True Name Arcane Discovery.
Creative Director
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A Shattered Star question, sir.
Spoiler:
What would the CR change be, if any, if I changed the Babau demons', in L25, abilities to remove dispel magic and add greater invisibility? This "super stealthy assassin" feels better with this to me. I don't discount dispel magic. I love the spell actually but with the description in the PRD I kept looking for their invisibility ability and couldn't find it. :P
Unless dispel magic is inherent in how they operate I don't see why they have it. I would also probably take away their spears.
Adding greater invisibility to a babau increases its damage per round assumption from about 28 to about 49. Taking away their spears only lowers the damage per round by a few points.
That's a change in damage per round of a CR 6 creature to a CR 11 creature, but doesn't adjust upward the babau's hit points or attack numbers or saves or DC saves, so it makes for a pretty lopsided encounter. I wouldn't recommend this.
That said... babaus can cast darkness at will and can see in the dark due to darkvision. They don't really NEED to be able to cast greater invisibility, really, to do their thing... and even then, there's multiples so they can flank foes.
I don't want to be a bother, and maybe you intended to get to it later, but if you simply missed my questions, could you give them a quick look-over and reply? As always, your time on these forums is highly appreciated!
Edit: might as well copy it over:
In "The Spires of Xin-Shalast", when the PCs are searching for the city:
I really love what you've done with locating the lost city, but I'm confused about a few things, and I want to implement your vision. At this point, the PCs have Silas Vekker's journal pages.
1. Are the Will saves mentioned on page 317 of the anniversary edition pertaining to simply entering the "Xin-Shalast Environs" region?
2. If every PC passes the Will save, but haven't met any requirements for seeing the river Avah (either mundane or magical), can they still see Xin-Shalast if they traverse the mountains? In other words, is seeing the phantom river just a guide, or a necessary "tunnel" across realities?
3. If some PCs pass the save, but others do not, do the ones that passed end up in X.S., and the ones that failed end up separated? What prevents the PCs that passed from noticing the others are no longer with them? Is it just one of those things like, "hey, we're here! Wait, where's Phil and Suzanne?"
4. If the PCs teleport to where Xin-Shalast is on my map (let's say they guess randomly, like "over that mountain pass" or something) and the caster passes the caster level check, do they simply end up in Xin-Shalast? I reckon this is the same as #2, but it might be slightly different.
Edit: 2b./4b. Is the CL check to prevent teleporting directly to X.S., or is it to demonstrate that something funny is happening here? Same with mundane travel in #2. If this is the case, the only way to X.S. is the phantom river method?
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Creative Director
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2: Demons are formed from sinful souls but devils are formed from the damned.What's the difference from being sinful and having been damned?
3: Demons ultimately seek to destroy/tempt to sin, whereas devils ultimately seek to recruit/corrupt to evil.Not seeing much of a difference between temptation and corruption, honestly. Care to enlighten me?
9: Devils are a much older planar race than demons—devils formed before humanity but demons formed after humanity.So does that imply that only humans can be corrupted into devils, since both the dwarves and the elves are older races than humans?
Can the two races create more of themselves aside from the corruption of a mortal soul?
A damned soul is someone sent to Hell to be punished for eternity, or at the very least a long, long time. How and why they ended up damned varies, and that may or may not be a result of being a sinner. Sinful souls might not end up being damned because by wallowing in their sins, they may have been entirely living up to the nature of their believes or religions.
Demonic Temptation = luring someone into committing a sinful act, so that, in theory, when you die, if you're evil enough, your soul goes to the Abyss and becomes "fuel" for the creation of new demons.
Diabolic Corruption = tricking a mortal into being evil and causing evil things to spread diabolic agendas in the living world. The end result likely ends up making you sinful and may well end up sending your soul to the Abyss to become a demon or to Abaddon to be hunted down and eaten by daemons or perhaps to Hell to be damned forever... but that's not the end goal for the devil. They want you to spread evil for them in your life; what happens to your soul is irrelevant (unless, of course, you sold it to a devil, in which case that's a different story).
By "humanity" I mean "mortal souls." That's mostly humans, since Golarion is humanocentric,but includes any souls, including pretty much everything from a creature that's not an outsider, undead, or construct.
Devils and demons can absolutely create more of their kind, either via various forms of biological and supernatural reproduction, powerful magic, or other methods not meant for humanity to know of.
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Creative Director
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James, I know you’re not a huge fan of running Paladins, but surely you have some in the games you either play in or run. In those games, when one of those paladins does his spell-like ability of Detect Evil, can/does the target know they are being detected? Perception? Sense Motive? Spellcraft? I mean I figure the first two would at least get you “That guy in full armor is staring intently at you for a few seconds, then his eyes narrow like he doesn’t like what he’s seeing”, but would the target know that it was Detect Evil or just a mundane scrutiny?
