Creative Director
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As for mythic rules in general, I'm feeling a bit left in the lurch here - so far all we've got is some vague info about things that might be done. I know you guys are leery of posting stuff prematurely, but is there any chance we might get some sort of preview before the full bore playtest document is out, which won't be until a month or two?
We can't post anything yet because it's not ready. Jason's still designing the base rules for Mythic Adventures that will comprise the playtest. We're actually under a REALLY aggressive schedule, and that means that we'll be posting that playtest as soon as we possibly can... but we won't be posting it before it's ready, because posting something full of errors and mistakes and poorly edited sentences is NOT the way to ease worries to the world that Paizo knows what it's doing for this VERY hotly anticipated and polarizing type of ruleset. Rushing it to the public would only do a disservice to everyone involved.
So... for now... you'll need to be patient.
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Creative Director
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Can casters grant themselves a saving throw against their own illusions, even though they know the effects to be illusionary?
Relevant quotes:
"A character faced with proof that an illusion isn't real needs no saving throw." (Core Rules)For 3.5, Skip Williams stated this:
"The rules don't say so, but if you create an illusion that allows a saving throw for disbelief, you automatically disbelieve it (you know it isn't real because you created it)."
The caster of an illusion KNOWS what he/she is doing, and knows that the effect is an illusion, and as such has more proof than probably anyone else anywhere that the spell's an illusion and thus needs no saving throw. So... in this case, Skip's advice is spot on... but that's not always the case... sage advice answers from 3.5 are often misleading and confusing when applied to Pathfinder, so it's best NOT to go there for advice.
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Creative Director
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If Night Hags are technically not fiends, does that not mean that a child of a Night Hag will be a Changeling?
And if so, what alternate racial should a Night Hag spawn Changeling get?
What I had in mind was some variant to Fiendish Sorcery (related to Dreamspun and Daemon bloodlines)
That child can be whatever your story wants it to be.
Although a night hag isn't technically a fiend, she IS an evil outsider. So while she's not a fiend, she's fiend-like. Or... "fiendish" if you will.
As a result, I could certainly see her offspring with a human being a fiendish changeling. But if you as the GM wanted, a normal changeling works fine as well.
Myself... I would make the kid a fiendish changeling.
(Again... the fiendish template doesn't mean the templated creature is actually a fiend... but is just fiend-like, or "fiendish".)
Do you ever consider giving yourself the title, "Sage of Golarion?"
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James-
Having played through the Golden Serpent scenario at Gen Con I have a question. One of the boons is that you win the favor of Sendeli Foxglove. Perchance is this a relation to Aldern Foxglove? And if yes is she gonna be mad if my rogue stabbed him repeatedly? :)
First of all... I have very little interaction with the scenarios beyond approving the plotlines—once I approve them, they get taken over by Mark and his team (which mostly consists of Mark). I actually have no idea who writes the boons (be it Mark, Mike, or the scenario author)... much of what goes on in the Pathfinder Society doesn't fall under my "umbrella" simply because I don't have the capacity for it. I only take a "from up high" view on it.
SO! I'm not sure of the details for this boon, nor am I sure of what level of spoiler would be appropriate to reveal.
But since Aldern Foxglove only appears in a Pathfinder Adventure Path, and since we currently don't sanction Adventure Paths for organized play, there's pretty much no way your rogue COULD have both "stabbed Aldern repeatedly" and ALSO played through Golden Serpent, so it shouldn't be an issue in the first place. Those events happened in parallel worlds, aka separate and different campaigns.
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Is it possible that the reason is that unlike the other 3PP's you actually maintain a cordial relationship with WOTC? Do you guys talk to each other that much?
I answered the question in a previous post...
But as for Paizo's relationship with Wizards of the Coast... there's actually not much of an official relationship between the two companies as corporate entities these days—there's not a lot of discussion between us on that level.
Many individual employees at Paizo remain friends with employees at Wizards of the Coast, and those relationships are of a different sort than a business relationship, really—they're friendships.
I still have a few acquaintances like that over at WotC, but the number dwindles each year as the layoffs chew away employees over there... :( But I rarely, if ever, talk to those friends and acquaintances about business matters at all.
I can't speak to how WotC's relationships with 3rd party publishers who work on D&D stuff under the GSL and all that works at all. I've been really focused on Pathfinder for the past several years.
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Just wanted to say thank you for answering my questions!! It's amazing you take the time to answer all of our never-ending inquiries, and I really appreciate it.
Now to leave off without bugging you about rules: what is your favorite Armageddon/cataclysm scenario for Golarion?
Why can I only pick one? Verneshots are pretty cool (and an apocalyptic event I just recently learned about), but with Golarion, I guess I'd have to say that my favorite one is the demonic invasion.
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How exactly is the table for determining loot supposed to be used? As written the table references average party level instead of CR so are we supposed to assume APL is CR or what?
