Read my mind Mi'Lord. I am currently in the middle of Mocking up a Thread along the lines of "What would you like to see covered in a Pathfinder Deities & Demigods Book? "
Question: Where is the correct place for this? The Homebrew Thread, General Discussion, or somewhere else?
Creative Director
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Read my mind Mi'Lord. I am currently in the middle of Mocking up a Thread along the lines of "What would you like to see covered in a Pathfinder Deities & Demigods Book? "
** spoiler omitted **
If you want to have a better chance at attracting the attention of folks here at Paizo, I'd post it in Paizo Publishing General Discussion.
And remember... this isn't a book that's on the schedule yet, nor is it a book that fits well into any of our existing lines.
True. But sometimes it takes an outside influence.
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I like that line of reasoning there, Mr Tyrant Lizard. Clerics praying for spells are being invested with a portion of the god's power; once they've got the spells prepared, that power resides within them. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a few venerable clerics of Aroden with a few spells uncast and prepared since that day, holding out hope that they're keeping a part of their lord alive by keeping some small fragment of his power in Golarion?
Man, now my brain's a-buzzing . . .
There could well be a few clerics of Aroden still out there with a few spells remaining. Since it's been 111 years, and since those clerics would have to already be adults in order to be clerics of a level high enough to justify keeping them around, those clerics would probably not be humans, and since Aroden was (among other things) the god of humanity... well... if we DID do an adventure featuring such a character, it would be tricky, since an elf cleric of Aroden isn't as likely, nor as appropriate.
Making the cleric into an undead creature is one option. Making the character a ghost is probably the best option there. But there are obviously other options as well (such as resurrection or sun orchid elixirs or temporal stasis, etc.). Having a character like this appear in an adventure would be a pretty significant event, though, an so I would make sure that it didn't just happen to be a semi-random guy in a low level adventure. It would have to be an EVENT.
There isn't one elven priest of Aroden in Oppara?
So, let's say you wanted to make a magical prosthetic arm. Which would be more effective? Casting "Animate Object" on the prosthetic or making a hand-shaped golem?
Second question, are animate prosthetics even a thing in Golarion?
as a follow-up question to the Deities and Demigods book idea, what are the odds of a hardcover just focusing on the Golarion dieties/heralds/etc?
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I'll ask a simpler question about Aroden's death. How fast did that infomation spread to the world? What was the tangible evidence that he had died other than supposely cleric no longer gaining spells?Well... the entire planet was covered with storms for a few weeks, so everyone knew SOMETHING had happened. In Sarkoris, though, they were more worried about the Worldwound. In Tian Xia it was the collapse of Lung Wa.
But that said, once Aroden died... all his clerics instantly lost the ability to prepare spells. Whether or not they could even still cast spells they'd already had prepared I can't say (but I would say that they could)... but if there was a cleric of Aroden in an area, that area would know more or less immediately that something major had happened. And since Aroden's priesthood was the most widespread in the Inner Sea region at the time... word spread VERY fast.
So a question about cleric of Aroden...if the kept their spells that they have already prepared what about their domain abilties or channel energy abilties?
By the way I love the idea of a old cleric of Aorden with a bunch of spells waiting for one last battle in his gods name.
Heck I could see someones( some villain) fortune being something along the lines "And you shall fall to the power of deity which is no more"
Do you feel that Pathfinder is over extending itself?
Even if simply in the Pathfinder Player Companion and Campaign Setting Lines.
Any chance you guys might stop putting out newer books and consolidate the Information into some Hardback Books or such and phase out the older print books?
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Creative Director
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I like that line of reasoning there, Mr Tyrant Lizard. Clerics praying for spells are being invested with a portion of the god's power; once they've got the spells prepared, that power resides within them. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a few venerable clerics of Aroden with a few spells uncast and prepared since that day, holding out hope that they're keeping a part of their lord alive by keeping some small fragment of his power in Golarion?
Man, now my brain's a-buzzing . . .
There could well be a few clerics of Aroden still out there with a few spells remaining. Since it's been 111 years, and since those clerics would have to already be adults in order to be clerics of a level high enough to justify keeping them around, those clerics would probably not be humans, and since Aroden was (among other things) the god of humanity... well... if we DID do an adventure featuring such a character, it would be tricky, since an elf cleric of Aroden isn't as likely, nor as appropriate.
