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Paizo Employee Creative Director

The NPC wrote:

A question if you have the time.

The Planar Oracle Archetype. At 20th level are they an outsider like a tiefling is an outsider or an outsider like a succubus is an outsider?

The text says they have the Extraplanar subtype when not on their new home plane and the native subtype when they are. The text does specify that the character can still be brought back like a member of their previous creature type, so a clarification would be appreciated.

Also, does the change in creature type affect the character's longevity in any way?

They become actual outsiders; their native plane switches to their new, chosen plane, and as such they're more like a succubus or a bearded devil or a leukodaemon than they are a tiefling or aasimar or rakshasa.

That means they can't be raised from the dead except by the most powerful magic. Which, by the time they're 20th level, is probably what'd be used anyway, so no big deal.

This change has no effect on the character's longevity.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Belle Mythix wrote:
The Fox wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


It doesn't bother me as much as it amuses me.

I'm more bothered by things like:

    ...
  • The half-dragon template when it's applied to humanoids.
    ...

I take it that it wasn't your idea then to have the half-dragon hobgoblin in Red Hand of Doom? (Which is STILL my favorite adventure!)
Maybe he meant more in the way of 0HD races.

No... he meant all humanoid races. And fey. And most creatures.

Half-dragons to me are best when used on creatures like reptilian magical beasts. And then given a new name, like the sample half-dragon in the Bestiary. And even then only sparingly.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

What happens to spell buffs when their caster goes into another body (such as when using magic jar)?

Say for example, a spellcasting assassin goes to the prince's ball, using disguise self to pose as a drunk invitee. He pretends to pass out, discreetly casts magic jar and a host of combat buffs before starting to possess random members of the crowd and forcing them to attack the prince.

While in a host, does the disguise self spell remain on his body? Do the combat buffs bounce from one new host to the next?

In short, when a spell says "you" at which point are you no longer considered "you?" Does it refer to your body, your spirit, or something else?

Does the caster get to choose what spells stay and which go in this case? (I'm partial to this one, personally, as it allows the GM and/or player in question to be far more creative.)

Grand Lodge

Why are there no squirrel familiars?

Dark Archive

Cheapy wrote:
If there was one person who could beat you at a Golarion trivia contest, who would it be?

I'd put a C note on Moreland in that contest.

Dark Archive

James, which demon lord and his/her followers are you itching to put in an AP, even as a side note or passing mention?

Besides the demon lord of vermin, which of the 1st/2nd Ed demon lords still exist or actively menace the world in your home brew?

I got to play your RPG Free day mod by the way.


What I mean by a dragon blooded race is like an Aasimar or tiefling were the race has some dragon blood. Daenarys was an example because most people want a dragon race that looks like a humaniod dragon but I think it would cooler to have one that looks human(mostly), it would be humaniod with some kind of "dragon blooded" subtype, energy resistance, darkvision, save bonuses vs sleep/paralysis, etc. but look human(or like another race if you wish) but would have minor dragon traits like the eyes, lightly scaled in some places, pointed teeth, it varies per person.

Note: The Half Construct is in the Advanced Races Guide, in the race creation section.

1)Have you seen True blood? If so do you like it?


One assumes that eventually you guys will get around to doing a Pathfinder 2e, be it in two or five or ten or twenty years. Based on your own personal preferences, and understanding that these sorts of decisions would be made by a lot of people after a long process of discussions, would you like to relaunch Golarion in more or less the same condition as it was originally launched in Pathfinder 1e, or would you like to advance the timeline some and have some major developments occur, a la Greyhawk Wars (a reference I know you get, as you're a Greyhawk fan)? If the latter, what sorts of things would you like to change? The Whispering Tyrant gets loose? The Worldwound swallows everything north of Andoran? Ameiko conquers all of Tian Xia and founds an empire that can stand the test of time?


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

What's Pharasma like in person?


good question greg.

maybe the kingdoms formed in Kingmaker become highly influential forces in the world.

or maybe there is no change in rules, just the physics of the universe change (rules change) but no effect on story line.

On an unrelated side note.

As a GM I have a player that wants to apply rapid reload to a repeating crossbow, to change the full round action to reload to a standard action to reload. I personally have no problem with this, but the rapid reload rules seem to specify every applicable ranged weapon EXCEPT repeating crossbows.

is this an oversight or specifically designed for balance reasons?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ravingdork wrote:

What happens to spell buffs when their caster goes into another body (such as when using magic jar)?

