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Paizo Employee Creative Director

Misery wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Misery wrote:
At what age do elves look/act like human adults in Golarion?
According to the Core Rulebook, page 169, elves reach adulthood at 110 years.

Most D&D books had the same but different worlds had different ages they actually matured/aged.

Forgotten Realms had 30 year old elves who looked like grown up humans, for example, so I was curious what Golarion's take on this was.

Unlike D&D... we only have one campaign world, and therefore our Core Rulebook is designed specifically to support that one campaign world.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

LazarX wrote:
After reading the spoiler I can't help but see similarities to RIFTS, with perhaps a light seasoning of TORG in the setting. Are you familliar with either?

Vaguely familiar—I know the basic ideas of each game, but I've never read or played either.

Again... It was more inspired by the way Ravenloft split up its setting by giving each realm its own "genre" of horror ruled by its own classic horror for that genre, be it gothic vampire horror, Lovecraftian horror, mad scientist horror, east Indian horror, etc.

Dark Archive

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
After all not all Oracles chose their Path.

[tangent] From an RP standpoint, it would indeed make sense that many, if not *most* Oracles would like to escape their curse, and some might even be willing to go as far as to give up all the power that came with it, to be 'un-Chosen' and go back to being a normal person who is not 'cursed to live in interesting times.'

The Curse is a class feature, sure, but so is a druids animal companion or a clerics domains, and both of those can be traded away via archetype or class option, without the game toppling over.

From a Mythic perspective, it makes sense that 'breaking the rules' would be a feature, not a bug. Mythic Ezren might decide to transcend the need for a spellbook, and have all of his spells stored within his mind (with only a normal daily selection prepared for ease of use, the others sort of zip-filed away in his subconscious), while Mythic Seoni chooses to be able to wear a (suitably sexy) breastplate, with zero chance of arcane spell failure, because she has 'become one with her magic,' and has evolved beyond 'arcane spell failure,' and Mythic Kyra no longer needs a divine focus / holy symbol, because, after bathing in Sarenrae's light, she *is* a living divine focus, and other priests of Sarenrae in contact with her can treat *her* as *their* holy symbol! [/tangent]


So, I tried to advance a Wendigo into a late-story boss. The rules for advancement in the Bestiary were frankly confusing, so I just said "screw it," added two HD and the Advanced template twice, and gave it whatever spell-like abilities my friend and I felt fit with its character (that is, a sadistic, powerful trickster that doesn't let anyone know it's there until it's far too late).

The results are below. What is your opinion?

http://pastebin.com/MfBbegRz

Liberty's Edge

James you ahve seen the Kickstarter for Torment: Tides of Numenera
by inXile entertainment?

If I recall correctly you have a good opinion of the original Torment game.
What do you think of this project?


James Jacobs wrote:

the first campaign I ever ran for the game (which went from 1st to about 20th level) was about the PCs finding out that...

**Spoiler omitted**

That sounds epic! It kind of reminds me of the climax of...

Spoiler:
when I ran players through Gamma World's 3rd Ed. "Cities of Man" campaign-arc, where they had to reassemble a "Sky Chariot" (space shuttle) and fly into space for the end-game. Only they were looking to find their saviors as opposed to unfathomable horrors from beyond time and space! I like yours better.

When you've run UF campaigns/scenarios, generally speaking, were the characters survivors of the event, were they born/reactivated after the event or were they sleepers/vault dwellers that awoke after the event?

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Set wrote:
[tangent] From an RP standpoint, it would indeed make sense that many, if not *most* Oracles would like to escape their curse, and some might even be willing to go as far as to give up all the power that came with it, to be 'un-Chosen' and go back to being a normal person who is not 'cursed to live in interesting times.'[/tangent]

I'm a fan of planning for dramatic irony. I can very easily see an Oracle that wants to escape her curse being played by a player who knows that she won't; the only way it will end will be with death or acceptance, but not till it's dramatically appropriate.


James Jacobs said wrote:
Again... It was more inspired by the way Ravenloft split up its setting by giving each realm its own "genre" of horror ruled by its own classic horror for that genre, be it gothic vampire horror, Lovecraftian horror, mad scientist horror, east Indian horror, etc.

I like the division of genres allowing the campaign to go in any direction that seems interesting. It's the same reason why Golarion rocks-want to play an Eqyptian-themed or a Pirate-themed or an Oriental-themed or a Gothic-themed or Thundarr-themed campaign, fine. It's all there, a sandbox of tropes.


