I wish to know how old the faith of Brigh is. Was Brigh known in the ancient Azlant? Was the Whisper in the Bronze worshipped by ancient Azlanti? Or maybe she wasn't even born before the Age of Darkness?
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Is there any significance to the symbol on Valeros' shield? When I look at it I think "heraldry", but that doesn't really seem to be a thing in Avistan.
It's just something Wayne came up with when he designed him. I think at one point we decided it was the symbol of an old mercenary band he belonged to.
We haven't really dived deep into heraldry in Golarion, in large part because we don't have a heraldry expert on staff (or if we do, we haven't had that person volunteer to help us figure out Golarion heraldry). And that said... heraldry is a very art intensive project and I'm not sure we want to use much of our art budget and our development time to do up a lot of heraldry stuff, since it doesn't have really any actual game effect.
If folks want us to do deep dives into heraldry, let us know. Not here on this thread, though. Let us know in other places on these boards.
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I wish to know how old the faith of Brigh is. Was Brigh known in the ancient Azlant? Was the Whisper in the Bronze worshipped by ancient Azlanti? Or maybe she wasn't even born before the Age of Darkness?
Brigh isn't one of the deities from my campaign setting. She was invented out of the blue by Sean K Reynolds for Gods & Magic back in the pre-Pathfinder era.
We did a big article about her in Iron Gods, but I don't recall off the top of my head if we went into her history at all in there.
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Why hasn't Absalom, City of Lost Omens not been released yet? It was supposed to be released on March 30, 2021. Surely it would have been finished a long time ago, right?TL;DR: It's taking longer because we want you to have a perfect and big book instead of an imperfect little one.
Is there any truth to the rumours that Absalom City of Lost Omens is being delayed because Paizo hasn't yet perfected the technique of cloning a tiny Erik Mona who can gush about Absalom for all eternity?
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In First Edition, dragons come with twelve age categories. Every time a dragon advances to a new stage of its lifespan, its physical might, mental acuity, and magical power grow more potent. But in Second Edition, it seems that while dragons still have the same lifespan as before, they don't have twelve age categories anymore. There are now only three age categories: young, adult, and ancient. Second Edition Bestiary doesn't give us more information regarding dragon age categories. So I ask you. In Second Edition, do dragons not have twelve age categories at all? Do dragons suddenly become more powerful when they grow from young to adult and adult to ancient, and thus there are no intermediate power levels?
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Is there any truth to the rumours that Absalom City of Lost Omens is being delayed because Paizo hasn't yet perfected the technique of cloning a tiny Erik Mona who can gush about Absalom for all eternity?Why hasn't Absalom, City of Lost Omens not been released yet? It was supposed to be released on March 30, 2021. Surely it would have been finished a long time ago, right?TL;DR: It's taking longer because we want you to have a perfect and big book instead of an imperfect little one.
No. Not really in the mood to joke about late products, either.
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In First Edition, dragons come with twelve age categories. Every time a dragon advances to a new stage of its lifespan, its physical might, mental acuity, and magical power grow more potent. But in Second Edition, it seems that while dragons still have the same lifespan as before, they don't have twelve age categories anymore. There are now only three age categories: young, adult, and ancient. Second Edition Bestiary doesn't give us more information regarding dragon age categories. So I ask you. In Second Edition, do dragons not have twelve age categories at all? Do dragons suddenly become more powerful when they grow from young to adult and adult to ancient, and thus there are no intermediate power levels?
They still age the same way as they do in 1st edition, and we've published plenty of dragons who aren't represented by one of the 3 standard age categories in the Bestiary.
Building monsters in 2nd edition is MUCH easier than in 1st, and as such, we didn't need (or want) to build a weird, unique rules subsystem to categorize how to build dragons apart from any other creature.
There are dragon-like creatures called woundwyrms in the Worldwound. Were they originally normal true dragons and then somehow forcefully transformed into woundwyrms via demonic rituals? Or are they native to the Abyss, and thus more akin to outsiders than physical creatures?
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There are dragon-like creatures called woundwyrms in the Worldwound. Were they originally normal true dragons and then somehow forcefully transformed into woundwyrms via demonic rituals? Or are they native to the Abyss, and thus more akin to outsiders than physical creatures?
They're monsters from the Abyss.
Do you know/can you say if Malevolence and/or the upcoming Galt adventure will have Adventure specific backgrounds?
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Do you know/can you say if Malevolence and/or the upcoming Galt adventure will have Adventure specific backgrounds?
