Creative Director
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What do you consider to be the "goofy stuff" of the Mystara campaign setting?Question: What do you think of the Mystara campaign setting?I love parts of it, but not so much other parts. I enjoy things like the Isle of Dread and the Desert Nomads and so on, but not a fan of the goofy stuff that started creeping into the setting.
Puns. Every animal needing a humanoid race. Jokes that only make sense if you apply metaknowledge from this world to the in-world stuff (for example, if we were to introduce a magical slate that taps into fate and gives you answers to questions you ask about the world and we called it a "Why Pad").
Hey James, even though Paizo is now focused on PF2, would it ever be possible to create a compilation of the 3 Runelord APs, perhaps for the 20th anniversary of Rise? Either for PF1/PF2 or both?
I could even see it being a Kickstarter/crowdfunding effort, with stretch goals covering whichever edition the base version wasn't, a bestiary book, a magic item/spells book, and possibly an NPC/organization book?
Also, I know you usually want just questions, but I just saw the trailer video for Return of the Runelords tonight(somehow missed it's release) and holy jeebus is it really hecking awesome!! Massive kudos to whoever had that idea, and whomever made it!!
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Creative Director
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Hey James, even though Paizo is now focused on PF2, would it ever be possible to create a compilation of the 3 Runelord APs, perhaps for the 20th anniversary of Rise? Either for PF1/PF2 or both?
I could even see it being a Kickstarter/crowdfunding effort, with stretch goals covering whichever edition the base version wasn't, a bestiary book, a magic item/spells book, and possibly an NPC/organization book?
Also, I know you usually want just questions, but I just saw the trailer video for Return of the Runelords tonight(somehow missed it's release) and holy jeebus is it really hecking awesome!! Massive kudos to whoever had that idea, and whomever made it!!
Not for 1st edition.
We're currently working on a compilation of Kingmaker, and it's going to be the largest AP compilation we've ever done. Let's wait and see how that turns out first before we start planning new projects.
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Creative Director
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Thanks I through them and zon-kuthon were most painful looking art in pathfinder.Hey James are kytons based on hellraisers cenobites? The higher CR ones barly look like they were once human.They're certainly inspired by them but not exactly based on them.
Please keep posts to questions here; I don't want this thread to turn into a back-and-forth or a discussion site; that's best handled on other threads elsewhere on the boards.
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Hey James
In land of linnornm kings do the tribes of humans dress similar to amari or are they more viking like in clothing style?
Amiri isn't from the Land of the Linnorm Kings, so no. The folk of the Linnorm Kingdoms are more viking-like.
(Amiri is from the Realm of the Mammoth Lords.)
Hi James.
Who would you say was more powerful in terms of numbers: The forces of heaven (Celestia) or hell?
Is there a hierarchy of which of the core 20 (edit: deities) are most/least powerful, and if so which are the mightiest?
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Is there a hierarchy of which of the core 20 (edit: deities) are most/least powerful, and if so which are the mightiest?
There sort of is, but since deities don't follow rules, ranking them by power is not something that's super useful in game play. Even the weakest deity can do whatever the story needs them to do.
That several deities had to team up to defeat Rovagug and even then couldn't kill him and had to settle for imprisoning him implies that he could well be the most powerful. We've also implied several of them are far older than others, including Rovagug but also Sarenrae, Asmodeus, and Desna. Pharasma is generally regarded to be the oldest of them all, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's the most powerful.
For any story you wanna tell with them, "power" levels, as far as the game rules care, are kind of irrelevant and in fact nailing down a strict hierarchy gives them more rules than I want them to have.
Dear James Jacobs,
Does Hell have all the best metal bands or just the ones that didn't make it/catch on when they were alive?
If you don't mind saying, who did you work with get your Pathfinder Pawns printed and cut?
Do you know (and have liberty to reveal) if the Hell's Vengeance PCs (Emil Kovkorin, Lazzero Dalvera, Linxia Benzekri, Nyctessa, Urgraz, and Zelhara) will show up again?
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Do you know (and have liberty to reveal) if the Hell's Vengeance PCs (Emil Kovkorin, Lazzero Dalvera, Linxia Benzekri, Nyctessa, Urgraz, and Zelhara) will show up again?
They're iconic evil PCs. They probably won't show up again unless we do another evil Adventure Path. They won't show up as NPCs or villains; that's not their role.
