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James Jacobs wrote:
justmebd wrote:

If you had a chance to use some "classic" monsters in Pathfinder that are copyright/trademark WotC, do you have a "Top 5" list?

I've been trying to go through this massive thread to see if that was answered, so sorry if I missed it.

Yup. That list would probably be, in descending order of desire:

1) Obox-ob
2) Demogorgon
3) Mind flayer
4) Githyanki
5) Kopru

Glad to see Githyanki and Mind Flayer on there. I can think of a few more, but the Mind Flayer is my personal #1 that I wish was available.


Paizo could use the Stats just not the Name & Exact Flavor of the creature... Same for any other Non-OGL Creature.


James Jacobs wrote:

Initially, that was indeed one idea—to make Absalom the center of the world. Problem was, our idea to do that was overshadowed by the fact that by the time we got around to getting the Gazetter published, we were already 3 Adventure Paths in, and that made Varisia the hub of the setting, for better or worse. This was complicated more by the fact that we kind of jumped the gun in my opinion with "Guide to Absalom." Publishing it in the waning days of Pathfinder's 3.5 era meant that we were very timid about making some decisions, were scrambling to stay afloat, and weren't able to give the book the attention it deserved during development. Furthermore, we decided that there would be NO game content in the book, which for a game book is a pretty bad idea, in my opinion. And beyond that, development of Absalom up to that point was very scattershot, with the city being developed piecemeal by different authors in chunks spread out across a few different adventures.

The result is that Absalom is a long, long way from being as heartily supported as I would like it to be.

Some day, I would love to publish a big giant Inner Sea World Guide sized hardcover about Absalom. At that point, I wouldn't be surprised to see the "hub of the setting" shift away from Varisia and over to Absalom, but until that happens, we've pretty much decided to go with the flow and keep Varisia as that hub. It won't stay that way forever, I don't think, and Absalom's a VERY strong contender for the role of the setting's next "hub," if and when we decide to shift.

Well count me in as a customer for that. I enjoy Varisia certainly, but I would love to see some more of the South Eastern countries developed further along with Absalom.

Do you know who came up with the Hanging City of Teskra? I absolutely love it, and I am developing my own series of Incursions into it now.


James Jacobs wrote:
I answered the original question above. I'm not equipped to explain SKR's thought processes—that requires its own thread. One that likely should involve SKR.

Unfortunately SKR kind of washed his hands of the matter. I believe he called my side "absurd" and then just kinda bowed out.

Bah, doesn't really matter anyway. I'd forgotten about it until now but I figured I'd toss it out here just in case you knew off the top of your head.

James Jacobs wrote:
It's evil to drink blood from an unwilling intelligent creature for the same reason it's evil to torture a creature. Inflicting psychological and physical pain and damage, which is what drinking someone who doesn't want you to's blood IS, is evil.

Gaaaah. I've already written my thoughts on this in the other thread, no need to rehash it here since it's not really the place for it.

Thanks for your time. =)


James Jacobs wrote:
Some day, I would love to publish a big giant Inner Sea World Guide sized hardcover about Absalom. At that point, I wouldn't be surprised to see the "hub of the setting" shift away from Varisia and over to Absalom, but until that happens, we've pretty much decided to go with the flow and keep Varisia as that hub. It won't stay that way forever, I don't think, and Absalom's a VERY strong contender for the role of the setting's next "hub," if and when we decide to shift.

I am curious..

Why have a hub?

Is there not a danger of overdeveloping a particular area?

Silver Crusade

Is the plane of law all contained within the city of Axis, or is Axis simply just one city on the plane?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
Paizo could use the Stats just not the Name & Exact Flavor of the creature... Same for any other Non-OGL Creature.

We could... but I happen to think that's pretty cheesy and lame and underhanded.

I much prefer to replace those monsters, and did.

1) Obox-ob ---> Rovagug
2) Demogorgon ---> Lamashtu
3) Mind flayer ---> Intellect devourer (and neh-thalggu)
4) Githyanki ---> Urdefhan
5) Kopru ---> Serpentfolk

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Alan_Beven wrote:
Do you know who came up with the Hanging City of Teskra? I absolutely love it, and I am developing my own series of Incursions into it now.

