Creative Director
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Dear Jay Jay, can you help me in finding an answer?
I've been searching, but nothing so far.. Damn my google-fu!In Pathfinder's "War of the River Kings" you can see the fourth poem of Gorum's Gorumskagat.. (p 69) I'm looking for the other parts, but there doesn't appear to be any trace of them.. /cry
For people wondering:
** spoiler omitted **
I'm 99.9546% sure that no other parts of that poem exist; only what was printed has been written so far.
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Creative Director
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Doesn't this just make for a 50% chance? I.e. testing whether the second d100 falls below the first d100? Not that there's anything wrong with that. I have one particular DM who does rock-paper-scissors with himself to determine what happens in these cases, and due to his somewhat uncommon brain wirings, the results do end up pretty random... : )
To get to actual questions...
- Will Mythic rules involve new ways for characters to extend their lifespans, to make for a wider variety of ancient heroes and villains still lurking around the fringes of Golarion today?
- Aside from Irrisen, are there any other major witch traditions active on Golarion?
- Which is the more primal of eldritch abominations, Groetus or Azathoth?
- Less precisely, are the Outer Gods of the Dark Tapestry still within the temporal/spatial/causal domain of the more conventional deities? I.e. do Shub-Niggurath birthing monstrosities fall under the purvey of Lamashtu, will Pharasma eventually get to judge Yog-Sothoth before the universe can end and does Asmodeus hold influence over the machinations of Nyarlathotep? Or do the Lovecraftian elements form some kind of orthogonal set of metaphysics, like an entirely different cosmos just intersecting with the Great Beyond?
It may indeed make for a 50% chance, but it's still fun to do, and tends to get the players kinda worked up.
As for the other questions...
The core rules already have lots of ways to extend lifespans. Mythic Adventures will add more though.
Yes; there's some juju stuff happening in Mwangi, and PLENTY of more traditional gothic horror witch stuff in Ustalav, for example. Also, white-haired witches in Tian-Xia.
Azathoth
They fall outside of the domain of deities for the most part.
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Creative Director
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So! Now that we (are going to) have Mythic... Will we Finally Get The Kaijuu that we always wanted but never knew we wanted until you announced Bestiary 3 and then we didn't get the kaiju which made us sad?
Because I really want to be able to make Kaijuu for a campaign that I wanted to run based, loosely on a merger of Power Rangers and Golarion.
The Mythic rules seem like they might be the perfect solution to issues I didn't realize I had with that camapign, like why are empowered characters different from Normal characters in this campaign. And I have the Rules for Giant Vehicles in the form of Ultimate Combat's Vehigle Section. But I still need Kaijuu!
Please tell me we'll at least get Kaiju eventually?
We mentioned kaiju in Dragon Empires. Specifically, they live in Valashmai. So yes, eventually, we'll do kaiju. And the Mythic Rules make statting up kaiju a LOT easier.
When we DO stat them up... it won't be a template. They'll be handled as a type of monster, with each kaiju being a unique creature, similar to how we're handling the Spawn of Rovagug.
I'd LOVE to have a "fighting creatures larger than Colossal" section in the Mythic Adventures book... but that's probably not going to be something I can convince the design team of the value of, alas... We'll see.
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James, without the use of magic, how can a party figure out if there is
a Doppleganger in their midst ??
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Creative Director
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- Will Mythic rules involve new ways for characters to extend their lifespans, to make for a wider variety of ancient heroes and villains still lurking around the fringes of Golarion today?
If you're describing NPC backgrounds you don't have to have a rule that explains the why of every single one. "They just ARE" is a good enough answer most of the time.
And if Golarion is going to embody the true spirit of Lovecraft. It's Yog-Sothoth who's going to be judging Pharasma... into an unending eternal scream of insanity. Because the true spirit of Lovecraft is that in the end... while they may encounter fleeting temporary setbacks because their full attention is rarely focused, the Old Ones just don't lose.
Nah... "They just ARE" feels kinda lazy to me. Histories behind mythic characters is a large part of what makes them actually mythical. Saying they just happen to be tough and not bothering to explain how or why is unsatisfying to me.
And I think the "true spirit of Lovecraft" is a bit more complex than "everything is going to go crazy and die." In any event, that's not the way Golarion works. Lovecraft's writings are part of and and inspiration to Golarion, but so are the writings of LOTS of other authors.