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What did/do you think of the Planescape campaign setting?
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Creative Director
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What did/do you think of the Planescape campaign setting?
I liked it; it was D&D's first step back into including content like demons and angels and those elements after 2nd edition stepped away from the content due to the satanic panic scare of the 80s, so it was good to get some of my favorite creatures back into the game. I didn't really like the proliferation of the jargon and cant in the text—but I loved the art style. Alas, my friend wanted to run a Planescape campaign and the combination of "Don't buy any of these things so I can run it and you won't spoil surprises!" and "Oooh, these are expensive and I'm a starving college student who doesn't have money to drop on these things" kept me from buying much more than the monster supplements for the setting... which, a decade later, ended up being pretty frustrating when I was hired to write for D&D and the Planescape stuff was a weird lacuna in my knowledge...
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What did/do you think of the Planescape campaign setting?I liked it; it was D&D's first step back into including content like demons and angels and those elements after 2nd edition stepped away from the content due to the satanic panic scare of the 80s, so it was good to get some of my favorite creatures back into the game. I didn't really like the proliferation of the jargon and cant in the text—but I loved the art style. Alas, my friend wanted to run a Planescape campaign and the combination of "Don't buy any of these things so I can run it and you won't spoil surprises!" and "Oooh, these are expensive and I'm a starving college student who doesn't have money to drop on these things" kept me from buying much more than the monster supplements for the setting... which, a decade later, ended up being pretty frustrating when I was hired to write for D&D and the Planescape stuff was a weird lacuna in my knowledge...
Did you ever play Planescape Torment? (the video game a la the same engine as Baldur's Gate)
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Creative Director
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Did you ever play Planescape Torment? (the video game a la the same engine as Baldur's Gate)What did/do you think of the Planescape campaign setting?I liked it; it was D&D's first step back into including content like demons and angels and those elements after 2nd edition stepped away from the content due to the satanic panic scare of the 80s, so it was good to get some of my favorite creatures back into the game. I didn't really like the proliferation of the jargon and cant in the text—but I loved the art style. Alas, my friend wanted to run a Planescape campaign and the combination of "Don't buy any of these things so I can run it and you won't spoil surprises!" and "Oooh, these are expensive and I'm a starving college student who doesn't have money to drop on these things" kept me from buying much more than the monster supplements for the setting... which, a decade later, ended up being pretty frustrating when I was hired to write for D&D and the Planescape stuff was a weird lacuna in my knowledge...
Yup. It singlehandedly showed me that the best way to handle the slang was to hire professional actors to speak it.
That said, it's one of my all time favorite CRPGs, and of that era's D&D games, my absolute favorite, beating out Baldur's Gate 2 just barely.
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What fueled the decision to make PF2E more like 4e instead of 3.5e(but better)?
I know it took a lot of people by surprise after the success of Starfinder being 3.5e(but better and also in space) and there have been a significant amount of people wondering if this was really the right call.
Do you feel like it was the right call?
Wouldn't the best metal bands be in the City of Brass?Dear James Jacobs,
Does Hell have all the best metal bands or just the ones that didn't make it/catch on when they were alive?
I dunno. That's why I asked you. I mean if the city of Brass HAS metal bands, wouldn't they all be Efreeti?
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What fueled the decision to make PF2E more like 4e instead of 3.5e(but better)?
I know it took a lot of people by surprise after the success of Starfinder being 3.5e(but better and also in space) and there have been a significant amount of people wondering if this was really the right call.
Do you feel like it was the right call?
That's a question for the design team. I do feel like it was the right call, though. If I hadn't, I like to think that as creative director of Pathifnder, we would have gone a different direction.
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Hey James why did runelord Alaznist and Sorshen outfits change from orginal appearances to return of the runelords AP?
The covers of Return of the Runelords was the first time we really had the chance and time and resources to do proper depictions of them, with more details and more interesting outfits. Also, we wanted to ahve Alaznist and Sorshen in particular dress more like powerful wizards than supermodels/sex symbols.
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I dunno. That's why I asked you. I mean if the city of Brass HAS metal bands, wouldn't they all be Efreeti?Wouldn't the best metal bands be in the City of Brass?Dear James Jacobs,
Does Hell have all the best metal bands or just the ones that didn't make it/catch on when they were alive?
