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(Help me build around Roderic’s Cove):
.Is Cabriem Maskyr’s place-of-origin or ethnicity published (first Overlord of Riddleport)? Is there anything on who this pirate was?
Before Gaston Cromarcky became current Overlord, was he a privateer for some nation or city state, or just an independent pirate?
.As always, Tremendous THANKS for taking the time!
Up to you; I've put no additional thought into these matters. Make the choice that makes sense best for your players.
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This whole Nocticula redemption and ascension thing, i recently found out about. How does that make a lick of sense without breaking history, or eliminating her entirely?
As historially shes delighted and even been gleefully evil right up until her disappearance. As demon lords go, shes been presented as reasonable, but i don't see how she would be redeemable ever.
Is there any chance this is just some kind of long con as she read her future cultist's mind in the past(which wow that sound paradoxical) and has just been playing this as a bid to ascend? Which as i understand her evil followers yet retain their powers but her domains are expanding/changing, which would support this.
Shes my favourite demon lord but I feel she would become much more...bland if redeemed. A demon lord you can negotiate with and the like is way cooler.
Not pleasant. But that's kinda the norm for the Abyss, which is not a pleasant place.Demons won't follow her anymore. Those who did serve her are cut loose and left to their own fates.Given her penchant for knocking off fellow Demon Lords, how pleasant are those "own fates" likely to be for those who followed her?
Isn't that extremely callous for someone who isn't evil? As in would make her go right back to evil as her direct negligence is going to cause lots of death and general badness? OR she feels nothing for her former servants and lovers?
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This whole Nocticula redemption and ascension thing, i recently found out about. How does that make a lick of sense without breaking history, or eliminating her entirely?
As historially shes delighted and even been gleefully evil right up until her disappearance. As demon lords go, shes been presented as reasonable, but i don't see how she would be redeemable ever.Is there any chance this is just some kind of long con as she read her future cultist's mind in the past(which wow that sound paradoxical) and has just been playing this as a bid to ascend? Which as i understand her evil followers yet retain their powers but her domains are expanding/changing, which would support this.
Shes my favourite demon lord but I feel she would become much more...bland if redeemed. A demon lord you can negotiate with and the like is way cooler.
Isn't that extremely callous for someone who isn't evil? As in would make her go right back to evil as her direct negligence is going to cause lots of death and general badness? OR she feels nothing for her former servants and lovers?Not pleasant. But that's kinda the norm for the Abyss, which is not a pleasant place.Demons won't follow her anymore. Those who did serve her are cut loose and left to their own fates.Given her penchant for knocking off fellow Demon Lords, how pleasant are those "own fates" likely to be for those who followed her?
If you just found out about it, I suppose it wouldn't make sense, but this is something we've been foreshadowing as going to happen since before Wrath of the Righteous. There'll be more info about this event in the final Tyrant's Grasp adventure, where I wrote a 2 page entry about the new Nocticula. Her redemption is something I've been planning to have happen all along, so if you were following along the way and saw the signs, it shouldn't be a surprise at all.
If ANYthing was a long con, it was her being a demon lord. I mean, she spent most of her time killing other demon lords, so it should be obvious there that she's not a fan of demons.
And her not being evil doesn't mean she's nice all the time, and if her prior followers don't want to come along with her on her journey, they're left to their own dooms.
And of course, feel free to have things play out differently in your game, but in canon, she's now a Chaotic Neutral goddess.
Dear James Jacobs,
How would one go about making Valryian dragonsteel in Golarion? Would there be enchantments involved? Occult rituals?
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Dear James Jacobs,
How would one go about making Valryian dragonsteel in Golarion? Would there be enchantments involved? Occult rituals?
I'd treat it as a material, like cold iron, silver, or the like. And then I'd make sure to design a lot of foes who have damage reduction negated by it.
It wouldn't need to involve magic or rituals—that happens when you want to turn the item into something other than just a standard object made of the material.
