Creative Director
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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?
Azatas are honestly more likely to turn into devils as well. Same for agathions and archons. Fallen celestials are pretty much what devils are.
That said... a fallen angel (or whatever) doesn't HAVE to become a devil. In fact, they probably most often just become new unique creatures. Transformation into a devil is likely something that happens after a while, if the fallen angel gets recruited.
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Since you're a big Mac fan, did you ever play the Spiderweb Software games? Exile, Avernum Geneforge, etc?
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?Azatas are honestly more likely to turn into devils as well. Same for agathions and archons. Fallen celestials are pretty much what devils are.
That said... a fallen angel (or whatever) doesn't HAVE to become a devil. In fact, they probably most often just become new unique creatures. Transformation into a devil is likely something that happens after a while, if the fallen angel gets recruited.
Ah I see. I've been on an outsider kick for the last week, reading about Ragathiel being the son of Dispater, Yamasoth's origins, and the implications of Nocticula being a fallen empyreal lord.
So, generally speaking, if qlippoth can become demons, and angels can become devils, are there any outsiders that have a chance at becoming daemons?
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Since you're a big Mac fan, did you ever play the Spiderweb Software games? Exile, Avernum Geneforge, etc?
I have tried a couple of them but couldn't get into them.
The bulk of my video gaming these days is on the Xbox, anyway.
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.
On a similar subject, the players in my Council of Thieves game have been carrying around
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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...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.
Thanks again!
One last question: Are there any famous mathematicians in Golarion? I know that Alchemists probably play the role traditional scientists would, not just working with chemical compounds and biology but applying the scientific method to magic in a way, as well as plenty of astronomers (heck, you guys had a whole NATION of them before the Eye of Abendego blew into town) but what about people who study things like algebra, calculus, geometry, game theory and number theory? Where are the Pythagorases, or Archimedeses, or Newtons or Eulers or Gausses of Golarion?
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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.
1. I did say the west coast (south of the Jungle of Hungry Trees and Sargava) - did you mean the east coast would be a better fit?
2. I'm assuming the world map of Golarion we currently have available is a pretty darn rough rendition of the actual forms of the land masses (including Garund), yeah?
3. I have been describing Garund to new players as being distinctly two parts: the upper region, dominated by Egyptian and northern-African cultural styles, and the southern region, being a wilderness expanse (mentioning the crazy hurricane and the pirates/Sodden Lands). I also say that it is sort of a fantasy amalgamation of certain cultural elements found in Africa and South America, so it's sort of a blend of the two (with crazy fictional stuff, that's just part of the world) - would this be accurate, or is there some cultural element I am missing or misinterpreting? I only ask because of the existence of Arcadia (insinuating Meso-American and Northern Native cultures; North and South America), which might ixnay that notion in Garund.
4. Chauxen and Tirakawhan are mentioned in reference to colonies of Vudra and Kelesh, but doesn't say "respectively" - can we assume Chauxen is a colony of Vudra, and Tirakawhan is a colony of Kelesh?
5. Holomog (a fierce matriarchal society, race unmentioned, from the deep jungle expanse) - this is a fantasy version of the Amazon-womens, yeah?
6. Droon (dinosaur-riding lizardfolk) is mentioned only as being located in the "swampy deltas" - can we assume this means they are a primarily coastal nation, or is it possible they could also extend much further inland?
7a. Let's talk technical geographical reference on Garund for a moment. Is the equator located on or off the map of the Inner Sea? I thought I had seen a map with this reference point (or showing that it was north of the equator on the Inner-Sea's southernmost reach), but I may confusing this with the Kingdoms of Kalamar atlas....
7b. We are told the portion on this map is the top "one-third" - is this a rough approximation, or is this a pretty good guideline for total area (land mass in square miles), distance from the map's southern edge (miles from north to south), or both?