Say for example, a spellcasting assassin goes to the prince's ball, using disguise self to pose as a drunk invitee. He pretends to pass out, discreetly casts magic jar and a host of combat buffs before starting to possess random members of the crowd and forcing them to attack the prince.

While in a host, does the disguise self spell remain on his body? Do the combat buffs bounce from one new host to the next?

In short, when a spell says "you" at which point are you no longer considered "you?" Does it refer to your body, your spirit, or something else?

Does the caster get to choose what spells stay and which go in this case? (I'm partial to this one, personally, as it allows the GM and/or player in question to be far more creative.)

"Spell buffs" stay with the body.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

blackbloodtroll wrote:
Why are there no squirrel familiars?

Same reason there are no echidna familiars, or no trout familiars, or no shrew familiars...

...because we've not invented one yet. If we're going to give a list of any number of animal familiars, there'll be some that get left off the list. The ones that get left off are generally the ones that are animals that have no real mythological history as being a familiar—once we've got the cats and ravens and snakes and bats and all those covered, we start moving on to other less obvious and less traditional familiars, but not all that quickly.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

baron arem heshvaun wrote:


James, which demon lord and his/her followers are you itching to put in an AP, even as a side note or passing mention?

Besides the demon lord of vermin, which of the 1st/2nd Ed demon lords still exist or actively menace the world in your home brew?

I got to play your RPG Free day mod by the way.

Most of them, but in particular (and in no particular order): Nocticula, Pazuzu, Yamasoth, Cyth-V'sug, Sifkesh, Dagon, Deskari, Jezelda, Kabriri, Yhidothrus, Zura... nah. I'll stop there and revise that to say: all of them.

All of the 1st edition demon lords exist in my homebrew. 2nd edition didn't really have demon lords—that was the edition of the game where TSR was afraid of using the word "demon" and as such the concept of demon lords went away until the tail-end of the edition, at which point they were tied so heavily into Planescape's design philosophy that they stopped being inspired by real-world myth and started getting weird and kinda sanitized. I've ended up in the end liking Pale Night (despite her lame name), but for the most part I'm not a fan of the watered-down 2nd edition demon lords.

And yay! Make sure you or your GM read the part that says "This is for six players—if you play with four, they should be 6th level." Cause it's a tough one.

Liberty's Edge

Does an elemental's size change when it goes into its whirlwind form? A small air elemental occupies several squares when in whirlwind form. Does this change it's size (and therefore what it can pick up)?


Thanks James...our local Hastings has pretty spotty coverage of AP volumes that are older than the Mwangi expanse campaign, so I hadn't seen that volume where they are mentioned

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Dragon78 wrote:

What I mean by a dragon blooded race is like an Aasimar or tiefling were the race has some dragon blood. Daenarys was an example because most people want a dragon race that looks like a humaniod dragon but I think it would cooler to have one that looks human(mostly), it would be humaniod with some kind of "dragon blooded" subtype, energy resistance, darkvision, save bonuses vs sleep/paralysis, etc. but look human(or like another race if you wish) but would have minor dragon traits like the eyes, lightly scaled in some places, pointed teeth, it varies per person.

Note: The Half Construct is in the Advanced Races Guide, in the race creation section.

1)Have you seen True blood? If so do you like it?

A half-construct should be able to receive healing like any other creature, but not as a construct.

1) I've seen up through the first 25% of season 3 of True Blood, and I do indeed quite like it. It's my best example of how I think that non-evil vampires should work, frankly. AKA: They should still be edgy and adult, not sanitized and non-threatening.


James, if you or a player in your game were playing a magus and that magus ran out of all other spells.

would you allow them to use the spell arcane mark to get free attacks?

I am not asking you to settle an argument, i have already ruled that this does not work in my game and my players are ok with that.

I have just noticed that certain kinds of gamers see it one way based on RAW and other see it the other way based on RAI. so I was just curious as to how you see these issues.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Gregg Helmberger wrote:
One assumes that eventually you guys will get around to doing a Pathfinder 2e, be it in two or five or ten or twenty years. Based on your own personal preferences, and understanding that these sorts of decisions would be made by a lot of people after a long process of discussions, would you like to relaunch Golarion in more or less the same condition as it was originally launched in Pathfinder 1e, or would you like to advance the timeline some and have some major developments occur, a la Greyhawk Wars (a reference I know you get, as you're a Greyhawk fan)? If the latter, what sorts of things would you like to change? The Whispering Tyrant gets loose? The Worldwound swallows everything north of Andoran? Ameiko conquers all of Tian Xia and founds an empire that can stand the test of time?

