Creative Director
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Can a flying creature with Flyby Attack and grab, a roc for example, swoop in, grapple a target, then fly off with its remaining speed, carrying the grappled victim aloft to be dropped as a free action at the end of its move?
Or is there something in the rules that would prevent that?
Shortening a previously complex rules question won't sneak it by my "that's a rules question; it should be posted to the rules forum" censors! :-P
Hard question? Here's my old standby, which I think you'll recognize:
"A princess is as old as the prince will be when the princess is twice the age that the prince was when the princess’s age was half the sum of their present ages.
What are their ages?"
That doesn't mean that you can't make similar changes to your game, of course! If you're the GM and a player is having a problem with a rule and you think it should change, by all means, change it! GMs are SUPPOSED to have that kind of power.
This is heresy.
Next thing, you'll try to convince everyone that there aren't legions of Paizobots{tm} roaming the streets in search of rules violations.
Rocs are known for using Flyby Attack and Grab to swoop in, snatch a victim, and then fly away again.
Mechanically speaking, how does this work exactly? Wouldn't the roc be forced to stop its movement the moment it entered into a grapple, then wait until it could maintain the grapple on its next turn to move?
However, the grapple rules are written with the assumption that you move and take a standard action, or take a standard action and then move. Having been written with players in mind, the rules don't seem to account for special abilities like Flyby Attack and Grab.
Seems like the intent contradicts the rules.
So, how is this creature (and others like it) meant to be run?Is the roc forced to stop, leaving it highly vulnerable to attack? Or can it move grapple, then move again all in the same turn?
Again, as a result of the "Paizo needs to get its house in order," thread, I'm not going to be answering the wall-of-text complex rules questions. What qualifies as a complex rules question (or its commonly spotted variant—the "please render a ruling on a confusing bit of rules text") is not something I'm willing to post guidelines on. If it qualifies to me as something that's better served being posted in the rules forums, I'll make that decision based on my own gut feeling.
This question's one such example. Please repost to the appropriate rules discussion forum.
In that case, in a totally unofficial capacity, how would you run such a creature in your own home games?
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Creative Director
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Hard question? Here's my old standby, which I think you'll recognize:
"A princess is as old as the prince will be when the princess is twice the age that the prince was when the princess’s age was half the sum of their present ages.
What are their ages?"
Are they aasimar, tiefling, or dhampir royalty?
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Rocs are known for using Flyby Attack and Grab to swoop in, snatch a victim, and then fly away again.
Mechanically speaking, how does this work exactly? Wouldn't the roc be forced to stop its movement the moment it entered into a grapple, then wait until it could maintain the grapple on its next turn to move?
However, the grapple rules are written with the assumption that you move and take a standard action, or take a standard action and then move. Having been written with players in mind, the rules don't seem to account for special abilities like Flyby Attack and Grab.
Seems like the intent contradicts the rules.
So, how is this creature (and others like it) meant to be run?Is the roc forced to stop, leaving it highly vulnerable to attack? Or can it move grapple, then move again all in the same turn?
Again, as a result of the "Paizo needs to get its house in order," thread, I'm not going to be answering the wall-of-text complex rules questions. What qualifies as a complex rules question (or its commonly spotted variant—the "please render a ruling on a confusing bit of rules text") is not something I'm willing to post guidelines on. If it qualifies to me as something that's better served being posted in the rules forums, I'll make that decision based on my own gut feeling.
This question's one such example. Please repost to the appropriate rules discussion forum.
And here Ravingdork discovers that every action has a consequence, and whatever you do will some day come back to you.
Are they aasimar, tiefling, or dhampir royalty?Hard question? Here's my old standby, which I think you'll recognize:
"A princess is as old as the prince will be when the princess is twice the age that the prince was when the princess’s age was half the sum of their present ages.
What are their ages?"
Unknown
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Again, as a result of the "Paizo needs to get its house in order," thread, I'm not going to be answering the wall-of-text complex rules questions. What qualifies as a complex rules question (or its commonly spotted variant—the "please render a ruling on a confusing bit of rules text") is not something I'm willing to post guidelines on. If it qualifies to me as something that's better served being posted in the rules forums, I'll make that decision based on my own gut feeling.
This question's one such example. Please repost to the appropriate rules discussion forum.