Nope. That's not really a great thing to put in a standalone adventure, since the whole point of those is that they get fitted into ongoing campaigns. Furthermore, they're mostly starting at levels above 1st level, so spending a few pages on backgrounds for PCs that are very likely to have been created well before the adventure happens is wasted space.
We try to set these up to give GMs advice on how to adjust the adventure here and there to fit the established truths of the PCs' backgrounds, though.
For Malevolence in particular, one suggested hook is to have a PC be the unexpected beneficiary of an inherited manor, which the GM will need to massage and adjust to fit the chosen PC's background. But that hook has no player character options or background stuff that the player can choose on their own.
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Are there cases where demigods or quasi-deities worship, or are their relationships with gods (those that have them, that is) more along the lines of master/servant rather than god/follower? For instance, while still a demigod was Arazni a worshipper of Aroden, or just a loyal flunky?
It varies in a case by case basis. Arazni, and Iomedae after, were certainly worshipers of Aroden while he lived (althoguh in Iomedae's case that was increasingly a case of her seeing the flaws in her deity and taking actions upon herself to do better and show her fellow worshipers "you can be better than the god you worship").
Or there's how the archdevils serve Asmodeus as employees.
Or there's how Black Butterfly kind of has a little sister relationship with Desna.
But generally, a divinity won't have cleric powers. That's not really appropriate for a divinity to have.
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Has it been revealed who the current monarch of Korvosa is? I couldn't find it in the World Guide or in Legends
Cressida Kroft is the one who took the crown. I thought I put that into what I wrote for the Saga Lands in the Lost Omens World Guide, or maybe even along with a sidebar, but I'm not finding it now either. Might have gotten into another book... but regardless, she's the one who's the current Queen of Korvosa. At least in the short term; I've bumped around in my head some ideas for how to explore that whole post-Crimson Throne storyline for a bit but so far, there hasn't been much of a window to do another Varisia themed thing.
EDIT: OH! Nevermind! I got some of this info in before the edition change, in part 3 of Return of the Runelords!
This is a First Edition question. Inner Sea Gods provides information regarding paladin code of Abadar, Erastil, Iomedae, Sarenrae, Shelyn, and Torag, and antipaladin code of Calistria, Lamashtu, Norgorber, Rovagug, and Urgathoa. Inner Sea Faiths provides information regarding paladin code of Alseta, Apsu, and Kurgess, and antipaladin code of Besmara, Dahak, Hanspur, and Zyphus. As we can find out, those gods whose alignment is one step away from lawful good or chaotic evil allow paladins or antipaladins among their faithful. But strangely, Irori and Gorum don't have the paladin/antipaladin code sidebar, even though their alignment is one step away from lawful good and chaotic evil. What's more, Ghlaunder and Gyronna don't have antipaladin code sidebar as well, even though they are chaotic evil. I mean, even those neutral evil gods like Norgorber and Urgathoa have chaotic evil antipaladins, but chaotic evil gods like Ghalunder and Gyronna don't have one? It doesn't make any sense. So I ask you. Why do Irori, Ghlaunder, Gorum, and Gyronna not have paladin/antipaladin code sidebar? An editorial error, perhaps?
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This is a First Edition question. Inner Sea Gods provides information regarding paladin code of Abadar, Erastil, Iomedae, Sarenrae, Shelyn, and Torag, and antipaladin code of Calistria, Lamashtu, Norgorber, Rovagug, and Urgathoa. Inner Sea Faiths provides information regarding paladin code of Alseta, Apsu, and Kurgess, and antipaladin code of Besmara, Dahak, Hanspur, and Zyphus. As we can find out, those gods whose alignment is one step away from lawful good or chaotic evil allow paladins or antipaladins among their faithful. But strangely, Irori and Gorum don't have the paladin/antipaladin code sidebar, even though their alignment is one step away from lawful good and chaotic evil. What's more, Ghlaunder and Gyronna don't have antipaladin code sidebar as well, even though they are chaotic evil. I mean, even those neutral evil gods like Norgorber and Urgathoa have chaotic evil antipaladins, but chaotic evil gods like Ghalunder and Gyronna don't have one? It doesn't make any sense. So I ask you. Why do Irori, Ghlaunder, Gorum, and Gyronna not have paladin/antipaladin code sidebar? An editorial error, perhaps?
Not an error at all but a deliberate choice. Not every faith has a paladin or antipaladin order. That's not something that was decided by alignment; it was decided on a case by case basis for each deity.