You should use those tables as guidelines for your game. As you play and get more experienced and learn what your party's and your loot comfort levels are, feel free to adjust those tables' suggestions as you see fit—we present them as a sort of "baseline."
Table 12–5 in the core rulebook tells you how much treasure to give out for an encounter to a party of an average party level, but that chart has an additional use. When you have a monster with treasure, you assign it a value of treasure equal to it's CR on that table. So a CR 4 barghest would have 1,150 gp in treasure (assuming the medium XP track), since CR 4 would equate to an Average Party Level of 4's typical encounter. I do see, now that I look at it, where the confusion comes in... Table 12–5 should probably list "CR" instead of "Average Party Level."
Frankly, for my tastes, those tables are way too stingy. I don't think they accurately take into account the fact that not every bit of treasure in an adventure will be found... or that even if found will be recognized as treasure... or that even if recognized as treasure will be kept. Selling most treasure cuts the value in half, after all. And then there's the cost of adventuring... sometimes, you end up having to spend lots of your party's treasure funds on restoration spells or raise dead or the like.
For our Adventure Paths, I generally have each adventure give out TWICE OR MORE the amount of treasure recommended on those charts, because I can't assume every party will find all of the treasure, and I do assume that some of that treasure will be sold off at half price or be used to fund recoveries. And the fact that I periodically see complaints that Adventure Paths don't give out enough treasure and rarely (in fact, I've never seen this) see folks complaining that an Adventure Path gives out too much treasure tells me that I'm right! :)
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How much support can we expect for mythic rules in the way of premade adventures? As it is I think you have only put out one module in the last five years for 17th level + and not one 20th level adventure =(
Significant support.
The upcoming adventure path set in the Worldwound is going to be a mythic adventure path. We'll periodically include mythic threats in other adventures as well, and hopefully will do mythic modules now and then. We'll also include support for mythic elements in our Campaign Setting and Player Companion lines now and then.
It's worth remembering, though, that Mythic Adventures are NOT limited to "Post 20th level play." You can play mythic adventures as 1st level characters. So really... ALL of our products will support Mythic Adventures in that way.
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Would the Eldest be candidates for demi-god-like-enemies in Mythic Adventures, or more like dieties? Just curious.
The eldest are demigods. They're in the same category as empyreal lords, elemental lords, archdevils, demon lords, Great Old Ones, and the horsemen of the apocalypse. As such, Mythic Adventures will indeed let us stat them up.
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Because when Necromancer Games decided to do the Tome of Horrors, they worked a deal with Wizards of the Coast to do open content d20 stats for a HUGE amount of iconic D&D monsters that, at that time, the brand manager for D&D assumed Wizards of the Coast would never get around to updating. Rather than consign these monsters to "limbo," he okayed Necromancer to update these older monsters—that's why things like bullywugs and grells and hook horrors and meenlocks and jermalaines aren't in the Tome of Horrors—they'd already been updated in Wizards of the Coast's "Monsters of Faerun" or "Monster Manual II," (both of which were closed content, which resulted in a weird chunk of classic D&D monsters never being made open content).
Morlocks seem to have replaced Meenlocks and Boggards have replaced Bullywugs so what's the closest Golarion version of my beloved Hook Horrors?
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Because when Necromancer Games decided to do the Tome of Horrors, they worked a deal with Wizards of the Coast to do open content d20 stats for a HUGE amount of iconic D&D monsters that, at that time, the brand manager for D&D assumed Wizards of the Coast would never get around to updating. Rather than consign these monsters to "limbo," he okayed Necromancer to update these older monsters—that's why things like bullywugs and grells and hook horrors and meenlocks and jermalaines aren't in the Tome of Horrors—they'd already been updated in Wizards of the Coast's "Monsters of Faerun" or "Monster Manual II," (both of which were closed content, which resulted in a weird chunk of classic D&D monsters never being made open content).Morlocks seem to have replaced Meenlocks and Boggards have replaced Bullywugs so what's the closest Golarion version of my beloved Hook Horrors?
Morlocks actually replace grimlocks, which we COULD have kept, but we like morlocks better.
We actually don't generally seek to "replace" monsters that we can't use, though. We instead make new monsters. As such, there is no real or official "replacement" for the hook horror.
James thanks again for taking time to address the numerous questions posted here.
I am wondering something regarding the rules line. The coming books look very interesting, but I am wondering what will come next. I don't expect a direct answer since there is a reason unannounced products are unannounced, but other then a Bestiary 4 or NPC codex 2. I don't see what could really come after Mythic Adventures. Personally I'd like to see new World Guide hardcovers for Areas outside the inner sea, but I know that is not considered rules line, and in the past the company has released about 3 new rules hardcovers a year. Is that a pace that needs to continue in the next few years? I'm sure that release schedule has as much to do with what types of play need new rules content as it does with how the business is structured. I guess I just want some kind of reassurance about the rules line post Mythic Adventures.
