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Quick question for James
I have a player asking a question on Second Skin armor. Here is what was sent. What do you think?
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Currently my character has heavy armor with one upgrade slot. Could he also wear Second Skin (light armor) underneath the heavy armor to get an additional upgrade slot?
If so, could he use those two upgrade slots to "integrate" a weapon requiring two slots?
I would think RAW, yes. RAI, not sure. GM call, surely.
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Creative Director
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Quick question for James
I have a player asking a question on Second Skin armor. Here is what was sent. What do you think?
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Currently my character has heavy armor with one upgrade slot. Could he also wear Second Skin (light armor) underneath the heavy armor to get an additional upgrade slot?
If so, could he use those two upgrade slots to "integrate" a weapon requiring two slots?
I would think RAW, yes. RAI, not sure. GM call, surely.
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As a GM call, I'd cede to your decision. I much prefer to foster environments that empower GMs to make their own calls; as Creative Director here, I don't have the "luxury" of being able to idly throw out suggestions and the like without folks tending to overreact and assume I'm giving out official errata. So I don't answer rules questions like this one here; sorry!
For rules questions, it's better to post in a rules forum so that other GMs can help you sort out what works best for the game, but also so that the rules team will have a better chance to help out or see potential errata/clarification topics.
Have you ever seen Forlorn Hope, a Lovecraft-themed movie set during the 30 Years War? If so, what did you think of it. I'm not a big Lovecraft guy, but I do have a number of musket and pike wargames, including several set in the 30 Years War, so it's a movie that I've always been a little curious about.
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Have you ever seen Forlorn Hope, a Lovecraft-themed movie set during the 30 Years War? If so, what did you think of it. I'm not a big Lovecraft guy, but I do have a number of musket and pike wargames, including several set in the 30 Years War, so it's a movie that I've always been a little curious about.
Haven't seen it.
I guess what I was really trying to ask, is does Pharasma's church sponsor a militaristic wing that addresses problems of powerful undead such as Tar-Baphon? It seems like the majority of the organizations opposed to him are sponsored by other deities (Aroden first, then Iomedae) even though it seems like this type of thing would be more of a pressing concern for her followers to lead the charge against.
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Creative Director
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I guess what I was really trying to ask, is does Pharasma's church sponsor a militaristic wing that addresses problems of powerful undead such as Tar-Baphon? It seems like the majority of the organizations opposed to him are sponsored by other deities (Aroden first, then Iomedae) even though it seems like this type of thing would be more of a pressing concern for her followers to lead the charge against.
It does not. They have individual inquisitors who fight against undead, but not a whole "knightly order" that does so. That's more of an Iomedae thing.
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Hello James my name is Cristiano from Italy. I have a question 4 you. It's hard to find Pathfinder material above the "basic" manuals in my country so I'm trying to understand many things with that I can buy/read in the internet in English but it is not easy for me to untangle certain mysteries in another language. What I would like to ask today is why deities except Aroden don't wander and interfere the material plane? Why he could do so many things undisturbed from other deities (evil ones)? Where the gods take their energy (And the one they distribute to their followers) from? And my last question is... How can someone break a prophecy? How prophecy works?
Hi there!
What happens in the past is a bit more fluid—the key is that you don't want deities wandering the world in an era where you let players play their characters, because that can result in a player feeling pointless. Why play the game if a deity might just come in and do the job for them?
Same goes for prophecies. It's very disappointing to be told you can make a character and do whatever you want as you level up, only to have your choices taken away from you because a GM is trying to make the storyline stick to a pre-determined prophecy.
In both cases, we don't include those elements in the modern area in-world because we want players to determine their characters' fates and we want those player characters to be the ones solving problems in world.
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Ofc I mean B4 the age of lost omens. Let's pretend to be in that period, I make pharasma appear in a dream to a character with a prophecy that concerns him, good or bad. As a prophecy it should always come true, whether you try to avoid it or not, whether the character dies or not, coming back to life or with other systems. But so if he wanted to avoid it in every way, how should he do?
Prophecys are a handy but VERY cliched tool that can be of great use in creating non-interactive stories, like novels or movies. Or in the case of an RPG... in creating deep historical stuff. They're awful for in-play things, whether or not you're playing in the setting's present or past.