Not off the top of my head.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

John Kretzer wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Some day, I would love to publish a big giant Inner Sea World Guide sized hardcover about Absalom. At that point, I wouldn't be surprised to see the "hub of the setting" shift away from Varisia and over to Absalom, but until that happens, we've pretty much decided to go with the flow and keep Varisia as that hub. It won't stay that way forever, I don't think, and Absalom's a VERY strong contender for the role of the setting's next "hub," if and when we decide to shift.

I am curious..

Why have a hub?

Is there not a danger of overdeveloping a particular area?

A hub becomes familiar ground. It allows you to increasingly tell stories in the region without having to spend time explaining the region.

Rise of the Runelords, for example, spent a LOT of time explaining Golarion and Varisia, especially in the Player's Guide, but also a fair amount in the back-matter articles.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rysky wrote:
Is the plane of law all contained within the city of Axis, or is Axis simply just one city on the plane?

Axis the city and Axis the plane are one and the same. Beyond Axis is the unclaimed Great Beyond. Beyond that, the Maelstrom. Beyond that, other planes.


How much of the great beyond is uncliamed?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

doctor_wu wrote:
How much of the great beyond is uncliamed?

The vast majority of it. Even though the Great Beyond also, in theory, includes all of the possible outer planes from any game you want, there's still a lot of empty space out there that's unclaimed.


So, all this talk of willingness of blood sucking makes me think of vampire groupies. That's a thought.

So, if you were to release the equivalent of an Inner Sea World Guide for other regions (like the Dragon Empires or something), would you wait until you have most of the inner sea booked up or possibly sooner?

Dark Archive

I like your idea about house ruling vital strike in place of iterative attacks (I mean from levels 1-5 for fighter classes they tend to be more mobile cause there is no benefit to taking a full attack action), but I was wondering how would you replace the iterative attacks with vital strike when it comes to two-weapon fighting? Or would you just keep two-weapon fighting tied to the iterative attacks?


James Jacobs wrote:
The Guardian Beyond Beyond wrote:
Can all of the mightiest NPCs such as Geb, Nex, Jatembe, Baba Yaga, The Whispering Tyrant etc. be considered Mythic characters?
Absolutely.

Will we see stats for them in the Mythic Adventures book?

Since all of those mentioned have created artifacts, will there be rules for creating artifacts in the Mythic Adventures Hardcover?


James Jacobs wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
Paizo could use the Stats just not the Name & Exact Flavor of the creature... Same for any other Non-OGL Creature.

We could... but I happen to think that's pretty cheesy and lame and underhanded.

I much prefer to replace those monsters, and did.

1) Obox-ob ---> Rovagug
2) Demogorgon ---> Lamashtu
3) Mind flayer ---> Intellect devourer (and neh-thalggu)
4) Githyanki ---> Urdefhan
5) Kopru ---> Serpentfolk

Oh I wholeheartedly agree.


James Jacobs wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
Paizo could use the Stats just not the Name & Exact Flavor of the creature... Same for any other Non-OGL Creature.

We could... but I happen to think that's pretty cheesy and lame and underhanded.

I much prefer to replace those monsters, and did.

1) Obox-ob ---> Rovagug
2) Demogorgon ---> Lamashtu
3) Mind flayer ---> Intellect devourer (and neh-thalggu)
4) Githyanki ---> Urdefhan
5) Kopru ---> Serpentfolk

Any Golarion equivalent of the Avolakia? (from Age of Worms... didn't you create them?) Also, are they considered IP?


James Jacobs wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
Paizo could use the Stats just not the Name & Exact Flavor of the creature... Same for any other Non-OGL Creature.

We could... but I happen to think that's pretty cheesy and lame and underhanded.

I much prefer to replace those monsters, and did.