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So, the Prophets of Kalistrade. Every description notes their code of avoiding certain kinds of meat and certain kinds of sexual activity, but nowhere have I seen which these are, or how they tie in to their philosophy. Is this deliberately left up to the individual campaign, or unique to each Prophet, or just not yet described? If so, what are they, and how are they intended? As some form of abstinence/asceticism intended to produce self-control, or intended to promote affinity to some particular force or celestial figure? Similar to Old Testament strictures or something else entirely? I realize it might not be prudent to give an explicit answer, but if you can say anything on it, it would be most interesting to hear. : )
James, you recently answered a question for Gause (which was restating my earlier question) regarding reach weapons for smaller or larger creatures. In your answer you had said that for a Large creature using a whip that it would typically have a reach of 30 ft. First of all, I wanted to say that I agree that your answer makes sense (both thematically and mechanically) and thank you for answering that question.
This answer does raise the following question though: We searched for creatures of a size other than Small or Medium using the whip and only found the Balor. It's posted reach with the whip is only 20 ft. rather than your suggested 30 ft. While I agree with your ruling do you have any explanation for the Balor's limited reach?
Also, thank you for answering my earlier question regarding using inappropriately sized reach weapons. The question was specifically in regards to something like a Titan Mauler (who is specifically meant to use inappropriately sized weapons) using a Large sized whip. So from your answer does that mean that a Large sized whip would only grant the Titan Mauler the same reach as a Medium sized whip would grant?
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James thanks again for taking time to address the numerous questions posted here.
I am wondering something regarding the rules line. The coming books look very interesting, but I am wondering what will come next. I don't expect a direct answer since there is a reason unannounced products are unannounced, but other then a Bestiary 4 or NPC codex 2. I don't see what could really come after Mythic Adventures. Personally I'd like to see new World Guide hardcovers for Areas outside the inner sea, but I know that is not considered rules line, and in the past the company has released about 3 new rules hardcovers a year. Is that a pace that needs to continue in the next few years? I'm sure that release schedule has as much to do with what types of play need new rules content as it does with how the business is structured. I guess I just want some kind of reassurance about the rules line post Mythic Adventures.
For now, you'll just have to be patient to see what we come up with next after Mythic Adventures... but rest assured we have PLENTY of ideas for rulebooks for years to come!
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So, the Prophets of Kalistrade. Every description notes their code of avoiding certain kinds of meat and certain kinds of sexual activity, but nowhere have I seen which these are, or how they tie in to their philosophy. Is this deliberately left up to the individual campaign, or unique to each Prophet, or just not yet described? If so, what are they, and how are they intended? As some form of abstinence/asceticism intended to produce self-control, or intended to promote affinity to some particular force or celestial figure? Similar to Old Testament strictures or something else entirely? I realize it might not be prudent to give an explicit answer, but if you can say anything on it, it would be most interesting to hear. : )
It's something we simply haven't had the chance to detail more about yet. Druma is one of those regions that hasn't yet featured that heavily in any of our products... one day, though, I'm sure it will, and at that point we'll reveal a lot more about the Prophets of Kalistrade.
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James, you recently answered a question for Gause (which was restating my earlier question) regarding reach weapons for smaller or larger creatures. In your answer you had said that for a Large creature using a whip that it would typically have a reach of 30 ft. First of all, I wanted to say that I agree that your answer makes sense (both thematically and mechanically) and thank you for answering that question.
This answer does raise the following question though: We searched for creatures of a size other than Small or Medium using the whip and only found the Balor. It's posted reach with the whip is only 20 ft. rather than your suggested 30 ft. While I agree with your ruling do you have any explanation for the Balor's limited reach?
Also, thank you for answering my earlier question regarding using inappropriately sized reach weapons. The question was specifically in regards to something like a Titan Mauler (who is specifically meant to use inappropriately sized weapons) using a Large sized whip. So from your answer does that mean that a Large sized whip would only grant the Titan Mauler the same reach as a Medium sized whip would grant?
You've convinced me that a Large creature's whip should have a reach of 20 feet. Presto, no rules errata needed!
And correct; reach is best handled as being independent from weapon size for game balance reasons, as far as I'm concerned.
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For the official Pathfinder setting, I have some questions about the planar architecture of the universe.
Is the Material Plane supposed to be similarly sized to the universe we inhabit, with billions of galaxies, etc.?
Is the Dark Tapestry of the Material Plane just a fantasy-world understanding that people on Golarion have of "deep space" or is it supposed to be fundamentally different from our universe's deep space?
If the answer to the first question is that the Material Plane is supposed to be similar to our own universe, I have some questions about the size of the Outer Sphere.
If things are to scale in terms of the diagram in the Inner Sea World Guide and the Material Plane is a universe like our own, the Outer Spheres would be trillions of trillions of miles in diameter (probably a gross understatement actually).
