Why am I so mad about magic items? I left a metamagic rod in the treasure for the sorcerer. The barbarian and rogue wouldn't let her have it, instead arguing about which of them should have it, despite the fact that it is useless to them. The barbarian got it by threatening to kill the rogue, then the rogue stole it, then the barbarian stole it back, then the rogue stole it again, then the barbarian stole it and broke it to keep the rogue from stealing it. Then the party voted to exclude the monk from all treasure because treasure doesn't fit the monk theme.
I really, really hate my players. Unfortunately, it's the only group I have. I've been thinking about going PBP only (I believe I asked your advice on that), but at the same time if I give up on this group that just proves I'm a s$@+ty GM. I need to figure out some way to corral them. That means getting rid of the stuff that starts fights.
This is a way you could do it,
Have the players steal from a powerful wizard,but the wizard places a curse on the party.
One that disables stealing from one another (penalty being a level*d6 damage per round) and they can only hold treasure they can use, (IE you can force assign the treasure), if they can't use it they can not pick it up.
I'd really rather not see this thread turn into a rules argument with folks discussing different interpretations. I gave my answer, and if that only serves to further fuel a discussion about a particular rule, please divert that into a new thread over on the rules forums. Thanks! :-)
Sorry wont happen again.
At least not because of me:-)
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Why am I so mad about magic items? I left a metamagic rod in the treasure for the sorcerer. The barbarian and rogue wouldn't let her have it, instead arguing about which of them should have it, despite the fact that it is useless to them. The barbarian got it by threatening to kill the rogue, then the rogue stole it, then the barbarian stole it back, then the rogue stole it again, then the barbarian stole it and broke it to keep the rogue from stealing it. Then the party voted to exclude the monk from all treasure because treasure doesn't fit the monk theme.
I really, really hate my players. Unfortunately, it's the only group I have. I've been thinking about going PBP only (I believe I asked your advice on that), but at the same time if I give up on this group that just proves I'm a s$~!ty GM. I need to figure out some way to corral them. That means getting rid of the stuff that starts fights.
.... all the suggestion I can think for you to manage the party would get you arrested.
Go PBP and in the meantime try to find better players. Join another group as a player, it will not be the tale you want to tell but at least you will be in a tale, not in a inter group war.Start drinking and forget gaming (not really).
Almost any option is better than playing with a group you hate and getting frustrated.
That's what I've done in the past: try to GM, end up with a really bad group that cheats and fights all the time, then either have the group implode or get tired and eventually stop showing up to game sessions. What does simply giving up and not showing up prove? That I couldn't do it. The fact that it happens with every single group says something about me as a GM. It's time to stick with it and succeed, no matter what I have to do to do it.
From your posts, you are full of ideas but you don't know how to put them in practice, probably for a lack of experience.
So some at least partially useful suggestion:
- don't play a campaign with a continual tale, try playing a few modules to get a better comprehension of the game;
- join another group as a player, you will learn a lot;
- don't try to create a whole universe, try something small;
- use a pre-existing world that is almost what you want and start modifying it one step at a time while playing. You want to change too many things at one time. You need a lot of experience to do that.
Mr Jacobs, now that I have published a pdf, but no one has bough it yet, what should I do?
Not Jacobs, but I have some thoughts on the matter. My advice is to spruce up your grammar a bit, and provide more information about thee product. I don't mean to be rude or condescending, but you didn't seem particularly professional on the product's page, and that may be part of the issue. I'd recommend asking a mod to remove the post so you can redo it.
Why is it that Paizo hasn't fleshed out a Noble base class yet?
Why is it that Paizo hasn't fleshed out a Noble base class yet?
They have.
It's in NPC classes.
I wonder some things about Always X alignments in Golarion. I can see several possible answers, but am genuinely curious about the 'offical' stance from the perspective current and future published Pathfinder products. I fear I am asking a lot of Frequently Asked Questions, but for all the threads, I haven't been able to find the answers elsewhere. Thank you for your patience, and respond only if the question is interesting, which I guess really goes without saying anyway...