1) Obox-ob ---> Rovagug
2) Demogorgon ---> Lamashtu
3) Mind flayer ---> Intellect devourer (and neh-thalggu)
4) Githyanki ---> Urdefhan
5) Kopru ---> Serpentfolk

I always thought Serpentfolk were rather a replacement for Yuan-Ti.


I also thought that serpent folk were the replacements for the Yuan-Ti and better ones I might add.

1)So what movies have you seen lately?

2)Will we ever see more/new character classes?

3)What non-core races(assimar, catfolk, lashunta, etc.) would be considered valuable by slavers? wich ones have no real value to them?

4)Will we ever see more Golarion specific animals and plants? a softcover book would be nice.

5)Will we ever see alchemist archtypes that focus on homunculi, clocks/clockworks creations, golem crafter, inventor/engineer?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Albatoonoe wrote:

So, all this talk of willingness of blood sucking makes me think of vampire groupies. That's a thought.

So, if you were to release the equivalent of an Inner Sea World Guide for other regions (like the Dragon Empires or something), would you wait until you have most of the inner sea booked up or possibly sooner?

No. We'd probably wait until demand for such a product made it obvious that it'd be something folks want, though.

We've been publishing content for the Inner Sea region for over half a decade, and there's still more topics we haven't covered than have.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

brad2411 wrote:
I like your idea about house ruling vital strike in place of iterative attacks (I mean from levels 1-5 for fighter classes they tend to be more mobile cause there is no benefit to taking a full attack action), but I was wondering how would you replace the iterative attacks with vital strike when it comes to two-weapon fighting? Or would you just keep two-weapon fighting tied to the iterative attacks?

Two weapon fighting would be, in my proposed system, one of the only ways a person could get two attacks. A offhand attack isn't an iterative attack. There would still be no iterative attacks, and you wouldn't be able to use Vital Strike options as easily–essentially, you'd trade the chance of hitting once for big damage for two chances of hitting for less damage.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

The Guardian Beyond Beyond wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
The Guardian Beyond Beyond wrote:
Can all of the mightiest NPCs such as Geb, Nex, Jatembe, Baba Yaga, The Whispering Tyrant etc. be considered Mythic characters?
Absolutely.

Will we see stats for them in the Mythic Adventures book?

Since all of those mentioned have created artifacts, will there be rules for creating artifacts in the Mythic Adventures Hardcover?

Nope; Mythic Adventures is world neutral. No Golarion characters will be statted up in that book. Such a project would be something that would have to happen in one of our other book lines.

No rules for creating artifacts in Mythic Adventures, as far as I know.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Rakshaka wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
Paizo could use the Stats just not the Name & Exact Flavor of the creature... Same for any other Non-OGL Creature.

We could... but I happen to think that's pretty cheesy and lame and underhanded.

I much prefer to replace those monsters, and did.

1) Obox-ob ---> Rovagug
2) Demogorgon ---> Lamashtu
3) Mind flayer ---> Intellect devourer (and neh-thalggu)
4) Githyanki ---> Urdefhan
5) Kopru ---> Serpentfolk

Any Golarion equivalent of the Avolakia? (from Age of Worms... didn't you create them?) Also, are they considered IP?

I did create the avolakia, and they aren't open content.

The closest analogy for them would probably be the seugathis, which I also created.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Threeshades wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
Paizo could use the Stats just not the Name & Exact Flavor of the creature... Same for any other Non-OGL Creature.

We could... but I happen to think that's pretty cheesy and lame and underhanded.

I much prefer to replace those monsters, and did.

1) Obox-ob ---> Rovagug
2) Demogorgon ---> Lamashtu
3) Mind flayer ---> Intellect devourer (and neh-thalggu)
4) Githyanki ---> Urdefhan
5) Kopru ---> Serpentfolk

I always thought Serpentfolk were rather a replacement for Yuan-Ti.

That too. In that both serpentfolk and yuan-ti were inspired by the same pulp traditions.

But serpentfolk also work to replace the kopru, who are an ancent serpentine race who once ruled vast reaches of the world before humanity came along.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Dragon78 wrote:

1)So what movies have you seen lately?

2)Will we ever see more/new character classes?