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Creative Director
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Is there somewhere we can see the fluff/rules for those classes? (if I had to pick one, it would be Scavenger)What classes in pathfinder would be analogous to the classes used in Unspeakable Futures?All the classes in Unspeakable Futures have their own powers and abilities that set them apart even from Pathfinder classes that are similar... but most of them have close approximations, in the same way that you could say that the Oracle is a Sorcerer but with divine spells instead of arcane spells.
Cabalist: Kinda like a wizard who specializes in conjuration and necromancy, but with madness elements to it, along with some cleric stuff as well.
Esper: Kind of like a sorcerer who specializes in illusions, physical magic, and mind-affecting magic.
Gunslinger: Like the Pathfinder Gunslinger, but without deeds and with more specific class abilities that focus more sharply on pistols than any old gun.
Mercenary: A sort of cross between barbarian and fighter.
Mystic: Sort of like a druid but without the wildshape or animal companions, and more into healing.
Scavenger: No real compassion to Pathfinder. This class is kind of an artifact/robot/technology skill-based class.
Sniper: A rogue type character who specializes in stealth and long-distance sneak attacks
Wastrel: A melee flavored rogue bandit type thing.
At this point, no. The rules aren't publicly available, and I'm not interested in sending them out into the world. I've shared them with those who have played in or run Unspeakable Futures games, but that's about it for the moment.
I suspect that if I DO ever go forward with publishing them, I'll have a public playtest though.
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Creative Director
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No. Bringing your own flask does not give you a potion discount, nor does it let you combine potions into Megadoses that you can then drink all at once to get the benefits of drinking multiple potions.
A classic example of asking one question to try to trick me into granting you permission to break the rules with the ACTUAL question you wanted to ask ("Can I put multiple potions into one big bucket and drink them all at once?"), it seems to me. Which tends to annoy me.
If you have a question... ask that question. Don't try to trick me into accidentally giving you permission to break the rules.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up there Mr. Jacobs. I never said ANYTHING about drinking multiple potions at once, nor did I mean to imply any such shenanigans. I said I could save a few move actions for not having to draw out multiple potions.
The rules are quite clear in that it takes a standard action to drink a single potion.
The rules are also clear in that it takes a move action to draw out an item, such as a hip flask.
I don't see where I've broken any rules at all. It's not even cheesy or overpowered. Compare this to a (much cheaper) wand of cure light wounds. It's a single move action to bring out FIFTY cure spells, and a standard action to use each one.
It saddens me greatly that you think me so manipulative.
Further, my preference is to say that mixing potions like that, even if they're the same potion effect, ruins both potions.What about all those modules and adventures out there that have fountains that cure those that drink from them (and similar magical devices)? Your preferred house rule would make such spectacularly fun and imaginative things impossible.
Thing is, your method of questioning and then using the answers to interpret unasked questions means that, even if you didn't intend, say, to ask about drinking multiple potions, the very line of questioning you proposed and the way you went about it would cause other people to ask those questions or even worse, assume the answers that are wrong.
Your comparasion to the wand is a bit flawed. First off... a wand costs quite a bit more than a potion. Second, anyone can use a potion—that's not the case with wands.
In any event, it's not so much that I think you in particular is manipulative... but there IS a strong sense of that kind of manipulation among the super detailed rules questions that get so deep into the crunch of the rules that they start asking questions like "is the cost of the vial part of the cost of a potion." That's the first time in 30+ years I've heard that question, and as such it made me think more about the implications of the answer. So in that regard, it's GOOD to ask unusual questions like that. But the rules themselves are complicated and unnecessarily wordy as it stands... I hate the idea of, for example, adding a line of text like "This price does not include the 1 gp price of the vial the potion is contained in," to a potion. Bleh.
I don't see how me saying "mixing two potions destroys them" has anything at all to do with magic fountains. Magic fountains are not potions.
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Creative Director
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Hello Sir Jacobs,
If a wizard starts out with a wand or staff as his arcane bond, does it have the properties of a magical wand or staff? If not, does the wizard choose what sort?