7c. Can you give a guess as to where the equator of Golarion might be located, if it is not on the Inner Sea map? Also, since it might also cross over Casmaron (probably Vudra), and Tian Xia, where might that be as well? *ASSUMING* Golarion *has* an equator....?
I will soon be doing a bit of work on southern Garund, including some map elements and written content for setting the scene in my community-use fan adventure.... so you know, it's always out there for future consideration.
........We need Vudra more, anyways. *hint hint nudge nudge* I have already added quite a bit to Minata and Nagajor in Tian Xia. :)
Anyways.... Shkansh, Jamesh.
Will there be another stack of Rules Questions nominated for official errata soon?
I have some burning rules questions that need answering:)
What order do you do DR and incorporeality? DR first, then incorporeal? Or reverse? This is in regards to the Shadow Demon, which has both.
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One last question: Are there any famous mathematicians in Golarion? I know that Alchemists probably play the role traditional scientists would, not just working with chemical compounds and biology but applying the scientific method to magic in a way, as well as plenty of astronomers (heck, you guys had a whole NATION of them before the Eye of Abendego blew into town) but what about people who study things like algebra, calculus, geometry, game theory and number theory? Where are the Pythagorases, or Archimedeses, or Newtons or Eulers or Gausses of Golarion?
There are, but we've not done much with them yet so they don't have much details or even names. A few of the ancient pharaohs of Osirion were pretty mathy though. As were the members of the Saoc Brethren.
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Creative Director
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1. I did say the west coast (south of the Jungle of Hungry Trees and Sargava) - did you mean the east coast would be a better fit?
2. I'm assuming the world map of Golarion we currently have available is a pretty darn rough rendition of the actual forms of the land masses (including Garund), yeah?
3. I have been describing Garund to new players as being distinctly two parts: the upper region, dominated by Egyptian and northern-African cultural styles, and the southern region, being a wilderness expanse (mentioning the crazy hurricane and the pirates/Sodden Lands). I also say that it is sort of a fantasy amalgamation of certain cultural elements found in Africa and South America, so it's sort of a blend of the two (with crazy fictional stuff, that's just part of the world) - would this be accurate, or is there some cultural element I am missing or misinterpreting? I only ask because of the existence of Arcadia (insinuating Meso-American and Northern Native cultures; North and South America), which might ixnay that notion in Garund.
4. Chauxen and Tirakawhan are mentioned in reference to colonies of Vudra and Kelesh, but doesn't say "respectively" - can we assume Chauxen is a colony of Vudra, and Tirakawhan is a colony of Kelesh?
5. Holomog (a fierce matriarchal society, race unmentioned, from the deep jungle expanse) - this is a fantasy version of the Amazon-womens, yeah?
6. Droon (dinosaur-riding lizardfolk) is mentioned only as being located in the "swampy deltas" - can we assume this means they are a primarily coastal nation, or is it possible they could also extend much further inland?
7a. Let's talk technical geographical reference on Garund for a moment. Is the equator located on or off the map of the Inner Sea? I thought I had seen a map with this reference point (or showing that it was north of the equator on the Inner-Sea's southernmost reach), but I may confusing this with the Kingdoms of Kalamar atlas....
7b. We are told the portion on this map is the top "one-third" - is this a rough approximation, or is this a pretty good guideline for total area (land mass in square miles), distance from the map's southern edge (miles from north to south), or both?
7c. Can you give a guess as to where the equator of Golarion might be located, if it is not on the Inner Sea map? Also, since it might also cross over Casmaron (probably Vudra), and Tian Xia, where might that be as well? *ASSUMING* Golarion *has* an equator....?I will soon be doing a bit of work on southern Garund, including some map elements and written content for setting the scene in my community-use fan adventure.... so you know, it's always out there for future consideration.
........We need Vudra more, anyways. *hint hint nudge nudge* I have already added quite a bit to Minata and Nagajor in Tian Xia. :)
Anyways.... Shkansh, Jamesh.