I have paladins in my games often. In fact, of the 3 Pathfinder campaigns I'm now running, there are paladins i two of them.
When a paladin uses detect evil, a target may well notice that he's being examined. He'll certainly suspect it if he's smart, notices the paladin staring at him, and so on. If a paladin wants to be sneaky about it, he needs to make a Bluff check opposed by a Sense Motive check, or otherwise be out of sight or unnoticed by the target.
Archdevils, mostly. But also the Horsemen of the Apocalypse or Demon Lords if they're neutral evil or chaotic evil. No one deity is "in charge" of them.James,
What god would the Xill worship? Who would be in charge of the Xill?
Thanks!
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Creative Director
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In "The Spires of Xin-Shalast"...
Spoiler:...when the PCs are searching for the city: I really love what you've done with locating the lost city, but I'm confused about a few things, and I want to implement your vision. At this point, the PCs have Silas Vekker's journal pages.
1. Are the Will saves mentioned on page 317 of the anniversary edition pertaining to simply entering the "Xin-Shalast Environs" region?2. If every PC passes the Will save, but haven't met any requirements for seeing the river Avah (either mundane or magical), can they still see Xin-Shalast if they traverse the mountains? In other words, is seeing the phantom river just a guide, or a necessary "tunnel" across realities?
3. If some PCs pass the save, but others do not, do the ones that passed end up in X.S., and the ones that failed end up separated? What prevents the PCs that passed from noticing the others are no longer with them? Is it just one of those things like, "hey, we're here! Wait, where's Phil and Suzanne?"
4. If the PCs teleport to where Xin-Shalast is on my map (let's say they guess randomly, like "over that mountain pass" or something) and the caster passes the caster level check, do they simply end up in Xin-Shalast? I reckon this is the same as #2, but it might be slightly different.
Edit: 2b./4b. Is the CL check to prevent teleporting directly to X.S., or is it to demonstrate that something funny is happening here? Same with mundane travel in #2. If this is the case, the only way to X.S. is the phantom river method?
Answers...
2) If every PC passes the Will save, then they get to ignore the requirements associated with the Avah River.
3) They will indeed get separated. The PCs who passed the saves will need to backtrack out of the region to "re-sync" with the reality that the save failures are still in.
4) If the PCs take this route, and the caster level check is accurate, they can appear within the Xin-Shalast environs zone and thus bypass the Will save, but where they end up is entirely up to the GM, since until the PCs visit the place, they can't pinpoint it to teleport to it.
2b/4b) The CL check does both. You cast teleport, then make the CL check. If you succeed, you know something was trying to mess with your teleporting but you powered through it. If you fail, you know the same thing and when you arrive, you know because you're not where you were trying to go to. Following the phantom river is the best option for groups who lack the powerful "rules breaking" options of certain high-level spells or the like, but if the party has the resources to use those options, they should absolutely be able to enter Xin-Shalast.
The point of this whole thing is to explain why very few people have found Xin-Shalast over the past 10,000 years, and to make the PCs feel like they're high-level bad-asses when they DO find Xin-Shalast.
Hi James,
I know you've discussed how you'd like to write a novel some day, but I was wondering, if you were to research and write a work of non-fiction, what kind of topics would you choose?
With great surprise, but she'd also probably see to it that her faith knew about it and went to protect him before he got himself eaten by Lamashtu.Mr. James Jacobs,
How would Desna and Lamashtu react when finding out about a mythic invidual whose mythic power comes from the last spark of Cuchanus's power that made to Golarion? Thanks for the previous answers and for overall entertaining the questions of we silly forum goers.
Mr. James Jacobs,
Thinking on it further. Assuming the mythic hero is CG, what/how would Desna consider him? Also, would he come to her attention sooner if she were is patron deity?
Hey james i know your a fan of found footage films what would be your top ten..
They'd prefer undead for all things. Including undead fiends. When it comes to outsiders... neutral evil is probably the closest aligned to their tastes, but in the end they don't really care much one way or the other.Hi James,
I'm running Carrion Crown with some friends and have an encounter with agents of the Whispering Way planned soon. I was just wondering if the Whispering Way would consider binding or summoning daemons as a potential tactic. What kind of extraplanar creatures would appeal to their tastes?
You can have undead fiends?
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I have a question regarding the Graydon family crest described in Knights of the Inner Sea. Of the families on the front cover it was the only one that did not merit an illustration, so I'm wondering about it.