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If you just found out about it, I suppose it wouldn't make sense, but this is something we've been foreshadowing as going to happen since before Wrath of the Righteous. There'll be more info about this event in the final Tyrant's Grasp adventure, where I wrote a 2 page entry about the new Nocticula. Her redemption is something I've been planning to have happen all along, so if you were following along the way and saw the signs, it shouldn't be a surprise at all.If Anything was a long con.
Thats extremely disappointing.
I actually did take a look at the supporting material, all of it, and thats why i came to the conclusion it doesn't make sense. With the Wrath of the righteous stuff, she states its to her own ends and nothing there makes me disbelieve that, its only mentioned right at the end in what could be future adventures that she even has the potential to be redeemed. The other 'big' thing seems to be relegated to something very minor in Return of the Runelords sensing someone of a cult that doesn't have any basis somehow changed things the thousand years in the future. Which does that mean she got knowledge from ten thousand years in the future from said person?
I mean, she spent most of her time killing other demon lords, so it should be obvious there that she's not a fan of demons.
Killing demons is something demons do, constantly, theres enough of them and they're all chaotic evil, so its inevitable. I don't think accomplished fighters in the abyss all are going neutral.
I am personally just wondering how the ten thousand years of badness is somehow negated in apparently a few years.
As for her followers, it doesn't seem like this was broadcast, so she just naffed off without informing anyone.
I'm curious if this is just in preparation for 2E, the people I've talked with have speculated as such, to make certain characters more palatable, like the lust runelord.
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If you just found out about it, I suppose it wouldn't make sense, but this is something we've been foreshadowing as going to happen since before Wrath of the Righteous. There'll be more info about this event in the final Tyrant's Grasp adventure, where I wrote a 2 page entry about the new Nocticula. Her redemption is something I've been planning to have happen all along, so if you were following along the way and saw the signs, it shouldn't be a surprise at all.If Anything was a long con.
Thats extremely disappointing.
I actually did take a look at the supporting material, all of it, and thats why i came to the conclusion it doesn't make sense. With the Wrath of the righteous stuff, she states its to her own ends and nothing there makes me disbelieve that, its only mentioned right at the end in what could be future adventures that she even has the potential to be redeemed. The other 'big' thing seems to be relegated to something very minor in Return of the Runelords sensing someone of a cult that doesn't have any basis somehow changed things the thousand years in the future. Which does that mean she got knowledge from ten thousand years in the future from said person?
I mean, she spent most of her time killing other demon lords, so it should be obvious there that she's not a fan of demons.Killing demons is something demons do, constantly, theres enough of them and they're all chaotic evil, so its inevitable. I don't think accomplished fighters in the abyss all are going neutral.
I am personally just wondering how the ten thousand years of badness is somehow negated in apparently a few years.
As for her followers, it doesn't seem like this was broadcast, so she just naffed off without informing anyone.
I'm curious if this is just in preparation for 2E, the people I've talked with have speculated as such, to make certain characters more palatable, like the lust runelord.
Sorry you're disappointed, but it's something I've been planning for years, and something that a lot of other folks have had fun anticipating. This was going to happen regardless of an edition change.
That said, this isn't the thread to carry on debates. If you have other questions, please ask them, but if you want to argue about creative choices, this is not the place to do so.
Dear James Jacobs,
I guess I should clarify, do you think something like Valyrian Steel (which supposed can harm anything) is a good option to introduce into a starting campaign?
Three questions, two of them being Nocticula redemption related (which, BTW, I think is a very neat thing).
1) Is it as hard for a powerful evil outsider/deity to redeem itself as it would be for a similar good outsider/deity to fall? For example, would it require as much effort, time, etc. for Iomedae to become neutral lawful as it did for Nocticula to become neutral chaotic? Generally, we think a good person doing something bad is more significant than a bad person doing something good, but I'm not sure the same logic applies to creatures where alignment is literally a part of who they are, when their subtype is an alignment.
2) How do the other succubi feel about Nocticula's redemption? Do they still consider her to be Queen of the Succubi? Does Nocticula regard herself as such? I can even imagine divisions about the succubi with perhaps a low-grade civil war unfolding on the Midnight Isles.