Making the cleric into an undead creature is one option. Making the character a ghost is probably the best option there. But there are obviously other options as well (such as resurrection or sun orchid elixirs or temporal stasis, etc.). Having a character like this appear in an adventure would be a pretty significant event, though, an so I would make sure that it didn't just happen to be a semi-random guy in a low level adventure. It would have to be an EVENT.
There isn't one elven priest of Aroden in Oppara?
Probably not.
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Creative Director
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So, let's say you wanted to make a magical prosthetic arm. Which would be more effective? Casting "Animate Object" on the prosthetic or making a hand-shaped golem?
Second question, are animate prosthetics even a thing in Golarion?
A golem is a creature; and as such, as part of you, it wouldn't be a good choice. You want your arm to follow your directions, not it's own directions.
Yes, there are magical prosthetics on Golarion. Lords of Chaos talked about demonic grafts, for example, and there are some bits about all sorts of prosthetics in various Skull & Shakles products.
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Creative Director
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I'll ask a simpler question about Aroden's death. How fast did that infomation spread to the world? What was the tangible evidence that he had died other than supposely cleric no longer gaining spells?Well... the entire planet was covered with storms for a few weeks, so everyone knew SOMETHING had happened. In Sarkoris, though, they were more worried about the Worldwound. In Tian Xia it was the collapse of Lung Wa.
But that said, once Aroden died... all his clerics instantly lost the ability to prepare spells. Whether or not they could even still cast spells they'd already had prepared I can't say (but I would say that they could)... but if there was a cleric of Aroden in an area, that area would know more or less immediately that something major had happened. And since Aroden's priesthood was the most widespread in the Inner Sea region at the time... word spread VERY fast.
So a question about cleric of Aroden...if the kept their spells that they have already prepared what about their domain abilties or channel energy abilties?
By the way I love the idea of a old cleric of Aorden with a bunch of spells waiting for one last battle in his gods name.
Heck I could see someones( some villain) fortune being something along the lines "And you shall fall to the power of deity which is no more"
Their domain powers and channel energy stuff goes away as soon as the deity dies.
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Do you feel that Pathfinder is over extending itself?
Even if simply in the Pathfinder Player Companion and Campaign Setting Lines.
Any chance you guys might stop putting out newer books and consolidate the Information into some Hardback Books or such and phase out the older print books?
I do not. Particularly in the player companion and campaign setting lines—I alone have enough ideas for those two lines to keep things going for a few years just off the top of my head... and I'm not the only one with the ideas around this place.
The day we stop putting out new books is the day the company starts to die, in my opinion. Or at best, go into dormancy.
I mean more of Putting out to many books that seem to not be worth the KB they take up. Literally there is a collection of HUGE threads on GitP on this topic.
& I horribly miss-phrased that... What I meant is:
Have you guys thought of putting newer releases for the Player Companion & Campaign Setting lines on hiatus & Consolidating that information into Hardback Books? Sort of like the Inner Sea World Guide.
Hey james i was wondering do you own a tablet..i.e kindle fire,nexus 7. and if you do what do you have
on the subject of not printing new player companions or campaign setting books heck i dont even work for you guys and i can think of at least 2-3 years worth of books off the top of my head..i say keep them coming...i think reprinting the books into a collected hardcover is a neat idea but im sure not very cost effective, plus that would take alot of energy away from book we all know we want...hint hint..(insert area of intrest lol)
just my 2 cents worth
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Creative Director
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I mean more of Putting out to many books that seem to not be worth the KB they take up. Literally there is a collection of HUGE threads on GitP on this topic.
& I horribly miss-phrased that... What I meant is:
Have you guys thought of putting newer releases for the Player Companion & Campaign Setting lines on hiatus & Consolidating that information into Hardback Books? Sort of like the Inner Sea World Guide.
Nope. Not something we're planning on doing.
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Creative Director
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Hey james i was wondering do you own a tablet..i.e kindle fire,nexus 7. and if you do what do you have
on the subject of not printing new player companions or campaign setting books heck i dont even work for you guys and i can think of at least 2-3 years worth of books off the top of my head..i say keep them coming...i think reprinting the books into a collected hardcover is a neat idea but im sure not very cost effective, plus that would take alot of energy away from book we all know we want...hint hint..(insert area of intrest lol)
just my 2 cents worth
I own a 3rd generation 64 MB iPad, and I love love LOVE it.