Or is the diagram just an easy way to show in two dimensions that the Outer Spheres are a higher level of being, but they actually aren't "physically larger and physically containing" the other spheres they contain, and so the "distance" is actually much less than what the scale model insinuates?
Yup; the Material Plane is indeed intended to be the same thing as the Universe.
The "Dark Tapestry" is fantasy-speak for "Deep Space." It just refers to the scary parts of outer space where the really alien things dwell. The dark places between the stars. The worlds where madness lives. It's not really even a place you can map out... it's like looking at an olde-tyme map and seeing places labeled "Here there be dragons." The dark tapestry is where those metaphorical dragons live.
The outer sphere's size is unimaginably vast... saying it's trillions and trillions of miles in diameter is a vast understatement. Distances there are, in fact, so vast that it's impossible to travel them physically in the amount of time reality has existed, which is why you need things like portals or plane shift or gate spells to get to and from these other planes.
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What did the demon lord Aolar look like before Desna went nuts on her?I actually haven't put much thought into it, but I kind of like the idea of her being a Kali-looking character; multiple arms and all that. Not sure for sure though...
Thanks! Just wondering...and maybe saving up to commission some fanart of one of the most awesome throwdowns in Golarion-verse history. ;)
Dear James,
I get that gauntlets and brass knuckles are weapons, and that a monk using them uses the damage of the gauntlet/brass knuckle. This is a seperate question.
Monks aside, how do the amulet of mighty fists and the gauntlet/brass knuckle interact? If the gauntlet/brass knuckle are still counted as 'unarmed attacks' (regardless of whether they are a monk's unarmed strikes), does this mean that a fighter wearing an amulet of mighty fists with the shocking property and a +2 frost gauntlet will get the shocking and frost properties on his gauntlet-punch?
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Dear James,
I get that gauntlets and brass knuckles are weapons, and that a monk using them uses the damage of the gauntlet/brass knuckle. This is a seperate question.
Monks aside, how do the amulet of mighty fists and the gauntlet/brass knuckle interact? If the gauntlet/brass knuckle are still counted as 'unarmed attacks' (regardless of whether they are a monk's unarmed strikes), does this mean that a fighter wearing an amulet of mighty fists with the shocking property and a +2 frost gauntlet will get the shocking and frost properties on his gauntlet-punch?
An amulet of mighty fists adds bonuses to natural attacks and unarmed attacks. Gauntlets and brass knuckles are neither of those, and so the amulet doesn't help those attacks in the slightest. To get magical enhancement bonuses to brass knuckles or gauntlets, you need to enhance the brass knuckles or gauntlets just as you would any other weapon.
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Creative Director
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sage advice answers from 3.5 are often misleading and confusing when applied to Pathfinder, so it's best NOT to go there for advice.The bold is not needed.
Do (non-elemental) outsiders (Osyluth obviously do while Omox obviously don't) normally have a skeletal structure? Do they leave bodies if killed on the material after being [calling]ed?
Neither is the snark, frankly.
In any case!
Whether or not an outsider has a skeleton more or less depends on the creature. The vast majority of them do.
If they've been summoned to any plane (not just the Material Plane) they vanish upon being killed, otherwise they leave behind bodies... unless they have some sort of death throes type effect when they die, like a balor.
Is Dark Tapestry somehow related to the dark recesses of the Abyss where Qlippoth "live"?
Another "OT" question but since I am here... can a bard confer his friends bonuses even if he doesn't see them? We were discussing about this a few weeks ago when playing Skinsaw Murders - the evil windmill cleric climbed up the ladder to the pigeon room and a combat ensued in close quarters between him and a PC, the bard who was fighting in the bottom floor was using his ability to inspire courage to his friends but I was unsure someone who could not see nor hear him clearly could get the bonus. According to the bard player, it's a magical speherical emanation, while to me to be inspired one has to actually understand what the bard says.
With the rampant success of the Reaper Kickstarter, what are the odds of a number of those minis being used as monsters in future products?
Also, how many Paizo Employees pledged? If a lot, you guys should totally take a picture of the full collection. Would be a totally awesome pic.
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Is Dark Tapestry somehow related to the dark recesses of the Abyss where Qlippoth "live"?
Another "OT" question but since I am here... can a bard confer his friends bonuses even if he doesn't see them? We were discussing about this a few weeks ago when playing Skinsaw Murders - the evil windmill cleric climbed up the ladder to the pigeon room and a combat ensued in close quarters between him and a PC, the bard who was fighting in the bottom floor was using his ability to inspire courage to his friends but I was unsure someone who could not see nor hear him clearly could get the bonus. According to the bard player, it's a magical speherical emanation, while to me to be inspired one has to actually understand what the bard says.
A 1st-level bard can use his performance to inspire courage in his allies (including himself), bolstering them against fear and improving their combat abilities. To be affected, an ally must be able to perceive the bard's performance.