1) Oh. Yah... Misread your post. West Coast.
2) The current world map is very rough. There are some intentional distortions and inaccuracies in the map, but it's pretty close when it comes out to global position and general shapes.
3) There are some South American influences on Garund, particularly among the ziggurats of the Mwangi Expanse and the Shackles, but it's more Africa than anything else. With increasingly fantastical elements the further south you go, with nations of catfolk and lizardfolk and stuff.
4) That's a pretty safe assumption.
5) Not really. It's a matriarchal society, but it's also a civilized society. It's basically the largest civilization of humans in southern Garund, complete with lots of cities and politics and the like. The idea is that they're a matriarchal society that developed out of matriarchal traditions, but isn't DEFINED by the fact that it's a matriarchy. Think of the ubiquitous male-dominated society in the Inner Sea region, like Taldor. Holomog is like that, but with the gender roles reversed. It's not the fact that men are often in positions of power that defines Taldor, and the same holds true in reverse of Holomog. That's a hard concept to get into in a few short sentences though, so for now it's easiest to say it's a matriarchy and leave things at that.
6) Droon is the southernmost nation of Garund; it covers the southern horn of the continent, and is a roughly triangle-shaped nation, of which two of the three sides are coastlines. There are absolutely mountains running up the middle and other terrains though.
7a) The equator is indeed a bit south of the bottom edge of the map of the Inner Sea. The tropic line more or less runs right through the Mana Wastes, whereas the Arctic Circle is off the map to the north.
7b) The top "one-third" is an approximation, but a pretty close one. It MIGHT be closer to the top one-fourth. My basic idea is that IF we map out southern Garund, we could do so by making an equally sized map to the Inner Sea region that would fit right up to the edge and would cover all of Garund that's not shown.
7c) The equator absolutely passes over Casmaron and Tian Xia. I've a map around here somewhere that shows the exact location of where the equator passes over Tian Xia... I also have a blue beach ball on which I've sketched out the shapes of the entire world. On that globe, the equator passes through Tian-Xia right through Nagajor and Xa Hoi and along the volcanic range there. It pretty much runs along the northern end of Vudra, right through the middle of Arcadia, and across the southern edges of shattered Azlant. For Garund it more or less passes a few hundred miles south of the bottom edge of the Inner Sea map. I don't have the exact numbers handy, though.
If I had to guess... details on Southern Garund are closer to being published than are details for Vudra, which we can't really do until we have rules for psychic magic.
Hi James,
We are actually playing the Shattered Star AP and I have a question about Sorchen's clone.
What happens to a player linked to the clone if the clone is beheaded ?
Can he be raised if he dies? Is he still linked to the beheaded clone ?
Thx for your answer.
Hi!
Are you looking forward to the new Playstation 4 and new XBOX consoles?
Do you buy out of the gate or wait for the inevitable price drop?
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
Spoiler:
We are actually playing the Shattered Star AP and I have a question about Sorchen's clone.
What happens to a player linked to the clone if the clone is beheaded ?
Can he be raised if he dies? Is he still linked to the beheaded clone ?Thx for your answer.
Might wanna spoiler that kind of question in the future, by the way... ;-)
It's an even MORE interesting way to revise and fix them... but that's not something we can really do at this moment. We DID include rules for "eidolon models" in Ultimate Magic, but as far as patches work, it's not the best. Especially since it deviates too far from the outsider model.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.I gotta admit, that would be an interesting way to cook up an archetype for them.
James, I LOVE the idea of having the eidolon be more like an outsider animal companion, as you said. I understand that PAIZO isn't going to make any big changes like that, but one gamer to another, would you be willing to give some ideas of what you had in mind? Anything I could build a house rule around? Would you just have the summoner get an outsider companion, like a lantern archon or something, that "levels" as the summoner does?
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Creative Director
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Hi!
Are you looking forward to the new Playstation 4 and new XBOX consoles?