Jame you should stat up the rat bat spider for mythic..that would be sweet
RATS foiled again lol
I am not saying stop them permanently. Just consolidate and update some of the older info. Such as the Cheliax Books content.
Which brings up an interesting question one of my players was thinking on.
Would you guys consider doing other Anniversary Edition Adventure Path Collections?
So, let's say you wanted to make a magical prosthetic arm. Which would be more effective? Casting "Animate Object" on the prosthetic or making a hand-shaped golem?
Second question, are animate prosthetics even a thing in Golarion?
A golem is a creature; and as such, as part of you, it wouldn't be a good choice. You want your arm to follow your directions, not it's own directions.
Yes, there are magical prosthetics on Golarion. Lords of Chaos talked about demonic grafts, for example, and there are some bits about all sorts of prosthetics in various Skull & Shakles products.
Ultimate Magic has rules for making construct limbs. Chapter 2, pg. 115, the Construct Limb complex modification.
So, let's say you wanted to make a magical prosthetic arm. Which would be more effective? Casting "Animate Object" on the prosthetic or making a hand-shaped golem?
Second question, are animate prosthetics even a thing in Golarion?
A golem is a creature; and as such, as part of you, it wouldn't be a good choice. You want your arm to follow your directions, not it's own directions.
Yes, there are magical prosthetics on Golarion. Lords of Chaos talked about demonic grafts, for example, and there are some bits about all sorts of prosthetics in various Skull & Shakles products.
Ultimate Magic has rules for making construct limbs. Chapter 2, pg. 115, the Construct Limb complex modification.
It includes the caveat that you use the construct's statistics but the limb's owner makes the attacks.
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I was sure this had been asked already but a search of the thread turned up nothing:
Have you ever read any of the SCP Foundation wiki? It's an in-character database of a fictional organization dealing with strange supernatural people, creatures, objects, or other such things. The quality of writing and delivery can vary wildly but the effective ones can be genuinely creepy by putting just the right amount of vagueness and public domain images to use. Some of them evoke cryptids, classic horror literature, and internet-age "creepypasta" so there might be more than a few that resonate with you. :)
Hey James, running the Misgivings right now and I have a Haunt question.
Detect undead or detect alignment spells of the appropriate type allow an observer a chance to notice a haunt even before it manifests (allowing that character the appropriate check to notice the haunt, but at a –4 penalty).
How early can this help someone notice the haunt? Would looking into the room with a haunt detect the presence of one before it ever manifests? (thus signaling to the viewer to not go in there)
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James, I've never found an official answer.
Wizard school abilities that say touch a creature, can the wizard use these abilities on themselves?
Augment (Sp): As a standard action, you can touch a creature and grant it either a +2 enhancement bonus to a single ability score of your choice or a +1 bonus to natural armor that stacks with any natural armor the creature might possess. At 10th level, the enhancement bonus to one ability score increases to +4. The natural armor bonus increases by +1 for every five wizard levels you possess, to a maximum of +5 at 20th level. This augmentation lasts a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your wizard level (minimum 1 round). You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
Probably not.I like that line of reasoning there, Mr Tyrant Lizard. Clerics praying for spells are being invested with a portion of the god's power; once they've got the spells prepared, that power resides within them. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a few venerable clerics of Aroden with a few spells uncast and prepared since that day, holding out hope that they're keeping a part of their lord alive by keeping some small fragment of his power in Golarion?
Man, now my brain's a-buzzing . . .
There could well be a few clerics of Aroden still out there with a few spells remaining. Since it's been 111 years, and since those clerics would have to already be adults in order to be clerics of a level high enough to justify keeping them around, those clerics would probably not be humans, and since Aroden was (among other things) the god of humanity... well... if we DID do an adventure featuring such a character, it would be tricky, since an elf cleric of Aroden isn't as likely, nor as appropriate.
Making the cleric into an undead creature is one option. Making the character a ghost is probably the best option there. But there are obviously other options as well (such as resurrection or sun orchid elixirs or temporal stasis, etc.). Having a character like this appear in an adventure would be a pretty significant event, though, an so I would make sure that it didn't just happen to be a semi-random guy in a low level adventure. It would have to be an EVENT.
There isn't one elven priest of Aroden in Oppara?