I wouldn't advise using prophecies in any of your games. Visions and omens are fine; that's the deity equivalent of an NPC hiring a PC to do a quest. But you wouldn't have an NPC say to a PC, "Go to the dragon's lair and fight it with cold and then bring back its eggs so that you can let the baby dragons loose in the city and then fight the baby dragons and then get caught by the guard for endangering the city and get thrown in prison and then escape and restore your reputation by saving the city from the dragon invasion." That's what a prophecy tries to do.
Instead, a deity could give a PC a vision of an evil dragon in a mountain lair and that's that. That's a vision or an omen, and leaves the how and ifs of the implied quest up to the player to sort out.
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Asking all these Elder Scrolls questions has got me itching to get back into it...should I try out the older games like Arena and Daggerfall? I can get them for free and free is always good, but others are telling me it's not worth the frustration of dealing with the book-keeping and the clunky interface...What are your thoughts, as someone who's played in the series from the beginning (My start wasn't until Morrowind, the nominal third game)?
Just for funsies- your kneejerk top five villains created by other people?
(Answer subject to change on a day to day basis if you're anything like me, but...)
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Asking all these Elder Scrolls questions has got me itching to get back into it...should I try out the older games like Arena and Daggerfall? I can get them for free and free is always good, but others are telling me it's not worth the frustration of dealing with the book-keeping and the clunky interface...What are your thoughts, as someone who's played in the series from the beginning (My start wasn't until Morrowind, the nominal third game)?
Every single Elder Scrolls game felt like a quantum leap forward in CRPGs... and that meant that the one that happened before felt dated and awkward once you'd played the current one. This difference was less, I guess, between Oblivion and Skyrim though.
If you can get them for free, try them out! But don't feel obliged to play them all the way through. They were fun to play at the time, but the game play hasn't aged well for those first two for sure.
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Just for funsies- your kneejerk top five villains created by other people?
(Answer subject to change on a day to day basis if you're anything like me, but...)
First top five villains that come to mind:
The alien from Alien
Pennywise from It
Joffrey from Game of Thrones
Hastur
Gustavo Fring from Breaking Bad
Would a high priest of Pharasma be like, "This inquisitor is getting spells from Pharasma, ain't they? they wear the symbol of the goddess, go around killing undead and necromancers yes? who am I to either sanction or ban their activities?"
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Would a high priest of Pharasma be like, "This inquisitor is getting spells from Pharasma, ain't they? they wear the symbol of the goddess, go around killing undead and necromancers yes? who am I to either sanction or ban their activities?"
A high priest of Pharasma would support an inquisitor of Pharasma. They're on the same team.
In PF1, Outsiders breathe, but do not need to eat or sleep (although they can do so if they wish).
Since Outsider is not a trait in PF2, does that mean that denizens of the Outer Sphere need to eat and sleep now?
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So if Axis' law enforcement would ever somehow catch Norgorber(since isn't his realm basically Axis' black market?), do they even have jail for gods?
They do have maximum security facilities capable of imprisoning demigods, but they're one-guest-only locations that would have to be custom created.
They do not have jails capable of keeping a full on deity like Norgorber imprisoned. Remember how much work it took to imprison Rovagug? It's POSSIBLE, but it'd be a storyline so foundational and fundamental to the setting that it would be a core part of the world's mythology, and after over a decade of talking about the world's mythology and never once mentioning something like this... I feel it's safe to say they don't exist.
Norgorber wouldn't be caught by Axis's cops anyway. He's too awesome.
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In PF1, Outsiders breathe, but do not need to eat or sleep (although they can do so if they wish).
Since Outsider is not a trait in PF2, does that mean that denizens of the Outer Sphere need to eat and sleep now?
Depends on the denizen. It's safe to assume if a creature didn't need to eat and sleep in 1st edition, that doesn't change in 2nd edition, though; those elements will only really ever impact story flavor and stuff like that, and never the rules of combat really. As such, if/when we do a product for 2nd edition that focuses on providing a lot of flavor/lore information on these creatures and not focusing on the rules for fighting and stuff, we'll say so there. But it's gonna just repeat what we said in 1st edition, so there's not a super huge push for us at this point to do a book like that... we want to do some new stuff too, after all, rather than just reprint 1st edition content over and over!
