Creative Director
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So this is something I'm confused about mostly because there isn't map of ancient Azlant to compare to:
Did the Braid in Sightless Sea exist before Earthfall? Main reason I'm confused about this is that its said to be in center of Arcadian Ocean where continent of Azlant used to be, but if that is the case wouldn't it have been in middle of continent and not a sea back then?
It did indeed exist before Earthfall, and was one of the main ways the veiled masters moved back and forth between the Darklands and Azlant. Where it connects to the surface world hasn't been pinned down, but rest assured it connects in a way that's logical. (AKA in a place just off the coastline of Azlant where the continental shelf was close to shore, more or less, and the "center of the Arcadian Ocean" and the "center of Azlant" are not the same GPS coordinates.)
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Dear James,
Sorry if this question is too obvious, but the Vigilante Brute archetype's ability Brute Form (Ex) is the only extraordinary ability ever (at least as far as my research goes) to have possible interactions with Enlarge Person. Does Brute Form also fall under the FAQ that multiple size changes do not stack or is it intended to work together?
Thank you for your patience :)
That's probably an error, and it should be (Su) or (Sp), but I didn't develop that archetype so I can't say for sure. You should ask rules questions in the rules forums.
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I've never heard the name Nimboloth before. Who or what is it and where does it come from?
Nhimbaloth is an Outer Goddess I invented for the article about the Elder Mythos I wrote for Pathfinder #109. I actually invented her many years ago for my own writing and game content as an Outer God associated with ghosts and hauntings and the like, but also because I was frustrated with the lack of female Outer Gods in the mythos.
Her primary inspiration from literature is Algernon Blackwood's amazing short story, "The Willows," but she's also got inspiration from all sorts of subtle wilderness horror stories, like "Blair Witch Project" and the like.
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Hey James! I know you mentioned you aren't super involved in Tyrant's Grasp, but can you provide any insight into Tar-Baphon's interactions with Zutha and the Cenotaph?
As always, thanks for taking the time to answer all of our lore junkie questions. I know myself and many others appreciate it.
The short version is that Tar-Baphon's personal method for becoming a lich involved using Zutha and his grave (the Cenotaph) as the stepping stone to get that process started. There's more info about it spread across Mythic Origins, Dave Gross's "Lord of Runes," and Runeplage (Part 3 of Return of the Runelords).
Hi James,
Got any 1st edition projects left to be done?
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Who is your favorite Nintendo character? Mine is Link, and to be more specific, the one from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.
I don't have one. I never played much Nintendo. If I had to pick, I suppose it'd be Alucard from Castlevania, but even then that's mostly just Wes's influence on me and not any real opinions I have formed for myself.
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Did you not watch any of the cartoons when you were a kid? Nintendo had some amazing cartoons in the 80s I believe. May have been the 90s; I’m not really sure as I was born in 1995.Who is your favorite Nintendo character? Mine is Link, and to be more specific, the one from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.I don't have one. I never played much Nintendo. If I had to pick, I suppose it'd be Alucard from Castlevania, but even then that's mostly just Wes's influence on me and not any real opinions I have formed for myself.
I watched a lot of cartoons as a kid, but that was in the 70s and early 80s. My cartoon-watching days thus predated Nintendo cartoons by several years (I was born in 1972),
Nintendo didn't really become a thing of its own until I was in high school, and my household growing up was an Atari one, not a Nintendo one.
On the topic of video games...
You're a big fan of horror films and books. Do you have any favourite horror video games?
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On the topic of video games...
You're a big fan of horror films and books. Do you have any favourite horror video games?
I enjoyed the Amnesia games, as well as the original Outlast and both Evil Within games. Not a big fan of Resident Evil. Until Dawn was a lot of fun. I liked Dead Space 2 the best of that series. There's a lot of zombie games that are pretty fun (7 Days to Die and Dying Light and State of Decay all come to mind), and a LOT of indie games that have some good horror elements to them (I've played too many to remember them all). The various FEAR games were quite good... I think I liked the 1st one best. Alan Wake was certainly moody, but not that spooky to me. And I enjoyed the first Alone Against the Dark, but by the time I played it, it was well past its prime and of greater interest to me from a historical viewpoint. Fatal Frame 2 was also super scary.
