do you think Blessing of Fervor is overpowered for a spell level that shares Divine Power, which is nice but not nearly as good in my opinion. I'm always hesitant to take things from sources that are not the core rulebook because its too easy for them to be more powerful so they don't seem like "whats the point for the money"I don't think it's overpowered at all. What makse you feel like it's overpowered?
mostly that divine power has been around longer, and is the same spell level. divine power= one person gets +'s to hit and an extra attack. and blessing of fervor is everyone in the party gets a slough of bonuses of their choice. 4 people all with a haste attack at full base is already better than 1 person with extra attack and pluses, but then you add in the meta magic options and you get one buff that's good for the whole party whether you're a caster or a fighter. especially since my party likes to run silence on encounters with casters so a whole party haste with free silent spell is kind of a lot for the same spell slot as divine power.
Creative Director
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1) So I saw that you like Troma films. Which ones are your favorites?
2) When you got into the industry, did you think that you would be one of the RPG celebrities?
1) "Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell" is my favorite. Mostly because it actually has some pretty good stop motion action in there! But also because there's actually no nymphoid barbarians, actual dinosaurs, or hell in the movie at all. Still... one of the best movie titles of all time. The director commentary is something else!
2) I did not. In fact, I still don't really think of myself as an "RPG celebrity."
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Creative Director
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How many circumstantial bonus to hit modifiers can you squeeze and stack on each other?
ex.
+1 higher ground
+2 flanking
+4 (opponent prone)
+4 (opponent squeezing)
+2 invisible
+2 charging
+2 (opponent grappled)etc.
As many as your GM will let you get away with. A lot of those, though, start to not really work together... It's hard to envision a target who's squeezing AND grappled while you can be simultaneously flanking, on higher ground, and charging.
And at a certain point, those extra bonuses to hit don't matter, since you always miss on a natural 1 anyway. Once you're at the point where you'll only miss on a 1 and still hit on a 2, that's when extra bonuses to hit do nothing but slow down the game as folks try to squeeze just one more +1 out...
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Creative Director
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mostly that divine power has been around longer, and is the same spell level. divine power= one person gets +'s to hit and an extra attack. and blessing of fervor is everyone in the party gets a slough of bonuses of their choice. 4 people all with a haste attack at full base is already better than 1 person with extra attack and pluses, but then you add in the meta magic options and you get one buff that's good for the whole party whether you're a caster or a fighter. especially since my party likes to run silence on encounters with casters so a whole party haste with free silent spell is kind of a lot for the same spell slot as divine power.do you think Blessing of Fervor is overpowered for a spell level that shares Divine Power, which is nice but not nearly as good in my opinion. I'm always hesitant to take things from sources that are not the core rulebook because its too easy for them to be more powerful so they don't seem like "whats the point for the money"I don't think it's overpowered at all. What makse you feel like it's overpowered?
Divine favor gives you multiple bonuses at once, which is pretty significant.
That said... one of the HARDEST things to design in this game are spells. Not only because they need to balance against each other, but because there's a semi-finite amount of things they can do before they all start getting repetitive. Frankly, I kind of think that we ended up with enough spells with Advanced Player's Guide... but folks still want more...
1. If Lisa sat you down and told you that she wanted you to write a "Race" of Golarion book about one specific race from the Dragon Empires Primer, which race would you prefer writing about?
2. Chocolate Cake or Golden (aka Vanilla) Cake?
3. What's your favorite ice cream flavor.
4. What snacks do you usually bring with you / buy when going to see a movie?
5. Do you prefer hot weather or cold weather?
6. What would you say the most overused adventure hook is? Do you have a list of topics or scenarios never to use in your adventures?
7. Did you participate in Reaper's Kickstarter? If so, will you be taking home the monstrous C'thulhu model?
8. What's one monster not owned by WotC that we'll most likely never see in Golarion?
9. Smelly fart monsters, eh? Does Adam know about your flump slander? If so, are you preparing for the inevitable space invasion of Jamestopia?
10. What's the longest you've ever had to go without sleep to meet a deadline?
Divine favor gives you multiple bonuses at once, which is pretty significant.