3)What non-core races(assimar, catfolk, lashunta, etc.) would be considered valuable by slavers? wich ones have no real value to them?

4)Will we ever see more Golarion specific animals and plants? a softcover book would be nice.

5)Will we ever see alchemist archtypes that focus on homunculi, clocks/clockworks creations, golem crafter, inventor/engineer?

1) Not many. Been working pretty much solid for the last few weeks. I did get a chance to see a movie called Hypothermia (bad moive!) and Dark Skies (a pretty okay movie). I've been pretty good about posting reviews of the movies I watch over on my blog at Bigfoot Country... haven't been many lately though for the work reason cited above.

2) Probably.

3) Depends on the slaver. Everyone has different tastes. There's enough folks out there that every race would be wanted as slaves by someone.

4) Now and then, yes.

5) I've wanted there to be an alchemist that builds constructs for a long time—after all, that's what Dr. Frankenstein was, and the game specifically says that homunculi can be created by them. Some day, yes.


It's been a while but my obsessions have shifted again. ^_^

1. What bad things tend to happen to people making deals with Hastur?

2. What exactly do people get out of deals with Hastur?

3. Is Golarion's version of The King in Yellow based on a (in-game) historical event?

4. "The Shoanti are not into vandalism."

From Pathfinder #12 (p.16): "Over the thousands of years to follow, erosion saw to the destruction of much of Xin-Eurythnia, and what erosion didn’t claim, the Shoanti did. They first came to the area to ensure that all memory of the hated Runelord remained buried, but did their job so well that after several generations they forgot why they had chosen this region as home."

So how much of this has (or will be) been retconned over?

Then again, if erosion claimed the city then that would mean that Hastur didn't.

5. A 17th level paladin, immune to enchantment and compulsion spells as long as she's conscious, is made unconscious. Charm and dominate spells would work on her then, right? Also, would the spells continue when she wakes up or would they be negated at that point?

6. Your Kingmaker in Varisia answer made me smile (though I think you meant land east of Riddleport. Anyway, what would Sorshen want with that area? Ain't it a bit out-of-the-way for her?

7. Were there any kind of giants that Sorshen favored or eschewed?

8. In what circumstances would Sorshen using a plague to kill the poor?

9. Who's your favorite League of Legends character, besides Sona?

10. How would a bard who can't speak handle social intrigue?


1) I'm making a few NPCs that are part of an organization and one of them has crafting feats. Would you calculate the other NPCs gear using the item creation cost if she crafted for them? Or should I use the full price?

2) How would this be handled in a published adventure?


Hello again, Sir Jacobs. Hope you don't mind, but I have another random hodgepodge of inquiries for you:

1) Is the intent behind the wording of the Cooperative Crafting feat that only two people be allowed to work on an item at a time?
2) Speaking of which, would you prefer we link to Paizo's website (I forgot the URL for your SRD-like area) for stuff like this or does this 3rd party SRD work well enough for these purposes?
3) Is the Abyss the largest of the Outer Planes? From what I remember of the 'The Great Beyond' book, it seemed to completely surround all of the Maelstrom, same as the Astral encompasses all of the Inner Planes.
4) Will we ever see more of the negative/positive plane races, the Scanduir and Jyoti (sp?)? Because it'd be cool to see samples of them statted up.
5) Do you and the people at Paizo like playing the monk class? Because no one in our group ever seems to find the prospect of playing one all that appealing, for some reason. Hell, I find the martial artist archetype really cool, but it seems any variant of this class always lacks some little spark to make it more appealing than even the most mundane of the other base classes.
6) How would you run a party fighting something the size of a small mountain, like those stone giants in the Hobbit movie? Or the Oliphaunt of Jandelay? Or is this the sort of thing I should wait patiently for Mythic Adventures to see spelled out?
7) Gods misrepresenting themselves to their followers: does this ever happen on really grand scales? For example, could a god of murder clandestinely usurp the role of a god of life for a few centuries, granting spells and domain powers of healing and restoration? Or does the fact that their portfolio kinda goes against this mean they'd have to abandon this course of action real quick lest they risk modifying their very nature in terms of alignment, mentality, and domains?
8) Do you play any Diablo 3?
8a) If so, what's your favorite class and why?
8b) Same, but for least favorite.
9) Same as 8-8b, but with Starcraft 2 races.
10) Lastly, miracle whip: yum, yuck, or you don't care?