Nope. That "starter" staff is identical to a quarterstaff at best. And the "starter" wand is just a stick. The wizard has to create the magic item in that staff or wand arcane bond before they do that.
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Creative Director
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James, without the use of magic, how can a party figure out if there is
a Doppleganger in their midst ??.
By making Perception checks and Sense Motive checks to see through the doppelganger's Disguise and Bluff checks.
Or by killing it and seeing what happens to the body when it dies.
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Creative Director
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Hi James.
I talked with Stephen Radney-McFalrand, recommended by Reynolds, and he says me that an help with armor as damage reduction is coming. Effectively, you sell a product, and the product called "Ultimate Combat" is unclear.
I hope the help is really coming, because i think these alternative rules are very good, but they need FAQ.
I agree. And to a certain extent I would have rather not published those rules in Ultimate Combat at all, but rather would have preferred to save them for something like a big book of optional rules where we would, in theory, be able to spend more time making sure the rules work right and MORE IMPORTANTLY making sure that those rules were edited so that they make sense.
The product called "Ultimate Combat" is fine. A portion of it about some optional rules you don't have to use at all being confusing in some way does not make the rest of the book's 250-some pages unclear or less valuable.
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And to a certain extent I would have rather not published those rules in Ultimate Combat at all, but rather would have preferred to save them for something like a big book of optional rules where we would, in theory, be able to spend more time making sure the rules work right and MORE IMPORTANTLY making sure that those rules were edited so that they make sense.
I would buy that book, if you printed it, even if a significant minority of it was cleared up, updated, and expanded optional rules such as the Armor as DR, and Words of Power. Would this be where Psionics appear? I'd buy it, though I have never liked psionics, and likely still wouldn't allow them in my home games.
I have The Collected Book of Experimental Might from Monte Cook, and I've never used a thing in it. I haven't used the Armor as DR system, nor Words of Power from UC and UM. I likely won't. But I have READ these systems, and I believe studying and understanding them has made Me a better DM.
Mr. James Jacobs,
On spells and what nots do weapon enhancements of spell caster's arcane bond have?
Mr. Jacobs, the subject is British television.
Are you a fan of Doctor Who and if so which incarnation (actor or number) is your favorite?
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Creative Director
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And to a certain extent I would have rather not published those rules in Ultimate Combat at all, but rather would have preferred to save them for something like a big book of optional rules where we would, in theory, be able to spend more time making sure the rules work right and MORE IMPORTANTLY making sure that those rules were edited so that they make sense.I would buy that book, if you printed it, even if a significant minority of it was cleared up, updated, and expanded optional rules such as the Armor as DR, and Words of Power. Would this be where Psionics appear? I'd buy it, though I have never liked psionics, and likely still wouldn't allow them in my home games.
I have The Collected Book of Experimental Might from Monte Cook, and I've never used a thing in it. I haven't used the Armor as DR system, nor Words of Power from UC and UM. I likely won't. But I have READ these systems, and I believe studying and understanding them has made Me a better DM.
Psychic magic or whatever we end up calling it is a big enough and important enough topic that it deserves to be a significant part of a book, if not the focus of a whole book. Shoehorning it into an "optional rules" section isn't gonna happen as a result.
Frankly... a big book of optional rules isn't something that's really interesting to me, and it's something that, I suspect, works better at the end of a game's edition life cycle, rather than the middle of the cycle, which is where we're at with Pathfinder at this point.
I would buy that book, if you printed it, even if a significant minority of it was cleared up, updated, and expanded optional rules such as the Armor as DR, and Words of Power. Would this be where Psionics appear? I'd buy it, though I have never liked psionics, and likely still wouldn't allow them in my home games.Frankly... a big book of optional rules isn't something that's really interesting to me, and it's something that, I suspect, works better at the end of a game's edition life cycle, rather than the middle of the cycle, which is where we're at with Pathfinder at this point.
But, the End Of The World is... [/sarcasm]
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Would a wood and stone Tomahawk be a primitive throwing axe?
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Creative Director
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I would buy that book, if you printed it, even if a significant minority of it was cleared up, updated, and expanded optional rules such as the Armor as DR, and Words of Power. Would this be where Psionics appear? I'd buy it, though I have never liked psionics, and likely still wouldn't allow them in my home games.Frankly... a big book of optional rules isn't something that's really interesting to me, and it's something that, I suspect, works better at the end of a game's edition life cycle, rather than the middle of the cycle, which is where we're at with Pathfinder at this point.
