James Jacobs Creative Director |
How much importance does Amanandar, in Tian Xa, have 'back home' in Taldor?
How much active Taldan control is there? I would otherwise compare it to Cheliax/Sargava.
Is Amanandar signifigant to Taldor's conflict with Qadira/Kelesh Empire?
Pretty much no importance in all. In fact, I suspect most of Taldor's citizens don't even know about Amanandar.
There's no active Taldan control threre at all.
It's not significant in any way to the conflict with the Kelesh empire, since it's half a world away from that conflict.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
Enlight_Bystand |
Enlight_Bystand wrote:I think it's just you. I'm still a dinosaur here at my end. I haven't changed my avatar, in any event.James
Is it just me that's now seeing your Avatar as a shark instead of a Dinosaur?
If it has changed, is there a particular reason why you have changed?
Yeah, it must just have been me. You're back to all your dino glory now
Golden-Esque |
Dear James Jacobs,
I took up your advice from a while back and I picked up Magic of the Inner Sea. And believe it or not, but I'm going to ask you a campaign setting question! Hooray!
I can't think of his name, but there's an alchemist who's reportedly still alive and kicking after creating the Sun Orchid Elixir a long time ago. How do the inevitables feel about his creation? I know there's at least one among them whose job it is to kill mortals who've cheated death.
To that end, are the inevitables associated with Lawful Gods in the way that angels are associated with good gods, or are they off just doing their own thing?
Gregg Helmberger |
This is what region where the Mwangi Expanse meets the Mana Wastes is like, right?
You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have dinosaurs with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my binocularic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
James Jacobs Creative Director |
Dear James Jacobs,
I took up your advice from a while back and I picked up Magic of the Inner Sea. And believe it or not, but I'm going to ask you a campaign setting question! Hooray!
I can't think of his name, but there's an alchemist who's reportedly still alive and kicking after creating the Sun Orchid Elixir a long time ago. How do the inevitables feel about his creation? I know there's at least one among them whose job it is to kill mortals who've cheated death.
To that end, are the inevitables associated with Lawful Gods in the way that angels are associated with good gods, or are they off just doing their own thing?
The inevitables don't really feel much at all about this creation as a race. Some may be concerned, but the inevitable race has a lot more to watch over than one of countless "solutions to immortality" on one of countless worlds. The fact is that the sun orchid elixir doesn't cheat death; it just postpones it—a technicality, but it does make the sun orchid elixir a much lower priority than things like abuse of resurrection power or spread of undeath to avoid death and the like.
The inevitables are mostly off doing their own thing in Golarion. They may have alliances with other deities in other worlds/pantheons, but they aren't all that wrapped up with Golarion's deities. At this point in time, at least.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
Quandary |
[Amandar's] not significant in any way to the conflict with the Kelesh empire, since it's half a world away from that conflict.
Thanks, I was envisioning it in the context of commercial competition, that sort of thing... Do you think Amandar influences Tian's perceptions of Taldor? [EDIT: or the Inner Sea at large, for that matter] Though if they actually travelled to Taldor, they may be in for a shock...
BTW, I look forward to seeing more of what you do with the Ratfolk, they sound very cool...
malebranche |
James, I have a few questions about the demon lords (which are totally spectacular, by the way):
1) Do demon lords have heralds, like the gods do?
2) Who came up with the idea for Shivaska? She's my favorite.
3) Do you plan on doing more with Shivaska at any point? Do you like her enough to do more products involving her cult?
Analysis |
The inevitables don't really feel much at all about this creation as a race. Some may be concerned, but the inevitable race has a lot more to watch over than one of countless "solutions to immortality" on one of countless worlds. The fact is that the sun orchid elixir doesn't cheat death; it just postpones it—a technicality, but it does make the sun orchid elixir a much lower priority than things like abuse of resurrection power or spread of undeath to avoid death and the like.
Speaking of this, it seems like Eox ought to be a prime target for all the combined wrath of Pharasma and the Inevitables together. Do high-level Pharasmin clerics and paladins do raids there? Or is a planet full of hundreds of thousands of level 11+ liches simply too much trouble to deal with, despite its blasphemous nature?
The Thing from Beyond the Edge |
From what I have read about Korvosa, Palin's Cove has factories and is, in a sense, industrialized.
What other settlements exhibit this sort of extensive "industrial" development and what are their products?
I have looked through my Magic of the Inner Sea to find a number of magical academies mentioned, but where are the top notch academies not focused specifically on magic? Or, at least, where can I find their descriptions?
