Among the seven runelords, who would be the most and the least interested in the construct technique? There was no clockwork enemies in Rise of the Runelords, and thus Karzoug doesn't seem like that interested in the clockwork, by the way.Constructs weren't a big part of Thassilon. They used them, but no one more so than the other really.
Huh? I thought Thassilon invented and focused on the clockworks after I read The Dead Heart of Xin. Am I missing something?
To exorcise the bells it is mentioned that Perform Percussions is required. The PCs are scratching their collective head to find percussionists - I've searched the first 4 books and none are listed. My suggestion would be for the PCs to ask Shensen to locate some of the musicians that accompanied her during her operatic performances before the Barzillai arrival. What else would you suggest?
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Huh? I thought Thassilon invented and focused on the clockworks after I read The Dead Heart of Xin. Am I missing something?Among the seven runelords, who would be the most and the least interested in the construct technique? There was no clockwork enemies in Rise of the Runelords, and thus Karzoug doesn't seem like that interested in the clockwork, by the way.Constructs weren't a big part of Thassilon. They used them, but no one more so than the other really.
I sort of misspoke. Constructs were a part of Thassilon, including clockworks, but not to an extent that's outlandish or noteworthy. They were about as common as they are in modern Golarion stuff. Relatively common, in other words, but not ubiquitous.
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To exorcise the bells it is mentioned that Perform Percussions is required. The PCs are scratching their collective head to find percussionists - I've searched the first 4 books and none are listed. My suggestion would be for the PCs to ask Shensen to locate some of the musicians that accompanied her during her operatic performances before the Barzillai arrival. What else would you suggest?
If no PC has Perform (percussion) then having Shensen find some works well; she's got a pretty extensive contact list among musicians.
Who's the most positive divine figure who unambiguously represents lust/sex--not inherently dependent on love or marriage or fertility?Not sure what you mean by "positive." If you mean "good-aligned," then Shelyn. If you mean "doesn't shame you about lust or sex" then Calistria.
In Ruins of Azlant, there is a large number of monkey goblins in the region around Ancorato. Have these goblins been here since before Earthfall? Or did they migrate from Avistan to this area long after Earthfall? I honestly doubt the possibility of the latter, because goblins are not good at sailing.
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No love for Arshea or Lymnieris? : (Who's the most positive divine figure who unambiguously represents lust/sex--not inherently dependent on love or marriage or fertility?Not sure what you mean by "positive." If you mean "good-aligned," then Shelyn. If you mean "doesn't shame you about lust or sex" then Calistria.
They're more obscure, and they implied they were looking for a more widespread well-known deity.
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In Ruins of Azlant, there is a large number of monkey goblins in the region around Ancorato. Have these goblins been here since before Earthfall? Or did they migrate from Avistan to this area long after Earthfall? I honestly doubt the possibility of the latter, because goblins are not good at sailing.
Unrevealed. Goblins are as good at sailing as anyone else who puts ranks into sailing, though. They don't have an inborn penalty to sailing checks.
Are you enjoying the lore-work to make goblins more... acceptable as a core option, given that some ground work has been in place for a while now?
I think an ogre and an ogrekin look very alike. Do you think they look alike? Can people on Golarion differentiate an ogre from an ogrekin pretty easily?
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Are you enjoying the lore-work to make goblins more... acceptable as a core option, given that some ground work has been in place for a while now?
I'm not doing the heavy lifting there, really, more "creative directing" it to happen with other projects so far, but I've got something coming up that I haven't started developing that does do some of that.
All that said, I do really kinda prefer the evil maniac goblins. I understand why folks wanna play them, though. Fortunately, we can have it both ways!
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I think an ogre and an ogrekin look very alike. Do you think they look alike? Can people on Golarion differentiate an ogre from an ogrekin pretty easily?
They're supposed to look alike. The difference is size; ogrekin are smaller and not as muscular, so it's easy to tell them apart in-world.
Traditionally every construct is animated by an elemental spirit. I remember you once said that enslaving a soul is evil and thus you wish to rewrite it to make a spark of positive energy be the animating force for a construct. But even in Construct Handbook, the elemental spirit is still mentioned as the animating force of a construct. Would this be changed in Second Edition?
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Traditionally every construct is animated by an elemental spirit. I remember you once said that enslaving a soul is evil and thus you wish to rewrite it to make a spark of positive energy be the animating force for a construct. But even in Construct Handbook, the elemental spirit is still mentioned as the animating force of a construct. Would this be changed in Second Edition?