I've been rooting around on info about Razmiran, which I now know is Eric's creation. That said, I was wondering what your thoughts were on the following...

1: Approximately how many Visions of the Fifteenth Step serve Razmir?

2: What kind of military does Razmiran have?

3: How's the slavery situation? Are slaves legal, or just unnofficial indentured servant-types?

4: Razmir's faith barges... what kind of ships are they? My guess is sailing ships (as per the Skull and Shackles Player's Guide) with maybe a few ballista/catapults, crewed by what are essentially pirates with masks.

5: Any Razmiran campaign would eventually have to involve the fortress of First Step. Do you have any thoughts about the place?

Thanks!


So, with mythic rules on the horizon, have you given any thought to laying out an adventure for the Test of Starstone?

Unrelated question, and I apologize if this has already been asked; have any video game studios/publishers approached Paizo about the possibility of making a Golarion video game? Would such a thing be legally viable with the open gaming license? Would you and the Paizo team even have any interest in the possibility, and if so, how would you like to see the game done?


Grr, slight edit to my Razmir post. Should read:

"I've been rooting around on info about Razmiran, which I now know is Jason's creation. That said, I was wondering what your thoughts were on the following..."

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Voyd211 wrote:

So, I tried to advance a Wendigo into a late-story boss. The rules for advancement in the Bestiary were frankly confusing, so I just said "screw it," added two HD and the Advanced template twice, and gave it whatever spell-like abilities my friend and I felt fit with its character (that is, a sadistic, powerful trickster that doesn't let anyone know it's there until it's far too late).

The results are below. What is your opinion?

http://pastebin.com/MfBbegRz

Sorry... I try to avoid doing rules feedback and advice like this for time-management and legal reasons.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Diego Rossi wrote:

James you ahve seen the Kickstarter for Torment: Tides of Numenera

by inXile entertainment?

If I recall correctly you have a good opinion of the original Torment game.
What do you think of this project?

I have indeed seen it. I threw in my support for it about 2 hours after it had been announced in fact. I'm VERY delighted it's doing as well as it is.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gregory Clark wrote:
When you've run UF campaigns/scenarios, generally speaking, were the characters survivors of the event, were they born/reactivated after the event or were they sleepers/vault dwellers that awoke after the event?

The characters are always born into the world bout 60 years later. I have no yet done a "sleeper/vault dweller" type game set in Unspeakable Futures.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Generic Villain wrote:

I've been rooting around on info about Razmiran, which I now know is Eric's creation. That said, I was wondering what your thoughts were on the following...

1: Approximately how many Visions of the Fifteenth Step serve Razmir?

2: What kind of military does Razmiran have?

3: How's the slavery situation? Are slaves legal, or just unnofficial indentured servant-types?

4: Razmir's faith barges... what kind of ships are they? My guess is sailing ships (as per the Skull and Shackles Player's Guide) with maybe a few ballista/catapults, crewed by what are essentially pirates with masks.

5: Any Razmiran campaign would eventually have to involve the fortress of First Step. Do you have any thoughts about the place?

Thanks!

0) Razmiran is actually Jason Bulmahn's creation.

1) Dunno.

2) A big one.

3) Slaves are legal.

4) They're river barges.

5) Nope.

My answers above are vague or non-committal because I really HAVEN'T done a lot of thought about Razmiran–it's pretty much all up to Jason.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

FormerFiend wrote:

So, with mythic rules on the horizon, have you given any thought to laying out an adventure for the Test of Starstone?

Unrelated question, and I apologize if this has already been asked; have any video game studios/publishers approached Paizo about the possibility of making a Golarion video game? Would such a thing be legally viable with the open gaming license? Would you and the Paizo team even have any interest in the possibility, and if so, how would you like to see the game done?

Yes, but I'd also given thought to it well before Mythic was on the horizion.

Goblinworks will be making a Pathfinder MMO. Beyond that, we've nothing to currently announce regarding Pathfinder video games. We ABSOLUTELY have interest in this, but the OGL doesn't really allow for the actual game rules to be ported over.

So really... what's more likely to happen are Golarion-based video games, not Pathfinder ones.


Huh... anywhere I can ask opinions on Chyk'tarli?

Also, what determines how certain monsters cast spells? The nagas don't mention what kind of spellcaster they're supposed to be, and I only know that dragons cast spells as sorcerers.