It has been made clear that alignment-type outsiders and undead such as liches or vampires always have a specific alignment or alignment component, which they really can't be 'redeemed' away from. What I wonder is whether that means that such creatures cannot ever deviate from alignment-expected behaviour, or merely that it is what the majority of their actions and sentiments will reflect?
Can something like an archon feel the odd evil intention and, say, consistently use more violence than required as a result? Can there be Nazi-type liches who genuinely care for a narrowly defined in-group but treat all other life as flesh and souls to be harvested, or vampires that remorselessly kill when expedient but prefer gentler solutions when not? Can there be mutual respect and amicable rivalry between devils? Can a protean wake up and realize that it has been hanging out with adventurers that ultimately further the cause of Law over Chaos, and in that case, is it compelled to withdraw?
what was that being who taunted Trelmarixian before he died. (no need to be specific, just a clue would be nice)
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I wonder some things about Always X alignments in Golarion. I can see several possible answers, but am genuinely curious about the 'offical' stance from the perspective current and future published Pathfinder products. I fear I am asking a lot of Frequently Asked Questions, but for all the threads, I haven't been able to find the answers elsewhere. Thank you for your patience, and respond only if the question is interesting, which I guess really goes without saying anyway...
It has been made clear that alignment-type outsiders and undead such as liches or vampires always have a specific alignment or alignment component, which they really can't be 'redeemed' away from. What I wonder is whether that means that such creatures cannot ever deviate from alignment-expected behaviour, or merely that it is what the majority of their actions and sentiments will reflect?
Can something like an archon feel the odd evil intention and, say, consistently use more violence than required as a result? Can there be Nazi-type liches who genuinely care for a narrowly defined in-group but treat all other life as flesh and souls to be harvested, or vampires that remorselessly kill when expedient but prefer gentler solutions when not? Can there be mutual respect and amicable rivalry between devils? Can a protean wake up and realize that it has been hanging out with adventurers that ultimately further the cause of Law over Chaos, and in that case, is it compelled to withdraw?
The official stance? You'll notice that, unlike 3.5, we do NOT put "usually," "always," or other qualifiers in front of our monster alignments. That's because the GM should be the one who makes those calls. For official Golarion stuff, we developers at Paizo (with my constant advice) make those calls, but GMs are free to change things in their versions of Golarion as they see fit.
Whether or not you could redeem a lich or demon or whatever depends on you as the GM. Certainly, the idea of a redeemed demon or a fallen angel is a REALLY cool story trope—it's been done a bazillion times. It's part of most religions, in fact.
But when it happens in print, I require the person handling it to be capable of handling it with excellent writing. Not all writers are equally talented, and I don't want to "waste" such a potent idea on a sub-par writer. Nor do I want to use the idea at the wrong time. A lot of variables have to hit just right before I would okay an adventure about a non-evil vampire, or about an evil solar.
For all of the questions you ask, the answer is pretty much "YES" to all of them. But before one of those storylines gets to see print, the story's author has to wow me with their writing skills.
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Why is it that Paizo hasn't fleshed out a Noble base class yet?Yup, as Cheapy points out, the Aristocrat is our "Noble" base class. If you want a noble that can do more stuff, the best solution is to make that noble a bard or a rogue.
Ever considered doing archetypes for NPC classes ? No, seriously. Books like NPC guide 2 or Gamemastery Guide 2 would be great for that. Imagine a King Archetype for Aristocrat, or city guard for Warrior or acolyte (or cultist) for adept. It would be fun for different NPCs without need for adventurer class levels.
Why is it that Paizo hasn't fleshed out a Noble base class yet?Yup, as Cheapy points out, the Aristocrat is our "Noble" base class. If you want a noble that can do more stuff, the best solution is to make that noble a bard or a rogue.Ever considered doing archetypes for NPC classes ? No, seriously. Books like NPC guide 2 or Gamemastery Guide 2 would be great for that. Imagine a King Archetype for Aristocrat, or city guard for Warrior or acolyte (or cultist) for adept. It would be fun for different NPCs without need for adventurer class levels.
The NPC classes are meant to be really versatile. They don't really need to do archetypes for those, since they change the focus of a class. NPC classes *usually* don't have a focus.