3) Totally non-Nocticula question - how well, if at all, does the Spelljammer space travel system fit into your vision of space and space travel in Golarion? I'm just thinking of interplanetary travel here, not the weird interstellar crystal spheres and phlogiston stuff.
On the topic of Nocticula: how might a CE cleric of Nocticula change to continue worshiping her, but without changing to CN alignment? As alignment goes, you can be within one step of your deity's and they will still grant you domains, right?
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Dear James Jacobs,
I guess I should clarify, do you think something like Valyrian Steel (which supposed can harm anything) is a good option to introduce into a starting campaign?
Only if your campaign has plot points that make the introduction of this into your game make sense. With Valyrian Steel in particular, it only makes sense if you're setting your game in the Game of Thrones world, or if you're borrowing significant elements from that setting for your homebrew. I wouldn't add it to a game just as a pop-culture easter egg on its own though.
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Why don't agathions have the same problem that forced inevitables to be replaced with aeons in 2E?
Because the word "agathion" Is a real-world thing. Mythologically, they were familiar spirits associated with animals.
The use of "agathion" as a name for the race of neutral good outsiders is something we started.
D&D used the word back in earlier editions as a name for a good-aligned spiritual being, but it did so in a different way and it never gained much traction in 3rd edition as far as I know.
The name D&D uses for their neutral good animal-themed outsiders is "guardinal" which is a word they made up. In 3rd edtition D&D, avorals and leonals are guardinals, but in Pathfinder they're agathions.
So all the Pathfinder-unique flavor we've built for these creatures, and the significant expansion we've made to them, is under a word that's not another company's product identity, and is one we can use with ease.
None of this is the case for other-planar constructs called "innevitables."
Had we made up a new word for them back when we first introduced them, we wouldn't be in this position now, in other words.
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Three questions, two of them being Nocticula redemption related (which, BTW, I think is a very neat thing).
1) Is it as hard for a powerful evil outsider/deity to redeem itself as it would be for a similar good outsider/deity to fall? For example, would it require as much effort, time, etc. for Iomedae to become neutral lawful as it did for Nocticula to become neutral chaotic? Generally, we think a good person doing something bad is more significant than a bad person doing something good, but I'm not sure the same logic applies to creatures where alignment is literally a part of who they are, when their subtype is an alignment.
2) How do the other succubi feel about Nocticula's redemption? Do they still consider her to be Queen of the Succubi? Does Nocticula regard herself as such? I can even imagine divisions about the succubi with perhaps a low-grade civil war unfolding on the Midnight Isles.
3) Totally non-Nocticula question - how well, if at all, does the Spelljammer space travel system fit into your vision of space and space travel in Golarion? I'm just thinking of interplanetary travel here, not the weird interstellar crystal spheres and phlogiston stuff.
In the future, please limit things to one question per post. I'll answer all three here but gotta do so quickly since I've a meeting to get to.
1) Yes, very hard. So rare that when it happens it needs to be a significant story.
2) Conflicted. Some approve and might seek similar paths, most would disapprove and seek new patrons.
3) Doesn't. Spelljammer, to me, is too jokey and goofy. It's not my cup of tea. Interplanetary travel in Pathfinder works as we've presented it—using real-world physics touched by magic as needed.
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On the topic of Nocticula: how might a CE cleric of Nocticula change to continue worshiping her, but without changing to CN alignment? As alignment goes, you can be within one step of your deity's and they will still grant you domains, right?
They wouldn't. They'd either have to change alignment or worship a different deity.
The "one step of your deity" rule is a 1st edition rule. It works different in 2nd edition.
If you want to stick with the 1st edition rule and allow CE Nocticula worshipers, you're kinda on your own into the land of homebrewing, but I wouldn't let it work in my game, since it erodes her themes. There's plenty of other succubus-like demigods out there to worship and be Chaotic Evil instead.
Do you as a GM sometimes fudge dice and if yes, in which situations?
