James,
What is the sound of one tentacle clapping?
Wouldn't a tentacle make more of a flapping noise?
Dear Mr. Jacobs,
any chance of a little sneak peek regarding the 15(?) new gods of the upcoming Dragon Empires?
Thank´s for the answer!
It seems my last post was deleted.
1)Are there any places/structures on Golarion like stone hendge, easter island, the dolemen,coral castle, the carnac stones, or the lighthouse of alexander?
2)Does the innersea have something like the "7 wonders"?
3)How many Azatas(if none then Angels or Agathions) made into the Beastairy 3?
4)Is there any location on Golarion that you would classify as a paradise?
5)We have Metalics, Chromatics, Primals, and Imperials, do you have any idea what the next group of true dragons is going to be called/themed?
6)We know that the cyclops once had an great and advanced society but what about the other Giants?
7)When did Halflings first come about on Golarion?
James, do you or any of the Paizo staffers (that you know of, of course) use the Perception distance rules as written? In other words, most people in the world with their average wisdom and 0-1 ranks in Perception have about a 50/50 chance of seeing somebody ("notice a visible creature") standing 100 ft. away on a sunny day. 200 ft. away they can't be seen at all.
Or is this one of those rules that a GM needs to use common sense instead of the modifiers listed in the table? If yes, why have the distance modifier in there at all?
(I know, more of a developer question, but I'm interested in your take)
edit: for reference, this did come up in a game, but I'm the GM so I'm not getting ammo against a GM unless I have multiple personalities
How would you sunder a belly button? and what penalties would you impose on such a check?If I wear a magic ring, does it have to be on my finger, or can it be a... different type of ring?I would never do it because then IT would be a target for a sundering attempt.
Well, nobody wears armor in this campaign setting (we've all got fantasy rifles), so an armor bonus for the navel ring isn't happening. I suppose treat it as any other sunder attempt. It's not really any different than sundering a necklace.
If I wear a magic ring, does it have to be on my finger, or can it be a... different type of ring?If it were allowed you still couldn't get an additional benefit because IT would replace a hand slot.
I know. I was planning to house rule that you get two ring slots, but they don't have to be your fingers, but I wanted to know if that is already a rule that makes house ruling unnecessary.
what dinosaurs will the bestiary 3 have?
Creative Director
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now I'd have to ask why the oracle does have a way to lose spellcasting etc, when the monk, barbarian, cleric, druid and paladin do have a this or else clause....
and according to the wiki, oracles didnt worship deities but a set of them or did I misread/ misunderstand something...
Methods of losing spellcasting are not in there for rules balance. They're in there 100% for flavor. Part of the oracle's flavor is that she gets her divine powers from her own faith and mysteries, and that means that, unlike many other divine spellcasters who are tied to deities or alignments, she doesn't really run a chance of losing her powers.
She does have oracle curses, though, which is something clerics and paladins don't need to worry about.
As for he wiki... the wiki isn't always right. Orcales CAN worship single deities, but they don't get their spells from deities. Most oracles do not worship single deities simply because if that's what you want a divine spellcaster to do, you might as well just play a cleric.
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1)When you say post apocalyptic setting do mean for Golarion or Earth?
2)Did you hear that in season 2 of Game of thrones they are going to kill of a character that didn't die in the book? and no I do not know who.
3)What about monsters like Monky Bees, Sheet phantom, Giant Space hamster, Bowler, Stench Kow, Evil Squirels, Raggamuffin, or Bonnacon for misfits?
4)Have you seen the movies "Squirm", "Slugs", or "Ticks"? if so did you like them?
5)Do you have a favorite movie soundtrack?
1) I absolutely mean postapocalyptic Earth. The primary attraction of the postapocalyptic genre is seeing familiar stuff in the light of ruin and devastation; that doesn't work for an imaginary land like Golarion, where things are unfamiliar by design.
2) I didn't hear that, and I'd rather keep spoilers like that out of this thread.
3) Most of those are pretty lame and not worth saving in my opinion.
4) Yes to all three. They were fun. I liked Ticks the best, which kind of surprised me. I wasn't expecting much from that one.