Contributor

James Jacobs wrote:
Albatoonoe wrote:
What do you think of the "Wounds and Vigor" and "Armor as Damage reduction" variant rules?
Don't like them at all. They're needless overcomplication of the rules.

I let my players use the piece-mail armor system, and I honestly feel the same way about it. Only one of my players bothers with it anymore after the first night and its our crazy rules / numbers tinkerer.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Voyd211 wrote:

Huh... anywhere I can ask opinions on Chyk'tarli?

Also, what determines how certain monsters cast spells? The nagas don't mention what kind of spellcaster they're supposed to be, and I only know that dragons cast spells as sorcerers.

I'm not sure what Chyk'tarli is, or even if it's from a Pathfinder book. More information, please.

And nothing really determines how monsters cast spells. Nagas cast them spontaneously like sorcerers, but don't have sorcerer levels. Same as dragons, basically. That's the assumed baseline for spellcasting monsters, in fact.


Chyk'tarli is the wendigo I'm advancing.

Sovereign Court Contributor

Voyd211 wrote:
Chyk'tarli is the wendigo I'm advancing.

Post in the Suggestions forum.


James Jacobs wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:

Hides Tyrion.

So if you had to choose one character from the following Books/Series to make a Parody/Homage to in a Pathfinder Module/AP which would you choose?
-Lord of the Rings.
-The Hobbit.
-A Song of Ice & Fire/A Game of Thrones.
-The Hunger Games Trilogy.

Song of Ice & Fire (either Tyrian or Arya—someone short and bad-ass in any event)

I hate to admit that it took me a minute to get who you meant by Tyrian...

Also I meant from Each Series not just one. And now I want to make a Dwarf Rogue based on Tyrion... Any Dwarf Subtype with a + to CHA? Arya I would say is fitting of a Halfling Rogue with a very potent Rapier.

Oh.

I wouldn't make a dwarf based on Tyrion. I'd make him a Small human. And I'd make Arya a young human.

Lord of the Rings: Shelob as an intelligent magical giant spider.

The Hobbit: Smaug!

Hunger Games: I've only seen the movie so far, so I can't really say.

Yeah, I was thinking using the current rules. I might change that when the Young Character Rules are released. Also I agree that a Small Human would fit best. Though are you referring to Mechanically Small or just fluffing him as being short.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Voyd211 wrote:
Chyk'tarli is the wendigo I'm advancing.

OH! Gotcha. Yeah; post to the suggestions forum, as Jeff suggested. Sorry about the confusion!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Azaelas Fayth wrote:
Yeah, I was thinking using the current rules. I might change that when the Young Character Rules are released. Also I agree that a Small Human would fit best. Though are you referring to Mechanically Small or just fluffing him as being short.

Mechanically Small.


Hi James,

I've recently started running a CotCT campaign and we're currently in Edge of Anarchy and having a lot of fun.

As a fan of your work, I am always curious to find out more about the reasoning that goes into creating the awesome adventures Pathfinder puts out on a monthly basis.

As such, I have a few questions about Edge of Anarchy:

Curse of the Crimson Throne Spoiler:
-Why are the derro featured in EoA given that they do not play any part in the rest of the campaign?

-Were the Derro planned to be a part of EoA from the very start or did Nick Logue decide to put them in once he started writing the adventure?

-Was there ever a plan to have an end boss to the adventure other than Vreeg?

I hope these questions don’t come off as insulting, I’m really just trying to get a better understanding of what led to the derro appearing in this adventure.

I'm a big fan of your/paizo's take on the derro and I loved your article about them in Classic Horrors Revisited.

I also really like the Dead Warrens, it’s a nice short but memorable dungeon with lots of character. However, the Dead Warrens seem a bit out of place within CotCT. Granted it lets the players explore a part of the city that they wouldn’t otherwise have any reason to venture to, and it also foreshadows Rolth. However, with Derro, I would have expected them to serve more of a role in a mystery plot of the adventure. Strange unexplained disappearances, the adventurers investigate and then find the derro are involved.

Instead in EoA, they seem to serving as the Rolth’s lackeys and their leader, Vreeg is even studying magic under the tutelage of the human wizard.