That said... one of the HARDEST things to design in this game are spells. Not only because they need to balance against each other, but because there's a semi-finite amount of things they can do before they all start getting repetitive. Frankly, I kind of think that we ended up with enough spells with Advanced Player's Guide... but folks still want more...
Ugh, I'd rather design spells over magic items. Those burn me out SO much!
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Are there any plans to update the Summon Monster list so that it at least has more non Evil options for divine casters in PFS? I would love to see something added so that my CG cleric can get some love and be supported in pfs.
Also are the alignment restrictions on casting for clerics based on the alignment of the cleric or the alignment of his god?As it stands now, there's no reason why you can't make anything that spells summons that's fiendish be a celestial version, or vice-versa.
We have no plans to increase the lists overall, but we do often expand the lists in other areas. All of Sean's deity articles, for example, add a few specialized options for each type of cleric.
The alignment restrictions on casting are based on the cleric's alignment... but if he casts too many out of keeping with his deity, he may be increasingly at risk of an alignment shift.
Yeah I've seen those lists in Sean excellent articles but are those considered PFS legal?
Second thing when I mean updates I'm referring to something like seeing some of the other outsider races making their way onto the list like proteans, inevitables, azatas, archons, and agathions. Don't get me wrong I love summoning a lemure or dretch as much as the next guy but the way the list is built right now it's not really conducive to many of the other alignments that aren't Evil of some kind and leaves those of us building divine casters with limited options in terms of alignment when we want to build a summoner who wants to summon more then animals with smite abilities. As it stands now you don't get an actual good outsider that isn't just a templated animal until Summon IV and CG clerics have to wait till Summon V while an LE LN can hit it off with a Lemure at Summon monster II. This seems to be an insanely long time to wait to show off what your alignment in the cosmos is all about to the rest of the world besides smite good and some resistances. Even something like some of the low end agathions, azatas, and archons popping up on the list prior to Summon V would be awesome and feel a bit less like I'm a holy druid. I'm sorry if this seems a bit confrontational it is not my intent it just seems like a wonderful place to add some of those non evil outsiders and get players acquainted with the powers rolling with the side of good and make it feel less like we have to play nongood/evil to actually use most of the list.
1. Which do you think would make a creepier monster: a parasite that alters a PC's mind and/or body to get eaten so it can live in its preferred host; or a a parasite that lays its eggs in a PC so they can emerge in a suitably horrific manner?
2. What part of Golarion would you like to be asked more questions about?
3. How does one stop riding a T-rex?
in general, I read through extra books thinking "this is all better stuff than we had before! =)" and while a big part of that is because they are new and interesting and interesting=better than core every time, it seems like things like point blank master (which I shamelessly use) are simply more powerful than the standard fare. we have a fighter with a great sword and a 20 str, he's been dealing 20 damage a turn since we were fighting 5hp goblins. I didn't really think its necessary for him to take the 2-handed fighter archetype and just leave the rest of the party in the dust.
spells eventually outshine melee so we'll let him switch to it if and when the sorcerer makes him feel redundant.
how do you feel about the continuously growing set of character options? do you think they suffer from 'makes core rulebook options unappealing-itus?'
Are you wearing white?
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Does the spell Protective Penumbra affect your light level for its target at all? I may be reading between the lines, but it seems like it might lower the light level for the target its cast on by a step, if so: does it grant concealment when the target is in an area of Normal Light vs. Bright Light?
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Creative Director
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Ugh, I'd rather design spells over magic items. Those burn me out SO much!Divine favor gives you multiple bonuses at once, which is pretty significant.
That said... one of the HARDEST things to design in this game are spells. Not only because they need to balance against each other, but because there's a semi-finite amount of things they can do before they all start getting repetitive. Frankly, I kind of think that we ended up with enough spells with Advanced Player's Guide... but folks still want more...
Magic items, at the very least, have all the spells to use as building blocks.
Spells don't have that, which is one of several things that makes them harder.
Another thing—magic items not only have a HUGE range of power that is represented by their cost in gp, but also have the "artifact" tier of power which essentially expands their power cap to the infinite. Spells have only 9 tiers of power—their 9 spell levels, and as such that makes them FAR more difficult to peg and design.