We've actually already had Golarion go through an edition change. Look to how Golarion changed between 3.5 and Pathfinder editions of the rules for an example of how I think another edition change might go down. AKA: there'll be adjustments, but the world won't change dramatically.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Squeakmaan wrote:
What's Pharasma like in person?

Inscrutable and scary and beautiful and impossible to ignore.


James Jacobs wrote:
Gregg Helmberger wrote:
One assumes that eventually you guys will get around to doing a Pathfinder 2e, be it in two or five or ten or twenty years. Based on your own personal preferences, and understanding that these sorts of decisions would be made by a lot of people after a long process of discussions, would you like to relaunch Golarion in more or less the same condition as it was originally launched in Pathfinder 1e, or would you like to advance the timeline some and have some major developments occur, a la Greyhawk Wars (a reference I know you get, as you're a Greyhawk fan)? If the latter, what sorts of things would you like to change? The Whispering Tyrant gets loose? The Worldwound swallows everything north of Andoran? Ameiko conquers all of Tian Xia and founds an empire that can stand the test of time?
We've actually already had Golarion go through an edition change. Look to how Golarion changed between 3.5 and Pathfinder editions of the rules for an example of how I think another edition change might go down. AKA: there'll be adjustments, but the world won't change dramatically.

So this mean you won't be like Forgotten Realms and 'kill' the God of Magic every time they need to make a new edition? That's awesome. Though, I do like the fact you guys have a lot of things lined up that could be used to herald the Pathfinder 2.0. Between the Starstone, missing gods, the Eye, the World Wound, a new Spawn of Rovagug. No shortage of possible world changing events.

By the way this was shared by ThinkGeek on Facebook and it's a picture of lightning storms over a volcano complex in Chile, along with the message, "Just a little reminder that nature could crush us all."

I thought it was fake at first, as it seemed too sci-fi. But, it's real, and it got me thinking, "Something like this happening would make an awesome story line for an AP module."

Any chance this could make itself into a story you guys publish? The cover art a lone, I think, would be worth it.


James Jacobs wrote:
Gregg Helmberger wrote:
One assumes that eventually you guys will get around to doing a Pathfinder 2e, be it in two or five or ten or twenty years. Based on your own personal preferences, and understanding that these sorts of decisions would be made by a lot of people after a long process of discussions, would you like to relaunch Golarion in more or less the same condition as it was originally launched in Pathfinder 1e, or would you like to advance the timeline some and have some major developments occur, a la Greyhawk Wars (a reference I know you get, as you're a Greyhawk fan)? If the latter, what sorts of things would you like to change? The Whispering Tyrant gets loose? The Worldwound swallows everything north of Andoran? Ameiko conquers all of Tian Xia and founds an empire that can stand the test of time?
We've actually already had Golarion go through an edition change. Look to how Golarion changed between 3.5 and Pathfinder editions of the rules for an example of how I think another edition change might go down. AKA: there'll be adjustments, but the world won't change dramatically.

There was a 3.5 Golarion? O.o Where was it published?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

blue_the_wolf wrote:

As a GM I have a player that wants to apply rapid reload to a repeating crossbow, to change the full round action to reload to a standard action to reload. I personally have no problem with this, but the rapid reload rules seem to specify every applicable ranged weapon EXCEPT repeating crossbows.

is this an oversight or specifically designed for balance reasons?

Probably an oversight, since the repeating crossbow already fires quickly. I see no problem with Rapid Reload allowing someone to reload a repeating crossbow's clip faster.


James Jacobs wrote:
Most of them, but in particular (and in no particular order): Nocticula, Pazuzu, Yamasoth, Cyth-V'sug, Sifkesh, Dagon, Deskari, Jezelda, Kabriri, Yhidothrus, Zura... nah. I'll stop there and revise that to say: all of them.

...Shamira? Pretty please?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sarta wrote:
Does an elemental's size change when it goes into its whirlwind form? A small air elemental occupies several squares when in whirlwind form. Does this change it's size (and therefore what it can pick up)?