For reference:
Father Basri: Maybe the last Archbishop of Aroden left on Golarion, the incredibly old half-elf Father Basri can still remember a time when Aroden personally spoke to him through prayer. The sadness of his patron’s death and the years since have weighed heavily on his shoulders, and he walks with a stooped back, leaning heavily on a cane. Father Basri is responsible for maintaining the Basilica of the Last Man and its Arodenite artifacts and holy relics, and it was his ingenious idea to transorm the holy site into a tourist destination that kept the Basilica from being turned into something more reserved, such as the House of the Immortal Son. Lately, Father Basri has told his small flock that he believes Aroden will return in their lifetimes, but many see this as the ramblings of a very old and broken man.
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Soooooo.... who is secretly a veiled master?
Are there any half-humanoids running around, besides half-elves, half-orcs and ogrekin?
And another question, can the size variations with the Druid's Wild Shape be used to turn into, say, a Tiny roc or Gargantuan dire rat?
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I get the feeling that summoners are a staff unfavorite at Paizo because---
There are very few archtypes.
Either you or Mark Moreland stated they were the rarest class in Golarion.
Almost all archetypes are banned in PFS.
Have only seen one in an adventure of any sort with a summoner. But I've seen multiple witches, oracles etc.
One archetype that makes a lot of sense as a general archetype is half elf only.
Aside, if you guys ever write Ultimate Archtypes please chalk it full of summoner goodness.
Anyway, is there anything to my theory?
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Lately, Father Basri has told his small flock that he believes Aroden will return in their lifetimes, but many see this as the ramblings of a very old and broken man.
What is the meaning of this? Inquiring minds want to know!
[Trust his microphone toward the giant T-Rex hoping that his adamantine arm protection will be enough to save his arm if needed-]
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Creative Director
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I was sure this had been asked already but a search of the thread turned up nothing:
Have you ever read any of the SCP Foundation wiki? It's an in-character database of a fictional organization dealing with strange supernatural people, creatures, objects, or other such things. The quality of writing and delivery can vary wildly but the effective ones can be genuinely creepy by putting just the right amount of vagueness and public domain images to use. Some of them evoke cryptids, classic horror literature, and internet-age "creepypasta" so there might be more than a few that resonate with you. :)
** spoiler omitted **
I've read a few of those, yeah. Good stuff in there.
Hey James, I noticed plant creatures apparently AREN'T immune to critical hits or precision damage. I was wondering, could you shed some light onto the rationale behind that change from 3.5? I'm trying to visualize it, but it's hard to image where the 'weak spot' is in a shambling mound or a treant. Or was this change specifically to accomodate the inclusion of new plants critters that it made sense to be able to critically hit / sneak, like the Mi-go?
Also speaking of intelligent plants, did you ever watch Farscape when it was on Sci-fi in the early 2000s? What'd you think of Zhaan, if so?
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Creative Director
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Hey James, running the Misgivings right now and I have a Haunt question.
Detect undead or detect alignment spells of the appropriate type allow an observer a chance to notice a haunt even before it manifests (allowing that character the appropriate check to notice the haunt, but at a –4 penalty).How early can this help someone notice the haunt? Would looking into the room with a haunt detect the presence of one before it ever manifests? (thus signaling to the viewer to not go in there)
Yup; if a character uses a spell like that to peer into another room, he can make a check to notice the haunt and can then decide to never go into that room. That does mean the character misses out on any treasure or information in the room... but that's no different than someone peeking through a keyhole, seeing an ogre in the next room, and deciding to go the other way.
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Creative Director
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James, I've never found an official answer.
Wizard school abilities that say touch a creature, can the wizard use these abilities on themselves?
Augment (Sp): As a standard action, you can touch a creature and grant it either a +2 enhancement bonus to a single ability score of your choice or a +1 bonus to natural armor that stacks with any natural armor the creature might possess. At 10th level, the enhancement bonus to one ability score increases to +4. The natural armor bonus increases by +1 for every five wizard levels you possess, to a maximum of +5 at 20th level. This augmentation lasts a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your wizard level (minimum 1 round). You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
If anything lets you touch a creature, you can touch yourself to target yourself, since you are also a creature who can be touched.
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Creative Director
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By twist of fate, divine grace, warp in the fabric of reality or the will of The Mona, you are present and next to Aroden with full knowledge that his death is imminent in the next seven minutes.
What do you say to him?
Nothing.
I'm kinda like Pharasma that way.