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Inspire courage can use audible or visual components. The bard must choose which component to use when starting his performance.
Pretty clear: the ally should perceive the bard performance and the bard performance should have either a audible or visual component.
If the allies were unable to hear and see him they were unaffected by his ability.
Audible or visible components. It's one or the other. So if your Bard is a dancer, they need to see him, but if he's a singer (or plays an instrument), they need to hear him.
Technically, no performance is actually made, but when a Bard is played at my table, I require them to tell me what they're doing for their performance. Most of the Bards are singers, so they say something like, "I'm singing a battle hymn" or something to that effect.
Usually, the audible performance is the most effective one. Darkness, smoke, fogs, walls etc, can all interrupt a visible performance and prevent a player from being affected. Only distance and Silence (or thick walls) will really stop the audible performances.
Thanks for answering so many of our questions O Might Tyrannosaur, and after 429 pages of lurking, I have one of my own!
You've said on numerous occasions that part of the reason you guys don't go over about 50 pages a month for the adventure part of an AP is because that's physically the most you can reasonably expect one guy to "develop" in a month. I was wondering, what exactly does it mean to "develop" an adventure or other RPG product? What goes into it? Can you give a general description of the process?
Dear James,
Can I use the "implant the memory of an event the subject never experienced" phrase of Modify Memory to help it learn how to do something if it falls within the 5 minute time-frame (essentially pull a Maxtrix and give it some kind of knowledge).
Can consecutive alterations be used to give a creature more complicated bits of knowledge in this regard?
You reach into the subject's mind and modify as many as 5 minutes of its memories in one of the following ways.
Eliminate all memory of an event the subject actually experienced. This spell cannot negate charm, geas/quest, suggestion, or similar spells.
Allow the subject to recall with perfect clarity an event it actually experienced.
Change the details of an event the subject actually experienced.
Implant a memory of an event the subject never experienced.
Casting the spell takes 1 round. If the subject fails to save, you proceed with the spell by spending as much as 5 minutes (a period of time equal to the amount of memory you want to modify) visualizing the memory you wish to modify in the subject. If your concentration is disturbed before the visualization is complete, or if the subject is ever beyond the spell's range during this time, the spell is lost.A modified memory does not necessarily affect the subject's actions, particularly if it contradicts the creature's natural inclinations. An illogical modified memory is dismissed by the creature as a bad dream, too much wine, or another similar excuse.
For now, you'll just have to be patient to see what we come up with next after Mythic Adventures... but rest assured we have PLENTY of ideas for rulebooks for years to come!James thanks again for taking time to address the numerous questions posted here.
I am wondering something regarding the rules line. The coming books look very interesting, but I am wondering what will come next. I don't expect a direct answer since there is a reason unannounced products are unannounced, but other then a Bestiary 4 or NPC codex 2. I don't see what could really come after Mythic Adventures. Personally I'd like to see new World Guide hardcovers for Areas outside the inner sea, but I know that is not considered rules line, and in the past the company has released about 3 new rules hardcovers a year. Is that a pace that needs to continue in the next few years? I'm sure that release schedule has as much to do with what types of play need new rules content as it does with how the business is structured. I guess I just want some kind of reassurance about the rules line post Mythic Adventures.
Some how that is all I needed to hear.
I think Psychic Magic will be a rule book released soon. I sum up my reasons why I think so in another thread.
This post by James Jacobs gives me hope that there will be an official Psionics book Soon(tm).
Nope.
Thing is, several of us here, me included, actually REALLY LIKE the idea of a new type of magic called psychic magic, mentalism, psionics, or whatever. That's why we put psionics into Golarion in the first place, giving them a home in Vudra and in certain themes in the Darklands.
Burying psionics isn't something I want to do.
They ARE something that I want us to do right, and that requires a lot of effort and planning ahead. On a scale of time involving years.
Good news there is we're several years into that plan already. No one outside of Paizo really knows how many years we want to take before we dive into the Psychic Magic pool though.
However, in another post, JJ also said that if/when Paizo releases a Psionic Book, it won't be based off a power point system (as Psionics Unleashed is).
I'm 99% certain that we'll alienate a bunch of existing psionics fans anyway, since the power point system is something I can almost guarantee we will NOT use for psychic magic if and when we go there.
My hope is that what we do with psychic magic will bring in enough new fans AND appease enough existing fans that we'll have a net gain... but it's tricky, and that trickiness has played into the reason why we've not done more with psychic magic yet.
It's entirely possible I'm reading too much into JJ's post, but I still think Psychic Magic will be released sooner, rather than later.
Tels, perhaps, but James has been saying those things for a while :)
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Does the amount of worship of a deity influence their power?
If I wipe out all of Sarenrae's worshippers, would she more or less die?
1)Will the Innersea Bestiary have those multi-legged lizard mounts that Lashunta use?