Nope; the size of the whirlwind does not change the elemental's size. The whirlwind is bigger simply because the elemental's using the surrounding air to augment the whirlwind.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
blue_the_wolf wrote:

James, if you or a player in your game were playing a magus and that magus ran out of all other spells.

would you allow them to use the spell arcane mark to get free attacks?

I am not asking you to settle an argument, i have already ruled that this does not work in my game and my players are ok with that.

I have just noticed that certain kinds of gamers see it one way based on RAW and other see it the other way based on RAI. so I was just curious as to how you see these issues.

Nope.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Tels wrote:

By the way this was shared by ThinkGeek on Facebook and it's a picture of lightning storms over a volcano complex in Chile, along with the message, "Just a little reminder that nature could crush us all."

I thought it was fake at first, as it seemed too sci-fi. But, it's real, and it got me thinking, "Something like this happening would make an awesome story line for an AP module."

Any chance this...

I've seen pictures like that before. Since we sometimes include volcanoes in our adventures, chances of some art like that coming along some day are not impossible.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Orthos wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Gregg Helmberger wrote:
One assumes that eventually you guys will get around to doing a Pathfinder 2e, be it in two or five or ten or twenty years. Based on your own personal preferences, and understanding that these sorts of decisions would be made by a lot of people after a long process of discussions, would you like to relaunch Golarion in more or less the same condition as it was originally launched in Pathfinder 1e, or would you like to advance the timeline some and have some major developments occur, a la Greyhawk Wars (a reference I know you get, as you're a Greyhawk fan)? If the latter, what sorts of things would you like to change? The Whispering Tyrant gets loose? The Worldwound swallows everything north of Andoran? Ameiko conquers all of Tian Xia and founds an empire that can stand the test of time?
We've actually already had Golarion go through an edition change. Look to how Golarion changed between 3.5 and Pathfinder editions of the rules for an example of how I think another edition change might go down. AKA: there'll be adjustments, but the world won't change dramatically.
There was a 3.5 Golarion? O.o Where was it published?

We launched Pathfinder Adventure Path about 5 years ago. The first four adventures were 3.5 D&D adventures. We published a fair amount of support material as well, including two versions of the campaign setting—a 64 page Gazetteer, and a 256 page hardcover that we only relatively recently revised to the larger Inner Sea World Guide.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Midnight_Angel wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Most of them, but in particular (and in no particular order): Nocticula, Pazuzu, Yamasoth, Cyth-V'sug, Sifkesh, Dagon, Deskari, Jezelda, Kabriri, Yhidothrus, Zura... nah. I'll stop there and revise that to say: all of them.
...Shamira? Pretty please?

Being a demon lord, she's on the list. Never fear.

She was actually a much more significant deity in my homebrew world, in fact.

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
Sarta wrote:
Does an elemental's size change when it goes into its whirlwind form? A small air elemental occupies several squares when in whirlwind form. Does this change it's size (and therefore what it can pick up)?
Nope; the size of the whirlwind does not change the elemental's size. The whirlwind is bigger simply because the elemental's using the surrounding air to augment the whirlwind.

Right, but the wording of whirlwind is that it can pick up creatures up to one size smaller than the size of the whirlwind -- not the elemental. Folks are claiming that, based on the dimensions of a small air elemental's whirlwind, it is size becomes large or huge, so should be able to pick up horses and several people. This seems a bit excessive for a STR 12, small air elemental.


There seems to be quite a bit of adventures with demons and demon lords. Can we hope to see some of the archdukes and malebranches of hell in more adventures? I've always loved devils and Asmodeus but am a bit disappointed that outside of Cheliax, there isn't much in the way of devils.


Hello James.

I've been asking around various pathfinder groups for a solid agreement on how you calculate bonuses for the Bard's Versatile Performance skill.

Opinions vary on the matter from GM to GM. I'm really trying to understand it thoroughly so I can someday have a Bard/Spy without wasting skills or items on bonuses that won't work with Versatile Performance.

I had made a post a while back ago addressing some of these opinions but it got completely ignored. I'm not sure if I wrote it poorly or it was just bad luck.

Link to that page here: http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz5dek?Does-Art-of-Deception-WhyHow#1

Someone gave me your name and said you would be the person to ask on the matter. I hope when you have some spare time you can help me out. Thanks.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

James, I asked this in "Rules Questions", and didn't really get an answer. I know you're not necessarily the go-to guy for rule interpretations, but I'm hoping to get a decent answer from you.