5)Yes. Conan the Barbarian. Obvious choice, but overall it's the best movie soundtrack ever. Close runners up include: The Thing, Jaws, Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and Halloween.
If I wear a magic ring, does it have to be on my finger, or can it be a... different type of ring?Basically, you can use two rings at a time. If your GM is cool with it, you don't have to wear a ring on a finger... but you're still limited to two magic rings on your body overall.
That's what I was planning to rule. I just wanted to know if that is already the rule, or if there is a specific reason you aren't supposed to do it.
Yes. My GMPC gets her magic navel ring :D
Would you allow technobabble and incomprehensible scientific terms as the "language" for an oracle's tongues curse? The oracle's visions of the future are heavily focused on the future of science and technology, and I thought that curse would fit in with the theme of a techno-oracle.
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Another few questions now I know you came up with the Julajimus.
1) Where did you get the inspiration of the Julajimus from? Was it a myth, the Wolf-in-sheep-clothing or anything else? I always search for monsters I like on the GOOGLE, but Julajimus only got D&D results... I really wanted to know more.
2) Do you have background info on the Julajimus that we didn't read in MONSTER MANUAL 2 (3rd edition) yet? Please share!
Julajimus was together with Morkoth and Gravorg my favorite Monster Manual 2 creature, I only wished its picture would be more like the Julajimus found in a Dragon Magazine, the monster manual 2 art was a bit blurry. (are there any other artworks for the Julajimus found anywhere?
Thanks again of course!
1) The julajimus was inspired by horror movies where a teddy bear or other cute little harmless thing suddenly grows giant and murderous. And linking its true form to a baboon was inspired by the fact that I've always thought baboons were horribly frightening, in part due to a few old pictures of them showing their teeth in a Time Life nature book my parents had when I was a kid, and in part due to the old and obscure movie In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro, which was about baboons starting to eat people.
2) The Julajimus first appeared in Dragon magazine. In annual #5, if I remember correctly. They were, in that article, heavily tied to the religion of Tharizdun; there's more info about them in there. I first made them up for my homebrew world years before that, though; I assume I've got that info stashed away somewhere on a harddrive... I wasn't a huge fan of the Julajimus art in Monster Manual 2. My favorite picture of a Julajimus was the one that appeared in the Savage Tide Adventure Path, in the adventure "City of Broken Idols" (Part 7 of Savage Tide, If I Recall Correctly).
Will we see the Julajimus in a Pathfinder product?
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1)Are there any places/structures on Golarion that are like Stone hendge, Easter island, Coral castle, Carnac stones, or the Lighthouse of Alexandria?
2)Does the innersea area have "7 wonders" of it's own?
3)How many Azatas(if none them Angels or Agathions instead) made it into the Beastairy 3?
4)Is there any location on Golarion that you would classify as a paradise?
5)We have chromatics, metalics, primals, and imperials, do you have any ideas of what the next group of true dragons would be called/themed?
1) Yes. For example, Easter Island's statues, in fact, were the primary inspiration for the new look to Pathfinder's stone giants. And there's a stonehenge type location coming up in 2012 in a module we've not yet announced.
2) No.
3) None. At least, I think there were none.
4) Sandpoint.
5) I do have ideas, but I won't be sharing them for a while.
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It seems my last post was deleted.
1)Are there any places/structures on Golarion like stone hendge, easter island, the dolemen,coral castle, the carnac stones, or the lighthouse of alexander?
2)Does the innersea have something like the "7 wonders"?
3)How many Azatas(if none then Angels or Agathions) made into the Beastairy 3?
4)Is there any location on Golarion that you would classify as a paradise?
5)We have Metalics, Chromatics, Primals, and Imperials, do you have any idea what the next group of true dragons is going to be called/themed?
6)We know that the cyclops once had an great and advanced society but what about the other Giants?
7)When did Halflings first come about on Golarion?
The post mostly showed up for me... sans the last two questions. I've answered them above, but the last two are below.
6) Check the article about stone giants in Pathfinder #4; that goes into pretty deep detail. The giants of Avistan have a long history with Thassilon; they were enslaved by the runelords, who used them to build all the big monuments that still exist in northwestern Avistan today.
7) Dunno. That's one of the big mysteries of Golarion.