Thanks in advance.
Golden-Esque |
Golden-Esque wrote:Cheapy wrote:Now that's a very interesting question!Who needs more Books of the Damned? WTB The Inevitable Annals!Just so you know...
The word "Annals" will never appear in a title to a book we publish. I trust everyone understands why...
I spat out my rum and coke all over my monitor at this. Can PR send me a new screen / keyboard? Preferably one that's painted with a Paizo Golem motif?
The wonders of omitting letters and the immaturity of Americans aside, would a book on the Inevitables be something you'd be interested in seeing, Mr. Jacobs?
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs wrote:[Amandar's] not significant in any way to the conflict with the Kelesh empire, since it's half a world away from that conflict.Thanks, I was envisioning it in the context of commercial competition, that sort of thing... Do you think Amandar influences Tian's perceptions of Taldor? [EDIT: or the Inner Sea at large, for that matter] Though if they actually travelled to Taldor, they may be in for a shock...
BTW, I look forward to seeing more of what you do with the Ratfolk, they sound very cool...
Yeah, it absolutely influences Tian-Xia's perceptions of the entire Inner Sea region.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James, I have a few questions about the demon lords (which are totally spectacular, by the way):
1) Do demon lords have heralds, like the gods do?
2) Who came up with the idea for Shivaska? She's my favorite.
3) Do you plan on doing more with Shivaska at any point? Do you like her enough to do more products involving her cult?
1) At this point... unknown. I suspect not. That's probably something you get when you become a deity, as opposed to a demigod... but I reserve the right to change my mind on that count.
2) I did. Invented her specifically for "Lords of Chaos," in fact. Glad you like her! :)
3) All of the demon lords are likely to make additional appearances in the future now and then... no immediate plans for Shivaska, but that doesn't mean I won't have plans for her soon!
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs wrote:Speaking of this, it seems like Eox ought to be a prime target for all the combined wrath of Pharasma and the Inevitables together. Do high-level Pharasmin clerics and paladins do raids there? Or is a planet full of hundreds of thousands of level 11+ liches simply too much trouble to deal with, despite its blasphemous nature?
The inevitables don't really feel much at all about this creation as a race. Some may be concerned, but the inevitable race has a lot more to watch over than one of countless "solutions to immortality" on one of countless worlds. The fact is that the sun orchid elixir doesn't cheat death; it just postpones it—a technicality, but it does make the sun orchid elixir a much lower priority than things like abuse of resurrection power or spread of undeath to avoid death and the like.
Nope. There's actually not a lot of interplanetary raids at all. Eox is far enough away from Pharasma's church an the Inevitables' reach that it's pretty well protected, simply by a fact of distance.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
From what I have read about Korvosa, Palin's Cove has factories and is, in a sense, industrialized.
What other settlements exhibit this sort of extensive "industrial" development and what are their products?
I have looked through my Magic of the Inner Sea to find a number of magical academies mentioned, but where are the top notch academies not focused specifically on magic? Or, at least, where can I find their descriptions?
Thanks in advance.
Most settlements have industrial sections to them. Riddleport and Magnimar both do for sure.
Inner Sea Magic talks a bit about several prestigious magical academies.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
The wonders of omitting letters and the immaturity of Americans aside, would a book on the Inevitables be something you'd be interested in seeing, Mr. Jacobs?
Don't shortsell the rest of the world on the immaturity clause! I've seen Benny Hill!
A book on Inevitables? Not something I'd be interested in seeing, really... I'm not a huge fan of them... but that doesn't mean it's not something we'll never do!
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs Creative Director |
Kajehase |
What do you think of a sketch-show which references the Cthulhu-mythos pretty much only being available on BBC Scotland?
donato Contributor |
LazarX |
What alignment would you make a pirate who does all the piratey things but follows a code to not hurt those who surrender and give them a chance to get to lifeboats, etc?
An argument can be made from any of the neutral alignments to a strong shade of evil depending on several circumstances.
He is stealing, killing, and marooning people in the middle of an ocean in a lifeboat is going to cut down their survival chances by quite a bit.
He really is not much more than Evil With Standards.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
What do you think of a sketch-show which references the Cthulhu-mythos pretty much only being available on BBC Scotland?
Since I've never heard of that before now... I'm ambivalent. Also, I've had plenty of opportunities to see obscure Lovecraft-related stuff here in the Seattle area that blows that sketch show out of the water. The top 5 in my mind:
1) The World Premiere of "Whisperer in the Darkness" at SIFF.