In Second Edition, a deity grants worshippers divine font. Good deities grant heal, evil deities grant harm, and neutral deities grant both. But I found out in Core Rulebook that Gozreh and Pharasma grant heal only even though they are neutral, and Lamashtu grant both harm and heal even though she is evil. And in Gods & Magic, I found out that Alseta and Nocticula grant heal and Groetus grants harm only, even though they are neutral. Is it a deliberate choice? If so, maybe Lamashtu is not so evil after all, since she is the only evil deity that grants heal.
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In Second Edition, a deity grants worshippers divine font. Good deities grant heal, evil deities grant harm, and neutral deities grant both. But I found out in Core Rulebook that Gozreh and Pharasma grant heal only even though they are neutral, and Lamashtu grant both harm and heal even though she is evil. And in Gods & Magic, I found out that Alseta and Nocticula grant heal and Groetus grants harm only, even though they are neutral. Is it a deliberate choice? If so, maybe Lamashtu is not so evil after all, since she is the only evil deity that grants heal.
It's not as simple as "Good gives heal and evil gives harm." It varies by deity. We pick and choose what fits the deity's flavor best on a case by case basis. Healing isn't intrinsically a good act, and harm spells aren't intrinsically evil. It's easier to do good with heal and evil with harm, but that doesn't make those evil or good.
It's decided by art, not math, in this case.
On the cover of Gods & Magic, we can find Cayden Cailean, Iomedae, and Norgorber. Why among all gods were they chosen as the cover models? Is it because they are the three most popular deities in the Inner Sea region?
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There is 1 hard wording: Pathfinder AP and Pathfinder Adventures allowed in Community Use?
They are. Remember the big thing for Community Use is that you're not allowed to sell what you make.
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On the cover of Gods & Magic, we can find Cayden Cailean, Iomedae, and Norgorber. Why among all gods were they chosen as the cover models? Is it because they are the three most popular deities in the Inner Sea region?
Because they're the three ascended deities who took the Test of the Starstone.
That doesn't mean they're the most popular at all. Never have we said "We only put the most popular things on the cover."
I think some deities have inappropriate domains: Abadar's Earth domain, Desna's Moon domain, and Rovagug's Swarm domain. Can you tell me how are these domains related to these deities? Especially Desna, since she has always been depicted as the goddess of the stars, not the moon. She doesn't even live on the moon; her realm is on Cynosure, a distant star. Surely she cannot be considered as the goddess of the moon, right?
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I think some deities have inappropriate domains: Abadar's Earth domain, Desna's Moon domain, and Rovagug's Swarm domain. Can you tell me how are these domains related to these deities? Especially Desna, since she has always been depicted as the goddess of the stars, not the moon. She doesn't even live on the moon; her realm is on Cynosure, a distant star. Surely she cannot be considered as the goddess of the moon, right?
Abadar: Lots of wealth in "earth" like gold and gemstones.
Desna: We don't have a stars domain or an outer space domain in the Core Rules, so moon is the next best thing for representing outer space for her.
Then if the Stars domain was included in Core Rulebook, would Desna have received the Stars domain instead of the Moon domain?
Rovagug has the Swarm and the Void domains as his alternate domains. The Void seems appropriate since he's the god of destruction. But what about the Swarm domain? While he looks like a worm, he has nothing to do with vermin and does not rule over them. How is he related to the Swarm domain?
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Rovagug has the Swarm and the Void domains as his alternate domains. The Void seems appropriate since he's the god of destruction. But what about the Swarm domain? While he looks like a worm, he has nothing to do with vermin and does not rule over them. How is he related to the Swarm domain?
Swarms are creepy and bug themed and Rovagug has thematic ties to bugs and vermin.
And bear in mind that domains are not things that deities personify or have to "be." They're categories of supernatural power and magic that they grant their clerics to allow them to do the things their faith wants them to do.
Gods & Magic provided us the statistics and the mechanical information required to play a champion, cleric, or other worshipper of some deities. I really wish to see similar information about Deskari and Unity, who are confirmed dead and thus will never be able to be given such information in Second Edition. Maybe someday in the future, will you kindly write such information on the Paizo blog post, please?
How do the novels fit into the lore behind the Lost Omens line.
e.g. just finished "Lord of Runes" and the "Pathfinder Society Guide".
In "Lord of Runes" Radovan is given a barony at the end, in the "Pathfinder Society Guide" it is mentioned that he still is Varians bodyguard.
Mistake? Oversight? Deliberate?
How do you store your pawns?