Also, Vreeg is a cool character and I’m sure it would make for a memorable fight to have him flying around dropping undead from his robe of bones, but I would have expected a fight against one of Glorio’s pawns (like Guildmaster Boule) as the final fight of EoA. I understand that not all adventures can end in a nice and tidy ending where you fight the BBEG, but it just seems to me like the last encounter of EoA should have allowed the players to feel like they had achieved a victory against the anarchy that was gripping their city and thus provided some closure to the adventure.

Finally, one last question about Second Darkness…

Second Darkness Spoiler:
-Was there ever any plans for the derro to be featured the first installment of Second Darkness?

It seems to me that the derro would have fit in really well into the whole UFO feel of Shadow in the Sky. Or was there a concern that they might have stolen some of the thunder away from the drow encounter in that adventure by having too many groups from the darklands operating secretly in Riddleport.


James Jacobs wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
Yeah, I was thinking using the current rules. I might change that when the Young Character Rules are released. Also I agree that a Small Human would fit best. Though are you referring to Mechanically Small or just fluffing him as being short.
Mechanically Small.

Interesting given him hefty weapons used by his full-sized Human Enemies...

What would you think of a Campaign Setting where you could only play a Human but had various mechanically different ethnicities? To use Westeros-Based Examples: Wildling Born, First Men Born, Iron Born, and Such. Maybe add in a Giant Born that has the Powerful Build Trait. Say have them all be 15 Race Points.

Contributor

Azaelas Fayth wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
Yeah, I was thinking using the current rules. I might change that when the Young Character Rules are released. Also I agree that a Small Human would fit best. Though are you referring to Mechanically Small or just fluffing him as being short.
Mechanically Small.

Interesting given him hefty weapons used by his full-sized Human Enemies...

What would you think of a Campaign Setting where you could only play a Human but had various mechanically different ethnicities? To use Westeros-Based Examples: Wildling Born, First Men Born, Iron Born, and Such. Maybe add in a Giant Born that has the Powerful Build Trait. Say have them all be 15 Race Points.

Pathfinder technically has that in the Advanced Race Guide for all of the Core Races in its subraces section.

I rather like the idea that subraces are just a specific set of recurring Alternate Racial Traits myself. Faerun was ridiculous with the number of "racially distinct" elves that it had.


What class would you use to make a Professional Wrestler (or Luchador) type character?

What key abilities do you think he should have?

Which, if any, nations might possess such professional wrestlers?

Liberty's Edge

I was looking at the monk weapons that a monk can use with a flurry of blows and I was curious about two things.

First: a sap is very similar in description to an eskrima stick (a potent martial art whose movements are the same for the stick as they are for unarmed or knife attacks) so why, though a monk can use a club, does a monk not have sap proficiencies?

Second: why was the sap not added to the list of weapons a monk can flurry with? It is a light weapon, and it is an interesting way to deal lots of non-lethal damage to an enemy.

I'm just wondering why that wasn't considered.

PS: why was the sap a martial weapon instead of a simple weapon? With a cost of zero, anyone can pick up a thin stick and whack someone with it?


James Jacobs wrote:
FormerFiend wrote:

So, with mythic rules on the horizon, have you given any thought to laying out an adventure for the Test of Starstone?

Unrelated question, and I apologize if this has already been asked; have any video game studios/publishers approached Paizo about the possibility of making a Golarion video game? Would such a thing be legally viable with the open gaming license? Would you and the Paizo team even have any interest in the possibility, and if so, how would you like to see the game done?

Yes, but I'd also given thought to it well before Mythic was on the horizion.

Goblinworks will be making a Pathfinder MMO. Beyond that, we've nothing to currently announce regarding Pathfinder video games. We ABSOLUTELY have interest in this, but the OGL doesn't really allow for the actual game rules to be ported over.

So really... what's more likely to happen are Golarion-based video games, not Pathfinder ones.

Would you rather seem a hypothetical single player game done more in the style of, say, Skyrim or Dragon Age?


FormerFiend wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
FormerFiend wrote:

So, with mythic rules on the horizon, have you given any thought to laying out an adventure for the Test of Starstone?

Unrelated question, and I apologize if this has already been asked; have any video game studios/publishers approached Paizo about the possibility of making a Golarion video game? Would such a thing be legally viable with the open gaming license? Would you and the Paizo team even have any interest in the possibility, and if so, how would you like to see the game done?

Yes, but I'd also given thought to it well before Mythic was on the horizion.