2)Where was the Vesperguant mentioned?
3)Is there a working title for the fey revisited book or is just being called "Fey Revisited"?
4)Will Ultimate Campaign have any more info/updated rules for the proffesion skill?
5)Will the Andriod be a playable race?
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Is Dark Tapestry somehow related to the dark recesses of the Abyss where Qlippoth "live"?
Another "OT" question but since I am here... can a bard confer his friends bonuses even if he doesn't see them? We were discussing about this a few weeks ago when playing Skinsaw Murders - the evil windmill cleric climbed up the ladder to the pigeon room and a combat ensued in close quarters between him and a PC, the bard who was fighting in the bottom floor was using his ability to inspire courage to his friends but I was unsure someone who could not see nor hear him clearly could get the bonus. According to the bard player, it's a magical speherical emanation, while to me to be inspired one has to actually understand what the bard says.
Nope; the Qlippoth are from the depths of the Abyss, not the Dark Tapestry.
If the bard can't see his friends, he can still confer his bonuses via sound. However, if he doesn't even know his friends are there (like, say, they're hiding from him), he can't bolster them at all.
In fact, a bard's inspire courage and other similar effects specifically do NOT have specific ranges or areas of effect at all... spherical or otherwise. As long as the bard knows that an ally needs help, and as long as that ally can see or hear the bard (depending on whether the bard chose to do visual or audible components to his performance), the ally gets the bonuses. It's not so much the bard describing to you how to be better (it's not a language-dependant effect, after all), as much as it is just the bard's magical support and charisma and magnetism and your character's delight at being friends with the bard that does the trick.
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With the rampant success of the Reaper Kickstarter, what are the odds of a number of those minis being used as monsters in future products?
Also, how many Paizo Employees pledged? If a lot, you guys should totally take a picture of the full collection. Would be a totally awesome pic.
Since Reaper's Kickstarter uses monsters that are very common, like skeletons and dragons, chances of us using monsters that align with one of the hundreds of minis they're producing are high. We aren't going to do that on purpose, but it'll just happen anyway.
I've pledged, and I believe several others here have pledged (I know Erik did), but I'm not sure how MANY have pledged.
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1) Can i use a ki point to do an extra attack even if i'm doing an extra attack from "haste" spell?
2) For me, is not clear a lot of things.
Quote:
For instances, when fighting a skeleton with DR 5/bludgeoning and DR 4/armor (+2 for armor, +2 for natural armor), the skeleton's DR/armor reduces 9 points of damage from non-bludgeoning attacks, and 4 damage from bludgeoning weapon attacks. Magic weapons and attacks from Large or larger creatures bypass the DR 4/armor, but not the DR 5/bludgeoning.
andQuote:
A creature that has both DR from a source other than armor and a natural armor bonus gains the effects of an enhanced form of DR, similar to how the composition of the armor grants special DR/armor defenses (see Table 5–1). If a creature has magical armor, natural armor, and DR, it takes the best form of the special protection provided by both its armor and its mix of DR and natural armor to its DR/armor.For instance, if a creature has natural armor and DR/magic and is wearing adamantine armor, that creature's DR/armor functions as DR/—, and can be bypassed by Gargantuan or larger creatures, since the adamantine armor provides the best of the two damage reductions.
Why the skeleton haven't DR/bludgeoning against large creatures? It's the best DR in this case.
If a creature have a magic armor, DR 10/silver and good and a natural armor bonus, how function his DR?
If a 7 level barbarian with DR 1/-, natural armor 1, adamantine +2 breastplate, how function his DR? For the table 5-2 he have DR 14/- (10 armor, 1 RD, 1 natural + 1 natural for the table 5-2, because he have DR/- for the barbarian class feature) and can be bypassed only by a colossal creature. So, because
Quote:
A creature that has both DR from a source other than armor and a natural armor bonus gains the effects of an enhanced form of DR, similar to how the composition of the armor grants special DR/armor defenses (see Table 5–1). If a creature has magical armor, natural armor, and DR, it takes the best form of the special protection provided by both its armor and its mix of DR and natural armor to its DR/armor.
he never loses any point of his DR (unlike the skeleton) because he have the best combination of DR. Right? My real problem is that i don't understand the sense of the table 5-2.3) If is used crane wing to deflect a shocking grasp, the spell discharges?
1) If the use of the ki point to make an extra attack is called out as a haste bonus, then no. Otherwise, yes.
2) Damage reduction doesn't normally stack. If you hit a skeleton with DR 5/bludgeoning and DR 4/— and you attack it with a slashing or piercing weapon, the DR 5/bludgeoning DR is higher and thus that's the one you use. If you hit that skeleton with a club, the DR 5/bludgeoning is negated, but the DR 4/— is not so you just apply THAT one.