That all said, my all time favorite horror video game is either Alien: Isolation or Dark Corners of the Earth. Unless you count The Last of Us as horror, in which case that one wins, no contest. Or... actually, maybe Bloodborne might be my favorite. Yeah. Probably Bloodborne.
Did you not watch any of the cartoons when you were a kid? Nintendo had some amazing cartoons in the 80s I believe. May have been the 90s; I’m not really sure as I was born in 1995.Who is your favorite Nintendo character? Mine is Link, and to be more specific, the one from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.I don't have one. I never played much Nintendo. If I had to pick, I suppose it'd be Alucard from Castlevania, but even then that's mostly just Wes's influence on me and not any real opinions I have formed for myself.I watched a lot of cartoons as a kid, but that was in the 70s and early 80s. My cartoon-watching days thus predated Nintendo cartoons by several years (I was born in 1972),
Nintendo didn't really become a thing of its own until I was in high school, and my household growing up was an Atari one, not a Nintendo one.
Now I'm starting to miss the 80s.
Do you still watch any cartoons/anime from time to time?
I started reading the new Sandpoint book and I noticed the sign "Please see yourself as we see you." I wasn't sure what this meant so I looked it up, but what I found didn't give much help. Then I looked in this thread and saw it was mentioned a few times that the sign is originally from Point Arena... But I still don't know what it means. I guess it's more of a philosophical question but, what does the sign mean exactly?
Did you get Red Dead Redemption 2?
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I started reading the new Sandpoint book and I noticed the sign "Please see yourself as we see you." I wasn't sure what this meant so I looked it up, but what I found didn't give much help. Then I looked in this thread and saw it was mentioned a few times that the sign is originally from Point Arena... But I still don't know what it means. I guess it's more of a philosophical question but, what does the sign mean exactly?
It means that before you go into town, you should stop to look at yourself. Do you look like a killer or a lunatic or a maniac or a monster? If so, don't be surprised if the townsfolk react to you like you're exactly that. It's basically a reminder to newcomers that first impressions are important.
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Did you not watch any of the cartoons when you were a kid? Nintendo had some amazing cartoons in the 80s I believe. May have been the 90s; I’m not really sure as I was born in 1995.Who is your favorite Nintendo character? Mine is Link, and to be more specific, the one from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.I don't have one. I never played much Nintendo. If I had to pick, I suppose it'd be Alucard from Castlevania, but even then that's mostly just Wes's influence on me and not any real opinions I have formed for myself.I watched a lot of cartoons as a kid, but that was in the 70s and early 80s. My cartoon-watching days thus predated Nintendo cartoons by several years (I was born in 1972),
Nintendo didn't really become a thing of its own until I was in high school, and my household growing up was an Atari one, not a Nintendo one.
Now I'm starting to miss the 80s.
Do you still watch any cartoons/anime from time to time?
Not really, no.
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Hi James,
What can you tell us about the Parchlands from your Homebrew setting?
They are the big desert area. A wilderness with desert elves and a human ethnicity known as the Baodine are the major inhabitants. The further south west you go, the more dangerous it gets, until you reach the Mobhad-Leigh at the far end, which is a giant pit with a shard of Yog-Sothoth lodged in the bottom.
Does Tyrants Grasp go to Geb at all? I know you mentioned Arazni is prominent in it.
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I wanted to ask something about how Paizo determines the capabilities of animals. I tried to send 8 wolves against a bison, and they could not put it down, but in real life, it wouldn’t even take 5 wolves to bring down a bison. So this got me thinking, what else is off? Well lap dogs (which use the same statistics as foxes) have the same CR as a rat, but I can guarantee you that a rat is no where near the capabilities of a yorkie or even a chihuahua. Then there is the ape. Real apes can have full on conversations with humans through sign language, yet apes only have an int of 2.
So what’s up with this?
What's up with it is that we built animals on a scale that fits into a wide range of challenges to face fantasy characters in combat, not to model a real-world ecosystem of life and death.
In Pathfinder, the scale of danger does not top out at Earth's level. Something like a demon lord is SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful than a bear or a shark or a hippo, for example, and once you get down to something like a rat you're already well into a band of power that's more or less interchangeable for how much of a challenge they can present to a group of PCs in combat.