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Creative Director
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1. If Lisa sat you down and told you that she wanted you to write a "Race" of Golarion book about one specific race from the Dragon Empires Primer, which race would you prefer writing about?
2. Chocolate Cake or Golden (aka Vanilla) Cake?
3. What's your favorite ice cream flavor.
4. What snacks do you usually bring with you / buy when going to see a movie?
5. Do you prefer hot weather or cold weather?
6. What would you say the most overused adventure hook is? Do you have a list of topics or scenarios never to use in your adventures?
7. Did you participate in Reaper's Kickstarter? If so, will you be taking home the monstrous C'thulhu model?
8. What's one monster not owned by WotC that we'll most likely never see in Golarion?
9. Smelly fart monsters, eh? Does Adam know about your flump slander? If so, are you preparing for the inevitable space invasion of Jamestopia?
10. What's the longest you've ever had to go without sleep to meet a deadline?
1) First of all, I'd be weirded out that Lisa did that. The way in which we decide what books to do is a much more give and take than that. That said, if I were given that option, I would immediately choose the samsarans, since of the five core Dragon Empires races, they're not only the most interesting to me, but they're the ones least associated with a real-world mythology AND the ones with the most unusual social and biological and spiritual elements. AKA: They need a book like this more than the others.
2) Vanilla.
3) Coffee.
4) I generally don't buy/bring snacks to movies. The main exception is when I go to Ipic Theaters, which includes a full-service bar and restaurant as part of your viewing experience, in which case I'll generally order whatever drinks and food I feel like at the time. Yesterday, when I saw "The Possession," that was water, popcorn, and ale-battered chicken with barbecue and honey mustard dipping sauces.
5) Cold weather.
6) "You're all in a tavern..." I've got a short mental list of things I generally don't want to see in adventures, but that list changes as things fall in and out of favor. Half-dragons who are anything other than half-reptilian monster are pretty much the only permanent fixture to that list.
7) I did. I will. Among LOTS of other things.
8) The Predator.
9) Adam knows. I suspect my (and the rest of the world's) dislike/distaste for flumphs is a significant part of the reason why he likes them.
10) 2 days. But MUCH longer if you count "sleeping fitfully for only 3 to 5 hours."
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Creative Director
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Another odd question that came up on another thread. Would an orginisation like the pathfinder society ever willingly allow a Lich amoungst there number?
Answered in that other thread.
For a lot of reasons, though, no.
For even more reasons, a lich wouldn't seek to join the society unless he/she thought he/she could rule it.
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Creative Director
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Yeah I've seen those lists in Sean excellent articles but are those considered PFS legal?
Second thing when I mean updates I'm referring to something like seeing some of the other outsider races making their way onto the list like proteans, inevitables, azatas, archons, and agathions. Don't get me wrong I love summoning a lemure or dretch as much as the next guy but the way the list is built right now it's not really conducive to many of the other alignments that aren't Evil of some kind and leaves those of us building divine casters with limited options in terms of alignment when we want to build a summoner who wants to summon more then animals with smite abilities. As it stands now you don't get an actual good outsider that isn't just a templated animal until Summon IV and CG clerics have to wait till Summon V while an LE LN can hit it off with a Lemure at Summon monster II. This seems to be an insanely long time to wait to show off what your alignment in the cosmos is all about to the rest of the world besides smite good and some resistances. Even something like some of the low end agathions, azatas, and archons popping up on the list prior to Summon V would be awesome and feel a bit less like I'm a holy druid. I'm sorry if this seems a bit confrontational it is not my intent it just seems like a wonderful place to add some of those non evil outsiders and get players acquainted with the powers rolling with the side of good and make it feel less like we have to play nongood/evil to actually use most of the list.
I'm not sure if those lists are PFS legal.
My response there is the same I give to most folks asking similar questions: The Pathfinder Society is an unusual campaign. It has some really great and cool facets, like the fact that it's essentially a Massively OFFLINE Multiplayer Roleplaying Game. But since it doesn't have "one GM as the Boss of the game," there's a lot of limitations on how players can play the game. Rules like "No item creation" or "no evil PCs" for example.