2) The first ever public screening of the director's workprint of Dan O'Bannon's "The Resurrected."
3) Lovecraftian stage plays produced by Open Circle Theater (you've not lived until you've seen Brown Jenkin burrow out of a torso on stage!)
4) Occasionally bumping shoulders with S. T. Joshi, who lives in Seattle, and whom I've not yet had the courage to approach for an autograph or just to say hi, and that I'm even worried about having used "who" and "whom" correctly above since he's one of my hero editors.
5) Watching Stuart Gordon's "Dagon" in a tiny 20 person theater with Mr. Gordon in the room to introduce the movie and to do a Q&A on it afterwards.
The Drunken Dragon |
Numeria question this time:
I noticed that the Inner Sea Guide mentions that the Numerian nobility have become horribly addicted to he strange chemicals that seep out of the walls of the Starfall spaceship. A minor psychology question now is...what was going through the mind of the first mage who first decided to try and lick some of the random strange ooze clinging to the sides of a crashed starship? Or did I missread? Did they perhaps find the same substance in vials or somesuch within the ship and realized that the stuff oozing out of the walls was also edible?
James Jacobs Creative Director |
How do you feel about construct races? Do they have any place in Golarion?
In the same vein, what is the possibility of an aluum going 'rogue' or gaining sentience?
There are construct-like races on Golarion. But they don't have the construct type. Once you remove things like Constitution from a creature... the game starts breaking down. And once you GIVE Constitution to a creature, that's lame too. My solution would be to have a humanoid do something similar to how we made inevitables outsiders with some construct traits... but did NOT make them actual constructs.
Aluums going rogue is a good adventure idea.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs Creative Director |
When the book called Mythic level will be launched????
We haven't announced a book about Mythic Levels, and that includes what it would be called. As for when it will be published... that question isn't yet appropriate to ask, because we haven't yet answered "WILL it be published."
Ask again in 6 months. Chances are good I'll give the same reply I just did above... but we'll see.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
Numeria question this time:
I noticed that the Inner Sea Guide mentions that the Numerian nobility have become horribly addicted to he strange chemicals that seep out of the walls of the Starfall spaceship. A minor psychology question now is...what was going through the mind of the first mage who first decided to try and lick some of the random strange ooze clinging to the sides of a crashed starship? Or did I missread? Did they perhaps find the same substance in vials or somesuch within the ship and realized that the stuff oozing out of the walls was also edible?
He was probably a PC. PCs do weird things.
The less silly answer is that he was probably captured by some element in the ship and then subjected to experimentation that involved force-feeding and injections that got him addicted.
Diego Rossi |
some rule questions about attacks of opportunity:
1) Full-Round Action: Use a touch spell on up to six friends: Attack of Opportunity: Yes
This provoke 1 AoO or up to six (i.e. up to the number of touch used)?
There is no corresponding line for using a touch spell on one friend.
Delivering 1 touch is a standard action or a it is still a full round action?
It still provoke?
If touching a friend to deliver a spell is always a full-round action "holding a charge" become way less interesting and combat healing become problematic.
This don't help much:
Touch: ... Some touch spells allow you to touch multiple targets. You can touch up to 6 willing targets as part of the casting, but all targets of the spell must be touched in the same round that you finish casting the spell. If the spell allows you to touch targets over multiple rounds, touching 6 creatures is a full-round action.
2) When you cast a 1 round casting time spell you provoke an AoO only when you start casting or for the full round?
i.e. a fighter passing next to you while he is moving can make an attack of opportunity because you are distracted?And as a corollary, if the caster has a weapon ready, he can make an attack of opportunity while casting a 1 round casting time spell?
.....
I thought he had a good grasp of the rules, then I started reading the forum and my certainties are crumbling one after another. :(
UnboltedAKTION |
So! I plan on starting a thread about this but before I do I would like your opinion on something. I'm planning on starting up my own web comic based and the Pathfinder roleplaying game. Much like "Order of the Stick" and "Goblins" just with less breaking of the fourth wall and probably less humor. Anyway, I just want your advice what would you like to see in something like that? What would you not like to see? Any advice and the like. I already have a solid story and cast (a lot of it is based off of our own Pathfinder sessions and characters).
It won't hit the web for a year at the most so I have time to get the story finalized and other stuff. What do you think??