The Thalassic Behemoth in Bestiary 3 has regen 20 (fire) and immunity to fire. Does the attack that would deliver fire damage actually have to harm the target creature, or is the Thalassic Behemoth actually an impossible to kill creature? Well, or was this an error (and if it was, which bit)?

I have more regeneration questions, but thought I'd get the easy one out there.

Liberty's Edge

The most recent comment by James on Versatile Performance in this thread (as far as my search-fu go):

James Jacobs wrote:
Ravingdork wrote:

You stated that you use the Perform skill's total modifier (hereafter referred to as Perform X, or X) in place of the skill modifier of two or three other skills (hereafter referred to as Y Skills, or Y).

You've also clarified that Skill Focus in X will effect all of Y skills (possibly even allowing them to stack) and that magic items still grant their skill bonuses to the appropriate skills, regardless of the substitutions.

So...

Does that mean I can get a magic item to increase Perform X, thereby increasing all of my Y skills WHILE ALSO getting another magic item to increase one of the Y skills directly? What if both magic items grant the same types of bonus? Does it stack or overlap? Technically, they ARE going to different skills, and the total modifier from Perform X is carried over to Y skills via Versatile Performance without any apparent regard for how it became that number. What if it was a single magic item effecting both X and Y skills?

Take something like...say...a circlet of persuasion, for example. Would such a thing grant me a +6 bonus to all of my Charisma-based Y skills?

What about feats? Would Skill Focus in Perform X and Skill Y potentially grant me a +12 bonus to Skill Y? I know you've broached this, just want to be absolutely clear.

In short, is it possible to double up on Versatile Performance, and if so, what does and does not accomplish this?

I'm currently hammering out a fetchling cavalier 2/bard 3/battle herald 3/shadowdancer 10 character and I want to get his versatile performance ability done right, since it has a HUGE impact on several of his skills.

If you get a magic item to increase Perform, you increase your versatile performance skills. If you get an item to increase a skill directly, that does NOT increase your perform skill. In fact, only if that increase bonus bumps the actual skill modifier up above your perform modifier would it matter. A circlet of persuasion is an EXCELLENT item for a bard, but things like boots of elvenkind are increasingly not all that great (assuming you have a versatile performance that can be used for Acrobatics in that case).

Same goes for feats and spell effects.
You can't double up on versatile performance, in other words.


James, do you paint miniatures or use pre-painted miniatures?

If so what is your preferred brand?

Liberty's Edge

Advanced Races Guide wrote:


The gods Desna, Cayden Cailean, and Shelyn all speak to the souls of catfolk, and many tribes depict the latter two as catfolk themselves.

Can we please have art of this one day?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sarta wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Sarta wrote:
Does an elemental's size change when it goes into its whirlwind form? A small air elemental occupies several squares when in whirlwind form. Does this change it's size (and therefore what it can pick up)?
Nope; the size of the whirlwind does not change the elemental's size. The whirlwind is bigger simply because the elemental's using the surrounding air to augment the whirlwind.
Right, but the wording of whirlwind is that it can pick up creatures up to one size smaller than the size of the whirlwind -- not the elemental. Folks are claiming that, based on the dimensions of a small air elemental's whirlwind, it is size becomes large or huge, so should be able to pick up horses and several people. This seems a bit excessive for a STR 12, small air elemental.

The whirlwind an elemental creates does not have a Strength score, so that shouldn't enter the picture at all in the first place. In any event, regardless of its height, a whirlwind is always 5 feet wide at the base. Its width at the top varies. The actual size category of a whirlwind though remains the same as the elemental that creates it. Thus... a Small elemental creates a Small whirlwind (despite the fact that it can be 20 feet tall).

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Odraude wrote:
There seems to be quite a bit of adventures with demons and demon lords. Can we hope to see some of the archdukes and malebranches of hell in more adventures? I've always loved devils and Asmodeus but am a bit disappointed that outside of Cheliax, there isn't much in the way of devils.

We do devil-related stuff now and then. Acadamae of Secrets and Council of Thieves both come to mind. But the fact that I like demons more than devils does certainly skew things...


Diego Rossi wrote:

The most recent comment by James on Versatile Performance in this thread (as far as my search-fu go):

James Jacobs wrote:
Ravingdork wrote:

You stated that you use the Perform skill's total modifier (hereafter referred to as Perform X, or X) in place of the skill modifier of two or three other skills (hereafter referred to as Y Skills, or Y).