It is described as a howling wolf sillouheted by the sun. Does this refer to a wolf's head erazed or a full wolf? Is the sun on the horizon with the wolf in front of it or is it like the wolf is in the center of the sun? Are the rays of the sun pointy or wavy? How many rays are there? What position is the wolf in? Affronte? Couchant? Passant? Rampant? What are the tinctures and metals? I assume the sun would be or, but what would the wolf be, then? Sable? And what about the rest of the heraldry? Would the background be Purpure, like Ustalav's crest (which technically breaks heraldric rules, as it has sable on purpure, and you can't put a tincture on a tincture)? Sable if the wolf is centered in the sun? Something completely different like gules or azure?
I want someone to draw a picture of this heraldry, so I want to give as detailed a description of the arms as possible.
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Do spellbooks without magical wards and defenses detect as magic?
Would spells written in a spellbook with the good or evil descriptor detect as such?
No.
No.
Hmm. That give me the idea for a question: a scroll of a spell with a evil descriptor detect as evil?
It make a difference if it divine or arcane?
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
I know you've discussed how you'd like to write a novel some day, but I was wondering, if you were to research and write a work of non-fiction, what kind of topics would you choose?
It'd have to be a subject I'm interested in and know about. Some topics off the top of my head would be:
1) An insider's view of the gaming industry.
2) Something about the history of horror films or novels and how horror reflects the society the tales are written from.
3) A book about the Northern California fishing industry.
4) A book about cryptozoological creatures but approaching the investigation from the angle of using native and historical legends and myths about the creatures rather than focusing on modern sightings.
5) A book that examines the genesis of several urban legends.
(shrug)
Never really thought much about writing non-fiction, so those are ideas without a lot of thought behind them.
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Creative Director
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With great surprise, but she'd also probably see to it that her faith knew about it and went to protect him before he got himself eaten by Lamashtu.Mr. James Jacobs,
How would Desna and Lamashtu react when finding out about a mythic invidual whose mythic power comes from the last spark of Cuchanus's power that made to Golarion? Thanks for the previous answers and for overall entertaining the questions of we silly forum goers.
Mr. James Jacobs,
Thinking on it further. Assuming the mythic hero is CG, what/how would Desna consider him? Also, would he come to her attention sooner if she were is patron deity?
She'd consider him to be someone to watch and perhaps protect. And he (or she!) would absolutely come to her attention sooner if they worshiped her.
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Creative Director
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You can have undead fiends?They'd prefer undead for all things. Including undead fiends. When it comes to outsiders... neutral evil is probably the closest aligned to their tastes, but in the end they don't really care much one way or the other.Hi James,
I'm running Carrion Crown with some friends and have an encounter with agents of the Whispering Way planned soon. I was just wondering if the Whispering Way would consider binding or summoning daemons as a potential tactic. What kind of extraplanar creatures would appeal to their tastes?
Absolutely.
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Creative Director
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I have a question regarding the Graydon family crest described in Knights of the Inner Sea. Of the families on the front cover it was the only one that did not merit an illustration, so I'm wondering about it.
It is described as a howling wolf sillouheted by the sun. Does this refer to a wolf's head erazed or a full wolf? Is the sun on the horizon with the wolf in front of it or is it like the wolf is in the center of the sun? Are the rays of the sun pointy or wavy? How many rays are there? What position is the wolf in? Affronte? Couchant? Passant? Rampant? What are the tinctures and metals? I assume the sun would be or, but what would the wolf be, then? Sable? And what about the rest of the heraldry? Would the background be Purpure, like Ustalav's crest (which technically breaks heraldric rules, as it has sable on purpure, and you can't put a tincture on a tincture)? Sable if the wolf is centered in the sun? Something completely different like gules or azure?
I want someone to draw a picture of this heraldry, so I want to give as detailed a description of the arms as possible.
I pretty much had zero interaction with the creation of that book, so I can't really say—that'd be a question for Wes and Patrick.
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Creative Director
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Do spellbooks without magical wards and defenses detect as magic?
Would spells written in a spellbook with the good or evil descriptor detect as such?
No.
No.
Hmm. That give me the idea for a question: a scroll of a spell with a evil descriptor detect as evil?
It make a difference if it divine or arcane?
I would say no, it wouldn't. Not until the magic is activated. But it certainly could. Sounds like a good FAQ question for the rules boards.
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Creative Director
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Hey james i know your a fan of found footage films what would be your top ten..
Hmmm... I feel like I did this before, but here goes. NOTE: Not included on this list are movies that are more accurately classified as mocumentaries, like "Lake Mungo" or "Incident at Loch Ness."
1) Cloverfield
2) Paranormal Activity 1-3
3) The Blair Witch Project
4) [REC] and [REC]2
5) [REC]2
6) Grave Encounters
7) The Last Exorcism
8) V/H/S
9) Trollhunter
10) Chronicle
On to the unasked for but given anyway list of top ten mocumentaries...