But, the End Of The World is... [/sarcasm]
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Would a wood and stone Tomahawk be a primitive throwing axe?
Could be if you wanted it to be. Or it could just be a throwing axe.
No questions, just a book you might be interested in.....
it's some short stories about what happens when the Great Old Ones take over......thought you might like it, given your Post Apoc rules system.....
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Hello again,
My friend says that "2 claws" attack counts as a standard action and you can also charge and attack with 2 claws without pounce ability. I searched through universal monster rules and I couldn't find anything that says so. All I know about extra attacks is that if you have more than one attacks then you should take a full-attack action to hit with all of your attacks. What do you say?
Thanks
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Creative Director
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Hello again,
My friend says that "2 claws" attack counts as a standard action and you can also charge and attack with 2 claws without pounce ability. I searched through universal monster rules and I couldn't find anything that says so. All I know about extra attacks is that if you have more than one attacks then you should take a full-attack action to hit with all of your attacks. What do you say?
Thanks
Nope. Your friend is wrong.
A standard attack is 1 attack. That means 1 claw. That means if you charge, you get ONE of your natural attacks... best to pick the one that does the most damage. If that happens to be your claws, you only get 1 claw attack regardless of how many claws you have.
Redux and Redone:
Mr. James Jacobs,
What affects, on spells and what naught, do weapon the enhancements of a spell caster's arcane bond have?
if the Runelords had their own favorite flavors of ice cream, what would their favorite flavors be?AKA: What sins apply to what flavors of ice cream?
Zutha probably took all the ice cream and ate it all before the others got a chance.
Was this before or after Karzoug tried to hoard it all?
Heh, I bet Alaznist was pissed.
<.< >.> Imma stop now...
You said demons were based off sins, and that since there were more than seven kinds of demons some got more specific than the general Seven Vices.
What kind of sin does a Marilith represent? (I'm guessing Wrath.) A Glabrezu? A Balor?
If not the Balor, is there another demon that represents arson? If so which one?
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I never suggested that. Please read more carefully. I never said they inflict torment on purpose. They just do, amidst their insane multi-dimensional writhings.
Although, Nyarlathotep is pretty deliberate in messing with humanity.
Does this make you angry?
At 2nd level, and every two levels thereafter, a witch’s patron adds new spells to a witch’s list of spells known. These spells are also automatically added to the list of spells stored by the familiar. The spells gained depend upon the patron chosen. Each patron is listed by its theme. Its actual name is up to the GM and the witch to decide."
Is the patron tied to the familiar or the witch? Does the witch choose a new patron when a new familiar is attuned to her?
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Creative Director
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Redux and Redone:
Mr. James Jacobs,
What affects, on spells and what naught, do weapon the enhancements of a spell caster's arcane bond have?
If a wizard has a magic weapon as an arcane bond, the magical enhancements of the weapon don't do anything to help the wizard's spellcasting or arcane bond.
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Creative Director
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You said demons were based off sins, and that since there were more than seven kinds of demons some got more specific than the general Seven Vices.
What kind of sin does a Marilith represent? (I'm guessing Wrath.) A Glabrezu? A Balor?
If not the Balor, is there another demon that represents arson? If so which one?
The Bestiary writeups for the demons mention what sin they represent; whenever we stat up a demon in Pathifnder, we say what sin they represent, in fact. And Book of the Damned II: Lords of Chaos has that information too.
As noted in the Bestiary, a marilith is associated with pride (wrath is associated with vrocks).
A Glabrezu is represented by the sin of treachery and bearing false witness (again, there are more than seven sins out there).
Balors are represented by the most cruel of sinful mortal souls, and often they take multiple sinful evil souls to manifest; they're composites of all the sins, in other words.
Arson is represented by the brimorak demon, from Book of the Damned II.
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Creative Director
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And I think the "true spirit of Lovecraft" is a bit more complex than "everything is going to go crazy and die." In any event, that's not the way Golarion works. Lovecraft's writings are part of and and inspiration to Golarion, but so are the writings of LOTS of other authors.Yes it's a bit more complex then I described, but in the main Lovecraft's stories aren't bound by the Good Triumphs over Evil trope. Lovecraft is classic horror which is either short of happy endings or that the happy ending has a hidden jack in the box waiting in the wings.