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Creative Director
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Probably not.I like that line of reasoning there, Mr Tyrant Lizard. Clerics praying for spells are being invested with a portion of the god's power; once they've got the spells prepared, that power resides within them. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a few venerable clerics of Aroden with a few spells uncast and prepared since that day, holding out hope that they're keeping a part of their lord alive by keeping some small fragment of his power in Golarion?
Man, now my brain's a-buzzing . . .
There could well be a few clerics of Aroden still out there with a few spells remaining. Since it's been 111 years, and since those clerics would have to already be adults in order to be clerics of a level high enough to justify keeping them around, those clerics would probably not be humans, and since Aroden was (among other things) the god of humanity... well... if we DID do an adventure featuring such a character, it would be tricky, since an elf cleric of Aroden isn't as likely, nor as appropriate.
Making the cleric into an undead creature is one option. Making the character a ghost is probably the best option there. But there are obviously other options as well (such as resurrection or sun orchid elixirs or temporal stasis, etc.). Having a character like this appear in an adventure would be a pretty significant event, though, an so I would make sure that it didn't just happen to be a semi-random guy in a low level adventure. It would have to be an EVENT.
There isn't one elven priest of Aroden in Oppara?
For reference:
...
Father Basri: Maybe the last Archbishop of Aroden left on Golarion, the incredibly old half-elf Father Basri can still remember a time when Aroden personally spoke to him through prayer. The sadness of his patron’s death and the years since have weighed heavily on his shoulders, and he walks with
Not something I'm keen to continue the story on.
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Creative Director
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James, I am now running Kingmaker and also playing in a Serpent Skull game directed by a friend.
But there are a lot of campaigns I began to play but died off because... real life.
What games are you now running/playing regulary? And What games have died off recently?
I remember you talked about running a Serpent Skull game, a Necropolis/Osirion game and playing Way of the Wicked, Skull & Shackles and Iobarian-themed games.
(Not to mention the Shadows under Sandpoint campaing, a book/boxed set that I REALLY WANT).
My current games:
As a player:
Skull & Shackles every other Friday
Way of the Wicked every other Wednesday
Lords of Absalom (currently on hiatus)
As a GM:
My Shadows under Sandpoint campaign turned into the Sands of the Scorpion God campaign—same players, split into two groups, out there in Osirion working against the recrudescence of an ancient Rovagug cult.
Sands of the Scorpion God (Necropolis): Every other Thursday
Sands of the Scorpion God (Lost City/Maure Castle): Every other Wednesday
Serpent's Skull (Every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month)
Masks of Nyarlathotep (once or twice a year, need to play this one more!)
There's also one-shot games all the time.
When using bolas to trip someone, should I add my Strength modifier or my Dexterity modifier to the combat maneuver check? Combat maneuver rules don't seem to account for ranged variants.
Yup; if a character uses a spell like that to peer into another room, he can make a check to notice the haunt and can then decide to never go into that room. That does mean the character misses out on any treasure or information in the room... but that's no different than someone peeking through a keyhole, seeing an ogre in the next room, and deciding to go the other way.
Thank you James, while awesome for using against Haunts normally I am hoping that knowing a Haunt is in the room does not discourage the players from entering it, thus missing out on a unique medium to tell a story.
Now my players have not bothered trying to figure out what is happening, they seem resigned on just...accepting their haunty fate. Is there a Knowledge Check to figure out what exactly a haunt is, as it is a new mechanic that my players are not familiar with? (I would assume religion, but what DC?)
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Creative Director
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A question or ten regarding the Runescarred Dragonship (a minor artifact from Ultimate Equipment, interesting for an artifact in that it only has CL 13th) in relation to Skull & Shackles, since I just finished watching On Stranger Tides (Blu-Ray!) and was browsing through the AP:
1) When it says "longship" the intent is that it looks like a Viking longship, correct? Or some other type of ship?
2) The dragonship given in UE is described as "decrepit" and "barely seaworthy" with little in the way of comfort. Is it feasible that a dragonship could be fixed up to be, if not a floating palace, at least a reasonable expectation of a pirate ship, without losing the enchantments that grant it power?
2a) The runes on the ship ("branded with a number of angular runes, each said to bind the soul of a sailor to the vessel") seem to give an indication of just how one might go about creating a new runescarred dragonship. Might that or a procedure along those lines be a means of creating a new, non-decrepit dragonship? Or a more "traditional" (in popular culture, at least) pirate ship with the same abilities as a runescarred dragonship?