Goblinworks will be making a Pathfinder MMO. Beyond that, we've nothing to currently announce regarding Pathfinder video games. We ABSOLUTELY have interest in this, but the OGL doesn't really allow for the actual game rules to be ported over.

So really... what's more likely to happen are Golarion-based video games, not Pathfinder ones.

Would you rather seem a hypothetical single player game done more in the style of, say, Skyrim or Dragon Age?

Or the Xbox Game Demon Stone that was set in Forgotten Realms and written by R. A. Salvatore? I think this might be the best model to go with, as you can incorporate a lot of the lore, without worrying over that pesky OGL. You can still tell a good story and have a fun experience too.

Dark Archive

So hell has Dis and the elemental plane of fire has the brass city, are there other equally large cities in the other planes?


With the nexus foci you mentioned last page - would you have allowed one of the player-characters (we'll call him John for simplicity's sake) do this:

John: Well Karzoug; there's only one way I can think of killing you. After you're dead, I use the old biddie's hut here to become a god of time.
Karzoug: How is something you'll do after I'm dead going to kill me?
John: Weren't you listening? I said god of time!
Future!John: *taps Karzoug on the shoulder after coming from the future* Sup.

Basically; planning to become a god of time allows his future self, having already become a god, to travel back in time and help his past, mortal self who can then become a god of time, travel back in time to help his past self, etc, etc.

And that the player is planning to have their character go through with this afterwards and not intentionally create a paradox by not becoming a god of time.

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
Misery wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Misery wrote:
At what age do elves look/act like human adults in Golarion?
According to the Core Rulebook, page 169, elves reach adulthood at 110 years.

Most D&D books had the same but different worlds had different ages they actually matured/aged.

Forgotten Realms had 30 year old elves who looked like grown up humans, for example, so I was curious what Golarion's take on this was.

Unlike D&D... we only have one campaign world, and therefore our Core Rulebook is designed specifically to support that one campaign world.

So a 30 year old elf still looks and acts like a child? Oky doky then. What keeps them stuck in a child like mentality for so long? Are they simply slow to learn? Slow to understand? The growth thing I get but why do they keep acting like children if they end up seeing more life than a human does before they even reach adulthood.


Where do Dwarves(and for that matter, Gnomes) primarily live on Golarion? I've seen a smattering presence of them here and there, but they don't seem nearly as predominant as Elves or Orcs, who have their own nations, or Halflings, which just sort of pop up everywhere.

RPG Superstar 2009, Contributor

Sean H wrote:
Where do Dwarves(and for that matter, Gnomes) primarily live on Golarion? I've seen a smattering presence of them here and there, but they don't seem nearly as predominant as Elves or Orcs, who have their own nations, or Halflings, which just sort of pop up everywhere.

Have you tried reading Dwarves of Golarion? Or the Five Kings Mountains entry in the Inner Sea World Guide?


Suggestions forum... where is that? The Paizo messageboards are kind of confusing.


Here you go


How come there aren't any races that benefit the bog standard magus? None of them boost both INT and STR.


1) The Boneyard keeps rather thorough records. Am I correct in thinking that a person could, with permission, look up what judgments were passed on the previously deceased, and with enough time figure out the conspicuous absences (like the Runelords)?

2) Has Pharasma passed judgment on Old Mage Jatembe? I assume not, but no harm in asking.

3) When did the samsaran begin existing? Back during the Age of Legends?

4) If a samsaran gets turned into an undead, is put down, gets raised back from death, and then later dies as a samsaran, is she able to continue reincarnating as a samsaran?

5) Dragons Revisited described a great wyrm red dragon who lived in the Five King Mountains and who preferred to hunt elves. I don't have the book handy and can't look up the dragon's name, but he was a nasty piece of work. Would Treerazer have tried to ally with this dragon to raze Kyonin?

6) Explosions?

7) Would you allow an alchemist to take Sun Orchid Elixir as his 20th level discovery? How would the great alchemist Artokus react if said alchemist showed up at Artokus's citadel with a message along the lines of "I have mastered this. I wish to join you in your work and your studies" ?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Laric wrote:

Spoiler:
1-Why are the derro featured in EoA given that they do not play any part in the rest of the campaign?

2-Were the Derro planned to be a part of EoA from the very start or did Nick Logue decide to put them in once he started writing the adventure?

3-Was there ever a plan to have an end boss to the adventure other than Vreeg?

I hope these questions don’t come off as insulting, I’m really just trying to get a better understanding of what led to the derro appearing in this adventure.