1) Lake Mungo
2) Incident at Loch Ness
3) Marble Hornets
4) S&Man
5) Megan is Missing
6) The Last Broadcast
7) Death of a President
8) This is Spinal Tap
9) Forgotten Silver
10) Borat
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I pretty much had zero interaction with the creation of that book, so I can't really say—that'd be a question for Wes and Patrick.I have a question regarding the Graydon family crest described in Knights of the Inner Sea. Of the families on the front cover it was the only one that did not merit an illustration, so I'm wondering about it.
It is described as a howling wolf sillouheted by the sun. Does this refer to a wolf's head erazed or a full wolf? Is the sun on the horizon with the wolf in front of it or is it like the wolf is in the center of the sun? Are the rays of the sun pointy or wavy? How many rays are there? What position is the wolf in? Affronte? Couchant? Passant? Rampant? What are the tinctures and metals? I assume the sun would be or, but what would the wolf be, then? Sable? And what about the rest of the heraldry? Would the background be Purpure, like Ustalav's crest (which technically breaks heraldric rules, as it has sable on purpure, and you can't put a tincture on a tincture)? Sable if the wolf is centered in the sun? Something completely different like gules or azure?
I want someone to draw a picture of this heraldry, so I want to give as detailed a description of the arms as possible.
So where would be the best place to ask these questions where they might be able to see them? Thanks for the prompt response, by the way, even if the answer was "I don't know." I'm glad the developers take the time to answer these kinds of questions, even if it's just insane minutiae. :)
Hi James,
I know you've discussed how you'd like to write a novel some day, but I was wondering, if you were to research and write a work of non-fiction, what kind of topics would you choose?
It'd have to be a subject I'm interested in and know about. Some topics off the top of my head would be:
1) An insider's view of the gaming industry.
2) Something about the history of horror films or novels and how horror reflects the society the tales are written from.
3) A book about the Northern California fishing industry.
4) A book about cryptozoological creatures but approaching the investigation from the angle of using native and historical legends and myths about the creatures rather than focusing on modern sightings.
5) A book that examines the genesis of several urban legends.(shrug)
Never really thought much about writing non-fiction, so those are ideas without a lot of thought behind them.
I'd actually be interested in all of those but #2. In your "copious spare time" of course!
Some Imp / Quasit questions.
1: Which do you like more? Imp or Quasit? And why.
2: What is the biggest differenc between Imps and Quasits other than their alignment, species difference and colour?
3: Were Quasits based on Imps when they got made by the archdemons? Or were there Quasits before Imps and are imps actually a newer species of devil?
Thanks.
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Dear James Jacobs,
I’m sorry about the length of this, I wanted to show both sides.
Recently our Kingmaker Campaign went Aerial; basically we bummed a ride from some giant eagles.
Without perfect knowledge of the rules we did it by fudging.
Our flight ran into a Roc, all the PCs survived.
Shortly afterwards one PC dies alone fishing.
Now the player would like to bring in an elven eagle rider ranger similar to the Sable Company Marine hippogriff riding ranger.
So we looked at the rules for flying and flying mounts and encumbrance by weight.
Then we looked on the boards for the same. That’s where the confusion started.
The current train of thought seems to be this:
Flying mounts cannot fly with anything over light encumbrance. Due to the following reasoning.
A.) “A medium or heavy load counts as medium or heavy armor for the purpose of abilities or skills that are restricted by armor.” Pg. 169 CRB.
B.) That armor equals barding. (obviously)
C.) “Flying mounts can’t fly in medium or heavy barding.” Pg 162 CRB.
Now the Sable Company Marine riding a hippogriff does not work; average human male 175 lbs (naked) plus exotic riding saddle 30 lbs. total weight equals 205 lbs. Hippogriff can only carry 198 lbs.
What appears to be correct is this:
Flying mounts CAN fly with medium or heavy encumbrance. Due to the following reasoning.
A.) Fly speed is not “an ability or skill”.
B.) The Fly skill itself says that; “You generally need only make a Fly check when you are attempting a complex maneuver.” And that a creature has to move a distance greater than half speed to remain flying.
C.) There is table to calculate your reduced speed on page 170 CRB, and the effects on Table 7-5 on pg. 171.
So a flying creature could fly with a medium or heavy load (but not barding) albeit at a slower speed, and it still needs to move greater than half of its normal speed to remain flying without making a check.
Medium check would be a -3 with a max DEX bonus of +3.
Heavy check would be at a -6 with a max DEX bonus of +1.
The Griffon, Hippogriff, and Pegasus entries all list their light, medium & heavy loads.
As these are the most common flying mounts why list this if they can’t fly with them.
Are you supposed to ride your griffon on the ground with a medium or heavy load?
Is this the correct way to do it, or can creatures only fly with a light load?
Also, should maneuverability worsen one category each for medium and heavy loads? (This would be homebrew.)
