Creative Director
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Hi James!
If you were to run a campaign set exclusively in the Darklands, which native Darklands races would you make available to players?
Hmmm... I'd probably pick a specific race and focus entirely on that race, I think, so that every PC would be of the same race.
Unless I wanted to run a "You've been captured and need to fight your way home" type campaign, in which case I'd let players choose from the standard options I give them (usually this amounts to the core races, planar scions, and maybe some others if the player pitches a good concept).
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Creative Director
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Have you beaten the Pathfinder:Kingmaker Computer game yet? if so, what do you think of it?
I haven't. I got to the point where my character became a legitimate Queen, and then got distracted by other stuff. I need to go back and finish it! It's VERY fun though. I'm loving how they translated the pen and paper game into a video game. It's pretty much the exact game I was hoping to some day have based on something I helped create.
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I really adored the art used for the couatl and harpy in Mythic Monsters Revisited. The detail and the artist’s take on feathers was really great! I think it’s possibly the best depiction of either monster I’ve seen. Any chance these art pieces will be reused for the Pathfinder 2E Bestiary?
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Creative Director
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I really adored the art used for the couatl and harpy in Mythic Monsters Revisited. The detail and the artist’s take on feathers was really great! I think it’s possibly the best depiction of either monster I’ve seen. Any chance these art pieces will be reused for the Pathfinder 2E Bestiary?
Nope. We're using all new art for 2nd edition, or as much as we can at least.
What is your opinion of Hero Points?
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Creative Director
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With the upcoming changes to aeons in 2E, do they still form from the souls of the neutral dead or serve Pharasma (according to some material written before the introduction of psychopomps)? Or is this information considered outdated now?
That's outdated information. Aeons now form from lawful neutral souls and serve the Monad. Psychopomps are MUCH more appropriate minions of Pharasma and our neutral plane.
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Creative Director
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What is your opinion of Hero Points?
Anything that gives a bit of control and agency to players to combat random bad luck from die rolls to avoid unexpected and/or unfair death is good for the game.
The THREAT of death should be there, of course, but I much prefer long term stories where player characters are not subject to suddenly exiting a story just because someone happened to roll bad.
I've used Hero Points, or variations of them, for decades in my game. I'm glad they're finally part of the core game.
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Creative Director
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Is Acadamae producing oddly high amount of powerful enchanters still canon and not just one of those 3.5 Guide to Korvosa things that later became non canon? I was wondering if Blood Engines under Grand Mastaba is reason why
Nope; there's no connection between the Acadame and the Blood Engines (if anything, the Blood Engines would be necromancy magic, and was one of the ways that Sorshen got around the fact that she couldn't cast necromancy spells herself).
Dear James Jacobs,
Which do you think is better thematically for heroes to use in a game; Harrow Deck points or Hero Points?
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Creative Director
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Dear James Jacobs,
Which do you think is better thematically for heroes to use in a game; Harrow Deck points or Hero Points?
I prefer using draws from a Harrow Deck when you spend a hero point; they always do the job (if not always in the way the PC anticipates), but the closer the card is to your character's alignment and best ability score and theme, the more amazing and awesome they get in their results.
Does "Zon-Kuthon's whole deal requires some pretty serious content warnings" preclude the possibility of ever doing an AP set in Nidal? I'd like to see one (I just got the campaign setting book for Nidal and it's great) but it seems especially difficult to pull off.
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Creative Director
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Does "Zon-Kuthon's whole deal requires some pretty serious content warnings" preclude the possibility of ever doing an AP set in Nidal? I'd like to see one (I just got the campaign setting book for Nidal and it's great) but it seems especially difficult to pull off.
It absolutely does not. If we did we'd likely treat such an Adventure Path as one of the "experimental" ones, similar to Hell's Vengeance or Reign of Winter or Iron Gods and make sure that more traditional options were before and after, and would put content warnings on the volumes to let folks know, but a Nidal Adventure Path is otherwise certainly doable. We've got LOTS of ideas for Adventure Paths though...
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Does "Zon-Kuthon's whole deal requires some pretty serious content warnings" preclude the possibility of ever doing an AP set in Nidal? I'd like to see one (I just got the campaign setting book for Nidal and it's great) but it seems especially difficult to pull off.It absolutely does not. If we did we'd likely treat such an Adventure Path as one of the "experimental" ones, similar to Hell's Vengeance or Reign of Winter or Iron Gods and make sure that more traditional options were before and after, and would put content warnings on the volumes to let folks know, but a Nidal Adventure Path is otherwise certainly doable. We've got LOTS of ideas for Adventure Paths though...
This looks like a good opportunity to ask what's been on my mind for a while. Over the years I've seen Paizo products become less, for lack of a more concise and articulate term, "edgy," particular in regards to sexual content. Why is that?