There are less obvious limitations too, the big one being that the more unusual and wacky and off-model and unexpected you get with your character design... such as by wanting to use variant and/or obscure rules for summoning monsters, the more likely you are to run into problems where the your desires for what kind of character you want to play are simply not options. The Pathifnder Society campaign works BEST when the players use only core rulebook elements for their characters, in my opinion. The more non-core elements you put in there, the more likely you are to stumble upon an unanticipate combination that is inappropriate to the power-level or theme of the campaign, and thus the more likely you are to build a character whose concept itsn't legal or fundamentally workable in that game.
If you want to build a character with unusual or obscure elements, in other words, you have to make peace with the fact that you might have to change things with your character.
NOW
As for the second part of your question: No, we won't be adding to the lists with things like proteans and the like. See "Book of the Damned" for an example of how we intend to make these new outsider races things you can summon. We aren't going to add them to the basic summon monster lists... we'll slowly but surely make NEW summon monster lists that allow you to summon them.
A full on reworking and balancing for all alignments in those lists is something that we're unlikely to attempt until we do a 2nd edition of Pathfinder... and that's still in the unknown future at this point.
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Creative Director
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1. Which do you think would make a creepier monster: a parasite that alters a PC's mind and/or body to get eaten so it can live in its preferred host; or a a parasite that lays its eggs in a PC so they can emerge in a suitably horrific manner?
2. What part of Golarion would you like to be asked more questions about?
3. How does one stop riding a T-rex?
1) Eggs!
2) The Darklands.
3) Why would you ever want to?
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Creative Director
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in general, I read through extra books thinking "this is all better stuff than we had before! =)" and while a big part of that is because they are new and interesting and interesting=better than core every time, it seems like things like point blank master (which I shamelessly use) are simply more powerful than the standard fare. we have a fighter with a great sword and a 20 str, he's been dealing 20 damage a turn since we were fighting 5hp goblins. I didn't really think its necessary for him to take the 2-handed fighter archetype and just leave the rest of the party in the dust.
spells eventually outshine melee so we'll let him switch to it if and when the sorcerer makes him feel redundant.
how do you feel about the continuously growing set of character options? do you think they suffer from 'makes core rulebook options unappealing-itus?'
I think that the constantly growing set of character options leads inevitably to power bloat... not necessarily because individual powers are stronger (I think we've done actually a pretty good job there), but because the more options you allow, the more focused and strongly specialized you can make characters, and THAT ends up with characters who are more powerful at their chosen specialty than if they hadn't had those additional options.
I think we've reached a saturation point on Player Options with Ultimate Combat, and then overdid it a bit with Advanced Race Guide. My preference going forward is to do new player options in smaller scale releases (such as in smaller books like our Pathifnder Campaign Setting or Player Companion lines), or to focus the new rules in new TYPES of games, like Mythic Adventures.
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Creative Director
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So, two questions, but one is wrapped in with another.
1. What is your favorite Batman Villain?
2. What batman Villain do you think would best suit (with appropriate adaptations relevant to the genre) as the "Big Bad" of a Fantasy campaign?
1. Ra's Al Ghul
2. Ra's Al Ghul
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Creative Director
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Does the spell Protective Penumbra affect your light level for its target at all? I may be reading between the lines, but it seems like it might lower the light level for the target its cast on by a step, if so: does it grant concealment when the target is in an area of Normal Light vs. Bright Light?
This spell doesn't affect light level at all. It merely protects the target from the penalties (if any) associated with being in light. For a human, this spell doesn't help them at all. It's for things like drow or derros or vampires. Things that are hurt by or hindered by light.
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So, two questions, but one is wrapped in with another.
1. What is your favorite Batman Villain?
2. What batman Villain do you think would best suit (with appropriate adaptations relevant to the genre) as the "Big Bad" of a Fantasy campaign?
1. Ra's Al Ghul
2. Ra's Al Ghul
I like!
Ra's needs someone to call "Detective." Or possibly "Adventurer." :)
What would Ra's's class be in Pathfinder? Druid? Alchemist? Some kind of druid/alchemist/druid-alchemist-prestige-class build? (That might be interesting, if hard for druids to justify.)