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Gods & Magic provided us the statistics and the mechanical information required to play a champion, cleric, or other worshipper of some deities. I really wish to see similar information about Deskari and Unity, who are confirmed dead and thus will never be able to be given such information in Second Edition. Maybe someday in the future, will you kindly write such information on the Paizo blog post, please?
We can't publish all the rules for everything at once, so some things will end up being published later or, in some cases, never. For something like Unity or Deskari, which are divinities intended to be opposing forces and enemies to the PCs, and who are assumed to have been defeated in 1st edition, chances of us doing player-facing rules for those two in particular, in 2nd edition, are close to zero.
Furthermore, apart from a few pieces of fiction now and then, I'm not doing any blog posts at all these days, so if I were to do one, I'd do something that I'm passionate about and not something I already covered and finished the story of.
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How do the novels fit into the lore behind the Lost Omens line.
e.g. just finished "Lord of Runes" and the "Pathfinder Society Guide".
In "Lord of Runes" Radovan is given a barony at the end, in the "Pathfinder Society Guide" it is mentioned that he still is Varians bodyguard.
Mistake? Oversight? Deliberate?
We try to make sure that the novels fit into the lore, but there's a lot of novels and not all of our writers and developers have read them all. Furthermore, all the editors who worked significantly on the novel line have moved on from Paizo years ago for other opportunities, so the institutional knowledge of the novels' contents is very eroded and sparse.
We try, but we'll miss things. So I'd count the thing you mention above for Radovan's barony as being an oversight.
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How do you store your pawns?
In the boxes they come in, often with the shrink wrap still on. I love that we offer these options for folks to use, but I prefer to use miniatures in my games, so getting pawns out and putting them back pretty much never happens for me.
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I know you stated losing interest in isekai-type adventures (someone from our world in a fantasy one, for those unfamiliar with the term), likely since they've become saturated with cliche, but do you think the genre is redeemable? If so, how? They did use to be interesting back when they were heroines' adventures rather than boys' power (and sex) fantasies. But maybe you have something else in mind?
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I know you stated losing interest in isekai-type adventures (someone from our world in a fantasy one, for those unfamiliar with the term), likely since they've become saturated with cliche, but do you think the genre is redeemable? If so, how? They did use to be interesting back when they were heroines' adventures rather than boys' power (and sex) fantasies. But maybe you have something else in mind?
I've never really been interested in that trope, to be honest. The closest I've ever come to enjoying it was as a kid with the D&D Saturday Morning cartoon, but even then, that part of the show was my least favorite. They've hardly "just now" been saturated with cliche, I feel. And as long as men are writers, the male power/sex fantasy trope will be a subset of that. Nothing new there either.
It's absolutely possible to do stories well with that trope, for sure. The popularity of "The Princess Bride" proves it. I don't think it needs to be redeemed at all. It's obviously a trope a lot of people love. Just because I don't enjoy it doesn't mean it's not valuable. It certainly doesn't need to be redeemed. I feel that things are at their worst when they're trying to appeal to the people who don't or aren't interested in that thing. Play to your audience, respect your audience, and don't try to change just because some folks have other preferences.
I suppose my favorite "person getting involved in a fantasy setting from the real world" takes place in the Dark Tower books, where Stephen King writes himself into the story as a character. That was done very well, I think, and was really powerful and compelling.
I know you stated losing interest in isekai-type adventures (someone from our world in a fantasy one, for those unfamiliar with the term), likely since they've become saturated with cliche, but do you think the genre is redeemable? If so, how? They did use to be interesting back when they were heroines' adventures rather than boys' power (and sex) fantasies. But maybe you have something else in mind?I've never really been interested in that trope, to be honest. The closest I've ever come to enjoying it was as a kid with the D&D Saturday Morning cartoon, but even then, that part of the show was my least favorite. They've hardly "just now" been saturated with cliche, I feel. And as long as men are writers, the male power/sex fantasy trope will be a subset of that. Nothing new there either.
It's absolutely possible to do stories well with that trope, for sure. The popularity of "The Princess Bride" proves it. I don't think it needs to be redeemed at all. It's obviously a trope a lot of people love. Just because I don't enjoy it doesn't mean it's not valuable. It certainly doesn't need to be redeemed. I feel that things are at their worst when they're trying to appeal to the people who don't or aren't interested in that thing. Play to your audience, respect your audience, and don't try to change just because some folks have other preferences.
It's god to see you're okay with isekai stories since...I often daydream about them. ^_^;
So let's suppose I make up such a story, and because making up my own companions feels too much like cheating I look into NPCs. Assuming I'm in Sandpoint circa AR 4708, who in town has adventuring spirit?