You've also clarified that Skill Focus in X will effect all of Y skills (possibly even allowing them to stack) and that magic items still grant their skill bonuses to the appropriate skills, regardless of the substitutions.

So...

Does that mean I can get a magic item to increase Perform X, thereby increasing all of my Y skills WHILE ALSO getting another magic item to increase one of the Y skills directly? What if both magic items grant the same types of bonus? Does it stack or overlap? Technically, they ARE going to different skills, and the total modifier from Perform X is carried over to Y skills via Versatile Performance without any apparent regard for how it became that number. What if it was a single magic item effecting both X and Y skills?

Take something like...say...a circlet of persuasion, for example. Would such a thing grant me a +6 bonus to all of my Charisma-based Y skills?

What about feats? Would Skill Focus in Perform X and Skill Y potentially grant me a +12 bonus to Skill Y? I know you've broached this, just want to be absolutely clear.

In short, is it possible to double up on Versatile Performance, and if so, what does and does not accomplish this?

I'm currently hammering out a fetchling cavalier 2/bard 3/battle herald 3/shadowdancer 10 character and I want to get his versatile performance ability done right, since it has a HUGE impact on several of his skills.

If you get a magic item to increase Perform, you increase your versatile performance skills. If you get an item to increase a skill directly, that does NOT increase your perform skill. In fact, only if that increase bonus bumps the actual skill modifier up above
...

Ok that's good info for item bonuses. What about class bonuses then, are they treated the same? For instance The Spy class that im considering has "Art of Deception (Ex): A master spy adds her class level to all Bluff, Disguise, and Sense Motive checks."

If im using Versatile Performance already in place of these skills is this completely useless?

Grand Lodge

Can you remove the permanent negative levels given to you by Raise Dead and Resurrection? If so, how?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

kageseishin wrote:

Hello James.

I've been asking around various pathfinder groups for a solid agreement on how you calculate bonuses for the Bard's Versatile Performance skill.

Opinions vary on the matter from GM to GM. I'm really trying to understand it thoroughly so I can someday have a Bard/Spy without wasting skills or items on bonuses that won't work with Versatile Performance.

I had made a post a while back ago addressing some of these opinions but it got completely ignored. I'm not sure if I wrote it poorly or it was just bad luck.

Link to that page here: http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz5dek?Does-Art-of-Deception-WhyHow#1

Someone gave me your name and said you would be the person to ask on the matter. I hope when you have some spare time you can help me out. Thanks.

First off... you don't need to Private Message me AND post the same question here. Pick one... I'll get to it equally quickly.

The short version of the answer is: You do no math at all beyond calculating your Perform check, then simply make a Perform check in place of whatever skill Versatile Performance lets you sub in the Perform check for.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Chemlak wrote:

James, I asked this in "Rules Questions", and didn't really get an answer. I know you're not necessarily the go-to guy for rule interpretations, but I'm hoping to get a decent answer from you.

The Thalassic Behemoth in Bestiary 3 has regen 20 (fire) and immunity to fire. Does the attack that would deliver fire damage actually have to harm the target creature, or is the Thalassic Behemoth actually an impossible to kill creature? Well, or was this an error (and if it was, which bit)?

I have more regeneration questions, but thought I'd get the easy one out there.

Listing (fire) in that behemoth's regeneration line is an error—you'll note that the other two behemoths don't list anything after regeneration. As detailed on page 304 under the behemoth subtype, behemoths have regeneration that can't be turned off. The only way to actually kill a behemoth is to use miracle or wish to stop its regeneration (which, even then, only stops its regeneration for 1d4 rounds).

The best way to get a behemoth to stop bothering a region is to banish it or imprison it.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

BluePigeon wrote:

James, do you paint miniatures or use pre-painted miniatures?

If so what is your preferred brand?

I have a huge collection of unpainted metal minis, and actually need to paint at least one of them for an upcoming game at PaizoCon. I don't paint nearly enough to have a preferred brand of paint.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Coridan wrote:
Advanced Races Guide wrote:


The gods Desna, Cayden Cailean, and Shelyn all speak to the souls of catfolk, and many tribes depict the latter two as catfolk themselves.
Can we please have art of this one day?