Would he have a similar schtick, in a younger world where nature is much more capable of keeping civilization at bay?
I consider the Vaults the most interesting aspect of the Darklands, possibly because they're an excuse to create pretty much any environ you please, so I have a few questions.
Will we ever learn anything more about the Vault Builders?
A couple of APs have visited the Vaults, but will we ever see one with a greater focus on them? I think an AP centered around exploring the Vaults would be really sweet.
I think we've reached a saturation point on Player Options with Ultimate Combat, and then overdid it a bit with Advanced Race Guide. My preference going forward is to do new player options in smaller scale releases (such as in smaller books like our Pathifnder Campaign Setting or Player Companion lines), or to focus the new rules in new TYPES of games, like Mythic Adventures.
Probably the best quote I have read on these messageboards. I am really really excited about Ultimate Campaigns and Mythic Adventures.
What are the chances of a supplement regarding Dungeoneering? 4e did one recently, it was OK, but did not scratch the itch for me. Something that would take finding secret doors beyond a mere perception check, a ton of wierd and eerie dungeon hazards, etc? I would love such a book!!
EDIT: wierd side question, does fencing wire exist in industrial quantities in Golarion?
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Creative Director
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I like!
Ra's needs someone to call "Detective." Or possibly "Adventurer." :)
What would Ra's's class be in Pathfinder? Druid? Alchemist? Some kind of druid/alchemist/druid-alchemist-prestige-class build? (That might be interesting, if hard for druids to justify.)
Would he have a similar schtick, in a younger world where nature is much more capable of keeping civilization at bay?
I would likely build Ra's as an alchemist or maybe an oracle or even a bard. And he would probably have a similar plotline—I wouldn't say Golarion's a younger world than Earth at all, since its timeline is 10,000 years long and their year is almost 3000 years ahead of ours. Technology is not the only way to say a world is "old" and "civilized."
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I consider the Vaults the most interesting aspect of the Darklands, possibly because they're an excuse to create pretty much any environ you please, so I have a few questions.
Will we ever learn anything more about the Vault Builders?
A couple of APs have visited the Vaults, but will we ever see one with a greater focus on them? I think an AP centered around exploring the Vaults would be really sweet.
Yup. Some day we'll do more with the Vault Builders, and some day I'd love to do more adventures or something with Orv.
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Creative Director
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Probably the best quote I have read on these messageboards. I am really really excited about Ultimate Campaigns and Mythic Adventures.
What are the chances of a supplement regarding Dungeoneering? 4e did one recently, it was OK, but did not scratch the itch for me. Something that would take finding secret doors beyond a mere perception check, a ton of wierd and eerie dungeon hazards, etc? I would love such a book!!
EDIT: wierd side question, does fencing wire exist in industrial quantities in Golarion?
Chances are 100%, I suspect.
Side Question: Nope, probably not. Fences in Golarion are made of wood and the like. My gut tells me that wire fences, chain link fences, barbed wire, razor wire, and the like are anachronistic.
Wes is running a mass effect game?
What is system is using? When is it set?
Also, who/what do you I'a?
The Mass Effect game uses Pathfinder rules, with a strong helping of my Unspeakable Futures rules.
It's set between Mass Effect 2 and 3.
Ia Walter White!
Totally want this game! TAKE MY MONEY!
Also, is it possible to get to Rovagug's Cage/Prison by the Darklands?
Will the Darklands ever be mapped out completely or just be left up to the GM? Anything else hidden in the depths of the world? The ancient watery kingdom of Aboleths perhaps?
If I knew an upcoming AP was a flumph adventure path, I'd very likely terminate my AP subscription until it had passed me by.
From what I've read of your posts, you also seem somewhat conservative in what you expect in the game, LazarX. I personally think that there would be more people that would be interested in giving the Adventure Path a book or two to impress them before terminating their subscriptions. Then again, I'm an optimist.