Traditionally, every golem is animated by an elemental spirit. Other constructs are animated by other things. Animated objects, for example, are animated by the effects of the animate object spell or shards of positive energy. Charnel gods from Bestiary 6 are animated by the echo of a dead deity. And so on.
I am hoping to change the flavor of the golems in 2nd edition so that they are animated by elemental energies, not actual souls. Constructs animated by souls or haunted by spirits or whatever will remain in the game, but they'll tend to be either evil ones or constructs built by evil creators.
GM to GM I was wondering if you can give me some guidance on what spells can be affected by permanency. Beyond the core rulebook things have been surprisingly silent on this spell. It seems like the upper limit for spells with the target of caster is 5th, but most spells being 3rd level or lower. Also this is a very select list. So I'm trying to tag for my home game a general guideline, such as Permanency affects any spell with a target of you (or one other creature) as long as that spell is of 3rd level or lower. This is to cover spells beyond the core rulebook (or which there are now many). Are their any other guidelines or variable I should take into account from your perspective? Thanks, as always, for making my game better with every response.
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GM to GM I was wondering if you can give me some guidance on what spells can be affected by permanency. Beyond the core rulebook things have been surprisingly silent on this spell. It seems like the upper limit for spells with the target of caster is 5th, but most spells being 3rd level or lower. Also this is a very select list. So I'm trying to tag for my home game a general guideline, such as Permanency affects any spell with a target of you (or one other creature) as long as that spell is of 3rd level or lower. This is to cover spells beyond the core rulebook (or which there are now many). Are their any other guidelines or variable I should take into account from your perspective? Thanks, as always, for making my game better with every response.
The list is pretty much just for the core rules, and has never been updated as new spells come along. There's not really any guidelines for how to add new spells to the list... best one can do is look at the ones that are on the list and go from there, picking spells with similar effects, I guess...
Mr. James Jacobs,
How furious would Zon-Kuthon be if someone pesky mortal managed to capture the Prince in Chains and restore him to being Thron?
Or would he be terrified?
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I am hoping to change the flavor of the golemsWhat about Mordiggian and the Leng ghouls? Would you want to change Mordiggian into a CN Great Old One and the Leng ghouls into non-evil, living humanoids in 2E so that they'd be closer to the source material?
I think that Mordiggian and Leng ghouls being chaotic evil IS closer to the source material. There are exceptions among Leng ghouls who aren't evil, but that's what makes those ones interesting—that they ARE exceptions. And Mordiggian is a scary monstrous deity who, in "The Charnel God," by Clark Ashton Smith, seems pretty evil to me.
I just noticed that the body shape of the demon lord Andirifkhu is very similar to the Andi Spider People described in Faiths of Golarion (on the Grandmother Spider section). Is it possible that the demon lord was originally one of the Andi, or that there is some other connection?
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I just noticed that the body shape of the demon lord Andirifkhu is very similar to the Andi Spider People described in Faiths of Golarion (on the Grandmother Spider section). Is it possible that the demon lord was originally one of the Andi, or that there is some other connection?
Nope; Coincidence.
Traditionally every construct is animated by an elemental spirit. I remember you once said that enslaving a soul is evil and thus you wish to rewrite it to make a spark of positive energy be the animating force for a construct. But even in Construct Handbook, the elemental spirit is still mentioned as the animating force of a construct. Would this be changed in Second Edition?Traditionally, every golem is animated by an elemental spirit. Other constructs are animated by other things. Animated objects, for example, are animated by the effects of the animate object spell or shards of positive energy. Charnel gods from Bestiary 6 are animated by the echo of a dead deity. And so on.
I am hoping to change the flavor of the golems in 2nd edition so that they are animated by elemental energies, not actual souls. Constructs animated by souls or haunted by spirits or whatever will remain in the game, but they'll tend to be either evil ones or constructs built by evil creators.
I'm glad to hear that. Can I ask why the change in the flavor of the golems didn't happen in Construct Handbook? It was a good book, but it could have been better if the elemental spirit enslavement thing was deleted from the world entirely.
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I'm glad to hear that. Can I ask why the change in the flavor of the golems didn't happen in Construct Handbook? It was a good book, but it could have been better if the elemental spirit enslavement thing was deleted from the world entirely.
Glad you liked the book. It didn't get into the book because the book ended up being mostly a monster bestiary book and not an expansion to existing rules. Wasn't the place or the time to make changes to lore either. Edition changes are better for that.