Highly unlikely. Catfolk art is hard to do right, and tends to rile people up anyway for whatever reason. If we do much more with catfolk in Golarion, we'll revisit that... but until we do (which is VERY unlikely until we finally turn our attention to southern Garund... which may never happen)... nope.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

6 people marked this as a favorite.
kageseishin wrote:

Ok that's good info for item bonuses. What about class bonuses then, are they treated the same? For instance The Spy class that im considering has "Art of Deception (Ex): A master spy adds her class level to all Bluff, Disguise, and Sense Motive checks."

If im using Versatile Performance already in place of these skills is this completely useless?

It's only "completely useless" if you pick Versatile Performances that allow you to sub out for Bluff, Disguise, and Sense Motive. AKA: If you're building a Spy, you should focus your Perform ranks in the following, none of which affect Bluff, Disguise, or Sense Motive:

Dance
Keyboard instruments
Percussion
Wind Instruments

Or one of these, which still allow you to use Versatile Performance on a non bluff/disguise/sense motive skill:

Comedy
Oratory
String instruments

If you have a generous GM, he'll let you use your Spy bonuses on Perform, but that's not the Rules As Written.

EDIT: James' Preferred House Rule for Versatile Performance:
When you gain versatile performance, select a performance skill. You gain "phantom ranks" in the two classes that versatile performance skill references. The amount of phantom ranks you gain in both of those skills is equal to your ranks in that Versatile Performance's Perform skill. If you have actual skill ranks in a skill in which you gain phantom ranks, those actual skill ranks can immediately be redistributed among other skills, subject to normal limitations.

(This is more or less the text for my initial suggestion back in the day for Versatile Performance, but I believe the design team though it was too good or too confusing. In my defense, there's not a lot of people out there complaining that the bard is too powerful, and so a boost to its power is probably not gonna hurt anything. And using Phantom skill ranks means that if you spend ranks on, say, Acrobatics from 1st level, and then get Versatile Performance in Perform (dance) at 14th level, then you haven't "wasted" those 14 skill ranks you spent on Acrobatics, and you still get to take advantage of things like boots of elvenkind and Skill Focus (acrobatics).)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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kevin_video wrote:
Can you remove the permanent negative levels given to you by Raise Dead and Resurrection? If so, how?

Yes, the same way you remove ANY permanent negative levels. Restoration and greater restoration do wonders for this.

Grand Lodge

James Jacobs wrote:
kevin_video wrote:
Can you remove the permanent negative levels given to you by Raise Dead and Resurrection? If so, how?
Yes, the same way you remove ANY permanent negative levels. Restoration and greater restoration do wonders for this.

Okay. I know in OGL 3.5 you couldn't do this, but it's nice to see that it was changed with Pathfinder.

Next question, and it's regarding the new Advanced Races guide book, and making your own races. I'm really, extremely confused about how the SLA are stated for RP prices in comparison to what I see stated out in the examples. It reads that it costs 1 RP per level of spell for a 1/day usage, and that you can take this multiple times up to 3/day. Is the cost then 3 x RP? And how much would it cost for a 9th level spell 3/day? I thought it to be 27 RP by itself, but then that wouldn't make sense when drow have various spells of various levels (1-3) at-will, 1/day, and 3/day but in total it's only 6 RP. I know it's an approximation, but some clarity to help with the confusion would be GREATLY appreciated as it's baking my noodles something fierce.

Also, would there be an RP reduction is the spell was only half as successful. For example, a half-fiend can only summon fiends with Summon Monster XI, where as a half-celestial can only summon celestials. It's not a full powered spell in that respect. Going on that, there are a few spells that have primary, secondary, and even third abilities to them. What if part of those didn't activate with the spell? Would there be a reduction for how many RP it would cost?

Finally, I noticed that fast healing and regen was skipped out altogether. Was there a particular reason for that? We see bugbears for a base race monster example, but no troll love with regen 1?

Shadow Lodge

doc the grey wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
Will Tabris ever show up/has ever shown up stated in one of your products or as a primary NPC?
More information is needed before I can comment on "Tabris."
Sorry I may have gotten the name wrong I'm referring to the angel that was chronicling the planes and wrote the books of the damned.

Oh! Not sure if the name is wrong or right off the top of my head, honestly.

We will be doing more with this character in the future though.

Ohh yay! Now might this be something that is just being talked about or something that might come up sooner like a watch paizocon/gencon thing?

Second question when a victim is sacrificed to a demon lord, archdevil, daemon, or other evil outsider generally interested in obtaining souls does the aforementioned BBEG obtain it or does it pass on to pharasma like any other soul that has passed on through less horrible means?