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Creative Director
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This looks like a good opportunity to ask what's been on my mind for a while. Over the years I've seen Paizo products become less, for lack of a more concise and articulate term, "edgy," particular in regards to sexual content. Why is that?
Because Pathfinder has grown more popular and closer to mainstream, and because the world is a different place today than it was ten years ago, and because we're trying harder to make the game approachable to a wider audience, and because mature content is generally better when added to a game by a GM whose players are interested in it rather than being assumed to be the default for ALL players/GMs, and because interactive team-based entertainment needs to be more responsible in what it presents than non-interactive solo entertainment (like movies or video games or TV shows) which you can just turn off if you find something objectionable in it.
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Creative Director
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Why is Reign of Winter experimental? (I can guess "evil" and "technology" in the other two cases; I got nothing for Reign of Winter.)
Because Reign of Winter ...
Do you have a favorite Queen of the Night?
What's the proper title/form of address for a priest of Norgorber?
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Creative Director
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Greetings, Mister Jacobs.
There is a list of Pathfinder Society 5-star GM requirements in Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide (pg. 18). I don not understand "Run 10 or more specials or exclusives":
- must them be all different?
- or I can run some exclusives more than one time to qualify (like once 8-00, 9-00, 10-00, 6-97, 6-98, 7-98 and Bonekeep 1-2-3 twice)?
I have no idea. That's a question you'll need to run by the Pathfinder Society folks.
Hei James, have you ever had a dream about Sandpoint? And if you did, can you share it?
Dear James Jacobs,
Does Brigh dream of electric sheep or is she just more clockwork kind of sheep divinity?
Hello, James. Thank you for answering my previous questions!
Do harpies lay eggs or give birth? And are they still capable of having children with humanoids (since there are male harpies now)?
Hello Mr Jacobs,
Do you remember who brainstormed/created the vishkanya for the Advanced Race Guide? Thanks and hope you are staying warm.
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Creative Director
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Hello, James. Thank you for answering my previous questions!
Do harpies lay eggs or give birth? And are they still capable of having children with humanoids (since there are male harpies now)?
They lay eggs. And there's always been male harpies. Whether or not they can have children with other things is left to the GM. We haven't said so one way or another yet and won't until we have a story that requires it.
Weird question about an equally weird subject. Obviously there's no rules for it, but from a purely lore perspective, can Goblins breed with any other races? Like, could a Goblin and Halfling make a baby? Similar size and all, probably makes the most sense in this weird what-if. This is the kind of morbid curiosity that embodies shower thoughts lol.
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Creative Director
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Greetings, Mister Jacobs.
Thank you for your previous answer.
There is such old book - Pathfinder Chronicles: Campaign Setting (PZO1111). And there is Appendix B: Pronunciation Guide (shown phonetically).
Are there some list with spelling like that for later material (names in books and scenarios since 2008)? Will there be such list in Pathfinder 2?
Unlikely.
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Creative Director
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Weird question about an equally weird subject. Obviously there's no rules for it, but from a purely lore perspective, can Goblins breed with any other races? Like, could a Goblin and Halfling make a baby? Similar size and all, probably makes the most sense in this weird what-if. This is the kind of morbid curiosity that embodies shower thoughts lol.
That's pretty much left up to the individual GM. We generally don't do things like this in print with the exception of things like half-orcs and half-elves (which have decades of game legacy to support their existence) or things like changelings (which have mythological support from the real world).
I'd much rather make a new race up than fall into the never-ending complexity of designing rules and roles for every possible combination. That's best left to the individual GM, because they know which combos they want for their game and can focus on them without having to make all of them.
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Can powerful souls (i.e. those of deceased PCs) passing into the afterlife for good "bypass" the petitioner stage and become instantly promoted to an outsider of the appropriate type with memories of their mortal days intact, or is it pretty much guaranteed that when you die and aren't coming back via resurrection magic that you become a petitioner and your identity/personality is effectively "dead?"
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Creative Director
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Can powerful souls (i.e. those of deceased PCs) passing into the afterlife for good "bypass" the petitioner stage and become instantly promoted to an outsider of the appropriate type with memories of their mortal days intact, or is it pretty much guaranteed that when you die and aren't coming back via resurrection magic that you become a petitioner and your identity/personality is effectively "dead?"
Yes. That's actually one of the key plot points in the Hell's Rebel's Adventure Path. It's also something that should be left entirely in the GM's or the adventure writer's hands to be dealt with rarely, and then only to enable specific storylines.
That said, the primary reason we have the afterlife set up the way it does is that we don't want to encourage players of looking at death as a free way to gain power. If when you died, you retained all your class abilities but stacked those onto a new outsider body, that'd not only set the game balance completely out of whack, but it'd divert things into a really kinda creepy and disturbing "Let's all kill ourselves in order to get more powerful" sort of way that I really don't want to encourage.