Do you buy out of the gate or wait for the inevitable price drop?
Looking forward more to the new Xbox than the PS4. I just like the gaming experience and the games themselves on the Xbox better.
And I'll be buying them out of the gate, although probably not on release day.
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2) The current world map is very rough. There are some intentional distortions and inaccuracies in the map, but it's pretty close when it comes out to global position and general shapes.
I'm guessing Arcadia and Sarusan are pretty well distorted, with the latter being almost completely incorrect to some degree. Gods, I can't wait to outline that one. Yes, James - you guys are taking too long, so I have to do it first. It's a sad story, but it's a true one.
5) Not really. It's a matriarchal society, but it's also a civilized society. It's basically the largest civilization of humans in southern Garund, complete with lots of cities and politics and the like. The idea is that they're a matriarchal society that developed out of matriarchal traditions, but isn't DEFINED by the fact that it's a matriarchy. Think of the ubiquitous male-dominated society in the Inner Sea region, like Taldor. Holomog is like that, but with the gender roles reversed. It's not the fact that men are often in positions of power that defines Taldor, and the same holds true in reverse of Holomog. That's a hard concept to get into in a few short sentences though, so for now it's easiest to say it's a matriarchy and leave things at that.
That actually makes a lot of sense. I didn't see it coming, mind you, but it's a reasonable enough concept. I imagine this people is a dark-skinned, typical Mwangi/Garundi human race? Polyglot-speaking?
6) Droon is the southernmost nation of Garund; it covers the southern horn of the continent, and is a roughly triangle-shaped nation, of which two of the three sides are coastlines. There are absolutely mountains running up the middle and other terrains though.
That's interesting, and good to know - but it's also a sort of a bummer for me at the moment. I had hoped to place a pair of human/lizardfolk/variant-troglodyte (non-stinky ones) warring tribes, just south of Mzali, say a few hundred miles off the map - and Droom seemed like a good origin, but may have to be a bit less strong of an influence.... Ranting.....
7a) The equator is indeed a bit south of the bottom edge of the map of the Inner Sea. The tropic line more or less runs right through the Mana Wastes, whereas the Arctic Circle is off the map to the north.
I know this is terribly semantic and beyond-nitpicky, but is there a general longitudinal range of the Inner Sea map? I love these details - the tropics and arctic circles are always helpful too.
7b) The top "one-third" is an approximation, but a pretty close one. It MIGHT be closer to the top one-fourth. My basic idea is that IF we map out southern Garund, we could do so by making an equally sized map to the Inner Sea region that would fit right up to the edge and would cover all of Garund that's not shown.
That is just beautiful beyond words. Color me a romantic artist.
7c) The equator absolutely passes over Casmaron and Tian Xia. I've a map around here somewhere that shows the exact location of where the equator passes over Tian Xia... I also have a blue beach ball on which I've sketched out the shapes of the entire world. On that globe, the equator passes through Tian-Xia right through Nagajor and Xa Hoi and along the volcanic range there. It pretty much runs along the northern end of Vudra, right through the middle of Arcadia, and across the southern edges of shattered Azlant. For Garund it more or less passes a few hundred miles south of the bottom edge of the Inner Sea map. I don't have the exact numbers handy, though.
Do you realize how many gold pieces and precious gems I would give to see pictures of this globe device? Vudra cannot name such a price.
If I had to guess... details on Southern Garund are closer to being published than are details for Vudra, which we can't really do until we have rules for psychic magic.