Do you know of any flying creatures that A) would enjoy the preservation of knowledge and B) would let others use them as mounts?
Adding greater invisibility to a babau increases its damage per round assumption from about 28 to about 49. Taking away their spears only lowers the damage per round by a few points.That's a change in damage per round of a CR 6 creature to a CR 11 creature, but doesn't adjust upward the babau's hit points or attack numbers or saves or DC saves, so it makes for a pretty lopsided encounter. I wouldn't recommend this.
How do you determine what the damage/round of each CR should be?
For an angel that has fallen (but isn't quite evil yet), do they lose any of their special abilities?
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James, in previous versions of the game fiends had a nasty ability to keep coming back after you killed them. They even had a rule stating that unless you went to their home plane and killed them there they would just reform and come back after you.
Is that still the rule in Golarion or can you just kill them anywhere and they are done for?
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Creative Director
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I have some Orv-related questions.
-1: What deities do intellect devourers typically worship? Maybe some aspect of Nyarlathotep?
-2: Baring violence, what's an intellect devourer's typical lifespan?
-3: The neothelids of Denebrum are noted as having worm-that-walk servants. What were these servants before their wormy apotheosis? Were they human/elf/dwarf spellcasters who were somehow captured and transformed by the neothelids?
-4: The chardas of the Land of Black Blood worship a pantheon of gods, chief among them being Orgesh. In the charda's entry in Descent Into Midnight, it's noted that some chardas become clerics. But is Orgesh really a god, or just a totem? Would oracle be a better choice for Orgesh-worshipers? I was also thinking that - since it's noted as being kind of an idiot devourer - maybe Orgesh is actually an aspect of Azatoth.
-5: There's been occasional hints of realms even deeper than Orv. For example, the place that Black Blood bubbles up from. I also remember reading something about ghorazaghs and deep volcanic realms, but can't for the life of me remember where*. Is Orv really as deep as it goes?Thanks for any insights!
*EDIT: I found out where. In the Ilvarandin entry in Lost Cities, top of page 8, there's a reference to gnomes in Ilvarandin who mine a massive fissure for high quality gems. They come back with tales of searing heat and ghorazaghs.
*Edit 2: I thought of another Orvian question! Are worms-that-walk immortal, ala liches?
1) Intellect devourers do not worship the Great Old Ones OR the Outer Gods; they're at war with the neothelids, and the neothelids DO worship those deities and demigods. An intellect devourer worshiping Nyarlathotep is like an Eagle Knight worshiping Asmodeus. Intellect devourers aren't super religious as a race, but when they DO worship deities, they tend to worship Rovagug, demon lords, or Norgorber.
2) Unknown, but it's a long, long time. I'd even be willing to say they're immortal, but I haven't decided yet. Certainly hundreds of years at the very minimum.
3) They became servants of Denebrum after their transformation. Some are humanoids... but some are not.
4) Orgesh is a minor demigod that we've done very little work on describing.
5) Orv is not as deep as it goes... but what's deeper might not be fit for humanoid life. Science rules that deep, remember, and far outside of the magic of the Orvian vaults, air pressure and heat start to make life intolerable for humanoids. Rovagug's prison is somewhere deeper—it is itself a demiplane, of course, but the entrance is somewhere deep below Orv.
The fissure in Ilvarandin extends downward into the mantle of Golarion, I suspect, hence the searing heat.
Worms that walk are immortal. When a worm dies, a new one replaces it.
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Creative Director
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So where would be the best place to ask these questions where they might be able to see them? Thanks for the prompt response, by the way, even if the answer was "I don't know." I'm glad the developers take the time to answer these kinds of questions, even if it's just insane minutiae. :)I pretty much had zero interaction with the creation of that book, so I can't really say—that'd be a question for Wes and Patrick.I have a question regarding the Graydon family crest described in Knights of the Inner Sea. Of the families on the front cover it was the only one that did not merit an illustration, so I'm wondering about it.
It is described as a howling wolf sillouheted by the sun. Does this refer to a wolf's head erazed or a full wolf? Is the sun on the horizon with the wolf in front of it or is it like the wolf is in the center of the sun? Are the rays of the sun pointy or wavy? How many rays are there? What position is the wolf in? Affronte? Couchant? Passant? Rampant? What are the tinctures and metals? I assume the sun would be or, but what would the wolf be, then? Sable? And what about the rest of the heraldry? Would the background be Purpure, like Ustalav's crest (which technically breaks heraldric rules, as it has sable on purpure, and you can't put a tincture on a tincture)? Sable if the wolf is centered in the sun? Something completely different like gules or azure?
I want someone to draw a picture of this heraldry, so I want to give as detailed a description of the arms as possible.