If, on the other hand, you're using some variant rules that DO let some DR stack, not only does that quickly get confusing (which is why I'm not a fan of that system), but it slows gameplay down. It's an optional rule, and one I don't use, so I haven't really put much thought into why or why not it works the way it does, so I can't really help you with it—my advice is that if it's confusing to just not use those rules.
3) Nope; charges held from touch spells stay held until the caster dismisses them or until he hits a target. If a touch attack is deflected, it doesn't hit the target, and thus it doesn't discharge.
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Creative Director
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Audible or visible components. It's one or the other. So if your Bard is a dancer, they need to see him, but if he's a singer (or plays an instrument), they need to hear him.
Technically, no performance is actually made, but when a Bard is played at my table, I require them to tell me what they're doing for their performance. Most of the Bards are singers, so they say something like, "I'm singing a battle hymn" or something to that effect.
Usually, the audible performance is the most effective one. Darkness, smoke, fogs, walls etc, can all interrupt a visible performance and prevent a player from being affected. Only distance and Silence (or thick walls) will really stop the audible performances.
Also, note that to do that, you don't actually need any ranks in ANY perform skills. There are actually only a VERY FEW bardic performances that require Perform checks, but even those don't require ranks in a performance—they merely require checks.
When a bard activates a bardic performance, he must decide if it's an audio or visual performance—one or the other. It's certainly cool to include what KIND of performance you're doing, be it song or dance or flute or comedy, but that element falls under the aegis of roleplay, not rules.
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Creative Director
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Really Loving the New Pawns!
Do you plan on releasing pawn sets for Bestiary 2 and 3 ?
Do you plan on releasing pawns for past Adventure Paths?
We've got a Skull & Shackles pawn set at the printer right now, so... yes!
As for Bestiary 2 and 3? That would seem like a good idea, wouldn't it? ;-)
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Creative Director
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Thanks for answering so many of our questions O Might Tyrannosaur, and after 429 pages of lurking, I have one of my own!
You've said on numerous occasions that part of the reason you guys don't go over about 50 pages a month for the adventure part of an AP is because that's physically the most you can reasonably expect one guy to "develop" in a month. I was wondering, what exactly does it mean to "develop" an adventure or other RPG product? What goes into it? Can you give a general description of the process?
Developing is, in a nutshell, fixing everything in an adventure that's wrong.
On one level, that includes formatting and grammar and spelling... but what it REALLY means is that we fix parts of the author's turnover that have rules errors, bad writing, boring encounters, silly/stupid/inappropriate content, or missed opportunities. There is also often (alas) a lot of re-drawing author map turnovers to make them legible for the cartographer.
For authors we use often, development is mostly just punching up the language, adding in new elements here and there to strengthen bonds with other products, personalizing it by adding things that we as developers think make the encounter more interesting, and so on.
For authors who don't measure up to what we need, development often is more accurately called "rewriting."
In fact, that's the best way to describe development—it's the process of rewriting the parts of the product that aren't up to Paizo's standards. Sometimes that's only a bit here and there. In some cases, it can be 80% of an entire manuscript... or more. When you pick up a Paizo product and you see a "developed" credit on it, that's telling you that person or persons wrote a portion of the words you are reading. Sometimes most of them. Hopefully not, though, since when we have to rewrite huge portions of a product, we get cranky because that means we should have just saved everyone the time and should have written it ourselves! Authors that pull this stunt on us generally don't get to write more for us... or if they DO, they don't get to write big projects.
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Creative Director
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Dear James,
Can I use the "implant the memory of an event the subject never experienced" phrase of Modify Memory to help it learn how to do something if it falls within the 5 minute time-frame (essentially pull a Maxtrix and give it some kind of knowledge).
Can consecutive alterations be used to give a creature more complicated bits of knowledge in this regard?
You reach into the subject's mind and modify as many as 5 minutes of its memories in one of the following ways.
Eliminate all memory of an event the subject actually experienced. This spell cannot negate charm, geas/quest, suggestion, or similar spells.
Allow the subject to recall with perfect clarity an event it actually experienced.
Change the details of an event the subject actually experienced.
Implant a memory of an event the subject never experienced.
Casting the spell takes 1 round. If the subject fails to save, you proceed with the spell by spending as much as 5 minutes (a period of time equal to the amount of memory you want to modify) visualizing the memory you wish to modify in the subject. If your concentration is disturbed before the visualization is complete, or if the subject is ever beyond the spell's range during this time, the spell is lost.A modified memory does not necessarily affect the subject's actions, particularly if it contradicts the creature's natural inclinations. An illogical modified memory is dismissed by the creature as a bad dream, too much wine, or another similar excuse.
Not really. Modified memories can impart knowledge and stuff, but can't actually give you bonuses to rolls or new abilities or skills you didn't have before. The spell isn't really intended to be a bonus-granting or teaching spell, but a trick-the-person into remembering falsehoods or hide memories or the like spell.