Not a question but a statement. Speaking for myself I find myself paying the MOST heed to your previous rule clarifications due to your respect for the games aesthetic and history, your common sense and your continuous respect for the GM. I am personally offended by the fact that some over zealous pedants with clearly far too much time on their hands to overthink things have ended up removing your ability to share your wisdom with the public. And I would be extremely pleased as a Paizo customer to point that out to both Lisa and Jason.
Thank you for your passion and all you do.
I just discovered that sports questions bore me even when they're involving iconic Pathfinder characters! Fascinating! :-P
Sorry for not answering the remainder of the questions. The iconics just left the field to go explore the catacombs under the stadium where they bury athletes who die during the game.
AHA! We have discovered what pierces JJ's mental DR, and it be that thing wut called sports. *scribbles notes into Future Evil Ideas file*
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AHA! We have discovered what pierces JJ's mental DR, and it be that thing wut called sports. *scribbles notes into Future Evil Ideas file*I just discovered that sports questions bore me even when they're involving iconic Pathfinder characters! Fascinating! :-P
Sorry for not answering the remainder of the questions. The iconics just left the field to go explore the catacombs under the stadium where they bury athletes who die during the game.
I think it is sports-based musicals about dwarven summoners...
Okay, I'll get back to asking questions you're probably interested in answering now. Apologies, by the way, if these or any other ones I've asked in the past have been repeats of queries other posters ask all the time. I'm still reading through the entire thread but it's not all committed to memory. Yet.
1) Why change the elemental planes to being above the prime instead of below it, next to the two energy planes? Not that the new way doesn't work fine, but the old way seemed to cement the concepts of the elements and energy as being building blocks inside all the normal material universe. And yes, I realize I'm describing it in a very limited 3D perspective, but my brain can't handle the 11-dimensional calculus necessary to properly chart out those planes proper placement without skipping me into a time paradox.
2) If you have the improved unarmed combat and greater two weapon fighting feats, but aren't a monk, how many unarmed attacks can you make in a full-attack action?
3) What are some of your favorite non-world/setting specific 3.5 books?
4) Who are you 3 favorite iconics besides Merisiel and why?
5) You stated you wished to simply and unify mundane and magic item crafting rules before. Without writing a pamphlet on this topic, how exactly would you do that?
6) Do you typically give NPCs with classes levels favored class bonuses? If so, do you sometimes give them bonuses besides hit points or skill points?
7) No question here, just wanted to say thanks for this thread and all the cool insight and advice it's provided. Also, I left a goat in your office I've been fattening up for the past 5 weeks. Enjoy!
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I think it is sports-based musicals about dwarven summoners...AHA! We have discovered what pierces JJ's mental DR, and it be that thing wut called sports. *scribbles notes into Future Evil Ideas file*I just discovered that sports questions bore me even when they're involving iconic Pathfinder characters! Fascinating! :-P
Sorry for not answering the remainder of the questions. The iconics just left the field to go explore the catacombs under the stadium where they bury athletes who die during the game.
Wow man, are you TRYING to give him a hate-induced aneurysm?
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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James,
You did a lot of work with the bard, right? I was wondering if you happened to know the intent on something: for purposes of stacking archetypes, is "Bardic Performance" all one big class feature, or are the individual performance types all separate class features?
That is, if one archetype modifies Inspire Courage, and another modifies Countersong, can you have both archetypes? Some say no, because both would modify the same class feature: Bardic Performance. Others say it's fine because the two performance types being modified are separate class features.
Any insight on this?
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Creative Director
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1) Why change the elemental planes to being above the prime instead of below it, next to the two energy planes? Not that the new way doesn't work fine, but the old way seemed to cement the concepts of the elements and energy as being building blocks inside all the normal material universe. And yes, I realize I'm describing it in a very limited 3D perspective, but my brain can't handle the 11-dimensional calculus necessary to properly chart out those planes proper placement without skipping me into a time paradox.
2) If you have the improved unarmed combat and greater two weapon fighting feats, but aren't a monk, how many unarmed attacks can you make in a full-attack action?
3) What are some of your favorite non-world/setting specific 3.5 books?
4) Who are you 3 favorite iconics besides Merisiel and why?
5) You stated you wished to simply and unify mundane and magic item crafting rules before. Without writing a pamphlet on this topic, how exactly would you do that?
6) Do you typically give NPCs with classes levels favored class bonuses? If so, do you sometimes give them bonuses besides hit points or skill points?