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Can powerful souls (i.e. those of deceased PCs) passing into the afterlife for good "bypass" the petitioner stage and become instantly promoted to an outsider of the appropriate type with memories of their mortal days intact, or is it pretty much guaranteed that when you die and aren't coming back via resurrection magic that you become a petitioner and your identity/personality is effectively "dead?"Yes. That's actually one of the key plot points in the Hell's Rebel's Adventure Path. It's also something that should be left entirely in the GM's or the adventure writer's hands to be dealt with rarely, and then only to enable specific storylines.
That said, the primary reason we have the afterlife set up the way it does is that we don't want to encourage players of looking at death as a free way to gain power. If when you died, you retained all your class abilities but stacked those onto a new outsider body, that'd not only set the game balance completely out of whack, but it'd divert things into a really kinda creepy and disturbing "Let's all kill ourselves in order to get more powerful" sort of way that I really don't want to encourage.
Whew! That's a relief. I was worried ALL people went through the "your memories and identity are erased and then you slowly get absorbed into the plane you were sent to" phase.
How do Golarion's people contend with that? It must suck to go through life being a good person believing you'll be reunited with a dead loved one in Elysium or Heaven, only to get there and not only does your dead loved one not recognize you, but you no longer remember that you wanted to reunite with them in the first place!
Which should be easier to earn: Hero Points or Mythic Points? Would you be willing to give an example of a situation where someone at your table might earn a HP or MP?
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Creative Director
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Can powerful souls (i.e. those of deceased PCs) passing into the afterlife for good "bypass" the petitioner stage and become instantly promoted to an outsider of the appropriate type with memories of their mortal days intact, or is it pretty much guaranteed that when you die and aren't coming back via resurrection magic that you become a petitioner and your identity/personality is effectively "dead?"Yes. That's actually one of the key plot points in the Hell's Rebel's Adventure Path. It's also something that should be left entirely in the GM's or the adventure writer's hands to be dealt with rarely, and then only to enable specific storylines.
That said, the primary reason we have the afterlife set up the way it does is that we don't want to encourage players of looking at death as a free way to gain power. If when you died, you retained all your class abilities but stacked those onto a new outsider body, that'd not only set the game balance completely out of whack, but it'd divert things into a really kinda creepy and disturbing "Let's all kill ourselves in order to get more powerful" sort of way that I really don't want to encourage.
Whew! That's a relief. I was worried ALL people went through the "your memories and identity are erased and then you slowly get absorbed into the plane you were sent to" phase.
How do Golarion's people contend with that? It must suck to go through life being a good person believing you'll be reunited with a dead loved one in Elysium or Heaven, only to get there and not only does your dead loved one not recognize you, but you no longer remember that you wanted to reunite with them in the first place!
They contend with it by being afraid of death, just as we do in the real world. Death isn't meant to be something you look forward to. Death is part of what keeps reality going, but that doesn't mean it's something that mortal creatures appreciate or like.
Religions, as a general rule, teach that in the afterlife you get rewarded or punished as appropriate, but the fact that who "you" are in that afterlife doesn't remember who you were when you were alive isn't something that most people realize. It's common knowledge to those of us who read the rules, but it's not common knowledge to those who live in the world.
Remember, if you get brought back to life via resurrection or whatever, you never went through the process of becoming an outsider in the first place, and so you wouldn't have experienced that at all in the first place.
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Creative Director
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Which should be easier to earn: Hero Points or Mythic Points? Would you be willing to give an example of a situation where someone at your table might earn a HP or MP?
Hero points. They should be things you earn automatically after completing something significant, with bonus ones perhaps being earned as special awards. Or perhaps earned automatically at the start of a session and then lost at the end if you didn't use them.
Mythic points are only a thing if you play a mythic game. In games I run, I use hero points, not mythic points.
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Creative Director
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Pathfinder 2E seems to be doing a lot of things right in rectifying some of the old notions about medieval weapons and armor, but it still gets a lot wrong. Was there an attempt to incorporate some of the newly rediscovered knowledge out there put forward by HEMA and prominent YouTubers on the subject? Did you guys want to do more and were limited by necessity of game mechanics?
For instance I really appreciate how bastard swords and hand crossbows don't seem to require a special proficiency anymore, but longswords are still one handed weapons and padded armor is still bad and studded leather armor is still a thing even though it never was.
One of my favorites, nevermind he's still primarily referncing D&D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrVc1v90b7o
Let's wait for 2nd edition to actually be out before we start arguing over how realistic it is. (That said, it's a game with dragons and elves and wizards, so it seems kinda silly to get too hung up on whether or not studded leather armor should exist—the game is attempting to present a fantastic and fictional setting with a lot of things that aren't possible, not to portray realistic depictions of actual Earth history.)
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Creative Director
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Do priests and religious leaders in-world know the “truth” about what happens to souls? Are they just as misinformed as lay people, or do they actively deceive their flock with promises of continued existence in an afterlife while knowing full well that personal identity isn’t preserved?
Some do, some don't.