worship Shub-Niggurath to give them a stronger connection to Ariadna and the Watcher in the Bay. Personally I'm on board with this for when I get to run this, but I was curious how you would go about introducing these themes in a way that enhances the experience as opposed to adding to many disparate plot elements. I feel like it can be done seeing as Ariadna is already part of the plot but I want my players to care most about Hastur and Xhamen-dor. Honestly, I'm still worried about juggling those two alone so any insight as to how you would balance these themes in a supporting way would be great.
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Hello James. Over in the Thrushmoor Terror GM reference thread, there's been discussion on switching the skum out for deep ones and having them worship Shub-Niggurath to give them a stronger connection to Ariadna and the Watcher in the Bay. Personally I'm on board with this for when I get to run this, but I was curious how you would go about introducing these themes in a way that enhances the experience as opposed to adding to many disparate plot elements. I feel like it can be done seeing as Ariadna is already part of the plot but I want my players to care most about Hastur and Xhamen-dor. Honestly, I'm still worried about juggling those two alone so any insight as to how you would balance these themes in a supporting way would be great.
My first step would be to go read the Strange Aeons adventure path. I outlined it, but I wasn't able to be the one who developed it (I was taken off the project to develop the Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover book), and as such I handed the development chops over to Adam Daigle.
I've not yet actually read the adventures, though, so yeah—my first step would be to read them and then make decisions. So ... I don't really have any advice or insights for you on how to adjust things. Sorry!
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You have previously said you were not a fan of the way elves were portrayed in Second Darkness, which I am about to run as a campaign. As there is no forthcoming hardcover (like there was for Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne) can you give me some idea of what changes you would have made if this had become a hardcover product (which would have been awesome if you headed it up, by the way!)
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You have previously said you were not a fan of the way elves were portrayed in Second Darkness, which I am about to run as a campaign. As there is no forthcoming hardcover (like there was for Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne) can you give me some idea of what changes you would have made if this had become a hardcover product (which would have been awesome if you headed it up, by the way!)
Make the players LIKE the elves. Make the players WANT to help the elves. Don't have the elves treat the player characters as monsters or villains.
The elves should be friends, not paranoid isolationists.
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Hi James,
In order of oldest to youngest:
Azathoth
Pharasma
Rovagug
...
...
(lots more of things over the course of spans of time mortals cannot comprehend)
...
...
proteans
Where would you say Manasaputras fall in this scale?
Ever read any of Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International books?
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How likely are we seeing these things soon:
1. Oni species corresponding to androids or alien races?
2. An equivalent of the Inner Sea World Guide for places like Kelesh, Vudra, Iblydos, Tian Xia or the Crown of the World?
3. Any more material on Arcadia, Sarusan or Androffa?
4. Stat blocks for a primal inevitable, a psychopomp usher, a protean lord, an Eldest, a mask of Nyarlathotep, or any archfiend that is not an archdevil, Horseman or demon lord?
5. A hardcover edition of Second Darkness?
6. A major article on Apsu or Dahak?
7. A CR 26+ qlippoth lord?
Some never, some maybe, some for sure.
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Hi James,
Where would you say Manasaputras fall in this scale?In order of oldest to youngest:
Azathoth
Pharasma
Rovagug
...
...
(lots more of things over the course of spans of time mortals cannot comprehend)
...
...
proteans
Since manasaputras are a result of the pursuit of self-perfection, they cannot have existed before mortal life first came into being and then, some time later, began to work toward self-perfection. They're one of the newest outsider races. Maybe even the newest. Humanity is much older than they are.
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I've not yet actually read the adventures, though, so yeah—my first step would be to read them and then make decisions. So ... I don't really have any advice or insights for you on how to adjust things. Sorry!
That's totally understandable, and in that case maybe I'll ask in a more general way? When you design your adventures and want to include extra content that supports the themes that you are telling, how do you try to balance the added content with the main focus so that it enhances the story as opposed to distracting or cluttering the story?
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I've not yet actually read the adventures, though, so yeah—my first step would be to read them and then make decisions. So ... I don't really have any advice or insights for you on how to adjust things. Sorry!That's totally understandable, and in that case maybe I'll ask in a more general way? When you design your adventures and want to include extra content that supports the themes that you are telling, how do you try to balance the added content with the main focus so that it enhances the story as opposed to distracting or cluttering the story?
Hmmm... to be honest, I view content that supports the themes that I am telling AS the main focus, and so it won't "clutter" the story at all.
If you're asking about side stories or other things that do not support the main theme, then I generally prefer to let those happen organically during play so that I can react to them on the ground during the game, using the players' feedback to adjust as I go in an ad hoc/improv sort of way. I don't really plan those things out much in advance the way I do the main story.
Using an improvisational method like this is harder and takes more practice, but it works better in the end I think since you can adjust things to match play in a way that feels more organic and less forced.
Since manasaputras are a result of the pursuit of self-perfection, they cannot have existed before mortal life first came into being and then, some time later, began to work toward self-perfection. They're one of the newest outsider races. Maybe even the newest. Humanity is much older than they are.Hi James,
Where would you say Manasaputras fall in this scale?In order of oldest to youngest:
Azathoth
Pharasma
Rovagug
...
...
(lots more of things over the course of spans of time mortals cannot comprehend)
...
...
proteans
... iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting. That implies that mortal races in the frameworks and forms that we know them have existed through various cycles of all of material existence being eradicated and reborn, right? That... could be seriously cool, and lead to really deep-dive queries for origins of things...
Does that mean that there have been only a few "generations" of manasapturas, then?