Many thanks!


James Jacobs wrote:
Jaime Sommers wrote:

Dear Mr. Jacobs,

I would like a couple of clarifications about the Intimidate skill, specifically the "demoralize" action.

- Fight scenario - PC Adam against NPC Bob: Adam goes first, tries to demoralize Bob, beats the DC by 10; Bob is shaken for 3 rounds. Next round: Adam tries again to demoralize Bob, beats the DC by 2.

First question: is Bob shaken for one MORE round (effectively extending the total duration of the shaken condition from 3 to 3+1 rounds) or is the 1 round shaken condition kind of "absorbed" by being already in place due to the first successful demoralizing action (thus keeping the total duration of the shaken condition at 3 rounds)?

Second question: should the -5 penalty from "try again" apply to Adam's second attempt at demoralizing, or does such penalty apply only when the character fails the previous attempt?

Third (related) question: do the answers to the above two questions also apply when using the Dazzling Display feat?

Thank you very much.

Those should be over in the rules forum, alas... for FAQing and to get designer notice. Sorry!

Done here . Here's hoping for more FAQ clicks since there seems to be various (unresolved) threads about this subject.

Frankly, the whole "try again" thing could use some more clarity regarding whether it also applies after a successful attempt or not (alas, I've been told that Try Again is not used here in its common acception, but I still find it difficult to figure it out).
Thank you anyway and best regards.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

AlgaeNymph wrote:

It's been a while but my obsessions have shifted again. ^_^

1. What bad things tend to happen to people making deals with Hastur?

2. What exactly do people get out of deals with Hastur?

3. Is Golarion's version of The King in Yellow based on a (in-game) historical event?

4. "The Shoanti are not into vandalism."

From Pathfinder #12 (p.16): "Over the thousands of years to follow, erosion saw to the destruction of much of Xin-Eurythnia, and what erosion didn’t claim, the Shoanti did. They first came to the area to ensure that all memory of the hated Runelord remained buried, but did their job so well that after several generations they forgot why they had chosen this region as home."

So how much of this has (or will be) been retconned over?

Then again, if erosion claimed the city then that would mean that Hastur didn't.

5. A 17th level paladin, immune to enchantment and compulsion spells as long as she's conscious, is made unconscious. Charm and dominate spells would work on her then, right? Also, would the spells continue when she wakes up or would they be negated at that point?

6. Your Kingmaker in Varisia answer made me smile (though I think you meant land east of Riddleport. Anyway, what would Sorshen want with that area? Ain't it a bit out-of-the-way for her?

7. Were there any kind of giants that Sorshen favored or eschewed?

8. In what circumstances would Sorshen using a plague to kill the poor?

9. Who's your favorite League of Legends character, besides Sona?

10. How would a bard who can't speak handle social intrigue?

1) Loss of sanity, loss of humanity, and loss of life. Often all 3 in various orders.

2) Unrevealed at this point in Pathfinder, but in other games and stories, they gain power, magic spells, and knowledge.

3) Golarion's version of The King in Yellow is the same version from Chambers' story. It's genesis was from an in-world event tied to Earth and other planets.

4) None. The Shoanti have been around for over 10,000 years. A lot can change in a culture over that long of a period of time. Hastur had nothing to do with it.

5) Nope; immunity to an effect persists even after you're unconscious.

6) Yeah; I meant east of Riddleport, but west works too. My comment didn't mention Sorshen at all. It talked about Ileosa, who is NOT Sorshen. She's a great bad gal, and having her want to expand her power to take over all of Varisia is an excellent plot and stand in for Irovetti of Pitax.

7) Stone giants, cloud giants, storm giants, rune giants.

8) None. Plagues aren't her style at all. That'd be more of a Zutha thing.