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Do you as a GM sometimes fudge dice and if yes, in which situations?
I do when the dice get in the way of the story in a way that would disrupt things, yes. But I prefer to "fudge" in situations like these by having NPCs make sub-optimal choices in combat or the like, because that helps to make them feel more believable than if they do everything perfect. I also prefer to give the players extra resources like hero points or get out of death free options so that the onus is on them to deal with a bad roll. Also I'm not above deciding in mid combat that, for example, a monster with 200 hit points left had only 1 hit point left if the killing blow at that time would make for a better and more enjoyable experience for the players.
Because normally I roll dice out in the open and don't use a screen.
The "one step of your deity" rule is a 1st edition rule. It works different in 2nd edition.
Unless you are under a "gag order," what is that new rule? According the Playtest, it has to be one "allowed" by the Gpd, and any setting written for PF 1st will still be operating under the "one step" rule.
Those of us not using Golarion for our setting, might need to know. :)
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The "one step of your deity" rule is a 1st edition rule. It works different in 2nd edition.Unless you are under a "gag order," what is that new rule? According the Playtest, it has to be one "allowed" by the Gpd, and any setting written for PF 1st will still be operating under the "one step" rule.
Those of us not using Golarion for our setting, might need to know. :)
You'll need to remain patient a little bit longer, sorry. (That said, since we don't publish stuff for other settings, we don't have the authority to say how those settings should use rules—they get to make those choices for themselves, including GMs who run games in other settings.)
You'll need to remain patient a little bit longer, sorry. (That said, since we don't publish stuff for other settings, we don't have the authority to say how those settings should use rules—they get to make those choices for themselves, including GMs who run games in other settings.)The "one step of your deity" rule is a 1st edition rule. It works different in 2nd edition.Unless you are under a "gag order," what is that new rule? According the Playtest, it has to be one "allowed" by the Gpd, and any setting written for PF 1st will still be operating under the "one step" rule.
Those of us not using Golarion for our setting, might need to know. :)
… But August is SO FAR away! :(
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You'll need to remain patient a little bit longer, sorry. (That said, since we don't publish stuff for other settings, we don't have the authority to say how those settings should use rules—they get to make those choices for themselves, including GMs who run games in other settings.)The "one step of your deity" rule is a 1st edition rule. It works different in 2nd edition.Unless you are under a "gag order," what is that new rule? According the Playtest, it has to be one "allowed" by the Gpd, and any setting written for PF 1st will still be operating under the "one step" rule.
Those of us not using Golarion for our setting, might need to know. :)
… But August is SO FAR away! :(
Please rephrase your (and all) post (s) as questions.
Dear James Jacobs,
As you are something of an authority on the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods in Golarion; would you say it would be likely to encounter a tribe devoted to Chaugnar Faugn, in say, a remote region of Isger? Or would it be more likely to find them in Varisia?
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Dear James Jacobs,
As you are something of an authority on the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods in Golarion; would you say it would be likely to encounter a tribe devoted to Chaugnar Faugn, in say, a remote region of Isger? Or would it be more likely to find them in Varisia?
I'd go with Varisia, but that's more becasue I'm more interested in Varisia than Isger. Chaugnar Faugn is pretty much an anywhere Great Old One... although putting his cult somewhere in the hills is a fun bit since his original story was "The Horror From the Hills."
Mr. James Jacobs,
You opinion on something. Say you have two young super heroes who have want to keep their identities a secret, but have unusually colored eyes, from which their more obvious powers manifest from. Eye beams you could say. Which is better for hiding their identities, colored contacts or sunglasses? Sunglasses with the caveat that they get away with wearing them all of the time by claiming they have a medical condition.
You'll need to remain patient a little bit longer, sorry. (That said, since we don't publish stuff for other settings, we don't have the authority to say how those settings should use rules—they get to make those choices for themselves, including GMs who run games in other settings.)The "one step of your deity" rule is a 1st edition rule. It works different in 2nd edition.Unless you are under a "gag order," what is that new rule? According the Playtest, it has to be one "allowed" by the Gpd, and any setting written for PF 1st will still be operating under the "one step" rule.