I'm working on my conversion of my homebrew setting, which takes a more shinto approach to gods, with countless gods that are present in the setting (contrasted with the all powerful PF and DND standard)and that use stat blocks of common monsters, maybe with a template. I'm working with the power level of the strongest beings in the setting, and what I'd like to know is:
Is the Empyreal Lord/Demon Lord/ etc 'demigod' (seemingly CL 25+) tier referred to in the books (what Treerazor is trying to become) something that you think may be'in play' as far as players fighting them, eventually?
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I'm working on my conversion of my homebrew setting, which takes a more shinto approach to gods, with countless gods that are present in the setting (contrasted with the all powerful PF and DND standard)and that use stat blocks of common monsters, maybe with a template. I'm working with the power level of the strongest beings in the setting, and what I'd like to know is:
Is the Empyreal Lord/Demon Lord/ etc 'demigod' (seemingly CL 25+) tier referred to in the books (what Treerazor is trying to become) something that you think may be'in play' as far as players fighting them, eventually?
Yes, that's the whole point of the demigod "tier"—to include creatures who push the boundary of what a mortal PC group can handle. At least, in Golarion. Feel free to adjust as needed for your homebrew, but keep in mind that the lower level you make your divinities, the less "permanent" they'll be since they'll be killed sooner. With the math being more supportive and workable at higher level than in 1st edition, this is even MORE likely to happen than in 1st edition because we won't need to do a stunt like Mythic Rules to justify the stat blocks.
Even in Golarion you could, technically, have a level –1 quasideity. It's just that a level –1 quasideity probably won't be around long enough to establish a cult before it gets stepped on or killed by a pig or eaten by a cat.
And it's Treerazer, with an "e" at the end. He destroys trees. He doesn't shave them. :P
Are zombies of outsiders possible?Yes. Although in 2nd edition the term "outsider" is obsolete.
So if Outsider is 'obsolete" then what do you call denizens that aren't from the Material Plane? Or have extra-planar heritage?
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So if Outsider is 'obsolete" then what do you call denizens that aren't from the Material Plane? Or have extra-planar heritage?Are zombies of outsiders possible?Yes. Although in 2nd edition the term "outsider" is obsolete.
We call them by their names, or their group names. Fiend, celestial, elemental, whatever. If we want to group them all together, I suppose we'd just call them "otherplanar creatures."
I'm working on my conversion of my homebrew setting, which takes a more shinto approach to gods, with countless gods that are present in the setting (contrasted with the all powerful PF and DND standard)and that use stat blocks of common monsters, maybe with a template. I'm working with the power level of the strongest beings in the setting, and what I'd like to know is:
Is the Empyreal Lord/Demon Lord/ etc 'demigod' (seemingly CL 25+) tier referred to in the books (what Treerazor is trying to become) something that you think may be'in play' as far as players fighting them, eventually?
Yes, that's the whole point of the demigod "tier"—to include creatures who push the boundary of what a mortal PC group can handle. At least, in Golarion. Feel free to adjust as needed for your homebrew, but keep in mind that the lower level you make your divinities, the less "permanent" they'll be since they'll be killed sooner. With the math being more supportive and workable at higher level than in 1st edition, this is even MORE likely to happen than in 1st edition because we won't need to do a stunt like Mythic Rules to justify the stat blocks.
Even in Golarion you could, technically, have a level –1 quasideity. It's just that a level –1 quasideity probably won't be around long enough to establish a cult before it gets stepped on or killed by a pig or eaten by a cat.
And it's Treerazer, with an "e" at the end. He destroys trees. He doesn't shave them. :P
Yup, I'm comfortable with gods dying (given the set up of this particular world) as an intended behavior of play for this world, their positions can be treated more as 'offices' for spirits to hold, this is the kind of setting where you might have a 'village god' or protectors of a particular river- its something like the kami of 1e, but applied to the logic of a whole world (so it has the full variety of celestial, fiends, fey, etc)
As a follow up clarification, you suggest we wouldn't need new mythic rules to do it-
do you think if such entities were statted currently (given that Treerazer is 24, and the encounter guidelines only go four levels up) that PCs would be able to deal with them using the resources core to the game (level 20, +3 magic items?)
or
did you just mean it'll be easier to design than in the past for a pf2 math reason and tack a couple of extra levels on to bring CL 25+ into range when the time comes?