1)you said if the Bandersnatch was stated up, but I thought the Bandersnatch is in the beastairy 3, it's listed in the products description?
2)Wich do you like best of the originals: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, Dr Jekyl and Mr Hide, The Invisible man, The Mummy, or the Blob?
3)Only about 12 Fey in theBeastairy 3, Why so little? Were there some that didn't make the cut?
4)Nice Beastairy 3 preview this week, is this "guy" the strongest undead in the book?
5)What about seeing Grendal and his mother stated up one day?
6)We have already had a Dragon, Magical Beast, Outsider, Undead, Aberration, Plant, Humaniod(Giant), and Ooze, can the next Beastairy 3 preview be a Fey, Monstrous Humaniod, or Outsider(Elemental)?
7)Did you hear they are doing another Twilight zone movie?
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Ever considered doing archetypes for NPC classes ? No, seriously. Books like NPC guide 2 or Gamemastery Guide 2 would be great for that. Imagine a King Archetype for Aristocrat, or city guard for Warrior or acolyte (or cultist) for adept. It would be fun for different NPCs without need for adventurer class levels.
They wouldn't work. NPC classes have no class abilities to swap out, and therefore can't have archetypes.
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1)you said if the Bandersnatch was stated up, but I thought the Bandersnatch is in the beastairy 3, it's listed in the products description?
2)Wich do you like best of the originals: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, Dr Jekyl and Mr Hide, The Invisible man, The Mummy, or the Blob?
3)Only about 12 Fey in theBeastairy 3, Why so little? Were there some that didn't make the cut?
4)Nice Beastairy 3 preview this week, is this "guy" the strongest undead in the book?
5)What about seeing Grendal and his mother stated up one day?
6)We have already had a Dragon, Magical Beast, Outsider, Undead, Aberration, Plant, Humaniod(Giant), and Ooze, can the next Beastairy 3 preview be a Fey, Monstrous Humaniod, or Outsider(Elemental)?
7)Did you hear they are doing another Twilight zone movie?
1) It's hard to keep track of what has and hasn't leaked. Since I've already apparently leaked that bit, then yeah... the bandersnatch is a magical beast.
2) I assume you mean the original movies... in which case, The Blob.
3) Because fey are a really narrowly focused type, like ooze or construct.
4) He's certainly up there, but I can't remember if he's the most powerful or not off the top of my head.
5) Unlikely, since those two creatures are unique monsters, not types of monsters.
6) I have not made any of the decisions on what to preview for Bestiary 3, so you'll have to ask the design team.
7) I did.
We've put too much work into Golarion, and are too proud and pleased with how Golarion turned out to even consider doing a massive rearrangement of the world. At this point, I suspect the only way that type of event would happen would be if management of Golarion fell into the hands of a different company or if all of us at Paizo left Paizo and were replaced by other people with different ideas on how to go forward with Golarion.
Which, of course, is more or less what happened to Krynn about three times so far. I'm actually very fond of the War of the Lance -- the great granddaddy of all adventure paths, and one I hope to run under Pathfinder rules after the Mac version of HeroLab arrives -- but I think it ought to end with a nice "happily ever after" and leave it at that.
We've deliberately focused our novels line on "small stories with big characters" rather than do stories that change the nature of the world, for example.
The answer, therefore, is indeed "Hell, NO!"
Good answer. I really need to make the time to start reading some of the Pathfinder novels; a fantasy series that averts the entire "save the world, then save it again from something bigger and nastier, then try to save it yet again and don't completely succeed..." pattern that afflicts stuff like Dragonlance and the Star Wars Expanded Universe, not to mention a lot of other non-media-tie-in series that went past one novel or story arc, would be most welcome.
Thank you James for answering my many questions.
Whether or not you could redeem a lich or demon or whatever depends on you as the GM. Certainly, the idea of a redeemed demon or a fallen angel is a REALLY cool story trope—it's been done a bazillion times. It's part of most religions, in fact.