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Creative Director
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I think Psychic Magic will be a rule book released soon. I sum up my reasons why I think so in another thread.
** spoiler omitted **
It's entirely possible I'm reading too much into JJ's post, but I still think Psychic Magic will be released sooner, rather than later.
People keep asking for us to do a "psionics" book, so a book on that topic seems to me to be a no-brainer. What's NOT a no-brainer is how we approach that topic, sicne no one here at Paizo likes the power-point system—it's awkward, clumsy, and unnecessary for the game, since we ALREADY have mechanics for how to resolve that type of thing: spellcasting.
Which is why I've been referring to it as "psychic magic" instead of psionics. If we call it psychic magic, it can do the exact same stuff that the psionics rules from Dreamscarred Press or 3.5 did in game, but since it would use simpler rules you all already know how to use, in theory it wouldn't cause the balance problems that the power point system does when you mix it with the rest of the Pathfinder rules.
I'm a HUGE fan of this type of game play element. Books like Carrie, Firestarter, and the Dark Tower series have a LOT of stuff about mental magic like this, as do all sorts of real-world myths and legends. I could envision psychic base classes with names like mesmerist, spiritualist, medium, fakir, telepath, telekinetic, and so on that would be really cool to play and design. In fact, we've got Vudra and the Darklands of Golarion that already have a lot of psionic/psychic flavor to them.
So yeah... a psychic magic book is a great example of a cool book we could do in the future. There are MANY more.
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Creative Director
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Thank you James! I hope you don't mind the inevitable follow ups I have now:
If the diagram is "to scale", and it is impossible to travel the distances by normal means, are Heaven, Pharasma's Spire, Hell, and Abaddon to scale in the diagram as well? I know its fantasy and it doesn't have to follow rules of our reality, but the setting book says that beings "travel around" in these places, and describes their movement in terms of "walking up the slopes of heaven" or "going through gates" (physical ones, not the spell) to get from one layer of Hell to another, or "traveling" the River Styx...
If what you are saying is correct, how would they do this? If the Outer Shpere is to the Material Plane what the real Sun is to the real Earth... souls traveling in the River of Souls would need to be moving at speeds even unheard of for warp drives in Star Trek... vastly unheard of. Even moving up the slopes of Heaven or through the bowels of hell would require speeds of this magnitude, because the entire material universe could comfortably fit in just one level of these places according to the diagram.
Again, I know this is a magical fantasy setting, but if "distance" in terms of spatial physics IS supposed to exist in that space as you say, the above is only the beginning of the questions I would have... like you are supposed to be able to see Hell's gates from Pharasma's spire, or that you can see the Inner Sphere as if it is a distant sun from the edges of the Outer Shpere... which would be so distant, there is no way you could see light from it from that far away.
A diagram of something this vast can't be to scale in print and hope to show all it needs to show. The diagram of the Great Beyond is distorted so that the points of interest are visible, so that frail human minds can grasp the basic layout of this interpretation of reality. If we'd drawn it to scale... it would just look like a circle with nothing in it.
Beings DO travel around from plane to plane, but unless they just happen to live at a point where a border is at, chances are good they cannot walk back and forth between planes. They use magical modes of travel, like portals and the like—the River Styx is such a portal, in a way. It moves between planes but when it does, the transition is observed not as something like stepping through a weird rippling hole in space, but merely as floating down a river and having the terrain change around you on the shores.
Taking Hell as a specific example, Hell itself is vast, but nowhere near as vast as the entire Outer Sphere. Even if it were as large as the known universe, it wouldn't show up on a to-scale map of the outer sphere that shows the entire circle. We don't actually give physical measurements for a place like Hell, but it's small enough that one could envision movement from one layer to another, since that would more or less be akin to envisioning interstellar travel. We can't do it yet, but we can envision it.
For the most part, when one moves from one layer of Hell to another, that travel is via portals or the like. Again, not necessarily "rips in space." Many portals are very subtle in appearance to the point that they might not look like anything more than a change in air pressure or a sudden whiff of roses.
Why'd we do this?
In previous editions of the game, the outer planes and the multiverse were basically called "infinite." And that's a concept that isn't accurate, because infinity implies an encompassing of everything. If Heaven is infinite, it's infinitely large and thus would have an infinite amount of contents, which would include all POSSIBLE contents, which means that there would be an infinite number of all the things on other planes and realities in Heaven. There would, for example, be an infinite number of Taco Bells in heaven. Now, obviously, that's not the intent of saying "heaven is an infinite plane," but phrasing it that way allows that argument to hold water.
By instead making the Multiverse and its planes overwhelmingly vast but NOT infinite, we avoid that concept entirely. The multiverse is vast... unimaginably vast... but it's not infinitely large. There is a finite number of things in it.
If you can see Hell's gates from the edge of the Boneyard... that just means, in science speak, that the photons escaping from hell have passed through some sort of portal so that they can reach your eyes.