Sorry bout this but asked the aforementioned before and wanted to see if I could get an answer to the stuff that didn't get answered aboveve there, also what is the baseline punishment for those souls found on the 8th layer of hell in pathfinder? I know that in maleborgia and many of the higher layers they give you an idea on what happens to those trapped there but 8th seems very sparse, anything advice on what happens to souls that made it down this low?


James Jacobs wrote:
kageseishin wrote:

Ok that's good info for item bonuses. What about class bonuses then, are they treated the same? For instance The Spy class that im considering has "Art of Deception (Ex): A master spy adds her class level to all Bluff, Disguise, and Sense Motive checks."

If im using Versatile Performance already in place of these skills is this completely useless?

It's only "completely useless" if you pick Versatile Performances that allow you to sub out for Bluff, Disguise, and Sense Motive. AKA: If you're building a Spy, you should focus your Perform ranks in the following, none of which affect Bluff, Disguise, or Sense Motive:

Dance
Keyboard instruments
Percussion
Wind Instruments

Or one of these, which still allow you to use Versatile Performance on a non bluff/disguise/sense motive skill:

Comedy
Oratory
String instruments

If you have a generous GM, he'll let you use your Spy bonuses on Perform, but that's not the Rules As Written.

EDIT: James' Preferred House Rule for Versatile Performance:
When you gain versatile performance, select a performance skill. You gain "phantom ranks" in the two classes that versatile performance skill references. The amount of phantom ranks you gain in both of those skills is equal to your ranks in that Versatile Performance's Perform skill. If you have actual skill ranks in a skill in which you gain phantom ranks, those actual skill ranks can immediately be redistributed among other skills, subject to normal limitations.

(This is more or less the text for my initial suggestion back in the day for Versatile Performance, but I believe the design team though it was too good or too confusing. In my defense, there's not a lot of people out there complaining that the bard is too powerful, and so a boost to its power is probably not gonna hurt anything. And using Phantom skill ranks means that if you spend ranks on, say, Acrobatics from 1st level, and then get Versatile Performance in Perform (dance) at 14th level, then you haven't...

Slightly confused at house rule, are the phantom ranks just adding to the original skill then?

And if getting VP in a perform skill I could take any spent points in the effected original skill and distribute them to other class skills? (within their limit)


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Time for Chem's awkward Regeneration questions to arise once more (now that I got the easy one out of the way):

PRD wrote:

Regeneration (Ex) A creature with this ability is difficult to kill. Creatures with regeneration heal damage at a fixed rate, as with fast healing, but they cannot die as long as their regeneration is still functioning (although creatures with regeneration still fall unconscious when their hit points are below 0). Certain attack forms, typically fire and acid, cause a creature's regeneration to stop functioning on the round following the attack. During this round, the creature does not heal any damage and can die normally. The creature's descriptive text describes the types of damage that cause the regeneration to cease functioning.

Attack forms that don't deal hit point damage are not healed by regeneration. Regeneration also does not restore hit points lost from starvation, thirst, or suffocation. Regenerating creatures can regrow lost portions of their bodies and can reattach severed limbs or body parts if they are brought together within 1 hour of severing. Severed parts that are not reattached wither and die normally.

A creature must have a Constitution score to have the regeneration ability.

Format: regeneration 5 (fire, acid); Location: hp.

I've always applied Regen at the end of the regenerating creature's turn (just seems a sensible place to apply it, since it's not defined in the rules).

Scenario: The Wizard zaps the Troll with Scorching Ray right at the start of the round. Later on in the round, the Troll has its turn (it's still alive!).

Question: Does the Troll regenerate, since this is not "on the round following the attack", it is the same round? (I fully expect the answer to be "don't be silly, Chem, of course it doesn't function, in this context it means "for a round following the attack".)

Next question: Absolutely nowhere in the description of regeneration does it appear to require that the "attack form" actually hit the regenerating creature, just that it be subjected to an "attack" with an attack form that overcomes its regeneration. I imagine you can see where I'm going with this. Does the attack actually have to hit to suppress regeneration? (Considering your previous answer to me, I suspect the answer is going to be "Well, DUH, Chem, what do you expect? Of course it has to hit!", but it was this little combo that raised the question for the Thalassic Behemoth, since if it doesn't need to hit, or damage, the regenerating creature to suppress the regeneration, then the Thalassic Behemoth would be a lot less difficult.)

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