*chuckles* I know I am just one more in a massive cloud of screaming voices, but given how much controversy, discussion, and resolution-less talk about psionics there has been over the years since PFRPG's origins, I almost wish it would become Paizo's policy to recognize Dreamscarred Press' work somehow, rather than reinventing the wheel. I know the Paizo crew has a differing view on how psychic stuff should work, but with the awe-inspiring success (and still-continuing record sales for 3pp products) of the OGL psionics material, I can't help but wonder if maybe it were time the next Paizo actually became the next Paizo [of psionics] in a way which could graft into the core PF mythos, with maybe a helpful set of Paizo-created alternatives that made it uniquely product-line-ready. I know, I know - that's a horrible, terrible, no-good, very-bad business decision for Paizo to make, and it could never happen in a million years without a lot of legal-counsel and contract paperwork, death of infants, and kicking puppies... But it sure would be nice, and inspiring.
Plus, a whole beautiful continent off-limits until then......? Ooof. Plus, well... Oh, you know. I am dying to help you write it.... or illustrate it.... or make the map...... o.o Gods, anything.
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Creative Director
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James, I LOVE the idea of having the eidolon be more like an outsider animal companion, as you said. I understand that PAIZO isn't going to make any big changes like that, but one gamer to another, would you be willing to give some ideas of what you had in mind? Anything I could build a house rule around? Would you just have the summoner get an outsider companion, like a lantern archon or something, that "levels" as the summoner does?
I'm not all that interested in doing much to rebuild the summoner, since I won't be able to use it in print and since I just don't allow summoners in games I run, alas.
But what I'd do would be to build "generic" outsiders for the summoner, just as the druid gets lots of "generic" animals. And then the outsider would advance according to a table just as the animal companion advances, and at a higher level the outsider would gain a step up in power, just as animals do, and there'd be a few other things the outsider would gain along the way such as a few spell-like abilities or the like.
It would result in a LOT less customization for the creature's actual stats and appearance, which is the primary reason I'd do something like this, of course...
Mr. Jacobs,
What do you do for a pass on one of the novels in the Pathfinder Tales novels to check for cannon consistency? Read the whole thing? Skim it? Approve an outline? Something different? I've enjoyed them a great deal.
James, forgive me if you been asked this before, but what do you think of Game of Thrones? Do you watch the show? Have you read any of the books. Is Martin the Tolkien of the 21st century?
Hey James,
how are you tonight? I have a question if you don't mind.
The pathfinder's version of the forcecage spell allows for a Ref save (negates) whereas the 3.5 version of the spell didn't. What happens if a character successfully saves against this spell? Would he be moved to somewhere outside the spell's area? Could he just walk off the cage on his turn?
I am not really worried about an errata or anything official, mind you. I am just looking for your advice (this question came up in my group's last session).
Ps.: as usual, please forgive my broken english.
George R.R. Martin > J.R.R. Tolkien.
If only because he is more engaging.
Dear Mr. Jacobs,
My question is regarding qualifying for a prestige class. Can you advance into a particular prestige class if the level you are advancing to will grant you the requirements?
For example, if your highest requirement is 5 ranks in a skill, (assuming you have the skill points) can you select that prestige class at 5th level?
As always, thank you for your time.
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Creative Director
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Mr. Jacobs,
What do you do for a pass on one of the novels in the Pathfinder Tales novels to check for cannon consistency? Read the whole thing? Skim it? Approve an outline? Something different? I've enjoyed them a great deal.
I generally don't do canon consistency checks on the novels. That's James Sutter's job. I do read novels before they go to print when they're tied into an Adventure Path or product I'm working on though, as I did with Robin's Magnimar novel last year, and as I'm going to be doing soon with Dave's Worldwound novel coming out this year. I do approve the outlines, generally, although sometimes Erik does that.
Glad you've been enjoying the novels though!
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Creative Director
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James, forgive me if you been asked this before, but what do you think of Game of Thrones? Do you watch the show? Have you read any of the books. Is Martin the Tolkien of the 21st century?
I've read all the books and I've seen every episode of the HBO show.
They're probably my favorite fantasy books of all time. Hands down. Martin is a MUCH better writer than Tolkein, in my opinion. Tolkein's great at creating worlds, but not so great at the compelling characters or plotlines. Martin's his equal on world creation, but leaves him in the dust in pretty much every other category in my opinion.