The best place to ask is on the thread for the book itself. You can title the thread "A question for the Developers about heraldry" or something like that, and hopefully someone will be along in a few days to answer it. Remember, it's the weekend now, and often Paizo employees wander off to do other things during the weekend. Not me, today, though... I'm sitting here at the office waiting for the players of my Serpent's Skull game to show up...
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Creative Director
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Some Imp / Quasit questions.
1: Which do you like more? Imp or Quasit? And why.
2: What is the biggest differenc between Imps and Quasits other than their alignment, species difference and colour?
3: Were Quasits based on Imps when they got made by the archdemons? Or were there Quasits before Imps and are imps actually a newer species of devil?
Thanks.
1) Quasits, because they're demons. And because they have more interesting powers and flavor than imps. And because the art of them from the 1st edition D&D Monster Manual was MUCH creepier than the art for the imp.
2) All the things I listed above on the "devils vs. demons" reply, for one. But another big difference is that quasits are created when a chaotic evil spellcaster decides to use Improved Familiar to gain a quasit. Imps are created by being "promoted" from damned souls or something like that.
3) Again, quasits were not created by demon lords, so no, they're not based on imps at all.
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Creative Director
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...wrote a novel... ;-P
Spoiler:Dear James Jacobs,I’m sorry about the length of this, I wanted to show both sides.
Recently our Kingmaker Campaign went Aerial; basically we bummed a ride from some giant eagles.
Without perfect knowledge of the rules we did it by fudging.
Our flight ran into a Roc, all the PCs survived.
Shortly afterwards one PC dies alone fishing.Now the player would like to bring in an elven eagle rider ranger similar to the Sable Company Marine hippogriff riding ranger.
So we looked at the rules for flying and flying mounts and encumbrance by weight.
Then we looked on the boards for the same. That’s where the confusion started.
The current train of thought seems to be this:
Flying mounts cannot fly with anything over light encumbrance. Due to the following reasoning.
A.) “A medium or heavy load counts as medium or heavy armor for the purpose of abilities or skills that are restricted by armor.” Pg. 169 CRB.
B.) That armor equals barding. (obviously)
C.) “Flying mounts can’t fly in medium or heavy barding.” Pg 162 CRB.
Now the Sable Company Marine riding a hippogriff does not work; average human male 175 lbs (naked) plus exotic riding saddle 30 lbs. total weight equals 205 lbs. Hippogriff can only carry 198 lbs.
What appears to be correct is this:
Flying mounts CAN fly with medium or heavy encumbrance. Due to the following reasoning.
A.) Fly speed is not “an ability or skill”.
B.) The Fly skill itself says that; “You generally need only make a Fly check when you are attempting a complex maneuver.” And that a creature has to move a distance greater than half speed to remain flying.
C.) There is table to calculate your reduced speed on page 170 CRB, and the effects on Table 7-5 on pg. 171.
So a flying creature could fly with a medium or heavy load (but not barding) albeit at a slower speed, and it still needs to move greater than half of its normal speed to remain flying without making a check.
Medium check would be a -3 with a max DEX bonus of +3.
Heavy check would be at a -6 with a max DEX bonus of +1.The Griffon, Hippogriff, and Pegasus entries all list their light, medium & heavy loads.
As these are the most common flying mounts why list this if they can’t fly with them.
Are you supposed to ride your griffon on the ground with a medium or heavy load?Is this the correct way to do it, or can creatures only fly with a light load?
Also, should maneuverability worsen one category each for medium and heavy loads? (This would be homebrew.)
First of all... "doing it by fudging" is ALWAYS the correct way to handle something like this, in my opinion. Stopping the game for too long to make sure the rules are "exact" disrupts the flow of the game. Once the game is over, folks can go back to the rules and figure out the right way to do things. Of course, the BEST solution is for the GM to anticipate unusual situations like this before the session, so he or she can be all ready for the encounter... but that's not always an option.
Now... the rules for mounted combat in Pathfinder are, unfortunately, not NEARLY as well detailed as standard combat, so the more mounted combat you have in the game, the more unusual situations will pop up that you'll need to make quick calls on during the game. So, if you're comfortable with that...
The reduction to speed from being encumbered and the reduction to speed from wearing armor/barding is NOT the same type of effect.
You can fly when you are encumbered; you just fly slower as appropriate for the reduction in base speed. And keep in mind that if your fly skill isn't good enough, not being able to fly your normal speed could get tricky, and also keep in mind that being encumbered penalizes Fly checks.
So... if your mount is medium or heavy encumbered just due to the weight, they can still fly. But if the mount's wearing medium or heavy armor, they cannot.
Adjusting maneuverability is a pretty solid house rule for this situation.
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Creative Director
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Do you know of any flying creatures that A) would enjoy the preservation of knowledge and B) would let others use them as mounts?