3) Do any of the big-name pirate lords/free captains in the Shackles own one or more runescarred dragonship(s)? Do they exist in Golarion, in any significant fashion?
4) If one or more dragonships were found, would there be a serious fight over who would get to own it/them, given the benefits it/they can provide to those on board them?
5) Would the person who did own it (provided they could hang on to it) be eligible for free captain status?
6) They are usually found "drifting aimlessly at sea" by the person who stumbles across them. Why is this? Is there a particular secret to their construction/deployment? I doubt that they spontaneously appear from nothing - something has to be able to create them and leave them drifting for people to find.
7) Can they be sunk, capsized, or similar? The method given for their destruction is that they must be taken 100 miles inland, at which point they crumble to dust. However, this implies that even if they get shot with a cannon (or ballista, or whatever), they won't sink and are essentially invulnerable to such attacks.
7a) Additionally, while the dragonship will always take the safest route, what happens if that route turns out to be very dangerous anyway? Whether it be a result of high seas, storms (such as saying "take me to the middle of the Eye of Abendego" - unless the ship finds a safe route through on its own, which would make it a very powerful tool), or living and breathing threats (e.g. sailing past an island with winged cannibal inhabitants...), just because a route is the safest doesn't seem to mean that it will be safe.
8) The entry for it states that it moves very fast, and later specifies just how quick (10 mph). That's still only about 8-9 knots (8.6 according to Google), however. A clipper has speeds of between 10-14 knots (Chinese ones could go as high as 16 knots), though there are a few references to 18 knots done by some clippers in a brief Google search. Some fast windjammers can get up to around the same speed in the right conditions, and a Man-of-War (among the biggest, heaviest warships) can still reach 8-9 knots on average. It seems to me as if the dragonship is nowhere near as quick as it should be to be "very fast" in comparison with most ships. Even discounting "Pirate-y" ships, Viking longships ranged between 5-10 knots anyway, and have (in favourable conditions) the potential to push that to 15 knots or so. The dragonship... doesn't. I suppose with this question, I'm just looking for some clarification on the design choices for the dragonship, since beyond the ability to take people wherever they ask, it doesn't seem to be very artifact-y, even for what is only a minor artifact.
First off... let me preface this bit by saying I didn't work at all on Ultimate Equipment, and I worked very little on Skull & Shackles, so keep that in mind with the following answers. Also, when you post questions this long, it makes it difficult for me to reply due to the way replies work on this board—try to keep your questions short and to the point without a lot of extra words, or split them into multiple posts.
1) I would guess Viking longship, since that's what immediately comes to mind.
2) Sure. But those additions and repairs would not be part of the artifact, and as such wouldn't have any of its powers or defenses.
2a) At this point, the rules for creation of an artifact, and in fact whether or not a PC can do this at all in the first place, are up to the GM.
3) No; we have not incorporated these artifacts into Golarion yet.
4) Depends on how important you want to make them in your game.
5) No more so than owning ANY ship. Skull & Shackles makes pretty clear what you need to do to be eligible for this position, and owning a runescarred dragonship would at best only fill in for the fact that you'd need a ship.
6) Because the hardcover rulebook line does not assume a game world, and must be written "world neutral," and therefore for things like artifacts, the designers and writers are somewhat limited as to what sort of backstory they can build for artifacts. As such, making them have mysterious backgrounds like this is really the only real option. If we were to adopt these artifacts officially into Golarion, we'd build a more detailed backstory for them. We haven't done so yet, nor do we have plans to do so anytime soon.
7) They can be capsised or sunk, but can't be traditionally destroyed, which means that they're VERY DIFFICULT to sink as compared to a normal ship, which means that including one or more of these ships in Skull & Shackles will drastically upset, if not completely destroy, the balance of the ship combat elements of the campaign.
7a) That just means that the other routes would have turned out to be more dangerous anyway.
8) I suspect that the designer of the runescarred dragonship did not take into account any real-world ship or nautical lore, but instead based all of that on the existing ship rules from the Core Rulebook. Ships, like guns and Asian history/mythology, are one of those topics that gamers tend to get pretty obsessive over the details of how they compare in-game to real world analogs; I suspect that's because ships, guns, and Asian history/mythology are also significant hobbies and interests that have a lot of crossover with gaming. If you happen to be someone with a deep love and interest for sailing and ships and nautical stuff, you're not the average gamer, and you'll need to keep that in mind when looking at rules for ships in games that aren't primarily focused on nautical stuff—and the core rules of Pathfinder really aren't focused on nautical adventures at all.