7) No question here, just wanted to say thanks for this thread and all the cool insight and advice it's provided. Also, I left a goat in your office I've been fattening up for the past 5 weeks. Enjoy!
1) The elemental planes are in fact neither above nor below the Material plane, but around it. Think of the Material Plane as a sphere. The elemental plains wrap around that sphere in a shell. If the Material Pane were an orange, the elemental planes would be the orange rind. Well... that orange would have FOUR rinds, one inside the other. Air is the one that touches the Material Plane, and moving outward from the Material you pass from air into water, from water into earth, and from earth into fire. Kinda a reverse of what happens if you go the other direction and go down through a planet's atmosphere, into an ocean, through the crust below the ocean, and then into the fiery core. As for why the change—because we couldn't use all of the Great Wheel cosmology from D&D due to intellectual properties getting in the way.
2) Unarmed strikes are not manufactured weapons, and therefore I don't think it's appropriate to mix them with Two Weapon Fighting options.
3) Not counting the numerous ones I helped write because that weirds me out, my favorite non-world setting 3.5 books are Book of Vile Darkness, Book of Exalted Deeds, Tome of Magic, and Draconomicon.
4) Hmmm... I guess Kyra (because she's the cleric), Seelah (because I'm really proud of the backstory I wrote for her), and Lini (because I really like how our gnomes work).
5) By giving every item in the game its own Craft DC and standardizing how long it takes to craft items based on how high that DC is, modified downward by how well you roll.
6) I always give NPCs favored class bonuses—and 90% of the time it's hit points. I almost never give them a variant favored class bonus—those rules are better suited for use by PCs.
7) Yay! Thanks! GOAT
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Creative Director
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James,
You did a lot of work with the bard, right? I was wondering if you happened to know the intent on something: for purposes of stacking archetypes, is "Bardic Performance" all one big class feature, or are the individual performance types all separate class features?That is, if one archetype modifies Inspire Courage, and another modifies Countersong, can you have both archetypes? Some say no, because both would modify the same class feature: Bardic Performance. Others say it's fine because the two performance types being modified are separate class features.
Any insight on this?
Individual performance types are separate class features, but Bardic Performance is also a class feature.
You can have an archetype swap out specific performances, or you can have one swap out the entire thing. Depends on the archetype.
And yes, if you have two archetypes that modify different performances but don't overlap, you can indeed take both archetypes, provided that the two archetypes aren't oppositional in some flavor way that makes the GM unhappy to see them mixed.
Nope. That's easy. I'm single, so the answer is "haven't done anything that requires me to lie or deceive a girlfriend/wife."NEXT QUESTION.
Nice get out... but that question may come back and haunt you later in life :P
On page 155 of Fiendish Codex 1 there's a long list of lords of the abyss. What's the story behind Alrunes, "The Soothing Spirit," Demon Lord(?) of Protection and Sisterhood?
I have two questions about the Bard Archetype, Sound Striker, from Ultimate Magic.
Wordstrike (Su): At 3rd level, the sound striker bard can spend 1 round of bardic performance as a standard action to direct a burst of sonically charged words at a creature or object. This performance deals 1d4 points of damage plus the bard’s level to an object, or half this damage to a living creature.
This performance replaces inspire competence.
Weird Words (Su): At 6th level, a sound striker can start a performance as a standard action, lashing out with 1 potent sound per bard level (maximum 10), each sound affecting one target within 30 feet. These are ranged touch attacks. Each weird word deals 1d8 points of damage plus the bard’s Charisma bonus (Fortitude half ), and the bard chooses whether it deals bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage for each word.
This performance replaces suggestion.
About Wordstrike, is the damage from Wordstrike halved against objects like normal energy damage? Does the damage have to overcome hardness as well? I ask, because it seems like a rather bad option if the damage is both halved and then has to overcome hardness (meaning it almost never works).
The second question is with Weird Words. Can you target the same person with more than one of the Weird Words or must they be against different targets?
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Creative Director
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On page 155 of Fiendish Codex 1 there's a long list of lords of the abyss. What's the story behind Alrunes, "The Soothing Spirit," Demon Lord(?) of Protection and Sisterhood?
There is no story yet. One of the things Erik and I wanted to do when we wrote that book was to not only provide lots of new information and details on many of the Abyss's denizens, but also to plant seeds for NEW things that we or later authors could expand upon going forward into the future. I took the same tack in my Demonomicon articles for Dragon, and tried to introduce two new names for every one name I went into great detail exploring. That way, gamers and authors could be inspired in the future by some of these enticing names just jotted down, in the same way names like Obox-ob enticed and intrigued me back in the day.