9) I'm not familiar enough with League of Legends to have a favorite character.

10) Poorly, but with magic or sign language or music.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Daethor wrote:

1) I'm making a few NPCs that are part of an organization and one of them has crafting feats. Would you calculate the other NPCs gear using the item creation cost if she crafted for them? Or should I use the full price?

2) How would this be handled in a published adventure?

1) Use the item creation cost, but deduct that cost from one of the NPCs.

2) See #1 above.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Cerberus Seven wrote:

Hello again, Sir Jacobs. Hope you don't mind, but I have another random hodgepodge of inquiries for you:

1) Is the intent behind the wording of the Cooperative Crafting feat that only two people be allowed to work on an item at a time?
2) Speaking of which, would you prefer we link to Paizo's website (I forgot the URL for your SRD-like area) for stuff like this or does this 3rd party SRD work well enough for these purposes?
3) Is the Abyss the largest of the Outer Planes? From what I remember of the 'The Great Beyond' book, it seemed to completely surround all of the Maelstrom, same as the Astral encompasses all of the Inner Planes.
4) Will we ever see more of the negative/positive plane races, the Scanduir and Jyoti (sp?)? Because it'd be cool to see samples of them statted up.
5) Do you and the people at Paizo like playing the monk class? Because no one in our group ever seems to find the prospect of playing one all that appealing, for some reason. Hell, I find the martial artist archetype really cool, but it seems any variant of this class always lacks some little spark to make it more appealing than even the most mundane of the other base classes.
6) How would you run a party fighting something the size of a small mountain, like those stone giants in the Hobbit movie? Or the Oliphaunt of Jandelay? Or is this the sort of thing I should wait patiently for Mythic Adventures to see spelled out?
7) Gods misrepresenting themselves to their followers: does this ever happen on really grand scales? For example, could a god of murder clandestinely usurp the role of a god of life for a few centuries, granting spells and domain powers of healing and restoration? Or does the fact that their portfolio kinda goes against this mean they'd have to abandon this course of action real quick lest they risk modifying their very nature in terms of alignment, mentality, and domains?
8) Do you play any Diablo 3?
8a) If so, what's your favorite class and why?
8b) Same, but for least favorite.
9) Same as 8-8b, but with Starcraft 2 races.
10) Lastly, miracle whip: yum, yuck, or you don't care?

1) Dunno; that'd be a question for the design team.

2) Doesn't matter to me.

3) It starts to get meaningless applying sizes to things large enough to contain multiple universes. The Abyss is certianly one of the largest outer planes though—the only ones that could possibly be larger would be the Maelstrom (maybe) and the Astral Plane (almost certainly... although the Astral Plane is like 99.9999999999999999999% empty).

4) Yes.

5) Not every game group has folks who like every class. There's several folks at Paizo who like monks. I don't think anyone particularly hates them.

6) That kind of thing won't be in Mythic Adventures. I would handle it by treating the thing they're fighting as a location that they move around on—the monster would BE the map, and defeating it would require accomplishing various missions on that map.

7) Yes.

8) Yes, but I got bored of it not long after starting Act 4.

8a) The class with the arrows is the only one I played, but the fact that I can't remember what that class is called should tell you something... :-P

9) Don't play Starcraft. I played the first one, got nearly to the end of the first campaign (the human one) and got so overwhelmingly frustrated with the game play that it cured me of the entire RTS genre, and I have never really played RTS games since.

10) Gross.


James Jacobs wrote:
3) Golarion's version of The King in Yellow is the same version from Chambers' story. It's genesis was from an in-world event tied to Earth and other planets

Where is this?

Sovereign Court Contributor

James Jacobs wrote:
Alan_Beven wrote:
Do you know who came up with the Hanging City of Teskra? I absolutely love it, and I am developing my own series of Incursions into it now.
Not off the top of my head.

It had brief mentions in the ISWG and before that in the CS. It is also mentioned in Seeker of Secrets, so the original author of Rahadoum. James Sutter is currently the most embroiled Paizonite in that country... was it him?