It's a silly question so I gave it a silly answer.
Metal bands aren't a part of Pathfinder, so I'm not gonna cannonize where they're at.
I suppose there could be metal bands in Starfinder, but that turns it into a Rob question.
What is the food like in Nidal? I'm planning on running a campaign there and I'm having trouble finding information about the country's undoubtedly unique cuisine. The farmers grow grains and there's fish and standard european fantasy game to hunt, but what about fruits and vegetables?
What would be some unique dishes that the Kuthite peasantry or high society would come up with?
How does the Shadow Template affect the flavor of an animal?
Do gods have good aligned and evil aligned (Celestial/Monitor/Fiends - sorry I dont know what the overall group name in PF2 would be) "minions" if they allow followers of that alignment?
For example would Gozreh have agathions and some manner of fiends in his service?
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What is the food like in Nidal? I'm planning on running a campaign there and I'm having trouble finding information about the country's undoubtedly unique cuisine. The farmers grow grains and there's fish and standard european fantasy game to hunt, but what about fruits and vegetables?
What would be some unique dishes that the Kuthite peasantry or high society would come up with?
How does the Shadow Template affect the flavor of an animal?
I'm not sure if this topic got covered at all or not in the Nidal book we recently published—I wasn't directly involved in its creation or development, but I'd suggest checking that book first if you want to research officially published information on the topic.
If it doesn't say much, then you can be pretty safe assuming there's nothing particularly outstanding about Nidalese cuisine.
Spoilered because it the following suggestion starts going creepy and dark.
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Do gods have good aligned and evil aligned (Celestial/Monitor/Fiends - sorry I dont know what the overall group name in PF2 would be) "minions" if they allow followers of that alignment?
For example would Gozreh have agathions and some manner of fiends in his service?
Depends entirely on the deity; it's not a formula that generates answers based on alignment. We've covered what sort of minions serve the deities in the various articles we do on them in the Adventure Paths, then gathered that information in Inner Sea Gods, and then summarized the info in Planar Adventures. I believe the idea is to carry that info forward in to Gods and Magic for 2nd edition in a few months.
Taking Gozreh as an example, as a god of nature and the natural world, it's nonsensical that they'd have fiends or agathions working for them. A look on page 77 of Planar Adventures reaveals that his minions are animals, elementals, and plant creatures, so those'd be the things you'd find protecting sacred sites of Gozreh, or who you'd expect worshipers of Gozreh to call upon for aid and support and advice with their magic.
Hey there James - in Sandpoint would a cleric of Nethys have trouble fitting in? Or would it eventually just fade into the background?
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Hey there James - in Sandpoint would a cleric of Nethys have trouble fitting in? Or would it eventually just fade into the background?
A cleric of Nethys wouldnt' have any intrinsic trouble, no. Nethys doesnt' have an active cleric in town, but the people of Sandpoint certainly know about the religion and don't have any problem with it. It'd come down to the cleric's personality, not their faith, that'd decide if they'd have trouble fitting in.
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How would non-Gebbite followers of Arazni be looked upon currently in the Lost Omens setting?
Arazni is one of the more complicated divinities in the setting, and how her worshipers would be looked upon would really depend on the region and the context. In Geb, they'd be looked upon as heretics and hunted down. In Lastwall they might be looked upon as last-ditch allies, or even as saviors. In Varisia they might be regarded as just another weird cult and be judged on their actions and not their legacy.
And the person doing the looking would matter as well. Pharasmins might still consider her followers to be undead-associated enough to be enemies, but Urgathoans would see her faith as one that's not "worthy" of undeath and would be treated as enemies for the exact opposite reasons. At the same time, worshipers of more open-minded deities like Sarenrae, Nocticula, or Cayden might tend to give the faith the benefit of the doubt or even welcome them with open arms, hoping to help them realize that the world isn't only filled with antagonism.
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What about for followers of Nocticula?
Same basic thing; it'd depend on the region. In an area like New Thassilon where her faith is common, her worshipers would be welcome. In a place where folks have a long tradition of fighting demons, like Mendev, her faith would be greeted with suspicion or proverbial witch-hunts. Worshipers of Nocticula would know this, of course, and wouldn't just ride into a place like Mendev and flaunt their faith, though. Unless they were specifically looking for a conflict.