Personally, I'd imagine that the flumphs need an Adventure Path in the same way that James described how Distant Worlds material is going to be incorporated into the Adventure Path line; one book out of six, not as the focus of six back-to-back books. The flumphs don't really have a niche in Golarion outside yet; they currently have 6 and 1/4 pages dedicated to them, which is why I think that dedicating a 300-or-so page Adventure Path to them is too much. Its flumph overkill.
As a side note, I personally think that the Fantasy RPG Community as a collective is very slow to come to admire ideas that stray over some unseen line, away from the Tolkien roots of the game. For example, fire arm rules or the response some had over the heavy Eastern theme of last year's products.
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The Darklands eh? Okay, I have a Darklands Question.
What kind of wrestling styles exist in the Darklands? Is there like a specific kind of Svfirneblin Wrestling style? or something similar to Pankration only practiced by drow and with more eye gouging?
What sorts of wrestling styles are there, down in the deep, dank, dark?
I was going through Mytical Monsters Revisited, and after reading the Chimera, I was wondering if Lamashtu fills almost a Hera like role in Iblydos, or am I reading to much into that?
Hi James,
I was curious about Besmara's attitude towards slavery. I didn't notice any mention of it in SKR's article in AP 55 or in the Companion articles in Pirates of the Inner Sea.
My Skull & Shackles character is tied very thematically to Besmara (reflavored Dawnflower Dervish Bard), I'm the newly appointed captain of our ship, and we will soon be launching into Raiders of the Fever Sea. So, I'm starting to think about how I want to work out dealing with opposing crews when we take over other ships.
Hey James, need to ask few a questions about a new item property in UE.
This special ability can only be added to a melee weapon or a
thrown weapon. An anchoring weapon pins a target in place
and prevents it from moving. As a swift action, the weapon
can be fixed in place in a point in space, functioning as an
immovable rod. This ability can also be used when the wielder
hits a creature with a melee attack using an anchoring weapon.
This anchors the target to the weapon, preventing it from
moving away from the weapon. The target is not entangled or
paralyzed; it simply cannot move from its location without first
destroying the weapon or making a successful DC 30 Strength
check as a full-round action to move with the weapon up to 10 feet.
An anchoring weapon remains motionless and cannot be
used to attack while it is anchoring a creature. An anchoring
weapon has no effect on amorphous creatures, including
elementals, oozes, and creatures in gaseous or liquid form. It
also cannot anchor incorporeal creatures unless the weapon
also has the ghost touch special ability.
1. Can I put the property on a bodywrap of mighty strikes?
2. If I do and trigger the ability, does it achieve anything since the bodywrap only affects my unarmed strike for the duration of the attack(s).
3. If it does work, is is just the body part that I used for the unarmed strike that is immobilised, or is it my entire body?
4. Does the line "This enhancement can only be placed on a melee weapon which is usable with the Weapon Finesse feat." prevent the agile weapon property from being put on an amulet of mighty fists?
Still playing monks and loving it, despite what others say. =)
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Creative Director
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Also, is it possible to get to Rovagug's Cage/Prison by the Darklands?
Will the Darklands ever be mapped out completely or just be left up to the GM? Anything else hidden in the depths of the world? The ancient watery kingdom of Aboleths perhaps?
Rovagug's prison is a demiplane, but there are indeed portals to it hidden in the deepest parts of Orv.
Mapping the Darklands completely would take an enormous book and, in the end, would only paint us into a corner if we come up with a new Darklands idea after that. We'll certainly do more with the Darklands in the future, but a fully detailed map is unlikely. Aboleths have a presence in the Darklands, but on Golarion, they are more focused in the deep parts of the surface oceans.
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Creative Director
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The Darklands eh? Okay, I have a Darklands Question.
What kind of wrestling styles exist in the Darklands? Is there like a specific kind of Svfirneblin Wrestling style? or something similar to Pankration only practiced by drow and with more eye gouging?
What sorts of wrestling styles are there, down in the deep, dank, dark?
Violent ones involving lots of contortionisim.
What is this Unspeakable Futures I keep hearing mentioned every so often?
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
I was curious about Besmara's attitude towards slavery. I didn't notice any mention of it in SKR's article in AP 55 or in the Companion articles in Pirates of the Inner Sea.