Tricky question.
In order to enjoy the preservation of knowledge, you need to be intelligent enough to understand language. AKA: you need an Int score of 3 or higher. The higher the Int, the better the chance of the creature being interested in preserving knowledge.
But here's the rub: once a creature is intelligent enough to understand language, it's also smart enough to make its own decision as to whether or not it wants to be used as a mount.
So therefore... the type of flying creature you seek would depend entirely on the personality of the creature in question.
Dragons come to mind as immediate possibilities as creatures that would have this combination of traits now and then.
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Creative Director
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How do you determine what the damage/round of each CR should be?
Adding greater invisibility to a babau increases its damage per round assumption from about 28 to about 49. Taking away their spears only lowers the damage per round by a few points.That's a change in damage per round of a CR 6 creature to a CR 11 creature, but doesn't adjust upward the babau's hit points or attack numbers or saves or DC saves, so it makes for a pretty lopsided encounter. I wouldn't recommend this.
By determining the average damage of all the monster's attacks it can make as a full attack action, and then adding those numbers up.
In play, that number is not always going to hit that, because not only do the damage rolls vary, but sometimes the monsters will miss some attacks.
But for CR purposes, it's best to assume all attacks hit and they all do average damage.
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Creative Director
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For an angel that has fallen (but isn't quite evil yet), do they lose any of their special abilities?
That's something that varies on a case-by-case basis. When an angel falls, or when a fiend is redeemed, the creature needs to be custom built and re-designed by the GM. This should be an INCREDIBLY rare event, and as such each time it happens the result should be a unique creature. No monster template can really capture the requirements of such a case.
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Creative Director
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James, in previous versions of the game fiends had a nasty ability to keep coming back after you killed them. They even had a rule stating that unless you went to their home plane and killed them there they would just reform and come back after you.
Is that still the rule in Golarion or can you just kill them anywhere and they are done for?
As a general rule, that doesn't work that way on Golarion.
If you use a conjuration spell to summon a fiend, when you kill it, it goes away; it doesn't really die. It might not even EXIST before and after it's summoned, in fact—the rules are silent on how that works—when you summon a fiend, you might just be summoning a temporary copy of that creature (an "eidolon" of that creature, if you will) that only exists as long as the summon effect lasts.
If you use a conjuration spell to call a fiend, it appears in person. If it dies, it dies for real. Likewise if the fiend gets onto the Material Plane in some other method.
Most fiends can use greater teleport at will, though, so if you want the recurring fiend, it just needs to get away before it dies by teleporting to safety.
Thank you for the quick reply.
I am currently enroute to our game, so this is just perfect:D
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Is Aucturn, or any other of the Distant Worlds, in any way based on the mythos of the sci-fi novel, 'Rama' or its [lame] sequels? In what general scope can we look to these as reference for setting-specific elements on that/those world(s)?James Sutter designed that world, along with the rest of the book, and he's a pretty ravenous fan of sci-fi. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Rama inspired Aucturn or other elements. I know for a fact that Dan Simmons' Hyperion stories inspired parts of Distant Worlds (as well as several elements of Golarion, large to small).
Hyperion stories... noted. I will have to look for those. I plan to have 'Radio Man' by Ralph Milnes Farley in my hands very soon, so I can better get a grasp on the origins of the lashunta and formians from an "inspiration" perspective.
As for using sci-fi novels as "reference," you can't. You can absolutely use them for inspiration if you're intending to run a game in a setting or plot or area that utilizes similar themes, but the exact details you're looking for as "reference" won't work for the official version of anything. If only because those books are copyrighted and we can't (and don't want to) steal wholesale from their ideas and plots.
Bad wording on my part, I suppose, but as an artist, I often use photo-references in much the same way I make adventure material :: look at photos, and then make my own vision based on their combined or mutual elements : read pulp stories, and then assimilate information bits into a new storyline/theme. I guess inspiration is a more accurate word.
New question: is the area of southern Garund (the portion not on the Inner-Sea map) actually covered or even tidbit-ed in any source? Justin Sluder said he is considering placing Razor Coast on his homebrew Garund map in the region just south of the Inner Sea map, along the west coast - would this be a good move, even while maintaining and emulating the core mythos of Garund as-is? I suspect it is, but I am not altogether yet familiar with the Razor Coast adventure.
If you use a conjuration spell to summon a fiend, when you kill it, it goes away; it doesn't really die. It might not even EXIST before and after it's summoned, in fact—the rules are silent on how that works—when you summon a fiend, you might just be summoning a temporary copy of that creature (an "eidolon" of that creature, if you will) that only exists as long as the summon effect lasts.