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Creative Director
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Hey James,
how are you tonight? I have a question if you don't mind.
The pathfinder's version of the forcecage spell allows for a Ref save (negates) whereas the 3.5 version of the spell didn't. What happens if a character successfully saves against this spell? Would he be moved to somewhere outside the spell's area? Could he just walk off the cage on his turn?
I am not really worried about an errata or anything official, mind you. I am just looking for your advice (this question came up in my group's last session).
Ps.: as usual, please forgive my broken english.
Doing good tonight!
The rules are silent on this. My take: If someone saves against forcecage, they simply have managed to dodge aside of the cage before it managed to close around them, and the result is that the spell simply doesn't work; no forcecage is created if the spell fails.
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Creative Director
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Dear Mr. Jacobs,
My question is regarding qualifying for a prestige class. Can you advance into a particular prestige class if the level you are advancing to will grant you the requirements?
For example, if your highest requirement is 5 ranks in a skill, (assuming you have the skill points) can you select that prestige class at 5th level?
As always, thank you for your time.
Nope. In order to qualify for a prestige class, you need to have all the requirements before you take the prestige class level.
So, if a class requires 5 skill ranks, the earliest you can enter that class is at 6th level.
(Until you gain those ranks, you don't have them, and you don't gain ranks until you've gained a level.)
Hey James,
how are you tonight? I have a question if you don't mind.
The pathfinder's version of the forcecage spell allows for a Ref save (negates) whereas the 3.5 version of the spell didn't. What happens if a character successfully saves against this spell? Would he be moved to somewhere outside the spell's area? Could he just walk off the cage on his turn?
I am not really worried about an errata or anything official, mind you. I am just looking for your advice (this question came up in my group's last session).
Ps.: as usual, please forgive my broken english.
Doing good tonight!
The rules are silent on this. My take: If someone saves against forcecage, they simply have managed to dodge aside of the cage before it managed to close around them, and the result is that the spell simply doesn't work; no forcecage is created if the spell fails.
So in your interpretation, if 3 creatures were inside the area of the spell (for example), all 3 of them would need to fail their saving throws in order for the spell to work?
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James,
Given that you're a fan of found footage films and horror mockumentaries, have you had chance to see the BBC drama Ghostwatch?
If not, I highly recommend it. For anyone not familiar with early 90s UK TV, it's worth being aware that the four main actors are actually well-known BBC TV presenters appearing 'as themselves'.
Hi James,
Could've sworn I asked this question before but I couldn't find it in here:
What knowledge skill do you feel covers mathematics? I'm leaning towards Arcana, but I wanted to know your opinion on the matter. There's a pretty famous Golarion mathematician in the Pharaoh of Numbers, and he was an arcane spellcaster from what I could tell in Pact Stone Pyramid. But, I can't be sure if that's a good correlation.
Are there illustrations of Reiko, the iconic ninja, with her mask off?
Following up on the question Dancing Nanfar asked: I too am working a story angle into my Carrion Crown game wherein the Whispering Way is working closely with the church of Urgathoa and also seeking to broker an alliance with the Cult of Orcus (this opens up some additional storytelling options that I'll refrain from detailing, both for brevity's sake and because some of my players may read this thread).
So, undead demons and Orcus kinda go hand in hand. Which begs the question: what sort of demons that exist in the Pathfinder bestiaries or FGG's Tome of Horrors most commonly serve Orcus?
When designing APs, how do you guys stress test it against various builds? Do you just assume straight class, archetype progression or do you try to go all out with multiclassing and synergies? Or, do you say f-that and just write APs that make sense story-wise?
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Creative Director
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So in your interpretation, if 3 creatures were inside the area of the spell (for example), all 3 of them would need to fail their saving throws in order for the spell to work?Hey James,
how are you tonight? I have a question if you don't mind.