I will admit to being heavily biased by my experience in "Call of Cthulu" and the late great "Gothic Earth" network campaign.
In any case, this might be a better subject for a new thread at this point; let's limit this threads to questions.
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Of the Bestiaries currently out, are there any creatures in those that are commonly found in Sarusan?
Also, of the continents we know about, Sarusan, Casmaron, Tian-Xia, Arcadia, The Crown of the World, Azlant, Garund and Avistan, are there going to be other continents that haven't been revealed yet?
You said demons were based off sins, and that since there were more than seven kinds of demons some got more specific than the general Seven Vices.
What kind of sin does a Marilith represent? (I'm guessing Wrath.) A Glabrezu? A Balor?
If not the Balor, is there another demon that represents arson? If so which one?
The Bestiary writeups for the demons mention what sin they represent; whenever we stat up a demon in Pathifnder, we say what sin they represent, in fact. And Book of the Damned II: Lords of Chaos has that information too.
As noted in the Bestiary, a marilith is associated with pride (wrath is associated with vrocks).
A Glabrezu is represented by the sin of treachery and bearing false witness (again, there are more than seven sins out there).
Balors are represented by the most cruel of sinful mortal souls, and often they take multiple sinful evil souls to manifest; they're composites of all the sins, in other words.
Arson is represented by the brimorak demon, from Book of the Damned II.
Awesome, don't have all those books so thanks for the sum-up =)
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Mr. Jacobs, I'm currently running two campaigns with completely different sets of players. The first is a large party (8 PCs) whom sadly we don't get to meet often (every three weeks for the last three months) but play for about 10 hours when we do meet. They are running through Curse of the Crimson Throne and are at the end of book one. The other party is smaller (five PCs) and meets weekly for shorter sessions and I'm running them through Rise of the Runelords. (Going to be exploring the Catacombs of Wrath this week). My question to you is this: I would like to have a crossover or two at some point in the games, can you recommend any specific times which may work well for the games?
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Creative Director
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Of the Bestiaries currently out, are there any creatures in those that are commonly found in Sarusan?
Also, of the continents we know about, Sarusan, Casmaron, Tian-Xia, Arcadia, The Crown of the World, Azlant, Garund and Avistan, are there going to be other continents that haven't been revealed yet?
Absolutely, although which creatures are found in Sarusan isn't something I'm ready to nail down at this point.
And nope. Those are the eight continents of Golarion. There aren't any hidden ones.
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Creative Director
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I only have one extremely important question.
After rescuing Ekkie in "Rise of the Goblin Guild" does she pursue her dream to become a pathfinder?
Or did she just run back into the forest to live out her natural short life?
Not sure. I'm not really involved in the Pathfinder scenarios beyond approving them at the very start of the outlining process. My preference would be that goblins remain goblins, though... not Pathfinders.
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Creative Director
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Mr. Jacobs, I'm currently running two campaigns with completely different sets of players. The first is a large party (8 PCs) whom sadly we don't get to meet often (every three weeks for the last three months) but play for about 10 hours when we do meet. They are running through Curse of the Crimson Throne and are at the end of book one. The other party is smaller (five PCs) and meets weekly for shorter sessions and I'm running them through Rise of the Runelords. (Going to be exploring the Catacombs of Wrath this week). My question to you is this: I would like to have a crossover or two at some point in the games, can you recommend any specific times which may work well for the games?
Not really... We specifically set up our Adventure Paths so that there's not really a lot of opportunity for crossovers like that, because we don't want to make assumptions about when or where or how the adventures occur.
The closest, physically, the two adventures ever get is between the midpoint of Runelords (Turtleback Ferry) and the last adventure of Crimson Throne (the Sunken Queen), but that'll have a pretty huge gap between PC power levels...
Hey there Mr J,
Have you spotted the raging inferno that is the Full attack - Manyshot debate? It's crying out for someone to definitively settle it :)
You know the one: "I can declare full attack, Manyshot, then cancel my full attack and move."
If you can't definitively answer it, I would ask: how do you play it?
Cheers,
Hewy