Have you ever heard the Echo's Children song "Wings?" (Sorry, can only link to the lyrics, as far as I can find out there's no recording of it on-line.) A very nice poetic treatment of an encounter between those tropes.
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At the risk of beating a dead horse(I know, I'm sorry):
If orcs get further explored and fleshed out as was hinted at in that "Orcish rights" thread, is it possible we could see the schism between the Rovagug-happy tribes and the Gorumite tribes grow?
That way we have both truly monstrous tribes(Rovagug) and some tribes that could be more heavily CN-leaning(Gorum), with the latter's culture and differences with the former fleshed out and possibly presenting them as a more likely place from which heroic orc PCs could originate, giving some options that were missing in Orcs of Golarion?
It could possibly make for some interesting complications in the Belkzen/Lastwall conflict, especially since the Gorumite orcs seem to already be sold more as "worthy opponent" types rather than the completely monstrous Rovagugin' tribes.
Maybe a Sarenraen tribe too? She wouldn't just sit around and let a whole race be held in thrall to Rovagug would she?
Maybe a Sarenraen tribe too? She wouldn't just sit around and let a whole race be held in thrall to Rovagug would she?
"Only the followers of Rovagug are denied a chance at salvation, for to entertain the Rough Beast is to display a total rejection of righteousness."
It's this steely side to her that makes her one of the coolest goddesses out there. :3
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Maybe a Sarenraen tribe too? She wouldn't just sit around and let a whole race be held in thrall to Rovagug would she?"Only the followers of Rovagug are denied a chance at salvation, for to entertain the Rough Beast is to display a total rejection of righteousness."
It's this steely side to her that makes her one of the coolest goddesses out there. :3
But would the goddess of redemption apply that to orcs that have never had any opportunity to know any other way of life? Wouldn't she rather give them that opportunity?
What about the children?
Just can't square with Sarenrae sanctioning outright genocide and not making the effort to actually save people.
As cool as that would be, I doubt it. Orcs are pretty much sold in Golarion as Cannon Fodder/Foot-soldiers of the Apocalypse, and in a way that is cool. Yes Half-Orcs can be good or evil, and even the occasional Orc has been good (but incredibly rare) but overall, it's a race of rapists, murderers, bandits and scavengers. And they have little desire to change.
On to Sarenrae, maybe an individual Orc or small Tribe could be brought over, but consider she is a Female Goddess, and Orcs are hideously sexist beasts where anything not male is either bedding material, a slave or food, and sometimes all three (hopefully in that order).
I think Sarenrae is also a Goddess of intelligent conversion. Yes it is good to bring people into the Light. No it is not a good idea to try and convert members of a race that are likely to go gutting children with their scimitars or burn down a grainary because they are bored.
Mikaze's question was directed towards James Jacobs, not you. You need not interfere, especially since you are one of those who support the "always evil" stance on this anyway, because not only does Mikaze disagree with you, but so do I and probably many others here too. You have your way of playing, and we have ours, so be respectful and stop shoving your view down the throats of others. I'm more than sick of the stance some people here take, talking to others as if their style was the only right one, which is obviously not true.
James, which of the unexplored continents is going to be handled first? The ones that interest me right now are Casmaron and Tian Xia.
Actually I detest the 'always X' argument, that because race A is normally Evil all of the members are Evil, but I believe it was answered a while back that Paizo was trying to avoid the 'Drizzt' scenario.
You do make a valid point on my post being a quasi-answer, which I am sorry for. Again, I was only offering an opinion.
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I know Golarion is Earth sized for all the reasons you have given time and time again and I actually like that line of reasoning.
Until they found this.
Because if Golarion was twice the size of Earth then we just found her.
Question:
I understand that giving them Greco-Roman names aside, is Golarion considered feminine, the same way we sometimes use the term 'Mother Earth' and Venus is alluded to or is it considered masculine like Mars is.
Having chaotic neutral orcs who worship Gorum (who they actually DO worship) is not replication of the Drizzt scenario. Besides, Drizzt was not only a "special snowflake", but he was a Marty Stu (male Mary Sue) character as well, and Mikaze wasn't asking about Orc Paladins but just a simple break from the "Always Evil" mold that stuck to the Orcs despite the Orcs of Golarion book.