The pathfinder's version of the forcecage spell allows for a Ref save (negates) whereas the 3.5 version of the spell didn't. What happens if a character successfully saves against this spell? Would he be moved to somewhere outside the spell's area? Could he just walk off the cage on his turn?
I am not really worried about an errata or anything official, mind you. I am just looking for your advice (this question came up in my group's last session).
Ps.: as usual, please forgive my broken english.
Doing good tonight!
The rules are silent on this. My take: If someone saves against forcecage, they simply have managed to dodge aside of the cage before it managed to close around them, and the result is that the spell simply doesn't work; no forcecage is created if the spell fails.
Nope. Opinion revised.
If you make your reflex save you end up being somewhere outside of the forcecage's area of effect. Like blade barrier. I'd probably say that your position moves to the closest available square. If you're immobile, the weird thing is that you STILL get a reflex save, albeit with a penalty due to lowered Dex, in which case if you make the save I'd rule that you squirmed juts aside just barely and/or the spellcaster's aim was just off by a bit.
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James,
Given that you're a fan of found footage films and horror mockumentaries, have you had chance to see the BBC drama Ghostwatch?
If not, I highly recommend it. For anyone not familiar with early 90s UK TV, it's worth being aware that the four main actors are actually well-known BBC TV presenters appearing 'as themselves'.
I have not. I'll seek it out.
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Creative Director
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I have a couple of questions in relation to Ydersius, Aroden and what happens when a god dies (I understand that you won't be saying how Aroden died, which is fine - these go around that issue... a bit).
1) When Aroden died, there were weeks of storms coupled with things like the Worldwound. Were all these events connected, or were they triggered separately as a side effect?
1a) Were the events a SYMPTOM of Aroden's death (i.e. a knock-on effect in the world regardless of what actually killed him) or a RESULT of his death (i.e. whatever act that resulted in his death also caused "area effect damage" to the rest of reality, or if it was a battle were these a part of it)?
2) The Gods and Magic supplement says that Aroden's death "tore apart the magic of prophecy" - does this mean that prophecies were valid until his death deliberately wrecked fate and ruined otherwise valid ones for good, or is it just poetic language to say that Aroden's death proved prophecies weren't necessarily true anymore?
3) If a more powerful deity than Aroden were killed, would there be similar results around the world? Or would they depend on the deity?
It's said in Serpent's Skull (the "continuing the campaign" option) that to destroy the Skull of Ydersius, if it is dragged into the Boneyard, Ydersius reunited with it, and then the god is resurrected, it could be fought and slain, and in that instant Pharasma (if it was in front of her) could judge the essence of Ydersius and result in a second deity death. So:
1) If this happened, would it cause similar results (or different, given the difference in power between Ydersius and Aroden) in the physical world that Aroden's death caused?
2) The Skull of Ydersius could be destroyed with a Mage's Disjunction. Would this cause similar aftereffects as doing it by the suggested method of destruction?
3) Other than serpentfolk, what (named) entities in particular might be interested in getting a hold of Ydersius' dead divine essence to increase their own power?
When the PCs defeat Ydersius, his rage "echoes through the minds" of all remaining serpentfolk in the world. This supposedly expends a vast amount of divine energy, and also wakens vast numbers of serpentfolk because Ydersius swaps his own awareness for that of his followers.
1) Did anything similar happen when Aroden died? Nobody appears to have detected any sense of rage, sorrow or similar emotion like Ydersius and the serpentfolk as far as Aroden's death was concerned.
1a) If it was deliberate on Ydersius' part, did Aroden deliberately not do it to his followers in his dying moments to prevent something similar from affecting them? Your previous responses have said that his clerics stopped receiving spells, but not much else about what the death did to the minds of followers that I can recall offhand (or find with a brief search).
If you're going to list a number of questions... please don't restart the numbering multiple times. Makes it unnecessarily confusing.
1) Whether or not or how they were connected has not yet been revealed.