Alrunes is a name from mythology, and one that's been associated with the game as a demon lord since 1st edition's Monster Manual 2... but relatively little has been revealed about her D&D incarnation. Her sub-name (The Soothing Spirit) and areas of concern being protection and sisterhood are specifically intended to intrigue, since they're not normal things associated with demons. But beyond specifically picking elements there to give some future author a chance to explore what a demon would interpret sisterhood and protection as... we didn't do much more with her.
She may have had more stuff done with her in 4th edition, but I haven't paid attention much to the game since I've been focusing like a laser on Pathfinder.
I do know that in Green Ronin's Book of Fiends, the alrunes is a type of demon, not a demon lord, so that could be a place to go for more information...
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Creative Director
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I have two questions about the Bard Archetype, Sound Striker, from Ultimate Magic.
** spoiler omitted **
About Wordstrike, is the damage from Wordstrike halved against objects like normal energy damage? Does the damage have to overcome hardness as well? I ask, because it seems like a rather bad option if the damage is both halved and then has to overcome hardness (meaning it almost never works).
The second question is with Weird Words. Can you target the same person with more than one of the Weird Words or must they be against different targets?
Since this is a question about a hardcover rulebook... it's best to post the question in the appropriate rulesbook forum so that folks can tag it with a FAQ request.
My Google-Fu only provided me with the Fiendish Codex, and the Monster Manual entry you mentioned. Thank you for the reply!
2) Unarmed strikes are not manufactured weapons, and therefore I don't think it's appropriate to mix them with Two Weapon Fighting options.There's a Rage Power that exactly envisions using UAS with 2wf, and it doesn't say anything that suggests there is some rules exception being made:
Brawler, Greater: While raging, the barbarian is treated as if she has Two-Weapon Fighting when making unarmed strike attacks. A barbarian must have the brawler rage power to select this rage power.
Further, it seems wierd for UAS to be classed specifically as a LIGHT Weapon rather than 1-Handed, if it couldn't be used for 2wf'ing... which is the primary (only?) case that differentiates between 1-Handed and Light weapons...?
I like this crazy idea of Alrunes, "Soothing Spirit" Demon of Protection and Sisterhood.
Let's just say I just recently saw Misery with Kathy Bates >8-D
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Creative Director
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2) Unarmed strikes are not manufactured weapons, and therefore I don't think it's appropriate to mix them with Two Weapon Fighting options.There's a Rage Power that exactly envisions using UAS with 2wf, and it doesn't say anything that suggests there is some rules exception being made:Brawler, Greater: While raging, the barbarian is treated as if she has Two-Weapon Fighting when making unarmed strike attacks. A barbarian must have the brawler rage power to select this rage power.Further, it seems wierd for UAS to be classed specifically as a LIGHT Weapon rather than 1-Handed, if it couldn't be used for 2wf'ing... which is the primary (only?) case that differentiates between 1-Handed and Light weapons...?
Then it works exactly like a person with two weapons fights. And that gives a big can of gasoline fuel for the "why are fighters better at kung fu than monks?" and I'm not interested in giving the internet that can of gasoline.
And this is a hardcover rulebook question anyway, so it should be not posted here in the first place but to the proper rules forum where folks can FAQ it.
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James, are you going to be at GenCon? I ask because with the date so close to July 4, I probably can't do PaizoCon (1. tough days for me to get off work as I have low seniority at my job 2. I fly for free, but I also fly standby, and can't imagine flights that close to a holiday will be easy to come by in that manner) and I would love to meet you in person.
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Creative Director
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James, are you going to be at GenCon? I ask because with the date so close to July 4, I probably can't do PaizoCon (1. tough days for me to get off work as I have low seniority at my job 2. I fly for free, but I also fly standby, and can't imagine flights that close to a holiday will be easy to come by in that manner) and I would love to meet you in person.
I will indeed be at Gen Con. Not sure what my schedule'll be like this far in advance, of course, but I'll certainly be there.
Let us assume you could wave a magic wand, and POOF! Make a .35 class appear into PF and one of the current classes disappear, which would it be?