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So let's suppose I make up such a story, and because making up my own companions feels too much like cheating I look into NPCs. Assuming I'm in Sandpoint circa AR 4708, who in town has adventuring spirit?
** spoiler omitted **
Ameiko of course, depending on when you show up in town. But apart from her, I could see most of the NPCs that got stat blocks in the Sandpoint book getting into the adventurer lifestyle, given the right circumstances.
What's the relationship between Pharasma and Groetus? How would a Pharasma worshipper and a Groetus worshipper see each other/interact?
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What's the relationship between Pharasma and Groetus? How would a Pharasma worshipper and a Groetus worshipper see each other/interact?
They pretty much ignore each other. Not much interaction between the two even though they both live on the same plane. They aren't enemies, but they aren't allies either.
Worshipers are a different story. The two faiths aren't supposed to clash, but they can, especially when Groetus worship tends to the evil side and they start getting involved with undeath or trying to engineer apocalypses.
Is there any official source regarding offspring of a human / dwarf, human / halfling, dwarf / elf, orc / elf and so on unions?
Second Edition Core Rulebook and Gods & Magic lists alignments that a deity accepts from worshippers. For example, Pharasma has no chaotic neutral and neutral evil in her follower alignments entry, and Groetus has no chaotic good and neutral in his follower alignments entry. I'm not sure. Does this restriction apply to divine spellcasters only? Or does it apply to all worshippers? I mean, if a neutral evil or chaotic good human worship and pray to Pharasma or Groetus, would they simply ignore his worship and pray because they do not tolerate his alignment?
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Second Edition Core Rulebook and Gods & Magic lists alignments that a deity accepts from worshippers. For example, Pharasma has no chaotic neutral and neutral evil in her follower alignments entry, and Groetus has no chaotic good and neutral in his follower alignments entry. I'm not sure. Does this restriction apply to divine spellcasters only? Or does it apply to all worshippers? I mean, if a neutral evil or chaotic good human worship and pray to Pharasma or Groetus, would they simply ignore his worship and pray because they do not tolerate his alignment?
It applies specifically to classes who say it does. So far, that's clerics and paladins. It also applies to characters who seek to worship the deity without being heretics or blasphemers. It does not apply to characters who give lip service to a deity or worship a pantheon.
What's the relationship between Pharasma and Groetus? How would a Pharasma worshipper and a Groetus worshipper see each other/interact?They pretty much ignore each other. Not much interaction between the two even though they both live on the same plane. They aren't enemies, but they aren't allies either.
Worshipers are a different story. The two faiths aren't supposed to clash, but they can, especially when Groetus worship tends to the evil side and they start getting involved with undeath or trying to engineer apocalypses.
I'm not sure. Do Groetus and his worshippers tend to the evil side? Clearly he's not evil. So I have no idea why it is forbidden to make a chaotic good or neutral cleric of Groetus. The same applies to Pharasma as well, because I can no longer make a neutral evil cleric of her. Sigh. What's so wrong with a neutral evil cleric of Pharasma?
Hi, James! You've mentioned that you're a Call of Cthulhu player/Keeper, at least occasionally. (You're an amazing Keeper, BTW: I played in a CoC game you ran at PaizoCon 2019, and I had a blast! My character even survived!)
Aside from Pathfinder/Starfinder, do you play any other RPGs these days?
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Hi, James! You've mentioned that you're a Call of Cthulhu player/Keeper, at least occasionally. (You're an amazing Keeper, BTW: I played in a CoC game you ran at PaizoCon 2019, and I had a blast! My character even survived!)
Aside from Pathfinder/Starfinder, do you play any other RPGs these days?
Nope. The pandemic making me have to play via VTT has really limited my opportunities to play any games, and I am increasingly coming to the realization that virtual tabletops don't mesh well with my preferred style of gaming. I value tabletop games as a social event, and as a team-based game, and with a VTT it's too easy for players to forget that they're in a group and not just "the star of the show" and dominating the storyline and treating other players like sidekicks. Or too easy for players to not give their full attention to the game and thus disrespect the other players and GMs by doing things like falling asleep or going AFK for long periods. I tend toward trying to be patient and polite in virtual meetings, be they work meetings or VTT games, but all that's really gotten me is being ignored more often than in physical situations, and that erodes my interest in the game.
So I have been gaming increasingly less during the past 15 months than before, and that means less time to try other RPGs.