1a) Same; unrevealed. There are LOTS of theories in-world, but I'm not gonna say which one is right, if ANY are right.
2) That's not exactly accurate—it's a bit of purple prose, but yes, before Aroden's death, prophecies were correct MUCH more often than they are today. Whether or not Aroden's death caused prophecies to break or vice versa or if those two were even actually connected by anything other than timing and coincidence is all unrevealed.
3) It's not necessarily true that Aroden's death caused ANY of those other events. What happens when a deity dies varies deity by deity.
1) No.
2) No.
3) Anyone who wants to gain mythic power, or wants a revitalized demigod to owe them a favor.
1) No, but all of his clerics became ex-clerics, which caused widespread panic, fear, depression, and madness among his followers.
1a) Wasn't deliberate. Again... the events surrounding and following a deity's death are variable.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
Could've sworn I asked this question before but I couldn't find it in here:
What knowledge skill do you feel covers mathematics? I'm leaning towards Arcana, but I wanted to know your opinion on the matter. There's a pretty famous Golarion mathematician in the Pharaoh of Numbers, and he was an arcane spellcaster from what I could tell in Pact Stone Pyramid. But, I can't be sure if that's a good correlation.
Knowledge (engineering) is the best bet. But I'd also say Linguistics is a good one as well.
Knowledge (arcana) is already too useful to give it something else.
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Creative Director
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Following up on the question Dancing Nanfar asked: I too am working a story angle into my Carrion Crown game wherein the Whispering Way is working closely with the church of Urgathoa and also seeking to broker an alliance with the Cult of Orcus (this opens up some additional storytelling options that I'll refrain from detailing, both for brevity's sake and because some of my players may read this thread).
So, undead demons and Orcus kinda go hand in hand. Which begs the question: what sort of demons that exist in the Pathfinder bestiaries or FGG's Tome of Horrors most commonly serve Orcus?
We have deliberately shied away from doing much with Orcus, since he's so heavily tied to other companies' products (WotC, Necromancer, Frog God), out of respect for those companies' Orcus stories.
The most of what we've said about Orcus appears in Lords of Chaos, where we reveal that Orcus is worshiped by derros, necromancers, powerful undead (particularly liches and mummies), and thanatotic titans. His most common minions are undead of all types (particularly chaotic evil ones) and vermleks (a necromancy-related demon detailed in Lords of Chaos).
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Creative Director
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When designing APs, how do you guys stress test it against various builds? Do you just assume straight class, archetype progression or do you try to go all out with multiclassing and synergies? Or, do you say f-that and just write APs that make sense story-wise?
We assume a party of four players with a relatively well-rounded group (a combat character, a divine spellcaster, an arcane spellcaster, and a skill/tactics character) played by players of average skill level with the standard point buy for stats.
We ask our authors to playtest their adventures as well... we do not have time to playtest them here at Paizo during development (although in-house authors generally playtest some or all of their adventures before they turn them over to development).
And that's all we CAN assume. The variations of what kind of characters a party can include are infinite, and the fine tuning of an adventure to sync up with any one party's strengths and weaknesses MUST be done by that party's GM. We can get the adventure, say, 75% of the way there... but its your GM who must finish the job.
Dear James Jacobs,
I stumbled across a recording of a seminar you and Jason Bulmahn gave about your character creation processes. I found it to be really entertaining and it certainly and helped me to create PCs that were more interesting and fun to play. So it got me curious as to what you do on the opposite side of the GM's screen.
What is your basic strategy for writing/running a homebrew campaign? How do you outline and how much outlining do you do? Where on the spectrum of sandbox to locked-on-rails do your campaigns fall? Do you come up with your BBEG's ahead of time or do you let your players create their own foils out of NPCs they antagonize?
I'm about to embark on a homebrew AP project set in the River Kingdoms. Any insight or advice at all that you could provide would be much appreciated.
Thanks!