Myself, I liked Bequiler, the Dragon Shaman and the Factotum. Many of the others, such as Hexblade could likely be done as a Archetype (cool idea for a witch archetype, that last, no?)
I dont care much for the Summoner, and just because I dont care much for guns in a fantasy setting, the Gunslinger- altho the class is well done.
The iconics just left the field to go explore the catacombs under the stadium where they bury athletes who die during the game.
Any chance we could see this as an adventure module?
Like... some vaguely-defined evil cult that worships some equally vague archdevil of poor sportsmanship out to defile a Kurgess-blessed burial ground?
Is the reduction to energy damage from energy resistance applied before or after a successful save?
Most favorable order to the target, i believe. So after.
And here Ravingdork discovers that every action has a consequence, and whatever you do will some day come back to you.
You'd think that wouldn't you?
The Star Wars Saga designers shut everyone out on their forums too shortly before I migrated here.
It's like, totally weird deja vu. I wonder if that's why they called me the Rules Lawyer From Hell. Because designers who know me long enough begin to fear my insatiable quest for rules knowledge for some reason?
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Creative Director
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Let us assume you could wave a magic wand, and POOF! Make a .35 class appear into PF and one of the current classes disappear, which would it be?
Myself, I liked Bequiler, the Dragon Shaman and the Factotum. Many of the others, such as Hexblade could likely be done as a Archetype (cool idea for a witch archetype, that last, no?)
I dont care much for the Summoner, and just because I dont care much for guns in a fantasy setting, the Gunslinger- altho the class is well done.
I would add the Binder (but with all new Golarion-specific vestiges) and take out the Summoner.
Secrets of Pact Magic(3pp) was a good PF refluff of the 3.5Binder, James. Have you had a chance to look at it at all?
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Creative Director
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Magus/Arcane Strike questions:
If a magus takes the arcane strike feat, can he/she use the weapon enhancement bonus from the feat to 'buy' weapon properties, as per his/her pool ability? The flavor seems to support this.
The two options of pool activation and arcane strike bonus don't stack (per Jason Buhlman), so they might be deemed essentially the same thing.
Would this combo essentially allow constant bonus without needing to spend pool points?
Does arcane strike have a max number of activations per day?
Also, is it wrong to hide laxative chips in santa's cookies if he doesn't exist?
Arcane Strike doesn't let you buy weapon properties. It's a less powerful, less versatile version of the Magus's ability. Arcane Strike doesn't have a maximum number of activations per day, so it's a good feat for a Magus to have as a backup if his pool points run out. But it doesn't replace that power.
And yes... it's wrong. Because SOMEONE always eats the cookies.
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Creative Director
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Is the reduction to energy damage from energy resistance applied before or after a successful save?
Energy resistance only applies once you take damage. Therefore, it HAS to apply after you make your saving throw, since damage generally isn't inflicted until the results of a save are determined.
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Creative Director
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The iconics just left the field to go explore the catacombs under the stadium where they bury athletes who die during the game.Any chance we could see this as an adventure module?
Like... some vaguely-defined evil cult that worships some equally vague archdevil of poor sportsmanship out to defile a Kurgess-blessed burial ground?
Probably not, although it's a fun idea. We'll see.
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Contributor
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1) The elemental planes are in fact neither above nor below the Material plane, but around it. Think of the Material Plane as a sphere. The elemental plains wrap around that sphere in a shell. If the Material Pane were an orange, the elemental planes would be the orange rind. Well... that orange would have FOUR rinds, one inside the other. Air is the one that touches the Material Plane, and moving outward from the Material you pass from air into water, from water into earth, and from earth into fire. Kinda a reverse of what happens if you go the other direction and go down through a planet's atmosphere, into an ocean, through the crust below the ocean, and...
This is the traditional Ptolemaic cosmology, actually, used in Europe until the Renaissance, with the addition of Earth and Water (those were not distinguished from our plane). This diagram shows it. I'm pretty sure that's no accident. There are some high-up Ars Magica links in Paizo's chain of command, and that's the basic cosmology in that game. The fiery squiggles are the sphere of Fire and the cloudy squiggles are the sphere of Air. Only in Golarion, the entire Prime Material instead of just the surface of the earth fills the central sphere.