Among Elisse, Charn, and Lianel, who are male and who are female? Also, who are the oldest and who are the youngest? Are they young enough to have the young template, or did they reach adulthood(15 years old)?Elisse is a woman, and Charn and Lianel are men. Their exact ages are not listed, but they're all 1st level aristocrats. If I had to officially list their ages now, Elisse is the oldest at 17, Charn is 14, and Lianel is 10. I'd suggest not using a "young" template for any NPC like this, but to build them by hand.
Thank you for the kind answer. Can I ask about the Deverin children? Among Amos, Barthus, Elmur, Merrun, and Vadd, who are male and who are female? Also, if you had to officially list their ages now, how old would they be?
What happened to the Apocalypse Horses of the dead Horsemen? Did they die with them? Did they pass on to the next Horsemen? Or maybe somewhere, some Apocalypse Horses of the former Horsemen still wander the planes?
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What happened to the Apocalypse Horses of the dead Horsemen? Did they die with them? Did they pass on to the next Horsemen? Or maybe somewhere, some Apocalypse Horses of the former Horsemen still wander the planes?
I've always assumed they pass on to the next one, so that at any one time, there's only 4 of them in existence.
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Thank you for the kind answer. Can I ask about the Deverin children? Among Amos, Barthus, Elmur, Merrun, and Vadd, who are male and who are female? Also, if you had to officially list their ages now, how old would they be?Among Elisse, Charn, and Lianel, who are male and who are female? Also, who are the oldest and who are the youngest? Are they young enough to have the young template, or did they reach adulthood(15 years old)?Elisse is a woman, and Charn and Lianel are men. Their exact ages are not listed, but they're all 1st level aristocrats. If I had to officially list their ages now, Elisse is the oldest at 17, Charn is 14, and Lianel is 10. I'd suggest not using a "young" template for any NPC like this, but to build them by hand.
Going solely off their names, I'd say all of the Deverin kids are boys. I suspect their ages range from 15 to 4, but before I'd say anything official I'd have to spend time re-reading the stuff and re-familiarizing things and consider what storylines if any and if ever I'd want to explore. No plans for such stories yet at all, which is why I haven't put any thought into the topic other than this post.
What happened to the Apocalypse Horses of the dead Horsemen? Did they die with them? Did they pass on to the next Horsemen? Or maybe somewhere, some Apocalypse Horses of the former Horsemen still wander the planes?I've always assumed they pass on to the next one, so that at any one time, there's only 4 of them in existence.
What about the Oinodaemon? He doesn't have a horse?
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What about the Oinodaemon? He doesn't have a horse?What happened to the Apocalypse Horses of the dead Horsemen? Did they die with them? Did they pass on to the next Horsemen? Or maybe somewhere, some Apocalypse Horses of the former Horsemen still wander the planes?I've always assumed they pass on to the next one, so that at any one time, there's only 4 of them in existence.
It's not one of the Horsemen, technically. It's something else. It predates the concept of "horse" and "man" alike, in fact.
According to page 56 of Sandpoint, Light of the Lost Coast, Belven Valdemar perished during the stone giant raid a short while back. Is this raid the very event that happened in Fortress of the Stone Giants and led by Teraktinus?
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Hi,
In a previous post (from 2010), when asked about Blink and Displacement stacking, you answered that normally concealment effects do not stack. And I agree with you in that, for example, blink and displacement would not stack because they specifically state that they grant a concealment bonus in the form of a miss chance.
Blink on the other hand is not a concealment effect. The text in the spell even says that "Physical attacks against you have a 50% miss chance, and the Blind-Fight feat doesn’t help opponents, since you’re ethereal and not merely invisible." and "An ethereal creature is invisible, incorporeal, and capable of moving in any direction, even up or down." meaning that the miss chance granted here is for being incorporeal.
That being said, since these are two entirely different effects (one makes your image appear 2 feet from where you are and the other blinks you in and out of incorporealness), do you stand by your first opinion?
Do you really think blink and blur/displacement shouldn't stack?
A lot has changed in the nearly 10 years since the previous post. But my opinion on these two effects not stacking has not. They're different effects, yes, but I don't think they should stack. Going above a 50% miss chance is too far.
Chopper's murderous rampage was caused by the activation of Alaznist's runewell under Sandpoint. But the resulting magical energies of the runewell made most people only feel a brief anger. Then how did it make Ronjiku and Jervis become killers? They surely were originally lawful good people who were respected by every villagers they meet, I guess. Maybe Pazuzu or Uvaglor magically controlled Jervis, and he was actually good all along?