I'm a big fan of your/paizo's take on the derro and I loved your article about them in Classic Horrors Revisited.

I also really like the Dead Warrens, it’s a nice short but memorable dungeon with lots of character. However, the Dead Warrens seem a bit out of place within CotCT. Granted it lets the players explore a part of the city that they wouldn’t otherwise have any reason to venture to, and it also foreshadows Rolth. However, with Derro, I would have expected them to serve more of a role in a mystery plot of the adventure. Strange unexplained disappearances, the adventurers investigate and then find the derro are involved.

Instead in EoA, they seem to serving as the Rolth’s lackeys and their leader, Vreeg is even studying magic under the tutelage of the human wizard.

Also, Vreeg is a cool character and I’m sure it would make for a memorable fight to have him flying around dropping undead from his robe of bones, but I would have expected a fight against one of Glorio’s pawns (like Guildmaster Boule) as the final fight of EoA. I understand that not all adventures can end in a nice and tidy ending where you fight the BBEG, but it just seems to me like the last encounter of EoA should have allowed the players to feel like they had achieved a victory against the anarchy that was gripping their city and thus provided some closure to the adventure.

4-Was there ever any plans for the derro to be featured the first installment of Second Darkness?
It seems to me that the derro would have fit in really well into the whole UFO feel of Shadow in the Sky. Or was there a concern that they might have stolen some of the thunder away from the drow encounter in that adventure by having too many groups from the darklands operating secretly in Riddleport.

I added numbers to the questions to make it easier to reply.

[spoiler]1) Because I have always been a fan of derros and wanted to give them a place in the world ASAP, and because they're a low-CR foe that gives that first very human-heavy adventure some variety.

2) Their inclusion wasn't Nick's choice, it was my choice–I wanted to use the adventure to show how our derros are different than D&D derros.

3) Nope.

One of the jobs of "Curse of the Crimson Throne" was to tell the story of the AP... but it also had a job of showing the world a big city in detail in Golarion, and as such a lot of the elements we put into the adventures are meant to help build up Korvosa even if they DIDN'T all match precisely the themes of the central plot. An Adventure Path is MUCH more than its central plot. The extra stuff along the sides helps give an AP variety and helps support the fact that not everything revolves around that plot.

4) No. Again... that being just the 3rd AP, we were eager to explore as many new elements as we could to establish how Pathfinder/Golarion is different than D&D, and repeating foes is not conducive to that goal.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Azaelas Fayth wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:
Yeah, I was thinking using the current rules. I might change that when the Young Character Rules are released. Also I agree that a Small Human would fit best. Though are you referring to Mechanically Small or just fluffing him as being short.
Mechanically Small.

Interesting given him hefty weapons used by his full-sized Human Enemies...

What would you think of a Campaign Setting where you could only play a Human but had various mechanically different ethnicities? To use Westeros-Based Examples: Wildling Born, First Men Born, Iron Born, and Such. Maybe add in a Giant Born that has the Powerful Build Trait. Say have them all be 15 Race Points.

We have mechanics for that—using a larger weapon just gives you a –2 penalty to hit.

I don't like the idea of mechanically different ethnicities at all. That's one step away from rules-justified racism.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Albatoonoe wrote:

What class would you use to make a Professional Wrestler (or Luchador) type character?

What key abilities do you think he should have?

Which, if any, nations might possess such professional wrestlers?

Either a monk or a fighter.

Strength and Charisma.

Taldor. Cheliax. Five Kings Mountains. DEFINATELY the River Kingdoms. Katapesh.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Jak Rodgers wrote:

I was looking at the monk weapons that a monk can use with a flurry of blows and I was curious about two things.

First: a sap is very similar in description to an eskrima stick (a potent martial art whose movements are the same for the stick as they are for unarmed or knife attacks) so why, though a monk can use a club, does a monk not have sap proficiencies?

Second: why was the sap not added to the list of weapons a monk can flurry with? It is a light weapon, and it is an interesting way to deal lots of non-lethal damage to an enemy.

I'm just wondering why that wasn't considered.

PS: why was the sap a martial weapon instead of a simple weapon? With a cost of zero, anyone can pick up a thin stick and whack someone with it?

Those are great questions for the design team. I was not involved in those decisions.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

FormerFiend wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
FormerFiend wrote:

So, with mythic rules on the horizon, have you given any thought to laying out an adventure for the Test of Starstone?