If we had intended to design a game where the focus was modeling real-world animal behavior, it would have been a very different game than one where you can shoot fireballs at dragons.
As I play the Kingmaker game it got me thinking at what point in a kingdom's development (such as the adventure path or the computer game) would a "ruler's" name come off of the list as a viable target for the Red Mantis Assassins since they don't take contracts on leaders?
According to page 78 of Secrets of Roderic's Cove, the secret of transmuting lead into gold was discovered by transmuters in Shalast in -6196 AR. Was this spell(or ritual?) introduced or detailed in another book? I don't remember I saw one in Rise of the Runelords.
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As I play the Kingmaker game it got me thinking at what point in a kingdom's development (such as the adventure path or the computer game) would a "ruler's" name come off of the list as a viable target for the Red Mantis Assassins since they don't take contracts on leaders?
Soon as they're crowned queen or king.
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According to page 78 of Secrets of Roderic's Cove, the secret of transmuting lead into gold was discovered by transmuters in Shalast in -6196 AR. Was this spell(or ritual?) introduced or detailed in another book? I don't remember I saw one in Rise of the Runelords.
It's detailed in the Core Rulebook: check out the Phislosopher's Stone entry in the artifacts section.
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What’s your favorite fairy tale/myth/legend/etc?
As a follow-up, has it influenced any of your tabletop games, or anything you created for a tabletop game?
No fairy tales come to mind. As for myths and legends, I'd have to go with Bigfoot, because of all the various cryptids out there, Bigfoot was the one that was supposed to live in the woods where I grew up. And yes... there's plenty of Bigfoot and Bigfoot-related stuff in the RPG stuff I've done.
When I was a kid we lived in central Wisconsin and would spend our weekend hunting for a hodag.
We thought we found one once, but it turned out to be a snapping turtle.
Did you ever try to find Bigfoot.
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When I was a kid we lived in central Wisconsin and would spend our weekend hunting for a hodag.
We thought we found one once, but it turned out to be a snapping turtle.
Did you ever try to find Bigfoot.
I've never gone on a full-on Bigfoot hunt, but I've often kept an eye out for any sign of him or her whenever I'm out in the woods.
Which Pathfinder deities (say... top three, if you want a convenient limit), in your opinion, would put the greatest emphasis on the spread of literacy (not in the magical sense, just in the, "people reading is a good thing libraries are awesome" sort of way)?
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Which Pathfinder deities (say... top three, if you want a convenient limit), in your opinion, would put the greatest emphasis on the spread of literacy (not in the magical sense, just in the, "people reading is a good thing libraries are awesome" sort of way)?
Shelyn, Nethys, and Abadar.
That said, ALL of them promote literacy, since at the very least that's one more way their faiths can spread the word.
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Do you use any conventions or rules when trying to think up names for Elves? I have the hardest time trying to think up Elvish names.
They should sound beautiful and lyrical, with lots of vowels, but shouldn't be super long strings of letters. They should roll off the tongue like you want to sing them.
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In which case, I'll throw in a follow-up question about the creation of dragon's names please. I almost always find them unpronounceable.
I prefer to make them pronounceable but impressive, and often like giving them a secondary name that's a portmanteau like "Scarhorn" or "Hookface."
For actual dragon names, don't just mash the keyboard, and don't head straight to "x" or "z" just to make them use letters that aren't commonly used.
I try to name elves using Quenya(though the results are not always perfect). Do you or other Paizo developers use Quenya when naming elves?
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Do you use any conventions or rules when trying to think up names for Elves? I have the hardest time trying to think up Elvish names.They should sound beautiful and lyrical, with lots of vowels, but shouldn't be super long strings of letters. They should roll off the tongue like you want to sing them.
Thankies!
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I try to name elves using Quenya(though the results are not always perfect). Do you or other Paizo developers use Quenya when naming elves?
I don't, and I don't recommend our authors do so, because Tolkien's elves are of a flavor that should be distinct and different than Pathfinder. One can certainly be inspired by those names to come up with similar ones, but using the actual language Tolkien invented to build the names? No thanks.
Furthermore, Tolkien's estate is very protective of their intellectual property (as they should be!), so I'd rather avoid using a method that could accidentally lead to a misunderstanding that we're trying to poach from them.
Dear James Jacobs,
How do you recommend naming fiends, especially demonic ones?