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Chopper's murderous rampage was caused by the activation of Alaznist's runewell under Sandpoint. But the resulting magical energies of the runewell made most people only feel a brief anger. Then how did it make Ronjiku and Jervis become killers? They surely were originally lawful good people who were respected by every villagers they meet, I guess. Maybe Pazuzu or Uvaglor magically controlled Jervis, and he was actually good all along?
They were more susceptible to the influence due to their specific psychological makeup, personality, bad luck, and other influences. In the case of Jervis in particular, his discovery of the stautette of Pazuzu doomed him to become a killer (before that he would have probably been fine). Lonjiku was just kind of a hateful person from the start, but before the influence of the runewell he did a better job at hiding it.
Think of them as being allergic to the runewell energies, I guess. Just like some people can eat peanuts with no worries but others who eat them could have an allergic reaction and die. That's not a precise analogy, but yeah. Some people are more susceptible to some types of supernatural influence. It's not something that game rules quantify really... it's purely decisions made to tell stories, in the same way authors make decisions about the characters they write about.
Was that why Nualia killed her father and destroyed the town church? That she was allergic to the runewell energies too? I have always wondered how can an aasimar, the descendant of an angelic being, do such horrible things to her father and the townsfolk. So she was originally chaotic good but the runewell energies somehow turned her into chaotic evil or mind controlled her. This explains everything, I suppose.
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Was that why Nualia killed her father and destroyed the town church? That she was allergic to the runewell energies too? I have always wondered how can an aasimar, the descendant of an angelic being, do such horrible things to her father and the townsfolk. So she was originally chaotic good but the runewell energies somehow turned her into chaotic evil or mind controlled her. This explains everything, I suppose.
I'm pretty sure Nualia's story, history, and reasons for lashing out at Sandpoint and her adoptive father are pretty clear and spelled out in Rise of the Runelords on page 12 of the hardcover eidition. In short, an emotionally abusive father (he was NOT a model worshiper of Desna, for the record—and in fact likely ended up being punished in the afterlife for being an awful father and a terrible worshiper of Desna), a town too immature to handle her beauty and grace, betrayal from the man she thought she loved, and the loss of her child is a pretty potent combination to make someone lash out. Whether or not she still would have done so without the runewell's influence... who can say. The PRIMARY influence on her, though, was the shrine of Lamashtu itself. The events leading up to Rise of the Runelords in Sandpoint are meant to be something of a perfect storm of awfulness and violence from which a new group of heroes can arise.
But aasimar AND tieflings have free will. They are descended from outsiders, but they don't have to follow their ancestor's alignment.
Hi James, a lot has happened since my last post here, but that's not why I'm here. Just wanted to get your opinion on the Daywalker spell, it's one of the most interesting Necromancy spells in the game IMO and has a lot of potential RP possibilities, not the least of which being the ability to give a Ghost a corporeal form for 24 hours.
Also, if I had a character who wanted to charge someone for casting this should I just refer to the Spellcasting section of Goods and Services or do you think the spell's unique effects necessitate a higher price?
How old is Titus Scarnetti and Kendra Deverin approximately? Are they in their early or late fourties? Is Titus much older than Kendra?
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Hi James, a lot has happened since my last post here, but that's not why I'm here. Just wanted to get your opinion on the Daywalker spell, it's one of the most interesting Necromancy spells in the game IMO and has a lot of potential RP possibilities, not the least of which being the ability to give a Ghost a corporeal form for 24 hours.
Also, if I had a character who wanted to charge someone for casting this should I just refer to the Spellcasting section of Goods and Services or do you think the spell's unique effects necessitate a higher price?
The prices in the Spellcasting section of Goods and Services are the standard for those prices. You can ask whatever you want for a cost, but don't be surprised if you don't get a lot of customers if you wanted to ask more! And don't be surprised if fellow party members get cranky if you try to charge them for your services too!
Of course, your GM has final say in all of this.
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How old is Titus Scarnetti and Kendra Deverin approximately? Are they in their early or late fourties? Is Titus much older than Kendra?
I never really nail down specific ages for most NPCs becuase it's not important to their stories. Titus is older than Kendra. I'd say Kendra's close to 40 and Titus is close to 50, operating purely off memory.
Hmm. Does 'close to 40 and 50' mean that Kendra and Titus are younger than 40 and 50, respectively?