Those of us not using Golarion for our setting, might need to know. :)
So are you saying that you aren't sticking with the approach in the playtest rules of listing allowed cleric alignments in the deity descriptions?
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What about a cult of Cthulhu? Would Minata be the place where it's most likely to find one?I'd go with Varisia, but that's more becasue I'm more interested in Varisia than Isger. Chaugnar Faugn is pretty much an anywhere Great Old One... although putting his cult somewhere in the hills is a fun bit since his original story was "The Horror From the Hills."Dear James Jacobs,
As you are something of an authority on the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods in Golarion; would you say it would be likely to encounter a tribe devoted to Chaugnar Faugn, in say, a remote region of Isger? Or would it be more likely to find them in Varisia?
No. Cthulhu cults could show up anywhere, but I suspect Ustalav or the Sodden Lands would be more likely to have one than Minata.
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Creative Director
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Mr. James Jacobs,
You opinion on something. Say you have two young super heroes who have want to keep their identities a secret, but have unusually colored eyes, from which their more obvious powers manifest from. Eye beams you could say. Which is better for hiding their identities, colored contacts or sunglasses? Sunglasses with the caveat that they get away with wearing them all of the time by claiming they have a medical condition.
I'd say sunglasses.
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You'll need to remain patient a little bit longer, sorry. (That said, since we don't publish stuff for other settings, we don't have the authority to say how those settings should use rules—they get to make those choices for themselves, including GMs who run games in other settings.)The "one step of your deity" rule is a 1st edition rule. It works different in 2nd edition.Unless you are under a "gag order," what is that new rule? According the Playtest, it has to be one "allowed" by the Gpd, and any setting written for PF 1st will still be operating under the "one step" rule.
Those of us not using Golarion for our setting, might need to know. :)
So are you saying that you aren't sticking with the approach in the playtest rules of listing allowed cleric alignments in the deity descriptions?
Nope. I'm saying wait until the game is out OR until someone here reveals that information online or in a convention seminar or whatever.
I get it: folks are super eager for news about 2nd edition, but I'm trying really hard NOT to tease much about it in this thread because this isn't the right place to do so and because I'm not the right person to tease that info and because we have a larger company-wide plan for how that information is being released.
Now and then folks WILL get tidbits or hints out of me by the nature of how they might cannily ask questions and how I might respond, I guess, but in just as many cases is folks ask questions in a roundabout way to try to get 2nd edition hints and they do so SO obliquely that I don't realize that's what they're up to I might answer questions assuming they're asking about 1st edition or something else entirely and set up false expectations. Which isn't good for anyone.
So going forward I'm going to have to be extra careful about answering questions, I guess, and if folks read this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be patient and save your 2nd edition questions up till we're there in a few more months.
Have you seen the Alien Roleplaying Game they're making?
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Have you seen the Alien Roleplaying Game they're making?
I've heard about it but haven't looked at it.
Thanks for your previous responses to my questions. I’m still plodding along prepping for The Moonscar and some space-based Pathfinder excitement, and another question has occurred to me. How much do we know about the Azlanti “space program?” We know about their failed lunar terraforming effort. I’m assuming they knew and used interplanetary teleport, and they could build interplanetary gates. There’s also the King Xeros which is capable of interplanetary travel through the ethereal plane. Is there anything which has been revealed or which you could reveal about Azlanti efforts in space?
What was each runelord's favourite meal?
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Thanks for your previous responses to my questions. I’m still plodding along prepping for The Moonscar and some space-based Pathfinder excitement, and another question has occurred to me. How much do we know about the Azlanti “space program?” We know about their failed lunar terraforming effort. I’m assuming they knew and used interplanetary teleport, and they could build interplanetary gates. There’s also the King Xeros which is capable of interplanetary travel through the ethereal plane. Is there anything which has been revealed or which you could reveal about Azlanti efforts in space?