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As a follow up clarification, you suggest we wouldn't need new mythic rules to do it-
do you think if such entities were statted currently (given that Treerazer is 24, and the encounter guidelines only go four levels up) that PCs would be able to deal with them using the resources core to the game (level 20, +3 magic items?)
or
did you just mean it'll be easier to design than in the past for a pf2 math reason and tack a couple of extra levels on to bring CL 25+ into range when the time comes?
The second. It's going to be easier to expand the game, I think, beyond 20th level. We have no plans to do that at this time, but I don't think we'll need to do what we did with Mythic, which was to build a half-again entirely new game.
The second. It's going to be easier to expand the game, I think, beyond 20th level. We have no plans to do that at this time, but I don't think we'll need to do what we did with Mythic, which was to build a half-again entirely new game.As a follow up clarification, you suggest we wouldn't need new mythic rules to do it-
do you think if such entities were statted currently (given that Treerazer is 24, and the encounter guidelines only go four levels up) that PCs would be able to deal with them using the resources core to the game (level 20, +3 magic items?)
or
did you just mean it'll be easier to design than in the past for a pf2 math reason and tack a couple of extra levels on to bring CL 25+ into range when the time comes?
So you expect to be able to(re-)stat Baba Yaga or a similar being without needing new 'mythic' rules?
Cool!
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So you expect to be able to(re-)stat Baba Yaga or a similar being without needing new 'mythic' rules?Cool!
It's possible, but whether or not we will... haven't decided yet. Don't wanna stat anyone of that power up until we decide what to do, if anything, to support that level of play.
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James, looking good on the chat!
Blood Mistress Jakalyn is going after Tar-Baphon????
What?
Please elaborate where you can.
I had dinner with Erik Mona and and the lovely Lou Agresta last week, I would have pressed Erik on this!
Stay tuned! More is on the way! Think of that quip as a teaser for an upcoming book, if you will. (Cause that's what it is.)
Did Ancient Thassilon have any Diviners? Or Azlant?
I ask because it appears that Divination wasn't one of the seven schools of Thassilonian magic.
I am a bit in love with the Anadi in the age of ashes books - they have a very unique and interesting design that is unique to the setting - are there plans or even just the inclination to eventually make them into a playable ancestry?
(I absolutely love when ancestries that are unique paizo creations are added).
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I am a bit in love with the Anadi in the age of ashes books - they have a very unique and interesting design that is unique to the setting - are there plans or even just the inclination to eventually make them into a playable ancestry?
(I absolutely love when ancestries that are unique paizo creations are added).
Absolutely. In fact, the original intent for them was to introduce them as a playable ancestry in "Hellknight Hill," but that was back when we were assuming the ancestry rules for players would have a footprint akin to what they are for Starfinder—AKA, about 1/4 a page, or 1/2 a page at most.
Alas, the footprint for a playable ancestry expanded to about 6 pages, so we had to abandon that idea for Hellknight Hill. Instead, we decided to just introduce them as new monsters in a way that set them up in their first encounter not as foes but as allies, to see how folks reacted to them. The reaction has been, as I'd anticipated, VERY positive, so I'm hoping that some day in the future we'll be able to present them as a full PC option.
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Why do you think are tentacles so prevalent in the aesthetics of many horror-like beings on Golarion (Great Old Ones, many qlippoth etc.)? Is there something inherently horrific about tentacles?
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Why do you think are tentacles so prevalent in the aesthetics of many horror-like beings on Golarion (Great Old Ones, many qlippoth etc.)? Is there something inherently horrific about tentacles?
It's the influence of Lovecraft to a large extent. And yes, I feel that there is something inherently horrific about them. Tentacles are a limb no human has, and thus, being inhuman, they have an element of the "other" that is intrinsically creepy. They evoke the slithering of serpents as well, another common fear among people.
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as [Nocticula’s] influence grows she'll get more and more into conflict with Abadar, who'd view exiles as traitors and would not be too happy knowing that those traitors have found somewhere safe and welcoming to go.Is Abadar hostile towards those who have been banished from their homeland?
No. He (more to the point, his church) is hostile toward those who have been exiled from cities, because in most cases they're exiled for crimes committed in or against said city.
Nocticula's worshipers accept those folks in with open arms, which causes the friction.