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James, do you or any of the Paizo staffers (that you know of, of course) use the Perception distance rules as written? In other words, most people in the world with their average wisdom and 0-1 ranks in Perception have about a 50/50 chance of seeing somebody ("notice a visible creature") standing 100 ft. away on a sunny day. 200 ft. away they can't be seen at all.
Or is this one of those rules that a GM needs to use common sense instead of the modifiers listed in the table? If yes, why have the distance modifier in there at all?
(I know, more of a developer question, but I'm interested in your take)
edit: for reference, this did come up in a game, but I'm the GM so I'm not getting ammo against a GM unless I have multiple personalities
I do use the rules as written... but ONLY for things that are hard to see or that have an immediate combat effect (aka, a Stealth check is involved). When there's an encounter with something that isn't trying to make a Stealth check... the PCs can see it if it's in line of sight pretty much automatically. If it's really really far away... it's not an encounter, so I don't worry about it. It's absoultely a case where we rely on a GM's common sense to help keep an already probably too-big book from being bigger.
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Would you allow technobabble and incomprehensible scientific terms as the "language" for an oracle's tongues curse? The oracle's visions of the future are heavily focused on the future of science and technology, and I thought that curse would fit in with the theme of a techno-oracle.
ONLY if she was an oracle of something science fictiony.
Would you allow technobabble and incomprehensible scientific terms as the "language" for an oracle's tongues curse? The oracle's visions of the future are heavily focused on the future of science and technology, and I thought that curse would fit in with the theme of a techno-oracle.ONLY if she was an oracle of something science fictiony.
What would you have her be an oracle of? I'm still trying to figure out what to choose.
Will we see the Julajimus in a Pathfinder product?Nope. The julajimus is owned by Wizards of the Coast and they haven't yet (and likely never will) put it into the 3.5 SRD.
But you made it yourself, didn't you? Doesn't that mean you can use it?
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What would you have her be an oracle of? I'm still trying to figure out what to choose.Would you allow technobabble and incomprehensible scientific terms as the "language" for an oracle's tongues curse? The oracle's visions of the future are heavily focused on the future of science and technology, and I thought that curse would fit in with the theme of a techno-oracle.ONLY if she was an oracle of something science fictiony.
I'd end up designing an entirely new mystery. Something like the "Star Mount" mystery or "Skymetal" mystery or something like that.
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But you made it yourself, didn't you? Doesn't that mean you can use it?Will we see the Julajimus in a Pathfinder product?Nope. The julajimus is owned by Wizards of the Coast and they haven't yet (and likely never will) put it into the 3.5 SRD.
I can use it in my home game (just as anyone else can), but I basically "sold" it to Wizards of the Coast when I statted it up in that Dragon magazine article. They own the intellectual property of the monster now, and as such, I (nor anyone else not Wizards of the Coast) can't legally publish it or do anything with it, anymore than we can produce stats for Mickey Mouse.
That's actually pretty much the norm for working for an RPG company, in fact. It's no big deal... but if you're writing for an RPG company (including Paizo) you need to realize that anything you write for the company is something you're selling to them and thus not something you can retain the rights to.
1. What kind of faith is required to maintain divine magic? (...)
2. Those things that can grant divine magic - spirits, deities, philosophies, concepts - do they in turn draw power from the faith of others? (...)
3. Do deities require worship to remain divine?
1) The type of faith that you believe in without needing to worry about facts or whether or not it's the right kind of faith to believe in.
2) Unclear; we're actually deliberate obscure as to where the source of divine magic comes from.
3) Nope. Not in Golarion. They do in the Forgotten Realms, but not in Golarion.
Thank you! : )
On a related note to 1), are there oracles on Golarion whose faith resembles real-world ceremonial magick-with-a-k in that the practitioner considers themselves to be manipulating, coercing or controlling magical forces, but at the same time regards these forces as divine? Basically hermetic occultists in the vein of Joseph Curwen rather than priests? Or is that strictly wizard territory?
On a related note to 2), is there any difference between arcane and divine magic once a spell is cast, i.e. do they somehow use different magical energy bandwidths? I ask because it would affect whether or not you could tell whether a spell being used is arcane or divine if there are no component cues to go on, as well as whether or not a magic item was made by divine or arcane magic, going only by its aura and not by its design and decoration.