Hell, I am kinda upset that the half-orcs in Golarion/Pathfinder are trying to be the "playable orcs" and deliberately look like orcs instead of actually looking half-way between orc and human in appearance. Don't give me a fake orc if I want the real thing.
That's what I love about Gorum. He is at once the best and worst of a medievil-style Warrior God. He doesn't care that you slaughter thousands, only that you do so as a warrior, face to face. Tactics are one thing, cowardly methods like poison or disease are for weakinglings, and those are unworthy of his gaze. CN Gorumite Orcs are probably the craziest things PCs will face, Orcs with a code of honour that is actually understandable to the 'civilised' races, but still possess that 'I will eat your heart and ask for seconds while you still live' attitudes the Orcs of Golarion book depicts.
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Someday, somehow, I will learn where you guys pick up the Elder God's language (Can't seem to find a English <> Old God translation anywhere, pun not intended) and my players will spend hours wondering what the hell kind of language I am speaking when I do the voice-over for the Aboleths...
Also, would this put a smile on your face at work on a bad day, as a gamer?
That's what I love about Gorum. He is at once the best and worst of a medievil-style Warrior God. He doesn't care that you slaughter thousands, only that you do so as a warrior, face to face.
Just like Jesus, circa 1095 AD.
James, Jedi Knight or Sith Lord
Darth Maul or Darth Vader
Finally, bounty hunter or smuggler.
Another question because I cannot edit my earlier posts apparently. What ethnic groups of humans are most prevalent in Brevoy?
James, Jedi Knight or Sith Lord
Darth Maul or Darth Vader
Finally, bounty hunter or smuggler.
preparting for SWTOR are you?
James, I have questions about the clockwork template appearing in the Bestiary 3. How powerful will it be? Will it be able to be applied to animals? If it can be applied to animals, would a druid archetype that gets a clockwork animal companion be feasible from a balance point of view? For my homebrew campaign setting a clockwork druid archetype would be a thematically perfect fit, and a clockwork animal companion would round it out oh so nicely. Please tell me I'll be able to give it one and have the archetype be balanced. I want a druid with a steampunk wolf so badly you can not imagine.
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Did I do a good job with the fluff for these? I wanted something different that the typical elf, and while the dwarves are a bit more conventional, I did add a couple touches I like.
I generally try to avoid providing feedback on game design type stuff for personal and legal reasons. That said, it's always cool to see other GMs and writers sharing their stuff! :-)
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Whether or not you could redeem a lich or demon or whatever depends on you as the GM. Certainly, the idea of a redeemed demon or a fallen angel is a REALLY cool story trope—it's been done a bazillion times. It's part of most religions, in fact.Have you ever heard the Echo's Children song "Wings?" (Sorry, can only link to the lyrics, as far as I can find out there's no recording of it on-line.) A very nice poetic treatment of an encounter between those tropes.
I have not.
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At the risk of beating a dead horse(I know, I'm sorry):
If orcs get further explored and fleshed out as was hinted at in that "Orcish rights" thread, is it possible we could see the schism between the Rovagug-happy tribes and the Gorumite tribes grow?
That way we have both truly monstrous tribes(Rovagug) and some tribes that could be more heavily CN-leaning(Gorum), with the latter's culture and differences with the former fleshed out and possibly presenting them as a more likely place from which heroic orc PCs could originate, giving some options that were missing in Orcs of Golarion?
It could possibly make for some interesting complications in the Belkzen/Lastwall conflict, especially since the Gorumite orcs seem to already be sold more as "worthy opponent" types rather than the completely monstrous Rovagugin' tribes.
Maybe a Sarenraen tribe too? She wouldn't just sit around and let a whole race be held in thrall to Rovagug would she?
There's a LOT more we could do with orcs. Barring the Player's Companion, which is not something where we can go into detail about things GMs should know but players should not, we haven't said too much about Golarion's orcs. That won't always be the case.
That said, the vast majority of the orcs who worship Gorum are chaotic evil. There ARE some non-evil orcs out there, but they are a distinct and significant minority—enough of one that we haven't yet said much about them because of the simple fact that we haven't said much about orcs at all.