My Skull & Shackles character is tied very thematically to Besmara (reflavored Dawnflower Dervish Bard), I'm the newly appointed captain of our ship, and we will soon be launching into Raiders of the Fever Sea. So, I'm starting to think about how I want to work out dealing with opposing crews when we take over other ships.
Besmara's views on slavery are likely limited to things like press gangs and the like—she approves of press gangs! She also likely approves of pirates raiding a slave ship and either pressing the slaves into service or treating them like any other sort of valuable cargo once it's been looted from a ship.
Basically, when you conquer another ship, the crew's given the option to join YOUR crew and replace those you may have lost in the battle, or they're marrooned on an island or set to drift or, if there's room and you're feeling nice, put in the hold and brought back to shore for ransom or slavery or whatever.
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Creative Director
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Hey James, need to ask few a questions about a new item property in UE.
** spoiler omitted **
1. Can I put the property on a bodywrap of mighty strikes?
2. If I do and trigger the ability, does it achieve anything since the bodywrap only affects my unarmed strike for the duration of the attack(s).
3. If it does work, is is just the body part that I used for the unarmed strike that is immobilised, or is it my entire body?
4. Does the line "This enhancement can only be placed on a melee weapon which is usable with the Weapon Finesse feat." prevent the agile weapon property from being put on an amulet of mighty fists?
Still playing monks and loving it, despite what others say. =)
Technically you can put the anchoring special ability on any melee weapon or throne weapon, so if bodywraps of mighty strikes qualify, then yes, you can. But personally, I wouldn't allow it because it's weird... the idea of an anchoring weapon is that it functions sort of like an immovable rod—the weapon stays put and stuck in or lodged against its victim. With a monk, that would mean your fist or foot or whatever you just used on a foe would stick to him... which would mean that unless you lopped that part off... YOU would suffer the effects as well. Which is kinda silly. So, I would say that you can't put this special ability on anything that would enhance an unarmed strike or natural attack. You could certainly do a similar effect... but to me, that's just Stunning Fist by another name.
Technically you can put the anchoring special ability on any melee weapon or throne weapon, so if bodywraps of mighty strikes qualify, then yes, you can. But personally, I wouldn't allow it because it's weird... the idea of an anchoring weapon is that it functions sort of like an immovable rod—the weapon stays put and stuck in or lodged against its victim. With a monk, that would mean your fist or foot or whatever you just used on a foe would stick to him... which would mean that unless you lopped that part off... YOU would suffer the effects as well. Which is kinda silly. So, I would say that you can't put this special ability on anything that would enhance an unarmed strike or natural attack. You could certainly do a similar effect... but to me, that's just Stunning Fist by another name.Hey James, need to ask few a questions about a new item property in UE.
** spoiler omitted **
1. Can I put the property on a bodywrap of mighty strikes?
2. If I do and trigger the ability, does it achieve anything since the bodywrap only affects my unarmed strike for the duration of the attack(s).
3. If it does work, is is just the body part that I used for the unarmed strike that is immobilised, or is it my entire body?
4. Does the line "This enhancement can only be placed on a melee weapon which is usable with the Weapon Finesse feat." prevent the agile weapon property from being put on an amulet of mighty fists?
Still playing monks and loving it, despite what others say. =)
I actually thought of it as the monk using one hand to hold the wizard's arm whilst he punched the wizard's lights out with his other hand. With this property, he could 'lock' the hand that was holding the wizard's arm, so that neither of them would be going anywhere. Then unleash a flurry of blows in the wizard's face.
What I needed to know was whether the anchoring property would lock the entire monk instead of just the hand.
Also, question 4? =)
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What is this Unspeakable Futures I keep hearing mentioned every so often?
It's a (currently still unpublished) game I've been working on for about 12 years.
The game itself is a d20 post-apocalyptic game that mixes Lovecraft's mythos with themes from Fallout, the Dark Tower, Road Warrior, Gamma World, and similar post-apocalyptic storylines. In it, you can play races like humans, androids, deep one hybrids, half-ghouls, and serpentfolk, or play classes like scavengers, wastrels, mystics, espers, gunslingers, snipers, and cabalists. There's magic an technology side by side, and lots of horror themes.