But you made it yourself, didn't you? Doesn't that mean you can use it?Will we see the Julajimus in a Pathfinder product?Nope. The julajimus is owned by Wizards of the Coast and they haven't yet (and likely never will) put it into the 3.5 SRD.I can use it in my home game (just as anyone else can), but I basically "sold" it to Wizards of the Coast when I statted it up in that Dragon magazine article. They own the intellectual property of the monster now, and as such, I (nor anyone else not Wizards of the Coast) can't legally publish it or do anything with it, anymore than we can produce stats for Mickey Mouse.
That's actually pretty much the norm for working for an RPG company, in fact. It's no big deal... but if you're writing for an RPG company (including Paizo) you need to realize that anything you write for the company is something you're selling to them and thus not something you can retain the rights to.
Lol, Wizard got the rights of all the bizare, cool and unique-special-powers creatures, I wished they did this instead for boring creaturs such as fan favorite Hobgoblins which I never liked anyway, or Mites, Half-Orcs and Tieflings... ;)
Another question then: Which monsters did you create for D&D books, apart from Julajimus.
Why did Wizards decide not to use the OGL for 4E?
James. My oldest cat is currently being pushed around the kitchen floor like a mop-head by her children, five of them, trying to suckle at 11 months old. Should I save her or just continue to sit here laughing?
Really? You don't know about the Locate City Bomb? It's like a tactical nuke for medieval people.
Here's how it works. Cast the spell Locate City with snowcasting, flash frost spell, energy substitution (electricity), born of three thunders, and explosive spell applied. Congratulations. You just unleashed a 10 mile per level radius attack spell that does 5280 d6 damage per level with a 4th level spell slot.
It's just about the deadliest thing in D&D 3.5.
Sounds like you're using a lot of niche powers that I've never heard of from books I've never read. Needless to say... this type of thing is one of the unfortunate side effects of printing more and more books—you can balance interactions between spells and powers and the like pretty well in a single core rulebook, but every new book you add, and every new author you add to those books, and every new developer who works on them makes it more and more likely that unknown and unforeseen combinations like this will sneak into the game.
It's unfortunate, but not a game breaker, because the game has an EXCELLENT guardian against things like this happening—the GM. When a player discovers a broken combo like that, it's fun, but a responsible GM realizes that's not what the designer intended (if only because there's no other effect in the rules that allow 5480d6 damage per level with a 4th level spell slot... or with ANY spell slot), and disallows the combination in his or her game. Problem solved.
Yeah, plus many players think that in Forgotten Realms they can use spells from Scarred Lands and vice versa. But, a lot of times world specific spells can be more powerful outside of the world they were created for. I know Scarred Lands had quite a few spells that one of my friends just loved, and I none of the GMs would let him use it cause it was perfectly fine in Scarred Lands where the world is very harsh, but in most others... It's not balanced.
As for the paladins thing (not quoting), I very much love the Pathfinder writeup of paladins and their moral code much better than the way original D&D did it. I find it much more playable both as a GM and as a player, and more in tune IMO to the way a paladin should act.
Why did Wizards decide not to use the OGL for 4E?
IANJ, and being in the industry I'm sure he can tell you more (and if I am wrong) but the way I understood it, there were a few reasons.
1. Only a few select publishers actually followed the rules 100%(Paizo of course top among them).
2. Even with those who did follow the rules, it created a LARGE amount of competition against their own product. Just for example, actual numbers I have no clue, but of say 10,000 D&D splat books sold, maybe 100 were published by them, therefore actually made THEM any money.
While the OGL was a wonderful and progressive idea, in the end it was more of a pain I think for them than it was worth to continue it for 4th edition. Some people (and I am on the fence) think the removal of the OGL was a huge factor in why 4th edition even exists.
They let the cats out of the bag, left no way to put them back in, so the only way to escape is to move to a fenced in community with anti-cat lasers all around the perimeter!
(OMG WotC hates cats!)