I wrote that part of the Jistka article in Lost Kingdoms.

Sovereign Court Contributor

DrDeth wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
3) Golarion's version of The King in Yellow is the same version from Chambers' story. It's genesis was from an in-world event tied to Earth and other planets
Where is this?

Carcosa, in the Hyades, I'd think.


How can a human ever beat a Quickling?

I mean the Quickling can just be invisible and wait for the right moment to slash the humans throat with extreme speed so the human (whatever level/cr) don't even know what hit it, being attacked by something of blinding speed and also invisible.

So why a Quickling is only CR3? It sure is more fatal than most above CR10 creatures, Quicklings are also very intelligent adding to the danger as they can use strategy and traps of all sorts.

The human must hold the slow/see invisible spel to kill a quickling, but Barbarians and Fighters don't have such spells and so are pretty worthless against a Quickling.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

DrDeth wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
3) Golarion's version of The King in Yellow is the same version from Chambers' story. It's genesis was from an in-world event tied to Earth and other planets
Where is this?

There's been lots of stories written about the King in Yellow, a play that supposedly drives those who perform it and view it mad. Check out this book: "The King in Yellow." It's a trope that Lovecraft picked up on and was inspired by, and one that other writers of Lovecraftian fiction and designers of games based on his works have done a LOT of expansion on over the past 100+ years.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sincubus wrote:

How can a human ever beat a Quickling?

I mean the Quickling can just be invisible and wait for the right moment to slash the humans throat with extreme speed so the human (whatever level/cr) don't even know what hit it, being attacked by something of blinding speed and also invisible.

So why a Quickling is only CR3? It sure is more fatal than most above CR10 creatures, Quicklings are also very intelligent adding to the danger as they can use strategy and traps of all sorts.

The human must hold the slow/see invisible spel to kill a quickling, but Barbarians and Fighters don't have such spells and so are pretty worthless against a Quickling.

Prepared actions to attack the quickling once it's next to you and visible are a great way to take them down.

Also, if one moves in and stabs you and then Spring Attacks away, it remains visible until its next turn, assuming it spends that next turn being motionless. If it simply darts in and stabs and runs again, it never is motionless and doesn't go invisible again.

A barbarian/fighter, though, once they're hit once, can choose to use ranged weapons at the now visible quickling (assuming the quickling didn't just go hide). Otherwise, readying an action to strike a quickling that runs up to it, because once it's running up to you it's visible and you get to see it coming.


Mr. James Jacobs,

Where in Magnimar is the ring of stones that matches the Leng Device in Pinnacle of Avarice?


James Jacobs wrote:
DrDeth wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
3) Golarion's version of The King in Yellow is the same version from Chambers' story. It's genesis was from an in-world event tied to Earth and other planets
Where is this?
There's been lots of stories written about the King in Yellow, a play that supposedly drives those who perform it and view it mad. Check out this book: "The King in Yellow." It's a trope that Lovecraft picked up on and was inspired by, and one that other writers of Lovecraftian fiction and designers of games based on his works have done a LOT of expansion on over the past 100+ years.

Yes, in fact I love the "Lords of Dus" 4 books series by Watt-Evans. So, I was excited to read there may be a PF version, so my question really is "What book, module, path or other PF product contains a KiY version?"


James, I'm watching The Hobbit (I presume it's a sufficiently well-known story that I won't spoiler this). What kind of dragon could wipe out "the greatest kingcdom in the land." Would Smaug be Mythic?


Wildebob wrote:
James, I'm watching The Hobbit (I presume it's a sufficiently well-known story that I won't spoiler this). What kind of dragon could wipe out "the greatest kingcdom in the land." Would Smaug be Mythic?

I suspect you underestimate great wyrm red dragons...


Do you have any suggestions for an alternate universe setting where earth fall never happened? If anything I'm just looking for some broad strokes on what would have been likely to happen.