I started working on the game about the time the d20 system came out; I was working at WotC at the time and was intrigued by how the system worked. When WotC put out the d20 Call of Cthulhu rules, I started incorperating some of those rules into the game... same for d20 Modern and 3.5. Currently, the rules are mostly converted all over up to Pathfinder.
I've run a few campaigns and some one-shot games of Unspeakable Futures, and a few of my friends have run campaigns as well... it's gone through a LOT of incarnations and playtesting as a result.
SOME day I'd love to try to get it published, but for now, you can see some of those rules peeking into Pathfinder here and there in the form of the robot rules (debuted in Dungeons of Golarion and further in the upcoming Inner Sea Bestiary) and in Ultimate Combat's gunslinger class (which is a heavily modified and more fantasy-based version of the class).
Which of golarion's gods are most active in the darklands? (as opposed to the demonlords of the drow)
Are there any as-yet-unknown but major gods whose sphere of interest is predominantly restricted to the darklands?
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I think we've reached a saturation point on Player Options with Ultimate Combat, and then overdid it a bit with Advanced Race Guide. My preference going forward is to do new player options in smaller scale releases (such as in smaller books like our Pathifnder Campaign Setting or Player Companion lines), or to focus the new rules in new TYPES of games, like Mythic Adventures.
About that, we will see more material about Factions in game outside PFS?
I liked a lot the faction guide and I am using some homemade rule derived from it for my Kingmaker campaign. Shifting most of the Swordlord rewards to prestige points so far has worked well. It is a interesting way to keep track of what the different organizations with which you interact think of you and how much political clout you have with them.Every time my players interact positively with some organization I give out some PP with that group, whit the amount varying on the basis of what they have done and what is their relations with the group (the Marshal that is a devout follower of Erastil get more when they build a church of that god, the witch that is the Magister will get more when and if they found a magician guild and so on).
Something of that kind put in the Campaign guide would be very interesting (at least for me).
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As a side note, I personally think that the Fantasy RPG Community as a collective is very slow to come to admire ideas that stray over some unseen line, away from the Tolkien roots of the game. For example, fire arm rules or the response some had over the heavy Eastern theme of last year's products.
Both share similar problems:
- for firearms we have a more precise idea of what they do so we tend to overestimate their killing power when compared to non firearm weapons and at the same time keeping them in line with how the rules work is hard (Muzzle loader that can fire up to 6 times in 6 seconds? Really?)
- oriental weapon, armor and classes have martial arts films that give great expectations about what a weapon can do. If the katana isn't better in any aspect than a occidental work the weapon design in the game is flawed. The ninja should be better than a rogue in any aspect and so on.
The result are thread like the monk one where people is disgusted because the monk isn't a front lien fighter capable to dish out as much DPS as a barbarian, plus avoiding most blow plus having a brace of extra powers with no drawbacks.
Japanese armor are made mostly in non-ferrous materials not because that make inherently better but because Japan suffer for a scarcity of iron deposits. A katana was a masterwork weapon because it was crafted that way, not because the design is inherently better than any other weapon design, and so on.
Meshing player expectations of what a firearm or a oriental weapon or class should be capable to do and game rules born around medieval, occidental weapons and armors work badly.
Games that are made around oriental weapons and classes for the start (for example, Legend of the Five Rings) work better when you want to use that kind of weapon and classes.
This is my perception of why oriental themed rules and firearms aren't liked by some of the GM.
As a game designer what is yours, James?
Chances are 100%, I suspect.
Side Question: Nope, probably not. Fences in Golarion are made of wood and the like. My gut tells me that wire fences, chain link fences, barbed wire, razor wire, and the like are anachronistic.
Woohoo!!
On the fencing materials question, more generally would you say that Golarion is pre industrial revolution (1750)? It's a little tricky to pin down with the guns and printing presses that are mostly post revolution. Do you tend to go more for a feel of what seems like appropriate technology rather than an earth equivalent? Also, is there any official reason for technology stagnating at its current level as the available magic and intelligent NPCs would have almost certainly allowed the discovery of modern technology within the published timeframes of high levels of civilization. I do of course realise the game reasons for this.