Unrelated question, and I apologize if this has already been asked; have any video game studios/publishers approached Paizo about the possibility of making a Golarion video game? Would such a thing be legally viable with the open gaming license? Would you and the Paizo team even have any interest in the possibility, and if so, how would you like to see the game done?

Yes, but I'd also given thought to it well before Mythic was on the horizion.

Goblinworks will be making a Pathfinder MMO. Beyond that, we've nothing to currently announce regarding Pathfinder video games. We ABSOLUTELY have interest in this, but the OGL doesn't really allow for the actual game rules to be ported over.

So really... what's more likely to happen are Golarion-based video games, not Pathfinder ones.

Would you rather seem a hypothetical single player game done more in the style of, say, Skyrim or Dragon Age?

I would MUCH ratther see a single player game. I don't really like multiplayer games—Warcraft is pretty much the only exception I can think of.

A game like Skyrim or Dragon Age would rock. So would a game like Assassin's Creed or Bioshock or Tomb Raider. So would a game like Baldur's Gate or Torment.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

ulgulanoth wrote:
So hell has Dis and the elemental plane of fire has the brass city, are there other equally large cities in the other planes?

Yes.

The city of Axis is the ENTIRE lawful neutral plane, for example.

And the city of Yanaron, Lamashtu's city on the Abyss, is as big or bigger than Dis or the City of Brass.

There's lots of others. Many of which we haven't yet mentioned.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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ShadowFighter88 wrote:

With the nexus foci you mentioned last page - would you have allowed one of the player-characters (we'll call him John for simplicity's sake) do this:

John: Well Karzoug; there's only one way I can think of killing you. After you're dead, I use the old biddie's hut here to become a god of time.
Karzoug: How is something you'll do after I'm dead going to kill me?
John: Weren't you listening? I said god of time!
Future!John: *taps Karzoug on the shoulder after coming from the future* Sup.

Basically; planning to become a god of time allows his future self, having already become a god, to travel back in time and help his past, mortal self who can then become a god of time, travel back in time to help his past self, etc, etc.

And that the player is planning to have their character go through with this afterwards and not intentionally create a paradox by not becoming a god of time.

Nope. Time travel is right out in my games, pretty much. I didn't put decades of work into my setting just so some chucklehead player can go break it.


Game of Thrones-related: what would House Jacobs' motto and emblem be?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Misery wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Misery wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Misery wrote:
At what age do elves look/act like human adults in Golarion?
According to the Core Rulebook, page 169, elves reach adulthood at 110 years.

Most D&D books had the same but different worlds had different ages they actually matured/aged.

Forgotten Realms had 30 year old elves who looked like grown up humans, for example, so I was curious what Golarion's take on this was.

Unlike D&D... we only have one campaign world, and therefore our Core Rulebook is designed specifically to support that one campaign world.
So a 30 year old elf still looks and acts like a child? Oky doky then. What keeps them stuck in a child like mentality for so long? Are they simply slow to learn? Slow to understand? The growth thing I get but why do they keep acting like children if they end up seeing more life than a human does before they even reach adulthood.

We've actually not covered that in detail, alas, but yes, that's the idea.

Frankly, I really REALLY RELALLLLY wish we'd set ALL the starting ages to be identical, so that all the core humanoid races reach adulthood at the same time. That keeps things from being weird. We can still have long lived races—natural life spans rarely if ever matter for PCs anyway.

If I were to go in and set it in stone, I'd say precisely this... that an elf matures to be about the equivalent to a 13 year old human in about 13 years... but then spends the next 100 years or so in a long-drawn out "teenage" year. They're not stupid or slow learners as much as they are more distracted and curious and I guess scatterbrained during those years.

If it really bothers your verisimilitude, though... I strongly recommend simply using identical starting ages for all core races.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sean H wrote:
Where do Dwarves(and for that matter, Gnomes) primarily live on Golarion? I've seen a smattering presence of them here and there, but they don't seem nearly as predominant as Elves or Orcs, who have their own nations, or Halflings, which just sort of pop up everywhere.

Dwarves rule the Five Kings Mountains, and that's where the bulk of their race lives. They also have Sky Citadels in other regions like Varisia and the Mana Wastes. They ALSO just live among humands.

Gnomes don't have a nation, but they live in a lot of small settlements throughout the Inner Sea Region.

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