Aroden would probably still be around so Cheliax wouldn't have turned to diabolism. The worldwound wouldn't be there. Iomedae probably wouldn't be a goddess. I guess the single most thing that would change is the god of humanity being around but I'm unsure if that'd really change anything given their general noninterference in mortal affairs.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

The NPC wrote:

Mr. James Jacobs,

Where in Magnimar is the ring of stones that matches the Leng Device in Pinnacle of Avarice?

Where does it say that there is such a ring of stones?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

DrDeth wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
DrDeth wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
3) Golarion's version of The King in Yellow is the same version from Chambers' story. It's genesis was from an in-world event tied to Earth and other planets
Where is this?
There's been lots of stories written about the King in Yellow, a play that supposedly drives those who perform it and view it mad. Check out this book: "The King in Yellow." It's a trope that Lovecraft picked up on and was inspired by, and one that other writers of Lovecraftian fiction and designers of games based on his works have done a LOT of expansion on over the past 100+ years.
Yes, in fact I love the "Lords of Dus" 4 books series by Watt-Evans. So, I was excited to read there may be a PF version, so my question really is "What book, module, path or other PF product contains a KiY version?"

We did a Dungeon magazine adventure about the King in Yellow way back in the day. Haven't done one for Pathfinder. Yet.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Wildebob wrote:
James, I'm watching The Hobbit (I presume it's a sufficiently well-known story that I won't spoiler this). What kind of dragon could wipe out "the greatest kingcdom in the land." Would Smaug be Mythic?

Probably. Although in a world like Middle Earth where there's just not a lot of dragons to begin with, he might just be a normal Great Wyrm.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Buri wrote:

Do you have any suggestions for an alternate universe setting where earth fall never happened? If anything I'm just looking for some broad strokes on what would have been likely to happen.

Aroden would probably still be around so Cheliax wouldn't have turned to diabolism. The worldwound wouldn't be there. Iomedae probably wouldn't be a goddess. I guess the single most thing that would change is the god of humanity being around but I'm unsure if that'd really change anything given their general noninterference in mortal affairs.

I don't. That Golarion would be 100% different than the one we have now. You'd have to build that world from scratch. Whether or not Aroden would even have been born is unknown; remember, Earthfall happened 10,000 years ago. A lot can change in that amount of time. It's longer than we've had history on Earht, for example.


James Jacobs wrote:
The NPC wrote:

Mr. James Jacobs,

Where in Magnimar is the ring of stones that matches the Leng Device in Pinnacle of Avarice?

Where does it say that there is such a ring of stones?

In the RotRl anniversary edition page 354 upper right hand paragraph.


James Jacobs wrote:
Vincent Takeda wrote:
Im not sure if its been asked yet, but though I see plenty of questions about tattoo magic and such, but as someone who has immediate access to such wonderful artists I couldnt help but wonder... Do you personally have any tattoos?
I do not. I've been thinking of getting one on and off though... probably a tyrannosaurus skull or something nerdy like that.

Douglas Prestons book: Tyrannosaur Canyon features a bad guy with a fullback T-rex tattoo. Food for thought.


What can you share about the Black Sovereign (the artist formerly known as Kevoth-Kul) and his dealings with Nirmathas, which is across Lake Encarthan from Numeria? Does or did Nirmathas have Kellid people living in it, or are the humans mainly of Taldan settler descent?

Could you clarify the culture of Kellid people? Some of it seems simply very primitive or stone-age, or something like tribes of Eurasian steppe... And then around Brevoy/Mendev/Iobaria we have all these Slavic names. Is this a sub-group of Kellid culture, possibly influenced by Ulfen/Taldans? Why the difference in naming conventions, and where does that come from (in game)? It is hard to tell sometimes, especially with the tendency for Common to be just... very common, and language/culture distinctions sometimes not brought to the fore.

I've also noticed names and references that seem especially Finnish (in Azurestone, Galt), as well as some Germanic seeming ones (can't remember off-hand, but in a formerly Taldan nation in Avistan). Are these supposed to represent distinct ethnicities in Golarion, or what? Are there more human ethnicities in the Inner Sea region? It doesn't seem like there really is many, compared to say, the real-world, so is there some 'minor' ethnicities (with their own languages?) that may be detailed in the future?

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