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On a related note to 1), are there oracles on Golarion whose faith resembles real-world ceremonial magick-with-a-k in that the practitioner considers themselves to be manipulating, coercing or controlling magical forces, but at the same time regards these forces as divine? Basically hermetic occultists in the vein of Joseph Curwen rather than priests? Or is that strictly wizard territory?
On a related note to 2), is there any difference between arcane and divine magic once a spell is cast, i.e. do they somehow use different magical energy bandwidths? I ask because it would affect whether or not you could tell whether a spell being used is arcane or divine if there are no component cues to go on, as well as whether or not a magic item was made by divine or arcane magic, going only by its aura and not by its design and decoration.
Related to 1) Absolutely. Some parts of the Whispering Way might get like this, for example.
Related to 2) They do indeed use different "bandwidths." For most effects, though, that doesn't matter. There are exceptions; scrolls, for example, have to be used by the right spellcaster. Whether or not you could tell if a spell was arcane or divine when it was cast is merely a factor of identifying the spell with a Spellcraft check.
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Lol, Wizard got the rights of all the bizare, cool and unique-special-powers creatures, I wished they did this instead for boring creaturs such as fan favorite Hobgoblins which I never liked anyway, or Mites, Half-Orcs and Tieflings... ;)
Another question then: Which monsters did you create for D&D books, apart from Julajimus.
Depends on what you count as "bizarre, cool, and uniuqe." There's PLENTY of monsters in the SRD with those kind of powers. Rust monster, gelatinous cube, all the outsiders, intellect devourers... hundreds of them. And there's hundreds more that we've made up in the past several years as well.
As for what monsters I created for D&D? Dozens... maybe hundreds. Had my first monsters published back in Dungeon #24—the draknor and the ulitharid. I was one of the authors of the 3.5 Fiend Folio. I wrote dozens of Dragon articles with monsters. Did lots of them in other hardcover books like Lords of Madness, Frostburn, Fiendish Codex I, and so on. And that doesn't even touch the issues of Dungeon magazine where I was an editor/editor in chief, from issues 103 to 150... which had a lot of monsters that I didn't design but I certainly developed (along with lots of monsters I did design).
A full list would take me hours to build, in other words.
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James. My oldest cat is currently being pushed around the kitchen floor like a mop-head by her children, five of them, trying to suckle at 11 months old. Should I save her or just continue to sit here laughing?
This was asked an hour ago, so if you're still laughing, it's too late to save her. That is pretty funny, though.
James, I've been batting around an idea for a heavily political game in southern Avistan, and I was wonder - given the dearth of resources Cheliax has been able to (or willing) to lend to Isger, would they really be in a position to re-capture it in the event that it was conquered.
Also, concerning Princess Eutropia, in Taldor... Is she given any appreciable detail in any of the campaign setting supplements? Do you think she would be willing or able to instigate a civil war in Taldor, or would she be willing to raise an army to conquer it from without, perhaps through alliance or marriage?
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Curious about something that happened in a D&D game I was in last night.
We killed a Jaberwocky and the GM declared that it turned to dust when it died just so one player couldn't use create undead on it. This happened again later with a black dragon. Is this cheating on the GM's part because he is only doing it to prevent this player from getting a decent advantage?
Not trying to get GM ammo here. Just want to know so I can avoid being the kind of GM that screws over players when it is my turn to GM a pathfinder game. We take turns running a campaign every time an adventure comes out, like Kingmaker and Carrion Crown. The pirate based adventure, which I can not remember the name of, is my turn to run.
Non-gaming question: Do you watch the series Supernatural? If so, without spoiling for everyone else, what do you think of the most recent episode and what was your favourite episode?
If the GM is just trying to prevent a PC from making zombie minions... first of all, if you're fighting black dragons and jabberwocks, I'm not sure why the GM is afraid of a PC having zombies, since they're really not THAT powerful. If it's more powerful undead... even then, the things you can create with create undead and create greater undead just aren't all that tough. So I'm honestly confused as to why the GM keeps having the monsters turn to dust. Unless, of course, that's part of the plot of the campaign. In other words... I know less about your campaign than you do, so it's impossible for me to say if the GM is cheating or not.
I can say this: monsters don't normally turn to dust when they die.
As for Supernatural... I haven't watched the show yet, but I've got it in my Netflix queue...