Golarion is a lot... but it simply cannot be everything. And one of the things it can't be is a world where orcs are misunderstood but not evil noble savages. That's WAY too much of Warcraft's thing to poach upon, in my opinion.
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Maybe a Sarenraen tribe too? She wouldn't just sit around and let a whole race be held in thrall to Rovagug would she?"Only the followers of Rovagug are denied a chance at salvation, for to entertain the Rough Beast is to display a total rejection of righteousness."
It's this steely side to her that makes her one of the coolest goddesses out there. :3
But would the goddess of redemption apply that to orcs that have never had any opportunity to know any other way of life? Wouldn't she rather give them that opportunity?
What about the children?
Just can't square with Sarenrae sanctioning outright genocide and not making the effort to actually save people.
Sarenrae does not sanction outright genocide. Nor does she sanction throwing her followers against a race that time and time again has proven that, on the whole, they do not want to abandon their chaotic evil ways and would rather capture the missionaries and eat or sacrifice them. On an individual, personal level, there's certainly been plenty of individual orcs redeemed by Sarenrae's followers, something that would apply to pretty much every overly evil or chaotic or lawful race out there.
But on the whole, the church of Sarenrae has to decide if it's a better use of their time to crusade against an enemy and defeat them (note that "defeat" does NOT mean "wipe out") or if it's a better use of their time to try to peacefully engineer solutions. They prefer the latter, but when attempting the latter would, in the end, just allow for more misery (say, in the form of murdered missionaries, or in the form of burnt-down villages the enemy massacred while they ignored the peaceful mercenaries), swift punishment and defeat is the better option.
Like many of Golarion's gods and faiths, Sarenrae is not a simple, one-color, one-note faith. She's the goddess of healing and redemption, yes, but she's not a goddess of peace.
Furthermore, the vast majority of orc activity on Golarion is in the Hold of Belkzen. They exist outside of that region, but not in any significant numbers. The church of Sarenrae is pretty active throughout the Inner Sea Region, but not so much in areas bordering Belkzen—put another way, the church has not yet really had a chance to interact on a mass scale with the orcs of Belkzen. They've got too much else on their minds (including the growing schism in Qadira, the demonic blight of the Worldwound, the cruelties of Cheliax, and the various Rovagug type things going on in Osirion/Thuvia/Katapesh, for example) to devote a significant force to the "orc problem."
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James, which of the unexplored continents is going to be handled first? The ones that interest me right now are Casmaron and Tian Xia.
Well... We did a pretty large article about the Crown of the World in Pathfinder #51. As for Tian Xia, we've got the Jade Regent Adventure Path, a novel, a module, the 64 page Dragon Empires Gazetteer, the 32 page Dragon Empires Primer, and several pathfinder society scenarios. Tian Xia, in the next few months, is going to be VERY well covered.
Beyond that? No plans at the current date to do so for any other continents.
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I know Golarion is Earth sized for all the reasons you have given time and time again and I actually like that line of reasoning.
Until they found this.
Because if Golarion was twice the size of Earth then we just found her.
Question:
I understand that giving them Greco-Roman names aside, is Golarion considered feminine, the same way we sometimes use the term 'Mother Earth' and Venus is alluded to or is it considered masculine like Mars is.
That giant planet is certainly interesting... but until we have a few millineia of "lived on the planet as a race and have first-hand experiences as a result," that isn't really a help to those of us here at Paizo. Maybe in a few thousand years that'll change. :-)
As for the question... Golarion is considered both feminine and masculine, with the gender identification switching depending upon the culture, region, or context. Similar to how the deity Gozreh works.
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Also, would this put a smile on your face at work on a bad day, as a gamer?
HA! A smile, as it turns out.
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That's what I love about Gorum. He is at once the best and worst of a medievil-style Warrior God. He doesn't care that you slaughter thousands, only that you do so as a warrior, face to face.Just like Jesus, circa 1095 AD.
Let's keep real-world religion out of the thread, please. Especially snarky comments about it.