That ... is an incredibly cool idea. 0_0
Hi james hope your weekends going well...i went to half priced books and picked up a copy of the call of cthulhu rpg..i dont have any experience with the game and thought what the heck its only 5 bucks..i got the 5th edition..what i was wondering is what edition do you use..(i also got masks of nyarlathotep and manisons of madness)
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speaking of serpent skull
How big of an event is the release of general Aveshae? (sorry for the spelling, don't have the book in front of me). He's 10,000 years old, and can answer soooo many questions about ancient Golarion. I can imagine how big a deal finding a frozen egyptian to talk to would be nowadays, and thats only 2-4 thousand years ago. With the occasional AP being considered "done" by future AP's, would he be destined to become a future superstar in Golarion just for the information he could provide? I mean even Savinth's favorite sandwich is serious business.
For an angel that has fallen (but isn't quite evil yet), do they lose any of their special abilities?That's something that varies on a case-by-case basis. When an angel falls, or when a fiend is redeemed, the creature needs to be custom built and re-designed by the GM. This should be an INCREDIBLY rare event, and as such each time it happens the result should be a unique creature. No monster template can really capture the requirements of such a case.
Interesting. What are some suggestions you'd give if I were to take, say, a fallen angel and have it on the path to become a demon?
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Creative Director
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New question: is the area of southern Garund (the portion not on the Inner-Sea map) actually covered or even tidbit-ed in any source? Justin Sluder said he is considering placing Razor Coast on his homebrew Garund map in the region just south of the Inner Sea map, along the west coast - would this be a good move, even while maintaining and...
So far, all we've said about Southern Garund is what's in the Inner Sea World Guide on page 207. If I have my way, we'll be saying more about Southern Garund some day... but so far that day has not yet arrived.
The west coast of Garund is a better fit for the Razor Coast, thematically.
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Creative Director
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Hi james hope your weekends going well...i went to half priced books and picked up a copy of the call of cthulhu rpg..i dont have any experience with the game and thought what the heck its only 5 bucks..i got the 5th edition..what i was wondering is what edition do you use..(i also got masks of nyarlathotep and manisons of madness)
That's perhaps the best five bucks you'll ever spend. Even if you never run a single game, there's a LOT of entertainment to be had just reading that rulebook.
I use the latest edition of the game... but the differences between editions is relatively minor, mostly amounting to additional rules and resources. The change from 4th to 5th was the most drastic... and even THAT change wasn't drastic enough that you have to convert anything at all if you run something published back in the 1st or 2nd edition game.
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Creative Director
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speaking of serpent skull
** spoiler omitted **
That pretty much depends entirely on how things work out in your game, honestly. Could be a big impact, or could be nothing—someone that displaced in time is probably more likely to be thought of as a crank or a loony than the real thing, even in a world with magic.
Up to the GM in other words.
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Creative Director
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Interesting. What are some suggestions you'd give if I were to take, say, a fallen angel and have it on the path to become a demon?For an angel that has fallen (but isn't quite evil yet), do they lose any of their special abilities?That's something that varies on a case-by-case basis. When an angel falls, or when a fiend is redeemed, the creature needs to be custom built and re-designed by the GM. This should be an INCREDIBLY rare event, and as such each time it happens the result should be a unique creature. No monster template can really capture the requirements of such a case.
Well... first off, I'd make a fallen angel into a devil. That's essentially where the first devils came from, after all.
As for the rest... I'd just build it as a new monster to fit whatever CR I wanted, and give it powers appropriate to what its themes and interests should be. Sorry I can't be more specific... the question is kinda like "If I were to design a new dragon, what should it do?" It's up to you.
AKA: ANY of the devils, from imp on up to Asmodeus, could be the result of a fallen angel.
Interesting. What are some suggestions you'd give if I were to take, say, a fallen angel and have it on the path to become a demon?For an angel that has fallen (but isn't quite evil yet), do they lose any of their special abilities?That's something that varies on a case-by-case basis. When an angel falls, or when a fiend is redeemed, the creature needs to be custom built and re-designed by the GM. This should be an INCREDIBLY rare event, and as such each time it happens the result should be a unique creature. No monster template can really capture the requirements of such a case.Well... first off, I'd make a fallen angel into a devil. That's essentially where the first devils came from, after all.
As for the rest... I'd just build it as a new monster to fit whatever CR I wanted, and give it powers appropriate to what its themes and interests should be. Sorry I can't be more specific... the question is kinda like "If I were to design a new dragon, what should it do?" It's up to you.
AKA: ANY of the devils, from imp on up to Asmodeus, could be the result of a fallen angel.
Fair enough. I guess I have another question about transforming outsiders. Since angels are more likely to turn into devils, would azatas be more likely to turn into demons because of their chaotic nature? Or, could any celestial that falls theoretically become any fiend depending on the story and such?
So... why is the Paizo symbol the giant golem?