Kelsey MacAilbert |
I want to play Dragonlance. I have the 3.5 core book, Age of Mortals, and Bestiary of Krynn. I also printed out a bunch of Dragonlance spellcaster conversions. The problem is, they are for the Pathfinder Alpha/Beta. Since I use gov'mnt computers at the moment, I can't just download these files, as they are just too big. Erefore, I need a bit of help figuring out the changes that were made from the Alpha to the Beta to the final edition, so that I can tweak the conversions if necessary.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
some rule questions about attacks of opportunity:
1) Full-Round Action: Use a touch spell on up to six friends: Attack of Opportunity: Yes
This provoke 1 AoO or up to six (i.e. up to the number of touch used)?
There is no corresponding line for using a touch spell on one friend.
Delivering 1 touch is a standard action or a it is still a full round action?
It still provoke?If touching a friend to deliver a spell is always a full-round action "holding a charge" become way less interesting and combat healing become problematic.
This don't help much:
PRD wrote:Touch: ... Some touch spells allow you to touch multiple targets. You can touch up to 6 willing targets as part of the casting, but all targets of the spell must be touched in the same round that you finish casting the spell. If the spell allows you to touch targets over multiple rounds, touching 6 creatures is a full-round action.2) When you cast a 1 round casting time spell you provoke an AoO only when you start casting or for the full round?
i.e. a fighter passing next to you while he is moving can make an attack of opportunity because you are distracted?
And as a corollary, if the caster has a weapon ready, he can make an attack of opportunity while casting a 1 round casting time spell?.....
I thought he had a good grasp of the rules, then I started reading the forum and my certainties are crumbling one after another. :(
1) You only cast a spell once, regardless of how many targets you're affecting. Thus... it only provokes one AoO.
2) You provoke an AoO when you start casting. If someone wants to stab you while you'e casting later in the round they can't just walk by you and gain an AoO; they have to move up and take a standard attack on you.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
So! I plan on starting a thread about this but before I do I would like your opinion on something. I'm planning on starting up my own web comic based and the Pathfinder roleplaying game. Much like "Order of the Stick" and "Goblins" just with less breaking of the fourth wall and probably less humor. Anyway, I just want your advice what would you like to see in something like that? What would you not like to see? Any advice and the like. I already have a solid story and cast (a lot of it is based off of our own Pathfinder sessions and characters).
It won't hit the web for a year at the most so I have time to get the story finalized and other stuff. What do you think??
As long as it follows and complies with the Community Use policy... I have no real comments on it. I'll certainly check it out... but as with folks asking me for advice on homebrew adventures or design, I tend to avoid putting myself in a situation where I'm publicly providing feedback on something so closely associated with the brand I'm paid to direct.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
I want to play Dragonlance. I have the 3.5 core book, Age of Mortals, and Bestiary of Krynn. I also printed out a bunch of Dragonlance spellcaster conversions. The problem is, they are for the Pathfinder Alpha/Beta. Since I use gov'mnt computers at the moment, I can't just download these files, as they are just too big. Erefore, I need a bit of help figuring out the changes that were made from the Alpha to the Beta to the final edition, so that I can tweak the conversions if necessary.
I'm not detecting a question in there, which is good, since I do not have the time or resources to provide that amount of information. We did not keep a list of "changes from Alpha to Beta to Final," since we're only interested in the final product. The methods we used to reach that final product are merely building blocks that we no longer need to concern ourself with once we're done.
Monkeygod |
James,
Why is that Divination seems to be the left out school? Back in 3.x and even somewhat in AD&D, Divination was not allowed to be given up as opposition school, and in Golarion, Divination is not one of the Seven Schools of Sin Magic.
Will we get a Thassilonian Specialist archetype or PrC any time in the next few years?
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James,
Why is that Divination seems to be the left out school? Back in 3.x and even somewhat in AD&D, Divination was not allowed to be given up as opposition school, and in Golarion, Divination is not one of the Seven Schools of Sin Magic.Will we get a Thassilonian Specialist archetype or PrC any time in the next few years?
Divination is the school that's least likely to let you blow stuff up or otherwise do things that have big flashy special effects, and as such, folks tend to ignore it for the flashier schools of magic.
The Thassilonian schools of magic actually do not recognize "divination" as a school at all—they essentially lump all divination spells in with universal magic. No Thassilonian wizard is particularly specialized or good at divination magic... but neither are any of them bad at it. In any event, they never did anything with divination magic, so no, we'll never be doing a Thassilonian diviner specialist or archetype.
An additional reason we chose to do this WAS to make the Thassilonian way of looking at magic differ from more "modern" magic. It helps to make Thassilonian magic seem older if this method of magic actual predates the philosophical existence of divination magic as its own school of magic.