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Contributor
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On page 155 of Fiendish Codex 1 there's a long list of lords of the abyss. What's the story behind Alrunes, "The Soothing Spirit," Demon Lord(?) of Protection and Sisterhood?There is no story yet. One of the things Erik and I wanted to do when we wrote that book was to not only provide lots of new information and details on many of the Abyss's denizens, but also to plant seeds for NEW things that we or later authors could expand upon going forward into the future. I took the same tack in my Demonomicon articles for Dragon, and tried to introduce two new names for every one name I went into great detail exploring. That way, gamers and authors could be inspired in the future by some of these enticing names just jotted down, in the same way names like Obox-ob enticed and intrigued me back in the day.
Alrunes is a name from mythology, and one that's been associated with the game as a demon lord since 1st edition's Monster Manual 2... but relatively little has been revealed about her D&D incarnation. Her sub-name (The Soothing Spirit) and areas of concern being protection and sisterhood are specifically intended to intrigue, since they're not normal things associated with demons. But beyond specifically picking elements there to give some future author a chance to explore what a demon would interpret sisterhood and protection as... we didn't do much more with her.
She may have had more stuff done with her in 4th edition, but I haven't paid attention much to the game since I've been focusing like a laser on Pathfinder.
I do know that in Green Ronin's Book of Fiends, the alrunes is a type of demon, not a demon lord, so that could be a place to go for more information...
Alraune "secret, all runes" is the German word for mandrake and for the (unrelated) Belladonna (Atropa belladonna), so called from the association of the plant with witchcraft and, in the case of the mandrake, similarity to a small human figure. The Alrunes were female shape shifters, believed to have spawned the Huns, and the name was also used for small female goddess idols left over from the pre-Christian period. There's also a famous novel called Alraune from 1911. There it's linked to strange notions of eugenics and artificial life.
Such a swarm of possibilities! I think she's got something to do with parthenogenesis and witchcraft... After all, the ability to bear children independent of men in Golarion, much like our own, has got to be tempting to some women tired of patriarchal structures.
Many of the others, such as Hexblade could likely be done as a Archetype (cool idea for a witch archetype, that last, no?)
Check out the Hexcrafter Magus. I believe it gives you what you want. =)
James,
I wish to make a cleric of Nethys with the Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) feat tree and pick up a bonded object, which will probably be his holy symbol or quarterstaff. How does the spell storage apply if used by a cleric (or any spell caster that picks this particular Eldritch Heritage), or was this ability ment only for arcane spell casters? Also, what about the new arcana ability? Would that apply to the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list? Would a spell from that list be added to the cleric's (or spell caster's) spell list?
In addition, the wording of the bonded object spell storage indicates any spell from your spellbook...does this apply only to wizards and magi (in the assumption that a sorcerer take the Arcane bloodline, they will be unable to use the spell storage ability due to lack of a spellbook)?
James, I've been interested in the APG classes existing as either archetypes for other classes or as a group of feats(I'm a feat fanatic, I played in a friend's game where everyone got more feats and it resulted in a happier game for all, but I CANNOT deny the awesomeness of archtypes, which is everything I liked about alternate class abilities but lighter and faster). Which would work better, do you think?
Secrets of Pact Magic(3pp) was a good PF refluff of the 3.5Binder, James. Have you had a chance to look at it at all?
Do you mean the original 3.5 book, Secrets of Pact Magic or our new update specifically for Pathfinder, Pact Magic Unbound, Volume 1.?
As the co-author of the latter product, I'm curious. :)
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Secrets of Pact Magic(3pp) was a good PF refluff of the 3.5Binder, James. Have you had a chance to look at it at all?Do you mean the original 3.5 book, Secrets of Pact Magic or our new update specifically for Pathfinder, Pact Magic Unbound, Volume 1.?
As the co-author of the latter product, I'm curious. :)
COOL!
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An animal domain cleric gets an animal companion with an effective druid level of cleric level -3. Theologian allows you to treat your cleric level as 2 higher for level dependent effects of your domain powers in exchange for taking a single domain. Boon Companion treats your effective druid level for animal companions as 4 higher up to your character level maximum.
It seems to me like the spirit of theologian is to be able to exceed your cleric level for that domain. However, the wording may not work out when combining all of these abilities.
So for a 9th level cleric, would your animal companion be 9-3(Animal Companion)+3(Boon Companion)+2(Theologian)= 11, or would it be 9-3(Animal Companion)+2(Theologian)+1(Boon Companion)= 9?
For the price of a feat and one less domain, it doesn't seem game-breaking to have an animal companion 2 levels higher than your level. What do you think?