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2. In the Starfinder Pact Worlds book page 26, there's a brief mention of Nocticula still being a demon lord. Would that create any complications for when you decide to expand her redemption arc in Pathfinder?
Please keep your posts to one question at a time.
In light of that, I choose to answer question # 2 of your post.
No. The Gap means that what happens in Pathfinder doesn't need to have any direct impacts on Starfinder. The two games draw from the same mythology and source, but are different, canonically.
We are not attempting to constrain the stories we tell in Pathfinder to ONLY allow for outcomes that enable specific situations in Starfinder, in other words.
Different games. Different settings.
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... iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting. That implies that mortal races in the frameworks and forms that we know them have existed through various cycles of all of material existence being eradicated and reborn, right? That... could be seriously cool, and lead to really deep-dive queries for origins of things...
Does that mean that there have been only a few "generations" of manasapturas, then?
I'm talking only about the current "cycle of material existence."
What may have existed before and what may exist after doesn't necessarily have to even closely resemble what we have now, in other words.
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... iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting. That implies that mortal races in the frameworks and forms that we know them have existed through various cycles of all of material existence being eradicated and reborn, right? That... could be seriously cool, and lead to really deep-dive queries for origins of things...
Does that mean that there have been only a few "generations" of manasapturas, then?
I'm talking only about the current "cycle of material existence."
What may have existed before and what may exist after doesn't necessarily have to even closely resemble what we have now, in other words.
I thought solar and twilight pitris are manasaputras that predate the current multiverse. Is that not canonical in Pathfinder's official multiverse?
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I thought solar and twilight pitris are manasaputras that predate the current multiverse. Is that not canonical in Pathfinder's official multiverse?... iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting. That implies that mortal races in the frameworks and forms that we know them have existed through various cycles of all of material existence being eradicated and reborn, right? That... could be seriously cool, and lead to really deep-dive queries for origins of things...
Does that mean that there have been only a few "generations" of manasapturas, then?
I'm talking only about the current "cycle of material existence."
What may have existed before and what may exist after doesn't necessarily have to even closely resemble what we have now, in other words.
Might be, might not be.
I have a question about the Change Out (Ex) ability that the Gun Scavenger archetype for Gunslinger grants. It says:
Change Out (Ex) At 1st level, as a full-round action, a gun scavenger can remove the broken condition from a single firearm she is currently wielding, as long as that condition was gained by a firearm misfire. When she does, she can replace the broken part with a specialized, short-lived component that does one of the following: gives the firearm the scatter weapon quality; increases the damage dealt by the pistol-whip deed by one die size ...This deed replaces the quick clear deed.
How would you rule the range of the scatter for a given firearm? As far I've noticed the scatter range for all the early and advanced firearms is 1.5 times the weapon's range increment. Should I follow that precedent?
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Hi JJ, I'd like to know your opinion on one thing.
Premising that I respect the choice not to make the sheet to the deities.
If a god had a sheet, he would have "only" more than twenty levels and 10 Mythic Rank?
Or would it also have additional special abilities?
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I have a question about the Change Out (Ex) ability that the Gun Scavenger archetype for Gunslinger grants. It says:
** spoiler omitted **
How would you rule the range of the scatter for a given firearm? As far I've noticed the scatter range for all the early and advanced firearms is 1.5 times the weapon's range increment. Should I follow that precedent?
Dunno off the top of my head, but this is a rules question and it should be asked in the rules forums.
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Hey James, quick question about clerics of Urgathoa and neutrality.
So, one big theme with Urgathoa is delving into things which are strictly evil though not necessarily directly harmful. Cannibalism can be directly harmful, but could also theoretically be done in a way which is okayish. How would a true neutral Cleric of Urgathoa look in your mind? Would it be kosher for them to cast animate dead and hold onto their status as TN? Could they participate in churchly activities?
Urgathoa is an evil deity of undeath, and I don't think it's appropriate for worshipers of Urgathoa to be anything other than evil (be it lawful, neutral, or chaotic evil). I would never allow a neutral cleric of Urgathoa in a game I run or a product I approve.
AKA: They don't exist, as far as I'm concerned. If they do in your game, feel free to run with the concept how you wish, of course!
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Hi JJ, I'd like to know your opinion on one thing.
Premising that I respect the choice not to make the sheet to the deities.
If a god had a sheet, he would have "only" more than twenty levels and 10 Mythic Rank?
Or would it also have additional special abilities?
If by "god" you mean demigod—they're built as monsters, not characters.
If by "god" you mean a full-on deity, they don't get stats at all. They can do whatever you want them to do.
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So in an earlier forum post you said that the aboleths are "natives of Golarion". But the aboleths supposedly destroyed and left that world when their servitor race(s?) rose up against them. Which one is true. And if both are true, how?
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So in an earlier forum post you said that the aboleths are "natives of Golarion". But the aboleths supposedly destroyed and left that world when their servitor race(s?) rose up against them. Which one is true. And if both are true, how?
What I say in this thread isn't writ in stone. What ends up in print is what's generally set in canon. Also, things I say in this thread or elsewhere on the boards years ago can change once the time to put things in print is here.
Since a few deities have the death of another in their backstory, why aren't they statted with combat abilities?
Asking this since IIRC Lamashtu's ascension was from causing the death of Desna's teacher, that means Demigods can harm gods... and (probably Mythic) PCs can slay demigods - and, with the right Mythic Path abilities PCs can basically become said demigods.
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So... as her creator you might know... what is Bezlarue going to do with Valeros' flask?