There's not much about it at all in Pathfinder. I've put pretty much zero work in on it myself. It's something that exists more for us to drop in story elements as we need going forward, but now that Starfinder's around, that's the place where Azlant + space will be followed up on more significantly.
There's pretty much no significant plans to do anything with this in Pathfinder though.
Hm. In Starfinder, the Gap means that no one in the Pact Worlds knows what happened during a significant historical period. Did the Gap affect people and places *outside* the Pact Worlds (e.g. the Azlanti Star Empire)?
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Hm. In Starfinder, the Gap means that no one in the Pact Worlds knows what happened during a significant historical period. Did the Gap affect people and places *outside* the Pact Worlds (e.g. the Azlanti Star Empire)?
The Gap affected everything and everyone in Starfinder, as far as I know, but I'm not the one to ask Starfinder questions like that—that's a Rob question.
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James Jacobs:
Did Rob Kuntz ever indicate to you what happened to Elluvia Maure? The Chambers of Antiquities (Dungeon #124) which I was recently re-reading seems to me to indicate that she met some kind of sticky end, but what that end was doesn't seem to be specified.
(The Greater Halls (Dungeon #139) mentions a BIG fight between Afelbain's legion of undead and the demonic invasion force Elluvia arranged (the demons apparently lost), but doesn't seem to say if Elluvia was a casualty of that battle...)
He didn't; Rob's a fan of leaving mysteries in there for GMs to do with what they will.
As we move into Pathfinder 2, is there anything (perhaps class wise, archtype wise, prestige class wise, ect) You wish you had gotten to or would have (for nostalgia or other reasons) like to have added before 1st edition closed?
Will Pathfinder 2 in any way be backward compatible with Pathfinder 1?
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As we move into Pathfinder 2, is there anything (perhaps class wise, archtype wise, prestige class wise, ect) You wish you had gotten to or would have (for nostalgia or other reasons) like to have added before 1st edition closed?
Plenty, but they'll work in 2nd edition to, so I'm not worried about it at all.
Hi James,
How do you and your writer/editors keep track of all that you have done in the world of Golarion?
{Do you have a giant excel spreadsheet to track locations and NPCs? Are you using OneNote, the Brain, a Wiki or some other database program? How is it possible to keep everything straight with 10+ years of development in play?}
Thank you!
So in 2nd edition there does not appear to be anything keeping someone from being an atheist druid or an atheist angelic sorcerer. So does that mean that Rahadoum suddenly has access to magic (in public) they did not previously or is there a diagetic reason to continue distrusting druids even when they view their nature-centric viewpoint as "good stewardship" or something more humanistic?
Alternatively, is 2nd edition going to let you to do another pass on Rahadoum?
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Hi James,
How do you and your writer/editors keep track of all that you have done in the world of Golarion?
{Do you have a giant excel spreadsheet to track locations and NPCs? Are you using OneNote, the Brain, a Wiki or some other database program? How is it possible to keep everything straight with 10+ years of development in play?}
Thank you!
We don't keep everything straight. There's been plenty of errors in development, and we try to correct them as best we can. But for the most part it's mostly just a combination of memory, knowledge, working together, and having all of our products searchable in PDF form on the server so we can look names up as we need.
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So in 2nd edition there does not appear to be anything keeping someone from being an atheist druid or an atheist angelic sorcerer. So does that mean that Rahadoum suddenly has access to magic (in public) they did not previously or is there a diagetic reason to continue distrusting druids even when they view their nature-centric viewpoint as "good stewardship" or something more humanistic?
Alternatively, is 2nd edition going to let you to do another pass on Rahadoum?
How would you know? 2nd edition isn't out yet.
Don't mistake the playtest for 2nd edition.
And don't assume that the rumors flying on the boards as folks interpret various blogs and streams and comments seven ways from Sunday.
I can say this, though. Druids can't be atheists. That's illogical.
A divine sorcerer COULD be an atheist, but that feels like a choice someone might make just to be petulant, honestly.
In any case, let's wait until August to talk about 2nd edition for real.