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James, I've been batting around an idea for a heavily political game in southern Avistan, and I was wonder - given the dearth of resources Cheliax has been able to (or willing) to lend to Isger, would they really be in a position to re-capture it in the event that it was conquered.
Also, concerning Princess Eutropia, in Taldor... Is she given any appreciable detail in any of the campaign setting supplements? Do you think she would be willing or able to instigate a civil war in Taldor, or would she be willing to raise an army to conquer it from without, perhaps through alliance or marriage?
We've done a player's companion on Taldor, but beyond that we haven't had all that much to say on that nation. Beyond that product and the Inner Sea World Guide... that's pretty much it for now. Whether or not she'd be willing or able to start a civil war... that's something that you need to decide for your home campaign. It could certainly go either way.
As for Cheliax and Isger... maybe, maybe not. A nation like Cheliax can marshal a LOT of resources if, suddenly, they're spurred into action by something like, say, Isger proclaiming its independence.
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But you made it yourself, didn't you? Doesn't that mean you can use it?Will we see the Julajimus in a Pathfinder product?Nope. The julajimus is owned by Wizards of the Coast and they haven't yet (and likely never will) put it into the 3.5 SRD.I can use it in my home game (just as anyone else can), but I basically "sold" it to Wizards of the Coast when I statted it up in that Dragon magazine article. They own the intellectual property of the monster now, and as such, I (nor anyone else not Wizards of the Coast) can't legally publish it or do anything with it, anymore than we can produce stats for Mickey Mouse.
That's actually pretty much the norm for working for an RPG company, in fact. It's no big deal... but if you're writing for an RPG company (including Paizo) you need to realize that anything you write for the company is something you're selling to them and thus not something you can retain the rights to.
Are there monsters from earlier editions, of your own creation, that you'd love to "take back?"
Also, does the Witherstench count as a misfit monster?
And will we ever see the Babbler in a bestiary?
James,
1) Is there any artwork out depicting an Aldori Dueling Sword?
2) What about an Elven Curve Blade? It's been alternately described as a large, thin kukri and a large, thin scimitar, so I'm a little unsure on what it's supposed to look like.
3) Is the Rondelero school based off of a real-world fighting style?
4) Are there any specific cultures that served as the inspiration for Thassilon? A lot of the artwork seems to indicate an Asian influence, at least where cosmetics are concerned.
5) Are we likely to see anything involving Hobgoblins in Golarion in the near future? All I've really been able to find on them is that a large group of them were handily smacked down during the Goblinblood Wars? Is there any canonical information on where or when in Golarian they were first spawned?
Any suggestions for things that a GM needs to do differently in a play by post game than a tabletop game? Because I am done playing tabletop. I'm tired of being every player's emotional punching bag.
James, is Pathfinder Online going to have non-consensual PvP? I can't seem to find a clear answer, and I really, really don't want it. I don't play to compete with other people, I play to explore and do quests.
I didn't know where else to ask this...
...which areas of Golarion have the largest amounts of Minotaur communities in them? Since the backstory of the race has their origins in Azlant, is it safe to assume they are a rather widespread race, despite preferring labyrinths as their homes?
I do use the rules as written... but ONLY for things that are hard to see or that have an immediate combat effect (aka, a Stealth check is involved). When there's an encounter with something that isn't trying to make a Stealth check... the PCs can see it if it's in line of sight pretty much automatically. If it's really really far away... it's not an encounter, so I don't worry about it. It's absoultely a case where we rely on a GM's common sense to help keep an already probably too-big book from being bigger.
Thanks for the input. I treated my situation similar to that. I also play that visible creatures are visible, no matter how far. This came up actually when applying Perception modifiers to Spellcraft to identify a spell being cast. It seemed like something worth doing RAW so I applied the modifiers and the sorcerer was unable to identify the spell.
It was a Lamia Matriarch casting dim door from about 200 ft. above the sorcerer. The player was likely a bit concerned because whether this was some kind of invisibility or teleport spell could make a huge difference. His normal spellcraft check is basically a guarantee to identify any spell being cast so I wanted to use RAW to make it a bit trickier if things are farther away. I haven't used it much yet, but it seems to scale up very fast.