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Creative Director
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Are there any half-humanoids running around, besides half-elves, half-orcs and ogrekin?
And another question, can the size variations with the Druid's Wild Shape be used to turn into, say, a Tiny roc or Gargantuan dire rat?
I suppose so. There's certainly half-fiends out there, and half-celestials, and I guess even half-dragons (although I'm really NOT a fan of the half-dragon template going onto anything other than monsters). There are also races like dhampir and changelings and fetchlings, and all of the elemental-touched races. There are other hybrid races out there as well, but as a general rule, my philosophy for Golarion is to focus on full races and not worry about the hundreds and thousands of variants that could exist once you say interspecies mating is a free-for-all.
Only if your GM is okay with having to build stats for Tiny rocs or Gargantuan dire rats. I wouldn't be. It's far more interesting for me for druids to wild shape into existing animals rather than ones the player makes up on the spot. That's granting too much world design power to the player for my taste, and starts to drift the druid into parts of the summoner class I don't care for as a result.
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Creative Director
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I get the feeling that summoners are a staff unfavorite at Paizo because---
There are very few archtypes.
Either you or Mark Moreland stated they were the rarest class in Golarion.
Almost all archetypes are banned in PFS.
Have only seen one in an adventure of any sort with a summoner. But I've seen multiple witches, oracles etc.
One archetype that makes a lot of sense as a general archetype is half elf only.Aside, if you guys ever write Ultimate Archtypes please chalk it full of summoner goodness.
Anyway, is there anything to my theory?
That would have been me saying they are the rarest class in Golarion. Rarer than gunslingers.
When we designed Golarion, we included a lot of classes for which we didn't yet have strong options for.
We built witches into the world with the white witches and winter witches of Irrisen.
We built oracles into the world in the form of various mysterious soothsayers and prophets.
We built cavaliers into the world by having things like the Mendevian crusades and knightly orders.
We built alchemists into the world by having one invent the Sun Orchid Elixir, or having others be involved with fleshwarping.
We built magi into the world simply because the concept of the fighter/wizard is the most popular of multiclassing options.
We built inquisitors into the world by having nations like Cheliax or Taldor or Qadira where there are strong religious authority figures.
We even built gunslingers into the world by including firearms and Alkenstar in Golarion.
For summoners, we built into the world the idea of diabolists and demonoligists who summon outsiders to do their bidding; there's a huge amount of this in Cheliax and the Worldwound, for example.
Unfortunately, the route the design team went with the summoner more or less diverted that intention into something entirely different. The inclusion of the eidolon, rather than having that be the conjuring of an established type of outsider like a demon or an angel that would increase in power similarly to how an animal companion works, more or less make summoners no longer fit in the game world—simply because we had not yet established ANY precedent for eidolons in Golarion. At all.
Our outsider races for Golarion are INCREDIBLY varied, but they also have restrictions and themes. No two eidolons are exactly alike—they're completely chimerical nonesuches that don't require in-game touchstones and can be completely off-the-wall things that have no connections to the game world.
As such, they are my least favorite of our base classes... which is too bad, because had we built them exactly as they are but replaced the eidolon with a "demon/devil/angel/protean/whatever, depending on your alignment," then there would be a lot more of them, I suspect.
The complete "do what you want" approach to the eidolon simultaneously made the class into something that doesn't have good strong ties to Golarion, and into the most complicated of all our base classes and as such one that's very easy to make into something that's WAY too powerful (either because you don't know what you're doing and do things wrong, or because you know EXACTLY what you're doing and know all the loopholes and optimizations) and ends up dominating or, at best, merely overcomplicating games.
Summoners are certainly MY least favorite of our base classes, and since I'm the creative director, that does have a significant influence on our games.
That said, Wes Schneider found a really intriguing and interesting and compelling place to fit them in to Golarion, which also explains why they're rare. Simply put, the nation of the Inner Sea region where the summoner was the most common was in Sarkoris, and when the Worldwound exploded and destroyed that nation, the majority of the summoners there were killed—along with the majority of everyone else who was there.